ã€ŠWarlock Apprenticeã€‹


 Chapter 1 - A Young Man Called Angor

    <h4>Chapter 1: A Young Man Called Angor</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Grue Town, located in the province of Yamei.

    As the Month of the Freezing Earth made its debut for the year, this remote little town far from the center of the Goldspink Empire suddenly weed a team of knights d in silver armor, holding banners with a family emblem above their ranks.

    Parsel, an old schr living in the town, widened his eyes and began to shiver in cold sweat upon seeing the emblem on these banners ¨C a python entangled around a full moon, with a fierce tiger stomping on its body.

    Dim was the only cksmith in town, and also a neighbor of Parsel. He noticed the unusual expression on Parsel¡¯s face. Not putting down the hookah he had been smoking, he asked Parsel in wonder, ¡°Hey old pal, look at you... You know where these riderse from?¡±

    Taking a deep breath, Parsel whispered to Dim, ¡°If my eyes do not fail me... That mark is the family emblem of the Morn Family.¡±

    The Morns?! Dim could only look back at Parsel in shock.

    ¡°Are you absolutely sure?¡±

    Without waiting for an answer, Dim jolted realizing something, and dashed into his small cksmith shop, shutting the door like a coward.

    Through the ss window of the shop, Parsel saw the trembling figure of Dim and shook his head. This nasty pair would normally joke about each other in a situation like this, but the Morn Family had visited Grue Town today out of the blue. Considering how powerful they were in the entire empire, Dim had all the reason to be terrified like this.

    Parcel recalled hearing those rumors in the Hunter¡¯s Pub back in the city.

    The Morn Family had been called the backbone of Goldspink Empire. At least six great military generals emerged from it during the centuries after they earned unparalleled merit against several foreign invasions. Besides, none of the family membersnguished in the back during all those wars ¨C every single one of them were brave and cunning warriors fighting on the front line. It was only natural that such a formidable and celebrated family had seized control of all military affairs in the empire.

    Recently, military conflict was eminent between Goldspink Empire and its neighbor, the Hen Imperials. The border of Hen Imperials was not far from Grue Town. Perhaps, the knights of the Morns came just for this reason.

    Parsel could think of two possible oues for their arrival. They either came to recruit, or set up defenses. Or maybe both.

    However, either meant deadly news for Dim the cksmith. For it was clearly written in the Law of Conscription of Goldspink Empire that every family in a city or town that fell within the area of the conscription had to provide a young adult, or offer a hundred gold pieces for a conscription-free token. Dim was the only able male in his family and at the prime age for recruitment. If he went away for war, his wife and daughter would have no means of survival. As for coins... The only family in the entire town that might have enough money for the fee was the Padt Family. Heck, one gold piece was enough to support Dim¡¯s family for half a year.

    Parsel got out of his shock quick enough. Anyway, an old bachelor like him had nothing to worry about. He¡¯d kick the bucket soon enough. He even had the mind to watch the Morn Family make their move.

    <i>They did not go to the town mayor. So they¡¯re not here to recruit?</i>

    Parsel kept watching as the iron hooves headed towards another direction...

    Towards the mansion of Viscount Padtr, a ce that still bloomed with grass and flowers even in the Month of Freezing Earth.

    ...

    The Padt Manor.

    A pair of maids wearing cream-colored linen headscarves were chattering during their work.

    They were talking about the two young sons of the Padt Family.

    ¡°Master and mistress passed away two years ago. ording to thew of the empire, in the Month of Frost following this Month of Freezing Earth, the eldest master will inherit the family title,¡± the maid with an apple-shaped face said with a hint of worry. ¡°I wonder what will be of the young master after that.¡±

    ¡°Auri, let¡¯s not talk about the family business as servants. Personally though, I don¡¯t think you should worry about it at all. You probably don¡¯t know because you were working at the tea garden far from the mansion, but the two masters are quite close to each other. Those family conflicts you read about in the drama books won¡¯t happen here,¡± the maid with a pockmarked face giggled.

    The sound of horse hooves came from the narrow trail outside of the garden.

    Soon, a rider wearing shining bronze armor appeared in front of the maids.

    He halted his horse at the garden entrance and removed his helmet.

    He was a vigorous young man with brown hair. The sunlight somewhat deepened the lines and curves on his face, giving the already handsome man an even more extraordinary look.

    Those grey-green irises swept past the maids and finally fixed on the middle-aged maid standing beside Auri.

    ¡°Greetings to you, Head Maid Mana.¡±

    Mana dropped the basket she had been holding and bowed to the knight. ¡°Greetings, Master Leon.¡±

    Leon looked at the freshly-picked tea leaves in the basket and sighed. ¡°My brother went to that old man again?¡±

    Mana lowered her head and replied with courtesy, ¡°Master Angor went to study at Mister Jon¡¯s.¡±

    Leon twitched his lip and muttered to himself, ¡°Study? What the heck¡¯s going on with that old geezer, talking about his facy all day? Now, Brother learns from him and gives him tea too. That man¡¯s just a psycho! I have no idea why brother insists on going there.¡±

    He pulled on the reins in annoyance. ¡°I see. You can continue with your work, I¡¯ll go look for him.¡±

    With that, Leon gave his horse a soft kick and trotted away.

    A whileter, Leon came to the southeast corner of the manor where an exquisitely designed wooden house supported by suspension stilts sat on a small hill near the woods. It has raising eaves and two parallel levels. Only one side of the house actually touched the earth, the other three stayed in the air, merely supported by stilt pirs.

    No matter how you looked at it, this wooden house didn¡¯t sit well among any of the structures in Goldspink Empire. Leon couldn¡¯t even recall seeing such simr buildings during his travels in the other nations.

    ¡°What a curious house. It looks sturdy though most of it doesn¡¯t have solid ground.¡± Leon was still frustrated about how the old man upied too much of his brother¡¯s time, but that didn¡¯t stop him from admiring the amazing craftsmanship of the structure... He just didn¡¯t show that on his face. Besides, it¡¯s the house that Leon was interested in, not Jon himself. Maybe this was amon sight from where Jon came? Although Leon never figured out where that was even when Jon had been living in the Padt Manor for nearly 20 years.

    Pushing open the wooden bars, Leon saw some vegetables and fruits growing in the yard. There were some withered vines crawling on the racks nearby. They grew ¡°hanging clusters¡± in the Month of Harvest, and Jon called them ¡°grapes¡±. Leon remembered their sweet taste. However, it was currently off season.

    Behind the bamboo door of the house was a young man with a handsome look swiftly writing something on parchment rolls using his quill and ink.

    Leon approached him. He tried to be soft on his steps, but those bronze armored boots still produced a heavy noise on the wooden floor.

    ¡°Ah, you¡¯re here.¡± The young man put a period on the parchment and looked up at the visitor, his clear voice filled with friendly passion.

    ¡°Angor! My dear brother. You sound as if you knew I woulde.¡± Leon smiled.

    Angor shrugged and grinned, ¡°No. But this will make me more... proactive.¡±

    ¡°You learned this from that old man too?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°No one needs to teach me that. Our father used to talk like this anyway.¡±

    ¡°So... If someone misinterprets your will and doesn¡¯t talk at all, how would you start the conversation then?¡± Leon raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I¡¯ll just stay silent and wait for it.¡±

    ¡°What if that man does the same?¡±

    Angor curled his lip. ¡°That would be embarrassing. I think I¡¯ll turn to leave, lest I get embarrassed and continue whatever there is if he decides to stop me.¡±

    Leon only smiled and nodded without giving anyment. He then looked around the room.

    ¡°Where¡¯s good old Jon?¡±

    Hearing this, Angor frowned a little and showed a bit of worry. ¡°You know, Teacher¡¯s body is getting worse by the day, every part of him is... wilting. His legspletely gave in the day before yesterday. He just applied his medicine and is now resting upstairs.¡±

 Chapter 2 - Jon the Teacher

    <h4>Chapter 2: Jon the Teacher</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Twenty years ago, Noah Padt, the brothers¡¯ father, saved Jon who was in a near-death state outside of the manor. After Jon recovered from his wounds, the viscount learned that the man had nowhere to go and decided to take him in, while offering him an easy and rewarding job ¨C a fruit grower.

    What wounded him, why he copsed outside the manor, and where he was from all remained mysteries. He never told anyone. He did say that he was from another. However, he never exined where this ce called ¡± was.

    Jon was a gifted speaker, with brilliant growing and building techniques. The young brothers loveding to him and hearing about all the wonderful stories. There were buildings that could pierce the clouds, metal machines that could fly, even gardens that existed on the moon.

    Leon was always intrigued by thends in the stories and dreamed about going to these ces when he grew up. When he did grow up, however, he realized that the stories were all made up. The feeling of having his dreams broken frustrated him very much, and ever since, he always felt a hint of anger and disdain in the face of Jon.

    Leon felt just the same about the fact that Angor trusted Jon, even considering him as his teacher. But no matter how Leon tried to persuade him, Angor always responded with a wordless smile ¨C he never rejected or retorted.

    Angor had a very simr attitude to Jon¡¯s: gentle and calm on the outside, yet neither reason nor force could change his mind once he decided something.

    ...

    Leon picked up the parchment on the desk. It was covered by masses of thick characters which instantly made Leon¡¯s eyes spin.

    ¡°Must you use these things taught by that old man instead of our universalnguage? No human alive can read them! Unless... they¡¯re some kind of secret not intended for mankind?¡± Leon muttered, then realized something. He looked at Angor with a wicked smile. ¡°Oh dear brother, kindly exin to me, please? Are you recording your little adolescent troubles? C¡¯mon, tell me, big brother can help ya.¡±

    Angor sighed and pointed at the parchment. ¡°This is called Hanzi. They¡¯re used where teacher came from. As for their meaning, I¡¯m writing about the records of the meanings about several physical constants calcted by teacher.¡±

    Angor then pointed at some symbols beneath that looked like swimming tadpoles. ¡°These are called Arabic Numerals, they have the same use for measuring as the units we use in Goldspink Empire, but they¡¯re simpler and more distinctive. When you use them together with the constants I mentioned, you can record tons of stuff easily.¡±

    Leon did not understand one bit of what Angor had been talking about, nor did he care. He only thought about how old Jon came up with more ways to hoodwink his brother, and how his adorable, innocent brother was getting brainwashed

    The only bit of sympathy Leon had upon hearing the condition of Jon had disappeared.

    Leon waved a hand to stop Angor and took out a delicately wrapped letter from under his armor.

    ¡°Just... stop. I can¡¯t understand anyway and I don¡¯t really want to hear it. Here, a invitation from the city lord. My inheritance of father¡¯s title requires the notarization of the lord and Marquis Merlin. We move out half a monthter. Didn¡¯t you always want to go to Master Megeve¡¯s Solo Concert? I¡¯ll take you to the Ocean Theater in Waterford when we¡¯re done with business so you can enjoy it.¡±

    Angor took the invitation letter with joy on his face. He heard about the musician who was well-known across the empire in Waterford. He produced excellent melodies and lyrics! Angor never had the chance to meet him, so of course he felt happy when his brother¡¯s official business could give him this chance.

    Looking at his younger brother trying to suppress all that joy and act tough, Leon couldn¡¯t help but rough up Angor¡¯s blonde hair.

    And of course, Angor red back at him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do that again I say! Hair is a man¡¯s pride and I¡¯ll not take anypromise in this!¡±

    Hahaha! Leon was speechless for a second before he burst intoughter. ¡°You¡¯re only 14 this year and hardly a man. Just a youngd who still needs growing.¡±

    The brothers romped around. Naturally, Angor couldn¡¯t win against Leon who was already burly as a tiger. In the end, Angor could only give his brother more stares, before returning to his homework assigned by Jon.

    Leon never knew how to deal with Angor when he decided to keep to himself. Leon rubbed his nose and turned to leave.

    About half an hour had passed since Leon went away, and Angor finally swam ashore from the sea of numbers.

    Looking at the empty room, Angor knew that Leon left a while ago, and it was almost time for lunch. He opened the door and saw two lunch boxes ced on the stone table in the yard, as always. The Head Maid Mana was taking out the meals from the boxes.

    Vegetable stew sided with bread and fruit... again. Angor felt a bit down upon seeing all this.

    He missed his teacher¡¯s cooking. Those simple fried rice never disappointed his appetite as if there was magic in it.

    Angor never had the delicacy again ever since Teacher started to grow weaker.

    He once tried to learn the cooking skill from Jon, but the result was horrible.

    <i>Sigh. All four limbs of teacher had wilted beyond use now. I probably will never have those tastes again.</i>

    Mana went upstairs to help Jon eat, while Angor sulked in depression.

    After finishing his meal, Angor entered the house just to see Manaing down.

    ¡°Auntie Mana. Is my teacher awake?¡±

    ¡°Mister Jon is awake, young master,¡± Mana showed the empty porcin bowl in her basket. ¡°He¡¯s got a good appetite today, drinking all the soup!¡±

    ¡°Nice. I¡¯ll go see him.¡±

    Watching Angor run upstairs in joy, Mana smiled in kindness. The two masters owned the Padt Manor now. On the outside, the elder master was proud and stern, while the younger one was gentle and calm. But outsiders didn¡¯t know that they were still children on the inside. No matter how they acted strong, they hid their softness, and only showed their spirit in front of their close servants, which should have been in their nature at such an age.

    ¡°Teacher!¡±

    Angor pushed open the attic door and saw the old man sprawling on the sling chair on the balcony, with his mute servant respectfully standing behind.

    The old man had sallow, shrunken skin. His whole appearance was drastically different from the locals, with obvious foreign features. His eyes were turbid, but those ck pupils still stood out.

    Without his father, Angor had been considering Jon his most respected elder, and his lifelong mentor.

 Chapter 3 - The Unaccustomed Time Traveler

    <h4>Chapter 3: The Unustomed Time Traveler</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°You¡¯re here,¡± Jon said without turning his head. He just looked at the verdant woods in the distance.

    Hearing the simr words, Angor recalled what he said to his brother just a while ago and couldn¡¯t hold back his mild smile.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m here,¡± Angor replied while pointing at the medicinal salve on the desk, then gave the mute servant a questioning look, who in turn shook his hands back at Angor.

    Angor sighed in distraught, took the salve and sat beside Jon.

    ¡°Teacher, you disregarded the doctor¡¯s words again?¡± Angor screwed the ss bottle open and carefully applied the green colored salve upon the wilted limbs of his teacher.

    ¡°It does not matter anymore,¡± Jon showed a trace of yearning and sorrow in his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m near my end now. ¡®It¡¯ will not let me live.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s ¡®it¡¯?¡± Angor suddenly surveyed the surroundings in alert. ¡°Your enemy?¡±

    Jon stayed silent for a while, and shook his head. ¡°There is no enemy here. My enemy... is in another space.¡±

    Angor asked the mute servant to go away unconsciously when he realized his teacher was going to talk about this ¡°other space¡±. The servant wouldn¡¯t tell anyone about it, but Angor would do this every time, just in case.

    Even now, Angor couldn¡¯t even imagine where his teacher really came from.

    Jon was from another world, or another. He came from his home to this unfamiliarnd because of an ident.

    After his ¡°transmigration¡±, Jon was saved by Angor¡¯s father, and thus the story afterward.

    Originally, Angor did not believe this so-called ¡°transmigration¡±. However, as Jon taught him more and more knowledge which shaped the concept of microcosm and macrocosm into his mind, Angor trusted it. The knowledge was all theoretical, but Angor already did his own calction and realized how valuable the knowledge was. It was far more valuable than what the current education in Goldspink Empire could offer.

    He still had some doubt deep inside his mind, true, but he was already beginning to believe it.

    After making sure that the mute servant closed the door and walked downstairs, Angor asked in a whisper, ¡°So... Who is this ¡®it¡¯ you mentioned?¡±

    Jon stayed silent again, then gave Angor an irrelevant question instead.

    ¡°Do you believe that the world can have its own consciousness?¡±

    Angor was surprised and left speechless by the sudden question. He considered for a while before carefully giving out his answer, ¡°You mean... The Gaia¡¯s Consciousness?¡±

    Of course, this was a non-existent topic in Goldspink Empire, and there was no ¡°Mother Earth Gaia¡± in this world. The concept was from Jon, and Angor initially considered it as another mythology tale of the other world. He didn¡¯t expect it to be mentioned now.

    ¡°Close,¡± Jon nodded, albeit weakly. ¡°I used to be a devoted believer of science. There were people talking about how the end of science is god, which I never trusted. However... Ever since I came here, I felt something was slowly changing, and this includes the ¡®Gaia¡¯s Consciousness¡¯.¡±

    Jon looked at the flourishing mountain far away. ¡°My body began to fail without apparent reason after I came to this world. I asked my Parasitic Chip to do a thorough examination. There weren¡¯t any pathological changes. In other words, I¡¯m not ill.¡±

    Angor knew what his teacher meant even though he was not sure what ¡°Parasitic Chip¡± was.

    ¡°You¡¯re not ill, then why...¡± Angor¡¯s doubt deepened further while looking at his teacher who was abnormally skinny now. Jon just got past his 50s, but nobody would question it if anyone said that he was already beyond his 80s or 90s.

    ¡°How did Ie to this?¡± Jon muttered to himself, and shook his head. ¡°I couldn¡¯t answer this question half a year ago. But... since I¡¯m half inside my grave now, ¡®it¡¯ looks reassured, which allowed me to understand the source of my condition.¡±

    ¡°Source?¡± Angor looked at Jon, puzzled.

    ¡°Remember ¡®Gaia¡¯s Consciousness¡¯ I mentioned? My guess is... This world has a giant, aggregated consciousness. It runs indifferently, with absolute fairness. It rejects all foreign souls, it is the consciousness of the world. As for my body... Maybe it did this to me,¡± Jon turned to look at Angor. ¡°To put it simply, my body is unustomed to thisnd, because I don¡¯t belong to this world.¡±

    ...

    Inside the well decorated hall, under the crystal zed chandelier, two figures sat on both sides of a long rectangr table. Both of them had several fully armored knights standing behind them.

    On the left, was the next title sessor of the Padt Manor, Leon Padt, wearing tightly-knitted eyebrows.

    On the right sat a middle-aged man wearing silver armor, a big brown beard and obscured face, Eton Morn.

    Count Eton Morn, a member from the Morn Family, the backbone of Goldspink Empire. A family that lived for centuries and famous for their bravery andbat skills.

    Currently, a great number of elite members of the family were fighting against the Hen Imperials on the front line. Nobody knew why count Eton suddenly decided to visit Grue Town.

    There was only silence. Knights on both sides stood against the presence of the other family, which became more overwhelming by the second. Naturally, the fierce and powerful knights from the Morn Family quickly gained advantage over the ones from Padt Manor who never witnessed a fight. One of the Padt knights even lost grip of his sword because of the tension, which fell onto the floor with a loud CLANG. With this, Leon frowned again and could only speak first:

    ¡°My apologies. My knights don¡¯t really know the conventions,¡± Leon waved a hand, his knights immediately saluted with a bend and took one step back. The simple gesture easily diffused the surging momentum of the Morns. ¡°Is count Eton¡¯s sudden visit about supplies for the front line?¡±

    The Hen Imperial was not big, but most of theirnd were inds, scattered between the Granblue Ocean and the Storm Sea. Goldspink Empire didn¡¯t have much naval force so they could only set up passive defenses along the shorelines against the invasion of Hen.

    When the defense dragged too long, fueled by theck of fresh water near the sea, the responsibility of supplying food and water fell upon several towns and cities nearby. Grue Town was one of them.

    Here, the supply was taken care of by the Padt Manor alone, thus the townspeople usually did not know about this. As the owner of the Padt Manor though, Leon knew very well of his responsibility.

    ¡°Thanks to the Padt Manor, if not for you our vanguard camp would not make it through these months,¡± Count Eton showed his courtesy first, then abruptly changed the topic, ¡°There is nothing wrong with food and water supply, I came today to inquire about something.¡±

    ¡°About?¡± Leon raised an eyebrow.

    Eton chuckled, which wasn¡¯t really clear behind the beard. However, Leon did not catch any hint of joy from Eton¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Viscount Padt, have you ever heard of the Morning Dew?¡±

 Chapter 4 - The Morning Dew

    <h4>Chapter 4: The Morning Dew</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Morning Dew?

    Leon knew he heard about this name somewhere. But upon careful consideration, he couldn¡¯t recall what it was at all.

    Looking at how Leon was deep in thought for real, Eton asked with a bit of surprise, ¡°So, Viscount Padt, you really don¡¯t know about it?¡±

    ¡°No need to call me by that title yet, Count Eton, since I haven¡¯t inherited it. Just call me Leon,¡± he shook his head. ¡°And no, the name of Morning Dew does sound familiar but I do not know what that refers to.¡±

    Eton gave Leon another thoughtful look and took a wooden box from his personal servant, then passed it to Leon.

    ¡°Do you know anything about this box?¡±

    It was an exquisite wooden box with patterns carved on it which were quite different from those famous relief sculptures in the empire. Simple outlines and sketches that resembled flowing clouds, apletely unique stylepared to modern genres. Most people wouldn¡¯t recognize it. However, Leon just knew ¨C this was old Jon¡¯s personal tea box.

    Jon¡¯s enemy came looking for him?

    ¡°This is a... box for storing items maybe?¡± Leon almost said this was a tea box, but he decided otherwise. He did not like the old man, but he wouldn¡¯t sell him out, just for the fact that his dear brother respected Jon very much.

    Leon was, however, still young. He tried to hide his expression, but Eton still caught the split second of recognition.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know about the box?¡± A voice of questioning sounded.

    ¡°No,¡± Leon replied firmly.

    After another long moment of silence, Eton curled the corner of his lips and showed a brief, yet ice-cold look. He said in a cold tone, ¡°Well, since Viscount doesn¡¯t know about this, I¡¯ll not take any more of your time. Farewell.¡±

    As Eton and his men left the hall, Leon¡¯s expression slowly turned dark.

    <i>He gave up too fast, and the killing intent he just showed...</i>

    Leon got a very bad feeling about all this.

    Upon second thought, Leon ordered the domestic knights of the family to stay alert and hurried back to Jon¡¯s wooden house on his horse.

    He came to the ce for a second time today, with apletely different mindset.

    His hurried movement caused the air to flow, which swayed the grass around in the yard.

    ¡°Brother? Did something happen?¡± Angor recognized the unusual expression and did not y the ¡°you¡¯re here¡± joke this time. He was anxious about whatever might make his brother act like this.

    ¡°You saw the tea box? The one that old Jon uses to keep his tea leaves.¡± Leon said while quickly moving to the second floor, then pushed open the door to Jon¡¯s bedroom.

    Angor followed behind. ¡°Tea box?¡± From a small dresser nearby, he took out a small, round box with the figure of a dragon carved on it, ¡°You mean this?¡±

    Jon was reading in front of his desk, with the mute servant helping him turn the pages, and now Leon had caught his attention.

    ¡°Oh? You finally understand the awesomeness of my tea leaves and came to admire them, Leon boy?¡± Jon smiled.

    There were also teas in Goldspink Empire, but they were very different from what Jon had been brewing. The teas in the empire, specifically speaking, were beverages made from flowers, syrups and milk, like milk tea. Angor and Leon enjoyed this kind of tea. However, Jon rarely drank it. He consumed his hand-made tea, brewed from the tea leaves picked from the green tea bushes he grew, without any additions. The tea garden Auri worked in was originally his own workce when he was still strong enough. He asked Head Maid Mana to take care of it when he was no longer up for it.

    Leon ignored Jon¡¯s joke and took the box from Angor.

    Then he frowned and said, ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°No?¡±

    ¡°The patterns. This box has snake monster on it, what I saw earlier was a box with sea waves or something simr,¡± Leon tried to recall the box from Eton.

    ¡°Snake monster? This is a dragon, brother. ¡±

    ¡°Dragon? I never saw such slim dragons.¡±

    Angor knew it would take forever to exin the different mythology conceptions of worlds to his brother so he only said: ¡°Teacher usually uses this dragon one to keep tea for himself. The one he gave mother for storing rose tea had peaches on it, and the one for father had bats. There are other boxes too. The one with wave patterns you just mentioned must be carved with clouds, also a gift for someone.¡±

    ¡°So the old man uses such fashionable boxes? I never noticed,¡± Leon said in surprise, but recovered soon and asked Angor again, ¡°So, the cloud box. Where did it go?¡±

    Angor gave Leon a puzzled look, ¡°Like I said, they¡¯re for gifting people, Teacher doesn¡¯t keep them here. Father once asked teacher to make a bunch of cloud boxes. If any of them are still here, they should be sitting in storage right now.¡±

    ¡°Leon, tell me, what happened?¡± It was Jon. He stayed silent most of the time, but he kept his watch on Leon¡¯s expression. Those eyebrows never loosened.

    Leon looked at Jon, inspecting him from head to toe, and slowly said, ¡°Count Eton of the Morn Family came today.¡±

    ...

    ¡°Aha. Now Leon boy is worrying about my enemying for me?¡± Jon chuckled after hearing about Leon¡¯s experience today.

    ¡°I¡¯m not worried for you. I was trying to cover for you for Angor¡¯s sake,¡± Leon turned away and muttered aloud.

    Angorughed on the inside. He always saw his brother as the brave and strong male owner of the family, so he actually got a tiny bit of... what was it called, tsundere?

    ¡°Just tell me. What¡¯s your problem with Count Eton? He came and went away quickly. Particrly when going away, his look was malevolent. If it¡¯s something that can be solved, I¡¯ll try my best. If not, you¡¯ll have to watch out for your own.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no problem,¡± Jon replied without hesitation.

    ¡°No problem? But that box he had was made by you!¡±

    Jon looked at Leon. ¡°In this world, everyone I know lives in Grue Town. And I don¡¯t see a reason why I would lie to you.¡±

    Jon¡¯s body was already failing when hended in this world, added by the fact that he hardly knew thenguage and culture here, he spent many years to blend in with the help of Viscount Padt. After getting used to the ce, his limbs already began to wilt. He wasn¡¯t fit for long travels. The farthest ce he ever went during the years was the capital of the empire, because old Padt took him there to receive treatment. And he never expanded his rtionship, let along gaining enemies.

    Angor saw the doubt in his brother¡¯s expression and exined, ¡°Teacher is right, maybe you thought wrong. Let¡¯s say, perhaps Count Eton does not know about Teacher in the first ce.¡±

    ¡°You mean...¡±

    ¡°You said that Count Eton came for something. He first asked about the Morning Dew, maybe he¡¯s only after this?¡± Angor tilted his head. This was what he always did when thinking about something. ¡°But the Morning Dew is just the name of a tea. So he came to drink tea? Something doesn¡¯t add up.¡±

 Chapter 5 - Rise of Transcendence

    <h4>Chapter 5: Rise of Transcendence</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Morning Dew. Leon knew he heard about it when Eton spoke of it.

    So it was tea. As this part of his memory was awoken in his mind, Leon immediately recalled a series of facts about the Morning Dew. He tried it before, it was a type of tea with green leaves favored by Jon. The tea water made from the leaves also had a pale green tone, and when the needle-like leaves flowed up and down in the boiling water they almost resembled dancing trees in a luxurious forest.

    As for the taste, Leon couldn¡¯t remember. Just bitter water maybe, because that was old Jon¡¯s favorite.

    ¡°Is there anything special about the Morning Dew?¡± Leon asked Jon.

    There was only a tiny bit of doubt passing through Jon¡¯s eyes. ¡°Not really. It¡¯s only tea. You two drank it before, and so did your parents. However, if there truly is something worth mentioning, then maybe...¡±

    ¡°Maybe?¡± Leon quickly followed.

    Jon signaled the mute servant to go away first, before slowly speaking again:

    ¡°The seedlings of Morning Dew do not originate from this world. I took them here from another world.¡±

    Leon rolled his eyes before Jon could finish. ¡°Yeah, right. Since Count Eton came for the Morning Dew, not you, I¡¯ll send him an invitationter on toe to the manor tomorrow evening, to drink this tea.¡±

    He had no intention to hear about Jon¡¯s ¡°other world theory¡± or whatever.

    With that, Leon turned and left.

    Jon on the other hand, gazed at the tea box in Angor¡¯s hands and fell into silence.

    ...

    Misty water vapor and smoke slowly rose.

    Angor bent over the crafting table, watching the leaves in the ss rise and fall in the flowing boiling water.

    The Morning Dew tea, nothing out of the ordinary could be seen on the outside.

    Personally, Angor preferred gulping down strong tea with a milk vor to his heart¡¯s content. He felt exceptionally satisfied when licking away all the rich milk and residue of tea leaves from his lips, along with the lingering taste.

    Jon would joke about it, saying only kids love milk. To present his mature side in front of Jon, Angor only drank tea with bitterness and the taste of grass in it as long as there were people around him.

    He tried the Morning Dew countless times as well. Bitter at first, sweet when savored afterward. There was nothing particr about it though. So why did Count Eton ask brother about it? Was he really doubting the origin of the seedlings like Teacher mentioned?

    Angor thought about this for a while without reaching any answer, so he just gave up and turned to some files that were collected in his teacher¡¯s bookshelf.

    Most of the files were about knowledge of the Goldspink Empire and the surrounding nations. They includednguages, cultures, history, characters, medicine, astrology and so on.

    Angor finished an epic about a heroic warrior on the sea. Jon had left ament under the book: Refinednguage, organized content, but far too many words of praise which could not be used to specte possible historical facts. This can be a supplement to the historical materials of the Hen Imperials.

    Jon preferred research on physical data and biological forms in his early years. Butter, he discovered that the physical constants represented by certain data did not obey the movement of the earth. This was when he finally realized the distinctiveness of this world. In his recent years, he focused more on organizing and researching literary historical data instead.

    There seemed to be no historian or simr posts in Goldspink Empire or the surrounding nations, thus the historical data arranged by Jon over the decade was one of a kind.

    Angor was also very much interested in the newly arranged data, so he was greatly focused when reading it.

    After finishing the history book, Angor saw the tip of the next parchment, with Jon¡¯sment written in Hanzi:

    [Most residents in this world are unlettered, and it seems there¡¯s no universal knowledge yet. People in ancient China already knew the concept of round sky and square earth when addressing the macro environment they live in. It was incorrect, but it was a basic understanding about their. However, people in this world are only aware of their nations and countries, without the knowledge of anything beyond. I hope I can find the name of this world in some other files... Or give it a name, if I can¡¯t find one.]

    After that, Jon started writing about the universal senses of worth of the people in this world.

    As a local, Angor knew well about this data, so he rushed through it and grabbed another parchment.

    <i>A Guide to the Applicability of Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine in this World</i>,pletely written in Chinese Hanzi. Perhaps Jon and Angor were the only ones that could understand it in this entire world.

    Dusk arrived unknowingly. The servant already lit a fire in the firece. Another gentle evening filled with warm firelight, cricket buzzes and the calls of crows from outside.

    Looking in another direction, on the ins not far from Grue Town, rows of temporary tents sat around bright campfires. One giant, beautifully decorated ck tent with golden edges in the center was exceptionally eye-catching, like a moon protected by a swarm of stars.

    This ce was a temporary camp for Eton Morn, although that ck tent was not Eton¡¯s.

    Cold wind in the Month of the Freezing Earth howled. Without trees, the armored knights could not suppress their trembling. Count Eton noticed this and ordered a pair of garrison knights to patrol, while letting everyone else rest near the campfire.

    When everything was settled, Count Eton slowly walked into the elegant ck tent. The moment he entered it, he reced his stern expression when giving orders with a look of respect and ingratiation.

    There weren¡¯t many decorations inside the tent, though everything carried a trace of wonder. An old man wearing ck robe and white beard sat in a corner, quickly writing something. A crystal ball was ominously floating beside him.

    There seemed to be shifting mist inside the crystal ball. The old man would check it every now and then, before returning to his writing. Eton looked at the crystal ball only to feel faint all of a sudden, so he quickly looked away.

    ¡°You found the Morning Dew?¡± A deep, hoarse voice came from the old man.

    With a hint of fear, Eton told him about the conversation between himself and Leon Padt today, to thest detail.

    ¡°Oh?¡± The old man put down his quill and blew the crimson-colored ink on the paper dry. ¡°So he didn¡¯t know about the Morning Dew, but his expression shifted when he saw the wooden box? Maybe there¡¯s something about the crafter of the box. Or rather, he or she is a Caster, too.¡±

    Eton carefully nced at the patterns drawn on the paper. The crimson streaks formed waves, with strange lines and symbols intertwined within. His eyes instantly felt sore.

    ¡°The magic form on this scroll is called ¡®Surging Waves¡¯. It will help your battle against Hen.¡± The old man paused a little. ¡°It¡¯s a pity that you aren¡¯t a talented one, otherwise I could take you away from the Old Earth using this chance.¡±

    Eton¡¯s expression fell dark, ¡°Father, I¡¯m okay if you just take brother n and sister. As for me, I can stay with the family.¡±

    The old man sighed in frustration. As he recalled his two grandsons, his expression became soft again. ¡°The talent of wizardry is extremely rare throughout history. People couldn¡¯t find a single one among tens of thousands of people in some ces. It¡¯s already god¡¯s blessing for our family to witness two talents in session. n and Aleen are my grandson and granddaughter, so of course I¡¯ll look after them as best as I can.

    ¡°Too bad my talent is not outstanding. Soon, I¡¯ll have to rely on them.¡± With that, the old man turned his gaze back onto the wooden box on the desk.

    ¡°Interesting carvings, but I sense no magical traces. It¡¯s probably just an ordinary craftsman.¡± The old man shook his head. It was impossible to find a Caster on the Old Earth. Even element waves werepletely constrained here. ultist Wizards and Bloodline Wizards who did not rely on elements could not find any materials they needed here. Thisnd was forsaken after all.

    ¡°Since that Leon wouldn¡¯t speak the truth, I¡¯ll make him.¡± Eton bowed with one fist folded against the other hand and a trace of cruelty in his eyes. ¡°Nothing is more important than father¡¯s breakthrough. I¡¯ll ask Mahl to take two rider formations and burn the Padt Manor to the ground tonight!¡±

    The old man didn¡¯t reply, which meant he silently agreed. He was a White Wizard, someone who would not ughter ordinary folks for no reason. However, as this was about his own breakthrough, some bloodshed wouldn¡¯t hurt. Besides, the ¡°White Wizards are good wizards¡± statement was a joke ¨C White Wizards and ck Wizards had different standings only because of the different natures of the spells they wielded. They were the same when it came to the ideas of human value. They both tended to avoid unnecessary killing, though.

    After discussing some matters after n and Aleen left, Eton bid farewell to his father and prepared to leave.

    This was when the Knight Commander Mahl came and knelt in front of the tent, seeking an audience.

    ¡°Report for the Count. Just a while ago, Viscount Leon of the Padt Manor sent a messenger here, offering a letter of invitation.¡±

 Chapter 6 - Jons Past

    <h4>Chapter 6: Jon¡¯s Past</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Father, Leon Padt invited us to the manor to enjoy tea together,¡± Eton read through the letter. Doubt filled his eyes.

    The old man wearing white beard was also stunned by the invitation a little, but he recovered soon and chuckled. ¡°It looks like this family will live yet another night.¡±

    Eton hesitated. He knew father did not intend to assault the Padt Manor for now, so he followed with a smile. ¡°The man¡¯s smart enough. Why the sudden change of mind though?¡±

    The old man smiled again and pointed at the wooden box. ¡°Because of this, perhaps.¡±

    The color of night gradually went away, the Padt Manor did not face a bloody night. The sun rose again and covered every inch ofnd within the manor with its warmth, as usual.

    No one in the manor knew that they just barely escaped a terrible fate.

    In the early morning, Angor brought several maids to the tea garden to pick the freshest leaves. It was an unforgiving winter outside when everything would freeze solid, but the tea garden sheltered by the greenhouse which was improved by Jon was still as warm as it was in the spring.

    To prepare for the ¡°tea party¡± this evening, Angor ordered the maids to collect lots of Morning Dew leaves. Part of them would be used to brew tea for the evening, the rest of them would be handed to Mana who would stir-fry the leaves. Only tea leaves that were ¡°killed¡±¡ªkneaded in high temperature¡ªcould retain their original fragrance for a long time. Angor nned to give these preserved leaves to Count Eton as gift.

    Seeing how the maids had brought the leaves for de-enzyming, Angor could finally entrust the job to them. He then returned to the yard of the stilt house.

    Jon was sitting on the balcony of the second floor, bathing in the warm sunlight, which was quite scarce during the winter. He was even humming a tune.

    Angor walked up, took the salve from the mute servant, and began rubbing it onto Jon¡¯s body. Jon only nced at him without saying anything. Jon already exined the cause for his wilting limbs, and Angor probably didn¡¯t believe it. No matter, Jon would just enjoy this act of respect from his pupil. He wouldn¡¯t be doing this for long anyway. Jon didn¡¯t even know whether he could make it past the Month of Freezing Earth.

    Jon weed the gentle wind blowing against him with a smile, while humming his nameless melody.

    Sad. Yet free.

    More importantly, remembrance.

    ¡°If I can travel back to Earth... Even if for just a second before I have to die, I¡¯d ept it.¡± Jon never really understood why people would revert to their origins until just now.

    Sorrow was written all over Angor¡¯s face. But he did not know how tofort his teacher. To part with someone was always the most hurtful experience, not to mention to part with someone a world away.

    The moment of tranquility did notst long. Jon suddenly pointed to a transparent, crystalline object which had been half-buried in a flower pot on the balcony. ¡°Can you pass that to me?¡±

    With an ¡°Um-hm¡±, Angor went there and dug up the object out of the wet dirt, rubbed it clean with his handkerchief before giving it to Jon.

    The object had an oval shape, like a zed sphere when observed from afar.

    Jon held the ¡°zed sphere¡± in his hand and watched for a long time. His expression changed from resentment, to sorrow, then to a bitter smile.

    ¡°I dropped this in the forest three years ago, and it somehow ended up inside my flower pot,¡± Jon shook his head. ¡°Maybe this is fate?¡±

    Hearing his teacher speaking to himself, Angor blushed and stuttered, ¡°I brought it back. You always appreciated it, sometimes you even cried over it, so I believed this was from your family. When I saw you throwing it away in the forest, I thought you no longer wanted to remember someone. Then I picked it up and hid it here, so you can still find it in case you change your mind.¡±

    Jon was left speechless for a while, then he muttered again, albeit in a voice only he could hear this time, ¡°Or perhaps... the fate lies with you?¡±

    After staying silent for a moment longer, Jon looked at Angor. ¡°The zed sphere wasn¡¯t from my family, though it could be considered something from Earth. I don¡¯t know about its exact origin.

    ¡°Let me tell you a story about the sphere.¡±

    ...

    As Jon slowly revealed his story, more and more shock climbed onto Angor¡¯s face.

    He thought it was only a sphere with some memorable meaning behind it, not something with such an amazing backstory!

    The story started 20 years ago, when Jon was still back on Earth. He was a scientist, born in thend of China. To work on a grand and mysterious project, he epted an invitation and brought his wife and daughter to Long Ind in New York, USA. It was a secret research project whichsted longer than a decade.

    The research project was called the Montauk Project.

    It was a famous space physics project back on Earth. Jon was born in the middle of the 23rd century. The projectmenced two centuries ago by then, and was cast aside several times with a total of 50 years devoted into it. Jon participated in the sixthmencement.

    The project was formerly the ¡°Phdelphia Experiment¡± in the year of 1942, when radar was just invented. To render their warships undetectable by radar beams, the American military carried out the experiment on the destroyer escort, USS Eldridge. There was an omni-directional antenna on the main mast and two energy coils on the deck, all of which were powered by a generator on the ship. Abnormality arose at the beginning of the experiment, and worse disasters came about during the second and third attempt. The generator went out of control. Eldridge disappeared from everyone¡¯s sight and instantly reappeared somewhere 7,000 kilometers away. The Phdelphia Experiment was forced to shut down in the end, but people had discovered a side-product: Long-Distance Teleportation.

    In simple words, the Montauk Project was a physics research subject focusing on traveling through space.

    At first, the research of the Montauk Project were all limited by the concepts of the Phdelphia Experiment, and did not yield much progress, until the beginning of the 23rd century when an alien object sowed great excitement into the hearts of all scientists.

    The alien object fell into the southwest region of the Sahara Desert in Africa, right in the middle of the famous ¡°Eye of the Sahara¡±.

    The object attracted the attention of every country and region. As a small nation in Africa, Mauritania couldn¡¯t even hope topete for the object against the others. In the end, the object went to Long Ind in New York, USA, while being researched by several nations including China, Britain, France, Japan, Russia and so on. People named it the ¡°Alien Eye¡±.

    During the research, scientists found out that the Alien Eye possessed energy readings that contradicted most existing physical coefficients. If triggered by high-energy radiation of a certain wavelength, the Alien Eye could even teleport objects within a small area.

    Because of this newly discovered teleportation method, the scientistsmenced the Montauk Project for the sixth time.

    Jon was only an ordinary researcher during the project. His job was to keep a record of the effect on nts, inflicted by the wave frequencies generated by the Alien Eye.

    One day, Jon brought several sealed saplings into the heavily protected Alien Eye research zone to record samples, as usual.

    Nothing was out of the ordinary at first. Most nts withered and died under the waves released by the Alien Eye, except for one single tea seedling brought from China.

    As Jon held the seedling and activated his Parasitic Chip to begin recording, something went wrong with either the control panel or some otherponent, no one knew. Several shes of high-energy beams hit the Alien Eye spot on, followed by drastic changes in theboratory.

    Space copsed, and darkness emerged. The Alien Eye emitted a terrifying aura, covering everything within theb in an instant. The next second, before Jon could realize what was going on, he was swallowed into the darkness, with the seedling still in his hand.

    Breaking past several dimensional barriers, Jonnded in this world, with the Alien Eye by his side and countless wounds upon his body.

    He was then saved by old Viscount Padt.

    The Alien Eye on the other hand, lost its magic and became a most ordinary object ¨C a zed sphere.

 Chapter 7 - The Tea Party

    <h4>Chapter 7: The Tea Party</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    So this zed sphere with a pale blue hue was the reason why Jon came here from Earth. Apart from being amazed, Angor also felt curious and confused.

    It was only natural that he felt this way when facing such an extraordinary artifact. His teacher wouldn¡¯t be in this situation if not for this. He would be enjoying his life back with his wife and daughter.

    Apart from this though, there was a voice, secretly whispering into Angor¡¯s mind: The zed sphere was also the reason why he could meet an erudite figure like Teacher in the first ce. Without Teacher, maybe he would have be a spoiled yboy who would live a boring life forever, never to know about anything in this world.

    Of course, Jon couldn¡¯t read Angor¡¯s mind. He only fiddled around with the sphere in his palm, then stretched out his mostly-wilted hand to put the sphere into Angor¡¯s.

    ¡°I already threw it away, and I¡¯ll keep it that way. Since you brought it back, it¡¯s probably destined to be with you. Keep the Alien Eye... I don¡¯t have much time left, but you¡¯re still young. Maybe you will find a chance to visit the Earth,¡± Jon shook his head with a smile. He didn¡¯t even believe himself, yet he still insisted. ¡°If you truly did, please bring my ashes back to China and bury them under that old mistletoe tree in my home, just along the lower reaches of Yangtze River...¡±

    ...

    The mist was thick this evening. Angor held his chin and stayed beside Jon until the old man was asleep. Then, Angor left while rubbing his sore arms.

    Teacher¡¯s body was constantly failing, and nobody knew how long before he would... Despite Angor¡¯s will, if Teacher said that Gaia¡¯s Consciousness would not spare him, then there was nothing Angor could do. Well, maybe just one: he would stay at Teacher¡¯s side, happily, and fulfill his duty as a pupil and child during Jon¡¯sst moment.

    When Angor stepped out of the yard, the moonlight was shining upon the earth. He was wearing a down cape with his family emblem embroidered on it, over his thin coat. His shadow dragged long under the moon. His lonely figure trod towards the castle in the center of the manor.

    In the hall of the castle, a team of female dancers wearing elegant attires held the tips of their dresses and circled around to the musician¡¯s melody. The maids lit the valuable candles made from deep-sea fish oil one by one, illuminating the hall with artificial daylight.

    Tasty smells filled the hall: wine, cream cheese, and the mild sweetness of flowers and tea.

    This joyful scene was what Angor saw when he entered the castle.

    Leon was standing in the middle of a crowd, with his ss of red wine in hand, talking to several strangers cheerfully.

    Those must be the people from the Morn Family.

    As Angor quietly inspected the visitors, Leon saw him and happily dragged him into the crowd for introduction.

    The one standing in the front was a middle-aged man wearing a gentlemanly costume. He had verdant-green eyes, deep brown hair, and distinctive facial features with a sharp look like an unsheathed sword.

    ¡°Just in time Angor! This is Count Eton from the Morn Family, who¡¯s been defending the front lines,¡± Leon introduced.

    Angor greeted him in a natural manner. The etiquette for nobles was already carved deep inside him, and he performed perfectly like a noble.

    ¡°These are n and Aleen, son and daughter of Count Eton.¡±

    n was about the age of 14, simr to Angor himself. His facial features hadn¡¯t fully grown, tand his chubby look was quite adorable. He inherited his father¡¯s green eyes and brown hair, although the hairs had unfettered twists and curls in them, giving the boy a childish look.

    Despite being the younger sister, Aleen looked more mature than n. She already had feminine curves around her body, apanied by the long, elegant noble dress, she appeared like a little princess who was just about to step into adulthood, carrying the particr attractiveness of a young woman.

    At the same time, everyone else was measuring Angor as well.

    Angor was a beautiful boy by empire standard ¨C blonde hair, blue eyes, clean, white, yet healthy skin. Every part on his face was perfect, and they were only more outstanding when put together. The wless look already had an effect. When Angor smiled towards the brother and sister out of courtesy, Aleen immediately blushed and hid herself behind n, pretending to be fetching a dish.

    The little cutie!

    Eton silentlyughed. Nevertheless, he was a bit surprised by Angor¡¯s appearance. Old Padt had a really in look, yet he gave birth to two handsome sons, between whom he really couldn¡¯t pick a winner.

    After many words of praise, Leon noticed that Eton kept ncing in another direction, so he said, ¡°This is a tea party after all, so enough of the wine. Let¡¯s enjoy some tea.¡±

    With that, Leon pped his hands to stop the dancers and led everyone to their respective seats in the tearoom.

    Suddenly, the gate of the hall clicked and was slowly pushed open.

    It was raining outside, and this was when everyone finally realized the weather.

    A mysterious figure cloaked under a ck robe slowly walked inside.

    Leon frowned. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you are...?¡±

    Before he could finish, Count Eton, n and Aleen rushed to the figure¡¯s side with respect.

    ¡°Viscount Padt, this is my father, Mara Morn,¡± Eton introduced, ¡°Father loves teas with weak tastes. He came with us when he heard that a special tea was to be served. He was upied by something along the road, that¡¯s why he just arrived.¡±

    Leon acknowledged with an ¡°Oh!¡±, then walked up and greeted the elder member of the Morn Family with even greater passion.

    Angor however, kept his focus on Mara¡¯s shoes and twitched his eyebrows. Those were soft chamois leather shoes, with wet dirt hanging around the edges. What attracted Angor was the faint red color of the dirt.

    Most dirt in Grue Town was yellow loess or ck soil. There was only one ce where red dirt could be found within an area of fifty kilometers... the Padt¡¯s Tea Garden.

    This man was so interested in the tea garden that he even went there in the rain?

    Mara must be the one asking about the Morning Dew, though Angor still didn¡¯t know what was so special about the tea. It was bitter, and followed by a tiny bit of sweetness long afterward. Mara was the only one showing interest in it apart from Teacher.

    Angor did not tell this to anyone. He only showed a somewhat stiff expression. The Morns were way too powerful, and his own little countryside noble family would have zero chance against them. He could only hope that today¡¯s tea party would satisfy them.

    With hood removed, Mara just looked like an ordinary old man. Long, white beard, squinted eyes because of his smile, and a trace of elderly benevolence.

    Leon ordered Head Maid Mana to serve all the pastries prepared today. Beside them sat several delicate porcin teapots with carvings on them.

    ¡°These teapots hold every type of tea grown in our manor.¡±

    As Leon introduced the teas, Mana opened their respective lids.

    When the first pot was opened, light vapor rose up, bringing a rich, fragrant smell of flowers.

    ¡°This is Icy Honeydew. The leaves were the petals of Honeymoon Trees unique to the Padt Manor. This was brewed using the melted snow on the snow mountain instead of milk. Sweet but not too sweet. It sends a chill into your brain,¡± Leon sighed. ¡°It¡¯s a pity that a long winter hase. It should make you feelfortable during the intense summer.¡±

    The Morns gave it a taste. Aleen was the only one who actually liked it and drank some more, while all the others only had a tiny sip, except for Mara though, who only smelled it before putting it aside.

    The second pot contained milk tea. This one had a more distinctive taste which was quite different from the famous teas around the empire.

    ¡°This is called the Lemon Milk Tea, brewed from a sour fruit called the Summer Lemon, added with some mint leaves,¡± then he pointed at Angor. ¡°It¡¯s my brother¡¯s favorite. He drinks several sses every day, while trying to hide it from everyone. Ha!¡±

    Angor ¡°red¡± at Leon with his mind, but kept his smile on the outside.

    ¡°Mister Padt likes it?¡± Aleen beamed with delight, took a porcin cup from Mana and took a big gulp.

    Milk skin lingered on her lip. Aleen closed her eyes and pondered over the sweet yet sour aftertaste of milk. Brilliant!

    ¡°This is nice!¡± Aleenmented aloud, ¡°I like it better than that flower tea.¡±

    Hearing this, n also took a cup and downed it in one go. He smacked his lips, eyes squinted into slits, and nodded in satisfaction. He agreed with his sister¡¯s taste, aloud.

    Count Eton looked at his children and only chuckled. He didn¡¯t drink the milk tea, for he already caught the meaning hidden between Leon¡¯s words ¨C this tea was obviously meant for n and Aleen.

    It seemed that Mara also had a deep love for his grandchildren. He pushed his share of milk tea straight in front of Aleen.

    Next, Mana opened several pots in session. Most of them had milk teas and flower teas in them, about which Mara didn¡¯t care much. He only sipped two types of green teas which were also favored by Jon. Though he was still somewhat indifferent about them.

    Angor cast his eyes on thest teapot, which held thest of the three teas most loved by Jon, and the only tea nt he brought from the Earth ¨C the Morning Dew.

 Chapter 8 - Maras Opportunity

    <h4>Chapter 8: Mara¡¯s Opportunity</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When Mana opened the lid of thest teapot, there was no smell, no vapor, nothing.

    However, the look of these most ordinary tea leaves made Mara stand up suddenly and gaze at the greenish-yellow liquid with great excitement in his eyes.

    The excitement was true. He wasn¡¯t pretending.

    Mara looked at the liquid inside the cup in his hand. He never noticed that his sudden movement already knocked over his chair.

    Angor¡¯s doubt reached its peak at this moment. Why did Mara react like that towards the Morning Dew? Did he discover that it was from another world?

    As Angor asked the questions in his mind, Mara slowly drank his Morning Dew tea from the cup, with great care and solemnity.

    Mara¡¯s action was so solemn that it almost created an aura, calming all conversations in the once lively room.

    Leon wanted to speak, but something convinced him to stay silent.

    This did notst long though, as when Mara closed his eyes to admire the great aftertaste of the tea, another unspeakable aura emerged from his body.

    The intense aura surprised everyone, before they all realized that they could no longer make any sound.

    No matter how hard they tried, nothing woulde out. It appeared as if they had entered a world where sound itself was forbidden.

    This was not all. Something even more terrifying followed.

    Mara opened his eyes abruptly, took out a crystal ball from under his robe and fixed it in the air. He then mumbled something, and with a sh of light and several more seconds, the people around him realized that they couldn¡¯t even move now.

    ¡°My Spirit is about to break through its limitation with the help of this lesser magical nt. To prevent any idents during my breakthrough, I have applied a Charm of Binding and a Ward of Silence around all of you. I will lift them once my breakthrough is done,¡± Mara¡¯s voice was deep and gruff. The end of his tone also carried a strange ent.

    With that, Mara no longer paid any attention to anyone¡¯s reaction and closed his eyes, while the crystal ball circled around him.

    Among the bound individuals, Count Eton and those from the Morn Family felt difort at first, but they recovered soon enough. However, Angor and Leon were panicking.

    The brothers had never experienced anything supernatural from the moment they were born, they always believed that the world they saw was the world there always was. But today, tonight, Mara¡¯s marvelous magicpletely broke the conception of world they had learned about.

    It all happened so fast that the unprepared brothers couldn¡¯t possibly just ept it and stay calm.

    The Binding Charm could stop their movement, and the Ward of Silence could mute them, but neither could confine their minds.

    After the initial panic inside the Ward of Silence, Angor slowly gained his calm back.

    His erged pupils also went back to normal.

    When he looked at Aleen who had been sitting across him, she presented him with aforting smile which could be interpreted as a ¡°don¡¯t worry¡±.

    Angor was taken aback for a brief second, but he soon returned his own smile, unconsciously.

    And now Aleen was blushing all over, with her eyes shifting about everywhere, not sure where to look.

    Angor didn¡¯t think too much of it. He thought Aleen was only feeling embarrassed because someone was staring at her, so he simply copied Count Eton¡¯s reaction¡ªhe closed his eyes to rx.

    ¡°What was it that Teacher mentioned in his tales? Magic? Spells? Conjury? Or some kind of... sleight of hand? But they were all made-up! Does this mean they are actually real?¡± Many questions roamed around Angor¡¯s mind. He could not disregard them, but he couldn¡¯t get any answer.

    He recalled some of the historical materials arranged by Teacher, about Goldspink Empire and the other nations nearby. Some of the descriptions contained fantasies, such as how a fire-breathing dragon appeared in the Moissan Canyon near the edge of the empire 800 years ago. The dragon posed great threat to the civilians nearby, so the emperor summoned warriors around the world to y it. Numerous fighters, soldiers and knights responded to the call and marched into the canyon. However, everyone was burnt to ash by the dragonfire before they could even get close.

    The dragon-ying warsted several years and witnessed hundreds and thousands of dead or heavily wounded warriors. Yet the dragon did not suffer even a scratch.

    Before the emperor decided to seal the entire area centered around the dragon¡¯sir, an elder wearing white robe floated above the Moissan Canyon by chance. He gently flickered the wand he was holding, and the dragon was easily pulled into an unknown space. Afterward, the elder floated away without leaving a word. In the historical record, the dragon-ying war began in a great tragedy, and ended in absolute absurdity.

    Jon¡¯sment towards this part of record was: The conqueror merely designed a myth to calm his subjects.

    This was Angor¡¯s idea about the story as well. But now, doubts appeared in his mind. Could that elder in white robes be just like Mara ¨C someone who could wield amazing power?

    Also, the records about Hen Imperial mentioned such stories many times, like how the goddess of sea bestowed fortune upon the inders, or how mermaids seduced sailors and destroyed an entire fleet... The history of many other nations also involved traces of mythology.

    Were they really all fabricated?

    The scale in Angor¡¯s mind began to tip.

    ...

    It did not take very long for Mara to break through. The small quartz hourss only flipped once, if measured using the unit of time on Earth, it was about 30 minutes.

    The protective crystal ball slowly stopped circting around Mara and began to float in ce.

    Now, Mara¡¯s expression was filled with joy. Of course he would be joyful, he was stuck at Intermediate Apprentice for 20 years. He thought he would never break into High Apprentice in his life, so he gave up in frustration and took the job to find talented students in the Old Earth. He still remembered his own expression, a most bitter smile, upon taking the job. Looking for talents? Ha! There were rarely any talents even in the Prime ne, how was it possible to find any in Old Earth?

    He stepped onto the vessel towards Old Earth with great depression. Only thorns and despair could be awaiting him ahead.

    But the gods had mercy! He never expected to run into such a big, pleasant surprise on this dull journey.

    First, he discovered two talents, and they happened to be his grandchildren! He satisfied his mission twofold, and once n and Aleen grew stronger, they could even help him in return.

    Besides, he found out about an unknown lesser magic nt in Old Earth! At the front line, he bought the Morning Dew tea from a traveling merchant, and that was when he realized the tea was almost on par with the White Orchid Potion.

    The White Orchid Potion was the only one among lesser potions that could help with someone¡¯s breakthrough, so it always cost a fortune. He diligently hunted for quests for many years just to win himself a bottle of it. But now, he discovered the Morning Dew in Old Earth.

    Too bad that the Morning Dew tea from the merchant had beenid aside for too long, which greatly hindered its effect. After inquiring about the source of the tea, they hurried to Grue Town on their horses without stopping.

    This was what they called destiny!

    After his sessful breakthrough, Mara finally understood why wizard apprentices tended to roam about deadly ruins, for even a wee bit of destiny could help them advance!

 Chapter 9 - The World of Wizards

    <h4>Chapter 9: The World of Wizards</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Mara waved a hand to lift the spells inflicted on everyone, while still carrying a great joy within him.

    He wasn¡¯t even offended in the least when Leon asked him about what just happened with panic and in an improper manner. Instead, he started exining about the world of wizards with a big smile.

    ¡°The Binding Charm and Ward of Silence I just used on you are lesser, or elementary, wizardry spells.

    ¡°Wizardry is a mysterious system created bybining one¡¯s natural talent and knowledge system. Those who can wield wizardry are called wizards.¡±

    The moment Mara mentioned the word ¡°wizard¡±, there seemed to be a strange feeling inside Angor¡¯s mind, an unspeakable force, that was pushing him into the unknown distance.

    That distance was called the truth ¨C a belief which wizards spent their entire lives in pursuit of.

    Once this feeling came into being, it would be difficult to snuff it out.

    Angor didn¡¯t know why he was suddenly keen on exploring the distance. Maybe all the views taught by Teacher over thest decade were calling to him? Or was it just a passing fancy?

    He didn¡¯t know, but he did not suppress the thirst either. He carefully put it away inside his mind as if folding a delicate and valuable book, waiting to re-open it someday.

    Maybe Mara¡¯s mood was just too great, but when he looked at everyone¡¯s curiosity and respect towards him, plus the fact that his grandchildren were about to be Apprentice Wizards now, he began to exin the culture and system of the wizards¡¯ world generously, without the intention to hide anything.

    Wizard was only a general name for talented people. However, not every talented one could be a wizard.

    Even Mara himself could not be called a wizard yet. ¡°Apprentice Wizard¡± was the name he must use for now.

    If someone systematically analyzed all wizards, then 99% of them would be apprentices. Only less than 1% of the talents could sessfully break through their limitations and ascend into bing wizards who aimed to pursue truth and realizing their personal values.

    This simple exnation was enough to show everyone how difficult it was to be a wizard.

    During the exnation, Mara also spoke about the world they were currently in ¨C the Old Earth.

    The name ¡°Old Earth¡± was a joke for wizards from the Fey Land. Only wizards who were born here would use this name, while the other ones had another name for it: The Marginalized Ind.

    This piece of world was notrge. For locals, they might be spending their lives if they wanted to see every part of it. But for wizards who can set their eyes upon tens of thousands of different nes, the Old Earth could only be seen as an ind of moderate size.

    It was called the ¡°Marginalized¡± ind because of theck of active elements in the air, not its location. Here, elemental wizards had to spend more energy on absorbing inert elements to fight someone, which was obviously inefficient.

    For this reason, elemental wizards basically called this ce the ¡°deadnd¡±. Talents that once lived here all moved away, thus its name.

    Of course, in the enormous wizardry system, wizards that focused on elements were only a small part, so not all wizards had to go away. But no matter which direction a wizard chose, he or she would always know an elemental spell or two, so why bother staying here when there were better ces to go?

    So here, ¡°marginalized¡± meant that this ce was cast aside by wizards.

    ¡°I came here to bring n and Aleen back to the Fey Continent and join the White Coral Floating Ind Academy. I didn¡¯t expect to encounter my destiny to break into High Apprentice along the way, all thanks to Viscount Padt,¡± Mara stroke his white beard which grew all the way in front of his chest. His eyes squinted out of joy. ¡°Before we leave, if Viscount Padt has any trouble on your mind, by all means, tell me. There are not many things I can¡¯t do in this Old Earth.¡±

    This was obviously for repaying the kindness of giving him the Morning Dew, or a im to pay the favor so they could be even as fast as possible.

    Leon was still lost in the world of wizards he just heard and wasn¡¯t responding, until Count Eton woke him up.

    Eton said, ¡°I heard that Mister Leon will be going to Waterford next month, to officially inherit the title of a viscount. The Padt Family have been guarding the shoreline defenses and supplying the vanguard camps which is a great contribution towards the knights fighting against Hen. If the emperor hears about this, I believe the travel to Waterford can be omitted.¡±

    Of course. If the Morn Family said the word, Leon would have no problem bing a hereditary count himself!

    It should have been Mara¡¯s personal favor, and apparently Eton was trying to make it otherwise¡ªto cut the deal in the name of Morn Family. If Leon agreed to this, what Mara owed him could be considered clean.

    Leon was young but not dull. The Morn Family was powerful, but it was only a big family of Goldspink Empire; Mara might be only one man, but another whole, amazing world stood behind him.

    Naturally, Leon wouldn¡¯t ept Eton¡¯s suggestion.

    Leon considered for a while. Before he could speak though, Angor gave him a gentle nudge on the leg below the tabletop. He looked aside and saw Angor trying to say something and kept hesitating.

    Leon quickly understood and spoke to Mara, ¡°The Morning Dew was originally my brother¡¯s possession. I¡¯ll let him make the decision.¡±

    Eton raised an eyebrow and gave Leon a thoughtful look. Rumors had it that the two brothers of the Padt Family shared a bad rtionship, which was obviously not the case. Leon must love his brother much because he just gifted such a priceless opportunity to Angor.

    Since Leon made up his mind, Eton did not say anything further.

    Now everyone had their attention on Angor who had been silent until now.

    He didn¡¯t show any hint of pressure even when all five people were looking at him. He presented himself as apletely noble gentleman. Besides, his teacher also taught him of the ¡°men of virtue¡± in China, so now Angor not only stayed calm, his every expression carried a gentle temperament.

    ¡°Speaking of trouble, I¡¯m not sure if my brother has any. As for me... I have two. A bigger one which has been bothering me for a long time, and a smaller one, which I just found out and is negligible,¡± Angor looked towards Mara. ¡°If Mister Mara would help me with the big one, it won¡¯t be necessary to look at the other.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear about your big trouble then,¡± Mara asked.

    On the inside, Mara felt eased when Leon directed the topic to Angor. A child grown under the protection of the family couldn¡¯t possibly have any serious problems. Maybe he was in love with somedy and was too shy to speak up? Yeah that might be a big trouble for the kid, but everyone else would just think it as a fuss.

    Leon on the other hand, sighed silently. The moment Angor mentioned ¡°big trouble¡±, he knew what Angor was going to say. It seemed Angor had decided to give this great opportunity to his teacher, Jon.

    As expected, Angor made it straightforward. ¡°It¡¯s about my mentor, Jon. My father epted him into our family 20 years ago, and he has been teaching me knowledge and wisdom since then. But his health is getting weaker by the day...¡±

 Chapter 10 - Expel Deceit

    <h4>Chapter 10: Expel Deceit</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor led Mara to the stilt house where his teacher was.

    ¡°Mister Mara, my teacher must be resting inside. Please wait here so I can go in and inform him.¡±

    Mara nodded and watched Angor go upstairs first.

    ¡°This is a peculiar house. Never thought I could run into such structures in Old Earth,¡± Mara silentlymented on the appearance of the stilt house. He witnessed many buildings with strange shapes in the Fey Continent. This house showed great ingenuity, true, but it was a work of mortals after all. He praised its craftsmanship just because a mortal could build such an amazing sight.

    Unlike Mara who was only merely interested in the house, n and Aleen could not hold back their curiosity and circled around the house in wonder. They even went under the rain to observe Jon¡¯s vegetables and fruits near the wine rack.

    They were still young. Trying to pretend to be mature did not help in concealing the childishness they asionally showed. This pure innocence made everyone around them smile. Seeing how they were so interested in the grape trellis, Leon took out two bottles of red wine which had been preserved in the cer for two years and offered everyone a ss.

    The wine was rich and fragrant. As for drinkingpanions, Leon and Eton began chatting about the front line. Eton would like to get rid of the silent awkwardness too, so he happily chimed in with Leon and joined in the leisurely atmosphere.

    After getting away from them, Angor came to the second floor and woke up the mute servant. He helped his teacher get dressed, then sent the servant away and told Jon why he came.

    With his night sleep interrupted, Jon felt hazy for a moment, until he suddenly rose with a start when Angor mentioned ¡°wizard¡±.

    ¡°Wizard? You met a wizard?¡± Jon grasped Angor¡¯s sleeve as he eximed in disbelief.

    ¡°Yes. A Level-3 Apprentice Wizard, to be exact. At least Mara just called himself that.¡±

    Confusion and curiosity appeared in Jon¡¯s expression briefly. He then mumbled in enlightenment, ¡°This is it. This is it! Everything is exined now. Wizards, wizards! This is why many physics forms I researched on all these years couldn¡¯t be used here... I was wrong from the very beginning. This is not an ordinary world, there are supernatural powers here!

    ¡°Ha... I always believed that I was superior to the locals here because of my vision. God, I was the one trapped inside my pitiful vision. Talk about digging myself into a pit!¡± yelled Jon while looking out of the window with a nk stare.

    Those yells carried a strong emotion: unwillingness and repentance.

    Everyone else staying in the hall on the first floor also heard this. Mara carefully listened to the regretful self-mockery and questioned, ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of that? It¡¯s not our universalnguage is it?¡±

    Angor never told him any details about Jon, his origins, or the fact that the Morning Dew was grown by him. Thus, Mara thought that this man called Jon was just a civilian of the empire.

    ¡°That was his home tongue. His home was called... China? I don¡¯t know much about it,¡± said Leon. He was just as confused.

    China? Mara searched his memory and did not find any ce by that name. A small far-off country in some remote corner of the world maybe? He did not pursue the details any further. He was curious about the great emotion carried by the roar, but as an Apprentice Wizard, he was curious about lots of matters. It was not worth the precious time thinking about the problems ofmon folks.

    Besides, he just became a High Apprentice. All he was thinking about now was to solve Angor¡¯s little problem as fast as possible, leave this ce, and get back to the academy for further studies. Nothing was more important than his own improvement in strength.

    With that goal set in mind, Mara just closed his eyes and began to meditate.

    It did not take very long. Angor soon came back down with Jon, who had recovered his usual temperament.

    Jon did not ask Angor for support. Before his legs became wilted, he designed a wheelchair himself which could help him climb the stairs with the help of additional wheels and springs.

    As Leon exined this tool, Mara quietly thought.

    <i>A true talent in mechanics. He would have made great achievements in the path of alchemy. What a pity that such talent wouldn¡¯t be helping him now, as he¡¯s just too aged.</i>

    The first impression Mara had on Jon was fixed on one word ¨C aged.

    Mara himself was approaching the age of 80 now. He was not a formal wizard, so he could only watch as time left its traces on him. He tried a number of means of recuperation though, so he currently appeared as someone who had just gotten past 60.

    As for Jon... If Angor had not already told him that Jon was only beyond 50, Mara would believe the man in front of him was well above the age of 100.

    ¡°Pathology on the flesh? Failed blood flow? Or did someone put a curse on him that could quicken his aging?¡±

    By mentioning the ¡°big trouble¡±, Angor hoped that Mara could cure his teacher. This was why Mara¡¯s first attempt was to try to ascertain the nature of Jon¡¯s condition.

    However, Mara frowned as Jon approached him. He felt strange, as though something very wrong wasing from Jon¡¯s body.

    He knew about this feeling. When he saw those otherworldly ves captured by wizards back at the Crimson Auction, he had felt something simr, as if what he saw did not belong to this world.

    This man was a visitor from another ne? Mara frowned harder.

    Speaking of visitors from another ne, Jon did not really seem like one. Mara recalled reading a book from the library in the academy, <i>Pros and Cons of Expeditions Against Foreign nes </i>written by the Great Twisted Wizard, Barzel. The book clearly exined that although there were sapient creatures in the other nes, no one had ever discovered identical humans out there.

    There were, however, many creatures that looked like humans; the ones with three eyes, the ones with fish scales behind their ears, those as small as palms, winged ones... They looked simr to mankind, but people only gave them amon name: The Humanoids.

    ¡°Maybe this man is a humanoid from another ne?¡± thought Mara as he took a guess in his mind. However, he kept his kind smile on the outside.

    It this was true, he could just capture Jon and sell him to the wizards which would win him at least ten Magic Crystals. Mara worked day and night for all these years, yet he only saved up a little less than a hundred of them.

    With that in mind, Mara¡¯s smile grew so big that his eyes were only thin slits again.

    When Jon sat down before him, Mara cleared his throat and exined, ¡°First, I need to use a Detect Disease on you. Once I find the right approach, there should be no problem in treating you.¡±

    Mara did not even wait for Jon and Angor¡¯s reply before he simply summoned his crystal ball and began mumbling something.

    Soon, a pale green aura emerged from the crystal ball and slowly covered Jon¡¯s body.

    The amazement Jon felt upon witnessing such miracle gradually calmed down under the gentle touch of the aura, and his face regained its vigorous color. In the end, Jon closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

    Everyone else wondered about Mara¡¯s method. They only thought that Mara was casting a cure. No one was aware that what Mara used was not the level 1 cantrip, Detect Disease, but a level 2 cantrip that only Level-2 Apprentice Wizards could barely manage to cast: Expel Deceit.

    This was a support cantrip which could be used to help someone see through illusions or deceits. The spells could not be defined by a simple exnation. For example, Grease was used to obstruct people¡¯s steps, but with a little tweak, it could also facilitate burning fire. Every spell had infinite possibilities, the fact that wizards pursue truth was essentially a process in which they made infinite possibilities into infinite absoluteness. This was also true for the Expel Deceit spell¡ªwith a little change, it could be directed onto another target in order to ascertain that target¡¯s original race.

    However, there was a prerequisite for this method to work; the target must ept it. If he or she held any will to resist, the cantrip would fail. Now, Mara was pretending to be helping Jon as a cover-up, Jon would of course not resist him.

    The green aura persisted for half a minute. It first covered Jon¡¯s head, and slowly moved down to his feet, like a scanning process. When everything was finished, the aura returned to the crystal ball.

    With a shift of his eyes, Mara silently injected his spirit power into the crystal ball to read the result of the Expel Deceit spell.

    ¡°Human... One hundred percent, absolutely pure human??

    ¡°Of course,¡± Mara secretly reassured himself about the result. However, he still had a tiny bit of doubt, for he had trusted his instinct earlier. Yet he could not reach a reasonable conclusion after quite some thinking, so he could only choose to believe the result of the spell. Jon was human, he should not worry too much about helping him.

    Since Jon was not an otherworldly creature, Mara lifted his misgiving and began to fulfill his promise to Angor.

    He waved his crystal ball again, and quietly constructed a new cantrip pattern using his magic. This time, he was constructing the real Detect Disease spell.

 Chapter 11 - The Other Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 11: The Other Trouble</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor watched on as Mara performed his spell. He believed that the great wizard would save his teacher without a doubt.

    Leon looked at Angor with kindness. He somewhatined that his brother had wasted this great chance on Jon, but when he thought about those contributions Jon made towards the Padt Family, those regrets simply went away. As long as his little brother was happy, this was worth it.

    They had different mindsets, but they all believed that Jon¡¯s chronic illness could be dealt with.

    However... realism always escaped expectations.

    When the green aura disappeared from Jon, Angor quickly stepped up to ask Mara about the situation. However, Leon stopped him¡ªMara was already raising his crystal ball again, but his once rxed expression had changed into a grim and doubtful one.

    Even the great wizard could not help Teacher? So Teacher became like this because the Gaia¡¯s Consciousness was rejecting someone from another world after all?

    <i>No! It cannot be!</i>

    Angor¡¯s surging hope began to sway.

    After a while, Mara stopped his casting.

    He could not understand. He did not find any illness on Jon¡¯s body, and the result of the spell also told him that everything was fine.

    Everything was fine? That right there was the biggest problem.

    Anyone with eyes could see Jon¡¯s emaciated figure; only someone that was sick beyond hope could be like this. Jon was only 50, so such an aged body was undoubtedly abnormal.

    Still, he could not find anything unusual!

    Maybe he was cursed by some evil wraith? With that in mind, Mara spread his spirit power towards Jon. Any traces of abnormalities could be easily captured in this way.

    ... No. Nothing. Again.

    Mara waspletely stumped this time. He broke through into High Apprentice merely a moment ago and had not begun to learn about Level-3 cantrips. He used everything he knew about detecting illness and none of them worked on Jon.

    He no longer knew what to do.

    Mara nced at Angor whose expression was filled with worry now and he felt a bit embarrassing. He had already made his promise like a big shot, but now the truth was showing otherwise.

    He cleared his throat and gave Angor an apologetic look.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t have the means to cure your teacher at the moment. I¡¯ve done my inspection. There¡¯s nothing wrong with his body, and that means I can¡¯t do anything on that matter,¡± Mara exined. He then changed the subject, ¡°However... he does seem seriously ill, so there might be a problem about his spirit or his soul.¡±

    Angor recalled what his teacher told him before. Jon¡¯s body was fine, the wilting of his organs was because of the Gaia¡¯s Consciousness.

    Mara did not say anything about the Gaia¡¯s Consciousness, but he did mention that Jon¡¯s body was good. So it must be his spirit or soul then?

    The Gaia¡¯s Consciousness was harming Teacher¡¯s soul?

    Mara did not realize that his words, added with Angor¡¯s own cogitation, had created a simr conclusion. Correct or not, Angor already believed it in some way.

    ¡°Then, a problem with the soul or spirit cannot be cured?¡± asked Angor with a worried tone.

    ¡°There are ways. But I cannot do that as of now,¡± answered Mara. He sighed helplessly, ¡°I might help him if I¡¯m to be a real wizard, but as an apprentice, there¡¯s nothing I can do.¡±

    ¡°So, a true wizard can cure my teacher?¡± Angor persisted.

    ¡°I cannot take mindless guesses on what the great wizards can do, but saving amon man shouldn¡¯t be a problem. Even if he¡¯s dead, the great wizards can save his soul from the eternal darkness.¡±

    ¡°Um... When will Mister Mara be a true wizard?¡±

    Mara was surprised by this question. He then shook his head with a bitter smile. ¡°It took me nearly 60 years to be a Level-3 Apprentice Wizard... A real wizard? Not in my life, I¡¯m afraid. That¡¯s not something you can achieve with the pass of time.¡±

    Mara gave Angor a brief exnation about the states for wizards. One¡¯s talent determined how fast he or she could be a wizard. Once that happened, talent would no longer y an important part. However, talent was extremely critical as long as one had not be a formal wizard. Someone could do it with a few years of training, while others could train for their entire lives without going beyond level-1 apprentice. This was the difference caused by talent and destiny.

    Mara always believed that he was utilizing the most of his talent, and he could only rely on destiny to be a formal wizard. However, destiny was not something one could ask for. Besides, it was almost always apanied by great danger.

    Most known destinies were gained by risking lives. Rarely any destinies were easily taken¡ªunless someone identally bumped into their luck, like what Mara just went through.

    Mara¡¯s words put despair into Angor¡¯s mind. Formal wizards... An extinct sight in the Old Earth. How should he find any?

    Everyone was speechless. Leon put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder tofort him. It was about the only thing he could do right now.

    Some momentster, Mara spoke again, ¡°You said you had two troubles on your mind. I can¡¯t help you with Jon now, so how about telling me the other one?¡±

    The other trouble... Something shed through Angor¡¯s mind. ording to Mara, a formal wizard could cure Teacher and someone with great talent could be a formal wizard without spending much time...

    Great talent? If he could be a real wizard himself, he could help Jon!

    This ¡°other trouble¡± Angor mentioned was about his curiosity towards people with supernatural powers, and the desire to follow their steps.

    He wanted to be a wizard too!

    ¡°Mister Mara, can I be your student and learn wizardry?¡± asked Angor earnestly.

    Mara was surprised by this for quite a while before he let out a heartyughter.

    ¡°Wizardry is not something that simple. Talent is the first and foremost condition you must have. I¡¯ve traveled around the empire and tested on nearly ten thousand people, and my grandchildren are the only ones with talent. See? This is very rare.¡±

    Angor did not back up, ¡°Mister Mara, can you please check on me and see if I have talent?¡±

    Mara looked at Angor up and down and nodded, ¡°This is quite simple. I can even look at everyone in the Padt Manor if you want. Let¡¯s consider this a return of your favor then.¡±

    Mara¡¯s seemingly generous offer also contained a will to help the Padt Family train talented wizards. However, considering how scarce they were, it was already extremely hard to find one single talent, let alone do it in this small family!

    Besides, giving such tests did not really cost Mara anything. He only needed a medium, and mediums could be reused without taking any loss.

    His mission to the Old Earth was to look for talents for the academy, so the academy had given him mediums. Helping Angor with the test meant that he would be rid of the favor for free.

 Chapter 12 - Talent Test

    <h4>Chapter 12: Talent Test</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Jon was sound asleep because of Mara¡¯s spell, so Angor did not wake him. He asked the mute servant to bring him back to his room.

    Then everyone else went back to the castle.

    Leon told the servants to gather everyone under the age of 50 into the hall and let Mara do his test on them.

    Angor wanted to go first, but Leon stopped him and whispered, ¡°Let the servants try this out first.¡±

    Angor already understood even when Leon did not exin why.

    As Mara said, there probably would not be a single talent among ten thousand people. Being ¡°untalented¡± would surely embarrass someone. If he was thest one after all the failed servants, the embarrassment would not be as terrible... as long as none of the servants turned out to be a surprise.

    Soon enough, about a hundred servants in the manor who had not yet reached their 50s stood in a line in front of the castle.

    They were all called up while they were asleep, but none dared toin. They were standing straight, quietly.

    ¡°All are here then? Let¡¯s begin the test,¡± said Mara. He added, ¡°... one by one.¡±

    The testing ground was a narrow closet. Leon asked the servants to empty it beforehand, and only left something that Mara required.

    Mara sat on the main seat, while Angor, Leon, Eton, and the grandchildren sat on his sides. The space across from Mara was left open¡ªfor the testees.

    A deep-sea fish oil candle burned in themp on the table. The gentle yet strong light illuminated the narrow tiny closet making it bright as day.

    Mara took out a red crystal ball from his robe and ced it on the desk.

    It lookedpletely normal, only that it was much darkerpared to the floating, transparent one beside Mara.

    ¡°The Abelles¡¯ Eye, or the ¡®Talent Sphere¡¯, is made from the eyeball of a behemoth called Abelles from the Abyss ne,¡± said Mara. He began to exin, ¡°The beast is not really strong, but its soul possesses extraordinary power. The Talent Sphere crafted using its eye can reflect one¡¯s soul and show us that man¡¯s talent.¡±

    The first one to be tested was the maid called Auri, who took care of Angor¡¯s daily life.

    Auri was 15, only one year older than Angor. She and Angor shared a close rtionship in daily lives like friends rather than master and servant. Auri came in with a serious expression, but she secretly winked at Angor when no one was looking.

    Angor gave her a simple exnation about what this was about. Hearing this, Auri¡¯s eyes brightened.

    So a talented one could be a legendary wizard? Her heartbeats intensified so much that she could hear them herself.

    This was a chance to change her life. Realizing this, Auri¡¯s once rxed mood immediately tensed up. She bowed to Mara with respect and sat across him while trying to hide her excitement.

    Mara pointed to the red Talent Sphere. ¡°The test is simple. Put your hand on this crystal ball and do not let go, then observe your surroundings. If you see any changes, you¡¯re talented.¡±

    Changes? Auri was confused for a moment, so was everyone else.

    Mara continued, ¡°Different individuals will see different phenomena. Here¡¯s an example: When I touched the Talent Sphere for the first time, I saw the weak burning mes in the firece not far from me bing bigger. Nobody else could see it. That meant I had the talent,¡± said Mara. He thought about something else before saying, ¡°The sphere cannot tell the level of one¡¯s talent, but it is said that one can gain a hint about his or her future from the ¡®change¡¯. It¡¯s only a rumor though. There has been no proof, so personally, I don¡¯t believe it. I¡¯ve learned fire spells and it wasn¡¯t any easier than doing water spells.

    ¡°My granddaughter Aleen heard various noises upon touching the sphere. That, too, is a ¡®change¡¯,¡± said Mara. He then pointed at the chubby boy n, ¡°As for him, he saw a piece of brown bread appear in a dish out of nowhere. That¡¯s a change as well.

    ¡°If you do not see anything at all after keeping your touch for one minute, then I¡¯m afraid you basically have no talent,¡± Mara shrugged.

    When he finished, Mara went back to being silent and pushed the Talent Sphere towards Auri.

    Auri swallowed hard. She then reached out a trembling hand, and ced it on the sphere...

    When the small hourss on the desk made one flip (1 minute) <sup>1</sup> , Auri shook her head in disappointment and left on her own ord.

    Mara retained his nk expression. ¡°Next.¡±

    Time passed. Dozens of people had taken the test and none seeded.

    When an honest-looking young man did his test, his expression became sharp.

    ¡°I just felt a breeze against myself, as if I¡¯m standing in a sea of winds,¡± said the young man. He hugged the air in front of him and seemed to be enjoying something.

    ¡°There¡ªthere it is! A talented one!¡± Count Eton eximed in surprise. He totally did not expect to find one all the way out here, in the countryside, when they found none back at the capital.

    Leon became excited as well. He happily asked Head Maid Mana about the young man.

    Mana, however, looked at the ¡°honest¡± young man and curled her lips. The man had quite a bad name in the manor, and someone like him was actually talented? Mana silently cursed Lady Luck for being unjustified and answered Leon in a low voice, ¡°His name is Fawkes, son of the gardener, Glenn.¡±

    Fawkes? Leon never heard of him. It did not matter though. There were lots of servants in the manor.

    In a high spirit, Leon ordered Mana, ¡°Take a hundred gold coins from the storage and present them to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait.¡±

    Mara¡¯s deep voice suddenly echoed inside the room.

    When hearing Leon mentioning ¡°coin¡±, Fawkes was feeling quite proud. When Mara spoke, however, he slumped down quickly, sweat drops showed on his forehead.

    ¡°A sea of winds? Ha... No one dared to lie to me back at the capital. Now someone here actually made up a story in front of my face? Do you really think white wizards have no temper?¡±

    Mara humphed, and a strong storm began circling around Fawkes.

    ¡°A sea of winds was it? I¡¯ll grant you that wish. Enjoy this ¡®Whisper of Wind¡¯!¡±

    There was screaming before Fawkes was blown out of the window of the third floor by the wind and fell onto the ground, followed by constant screeches and cries.

    Leon¡¯s expression went pale as he asked, ¡°Mister Mara, what happened? Was Fawkes lying?¡±

    Mara sneered, ¡°The ¡®change¡¯ can only be seen by the testee, true. But once that happens, the Talent Sphere will sh to tell me that talent has appeared.¡±

    Hearing Mara¡¯s words, everyone quickly understood the reason for the incident.

    They had been watching. The sphere never gave out anything from the start, which meant Fawkes was truly telling lies.

    Leon showed obvious anger and turned to the Head Maid Mana, ¡°Don¡¯t let me see Fawkes¡¯ face in Grue Town, starting from tomorrow.¡±

    Mana made a bow to acknowledge the order before she left the room.

    No one thought about what would be of Fawkes. Mara tidied up his robe a bit and lifted his impatience before he proceeded with the test.

    Two hourss hours had passed. All the servants were done, including Head Maid Mana and the guard knights. No one was talented.

    Finally, Mara shifted his gaze onto Angor.

    <i>This is it.</i>

    Angor had made up his mind.

    ...

    ¡°I¡¯ll go first. I¡¯m also interested in wizardry. Mister Mara said that wizards all have a long lifespan and that they can live forever. That¡¯s what I wish for,¡± said Leon. He stopped Angor and sat in front of Mara himself. He then said, ¡°I can see much more scenery that way. I want to see everything this world has to offer.¡±

    Angor did not move back. Instead, he sat beside Leon.

    ¡°You first,¡± Angor showed a fist to Leon. This was what they would do when encouraging each other during childhood.

    Leon rubbed Angor¡¯s soft hair with a smile. Then he reached for the Talent Sphere.

    The white sand of time in the hourss flowed down slowly. Leon looked around the room, trying to spot a ¡°change¡±.

    A minute passed. Leon lifted his hand and grave disappointment was written in his expression.

    ¡°It seems... I¡¯m not talented,¡± Leon spoke helplessly. He could not find any changes during the minute. As Mara said, talent was extremely rare.

    ¡°It¡¯s your turn then,¡± Leon patted Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    Angor nodded and slowly put his hand on the smooth surface of the Talent Sphere.

 Chapter 13 - Roaming The Wonderland

    <h4>Chapter 13: Roaming The Wondend</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Immediately when Angor touched the Talent Sphere, a bright sh of red light appeared from the object.

    ¡°Red¡ªRed light!¡± Everyone stared at the Talent Sphere with their mouth agape. This time there was a real talent!

    Leon watched with joy. Brother Angor was a talented one?? Leon clenched his fists because of the insuppressible excitement. He might be happy too if one of the servants showed up as a talent. Still, servants were only servants, and they could only provide the family with limited convenience. Angor however, was a true family member, and his closest brother. Even if Angor had to stay an apprentice, the Padt Family would benefit from this greatly!

    Surprise only showed on Count Eton¡¯s face briefly before it was reced by thoughtfulness. It could not be denied now that the Padt Family would rise. If the Morn Family offered their alliance now, they might gain the support of more power wielders.

    n and Aleen, on the other hand, did not give the situation as much consideration as their father. n¡¯s chubby face was not carrying any particr emotion, he only looked at Angor with his head tilted and a trace of curiosity shown in his eyes. As for Aleen... She was smiling at Angor with a bit of silliness. She was just happy because she can learn wizardry together with Angor now. The only regret in her heart for having to leave her homnd had disappeared, now she only held great expectation towards the future.

    Mara too, recovered from his surprise quickly.

    However, the person who was the center of the crowd, Angor, had fallen into a strange experience...

    Upon touching the talent sphere, Angor found himself floating up. He immediately felt excitement because this was just the ¡°change¡± he was hoping for.

    Happiness climbed onto his expression as he realized he was really talented.

    Suddenly, he heard the sound of melody and drumbeats outside the closet, as if a chorus team was performing a carol.

    Weird. His brother had already asked the dancers and musicians to leave. They were still here?

    Angor turned his head to ask Leon about this, only to notice something even more strange.

    Apart from himself that had been floating in the air, there was not a single soul in the closet. His brother, Mister Mara, Count Eton and his children... They were all gone.

    The room was not totally empty though. The Talent Sphere on the desk was still there, and as always, the candle was burning quietly. Everything seemed fine besides the absence of everyone.

    The music outside became louder. Angor frowned. He slowly floated towards the door and pushed it open.

    The hallway outside was decorated in an elegant style. Graceful curtains andrge wall paintings sat on the walls on both sides, with knight armors and statues upying the corners. His father Padt used to like such luxurious nobleman¡¯s style, and the brothers never changed it after his death.

    The wind in the night moved the curtain aside. Angor looked through the window. There was only silence and darkness.

    Weird... Really weird. Everything he saw, furniture, wall hangings... were familiar to him. Yet why did he sense an indescribable strangeness?

    Every door in the Padt Manor had twomps in the shape of a lion¡¯s heart on both sides. The lion¡¯s heart was the emblem of the Padt Family. Servants filled oil in them every day and light them up upon nightfall, so the fire would keep burning until the next dawn. This bore the meaning of ¡°The fire in lion¡¯s heart never dies¡±.

    However, Angor did not see any firelight outside now. Even the iron gate outside of the castle was shrouded in darkness.

    <i>Is this really Padt Manor? Where is everyone?</i>

    Questions emerged from Angor¡¯s mind.

    The melodious music was still going, but Angor began to feel something strange about it.

    He looked out of the window again. The sky was full of stars, even with several patterns he never saw before. However, there should be hardly any stars that could be observed in Grue Town once the Month of the Freezing Earth came. Only limited, fixed stars that were extremely far away would show up now. Clear weather during this month would expose seven or eight stars at best. As of now, the sky outside was full of them, as if Grue Town was still enjoying the midsummer.

    Fear arose from Angor¡¯s consciousness.

    This was absolutely not right. Maybe he was no longer in the real Padt Manor.

    Taking a deep breath, Angor turned around and prepared to head back to the closet. No matter what was going on outside, returning there couldfort him.

    On his way, however, tworge poker cards suddenly showed up in front of him.

    There was no poker in the Old Earth even though Jon once made a deck of such cards and gave them to old Padt. Padt was quite fond of such a creative card game, and the game became popr in the manor for a time. However, as Angor remembered, the game never went beyond the grounds of Padt Manor... Could this be rted to the Earth?

    The pair of cards in front of Angor was the same as the ones made by Jon. Even the patterns on them were identical, only that what he was looking at now was several hundreds of times bigger.

    They were the size of adults. Aces. One was heart, the other was spade.

    What surprised Angor most was that they both had ¡°limbs¡±, like bamboo sticks. They swayed left and right while walking. The Ace of Hearts was carrying a crusader sword and ance, while the Ace of Spades was holding a round shield and a chain hammer.

    They were fast. They already rushed onto Angor before Angor could react. By the time he reacted, he no longer had the chance to run.

    The next second, Angor was trapped between them.

    The cards kept moving forward as if Angor did not exist. However, Angor could not get himself away from between the broad surfaces of the cards so he could only move along with them.

    He tried very hard to escape, but the best he could do was to get his feet off the ground, which still did not stop the cards from carrying him away. Angor gave up in the end and just followed the card soldiers.

    Soon, Angor found himself in the hall, where the music he heard just now wasing from. The music was from the dancing stage, but when Angor looked towards there, no one was ying music. Several teacups with hearts printed on them were hopping in front of the instruments, creating the music.

    Since when could teacups do music?? Angor had not calmed himself before he noticed that the ¡°Swordsman of Hearts¡± and the ¡°Guardsman of Spades¡± had vanished somehow.

    Since he was in the hall and already witnessed a great deal of the strange world, Angor puffed up his courage and walked towards the center of the hall, instead of trying to go back to the closet.

    The hall was well-lit, with all sorts of strange objects minding their ¡°own business¡± everywhere. Apart from the teacups, Angor saw walking toy soldiers, plush owls flying and ying around the crystal chandelier, dragonflies with rainbow colors patrolling the air, and unfamiliar sunstones and moonstones shing in different colors...

    Looking at more and more strange sights, Angor still felt nervous, but his fear had mostly gone away. He noticed that all ¡°creatures¡± here were blind to his presence. He floated towards the colorful dragonflies to observe them, but they simply flew away without paying Angor any attention.

    Angor did not know if they could not see him, or just were not interested in him.

    After floating around for some more, he saw the tip of clothes on a chair near the main table shifting. The chair had its back facing him so he was not sure about it.

    Someone was sitting there?

    Angor carefully controlled his body to move towards the main table.

    As he approached, he became sure about his idea, since he already heard the sound of the knife touching on tes and the noise of book pages being turned.

    Someone was eating while reading? Angor was really curious about the figure now.

    He had a vague idea that he was no longer in Padt Manor, but a parallel space of it. His teacher mentioned parallel worlds before, but it was only hypothetical back on Earth. However... this was not Earth, maybe not even the same universe where the Earth was in. Maybe the existence of parallel worlds was possible?

    In this parallel world, there was the Padt Manor, but not the Padt Family.

    Maybe the one sitting on the chair was the owner of Padt Manor in this world? Angor took a wild guess.

 Chapter 14 - Mr. Bunny

    <h4>Chapter 14: Mr. Bunny</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor took a turn in the air to gain a better view. This time, he saw the man sitting by the table... or not. Angor could not call it a ¡°man¡± from its looks.

    To be precise, it was a small bunny wearing a gentleman¡¯s attire. Should he call it Mister Bunny?

    Less than half a meter tall, with a pure, snow-white coat, and long ears showing a pale pink color inside and decorated with soft, furry fringes. Its eyes had the color of a crimson gem, embedded on its adorable little head. The ears were almost as long as its own body. If one ignored all those strange decorations, it was just an extremely cute rabbit that could easily make any girl scream in delight.

    Angor would have fallen in love with the creature too if not given the circumstances. Now, he already raised his alertness to the best extent and no longer had the mood to admire the rabbit¡¯s cuteness.

    Most of Angor¡¯s attention was on Mister Bunny itself.

    Its clothing was the biggest difference it hadpared to regr pet rabbits. It was not wearing anything on the bottom. There was a tailcoat withce edgings and red diamond patterns on it. A ck top-hat sat between those ears, and a small badge with a smiling face hung on the edge of the hat. The most attractive piece was the small, gold-rimmed monocle over one of its eyes, which gave the adorable bunny some gentlemanly look.

    Also, Mister Bunny was not sitting on the chair as Angor thought. It was floating in front of the table, with its eyes fixed on a thick book with a violet cover on the table.

    Angor circled around Mister Bunny and realized that it would not pay him any attention, just like the other creatures. It might be that it was simply too focused on its book and never noticed the sudden visitor.

    After roaming around the hall for some more, Angor only felt more and more curious about this world.

    Was this really a parallel world? Did he just transmigrate? He could not get an answer at all. More importantly, he was no longer sure if he had passed the talent test.

    As he fought with all the confusion, an idea suddenly crossed his mind.

    No, the idea was so abrupt that Angor did not even know if that was his own idea, or it was someone else¡¯s. It was telling his mind to get back to the closet.

    Getting back to the closet from where he transmigrated here... That was all the idea told him.

    Without a doubt, Angor agreed with the idea. He was not sure where it came from but he trusted his instinct.

    As he turned to leave the hall, he heard the sound of turning pages from Mister Bunny not far from him.

    Angor turned back to look at the violet-covered book the bunny was reading and suddenly stopped his movement for some reason. He quietly floated to Mister Bunny and checked out the content of the book.

    The book was standing on the table. The book cover was clear to read. There was nothing special on it, kinda like a romance novel loved by nobledies.

    There was a line of strange symbols at the top. Angor could not read them. It was probably the title. Then there was a cartoon-style picture below and a simply sketched castle in the background. There was a blurry cartoon girl in the foreground ¨C red hat, long, curly brown hair, blue skirt, and white shoes. The facial features and her clothes were all not very detailed, like something drawn by children. The use of colors was great though.

    <i>A castle and a girl... Is this one of the ¡°princess tales¡± Teacher used to tell?</i>

    All bedtime stories Angor ever knew were told by Jon when Angor was small. Most of the stories were about ancient figures which meant to lecture him about human virtue. A small part of them was Grimms Fairytales. Angor never liked them, but he still remembered some of the names, such as the famous ¡°Princess Snow White¡± and ¡°Cindere¡±.

    This was why Angor instantly thought about those stories when he saw the cover drawn in a little girl¡¯s style.

    He did not think about the cover for much time. He could not read it anyway, so he floated behind Mister Bunny and began reading the book.

    He saw the content of the book just now and could only make out that it was a picture book.

    Angor could not understand any of the words, but he could still specte the story by the pictures.

    It seemed like a fairytale.

    A girl bumped into a strangend. She could drink some wine to be small as a rat or eat some cake to be as big as a giant. There was a bowl of mushroom soup; drinking from the left made her shorter while drinking from the right made her taller. With all of these surprises, the girl started an amazing journey with strange creatures.

    Angor enjoyed the story. He felt somewhat familiar with it, but he quickly put that emotion away to keep reading the book.

    Time passed. Things around him were bing weirder, but Angor realized none of them.

    Firstly, Mister Bunny was turning the pages along with Angor¡¯s reading speed. Next, the plush owls, poker soldiers, bunny teacups and rainbow dragonflies on the other side of the hall all came around him. However, Angor was totally attracted by the beautiful journey in the story and waspletely oblivious of his surrounding.

    Angor did not take any of the abnormalities to heart. Instead, he joyfully ced his own spirit together with the girl in the story.

    Angor felt himself bing the main character of the story and running after a talking bunny.

    Everything was beautiful. All creatures here had peculiar looks, but they all showed kindness. Angor even thought that this was the wondend.

    As he kept himself immersed in the wonderful world, a sharp cackling came from the castle far away.

    ¡°Oh no, the Queen of Hearts is here! Shava, you need to leave, or the queen will turn you into a card!¡± urged the talking bunny.

    The Queen of Hearts? Leave? Shava?

    Angor stared at everything with a nk face.

    <i>Who¡¯s Shava? I¡¯m Ango¡ªAn¡ªHuh? Who am I?</i>

    He realized something was wrong.

    He recalled seeing the bunny in tailcoat in the manor castle, and the bunny was¡ªwait, what was the bunny doing?

    The beautiful journey in Angor¡¯s mind instantly shattered into pieces. He knew he forgot something, and he knew he must remember it!

    He screamed with his mind, but his memory kept falling apart until he could not even remember what he was doing just a second ago.

    ¡°Eeeheeheehee¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shava, what are you doing?? Run! The queen ising!¡± The bunny dragged Angor¡¯s hand. ¡°This is dangerous, you need to go to my rabbit hole to escape!¡±

    Next, Angor was unconsciously led away by the bunny.

    The mountains afar were still booming with green, but all the fantasies now carried a lifeless strangeness.

    ¡°My rabbit hole is right there. Get in and let me deal with the queen,¡± the bunny said before he pushed Angor.

    Angor fell onto the ground with a trip.

    The bunny was still urging him to get inside the hole, but sudden alertness came about Angor¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Get back to the closet.¡±

    The message appeared inside his head abruptly.

    The closet? Angor¡¯s once nk expression turned sharp. He remembered the closet! He also recalled that he was taking his talent test, and fell into a strange parallel world for no reason, and a... a reading bunny!

    When he realized everything, the world around him shifted. All became nothingness.

    The ¡°rabbit hole¡± was reced by a bloody maw filled with sharp fangs. The adorable bunny behind him also turned into a tattered ragdoll with patches sewn all around it.

    Angor stepped back, then quickly ran away from the maw.

    As he left the area, he found himself back at the hall where Mister Bunny was.

    He was no longer rxed as before, however, because he just noticed that a group of card soldiers had surrounded him...

 Chapter 15 - The Ice Coffin of Healing

    <h4>Chapter 15: The Ice Coffin of Healing</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    There were also many cute-looking toys apart from the card soldiers. More importantly, Mister Bunny, who had been reading a book, was also floating in front of Angor, staring at him with its tiny crimson eyes.

    Angor was not sure what the bunny was thinking about but those emotionless stares sent a chill down his spine.

    The cuteness he felt a moment ago no longer existed. Everything in front of Angor only terrified him.

    One of the card soldiers suddenly lunged at Angor. With a start, he grabbed the book on the table and threw it at the soldier.

    A bloody maw burst out of the cover image of the violet-covered image book. It instantly mulled the card soldier to pieces and gulped it down. Angor was terrified motionless by what he just saw. When every creature around him had their attention on the monstrous mouth, Angor bolted out of the circle and dashed away from the hall as fast as he could manage.

    ¡°Heeheehee. Don¡¯t go, Shava, let¡¯s have some fun!¡± A ghost-like female voice came from his back.

    Angor heard the voice, though he did not make any stop. He kept running towards the next corner. The closet was just around it as long as his memory about the ce was still true.

    <i>The closet is safe!</i>

    Angor did not know when that idea came about his mind or whether it was correct. He did not have the time to tell anyway. This was his only choice.

    The door to the closet was just ahead. Angor sprinted towards it.

    As he stepped into the door, a great pain on his back made Angor fell to the ground.

    He turned around and saw a red-haired, heavily powdered woman with lots of stitches on her face. She was wearing an elegant but heavily decorated dress with dark stripes on it, and a tiara with a ck heart pattern.

    Angor did not know who she was, but considering the sharp paining from his back and the drops of blood on her de-like nails, Angor was immediately sure that was his own blood.

    The woman showed cruelty in her eyes and screeched non-stop. However, no matter how loud she screamed, she never stepped past the door, as if the door of the closet was a barrier separating two worlds.

    Angor watched for a while and made sure she could not get in before he finally let out a sigh of relief.

    However, he became worried again soon after.

    He was still facing another trouble.

    Angor checked out the closet again. There were chairs and the desk, a lit candle, and a red crystal ball¡ªAbelles¡¯s Eye, the Talent Sphere.

    Looking at the sphere that had been giving out a red light, something inside Angor told him to approach and try putting his hand on it...

    ...

    ¡°Har har har! Never thought I could have found my destiny to break through, let alone finding another talent, in this remote little town! God bless Mara, god bless my family!¡± Mara¡¯sughter reached Angor¡¯s ears.

    After a bit of confusion, Angor found himself back at the ¡°real world¡± again. Everyone around him was looking at him with either pleasant surprise or admiration. Nothing seemed wrong here.

    <i>They... don¡¯t know I just transmigrated? Or was it not transmigration at all, but the ¡°change¡± when a talented one would face when taking the test? If so, that ¡°change¡± was downright scary!</i>

    As Angor was still thinking about the strange experience he went through in the ¡°parallel world¡±, something grasped his hand. He looked aside and saw Leon pinching his palm since he had been spacing out.

    ¡°Stop staring, Angor. Mister Mara was asking about your ¡®change¡¯,¡± Leon smiled.

    ¡°Oh...¡± Angor responded. He was not feeling any joy from bing a talent, only exhaustion, after escaping all that great danger. ¡°When I touched the Talent Sphere, I found myself floating in the air...¡±

    Mara interrupted him, ¡°Floating?! Yes! A change, that is! You¡¯re a talent, there¡¯s no doubt about it!¡±

    Angor was going to tell them his experience in the ¡°parallel world¡±, but when Mara stopped him, he decided to stay silent instead. He only nodded in return and went back to his seat with a polite smile.

    ¡°Mister Mara, now that I do have the talent, can I be your student and study wizardry?¡± The unpleasant travel in the parallel world affected his mindset greatly, but it did not change his will to be a wizard.

    Mara put away his Talent Sphere and smiled, ¡°I¡¯m an apprentice myself so I¡¯m not qualified to teach you. However, I came to the Old Earth to look for talents for the academy. You¡¯re one, and since you¡¯re willing to step onto this path, you can follow me and leave for the academy tomorrow. The White Coral Floating Ind Academy isn¡¯t big, but it has good fame among all wizard organizations from the south. They¡¯ll not let a talented one down.¡±

    Angor hesitated upon hearing those words.

    He had to leave here and go to the unknown academy?

    He already expected something like this, but he still could not make up his mind when it finally came to it.

    Could his teacher hold on until he made enough progress toe back?

    Additionally, Angor agreed to his brother to apany him to the session ceremony, which was tomorrow as well. When would they meet again?

    Angor¡¯s expression darkened. He did not even realize that he had been fumbling around his thumbs¡ªa gesture showing that he was faltering over something.

    Of course, Leon was reluctant to let his brother go. However, he still stepped up and put an arm around Angor¡¯s shoulders as he whispered to him, ¡°Don¡¯t you worry. You heard Mister Mara. It was just an academy, a school. Like how you go to the Waterford Exclusive School every spring. It won¡¯t take too long. I¡¯ll wait for you in the manor.¡±

    ¡°But...¡± Angor hesitated.

    As his brother, Leon already knew what Angor was trying to say.

    ¡°If you¡¯re still worrying about old Jon, when I go to Waterford this time, I¡¯ll find the best doctor there is to help him. I¡¯ll keep him alive and wait for you to save him, even if I have to spend thest coin in the family.¡±

    Angor did not reply. He was the only one knowing the fact that the world¡¯s consciousness was rejecting Jon, not some kind of disease. No one could save Jon except a wizard.

    As Angor was still faltering, Mara, who had been listening to their conversation, spoke up.

    ¡°You can¡¯t leave your teacher behind?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t.¡±

    Mara was not sure why Angor was somitted towards Jon. Jon was just a child¡¯s teacher, not Angor¡¯s lifelong mentor, nor a close family member. Mara could not understand the tight bond between them.

    Mara gave Angor a thoughtful look before he said, ¡°Back at the Crimson Auction, I once spent my two-years¡¯ saving on a magic scroll called the Ice Coffin of Healing. It cannot cure your teacher, but it will sustain your teacher¡¯s life temporarily, only for five years. What do you say?¡±

    Five years? Angor¡¯s pupils becamerger. He could do many things in five years. He did not think he could actually be a wizard in such a time but... it would give him a chance, give him hope.

    Before Angor could answer, Leon walked up and bowed to Mara. ¡°I don¡¯t really know about the wizarding world, but there is no free lunch in my world. As Mister Mara said, wizards are human beings too, and humans can never escape being bound by rtionships and favors. Now, Mister Mara is willing to use the valuable item on Jon, but what do you expect in return?¡±

    Leon¡¯s words cleared Angor¡¯s mind. Mara was just a guide. Talents were rare, yes, but as a talented one himself, Mara should not be caring for Angor too much. So... when Mara offered to use his Ice Coffin of Healing scroll, what was he expecting?

    Mara looked at Leon up and down with a little bit of approval in his expression. ¡°In five years, it is almost impossible for Angor to be a wizard, so my scroll could be considered used for nothing. However, I can still give it to you, as long as Angor ept my condition.¡±

 Chapter 16 - Three Arts

    <h4>Chapter 16: Three Arts</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    In the Month of Frost, bits of snow fell from the sky. Even the sea in the distance had frozen.

    Arge, ck wooden carriage slowly moved along the spiral mountain road near the sea.

    The carter held a horse rein with one hand which was connected to a fierce hignd horse wearing a beautifully crafted saddle, and a bronze brazier on the other hand. He would ce his stiff face close to the brazier now and then, to absorb the faint heat emerging from the brazier¡¯s vent holes.

    Two sliding ss windows sat on both sides of the carriage. One of them was opened by someone¡ªa pretty girl, looking around the scenery with blinking eyes.

    As the girl had her fun, a plumpy hand reached out and shut the ss window.

    ¡°A-choo! Aleen, it¡¯s so cold outside. Don¡¯t do that. I¡¯m gonna freeze up,¡± said the chubby boy in a childish voice.

    ¡°Humph. Brother is so weak. Look, Brother Padt never said a word about the weather. You¡¯re the only oneining.¡±

    The carriage was carrying Mara and hispanions.

    Angor was not expecting being cued for no reason. He did not participate in the pair¡¯s argument. He only smiled and kept himself on one side of the carriage. Mara was sitting beside him with eyes closed, meditating,

    n twitched his lips and mumbled, ¡°Brother Padt, Brother Padt... Who¡¯s your real brother?¡±

    Aleen was sharp enough to hear it. She did not protest though. She only let out another humph and rolled her eyes at n secretly. Then she sat beside Angor and began to chat, not minding if anyone was listening to her. Aleen never went outdoors often, so most of her topics were chitchats among the nobles in the city.

    Angor was not interested but he did not stop Aleen. He would even nod in response now and then to pretend to be listening. However, most of his mind was upied by his own train of thought.

    Mara offered a condition on that day. If Angor agreed, Mara would give him the Ice Coffin of Healing scroll.

    Angorplied in the end because that condition did not sound too hard.

    ¡ªIf Angor broke through into a Level-2 Apprentice Wizard, he must apany Mara and explore a ruin site.

    Mara did not say anything about the ruin. He only mentioned that he did not know if the ruin was dangerous. The journey would be unpredictable, but Mara did require Angor to be a level-2 apprentice to join. It took Mara almost 10 years to break through into Intermediate Apprentice, and Angor was not even sure he could achieve that.

    This meant Angor could get the scroll in exchange for ¡°possible¡± danger. Worth it.

    After using the Ice Coffin of Healing spell on Jon, Angor stayed in the manor for another day. He then took his luggage, bid farewell to Leon reluctantly, and stepped onto his journey towards the unknownnd together with Mara.

    ...

    The nightfall hade. Such darkness during the winter made it harsher. Even the experienced carter had to stop their journey, find a temporary shelter and wait out the night.

    They stayed in the partially dug-out pit inside a mountain boulder and made a camp. The carter tied his horse somewhere nearby and put some nkets on it.

    n hugged his knees to his chest and became more like a ball now. ¡°I¡¯m cold...¡± he mumbled.

    ¡°Come on, why did you grow all that weight when you can¡¯t even withstand this?¡± Aleenined, although her expression showed care towards her brother. She even took out a thick cloak from the tent and put it around n.

    Mara looked at the interaction between his grandchildren with a smile. He waved a hand, and a clump of green light flew inside n.

    ¡°The Preserve Heat spell willst ten hours, but don¡¯t rely on it too much. You always had a weak body, so exercise every day from now on and improve your build, so this cold won¡¯t bother you anymore,¡± said Mara to n. He continued, ¡°... and if your talent leans towards the Bloodline Art, it¡¯ll also strengthen your body once you start to train on it.¡±

    n nodded in confusion. When the green light hit his body, he already felt the change in temperature around himself, which only triggered his curiosity towards wizardry.

    ¡°Hey grand, we already went through the talent test, right? Do we have to take it again at the White Coral Floating Ind Academy?¡± asked Aleen.

    Angor listened in as well. He wanted to know it too. What he saw during his test was just too weird. He asked n and Aleen afterward. Aleen heard noises while n saw another brown bread in the te. They were ¡°changes¡± but they were eptable.

    Angor however, transmigrated to another world! He could not understand any of it.

    He still believed that it was a ¡°change¡± during his test, but not fully. This was why when Aleen asked Mara about the test, Angor immediately paid his attention.

    Mara stroke his beard with a smile and spoke to Aleen, ¡°The Abelles¡¯ Eye can only tell if one¡¯s talented or not. It can¡¯t distinguish the Art of the talent. Once you¡¯re at the academy, they will give you a more detailed test. You¡¯ll see...

    ¡°... Mind this. The test at the academy isn¡¯t a determinant one either. Even if it tells you that your talent leans towards Element, you don¡¯t have to focus your training on the Element Art. It¡¯s all about your own will... ¡±

    Mara paused a little, ¡°... Oh right, you can study any Art despite your talent tendency, true, but certain Arts cannot be learned just because you try hard. For example, there are some special branches from the ult Art such as Prophecy and Astrology that still require absolute talent...

    ¡°I never told you about the Arts of wizards, didn¡¯t I? I¡¯ll exin that today then,¡± said Mara after some consideration. He then said, ¡°There are many directions a wizard can choose, and different Arts have mostly been established after being perfected for tens of thousands of years. There are many Arts and branches, so I won¡¯t be telling you every one of them. I¡¯ll only exin the three major Arts currently agreed by the world of wizards...

    ¡°The Element Art, including the constitution of nature and the source of all. Those who wield this Art are called Elementalists.

    ¡°The Bloodline Art, people absorb the bloodline of strong creatures to strengthen themselves. These are called Bloodline Wizards.

    ¡°The ult Art, the aggregation and termination of mysteries. Wizards who learn it are ultists.

    ¡°The Three Major Arts can be used to describe most systems in the wizarding world. Of course, there are a lot of relevant systems apart from them, such as the Alchemy Art, the Summoning Art and so on... Most wizards more or less know some of them. There are also wizards who focus on these supportive systems, but that¡¯s a rare sight...

    ¡°... Among the Three Major Arts, the Element Art has the most devotees. Almost all wizards know at least several elemental spells. While the ult Art has the least followers. Also, the differentiation in the strength of the ult Art is also the biggest¡ªstrong ones are extremely strong, the weak ones are weak beyond imagination. This is mainly because the ult Art hasplicated systems. Two most famous figures from the South are Mand the Archaeologist and Sunders the Phantom Master. Both are Level-2 ultists, yet they havepletely different levels of strength,¡± Mara sighed with great emotion when speaking of them.

    ¡°As for the Bloodline Art...¡± Mara sniffed as if recalling bad memories. He then said in a cold voice, ¡°Most of them are able-bodied and bad-tempered. Though they are all strong. Very strong.¡±

    Everyone fell into silence.

    ¡°What is grandpa¡¯s Art?¡± Aleen asked in curiosity.

    ¡°Me? Considering the Three Major Arts, I could be considered as a ze Wizard from the Element Art. However, most of my studies are about drawing spell forms, so I¡¯m more like a supportive wizard, a Spell Form Drawer.¡±

    The conversationsted for a while. The shade of night became thicker, even the giant mountains and woods in the distance had be obscured shadows, like shifting monsters in the blowing wind.

    Everyone was getting tired and eventually fell into a deep slumber.

    Angorid in the simple tent. His eyes were still brimming with intelligence. The conversation tonight touched his emotions greatly. He did not know there were so many paths for wizards. One single branch like Fire Wizards from the Element Art could be further divided into ze Wizards, Lava Wizards, Frostfire Wizards... and all kinds of branches mixing a number of elements together.

    One could step onto the path of truth either by making it a form of expertise or simply having an extensive read about the branch.

    With Jon¡¯s enlightenment, Angor held great curiosity to see to the root of everything in the world, especially when Jon told him about the amazing phenomena in the universe.

    Could he explore all these mysteries once he became a wizard?

    With the expectancy towards the future, Angor slowly fell asleep.

 Chapter 17 - The Vichy Harbor

    <h4>Chapter 17: The Vichy Harbor</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After transferring between many carriages during half a month, the group finally reached the northernmost part of Goldspink Empire¡ªthe Vichy Harbor.

    It was not easy to travel from the Old Earth to the Fey Continent. Only at the beginning at every year would a merchant ship from Fey Continent reach the Vichy Harbor and stay for two days. To avoid missing the ship, the group acted early, and it had not even been the Month of Resuscitation when they reached the harbor.

    ¡°Eight days till the Month of Resuscitation. The merchant ship from the Fey Continent does not have a fixed schedule. Eight days earlier was the fastest record it has, and 38 days behind the beginning of the month was the slowest record. We¡¯ll stay in Moonwater City until we board the ship.¡±

    With that, Mara led everyone to the Bounty Guild in the center of the city.

    The Bounty Guild was a functional association of all knights in the nation who abode the nation¡¯sws. They epted missions from the guild put up by the nation and earned rewards.

    Of course, Mara did not bring everyone here to ept missions. The Bounty Guild possessed the most luxurious guest rooms in the whole Moonwater City. One could get services and amodations that were far better than everywhere else as long as one could afford them. Money was the most important thing of all in the guild.

    As an elder of the Morn Family, Mara always carried a fair amount of coins, and he was always willing to spend them. Once at the guild, he directly paid for everything they would need in these days, including Angor¡¯s share.

    ¡°You can go wherever you want these days, but I suggest you to stay put in the guild so we can find you quickly when the shipes,¡± Mara advised them. He then went back to his own room to meditate using every avable second he could get.

    <i>We¡¯re free?</i>

    n and Aleen exchanged a nce and eximed in joy. The kids were like prisoners who were allowed a temporary leave and who could not wait to breathe the air of freedom outside. n only blinked in happiness, same for Aleen, though thetter paid some attention to Angor who had been standing nearby.

    ¡°Brother Padt, let¡¯s look around! People said the Moonwater City is thergest trading port in the country and you can find all kinds of things native to different nations. There¡¯s a street designed to sell foreign merchandise, many people found their treasures there!¡± Aleen talked to Angor in a childish manner. What she should do next was probably grasp Angor¡¯s arm and beg.

    Angor looked towards the girl while feeling a headache. Their rtionship warmed up during the traveling month so Aleen was bing more open. Her initial shyness was no longer there. She was now pretty good at ying cute, although she still knew to avoid... ¡°closer¡± interaction.

    Angor was not bright about reading a girl¡¯s mind but this was enough for him to realize what had been going on. He could not understand though. It was just a couple of days and Aleen was already holding a special attitude towards him. Sigh. Women.

    He was still young. Besides, the pressure of that ¡°five-year promise¡± was still a weight on his heart, so he really could not care for much else. As for Aleen¡¯s childish love, the only thing he could do was to keep a distance¡ªto be responsible to himself and to respect Aleen.

    ¡°No. I agreed to the Teacher that I would practice my mind every day, so I¡¯ll go back to my room now. Maybe next time,¡± Angor declined politely and went back to his room.

    Aleen made a duck face, kicked the ground, and left the guild with n who had no idea what was going on.

    Angor did not take out his teacher¡¯s assignment when he stepped into his room. Instead, he inspected the room in a rxed manner.

    His room was facing the sea, with a broad balcony which allowed him to get a good view at the bustle Vichy Harbor in the distance, as well as the shining surface of the sea.

    Angor looked down at the passers-by in the harbor who were as small as ants now. Apart from admiring the prosperity of the city, he also felt sudden, ufortable loneliness.

    He looked towards the south and through the grasnd which extended hundreds of kilometers away. He imagined about the hills behind the grass and the peaceful town sitting among the hills, the ce he had been living in for 14 years, his home.

    ¡°Brother, Teacher...¡± He muttered to himself, carrying undeniable homesickness.

    A dozen days passed quietly but surely.

    As the Month of Resuscitation arrived, the temperature gained an obvious rise, and several important routes on the sea were beginning to unfreeze. Groups of ocean-going ships appeared in the Vichy Harbor.

    Mara hired a team of knights from the Bounty Guild to watch for merchant ships from the Fey Continent day and night. n and Aleen had their great fun during these days. They went out by dawn, returned after dusk, and bought lots of random stuff. The cold weather did not stop them in the least.

    Angor stayed inside to organize his belongings, especially the assignments left by Jon.

    They required lots of calction and involved knowledge from different fields. Even a schr from the Earth would agree that the assignment was vast and difficult. One did not need to be an expert in any of the fields, but one would not make any progress either if one did not have really extensive knowledge.

    Giving Angor these assignments showed Jon¡¯s great confidence and expectation towards Angor.

    Angor kept a schedule after leaving the Padt Manor. A month had passed, and he had only made like quarter progress with the assignment. He felt defeated.

    No matter what he felt though, he had to solve the puzzles. His teacher had left him something behind the puzzles, and he could only make out what that was after solving all of them.

    The second weekend into the Month of Resuscitation witnessed fine weather. Following the melted ice, the harbor became even more lively. Since he had been staying indoors for too long, Angor decided to hang out today.

    He put on his casual clothes for the first time after all these days, tidied himself up, and stepped out of his room while carrying the signature smile he used to show politeness to others.

    The hall of the Bounty Guild was busy as always. The thick smell of sweat greeted his nose. Most people hanging around here were knights living dangerous lives. Even the asional female knights would mostly wash their exposed faces only. As for the smell on their bodies... they could not care.

    Angor frowned. He realized this was not the Grue Town, and his brother could not protect him any longer. He was not even a noble in front of these people, only someone from a remote noble family. With this set in mind, he calmed his expression and resumed his innocent smile.

    He ordered a ss of Penang rum and some roasted meat from a bar table in the corner of the hall. He only sipped a little bit of the liquor. This thing with a pungent, fermented smell was not as delicious as the milk wine back in the manor.

    He munched on the meat while listening carefully to the various conversations among the surrounding adventurers.

    In a bar mixed with all sorts of figures like this, it was always easy to capture some unique information. This was what Jon told him in those Wuxia stories from the Earth.

    Angor did not have much experience outdoors so he did not know whether these sayings were true. However, that did not stop him from eavesdropping on the conversations. He would enjoy made-up boasts too.

    ¡°Ha! Did ya hear? Hen Imperials who have been fighting the empire. Lots of strange stuff happened over there. Important guys died for no reason, leaving a miserable sight behind them... Even the knights guarding them would wet¡¯em pants at night!¡±

    ¡°The strongest mercenary knighthood in the guild, the Shining Goldspink Knights, haven¡¯t shown their faces for months. Were they the culprits?¡±

    Another group of adventurers sitting near his table began talking about the war on the front line thousands of kilometers away, ¡°You guys remember? The capital lord of the empire personally posted a job here to assassinate the topmander of Hen Imperial half a year ago? Trust me, these two incidents are rted!¡±

    All the adventurers talked aloud. Some of them were boasting about their own achievements so they spoke exceptionally loudly. The man speaking just now made himself heard across the entire bar.

    Everyone agreed. That was their own guild against a hostile nation, naturally, the people here supported the former.

    An ice-cold tune abruptly interrupted everyone¡¯s heated discussion. ¡°The Shining Goldspink Knights? Humph! That¡¯s the only thing you know? Let me tell you, the Hen incident could not be their deed. The Shining Goldspink isn¡¯t powerful enough.¡±

    The speaker was wearing a water-blue long garment with silver patterns on the edges. Expensive stuff.

    ¡°Watch what you¡¯re saying!¡±

    ¡°Who the heck are you, talking about Shining Goldspink like that? Do you know what kind of trouble you¡¯ll get into?¡±

    Everyone stared at him fiercely.

    ¡°Huh, you again? I know you have the certificate of Hen Chamber of Commerce but that doesn¡¯t make you do whatever you like in the empire. You¡¯re from Hen, so just keep shut and do your own business. Or are you looking for trouble?¡± A rough male voice came up.

    The Hen merchant only gave him a cold nce before a dozen fully-armored nights immediately rushed to protect him.

    The rough man could not possibly stand against all of them, but this was Goldspink Empire. The knights in the guild quickly joined him. He might be amon rogue but he was a supporter of Goldspink Empire, and the knights could not just see him beat by the Hens.

    Each side now had a dozen strong, impetuous men wearing armors. The sudden showdown caused everyone in the bar to stop their actions.

 Chapter 18 - Before Leaving

    <h4>Chapter 18: Before Leaving</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Before the fight broke out for real, the vice-master of the Moonwater City¡¯s Bounty Guild came and stopped them. Both sides agreed to stand down following the vice master¡¯s advice, eliminating the imminent conflict.

    <i>Pity </i>. Angor said to himself.

    The Hen merchant sat down and exined in a cold voice, ¡°As I said, the Hen incident could not have been caused by the Shining Goldspink Knights because it was not a human deed in the first ce.¡±

    Then he stayed silent.

    Not a human deed? Ghosts then? Nobody understood what he meant, but no one pushed either.

    Angor was just as curious as to the others. However, since he was about to leave the Old Earth soon, the war might have ended for a long time by the time he came back from the Fey Continent, so Angor put away his train of thought and finished his meat before he then left the guild.

    Thanks to ocean trades, the Moonwater City was only second to the capital when talking about prosperity. Angor was 14 now, and the biggest city he ever saw was Waterford, the governing city of Grue Town. The Moonwater City, however, was three timesrger than Waterford, and this was without considering all those infrastructures.

    Everything here made Angor¡¯s eyes spin. He only saw magnificence and prosperity back at the balcony. Now as he looked at the city up close, he realized that delicacy and exquisiteness could also be found all over the ce. God knew how many levels higher the city waspared to Grue Town, which only had stone houses.

    Angor wandered around slowly to observe different folks while thinking about stories and novels his teacher taught him. He even learned something new bybining them with reality.

    Jon told him to ¡°learn as he goes¡±. Angor could not understand that before, but he was beginning to see when he started to travel outside the protection of his family and hebined what he saw with what he learned.

    He reached his destiny soon, the Saunbana Trader Street.

    This was the ce Aleen talked about several days ago. It was famous because people here only sold what they transported over the sea, from the other countries. One would not find most of them in Goldspink Empire.

    Aleen bought a bunch of things the other day, including several books with unknown originations called ¡°Powdering in Pces¡±, ¡°Tones¡±, ¡°Fan Languages¡±, and etc. The titles did not make much sense, but they were only actually about the makeups and how tobine clothing colors fordies.

    Angor only nced at the books while Aleen quite enjoyed them. She even followed the instructions and bought some powders to make up her face. Such a young admirer of beauty.

    Aleen¡¯s behaviors did hint to Angor to buy some books on the street. He nned to send some proper and rich historical materials to his teacher if he found any.

    The first thing that greeted him on Saunbana Trader Street was a statue in the center of a fountain. It was a gentleman in formal attire. This was the Saunbana Princip, a giant figure in the empire who initiated ocean trading 200 years ago. Naming the street after the man showed how much respect people held towards him.

    Both sides of the street were upied by low yet broad buildings constructed with colorful bricks. Every shop tried their best to make themselves attractive. The signs and slogans were also showy. Angor saw a carnival clown ying ball tricks in front of a dessert shop who would make the crowd exim every now and then. Some kids dragged their parents and cried when they could not persuade their parents to buy sweets.

    The entire street was just so lively. Angor tried his best to keep his nobleman¡¯s image, but he was young after all, and he could not hold back the curiosity in his blinking eyes and could not help looking everywhere.

    In the end, Angor spent his first coins at a... milk shop, with a cow¡¯s plush in front of its door, instead of his original destination, bookstore.

    He drank a full bowl of sweet milk, then let out a big smile when no one was looking.

    He immediately went back to his usual expression once he was out of the shop. When he took another pack of takeaway sweet milk, he even tried to act mature. ¡°s, my sister loves strong, sweet milk. Sorry for troubling you, mister,¡± pretended Angor.

    Angor wiped his lips clean and stepped away, satisfied.

    It did not take him long to find a bookstore with the image of Thoth, the ancient god of knowledge, drawn on the door. The store mostly sold pulp paper books. There were rarely any leather books here.

    He picked up several random books to read. The shopkeeper wanted to yell at him first, but seeing Angor¡¯s appearance and his careful etiquettes when reading, he swallowed his curse words back. He never liked customers who casually read through his books here, but he would not turn away a polite young nobleman either.

    The stories were good. He could even learn some deep meanings between the lines. This trip was worthwhile.

    Angor was never stingy about books. Soon, he was carrying several filled kraft paper bags provided by the store.

    ¡°Hey mister, you seem really interested in various books. I have a collection of random volumes, could you wait a bit if you¡¯re willing to see them?¡± The shopkeeper was overjoyed just by seeing Angor buying so many books. Customers like this were scarce these days. He also noticed that Angor bought all kinds of books, so he instantly had some new ideas.

    The shopkeeper collected many books from people of various foreign fleets, but most of them were too aged and tattered, and some of them were written in unknownnguage so they never got sold and could only collect dust in his storage. Now he just met a generous customer, he would not let this chance get away.

    ¡°Collections?¡± Angor¡¯s eyes lit up. He agreed without giving it much thought.

    The shopkeeper quickly led Angor to the guest room upstairs and gave him a ss of fruit wine before he headed towards the storage.

    After a while, the owner brought two assistants and threerge wooden boxes with them. These gave out the smell of mold.

    Angor frowned. They must have been kept in an extremely damp ce to be like this.

    ¡°Oops... The traders from the desert kingdom haven¡¯te in a long time so we¡¯re out of drying powder, and the Moonwater City is far from being dry. Don¡¯t worry, I made inner packings for the books, no wetness will slip in,¡± said the shopkeeper as he thumped on his chest.

    Angor did not question him. He only nodded and asked them to open the boxes.

    Before he could check the content of them though, a loud, deafening horn sound came from the sky above the Moonwater City.

 Chapter 19 - The Lines of Growth

    <h4>Chapter 19: The Lines of Growth</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor looked through the window, puzzled. It was the first time that he heard such a loud horn ever since he came to Moonwater City. Emergency maybe?

    The shopkeeper went to the window as well. He stroked his tidy, handlebar mustache, and looked towards the Vichy Harbor with squinted eyes, ¡°Ah, the merchant ship from the foreign continent has arrived. Ha, so the route on the Whalebone Sea finally unfroze. It¡¯ll be busy once they unloaded all the stuff from that ship.¡±

    He immediately asked his assistants to go to the harbor. This was not the only bookstore in the city, so they got to try hard if they wanted to get better merchandise.

    ¡°The Whalebone Sea is open? So... the ship from Fey Continent wille soon? Or did it alreadye?¡± Angor looked towards the distance in silence. He felt expectation, as well as some sadness.

    He took a moment to regain his smile, collect his thoughts, and check the collections in the boxes.

    Angor raised an eyebrow when he saw that most books there were leather books. The papers were obviously of bad quality, but since most leather books were collected in noble families, it was natural formon folks to make poor ones.

    The shopkeeper had wrapped up every book tightly. As he said, the mold and wetness never got inside. Since the evening was still far, Angor simply sat down and began reading the book one by one.

    The sand in the hourss flowed. The clouds on the sea carried the color of sunset, gray and white seagulls returned to their reefs and dusk covered the entire city. Angor finally stood up, wiped his trousers of dust and pointed at a box nearby. ¡°I¡¯ll take the books in this box. Please bring them to the Glorious Crown Inn in the Bounty Guild.¡±

    The Glorious Crown Inn was the most luxurious one along the entire north shoreline. Of course, the shopkeeper knew about it. He quickly asked his assistant to carry the box and follow Angor.

    The books were expensive. All these books cost Angor 30 gold coins, which were nearly the total ie of a family of four over ten years. Angor felt his heart bleed too, but when he thought that all the books would be knowledge, which in turn would bring him money, the feeling was not painful anymore. Of course, he knew that was just his excuse trying tofort himself.

    Angor felt joy from everyone along the way. The thawed Whalebone Sea meant that a good year had officially begun.

    When he was back at the inn, the sun had just disappeared under the horizon on the sea. A small trace of bright red still lingered along the shoreline, but the Moonwater City had fallen under the cover of nightfall.

    Before Angor could open his door, he saw the door across from his room opening. Mara and his grandchildren walked out and came to him.

    ¡°I¡¯ve received the message that the merchant ship from Fey Continent has reached the Moonwater Pass, and will arrive at Vichy Harbor tomorrow morning. Pack your things tonight, we¡¯ll board the ship tomorrow noon,¡± said Mara. He looked at the assistant from the bookstore beside Angor and the big box of books he was carrying, ¡°Hoho, looks like you¡¯re prepared. Good. We¡¯ll stay on the ship for about half a year. The books will help you kill time.¡±

    Then Mara turned to his grandchildren. ¡°Get your luggage too. Starting from tomorrow, you won¡¯t be living your rxed lives.¡±

    The gentle moonlight soothed Moonwater City into silence. Angor stood on the balcony and looked towards the south, with various thoughts whirling inside his mind. He could only shake his head in the end and bid farewell to his peaceful past.

    Night ravens flew past the sky. The Vichy Harbor finally weed absolute quietness after midnight, after a day¡¯s busy work.

    The quiet harbor was covered in darkness. Only three oilmps that were almost burnt out were giving out light on several wooden pirs.

    A figure suddenly moved past the faint light from a small, far-off ship. Someone covered in ck.

    The man in ck ran quickly and left the Vichy Harbor. He never went towards anywhere with light. The moonlight reflected from his bright, green pupils. Apart from that, nothing special could be seen of him.

    The man was like a lone wolf traveling in the night, silent, not entangled in anything in the world, and swift as a cheetah.

    When the man ran past the central street of Moonwater City, he suddenly halted and let out a single word.

    ¡°Um?¡±

    It was a high, pleasant tune. A woman.

    ¡°Strange. I felt a trace of a phantom. Maybe the Goman King made a pact with the people from Brute Cavern?¡± Fear appeared in the woman¡¯s eyes. If it really was a phantom, she would die the moment she ran into it. ¡°Shit. It¡¯s only a freaking headwear, and they¡¯re after me for two years! Don¡¯t tell me the crown isn¡¯t only a sign of authority but also holds something else?¡±

    She did not dare to linger. She only nced towards where she felt the phantom, shivered, and ran away without looking back.

    She was looking towards the Bounty Guild.

    Angor dreamed under the gentle moonlight. His hands uncontrobly scratched his back, and his face showed great pain.

    No one could see that some jade-green lines began to stretch out starting from the debones on his back. Bit by bit, like creeper vines...

    Angor was woken up by Mara¡¯s knock on the door.

    He opened the door with sleepy eyes and saw Mara in his ck robe, as well as the grandchildren, already dressed up.

    <i>Um, why were they up so early?</i>

    Aleen¡¯s answer solved his confusion. ¡°Brother Padt, we already finished lunch. Why are you still in bed?¡±

    <i>Lunch? </i>Angor was more confused. If he remembered correctly, Mara said they would board the ship at noon.

    Angor showed some embarrassment. He thought about an idea and cleared his throat. ¡°Sorry, I packed my thingste into the night. So... wait a minute, I¡¯ll be ready soon.¡±

    Angor closed the door before waiting for an answer.

    Mara did not say anything against the shut door. He only led a confused Aleen and an indifferent n downstairs.

    Looking at the busy scenes outside the window, Angor finally realized howte it was. He could only go and wash up quickly without figuring out what happened.

    When he got dressed and asked the inn servant to carry his luggage, Angor finally began pondering what he just went through.

    Heid down at a fine time yesterday, so why was he woken up by noon? Angor was always on time about everything, now this was new for him.

    Angor considered for quite a while, and the only thing he could remember was that his sleepst night was not really smooth. He felt itchy on his back as if there were ants crawling in the veins under his skin which caused terrible itchiness and indescribable pain.

    Did that have something to do with his sleep-in?

    He scratched his back unconsciously. Everything was fine.

    Just an illusion in the dream?

    Angor did not get an answer even after joining Mara and everyone else, so he simply gave up. Maybe he was just mentally tired.

 Chapter 20 - Thewis, The Man with Red Hair

    <h4>Chapter 20: Thewis, The Man with Red Hair</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The group took a carriage and reached the Vichy Harbor soon.

    The merchant ship from Fey Continent¡ªThe Redbud¡ªhad been pulled ashore by this morning. After being unloaded in the forenoon, all cargo bays were now empty. Once it got loaded with new merchandise again tomorrow, the ship would set sail once more. Mara took everyone to the ship this early as a precaution. The ship only came once in a year, missing it would be disastrous.

    ¡°Do not run about or cause trouble once we¡¯re on the ship. The Redbud belongs to someone we absolutely don¡¯t want to offend,¡± said Mara as he led the kids. He warned them, ¡°No ordinary ship can breach the icy sea and make it past the Sea of Silence. There¡¯s a rumor that the Floating Mech City is behind this. If it¡¯s true, even formal wizards wouldn¡¯t attempt to get on their bad side.

    ¡°So you all remember, get rid of those noble tempers no matter who you¡¯re up against, even if it¡¯s the mostmon sailor on the ship!¡± Mara¡¯s warning sounded more serious this time. He ran into a lot of sons of riches during his travel in Goldspink Empire, and a good number of them would draw their weapons over the smallest conflict. This was why he was so serious about all this, to avoid unnecessary trouble.

    The three kids nodded quickly like chickens pecking on the ground. Mara was much experienced in dealing with the world, of course, he would not do the kids harm now.

    As Mara told them his experience, Angor began to inspect The Redbud in front of him carefully. It was huge, though maybe a little smaller than the cargo ships on Earth his teacher mentioned. Still, for Angor, who basically did not know much about the outside world, The Redbud was already the biggest vehicle he ever saw. The ship was half the size of the Padt Castle, with elegant, shining steel walls painted in violet and white.

    What attracted Angor most was the figurehead on the tip of the ship. It was the statue of a praying maiden wearing gauze robe, with her fingers crossed. Soft, long hair flew with the wind, while bits of redbud pedals would fall off now and then. The whole statue looked holy and solemn, perfectly beautiful and graceful. Anyone would agree that it must have been the work of an extremely skilled crafter. Also, there was a pale, crimson-colored gem embedded in the center of the maiden¡¯s forehead.

    Angor felt something strange about the gem, but he could not really tell why.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s... Why is he here??¡± Mara suddenly yelled. Angor looked at Mara to see the old man was staring towards the exit of the ship, somewhat terrified.

    Angor followed his gaze and saw a young man wearing red hair slowly walking down The Redbud with a nk expression. He was dressed in a ck wind coat with golden patterns, ck trousers with white lining, and a pair of brown riding boots.

    His hairs were wild, but his expression was cold and emotionless. Everything about him seemed to be telling everyone to stay away from him.

    ¡°What, one of those ascetic uniform guys?¡± Angor muttered using thenguage Jon told him.

    ¡°What was it, Brother Padt?¡± asked Aleen who somehow was standing nearby. Angor just realized he could almost smell her fragrant hair.

    Angor silently took a step back and gained some distance. ¡°Nothing. I was wondering who that is.¡±

    Aleen saw the strange expression on Mara as well, ¡°Who is he, grandpa?¡±

    Mara did not reply. He only dragged everyone and walked along the boarding bridge quickly. When Aleen wanted to ask again, he only growled at her, ¡°Silence!¡±

    This was something new for Aleen. She pouted in frustration. Mara did not notice her emotion and kept his hurried steps. Seeing this, n quickly paced ahead and wiped some tears off his sister¡¯s eye corner using his little chubby hand.

    Angor whispered to Aleen tofort her, ¡°Mister Mara must have his reasons.¡±

    Angor was wondering about everything as well. Mara¡¯s attitude changed drastically upon seeing that man and never dared to look at him again. Maybe the man was Mara¡¯s enemy?

    As the group stepped onto the ship, the young man nced towards the deck of the ship, puzzled.

    ¡°I get a strange feeling... Maybe it¡¯s just me.¡±

    He kept walking away without giving it much thought. He came to look for someone else, and should not be wasting time on other matters.

    ...

    The night passed. The sun rose in the distance and covered the surface of the sea in gold.

    HOOOOOOOONNMM¡ª

    The ship¡¯s horn bellowed as anchors were pulled up and sailcloth hoisted. People ashore and on the deck waved at each other either in silence or in tears. In the heavy atmosphere, The Redbud slowly bid farewell to the Old Earth and sailed towards the unknown distance.

    Angor stood on the deck and watched as the continent of the Old Earth getting smaller. Apart from feeling lost, he also sensed foreboding, that this meant he would leave the homnd for real.

    What would he see the next time he returned? Would it be under the brilliant sunset or the beautiful morning glow?

    Angor shook his head. He smiled to himself and decided to put that sadness away. Next, he went back to his room and continued solving the puzzles Jon left him.

    Three days passed in a blink of an eye.

    The ship went smoothly without any staggering, so Angor never had to worry about getting seasickness. However, his face still paled, due to many diforts when living on a ship.

    There were knocks on the door. Fast and urgent.

    Angor put down his quill and paper and opened the door. A beautiful girl was standing there. She was wearing a white,ce princess dress. Long, pink hair flowed down her shoulders, with a tiny bit of shyness in her expression. When she saw Angor, her eyes quickly brightened up.

    ¡°Brother Padt!¡± She called in a friendly voice.

    Aleen.

    Except for going to the mess hall for meals, Angor always stayed in his room doing his puzzles during thest three days. This was the first time he saw Aleen since they sailed.

    ¡°Grandfather is back and he called for us. He has something to say,¡± Aleen said.

    Angor nodded to her, ¡°Okay. Just a second, let me get changed.¡±

    They ran into the man with red hair that day. Mara asked a waiter to take care of their meals and rooms, then went towards the cabin on the top floor to look for someone. That was all the kids knew. Angor would not realize that Mara was already back if Aleen had not told him so.

    The three kids were living in the middle level of the ship, while the bottom level was upied by sailors and various workers. Mara stayed on the top floor. They did not know exactly who lived up there, but they could guess that there must be someone important or power wielders like Mara.

    Following the waiter, Angor and Aleen arrived at Mara¡¯s cabin.

    The first thing they saw was n, who took a big bite on the cake he was holding, with white cream covered the edge of his mouth. Mara was sitting nearby with a grim expression while holding a leather scroll.

    Hearing the door opening, Mara raised his head and nodded towards the pair casually before asking them to sit in front of him.

    n finished his cake too. He joined them with a smile while still wiping his mouth. Aleen gave him a stare, then moved aside to let n sit near her. She also took out her handkerchief and helped n clean his mouth.

    Angor sat down and looked at the leather scroll on Mara¡¯s desk.

    There was a portrait of someone printed on it, and one single word above the portrait: WANTED.

    ¡°You probably want to know where I have been these two days, so I¡¯ll tell you first,¡± said Mara. He chose to talk about something else in the end, ¡°There are three wizard groups permanently stationed on The Redbud, to wee talented ones as well as protect the ship from sea monsters. Our White Coral Floating Ind Academy is one of them. I have been discussing with the academy¡¯s escorts up there, about Red-Haired Thewis.

    ¡°Red-Haired Thewis...¡± Mara paused for a bit before he continued, ¡°He was the man with red hair we saw the other day, and he came because of this WANTED poster. You¡¯ll know who he is once we¡¯re at the academy. For now, I¡¯ll only tell you one thing. Stay away from that man whenever you see him. His bad temper is well known across the entire south.¡±

    When he finished, Mara¡¯s expression calmed down. He smiled at the three kids, ¡°But I called you here for something else.

    ¡°I¡¯ve talked to the escorts on The Redbud. Since you three are talents, it won¡¯t hurt to teach you about Meditation earlier. This is why I need you here today.¡±

 Chapter 21 - Triangle Channeling

    <h4>Chapter 21: Triangle Channeling</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°However...¡± Mara paused. His eyes brimmed with an indescribable emotion.

    ¡°Before teaching you the way of meditation, I need to tell you two facts, twomon rules in the wizarding world.

    ¡°First, all wizards, including white wizards and ck wizards, all follow the way of ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯. Though white ones consider this rule more seriously than ck ones...

    ¡°Second, for wizards, everything has a price, except for knowledge. Knowledge is priceless. Unless you¡¯re very close to someone, if you want to acquire knowledge from a wizard, you must pay the cost for it.¡±

    With that, Mara looked at Angor.

    ¡°I can teach Meditation to Aleen and n for free since they¡¯re my family, but not you. If you want to learn it, you must pay me and you don¡¯t have anything I want right now.¡±

    Angor only nodded with his expression unchanged. Jon already taught him when he was small, that no one in this world would suddenly be generous to you for no reason. Mara had been a great man to Angor. He had even given Angor a valuable magic scroll in exchange for a mere possible promise. On the outside, Angor did not show much towards such generosity, but Angor was worrying about this deep in his mind. He finally sighed in relief today, when Mara finally made it clear.

    Aleen seemed worried and tried to speak, but was stopped by Mara¡¯s stern re.

    ¡°I can¡¯t teach you meditation now, but once you¡¯re at the academy and find a mentor, he or she will naturally help you. If your talent is good and be a formal wizard¡¯s apprentice, you can also learn better ways of meditation,¡± Mara exined. When he saw Angor ready to leave, he continued, ¡°Not so fast. I called all three of you, and I have my reason.

    ¡°I can¡¯t teach you, but I can tell you what meditation means to wizards,¡± Mara did not wait for their response. ¡°Now look closely.¡±

    Mara closed his eyes. No one knew what he was doing but after two or three seconds, the WANTED scroll on the desk slowly floated into the air, then moved around the room following Mara¡¯s guidance. The scroll rolled up, folded, cruised, and dropped like a feather. The kids watched with excitement. They saw a lot of Mara¡¯s power these days, but they were still excited about this.

    When the posternded slowly, Mara finally opened his eyes.

    ¡°I did not cast any spells, yet the scroll still fell under my control, denying the rules of nature. Do you know why?¡± Mara asked. Then he quickly put a hand against his forehead. ¡°Ah, that was silly of me. You don¡¯t know about wizards, I shouldn¡¯t have asked that.¡±

    Mara recovered his posture. ¡°I¡¯ll make this straight. This is a power brought by meditation. Wizards usually call it ¡®Spiritual Power¡¯.

    ¡°The level of your spiritual power determines how efficient you can channel your mana. Mana is a unique power that is created when your bodymunicates with the world. Usually, only a spiritual power higher than 10 can be used to channel the source of mana and feed it back to yourself, and a higher spiritual power indication improves efficiency.

    ¡°This is where meditationes into y¡ªto improve the efficiency of mana channeling.

    ¡°Next, spiritual power. For most wizards, spiritual power is a medium for channeling mana. However, it has its own effect as well. It can even affect our physical world. Just now, I was using pure spiritual power to move the scroll. You should remember though, that spiritual power is extremely unstable, and meditation is used to construct models and stabilize spiritual power,¡± Mara sighed. He added, ¡°There are some special branches among the Three Major Arts which require spells thatbine spiritual power and mana together. Those spells require extremely deep knowledge, and no one should attempt them before they be formal wizards.¡±

    Mara exined some cautions and details about meditation before he handed a small booklet to n.

    ¡°This is the basic meditation method taught by the academy, the ¡®Triangle Channeling¡¯. n, read it and remember everything, then give it to Aleen,¡± Mara spoke to n who only gained more confusion today than knowledge. Then Mara looked at Aleen. The girl had been turning her eyes everywhere.

    ¡°Remember, it¡¯s not allowed to distribute the Triangle Channeling in private. You two read it and then burn the book. If I ever find out that you give it to someone else, that man will be executed, and you two will receive the death penalty.¡±

    Aleen froze upon hearing Mara¡¯s warning.

    <i>People die this easily?</i>

    Somehow, Aleen began to have a glimpse at the cruelty of the wizarding world.

    ¡°Now, each of you can ask me a question. Get your answer and return to your room. I need to research on a new magic project in theing days, so don¡¯t disturb me unless your lives are threatened.¡±

    These words are obviously meant for n and Aleen. As for Angor... Mara had been kind enough to him. Time to return to being strangers.

    n and Aleen were always interested in the path of wizardry, but they were too young and had limited knowledge, so they did not give Mara any constructive questions. Aleen even annoyed Mara greatly by asking a question about talent, about which Mara already exined several days ago. If he was not trying to be kind towards a girl, he could have pped her.

    n asked about the difference between white wizards and ck wizards.

    They would know suchmon sense once they reached the academy. Asking Mara now meant n wasted a good chance.

    It was not a good question, but still better than Aleen¡¯s, so Mara still exined in detail.

    ¡°Their names sound as if they are separated like good men and bad men. Hah. Essentially, they have no difference. The definition of ck and white is only for apprentices, while formal wizards never named themselves like that. It¡¯s only about their different ways of acting.

    ¡°Apprentice wizards call someone ¡®white¡¯ wizards because they deal with everything in a more gentle approach. As for ¡®ck¡¯ wizards... they tend to be fierce and cruel, but that¡¯s not always the case. A white wizard in a bad mood may st you to pieces if you happen to walk in front of him at a wrong time. So this ck and white definition is only for general cases. There are no differences between them. Once you¡¯ve be a formal wizard, you can act like a ck wizard and change into a white one in the next second, which is totally fine.

    ¡°However, there ARE differences between wizard groups. For example, the White Coral Floating Ind Academy is a moderate organization. Wizards from the academy do not kill apprentices without a reason, they even help apprentices in trouble asionally. Of course, you must pay for such helpter. There are also wizard groups on the Fey Continent who believe in the survival of the fittest. To them, apprentices are merely walking research materials.

    ¡°This is why you can consider yourselves extremely lucky for being epted by the White Coral Floating Ind Academy.¡±

    With n¡¯s question answered, Mara then looked towards Angor.

    Angor stood up and bowed politely. ¡°My question is, what¡¯s the base principle behind casting spells?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good question,¡± said Mara as he looked at Angor with approval. He then said, ¡°I can¡¯t give you an authentic answer with my current knowledge, but I can tell you the rules for casting spells in my view. You can use my views as reference.

    ¡°For wizards, mana is the energy for using spells, but not the most important aspect. The most important point is the knowledge used to construct the spell. You can say that knowledge is everything for wizards. We pursue the root of all, find the answer to all and discover the truth. All knowledge can be eternal miracles with the help of mana.

    ¡°Here¡¯s an example. There¡¯s a basic cantrip called ¡®Canine Nose¡¯. It temporarily gives someone a sense of smell as sharp as dogs. To cast the spell, apart from using mana, you also need to understand the structure of dog noses and knowledge about the sense of smell. Additionally, you need to adjust your own nasal cavity beforehand.

    ¡°So, the most important elements for wizards: umtion of knowledge, creativity, and insight into everything.¡±

 Chapter 22 - Strange Seabird

    <h4>Chapter 22: Strange Seabird</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Mara never showed up in the following days. Aleen and n began learning the Triangle Channeling, while Angor immersed himself in Jon¡¯s puzzles.

    As Mara said, knowledge was the most important thing to wizards. Angor did not know if what Jon taught him was useful, but he did know that this knowledge could enlighten him and broaden his view, so he would not be trapped by what he could only see.

    Angor did not care if the knowledge was useful or not.

    His quill flowed swiftly on the paper. Sheets filled with forms and numbers soon became yesterday¡¯s draft. Angor would find new ways to solve the puzzles every day. He could think about molecr, atoms, maic field... different angles of view always brought him new surprises.

    As time passed, Angor could feel that he was getting closer to the correct answer.

    One day, Angor put down his quill and rubbed his temples. His brain had been running at full capacity for nearly half a month. With more puzzles solved, the final answer approached. There were only ten more puzzles left. However, his head toiled too much under the constant concentration. He even felt ringing ears and ckened sight this morning. He knew his body was sending himself a warning.

    Angor was anxious about finding the answer, but he still stopped. He was only 14, a teenager. He would not want something bad to happen to his body during this most important growing stage only to live with regret for the rest of his life.

    Jon mentioned that he went seriously ill one time during his youth because of his bad habit. That was why Jon never grew taller than 165 centimeters. Angor was not sure if Jon was telling the truth or just finding an excuse. But... better to believe the worst, right?

    Angor yawned. He stretched his arms and straightened his legs. Then he checked the clock on the wall. Two o¡¯clock in the afternoon.

    Clocks were rare on the Marginalized Ind or the Old Earth. Even the Padt Manor still used hoursses. However, clocks had already joined everyone¡¯s life on the Fey Continent.

    Angor flipped open a porthole on the wooden wall. The salty smell of sea instantly came in.

    The porthole was a window of the ship. The cabins on the middle level of The Redbud all had these windows to let fresh air in. The ones at the bottom did not have such luxury though.

    The sun was strong. The sunlight reflected on the sea¡¯s surface dazzled his eyes. Air exchanged between the outside and the narrow room. Angor was fine with the smell. He simply closed his eyes and let his imagination fly wild while enjoying the warm sea breeze.

    He recalled his sweet childhood, his loving parents, his kind brother, Teacher¡¯s guidance, and himself¡ªa young man roaming in the sea of knowledge day and night. Those memories could always bring a smile to his face. He did not take anything from the Padt Manor since only these memories could apany him forever.

    Saving his teacher was not the only reason why Angor decided to follow Mara to the Fey Continent and be a wizard. He also had a secret intention to help his family rise. On the Old Earth, even apprentice wizards could receive treatment better than any nobles.

    Mara said that a formal wizard could live at least 500 years and someone who broke through further could go for thousands. Angor never expected to protect his family for that long, however. Allowing his family to stay prosperous for a hundred years, within three generations, was enough for him.

    The weather was calm outside, which also calmed Angor¡¯s mood greatly. He took out a teabag from his luggage.

    It contained the Morning Dew. Back at the manor, Angor divided the manor¡¯s stock of Morning Dew into two. He brought a portion with him and gave the rest to Mara.

    Angor did not really enjoy the bitter taste, but he remembered Mara¡¯s words, that the Morning Dew was a lesser magic nt. Since he was about to step into the mysterious wizard world, drinking the tea might help him, right?

    Angor sipped the tea with raised eyebrows and his lips curled up. There was no one around, yet his postures, every detail, and his straightened back all showed elegance. The nobleman¡¯s quality was already carved deep into his bones. Jon also taught him poetry and virtue over the years, with that, Angor¡¯s temperament also carried a sense of gentleness and grace. Together, they granted Angor an attractive charisma.

    ¡°Hmm... Some age lines and an adult face would make me better,¡± Angor mumbled to himself as he looked at the mirror.

    The cup of tea was finished. As usual, the Morning Dew only presented him with a taste of bitterness and grass. It was not awful, but it was not enjoyable either.

    As for the effect of magic nts Mara mentioned... that basically had nothing to do with Angor.

    Tweet, tweet¡ª

    As Angor savored the taste of tea, a bird¡¯s cry came from the window, followed by the sound of pping wings.

    Angor looked up and saw a strange seabird perched on the windowsill.

    The bird was about double the size of his palm. Brown and gray feathers, red, sharp talons, orange, pointy beak, and dark green eyes. Those features still belonged to an ordinary seabird, but Angor knew something was strange because the bird was wearing something.

    It had a tall, white hat on its head and a small bib in blue and white stripes around its neck. There was a pattern on the bib which was shining under the sunlight. Also, Angor was most attracted by the little blue pouch hanging on one side of the bird. It made the bird look like a mail pigeon in fairytales.

    The bird chirped while staring at Angor with its green eyes as if trying to talk to him.

    Angor chuckled. When he remembered that he was alone with the bird, his childish curiosity took the best of him again, so he imitated a duck¡¯s beak and ¡°spoke¡± to the seabird.

    ¡°Tweet,¡± said the bird.

    Angor smiled, ¡°So your name is ¡®Tweet¡¯? Interesting. Who¡¯s your master? He made you look so cool.¡±

    The bird half-closed its eyes and made another tweet in disdain.

    Angor reached out a slim finger and gave the bird a tap on its tiny head, ¡°Come on, I said you look cool, and you¡¯re feeling proud already?¡±

    The bird looked away and prepared to leave. It then hesitated and in the end, it stayed and still chirped away as if it was asking for something.

    Angor did not notice its intention. He still yed around with the bird happily even though he saw a pattern on the seabird¡¯s satchel which was the same as the one on its bib.

    It looked like an emblem. The center was an extremely fat woman with violet, curly hair. She was so fat that the skin on her face hanged in several ces. The woman had a pair of bright red lips, a tiny nose, coquettish eye makeup and a beauty mark on her jaw. She... could have been a prettydy if not for all that extra flesh. As they said, fair skin could hide all blemishes while all beauties were easily ruined by being fat.

    A knife and fork were beside the picture, crossed.

    The emblem looked weird. What did it mean? A family emblem? Then Angorughed at himself.

    <i>What kind of family would use this as their emblem?</i>

    But then what? Angor could not understand. He did not intend to figure it out either. The question was soon forgotten.

    He knew that curiosity was the foremost virtue for every learner, but he would rather spend his curiosity on pursuing useful truth.

    Angor noticed that the bird¡¯s tiny satchel looked filled up. There must be a lot of stuff in there. He did not reach for it though. He would not allow himself to take something without asking for its owner¡¯s permission, even if the owner was a seabird.

    The bird was still chirping, while Angor could only respond to no avail. It looked frustrated too and began to pace around the windowsill restlessly.

    ¡°Hey, Tweet, what do you need from me? Are you hungry? Thirsty?¡±

    When hearing ¡°Tweet¡±, the bird tried rolling its eyes at Angor. However, upon hearing the rest of the question, it got an idea and nodded rapidly.

    ¡°You¡¯re hungry? Clever. You know how to ask for food,¡± said Angor. He took out a pack of bread from his drawer and bit it apart while muttering, ¡°Who¡¯s your master? How did he train you? You can even answer people¡¯s questions.¡±

    Angor looked towards the outside. There was only the borderless ocean.

    ¡°There¡¯s no ind around... Maybe a power wielder from the upper level of The Redbud is your owner?¡±

 Chapter 23 - Doom on Ancients

    <h4>Chapter 23: Doom on Ancients</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor put some bread crumbs in front of the bird, hoping it would dig in. However, he only received another scorned side-nce.

    Angor thought the bird disliked bread so he gave it some fruit and jerky slices. The bird still turned its head away.

    ¡°Are you thirsty?¡±

    The bird nodded its head quickly again.

    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s why.¡±

    Without much thought, Angor gave the bird a ss of fresh water.

    Then he received a p in return.

    The seabird stretched its wings, knocked the ss away, and returned to the endless sea.

    What happened next was more unexpected though. The bird returned to his room, circled around the narrow room for a while, and finally stopped in front of Angor¡¯s teacup.

    The cup still contained the remaining Morning Dew leaves Angor used to make his tea.

    ¡°Aha...¡± Now Angor finally understood. The bird was attracted by Morning Dew.

    What was special about Morning Dew? For now, Angor knew that it was a magic nt. So this seabird was a supernatural creature too?

    Angor pondered. Maybe one of the supernaturals on the top floor was the bird¡¯s owner after all. Only one of those amazing wizards could have created such an extraordinary pet.

    The bird pped its wings, pointed at the cup, then pointed at Angor.

    Angor knew what it meant. He re-filled the cup with hot water. This tea brought from an ancient nation called China from another world was said to possess richer taste when served with water for the second time. The seabird was initially disgusted by the ¡°second-hand¡± tea, but once the fragrance of tea began to fill the room, it soon became sprightly and pped its wings as if intoxicated.

    When the cup was full, the bird did not even wait for the water to cool before it reached into the tea with that beak. There was a loud drinking noise, and the water level went down quickly until there were only leaves left at the bottom.

    The bird did not seem satisfied, so Angor filled the cup again. He brought a lot of Morning Dew. Besides, he was going to throw away his leftovers anyway. If the bird wanted it, he could wait.

    Though it seemed Angor did not have to wait. After consuming several cups, the seabird picked the remaining leaves clean.

    ¡°I think I¡¯ll call you ¡®Cleaner¡¯ instead since you did a thorough job,¡± Angor did not know what else to say in this situation.

    Now the bird smiled in content. Those tiny eyes had be the shape of the crescent moon. It did not respond to its ¡°new name¡±, but only nodded towards Angor in respect as if showing gratitude for the tea. Next, it reached sideways with its head, took out a small golden card from its pouch and put it in front of Angor.

    Seeing how Angor did not react, the bird even pushed the card further towards Angor.

    ¡°For me?¡± He finally realized what just happened and picked up the card.

    Since Angor got its idea, the bird let out another gentle chirp as if saying something. Before Angor could reply though, it dashed out of the window.

    When Angor looked towards outside again, there were only the usual sky and clouds. The bird was nowhere to be found.

    ¡°Interesting. It even knew how to repay people,¡± said Angor as he shook his head. He then chuckled, ¡°Teacher once said you should return people as best as you can for the tiniest kindness. I guess the bird just did it by giving me a card.¡±

    No longer minding the vanished bird, Angor focused on the golden card in his hand. One side was nk, the other had a picture on it¡ªthe same fatdy wearing violet hair, drawn on the bird¡¯s bib and pouch.

    Angor stroke the picture with his fingers. It felt embossed. Looked like the patterns was carved onto the card.

    Someone used such delicate craftsmanship on this tiny card... There must be a reason.

    He knew nothing about the picture though, so he would not get the idea behind this no matter how deep that might be. Besides, there was no point in wasting time on the matter. Angor simply put the card away in his pocket and continued enjoying his journey.

    Listening to the sound of sea waves and the low bellowing of flowing undercurrent, Angor took out a book to read.

    The title read ¡°Idea on Ancients¡±.

    He found the book in the bookstore at Moonwater City. It mainly contained mythology stories collected by the author from all kinds of ces. In other words, the book was just a myth anthology, added with the author¡¯s own view, thus the title ¡°Idea on Ancients¡±.

    Angor kept reading until the color of dusk had covered the entire sky.

    When he finished the book, Angor believed he would have called the book ¡°Doom on Ancients¡± rather than ¡°Idea on Ancients¡±. Every single god or deity in the book perished in the end, either died trying to save mankind by fighting demons or died due to some other natural reasons. Not one of them enjoyed a happy ending. They were only myths, so nobody knew if those were real. Maybe the so-called gods were only powerful wizards?

    Common folks were usually terrified or resistant about supernatural power. Maybe ¡°perished gods¡± were referring to wizards who left the Old Earth. Since the Old Earth had not witnessed any supernatural in a long time, people with good imagination made up all the ¡°perished gods¡± tofort themselves.

    Angor put down the book, stretched, and checked the weather. He then decided to have dinner for now.

    Angor knew much about The Redbud during the month. There were more than one dining halls. Almost every floor had one. Also, one could tell the social sses of people eating in these halls ording to the decoration and the food in these ces.

    The dining hall on the top floor of The Redbud was the most luxurious one. Only apprentice wizards were epted there. Angor heard that a formal wizard was staying on this ship, though he was not sure if this was real.

    There were about several dozens of talents like himself as well. They were found from various continents by the guides from the three major wizard organizations: the White Coral Floating Ind Academy, the Gravity Forest and the Tower of Hurricane. They were staying at the mid-tier on The Redbud who used the White nder Restaurant on the middle floor.

    The sailors and other handymen used the Alfalfa Restaurant on the bottom floor.

    Angor came to the White nder Restaurant just at dinner time. There were a lot of people. Now that no one was proud of being a talent anymore, they simply took their tes and found a seat while letting the chefs decide what to eat. It did not matter whether you were a blueblood or rich man. Here, everyone was only a rookie about to step onto the path of wizardry.

    Rookies should act like rookies. They could boast about their achievement after they actually made any.

    Angor always followed his teacher¡¯s advice of being neutral. He would not make himself stand out. With that mindset, Angor copied everyone¡¯s action, took a te from the chef with roast fish and bread in it, with his head lowered. He collected some vegetable and winter fruits from another section, fetched a bowl of potato scallop soup with mashed garlic and took a seat near the window on one side of the hall.

    He had been eating roast fish for half a month now. He really missed his teacher¡¯s Chinese food. Thinking about how he would not find his favorite food for many years, Angor¡¯s face quickly darkened.

    <i>If I knew I would live alone earlier, I¡¯d have learned cooking from Teacher from the start.</i>

    Angor sighed in his mind even though he still kept his noble politeness on the outside.

    The half-shut wooden door kept squeaking with people going in and out. Angor could see the door well from his position. A young man wearing silver and grayce shirt pushed the door open and walked into the hall with slow, somewhat unpleasant steps.

    Angor had been staying low-profile ever since he was on the ship. In this cruel wizarding world, his beloved brother was no longer here to protect him. He had to be modest to find peace.

    That was why he never interacted with anyone apart from n and Aleen during the entire month. While Aleen and n tried their best to expand their socialwork, Angor only kept himself to his studies and puzzles.

    Solitary he might be, Angor still recognized this man full of nobility and womanish temperament, which only meant how famous the man was on this ship.

    Dove Silverheron, the third sessor of the Silverheron royal family from the Central Empire on the Land of Revtion.

 Chapter 24 - The Cold Reality

    <h4>Chapter 24: The Cold Reality</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Compared to the Old Earth, the Land of Revtion could be considered a ¡°real¡± continent while the Old Earth was only a remote, marginalized ind. The Land of Revtion was still far from Fey Continent when it came to importance, but at least wizards still considered the ce worthwhile.

    Dove was an exchange student appointed by the Silverheron Royal Wizard Group. He was going to the Tower of Hurricane at the south of Fey Continent to ¡°exchange study¡±.

    At least Dove said those himself.

    However, every talent on the ship knew the fact that this Silverheron Royal Wizard Group was merely created by apprentice wizards from the Tower of Hurricane who could not break through into formal wizards after they left their mentors. Thanks to the rtionships they previously had in the Tower of Hurricane, they could earn themselves some quota for rmended talents.

    The ¡°exchange student¡± wasplete nonsense. An organization with thousands of years of history and groups of formal wizards would exchange students with an apprentice group built by weaklings? Seriously?

    Everyone knew, but no one spoke that out, for they would not dare to offend Dove. They were weak, but they were still supernaturals. Rumor said that there was an apprentice in the Silverheron Royal Wizard Group who was very close to a formal wizard. This man returned to the Central Empire in disappointment because he could not find his destiny for a breakthrough.

    The rtionship, added by Central Empire¡¯s great financial resources, was enough reason for everyone to avoid offending Dove. He might be an arrogant, spoiled yboy, but people around him could only bear with it.

    When Dove stepped into the dining hall, conversations quickly quieted down.

    Thanks to the sudden silence, Angor heard someone whispering nearby.

    ¡°Huh... Did hee alone? Where are hisckeys?¡±

    Dove heard it too. He red at the speaker with a violent expression andughed out when he saw his target get back to his meal with a terrified expression.

    However, Dove¡¯s arrogance immediately vanished once he left the crowd.

    He tried to find his men just now. All rooms were shut. No idea where they went.

    ¡°Bastards,¡± Dove cursed under his breath. Without his servants, he had to fetch his meal on his own.

    He was used to his self-ego among talented people. When he heard about the background of The Redbud, he too did not find any trouble with the chefs. Instead, he took his meal carefully and sat somewhere vacant.

    Angor only nced at Dove when he came in and never paid any attention to him again.

    Angor was thinking about something though. He was sure he heard the door panel clicking twice when Dove came, but Dove was the only one there.

    Maybe he just heard things because he was too tired doing his puzzles?

    Thanks to Jon, Angor learned to be sharp about his surroundings. This was not for avoiding trouble, but for capturing details in the environmental reality so he could gain inspiration and opportunity from everything. Simply put, the sharp sense was for refining his own knowledge.

    Angor was always confident in his instinct to capture tiny details, but the instinct seemed a bit off today.

    Shaking his head, Angor gave up on wondering about the strange matter. It was not his problem, and it was not worth the time.

    Angor knew how to enjoy a good meal. He sometimes even lost himself in the process. However, he needed a ¡°good meal¡± first. What he was having now could only be considered filling. eptable, yet not enjoyable. As he ate his fill, Angor¡¯s mind wandered off again to his unsolved calctions.

    Someone not far screamed, interrupting Angor¡¯s roaming mind.

    ¡°Ahhhrgh! Who the f*ck are you? Show yourself!¡± A high-pitched male voice pierced the air in the entire dining hall, followed by the noise of shattering tes.

    Angor frowned and looked towards the ruckus.

    The arrogant third prince from the Central Empire now had stains all over himself. He grasped his neck with one hand. Blood was running between his fingers. He was waving the tablecloth using his other hand, breaking the porcin dinnerware everywhere.

    Dove was baring his teeth at the air like an angered pit bull, to no avail. There was no one around 20 meters of him.

    ¡°He¡¯s mad again? Hey wait, he¡¯s bleeding?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a knife wound on his neck!¡±

    Someone muttered, ¡°But nobody was there.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me the ce is haunted!¡±

    All talents in the hall talked, but not a man went there to help Dove. Apart from his terrible temper, people were terrified of the strange situation as well.

    ¡°The blood ising out fast, but not to the extent of gushing out. Maybe a cut vein,¡± said Angor. He nced around and spoke to himself, ¡°Even if it¡¯s only a vein, judging from the blood flow, he¡¯ll be dead without aid within the next ten minutes.

    ¡°A de cut, but no one was holding a de...¡± Angor looked around Dove without seeing anyone. Then he recalled hearing the second door click just now.

    ¡°Interesting.¡±

    Someone invisible? An apprentice? Or just another talent?

    Angor inclined to thetter. An apprentice wizard would not have to do it concealed, and that one hit would have killed Dove.

    Dove was still rampaging when Angor measured the situation. As time passed, Dove¡¯s yelling became weaker. He suddenly heard something and grabbed a wine bottle before hurling it against a window southeast of him.

    The spilled dark red wine did not hang onto the wooden wall as everyone expected. It stopped in mid-air about five meters in front of the wall.

    The wine slowly flowed downward, exposing a red human figure.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s over there! He¡¯s invisible!¡±

    A man yelled while pointing to the soaked figure, ¡°Is that a wizard?¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t be serious. A mighty wizard will nevere and assassinate the likes of us in this way. They just need a nce and we¡¯ll die the most painful death,¡± sneered someone.

    ¡°Wait a minute, and we¡¯ll see him,¡± said one of the talents. He pointed towards the assant. ¡°Mister Komoen mentioned these spells. There are the Phantom Shift which cloaks people under an illusion, the Dimension Cloak which lets someone hide in another space, and a spell that deceives your eyes using light and shade. The first and second are only avable to formal wizards, and there¡¯s only one cantrip that can make you invisible, Optic Confusion.¡±

    Mister Komoen was the guide from the wizard organization, Gravity Forest. He was a Level-2 Apprentice Wizard.

    ¡°The caster of Optic Confusion will be exposed if something touches him. Of course, he might be using some kind of alchemy item too. But even Mister Komoen couldn¡¯t easily afford those things.¡±

    When he finished talking, the invisible man soaked in wine already showed up.

    Angor looked at him with a raised eyebrow. A young man wearing tattered cloth, and a handsome face, which was now filled with a rebellious emotion.

    Angor did not know this man, but his clothing and details in his movement were enough to tell Angor that he was from a poor family.

    The poor versus a rich noble.

    The man looked at the bleeding Dove with an unyielding delight. He then let out a bloodthirsty grin, satisfied by his revenge.

    The once arrogant prince looked at the man with disbelief and hatred. There was also regret behind his angered expression.

    ¡°Nice. The story behind these guys is sure to keep Mana talking for a whole year.¡±

    Angor recalled the moment when he heard Head Maid Mana gossiping about the infamous, cheating Waterford noble scum.

    Angor shook his head and prepared to leave the dining hall. He did not have time for such outdated plots.

    When he stood up, a middle-aged nobledy with silver hair appeared on the scene.

    Angor heard about the elegantdy before. She was Lady Merlin, a Level-3 Apprentice Wizard stationed on The Redbud. She was from Tower of Hurricane.

    Since Lady Merlin was here, the poor young man¡¯s fate should be clear¡ªwait! What? Angor watched in surprise as Lady Merlin stepped to the center whilepletely oblivious of the dying Dove lying on the ground. She looked at the young assant up and down with delight on her face instead.

    She waved a hand and all taints on the young man¡¯s body instantly vanished.

    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Lady Merlin asked him.

    ¡°Easley, Lady Merlin, ma¡¯am. My name is Easley,¡± said the young man as he responded politely. He did not say his family name because he did not have one. A family name represented family inheritance. He was an orphan and ¡°Easley¡± was the name of a hound belonged to a nobleman he once served. To get himself a name, he fought with the hound for his life until he finally snapped the beast¡¯s neck. That was when the noble gave the name ¡°Easley¡± to him.

    ¡°Easley... Good, I¡¯ll remember that. You¡¯re good. You channeled your mana pool very quickly. Maybe your spiritual power talent is beyond 20?¡± Lady Merlin reached out a hand and put it on Easley¡¯s forehead.

    ¡°As I predicted, you were born with a spiritual power of 23. It will help you save much time. You will train ten times faster than ordinary talents. No wonder you can channel your mana so quickly,¡± said Lady Merlin. She smiled and spoke to the young man, ¡°I only told you the principle of Optic Confusion half a month ago, and you can already cast it. This means you understand the knowledge of light and shadow well. Splendid. Truly splendid!

    ¡°Remember, all spells are based on a wizard¡¯s knowledge and mana. They are mutually important. You have stepped into the gate of an apprentice wizard. Move to the top floor from now on.¡±

    With that, Lady Merlin left without looking back.

    Dove, on the other hand, was taking hisst breath on the ground now. As Lady Merlin¡¯s figure disappeared from the dining hall, Dove¡¯s expression changed from despair to stiffness. No one helped. His body turned cold under everyone¡¯s indifferent gaze.

    Easley, the killer, looked at the corpse on the ground. He then grinned and left the room as well.

    No oneined. No one stopped him. At least Easley made a difference on this ship and became someone who could dominate over another¡¯s life.

    Angor left the hall in silence. Now he truly understood that there was no ck and white in the wizarding world. Justice or evil did not mean a thing to them.

    The Silverheron Royal Wizard Group belonged to the same organization as Lady Merlin. Even then, Lady Merlin did not care about Dove, not even a nce. Thispletely exined how cruel wizards could be towardsmon people.

    After this incident, Angor tried even harder to conceal his presence. Without protection, Death¡¯s scythe was constantly ced against his own neck. This was a reality ¨C the uncovered, brutal reality in the world of wizards.

 Chapter 25 - Cloud Whale

    <h4>Chapter 25: Cloud Whale</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor went back to his room to continue with Jon¡¯s puzzles. He even missed several meals. In the following ten days or so, Angor heard about the story between Easley and Dove: A nobleman humiliated a young girl to death, the girl¡¯s childhood friend rose up in anger, lived a hard life while bearing the great hatred in mind, and finally changed his fate and killed the nobleman by his own hand.

    That was a lot of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, yet very eptable. Thews were against the poor, and nobles were free to do whatever they like. Justice was only brought up when people were from the same ss.

    Angor actually sympathized Easley upon hearing the story. Angor was a noble himself, but he always received education from the Earth and did not consider his ss as important. However, another story he heard next changed his attitude towards Easley.

    Dove went to the dining hall alone that day, because Easley had already ughtered every single one of Dove¡¯s followers. Some of the victims were smaller families from the Central Empire who clung to big families for protection, some were new followers Dove recruited on the ship, some were even pretty girls or talented people Dove brought here by force. The second and third types of people did not even have anything to do with Easley, and several of them were just like Easley himself. Yet Easley still killed all of them.

    Angor did not like such cruelty. Though he did not develop hatred towards Easley, only less sympathy, more caution.

    The wizarding world was even more brutal than he expected.

    Time went by. The Redbud passed the Whalebone Sea peacefully and moved into the most dangerous area in rumors¡ªDevil¡¯s Water.

    This ce was full of vicious pirates, giant sea monsters, and strange weathers. Some even said there were ghost ships here.

    For civilian ships, the Devil¡¯s Water was a natural barrier that could not be crossed. However, the Redbud was protected by wizards who could repel evil.

    When the ship was halfway across the Devil¡¯s Water, Aleen, who had been away from people for nearly half a month, came to Angor¡¯s room.

    Her face was pale, and her expression down. Those usual energies around her were nowhere to be seen. She came to the room and slumped onto a bench near the window.

    ¡°Brother Padt... I¡¯m so dumb. I don¡¯t know who can help me. My brother already felt his spiritual power the day before yesterday, but me... My meditation did nothing over an entire month. I can¡¯t find a single trace of spiritual power, let alone feeling any mana.¡±

    Aleen talked about her meditation training during the month without minding whether Angor was listening. As she spoke, her nose blushed, and tears appeared around the corners of her eyes. She seemed quite aggrieved about this.

    Angor let out a sigh. He did not know how tofort girls, so all he could say was ¡°You will make it. Only need some time¡±.

    That made Aleen cry harder. Not only n, but someone from a poor ss like Easley had already shown their great talent. Compared to them, Aleen could not control her sadness. She even beganining about how boring meditation was and all kinds of emotions were interfering with her training.

    But she still kept her reason by not spilling out Triangle Channeling.

    However, Angor still learned a lot from her words, about the possible problems during meditation training.

    When she finished pouring out her feelings, Aleen wiped away her tears and blushed in embarrassment. She was just venting out her emotions at Angor like talking to a tree. Now she was done, she felt very ¡°undylike¡±... Would Angor see her as a spoiled girl?

    There was silence. Aleen pinched her hands with uneasiness and tried to think about how to get rid of the atmosphere. It would be best if Angor could forget what she just did.

    ¡°Hey, Brother Padt, what are you writing about?¡± Aleen looked at the piles of papers filled with characters on the desk and asked in curiosity. She saw those characters before, in the stilt house back at the Padt Manor. They were called something like ¡°Hanzi¡±.

    ¡°My diary. All I did these days were reading and sleeping, I need something to pass the time.¡± Angor gave her a small lie. He was doing puzzles, but that would be tooplicated to exin, and he might give away his teacher¡¯s secrets. Thank goodness that Angor and Jon were the only ones in this world who could read Chinese, and he did not need to worry about his lie being found out.

    Aleen watched the papers for some more and realized she really could not understand any, so she simply gave up. Time to find other topics to ease up the mood.

    What she talked about next was only chitchats among noble women, and Angor grew bored quickly. Before he could stop Aleen, however, the ship shook violently.

    The pair did not panic. Instead, they quickly grabbed onto the iron rails on the wall to steady themselves.

    A ship on the sea was sure to run into some big waves and strong winds. Not mentioning that they were currently on Devil¡¯s Water, where the most strange weathers could be found, so the asional swings and shakes no longer surprised them. This was also why Angor only kept some papers and quills on his desk.

    The shakested five minutes. A small one,pared to what they experienced since the beginning of their trip.

    Thanks to the sudden rough ride, they forgot about the embarrassment just now. Aleen tidied her messed up hair, while Angor pulled down his short shirt to cover his exposed stomach. They exchanged a smile.

    The peace did notst long. Before they could say anything else, a lot of footsteps came from the ceiling above them. They were hurried and chaotic as if many people were running around.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on up there?¡± They both asked in unison.

    Aleen leaned over the window to check the outside. Then she yelled, ¡°Brother Angor, look! Quick!¡±

    Angor listened and joined her.

    The outside was dark. A giant creature had blocked the vast sky. Angor tried to see what it was, but it was so big, and he could not make out which side was the head and which was tail.

    Angor felt a sudden terror, and quickly said to Aleen, ¡°Let¡¯s go outside!¡±

    If such a giant creature decided to attack The Redbud, staying inside the cabin would ensure a faster death. Aleen knew this too, so she followed behind Angor without any hesitation.

    When they left the room, they saw all the other doors were open. Everyone was running towards the deck, either nervous or terrified.

    When they reached the deck, they saw it was already full of people. Talents, handymen, sailors... They all joined their own groups to look at therge creature floating in the sky.

    Angor also noticed that most talents were worried or scared, but sailors and handymen working on The Redbud were mostly amused, without any trace of fear in their expressions.

    Angor calmed down a bit. Since sailors who had been working on the ship for many years were not afraid of the situation, the giant creature must be harmless to them.

    With that in mind, Angor put away his fear and carefully inspected therge creature in the sky.

    He could not get a good look of it back in the cabin. Now he could do it on the deck.

    It was a floating, giant whale at least 200 meters in length. The pair of fins on its sides were like wings, each p could create some gust. That wave earlier must have been caused by the strong wind.

    The whale¡¯s eyes looked like sapphires which reflected a blurring gleam like those reflected by sea waves. A single horn stood atop of its streamlined forehead which appeared as if surrounded by the clouds.

    ¡°So the legendary Cloud Whale lives in the Devil¡¯s Water!¡± Someone eximed.

    ¡°A Cloud Whale is usually a gentle creature. However, we should be prepared for the worst,¡± said someone else. Not far from the crowd, the second-inmand of The Redbud gave orders to the sailors, then looked at the three figures standing behind him.

    ¡°Milord. We need to activate Mirror Veil on The Redbud. Please assist,¡± said the vice-captain in knight armor. He half knelt before the three ¡°lords¡±.

    The ¡°lords¡± were escorts from the three major wizard organizations who had been stationed on The Redbud. One woman, and two men. The woman was wearing graceful attire, Lady Merlin, the Level-3 Apprentice Wizard from the Tower of Hurricane, whom Angor saw the other day.

    One of the two males was a young man who possessed a handsome look. ck hair, hazel pupils, soft leather armor. A Level-2 Apprentice Wizard from the Gravity Forest, Komoen.

    The third one was an elder wearing gray hair and gray beard, yet full of energy in his eyes. The escort from White Coral Floating Ind Academy, a Level-3 Apprentice Wizard, Mr. Florent.

    An old man in a ck robe and another young man were standing behind Florent. When Aleen saw them, she quickly brightened up and began waving her hand towards them.

    She had not seen Mara and n in a long time.

 Chapter 26 - The Blood Witch

    <h4>Chapter 26: The Blood Witch</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Aleen dragged Angor towards Mara. Angor felt awkward at first, but when he saw no sign of disapproval in Mara¡¯s expression, he slowly joined Aleen.

    ¡°Grandpa, and brother. You came too!¡± Aleen rushed over to hug Mara.

    Mara greeted Aleen with a smile. ¡°Wait, Lady Merlin is about to channel mana into the nightmare stone. You better keep your distance.¡±

    The three kids nodded and followed Mara until they were away from the escorts.

    The graceful escort in elegant formal dress, Lady Merlin, walked to the front of the ship with slender steps. Under everyone¡¯s gaze, she floated the figurehead statue into the air using an unknown power and slowly put it in front of herself.

    The figurehead of The Redbud was a praying maiden wearing gauze robe. It left Angor with a deep impression when Angor first saw it because he felt something mysterious from the gem embedded on the forehead of the statue. However, he was not a supernatural yet, so the faint feeling was all he could get.

    Now, what Lady Merlin was casting finally confirmed Angor¡¯s question on that day.

    The pale crimson gem on the maiden¡¯s forehead was a supernatural item and an extraordinary magic crystal at that. It was called the ¡°nightmare stone¡±.

    As Lady Merlin used her magic to control the nightmare stone, Mara began exining the item to the kids.

    Nobody knew where the nightmare stones came from, even though it was rumored that there was something to do with another ne. The stones were extremely rare and could be used to create illusions without using magic forms. It was considered a priceless artifact used in illusions of the ult Art.

    An ordinary nightmare stone the size of a sand drop could create an area of illusion covering dozens of meters. The nightmare stone on the praying maiden statue was as big as a toddler¡¯s fist, and could easily cover a space that extended for half a kilometer under an illusion.

    Sweat drops came down from Lady Merlin¡¯s forehead. A visible wave like water ripples covered the entire ship. Lady Merlin let out a sigh in the end, waved her hands, and returned the statue to its original position. She looked a bit exhausted.

    ¡°The Mirror Veil was deployed. The Cloud Whale won¡¯t break the illusion as long as we don¡¯t attack it first,¡± said Lady Merlin. She walked back, limping a little. Activating a nightmare stone required an awfullyrge amount of mana.

    ¡°Return to your work. You were right, the Cloud Whale has a gentle nature and will not seek destruction for no reason. We¡¯re fine with the protection of Mirror Veil,¡± said Lady Merlin. She waved a hand at the second captain to ask him to go away.

    When Lady Merlin returned to the tform, the second captain had already ordered his sailors to disperse the onlookers. Most people had left the deck, and talents had returned to their own rooms.

    Komoen from the Gravity Forest looked at the Cloud Whale in the sky for quite a while. With a passionate expression, he said, ¡°The Cloud Whale can manipte the power of the sea, and exchange air around it using its air sac to fly in the sky. The creature is one of the best mounts for traversing the ocean. If only I could...¡±

    He did not finish his words, but his desire towards the Cloud Whale was obvious enough.

    Lady Merlin and Florent did not say anything. A Cloud Whale was as strong as a formal wizard. Apprentices like them would better spend more time meditating than wasting time thinking about the impossible.

    ¡°Um? Look! Something¡¯sing down the sky!¡± A sailor on the deck suddenly shouted.

    That made everyone still on the deck raise their heads to look.

    About a kilometer up in the sky, a crimson dot slowly dropped down, like a feather falling in the wind. No matter how long it dropped, it only turned in ce without going into another direction.

    Also, there was no doubt that the crimson dot wasing towards The Redbud.

    It was still far, so the kids could not make out what that was. On the other hand, the four apprentice wizards had already begun to use their far-sight spells. Various colors shined over their eyes.

    ¡°It¡¯s a human!¡± Komoen yelled.

    ¡°A woman in red,¡± Mara said. He saw more detailspared to Komoen.

    ¡°An umbre?¡± That was the only thing Lady Merlin could say after hesitating for a while, but it already showed that her observation was even better. The woman was falling like a feather because of a beautifully crafted umbre.

    Thest one toment was Florent. He had been wearing a serious look, and his gray hair and beard flowed upwards despite gravity. A stern look appeared on his once kind expression. When looking carefully enough, one could also find a bit of terror in it...

    ¡°It¡¯s Flora,¡± said Florent. His voice had trembled when he spoke.

    ¡°Flora? Which Flora?¡± Komoen clearly did not understand.

    Lady Merlin seemed to realize something. Her pupils shrunk and she pointed towards the red dot with a shaking finger, ¡°You mean, Flora the Blood Witch?¡±

    Florent nodded slowly and grimly.

    Everyone fell into silence.

    The three kids did not make any sound either since the lords anddies were acting like this. Angor noticed that all the apprentice wizards seemed shocked, so whoever wasing was surely someone special.

    Angor already witnessed the cruelty of the wizarding world. He feared that the visitor might suddenly attack them out of the blue, so he slowly dragged n and Aleen away. In the end, the kids leaned against the door leading into the lookout room.

    Mara recovered from his initial shock. He quickly nced at the kids, pushed the door open, and urged the children into the lookout room.

    ¡°Hide. Do not make a sound. Flora is a formal wizard, and a ck one. Those people usually do not care the life and death ofmon people, but she won¡¯t harm you as long as you stay out of her sight,¡± Mara warned the kids with seriousness and painful expression. He then closed the door.

    Mara joined Florent in a shaken mood. He was telling the truth¡ªformal wizards would never killmon ones for no reason, not because they were kind, but because their lifestyle was too far away frommon folks. Would someone chase after an ant on the street? No. Even apprentice wizards were just like ordinary people in the eyes of formal wizards, but they had to stay here. They were the only strength on this ship. Someone had to ¡°wee¡± this formal wizard.

    More importantly, that was Flora! A wizard who was famous for her bloodlust in the entire southern region.

    Mara felt his legs shaking.

    ...

    ¡°Lady Flora was on top of the Cloud Whale, which means the creature could have been that man¡¯s mount...¡± Lady Merlin addressed the formal wizard in a respectful way, even if she knew that Flora was actually younger than herself. A lot younger.

    They used Eagle Eye spell to check the Cloud Whale again. As expected, they saw something else. A group of demon falcons was circling around the whale¡¯s back.

    Demon falcons were originally predator eagles from arctic areas. They became demon falcons once made into scout avatars by wizards.

    Demon falcons could not survive on the sea because they must find replenishment on the ground every day, and of course, they could not do that here. So someone must have been feeding them and considering their position, that feeding ce should be on the back of the whale.

    A demon falcon was that man¡¯s favorite familiar. Realizing that, indescribable fear climbed onto everyone¡¯s face.

    ¡°If that man is hostile against The Redbud, I¡¯m afraid that even Lord Sabot won¡¯t stand a chance,¡± said Komoen. He hadpletely given up his idea towards the Cloud Whale. He did not even dare to think about it anymore.

 Chapter 27 - The Phantom Master

    <h4>Chapter 27: The Phantom Master</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Heeheehee. Look at that, such a big nightmare stone. It¡¯s my lucky day!¡±

    A voice suddenly reached everyone¡¯s ears on The Redbud. It sounded like a child about the age of seven, only without the childishness. It was strangely charming.

    Angor saw the deck outside getting restless. A sailor eximed, ¡°Impossible! The Mirror Veil failed!¡±

    Looked like Flora, the Blood Witch, who could put fear into the hearts of all apprentice wizards, had already descended to the ship.

    Angor tried to peek out of the window. Before he could stand up, Aleen dragged him back firmly. She was shaking her head with tears in her eyes. She kept silent, but she definitely meant to say something like ¨C Don¡¯t. You¡¯ll die.

    n was holding onto Angor¡¯s sleeve as well,pletely terrified.

    Angor curled his lips. Cowards.

    What he did not know was that when Flora floated past the Mirror Veil barrier created by the nightmare stone, a magic current began shifting in the air like water waves. Allmon people on the ship were repressed breathless by the aura. The aura sowed the emotion of ¡°fear¡± and ¡°escape¡± into the minds of them. This should be the effect of Mirror Veil, but since the spell was broken, such effect dispersed into the air, and small volume had seeped into the bodies of ordinary people.

    The Mirror Veil was only an inferior spell cast by an apprentice, but tomon folks, even the weakest supernatural aura seemed like an imposing mountain to them.

    This was why n and Aleen were getting an indescribable fear. Several sailors even leaped over the ship rails and joined the bottomless Devil¡¯s Water.

    Angor however, was not affected by the aura. The reason was yet unknown.

    As Angor silentlyined about the cowardice of n and Aleen, someone let out an angry yell outside, ¡°Stop it! Flora, you should know that taking the nightmare stone means defiance towards the Floating Mech City?¡±

    ¡°Floating Mech City? Hehe. I was wondering what kind of rich man was behind this. So this is your ship? Ahh, I see, three groups of random wanderers... This is a guide ship? Pity, I don¡¯t smell blood at all. Such kind of ship will only find apprentices as soft and weak as you lot.¡±

    Angor, the reserved student of a ¡°wanderer group¡± wiped some sweat drops from his forehead.

    As the discussion went on, Angor quickly coted the information he could get.

    The one talking against Flora was obviously not from the Three Major Wizard Groups. There was no way a mere apprentice would dare to oppose a formal wizard. When Flora called them ¡°random wanderers¡±, all they could do was to nod.

    Only a formal wizard of the same level could talk to Flora like that.

    ¡°The Floating Mech City,¡± Angor spoke in his mind.

    Mara mentioned that someone powerful was behind The Redbud. That must be why the ship could sail on dangerous waters without worry.

    <i>I heard there was a formal wizard on the ship, so the one talking to Flora must be him, a wizard from the Floating Mech City.</i>

    Everyone on the scene was struggling to breathe right now. Angor was the only one free enough to think about this.

    The discussion outside faded. It seemed Flora and the wizard on The Redbud reached an agreement. They left before Angor could hear anything.

    When Angor finally stood up to the window to look, he saw two figures flying towards the cloud whale.

    One of them was a bulky male. He must be the wizard from the flying city. Of course, the other smaller woman wearing a long, red dress, ck veil and a delicate umbre must be Flora.

    As he looked carefully, Angor felt as if a ck shadow was following just behind Flora.

    Maybe he was just seeing things?

    Before he could think again, the other two kids beside him began to scream.

    n and Aleen knew that the danger had gone. They had been holding back, but now they finally fully released their fears by screaming out loud.

    Angor rubbed his temples and took out a silk handkerchief from his skirt. He beganforting the kids in a low voice while suppressing his urge to leave right away.

    The door of the lookout room was pushed open. Mara walked in with a pale expression, frowning. He seemed worried.

    Looking at how Angor was trying tofort the other kids, Mara¡¯s expression towards Angor became gentler.

    ¡°Is¡ªis she gone, grandpa?¡± Aleen sobbed.

    Mara nodded. He did not exin about Flora, and only stroke Aleen¡¯s hair to soothe her. When n and Aleen stopped crying, Mara led the children away.

    Aleen asked carefully, ¡°Grandfather, why did the wizarde here?¡±

    Mara shook his head. ¡°We¡¯d better not think about what those great wizards are up to.¡±

    Upon entering the cabin, Mara took n and Aleen away to ¡°inspect their training on Triangle Channeling¡±. Angor quietly returned to his own room after saying goodbye.

    While on his way, Angor kept scratching on his back. He felt itchy all of a sudden.

    The itchy area was exactly where the poker queen cut Angor using her nails when Angor escaped from the strange world during his talent test.

    On that day, Angor checked himself in front of a mirror and saw nothing where he was hurt. There was no wound.

    But why did he feel itchy now? He reached for his back and still did not get anything. His skin back there was smooth as usual.

    After scratching a bit more, the feeling stopped.

    Angor thought it must be some kind of bug bite. With that in mind, he decided to take a bath in the bathhouse tonight.

    ...

    Meanwhile, on top of the Cloud Whale.

    A miniature manor like a ranch was constructed on the vast back of the whale.

    There were tents of different sizes inside the manor. A giant, beautiful one with a round roof stood in the center.

    Inside the tent, the bulky man from The Redbud¡ªa formal wizard from Floating Mech City, ¡°Mad Bear¡± Sabot¡ªwas speaking to a slim, middle-aged man. The moniker ¡°Mad Bear¡± was not really worthy since Sabot had been talking to the man with the utmost care and manner, whereas the slim man was not even facing him.

    The middle-aged man was wearing a ck tailcoat, white,ce shirt and a top hat. He had green, curly hair and a tender, cultured face. He appeared to be an educated noble.

    No one would believe that this elegant man once made himself known and feared upon the entire southern region all by himself. A Level-2 Wizard, ¡°Phantom Master¡± Sunders.

    Sunders obviously was not even paying attention to Sabot. He was watching an ongoing experiment on one side through his gold-rimmed monocle. Smoke was rising from his hand, which showed various illusions. Sabot only took a small peek, and his eyes instantly ached, so he never dared to raise his head again.

    Sabot continued, ¡°... Barbie¡¯s Restaurant doesn¡¯t have a fixed location. We have been traveling on the Devil¡¯s Water for a couple of weeks, and we didn¡¯t see Lord Greya¡¯s presence on our ocean locator.¡±

    Sunders crumbed the illusion in his palm like popping a bubble. Then he turned around to look at Sabot.

    ¡°It¡¯s natural you can¡¯t find Barbie¡¯s Restaurant now. Greya loves hide-and-seek. Well, she¡¯s a gourmet wizard, but she enjoys that iffy stuff loved by prophets. We need some hard luck to find her,¡± Sunders shook his head. He smiled and said, ¡°Welp, Mr. Sabot, if you have time, I¡¯ll leave it to you.¡±

    Sabot froze, then he looked up at Sunders, only to see a half smile.

    ¡°What? You have a question?¡± Flora asked. She was sitting on a high bench nearby, without wearing shoes. Her bared feet were swaying in rhythms, in a carefree manner. When she spoke, however, the brief cold look in her eyes terrified Sabot deep to his heart.

    ¡°No! Of course, I¡¯ll do it. dly. I¡¯ll ask the captain of The Redbud to patrol the surrounding waters and look for Barbie¡¯s Restaurant until we find it,¡± Sabot could only agree in the end since the situation was beyond him now. He might be from the Floating Mech City, but that would not help him right away, so he could only move along and see. Sending the talents back to the south was not an urgent task anyway. Why Sunders was looking for Barbie¡¯s Restaurant was none of his business. At least The Redbud would be safe before they could actually find the restaurant.

    When Sabot left, Flora muttered in a low voice, ¡°He¡¯s smart enough. Or else...¡±

    Sunders only shook his head without speaking. He returned his attention back to his experiment.

    Suddenly, he frowned and looked towards outside, ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°What is it, teacher?¡± Flora asked.

    Sunders did not answer, but a doubt already emerged in his mind.

    ¡°Strange. Why did I feel something from the nightmare realm?¡±

    Sunders looked down and thought, ¡°Could it be that an unknown passage to the nightmare realm is hidden in Devil¡¯s Water?¡±

    <i>If this is true...</i>

    Joy briefly went past Sunders¡¯ expression.

    He closed his eyes to carefully get a feeling about the aura, which was almost from the same origin as him. After a while, he re-opened his eyes. More doubt had reced his joyful expression.

    The aura from the nightmare realm vanished quickly. He could not sense anything now.

 Chapter 28 - Sunders

    <h4>Chapter 28: Sunders</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Maybe the nightmare stone on that ship gave out an origin reaction and connected to the nightmare realm by ident because of the space particles have a simr frequency?¡± Sunders pondered.

    Such a rare coincidence happened before. If two nes ovepped with each other and it was not carved out using great magic, it could only be a coincidence.

    Sunders¡¯ joy gradually vanished. Finding a fixed entrance to the nightmare realm meant he no longer needed to find Greya. Sunders had been alive for hundreds of years. He quickly recovered his temperament and disregarded the nightmare realm aura he sensed.

    Seeing how Sunders did not answer, Flora did not push for an answer. She had been his student for longer than anyone else, so she knew that nobody could get an answer when Sunders preferred not to tell.

    A ck owl flew into the tent, circled around, andnded on Flora¡¯s shoulder. A visible air ripple came out of the owl¡¯s beak. Flora analyzed the message contained in the ripple, then grinned.

    ¡°Teacher, Isa said that the death match in chamber four has ended. The winner is Balba.¡±

    Isa was the name of the ck owl ¨C Flora¡¯s favorite alchemy familiar.

    ¡°Oh?¡± Sunders nced towards the southwest carelessly. His eyes contained a strange magic ripple. To him, something that was far away could be seen easily from here.

    Chamber four was a giant, square, sealed-off house.

    A bald young man with dark brown, almost ck skin, wearing nothing on the upper half was now standing on top of a heap made from human corpses. A red gleam shone in his eyes, ancient totems with a fluorescent blue color slowly spread on his muscr body...

    Just like the other wizard organizations, the one Sunders was in¡ªBrute Cavern¡ªalso scouted for talented apprentices across the world when the sea unfroze. However, they used an approach which was way less peacefulpared to The Redbud.

    They arranged all talents into various chambers to join deathmatches. The final survivors were considered the best among the best, and only these people would be new apprentices of the Brute Cavern.

    The bald man in chamber four was the sole survivor in his chamber.

    Sunders showed a gentle smile and a thoughtful look, ¡°Ha. I didn¡¯t expect the winner to be a cross between a human and an otherworldly brute.¡±

    ¡°Heehee. He¡¯s not a real human from this world after all. Without enough strength, the world consciousness will get rid of him sooner orter, unless we banish him to another ne,¡± said Flora. She was also observing the corpse mountain and the survivor panting on it, using a simr vision spell.

    ¡°Teacher, what should we do about him?¡±

    ¡°The way of wizard calls for truth and the ultimate reason in the universe. We bend the rules using our own knowledge. Such great art is not to be considered alongside those petty, abilities in other ces. The otherworldly creatures have been drooling over wizardry just because it can be used by them as well,¡± said Sunders.

    He paused a little before continuing, ¡°We may already know the background of this hybrid, but we can¡¯t exclude the possibility that a powerful being from another ne tampered with his bloodline. It¡¯s almost impossible for him to be a spy, but we can¡¯t ignore that.

    ¡°Once we return, keep an eye on him for awhile. If you see any abnormality, kill him immediately. If he proves to be harmless...¡± Sunders grinned. He then said, ¡°Give him training on the Bloodline Art. When he fused with the bloodline, make him into a puppet avatar.¡±

    Spy or not, the young man¡¯s fate would be cruel, just because half of his bloodline came from another ne.

    To wizards, an otherworldly creature who came into the wizarding world by abnormal means either became ve or research material in wizards¡¯ hands or returned to dust as bones because of the world¡¯s consciousness.

    ¡°The other eight chambers witnessed their winners as well. Apart from the one in chamber four, we Brute Cavern only found eight talents this year...¡± Flora feigned a sigh, pretending to be troubled.

    ¡°Less than ten. Geez. Those infidels are going to chatter again, about revoking our death chamber recruitment or whatnot.¡±

    Sunders only smiled, ¡°Don¡¯t mind them. Those people should know that if we use the same mass recruitment method like The Redbud, the Brute Cavern would have already fallen out of the Top 10 in the southern region. Only a battle for life would make someone understand the rules of the wizarding world.¡±

    Flora made a sourpuss¡¯ face, ¡°Whatever. Hey teacher, when you find Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, just drag Greya away with us so we don¡¯t have to go find her every time we need locations. This is so tiring!¡±

    Sunders only shook his head with a smile. Greya was not much of a fighter, but she created all sorts of strange spells. If he personally confronted her, he might win, but he certainly could not capture her alive.

    ¡°Sigh. If I had not sealed the hemi-passage on me because of my desire for a better level back in the years, I would have...¡± Sunders eximed inside his mind.

    ...

    It was another hazy night. Hurricane and storm created a waterfall outside without any signs of stopping. The surface of the sea shifted in the wind, giant waves swayed The Redbud back and forth like a cradle out of control.

    Angor did not get any sleep for the entire night because all he could do was trying to steady himself until the sea calmed down under the sunlight the next day.

    Angor dragged himself to his bed using his toiled limbs and finally fell into a deep sleep while still carrying a feeling of weightlessness.

    The sleepsted until the moon hung high in the sky.

    As Angor climbed out of bed, he felt poked by the pendant in front of his chest. He took it out from his shirt and looked at the oval, transparent crystal fixed in the middle of theted metal pendant.

    ¡°The Alien Eye...¡± Angor watched in silence. It reminded him of his home, his brother, and Jon, now tens of thousands of kilometers away.

    He was about five months away from home, and he still had not reached the wizard continent. Could he really make it back home after five years?

    With a sigh, Angor put away his troubled thoughts and put the pendant back into his shirt, close to his chest. The ze sphere apanied his teacher to this world, and there must be something about it. He needed to keep it safe.

    Angor continued his redundant life: meals, puzzles, and sleep.

    Routine.

    Another week passed. When Angor walked by the dining hall one day, he unintentionally looked at the mercury mirror by the door.

    Inside the mirror, Angor was no longer himself. The energetic, handsome noble boy had be gloomy. His eyelids were hanging, decorated by dark circles. His lips were dry and chapped, his face pale and dark.

    Exhaustion and pressure had forced him into this shape in such a short amount of time.

    He could no longer recall when he had a goodughst time.

    He went to the wash basin and nned to calm himself down by putting his face in the cold water. The five-year promise had led him astray, and those noble manners and politeness carved inside his bones were beginning to crumble.

    His mind was not right. Yet Angor did not intend to change it, at least not before he solved the puzzles left by Teacher. He would keep his spirit tensed up for now.

    Besides, The Redbud did not have any facilities for relieving stress. The other talents could train meditation. But what could he do, apart from solving puzzles?

 Chapter 29 - A Letter to My Student, Angor

    <h4>Chapter 29: A Letter to My Student, Angor</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As time went by, Angor¡¯s daily routine never changed but at least his spirit recovered a lotpared to his dejection several days ago.

    While working on the puzzles, he noticed something strange.

    The Redbud kept cruising in the same area.

    Just a while ago, Angor saw a uniquely-shaped red reef for the fourth time in the half month.

    This was why Angor believed that The Redbud was not nning to leave Devil¡¯s Water at all.

    He once tried asking a pilot, but the man only mumbled something vague without giving him a clear answer.

    Apparently, the pilot already knew that The Redbud had been staying in the same ce, but did not want to talk about it. There must be someone important behind all this, and the pilot either could not exin or did not dare to.

    Who could manipte the wheel of The Redbud? There was no doubt ¨C a formal wizard.

    Reaching that conclusion, Angor decided not to think about the matter for any longer. No matter what the wizard was trying to do, he could not do anything about it. The Redbud was his only foothold on Devil¡¯s Water anyway, so Angor¡¯s only choice was to get along.

    He did not enjoy such powerlessness, yet he had toply. Angor really hoped that someday, he could gain enough strength to protect himself, instead of leaving his own life in the hands of someone else.

    ...

    Today was the 167th day Angor was away from Grue Town, and thest day he worked on his puzzles.

    Angor carefully opened a red-painted wooden box in his luggage. The box contained one single object: a square-shaped, crystal tablet, smaller than a child¡¯s palm, while as thin as insect wings.

    The crystal tablet was not something from this world. Jon brought it from the Earth.

    It only acted as a holographicmunication tool back on the Earth. It was made into a watch and sold across the world. The strap of the watch was already worn down during all these years, so Jon discarded the strap and kept the watch in perfect condition.

    Angor shut his door and adeptly pressed on the small bud located on the bottom-right corner of the tablet, the power button.

    A simple hologram and a set of holographic buttons appeared in the air.

    A line written in Hanzi was disyed on it:

    [Screen locked. Answer the question set by the admin to unlock.]

    [Question 100: Rectify the hologram below using the Five Seidel Aberrations, then resolve the final password using Vigen¨¨re Cipher ording to the spectral alignment.]

    The 100th question was thest one Jon left Angor.

    He used to be very cautious about using the tablet beforeing to the ship. He had to memorize the questions quickly and put the tablet away in somewhere safe. Now that he had his own private room, he could finally take the device out.

    Every solved question led him to the next one. Angor used all the knowledge he had learned to find the answers. Chemistry, physics, medicine, mathematics... sometimes even philosophy. There were a lot of physical constants from the Earth which no longer worked in this world, but Jon only left him basic applications, and Angor had no problem working them out.

    Today, he was about to give the final answer.

    He spent the entire afternoon. When he finally arranged the answer to thest question, his hands froze in ce.

    ¡°9371201.¡±

    This number meant nothing to other people, but Angor understood what it meant.

    Using the calendar of Goldspink Empire, this was Goldspink Year 937, the first day of the Month of Freezing Earth.

    Angor¡¯s birthday.

    ¡°This is the final answer?¡± Angor entered the digits into the answer box on the disy, puzzled.

    The light shifted on the screen, then a different system message came out.

    [Correct answer detected. Now unlocking the screen. The admin can change the login password from the system menu.]

    The words disappeared, which were then reced by a clean-looking picture of a vast grasnd. There were two icons on the upper-right of the desktop: a folder, and a text document, named ¡°To Angor¡±.

    Jon told him about how to operate the smart watch before but this was still the first time for Angor to try the actual system himself. With curiosity and some expectation, he gave a gentle tap on the document icon.

    A secondter, an electronic letter was disyed quietly in front of Angor.

    [To my student, Angor:

    I wonder how long those 100 questions troubled you? And how far away are you from home?

    For many times, I get the feeling that you have been too hard on yourself. Really, you don¡¯t have to spend so much effort on these old bones of mine.

    I told you that my home was an ancient country with a history of longer than five thousand years. Of course, that¡¯s not really ¡°ancient¡±pared to the history here. A poet from a neighboring country with the same long history who made his life into philosophy once said: I leave no trace of wings in the air, but I am d I have had my flight. <sup>1</sup>

    My life started on the Earth and would end on a foreign star. It was amazing. The worlds are different, but they both have the same blue sky. My only regret is my family... My poor wife and child. I thought it was only a research trip for several days, oh my... Never thought that was our goodbye forever.

    To think in another way, my wife and my daughter are the traces in the sky on Earth, telling people that I once existed there.

    Angor, my student, you are the trace proving that I have lived under this foreign sky. You not only inherited the culture from China, but you will also enkindle that ember in this world.

    Not I think about it, my ¡°wings¡± have left some awesome traces. They crossed different spaces and universes. The people who crossed into other worlds I read about were all talented ones who won themselves great fortune against the locals. As for me... I came here to spread my knowledge! Ha. Maybe I¡¯ll die earlier than those novel heroes, but I did have a higher purpose.

    Speaking about the wizarding world, I¡¯d really like to see it. I¡¯ve been believing that this world is just as dull as the Earth, and man, how it surprised me with such a mystery! Although, perhaps I no longer have the time to see it for myself.

    Such a pity.

    I cannot see it, but you still can. I hope that¡ªAngor, my student¡ªwould walk on the path of a wizard till the end. Like every schr who is faithful to his subject, use concepts as a singr point and ignite the new universe with your knowledge.

    You have done a hundred questions, now I can give you a new one: Compose an essay that exins all truths throughout the wizarding world. Will you do it?

    Apart from this, I write this letter to tell you that you should use all the knowledge you learned from me, use it well. Some of the physical constants are off in this world, but for a schr, the process of finding a result is just as important as the result itself. I¡¯ve already told you the way of thinking, now it¡¯s up to you to find a path that suits you best.

    Oh, if I predicted right, you should be on the sea by now.

    You can¡¯t find much entertainment out there, so I put something in this smart chip, as myst gift for you. Hope you like them.

    Jon]

    Finishing the letter, Angor stayed silent for a long time.

    He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He felt sad all of a sudden. He could not imagine what Jon was feeling when he wrote the letter but he could understand Jon¡¯s deep love towards him behind every word.

    Angor went through the memories living with his dear teacher and spaced out.

    He finally woke from his thoughts when the night had alreadye.

    He let out a deep sigh, not knowing who or what he sighed for.

    Remembering the method to operate the watch, Angor carefully saved the letter. He even made a second copy just in case.

    Then, he closed the letter.

    Feeling a bit lost, as well as an indescribable expectation, he opened the only folder on the desktop.

 Chapter 30 - Saved Files

    <h4>Chapter 30: Saved Files</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Jon said he left some gift for Angor.

    Angor did not think much about it, but when he opened the folder and saw the masses of documents in there, he finally understood how valuable they were.

    Jon had transferred all files saved in his brain chip into this folder.

    <i>Astronomy, geography, literature, and novels... There are even some cultures and music sheets.</i>

    Angor never knew why his teacher could know everything throughout history. Jon could cultivate nts, build houses, cook, and exin the knowledge of every subject. Now Angor understood. This was totally possible using the technology from Earth.

    Every newly born child on the Earth would receive a parasitic chip. This chip could be considered aputer without awork. It automatically saved various data and connected the data to the hippocampus on the brain so the data was never forgotten. This must be why Jon kept everything he knew even after crossing into another world.

    The chip on the brain could not be physically transferred or else Jon might have given Angor the chip instead. It was bound to one¡¯s brain and would never be lost. Having the chip meant someone had the ability of instant photographic memory.

    Angor still had the holographic tablet though. It might take more time to memorize the knowledge since it could not be connected to the brain. However, as long as he was persistent, Angor would be well-learned sooner orter.

    With that in mind, Angor carefully put the tablet away, close to his body. To him, the device possessed more value than anything in the world.

    With the holographic tablet, Angor¡¯s life changed greatly.

    He spent almost all his days on the tablet, and would only put it down when it needed to recharge using sr energy.

    He did not start reading Jon¡¯s data right away. Instead, he scanned his boxes of books bought from Moonwater City one by one and saved them into the tablet. As Jon said, knowledge was everything for a schr. This was why Angor¡¯s first task was to transfer his books into the device.

    The scan process was not easy. The tablet had a camera for catching images, and the system could convert images into words. However, it could only do it for characters used on Earth, not the officialnguage used in Goldspink Empire.

    Besides, the system only supportednguages from Earth, so Angor could only save all the pictures into a folder for now. He would trante them into Chinese copies when he had time.

    After scanning all the books and assorting them, a week had already passed.

    Now Angor had nothing else to do. The life on the sea was dull, and n and Aleen had been training their mana channeling without paying him many visits. Angor felt lonely.

    To answer his curiosity, Angor began looking at the data saved in the tablet.

    First, he read some famous works published by scientists on Earth. However, he soon realized that much data in the articles only applied in the universe where the Earth was, so he began reading less and only looking for the ideas behind them.

    Angor¡¯s reading gradually expanded. When he was free, he even looked at the entertainment section, listened to some music from Earth, and read folk novels that had nothing to do with literature.

    After reading some novels, Angor understood what his teacher meant by saying ¡°having a higher purpose than the other novel heroes¡± in his letter.

    Some of the novels that always ¡°kill heaven because heaven wants me dead¡± or ¡°y the god because the god is in my way¡± were really embarrassing to look at, but there were still some of the transmigration novels that interested Angor and helped him pass the time.

    As he read more literature, Angor became more and more curious about the Earth. He really hoped he could go to the big cities some day and look at all the high-end science and technologies. What he did not know was that a sub-folder in the entertainment folder contained videos several thousands of terabytesrge, and every drama filmed in the cities could tell him what the Earth looked like.

    This was another story.

    One day, Angor re-arranged the folders on the tablet and created two main categories: ¡°The Earth¡± and ¡°My World¡±. Then, he read a chapter of <i>The Snows Of Kilimanjaro </i>, before he left his room to eat.

    Before he could reach the dining hall, a sharp whistle noise sounded across the whole ship.

    It came from multiple ces, with each cycle consisting of three long blows and two short ones. Angor immediately realized that this was a red alert on The Redbud.

    He quickly became serious about the situation and began walking back to his room. Mara told them that if the ship went into red alert, they had better stay in their own rooms.

    On his way back, Angor saw most of the other talents discussing over the matter with their doors opened.

    Some said a sea monster was attacking, some said about an iing storm, and some mentioned a reef strike. Someone even said the Cloud Whale in the sky was about to attack The Redbud. They were all guesses, all bad ones. Everyone appeared to be worried and terrified.

    Fear was something one would expect on the endless sea but only the unpredictable future would make the fear worse.

    Angor was worried as well even though he knew this would not change anything. He did not have the power to change his own fate right now, so all he could do was to pray for peace.

    Upon returning to his room, Angor quickly opened the air vent on the wall and looked towards outside using the small window.

    To his disappointment, he could not see anything.

    A thick mist had engulfed the ship for god knew how long. He could hardly see beyond ten meters.

    The ¡°unknown¡± could trigger a man¡¯s boundless imagination. Angor was only a teenager. He might be a bit more mature and independentpared to the other kids, but that did not mean he could stay calm now.

    He told himself that the alert was because of the great mist, and everything would be fine when the mist dissipated. However, he did not even believe himself. It was only the best excuse he could use tofort himself when he could not do anything else.

    The hour hand on the clock slowly moved.

    It was nearly four in the afternoon, and the mist outside was still thick as before. The whistle indicating the end of the alert on The Redbud never came.

    Everything seemed unchanged.

    And soon enough, something happened.

 Chapter 31 - The Gourmet Mirage

    <h4>Chapter 31: The Gourmet Mirage</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Everyone on the ship smelled a delicious taste almost at the same time. Before the feeding center in their hypothmus couldmand them to ¡°find food¡±, they already felt their visions blurred and fell into a mirage weaved by the delicious smell of food.

    This was the same for Angor.

    All kinds of stunningly colorful dishes floated in front of his eyes, making him want to dig in right away. When apanied by the persistent aroma rubbing against his nose, Angor could not control his hands from reaching for the honeyed roast drumstick beside him.

    Uncontrolled desire could affect all of man¡¯s physiological attributes, including sanity.

    When the desire to eat had filled Angor¡¯s brain, he lost all reason, all logic. His mind was as blurry as a beast.

    He was not the only one. Allmon people on the ship had been seized by the desire for food and screamed madly, coveting the mirage food.

    As Angor struggled against his uncontroble appetite, an itchy feeling worse than the hunger suddenly appeared around the debones on his back.

    He did not know where it came from or where it went. It was so sudden, like bottled beer being shaken hard and burst out of the container before people could open the cap, covering everything nearby with liquid.

    Itch...

    So much itch¡ª

    Like tens of thousands of ants crawling in the depth of his bones.

    Itch to the bone, literally.

    However, the feeling was not all about bad things as even the maddening hunger retreated against the torrential itchiness.

    Anything could be overthrown given the smallest chance, so was sanity. The emotion for food had seized Angor¡¯s sanity, but the sudden ckening gave Angor a chance to retaliate.

    The itchy feeling forced Angor¡¯s appetite away. He could only keep scratching his back. The itchiness went away as fast as it came, and when it ended, Angor realized he was no longer desperate for food, Without the will to eat, the mirage of food in front of him could no longer affect his mind.

    Angor looked at the colorful dishes that were still floating around him and shivered in fear. That was not a honey roast drumstick he was reaching for. It was his usual candle.

    If he actually ate the candle like a drumstick... Angor did not dare to imagine what would happen next.

    He tried his best to avoid the illusions from now on.

    Such illusions could only have been the work of a talented sea monster or a wizard with supernatural power. Angor could not guess whatever the purpose was behind this, but he was unwilling to get controlled by his hunger either. Seeing how the illusions were still floating around, he simply closed his eyes. Out of sight, out of mind.

    Maybe the supernatural being who created the mirage did not intend to kill. With Angor not minding the illusions, they never caused any more trouble again, which was a great relief.

    Now, Angor calmed enough to remember what had just happened.

    After a while, Angor reached for his back, puzzled.

    The same ce again.

    <i>What¡¯s going on?</i>

    That was not the first time he felt such itchiness. It came and left quickly every time, without leaving any traces behind.

    Angor frowned hard. At least he was sure there was nothing on his back, at least on the outside. If there was something, it might have been where he was scratched by the strange woman in the ¡°illusion¡± during his talent test.

    Angor thought it was only an illusion created by Abelles¡¯ Eye. He had checked himself in the mirror after the test and did not find any wounds on his back.

    However, as he had experienced the weird itchiness several times, he began to doubt that the world was not an illusion after all. Maybe just as he guessed, that was another world parallel to the reality.

    Maybe where he got hurt kept some traces from the strange world, causing his condition.

    Angor did not know if this was correct, but his current knowledge would not allow him to reach a better conclusion.

    Would ite again? Would there be something worse? He did not know. Fearing for the unknown threat, he made up his mind that he would tell Mara about it as long as he could survive the current situation.

    Time was unrelenting. Nobody knew whether the next seizure would endanger his life, so he could only seek help from Mara as the quickest approach, instead of waiting for his own study.

    As Angor made his conjectures, The Redbud had sailed into the depth of the mist. A group of people reached the source of the ¡°delicious mirage¡±.

    Sunders silently stood on the vast back of the demon falcon. He was wearing his usual top hat while carrying the same noble temperament. Flora was sitting on the edge of the demon falcon¡¯s wing, with an eerie smile on her face. She was looking at several people standing on The Redbud with malevolent intent.

    Five individuals were standing on the deck of The Redbug, with Sabot in the middle. Apart from the three guides appointed by the Three Major Wizard Organizations, Mara, and Easley, who just broke through into Level-1 Apprentice, were also among them.

    Flora inspected the group for quite a while. Then she chuckled and spoke with her strange yet charming child-like voice, ¡°Heehee... Mad Bear Sabot, since when did you be a babysitter? Are you gonna feed those kids?¡±

    The three guides, who were just referred to as ¡°kids¡±, lowered their heads in silence.

    Of course, Sabot was angered by the insult. Yet he did not dare to do anything in front of Sunders. He only pretended to be oblivious of the taunt and replied with a hearty smile.

    ¡°Haha, the Blood Witch is joshing. It¡¯s hard to run into Greya¡¯s Restaurant, and these inexperienced lots are itching to see it,¡± Sabot joked.

    Flora half-closed her eyes and let out of sneer in her mind.

    <i>See the restaurant? More like looking for a free meal.</i>

    Greya was not just a generous chef. Free meal? Dream on.

    Greya was simr to those lunatics from the <i>Candy House </i>. They might act mad, but they would not make anypromises against their principle.

    There was only one way to gain entry into Greya¡¯s Restaurant: by owning the invitation card.

    Without the card, Greya would shut her door against even the most legendary wizard.

    To be epted by the restaurant, Sunders paid a lot of resources to get himself a bronze invitation card.

    Ha... Now Flora really wanted to see the expressions on the faces of these ignorant fools.

 Chapter 32 - Visitors from the Organizations

    <h4>Chapter 32: Visitors from the Organizations</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Flora did not intend to remind them at all. Instead, she cast an interested nce towards the young man standing behind Lady Merlin, Easley.

    Such a rich spirit cloud, and those energetic spirit ripples... Flora ginned. He got potential. A talent fitted for the path of spiritual power.

    Flora¡¯s eyes rolled around, then she cast a floating spell and moved to Easley with a sweet smile.

    ¡°Hey, honey, do you want toe to the Brute Cavern? Big sis can introduce you to a mentor!¡± She reached out a white finger and gave Easley a gentle tap.

    Easley shivered as if he was just electrocuted. A pink shade quickly covered his handsome face.

    Flora was floating in front of Easley. Thick mist lingered behind her back. The air was damp, and Easley was sweating in his palms. The scene had be a fixed painting for him. This was the first time he felt such warm emotion since his childhood partner was murdered by the Silverheron Family.

    Flora appeared young. She had a slim, short body and an innocent smile. Behind those ckish green eyes carried something deep behind them. Every gesture¡ªa raised eyebrow or a mild nce¡ªwould release something irresistibly charming. Just like her voice, thebination of something from two extremes.

    Her clothing was just as attractive. Her pastel hair was coiled into the shape of a flower, with only several wisps dangling near her ears. A dark redtedce veil covered her hair and one side of her face. The long, crimson gauze skirt on her was somewhat transparent. Several dark red roses were sewn around the pleats.

    She was not wearing shoes. Those smooth, clean-white bared feet would appear asionally from under her semi-transparent skirt.

    For Easley, every part on Flora, from tip to toe, was attractive. He did not even know where he should look at.

    ¡°I¡ªI¡ª¡± Easley gulped and tried to answer, but somehow, all he could do was to stutter.

    Flora smiled because of her sessful attempt. Before leaving the Brute Cavern with Sunders, a wizard colleague who shared a fine rtionship with her asked her to find talent with spiritual power beyond 20. Looked like the wizard needed such a talent toplete a spell design.

    She did not find any on her way, and she was not expecting to meet one right here.

    If she could bring Easley back to the Brute Cavern, the wizard would reward her for good. She was not interested in rewards, but she had been researching on a gue source spread via blood, and she needed a pathogen originated from the Demon Abyss from the Tainted ne. The colleague happened to possess such a pathogen.

    As for what would be of Easley when he was sent to that wizard, who was famous for his cruel experiment during which he actually extracted the brains from living creatures... that would be none of her business.

    ¡°What? You don¡¯t want toe?¡± Flora dragged on Easley¡¯s cor with a childish giggle. A gentle pull and they moved exceptionally close to each other.

    Easley could not speak a word right now. He could only feel his face burning, and his heart racing like hell. Happy scenes he never could dream of during his very began to sh through his mind.

    The guide from Tower of Hurricane, Lady Merlin, had been standing beside Easley. She was very confident in Easley¡¯s talent and believed the young man could very possibly be a formal wizard. She even secretly decided to wager her valuable resources on Easley. She only waited to get back to her organization and act quickly. Now she did not expect Flora to suddenlye in her way.

    However, Lady Merlin could only bear with her anger with her teeth clenched. She could not oppose Flora. All she did was looking at Easley with worry, hoping that the young man could clear his mind quickly and get rid of Flora¡¯s fake charm.

    Easley was only a young man without much experience. He could not even control his own drooling with Flora seducing him up close, and could only have his mind dragged around by the woman.

    ¡°Okay...¡± Easley muttered with misty eyes.

    Flora chuckled and prepared to drag Easley away. However, a sudden yell stopped her.

    ¡°Flora! Taking Easley away like that means you finally decided to go against the Tower of Hurricane?¡±

    Flora squinted her eyes and looked at the speaker.

    A man and a woman wearing mysterious-looking wizard robes emerged from the thick mist on the endless sea. The middle-aged man was wearing a ck, golden-edged robe. He was rushing in the air. Every time he waved his metal stick, his figure would advance hundreds of meters.

    While the young woman beside him was covered by water blooms and walking on the water. There seemed to be a long, slim shadow in the water under her bared feet.

    The middle-aged man was the one who warned Flora.

    ¡°Jel the Mythril Innovator...¡± Realizing who hade, Flora no longer used her charming voice and reced it with a cold, emotionless tone. ¡°What. The child is willing. You want to stop him now?¡±

    With that, Flora nced at Sabot in defiance. The Mad Bear had been trying to pretend that he did not exist.

    The visitors were Jel, ¡°The Mythril Innovator¡±, from Tower of Hurricane, and Heroline, ¡°Ocean Moray¡±, from White Coral Floating Ind Academy. They were both formal wizards. Famous ones. Especially Jel. He majored in alchemy, and earned himself the title of ¡°Mythril Innovator¡±. That alone showed his great knowledge about the changing properties of metallic elements.

    Jel was not strong, but the title of an alchemist gave himself a great position in the southern wizard world. Even Sunders would not want to make him an enemy without a good reason.

    Without a doubt, they came here because of Sabot¡¯s message for help. That was why Flora nced at Sabot.

    Sabot did not really have a choice. The Redbud was forced by Sunders and Flora to look for Barbie¡¯s Restaurant on Devil¡¯s Water, and no one knew whether these two moody wizards would suddenly decide to ughter every talent on the ship after they found what they wanted. Sabot was from the Floating Mech City, so he was not afraid of the pair himself. However, his mission was to ensure that every talent reached the Fey Continent untouched. So, he sent alert to the three organizations just in case.

    Jel already reached the crowd in a blink of an eye. He first nodded towards Sunders as a greeting and made sure Sunders would not intervene, before turning to Flora.

    ¡°Look at Easley¡¯s spirit cirction closely, Flora. He has already learned the Nirvana Hexagram Channeling method of Tower of Hurricane. Are you nning to take him away and steal our secret?¡±

    In the wizarding world, every organization had its own channeling method. Peeking at someone else¡¯s method might result in hostility towards the respective organization. However, this was not always the case. There were good and bad channeling methods. The methods openly distributed by the organizations were usually intended for the public, and such methods were not really efficient.

    Besides, most wizards were used to living carefree lives. Giving away their channeling methods asionally was not something serious. Of course, valuable and rare channeling methods had their own safety measures. Most of such knowledge was only essible to core members of wizard organizations while under the limit of a lot of restrictions.

    This was the reason why rarely any wizard wars wereunched around channeling methods.

    However, Jel¡¯s excuse was still enough to discourage Flora.

    A green light appeared upon her eyes. Flora scanned Easley to see the inner model constructed by his spiritual power. As Jel said, it was a hexagram, drawn with both dotted and solid lines.

    Flora humphed, ¡°It¡¯s just a petty model, anyone could see how to make one. Big deal.¡±

    With that, Flora returned to Sunders, never to mind Easley again.

    Easley was still hesitating. He felt disappointed. Jel noticed his condition and red at him, ¡°Get behind, you little disgrace.¡±

    Easley¡¯s face quickly went pale. He gulped and stood backward in fear.

    However, no one noticed the small trace of darkness lingering in his eyes, and his tightly-clenched fists hidden under his sleeves.

 Chapter 33 - Nothing Special

    <h4>Chapter 33: Nothing Special</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When the argument ended, Jel and Heroline also joined everyone on the deck of The Redbud.

    Since the strong help was here, Sabot finally calmed down.

    Jel looked really pissed off. He gave his metal staff a strong grasp, and where the staff was pointing at¡ªthe sturdy deck below¡ªimmediately cracked open. Dust and wooden shards flew everywhere.

    Jel¡¯s action scared every apprentice on the scene terribly. Easley even kept stepping back until he was backing against a mast.

    Easley¡¯s calves trembled hard. How could he forget that a mighty wizard was standing in front of him, but not some spoiled noble kid from the Silverheron?

    His fear worsened. He nearly wished to kneel before Jel and beg for mercy right this moment, but he could not even find the courage to do it when being suppressed by Jel¡¯s mighty aura.

    Luckily, Jel did not intend to hurt anyone. He only gave Easley another cold re, before he lifted his aura.

    Once Sabot realized that Jel had done his ¡°scolding¡±, he moved to Jel with a polite smile and cast a cantrip called Cleanse, to wipe all the dust and broken deck parts away.

    Without minding what just happened, Sabot asked out of curiosity, ¡°You¡¯re the only ones? Where¡¯s Gravity Forest?¡±

    Jel had just put away his rage. He was still wearing a cold face, without giving any answer.

    Heroline replied to Sabot¡¯s question while those water mist continued to circle around her.

    ¡°The Gravity Forest sent ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko. He was attracted by a magic nt on an ind though. I¡¯m afraid he¡¯s still trying to transnt it.¡±

    Despite the name ¡°Dryad¡±, everyone still knew that Boko was a human, not the particr sapient humanoid race from another ne called the Treants.

    As for the reason why Boko got his moniker, he majored in the Bloodline Art ¨C not the bloodline of animals, but nts. He never told anyone what kind of nt he transnted into his body. When he joined a fight, he would show his giant figure like a treant, thus his name ¡°Dryad¡±.

    Komoen, who had been standing behind Sabot, also let out a sigh in relief when he heard that his organization also sent someone.

    ¡°¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko... I heard he¡¯s an expert in carving spell lines. The wands he made are considered fine works even in the Floating Mech City.¡± Sabot nodded in respect.

    Heroline only smiled.

    After exchanging greetings, Jel and Heroline walked to their respective guides.

    Heroline joined Florent and lifted the water curtain covering her body. She was a youngdy with a fine body and a cold expression. Her hair was like a flowing waterfall, and her eyes were blue and shining like stars. Apanied by her long dress with a simr blue, gradient color, Heroline appeared like someone from the seas.

    Heroline looked at Mara, who was standing behind Florent and raised her pale-blue eyebrow. ¡°I know you. Mara Morn, right? You learned me spells from my mentor 20 years ago.¡±

    With a start, Mara quickly nodded. ¡°Lady Heroline! You must have a lot of affairs to attend to, yet you still remember these old, pathetic bones of mine. It¡¯s such an honor.¡±

    Heroline inspected Mara¡¯s strength. A Level-3 Apprentice Wizard. She nodded slightly to express her approval.

    That slight nod gave Mara an irrepressible joy. Did he just leave an impression to a formal wizard?

    It sounded unimportant, but the truth was that a tiny impression was sometimes enough topletely change an apprentice¡¯s future. Mara once heard a story where a lucky boy once happened to impress a formal wizard. When that wizard finished an experiment, he gave his leftover materials to the boy. These materials saved the boy decades of effort. The boy became Level-3 Apprentice Wizard before he turned 30, and continued his unstoppable progression until he finally became a formal wizard.

    Knowing the story that encouraged countless apprentices, of course, Mara was excited.

    However, Heroline was not really interested in what Mara was thinking. She turned to Florent and asked, ¡°Found any decent ones this year?¡±

    Florent bowed carefully before he gave Heroline a brief exnation about the talents recruited for White Coral Floating Ind Academy.

    ¡°Anyone with special body properties or talents?¡± Heroline asked.

    She had not found herself a real student for several decades now, because students with good talents were so scarce. She decided to finally recruit one this year, and if she could really find a student with decent talent, she would make the first move. This was why Heroline did not even ask about Barbie¡¯s Restaurant first.

    Florent tried to recall the talents he found and remembered no special ones. ¡°I found a total of seven from the Land of Revtion, the Magus Corridor, and the Valha Isle. None had special body properties. As for special talent... there seems to be one. A talent from the Valha Isle imed he saw shining stars in the sky when taking the talent test when there was nothing at all in the middle of a winter night.¡±

    ¡°Stars on a starless night?¡± Heroline pondered. She hesitated before saying, ¡°I think I saw a simr description in the 467th volume of <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection </i>. It talked about a child from a wizard family. When he touched the Abelles¡¯ Eye, he saw every star in the sky circling around a track, so all stars formed countless star trails. It also mentioned about the test being done on a starless night.

    ¡°After a more detailed test, the talent was truly a special talent that was proved to develop towards astrology of ult Art, so the kid majored in astrology divination,¡± said Heroline. She then shook her head in pity, ¡°Regretfully, he did not be a wizard. He died of age, putting his talent to waste.¡±

    Everyone also felt regret. Even good talent could not save people from aging. If one did not be a wizard, one would turn to dust.

    ¡°The one you talked about just now appeared to possess talent in astrology. Not bad,¡± said Heroline. She then sighed, ¡°It¡¯s a pity that I don¡¯t know anything about ult.¡±

    epting that one as a student would be wasteful. Of course, she could still do it. However, she would have to spend a lot of time teaching him while knowing that the student would probably fail. Heroline certainly would not want to do something so thankless.

    She declined the idea silently, then asked Florent again, ¡°Are there any other special talents apart from that one?¡±

    Florent shook his head. ¡°Apart from the seven talents, Mara also found three. I don¡¯t know about them though.¡±

    When Heroline looked at Mara, Mara quickly tidied his clothes and stepped up politely. He said, ¡°I found three talents from Marginalized Ind. Two of them are my grandchildren, their talent is fine, but not special. As for the third one...¡±

    Mara recalled the day of Angor¡¯s test. The Talent Sphere shined brightly, but he remembered Angor mentioning ¡°floating¡±.

    ¡°Floating¡± was still amon talent.

    ¡°There was nothing special about the third one, either,¡± Mara gave Heroline a firm answer.

    Listening to their exnation, Heroline¡¯s expression became disappointed. Decent talents were rare, after all.

    Heroline nced at Easley. If not for the fact that the kid already learned the channeling method of Tower of Hurricane, she would have tried to win him over. A young man with such outstanding spiritual power would very likely be a formal wizard regardless of the path he took.

    Pity... he already joined the Tower of Hurricane. Sure, Jel inflicted great pressure on the boy, even scolded him, but Jel never actually harmed him. Usually, when someone offended Jel, someone would either die or get hurt badly. Jel made an exception this time just because of Easley¡¯s outstanding talent, or the consequence would probably be more severe.

    ¡°When we¡¯re done with the situation, show those talents to me,¡± Heroline spoke. The test using Abelles¡¯ Eye was only a basic test, so it could go wrong. They were on the sea now. She had plenty of time afterward, so she would just take the time and go see for herself.

    Mara and Florent instantly knew what Heroline was nning to do. They even began to envy the young talents for their good fortune.

    Heroline had a good name in the academy. Unlike the other wizards who always acted noble and arrogant, Heroline was gentler towards apprentices, a pleasant sight in the world of wizards.

    Now Heroline even nned to test the talents herself despite her identity. Such a great honor!

    Mara was feeling content about leaving a small impression to Heroline just a second ago. Now, he envied the ¡°students¡± concerned by Heroline... including his two grandchildren.

 Chapter 34 - Welcome to Barbieâ€™s Restaurant

    <h4>Chapter 34: Wee to Barbie¡¯s Restaurant</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    About half an hourter, the thick mist covering the sea gradually dispersed, along with the illusions made from attractive meals.

    With the illusions gone, all people on The Redbud who had been dominated by their hunger for food also woke up. A terriblemotion soon followed. Some people enjoyed an oily feast in the illusion and found themselves munching on a desk leg with several teeth gone. When someone realized they had been biting on theirpanions, blood already filled their mouths. There were even people eating burning candles. When they woke up, their hair, eyebrows, face, tongue, and lips were already burnt for good.

    It was a disaster for everymon man on The Redbud!

    To supernaturals, it was only a harmless game. No one died anyway, so none of the guides spared the effort to alert people.

    In the end, onlymon people who could not control their own fates suffered.

    When the mistpletely cleared, a children¡¯s chorus came from southeast of the ship.

    Every supernatural looked towards its source.

    An elegant building appeared on the sea behind the vanishing mist.

    The building had a colorful whelk shell as its roof and childish, twisting wall structures. Rainbow balloons of various shapes filled the sky. Dogs, hearts, cats... The air was filled with a sweet smell. All of thesebined gave Barbie¡¯s Restaurant a dazzling look. It was like a princess castle in a fairytale, everything was created in a little girl¡¯s style.

    ¡°There it is... Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.¡± Sunders looked at the brightly-colored, amusement park-like structure, and muttered.

    Barbie¡¯s Restaurant was a fantasy castle supported by arge, round base. Ripples were flowing around it, and the joyful waves dancing in the water appeared as if they were weing everyone.

    Everyone apart from Sunders and Flora saw Barbie¡¯s Restaurant for the first time and they were all shocked speechless by the castle-like restaurant.

    Then, all males shook their heads.

    Heroline, as a female, also frowned a bit.

    They were allining about the rumored gourmet wizard for having such a bizarre taste inside their minds.

    La, La, Lla...

    Bum, Bum, Pump-a-rum...

    A music band made up of two teams of toy soldiers wearing red and white uniforms which were about the same height as everyone¡¯s knees suddenly appeared from the colorful front door of the restaurant.

    The team on the left had iron drums, while the one on the right was striking gongs decorated by red belts.

    During their music, the toy soldiers formed into two lines. With two loud, united goose steps, they put away their instruments and made a military salute towards the center, as if waiting to be inspected by theirmander.

    ¡°Neee¡ªhaha! Neee¡ªhahahaha!¡±

    A burst of strangeughter came from the door, followed by a figure walking with weird, syed out feet.

    When the sying weirdo stepped out of the door, he quickly performed a ballet, made a 1080-degree spinning move in front of everyone, and finally ended his performance with a gentleman-like chest salute.

    ¡°Neehahahaha! Wee, honored guests, to Barbieeeeee¡¯s Restaurant!!!¡±

    High-pitched, exaggerated voice with strange break points came from the sy-feet weirdo. When he was finished, the toy soldiers on the sides began their drumbeat. Balloons flew into the air, colorful ribbons and confetti fell from the sky.

    After the ribbons hadnded and everyone could finally shift their eyesights away from the bright colors, they could finally look at the weirdo clearly.

    It was a small, humanoid creature with long limbs and an exceptionallyrge head.

    Triangr head, rising eye corners, and spike hair like a hedgehog. He was grinning so widely it almost split his face in two. Several long whiskers like those of beasts also grew from his cheeks. Combining everything together, the creature was both funny and creepy.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I wee you again, to Barbie¡¯s Restaurant!¡± The weirdo leaped into the air, made another 360-degree ballet spin, and took out an alchemy microphone from God-knew-where. Hended on the ground with a front-split, while introducing himself, ¡°Neehaha! I am the guard captain of Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, and the one responsible for weing guests, Tom Weasel!¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Everyone was rendered speechless by the bizarre performance.

    When Tom Weasel realized that no one was responding, he quickly yelled to the toy soldiers nearby, and without a tiny bit of embarrassment, he said, ¡°Apuse, you junk!¡±

    p p p... Chaotic, scattered pping came from the toy soldiers.

    Tom Weasel made another 720-degree ballet spin in satisfaction and ended his act with a grand jet¨¦. Next, he stepped to the high tform closest to everyone using his usual syed-feet.

    ¡°Showy, exaggerating, and childish,¡± Sunders pulled the edge of his top-hat down to his forehead and chuckled coldly, ¡°Greya¡¯s strange taste never changed.¡±

    Tom Weasel heard Sunders¡¯ words and looked towards him, who had been standing on the back of his demon falcon.

    ¡°Neehahaha, Mister Sunders! Weasel was wondering why he felt something from the nightmare realm. Sir, your aura grew even cryptically strongerpared tost time we met on the Soul Und!¡± Tom Weasel eximed with an exaggerated expression. He even performed another ballet move when mentioning ¡°stronger¡±.

    Sunders did not reply. He simply looked away without paying attention to Weasel anymore. Everyone from Barbie¡¯s Restaurant was as insane as Weasel, one could notmunicate with them usingmon sense.

    Tom Weasel did not mind Sunders¡¯ cold reaction. He kept leaping and spinning with his eyes closed.

    When the sunlight reached the front door and the chorus was reced by sea waves, Tom Weasel made another gentleman salute towards everyone.

    ¡°My honored guests, it is time to enter,¡± said Tom Weasel. His voice suddenly turned serious.

    With that, the elegant restaurant door slowly opened. A strange smell came out.

    It was not delicious, yet the smell seemed to carry magic with it. It fiddled around everyone¡¯s sense of smell, causing them to swallow hard.

    A in smell had drawn out everyone¡¯s appetite.

    ¡°Now this is the real thing, not the fake sense triggered by using dirty tricks to stimte your brains to release desire in the illusion,¡± Sabot exined to everyone with a smile, ¡°Greya is a real genius. Looks like we¡¯ll have a real feast today.¡±

    While exining, Sabot followed Sunders towards Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    Sunders walked into the colorful door with a in face. Flora was following behind. She suddenly turned around and gave Sabot a sweet smile.

    Before Sabot could understand what it meant, the toy soldiers leaped in and crossed their guns and swords in front of everyone, stopping further visitors.

    Being repelled by the toy soldiers while the juniors were still looking at him, Sabot felt his face burning with embarrassment and rage.

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?¡± Sabot gave Tom Weasel a cold, angered stare. ¡°You have a problem with me?¡±

 Chapter 35 - Owner of the Golden Card

    <h4>Chapter 35: Owner of the Golden Card</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sabot¡¯s rage instantly lowered the temperature around him.

    Tom Weasel, however, only gave Sabot a nonchnt nce and regained his exaggerated tone. ¡°Neehahaha. Here¡¯s a friendly reminder from Weasel. The rule of Barbie¡¯s Restaurant: a card owner can enter, and a card owner can bring a number of guests, depending on the card¡¯s rank.

    ¡°Those without a card, please return with one next time.¡± Tom Weasel made a ¡°please go away¡± gesture towards Sabot.

    Sabot was about to burst in rage.

    Tom Weasel grinned wide again, but those squinted eyes contained malevolence this time.

    ¡°If you have a question about the restaurant rules, please submit aint to the manager on duty. Today¡¯s manager is Greasy Bird Neo. Shall I call that roasted chicken here?¡±

    Greasy Bird Neo? Sabot never heard of that name.

    However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Flora and Sunders frowning unconsciously upon hearing this name.

    Sabot felt a shiver on his back.

    He calmed himself and measured the situation in his mind.

    Whoever that Greasy Bird Neo was, he should not cause trouble now.

    With those two formal wizards here, if he made a scene now, he would be aughing stock.

    <i>Laughing stock?</i>

    He suddenly recalled Flora¡¯s smile earlier, and the conversation he had with her, and finally understood why Flora had been giving him all those weird smiles. She nned to make fools out of them all along!

    He was angry again, although he did not show it.

    ¡°So they can get in because they both have a card?¡± Jel, who had been standing near Sabot, walked up and asked Tom Weasel.

    Weasel made a ballet spin and spoke, ¡°Neehaha! Nope! Only Mister Sunders has one, but his bronze invitation card allows him to bring two people with him.¡±

    ¡°Can we get an invitation card now?¡± Heroline also asked, frowning. She was not here for the restaurant, but she still wanted to see the legendary ce since she had the chance.

    Tom Weasel shrugged. ¡°Weasel doesn¡¯t know how the cards are distributed.¡±

    ¡°I heard that Greya gave them out ording to her mood. Plus, her favorite way of giving out cards is throwing them away,¡± said Flora. She giggled, ¡°You can try looking around for them, maybe you¡¯ll find one Greya just tossed!

    ¡°But, maybe only a rumored golden card can bring so many people in!¡±

    With that, Flora turned away, made a ¡°toodles!¡± gesture towards everyone, and vanished into the depth of the door.

    As for Sunders... he was not even interested in any of the argument. He had already reached inside the restaurant without stopping.

    ...

    In front of Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    People were looking at each other in embarrassment. It was not a big deal for the apprentices, but the three wizards really felt humiliated.

    However, rules were rules. They could not possibly start a war against Barbie¡¯s Restaurant just because they could not eat.

    Thinking about the stakes, Sabot simply shook his head. Greya was a Level-1 Wizard just like them, but she was from a ruthless organization. There were all kinds of psychos in there, and they all happened to be fond of protecting their own kind.

    Besides, Sunders and Flora already stepped inside. Sabot did not know why Sunders was looking for the restaurant. However, since he spent several months, even dragged The Redbud into this, there must be a reason. If they fought Greya now, they might have to go against that terrible man as well.

    Even if they won, they would get nothing out of it besides some useless pride.

    In the end, Sabot gave up his intention to force his way into the restaurant.

    ¡°You all heard. Let¡¯s go,¡± Sabot sighed. He said, ¡°Mister Sunders is not here anymore, so I bet he¡¯ll leave us alone for now. Let¡¯s take the chance and get out of here, so he doesn¡¯t suddenly change his mind and fight us when hees out.¡±

    Sabot called Jel here because of Sunders. Since they would not get anything from Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, they might as well get away from Sunders and return to Fey Continent in one piece, fulfilling their mission.

    With that in mind, Sabot brought everyone to leave.

    Suddenly, Tom Weasel looked towards the cabin entry of The Redbud with a strange expression. He spoke in a surprised tone.

    ¡°Oh... There¡¯s another honored guest beside Mister Sunders. And it¡¯s a...¡±

    Weasel paused a while before saying, ¡°A golden card owner!¡±

    <i>A golden card owner?</i>

    Tom Weasel said that aloud, so Sabot heard him as well.

    <i>A golden card owner here? Who is it?</i>

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko?¡± Heroline pondered.

    Jel closed his eyes and waved his metal staff. Then he re-opened his eyes and shook his head. ¡°Not him. I don¡¯t sense his presence within a hundred kilometers.¡±

    Then...?

    Sabot looked at the apprentices from the Three Major Wizard Organizations. One of them had a golden card?

    However, all of them were just as lost as he was.

    Tsk. How could one of the apprentices possess a golden card when the true wizards did not even have one?

    But...

    Whoever might the owner be? Since even wizards could not have a golden card?

    Everyone looked at Tom Weasel again, who was talking in a singing voice.

    Weasel did not intend to hide at all, or rather, he did not find it necessary to hide the truth. Barbie¡¯s Restaurant always gave their best treatment towards the owner of a golden card.

    Under everyone¡¯s gaze, wearing his signatureughter and peg-top ballet spin, Tom Weasel made a great leap from the restaurant door, left a white trail in the air, andnded on the deck of The Redbud without causing the tiniest bit of dust.

    He took out his microphone again from some unknown ce. He also took out a gentleman¡¯s top hat this time.

    While walking his sy-feet steps, he put on the hat. His tattered clothes also became cleaner with each of his steps. When he finally stopped in front of a surprised young man, Tom Weasel was wearing apletely different look. The mad, shaggy creature had turned into a passionate, gracefully dressed gentleman wearing clean, glossy hair.

    The same idea reached every supernatural¡¯s mind: he still looked the same creature, but he was giving out a totally different aura now.

    The brand-new Tom Weasel stopped himself in front of the young man and performed aplicated, yet melodious invitation etiquette.

    ¡°Neehahaha! Dear honorable golden card owner, wee to Barbie¡¯s Restaurant. I¡¯m your personal receptionist today, Tom Weasel Eel. You can call me Eel.¡±

    The simple words were filled with politeness and good manner. It waspletely from the mouth a nobleman¡¯s servant if one did not mind the signatureughter.

    The other supernaturals nearby stared their eyes wide. They thought Tom Weasel was his real name. Was he hiding his true name because he was not being polite to them?

    Sabot¡¯s expression turned dark again.

    However, he realized that Tom Weasel did not even use his real name in front of Sunders. Maybe it was not so important after all.

    At least they knew Tom¡¯s name now.

    The young man on the receiving end of Tom Weasel¡¯s etiquette, on the other hand, was at aplete loss.

 Chapter 36 - The Dark Restaurant

    <h4>Chapter 36: The Dark Restaurant</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Ten minutes ago, when the mist just cleared and the illusions vanished.

    Everyone on The Redbud returned normal. Some of them were hurt, but many still ran towards the deck to check out what just happened.

    However, before they could reach the deck, the imposing aura from the mighty wizards outside scared them back.

    They dared not do anything when there were formal wizards on the scene. Still, they could not hold back their curiosity when something so rare and interesting was going on, so they stayed near the cabin door and peeked.

    Angor was one of them. However, he did not find a good spot to look through the door before some talents with bad intentions pushed him outside.

    When Angor tried to go back, someone ¡°changed from a creepy weirdo into a wretched gentleman while walking¡± already stood before him and gave him a smile.

    ¡°Dear honorable golden card owner, wee to Barbie¡¯s Restaurant...¡±

    ...

    Angor was led into Barbie¡¯s Restaurant by Tom Weasel Eel while having no idea what was going on. A group of people followed behind.

    The group consisted of every supernatural on the ship. More importantly, they were each wearing a different expression.

    Sabot and Jel had in faces but the unnatural flickering in their eyes and their asional coughing were enough to show their embarrassment. Seriously, they just earned their entrance into the restaurant at the expense of an ordinary young man. When they recalled how the young man looked at them with ¡°filthy adults, taking advantage of my inexperience¡± written on his face, they felt uneasy all over themselves.

    Heroline was looking at Angor who was walking alongside Tom Weasel with a strange look as she considered something.

    The apprentices of the three major organizations had even more ¡°colorful¡± looks. Some were envious, some vicious, some grim, and some stayed silent. Apart from this, the mostmon look was curiosity.

    They were curious about the restaurant¡¯s decoration, the meals, and mostly¡ª

    The young man, who waspletely ordinary apart from his above-average looks. How did he acquire a golden card when even wizards could not find one?

    Angor, walking ahead of everyone under their continued gazes, was still showing a in expression. However, he was already trembling inside his mind. He felt every step he took would lead him down into the abyss sooner orter.

    He still could not ept the fact that the golden card that was given by the strange bird¡ª¡±Tweet¡± was the name Angor gave the bird¡ªwas a golden invitation card from this damned restaurant?!

    It was fine. It was just a restaurant, what could happen? He could just eat something and be done with it.

    What Angor was not expecting was that all those powerful supernaturals actually demanded that him to bring all of them in.

    Angor, as amon teenager who barely knew about the wizarding world, had not even the tiniest courage to refuse them.

    That was the reason for the weird situation right now. Everyone except Angor was wearing a strange look.

    Mighty wizards, who were so powerful that they could easily manipte the world around them, were asking a mortal for help? If this incident was to be known by the other wizards out there, how would they show their faces in front of the world from now on?

    Sabot and the other wizards were feeling humiliated, true. Yet, when they recalled the rumor in the wizarding world, that the food from Barbie¡¯s Restaurant could enlighten people, they immediately put the embarrassment away. That was nothingpared to actual, solid benefits.

    Heck. They could just kill everyone on site once they were done with the restaurant. That way, no one would get the message out.

    Tom Weasel kept introducing Barbie¡¯s Restaurant on his way while Angor stayed silent. He was too worried. Besides, he did not know what to say.

    The interior decoration of the restaurant was different from the outside, with its own distinctive features.

    ck, crimson, gold, silver... There were all kinds of elegant and formal colors, as well as twisted,plicated, yet organized dark stripes.

    Thorns, roses, vines, blood... Even the paintings on the wall carried a thick, dark atmosphere,pletely unlike the outside.

    However, if the time visitor Jon was here, he would immediately recognize the stylebining Baroque and Lolita¡ªa typical, dark Lolita touch. This was not intended for kids, but it could still be considered fairytale-like in a broad sense. A fairytale for adults.

    Angor knew about cultures from the Earth, but not to the extent of understanding something so... special. He was still a kid!

    Thus, Angor was just as curious as everyone else, about the unique interior decoration of the restaurant.

    It looked so foreign, Angor eximed in his mind. Now that he looked at Barbie¡¯s Restaurant up close, he began to realize that he was far away from the Old Earth for real, and there were only more foreign things for him to see.

    As Angor pondered in his mind, an apprentice quickly walked to him.

    Angor looked up and quickly switched to his polite manner.

    It was Mara, the only man in this group that was somehow close to him. Mara did not pay Angor much attention since they came to the ship, but Angor could take on this path all thanks to Mara. Besides, Mara helped Jon. Even if he asked something in return, Angor still needed to repay his favor. This was why Angor immediately changed his in expression into a respectful one.

    Seeing Angor¡¯s attitude, Mara stroke his gray-white beard joyfully.

    ¡°Angor, I thank you for letting us into Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.¡± Mara smiled. The wrinkles on his face spread like theyered petals of a blooming daisy.

    Angor was shocked by Mara¡¯s sudden gratitude and did not know how to respond for a second. He could only keep nodding.

    Since Mara was here, Angor recalled his condition earlier, about the unknown itchiness on his back. What on earth was that? Did it have something to do with the strange world he visited?

    The condition was probably threatening his life, and Mara was the only supernatural he could ask, so he made up his mind.

    ¡°Mister Mara, when I took the talent test¡ª¡±

    ¡°Angor, if I may, where did you obtain your golden card?¡± Mara¡¯s question interrupted Angor¡¯s voice.

    That question was for everyone else too, including the three wizards, who also focused onto their conversation waiting for an answer. Even Tom Weasel walking beside Angor was not hiding his curiosity.

    Since all people were looking, Angor was no longerfortable about talking about his privacy, so he gave up his question and answered Mara.

    Angor took out the golden card from the seabird from his pouch. One side of the card was nk, but Angor could feel something uneven when touching it and see some kind ofplicated patterns when looking from the side. The other side of the card had the same inconspicuous carvings, but they were colored. There was a clear image of the half-figure of a plumpdy with violet hair.

    ¡°This card?¡±

    Tom Weasel replied, ¡°Neehahahaha, yes, my honored guest. This is a golden card from Barbie¡¯s Restaurant. With this, you can enjoy a free meal from us, but only for once. When you leave the restaurant, the card will vanish on its own.¡±

 Chapter 37 - Greasy Bird Neo

    <h4>Chapter 37: Greasy Bird Neo</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Now I think about it, the card has something to do with Mister Mara too. About three months ago...¡± Angor exined his encounter with the strange seabird to Mara.

    ¡°The seabird wearing strange clothes drank the Morning Dew tea and left. It gave me a golden card.¡±

    Mara¡¯s expression turned weird hearing Angor¡¯s words. It was mixed with regret and envy. When they left the Padt Manor, Angor gave most of the remaining Morning Dew to Mara.

    Morning Dew was only a low-level magic nt, but its special attribute couldpete with the White Orchid Potion. For most apprentices, White Orchid Potion was something they could never afford.

    Mara nned to make a good fortune selling the Morning Dew when he returned to Fey Continent, and see if he could get help from a wizard using the chance. Thus, he never took out his tea on his way. Even Florent had no idea about the amazing tea leaves Mara possessed.

    He hid the Morning Dew as best as he could so he could use it to seek destinyter. Yet Angor simply took it out to drink, and actually earned his own destiny!

    Mara regretted to his bones.

    If he could¡ªif only he¡ª

    Mara only let out a sigh in the end. There was no ¡°if only¡± in this world. He missed his luck, that was about it.

    No one noticed Mara¡¯s change in expressions, and even if they did, they would not care.

    ¡°Neehahaha. So Mister Toby gave you the card!¡± said Tom Weasel.

    ¡°Mister Toby? You mean the bird wearing clothes and a pouch?¡± asked Angor.

    Weasel made a ballet spin and exined with a worshiper¡¯s look. ¡°Correct, Mister Toby! He is the master¡¯s favorite familiar. He shares an equal position with the master in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant!¡±

    When Angor asked further, Tom Weasel no longer said anything about it. He only smiled. ¡°Neehaha, you will see Mister Toby when you enjoy your mealter.¡±

    After Angor told his story about the card, Tom Weasel exined ¡°Toby¡± to him. However, the other apprentices were interested in something else: the Morning Dew.

    Angor was walking with Tom Weasel, and they were not close to Angor like Mara, so they could only keep the question in their minds for now.

    As for the wizards... Once they heard about the origin of the golden card, they were no longer interested in Angor. The Morning Dew meant nothing to them.

    Only Heroline, the wizard from White Coral Floating Ind Academy, gave Angor another thoughtful look.

    Good luck was part of one¡¯s strength. If Angor could keep his luck going, he was very likely to break through into a wizard.

    She pondered in her mind. If the kid did have a fine talent, she would keep an eye on him for now.

    Oh right, the kid was asking Mara about something... Something like ¡°on the day he took his talent test¡± which Mara interrupted.

    No matter. He was just a lucky talent. Who knew if he could actually achieve anything?

    ...

    Every inch of the wall on the sides of the deep, dark hallway was covered in thorny vines. A blood-red rose would appear asionally. The extreme contrast somehow created an absolute beauty.

    A crimson curtain was blocking the end of the hallway. Behind the curtain was the restaurant¡¯s banquet room, or rather, a banquet room for bronze card holders.

    In front of Sunders, a woman raised a cocktail ss filled with white mucus. ¡°Oohohoho, the Demon Vine Seed is ripe now. We can nt it in the brain fluid of a ck-skinned gnome, hohoho! Three months, and we¡¯ll get the most delicious brain flower.¡±

    A sweet smell, as well as a dark-violet vapor, wasing out of it. The woman was so fat that she literally had her jawyered in six. ¡°Care for a try, old friend? Ooohohoho. Drink this ck gnome¡¯s brain flower, and you will have your mind focused for ten days and nights without getting tired.¡±

    Sunders took off his ck felt top hat, exposing his short, grayish-green curly hair. He put the hat on the table and took the cocktail ss from Greya, drinking the content (food from hell, ording to Flora) in one go without hesitation.

    ¡°Pretty good.¡± Sunders put down the ss, crossed his fingers and shrugged over his neutral answer.

    ¡°Hehe. I forgot to tell you that, the ck gnome¡¯s brain flower also triggers your brain to release more pheromone. Do you like it?¡± The fat women with violet hair, Greya, narrowed her eyes.

    Sunders¡¯ expression remained unchanged. ¡°I feel it. A lot of it.¡±

    Greya approached Sunders and took a deep breath beside his neck but without catching any scent.

    Greya frowned and gave Sunders a despising look. ¡°You numskull stopped your brain from releasing pheromone? I wonder how you really smell like. Must be as boring as yourself.¡±

    Flora, who had been floating around in the air out of boredom, absolutely agreed with Greya¡¯s words.

    Getting Flora¡¯s approval, Greya made a loving eye at Flora, only to receive Flora¡¯s rolled eyes instead.

    Sunders was still indifferent whatsoever. ¡°Let¡¯s not tarry over irrelevant matters. It was not easy to get your invitation card, you know.¡±

    Greya hunched to show her fullness. She held her chin with her white, plump hand wearing vermilion nail color, and looked at Sunders with a seducing look. Those coquettish eye makeups were releasing fuzzy ripples as she made eyes at Sunders one after another.

    Sunders still did not look at her. He did not even lift his head.

    ¡°Sexual apathy? You don¡¯t get many chances when a beautiful woman¡¯s trying to get to you.¡± Greya, who thought herself as a ¡°beautiful woman¡±, rolled her eyes, and walked to her material desk while swaying herrge buttocks.

    The material desk was filled with various strange items.

    There were floating ss containers with cooking materials in them but none of them really looked like cooking materials. ckish meat chunks, thick mucus releasing violet and red smoke, piles of living eyeballs, crawling worms... There were even gas vortexes with visible colors.

    Greya found these cooking materials from all over the world. One of the reasons why Barbie¡¯s Restaurant kept traveling around was for Greya to hunt for materials in different ces. She sometimes even went to foreign nes. For example, most of the materials that gave out violet and ck aura were from the Abyss ne, and most gaseous materials were from the ze ne.

    Greya was wearing a pale crimson, close-fitting skirt. She made a pose so she could expose her curves most (or so she thought) in the kitchen, lifted her fleshy chin, and raised a giant spoon decorated with diamonds. ¡°Twisting Protozoa again?¡±

    Sunders nodded.

    ¡°Tsk,¡± Greya twitched her lips, ¡°such a boring man.¡±

    Twisting Protozoa was a special bug that could neither be bred or naturally produced. The only method to obtain them was to use a spell created by Greya, with the help of various cooking materials. The result of the cooking was such a bizarre, living dish that would not have any effect on people except Sunders.

    Greya cast her particr ult gourmet spell and began processing the materials using her unique cookers.

    When she was hardly halfway through, the curtain of the banquet room was lifted, and an extremely sloppy, short, greasy man with a beak-like mouth and bead-size eyes slipped in.

    The short man was about the same height as Flora, with thin limbs and a hunchback. He looks a lot like thosezy, cheap workers one could find sleeping under a sky bridge.

    As he came in, Flora frowned and quickly flew towards Sunders. Her expression showed disgust and intention to avoid, which meant the visitor was not anyone ordinary.

    ¡°Greasy Bird? What do you want?¡±

 Chapter 38 - Golden Guest

    <h4>Chapter 38: Golden Guest</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Heehee. I thought waiters in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant all knew its rules?¡± Flora chuckled in sarcasm.

    Greasy Bird Neo was not offended in the least. He kept speaking with tensed lips while picking his nose, ¡°Lady Greya, Tom Weasel brought a guest and needs you to admit him.¡±

    Guest? Now? Sunders raised an eyebrow.

    Could it be those wandering wizards outside? Flora frowned while smiling. Tom Weasel did not let them in because they did not have a card. So... who was it this time?

    Greya was focused on her cooking and was not listening at all. She did not even look at Greasy Bird.

    As a gourmet wizard, she had her own rules to obey when cooking.

    ¡°Who is it? Don¡¯t you see there are already customers here? Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s a silver card holder?¡± Flora kept her sarcasm as if she really hated Greasy Bird.

    In this small banquet room where Greya was currently working silently, Flora¡¯s words were exceptionally loud.

    When Flora mentioned ¡°silver card holder¡±, Greya¡¯s ears twitched, but she did not stop her work.

    Greasy Bird picked something from his nose and swallowed it carelessly. ¡°No, not a silver card.¡±

    Flora sneered at the answer, but when she saw Greasy¡¯s action, she almost vomited.

    Greya, on the other hand, put away her doubt and continued being an attentive cook.

    Greasy Bird shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s a golden card.¡±

    Flora was not sure she heard right, so she frowned hard and let out a ¡°Huh?¡±

    Sunders, who was slowly tapping on the table with his finger, stopped when he heard the answer.

    ng¡ª

    The cooker in Greya¡¯s hand dropped on the ground, causing a loud metal nking noise.

    ¡°A golden card? Are you sure?¡± Greya asked aloud without paying attention to her professionalism anymore.

    ¡°Yes, mydy.¡±

    Greya tossed her diamond-decorated tools away and quickly trotted to Greasy Bird. ¡°Then move! Now!¡±

    Barbie¡¯s Restaurant only gave out three golden cards in each business cycle. A guest with a golden card was even more important than Greya herself.

    Greya followed Greasy Bird and left quickly. She was in such a hurry because the rule of treating a golden customer was not her own idea, but something ¡°that man¡± established, and she was demanded by him to strictly follow it. That man was the source of belief in the entire Fairytown, and she would follow his words no matter what.

    ¡°Ehh??¡± Flora said. She tried to stop Greya, but was stopped by Sunders.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. We already found Greya, we can wait. The rules about cards were the inherited tradition for the Candy House. Greya¡¯s Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, Felicia¡¯s Butterfly Tavern... They all follow the rules,¡± Sunders paused. He then expressed a cold grin, ¡°Although I would really like to know who this guest is.¡±

    Sunders took his ck hat and put it on gracefully. He lowered the hat brim a bit and left the banquet room.

    ...

    Following Tom Weasel¡¯s guidance, everyone reached their dining ce.

    After walking through the dark, ghostly hallway, they were not expecting their destination to be something like this.

    The golden banquet room was like a luxurious guest room in a grand theater. Large, magnificent and glittering. The carpet was made from the hide from some unknown beast ¨C it was pure white soft fur mixed with traces of golden velvet. The walls were decorated with foreign, silver embroideries with concentration spell forms written on them. The tables and chairs were carved out of magical nts which gave out an aura that calmed the mind. The dishes were white, wless porcin artworks. Even themp holder beside the dishware was golden and carved with the image of an abyss beast.

    From the fairytale style from outside to the dark Baroque hallway, till the extreme luxury in front of them now... The group experienced several different styles, which were all strange, yet harmonious.

    <i>Maybe all the staff here are just as strange? </i>Angor pondered.

    They met a lot of weird workers on their way. The dancing Tom Weasel, a ghost cleaner who kept talking nonsense, sloppy manager Neo who was drenched in oil, an eyeless waiter with a stiff body who could only hop forward... oh, and finally, this one.

    Angor looked at the mass of flesh, Greya, and gulped. Of course, that was not because of Greya¡¯s bewitching makeup. He was scared.

    As Greya followed Neo into the golden banquet room, she immediately sensed the ripples from the magic lines on the golden card.

    She was surprised too. She was expecting al wizard, or at least a wizard¡¯spanion. However, it was only an ordinary man who had not even constructed his spirit model.

    The surprise onlysted for a second before Greya quickly put it away. Tom Weasel had told her telepathically that this young man named Angor was the golden card holder.

    <i>So little Toby was behind all this?</i>

    Greya raised an eyebrow. Whatever was the Morning Dew that attracted Toby?

    Greasy Bird Neo quietly stepped back to somewhere out of sight while Tom Weasel led everyone into their seats.

    Heroline, Jel, and Sabot sat down in a leisure manner, while the other apprentices hesitated. There were seats for them, but they did not dare to sit down. Same for Angor. However, Tom Weasel just kept staring at him, and Angor could not stand those stares in the end, so he took a seat in embarrassment before Tom Weasel finally walked away with his dancing steps.

    Jel humphed in frustration, for sharing a table with amon mortal. However, he did not say anything. The mortal had the golden card, after all.

    Heroline and Sabot chatted nonchntly while Angor sat with a nk face, with no one to talk to. He kept shifting anxiously until Greya walked in front of him with charming steps and swaying hips.

    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you, honored guest,¡± said Greya as she sat down on the table in front of Angor in a seducing way. She took out a folding fan decorated withced edge and gave Angor¡¯s shoulder a gentle tap.

    Angor shivered.

    ¡°I¡¯m Greya, your chef today.¡±

    When she mentioned her name, Heroline, Sabot and Jel all looked at her. They thought this monstrosity of human flesh was also one of the workers. But man, she was the owner of the restaurant, ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya!

    ¡°So you¡¯re Lady Greya. Back at the Floating Mech City, my mentor Mithra mentioned your name,¡± said Sabot.

    Sabot was expecting Greya to respond or exchange a basic greeting with him, but... Greya only turned around, looked at him up and down, and turned away.

    ¡°...¡± Sabot was speechless.

    Heroline had a clear idea about her position. The three wizards were only receiving a free meal thanks to Angor, so she did not try to talk to Greya. Instead, she watched the interaction between Greya and Angor with interest. Ha, a real wizard, serving amon mortal. This was fun.

    ¡°La¡ªLady Greya, I¡¯m Angor Padt, a reserved student for White Coral Floating Ind Academy.¡± Angor stood up uneasily and gave Greya a deep bow.

    Greya stopped him with her fan. ¡°Angor Padt, is it? I¡¯ll call you Angor from now on, can I? And put away those manners. You¡¯re in my restaurant, you¡¯re my guest. To hell with the wizard rules.¡±

    She unfolded her fan and hid her crimson lips behind theced fan leaves as she said, ¡°Not to mention that you¡¯re the most respected golden customer of Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.¡±

 Chapter 39 - Customized Food

    <h4>Chapter 39: Customized Food</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    On the other side of the golden curtain, Sunders was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed while Flora was leisurely floating beside him, still bare-feet.

    ¡°Tsk. They again? They don¡¯t learn when to quit,¡± said Flora. She covered her mouth as if surprised, but changed into her usual smile quickly, ¡°I didn¡¯t think amon mortal would possess the golden card. Maybe he was still inside The Redbud when we came to the restaurant, so we didn¡¯t sense it.¡±

    Next, she acted angry again. ¡°How could the shameless fools freeload on an ordinary boy? And aiyayayah! That¡¯s a golden card I say! Greya¡¯s got to cook him a custom meal. A custom meal for a mortal? Such a waste!

    ¡°Wait a second. He¡¯s just a mortal. I can go in there and threaten him to count me in, so I get a free meal too. Yes, good idea! I¡¯m so clever!¡±

    Flora talked to herself while Sunders did not give her anyment. When she finished, Sunders finally spoke, ¡°Barbie¡¯s Restaurant set their strongest protective spell arrays right here, with multiple magic traps. You sure you want to barge in?¡±

    Flora blinked at Sunders with a pleading look. ¡°Teacher, won¡¯t you help me?¡±

    Sunders gave her a side nce. ¡°I could if you want me to annihte Barbie¡¯s Restaurant for good.¡±

    <i>That means that... even the teacher could not get in by normal means?</i>

    Flora considered.

    The golden banquet room was so well protected!

    Inside the room...

    Greya cast a glimpse towards the curtain. Of course, she knew the pair was eavesdropping outside. She would have asked Neo to drive them away if it was not Sunders. As the man said, he could not get into the banquet room by ordinary means quickly, but he could absolutely st the restaurant to pieces. Greya would not offend someone so powerful without a good reason.

    ¡°Angor, ording to the restaurant¡¯s practice for golden guests, I will make a customized serving, following your requirements,¡± said Greya in a serious tone, as if going over a ceremony. Then she became coquettish again. She even held up Angor¡¯s chin using her hand fan, ¡°Boi, dear, do feel free to make any requirement about what you want to get from the meal, oohohoho!

    ¡°You¡¯re still amon one, so I suggest you choose something like raising your talent or your spiritual power limit. It¡¯ll greatly help with your breakthrough towards a wizard!¡±

    With that, Greya returned to being silent.

    The meal could raise one¡¯s spiritual power limit? Talent?

    All apprentices around the table all stared with wide eyes. Either choice was something they had been dreaming of!

    While wizards did not really care since when someone became a formal wizard, one¡¯s spiritual power of talent would not be as important. For wizards, umting knowledge and gaining insight about themselves was more essential.

    However, apprentices could only get bigger chance to be formal wizards as they improved their talent. If they failed, they would rot with age. Knowledge and truth were something too distant for these apprentices who did not even know how long they could live.

    Seeing how the apprentices were getting restless, Greya looked away from Angor and addressed everyone.

    ¡°Ooohohoho, dear me, I almost forgot. In my restaurant, a bronze card guest can only choose a custom meal between level one and two, and cannot share the meal. Silver guest can choose level three and can share the meal. But I only make one serving, so it¡¯s your own decision who should eat it. As for golden quests...¡±

    Everyone pricked up their ears.

    When she got everyone¡¯s attention, Greya exined, ¡°A golden card guest still chooses a level three meal, but I¡¯ll make a number of servings ording to how many people are here.

    ¡°You have eight people, so I¡¯ll make eight dishes. You all should know that you earned your free opportunity thanks to Little Angor.¡±

    Greya¡¯s words made everyone even more agitated. The apprentices were so excited their eyes were almost giving out light. They would all have a share!

    No matter what Angor chose¡ªtalent increase or spiritual power improvement¡ªit would raise their aptitude further, which meant they would be one more step closer to bing wizards.

    Mara nearly jumped from his seat in excitement. Destiny! Finally! He searched and dreamed about this for a long time!

    Hepletely did not expect that Angor would bring him destiny a second time after leaving Padt Manor. He thought that being a Level-3 Apprentice Wizard was all he could achieve in his life, and yet, he met another destiny! Angor helped him again!

    He suddenly felt a bit of regret. If he had known that Angor was such a fortune bringer, he would teach him the Triangle Channeling already, so Angor could respect him more. But no matter! When this was over, he had plenty of time to mend their rtionship.

    On the other side of the table, as the weakest of the group, and the biggest ¡°appendage¡±, Easley, was feeling excited as well. He had been living on the top floor of The Redbud while Lady Merlin taught him knowledge as best as she could, so Easley had learned a lot about wizards. Naturally, he understood that raising one¡¯s talent or spiritual power limit was extremely critical for bing a wizard.

    Easley already had a high spiritual power indicator, 23. If he could improve his talent too, bing a formal wizard was dead certain!

    Easley saw Angor hesitating and wished he could simply yell ¡°CHOOSE TALENT NOW!¡± into his ears. However, he was thest person that should speak right now. All he could do was praying while wearing a worried look.

    All apprentices felt like hugging each other to celebrate. They were certain that Angor would decide between the two choices, and either was a great help to them.

    Angor was thinking about it too. Greya, as the chef, had no reason to fool him. However, he was not sure about the extent of his talent and spiritual power.

    As Angor thought about what to do, Jel, who had been keeping a straight face, suddenly asked, ¡°Do you have Section Ephemera here?¡±

    Like Twisting Protozoa, Section Ephemera was also a non-existent creature. Unlike Twisting Protozoa that only a few people could use, the Section Ephemera would easily attract every wizard out there who learned about its appearance. It had a very unique effect: to open a new two-way tunnel in a stable ne. The tunnel was only single-use, but it was still extremely valuable to wizards because it helped them steal their way into another ne without relying on the ne passages controlled by major wizard organizations. By doing so, they would have a chance to run into their destiny. For this reason, Section Ephemera was a priceless item which most wizards could not afford.

    Still, Section Ephemera was valuable mainly because it was so rare. No one knew how it ended up in the wizarding world or where to look for it. There was only a rumor, that every appearance of the item had some kind of connection with the Fairytown.

    Barbie¡¯s Restaurant belonged to Candy House under the administration of Fairytown, so this was why Jel asked such a question.

 Chapter 40 - Section Ephemera

    <h4>Chapter 40: Section Ephemera</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Every supernatural in the room immediately got Jel¡¯s idea.

    If Greya did have Section Ephemeras, they should give up on improving their talent or spiritual power. Each of them should take a Section Ephemera home and be done with it.

    The apprentices were frustrated by Jel¡¯s question, but they quickly epted the fact when they thought it over. If they could get their hands on a Section Ephemera sought by wizards, they could just use it to exchange talent-improving potions from the wizards. It would take longer, but they could also earn favor from formal wizards.

    The apprentices were still happy about the oue.

    Outside the room, Flora yelled ¡°Aiyayayah!¡± anxiously.

    ¡°Section Ephemera! Argh! I want it too! Let me in, you shameless assholes! I want to join the party!¡±

    No one cared about Angor¡¯s feelings. Why would they? They could simply give him something in return in the end. Even that was not necessary. After all, what could a mortal do to them?

    ¡°Do you have it?¡± Jel asked again.

    Greya nced at Jel with a fake smile, then looked at Angor again, who was still wearing a in look.

    But Angor¡¯s trembling arms gave him out.

    Greya waited for a while before she unfolded her fan again to hide her expression. ¡°Ohohoho, Section Ephemera? Of course. I created it myself.¡±

    All wizards instantly perked up.

    Sabot was the one showing the most exaggerated expression. The Floating Mech City was a major wizard organization as well as a prosperous trading city. Most money that moved in the wizarding world must leave a share when passing through there. Of course, Sabot fully understood how valuable Section Ephemera was. He went to the Sky Auction House often, so he knew a bit more secrets than the others. Section Ephemera was produced by human hands. Rumor had it that a wizard made them using originally-created spells. In other words, it could not be copied. During recent centuries, the sale of Section Ephemera was always dominated by one group and sold in really small numbers.

    Sabot was not expecting to run into the creator of Section Ephemera here! If he could join Greya¡¯s line of business... then maybe he could earn himself a position to sell the item. Even if he was only allowed to sell a few, he would make a giant fortune!

    When he was done thinking, Sabot began looking at Greya with a different idea in his mind.

    ¡°Apart from Section Ephemera, I also have Secret Snow Tree Cakes, Stew Combo made from Cloud Sea Roons, Magus Crab Meat, Magic Steam Twister...¡± Greya gave them a long list of names. There were meals that could further develop one¡¯s brain, cleanse magical obstacles, trigger spell source vortexes... every meal was extremely attractive to wizards.

    ¡°I want Section Ephemera.¡± Jel was firm.

    Heroline and Sabot frowned upon Jel¡¯s dictatorial decision. Heroline preferred a meal that developed her brain, while Sabot wanted something to improve his magic power. They could only choose one. In the end, they both remained silent. Section Ephemera was fine. They had no use for it, but they could at least exchange it into something they needed. No need to offend the ¡°Mythril Innovator¡± for now.

    ¡°You¡¯re not the one who¡¯s making the decision.¡± Greya tilted her lips towards Angor.

    Jel was as confident as ever. ¡°He will listen to me.¡±

    He looked towards Angor with aplicated expression. He got into the restaurant because of the young man. Otherwise, he would receive the humiliation of getting rejected in front of all the apprentices. However... Jel was not feeling any gratitude. Instead, he was a bit angry at Angor, for putting him into an embarrassing situation somehow.

    Jel held hostility towards Angor. Still, he did notpletely give up his sense of shame by venting it out in front of everyone.

    ¡°Angor, is it? Choose Section Ephemera, and give your share to me. I¡¯ll give you a bottle of Potion of Austere Night in return. It¡¯ll increase your spiritual power limit by two.¡±

    Jel did not care for Angor¡¯s response before looking back at Greya again. The Potion of Austere Night was very useful to apprentices but was valued far lesspared to Section Ephemera. A hundred bottles of the potion might be enough to exchange for... a piece of tail from a Section Ephemera.

    Angor was hiding his anger against Jel. He did not expose any of it, he only kept inhaling and breathing, while telling himself to ¡°rx¡± in his mind.

    Ever since he came to The Redbud, he experienced several incidents where he could not grasp his own fate, and this was the worst one. Still, he could not do anything. Jon told him that ¡°a wise man could always understand the situation¡± and ¡°little impatience spoils great ns¡±. He really wanted to vent out his vigorous teenager temperament, but he could not, especially when the gap between strength was just too big.

    ¡°Made up your mind, boy?¡± Greya asked Angor with a smile.

    No matter what Angor chose¡ªbe it the Section Ephemera or a meal to improve aptitude¡ªGreya would agree with him. The improvement meals she made was hardly better than the Potion of Austere Night. This was why Greya did not interrupt Jel. Otherwise, to obey the rules established by ¡°that man¡±, she certainly would have intervened, when a golden card guest was being forced by someone else.

    Angor kept silent for quite a while, before he finally spoke, ¡°I... I think I¡¯ll choose the Section Ephemera.¡±

    Upon hearing ¡°Section Ephemera¡±, Jel nodded. He did not even care about what Angor meant by ¡°I think¡±.

    ¡°But can I ask something before I make the final decision?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Neehahaha, of course, you can. As a golden card holder, as long as you¡¯re inside Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, all questions you have will receive their best answer.¡± Tom Weasel popped up from God-knew-where.

    Angor looked at Mara, who was a little surprised at first, but soon realized what Angor meant.

    ¡°About your teacher?¡± Mara tried to ask.

    Angor nodded, and slowly exined Jon¡¯s condition to Greya. Of course, he did not say anything about Jon¡¯s origin. He only emphasized Jon¡¯s physical changes and his current situation.

    Greya raised an eyebrow and considered for a moment. ¡°Your teacher¡¯s body wilted on its own? Including his limbs?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Mara also added something. ¡°I have cast Detect Disease on him. There was no illness.¡±

    The body wilted without a cause of disease?

    Every wizard in the room realized an answer, but no one broke the silence. In the end, it was Heroline, who had been keeping a low profile, spoke up first.

    ¡°A wilted body without disease is likely because someone is being expelled by the World¡¯s Consciousness,¡± Heroline paused a little. She then exined in a casual manner, ¡°Maybe your teacher wasn¡¯t from this world.¡±

    Everyone nodded. Even Greya agreed to Heroline¡¯s point.

    Angor did not reply. He already knew Jon was from another world, but he did not dare to mention it.

    Mara, however, helped him this time. ¡°I used Expel Deceit on him as well. His teacher is from this world because the spell told me he¡¯spletely human. Unless there are humans in another world too.¡±

    Mara¡¯s words made all people quiet again.

    Humans only existed in the wizarding world¡ªthis was amon sense here. Humans in the other worlds or nes were either travelers from the wizarding world or humanoid creatures. There were no ¡°otherworldly humans¡±.

    Even if a human immigrant gave birth in another world and then returned the child to the wizarding world, the World¡¯s Consciousness would not repel the child. In other words, as long as someone had human blood in them, they would not have trouble with World¡¯s Consciousness even if their appearance had be a humanoid creature.

    Not to mention Jon was a pure human.

    Everyone was stumped. Heroline considered for a while and spoke again, ¡°If he¡¯s a human, he shouldn¡¯t be repelled by the consciousness... Well, if it¡¯s not a disease, it could be cursing spells or something simr.¡±

    Before Mara could exin that he did not find any magic traces, Heroline continued, ¡°Maybe the cause is some ability from another ne, which means you can¡¯t detect it.¡±

    Just like that, the nature of Jon¡¯s ¡°condition¡± was somewhat determined under people¡¯s discussion.

    Angor was nning to ask if Greya had any food to save his teacher. If so, he would try to get it, even if it meant he would displease Jel.

    However, the discussion had reached a wrong conclusion on Jon¡¯s condition. A meal made while following such a conclusion would not help Jon at all.

    The reason for Jon¡¯s condition was just ¡°a visitor from another space was unustomed to this world¡±.

    Yet Angor could not say it. He only pretended tough it off in front of everyone.

    ¡°Any more questions? If not, I¡¯ll start making the Section Ephemeras!¡±

    ¡°No, please go ahead¡ª¡± Angor bowed towards Greya and prepared to walk away, but he suddenly recalled the itchiness on his back. ¡°Oh wait, I have something else to ask. It¡¯s about myself...¡±

 Chapter 41 - Special Talent

    <h4>Chapter 41: Special Talent</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor was nning to ask Mara when they were finished with the restaurant, but since there was a good chance now and a real wizard would help him, Angor simply exined his condition without a second thought.

    ¡°A few months ago, Mister Mara helped me with a talent test. When I touched the Talent Sphere, I found the world around me change, and I floated in the air...¡±

    As Angor slowly spoke out, everyone¡¯s expression became more and more strange. There were many examples of the Abelles¡¯ Eye recorded in the <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection </i>. However, none of them looked simr to what Angor was talking about.

    The wizards already reached their own conclusion. If what Angor said was true, his talent certainly was not normal. It might be a special talent. Or rather, it must be. The only question was what kind of talent.

    Even Mara stared at Angor with wide eyes. He thought to himself, ¡°Didn¡¯t he say he was only floating??¡±

    Mara finally recalled the details on that day. When Angor was done testing, he said ¡°floating¡±, but he was going to say something else. At that moment, Mara just turned to a Level-3 Apprentice. His mana was disturbed, and his mood, impulsive. He interrupted Angor before the boy could finish.

    Mara rubbed his temple in frustration.

    He missed a young man with special talent from under his nose! If he discovered it earlier, he would definitely make a profit out of this!

    Mara let out a sigh in regret.

    Suddenly, he felt a cold gaze.

    He secretly nced aside. Heroline was looking at him with a stern face.

    Before they came here, when Heroline asked about special talents, Mara gave her a firm answer: none. It was hardly an hour, and the truth pped him in the face.

    He did not mean this!

    Although Heroline just gave Mara an angry stare, she already began to ponder in her mind, about Angor¡¯s possible talent.

    ¡°The young man has some luck, has his destiny, and does not panic under stress. Now, he might possess a good talent...¡± Heroline was bing more and more satisfied with Angor. Seemed like she did not have to keep an eye on him anymore. She would take him in now.

    Heroline made up her mind, but she did not stop Angor¡¯s exnation. He was going to join White Coral Floating Ind Academy anyway, so she could just wait until they left the restaurant.

    With that in mind, Heroline rxed.

    ¡°... My back was scratched by that woman, whose face was full of sutures. Thank god I was already inside the closet...¡± Angor continued telling his adventure, while every supernatural around the table was trying to guess what kind of talent Angor had.

    Outside the curtain, Sunders and Flora heard Angor¡¯s story as well. Flora had no idea what Angor was talking about, while Sunders frowned mildly. He remembered something simr, but could not tell when or what was it.

    ¡°After that, I often felt itchiness on my back. But every time I checked in the mirror, I can¡¯t see any wound. I can¡¯t feel anything either when I touch it,¡± said Angor. He scratched his head and kept talking, ¡°Just now, I was confused by the illusion of food on The Redbud. The awful itchiness came again, and it won over my hunger. That was how I escaped the illusion...¡±

    Greya spoke, ¡°It¡¯s called a mirage, something that happens when us gourmet wizards cook. People without a spirit model constructed inside their bodies cannot escape being eroded by the mirage. So that itchiness helped you clear your mind? Oh my... whatever caused that ¡®wound¡¯ on you, it wasn¡¯t anything ordinary.¡±

    When Angor said ¡°itchiness¡±, Sunders¡¯ eyebrow twitched, as if he remembered something.

    ¡°Can I look at your back? I think I saw something alike in an ancient book,¡± Heroline thought about it for a while and spoke to Angor.

    Angor hesitated a bit before he decided to remove his upper clothes in front of everyone.

    His slim body and clean-white skin were almost transparent under the brightmplight.

    He was still young so people looked at the bared, child-like body without any improper ideas. Greya even pinched Angor¡¯s arm yfully. His arms hardly got any muscles on them.

    Angor only kept his head down bashfully, and put his hands over his stomach. He did not get any chance to exercise on the ship, and his eight-pack began to fuse into one. Only the carves around proved that he was once a slim boy.

    Angor turned around so everyone could look at his back.

    White and wless. There was not even a beauty spot. Although this was not important. Everyone was focusing on where Angor said his condition was¡ªaround his debones.

    Nothing out of ordinary on the outside.

    Greya used a cantrip called Truesight to observe. Conclusion: nothing.

    All wizards who were interested in Angor¡¯s story all used their own means to check. No one found anything.

    Greya used a spell only avable to formal wizards: Remove Delirium.

    It was a level-1 spell; the effect was mainly to find hidden truths. The principle behind the spell was using small traces to backtrack truths appeared in the line of history.

    And even with that, Greya did not find anything wrong.

    ¡°Strange...¡± Greya was puzzled. Maybe Angor was lying? But how did he get out of the mirage then? Besides, Angor did not have any reason to tell lies in front of all these wizards.

    They did not find the wound caused by the ¡°woman with sutured face¡± Angor mentioned.

    The apprentices whispered to each other to exchange ideas, while the wizards went through their own thoughts.

    ¡°Here, I¡¯ll give Angor a proper test and determine what his talent is. We¡¯ll deal with the ¡®scratch¡¯ter,¡± said Heroline as she stepped up. She added, ¡°Angor will be a student of White Coral Floating Ind Academy soon, we might as well finish the test right here.¡±

    Heroline intentionally emphasized on ¡°a student of White Coral Floating Ind Academy¡±.

    If nothing strayed too far, Angor certainly possessed special talent. It did not mean he would be a wizard, but anyone with a special talent that actually seeded was sure to achieve great things. Heroline spoke like that to discourage the wizards from the other organizations from iming him for their own.

    Considering the wizards on the scene, Boko from Gravity Forest was not here, so he was a pass. Sabot was from Floating Mech City, so he would not intervene. That meant Heroline¡¯s words were directed at Jel from Tower of Hurricane.

    Of course Jel knew what she meant. He only gave her a small nod.

    A special talent would somewhat catch a wizard¡¯s attention. However, if Angor failed in bing a formal wizard, he would perish like every mortal. The Tower of Hurricane already recruited an exceptional student with a high spiritual power rating¡ªEasley. They did not need to care for another.

    When Heroline saw Jel¡¯s attitude, she walked to Angor with a smile and prepared to give the young man a formal talent test.

    Every talent would undergo such a test once they reached their respective organization. The test was different from the one using Abelles¡¯ Eye. It would give the testee an all-rounded evaluation. Usually, taking the formal test meant that the talent had officially joined the wizard organization.

    This was because the wizard organization would take a sample of the testee¡¯s blood during the test. When the test was over, the blood was used to make an identification token with the organization¡¯s emblem on it, and the token would be given to the testee.

    After that, the testee would be considered a member of the organization.

    Everyone except Angor knew what this meant. Knowing this, Florent and Mara began to regard Angor with a little bit more friendliness.

    Before Heroline could fully enjoy the fact that she just won herself a real student, the sound of a giant explosion filled the room.

 Chapter 42 - Destined Encounter

    <h4>Chapter 42: Destined Encounter</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The giant shake forced every supernatural in the room to use their spells to stable themselves.

    ¡°What is it? Someone¡¯s attacking?¡±

    All foundations in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant were protected by spell arrays that could stabilize the space around them. This meant people inside the restaurant would not feel anything no matter where or what condition the restaurant was in¡ªbe it flying, floating or being moved by force.

    Yet they were feeling the great swaying. There was only one exnation¡ªsomeone was attacking the restaurant, and the strength of the attack had surpassed the spell arrays.

    The attack continued like surging waves, and the protective spells were on the verge of giving in. The elegant crystal chandelier in the middle of the hall was swaying like a pendulum, giving out a chaotic cracking noise as the crystal parts knocked into each other.

    As the onlymon one in the room, Angor thought he was going to stumble like a clown. Before he was thrown off the ground though, Tom Weasel leaped beside him with a ballet step and kept Angor stable, using an unknown spell.

    The floor was still shaking, but he felt as if he was standing on solid earth.

    ¡°Wizards are amazing,¡± Angor eximed in his mind.

    Greya suddenly floated into the air and bellowed towards outside.

    ¡°Sunders, what¡¯s the meaning of this?!¡±

    The shaking stopped. Then a soft chuckle came from outside.

    ¡°Hehe, I wanted to ask something. But the room was so very protected so I could only use a little force to get in.¡±

    Everyone became grim over the low-toned voice. It was Sunders who was attacking Barbie¡¯s Restaurant?!

    If it was another wizard, everyone could stick together and win this over. However, against Sunders... they were not sure they could get away in one piece even if their number was doubled.

    When Sabot was forced to stay in Devil¡¯s Water, he secretly called Jel¡¯s group, for they represented their own organizations, but not because they could actually defeat Sunders. If Sunders decided to ignore the organizations, their only choice was to get the hell out of here before Sunders became fully agitated.

    Sunders had been a Level-2 Wizard for decades. The other wizards in the restaurant were all level-1. The different number might not look like a big deal, but the actual gap was even bigger than the one between an apprentice and a real wizard. Not to mention that Sunders was still a top-tier whenpared to the other level-2 wizards.

    They could not understand. Sunders was always peaceful towards Barbie¡¯s Restaurant. What was the big deal? He said he came to ask something. What was it? Was it so important that he would not mind bing Greya¡¯s enemy?

    Apart from these, Greya was thinking about something else.

    Every dozen years or so, Sunders woulde looking for her for Twisting Protozoa. They were not close friends but were at least acquaintances. Sunders usually acted neutral in the restaurant, because Greya was the only wizard who could produce Twisting Protozoa. Besides, Sunders knew well about ¡°that great man¡±.

    With ¡°him¡± supporting the restaurant, there was no way Sunders would suddenly turn hostile against her.

    Yet he still did. Considering Sunders¡¯ unemotional personality, whatever he wanted to ask must be extremely important to him, something that would affect his own life.

    ¡°Something about his life. He doesn¡¯t even care about Twisting Protozoa anymore. Don¡¯t tell me¡ª¡± Greya nced towards the young man standing beside Tom Weasel. ¡°It¡¯s because of him?¡±

    Angor, the young man favored by Toby.

    Sunders wanted to ask something about Angor even if it meant bing enemy with the restaurant?

    This exined why Sunders decided to attack before Angor was about to receive his talent test.

    Greya inspected Angor and fixed her gaze on his bare back.

    An idea came to her mind. She began to have a faint conclusion.

    Angor said something about entering a strange world. She did not pay much attention to it, but considering Sunders¡¯ action, there must be a connection.

    Sunders¡¯ moniker was ¡°Phantom Master¡±. Unwitting people might think that Sunders was a master at illusions, but Greya knew the truth. Sunders did not get his name because he was good at creating phantoms, or illusions. The biggest reason was a strange ne called the Nightmare Realm.

    The Nightmare Realm was a ne without a fixed location. It was first recorded in <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>200 years ago. Till now, there was not even a stable tunnel that connected the Nightmare Realm to the wizarding world. The only way to enter the ce was to open a random wormhole and stumble in there by chance when the ne moved closer to the wizarding world during its movement cycle.

    Everyone who sessfully entered the Nightmare Realm used such a method. Also, there had been less than ten wizards who went there and returned in one piece, which proved how terrifying the ce was.

    Those who made it back to the wizarding world could only give vague descriptions about the ce. Every time someone talked about the Nightmare Realm, he or she would make it look like some kind of taboo while not hiding the greed in their eyes. Theirments about the Nightmare Realm were exceptionally simr to each other.

    ¡°The reality is projected into imaginary and gives birth to the truth.¡±

    Greya never went to the Nightmare Realm but she did know that most of Sunders¡¯ abilities were rted to the Nightmare Realm. Also, Angor¡¯s description reminded her about people¡¯sments about the ce.

    The same as Padt Manor, but with a group of totally different creatures living in it.

    Was that not a ¡°projected reality¡± in the Nightmare Realm?

    Greya connected Sunders and Angor again. If Angor really went to the Nightmare Realm during his talent test, it would well exin Sunders¡¯ radical action.

    Although Greya more or less figured out the key point, she still did not know how to deal with the situation.

    A golden card holder was most honorable in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, and a well-renowned Phantom Master feared by the entire southern wizard world.

    ¡°That great man¡± had been away from the south for hundreds of years. His name could only intimate people so much.

    Greya¡¯s silence caused Sunders to attack further. The great swaying had thrown the candles on the chandelier off. A fire would have broken out if not for Weasel and Neo¡¯s intervention. However, several parts of the beautiful carpet already caught some small embers.

    In the end, Greya sighed and ordered Greasy Bird to lift the protection from the room.

    The scale in her heart finally tipped towards Sunders. Sometimes one must bow down one¡¯s head in the face of cold reality. The future was futile if one could not survive today.

    mp, mp...

    As the curtain slowly went up, a noble gentleman in ck walked inside with firm and steady steps. No one would believe such a refined man was the culprit whounched those violent attacks.

    Angor was also inspecting the neer in secret. Grayish-green curly hair reached from under his ck, felt hat. His face showed traces of great age but was still handsome. A gold-rimmed monocle sat on his prominent nose. He was wearing a ck tailcoat, white, golden-edged gloves, and a ck walking cane.

    Every posture on him was elegant. His aura was like that of a noble family with thousands of years of history. Delicate, yet distant. One could admire the magnificence from a distance, any closer, and it would be defiled.

    Every step he took made people¡¯s hearts jump.

    Why did hee? What did he want to ask? All the supernaturals stared at theposed gentleman with doubt and fear.

    Finally, Sunders stopped in front of Angor.

    ¡°Good afternoon, young man.¡±

    They looked at each other.

    Angor did not know how to react. He just went through all the shaking, and he was still leaning against the table with his legs gave out. He had not put on his clothes. A cold breeze came from the opened curtain and hit his bared body, causing him to shiver.

    A young man with bared top and a gentleman full of noble aura stared at each other.

    Heroline was unsure of what was going on. Sunders came for Angor? Well, this exined why Sunders suddenly acted when she was about to test Angor.

    A sense of crisis rose inside Heroline¡¯s mind. It was not about her safety. Rather, it was a crisis when she was about to lose her destiny. No. ¡°Regret¡± would be a better word.

    Mara, who had been standing beside Angor, spread his hands out and quickly stepped away. He did not dare to stay near Sunders. Even a brief glimpse at the gentleman gave him shivers.

    Seeing how Sunders walked to Angor, Greya confirmed her idea, ¡°As expected.¡±

    No one made another move.

 Chapter 43 - The Red Reaper

    <h4>Chapter 43: The Red Reaper</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Hey, Greya! Give me one of those Section Ephemera or something!¡± A clean, yet enchanting voice suddenly came about.

    People looked towards the source of it.

    Flora was floating in the air, wearing her dark red veil dress. She slowly floated into the room while muttering, ¡°Hey teacher, I was wrong about you. You aren¡¯t as stubborn as a rock. You¡¯re so kind! You know I wanted Section Ephemera so you actually broke in! Violence and love! I like it!¡±

    Sunders, who was just referred to as a ¡°stubborn rock¡± by his student,pletely disregarded Flora. He crouched down and looked at the young man in front of him carefully.

    Angor saw Flora as Sunders crouched down. When he heard Flora¡¯s unique tone, he immediately recalled what happened that day on the deck of The Redbud.

    The floating girl was ¡°Blood Witch¡± Flora, who scared every supernatural away that day?!

    It wasn¡¯t Flora¡¯s bright appearance that attracted Angor¡¯s attention. It was the shadow lurking behind her. Angor was now looking at it with widened eyes.

    As he remembered, back on The Redbud when Flora and Sabot flew towards the cloud whale, when Angor looked at them in the distance, he saw something shadowy behind Flora.

    Now, Flora was only a dozen meters from him, and he could finally get a good look at the shadow. It was a human figure cloaked in a tattered robe quietly affixed on Flora¡¯s back.

    The figure noticed Angor¡¯s gaze and slowly lifted its ragged hood off its face.

    In the next second, two lumps of dark green fireballs and a pale white skull appeared in front of Angor.

    A skeleton was hiding beneath the robe!

    What Angor just saw caused him to step back in fear and fell on his bottom.

    Since Sunders was looking at him, everyone was focused on him as well. His action was noticed by all of them.

    Did something scare Angor?

    With that question in mind, people followed Angor¡¯s line of sight. They only saw Flora, who had been yelling and asking for Section Ephemera.

    Flora had a terrible personality and thirst for blood, true. However, her appearance was absolutely beautiful. So whatever scared Angor so much?

    Sunders cast a side-nce at Flora, then focused on Angor again. A mild grin appeared around his lips.

    ¡°You can see the Red Reaper.¡±

    That was not a question. Sunders was firm about it.

    <i>What the f*ck is the Red Reaper?</i>

    Everyone asked in their minds.

    Flora was chatting about irrelevant things with Greya. When she heard Sunders¡¯ words, she quickly turned to look at Angor, with great surprise in her eyes.

    Sunders had been looking at Angor all along, and Angor just realized the man was talking to him. Angor hesitated and stuttered, ¡°Red Reaper? You mean the... ck-robed man, behind... thatdy?¡±

    Angor had no idea how to describe the skeleton.

    Sunders smiled, ¡°The Dead Man¡¯s Skeleton? Correct. That is the Red Reaper. So you really can see it. Good.¡±

    ¡°Good¡±? Sunders was praising someone?? And Red Reaper? Where? Behind Flora? Can¡¯t see anything!

    Every wizard used their Truesight or simr spells to check, only to receive Flora¡¯s angry re. Talking about embarrassment.

    ¡°Aiyayaya, you can see Little o¡¯ Red??¡± Flora suddenly appeared in front of Angor with a blink.

    Angor was surprised much by Flora¡¯s movement and asked a dumb question, ¡°Who¡ªwho is Little o¡¯ Red?¡±

    Flora pointed at the shadow behind her. ¡°Duh, this.¡±

    ¡°Huh...¡± Angor looked at the pale skeleton hidden in the robe and gulped.

    ¡°Ah, so you can see Little Red...¡±

    Looking at Angor¡¯s terrified expression, Flora got a new idea. ¡°Heehee. Little Red, say hello to him!¡±

    A soft, prolonged ¡°hiiiiiiii...¡± reached Angor¡¯s eardrums.

    Angor shivered. He looked up carefully, and yes, the Red Reaper just said that. Inside those dark eye sockets, the dark green fireballs turned moon white. They also changed into a funny shape like new moons. Next, as Angor watched in horror, the skeleton reached out a trembling, skeletal arm from under its ragged cloak, and slowly handed a... blood-red rose, towards Angor.

    ¡°Rose?¡± Angor was taken aback a little. ¡°For me?¡±

    The mes in the reaper¡¯s eye sockets blinked. It nodded.

    Angor tried reaching out for the rose.

    Flora did not say anything. However, when she saw Angor reaching out, her expression became grim.

    Sunders did not participate in the conversation. At this moment, he obviously became serious for some reason.

    Of course, everyone had seen Angor¡¯s action. However, they could not see the Red Reaper. Considering the boy reached out a hand, and Sunders and Flora changed their attitude, the only possible conclusion was¡ª

    ¡°Something is here that only Flora, Sunders and Angor can see. It¡¯s called Red Reaper, and Angor is going to take something from it.¡±

    ¡°But why are Flora and Sunders changing their attitude drastically?¡±

    Heroline was getting a faint feeling, that once Angor took whatever there was, she would lose something important. Heroline tried to stop Angor, but before she could move, a great force repressed her down. She could not even find enough strength to speak.

    She could hear people around her whispering to each other. She was the only one who could not move! She looked at that man in fear. Sunders was not even looking at her, and he still locked her in ce.

    There was no doubt. Sunders knew what Heroline was going to do. He disabled Heroline without raising anyone¡¯s attention.

    Such a dreadful being.

    ...

    Angor¡¯s hand finally connected with Red Reaper¡¯s.

    A cold feeling spread from his finger.

    Was that how bones felt? It felt real. Yet something strange came upon Angor¡¯s mind, albeit just briefly.

    With uncertainty, Angor took the exceptionally bright rose from Red Reaper.

    It was redder than fresh blood.

    When Angor took the rose, a smallmotion rose from the people around him.

    Angor did not realize that what he just did was apletely different sight for the other people. When he reached his hand into an unknown space, the air went blurry, and his once empty hand was suddenly holding a bright-red rose.

    Fetching something from thin air was not a difficult task for supernaturals. However... Angor was a mortal who had not even started to learn mana channeling. How was that possible?

    It was real then? A ¡°Red Reaper¡± was here, and no one could see it even with their spells?

    Angor looked at the rose in his hand. It was really bright and gave out a very pleasant smell, but apart from these features, it was just an ordinary rose.

    As Angor checked the flower, Flora covered her mouth in shock. She looked at Angor in aplete loss, and then nced at Sunders. She swore that it was just a prank. Little Red did not exist in this world. It could not interact with reality without using special spells.

    She did not expect that Angor actually took the rose! Also, it ¡°became a reality¡±. The rose appeared in this world!

    Unbelievable!

    Seeing how Angor still had no idea what was going on, Flora quickly turned towards Sunders and spoke in a sad manner, ¡°Teacher, you came for HIM, am I right? Am I right? Yes, I am! I knew it. Was wondering why you are suddenly nice to me. So that¡¯s why!¡±

 Chapter 44 - Fate and Choice

    <h4>Chapter 44: Fate and Choice</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As always, Sunders was oblivious of Flora¡¯s venting.

    He was grinning, and his stern expression became a little more gentle.

    ¡°Good. Project into imaginary to give birth to the truth. Your talent is exceptional.¡± Sunders reached out his hand towards Angor, who was still sitting on the floor.

    Angor hesitated. A man feared by wizards was in front of him. If he did not react properly, would he get into trouble? After some more wavering, Angor chose to take Sunders¡¯ hand.

    Sunders pulled Angor up and looked at him with his dark brown eyes. ¡°Do you want to be my student?¡±

    Those words instantly quieted all conversations between the supernaturals nearby. Then, amotion followed.

    ¡°Sunders is epting Angor as a student?! This¡ªthis would be the biggest news in the southern region this year!¡±

    ¡°Sunders only took in two students in his life, and both of them became wizards. The mortal kid had some serious luck!¡±

    ¡°Humph. Luck? Use your brain. Think. Why is Sunders asking him to be a student?¡±

    ¡°Oh right. What¡¯s so special about him? Something to do with the weird story during his talent test?¡±

    ¡°Shh! Sunders forced his way in before Heroline could do the talent test. That already exined it all!¡±

    Someone¡¯s reminder caused everyone else to think carefully.

    <i>Right... Sunders never did anything harsh. He did not even care when Jel and Flora were arguing in front of the restaurant entrance. But now... he actually made a rash move. There must be something we aren¡¯t aware of... Maybe the young man named Angor has a special talent that even Sunders could not wait to take him away?</i>

    But... A good talent was only an addition to wizards. They would not just ept a student because of his or her talent. Bing a wizard had too many prerequisites, normal talents also had their own advantages.

    Once someone actually became a wizard, talent would only determine the lower limit, while the upper limit heavily relied on the wizard¡¯s umted knowledge.

    If considered this way... then Angor¡¯s talent was so special that Sunders was willing to make an exception.

    A wizard¡¯s talent determined his or her lower limit. So how grand would it be for Angor?!

    Everyone took their own wild guesses. All apprentices were now looking at Angor enviously. Their own futures were not even determined yet, and this ordinary young man was already favored by the best wizard in the entire southern region!

    How could people be so different?! And how lucky could he get? Golden card, Phantom Master¡¯s student, why was he the only one getting all the good stuff?

    The atmosphere in the room became strange. Not only the apprentices, but even the wizards were also envious now.

    Level-1 wizards and level-2 wizards were tremendously different. If they could find a level-2 wizard as their teacher, they would surely make greater achievements...

    Heroline finally understood the uneasiness she had been feeling.

    Since Sunders acted like this before she could give Angor a talent test, there was no doubt about Angor¡¯s outstanding talent.

    A genius about to join White Coral Floating Ind Academy... only to be intercepted midway. No wonder why she felt something wrong.

    Heroline was struggling with herself. She wanted to speak, but Sunders never lifted the suppression. It even got worse than before. Heroline could not even move a finger now.

    All she could do was praying in her mind: Don¡¯t. Don¡¯t ept the offer. Although she already knew that praying was futile.

    People¡¯s discussion did not take long, and the discussion did not change the situation.

    Ever since running into the strange seabird on The Redbud, Angor felt something was changing. He had no idea what it was, yet an unknown force still led him here.

    He had no idea how he got the golden card, how he came up to the deck, how he was taken away by Tom Weasel, how he chose Section Ephemera... When he thought his strange journey would soon end, this noble gentleman invited him to be his student.

    An unknown force pushed Angor to an unknown direction and changed his future towards the unknown.

    If the philosophers from Earth would discuss the situation, they might have a name for it.

    Fate.

    ...

    Angor did not know whether it was fate that put him in the center of the whirling chaos. However, he did know he should give an answer to the man standing in front of him. The other people were about to murder him with their sharp res.

    ¡°Sir, I agreed to Mister Mara that I¡¯ll join White Coral Floating Ind Academy...¡±

    ¡°You want to save your teacher? Jon, am I right?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    ¡°Do you think a wizard at the academy would take you in and help you find a way to cure your teacher within five years?¡±

    ¡°I... don¡¯t know. But I¡¯ll try my best.¡± Angor hesitated. Mara told him that every apprentice would find a wizard as their tutor once inside the organization. However, the apprentices were only nominal students, and what they could actually learn relied on their teacher¡¯s mood. It was extremely difficult to find a ¡°real¡± teacher.

    Heroline was trying to say ¡°I will teach you¡±, but she never got the chance to move her lips, and the other wizards certainly did not want to offend Sunders now.

    ¡°Trying your best will not always get you a good result. If I¡¯m your teacher, I will personally train you,¡± said Sunders. He stroke his white gloves as he continued, ¡°If you can¡¯t save your teacher in five years, I will give you a magic scroll that can freeze any life form in ice and give your former teacher another five years to live. However, if you are still powerless in ten years, his death will not be prevented.¡±

    Angor immediately raised his head.

    Ten years.

    Almost half a year had passed since he left the Padt Manor, and he had not even reached Fey Continent yet. Returning to the manor and save Jon from his illness in five years was just too difficult. Angor appeared to be calm during these months, but his mind was not calm at all. If Sunders spoke the truth, that he could actually have ten years, Angor would make up his mind. Time was most precious.

    ¡°How about it? Do you have an answer?¡±

    Sunders was acting rxed and seemed indifferent about Angor¡¯s decision, but as a student who knew him best, Flora recognized the tint of desire and stubbornness hidden in his expression. Flora was certain, that if Angor chose to refuse, Sunders would simply knock him out and kidnap him away.

    ¡°What kind of talent attracted teacher to such an extent?¡± Even Flora was bing a little envious at Angor¡¯s luck.

    Angor stayed silent, then looked at Mara, who was standing not far.

    Mara¡¯s attention, however, was focused on someone else.

    Heroline.

    Heroline was gazing at Mara with pure hatred.

    At first, Mara did not know why Heroline hated him so much but considering Heroline¡¯s regretted look towards Angor, Mara realized what just happened.

    It was clear. Heroline was ming Mara, for not noticing Angor¡¯s talent beforehand, thus giving Sunders such an opportunity.

    Mara felt really upset. He did not know there was something else besides ¡°floating¡± during the talent test. He was being excited about his own breakthrough on that day. It could not be helped.

    Despite his feeling, Mara could not argue with Heroline. Otherwise, he would not be going back to the academy at all.

    Heroline¡¯s resentment sent a chill down Mara¡¯s spine. An apprentice was like an ant in the face of a wizard. If Heroline decided to end his life right here, the academy would not even question about it.

    With his future dangerously hanging on a thin string, Mara changed his train of thought, clenched his teeth in determination, and made a great decision.

 Chapter 45 - Maraâ€™s Regret

    <h4>Chapter 45: Mara¡¯s Regret</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Sir, Sunders... Sir, An¡ªAngor already joined White Coral Floating Ind Academy, so, so¡ªso...¡±

    Mara did not finish. It was not because he was scared of Sunders. He was sweating because everyone else was staring at him.

    The room was filled with the voice of chattering and went quiet when Angor was about to answer Sunders. As all people were waiting for Angor¡¯s choice in dead silence, Mara¡¯s sudden reaction naturally caught their attention.

    Angor was only feeling uneasy under people¡¯s gaze because he was still young and did not know much about the wizarding world. He could at least talk like normal. Mara, on the other hand, had seen many incidents showing human natures. He usually knew how to act in certain situations. He knew to be modest when wizards were around; this was why he kept stuttering when all the formal wizards were looking at him.

    Looking at the big disappointment, Heroline spat in disgust inside her mind.

    Florent lifted a hand and covered his face. He was already burning red.

    Mara did not finish his words, but his intention was clear.

    However, Sunders never paid him any attention. He was still waiting for Angor¡¯s answer while stroking his gloves.

    Mara stood in the center of attention in embarrassment. Before he felt devoured by the terrible quietness, an eerie giggle broke the silence.

    ¡°Angor is the academy¡¯s student? Why didn¡¯t I hear about that?¡±

    It was Flora. She was floating in the air like lying in an armchair, with her smooth, bright thighs crossed. Her white toe tips were dipping in rhythm.

    ¡°I brought him to the ship¡ª¡±

    ¡°So what? Bringing him to the ship means he must join your... what group was it again?¡± Flora began taunting again.

    ¡°I...¡±

    ¡°Besides, he¡¯s still a mortal. No spirit model inside him. How is he your student?¡± said Flora. She took out her delicate umbre and pointed to Mara, ¡°Your academy teaches Triangle Channeling, am I right? So did you teach it to Angor? If you did, I don¡¯t mind leaving him be, like what I did to Easley.

    ¡°Or did you not do it at all since you started from the Marginalized Ind till Devil¡¯s Water?¡±

    Mara and Florent froze in ce. No, they did not.

    Flora looked at Angor again. ¡°Angor, is it? Big sis will tell you something. Organizations like theirs are usually referred to as ¡®academism¡¯ by us. Simr to how some apprentices divide wizards into ck and white. Such organizations value new talents and usually teach their channeling methods while on the guidance ship. I checked on the talents on the ship, more than half of them already have spirit models constructed inside their bodies.

    ¡°It means, if they see a talented one as important, they will teach him or her the channeling method as soon as possible. Now, look at you. How long did you stay on The Redbud now? And still amon one. You see now? Heehee. They never cared about you.¡±

    Flora¡¯s remark hit the nail of it.

    Mara was trembling hard again. He was nning to teach Angor channeling along with n and Aleen. He decided otherwise because he expected some kind of reward back first. He was true when speaking about ¡°equivalent exchange¡± in the wizarding world, and of course, he would not want to teach channeling to someone for free.

    ¡°Any questions? If you already taught Angor, you can take him away as a wizard¡¯s rule, we won¡¯t stop you. But if you didn¡¯t, Angor has the right to choose for himself. You should stop meddling.¡±

    Mara did not move. Everyone else in the room was supernatural, they certainly noticed. Angor was amon mortal, and there was not a tiny trace of channeling training on him.

    Flora was using Jel¡¯s reasoning a while ago to p Mara¡¯s face.

    And Mara could not argue.

    Angor neither received the academy¡¯s channeling method nor went through a formal talent test. He could be considered a reserved student for the academy, and a reserved student was still free. There was no contract, no emotional bond. Mara could not even use moral grounds to push the matter.

    In the end, Mara no longer had anything to say. He stepped aside quietly.

    Looking at how Heroline was staring at him in hatred, Mara could only look down in shame. If only he knew what would happen today, he would have already taught Angor the Triangle Channeling. It was nothing valuable anyway.

    If only...

    Mara felt his situation changed from fortunate to destion so fast. Thinking about his possible consequences upon returning to the academy, even Greya¡¯s meal could not cheer him up now.

    With endless sorrow, Mara felt himself instantly gaining another ten years in age. He moved to a corner and sulked on his own.

    ...

    ¡°Angor, dear, made up your mind?¡± Flora floated to Angor and looked at him with a seducing look. She said, ¡°I¡¯m sure you want to be my little junior.¡±

    Her flirtation did not receive an expected oue. Angor¡¯s eyes were clear as always. He even frowned at Flora¡¯s attempt.

    Flora paused, and secretly let out a ¡°little bastard¡± in her mind. She rolled her eyes, then returned to Greya to keep talking about meals.

    People were looking at Angor again.

    Angor looked at Mara, then back at Sunders.

    He was hesitating not because he was afraid of offending someone. Instead, he was worried about Sunders¡¯ intention. He did not believe in free favors. When Mara refused to teach him Triangle Channeling, he actually felt relieved. Sunders came too sudden. There must be a reason why the man wanted to take him away.

    Angor was worried because he did not know if he could satisfy Sunders¡¯ expectation, thus angering the terrible gentleman.

    What did he want? How far could Angor satisfy him? Angor was struggling over these questions.

    He did not have to worry about these if he chose White Coral Floating Ind Academy. But... could he really save his teacher in five years with the help of the academy?

    For himself. For his teacher.

    Angor clenched his teeth, raised his head in determination and let out a single word:

    ¡°Alright.¡±

    Clear and firm.

    Sunders smiled. ¡°Very good.¡±

    Even Flora began to show a more gentle look towards Angor.

    Apart from those people from White Coral Floating Ind Academy, who all showed regret, the rest of the group regarded Angor with a serious look.

    Before they came into Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, this young man was only someone extremely lucky, and that was nothing important to them. However, half an hourter, this young man was going to earn himself a higher and higher ground with the help of his mentor. No one would ever consider him amon kid. He might still be a mortal at this moment, but his future... was unpredictable.

 Chapter 46 - Living Food

    <h4>Chapter 46: Living Food</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor¡¯s mind was clear.

    Choosing the academy did not mean he could be free, and choosing Sunders did not mean he would be restricted. Besides, the academy never promised him anything, while Sunders already said he could help Jon live another five years.

    Angor¡¯s choice was reasonable.

    Although Angor did not realize that the academy¡¯s representative, Heroline, would actually give him a promise if not for Sunders¡¯ repression. Heroline could not even move a finger now.

    As Angor spoke his decision, the repression on Heroline vanished.

    She let out a sigh in relief. It was just a few minutes, and she was already drenched in sweat.

    Angor was going to join Brute Cavern, there was no stopping it. She could only regret in her mind, without actually showing discontent at Sunders. She humped when walking past Mara, gave Angor ast, thoughtful look, and returned to her own seat.

    ¡°Oohohoho. Such a loving scene in my restaurant.¡± Greya moved her bulky figure in front of Sunders. She intentionally squeezed the word ¡°loving¡± between her teeth.

    Breaking the restaurant¡¯s rules and most of the spell arrays... if it was not Sunders, she would have already driven him away.

    Greya suddenly removed her anger, tilted her head towards Sunders and asked in a whisper, ¡°Whatever is the boy¡¯s talent? You even broke my spells just for him!¡±

    Greya was obviously itchy for some gossip. She appeared to be whispering, but she did not use anything to conceal her words, so everyone heard her.

    After Sunders broke into the room just to get himself a student, people¡¯s curiosity about Angor¡¯s talent already reached the peak, and Greya¡¯s question was just about right to answer that. Everyone was pretending to be calm, but they all pricked up their ears, trying to get Sunders¡¯ answer as clear as possible.

    Even Angor was curious about this. What did Sunders want out of him?

    To their disappointment, Sunders only raised an eyebrow. He had no intention to tell them at all.

    Greya rolled her eyes. ¡°You kinda made a big mess in my restaurant. Would it hurt to give me a little answer?¡±

    Sunders simply picked up his cane from the table in a casual manner and signaled Flora to leave.

    ¡°Hey hey! Just one question then. Does his talent have anything to do with ¡®that ce¡¯?¡±

    <i>That ce? Where the heck is that ce? Come on, spit it out!</i>

    People looked at each other in puzzlement.

    Sunders gave Greya a deep look, then left the room with Flora without saying anything. Of course, he did not forget to take Angor with him.

    ¡°Are you going to give up Angor¡¯s custom food?¡±

    Sunders halted and looked at Angor. The boy was still unsure about the situation.

    ¡°Send the food to my ce. Oh right, what do you want to order?¡±

    Receiving the question, Angor finally woke up from his trance. ¡°I¡ªI don¡¯t know what to choose. Tea¡ªteacher? Can you give me an advice?¡±

    This was the first time he called someone other than Jon a ¡°teacher¡±. He blushed hard.

    Sunders was satisfied with his new student¡¯s manner.

    ¡°You choose for yourself. Anything will do,¡± said Sunders. He took a moment to think and added, ¡°By the way, Greya¡¯s living food is unique in the entire wizard world.¡±

    ¡°Living food?¡± Angor felt something repulsive just thinking about that name.

    Flora exined, ¡°Living food is something Greya created with her original spells that don¡¯t exist in this world. They all have their own special effects. Such as Section Ephemera.¡±

    Angor pondered, then looked at everyone else in the room, who were eager for his answer.

    Heroline was wearing a nk face. She was still frustrated at losing Angor, and she did not have the appetite. Sabot was considering about something while glimpsing at Angor now and then, seemingly thinking over Angor¡¯s talent.

    Jel¡¯s expression was still cold. Although he no longer dared to order Angor like how he did a while ago.

    Angor looked at Jel, then back at Sunders, and made up his mind.

    He did not seem so bad.

    ¡°Lady Greya, I know. I¡¯ll choose Section Ephemera.¡±

    Everyone sighed in relief, especially Jel¡ªhis stern expression smoothed down a little. Section Ephemera was very valuable to him. He had been looking for them for years, and missing this opportunity meant it would take even longer.

    When Angor spoke his decision, Jel¡¯s attitude towards Angor changed from ¡°mild hostility¡± to ¡°somewhat appreciated¡±.

    He would not be like that if Angor was still amon mortal. However, since Sunders was behind the boy now, even someone like Jel would not underestimate Angor from now on.

    After hesitating for some more, Angor asked in an uncertain voice, ¡°Lady Greya, can you prepare shares for my teacher and Flora too?¡±

    Flora was surprised. Then she let out a big smile. ¡°Good boy. No wonder the teacher liked you. Heehee. I¡¯ll take care of you at Brute Cavern. No one¡¯s gonna hurt you!¡±

    Sunders had no use for Section Ephemera even if it was valuable, but no one would mind getting free stuff.

    Greya shrugged. ¡°Alright. You¡¯re the golden guest, you decide.¡±

    Greya chose to obey Sunders during the conflict. Now Sunders was officially Angor¡¯s teacher, of course, she had no problem answering to her guest¡¯s need.

    ...

    After the three of them left the banquet room, Angor felt himself short of breath as if the air was getting thin.

    Flora was floating joyfully while humming an unknown song.

    Angor followed closely behind Sunders, expecting his unknown future.

    ¡°Jel is an Alchemist. The man has some extreme personality and a narrow mind, but his technique is exceptional. His title is ¡®The Mythril Innovator¡¯. If you ever want to study alchemy, you will be seeing his name quite a lot. His contribution towards mythril refinement was a major breakthrough in the alchemy field a hundred years ago. Maintain a good rtionship with him, and you will see the benefit.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ voice broke the embarrassing silence.

    Angor nodded quickly. So that was why Sunders left the choice of food to him. If he did not choose Section Ephemera, he would get on bad terms with Jel.

    Sunders was his teacher now, but he was still useless against someone like Jel. Considering the cold and selfish natures of wizards, Angor could not do anything if Jel suddenly decided to kill him.

    Keeping a basic rtionship like now was the best choice.

    They came into the bronze banquet room Sunders was in. It was empty. Greya was preparing Section Ephemeras for everyone.

    Sunders closed his eyes to rx. His grin suggested he was having a good mood.

    Flora took the chance to tell Angor about all kinds of rumors about Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    Compared to Tom Weasel¡¯s exaggerated introduction, Flora¡¯s remarks were more directly perceived.

    After a while, Angor began to have a basic idea about this mysterious traveling restaurant.

    ¡°Those strange waiters aren¡¯t a big deal. If you ever go to Fairytown, you will find more weirdos there. Those iron men, scarecrow men, and heartless princesses... at least Greya acts like a human,¡± Flora concluded.

 Chapter 47 - A Real Wizard

    <h4>Chapter 47: A Real Wizard</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Fairytown was an extremely particr wizard union in the southern region. Or rather, it was a concept. It consisted of a number of wizard organizations who were willing to admit the concept. There were also some weaker organizations who joined the union for protection, against the powerful ones around them.

    Greya¡¯s organization was called ¡°Candy House in the Woods¡±. Candy House joined Fairytown 400 years ago and was still a unique organization among all organizations under Fairytown because most gourmet wizards in the southern region originated from it.

    The difficulty for gourmet wizards to break through was among the worst in the entire ult Art. There had been less than ten gourmet wizards that explicitly showed themselves in the south. Greya was one of the best among them.

    ¡°Greya isn¡¯t really strong, but she can use some of the most strange spells, even Bloodline wizards who¡¯re famous for their raw power don¡¯t want to make her an enemy,¡± said Flora. After talking about Fairytown, Flora spoke about Greya, ¡°If I make a top-ten list for wizards who I absolutely don¡¯t want to offend, Greya would be in there.

    ¡°Getting the golden card from Barbie¡¯s Restaurant already earned your friendship with her. Once you be a wizard, it will bring you to profit you won¡¯t expect.¡±

    Flora was talking about profit again, but that was how the wizarding world was¡ªprofit over everything.

    Sunders also nodded gently. He gave his own opinion towards Greya, which was rare for someone like him:

    ¡°She is a real wizard who deserves people¡¯s respect. Either as a friend or as a rival.¡±

    ¡°A... real wizard?¡± Angor mumbled. He did not know what that meant. Were the other wizards not real?

    Sunders only smiled at his question. The kid should walk down his wizardry path on his own. Telling him now would confuse him.

    Still, Sunders added something. ¡°Walk on your own path without being restricted by the ancestors and keep it up for years on end. Even if you can¡¯t see where you¡¯re going, you are creating your unique sight. Such a wizard is a real wizard.¡±

    Sunders stroke his cane. ¡°Pity. Many know of this and tried to walk down such a path. But they had neither enough knowledge nor enough insight. That¡¯s why there are fewer and fewer real wizards now.¡±

    Sunders stopped there. What he said was enough to tell Angor to decide his own path.

    As the discussion went on, Angor felt more rxed. With Flora hinting him, Angor began to tell something about himself.

    His life had always been a routine of ¡°study, eat, sleep¡±.

    Angor thought his new teacher would be bored listening to his uneventful life, so he looked at Sunders with some uneasiness.

    As usual, Sunders was not showing any emotion on the outside. He put down his cane on the table, crossed his legs, and spoke in a casual tone, ¡°From what you said, you already possess the will to study as a wizard, but your approach is too moderate. I think you will be a better academism wizard.¡±

    Angor froze.

    From their conversations earlier, Angor learned that Sunders and Flora were from Brute Cavern. It was one of the top major organizations in the south mainly consisting of ck wizards. There were a small number of white wizards, considered ¡°dissents¡± in Brute Cavern. ording to Sunders, most academism wizards were white wizards.

    When viewed as an apprentice, Sunders and Flora were both ck wizards. Now Sunders just considered Angor as ¡°academism¡±... Was Sunders dissatisfied?

    Angor remembered how Flora showed her disdain towards academism when talking to Mara. He began toin to himself for worrying too much. But... he could not help it.

    And what he was thinking waspletely obvious on his face. Sunders looked at him and nced at Flora.

    Flora immediately got the idea. She patted Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Heehee. Looks like you¡¯ll be responsible for repairing our rtionship with the dissents after we get back!

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind the different factions. You make your decision in mere moments. White or ck or gray can¡¯t determine one¡¯s nature. ¡®Dissent¡¯ is only a moniker we made behind them. All wizards have a bloody and cruel image in the Fey ne, and most wizards who colonize other nes are actually academism wizards. So academism doesn¡¯t mean good wizards. Your actions determine who you are. To hell with the white and ck stuff. The apprentices don¡¯t know what they¡¯re doing whenbeling others. Don¡¯t worry too much about it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like academism just because some of them in Brute Cavern are petty double-dealers. Not that I have a problem with academism itself.¡±

    Angor knew they just saw through him again. He blushed.

    Good for him though as their attention was attracted by Greya who slowly stepped in while carrying a service te.

    A porcin dish under beautifully crafted cover was ced in front of Angor and caught everyone¡¯s attention. Behind Greya followed Tom Weasel and Greasy Bird, who were both carrying a dish. They put them in front of Flora and Sunders.

    ¡°What¡¯s with the pretty dishes? We have to put them into a container anyway.¡± Flora opened her cover while not forgetting her sarcasm.

    A transparent crystal bottle in the shape of a water drop was ced on the dish. A bandaged cork kept the content inside. Inconspicuous magic runes were shining on the cork¡¯s surface.

    The water seemed to be the only thing inside the bottle, but once looked upon using Truesight spell or simr methods, one would see a transparent worm swimming inside the water lively.

    The worm was called Section Ephemera.

    ¡°Bon app¨¦tite, Angor dear,¡± Greya ogled at Angor. With that, a woman like her would easily make someone feel burning inside.

    <i>What did she mean? Should I drink it?</i>

    Angor could not see the Section Ephemera so he could only sway the bottle in his hand in puzzlement.

    ¡°There¡¯s a Section Ephemera inside. You don¡¯t need it now so you can keep it,¡± said Sunders. He added, ¡°You can sell it in the organization and get something you need in return, but I won¡¯t rmend that. Section Ephemera has a unique effect that will greatly help you when you be a wizard.¡±

    Sunders seemed certain that Angor would be a wizard. Greya inspected Angor with a weird look, without getting any answer to her doubts. This made her heart itchy.

    Greya told Tom Weasel to standby beside Angor and walked to her cooking table.

    ¡°Your turn, Sunders. Still Twisting Protozoa?¡±

    It was a normal question, yet Greya¡¯s eyebrows were downcast as if she was thinking about something.

    Sunders grinned mildly.

    After the incident, Sunders could easily interpret the meaning behind the seemingly ordinary question. Greya was trying to get a hint about Angor¡¯s talent from Sunders¡¯ choice.

    If Sunders said no, Greya would quickly reach some kind of conclusion. Sunders had been asking for the same order for decades, if he changed his mind so quickly, something must be off.

    Of course, Sunders knew that Greya simply wanted some harmless gossip, not actually trying to reveal Angor¡¯s secret.

    However, as someone who quite enjoyed seeing people¡¯s frustration for having questions hanging in their minds, Sunders certainly would not easily give an answer to them. Especially when Angor was his student now.

    Intending to protect Angor¡¯s little secret, Sunders only showed a in look.

    ¡°Naturally.¡±

 Chapter 48 - Toby and Artificial Life

    <h4>Chapter 48: Toby and Artificial Life</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Greya did not know how to respond. She cast several doubtful looks towards Sunders, who still had an I-care-not expression. Was she wrong? Angor¡¯s talent had nothing to do with the nightmare realm?

    But Angor¡¯s story sounded really simr to the Nightmare Realm.

    If his talent was rted to the Nightmare Realm, had he stumbled into the real Nightmare Realm during his talent test? So was his talent about connecting the Nightmare Realm and reality?

    Nah. Greya shook her head andughed it off. Impossible. A tunnel between nes was not something manageable using human bodies.

    Greya¡¯s guess was that Angor¡¯s talent could have a simr effect with Twisting Protozoa, thus her question. It seemed she was wrong though.

    She shook her head again. She would not get an answer anyway, might as well give it up.

    A man famous in the entire southern region was sitting there. She certainly could not force him to speak.

    With that in mind, Greya suppressed her curiosity and prepared to cook Sunders¡¯ order.

    As she went through her materials, the sound of pping wings came into the room.

    Everyone looked towards the source. A seabird about the size of two hands dashed past the curtain. It had gray feathers, green eyes... an ordinary bird if one only considered these.

    But what if the bird was wearing clothes?

    White hat, blue bib, a tiny messenger pouch. A bird wearing these things would surely look strange. Yet somehow, its appearance seemed quite harmonious.

    Maybe it was because the bird¡¯s eyes looked as intelligent as human eyes?

    ¡°Ah! Tweet!¡± Angor called out in instinct.

    The bird heard Angor, made a circle in the air, andnded on Angor¡¯s blond hair.

    ¡°Oohohoho! Toby, my sweetie!¡±

    Greya somehow was already standing beside Angor. She was rubbing Toby the seabird with herrge face.

    As the bird was perched on top of Angor, Greya just grabbed Angor into a hug as well.

    Angor¡¯s mind nked out due to the great shock. He only saw something blurring through his eyes, and felt his face squeezed into a strange shape by all the fat chunks.

    This was his first time getting so close to a female ever since his mother passed away. However, he was not getting any improper ideas¡ªhe only wished to get away as fast as possible.

    After a bit of struggling, Greya finally let him go.

    Toby the seabird was still standing on Angor¡¯s head, with its feathers messed up a little.

    Angor was in worse shape. He had his slicked hairbed nice and shiny in the morning. Toby¡¯s talons kind of disturbed it a bit. After Greya¡¯s trampling, his hair was now aplete lump of disaster.

    ¡°Hey! What¡¯s with the bird?¡± Flora looked at the miserable look on her new junior and chuckled in secret. She dragged Angor behind her.

    ¡°Bird? How rude of you. This is Toby, my loving friend!¡± Greya gave Flora an angered stare.

    ¡°But it¡¯s just a bird.¡±

    ¡°Whatever.¡± Greya carefully held Toby up and ced it onto her shoulder. Then she wiggled away to continue her cooking.

    ¡°The bird is a living food,¡± Sunders suddenly spoke.

    ¡°Living food? Greya¡¯s artificial life?¡± Flora seemed surprised.

    ¡°Should be.¡±

    Flora¡¯s expression turned. ¡°No, I checked it. That¡¯s absolutely a bird monster, although a very weak one. It couldn¡¯t be a created living food.¡±

    ¡°Use Expel Deceit to look at its original form.¡± Sunders seemed to be admiring something.

    Flora hesitated for a while and used Expel Deceit on the seabird. She saw a cut-off lifestream. That was a typical residue indicating that something was an artificial life!

    ¡°Greya¡¯s artificial life spells could already create non-sapient creatures. It was just a few decades and she already created a sapient monster bird... It seems her strength is near the limit,¡± Sunders eximed. He added, ¡°Another 20 years and she¡¯ll be the first level-2 gourmet wizard in the south... if she never strays from her path.¡±

    Section Ephemera and Twisting Protozoa were both non-sapient creatures even though they possessed amazing powers. They were merely materials for wizards. The monsters. however, were different. Some of them might be weak that even mortals could kill them, but a sapient monster could achieve great things if it met its destiny.

    ¡°So this is what a real wizard is? She walked on a really distant path,¡± Flora eximed as well.

    ¡°What is artificial life?¡± Angor could not hold that back.

    Sunders pointed to Greya. ¡°You will see when Greya uses her unique spells.¡±

    Greya¡¯s living food was usually taken away by her customers so she did not have special containers for them. Her movement was fast. Several unknown cooking materials were hurled into a gourmet wizard tool in a blink of an eye.

    Gas vortexes, monsters with many eyes, mist, worms, ores, indescribable liquid... Everything looked weird, and they all gave out unusual auras.

    Next, Greya threw everything into the air and began mumbling something in her mouth. Light rays spread from her fingers.

    As Angor watched, live and dead materials changed their shapes and colors under the ¡°massaging¡± of light, like soft dirt being reshaped and gave birth to saplings.

    In the end, a ck, segmented worm appeared in front of Greya.

    Angor only found it amazing while Sunders and Flora noticed the application of various knowledge and techniques, added with the special ripple of a gourmet wizard. There was also an unknown will working in the dark, to create life out of death and make a living creature using many models.

    ¡°Wonderful. Beautiful!¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°Knowledge as vast as the sea, used with varied logics. Such an astonishing view.¡± This was what Flora and Sunders would say every time they saw Greya¡¯s artificial life spells.

    Looking at the wiggling worm, Angor asked in a small voice, ¡°Did she create life?¡±

    As he remembered from the eastern and western myths from Earth, only extremely powerful beings could create lives. Maybe a wizard in this world could also do that?

    Sunders considered for a while.

    ¡°Yes and no. Only the Creator in the mythologies can create a real life. But wizards don¡¯t believe in gods, they trust in truth and knowledge. Greya¡¯s unique spell is called artificial life and seems to be creating lives. However, it involves too many theories, including monster bionomy, microbial restructuring, mana energy exchange and so on. These deep theories are nothing like creating something out of thin air in the stories.¡±

    ¡°Oh...¡± Angor nodded in enlightenment. It was like cloning, to use various methods to create a new life while bypassing the rule of reproductive istion. ¡°I think I can understand now.¡±

    ¡°Kids,¡± Sunders shook his head. Of course, he did not believe that Angor actually understood anything. He thought the young man was pretending to be calm.

    What he did not know was that when it came to certain knowledge, Angor was already a qualified schr.

    However, Sunders did not say anything, just to protect his new student¡¯s little ego.

 Chapter 49 - Farewell, and a New Journey

    <h4>Chapter 49: Farewell, and a New Journey</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The moon was already high in the sky when they left Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    Countless stars were reflected on the sea surface as if the dark sea itself was covered by a shiny carpet, beautiful and stunning. A wave would sometimes scatter the shining ripples and gave ce to the gentle moonlight.

    What happened today was totally unexpected for Angor. He did not know whether it was good or bad, but he did know that he was going to bid farewell to his in past.

    In front of the restaurant entrance decorated in a child¡¯s style, Sunders slowly spoke to Angor, ¡°Get back to The Redbud tonight and pack up your belongings. Flora will get you tomorrow morning.¡±

    With that, Sunders nodded to Angor, waved his cane, and ordered his demon falcon to carry Angor back to the ship¡¯s deck. The giant bird had been waiting outside all along.

    Angor stood on the deck and watched as the duo flew away. The giant Cloud Whale was like a flying ark among the shining stars. Tomorrow, he would board the creature and step onto his new journey.

    The road ahead was long. An unknown future could always obscure one¡¯s sight. Angor stood on the deck dazed for a long time until he was woken up by the gathering crowd beside him.

    ¡°Hey! What did you do in that building?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s it like in there? Oh, and who are you? You from Tower of Hurricane?¡±

    ¡°Who was standing on that giant bird? Do you know them?¡±

    ¡°Why did the ballet guy bring you in? You friend of theirs?¡±

    The talents on The Redbud surrounded Angor with their questions. Angor looked around. He saw envy, curiosity, ttery, indifference...

    He also heard arrogance and nder among the voices. Even then, he still felt reassured.

    Back in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, he was walking on clouds. Free, yet with no solid ground to support him. For a mortal like him, keeping calm in the restaurant was already impressive.

    Now, he finally stepped down from the cloud and returned to the ground.

    The chattering and childish moring of the talents told him that he finally made it back to the human world. He was relieved.

    Or maybe this was what a mortal should be thinking about in the first ce.

    He did not give them an answer. He apologized to the crowd and made his way back to his own room, under people¡¯s doubtful gazes.

    This would be a sleepless night. For both Angor and the other people on the ship.

    Angor leaned on the window and went through many things in his mind. His clear pupils shone in the gentle moonlight and wavering waves.

    The world was always changing. Where did he go? And where would he be? One¡¯s lifelong journey was filled with the unpredictable. He would start his trip, without knowing what was waiting for him ahead. Be it storms or hurricanes, they would not be the final sight.

    Angor felt he just learned a lot. Maybe after today, he could try to learn about religions and philosophy knowledge from Earth. Idealism could do a good job in seizing one¡¯s emotions. Doctrines, sentimental sayings or stories... they were all the same.

    Angor finally woke up from his thoughts when the moon was already in its highest spot.

    He would leave The Redbud for his new journey tomorrow. The teacher gave him one night to prepare, he should not waste it worrying about random stuff.

    Angor quickly moved.

    The first task, naturally, was packing up his luggage. He did not have much. Apart from spare clothes and a few necessities, most of his belongings were books he bought from Moonwater City. They took up two big wooden boxes.

    Most of them were leather scroll books. Maybe not as expensive as noble collections, but they were still fine works amongmon folks.

    Angor really wished he could bring both boxes. For him, books were knowledge, and nothing was more valuable than that. Jon and Sunders both told him that.

    But... there was no way he could carry them both...

    Maybe try asking Teacher to help him? No. He could not even imagine what it would look like, letting his teacher help him carry a book box.

    After some mind struggling, Angor decided he would give them up.

    He already stored a scanned copy of them inside the hologram tablet. He did not want to leave them because he had a natural love towards book collections.

    Since he was giving them up, he should find them a new owner. Throwing books away was not eptable for a book lover.

    The only people he knew on the ship were Mara, n, and Aleen. Mara was not his schoolmate, so books were not a proper gift. Furthermore, considering Mara¡¯s experience, books that were written bymon men probably would not interest him anyway.

    So, Angor decided to give the books to n and Aleen.

    The clock told him it was 11 in the night. Angor did not know when exactly he would leave tomorrow, so he needed to check on the children now, even if they might be sleeping already.

    Maybe it was because the food illusions during the day, many talents on The Redbud were injured. As Angor walked through the narrow hallway, he heard a lot of pained mournings and whimpers.

    His mood grew sad as he walked.

    He was not a hypocrite and he did not intend to sympathize the wounded. He was simply feeling sorry for his own kind.

    As one of the weakest beings in the wizarding world, he felt sorrow for the fact that they could only face such consequences while not being able to control their own fates.

    Especially when Angor knew the nature of the illusions. They were mere mirages that naturally urred when a gourmet wizard did her cooking.

    No one was trying to harm them intentionally. It was just an aura, inadvertently released, and it put every talent on the ship in an endless terror.

    What could he say? This was how the weak would always be in the world of wizards.

    Angor was just one of them. He was distressed for his own fragile fate.

    After passing several crossings, Angor reached the residence of n and Aleen.

    They lived in two rooms at the end of a fork, opposite to each other, so they could easily help each other out. Booking the rooms like this must be Mara¡¯s work too.

    As Angor approached, he noticed the door to Aleen¡¯s room was slightly ajar, and there was sobbing came from inside. He also heard n¡¯s softforting words.

    Angor did not try to eavesdrop. He knocked on the door gently, waited for a e in¡±, and pushed the door open.

    Unexpectedly, he found three people in the room. Apart from the grandchildren, Mara was also here, in his usual ck robe.

 Chapter 50 - Greyas Request

    <h4>Chapter 50: Greya¡¯s Request</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When affected by the food illusions, Aleen tripped over a table leg and tumbled badly. When Angor came in, n was applying ointment on her feet.

    When Mara saw Angor, his expression was a weird one mixed with envy, jealousy, regret, and resentment. Angor immediately felt his back shivering, but Mara did not say anything in the end. He only let out a sorrowful sigh.

    On the other side of the room, Aleen blushed for some reason, followed by tears in her eyes. She gave Angor a miserable look.

    Angor had no idea what was going on, but n quickly answered him.

    ¡°Angor, some big man took you in as a student and you¡¯ll leave soon?¡± n asked with his baby-like voice while dragging Angor¡¯s sleeves using his white, chubby hands. His expression was filled with curiosity and admiration.

    So that was why.

    Angor knew Aleen¡¯s special feeling towards him. He understood that it was not the feeling of love, but somethingmonly seen on a young girl. Just like one of the poetries from Earth said how young people always worried too much when they did not even know about the real troubles in their lives. Young ones tended to be emotional. First-sight loves, child crushes... They were mostly false emotions triggered by excessive adolescent hormones.

    Angor always interpreted Aleen¡¯s friendliness towards him as an overreaction. If he really responded, it would soon be proved abstinent with the pass of time. Besides, Angor never had any emotion towards Aleen that was more than friendship.

    This was why Angor always kept calm and controlled about Aleen¡¯s attitude. He regarded the rtionship in the view of an experienced elder.

    Although, he did not realize that his attempt to view the delicate rtionship in a know-it-all manner was also something an arrogant kid would do.

    To put it simply, Aleen liked Angor. When she heard from Mara that Angor was going to leave, she became hesitant.

    Angor gave a simple answer to n¡¯s question andforted Aleen (for her wound). He avoided everything else. He liked the pair, but they were only friends, so he did not intend to respond to emotions that did not exist.

    Angor exined why he came. n agreed without a second thought, for being able to kill time reading the books during the dull journey. They were free books, so why not?

    n was speaking lively, while Aleen sulked by herself.

    In a short time, n moved the boxes to his room. When everything was done, Angor finally felt relieved.

    When it was time for goodbye, Angor walked to Mara in a serious manner and apologized for choosing Sunders in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    Anyone else would not mind his decision, nor find it necessary to apologize.

    Angor knew that Mara was the one to take him away from themon world. Mara asked for a reward, true, but Angor was still grateful. For Angor, Mara was the very person who helped him begin his new journey.

    Angor chose Sunders for his own gain. To think for oneself waspletely normal for anyone in this world. However, Jon taught him to be generous and modest, and Angor knew that his decision went against it.

    Angor¡¯s unexpected action caused Mara to hesitate.

    After a while, Mara slowly spoke, ¡°You made the right decision. I would have done the same, if not faster than you did.¡±

    Looking at the serious will to apologize on such a young face, Mara¡¯s resentment quickly vanished.

    Mara felt curious. Angor¡¯s former teacher, Jon... How did he create a student like this? Angor¡¯s apology was so sudden, and the focus of the apology was also strange. Yet... the boy¡¯s action felt quite pleasant to him.

    Angor also believed he made the right decision. Still, he went back on his word about joining White Coral Floating Ind Academy. He broke his promise. There was no denying it.

    ¡°No matter what happens, I¡¯ll fulfill our agreement. Once I be a Level-2 Apprentice, sir, I¡¯lle to you in the academy and realize what I promised to you.¡±

    ...

    On the silent deck, a fat woman in a long, reddish purple dress suddenly appeared.

    ¡°Oohohoho, sweetie, let me see where the boy is!¡± The woman¡¯s voice was sharp enough to pierce the night sky, but strangely, she did not wake anyone.

    Something pped its wings in the sky andnded on the woman¡¯s shoulder.

    The gentle moonlight revealed the figures of ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya and his beloved pet, Toby.

    Greya¡¯s spiritual power instantly covered the entire ship. As the tentacles of her power crawled into every corner, Greya could clearly see the inside.

    ¡°Tsk. It was just a small mirage, and so many people got hurt. Looks like these talents are terrible. When I get back to Candy House, I should tell them to recruit talents by deathmatches after all.¡±

    Greya¡¯s spiritual power searched the ship freely. It easily alerted the three formal wizards on the ship.

    However, they all caught a trace of information Greya intentionally ced in her spirit ripples. When they understood her intention, they decided not to bother her.

    ¡°Looking for Angor in the middle of the night? What in the world does she want...¡± Heroline shook her head. She felt regretful whenever she thought about Angor. It was a good thing that Sunders did not exin Angor¡¯s talent, or Heroline would feel worse.

    ¡°Ohhohoho! There you are!¡±

    When the spiritual power scanned through Aleen¡¯s room, Mara immediately felt intimidated by the great force. Before he could realize what happened, Greya¡¯s figure materialized in front of him.

    Her fat body made the already narrow room even more congested.

    ¡°La¡ªLa¡ªLady Greya?!¡±

    Greya ignored Mara¡¯s panic. She looked at Angor who was standing in another direction. The boy was also thinking about why Greya came, but before she said anything, Toby the seabird pped its grayish-white wings, left Greya¡¯s shoulder, and perched on Angor¡¯s blond hair.

    Angor was speechless for a while. Why did Toby like his hair so much?

    ¡°Lady Greya. Did you need something?¡±

    Greya looked at Angor in the eyes. ¡°A small matter, yes. I wish you can help.¡±

    Angor quickly made it clear that he would help as best as he could.

    ¡°Back in the restaurant, you said you received the golden card from Toby by providing a tea called ¡®Morning Dew¡¯, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s a tea my former teacher nted,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Good. I came for the tea. As a gourmet wizard, I¡¯m interested in everything in the world that goes into your stomach. Can I exchange some Morning Dew from you?¡±

    ¡°Of course!¡± Angor agreed and prepared to return to his room for his remaining Morning Dew.

    However, when he saw Mara with the corner of his eye, he changed his mind.

    ¡°When leaving my home, I gave most Morning Dew to Mister Mara. Lady Greya, you can do the exchange with him, if you would.¡±

    Mara raised his head with a start. He looked at Angor with gratitude. His discontent towards the boy disappeared just a moment ago, but now, all possible negative feelings were no more. At least Angor was friendly to him. Upon returning to the academy, Heroline might deste or even punish Mara. On the other hand, Angor was Sunders¡¯ student now. The boy had a bright future. If Mara could maintain a good rtionship with Angor... looked like he earned something for himself today after all.

    Hate him? No. In the wizarding world where survival was for the fittest, the hatred of a petty ant would only bring the insect endless agony.

    Greya raised an eyebrow and gave Angor a thoughtful look. Then she smiled and began discussing the matter with Mara.

    Of course, Mara was willing to offer his Morning Dew to Greya. He bustled through his belongings and gave all the tea leaves to Greya. He was nning to make a fortune out of Morning Dew upon returning to Fey Continent. Now Greya needed the tea, he might as well give her all he had.

    When talking about payment, Mara gave Greya a firm answer ¡°Free!¡±. This way, a wizard would owe him a favor!

    However, Greya did not give him the opportunity. When taking the Morning Dew, she handed Mara a small bag of magic crystals.

    When she was done, Greya turned to Angor again.

    ¡°Apart from Morning Dew, I have another favor to ask of you.¡±

 Chapter 51 - Raising a Child?!

    <h4>Chapter 51: Raising a Child?!</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Toby!¡± Greya lifted a hand. The seabird sitting on Angor¡¯s hair took off and returned to her.

    ¡°Toby has been following me ever since it was created. It¡¯s a new life form I made, using several phantom spirits and valuable materials, while based on an ordinary seabird. I tried many times to recreate the process, to make something simr. But I never seeded. Toby is one of a kind,¡± Greya exined while looking at Toby with a gentle look.

    ¡°Toby has been here for years. It doesn¡¯t have any special powers like other monsters, but it¡¯s intelligent. It can understand human speech now, and it also has a spirit capacity simr to apprentices.¡±

    Angor was already getting a hint about Greya¡¯s intention to leave Toby to him.

    ¡°Barbie¡¯s Restaurant is always traveling around the world looking for materials. Toby is safe with me. But now, I¡¯m approaching my bottleneck to break through. When a gourmet wizard needs to do it, he or she will need lots of unique cooking materials and recipes. I¡¯ve swept through the entire southern region in these centuries. There might still be something left, but they won¡¯t help with my breakthrough now.

    ¡°This is why I¡¯ve decided to leave the south and head for somewhere far away. An unknown general ne, even. I never thought about this before, but I¡¯ve stuck at the bottleneck for hundreds of years, if I don¡¯t find a path soon, I¡¯ll never make it. I¡¯m doing it now.¡±

    Greya used a sound-proof ward when speaking, so only Angor heard it.

    ¡°The journey ahead is full of danger. I cannot protect Toby this time, so I hope, that you can keep it while I¡¯m away.¡±

    Greya looked at Angor in the eyes. She had many choices, such as leaving Toby at the Candy House or ask a close friend. However, when she told the ideas to Toby, the bird refused all of them. It only wished to stay with Greya. After so much hard persuasion, Toby finally chose someone.

    That person was not any friend or ally. It was someone who only met with Toby once: Angor.

    She did not know why Toby chose the boy, but when she considered Sunders¡¯ particr attitude towards him, as well as Angor¡¯s nature and his possible achievements, Greya did not protest. Since she knew Angor was going to leave with Sunders tomorrow, she quickly came to The Redbud during the night.

    Toby understood all of the conversations. It also stared at Angor with its tiny, shiny eyes, waiting for an answer.

    ¡°So my guess was right. It¡¯s not like they need me to do that forever, but close...¡± Angor spoke in his mind.

    Angor tried to refuse with the big and small pairs of eyes fixed on him. He was not even sure about his own future. God knew why Sunders suddenly came and adopted him as a student, whether Angor could satisfy the man¡¯s expectation, or what awaited him in Brute Cavern.

    Angor knew no answer to those questions.

    Yet Greya was requesting him. A ¡°real wizard who deserves respect¡±, ording to Sunders himself.

    Flora also told Angor that he should maintain a good rtionship with Greya.

    Considering these, Angor clenched his teeth.

    <i>Fine. It¡¯s not like things could get worse than this.</i>

    If Sunders was ever unsatisfied with him, maybe Sunders would not be too hard on him considering Greya¡¯s pet was with him.

    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll look after Toby until Lady Greyaes back.¡±

    ¡°Psh.¡± Looking at Angor¡¯s expression that looked as if he was going on a suicide mission, Greya could not hold back her snicker. ¡°Don¡¯t be like that. You made it look as if I was bullying someone,¡± Greya tidied her long hair a little. She added, ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. Toby is easy. When you reach the continent, you don¡¯t even need to feed him. He¡¯ll look for food on his own. Besides, Toby¡¯s smart. Who knows, maybe it will look after YOU instead.¡±

    Greya watched Toby sitting on her palm for a long time.

    It went quiet.

    Greya¡¯s deep love towards Toby was clear for anyone.

    Angor was feeling a bit envious. Back in themon world, he got Jon and his brother, but when he went to the wizarding world, would he meet anyone he could trust?

    After a while, Greya finally let go of her sorrow. She raised her hand and let Toby go.

    The bird flew around her head.

    ¡°Go now.¡±

    Toby hesitated, then slowly perched on the same old spot on Angor¡¯s head.

    ¡°Aw, my hair... I gotta teach it not to do thatter,¡± Angor told himself.

    ¡°Before Ie back... Toby¡¯s in your hands,¡± Greya spoke.

    Before she left, she handed a soft, bubble-like object in the shape of a capsule to Angor.

    ¡°This is a space capsule brewed using organism living inside grey space barriers. It¡¯s single-use though. There are necessities for Toby as well as some reward for you, for taking care of Toby. Break the capsule to take them out.¡±

    With that, Greya prepared to leave.

    The door was suddenly pushed open. n walked inside while rubbing his sleepy eyes. He took Aleen back to her room when Angor talked to Mara.

    ¡°Grandpa, Aleen¡¯s asleep. Do you need¡ªHuh, who is that?¡±

    Greya did not pay him attention. He was just a kid. However, when she nced at the boy, her expression became a little strange.

    ¡°He¡¯s your grandson?¡± Greya pointed to n and asked Mara.

    Mara thought Greya was ming n for barging in, so he quickly nodded in fear. ¡°Yes, his name is n. Lady Greya, he¡¯s still a kid and doesn¡¯t know much¡ª¡±

    Greya waved a hand to stop him.

    ¡°What kind of change did your grandson see during his talent test?¡±

    ¡°Change?¡± Mara muttered in puzzlement. He said, ¡°He saw something out of thin air. During the test, a brown bread appeared in an empty dish ording to him.¡±

    Seeing something materialize was a verymon change recorded in <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection </i>.

    ¡°Something appeared? I don¡¯t think so.¡± Greya smiled. She took out a metal badge out of somewhere. There was a carved pattern of a cottage hidden in the forest on it, and an embossed portrait of Greya on the back.

    ¡°This is my Candy House badge. If you¡¯re willing, take the badge to Candy House. The gourmet wizards there are second to none in the entire south.¡±

    Mara understood Greya¡¯s intention.

    <i>n has the talent to be a gourmet wizard?</i>

    Mara looked at his adorable chubby grandson. <i>Really?</i>

    He thought about n¡¯s daily behaviors. The boy was either eating or on his way to eating.

    Even the mirages released by Barbie¡¯s Restaurant today did not force n to do anything harsh. He was only confused.

    Mara never thought about his grandson¡¯s actions. He only believed n needed to eat a lot for his growth. Now Greya mentioned it, all those facts pointed towards n¡¯s talent.

    Yeah... people involved inside something could not see the whole picture.

    When Greya finally left, Mara began to hesitate. Should he send n to Candy House to be a gourmet wizard?

    Gourmet wizards were considered ult. However, they had weaker positions in the wizarding world because they were not strong inbats. Many apprentices studying gourmet never made it to wizards. Added by the fact that they could not fight very well, they simply became cooks for stronger wizards. Not an outstanding achievement.

    n had the talent, and of course, he could choose another path. It was up to the boy.

    With Greya¡¯s rmendation, at least n would at least achieve something in Candy House. It was extremely difficult to be strong just by being a gourmet wizard. Mara really did not want his grandson to end up as someone¡¯s house chef.

    What to do!?

 Chapter 52 - Alchemy Familiar

    <h4>Chapter 52: Alchemy Familiar</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As Angor prepared to depart on the next day, n and Aleen came to the deck to see him off.

    The sun was bright. Angor rose on a demon falcon and flew around in the air until the figures on the ship became smaller and smaller.

    When would they meet again? Life was full of separations. Angor was already thinking about their reunion.

    As he approached the cloud whale, the imposing creature looked more and more magnificent.

    When the demon falcon flew past the whale¡¯s head, Angor was sure the giant, blue pupils of the whale was following him. The cloud whale looked up as Angor flew higher.

    The deep, blue eyes, like the sea illuminated by a newly rising sun. Gentle and serene.

    The whale¡¯s ¡°salute¡± shocked Angor as well as gave him courage. The gentle look dissipated Angor¡¯s uneasiness for being taken to the sky for the first time.

    The demon falcon left Angor on the back of the cloud whale. He was immediately surprised by what he saw.

    <i>This is on the top of the cloud whale? But aren¡¯t I looking at a cozy ranching field?</i>

    Grand, fresh-green grasnd extended into the horizon. Spotted cows scattered among the green curtain, wiggling their tails while enjoying their meal.

    Demon falcons patrolled the air and would rest on a rock now and then. Some of them were drinking from the pool in the center of the ¡°ranch¡±.

    All seemed natural and harmonious. Even the big and small tents sitting on the grasnd blended in with the scenery quite well.

    Angornded in front of the biggest, most beautiful tent in the ¡°ranch¡±. When he was trying to decide whether he should lift the curtain and go in, Flora floated out from it, wearing her red dress.

    ¡°Heehee. I know you have a lot to ask. Follow me. I¡¯ll answer them,¡± said Flora. She paused for a moment before saying, ¡°The teacher is doing an experiment. It releases radiation, so your body will fail against it without protection spells. I¡¯ll take you to himter today. Now, let¡¯s go to your room. Hey, is that Greya¡¯s silly bird on your head?¡±

    Flora raised an eyebrow and quickly grabbed Toby off Angor¡¯s head.

    Angor spent the whole night telling Toby to change its resting ce. He did not really care for his image, but meeting people with constant messed-up hair could be impolite.

    Though Angor tried very hard, Toby only raised its tiny head and looked at him with an innocent expression, as if telling Angor to make it simpler. Angor gave up in the end. Greya did say Toby could understand human speech, but she never said Toby could speak. If Toby decided to y dumb, Angor could not do anything about it.

    Still, he made a decision, that when he got the chance, he would buy a hat. A cheap one that looked like Teacher¡¯s top hat. That would stop the bird from disturbing his hair.

    Toby was lying in Angor¡¯s hair to sleep because it felt soft andfy. When someone grabbed him, Toby still showed a pair of sleepy eyes. However, when he saw Flora staring it like a guinea pig, he remembered master¡¯s words about wizards¡¯ strange habits and pped its wings in panic.

    Flora¡¯s iron grip did not let go, so Toby could only ¡°tweet¡± constantly. It sounded like it was screaming in a soprano.

    ¡°The silly bird was created by an artificial life spell. What¡¯s so special about it?¡± Flora mumbled. ¡°How about cutting it up and see the inside...¡±

    Toby shook its head madly. When Flora¡¯s face went closer, Toby¡¯s eyes rolled back. It fainted.

    ¡°Boring coward.¡±

    Flora tossed the bird back to Angor.

    Angor fumbled to catch the poor thing. Greya asked him to take care of Toby, so he absolutely did not want anything bad to happen.

    Maybe the warmth of Angor¡¯s palm wasforting. Toby slowly woke up.

    ¡°You¡¯re up? Such a chicken. And Lady Greya said you can look after yourself.¡± Angor sighed. He needed to pay a lot of attention to it after all.

    ¡°Why¡¯s the silly bird here? Greya gifted it to you?¡± Flora asked.

    ¡°Lady Greya asked me to look after Toby for some time...¡± Angor exined yesterday¡¯s incident, clear and brief.

    ¡°I see.¡± Flora frowned. ¡°No special perks apart from understanding human speech? No way. Every living creature Greya created had their own effect. The Section Ephemera creates a ne tunnel, the Twisting Protozoa can locate coordinate using historical traces, the Ox Mackterfly can help you grow exoskeleton like butterfly wings...

    ¡°Now a living creature without abilities? Interesting. Seriously, I want to look inside it.¡± Flora approached Toby again with her curious expression. Toby quickly flew up in a panic and tried to stick itself inside Angor¡¯s clothes.

    Angor put Toby inside the chest pocket of his shirt. He was wearing a white undershirt and a brown checker jacket which gave him a more mature look.

    Toby¡¯s tiny head slowly emerged from the pocket. When it noticed Flora was still there, it quickly went down again, while reaching out a red talon to button the pocket up.

    Its human-like behavior caused Angor tough out.

    Flora shrugged. ¡°Well, the silly bird¡¯s too terrified toe out now.¡±

    ¡°Good, so he doesn¡¯t ruin my hair again.¡± Angor stroke his already cluttering hair.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have special abilities, but he¡¯s enough to be an alchemy familiar,¡± said Flora. She seemed energetic for some reason, ¡°Do you want me to process the bird into one?¡±

    ¡°What is an alchemy familiar?¡±

    Flora gave him a mysterious smile and whistled towards the sky. The sound of something dashing through the air came from the distance, and a trail of smoke scared the cows away. When the smoke cleared, a ck owl was standing on Flora¡¯s shoulder.

    The ck feathers were sharp as needles and full of might. A wisp of golden feathers sat on the owl¡¯s forehead like a crown, giving the creature a king¡¯s look.

    ¡°What a handsome owl!¡± Angor spoke in his mind. He noticed the owl¡¯s cold, pale green eyes. It was not a beast¡¯s ferocious nature. It was more like... an emotionless machine.

    ¡°This is my alchemy familiar, Isa.¡±

    ...

    A wizard needed an extra pair of ears and eyes when he or she wanted quick information or did not want to show up.

    There were three ways for a wizard to do this:

    One was by using special spells, such as Possession and Transmit Sound.

    The second way was using scout avatars.

    And the third, alchemy familiars.

    Alchemy familiars were results of wizardry experiments. Wizards used alchemy to make monsters, phantoms or beasts into their spies.

    Scout avatars were also made from creatures, but a scout avatar possessed its own consciousness while an alchemy familiar¡¯s mind was as good as dead. The familiar¡¯s life energy was depended on the wizard¡¯s support. Its eyes and ears all belonged to the wizard. A wizard hadplete control over an alchemy familiar like controlling his or her own senses.

    An alchemy familiar did not have any consciousness.

    In Angor¡¯s view, alchemy familiar was the cruelest method. Although he could not deny the fact that it was also the most efficient and error-free approach. An alchemy familiar was like a part of a wizard¡¯s body, impossible of betrayal or being deceived by mind-control spells.

    Angor considered. If he ever needed an extra pair of eyes and ears, he might need an alchemy familiar.

    But he would never dare to make Toby into one.

    Greya¡¯s retribution was only the second reason. The first being his own conscience. He promised to take care of Toby, and a man could not go back on his words like that.

 Chapter 53 - Growing Strong

    <h4>Chapter 53: Growing Strong</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Flora was disappointed when her suggestion was refused. Otherwise, she could do some research into the silly bird, maybe even backtrack and deduce some important data about Greya¡¯s artificial life spells.

    <i>Pity.</i>

    Still, this was not important for Flora. Suppose she could get her hands on the original data of the spells, she would not be able to reproduce the results as long as she did not learn Greya¡¯s path. She was curious only because of a wizard¡¯s natural desire for knowledge.

    Flora said she would take Angor to his room, so Angor tried to enjoy the grasnd scenery on the cloud whale along the way. Yet, as he walked through the ¡°ranch¡±, he felt something strange.

    For instance, when he walked past a square stone house, he caught a really thick smell of blood.

    And, ever since he began walking behind Flora, he got the feeling that someone¡¯s watching him from behind. The indescribable uneasiness on his back was making him ufortable. Every time he looked back, nothing was there. Every tent was shut tight. The asional cows were the only creatures out there.

    But when Angor turned to walk forward again, the sense of being watched immediately returned.

    Angor felt strange all over himself. It seemed Flora noticed this as well, although she did not say anything about it.

    When walking near a metal building, Angor sensed something weird as if he was smelling rotten corpses. He was not sure if he was just hallucinating.

    The sun was bright, the grass was fresh. The cows and eagles were all enjoying the peaceful nature.

    The ranch was clean and beautiful on the first look. At least, that was Angor¡¯s first impression. However, the strange feelings, the bloody smells, the malevolent gaze and Flora¡¯s asional smell all made Angor to hesitate about this.

    Maybe a bottomless abyss or some nameless evil was hidden under the sunlight.

    However, Angor did not intend to look into thepletely different atmospherepared to what he felt on The Redbud.

    Maybe this was what the apprentices meant by dividing wizards into ck and white? The Redbud was not ¡°clean¡±, but one would be fine as long as one did not look for trouble. Angor never shivered for no reason on the ship. Yet, since he came onto the cloud whale just a little while ago, he felt every nerve on his body tensed up as if a monster was out there somewhere, ready to devour him in the next second.

    Back when Angor wasmunicating with Flora, he believed he got really lucky by having a school sister like this.

    Now he was thinking otherwise.

    He barely knew Flora and Sunders. He was a student now, true, but that was hardly enough for Angor to determine someone¡¯s nature.

    Mara said that Flora was an infamous ck wizard in the southern region, named ¡°The Blood Witch¡± while Sunders was someone powerful enough to ughter wizards. How could Angor feel proud just because he joined them?

    Angor¡¯s future was still uncertain.

    When he thought this through, he believed he should not worry about the uncertainty from now on. Anxiety could make someone dependent and unaware of small details.

    He recalled reading about a famous psychology case from Earth, the Stockholm Syndrome.

    Two criminals with previous records nned to rob the biggest bank in Stockholm, Sweden. When they failed, they imprisoned four workers in the bank and went into a stalemate with the police for 130 hours. It ended when the criminals decided to give in. However, several months after the incident, the kidnapped workers showed sympathy to the criminals and refused to use them on the court. They even tried to fund for a defense for them. They imed that instead of harming them, the criminals took care of them during the stalemate, thus they refused to cooperate with the police.

    A female worker even fell in love with one of the criminals and proposed marriage during his sentence in jail. During the six-day imprisonment, the criminals threatened the workers¡¯ lives as well as asionally showed mercy to them. Under some unexpected mindset development, the workers decided to refuse the government¡¯s aid to rescue them.

    The Stockholm Incident was differentpared to Angor¡¯s current situation, but there were simrities.

    When extremely stressed by danger, a man would cling onto the tiniest thing he could find that gave him hope. That was what Angor was feeling right now. If his mind was changed by Sunders¡¯ and Flora¡¯s simple kindness, he would be the same as the victims in the incident above.

    Cold sweat covered Angor¡¯s back.

    He slowly gave up the friendliness he showed towards Flora and returned to being a noble who knew good manners, but only good manners. Even his expression became exactly the same one carried by his deceased father. Polite,posed, distant.

    The Brute Cavern was a ck wizard organization. If he approached the ce with his naive moral principles, he would certainly find a quick and terrible death.

    Flora was aware of Angor¡¯s changes in mind all along. Just like when they passed the rotten bloody smells, Flora stayed silent even though a tiny trace of approval shined in her eyes.

    Angor was a young man without much experience in this world. She and Sunders would not be his babysitter, so Angor must grow strong by himself in this realm going by thew of the jungle.

    ¡°There¡¯s your tent ahead. How does it look?¡± Flora pointed towards a round and white tent with a red g on top of it.

    Angor paused.

    The tent looked... ordinary.

    It was only about a hundred meters away from Sunders¡¯ beautiful tent. There was only a small dirt slope between them. Only a short walk.

    However, Flora took Angor on a detour and walked nearly a kilometer.

    He looked at Flora. A vague idea already came about his mind.

    He only smiled in the end. ¡°It¡¯s nice. Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Good. Get in, I¡¯lle for you in the evening.¡±

    Before she left, Angor quickly asked a question, ¡°Can you tell me why the teacher took me in?¡±

    Flora stopped her steps.

    She turned around with a big smile. Her eyes turned into the shape of a slim, crescent moon.

    ¡°I want to know it too. Maybe you can ask him yourself tonight?¡±

    ...

    Inside the small, white round tent.

    The decoration was simple. A bunk bed, a bedside stand, white, gauze curtain, hollowed, caramel desk and chair. There were also a clock and candle stand like the ones in his room on The Redbud, although a bit more delicate.

    Angor sat on the chair and ced his luggage on the desk.

    The mid-sized leather bag contained everything he had: clothes, wash supplies and a pair of chamois leather hunting boots. There was also a small wooden box with Greya¡¯s Section Ephemera in it as well as several bamboo tubes containing dried Morning Dew leaves.

    Everything in the bag was trivial to Angor. He would not get frustrated even if he lost them. He always kept his most precious belongings close to himself: the hologram tablet and the Alien Eye.

    He put away his clothes and spaced out since he had nothing to do.

    He was thinking about using his tablet to read some novels. However, he was staying in someone else¡¯s territory, and Sunders¡¯ intention towards him was not clear, added by Flora¡¯s exnation about a wizard¡¯s ¡°extra pair of ears and eyes¡±... Angor did not dare to take out his tablet, fearing that someone might be watching.

    Exposing the tablet was not something serious. There were only Hanzi in it and no one could read them. However, Angor was afraid that someone might decide to get to the bottom of it, which would lead to the exposure of Jon¡¯s identity as a ¡°smuggler¡±. That would be disastrous. Angor made up his mind to stay low profile for some time. At the very least, he would not use the tablet during his days on the cloud whale.

    Without the tablet to pass time, and no books since he gave them all to n, the only thing Angor could do now was to stare at the air.

 Chapter 54 - Nausica

    <h4>Chapter 54: Nausica</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor slumped on the desk and watched the blue sky through the window.

    The warm sunlight depicted a rim of golden silhouette around his body. The calm and cozy air made him sleepy.

    He missed this feeling. Ever since he came to the Redbud, he never truly rxed. For one, his mood was not calm, and secondly, the ship swayed too much on the sea. He always felt like walking on cotton.

    But the back of the cloud whale was steady as the solid earth.

    Itforted Angor. Without anything to do, Angor slowly fell asleep under the gentle touch of the sunlight and the fresh smell of grass.

    A small cobblestone created a fine curve in the air, flew through the window andnded on the desk.

    It was not loud, but still disturbed Angor¡¯s sleep.

    Angor opened his sleepy eyes and spaced out, until another stone came in, bounced on the desk and stopped near Angor¡¯s hand.

    Angor finally cleared his mind and picked up the stone in puzzlement.

    Someone was pulling a prank?

    Angor reached outside the window and looked.

    The green grass shifted under the gentle breeze. The cloud whale had been flying steadily, while clouds asionally came around and hid some of the animals in the distance.

    Angor looked left and right, without finding anything.

    As he scratched his head, azy, raucous female voice reached his ears.

    ¡°Hey kid, looking for me?¡±

    ...

    It was a woman wearing a brown leather coat and silver scale shoulder armor over her well-developed figure.

    She was standing in the tent across to Angor. Because of the misty clouds, Angor did not notice her at first.

    Through the window, Angor could see the woman leaning against a desk while holding her chin in boredom just like himself. She was inspecting Angor with curiosity. Her other hand was flipping another stone, proving that she was the one throwing stones earlier.

    Angor could not see her body entirely, but judging from her long, wavy brown hair and her fine curves on the upper body, the woman must be tall and slim.

    Her face looked mature and elegant. She was holding her chin with one side exposed to Angor, indolently sexy.

    Even Angor, who barely had any ideas about women, could not hold back his interested gaze.

    Apanied by the gentle breeze, Angor and Nausica began their first conversation.

    Nausica, thedy opposite to Angor, was a talkative one who could easily lead a conversation. Even if Angor started a topic, she could slowly but surely take over the initiative by using expressions, bodynguages, asking derivative questions and using good wordings.

    Angor feltfortable when talking to her. Even when what he wanted to talk about was led astray, it still felt fun.

    The woman was a natural leader.

    ¡°You came out of the Death Match in Nine Chambers?¡± Nausica flipped her forehead hair in a charming manner and looked at Angor with her green eyes.

    ¡°Death Match in... Nine Chambers?¡± Angor mumbled.

    ¡°Guessed as much. You don¡¯t have any smell of blood on you. Lucky little guy,¡± said Nausica as she took out a long, ck gold smoking pipe out of somewhere and inhaled. The asional smoke rings mixed with the cloud mist on the grasnd, cloaking her inside a constant haze.

    The Death Match in Nine Chambers was how Brute Cavern chose their talents. They put talents into nine different stone chambers to join death fights. The winners came out glorious, while the losers met their doom. There were safe zones in the chambers, but with a time limit. The fights in the chambers followed ten rules. Talents must use or bypass the rules to survive, while utilizing all kinds of methods, be they crafty tricks or raw strength.

    Angor finally understood why he smelled thick blood near the square stone house. That was a chamber for the death matches between talents! And the sole survivor in the chamber would be admitted into Brute Cavern.

    ording to Nausica, there had been winners who triumphed by using their intelligence, by alienating other participants, or by ying dead on the ground.

    ¡°There were only two who won because of their strength,¡± said Nausica. She released another smoke ring before saying, ¡°One, Balba the Barbarian, from chamber four.¡±

    ¡°And the other one?¡± Angor asked.

    Nausica looked at Angor and expressed a charming smile. ¡°The other one? It was me.¡±

    Angor¡¯s eyes went wide. This charmingly beautiful woman won her way using her strength?

    Angor could not see any bloody violence on her, only peace and indolence.

    This woman was someone who ughtered a whole chamber of people and survived?

    ¡°Cruel? Not really. This... is the world,¡± said Nausica. She smiled mildly, ¡°You would do anything to live on.¡±

    ¡°Survival of the fittest,¡± Angor muttered slowly.

    Nausica gave Angor an approving look, ¡°An incisive conclusion. Although it doesn¡¯t really fit your age.¡±

    Angor curled his lips. She was right, but she had no idea what Angor could learn from the rich knowledge base from Earth.

    ¡°Okay, I talked to you just because I was getting bored here. Let¡¯s call it,¡± said Nausica. She reached for the white curtain and pulled it down to block the window before saying, ¡°Onest word of advice. You didn¡¯t go through the death matches, and someone will be mad about it.¡±

    Nausica pointed to several small tents in the distance. ¡°See those? They are winners from the nine chambers.¡±

    They were far, so Angor could not make out many details, but he was sure the curtains of the tents were pulled down as he looked. Which meant those people had been watching him.

    It reminded him of that cold, terrifying sense on his back when Flora led him around the ce. So those people must be the reason for it.

    ¡°Those who survived from the chambers more or less felt superior about themselves. In this world, unfairness means conflict. You know what I mean, kid?¡±

    Inequality was worse than poverty... Angor knew it. But... he came on to the cloud whale just today! Those death matches ended a long time ago!

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry though. The wizard just now did not put a restriction spell outside your tent. You can leave whenever you want. We... are limited within our tents. We can¡¯t get out. That will also be their reason to get mad at you.¡±

    ...

    Angor had fun talking to Nausica, but he always stayed cautious. As she said, those who came out of the death chambers could not be too friendly to anyone.

    Still, he kept Nausica¡¯sst warning in mind. Not because he trusted Nausica. It was because he did not trust anyone.

    The clouds cleared, revealing the curtain of the night under the pleasant moonlight.

    Angor had his dinner. As he considered whether he should go show up in front of his teacher by himself, Flora floated into the tent.

    ¡°Good evening, Angor.¡±

    ¡°Good evening to you as well, Lady Flora.¡±

    Flora did not mind Angor¡¯s different way of addressing her. Like Easley, she did not have a family name, albeit it was for a different reason. She was raised by Sunders since young. She tried to surname herself with her teacher¡¯s family name, but Sunders refused.

    ¡°Teacher has done his experiment. It¡¯s time for you to meet him.¡±

 Chapter 55 - Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 55: Meeting</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The cloud whale cruised among the thin clouds, decorated by shiny stars.

    If not for the shifting clouds, Angor could not even make sure whether the cloud whale was moving at all.

    If he could find a giant mount like this, could he bring his brother and teacher to travel around the world?

    It was only a dream. He did not know that the cost to keep a cloud whale fed was beyond the annual expense of a small wizard organization.

    As Angor was immersed in his imagination, Flora brought him to Sunders¡¯ beautiful tent.

    ¡°Here you go. The teacher is waiting.¡±

    Angor thought Flora would join him but it seemed she had another n.

    He lifted the curtain and walked inside while maintaining his manners.

    The tent looked small at first but was a lot bigger on the inside. Angor took a guess that there must be some kind of space expansion spells. He saw golden runes shining on the ck cover cloth of the tent.

    ¡°Surprised much?¡±

    Sunders was still wearing his usual ck attire while sitting at his desk with his legs crossed. He did not have his gloves this time. He was looking at Angor through his gold monocle, with his clean, slim fingers crossed.

    ¡°Good evening, professor.¡± Angor did a hand-on-abdomen salute.

    ¡°No need for the protocols. My student should have his own characteristic. I don¡¯t want a pupil who couldn¡¯t even make out who he is. So are you wondering why the tent is bigger than the outside?¡±

    ¡°Yes. A wizard technique?¡±

    ¡°It is. But not every wizard can do it. Not even me,¡± said Sunders. He picked up his cane and pointed to the golden runes, ¡°To extend space isn¡¯t something I can exin quickly. There are a lot of elements. The tent cloth was crafted using alchemy products, while the shining symbols are space-stabilizing runes.

    ¡°Those two steps alone require expertise in Alchemy and Rune Craft. Extending space is yet another subject. Now, this is wizardry. Most things areplicated to exin. Are you ready for it?¡±

    Sunders¡¯ simple words opened up a shining, brand new door in Angor¡¯s mind. Another whole world stood behind the door. A wizard¡¯s world, filled with forms, symbols, danger, opportunities, the beginning and the end of everything. A world of truth.

    Angor nodded firmly. He was prepared. Even if not for Jon, he still wanted to see this world. What was the fun in life if one did not see something amazing like this?

    Sunders nodded, satisfied. He epted Angor because the boy¡¯s talent could help him greatly. However, since Angor was his student now, he should be responsible for the boy¡¯s future.

    ¡°I guess the apprentice called Mara already told you about the basic concept about wizards? Now... If you want to be a real wizard, from today onwards, forget everything he said. Wizard isn¡¯t a concept. See things for yourself, and solve problems by yourself. Go find your own way of learning wizardry.¡±

    Sunders brought Angor into a separated room. There were about a dozen rows of double-sided bookshelves, each one was about four to five meters high. A wheeldder stood in the passage.

    ¡°How to see things or solve things is another question,¡± said Sunders as he pointed at the bookshelves. He added, ¡°Before that, you still have a lot of basic knowledge to learn. These are my personal collections. Before reaching Brute Cavern, you cane here anytime you wish, and you¡¯re free to read or learn anything. Just one advice. There are some channeling methods and low-level cantrips in these books. You can read about them, but better not study them without careful preparation.

    ¡°Of course, if your only goal is to be a wizard, go ahead and learn them, it¡¯s fine.¡±

    Next, Sunders tossed a gold coin towards Angor. There was a line written in curlicue, universalnguage on the coin¡¯s front: Unbeaten Rose, Eternal Glory.

    An image was carved on the back. A thorned rose pierced by a winged sword.

    A typical noble emblem. Angor looked at Sunders with a puzzled expression, not sure what he meant.

    ¡°A permit for entering the tent. With that, you cane here whenever you wish. Without the permit, a bacsh from the spell array will shatter you into dust.¡±

    <i>Shattering someone to dust?!</i>

    Angor imagined it and shivered. He would not expect such danger when he was just going into a tent. Looked like he really needed to approach everything in the wizarding world with great caution. Otherwise, he would not even have time to regret.

    ¡°Okay now. To stay or to go back to your tent is up to you.¡±

    Seeing Sunders was going to leave, and his biggest question was still unanswered, Angor quickly spoke, ¡°Can I ask a question, professor?¡±

    Sunders looked back and smiled at Angor¡¯s eager expression.

    ¡°No.¡±

    Sunders walked away.

    Angor thought he got his chance when Sunders smiled at him. He even prepared his wording. Instead, Sunders refused right away and left without a second thought.

    <i>Was that a joke? And what¡¯s with the smile?!</i>

    Angor felt frustration building up inside him.

    ¡°I know what you wanted to ask. I¡¯ll give you an answer on the day when you be an apprentice.¡± Sunders¡¯ distant voice came from afar.

    This meant Angor still did not get an answer to his doubt.

    It seemed his uneasiness would remain. He still earned something new though. Without the tablet, he could read here, and it would be fun. Not to mention all books in the room were rted to wizardry. As someone who spent thest dozen years studying science, this would be a feast for him, where old and new knowledge intertwined with each other.

    Looking at the valuable books, Angor felt his heart flying.

    He had another question though. There were not many leather books. Most of them were cheap papers.

    In Goldspink Empire, leather books were favored by noble families or authorities as a way to keep records, while paper books weremon among ordinary citizens. Their prices varied greatly. Leather books were expensive and rare.

    But, Sunders¡¯ collection contained a few leather books sitting in the corner. On a closer look, they collected a thickyer of dust. Sunders did not pay attention to them.

    More than ten rows of bookshelves and 95% of the books were paper ones.

    ¡°Maybe the paper books are the mostmon medium at Fey Continent?¡± Angor picked up a random, thick paper book.

    The title was <i>About 15 Common Meditation Methods in the Sleepless Nation </i>.

    Meditation method was referring to channeling method. People from the old times used ¡°meditation method¡± more. As more and more people preferred expressive words in recent years, people changed ¡°meditation¡±, which sounded more like idealism, into ¡°channeling¡±. The new name was well epted by wizards, so it got adopted.

    There was an interesting story about the debate around these two names. An apprentice who was bored at learning his dull channeling method published a refutation article on a small magazine designed for apprentices. The article itself was insignificant and not worth mentioning, but it created a ¡°war¡± whichsted for several years.

    A name war between ¡°channeling¡± and ¡°meditation¡±.

    It was basically a debate about whether one should drink beer from a ss or a can but between wizards. People only wanted to tease, while asionally pumping some fuel into the fight.

    Even several formal wizards were dragged into the nuisance, creating a joke in the southern region.

    Maybe the apprentice who published the article never thought he actually created such an uproar.

    ...

    Angor opened the book and noticed the smooth and white paper. The surface of the paper was extremely fine, and the ck, printed words on it looked really clear. This book was many more times better than those cheap, yellowish papers in Goldspink Empire.

    It was only a few minutes, and Angor¡¯sint towards paper books already disappeared.

    Such clean, easy-to-read books with the sweet smell of superior ink on them. Any book lover would enjoy reading these!

    Reading a book like this made Angor feel rxed. No wonder all those leather books were collecting dust.

 Chapter 56 - Book Collection and Bush Beating

    <h4>Chapter 56: Book Collection and Bush Beating</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Unexpectedly, the first page of the book was a map of the Evernight Kingdom.

    Back in Goldspink Empire, any map was considered military secret. Anyone who was not a military that obtained a map, even if unintentionally, would be badly sentenced. But here, the book had the map drawn on its first page, with details. From altitudes, topographic features, to different data numbers.

    Was this Evernight Kingdom so strong that they would not mind getting challenged, or was Fey Continent so peaceful that different nations were willing to share their secrets without worrying about wars?

    Thendscape of Evernight Kingdom looked like a flipped-over turtle. Judging from the measuring scale on the bottom-left corner... The kingdom was several times bigger than the Old Earth! Angor checked the description behind. The Evernight Kingdom was one of the many nations in the south of the Fey Continent, and a middle-sized one at that.

    <i>This is middle-sized?!</i>

    Angor realized that people were serious when they referred to the Old Earth as the ¡°Marginalized Ind¡±. Compared to the Evernight Kingdom, a ¡°middle-sized¡± nation, the Old Earth was only an ind for sure.

    Angor also noticed the traffic lines extending towards all directions. He thought they were government-controlled highways, but the annotation on the right showed that most of them were railways for steam trains.

    Did it mean the Fey Continent had entered the age of steam? Or the age of electricity? Angor could only guess.

    He went on. From the next page, the book began talking about wizard organizations in the Evernight Kingdom.

    Only two big organizations were explicitly introduced: the Sleepless City and Edge of Night. There were also 17 rtivelymon organizations.

    A country over ten million square kilometers only had so few organizations? On second thought, talents were rare, so this waspletely normal.

    Thetter half of the book talked aboutmon meditation methods used by the organizations in the Evernight Kingdom.

    Angor learned some principles about meditation from Mara, but no details. He always felt there was a barrier blocking his view. Now, Sunders¡¯ books were about the basics of meditation, so they would do a great job helping Angor know the wizarding world better.

    Angor calmed his mind and began reading quietly.

    Time flew by in the absolute tranquility.

    ¡°nning to sleep here?¡±

    Flora¡¯s seducing voice reached his ears. He got used to it during these days, but still, hearing the child-like, sharp tone in the middle of the night while he was focused on his reading still scared the hell out of him.

    ¡°Good evening, Lady Flora.¡± Angor put down his book and greeted her carefully.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be... Teacher actually allowed you to read his books? Looks like he really liked you.¡± Floranded on the floor and stepped onto the soft carpet with her bare feet. She walked in a circle around Angor as she asked, ¡°Maybe you don¡¯t mind telling me your talent now?¡±

    ¡°My talent? I don¡¯t know. The teacher didn¡¯t tell me,¡± Angor spoke sadly.

    ¡°Hey... that¡¯s not right. That guy wasn¡¯t like this before,¡± Flora mumbled. She asked, ¡°Tell me what happened just now then. In details.¡±

    Angor recalled his meeting with Sunders and found nothing he should hide. Besides, he did not want to offend Flora anyway, so he exined the situation clearly.

    ¡°A real wizard? Heeheehee,¡± said Flora. She let out an eerie smile and inspected Angor¡¯s expression curiously. ¡°I see. He didn¡¯t even teach you channeling, he just asked you to read here.

    ¡°He really liked you,¡± Flora said that again, but she sounded more serious this time.

    ¡°Lady Flora, you know something? Can you tell me?¡± Seeing Flora¡¯s ¡°now I know¡± look, Angor quickly asked.

    ¡°Know something? Your talent? Heehee, nope,¡± Flora rolled her eyes against Angor¡¯s eagerness. ¡°But! I can tell you some small details that you didn¡¯t notice.¡±

    ¡°Details I didn¡¯t notice?¡±

    ¡°Correct. Do you know the lifestyle of wizards? In this world, everyone obeys a default rule, the ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯, unless they¡¯re close rtives.¡± Flora changed the topic.

    Angor knew about the equivalent exchange of course. That was why Mara did not teach him Triangle Channeling on The Redbud... Wait! Angor realized something.

    ¡°Are you teacher¡¯s rtive? No. This is only the second day after you met,¡± said Flora. She looked around the bookshelves and asked, ¡°The second day, and he allowed you to read his valuable collections. Are you okay with that?

    ¡°You know, everything in the wizarding world has a price. Only knowledge is priceless,¡± said Flora. She turned away and grinned when Angor could not see her.

    ¡°So, equivalent exchange. The teacher has granted you such a fortune, what can you give him in return, to finish the deal?¡±

    Flora then waved goodbye to Angor as she said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much though. Maybe your talent is just too powerful so the teacher¡¯s willing to exchange all that knowledge for it?¡±

    Flora ¡°beat around the bush¡± and quickly left the room. She could not hold back herughter any longer if she did not leave right away while looking at the boy¡¯s poor and terrified expression.

    Angor did not realize that Flora just followed her teacher¡¯s suit and joked on him for a second time.

    He was still pondering over Flora¡¯s words because they sounded so true! It was only the second day, and Sunders gave him such a big gift. The teacher was surely expecting something. Just like the saying from Earth ¨C there was no such thing like a free lunch. If one could see one, then there must be a cost. So what could Sunders get from him? The only thing Angor could think of was his talent which he still knew nothing about.

    Back to the first question. What was his talent? Why did Sunders take him away in such a hurry? What could he bring to Sunders? And how far did Angor need to contribute? Would it cost his life?

    As he thought about the bad consequences, he felt his mind running into a dead end.

    In the end, his eyes spun, and he fell on the floor, mind short-circuited.

    Flora peeked at Angor¡¯s reaction using her spell and could not help to grin. Maybe because of Sunders¡¯ attitude, or out of envy, she always wanted to give her little junior some bullying.

    What she said looked reasonable, but they were only to confuse Angor who just came to the wizarding world and did not know about much yet.

    True, knowledge was priceless, but not all knowledge. The books intended for apprentices were as useless as toilet paper to wizards. Of course, Sunders¡¯ collection contained valuable books even the other wizards desired. However, they were meaningless to a mortal like Angor and unless Angor actually remembered all thousands of pages in those books and took them away in his brain, there was no ¡°equivalent exchange¡± involved.

    She exaggerated about the books¡¯ value just because she felt a bit frustrated and wanted to pull a prank on the boy.

    He was not even an apprentice yet, and Sunders already began to lead him towards ¡°a real wizard¡±. Meanwhile, Flora had be a wizard herself and she was nowhere near ¡°a real wizard¡±!

    However, the path of a real wizard was not something one could find with the help of another person. It called for the wizard¡¯s own ability to learn as well as finding destiny. Still, Flora was not happy about Angor¡¯s boosted starting point when he was just an ordinary kid.

    Looking at how Angor was struggling with his mind on the floor, Flora felt her bad mood bing a lot better. She left while humming a song.

    Not long after, Sunders appeared at where she was and let out a sigh. He shook his head as if he was thinking about something.

 Chapter 57 - Tobyâ€™s Days

    <h4>Chapter 57: Toby¡¯s Days</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°In the wizarding world, even if you¡¯re someone¡¯s student, you still obey the rule of equivalent exchange. Knowledge is most valuable to wizards, so, what can you give me in return?¡±

    A figure in the darkness revealed its bloody mouth. ¡°If your talent isn¡¯t enough, your life will be!¡±

    The figure lunged at Angor. Angor felt the world in front of him breaking apart. Thest thing he knew was lying on the ground, covered in blood, while someone was standing beside his corpse,ughing maniacally.

    Angor bounced from his bed with his back wet with cold sweat. His erged pupils were filled with panic and fear. It took some time for him to calm his breath and wipe off some sweat drops from his forehead.

    ¡°A dream...¡± Angor rubbed his temples. He sighed, ¡°And I hope it stays that way.¡±

    Gentle sunlight shone through the window and cast mottled shadows on his soft hair, waking the little creature sleeping inside.

    ¡°Twee, tweet.¡± a bird the size of two palms named Toby stretched its wings as if it was yawning. He sat up from Angor¡¯s blond hair.

    Angor grabbed the creature in his hand. ¡°You little chick. Messing my hair when I was asleep! Why do you like my hair so much anyway? I think I need to get a hat sooner,¡± Angor muttered.

    Toby was not angry at Angor¡¯s action. When Angor tossed him away, he flew to the side and picked out a small, bubble-like capsule from Angor¡¯s bag.

    Toby pped his wings and ced the capsule in front of Angor.

    It was a single-use space capsule left by Greya. It contained necessities for Toby as well as some reward for Angor.

    This was the seventh day on the cloud whale. Angor never opened it. Considering Greya¡¯s deep love towards Toby, who knew how much stuff was packed inside the capsule? And it was only one-use. If it could fill up several rooms with its content, where should Angor put them? This was the reason why Angor left it there. He was nning to open it when he found a stable residence at Brute Cavern.

    But Toby dropped the capsule in front of him now, which meant... the bird was asking him to open it?

    ¡°You want me to break it open?¡±

    ¡°Tweet.¡± Toby nodded using its tiny head.

    Angor frowned and tried to ask, ¡°Are there a lot of things? If so, can we wait until we settle down at Brute Cavern?¡±

    Toby blinked its innocent eyes as if saying ¡°can¡¯t understand you, sir!¡±

    Angor¡¯s lips twitched. Greya told him that Toby was smart enough to interpret human speech, right? It could not talk, true, but listening to him should be no problem, right?

    <i>Or was the little bastard trying to avoid questions it did not want to answer?</i>

    Angor looked at Toby up and down in doubt while the bird still stared at him with its adorable eyes.

    Usually, Toby could understand him just fine. However, every time Angor tried to tell the bird not to stay in his hair, it always began to act innocent. The little asshole was fooling him all along!

    ¡°I can¡¯t read a bird¡¯s face, otherwise I¡¯d have beaten you up for good!¡± Angor mumbled to himself. If Toby was a human, his expression must be saying something like ¡°what can you do about it huh?!¡±

    Angor considered and finally picked up the space capsule.

    ¡°What do you want from it so badly?¡±

    Toby did not y dumb this time. It pointed a wing towards some clothes on the bedstand ¨C those blue and white costume Toby had been wearing these days. Apanied by a small pouch, they looked very simr to those mail pigeon garment in a fairytale.

    Angor looked at the clothes, then back at Toby, who was not wearing anything now. ¡°... You want to get changed?¡±

    Toby quickly nodded.

    ¡°Why does a freaking bird need to change clothes, for god¡¯s sake?! Your mailman garb is still good, why don¡¯t you just keep that on for some days?¡± Angor nearly yelled that out. Even Nausica lifted her curtain from across and looked towards Angor¡¯s direction in puzzlement.

    Angor quickly nodded to her as an apology. Nausica gave the boy a charming smile and lowered her curtain back down.

    Angor shut his curtain as well. Then he turned and red at Toby.

    Toby immediately returned to his ¡°this cute little bird can¡¯t get what you humans are doing!¡± posture.

    Angor felt stumped. He sighed and walked aside with the space capsule in his hand.

    <i>Geez. Let¡¯s hope there isn¡¯t too much stuff in there...</i>

    Angor pinched the capsule with his thumb and index finger. The capsule popped open, followed by some blurry, watery and smoky objects thatpletely broke thew of dimensional space. When the space ripple vanished, a pile of things appeared in front of Angor.

    The pile almost upied a tenth of the tent¡¯s avable space. They did not look like much, but solid materials appearing out of thin air still shocked Angor. What frustrated him most was that 99% of the objects were... spare clothes.

    <i>Laced dress, shirts with contrast colors, gentleman attire, chef uniform... Are those armors and scale mails for knights? How could its tiny body fit in them?!</i>

    That was not all. Angor noticed a number of ¡°animal costumes¡± in there. Bunny ears, fishtails, little bear... Why the heck did an animal need to wear animal suits? And was that a cat-girl cosy suit? Was the bird male or female anyway?!

    There was something else apart from the clothes, including dishes, cups, small nkets, and wooden beds.

    Angor¡¯s eyes brightened upon seeing the bed. ¡°Now the bird won¡¯t bother my hair, right?¡±

    Angor arranged Toby¡¯s stuff quickly and signaled the bird to choose what it wanted.

    Instead, Toby dragged a small sack from under the clothes. A line of curlicue words was printed on it: ¡°To Angor¡±

    This must be Greya¡¯s gift. With curiosity, Angor opened the sack and found about 30 coin-shaped transparent crystals in it.

    He would not know what these were beforeing to the cloud whale. However, he read many books in his teacher¡¯s collection room and learned a lot ofmon knowledge. The transparent crystals in the sack were universal currencies used in this world. It was called ¡°magic crystals¡±. As Angor recalled, Mara said that his annual ie was less than 100 crystals, and the Ice Coffin of Healing scroll he gave Jon only worth a little less than 30 crystals.

    How things changed... Angor thought he owed Mara a lifelong debt because of the scroll. Now, he had not even reached the wizarding world yet and he already owned 30 magic crystals. Maybe this was also a destiny?

    Angor carefully put the small sack inside his pocket.

    When Angor was done, Toby also chose a suit it wanted.

    It was a ck gentleman suit decorated with a ret-red bow-tie, added with a top hat in the same ck color. Angor helped Toby get dressed. When this was done, Toby picked up the hat, walked in front of Angor¡¯s face, and raised its head proudly, The meaning behind this gesture was clear.

    Angor got a mixed feeling.

    Did that little arse just sneer at him for having to go buy a hat on his own?!

    Angor was confident in his idea. Considering Toby¡¯s terrible nature, it definitely would do something like this.

 Chapter 58 - What is a Wizard?

    <h4>Chapter 58: What is a Wizard?</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After washing up, Angor changed into some clean, casual wear and left his tent while Toby flew off somewhere on his own, wearing those fancy attire. He was going toe back in the evening anyway, so Angor did not think too much about it.

    During the week, Angor shifted between two ces and the teacher¡¯s book room was his fixed destination every day.

    Even when he was having breakfast earlier, he was still thinking over the books he read these days.

    He knew he should not take more than he could chew, so he only focused on very basic books. He finished <i>A Hundred Essential Questions for Apprentices </i>,<i>Spells: Exined </i>, <i>The Effect of Spiritual Models </i>, <i>Basic: Mana Source </i>... He started to draw an outline of wizards in his mind.

    Sunders had yet to teach him anything and Flora had not given him any extra nuisance. The outline waspletely drawn by himself, by reading different books, breaking down various definitions, finding out basics, and adding his own theories.

    His own definition for a wizard.

    The ¡°wizard¡± in his mind did not have facial features nor clothes. It was only a blurry figure. However, he believed that as he read more and knew more, ¡°he¡± would be moreplete, and finally turn into someone that looked just like himself, and by which time, Angor would be a wizard himself.

    Angor believed this was why the teacher asked him to look and solve questions by himself.

    Rome was not built in one day. People had different ways to approach truths, and one should walk his or her own path instead of following others.

    He understood why Sunders required him to forget Mara¡¯s words. ¡°Wizard¡± was not something that could be defined, because everyone saw a wizard in a different way. Now, Angor was slowly trying to perfect his own wizard image using his own knowledge and experience.

    Angor walked towards the teacher¡¯s tent following the usual path. When walking past the tents of the winners from nine chambers, he still felt different gazes fixed on him. There were contempt, malevolence, indifference, arrogance... He felt uneasy at first, but he got used to them.

    Wizards that survived death matches all had their own traits, but was it not sad that everyone had be cold-blooded? In the general ne, wizards were bloodthirsty and cruel creatures. Maybe this was because of the harsh living condition. Even moderate people had to adapt when surrounded by hungry predators, or they would only be shredded into bits. Was this why most wizards have extreme personalities?

    While full of expectation about his own future, Angor also prayed that he would not forget why he started his path and that he would never be one of the ¡°rumored wizards¡±. Living without a baseline might give someone freedom, but... indulgence was always easy while self-control called for a lot of effort.

    When Angor was little, he waszy about his daily duties. Studies, writing practice, getting up early, reading... He cked off from them whenever Jon was not paying attention. When Jon lectured Angor about it, he would say that while it took someone 21 days to develop a good habit, it would take only a second to give it up.

    To develop a good habit was to control indulgence.

    Although those topics were irrelevant now. Angor ignored the unfriendly gazes and walked to the teacher¡¯s tent.

    As usual, he took a seat in the book room and began going over the books one by one. Before bing a wizard, he did not intend to dig deep into anything. He only tried toplete his image of a ¡°wizard¡±.

    An entire day quickly passed.

    As the twilight of dusk shone through the window, Angor stretched himself, dusted some ash from his pants, put away the books (a little reluctantly) and prepared to get back to his tent.

    When he stepped out from the book room, he saw Sunders for the first time during the week. The man was sitting at his delicate desk, reading a ssically-designed handwritten copy.

    Seeing Angor, Sunders put his book down and looked at him with a casual look.

    Angor greeted him politely.

    Sunders gave Angor a neutral nod. Angor knew that the teacher did not really care about manners. Flora was always making mischief in front of him, and Sunders never minded it. Still, Angor¡¯s past education told him not to go beyond his border. At the very least, not before he got to know Sunders better.

    ¡°Do you have any new ideas after reading all these books?¡± asked Sunders even though he did not ask what exactly Angor had read.

    Angor tilted his head and gave it some time before he expressed an answer, ¡°Not any new ideas, but I do have some thoughts.¡±

    ¡°Such as?¡±

    ¡°The only truth I¡¯ve learned from these books is that it¡¯s really difficult to be a wizard.¡±

    Sunders did notment on that answer. ¡°Do you know what is a wizard now?¡±

    Angor shook his head without a second thought. ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡±

    Sunders smiled. ¡°Keep looking then until you find an answer.¡±

    ...

    Another week passed. The cloud whale was still gliding on the sea.

    Naturally, flying was a lot faster than sailing. However, it had been two weeks now, and they still had not reached the Fey Continent. Angor felt both surprised and d about it.

    He was surprised at the size of the sea. It was probably bigger than the five oceans from Earthbined, and he had only seen a portion of it. He could not imagine how big this world was.

    He was d that he did not stay on The Redbud or it would probably take a year or longer to reach Fey Continent, in which case, the five-year n he had for saving Jon would be impossible.

    Sunders did not disappear this week. Each time Angor finished his reading, Sunders would ask him the same question: Any new ideas? What is a wizard?

    And Angor always gave him the same answer.

    One day, when Angor told Sunders ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± again, Sunders did not tell him to ¡°keep looking until finding an answer¡±. Instead, he smiled at Angor in satisfaction.

    ¡°To not know is the best answer. I hope you¡¯ll find your own path towards wizardry soon.¡±

    Angor was shocked.

    Sunders continued, ¡°I checked the books you were reading. Good choices. To start from the very basic, instead of aiming high from the beginning, was a wise decision.¡±

    Sundersplimented, ¡°Do you have anything to go by, about how to be an apprentice wizard?¡±

    Angor considered for a while. ¡°Building a model out of spiritual power and use that to stabilize mana flow determines that one has be an apprentice.¡±

    ¡°Correct. Do you know how to build a spirit model?¡±

    Angor answered, ¡°The channeling method helps one construct a stable spirit model in his or her mind. Models built by different methods have varied stabilizing effects, and thus, different mana flow speeds.¡±

 Chapter 59 - Mana Source

    <h4>Chapter 59: Mana Source</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°What¡¯s the rtionship between the spirit model and mana?¡± Sunders threw another question.

    ¡°Constructing a spirit model is for channeling mana circumfluence. Mana is an unstable energy, one must connect the energy using his or her spirit model inside the body to prevent mana from backfiring, thus establishing an inner mana flow and control mana itself,¡± answered Angor.

    Sunders kept a neutral expression. When Angor was finished, he slowly said, ¡°A fine answer. I see you¡¯ve been working hard. However, whether this answer suits you remains to be seen on that very day.¡±

    Sunders did not exin what that meant. He changed the topic, ¡°We¡¯ll reach Goman Kingdom in about ten days. It¡¯s on the western frontier of Fey Continent, that¡¯s where we¡¯ll get ashore.

    ¡°Before that, I¡¯ll give you a choice. A choice to pick a channeling method,¡± said Sunders. He then waved him off. ¡°Come to me tomorrow evening.¡±

    ...

    The next evening, Angor came as nned.

    There were several stacks of booklets ced in front of Sunders. The man was quietly reading a leather scroll while tapping on the desk with a knuckle. When Angor moved to him, he put the scroll down and asked Angor to take a seat.

    He then said, ¡°As I said, I¡¯ll give you a choice today. A choice that will determine your future. Once you¡¯ve made up your mind, it won¡¯t be easy to change it. That¡¯s why you must think clearly. Think about the path you want to shape with your choice.

    ¡°Now, I¡¯ll give you a simple exnation about spiritual model, mana flow and mana pool.¡± Sunders picked a booklet and tossed it towards Angor.

    Angor checked the booklet. A line written in the universalnguage was on the front page: <i>Triangle Channeling </i>.

    The book was exactly the one Mara gave n and Aleen the other day. The basic channeling method taught by White Coral Floating Ind Academy.

    ¡°Is this... the channeling book from White Coral Floating Ind Academy? Teacher has one too?¡± Angor spoke in his mind.

    Sunders said, ¡°Wondering why I possess this book? Simple. Perhaps it ismonly believed by wizards that this book is a secret of the academy, and is not allowed to be distributed to outsiders. However, this method is too moderate. The academy does not value it enough, so it easily got disclosed. It is somon and simple, even many apprentices would not use it. Having a copy here isn¡¯t something serious.

    ¡°The reason I¡¯m showing you the channeling method is to tell you that such a method is critically important to us wizards. Not learning Triangle Channeling on The Redbud was the right choice. It is only appropriate NOT to learn these garbage.¡±

    Sunders reached out a hand and made a crumbling gesture.

    The <i>Triangle Channeling </i>in Angor¡¯s hand was torn into scraps and slowlynded on the floor.

    ¡°Meditation, or, channeling method, is a technique that helps a wizard calm the mind and construct a stable spiritual model inside. At the same time, it also allows apprentices to control their inner spiritual power in a simple manner.

    ¡°To construct the model, you must know what spiritual power is. It is essentially a power generated by your brainwave. You will learn about brainwave someday, so we can put that aside for now. Every individual possesses spiritual power. Using a universal measuring method created about ten thousand years ago, we determine the richness of one¡¯s spiritual power using a certain number indicator.

    ¡°The spiritual power indicator for a mortal is between one and nine. A talent necessarily has an indicator beyond ten, since only a spiritual power stronger than ten can channel mana flow. A better indicator means a higher channeling efficiency. Moreover, if someone with a high spiritual power indicator finds a good destiny, he or she will be able to study special spells thatbine the use of spiritual power. A mortal with an indicator of less than ten can still try to channel mana, with a hundred percent chance of getting backfired by the uncontrolled rampaging power that follows.¡±

    Angor knew about mana backfiring. Those who experienced this usually had a terrible end. Even formal wizards could be eternally ill or disabled when careless while mortals would certainly die.

    Sunders continued, ¡°One¡¯s spiritual power indicator can change. However, there is no efficient way of increasing it either. How to improve this trait has been a constant subject researched by wizards. Far from us, in the northern region, someone seems to have found a breakthrough. Of course, this is only a rumor. The northern region is simply too far for us to confirm the information.

    ¡°Also, it is amon sight for a wizard to have a weaker spiritual power indicator than an apprentice.¡±

    Here, Sunders left a side note, ¡°A young man called Easley on The Redbud was born with a spiritual power indicator beyond 23, which is a pretty rare case.¡±

    Easley? Angor recalled the handsome young man with an extreme personality in his mind.

    Then he shook his head to get rid of Easley¡¯s image and asked, ¡°Teacher, so a spiritual power indicator of ten or more means someone¡¯s talented to be a wizard?¡±

    ¡°You can put it that way, yes,¡± answered Sunders.

    Sunders said that this number could change. Angor was thinking whether it was possible to figure out something to increase this number, so he could allow Jon and his brother Leon to be supernaturals. However, this was another story.

    ¡°Continue on with spiritual power,¡± said Sunders. He said again, ¡°As I said, it is essentially an energy of brainwave. Such energy is hidden deep inside your brain. This is where a channeling methodes in, to help ¡®channel¡¯ the energy out.

    ¡°Once you seed, you can begin constructing your spiritual model. Every channeling method has its own way of achieving it. Take Triangle Channeling. For example, you build a virtual triangle shape in your mind to stabilize mana from backfiring. Then, channel the mana into an inner flow, and finally establish a mana pool inside your body.¡±

    The ¡°mana pool¡± Sunders mentioned was the source of energy for wizards, like how machines needed power sources to work. The immediate effect of the energy was that it could be used to change and interfere with the physical world. This was the root of spells.

    Spiritual power was a wizard¡¯s base while mana pool was a wizard¡¯s fundamental.

    There were other supernatural civilizations in general nes. Some of them were as mighty as legendary wizards. Even then, they still thirsted for the wizardry civilization because mana pool was supported by one¡¯s inner spiritual power flow. Spiritual power was something naturally borne with a creature. Thus, wizards could travel to the other nes without being suppressed by thews of those nes. On the contrary, mighty beings from the other nes could only disy their prowess in their own nes. The world¡¯s consciousness of another ne could easily tear them apart.

    As for the rtionship between spiritual power model, mana, and mana pool...

    To put it simply: A channeling method constructed spiritual power model which determined the efficiency of mana flow while mana flow ultimately converged into mana pool in one¡¯s body.

    Another thing to mention was that a wizard¡¯s breakthrough highly depended on mana pool.

    A wizard¡¯s breakthrough was actually a qualitative change in the wizard¡¯s mana pool capacity. For instance, if we considered mana as water, an apprentice¡¯s mana pool was a ss which could hold a limited amount of water while the mana pool of a wizard was a water tank. The improvement was significant.

    Mana source was something extremely important to wizards. The basic condition to determine whether someone was a wizard was if his or her mana pool could support the cost of casting a level-1 spell. Generally speaking, if someone could cast a level-1 spell independently, the mana pool of that wizard should have already evolved into a ¡°water tank¡±. Otherwise, the wizard could not sustain the spell at all.

 Chapter 60 - Improvisational and Befitting

    <h4>Chapter 60: Improvisational and Befitting</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Angor, do you understand the rtionship between spirit model, mana, and mana pool now?¡± Sunders asked.

    Angor nodded. Sunders¡¯ exnation was clear and easier to interpretpared to theplicated definitions listed in the books.

    ¡°Good. Now, use what I said and give me your own analysis. Why do most talents in the wizarding world die as apprentices without bing wizards?¡± Sunders crossed his arms and legs while looking at Angor with sharp eyes.

    Why did the apprentices fail to be wizards? Angor had been thinking about that question these days.

    Back at Padt Manor, Mara mentioned that he was stuck being an Intermediate Apprentice because he could not find his destiny.

    Was ck of destiny¡± the correct answer?

    No.

    If it was so simple, Sunders would not have said so much. Besides, Angor did not believe that all wizards made their achievements just because they found destiny.

    What was the answer then? Angor went through Sunders¡¯ words about the rtionship between the spirit model, mana, and mana pool.

    The inability to be a wizard was because of an insufficient, unqualified mana pool level.

    Why would someone¡¯s mana pool be unqualified? Probably because of a low mana flow speed.

    So what caused the low flow speed? Obviously, a badly constructed spirit model.

    With this theory, an answer already showed up.

    Angor expressed his final answer, ¡°A problem with the channeling method.¡±

    Sunders raised an eyebrow and said, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a hint, then you give it some more consideration.¡±

    Instead of judging his correctness, Sunders asked him to keep thinking. Angor hesitated. Was he wrong?

    ¡°Most channeling methods these days are the safest, most stable spirit models left by the predecessors, after being tried and modified during thousands of decades. Let¡¯s look at the Triangle Channeling again. For most people, it¡¯s garbage. However, ever since it came into being, there has been zero backfire cases involving it. So you see, it also has its merits,¡± said Sunders. He paused a bit before saying, ¡°Also, countless talents in history became wizards using Triangle Channeling, and this included even several legendary archwizards.

    ¡°So is there truly a problem with the channeling method? Think again.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ words sounded like denial yet Angor got a faint feeling that it was not the case. Sunders was trying to remind him of something.

    A ¡°garbage¡± channeling method could create wizards, even legendary ones. So why did so many apprentices stuck there for decades, even centuries?

    ¡°Their spiritual power indicators were too bad?¡± Angor muttered.

    ¡°The indicator does affect one¡¯s mana pool build-up and strengthening, but there were also apprentices with an indicator of ten who became wizards while using Triangle Channeling or simrmon methods. A lot of them. So this is not the main reason either,¡± Sunders exined.

    Then what in the world stopped apprentices from breaking through?

    As Angor was thinking, Sunders picked up a white velvet feather quill from his pen rack, took off its cover, dipped some red ink, and began drawing shining spell runes on a leather scroll.

    Symbols emerged from under the quill tip. It slowly floated into the air and vanished.

    It was an extremely dreamy and fantastic sight. Every symbol was glowing like a firefly. Angor was stupefied by the scenery until one of the symbolsnded on another blue pen on the rack. An idea glinted inside Angor¡¯s mind.

    A pen and a quill.

    A pen cap could be used to hold a quill too. It would not do a good job, but at least it would work.

    But the cap of a quill was impossible for a pen to stick in. Forcing it would only crush the small cap in half.

    ¡°Improvise and befitting...¡± Angor¡¯s eyes brightened up.

    Sunders grinned. He put down his quill and waited for Angor¡¯s further exnation.

    ¡°The Triangle Channeling, or all the simr channeling methods for themon public, are improvisational methods for certain talents, or even suitable methods for some. It will be easier for these people to break through into wizards. But for the rest of the talents, Triangle Channeling isn¡¯t even suitable as an improvised way. Studying it for years on end will instead cause problems.¡±

    When he was finished, Angor looked at Sunders with an expecting expression.

    Sunders was silent for a while before he finally smiled.

    ¡°Good. Mostly correct. To be a wizard, you must have a fast mana flow. How to increase that speed has always been a lifelong subject for wizards.

    ¡°You already mentioned it. A high spiritual power indicator affects flow speed. But there¡¯s another question here, like you just said, if your spirit model does not suit you, it will not help you quicken the mana flow. This is where we reach a key point. Finding a spirit model that suits you best is the real condition whether you can keep up on the path of wizardry.

    ¡°I suggested you not to learn themon channeling methods in the books. They may be the most stable methods concluded by different wizards after thousands of decades. They can hardly go wrong. But their efficiency depends on the user, and might not suit you well. If you spend a hundred years on a model that does not work well on you, you would waste your life.¡±

    Angor thought about Mara. Mara spent decades to be a High Apprentice, not because he could not find destiny, but because he chose the wrong way from the very beginning.

    ¡°Why do different models work differently on people? No one has an answer to it yet. Almost every major wizard organization keeps gathering data to experiment on it, and they still haven¡¯t reached a conclusion,¡± said Sunders. He pondered and said, ¡°My guess is that people all have different life passwords.¡±

    Sunders did not exin what a ¡°life password¡± was. Angor had no idea, but he guessed it could have something to do with DNA?

    Sunders continued, ¡°We can say that more than 80% of all apprentices idled their lives away because they didn¡¯t choose a fitting spirit model. And many of the remaining people don¡¯t do well with their channeling methods. As you said, they have to improvise. It¡¯s difficult, but they can still be wizards as long as they have enough resources, find their destiny, and work hard.

    ¡°This, is why few apprentices made it to wizards.¡±

 Chapter 61 - A Fork in the Road

    <h4>Chapter 61: A Fork in the Road</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    At this point, Sunders exined about some of the experiments on the fitness of channeling methods.

    ¡°The quantization for the fitness of a spirit model was proposed by the ¡®Wizard of All¡¯ Runeborg. It¡¯s too controversial, so the idea was only known between wizards, rarely by apprentices.

    ¡°Runeborg defined the fitness between a spirit model and its user as 0-100. Someone with the fitness of over 20 is considered impressive and is very likely to be a wizard.

    ¡°As I mentioned,mon channeling methods like the Triangle Channeling can both make someone a wizard or cause them to waste their lives. Such methods have absolutely no guarantee over their fitness level. Someone lucky enough might do well with the Triangle Channeling and break through the barrier preventing him to be a wizard, thus finding immortality. Other people who have zero fitness may never make it into Elementary Apprentices.

    ¡°Of course, apart from themon channeling methods, almost all wizard organizations possess their own, valuable methods. They are valuable assets because they have their baselines for fitness levels.

    ¡°For example, we have more than ten special channeling methods in Brute Cavern. One of the most basic ones is called Six-Sided Rhombohedral Meditation. Any talent who studies this method will at least have a fitness of three.¡±

    Angor was unsure about Sunders¡¯ words from a while ago. Now, he began to understand and he asked, ¡°At least three, which means if the talent finds the channeling method suitable, his or her fitness will easily go beyond this baseline?¡±

    This was like the ring-toss games in carnivals on the Earth. One needed to pay money for 10 hoops and try to throw them over various prizes on the ground to im them. However, regardless of whether one could get any prize or not, the game master would always give out a keyring for free ¨C the ¡°baseline¡±.

    Likewise, if a channeling method had a base fitness level, the user could find way more controbility over it.

    Sunders answered, ¡°Yes. Many special channeling methods were secret arts passed down for generations in different wizard organizations and have their baselines. That¡¯s why they¡¯re sought after by everyone.¡±

    ¡°I see. But why not allow the apprentices to learn special methods from the start?¡± Angor asked.

    Were they only trying to hide their own valuable secrets?

    ¡°Even if the organizations make their special methods open to the public, they still won¡¯t guarantee the talents for bing wizards,¡± said Sunders. He continued, ¡°Do you know what fitness level you need to be a wizard for certain?¡±

    Of course, Angor did not know. He took a guess. A fitness beyond 20 made someone possible to be a wizard, so...

    ¡°Sixty?¡± Angor gave an answer he thought was rtively correct.

    Sunders shook his head and said, ¡°ording to Runeborg¡¯s theory, a fitness of over 95 means a hundred percent chance for a wizard.

    ¡°Not many people can achieve such a fitness level. It¡¯s not necessary for major organizations to reveal their special channeling methods for something that can be hardly achieved. But they can still use these methods for pertinent strategies. Generally speaking, you need to pay a great cost to acquire a special channeling method from a wizard organization.¡±

    Sunders looked at Angor.

    ¡°That¡¯s all I¡¯ll tell you for now. I said I¡¯ll let you choose a method yesterday, so let¡¯s do it now.¡±

    Angor¡¯s expression went serious as Sunders continued, ¡°The first choice. I¡¯ll teach you the core channeling method taught in Brute Cavern, Montaus¡¯ Octahedrite Channeling. It has the highest base fitness level among all special methods used in Brute Cavern, 13. To gain, you must pay. The cost for learning it is to sign a contract with Brute Cavern thatsts at least a hundred years. During the time, you will be subject to the organization¡¯s arrangements, any arrangement, unconditionally...¡±

    A century-long contract... and an extremely unfair use at that. Angor felt a bit terrified. He wished the other choices would be better.

    ¡°The second one. Read the <i>Initial Glory </i>located on the third shelf in the book room and create a spirit model on your own.¡± Sunders did not mention any cost. Creating a spirit model independently was not something easily manageable by oneself. The process of creating most models asked for the full effort of entire organizations, hundreds of years, and repeated recalctions toplete.

    Besides, <i>Initial Glory </i>was a book that described how the first meditation method was created. The book did not have much value. One could probably get several dozens by spending one magic crystal in wizard marketces.

    ¡°The third choice. I¡¯ll rmend a special method for you. I don¡¯t know about its fitness baseline because it¡¯s too special. And I don¡¯t have it here. It doesn¡¯t even exist in the wizarding world. The book is located in another ne called the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    ...

    Questions troubled Angor¡¯s mind when he returned to his tent.

    He threw himself onto the soft nket without removing his clothes. Even Toby, who danced on his back, did not prevent Angor from going over his own thoughts.

    Sunders gave him ten days to consider. He needed to reply before they reached Goman Kingdom. Angor epted the decision since he also needed some days to think it over.

    He could not decide right away because every choice was hard for him.

    To sign an unfair contract with Brute Cavern which wouldst for a century? Angor did not want that. He did not even know how things worked at Brute Cavern. How could he agree to be their puppet?

    But... After he heard the other two options, he began to feel that the first one might be the easier one.

    The second choice was to create his own spirit model. It sounded easy but was actually far from it.

    Sunders warned him that this might be the most difficult choice. Countless wizards wasted their lives on this path. Angor could not imagine what it was like, but seeing Sunders¡¯ serious attitude, he did not dare to try that option carelessly.

    It took wizard organizations hundreds of years to build a usable spirit model. Could he do it all by himself? And in a short time? Not likely.

    Angor gave up the second option.

    The third choice was yet even stranger.

    Sunders said he earned a glimpse at the special channeling method by chance in the Nightmare Realm before he became a wizard. While he was at the Nightmare Realm, he memorized the book fluently by heart, so he nned to get back to the wizarding world and change his wizardry path using this very method.

    Strangely though, as he returned to the wizarding world, he forgot everything rted to the content of the channeling method. The only thing he remembered was his experience, and how the channeling method seemed really important to him.

    Everything that involved the Nightmare Realm was always beyond strange, so Sunders could only give up on it.

    After Sunders became a wizard, he used his own talent to get into the Nightmare Realm several times. He saw the book again, but like the first time, he could remember the book clearly at first, yet as he returned to the wizarding world, he could no longer recall anything.

    Also, the Nightmare Realm was one of the most particr general nes ever discovered. It was impossible to record the channeling method using small tricks. The Nightmare Realm itself was both true and fake, both fantastic and realistic. What one saw could be wrong, and what one believed to be false could instead be real.

    Sunders did not make any progression after many years of effort, so he thought the special channeling method was not meant for him. He simply gave up in the end.

    Until he found Angor.

    Angor stuffed his head under the nket. Sunders¡¯st warning was still ringing inside his mind.

    ¡°You have a special talent. It¡¯s very likely for you to acquire the channeling method. My spells are much rted to the Nightmare Realm, but I still have to tell you, that the Nightmare Realm is full of great danger. Nine out of ten wizards will not make it back out alive. Think carefully.¡±

 Chapter 62 - The Amazing Nightmare Realm

    <h4>Chapter 62: The Amazing Nightmare Realm</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>You have a special talent.</i>

    Angor showed a bitter smile. His talent, again. He still did not know what that was. Every time he tried to ask, Sunders would not say a word about it. The man only told Angor that he would know on the day he became an apprentice.

    However, he needed a channeling method to be an apprentice! Now he was not sure which way to choose.

    Sigh... Angor felt his future wavering. Was his talent good or bad? What could it bring him? And to Sunders? He did not know.

    Angorid on the bed and muttered to himself. After a while, he turned around to face the empty tent, then let out another deep, frustrated breath.

    On careful consideration, it was not difficult for Angor to choose when Sunders already told him so much.

    There were three options. Still, could he really choose the first two? Or rather, did he dare to choose the first two at all?

    Sunders emphasized ¡°you have a special talent¡±, ¡°my spells are connected to the Nightmare Realm¡±, ¡°think carefully¡±... He was definitely trying to indicate something.

    To think positively, Sunders really did give him three choices. Nothing fishy here.

    However, Angor was almost certain that Sunders wanted him to choose thest option. Angor was not sure how Sunders would react if he did not follow the hint.

    Disappointed? Giving him up? Or ignored his presence forever? Those might be the better consequences.

    It was also likely that Sunders would throw him into the wilderness or force him to obey.

    So if Angor wanted to avoid offending Sunders, he had to choose the third one.

    ¡°Nightmare Realm... Nightmare Realm...¡± Angor eximed that name and decided not to think too much about it. He would go to Sunders¡¯ book room and look for information about the ce.

    A good sleep was what he needed for now.

    ...

    Another uneventful night.

    In Sunders¡¯ book room, Angor was sitting on adder. The bookshelf beside him had several books about general nes.

    <i>Pioneer in a Foreign World </i>and <i>Pros and Cons of Expeditions Against nes </i>,posed by Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard a thousand years ago. <i>Wonder Worlds </i>and <i>Residing in Dimensions </i>written by the newly risen ult Archwizard Fein Werder in the recent century. There were also about a dozen volumes of <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>periodicals, published by Moonfrost Union.

    Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard mainly wrote about the experience of his expeditions into other nes. Angor read on and found out many amazing nes, such as the ze ne where everything was covered inva. The ne was as big as the wizarding world, and a sapient creature coated in violet crystals which were connected via something like ss fibers lived in this ne.

    ¡°This heat-resistant crystalline creature looks like silicon-based lives,¡± Angor thought to himself.

    In addition to the ze ne, Barzel also recorded the Oblivion ne popted by gaseous life forms, the Abyss ne filled with various monsters, the Vortex ne which shaped like a maze, and the Silent ne where sound could not travel... the variety of strange nes really amazed Angor.

    Angor¡¯s brother Leon used to say that his biggest wish was to see the vast world by himself. He wanted to enjoy different sceneries, different civilizations. If Leon was here, he certainly would decide to travel through these nes right away.

    Angor was not his brother though. Still, he hoped that one day, he could bring Leon as well as his teacher Jon, to see the different ces.

    One day, he hoped.

    Afterpleting the book by the legendary wizard Barzel, Angor realized the Nightmare Realm was never mentioned in there. Maybe this ce had not been discovered a thousand years ago?

    It should not be. Judging from the historical records of the wizarding world, expeditions into other nes began thousands of decades ago. During this time, all general nes near the wizarding world all had traces left by the wizards.

    So why was the Nightmare Realm not discovered? Was it far from the wizarding world?

    With many doubts, Angor picked up the <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>published by Moonfrost Union to read.

    This was a centenary periodical. A volume would be published every hundred years, and there had been a total of 16. This was also the existence period of Moonfrost Union. Sixteen centuries ago, Moonfrost Union was established at the Everfrost d in the Northern Kingdom. It contained 13 wizard organizations and was a major force for ne expeditions in the south. In every century, they would publish various information about their new expeditions.

    Angor began from the first volume.

    He followed the index and kept going until he reached the 14th volume which was published 200 years ago. Here, <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>officially recorded the Nightmare Realm.

    Next, Angor found out that the book described the Nightmare Realm in only two pages! Two pages, in a book volume that was several thousands of pages thick! This absolutely contradicted against Moonfrost¡¯s core business which was ¡°ne expeditions¡±. For the other nes, whether the expedition was sessful or not, there were always overstated details. Even a small encounter between several people would be described like two nations were fighting an all-out war.

    Angor went straight to the two pages that talked about the Nightmare Realm.

    He finished them soon.

    His expression became even more puzzled.

    ording to the book, the Nightmare Realm was a ¡°roving¡± ne. There was no stable tunnel that led to it. The only method to enter the Nightmare Realm was to wait for the ne to move closer to the wizarding world on its periodical path, then open a space wormhole randomly and stumble into the ce by chance.

    The unstable ne, random tunnel, and enter by chance... These three uncertain definitions gged the Nightmare Realm itself as something unsure.

    Apart from the unstable ne tunnel, the Nightmare Realm was also an extremely dangerous ne. The book said that because of the uncertainty of the tunnels, less than ten wizards had ever gone into the ce and came back in one piece.

    Even more confusing, those who came back from the Nightmare Realm all refused to say anything about it. Even if someone asionally slipped out a word or two, they were only something vague. Those people¡¯s fear of the Nightmare Realm was in on their looks. However, at the same time, they all showed great greed towards the Nightmare Realm. Every time there was a rumor about the appearance of the ne, they always rushed to the spot quickly as if they wanted something really bad.

    Such strange behaviors only deepened people¡¯s doubt towards the ce. What in the world was inside the Nightmare Realm, that could make people both terrified and greedy?

    Of course, the records were from 200 years ago. Angor did not know if things had changed.

    Next, Angor opened up the book written by the Archwizard Fein Werder. Compared to the ¡°academism¡± books he just read, Fein Werder appeared more like an educated traveling bard.

    Instead of scientific articles, his book was more about traveling diaries, or rather, folklore tales.

    For example, <i>Wonder Worlds </i>waspletely describing Werder¡¯s sightseeing records. From the elf world which was full of giant and green vegetations to the heaven of oceans where the waves had rainbow colors... If not for Fein Werder¡¯s authoritative identity, Angor would have believed that the book was a collection of fairy tales.

    Also, Fein Werder used really literarynguages. There was nothing about blood or violence in the book. While he enjoyed his noble verbal techniques, Angor also admired his great wording arts.

    Soon enough, Angor finished Werder¡¯s book.

    Even though the book did not record the Nightmare Realm, Werder expressed his intention to travel the Nightmare Realm many times. He only had one singlement about this ne:

    ¡°The reality is projected into imaginary and gives birth to the truth.¡±

 Chapter 63 - Incoming Storm

    <h4>Chapter 63: Iing Storm</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor closed the book and fell into deep thought.

    As the book mentioned, wizards never figured out how strange the Nightmare Realm could get. At the same time, the strangeness had been causing wizards to throw themselves into the chaos like crazies. Like the special channeling method Sunders said, he did not even know anything about the method or what kind of base fitness level it had, yet he still thirsted for it for a long time.

    Maybe this was the Nightmare Realm¡¯s nature. The attractive unknown.

    Angor looked at the blue sky and set his mind free.

    He knew that the moment he agreed to be Sunders¡¯ student in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, he would have to pay the cost and the cost wasing.

    He had to go to the Nightmare Realm.

    He did not want to anger Sunders and he also wanted to see Sunders¡¯ true intention by exploring the Nightmare Realm.

    As for the other two choices... He gave them up.

    There was still hope in them. At least he could try the second one to create a new spirit model. <i>Initial Glory </i>was still here within his reach after all.

    Considering this, Angor went down from the wheeleddder and walked to the bookshelfbeled ¡°3¡±.

    To his surprise, most books on this shelf were not paper books. They were leather collections with their edges curved up and old cracks on their covers. The exposed areas were covered in a thickyer of dust. Obviously, they had not been touched in a very long time.

    Angor went through them one by one.

    Many of them recorded stories about the wizarding world from thousands of years or thousands of decades ago. Gossip magazines, most likely. There were asionally good articles, but Angor could not understand them in his current situation.

    After arranging some leather scrolls he could not use now, Angor finally found an aged, ckened scroll. A line written in an unregted, variant universal tongue was shown on it.

    Speaking of the universalnguage, thenguage used in the wizarding world had regional differences but writtennguage was mostly universal. There were other types of writings. Some of them even possessed special power. Still, the universal tongue was used in most records and paper mediums.

    The reason why the universalnguage was used by mortals was mostly that people all preferred new changes.

    In this world, wizards were always top, mighty beings. Humans, whether they weremon folks, nobles or imperials, all looked up at something powerful. They feared and rejected wizards while at the same time, they admired them in secret and tried to imitate their ways. The universalnguage was slowly being adopted by themon people.

    The Fey Continent and the Old Earth (Marginalized Ind) used to be united. The deactivation of elements in the air caused most wizards to leave the Old Earth but thenguage they used was still kept by the nobility and passed down. Thus, the universalnguage used in Goldspink Empire was actually the one used by wizards. That was also why Angor had no problem understanding the handwritings of wizards.

    However, the universalnguage had many variants because of various historical reasons. ¡°Hanzi¡± Angor learned from Jon also went through the development of different styles. To be more convenient to write and poprize, Hanzi finally changed from Traditional to Simplified which was used today.

    As for the universal tongue, it had different writing styles in different eras. It was ideographic writing, so different variants only shared differentplexities. However, one could still recognize them if read carefully.

    Angor took some time to read the name of the book.

    The beautifully written line was just what Angor was looking for, <i>Initial Glory </i>.

    Angor spread the book open in his palm and quickly went through the content before lunchtime.

    ¡°O initial glory. I never found you, yet you are there for me, always.¡±

    That was on the front page. It sounded more like love letter instead of a book on constructing spirit model.

    Before he could carry on, a thunderp made him jump.

    He looked outside the window. The once bright sky was already covered by thick rainclouds.

    Thunderstorms werepletely normal at Devil¡¯s Water. Angor got used to them on The Redbud. However, as more roaring thunders came about, he began to feel uneasy.

    The Redbud sailed on the sea which was far from the thunderclouds, but the cloud whale, however, stayed almost as high up as the clouds. If not for the intelligent creature that was avoiding them, they would have bumped into the clouds.

    Still, when flying in the sky, the great shaking and giant explosive booms were of a different levelpared to what he experienced on The Redbud.

    Ka¡ªboom!

    A louder thunder boom reached his eardrums and caused Angor to nk out briefly.

    He covered his ears. It could not prevent the noises, but it would somewhat protect his hearing.

    Angor no longer had the mood to read in such a situation. Anyway, it was not like he could do it during the storm.

    Frequent thunders boomed for three minutes and quieted down. When Angor tried to rx, lightning bolts rained down.

    Angor did not realize that the stratosphere was now full of thunderclouds. The cloud whale was now flying underneath them, with nowhere to hide.

    Lightning stroke at the cloud whale continuously as if someone was throwing away their junk for free.

    The cloud whale was sturdy enough to disregard the bolts and glide nonchntly. The small creatures on its back, however, not so much.

    From the small window on the tent, Angor saw several cows turning into burnt crisps. Even some demon falcons who always patrolled around proudly sometimes got stricken down.

    Some trees were ame. The fire spread to the grass nearby, creating several smoke pirs all around the ranch.

    Looking at the terrifying scene, Angor began to worry. If the tent was hit and caught fire, where should he run to?

    As time passed, the dancing lightning bolts turned the ranch into a mess but none of the tents were damaged. Obviously, Angor worried too much. Wizards always had their tricks.

    The sound of thunders died down, but with one or two that came about now and then, Angor could not focus on his reading. Since there was no way he could get out in this weather, he covered his ears and leaned on thedder to pretend to be sleeping.

    Sometimeter, a giant explosion woke him up.

    He wiped some saliva off the corner of his lips. Somehow, he had fallen asleep for real,

    Angor check the outside. Just like a while ago, the sky was dark, and the thunder clouds were still there. Fires were burning around the ranch, as always.

    The quartz clock told him that he slept from 13 till 20 o¡¯clock in the evening.

    The thunderstormsted for an entire afternoon?

 Chapter 64 - Dinner

    <h4>Chapter 64: Dinner</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor met many storms on The Redbud but nonested for such a long time. The steersman could always control the ship to move out of the stormy area within half an hour.

    The cloud whale never stopped flying. Seven hours should be enough for the creature to get around the Old Earth for more than once. So why were they still inside the storm?

    How much area was affected by the storm? The entire Devil¡¯s Water? Angor could not believe his own idea. If it was true, this storm was as terrible as the Thunder of Ending recorded in the fairytale of Goldspink Empire.

    He could not think of anything else when the truth was right in front of his eyes.

    The Thunder of Ending, or whatever it was, did not matter. He was a mortal. Someone else was there to control the situation. With that in mind, Angor rxed his spirit.

    However, he soon began to worry about Toby.

    <i>Did Toby get back to the tent in this weather?</i>

    The bird might be an asshole, but it had been staying with Angor for a month now, so Angor could not help but to worry about it.

    As Angor was lost in his thoughts, someone knocked on the door of the library.

    ¡°Come in.¡± Angor put away his worry and revealed his usual, indifferent expression.

    A man wearing a ck robe and a mask decorated with bright totems walked in. He bowed towards Angor politely, then spoke in a muffled voice, ¡°Mister Padt. The dinner is ready, and the master is asking you to join him.¡±

    There were many robed, masked men like him on the cloud whale. They appeared to be Sunders¡¯ servants. They were in charge of bringing Angor¡¯s meals and would leave immediately. Angor did not know where they stayed or what they usually did. He could not even tell their genders clearly.

    ¡°The teacher asks me to have dinner?¡± Angor doubted.

    The robed man confirmed in the muffled voice. He stepped aside and made a ¡°this way please¡± gesture.

    Angor nodded and followed behind in a casual manner. However, he did not feel casual. He always ate alone. Why did Sunders suddenly ask him to eat together?

    Maybe Sunders could not wait for an answer any longer?

    Angor decided to go to the Nightmare Realm. However, he believed he should always prepare for changes rather than ns, so he was waiting for thest day, in case Sunders changed his attitude which could allow Angor to amend his decision.

    With many questions in mind, Angor stepped into the dining hall.

    He never came here before. The floor was covered by a soft carpet, and the red wall was decorated by a number of oil paintings. A square, open-center dining table sat in the middle. The hall was brightly illuminated by candles.

    Of course, it still could notpare with the golden banquet room in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    Sunders and Flora were already here. Sunders sat at the host¡¯s seat, in his ck gentleman wear. He was stuffing a napkin into his chest pocket. Flora sat to his right. She was not wearing her usual rose dress today. Instead, she brought a dark-violetced bubble skirt. She had been cutting something with her knife.

    ¡°Little Red¡± clung on her back as always. When it noticed Angor, the mes in its eye sockets turned into the shape of a crescent moon. It reached out a skeletal arm and bowed towards Angor.

    Angor returned the gesture with a smile.

    ¡°This way,¡± Sunders pointed at the seat on his left.

    Angor walked towards the seat, nodded to Flora, and finally sat down.

    Flora giggled at him. Her eerie tone ringed around in the hall.

    ¡°Angor, from now on, if you don¡¯t have other ns,e here for your meals. Goode will show you the way,¡± Sunders arranged his tableware as he spoke to Angor.

    Goode? Angor was puzzled until Flora pointed a finger at the robed, masked figure. He finally realized there was a fourth man in the room.

    So his name was Goode... Angor threw a curious look at him. He was wearing a full mask so Angor could not see any facial features. Even his eyes were hidden.

    ¡°Goode is the leader of all Phantom Servants, and teacher¡¯s butler,¡± Flora exined. She added, ¡°His mask has those red and yellow blood spell lines on it while the other servants do not. Don¡¯t get the wrong guy. Heehee!¡±

    Without Flora¡¯s hint, Angor would not have noticed the difference between Goode¡¯s mask and those of the other servants.

    The meal was served in individual shares, with sweet corn and egg as the main dish, sided with seafood stew and roasted meat of some unknown creature. The taste was good, but Angor still missed Jon¡¯s Chinese cooking.

    He would not enjoy them again any time soon... Angor felt sad in his mind. Then he recalled seeing many recipes in his tablet. With those, maybe he could try to cook them himself?

    Everyone ate in silence. Even Flora maintained her table manner.

    After they were finished, no one spoke. The embarrassing quietnesssted for another ten minutes.

    Angor glimpsed at Sunders, who was wearing his usual cold look, then at Flora, who had been thinking about her own business. Angor felt his heart shaking.

    <i>Maybe they are waiting for me to speak first?</i>

    But what could he say? His final choice, of course.

    Angor hesitated. Well, he had to give them an answer in ten days anyway.

    In the end, Angor chose to break the silence, ¡°Teacher, I¡¯ve been thinking in thest night, and I¡¯ll choose the third...¡±

    Before Sunders could reply, Flora spoke first.

    ¡°Third? What third?¡± She sounded puzzled. Then she followed by another eerie giggle, ¡°Heehee. Are you doing some shady business in private?¡±

    Angor did not quite understand Flora.

    She did not know about the options Sunders gave him? Then what was with the silence? They were not waiting for anything?

    Sunders¡¯ response confirmed Angor¡¯s idea.

    ¡°Made up your mind so soon? I warned you to think carefully,¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow and spoke doubtfully.

    Seeing how Sunders was a little unsatisfied, Angor felt like crying. He thought they were waiting for his answer. So it was not the case at all!

    Well, he already spoke that out, now he must go with it.

    Angor looked at Sunders and nodded firmly. ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve thought this through,¡±

    Psh. As if.

    Sunders paused for a moment.

    ¡°Okay then. Wait for me toe back, and I shall prepare to enter the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    ¡°To the Nightmare Realm?¡± said Flora. She looked between Sunders and Angor with widened eyes. ¡°Him?!¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°That channeling method book should give him a good starting point.¡±

    <i>So he wanted to go to the Nightmare Realm for the book...</i>

    Flora remained silent. She had been following Sunders for years, so she knew what he was nning.

    <i>How could Angor obtain something when Sunders spent nearly 200 years and failed?</i>

    Flora pondered. She finally focused her guess on Angor¡¯s talent.

    Angor managed to take the rose from Little Red. That was the ¡°create truth¡± phenomenon which was unique to the Nightmare Realm. Maybe the boy¡¯s talent was ¡°creating truth¡± with a hundred percent chance? That would be awesome. The Nightmare Realm was full of treasures!

 Chapter 65 - Projected Reality

    <h4>Chapter 65: Projected Reality</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor noticed Sunders¡¯ words, ¡°Wait for me toe back¡±.

    <i>He¡¯s leaving?</i>

    ¡°Professor, I read some books about the Nightmare Realm and I still haven¡¯t learned anything basically. What kind of world is it?¡±

    It did not matter whether he was leaving or not. To Angor, getting to know the Nightmare Realm was most important.

    Hearing the question, Sunders remained silent for a long time, before slowly speaking, ¡°The Nightmare Realm... is a very peculiar ne.¡±

    There were manyplicated and contradictory emotions shing in his eyes.

    ¡°No one knows the nature of the ne. It can reflect any reality and make people believe that what they¡¯re seeing is fake. But when you look closely, you will instead find something real in there. The ne has its own rules, and no one can tell right from wrong in that world.¡±

    Those words were even vaguer than books.

    ¡°I still haven¡¯t learned any details about the Nightmare Realm. But I can tell you that most of what I achieved today came from the Nightmare Realm. It took me hundreds of years, and I¡¯m still circling around the edge of the Nightmare Realm. You see how much value this very ne holds now?¡±

    A mighty wizard famed across the entire southern region made his name just by circling around the edge?

    ¡°However, the opportunity is apanied by danger. Or rather, you find more danger than opportunity,¡± said Sunders. He stopped and looked towards Angor.

    ¡°I think you already know about such danger. You ran into the nightmares yourself, did you not? They put you in a dying situation, twice. And somehow, something helped you survive.¡±

    Angor was a little surprised at how Sunders suddenly directed the topic at himself. He knew? Dying situations?

    But how could he not remember something like that? Angor recalled the 14 years of his life. He was born into a noble family and shared a good rtionship with his parents and brother. His family was not big but was still a dominating one in Grue Town. As the youngest son in the family, Angor walked his life smoothly without running into much trouble.

    Besides, why would Sunders know about such incidents anyway?

    ¡°You forgot? The rabbit hole illusion weaved by the monster in the Nightmare Realm, and the woman with a sutured face?¡± Looking at Angor¡¯s puzzled look, Flora rolled her eyes, ¡°You said those yourself! Now you need us to remind you?¡±

    Rabbit hole... and the sutured woman!

    It suddenly came to him. During his ¡°wondend travel¡±, he DID fell into danger twice. However, he always thought what happened during his talent test was an illusion, so he never took it seriously.

    His life was in danger?

    And that ce which looked exactly like Padt Manor was the Nightmare Realm?!

    If so, Angor could understand Fein Werder¡¯s words about the Nightmare Realm in his book <i>Wonder World </i>¡ªThe reality is projected into imaginary and gives birth to the truth.

    The ¡°fake¡± Padt Manor with a strange atmosphere was the ¡°projected reality¡± while the Padt Manor in the real world was projected into the Nightmare Realm.

    Many of his doubts could be exined this way. But... what did Werder mean by ¡°projected into imaginary and gives birth to the truth¡±?

    Sunders spoke, ¡°No one could exin anything about this ne. I said it could reflect all realities. Here, it doesn¡¯t mean the world we live in. ¡®Reality¡¯ refers to worlds with sapient life forms living in them.

    ¡°When I entered the Nightmare Realm for the first time, mynding point had a giant, silver pyramid standing there. I didn¡¯t have any idea at the time. After many years, I participated in one of the ne expeditions towards another ne where a tunnel still wasn¡¯t established. No one ever entered it before. People only discovered the greyspace barrier between the ne and the wizarding world. As the expeditionists, we were the first ones to step into the ne.¡±

    Sunders sighed, ¡°Do you know what was the first thing I saw in the brand new ne?¡±

    Sunders¡¯ expression already gave Angor an answer.

    ¡°Yes. The giant silver pyramid I saw in the Nightmare Realm several years before the expedition,¡± Sunders let out another deep sigh. He then said, ¡°I thought I stumbled into the Nightmare Realm again, so I prepared to warn the other wizards to retreat because you could never be careful enough when dealing with something rted to it.

    ¡°Butter, the ce proved to be somewhere else. An ordinary ne, without any resources or even fertile dirt to nt food. The only thing worth noticing was a sapient creature called Half Golem. It was a good sample for wizards who are interested in life form experiments.

    ¡°This is only one example, and may not be enough to prove that the Nightmare Realm can reflect all worlds with sapient creatures. However, after I had some discussion with the other wizards who also entered the ne before, they all had simr experiences. So we got a conclusion, that the Nightmare Realm has the ability to project realities with sapient creatures in them.¡±

    Listening to Sunders, Angor thought in his mind.

    <i>Following the convention in the academy field to make bold assumptions and careful verifications, there should be a precondition for this conclusion, or rather, an assumed condition. For example, to make a projection of a certain world required the fact that a sapient creature from this world entered the Nightmare Realm before.</i>

    ¡°We cannot exin the Nightmare Realm easily. Your experience this time might be both a challenge and a destiny to you,¡± said Sunders.

    The talk about the Nightmare Realm ended here. Sunders did notment much on Angor¡¯s choice. Angor even felt that he was wrong about how Sunders was plotting something. Maybe he would bepletely fine if he chose to sell himself to Brute Cavern or create his own spirit model. Then again, it was toote to think about that now. He had already given his answer...

    Goode removed all dishes from the table and asked the other servants to bring some baked pastries and milk.

    The milk was specially prepared for Angor. He tried very hard to conceal his particr taste, but it seemed he did not do a good job at it. Goode would bring him milk or milk-made products every day.

    Thank goodness Goode was the only one who knew this secret¡ª

    ¡°You like milk? Still a kid, for sure,¡± Before Angor even finished his thought, Flora grinned at him while drinking a ss of unknown, blood-red liquid.

    Angor was speechless.

    ¡°In that case, you should drink more. A child grows faster that way,¡± Sundersmented in all seriousness.

    Angor gulped and tried to retort, ¡°Actually, I could use some other drinks.¡±

    Sunders ignored that. He turned to Goode and ordered, ¡°Maintain all cows in the ranch for Angor.¡±

    ¡°As you wish, master,¡± Goode replied.

    Angor was... even more speechless.

    ...

    ¡°You saw the thunderclouds today, right? What do you feel?¡± Sunders was still talking in his in, emotionless tone, but Angor got a feeling that there were less indifference and more friendliness in it.

    ¡°It was strange. The thunderstorm persisted from noon till now. It was so big. Almost covered the entire Devil¡¯s Water.¡±

    ¡°Heehee. Did you not realize there was only lightning but not a single raindrop in the entire afternoon?¡± asked Flora as she raised her ss full of liquid in the color of blood.

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Angor did realize it. There was no rain at all.

 Chapter 66 - The Cause of Thunderclouds

    <h4>Chapter 66: The Cause of Thunderclouds</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders let out a burst of mildughter. His low and raucous voice carried an attractive frequency.

    ¡°Rainless thunderclouds in such a scale were passively triggered by the aggregation of the world¡¯s consciousness. Ha. Such a violent change... Maybe Boko¡¯s familiar was right. A broken ne was trying to fuse itself into this world.¡±

    Flora finished her ss of ¡°blood¡± in one go and licked the remaining color off her lips as she said, ¡°Heehee. Lucky man, Boko. What he acquired today should be enough for Gravity Forest to construct another Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.¡±

    ¡°Gravity Forest is still far, and it will take time to reach here. Since Boko was requesting for help... then I should provide it, by all means,¡± Sunders said that in a casual manner. Although he stressed ¡°by all means¡± with a frivolous tone, Angor could not help but guess what he actually meant.

    ¡°We found so much this time. Section Ephemera, and... Heehee. Angor, dear, you are really our lucky star.¡±

    The pair exchanged strange words that Angorpletely could not understand. The only thing he knew was that they kept mentioning his name in a joking manner.

    When Flora ended the discussion with another eerie giggle, Sunders addressed Angor, ¡°The thunderclouds were not naturally generated. That¡¯s why they covered the entire water. Don¡¯t worry, I already ordered the cloud whale to steer away from their center. Stay inside the tent and you¡¯ll be fine.

    ¡°Oh, Flora and I will leave soon, so I¡¯ll leave you in charge of here for several days. Ask Goode if you have any questions.¡±

    So he was really leaving. Although Angor was surprised that Sunders would ¡°leave him in charge¡±. Did that mean Angor officially joined the crew?

    ¡°Professor, are you going somewhere because of the thunderclouds?¡±

    Sunders grinned. ¡°There¡¯s some connection, but it¡¯s not the main reason. You will understand once you be a wizard. But for now, the knowledge may do you harm instead.¡±

    With that, Sunders straightened his bow-tie, put on his ck top hat, took his ck walking cane, retrieved a ck-golden cloak from Goode and put it on in a stylish manner, before he finally left the tent.

    Flora floated by. ¡°Angor sweetie. If you feel lonely, you can let those kiddies out to y with you. Heehee!¡±

    Then she followed behind Sunders. She even turned to wave goodbye at Angor while not forgetting her eerie smile.

    Of course, the ¡°kiddies¡± she talked about referred to the winners from the death matches.

    There was no way Angor would let those ruffians out. Those people had been harassing him with their stares every time Angor was outside his tent. Who knew what would happen if they cut loose?

    Angor did not even dare to release Nausica from her tent although she had been rtively friendly to him. For one, the other winners might get jealous. Secondly, Angor did not believe that Nausica was someone easy-going. Letting her out probably was not a good idea.

    Angor knew he was inexperienced in this world. He only read a lot from books. Being in a strange ce, staying cautious was always wiser.

    With the pair no longer here, Goode was the only one with Angor. If Goode did not make any movement, Angor could not notice his presence at all.

    Angor was bing curious and asked, ¡°Goode¡ªmister butler, are you a wizard too? Why are you wearing a mask?¡±

    He was trying to address Goode in some other polite manners, but Sunders never told him Goode¡¯s family name. Angor did not even know Goode¡¯s gender or age.

    ¡°Mister Padt, I¡¯m not a wizard. I¡¯m a Phantom Servant from the Darkivil Empire,¡± Goode replied politely, the mask is an alchemy item the master gifted me. It could strengthen my natural ability.¡±

    The Darkivil Empire was a nation built by an underground race. The ce never saw the light, so most residents living there had chaotic and evil natures. Many criminals would flee into that ce as well. The Phantom Servant was a native race in Darkivil Empire, so they were usually leaders because of their natural power.

    Angor asked Goode to go away after having some casual talks with him. The thunderclouds were still gathering outside. Worrying about Toby¡¯s safety, Angor requested Goode to bring the bird to him. Goode had been taking care of both Angor¡¯s and Toby¡¯s meals during the month, so Toby knew him well.

    Goode fulfilled his order soon. He even brought Toby¡¯s tiny wooden bed. Toby was standing on Goode¡¯s shoulder proudly with raised head and puffed up chest.

    When it saw Angor, Toby tweeted something Angor could not understand.

    Seeing the spirited Toby in perfect shape, Angor shook his head and expressed a bitter smile. As Lady Greya said, he should not worry about Toby at all.

    With Toby safe with him, Angor spaced out while looking at the thunderous weather.

    <i>When will it stop?</i>

    <i>Hope everything will be fine...</i>

    ...

    Angor asked Goode to put some nket on the floor of the book room. He was going to sleep here tonight.

    Lightning bolts would still sh past the window now and then, so the book room did not feel dark even without candles.

    Usually, roaring thunders would make people restless. However, hearing the asional explosions under the soft nket while surrounded by the fragrant smell of fine ink, Angor felt exceptionally rxed. Enjoying calmness in such weather helped Angor think more clearly instead.

    Angor went through Sunders¡¯ words during dinner.

    So he did enter the Nightmare Realm during his talent test, and that suture-face woman nearly killed him! What troubled Angor most was that even though the woman failed to kill him, she still left a wound on his back.

    The wound was just as strange as the ¡°special channeling method¡± mentioned by Sunders. Angor clearly remembered how the wound was bleeding while in the Nightmare Realm, yet when he came back to reality, nothing was there.

    Another thing was that how did he end up in the Nightmare Realm in the first ce? If his body went to another world, Mara must have noticed it. If not, how did he travel through worlds? His spirit went there? Or was it his soul? Would the sutured woman kill him for real if she seeded?

    Angor knew no answer to those questions. He could only wait for Sunders and ask him.

    There was no real wound where the women hurt him, but in several cases, he felt the itchiness was telling him that something was definitely wrong. When Angor tried to ask Greya about it in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, Sunders had barged in and interrupted him. Now Angor thought about it, maybe that was exactly what Sunders tried to do¡ªto prevent his question. That might have something to do with why Sunders epted him as a student.

    Many things came about Angor¡¯s mind. In the next moment, he remembered his brother Leon and his teacher Jon far away at the Old Earth. What were they doing now? Was his teacher well? Did his brother sessfully inherit his title in Waterford?

    By the way, Leon agreed to take him to the Ocean Theater in Waterford and join Master Megeve¡¯s Solo Concert. He... might never have the chance again.

 Chapter 67 - Gathering of Mights

    <h4>Chapter 67: Gathering of Mights</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Such an exceptional urrence of thunderclouds quickly attracted the attention of various major organizations.

    In the sky above a small town in the south of Goman Kingdom, there was a group of wizards in green robes flying by. They shed through the trees swiftly. Each step in the air made they advance hundreds of meters. The extreme movements would break thew of space now and then while creating great sonic barriers.

    An old woman with white hair was in the lead. Her weak limbs made her look like someone about to copse any moment but she was the fastest among all. Her earrings were decorated with cranberry charms which tinkled as she flew.

    ¡°The thunderclouds are getting too vast and we can¡¯t hide it any longer,¡± said the old woman suddenly. Spells shed in her eyes. The situation on the sea from dozens of kilometers away was clear for her to see¡ªrampaging lightning bolts had already upied the entire ce.

    ¡°We need to hurry. Gosh, let¡¯s hope Boko can get ahold of the situation...¡±

    The group following behind heard her words and nodded.

    ¡°Boko was too greedy. If he didn¡¯t try to seize all the profit for himself and break the bnce earlier, there wouldn¡¯t be such a drastic disaster. He should have notified our organization in advance and wait for us before initiating the fusion. Then we can prevent the incident from getting known by the entire world,¡± said a man with ck hair. Heined, ¡°Lady Danae, Boko is too reckless this time. He should get punished for not caring for Gravity Forest¡¯s standing.¡±

    Lady Danae was the old woman in the front of the group and the only Level-2 Wizard in Gravity Forest.

    ¡°Enough, Saipan. If you were the one in Boko¡¯s shoes, would you tell the organization about it first?¡± Lady Danae sneered.

    Saipan was taken aback by the reply and remained silent.

    ...

    Several oceans away from the Devil¡¯s Water, off the southeastern coast of Fey Continent, a giant ray fish with a wingspan of a hundred meters dashed out of the calm waters and began to glide towards the Devil¡¯s Water swiftly just above the sea surface.

    It could use the ocean waves to move forward several kilometers in each leap, making itself impossible to be caught by human eyes.

    A group of people was standing on the back of the creature. They were dressed in different clothes, but each of them had a piece of fish scale on his or her skin. The locations of their scales were different, as for their shapes, sizes, and colors.

    A wizard would easily recognize them. They were from one of the top ten organizations in the southern region¡ªSong of the Deep, which sat in the bottom of the sea.

    ...

    There was an advanced nation at the west of Fey Continent. All cities and towns were built using steel and reinforced concrete. The Nation of Steel, Evory.

    Evory was not big but it had an important standing among all nations on the Fey Continent because all railways, steam trains and most mechanical products in the other nations were imported from there.

    Evory was well respected by both mortals and wizards. The biggest alchemy city, the Floating Mech City, was also located inside Evory.

    Among the misty clouds, a giant mechanical city hundred of square kilometersrge sat in the middle of the sky.

    When the weather was clear enough, mortals could sometimes witness this miracle with their bare eyes, although no one could really reach it. The gap between mortals and wizards had always been something that could not be crossed.

    Today was just one of the clear days. A steam warship dded in metal suddenly dashed out of the city. The mortals working in their fields could see the ming trail behind the leaving machine.

    They were shocked in ce by what they just saw. It was the first time they ever saw such a giant metal monster. When itpletely disappeared on the horizon, the peasants yelled in amazement. This story would be their after-dinner gossip for the next decade or even century and be a legend among all mortals living in Evory.

    ...

    A team of wizards in white robes flew upwards from the ice-coverednd in the north. Their robes all had a pattern of a crescent moon covered in frost.

    Inside a swamp surrounded by venomous gas, several figures with shining green eyes let out a burst of terrifyingughter and vanished.

    Beside a waterfall in the middle of a beautiful and lush mountain, an old man with white hair and a walking cane suddenly raised his head. Those clear, intelligent eyes under his hood contrasted greatly against his wrinkled skin. He looked in the direction of the Endless Sea, and slowly limped towards Goman Kingdom.

    ¡°The wind hase...¡±

    In the middle of the Inner Sea, there was a floating indpletely made of white corals. Above the ind, wizards wearing the same uniform flew away, led by an academician dressed in a white robe.

    Apart from Gravity Forest, Song of the Deep, Floating Mech City, the thunderclouds also attracted many more organizations. Even some powerful individuals were heading to Devil¡¯s Water using their own tricks.

    Who would triumph in this rare feast in the south? People were waiting to see.

    ...

    At this moment, a man with green, dry, bark-like skin was moving left and right to avoid the rampaging space ripples in the center of the violent thunderclouds. An asional rupture in the space would release an unstoppable gravity force and make the man lose bnce.

    The ruptures were appearing more and more often. The man would get into some serious trouble if he did not flee the ce before the entire space was covered by the ruptures.

    Underneath him, a small ind was sliced into pieces by the raging ruptures. Dirt scattered around the sky, and some nts and animals would sometimes get dragged into the ruptures before they disappeared in a spray of blood.

    Thanks to the flying ind parts, the green man managed to survive between the space ruptures.

    Green sh would shine on his body now and then, and a tree sapling or vine from the broken ind would be covered in the same green light to help the man adjust his position, thus he could avoid being sucked into the ruptures.

    But more and more ruptures were appearing, and most of the broken ind already vanished inside them. If he did not leave soon, he would meet the same fate.

    The man looked at the applicator bottle in his hand. A small volume of liquid was inside it. He still needed seven or eight more drops to gather a total of two milliliters.

    Greed showed up on his face.

    Another rupture appeared nearby. In the first split second, a light dot almost invisible to human eyes came out of the rupture. The man covered his hands in white light and beckoned at the light dot, and as if being dragged by a string, the dot quicklynded inside the man¡¯s palm.

    The light dot was ced into the bottle and became another drop of a transparent liquid, slowly flowing down along the wall of the bottle.

    The liquid level in the bottle rose slightly, but was still a little far from the indicator showing ¡°two milliliters¡±.

    After a while, the man moved far from the ruptures and stationed himself at the edge of the disaster. The space ruptures caused the violent sea waves to rage around like living monsters. Water tornadoes had surrounded the perimeter. Any creature who dared to cross through would be shredded into bloody parts.

    Another group of space ruptures appeared near the edge with a lot more light dots being thrown out. The dots would release a brief brilliance before it quickly vanished. If one did not catch the dots while they were still shining, the dots would fuse into the greyspace barrier of the wizarding world and never to be found again.

    The man clenched his teeth and decided something.

    He fixed another piece of the broken ind outside the edge and pulled a vine from it. He then wrapped the vine around his feet, lunged himself between the space ruptures, and headed into the danger again.

 Chapter 68 - Fragment of Eternity

    <h4>Chapter 68: Fragment of Eternity</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    In the center of the disaster, the ruptures had joined as one, forming a giant space hole. Absolute darkness and endless dragging force came out of the hole. Not a single trace of light could escape from it. The hole was like a starving monster, waiting to devour anything into its magnificent horror.

    The fusion between two nes was both good and bad for a world. The oue was unpredictable. Once the fusion began, the world¡¯s consciousness would repair and suppress the affected area. The center of the abnormality was where the world¡¯s consciousness applied most repressing power, so the dragging force was not really strong or dangerous as long as one did not go directly into it.

    The newly born ruptures around the edge, however, were extremely dangerous without the consciousness to control them. They would slowly be suppressed once they fused into the central rupture.

    The green man was going right into the area where the new ruptures were appearing. This ce was the most dangerous, and at the same time, most profitable!

    With the vine around his feet, the man did his job smoothly at first.

    While avoiding several ruptures, he sessfully collected four or five light dots. There were also close calls, but he managed to dodge them all with the vine¡¯s help.

    As he grabbed thest light dot and ced it into his bottle carefully, the liquid level finally reached two milliliters.

    He sealed the bottle joyfully and ordered the vine to drag him out.

    However, something went wrong.

    A giant rupture appeared surprisingly close. The space ripple immediately cut the vine in half like the sharpest knife in the world.

    ¡°Damn it!¡± The man kept throwing his spells, hoping to reconnect the vine before it was toote. However, the power of space was not something he could resist.

    Seeing how the vinepletely vanished, a look of panic climbed onto his green, dried face. He took out a wooden wand from his pouch and tapped it in the air. A spell patternshed from the wand and created a hexagram. The man tried to use the power of the spell array to get away from the rupturing area.

    However, in the next second after the spell hexagram formed in the air, the rupture tore it to pieces. Even the delicate spell wand broke in half.

    The man waspletely trapped by the space ruptures with nowhere to escape.

    An emotion of despair and regret reced his greed.

    He should not have tried to collect that extra Fragment of Eternity! At the beginning of the ne fusion, the Fragments of Eternity released by the ruptures were extremely valuable destinies for wizards. However, he could still find opportunities during the middle of the fusion or even after it!

    Would he die because of his greed? His face went pale as he watched the rupture slowly dragged him towards the center.

    Once he reached the center of the ruptures, the giant shredding force that could break anything apart was more than enough to grind his body into nothingness.

    As he lost his hope in despair, an eerie giggle reached his ears.

    ¡°Heeheehee. Isn¡¯t that ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko? Coming to the fusion spot so soon? So you want to get the Ferry Worm first? Aiyayaya. Such a greedy man you are.¡±

    <i>Someone is here!</i>

    He might have a chance! Boko perked up and looked towards the voice.

    A young girl wearing a dark-violet bubble dress was slowly floating down the sky using her beautiful umbre. The umbre was elegantly decorated by fairytale patterns. Her bubble dress was being flipped violently by the gale caused by the tornadoes, but strangely, no matter how it moved, theced underskirt in the middle remained steady, so nothing unpleasant (pleasant?) was revealed.

    The woman with an umbre was Flora who had just left the cloud whale and headed to the center of the thunderclouds.

    ¡°Flora the Blood Witch!¡± Boko¡¯s voice came through the space ruptures. It was unclear whether he was surprised or happy.

    ¡°Come on, it¡¯s not polite to call ady¡¯s name so boldly.¡±

    Boko hadpletely no will to tell jokes. His life was on the line and Flora brought him hope!

    ¡°Flora! Help me!¡± Boko¡¯s voice sounded distant as he was finally drowned out by the water tornadoes. He was using all of his mana to keep himself steady and could not spare any strength on other spells, so he could only yell as best as he could.

    ¡°Help! Help me now!¡±

    Flora heard him. She revealed a cunning grin around the corner of her lips.

    ¡°As I said, it¡¯s not polite to call ady like that.¡±

    ¡°Lady! Lady Flora! Help!¡±

    ¡°Hello? What¡¯s that? I¡ªcan¡¯t¡ªhear¡ªyou!¡±

    Of course, Flora was adept at spells that transferred people¡¯s voice.

    Boko became panicked, ¡°I said help! Help me! Quickly!¡±

    ¡°Oh, you want me to help? I thought you came here because you¡¯re confident. So you went in there by mistake? Aw, poor guy,¡± Floramented nonchntly, which made Boko furious.

    He had to bear with it now!

    He struggled to dodge another rupture but his cape was torn to shards.

    ¡°Yes! I came by mistake and is trapped now! Save me! Please! I beg of you!¡± Boko was never someone who knew pride or ego, so he could ask for help while totally ignoring his image.

    Flora had enough fun with her jokes and she said, ¡°That¡¯s no problem. But you know, equivalent exchange? I can save your life, and you gotta pay a good price for it.¡±

    ¡°My life does not have much value!¡± said Boko. He was serious about that as he said, ¡°A hundred magic crystals?¡±

    ¡°Psh. Seriously?¡± Flora stood in the air with her umbre above her head and looked down at Boko.

    ¡°Um,¡± Boko realized his price was too pathetic. He hesitated before saying, ¡°Two hundred?¡±

    Flora only smiled.

    ¡°Three¡ªno, five hundred!¡± Boko showed a painful look on his tree bark face.

    Flora heard about how ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko was a mean bastard before but she never cared much about it. Now, she was not expecting that she actually met a wizard who was SO stingy.

    Seeing how Flora was not reacting at all, Boko could not help getting flustered. He asked, ¡°What do you want then? Like I said, my life isn¡¯t worth anything!¡±

    Flora chuckled. ¡°Give me all the Fragments of Eternity you just gathered, and we have a deal.¡±

    ¡°What?! No! I risked my life for them!¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t have a life soon,¡± said Flora. She showed a sympathetic look as she said, ¡°You want to use those fragments as your grave fodder? Huh. That¡¯s new.¡±

    Those words made Boko struggle in his mind.

    Still, like a miser, he felt extremely reluctant about giving his Fragments of Eternity to someone else.

    Flora did not say anything. She just watched as Boko grappled with Death face to face.

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you one drop!¡± Boko¡¯s expression was hard to watch.

    No response from Flora. The space rupture turned bigger.

    ¡°Two drops? Three!¡± Boko was almost crying.

    Flora gave him a cold look.

    As Boko squeezed ¡°eighty percent for you, four drops for me¡± between his teeth, Flora still kept her sweet smile without speaking anything.

    ¡°Good. Eighty percent, in exchange for your life,¡± A raucous male voice reached Boko¡¯s eardrums.

    Flora looked at the neer and curled her lips. ¡°Aww teacher. He was going to give me all of them, why do you interrupt?¡±

    It was Sunders. He whispered to Flora, ¡°I have sensed Lady Danae¡¯s aura. She¡¯s trying to locate here from afar.¡±

    If Lady Danae was here, they would not get a single drop of the fragments, let alone eighty percent. That was why Sunders chose such timing to show up.

 Chapter 69 - So Close

    <h4>Chapter 69: So Close</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Surrounded by powerful space ruptures, it was impossible for Boko to escape by himself now.

    Flora negotiated with Boko as if she was confident. However, she was not. Saving Boko in such a situation was a difficult task, and even if she seeded, she might lose an arm or two in the process... not worth it.

    They needed Sunders to actually save Boko. Sunders had been hiding nearby and waiting for Flora¡¯s ¡°bargaining¡±, and he showed up when the price was good enough, maintaining both his image and his profit.

    When Boko¡¯s death was imminent, Sunders moved. The man in gentleman wear suddenly widened his eyes and drew a strange trail in the air using his ck walking cane. Mana unleashed from his fingers, and a spell quickly formed up in his hand.

    The time a wizard needed to cast a spell depended on how well he or she understood the spell as well as proficiency. To cast a spell instantly, a wizard either needed to consolidate the spell onto the spirit model at the cost of one spell slot or possess a thorough knowledge of the spell¡¯s nature. The first choice was extravagant while the other one required a deep knowledge base. Either one showed a wizard¡¯s refined wisdom, and Sunders just proved himself by casting a random spell instantly.

    The power of the spell flipped his ck-golden cloak around which fluttered in the raging wind.

    A monstrous equine covered in scales and ck me emerged from Sunders¡¯ cane. It let out a long and distant neigh, stomped at the air, creating a spell array beneath its hooves. Next, the ming horse turned into a ck sh and dashed between the space ruptures while heading towards Boko.

    In the next moment, Boko¡¯s figure reappeared on the spell array created by the ming horse while the horse reced Boko by standing among the ruptures.

    Boko was unsure of what just happened and looked left and right in panic. When he realized he was out of danger, he sighed in relief.

    ¡°A spell of the Phantom Master... Nightmare Substitute!¡± Boko looked at the ming horse in his original position and eximed.

    Nightmare Substitute was one of Sunders¡¯ signature spells. He could use a nightmare substitute to escape any deadly situation. It was a unique skill even in the wizarding world.

    Boko expressed his surprise for a moment and looked at Sunders.

    Sunders reached out a hand and hooked his finger at Boko.

    Boko quickly moved to the man with a joyful expression.

    ¡°Not you. Give me the Fragments of Eternity.¡±

    Boko froze up. His expression was filled with pain and hesitation. He stuttered, ¡°I¡ªI, I think we can¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hand. Them. Over.¡± Sunders was firm.

    Boko was almost crying by now as he stuttered, ¡°My¡ªyour¡ªmaybe we can talk this over¡ª¡±

    ¡°Enough. We made a deal. I saved you and you will pay for it. Give me now or I¡¯ll throw you back in there,¡± said Sunders. He was getting impatient. He simply summoned a nightmare to carry Boko on its back. Another order and the creature would immediately charge into the ruptures.

    ¡°Nononono! Put me down!¡± Boko was already exhausted dealing with the ruptures and since he was a Bloodline Wizard who used the blood of nts, his stamina was weaker than the other Bloodline Wizards. The fire was something he feared by nature. Now the ck me on the nightmare only made him want to faint.

    ¡°Okay! I¡¯ll give them to you!¡± Boko screamed.

    Sunders did not order the nightmare to release him. It was only when Boko took the applicator bottle from his space pouch that the nightmare finally let him climb off.

    Sunders kept his deal. He took 16 drops from the 20 fragments and left four for Boko. Boko kept a sad face as if he was attending his family funeral during the exchange. Even though Sunders was someone way more powerful than him, he still did not hide his greed and hatred. The rumors about the stingy man were real.

    Sunders smiled when he got what he asked. The 16 drops of Fragment of Eternity were worth the trip.

    Great destiny could be found during a ne fusion. This wasmon knowledge among wizards. However, they still needed to be strong to find such destiny. Only legendary wizards were powerful enough topete. The southern region had not witnessed any new legendary wizard for a thousand years. Whatever destiny there was, it could not be reached by ordinary people.

    The weaker wizards could only collect leftovers around the edge and even leftovers had good and bad ones.

    Fragment of Eternity was the major material used for Sorcerer¡¯s Garden and could not be found normally. One only had the opportunity to acquire a few at the beginning of a ne fusion. It was one of the most valuable ¡°leftovers¡±.

    Sixteen drops of fragments were not enough to construct a full-sized Sorcerer¡¯s Garden but should be enough to make a smaller one.

    A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was a standard asset for major wizard organizations. Only a few selected individuals possessed them because the essential materials were hard to find. However, even a small Sorcerer¡¯s Garden could greatly help a wizard improve his or her strength.

    Sunders felt content, while Boko sulked in his own sorrow.

    ¡°Teacher. This way!¡± Flora called.

    Boko wiped his tears away and looked at Flora. She somehow built a giant blood magic array in the air using a good amount of magic crystals and other materials.

    Boko looked carefully. He realized that the magic array was used for protection and amplification... as well as teleportation within a small area.

    Such teleportation could easily go wrong in the affected area of the ne fusion. He did not know why Flora put up such a magic array.

    His doubt was answered soon.

    Several kilometers away, between the gap of the water tornadoes, a group of wizards wearing green robes were hurrying to the scene. An old woman with white hair and cranberry ear charm was taking the lead.

    Lady Danae from Gravity Forest!

    Of course, Boko understood why one of the masters of his own organization hade. Why Flora set up a spell array in advance as well as why Sunders only asked for 80 percent of his fragments... Because Lady Danae wasing!

    Perhaps Lady Danae could not defeat Sunders, but there were a lot of them! Flora¡¯s magic array was to prevent them from ganging up against herself and Sunders.

    Boko regretted his decision to the bones! It was only another dozen seconds and he would have been saved without having to hand over his Fragments of Eternity.

    Boko gnashed his teeth at Sunders, who was not even looking at him. Only Flora caught the gesture and directed a sweet smile at Boko.

    To Boko, the smile meant the worst taunt in the world. Yet, he could not do anything about it.

    ...

    Lady Danae spent lots of resources to locate Boko¡¯s position and traveled to the spot using a ne passageway. She hurried to the fusion spot only to see Boko wearing a sad face.

    Lady Danae looked at Sunders and Flora floating not far and cringed.

    The pair,bined with Boko¡¯s condition... something was absolutely wrong.

    ¡°How many Fragments of Eternity have you gathered?¡± Lady Danae quickly asked.

 Chapter 70 - A Balance Between Offense and Defense

    <h4>Chapter 70: A Bnce Between Offense and Defense</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Only FOUR drops?!¡± Lady Danae threw a stare at Sunders, anger appeared on her aged face. She snapped, ¡°Sunders, this was your n all along eh? You knew Boko is greedy, so you watched him trap himself in the ruptures, did you not!?¡±

    Sunders only grinned without saying anything. He stood inside the magic array in a rxed manner and watched Lady Danae¡¯s outburst nonchntly. His arrogance was in on the look.

    Lady Danae felt really uneasy against Sunders¡¯ attitude. However, when she thought about the fact that a group of elites from Gravity Forest was standing behind her, she also returned her own gaze at Sunders.

    Even though she was not expecting Sunders¡¯ mere presence to be enough to inflict great pressure on them, the elites behind her were either looking aside or trying to show negligence about the situation. The ck-haired man, Saipan, was the only one who was seemingly supporting Danae by keeping his own angered gaze on Sunders.

    ¡°Lady Danae... that was wrong of you. Boko was already inside the ruptures when we arrived,¡± Flora spoke in her usual smiley manner. No one could tell whether she was telling the truth. Even Boko was not exactly sure when Sunders arrived to save him.

    ¡°There aren¡¯t many such coincidences in the world,¡± Lady Danae humphed.

    Saipan spoke to her, ¡°My Lady, should we...¡±

    He ced his hand on his neck and made a slitting gesture.

    Lady Danae only grumbled at him, ¡°You see that spell array at their feet? It¡¯s capable of both offense and defense, a perfect protection and a teleportation effect in a small area. It¡¯s an intermediate spell array. Must have been drawn by a master of spell arrays.¡±

    Saipan checked. As she said, a faint spell array was shining beneath them.

    ¡°Even without the spell, we couldn¡¯t keep them here,¡± Lady Danae sighed. There was nothing she could do about the loss.

    ¡°Hey, professor, they gave up?¡± Flora giggled.

    ¡°They have to. The fusion will soon begin stage two, and the greyspace barrier here will turn fragile. One wrong move and the world¡¯s consciousness will deal with her,¡± said Sunders. He was not worried about having to fight Danae at all. Lady Danae was also a Level-2 Wizard. She was more than twice as old as Sunders, so she knew a lot. To fight in such a situation was to suicide.

    Sunders still remained careful. He knew that ne fusion would attract various figures. Most of them were still on their way. As he predicted, once stage two began, the exact location of the fusion spot would be known by everyone traveling in ne passageways, by which time there would be total chaos. Not everyone was as wise as Danae, and conflict would be easily created. Staying inside the magic array allowed them to retreat safely when something went wrong.

    The ne fusion was getting faster, and the thunderclouds in the sky turned thicker and darker. It should still be around noontime, but the surrounding area was as ck as midnight. The water tornadoes disrupted the sea waves and created giant tides reaching hundreds of meters high.

    Roaring thunders, raging waves, and rampaging hurricane created a total mess in the area. Nobody could hear others¡¯ voices. The wizards had to use their own tricks tomunicate. Various spells from all three Major Arts shined among the crowd.

    In the center of the chaos, the absolute darkness slowly devoured the smaller ruptures and grewrger.

    No ruptures were appearing around the edge now. When all ruptures fused into one, the fusion spot would enter its second stage.

    A giant water explosion came from behind. One of the water tornadoes which stretched all the way into the thunderclouds was sliced in half.

    A great ray fish appeared from the created gap. A group of wizards in different clothes decorated with pearls were standing on top of the fish and slowly headed towards the scene.

    Flora cast a glimpse at them and saw a clean-looking woman whose breasts were only covered by a pair of seashells. There was a blue fish tattoo scale near her navel. Beside her, a bulky man wearing ck armor was sitting with his legs crossed and moving a giant sword in his hand. There was also a fish tattoo scale between his eyebrows, but it was ck.

    On careful look, each wizard on the fish had a scale on his or her exposed skin with unique shape and color.

    ¡°Song of the Deep,¡± Flora muttered.

    The tattoo scales were the symbols of wizards from Song of the Deep.

    Song of the Deep was one of themonly agreed top ten wizard organizations in the south. Its headquarter was located at the bottom of the Endless Sea. They controlled a number of underwater cities. Most wizards from this organization possessed talents rted to water. Also, their personalities were like water too. Not gentle water, but furious torrents.

    ¡°Now that¡¯s trouble,¡± Sunders shook his head.

    Song of the Deep came earlier than he expected. The second stage of ne fusion had not started yet. Seemed like they had really good sources to receive information. Still, the sea was like the back of their hands, so no one was surprised by their fast arrival.

    ¡°The first stage ended? Looks like I won¡¯t get my share of the fragments,¡± The leader of the group muttered to himself. He was a handsome young man with long, silver hair.

    ¡°¡®Sorcerer of Big Fish¡¯ Sliv,¡± Flora said his name in a low voice.

    He had a young appearance, but his actual age was greater than Sunders. Sunders never actually tried to remove the traces of age from his face, so his middle-age image was the natural result after living for centuries. Sliv, on the other hand, constantly spent his mana to maintain his good looks.

    ¡°Stay away from that man. He¡¯s dangerous enough. He does anything without thinking about consequences,¡± Sunders whispers to Flora.

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    Saipan from Gravity Forest heard Sliv¡¯s ¡°muttering¡± (Silv used Amplify Voice spell on it), caught a new idea, and yelled out for everyone to hear, ¡°Daaaaamn! Flora took ALL of the Fragments of Eternity!¡±

    That caught everyone¡¯s attention.

    Saipan smiled in content while Lady Danae gave him an angered gaze. The bastard had no idea he just offended Sunders, badly. Sunders was an extremely powerful being and the Brute Cavern behind him was a bunch of unreasonable ruffians. The Song of the Deep might still have several ¡°gentle¡± wizards, but every single individual from Brute Cavern was someone that enjoyed utter chaos and disorder.

    Gravity Forest had always been a peaceful and neutral organization. If they offended Brute Cavern... no one knew what would happen next.

    Sliv looked towards Saipan and smiled. Then he addressed Sunders.

    ¡°Aha, Mister Sunders, the Phantom Master. We haven¡¯t met in a long time,¡± Sliv stepped in the air and approached him.

    When he was about a hundred meters away, Sliv hurled an abrupt water arrow at Sunders.

    The arrow was blocked by the spell array.

    Sliv smiled widely as he said, ¡°Oh no! My hand slipped.¡±

    He then changed his attitude as he said, ¡°A multiyer spell array... Man, you¡¯re being really careful.¡±

    Hearing Sliv¡¯s unpleasant voice, Florained in her mind. <i>¡®Oh no¡¯ my arse!</i>

    Like Lady Danae. Sliv carefully inspected the spell array with a frown and decided to halt. He moved back to his own group. Silv was bad at dealing with spell arrays. He also knew that the array must be the work of a master which would probably take hours to breach. Meanwhile, Sunders and Flora were free to retaliate or teleport away.

    A perfect bnce between offense and defense.

 Chapter 71 - Path of Infinity

    <h4>Chapter 71: Path of Infinity</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As thest rupture was devoured by the ck hole in the center, the ne fusion began its second stage.

    A white dot emerged from the central point and slowly grewrger. People could see jagged edges around the dot as if spinning vortexes surrounded it.

    ¡°So this is the second stage of the ne fusion,¡± Lady Danae eximed as she watched the growing ¡°vortexes¡±.

    ¡°A ne fusion is aplicated process. But only three time points are useful to wizards, so we divide the fusion into three major stages,¡± said Lady Danae who had lived for more than 500 years. She was a well-experienced academic.

    She began to exin knowledge about ne fusion to her younger pupils. Everyone listened carefully. Even Flora and the wizards from Song of the Deep did not bother her.

    At the same time, multiple ne passageway exits appeared several dozens of kilometers away from the fusion point, bringing around 30 wizards with them. Some were riding creatures, some were flying on their own, some were carrying alchemy devices. The most eye-catching one being the giant steam warship from Floating Mech City.

    These were the people from various major organizations in the southern region. They all came to seize destiny during the fusion of the nes.

    The situation was getting worse.

    Where there were people, there were conflicts. The organizations usually shared some foul rtionships with each other. Now that they gathered in one ce, many wizards already began to regard their opponents with hostility. Dangerous spells would have been hurled around if the leaders of the organizations did not control their people.

    However, there were individuals here who did not know how to control themselves.

    A woman wearing orange hair and an eyepatch was quarreling with an elder with white hair. Deadly mana was already gathering in the air around them.

    ¡°Get somewhere else if you want to fight! If you provoke the world¡¯s consciousness and drag us into your mess, I¡¯ll shatter your soul and ughter every family you have!¡± A topless man with spell totems drawn all over his body appeared between them. His grim expression told them that he would definitely carry out his words.

    The eyepatch woman and the old man were both famous loner wizards in the south. They retracted a little under the totem man¡¯s threatening but the spell ripples were still around them.

    The totem man half-shut his eyes. Before the fusion began its third stage, he should either stay put or move to kill them fast and clean. If any of the attacks dragged too long and affected the ckness in the center, the world¡¯s consciousness would mark the offender and the consequence would be beyond bad!

    Suddenly, Lady Danae¡¯s voice was heard by everyone.

    ¡°The first stage of ne fusion was when countless space ruptures appear. We name this stage as Garden Aquarius because of what we can get from it,¡± said Lady Danae. She seemed to be exining to the other wizards from Gravity Forest, but she used a spell to transmit her voice to everyone at the scene this time, intending to remind people of something.

    ¡°Fragments of Eternity were thrown out of the ruptures. These fragments are the major materials to construct Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, thus wizards call the first stage ¡®Garden Aquarius¡¯.¡±

    ¡°So Fragments of Eternity originate from here!¡± One of the solo wizards standing in a corner perked up. Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was always a standard structure for major organizations. For newly established or smaller groups, having such a garden determined whether they could live on in history.

    ¡°Lady Danae, did you collect the fragments from the fusion spot? Can you sell them to us?¡± asked a wizard of the smaller organization.

    He did not hide his transmission spell. Many wizards began toin that they failed to be the first to propose the idea.

    ¡°We¡¯re buying too!¡± Someone else yelled.

    ¡°Gravity Forest already has a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. You can spare some fragments for us. We¡¯ll give you a reasonable price!¡±

    ¡°Hand them over, or else... heheehee...¡± A group of wizards in ck robes and shining, green eyes looked at Lady Danae up and down.

    Everyone¡¯s attention was attracted by the talk of fragments.

    Flora grimaced. She and Sunders took most of the fragments.

    ¡°Things are going wrong, professor. Should we prepare?¡± She whispered to Sunders.

    In his mind, Sunders was also using Danae of speaking too much. He was confident to take on any wizard on the spot, but there were two Level-2 Wizards here. He could win in a 1-on-1 or even 1-on-2 fight, but battling the whole lot of them could be troublesome.

    He nced at the fusion spot already going into the second stage and put on a serious expression. Sunders took out an object from his pocket shaped like a crystal ball and pumped in some mana from his fingers. The crystal ball changed color, and an image showed up inside it.

    Inside the crystal ball, the cloud whale was cruising the sky slowly. It headed towards Goman Kingdom,pletely oblivious of the thick thunderclouds above it.

    Sunders grinned, ¡°Give me the core of reversal spell array.¡±

    Flora quickly took out a scroll.

    Sunders ced the crystal ball and the spell core together. Some of the patterns on the spell array changed shape. Oncepleted, the crystal ball shattered to pieces.

    ¡°The Nightmare Crystal is a treasure I obtained in the Nightmare Realm a hundred years ago. Too bad it¡¯s only for one-time usage.¡± Sunders looked at the broken pieces and showed a painful look.

    Still, since they earned arge number of Fragments of Eternity, the cost was eptable.

    Sunders returned the scroll with a different spell pattern to Flora as he said, ¡°Now the teleportation effect is no longer limited in a small area. I have set the target on the cloud whale. We¡¯ll get there instantly if something happens.¡±

    The cloud whale was another treasure from Brute Cavern. There were countless spell arrays drawn on its body. The cloud whale would well withstand the attacks from a group of wizards. Besides, most wizards only trusted themselves, so teamwork was a rare sight.

    Now, the situation was getting chaotic.

    Many people were asking Lady Danae about selling her fragments. Even the major organizations offered their prices.

    Lady Danae remained calm. She still had not said anything about who was holding the fragments or how much she would sell them for. Flora stood inside the spell array and rxed a little. She was not afraid of anyone on the scene, but getting attacked by all of them was not something she could manage.

    Lady Danae had her own idea as well. Boko had four fragment drops. It was not much but was still valuable, so she did not want to lose them. On the other hand, she would avoid offending Sunders. As an extremely powerful being from an organization who would not hesitate to shield their own kind, it was a very bad idea to be their enemy. This was why Lady Danae stayed silent.

    Sliv also knew that Sunders had acquired most of the fragments, although he did not say it out. He was too arrogant a man to fear Sunders. Rather, he was plotting to seize all profit for himself.

    Lady Danae talked about ne fusion to prevent conflict, but seeing how everyone was focusing on the Fragments of Eternity, she had no choice but to continue her exnation.

    ¡°The second stage of the fusion was what you¡¯re seeing now. See the white vortex in the middle of the darkness? It¡¯s slowly growing. Once it fully expands, the ck hole will disappear. This is the most dangerous stage during a ne fusion, but it also brings the best destiny.¡±

    <i>The best destiny?</i>

    Many wizards from smaller organizations or lone wolves explicitly showed their greed on their faces. The best destiny, even better than the Fragments of Eternity?!

    Danae slowly spoke, ¡°We wizards call the second stage as the Path of Infinity.¡±

 Chapter 72 - Plunder

    <h4>Chapter 72: Plunder</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Many of you must have read about the <i>Book of Worlds </i>before. The book says there¡¯s a giant aggregation of consciousnesses in the wizarding world. It¡¯s both real and not real. It does not think, it has no emotion. It follows the primal rule. Someone call it nature, others call it the origin. But all in all, it¡¯s a great being that keeps the world stable.

    ¡°ne fusion means two worlds are joining each other. It¡¯s a destiny for wizards, but it¡¯s also a double-edged sword for our world. A joining new world means the original limit of our own world will be expanded, but at the same time, much origin power will be lost. It both improves the future and costs something at present. Which is better or worse, we cannot say.

    ¡°The Path of Infinity is a tunnel between two worlds that are slowly established after the world¡¯s consciousness stops the ck hole from expanding, by using its own origin power. That white vortex is the tunnel itself.

    ¡°They say this is the biggest destiny for wizards because the two-way tunnel created using the origin power of the consciousness contains many wonders you can see, such as a distant ne, or the coordinate of a ne. You can even locate one of the worlds by using a small scent it leaves behind. The path connects to arge number of worlds and extends beyond any boundary, thus its name ¡®Path of Infinity¡¯.¡±

    Now everyone understood why the second stage was the biggest destiny. With the help of the original power of the wizarding world, looking for unknown nes and new expeditions meant limitless profit. Also, Lady Danae mentioned ¡°the coordinate or a ne¡±, which meant they could spend materials to build a stable tunnel in the path that led to the coordinate!

    Even Sunders showed a hint of desire in his expression. If he could go into the Path of Infinity and look for the coordinate of the Nightmare Realm, could he make a stable tunnel towards it?

    Some people were getting restless while those who already knew these sneered at them.

    ¡°But it¡¯s not easy to enter the Path of Infinity. You must be a Level-5 Wizard or stronger. In other words, only legendary wizards can go inside. Anyone else will be forcefully shaped into an emotionless part of the origin by the world¡¯s consciousness and never toe out again.¡±

    Those words silenced everyone.

    Ever since Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard left one thousand years ago, there was no other legendary wizard in the southern region. Even Level-3 Wizards were scarce.

    ¡°Legendary only? What should we do then? Just watch?¡± asked someone.

    The same person yelled, ¡°Uneptable!¡±

    Lady Danae nced at the speaker. ¡°Of course you can force your way in. But as I said, the world¡¯s consciousness will use its origin power to build the Path of Infinity. If someone goes in there or intervenes the process because of a fight, the consciousness WILL turn you into a small shard of origin power and use you as another stepping stone to build the path. You all be careful about your behaviors, so you don¡¯t drag us all into oblivion.¡±

    ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko had been wearing a sad face ever since Lady Danae was here. His workmates were angry at him for losing most Fragments of Eternity to Sunders, and no one spoke to him. Yet, when he heard Lady Danae speaking about the impossibility to seize profit during the second stage, his greedy nature made him step up to ask, ¡°What about the third stage, Lady Danae?¡±

    Danae looked at Boko and felt both angry and powerless. He made the right choice by paying something for his life. That was themon rule among wizards. Secondly, Boko discovered the ne fusion by chance and did something to quicken the process. Boko did nothing wrong. He even helped people notice the incident.

    Yet, every time Danae thought about the fragments which should have been the property of Gravity Forest, she could not help but to cast a cold eye at Boko.

    Danae let out a sigh. She was about to exin the third stage anyway.

    ¡°The third stage was the final stage of ne fusion. The tunnel between two nes will be fixed, but there¡¯s a time limit for it, during which we can go through the tunnel to retrieve resources from the other world. When the time ends, the other world will fuse itself onto the wizarding world as an appendage, and it will be difficult to find its entrance again. Wizards call this stage as the Time of Plunder.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying we can find destiny by plundering?¡± Someone asked.

    Lady Danae nodded, ¡°Correct. The disaster caused by the fusion will eliminate most powerful beings in the other world, and it¡¯s a perfect chance for us to seize their resources.¡±

    Without powerful locals, plundering resources was an easier and safer taskpared to the ne expedition. That was why many wizard organizations sent their people here.

    Of course, there were both good and bad resources. They did not know anything about the other ne. Like Schr?dinger¡¯s Cat, nobody could tell what was inside until they opened the box.

    ¡°Jajajaja... Who was the first one to discover the ne fusion? You can see the other world at the beginning of the fusion. Tell us what you saw, or... jajaja...¡±

    The speaker was the team leader of Floating Mech City, ¡®Puppet Master¡¯ Bog, one of the three Level-2 Wizards on the scene. He was a man with red hair and full-cover soft armor which released a dark-violet glimmer.

    Bog spoke with his head tilted to one side. His stylish red hair hid half of his face, and he was licking at his lips with a slim, snake-like tongue. Combined with his asional, terribleughter, his handsome face was totally ruined.

    Everyone went silent when Bog spoke. Every wizard in the south more or less heard about his terrible endeavors. The man adored beautiful women because beauty could help him get new innovations. There was a rumor that every puppet he ever made was once his lover.

    Hearing Bog asking for the first witness of the fusion spot, Boko tried to hide behind others. Who knew whether Bog would suddenly see him as another ¡°beauty¡± and do something terrible?

    Lady Danae would not want Boko to be the center of the attention either. She was angry at him but Boko was still on her side.

    Sunders and Flora knew who was the witness. When Boko found the trace of the ne fusion, he immediately sent a familiar to Gravity Forest to contact them, but the familiar was intercepted by Sunders. That was why he and Flora arrived before everyone else, saved Boko, and earned a big share of the Fragments of Eternity.

    Too bad the familiar was not Boko¡¯s only way to convey the message, so Lady Danae still made it in time. Otherwise, Flora would totally get all of the fragments by ckmailing Boko.

    They chose not to reveal Boko¡¯s name.

    Lady Danae sighed in relief. If Sunders would not do it, then no one else would sell Boko out.

    However, in the next second, a sharp male voice came up aloud.

    ¡°Boko? You were the first one to see the fusion, no? Then tell us about the opposite world!¡±

 Chapter 73 - Bogula

    <h4>Chapter 73: Bog</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Danae whipped her head and saw Saipan staring at Boko with all the hatred he could muster. Saipan did not say that aloud or use Amplify Voice spell, but since all wizards had their attention on Gravity Forest, they still heard that clearly.

    Danae only felt as if she was going to vomit blood in anger. Saipan was always being petty, but pettiness was not something rare for wizards, so she did not care much about it. However, how could the man not know how to read the situation?! He just sold his teammate out!

    Danae clenched her teeth. Her expression became as dark as the thunderclouds above.

    Saipan somehow sensed the terrible hatred directed at him and turned around to check, only to meet Lady Danae¡¯s furious gaze. He immediately felt his back shivering and realized what he just did.

    Lady Danae usually would not mind these people fighting among themselves, but in such a situation, Saipan exposed the issues within Gravity Forest out in the public. Every organization had its own problems and everyone knew it, but that did not mean they were willing to reveal them.

    Saipan was scared speechless. Toote, the consequence of his reckless decision to expose Boko for his own pleasure began to show up.

    Every wizard was looking at Boko now. Their malevolent attention made Boko wish to cry on the spot.

    ¡°¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko is it? What a lucky man.¡±

    ¡°So he has the Fragments of Eternity too?¡±

    ¡°Heehee, maybe we should¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko is a Bloodline Wizard who used the blood of nts if I remembered right. He¡¯s not that strong.¡±

    ¡°We are all Level-1 Wizards, so what are we waiting for? Go get him!¡±

    Various speeches came about.

    Danae was getting more and more furious. She had some grudges against Boko, but the bastard Saipan reced all of them.

    People¡¯s arguments were getting louder, and Danae did not really have the time to scold Saipan. She sent a message to Boko to order him to step up and deal with the situation. Saipan already sold him out, so there was no point hiding it. They should spill it out. Since Danae was here, the people would not make rash moves. Besides, Danae was curious about how Boko caused so much ruckus as well. In his message earlier, Boko only said he caused a ne fusion by ident. He did not tell any details.

    Even the wizards from Gravity Forest wanted to know.

    Upon Lady Danae¡¯s order, Boko hesitated a bit before he finally stood out. Before he showed his face, however, he rubbed his own face into a mess. His bark-like face looked even more terrible now. His eyes and mouth were not in their correct ces.

    Danae frowned. ¡°What¡¯s up with your face?¡±

    Boko whispered while looking side to side, ¡°I need to keep low so Bog doesn¡¯t take me with him!¡±

    Danae nearly vomited again. Why were her men so stupid? They were either brainless, stingy bastards or greedy, shameless fools. He should get a mirror! Bog adored beauties, not someone with an ugly tree face!

    Danae took a deep breath and swallowed her curse words back down. She managed to nod towards Boko to let him speak.

    Boko was still terrified by his own ¡°victim paranoia¡± and nced at Bog who had been putting up a perverted smile.

    He trembled, and slowly exined his experience to everyone.

    He omitted the reason why he came to Devil¡¯s Water. He only mentioned being called by Mad Bear Sabot, to escort The Redbud. On his way to the ship, he discovered a small ind with Glowing Velvet grass growing on it. The grass was a magical nt from another ne and a major material for brewing Glowing Velvet Potion. It was not an expensive material, but there was no record of it being domesticated or transnted in the wizarding world.

    Boko did not know much about potions, but he had nt blood inside his body, so his natural bond with nts helped him grow lots of magical nts and he used them to barter with the other wizards. He was experienced.

    Boko did not manage to transnt Glowing Velvet to the wizarding world either. He was much surprised when he found a good number of the grass growing on a random ind on Devil¡¯s Water. He did not know if the grass was naturally here or was brought by someone else. He decided to stay on the ind right away to observe its growing condition, so he could learn how to transnt Glowing Velvet to his own garden.

    He kept watch on the ind for over a month and recorded everything he needed including soil conditions, water, wind, humidity. In the end, he decided to begin transnting the grass. However, his first attempt to dig at the nt¡¯s root caused a disaster in the atmosphere, which stunned him for a while. When he came to, he saw another world in front of him ¨C A world full of green, lush vegetation.

    He was looking at a grasnd. Shiny Glowing Velvet in the shape of dandelion fluffs covered the entire earth.

    He only caught a brief glimpse before the view vanished from his sight. Then, thunderclouds gathered, lightning bolts rained down, and space ruptures appeared...

    When he finished talking, it was clear for everyone that the world full of green nts was the ne being fused into the wizarding world.

    A grasnd covered by Glowing Velvet... People took their wild guesses.

    Glowing Velvet was a low-level magic nt. There were stable supply sources. Many wizard organizations resold them across nes for profit. It did not hold much value.

    However... An entire grasnd covered in Glowing Velvet was something else! Considering themon price in the wizarding world, one Glowing Velvet nt cost 5 magic crystals. A full field of Glowing Velvet would cost a fortune.

    Not to mention what Boko saw was only a tiny part of the world. The ne might be a big or small one, but even a small ne could be at least millions of square-kilometersrge.

    A small sight contained big money... what about the remaining areas? Were there better materials?

    People¡¯s imaginations went wild. Getting the Glowing Velvet alone was still a decent ie!

    Bokopleted his exnation and prepared to step back into Gravity Forest¡¯s group.

    The Glowing Velvet field attracted all attention, so fewer people were thinking about Fragment of Eternity or Boko himself now. In other words, whether the ¡°first witness¡± was holding the fragments were no longer the center of the attention.

    Just as Boko was about to return to his people, Bog called out, ¡°Stop!¡±

    Boko halted with a start. He quickly went through all possible reasons why Bog called him. First, he thought, ¡°Damn. And I still couldn¡¯t hide my beautiful face¡±. It then quickly became, ¡°Fine! As long as he doesn¡¯t turn me into a puppet, I¡¯ll do whatever he asks, even if I have to, to...¡±

    Boko¡¯s ideas werepletely useless as Bog did not call him for his ¡°beauty¡±. In fact, Bog was not even looking at him.

    ¡°Sabot asked you to escort The Redbud?¡± asked Bog. Since Boko mentioned Sabot¡¯s name, Bog was speaking in a gentler tone this time, ¡°Sabot is in Devil¡¯s Water too? Why isn¡¯t he here?¡±

    Bog might be a weirdo, but someone could still deal with him ¨C His mentor Mithra.

    Mithra happened to be the mentor of Sabot as well. The two pupils sharedpletely different standings and starting points, but they were still schoolfellows.

    Boko, who was immersed in his own ¡°beauty ideas¡±, realized Bog asked him for apletely different reason. Somehow, Boko felt disappointed.

    ¡°Sabot is currently escorting a group of talents to the southern region. He can¡¯t leave The Redbud.¡± Boko did not know the situation on the ship so he took a guess.

    ¡°I see. So you failed to join the escort. Did you apologize to Sabot?¡±

    Boko was stumped. Why would he apologize?! Still, Boko quickly nodded, seeing how Bog was saying ¡°I¡¯ll kill you if you didn¡¯t do it¡± on his face.

    ¡°You did apologize? Okay then.¡± Bog did not ask further. He believed it.

    The other wizards from Floating Mech City who had been standing behind Bog rolled their eyes.

    ording to rumors, Bog was an extremely twisted figure. However, he easily trusted people as long as it was not something rted to his own profit. He would believe a lie like a kid.

    That said, if the situation involved his personal gain, he would immediately act as someone cunning and unreasonable. Devil and angel, wickedness and innocence,bined together, and one would get Bog.

 Chapter 74 - Broken Peace

    <h4>Chapter 74: Broken Peace</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Boko¡¯s words deepened everyone¡¯s curiosity against the other world.

    Away from them, the Path of Infinity was slowly approaching its end. The white vortex in the middle of the ckness grewrger, and the jagged edge of the vortex was spinning faster.

    The vortex was about to ovep itself with the ck area. Once it happened, the Time of Plunder would begin.

    That would also be when the world¡¯s consciousness diverted its origin power to the best extent. A type of energy called ¡°origin¡± was generated from somewhere unknown and unleashed into the ckness, to help stabilize the Path of Infinity.

    The origin was the primal energy in shaping the world. No wizard here understood its nature.

    Kind ones saw such energy as the natural, bright miracle of creation while evil ones saw it as the foulest brew. The power of origin contained so many aspects. Sometimes, it was a nail that fixed the space in ce, and other times it could be a paintbrush that drew the history.

    Such boundless energy was not something that could be defined or regrized by justice or evil.

    When the origin showed itself, every wizard was shocked by the great power and felt like feeble insects.

    ¡°The power of origin... It¡¯s so strong!¡±

    ¡°Can humans really control that kind of thing?¡±

    ¡°You can admire its power, but you can¡¯t doubt yourself! You¡¯re a wizard, and doubting yourself is doubting all wizards,¡± someone retorted. ¡°Do not forget the preface of the <i>Book of Wizardry </i>. ¡®Use spells as the lever and knowledge as the fulcrum, we shall move all impossibilities¡¯. More knowledge means more strength. If we pursue the truths of worlds and explore the end of space, we can manipte all life and death in all nes!¡±

    ¡°The future is long and the path does not end. We will see the beautiful horizon someday!¡±

    The power of origin threw itself onto the ckness which also triggered great emotions among all wizards. Most people on the scene were quietly waiting for the vortex to cover the ckness so they could begin plundering.

    Not everyone.

    Among the people from Song of the Deep, Sliv was standing on top of the giant ray fish. His ears suddenly twitched. He heard a low whispering.

    A grin showed up around the corner of his lips. He turned to look aside.

    He was looking at a group of 13 people, all of whom wore ck robes. They were all hidden behind ragged hoods and giving out strange spell ripples. The one standing in the front was the most strange of all. His aura was sometimes thin as mortals and sometimes dark as the abyss.

    The leader of the group exchanged a glimpse with Sliv. When Sliv gestured at him in secret, he hesitated for a second before he nodded.

    Seeing his order went through, Sliv grinned bigger. As everyone else was focusing on the magnificent sight of the origin energy, he yelled in a low voice: ¡°Do it!¡±

    With that, every member from Song of the Deep unleashed water ripples from their bodies. A number of waterfalls appeared from the sky and dropped down, separating all organizations.

    The waterfalls blocked people¡¯s view and caused chaos among them.

    ¡°What are you doing, Sliv?!¡±

    ¡°Song of the Deep! How dare you. You wish to fight with us?¡±

    Lady Danae was in a rage as well as she yelled, ¡°Sliv, do you want to attract the world¡¯s consciousness like that? If you wish to die, go dive into the darkness yourself. Don¡¯t drag us with you!¡±

    The world¡¯s consciousness did not possess emotions. Lady Danae was certain that if someone made a move now, the consciousness would take note and shape them into extra origin energy. They would never live again.

    Yes. All of them, not Sliv himself. The world¡¯s consciousness would not distinguish small details. It was equal to all.

    Someone was already casting their spells to break the waterfalls blocking them.

    When Lady Danae saw the spells, she said quickly, ¡°Don¡¯t use spells! The space here was too fragile because of the ne fusion. If the spell energy exceeds the limit, we will cause a great chain reaction, and the world¡¯s consciousness won¡¯t give us any time to regret!¡±

    Lady Danae was an authoritative academism wizard. Not everyone trusted her strength but they still believed her experience. Upon hearing the warning, people all stopped their spells, fearing for their own lives.

    ¡°Lady Danae was right! I sure don¡¯t want to get involved by your spells!¡±

    The terrible tone was from none other than Sliv from Song of the Deep. People did not really have to look to recognize his voice.

    ¡°You are the one causing the trouble. Stop your spell now!¡±

    Sliv spoke with an innocent tone, ¡°Spell? What spell? Don¡¯t make wrong usations.¡±

    ¡°Stop lying! I will¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait! Look closely. Are there mana ripples in the waterfalls?¡±

    ¡°Let me see.¡±

    ¡°Oh, no there aren¡¯t!¡±

    Lady Danae reached out her spirit feelers to feel the waterfalls as well. She was a Level-2 Wizard, but she did not have a high spiritual power indicator. Centuries of training and learning only gave her an indicator of 25. When her spirit feeler reached the waterfall, she felt the pressure of water.

    And that was about it. There was nothing else.

    ¡°No mana ripples. This isn¡¯t a spell,¡± Lady Danae spoke.

    ¡°Yup. No spell. It¡¯s Brigitte¡¯s water maniption talent!¡± Sliv smiled and patted at the giant ray fish beneath him. The fish was called ¡°Brigitte¡±. As a Summoner studying ult Art, Sliv gained his title as ¡°Sorcerer of Big Fish¡± for a good reason.

    ¡°What do you want then? I warn you, the Path of Infinity is almostpleted. Cancel the waterfalls now, or you¡¯ll be the enemy for all of us once the space bes stable,¡± Danae warned him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I need to deal with something first. It will end pretty fast,¡± Sliv¡¯s voice gradually vanished like a drop of ink in the water.

    ...

    Flora was surprised much when the waterfalls appeared. She did not believe someone actually made a bold move when the world¡¯s consciousness was just around the corner.

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this, Silv?!¡±

    ¡°Do you want war?¡±

    ¡°Sliv! Talk to us!¡±

    When Flora tried to join the yelling, Sunders spoke in a low voice, ¡°Stop. There¡¯s a Psychic Sound Barrier around us. Our voice won¡¯t get out.¡±

    ¡°Psychic Sound Barrier?¡± asked Flora. She questioned, ¡°What kind of art is it? Or someone¡¯s creation?¡±

    Sunders shook his head with a serious look as he exined, ¡°Neither. It¡¯s a special ability from the Haunt World, Psychic.¡±

    p, p...

    The pair heard someone pping.

    ¡°The Phantom Master does live up to his name. You even know about Psychic. What a knowledgeable man.¡±

    A figure emerged from the waterfall. Water flowed along with his long, silver hair, gradually revealing his handsome look in front of Sunders and Flora.

    The leader of Song of the Deep, ¡®Sorcerer of Big Fish¡¯ Sliv.

 Chapter 75 - Powerful Being From Another World

    <h4>Chapter 75: Powerful Being From Another World</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Psychics will have their power greatly reduced once they leave the Haunt World. If someone can put up a Psychic Sound Barrier in the wizarding world, it should be at least a 2-star power wielder,¡± Sunders exined in a low voice.

    The Haunt World had its own special power called ¡°Psychic¡±. This power stayed dormant inside every creature in the Haunt World, and only special training could bring it out, allowing the creature to use Psychic power.

    The Haunt World was a ne with low-level mana. The most powerful beings were called 3-star Psychics, who could cause damage simr to those dealt by Level-3 Wizards. However, once they get away from the Haunt World, their power would weaken. At best, a 3-star Psychic would be degraded into a 1-star Psychic in the wizarding world.

    To Sunders, the Psychic Sound Barrier around them was simr to something cast by a Level-2 Apprentice. The caster should be at least a 2-star Psychic in his own world. This was strength hindered for being in a foreign world. Wizards could roam freely in different nes because they were only mildly affected by such hindering while a wizard on the path of truth would not be affected at all. Wizards used their knowledge as their power. As long as they could think effectively, their power cannot be suppressed too much.

    ¡°You asked a 2-star Psychic here to hunt us down?¡± Sunders questioned Sliv.

    ¡°Hunt? Nah. I just want to do business with Mister Sunders,¡± said Sliv. Brigitte carried Sliv through the waterfall. The man¡¯s silver hair was flowing in the wind, giving him an outstanding look.

    ¡°Business? You asked for apany from a foreign world just to do business?¡± Sunders expressed sarcasm.

    ¡°Heehee. You are still thinking about the Fragments of Eternity?¡± Flora spoke.

    ¡°That¡¯s correct. Lady Flora read my mind. I simply want to buy some fragments.¡± Sliv revealed a tight-lipped smile.

    ¡°Forget it. Who are you to¡ª¡± Flora tried to taunt, but Sunders stopped her.

    ¡°If it¡¯s business, let¡¯s hear your price. I¡¯ll dly sell you some fragments if the price is good enough.¡± Sunders was calm as he spoke.

    ¡°But professor!¡± Florained upon hearing Sunders¡¯ words.

    The man only waved his hand at her. His gesture hid a message:

    <i>Stall. We can¡¯t fight him now!</i>

    Flora caught the idea and shut her mouth. She slowly stepped behind Sunders.

    ¡°My price?¡± Sliv grinned. He revealed a cruel look, ¡°How about your lives?¡±

    Sunders and Flora grimaced.

    ¡°Looking to die, aren¡¯t you?¡± Flora yelled.

    ¡°Our lives huh? You sure you can kill us?¡± Sunders sneered.

    Sliv did not back down in one bit. ¡°I certainly can¡¯t. But the world¡¯s consciousness can. If you make one move, or if I make a move... Hehee, you know what will happen.¡±

    Flora thought Sliv brought some kind of ace card. When she heard these, she only rolled her eyes in disdain. ¡°You¡¯re crazy. No matter who moves first, no one will escape here. Do you think you can survive?¡±

    ¡°No dragging. I know what you¡¯re trying to do.¡± Sliv pped his hands. Several shadowy figures appeared around them. The leader of them was a slim man who was giving out a strange aura.

    ¡°Edick Family from the Haunt World. Of course, Mister Sunders knows about them, right?¡± Sliv spoke.

    ¡°Edick?¡± Sunders looked at the leader of the group in surprise. He asked, ¡°You¡¯re ¡®Flying Crow¡¯ Crow Edick?¡±

    The slim manughed in a low voice and spoke in a foreign ent, ¡°Indeed. I¡¯m Crow Edick.¡±

    Crow removed his hood and revealed the face of an elder wearing white hair. He looked mostly like a human, but a pair of beast ears covered in ck and white stripes stuck out of his head. This proved that he was not human, but a sapient humanoid creature.

    Sunders¡¯ expression changed upon hearing his name. This man was one of the five strongest 3-star Psychics from the Haunt World. The nature of his psychic power was ¡°prime¡±.

    His power was unparalleled at his homnd. It could even affect the entire world itself. The power could create something from an element as a prime point. With fire, it could unleash a boundless sea of fire; with water, it could produce an ocean. It was not limited to creating solid elements. The power could also use time and space as prime points!

    Away from the Haunt World, Crow could not do whatever he wished. But still, if he used his power properly and use ¡°stable space¡± as a prime point, he could create a safe area in which a crumbling space would not harm them. That was why Sliv acted so arrogant. With Crow here, they did not need to be afraid of provoking the world¡¯s consciousness.

    ¡°Nice n.¡± Sunders put on a dark expression. If Sunders attacked them and damaged the space, the world¡¯s consciousness would mark them all as threats while Sliv could survive with the help of Crow¡¯s power. When the incident was over, the other organizations would definitely me Sunders for this too.

    If he stayed put, Sliv would ask Crow to attack. Crow could at least unleash attacks as powerful as Level-1 Wizards in this world, which was enough to deal with Sunders and Flora, who could not use spells at will.

    To fight or not, their situation would not look good.

    Sunders was trying to figure out Sliv¡¯s situation as well. Sliv could have used spells to trigger the world¡¯s consciousness and kill everyone by turning them into energy shards. He could seize all profit during the third stage of the ne fusion that way. Yet he did not. There must be a reason.

    So either Crow¡¯s psychic power was not enough to protect everyone from Song of the Deep, or Sliv was plotting something else and did not want to offend every organization on the spot.

    More importantly, what made Silv so confident?

    ¡°Your answer? As I said, no stalling sh*t. I give you one more minute to answer, then I¡¯ll attack. Fragments of Eternity for your lives.¡±

    Sliv looked really confident as if he already knew Sunders¡¯ answer. For wizards, their lives were still more important than anything. Moral, virtue, justice... those were spiritualforts for mortals. Wizards sought after the fundamental of the world, so such a mental support was uselesspared to their lives.

    Sliv saw Flora taking out a scroll with shining spell patterns on it. It was obviously connected to the spell array under their feet.

    ¡°Trying to teleport away?¡± Sliv raised an eyebrow. He grinned, ¡°Oh my, I forgot to tell you. The waterfalls are covered by Psychic Space Barriers. Maybe Crow can¡¯t use his full power here, but the barriers can still stop you for a minute or two.¡±

    <i>Psychic Space Barrier?</i>

    Flora quickly looked at Sunders who nodded to her.

    ¡°Damn it!¡± Flora cursed under her breath. Her expression looked grim. However, anyone that knew her well would easily notice her clear and calm eyes, which meant she was not angry in the least.

    Because of the ¡°Psychic Space Barrier¡±, everyone stayed silent again.

    ¡°Thirty seconds to go. I hope you make the right choice!¡± Sliv even brought out a tiny hourss and watched the sand flowing down slowly. His grin grewrger.

 Chapter 76 - Recording

    <h4>Chapter 76: Recording</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The sand in the hourss shifted. Suddenly, Sunders addressed Crow with a question, ¡°Mister Crow. Did youe to the wizarding world by normal means?¡±

    Crow looked at him without speaking.

    ¡°So my guess is correct. Your life is near the end, no?¡±

    Crow threw his head up. His questioning gaze towards Sunders was filled with coldness.

    ¡°What are you implying?¡± asked Crow as he used the same foreign ent.

    ¡°Nothing really. I only want to tell you one thing. Smuggling yourself to the wizarding world is no small matter. Oh, also, you shouldn¡¯t trust wizards¡¯ promises too easily.¡±

    With that, Sunders looked at Sliv again.

    ¡°¡®Sorcerer of Big Fish¡¯ Sliv. Next time we meet each other, I hope you bring a Residential Permit for Crow. Otherwise, you will be meeting someone else instead, thew enforcers from Supreme Cult.¡±

    Next, Flora threw her scroll in the air under Sliv¡¯s shocked stare.

    A strange-shaped rupture appeared in front of them.

    As Sliv watched in disbelief, Sunder led Flora into the rupture and disappeared.

    Sliv could not believe his own eyes. He messed up a sure chance! And how in tarnation could they use their teleportation?!

    Sliv directed an angered look towards Crow.

    Crow shook his head. ¡°The Psychic Space Barrier wasn¡¯t triggered. They didn¡¯t leave via a ne passageway.¡±

    Sliv extended his spiritual feeler as well. There were no space ripples around.

    <i>Damn it! Then how did they escape?! A recement spell? Can¡¯t be. There weren¡¯t spell ripples either.</i>

    Sliv almost went mad. He was not nning to let Sunders live at all. He already ordered the wizards from Song of the Deep to prepare to keep Sunders here forever no matter what the man chose. Otherwise, they would face terrible consequences.

    Retaliation from Sunders or Brute Cavern was another thing. The biggest problem was Crow¡¯s identity.

    A wild smuggler from another ne was not a big deal, but an extremely power smuggler was. If the Supreme Cult used Sliv of ¡°exposing wizardry secrets¡± because of Crow, he would be in real trouble.

    However, just by revealing secret would not help Crow get into the wizarding world if he did not have a guide.

    Sliv did not reveal any secret for that matter. He only made a deal with Crow. He hired Crow as an in-house bouncer for Song of the Deep while paying him Life Extension Potions. If the Supreme Cult investigated him, his best bet would be iming that he only made a deal with Crow around the potions. However, if something went wrong, the cult could use him of revealing secrets about alchemy potions to a smuggler from another world. That would be disastrous!

    <i>Damn it all!</i>

    Sliv clenched his fists with nowhere to vent his anger.

    His bold move did not earn him anything besides grudge from Sunders. To prevent being investigated by the Supreme Cult, he must do something about Crow as well. Everything went wrong!

    What Sliv was not expecting was that something even worse was waiting for him.

    ...

    The cloud whale glided leisurely under the thunderclouds.

    After being showered by the lightning bolts several days ago, the ranch outside was in a bad shape. Thank goodness the weather turned better. The thunderclouds were still there, but the lightning grew weaker.

    Angor moved back to his own small tent.

    Today, Angor took a nap at noon and left the tent with a great spirit. Without Sunders and Flora around, he felt rxed. Even Toby did not disrupt his good mood by tweeting on top of his head.

    He strolled into Sunders¡¯ beautiful tent. Tobyunched itself from Angor¡¯s hair, circled around, and flew towards the dining hall. Butler Goode made a smallpartment for Toby. There were all kinds of food and toys for the bird in there.

    Angor went straight to the book room and shut the door and curtain. After making sure he did not miss out anything, he took out a bronze pocket watch from his clothes.

    Aleen gave him the watch when he left The Redbud.

    The pocket watch had an oval-shaped flip cover, which was decorated by an embossed flower pattern. Opening the cover would reveal a white and clean dial inside.

    Angor did not open the cover. Instead, he screwed the back cover open and revealed the delicate gears and springs behind it.

    He carefully picked up a square crystal as thin as insect wings from the side of one of the gears.

    The thin crystal was a valuable gift left by Jon¡ªthe hologram tablet.

    To keep it safe, Angor never took it out while Sunders and Flora were still on the cloud whale. Since they left, Angor would well use the tablet as best as he could.

    Sunders said that Angor was free to read all books in the library before they reached Fey Continent. There were a lot of books here. More than a hundred thousand paper books were ced on the bookshelves in good order. Angor could not remember them all, so he only chose a few to read before reaching Goman Kingdom, and he only finished about a hundred of them.

    Now that Sunders was away, Angor got a new idea.

    The tablet could record images, so he could keep all the books in it!

    On the second day after Sunders left, Angor became a cameraman and spent most of his time photographing the books.

    This was the fifth day of his ¡°career¡±. He had finished recording 99 percent of the books. There were only a few leather collections left.

    It went smoothly. When the oilmp on the desk dimmed, he finished thest book.

    Angor checked the time. It was still too early for dinner, so he activated the tablet to arrange all the pictures he took.

    He did not check the content of the books during these days but he still had a vague idea about the distribution of books in Sunders¡¯ collection room.

    All the books seemed to be collected by Sunders personally. There were 11 double-sided bookshelves, all of which were four meters high. There were about more than a hundred thousand books on them.

    The first two bookshelves mainly contained books rted to apprentices andmon wizardry knowledge.

    Starting from the third bookshelf were books about formal wizards. The third shelf was mostly aged leather books. Most of the leather covers were cracked. The books mainly contained traveling stories of wizards in ancient times or anecdotes. There were also some ancient spells. The book <i>Initial Glory </i>which recorded the creation of the very first meditation method was also here.

    The fourth held more books about wizards, but there were more biographies and tips on wizard training than spell books. The fifth to the tenth shelf were most attractive for Angor. There were many misceneous arts, such as <i>Drawing Spell Patterns </i>, <i>Basic Alchemy </i>, <i>Material Extraction </i>, <i>Illustration Manual for Monsters in Abyss ne </i>... They were only elementary books though. Sunders¡¯ book room did not contain anything about in-depth content.

    Angor guessed that Sunders arranged the books before letting him in, to make him find his own path by reading about various knowledge.

 Chapter 77 - All Was Received

    <h4>Chapter 77: All Was Received</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders¡¯ book collections were hard to find elsewhere. Some of them were even unique copies.

    Just like Flora warned, all books he could actually understand were mostly intended for apprentices. These did not have much value. Still, there were a lot of priceless books in the room.

    Sunders let Angor into his book room because the mortal kid did not have enough knowledge to understand the more important books. Angor might try to memorize them but how much could he remember? There were more than a hundred thousand books here. In ten days, the most intelligent mortal could finish ten books at best.

    Besides, apart from some leather books, most paper books were really thick. Many of the books contained both texts and illustrations, so Angor would need to memorize both. It was way too hard.

    Considering these, Sunders had no problem letting Angor into his library which contained knowledge valuable to most formal wizards.

    Sunders was unaware that Angor had something to record all of his valuable collections.

    These books cost Sunders huge amount of magic crystals, favors from other wizards, and effort over several centuries. Now Angor got them all without much trouble. This was a big destiny for him.

    Reading these books would help Angor build up a decent foundation as well as make his path towards wizardry smoother.

    ...

    The first ten bookshelves all contained something he could use. When recording thest bookshelf, he found many books he could not understand. He could not even read the characters.

    Thest bookshelf held a great variety of books as well as some research notes, such as records about organ transnt and life form alteration. Sunders left his own notes in many of them. There were books written in strange letters or symbols. Several books even released a seducing aura when Angor took them in his hands.

    Angor decided to put those book into a folder named ¡°pending research¡±.

    He only ssified the books in general. He needed to read them before going into details.

    It was eight in the evening. Angor heard Goode¡¯s steps, stretched himself and ended his task for today.

    He followed Goode to the dining hall. Toby was already eating a steamed fish. Its sharp beak did an easy job picking at its meal. Soon, there were only fish bones left.

    Angor finished his share quickly. When he ate some extra milk pastries, Goode walked to his side.

    ¡°Mister Padt, at the current speed, we will reach Fey Continent tomorrow noon if everything goes well.¡±

    Angor considered, ¡°I see. But the teacher hasn¡¯te back, so I don¡¯t know what I should do next. We still follow the route, but don¡¯t go to the continent yet. Stop somewhere near Twilight Harbor and wait for teacher.¡±

    Goode nodded in acknowledgment and left.

    Angor had his own reasons for this decision. The cloud whale was as powerful as a wizard. It was talented to manipte the sea and could exchange air with the atmosphere and fly in the sky. The creature was one of the best mounts on the sea.

    But there was a drawback to it.

    It could not fly onnd where there was nowhere to draw energy from the ocean, so it had to find energy from elsewhere or use its own. The cloud whale was humongous, so it would be troublesome if it ¡°runs out of fuel¡± on thend with no ce to park itself.

    That was why the cloud whale usually did not get ashore. The sea was its home.

    Maybe because they were out of Devil¡¯s Water, the thunderclouds above were getting thinner, and there were fewer lightning bolts. Starlight could be seen through the clouds now.

    Angor filled himself up and left the tent with Toby flying above him. Without the lightning, cows had returned to their grass field.

    Everything was peaceful... except some asional insultsing from around him.

    The curtain of a tent not far was flipped open, and a tall man with short gray shock hair leaned on the tent¡¯s pir. He was taunting Angor, ¡°Hey kid, is it fun ying bird all day? How abouting in here and y with my ¡®bird¡¯?¡±

    Angor looked at him. He was wearing a short wool sweater and buckskin pants. His exposed arms had veins pulsing on them which gave him an imposing look.

    Angor curled his lips. He could not win in a fight, but since that man could not leave his tent, so... A yelling contest? Bring it on!

    Angor prepared his own insults.

    ¡°Shut your trap, Ebony. This isn¡¯t ckberry where you can do whatever you want. Do you want to y ¡®bird¡¯? When we reach our ce, I¡¯ll help you with it.¡±

    A mature, seducing female voice came from the other side. Angor¡¯s neighbor Nausica was speaking.

    Ebony quickly gave up his rude talks. He gave Angor a final, thoughtful look, and lowered his curtain.

    With his ¡°me of war¡± put out by thedy, Angor was not sure whether he should feel lucky or disappointed.

    ¡°That¡¯s Ebony. He used to be a swordsman under mymand. Don¡¯t mind him,¡± said Nausica. She released smoke from her pipe before saying, ¡°He¡¯s all talks. No one knows how much trouble he ever created, and he won¡¯t change that attitude in the wizarding world.¡±

    <i>Swordsman undermand?</i>

    Angor looked at Nausica¡¯s armor and tried to guess who she was. She won in the death matches using her raw strength, and she had a swordsman who was also a winner...

    Nausica said that there were only two individuals who won by strength ¨C Nausica and Balba. Ebony was not one of them.

    <i>So how did he make it? By insulting people?</i>

    Angor was more interested in Nausica now. She was really strong and had a follower like Ebony. Could she be the military general of a country? A female general. Amazing.

    Nausica was just as curious about Angor¡¯s identity. When she saw the masked weirdo who had been serving the great wizard was now being very polite to Angor, her curiosity deepened.

    Maybe Angor was a bastard son of the great wizard and was just brought back?

    It was only a wild guess. Nevertheless, the wizard must have regarded Angor as someone important. Ebony used to be her underling. The man might have some problems with his attitude but they fought on battlefields together for many years. She should prevent him from offending Angor who ¡°may have a big background behind him¡±.

    Her scolding was more like a warning to Ebony.

    ...

    The next early morning.

    Angor was sleeping on his bed. It was a bit hot, so he kicked his nket off andy on his side.

    Toby slept on its own tiny bed. Its wings and legs spread open in four directions. The bird definitely did not look like a bird.

    As the strange pair was sound asleep, the cloud whale suddenly stopped in its tracks and stared at something using its giant eyes.

    A deep rupture slowly opened up in the air.

    When the rupture appeared, all light within hundreds of kilometers was sucked into it.

    Even the moonlight which shone through the thunderclouds clearly changed course and flowed into the rupture.

    On the cloud whale, Goode was standing in a dark hall while giving orders to his Phantom Servants. The fires on the candles in the hall abruptly shifted and dimmed. Goode realized something and vanished from the hall quickly.

    Nausica was sleeping, but she woke up for some reason she did not know. She could not fall asleep again, so she took out her pipe and tried to get some smoking done. When she brought up her lighter, the orange fire on it blinked and turned into a dark blue ember.

    The same situation happened in several ces.

    It was barely past midnight and the sky was still dark, so only a few people noticed the strange sight.

 Chapter 78 - Strange Energy

    <h4>Chapter 78: Strange Energy</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Above the wavering ocean waves, the rupture slowly grewrger and began to draw more and more light.

    When it became about three meters high, it seemed to have reached its limit. All light that was drawn in suddenly came back out, illuminating the area bright as day.

    Two figures, a man with strong, stable steps and a woman walking in a graceful manner appeared from the rupture under the cover of light.

    Sunders and his student Flora, who were forced away from the ne fusion, had returned.

    Sunders stood in front of the rupture in his usual ck gentleman wear, while Flora followed behind, with a grim expression, as if she really wanted to fight someone.

    ¡°Sliv, that arrogant bastard! I¡¯ll skin him alive the next time I see him!¡± Flora shouted.

    She continued, ¡°Thank goodness the nightmare crystal can open a passage under light and shadow, or that smuggler would have trapped us! And who knows what Sliv would do to us? Shit, I should have used my Blood Surge before we left, so the world¡¯s consciousness ims them all!¡±

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°Someone will deal with Sliv. He will need to pay a great price to avoid the enforcers from now on.¡±

    When talking about ¡°enforcers¡±, Sunders expressed a mild sneer. He absolutely did not want to deal with those brutal wizards who colored themselves as the Supreme Cult. However, such a group was like an extremely sharp knife and could help one greatly if one knew how to use it.

    ¡°We already acquired the Fragments of Eternity. It¡¯s just a nightmare crystal, still worth it,¡± said Sunders. He smiled and put a hand on Flora¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Let¡¯s go. Don¡¯t keep Goode waiting.¡±

    Flora looked forward and saw Goode waiting for them politely. He was also standing in the air.

    Flora pondered. It was such a pity that they could not go plunder resources from the other ne. However, as Sunders said, the fragments were already valuable enough.

    Flora decided to let it go. Such conflicts were verymon among wizards. She calmed down and followed Sunders back to the cloud whale.

    After they left, the rupture in the air did not close up as it should. Instead, strange energy was unleashed from it...

    ...

    On the cloud whale, Angor was still sleeping and did not realize his teacher¡¯s return. The boy was biting his lips, probably dreaming about delicious food.

    A strong wind pushed the curtain open.

    Some light spots appeared from Angor¡¯s chest, which still did not wake him up.

    In the beginning, they appeared like fireflies scattered in the air, but soon, they fused into one as if something was trapping them to one spot and they became a single dot.

    The rtively small light dot released an extreme brightness.

    The light dot moved around in the air and slowly vanished into Angor¡¯s chest.

    There was no apparent reason or cause why the light dot came. Later on, it would act like a newly-opened tunnel, attracting something else to it.

    The wind outside grew stronger. The cover cloth on the tent flipped violently.

    Countless light spots suddenly showed up around Angor and gathered, like dancersing up to the stage. Unlike the fused light dot earlier, these light spots rushed into Angor¡¯s chest like a swarm of bees.

    Where no one was looking, the tunnel created by the nightmare crystal remained there, and numerous energy rays came out of it.

    A legendary space wizard who studied ult would easily observe the flowing energy from a higher perspective. The scattered energy was slowly being released from the tunnel. Without a host, it would quickly dissipate in the air.

    However, for some reason, the energy all disappeared to another direction instead of vanishing on the spot.

    Next, a strange force gathered up all the energy rays spread in the air and pushed them to the direction together.

    The strange energy flow joined as one. More surprisingly, the tunnel which should have already disappeared slowly became stable. Energy flow rushed from the tunnel like crazy as if a powerful water pump was drawing them out.

    Shining energy rays rushed through the air, leaving countless trails behind.

    Common wizards could see nothing because the energy flows were not traveling through reality.

    Sunders went back to his tent and was discussing Sorcerer¡¯s Garden with Flora. He suddenly paused his action and looked around, puzzled.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, teacher?¡± Flora asked.

    Sunders remained silent for a second and shook his head, ¡°I sensed... a strange ripple.¡±

    ¡°Strange ripple? What ripple?¡± Flora closed her eyes to sense the surroundings. However, she did not catch anything.

    After a while, Sunders mumbled in a small voice, ¡°It felt like... the origin.¡±

    ...

    Angor was totally oblivious of the swarming light dots around him. He was dreaming about running through a golden wheat field. The nts were so soft that he felt like running on the cloud. Every step could bring him high in the air despite gravity.

    In reality, Angor was slowly ¡°flying¡± too.

    He did not fly on himself. The ne around his neck was dragging him up.

    It seemed the ne did not intend to wake Angor. It simply kept Angor in the air gently. Angor did not even change his sleeping stance.

    Angor made the ne himself. It was only a in-looking charm, but the pendant on it contained the ¡°culprit¡± that brought Jon from Earth to this world, the Alien Eye.

    Inside theted metal pendant, the Alien Eye sucked all the light spots around into itself like a whale inhaling water. The originally transparent crystal put up a pale, golden shade.

    The Alien Eye absorbed all of the light dots.

    Their number was decreasing quickly, but more light dots surged inside from the window.

    A moment passed, the Alien Eye gradually returned to its original color while Angor slowlynded on his bed like a feather, gently and steadily. He only frowned a little when he felt the hard wooden floor beneath him again.

    At the same time, the remaining light dots vanished. With the energy flow gone, the space tunnel outside finally closed up.

 Chapter 79 - Slivâ€™s Misery

    <h4>Chapter 79: Sliv¡¯s Misery</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The disturbance on the cloud whale ended as the rupture disappeared. However, another incident far away had just begun.

    At the ne fusion spot dozens of thousands of kilometers away, Sliv stood on Brigitte with a grim expression. He had not removed the waterfalls but Sunders and Flora who were trapped here were gone.

    Slivined about the imperfect n and tried to find a way to avoid the consequences.

    The other organizations outside also made their moves.

    An explosion indicated that the waterfalls were sliced open.

    Before Sliv could react, the waterfalls around him shattered. Three agile figures flipped around in the air andnded on Brigitte in a triangle formation, surrounding Sliv inside.

    Sliv looked at the three people in shock. They dared to use their spells in this situation? They were not afraid of getting dragged into the world¡¯s consciousness?

    Upon closer look, Sliv realized they were all beautifuldies with really nice bodies. They had different hairstyles, but they all shared the same blond hair color and blue eyes as well as three identical long swords which were almost as high as their body height.

    While Sliv was trying to figure out who they were, someone already eximed out their names.

    With the waterfalls broken, people could see the situation again. Of course, they saw Sliv being trapped by someone.

    ¡°Those are... Bog¡¯s beauty puppets!¡± Someone pointed to the threedies standing on Brigitte.

    The next second, thedies moved. Their swords created an air-piercing sound in a blink of an eye. Sliv quickly jumped up to avoid the deadly triangle sh.

    An intense close-quarter fight started in front of everyone.

    People were unsure of what had happened. Everything began too fast. Sliv created those waterfalls which were quickly broken down by threedies, who then suddenly attacked Sliv... They were still thinking about what Sliv was up to. Now things really went out of control.

    When getting attacked by the beautiful women, Sliv finally understood why they could move. They were not using any mana at all. They fought with their raw muscle strength, so the world¡¯s consciousness would not be provoked.

    Sliv also heard people talking about the puppets.

    He could clearly see the different details on their stunningly pretty faces. Even the beauty spots on their cheeks seemed so real. However, their eyes gave out their secret. All of their eyeballs were ck, with blood-red pupils in the middle. Also, Sliv could not find any human emotions in those eyes.

    Cold machines.

    ¡°So they are puppets!¡± Sliv dodged another sword sh. Panic showed up on his face.

    Sliv was a Summoner. At the ne fusion spot, he did not dare to use his summoning spells. He could not ask Crow to save him either. Sunders and Flora were the only ones that knew Crow¡¯s existence, so Sliv could still manage the situation. If Crow was exposed to the public, he could no longer control what would happen next.

    When dodging another two mighty shes, Sliv considered himself lucky that he injected the bloodline of ¡°Mist Feline¡± into himself. Due to his talent restriction, he never focused on training his Bloodline Art. He only spent 30 years on it and developed its power for about ten percent. Still, a Mist Feline could bestow a wizard an agility boost ¨C that was why he could avoid all of the attacks.

    He slipped away from their circle using another tactical dog-roll. He realized that he did not survive because of his talent. Rather, the threedies were giving him chances to evade each attack and he must use all kinds of awkward moves to use those chances.

    They were fooling him around!

    ¡°Hey, Bog, let¡¯s talk! No need for the pointy stuff!¡± Sliv was furious, but he had to bear with it.

    ¡°Jajaja...¡± Bog tilted his head. He was not looking at Sliv at all. Instead, he was admiring his creations dancing around in the fight. He was licking his lips with that snake-like tongue to vent out his uncontroble desire.

    Sliv gnashed his teeth in anger. He jumped away from another attack with his butts high in the air. He always maintained his image as an elegant handsome, but now he felt his face burning in embarrassment.

    ¡°Goddammit. Level-2 Wizards weren¡¯t pushovers,¡± His n was easily defused by Sunders when he thought it was perfect. Now, Bog¡¯s puppets pped his face again by fighting him head-on when Sliv thought no one would dare to make a move when trapped in his waterfalls.

    The wizards around also realized Sliv¡¯s situation.

    Looking at how Sliv struggled around thebination attacks using different clownish moves, Danae shook her head as she said, ¡°Considering Sliv, he would rather die than being insulted like this.¡±

    An elder in a white robe who was holding a walking cane agreed, ¡°They are doing a perfect job in preventing Sliv from channeling mana, so the world¡¯s consciousness won¡¯t mind us.¡±

    The old man appeared as someone extremely aged with many wrinkles on his face. His clear green eyes and those pure white eyebrows and hair gave him a gentle look.

    Danae looked at the old man in shock, ¡°Master Gandolf! You came as well!¡±

    ¡°Master Gandolf!?¡±

    Danae did not hide her voice, so many people also notice the old man. They all regarded the well-respected elder with their own politeness.

    Gandolf was only a Level-1 Wizard, but he owned good fame in the southern region because of his morality. He majored in Alchemy, and earned himself the title of ¡°The Light Walker¡±. He had a gentle and generous nature. People only needed to bring their own materials, and he would help them brew potions of superior quality. The prices of potions in the southern region were insanely high because of theck of alchemists, and Gandolf was like a living destiny to the other wizards. The only problem was that Gandolf liked to travel around, so it was always hard to find him.

    Due to his generous personality, even some non-academism ck wizards were willing to address him as ¡°master¡±.

    When Danae was trying to break through into Level-2, she asked Gandolf for potions to help her. As an academism wizard herself, Danae was fully willing to express her friendliness to this old gentleman.

    Gandolf nodded towards Lady Danae with a smile. He then greeted everyone around as he said, ¡°I came to see if I can find a ne with magical nt resources. Looks like I¡¯m in luck.¡±

    His answer was expected. ne expeditions could yield arge number of resources but to academism wizards, expeditions into an unknown ne were dangerous, so they usually chose to station themselves after the ne had been explored. On the other hand, this also meant that most resources were already taken.

    A ne fusion, however, was something else. The dominating ne would cleanse the other ne of most high-level life forms. Once the two-way tunnel became stable, wizards could plunder resources without worrying about being attacked. Besides, the nes were usually big, and they could scatter around everywhere without fighting over their loot.

    Gandolf preferred not to be the center of attention, so he diverted the topic. He said, ¡°Mister Stoak¡¯s puppets are always blonddies with blue eyes. I see your taste never changed.¡±

    He had addressed Bog by his family name, Stoak.

    ¡°Yup, Bog¡¯s love was always loyal,¡± joked someone. That same person continued, ¡°Although I prefer the look of Miss Flora. Too bad her hair was pinkish brown. Hey wait, where is Miss Flora?¡±

    His words reminded everyone. Flora, as well as one of the three Level-2 Wizards on the scene, Phantom Master Sunders, were no longer here.

    Lady Danae was the only one who did not question the matter, for she knew that Flora deployed a spell array with teleportation effect. However, she was wondering why Sunders suddenly left.

    <i>Sliv assaulted him maybe?</i>

    That could not be. Was Sliv even strong enough to force Sunders away at all?

 Chapter 80 - A Worse Consequence

    <h4>Chapter 80: A Worse Consequence</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    In the center of the crowd, Bog¡¯s three beauties were still ¡°lecturing¡± Sliv, while the other people watched the y happily. Song of the Deep tried to intervene, but the onlookers stopped them.

    They were still frustrated at Sliv for trapping them in his waterfalls. They would not let Sliv go so easily.

    Considering the man¡¯s self-ego, they expected Sliv to hide from public eyes for several years after this incident.

    ¡°The Path of Infinity is almostplete,¡± Danae suddenly spoke out loud.

    Everyone checked. The vortex inside the fusion spot was now almost as big as the ckness area. Like Danae said, the path would be stable very soon, and the ¡°Time of Plunder¡± they were expecting drew near.

    They prepared. Even Bog called his three beauty puppets back. Sliv could finally rx. He was blushing all over his face and only wished to leave right away. However, when he thought about the rich resources, he swallowed his embarrassment down his throat.

    He would regret his decision soon.

    As the vortex ovepped with the ck area, people felt the surging origin energy unleashed by the world¡¯s consciousness and power that surpassed all pressing against their minds. Even watching from afar made them felt defeated.

    They thirsted for the power of origin but their lives were too futile. It was impossible for them to reach for it now.

    The vortex kept spinning.

    After waiting for some time, someone questioned, ¡°Am I the only one that thinks the vortex stopped growing?¡±

    No one replied.

    After another moment, another person spoke, ¡°That¡¯s not all. Do you think it¡¯s bing smaller instead?¡±

    It was like dropping water into boiling oil, arousing intense discussions among people.

    ¡°He¡¯s right! The white vortex is shrinking!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s spinning slower, and in reversed direction too. Lady Danae, do you know what happened?¡±

    As an experienced schr, she became the obvious target for people¡¯s questions.

    Lady Danae already noticed the situation. She went through her mind and found no knowledge rted to what she saw.

    She shook her head, which brought up some disappointed looks among the wizards. Their profit was in danger!

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait. Maybe it¡¯s temporary,¡± said Danae.

    They kept waiting while holding onto a small trace of hope. However, as time went by, the vortex¡¯s shrinking speed only became faster.

    Lady Danae looked at Gandolf beside her. Danae read a lot while Gandolf traveled a lot. Maybe the old gentleman¡¯s experience could get them an answer.

    To her disappointment, Gandolf was frowning. He looked as puzzled as herself.

    Someone suddenly screamed, ¡°Bog! What the hell are you doing!?¡±

    They looked towards the scene. Bog¡¯s beauty puppet dashed to Sliv like a lightning bolt and held the man up in the air by his throat.

    Sliv kicked the air and struggled to no avail. The beauty puppet was using apletely different strength levelpared to the ¡°performance¡± before.

    ¡°Jajaja... I think you should exin what you just did in your waterfall.¡± Bog stared at Sliv with different sized, bulging eyes. Sliv¡¯s panicked reflection appeared in those pupils.

    Of course, Sliv would not give in so easily. His face went red. Maybe he was choking, or because he was embarrassed, or both.

    Sliv clenched his fists. Rage built up in his eyes.

    ¡°Let, me, go.¡±

    ¡°Jaja¡± was Bog¡¯s answer.

    ¡°Let me go, you SON OF A BITCH!¡± Sliv bellowed. A mighty mana aura came from his body. Countless spell patterns appeared behind him and assisted each other like spinning gears.

    ¡°Shit. He¡¯s using spells!¡± Sliv¡¯s action startled everyone. They scattered away in all directions using various tricks. Falling behind meant being dragged away by the world¡¯s consciousness.

    Numerous monsters emerged from the spell arrays behind Sliv, shredding the space around them.

    Monster sharks with countless tentacles, flying fish with goat horns... They were all fishes. However, these were different from the fishes one would normally see.

    The summoned fish monsters quickly tackled the beauty puppet to the ground.

    Soon, the puppet was torn into a lump of non-human scrap. Bogughed maniacally and snapped his fingers. The puppet exploded to pieces under an unknown force.

    Next, dozens of beauty puppets appeared around Bog.

    At the same time, various fish monsters summoned by Sliv also swam around.

    A fight was imminent.

    ¡°Strange. The world¡¯s consciousness isn¡¯t reacting? The summoning spell already ruptured the space, it should have done something by now,¡±mented Lady Danae. She had gained some distance before she turned back to look.

    All the people who were escaping stopped and looked back.

    Lady Danae was right. Someone used such strong spells and the world¡¯s consciousnesspletely disregarded it.

    Someone spoke out, ¡°Look, the vortex is disappearing faster!¡±

    That was not all. People could sense that the power of origin was decreasing drastically as well.

    What was going on? Nobody knew. The Path of Infinity was vanishing, the origin power was fading, and the world¡¯s consciousness was non-responsive. Nothing made sense!

    Lady Danae suddenly felt the ¡°origin¡± moving somewhere else.

    She closed her eyes in puzzlement and released her own spell ripples. Soon, she reopened eyes and dashed to Sliv, ignoring the fish monsters nearby.

    ¡°What have you done in the waterfalls?¡± She demanded.

    Her abrupt question surprised Sliv. Why would they keep asking him about the waterfalls? Could Sunders have something to do with this?

    ¡°What do you mean? I didn¡¯t do nothing,¡± Sliv refused to spill.

    Lady Danae was not convinced and she asked, ¡°Oh yeah? Then tell me this, where did Sunders and Flora go?¡±

    ¡°How should I know??¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know? Then why did Sunders disappear? Don¡¯t you see the origin energy is flowing to Flora¡¯s spell?!¡±

    That surprised Sliv again.

    People began to sense the origin energy. Yes, all energy was rushing to one spot.

    If observed using wizardry sight, people would see a strange gap in the space at an inconspicuous spot drawing origin energy like crazy.

    With the situation revealed and everyone was demanding an answer, Sliv finally spoke the truth. Part of it.

    He omitted everything about Crow. He only said he was using a special trick to force Sunders into handing over the Fragments of Eternity. He failed, and Sunders left by teleportation.

    There were many problems with his exnation with the biggest one being Sliv¡¯s strength. Sliv was someone way weaker than Sunders, so how did he actually force Sunders to escape?

    They did not buy it. However, Sliv insisted.

    No matter what really happened, people were more interested in the fact that Sunders opened a strange rupture and escaped through it. The rupture caused the origin power to leave, and the ultimate reason why all of these things happened, was Sliv, who plotted to seize the fragments to satisfy his own greed.

    People gazed at him in anger. Even the wizards from Song of the Deep kept their distance. Sliv did not know if his situation could get worse now.

    It did.

    The strange rupture was drawing origin energy quickly. It took a long time and when the process finished and the rupture disappeared, the ne fusion failed.

    A ne fusion was a double-edged sword for the wizarding world. The world¡¯s consciousness used lots of origin power. Even if the fusion was sessful, the power was still lost. The world¡¯s consciousness acted like a scale. It absolutely would not allow its own world to suffer any loss. The scale should at least be bnced. This time, the consciousness decided to stop the fusion to maintain bnce. Thus, the entrance to the other ne was cast away into the void, never to be found again...

 Chapter 81 - Reaching The Land

    <h4>Chapter 81: Reaching The Land</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor considered himself lucky that he finished recording the books a day before Sunders¡¯ return. Other than that, nothing special happened.

    Angor was still tensed upon seeing Sunders, fearing that his teacher might have some ways to monitor his actions in the book room. His worry was soon proved to be unnecessary. Sunders was not interested in which books he read. The man only told him one thing, ¡°Once we get back to Brute Cavern, keep in mind that you won¡¯t receive anything easily.¡±

    Angor was unsure about what he meant. Later, Flora exined to him in private, ¡°I was pulling your legs the other day. The books you read that are intended for apprentices aren¡¯t valuable to wizards in the least. But still, you need to obey the equivalent exchange rule. The teacher was telling you that if you want to find books to read in Brute Cavern, you must pay with magic crystals.¡±

    ... So Flora exaggerated the books¡¯ value just to scare him.

    Flora did not realize that there was no need for Angor to understand the more valuable books at all. He already kept them all. If he really followed the rule of equivalent exchange, Angor would need to pay a lot. This ¡°if¡± did not exist now.

    As for Angor, he knew he just earned himself a lot of profit by recording all the books. From now on, he would never reveal his secret about the hologram tablet so that people would not suspect him.

    They would reach thend in the afternoon. After saying goodbye to his teacher, Angor returned to his tent to pack up his and Toby¡¯s stuff. He did not have much to carry, but Toby¡¯s daily necessities took up a lot of space. Angor tried very hard topact them but he still had to carry a giant pack.

    It was a good thing that Sunders knew that Toby was Greya¡¯s pet. Even though Angor was the one taking care of it, Toby was still a guest of Brute Cavern as well. As such, they should be helping with the bird¡¯s luggage.

    ¡°Butler Goode, I¡¯m really sorry for the trouble,¡± said Angor as he handed Toby¡¯s package to Goode with a little bit of embarrassment.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be, Mister Padt,¡± said Goode as he took the luggage away.

    Angor carried his own stuff. For one, Goode did not offer to help him with it. Secondly, Angor did not want to leave some of his valuable objects in the hands of someone else.

    When the cloud whalepletely left the thunderclouds, and the sunlight shone upon the entire ranch field again, Angor knew they had finally reached Fey Continent.

    ...

    When getting ashore, Angor did not follow Sunders. Instead, he was arranged to join the other winners of the deathmatches and traveled to the continent on a demon falcon. A dozen giant demon falcons took off, let out several cries, and dashed towards the endlessnd at the end of the horizon.

    Angor looked back at the cloud whale. The creature was silently watching them leave with those giant, gentle eyes. Angor waved at the whale to bid farewell.

    The cloud whale seemed to have noticed Angor¡¯s posture. It squinted its eyes a little as if smiling.

    Behind the whale were the dissipating thunderclouds and the boundless sea.

    Far away in that direction was a beautifulnd that gave birth to Angor. Whatever happened in the future, Angor knew that his home would always be there.

    ¡°Homesick already?¡± An indolent voice reached Angor¡¯s ears through the wind.

    Angor looked back. He did not notice that Nausica had already moved closer to him while holding the reins to control the demon falcon in her hands.

    ¡°A little. I¡¯m away for a while now. I wonder how my family is doing,¡± Angor replied, absent-minded. He did not want to talk about it too much, so he chose to change the topic by asking, ¡°You can manipte demon falcons?¡±

    ¡°Huh... So, this giant bird is called a demon falcon?¡± Nausica stroke her hair, which was blown apart by the wind. Even such a simple action looked exceptionally sexy on her.

    She continued, ¡°I¡¯m not manipting. The rein is used to tell it where to go, like riding a war horse.¡±

    Angor rode horses before. However, Leon was always worrying about his safety, so Leon only chose Merson Long-Hair Dwarves for him to ride. These horses were no taller than a meter and did not need to be controlled by veins. They did not even gallop when someone¡¯s riding them. They would only stroll slowly.

    Angor did not enjoy such boring rides, but as an extreme brother-lover, Leon always refused to let Angor ride bigger horses so that Angor would never be injured. Angor never rode on any ordinary horses, let alone war horses.

    Angor watched Nausica tilting the demon falcon skillfully and felt a bit jealous. He could not help but ask her for instructions.

    Nausica did not hide anything either. She helped Angor to learn some basic maneuvers by hand, and soon, Angor was enjoying himself in it.

    After a while, Nausica watched Angor steering the demon falcon around in joy and shook her head.

    ¡°Sigh. Kid,¡± muttered Nausica.

    After Angor had his fun, they resumed their normal route.

    Nausica looked back at the thunderclouds in the distance and muttered, ¡°Those thunderclouds almost reached the edge of Fey Continent. They weren¡¯t kidding about the extreme weathers on Devil¡¯s Water.¡±

    Nausica seemed to be surprised by the weather. However, for some reason, Angor sensed the excitement in her words. Why was she excited at the extreme weather though? Angor knew they were not really close friends, so he did not ask her.

    Looking at Fey Continent from the sky, they could only see an endless forest and asional mountains in the distance.

    ¡°So this is Fey Continent!¡±

    After journeying for nine months, Angor finally found himselfing to thend of wizards.

    The demon falconnded on the eastern coast of the Twilight Harbor. There was still some way towards Twilight Town.

    The other winners from the deathmatches reached the ground one after another.

    Angor usually observed these people when they were still in their tents. Now they were up close, Angor could feel the usual auras from them.

    Most of them looked tall and strong, and each person had some unique characteristics.

    For example, the first one Angor saw when he left the demon falcon was a young man wearing a ck and white velvet hat crouching on the beach and fiddling around a crab. A knight sword that was wrapped in cloth was ced behind him. Under a coconut tree nearby, a bulky man with a handlebar mustache was leaning against the tree and enjoying the mottled sunlight shining through the pinnate leaves.

 Chapter 82 - Conflict

    <h4>Chapter 82: Conflict</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    On a giant rock on the coast that was obviously washed by the sea for many years, a boy wearing an old ck-and-white coat and a checkered hat was reading a thick book bundled in a hard leather cover. He was rubbing his panda eyes and yawning.

    Apart from these three, another man standing close to Angor also drew his attention.

    It was a bald young man with dark brown, almost ckish skin. He did not wear anything over his slim upper body, and those skin gave out a glimmer like a palm oil under the sun. His appearance would surely attract manydies¡ªa handsome face which hid an unbounded wildness and supreme might behind it.

    Angor paid attention to these four people because besides Nausica, they were the only ones who were not directing hostile attitude to him. Maybe it was because they were not interested in Angor at all.

    There were exceptions though.

    The boy sitting on the sea rock seemed curious about Angor. He threw secret nces at Angor many times. When Angor noticed him, the boy returned a smile instead of looking away.

    It was an innocent and kind smile, albeit a little reserved.

    Angor was curious as well. The boy looked like an ordinary naive boy to him. How did he survive from the deathmatch? Was that innocent look for deceiving others?

    All the other deathmatch winners more or less showed aggression to him. Even Nausica¡¯s subordinate Ebony kept looking down at him with unfriendliness even after being scolded by hismander.

    ¡°Hey you, shorty. What¡¯s ya problem, walking in front of my tent every day? I can f*cking kill you for that, you know?!¡± A man with punk hair and a beast skin loincloth walked to him on his bare feet. He was carrying a bloodthirsty look as he asked, ¡°I always wanted to ask this. What¡¯s your f*cking business with dat wizard in the big tent?¡±

    Angor looked at the man almost twice as tall as him and frowned. He smelled a strong sweat stink as well as a faint smell of blood.

    ¡°My business with them is none of your business,¡± replied Angor. He was never someone to fear random punks. His instinct was telling him to detest the taller man¡¯s aura. Angor smelled blood from the young man with ckish brown skin too. It was even stronger. Strangely though, while the young man gave him a more friendly feeling, the tall guy in front of him only disgusted him.

    ¡°Ha, nice one. Do you know what happened to thest bastard who dared to talk shit to me like this?¡± The loincloth man stared his eyes wide. He sneered, ¡°I killed him. And several more. Heeheehee. You know, every f*cking time you walked in front of me, I want to tear your limbs down, put a stick through your ass and your mouth and hang you on a gpole, just like what I did to the others.¡±

    He moved. He grabbed Angor¡¯s cor and lifted Angor off the ground.

    The sharp stinky breath mixed with the smell of sweat and rotten flesh invaded Angor¡¯s nostrils.

    The boy sitting on the sea rock showed a trace of worry while all the other ones watched the y in a rxed manner.

    ¡°Argh! Shit... Ow, it hurt!¡± The man suddenly let go of Angor and yelled in pain.

    The sudden change attracted everyone¡¯s attention. When they checked what was going on, they saw a strange seabird wearing a tailcoat and a red bow-tie assaulting the man madly.

    Toby followed behind Angor every day on the cloud whale, so most people knew that bird.

    However, they had not expected the bird to be so brave. It was fast! They could barely register the bird¡¯s flying trails. More amazingly, the bird only attacked the weak points on the human body¡ªeyes and blood veins where the skin was thin. It did not take long for the loincloth man to start bleeding over multiple ces.

    Angor was also shocked by Toby¡¯s attacks. He was expecting a good beat-up. Instead, Toby woke up from inside his hair and repelled the bulky man easily.

    Angor stepped back. He saw the man¡¯s neck had a giant hole pecked by Toby which was giving out blood quickly.

    ¡°Toby,e back!¡± Angor did not want to cause any death so he called for Toby. The bird did not let him down andplied. However, it did notnd on his hair this time. Toby stood on Angor¡¯s shoulder, proudly, like a general who had just won a war. Angor¡¯splimentary words boosted the bird¡¯s ego even further.

    Angor thought the loincloth man would know to stay back after the incident. However, when the man realized Toby stopped attacking, he bellowed in anger, took out a sharp bone knife from his waist and dashed towards Angor.

    ¡°Watch out!¡± The boy on the rock called out.

    Angor saw it too. Toby lunged at the man again, but this time the loincloth man went straight for Angor with his knife,pletely ignoring Toby.

    Angor grimaced at the man¡¯s narrow-mindedness. He tried to step aside but he was too slow.

    The instant before Angor was getting stabbed by the bone knife, a figure threw itself in between and kicked the loincloth man into the air.

    Angor looked up to see a graceful body wearing a brown leather coat and silver scale shoulder armor in front of him.

    ¡°Nausica,¡± Angor called out her name gently. He added, ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Get some training, boy. If you can¡¯t avoid that, you won¡¯t live much longer here,¡± Nausica gave Angor a side look. The sunlight shined at the side of her face and cast a golden rim on it, giving her a wild and carefree look.

    A woman just said he was weak. Angor felt terrible.

    ¡°Hookdick, now you¡¯re only good at bullying kids? What a disappointment.¡± Nausica stepped a foot on the loincloth man¡¯s face. She looked at his terrified expression before she kicked him away.

    ¡°Do not show mercy to anyone aggressive to you. That will make you live longer,¡± Nausica told Angor.

    Angor nodded in shame. He knew he would be in great trouble if not for Nausica¡¯s quick move. Maybe he really needed to change his way of addressing matters.

    Nausica kept exining, ¡°That man is Hookdick, a chieftain of a remote tribe from Ferran Land, and quite a killer. Maybe he was lucky or something, but he was found to be a talent.¡±

 Chapter 83 - Communicate

    <h4>Chapter 83: Communicate</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After receiving a mighty kick and a stomp to the face from Nausica, Hookdick fainted. Also, the broken vein on his neck caused by Toby was still letting out blood. His life was in danger at this rate.

    Everyone just stayed watching for a long time without helping him. Seemed like Hookdick¡¯s rtionship with the others was just as terrible as his own character.

    A team of people appeared from the thick forest. Phantom Servants wearing ck robes and totem masks. Angor recognized Goode who was leading them.

    Goode walked to the group, and all the talents gathered up on their own. Two Phantom Servants lifted Hookdick off the ground and carried him away.

    ¡°Good afternoon, everyone. Wee to Fey Continent. In this birthce of wizards, we hope you can enkindle the glory of wizardry,¡± Goode greeted them. He added, ¡°Now, we are standing to the south of Goman Kingdom. There are still thousands of kilometers to go until we can reach our destination, the Parmigi Hignds.

    ¡°The organization has sent people to escort you, but they are expected to arrive tomorrow, so you will have to spend the night in Twilight Town,¡± Goode bowed. He moved aside and said, ¡°This way, please.¡±

    Everyone followed behind the Phantom Servants.

    When Angor walked past Goode, the butler whispered to him, ¡°Mister Padt, follow me please.¡±

    None of the deathmatch winners heard him. Angor looked at Goode and saw the butler beckoning him with a nod. What for though?

    Angor paused a little and decided toply.

    No one really noticed him. Only Nausica threw him a thoughtful nce.

    ¡°Mister Padt, the master arranged you together with these people, hoping that you can get somemunications with them before returning to Brute Cavern. It¡¯s for your own good,¡± Goode whispered.

    Angor nodded. Before leaving the cloud whale at noon, Flora was nning to take Angor with her. However, Sunders ordered Angor to join the deathmatch winners instead. Flora was puzzled at first, then she gave Angor a ¡°you can do it!¡± look. At that time, Angor already got a faint idea about what Sunders wanted to do. Now that Goode made it clear, he was not surprised at all.

    Goode saw Angor¡¯s calm reaction and nodded in approval. The other day when Sunders left Angor in charge of the cloud whale, he also allowed the boy to take care of all the spell restrictions on the tents of the deathmatch winners as well. Sunders meant to let Angor interact with his future schoolmates but it seemed that Angor did not quite enjoy talking. He locked himself in the book room day after day.

    Goode understood Angor¡¯s choice. Goode was not a wizard himself but he had been following Sunders for a long time. Naturally, he knew a lot about wizards.

    Most wizards preferred solitude, especially those who already began to pursue truth. This did not mean that wizards had no friends. They had their own circles of friends. Wizards would often run into their wit¡¯s ends during their training, and the help from someone else could help them avoid a lot of tortuous efforts. Solitude and friends could totally co-exist.

    Angor knew this too. He read a lot of novels from Earth when he felt bored on The Redbud. One of them concluded four elements on the path of training: method,pany, wealth, ce. The novel was about cultivation, which was different from wizardry. However, Angor could still learn something about the four elements. ¡°Company¡± meant someone to discuss your training with.

    Exchanging ideas with each other was better than figuring something out all by yourself. Two heads were better than one, and more helpers meant more ideas.

    The path of wizardry required innovation, a knowledge base, and ways of thinking. A pany¡± would make the path smoother.

    Seeing how Angor easily understood him, Goode did not say anything else. He let Angor return to the group.

    Goode stood at the seashore and watched Angor walking away. Emotions filled his mind.

    Those words were not Sunders¡¯ order. He talked to Angor at his own will. He had been treating Angor with extra politeness because he knew Sunders really meant to put effort into the boy. Sunders helped Angor choose his future path, and now Sunders was even worrying about Angor¡¯s sociality. Goode pointed out Sunders¡¯ intention so Angor would not misunderstand his teacher.

    ...

    Like before, no one paid attention to Angor¡¯s return, Those who were hostile would not show their aggression in front of Goode, and the other people would simply keep ignoring the kid.

    As they walked, Angor was still thinking over his conflict with Hookdick. He did not wish to be addressed as a weakling again or fall into another helpless situation. However, he was too weak, and this was an undeniable fact.

    After leaving the beach area, it did not take long for them to reach civilization.

    There was a road along the forest, and an intersection where a great river joined the sea. Several fishing boats were parked along the shore. When watched from afar, there seemed to be people working on the boats.

    The group followed behind the Phantom Servants and walked upstream. Every now and then, a gpole could be seen ced along the river, probably to indicate the water levels.

    They kept walking and saw houses on the side of the mountain. asional passers-by entered their view too. The salty smell of the sea was gradually reced by civilization.

    Strangely, the Phantom Servants dressed in a really weird way by covering themselves under those ck robes in such hot weather. The other people were not exactly wearing ordinary clothes either. Angor believed an onlooker would certainly notice them. However, none of the passengers paid them any attention. Even if someone would look in their direction, their focus did not lie on the group.

    After a little bit more of walking, they could see Twilight Town.

    The town was built along one side of the mountain. All houses were constructed with white bricks, with their backs facing the sea. The gardens in front of the houses were full of colorful flowers under the sunlight. Apart from the wide main road, all the other roads and paths were exquisitely maintained using fine prismatic stones. White sand, white tiles, white fences... The whole town was covered in a warm, white color and a foreign aura.

    ¡°Ah, the whiteness hurts my eyes. Some bloody paint would make the ce look better,¡± Someone sneered.

    Angor recognized that voice and checked. Yup, it was Hookdick. His neck was bandaged. Looked like the Phantom Servants took him away to treat him.

    People felt disgusted at those words but no one joined him.

    ¡°Brute,¡± Someone humphed.

    Hookdick did not mind being called a brute, but the young man with dark brown skin gazed at the speaker in anger.

    ¡°What? I wasn¡¯t talking about you and you assumed it by yourself?¡± The speaker muttered. He was obviously afraid of the dark-skinned young man.

    Hookdick looked at Angor and quickly revealed rage. However, he could not do anything with the Phantom Servants around. He let out wickedughter, made a neck-slit gesture, and turned away.

    Angor sighed. He could not avoid Hookdick¡¯s grudge now. Angor was not afraid of these matters. He knew he would attract foul attention bying here without going through the deathmatches. Still, he did not expect it toe so soon.

 Chapter 84 - A Young Man From Versailles

    <h4>Chapter 84: A Young Man From Versailles</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Phantom Servants made many turns and did not lead them into the Twilight Town. Instead, they walked away from it. Their final stop was under a small hill lump at the edge of the town. There was nothing here, only weeds and stones.

    The Phantom Servants split up and made a circle around them. As people tried to figure out what they were doing, Goode stepped out.

    ¡°They have Invisibility runes on them. Common folks won¡¯t see you if you stay inside the circle,¡± Goode exined. He continued, ¡°Even here on Fey Continent, wizards are legendary beings tomoners. We shouldn¡¯t bother them unless it¡¯s necessary.¡±

    Now Angor understood why such an ¡°eyesore¡± walked in broad daylight without alerting anyone. So they were hidden behind the Invisibility spell.

    Angor knew why they should stay away from the folks. Wizards were oncemon people too, so they knew how hard lives could be. There was no need to add to that hardship.

    Goode walked to the hill lump and threw an object into the air. When the object which looked like a token dropped back down, people saw the atmosphere blurred, and a cave opened up in the middle of the hill. There were stairs behind the entrance, leading to somewhere unknown. The cave was not dark. There was wavering lighting from the candles in it.

    ¡°This is a temporary shelter of Brute Cavern. You stay here for the night, and leave tomorrow,¡± said Goode as he made a ¡°this way¡± motion towards the cave.

    People walked down the stairs, while Angor stayed at the end of the line. Once he came in, Goode and the other Phantom Servants followed behind.

    ¡°Mister Padt, I have ced Sir Toby¡¯s luggage in your room. A Phantom Servant wille and take them before we leave tomorrow,¡± Goode walked to Angor and whispered to him.

    Angor nodded. Maybe the fight earlier was too tiring as Toby had curled itself inside Angor¡¯s hair to sleep.

    There were paths leading everywhere underground, and the walls were upied by various doors. The deeper they went, the wider were the space, and the more rooms they could see.

    Their rooms were not far from the surface and were mostly beside each other. Each big room was intended for two people, consisting of a small living room and two separate bedrooms on the sides.

    Angor went into his room and arranged his belongings. He heard faint noisesing from outside.

    When he opened the door, he saw a boy cleaning the long desk in the living room with a wet towel. The boy wiped the desk over and over with so much concentration that he did not see Angor opening the door.

    The boy¡¯s old coat and ck pants indicated that he was the boy sitting on the rock near the sea. Angor remembered the boy warning him about Hookdick¡¯s ambush. It did not really help, but at least the boy meant good.

    That meant apart from Nausica, the boy showed the best attitude towards Angor among all the deathmatch winners. He needed to get some friends, and the boy seemed to be a good choice. Still, Angor was hesitating. Was the boy really as kind as he looked?

    Angor observed him quietly.

    The boy was still cleaning the desk over and over again. Maybe he was obsessive? Still, that could not determine his nature.

    The boy finally stopped after Angor already lost count of how many times the desk was washed.

    Next, Angor was surprised to see the boy sitting down right away. That bench was still covered in a thickyer of dust. An obsessive cleaner would never do that.

    <i>So why did he clean the desk so carefully?</i>

    Angor had an answer soon.

    From a pouch which almost lost its color after being washed so much, the boy took out a thick book with hard leather cover. He ced the book onto the clean desk, rubbed his hands solemnly, made sure his hands were absolutely dust-free, and carefully opened the book to read.

    ¡°So he was only taking care of his book,¡± thought Angor. As a book lover himself, Angor appreciated the boy even more.

    Now, Angor decided not to bother the boy with his reading. He nned to return to his room and read the books Jon saved in the tablet.

    As he turned around, someone knocked on the door of the living room.

    The boy reading in the living room also heard it and he looked around in puzzlement. He was surprised a little when he saw Angor and nodded to Angor politely.

    There was still knocking. The boy realized what was going on and stood up to open the door. He moved too hastily and kicked the bench over.

    Nausica was standing outside.

    ¡°Hey, kid. Good afternoon,¡± Nausica raised an eyebrow when she saw the boy. Then she looked at Angor, ¡°Oh my, the two youngest kids in the group were appointed to the same room?¡±

    She introduced herself, ¡°Nausica, by the way. What¡¯s your name?¡±

    Nausica flipped her long hair and lolled against the side of the door as she asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to invite me inside?¡±

    The boy nodded and let Nausica in, a bit reserved.

    ¡°Sailum Pustin, from Versailles Principality on Land of Revtion,¡± Sailum replied in a small voice. He continued, ¡°It¡¯s a small ce, so you probably never heard of it.¡±

    Nausica swayed a finger in front of Sailum as she said, ¡°Don¡¯t be so sure. I¡¯ve been to Versailles Principality before. Your rose gardens are best of the kind and I still miss your rainbow rose cakes.¡±

    Hearing Nausica talking about his home, Sailum¡¯s emaciated face revealed a joyful smile, and he regarded Nausica with a bit more friendliness.

    Nausica noticed Sailum¡¯s change of attitude just because she knew Versailles Principality, and sighed in her mind.

    <i>Another kid.</i>

    Was she destined to bump into kids ever since she left ckberry?

    ¡°I¡¯m Angor, from the Old Earth.¡± Angor smiled to Sailum and took a seat across from him. Sailum returned a smile, although he was still being cautious.

    ¡°You came from Marginalized Ind?¡± asked Nausica.

    ¡°You know about it?¡± Angor was surprised.

    Nausica nodded and exined, ¡°I even went there once. I got ashore from an ind nation called Hen. A beautiful ce it was. Too bad I heard a war broke out not long after I left.¡±

    ¡°Sigh... If you went there recently, you would know that Hen was fighting against my home, the Goldspink Empire.¡±

    ¡°I see. That¡¯s a pity,¡± Nausica shrugged, seemingly not focused on the topic.

    ¡°How did you go to so many ces? I never heard about the Old Earth Angor mentioned,¡± Sailum was looking at Nausica with admiration now.

    Nausica revealed a sweet smile.

    ¡°You see... I¡¯m a pirate!¡±

 Chapter 85 - The King of Blackberry

    <h4>Chapter 85: The King of ckberry</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Pirate?!¡± Angor and Sailum both yelled out in surprise. Angor thought Nausica was from the military whomanded soldiers in wars, but the truth was totally the opposite.

    She was a pirate!

    It took some time for Angor to calm down. As he thought about it, Angor began to believe that this ¡°profession¡± amazingly suited Nausica¡¯s character.

    She had followers, and she was strong. She could both lead wars and take it easy with pipe and wine.

    If he did not think about whether piracy was good or bad, Angor quite admired Nausica¡¯s legendary life. Maybe an experienced traveling bard could even create a beautiful story out of this.

    When Angor was still indulged in his imaginations, he heard Sailum¡¯s angered voice, ¡°I can¡¯t believe it. So you¡¯re a pirate!¡±

    Angor looked at Sailum and noticed his expression had changed from admiration to disgust.

    ¡°There might be some stories behind it but... the boy has some good moral senses,¡± Angor pondered. It seemed Sailum was a worthy friend.

    Personally, Angor did not mind pirates. Rumors could be wrong. He preferred to check out the world with his own eyes instead of having his first impression diverted by rumors or prejudices against someone.

    That was for himself though. If Sailum felt disgusted at pirates, he might be justified about it. However, Angor was wondering. If Sailum was really a kind person who believed in justice, how did he make it out of the deathmatches?

    ¡°s, looks like little Sailum has quite some problems with pirates,¡± said Nausica. She did not mind being yelled at. She was only thinking about how kids could have such weird temperaments. A moment ago, Sailum was admiring her, and now he was angry for no reason. Interesting.

    ¡°Pirates are bad. They took valuables from innocent people andmit all kinds of crimes,¡± Sailum left those words and went away to mind his own book.

    ¡°Oh dear, what a righteous kid you are,¡± Nausica joked.

    Sailum was not looking at Nausica but he still retorted in a small voice, ¡°I¡¯m not a kid. I¡¯m 13 already.¡±

    Nausica raised an eyebrow, ¡°I thought Angor is the only one among you people who believed thesemon rules. Now here¡¯s another little hero of justice... Hey, I remember. Aren¡¯t you the winner from chamber three?¡±

    Sailum blushed for some reason. It seemed he did not want to talk about this. However, his belief told him that he should answer the question just to be polite.

    He hesitated for a long time before stuttering out, ¡°It¡¯s none¡ªnot your business.¡±

    Nausica was speechless at first, then sheughed out.

    ¡°This is really interesting. You¡¯re even more interesting than him.¡±

    Of course, by him, she meant Angor.

    ¡°Versailles Principality has so many interesting people. You¡¯re as funny as Sharon Tori.¡±

    ¡°Sharon Tor¡ªHow could you address Her Highness like that!¡± Sailum gazed at Nausica in anger.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to. But your queen asked me to call her by that name thest time we enjoyed rose tea together.¡± Nausica shrugged. Her beautiful, glimmering eyes indicated that she was recalling something.

    ¡°You had tea with the queen? But how?!... Nausica, Nausica. Oh, I remember now,¡± Sailum widened his eyes. He gasped, ¡°You are the King of ckberry, Lord Asbel?!¡±

    Nausica nodded in acknowledgment as she said, ¡°Yes. Nausica Asbel is my full name alright.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re truly Lord Asbel?! The legendary ckberry King who cleansed the entire ckberry Waters of evil!¡± Sailum stood up in excitement.

    Hearing those long introductions, Nausica shivered a little as if she got goosebumps even though she did not actually have them.

    ¡°I think?¡±

    ¡°Amazing! Lord Asbel, I¡¯m your loyal admirer! I¡ªI never thought I can meet you here! Oh, I¡¯m so lucky!¡± The hatred waspletely gone. Sailum only showed great joy in his eyes. He was almost going to kneel down in front of Nausica.

    ¡°You shined justice upon the entire ckberry Waters. You saved countless suffering souls. You¡¯re a hero!¡± Sailum was ttering her. No, he wasplimenting Nausica as if he was singing an aria.

    ¡°I always thought Lord Asbel is a man. So you¡¯re Lord Asbel. I was wrong about you, you¡¯re a big hero!¡± Sailum quickly apologized for his previous words, fearing that Nausica would have bad ideas if he said sorry toote.

    Nausica had other admirers too but Sailum was the first one that regarded her as an idol. Now Nausica was unsure of how she should react.

    Angor had enough fun watching their drama and joined them. ¡°What are you two doing? He¡¯s changing his attitude so fast.¡±

    Nausica did not reply. Instead, Sailum exined the matter, using a bunch ofplimentary words, and some asional tteries... Still, his exnation helped Angor understand why Sailum was worshiping Nausica.

    The ckberry Waters was home to viins. Many pirates who gathered there kept burning and piging the surrounding areas. When Nausica came, she spent three years leading a team around the area and repressed the entire ce. She removed all improper elements. Since then, merchant ships could pass through the ckberry Waters without running into idents. It was all due to Nausica¡¯s effort.

    ¡°Ahem. I do charge some tolls from them.¡± Nausica felt embarrassed about all the overstatements and tried to speak.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine! You¡¯re a pirate, you absolutely should take tolls!¡± Sailum disagreed.

    Angor could not help but snicker at those words. The boy was still hating pirates a minute ago!

    Just like Nausica said, Sailum was interesting.

    Sailum kept ttering while Nausica listened with uneasiness. When it finally ended, she wiped some sweat drops off her forehead. She never had such a ¡°difficult¡± conversation before.

    Angor suddenly asked, ¡°What¡¯s the ¡®chamber three¡¯ you just said?¡±

    ...

    A momentter.

    ¡°Ahahaha! So you¡¯re the one who won by ying dead?¡± After Nausica exined what happened in the chamber, Angorughed out loud.

    Angor was curious about how Sailum passed his deathmatch. Easy, he pretended to be dead on the floor.

    ¡°But, even if you stayed until thest moment like that, you still have to fight thest survivor. I can¡¯t believe someone like you actually killed someone,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°That man killed a lot of people. He found me out in the end and tried to kill me too, so I...¡± Sailum¡¯s voice went lower. Seemed like he was still troubled by his deed. ¡°That moment kepting back to me. I never slept these days. Only reading books helps me forget that sight, even for a moment.¡±

    Angor thought that it was funny that Sailum had such a pale face with those dark eye circles as if he put up a smokey makeup. Now he sympathized Sailum.

    Angor never killed people before. He did not know whether he would get a terrible mood if he actually did it, but he could understand Sailum¡¯s sadness.

    Angor patted Sailum¡¯s shoulder tofort the boy.

    Nausica preferred to get rid of the atmosphere too, so she turned to Angor and changed the topic by asking, ¡°Now that you heard about both of us, how about telling us something about yourself?¡±

    Nausica looked at Angor straight into the eyes. Sailum also calmed down and showed curiosity. They were itchy to know about Angor. Why didn¡¯t he join the deathmatches? Why was the Phantom Servant being so polite to him? Even the wizard on the cloud whale acted friendly.

    Angor knew what they wanted to ask, but he did not even know why Sunders treated him so well himself, so he could only give them a simple exnation about his life.

    ¡°I was born into a noble family. I have an elder brother so I didn¡¯t inherit the title, but my life was good. My brother is really nice to me. I have a teacher who knows a lot and taught me many things. But he grew ill. We tried everything we could to treat him... Later, I met an Apprentice Wizard by chance. To save my teacher, I came here, to the Fey Continent.¡±

 Chapter 86 - Light Spots?

    <h4>Chapter 86: Light Spots?</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor did not tell them any details about Jon, about Mara, about Sunders and Greya. He kept them as secret.

    He said a lot, but his words sounded as if Angor avoided a lot of questions.

    Sailum was an inexperienced boy so he did not notice anything wrong. Instead, he felt closer to Angor because Angor shared a simr life to him. Nausica on the other hand, as the former leader of the ckberry Waters and someone extremely cunning, she easily realized Angor¡¯s unwillingness to answer. Still, she did not point it out. This was always how she treated people.

    They developed a closer rtionship after the talks. After chatting something about their future ns, they prepared to call it an end.

    Before leaving, Nausica turned back and spoke to Angor, ¡°That was fun. I almost forgot why I came here.¡±

    ¡°Why you came?¡±

    ¡°Oh, nothing biggie. I wanted to ask about thest night. It¡¯s totally fine if you don¡¯t want to talk about it.¡±

    ¡°Last night? What happened?¡± Angor was puzzled. He slept well on the cloud whale, nothing special happened... Well except one.

    ¡°You mean Ebony?¡± asked Angor.

    The only thing Angor could remember was getting into a small conflict with Ebony. However, Ebony was forced back into his tent by Nausica before they could start yelling.

    ¡°That disappointment of mine? Nah. In the early morning, why were there a bunch of light spots like fireflies in your tent?¡±

    <i>Light spots like fireflies? My tent? Early morning?</i>

    Angor had no idea what she was talking about. He went to sleep after returning to his tent and should be still sleeping in the early morning.

    ¡°Light spots? I don¡¯t know. I slept early and didn¡¯t wake up until the next morning.¡±

    Seeing how Angor was puzzled for real, Nausica was a bit stumped as well. Was she seeing things? Could not be. She noticed the incident because she could not sleep during the night and wanted to smoke. That was when she found her lighter giving out an eerie blue me instead of a bright yellow one. While she was trying to see what was wrong, she saw those light spots appearing inside Angor¡¯s tent.

    Angor did not shut his curtain during the night, so Nausica clearly saw countless light dots flying in there. She was surprised and wanted to ask Angor about it, but then she thought Angor was bing an apprentice. Maybe he was trying out some kind of spells, so she decided not to bother him.

    Also, she thought her eyes were deceiving herself when she saw Angor floating in the air.

    She could not hold back her curiosity, so she came to ask about it. She would not push for an answer if Angor did not want to talk.

    But... Angor did not know?

    Nausica simply let it go. The wizarding world was full of strange stuff. There was no need to dig into everything.

    Nausica left. Angor returned to his own room as well.

    He was still thinking about Nausica¡¯s question. Nausica saw light spots in his tent? For real?

    Nausica could not possibly lie to him like this.

    ¡°Countless light dots... Could it be Sunders monitoring me?¡± As someone who read a lot of books but without much experience, Angor thought about the worst possible thing his teacher could do to him.

    ¡°Tweet...¡± Toby woke up from its tiny wooden bed.

    Toby stretched its wings, tidied up its clothes with its beak, and flew onto the desk in a high spirit. There were some dried fish slices, prepared by Butler Goode.

    ¡°Sleep and eat. Lucky you,¡± Angor teased.

    Toby tilted its head over its meal, ¡°rolled¡± its eyes, and dug in again.

    ¡°Little bastard,¡± Angor crackled. Then he thought about Nausica¡¯s question again. He looked at Toby enjoying its meal and got an idea.

    He moved a small chair over, sat in front of the table, rested his head on an arm and stroke Toby¡¯s feathers with the other hand.

    Toby disregarded the harassment from its new master.

    ¡°Hey little Toby, tell me. Did you see anything strange yesterday morning? Like some light spots?¡± Angor was not expecting an answer at all. He only wanted some fun interaction with the bird.

    Toby turned around and tweeted.

    Being with Toby for a while, Angor could not read ¡°birdnguage¡±, but he could still make out the meanings of several basic tones.

    ¡°You really saw those light spots?¡± Angor was shocked.

    Toby nodded rapidly, ¡°Tweet tweet tweet.¡±

    ¡°So Nausica was right. But where did theye from? What did they do? Was Sunders really monitoring me?¡± Angor spoke to himself.

    Hearing this, Toby flew onto Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    Under Angor¡¯s puzzled stare, Toby moved its talons and stepped towards Angor¡¯s exposed vicle along his shoulder.

    Next, it picked up a thin, silver chain using its beak.

    Angor lifted the chain from his shirt and revealed a pendant connected to it. Theted metal structure contained a transparent ze sphere, the Alien Eye.

    Toby hovered beside the Alien Eye, tapped at the object with its beak and returned to the table.

    ¡°You mean... the light spots came from the Alien Eye?¡± Angor was shocked.

    Toby rolled its eyes and shook head. It tweeted and waved around its wings drastically. Angor paused for a while and tried, ¡°The Alien Eye absorbed the spots?¡±

    Toby nodded this time, ¡°Tweet!¡±

    ¡°But how?! This is amazing...¡± Angor clearly remembered Jon¡¯s words. The Alien Eye lost its power after being brought here from the Earth. It was now an ordinary ze sphere.

    The Alien Eye was a curious object, that was for sure. Otherwise, it would not have brought Jon here. Still, it had remained ordinary for many years, so why would something happen now?

    One needed a cause for a stable object to suddenly go over changes. For example, a certain process was required to make graphite into diamond. It would not happen on its own.

    Angor believed that there was a reason for the Alien Eye to change like that.

    <i>But what reason?</i>

    Generally speaking, he could consider time or space. Time was unlikely since the Alien Eye stayed that way for all these years and could not possibly change just because of time. Unlikely, but not impossible. As for space... it could be space. A change in location would bring many different elements such as a different maic field, temperature and so on. Angor could only take guesses though. He could not determine anything.

    There were also micro causes that could be interpreted using chemistry, physics or ult knowledge from the wizarding world. This was most likely caused by such a reason, but it would be hard to exin.

    Before making such assumptions, however, maybe it was best for Angor to find out if anything particr happenedst night.

 Chapter 87 - Airship

    <h4>Chapter 87: Airship</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Miss Flora said they returned to the Cloud Whale in the early morning,¡± Angor considered.

    Could that have something to do with what happened? Also, he noticed the thunderclouds covering Devil¡¯s Water began to fade almost at the same time. Could be worth noting.

    Angor typed his assumptions into his tablet. He could not do anything to prove those ideas now, so he had to write them down and wait until he gained enough resources.

    As always, he put away the Alien Eye into his inner pocket to keep it close.

    Maybe the Alien Eye underwent an unexpected change. Good or bad, Angor must face it. He could not discard the object anyway.

    For now, Angor set the light spot incident aside.

    It was near dusk. Angor had nothing to do after dinner. After he read a chapter of one of the novels saved in his tablet, he went to sleep.

    As the sky grew bright in the next day, a giant steam airship approached from the distance and stopped near the hill. There were spell runes shining on the ship, which looked identical to those on the robes of the Phantom Servants. Invisibility spells.

    The door of the airship opened up and revealed a small-sized old man with gray hair. Next, two figures appeared near him.

    Sunders and Flora.

    ¡°s. Only ten talents this time? The Wace Faction is going to hubbub about it again,¡± said the old man. He closed his eyes and sensed for a second, which was enough for him to see everything inside the cave.

    ¡°I won¡¯t mind that. Those people should have known that we are going to recruit only a few with our approach. They are going to yell at us just for the sake of it,¡± said Flora. She seemed unconcerned.

    Every wizard organization had to recruit talents. To most wizards, such a task was always difficult to handle. Without new recruits, there would not be fresh blood for them, but on the other hand, such task upied them too much time. So people usually shirked this task around until an apprentice took it. When Sunders agreed to do it this time, he shocked the hell out of everyone.

    Naturally, the academism representatives from the Wace Faction strongly objected the idea because Sunders would certainly use the most extreme method to recruit, such as ¡°deathmatches in nine chambers¡±. Talents were already scarce; if they went through the deathmatches, how many would be left?

    Those who were recruited to Brute Cavern would end up as their underlings. In other words, free humanbor. Fewer recruits meant fewer people tomand around. That was why they did not want Sunders to do the recruitment.

    Sunders was going to look for Greya. Recruiting talents was just a side job along the way. As Flora recalled, when the Waces opposed him, Sunders only said one thing, ¡°I see. Then I¡¯ll leave the task to you.¡±

    Those words scared every wizard away like the deadliest weapon. Aggressive pragmatism wizards, moderate academism wizards... they all refused to ept the task and slipped away. Even Old Wace himself remained in an embarrassing silence and went away with the excuse that his old legs were not feeling well.

    In the end, the task of recruiting talents still fell upon Sunders.

    ¡°Oh my! Miss Flora didn¡¯t call them ¡®infidels¡¯ this time. Wace will feel wonderful if he¡¯s here,¡± said the old man with an exaggerated expression.

    Flora spread her hands as she said, ¡°Well, I can¡¯t help it. My dear teacher found himself a pupil who is totally academism, from head to toe. I need to get rid of saying ¡®infidels¡¯ so we can stay good friends. Oh, I almost forgot. Mister Ness, you were wrong. We didn¡¯t find ten recruits. Only eight.¡±

    Flora pointed to Angor¡¯s room and said, ¡°That¡¯s teacher¡¯s new student, Angor. He¡¯s not considered one of the recruits.¡±

    Then she pointed to another direction and said, ¡°That mix-blood from another world isn¡¯t one either.¡±

    The old shortie Ness did not care whether they found ten or eight talents. Instead, he gaped at Sunders, who was still wearing his cold and calm expression.

    ¡°Mister Sunders found a student? An academism?! Unbelievable. Am I dreaming?¡±

    Sunders nced at Ness. The simple gesture instantly removed Ness¡¯ exaggerated attitude and reced it with fear.

    ¡°Don¡¯t waste time now. Let¡¯s move,¡± said Sunders.

    Ness nodded quickly. ¡°Ahem. Since The Savage has arrived, let¡¯s get those talents aboard!¡±

    ...

    Angor followed all the talents onto The Savage.

    Probably because they felt restrained in their tents all these days, the talents gathered on the deck of the airship to enjoy the cold air in the sky, as well as the temporary freedom.

    Most people witnessed an airship for their first time. They began to discuss how the ship flew in the air. Someone said it used spells, others believed it was alchemy or special magic arrays. The discussion became quite heated.

    ¡°I think none of them is the answer,¡± Sailum spoke in a serious tone with his beloved book in his arms.

    ¡°So what¡¯s your opinion?¡± asked Nausica who was leaning against the safety bar on the deck and was smoking her pipe. The cold wind brought her long hair up and created nking noises on her scale shoulder armor.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I think it could be some connected devices, like those in clocks,¡± answered Sailum.

    ¡°What about you, Angor?¡± Nausica asked.

    Angor gave them a nomittal answer, ¡°Maybe Sailum was right.¡±

    Angor was thinking to himself. He believed Sailum was half-right. There must be mechanical elements inside the steam airship. However, to maintain such a stable and fast flying course, there should be something rted to ult Art as well.

    Nausica noticed Angor was not being serious, but no one would care. They were only enjoying the sky without any particr purposes while finding random stuff to talk about.

    ¡°Acho!¡± Sailum sneezed. He added, ¡°The wind¡¯s too strong. We¡¯ll catch a cold like this.¡±

    Nausica looked at Sailum¡¯s running nose and shook her head as she said, ¡°You also need to get some training.¡±

    Angor felt chilly as well. When he heard Nausica, he felt a bit embarrassed.

    He took out a handkerchief with his family emblem¡ªa lion heart¡ªon it and handed it to Sailum. ¡°Use this. It sure is cold, let¡¯s head down.¡±

    Sailum nodded. He would rather read his book than feeling the wind. Same for Angor. Compared to the cold wind, the asional attention from the talents around him made him feel worse regardless of whether they meant good or bad.

    ¡°Not me. I haven¡¯t enjoyed the fresh air like this for a long time. Gotta seize the chance,¡± said Nausica.

    Angor and Sailum went through the hallways full of mechanical elements. Brute Cavern usually put several people in one room. Since Sunders only recruited nine people aside from Angor, they could use single rooms, and there were still free ones left. Angor¡¯s and Sailum¡¯s rooms were on different floors. Angor¡¯s room was on an upper floor.

    After saying goodbye to Sailum at the stairway, Angor saw a small figure in front of his door.

    He walked closer and noticed it was a tiny demon falcon.

    The creature had a golden beak, ck feathers, and blood-color eyes. It looked bright and pretty. As Angor tried to figure out why the creature was here, a familiar voice came from it.

    ¡°Angor, that¡¯s my alchemy familiar. Follow it to my room.¡±

    That was Sunders¡¯ voice. Angor was wondering what the man wanted. However, he did not dare to neglect Sunders¡¯ order. He left Toby in his own room and hurried behind the demon falcon.

 Chapter 88 - The Seed of Nightmare Realm

    <h4>Chapter 88: The Seed of Nightmare Realm</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders¡¯ room was a cabin on the top level of the airship. It was the biggest room with the best view on the entire ship.

    The demon falcon guided Angor here and flew off on its own, leaving Angor alone in front of Sunders¡¯ door.

    Angor pushed the door open and saw Sunders standing in front of a French window, and Flora, who was drinking wine at an antique-looking bar stand.

    ¡°Good morning, professor.¡± Angor bowed politely.

    Flora chuckled. ¡°How many times have we told you to get rid of the manners? Geez. You always remind me of Wace.¡±

    <i>Wace?</i>

    Angor looked at Flora with a puzzled expression.

    Flora rolled her eyes. ¡°Stop. Don¡¯t ask me that. You will know him when you get back to Brute Cavern. An old bastard who¡¯s up to no good.¡±

    ¡°Angor, I called you here to talk about your channeling method,¡± said Sunders in his usual low voice.

    <i>My channeling method!</i>

    Angor¡¯s mind quickly tensed up.

    ¡°Are we going to the Nightmare Realm now?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Changed your mind? If so, I allow you to choose again.¡±

    That sounded a bit cold.

    Angor did not really regret his decision. He was just scared of something unknown and dangerous. He did not think about channeling method these days because he did not want to be shrouded in fear every day.

    ¡°I won¡¯t regret.¡±

    He was just... worried. However, he did not say it out loud. Angor knew that if he wanted to survive in this world, he had to ¡°harden¡± his weak character.

    ¡°It¡¯s a bold decision, and it¡¯s a good thing. In the wizarding world, you either move forward and face danger or be pushed back to your starting point,¡± said Sunders. He walked to his desk, picked up a tube-shaped crystal and tossed it towards Angor before saying, ¡°This is a dial meter to test your spiritual power indicator. Before we go retrieve the channeling method from the Nightmare Realm, you need to know your indicator first.¡±

    Wizards could see the spiritual power indicators of mortals using spells. Sunders had already checked Angor¡¯s condition, but people believed their own eyes better than other people¡¯sments.

    Angor looked at the tube crystal and saw a curve moving in it. However, when he tried to take a closer look inside the tube, he felt dizzy all of a sudden.

    ¡°Don¡¯t look in the middle. There¡¯s a special spirit rune in there. It would be more violent as it approaches the end of the meter and could damage your brain,¡± Flora exined. She continued, ¡°The correct way is to start looking from zero and slowly work your way upward. You will feel that dizziness bing worse. When you finally can¡¯t take it anymore, the number you¡¯re looking at is your spiritual power indicator.¡±

    Flora¡¯s exnation was clear enough. Angor closed his eyes to wait out his dizziness. When he reached his best condition, he lifted the meter and began his first test.

    He could clearly see a pale golden line starting from ¡°0¡±. It climbed upward in an elegant and smooth curve. On ¡°3¡±, the line slowly split into two and created two individual, natural paths.

    When the two lines reached ¡°4¡±, they began to give out many forks like a tree branch growing in spring. Some of the new forks made several twists and turns, then stopped growing.

    Angor felt his eyes ache.

    When the meter reached ¡°7¡±, the two main lines became four. Four lines drew all kinds of crazy patterns in the crystal. Each time a new trail appeared, Angor felt as if something heavy was pressing against his chest and wanted to close his eyes right away.

    Soon, the meter reached ¡°9¡±¡ªthe highest possible number for mortals. Beyond this was a brand new world for talents.

    Angor was about to faint now.

    The four lines dashed past ¡°10¡±. At this point, the entire spell pattern changed drastically. Instead of creating new branches, the lines became three-dimensional.

    The lines intertwined with each other like DNA double helix structures and kept sprinting in a strange manner. Angor felt his sight spinning.

    After a while, Angor could no longer see the meters. His eyes were still following behind the golden lines, but he did not know if it was himself or his instinct controlling them.

    Sometimeter, Angor¡¯s view darkened and he fell to the floor. His face was pale. He felt like vomiting as if someone was stirring his brain with a stick.

    ¡°Reached your limit?¡± Flora¡¯s voice woke Angor from ¡°being brain-stirred¡±.

    Angor flipped himself over in a daze and sat on the floor for a long time. Sunders did not rush him. The man found a cup of tea from somewhere and was taking notes using his quill.

    When Angor felt a little better, he slowly stood up with the help of a table leg.

    ¡°Thirteen,¡± Angor revealed a bitter smile. His face was still pale.

    People said wizards¡¯ spiritual power indicators had little to do with what they could achieve, but Angor still felt defeated. Thirteen was just barely beyond a failure.

    All talents and wizards were beyond ten. As Angor recalled, Sunders said that Easley who joined Tower of Hurricane had a spiritual power indicator of 23. That was ten points higher than himself, which meant Easley could train channeling method a lot faster.

    If Angor did not wish to be left behind by Easley, he must choose a good channeling method which had a fitness of at least 20% for him.

    ¡°The indicator does not determine your future,¡± Sundersforted him. He then changed the topic and said, ¡°I said I¡¯d tell you your talent once you be an apprentice. I didn¡¯t mean to hide it. It¡¯s because your talent is a little special, and I don¡¯t know how far you can go. Still, I¡¯m certain that your talent is rted to the Nightmare Realm. Maybe we can find an answer over there.¡±

    <i>We?</i>

    Angor noticed his wording.

    ¡°You¡¯re going too, teacher?¡± asked Angor.

    Sunders nodded. ¡°How can you find the channeling method book if I¡¯m not with you?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Yes.¡±

    Sunders smiled. ¡°The Nightmare Realm is a particr world. It projects a reality and sends it into an imaginary form. This means that if we enter the ce from here, we may appear in the sky, inside the same airship.

    ¡°To avoid something like that, and find the exact location of the book, we must possess a seed.¡±

    ¡°A seed?¡± Angor asked.

    Sunders walked to Angor and put a broad hand on Angor¡¯s debone. ¡°This is the seed.¡±

    Angor reached for his back where a woman with sutured face wounded him in a strange world.

    ¡°The wound on your soul is a seed. It can guide us to the ce where you received that wound,¡± Sunders smiled again.

    Where he received the wound? The Padt Manor in the Nightmare Realm! The seed would take him to the strange Padt Manor full of weird creatures and the sutured woman?

    Sunders took out a ss vial. The bottom of the vial was covered in a small amount of blood which released a mild glimmer.

    ¡°This, is a seed too. It¡¯s my blood, I spilled it when fighting a monster in the Nightmare Realm. The blood will bring us back to that ce... where I saw the channeling method book.¡±

 Chapter 89 - Time With No Rules

    <h4>Chapter 89: Time With No Rules</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor understood most of what Sunders said. So something that had the ¡°smell¡± of Nightmare Realm on it could be used as a seed and guided them to the original spot in the ne where the seed was found.

    More importantly, why did Sunders say his wound on his soul was a seed?

    When he took his talent test in Padt Manor, he entered the strange ce as a soul, not his body? Then how did Sunders spill his blood?

    Angor revealed his questions, and Sunders smiled at him as he answered, ¡°It has something to do with your talent as well. Let¡¯s leave the question forter. When we get into the Nightmare Realm, I need to confirm something before telling you that.

    ¡°Now, I¡¯ll tell you about our destination for this journey.¡±

    Sunders took out a transparent crystal ball and ced it on the desk. He stroked the surface of the object, and a light shone from it.

    Sunders signaled Angor to look inside the ball.

    Angor walked in front of the desk and saw images appearing inside the crystal, just like those recorded images shown in the tablet.

    They showed a number of abandoned ruins. All the bricks and stairs of the buildings were covered in thick moss. The ce must have been prosperous at a time, but that could hardly be seen now. The image moved around, and more ruins appeared. The numerous structures were like frozen in time. Nature and broken buildings had be one.

    Beautiful statues lost their limbs, exquisite building blocks lost their colors. The fountain pond had no water in it, only thick moss. Even the pirs in the pce had broken into several pieces.

    An adventurer who loved ruins would absolutely love this ce because it had locked up civilization and the future of mankind in time. When looked closely, Angor could even imagine what the ce looked like before¡ªcrowds danced, tall buildings rose, banquets bustling with people... and then everything crashed down.

    ¡°This is the ruin of a ce structured by ancient wizards. Ity at the hintend ins in Goman Kingdom. Nobody knows who built it or why. Everything in there was looted clean several tens of thousands of years ago when it was discovered. Now people just call it the ¡®Garden of Labyrinth¡¯,¡± Sundersmented. He added, ¡°I explored the ce before I became a wizard. That¡¯s where I entered the Nightmare Realm for the first time.

    ¡°The entrance appeared in the Garden of Labyrinth by chance, and I stepped in there unintentionally. I didn¡¯t see those ruins in the Nightmare Realm. Instead, there was a vast and beautiful city.

    ¡°There, I ran into a mighty monster. When my life was in danger, I hid inside the sewers in the city.¡±

    Sunders suddenly changed the topic, ¡°Now, do you know why it is called the Garden of Labyrinth?¡±

    Sunders spoke without waiting for an answer, ¡°Because the sewers of the ruins are a giant and magnificent maze! I ran into the sewer to escape from the monster. I may have survived that one monster, but what I saw inside the sewers were even more terrifying. What¡¯s worse, I found myself in the middle of the maze and couldn¡¯t find the way out.

    ¡°There were all kinds of strange things and monsters in thebyrinth. I avoided them as best as I could,bined with a bit of luck, I stayed alive until the tunnel finally appeared again so I could leave the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    He paused for a moment before continuing, ¡°As for the special channeling method book... I saw it inside the sewer maze.¡±

    The story was simple enough. Sunders omitted many details, but Angor still recognized the great fear and danger hidden behind his words.

    ¡°We¡¯ll go together this time. The seed won¡¯t help us arrive at the same spot. We¡¯ll be randomly ced, separately. I¡¯ll tell you several coordinates. Find and hide in one of them. I¡¯ll check the coordinates one by one to find you,¡± said Sunders. His expression became serious as he continued, ¡°After we enter the Nightmare Realm and before I cane to you, you¡¯re on your own, and you¡¯ll be vulnerable. Don¡¯t ever think of taking on anything head-on. You won¡¯t make it. Use your wit to survive, understood?¡±

    Angor took a deep breath and encouraged himself in his mind. <i>I can do this!</i>

    ¡°Understood?¡± Sunders asked again.

    ¡°I get it!¡± Angor gave him a firm answer.

    Sunders nodded in satisfaction and pointed at the images shown in the crystal ball as he said, ¡°Good. Remember these coordinates. Once you¡¯re done, we¡¯ll prepare to leave for the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    Angor¡¯s answer was quick, but his mind was still confused. He could not calm down, and his mind was obviously panicking because he was going for something unknown. All sorts of possible bad oues entered his brain. He was already thinking about failure.

    This could be because he was considerate and careful. However, Angor knew those were only pretty words. He was worried because he was weak!

    He must be stronger to survive in this world. Even if his mind was filled with scary scenes, he did not actually reveal them.

    To Sunders, Angor remained exceptionally calm. Sunders was satisfied. Fearlessness was also an essential characteristic of wizards.

    After Angor clearly memorized every single coordinate as well as all thendmarks around them without making mistakes, he nodded to Sunders to show that he was ready.

    From a space capsule, Sunders took out the Twisting Protozoa he received in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    He ced the worm inside the vial containing his blood. The worm quickly began to drink the blood. When thest drop was devoured, a strange ripple was unleashed from the creature.

    ¡°Onest warning before entering the Nightmare Realm. It¡¯s possible for us to gain nothing at all, even lose our lives. Make sure you¡¯re prepared for it,¡± Sunders spoke.

    Angor clenched his teeth. ¡°I am prepared!¡±

    Sunders nodded.

    Angor suddenly asked a question, ¡°Teacher, if we go into the Nightmare Realm here, will wee out in the same ce? I mean, the airship is flying, but the tunnel remains in one ce. Could we appear in midair when we get out?¡±

    Sunders chuckled at the question, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that. There¡¯s one more thing that¡¯s special in the Nightmare Realm: time flows differently. In that world, the flow of time obeys no rules.¡±

    The time had no rules... Everything coulde and go in an instant.

 Chapter 90 - First Venture Into the Nightmare Realm

    <h4>Chapter 90: First Venture Into the Nightmare Realm</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Was it possible to stop time? Angor did not know. However, he read something about time beingpletely static when certain conditions were met. Still, if the time in Nightmare Realm flowed like normal while the reality stopped moving, Angor¡¯s knowledge about physics would be busted.

    <i>Could it be that the Nightmare Realm uses different physicsws, or is it located on a different timeline?</i>

    Angor only had several seconds to think these over. The Twisting Protozoa on the desk kept releasing ripples until they formed up a spider structure which continued to spread. It looked as if someone just shattered a non-existent ss with a hammer.

    Sunders squinted his eyes. He took out a sharp de from his pocket and sliced the Twisting Protozoa in half. He then threw one to Angor while keeping the other to himself.

    ¡°It¡¯s time! Run into the space rupture!¡± said Sunders. He dashed towards the center of ripples as he continued, ¡°Keep the Protozoa safe. It¡¯s our passport to get back here. If we lose it, we¡¯ll be lost in the Nightmare Realm forever.¡±

    Half of his body already disappeared inside the ¡°spider web¡± when he said, ¡°Remember to wait in the coord¡ª¡±

    Angor panicked. Time flowed differently in the Nightmare Realm and in reality. Angor feared that he would be separated from Sunders farther if he went in toote, so he immediately threw himself into the space rupture without any further hesitation.

    Upon connecting with the rupture, a strange numbness spread from Angor¡¯s head towards his entire body. First, it was his neck. Then, it was his chest, hands, waist, and his toes.

    When the numbness stopped, Angor felt as if he just cast off ayer of skin, or being a baby inside his or her mother¡¯s uterus who broke out of the amniotic fluid and breathed air for the first time. It was both strange andfortable. As he tried to recall the amazing feeling, he found himself standing on solid ground.

    Teacher¡¯s words about how dangerous the Nightmare Realm could be immediately interrupted his thoughts. He quickly opened his eyes to inspect the surroundings.

    And he was terrified for good.

    A giant face was in front of him. It had two red spots as its eyebrows, one singlerge eye, two nostrils but without a nose bridge, and a thick, white beard. Its mouth was hidden behind the beard. The face, or rather, the giant head did not have a body or limbs. The head itself was already bigger than Angor himself.

    The face stared at Angor, puzzled. It would bounce up now and then. How did it do that without limbs?

    The head monster seemed really curious at Angor, and it slowly bounced towards him. Angor stepped back.

    He suddenly felt himself backing against a warm wall. He touched the wall out of instinct and realized the wall was releasing hot air.

    Angor froze up.

    <i>Could it be¡ª</i>

    He slowly turned around. His fear doubled when he saw another head monster just behind him. Even worse, his hand was still ced on its face!

    Angor felt like crying with two giant heads pinching him in between. Why was he so unfortunate?! He was dropped in front of monsters right at the beginning! In the middle of two!

    Looking at them moving closer, Angor was unsure of how powerful they were, but he WAS sure that he had no hope in fighting them. He did not have Toby to ¡°save the beauty¡± this time, so his only choice was obvious ¨C Run!

    Angor saw a chance and dashed away. He soon realized something else; his steps brought him high in the air as if there was no gravity. He remembered the same thing happened when he took his talent test in Padt Manor.

    Still, he did not really have the time to think about why. He simply dashed higher. Maybe the monsters could not fly!

    When Angor climbed for about ten meters, he noticed that he was not in the sky. A thick stone wall was blocking him.

    A terrible idea appeared in his mind. Was he teleported directly into the sewerbyrinth?!

    Angor took a deep breath tofort himself. No, it could not be. He was inside a building.

    <i>Yes, this is it!</i>

    Angor looked down towards the head monsters and was surprised to see that they did not chase after him at all. They were still looking at Angor with a puzzled expression as if saying ¡°why are you running?¡±. If punctuations could appear in the air like inics, there must be big question marks floating above the heads.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t theying for me?¡± Angor muttered to himself in the air. Sunders told him that all creatures in the Nightmare Realm would hunt outsiders like mad. So what was going on now? The heads did not seem interested in him at all. Was it a trap?

    Well, since they did not chase Angor, he gave up on figuring out the reason. Angor began checking around the environment and looking forndmarks, so he could arrive at one of the coordinates quicker.

    Angor looked around in the air. He was disappointed when he only saw stone walls. There were stone walls around him, above him, beneath him... There was only one single path leading to two directions.

    Thendscape made him doubt that he really was teleported inside the maze.

    <i>Well... jackpot.</i>

    Sunders left him seven coordinates, six of which were above the ground and were easy to find because there were obviousndmark buildings around them. Thest one was inside the underground maze, which was located at the center of the maze. It happened to be the exit, as well as where the channeling method book was seen.

    The paths inside the maze were unpredictable, and they were popted with monsters. Sunders could force his way through, but Angor could not. Sunders told Angor about the coordinate in the maze just in case, but the man never considered that Angor could be so unfortunate as to get himself ced inside the maze right away...

    Angor moved towards the opposite direction from the head monsters. Soon, there was no light in the area and Angor could no longer see his own hands. He stopped in the air for a moment and realized he could not even tell the direction now.

    Which way was forward?

    His heart raced. In the absolute darkness, he could hear his blood flowing like running river.

    Angor recalled that the stone wall above him was rtively smooth, so he decided to move upward and advance by moving along the ceiling wall. He did not know whether there were monsters up here, but he guessed there must be more monsters on the ground.

 Chapter 91 - Reversed Reality

    <h4>Chapter 91: Reversed Reality</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor slowly climbed in the air. Five seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, two minutes... He had already lost count of how long he had been flying, and yet, he still had not reached the ceiling!

    <i>But that¡¯s impossible!</i>

    Angor clearly remembered, when there was still light, he saw the stone ceiling above him. It was high but totally reachable.

    Or was he inside a building, not the maze? Now he flew outside and could no longer reach the ceiling? Not likely, because Angor could feel the air around him remain unchanged. If he was under the sky, he should not be insideplete darkness.

    Angor considered in his mind. Maybe he stumbled into some kind of confusion spells? Was he moving in circles because of some ghost¡¯s trick?

    Jon once exined a situation where people would walk within one ce. There was no magic or ghost involved. When people could not feel their surroundings clearly, their instinct would make them move in circles.

    Was that what happened in the total darkness?

    Angor was unsure. He thought his sense of direction worked fine, but he did not have any solid references to confirm anything.

    Angor did not exclude the possibility of ¡°walking in circles out of instinct¡±. The gravity was weak, which allowed him to fly. However, this also meant he could be wrong about his direction. In this situation, where he thought was ¡°down¡± might actually be left or right, since he could not use gravity to make sure.

    ording to Jon, there were four approaches to get rid of ¡°walking in circles¡±: ascertain your direction with the help of andmark, look at the stars, concentrate and observe the surroundings, or use an item that gave out light. Angor had no way to rely on the first three methods now, so he only considered the fourth option.

    However, Angor was not a dedicated smoker like Nausica, thus he did not have a lighter on him.

    He could still make light though.

    Angor searched in his shirt and took out the pocket watch. He opened up the back cover of the watch skillfully and picked up a thin crystal.

    It was the hologram tablet left by Jon. Angor read the manual before, if he remembered right, there was a ¡°shlight¡± function on the tablet.

    Angor rxed a little when he took out the tablet. The brief carelessness caused him to overlook a small detail¡ªthe pocket watch he just put back into his pocket did not feel ¡°solid¡±. The object only had its ¡°shape¡±, but without ¡°weight¡±...

    The hologram tablet was once a smartwatch which came with a wristband. The wristband was damaged, so Angor threaded a string into the holes where the wristband should have been. He quickly found the string to bind the tablet onto his wrist.

    After making sure the string was in ce, Angor moved onto the buttons on the tablet.

    First, the power button...

    Nothing happened. The tablet did not show the starting screen as it should, nor was there any hologram at all.

    Angor frowned. He clearly remembered recharging the tablet not long ago. When the power was full, the tablet could run for weeks on end.

    What was going on? Was it broken? It could not work in the Nightmare Realm?

    Angor tried the power button again. Still nothing.

    ¡°Damn! Why now?! Come on!¡± Angor cursed in a small voice.

    Those words caused something to happen. If it was bright, he would see the tablet on his wrist changing greatly.

    Like the pocket watch, the tablet only had its ¡°shape¡±, but without its ¡°reality¡±. It was a mirage. However, when Angor said his curse words out, the mirage tablet gradually took on a solid rim. It quickly turned from fake to real.

    However, Angor noticed none of that. He was still sulking to himself.

    When he pushed the power button again in a bit of rage, a pale blue hologram suddenly appeared in front of him.

    Angor was surprised by the starting screen. It did not work a second ago, why did it suddenly...? He was a little angry at his misfortune just a while ago, and now he was not sure if he should be frustrated or happy.

    Never mind. The tablet started, that was what mattered. Angor did not have time to think about random things when he was staying in a ce full of unknown danger. The foremost task was to reach one of the coordinates provided by Sunders, safe and sound.

    With the help of the pale blue light projected by the hologram, Angor could see a little bit of the environment. He could not see anything clearly, but he was sure there were no monsters around.

    Angor quickly found the ¡°shlight¡± function and pressed the hologram button. A stream of light pierced the darkness, like a morning star giving birth to another day. The dark mist covering his sightpletely vanished.

    This was the first time Angor ever tried out the shlight function. He was not expecting such a strong light, so he was surprised by how much area could be illuminated.

    He looked along the light stream and could not see its end.

    ¡°Amazing!¡± Angor brightened up. Ever since he solved Jon¡¯s puzzles and started using the tablet, he had never made any research about the other functions of the tablet. He only knew their names, such as the ¡°shlight¡±. It sounded like something to illuminate one¡¯s way during the night, like oilmps, torches, and candles, so he did not try to use it.

    He was shocked to find out that the shlight lightened up his path like the sun.

    Angor felt he had been underestimating the power of science. Simple words could not exin many of the functions, so he had to try them out himself.

    With the shlight, Angor more or less got ahold of his situation.

    He was in the air, that was for sure. He pointed his shlight upward and saw the stone ceiling about a dozen meters away. Maybe he really was moving in circles.

    Next, he looked at the ground. When he moved the light stream down, Angor¡¯s heart skipped a beat.

    Countless flowers were growing on top of the moist dirt. The flowers looked ordinary at first, but when Angor fixed his shlight on them to check closely...

    They had ordinary petals, branches, and leaves, but their pistils looked like human mouths which opened and closed asionally, and Angor was sure he saw lips and tongues in there.

    Countless flowers, countless mouths.

    At first, they were just... chilling, like normal flowers. However, when the light stream went over them, the dormant flowers suddenly changed.

    Strange noises came from their mouths. There wereughter, cries, mumble, whispers... The flowers swayed left and right along with the noises, creating an extremely horrifying sight.

    Again, those were unimportant.

    Most strange of all, Angor realized he could understand the flowers¡¯ speeches.

 Chapter 92 - A Shining Wall

    <h4>Chapter 92: A Shining Wall</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Stay here¡±, ¡°Don¡¯t go¡±, ¡°Let¡¯s be together¡±...

    The flowers were not making any senses. There were only iprehensible cries orughter. Somehow, Angor caught the emotions between the strange frequencies.

    Most of them were telling him to stay!

    He did not know why the flowers wanted him to remain. Still, from their ¡°peaceful¡± noises, Angor was sure they did not mean harm.

    ¡°What do you want from me?¡± Angor tried to ask.

    The flowers did not respond. They kept releasing their emotions, asking Angor to stay.

    Angor sensed something else as well. It was aplicated, regretful idea.

    ¡°We could¡¯ve kept him if there is no light...¡±

    So... he could not reach the ceiling before because of the flowers?

    Angor was unsure of whether he should call these things monsters or strange nts. Nevertheless, he had better leave.

    He did not sense hostility, but only God knew whether they were just pretending to be harmless so that they could draw him into a trap. Angor knew about a certain type of flower called Rafflesia in Goldspink Empire, which drew creatures near using a sweet scent, then devoured them.

    Angor lifted his shlight and checked both directions. He did not know which way to go, or which way he came from, so he simply chose a random one and kept flying.

    He kept hearing the emotions from the flowers on the ground,bined with an asional sweet smell which caused him to daze a little and lose his direction for a second.

    That must be what made him move in circles.

    With the help of the shlight, even if he would be affected by the ¡°traps¡±, he could still move towards one direction.

    ¡°Why are there so many of them?¡± Angor pondered. He was interrupted by the smells several times when he barely moved half a kilometer as if the flowers REALLY wanted to stop him.

    After an hour or two, Angor still did not reach the end of the path, and he did not see anything else besides the endless flowerbed beneath him.

    He kept thinking along the way. Was this the underground maze or not? Where was his teacher? Why did the flowers want to stop him? Still, he knew thinking about the questions was useless. He would only be stressing himself out.

    After flying for a long time, Angor finally reached the end.

    However, this probably was not a piece of good news, because the end of the path was a wall, with no detours around it. In other words, he chose the wrong direction.

    When he was several hundred meters away from the wall, Angor thought he saw a light in front of him when his shlight shined on the wall.

    He moved the shlight towards where he saw the strange light. Maybe something on the wall was shining? Angor was nning to go back, but the sudden light spot aroused his curiosity.

    Anyway, he did not know where he was going. Maybe it was a treasure! Sunders mentioned that all wizards who left the Nightmare Realm all showed greed towards the ce, so this world might have more treasurespared to the other ces, even if it might take some effort to find them.

    Angor slowly approached the wall with his beautiful idea in mind.

    About a hundred meters away from the wall, Angor saw faint light moving along it.

    So the wall was shining. Luminous stones maybe? Those were not really valuable.

    Angor kept moving forward for a dozen meters until a strange frequency invaded his mind.

    At first, the wave hummed in his mind. Soon, it grew stronger and became many times worse in a matter of seconds.

    The frequency acted like a deadly soundwave weapon, which instantly pierced Angor¡¯s eardrums and hit his brain. Before he could react, Angor felt the pain building up in his head as if it was going to explode.

    The wave was torturing his mind. It felt simr to what he went through during Sunders¡¯ spiritual power test, but this one was ten times harder. No, even worse!

    Angor felt his brain fluid boiling like water which was about to release smoke. He neither had the correct words nor any time to describe such pain. Like raging waves, each sharp pain was followed by an even stronger one.

    ¡°ARRRGHHH¡ª¡±

    Angor screamed. He could no longer control himself due to the boundless agony. He fell from the air.

    Angor was flying a dozen meters above the ground. Even if the gravity was weak, his body would not make it if he hit the earth like this.

    When peril was imminent, several green vines suddenly appeared below him. They broke out of the dirt and twisted in shape. In a matter of seconds, they created a.

    Angor fell straight into the made by the vines.

    With the cushion to damp most of the momentum, Angor reached the ground unharmed.

    As Angor struggled and rolled on the ground in pain, the vines changed again. They became ropes, wrapped themselves around Angor¡¯s limbs, and dragged him away from the wall until he was a hundred meters away from it again.

    When he was far enough, the pain inside his brain began to fade.

    Angor regained his breath. He thought he was dying. He saw his past life shing in front of his eyes, which indicated he was almost gone for good!

    He was in his top condition merely several seconds ago, and now he felt weak all over his body. His spirit almost crashed. That was close!

    When everything quieted down, Angor was sure he lived through the incident. However, he used up his strength to stay alive. Now he could not even lift a finger.

    He was in pain, but he still remembered being ¡°saved¡± by some nt vines. Angor did not know if the vines meant to save him or had other ideas. Did they move on their own or was someone else controlling them?

    Still, he was saved, and he should be thankful. Angor tried not to faint and let out a ¡°thank you¡± weakly.

    No response.

    Of course. Vines could not speak.

    The violent waves were no more. Angor¡¯s spirit was self-repairing, and the self-preservation function of his brain started to work. Angor felt faint and sleepy. His vision blurred.

    Before falling into a deep sleep, Angor saw a flower appearing in front of him. It also had a mouth on it, but its petals were shiny like stars...

 Chapter 93 - Search

    <h4>Chapter 93: Search</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    At the same time...

    Sunders had been to this projected garden in the Nightmare Realm for many times. He clearly knew the structures and monster distribution in this area.

    When he arrived here, instead of going for Angor right away, he began going through his memory first.

    The Nightmare Realm was a special ce for many reasons. One of them was that this world could affect your brain. Sometimes the ce removed certain memories from you or added something into your brain. It could also block certain emotions. In worst cases, you would no longer remember who you were. However, such things did not happen often.

    What the Nightmare Realm deleted from your mind was random. It did not matter if the ne took away trivial memories. Sometimes you would not even notice that something was taken away, such as the meals you ate during childhood, paths you walked, flowers you smelled or what kind of bed you slept on... Losing a memory would not have any effect on you if you were lucky. Besides, you would not lose those memories forever. Once someone returned to the wizarding world, the memory woulde back as well.

    Losing a random memory could be considered lucky.

    Sunders went over his memory. As a wizard, he had superior memorizing skills. From his childhood, his prudent present, to the experience he umted over centuries... he could remember them all.

    The memories slowly opened up in his mind like a spreading scroll, revealing his past life in chronological order.

    In a second, Sunders saw the moment when he turned from an innocent child to an immature teenager. This was when he suddenly noticed nkness¡ªthe memory when he just became an adult was gone.

    ¡°Huh... I forgot how I came to the Garden of Labyrinth for the first time?¡± Sunders tried to remember. His mind was empty and he could recall nothing.

    He frowned.

    When he determined ¡°priority¡± for his memories, this memory was not an important one.

    But... he lost a memory rted to the Nightmare Realm, about this ce. Sunders felt strange. He had a feeling that losing that memory would cost him something.

    After checking his memories, Sunders quickly moved. His new pupil had nothing to defend himself. Something terrible would certainly happen if Sunders did not find him soon.

    He cast a Wind Walk spell which allowed him to run several times faster. He dashed through the buildings swiftly. Instead of running on roads, Sunders chose to leap on top of the buildings.

    Hisnding point was not far from one of the coordinates. He did not go straight for it. Sunders slowly approached the coordinate by circling his way around, so there was a bigger chance of catching Angor. If he switched coordinates too quick, they would probably miss each other on the way.

    The first coordinate was a statue of a goddess who was nting flowers while holding a water pot in her hand. There were few monsters nearby, and the most powerful of them was about as strong as an Elementary Apprentice. Sunders did not find any traces of human here. There were only a bunch of monsters swarming up towards him.

    Sunders killed some monsters with a simple spell and immediately went for the next point without looking back.

    He chose his path carefully. He was familiar with the Garden of Labyrinth, and he only chose paths that helped him avoid stronger monsters.

    This projected garden was rtively moderatepared to other areas in Nightmare Realm Sunders ever been to. There were a lot of monsters here, but they were not strong. The pyramid area was way deadlierpared to here.

    However, this did not mean Sunders could roam around freely.

    There were at least several dozens of ces in the entire Garden of Labyrinth where Sunders would never approach. For example, the central pce was home to a monster who called itself the ¡°Queen of the Net¡±. Even legendary wizards did not dare to face her. There was an amusement park ahead of him to the left which was full of invisible baby wraiths. He could fight one or two of them, but millions of those wraiths would be impossible to deal with. Also, there was a tunnel full of Glutton Flowers in the sewers, where he would stay away at all times. There were a lot more areas about which he should be careful.

    The monsters in these ¡°red zones¡± usually did not leave their territories. Usually. Even if Sunders kept away from these ces, he still remained cautious without causing too much noise.

    Sunders went to the second coordinate by sweeping all surrounding monsters clean. No sign of Angor.

    The third, the fourth... until the sixth. Sunders spent two days and nights to sweep through the six coordinates in the city area, without finding Angor.

    Next, Sunders searched the city again, to no avail.

    There were three possibilities. One, Angor was dead. Still, at least there should be traces left. Sunders found no such traces in the entire city. Unless Angor was so unfortunate that he spawned inside the middle of monsters and was devoured alive?

    Two, Angor could have appeared inside one of the danger zones. This was unlikely either. Sunders observed from vantage points and did not see anything in those ces.

    The third possibility... Angor directly appeared inside the sewer maze.

    This was the best bet, about 70% probability, ording to Sunders¡¯ spection.

    Sunders sighed upon thinking about the idea. How could his new student be so unlucky?

    The danger of underground maze was not the only problem. The maze changed and shifted randomly. Sunders needed some serious luck to bump into Angor in the maze, or his only choice was to meet Angor at thest coordinate in the center of the maze.

    But... could the little boy make it all the way there? The answer to that question was obvious, and it was not positive.

    Nevertheless, Sunders liked his new pupil, and he still needed to find him. Sunders spent another day looking overground and made sure Angor was not here (whether alive or dead). Then he found the entrance to the sewers and jumped down.

    ...

    ¡°Water... please...¡±

    Angor did not know how long he had been walking in the desert. He lifted his head weakly, only to see boundless sand reaching the horizon.

    Angor dragged himself on. He did not know why he was here, but he had no choice. After traversing the desert for several months, he used up all food and water.

    <i>What should I do? Water... I need water...</i>

    Angor mumbled in a weak voice.

    A drop of water suddenly hit his lips. It released a sweet scent. Angor eagerly licked at the water when another drop came down...

    ¡°More... please... I need more...¡± Angor yelled.

    He opened his eyes with a start. His vision was all blurry.

    ¡°A dream...¡± Angor wiped some wet stuff off his lips and muttered to himself.

    <i>Dream? Wet?</i>

    Angor realized something and quickly looked upward.

    A flower with a mouth on it was floating above him. It looked beautiful. It had pale ck petals which released shining colors like stars. Actually, the flower itself looked like a bright night sky.

    However, such beauty could not help him deny the fact that the wetness he felt on his lips came from the opened mouth of the flower... It was its spit!

 Chapter 94 - Whoâ€™s The Queen?

    <h4>Chapter 94: Who¡¯s The Queen?</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>Saliva?!</i>

    Angor sensed something sweet in his own mouth. Then he recalled drinking drops of water thatnded on his lips... It actually tasted good and refreshing.

    But it was still something¡¯s spit!

    Angor felt nauseated and quickly sat up. He vomited toward his side. Strangely though, even though he wanted to throw up badly, nothing came out.

    He began to think about what happened earlier. That dying pain was terrible. And what was that wall?! Thank goodness some vines dragged him away. Another second and he might have died for sure. Also, Angor believed he saw the flower floating in front of him before he fainted.

    Was he saved by the flower?

    If so, was he being impolite by vomiting in front of it? In his dream, he asked for ¡°water¡± and the ¡°water drops¡± came to him.

    Someone¡ªwait, something, the ¡°flower¡±, wanted to save him. He was not supposed to vomit like that in front of someone¡ªwait, something, that just helped him.

    With that in mind, Angor swallowed back his terrible feeling and thanked the flower in a small voice.

    There was no response but Angor was sure the flower with a mouth¡ªAngor decided to call it the ¡°mouth flower¡± for now¡ªrevealed a joyful emotion when he woke up.

    Angor heard rustle noises around him. He turned around and saw a number of ¡°mouth flowers¡± surrounding him in the middle.

    They bounced around him. When they bounced up, Angor could see their rootsing out of the dirt. Those roots looked like the vines that pulled him away from the wall.

    So the mouth flowers did save him? Angor suddenly remembered being ¡°stopped¡± by the flowers when he was flying towards the wall. Now he thought about it, were the mouth flowers trying to warn him to keep away from the wall?

    And what was the deal with the wall anyway?

    The mouth flowers could not speak, but Angor felt their emotions. They seemed to be celebrating something.

    <i>Are they happy because I¡¯m awake?</i>

    <i>Or is it because they could finally cook me up?</i>

    Angor believed the first idea. At least the mouth flowers were friendly to him. If they wanted to do him harm, they had plenty of chances when he was out cold.

    Looking at the strange yet joyful mouth flowers, something inside Angor told him that they looked cute, in a way. He reached out a hand and tried to touch the petals of one of the flowers.

    He moved carefully, fearing that this might be dangerous.

    The result was satisfactory enough. It seemed the mouth flower did not mind being touched. It even rubbed against Angor¡¯s palm like a small chick, making his palm itchy.

    As he fiddled around the mouth flower¡¯s petals, Angor asked himself.

    <i>Are they monsters?</i>

    <i>Didn¡¯t Sunders say that all monsters in the Nightmare Realm are aggressive to outsiders?</i>

    <i>Then why didn¡¯t I meet with any attacks?</i>

    <i>Well maybe except that wall. Is that wall a monster?</i>

    Angor stroke the flowers around him and failed to notice that the most bright mouth flower in the air began to reveal a displeased emotion.

    As the emotion spread around, all the other mouth flowers around him quickly disappeared. They either bounced away or dived into the earth.

    At this point, Angor also felt the negative emotioning from the starry-petaled flower.

    But why? Was it trying to kill him now? Angor stared at the flower with a worried look.

    He still did not know why these mouth flowers saved him in the first ce, or why they acted friendly. Angor did not think he was anyone special, like those extremely lucky main characters in the novels he read before, who attracted all sorts of treasures, pets, and beautiful women towards them like a ma. This was why he was worried.

    This ck mouth flower must be their leader since it could scare away all the other flowers just because it was displeased.

    Angor stared at the unhappy mouth flower and did not know what to do. Out of instinct, he tried tofort it by stroking it.

    When he touched the petals of the flower, its mouth quickly curled into a big smile. All the negative emotions were gone. It looked a whole lot more ¡°sunny¡± now.

    Angor gazed at the ¡°mouth flower king¡± which rubbed against his palm like all the other flowers. It was unhappy because it was jealous?

    Angor believed he was right.

    He was still cautious, although the happy flower made him rx a lot.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Angor asked in a small voice.

    The mouth flower king appeared to be more intelligent than the other ones. It actually replied.

    ¡°I, am, flower.¡±

    An overjoyed emotion came out.

    ¡°Why did you save me?¡±

    ¡°Die, don¡¯t.¡±

    The emotion became nervous.

    <i>They saved me because they didn¡¯t want me to die?</i>

    The mouth flower was intelligent but it was not enough to interpret Angor¡¯s question correctly. It only gave vague answers.

    Angor thought he might need to ask something more direct.

    ¡°Do you like me?¡± Angor felt a bit embarrassed at his question. Was he being a narcissist?

    Although the mouth flower had no idea about those human emotions, it still swayed its petals quickly.

    ¡°Like.¡± Joyful emotion.

    The surety of the answerforted Angor further. The mouth flowers were not hostile to him after all.

    ¡°Why do you like me?¡± Angor asked another embarrassing question.

    This time, the mouth flower stopped for quite a while.

    ¡°Smell. Majesty... the smell.¡±

    The emotion carried some respect as well as admiration.

    <i>Majesty smell? Don¡¯t tell me I¡¯m actually one of those overpowered novel heroes?</i>

    Angor looked at the flower agape. Maybe he had a talent that was really strong?

    However, the next answer caused Angor to doubt his ears. The mouth flower spoke without being asked this time.

    ¡°Like! Queen¡¯s smell!¡±

    Angor froze.

    <i>Que¡ªqueen?!</i>

    Whatever did that mean?

    ¡°Who¡¯s the queen?¡± He asked.

    The mouth flower swayed around, dropping saliva here and there and caused the whole ce to smell sweet.

    ¡°The queen, is majesty.¡± Respect.

    ¡°What¡¯s the name of the queen?¡± asked Angor. He really wanted to know why he smelled like a queen.

    ¡°The queen is majesty?¡± A questioning and puzzling emotion.

    Angor asked several times without getting any clear answer. The flower felt like a child at the age of one or two, so he could not really expect much.

    Angor tried onest time, ¡°Where is the queen?¡±

    ¡°The ce, of majesty,¡± Another respectful emotion.

    <i>Oh well, this is no use. </i>Angor gave up.

    He did not really have the time to stay with the mouth flower either. He did not know how long he slept. The mouth flower probably did not know the concept of time.

    The most important task was to find Sunders. That was the only way for him to get back to the wizarding world.

    Speaking of the wizarding world, Angor remembered one half of the Twisting Protozoa given by Sunders before they came here. This thing was a ¡°passport¡± for him to escape. He quickly searched himself and found the corpse of the worm in his inner pocket.

    Angor put away the worm carefully and decided to move on.

 Chapter 95 - Mysterious Spell

    <h4>Chapter 95: Mysterious Spell</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor stood up and felt different. His limbs were full of strength, and all the joints between his bones were smooth. Also, his mind was clearer than ever. He could see better in the darkness. Even when he did not use his shlight, he could see faint shapes of objects around him.

    These changes all happened after he woke up.

    He was surprised too. Maybe the great pain that did not kill him made him stronger instead? When thinking about this, he shivered again. Seriously, he would rather not be ¡°stronger¡± if he could have avoided that kind of torment.

    However, he did not realize that his body was not the only thing that grew stronger. Angor was not a wizard yet, so he could not possibly know what he just gained from the incident.

    Before leaving, Angor looked towards the giant wall again. He was still curious about the wall that brought him terrible agony, but he did not dare to approach it again.

    He was standing about a hundred meters away from the wall. He clearly saw something shining on it, but he could not tell what. Every time he tried to focus his gaze on the wall, he would feel dizzy again.

    Angor asked the mouth flower, which had been floating in the air, ¡°Do you know what¡¯s that wall?¡±

    ¡°Danger. Do not go.¡± A terrifying emotion.

    <i>Even the ¡°locals¡± think that the wall is dangerous?</i>

    Angor was even more curious now. Still, he knew better than to risk his life again.

    Angor nced at the wall onest time. Maybe he would know something about it after bing a wizard?

    And how much time had passed? Angor prepared to move towards where he came from. He was worried that he and Sunders might miss each other.

    He looked at the hologram tablet on his wrist. Wait, the tablet could show him time! How did he forget this?

    Angor quickly triggered the tablet and checked the time disy on the bottom-left of the hologram.

    August 21st, 16:33... It was the Earth calendar, but this would not prevent him from determining the current time.

    He remembered they came to the Nightmare Realm on the third day of the Month of Harvest. That should be August 18th ording to the Earth calendar. Did he faint for three days?

    Angor¡¯s heart raced. He wasted three days doing nothing. He had to find the nearest coordinate, now!

    Before turning off the tablet, Angor looked at the recording function on the desktop and got a new idea.

    He saw a ¡°zoom-in¡± button in the record function before. He could not go to the strange wall, but he could use a zoomed camera to check it out from afar!

    As someone who never hesitated to try out new ideas, Angor started the camera right away and began recording.

    He returned to the ¡°safe spot¡± and pointed his camera while zoomed in, then he looked at the image on the tablet.

    Thanks to the amazing science, something a hundred meters away was clearly disyed as if observed up close.

    The wall looked ordinary at first. However, when carefully inspected, Angor could see inconspicuous pits on it, which had streams of light flowing in them.

    The entire wall was covered in such pits. It seemed they formed into a giant and functional pattern on the wall.

    ¡°Is that a spell array?¡± Angor wondered.

    He tried to memorize the pattern in his mind. However, he had barely begun to draw the pattern in his head when an unknown horror suddenly surrounded him, followed by sharp pain.

    Angor quickly stopped his train of thought. The pain slowly faded.

    ¡°So it is a spell array after all. But didn¡¯t it need to beplete to have an effect? I only sketched a fragment, and it probably wasn¡¯t even the starting point and it already affected me?¡± Angor was frightened by the horrific sense earlier. That was probably a really special spell.

    He could not possibly think about the spell pattern again, fearing that the great pain woulde once more.

    The tablet did its job pretty fast. Angor checked his recordings hastily without going into any details to avoid strange things. He made sure the camera caught the entire pattern and turned to leave.

    The wall was horrible. Better to stay away for now.

    Angor did not shut down the camera on his way back. The tablet had plenty of charges left, so he hoped he could record his journey.

    He flew fast. He already knew there were only harmless mouth flowers along the way, so he moved at full speed.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going back?¡± When he was about halfway to his starting point, he asked the mouth flower which followed him closely.

    The flower shifted its petals and revealed an emotion mixed with joy and admiration.

    ¡°Majesty, I like...¡±

    Angor still could not understand it, but he did not really mind. Frankly speaking, having someone, or, something, to talk to in this dark ce, provided him a bit offort. Even if this ¡°something¡± could only speak nonsense.

    ¡°Is this the underground maze?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°This, underground.¡± A in emotion.

    That confirmed his idea that he was inside the sewer maze. He still felt terrible for appearing directly in here, but at least he knew where he was now.

    ¡°Do you know how to go to the center of the maze?¡±

    ¡°Center, is mouth.¡± The flower opened up its mouth wide and revealed a prideful emotion.

    <i>Not YOUR center!</i>

    Angorined in his mind.

    He changed his question and asked, ¡°How to leave the underground?¡±

    Angor believed he must use simple words instead ofplicated adjuncts.

    ¡°Dig.¡± The emotion was simple this time. The flower even moved its roots to make it clearer.

    ¡°...¡± Angor was speechless. He forgot the flower could simply move inside the ground!

    Angor kept asking questions, and only received a few satisfying answers. However, he still reckoned a lot of information.

    For example, the mouth flower flying in front of him was the boss of all the flowers he saw along the way.

    Also, the mouth flowers were here to protect that wall.

    ...

    About half an hourter, the darkness was reced by light. Angor found himself back at the ce where the two head monsters were.

    They were not here though.

    Angor realized that the light came from some objects that looked like electrical fluorescent tubes above him. The ce was bright as day.

    With light in the environment, Angor turned off the shlight.

    ¡°Are you going back?¡± Angor asked the mouth flower again. They already left the flower field.

    The mouth flower gave him an ordinary answer this time, which was rare, ¡°I want to follow the majesty...¡±

    Angor felt somewhat happy about it. The flower did not look strong, but it should be stronger than him anyway. If he teamed up with it, he might survive longer.

    The flower quickly spoke something else and interrupted his thought.

    ¡°But I need to protect the wall.¡±

    Angor curled his lips. They barely knew each other, and the mouth flower already learned how to withhold information?

    So the flower was saying that it must go back to the wall instead of following him. Angor did not say anything further. The mouth flower saved his life. There were many monsters in the underground maze. The flower might be more powerful than him, but they probably would not stand a chance against something like the head monsters.

    Maybe his lifesaver would be better without him.

    With that in mind, Angor waved goodbye to the flower and flew away on himself.

    The mouth flower stayed to watch Angor leave. When Angor finally disappeared from its view, it slowly returned to its territory with a sad emotion. It released a green aura. Countless thick vines dug their ways out of the dirt andpletely sealed off the tunnel in the proximity.

    The thick vines easily shattered some of the stone walls blocking them. If Angor was here, he would never think that the flowers were weak. Even Sunders was not powerful enough to pierce the walls!

    After the mouth flower left, a head monster, which ¡°couldpletely defeat the mouth flower¡± ording to Angor, slipped out of a small cave and let out a sigh. It looked at the sealed tunnel and showed great fear on its face.

 Chapter 96 - Stranger

    <h4>Chapter 96: Stranger</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor kept flying for about ten minutes and reached a junction connecting three other paths.

    He then facepalmed himself. Which way? What was beyond them? Were there monsters? He did not know!

    Did not matter now. Angor chose a random one, made a mark, and moved on.

    Another ten minutes went by. Angor reached another fork... a five-way one this time. Like before, he left a mark and moved into a randomly-chosen one.

    About more than an hourter, Angor reached a dead end, so he had to go back and choose another path. He went on like this and ran into several stops until he finally entered a path which... seemed to be working.

    Still, he had a question. He did not stumble upon anything on his way. No monsters, no stuff, no nothing. ording to Sunders, the underground maze should have been way more chaotic than this. Maybe he was just lucky? Well, he should be thankful.

    The truth was that after he drank the saliva of the mouth flower, he carried its scent as well. Such scent was extremely terrifying for the monsters living in the maze. Weaker monsters escaped right away when they smelled it. This was why nothing stopped Angor, but he did not know this himself.

    The scent only repelled weaker monsters. Stronger ones would not run away because of it.

    After flying for about three hours, Angor finally saw a monster.

    He hid behind a corner and peeked at a hall ahead.

    There were not only tunnels in the underground maze. There were other structures, such as halls, gardens, and deserts. Angor was now looking at a giant underground hall.

    The ceiling of the hall was about a dozen meters from the ground, and thirty meters in circumference. The hall was decorated in an elegant foreign style. There was a giant carpet with strange patterns on the floor, as well as stoves, desks, chairs, and bookshelves at the right end.

    However, those were unimportant. Angor¡¯s attention was fixed on a giant figure in the middle of the hall.

    It was a blue, bulky-looking giant, about three or four meters high. It was wearing a loincloth made from animal skin and an ox horn helmet. It had three eyes¡ªan extra vertical eye sat between the two normal ones. Sharp fangs covered in bloodstains stood inside its maw, giving it a fearsome look.

    The blue giant was fighting a small figure. They were several dozens of meters away so Angor could not see who the smaller one was. He only knew it was human or something that looked like a human.

    His only way forward was to cross the hall and leave from the small door near a stove. There was no way he could do that with the monster fighting in the hall, so he could only stay as far as he could.

    The fight became more and more intense. The blue giant looked really strong, but its reflexes and speed were both slow. The smaller figure toyed around the giant easily, while leaving some wounds on the giant¡¯s body asionally.

    Still, the giant was powerful. Each time it made a jump, even a small one, Angor could feel the ground shaking from his location.

    After being poked around, the blue giant suddenly howled into the air, picked up a big boulder and hurled it toward the small figure. The boulder was directed at the entrance of the hall. Angor was not harmed because he stayed pretty far, but the small figure was hurt by some of the scattering shards. He stumbled in the air and crashed against the wall not far from Angor.

    Angor finally had a chance to look at the figure. He was ¡°small¡±pared to the giant, but he was taller than Angor. It was a young man covered in blood, while still vomiting some more blood. Looked like the boulder wounded him badly.

    Blood had covered most of his face. From what was exposed, Angor felt something familiar about him. Short, grayish green hair, a tall nose, muscr yet slim body build... Angor saw him before.

    He looked like a human, not a monster, which was strange in this ce.

    Angor concealed himself as best as he could, but he could not hide the horrific scent of the mouth flower. The man soon noticed his presence.

    ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡± A cold voice reached Angor¡¯s ears.

    He was found out? Angor jumped. When he saw the man dashing toward him with a weapon raised, Angor quickly flew into the air without hesitating.

    Angor felt air current behind him. He turned around and saw the man in the air as well, hitting him with a cane.

    ¡°Oh shit!¡± Angor kicked the air and turned abruptly, barely avoiding the attack.

    ¡°Die, monster!¡± The young man tried again quickly.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a monster! Don¡¯t kill me!¡± Angor heard the man yelling and replied as fast as he could.

    The man¡¯s attack did not slow down in the least, but faster than before. Angor could only dodge again. Thanks to his hours of flying experience, Angor actually maneuvered faster than his assant.

    ¡°Do not run, monster. I¡¯ll kill you!¡± It was the same cold tone.

    Angor dodged in the air and thought to himself. <i>That voice sounded so familiar, but I could not remember where I heard it!</i>

    The blue giant that came along was surprised to see another man in the air, and that its original target was attacking it.

    The blue giant picked up arge stone pir and prepared to throw it at them. It then caught a sweet scent which came from the smaller man. The giant¡¯s expression changed drastically, and the two eyes on the sides widened.

    The giant revealed a terrified expression at Angor. It looked at its original target and decided to quit. It then stepped back into the hall.

    Just when Angor thought he could find a chance to escape when the blue giant caught its target again, it ran away?!

    ¡°Stop! I¡¯m a human, human! Not a monster!¡± Angor shouted.

    The young man neglected his words and kept attacking.

    ¡°You deaf??¡± Angor spat and ran away.

    Angor could move faster than the attacker. However, since he needed to avoid all the iing attacks, he had to keep turning, which allowed the man to slowly catch up.

    ¡°Why did you change target anyway? That giant hurt you so bad, aren¡¯t you going to revenge?¡± Angor did not stop his verbal assault while escaping.

    None of his words worked. The man did not even blink.

    Maybe he was deaf for real?

    Angor made another turn and was terrified to see his only path ending at another wall.

    A dead end, with a crazy deaf psycho in hot pursuit. Angor¡¯s face went pale immediately. Would he die? Not to a monster, but to a freaking madman?

 Chapter 97 - The Familiar Stranger

    <h4>Chapter 97: The Familiar Stranger</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor clenched his teeth. He could not keep running like this. He had to run back, but with the madman right behind him, he had to deal with him somehow in order to escape.

    He did not have time to think of other ideas. Facing imminent danger, Angor¡¯s mind worked quickly. He saw a small chance and kicked at the wall, hoping to use the counterforce to leap past the man.

    Angor¡¯s body moved like an arrow and rushed at the opposite direction swiftly.

    He could not have done something like this before. However, the previous crisis with the strange wall improved his physical abilities, and now he could perform some difficult aerobatic moves.

    Angor was happy to see his superior potential. He was confident that he could get away when the cane suddenly appeared above him and went down at his head. The madman knew he would lose Angor like this, so he threw his weapon at Angor as hard as he could.

    The cane caused an air-piercing sound with its absolute power. Angor¡¯s eye twitched¡ªif he did not get away, his head would pop like a melon.

    His only possible chance was to halt and roll to the side. Angor had barely avoided the cane attack, and before he could do anything else, the man already caught up, kicking Angor in the back while yelling his ¡°kill the monster¡± catchphrase.

    There were two screams. Angor stumbled away a dozen meters like a rock. He crashed against a wall, causing the wall to crack a little, and slowly slumped to the ground.

    Angor felt as if all of his bones were broken. He could still think, but the great pain prevented him from getting off the ground.

    There were two screams because the man kicking Angor was also pushed away by something and fell to the floor, making a human-shape crater on the ground. That looked even more painful than Angor¡¯s experience.

    Angor felt terrible, but he still noticed the situation.

    Force worked both ways, he knew. When an object applied force to something else, the object would receive the same level of force as well, in the opposite direction. His attacker should naturally receive such a force by kicking him. But... the man kicked Angor in an assault attempt, which meant most of the counterforce should not bother the attacker at all. How was the man thrown away so far and was wounded worse?

    A sharp pain suddenly appeared around Angor¡¯s debone. He thought being kicked caused a series of injuries to him.

    He writhed on the ground and almost wanted to hit the floor with his head to soothe the pain.

    On the other side, the man looked in a bad shape. Blood colors appeared around his skin, which formed up the shape of a monster in the air. A wizard would easily recognize this being a Bloodline Art spell. When someone nted monster blood inside the body, he or she could consume the blood to recover.

    While the man could slowly stand up, Angor was still struggling on the ground helplessly.

    The man saw the humanoid ¡°monster¡± releasing light spots from his back. There was a dot around its debone, and shiny green lines were spreading towards its body from it. They looked like nt vines, covering the monster¡¯s body in a matter of seconds.

    The lines released a terrifying aura. It felt worse than the sweet scent!

    Yes. The sweet scent made the man believe that Angor was a monster. No man could possess such a scent that carried irresistible despair.

    Now, something else came from the ¡°monster¡±. The green lines stressed him so much that he wanted to turn tail right away. Any other monsters, strong ones or weak ones, would already have slumped to the ground and trembled in fear. The man was sent flying because of those lines too.

    However, as an intelligent human, or so he thought, the man would not back down. The monster was obviously a whelp, and it was injured too. If he could resist his fear, he could go there and finish it off!

    The man suppressed his will to shiver or escape, dragged his legs which could barely move, and slowly approached Angor.

    Angor saw this too and panicked. He wanted to escape, but he could not feel his legs because of his wound.

    ¡°Stop! You¡¯re a human, right? I¡¯m a human too. I¡¯m not a monster!¡± Angor could only scream as best as he could despite his condition.

    The man watched as the ¡°whelp of some high-level monster¡± opened and closed its mouth, seemed to be begging for mercy. He humphed coldly. Humans could not understand monster speech anyway. Besides, he did not hear anything at all. Maybe the monster spoke in a high or low frequency beyond the hearing range of humans?

    Angor saw the man¡¯s unchanged ¡°I can¡¯t hear you¡± expression and fell into despair. He slowly wormed himself away, which probably would not save him now.

    It was a dead end behind, a solid wall. Angor reached the wall and had nowhere to go.

    The man was only five steps away now.

    When the man moved closer, Angor still felt the strange simrity on him, although his mind was panicking like mad.

    The handsome young man raised the corner of his lips. A cold voice reached Angor, ¡°Die monster. You won¡¯t be missed!¡±

    He sounded familiar too. Something came into Angor¡¯s mind. He remembered someone speaking to him in the same tone, but the one in Angor¡¯s memory showed consideration and care, while the young man in front of him only expressed malevolence.

    ¡°Sunders! You¡¯re Sunders!¡± Angor yelled his name out.

    It was Sunders. Angor was sure of it. The same short grayish-green hair, the same eyes, the same handsome look, and the same body build.

    This man was a younger Sunders!

    The ¡°young¡± Sunders was still wearing the same hateful expression despite being called.

    ¡°Is it really him? Why did he be younger? He was a lot weaker than my teacher too. Like an apprentice,¡± Angor pondered. Maybe it was some kind of monster that was good at disguise?

    But could monsters talk? It was speaking the universal tongue too.

    Angor tried to exin himself, but ¡°Sunders¡± never cared.

    Sunders already reached Angor, with his usual indifferent smile. He raised a dagger high in the air.

    Angor was more certain about the man¡¯s identity when he saw the dagger. It was the same one Sunders used to cut the Twisting Protozoa before they entered the Nightmare Realm!

    Angor tried his best to move away.

    ¡°DAMN! Someone! I don¡¯t want to die here!¡± Angor screamed in resentment.

    Sunders watched the monster scream without feeling any sympathy. He swung his dagger down without a second thought.

 Chapter 98 - Back in the Hall

    <h4>Chapter 98: Back in the Hall</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When Angor screamed, the shining green lines on his back quickly retracted and returned to one spot.

    Just like his hologram tablet, something changed under his emotional outburst.

    Before Sunders¡¯ dagger could reach his chest, a bloody maw full of sharp teeth abruptly appeared on the wall behind Angor. The maw swallowed Angor whole, which caused Sunders¡¯ dagger to hit the solid ground instead, leaving Sunders puzzled.

    The wall ¡°ate¡± Angor and returned to normal. Sunders let go of his dagger and touched the wall in surprise. It felt smooth as it should be. That giant, fanged mouth earlier was like a dream.

    ¡°Shit. It got away!¡± Sunders punched the ground in frustration.

    ...

    Angor thought he was dead for sure when he was swallowed by the mouth. He was preparing to rot in the belly of some kind of monster... which felt worse than being in by younger Sunders.

    However, instead of falling into a corroding stomach, he found himself being spat out by the giant mouth.

    When Angor fell out of the mouth, he was still at the base of a solid wall.

    Angor was wondering why the monstrous mouth did not actually eat him. Still, he was d he escaped from ¡°Sunders¡±.

    His body was still aching, and he could not stand up.

    Angor lifted his head weakly and inspected the surrounding area. He was still inside a path of the maze... but it looked familiar?

    There was a Hanzi written on the soft dirt not far, which represented the beginning of his name ¡°An¡±.

    He wrote that word with his own finger. So... he went through this path before? Angor looked at the character and realized his situation.

    He was back at one of the roads he walked, and he was sure there was no monster around here.

    He could not move. It would be unfortunate if he was left somewhere dangerous and got killed by a monster. At least that would not happen now.

    Angor rested for the night and felt a lot better.

    The pain on his body faded a bit, especially the pain on his back, which almost disappeared. Even Angor could not believe it. He did not have any first-aid, and most of his injuries were gone.

    More importantly, Sunders hit him pretty bad yesterday, but he did not even spill a single drop of blood. He only received internal wounds maybe? Angor stood up and walked around. He only felt several sore joints; there were no internal injuries either.

    It was a miracle! Maybe the wall incident improved his self-recovery as well?

    He checked the time. It was eight in the morning. Angor decided to move on.

    There was only one way for him to go and it was one of the paths he walked yesterday. He needed to get past the hall with a blue giant in it to advance. All the other paths led to dead ends.

    Angor moved while still thinking about the younger Sunders. Was he the same person that came to the Nightmare Realm with him? Why did he be younger... and weaker?

    If he was not the same one... then who was he? Angor was sure the man was ¡°Sunders¡± since too many elements on him proved that. Still... would Sunders attack him like that? Angor was unsure. He never knew Sunders¡¯ true intention.

    Angor inclined to the idea that ¡°young Sunders¡± was some sort of projection inside the Nightmare Realm. Maybe ¡°projected reality¡± included projecting humans too. He might even find his own projection somewhere!

    If young Sunders was not the real Sunders, then he should follow his original task¡ªget to the center of the maze. He still needed Sunders to bring him back to reality.

    ¡°I hope that¡¯s not him...¡± Otherwise, he would be trapped in this nightmare cage forever.

    Angor clung to his hope and flew toward the hall he saw yesterday.

    It was peaceful. He heard asional rustle noises, but he never saw any monster. When he was two turns away from the hall, he slowed down.

    Angor did not know if young Sunders was still there, or what the blue giant was up to. Still, neither one was something he could manage, so he could only hope they were not there. If he had to choose one, he preferred running into the blue giant, since that kind of giant monster would have a hard time trying to catch Angor. Sunders could fly, so he was a bigger threat.

    Angor knew that most creatures did not look above them much, so he moved to the ceiling and slowly went for the hall along the ceiling wall.

    There was nothing beyond the first corner except some traces left by the fight yesterday.

    The hall was just around the next corner. Angor slowed down further and held his breath, then peeked from the corner of the passage wall.

    He immediately noticed something was different.

    The hall looked messy. The blue giant was nowhere to be found, and lots of bloodstains scattered on the beautiful carpet.

    Angor looked carefully. He could almost see the entire hall. Neither the giant nor younger Sunders were here.

    ¡°What happened? Did they fight again and leave?¡± Angor considered. He quickly gave up that idea. The giant was big, so there was no way it could fit through the small wooden door inside the hall. However, Angor did not find any traces left by the giant on his way here. Did it vanish into thin air?

    Angor looked toward the wooden door again. It was shut yesterday, but it was left open now. Someone must have left that way.

    Maybe it was the younger Sunders, Angor pondered.

    <i>So Sunders defeated the blue giant and passed through? </i>Whether correct or not, Angor knew he was lucky this time.

    No blue giant, no young Sunders... nothing was threatening him now. Angor sighed in relief and flew inside the hall, feeling satisfied.

 Chapter 99 - The Witchâ€™s Eye

    <h4>Chapter 99: The Witch¡¯s Eye</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The hall was in worse shape after the fight. Stones, blood, tattered cloth scattered everywhere. The intensity of the fight was totally imaginable. Angor even felt a bit scared when walking in the hall.

    There were two types of blood on the floor, a blue one and a bright red one. The blue one should havee from the blue giant. As for the red one... probably younger Sunders, as long as nobody else came here.

    The blue bloodstains ended at one side of the ruin. Angor took a guess that the blue giant died right there. As for why its corpse was not here, either younger Sunders took it away or something else happened.

    The trail of red blood persisted until Angor reached the wooden door. Younger Sunders passed through the door, wounded.

    This door was the only exit in the hall. At least, it was the only way Angor could find. He needed to leave by the door as well. Before doing so though, Angor looked at the bookshelves nearby.

    As a dedicated book lover, Angor would not ignore these books of course. Besides, he was curious about what kind of content was written in the books in the Nightmare Realm.

    Angor recalled his experience during which he stumbled into the Nightmare Realm when taking his talent test back at Padt Manor. He saw a ¡°Mister Bunny¡± who was reading a book. When Angor peeked at the book from behind the bunny, he saw a fairytale which seemed to be able to put people to sleep. Unconsciously, Angor became the heroine in the story and was manipted by Mister Bunny. He made it out in the end, but he went through many close calls.

    The incident with the book caused Angor to hold great interest in the books in this hall.

    He walked to the bookshelves and realized that the books were messed up after the fight. Many scattered on the ground.

    He saw red fingerprints on the edges of some of the books. Maybe younger Sunders read them before leaving.

    Only a part of the books had fingerprints on them, so young Sunders only read a few.

    <i>But why? Did younger Sunders think that these books were worthless and lost his patience?</i>

    With that in mind, Angor picked up one of the books Sunders read.

    The cover was nk. It recorded an elementary alchemy technique and amon one at that. Angor saw it in Sunders¡¯ collection room. He had even recorded it in his tablet.

    Angor started up the hologram tablet and found the alchemy technique topare.

    <i>Yup, totally the same, down to every single word.</i>

    He read several more books, with or without younger Sunders¡¯ traces on them. They were all about basic wizardry knowledge, and Angor saw many of the same copies from Sunders¡¯ collection.

    It was only natural that younger Sunders disregarded them and left quickly.

    Angor, on the other hand, dly epted them. There were some books that were not collected by Sunders because they were too simple. Angor spent half an hour to record all of the books that he had not seen before. These basic wizard books would not cost much at all, but Angor wanted to save up as much as he could. He only had a small number of magic crystals that Greya gave him, so he needed to make the best use of them before he found a way to earn money.

    When he finished photographing the books, Angor stretched himself and looked at the blood trail leading toward the door again. He sighed and went on his way.

    Behind the door, there was another maze path with asional drainage ditches on the sides. This was the sewer of a city after all so they should totally be here. Angor was wondering why did the ancient wizards make this sewer into a maze?

    He followed the bloodstains and reached the first fork road beyond the hall.

    It led to three different directions, two of which had blood trails. Angor crouched down and inspected the patterns of the trails. The path on the right had two trails in it, which meant younger Sunders walked to the right side first but came back for some reason.

    The path in the middle had a single trail, so younger Sunders walked here next. Considering the color of the blood, he had left for a long time and never came back.

    Either he died to a monster, or the middle path was the correct choice.

    Angor needed to make a decision too. The right path was an obvious no, so Angor should go to the left or middle.

    The left path was unknown since no one explored it. Unpredictable. The middle path might be the right one... or a deadly monster nest. Either way could be dangerous. Angor hesitated for a while and finally chose the middle one.

    He had no particr reason. Just that even though the younger Sunders was weaker than middle-aged Sunders, he was still a lot stronger than a mortal. Correct or not, the middle path was cleared up by someone else, so Angor might as well enjoy the free peace.

    With this mindset, Angor stayed on the trails left by younger Sunders.

    Angor did not know how long he traveled or how many forks he went past. When he began to question his decision, he saw a picture on a wall which illustrated the figure of a misty ghost shadow who had a single eye growing on its body.

    Instead of fear, Angor felt joy.

    The monster in the picture was a ¡°Witch¡¯s Eye¡±. Beforeing to the Nightmare Realm, Sunders mentioned that these monsters roamed around the center of the underground maze, which meant Angor was close to the exit!

    However, Sunders said something else too, ¡°Witch¡¯s Eyes were vicious and cunning creatures, they tend to stick in groups. If you meet any of those things, you will be a pile of bones in the first second.¡±

    Sunders was half-joking. He did not think Angor had any chance of encountering a Witch¡¯s Eye on his own. Even if the boy was somehow teleported into the underground maze, he would never make it to the central area.

    Of course, Sunders would never expect that Angor not only reached the center, he only ran into a single fight. Not with a monster, but a younger version of Sunders himself.

    As a matter of course, Angor believed his path was free of monsters thanks to younger Sunders¡¯ effort. When he reached another fork, Angor went to the one with younger Sunders¡¯ traces without hesitation. He was already inside the central area, maybe he could make it to the exit with someone clearing monsters for him!

    Before he could finish that thought though, Angor heard someone screaming behind the next corner.

    He looked ahead and saw younger Sunders.

    The man was fighting several dozens of ck shadows floating in the air. One of the shadows went through Sunders¡¯ chest, who shrieked in pain again, vomited some substance mixed with blood and guts, and copsed on the ground, unconscious.

    Angor was startled by the scene and quickly prepared to run away. At this moment, he heard the ck shadows giving out sharp noises like screams. Next, they scattered away as if something frightened them for good.

    When they ran about, Angor saw they all had those big, single eyes in the middle of their bodies. Those were Witch¡¯s Eyes!

 Chapter 100 - Destination

    <h4>Chapter 100: Destination</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As the Witch¡¯s Eyes disappeared for no reason, Angor wanted to escape too. However, a second thought stopped him. Where could he go to? He had to reach the center of the maze anyway.

    The Witch¡¯s Eyes werepletely gone. Angor took a guess that younger Sunders used some kind of ace card move before getting hit, which scared all of the monsters away. If so, this path might be the safest.

    Angor took a deep breath, then released the breath along with his frustration for being weak. He walked forward with a firm but steady steps.

    He slowed down a bit when approaching younger Sunders.

    It was only a day, and younger Sunders had all kinds of injuries on his body. He looked a lot worsepared to yesterday when fighting the blue giant. Angor felt a tiny bit of guiltiness. He did not run into any monsters all thanks to Sunders, who had been securing the front line.

    Angor shook his head. Still, he was not nning to save Sunders. The man almost killed him yesterday. Angor felt guilty due to his kind nature, but he did not intend to get sympathetic.

    Younger Sunders had his eyes closed tight. His cane was left on the floor, along with the dagger which proved his identity to Angor.

    Fearing that the man might be feigning his condition, Angor tiptoed his way carefully and snatched the cane and dagger as fast as he could.

    Angor still could not defeat younger Sunders with these weapons, but at least he had a bigger chance of running away, even if the man was really pretending.

    After grabbing the weapons, Angor looked at younger Sunders again. He was not moving. Angor realized his chest was not rising at all.

    <i>He¡¯s dead?!</i>

    Angor held the weapons while putting a finger under Sunders¡¯ nose.

    No breath. He was dead for real! Angor looked at the giant hole located on the man¡¯s heart. Well, with that kind of wound, he SHOULD be dead.

    Angor finally rxed his nerves a little. He was always fearing younger Sunders, but the man was dead now, so... no more being chased.

    Angor was still worrying about something. Where did hee from? Did he have anything to do with the ¡°real¡± Sunders? Or, could this man be the real Sunders instead? Then would Angor be trapped in the Nightmare Realm forever, without his help? If this man was a fake, why did he have exactly the same look, voice and belongings as Sunders?

    Angor could not get an answer. It was not like the younger Sunders would tell him anything even if he was still alive, being ¡°deaf¡± and all.

    Angor decided to give up. He would see the man as Sunders¡¯ projection for now. This way, he could still go to the center of the maze and wait for the real Sunders. Otherwise, he had to surrender his life in the Nightmare Realm.

    Angor did not leave right away. He crouched beside the corpse and searched younger Sunders¡¯ body. A dead man had no need for his things, so he might as well take them.

    Angor searched thoroughly, including inside the man¡¯s underpants, without finding anything useful. Angor shrugged it off. He already gained two weapons.

    Angor cast onest nce at the corpse, let out a deep sigh, and left the scene.

    Not long after Angor¡¯s departure, the corpse of younger Sunders changed. The body slowly faded starting from its rim, became mist, and vanished, as if it never existed.

    ...

    Angor¡¯s travel was smooth and uneventful. After passing through several turns, he saw an importantndmark in the distance¡ªa fountain with a child¡¯s statue, peeing into the water pool. Angor could not believe he actually survived all the way toward his destination, without running into a single monster.

    Angor checked the environment. It was empty. No sign of monsters.

    Where did all the Witch¡¯s Eyes go? They were fighting younger Sunders; maybe the man scared them off with his st resort move¡±. However, those were social creatures, so why would none of them show up?

    There were no monsters and no danger around. However, Angor felt something amiss, and he did not think he was safe.

    He stepped toward the peeing statue. Thest walk was peaceful as well.

    Now that he reached the fountain safely, he could clearly see the expression of the statue and the wavering water in the pool.

    Did he seed? When the mouth flower told him that he was inside the underground maze, Angor never thought he could make it to the center and rejoin Sunders. But... he did. He even arrived earlier than his teacher.

    Angor looked around. There were no monsters, but he still had to get familiar with thendscape, so he could do a better job running or hiding in case something showed up.

    The ce was not big so Angor could see everything. Apart from the fountain in the middle, there were four long benches. He did not see the special channeling method book or the exit to leave the maze.

    ¡°Weird.¡±

    <i>Where¡¯s the book? Maybe it¡¯s hidden somewhere? But... there¡¯s only t ground.</i>

    Angor saw no ce to hide stuff. With the questions in mind, Angor walked around the ce, and still found nothing.

    The only thing that stood out was the peeing statue. Angor inspected it carefully. As someone born in a noble family, Angor knew how to size up pieces of art. This statue looked really vivid, absolutely the work of a master.

    The naked child was happily peeing a stream of water into the fountain while holding his small ¡°stuff¡±. The wrinkles on his skin and his detailed hairstyle all indicated the brilliant craftsmanship of his creator,bined with the innovative design... Angor could not help but smile when he looked at it.

    However he looked, it was still only a delicate work of art without any special elements on it. Angor even walked around and checked several times. There was nowhere to hide books.

    This was strange. So wherever was the book and the exit Sunders mentioned? Angor had checked the entire area, well except¡ª

    Angor looked back at the fountain again and thought to himself.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me they are hidden under the water?</i>

 Chapter 101 - Stairs Up

    <h4>Chapter 101: Stairs Up</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The edge of the fountain was constructed pretty high, Angor could not see the water while standing on the ground, so he jumped into the air and watched the fountain from above.

    There was not much water in there. It barely covered the base of the fountain. Misty vapor rose from the surface. The ¡°pee¡± of the statue rushed into the water, bringing up sprays of water and some shifting waves.

    Angor did not see anything special on first look. The water seemed... water, and the fountain base was made of clean, white bricks, which was clear to observe. Angor slowly moved around to the other side of the fountain and noticed something.

    At the back of the peeing statue, on the pedestal, there was something that looked like a door handle.

    <i>Is there something hidden inside the pedestal?</i>

    With that question, Angor moved to the base of the statue and pulled the handle-like object.

    As he pulled it out, a cave entrance about one and a half meters high appeared in front of Angor, just beyond the water level. The cave was totally dark. Angor used his shlight and saw stairs inside.

    He widened his eyes when he realized the stairs were leading upward instead of down.

    Imagine a moderate-sized statue with stairs under it, which pointed ¡°up¡±. There should be a way up there, but Angor circled around the statue without finding such a way. The space above the statue was empty. The stairs led into an unknown space, a road to heaven and beyond, not bounded to anything.

    Angor would have questioned his sanity if he was still the boy who believed in Jon¡¯s science education. However, after being nurtured by Sunders¡¯ books, Angor began to understand certain mysteries.

    ¡°Space maniption. A tunnel between spaces, maybe?¡± Angor considered.

    He stared at the unknown passage and wondered if he should go inside.

    This was the only thing worth exploring now, and of course, Angor itched to check it out. But he was alone, and he did not know if it was the exit toward the wizarding world. If he went in there now, he might miss Sunders.

    However, if he stayed here, he had to suppress his curiosity as best as he could. Angor saw many things during the days in the Nightmare Realm. If the channeling method book was beyond this path, he could go for it and record the book using his tablet. Sunders mentioned that the book was something special that one would not be able to memorize. Leaving the Nightmare Realm meant forgetting the content of the book. If Angor could record it now, he did not have to worry about that.

    If Sunders came, Angor could no longer use his tablet or record the book. Well, if the book which troubled Sunders for centuries was really behind the stairs in the first ce...

    Stepping through the door might lead Angor out of the underground maze and caused him to miss Sunders.

    This was why Angor was hesitant to go in.

    He clenched his teeth. In this cruel wizarding world, he would never grow stronger if he did not take any risk and move forward. In the fiercepetitions between wizards, someone had to perish. Only those who were daring enough to walk the raging waves could find their way out.

    Thinking about this, Angor got rid of his hesitation and crouched into the entrance under the statue firmly.

    The door was low, and Angor thought the path inside was narrow too. Strangely though, once he stepped onto the stairs, it became quite spacious.

    Angor could not even see the ceiling of the passage, nor the side walls. There was only endless darkness. The shlight could not pierce through it. The stair beneath Angor¡¯s feet was the only thing that existed.

    He walked for about ten minutes without reaching the end. Angor silently counted his steps. If the length of the stairs worked like everything outside, he should already have left the underground maze.

    Another two minutes passed, Angor saw light ahead. He squinted his eyes and looked up. There was another small wooden door, which was left open. There was a light shining down through it.

    Angor walked to the door but did not enter it. Instead, he peeked behind the door.

    He thought this door was the final exit. He was wrong. The stairs did not end here. Using the light from the door, Angor clearly saw the stairs kept whirling upward into the unknown darkness. The wooden door was only a stop in the middle.

    Angor lowered his head and looked inside the door.

    It was a middle-sized room behind the door. There were some light tubes simr to those found inside the maze, which brightened the room like daytime. Angor saw many objects in the room.

    Beds, desks... Someone must have lived here.

    The small door did not allow Angor to see the entire room. Still, he did not see any traces of monsters, so Angor decided to move in. Maybe the channeling method book was right here.

    Angor bent down and stepped through the door. He also looked behind to make sure the stairs did not disappear.

    It was unnecessary. Nothing changed inside or outside the door. The stairs were still there, and the door remained open.

    Angor rxed and began searching the room.

    The room was small and the furniture took up a lot of space. They were simple, hollowed wooden works, so Angor could easily see if anything was hidden in them.

    The only thing that could contain stuff was the bedstand. The drawer had a lock on it. Angor was happy that he took younger Sunders¡¯ dagger, or he would have a difficult time trying to break the lock.

    The dagger did quick work prying the lock off.

    When Angor pulled the drawer open, a rotten smell released by something that did not see light in a long time came out. Angor frowned and looked inside. There were clothing and a green booklet in it.

    Angor reached for the clothes. It instantly became dust and dispersed in the air.

    The booklet had some worm damage on it, but it was not serious. Angor picked it up carefully and put the booklet on the desk.

    A line written in an unknownnguage was on the cover.

    Angor flipped it open and saw the same characters inside. He never saw suchnguage before, but from the annotations on several pages, Angor believed the booklet was a diary or something simr.

    The pages had a different amount of content on them, but there were identical annotations on their headers. They could be dates.

    A diary he could not read... It should not be the special channeling method Sunders said. Angor still recorded the booklet. Maybe he would have a chance to decipher the characters in the future when he got back to the wizarding world.

    Who knew? This was the Nightmare Realm, the booklet could contain something interesting.

    Once he was done, Angor left through the door without taking the time to put the booklet back.

    Not long after he walked away along the stairs, the green booklet on the desk slowly disappeared, and the broken lock on the drawer returned to its original state as well. If someone woulde here and open the drawer again, they would notice everything in there went back to its position before Angor came. The clothes did not turn to dust, the booklet rested in the drawer just fine... As if everything in the room was frozen in time.

 Chapter 102 - Parchment

    <h4>Chapter 102: Parchment</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor began climbing the endless stone stairs again in the darkness.

    On the opposite side, someone appeared in the central area of the underground maze...

    Sunders had been moving around in the maze for two days. He ran into countless monsters, most of which were strong enough that Sunders had to avoid at all cost. Two days and he finally made it to the center of the maze.

    After running around during the days, his gentleman attire was full of wrinkles. There were holes and bloodstains around some of the joints on the clothes, which indicated what kind of trouble he went through.

    Sunders went over his experience in his mind and sighed. If his little pupil was teleported here, how long could he survive? One minute? Two? Sunders would stumble upon monsters almost every minute. He could manage thanks to his strength, but Angor would have absolutely no hope.

    ¡°Minutes¡± or ¡°seconds¡± was what Sunders would use to calcte Angor¡¯s remaining life.

    Sunders sighed again, thinking that his newly adopted pupil would die in the Nightmare Realm just like this. The boy had an important talent, but luck was also something important. Looked like Angor was just an unlucky little guy with exceptional talent.

    Sunders did not consider the possibility that Angor could still be alive. Sunders survived several close calls himself, such as fighting with the flying heads, when he escaped into a dark tunnel carelessly. The tunnel was home to Glutton Flowers, which scared the hell out of him, and he instantly ran back out.

    Still, some of their thorny vines managed to scratch him. That was where the holes and blood on his clothes came from.

    If a mortal like Angor was in his situation... oh well.

    Reaching the center did not mean being safe. There was onest obstacle. Sunders looked at the dense swarm of Witch¡¯s Eyes and sighed. There were at least a thousand of them in sight.

    Witch¡¯s Eyes were low-level monsters, but such a big number was still quite a sight to behold.

    Sunders pondered the situation. Maybe some other high-level monsters invaded here, so the Witch¡¯s Eyes had less territory? Why else would they gather in such a tight ce?

    These weaklings were easy to deal with. Sunders swayed his cane, and a surge of mana cleansed everything ahead of him.

    One minuteter, Sunders crushed thest Witch¡¯s Eye into a broken corpse, tossed it among more piles of corpses, and moved on toward the center. When he reached the peeing statue, there was not a single monster in the area.

    Sunders looked at the smiling face of the statue and felt as if being taunted. He nned to acquire the channeling method book using Angor¡¯s talent. Looked like he would not make it this time. This was the sixth time for him toe here in several centuries.

    ¡°Are you mocking my inability?¡± Sunders growled at the smiling child statue.

    Sunders let out another sigh for repeating his failure and leaped to the back of the fountain. He was prepared to go to the ce where he saw the book. Even if he would return empty-handed, he would like to see the book again. Who knew whether some kind of miracle woulde and allow him to remember the book?

    But he stopped his action.

    The wooden door at the base of the statue was opened! Sunders could not believe his eyes.

    All structures in the Nightmare Realm were mystical that no matter how you broke them apart, they would always recover. Sunders wanted to simply punch the peeing statue to pieces, but he did not, because he knew the statue would mend itself soon. There was no point wasting stamina like that.

    Just like the door on the pedestal. If someone opened it, it would close on its own quickly.

    Well except¡ª

    There were still creatures on the Stairs of Hanging Prison behind the door! This was the only possibility that the wooden door did not close itself.

    ¡°Something was on the Stairs of Hanging Prison? A careless monster? Or... a person?¡± A young man with blond hair and blue eyes suddenly shed in his mind.

    It was unlikely that any monster would go in there. So... was it him?

    ¡°Angor. I hope you did,¡± A mild smile appeared on Sunders¡¯ disappointed expression. He quickly leaped into the door.

    ...

    Angor was still climbing, unaware of his teacher¡¯s arrival.

    Angor had been moving upward for a long time now. The hologram tablet indicated that he climbed for about three hours. He saw many rooms along the stairs, all of which had simr objects in them, only with different contents in their bedstand drawers.

    Apart from the green booklet in the first room, all the other rooms had daily life supplies, and most of them already rotted to ash.

    He did not find anything else that was valuable.

    Another door with lighting from it came into his view. Angor got used to them. He would see one of these every ten to fifteen minutes.

    As always, Angor walked inside the room to check. In the beginning, Angor was excited about searching the rooms like a treasure hunter. However, after going through dozens of rooms, he no longer felt so. They all looked the same, and boringly unrewarding.

    This time though, the room brought him some surprise.

    The room was actually decorated in a different way. It was not a single small room, but it had an extra bedroom in it. The furniture was still simr, but there was more space.

    The outer area did not yield anything worth noticing. Angor entered the bedroom and found another bedstand with two drawers on it, which meant it could hold more stuff.

    Angor first pried the lock off the top drawer. There were several clothes inside which would absolutely be ash if he touched them. The lower drawer, on the other hand, contained something interesting¡ªa parchment scroll, tied by a rope.

    Angor carefully removed the scroll from the drawer. The parchment was smooth and solid to the touch. It did not decay with time.

    He untied the scroll and spread it open on the bed. It showed a strange picture, like a map. However, the map was drawn inside the body of a monster. The monster looked like something humanoid, it had arms and legs, and was making a strange pose.

    He did not know what he was looking at. Intending to take everything he found with him, he recorded the scroll into his tablet... before he stuffed the scroll into a pocket. Angor decided to take it away.

 Chapter 103 - The Room in The End

    <h4>Chapter 103: The Room in The End</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After passing through this room with an extra bedroom, Angor continued on for two hours and kept seeing the same room. It felt as if he was walking on The Redbud, but went from worker shacks to the rooms intended for talents.

    ¡°So the rooms here were arranged in the same way?¡± Angor guessed. Maybe he woulde across bigger roomster, like those for Apprentice Wizards on the top level of The Redbud.

    Angor found many objects in these bedroom rooms. There were weapons, sses with unknown contents, several alchemy items... However, they all disappeared not long after Angor took them from their rooms. The same thing happened to the parchment scroll.

    Angor did not know what was going on. Still, the items vanished before his eyes, and he could only ept the fact in frustration, believing that such strange things should happen in the Nightmare Realm.

    After walking for another hour, his idea was proved. He found a bigger room along the stairs. This room had a bedroom and two extrapartments.

    Angor did not find anything useful in the new room. The one additional room seemed to be a closet of some sort. Dust rushed at Angor¡¯s face when he tried to open its door, and there were lots of decayed pieces of clothes on the floor. Nothing else.

    Disappointed, Angor moved on.

    Angor ran into the same rooms as well in the next hours. They also had objects of unknown purposes in them and would disappear after Angor took them away.

    The only things useful to Angor were books since he could record them in his hologram tablet. Angor even took some time to check his recordings and made sure the pictures of the books did not disappear like the other items. Looked like his ¡°recording tactic¡± worked fine.

    After confirming this strange fact, Angor began choosing what items he went for. He no longer paid attention to misceneous objects, and only looked for anything worth recording, such as spell runes printed on vases, characters written on unknown scrolls, wall paintings, books...

    With this tactic, he progressed on the stairs a lot faster.

    Angor finally reached the end of the stairs.

    There were two exits with lighting out from them. The exit leading away from the stairs, and another wooden door beside the exit.

    Angor did not intend to escape right away. He nced at the exit and focused on the wooden door next to it. He believed this was thest room he could search.

    For some reason, he had a strong feeling that the special channeling method book should be inside this room.

    The room was obviously different from the previous ones. The door alone was twice as bigger, about three meters high. Angor did not have to bend down to enter the room this time.

    With a bit of uneasiness, Angor stepped into thest door at the end of the stairs.

    Golden light blinded him for a while. Angor looked carefully and found himself standing in an endless hallway, and the light wasing from the golden bricks on the floor, which was reflecting bright candlelight.

    So many things were pulling Angor¡¯s attention. The candlesticks on the walls were made of gold as well. They were embedded with precious gems. Thoserge fluorescent orbs on them were giving out enough light even without the candles.

    He walked down the hallway. Apart from the expensive-looking candlesticks, he also saw oil paintings in various styles. There were portraits of beautiful women, wildlife, countryside fields, oceans, and boats... They were all different, but Angor could still recognize that these were absolute masterpieces.

    Those drawing skills were obvious to anyone. Ordinary folks could easily see the vividness and emotionsing from the paintings.

    Every painting could have been a unique treasure in a museum, yet they were openly disyed along the walls without obeying particr orders or ssifications. A painting showing despair or frustration could be ced across one showing positiveness and happiness. Maybe the owner of these paintings did not understand them very well.

    Angor took a guess that whoever owned this ce simply wanted to show off his wealth. Golden floor, gem decorations, famous artwork... all mixed together. This man had no idea he ruined everything.

    Angor went on while shaking his head asionally, disapproved of the decorations.

    Beyond the unamusing hallway was arge living room. A long desk and chairs were ced in the middle. There were two other hallways on the sides and a pair of stairs leading to the second floor behind the main seat.

    The living room was decorated in the same luxurious manner. There were many rooms around, and exits in different directions. Angor walked around the living room without finding anything particr, so he went straight to the second floor.

    ording to his experience, the hallways on two sides should lead to the rooms for servants, kitchens, and bathrooms, so he did not go there first. Owners usually lived on higher levels. However, he was not a hundred percent sure. He had already seen those bizarre decorations, so there might be something weirder.

    There were three rooms on the second floor, two of which were bedrooms. Telling from the interiors of the rooms, one of them seemed to be the owner¡¯s room, and the other belonged to the owner¡¯s daughter. Angor found some notes in a small drawer in the girl¡¯s room. More importantly, he could read these notes. They were written in the universal tongue.

    ¡°Dear Margaret, oh how I miss you. The foul air in the forest, the vicious guards in the city, and spreading sins in the Stairs of Hanging Prison... they cannot prevent me from longing for you. As I miss you, flowers bloom, birds sing, wind chants, hearts pound. O, Margaret, you¡¯re so beautiful, like the bright moon at the end of the month, illuminating my hollowed heart, like...¡±

    Angor only read a small part of it and already got goosebumps.

    It was just a sickening love letter!

    So the owner of this girl¡¯s room was called Margaret, and the notes were from her admirer.

    Angor checked several more notes and realized they were from the same individual since they all had the same handwriting. Angor did not find any useful information between those disgusting lines. One sentence was enough to conclude these notes: I know you don¡¯t love me, but I love you, and that matters.

    The love letters from a one-sided lover.

    Angor soon reached thest piece of note, which only had one hastily written line on it.

    ¡°Oh, Margaret! The disaster ising, we have to leave. I love you, sweetheart!¡±

    ¡°Disaster?¡± Angor looked at the word and recalled seeing the garden ruins in Sunders¡¯ crystal ball.

    Did the Garden of Labyrinth be ruins because of this ¡°disaster¡±?

    Another line was written below but in different handwriting. This line was written in prettier, ornamental penmanship.

    ¡°I love you too, dear Augustin Noah.¡±

 Chapter 104 - Alchemistâ€™s Scripts

    <h4>Chapter 104: Alchemist¡¯s Scripts</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    This beautiful line was probably done by Miss Margaret. It seemed the note was never sent out, so this Augustin did not know that Margaret loved him too. The unspoken love was buried here forever, never to see light again.

    An image appeared in Angor¡¯s mind. Two lovers, who adored each other, could not express their love for some reason. In the end, a disaster came and separated them forever, leaving no fruit, but a wilted and priceless sentiment behind.

    These notes told the brief but romantic story of two secret lovers. Unfortunately, the story did not have a happy ending.

    Angormented ¡°how destinies fool people around¡± and put the notes back.

    Angor was an outsider. The Nether City <sup>1</sup> was discovered tens of thousands of years ago, so the lovers¡¯ story had toe from that age as well, if not earlier. There was no point minding the grand finale of such an old story.

    Nothing else worth noting in these letters. He needed to search the other ces.

    Angor checked around Margaret¡¯s room again. He did not find anything, but he had a question about some details in the room.

    Ever since he walked the stairs and explored the rooms, most objects rotted away or decayed over time, apart from some special items.

    However, he did not find anything like that in this room. The surface of the desk was bright and clean like new, and the silk nket on the bed was smooth andforting to the touch, which still released a mild fragrance. Even the more fragile items like clothing and make-up powders were in good condition as if Margaret was caring for herself just a moment ago.

    Did time show mercy here? Or did the Nightmare Realm ¡°projected¡± the ce like this? He would never figure these out now.

    Angor left Margaret¡¯s room and entered the other bedroom. Telling from the decorations, this belonged to the original owner of the ¡°house¡±.

    Angor searched the room for quite a while without finding anything. Being someone who lived in a noble family for many years, he believed the bedroom of a big family should have somewhere to hide things. His deceased father had such a secret section in his bedroom to ce valuables.

    This was why Angor did not stop looking despite not finding anything in his first attempt.

    In the end, he did find a secret passage.

    It was located under the bed, hidden under a square cover. A deep and dark tunnel.

    Angor crouched into the tunnel and reached a concealed ce soon. It was narrow, about three or four square meters. There were a bookshelf and some unknown items inside.

    This had to be a ¡°hidden stash¡± of the owner. With a bit of excitement, Angor went to the bookshelf first.

    There were three levels on the bookshelf, full of books. Angor picked up a random one called <i>Comments on How to Extract Valuable Materials (1) </i>.

    ¡°An alchemy book... Teacher didn¡¯t have this one,¡± Angor thought to himself and read several pages. There was deep alchemy knowledge in the book, intended for experienced wizards.

    Angor took out some more books, which were all alchemy ones. Most of them were valuable, unique copies which could not be found in Sunders¡¯ collection.

    He was filled with joy. Now, this was an unexpected treasure!

    After recording all of the books, Angor realized they were more valuable than he thought. Some of the alchemy theories were only applicable to legendary wizards or someone in higher ranks. He was sure these books were beyond priceless. Whoever could have collected these?

    After finishing the books, Angor walked to the other items with a happy mood. He did not know what these were before, but after seeing some of the alchemy information in the books, he recognized that these things were mostly rted to alchemy applications. High-quality ones.

    It was a pity that he could not take them away. For one, they might just disappear like all the other previous items. Besides, they were prettyrge, he could not possibly carry them with him.

    So he had to give up in the end. He was still happy about acquiring valuable books.

    Leaving the bedroom, Angor stepped into thest room on the second floor.

    The room was to the left. Angor knew that nobles tended to regard ¡°left¡± as ¡°important¡±, so he was most interested in this room.

    The first thing that came into his view in the room was arge bookcase.

    Angor¡¯s eyes shined. Thest room was a study!

    The design was simple. One bookcase, one desk, several oil paintings on the wall. Angor rushed to the bookcase and opened its cover doors. However, he was disappointed after checking some of the books.

    There were a lot of books. But... most of them were official files about the Nether City, such as construction approval documents, gardening files, books about the arrangement of main traffic roads, and city defense structures. These upied the entire bookcase.

    Angor sighed and returned the books. At least he now knew that this ce was called the ¡°Nether City¡±, not the Garden of Labyrinth. At least that was something.

    As for the owner of this ce, Angor had an idea that he was a high officer of some sort since he took care of such important files. He might even be a core manager of Nether City.

    These were unimportant though. Nether City was a bunch of ruins now.

    Angor closed the ss doors of the bookcase and slowly moved to the desk. He saw an opened book and a quill ced in an ink bottle when he entered the room. Seemed like someone was writing on the desk.

    Angor sat on the chair and read the book.

    It was a notebook. The current page was half-finished. Its owner had probably left it here for some reason.

    Angor flipped to the first page to check what was written.

    The first line on the front page of the book surprised Angor for good.

    Singrity Dispersive Meditation.

    This was a meditation book?! And the first of its kind Angor ever saw in the Nightmare Realm. This was the center of the underground maze, so could it be the special channeling method book Sunders mentioned?

    Angor became excited. If so, he would begin his path of wizardry with the help of this book!

    He wanted to read on. However, his teacher¡¯s words reminded him that even if he memorized the book down to every single word in the Nightmare Realm, he would forget everything upon returning to the wizarding world.

    Angor calmed down, and carefully photographed every page of the book with his hologram tablet. Once this was done, he finally sat down to read it.

 Chapter 105 - Singularity Dispersive Meditation

    <h4>Chapter 105: Singrity Dispersive Meditation</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°A singr point is the beginning and the end of all. Thousands of nes, ovepped worlds, initiate from a singr point. A singrity possesses infinite density, infinitely distorted time and space, as well as the possibility which was beyond discordant, to the extent of going for impossibility. This point represents everything in the universe. A spirit model built using such a point will carry an unimaginable trait from the start...¡±

    Angor read the first two pages and frowned.

    This <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>provided theories that sounded amazing... and iprehensible. It gave Angor both limitless imagination and uncertainty about its realness. Could something like what the author described really be achieved?

    ¡°They really look like bragging to me,¡± Angor muttered to himself and shook his head. He kept reading on.

    The next pages looked a lot more ¡°ordinary¡±. They described how to calm the mind and suppress mental disorientation, and construct a stable spirit model in the brain.

    Calming the mind, suppressing distractive thoughts, and building spirit model were three critical steps for someone to be an Apprentice Wizard. The book recorded a unique way to do it, a moreplicated onepared to the channeling methods Angor saw in Sunders¡¯ book room.

    He continued. The book began telling an image of the constructed spirit model. The beginning was to draw a singr point, which surprised Angor much. This channeling method used a 36-dimensional space coordinate system!

    It was known among wizards that deviation was amon thing to happen when building a spirit model in one¡¯s brain. If there was a starting point, whichy one micron(0.0001 centimeters) to the left of the position where you wanted it to be, it would cause further errors as you worked on the model, possibly even resulting in a lower fitness level.

    This ¡°thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method¡± divided one¡¯s brain into 36 major sections, and built a space coordinate system in each of the sections. Next, points, lines, and surfaces could be represented using coordinates in these sections.

    This would help avoid the drawback of conscious spirit model construction methodsmonly used today.

    Still, such a method also had a big restriction. It was only applicable to a few selected people.

    First, to use this method, one must be an expert atplicated numerical calction, number induction and arrangement, and coordinate system mathematics. These were not hard for a formal wizard with advanced thinking abilities but could be quite a challenge for mortals. Only the geniuses of geniuses were able to meet this condition. The calctions were usually precise data pooling that started from the tenth digit after the decimal point. Only the best minds could handle them.

    Besides, such mathematical thinking was not something that could be learned. People all had different data, so one had to conclude and refine his or her own. Even wizards were powerless to help others with it.

    This condition alone already rejected 99% of all talents. The remaining 1% needed yet higher standards to be able to wield thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method.

    The second condition was to have an extremely high sensitivity to space, which called for natural talent.

    Was a spirit model built in actual space? No.

    It was located in the space of one¡¯s mind, a non-realism space. One would then construct the model from another dimension. This was why one must have a good sensitivity to space to meet this condition since one¡¯s ability to think in different dimensions could not be represented. It required talent.

    Someone with high mathematical thinking abilities and a talent for spatial cognition was able to use the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method.

    However, since this method had few suitable users, it was abandoned long ago and had since lost in history.

    Angor was surprised he could find something like this here.

    This channeling method did not seem too hard for Angor. He already was good at data analyzing. He might not be an expert at spatial thinking, but some of the applications in the hologram tablet could help him build the model.

    He was sure that by using the tablet, he had 80% probability or more to learn the channeling method sessfully.

    Angor kept reading the notebook and saw some data on coordinate quadrant points in an existing spirit model. They were not helpful since Angor had not started to learn the method.

    As Angor enjoyed himself in reading the book, the scripts halted abruptly.

    The channeling method was only half-done. The remaining pages were nk! Also, Angor noticed that the two newest pages had rtively hasty handwriting on them as if the author was in a hurry.

    Being in a hurry did not help the author finish the book.

    Angor put down the unfinished book in disappointment. Still, from what was recorded, the book was already beyond priceless.

    ording to the author¡¯s asionalments, Angor made a small calction that this half-done spirit model had a base fitness level of 30%!

    As Sunders mentioned, the channeling method with the best baseline used in Brute Cavern, Montaus¡¯ Octahedrite Channeling, could only guarantee a base fitness of 13%.

    This unfinished <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>had the highest base fitness level among everything Angor knew of!

    Too bad the progress of the book was only less than half. Aplete one might provide a base fitness of 60% or more.

    ...

    Thud, thud, thud...

    As Angor expressed his mild disappointment, he suddenly heard a series of consistent steps from outside.

    They carried a firm, familiar frequency.

    Angor stopped his action. They sounded like... Sunders¡¯ steps?

    Angor heard such steps a lot when reading in Sunders¡¯ book room, so he knew them well. These moderate, calm, yet oppressive steps were unique to Sunders.

    <i>Sunders came?</i>

    <i>The real Sunders? Or the younger one?</i>

    Angor was unsure. He really hoped it was the former, or he would never know how to leave the Nightmare Realm.

    Angor did not exclude the possibility that he was hallucinating or hearing the noise of a monster. Still, his instinct told him that the long-waited Sunders was outside.

    Angor began to worry a little.

    He was expecting Sunders, but also fearing that he was hearing things.

    Angor turned off the recording function of his tablet. He left it on after the incident with the ¡°strange wall¡±. After turning off the camera, Angor thought something over and decided to take the tablet off his wrist and hide it inside the pocket watch.

    If Sunders was really out there, as a wizard, the man was very likely to notice the new object on Angor¡¯s wrist. Angor put it away in advance so as not to expose it.

 Chapter 106 - Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 106: Reunion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor¡¯s mind became more agitated as the sound of footsteps got louder.

    The owner of the steps did not enter the study. He went into another room first.

    Angor considered and decided to go check it out on his own. If it was a monster, Angor could escape better in the living room, which had more space.

    With that in mind, Angor stood up quickly.

    The chair he was sitting on was pushed backward by his legs along with his action. It knocked into the wall and created a ¡°bam¡±.

    The small noise sounded loud and clear in the absolute silence. Even Angor himself was startled by the sudden sound.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± A low, raucous voice came from the neighboring room.

    The familiar voice reminded Angor of Sunders¡¯ image immediately. Unlike the younger Sunders¡¯ voice, this one carried less immaturity and more calmness.

    <i>Is it really Sunders?</i>

    ¡°Is that Angor?¡± The man left the next room and walked toward Angor¡¯s position.

    Angor was happy upon hearing his own name. ¡°Pro¡ªprofessor?¡± He tried to call out.

    The door to the study was pushed open, revealing a handsome gentleman wearing formal attire. He looked at Angor who had been standing in front of the reading desk and raised an eyebrow as he said, ¡°I didn¡¯t think that it would really be you, Angor.¡±

    Angor¡¯s worry somehow disappearedpletely when he saw the figure at the door.

    It was Sunders. The real Sunders that came to the Nightmare Realm together with him, not the younger version that tried to ughter him without listening to reason.

    Sunders approached him. When he saw the notebook lying on the desk, he smiled and asked, ¡°It looks like you found it before me. Did you read it? How does it look?¡±

    Seeing the only man he knew in this totally strange world, Angor could not hide his excitement. His lips uncontrobly curled upward while speaking, ¡°I did! It was really good! But, too bad there¡¯s only half of it...¡±

    Sunders did notment. He picked up the notebook and took a brief peek, and all the memories hidden by the Nightmare Realm all came back flowing into his mind, along with the memory about this channeling method book. One simple look was enough for him to remember all of it.

    ¡°Thirty percent baseline, the highest one among all channeling methods I ever know of. It isn¡¯tplete, but the first half was already a priceless treasure,¡± Sunders eximed.

    ¡°But enough with the book for now. Let¡¯s talk about YOU,¡± said Sunders as he then put down the notebook and stared at Angor straight into the eyes.

    <i>About me?</i>

    Angor was taken aback, not knowing what Sunders meant.

    Looking at the boy¡¯s puzzled look, Sunders smiled again. He then flipped the fringe of Angor¡¯s hair aside as he said, ¡°As I expected, you entered the Nightmare Realm as a soul¡ªno, wait, what is this?!¡±

    Sunders¡¯ expression changed greatly and he leaped several meters away from Angor. He sized up Angor with a doubtful attitude, ¡°Who are you?¡±

    Angor waspletely puzzled now and he replied, ¡°I¡¯m... Angor?¡±

    ¡°Angor?¡± Sunders sneered. He added, ¡°Angor would never make it here with his current strength. Sir, I sense an aura deep like the sea from your body. May I ask why would you disguise as Angor?¡±

    <i>I have an aura deep like the sea? Why would I disguise as... myself?</i>

    Angor¡¯s mind was in chaos. What was Sunders talking about?

    ¡°Professor, but I¡¯m Angor! I was teleported to the underground maze from the beginning. It was really difficult to get here,¡± Angor spoke with a wronged look.

    The distrust in Sunders¡¯ eyes did not falter.

    Angor exined himself again at again. He almost cried in the end.

    Looking at his eagerness to prove himself, Sunders was wondering as well. Those expressions did not look like pretending, but why was the boy releasing such a strong aura? Even the mighty being behind Greya never gave Sunders such an oppressive impression. Apart from the terrifying aura, Sunders also noticed a faint sweet smell reaching his nose. Where did thate from?

    The terrifying aura was not obvious when Sunder kept his distance. However, if he tried to approach Angor, the aura immediately coiled itself around the boy and released a boundless pressure against any creature, forcing invaders to run away.

    ¡°You¡¯re Angor?¡± asked Sunders. He was still doubtful but his words sounded more certain this time.

    ¡°I am!¡± Angor nodded hard. He took out the half of the Twisting Protozoa from his pocket to prove his identity.

    Sunders looked at the worm corpse. He then gave Angor another thoughtful look and decided to believe him. The man tried to suppress his instinct, which kept telling him something was dangerous. He then sat down on a chair beside Angor.

    ¡°Tell me what happened in the Nightmare Realm. How did you find this ce?¡± asked Sunders as he knocked on the desk with a finger. The consistent rhythm contained an amazing strength which quickly calmed Angor¡¯s panicked mind.

    ¡°When I entered the Nightmare Realm, I found myself inside the underground maze.¡±

    ¡°You had some tough luck, Angor,¡± said Sunders. He crossed his legs and rxed his expression before he said, ¡°At the same time, you are very lucky since you came here sessfully.¡±

    Angor continued, ¡°My starting position had two monsters. They only had heads, red eyebrows, big single eyes, nostrils but without noses, and thick, white beard. They looked really scary.

    ¡°I was afraid they would attack me, so I flew into the air to hide. But I don¡¯t think they wanted to attack at all.¡±

    Sunders considered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Heads with single eyes? You must be talking about Hover Heads. They are low-level monsters, but they are strong.¡±

    Here, the man snickered a little as he said, ¡°You won¡¯t get away by flying. Hover Heads are good flyers as well. Although it was strange that they let you away.¡±

    ¡°So they can fly too...¡± Angor muttered. He added, ¡°Professor, I can fly when I¡¯m in the Nightmare Realm. What¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s your talent I meant to tell you. You came here as your soul, not your solid body. You have all the right to fly.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m here as my soul?¡± asked Angor as he looked at Sunders.

    ¡°Correct. Your soul. Let¡¯s talk about your talentter. Please continue your story.¡±

    Angor nodded. However, he still had questions. If he was a soul now, then what was with his hologram tablet? All the images he recorded were not real? They would disappear when he got back to the wizarding world?

    Angor did not reveal his questions on his expression. He remained calm when talking to Sunders, and slowly exined everything during his journey. He told him all the truths while omitting any information rting to his tablet.

    ¡°The Hover Heads didn¡¯t chase me. To find where I was and go to the coordinates you gave me, I picked a random direction and made my way from there. The tunnel was strange. I flew for a moment and arrived somewherepletely dark. I couldn¡¯t see anything in there.¡±

    ¡°You entered a tunnel void of light?¡± asked Sunders as he looked at Angor with a weird look.

    ¡°Yes. I saw nothing in the darkness, so I could only feel my way around,¡± Angor hid the fact that he used his shlight on the tablet. He continued, ¡°I kept flying until I reached another strange ce.¡±

    ¡°You... kept flying? No monsters stopped you?¡± asked Sunders. He was so surprised that his voice was several pitches higher as he continued, ¡°Such as vines of some nts?¡±

    ¡°Vines? Do you mean the mouth flowers? Oh, wait, mouth flower was a name I made myself. There were flowers with mouths growing on them. They looked pretty fun. Their roots looked like vines, and they saved my life too,¡± Angor answered truthfully.

 Chapter 107 - Glutton Flowers

    <h4>Chapter 107: Glutton Flowers</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Mouth flowers...¡± Sunders repeated. He then revealed a smile as he said, ¡°Now that¡¯s a pretty good name for them.¡±

    Sunders crossed his arms and stared at Angor with a questioning look again as he asked, ¡°Tell me more about these ¡®mouth flowers¡¯. How did you meet them? Didn¡¯t they attack you?¡±

    Angor tried to remember, thinking about what to tell and what to hide. He took some time before speaking, ¡°I couldn¡¯t see anything in the darkness, so I flew in one direction along the ceiling wall. I felt a strange emotion on my way. Yes, I felt it, not heard it. I don¡¯t know... it was a weird feeling.

    ¡°There were a lot of emotions mixed together, but most of them told me to stay, or don¡¯t go forward. I didn¡¯t listen to them because I was afraid, and I didn¡¯t know where they came from. I kept flying ahead, and... something went wrong. I saw a shining wall.¡±

    Angor told Sunders everything about running into the wall, including the pain which almost killed him, and being dragged away from the wall by a nt and the mouth flower that was floating above him when he woke up.

    ¡°A strange wall? And, the Glutton Flowers saved you?¡± Sunders¡¯ expression was weirder now.

    ¡°Glutton Flowers? That¡¯s how you call the mouth flowers?¡± Angor asked.

    Sunders nodded but did not exin further. The man kept asking his questions, ¡°We¡¯ll talk about the flowerster. Tell me about the wall.¡±

    The Glutton Flower Tunnel was the most terrible ce in this part of the Nightmare Realm. Sunders never tried to go there. Now his new pupil just went there, and he even reached the end of it! Sunders was really curious now.

    ¡°The wall was shining, but I was too far so I couldn¡¯t see what exactly was shining on it. Once I was less than a hundred meters from it, I felt unbearable pain, so I couldn¡¯t make out many things about the wall,¡± said Angor. He paused a little before adding, ¡°Thanks to the light, I could see the mouth flowers.¡±

    Angor exined how he saw the flowers in order to conceal his shlight. However, Sunders never paid attention to this ¡°light source problem¡±. The man was too focused on the Glutton Flowers and the strange wall.

    ¡°Anything else you know about that wall?¡± Sunders persisted eagerly.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± Angor considered it for a moment. He then said, ¡°The mouth flowers¡ªI mean, Glutton Flowers, so those emotions I felt on my way, came from them. They weren¡¯t intelligent, but the one that could fly was rtively clever, and it could speak simplenguages. It told me that they were nted there by their master, to protect the wall.¡±

    Angor¡¯s description immediately confirmed Sunders¡¯ idea that the particr Glutton Flower was the Glutton Flower Lord. A legendary monster, or maybe even stronger!

    ¡°I asked who their master was, or what was that wall. It didn¡¯t tell me or didn¡¯t want to tell me. I think it didn¡¯t understand my question,¡± Angor exined.

    Sunders nodded and thought to himself. The wall must be a really valuable treasure... perhaps the best treasure in these parts!

    ¡°Anything else yet?¡± Angor already told him everything, but Sunders did not give up.

    Angor shook his head and hesitated, ¡°No...¡±

    Sunders raised his eyebrows and said, ¡°You are holding something back, Angor, tell me what¡¯s on your mind.¡±

    The boy thought for a while before saying, ¡°There is something. But I don¡¯t know if it has anything to do with the wall. After surviving the near-death situation and being saved by the Glutton Flower, I lost consciousness and slept for a long time. When I woke up, I felt my body in an amazing condition, and I felt so refreshed. I can move faster, and I can see better in the dark.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if it was the wall that improved my body or was it because the flying Glutton Flower put its ¡®spit¡¯ into my mouth?¡± Speaking of this, Angor vomited a little. But nothing came out, again.

    Sunders smiled at Angor¡¯s failed vomit attempt and exined, ¡°You can¡¯t do that. You¡¯re a soul now, any physiological reaction on you won¡¯t affect your soul. Just think, did you eat anything these days? No. Your soul does not feel hunger.¡±

    Angor understood now. He was a soul, so he did not need to eat, and could not throw up... Also, he was badly hurt after being attacked by younger Sunders, but he did not bleed at all. That was because he did not have a body.

    Sunders remained silent for some time before he said, ¡°You felt your physical abilities improved. It was because your soul became more condensed. It might be the wall¡¯s doing. Looks like you found a pretty good destiny this time. Once we leave, take the spiritual power test again, and you will see a better result.¡±

    Wizards could not cast spells easily in the Nightmare Realm, so Sunders did not waste his mana to observe Angor¡¯s spiritual power indicator now. Seeing how Angor¡¯s soul was condensed, the man could already deduct his conclusion.

    To improve one¡¯s spiritual power was a really rare destiny. Even Sunders was a bit jealous.

    ¡°The wall did this to me? Not Glutton Flower¡¯s spit?¡± asked Angor. He was puzzled.

    ¡°What you consumed wasn¡¯t Glutton Flower¡¯s spit. It was the essence of Glutton Flower Lord,¡± said Sunders. He failed to hold back hisughter as he said, ¡°Now I know how youe all the way here in one piece. You have the aura of the Glutton Flower Lord on you, and all weaker monsters will never approach you now. So that¡¯s where the sweet smell came from.¡±

    <i>I have a sweet smell?</i>

    Angor sniffed his arm and did notice a faint fragrance.

    ¡°When will this wear off? Can it follow me back to the wizarding world?¡± asked Angor. He revealed a sad face as he did not want to carry the smell at all times.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. Maybe it will, and maybe not,¡± answered Sunders. He spread his hands and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. Flora will certainly envy you. Besides, the essence of Glutton Flower Lord was an extremely valuable treasure. It mends one¡¯s soul and can keep the user in a high spirit for a short while. Don¡¯tin now. The small side effect will go away in time.

    ¡°It seems the wall is a curious artifact. It put you in great pain, but it also improved your spiritual power. If it could keep doing that, its value is beyond anyone¡¯s imagination. Once you be stronger, let¡¯se here and check out that wall together. Maybe we can learn something from it,¡± said Sunders. He patted the boy¡¯s shoulder as he added, ¡°Of course this is on the condition that those Glutton Flowers are still friendly to you. Otherwise, within the first minute when we step into the flower tunnel, we will be their fertilizer.¡±

 Chapter 108 - Sunders, In The Past

    <h4>Chapter 108: Sunders, In The Past</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Fer¡ªbe fertilizer in a minute?¡± Angor stuttered. He was shocked and he asked, ¡°Are Glutton Flowers that powerful?¡±

    Angor knew that those flowers were at least stronger than himself but considering Sunders¡¯ ownment... That was scary! Angor even thought the tiny flower was kinda adorable.

    ¡°There are at least 20 forbidden zones in this part of the Nightmare Realm. Even I cannot approach them with my current strength. And the Glutton Flower Tunnel is the most horrible one among all. This tunnel was the dark passage you mentioned earlier. The ce was full of Glutton Flowers. Glutton Flowers were mid-level monsters. If youpare them to wizards, they have simr strength to High Apprentices. I can manage a hundred or so, however... just so you know, there are millions of them in that tunnel. There is NO way I would ever want to face them.

    ¡°Also, there is a Glutton Flower Lord, the one floating in the air. Its mere aura allowed you to reach this ce safely. Can you see how powerful it is now?¡± Sunders only briefly exined the Glutton Flower Lord. Such legendary monsters could be attracted when someone mentioned their names.

    ¡°Glutton Flowers are such deadly monsters?¡± Angor eximed. He still had a question and he asked, ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking, why did I sense their emotions?¡±

    Sunders did not mind exining this one, ¡°Because they wanted tomunicate, and opened up their minds to you. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t mind you at all. This tells us the fact that you¡¯re quite weed among Glutton Flowers. Now I think about it, why didn¡¯t the Hover Heads attack you? Also, the friendliness of Glutton Flowers. Apart from these monsters, the others shouldn¡¯t trouble you since you carry the aura of Glutton Flower Lord. But it was very strange that the Hover Heads you meet at the beginning let you run away.¡±

    Angor was thinking about this question too. Angor had been believing that he avoided the monsters thanks to his luck. Now it seemed something else was behind all this.

    ¡°I asked the flower lord too, but it gave me a weird answer.¡±

    ¡°A weird answer? What kind of answer?¡±

    Angor blushed a little as he answered, ¡°It said... I have the scent of the queen.¡±

    ¡°The scent of the queen?¡± Sunders was shocked. The man had taken several guesses about Angor¡¯s condition, but he had never expected such a strange answer.

    Sunders walked around Angor for a while. He even sniffed at the boy¡¯s body.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure the deep aura on you came from the essence of Glutton Flower Lord. I don¡¯t sense anything else,¡± said Sunders. He was puzzled. Where did the ¡°queen¡¯s scent¡±e from then? Did the Hover Heads and Glutton Flowers disregarded or showed friendliness to Angor because of this strange scent?

    Sunders could not think of anything to answer that question, so he only concluded that Angor¡¯s special talent helped the boy.

    ¡°Let¡¯s put this aside,¡± said Sunders. He then said, ¡°So, after you left the Glutton Flower Tunnel, you found this ce smoothly without running into anything?¡±

    Angor shook head. It was not smooth at all.

    Sunders was surprised by the boy¡¯s response, ¡°It can¡¯t be. With the aura of Glutton Flower Lord, no low-level of mid-level monsters would bother you at all. Don¡¯t tell me you met high-level monsters?¡±

    Angor looked at his teacher¡¯s face. It was a charming and handsome one, showing great experience and prudence. However, in Angor¡¯s mind, he was thinking about another Sunders. The younger Sunders did not look much different, but he did not have the calm temperament. Instead, younger Sunders revealed an unstoppable arrogance. The two Sunders were not simr at all. Well, except the fact that they both did not talk much.

    ¡°What¡¯s on your mind, Angor?¡± Sunders asked.

    Angor woke up from his thoughts. His eyes were wavering a little as if he was in a trance.

    ¡°There weren¡¯t high-level monsters but... I met someone.¡±

    ¡°Someone? Who was it?¡±

    Instead of speaking, Angor took out a dagger and a ck cane from his waist and ced them in front of Sunders.

    Sunders¡¯ irises shrank upon seeing the objects. He picked up the dagger and inspected its fine, undamaged de, the white bandage around its handle, and the familiar carvings... He froze.

    A picture was carved on the sheath of the dagger. A flying sword with a pair of wings, sticking inside a thorny rose.

    Sunders unsheathed the dagger and saw a line of small words embedded on the back of the de: Unbeaten Rose, Eternal Glory.

    ¡°The Dagger of Thorned Rose...¡± Sunders mumbled in a small voice.

    The dagger was not an alchemy weapon. It came from his family when Sunders was still a mortal. The picture on the dagger was his family emblem, and the words were his family motto.

    As a weapon made by mortals, The Dagger of Thorned Rose was quite sharp. However, ever since he became a wizard, he never had much use for it. Sunders kept it on him as a memento.

    With the dagger in his hand, Sunders took out another dagger from his clothes.

    When the two weapons were ced together, it could be seen that they had exactly the same look, material and size. Only that one of them was a bit worn out.

    ¡°Two identical daggers?¡± Sunders was astonished.

    He put down the dagger and picked up the ck cane.

    He was carrying an alchemy cane as well. However, his own cane was crafted by a master alchemist from Floating Mech City and was longer and more powerful than the one Angor showed him. The ck cane in his hand which had the image of burning me at one side was only a basic alchemy cane.

    The totem of Brute Cavern.

    This was a standard magic cane issued by Brute Cavern. Anyone could exchange for this item by spending points. It was one of the mostmon magic canes. To Sunders, however, this cane that was brought by Angor looked very familiar. Those scratch marks reminded him of something two centuries ago...

    Before he became a wizard.

    As an apprentice without much background and support, Sunders seized everything using his own hands. He remembered risking his life day and night and struggling with death face to face countless times as he tried to find his destiny.

    This magic cane apanied him for a long time until it was broken when he was fighting someone in an incident.

    This was a memorial artifact to Sunders. He already recycled its broken parts and annihted the remains two hundred years ago. He did not think he could ever see it again.

    With great emotion whirling in his mind, Sunders put down the magic cane. He then looked at Angor and asked, ¡°Who was it?¡±

 Chapter 109 - Nightmare Form

    <h4>Chapter 109: Nightmare Form</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°You saw ME?¡± Sunders was shocked.

    Angor nodded. He exined everything about encountering younger Sunders. From seeing the blue giant to fighting with younger Sunders, and being saved by some kind of giant mouth.

    Sunders already spected something like this when he saw the dagger and cane. Angor¡¯s words proved it to him.

    Sunders took a deep breath before he said, ¡°I always believed the Nightmare Realm can only project dead objects. So it can create living ones as well?¡±

    He went through his experience exploring the Nightmare Realm. He only encountered monsters before. There were no humans. That was why he thought this world only projected something non-organic, from a certain time period.

    If the world could even project humans... Could it project people who already died as well? Could he consider it as ¡°resurrection¡±?

    There was another question. If the Witch¡¯s Eyes did not kill younger Sunders... Would they meet each other? And would this cause some sort of time paradox?

    Sunders realized many new ideas about the Nightmare Realm. He had just gained a lot more knowledge about this ce. This was only the outer area of the Nightmare Realm, and he already saw such amazing things. So what could happen in its inner area or core area? Could dead people live on somewhere in the Nightmare Realm in other forms?

    Angor did not interrupt his professor¡¯s train of thought. The man indulged himself in his ideas for a long time before letting out a deep sigh.

    ¡°The Nightmare Realm... is such a wonderful ce. The deeper I go inside, the less I know about it.¡±

    Angor agreed. He was only here for the second time, and yet, every corner of the ce was full of strangeness that made him shudder.

    ¡°Professor, when I was fighting with... uh, younger you, and was about to get killed, a big mouth ate me. Was that a monster too?¡± Angor asked.

    Sunders shook his head, ¡°I have no idea. It might be. But it saved you instead of letting you die. So either you have an extraordinary talent, or you might be...¡±

    Sunders did not finish but Angor understood what he meant. The boy had been believing that his luck kept him alive. However, from all kinds of small details happening around himself, Angor realized there was something unknown helping him in secret. Younger Sunders fought his way in the Nightmare Realm while Angor strolled around like he was sightseeing. Even when endangered by younger Sunders, a ¡°big mouth¡± still saved him. Furthermore, the Witch¡¯s Eyes only screamed and ran away upon seeing him. Apart from the strange wall, Angor did not meet any real danger at all.

    Sunders suddenly recalled something and looked at Angor again, ¡°You saw me flying, right? I mean the younger one.¡±

    Angor nodded. Younger Sunders was chasing him in the air. However, Angor felt that the man¡¯s flying skills were somewhat clumsy since younger Sunders did not catch him easily.

    Sunders fell into silence when hearing the answer.

    He thought in his mind, ¡°Strange. I lost my memory about how I came to the Nightmare Realm for the first time, then Angor met a younger version of myself, who could fly...¡±

    Sunders considered and seemed to have an idea, ¡°So you must have been seeing me when I entered Nightmare Realm for my first time.¡±

    ¡°The professor who came here for the first time?...¡± Angor repeated those words. He did not understand.

    ¡°I have two reasons for that conclusion,¡± said Sunders. He paused a little before he exined, ¡°Firstly, a strange power will affect our brains temporarily when we enter the Nightmare Realm. It sometimes blocks a certain memory from us or adds an additional one. Also, you may lose a certain type of emotion, or have an emotion amplified. There are many possibilities. This time, I lost a piece of memory...¡±

    Angor quickly asked, ¡°You lost the memory in which you came to Nightmare Realm for the first time?¡±

    Sunders nodded, ¡°Correct. I don¡¯t think the Nightmare Realm can create someone out of thin air. The man you encountered must have been me. At least, he was the ¡®me¡¯ from the piece of memory I lost.¡±

    ¡°That sounds weird. But I get the idea. So some power affects our brains? Howe I didn¡¯t feel anything?¡±

    Sunders shrugged, ¡°Maybe you only lost an unimportant memory, such as what you ate during dinner at a random date, the dream you had in a night, or how strong the wind was blowing some time ago. Losing these trivial memories won¡¯t affect you at all.¡±

    ¡°Oh...¡± Angor was still puzzled but he understood Sunders¡¯ exnation.

    ¡°Back to the topic. As for why I¡¯m sure you met another me from the time when I first came here, I have another proof,¡± said Sunders. He paused again before saying, ¡°And I¡¯m going to tell you about your talent now.¡±

    ¡°My talent?¡±

    Weren¡¯t they talking about younger Sunders? Angor was surprised.

    ¡°You see, younger Sunders could fly, just like you, because when I first came here, I entered as my soul as well.¡±

    Angor quickly looked at Sunders.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re always thinking why I took you in,¡± said Sunders. He put a hand on the boy¡¯s shoulder as he exined, ¡°It¡¯s quite simple. You have exactly the same talent as me when I was young.¡±

    <i>My talent was the same as the younger professor?</i>

    Angor quickly noticed the other meaning hidden in those words.

    <i>So the professor has a different talent now?</i>

    ¡°Such talent is an extremely particr one. It isn¡¯t recorded in any books. There were many people with this talent throughout history, but none of them realized it themselves. Until several centuries ago when the Nightmare Realm was discovered, and I came here by ident, that I finally noticed why the talent was special.

    ¡°I call it ¡®Nightmare Form¡¯.¡±

    ...

    The name ¡°Nightmare Form¡± was created by Sunders himself.

    Nightmare Forms were basically natives that lived inside the Nightmare Realm.

    There were no tunnels that connected the Nightmare Realm and the wizarding world directly. To enter the Nightmare Realm required luck, rather than strength. Someone with the Nightmare Form talent could create a hemi-passage toward the Nightmare Realm and could travel in or out of the ce like natives.

    ¡°Entering the Nightmare Realm as a soul is a property unique to Nightmare Forms. Souls can fly here. This is why when you talked about your talent test in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, I instantly knew that you are a Nightmare Form I¡¯ve been looking for a long time.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re looking for me? But, isn¡¯t professor a Nightmare Form too?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°You will know the reason to that soon,¡± said Sunders. He then continued to exin about the ¡°hemi-passage¡±.

    ¡°When a soul enters the Nightmare Realm and establishes a connection with the world, it will be able to return to the Nightmare Realm anytime by using this connection. This is called a hemi-passage.¡±

    Angor felt those words familiar. Did he hear about it somewhere? The boy recollected his thoughts and realized that Sunders mentioned something beforeing to the Nightmare Realm.

    ¡°A seed into the Nightmare Realm?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you remembered? That¡¯s right. The hemi-passage is a seed that helps you enter the Nightmare Realm, and the wound on the back of your soul is such a seed. An unfinished hemi-passage.¡±

    ¡°You mean, I can make a hemi-passage by getting hurt in Nightmare Realm?¡± Angor asked. That sounded so dangerous.

    ¡°That¡¯s one way to say it. However, the wound on your soul is only a coordinate in this realm. You need something else to create the passage. I¡¯ll tell you about those once you¡¯re strong enough.¡±

 Chapter 110 - Reciting

    <h4>Chapter 110: Reciting</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After talking about the ¡°Nightmare Form¡±, Sunders stared at Angor again.

    ¡°Yet... your talent seems a little different.¡±

    Sunders thought about the scene when they were in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant. At that time, Angor epted a rose from Little Red, which surprised both him and Flora for good.

    Little Red did not exist in reality. It lived in a small fragment of severed Nightmare Realm. It was not really Nightmare Realm itself, but simr.

    The Nightmare Realm had three major properties: projecting a reality, painting it into imaginary, and creating truth.

    ¡°Creating truth¡± meant it not only project something from the reality into the Nightmare Realm but it would also bring something the other way round. However, transferring objects in either direction required someone to be inside the Nightmare Realm.

    Angor was standing inside Barbie¡¯s Restaurant ¨C the reality.

    The boy resided in reality and managed to touch Little Red while taking a rose from Little Red¡¯s hands. That meant Angor¡¯s action affected the Nightmare Realm from reality. Even if Little Red did not actually stay in the Nightmare Realm, it still proved that Angor¡¯s talent was something special.

    ¡°I¡¯m different...¡± Angor mumbled, without knowing what exactly was different about him.

    Sunders continued, ¡°No matter what kind of world it is, once a civilization is created, it will not take long for the residents to establish social sses. I¡¯ve been regarding Nightmare Forms as natives in the Nightmare Realm because they can create hemi-passages and travel to and from this ce, and I thought that was the only thing they could do. Until I saw you, Angor...

    ¡°Maybe Nightmare Forms also have social sses. Some can create hemi-passages, some can affect the reality, some can create truths... These sses are strictly divided and cannot be crossed. And your ss is higher than mine,¡± said Sunders. He revealed an awkward smile at Angor as he continued, ¡°Let¡¯s say... you¡¯re a queen while I¡¯m a soldier.¡±

    <i>A queen...</i>

    Angor curled his lips. Sunders was not really good at joking.

    Whether he believed them or not, the boy slowly began to take in Sunders¡¯ words,

    A moment passed and Angor was still wearing a puzzled look.

    Sunders chuckled at him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. Those are all spections. There is no record about Nightmare Forms, so you have to figure out everything on your own. I might be right, and I might be wrong.¡±

    ¡°On my own? Professor can¡¯t help me?¡±

    Sunders tidied his sleeves and removed his white glove, revealing a thin, white wrist with inconspicuous blood veins pulsing on it.

    Angor did not understand his action.

    Sunders put his exposed hand on the back of Angor¡¯s.

    Angor felt warmth, and a little bit wetnessing from his professor¡¯s skin.

    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m a Nightmare Form now?¡± Sunders smiled.

    Angor put his hands on his own face, then rubbed his hands. He only sensed a cold touch. But... Sunders¡¯ palm felt warm, which was different.

    ¡°You can feel the warmth. You¡¯re a soul and you can¡¯t give out body heat while I¡¯m here as my body, so I appeared to be warm,¡± said Sunders. He put on his glove again and expressed a somewhat regretful expression as he continued, ¡°In early years, I was greedy about entering a higher state and sacrificed my talent. Ever since, I could onlye to the Nightmare Realm as an actual body, and could no longer work on hemi-passages. This is why I must find Greya and ask for a Twisting Protozoa toe here.

    ¡°I epted you as my pupil for two reasons. Your talent, and convenience. You know, I prefer not to run around looking for Greya all the time.¡±

    Sunders revealed his true intention. The man wanted to benefit from Angor, true, but now that Sunders exined his idea openly, Angor felt rxed. At least he no longer had to worry about whether Sunders held some kind of evil plot day and night.

    ...

    With Angor¡¯s talent exined, Sunders finally picked up the <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>lying on the desk. He then said, ¡°This book is an extremely precious one. You should try to recite it. When we leave, take it with you. Maybe your talent will allow it to ¡®be truth¡¯, and make its appearance in reality.¡±

    Angor nodded in acknowledgment. He had already recorded the book into his tablet, but after hearing Sunders¡¯ words, he began to worry that his soul was carrying a ¡°fake¡± tablet. So he epted the book and began reciting, assuming that his tablet would not work.

    Sunders did not stand idle during Angor¡¯s study. The man walked around and searched for items. If Angor could truly take ¡°special items¡± away from the Nightmare Realm, he might as well take as many as he could.

    There were actually previous examples in which someone took objects from the Nightmare Realm to the wizarding world but they were random items despite people¡¯s intentions. For example, one might pack up a bag of gems in the Nightmare Realm only to find a single gem when one was back at the wizarding world. A pile of mythril might turn into alchemy gold instead. Well, one would still get something in the process.

    Only extremely particr items would disappearpletely, and the book <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>was such an item.

    Thanks to his superior memorizing skills, it only took Angor about two hours to remember <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>.

    Angor looked up from his book and did not see Sunders in the study. He then put away the book and left through the door.

    In the main hall, Angor saw Sunders walking to him from the hallway to the left, with a potion bottle in his hand.

    ¡°Tsk. One bottle of Potion of Austere Night only. I¡¯m in bad luck today,¡± said Sunders. He tossed the bottle to Angor and said, ¡°This thing will help you to improve your spirit power limit but only once. If you can bring it back to the wizarding world, it¡¯s yours.

    ¡°Such a pity. There¡¯s nothing valuable apart from the book,¡± said Sunders. He sighed, ¡°Even if there is something, I¡¯m not sure we can take it. Let¡¯s go back as is. If your talent proves to be helpful and that you can actually bring the book back, we can simplye again and look for other things.¡±

    It seemed Sunders was nning to use this chance to determine the actual usefulness of Angor¡¯s talent.

    Angor recalled seeing the secret chamber under the main bedroom. There were still a lot of alchemy books.

    <i>Sunders didn¡¯t find them?</i>

    Angor decided not to ask. The secret passage was not really a ¡°secret¡±.

    <i>The professor must have found it. The man just didn¡¯t want to talk about it for some reason.</i>

    With that in mind, Angor put the idea aside.

    Sunders sat beside the desk at the center of the hall and asked, ¡°You¡¯re done reciting the book?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Then let us pray that we won¡¯t forget about it when we¡¯re back.¡±

 Chapter 111 - A Painting That Wasnâ€™t There

    <h4>Chapter 111: A Painting That Wasn¡¯t There</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°We¡¯re going back now?¡± Angor asked. He always hoped to go back earlier since he was always feeling uneasy in the Nightmare Realm. Angor¡¯s journey was smooth, but something was telling him that terrible things would happen if he did not leave soon.

    ¡°Of course. Any second inside the Nightmare Realm could mean more danger,¡± said Sunders. He took out his half of Twisting Protozoa as well as the other half from Angor before saying, ¡°This is simr to how we came here. We need another seed. And these two halves of the Twisting Protozoa¡¯s corpse are the seed.¡±

    Sunders stuck the two halves together. Next, strange space ripples came from the corpse, creating spider web shapes in the air which then slowly spread out...

    ¡°Before the tunnel fully appears, you still have time to search around and take as many things as possible. Common materials are very likely to reappear in reality, so you can bring them if you wish. For anything that you can actually bring back, you can have it,¡± Sunders spoke while standing in front of the space ripples.

    That reminded Angor. They were leaving soon, why not loot as best as they could?

    Angor walked around the main hall which was decorated by shining golden floor bricks. The ced looked so luxurious.

    Sunders already searched around, without finding anything in particr, so Angor did not intend to do a search again carefully. He wanted to look for something valuable that was easy to take, or something interesting.

    Golden or silver ornaments were expensive items to mortals, but not so to supernaturals. Angor took some time to make up his mind and decided to choose a painting. The values of oil paintings depended on their viewers. There were enthusiasts among wizards too, and they were willing to spendrge sums of money on these things.

    Angor read about a certain ultist in a magazine who was called the ¡°Magic Painter¡±. This wizard already triumphed on the path of truth; he could connect nar and three-dimensional worlds by using his painting brush. The wizard loved paintings. Many renowned painters in different nes created arts for him. It was said that he once threw away an insane amount of magic crystals just to buy one famous painting.

    Angor decided to take a painting away because he knew this story. An artwork valued most when someone could understand it, while gold and silver only possessed limited values.

    Speaking of paintings, most of them were ced along the long hallway behind the entrance. Angor went there without hesitating.

    Sunders did not question Angor¡¯s move. The man only reminded him, ¡°Three minutes. Or you will be trapped here forever.¡±

    ¡°Understood!¡±

    Angor reached the hallway quickly. He had already observed the paintings on his way in so he knew which painting to go for.

    It only took him half a minute to arrive at his target.

    It was called ¡°Traveler Under Stars¡±. Under the boundless starry sky, a traveler wearing a white hood was looking at the hovering flower tufts in the sky. With his back facing Angor, it looked as if he was thinking about something.

    This was amon theme, a sensuous painting. It had great details and deep emotion. It must have been created by a skilled painter and it was among the best works in this hallway. Also, Angor chose this one right away because it carried a small hint of homesickness. Angor was beginning to miss his home too.

    The drifting tufts could be traveling children. Every time Angor looked into the painting, he felt as if he was one of the tufts, longing for home.

    Angor took off the ¡°Traveler Under Stars¡± and prepared to go back.

    However, another painting drew his attention.

    <i>Huh...</i>

    <i>Was that there before?</i>

    It looked ordinary. A young shepherd girl was milking her animals on the grasnd.

    The painting looked fine. It could also be something from a famous painter. Although this painter might be a little out of his condition since he did not do a good job in many of the details. Angor believed he could also sketch a simple one himself. However, these were not important. The point was, Angor did not recall seeing this one when he came in.

    He went through his memories carefully and failed to recognize the painting. He recorded them in his hologram tablet, so if he took the time to check, he could confirm his idea. However, time was a little tight for him now. Besides, he could not take his tablet out when Sunders was around.

    Jon always trained Angor to closely observe the small details around him. This skill would help Angor to capture those details andbine them with reality, to acquire innovation and opportunity from anything and everything. Angor was always good at catching such small details, and he more or less believed that this one was not here before even though there was no proof.

    Of course, Angor did not know why a painting appeared out of nowhere. Could it be something about the Nightmare Realm again? But why would this ce add another painting?

    Sunders¡¯ voice came from the distance.

    ¡°Angor, time is almost¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m on my way!¡± Angor looked at the ¡°Milking Shepherd¡± again and decided to take it. He rushed back to the hall holding two paintings on his sides.

    Sunders nced at Angor¡¯s ¡°prize¡±.

    ¡°Smart choice. Those who love them will love them very much. We¡¯re leaving. Likest time, when the ruptures fill up the ce, throw yourself in there,¡± Sunders said. He then tossed two objects to Angor.

    A dagger and a short magic cane. The weapons Angor took from younger Sunders.

    ¡°You keep them. Let¡¯s see if you can bring those back as well.¡±

    ¡°Okay. I wish I can, for everything,¡± Angor replied.

    ¡°Let¡¯s wish so,¡± said Sunders. He was not really interested in the other objects. He only cared about the channeling method book.

    ...

    The Nightmare Realm consisted of multiple sections. Some of them were as big as worlds, while some were tiny like stones. Nether City was located in one of the outermost sections.

    A giant figure emerged from the center of the Nightmare Realm and rushed toward the Nether City at an insane speed.

    At the same time, Angor felt his heart racing like mad. An ominous feeling caused Angor to get cold limbs. He looked around worriedly.

    Sunders frowned, ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡±

    Angor shook his head and took several hasty breaths before he said, ¡°I don¡¯t know... I feel stressed out. Like something is going to happen. Bad things.¡±

    Sunders usually would not believe such words unless they were told by an Astrology Wizard or a Prophet. Yet, in such a time and ce, Sunders somehow trusted Angor¡¯s instinct.

    Suddenly, the noise of strong explosions came from somewhere and reached the hall. The floor was shaking.

    ¡°Sonic booms! A high-level monster is here!¡± Sunders immediately recognized the noise. He looked at the ¡°spider webs¡±, which was almostplete, and dragged Angor¡¯s hand, ¡°Leave, now!¡±

    Angor was shocked. He was pulled toward the space rupture by Sunders instead of reacting on his own.

    The entire hall abruptly crumbled. Everything disappeared along with another explosion. The pair turned around to look. They saw a faint figure standing in the distance...

    The attack came from somewhere that far, and it destroyed the whole hall?! Both Sunders and Angor were surprised.

    ¡°The Stairs of Hanging Prison is crashed! Who is that?¡± Sunders questioned in astonishment. However, he could not care about that now. They rushed into the space rupture, with Angor behind Sunders.

    As most of Angor¡¯s body was submerged inside the rupture, a hand suddenly grabbed his left ankle.

    The nails on the hand were long and sharp and were curling in a weird curve. The nails had crimson polish on them, which looked really gloomy.

    Angor felt almost as if he was being dragged back when Sunders quickly held his body and hauled in the opposite direction fiercely. The instant support helped Angor shake off the strange hand.

    Next, Angor watched the entrance behind him close up. In thest blink second, he heard something bellowing in rage...

 Chapter 112 - Back in The Wizarding World

    <h4>Chapter 112: Back in The Wizarding World</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After some weightlessness experience, Angor received aplicated feeling, which covered his entire body.

    Compared with the itchiness upon entering the Nightmare Realm, this one felt more ¡°muddy¡±, as if mixing fresh water with dirt. All in all, Angor felt somewhat terrible.

    Angor took a guess that the itchiness was from when his soul left his body. When he was back here, his ¡°fresh¡± soul was hurled back inside his ¡°muddy¡± body.

    When his soul and bodypletely joined each other, Angor slowly opened his eyes.

    ¡°Oh my, Angor sweetie, you have some pretty good tastes. You even brought two paintings back,¡± Flora¡¯s clear yet seductive voice echoed in the room.

    <i>Paintings?</i>

    Angor lowered his head and found himself sitting on the floor with two paintings pinched under his arms. Two exact ones he brought from the golden hallway: Traveler Under Stars, and Milking Shepherd.

    However, he did not have time to check on the paintings. His mind was filled up by the terrible hand that caught his ankle.

    Angor looked at Sunders.

    The man was standing beside Flora. He looked a bit tired, but he was fine except that his clothes were a little messed up.

    ¡°Professor, was that a... monster?¡± asked Angor. He was eager for an answer.

    If so, why did that hand look more like a human hand? So was that a human? Or... another projection of some wizard, like younger Sunders?

    Sunders considered, trying to think about the assault when they left the Nightmare Realm.

    After a while, Sunders slowly said, ¡°I don¡¯t know either. I didn¡¯t see its face. But... it must be something very strong, considering it can shatter the Stairs of Hanging Prison from so far. Might be a legendary being.¡±

    ¡°What?! The Stairs of Hanging Prison is shattered?¡± Flora yelled. She had been to Garden of Labyrinth, or, the Nether City, before, together with Sunders. She clearly knew what the Stairs of Hanging Prison meant.

    ¡°Stairs of Hanging Prison? The staircase floating in the darkness?¡± Angor was puzzled.

    ¡°Ooh, you don¡¯t know about this? Wait, so you didn¡¯t go to the Stairs of Hanging Prison with the professor?¡± asked Flora as she looked at Angor in disbelief. Did the boy get to the stairs on his own?

    Sunders chuckled.

    ¡°In fact, Angor reached it earlier than I did. I only saw him in thest moment, before we came back,¡± Sunders exined to Flora. He then looked at Angor again as he said, ¡°Yes, the Stairs of Hanging Prison were the ones you climbed in darkness. It is a vast prison. You clearly saw many rooms on your way. Those are prisoner cells. If you already read the books in the study, you should know that the owner of the study is warden of the prison.¡±

    Flora walked around Angor doubtfully, while giving out several ¡°tsk tsk¡± now and then.

    ¡°Heavenly hell... Angor sweetie made it to the Stairs of Hanging Prison all by himself? You really have some luck. I see the professor made the right choice by bringing you in. You even brought your luck to us,¡± said Flora. She then exaggerated, ¡°Fine. Go be an academism wizard all you like, I won¡¯t stop you. Behave like a lucky baby and let us take care of the hunting.¡±

    Sunders agreed. The man was very satisfied with his new pupil. He looked at Angor ¨C who was still wearing a terrified expression ¨C and spoke in a in tone, ¡°Don¡¯t think too much about that monster in the end. At least we escaped, and we won¡¯t go there again anytime soon. I¡¯ll look into the monsterter.¡±

    Flora joined him, ¡°A monster who can destroy the Stairs of Hanging Prison isn¡¯t something we can manage anyway. You¡¯re away from the Nightmare Realm now. Just rx. Oh right, what about the channeling method book this time, professor?¡±

    Flora looked at Sunders.

    Sunders looked surprised. He just realized what Flora was asking about.

    Flora already got her answer.

    ¡°You forgot it again!¡± Flora shrugged. She expected such an oue.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± Sunders sat back on his chair in front of his desk and pondered over his travel in the Nightmare Realm. He remembered his adolescent memory which was hidden by the ne and everything that happened inside the hall. Everything except the book.

    He could not even remember the name of the book.

    Next, Sunders watched Flora looking at the two paintings happily. He believed he asked Angor to take special items from the Nightmare Realm to test out the boy¡¯s talent. Surely the items included the book?

    Sunders noticed that Angor was still in a trance, so he decided not to bother the boy for now. He simply cast a spell to check the objects on Angor¡¯s body.

    With the help of ¡°Truesight¡±, everything carried by Angor was clear to see.

    Angor was carrying a lot of stuff apart from his clothing. The first thing that attracted Sunders was a ss sphere hanging on Angor¡¯s neck. It was only an ordinary ss ball, not something from the Nightmare Realm.

    Then, the potion ss in Angor¡¯s pocket.

    There was dark liquid wavering in the ss. When observed carefully, Sunders saw pale blue traces flowing inside. If anyone uncapped the bottle, they would feel a cold aura as if they were staying in winter.

    ¡°So Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form is truly special. Other than the paintings, he managed to bring back the Potion of Austere Night.¡±

    The Potion of Austere Night reminded Sunders of the other objects.

    The man saw a bronze pocket watch in the same pocket as the potion ss. He did not pay much attention to it. Sunders saw Angor using the watch before. It was not a Nightmare Realm product either.

    He kept looking and saw the dagger and magic cane hanging on the boy¡¯s waist.

    Sunders waved a hand. The two weapons shook free from Angor and floated toward him.

    Flora saw the objects as well.

    ¡°Why is Angor carrying The Dagger of Thorned Rose? And the cane... I think I know it. Isn¡¯t that the issued magic cane from our organization?¡±

    Sunders did not exin where the weapons came from. He continued checking Angor¡¯s possessions.

    The man scanned Angor from head to toe using Truesight spell again. He did not find anything else.

    ¡°So Angor failed to take the book out?¡± Sunders could only sigh in disappointment. It seemed he was destined to be separated from the book.

    Sunders did not conceal his action, so Flora realized what he was doing and scanned Angor herself.

    ¡°Tsk-tsk. Angor have a lot of stuff on him! Potion of Austere Night? How did you get that? Oh, did Greya give it to you? And that old pocket watch, you¡¯re still using it?¡± Floramented on Angor¡¯s items.

    She ended her words with another eerie chuckle, ¡°Heeheehee. You¡¯re young, but you have a fine body!¡±

    Angor¡¯s mind was not clear enough to realize that he just had himself looked thoroughly by someone else. Otherwise, Angor would be really relieved that neither Sunders nor Flora noticed his Alien Eye or hologram tablet.

    ...

    ¡°He didn¡¯t take the channeling method book here, so we need something else for Angor¡¯s channeling training,¡± Flora eximed.

    Sunders did not speak. Angor¡¯s talent already surprised him much. The boy brought back two special objects from the Nightmare Realm, the Potion of Austere Night and the magic cane. As for ordinary items, Angor took them all. This was way better than Sunders¡¯ previous attempts.

    He probably guessed right. If Nightmare Forms were really divided by sses, Angor definitely had a higher ss than him.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. This is our destiny too. Once we¡¯re back at Brute Cavern, Angor can apply for using Montaus¡¯ Octahedrite Channeling,¡± Sundersmented.

    However, Angor interrupted them.

    ¡°Um, Montaus¡¯ Octahedrite Channeling? I¡¯m not going to use Singrity Dispersive Meditation?¡±

 Chapter 113 - Writing The Book

    <h4>Chapter 113: Writing The Book</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation?</i>

    They did not understand Angor¡¯s words. Flora remained puzzled for a moment before she asked, ¡°Singrity... what now? Is that a channeling method? I never heard of it. Did the professor teach you that in private?¡±

    Sunders shook his head and denied Flora¡¯s idea. The man suddenly recalled something and revealed a surprise-stricken expression. He immediately looked toward Angor, ¡°Did you get the channeling method?¡±

    Angor nodded and reached inside his pocket. The boy was wondering.

    <i>Didn¡¯t I take the book while you¡¯re looking?</i>

    Angor searched for a while, trying to take the unfinished <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>book out. However, he found no such notebook on him.

    <i>Huh? I didn¡¯t take it with me? But the paintings, potion, and weapons are here, so why not the book?</i>

    ¡°Um... I think I didn¡¯t,¡± Angor stuttered.

    ¡°Then how do you know the book¡¯s name?¡± Sunders asked.

    Unconsciously, Angor answered right away, ¡°But professor asked me to recite¡ªwait! I remembered the meditation method, I don¡¯t need the book!¡±

    Sunders and Flora exchanged a surprised look.

    ¡°I asked you to recite the book? And you did?¡± asked Sunders. He had forgotten about this as well, along with his memory of the book itself.

    Angor quickly nodded, ¡°Yes. Just some minutes ago. I still have it in my mind!¡±

    ¡°Wonderful!¡± Flora brightened up. She then asked eagerly, ¡°Do you remember the base fitness level of the method?¡±

    Angor looked at Sunders and realized that the man was not pretending.

    <i>The professor had really forgotten about the book? Man, the Nightmare Realm is amazing.</i>

    However, Angor had another question. Why was he the only one that remembered the book?

    ¡°The base is 30%,¡± he answered.

    Not only Flora, who jumped in joy upon hearing the answer. Even Sunders who always carried a moderate attitudeughed out.

    The Singrity Dispersive Meditation was not really useful to them, but the book valued more than all channeling methods in the entire southern wizard region summed together. A baseline of 30%! Some wizard organizations would be crazily happy to obtain lesser channeling methods with 2% or 3% baseline. But 30%...!

    They had to keep it a secret! If anyone else sniffed the presence of this book, the world would witness bloodshed.

    ¡°Brilliant! This book will be passed down within our own circle only. Angor, always remember that you cannot tell anyone about this channeling method or the consequence will be severe!¡± Sunders warned the boy.

    Angor nodded. He was not really convinced though. The channeling method required extremely difficult conditions. Even if it was made known to the public, only a few people could actually learn it.

    Next, Angor remained in Sunders¡¯ room to write down <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>ording to his memory.

    He had just memorized the book not long ago, so he managed to work quickly. Combined with the fact that it was only half-finished, Angor managed toplete his job in less than an hour.

    Angor used a clear handwriting instead of ornamental penmanship popr around the world. The symbolic universalnguage appeared square and upright like Chinese Hanzi in Angor¡¯s hands, just like the boy¡¯s personality.

    Sunders read the book, which did not help him regain his memory about the original copy. However, the man sensed that Angor did a perfect job.

    ¡°Good. It isn¡¯t aplete copy, but that won¡¯t prevent us from training. I just wasn¡¯t expecting this channeling method to be so difficult. It used the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method which was lost in history a long time ago. It calls for really superior individual abilities...¡± Sunders began to worry about whether Angor was able to learn the book.

    Flora took the book over and eximed on its difficulty as well.

    ¡°Many ancient wizards had triumphed on the path of truth, which we probably will never witness. I think only one of those almighty figures could haveposed this book,¡± Flora said.

    She cast a gentle look toward Angor. This boy was really a lucky star. He easily solved a big problem which troubled Sunders for hundreds of years!

    ¡°Angor, are you certain you want to learn this book?¡± asked Sunders. He did not hide his worried tone as he continued to speak, ¡°You need to meet some harsh conditions to do so. Are you absolutely sure? You will waste a lot of time if you try it in vain.¡±

    To actually learn the channeling method was another goal. Before that, considering Angor¡¯s spiritual power indicator, if the boy wanted to be someone powerful enough to save his teacher, Jon, he had to study in a way which was never tested and proved by anyone else or he would idle his life away like Mara.

    ¡°You¡¯re on your own in learning this channeling method. Others will not be able to help you. Are you certain about it?¡± Sunders asked again.

    ¡°I am. I will study this book!¡±

    ...

    Angor felt tired aftering back from the Nightmare Realm. Maybe it was an expected condition after his soul rejoined his body.

    ¡°Go and rest for the night, ande tomorrow,¡± Sunders said.

    Angor went straight back to his room. Upon opening his door, he saw Toby flying toward him. He waved a hand at the bird to say hello, then threw himself on his bed and fell into a deep sleep...

    It was a lethargic sleep. When Angor climbed up with sleepy eyes, he realized it was the evening of the second day already.

    He opened the window. Cold air invaded his face.

    He could still see the setting sun in the distance, but the sky was already dark.

    Angor stretched himself and yawned. He found Toby sleeping in his hair again. When the cold wind came in, the bird even wrapped some of his hair around itself.

    Angor sighed and closed his window to keep the coldness out. He then carefully ced Toby into its tiny bed.

    When Angor put a nket on Toby, the bird was still fast asleep.

    Angor felt his stomach rumbling and realized he was starving. He had skipped several meals. He did not feel it when he woke up, but the cold air quickly triggered his hunger. He was nning to go to Sunders after getting washed but it seemed he should solve his food problem first.

    Angor cleaned himself in the bathroom and walked to the dining hall.

 Chapter 114 - Improved Spiritual Power

    <h4>Chapter 114: Improved Spiritual Power</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Angor. Why are you sote?¡±

    Angor stepped into the hall and saw Sailum gesturing at him.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see you all day. I thought Hookdick bullied you again,¡± said Sailum. He was carefully cleaning the table as he spoke, ¡°I even went to Lady Asbel to ask about you. Guess what I saw?¡±

    <i>Lady Asbel?</i>

    Angor was puzzled for a while before he realized that Sailum was talking about Nausica.

    ¡°What happened?¡± asked Angor. He found some dishes and sat down with a slice of toast in his mouth.

    ¡°I saw Hookdick gathered a bunch of people to confront Lady Asbel, and they were beaten up by thedy for good. I think those people will stay indoors for at least half a month, seeing how their faces were swollen jellies,¡± said Sailum. He sounded happy, but he did not stop his table-cleaning task. When he was sure there was not a single scrap of dust on the table, he finally took his thick book from his pouch and ced it on the table.

    ¡°The guy¡¯s tough. He still has that wound on his neck, and he actually tried to fight Nausica again? Where did that couragee from?¡± Angor snickered.

    ¡°I want to know too. Your bird messed him up everywhere. Hookdick still has those wounds all over him. Why would he bother Lady Asbel again?¡± Sailum spoke while enjoying his vegetable juice and roasted meat.

    ¡°Who knows... maybe the guy identally took the wrong medicine,¡± Angormented nonchntly.

    Sailum nodded, ¡°Every talent on the airship knows that Lady Asbel is the strongest one apart from Balba. Yeah, maybe Hookdick really ate some bad stuff.¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t eat anything but he could use an extra nut in his brain,¡± An indolent voice came from behind Angor.

    Nausica was carrying a dish toward them. She was wearing a white casual suit from top to bottom.

    ¡°Lady Asbel!¡± Sailum brightened up. He stood up and bowed to Nausica politely.

    Nausica stopped in her track andined, ¡°Don¡¯t call me like that. Just Nausica is fine.¡±

    ¡°But... Lady Asbel is such a legend. You¡¯re even the queen¡¯s friend...¡± Sailum stuttered.

    ¡°Only those who want something from me or not so close to me would use formalities. For friends, I wish they call me by my name,¡± said Nausica. She put down her dish and sat beside Angor before asking, ¡°Do you like it if I call you Mister Pustin?¡±

    ¡°Nonono. Thedy should just call me Sailum.¡±

    ¡°Lady?¡± Nausica flipped her hair.

    ¡°I mean¡ªMiss Nausica.¡±

    Nausica smiled.

    ¡°By the way Angor, you never left your room during the day. Don¡¯t tell me you slept in?¡± Nausica was eating in an elegant manner. She tried finding casual topics to talk about.

    Angor only let out an embarrassed smile without answering.

    It was only chitchatting during mealtime, so Nausica did not push for an answer. Instead, she picked up from Sailum¡¯s conversation, ¡°I meant it when I said Hookdickcks some brain-nuts. He¡¯s so confident and is sure he can be a formal wizard. He used his future achievement as an asset and proposed alliance with me, to go against... little Angor here.¡±

    Nausica shrugged, ¡°You know the rest. I kicked him in the face.¡±

    Sailum sneered, ¡°Seriously, like Angor said, where did he find his courage?¡±

    ¡°Maybe he really has something up his sleeves,¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Nausica suddenly remembered seeing Hookdick talking to an old shortie with gray hair during thest evening. She did not recognize the old man. Maybe he gave Hookdick something?

    ¡°Sailum, you carefully cleaned the table, I thought you¡¯re going to read your book,¡± said Angor. He noticed that Sailum had no intention to read his book at all during his meal. Then why did he clean up the table in the first ce? Sailum even took his book out already.

    Sailum was taken aback a little. He looked at the book on the table and revealed a thoughtful look as if he was cherishing something dear.

    ¡°This book is... really important to me.¡±

    That was the only thing he said. Then, Sailum remained silent. Angor took a guess that there was a story hidden behind all this. Since Sailum did not want to talk about it, Angor decided not to ask.

    After downing his ss of veggie juice, Angor stood up.

    ¡°I¡¯m going back now. You enjoy your meals.¡±

    ¡°You have no other ns right? How abouting to my roomter and have a drink?¡± Nausica asked.

    ¡°Thews in my home won¡¯t allow me to drink alcohol for another three years, so, sorry but no,¡± replied Angor. He waved his hands and turned away, ¡°I do have something to do, so let¡¯s get together when we reach Brute Cavern tomorrow.¡±

    Angor left the dining hall while Sailum and Nausica exchanged a puzzled look.

    ¡°We¡¯re reaching Brute Cavern tomorrow?¡± Nausica asked.

    ¡°Angor said so. But how did he know it?¡± Sailum wondered.

    ¡°Maybe he heard it from someone. You know, considering his standing on the airship...¡± Nausica did not finish her sentence, but Sailum got her idea.

    ¡°Oh right, did you smell something sweet from Angor?¡± asked Nausica. She was sitting beside Angor and she believed she caught a faint fragrance from the boy. The strange smell even put her in a high spirit somehow.

    Weird.

    ...

    Angor walked toward Sunders¡¯ room. There were guards along the way, but they did not stop him. Sunders must have ordered them so.

    Sunders was in his room by himself. When Angor came, the man was writing something rapidly while holding the <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>copied by Angor in the other hand.

    ¡°Take a seat for now,¡± said Sunders. He did not even look up from his work. He only tossed a crystal tube at Angor before saying, ¡°You encountered a good destiny during the journey and had your spiritual power increased. Take the test again. You will find a surprise.¡±

    ¡°Surprise...¡± Angor stared at the crystal tube in his hand and only felt terror. He did not forget the terrible experience when taking the test yesterday.

    Angor sighed but he proceeded with the test anyway.

    After another painful experience, Angor rested up for a long time and checked the meter while panting heavily.

    ¡°Fifteen points.¡±

    That was two points higher. Not bad.

    Angor remembered the Potion of Austere Night he brought back from the Nightmare Realm yesterday. Drinking the potion would increase his indicator to 17, which meant he would have greater efficiency when channeling mana!

    The test felt awful but Angor was still happy about his result.

 Chapter 115 - Potion of Austere Night: Side Effect

    <h4>Chapter 115: Potion of Austere Night: Side Effect</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor rested on the chair and wiped some sweat off his forehead. He was trying to get over the painful experience during the test.

    He took out the bottle of Potion of Austere Night from his pocket and wondered if he should drink it.

    This was an elementary potion but it was actually harder to make than a medium-level one. It required some of the most valuable materials, and even expert alchemy wizards could still botch their work when brewing it. Only the best of the best, such as Jel ¡°The Mythril Innovator¡±, could guarantee an eptable sess rate in making such potion. For this reason, the Potion of Austere Night was always rarely seen, even at the Sky Auction.

    Sunders stopped his work and saw Angor uncapping the bottle and sniffing the cold smell with a doubtful expression.

    ¡°The Potion of Austere Night increases your spiritual power indicator by 2. However, it does so by overworking your future potential, so I suggest that you don¡¯t use it for now,¡± said Sunders. However, he added, ¡°Of course, go ahead if you believe that you won¡¯t ever further increase your spiritual power again. The potion won¡¯t do you any harm in this way. Otherwise, wait until you improve your spirit in other ways before taking the potion.¡±

    <i>The Potion of Austere Night would overwork my potential?</i>

    Angor did not know this. There were books exining that this potion would improve people¡¯s spirit limit for 2 points. However, they never said how the potion worked.

    If a wizard exhausted his or her potential, when the wizard found another destiny again which could improve spiritual power, it would no longer help. Still, such destinies were extremely hard to find. Hence, most supernaturals would drink the potion right away when they found one.

    If Angor possessed the potion before going to Nightmare Realm, Sunders would not stop him from using the potion. When the man thought about the strange wall in the Nightmare Realm, he decided to suggest otherwise. If the wall really could keep improving someone¡¯s spirit, using the potion now would be a worse choice.

    Angor also recalled the wall protected by the Glutton Flowers.

    Angor kept a lot of information to himself, such as the patterns drawn on the wall, and the fact that he recorded a lot using his tablet.

    <i>Wait, tablet?</i>

    He had almost forgotten about it. He went to the Nightmare Realm as his soul, so the hologram tablet should be something like an illusion. He was unsure if all the videos and images were brought back.

    Angor would be really sad if they were not. Apart from the patterns on the wall and the parchment he found along the Stairs of Hanging Prison, he really wanted to keep the alchemy books found in the secret chamber in the warden¡¯s room.

    He decided to check his tablet once he got back to his room.

    Since Sunders meant to stop him from using the potion, Angor listened to him and carefully put the potion away. If he had the chance, he would give the potion to his brother Leon. This way, maybe Leon could reach a spiritual power of ten, and the Padt Family would have two supernaturals and enjoy greater status in Goldspink Empire.

    After pocketing the potion, Angor walked to Sunders politely.

    ¡°Professor, do you need me today?¡±

    ¡°Have you started learning meditation?¡±

    Angor shook his head in embarrassment, ¡°I was too tired yesterday and fell asleep right away, and I just woke up.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m d you didn¡¯t,¡± said Sunders. He handed his notebook to Angor and said, ¡°I¡¯ve made some spections about the channeling method here, along with some points of caution while training at it. Take it and read when you study the channeling method.¡±

    Angor took the book and went over it briefly. Along with the texts on <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>Angor wrote down, there were a lot of small, additional words exining the experience summarized by Sunders during the man¡¯s own training.

    Angor immediately realized how valuable this was. With the experience, Angor could avoid lots of unnecessary effort on his way.

    In excitement, Angor thanked Sunders who simply waved a hand.

    ¡°As your professor, I do hope you achieve something great,¡± said Sunders. He paused a moment before saying, ¡°My experience was nothingpared to what you brought back. You already know how much value the book holds. Considering the equivalent exchange convention in the wizarding world, since you gave me the book, I can fulfill one of your wishes.¡±

    ¡°I would never know about this book without you, or go to the Nether City to find it. Professor¡¯s information is one end of the exchange. I already have you to teach me, I don¡¯t need anything else,¡± replied Angor.

    Angor meant those words. He was worried about being taken by Sunders before, but since his doubts were solved, the boy dly epted his teacher.

    Jon¡¯s education during all these years taught Angor a lot of cultural virtue from Earth. No matter where he was at, Angor always respected his teachers. Now that he regarded Sunders as his real teacher, naturally, the boy would show proper manners to him.

    ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want a wish? Let¡¯s say, if you ask me to save that previous teacher of yours, I willply,¡± Sunders said.

    Angor wavered at Sunders¡¯ suggestion. If Sunders personally helped out, Jon would certainly be saved. But... Angor thought about Jon¡¯s identity¡ªan illegal traveler from another world. What would Sunders do if he found this out? Angor was unsure. Considering how wizards treated otherworldly creatures, it would not be anything pleasant.

    With that in mind, Angor decided to improve himself and go save Jon on his own. This way, Jon would not be exposed.

    After Angor made it clear that he would not wish for anything, Sunders only nodded with a smile and did not say anything further. However, the man was regarding Angor with a more pleasing expression now.

    Next, Sunders told Angor some other things to note and something rted to the Nightmare Realm. The man was mostly interested in Angor¡¯s experience inside the Glutton Flower tunnel, so Angor told that part of his story many times. He almost slipped his secret about the shlight at one point.

    Before Angor left the room, Sunders pointed to the bar stand, ¡°Take your paintings with you.¡±

    Angor looked to the direction and found the two oil paintings he brought back from the Nightmare Realm.

    They were ced upright, so Angor could observe the paintings from his position. He nced at the Milking Shepherd unconsciously and did not notice anything in particr.

    ... If he did keep the images in his tablet, he would see if those paintings were the same as they were.

 Chapter 116 - Painting That Did Not Exist

    <h4>Chapter 116: Painting That Did Not Exist</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After leaving Sunders¡¯ room, Angor walked down the stairs and halted at a fork. The left led to the deck of The Savage airship while the right side would take him to the cabins.

    A momentter, Angor walked onto the deck. There were no people here. Angor stretched himself and approached the safety fence.

    The cold breeze in the evening flipped his clothes up like blowing a broken balloon.

    Angor felt really refreshed after a day and a night¡¯s sleep. However, he also felt his mind somewhat confused, so he came here to rx in the cold air.

    His travel in the Nightmare Realm appeared peaceful to onlookers, but Angor knew how tensed up he was. When he was flying in the maze, every turn made his heart heavier because he always feared some monsters were waiting for him. He managed to suppress all the pressure using his mental capabilities. Once he returned, the pressure came springing back as well.

    Such kind of backfire prevented him from doing anything efficiently even if he rested his spirit. He really wanted to go back to his room and start training on the channeling method now so that he could see the world of supernaturals earlier. Yet, he controlled his urge.

    The airship cruised under the starry sky and among the clouds.

    Angor leaned against the fence and closed his eyes to enjoy the cold yet pleasant peace.

    Suddenly, he felt someone nudging him on the back, which shocked him. There was only empty space thousands of meters above the ground behind him, so how...

    He turned around immediately.

    He saw a pair of bare feet in front of him. It was Flora. Also, she did not nudge him. She was giving the boy a yful kick.

    Flora floated in the air and looked at Angor with a smiley face.

    ¡°You¡¯re too young to act all pretentious. What are you thinking about anyway?¡± Flora squinted her eyes. ¡°Are you in love? I saw you having a great time with that Nausica. Did you two... Heehee.¡±

    Angor was not really in good condition to work his brain now, so he did not try to use his manners in front of Flora. He only greeted her casually. As for Flora¡¯s joke, the boy only gave azy response, ¡°I don¡¯t even know where my life will take me to, and I really don¡¯t have time for these matters. Miss Flora, pray stop your teasing.¡±

    Angor was still young to know love. He was not interested in love. He would rather avoid thinking about it.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Flora did not insist on it. She then said, ¡°I¡¯m here to deliver something.¡±

    Angor nced at her. The woman took out a white, round object out of thin air and tossed it to Angor.

    ¡°The professor decided to take the dagger and magic cane away, as his memento. Aspensation, he asked me toe.¡±

    Using the gentle moonlight, Angor observed the thin, round item with an uneven surface. It looked like a big button. The material felt hard, but it was not cold like metal or porcin. Was it made of bone?

    The front side of the ¡°button¡± had the word ¡°Brute Cavern¡± printed on it, and the image of a burning me. Angor knew that this was Brute Cavern¡¯s emblem.

    ¡°This is an anonymous Bone Card with ten thousand merit points in it. Once you get yourself a name card, you can transfer the points under your name. Merits point act as amon currency in Brute Cavern. You need points to buy materials, learn lessons or exchange for items. These points are thepensation professor paid you.¡±

    Flora did not tarry. She waved goodbye at Angor and floated away right away.

    <i>Bone Card? Yes, this was made of bone alright.</i>

    Angor dly took the card. After spending so much time in Sunders¡¯ library, Angor clearly knew what he could do with the merit points. Ten thousand was not much though. These points held value simr to a hundred magic crystals or so.

    A hundred magic crystals were quite a fortune to apprentices. To wizards... negligible.

    ¡°A good amount of magic crystals before reaching Brute Cavern,¡± Angor put away the card and mumbled happily. Combined with the bag of crystals from Greya, Angor possessed 130 magic crystals now. He could be considered pretty rich among most apprentices.

    With the help of his new ie, Angor¡¯sziness disappeared a lot. He rubbed his sore temples, picked up the two oil painting from the floor and left the deck.

    Once he was back in his room, Angor put the paintings aside. He closed the door and then lied on the bed.

    His first task was the check his recordings. He even took out his nket and covered himself up before taking out his pocket watch, just in case.

    Unlike when he was in the Nightmare Realm, the hologram tablet started up just fine. Angor saw his recordings soon.

    After going through the folder with his videos and images and saw all the files he saved, Angor let out a sigh in relief.

    Seemed like the recordings worked as intended during his journey in the Nightmare Realm. However, Angor could not help but wonder how did he manage to take the tablet with him. ording to Sunders, the clothes on his soul were not real. Anything on him would not break at all. Like how he did not bleed out under younger Sunders¡¯ attack.

    <i>Then why didn¡¯t the hologram tablet obey such rules? The tablet went into the Nightmare Realm as a solid object?</i>

    Angor did not know. He had to wait for another chance to prove his idea by going to that ce again.

    Now that he knew his recordings were not lost, all was good. Otherwise, he would be really frustrated about it.

    Since the recordings were safe, Angor did not proceed to read the contents right away. He opened a video with the intention to check whether the Milking Shepherd was a false memory.

    He did not see such a painting when he stepped into the hallway for the first time. During the second trip though, the painting somehow appeared in front of him.

    He was unsure if he simply remembered wrongly, or if there was some other reason. He wanted to make sure now.

    The video was pretty long. Angor moved the progress bar to the point when he entered the warden¡¯s passageway.

    In the video, Angor was observing the oil paintings along the walls while walking in the golden hallway.

    The camera was not really stable, but Angor could still see the paintings when the camera went over them.

    Angor did not stop walking in the video. Soon, he saw Traveler Under Stars.

    And... there! When a ck oil painting came into view, Angor pressed Pause.

 Chapter 117 - Arrival At Brute Cavern (1)

    <h4>Chapter 117: Arrival At Brute Cavern (1)</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Angor in the hologram halted. Everything within his view around him was restored in the holographic projection.

    Angor was not interested in any of the oil paintings, except the one with a dark theme which drew all of his attention.

    It was a realistic portrait of two people. A man and a woman.

    Beneath the ck painting curtain, a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache was sitting on a leather wing chair, positioned on the front of the painting. He was wearing a dark red vest with whiteced edges. The woman appeared young, maybe 16 or 17. She wore a ssic bright green strapped leather skirt. She had beautiful blond hair, which was folded into an updo like a flower. She rested her head upon the back of the chair, revealing an innocent and joyful smile.

    A line of small, white ornamental letters was printed on the upper-right corner of the oil painting. If Angor did not look closely, he would think those were sewings on the ck curtain.

    Angor zoomed the picture in until he could read the letters clearly.

    ¡°Recording the sixth birthday of Margaret¡ªFranklin.¡±

    <i>Margaret?</i>

    Angor saw this name before. She was the daughter of the warden.

    Considering how Margaret was showing affection to the man in the painting, Angor took a guess that this man was the warden of Stairs of Hanging Prison.

    <i>So Franklin must be his name? Or was it referring to whoever created this painting?</i>

    Angor shut down the tablet and confirmed his assumption. Just as he believed, the Milking Shepherd was not on the hallway wall before.

    <i>Why did ¡°Father and Daughter¡± be ¡°Milking Shepherd¡±? Did someone rece it? Or was there something else?</i>

    Angor picked up the Milking Shepherd to look. It was only an ordinary artwork. So where did the Father and Daughter go? If someone did rece the painting, why? Was someone trying to hide the identities of the family?

    Angor could not figure out anything. He only believed it had something to do with the Nightmare Realm in the end.

    ...

    After a night¡¯s sleep, Angor woke up early, fed Toby, and began reading the training manual that Sunders gave him.

    He had barely progressed several minutes before someone started knocking on his door.

    Sailum¡¯s excited voice came from outside, ¡°Angor. Hey Angor!¡±

    Angor opened the door and saw Sailum being all happy for some reason.

    ¡°You¡¯re up already? Then why didn¡¯t youe out?¡± The boy said.

    ¡°Come out? Why?¡± Angor did not know what Sailum was talking about.

    ¡°To the deck! I thought you already knew that we¡¯re arriving at Brute Cavern today? The first mate said we¡¯ll get there in the morning. All talents are on the deck. Let¡¯s go!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s good and all but... why the deck?¡± Angor looked at Sailum up and down. The boy wrapped himself in thick clothes from head to toe. ¡°It¡¯s cold up there. You aren¡¯t afraid of catching a cold now?¡±

    Sailum took out his hands from his pockets and Angor realized the boy was wearing thick cotton gloves as well.

    ¡°I have protection this time. Isn¡¯t this a memorial moment? Don¡¯t you want to watch Brute Cavern from up above?¡±

    To observe the ce he was going to live in for a long time... Angor thought about this idea and decided toply.

    Following Sailum¡¯s example, Angor ¡°armed himself up¡± for good, took Toby with him and followed behind Sailum.

    On their way, Angor saw more talentsing out of their rooms. Looked like they all shared the same idea ¨C to see what Brute Caven looked like from the air. That would both satisfy their curiosity as well as giving them an idea about thendscape so they could make future ns better.

    When they reached the outside, the sight of Hookdick attracted Angor¡¯s attention immediately. He was standing among three or four people and making some kind of publicizing speech while thumping his chest. The man looked really proud of something.

    Angor only gave him a brief glimpse. He joined Sailum near the fence on the right side where Nausica was spitting smoke clouds, looking amazingly sexy.

    ¡°Miss Nausica!¡± Sailum greeted her happily.

    Nausica looked up, ¡°Ah, you came too.¡±

    ¡°Yup. I wonder how Brute Cavern looks like. They said wizard organizations are all secretly built and that mortals can¡¯t find the entrances,¡± said Sailum. He looked full of expectation as he continued, ¡°My mother used to tell me about the story of the Moon Castle. Maybe Brute Cavern is like that, which only shows itself under the moonlight?¡±

    ¡°Who knows? Maybe. When I was at ckberry Waters, I heard a rumor that an organization was built on coral clusters. I wanted to go find it before. I¡¯ve never expected that my destiny would bring me to Brute Cavern instead,¡± Nausica replied.

    ¡°Wizards on corals... That sounds so fantastic,¡± Sailum began his imagination again.

    ¡°An organization on corals? You mean White Coral Floating Ind Academy?¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°Oh, something like that. Why? You know about them, Angor?¡± Nausica wondered.

    Angor smiled, ¡°Just like you, I was following a guide to the academy. Then something changed my destination, and now I¡¯m going to Brute Cavern as well.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re luckier than me. I didn¡¯t have a guide. I was totally wandering my way about to find this... White Coral Floating Ind Academy,¡± Nausica let out another smoke ring. She then said, ¡°I was too naive. If I didn¡¯t find something along the way, I would have perished at the bottom of the sea.¡±

    Considering what she saw on Devil¡¯s Water, those boundless thunderclouds... She should totally be worried.

    ¡°Angor, do you know if White Coral Floating Ind Academy is a colorful ce like the Moon Castle?¡± Sailum asked eagerly.

    Angor shook his head, ¡°I never went there, but I saw the picture of another wizard organization from a book. It¡¯s called Floating Mech City, a giant metal city floating above the clouds. Only supernaturals can reach that ce while mortals can only look up at it on the ground.¡±

    As the most famous trading city in the southern wizard world, Floating Mech City was open to all wizards. Of course, there were pictures of it in all kinds of books.

    ¡°A city on the clouds! That sounds more fun than an academy on corals,¡± Sailum had stars shining in his eyes now. He was dreaming of going through the clouds and see the vast city at the end of the sky which released an attractive beam of light.

    Apart from Floating Mech City, Angor also went to Nether City, so he briefly told them something about the ancient wizard ruins which wereter called the ¡°Garden of Labyrinth¡±.

    Wizards living on top of corals, a metal fortress among the clouds, a citybining mazes and gardens... Their imaginations went wild.

    ¡°I wonder what Brute Cavern is like?¡± Sailum believed that, as one of the top ten organizations in the south, surely Brute Cavern would bring him lots of surprises.

    However, he would be disappointed soon.

 Chapter 118 - Arrival At Brute Cavern (2)

    <h4>Chapter 118: Arrival At Brute Cavern (2)</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The airship ¡°The Savage¡± was fast. The scenery on the ground kept shifting. Lush forest and flower fields soon became rivers and raging waves.

    About half an hourter, Angor felt the air getting thin and it was difficult to breathe. He looked aside and saw Sailum¡¯s lips went pale. The boy¡¯s nostrils were working rapidly, releasing lumps of white vapor.

    ¡°You okay Sailum?¡± Angor asked worriedly.

    Sailum¡¯s cheeks were red, and his eyes were not concentrating. He replied in a weak voice, ¡°I¡¯m fine. Just... a little dizzy, about to... throw up something.¡±

    ¡°The Savage is currently flying on Parmigi Hignds,¡± The first mate announced in the speakers. ¡°We¡¯re arriving in 30 minutes. All talents, prepare to depart.¡±

    ¡°The Parmigi Hignds lies along the border between Goman Kingdom and Evernight Kingdom, with an average altitude of 3,500 meters,¡± Angor thought about the map he read in Sunders¡¯ library.

    Then he put a hand on Sailum¡¯s forehead. It felt hot. Sailum¡¯s face was all red like a ripe apple.

    ¡°I think he got altitude sickness when we¡¯re going up too fast,¡± said Angor. He checked Sailum¡¯s pupils before saying, ¡°It isn¡¯t serious. He just needs more oxygen.¡±

    ¡°What should we do?¡± Nausica quenched her pipe and approached Sailum, concerned about the boy¡¯s health.

    Sailum tripped and was about to fall. Angor acted quickly and caught him, ¡°Get him off the deck for now. The cold air in the sky will make it worse.¡±

    Angor and Nausica assisted Sailum away.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go to themon room and get some hot water. Hydration is important in such a situation,¡± Angor suggested.

    Besides hot water, themon room also had sufficient oxygen thanks to the magic arrays.

    ¡°You know healing skills too?¡± Nausica chuckled at Angor. They had ced Sailum on the resting bench. Nausica was getting water for him.

    Angor rubbed some of the positions on Sailum¡¯s body skillfully to sooth his condition as he exined, ¡°I know some first-aid. My previous teacher taught me.¡±

    ¡°Your teacher is a doctor?¡± Nausica handed a ss of water to Sailum.

    Sailum was blushing. He hid his face under his scarf in embarrassment. Angor reached under his clothes to rub his acupuncture points earlier. Such an unknown technique felt really weird, and Sailum wanted to stop Angor. Amazingly though, the stress in his chest faded a little after being massaged.

    However, he still wanted to hide in shame.

    Sailum took the water ss and hid his face behind it.

    Angor did not notice Sailum¡¯s bashful response. Back in Padt Manor, he always used such Chinese massage to help his teacher, Jon, and he got used to such ¡°close touch on the skin¡±. He saw such a technique as an ordinary way of treatment, and he forgot that no one in this world knew what he was doing.

    ¡°No,¡± Angor remembered his days living with Jon. No matter what Angor asked, his teacher always provided ideas. Jon was a real schr who knew everything in heaven above and the earth underneath.

    ¡°My previous teacher was a knowledgeable man,¡± said Angor. He preferred not to talk about Jon too much. Jon¡¯s identity was a sensitive topic. He knew Nausica was only looking for casual chats, but Angor would avoid unnecessary trouble.

    After resting in themon room, Sailum¡¯s condition became a lot better. The redness on his face vanished.

    He wanted to go to the deck again to watch Brute Cavern from above.

    ¡°Don¡¯t. We¡¯re getting off soon. We¡¯ll live there anyway, just take it slow.¡± Angor stopped him.

    Nausica had been looking out of the window, ¡°Well, even if you go there now, you won¡¯t see what you wanted to see.¡±

    The scenery outside could clearly be seen from the small ss window. The entire hignd area was covered in brown and green. There was nothing that stood tall on the ground, only smaller, cold-resistant vegetations. They could not see the end of the hignds. Everything looked the same.

    The ground was uneven. Higher areas were mostly broad and t, with asional snow patches. Most ces had grass on them.

    Such a barrennd waspletely contradictory to the ¡°amazing and colorful ce¡± Sailum expected.

    Sailum peeked from the window with a disappointed expression. He still had hope. They had not seen any structures from here, and that meant there could be surprises.

    However, another announcement from the first mate interrupted his idea.

    ¡°Arriving. The Savage is about tond. All talents gather at the exit.¡±

    They could feel the airship going down slowly. Sailum checked from the window again. There was only destion.

    Nausica smiled at him, ¡°We¡¯re already lucky enough to join Brute Cavern. Try not to think too much.¡± She turned away, ¡°I¡¯m going to get my things. Let¡¯s meet at the exit.¡±

    Angor bid farewell to the sulking Sailum and returned to his room for his luggage and bird.

    On the narrow passageway in the airship, Angor ran into the other talents, who all snickered at him. They probably should, considering how Angor looked like.

    He was carrying too much and most of his luggage belonged to Toby!

    The tworge oil paintings made his packet extra oversized. He was like bringing a traveling tent with him. Of course, those who saw him were allughing in secret.

    Angorined at Toby, who disregarded its master with a raised beak. Angor messed up Toby¡¯s feathers in frustration until they began to ball up and Toby tweeted in protest, which did not help the bird escape from Angor¡¯s ¡°demonic fiddle¡±. In the end, Angor still had to carry all the stuff.

    Angor reached the gathering point with a pile of things on his back. He did not see Sunders and Flora. Only the talents and Phantom Servants were here.

    The talents walked off the airship one after one, following the instructions of the servants.

    When everyone had left the ship, the Phantom Servants boarded The Savage again and disappeared from people¡¯s view.

    Ten talents and a bird stood on the barren, brown earth.

    The cold wind on the hignds blew over, causing everyone to shiver.

    People looked around. They only saw endless grass fields. They were standing on the slope of a teau, with a bottomless abyss about a hundred meters away from their position. Every direction led to more wastnd. There were no traces of buildings.

    So... where was Brute Cavern?

 Chapter 119 - Arrival At Brute Cavern (3)

    <h4>Chapter 119: Arrival At Brute Cavern (3)</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The cold wind on the hignds removed heat from their bodies rapidly like sharp knives taking away blood.

    Today was the sixth day of thetter half of the Month of Harvest. They did not know Brute Cavern was located on hignds, so most people were wearing shorts and light clothing. Now, the cold air made them shiver like mad.

    ¡°Gods beyond. Not a single soul around? Are we abandoned?¡± A young man wearing ck and white striped cotton hat knelt down and yelled. He even went down sprawling as he cried.

    The knight sword wrapped in tattered cloth on his waist hit the ground along with his action, creating a loud and clear metal noise.

    ¡°Ah... It¡¯s so painful to be abandoned. How my heart pained. Oh no, I¡¯m not going to make it...¡± He rolled on the ground in an exaggerated manner.

    People around him slowly moved away while iming that they did not know this man at all.

    A bulky man with handlebar mustache crouched beside him with a smile, ¡°Hey, I saw some winter flowers over there. We can make a good dish using ketchup and oxtail tenderloin.¡±

    Then he nudged the young man on the ground, ¡°Ondo, wanna have some for lunch?¡±

    The young man named Ondo quickly brightened up and nodded rapidly, ¡°Yes, yes! I¡¯ll eat it!¡±

    ¡°Get up then.¡±

    Ondo stood up like a good kid and moved behind the mustache man with admiration showed on his expression.

    The mustache man turned to the other people and silently revealed an ¡°I got him¡± using his lips.

    Angor was intrigued by their small interaction. Now he thought about it, there were only a few people among the talents of Brute Cavern who were not showing hostility to him. The mustache man and Ondo were two of them.

    ¡°I¡¯m Roffig, from ckwing Continent,¡± said the mustache man as he addressed everyone. Next, he pointed to the young man behind him and said, ¡°This is Ondo, a close friend of mine. He¡¯s a little silly, please excuse him.¡±

    With that, Roffig dragged Ondo away and joined the crowd.

    Roffig and Ondo did not show up much in front of everyone. Previously, people thought they were arrogant. Looked like they were wrong.

    Sailum pulled on Angor¡¯s clothes and whispered, ¡°Ondo has a strange temperament, but he¡¯s the only one who¡¯s qualified as a formal knight among us. Don¡¯t underestimate him.¡±

    The qualification as a knight was a dream to Sailum before he heard about the wizarding world, so the boy was extra interested in this character who was carrying a knight sword.

    ¡°What do we do now? Are we tricked? There¡¯s no one here,¡± A pockmark-faced young man who often hung around Hookdick spoke in discontentment.

    ¡°Did they drop us in the middle of nowhere because they think we don¡¯t have enough talent?¡± A fatty standing beside the pockmark boy spoke this time. He sounded like he was about to cry as he said, ¡°I want my mother, I want to go home...¡±

    Despite the weeping tone, his eyes proved that he was not sad at all.

    Once he drew everyone¡¯s attention with his voice, the fatty immediately changed the topic, ¡°I miss my mom, I miss home. I want to eat the ketchup ox tenderloin and the, the flower or something...¡±

    ¡°Idiot. The winter flower!¡± The pockmark boy added.

    It was obvious that these two people were acting.

    Hearing their speech, everyone glimpsed at Roffig who had been hiding among the crowd.

    Roffig rolled his eyes at the sky helplessly.

    ¡°Another strange pair,¡± Angor mumbled. The pockmark boy and the fatty seemed to be Hookdick¡¯s handymen or something. Every time he walked by, he would receive hostile snickers from them. Angor thought these two people were merely someone up to no good. But... wow. They had no shame.

    <i>Hookdick epted such people as followers? Wouldn¡¯t he get tricked?</i>

    Angor peeked at Hookdick and realized the violent chieftain had covered his face as if he felt ashamed in front of everyone.

    <i>Well... he is already in a bad position anyway.</i>

    Angor silently looked away.

    Roffig never responded to the fatty¡¯s ¡°request¡±, so thetter was still screaming. It was the only thing people could hear on the tranquil teau.

    A low and raucous voice suddenly boomed out of the terrible crying and reached everyone¡¯s ears like thunder.

    ¡°Shut up or I¡¯ll kill you.¡±

    It was a bald young man with dark-brown skin.

    He was not wearing anything on his upper half, and those stomach muscles shined like tempered and oiled steel. Short, tight leather pants covered part of his legs, revealing thick leg hair above a pair of chamois leather boots. He also had a loincloth with a tiger-stripe pattern around his waist.

    His exposed skin did not shrink due to the coldness. Instead, it gave out a glimmer like the palm oil under the strong ultraviolet light on the hignds, giving him a wild look.

    ¡°Balba!¡± Everyone on the scene silently called his name in their minds.

    As the strongest being among the talents, Balba¡¯s warning instantly silenced the fatty. Hookdick slowly lowered his head as he tried to hide his expression which was mixed with disdain and fear.

    Even Nausica would avoid getting involved in Balba¡¯s anger.

    Everyone stopped talking after Balba¡¯s outburst. The absolute silence remained for ten full minutes until it was broken by a small voice.

    ¡°Angor, do you know what¡¯s going on?¡±

    It was Sailum. The boy tried to talk to Angor as softly as he could. However, since it was too quiet around here, people could still hear him.

    Sailum noticed what he just did as well. His face went pale and he nced at Balba, fearing that he would get scolded like the fatty.

    Balba did not say anything this time. Instead, he directed a questioning look toward Angor.

    Well, everyone else was looking at Angor.

    Most of the people hated Angor. Yet, at the same time, they all knew that Angor had some rtionship with the wizard on the cloud whale, considering how Angor was allowed to enter the wizard¡¯s tent.

    This unknown situation was the reason why Hookdick did not dare to attack Angor openly. To slowly weaken the boy¡¯s defense, Hookdick tried to pick on those around Angor. Too bad, he got squashed by Nausica in the process.

    Nausica, Hookdick, Balba... and everyone else had their attention on Angor at this moment.

    Angor remained calm. He secretly nced at somewhere in the sky as he talked to them slowly, ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I think they want us to wait, and it won¡¯t take long. Take it easy.¡±

    Angor put a hand on Sailum¡¯s shoulder tofort the boy.

    They felt something weird in those words, but that was about it. People did not give it much thought.

    Well, except for three people. Nausica seemed to be considering something carefully upon hearing Angor, but she got rid of her expression soon and put on her usual joyful attitude.

    Ondo was the second one. He had a strange and childish character, but he still realized something.

    The third one was Balba. As a half-blood from another world, Balba possessed both raw, otherworldly strength, and the same level of intelligence of humans, if not better.

    ¡°Thanks!¡± Nausica expressed something to Angor secretly using lipnguage.

    On the other side, Ondo and Balba also nodded to Angor in acknowledgment. They did not say anything, but at least they revealed friendliness.

    Angor smiled mildly at their reaction. He meant it when he said he did not know what was going on, just...

    He nced at a certain direction in the sky again and sighed helplessly.

 Chapter 120 - Commenting

    <h4>Chapter 120: Commenting</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    On top of the endless teau, ten talents stayed idle in various positions, not knowing what to do.

    They did not know that five wizards were floating not far from them. With their figures concealed, they were whispering to each other.

    ¡°What¡¯s the deal with the boy carrying a bird on his shoulder? Did he see us?¡± An old man with a gentle look asked. He was white all over; white robe, white hair, white eyebrows, and beard...

    A witch with red hair and a fine body shape revealed some spell light in her eyes as she replied, ¡°Can¡¯t be. He¡¯s just a mortal, without any mana flow in him, and I sense no spiritual model on him.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s strange. I think he looked at us, or am I seeing things?¡± The old man muttered to himself and turned toward another two people with a disgusted look.

    ¡°Sunders, YOU found these talents. Why are they all weirdos? And there are only ten of them! You just created a new record for us Brute Cavern. The worst recruitment record! So how are we supposed to arrange them among us? Well, I don¡¯t care. I could use some errand boys. I¡¯ll take seven or eight!¡± said the old man. He moved up his sleeves as if ready for a big fight.

    Ness, a tiny old man with gray hair who stood across from Sunders snickered. He gave Sunders a ¡°See? I knew it¡± look.

    Sunders was also watching the talents. However, he was only paying attention to Angor alone. He too wondered how Angor saw their presence. Also, Sunders was sure Angor must have noticed them as the boy looked at their direction twice. When people asked Angor questions, the boy even hid something in his answer...

    ¡°You hear? Eight! I want at least eight!¡± said the white old man. He rushed in front of Sunders and blocked the man¡¯s view with his big, aged face.

    Sunders stared at him, speechless.

    Flora, who had been floating near Sunders, rolled her eyes so drastically as if she could see through the back of her head. The old bastard was asking ¡°seven or eight¡± just a second ago, but now he wanted eight straight. He was changing his mind too fast.

    However, Flora had no intention to speak up. The old man looked gentle on the outside, but when it came to making scenes and talking nonsense, he was second to none in the entire Brute Cavern. Flora would avoid getting involved with him at all cost.

    Still, the old man was not someone who could do as he wished. As far as Flora knew, Sunders was his natural nemesis.

    ¡°Nine,¡± Sunders spoke slowly.

    The white old man revealed an ¡°are you sure??¡± expression, which was soon reced by great joy. He tried to suppress his excitement as he asked, ¡°Did you say there are nine people?¡±

    Sunders nodded.

    The old manughed. He put down his sleeves and got rid of his ready-to-fight attitude while putting on a ¡°this elder is satisfied with you youngsters¡± expression.

    ¡°Not bad Sunders, you did well. Since you¡¯re willing to give me nine of them, I¡¯ll dly ept them.¡±

    With that, the old man prepared to pick his prize. His final conclusion was to take everyone except the half-blood.

    After the old man made his decision, Sunders slowly spoke again, ¡°I said there are only nine talents this time, not ten.¡±

    The old man froze. So, instead of giving him nine people, Sunders was correcting his mistake? He nced at the half-blood named ¡°Balba¡±. Well, without that guy, there were nine people alright.

    The old man turned to look at Sunders with squinted eyes. He asked, ¡°What? You changed your mind?¡±

    He was obviously going to y dumb again. He did not care what Sunders meant.

    In fact, he had already put up an ¡°I¡¯m ready for some quarrellin¡¯!¡± look.

    Sunders gave him a cold gaze as he replied, ¡°Nine. Aside from the boy with a bird, you can have the rest, and I don¡¯t care.¡±

    Sunders continued, ¡°Wace, you can give up your petty tricks. Even if I allow you to take all nine people with you, do you really think you can actually have them?¡±

    The white old man was Wace, a representative academism wizard in Brute Cavern.

    Of course, Wace knew that despite their decision, the academism would not im all the talents. They needed to follow certain rules when arranging human resources.

    ¡°You only found ten talents. It¡¯s your fault anyway,¡± Wace mumbled aint.

    ¡°Really? I¡¯ll leave the recruitment job to you next time,¡± Sunders said.

    Wace¡¯s face turned green. He quickly waved his hands and faked several coughs, ¡°I¡¯m too old for this. Let¡¯s ask the youngsters to do this job...¡±

    Sunders sneered, ¡°We¡¯re of the same age.¡±

    ¡°...¡± Wace was speechless.

    ¡°And I¡¯ll make it clear again. Nine talents, the winners from deathmatches in the nine chambers. Not ten,¡± said Sunders.

    Wace cast a side-look at Sunders, ¡°Then what was about that bird kid? He isn¡¯t one of the talents? Just so you know, I already checked. He has 15 spiritual power, so he¡¯s absolutely a talent.¡±

    Sunders smiled, ¡°Because he is my student.¡±

    Apart from Flora and Ness, who already knew the matter, Wace and the red-hair witch both stared at Sunders in shock.

    Sunders... THE Sunders actually found a student for himself?!

    ...

    It took some time for them to get over their surprise and return to their original temperament. Now, Wace and the red-hair witch began to inspect Sunders¡¯ new student with extra care.

    Wace watched Angor¡¯s movements and manners for a long time.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think the kid goes well with Sunders.¡±

    Sunders did not say anything. Instead, he directed a terrifying gaze at Wace as if throwing knives at him.

    ¡°... Ahem! The talents have waited for quite a while now, and we already see their reactions in the situation. Let¡¯s start talking about our impressions,¡± said the gray-haired old shortie, Ness. They dropped the talents on the teau to test their psychological properties, which was thest test before they were admitted into Brute Cavern.

    Ness never showed up in front of the talents during their trip, but he had been recording their characteristics in secret. After finishing this final test, he would create personal profiles for them, and write downments about these talents together with Sunders.

    Thements would be left on their profiles. Usually, wizards referred to thesements when they chose their apprentices.

    Thesements were different from the messages used for students in mortal schools. Mortals usually described good virtues, such as kindness, friendliness, and generosity. These things were not important standards for wizards to determine apprentices. For wizards, selfishness, arrogance, cruelty, and irritability were sometimes better traits.

    ¡°Who¡¯s going first?¡± Ness looked around.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± said the red-hair witch as she stepped up.

    Ness nodded, ¡°We¡¯ll start from Fiery Charm then.¡±

    The witch called ¡°Fiery Charm¡± reached out a hand and pointed to one of the talents, ¡°I¡¯m interested in the young man called Ondo. He¡¯s willful, childish, and self-centered, but he knows how to control himself, and he has a sharp mind. When interacting with his friend, he had shown great loyalty.¡±

 Chapter 121 - A Good Boy

    <h4>Chapter 121: A Good Boy</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°He¡¯s too impatient though. The Savage only left several minutes ago and he started crying aloud. What an eyesore,¡± said Fiery Charm. She suddenly switched her attitude as she said, ¡°Bad patience, can¡¯t get over loneliness... Someone like that would never be a wizard.¡±

    Ness nodded. ¡°Ondo has been acting low profile on the airship and nevermitted any big mistakes. But that was thanks to his friend, a talent named Roffig. Roffig has been constraining him. Otherwise, that Ondo would have caused a lot more conflict with the other talents.¡±

    ¡°If you put it like that, they mightpensate each other if they stay together.¡± Fiery Charm smiled.

    ¡°Correct. Ondo has a decent talent but a bad character while Roffig possesses a calm temperament but only average talent. These two can make a finebination,¡± Ness exined.

    ¡°So...¡± Fiery Charm was going to make a conclusion when Wace suddenly revealed a wicked smile.

    ¡°So they must be separated when we arrange apprentices. One of them should stay above the mirror while the other stays below. They won¡¯t get any teamwork in Brute Cavern,¡± Wace said.

    Fiery Charm and Ness were taken aback a little but they nodded in the end instead of retorting.

    Ness said, ¡°Let¡¯s do just that. Good teamwork is based on good individual properties. Otherwise, a team won¡¯t work out. These two will not see each other again before bing High Apprentices.¡±

    Ness took out two bone cards¡ªthe name cards for Ondo and Roffig. Ness used a special method to script thement into their profiles.

    Next, Wace looked at the pockmark boy and the fatty, ¡°Let¡¯s talk about the next pair.¡±

    Ness followed his direction and exined in a low voice, ¡°The one with the marked face is Laffitte, and the fat one is called Fosah. They appeared more interesting than the previousbination. They know some really childish tricks but they have potential. They neitherpensate nor assist each other¡¯s faults. Let¡¯s just say, they are the ill kind who were drawn to each other. I¡¯m curious to see what they can achieve.¡±

    Ness nodded with his own assessment of them. He then continued, ¡°They both have average talent. They regarded Hookdick as their boss and proposed to be his underling. However, they are actually plotting something else, so they are only obeying Hookdick on the outside to satisfy his ego. They¡¯re still young, and they can keep developing like that.¡±

    Ness took out bone cards for Laffitte and Fosah and put theirments in them.

    ¡°Heeheehee. As ady, I¡¯ll say something about that pirate boss,¡± Flora¡¯s voice came.

    ¡°A female pirate?¡± Fiery Charm looked toward the beautiful woman who had been smoking her pipe with a calm expression. She was the only female talent. Fiery Charm was not expecting that she was actually a pirate.

    ¡°Nausica, renowned pirate on ckberry Waters. Pirates usually have ugly names, but not this one. She oppressed and united all evil forces in the area and has a heart of justice. Common folks all regard her as a hero. Even if some of the authorities tried to discredit her name, people were never convinced,¡± said Flora. Instead ofmenting on Nausica herself, Flora talked about her background story first. She then added, ¡°She¡¯s a natural leader, knows how to talk. She¡¯s sturdy, calm, and flexible when dealing with people, and has a good talent. I give her my best score among all the talents we recruited this time.¡±

    It seemed Ness also regarded Nausica highly, and mostly wrote down positivements. Good traits were not the only elements for wizards to choose apprentices, so Nausica still had to use her own effort and luck to forge her future.

    ¡°I¡¯ll say something about Hookdick,¡± said Ness as he finished Nausica¡¯s profile and pointed to the man full of arrogance written on the face.

    ¡°This man is extremely narrow-minded. He used to be the chieftain of a tribe located on a primitive continent. He killed lots of people, and he even eats them,¡± said Ness.

    Wace and Fiery Charm revealed a disgusted expression upon hearing those words. Most wizards were cruel and selfish, true. However, they usually did not bother mortals. It was an unspoken rule among all wizards.

    Ness continued, ¡°He has a good talent which is rtively close to my art. If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯m nning to ept him as my student.¡±

    Wace nodded, ¡°Fine. You can make him into a good killer.¡±

    With Hookdick finished, there were three people remaining. Sailum, Balba, and Ebony.

    ¡°Sailum is the youngest talent in this batch. He¡¯s a dedicate book lover who is obsessed with keeping his book clean even if his own body goes dirty,¡± said Ness. He told them several stories about how Sailum was preupied with his books and made a conclusion.

    Wace was quite fond of Sailum¡¯s characteristic as he said, ¡°A good kid. He would make a fine academism student. Oh right, how did he survive the deathmatches?¡±

    Sunders humphed without speaking, seemingly having a negative idea about Sailum.

    Flora exined to him, ¡°Heehee. Him? He feigned death. Many tried to y dead in the deathmatches, but Sailum was the only one who did that from the very beginning and stayed that way for an entire week.¡±

    <i>So that was why! No wonder Sunders disdained Sailum like that. </i>Wace did not mind Sailum¡¯s method since ying dead was also a viable tactic. He even made it out in the end, which meant the boy had some superior patience, concentration, and luck.

    Fiery Charm pointed to Ebony, ¡°Compared to the others, this one is doing his best to find a way out.¡±

    They looked. As she said, Ebony was looking about, either trying to find an exit or the entrance of Brute Cavern.

    ¡°He knows where to find edible nts. That¡¯s good survival skills.¡±

    Those were about everything they could say about Ebony. Then there was silence. No onemented on thest talent, Balba. As a half-blood produced by a human and an otherworldly brute, no matter how good his talent was, his fate was sealed.

    ¡°Hey, Sunders, tell us something about your student will ya? I checked over and over and didn¡¯t find anything special on him. A spiritual power of 15, which is... moderate. The boy has nice patience though. He¡¯s all calm when tossed into the wild, but that¡¯s not very important to wizards. So whatever did you want from him?¡± asked Wace. He was very curious about Angor. The old man had been observing him from the start. Also, he thought Angor already noticed their presence.

    Everything proved that Angor was aplete mortal with ordinary physical abilities. There was no way the boy could have seen them.

    <i>But he is Sunders¡¯ new student! Why on earth would an almighty killing machine in the southernnd ept a normal talent as his student?</i>

    Wace was not the only one wondering. Everyone was.

    Sunders did not answer most of Wace¡¯s questions. He only said ¡°He¡¯s a good boy¡±, and returned to being a man of few words.

    However, these simple words carried a lot of meanings.

    At the very least, Sunders himself was very satisfied with his new student, and this alone was a very strange matter. Perhaps the boy named Angor possessed some kind of talent not known to anyone else?

 Chapter 122 - A World Beneath Abyss

    <h4>Chapter 122: A World Beneath Abyss</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    They recruited only a few talents this time so the time ofmenting ended quickly.

    With that done, the wizards removed their camouge and showed up. Their time was valuable. Most of them went away on their own instead of staying.

    The gray-haired shortie Ness was the only one that descended from the sky andnded in front of the talents.

    The sudden appearance of a wizard startled everyone. They all stared and wondered why a wizard hade. Was he hiding nearby to observe their reactions?

    Ness confirmed their idea.

    ¡°We concealed ourselves to watch your temperaments, and we have already recorded your performances into your profiles. I believe you all know how you acted,¡± said Ness as he looked at the talents who were surprised by his appearance.

    Ness recalled Angor¡¯s words. The old man realized Angor already knew something like this would happen.

    ¡°I¡¯m your guide this time. Follow behind,¡± said Ness. The old man revealed a strange smile to them as he continued, ¡°But before that, let me give you a piece of advice. Follow me closely. Any straymbs will find themselves buried under the dirt very soon. The Parmigi Hignds has no shortage of rotten bones.¡±

    They did not understand the warning. None of the talents knew this ce. Would someone actually wander off instead of following him?

    However, when they saw Ness walking toward the bottomless abyss, they realized something terrible.

    The great cliff reached beyond the horizons toward two directions, which cut off their path forward. They approached it and looked down, only to see endless darkness down there.

    The abyss sat there like a giant mouth, waiting to devour those who dared to go in. The terrifying sight caused everyone to shiver.

    Ness, who had been walking in the front, revealed another eerie smile at them as he said, ¡°Our goal is just ahead. Follow me, no stragglin¡¯.¡±

    Next, under everyone¡¯s shocked gaze, Ness leaped into the great chasm without looking back.

    The remaining people exchanged puzzled looks and did not know how to react.

    ¡°Cowards. That scared you? Then stay here and die,¡± said Hookdick. He stepped up first, sneered at the other people, and followed Ness.

    As his figure disappeared, Nausica let out a smoke ring. She then shook off some tobo from her pipe and smiled at Angor as she said, ¡°I¡¯m going first.¡±

    Then she threw herself into the abyss as well.

    Angor looked at Sailum beside him. He thought this 13-year-old boy would be afraid. However, there was no such emotion in Sailum¡¯s eyes. Sailum was simply holding onto his book pouch carefully.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. The wizard asked us to follow closely, and we should listen to him,¡± said Angor. He patted Sailum¡¯s shoulder and jumped off.

    With several people taking lead already, the other talents all clenched their teeth and jumped despite their fear.

    Angor felt sharp wind hurting his face as he free-fell. There were only stone walls on the sides and endless ckness ahead. He sensed a looming death.

    He kept falling down for about two minutes when he suddenly saw something shining down below.

    As the light appeared, Angor could sense himself going down slower, as if a convection current from beneath was pushing him upward. The ¡°current¡± slowly grew stronger, allowing all the talents to descend gently like feathers.

    When Angornded inside the light, he realized he was looking at the surface of a giant mirror which was giving out all the light.

    Or rather, the world inside the mirror was releasing the light.

    Ness stood on the mirror while he supported his hunched body with a walking cane he took out from somewhere.

    Finally, thest talent slowly fell onto the mirror.

    Angor stroke the surface of the mirror curiously. It felt smooth and cold, like ice or... ss? They could clearly see through the mirror and witness another world behind it.

    A lively world with mountains, rivers, clouds, sunlight, tall buildings, and steel cableways connecting in between.

    What was that ce? Another ne? Or was it just another area hidden down below? Every talent was wondering. They all looked at Ness, expecting an answer.

    Ness cleared his throat. ¡°Now this, is Brute Cavern...¡±

    He tapped the mirror with his cane, causing a ripple to slowly spread from the connecting point. The walls around them suddenly released intense light.

    They saw countless caves, passages, and fantastic-looking, cabled structures on the walls as well as a lot of people working on them. They went in and out of the caves while collecting strange nts on the walls. Some of them were looking at the talents curiously.

    ¡°This ce is close to Darkivil Empire. There were several hundreds of cities and towns centered around Brute Cavern. The people on the walls are the residents,¡± exined Ness. He paused a bit before adding, ¡°Oh right, the Darkivil Empire is also called the Earthen Core. Humans live here, but most of them have been doing so underground and don¡¯t need to go to the surface much. This is one of the many specificities of Darkivil Empire. You will learn about this ceter.¡±

    Next, Ness pointed at the world beneath the mirror.

    ¡°The headquarter of Brute Cavern lies below the mirror. Most of you lot will be living there,¡± said Ness. He tossed ten round-shaped bone cards into the air which then circled around and flew toward their respective owner.

    ¡°The bone card is your ess token to go below. If you lose it, you¡¯ll never enter the mirror world again. The card carries your identification andment, so you should always keep it with you while staying at Brute Cavern. Remember. Once you¡¯re in there, take the card to Tree Spirit Yule as soon as possible to register your information.¡±

    Ness did not exin what kind of information exactly. The old man knocked at the mirror three times. A white, misty human figure emerged from it.

    ¡°Who dares interrupt my sleep?¡± The mist formed up into the shape of a woman but the details on her were still not clear. She added, ¡°Don¡¯t you see I¡¯m having my beauty sleep? Exin yourselves or I¡¯ll eat you all alive!¡±

    The mist woman screamed at the top of her lungs until Ness let out an embarrassing ¡°ahem!¡±, which finally caught her attention.

    ¡°Ho, it¡¯s you, shortie. Didn¡¯t you go out to find talents for us this time?¡± said the mist woman. She then turned and ¡°looked at¡± the talents, ¡°Only ten people? Oh right, Sunders was the one that went recruiting. Ten... not bad.¡±

    She paused her words and moved around her ¡°head¡±, seemingly observing something.

    ¡°He only found ten, and all weirdos too... The blond boy doesn¡¯t look bad, as for the others... ouch.¡±

    Angor was the only one with blond hair here. What the mist woman meant was obvious enough.

    Being praised for his good look, Angor should have felt content. However, he was unsure whether he should feel that way when all the ¡°weirdos¡± were directing all kinds of angry gazes at him.

    Ness realized the mist woman was about to keep up her sarcasm, so he quickly interrupted her.

    ¡°Lady Mirror, they need to attend their specialized tests soon, so I¡¯ll take them away. Would you please open up the passage for them?¡±

    Entering the mirror world did not require the presence of Lady Mirror. However, these talents who had not yet have their bone card registered must go through such a process. Otherwise, Ness would not have summoned Lady Mirror like this. She was only interested in pretty faces.

    Lady Mirror ¡°spat¡± something out and released several lumps of white mist from her fingers, which then flew into the bone cards held by the talents.

    ¡°Okay now, I¡¯ll go back to sleep. You miserable ogres, stay away from me,¡± said Lady Mirror.

    Then she considered something and spoke again, ¡°Hey you, blond boy, you¡¯re still okay. We don¡¯t get many good faces around these parts. Find a time ande have some tea with me.¡±

    With that, Lady Mirror became a mist cloud again and disappeared into the mirror.

 Chapter 123 - Three Ancestor Souls

    <h4>Chapter 123: Three Ancestor Souls</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Ness led everyone into the mirror. When they emerged from the mirror again, they arrived at the outer area of the mirror world, Tree Shade Garden.

    Ness exined to them while walking ahead, ¡°There are three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern. Lady Mirror at the entrance, the Tree Spirit here, and the Elder of Books hidden in the library. They have been alive for a very long time, and no one knows where they came from. These three souls protect Brute Cavern from falling.¡±

    ¡°Mister Wizard... How strong are they,pared to you?¡± Hookdick asked Ness politely.

    Ness nced at him and humphed, ¡°The might of ancestor souls cannot be described and certainly isn¡¯t something that can be exined by the likes of us. The only thing you need to know is that the ancestor souls are the guardians of Brute Cavern and no one should ever defy them.¡±

    Ness halted a bit before continuing, ¡°The three ancestor souls all have different fancies and tastes, but they are usually gentle. As long as you don¡¯t cause trouble first, they will not bother you. You will learn more about them in the future.¡±

    Their first impression uponing into the mirror world was that this ce was sorge!

    And the second impression, wide.

    Beforeing here, Angor thought the mirror world was like an underground hidden cave described in some of the novels from Earth. They could be several acresrge at best, but now, he could not even see the edge of this ce. ording to Ness, the mirror world was as big as the entire Marginalized Ind. However, most of thend here was unusable. Most creatures lived around the Tree of Eternity.

    The Tree of Eternity was the firstndmark they saw when entering the mirror world. The tree had a diameter of at least several kilometers and an immeasurable height. Thick leaves reached all the way into the clouds which prevented them from seeing higher.

    ¡°The Tree Spirit is the soul of Tree of Eternity,¡± Ness eximed. The magnificence of the Tree of Eternity always astonished him when he saw it.

    Ness took them toward the Tree of Eternity while telling them thendscape of the mirror world.

    Generally, the mirror world was divided into two parts ording to the rank of residents. Apprentices lived and studied on the ground area. The ground was mostly covered by the giant leaves of the Tree of Eternity. After going through the leaves, the sunlight could only cast a few light spots on the ground, thus the name of this area, Tree Shade Garden.

    Formal wizards did not live here. They stayed on the Tree of Eternity.

    Some of them lived on top of the leaves, some inside leaf veins, some even stayed on clouds. The Tree of Eternity was extremelyrge, which prated countless floating clouds in the sky. Wizards could pick wherever they liked. There was one thing worth noticing. Most wizards living on the Tree of Eternity lived in solitude, and they were possessed with protecting their territories. The area within several kilometers around a wizard¡¯s residence was considered forbidden ground, and anyone who trespassed without gaining the wizard¡¯s permission would face severe consequences. Even if against the apprentices of Brute Cavern, those wizards would not show any mercy.

    When the group reached the base of the Tree of Eternity, Ness had exined most of the ce.

    ¡°Good. My job ends here. If you have other questions, go into the hall of the tree spirit and ask them yourself,¡± Ness said that as he prepared to leave.

    Hookdick, who had been following closely behind Ness all the way, suddenly asked a question, ¡°Mister Wizard, would you please enlighten us by telling us your name?¡±

    Well, they sure did not know the wizard¡¯s name yet, in spite of following him for a long time.

    Ness did not answer him. He only directed a look of sarcasm to Hookdick as he said, ¡°You¡¯re not worthy of knowing my name yet. When you sessfully made a living in Brute Cavern, you will know me soon.¡±

    With that, Ness disappeared from their view.

    At the same time, a gentle male voice came about.

    ¡°You¡¯re the talents of this term? Pleasee to my hall.¡±

    Next, a part of the tree trunk in front of them shifted and revealed a door with stairs leading upward behind it.

    They realized that the voice must belong to the Tree Spirit. However, it sounded too young.

    They entered the door one by one. The stairs twisted and kept going up. They were not narrow, so people who knew each other walked in rows and chatted to each other. Angor too, walked together with Nausica on his left and Sailum on his right while Ebony followed behind Nausica.

    Oilmps asionally showed up along the walls to lighten their way.

    ¡°Do you smell something? A sweet smell of wood. Did thate from the Tree of Eternity?¡± Sailum said.

    Angor nodded. The air smelled like fresh sawdust, a damp, gentle fragrance, just like the voice of the Tree Spirit which flowed inside their minds like clear and refreshing river water.

    ¡°Indeed. Although I still prefer the smell on Angor,¡± Nausica chuckled. To show respect to the wizard, she did not smoke this time. Still, she could hardly control her urge, so she was holding her long smoking pipe and fiddled it around her fingers like she was spinning a pen.

    ¡°The smell on me?¡± Angor¡¯s heart skipped a beat. He lifted his sleeve and sniffed at his arm. Yup, like Nausica said, his skin was giving out a pleasant smell.

    He knew that smell. The smell of Glutton Flower spit!

    ¡°The smell on you is so calming. I think it holds some kind of magic which soothes restless souls and uneasy spirits.¡±

    Nausica¡¯s praise caused Angor to froze. Of course, it calmed spirits! The essence of Glutton Flower Lord was one of the best treasures which could soothe spirits and mend injuries on souls!

    ¡°Did you use body powder?¡± Nausica wondered.

    Body powder was a sweet-smelling powder favored by nobles in many nations. They applied the powder to their hair, behind their ears, on their necks and armpits, to fully spread the pleasant smell and improve their personal charm. There were different kinds of body powders for gentlemen,dies, and even kids.

    Angor was from a noble family. So, it was natural that Nausica mistook him.

    ¡°Oh, um...¡± Angor stuttered. He neither confirmed Nausica¡¯s idea nor denied it.

    Of course, Angor could not say that he did not use powder. If Nausica believed he had some kind of ¡°body hormone¡±, his manly image would be ruined! Yet, if he went along and admitted that he was using body powder, and Nausica wanted to know what brand he used, he would have a harder time trying to amend his lie.

    This was why Angor simply yed deaf and pretended that he did not hear anything.

    <i>Gods. The smell of the essence of Glutton Flower Lord spread onto my body from my soul. How strong is this thing anyway?</i>

    Angor prayed silently and hoped that the smell would leave as soon as possible. Before this happened, he had better stay alone.

    Nausica just smiled at him and did not insist to know. Instead, she came close and whispered something into Angor¡¯s ear, ¡°The wizard back there, the short old man with gray hair. You remembered him, no?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°I saw Hookdick talking to him one night. They seemed to be chatting happily, but I¡¯m not sure what they talked about. The next day, Hookdick gathered his men and came to me, asking for an alliance. And you know what happened next, I beat him up. I was wondering why the man was so confident. Now, I think it has something to do with that wizard,¡± said Nausica. She considered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Watch your back. Hookdick is an extremely narrow-minded figure. If he really gained something from the wizard, you might...¡±

    Angor frowned.

    He did not expect that Hookdick actually did some shady business with a wizard. It seemed that Angor needed to find a time to ask Sunders about this wizard. It was unlikely that a wizard woulde and create trouble for him. But... better safe than sorry.

 Chapter 124 - The Tree Spirit

    <h4>Chapter 124: The Tree Spirit</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After climbing for about ten minutes, they finally reached the tree spirit hall.

    It was not big. The walls all had vines climbing on them, which looked very primitive. A group of mortals was working in the hall. When they saw the talentsing in, they revealed some jealous looks.

    Of course, mortals envied talents.

    A beautiful servantdy standing near a reception desk strolled to the talents on elegant steps. She released a faint light in her eyes and observed the talents. Her sight briefly stopped when going over Angor and Balba, and after making up her mind, she approached the one which appeared charmingly wild¡ªBalba¡ªusing an even sexier manner.

    ¡°Honourable Sir, wee to the hall of tree spirit. I¡¯m a member working here, Mner.¡±

    The woman had a bright and natural appearance. Starlight brimmed in her eye, giving her a more lively aura. When talking to Balba, she intentionally used an attitude of admiration, which certainly would do a good job seizing the hearts of men. The fatty and pockmark boy even whistled when they saw Mner.

    It seemed Mner chose the wrong target to utilize her charm on because Balba looked at her with absolutely unchanged indifference. His handsome face even showed a tiny trace of disdain. He did not even spare the effort to respond.

    Mner stood there, embarrassed. She cast another look at Angor as if asking for sympathy.

    Angor had been speaking to Sailum and was not paying any lustful attention to her like the other talents. Besides, another mature charmingdy was standing beside him, and she who was looking at Mner with a fake smile.

    Nausica¡¯s equallypetitive charm was the reason why Mner chose to tter Balba. Although her effort was obviously denied.

    She quickly regained her spirit. Now that Angor and Balba were not paying her any attention, she went over the other talents. Those people looked a little less than Angor and Balba as far as their looks were concerned. However, they were still talents. Mner only had two more years to work now. If no one could help her before then...

    ¡°Please follow me, honorable guests. Mner will register your profiles,¡± said Mner. She walked to Fosah, who quickly whistled at her, and spoke in a lovely manner.

    They all realized what Mner was trying to do. Even the other workers in the hall acted as if they were used to something like this.

    The fatty looked experienced in handling women. He skillfully put an arm around Mner¡¯s waist and beckoned at the other talents.

    Mner suppressed her uneasiness and continued to act seductively as she said, ¡°Honorable guests, please ce your bone cards right here. Mister Tree Spirit will test your talent orientations and spiritual power indicators in a moment, and update the information in your cards.¡±

    Then Mner pointed to a door nearby, ¡°He will be waiting for you in that room.¡±

    Following her instruction, they entered the door. Mner stayed back at her post. Before leaving, Fosah pinched her hips with a fat hand, which caused the woman to shift expressions drastically. In the end, she could only let out a sigh in frustration.

    When stepping into the door, the group was blinded by an intense golden light.

    When they could finally adjust their eyes, they realized that the light came from the sun in the sky. They had left the tree trunk and were now standing on top of a giant leaf.

    They could clearly see fluid flowing in the veins under their feet. The leaf felt soft to the touch, yet it provided steady footing.

    The sun shined on the leaf and created a pale green aura around them. Clouds and mist floated around, putting the group inside a fantastic environment.

    No wonder wizards preferred living in such wonderful ces.

    ¡°You¡¯re here? Come hither, and I shall take a look.¡±

    A gentle, male voice reached their ears.

    Following the voice, they saw a man covered in sunlight who was lying in an armchair made from tree leaves. However, it was too misty for them to make out any details on him.

    Upon approaching, they realized that the man did not wear anything apart from a leaf skirt around his waist. He was lying on the chair casually, enjoying the sun. When the group finally reached him, he slowly stood up and greeted them, in the same casual manner.

    <i>He is the tree spirit?</i>

    Angor inspected the figure carefully. He had short, clear green curly hair, a handsome face, and perfect body shape like those deities described in folklore paintings.

    Everything was fine about him... except that he might need some proper clothes, especially when there was ady around. Angor nced at Nausica and noticed that she was admiring the tree spirit while revealing several ¡°tsk tsk¡± between her lips. She was not embarrassed at all.

    Ah, who was he kidding? Nausica was a mighty piratedy who fought for the dominance of the sea with a bunch of tough guys. She would not mind something like this of course.

    At the same time, the tree spirit was looking over the talents as well.

    One momentter, he finally spoke, ¡°So you¡¯re the talents for this term? There are... so few of you. But that¡¯s Sunders for you, and I¡¯m sure the man tried his best. Ten people, fine. It saves me a lot of effort.¡±

    The other talents only heard the name ¡°Sunders¡± for the second time. The first being mentioned by Lady Mirror. So everything they went through was caused by this Sunders?

    ¡°You all used Abelles¡¯ Eye to test your talent, did you not?¡± asked the tree spirit.

    Everyone nodded.

    ¡°The result you saw was important nheless, but it only showed a very vague idea, and random. This is why I will test your talent orientations again, and rmend a wizard art for you. You can either listen to my advice or decide otherwise. My rmendation is only a... rmendation. It lies in your own hands whether you can seed in your days toe.¡±

    He waved a hand and a row of seats emerged from the leaf veins. A podium and an object that looked like a ckboard also appeared near his location.

    When everyone sat down, the tree spirit walked onto the ¡°teacher stage¡± and exined the arts of wizards.

    Angor learned about them before from Mara. There were threemonly agreed major arts: The Element Art, the Bloodline Art, and the ult Art.

    They majored in different factors, but they could also intersect with each other. Elementalists could still absorb the bloodline of powerful creatures to strengthen themselves, and Bloodline Wizards could also learn some elemental spells. The ult Art was the only art that called for decent talent. ultists could learn elemental and bloodline spells, but it was not so easy the other way round.

    There were other arts too. However, only these three were considered as the ¡°mainstream¡± ones.

    ¡°I will refer to your personal traits and talent and give you a piece of advice on whether you should choose Element or Bloodline. As for ult, there were very few who could adapt to it, and I doubt any of you possesses the talent for it,¡± said the tree spirit as he briefly exined the wizard arts and prepared to do an easy test for them.

    Instead of doing the test here in the open, the tree spirit created a room and asked them toe in, one at a time.

 Chapter 125 - Talent Orientation

    <h4>Chapter 125: Talent Orientation</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As the only female talent, Nausica went into the room first.

    ¡°What could Miss Nausica¡¯s talent be? I want to know!¡± Sailum smiled widely. The boy was always showing great enthusiasm when talking about the hero he respected.

    <i>So what is my orientation? Professor said I¡¯m a Nightmare Form, something like that maybe? </i>Angor thought to himself.

    It did not take long for Nausica to return. The beautifuldy seemed to be thinking about something.

    ¡°Miss Nausica? What did Mister Tree Spirit rmend for you?¡± Sailum asked excitedly.

    Everyone else also perked up their ears at the question. As fellow talents, they still did not know who were the strong ones or who were weaker. People lovedparing each other.

    Nausica did not intend to hide her talent so she answered straight away, ¡°Mister Tree Spirit rmended that I should major in Bloodline Art. But he didn¡¯t say what spells exactly.¡±

    ¡°Bloodline Art?¡± They all eximed in surprise. A female Bloodline Wizard?

    However, considering Nausica was one of the two people who survived from the deathmatches using raw strength, they managed to ept the fact quickly. She was so strong that being ady certainly would not prevent her from going bloodline.

    Angor, on the other hand, was thinking about someone else who looked equally beautiful. As he recalled, Lady Heroline that he met in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant was also a Bloodline Wizard. When he was on the cloud whale, Flora told him that Heroline was titled the ¡°Ocean Moray¡± because she fused the blood of some kind of moray fish in her body.

    Angor stared at the carefreedy and wondered what kind of blood she would use.

    The next talent took the test, then the third... They went to the tree spirit one by one. Most of them received advice to major in Element Art, although with different factors to focus on. The only different one was the fatty, Fosah, who ording to his test, should study the Bloodline Art.

    Soon, it was Sailum¡¯s turn.

    The boy came out from the room with a disappointed look. When Nausica asked him, the boy stuttered for a bit and finally squeezed out one single word ¨C Element.

    ¡°Element Art is fine. What¡¯s wrong about it? You¡¯re not thinking that it¡¯s weaker than the other ones right?¡± said Angor. He had read many books from Sunders¡¯ collection so he clearly knew that the three major arts were equally powerful. The wizards who learned them forged their own paths.

    Sailum shook his head, ¡°Not really. I don¡¯t hate Element Art. But... Mister Tree Spirit also said that I should focus on...¡±

    He stopped talking. Angor and Nausica exchanged a puzzled look.

    Nausica whispered to Angor, ¡°Tree spirit didn¡¯t say anything that I should focus on. I think Sailum¡¯s talent is special.¡±

    ¡°So... focus on what?¡± Angor asked.

    Sailum lowered his voice, ¡°He asked me to choose the Darkness branch.¡±

    <i>Darkness?</i>

    Angor raised an eyebrow in surprise. The Darkness branch under Element Art... It was rare. Rarer than finding ultists.

    ¡°Why darkness? Fire, water, earth or whatever would be fine. But... Darkness?¡± Sailum looked really depressed.

    ¡°I think you have the wrong idea about darkness. Very few wizards have the talent to learn it, even fewer than ultists,¡± Angor exined.

    ¡°But I hate darkness!¡± Sailum¡¯s mind was filled by the terrible scene. A dark night, a blood-stained sword, and the one who perished in the blood pool in order to protect him... He remained in the darkness for a full week before seeing light again. Ever since then, he developed a natural hatred toward darkness even though he did not really fear it.

    Sailum did not tell them the reason, but the hatred written on his face was real. Angor was not sure how tofort the boy so he could only keep exining.

    ¡°Different elements and powers are not divided into good or evil. There are people out there who wield dark powers for justice, or vice versa. It depends on the wizards themselves, and in this case, you.¡±

    The tree spirit called Angor¡¯s name, interrupting his further words.

    Angor patted Sailum¡¯s shoulder, nodded to everyone and stepped into the room created by the tree spirit.

    When he came in, he saw the tree spirit looking up from his desk with a strange expression. The spirit¡¯s high nose bridge was twitching as if it was trying to smell something.

    ¡°Huh... you smell like¡ª¡± The handsome spirit frowned and tried to arrange his wording.

    Angor¡¯s heart skipped a beat. Did the tree spirit smell the essence of Glutton Flower Lord on him?

    ¡°You smell good. Very,¡± said the spirit. He suddenly blinked to Angor¡¯s side and sniffed at the boy¡¯s neck carefully as he said, ¡°It appears as if... a pair of soft, gentle hands are caressing my naked body.¡±

    The spirit seemed to be enjoying something.

    However, Angor took several steps back in embarrassment.

    ¡°Having naked body caressed by someone¡¯s hands¡± was not really a good way of expressing oneself, especially when the spirit was really exposed. Well, except that single leaf covering his private spot. The spirit did not show the tiniest bit of improper emotion which made it harder for Angor toin.

    The tree spirit sat back to his seat, removed his attitude, and said, ¡°I do not know why your soul smells so wonderful. It¡¯s both a good thing and a bad thing for you. The smell can help shape your soul better. However... If a wizard with a damaged soul notices you, something terrible will happen, for the smell can soothe the wounds on human souls.

    ¡°If I remember correctly, there is such a wizard in Brute Cavern. If he finds you... Oh my!¡± He did not finish his words but Angor still understood him and was terrified.

    The tree spirit showed a sympathetic look.

    Next, the spirit let out an ¡°oh?¡± and looked another way while working his lips silently, seemingly talking to someone. While at it, he nced back at Angor, with his previous sympathetic look reced by one of curiosity.

    A momentter, the spirit acimed, ¡°Dear me, so you¡¯re Sunders¡¯ new student? In that case, do not worry about what I said. The wizard I mentioned will never dare to harm Sunders¡¯ pupil. Here, you have Sunders to thank for. But once you leave Brute Cavern, you¡¯re very likely to be the prey of many wizards. Before the smell dissipates or until you¡¯re strong enough to defend yourself, I suggest not to leave the boundary of Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Sunders already told me about your talent. Come closer, and I shall give you a further test.¡±

    So, Sunders wasmunicating with the tree spirit just now.

    <i>Was he observing me the whole time?</i>

    Angor wondered.

    When Angor approached, the spirit spoke in a in tone, ¡°Both Sunders and you are what they called a Nightmare Form, so I believe your talent belongs to one of the branches from ult Illusionist as well. To make sure, you still have to take the test.¡±

    <h4>Comment (0)</h4>

    COMMENT FIRSTRate this chapterVote with Power StoneSend Gifts<h4>Chapter 126: ult Art</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>The professor is an ult Illusionist?</i>

    Angor read about dozens of different branches from this art. Such as the Mirage branch which controlled the weather, the Sorcery Array branch whichbined alchemy knowledge, the Truth Maniptor branch that confused real with fake, and the Transform branch that could take on many different forms... So which branch could he study?

    The spirit reached out a hand which then released a green light. A tree branch slowly grew from his palm and moved toward Angor. Under the boy¡¯s surprised gaze, a fresh green sprout popped out from it.

    ¡°Eat the leaf,¡± said the spirit.

    Angor picked the newly grown leaf and swallowed it without a second thought. When the leaf reached his tongue, it turned into some cold and refreshing fluid, slowly flowing down his throat.

    Next, green light shone from Angor¡¯s body. He could almost see green blood flowing under his skin. Even his brain felt cool andfortable.

    Angor closed his eyes unintentionally to enjoy the pleasant coldness.

    On the other side, the tree spirit quickly wrote down something on his notebook.

    [Pure human form, zero foreign bloodlines. Rating: Qualified]

    [Spiritual power indicator: 15. Rating: Qualified]

    [Alignment¡ª]

    The spirit looked up and tapped the air. A small trace of green aura emerged from Angor¡¯s body and merged itself into the spirit¡¯s body.

    ¡°Not the slightest scent of blood...¡± He muttered and resumed his penwork.

    [Alignment: None. Rating: Qualified]

    The spirit tapped again. The green aura inside Angor suddenly became wild. Angor frowned a little and revealed a painful look. However, the aura soon returned to a moderate state again.

    The tree spirit seemed surprised at something and smiled at Angor, ¡°I think the little guy loves you.¡±

    [Physical quality: Moderate. Rating: Qualified]

    [Soul quality: Outstanding. Rating: Qualified]

    Next was the most important one¡ªthe test on Angor¡¯s talent orientation. The tree spirit ordered the green stream inside Angor to go into the boy¡¯s spirit pool. This was a critical step. One¡¯s spirit pool did not exist in one¡¯s body, instead, it lied in the mind of one¡¯s soul, which was an abstract ce. Furthermore, it was extremely repellent to foreign objects. Even someone like Sunders could not enter someone¡¯s mind easily.

    Only an expert at soul knowledge could barely manage such a feat. In other words, the tree spirit possessed superior soul power.

    When the green aura entered Angor¡¯s spirit pool, sweat drops appeared on the tree spirit¡¯s forehead.

    ¡°Such¡ªexpelling force! Even the most gentle aura of nature is rejected!¡±

    He was shocked, for the tree spirit had lived in Brute Cavern for thousands of decades and bestowed such test to countless talents. Yet the opposing force in Angor¡¯s mind was the strongest one he had ever encountered.

    When the aura of nature entered one¡¯s mind, it could acquire a vague idea of his or her talent orientation.

    However, it was only a vague idea ¨C such as whether the talent should choose Element Art or Bloodline Art ¨C as long as the aura only stayed in the outer area of the mind.

    If the tree spirit wished so, he could ask the aura to slowly spread itself around the entire mind pool, thus further determining the best choice for the talent, such as one of the branches in a certain art.

    Even though he had been doing so year after year, the tree spirit was actually thezy kind. In most cases, he only reached his natural aura into someone¡¯s mind very briefly.

    This was why he only suggested among the three major arts for most of the talents.

    Unless... he took a liking to someone, and that someone possessed a decent talent. In which case, the tree spirit would spend more effort on the test. Sailum, who took the test just now, was an innocent child and one of the best types favored by the spirit of a tree. Combined with the fact that Sailum did have potential, the tree spirit told the kid to major in ¡°Darkness, Element Art¡±.

    The spirit also liked Angor much. The pleasant scent on the boy¡¯s soul was one of the reasons. Plus, the ¡°little guy¡± also favored Angor, which was all the more reason for the spirit to regard Angor better.

    To test Angor¡¯s talent in details was his n. The tree spirit did not expect such a strong opposing force in the boy¡¯s mind. Keeping the natural aura on the outer part of Angor¡¯s mind was already tiring enough, let alone pushing the aura deeper.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe this! There is no way the mind pool of a mortal can prevent natural aura from going inside!¡± The spirit was not convinced. He was swearing all over now, but he still could not breach the defense of Angor¡¯s mind.

    He could try infiltrating forcefully but doing so would cause irreversible damage to Angor¡¯s brain.

    In the end, the spirit could only retrieve most of his aura, while leaving only a small part of it and try to ¡°admit defeat¡± to see if Angor¡¯s mind would decide to ept the aura.

    It worked. The small trace of aura approached a little deeper inside... but still a lot far away from the core.

    As the tree spirit asked his aura to move forward again, the intense force came once more and pushed the remaining aura out of Angor¡¯s mind.

    The mighty force caused the tree spirit himself to stumble back a little.

    ¡°Such strong power!¡± He sighed deeply. He was covered in sweat now, and his stamina and spirit power was exhausted.

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit, what happened?¡± A low, hoarse voice came from the distance.

    ¡°Sunders... Your student is a beast. You don¡¯t see such strong spirit defense often. Formal wizards will have a hard time peeking his mind even if they forced their way in,¡± answered the tree spirit.

    ¡°Naturally. He¡¯s my student after all,¡± said Sunders. He appeared to be pretty proud, which was a rare reaction from the gentleman.

    The tree spirit rolled his eyes. He was not praising Sunders anyway.

    ¡°So did Mister Tree Spirit figure out Angor¡¯s talent orientation?¡± Sunders asked.

    The spirit shook his head, ¡°I was pushed out by the second defense line, so I don¡¯t know the details. But there¡¯s no doubt the boy inclined toward ult Art, Illusionist.¡±

    Sunders smiled at those words.

    ¡°However... I sense more than one orientation. He has another orientation beside ult Illusionist, but I cannot tell which. Your new student is certainly a good one. I met many talents with two element orientations or someone with both element one and an ult one, but I don¡¯t recall seeing many talents who had two ult orientations.

    ¡°Thest time I encountered someone like this was... about twenty thousand years ago. A talent who held orientations for ult Summoner as well as ult Prophet. Pity, that man abused his prophecy and died of divine punishment before he could be a wizard.¡±

    Sunders remained silent for a moment before speaking, ¡°Quality beyond quantity. Don¡¯t mention this to him for now. Just tell the boy about the ult Illusionist branch. If he wishes to choose another branch, he can study for himself once he bes a wizard.¡±

    The tree spirit chuckled, ¡°Looks like he¡¯s really important to you. Very well, I¡¯ll do as you said.¡±

    With that, the spirit wiped some sweat off his forehead and wrote down thest line:

    [Advice on Talent Orientation: ult Illusionist]

 Chapter 126 - Occult Art

    <h4>Chapter 126: ult Art</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>The professor is an ult Illusionist?</i>

    Angor read about dozens of different branches from this art. Such as the Mirage branch which controlled the weather, the Sorcery Array branch whichbined alchemy knowledge, the Truth Maniptor branch that confused real with fake, and the Transform branch that could take on many different forms... So which branch could he study?

    The spirit reached out a hand which then released a green light. A tree branch slowly grew from his palm and moved toward Angor. Under the boy¡¯s surprised gaze, a fresh green sprout popped out from it.

    ¡°Eat the leaf,¡± said the spirit.

    Angor picked the newly grown leaf and swallowed it without a second thought. When the leaf reached his tongue, it turned into some cold and refreshing fluid, slowly flowing down his throat.

    Next, green light shone from Angor¡¯s body. He could almost see green blood flowing under his skin. Even his brain felt cool andfortable.

    Angor closed his eyes unintentionally to enjoy the pleasant coldness.

    On the other side, the tree spirit quickly wrote down something on his notebook.

    [Pure human form, zero foreign bloodlines. Rating: Qualified]

    [Spiritual power indicator: 15. Rating: Qualified]

    [Alignment¡ª]

    The spirit looked up and tapped the air. A small trace of green aura emerged from Angor¡¯s body and merged itself into the spirit¡¯s body.

    ¡°Not the slightest scent of blood...¡± He muttered and resumed his penwork.

    [Alignment: None. Rating: Qualified]

    The spirit tapped again. The green aura inside Angor suddenly became wild. Angor frowned a little and revealed a painful look. However, the aura soon returned to a moderate state again.

    The tree spirit seemed surprised at something and smiled at Angor, ¡°I think the little guy loves you.¡±

    [Physical quality: Moderate. Rating: Qualified]

    [Soul quality: Outstanding. Rating: Qualified]

    Next was the most important one¡ªthe test on Angor¡¯s talent orientation. The tree spirit ordered the green stream inside Angor to go into the boy¡¯s spirit pool. This was a critical step. One¡¯s spirit pool did not exist in one¡¯s body, instead, it lied in the mind of one¡¯s soul, which was an abstract ce. Furthermore, it was extremely repellent to foreign objects. Even someone like Sunders could not enter someone¡¯s mind easily.

    Only an expert at soul knowledge could barely manage such a feat. In other words, the tree spirit possessed superior soul power.

    When the green aura entered Angor¡¯s spirit pool, sweat drops appeared on the tree spirit¡¯s forehead.

    ¡°Such¡ªexpelling force! Even the most gentle aura of nature is rejected!¡±

    He was shocked, for the tree spirit had lived in Brute Cavern for thousands of decades and bestowed such test to countless talents. Yet the opposing force in Angor¡¯s mind was the strongest one he had ever encountered.

    When the aura of nature entered one¡¯s mind, it could acquire a vague idea of his or her talent orientation.

    However, it was only a vague idea ¨C such as whether the talent should choose Element Art or Bloodline Art ¨C as long as the aura only stayed in the outer area of the mind.

    If the tree spirit wished so, he could ask the aura to slowly spread itself around the entire mind pool, thus further determining the best choice for the talent, such as one of the branches in a certain art.

    Even though he had been doing so year after year, the tree spirit was actually thezy kind. In most cases, he only reached his natural aura into someone¡¯s mind very briefly.

    This was why he only suggested among the three major arts for most of the talents.

    Unless... he took a liking to someone, and that someone possessed a decent talent. In which case, the tree spirit would spend more effort on the test. Sailum, who took the test just now, was an innocent child and one of the best types favored by the spirit of a tree. Combined with the fact that Sailum did have potential, the tree spirit told the kid to major in ¡°Darkness, Element Art¡±.

    The spirit also liked Angor much. The pleasant scent on the boy¡¯s soul was one of the reasons. Plus, the ¡°little guy¡± also favored Angor, which was all the more reason for the spirit to regard Angor better.

    To test Angor¡¯s talent in details was his n. The tree spirit did not expect such a strong opposing force in the boy¡¯s mind. Keeping the natural aura on the outer part of Angor¡¯s mind was already tiring enough, let alone pushing the aura deeper.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe this! There is no way the mind pool of a mortal can prevent natural aura from going inside!¡± The spirit was not convinced. He was swearing all over now, but he still could not breach the defense of Angor¡¯s mind.

    He could try infiltrating forcefully but doing so would cause irreversible damage to Angor¡¯s brain.

    In the end, the spirit could only retrieve most of his aura, while leaving only a small part of it and try to ¡°admit defeat¡± to see if Angor¡¯s mind would decide to ept the aura.

    It worked. The small trace of aura approached a little deeper inside... but still a lot far away from the core.

    As the tree spirit asked his aura to move forward again, the intense force came once more and pushed the remaining aura out of Angor¡¯s mind.

    The mighty force caused the tree spirit himself to stumble back a little.

    ¡°Such strong power!¡± He sighed deeply. He was covered in sweat now, and his stamina and spirit power was exhausted.

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit, what happened?¡± A low, hoarse voice came from the distance.

    ¡°Sunders... Your student is a beast. You don¡¯t see such strong spirit defense often. Formal wizards will have a hard time peeking his mind even if they forced their way in,¡± answered the tree spirit.

    ¡°Naturally. He¡¯s my student after all,¡± said Sunders. He appeared to be pretty proud, which was a rare reaction from the gentleman.

    The tree spirit rolled his eyes. He was not praising Sunders anyway.

    ¡°So did Mister Tree Spirit figure out Angor¡¯s talent orientation?¡± Sunders asked.

    The spirit shook his head, ¡°I was pushed out by the second defense line, so I don¡¯t know the details. But there¡¯s no doubt the boy inclined toward ult Art, Illusionist.¡±

    Sunders smiled at those words.

    ¡°However... I sense more than one orientation. He has another orientation beside ult Illusionist, but I cannot tell which. Your new student is certainly a good one. I met many talents with two element orientations or someone with both element one and an ult one, but I don¡¯t recall seeing many talents who had two ult orientations.

    ¡°Thest time I encountered someone like this was... about twenty thousand years ago. A talent who held orientations for ult Summoner as well as ult Prophet. Pity, that man abused his prophecy and died of divine punishment before he could be a wizard.¡±

    Sunders remained silent for a moment before speaking, ¡°Quality beyond quantity. Don¡¯t mention this to him for now. Just tell the boy about the ult Illusionist branch. If he wishes to choose another branch, he can study for himself once he bes a wizard.¡±

    The tree spirit chuckled, ¡°Looks like he¡¯s really important to you. Very well, I¡¯ll do as you said.¡±

    With that, the spirit wiped some sweat off his forehead and wrote down thest line:

    [Advice on Talent Orientation: ult Illusionist]

 Chapter 127 - The Bitter Actress

    <h4>Chapter 127: The Bitter Actress</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°ult Illusionist.¡±

    Angor was expecting something like this. After bidding farewell to the tree spirit, he quickly left the room.

    Sailum showed great jealousy when he heard Angor¡¯s test result. Angor was unsure of how tofort the boy further. Different arts and branches were not divided into better or lesser ones. Everything depended on their users. An ult Illusionist also had to work hard like everyone else.

    All the talents participated in the test one after another and received their orientations. Considering how ultists were scarce, Angor thought he was the only one. Surprisingly though, another talent in the group turned out to be an ult talent as well.

    Hookdick. ult Soul Maniptor.

    The man looked really proud when dering his talent. He did not forget to give Angor a malevolent stare. Angor only sneered in response, which instantly reced Hookdick¡¯s arrogant smile with anger.

    Three of them were Bloodline Wizards: Nausica, Fosah, and Balba.

    All the remaining ones were Elementalists.

    Sailum, Angor, and Hookdick were the only ones who received a detailed rmendation. Everyone else only had one of the three major arts pointed out, so they had to wait for a professor to take them in before knowing their exact branch.

    After testing out every talent, the tree spirit resumed his sunbathing session while the talents returned to the hall by following a servant.

    Mner had already received the results. She recorded their spirit indicators into their bone cards one by one. As a mortal, Mner had been working in the tree spirit hall for many years, so she clearly knew about the three major arts for wizards as well as their equality. She did not have any special ideas when recording different talents.

    For a certain family matter, she had to ¡°adhere¡± herself to a supernatural. This meant that she had to offer everything to her master, and this included her body. It was why she paid extra attention to two of the talents who had better looks¡ªAngor and Balba. Too bad Angor already had a beautifuldy alongside while Balba did not show the tiniest bit of interest in her. She had to choose Fosah in the end.

    Mner checked Fosah¡¯s test result.

    [Fosah: Bloodline. Spiritual power indicator: 12]

    An average result. Someone with such a spirit level was unlikely to be a wizard. However, since Fosah was her only choice, she had to ept him. Thinking about this, Mner sighed a little and continued her job.

    On thest bone card, she saw Angor¡¯s name.

    [Angor: ult Illusionist. Spiritual power indicator: 15]

    This was above average among the talents. After putting the information into the bone card, she saw another line below.

    And she was shocked!

    [Tutor: Sunders]

    <i>The legendary wizard took Angor in as his student?!</i>

    Sunders¡¯ name was well-known in the entire southern region, and he was even more famous in Brute Cavern. Apart from the authorities of Brute Cavern, the man was basically the strongest wizard. Any apprentice would pay absolutely any price to be his pupil.

    And someone like Sunders just took in a newly joined talent as his student?

    These talents would be arranged under the names of the other wizardster anyway. However, they were only apprentices, not personal students. This piece of information on the bone card would only show up when a wizard epted someone as a real student.

    Since Sunders¡¯ name had appeared on Angor¡¯s card, this meant that Angor was now one of the closest students of Sunders. This was very different from being a general apprentice.

    Mner regretted. If she had known this, she would try her best to offer herself to Angor, no matter how many women he already had. As Sunders¡¯ student, Angor had a great chance of bing a great wizard!

    Of course, adhering to an apprentice was a worse choice than finding a real wizard.

    ...

    When Angor stepped into the tree spirit hall, he immediately saw Mner showing a ttering look at him.

    Fosah, on the other hand, grimaced immediately. The fatty was nning to ¡°have¡± Mner tonight. He did not expect that the woman would change her mind so fast and was now adoring the weakling bastard who did not even participate in the deathmatches!

    Fosah humphed coldly, which caused Mner to feel fear. She tried to exin, but she did not in the end.

    Fosah took his bone card, threw a hateful gaze at Angor, and left the hall quickly.

    Angor did not understand what was going on. What was the deal with this woman? Seeing how she was trying to worm closer, Angor grew goosebumps instead of liking the ¡°pleasant gift¡±.

    Angor thought Nausica would help him avoid this woman. To his surprise, Nausica kept her distance and looked at him with an ¡°Oh, I like drama!¡± attitude. On the other side, when Mner realized Nausica just gave her a big opportunity, she began to reveal her sweet emotions more aggressively.

    As an educated gentleman, Angor did not voice out his disgust, which further enticed Mner. She was now staring at Angor timidly while reaching for Angor¡¯s arm with a hand.

    Before she could actually get Angor, he pushed her away.

    Mner tripped and fell. She looked totally embarrassed. However, when Angor looked at her, she quickly put up a weird expression which was mixed by desire and anxiety.

    Another officedy came and helped Mner up. Then she gave Angor a hostile look.

    ¡°Do you have any idea what kind of family Mner came from? Otherwise, she will not¡ª¡±

    Mner covered thedy¡¯s mouth and sobbed, ¡°Mira, stop... Just let me bear it all, alone.¡±

    Thedy called Mira looked at Mner with a sympathetic look, ¡°Oh Mner... You really don¡¯t have to...¡±

    All the talents watched the y in puzzlement. So there was some kind of story behind all this? No wonder the woman crept up the second she saw the talents. Gods, these two women were really terrible actresses.

    ¡°Hey Angor, maybe...¡± Innocent boy Sailum tried to tell Angor something, but he stopped halfway. What should he say? They did not even know what Mner wanted.

    His attempt worsened Angor¡¯s mood, though.

    Angor had no idea who Mner was. A strange woman who suddenly ttered a guy for no reason? He was far from those horny pigs who could not wait to prate every female creature they saw.

    He did not intend to ept a woman who did not know how to control herself. Mner had been using her ¡°I have a good reason¡± expression as best as she could, and Angor did not care.

    <i>There are lots of people out there with their own various reasons. Why should I devote myself to you?</i>

    <i>You have a sad story in you? Not my business.</i>

    Angor ignored the two actresses and turned to leave without looking back.

 Chapter 128 - Posters from Professors

    <h4>Chapter 128: Posters from Professors</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When outside the tree spirit hall, Angor was still in a bad mood. That odd woman just gave him an extra enemy, Fosah.

    <i>Oh, damn it!</i>

    Still, Fosah already hated him, being Hookdick¡¯s follower and all.

    Nausica approached him on her elegant steps, ¡°Aw such a pity. I would like to see the end of the drama.¡±

    ¡°Drama?¡± Sailum followed up. The boy looked unsure of what had just happened.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re too young to understand those women,¡± Nausica revealed a sly smile as she exined to Sailum. She continued, ¡°There¡¯s something called ¡®moral coercion¡¯. You will know it in the future...

    ¡°Angor was so firm. I thought he was going to lose it and ept that Mner girl,¡± Nausica joked.

    Angor only humphed, to tell them that he heard it.

    ¡°Alright. We don¡¯t have to talk about it. Let¡¯s discuss something else,¡± said Nausica. She took out her bone card and read the information on it before asking, ¡°What¡¯s your spirit indicators?¡±

    ¡°Fifteen,¡± Angor answered without using his card.

    ¡°Eighteen,¡± Sailum said.

    Nausica nced at Sailum, ¡°My my, you¡¯re the highest among us three? I¡¯m 17 by the way. So what does this thing do?¡±

    Angor answered her question nonchntly, ¡°A higher spirit power allows you to channel mana flow more efficiently. To make it simple, you train faster.¡±

    Angor knew a lot of wizardry knowledge while the other two did not. Sailum and Nausica already knew about Angor¡¯s decent knowledge base so they were not surprised at getting the answer.

    ¡°I see. So Sailum is a little genius,¡± Nausicamented.

    The boy blushed.

    ¡°You can stop teasing him. His spirit power was fine, but there are a lot more people with higher levels. I happen to know a talent who has a spirit indicator of 23,¡± said Angor as he recalled a certain man¡¯s face in his mind.

    ¡°Man. You¡¯re only one year older than Sailum but you sound like an adult already.¡±

    They chatted along the way until they joined everyone else who had gathered under the tree. As they were trying to figure out what to do next, a young woman wearing a miniskirt and big, ck-rimmed sses appeared in front of them while riding on a colorful animal. It was a deer of three different colors.

    ¡°Greetings everyone! I¡¯m¡ªouch! Aw aw aw...¡±

    The ss girl introduced herself and jumped down from the triple-colored deer. She somehow crashnded... with her face hitting the ground first.

    They stared at her speechlessly. Another actress, but aedian this time?

    The girl knelt on the ground and picked up her now shattered sses.

    ¡°Another pair... gone! How could I be so clumsy...¡± She pped her own head with a sad look.

    After sulking for a moment, she tossed the ss shards away and took out another pair of sses from a small, heart-shaped pouch hanging on her waist. She dusted herself a bit and stood up.

    ¡°Hi everyone! I¡¯m Abelle. I¡¯ll take you to your ces of residence.¡±

    With that, Abelle climbed back onto the colorful deer, somewhat struggling in the process.

    The rest of the people remained silent as they watched.

    <i>Why did she jump down from her mount in the first ce?</i>

    Abelle was pretty talkative. On their way, she kept speaking about all kinds of things and some of them appeared to be secrets. ording to her, she was an Elementary Apprentice who joined Brute Cavern five years ago. She could only take on simple jobs with less reward because she was too weak; jobs such as leading new talents to their dorms. She could earn five magic crystal fragments this time.

    On a side note, a hundred fragments equaled to one magic crystal.

    Abelle seemed to be naive, innocent, and careless. When they moved for quite a bit, she suddenly remembered something and asked them a question, ¡°I almost forgot. Did you get your professor posters?¡±

    <i>Posters?</i>

    The talents exchanged puzzled looks, not knowing what she was talking about.

    Abelle scratched her hair in embarrassment, ¡°Oh... my job is to take you to ept professor posters, then lead you to your amodations... But I fell and forgot about the first half.¡±

    Abelle quickly ordered her deer to turn to another direction, ¡°Sorry! Let¡¯s go to the posters now.¡±

    Everyone remained silent. This girl was... unreliable.

    Abelle pointed to the center of the tree spirit garden and let out an ¡°Onward!¡± joyfully.

    They were somewhatining about Abelle¡¯s bizarre behaviors but they did not point it out. Elementary Apprentices were still supernaturals to them.

    However, Hookdick¡¯s little group began to show some hostility toward Abelle.

    ¡°All the wizards have received your information. The professor posters will determine whether they would ept you. When a wizard is interested in someone, he or she will send a poster. When you take the poster, you automatically be the wizard¡¯s apprentice,¡± Abelle exined.

    ¡°So every one of us has a poster?¡± Someone asked.

    Abelle shook her head, ¡°Nope. You won¡¯t have one if no wizard is interested. But don¡¯t worry, even so, you still get a tutor. But in this case, the tutor is chosen at random, so you never know where you¡¯ll go to.¡±

    Abelle paused for a moment before she continued, ¡°There are some wizards who prefer doing researches alone, and they hate apprentices. It will be really bad if you¡¯re arranged to one of those people.

    ¡°In my batch, there were 30 or so talents who didn¡¯t get posters, and several were sent to such wizards. I heard that they were made into fertilizers for flowers and slept underground forever a few dayster. So you know... you need some luck,¡± said Abelle.

    She realized everyone was showing fear now, so she quickly added, ¡°of course, if you are lucky, you get to study from a powerful and gentle wizard, and your path in the future will be a lot smoother.¡±

    Soon, they reached their destination.

    ¡°This is where we distribute resources. However, this ce is only for wizards. Every wizard can im their allowance here each month. We can also acquire certain resources here, such as rare materials. If any of you have spare magic crystals, you can buy them right here,¡± exined Abelle.

    She looked left and right. Once she made sure no one else was looking, she lowered her voice, ¡°That said, the prices here aren¡¯t really good. If you really need materials, try to find someone else who sells them in private. There are also shops in nearby viges that are run by apprentices, and they sell stuff a lot cheaper.¡±

    Someone asked, ¡°You mean the underground viges?¡±

    Abelle nodded, ¡°Yup. You¡¯ll learn such tricks once you spend some time and get used to this ce. Now go and check out your professor posters!¡±

 Chapter 129 - Golden Poster

    <h4>Chapter 129: Golden Poster</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The resource distribution hall was bigger than all previous halls they saw. When they walked in, every corner of the hall was full of apprentices who only nced at the neers briefly. Some of them let out several cold sneers when they saw who hade.

    ¡°Hey, Abelle. A loser like you is going to take these quests all the time? You don¡¯t even dare to leave Brute Cavern. I guess you¡¯ll be an Elementary Apprentice forever huh?¡± Someone in a ck robe taunted.

    ¡°Hey, new guys, be careful. This woman Abelle is the biggest disappointment left behind by the apprentices during thest term. Better keep your distance. Maybe she¡¯s contagious, ha!¡±

    Many apprentices gave Abelle negative remarks along the way. Certain talents believed them too, such as Hookdick and his men, who then moved away from Abelle as if they were avoiding a ¡°disease¡±.

    Abelle only led their way toward the second floor without saying anything. She was now actingpletely different from the talkative girl Angor saw on their way here. She walked in the front of the group, alone.

    On the second floor, Abelle asked them to sit on the sofas while she walked to a desk to talk to another female apprentice there. A momentter, Abelle returned while carrying a silver disk.

    She put the disk on the small table in the center and asked the talents toe.

    ¡°This is the receiver. Put your bone cards here,¡± said Abelle as she pointed to the edge of the disk where a round-shaped slot the same size as a bone card was located. She then said, ¡°Put your card in here and you¡¯ll see if you have received any posters.¡±

    Then Abelle moved to one side of the sofa and signaled them to begin.

    The talents looked at each other. No one moved.

    Nausica shrugged, ¡°Since you¡¯re all being so... modest, I¡¯ll go first then.¡±

    Her words drew everyone¡¯s attention. They did not want to do it first because they were afraid of receiving no poster at all, thus being humiliated. However, it would be better if someone already showed an example.

    Nausica pushed her card into the slot. A secondter, a faint light began to pulse from the center of the disk.

    Then, two cards with different shapes and pictures on them appeared inside the disk.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re lucky. Two tutors are interested in your profile. You¡¯re free to choose one of them,¡± said Abelle. With a jealous expression, she exined, ¡°We have too few talents for this term so the wizards are trying to get their share before it¡¯s toote. Maybe every one of you will receive posters this time!¡±

    Everyone brightened up. That would be wonderful!

    Nausica picked up her cards and looked. Different totems were drawn on them. One card was a green, square one with round stripes and a name ¡°Fantase Konaita¡± on it.

    The other card was a ck, diamond-shaped one. The picture of a crimson rose piercing the ground was printed on it, along with a name written in ornamental style: Flora.

    ¡°These should be the names of the tutors. But there¡¯s nothing else on the posters. How should I choose?¡± Nausica thought to herself and looked at Abelle for help.

    ¡°Oh, introducing your tutors is also my job,¡± said Abelle as she took the cards from Nausica with a smile.

    ¡°Woah, ¡®Grass Snail¡¯ Fantase? This man hadn¡¯t recruited any apprentices for more than ten years!¡± Abelle eximed when she saw the name. She added, ¡°He¡¯s a Bloodline Wizard who doesn¡¯t show up much in Brute Cavern. But he¡¯s strong! Before bing a formal wizard, he fought in the Tower of Infinity in Floating Mech City and reached the 100th floor! If Mister Tree Spirit told you to choose Bloodline, then Fantase is your best choice!¡±

    Abelle picked up the second card and immediately stared with her eyes wide opened when she saw the name on it.

    ¡°F¡ªF¡ªFlora the Blood Witch!!¡± Abelle¡¯s voice was even louder this time, and many apprentices in the hall heard her. Also, their pupils all shrank in fear.

    ¡°Who is this? She¡¯s stronger than Mister Fantase?¡± Nausica was puzzled at her reaction.

    Abelle took a deep breath before speaking, ¡°She¡¯s one of the most renowned wizards in the southern region. It has nothing to do with her beautiful look, but... she was famous for her cruelty, bloodthirst, and brutal ways of ughtering people. She had fought many battles which were written down in history. For example...¡±

    Angor was also shocked at Abelle¡¯s exnation. The yful woman in his memory possessed such terrible fame?

    ¡°As for the difference between her and Mister Fantase... I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m just a lowly apprentice...¡±

    Nausica nodded. She had developed an admiration toward Flora. A woman made a name for herself which could scare everyone in the south... that sounded amazing!

    ¡°Is Lady Flora a Bloodline Wizard too?¡± Nausica asked.

    ¡°No. Lady Flora is an ultist, but I don¡¯t know which branch exactly,¡± Abelle answered.

    Nausica frowned. Her test suggested Bloodline, and she hoped to receive teaching from a Bloodline Wizard. Still, as a woman, she also wished Flora to be her tutor... It was a hard choice.

    However, Nausica was never someone to be hesitant over such matters. She quickly went over it in her mind before she discarded unnecessary wishes and decided who to choose.

    Nausica put Flora¡¯s card back to the disk and left the table with Fantase¡¯s card.

    ...

    With Nausica taking the lead, the remaining talents all ced their bone cards on the disk one by one.

    Maybe Abelle¡¯s words were true and that there were too few new recruits. Every bone card brought posters.

    ¡°This is Mister Wace, an authoritative academism wizard...¡±

    ¡°This is Lady Fiery Charm, an Elementalist!¡±

    Abelle exined their tutors one by one. Fosah also received a poster from ¡®Grass Snail¡¯ Fantase. Sailum epted a poster from ¡®Philosopher of Night¡¯ Kar, which surprised both Abelle and the apprentices who were watching them, again.

    Abelle only gave them a brief introduction about Kar. The reaction from the onlookers proved that Kar was not an ordinary figure.

    Next, Hookdick inserted his bone card.

    A square card which shone with golden light appeared in the disk.

    ¡°This is¡ªa golden poster!¡± Abelle and all the apprentices around them yelled out.

    ¡°Which wizard?! Someone took in a personal pupil!¡±

    ¡°Bah! The strongest one during my term turned into a wizard even though he started as an average new talent. It was all because he received one of these!¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this thing an invitation to be a formal wizard?!¡±

    They all heard the whispers. The talents did not know what a golden poster was, but at least they could deduce from the apprentices¡¯ conversation that this poster was really valuable. They all looked at Hookdick with jealous looks. Even Sailum, who usually acted calm, revealed some emotion as he said, ¡°Gods must be blind. Why give the poster to such an asshole?¡±

    Their admiration greatly satisfied Hookdick¡¯s self-ego. The man puffed up his chest and took the golden poster in a proud manner. Then he looked down at Angor and made a throat-slitting gesture.

    Angor sneered and remained in. Before Hookdick could say something sarcastic, someone interrupted him by asking a question.

    ¡°What is a golden poster? Why are you all so... surprised?¡±

    Hookdick also wanted to know it, so he paid attention to the question instead of taunting Angor.

    Without waiting for Abelle¡¯s exnation, one of the apprentices around them spoke first, ¡°The other professor posters you took cannot guarantee a ce under the tutor. You¡¯re only their apprentices. The wizard might teach you something when he or she feels happy, but most time you¡¯re onlyckeys who do their chores. See your bone cards? The tutor name is nk.

    ¡°But a golden poster is only given by someone who decides to take a pupil for real. In other words, you¡¯re the wizard¡¯s real student. He will train you as best as he can. That¡¯s why we call this thing ¡®an invitation to a formal wizard¡¯ because a wizard will make sure you be one! Also, this is when the tutor name on your bone card will show his name.¡±

    They all took out their bone cards to check.

    Just as he said, there was nothing written under ¡°tutor name¡± even though they had already received their professor posters.

    As those people discussed andpared their cards, Angor sat away silently and looked at his card.

    [Tutor: Sunders]

    Seeing how everyone looked so disappointed, Angor quickly put away his card.

    ¡°Mine is nk too,¡± said Sailum as he approached him. He then asked in frustration, ¡°Hey what about yours, Angor?¡±

    ¡°Oh... It¡¯s in my pocket. We¡¯re all the same anyway. Hehehe...¡±

    Sailum looked unconvinced. Angor quickly pointed at Hookdick, ¡°I wonder which wizard wanted a personal student. Look, he¡¯s showing us the name.¡±

    Hookdick checked his card, kept everyone hanging for a bit, and slowly said, ¡°Nissa Be.¡±

    ¡°Nissa Be?¡±

    ¡°Who is that? Never heard of it.¡±

    People discussed among each other.

    ¡°A new wizard maybe?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. There are only a few who are about to break through their bottleneck and I don¡¯t see this name among them.¡±

    Abelle walked to Hookdick and looked at his card.

    Then she covered her mouth and chuckled, ¡°Ahaha¡ªouch, my stomach... It¡¯s not Nissa Be. This is Mister Ness!¡±

    ¡°Mister Ness?¡±

    ¡°¡®Deadman¡¯s Redemption¡¯ Ness Byron?!¡±

    Abelle nodded, ¡°Yup, that ult Soul Maniptor!¡±

    ¡°So, Mister Ness took him in. Who the hell was Nissa Be anyway? Hey you, lucky guy. Don¡¯t tell me you can¡¯t read?¡± The jealous apprentices began to show some contempt at Hookdick.

    Hookdick looked like someone nearing his thirties and he still did not know how to read? He would not achieve much even if a wizard was his mentor.

    Hookdick¡¯s face switched colors. He was the chieftain of a small tribe on Ferran Land. The tribe was not as primitive as it sounded. At least people in high sses all knew how to use the universalnguage. However, Hookdick was an exception. This man loved sexual enjoyments and maiming people, and he spent most of life among women and blood instead of studying the universal tongue. This was why he tended to read only half of the letters he saw.

    He messed up Ness¡¯ name because of this.

    ¡°He couldn¡¯t even recognize his own teacher¡¯s name. My my...¡± Someone shook his head and regarded Hookdick as a joke.

    Hookdick spoke in a cold tone, ¡°I can take my time to learn thenguage, but there¡¯s only one golden poster and I have it! I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re famous schrs or what, but you won¡¯t have one of these. Laugh at me if you will!¡±

    With that, Hookdick sat on a corner and revealed a hateful expression to anyone whoughed at him. The first being Abelle.

    Abelle sensed the terrible hatred as well. As someone who received a golden poster, Hookdick would soon surpass herself. She definitely did not wish to be the enemy of someone who had a bright future.

    However, she was unsure of how to amend her mistake. She only smiled embarrassingly and returned to one side of the room.

    ¡°Anyone left?¡± Abelle asked.

    Two people stood up at the same time. Angor and Balba.

    Balba looked at Angor and sat back down, ¡°You can go first.¡±

    ¡°Balba looks violent but he¡¯s quite gentle,¡± Sailum whispered into Angor¡¯s ear.

    Angor nodded toward Balba and approached the silver disk.

    ¡°Hmph!¡±

    Before Angor ced his bone card, a disdainful sneer came from the side. Angor looked at the direction. He saw Hookdick scorning at him while moving his golden poster up and down with obvious hostility and the intention to show off.

    Angor simply returned a mild smile and inserted his bone card into the disk.

    Light pulsed.

    ... And nothing. The disk remained empty.

    The onlooking apprentices were not surprised by it, but the other talents were quite shocked. Angor had been always close to a wizard. He even joined Brute Cavern without going through the deathmatches, so they all believed Angor had a really powerful talent. But... no professor epted him?

    ¡°Baaahhahahaha! No one wanted you! Ah¡ªhahaha!¡± Hookdickughed out maniacally and taunted in a malevolent tone. He added, ¡°Just you wait. Suppose there are no wizards to kill you, I will!¡±

    Hookdick never tried to do anything to Angor openly because he was afraid of Angor¡¯s ¡°supporter from behind¡±. Now that he realized Angor did not even have a tutor, Hookdick finally released his rage which he had been suppressing in these days. He would have dealt with Angor right here, right now, if not for the people around them.

    Nausica and Sailum looked at each other. Nausica looked really puzzled while Sailum seemed worried about Angor.

    Unlike the other talents, Nausica clearly knew that the Phantom Servants on the cloud whale behaved very politely toward Angor, and the witch talked and joked with the boy a lot. Someone who was treated by others like that did not have a tutor? Really?

    Hookdick was stillughing to his heart¡¯s content when the disk suddenly shined again.

    When everyone looked, a middle-aged man with a handsome look appeared in the light.

    ¡°Angor, once you get to your residence, I¡¯ll order my alchemy familiar to find you. Remember to bring my coin on you. The coin is my professor poster,¡± said the man in a low, hoarse voice.

    Angor was startled by the sudden appearance of his professor but he got over it soon and nodded in acknowledgment.

    Sunders nodded back and disappeared in the light.

    When the disk returned to its calm state, everyone was still speechless.

    The talents did not know who that was, but all the apprentices did.

    ¡°That was...!¡± An apprentice swallowed and pointed to the disk with a trembling finger.

    ¡°You¡ªyou¡¯re his¡ªhis¡ªstudent?¡± Abelle stared at Angor in fear.

    Angor knew he could not hide it anymore. He nodded and showed them his bone card.

    [Tutor: Sunders]

 Chapter 130 - Cave Field

    <h4>Chapter 130: Cave Field</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°So it¡¯s true! The wizard in legends... ¡®Phantom Master¡¯ Sunders!¡±

    The entire resource distribution hall became restless. People all looked at Angor with an emotion mixed with respect and fear. Someone stepped back from him.

    Hookdick looked at the scene and shivered. He got a bad feeling about this.

    The other talents did not know what had just happened.

    ¡°Who¡¯s Sunders?¡± Someone asked in a small voice.

    Abelle slowly turned her head to the speaker bit by bit like a robot, then she spoke in a sluggish tone, ¡°¡®Phantom Master¡¯ Sunders, a Level-2 Wizard, who¡¯s basically second to none in the southern region. He even fought with a Level-3 Wizard before and he did not lose. He¡¯s absolutely one of the top three most powerful beings in Brute Cavern... or maybe even number one.¡±

    An envious emotion came from the apprentices around Angor. With such a powerful wizard as his mentor, Angor would be a formal wizard for sure!

    The talents realized this as well. No wonder the servant called Mner in the tree spirit hall changed her ¡°target¡± from Fosah to Angor after the test. She must have seen Sunders¡¯ name on Angor¡¯s bone card!

    The apprentices began to talk about Sunders¡¯ glorious history. With every extra piece of information, Hookdick¡¯s face would grow paler.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you¡¯re going to kill the boy? Now what? Got your face pped by the hard truth? Hehe. I¡¯m not in the ce toment, but I still have to say this: There is no way Mister Ness will ever beat Mister Sunders in a fight,¡± A woman cloaked under ck robe taunted Hookdick.

    ¡°Why you¡ª¡± Hookdick threw an angry gaze at the woman.

    She slowly lifted her hood and revealed a distinctive, foreign look. She had a pair of charming, violet pupils, short and clean ck hair, dark-red lips. Also, her pupils which were slits like cat eyes released a terrifying aura when she squinted.

    ¡°Nanagi!¡± An apprenticed called her name.

    ¡°Who¡¯s Nanagi?¡±

    ¡°Mister Wace epted her as his personal student when she came to Brute Cavern. She was the only golden poster owner during her term. She reached her bottleneck as a High Apprentice real quick.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s not even the age of 30. It¡¯s only a matter of time before she turns into a formal wizard!¡± Someone eximed.

    Hookdick swallowed his curses back. As another golden poster owner, this woman had trained longer and was able to kill him over and over again in a blink of an eye. Hookdick would not dare to offend her by using the wrong words.

    Nanagi did not mind Hookdick at all. Instead, she walked to Angor on light and swift steps, circled around him, and inspected the boy up and down with those cat-like eyes.

    Angor, on the other hand, only returned a doubtful gaze at her.

    A whileter, Nanagi spoke in a small voice, ¡°Lucky you. Mister Sunders is your mentor. If I can... oh dear.¡±

    She shook her head and walked away from the crowd as she said, ¡°I hope you don¡¯t dishonor his name or I¡¯ll kill you.¡±

    She came for no reason and left with those strange words. Angor had no idea what this was all about. Did Nanagi have something to do with his professor?

    Angorined in his mind and returned to his seat.

    With Nanagi away, people slowly quieted down. However, everyone regarded Angor with different attitude now. Some were envious, some were jealous, some hated him... Yet, none of them dared to reveal their emotions.

    Sunders earned his name by spilling the blood of others. The transmission earlier proved that Sunders really cared about his new student, and these people would never beard the lion in his den.

    Hookdick stared at Angor with hatred in the now silent hall. He wanted to use his curse words again, but considering how everyone was so terrified at Sunders¡¯ name, he held them back.

    Balba was the one to break the silence. He stood up and moved his muscr body to Abelle.

    ¡°My turn,¡± His voice sounded like something came from a subwoofer speaker.

    Balba¡¯s voice woke Abelle from her trance. She straightened her ck-rimmed sses a little and let out an ¡°okay¡±.

    Balba took out his bone card and ced it into the disk.

    The disk did not release light or anything at all. Balba grimaced at his result.

    No onemented. Even Hookdick remained silent. They had just gotten over Angor¡¯s surprise. If Hookdick said something funny again, people would remember his joke earlier. With that in mind, Hookdick closed his eyes and pretended to be resting.

    Balba waited for some more without getting anything. He clenched his fists and revealed some pulsing veins on his neck. He took out his bone card fiercely and moved away.

    Abelle tried tofort him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Every time at least six out of ten talents won¡¯t receive their posters. We have a strange situation this time because there are too few of you¡ª¡±

    She halted her words because she realized she was not helping, and Balba¡¯s now even darker expression proved her mistake. Since there were too few, ten talents should all get their posters.

    Did this mean Balba was totally useless in the eyes of the wizards?

    Abelle stuck her tongue out andined to herself for having a silly mouth.

    Then, Abelle signaled Balba to go to another desk.

    ¡°Without a professor poster, you¡¯ll be assigned to a random mentor. Maybe you can find a better one,¡± Abelle exined.

    <i>A better one?</i>

    Balba grinned in contempt without responding. Following Abelle¡¯s instruction, he ced his card on the desk.

    A servant behind the desk took his card and put it into a wooden pipe which looked like a periscope. After some clunking noise, the bone card was pushed back out, along with another crimson card.

    Abelle looked at the familiar card, ¡°Huh? It¡¯s Lady Flora¡¯s card again.¡±

    The servant returned Balba¡¯s boned card together with the crimson one, ¡°Congrattions... you¡¯re assigned to Lady Flora.¡±

    The servant was disying a weird look and the word ¡°Congrattions¡± sounded a bit twisted.

    A talent spoke to Abelle, ¡°Is Lady Flora bad? Why do you all look so strange?¡±

    Abelle shook her head, ¡°Lady Flora is quite nice to female talents. She would have been a good choice for Nausica. As for male talents... well...

    ¡°Oh right, Mister Sunders is Flora¡¯s professor too. So... Angor, you¡¯ll be Lady Flora¡¯s schoolmate now,¡± Abelle said in the end.

    ...

    After they had the professors arranged, Abelle led them away from the distribution hall and began assigning their residence.

    ¡°Your professor is such an amazing wizard!¡± Sailum eximed in surprise.

    Angor remained calm, ¡°I didn¡¯t think that I need to tell people about it. Professor Sunders and Miss Flora were the ones who controlled the cloud whale.¡±

    Nausica was also interested in Flora since she just received a poster from her. She asked, ¡°So the witch on the cloud whale is Miss Flora?¡±

    ¡°Bare feet, umbre, floating in the air, that¡¯s her,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°I see...¡±

    A certain scene appeared in Nausica¡¯s mind. A youngdy wearing a beautiful dress who carried an umbre and floated in the sky. A handsome blond boy sat under a tree while reading a book as he talked to thedy.

    Nausica witnessed it on the cloud whale. She was thinking about Flora and Angor.

    She then nced at Balba who had been listening to their conversation. When Nausica looked his way, Balba blushed a little. However, it was not very obvious because his skin was too dark.

    Nausica smiled at Balba, rolled her eyes, and asked Angor another question.

    ¡°Abelle said Lady Flora isn¡¯t nice to males? But you two were fine on the cloud whale, weren¡¯t you?¡±

    <i>Fine?</i>

    Angor recalled his days on the cloud whale. Flora was just a mischievous witch who was always ying jokes on him, and she yed lots of pranks, some of which were pretty dangerous. Angor was never hurt though. The grim reaper ¡°Little Red¡± floating behind Flora was quite friendly to Angor. Little Red would often help Angor escape from Flora¡¯s tricks.

    Angor believed that anyone else in his shoes would meet some terrible endings since they could not see Little Red.

    Thinking about this, Angor revealed a bitter smile at Nausica, ¡°Sigh... I¡¯m not sure if she¡¯s nice to females. But I can tell you that she is... unruly. Common people will have a hard time trying to survive in her hands.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re alive and well. So... you¡¯re not amon one then?¡± Nausica joked.

    Angor only shook his head.

    Balba realized Nausica was trying to help. He did not show any expression, but he clearly knew how cruel the wizarding world was, so he was really thankful for Nausica¡¯s little favor.

    ...

    The tree spirit garden was huge. They used a bus which ran between tree vines hanging in the air, and it still took them half an hour to reach their destination.

    They dismounted the bus. The hanging railcar made from nt vines and thin wood rushed back into the distance.

    ¡°Woah, the bus was amazing. It could run on such fragile branches!¡± Sailum was excited. This was his first time riding on such a fast vehicle.

    Sky buses¡ªboxes made from leaves, vines, and wood which hang on the branches of the Tree of Eternity and dashed among clouds.

    The scenery looked brilliant from up there as well. They enjoyed the warm sunlight and misty clouds going over them on their way. The swiftness of the buses was quite a sight to behold.

    When every talent was discussing the buses, Abelle spoke, ¡°The transportation in Brute Cavern is pretty outdated. I heard that Evory had all sorts of steel building and railways for trains, as well as metal cars running on the ground which doesn¡¯t need rails at all. There are also steam airships in the air. Every man who went there all praised highly of their alchemy products!¡±

    Trains, airships, steel buildings, and metal cars... the romance of men.

    Even Nausica longed to see the ce. They all remembered the name ¡°Evory¡± in their minds, hoping to go there someday.

    After another five minutes of walking, they saw buildings in the distance.

    ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± said Abelle. She pointed toward a vast, green field in front of them, ¡°This is where you¡¯ll be living.¡±

    The endless field only had tattered nt patches growing on it due to theck of sunlight caused by the Tree of Eternity.

    That was not important though. The point was, there was nothing on the field!

    ¡°We¡¯re not going there?¡± Fatty Fosah pointed to the left where a moderate-sized city could be seen in the far distance.

    A city that was full of houses built in different shapes and out of various materials. There were tall, stone structures which reached all the way into the clouds, and low, mushroom houses, wooden cottages surrounded by flowers, elegant castles besides thekes... No matter big or small, they all looked delicate and dazzling.

    Abelle smiled, ¡°That¡¯s Apprentice Town Eight of Tree Spirit Garden. There are a total of 36 apprentice towns in the garden, numbered one to thirty-six. All the towns haverge-scale magic arrays drawn under them by powerful wizards. They allow us to meditate better and save a lot of time. But apprentices need to pay magic crystals to live in there.¡±

    Abelle reached for her coin pouch with a sad face and pointed to the field in front of them, ¡°Without magic crystals, you¡¯ll have to live down here. The field doesn¡¯t have a name. We just call it the Cave Field because the underground is hollowed out into many caves with lots of passages connecting everywhere. Before earning enough magic crystals to live inside apprentice towns, this will be your home.¡±

    So their residence was underground? People finally understood.

    They spent a night in a ground cave outside Twilight Town when they first came to the Fey Continent, so they did not really resist the idea.

    However, when they actually stepped into the caves, they realized why this ce was free.

    Abelle led them into the dark cave. Soon, they saw a small room blocked by a simple iron door. Abelle pointed to the door and said, ¡°The room looked simple from the outside, but... ahem, it¡¯s even simpler on the inside.¡±

    She pushed the iron door open and revealed some space which was barely two square metersrge.

    There was nothing inside apart from a tform, which was basically a pile of dirt.

    ¡°You can use the dirt pile as your bed, your desk, or whatever you wish. Those who made these caves put the dirt there without any particr reason. Dispose of it if you want. Every underground room looks the same, so you can choose one freely. When you do it, ce your bone card in the slot on the iron door, and it¡¯ll record your identity. Also, a sign showing that someone took that room will also show up in front of the door.

    ¡°Alright. My job¡¯s done. Good luck on bing wizards!¡± Abelle smiled and bowed to them before she left on her tri-colored deer.

 Chapter 131 - Phantom Island

    <h4>Chapter 131: Phantom Ind</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Angor, let¡¯s be neighbors,¡± said Sailum.

    Angor smiled and agreed. Compared to Nausica, Angor preferred thepanionship of Sailum since he was just a simple and innocent boy whose ideas were pretty obvious. Nausica, on the other hand, appeared to be friendly, but Angor could never make out what the woman was really thinking about.

    Next, Sailum went to Nausica. He asked the same thing and got the same answer quickly. The three of them then teamed up and began to look for a suitable ce in the underground caves.

    There were directional signs everywhere, but it was still easy to get lost if they went too deep into the caves. After looking around for about half an hour, they decided to make a spot close to the surface with two venting pipes as their home point.

    Angor went into his own room and frowned when he was immediately weed by a rotten smell. Like what Abelle said, there was nothing in the room beside a dirt pile. Angor could still live with this. He just needed to get his own furniture.

    However, he could not ept the door.

    Previously, he thought these iron doors were pretty sturdy and could at least prevent a forceful breach. However, the lock of the door was actually a simple iron chain.

    He left his room and walked along the passage for a minute to reach another room right under one of the venting pipes.

    The door was unlocked. Angor still knocked and waited for a ¡°Come in¡± before going in.

    ¡°Cough! Ack¡ª¡±

    Angor was choked by the smoke inside the room.

    A mature and elegant-lookingdy wearing soft armor was smoking from her long smoking pipe while leaning against a wall, surrounded by smoke clouds.

    Nausica gave Angor a curious look and asked, ¡°What? Miss me already?¡±

    Angor did not feel embarrassed by her joke at all. He just covered his nose so he could inhale less smoke as he asked, ¡°Nausica, can I borrow your sword?¡±

    As a former pirate captain who fought on the sea for many years, Nausica always carried her personal weapon¡ªa thin dueling sword strapped on her waist.

    The weapon looked thin, but Angor witnessed its sharpness back at Twilight Town when Nausica easily shed a boulder in half.

    Nausica flipped some hair away from her eyes, put her pipe on the dirt pile, and tossed the sword to Angor without a second thought. She did not even ask why. After that, she resumed her smoking.

    Angor raised an eyebrow at her swift decision. Angor prepared an excuse, but now it seemed he did not need it.

    He took the sword back to his own room and using only a small force, he tried cutting the iron chain.

    The iron chain snapped and fell to the ground. The impact caused a metal clunking noise.

    Angor grimaced at the result. He thought the door lock could at least withstand basic weapon attacks. Now he just proved that this ce was unsafe.

    Anyone could easily break into his room. The door was meaningless. Not to mention there were a lot of other apprentices living down here.

    This room could not guarantee anything. No privacy, no personal safety.

    Angor carried a lot of secrets on himself. What if someone barged in when he was using his hologram tablet? Or if someone came and stole his valuable potion while he was away?

    Hookdick and his men all had grudge against him. If they messed with his meditation training or used some kind of small tricks to harm him, how could he protect himself?

    Thinking about this, Angor made up his mind to find somewhere else to live in.

    ...

    Angor put the sleeping Toby into his pocket and left the Cave Field.

    Back in the resource distribution hall, Sunders mentioned about sending a familiar to help Angor learn his way around. Angor also nned to use this chance to ask about rental prices in the apprentice towns. He had an anonymous bone card on him which had 10,000 merit points in it. If hebined it with the 30 magic crystals Greya gave him, Angor believed he should have enough to rent a room. The underground cave was out of the question, so he could only hope to find a room in the town.

    Once on the surface, he saw a small demon falcon hovering in the air. Angor saw it before on The Savage. It was Sunders¡¯ alchemy familiar. Angor simply needed to follow behind it.

    With the demon falcon taking the lead, Angor boarded a sky bus again. He looked outside the bus carefully and noticed that every corner in the entire Tree Spirit Garden was connected to the Tree of Eternity by cable vines. There were other buses moving along the vines, either with passengers in them or empty.

    His bus stopped at a tform on a giant leaf. The tform was called ¡°The Falling Cloud Stop¡±, which was about 300 meters above the ground. The clouds flowing beneath the leaf created a dreamy scene. Angor followed the demon falcon and walked among the misty clouds for a while. After going over several branches, he stopped on the edge of the leaf.

    The demon falcon was still urging him to go ahead. But... there was no footing!

    Angor hesitated. The demon falcon indicated that he was walking in the right direction. So why could he not see any way ahead? Three hundred meters in the air... If he fell from here, he would absolutely end up as a pile of mash.

    He looked at the endless clouds in front of him and thought to himself.

    <i>Maybe there is a road in the sky?</i>

    He tried reaching out a foot. Itnded on something steady.

    <i>So there is a way!</i>

    An invisible one, which started from the edge of the leaf and led to somewhere unknown.

    Angor walked in the air with a bit of fear. There were only blue sky and snow-white clouds around him. This would be a good scenery if not for his trembling legs.

    Angor walked on the twisting sky road for about ten minutes, and finally reached a small floating ind made from sandstone. When he stepped on the ind, his legs stopped trembling. Angor sat on the ind and rested for a while before he continued to follow the demon falcon.

    There were many such floating inds around the Tree of Eternity, and the one he was walking on was rtively small. Still, it looked beautiful. The ind was about a dozen square kilometersrge. Different nts grew everywhere. It also had some unknown animals. Angor saw several fierce-looking beasts on his way there, but they all ignored the boy¡¯s presence.

    Some of the beasts appeared as if they came out of a fairytale. For example, Angor saw a snow-white horse with a pair of wings growing on its back. If it had a horn, it would look exactly like those unicorns who only adored innocent virgins.

    However, upon closer look, the horse was a little bit different from the stories. The wings were not naturally grown. Angor could see traces of suture work at the wings¡¯ base as if someone put them on the horse.

    Angor suddenly recalled that when he was reading in Sunders¡¯ library, he had read about a spell scroll called Canine Nose Transnt. The spell was used to give someone a superior sense of smell by transnting a canine nose on him. If the user wanted to avoid looking ugly, there was also Facial Surgery spell and simr stuff. Those who did not mind carrying a dog nose around could just live with it.

    Angor felt something familiar between the horse¡¯s wings and the Canine Nose Transnt spell.

    After going around another small hill, Angor reached his destination¡ªa delicately-built nobleman¡¯s manor.

    Angor knew that Sunders was from a noble family in a small country before he became a wizard. Angor even met ¡°younger Sunders¡± in the Nightmare Realm. Both the middle-aged Sunders and the young one presented the same, unconcealed noble temperament.

    Also, Sunders¡¯ daily clothing was a gentleman costume. So Angor was not surprised when he saw this beautiful nobleman¡¯s manor.

    Once inside the manor, the demon falcon took Angor to Sunders¡¯ study.

    Angor knocked on the door.

    ¡°Professor?¡±

    When stepping into the study, instead of looking at Sunders, Angor¡¯s attention was first drawn to the countless bookshelves and bookcases which reached all the way to the ceiling. Angor almost felt dizzy just by looking at them.

    ¡°Do you remember the way to the Phantom Ind?¡±

    <i>Phantom Ind?</i>

    Angor froze up for a full second and realized that Sunders was titled the ¡°Phantom Master¡±. So Phantom Ind was probably referring to this ind.

    Angor quickly nodded. He was all tensed up on his way here, but he still memorized the path.

    ¡°Good. If you have questions when studying the channeling method,e here and ask me. If you can¡¯t find me here, go to Flora,¡± said Sunders. He was sitting in front of his desk with <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>ced right there. The man was probably reading the book before Angor came.

    ¡°Understood,¡± replied Angor as he nodded politely.

    ¡°Off you go then,¡± said Sunders. He never looked up when talking to the boy.

    Angor hesitated a bit. He thought Sunders called him for something else. So the man really was showing him the way?

    ¡°One more thing, no matter who youe for, don¡¯t forget to bring the coin I gave you. Without the coin, the creatures will attack you the second you step onto Phantom Ind,¡± Sunders added.

    ¡°Yes, professor.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Learn the channeling method as fast as you can or you¡¯ll have a hard time living in this ce.¡±

    ...

    Angor returned to the Falling Cloud Stop by backtracking his way. He saw another two people at the stop, waiting for the sky bus.

    They noticed Angor¡¯s arrival. They were not paying much attention first, but after checking Angor¡¯s face carefully, the shorter boy was mildly surprised. He took out a crystal ball from his robe, which shined something and disyed an image in it.

    The image showed the resource distribution hall. There were many people in there with Angor being in the center.

    ¡°You¡¯re Angor?¡±

    The short boy looked between the image and the real Angor standing on the side.

    Angor wanted to avoid trouble, so he had been standing far away. However, the short boy still moved to him and stared at him.

    ¡°I¡¯m Angor, and you are?¡± Angor was unsure of how the boy knew his name.

    The boy smiled back in a skilled socializer¡¯s manner as he said, ¡°Name¡¯s Porry. That¡¯s my friend, Hatter.¡±

    He pointed to the other boy wearing a pair of rimless sses.

    ¡°You¡¯re really Angor?¡±

    Angor nodded, still wondering how he was recognized.

    When Angor confirmed his name, Porry and Hatter both gave him an admiring look.

    ¡°You¡¯re pretty famous around here!¡± said Porry as he showed his crystal ball to Angor.

    Angor checked the image of the resource hall.

    ¡°You¡¯re here, which means you went to Mister Sunders¡¯ Phantom Ind? So you¡¯re really Mister Sunders¡¯ new student!¡± Porry eximed.

    Angor let out a silly smile in response.

    ¡°I reckon everyone already heard about you now. I mean, Mister Sunders found a student! This is big news!¡±

    Porry kept talking after they boarded their bus, and he never noticed that he was making Angor embarrassed. Hatter did not talk much, but he still showed jealousy in his eyes.

    Angor finally escaped from the chatterbox when he got off the bus.

    This incident just told him that he was now a famous figure among apprentices and it probably meant something bad. Getting attention from all kinds of people meant his every move would arouse suspicion and danger.

    He had to find a ce of residence quickly.

    With that in mind, he changed his original destination from the Cave Field to the apprentice town.

    The town already looked bustling from the distance. Now as he walked closer, it appeared even more magnificent. Angor saw several giant buildings about two dozen meters high. The buildings were all in different styles. Some were swamp structures, some were built with fantasy designs. He even saw shell houses which were simr to those used in Hen Empire. However, he did not find anything from his home, Goldspink.

    The differently-designed buildings existed in harmony. The town was probably built by a skilled designer. At least Angor would never know how to mix shell houses, tree houses, and metal skyscrapers together without creating a bizarre sight.

    An hourter, Angor left the Apprentice Town Eight with a big smile on his face.

    Looked like being famous was not all about bad things. When Angor went to the town manager and asked to rent a room, the manager immediately recognized him and helped him pick a room with great enthusiasm. The manager even took care of his furniture.

    Angor only spent 500 merit points for permission to use a vi with a flower garden for one year. The points equaled to five magic crystals. This was big money. However, considering the vi¡¯s decent security level as well as its ce within the concentration magic array which could improve his meditation efficiency, five magic crystals werepletely worth it.

    His newly rented garden vi possessed three basic magic arrays: Sound Proof, Protection, and Spell Inhibition. They were low-level magic arrays but were enough for Angor. The apprentice town was mostly popted by apprentice wizards. These three basic magic arrays could prevent most apprentices from doing harm. Even if someone managed to break through, the protection could give Angor enough time to react, so no one would see his secret that easily.

    Angor returned to the Cave Field. It took him some time to find his room inside the maze-like underground structure.

    He saw Sailum and Nausica chatting in front of his door.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± asked Angor. He was puzzled to see them here.

    Nausica pointed at the broken chain on the ground and exined, ¡°Sailum saw your door chain broken and he was worried that someone might steal your stuff. He asked me to be your gatekeeper.¡±

    Angor looked at the chain, which was broken down by himself, then at Sailum, who was expecting a thank-you with a joyful expression. Angor felt warmth in his heart and thanked Sailum politely.

    ¡°You broke the chain yourself, right?¡± asked Nausica. She took out her dueling sword and said, ¡°With this?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°But why? Bad guys mighte. You know, Hookdick, Fosah... They aren¡¯t friendly to you,¡± Sailum wondered.

    ¡°The lock is useless, whether broken or not,¡± said Nausica. She squinted her eyes and when she realized something, she asked, ¡°Hey, Angor... You¡¯re not going to live somewhere else, are you?¡±

 Chapter 132 - Tracing Spirit Power

    <h4>Chapter 132: Tracing Spirit Power</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Nausica¡¯s instinct was correct.

    Angor remembered that he agreed to be Sailum¡¯s neighbor not long ago. It was barely a day yet, and he already changed his mind. Now Angor felt a little ashamed.

    And Nausica easily realized Angor¡¯s expression.

    ¡°So I was right. You¡¯re going to move away? Wait... since you haven¡¯t started living here, you aren¡¯t literally ¡®moving¡¯ away.¡±

    Since Nausica revealed his intention, Angor did not try to hide his embarrassment. He could not hide it anyway.

    He told them how he rented a house in the apprentice town. His magic crystal ie was pretty difficult to exin, so he simply used Sunders as an excuse. Besides, Sunders did give him those merit points. At a price though.

    ¡°Miss Abelle said even Level-2 Apprentices usually can¡¯t afford rooms there!¡± said Sailum. He looked jealous as he said, ¡°Your professor is so nice.¡±

    ¡°A good choice,¡± said Nausica. She picked up the broken chain before continuing, ¡°This ce is unsafe. Considering your problem with Hookdick, if that guy sneaks into your room during the night, you¡¯re in big trouble.¡±

    Sailum agreed, ¡°Miss Nausica is right. I didn¡¯t think about it before but... if a sword can break the door lock, our rooms are not secured at all. And this is not a ce full of peaceful townsfolk. The supernaturals and those about to be supernaturals must have their ways of breaking in. Getting your training interrupted by someone is bad. Besides, Toby is a bird and it can¡¯t live without the sun.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re one step ahead of us then,¡± said Nausica. She put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder and said, ¡°When I get enough magic crystals, I¡¯ll also move away from here as soon as I can.¡±

    ¡°Me too!¡± said Sailum. He smiled as he added, ¡°Then we can be neighbors!¡±

    Their friendlyment allowed Angor to get rid of his sad feeling.

    ¡°I hope that dayes soon,¡± Angor said to them.

    ...

    Angor carried his luggage to his small vi in the apprentice town on the same day.

    The vi was located on the edge of Apprentice Town Eight, with a small river aside. There was a forest behind the vi, and animals would show up from there asionally and drink from the river casually. When Angor arrived, he saw several dusk pelicans withrge, red beaks hunting for fish in the river, and a herd of white deer resting nearby.

    ¡°Such a beautiful nature...¡±

    The pleasant scenery made Angor felt really satisfied with his new home.

    The vi was protected by a white fence. The fence was pretty short, but there were spell arrays on it which could stall intruders. There were a small garden and a tiny greenhouse. A three-meter tall mistletoe tree was growing near the greenhouse. The mirror world kept a warm atmosphere most of the times, so the tree was lively and lush. There were even some fruit buds growing on it.

    Angor entered the vi and saw that his furniture was brought in by the town manager. The furniture was left around in the main hall in a disorganized manner. Angor spent half of the day arranging furniture to their correct positions while getting used to the interior of the vi.

    The vi had three floors, with a small triangr attic as the top floor, guest rooms on the second, and the main bedroom, study, andmon hall were all on the ground floor. There was also a basement which was designed as a training room.

    Angor would be living in the main bedroom. He put Toby into the attic. There was a skylight in the attic, through which the leafy mistletoe tree could be seen, thus giving the attic afortable atmosphere. Toby was pretty satisfied with its own room. The bird could fly in and out of the skylight as it liked.

    After arranging Toby¡¯s room, Angor returned to his own bedroom.

    There was nothing here besides the bed. The walls around were all empty. Angor watched the creepily white walls and decided to take the two oil paintings out.

    He hanged Traveler Under Stars onto the wall across to the bed. As for Milking Shepherd, he put it into the study instead and covered it up with a painting curtain. Angor was not sure if the painting had some kind of secret, so he hid it, just in case.

    The decoration made his bedroom a lot better. Angor already felt tired after running around during the day, so he fell asleep soon on the bed.

    The next day, Angor woke up after the horizon had already turned bright. The boy lifted the curtain and stretched himself on the balcony while inhaling the fresh air. He felt good as he looked at the green mountain in the distance and small animals chasing around along the river.

    Angor did not n to go out today. He wanted to finally start studying the channeling method. He wanted to try out <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>as soon as he could, hoping that it would deepen his knowledge quickly and allow him to save Jon¡¯s life in five years.

    However, before learning the channeling method, he had to get a feel about his spirit power first.

    Angor asked Toby to enjoy the outside on his own. He then ate some instant food before he stepped into the basement.

    It was wide.

    The three basic magic arrays were drawn on the walls, so no matter what Angor did down here, his privacy and safety could be protected. This was also why many apprentices redesigned their basements into personalboratories. Angor did not intend to do that though. He was going for another side door in the basement which led to a small soundproof room about two or three square meters wide.

    One could calm his mind best in such a narrow and tranquil room. This ce would help Angor greatly during his first meditation.

    It did not go well. Even with the help of Sunders¡¯ advice, Angor still could not manage topletely calm his mind.

    The first step of meditation was to imagine the spirit model inside one¡¯s brain. This was different from actually constructing the model but they were rted. To imagine the spirit model was to build it better. Angor needed this step to have a basic idea about the model he was going to make.

    Also, imagining the spirit model could help Angor feel and channel his spirit power.

    Spirit power was an abstract concept. Angor had to feel it first before materializing it. As for how to feel spirit power... He had to imagine a spirit model in his mind and to look for something that was drawn by this model.

    Imagined a spiritual model while tracing spirit power...

    Angor could not focus entirely on the spiritual model because he needed to catch the other power in his brain¡ªspirit power.

    This step called for greater concentration. It was extremely difficult for someone to imagine something while focusing on anotherpletely different object.

    Angor recalled reading about a famous psychological test from Earth called ¡°The Pink Elephant¡±.

    A psychologist told the subjects that there was a pink elephant in the room, but then he told them not to think about the elephant.

    But in the end, once the subjects heard about the ¡°pink elephant¡±, they could no longer get rid of the idea. No matter how hard they tried to forget it, their brains would always remind them of the particrly-colored creature in the room.

    Wizard meditation was a simr process. When one wanted to divert one¡¯s focus to something else, one could not do it. This was called ¡°thought interference¡±.

    If one wished to forget the subject which caused the interference, he or she had to clear the body and mind of everything before slowly shifting their focus into a state of nkness.

    This was a difficult task. People were usually troubled by a lot of different thoughts. To make the mind nk required a constant and long-term effort.

    Since this called for an absolutely silent environment, most wizards were wise people who lived in solitude.

    When wizards attained a higher level and had less random thoughts in their minds, they could use ¡°rtively quiet¡± ces in ce of ¡°absolutely silent¡± ones. However, only wizards could do that. Wizards were able to meditate even if they stayed among bustling crowds. Being able to empty their minds quickly allowed them to enter such a state easily. That was something beyond achieving calmness in their bodies and minds.

    They could ¡°calm their spirits¡±.

    As for an even higher state called ¡°calming the soul¡±... it required some harsher conditions.

    ...

    Angor spent a whole week without sessfully going into a meditation state. He had a quiet ce now, but he always thought about various stuff. Each time he closed his eyes in a meditation attempt, all sorts of distracting thoughts and evildoers rose up inside his mind as if they were holding a party. Pressing something down meant allowing something else toe up.

    Angor already had enough difficulty trying to suppress his own thoughts, let alone imagining the spiritual model.

    And he just realized how chaotic his mind was.

    Angor was not the only talent who was stuck at the first step. All talents had received channeling method books from their respective professors. The difference was that their methods were onlymon ones, something like Triangle Channeling. Yet, they too were stopped by the first challenge... Especially the adults who had witnessed too many things in their lives topletely calm their minds.

    Sailum, however, was a lot purer than Angor despite being only one year younger. The book asked him to close his eyes to meditate, and Sailum simply did so. The boy had way fewer random ideas, and he managed to separate his imagination and focus in a short time.

    Sailum¡¯s sess stimted Angor much. In the next two weeks, Angor decided to stay indoors to meditate. He believed the hard effort would pay off in the end.

    Sunders did not contact Angor during his training. Maybe the man also knew what kind of trouble first-timers had to face.

    Several dayster, Angor gained a deeper insight into his meditation method. It asked for regr progress, instead of something that could be achieved in one go. So his only task now was to get rid of distracting ideas.

    One weekter, Angor seeded.

    The second step was to imagine his spiritual model and track down spirit power.

    Another three days passed. Angor more or less knew how to separate his imagination from his focus. He had to slowly project the spiritual model instructed by <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>into his mind and turn it into his natural instinct. Such an instinct would prevent him from losing focus, and it would also make it easier for him to sense spirit power.

    Yet, to develop something into instinct was not easy.

    Another week went by, Angor was still stuttering during his meditation. He could notpletely separate his imagination from his focus yet, but he managed to direct his focus away asionally to look for his spirit power.

    He could only do this every now and then, but it gave him a lot of confidence.

    asional would slowly be constant, and it would then turn into forever. He did not know how long it would take him, but Angor knew how to persist.

    Angor slowly caught up with Sailum after half a month and came out in front of all the other talents. For one, he already had a decent talent. Besides, the concentration magic array helped him a lot.

    Just like Angor, Sailum was also on the step of finding his spirit power but he could not do it. He felt as if something like that did not exist at all.

    They had also discussed their training in private but they could not find anything helpful.

    As for Nausica...

    She had shut herself in her room for a long time now. ording to Sailum, Nausica was still fighting with her own mind. She even smoked less.

    Angor muttered to himself upon hearing Nausica¡¯s condition, ¡°Maybe she can do better while smoking?¡±

    This was because Angor already noticed that Nausica appeared to be more serene and calm when she smoked her pipe. Telling from his training during the half month, this meant it was easier for Nausica to remove her distractions when smoking.

    ...

    After making some progress by directing his focus away from his imagination, Angor felt a little bit irritated when he got stuck trying to find spirit power.

    An entire month went by.

    The Month of Looming Frost hade. This meant that after another month, Angor would reach his first year of being away from home.

    That would be one out of the five-year period from his promise of saving Jon. A year had passed and he was not even an apprentice yet. Of course, he would feel irritated.

    One day, after he still found no trace of his spirit power, Angor decided to go to Phantom Ind and ask Sunders for help.

    The way to the ind was smooth and peaceful, and Sunders happened to be inside his study room.

    However, Sunders¡¯ answer was a little unsatisfactory to Angor. The man positively praised Angor¡¯s progression. As for how to find spirit power, Sunders only told him to ¡°take it slow¡±.

    ¡°Haste makes waste.¡±

    Angor knew this, but he could not take it slow now!

    Before leaving the Phantom Ind, Angor ran into Flora and got an idea. Maybe Flora could tell him something helpful.

    However, Flora said exactly the same thing ¨C that he should be patient.

    Though looking at how Angor was on his edge, Flora added something in the end:

    ¡°I dunno why you¡¯re being all edgy, and I don¡¯t have anything to help you. But someone might. It¡¯s no easy task to pry useful information from that guy though.¡±

 Chapter 133 - Elder of Books

    <h4>Chapter 133: Elder of Books</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The third day into the Month of Looming Frost.

    Apprentice Town Eight.

    Angor woke up earlier. After he washed up, he found himself a ck gentleman attire which suited him just fine.

    Inside the mirror, the young kid quickly became an elegant nobleman with a high nose bridge, delicate lips, deep-blue eyes and messy but lively short blond hair. When viewed by the people in this era, Angor was absolutely a top-tier handsome. Even though he did not pay much attention to his dressing, he managed to draw a lot of attention to himself. When the boy tried to look better, he only made it super.

    ¡°Something is amiss...¡± Angor muttered. Anyone else here toment on his looks would not find anything more that could be done.

    Bird chirping came from the French window. Angor opened it and invited fresh air into the house. Along with it came a seabird wearing ck gentleman suit, Toby.

    Toby circled around Angor¡¯s room for a while and perched on top of Angor¡¯s head skillfully.

    Now, two pairs of eyes stared at the mirror.

    Simr clothes, the same puzzled look... They were even standing in the same posture.

    ¡°I see now. I need a hat!¡± said Angor. He looked at the small creature inside his hair and recalled the days when his hairstyle would always be ruined by the bird.

    There was a marketce in the town where various merchants from viges and towns nearby sold their stuff. Angor soon found a hattery and purchased a pure-ck top hat.

    Then he rushed back home with Toby on his head.

    The boy attracted a lot of people on his way. He made quite an interesting sight with his appearance, clothing, and the adorablepanion. But there were onlymon folks. Angor did not see any apprentices. Maybe they were all hiding inside their basements doing research and did note out much.

    Angor removed Toby from his hair and put on his new top hat. Now he looked more wonderful. Together with his dark-red bowtie and snow-white silk cor, the decorations added some mysterious properties on top of Angor¡¯s handsome look.

    He was going to find someone today. To show his respect, Angor made sure he presented his best manner.

    ording to Flora, his target was an elder with a very strict character who preferred people who knew the rules. The boy had to wear formal clothes.

    Angor would do this anyway without Flora¡¯s advice. He would not forget the glory of the lion¡¯s heart which was carved into his soul.

    ¡°The fire in the lion¡¯s heart never dies.¡±

    The button on Angor¡¯s gentleman wear was the emblem of Padt Family¡ªlion¡¯s heart. Angor put on this costume for the first time. He prepared it for brother¡¯s title inheritance ceremony. He did not expect that he would suddenly go somewhere else far, far away before he could actually use it.

    Angor recited his family motto in a small voice. The young man in the mirror was now carrying a responsible and solemn look.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Toby. I heard the elder is the most knowledgeable being in the entire southern region. Maybe he can help you evolve.¡±

    Apart from asking something for himself, Angor also nned to do something for Toby.

    Greya only put Toby in his care for the moment. But Toby was also a supernatural now. Angor developed a fine friendship with the bird during these months, so Angor hoped he could find Toby a path to advance using the chance.

    Not far from Apprentice Town Eight, Angor reached a stairway made from nt vines which led toward a bus stop ten meters off the ground.

    Angor climbed onto the stop and saw a sky bus approaching soon.

    While on the bus, he silently went over the key points for sensing spirit power.

    Being able to sense his spirit power meant he could finally begin his life as a supernatural.

    There were three steps. The first one was to feel his spirit power, and the second step was to control the power. Thest step was to construct one¡¯s spiritual model. Once the model was made, he would be considered a Level-1 Apprentice, like Abelle.

    However, Angor did not manage to think for a long time before someone¡¯s cheering voice woke him up.

    He looked out of the bus and saw a giant za in the middle of Tree Spirit Garden suddenly being shrouded in sunlight.

    The Tree of Eternity grew veryrge leaves and branches which hid most of the sun from the ground, so the Tree Spirit Garden underneath was always dark with only asional, scattered light spots.

    But now, the central za which was several square kilometers in size waspletely brightened by the sun. The ce appeared as if it was covered by golden dust.

    Angor looked up and saw the giant leaves which denied the za of sunlight all curled up.

    ¡°Maybe Mister Tree Spirit is in a good mood today so he allows people down there to enjoy some light?¡± Angor wondered.

    But was that something worth cheering for? Anyone who wanted to see light could simply take a sky bus and go to the leaves on the tree.

    Angor looked back and failed to notice that a rupture had just opened up in the central za. The cheering apprentices all rushed inside.

    Twenty minutester, Angor reached the stop he wasing for.

    It was only a small stop, and Angor was the only one here. A metal sign which was about three meters high stood under the tform. It read ¡°Cloud Library¡±.

    Yes, the base of the sign was fixed on the cloud.

    This stop was not located on one of the tree leaves. It stood on a thick cloud. When Angor stepped on the cloud, he felt like walking on soft dirt.

    This was called ¡°cloud dirt¡±, a product made by mixing a special material with clouds.

    The cloud was very wide. Angor could already see the magnificent library which shined a golden light not far from him.

    The elder he was looking for was here, in the biggest library in Brute Cavern.

    There were lots of people in the library, butpared with the size of the building, they appeared like swarms of ants.

    Angor was the only one on the bus stop because everyone could fly. As the boy stared agape at the library, a middle-aged witch wearing blue wizard robe and a pointy wizard hat decorated by stars and moon flew past him on a broomstick.

    The aura of the library shocked him more and more as he approached it. It stood there like a hallowed church, which made people want to show respect and bow down. Angor knew that this was not something religious, but natural respect toward knowledge and truth.

    Every single person walking around the ce presented his or her best manner. No one spoke a word.

    Angor was the same as he entered the library with a solemn attitude.

    The library was extremely spacious inside. There were obviously space-expanding magic arrays being used. Books were arranged in different sections. When Angor checked the map at the entrance, he saw 8,329 sections in total. ording to people¡¯s needs, they could all be reached via certain teleportation points.

    The rule of equivalent exchange also worked here. To use teleportation and rent books all required merit points, and most of the apprentices would spend their hard-earned points here.

    ording to Flora, the elder was inside section 7920¡ª7930 recently, researching for some sort of energy transformation project.

    Angor found a vacant teleportation point and prepared to go to section 7920. Without any more clues to go by, he had to look in the sections one by one.

    When he ced his bone card on the teleportation device, a number showed up: 100 merit points.

    Angor widened his eyes. He just saw an apprentice who only paid one point to use the teleportation device. Why was it asking for a hundredfold now?!

    When he felt like crying, someone in the line urged him to hurry up.

    There were 30 teleportation points in the library, and somehow, they were all upied. Angor did not want to keep people waiting and make a scene, so he clenched his teeth and epted the price.

    Angor reached section 7920 and felt his heart aching.

    He thought a section would be a dozen meters around at best. But what he saw shocked him for good. The section was beyond a hundred meters in both directions and was full of giant bookshelves. The first nce presented him books a hundred times more than what Sunders had in his collection. No. It was way more than that.

    Angor nced at a random book nearby.

    <i>Summary on How to Use Hyper Maic Cannon </i>.

    When he ced his bone card near the book, the rental fee quickly showed up on it: 300,000 merit points.

    Three hundred thousand...

    Angor¡¯s total asset was ten thousand. One single book cost thirty times! That equaled to 3,000 magic crystals! This was insane. Few apprentices could save up such big money.

    Angor guessed that this section was meant for wizards. The teleportation fee would also make sense. It was a price bar which discouraged apprentices froming here. Considering how apprentices usually made money, they would never waste their ie bying to this ce.

    That was also why Angor did not see anyone at all in here.

    He walked along the central path and looked aside, hoping to find the elder Flora mentioned.

    But he did not seed even after looking around the entire Section 7920.

    Angor had no choice but to return to the teleportation point and go for Section 7921.

    Another 100 merit points.

    And the effort still brought him nothing.

    7922, 7923, 7924... The boy kept searching for another three sections by spending 300 points. He did not find a single soul, let alone the elder he was looking for.

    When he prepared to move to Section 7925, he noticed the teleportation fee this time was 300!

    Angor felt faint and wanted to leave. But on second thought, he felt that he could not let his previous attempt go to waste, so he made a hard decision and went for Section 7925 with a sad face.

    He walked in the middle to search around just like before. When halfway through, Angor noticed that a bookshelf at the end of the line to his right was of a different color than the others. It released a weak, silver glimmer.

    He approached the bookshelf out of curiosity.

    The books here were... all alchemy books?

    <i>Alchemy Script: Energy Stabilizer</i>

    It was an alchemy script on how to create an ¡°energy stabilizer¡±. Angor recalled recording a book in the warden¡¯s secret chamber back at Stairs of Hanging Prison. The book was called <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>, which contained knowledge on how to craft such a stabilizer. It was an elementary alchemy tool.

    But why was the bookshelf silver? Because it was meant for alchemy books? When Angor ced his bone card near <i>Alchemy Script: Energy Stabilizer </i>and read the number shown, he felt his heart skipping a beat.

    ¡°Rental fee: 1,100,000 merit points¡±

    This was too crazy!!

    In the <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>that Angor recorded, there were crafting methods for nearly a thousand different alchemy tools, and the energy stabilizer was only a very basic one.

    And this single, basic tool was taken out and published in one book which cost more than a million points to rent. That meant ten thousand magic crystals! Angor could not believe his own eyes.

    If the price was real, <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>would worth... billions of points?

    And that was only one of the many alchemy books Angor recorded in his tablet. There were also intermediate books, advanced books, even other special ones. How much would they cost?!

    ¡°Wow. Alchemy books were so expensive...¡± Angor mumbled to himself.

    Seemed like he was a rich guy himself, only that he could not reveal it to others. The boy would never try to sell his recordings. One of Jon¡¯s teachings was that ¡°a man¡¯s wealth is his own crime¡±. Before he knew how to defend himself, selling the books would only bring him death instead of a fortune.

    ¡°I can¡¯t sell them, but I can try learning them,¡± Angor muttered. Since he possessed such textbooks which covered all levels of knowledge, why not put them to good use?

    Still, it was something forter. His main job now was to be a supernatural first and turn into an apprentice sessfully. Everything else had to wait.

    Angor left the silver bookshelf and continued searching for the elder.

    Before dering the section to be another disappointment, the boy suddenly saw an old man in a corner. He looked much like a soul who kept blinking out of existence. The soul was sitting in front of a long desk and writing something.

    Angor¡¯s eyes brightened up.

    ¡°There he is!¡±

    ...

    There were three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern: The Tree Spirit of the tree of eternity, Lady Mirror in the mirror world, and the old man in front of Angor.

    The most erudite being in the southern region, and the philosopher of Cloud Library¡ªElder of Books.

    The Elder of Books was a soul who existed long in history. He was a wise and serene man who edited or participated in the editing of more than half of all the book in the entire Cloud Library. Rumor had it that he was born from an ancient tome, thus he loved and cared for books as well.

    The old man never went out of the mirror world before. He did not even leave the library much. And still, he was titled the ¡°most erudite being in the southern region¡±.

    Being erudite meant knowing a lot, which was different from being an expert who spent countless time researching a certain field of expertise. They were equally important traits, but the wizards still preferred being experts.

    The Elder of Books knew a lot of things. Many wizard tricks out there came from him. He even lectured legendary wizards before. This was why Flora mentioned his name to Angor.

    Angor approached him and noticed the old man wasposing something. He decided not to interrupt his work and stood aside to wait.

    And he waited for ten hours straight.

    Even after Angor¡¯s feet went all numb, the Elder of Books did not show any hint of stopping.

    During the process, Toby switched from Angor¡¯s left shoulder to the right, then onto his top hat. In the end, Toby fell asleep, so Angor put the bird into his pocket.

    The sky outside turned dark.

    Angor tried to call his name in a small voice, ¡°Um, Elder of Books?¡±

    The elder did not look up from his work while he pondered over something as what he did during thest few hours. He did not mind Angor¡¯s presence at all.

 Chapter 134 - Mass-Energy Relation

    <h4>Chapter 134: Mass-Energy Rtion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor did not want to give up and leave. To find the Elder of Books, he had spent 700 merit points on teleportation. Leaving now would cause him to waste a lot of money.

    Considering how the elder did not notice him at all, Angor moved closer.

    The old man did not intend to chase Angor away. Rather, the elder was totally submerged inside his own thoughts without paying any attention to the outside world.

    Angor moved to his side and looked at his writing.

    Along with some strange pictures, he also saw several rows of disordered forms on the paper. He did not know what the elder was trying to figure out.

    ¡°This is... independent from energy? It can¡¯t be. The Sanmina mana equation worked fine. Or was Sanmina wrong? Or is the equation itself wed?¡±

    The Elder of Books had been muttering over his work. Now that Angor was close enough, the boy could hear what the old man was saying.

    ¡°Maybe Golime¡¯s talent allowed the conversion between mass and energy?¡±

    That... sounded familiar. Angor did not know about ¡°Golime¡±, but thetter half of his words seemed to be¡ª

    ¡°Thew of conservation of mass and energy?¡± Angor muttered along.

    ¡°Conservation of mass and energy? Yes, it could be. Maybe mass and energy actually obey a certainw so they aren¡¯t independent. So the Sanmina Mana Equation is right. But... what kind ofw?¡± The elder fell into deep thought again.

    ¡°A certain mass always equals to certain energy. Mass and energy move in proportion to each other,¡± Angor recited what Jon taught him during his mass-energy rtion ss.

    ¡°Proportion? So if something gains mass, it also attains a corresponding amount of energy. On the contrary, an object growing lighter also loses energy. This could exin Golime¡¯s talent... I was thinking about this theory, how did I get distracted? And thanks to you¡ª¡±

    The elder smiled at Angor but quickly changed the smile into a frown.

    ¡°Who are you? And why are you here?¡± asked the old man. He looked puzzled.

    <i>A mortal?</i>

    He thought a wizard was here discussing the mass-energy rtionship with him. But when he looked around, he saw a mere mortal, and judging from his body, he was a 14-year-old kid.

    Angor was also pondering over the mass-energy conservation theory. When the boy realized the Elder of Books was inspecting him with a dumbstruck look, Angor rubbed his nose in embarrassment.

    The embarrassment went for both ways.

    Angor suddenly remembered something and removed his top hat to bow at the Elder of Books politely.

    ¡°I¡¯m Angor, and I just joined Brute Cavern recently. I ran into some problems in my training, so I came here to seek help from Mister Elder of Books.¡±

    ¡°You can remove the ¡®Mister¡¯ part,¡± said the old man. He showed a strange expression. He wanted to chase the boy away, but when he thought about how Angor answered his previous question fluently, the elder felt something weird on the boy. The question he was working on involved a scientific conclusion which was agreed upon by people a long time ago; in normal circumstances, energy and mass were independent properties and were not rted.

    However, when the old man was researching on a new monster from another world called ¡°Golime¡±, he noticed the monster¡¯s talent went against this conclusion. The monster could utilize ordinary mass to create other forms of energy without using magic crystals, so he began to think that these two things were connected after all.

    And this brilliant young man easily followed along with his idea.

    The Elder of Books developed a good impression of Angor.

    ¡°You joined Brute Cavern recently? So you¡¯re one of the talents for this term?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Who told you to find me? You haven¡¯t achieved your first step yet, so what kind of question can you possibly have?¡±

    ¡°Miss Flora asked me toe.¡±

    ¡°Flora... the little troublemaker,¡± said the old man. He revealed a smile and asked, ¡°You¡¯re Flora¡¯s student? But you¡¯re too different from her character.¡±

    ¡°No, my mentor is Sunders,¡± answered Angor.

    ¡°Sunders? You¡¯re the kid Sunders epted this year?¡± asked the Elder of Books. He looked surprised as he said, ¡°I thought it would be some kind of naturally-born genius. But you?... To be frank, you make a better student for little Wace.¡±

    Angor did not reply. He only looked at the old man with a in look.

    ¡°No matter who sent you, I¡¯ll not solve your problem for free,¡± said the elder. He paused a moment before saying, ¡°However... if you can tell me something about your own idea about mass-energy rtion and can make a good point, I¡¯ll make an exception and help you this time.¡±

    <i>Mass-energy rtion...</i>

    Angor considered. He was not sure if the physical constants applied in the wizarding world, but he could still exin the basic concept of it.

    This was about helping his own training, so Angor did not intend to hide anything. He told the old man everything he knew about the rtion. However, Angor did not use any constants. Instead, he used spections and inferences to create definitions in the opposite way.

    Angor did not say anything about the more exotic concepts such as the core of mass-energy rtion, the theory of rtivity. He only exined rtively in knowledge while using uncertain words such as ¡°I guess¡±, ¡°maybe¡±, and ¡°I think¡±.

    However, what Angor deducted already surprised the Elder of Books.

    The old man possessed these superficial concepts, but they were all considered paradoxes because they went againstmonly-believed views. Knowledge had paradoxes, but the truth did not. The Elder of Books admired Angor for being courageous enough to redefine the concept albeit only at a basic level.

    ¡°You did well. You didn¡¯t know anything about in-depth problems yet, but you already have a decent knowledge base considering your age,¡± said the elder as he nodded in acknowledgment.

    Angor brightened up and said, ¡°So, my question...¡±

    The old man had a thick, white, chest-level beard, and he would stroke his beard when he felt joyful. He was doing it now with a gentle look as he said, ¡°Go ahead and ask. Truth is, I also want to know what question could a kid who didn¡¯t find his spirit power ask.¡±

    Angor was speechless.

    <i>You already said it!</i>

    The boy cleared his throat embarrassingly as he said, ¡°Um, I... just wanted to ask how to find my spirit power.¡±

    The old man stopped his hand in the middle of his beard. He was speechless.

    <i>You came all the way here just to ask me this?!</i>

    ...

    Angor realized the old man¡¯s expression was turning colder, so he quickly added, ¡°I know people have different ways to express their spirit power, and that this power is always inside their minds, and they will find it sooner orter in the long run. But I have an urgent task on me, and I need to do this faster. I¡¯ve spent a long time trying to sense my spirit power now, so I came to you to find if there¡¯s something I can do to speed it up.¡±

    The Elder of Books rxed a little upon hearing Angor¡¯s words. Wanting to be an apprentice faster because of an urgent matter was an eptable excuse. The old man did not intend to ask why. Maybe the kid was bullied by another apprentice or wanted to get revenge on someone?

    The old man answered after considering for a while, ¡°There are faster methods to track down your spirit power.¡±

    He added, ¡°I know a direct and quick approach. You can buy and drink a potion which improves your spirit power. When the potion works on you, you¡¯ll naturally feel that power. But the potion is usually costly...¡±

    ¡°Potion of Austere Night?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°You have it?¡± asked the old man. He felt a bit uneasy. He had just said the potion was expensive, and the kid dered that he had it right away.

    Angor nodded as he exined, ¡°My professor gave it to me.¡±

    The Elder of Books remained silent and thought to himself.

    <i>Since when did Sunders be so generous? Why did he give this priceless potion to someone so easily?</i>

    In the end, he said, ¡°Ahem. Since you have the Potion of Austere Night, just drink it down to sense your spirit power.¡±

    Angor was happy about getting a viable answer. However, when he thought about how Sunders told him that the potion had side effects, he hesitated.

    ¡°So I can feel spirit power when it increases?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Yes. But that¡¯s not all. Even a decrease in your spirit power or even a small fluctuation of the power which didn¡¯t affect the ultimate result will help you to locate your spirit power faster.¡±

 Chapter 135 - Finding Spirit Power

    <h4>Chapter 135: Finding Spirit Power</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Phantom Ind. Inside Sunders¡¯ study room.

    Flora was talking to Sunders while flipping a rose in her hand.

    ¡°I think Angor noticed us when he came down from The Savage. I don¡¯t understand how though.¡±

    Sunders pointed at the red reaper, ¡°If you can hide the red reaper somewhere deeper, he won¡¯t find you anymore.¡±

    ¡°So he saw Little Red?¡± asked Flora. She finally realized it. As a Nightmare Form, Angor was able to see the reaper.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to study something? Why are you here?¡± Sunders asked Flora.

    Flora revealed a sweet smile as she said, ¡°I saw Angor yesterday. He asked me how to find spirit power faster.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    Sunders put down his quill and looked at Flora.

    Flora asked, ¡°Professor, you know that the boy can easily do it by using his potion. Why didn¡¯t you tell him so?¡±

    Sunders stayed silent. He did not tell Flora about the strange wall at the end of the Glutton Flower Tunnel. Instead, he said, ¡°Angor¡¯s mind is too impetuous now. Using the Potion of Austere Night won¡¯t help him for certain.¡±

    ¡°Really? I was impetuous too when I drank the potion,¡± said Flora.

    ¡°You felt hurry because you had been stuck at a bottleneck for too long. However, Angor has not achieved his first step yet, so he has no need to be impatient. So did you tell him about using the potion?¡± said Saunders.

    Flora shrugged, ¡°Of course not. Not when my dear professor decided not to. But Angor looked so edgy, so I asked him to go find the Elder of Books.¡±

    Sunders was quite surprised at that. He muttered, ¡°Good for him if he gets to meet the elder. But I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to find an answer.¡±

    Countless people in the south pursued all kinds of answers from the Elder of Books, and only a handful of them was satisfied. The Elder of Books was only willing to help a few selected people.

    Flora chuckled as she said, ¡°Suppose the elder decided to help the boy, I think the old man will simply chase Angor away once he heard the question.¡±

    ...

    Angor left the library in disappointment.

    The Elder of Books only answered his first question. When Angor tried to ask about Toby, the elder just waved a hand and teleported Angor to the outside.

    Angor returned to his house and took out the ss of Potion of Austere Night from a secret slot in his training room.

    The beautiful liquid wavered in its transparent container.

    Should he drink it? Once he did, he would probably exhaust all of his spirit potential, which meant he would no longer be able to improve his spirit again. But if he did not do it now, he would need way more time to find his spirit power.

    Angor closed his eyes as he thought over his choices.

    His professor suggested not using the potion because of the strange wall in the Nightmare Realm, which for some reason, increased his spirit limit by two points. If the wall could keep doing this, it would be better for him to keep the Potion of Austere Night for now.

    Speaking of the wall... Angor recalled the elder¡¯s words... He could quickly locate his spirit power if some kind of fluctuation came up. It would not matter if it increased, decreased or did not change his spirit in the end.

    Angor thought about his recording in the tablet. When he tried to imagine the pattern on the wall, even though the pattern in his mind did not have a beginning point yet, he still felt great pain,

    Maybe the pain meant his spirit power was changing?

    Thinking about this, Angor decided to take out his tablet to test it out. If he could create a fluctuation in his spirit in this way, then he would not need the potion.

    His hologram tablet was still hidden inside his pocket watch. Angor never figured out how this thing followed him into the Nightmare Realm. But since it sessfully captured all the images, the boy decided not to worry about this matter.

    He found the recording about the strange wall quickly enough.

    The surface of the wall looked aged and ancient. Faint light streams flowed inside the gaps on the wall,bining into aplicated and giant picture.

    Just by looking at the pattern on the wall, Angor could already feel a terrible and indescribable fear.

    Trembling a little, Angor watched the recording carefully and began drawing the pattern in his mind...

    He picked a random spot as the starting point. Then he followed the curves, strokes, roundabouts, and junctions... The shining pattern slowly appeared inside the dark space of his mind.

    When a tiny part of the pattern was created in his mind, Angor¡¯s eyebrows twitched.

    He disregarded it and kept drawing.

    The twitching grew stronger with time, and Angor started to sense an uneasiness. Soon, he felt the spot between his eyebrows swelling. It was as if strange energy was gathering inside his pineal nd.

    Angor did not know if he was sensing spirit power, so he simply kept going while trying to capture where the strange feeling wasing from.

    When the second part of the pattern was finished, Angor tried tobine the two parts together but an unknown terror suddenly shrouded Angor¡¯s body.

    He felt like someone who lost his way in the middle of a swamp, and that he was struggling in a deadly mud without anyone around to help him.

    His only way was down... into the bottomless swamp.

    Next, endless darkness and agony descended onto his body.

    His soul was screaming in pain as if it was trying to tear up its vessel from the inside.

    Angor remembered such a feeling. He fainted because of it in the Nightmare Realm. The next thing he knew was that his spirit power increased when he woke up again.

    He realized this might be his chance; a chance to find his spirit power.

    He was a mortal when he was inside the Nightmare Realm. He was still a mortal but now, he was a mortal who had begun to learn the channeling method.

    As he kept drawing the pattern in his mind, Angor also began imagining the model built using the <i>Singrity Dispersive Method </i>. He diverted his concentration away from the pain, focusing only on finding the spirit power.

    Trying to find a needle during an unlit night was a difficult task. But finding a lighthouse in the dark was a lot easier.

    During Angor¡¯s previous meditations, he tried to find his spirit power blindly. Now, with the strange pattern as a medium, which stimted his spirit power to run wild inside his soul, the power appeared brighter than a lighthouse in the night.

    The pain kept worsening until Angor realized his brain could not take it anymore.

    He immediately stopped his imagination and calmed his mind. The two parts of the pattern that he had already drawn slowly shattered and disappeared into the depth.

    With the pattern gone, the spirit power which was drawn out whirled around in Angor¡¯s mind and was about to vanish.

    Angor was drenched in sweat now. With all of his spirit exhausted, he felt faint. But he held on. He knew that if he rested now, the spirit power he triggered using so much effort would hide into nothingness soon.

    He had to strike the iron while it was hot. Angor forced his brain to work again. To ¡°attract¡± the spirit power, he began to imagine the spiritual model ording to the channeling method he read.

    Usually, this was no easy task. But it was a lot easier now that his spirit power already showed itself because of the strange pattern.

    Angor only had to follow the instructions in the book slowly and tame the power, thus ironing his own name onto the spirit power.

    From now on, Angor only had to imagine the spiritual model again to draw out the power. Once hepleted building the model, and with the help of mana, Angor would be able to activate his spirit power for certain.

    Knowing this, Angor sighed in relief.

    He slowly opened his eyes again. Yet before he could lift a hand to wipe the beads of sweat off his face, he felt dizzy and his eyes rolled back before he copsed on the floor.

 Chapter 136 - Balbaâ€™s Request

    <h4>Chapter 136: Balba¡¯s Request</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor felt refreshed when he woke up.

    He was able to sense his spirit power during meditation now. Furthermore, without having to go through the second step, he could manipte the power to practice it!

    ¡°A satisfying result... despite feeling a crack on my head,¡± Angor told himself. He felt content.

    There were three steps before bing an apprentice wizard. One, sensing spirit power. And two, controlling the power. Angor no longer had to go through the second step, and this saved him a lot of time and effort. However, this was not really an outstanding feat since the second step usually did not take long for most people.

    So only the third challenge remained: to build a spiritual model.

    Once his spiritual model wasplete enough to channel mana flow, Angor could finally be considered a supernatural.

    Instead of building the model right away, Angor stood up and turned off his tablet. He left it running when he fainted yesterday, and he checked the time on it before putting it away.

    October 5th.

    The fifth day into the Month of Looming Frost.

    ¡°Good, I only slept one night instead of several days like what I did in Nightmare Realm.¡±

    Angor wondered if his spiritual power increased again this time? He needed to find a chance to test himself.

    Yes or not, at least he made sure that there was really something strange about the wall. The mysterious pattern did a perfect job drawing his spirit power out. He only mimicked the pattern in his mind randomly, and it already attracted his spirit power so efficiently. What would happen if he actually drew theplete pattern in his mind?

    Angor did not dare to try it out though. He did not go so far as to put himself on the brink of death yesterday, but he would rather not bear such pain again. Since he had sessfully found his spirit power, there was no point in taking further risk.

    When Angor stepped out from his soundproof room, he saw a grayish-brown figure lying beside his door.

    ¡°Toby?¡± Angor called in a small voice.

    The sleeping creature on the floor slowly shifted and woke up. It tweeted and chirped happily when it saw Angor.

    Angor ced Toby onto his shoulder with a gentle smile.

    ¡°Wizards always meditate for several weeks on end. Don¡¯t worry about me. I think Lady Greya often keeps to herself like this too.¡±

    <i>Worry?</i>

    Toby looked away and was obviously not worried about him in the least.

    Toby led Angor to its attic on the top floor and found its snack box. Under Angor¡¯s puzzled gaze, it pointed at the empty box with its sharp beak and looked at Angor again.

    ¡°Oh... so you¡¯re out of munchies, you big glutton? I thought you would at least worry about your master,¡± Angorined while wearing a smile. He then added, ¡°Let¡¯s go then. I just made some great achievement. I¡¯ll buy something for you.¡±

    Angor changed into a casual, checkered jacket and a pair of loose pants. Seeing him, Toby also took out a checker upper wear and asked Angor to help it get dressed.

    ¡°Good thing you¡¯re just a bird or you¡¯ll be the embarrassed one, wearing the same clothes as me. You know, because you¡¯re uglier,¡± Angor muttered while dressing Toby.

    Toby pecked at Angor in protest.

    There were lots of food stands in the marketce of the apprentice town. When Angor arrived at the market at noon, the stands were full of customers. Aside from the townsfolk who did business here, Angor also saw a number of apprentice wizards.

    This was the first time Angor saw so many apprentices gathered in one ce.

    Just like the buildings in varied styles, all the apprentices also had different appearances.

    Angor saw such a particr apprentice who wore an adorable, pink bunny costume which also had a pair of fluffy rabbit ears on it. The apprentice would have been a cute one if she was a little girl about the age of five or six but... she was a ¡°she¡± alright. Problem was, this woman had more muscles than any male bodybuilders. Besides, she was not even the most embarrassing dresser here. A young man standing in front of a food stand to Angor¡¯s right was wearing nothing on the upper half, while his thighs were covered by short suspenders. The guy had some really thick chest hair, and he even ced two pink, heart-shaped objects to cover his two nipples.

    <i>Ah, my eyes...</i>

    Angor took a deep breath and covered Toby¡¯s eyes.

    Toby did not protest this time.

    Angor could basically distinguish mortals from apprentices by their looks. He looked around in curiosity and saw many bizarrely-dressed people.

    While satisfying his curiosity, Angor also noticed a small shop selling fast food.

    Angor bought a bunch of food and dried fish slices, which were Toby¡¯s favorite. He left his address to the merchant to receive the delivery before he wandered around the market.

    After enjoying some popr snacks, Angor entered a cake shop called ¡°Sweet Milk¡±. As he entered, he kept a low profile so as to not draw attention to himself.

    A momentter, he left the shop while carrying two delicate food bags in his hands and a satisfied stomach. A drop of milk was left around the corner of his smiling lips.

    Angor walked back to his house with his newly purchased milk product while humming a melody. The fast food he bought earlier had already arrived. Angor carefully stored them away and put Toby¡¯s dried fish into its attic.

    Next, Angor asked Toby to stay by itself before he left his house with one of the food bags.

    He was carrying a portion of cakes and drinks he bought from the Sweet Milk shop and intended to take them to Sailum and Nausica in the caves. His friends were also training at the same time. Without the magic arrays to help them, they had to work harder.

    It had been some time since Angor¡¯sst visit. Since Angor already made a breakthrough, he decided to go check them out as well as to maintain their friendship.

    The paths underground were scattered in disorderly manners. Angor had been here many times, but he would still get lost when going over forks which looked exactly the same. Thank goodness there were directional signs along the way. Otherwise, Angor was afraid he would have to spend a whole day trying to find his way.

    When going up a small slope, Angor looked up and saw a dead end.

    He must have entered another wrong fork.

    Angor sighed and turned around. On his way back, he saw another individual walking to him in the opposite direction.

    ¡°Balba.¡± Angor realized the man¡¯s name in his mind.

    Balba was still in his wild-looking warrior attire. Angor did not really have any business, either good or bad, with him, so he only nodded to Balba as a courtesy when walking past him.

    But just as they walked past each other, Balba let out a ¡°Wait¡± in a low voice.

    Angor stopped in his track and watched Balba with a puzzled look.

    Balba was carrying a calm expression. However, the man was actually hiding his hands behind his back, which were trembling a little, meaning that he was actually pretty stressed.

    ¡°Need something?¡± Angor asked.

    Balba stayed silent. When Angor was bing a little impatient, he finally spoke in his raucous voice.

    ¡°Your professor is Mister Sunders, right? ¡®Phantom Master¡¯ Sunders.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    It was already publicly known. Due to this, Angor was quite the topic among apprentices for a time.

    ¡°My professor is Miss Flora, who¡¯s also Mister Sunders¡¯ student.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    Balba looked really tensed up, ¡°Do you know about Miss Flora?¡±

    Angor thought about that question before answering him, ¡°I do. On the cloud whale, Miss Flora helped me a lot.¡±

    Balba looked a little happy at hearing the answer.

    ¡°Wonderful. Can I ask something? If you help me, I promise I¡¯ll pay for anything in return.¡±

    ...

    After bidding goodbye to Balba, Angor walked away with a big frown on his face.

    Balba was assigned to Flora randomly because he did not receive any posters. Angor knew about this. But he did not know what happened to Balba after that.

    Over a month, Flora never paid Balba a single visit, let alone teaching him. Balba had not even begun to learn his channeling method yet.

    The other talents in the same term all took their first step on their path to wizardry while Balba remained in one ce. This was why Balba was getting really anxious. When he saw Angor, he desperately tried to ask for assistance, hoping that Angor could help him ask Flora why she dested him.

    This favor was easy to do. Still, Angor did not agree right away. The boy only said that he did not see Flora often, but he would help to ask the question if he managed to meet her.

    Angor did not know whether this was Flora¡¯s way of testing Balba, and asking such a question now could be bad manners. This could also mean breaking the boundary as a student. Even if Flora was also Sunders¡¯ student, Angor could create an unpleasant record with Flora because of this.

    This was why Angor decided to ask for Sunders¡¯ opinion first the next time he went to Phantom Ind.

 Chapter 137 - Daveâ€™s Flying Machine

    <h4>Chapter 137: Dave¡¯s Flying Machine</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Thanks to the road signs, Angor finally reached his destination after running into several dead ends. Still, he refused to admit that he was a terrible pathfinder. The caves were too chaotic! Yes, that was the only reason!

    When Angor saw Sailum, the boy was eating some roasted meat and cardamom soup that he bought from the market inside the caves.

    ¡°Good to see you, Angor! Come, the meat is still warm. Have some?¡± said Sailum.

    He looked really happy about Angor¡¯s visit. He quickly tore his meat in half.

    Angor waved his hand and showed Sailum his food bag, ¡°I¡¯m done in the market. I just brought some snacks for you and Nausica.¡±

    Angor disyed a variety of food in front of Sailum. sses of milk, milk-made pantries... there were a lot of them, but they were all milk products. Cow milk, sheep milk... were fine. But the milk of narwhals, grass camels and ice cus was a little bit... beyondmon knowledge.

    Sailum stared at the food disy and wondered, ¡°Angor? You... really like milk, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Angor froze up. ¡°Huh? Oh no. Why do you say so?¡±

    ¡°But these are all milk! My room is full of milk smell now,¡± said Sailum as he pointed at all the food.

    ¡°Uh, hehe...¡± Angor looked away before he said, ¡°You¡¯re still young, so these things are good for your growth. I don¡¯t really love them.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Come on, go get Nausica already,¡± said Angor as he pushed Sailum out of the room. When the boy disappeared into the passage, Angor finally sighed in relief.

    He could not ruin his image in Sailum¡¯s mind simply because of these milk products. Angor silently told himself that he would never bring these things again. They did too much damage to his reputation!

    Sailum returned by himself.

    ¡°Miss Nausica is still meditating. She said hi, but she won¡¯t join us for now,¡± said Sailum. He sighed and revealed a worried look as he said, ¡°Miss Nausica could not manage to get calm during her meditations and she¡¯s anxious about it. She kept trying but didn¡¯t make much progress.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a must-have challenge during our training. Nausica¡¯s an adult, so she got more things on her mind. She¡¯ll be fine once she gets through this, and her experience willter help her save a lot of effort,¡± Angor said.

    It¡¯s almost a month, and Nausica had not achieved her first step yet. It was normal for her to be anxious.

    ¡°What about you? Found your spirit power yet?¡± Angor asked Sailum.

    ¡°Not quite, but I have a lead. I think I can do it soon.¡±

    When Sailum heard that Angor was already progressing toward the third step, Sailum was a little surprised. But he was not jealous at all.

    ¡°You¡¯re ahead of us again. Looks like I need to work harder,¡± said Sailum. He seemed really enthusiastic now.

    Angor bid farewell to the boy after chatting about their recent situations. Next, Angor took some of his food and walked toward Nausica¡¯s room.

    Nausica was still meditating on her bed.

    Angor looked around her room. Aside from some additional necessities, it was not that different from a month ago. Her room appeared even simpler than Sailum¡¯s.

    And from such a detail, Angor realized how hard Nausica was pushing herself. She had spent most of her energy on her training and did not pay attention to anything else.

    Angor saw Nausica¡¯s long-handled pipe on the dirt tform and picked it up. The pipe waspletely void of tobo, and the handle had collected dust, proving that its master had not been using it for a long time.

    ¡°Why are you here?¡± asked Nausica. Her voice was still attractive in a mature manner, but it sounded a bit hoarse now.

    Angor lifted his bag and asked, ¡°Some food for you. Ladies love milk and sweets, right?¡±

    Nausica flipped her hair and said, ¡°Thanks.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡±

    Angor handed the bag to Nausica and showed her the smoking pipe.

    ¡°Where do you keep your tobo?¡±

    Nausica pointed at a pouch made of snakeskin in the room¡¯s corner. She then asked, ¡°Why? You want to learn to smoke? Better not. Kids should drink more milk.¡±

    Angor did not mind her joke. He put some tobo into the pipe, lit it up, and handed the pipe to Nausica.

    ¡°Nah. It smells terrible. I¡¯d rather not try it out,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Then why did you take it?¡± Nausica asked.

    ¡°For you, duh. Maybe smoking can help you clear your mind. There are many things with more than one solutions. Sticking to only one of them means trapping yourself in there. Just change your mood, try something else, be yourself, and maybe you can get out of the trap. I¡¯ll take my leave now. Hope you¡¯re in better spirit the next time we meet.¡±

    Nausica watched Angor as he walked away. She then looked at the burning smoke in her hand, seemingly enlightened.

    ...

    Angor returned to the apprentice town. When walking through a small alleyway, he saw a young man dressed in a strange style trying to attract a bird wearing a checkered suit. The man was holding some bird food in his palm while mimicking some ¡°tweeting¡±, obviously hoping that the bird woulde to him.

    The bird was, naturally, Toby. As for the young man... Angor did not know him. Judging from his strange clothing, he should be an apprentice wizard.

    Angor¡¯s arrival soon caught their attention.

    The young man looked around cautiously. Using the asional sunlight which slipped past the Tree of Eternity, Angor was able to see him clearly.

    The man was wearing a round and weird-shaped metal hat. There were... screw nuts and antennas on top of the hat. Angor could not make out his face because he was wearing a pair of brown goggles which took up half of his face. His remaining clothing was fine. Brown coat, green pants. He also had a red scarf around his neck.

    The young man was also checking out Angor at the same time.

    Angor reached out a hand, which caused the young man to back away cautiously. The man soon realized that Angor did not mean to greet him at all. The bird, which had been ignoring his attempt, circled around in the air and perched on Angor¡¯s extended hand.

    The young man watched as Toby showed friendliness to Angor and wondered, ¡°That¡¯s your familiar?¡±

    ¡°Familiar? No. He¡¯s my friend, Toby,¡± said Angor as he put Toby on his shoulder. He then pointed at himself and said, ¡°Name¡¯s Angor. I¡¯m a new recruit who just joined Brute Cavern this year.¡±

    Seeing how Angor introduced himself and the bird, the young man removed his goggles, somewhat bashfully, and revealed his face which was troubled by some freckles. He said, ¡°I¡¯m Dave, from 2nd grade. Although I¡¯ve been in Brute Cavern for five years. I¡¯m 16 by the way. Oh and don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not going to do anything to Toby. I just wanted it to help me test out my new flying machine.¡±

    Dave took out a metal stick from his side pouch. It looked like a propeller or something.

    ¡°I¡¯m an assistant working at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop. This is my first alchemy creation, I call it the Propeller Flyer,¡± said Dave. He showed his tiny propeller around and revealed a frustrated expression as he said, ¡°I don¡¯t have enough materials so I could only make a small one. I can¡¯t use it myself, and I need to find a small creature to test it. That¡¯s why when I saw the bird¡ª¡±

    ¡°I see. But birds can fly on their own, no?¡±

    Dave paused for a moment and quickly realized his mistake, ¡°Yeah right! I totally forgot this!¡±

    He seemed like crying now as he said, ¡°Oh jeez. I guess I¡¯ll try to catch a rabbit near the river then...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Let¡¯s test it on Toby. I¡¯ll ask Toby not to use its wings as long as it¡¯s not dangerous. Even if the test failed, Toby can still escape on itself instead of falling,¡± said Angor. He was also interested in the small machine.

    Angor recalled seeing the kic illustrations in the alchemy books he recorded in Nightmare Realm. He was wondering which one Dave used.

    ...

    A momentter, Dave affixed the propeller flyer onto Toby¡¯s back.

    ¡°You can do it, Toby!¡± Angor cheered.

    Toby gave Angor a disdainful look. When Angor went close, the bird pped his face with a paw. Toby did not reveal its talon, or that would definitely leave four bloody gashes on Angor. However, Angor would still get a bruise out of this.

    ¡°Time to take off!¡± Dave had really high hopes on Toby.

    Dave extended a finger and injected some mana into the energy source of his machine.

    ¡°Magic crystals are too expensive, so I¡¯ll use my mana as energy for now,¡± Dave exined.

    As the machine received mana, it slowly started to run. A red light on the stick shined, then the propeller began to spin quickly. With a dumbfounded Toby under it, the machine climbed up into the air.

    And up.

    And up...

    They watched as Toby became a tiny dot in the sky.

    Angor looked at Dave and asked, ¡°How do you change directions?¡±

    Dave gave Angor an innocent smile as he admitted, ¡°I haven¡¯t finished something like that yet.¡±

    Angor widened his eyes in anger as he snapped, ¡°Then what¡¯s the point of your machine?!¡±

    He looked up and yelled out, ¡°Toby! Toby! Get rid of the machine!¡±

    Toby, who was now carried into the clouds, was thinking about its colorful life as a bird as well as whether it should stay this way or throw the machine away. When hearing Angor¡¯s faint call, Toby quickly acted.

    With a fierce p of the wings, the machine on its back was tossed away.

    Next, Toby descended slowly andnded on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    On the other side, Dave walked to them, head lowered and holding a broken flying machine in his hand.

    Angor thought Dave was sad about his broken creation, so he nned to say something tofort Dave. He was the one who asked Toby to drop the machine after all.

    But when Angor walked closer, he realized Dave was not sad at all. Rather, Dave could barely hide his grin.

    ¡°Heehehehe, it flew! Brilliant! I seeded!¡±

    So... being able to fly meant sess? Angor showed a sympathetic look at Dave. The young man got a really short-sighted expectation.

    But Angor¡¯s sympathy quickly turned into aint.

    <i>Can you please say it earlier if there¡¯s some kind of ws in your product?!</i>

    Thank goodness Toby understood human speech, and that he could fly. Another creature would be hopeless in that situation.

    That would be murder!

 Chapter 138 - Promeâ€™s Alchemy Shop

    <h4>Chapter 138: Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Dave sensed Angor¡¯s anger. He scratched his hair and disyed an innocent look.

    Angor approached him with clenched fists.

    ¡°Flying machine?! What kind of flying machine can¡¯t control its directions?! We¡¯re lucky Toby is smart, or he would have been dead!¡± Angor cracked his knuckles.

    ¡°It¡¯s only my first time¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not an excuse! If you had told me earlier, I¡¯d never have allowed Toby to take the risk in the first ce,¡± Angor bellowed.

    ¡°No! Please don¡¯t hit me, I¡¯m sorry!¡± Looking at how Angor was so threatening, Davepletely forgot his identity as an apprentice. The boy crouched down and covered his head.

    Toby, on the other hand, was quite touched by Angor¡¯s reaction. Since its master was willing to confront an apprentice wizard just to protect it, Toby decided that if Angor was in danger, it would join the fight and help him.

    Angor felt it funny how Dave showed so much cowardice. Was Dave an apprentice for real? He felt that this guy was weaker than Abelle.

    ¡°Can I make up for you by giving you some merit points?¡± Dave said.

    ¡°How much?¡±

    ¡°Five?¡±

    Angor shook his head quickly and said, ¡°Not good.¡±

    ¡°Ten?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Fifty?¡±

    ¡°Too little.¡±

    Angor spent 700 points on teleportation when he was trying to find the Elder of Books. Fifty points? Oh,e on.

    Dave showed a sad look. ¡°Fifty is pretty good already. What do you want then?¡±

    ¡°What do I want? Ha!¡±

    Toby curled its wing into a fist as well.

    <i>My Angor would never back down because of money. Give up! You¡¯re getting punched!</i>

    ¡°Ahem. So you were saying, you worked at an... alchemy shop?¡±

    ¡°Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop!¡± Dave looked really proud. ¡°Master Prome is an intermediate apprentice alchemist!¡±

    ¡°Good. There¡¯s a meter that tests your spiritual power indicator. Give me one of those and we¡¯re even,¡± Angor said.

    Toby looked around at Angor in disbelief upon hearing those words.

    <i>You backed down because of money! I was so wrong about you!</i>

    Angor rubbed Toby¡¯s tiny head with a somewhat embarrassed expression. He whispered, ¡°You¡¯re not hurt anyway. Once I earn this meter, I can save some magic crystals and use them to buy some dried deep-sea fish for you.¡±

    <i>Dried deep-sea fish?</i>

    Toby threw Angor a doubtful nce, mumbled someint, and quieted down.

    ...

    Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop was located at the end of the alleyway.

    Dave led Angor and Toby here, then pointed to the entrance which led downward, into an underground tunnel. ¡°Go down here, and you¡¯ll reach the apprentice marketce in Apprentice Town Eight. The shop is right inside.¡±

    ¡°An underground marketce?¡± Angor only heard about it for the first time. He was really curious about the ce.

    ¡°Well, as a new recruit, it¡¯s natural you don¡¯t know about it,¡± said Dave. He seemed proud of his knowledge as he exined, ¡°Every apprentice town in Brute Cavern has an underground market. There are lots of stuff down there, but their quality and value vary a lot as well. If you¡¯re perceptive, you might find yourself some real treasures.

    ¡°Oh, and if you want to buy materials at stable prices, you can go to the viges and towns nearby. Their prices are usually more reasonable since they¡¯re affected by the economy of Darkivil Empire.¡±

    After walking in the tunnel for about five minutes, they reached the underground market.

    The market was a giant, hollowed out cave. Angor was shocked at how big and popted this ce was. No wonder he did not see many apprentices on the surface. They were all gathered here. And he thought apprentices tended to hide inside their homes... Now Angor realized he really needed to see the world more. If not for Dave, who knew how long it would take him to notice such things?

    Numerous paths crossed with each other, and each path had hundreds of shops along with it.

    From a quick look, there were about thirty to forty such paths and streets in the cave. There were probably a terrifying number of shops here.

    Angor also saw several buildings dozens of meters high among all the shops. The tallest one was a silver-colored metallic tower near the center of the ce. The tower had 15 floors. A number of steel cables came out of each floor, with each cable extended into a corner of the underground cave several kilometers away. All the cables formed up a giantwork in the air.

    There was such a cable under Angor¡¯s position which was connected to the tower.

    ¡°These are cableways. See those metal boxes up there? Those are carriages, and they can take you to the Sky Tower quickly,¡± Dave exined.

    ¡°Sky Tower?¡± Angor looked at the silver tower and recalled hearing a simr name from somewhere.

    ¡°Yup, Sky Tower,¡± said Dave. His expression showed both admiration and fear. ¡°The Sky Towers are battle towers established in various ces by Floating Mech City.¡±

    ¡°Battle towers?¡± Angor remembered when Abelle introduced a formal wizard, she mentioned such a ce. ¡°The Tower of Infinity in Floating Mech City?¡±

    ¡°You know about Tower of Infinity?¡± asked Dave. He was surprised. That was not something a new recruit would know. Dave only heard it from a pair of Level-3 apprentices by chance after he had worked in Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop for two years.

    Angor exined Abelle¡¯s words.

    ¡°Abelle, huh? She¡¯s weak, but she has some fast information sources. I heard that she always goes to the Cloud Library to spend her merit points. Abelle should totally know about the tower.¡±

    ¡°Why? Is Abelle famous here?¡± asked Angor. He tried finding random things to talk about along their way.

    ¡°She is. But not in a good way. We¡¯re from the same term. When Mister Tree Spirit tested her, she proved to be a rare ult talent. And many people were pretty jealous. However, she was just too weak. She would drag people down in every single group activity, so people just call her the biggest disappointment during that term.¡±

    ¡°Abelle is an ult?¡±

    ¡°Yes, she¡¯s an ult Summoner. The triple-colored deer she usually rode on was summoned by her,¡± said Dave. He curled his lips as he continued, ¡°The deer has no strength at all. It¡¯s just a vehicle. Enough about Abelle, let¡¯s talk about the Sky Tower.¡±

    Dave pointed to the tall structure and he exined, ¡°There are 15 floors on the tower, and every floor had several dozen arenas. You get three points by winning a match and lose four points by losing, and nothing happens if it¡¯s a draw. If you earn enough points on each floor or ce yourself within the top ten people with the most points in each season, you can advance to the next floor. Being admitted into a floor means you can ride the cableway on that floor to go directly into the Sky Tower too. It also shows one¡¯s strength to others.

    ¡°If you get past the fifth floor, you win a ticket to challenge the Tower of Infinity. In other words, the Tower of Infinity is a sequel to the Sky Tower.¡±

    Dave looked as if he was yearning for something as he continued, ¡°The strongest talent from my year has entered the thirteenth floor now.¡±

    ¡°What about you?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Me?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, which floor are you on?¡±

    Dave revealed an embarrassed look as he said, ¡°Oh uh, I¡¯m not interested in fighting, so...¡±

    <i>Not interested? </i>Angor chuckled in his mind. He did not forget Dave¡¯s look of admiration when he was looking at the Sky Tower.

    Dave was definitely interested. He just could not fight.

    Angor was now quite curious about the Sky Tower. It could be a good ce to train his skills. However... considering that he would fight in the center of audiences, Angor preferred not trying it out.

    Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop sat in a remote ce. It was a single building near the edge of the cave and was hidden behind a tall structure. People had to walk around the tall building to notice this small shop.

    ¡°The location isn¡¯t ideal, but we have good business! The shopkeeper is an Intermediate Apprentice Alchemist, so he¡¯s an important figure in the entire Brute Cavern. Many people from the other apprentice townse here to this shop because of him,¡± Dave exined proudly.

    <i>So apprentice alchemists are considered important here? </i>Angor thought to himself.

    The shop¡¯s door was shut tight. Still, a number of people had gathered in front of it. They all went up to Dave when they saw him, and Dave tried pretty hard to persuade them away.

    ¡°The people are here for Master Prome, but he¡¯s not here,¡± said Dave. He then sighed. ¡°Or should I say, he¡¯s not here 90% of all times throughout the year. Alchemists are always busy, it can¡¯t be helped.¡±

    While exining, Dave took Angor into the shop.

    It was a small ce. The shelves were full of all kinds of strange objects, most of which were made of metal.

    ¡°Master Prome¡¯s masterpieces. He doesn¡¯te here often, but he always ces his new products into his warehouse. I collect them every half a month. You look around. I¡¯ll go get your spirit meter. It¡¯s pretty cheap. If you ask for something else, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t just give you without Master¡¯s permission,¡± Dave mumbled. He lifted a wooden cover on the floor and ducked in.

    Angor and his bird stood alone inside the small shop.

    He slowly looked at the shelves around him. The products all looked pretty well-made, but they were actually of little use. The products described in the first pages of <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>were already better than these.

    And given the apprentice alchemist who made such products was called a ¡°Master¡±... this further proved how scarce skilled alchemists were.

    Angor decided that once he finished his third step in his meditation, he would try studying alchemy when he had time. The books were such great treasures, it would be a waste if he did not put them to use.

    [Killer Music Box. It creates a sharp sound wave by mixing high and low frequencies and can be used to assault one¡¯s mind. Limited to three uses. Item breaks upon reaching this limit. Price: 5,000 merit points.]

    Angor picked up a beautiful, heart-shaped metal casket. If he did not read the descriptionbel affixed on it, he would have thought this was a jewelry case.

    ¡°Only three times? Either its creator did something wrong while making it, or there¡¯s a w in its interior mechanism,¡± said Angor as he put the case down. A wed product that cost 5,000 points. Alchemists could really earn easy money. Angor believed the materials for making this thing would barely cost two magic crystals.

    He heard chirpinging from behind him. When he turned around, he saw Toby acting all restless in front of a pale violet morning glory flower.

    Angor walked to Toby to see what was special about the flower when the flower suddenly released some chirps back out.

    ¡°That¡¯s... Toby¡¯s voice?¡± Angor looked at Toby in another spot, who was equally puzzled.

    ¡°That¡¯s... Toby¡¯s voice?¡± The morning glory sounded again.

    In Angor¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Amazing. A flower that records your voice?¡± Angor was surprised.

    ¡°Amazing. A flower that records your voice?¡±

    Dave climbed out of the underground storage and saw Angor and Toby¡¯s silly reaction. He smiled and exined, ¡°That¡¯s an Echo Flower. Hey, Toby, don¡¯t step on its root.¡±

    Toby flew away from the flower pot.

    ¡°It¡¯ll not do it if you don¡¯t press its root. The flower is a material used in sound-rted alchemy items. Here, Angor,¡± said Dave. He tossed a meter to Angor and said, ¡°A spirit meter, as my apology for you.¡±

    Angor took the meter and told himself ¡°Jackpot!¡± in his mind. Although he showed an ¡°Okay, I ept this humble gift¡± on his face.

    Angor prepared to leave. He got what he wanted already, so there was no point in staying further.

    Considering how Toby seemed interested in the Echo Flower, Angor turned back and asked, ¡°How much for the flower?¡±

    Dave was cleaning his helmet. When he heard Angor¡¯s question, he revealed an unconvinced expression, thinking that Angor would not afford it. ¡°That will be 128 points. You just came herest month, right? There¡¯s no way you have enough money.¡±

    Angor humphed and handed Dave his bone card. ¡°I¡¯ll take it.¡±

    ...

    Angor was in a good mood when returning to his house. He still could not helpughing when he remembered seeing Dave¡¯s dumbfounded expression upon reading the bnce number on his bone card.

    It was a great trip. Aside from getting a spirit meter, he also earned a valuable piece of information about the underground market.

    Angor was going to ce the Echo Flower in the greenhouse. But considering how Toby really liked it, he decided to put it in the attic along with a wooden spoon.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget to water it. Fetch water from the river with that spoon. Don¡¯t ask me to buy another if you let it wither,¡± said Angor as he reminded Toby.

    With everything settled, Angor nned to report his recent conditions to Sunders before he focused on finishing the third step.

    Before going to Phantom Ind though, he still had another job.

    To test his spiritual power.

    He was not sure if his spirit was affected by the effortst night when he drew the mysterious pattern inside his mind. It would be fine if there was no increase. However, if his spirit did increase... without using the Potion of Austere Night, everyone would question how it happened. Sunders was an extremely wise man. Angor was afraid the man would find out his secret. How could he exin seeing the patterns on the wall then?

    Angor took out the spirit meter with a trembling hand. He clearly remembered how the test could bring him pain as if it happened just yesterday.

    He had to confirm his spirit power anyway. Angor clenched his teeth and began the test.

    Two golden lines were climbing...

    The same process, the same painful experience. Angor put the meter aside, drenched in cold sweat.

    When his breath calmed down, Angor picked up the meter again to see the result.

    ¡°Fifteen points.¡±

    No change.

    Angor felt both disappointed and happy about it.

    He was disappointed that the strange wall only had a limited effect on increasing his spiritual power. Although he only drew a small part of the pattern instead of aplete one, which could be the reason.

    The good thing was, with his spirit power unchanged, at least Sunders wouldn¡¯t notice anything wrong.

    Angor stared at the indicator on the meter and realized something.

    It read 15 alright... but were the golden lines a bit higher than hisst test?

    Maybe he simply remembered the wrong impression?

 Chapter 139 - Balba, the Half-Blood

    <h4>Chapter 139: Balba, the Half-Blood</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The next morning, Angor departed toward the Phantom Ind.

    When he was on a sky bus, the sky abruptly turned dark. Soon, it began to drizzle.

    ¡°So the mirror world has rainy weathers too?¡± Through the tiny space between the giant leaves, Angor could see dark clouds gathering in the sky. Judging from their thickness, this would be a long rain.

    Ever since he came to Brute Cavern, Angor would often wonder what kind of world this was. Previously, he believed this was a giant cave of some sort, the kind that you could find in novels. But looking at those naturally-urred rain clouds, Angor denied this idea.

    Morning breeze brought raindrops into the bus. The cold water sshed on Angor¡¯s face, preventing his further train of thought. He took out his handkerchief to wipe himself.

    Angor was worried that he had to go to Phantom Ind under the rain. But it was not the case.

    The rain didn¡¯t stop. Rather, the bus took him above the rain clouds. Last time when he looked down from the Falling Cloud Stop, he would see green fields, tiny buildings and even tinier people walking among them. But now, there was only endless, dark clouds, and the booming sound of rainwater.

    The rain sounded really loud because his position was very close to the rain clouds.

    Some other apprentices were also observing the clouds underneath just like him. While Angor was only satisfying his curiosity, the others were taking down notes. Some of them even cast water spells to prove their theories.

    Also, Angor noticed several figures floating just above the clouds. They were also observing the rain. They worked together and picked out a small part of a rain cloud as they seemingly tried to recreate the process in which how the cloud gave birth to rain.

    Nature hid all kinds of truths... People could find new knowledge from anything, be it cloud, rain or thunder.

    Looking at how those apprentices sought knowledge from details which ordinary people would never care about, Angor realized how wise people cultivated their minds.

    Back at the Cloud Library, the countless books only made him exim in wonder. But here, the apprentices who diligently tried to study the rain clouds appeared closer to the path of truth. Books had no ends, but your own eyes, your mind, and your feet could take you anywhere you aimed for.

    With his newly gained realization, Angor reached the Phantom Ind.

    The ind was sunny as ever. Angor did not find Sunders in his study. Instead, Butler Goode took him to a garden full of mysterious-looking nts.

    The tall trees and dense vines blocked most sunlight. Thick flower clusters filled both sides of the stone path. There were all kinds of flowers in different colors and shapes, which appeared a little terrifying in this dark ce.

    Sunders was standing at the end of the path, surrounded by a group of strange, unnamed creatures. The white, winged horse Angor sawst time was among them.

    ¡°Professor,¡± Angor greeted him politely.

    ¡°You came. So you met some problems in your training?¡± asked Sunders. He was facing the other way as he stroked the head of a python with a crimson-colored crown growing on its head.

    ¡°No, I came to report my progress. I¡¯m about to begin to construct my spiritual model,¡± said Angor. He lowered his head to escape from the python¡¯s cold gaze.

    ¡°You came just for this? Do you expect me topliment on your good work?¡± asked Sunders as he turned around and looked at Angor with a calm expression. It was so calm that it could almost see through Angor¡¯s soul.

    ¡°Um, no...¡± Angor tried to deny, but he could not in the end. Sunders was right. He came all the way here without a really good reason. Maybe he really was expecting Sunders to praise him. Report? Come on. It was just an excuse to hide his ego.

    Angor stood there, embarrassed. Both because of his own vanity, and because Sunders just pointed it out.

    The embarrassment remained for a while. Angor really wished he could just turn and run. He already realized how shameful his previous intention was.

    Sunders approached him.

    Angor thought his professor was going to scold him. However, the man only put a hand on his shoulder infort.

    ¡°No need to be shameful. That is your true, colorful desire. One that is purer than the filthy desires of most people,¡± Sundersmented in his hoarse tone. He added, ¡°Remember who you are right this moment, the real you, and try not to deny your true self. Only by epting the truth can you walk along your path further.¡±

    Angor stared at Sunders in puzzlement. Those words were hard to understand, but he was sure that Sunders was not scolding him.

    Sunders patted Angor¡¯s shoulder and walked away. ¡°Since you managed to find your spirit power so soon, you deserve apliment. I heard you went to the Elder of Books? Did he tell you how to do it?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I did. The Elder of Books told me to drink the Potion of Austere Night to quickly locate my spirit power, but I didn¡¯t use the potion¡ª¡±

    Sunders interrupted him and revealed a surprised look.

    ¡°The Elder of Books told you to drink the potion?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Are you sure the elder answered your question?¡±

    ¡°Well, he did.¡±

    Sunders inspected Angor with an unknown emotion in his eyes. He only asked the boy a random question, and he even prepared a joke in case Angor told him ¡°the elder refused¡±. Yet... Angor¡¯s answer surprised him.

    The Elder of Books actually answered Angor¡¯s question? And a valid answer at that!

    Sunders went through his memory. It had been more than ten years since a wizard sessfully got an answer from the Elder of Books. It was a wizard from Edge of Night, who spent an insane amount of money to finally earn some instructions from the old man.

    And Angor received an answer from the elder so easily? More importantly, damn! The boy asked such a simple question!

    If Sunders had known how Angor could get the Elder of Books to talk, Sunders would prepare several dozens of them and tell Angor to ask the elder in his ce. As for Angor¡¯s own problem, any wizard could easily satisfy the boy!

    Sunders looked at Angor¡¯s puzzled face and sighed.

    ¡°Can you tell me how you persuaded the Elder of Books into answering you?¡± Sunders was curious now.

    Angor did not hide it since the conversation between him and the elder did not involve any secrets. He slowly exined what happened that day in details.

    ¡°I see. An exchange of knowledge. Considering his character, he would totally help you... but, mass-energy rtion? How did you learn about it?¡± Sunders asked.

    ¡°My previous teacher taught me that,¡± replied Angor. He did not conceal Jon¡¯s great knowledge base either.

    ¡°It looks like your teacher isn¡¯t just an ordinary schr. Too bad he¡¯s a mortal. Otherwise, he could be a promising wizard.¡±

    Sunders paused a little before he continued, ¡°Being able to persuade the Elder of Books is also a glorious feat. If others know about this, you¡¯ll be quite famous.¡±

    Angor let out a silly chuckle.

    ¡°Finding your spirit power without using Potion of Austere Night is a good decision. The wall at the end of the Glutton Flower Tunnel must be holding some secret. If you can find destiny to increase your spirit power again the next time you go to Nightmare Realm, you can well keep the potion forter,¡± said Sunders. He looked regretful about something as he said, ¡°It¡¯s such a pity that we wasted a great chance when we can get the Elder of Books to enlighten us.¡±

    Angor was still a little embarrassed at how Sunders revealed his little ego. Now that they were finished, Angor nned to leave right away.

    But before that, he remembered his brief encounter with Balba in the caves.

    He had no rtionship with Balba. But somehow, Balba gave him a friendly feeling. That was why Angor did not reject Balba¡¯s request.

    ¡°Professor, may I ask another question, if it¡¯s okay?¡±

    ¡°Why are you being all careful? Go ahead.¡±

    Angor took a moment to arrange his words and told Sunders about Balba.

    ¡°I¡¯m wondering if I can go and ask Miss Flora about Balba, will she get mad at me?¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Oh, Balba?¡± Sunders chuckled. He said, ¡°Mad? No. But I can tell you what¡¯s going on regarding that matter. Will you listen to me?¡±

    ¡°You know? Wonderful!¡± Angor would avoid bothering Flora too. The young witch still made him ufortable. Yet on the other hand, Angor somewhat wanted to see Little Red again.

    Sunders exined slowly, ¡°There are two reasons why Flora is disregarding Balba. One, she has been busy recently. There¡¯s arge-scale blood dissolve epidemic inside a tribe on Parmigi Hignds which was probably caused by a certain pathogen, and she has been working on the incident. The second reason lies in Balba himself.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with Balba?¡±

    Sunders revealed a disdainful grin. ¡°Because he is not human.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not human?!¡± Angor imagined Balba¡¯s appearance in his mind. The man looked... just fine.

    ¡°He¡¯s a half-blood between a human and an otherworldly brute,¡± said Sunders. He revealed the answer right away. ¡°When he¡¯s agitated, he¡¯ll show blue totems on his skin, and his eyes with slit pupils will be golden. Those characteristics belong to a brute tribe in another world called the Silver Wolves. He should have a tail too, but the human blood must have interfered and hidden it from his blood.

    ¡°There¡¯s an unspoken rule among wizards, that we cannot teach the way of wizardry to anyone who doesn¡¯t belong to this world. Balba might only be a simple half-blood, but we can¡¯t guarantee that a powerful being from another world didn¡¯t imnt some kind of trick inside his blood. You see, wizardry is famous across thousands of worlds beyond, so there are many who thirst for our knowledge.¡±

    ¡°So a part of his blood is from another world... I see why Balba didn¡¯t receive any professor posters.¡±

    ¡°Correct. No wizard wants to get his or her hands dirty because of a half-blood. However, they¡¯re fully willing to capture the subject and use him in their biology experiments.¡±

    ¡°Then why did Brute Cavern take him here?¡± Angor did not understand. If a mighty being from another world could use Balba to steal wizardry knowledge, why not just keep him outside?

 Chapter 140 - Sorcererâ€™s Garden

    <h4>Chapter 140: Sorcerer¡¯s Garden</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°It has something to do with the Supreme Cult. You only need to know that any wizard who discovers an unregistered foreign life form is obliged to recover it.¡±

    <i>Supreme Cult? Recover? </i>Angor did not know anything about this Supreme Cult, but the name suggested it was something religious. Also, the word ¡°recover¡± sounded terrifying.

    Angor thought about Jon. If Jon was found out... would he be ¡°recovered¡±?

    ¡°Professor, what do you mean by recover?¡± Angor forced a calm expression and pretended to be curious.

    ¡°Recover means to make it non-existent anymore.¡±

    <i>Non-existent... </i>From these simple words, Angor only saw blood and terror.

    ¡°So, Balba...¡± Angor finally understood why Balba appeared friendly to him. The aura on him which was ¡°being rejected by this world¡± was almost the same as the one on Jon.

    ¡°If things go as nned, we¡¯ll wait until Balba grows a little stronger, fuse a powerful bloodline into him, and make him into a puppet avatar,¡± said Sunders. He had determined Balba¡¯s fate with a in tone.

    Angor was terrified. So Balba¡¯s destiny was already sealed from the start. Thinking about Jon, Angor could not help worrying for Balba as well.

    Angor quickly got rid of his sad emotion. Thank goodness his teacher was at the Old Earth where there were no wizards at all. Otherwise, Jon would easily follow Balba¡¯s example.

    ¡°Do you remember any ordinary channeling methods?¡± Sunders suddenly asked.

    ¡°Ordinary ones? Like, Triangle Channeling?¡± Angor read about a number of them in Sunders¡¯ book room, but he never tried to learn them.

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I know some of them.¡±

    Sunders nodded and said, ¡°Very well. When you go back there, just pick one and give it to Balba. If he asks, tell him that Flora is away for now.¡±

    Angor was speechless. That was some careless way of teaching.

    ¡°Yes, professor. I¡¯ll take my leave,¡± said Angor as he prepared to depart.

    ¡°Wait.¡±

    Angor halted.

    Sunders considered something for a moment before speaking again, ¡°Since you came at such a time, this might be your destiny too.¡±

    Angor was puzzled at those words.

    Sunders reached out his left hand and touched a button on his sleeve ¨C a button with Sunders¡¯ family emblem on it.

    Next, the man pulled his hand in the air, and a crystal bottle with a metal base and multiple holes on it appeared in his palm.

    Sunders tossed the bottle to Angor.

    Angor looked at the item in his hand and saw pale lighting from the metal base. There was rune shining on it.

    An alchemy item?

    ¡°Do you want to use a space storage?¡± Sunders pointed to the button on his sleeve, where he took out the crystal bottle. The button was obviously some kind of space-rted alchemy item.

    Angor nodded quickly. He wanted one!

    The first time he witnessed such an item was when Greya gave him the space capsule. But it was only one-use, and it only contained Toby¡¯s stuff.

    The small capsule held a big pile of objects while having no weight on itself at all. Anyone would want such an amazing and convenient item.

    However, Angor read in rted books before that one-time space capsules were very expensive items, let alone permanent ones. Angor never expected to find such an item before bing a wizard.

    Now that Sunders mentioned it... Was Sunders be giving him a space storage item?!

    ¡°Follow me if you want one,¡± said Sunders. He turned and walked toward the depth of the garden. Those strange creatures also followed behind him.

    ...

    Along their way, Sunders exined where they were going.

    Sunders nned to make this garden into a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden by using the rare materials he obtained before¡ªFragments of Eternity. During the process, Angor could collect some ¡°leftovers¡± which could help him craft a space storage item.

    A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was a fantastic product thatbined spells and alchemy, which was then created by separating an area from reality and loading it onto a medium.

    This sounded simr to space storage but it was not the case. The space created for a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was usually small, depending on how many fragments were used. The garden was often smaller than space storages but still bigger than capsules.

    The main difference between a Sorcerer¡¯s garden and a space storage was that a space storage could not maintain lifeforms while a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden functioned as a smaller reality, with its own ecosystem that supported both nts and animals. This was why a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was more valuable than amon space storage.

    This alone, however, still could not make a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden an outstanding product. The garden was only a portable world at best, and it could not provide a good shelter because many wizards knew about spells that could destroy space. For wizards who always worked alone, a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden acted simrly to a space storage.

    However, the value of a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was not all about keeping life forms and being portable. The most important thing was when space was separated from reality, an unknown power would give the space a random, fundamentalw.

    For example, if the garden received thew of ¡°flora¡±, then any magical nts growing in the garden would yield way more fruits. There were alsows such as ¡°eternal freeze¡±, ¡°retrospect¡±, ¡°soul soil¡±, ¡°time¡±, and so on.

    A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was basically an artifact that existed under a certainw.

    Ordinary wizards would never get involved in anyws for their entire lives. Only legendary wizards had a small hope of glimpsing at thews.

    Such aw was why a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden valued beyond measure. For a wizard organization, a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was a strategic treasure.

    The garden was portable, true. But no wizard would dare to actually bring it around. If someone else seized the garden, it would be an uneptable loss.

    Angor only realized how valuable the garden was after hearing Sunders¡¯ exnation. There were only a handful of organizations in the south who possessed Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens. There was only one in Brute Cavern, and it belonged to the organization. However, the garden Sunders was about to create would be his personal property.

    Sunders¡¯ image in Angor¡¯s eyes just became mightier.

    ¡°So I can learn aboutwster,¡± Angor muttered to himself. ¡°This is exciting!¡±

    ¡°Forget it. I¡¯m only using the fragments to determine an area, and I need a master alchemist from Floating Mech City to do the creation. Thew will show itself once the master finishes his work,¡± said Sunders. He chuckled at the boy¡¯s idea.

    ¡°Why find an alchemist from Floating Mech City though? There¡¯s no master alchemist in Brute Cavern?¡±

    Sunders shook his head as he exined, ¡°Alchemy knowledge is extremely valuable everywhere, and many deep alchemy teachings are lost in the course of history. Brute Cavern only has several elementary alchemists.¡±

    ¡°Lost? But... knowledge should keep renewing itself, right? Is older knowledge better?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°We¡¯re renewing it. That¡¯s why you can see a giant flying alchemy fortress in the sky, alchemy airships, alchemy puppets... Those are all technologies that develop with time,¡± said Sunders.

    He paused a little before continuing, ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean ancient knowledge is bad. Many ancient techniques originated from unknown, powerful beings. New technologies based on them can never reach the level of the original one. Like the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method that you¡¯re about to learn. That concept is already lost, and it¡¯s a lot better than the localization methods used today.

    ¡°Remember <i>Initial Glory </i>, the ancestor of all meditation methods? Something in it could never be reced. Same for alchemy techniques. The alchemy industry today never regained its previous glory because some technologies were forgotten.¡± Sunders let out a sigh.

    Hearing these words, Angor deepened his decision to study alchemy.

    Angor was wondering about something else. Judging from Sunders¡¯ words... the man did not find the alchemy books hidden in the secret chamber back in the Nightmare Realm?

    Thinking about this, Angor decided to prove his idea.

    ¡°Professor, do you remember the blue giant I met in the Nightmare Realm?¡±

    ¡°I do. That¡¯s a Blue Tri-Eye, a low-level monster. Why do you ask?¡±

    Angor kept a calm expression. ¡°I said that in the hall of this blue, um, Blue Tri-Eye, I saw some alchemy books. Do they contain the ancient technologies you mentioned?¡±

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°No. Those books were onlymon ones. I have them in my collection.¡±

    ¡°Oh! That¡¯s why I thought I saw them somewhere. So they¡¯re in professor¡¯s library.¡±

    Sunders smiled at Angor. ¡°You can remember those books? It means your Nightmare Form is really a high-leveled one.¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t remember the contents. But I can tell their titles.¡±

    Sunders shook his head again. ¡°Let me tell you something. Suppose a book I never saw before appeared inside the Nightmare Realm, even if it¡¯s only a simple storybook, I may forget itpletely upon leaving Nightmare Realm. Bypletely, I mean not a single trace of memory will remain. Unless I find myself lucky enough to bring the book back to reality... which is the only way I can remember the book.

    ¡°If I ever read the book in reality and see the same book in the Nightmare Realm, I¡¯ll not forget the book in this case. Unlike me, your memory of the Nightmare Realm isplete. Even if you never take the effort to memorize something specifically, you still remember your basic experience. This means your memory was never blocked by the Nightmare Realm, which makes your talent most valuable,¡± Sunders exined in a serious tone.

    Angor went through his mind. Just like Sunders said, he retained most of his memory of his journey in the Nightmare Realm.

    ¡°Professor, you have those crystal balls that record images, right? Why not use them?¡± asked Angor as he thought about his hologram tablet. He would not have brought the alchemy books back if not for the tablet.

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t. I tried it before, the crystal balls only showed nkness.¡±

    ¡°Then...¡±

    <i>Why can I use my tablet... Does it have something to do with the difference between alchemy and science?</i>

    Angor almost asked that question. But he managed to hold it back.

    ¡°We¡¯re here. Don¡¯t worry about the Nightmare Realm for now. That ce doesn¡¯t follow themon senses. Thinking about it will only add to your confusion. Get yourself stronger and be a wizard as fast as you can. I¡¯m depending on you to take us into the Nightmare Realm next time,¡± Sunders bantered.

    Sunders pointed to the field in front of them which was full of strange flowers and grass. A number of Phantom Servants were already waiting here, each with a multi-holed crystal bottle in his or her hands.

 Chapter 141 - Harvest

    <h4>Chapter 141: Harvest</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Stay here. When we begin to build the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, there will be greyspace microbesing off. Use your magic container bottle to collect them. They are essential materials to craft stable alchemy storage, so try to get as much as can,¡± said Sunders. Then, he ordered the strange creatures beside him to go into the designated area before leaping into the air.

    Sunders took out a pipette from his button and began releasing mana from his body. In his view, an octahedral shape slowly came into being and covered the area.

    Next, Sunders removed a single drop of the mysterious liquid from the pipette¡ªa fragment of eternity¡ªand used a strange alchemy technique,bined with some spells, to pour the liquid into the indistinct octahedral model.

    ¡°I¡¯m starting. Gather greyspace microbes,¡± Sunders ordered the Phantom Servants around the area. Following the lead of Butler Goode, the servants quickly took positions around the designated location.

    In the air, Sunders watched with a smile as Angor held his container bottle in a serious manner. He then sent the boy a message.

    ¡°You¡¯re in luck, choosing such a time to visit. Considering the rule of wizards, I wouldn¡¯t have allowed you here without receiving something from you. But I¡¯ll make an exception this time. Or, let¡¯s consider this a payment for your Section Ephemera. However, you¡¯re on your own when collecting the microbes.¡±

    In the alchemy books he briefly read before, Angor knew that as they were the main material in the crafting process of space storage items, greyspace microbes were always an expensive resource. Plus, Sunders told him that he could collect as much as possible without worrying about payback, so Angor decided to give it his all. It was a free resource, so why not?

    As Sunders injected the fragment of eternity, a visible frame slowly showed up in the area in front of Angor.

    ¡°It has begun. Mister Padt, take care, and do not enter the caged area when collecting the microbes,¡± said Butler Goode as he approached and warned the boy.

    Angor quickly nodded.

    ¡°Cubic Lock!¡± Sunders threw a magic scroll into the air. The scroll exploded and created a giant spell array, covering an area several kilometers wide.

    ¡°It¡¯s an anti-detection spell. Master used it to prevent being scouted by other wizards,¡± Goode exined.

    This was a private Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. Sunders already reported his work to Rein Mute and asked the tree spirit to help conceal this ce. But what happened on Devil¡¯s Water was already known to the public, so who knew whether some wizards would butt in at such a moment? However, Sunders was not really afraid of getting challenged.

    Several minutester, Angor realized that the locked-up area ahead seemed to be slowly separated from reality.

    Small, shining scarps came off the ¡°edges¡± of the broken space.

    ¡°Here ites!¡± Goode said. Under the boy¡¯s gaze, Goode dashed into the air and pointed his container bottle at a shining spot which then slowly flew into the bottle.

    After seizing the light spot, Goode nodded to Angor and began collecting the other scattering scraps.

    Angor knew that Butler Goode was showing him how to do it. The boy thanked the butler in his mind and started gathering the ¡°leftovers¡± on his own.

    He could not fly, so Angor had to run around on the ground and catch those light spots which slipped past the Phantom Servants.

    These spots would vanish upon reaching the ground, which meant that he must catch them before that happened.

    Angor rushed about for a while and gathered a good number of light spots. He realized that the Phantom Servants in the air were intentionally staying away from him, allowing the boy to collect more microbes.

    He kept up his work for a good moment. When the locked-up area was shrouded by white mist, the light spots stopped appearing.

    The magic container bottle in Angor¡¯s hand was shining its own light now what with all the greyspace microbes taking up more than half of the space within it.

    Compared to the Phantom Servants, Angor did not collect much. But he already possessed enough to make a small yet stable space storage.

    Angor looked at his gain and smiled widely until his eyes curled into the shapes of a crescent moon.

    This bottle would cost at least five or six thousand magic crystals if sold at an auction. Angor came seeking for Sunders¡¯pliment at the excuse of reporting his training progress. The boy did not expect to earn such a big gift.

    The embarrassment that he felt when Sunders revealed his little intention was gone. Angor was thinking about visiting the Phantom Ind more in the future. Maybe he would run into something else!

    Once Sundersnded on the ground, he told Angor, ¡°Go figure out how to craft a storage item on your own. I¡¯ll not help you with that.¡±

    Angor nodded. ording to <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>, it was not hard to make such an item, only that the materials were too rare. With the right materials, an apprentice alchemist would be good enough to do the job. Angor decided to try it on his own after learning alchemy, and if he could not do it, he would pay someone for it instead.

    Before leaving, Angor asked a question out of curiosity, ¡°Why did you ask all the beasts to go inside the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden?¡±

    ¡°Fertilizers,¡± Sunders answered in a in tone.

    The word ¡°fertilizer¡± gave Angor a lot to think about on his way back.

    When Angor came here, the boy saw Sunders caring for the beasts gently, so he thought Sunders really loved them. But...

    <i>Oh, god. Fertilizers?</i>

    Angor then thought about his own situation. Sunders appeared pretty friendly to him in these days. Yet nobody knew if Angor would suddenly offend Sunders because of something and thus ended up with the same fate as those beasts.

    Angor knew he was worrying too much. However, this world was cruel, and he had to stay extra cautious so that he would not be devoured by a bottomless abyss before he could have time to regret.

    All in all, he had to grow stronger.

    ...

    It was still raining by the time Angor reached his vi.

    He heard a lot of bird chirping noiseing from the attic. Upon arriving, Angor saw Toby ¡°chatting¡± with the Echo Flower.

    Angor shook his head. For some unknown reason, Toby loved hanging around the flower.

    He did not tell Toby to stop. The bird sounded a bit noisy, but there were soundproof spell arrays on the buildings here, so people would not hear it at all.

    Angor entered the soundproof room and began meditating and sensing his spirit power flowing in his mind.

    He kept up his effort until he could manage to calm his mind. Next, Angor carefully ced the magic container bottle into a secret slot in the soundproof room. The slot held some other valuable materials too, such as Morning Dew, Section Ephemera, and the Potion of Austere Night.

    With his new gift stored away, Angor was going to begin training on the third step.

    Before doing so though, he recalled Sunders¡¯ order that he should copy a channeling method book and give it to Balba.

    Angor felt sad about how Balba was fated to be made into a puppet. However, he could not go against Sunders¡¯ decision.

    Thinking about Balba who was still eager for training, Angor sighed and proceeded to copy the book. He would begin his own training once Balba¡¯s request was done.

    Angor chose to copy a channeling method called Circr Cut Channeling.

    This was an extremely in method, but it held a better reputation among all the ordinary channeling methods. At the very least, it was better than Triangle Channeling which was the one n and Aleen were studying.

    It only took Angor half an hour to finish a copy.

    He looked at the book and decided to add some extra lines to it. The lines were about some of the training tricks he concluded during his own training. They were really superficial advice, but still, Angor realized them on his own. As for the special techniques left on <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>by Sunders, Angor would never dare to tell others about them.

    With that finished, Angor acted fast and left his house with an umbre to shield himself from the rain.

    When inside the caves, Angor suddenly realized that he did not know where Balba¡¯s room was. When talking to him, Angor was on his way to visit Sailum, and he forgot to ask Balba where he lived.

    The underground paths were chaotic, connecting more than ten thousand rooms, so there was no way Angor could look through them one by one. Besides, there were other apprentice wizards down here. Who knew what would happen if he barged in an apprentice¡¯s room when the apprentice was meditating?

    Angor had no choice but to go to Sailum. He could ask the boy to see if he had any idea.

    If Sailum did not know... then it could not be helped. Balba had to wait longer.

    Sailum was meditating when Angor came. Angor felt a bit embarrassed for interrupting Sailum¡¯s training, but the boy did not mind. Sailum carefully ced his book back into his pouch and greeted Angor with a bright smile.

    Upon hearing Angor¡¯s reason foring here, Sailum shook his head and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know where Balba is.¡±

    After pausing a little, Sailum spoke again, ¡°But I know where Ondo is. After we settled in, that guy came to bother every single talent living here, so he should know where most talents are.¡±

    ¡°Ondo?¡± Angor recalled the image of a young man with a self-centered character who was always wearing a ck and white striped cotton hat.

    ¡°Yeah, he was separated from his friend, Roffig. At first, he cried every day and came to the rooms of every talent at the excuse of letting people hear his trouble. But we all know he was only harassing people,¡± said Sailum. He remembered his own encounter with Ondo and revealed a frustrated look as he said, ¡°The guy wanted to find you as well. But we didn¡¯t tell him where your room is.

    ¡°But it¡¯s better now. After everyone began their own training, he tried to bother people again and received a good beating from it. Now he didn¡¯t do it as much.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s separated from Roffig?¡± Angor also recalled Ondo¡¯s close friend. Did they argue or fight among themselves?

    ¡°He is. No one knows what happened. Roffig never came down here, he was arranged to stay outside the mirror world. So, are you going to ask Ondo? I¡¯m not sure if he knows Balba¡¯s room since Balba¡¯s a little... I doubt Ondo is bold enough to harass someone like that.¡±

    Angor nodded. He then said, ¡°I¡¯ll check him out since I¡¯m already here. Can you show me the way, please?¡±

 Chapter 142 - The First Slice

    <h4>Chapter 142: The First Slice</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When they reached Ondo¡¯s room, the man was sprawling on the floor. There was a carpet so he did not get himself too dusty.

    ¡°Or¡ªOndo? What are you doing?¡± asked Sailum. He was puzzled.

    Ondo lifted his head and revealed thick, dark circles around his eyes which severely ruined his handsome look. His hat that was made from cotton was tossed aside, and his medium-length brown hair waspletely messed up and looked like a bird¡¯s nest.

    Ondo stared at Sailum for a while with unfocused eyes before replying, ¡°Oh... Sailum.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re meditating?¡± Angor saw an opened book left on the carpet. A page in the middle of the book was showing a spirit model in the shape of an octahedral prism. Angor saw the book before. It was one of the most basic channeling methods taught in Brute Cavern, Rhombic Crystal Channeling.

    Ondo looked around at Angor slowly. ¡°Ah... Angor, you came too.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Angor... Is there something wrong with his brain?¡± Sailum dragged Angor aside and whispered.

    ¡°Maybe he didn¡¯t sleep well? His face is all yellow, just like those people who stayed up for several days,¡± said Angor. His nature would not allow him to badmouth someone right in front of him.

    ¡°Really?¡± Sailum nced at Ondo with a doubtful expression.

    Ondo did not mind his visitors. He turned the page of the channeling method book in slow motion, read it briefly, and closed his eyes to meditate.

    ¡°He¡¯s meditating like that? But he looks so tired,¡± Sailum mumbled.

    Angor, on the other hand, became serious about something and showed a surprised look.

    ¡°Angor? Hey, Angor?¡± Seeing how Angor did not respond, Sailum nudged him.

    ¡°Oh Sailum, what?¡± Angor was thinking about something and failed to pay attention to Sailum¡¯s actions.

    ¡°Ondo is meditating, maybe we should go back?¡± Sailum said.

    Instead of replying, Angor asked Sailum a question, ¡°Are you studying Rhombic Crystal Channeling?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Angor pointed to the book in front of Ondo and asked, ¡°Look, he¡¯s already onto the part of building the model. Is he doing that now?¡±

    As they were learning the same thing, Sailum did not hide anything. He checked the book and quickly showed a surprised expression as well.

    ¡°Yes, he is. And he¡¯s about toplete it already!¡± Sailum eximed.

    Angor recalled seeing Ondo¡¯s condition when he just came.

    Fatigue on the body but not on the mind... It sure looked like the fundamental of meditation.

    ¡°It can¡¯t be real. Ondo only started his training recently. He spent half a month crying after leaving Roffig. And he¡¯s building his spirit model already? I think he even opened up his mana pool,¡± said Sailum. He was unconvinced by it and asked, ¡°Does that mean Ondo is an apprentice wizard now?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡± Angor shook head.

    Since Ondo was meditating, they should not discuss it here. They carefully left Ondo¡¯s room.

    Sailum stayed silent on their way back. The boy thought Angor was the only one among the talents who was ahead of him. Now Ondo proved to be someone way ahead of everyone while being thetest starter aside from Balba.

    ¡°Maybe that¡¯s his talent,¡± Sailum muttered in frustration.

    Angor had been calm and he said, ¡°Of course someone with good talent trains faster. But do you remember Mister Tree Spirit mentioning something else to you when he didn¡¯t do that for Ondo? It means our talent levels are pretty close to each other. It depends on our own effort.¡±

    Angor stretched himself to rx. ¡°It seems that we both have to work harder from now on. I don¡¯t want to be left behind.¡±

    Sailum was also encouraged. He clenched his teeth and reced the frustration in his eyes with enthusiasm.

    ¡°I think I can¡¯t find Balba for now,¡± said Angor. He continued, ¡°He¡¯ll have to wait a bit longer.¡±

    Sailum thumped his chest. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll help. When I¡¯m not meditating, I¡¯ll go and ask Ondo. If I learn an answer, I¡¯ll go tell Balba you¡¯re looking for him.¡±

    Angor frowned and asked, ¡°It won¡¯t bother with your training?¡±

    Sailum shrugged as he replied, ¡°Not at all. It¡¯s so boring when I¡¯m taking a rest from my training. Miss Nausica has been keeping herself shut, again, and she didn¡¯t talk to me much. It¡¯s good to have something to do. I¡¯ll just take some walks around.¡±

    ¡°Thank you kindly,¡± Angor thanked the boy politely. Then he recalled something and spoke again, ¡°I found an underground market for apprentices. When you and Nausica are free, I¡¯ll take you there.¡±

    ¡°Market for apprentices?¡± Sailum¡¯s eyes brightened up. He then asked, ¡°Nice. I want to see it! What¡¯s it like, full of fantastic stuff?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll see it soon.¡±

    ...

    Upon returning to his vi, Angor began training on the third step for bing an apprentice.

    He acted all calm in front of Sailum, but when realizing how fast Ondo was doing, Angor actually felt a sense of urgency. He made up his mind that this time, he would give it his all to break through until he seeded.

    Once he was able to control his spirit power, building spiritual model was not a difficult task.

    However, <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>was something else. It used the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method which was lost in history because of its extreme difficulty, and Angor was going to challenge such aplicated localization method.

    The first step of spirit model construction was usually finding a starting point.

    For the other channeling methods, this starting point did not need to be totally urate. The model would work fine as long as the model constructedter wasplete. But Singrity required that every point to be wlessly ced, this was why the channeling method used thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method.

    Locating the starting point was the hardest step for Singrity. This starting point was also called a ¡°Singr Point¡±, a point which was also referred to as ¡°the terminal of the universe¡± by wizards. The method used such a point as its starting point and dispersed everything else from it.

    The singr point was the fundamental of this book.

    To perfectly locate the starting point, Angor first needed to create the 36 coordinate systems in his mind to help him create urate coordinates for the singr point.

    Inside the darkness of the mind, Angor silently imagined the dispersive image originated from the singr point and inspected around the image to determine where tond his first slice.

    He had to then divide the 36 sections in a perfect manner, or everything would be in vain. It tested Angor¡¯s personal ability in dealing with big data, about which Angor waspletely confident.

    Even if he could not do it in his mind, he could use his hologram tablet.

    However, it was not the time for that yet. Angor carefully prepared to create the very first section.

    Angor triggered his dimensional thinking to its best extent. Any mistake would bring him countless problems in his subsequent work.

    Dimensional thinking and big data processing... Angor felt his brain working at extreme speed. His mind shifted between heaven and earth rapidly. From a single memory point, he slowly worked his way around using different data, forms, equations, and rted knowledge points... then ced them in the most correct ces.

    Angor¡¯s mind worked faster than ever when working out all the logical calctions.

    When observed in reality, Angor¡¯s forehead was now covered by sweat. The wooden floor underneath him was now in a darker color.

    Aside from sweating, veins were pulsing on the boy¡¯s forehead as well. It was as if the blood that was flowing in him was going haywire and would bust his head open in the next second.

    Angor kept on while bearing a high level of mental exhaustion that no ordinary people could endure. His ears were red, his head was releasing hot air, and blood veins had emerged on his eyeballs behind his closed eyelids.

    It had only been two minutes.

    His brain worked faster than any.

    ¡°There!¡± Three coordinates were born from countless calctions. They shone like three bright stars who illuminated his dark mind space.

    Once he sensed the intense light released by the three coordinates, without any hesitation, Angor controlled his spirit power like wielding a de. When he found a position, he sliced down, making sure the de connected with all three coordinates.

    The slice created the first surface!

    After memorizing the three initial coordinates, Angor lost his bnce and fainted.

    Two hourster, Angor climbed back up. Without waiting any longer, he quickly recorded the coordinates into his tablet.

    Looking at the data that was safely kept in the tablet, Angor could not hold back a smile.

    The foremost requirement for studying thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method was having a high sensitivity about dimensional thinking as well as the ability to process big data. Without them, nobody could wield such localization method by any means.

    Throughout history, there were very few who could use such a method. This was why the method was never passed down.

    Being able to work out three coordinates in one go meant Angor had a great chance of learning it. Considering how the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method worked for Singrity, Angor needed to make seven slices and create seven surfaces, using a total of twenty-one coordinates. The calctions would grow even moreplicated inter attempts. If he wanted to create the following surfaces perfectly, he would need to do an insane amount of calctions.

    The first slice only took him two minutes, but the second one would probably take two days. As for the seventh... maybe several years and beyond.

    This was impossible for most people who did not have the ability to work out big data like Angor. Even if they had it, they could not spend such a long time trying to create all 36 sections. Ten years were not all. They probably needed a longer time to build the spiritual model. By the time these tasks were all finished, they already went past their best ages for training.

    This was why even Sunders did not intend to let Angor use the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method for real. The man gave Angor another special localization method to use, which would cause a slight error in the coordinate of the ¡°Singr Point¡±.

    This error would greatly hinder the efficiency of the spirit model. With some luck, Angor could achieve half of the original baseline fitness.

    Sunders was certain that Angor would not use the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method. However, Angor went against the man¡¯s expectation and went straight for this method.

    Angor could build models with the help of his hologram tablet. He could also simte his mind space. But he still had to acquire at least nine coordinates, three surfaces, and six intersections before he could project the abstract mind space into the modeling system on the tablet and simte it in reality.

    Once this was done, the hologram tablet would utilize its superiorputing capacity which could process 51.66 quadrillion floating point calctions in a single second. It could then work out the remaining eighteen coordinates plus six surfaces quickly.

    Using these 36 sections would help Angor locate the true position of a singr point.

 Chapter 143 - Visit

    <h4>Chapter 143: Visit</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    With the first surface determined, Angor decided to keep going and began meditating again.

    After creating this surface, Angor¡¯s mind space was no longerpletely dark. Now, a shining surface resided inside his mind. The surface appeared to be abstract. Angor could freely control his spirit power to travel through the surface as if it was not there, but on the other hand, Angor could feel the presence of the surface.

    The surface was constructed using a special technique from <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>. As long as Angor did not give up first, the surface would always be there. This simple structure had given Angor¡¯s mind space a base point to locate other coordinates.

    This single surface was calcted out by using countless data. Once another surface came into being, either parallel to this one or not, it would bring more data into existence.

    This is how the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method worked its unique wonder.

    Without taking further rest, Angor immediately began calcting the second surface.

    Seven surfaces and thirty-six sections were built with increasing difficulty. To figure out the three coordinates for the second surface, Angor had to do many more calctions than before.

    Numerous data bloomed inside Angor¡¯s mind like fireworks. His logic ran around like diligent workers who tried to seize the data they needed. He used them to connect different forms together, eliminate errors, and weave various knowledge points into the light spot he was looking for.

    Five minutes.

    Angor held on for five minutes this time before the data flow in his mind stopped and he finally fainted.

    He was not sure how long he slept. Upon waking up, Angor used the residue of all the data in his mind and recorded everything he worked out before into his hologram tablet. Then he kept going, looking for the particr point based on the data he had already acquired.

    It took him three whole days to find the three coordinates for the second surface, and he spent most of the time lying unconsciously on the floor.

    As the second surface finally shone in his mind space, Angor copsed and fell asleep again. With a smile on his face this time.

    The sleep took him another two days and a night.

    By the time he woke up, the first half of Month of Looming Frost was already ending. Angor felt his stomach rumbling. Using his blurry mind, he found some fast food and swallowed them along with some hot water.

    His tongue could not taste the food at all.

    It waste in the night.

    After stuffing himself, Angor sat on the stairs in front of the main door. While admiring the green mistletoe tree, he drank some milk to help digest all the food.

    Calm breeze, gentle smell of grass, and sweet milk... Angor¡¯s mood was clearer and better until Sailum¡¯s voice interrupted the silence.

    <i>Wait, Sailum? Here?</i>

    ¡°Angor! Hey, Angor!¡± The boy¡¯s young and innocent voice was full of energy.

    Angor turned around and saw Sailum walking down the end of the street, wearing a pure-white robe he found somewhere. He was not wearing a hood. The boy looked like a kid trying to y cool by using a nket as his cape. Sailum happened to be hopping and waving at Angor, which only made the sight funnier.

    Another figure walked beside Sailum. Using the weak moonlight which managed to slip past the tree leaves, Angor saw a handsome and distinctive face.

    Balba the Brute.

    Angor remembered that Sailum agreed to help him contact Balba. Angor thought the boy only nned to figure out Balba¡¯s address. But... he took Balba to his door!

    When Sailum approached and saw Angor in the vi garden, he hopped faster.

    Instead of greeting his visitors right away, Angor quickly poured the remaining milk under the mistletoe tree and tossed the milk bottle into a dustbin.

    Using the convenience of night, Angor also wiped his lips clean and made sure there were no milk drops left on him before he finally walked to the entrance and addressed Sailum.

    Thank goodness the dark night under the cloak of the Tree of Eternity helped him destroy all the ¡°evidence¡±.

    Sailum did not notice Angor¡¯s secret attempts at all. The boy looked around the ce happily.

    Sailum just came to the apprentice town for the first time. He was looking at everything curiously.

    ¡°Angor! I found Balba for you.¡±

    From a toolbox near his door, Angor found an oilmp and lit it up with a lighter.

    He hanged themp onto a pole beside the door and looked at Balba carefully.

    The weak and wavering light of themp gave Balba a bigger and more muscr appearance. The man¡¯s upper half was still bare. A pair of x, close-fitting trousers covered his legs. He also equipped shoulder armors this time, which did not help him cover the two sweet spots on his chest at all.

    Balba¡¯s muscr and dark face revealed an anxious and expecting look.

    ¡°Good evening,¡± said Angor as he maintained a neutral manner. Not too friendly, not too distant.

    It seemed that Balba did not talk to people much. He was unsure of how to react and only nodded to Angor in return.

    ¡°I already asked about your question. Miss Flora had been busy dealing with a gue problem somewhere so she couldn¡¯t find time to teach you. But she gave me a channeling method book and told me to hand it to you.¡±

    Balba seemed rxed when he finally had something to study. But he was still disappointed at how Flora could not train him.

    ¡°Lady Flora is always away from the organization?¡±

    Angor considered for a moment before answering him, ¡°You can say so. She spent most of her time outside.¡±

    Balba looked frustrated. He did not notice that Angor¡¯s answer did not hold the exact meaning as he expected.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go get your book,¡± said Angor. He wanted to turn away but he hesitated and asked something else, ¡°Will youe in? I have some¡ªhot water for you.¡±

    Angor almost said ¡°milk¡±. He quickly amended his words.

    ¡°No, thanks.¡± Balba refused.

    Sailum actually wanted to take the change and go into the house to chat with Angor. However, since Balba refused, he decided otherwise.

    Angor went inside to retrieve the channeling method book.

    Sailum stood in the garden and touched around the mistletoe tree. Then he crouched beside the fence to observe the shining runes on it.

    ¡°Aw, apprentice town is such a nice ce. I want to live here too. I¡¯ll get a ce near Angor!¡± Sailum encouraged himself in his mind.

    Angor returned soon. He handed a booklet, which was pretty thin, to Balba.

    Balba sighed in relief when taking the book. He saw many talents working hard these days, especially someone like Ondo who already made much progress. Balba did not show it, but deep inside, he was really worried. It was a pity that he did not get to see Flora. However, getting the channeling method was still worth the trip.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± said Balba as he bowed politely. ¡°I¡¯ll keep my words. Anything, just ask, and I¡¯ll repay you.¡±

    Angor looked at Balba¡¯s serious attitude. He then thought about the man¡¯s sad destiny and sighed helplessly. Angor wanted to say something like ¡°don¡¯t mention it¡±. However, considering Balba, the man probably would not let it go like that. Favor debts were usually difficult to pay back, and Angor clearly knew it. He decided to ept Balba¡¯s offer for now.

    After considering for a moment, Angor finally said, ¡°Let¡¯s see. Sailum and Nausica aren¡¯t really safe when living underground. You¡¯re strong, so you can protect them, as long as it doesn¡¯t get out of your hand.¡±

    That did not sound too hard. Balba nodded and agreed without a second thought.

    After this, Balba remained silent. Angor did not know what to talk about as well. They stared at each other in embarrassment.

    Angor looked at Sailum and noticed that the boy was not paying attention to him and Balba at all. Sailum seemed to be thinking about something else.

    Also, the boy was smiling widely, as if he had something fun that he really wanted to tell others. Only that he did not know how to divert the topic.

    Angor chuckled in his mind and approached the boy to ask, ¡°Sailum, you already found your spirit power, right?¡±

    Sailum looked really surprised and asked, ¡°How did you figure that out?¡±

    Angor pointed at his face. ¡°Come on. It¡¯s all written up here.¡±

    Sailum scratched his hair as he replied, ¡°Oh, hehe... I just broke through this afternoon. Oh, right. Miss Nausica seeded in calming her mind too. She hasn¡¯t found her spirit power yet, but she can already remove all distractions in her head, and she¡¯ll find the power sooner orter. She told me to thank you for helping her. You¡¯re amazing! You not only found your spirit power earlier than any of us, but you can also even help others with it!¡±

    Balba, who heard about how Nausica had seeded in finding spirit power too, could not hold back his urge anymore. The man sat under the oilmp and began reading his book right away.

    The first page of the book presented him with rows of clean, neatly-written universal characters. No showy expressions, no ornamental penmanship to appeal to people. The characters appeared like squares, organized in a fine manner.

    ¡°Lady Flora wrote these? They look... special,¡± Balba mumbled.

    While he was reading the channeling method, Sailum and Angor talked about Ondo.

    ¡°I asked. Ondo is now a Level-1 Apprentice. He went ahead of us when we didn¡¯t notice,¡± said Sailum. He looked a bit jealous.

    ¡°Maybe he has a reason to push him forward,¡± Angor wondered.

    After exchanging information about their training, Sailum and Balba left the apprentice town.

    Angor no longer wanted to rest now. He stood under the mistletoe tree to mourn his spilled milk for a second before returning to the soundproof room to keep working on the third surface.

 Chapter 144 - Breakthroughs

    <h4>Chapter 144: Breakthroughs</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Could someone who only knew basic mathematics work on differential geometry in only one go?

    Of course not. It would probably take him hundreds of times... trying to take the first step.

    This was why when Angor nned to ¡°do it in one go¡±, he ended up lying on the floor with his eyes spinning.

    To use his spirit power to make the third slice and create the third surface in his mind space proved to be way harder than he thought.

    Most talents would not have much problem doing the first slice, and it would take some time and effort for them to do the second. From the third and on, however, they needed talent and knowledge as well as more time and training.

    In his current condition, Angor would need a long time on the third slice.

    Days and nights passed. Angor spent all his time in a loop between two conditions: brain exhaustion and lying unconsciously.

    When he looked into his mirror, he thought he was looking at someone else. One day, Toby even picked out a string of white hair from the back of his head, which further proved that Angor stressed his brain too much.

    However, Angor did not want to stop his extreme way of training. He could feel that he was making progress every day. Stopping here meant giving up his hard-earned momentum which could possibly slow down his further training.

    The training did a lot of damage to his health, true. But it was not all about bad things. Apart from making progress, Angor sensed that his logical thinking and mental arithmetic abilities had developed to an amazing level. For manyplicated calctions which required time to work out before, now he only needed to nce at them briefly to instantly figure out the answer in his brain.

    Not many people in this world could work out calctions at such a speed. If Jon was here, he would also be shocked at how much Angor had grown.

    The Month of Looming Frost had entered its second half. The first day, the second... and now, the fifth.

    The calendar had turned to a new page, dering the arrival of the Month of Freezing Earth.

    When it was the second half of the Month of Freezing Earth, Angor received a message from Sailum that the boy was now sessful in controlling his spirit power. Nausica also found her spirit power and began her second step on the way toward being supernatural.

    Good news from his friends gave Angor both joy and the enthusiasm to work hard.

    Half a month ago, Angor could only keep his ¡°mind overdrive¡± status up for five minutes before falling unconscious on the ground. Now, he could do it for half an hour while maintaining his top condition.

    The third surface had to intersect with the previous two, thus calling for several times more calctions than before. Angor had to be extremely careful when choosing the three coordinates for this surface.

    He worked out a vague location for the first coordinate on the tenth day of the first half of the Month of Freezing Earth, and still needed more time to work out the exact numbers.

    The world weed the Month of Frost.

    Following Ondo, Sailum was the second one who sessfully generated mana pool in his body and dered himself a supernatural, officially bing an apprentice wizard.

    Next, Nausica joined them as another Level-1 Apprentice thanks to her great effort. On that day, she and Sailum came to the apprentice town to tell Angor about the good news and to reunite with their friend.

    When they heard that Angor still did not be an apprentice yet, Sailum felt a bit worried.

    When leaving Angor¡¯s house, Sailum mumbled in a small voice, ¡°When my professor taught me about the Slow spell, Mister Ness came and talked about Hookdick with Kar. Mister Ness was very satisfied with Hookdick¡¯s progress, and he would take Hookdick to ept baptism at somewhere called ¡®Soul Soil¡¯. I guess Hookdick is now an apprentice too.

    ¡°Considering that man, if he heard about how Angor hasn¡¯t broken through yet... I¡¯m afraid he¡¯ll do something stupid.¡±

    Sailum was worried. With Sunders behind Angor¡¯s back, Hookdick did not dare to attack Angor openly, but he could order someone else to do it. Angor was a mortal now, without spells to protect him or fend off attackers. Even someone with raw muscle strength could harm Angor easily.

    Nausica heard him and put a hand on the dueling sword on her waist. She said, ¡°I¡¯ll try toe here often and look after the ce. I can ept some quests from the quest hall along the way, so I can protect Angor while earning merit points. Beside... I sure need some battle experience.¡±

    After Sailum and Nausica left, Balba appeared under a tree not far away. The man was leaning against the tree with the copy of Circr Cut Channeling in his hand. He was not reading the book. His eyes were glimmering with intelligence. Instead of returning to the caves, he walked into the depth of apprentice town.

    Angor did not know any of these while he was in his vi. He had been focusing on his work on determining the first coordinate for the third surface.

    After going over sleepless effort for two months, the first coordinate was just around the corner of his mind.

    In the middle of a dark night, someone let out an overjoyed yell inside Angor¡¯s house, which caused a shadowy figure beside the river to look up. However, the figure quickly returned to reading his book again, using an oilmp nearby.

    Naturally, it was Angor who just yelled in his house.

    On thest day of the first half of the Month of Freezing Earth, Angor finally found out the first coordinate of the third surface. Further calctions proved that the answer was correct. This meant he was one step closer to his final result.

    Angor enjoyed one night of good sleep, which he missed for a long time.

    His good mood persisted onto the second day. The sound of a bird chirping came from his attic in the early morning. And it was a duet too. Toby was probably ying with the Echo Flower again.

    Thinking about how he had been disregarding Toby for two months now, Angor felt a bit ashamed. He promised Toby deep-sea fish slices before, and he had not fulfilled his words.

    Well, with another achievement done, Angor decided to give himself a day off and took Toby to the marketce. He needed to get some cooked food as well. Any more fast food and he would throw up.

    Angor aimed for the ordinary market run bymon folks. The underground market asked for merit points and magic crystals, and Angor did not have much of those. He had to save up.

    Toby chose to wear a fisherman costume which came with a bamboo hat with a wide brim. It looked both funny and adorable on the bird.

    Angor¡¯s steps sprung because of his good mood. He still had a lot of gold coins on him. This ce was far from the sea, so the deep-sea fish product was very expensive. Angor did not mind the price though. He paid tworge pouches of coins without much thought. Seeing its new snacks, Toby hopped on Angor¡¯s shoulder anxiously to urge Angor to hurry up, so that it could get back sooner and enjoy the delicious fish.

    Angor paid a young man two copper pieces to help him carry the food sack back. Then he went to Sweet Milk again to buy some milk pastries as a reward for himself.

    After having enough at the market, Angor slowly strolled toward his vi.

    Angor saw the young man earlier in front of his door waiting for him while carrying the fish sack. The runes on the fences would not allow strangers to go inside without the owner¡¯s permission.

    Angor quickly stepped up so that the young man did not have to wait for too long.

    The man only gave Angor a bright smile in return. While exchanging courtesy, Angor turned around to unlock the entrance.

    As Angor turned his back, the young man suddenly changed his expression into a cold sneer mixed withplicated emotions.

    When Angor was not looking, he revealed a cruel grin.

    Talent, huh? So what, you still gonna get killed!

    With a swish, the young man took out a dagger hidden on his waist.

    The weapon shined with a silver glimmer like a clean mirror, suggesting its extreme sharpness.

    Without hesitating, the young man stabbed at Angor¡¯s back.

    As a monster, Toby was a lot more cautious to its surroundingspared to Angor. When the young man revealed his weapon, the metal noise and a faint smell of blood on the de both warned Toby of approaching danger.

    Toby turned around and quickly saw the dagger going for Angor¡¯s heart. He did not have the time to warn his master now. Tobyunched itself from Angor¡¯s shoulder and dashed out like a flying arrow, talons revealed.

    Common people could not catch Toby¡¯s speed when the bird decided to go all-out. The bird did not go for the young man¡¯s vital spot because killing him would not guarantee that his dagger could be stopped. Toby¡¯s target was the man¡¯s hand.

    Sharp talons shed through the young man¡¯s wrist like knives.

    He screamed in pain. However, it seemed that he was trained to bear such experience and he quickly maintained his focus. Instead of stopping, the young man¡¯s dagger-wielding hand went for Angor¡¯s back even faster.

    Toby¡¯s heart was on edge. If he did not do something quickly, Angor would be injured badly, or worse!

    But as a small bird, there was not much he could do now.

    Suddenly, a bulky figure dashed between Angor and the young man. The figure grabbed the dagger in a blink of an eye.

    Blood came spilling out from the figure¡¯s palm.

    The attacker tried to look at the intruder. Before he could get a good look, a hairy knee hit his face and sent him flying.

    The mighty force threw him away in a perfect curve in the air. Hended on the ground several meters away and coughed up blood. Next, a dueling sword created a silver trace in the air and pointed against his neck.

    Angor found himself pushed aside forcefully by someone. He struggled a little to maintain bnce. When he realized the snack sack in his hand was safe, he sighed in relief and turned around to check out what just happened, only to find two more people in front of him.

    Balba was standing beside him with a cold expression. The man¡¯s palm was bleeding.

    Nausica, in her soft and elegant armor, pointed her dueling sword against the delivery man¡¯s throat. She was also showing a violent look.

    Meanwhile, Toby was circling in the air with blood dripping down his talons.

    *What the... *

    Angor waspletely puzzled. What was going on? He was just trying to unlock the door. One secondter, some kind of big crisis came about?

 Chapter 145 - After The Incident

    <h4>Chapter 145: After The Incident</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    A momentter.

    Inside Angor¡¯s guest hall, Balba applied some ointment made by Angor on his palm. He always maintained a calm expression. Even the strong alcohol on his open wound did not make him flinched in the least.

    With the medicine in ce, Balba bandaged his hand up.

    Angor offered to help with his treatment but Balba did not let him.

    ¡°Thank you so much. If not for your arrival, it¡¯d have been... unpredictable,¡± said Angor as he thanked Balba sincerely.

    Balba did not mind it at all. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Consider it repaying your favor.¡±

    Balba had been protecting Sailum and Nausica as requested by Angor. However, Nausica was not weaker than him, so he basically had nothing to do around those two people. Now, he was d that he repaid Angor by saving Angor¡¯s life.

    The man was never someone good at talking. Balba stayed silent afterward.

    Angor was still terrified at the previous incident. As he said, he would have been dead without Balba to save him. Even if Balba said it was to repay his favor, Angor did not feel any less thankful.

    Click.

    Nausica, dressed in her usual soft armor, opened the door and stepped into the guest hall.

    ¡°He¡¯s dead. Ended his own life. There¡¯s poison hidden in his mouth. Probably a killer sent by an organization. But I¡¯m sure he¡¯s a mortal.¡±

    When Angor fetched medicine for Balba, Nausica stayed outside to interrogate the attacker. ¡°He didn¡¯t spill anything about who hired him, but we can take a safe guess that Hookdick is the one behind this.¡±

    Angor nodded. Ever since he left his home, Hookdick and Fosah were the only people who had grudge against him. But Fosah was not hostile to the extent of hiring a killer yet, so Hookdick was the most possible answer.

    ¡°Hookdick can¡¯t take you on openly, so he only used such petty tricks,¡± said Nausica. She looked calm as she continued, ¡°If he has other choices, he would not go so low as to hire a mortal to kill you.¡±

    Hookdick¡¯s wicked image appeared in Angor¡¯s mind. After visiting Twilight Town, Angor always avoided as much trouble as he could and Hookdick did not do anything special either, apart from giving him malevolent stares behind his back.

    This was why when Angor moved away from the underground caves, he let down his guard. He totally did not expect Hookdick to suddenly do such a thing.

    Angor grimaced. He could not possibly spend all of his days worrying about Hookdick. As long as that man was alive, troubles would keeping.

    ¡°Sailum said that Hookdick¡¯s mentor is going to take him to some ce called Soul Soil to ept baptism. I don¡¯t know what that is, but with Hookdick¡¯s soul-rted talent, he¡¯ll only get stronger,¡± said Nausica.

    She continued, ¡°I suggest that you stay put for now. Once you be a supernatural being, Hookdick will no longer find mortals to trouble you. And even if he finds an apprentice to help him, his helper won¡¯t dare to do anything against Sunders.¡±

    Angor understood what she meant. He already nned to stay indoors until he made a breakthrough. Now he further believed that he had to be stronger in order to survive.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll get to my training as much as I can,¡± Angor replied. ¡°This house has protection spells so no one can break in. Thank you again, for your help.¡±

    Nausica winked at him charmingly. ¡°I epted a quest called ¡®maintain safety in Apprentice Town Eight¡¯. I¡¯m just earning some merit points along the way.¡±

    Angor was sure that Nausica took that quest to help him but he did not say it out loud. He silently told himself to repay Nausica¡¯s kindness in the future.

    Nausica left while carrying the assant¡¯s corpse away as well. Balba also bid Angor goodbye. The giant vi regained its tranquility.

    Angor repeated Hookdick¡¯s name in his mind again. His eyes glimmered with realization.

    ...

    Nausica took the corpse to the other side of the river and found an open space in the woods to burn it up.

    She watched as the body turned into ash. However, in her mind, she was thinking about Angor again.

    The boy helped her find spirit power by giving her a piece of advice. By that time, Angor already reached the step to control his spirit power. Now Nausica had seeded, but Angor did not make any further progress ever since. When she established a basic structure of her spirit model, triggered her mana pool, and finally became a Level-1 Apprentice, Angor still did not achieve anything else.

    She was wondering why.

    Building a spirit model was not a difficult task. She asked many apprentices about it, and none of them was stuck in this step. So why was Angor having trouble?

    The other day, when Nausica was studying from her mentor Fantase, she unintentionally mentioned Angor¡¯s name.

    Instead of being surprised at her question, Fantase only said one thing in a in tone: Sunders found himself a decent student.

    Was there some kind of secret behind all this?

    Or... was there something wrong with Angor¡¯s channeling method?

    Nausica did not tell anyone that she had been pursuing ¡°immortality¡±. When she became the king of ckberry Waters, she no longer had to worry about finding enough fortune to enjoy a luxurious life. Treasures and hundreds of fleets under hermand gave her both money and power. However, she gave up her superior life which was thirsted by most people and chose toe to the unpredictable wizard world.

    Because she wanted immortality.

    She had the best chance of finding it here.

    Only powerful wizards could achieve something like that. Nausica clearly knew that she had to build a good foundation and worked her way up based on it. That was why she chose which channeling method to use very carefully. She only proceeded with each step on the condition that she had fully mastered the previous one.

    However... different channeling methods were divided by their different sses. Did that mean she was also in a different ss than others?

    Nausica wanted to go back and ask Angor whether channeling methods affected the sses of their users. But she held her urge back.

    She was afraid that the question would trouble Angor too much.

    She looked up and saw a lump of cloud floating by.

    ¡°Maybe I can find something in Cloud Library.¡±

    The corpse was still burning, yet Nausica could not wait. She nced at the remaining bones and went for Cloud Library without further hesitation.

    The fire did not die yet. Hot air carried the smell of burning flesh, causing the grass around the area to waver.

    A shadowy figure suddenly appeared beside the corpse.

    Before walking away, the figure silently watched as the body became ash to fertilize the earth.

    ...

    In a path under the Cave Field, a mortal walked in one direction while carrying a dish of hot food in his hands.

    The apprentices that were passing by did not react upon seeing this mortal. There were restaurants down here that were run by mortal businessmen. And many restaurants provided delivery services.

    Thud thud thud...

    The mortal knocked on one of the doors.

    ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°Your food, sir, from Pineapple Shell Restaurant.¡±

    The door opened up and revealed a bulky man inside the room. The mortal handed over the food dish with a bright smile and left right away.

    The bulky man closed the door when someone else spoke in the room.

    ¡°Laffitte, I ate too little this noon. I really want some¡ª¡± The voice sounded slow and peaceful.

    A pockmark-faced young man approached the bulky man and checked the food dish. Then he revealed the word ¡°sand¡± with his lips.

    The peaceful voice raised a pitch as he said, ¡°Laffitte, I want some sandwich. Man, I¡¯m SO hungry!¡±

    Hookdick was the bulky man, and Fosah just yelled for sandwiches. Fosah¡¯s helper, the pockmark boy, was Laffitte.

    Hookdick rolled his eyes at Fosah andined in his mind, ¡°That big mouth. Thank god there¡¯s no one else here, or the bastard would totally ruin my image.¡±

    He took a sandwich from the dish and tossed it to Fosah. Then Hookdick revealed a concealedyer in the dish and found a note inside.

    Fosah took his sandwich. He waspletely oblivious of Hookdick¡¯s angered attitude. He also noticed Hookdick¡¯s note, but the fatty was too busy munching his sandwich, so he nced at Laffitte.

    Laffitte nodded in acknowledgment and pretended to be surprised. ¡°Hey boss, why is there a note in your food? Some woman fell in love with you and offered to spend a night together?¡±

    Hookdick humphed. ¡°Quit it. This is a message from the Pollock Family.¡±

    <i>What the heck is the Pollock Family? </i>Fosah and Laffitte wondered.

    ¡°It¡¯s a mortal family run by a bunch of hitmen,¡± said Hookdick as he gave them a brief exnation.

    ¡°Hitman family? Boss, why are you contacting hitman?¡± Laffitte looked puzzled.

    Hookdick revealed a hateful expression. ¡°To kill that arrogant little bastard, you fool. He didn¡¯t register as an apprentice yet, so I can... you know, hehe.¡±

    Of course, Fosah and Laffitte knew who was this ¡°arrogant little bastard¡±. They all thought about Angor whopletely stole Hookdick¡¯s golden poster disy back in the resource distribution hall.

    They both followed Hookdick¡¯s example and kept giving Angor angry stares. But they were only doing so to satisfy Hookdick¡¯s ego. On the inside, they preferred not to offend Angor too much.

    Laffitte took a step back when thinking about Angor¡¯s scary mentor. Fosah was a little mad at Angor because of the incident with Mner. But when he heard that Angor rejected Mner¡¯s attempt without a second thought, Fosah felt better.

    Just like Laffitte, Fosah did not wish to be the enemy of someone with a promising future, even if Angor was not an apprentice yet.

    Fosah and Laffitte exchanged a look and made sure they understood each other.

    After reading the note, Hookdick appeared to be disappointed a little. He mmed the paper on the ground.

    Laffitte picked it up to read it, ¡°Mission failed. One male and one female were protecting the target. Hitman killed in action.¡±

    The note also described the protectors in details.

    ¡°Nausica and Balba?¡± Laffitte muttered.

    ¡°Yeah, them. They ruined my n. Damn it all!¡± Hookdick was frustrated. But he quickly brightened up andughed. ¡°I know the kid was hard to kill. I¡¯m only trying to put pressure on him. I guess he wet his pants and will never dare to step out his door again, ha!

    ¡°Still... now I know that bitch is helping him. Even Balba is on his side...¡± Hookdick curled his lips. He was not afraid of these two people at all. Unlike Angor, they did not have anyone to support them. Hookdick was going to receive a soul baptism soon. Once he was back, he was going to eliminate anyone who opposed him, one by one!

 Chapter 146 - Sorcererâ€™s Garden of Purification

    <h4>Chapter 146: Sorcerer¡¯s Garden of Purification</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Phantom Ind. Outside the locked-up area of Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.

    A silver-haired old man wielded an alchemy cane and ced various prepared materials inside the alchemy array drawn underground. His mana flowed in the alchemy attempt, causing changes in every element around the ce. Under the old man¡¯s work, the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden slowly materialized and began to release an ancient aura.

    Sunders stood behind the old man in a polite manner. As far as strength was considered, the old man was weaker than him. However, as a master alchemist from Floating Mech City, ¡®Moon Silver¡¯ Kusino fully deserved respect.

    There were very few master alchemists in the south. Kusino had existed longer than Jel. His title ¡°Moon Silver¡± did not sound so powerfulpared to Jel ¡°The Mythril Innovator¡±. However, in actual fact, Kusino was previously called the ¡°Moon Silver Dominator¡± for his absolute mastery at manipting an alchemy material called the moon silver. Later, the old man thought this title was a mouthful, so he changed it to ¡°Moon Silver¡± instead.

    Kusino, a master alchemist, who came to help Sunders built his Sorcerer¡¯s Garden at the cost of a great fortune.

    The garden already began to take shape after two months of effort. Something vague could now be seen in there across the asional openings on the misty barrier.

    Sunders had really high hopes toward his Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. He wondered what kind ofw woulde into being. To prevent random stragglers from peeking into his secret, he had been guarding the construction point day and night.

    As Sunders watched Kusino doing his job carefully, Butler Goode approached him on hurried steps and whispered something.

    ¡°Master Kusino, I need to leave for a moment to deal with something,¡± said Sunders. He frowned upon hearing Goode¡¯s report.

    Without lifting his concentration from the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, Kusino waved a hand in acknowledgment.

    When they were at somewhere quiet, Sunders asked Goode in a low voice, ¡°Someone tried to assassinate Angor?¡±

    Goode nodded. ¡°Yes, sir. But everything is fine for now. Someone has been protecting him. I already sent my Phantom Servants to look into the matter. It seems the culprit is Mister Ness¡¯ apprentice.¡±

    ¡°Ness¡¯ student...¡± Sunders remembered someone. Back on The Savage, that man did provoke Angor multiple times.

    ¡°Sir, should I tell Mister Ness about it?¡± Goode asked.

    Sunders waved a hand and said, ¡°No. Nothing serious. As my student, Angor should be able to deal with such things himself.¡±

    Goode bowed and prepared to leave.

    ¡°One moment. How is Angor¡¯s training?¡± Sunders called Goode back.

    Goode recalled reading the report he received from his men. ¡°It appears he has not constructed a spirit model yet.¡±

    Sunders chuckled, ¡°Looks like the kid is still fumbling over the thirty-six-dimensional locator.¡± <sup>1</sup>

    This long-lost, precise locating method could easily entice a lot of crazy schrs. Sunders himself had also been researching this method, and with his mental abilities, he only figured out the second coordinate of the third surface. Toplete all seven surfaces, the man believed he needed at least another ten years.

    People had different minds, and what he found out could not be used on Angor. The boy had to calcte his own coordinates to perfect <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>.

    But considering Angor¡¯s current situation... the boy would need way more time, which meant he would miss his best age for training.

    Sunders did not wish for Angor to waste his time over this matter. However, since Sunders was the one who asked Angor to retrieve the book, he did not want to be the one to stop Angor from learning it or tell him to choose another locator method. Although in such a situation, using another method to build a wed singrity model could prove to be a better choice.

    Sunders could not tell this to Angor openly, so he only advised the boy to do so in the notes.

    After some consideration, Sunders spoke to Goode again, ¡°Go and tell Angor that the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Floating Mech City will be open to the public one yearter. But participants must reach the top level of any Sky Tower. Thew of that garden is ¡®purification¡¯, which improves one¡¯s chance of bing a wizard.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll go to Mister Padt right now,¡± said Goode as he nodded.

    ¡°Go then.¡±

    Sunders knew that Angor was eager to get stronger, so he hoped he could use this piece of information to urge Angor. Hopefully, it would force the boy to choose another locator method.

    ...

    Angor received Goode¡¯s message in the evening of the same day.

    After seeing Goode away, Angor fell into silence. Aw of ¡°purification¡± which increased his chance of bing a wizard... that sounded so nice. Any apprentice would pursue such a chance like crazy.

    Same for Angor.

    ording to Goode, the information had not been announced to the public yet. It was nned to be dered half a yearter. Angor could already imagine what would happen by that time. Every Sky Tower would be filled with bloodthirsty challengers.

    His best bet was to reach the top level of a Sky Tower within half a year, so he could avoid getting dragged into the madness when everyone heard about it.

    Yet doing so in half a year was no easy task.

    Considering the rules of Sky Tower, if Angor wanted to triumph as fast as possible, he had to defeat everyone quickly by using raw power and gained levels instead of waiting for the end of each season.

    That was too difficult for Angor now. Challengers in Sky Towers were usually level-1 and level-2 apprentices, and still, they were not someone Angor could defeat.

    Heck. Angor was still a mortal now. There was little hope he could grow strong enough in half a year to the extent that he could easily beat down level-2 apprentices.

    Generally speaking, only the elites among level-2 apprentices could reach the top level and be qualified to challenge the Tower of Infinity. Most of the challengers who challenged Tower of Infinity were level-3 apprentices who were able to disy amazing battles before bing wizards. For example, Nausica¡¯s mentor, Fantase Konaita, once reached the 100th level of Tower of Infinity as a level-3 apprentice.

    Although that was not something Angor should think about now. His current goal was to get to the top level of a Sky Tower before the message regarding the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was made known to the public.

    But... how could someone with zerobat experience fight with the other apprentices in half a year?

    Angor could only keep the idea in his mind for now. He had to open up the third surface. Once that happened, he could use theputing capacities of the tablet to work out further results fast.

    He had to use the thirty-six-dimensional locator in order to build a perfect singrity dispersive model. Angor already realized what Goode¡¯s message meant, and of course, it was Sunders¡¯ idea. Yet Angor did not take the message to his heart at all, for Sunders did not know the boy could ¡°cheat¡± with his tablet.

    Thew of purification in the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Floating Mech City, and a perfect singrity dispersive model... If he had to choose one, Angor preferred thetter. However, as long as he could find enough time, he would challenge both.

    People should not get too greedy but they should at least had some dreams.

    Angor cleared his mind and continued working on the coordinates of the third surface. He decided that if he managed to build a perfect model, he would act crazy for once and go for the Sky Tower.

    ...

    The third slice required another three coordinates. After two months worth of effort, Angor sessfully found the first one. Two remained. Two coordinates that required his full attention.

    Angor was in his ¡°mind overdrive¡± state again. Currents of data flow tested the limits of the boy¡¯s mind continuously. Half an hourter, Angor fainted on the floor.

    He woke upter and resumed his ¡°mind overdrive¡± again. Angor did not intend to rest at all. He devoted every single waking second in his calctions. Even when he was eating or dumping, data still flowed in front of his eyes without pausing.

    Time flew by rapidly.

    His limit of using ¡°mind overdrive¡± increased to one hour, thus doubling his efficiency.

    The second coordinate was figured out by Angor after another month. The world had weed a new year and entered the Month of Resuscitation.

    When checking his calendar unintentionally, Angor noticed he missed his birthday in Month of Freezing Earth. He had turned 15 without realizing it.

    The boy did not mind much. This was not Padt Manor, where his brother and his mentor would celebrate for him. No one in this strange Fey Continent knew or cared about his birthday.

    As the Month of Resuscitation approached the end, Angor finally gained the third coordinate.

    He used his spirit power as a de, and made the third sh, bringing a sh of light in his mind.

    Getting a feel of the three shining surfaces in his mind space, Angor smiled in content.

    He had exhausted his spirit. Instead of falling asleep, he pushed on and recorded the information of the three surfaces into his hologram tablet. Combined with everything he worked out so far, Angor ordered the system to calcte the remaining four surfaces on its own.

    After typing everything he needed on the keyboard, a message popped up on the desktop: [Beginning calction. Estimated time: 504 hours 43 minutes 51 seconds.]

    Angor sighed in relief when he saw the countdown decreasing slowly but steadily.

    Twenty-one days...

    Even with the hologram tablet¡¯s superiorputing, he still needed 21 days. A human brain would probably need forever. No wonder the locator method was lost in history. No apprentices had so much time in their lives to waste on.

    Angor stretched himself and left the hologram to its own job. He went back to his bedroom to sleep. The boy had not been using a soft bed in months, and he felt a bit ufortable when finally doing so. But his spirit was too fatigued to mind such a thing. Soon, the boy fell into a sweet slumber.

 Chapter 147 - Future Plans

    <h4>Chapter 147: Future ns</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Maybe thepletion of the third surface removed a giant burden from Angor¡¯s mind as he was able to sleep deeper than ever.

    When he finally woke up on his own, two days already passed.

    Angor spaced out on his bed for half an hour as he enjoyed his refreshed and loosened spirit... until he smelled sour sweating off his own body. He slowly climbed off his bed to get some hot bathwater.

    A well-needed bath refreshed his body further.

    Angor returned to the soundproof room and saw the hologram tablet working on the results at full speed. He left the device aside and began meditating.

    When his meditation was done, Angor no longer knew what to do. He leaned against a wall and decided to arrange his ns for theing future.

    He divided his ns into three phases ording to his current goals, his avable time, and how distant the goals were.

    The farthest goal was, naturally, pursuing truth and self-realization. Angor wished he could walk as far as possible down the path of wizardry. This was the most distant goal, not something he should worry about now.

    The next one was his five-year promise of saving his mentor, Jon, and an agreement with Mara.

    Jon was his biggest reason for working so hard right now. Five years could instantly pass by in the eyes of wizards. Angor had so little time to save Jon. But he was notpletely hopeless. At least he had a clue on how to save his teacher now.

    The reason as to the root of Jon¡¯s condition was being expelled by the world¡¯s consciousness. So the first question was, how to make the world¡¯s consciousness ept an otherworldly visitor?

    Angor did not dare to ask Sunders about it. Sunders was wise enough to see through his ideas. If Sunders found out about Jon which in turn attracted ¡°Supreme Cult¡± and ¡°Recover¡±... it would be troublesome.

    He had to gather information in these five years and solved this problem on his own. He needed to keep working on it as well as seeking knowledge from specific sources. If he could not find an answer in five years, he could use the money he saved to buy another ¡°Ice Coffin of Healing¡± scroll. That would give Jon another five years to live. So this goal was not really urgent.

    As for his agreement with Mara... it would depend on the situation. Mara used an ¡°Ice Coffin of Healing¡± scroll to win a promise from Angor; that once Angor became a level-2 apprentice, he had to apany Mara to explore some ruins.

    Angor was confident that as long as he could build a perfect spirit model, he would be able to channel mana flow faster than anyone else, and strengthened his mana pool quickly. So bing a level-2 apprentice was not hard. However, Mara never gave him a time limit, which meant even if Angor made it to level-2 apprentice, he did not need to hurry his way to the White Coral Floating Ind Academy to fulfill his promise.

    In the end, Angor decided to ce his agreement with Mara behind Jon¡¯s matter.

    With the rtively distant goals set, Angor proceeded to think about his recent development.

    Building spirit model, creating mana pool, and breaking through into the state of an apprentice was surely his foremost task for now. Apart from this though, he now had another wild hope which was the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Floating Mech City as mentioned by Goode.

    To walk down the path of wizardry was a big talk for him now. But Angor had hope in it. Nobody knew what would actually jump out from the Pandora¡¯s Box anyway. Anything was possible.

    But still... he had to be an apprentice first.

    ording to Goode, the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Floating Mech City could use its ¡°purification¡±w to enhance one¡¯s probability of bing a wizard. Even if it only brought another 0.1% sess rate, Angor would not want to miss it.

    However, this was too difficult a task for Angor. To reach the top level of a Sky Tower in a short time... this seemed impossible.

    Among apprentices of the same ss, bloodline apprentices usually were more powerful. Under the certain rules in the arenas of Sky Tower, a powerful bloodline wizard such as ¡°Grass Snail¡± Fantase battled his way all the way to the 100th level of Tower of Infinity.

    Even if Angor became an apprentice and learned several cantrips... he would not do well against bloodline apprentices.

    For now, Angor ced this goal somewhere deep down in his mind.

    ...

    With future ns set, Angor was left with nothing else to do. He wanted to read some books recorded on the tablet. Yet he was afraid that by opening the documents, it would affect the device¡¯sputing efficiency. In the end, he gave up the idea. Better safe than sorry.

    With nothing to read, nothing to train on, Angor simply decided to give himself several days off and take it easy.

    He would avoid thinking about bad things and bad characters during his holidays. Anger and frustration would not do him any good, so he might as well maintained a in mindset and focused on improving himself.

    In the next days, Angor spent his time doing random things such as singing, handwriting practice, and doing misceneous tricks he learned from Jon. Sometimes he yed with Toby, and when he felt tired, the boy simply lied on an armchair on the balcony, crossed his legs up to enjoy the gentle breeze while thinking about his colorful past life.

    Angor was unaware that everything he did was recorded by a Phantom Servant down to every detail. The servant passed the information to Goode, who in turn told it to Sunders.

    Sunders was quite agitated when watching Angor¡¯s behaviors from a crystal ball. The man cared about Angor and intentionally ordered Goode to advise the boy in an implicit way to give up the thirty-six-dimensional locator. But... Angor did THIS in response?

    The boy might be staying indoors all day to avoid assassination. If so, he would be no different from a spoiled rich kid!

    Sunders would not mind if Angor rxed like that for a day or two, but ording to the reports of the Phantom Servant, Angor had been like this for two weeks!

    Wearing a cold look, Sunders released an aura of anger to the outside. Goode had been serving the man for more than a century now, and he still trembled a little.

    ¡°Go tell Angor that he must turn into an apprentice within a month. Or else... I¡¯ll officially discontinue the rtionship of being his mentor.¡±

    Goode clearly read the anguish hidden between the man¡¯s words. The butler bowed in acknowledgment and stepped away.

    Sunders looked at how Angor enjoyed himself in the crystal ball and revealed a frustrated expression at his disappointing student. The construction of Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was in its critical stage and he could not leave now, or he would definitely go find Angor personally and lecture the kid for good.

    ...

    Apprentice Town Eight. Angor¡¯s vi.

    Angor stood there, agape. He did not expect that his holiday decision attracted Sunders¡¯ grudge to the extent of losing his position as the man¡¯s student.

    ¡°Mister Padt, Master Sunders said so. Please do not let him down.¡± Butler Goode waspletely covered in his ck robe. His face was also hidden behind a mask. Still, Angor recognized the care and worry from his voice.

    Angor remained silent and shifted between several expressions. Surprise, puzzlement, helplessness... Goode believed that the boy was struggling over his own mind as he thought about whether he should give up the locator method for real, so the butler did not interrupt Angor¡¯s consideration.

    A momentter, when Goode saw Angor regaining a calm look, the butler thought Angor finally made up his mind. Did the boy choose another locator method, or was he foolish enough to stick to his mistake?

    ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll break through and be an apprentice in a month,¡± Angor replied.

    Goode sighed in relief, believing that Angor finally chose another locator method. The butler patted the boy¡¯s shoulder. With a smile, he spoke in a sincere tone.

    ¡°There¡¯s a reason why the thirty-six-dimensional locator is lost in history. Master asked you to choose another method, but he would like you to stick to singrity dispersive model for you¡¯ll still do better than the other channeling methods. Don¡¯t push yourself too hard.¡±

    With that, Goode floated away with a satisfied smile.

    It took Angor some time to finally understood why Goode hade.

    So professor thought he was simply idling away his time? That was why Sunders reminded him to choose another locator and to achieve something equal.

    Angor could not really exin his n. Could he tell Sunders that he cheated with his tablet and that he wouldpletely work out the thirty-six-dimensional locator in a week? No way.

    Angor decided to withhold the information. Since Sunders already misunderstood his ns, he would keep it that way. Another locator or not, Angor would always build a singrity dispersive model. Once the model was established, even legendary wizards would not figure out how he did it or which locator method he used.

    The hologram tablet read: 173 hours 33 minutes 27 seconds.

    Just a little more than a week.

    Now that he knew a Phantom Servant was watching him, Angor no longer dared to show himself on the balcony or in the garden.

    But he could not just shut himself in his house with nothing to do either. In the end, he just found a book and pretended to be studying on the balcony. Meanwhile, his mind was actually running wild. His eyes, which were blocked by some of his hair, were not concentrating on the book at all.

    Sunders was quite content when he heard that Angor decided to choose another locator. From an image sent by Goode, Angor was ¡°studying diligently¡± on his balcony. Sunders no longer paid attention to Angor since then. The man believed that with the boy¡¯s superior talent, and with a better approach, one month was more than enough for Angor to be an apprentice.

    ...

    The clock on the wall bid farewell to another two hours.

    Today, the tree spirit seemed to be in a good mood. The giant leaf covering Apprentice Town Eight had moved away. Gentle sunlight covered the entire ce, coating the town in a golden aura.

    Angor moved a silver bench under the mistletoe tree. He nned to take a nap under the sun while still pretending to be reading.

    Before he could fall asleep though, noises came from the entrance.

 Chapter 148 - Meeting Dave Again

    <h4>Chapter 148: Meeting Dave Again</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor looked toward his door and saw someone with an antenna helmet sneaking around the garden fence.

    The fences were pretty high, so the helmet was the only thing he saw. But it was enough for Angor to recognize the visitor.

    ¡°Dave?¡± Angor leaned against the fence and greeted the person outside in a slouchy manner.

    It was indeed Dave. Most of his face was still covered by the pair of giant, brown goggles, but Angor would not mistake his clothing and body shape.

    Dave removed his goggles and let out a silly chuckle.

    ¡°What brings you here?¡± asked Angor. He was still leaning against the fence and he did not intend to open the door yet.

    Dave touched the brim of his hair and mumbled something with his head lowered.

    ¡°What is that? I can¡¯t hear you,¡± Angor said.

    Dave looked up and revealed a ttering smile. ¡°Angor, I want to... ask something...¡±

    Angor squinted and turned a bit cautious as he asked, ¡°And what do you need?¡±

    With a bit of embarrassment, Dave took out a familiar object from his side pouch. Cross-shaped propellers, threaded stick, simple design... It was exactly the propeller flying machine.

    FLAWED, flying machine.

    ¡°Angor, I¡ªI redesigned it, and, ahem, I hope little Toby can help me test it again,¡± said Dave as he blinked his innocent eyes and looked really hopeful.

    Angor smiled.

    Dave smiled back.

    The next second, Angor removed his smile and reced it with a cold look. Then he waved a hand at Dave. ¡°Goodbye, and have a safe trip.¡±

    Dave¡¯s expression froze up. When he realized Angor was walking away already, he quickly yelled out.

    ¡°Angor! One more chance, please! Toby! Sweetheart! Help this big brother out!¡±

    Angor returned to his bench under the tree, picked up his book, and kept enjoying the sun without paying attention to Dave¡¯s screaming. The sun was so nice... although it was a bit noisy around here.

    Dave kept yelling. His voice sounded like crying now.

    Toby had been napping on the tree when Dave¡¯s terrible crying woke it up. The bird circled around in the air andnded on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    Seeing his main test subject showing up, Dave screamed harder.

    Angor exined Dave¡¯s visit to Toby. The bird crossed its wings into an ¡°X¡± and rejected without any hesitation.

    ¡°Stop crying. And stop calling sweetie and such. For one, I don¡¯t trust your alchemy. And secondly, Toby doesn¡¯t want to help, I can¡¯t change Toby¡¯s mind for you,¡± Angor spoke in a clear and in tone, like wavering water in the summerke, slowly triggering Dave¡¯s eardrums.

    ¡°My ¡®Propeller Flyer MK-2¡¯ is absolutely fine this time! And I added a turning device on it! Nothing will go wrong! Angor, help me, please! I¡¯ll pay you! Toby, sweetie, I beg of you!¡± Dave screamed at the top of his lungs outside the door.

    Toby hesitated when he heard the word ¡°pay¡±.

    Next, Toby waved its wings around at Angor and pointed to the attic.

    ¡°You mean, you¡¯ll agree if Dave gives you another Echo Flower?¡± Angor figured out Toby¡¯s bodynguage.

    Toby quickly nodded. Since it could fly, the bird believed that it would be safe even if the machine failed. It was just a harmless test, and it could earn another Echo Flower out of it, so why not?

    Angor knew why Toby adored the flower after seeing the bird ying around it these days. Toby seemed to be extremely interested in sound, or rather, music. During Angor¡¯s days of training, Toby spent its days in the attic, trying to sound better. The bird did many experiments on how to make the Echo Flower respond to its beautiful chirping as well as to create a perfect duet.

    Angor remembered that there were a lot of songs from Earth that were recorded in the tablet. He decided that once the surface calctions were done, he would y the songs for Toby and it might improve the bird¡¯s ¡°sense of art¡±.

    Since Toby agreed to the test, Angor did not protest. However, his own desire was way bigger than Toby¡¯s. A single Echo Flower would not win him over.

    Angor rolled his eyes and got an idea.

    Seeing Angor approaching the fence, Dave revealed his puppy eyes again.

    Angor sneered silently. Acting cute would not work here.

    ¡°I can agree, on three conditions. Either ept them or give up,¡± said Angor as he crossed his arms and disyed a professional negotiator temperament.

    Dave gulped. He got the feeling that Angor was going to ask a lot. Dave was nning to catch an ordinary rabbit to test his flying machine. However, rabbits were too dumb to know how to control the machine. He spent two months trying to add a directional control function to his creation. It was not something amon beast could use. Only an intelligent monster like Toby could handle the job.

    Frankly speaking, it was the first time Dave saw such a small and weak monster with adult-level intelligence.

    ¡°What three conditions?¡± Dave asked in a weak voice as if he would faint on the spot if Angor asked too much.

    ¡°First, I need information on the Sky Tower.¡± Angor started from a rtively easy condition. He needed the information because he was aiming for the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Floating Mech City. Angor wondered if he could find an easier way to reach the top level of Sky Tower with Dave¡¯s help.

    ¡°Information on Sky Tower? That¡¯s no problem. To enter the batt¡ªAhem! I mean, to help my friend enter the battle, I helped him gather some information before. I promise I can tell you anything!¡± Dave rxed a little upon hearing the first condition. Seemed like Angor¡¯s heart was just as innocent as his outside looks.

    ¡°Second, Toby is the one taking your test, so you must give Toby something in return,¡± said Angor. With that, Toby came as well andnded on Angor¡¯s hair, chest puffed up.

    ¡°Of course!¡± Dave hoped that Toby¡¯s heart was as pure as Angor.

    Angor pretended to be discussing the rewards with Toby, then he turned back to Dave again.

    ¡°Toby said you must give it some Echo Flowers,¡± said Angor. He used the word ¡°some¡± and observed Dave¡¯s expression, trying to figure out his baseline.

    One Echo Flower cost 128 merit points, which was a little more than one magic crystal. Dave earned five magic crystals every month by working at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop. One flower meant one-fifth of his monthly gain.

    Dave revealed a hesitant look. He could ept the price of one Echo Flower or two, but beyond that...

    ¡°Three. Toby said it wants three.¡± After checking Dave¡¯s expression, Angor determined a price.

    ¡°Too many! I only have two magic crystals each month!¡± Dave put on a sad look. Three Echo Flowers was an eptable limit, but he would still try to bargain and pretending to be poor was a good way.

    However, Angor did not mind his attempt at all. He simply watched Dave¡¯s disy silently.

    In the end, Dave clenched his teeth and agreed upon the price whileining about Toby¡¯s greed in his mind.

    <i>Damn bird! Why didn¡¯t it inherit any of Angor¡¯s good virtue?</i>

    Toby had no idea that someone was cursing it. The bird was now quite joyful about how its master managed to earn three Echo Flowers instead of one. Toby was imagining itself singing a quartet already.

    ¡°The third condition...¡±

    Before Angor could finish, Dave tried to surrender first.

    He literally had tears around the corners of his eyes. ¡°Just so you know, I already gave you all my money for this month!¡±

    Angor smiled at him gently. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I don¡¯t need money.¡±

    Dave felt cured by his bright smile. He removed his tears and waited for an answer with a passionate look.

    ¡°I¡¯m nning to make my breakthrough into an apprentice in theing days.¡±

    ¡°Congrattions! But, I heard that most talents in your term received posters and found professors. Aren¡¯t you a bit slow?¡±

    Angor did not seem offended. ¡°Can¡¯t be helped. My talent is weak.¡±

    Hearing these, Dave regarded Angor as a diligent young man whopensated hiscking talent with a strong mind. Dave quickly thought about himself. He also possessed an average talent. He was not at thest of the line yet, but it was still hard for him to make any progress.

    Angor¡¯s image in Dave¡¯s mind soon became favorable.

    ¡°Angor, you need anything, just tell me. I¡¯ll help you as best as can!¡± Dave said in excitement.

    Angor was puzzled at how Dave suddenly changed his attitude. But it seemed they did not stray away from the topic, so it was fine.

    Angor cleared his throat and said, ¡°I found a basic alchemy manual by chance, so I¡¯m nning to study alchemy once I be an apprentice. My third condition is that you¡¯ll let me buy alchemy materials from you. Of course, I¡¯ll pay for them. But I hope you can give me average market prices.¡±

    Angor never intended to ask big money. He only wanted a stable source of getting materials. As an assistant working at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop, Dave should have enough experience in such business. Compared with wandering around in the market as a newb, buying materials from Dave was definitely a better choice.

    Dave was not surprised at the third condition. Basic alchemy books were sold in many ces. A good number of new apprentices wished to try out this rewarding subject and earn a fortune. But most of them would give up slowly because alchemy required too much talent.

    Dave looked at Angor and saw his own image. Back at the beginning, Dave also dived into alchemy with great passion. Now he only earned himself an average position. He was not powerful since he spent most of his time studying alchemy. And due to his moderate talent, he did not do a good job at alchemy either. Without anything to inherit, he only managed to create his first product¡ªthe propeller flyer¡ªafter spending five years on the subject.

    And it was wed too. Every time he thought about this, Dave only felt more weight added onto his heart.

    ¡°That¡¯s no problem. I can even resell some materials that the master doesn¡¯t need at their original prices,¡± said Dave. He paused and revealed a worried look before he said, ¡°Um, I should tell you that... alchemy isn¡¯t easy.¡±

    Angor smiled. ¡°It¡¯s okay. Just a small attempt will do. If I¡¯m not talented, I¡¯ll just learn something else.¡±

 Chapter 149 - Test-Fly and Questions

    <h4>Chapter 149: Test-Fly and Questions</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor decided upon the three conditions after going over careful considerations. The test-fly was not dangerous to Toby, so this was an easy favor. Angor never intended to go overboard.

    Still, asking too little would leave Dave an impression that ¡°asking Toby for help is too easy¡± which in turn encouraged Dave to return with some other strange products to test on Toby again. That was why Angor needed at least one condition which tested Dave¡¯s limits, to warn him not to go overboard with his requests.

    With these three conditions, Angor both told Dave when to give up AND earned some profit out of them.

    Since Dave already agreed, Angor willingly opened the garden door and invited Dave inside.

    Dave looked around the delicate garden in jealousy. He had been in Brute Cavern for five years, and he still did not have enough money to rent a house. Thank heavens that Master Prome was generous enough to allow him to sleep in the underground shop, instead of living inside a narrow cave room.

    Dave was curious at how Angor could afford a standalone vi, although he was not surprised by it at all. He already saw the insane amount of bnce on Angor¡¯s bone card. Insane, considering that Angor just joined Brute Cavern recently. Maybe Angor had a really rich family?

    Dave took a guess that Angor could be the child of a big wizarding family. That was one possible reason why this new recruit possessed arge number of merit points.

    ¡°You want to do the test first or should we talk about Sky Tower?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Let¡¯s fly first!¡± Thinking about trying out his new invention, Dave quickly removed all random thoughts and focused on the propeller flyer in his hands.

    Aside from several extra wires which were used to control the machine¡¯s direction and flying height, the process was simr tost time. Toby could simply pull the wires with its beak to control the machine.

    After affixing the flyer onto Toby, Angor warned Toby right in front of Dave, ¡°When anything goes wrong, throw the machine straight away. I can¡¯t see your condition from the ground, so take care of yourself.¡±

    Dave was a little sad at those words. He went through a lot of troubles fixing the ws. He even asked Master Prome to check the flyer.

    Toby nodded and rubbed against Angor¡¯s hand affectionately. Then it hovered in front of Dave to let him charge the machine.

    As the machine received mana, the red light on the stick brightened. Under their gaze, the propeller began to spin, lifting Toby into the air.

    With the direction control device, Toby did an easy job keeping itself at a steady altitude this time.

    ¡°Do a barrel roll! Do a barrel roll!!¡± Dave yelled in excitement, ¡°Toby!¡±

    Toby nced at Dave and slowly pulled on the wire near its beak to perform a spinning flyover, which caused Dave to jump in an overjoyed manner as if he was the one flying in the air.

    Angor began to admire Dave a bit. His propeller flyer actually worked!

    Considering the device¡¯s structure though, it was more like an alchemy machine. It used some special materials, but in general, it was of little use to wizards.

    However, this was still an amazing invention for a new alchemist.

    Tobynded safely, dering that the test-fly was a big sess.

    Even though Dave had already expected the oue, when he witnessed his masterpiece doing a perfect job, he still felt great excitement. He always regarded himself as an average alchemist and wanted to give up several times. Now his decision to walk down the path deepened. In fact, it was better than ever.

    The sessful test presented Dave with great confidence. This was the first time he realized something from his dreams, and there were only more dreams toe. He hopped andughed with tears of joy spilling all over.

    Angor thought about the great scientific products he read from the articles of Earth and was nning toment on several drawbacks on the machine. However, when he looked at how Dave almost went crazy over his achievement, and how that extreme happiness affected himself as well, Angor decided to give Dave his sincere congrattion instead.

    The machine might be wed and could not be universally distributed, but at least it gave hope to a fresh alchemist. Negativements would ruin Dave¡¯s confidence, whereas words of praise would encourage him to achieve something better.

    The only one who was not satisfied with the flying machine was Toby. Unfortunately, the bird could not do anything to hurt Dave¡¯s confidence since he was unable to speak.

    ...

    They entered the house and sat down at a table.

    Dave had not gotten over his excitement. He kept telling Angor about all kinds of experiences he received when making the machine, and Angor willingly listened to him. The experience of a newbie was still experience. Angor was nning to study alchemy too, and anything could help.

    Dave kept talking until he felt a sore throat. Then he smiled embarrassingly. ¡°Sorry, I was too carried away. Almost forgot why I came in here.¡±

    ¡°No problem, I understand. And I don¡¯t mind listening, I can learn something from you,¡± said Angor. He went to the kitchen and got some water for Dave.

    When Angor returned, he saw Dave standing in front of his bedroom, admiring the Traveler Under Stars hanging on the room¡¯s wall.

    ¡°This oil painting is a masterpiece,¡± said Dave. He returned to his sofa and eximed, ¡°You drew that? It¡¯s beautiful!¡±

    Angor shook his head and replied, ¡°I¡¯m far from that. I received it from... a famous mortal artist.¡±

    Instead of asking the name of the ¡°mortal artist¡±, Dave was curious about another thing. ¡°You mean, you can paint too?¡±

    ¡°A little bit. I learned some when I was little,¡± replied Angor. His father, Viscount Padt, bestowed traditional nobleman education to both sons, such as oil painting, calligraphy, instruments, art appreciation, and so on. Angor knew a little of each, but only a little. He would neverpare himself to those masters who could inject deep emotions in their works.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯ll help you learn alchemy. The final effects of alchemy items are important, but a beautiful look also attracts people,¡± Dave exined. He continued, ¡°Master Prome once said that true alchemists in ancient times must study arts, or they¡¯d never produce perfect alchemy creations.¡±

    Angor was speechless. An alchemist had to study art? He always believed that they could ¡°naturally¡± craft perfect stuff, just like the artisans he read about in the novels from Earth.

    ¡°Most people don¡¯t pay attention to the appearance of their works as long as the products work as intended. For me, I really hope my creations look good as well,¡± said Dave as he looked at his flying machine with a bit of disappointment. His first invention was totally a mess of parts mashed together. People could recognize it as a machine, and nothing else. ¡°Too bad I never learned how to do that. If I¡¯m to go farther on the path of alchemy, maybe I should go to a mortal school to learn some art.¡±

    There were lots of artists among wizards too. Combined with their great life experience and longevity, their arts were usually beyondmon levels. While there was no way for Dave to receive teachings from someone like them, mortal academies only required a small sum of coins. Besides, after spending their entire lives pursuing art, many mortal artists had reached a great level too.

    ¡°You¡¯ll learn about such things once you started to study alchemy,¡± said Dave before he gulped down some water. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about our deal. About Sky Tower... why do you ask though? Do you want to challenge it? I know every apprentice wants to do that, but you¡¯re not there yet. Isn¡¯t it a little too early for you?¡±

    Angor simply told Dave he was ¡°making early preparations¡±.

    Dave was not really convinced, but he did not ask further. There were many things about which Dave decided not to ask, such as which ¡°wizarding family¡± Angor came from.

    ¡°I already told you about the matches in Sky Tower. What do you want to know? Something about major participants? I¡¯ve gathered some information. If you want, I¡¯ll send it to yourmunicator once you¡¯ve be an apprentice,¡± Dave suggested.

    Different organizations used differentmunicators. In Brute Cavern, the device was a crystal ball which could be used to record images and transmit messages. It was only a low-leveled alchemy item crafted using lesser filming stones. The crystal ball had limited functions and controbility, and it only sent messages within really short ranges. Sometimes, people might even need to be near each other for it to work.

    Every talent who made it to apprentice could receive one of these in the resource distribution hall. Angor did not have one yet.

    ¡°I do want the information, but it¡¯s not urgent, so let¡¯s wait until I get amunicator,¡± said Angor. He paused and revealed an embarrassing look before he asked, ¡°I want to know if, well, is there an easier way to reach the top level? Without going over too much trouble?¡±

    ¡°Easy way without going over trouble?!¡± Dave tried to roll his eyes hard, but he resisted the urge. ¡°Oh, please tell me if there¡¯s really a way like that! I want to reach the top level too! They give you lots of magic crystals as a reward! Seriously, who doesn¡¯t want it?!¡±

    Angor lowered his head. ¡°So... no way?¡±

    ¡°Of course not, duh! The Sky Tower tests your strength! Well, unless you¡¯re really rich. But if you¡¯re rich, why are you challenging the tower in the first ce?¡±

    ¡°Really rich? What do you mean?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°The matches in Sky Tower don¡¯t have any restrictions on how you defeat your opponent. Let¡¯s say, if you can afford a lot of powerful scrolls, you can simply keep dumping them until you reach the top floor. That¡¯s totally not a problem,¡± said Dave. He sneered, ¡°But those scrolls will cost you way more than the final reward, so there¡¯s no point. Besides, people will get really angry with you. Every match is held in public. Sure, you can use scrolls to deal with certain situations, but only shameless fools will try to beat every floor in that way.¡±

 Chapter 150 - Finished Countdown

    <h4>Chapter 150: Finished Countdown</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After seeing Dave off, Angor fell into his own thoughts.

    ¡°Shameless fools will use scrolls in every match,¡± Angor thought about Dave¡¯s words.

    Shameless? If he had that kind of money, Angor would not mind turning into a ¡°shameless fool¡± right away, which... he could not.

    But Dave mentioned something else that Angor was interested in. The Sky Tower did not have any restrictions on how to defeat your opponent.

    No restrictions... that meant there were a lot of viable ways to win the matches. Poisoning someone before a match, or buying someone off, were all eptable means. But they could not guarantee a final victory. Spamming magic scrolls, on the other hand, was safer. Yet scrolls were expensive. Angor tried to figure out whether there was something else that could do the trick in ce of scrolls.

    This was a good line of thinking.

    After lunchtime, Dave delivered three Echo Flowers to Angor¡¯s ce. Without tarrying, Angor ced the flowers to the attic and left them in Toby¡¯s care right away.

    Angor had barely stepped down the stairs when Toby began singing its quartet.

    Angor shook his head. It was a bit noisy, but Toby¡¯s voice was not terrible. However, Angor still needed a quiet environment. Thus, he hid in the soundproof room in the basement as he went through his memory, trying to find something to help him challenge the Sky Tower.

    In the evening, Angor got himself another unexpected visitor.

    ¡°Hey, Sailum. What brought you here?¡± Angor invited the boy inside with a smile.

    Sailum looked a bit depressed. He tried to say something, but he did not know how.

    The boy¡¯s terrible reaction caused Angor to feel bad too.

    After bearing an embarrassing silence for a while, Angor decided to speak first, ¡°Just tell me if you¡¯ve something to say. It¡¯s good for your health.¡±

    Sailum curled his lips and asked, ¡°Angor... how long will it take you to be an apprentice?¡±

    That was unexpected. Sailum and Nausica had always been good friends with him, so they usually did not ask each other private questions just to be polite and considerate.

    Angor did not hide his condition, but he was still curious about why Sailum suddenly came to ask him this.

    ¡°I¡¯ll probably break through in several days. Why do you ask though?¡±

    Sailum seemed to be relieved at the answer. He took out a crystal ball from his pocket, somewhat hesitantly, and ced it in front of Angor. ¡°Look at this. Those... bastards.¡±

    Sailum injected some mana into the crystal ball, causing it to give out light.

    ¡°Ohh, good job,¡± said Angor. He was never stingy when praising kids.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing big. I just released some mana. You can do that too after you created your mana pool.¡±

    However, Sailum still revealed a tiny grin upon hearing Angor¡¯spliment.

    The crystal ball showed a letter. A red wax seal was on the top-left corner of the letter with a tiger totem printed on it.

    The letter was short. Angor read through it quickly.

    This was the general meaning: Following the rules of Brute Cavern, the one with the weakest strength and training progress among new recruits shall be officially named ¡°the disappointment of apprentices¡±. I, theposer of this letter, suggest that the title is given to, Angor Padt.

    Angor could not hold back a sneer.

    ¡°Hookdick did this?¡± He asked.

    ¡°How did you know?¡± Sailum looked surprised.

    ¡°Look at his ugly, kid-level handwriting. He messed up several characters too. Well, he was the only semi-illiterate fool in our year, no?¡± Angor pointed at the obviously miswritten words.

    ¡°Yeah, Hookdick wrote this. The tiger totem appears to be a symbol of belief of his previous tribe,¡± said Sailum. He looked agitated as he said, ¡°I saw the letter from Ondo. Ondo said Hookdick had distributed the letter to many people, including apprentices of thest term, and the term before thest. The coward can¡¯t face you head-on, so he did this petty trick to ruin your name. A*shole.¡±

    ¡°You came all the way here with a sad face just to tell me this?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sad! I¡¯m worried!¡± Sailum was a bit angry. ¡°You¡¯re fine with this?!¡±

    Angor only smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s just my name, not like it¡¯s going to do any real damage to me.¡±

    Angor thought about how he wanted to ¡°be shameless¡± just not long ago.

    ¡°It¡¯s a rumor anyway. As I said, I¡¯m going to break through real soon, so his rumor will be a lie,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°B- But, even Balba already became a level-1 apprentice. It¡¯s true you are thest one!¡± Sailum realized his words were a bit offending. He rxed when he noticed Angor did not mind at all.

    ¡°The real challengees after you be an apprentice. Most people spent dozens of years getting stuck there while others only needed a short time to develop further,¡± said Angor as he patted Sailum¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Trust me. You, I, and Nausica are those who can break through faster. This letter will be aplete joke by then.¡±

    With Angor¡¯s ¡°sweet talk¡±, Sailum looked reassured and put away his crystal ball.

    ¡°Oh, right. Miss Nausica kept epting all kinds of quests to earn merit points. At first, she did safe jobs like patrolling, house cleaning or helping out wizards with small tasks. But I saw her arranging her pack and grinding her weapon these days, so I think she¡¯s preparing for a quest away from here. It hasn¡¯t even been a year yet, why is she working so hard?¡±

    ¡°Maybe she has a good reason just like Ondo,¡± Angormented.

    Sailum said goodbye after some random chats. Before he left the vi, Angor considered something and spoke to Sailum, ¡°Next time you run into Nausica, tell her toe. I want to tell her something.¡±

    ¡°No problem,¡± Sailum agreed right away without asking why.

    ¡°Thanks. Youe with her too. I¡¯ll tell something to both of you.¡±

    When Sailum left his view, Angor quickly grimaced.

    He acted in and nonchnt in front of Sailum. But Angor was really worried. Not about his name, but about the fact that someone was bothering him from behind his back.

    ¡°Hookdick...¡± For the first time, Angor wanted someone to die.

    ...

    Time went by rapidly. Another five days passed.

    The countdown on the hologram tablet was now: 0 hour, 1 minute, 31 seconds.

    Angor locked up the door to the basement as well as the soundproof room door and waited for the countdown to finish.

    When the countdown reached zero, Angor was so tensed that he grabbed his toes with great force.

    [Calctionpleted. Optimal coordinate data is as follows:...]

    Angor felt great joy upon seeing the twelve coordinates on the disy. It only took him less than four months to acquire such results when wizards usually spent more than a decade! He did not work out the results by himself. But so what? They would help him build a perfect model in the end, so the process did not matter.

    Angor felt too excited. Instead of starting his training right away, he chose to hunker down to calm himself before slicing up the remaining four surfaces.

    Although calming himself in such a situation was not easy. As he tried to suppress his joy, it only grew stronger.

    Angor simply gave up. He opened the ¡°entertainment¡± folder in the tablet and looked for ¡°music¡±, hoping to distract himself by enjoying some melody.

    He never looked at the music folder before. His knowledge about Earth music only lied in several children¡¯s songs Jon used to sing to him. But the man was really bad at this, so Angor never managed to enjoy music from Jon.

    Angor was quite eager to see what kind of music the Earth had to offer. After receiving the tablet, he had not gotten any chance to y music on The Redbud or on the cloud whale.

    And this was the first time he tried it out.

    There were a lot of sub-folders in the music folder either for music from different countries on Earth or for other ssifications.

    Angor only wished to get some distraction, so he did not care what kind of music to pick. He chose a random folder and the title of a song drew his attention.

    City of Sky.

    It reminded him of the Floating Mech City.

    Without further ado, Angor tapped the y button.

    The prelude of the song sounded like a stringed instrument, gentle and distant. But it was not plucking-action, so there was nothing too harsh. Angor used to listen to the harp songs yed by traveling bards. Those sounded good too. However, they often created sharp noises that irritated his eardrums. Probably because the bards were not famous musicians.

    Angor was really satisfied with the prelude of the music.

    The interlude brought a beautiful piano melodybined with a slow and delicate string. Angor¡¯s eyes brightened up with the development of the melody. The music piece knew how to seize the hearts of its audiences as if it had magic. There were no strong emotions in the music, only a soft trend of a flowing river dipping at people¡¯s minds.

    Angor closed his eyes to enjoy the peaceful music. As the song proceeded, he could see the image of a giant city among the misty clouds in the blue sky.

    When the song ended, Angor slowly opened his eyes.

    It sounded so beautiful. Using his own sense of art, Angor would totally consider the song among the works of master musicians. It was such a pity that he could not watch anyone y the song in reality.

    After going over his train of thought, Angor was quite shocked to find out that his excitement had quieted down.

    ¡°That¡¯s a pleasant surprise.¡± The God-given masterpiece helped him achieve his original goal.

    Since he was ready, Angor did not intend to wait any longer. He closed his eyes again and proceeded with his training.

    This time, he was going to open up all 36 sections in one attempt!

 Chapter 151 - Axes of Universe and Primal Mana

    <h4>Chapter 151: Axes of Universe and Primal Mana</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The mind space was a ce with boundless darkness. Mortals who never went through specific training would never realize this void, bottomless space deep inside their minds.

    Inside this primal and endless chaos, three giant surfaces shined with brightness and disyed their existence.

    Suddenly, in the dark space away from these surfaces, three light spots that belonged to different quadrants, as well as vertical and horizontal axes, came into being.

    Like morning stars that repelled the night.

    The three stars shared an indistinct, unknown connection with the three surfaces. Even if they did not connect with each other, it could be felt that they possessed the same origin.

    As the three stars illuminated the darkness, a giant de made of spirit power sliced through space as if it came from another dimension.

    The de broke the three stars apart. The broken stars then slowly scattered and formed up a new surface as if they had their own consciousness.

    A fourth, shining surface now existed in the chaos.

    Like an endless loop, when the fourth surface pierced the sky, another three stars slowly rose and released an intense brightness. Soon, a de from outside the space came once again andpletely shattered them, creating the fifth surface in the chaos.

    Stars, de.

    The process repeated twice more.

    As the seventh-starbination was shattered and gave birth to the seventh surface, the once tranquil and eternal mind space witnessed a drastic change.

    Seven surfaces, some intersected with each other, some were parallel, divided the chaos into 36 different sections. All these sections released a blinding light at the same time. When the light died down, the surfaces vanished, leaving countless broken lines behind.

    These broken lines kept blinking out of existence. When something was looking at them, they showed their shining forms in the mind space. In other times, they hid in the darkness.

    This was the ultimate form of the thirty-six-dimensional locator: the Axes of the Universe!

    ...

    Angor slowly opened his eyes and revealed a grin around his lips.

    The coordinates worked out by the tablet helped him create the stars in his mind space. Combined with his spirit de, seven final surfaces were sessfully made, giving birth to the Axes of the Universe. It meant Angor¡¯s effort during all these months paid off.

    The thirty-six-dimensional locator, which was long lost, finally made its appearance in the world again!

    Now Angor only needed to slightly meditate to trigger the Axes of the Universe in his mind space. With the help of the axes, the entire chaotic mind space was quantified. Every abstract spot could now be represented by data and digits.

    The data were not absolutely correct, but ording to <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>, these data could be optimized rtively perfectly. A singrity dispersive model built in this way would achieve its original fitness level.

    And that was the best Angor could hope for.

    To make sure, Angor had to test out the locating capacity of these axes.

    He quickly took out his <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>copy and found the page which gave instructions on how to build a spirit model.

    The first step was to create a singr point. This point was referred to as the ¡°point of all terminals¡± by wizards. It meant the beginning and the end of the universe, a point that brought boundless imaginations and religious beliefs. Nobody knew if it really existed, or only resided in the imaginations of wizards. Or maybe it lied inside another dimension.

    The book used ¡°singrity¡± in its title and used this point as the starting point of the spirit model. This meant the author of the book was extremely ambitious. What was more, the author¡¯s knowledge and insight were well deserved of such an ambition. An iplete channeling method with a base fitness level of 30%! This was way higher than the best channeling method used in Brute Cavern, Montaus¡¯ Octahedrite Channeling. Even a mighty wizard like Sunders agreed that the book was absolutely best of the best in the entire southern region.

    All in all, a singr point was the foundation of the channeling method book and the most critical step. If the Axes of the Universe could be used to locate a perfect singr point, then Angor could achieve great progress after all these months.

    The book used an entire page just listing the coordinates for the singr point. Angor carefully went through each decimal ce to eliminate incorrect points on the axes.

    When Angor reached the end of the coordinates, he found an abstract spot in the endless space.

    ¡°So this is the singr point?¡±

    He split his spirit concentration and began the calction for a second time, only to reach the same spot again. This time, Angor was finally assured. Using his spirit power, he slowly created the starting point of the spirit model.

    When a sphere that gave out a faint light emerged, Angor had seeded in building the initial state of his spirit model.

    Next, he had to prove whether this ¡°sphere¡± was the rumored singr point.

    The book told him how. He just had to construct his first spirit power tunnel from the sphere and see the speed of the flow to determine whether the singr point was real or fake.

    Without tarrying, Angor immediately proceeded to the second step: building the spirit power tunnel.

    A spirit tunnel was the base unit thatposed the spirit model. Every model consisted of multiple spirit tunnels. A model was like a building, with the starting point as its base, and the tunnels as its frames.

    A spirit tunnel also required a starting coordinate. Using the Axes of the Universe, Angor easily determined the first tunnel.

    From zero to one, the tunnel slowly emerged from the sphere and reached for the final destination.

    Once the tunnel was built, Angor would be able to start calcting the flow speed of spirit power and see if the singr point was sessful.

    Angor did not know how much time he spent on connecting the first tunnel to its ending point. With the tunnel finallypleted, his spirit model now looked like a lollipop, but with its stick pointing upward.

    ¡°There!¡± With the tunnel in ce, Angor could not wait to test his spirit flow out.

    But before he could do that, a vortex-like ck hole suddenly appeared on the topside of his mind space.

    And before he could react, a strange and wild energy flow came rushing out of the vortex.

    ¡°That¡¯s... primal mana?!¡±

    Angor was shocked at the sight. He knew primal mana often showed itself when someone built their spirit models, but it only happened when the model approached itspletion, not at the beginning.

    The appearance of primal mana meant that Angor could now channel the mana into the spirit tunnel to initiate mana flow. The flow would remove the wild attribute from the primal mana, turning it into pure and controble energy. And when he had enough mana, he could establish his mana pool.

    The mana pool was what made a talent into a supernatural.

    As Angor stayed dumbfounded, the primal mana keptshing out from the vortex until it filled up the chaotic mind space. The wild nature of the energy quickly caused Angor¡¯s mind to be restless.

    The only way to solve this problem was to channel the energy into the spirit tunnel and purify it.

    However...

    Angor stared at the small ¡°stick¡± on the spirit sphere and could not help cursing.

    ¡°How can I tame such primal mana with this small spirit tunnel?¡± Angor felt powerless. Why did the primal mana show up now anyway? The early appearance could be difficult to deal with.

    More importantly... what was wrong with the vortex? It should be an entrance that connected with the outside. An apprentice could draw primal mana from nature when he or she meditated, and then they could slowly purify the mana and strengthen themselves.

    And usually, this ¡°vortex¡± only provided a small string of energy. But now, Angor¡¯s vortex appeared like an opened gate on a river dam during a flood. By the time he realized what was going on, the primal mana already upied his entire mind space.

    Was that how efficient Singrity Dispersive Meditation was? The speed of drawing primal mana was downright scary. If he could establish a purification mana flow at the same speed, Angor would probably make breakthroughs like taking strolls in a park!

    Angor quickly shut off the ¡°vortex¡±, but lots of primal mana was already troubling his mind space. If he did not deal with it soon, he would go crazy under its effect. With no other choices, Angor forced himself to calm down and channeled the primal mana into his tiny spirit tunnel.

    He believed that it would not take much time for the spirit sphere to bepletely filled up by primal mana.

    To his surprise, when he channeled all the mana into the spirit tunnel, the sphere remained as it was.

    It was like dropping stones into a giant river. Everything calmed down. Nothing was left behind.

    ¡°The model can hold a big amount of mana!¡± Angor realized what happened.

    Arge capacity meant purer mana oue, which in turn could amplify the spells he used.

    ¡°It deserved its name... one single tunnel can keep so much mana!¡± Angor eximed in excitement.

    With the vortex shut off and all the primal mana being kept inside the ¡°sphere¡±, Angor moved on to calcting the flow speed.

    And the result was exactly the one recorded in the book.

    Angor was finally relieved. The Axes of the Universe that he established was urate, and the ¡°sphere¡± was the real singr point. The first part of his spirit model was also correct.

    He made a good start on the long and unpredictable path of bing a wizard.

 Chapter 152 - A New Mana Pool

    <h4>Chapter 152: A New Mana Pool</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    In the next two days, instead of working on other spirit tunnels, Angor re-opened the vortex to draw more primal mana.

    He read about something in a wizard anecdote that building the mana pool earlier would make it easier to stabilize and prevent the mana from backfiring, which could also help him build a better spirit model.

    This was why Angor decided to establish his mana pool first before continuing with his spirit model construction. Besides, Sunders asked him to be an apprentice in a month, which was only a little more than ten days away. He had to make it happen in order not to miss this deadline.

    On the third evening, after Angor created the singr point, he finally felt that the point was getting a bit filled. The singr point now looked several times bigger. Just as Angor was fearing that the sphere would explode on itself, it slowly shrank again while releasing an extremely pure mana flow back into his mind space.

    Unlike the gray, muddy-looking primal mana that he received from the vortex, the new mana flow was transparent. These two types of mana existed in harmony in his mind and never interfered with each other.

    After several more days, pure mana slowly built up in his mind and gathered around the singr point and eventually condensed into a strange shape that looked like a cocoon.

    This was the initial state of the mana pool: a magic cocoon.

    As long as he kept umting his mana, the cocoon would keep growing until it became a real mana pool. This would take time. Usually, an apprentice who meditated often could achieve that in a month.

    However, that was considering the use of amon channeling method. Angor was confident that with the conversion rate of the singrity dispersive model, he would totally satisfy Sunders¡¯ requirement.

    Two dayster, Angor looked at the shining sphere which brightened up his mind like the sun and remained agape for a long time.

    He already knew how efficient Singrity Dispersive Meditation was,pared to the other channeling methods. Yet he did not expect to actually build the mana pool in just two days by using only five strings of pure mana flows! If he did not take the time to rest and eat, he would have done this within a day.

    This channeling method long lost in history not only allowed the drawing of primal mana at an insane speed, but it also purified primal mana more than ten times faster than simr channeling methods.

    The small, bright ¡°sun¡± was the foundation of being a wizard: the mana pool.

    It looked really smallpared to the vast mind space, but its sense of presence was not small at all. When Angor began meditating, he could immediately feel the ¡°sun¡± which released intense energy.

    Angor stopped his training and sensed his mana pool with a nk emotion.

    Somehow, he wanted to cry.

    It had been a little more than a year plus three months since he departed from Padt Manor. He finally made a major achievement.

    Angor closed his eyes and thought about the very day when he left his home.

    Head Maid Mana stood against the sunlight with all house servants beside her as they waved goodbye.

    His mentor, Jon, who forced himself on his broken body, repeated his wise words to Angor again and again with an unchanged kindness in his eyes.

    And Angor¡¯s brother Leon... the very person who loved him most. Angor¡¯s memory stopped on Leon¡¯s figure. With his other hand on his chest, his brother was holding his decorated long sword toward the sky while chanting something.

    Angor clearly remembered every single detail shown in his memory. The long sword was a passed-down artifact of Padt Family which symbolized the authority of the master. Leon¡¯s armor was a battle suit decorated with his family emblem. Also, he was chanting their family motto: <i>The fire in lion¡¯s heart never dies.</i>

    ¡°The fire in lion¡¯s heart never dies...¡± Angor muttered along. He smiled and quickly removed unwanted distractions.

    He might not be able to protect his family forever, but as long as he was alive, the fire in lion¡¯s heart would keep burning brightly.

    ...

    Now the mana pool was in ce, Angor could be considered an apprentice wizard.

    Sunders¡¯ time limit was still a week away, so Angor did not report to his professor right away. The boy continued to construct spirit tunnels.

    He spent five days on three tunnels.

    When the three new tunnels were finished, the singr dispersive model surprised him again by purifying primal mana at an increased speed.

    ording to his spection, once hepleted the spirit model, it would help him purify primal mana about fifteen times faster than the other channeling methods. This way, his mana pool would grow quicker. The quality and size of one¡¯s mana pool were one of the standards that determined the ss of a wizard.

    An apprentice only needed amount rather than quality, so at least Angor was sure he would develop a lot faster than the others during his training as an apprentice.

    Two days.

    Sunders¡¯ one-month deadline was only two days away.

    After making sure his mana pool was stable, and there would not be any backfire, Angor stepped out of his door with a sense of contentment.

    He took Toby with him this time. Angor warned Toby to watch out for anything suspicious around them. He was an apprentice now, but he had not learned any spells, so he must rely on Toby to protect him.

    It was unlikely that Hookdick would hire assassins again, but better safe than sorry.

    Toby revealed a disdainful sneer upon hearing Angor¡¯s ¡°act of cowardice¡±. However, the bird still hovered above Angor carefully, working as a responsible bodyguard.

    Angor boarded a sky bus and reached the Falling Cloud Stop peacefully. But before going for the final destination, someone stopped him.

    Angor was still on the sky bridge toward the Phantom Ind. It was only about a hundred meters to the ind now.

    Three apprentices dressed in different styles stood before him.

    Their leader was a man in an unbuttoned brown leather jacket. Without other inner clothes, his strong chest and abdomen muscles were exposed.

    One apprentice beside him was cloaked in a nket-like robe. Angor saw Sailum wearing the same robe before. It appeared to be a standard uniform in Brute Cavern.

    The third man was a fatty who kept chewing on a piece of roasted meat in his hand. Oily grease covered his mouth.

    ¡°Oi, kid. Who the heck are you? What¡¯s your business on Phantom Ind?¡± The leading man spoke. His tone was as sloppy and wild as his appearance.

    ¡°Tsk. Look, boss, he¡¯s just a level-1. Must¡¯vee to the ind to find leftovers,¡± said the fatty, revealing some meat scraps between his teeth.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him, boss. There are bunches of people around the Phantom Ind now. He won¡¯t make a difference. And he¡¯s just a kid,¡± said the robed man in a meek tone.

    ¡°Teuton, you chick! You ain¡¯t minding every trespasser you see! If we let everyone go, how the heck do we finish our mission?¡± The fat man yelled at the robed man, Teuton.

    Teuton did not protest when he was being addressed as a ¡°chick¡±. He only stepped back a little and went closer to his boss.

    ¡°Quit it, Becker.¡± Their leader nced at the fatty and caused him to stop.

    ¡°Kid, I asked you a question, and I want an answer. Or I¡¯ll you kick you down the bridge.¡± Their ¡°boss¡± looked at Angor again.

    Angor thought Hookdick sent someone to attack him again, but after listening to their previous conversation, he believed otherwise. <i>So people had gathered here? </i>Angor looked around and noticed many people floating around the ce, staring at Phantom Ind with tensed expression.

    Judging from their clothing and the bone cards on them, they appeared to be apprentice wizards in Brute Cavern.

    They all noticed when Angor was stopped by someone, but they only cast a cold nce before disregarding the scene again.

    ¡°Who are you? What¡¯s going on here?¡± Angor asked a question instead.

    ¡°We¡¯re the one doing the asking. Don¡¯t you y dumb!¡± Becker seemed to be the testy type. He tossed his meat away and stomped toward Angor quickly. ¡°You wanna get punched, yeah?¡±

    Angor quickly stepped back. At the same time, Toby descended from the sky and hovered in front of the fatty.

    Becker waved a hand to chase the bird away, but he immediately felt paining from the back of his hand.

    Becker only saw something shed past his eyes. Then a bloody gash appeared on his hand.

    ¡°A Summoner¡¯s apprentice?¡± The leading man muttered to himself.

    ¡°Should be. A familiar good at speed, but with weak attacking abilities,¡± Teuton added.

    Receiving an injury so soon, Becker quickly became furious. Magic ripples emerged from his body.

    ¡°Hey, Becker, I suggest that you stay down. I¡¯m warning you.¡± A clear yet cold female voice was heard.

    Becker turned around and looked at a ck-robed woman floating a hundred meters away from them. Then the fatty showed a mildly terrified expression as he asked, ¡°Nanagi... Don¡¯t tell me you want to help this little bastard?¡±

    <i>Nanagi?</i>

    Angor looked at the speaking woman as well. She was all covered up, but from her voice, she must be the woman Angor met in the resource distribution hall.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know him at all. Why would I help him?¡± Nanagi sneered.

    ¡°Then why the f*ck did you stop me?¡± Becker asked while he squinted.

    ¡°I told you what I should. It¡¯s your own problem whether you listen to me.¡±

    With that, Nanagi leaped away andnded on a faraway cloud. She did not look back again.

    ¡°Humph! I don¡¯t believe it. If she wanted to stop me, I¡¯ll go for it instead!¡± Becker sneered and began channeling his mana again.

    His leader suddenly called out, ¡°Get back here, Becker.¡±

    The fatty revealed a frustrated look upon hearing his boss¡¯ order, but he stillplied.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care who you are. Our mission is to stop any suspicious wanderer who wants to intrude Phantom Ind. If you want to get past us, prove your identity,¡± said the leader. He somehow removed his sloppy attitude and spoke to Angor in a serious manner.

    Angor revealed his bone card. When the trio¡¯s boss checked the card, he stepped aside without saying anything further.

    When Angor was far away, Becker spoke in discontent, ¡°Why did you let that bastard go, boss? His pet cut my hand! At least let me kick his sorry butt.¡±

    His leader shook head and exined in a low voice, ¡°Nanagi wasn¡¯t the only one who looked our way. The Phantom Servants on the ind did too. The one with blood magic on his mask even began to gather his talent energy. If you have made a move to the kid, the Phantom Servant would unleash that energy on you in the next second.¡±

    Becker was startled by those words. He nced at the Phantom Servants on the ind and did not see anyone paying attention to them.

    ¡°For real, boss?!¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Also, Nanagi, who was considered a reserve wizard in the organization, spoke up for Angor as well.

    Suddenly, amotion rose among the onlooking apprentices.

    The robed man, Teuton, pointed to the distance in surprise. ¡°Look, boss! He entered the Phantom Ind!¡±

    Their boss quickly turned around. As per what Teuton said, the kid walked into the woods on Phantom Ind without getting attacked by the magic arrays.

    The apprentices only stayed outside the ind because they feared the powerful magic arrays. Only formal wizards and Phantom Servants were allowed to go in. Now, a kid just broke this rule!

    ¡°Just who is he?¡± The leader of the trio was not the only one who wanted to know the answer now.

 Chapter 153 - Aftermath

    <h4>Chapter 153: Aftermath</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    All the apprentices watched in surprise.

    They all gathered around Phantom Ind just to get inside earlier and try to find their destiny. But someone just came and waltzed in like that? This was unfair!

    Several apprentices who were not convinced secretlynded on the edge of the ind. When one of them tried to reach his magic cane deeper, his weapon was immediately cut in half by the magic array. The apprentice quickly backed away in fear.

    At the same time, a group of scary-looking beasts emerged from the woods and stared at the intruder.

    ¡°The protection is still on. How did that kid get inside?¡± Someone yelled in discontentment.

    No one responded. They were all wondering about the same question. But after being among wizards for some time, they knew when to speak and when to remain shut. Inexperienced kids should do the yelling for them.

    On a small piece of cloud dirt, a charming woman in a shiny, transparent veil who only covered her chest area and hips with violet silk gently leaned on the shoulder of a ck-robed figure. Her smooth, white thighs and finely curved waist were all exposed in the air.

    ¡°Dear Nanagi, you won¡¯t want to watch me die of curiosity, hm? Tell me please, who is that little handsome boy?¡±

    Nanagi, in her ck robe, remained calm as she answered, ¡°Just a kid who got very lucky.¡±

    ¡°Just a lucky boy? But why did I sense envy in your words?¡± The woman whispered beside Nanagi¡¯s ear, releasing gentle air which flipped Nanagi¡¯s earlobe a little.

    When everyone quieted down, an old man with grizzled hair suddenly said, ¡°I know him... Isn¡¯t he the child everyone was talking about several months ago?¡±

    The old man¡¯s voice and identity were soon recognized by people.

    ¡°You know that kid, Hoff?¡±

    The elder nodded. ¡°You all forgot? In the distribution hall, he received a transmission from Sunders.¡±

    ¡°Now that you mentioned... Wait! That¡¯s Sunders¡¯ new student!¡±

    Words of realization came among all the apprentices.

    Someone took out a crystal ball and read a message from several months ago ¨C a message which told them that a new talent received a golden poster from Sunders.

    When the image contained in the message showed up, they all recognized that young man who just entered Phantom Ind.

    On the sky bridge, Becker moved closer to his boss with a worried look. ¡°What¡ªwhat should I do, boss? I think I just offended that kid. I didn¡¯t know he¡¯s Sunders¡¯ student!¡±

    Their leader remained silent for a while before saying, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. He¡¯s just an apprentice who had a golden poster. Wizards usually don¡¯t care about conflicts between apprentices. Do you remember Sunders¡¯ other student, Flora? Before she turned into a wizard, she got badly wounded several times when people were hunting her down. She even angered a wizard, but Mister Sunders never helped her.¡±

    ¡°Uh, boss? Is Mister Sunders... so merciless?¡± Becker wondered.

    ¡°It¡¯s not merciless. It¡¯s how wizards treat others. If we¡¯re lucky enough to be wizards, maybe we¡¯ll be like that too.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how wizards work, but when I¡¯m a wizard, I¡¯d never leave you in danger without helping out,¡± said the ¡°coward¡±, Teuton.

    ¡°Now that¡¯s something I like to hear. Hey, didn¡¯t you just grow taller, Teuton?¡± Becker joked. But he quickly slumped down again and said, ¡°I know the boss is right, but the kid must have some really powerful talent if Sunders wants him as a student. I mean, all the golden poster ones broke through like it was nothing! Maybe the kid will grow way stronger than me really soon. If hees back and gets revenge, I¡¯m done for!¡±

    Becker squinted his eyes as he said, ¡°He¡¯s just a level-1 apprentice now. Maybe we should...¡±

    He put his hand at his throat and made a slitting gesture.

    Teuton frowned at Becker¡¯s bold suggestion. ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s necessary. He doesn¡¯t look like someone THAT narrow-minded.¡±

    Their boss also agreed. ¡°You should listen to Teuton. You already know he always makes the best judgments.¡±

    Becker shrugged. ¡°Okay. You say the words, boss!¡±

    On the other side, Angor, who just drew the attention of everyone, was on his way into the depth of Phantom Ind. He had been here many times, so he knew his way well.

    Angor was still thinking about what happened just now. He was a bit frustrated at how the trio stopped him. However, he did not intend to hold grudges since they seemed to be doing their job and did not actually do anything bad in the end. The important thing was, why were there so many apprentices?

    Did theye because of the professor¡¯s Sorcerer¡¯s Garden?

    After visiting Phantom Indst time, Angor looked into some information about Sorcerer¡¯s Garden and checked about the ws¡± that would generate in these gardens. Unlike realws in this world, thews in the gardens were unstable. They acted like some kind of particles in the air or fragments left behind when a realw fixed itself. These fragments would go away slowly with the passage of time. It did not matter if aw that did not do anything to humans disappeared. However, a beneficialw, such as the ¡°purification¡±w in Floating Mech City, would slowly get exhausted if too many people used it.

    Such aw in Sorcerer¡¯s Garden could slowly recover on itself though. When exhausted, it woulde back in time.

    Angor was curious about whichw Sunders¡¯ garden had. If it could benefit them, it could not possibly serve so many people.

    The Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Floating Mech City was sealed away for centuries and had itsw energy fully saved up. Even then, they still set a restriction on who could use the garden.

    From a brief glimpse, Angor believed there were at least a thousand people gathering around Phantom Ind. A newly-built Sorcerer¡¯s Garden could not hold muchw energy. It would benefit a hundred people or at most, two hundred.

    As Angor went over his questions in his mind, Butler Goode appeared on the path ahead of him.

    ¡°Good afternoon, Mister Padt,¡± Goode greeted the boy while inspecting Angor up and down, using eyes that were hidden behind his mask. ¡°Mister Padt really broke through in one month? The master will be very happy about this.

    ¡°The master is still staying near the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. Please follow me, Mister Padt.¡±

    On their way, Angor tried asking about the situation outside.

    ¡°Oh, those people? They only wished to find their destiny here,¡± said Goode as he chuckled.

    ¡°Did the professor make a restriction like Floating Mech City, that anyone who meets the condition can use the garden?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Not quite. When a newborn Sorcerer¡¯s Garden receives itsw, it¡¯ll naturally generate a ¡®rhyme¡¯, as if the world¡¯s consciousness bestows a certainw to a toddler as its parent. Anyone who approaches Phantom Ind will sense the newly risen rhyme. This, is the destiny they¡¯re trying to find.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor wanted to ask what ¡°rhyme¡± could do, but he already found themselves entering the vicinity of the garden. Sunders was not far from them now.

    The Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was still under construction, but it already gained a basic shape now.

    Just like the outer area of the ind, many people had gathered around the garden too. However, these people each carried a deep and mighty aura. Every movement on them seemed to bring a mysterious ripple in the air. Just looking at them gave Angor great fear.

    ¡°These are all wizards?! They¡¯re... so scary,¡± Angor thought to himself.

    No one paid attention to the boy¡¯s arrival. To them, lifting an eye at an ordinary apprentice meant wasting energy.

    No one, except Sunders.

    Sunders took the boy to a private spot nearby.

    ¡°Now that you¡¯re an apprentice, what¡¯s your next goal?¡± Sunders did not ask if Angor used another locator method. The man did not find it necessary to ask.

    ¡°To improve myself and challenge the Sky Tower,¡± Angor answered.

    Sunders was a bit surprised. Then he smiled. ¡°Having a goal is good. I believe you already have a n on how to improve yourself.¡±

    With that, Sunders turned to leave.

    Angor looked at the man¡¯s back and revealed a bit of disappointment.

    A burst of eerie and charmingughter suddenly reached Angor¡¯s ears. ¡°Angor, sweetie, what¡¯s that look for? Something on your mind?¡±

    The charming voice seemed to have magic in it. Without realizing it, Angor spoke his mind straight away, ¡°I thought the professor could teach me spells. But he didn¡¯t mention anything like that.¡±

    ¡°s, spells? I can teach you.¡±

    Angor looked up abruptly and saw Flora, who he had not met for a long time. She was floating in the air, covering her smile with a hand. Little Red, who was still behind her, greeted Angor by turning the mes in the eye sockets into the shape of a crescent moon.

    ¡°Can you?¡± Angor brightened up. The first step of bing stronger was naturally studying spells. But he had no idea what spells to start with.

    Flora grinned. ¡°Of course I can¡ª¡±

    ¡°Flora!¡± Sunders stopped her.

    Flora rolled her eyes and changed her words quickly. ¡°¡ªOf course I can not.¡±

    Angor disyed a sad face.

    Seeing the boy¡¯s look, Flora added, ¡°Oh my. The professor¡¯s being so nice to you.¡±

    Without exining her words, Flora stepped in the air and floated away. She left something else before leaving. ¡°Oh right, if the half-blood asks for me, tell him I¡¯m away for work. I¡¯lle back when he made a good achievement in his training.¡±

 Chapter 154 - Spells

    <h4>Chapter 154: Spells</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Butler Goode was responsible for keeping order for the outer area of the ind, so he came to the outside together with Angor.

    ¡°Mister Padt, as Lady Flora said, the master didn¡¯t teach you spells for your own good,¡± Goode spoke in a small voice.

    Angor looked at him and waited for his exnation.

    ¡°Do you know about ¡®the path of truth¡¯?¡±

    Angor nodded. The path of truth meant that a wizard should walk his or her own path when doing wizardry. Sunders told him before, that ¡°Walking on your own path without being restricted by the ancestors and keep it up for years on end. Even if you can¡¯t see where you¡¯re going, you are creating your unique sight. Such a wizard is a real wizard¡±.

    Angor did not understand though.

    <i>Didn¡¯t every wizard already create their own path? If they could seed by copying the ways of ancestors, formal wizards should not be so scarce.</i>

    ¡°The master didn¡¯t teach you spells now because he wished that you can enter the path of truth sooner,¡± said Goode. He considered for a while and added, ¡°You have to figure out what you want to learn and why do you learn it. By that time, the master will give you some appropriate advice instead of leading you to a path that already existed. Master has always been nning to do so.¡±

    Goode¡¯s words made Angor felt a little better. Wizardry, spells, or else... Good choices for someone would usually not work for other people. He needed to know what to pursue. Sunders refused to teach him now so that the boy could find his own path.

    But... Angor wished Sunders could teach him spells so that he could save up merit points! Learning spells from Cloud Library cost money, and he was broke!

    ¡°If you want me to find some kind of path, just let me in your library! At least that will save me a lot of money,¡± Angorined in his mind even though he clearly knew that Sunders¡¯ personal library was tinypared to the giant Cloud Library.

    Before sending Angor away from the ind, Goode nced at the covetous apprentices around and whispered to Angor, ¡°Mister Padt, the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden will be finished after about a week. Return here as soon as possible. By then, maybe you¡¯ll find destiny for yourself.¡±

    With that, Goode hurried away and joined the other Phantom Servants.

    On his way back, Angor saw the trio again on the sky bridge, but they did not do anything this time.

    He reached the Falling Cloud Stop peacefully.

    After boarding the sky bus toward apprentice town, Angor was still pondering over ¡°path of truth¡±.

    He never knew what that was before because Sunders only used vague words when exining it. But after hearing Goode¡¯s advice, Angor realized something about it. The path of truth might be a path full of a wizard¡¯s own marks. While walking down such a path, the wizard used his or her own ideas, experiences and, knowledge. They would not change for any external factors. A wizard should keep walking by him or herself, alone.

    Angor recalled a certain incident in Padt Manor when he was younger.

    There was someone called Auntie Rary in the manor, who loved stealing small benefits for herself. Everyone hated her. She always stole bits of food from the kitchen. She even used to take away portions of Angor¡¯s milk. That was why Angor disliked the woman as well. Later, when Angor mentioned her to Jon, his mentormented with a smile, ¡°In your view, she is wicked and filthy. But to her adopted kids, she is a gentle and reliable mother.¡±

    There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people¡¯s eyes. Whether someone was favorable was only one¡¯s personal ideas. If there was a ¡°beautiful woman¡± among people, people around her might like her for different reasons, such as her face, her body, or her inner virtue.

    These views were equal. No matter which part of the woman people liked, they all reached the same conclusion ¨C that she was ¡°beautiful¡±.

    The path of truth was something simr. Other people¡¯s experience could be used to achieve certain goals. Yet following it blindly would cause someone to lose his own judgment.

    Believing in oneself and figuring out his or her own future was the true significance of the path of truth.

    Angor was wondering about something though. If the path of truth was such an easy concept, why were there few wizards who actually stepped onto the path? Were there some other important factors?

    Angor left the sky bus and headed toward the central area of Tree Spirit Garden instead of returning to apprentice town. A new apprentice had to get registered before he could start epting quests from the questing hall.

    When this was done, Angor went to the resource distribution hall and epted a small bag. The bag contained two objects for him. One was a robe with a simple rune on it. It looked exactly the same as Sailum and Teuton¡¯s ¡°bed sheet¡± except that this one was ck.

    The other object was a crystal ballmunicator.

    ...

    On his way back, Angor wanted to go to Cloud Library and look for some spell books. But he gave up the idea.

    Back on the cloud whale, he already recorded a good number of books in Sunders¡¯ book room. He would check these first and see if there was something worth studying.

    Upon arriving at his vi, Angor asked Toby to enjoy the day by itself. He then went to the balcony.

    It seemed the tree spirit was really considerate to Apprentice Town Eight these days. The sunlight remained strong all day. Before leaving, Angor ced his tablet on the balcony to recharge. Now the battery was all full.

    He took his tablet back to the soundproof room and began going over the books he recorded before.

    There were all kinds of books. Angor spent half a day ssifying them before he started to read them.

    To learn spells, he first needed to know what they really meant.

    A spell was a way to express magic while using the mana pool as the core, mana as energy, and knowledge as structure. It worked by levering and interfering with reality.

    Simply put, a spell consisted of three elements: mana pool, mana, and knowledge.

    For example, a level-0 cantrip called ¡°Cleanse¡± was a spell that removed filth bybining the use of water and wind.

    The fundamental of the spell was to disrupt the naturalbination of water and wind elements. It would then simte the elements by using a form before expressing the form with mana, thus making the low-level cantrip possible.

    In general, a wizard created a model of the cantrip by using mana to build a ¡°form¡± as its base, then used the form to affect the physical world. As a level-0 cantrip, Cleanse did not need many steps to cast. For certain high-leveled spells, wizards needed external help to cast them, such as changing his or her body or certain nds or by spending materials as mediums for the spell.

    People already summarized how to build the model for Cleanse, so anyone who wished to learn it did not need to understand the bination of water and wind elements¡± at all. They simply had to apply the existing cantrip model to cast the spell.

    Angor looked at the disy of the hologram tablet, where a ¡°magatama¡± stood upon a surface, and triggered something in his mind.

    He controlled his mana pool to release mana to the outside. He then built the model of Cleanse spell in his mind. Under his careful maniption, his mana slowly formed up the shape of the cantrip.

    Next, Angor felt a strange urge in his mind. Following the urge, he released a strange feeling from his fingers.

    A small current of damp air blew over the soundproof room, removing dust and dirt scraps from the room¡¯s walls and floor.

    ¡°That¡¯s how Cleanse work? It¡¯s so weak,¡± Angorined at how insignificant the spell looked. Little did he know that being able to cast a spell on the first attempt was an amazing achievement for anyone. That was how the mana purified by a singr point helped him. The mana was extremely pure and flexible, which allowed him to build an urate model without previous practice.

    Angor kept reading the book.

    Simr cantrips all hadpletely determined models. Apprentices only had to memorize the models. Thanks to the experience of ancestors, they did not need to reach into anything deep down in order to cast the cantrips.

    Thinking about this, Angor got a new idea.

    He did not wish to follow ancestors and copy the models. He wanted to start from zero and worked out how Cleanse spell came into being on his own.

    Angor found the page that exined the fundamentals of the cantrip and read on carefully.

    A dayter, Angor began to calcte thebination patterns of wind and water elements on his own. He spent half a day on filling twenty pages with his forms. There were too many calctions involved and he failed to figure out any viablebination.

    ¡°No wonder people only copied the books. It would take forever making out abination on my own, and it probably won¡¯t be correct,¡± Angor muttered. He did not give up though. The boy really wanted to see how spells worked from their root.

    After another day, he finally discovered abination.

    Using the appropriate form, Angor built thebination into a new cantrip model.

    The model now looked like ¡°a magatama sliced up by several surfaces¡±, which waspletely different from the one on the book where the magatama stood on top of one single surface.

    Following his own cantrip model, Angor slowly channeled his mana.

    A momentter, he felt a small breeze. His cor moved a little.

    Angor took out his notes and wrote down: [The Cleanse spell following thisbination did not achieve a bnce between wind and water elements. Water element almost did not exist, and the wind element was too weak. It doesn¡¯t work as a Cleanse spell. Not even a Breeze spell.]

    He put down the note and prepared to find anotherbination.

    But this time, he was nning to use the tablet to help him calcte the results faster.

    For the firstbination, Angor used paper and pen in order to see the essentials of the spell and know its ¡°nature¡±. Once this was done, he no longer had to work out furtherbinations on his own. Using the tablet would save him a lot of time.

    He set two different elements as ¡°A¡± and ¡°B¡±, and put his form, variables, and data into the hologram tablet.

    The system began working on its own.

    It only took ten minutes for the system to return more than 30 differentbinations for Angor.

 Chapter 155 - Magic Backfire

    <h4>Chapter 155: Magic Backfire</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The system could only do its job followingmon knowledge.

    For thest step, where thebination had to bebined with magic form to be turned into a cantrip model, Angor had to do it himself since this was not ¡°science¡± anymore.

    Angor left the tablet to calcte the remainingbinations while he tried to create cantrip models using thebinations he already received.

    The first model: a shattered magatama in the middle of a circle.

    After trying it out using his own mana, Angor noted down: [No significant effect. The air around seemed to be drier than before. Maybe it removed dampness? Need to prove using test papers.]

    The second model: pieces of shattered magatama scattered around while connected by thin strings.

    The result this time surprised Angor a little. He created a small pool of water out of thin air. Compared to his previous attempts, this one seemed more ¡°supernatural¡± to him. If he did it in front of mortals... they would probably regard it as an amazing magic trick.

    Note: [The spell drew water from the air and creates some water without following a certain pattern. Amount of water equals about one measuring ss. Temporary name... Create Water. A further test needs to be done to prove whether the amount of water can be increased.]

    The third cantrip model: a magatama pierced a surface diagonally.

    Note of effect: [Breeze in a small area, along with extremely tiny water drops.]

    The fourth...

    ...

    Angor tested through the models one by one. None yielded a useful result. They either created too much water, too much wind or sometimes had no visible effect at all.

    Still, Angor found something in his tests. For example, if a model was created with a ¡°shattered magatama¡±, water element would appear more. If it was a ¡°fine magatama and a surface¡±, wind element would stand out.

    He recorded his findings in a notebook for future reference.

    Now, Angor thought about whoever created the perfect cantrip model for Cleanse spell and developed respect to the inventor. He wondered how much time it took.

    After casting about 15 variations of Cleanse spell, Angor sensed that the amount of mana released from his mana pool and the primal mana he drew from outside began to differ.

    ¡°So at full condition, my mana can only support 15 level-0 cantrips,¡± Angor mumbled to himself. It was not much. But ording to a book he read before, a new level-1 apprentice could usually cast 1.5 cantrips before exhausting his or her mana, after which the apprentice would need to meditate to recover. This meant Angor could already cast ten times more spells than average people.

    Angor already tested how much mana he could hold. He did not do much better than others. The reason why he could cast more spells was probably due to his purer mana. Purer mana allowed Angor to use a spell to interfere with the physical world by spending less mana.

    Since his mana was now spent, Angor quickly began meditation to regain it.

    During his meditation, the tablet kept working out differentbinations for water and wind elements to be used by a Cleanse spell.

    After three hours, Angor recovered about half of his mana. Now the system already gained more than a hundredbinations. Also, the tablet was now getting results slower because further results involved more and more variants. By now, it would take 13 minutes to receive a newbination, which was way slowerpared to how Angor received each one within 30 seconds when the calction just began.

    Angor had only been testing out the simple models. After regaining half of his mana, he decided to try out aplicated cantrip model which took the system 10 minutes to figure out.

    Applying magic form and turning thebination into a model took Angor more than an hour this time.

    Looking at the new model he just made, which appeared much moreplicated than the original Cleanse model, Angor wondered what would happen.

    Note on new cantrip model: [Only half of the magatama is shattered while the surface is turned into a folded nonagon which divided the magatama into thirteen parts.]

    Angor eagerly channeled mana from his mana pool and carefully guided the mana into the shape of the model...

    To his surprise, he used up all mana when only half of the magatama was drawn.

    He was stumped. The model looked about the same size as the previous ones. Why did this one cost so much mana?

    Without receiving support from Angor, the half-finished cantrip model in his mind space slowly crumbled away. This was not all; the force brought by the breaking model began to tackle the entire mind space.

    Angor only felt his mind go blurry for a second. Next, great pain came inside his brain as if it was going to explode. His ears rang. Fluid came out of his eyes, mouth, nostrils, and ears.

    Then his vision darkened. He could no longer sense the world around him.

    Angor did not know if he was awake at all. His mind could not work, but it did not prevent the great pain from tingling his brain. The pain persisted, causing him to groan unconsciously.

    Finally, he woke up from the agony in an obscured mindstate.

    His head was still as painful as hell. Angor slowly rubbed his temples and realized some blood-colored scraps were caught on his fingers. He wiped his face and removed some scabs off himself.

    Looking at the bloody remains on the floor, he finally remembered what happened before he lost consciousness.

    Angor quickly remembered something simr from a book he read before.

    <i>Magic backfire...</i>

    ording to the book, there were three situations which could cause magic to backfire. One, a wizard who attempted to cast a spell beyond his level. Two, using an incorrectly-built model. And three, an unfinished model breaking apart due tock of mana.

    Angor obviously just did the third mistake.

    Magic backfiring was amon thing to happen among wizards. Most of the times, it was caused by the second reason. Wizards were humans too, and human brains often made mistakes.

    However, the third reason was something rare, even for apprentices. As long as a wizard went through routinized training, the wizard would sooner orter know his or her limit and could avoid doing something beyond that limit.

    Angor, on the other hand, as a new apprentice wizard, skipped many challenges using theputing capacity of his tablet without learning his own limit, thus making such a tragic result.

    Wizards who went through magic backfiring usually met with a bad ending. Few of them only received slight injuries. There were also severely wounded ones or even dead ones. This was why wizards usually did not construct models at their free wills. Most people followed the steps of ancestors to remain safe.

    Angor was in no good condition now. His entire mind space was messy. Each time he tried to meditate, his brain would immediately throb.

    Thank goodness he only tried to build a low-leveled cantrip model instead of a real spell, so the backfire was not very serious. He only needed to rest for a week or two to recover.

    Two weeks without being able to meditate... The incident temporarily ended Angor¡¯s reckless experiments.

    He saw the tablet still working out newbinations for Cleanse spell and decided to leave it be. Angor dragged his fatigued body out of the soundproofed room, boiled some water, and took a bath to clean himself of all the bloody remains on him.

    While enjoying the warm bathwater, Angor still sulked in frustration.

    With the hologram tablet in hand, he disregardedmon sense and did something foolish due to his blind confidence.

    He did not know what would happen if that was not a level-0 cantrip model. Angor silently warned himself that such a lesson could not be repeated. Once was already enough.

    ...

    Even though he was unable to meditate, Angor did not intend to idle his time away. He decided to arrange all the data he saved in the tablet.

    The books he recorded in Sunders¡¯ book room were mostly pictures. ssifying them did not take him much time.

    The information and scrolls he saved from the Nightmare Realm were videos. For them, Angor had to take screenshots slowly and rearrange them into appropriate folders. This would take a lot of time and effort.

    While he did his work, the systempleted calcting out 630 different water and wind elementbinations of Cleanse spell. Inside a ¡°cantrip¡± sub-folder, Angor created another folder called ¡°level-0 cantrip: Cleanse¡± and ced all thebinations in there, nning to test them out after getting over his magic backfiring.

    Today was the third day into the Month of Blossom.

    Angor put down his tablet. Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Garden would soon be finished. There was only one day away from the one-week time limit Butler Goode told him.

    Angor decided to go to Phantom Ind and wait. He did not know what a ¡°destiny¡± was yet. But judging from how all the apprentices looked really greedy around the ind, it had to be something good.

    Angor washed up and tried to look better. However, tidy clothes andbed hair did not help him hide his pale face and unfocused eyes after experiencing the backfiring. He looked really ill as if a small gust of wind could easily knock him over.

    ¡°Dear god...¡± Angor sighed deeply when looking into the mirror. He removed his beautiful but useless coat and put on the ¡°uniform¡± he received in the resource distribution hall¡ªa ck ¡°bed sheet¡± robe.

    With the hood to cover his morbid-looking face, Angor finally stepped out of his door.

    He did not forget to take Toby with him.

    ¡°You were with me thest time, so you must have heard,¡± Angor spoke to the bird on his shoulder. ¡°Sorcerer¡¯s Garden will bring destiny when it¡¯s finished. Let¡¯s both try to find it. Maybe you¡¯ll turn into a great phoenix.¡±

    Toby did not know what a ¡°phoenix¡± was, but it still understood what Angor meant and nodded in excitement.

    Looking at how Toby hopped happily, Angor felt his mood growing a lot better as well. He tapped at the bird¡¯s little head with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s fine if we don¡¯t find anything. Next time when we go to Cloud Library, I¡¯ll try to find a book on how to help a monster grow stronger.¡±

 Chapter 156 - Reunite of Friends

    <h4>Chapter 156: Reunite of Friends</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When leaving Apprentice Town Eight, Angor saw two peopleing out of the Cave Field and heading his way.

    The shorter figure covered in a white nket robe without using his hood was Sailum. The other one was Nausica. She did not use her ¡°nket uniform¡±. Thedy still wore her usual soft leather armor. Her slim, cowhide boots disyed the curves of her legs to their perfect extent.

    Due to their directions, the pair did not see Angor yet.

    <i>Are they going to the town to look for me? </i>Angor suddenly got a yful idea. He asked Toby to take off to the sky while he put on his hood and walked toward the two people with his head lowered.

    When they walked past each other, Angor noticed that Sailum and Nausica were talking about him.

    ¡°... I wonder if Angor already left... I don¡¯t want to miss him again...¡±

    Angor smiled. He intentionally cleared his throat aloud.

    Sailum did not react, but Nausica stopped in her tracks and turned around with a puzzled look.

    ¡°Miss Nausica? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Sailum asked.

    Nausica did not respond. She stared at the ck-robed figure not far from her for a moment, and called out in an uncertain voice, ¡°Angor?¡±

    Angor slowly removed his hood and revealed a smiling face. When Sailum stared at him in shock, Angor snapped his fingers and signaled Toby tond on his shoulder.

    ¡°Angor!¡± Sailum quickly reced his surprise with joy. The boy rushed at Angor happily, his white nket robe flipping in the wind. If this was in the middle of the night, the sight would be quite terrible.

    Sailum hopped around Angor like a rabbit. Nausica joined them as well.

    ¡°That¡¯s our uniform robe. So you sessfully broke through?¡± Sailum lifted Angor¡¯s robe. Before Angor could say anything though, Sailum revealed a disgusted look. ¡°Why does it look like a bed sheet on you?¡±

    Angor froze. He then blushed and retorted, ¡°Look at yourself! I already thought that wayst time I saw youing, but I didn¡¯t say it. Now you said it first!¡±

    Sailum looked really shocked. ¡°It can¡¯t be! I look good! Miss Nausica even said I looked mysterious with the hood on! Right?¡±

    Sailum turned around and decided to drag Nausica into their debate. Nausica¡¯s praise was why the boy always went outside with his robe on.

    Nausica face-palmed herself and revealed an ¡°I have nothing to do with this¡± expression.

    Realizing what just happened, Sailum disyed a sad face.

    Angor humphed. ¡°Just think about it. The uniforms only have one size. I¡¯m taller than you, and the robe is already too big for me. You look like a kid ying the sheet he took from his bed.¡±

    Sailum understood the description. Angor¡¯s shoulders were broader and overall, bigger. Yet Angor looked miserable in this robe. As for Sailum himself... yeah, maybe he did look like a nket-covered child.

    Thinking about how he had been wandering about with the ¡°bedsheet¡± on, trying to tell everyone that he was an apprentice now... Sailum felt his face burning in embarrassment.

    ¡°Nuts!¡± Sailum quickly dragged his hood on and revealed an ¡°I¡¯m ready for any disaster the world throws my way¡± manner.

    The happiness when friends united with each other was totally ruined by the two bedsheets; one ck and one white.

    They found a tree near the road to rest under. Nausica had been trying to hold back herughter. She could not get rid of the funny scene in her mind where two kids quarreled with each other over two bedsheets.

    Sailum seemed irritated.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me the truth? I thought I looked good in it,¡± Sailum asked Nausica. He did not even use ¡°Miss Nausica¡± this time, which meant he was really bothered.

    Nausica forced up a serious expression as she said, ¡°To be frank, I really think you looked good.¡±

    ¡°Oh, stop it,¡± Angor interrupted. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you wear it then?¡±

    Angor and Sailum secretly decided to join an alliance called the ¡°Bedsheet Union¡±.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t I use it...¡± Nausica looked away and rolled her eyes, trying to find a good answer. ¡°It did look fine, but it¡¯s too loose and can¡¯t show my body shape.¡±

    ¡°You meant it?¡± Sailum was unconvinced.

    ¡°I did!¡± Nausica looked firm.

    ¡°Yeah, right. Huh!¡± Angormented.

    Nausica preferred to end the topic regarding why she did not wear a bedsheet, so she quickly diverted the topic.

    ¡°So, Angor is an apprentice now?¡± She asked.

    Angor nodded. ¡°Broke throughst week.¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s why you weren¡¯t herest week when we came looking. You must be in the resource hall to get your bed¡ªyour equipment,¡± said Nausica. She almost slipped. She realized Angor¡¯s eyes began to show fire of rage again, so she worked her brain quickly and asked something else, ¡°Are you heading to Phantom Ind?¡±

    Angor was surprised a little. ¡°Yeah. You¡¯re going there too?¡±

    Nausica nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. Almost every apprentice is there now. Even both of our professors. We were going to the apprentice town to ask you together.¡±

    Angor felt a little embarrassed. The pair came looking for him when there was a chance to find destiny. Yet Angor never did something like that for them.

    He cleared his throat uneasily. ¡°Just about time then. Let¡¯s go together. I also have something to tell¡ªwait, so you came for mest week?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you asked me toe with Nausica, didn¡¯t you?¡± Sailum spoke. The boy was smiling brightly again. Seemed like he had already got over the previous frustration.

    ¡°Let¡¯s talk along the way,¡± Nausica suggested.

    The trio headed toward a sky bus stop.

    ¡°You were in tough luck. I only left my house once in these months, and you came at the exact timing,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Angor, you wanted to see both of usst time. For what?¡± Sailum asked him. Nausica looked at them out of curiosity as well.

    Angor paused at the question. Then he looked around carefully. The Sorcerer¡¯s Garden on Phantom Ind would be opened soon, so many apprentices hade out. Big crowds emerged from Cave Field and rushed in one direction. There were people everywhere.

    Angor frowned and did not respond.

    When Sailum tried to speak again, Nausica pulled his hand and said, ¡°Let¡¯s do thister.¡± Nausica thought Angor wanted to ask something about that killer, but it seemed not the case since Angor was being so careful. As someone extremely perceptive to people¡¯s reactions, Nausica decided to stop Sailum¡¯s question.

    ¡°You don¡¯t look good. Are you ill?¡± Nausica changed the center of the topic.

    Angor shook his head, considered a bit, and nodded instead. ¡°It¡¯s not an illness, but... close. Or I¡¯ll not go out with a bedsheet on me. I need to use this thing to cover myself up.¡±

    Sailum was still wondering why Nausica stopped him. When hearing these words, he quickly forgot his previous question and showed a worried look.

    Angor noticed Sailum¡¯s expression and felt warmth in his heart. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, a week or two and I¡¯ll be good as ever. Nothing serious.¡±

    ¡°d to hear it. Do you want me to help out at your house?¡± Sailum still looked anxious.

    ¡°Come on. It¡¯s not like I can¡¯t get off the bed,¡± Angorined.

    When they reached the bus stop, it finally became quieter. But there were still small groups around them.

    ¡°I wonder what kind of destiny lies on Phantom Ind. Everyone says there¡¯s destiny, so we want to check it out too. But I still have no idea what exactly we¡¯ll find,¡± Sailum spoke.

    ¡°I happen to know something. But I can¡¯t tell you what kind of destiny because I don¡¯t know it either,¡± Angor replied.

    Sailum¡¯s eyes brightened. ¡°Oh yeah! The master of Phantom Ind is your mentor! You must know something we don¡¯t!¡±

    Nausica paid attention as well. The kids did not see destiny as important, but she did.

    Angor did not hide anything. Most apprentices already knew what was going on anyway. Nausica and Sailum just became apprentices and did not have many sources of information yet.

    ¡°... is what happened. Butler Goode said a destiny wille around when the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden is finished. But I don¡¯t know what the destiny would be,¡± Angor exined Sorcerer¡¯s Garden along with everything he knew.

    ¡°Sorcerer¡¯s Garden huh? I don¡¯t know what that is, but it sounds amazing,¡± Sailum tried toment using an experienced man¡¯s manner.

    Nausica was also curious about the garden now. ¡°The Sorcerer¡¯s Garden has aw that benefits the human body?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but thew is random. A harmfulw can appear too. We can¡¯t control it,¡± Angor replied.

    ¡°I wish we get a beneficial one. Maybe we¡¯ll have a chance to get in,¡± said Sailum as he looked at the sky.

    ¡°Forget it. Why would Mister Sunders let strangers into his private Sorcerer¡¯s Garden? Well, maybe Angor could,¡± said Nausica as she snuffed out Sailum¡¯s little hope.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... My professor has a really weird character. I can never understand him,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°He should be. All wizards are unpredictable. We apprentices will never know what they¡¯re thinking,¡± said Nausica. When she thought about her own professor, she quickly got a headache.

    A sky bus arrived at their stop.

 Chapter 157 - Plans For Sky Tower

    <h4>Chapter 157: ns For Sky Tower</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    A gentle breeze blew through the bus¡¯ window, caressing the hearts of its passengers.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how, but every time when I ride the bus and watch the clouds below me, the smell of grass and the wind always make me feel better,¡± said Sailum as he held his chin and stared out of the window while admiring the peaceful Tree Spirit Garden.

    People said that Brute Cavern was home to a bunch of ruthless ck wizards. They would never expect such a beautiful world behind the mirror. The ce felt better than a paradise.

    ¡°A friend told me there¡¯s a rune drawn under the carriage that calms your mind. It¡¯s designed to prevent apprentices from fighting in the bus,¡± Nausica said. She was also enjoying the wind. Her long hair flowed along with the gentle air current. Each flip only made thedy looked more charming.

    ¡°What are you up to these days, Miss Nausica?¡± Sailum turned back and asked.

    Nausica kept her gaze at the floating clouds in the distance. ¡°Nothing in particr. Doing some quests and use the merit points to rent some spell books...¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Sailum squinted his eyes. ¡°I think you¡¯re pushing yourself too hard.¡±

    Nausica smiled charmingly and put an arm around Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I have to so that I can move to the apprentice town quicker. Angor must be lonely all by himself. You want big sis with you, right? Right?¡±

    Angor had been thinking about the Sky Tower. He pushed Nausica¡¯s arm away reluctantly.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t going to see me often anyway. Don¡¯t you see most apprentices in the town don¡¯t go out much? I myself only left my house a few times in all four months,¡± Angor replied.

    ¡°Geez... It¡¯s so lonely being a wizard,¡± Sailum eximed.

    ¡°Agreed.¡± Nausica¡¯s voice sounded distant as if it was carried away by the wind.

    Sailum was unaware, but Angor realized Nausica just changed the topic. Maybe she had some private reasons and did not want to talk about what she had been doing recently? If that was the case, Angor did not want to push for an answer either.

    There were four passengers on the bus. When another apprentice left at a stop, the three of them owned the bus for themselves.

    When the bus continued to move, Angor spoke suddenly, ¡°I said I¡¯ll take you to the underground marketst time but I didn¡¯t find the chance. Once we get back from Phantom Ind this time, we can go there.¡±

    Sailum and Nausica exchanged a look. Then Sailum responded, ¡°Well, during your time of training, Nausica and I went there. It¡¯s so big! I thought if I can¡¯t get a house in apprentice town, I¡¯ll rent one in the market instead. Butter, I found out that the rental prices in the market are actually higher than in the town.¡±

    ¡°But the market offers somemon spell books at lower pricespared to Cloud Library,¡± Nausica added.

    ¡°Ah, so you already checked it out?¡± Angor felt embarrassed at his failed promise. ¡°I was always training these days and I totally forgot about my words.¡±

    Sailum revealed a gentle look. ¡°No problem. When we¡¯re done with Phantom Ind, let¡¯s go there together. I just finished memorizing two spells, and I need new books.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll join you,¡± Nausica said.

    Angor nodded. He also had something to do in the market. He needed to find Dave in Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop.

    After some other casual chat, Sailum remembered something and asked Angor, ¡°Oh right, you didn¡¯t answer my question.¡±

    Angor was surprised a bit. ¡°What question?¡±

    ¡°Well, you asked me toe to you with Miss Nausica. You said you wanted to tell us something.¡±

    Nausica also looked their way. Previously when Sailum asked, Angor appeared to be really careful and did not want any eavesdroppers around. Now she was also curious about what was on Angor¡¯s mind.

    ...

    ¡°It¡¯s from a secret source. It¡¯ll be known to the public in several months, I¡¯m not sure if I should tell it now...¡± Angor wanted to talk about the garden of purification in Floating Mech City. He was nning to participate in the challenges in Sky Tower. However, he knew how cruel the tower could be, and he was afraid Nausica and Sailum would want to join too.

    ¡°Ohh, a secret?¡± Sailum waspletely eager to know now.

    Angor looked at the expressions of his friends and sighed in his mind. He really was unsure whether it was good or a bad thing to tell.

    He glimpsed at Nausica carefully. He thought it would be okay to hide the information for now. But considering Sailum¡¯sments about Nausica... thedy seemed to be very obsessed at bing stronger. And the garden of purification was an important tool to make someone strong. Every apprentice knew that.

    Angor would absolutely try to challenge Sky Tower. As a new apprentice, he would surely raise suspicion from his friends. Once the information regarding the garden was announced, they would know why Angor wanted to challenge the tower. Sailum probably would not mind if Angor chose to withhold the information, but Nausica... who had a strong will of improving herself, might develop a negative idea about this.

    With that in mind, Angor decided to tell them.

    He remained silent for a while before slowly speaking out. Instead of mentioning the garden of purification right away, he asked Nausica a question first.

    ¡°Nausica, you know about the Sky Tower, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Nausica was not expecting that one.

    ¡°Do you want to challenge it?¡±

    Nausica was unsure why Angor asked, but she still answered. ¡°I do. But my current level of strength can probably only get me around the first level, so I want to get stronger before actually going in there.¡±

    ¡°What about you?¡± Angor looked at Sailum next.

    The boy quickly waved his hands. ¡°No way. I don¡¯t want to fight.¡±

    Angor fully expected such an answer. Next, he lowered his voice. ¡°It¡¯s a message from an inside source, so don¡¯t tell it to anyone else. At least not in several months.¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡± Nausica nodded.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. My lips are zipped.¡± Sailum promised.

    After making sure he was understood, Angor spoke in a in tone, ¡°I¡¯m going to challenge the Sky Tower in two months.¡±

    ¡°You what?!¡± They both stared at him in shock.

    Sailum looked really worried now. ¡°You crazy? You only broke through a week ago, and you don¡¯t even know many spells yet. How can you challenge it? The battles in there aren¡¯t child¡¯s y!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll only meet level-1 and 2 apprentices there, but they are all experienced fighters. Don¡¯t be reckless,¡± said Nausica. She was frowning as well.

    Angor signaled them to calm down. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m not there to suicide. I won¡¯t have this idea if I¡¯m not prepared.¡±

    They rxed a little when they heard Angor¡¯s words offort. ¡°Why do you want to challenge the tower though?¡±

    Angor did not hide anything this time. He exined the garden of purification in Floating Mech City in details.

    ¡°Those who are invited to the Tower of Infinity by reaching the top level of a Sky Tower will be qualified to enter the garden. So I¡¯m going to try it out.¡±

    ¡°I see. A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden that improves your chance of bing wizard... But isn¡¯t that too far from us now? You¡¯re aiming to be a wizard so early?¡± Sailum asked.

    ¡°Thew of purification removes any internal injuries and ws in your body. The earlier you do it, the better,¡± Angor exined.

    ¡°But why earlier? Isn¡¯t thew most effective if you go there when you¡¯re a level-3 apprentice and just reached your bottleneck?¡± Sailum did not understand.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that. Butler Goode told me that the Floating Mech City is willing to open their garden to the public because the garden only has a lesserw. Thew doesn¡¯t work well on high-leveled apprentices or wizards. That¡¯s why many level-3 apprentices won¡¯t even go for it. However, there are still level-3 apprentices, who have been stuck at their level for many years, who want to seize this chance.¡±

    Angor paused a little and continued, ¡°It might be my destiny. Reaching the top level isn¡¯t difficult if you know some tricks. Besides, the information isn¡¯t known by everyone yet. If I challenge the tower right now, I can avoid running into many strong opponents.¡±

    ¡°You sound really confident. What kind of tricks though? I can¡¯t think of any,¡± asked Sailum as he wondered about it.

    Nausica, who had been listening to them carefully, took a guess. ¡°Magic scrolls?¡±

    Angor shrugged, ¡°That¡¯s one trick. But it¡¯s too costly. I have something else on my mind.¡±

    ¡°What do you have?¡±

    ¡°Alchemy weapons!¡±

    ...

    After arriving at Falling Cloud Stop, Angor stretched himself and yawned. Nausica came down from the bus while thinking about something for herself. Sailum followed behind with his small face full of tension.

    ¡°... You won¡¯t challenge the Sky Tower, right? Why do you look more stressed than Nausica?¡± Angor joked. As he expected, upon hearing the information about the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, Nausica thanked Angor and dered she would participate right away. Sailum seemed interested but the boy decided not to join them because he was not strong enough.

    Sailum replied in a stressful tone, ¡°It¡¯s not about the tower. I¡¯m just... worried. I mean, why are there so many people here?!¡±

 Chapter 158 - Cantrip Model

    <h4>Chapter 158: Cantrip Model</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    They almost could not see the sky because of all the people.

    When looking from the Falling Cloud Stop, they had already lost count of how many apprentices were here. Only God knew how many more were hiding out there.

    Angor¡¯s attention lied on the sky bridge. Before learning how to fly, the bridge was their only way to the Phantom Ind.

    ¡°Sh*t. It¡¯s so full,¡± Angor checked the situation on the sky bridge andined.

    He could not see any open space left on the bridge because of the dense crowd on it. Angor was afraid that every single apprentice in Brute Cavern was here now. How else would this ce get so crowded?

    ¡°Ugh. We aren¡¯t going any further,¡± said Sailum. He still looked stressed.

    ¡°Try squeezing our way maybe?¡± Nausica suggested.

    Amotion suddenly came from not far away. People looked and saw an apprentice trying to slip through an opening on the bridge and approach the Phantom Ind. Before he could do so, another apprentice kicked him aside, almost knocking him off the bridge. Now the two apprentices were yelling at each other.

    However, the yelling contest ended soon when a bulky man who was carrying a pir walked onto the sky bridge. People automatically moved aside to let him pass. When the crowd failed to find a way for him, the man simply swiped his pir around and sent a dozen people down the bridge.

    Screams came from the cloud down below.

    ¡°That looks... dangerous. Let¡¯s not go there,¡± Sailum said in terror while following his gaze on the pir guy.

    Nausica nodded and agreed.

    The pir man walked down the bridge while clearing his way with his pir. More than half of the people on the sky bridge were nowhere to be found.

    A witch in shiny green robe also moved onto the sky bridge while holding a wooden cane in her hand. Compared to the pir guy¡¯s mighty disy, this female apprentice used a more moderate approach. With each step, she tapped on the ground with her cane and a small group of people would suddenly lose consciousness and fall down. Being moderate did not mean harmless. Once she reached the bulky man, a trail of bodies was left behind her.

    She did not get into trouble with the pir man. Instead, they both upied their own spot at the end of the sky bridge, without minding each other at all.

    ¡°The end of the sky bridge means the edge of Phantom Ind. Many powerful apprentices went there instead of waiting in the sky.¡±

    Someone on the bus stop whispered to each other. Angor and his friends heard it too and exchanged a look.

    ¡°The end of the bridge is like a battlefield for strong ones. I think we should just stay here and wait,¡± Sailum spoke slowly.

    With Sunders¡¯ gold coin, Angor could enter the Phantom Ind at his free will. However, the area around the ind was filled by people and with the sky bridge upied by several really powerful apprentices, there was no way he could pass the bridge now.

    ¡°Sailum and I are fine. We can just stay here and watch. But Angor...¡± Nausica looked at him. They knew that Angor¡¯s professor was the owner of Phantom Ind, which meant Angor was allowed to enter the ind.

    Angor remained silent and sighed in the end. ¡°I¡¯ll stay here too. Let¡¯s find somewhere safe and observe.¡±

    It was a hard decision for Angor. He could not possibly reveal his coin and yell ¡°Let me through! I¡¯m Sunders¡¯ student¡± to people. That would be too embarrassing.

    The three of them picked a vacant spot on the bus stop to rest.

    Angor sat down and took out a small, ck pouch from his pocket. He hanged the pouch on Toby¡¯s neck.

    ¡°The passport of Phantom Ind. Well, I can¡¯t go in, but you can. Go there and see if you can find your destiny,¡± Angor advised Toby. He did not regard the chance as important anyway. The event with the magic backfiring on him was still haunting his mind, so he only wanted to have a good rest now.

    When Toby finally left, Angor leaned against a tree vine and closed his eyes to rest.

    ¡°Angor, you...¡± Sailum spoke but was stopped by Nausica.

    She whispered, ¡°Let him rest. He looks tired.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± Now Sailum also noticed Angor¡¯s unusual fatigue.

    No one spoke for the next moment. Angor was nning to rest his spirit a little, but the peaceful atmosphere and the gentle wind caused him to fall asleep for real.

    The silencested for half an hour until Sailum suddenly asked, ¡°Miss Nausica, so you¡¯re really going to challenge the Sky Tower?¡±

    Nausica nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a good opportunity. Yes, I will.¡±

    ¡°But you only broke through recently too. How will you fight those apprentices who have years of experience?¡±

    Nausica took out her long-handled pipe, lit it up and slowly inhaled.

    ¡°I know an apprentice who¡¯s good at drawing magic scrolls. She¡¯s Mister Fantase¡¯s previous student. I can buy some scrolls from her at a better price.¡±

    ¡°But you still need a lot of merit points, no?¡± Sailum wondered. He did not know why Nausica was so eager to participate in the challenges.

    ¡°I¡¯ll just earn some. There are still several months. I¡¯ll make it,¡± said Nausica. Her voice grew lower. She looked away, seemingly thinking about something else.

    ...

    When Angor woke up, it was already noontime the next day.

    Sailum quickly noticed him.

    ¡°Finally. You missed two meals. Here, I¡¯ve got some ration,¡± said Sailum as he took out a small pancake from his bag and handed it to Angor.

    Angor¡¯s mind was still blurry upon waking up. He took the pancake subconsciously and asked, ¡°What time is it?¡±

    ¡°What time? You slept for a whole night,¡± said Sailum. He cleaned his hands carefully and took out his precious book to read.

    Angor managed to clear his mind after a while. Since Sailum was reading, and Nausica seemed to be meditating, Angor ate his pancake really slowly so as not to make any noises.

    When he was done, Nausica finished her meditation and began having some of Sailum¡¯s ration as well.

    ¡°Man. If I didn¡¯t bring these, are you two going to starve yourselves out?¡± Sailumined.

    Nausica nodded nonchntly. ¡°When I was a pirate on ckberry Waters, I often went several days and nights without eating. I¡¯m fine with that.¡±

    Angor, on the other hand, had Butler Goode to prepare food for him on Phantom Ind. However, his n had gone wrong.

    Nausica added something again. ¡°Being without food was amon thing to happen on the sea. The real disaster was when you don¡¯t have water.¡±

    Nausica recalled her glorious days and emphasized on the importance of water. Then she looked at Sailum and asked, ¡°So, did you bring water as well?¡±

    Sailum humphed. ¡°I always bring some ration with me because of my childhood habit. I don¡¯t take water with me.¡±

    ¡°Oh my. Without water, this thing is so hard to swallow.¡±

    Angor spoke, ¡°You two didn¡¯t learn any water cantrips? Any of it will get us some water.¡±

    <i>Water cantrip?</i>

    Sailum shook his head. ¡°I already read some cantrip books in Cloud Library. The weakest water spell is a level-1 cantrip. But I only know a few level-0 ones.¡±

    Nausica also stated that she only learned level-0 cantrips. Fewer than Sailum. She spent most of her time on bodybuilding to prepare to study bloodline art.

    ¡°What about Cleanse spell? Do you have this one?¡± Angor asked again.

    ¡°I know it. But that won¡¯t get water for us,¡± Sailum said.

    Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Do you have a pen and paper?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± said Sailum, He took some writing instrument out.

    Angor epted the pen and skillfully jotted down lines of data on the paper before showing them to Sailum.

    ¡°Use this data on your magic form and create the cantrip model.¡±

    Sailum looked at the paper doubtfully. ¡°This is... spell data?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°But the organization forbids people from exchanging books from Cloud Library with each other in private...¡±

    Angor smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. The data didn¡¯te from any book in Cloud Library.¡±

    Sailum epted the paper happily. For an apprentice, getting to learn a new spell for free was always a good thing.

    ¡°Not from Cloud Library. Did you buy it from the underground market?¡± asked Sailum as he eagerly began to construct the cantrip model using the data provided by Angor.

    ¡°No. I worked it out myself.¡±

    <i>Himself?! </i>Sailum¡¯s pen halted in the air. Nausica also stared at Angor in surprise.

    Angor frowned at their reaction. ¡°What? You never tried to understand the structures and elementbinations of spells when learning them?¡±

    Sailum shook his head.

    Nausica followed suit. Although she realized something herself. ¡°Do you need to do that when learning spells? Can¡¯t we just use the models concluded by other people? Wait... Mister Sunders taught you to do that?¡±

    Angor spread his hands. ¡°No. I want to see the root of spells myself, so I disassembled the structure of Cleanse and created anotherbination.¡±

    ¡°Now that you mentioned it, I tried to do that too. But the cantrip model I found did nothing in the end. I wasted a whole week on it,¡± Sailum said.

    Angor shrugged and said, ¡°The data I found don¡¯t have much effect either. But it¡¯s enough to quench our thirst. I named the spell as, ahem, Create Water.¡±

    Angor exined the effect of the spell and how it worked.

    They epted Angor¡¯s idea. Summoning some water was not something too surprising. At first, Sailum thought Angor discovered a perfect cantrip model by himself. Creating a perfect model was something worth noting down in history.

    However, the wizarding world had witnessed an extremely long history. Almost all spellbinations were the works of ancestors. It was really difficult to discover new perfect models at this age.

 Chapter 159 - Saved

    <h4>Chapter 159: Saved</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sailum spent 15 minutes analyzing the cantrip model, then half an hour to build the model. When he finally managed to cast Create Water out, an hour already passed.

    ¡°It always takes you an hour to learn a new cantrip?¡± Angor asked.

    Sailum shook his head in embarrassment. ¡°Your model is simpler. I did this one faster than the others.¡±

    ¡°... So how long did you spend when studying Cleanse until you can actually cast it?¡±

    ¡°Half a day maybe? But I still can¡¯t use it to help me clean stuff in real life.¡±

    Angor did not speak further. Looked like <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>was not all about faster training. It also helped him learn spells way quicker.

    Create Water was a failure. The final result of the spell was getting them a small amount of water, which barely took half of a ss. They made some containers with clean tree leaves and shared the water. It was far from enough to quench their thirst but it was still better than nothing.

    ¡°I¡¯ll try to optimize the model when I¡¯m free and try to increase the amount,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you just wait forter and study Water Bullet? That spell will get enough water for all three of us to survive a day,¡± Sailummented.

    ¡°You¡¯re right... Still, some experiment won¡¯t hurt.¡±

    When they talked about random things, something suddenly exploded in the depth of Phantom Ind, thus attracting everyone¡¯s attention.

    Tens of thousands of apprentices all looked in one direction. No one made a sound. Every single individual fixed his or her burning gaze on the ind as if staring at a long-lost lover, or an eternal nemesis.

    ¡°Is the Sorcerer¡¯s Gardenpleted?¡± Angor also looked their way. However, the three of them were too far away from the ind. They could only see misty clouds.

    People kept their attention on the ind for a while, but the Phantom Ind never showed anything else after the previous booming noise.

    The deathly silence was slowly broken when someone began to whisper. When the crowds went bustling again, raven cries suddenly emerged from Phantom Ind, bringing some fear to everyone¡¯s mind.

    Next, a powerful gust came from somewhere and blew all clouds away from the sky. Dark rainclouds which covered hundreds of kilometers came hanging over the area, shrouding the once sunny ce inplete darkness.

    Rainclouds and strong wind were followed by lightning. Unlike the people on the cloud dirt who had stable footings, those who had been floating in the sky were all knocked everywhere by the mighty gale. They were unable to keep bnce.

    In a matter of seconds, hundreds of apprentices who were too close to Phantom Ind were pushed into the ind by the wind and were shredded in half by the protective magic array.

    Screams rose on all sides.

    Angor and his friends also struggled in the wind. They were standing on a leaf of Tree of Eternity. With the nearby vines to support themselves, they could still remain steady.

    Yet being steady did not prevent them from getting hurt by the wind.

    Angor just experienced magic backfiring on him not long ago. His body and mind were both in bad condition. Now the whirling wind caused his face to go pale. Traces of blood beganing out of his mouth and nostrils.

    ¡°Angor? Are you okay?¡± Nausica was naturally the strongest one among the three people. Even when swaying here and there in the wind, she did not seem troubled at all.

    Angor could not find the strength to speak. He had to clench his teeth and forced himself to hold on.

    Nausica nced at Sailum and saw the boy holding onto a vine carefully. Sailum was hugging a small tree branch and was in a better positionpared to Angor. The boy could even spare a hand to grab his book pouch tightly.

    With several swift leaps, Nausica rushed to Angor¡¯s side with the help of the dancing branches and tree vines. She grabbed Angor¡¯s arm to help him keep steady.

    Angor gave her a thankful look. With Nausica on his back, he immediately felt safer.

    However, the improved condition did notst long. His body suddenly gave in for losing too much blood. Very soon, Angor felt dizzy and a darkened vision.

    Nausica could still manage herself with one arm supporting Angor, but when Angor went into a shock and added all his body weight on her, she began to lose her bnce quickly.

    ¡°Angor! Angor?!¡± Nausica yelled between her teeth and received no response. She forced her stressed neck to turn around and shouted to Sailum, ¡°Sailum! What happened to Angor?¡±

    Sailum had been focusing on keeping his precious book safe. Upon hearing Nausica, he quickly looked Angor¡¯s way.

    ¡°I think he fainted! He got blood all over his face!¡±

    Nausica¡¯s heart skipped a beat. With Angor unconscious, she could not keep up for very long all by herself. But she could not just give up Angor either. The woman squeezed up all her remaining strength and hoped that the gale would end soon.

    Nausica reached her limit after another two minutes. Sweat had covered her entire body, and visible blood vessels had bulged on her forehead, neck, and arms.

    Several sweat drops went along her arm and dropped on Angor¡¯s face, clearing up Angor¡¯s mind just a bit, which was enough to drag him out of the muddy state of trance.

    He opened his eyes and saw Nausica¡¯s terrifying, pain-stricken expression. None of her usual charms could be found.

    Nausica realized Angor was awake when Angor grabbed onto a tree vine and greatly loosened her pressure.

    ¡°Thanks!¡± Angor yelled at Nausica in the wind.

    Nausica only panted heavily. She rested a bit before replying, ¡°Hold on yourself, I don¡¯t have the stamina to help you anymore.¡±

    Before Angor could answer, a stronger gust of wind invaded them, causing Angor to lose grip of his vine.

    Angor was thrown away by the wind and fell. His body span like a stone in the air.

    ¡°Angor!!¡± Nausica and Sailum were both stunned at the terrible scene.

    They did not want to think about what would happen if Angor reached the ground from this high in the sky.

    Endless self-usation covered Nausica¡¯s mind. If she could just hold on to him for a little longer...

    Angor free-fell at extreme speed. The giant leaf which was Falling Cloud Stop became smaller and smaller above him.

    His mind went all nk. The only thing that repeated itself in his head was: <i>Am I going to die?</i>

    Not in the Nightmare Realm, but here.

    He did not have the time to feel regretful yet.

    ¡°Oho... It¡¯s you, blond boy? You didn¡¯te to drink tea, but you have the time tomit suicide?¡± Azy, female voice suddenly reached his ears.

    Angor opened his eyes quickly and saw the figure of a woman made of floating mist looking at him in midair.

    ¡°I¡¯m not suiciding,¡± said Angor. He recognized the figure and felt hope. ¡°Lady Mirror, help me...¡±

    The woman was one of the three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern, the spirit living in the mirror world, Lady Mirror. Angor met her once whening into the mirror world.

    ¡°Help you?¡± Lady Mirror inspected Angor¡¯s face and mumbled, ¡°Alright... since you look pretty fine to me.¡± Lady Mirror reached out a hand, and a lump of white mist surrounded Angor¡¯s body, stopping him from falling.

    ¡°But it¡¯s not for free,¡± said Lady Mirror. She appeared beside Angor and said, ¡°You¡¯re going to pay me something that equals to the favor.¡±

    Angor was still terrified at his near-death experience. The only thing he knew right now was endless gratitude toward Lady Mirror, so he answered without hesitation, ¡°No problem. Anything, Lady Mirror, and I¡¯ll do my best!¡±

    Lady Mirror carried Angor upward using her mist.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what I need yet. Let¡¯s... note it down for now, and I¡¯lle up with somethingter,¡± Lady Mirror spoke in a carefree manner. She only saved Angor for his above average looks and was not really expecting a newbie apprentice to pay her back.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to repair a ne wound caused by the appearance of the world¡¯s consciousness. Where are you heading to? I¡¯ll send you there,¡± said Lady Mirror. She looked at the dark clouds in the sky in frustration. Her beauty sleep was interrupted when an avatar of the world¡¯s consciousness suddenly descended and created a giant hole in the mirror world. She had to bear her rage for getting dragged up from her bed and go repair that hole, so the mirror world would not crumble on itself.

    Angor considered. He wanted to join his friends at Falling Cloud Stop, but with such disastrous weather going on, he would just get blown off again.

    He finally decided. ¡°Can you send me to Professor Sunders?¡±

    Lady Mirror was surprised by it. ¡°Professor Sunders? You¡¯re his new student?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Mister Sunders is my current mentor.¡±

    Lady Mirror remained silent for a long time, without speaking or moving. Angor thought she had some grudge again Sunders and regretted his decision. He should have asked Lady Mirror to send him to the ground instead.

    A momentter, Lady Mirror finally spoke in a somewhat small voice, ¡°So Sunders is your professor. Just about right. I know what I should ask now...¡±

    ...

    In the center of Phantom Ind.

    The wind was still raging. Angor stood behind Sunders, so he did not feel anything this time.

    Toby also returned to him. The bird stood tall on his shoulder.

    ¡°Professor...¡± Angor spoke.

    Sunders looked sideways at Angor through his gold-rimmed monocle. Angor was not sure of Sunders¡¯ emotion with the ss covering his eye.

    ¡°Lady¡ªLady Mirror said that...¡± Angor thought about Lady Mirror¡¯s request and felt really weird.

    ¡°Just disregard anything she said.¡± Seeing Angor¡¯s hesitance, Sunders thought about Lady Mirror¡¯s temperament and quickly realized what she wanted.

    ¡°But Lady Mirror saved my life.¡±

    ¡°Because you¡¯re too weak. You can talkter. The Sorcerer¡¯s Garden is about toplete. Watch closely.¡±

 Chapter 160 - Garden of Gravity

    <h4>Chapter 160: Garden of Gravity</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders was right when he said the garden waspleting. Standing near the garden, Angor could clearly see the white mist covering the garden slowly disappearing, revealing a rippled barrier which divided the very space.

    The barrier shrank rapidly. At the same time, thend and vegetations inside vanished along with it, leaving a giant hole behind.

    The wind stopped when raindrops came pouring down.

    ¡°The world¡¯s consciousness is here.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ voice barely ended when a strange feeling climbed onto everyone¡¯s heart, an ancient and primal feeling, that caused them to bow down and surrender.

    Angor felt like a scrap of dirt in the middle of endlessnd, drifting aimlessly under the effect of the mighty aura.

    He did not find any will to resist at all. His mind followed the feeling on itself.

    ¡°It¡¯s injecting thew!¡± Sunders¡¯ words were heard.

    Everyone on the scene, including wizards, all looked at the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in a serious attitude.

    Butler Goode once mentioned to Angor that when the world¡¯s consciousness injected aw into the newly-built Sorcerer¡¯s Garden where destinyid within, a mysterious rhyme which represented thew woulde along.

    Angor had no idea how to seize the said destiny. When everyone was paying their full attention, Angor was stillpletely lost. In order not to look too out of ce, Angor pretended to be staring at the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in all seriousness. However, he learned nothing from his action.

    When his attention traveled around random things, Angor saw Toby hopping on his shoulder, and quickly told the bird to quiet. ¡°Destiny ising, stay focused.¡±

    Toby stopped its movement and stared at the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden along with Angor. Neither of them knew what was going on.

    Suddenly, a strange rhyme came spreading out.

    Everyone within an area of dozens of square kilometers centered around the Phantom Ind became silent. They all sensed the rhyme carefully.

    When the rhyme came about, Angor also closed his eyes unintentionally and listened to it in a state he never experienced before.

    It was a strange state. It was not meditation or tranquility of mind, but he still felt calmer than ever. His mind now looked like a borderless grasnd which weed any wind or cloud to travel through. Even asional horse herds galloping through did not disrupt the quiet space inside his mind.

    Angor fully enjoyed thefortable state.

    At this moment, he could feel everything happening in this world as if the mysterious rhyme materialized in front of his eyes and bestowed knowledge without holding anything back.

    ...

    The rhyme danced like musical notes, creating a concert of spirit in the eyes of its audiences.

    The music had a quiet prelude, like a small drop of water on the surface of calmke water. The ripples it created only further calmed people¡¯s minds.

    The prelude did notst long. When Angor was still indulged in the melodic ripples, faint drumbeats reced everything and stepped onto the stage.

    He never heard such drumbeats before. Each beat pulled on his organs and dragged them downward, giving him an ufortable feeling.

    The third beat already caused Angor to fall on the ground, rendering him unable to move. Toby alsoy beside him with its limbs spread out, as if the bird just found its life totally hopeless.

    ¡°The melody... the melody of gravity?!¡± A wizard muttered.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. It is a gravity rhyme,¡± Wace spoke. He was previously standing among the wizards, but the strange force caused him to hunker on the ground instead.

    ¡°So Sunders created a garden of gravity?¡±

    ¡°Did you smell something? Some flowers in the garden?¡±

    Angor sprawled on the dirt when the strange drumbeats kept tingling his body. His mind was still strangely sensitive like a moment ago, with every sense amplified several times stronger. Each beat caused him severe pain.

    Still, he was in better condition. Even if he could not bear the pressure brought by gravity, he could still lie on the ground.

    The apprentices flying outside, on the other hand, all met their terrible fate. When the rhyme turned from an enjoyable melody to merciless pressure, they were all pulled down before they could react. People fell from the air, screaming like mad.

    When the drum brought the tenth beat, Angor felt something changing.

    He sensed a w in his tranquil mind. There was no wind, cloud or horses on the grasnd now. Everything was reced by a strange rhyme, the same one released by the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.

    Angor was still unsure of what was going on when he found himself waking up.

    Once awake, the pressure of gravity brought by the drumbeats appeared more bearable to him. The feeling was moderate,pared to when Angor was still immersed in his tranquil mental state.

    Half a minuteter, the rhyme slowly disappeared when the drumbeats finally stopped.

    Now, the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden began to shine a golden light and was shrinking ten times faster than before. The garden quickly became smaller than a finger ring and dropped into the hole on the ground.

    Sunders waved a hand and the golden spot came flying into his palm.

    No one prevented him from doing so. Still, all wizards showed jealousy in their eyes. That was a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, a valuable and tactical resource that could be carried around easily.

    A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was enough to provide support for a middle-sized wizard organization. Now someone just possessed a private one...

    It was a good thing that Sunders belonged to Brute Cavern. It would not be too hard for them to use Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in the future.

    ¡°The world¡¯s consciousness is leaving.¡±

    ¡°Yes. So it must be a garden of gravity this time.¡±

    ¡°Thisw is only a mid-tier one, but it¡¯s still useful. Bloodline wizards can train their bodies inside.¡±

    ¡°Pity. I didn¡¯t sense the sequence of gravity.¡±

    ¡°I wonder what kind of gravity level the garden can offer? If it can strengthen it to a hundred times, all bloodline wizards in the south will want toe here and receive baptism.¡±

    ¡°Looks like we Brute Cavern will be a paradise for Bloodline Art.¡±

    ¡°Grass Snail, you shameless fool. This is Sunders¡¯ personal garden. Don¡¯t ce the organization on high moral grounds already.¡±

    ¡°Come on. I¡¯m just mentioning a possible idea.¡±

    ¡°Once the information gets out, those from Gravity Forest will surely get furious about this. If I remembered right, Sunders scammed the fragment of eternity from ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko, a Gravity Forest wizard.¡±

    ¡°Scam? That¡¯s a legit business!¡±

    Since the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden waspleted, the once serious wizards all began to chat.

    After listening to their conversation, Angor now had a basic idea about the garden.

    The wizards called it the ¡°garden of gravity¡± probably because gravity was itsw. Angor felt a bit disappointed. If the garden received thew of purification, he no longer had to worry about challenging Sky Tower.

    Thew of gravity was of little use to him. As the wizards said, this garden was most effective when used by bloodline wizards to train their bodies. However, Angor was an ultist.

    Even so, the garden could be used by many, since bloodline wizards were not the only ones who studied bloodline. In order to strengthen their physical performance, most wizards from three major arts would choose to fuse a bloodline into their bodies.

    Sunders floated down slowly.

    Using his sharp perception, Angor quickly noticed that Sunders was wearing a golden ear nail on his right ear. The garden of gravity was probably fixed on this piece of essory.

    The wizards all stopped talking and looked at Sunders.

    ¡°I checked. Thew of gravity in the garden was still in its initial state. It can provide 3.17 times gravity at his current condition. With my calction, when thew energypletely fills the garden, the center of the garden should have a gravity of 93 times,¡± Sunders slowly exined.

    Ny-third times gravity!

    It was absolutely good news for bloodline wizards. A bloodline apprentice could receive a good baptism under the gravity of 10 times while a bloodline wizard would need a gravity of 30 to 100 times. A gravity beyond 100 times would be constantly effective for level-2 wizards.

    There were many different types of gravity gardens too, and a garden useful to wizards was extremely valuable.

    Sunders¡¯ garden of gravity was probably a middle-leveled one or something a little weaker, but it was still a lot more useful than the garden in Floating Mech City.

    ...

    Angor poked at Toby and asked if the bird found anything.

    He never expected Toby to actually gain anything, so he was just idling his time away with the bird. However, Toby nodded in a serious manner which caused Angor to widen his eyes.

    ¡°You found something? Well, I didn¡¯t find any,¡± said Angor. He revealed a sad look. ¡°You¡¯re not pulling my leg, um?¡±

    Toby shook its head and kept a serious expression.

    Sunders just left the crowd and approached Angor. When he heard Angor¡¯s words, the man also looked at Toby with a curious look.

    ¡°You gained something in the process?¡±

    Toby lifted its head proudly.

    Everyone knew that the construction of a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden could bring good destiny. People could follow the rhyme created by the world¡¯s consciousness when it injected aw into the garden, and try toprehend thew from it. This was not limited to high-level wizards. Apprentices had their own chances of learning something as well.

    Someone with great talent could even learn thew of gravity straight away. But it was only theoretically. Possible by rules, but impossible to achieve in reality.

    Someone might catch something about the basic sequence of thew at best. Most people would not achieve anything at all. Like this time, none of the wizards sensed the sequence of gravity. Not even Sunders.

    Sunders stared at Toby with squinted eyes. The curiosity grew stronger.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see how well youprehended the sequence of gravity.¡±

 Chapter 161 - Perfume

    <h4>Chapter 161: Perfume</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The world¡¯s consciousness brought disastrous weather upon its arrival and vanished from people¡¯s sight silently.

    The sky regained its brightness when gentle sunlight came shining down again.

    Angor followed behind Sunders and returned to his professor¡¯s manor on Phantom Ind. When looking from the side, Sunders¡¯ handsome and gentlemanly look was decorated by a golden rim by the sun.

    ¡°Professor looks pretty good. No wonder Lady Mirror asked for something like that,¡± Angor muttered to himself.

    When thinking about Lady Mirror¡¯s request, Angor immediately felt a headache.

    If Lady Mirror asked something from himself, Angor wouldply without a doubt. But she asked for Sunders, and Angor certainly could not make the decision in ce of his professor.

    ¡°I should be the one returning the favor. Why drag Sunders along?¡± Angor only grew more frustrated.

    After arriving at the manor, Sunders took Angor to an open ground protected by a magic array.

    ¡°Come. Let¡¯s see what you learned.¡±

    Toby left Angor¡¯s shoulder and hovered in front of Sunders. Seeing how his professor and Toby were now staring at each other, Angor silently stepped back.

    Sunders reached out a hand and pointed his palm at Toby. Invisible ripples beganing out of his hand.

    ¡°You¡¯re now in a state of spirit resonance. Release the gravity sequence you learned,¡± Sunders spoke to Toby.

    Toby tweeted several times as if protesting about something, but no one understood it. Toby only gave up in the end. He was not moving at all, apart from fixing its gaze on Sunders with his two tiny eyes.

    Angor thought Toby was mad for some reason and urged Toby to listen to Sunders and released the... sequence or something.

    Toby gave him a stare in response. Angor believed that if Toby was not engaged in something with Sunders, the bird would definitelye and kick him in the face.

    A momentter, Sunders stopped his spirit resonance.

    Seeing Sunders remaining silent, Angorined in his mind for Toby¡¯s unreliable reaction. He quickly approached his professor. ¡°Sir, Toby is a bit naughty. Maybe he was joking about learning his destiny. Please understand.¡±

    Sunders looked up and nced at Angor.

    ¡°Not quite. It didprehend the basic sequence of gravity,¡± Sunders slowly spoke. He then realized Angor was still dumbfounded at his words. The man frowned. ¡°Didn¡¯t you see that Toby wasn¡¯t using his wings at all? It attuned himself to thew of gravity to stay afloat.¡±

    <i>Did it?!</i>

    Angor waspletely puzzled. His spirit was too fatigued to notice such details.

    ¡°Your spirit... doesn¡¯t look right,¡± said Sunders. His eyes shined with the light of spell. ¡°Oh? Your mind space is damaged, and your spirit is... wilted.¡±

    Sunders squinted his eyes. ¡°You went through magic backfiring on you.¡±

    That was not a question. Sunders sounded sure of it.

    Angor lowered his head in shame. ¡°Um, when I was rearranging abination for Cleanse spell, I failed to notice my remaining mana, so, uh...¡±

    ¡°You deserved such, trying to run before learning how to walk properly.¡±

    That was the onlyint Sunders expressed. After that, Sunders smiled a little, somewhat satisfied with Angor¡¯s attempt.

    ¡°Remember the lesson. When you pursue the root of a spell again, know your own limits.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡± Angor also realized that Sunders was actually encouraging him to do so, instead of following the steps of ancestors.

    Sunders turned around and headed to the delicately-built castle in the center of the manor. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the study. Tell me about your training in these days.¡±

    ¡°Okay!¡± Angor quickly followed him.

    Along their way, Sunders told Angor the gravity sequence Toby had learned.

    ¡°A very low-leveled sequence of thew of gravity. It can help the bird change its own gravity within a certain range,¡± said Sunders. He seemed interested. ¡°Still, it¡¯s already as strong as a level-3 cantrip. Toby is able to change gravity for itself, which allows it to increase its speed and burst power in close-quarterbats. If Toby learns how to change gravity for other objects in the future, it would be capable of long-range battles as well.

    ¡°Interesting. None of the people seized any destiny, and a bird triumphed in front of everyone. Very... interesting.¡±

    During their talk, Angor also learned why every wizard, no matter formal or not, wished to learn the sequences ofws.

    Because learning a sequence ofw equaled to receiving a spell slot for free.

    As for spell slots... another concept needed to be exined along with it: Quickened Spells.

    How fast a wizard cast a spell depended on how well he or she understood the spell as well as the wizard¡¯s mastery level at the spell.

    There were currently two ways to cast a ¡°Quickened Spell¡±. One, by pursuing the root and fundamentals of a spell and understood it from all perspectives. This approach would take a long time. Many wizards spent decades or centuries, just to quicken a single spell.

    The second approach was using spell slots.

    A spell slot was a special location built on one¡¯s spirit model. It could hold the model of a spell, permanently. This permanent spell model would allow the wizard to cast the spell instantly.

    Comprehendingw sequence equaled to acquiring a spell slot because the ability to use thew sequence could be cast instantly. The user still had to spend mana, but a quickened spell meant absolute advantage in a fight. This was why every wizard would pursue chances of learningw sequences like crazy.

    ¡°Too bad I didn¡¯t learn a sequence of gravity, or I could use it as another ace move when challenging Sky Tower,¡± Angor eximed in his mind.

    However, he still thought he actually learned something... or rather, the ¡°he¡± under a certain state, learned something.

    ...

    Just as Sunders walked into his study and sat down, someone knocked on the window behind Angor.

    Angor looked back and saw Flora floating outside, wearing her usual cunning expression.

    Angor opened the window to let Flora float inside slowly.

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Sunders crossed his legs, ced his ck top hat onto the desk and removed his monocle, before finally looking at Flora.

    Flora made a ¡°hee hee¡± sound and pointed to Sunders¡¯ new golden ear nail. ¡°I¡¯m just curious about the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.¡±

    ¡°Then you can go find the tree spirit. It has a garden inside its body as well,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°That¡¯s different. Your garden is new. I¡¯ve never seen a newly-constructed garden before. Besides... I really want to see my dear professor¡¯s garden.¡±

    Sunders sneered. ¡°There¡¯s no difference. Thew in a new Sorcerer¡¯s Garden is not condensed. It doesn¡¯t differ from a ne fragment in the slightest.¡±

    Flora curled her lips.

    ¡°Something else?¡± Sunders nced at her.

    Flora muttered ¡°dumb guy¡± under her breath and floated to Angor. ¡°Well, Leona asked for something.¡±

    ¡°Leona?¡± Sunders remembered a certain witch who loved dresses decorated by flower petals. ¡°She asked you. What¡¯s it to do with me?¡±

    Flora gently kicked Angor¡¯s shoulder with her bare foot. ¡°Because it got something to do with Angor.¡±

    Sunders stared at her and waited for an exnation.

    ¡°Leona saw Angor outside the ind, and she smelled the essence of Glutton Flower Lord on him. She wants to make a ss of pheromone perfume recently, and she¡¯s quite fond of the smell,¡± said Flora as she took out an alchemy vial used to extract gaseous materials. ¡°Just a little. Some pressured gas in the vial will do.¡±

    Angor did not know what was going on yet. He never paid attention to his smell these days. He thought it already dissipated. But how¡ª

    Angor sniffed at himself and realized the smell of essence was still there.

    ¡°Angor, sweetie, you want the smell gone, right?¡± Flora revealed a sweet smile.

    Angor nodded. The smell ruined his manly image!

    ¡°Then you can give it to me, alright?¡± Flora¡¯s smile grew more and more charming.

    Before Angor could agree, Sunders interrupted them. ¡°The smell of Glutton Flower Essence can soothe your soul and improve spirit concentration even if the effect is reduced now. It¡¯s considered a tier-1 alchemy material. Also, the world has not witnessed any Glutton Flower Lord for thousands of years, which means this material values way more in the view of certain individuals.¡±

    Flora¡¯s smile instantly disappeared. She looked at her professor with a sad look. ¡°Aw professor, with a new student, you forgot about your old one? I¡¯m still your student too. Don¡¯t ruin my business!¡±

    Sunders tilted his head and smiled. ¡°Ruin your business? No. I¡¯m simply reminding Angor of the basic rule in this world, which is, equivalent exchange.¡±

    Flora threw an angry stare at Sunders. In the end, she took away all the smell on Angor¡¯s body by paying the boy 1,000 merit points. Then she left and mmed the door behind her.

    It was not much. About ten magic crystals. Still, Angor dly epted the ie. With the smell removed, this was a double benefit!

    However, Angor also had a strange feeling about himself. Someone just took some kind of good smell from a gentleman¡¯s body to brew perfume for women? That did not sound right.

    He recalled reading about some ancient eastern recipes about making perfumes. Some of them were animal excrement, such as ambergris. Some were extracts taken from male nds, such as musk. When thinking about this, Angor felt better.

    ¡°Now this is strange. Last time you came, the smell already vanished on you. Why did ite back all of a sudden? Did it have something to do with your experience in the Nightmare Realm?¡± Sunders mumbled.

    Angor was puzzled as well. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m sure I didn¡¯t smell it in thest days, so I thought it was gone. I wouldn¡¯t have noticed if Miss Flora didn¡¯te.¡±

    Sunders considered for a while. ¡°No matter. Let¡¯s put such trivial things behind. We shall talk about your training during thest month.¡±

 Chapter 162 - Spell And Principle

    <h4>Chapter 162: Spell And Principle</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor only did one thing in the past week: rearranging Cleanse spell.

    But when exining to Sunders, Angor naturally omitted the part about how manybinations he worked out. He only concluded it with one simple sentence, ¡°Rearrange the models, see their different effects and find out their connections with each other.¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°Knowing spells to the root is an essential condition for bing a real wizard. At the same time, you should remember that such work is valuable, but it takes too much time. For now, you should focus on the ¡®principle¡¯ which builds the spell.

    ¡°Take Cleanse for example. Its ¡®principle¡¯ is a simplebination of wind and water, which is easy toprehend, and you can cast the spell easily. For other cantrips, let¡¯s say, another level-0 cantrip, Optic Confusion. For that spell, apart from understanding light and shadow, you also need to know the structure of the human retina and its blind spots.

    ¡°The root of a spell is not about its model, but fully understanding its ¡®principle¡¯.¡±

    Sunders paused a little and continued, ¡°This is why most wizards are schrs. The more you know, the world appears more real to your eyes. A spell is a tool that helps you defend yourself in this ¡®real¡¯ world. A spell and its principle are equally important, but still, you should mainly focus on learning the ¡®principle¡¯ before learning the spell itself.¡±

    Angor nodded in acknowledgment. Mara also told him before that knowledge was the most valuable asset in the world of wizards. Since he was young, Jon always told him to regard knowledge above everything. Every element in your life was an additional chain that dragged you down while only knowledge was the crown on your head. In the wizarding world, knowledge became more important. Angor needed to improve his knowledge base too if he wanted to get stronger.

    Without enough knowledge, a wizard would have a hard time trying to break through his or her bottleneck.

    ¡°Reading many books without thinking about them does not mean receiving knowledge. When you take the time to think about what you already know, you¡¯ll find out that you know little, and that¡¯s when you¡¯ll finally understand what wizards should look for,¡± Sunders spoke in a sincere tone.

    ¡°Once you gained enough knowledge, you can even create spells instead of learning existing ones.¡± Sunders pointed to Toby who had been standing on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You didn¡¯t forget how this little creature came into being, right? It originated from a spell created by Greya herself. Creating original spell is also one essential condition for a real wizard.¡±

    Sunders then told Angor something about rearranging models before asking Angor to leave.

    When walking out of the manor, Angor was still thinking about his professor¡¯s words.

    ¡°Centered around Cleanse, there are a total of 630 variations, and six of them are perfect models. But the only model worthy of being passed around is ¡®Cleanse¡¯ because this one consumes the least mana and has the best oue. The other five perfect models all shared decent effects, but they can be reced by simpler spells.

    ¡°You can still learn something from dismantling models. When you create a new spell, you¡¯ll be able to understand the connection between ¡®principle¡¯ and the spell model faster. But that¡¯s too far a goal for you at this moment.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ words encouraged Angor to think about creating new spells. He might not be able to do that now, but the idea was already nted inside his mind, waiting to give birth to fruit.

    When Angor left Phantom Ind and was walking on the sky bridge, he suddenly remembered something¡ª

    ¡°Crap. I forgot Lady Mirror¡¯s request!¡±

    When Angor hurried back into the ind, Sunders was preparing to enter his Sorcerer¡¯s Garden and observe the inside.

    ¡°Lady Mirror asked me to tell you something. She hoped that the professor can join her and have some tea...¡± Angor spoke with his head lowered in embarrassment.

    Sunders nced at Angor and chuckled. ¡°Tea?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Lady Mirror said so.¡±

    ¡°Okay. I see.¡±

    Angor spoke again, still embarrassed. ¡°So um, will you go or not?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± That was a firm answer.

    When Angor revealed a stressful look, Sunders thought about something and added, ¡°You can find the time and go to her yourself, to thank her for saving your life.¡±

    ¡°Me?¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°She won¡¯t mind who joins her. The only thing she cares is whether her tea partner looks good enough.¡±

    Sunders inspected Angor¡¯s appearance and let out a raucousugh from his throat. ¡°You¡¯re still too young. But considering your look... she won¡¯t say no.¡±

    ...

    There were still apprentices around the sky bridge, but only a few now.

    The Falling Cloud Stop was in aplete mess after the gust. Angor even saw blood traces here. But he did not find Nausica and Sailum.

    He almost lost his own life in the disaster.

    Lady Mirror was the one who saved him in the end. But before that, he needed to thank Nausica. She helped him keep steady in the raging wind, and she did not give him up when he fell unconscious.

    Angor still fell down though, because he failed to hold on to the vines.

    He felt equally thankful to both Nausica and Lady Mirror.

    He walked all the way to Cave Field. Before he could go down, he saw Sailum rushing toward him from Apprentice Town Eight, screaming and crying.

    ¡°Angor!!¡± Sailum reached him while wearing his white bedsheet, as well as some tears and nose water. ¡°I knew you¡¯d be fine! You¡¯ve no idea how terrified I was when I saw you falling from the leaf. Oh, thank heavens...¡±

    Sailum¡¯s teardrops did not stop flowing. They drenched Angor¡¯s robe.

    Sailum kept sobbing and huping while crying, which must look really childish and funny to onlookers. But Angor only felt warmth in his heart.

    Nausica slowly joined them too. She smiled when she saw the two crying kids huddled together.

    Angor patted Sailum¡¯s head and walked to her. ¡°Thank you for helping me. If I fell while unconscious, I¡¯d be dead,¡± Angor spoke in a solemn tone.

    Nausica shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. You¡¯re... alive, that¡¯s what matters.¡±

    Before seeing Angor safe, Nausica had been ming herself for dropping Angor, and she had been wearing a cold look.

    Now that she finally saw Angor was safe, she lifted the burden off her mind.

    She had a lot to confess. But she did not do so in the end. ¡°You¡¯re alive, that¡¯s what matters¡± was the only thing she said.

    In thispletely strange world, three souls from different nations andnds were bound together by their pure friendship. They might walk down different paths in the future, but at least today, their bond was true.

    ...

    Angor told them about his experience while on their way to the underground marketce.

    They already nned to go there before going to Phantom Ind. It was a rare chance for them to be together. Even if no one wanted to buy stuff, they could simply wander around and have fun.

    ¡°So Lady Mirror saved you?¡± When listening to Angor¡¯s story, Sailum¡¯s expression shifted between surprise and fear drastically as if he was the one going through the disaster.

    When Angor finished talking, Sailum also spoke about what he saw around the Phantom Ind.

    ¡°Many people died. Some of them were blown over to the ind and were killed by the magic, some fell off.¡±

    When talking about dead people, Sailum put a hand on his chest in fear. ¡°Thank god we stayed at Falling Cloud Stop. If we tried to join the crowd, we¡¯d probably meet the same end.

    ¡°But the wind itself didn¡¯t kill many people because most apprentices know how to fly. They won¡¯t fall to death as long as they can maneuver in the air. What killed most people was the mysterious rhyme following the arrival of the world¡¯s consciousness.

    ¡°At that time, almost everyone was pressed against the ground. We were fine on the leaf, but those in the air all fell from the sky, either dead or badly injured. You probably don¡¯t know, but when we came down to the tree spirit garden underneath the ind to look for your ¡®body¡¯, we saw the whole ce covered by corpses. Broken corpses. Can you imagine? Body parts, white brain fluids, red blood, guts that already began to stink... they were everywhere. It was horrific.¡±

    When speaking of this, Sailum remembered the terrible sight in his mind and wanted to throw up again.

    ¡°The rhyme was a deadly weapon, and at the same time, bringer of destiny,¡± Nausica spoke. ¡°Too bad neither Sailum nor I learned anything. But I think I saw someone on the sky bridge seeding.¡±

    ¡°Did you find destiny, Angor?¡± Sailum asked, ¡°You were right beside the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, and the rhyme should be stronger over there. Did you get anything?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°No, I found nothing.¡±

    Sailum showed a ¡°just as I thought¡± look and prepared some words tofort Angor.

    ¡°But Toby did...¡± Angor pointed at the bird on his shoulder, and Toby quickly puffed up its chest and lifted its head high.

    ¡°Huh?! Did Toby learn something? No way!¡± Sailum¡¯s jaw dropped open in disbelief.

    Angor only nodded helplessly. ¡°Professor Sunders said so. Tobyprehended the sequence of gravity.¡±

    ¡°Ha. A bird learned something when humans cannot. Anyone who hears about this will get furious,¡± Nausica snickered.

    Sailum curled his lips and felt like crying again. ¡°Ohe on! Does that mean I¡¯m worse than a small bird?¡±

 Chapter 163 - Watching Battles

    <h4>Chapter 163: Watching Battles</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Apprentice Town Eight, Underground Market, Sky Tower level one.

    Angor¡¯s group came to the market and headed straight to the Sky Tower. Angor and Nausica both nned to challenge the fights so they were here to get a feel of the battles in here and see what kind of opponents they should be expecting.

    There were 15 levels in the tower in total. Every level had a standard for promotion. Getting enough points to reach this standard would get the participant to the next level. The participant also had the choice of staying at the same level, but in this case, winning more matches would only yield a very small amount of merit points. This was how the arenas protected low-leveled challengers.

    The interior of the Sky Tower was expanded using space-expansion spells, so every level was a giant area consisting of dozens of arenas. Each arena was a tform 40¡Á40 square metersrge and came with audience stands around it.

    Watching battles on the first level did not require any tickets, so almost every arena was surrounded by audiences, many of whom were mortals. These mortals were basically civilians working in the underground market. With no other ways of entertainment, watching fights in the Sky Tower was their only choice to pass time.

    ¡°It¡¯s only crowded at this level. Higher levels ask for tickets, and mortals don¡¯t have magic crystals on them so they can¡¯t get up there. However, level 13 to level 15 will have more people because apprentices tend to stay there.¡± After bing an apprentice, Sailum went to the Sky Tower many times out of curiosity in these months so he knew a lot about this ce.

    ¡°Let¡¯s stay at the first level for now and see how good the fighters are,¡± Angor said and found an arena with rtively fewer onlookers.

    The battle was not on, and no challengers were in the arena, so they took the time and talked about random stuff. A momentter, a hunched old man carrying a box on his back moved in front of them.

    The old man was a mortal. When Angor wondered what he wanted, he saw Sailum giving the old man a silver coin and took out some juice sses from his box, along with several fried doughnuts.

    <i>... A snack vendor?</i>

    ¡°They¡¯re pretty smart. One silver coin is enough to support an ordinary individual for a month in other ces. They can just earn them quickly by selling cheap drinks here,¡± said Sailum as he handed the food to his friends and recalled his life back in Versailles Principality.

    Angor took a bite on the doughnut. He was very satisfied with the soft touch and mild smell of milk of his food.

    ¡°You like it? I knew you would,¡± said Sailum. He looked proud at Angor¡¯s reaction.

    Before Angor could agree, Nausicamented first, ¡°Too much milk. You kids probably like this, but I prefer something with more salt in it.¡±

    Nausica took a bite before cing her food aside.

    Angor calmed his expression when he heard Nausica¡¯s words. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Actually, I agree with Nausica.¡±

    They munched and drank while waiting for the battle to begin.

    It did not take long before the two challenger passages on the sides each revealed a challenger. They both covered their faces and bodies with loose robes.

    Also, Angor noticed that a giant ss frame above the arena brightened up and showed a countdown timer as well as the names and portraits of the challengers.

    [Battle starts in: 3:39]

    [King of Beasts VS Monarch of Eternal Freeze]

    A moment ago, Angor was surprised at how the ss frame resembled his hologram tablet so much. Floating Mech City deserved its name as a paradise of machines and alchemy. Each product they created contained amazing technologies.

    However, when Angor saw the disy on the screen, he coughed up all the juice he just drank.

    Thank goodness the seat in front of him was vacant.

    ¡°What the heck? King of Beasts? Monarch of Freeze... What¡¯s with these showy names?¡± Angor began to doubt if he just stumbled into the battlefield of legendary wizards instead of an apprentice arena.

    At the same time, the two individuals on the stage threw off their robes using really exaggerated poses and revealed themselves.

    The King of Beasts was a dark-skinned man equipped with a giant bow on his back. He had colorful totems painted on his face, a beautiful decorative feather on his head, and tiger-striped loincloth as his only piece of clothing. This man kind of looked like Hookdick with his primitive way of dressing except that those totems and feathered headband were worse than Hookdick¡¯s style.

    The Monarch of Eternal Freezing was also a male. Also, to show off the ¡°freezing¡± word in his name, he was fully covered by white-themed clothes decorated with all kinds of shiny and transparent essories. More importantly, his hair was also white.

    However, considering the asional strings of dark hair that showed up on his head, his white hair must be the result of dyeing.

    ¡°Well, those are pretty showy looks and names. They must be someone strong,¡± Angor thought to himself.

    The countdown reached zero.

    They both moved. The Monarch yelled out first, ¡°Freezing Earth!¡±

    He remained stationary after yelling. It seemed that he was building up his spell model in his mind. After about three seconds, a small area on the ground in front of him began to catch traces of frost.

    The King of Beasts did not back down at all. Under people¡¯s puzzled gazes, he did a backflip, which did not help him move an inch at all, put a hand on the ground, and looked up.

    ¡°Show yourself, my king!¡±

    After quite a while, some mist was released from the King of Beasts¡¯ body, and a snow-white... kitten, appeared from the mist.

    ¡°Go, my king! Thrash his Freezing Earth!¡± The King of Beasts pointed forward with great might as if he wasmanding an army into war.

    The white kitten followed his master¡¯s action, lifted its head, and meowed.

    ... A really timid, gentle, and somewhat terrified meow.

    Angor¡¯s group was left speechless again.

    Sailum remained silent for a moment and curled his lips. ¡°They don¡¯t seem strong at all... Maybe we should go to another arena?¡±

    Nausica raised an eyebrow. ¡°Actually, I like that cat. Adorable.¡±

    ¡°Since when was Frost called Freezing Earth?¡± Angor mumbled. Frost was a level-0 cantrip which held a simr effect to Grease. It summoned frost in a small area to prevent people from advancing. Between these two cantrips, most apprentices chose to learn Grease because they could lit up the oil and cause burn damage enemies.

    As the three of themined about the terrible fight, all the audiences around them cheered in excitement. Someone even screamed loudly, ¡°Go, King, tear that arrogant monarch apart and drag him down his throne!¡±

    No onemented on his embarrassing words. People only grew more excited.

    ¡°Let¡¯s... go?¡± Sailum asked again.

    ¡°You decide. I don¡¯t even need weapons and spells to take these people down,¡± said Nausica as she put a hand on the dueling sword on her waist.

    Sailum looked at Angor, but Angor shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s wait a bit.¡±

    Angor watched the fight carefully.

    The white kitten already moved inside the range of ¡°Freezing Earth¡±. The Monarch humphed and chanted something else. An ice de appeared in the air and went for the kitten. Slowly.

    The kitten was fast enough to avoid the ice de easily. When it jumped into the air, the monarch suddenly moved closer. With the kitten unable to change directions in the air, the Monarch mmed the kitten onto the frost-covered ground with a mighty kick, leaving the kitten yelping helplessly.

    ¡°Oh no! My King!¡± The King of Beasts eximed in an emotional tone as if singing an aria and rushed to the white kitten. He held the animal up gently and disyed a painful look.

    The audiences were also touched by the scene. Someone wiped tears off their eyes.

    The King of Beasts looked up with tears around his eyes. ¡°I surrender. Monarch of Eternal Freeze, you¡¯re very strong.¡±

    The Monarch let out a disdainful ¡°Consider yourself lucky!¡± and turned to leave.

    The ss screen above the arena changed its disy: [Winner, Monarch of Eternal Freeze]

    Angor¡¯s group was left speechless again.

    ¡°Okay. I regret my decision. Let¡¯s go,¡± Angor said in the end.

    Sailum had already covered his eyes. ¡°And quickly. I¡¯m getting embarrassed myself looking at them. Thank god no one knows we¡¯re here.¡±

    ...

    They switched several arenas to look.

    ¡°Master of Sorcery VS Demonic me Dragon¡±, ¡°Unparalleled Warlord VS King of Thunderclouds¡±, ¡°Philosopher of Time VS Swordmaster Junior¡±...

    Angor realized that every apprentice got him or herself a really outstanding title, but they were only ordinary level-1 apprentices. Even mortals who knew how to fight could easily defeat them.

    ¡°This is the Sky Tower, right?¡± After watching several more matches, Sailum began to doubt reality.

    ¡°But when I camest time, they weren¡¯t so bad. Why are there only these losers today?¡± Nausica wondered.

    ¡°You forgot? Phantom Ind,¡± Angor reminded them.

    Sailum and Nausica exhaled an ¡°Oh!¡±. Most apprentice wizards went to Phantom Ind for destiny, and only weirdos were left behind.

    Besides, the incident around the ind killed hundreds of elite apprentices. The Sky Tower would probably only have these terrible people in the predictable future.

    Nausica¡¯s eye glimmered. ¡°I think this is a good chance for us.¡±

    ¡°Chance?¡± Sailum saw Nausica bumping her fists and getting all worked up. ¡°Miss Nausica, you¡¯re not going to...¡±

    She nodded. ¡°Yes, I am. I¡¯ll challenge the tower now! I¡¯ll see how many levels I can beat on the next couple of days so that I don¡¯t have to spend money on magic scrolls.¡± Nausica was nning to buy her way through. But since there were only weaklings here at the moment, why not go for the opportunity?

    Angor agreed. ¡°Good choice. At least Nausica won¡¯t run into any rivals on the first level.¡±

    They already watched enough. Next, they apanied Nausica to the management section on the first floor and helped Nausica get registered as a challenger.

 Chapter 164 - Titles

    <h4>Chapter 164: Titles</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    A clerk working in Sky Tower took out a registration form and asked Nausica to write down her information.

    Nausica looked at Angor first. ¡°You¡¯re not doing this too? You know, when opponents are weak.¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I still need to recover. Maybe some dayster.¡±

    Nausica whispered to Angor, ¡°You can ask Toby to fight for you. The bird is surely strong enough to help you get past the first level quickly.¡±

    Angor already had such an idea after watching how ¡°King of Beasts¡± battled. Nausica was right. Toby could definitely beat down opponents in the first level easily. Since Toby learned the sequence of gravity, its improved burst powerpensated the bird¡¯sck of strength. Toby was already extremely fast. Now the bird was even faster AND stronger.

    Still, Angor decided to wait. ¡°Not now. You go first. I absolutely don¡¯t want to run into you in a match.¡±

    Nausicaplied and shrugged. ¡°You¡¯ve got a point. Frankly speaking, I don¡¯t know what to do if I¡¯ve got to go against you in the arena.¡±

    She paused and smiled again. ¡°You know, if that really happened, I won¡¯t go easy on you. I¡¯ve always wanted to fight you for real.¡±

    ¡°Neither will I. But I only learned a Cleanse spell. I¡¯m no better than a mortal. There¡¯s no way I can win,¡± Angorined.

    Nausica chuckled and began filling her paper.

    The registration form was simple enough. She only had to write down her title and the organization she belonged to.

    Her organization was, naturally, Brute Cavern. As for title... When Nausica nned to use her own name, the clerk gave her a friendly warning by saying, ¡°Miss, I suggest you create a new title because certain ultists can use your real name to harm your body. As the fairest battleground in the south, we wish to prevent anyone from winning this way.¡±

    Nausica dly listened to the advice and re-picked a title for herself. She did not give it much thought and left the word ¡°pirate¡± on her paper.

    The clerk raised an eyebrow at the name and reminded Nausica of something else, ¡°You can¡¯t change your title again once it¡¯s determined. Are you sure you want to use this name, miss?¡±

    Nausica nodded without a second thought.

    ¡°Miss, you should know that your title in the Sky Tower will apany you till the very end. Even if you reached the Tower of Infinity, you still have to use the same name. As a ce for battles established by Floating Mech City, a better title will help disy your name to others when you be a wizard. Combined with the fame of Floating Mech City, your name will likely be your own title in the future. For example, ¡®Lord of Night¡¯ Moodick gained his title because he wrote it on this paper at the beginning. Now he¡¯s one of the most famous wizards from Sleepless City.¡±

    Now Angor understood why those challengers used those showy names. They were preparing for their ¡°possible¡± bright future. However, nine out of ten of those people would be disappointed.

    Nausica considered again. If the advice was true, she did need a better title.

    The clerk waited patiently. He also wanted Nausica to use an attractive name. Insignificant names would not be able to help them advertise Sky Tower.

    A momentter, Nausica wrote down her final decision: King of ckberry.

    She earned this title when different countries put her name on their bounty list when she was still a pirate. She got used to being called like that.

    The clerk was pretty satisfied at the ¡°King of something¡± style and put away the registration form. However, he had no idea what ¡°ckberry¡± referred to.

    ¡°King of ckberry. As per the regtions in Sky Tower, as a challenger in the first level, you must join at least one battle each month, or your credit in the tower will be lower. A lower credit means less merit point ie when winning matches,¡± exined the clerk. He added, ¡°To maintain your credit, please make sure youe here and ept a schedule within a month.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need. I¡¯ll join a match now,¡± Nausica said.

    ¡°Alright, please follow me.¡± The clerk brought Nausica to the lottery drawing section with a bright smile.

    ...

    Sailum and Angor had been staying silent when Nausica did her job. When she finally determined her title, they began to whisper to each other and discuss what kind of title they would use.

    ¡°I¡¯ll name myself the ¡®Glory of Versailles¡¯!¡± Sailum said, ¡°When I be a wizard, I¡¯ll make my name known to the whole world, and Versailles will see me as their pride! Maybe Queen Sharon will give me a personal audience!¡±

    ¡°Glory of Versailles... that sounds a bit childish. Nausica once mentioned that the rose gardens at Versailles Principality are pretty famous, so maybe you should call yourself ¡®The Rose of Versailles¡¯?¡± Angor joked.

    Sailum thought about Angor¡¯s words carefully. ¡°Rose of Versailles? That sounds pretty good. It both disys where I¡¯m from and our special product. But... should a man call himself a rose? Hey Angor, you¡¯re going to challenge the tower too, right? What name will you use?¡±

    Angor thought about it for a while and shook his head in the end. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t like showy names or those that take too long to achieve. I¡¯ll think about one when the timees.¡±

    ¡°Choose carefully. I¡¯m expecting a good one from you!¡±

    Nausica returned from her lottery.

    ¡°Who¡¯s your opponent, Miss Nausica?¡± Sailum asked eagerly.

    Nausica only smiled. She pointed to the ss screen on the wall of the hall. ¡°My match will be disyed there. Check it out yourself.¡±

    Information on different arenas scrolled on the screen. Things like who won the matches, who was promoted to the next level, or how many merit points they earned...

    A piece of message caught their attention: King of ckberry VS Monarch of Eternal Freeze, Arena 7, Level 1. Match starts in 30 minutes.

    ¡°Monarch of Eternal Freeze...¡± Angor mumbled the name.

    ¡°Ah, that guy.¡± Sailum saw the name too and disyed an indifferent expression. ¡°Miss Nausica will beat him in seconds. Um, I don¡¯t think I have to watch the fight.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll not watch it either,¡± Angor agreed. He feared that something might ruin his expectation about Sky Tower again. A weirdo who called Frost as ¡°Freezing Earth¡±... Angor would not want to see that apprentice again. Who knew whether that guy would create other names like ¡°Eternal Freeze¡± or something just for simple cantrips?

    Nausica did not mind having fewer audiences. ¡°Okay then. Wait for my good news.¡±

    ...

    Nausica stayed at the tower for her match while Angor and Sailum left the tower and parted ways.

    Sailum was going to choose some spells that went well with his art. Angor was nning to go find Dave at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop.

    Angor reached the shop uneventfully. There were still a lot of people gathering at the front door. They came to ask Prome for alchemy service. But Master Prome was still away, and Dave was trying to exin the fact to the customers.

    When the crowd dispersed, Angor walked to Dave.

    ¡°Master Prome is out today, pleasee back next¡ªoh, Angor!¡± When Dave heard footsteps from behind, he let out his routine exnation without a second thought. But he realized he did not need to do that when he turned around and saw Angor¡¯s face.

    ¡°What brought you to the shop? Oh right! You broke through, no?¡± Dave took Angor into the shop happily. ¡°I¡¯ll give you the information on the challengers in the Sky Tower now.¡±

    As they agreedst time, Dave would share his participant information with Angor. However, Angor was not an apprenticest time so he could not take the information stored in a crystal ball.

    The shop looked simr to hisst visit. All kinds of objects were ces in disorder. Dave struggled a little to find a vacant table and asked Angor to ce his crystal ball on it. Next, Dave took out his own crystal ball and controlled it to transmit information to Angor¡¯s.

    ¡°It¡¯ll take some time because there¡¯s a lot of information,¡± Dave spoke while controlling his mana flow. ¡°Maybe ten minutes.¡±

    ¡°Take it easy. I¡¯ve something to ask too.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Like I mentionedst time, I want to try out alchemy, so I¡¯m here to buy some basic materials for practice,¡± Angor exined. He then asked, ¡°Do you have any? I¡¯ll buy them at the average market price.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve just begun to study alchemy, and you¡¯re going to use materials already? Isn¡¯t that a bit too early? You should study the theories and basic spells first,¡± said Dave. He was puzzled by Angor¡¯s decision.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯llbine it with practice. Since I still have merit points left, I¡¯ll use this chance and learn by practice.¡±

    Dave thought about the remaining bnce of Angor¡¯s merit points and did not say anything further. Dave wished to quicken his skill development by wasting money too but he was too poor for that, so he had to progress slowly. He only managed to create his first creation after spending five years.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got a lot of low-leveled materials in stock. You can use them for fresh practice,¡± said Dave. He paused and asked something, ¡°I forgot to ask, which field of alchemy are you going to study?¡±

 Chapter 165 - Tooling

    <h4>Chapter 165: Tooling</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Alchemy did not belong to any of the three major arts, but it was still a popr choice for wizards.

    Alchemy included many different fields. Alchemists in ancient times divided alchemy works into those that ¡°improved one¡¯s own body¡± and the ones that ¡°improved other objects¡±. Today, there were only two simpler ssifications: Apothecary and Tooling.

    Apothecary, as the name suggested, majored in brewing potions. For example, the ss of Potion of Austere Night held by Angor was a product made by alchemists who mastered Apothecary. Here, ¡°potion¡± did not only refer to drinkable liquid. There were also special branches, such as Leona¡¯s Perfume Brewing, which was also considered Apothecary.

    Tooling mainly referred to crafting alchemy items. Dave¡¯s propeller flying machine, for example, was alchemy machinery created using the art of Tooling.

    The principle of alchemy was ¡°conversion¡±. The core of making potions or tools both followed this principle. This was why both Tooling and Apothecary wizards were called alchemists.

    But still, Apothecary and Tooling had different working processes and asked for different materials. That was why Dave asked Angor which path he would follow so that he could prepare the correct materials.

    ¡°They both required great talent. You earn simr benefit out of them. But technically speaking, I personally believe that Tooling is harder,¡± said Dave when he saw Angor hesitating. He exined his own idea.

    ¡°I¡¯m going for Tooling,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°You sure? You know, you¡¯ll be able to earn money fast once you learned how to brew a potion. But Tooling... not so easy.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure.¡± Angor already made this decision before. The alchemy books he recorded in the Nightmare Realm contained both Tooling and Apothecary knowledge, but he did not n to try making potions for now. The garden of purification was an urgent goal to him. Otherwise, he would not think about studying alchemy so early in the first ce.

    The world was always changing. The information about the garden of purification triggered Angor¡¯s motivation. To reach the top level of a Sky Tower and win a ticket to the garden, Angor had to find a particr approach. And he chose to try out alchemy.

    ¡°Okay then. It¡¯s your own decision. Don¡¯t regret it.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t. If I can¡¯t learn Tooling, I¡¯ll just switch to Apothecary instead.¡±

    Dave chuckled. ¡°We¡¯re on the same boat then. Maybe we can assist each other. Here are some books that describe the materials used in Tooling. Take a look. Tell me what you¡¯re interested in and I¡¯ll get them from the storage, at market price,¡± said Dave. He took out several piles of books and dumped them in front of Angor.

    <i>Magic Material Encyclopedia </i>, <i>Illustration Collection: Neutralization & Smelting Materials </i>, <i>Catalyst Collection </i>...

    Dave presented all of these dictionary-sized books to Angor with the hope of discouraging him. Dave had been acting all friendly to Angor, but in his mind, Dave did not hold a positive idea about Angor¡¯s ambition. He would like to be Angor¡¯s friend. But when it came to alchemy, Dave would think otherwise. To him, the art of alchemy was more important than anything else.

    In Dave¡¯s view, alchemy was not something that random stragglers should learn. When Angor made up his mind and showed off his wealth, Dave got a feeling that his beloved subject was being joked at.

    It was aplicated mindset. Dave would not have felt as bad if Angor chose Apothecary. Yet Angor went for Tooling, the same subject Dave was studying, and such a decision tipped the scale in Dave¡¯s mind.

    Dave did not say anything about the books. He only looked at Angor with a smile, waiting for his choice.

    Angor noticed none of Dave¡¯s thoughts. He carefully selected several books and read through them quickly, then listed the materials he wanted in a short time.

    ¡°Mystic Fog Strings, 12 standard units. High Bronze, 7.8 grams. Hairy Orchid Gravel, 11 cups. Ice Glue 349 grams. Starfrost Gold...¡±

    Dave saw Angor¡¯s careful choices and realized Angor already had a n in his mind. None of the materials were tiered ones, but they all shared connections with each other. For example, Ice Glue and Starfrost Gold appeared to be twopletely unrted materials, but Dave once heard Master Prome speaking with another master alchemist that if you dissolved Ice Glue in the heat for five minutes and added some catalyst powder to it, it would be the best adhesive for Starfrost Gold. High Bronze was usually used in machine alchemy as an ideal material for forging junction parts such as gears, and Mystic Fog Strings were often used along with the gears as a flexible transmission belt.

    Angor obviously went through some careful nning toe up with his choices. The other materials he chose contained heat-resistant ones, ductile materials, and energy amplifiers. Dave already saw the basic frame of an alchemy machine out of these.

    The ufortable idea in Dave¡¯s mind had vanished. He was now confident that Angor did not regard alchemy as mere entertainment, and that was enough for him to highly regard Angor¡¯s decision.

    Angor picked many different materials. He made these choices for a number of theories he already developed in his mind ¨C theories for making an alchemy weapon.

    ¡°That will be 17 types. ording to the amount you wrote down... 1,321 merit points. I¡¯ll remove the cents, just pay me thirteen hundred,¡± said Dave as he nced at Angor¡¯s material list and worked out the final price quickly.

    Thirteen hundred, about 13 magic crystals. This was quite a fortune to apprentices. Angor only paid 500 points for his rent for a full year.

    Still, he could afford the price for now. Besides, he just earned a thousand points out of Leona¡¯s favor.

    Angor took out his bone card and paid the money.

    Dave felt so jealous again at Angor¡¯s wealth disy.

    The two crystal balls on the table began to shine. Dave glimpsed at the objects. ¡°The information you asked for is sent. I¡¯ll go get the materials. Do you want to carry them yourself or have them delivered?¡±

    ¡°Delivered, of course. I don¡¯t have a space storage to hold them.¡±

    ¡°Alright then. Ten merit points.¡±

    ...

    After leaving Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop, Angor went to the Sky Tower again. Nausica¡¯s match was already over. She was resting in the lounge room. As they expected, Nausica defeated Monarch of Eternal Freeze easily without using her weapon at all. Several punches and kicks were more than enough.

    Nausica did not n to stop here. She wished to keep fighting, taking the chance that there were only weaker opponents in the tower.

    Angor wished her good luck and headed back to his house in apprentice town.

    Upon reaching the vi, Toby immediately returned to the attic to practice a new chapter with its Echo Flower music band. Meanwhile, Angor sat in the garden and listened to Toby¡¯s terrible ¡°concert¡± as he waited for Dave¡¯s delivery.

    Time always flew by fast when in a rxed mood. Half an hourter, Dave reached Angor¡¯s front door whilemanding two pairs or four bulky-looking guys who carried several sealed wooden boxes. The four of them were all mortal residents in town.

    Angor asked them to ce the boxes in his basement. After confirming that the materials were correct, he sent them on their way.

    ¡°Four mortalborers, ten merit points from me. You¡¯re smart, you know that?¡± Angor spoke behind Dave with a dark expression.

    Dave blinked in an innocent manner. ¡°Well, you don¡¯t have any space storage, and neither do I. Those things are for wizards, we shouldn¡¯t think about them. And of course, I have to ask mortals to carry stuff. Is there another choice?¡±

    Angor waved him away impatiently. ¡°We both know how much you earned out of it. Now off you go.¡±

    When Dave was gone, Angor took some time to sort out the materials in the basement. When he was finished, the moon was already high in the sky, casting a silver aura over the Tree of Eternity.

    Angor dragged his tired body to his bed and fell on it. He did so many things today. Everything ended well. With his already tensed up spirit, he only managed to cover half of his body under the nket before falling straight asleep.

    In the next morning, Angor washed himself up and went into the soundproof room.

    The residual condition of magic backfiring on him still troubled him, so he had to give up on meditation and spell training for now. But he could still carry out his study n. Angor nned to start learning alchemy today.

    Previously, Angor regarded alchemy as something simr to the subject of chemistry because chemistry also involved conversion between elements. But after reading some books from Sunders¡¯ collection as well as those from the Nightmare Realm, Angor realized that the two subjects only appeared to be rted, but they were actually twopletely different concepts.

    The conversion process in alchemy was facilitated using a ¡°mystic¡± energy. This energy participated in every alchemy conversion. Even alchemy machines needed this energy as their main power source.

    Besides, studying alchemy also required knowledge about Runecraft. Runes could be used to trigger the mystic energy hidden within supernatural materials. It could also be used to build perfect materialbinations. Also, there were particr alchemy approaches that used runes as the core materials while ordinary materials acted as a supplement.

    Angor felt a headache after reading the alchemy theories. He thought several alchemy spells were enough, but now he found that he had to study Runecraft too. This was also an extremelyplicated subject. Anyone who learned it well could earn big money by selling magic scrolls.

    Angor sighed in frustration. In order to make alchemy weapons in a short time, he had to start by learning something from the scientific technologies on Earth. Alchemy machines sounded pretty simr to science, but they were still essentially supernatural products who hadpletely different fundamentals than actual science.

    Angor¡¯s current n was to apply wizardry alchemy methods to a blueprint of a weapon from Earth. He wanted to see if he could make something that would be effective against apprentices.

 Chapter 166 - Blacken

    <h4>Chapter 166: cken</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Skilled Tooling alchemists usually set up detailed ns before creating alchemy items. They needed a long time to do researches and preparations before finally proceeding with the item itself.

    Innovation, talent, insight, and technique... These were all essential factors to make an alchemy item. Without them, one could only copy the ways of ancestors.

    Many alchemists spent their lives in this field without making much achievement. People with less innovative ideas could never create new inventions while those who managed to find inspiration often failed to be sessful in the end. Rather, their inspiration could go wild and prevent them from using well-bnced materials which could cause terrible results such as exploding experiments.

    This was why there were very few alchemists in the world and even fewer talented ones.

    Angor never considered how long he would walk down this path. The only thing on his mind, for now, was to recreate an Earth weapon by using alchemy.

    There were many data saved in Jon¡¯s hologram tablet. However, data about weapons only took up a small part of them.

    Jon was a botany researcher who was not interested in aggressive weapons in the slightest. The few limited 3D printer weapon blueprints in the tablet were most copied by him from random ces on the Inte when he tried out his new printer as a university student.

    There were both blueprints for cold weapons and simple firearms. Angor aimed for thetter. He did not n to go for somethingplicated from the start. So, he decided to make cold weapons first for practice.

    Besides, he needed time to get used to how to use various materials.

    ...

    After getting a vague idea about the theories, Angor began reading about the spells specifically used in Tooling.

    He disregarded any high-level or powerful spells that he could not learn and looked for level-0 and level-1 cantrips.

    And he only found five of them: [Level-0 cantrip: Thaw], [Level-0 cantrip: Condense], [Level-1 cantrip: Smelt], [Level-1 cantrip: Freeze], [Level-1 cantrip: Magic Barrier].

    Thaw: Preheat materials for some time using a fixed magic frequency in order to melt down materials and change their shape.

    This spell was usually used in long processes. The temperature would get very high which meant that the user had to always stay alert and in full concentration.

    Condense: As the name suggested, the spell would lower the temperature to finalize the shape of materials.

    These were the only two level-0 cantrips. For level-1 ones such as Smelt and Freeze, they were basically powered-up versions of Thaw and Condense. They did a faster and better job in creating correct models out of materials.

    Magic Barrier was a defensive spell which required a long time to cast and with a short effective duration. The spell was used to prevent idents such as explosions during alchemy processes.

    Angor believed that once he recovered from the magic backfire, he probably could only use two level-0 cantrips, so he chose to focus on them.

    After memorizing the key points for the two cantrips, Angor suddenly realized that he had only been reading the books from Sunders¡¯ collection. He needed to check if the alchemy books in the Nightmare Realm contained anything different.

    He proceeded with his idea right away. In the other folders in his hologram, he found the pages introducing cantrips in the book <i>Basic Alchemy </i>.

    Thaw, Condense, Smelt... These were no different from the ones he just read. Angor turned a page and kept reading. Freeze, Magic Barrier...

    His eyes brightened up when he saw a Tooling spell which was never mentioned in Sunders¡¯ books.

    [cken].

    ¡°Huh... it doesn¡¯t have a level?¡±

    While puzzled at how the spell did not require a level, Angor began reading about the spell.

    In ancient times, alchemists belonged to various powerful factions. One of the factions was called Mortality Sect, which was led by Odorus. It was an extremely mysterious sect among all alchemy factions. Alchemists from there believed in ¡°death and resurrection¡±. They regarded the color of ck as the primal chaos that gave birth to everything.

    ording to Odorus, ck was the real color. It contained all different colors in itself and was the true origin of them.

    Mortality alchemists pursued ck. To them, ck meant death, and ckening also meant resurrection.

    ckening something would render all elements dead and turn them into another form of existence: the dark matter.

    Dark matter was a dposed remain that did not have any radiation or metallic properties. It represented a new form of substance when metal ¡°died¡±.

    The cken spell was used to render all substances into dark matter and create new, sometimes unique, properties for them.

    Thaw changed material¡¯s shape while cken changed its property of existence.

    The book did not say anything about the results brought by such changes. Angor¡¯s knowledge told him that everything was double-sided. cken had to have its merits and drawbacks, and he could only find them out after practical experiments.

    ording to the book, the cken spell did not have a level because the amount of substance which would be ckened depended on the caster¡¯s mana pool.

    More mana meant something would get more thoroughly ckened, or even entirely ckened into dark matter, while insufficient mana would bring inferior results. Since the amount of mana was the only requirement, any wizard could use this spell. This included someone like Angor, who had just barely be an apprentice.

    Angor managed toprehend the overall idea of cken spell. As for trying it out for real, he had to wait out his condition and do experiments on it.

    Still, Angor was confident of the rarity of this spell.

    He read about a concept in many alchemy books; it was easy to change the shape of something but very difficult to change its natural property.

    There were alchemy spells that altered the property of something, but all of them were intended for wizards. ¡°Property change¡± was already something close to the very core of alchemy. Of course, there was no hope for low-level alchemists to learn something like that.

    Yet... the cken spell bypassed this rule. This was never possible in the field of alchemy today!

    Now, Angor was really curious about the true identity of the warden of Stairs of Hanging Prison. <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>was already a huge surprise. Now Angor just found another surprise; cken, which was merely something recorded in a basic alchemy book. Angor was wondering what awaited him in the more advanced books.

    ...

    The discovery of cken spell kept Angor excited for a while.

    Soon, he calmed his mind and focused on other ns.

    For example, in theing days, he nned to study theories about a spellbination and learned these spells after his mind space recovered.

    Spellbination meant a specific arrangement of spells.

    There were many spells avable to wizards. Apprentices could find dozens of thousands of cantrips to learn. And if self-made spells were taken into consideration, such as ¡°Remove Dampness¡± and ¡°Create Water¡± which Angor named several days ago, there would be millions of spells beyond.

    A spellbination meant to choose several selected ones from all the spells to use.

    Generally speaking, abination consisted of four types of spells: assault, enhancement, control, and recovery.

    Of course, different wizards might have different ideas about theirbinations. Someone preferred using defensive spells or even detection ones. There was no fixed rule about how to choose abination. The key point was how the wizard used the spells in different situations.

    For example, choices for control spells included Frost, Grease, and sh. In actualbats, wizards had to know how to apply these spells effectively. An apprentice who learned a correctbination was able to deal with most situations.

    However, studyingbinations was usually a preferred tactic for apprentices only. Especially since they did not have enough time, effort, and mana to learn many additional spells. Apprentices could only master a few spells while wizards did not have such a problem.

    Combinations also had their weakness. Predictable spells were easily countered by opponents. For example, Monarch of Eternal Freeze only knew how to cast Frost. A Bloodline wizard or someone adept at fire spells could easily break his trick apart.

    This was why spellbinations only worked for apprentices in general.

    Angor also nned to get abination, but he never intended to set such a restriction for himself. The reason why he still wanted to learn abination was to prepare himself for the challenges at Sky Tower. In other words, this was an emergency effort when he did not have much time to do much else.

    Instead of following typicalbinations, Angor gave up on learning any assault spells. He only focused on finding control and defense ones.

    Once he got his alchemy weapon, he would rely on the weapon to attack people. He only had to prevent enemies from getting too close as well as watch out for long-range cantrip attacks.

    Grease, sh, Ice Wall, Optic Confusion... Angor listed the spells he needed and slowly memorized their fundamentals.

    Three days went by quickly.

    He had almost finished setting hisbination. The main focus of thebination was to stop anyone from approaching. If it failed, he could use Optic Confusion to hide. And if that did not work either, he had Toby to help.

    Once he sessfully learned these spells and created his alchemy weapon, it would be time to finally challenge the tower.

    Angor¡¯s mind space still did not recover by the time he almost finished learning the spells. Thus, he had to choose something else to study.

    During his time, Nausica and Sailum came looking for him and invited him to do quests together and earn merit points. However, Angor refused by using his condition as an excuse.

    With nothing better to do, Angor took out the information about seeded participants in Sky Tower that he received from Dave.

 Chapter 167 - Thaw

    <h4>Chapter 167: Thaw</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Parmigi Hignds lied to the southwest of Evernight Kingdom and was connected with the Goman Kingdom. Due to its extreme average altitude of 3,500 meters and above, very few people visited this ce often. It was amonly agreed forbidden ground for all except for several native tribes.

    This day, a giant figure which shined with great brilliance swept past the clear blue sky above the hignds.

    The figure had a strange shape. On the first look, it appeared neither as a life form, nor a solid object. Overall, it was a vast and t, transparent crystal with lines and strings contained within. The object looked like ice... or rather, it <i>was </i>ice.

    Because when a hignd eagle happened to fly by, the animal turned into a stiff ice statue and fell to the ground.

    The reason why the ice could be confused with a creature was that this giant shape about 20 meters wide possessed a pair of wings on its sides, also transparent. The wings looked like swan wings. With each flip, some glimmering ice shards would fall off.

    Strong sunlight on the hignds pierced through the winged ice, giving it an even brighter look.

    On top of the ice, several mysterious-looking wizards covered in white robes rested with their eyes closed. The freezing aura released by the ice did not seem to affect them at all, apart from coating the figures in faint mist.

    If someone looked closely, they would notice that each of these white-robed figures had a crescent moon behind his or her back, frozen in solid ice.

    ...

    The Month of Blossom had reached itstter half. After struggling with a damaged spirit for half a month, the negative effect of the magic backfiring finally vanished from Angor.

    Without waiting any longer, he immediately began to study the spells he nned.

    The first spells to learn were the basic Tooling spells: Thaw and Condense. ording to Angor¡¯s notes as well as his schedule, there were two essential conditions for him to go for the top level of Sky Tower: an alchemy weapon, and apletebination of defensive spells.

    Learning abination should not be a problem. He only needed time to get used to them. However, Angor was not confident in his n of creating an alchemy weapon. He was about to attempt to merge the technologies from two civilizations together, and he did not know what could happen.

    More importantly, Angor was not even sure if he could enter the field of alchemy at all. All his ns would be for no good if he could not even be an apprentice alchemist first.

    This was why Angor immediately put his full attention on the first step: learning Thaw spell.

    This spell was the first challenge for all apprentice alchemists.

    The fundamental of Thaw spell was to create arge amount of heat by affixing mana and fire element for a long time. After that, to use the cantrip model to limit the affected area of the spell so as not to hurt the caster.

    The principle of this spell worked in the opposite waypared to the cantrips in three major arts. Here, its model was used to restrict the heat of the spell instead of creating the spell.

    Angor took out a paper full of data and forms he noted down. These were data for creating the cantrip model he worked out when he was still suffering from the effects of magic backfiring on him.

    After memorizing several critical coordinates for the model, Angor closed his eyes to meditate.

    His mind space had returned to its clear state. The ¡°lollipop¡± he created before stood alone in the chaos. Meanwhile, the singr point slowly rotated and drew primal mana.

    Without minding the singr point, Angor released some purified mana from his mana pool and began constructing the model of Thaw.

    With the help of the Axes of the Universe to locate the coordinates, he only spent several seconds on creating the cantrip model.

    The finished model did not show any traces of abnormality. It hung in the mind space stably without crumbling or shocking its surrounding area likest time.

    Angor channeled the model to his fingertips and still did not find anything. No supernatural energy appeared.

    ¡°A rock-solid model. The spell¡¯s integrity remains even in the air,¡± Angor thought to himself.

    Since the model did not have any problem, Angor began to ¡°preheat¡± it.

    Simply put, affixing mana and fire element meant one should release mana from his or her body and ¡°rub¡± the mana with the fire element floating in the air.

    It sounded simple, and only a small amount of mana was spent. But in practice, this process required great patience and precise control over one¡¯s mana flow, which was difficult to achieve for ordinary apprentice wizards.

    Patience meant the caster had to pump out mana continuously and preheat the designated area slowly. The time required for this step depended on how much fire element existed in the air. In an area with a rich amount of fire element, the preheating process would only take several minutes. But if there was poor fire element presence... maybe several hours or more.

    For most apprentices, patience was not a big issue.

    Precise control, on the other hand, was the most difficult step for learning Thaw, and the reason why many apprentices were unable to study alchemy.

    When preheating something, a wizard had to provide mana from his or her body from start to end. Mana was spent slowly, but mana flow had to be kept at a steady pace.

    A tiny change in mana flow, whether it was a bit more or a bit less, would cause the preheat step to fail.

    Such careful control was an impossible task for most apprentices.

    ...

    Angor was now attempting this step by releasing mana from his body.

    Affixing his mana with fire element outside proved to be quite easy for him. However, he could only hold on for two seconds before messing it up. Like every other apprentice who failed this step, Angor could not keep his mana output stable.

    For the second attempt, Angor carefully pumped his mana as slowly as he could while maintaining a high level of concentration. This time, he managed to keep up the spell for... three seconds.

    The third, the fourth... and the tenth attempt. His best record was four seconds. Two seconds on average.

    Even in somewhere with great fire element resource in the air, the preheat step still required at least two minutes. Now, he was stuck at four seconds.

    Angor quickly felt depressed. Was he not talented to study alchemy after all?

    His mana was almost spent and so was his motivation. Angor gave up on further attempts and closed his eyes to recover.

    Five hours passed quickly.

    The meditation restored his mana as well as his mood.

    He realized that failure was always something expected to happen. Nothing could be achieved so easily. He would keep going. If he could not keep his mana flow stable after too many tries, he would consider himself not talented enough to learn alchemy.

    His mana pool was now filled. Angor took out some ration to sate his stomach while thinking about how to control his mana flow.

    It required more than being careful. In his previous attempts, Angor was almost exhausted trying to focus his mind, and he still could not do a perfect job.

    Human bodies had their limits. So could he find help from elsewhere?

    When he considered finding help from elsewhere to control the flow speed of something, the first thing that came to Angor¡¯s mind was to use a pipe or straw. Something like those could always control water flow.

    But... he could not possibly plug a straw into his mindspace. Besides, could mana even flow through a straw?

    <i>Pipe... flow speed...</i>

    Angor muttered his idea and thought about many choices in his mind. Suddenly, a pattern drawn by broken lines caught his attention.

    ¡°That¡¯s it! I can¡¯t plug something from outside, but I can make one inside!¡± Angor was excited about his discovery. ¡°I can do it with the Axes of the Universe!¡±

    Axes of the Universe was the ultimate result after Angor had mastered thirty-six-dimensional locator.

    It divided his mind space into a collection of countless broken lines. Every spot of the mindspace could be represented using a coordinate on the axes. Angor could construct a tunnel precisely by using the axes as measuring standards to control his mana flow!

    He eagerly tried out his new idea.

    After several hours, a tunnel measured by the axes came into being. It connected Angor¡¯s mana pool with the outside world.

    Angor took a deep breath and began to draw out the mana while carefully preventing the mana from flowing out of the tunnel.

    Two seconds, three... neen, twenty.

    The process was disturbed after twenty seconds.

    Angor did not show any frustration upon the failure this time. He knew he just solved the mana flow problem. The increased duration of his attempt just proved it.

    Unlike before, the amount in his mana flow was fine this time. It failed because of a change in flowing speed.

    If he managed to keep the amount of mana flow and speed steady, there would be no more problems.

    He spent some time to learn how to maintain the speed of mana flow.

    When he could keep both amount and speed at a fixed pace, Angor initiated another preheat attempt.

    Two seconds, three seconds... neen, twenty... seventy... ny...

    He botched it again after two minutes.

    This time, it did not have anything to do with his controlling skills. It was just that... he burned his fingers.

    While focusing on how to control his mana flow, Angor forgot that he had to keep the effect range of the spell within the cantrip model or he would get burnt sooner orter.

    ...

    The third day into the second half of Month of Blossom.

    Angor carried the cooking stove from his kitchen down to his basement.

    He lit a fire.

    Heat waves warmed up the air in the basement.

    Angor sat beside the stove and began to meditate. Half an hourter, he tried reaching out his spirit like feelers to sense the fire element around him.

    The area centered around the stove now contained several times more fire element than before.

    Once he was prepared, Angor stood up and moved to a pile of wooden boxes in the basement. They contained all the cheap materials he bought from Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop.

    Angor picked out a ck metal block with faint red patches on it.

    Earth Fiend Bronze, one of the materials he stocked up most¡ªa block of Blood Bronze fused with the blood of Earth Fiends, a mostmon type of Blood Bronze.

    Items crafted using Earth Fiend Bronze greatly improved hardness and wear-resistance. The items also had a small probability of gaining additional effects.

    Angor carried the Earth Fiend Bronze block to the stove.

    He constructed the model for Thaw spell and released mana to fuse it with the fire element in the air slowly.

    Angor could sense extreme heat contained in the model at the tips of his fingers. With the model to restrict it, the heat did not leak out this time.

    Next, he ced the Earth Fiend Bronze inside the area of Thaw.

    Slowly, the metal melted...

 Chapter 168 - Shaping

    <h4>Chapter 168: Shaping</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Under the effect of Thaw, the block of Earth Fiend Bronze turned into a pool of metal liquid which shined with ck and red glimmer.

    The next step was to shape the liquid into something he wanted. After that, he could use Condense to fix the shape.

    Angor froze up when thinking about this step.

    ¡°How to shape the liquid?¡±

    Angor just realized he only considered how to melt the material. He never thought about how to create a shape for it.

    He remembered something from <i>Basic Alchemy </i>: Use mana to shape melted material and fix the shape with Condense.

    <i>Use mana to shape something?</i>

    Angor tried to squeeze out a tiny amount of mana from his mana pool and release it into the metal liquid.

    It was like adding a small ss of water into the sea. Nothing was changed.

    He did not know what to do next. About three minutester, the spell model began to waver a little in the great heat. This meant that his Thaw spell was reaching its limit.

    His only choice, for now, was to cancel the spell.

    Without support, the metal liquid fell to the floor and created several burn marks. Terrible smell and white smoke invaded the basement.

    Angor opened the door to let in some fresh air.

    He then returned to his soundproof room to check if the books in the tablet exined how to shape materials.

    However, none of the books from Sunders¡¯ collection or Nightmare Realm described how. The only thing they mentioned was ¡°use mana¡±.

    Angor was stumped. He even considered using molds as shaping tools, but he still needed to order molds from someone. Could he actually find a mortal cksmith for that?

    After considering for a bit, Angor decided to ask Dave.

    He put on his ck ¡°bedsheet¡± and left his house.

    Angor began to like his ¡°bedsheet¡± a lot because it was so easy to wear. Previously, he always had to wash andb his hair before going out. But now, the hood on the ¡°bedsheet¡± easily covered his messy hairstyle.

    Angor even began to wonder if the robes were distributed to apprentices for this very reason.

    He had not even walked very far when he noticed that the apprentice town was more popted than before.

    Many apprentices who did not show themselves often were out on the streets, and they were properly dressed.

    Angor moved among the crowds with his face covered under the hood. He reached the underground market in several minutes. Finding Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop was easy enough. The shop was wide open, and no one gathered at the ce this time. However, for some reason, Dave was sitting on the stairs in front of the shop.

    Dave¡¯s goggles were pushed up to his hair, revealing his pockmarked face. He was holding his cheeks while carrying a depressed expression. He looked as if he was a young adult who had lost his purpose for the future.

    ¡°What¡¯s up, thinking about your past life?¡± Angor walked to him when Dave finally made a movement by looking up at his visitor.

    ¡°Sighhh...¡± Dave let out a deep breath in azy manner. ¡°What is it? You didn¡¯t go to Cloud Library?¡±

    ¡°Cloud Library? What for?¡± Angor leaned on the bars of the stairs.

    ¡°But today is the release day for a new Moonfrost Periodical. You don¡¯t know it?¡± Dave then muttered to himself, ¡°Oh right, you¡¯re a new recruit in Brute Cavern. You probably don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Moonfrost Periodical?¡± Angor recalled the name of a certain magazine. ¡°You mean <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>periodical which was published by Moonfrost Union?¡±

    ¡°Wait, so you do know it?¡± Dave was surprised.

    ¡°Yeah, every new releasees out in a century. They record all sorts of things during the expeditions held by Moonfrost Union. There are 16 volumes now,¡± Angor considered. ¡°You just said that today is the release day. So the 17th volume of Expedition into Endless nes ising out?¡±

    Dave nodded. ¡°Yes. The people of Moonfrost Union are already here. Do you see that people have left the underground market? They all went to check it out.¡±

    ¡°A new edition for another hundred years... yeah, it¡¯s worth checking out.¡± Angor felt curious too. He wondered if the magazine found anything new about the Nightmare Realm. Angor already read every existing volume. The Nightmare Realm was only mentioned as a new expedition destination in the 14th volume. Other than that, the Moonfrost Union never said anything else about the ce.

    ¡°Where can I get one? I¡¯ll go as well!¡± Angor quickly asked.

    Dave nced at him. ¡°You sure? The price for new editions never went below a hundred magic crystals.¡±

    ¡°Then why...¡± Angor looked around the empty market.

    ¡°You can rent it from Cloud Library, or from wizards. If your mentor is really nice to you, maybe you can borrow one for free.¡± When talking about this, Dave¡¯s depression deepened a little.

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor wondered if he could go to Sunders and try his luck. ¡°But why are you being all frowny over here?¡± Angor asked.

    Dave shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m envious. I don¡¯t have a mentor.¡±

    ¡°You... didn¡¯t have a professor poster? But didn¡¯t you get assigned to a random professor in that case?¡±

    ¡°I had one before,¡± said Dave. He paused for a long time before speaking again, ¡°Too bad, my professor died on his path during a ne expedition.¡±

    Angor¡¯s expression froze. So that was why Dave looked so sad.

    As Angor tried to think of something tofort Dave, Dave chuckled and spoke first, ¡°I¡¯m fine now. Master Prome can teach me something asionally. This feels better than being all scared in front of my previous mentor. And... you didn¡¯t answer my question yet. What are you here for?¡±

    Dave squinted his eyes as he asked, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you already find yourself untalented for Tooling so you¡¯re here to return the materials?¡±

    Before Angor could answer, Dave revealed an ¡°I knew it¡± attitude. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I kinda expected this to happen, so I never ounted your purchase yet. Just send the materials back. Do you need me to find people to help you carry? Hey, I¡¯m talking to you. Do you need help or not?¡±

    Angor watched Dave expressing his ¡°generosity¡± with a smile. When Dave stopped talking, Angor finally spoke out, ¡°No, I¡¯m not here to return them.¡±

    Dave frowned. ¡°Are you sure about it?¡±

    ¡°Of course I am! I just want to ask a question,¡± Angorined.

    ¡°Question?¡± Dave put on a strange look mixed with joy and the satisfaction for getting to teach someone. He cleared his throat and pretended to be an experienced teacher. ¡°Asking what you don¡¯t know is a good habit for a young man like you. Since you¡¯re asking humbly, I shall dly enlighten your mind.¡±

    Angor was speechless. <i>Humbly? Oh,e on.</i>

    ¡°Go ahead, young man,¡± said Dave. He was still looking at Angor with an ¡°old man¡¯s kindness¡±.

    Angor took a deep breath to suppress his urge to leave immediately. ¡°I just want to know, once I turn material into a liquid using Thaw, how do I shape it?¡±

    Dave froze up when hearing the question. ¡°Wait, what? You learned how to use Thaw?¡±

    Angor repeated his question, ¡°The book says that I should use mana to shape something. But when I channel mana in the liquid, it did nothing. I came to ask why.¡±

    Dave¡¯s face was now like a painting palette with different colors. Frustration painted in green, shame painted in red, anger in yellow, and sadness in ck.

    Dave was silent for a long time before speaking in a sad tone, ¡°You really learned Thaw?! It¡¯s barely half a month! How??¡±

    ¡°Um...¡± Dave¡¯s exaggerated expression proved to Angor that his learning speed was far quicker than other people. Angor carefully arranged his words and said, ¡°Maybe my talent is really good?¡±

    Dave slumped on the stairs from receiving too much shock. He seemed to be doubting his reason to be alive now.

    Dave thought about his own learning experience. With Master Prome¡¯s teachings, he spent an entire year to know how to cast Thaw spell. Now, he was struggling with level-1 Tooling cantrip, Smelt. And he had made zero progress in it.

    But Angor only spent half a month! The world was so unfair!

    ¡°I think I¡¯m ill... I need to sleep,¡± said Dave. He climbed up from the stairs in a stiff manner and walked into the shop slowly.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Angor called.

    Dave turned back with a really sad face.

    ¡°So um, how to shape materials while using Thaw?¡±

    Dave struggled in his mind about whether he should tell Angor an answer. ¡°Devil Dave¡± and ¡°Angel Dave¡± fought inside his spirit, using envy and friendship as weapons.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll tell you,¡± Dave sighed in the end. He added, ¡°The mana mentioned in the books isn¡¯t the mana you usually used. It¡¯s a level-0 cantrip called Hand of Spell.¡±

    Dave waved a hand at Angor. ¡°You already got your answer. I¡¯ll just go cry¡ªI mean, sleep.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± said Angor. He was sincerely thankful for his help.

    Dave stopped again and curled his lips. ¡°Any wizard with alchemy experience can tell you that.¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t know anyone else,¡± said Angor. He smiled and added, ¡°Thank you, really. Otherwise, it¡¯ll take forever for me to figure it out.¡±

    Dave remained expressionless. ¡°You don¡¯t have to. Your talent will surely take you far on the path of alchemy. I just hope you can help me in the future.¡±

    Angor revealed a big smile. ¡°That¡¯s not a problem.¡±

 Chapter 169 - Alchemy Lab

    <h4>Chapter 169: Alchemy Lab</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Hand of Spell... Angor believed he saw a cantrip went by this name in a list of level-0 cantrips.

    Angor returned to his house and found his tablet to check. When he typed the keyword in, he was surprised to find three results instead of one. There were two improved versions of the original spell.

    [Hand of Spell: level-0 cantrip. Simte human hands with mana and control the hands remotely.]

    [Hand of Spell (intermediate): Level-1 cantrip. Simte human hands with mana. Improve control distance and flexibility.]

    [Hand of Spell (advanced): Level-2 cantrip. Simte human hands with mana. Improve uracy and flexibility.]

    The spell looked like spirit feelers. Since spirit feelers could also be used to manipte objects, Angor never nned to study Hand of Spell.

    He did not expect that Hand of Spell was actually a must-have cantrip for alchemists... This was one of the drawbacks for not having a proper mentor.

    Without further ado, Angor quickly began learning Hand of Spell. Just like how he learned the other ones, he did not follow the data on the book. Instead, he re-calcted the data for the spell himself, which took him about two hours.

    After another half an hour of which he used it to apply the data to magic forms, he could finally turn it into a cantrip model.

    As for casting Hand of Spell itself... he only needed two minutes.

    Generally speaking, he already knew how to use Hand of Spell. But to make sure he could cast this spell anytime, at his free will, Angor had to shorten the cast time to at least one second. Currently, his best record was casting it in 90 seconds, so Angor needed a lot of practice.

    Mastering the spell would gradually reduce his cast time, and he could achieve it by using the spell a lot, so this was not an urgent task.

    When the spell was sessfully cast, a pair of obscure, phantom-like hands appeared in front of Angor.

    ¡°So this is Hand of Spell?¡± Angor muttered.

    The spell gave him a strange feeling. It was as if he just grew another pair of new hands, and the hands created by the spell were just like his own. He could control them freely, and do anything he wanted.

    Angor controlled the hands to pick up a ss nearby. He could clearly sense the smooth and solid ss, but not the coldness on it. The Hand of Spell must have blocked heat transfer.

    Touch, remote control, and temperature protection... This exined why every alchemist should learn this spell. It was such a great tool when handling heated materials.

    To try out the flexibility of the spell, Angor moved to the river and picked up a small lump of dirt. Next, he controlled the hands to shape the dirt around as if ying with sticine. Under his careful control, the dirt took on the shapes of animals, people, des, nts...

    When he was satisfied with his test, Angor dropped the dirt and returned to his soundproofed room.

    He took out his notes and wrote down: [High flexibility, almost no retardance, the spell hands work like a pair of new hands. Drawback: the new pair of hands are at a different distancepared to the real hands, which hinders uracy.]

    With the spell done, Angor went to the basement again.

    He lit up the stove and waited for the fire element to fill up the air. Then he took out a block of Earth Fiend Bronze and used Thaw to melt it down.

    He was familiar with this step, so he did a quick job. He still needed a long time to cast the spell, but other than that, nothing bad happened. When he ced the Earth Fiend Bronze into the preheated Thaw model, the metal block soon became a viscous puddle under his gaze.

    A little worried, Angor slowly reached his spell hands into the great heat.

    ¡°I don¡¯t feel any heat!¡± Angor was joyful at his sessful attempt. He freely manipted the hands and kneaded the metal liquid into the shape of a crescent moon, while leaving several plug holes on it.

    The crescent shape was one of the parts for making his alchemy weapon.

    As he determined thest plug hole, the next step would be to finally fix the shape. Skilled alchemists could use their innovations and imaginations to affix runes, add special materials or catalysts in this step. Someone could even draw a miniature magic array into the weapon.

    However, as a newbie, Angor could do none of that. After making sure the crescent part was correctly-shaped, he quickly canceled Thaw and used Condense to finalize its shape.

    Once this was done, Angor held the crescent part in his hand and inspected it. It was poorly made, but it was still easy to recognize that this thing belonged to some kind of weapon.

    It felt like metal. With no particr tool to smoothen it, its edge was all jagged.

    To test its hardness, Angor gave the metal part a mighty squeeze.

    It gave out a ¡°click!¡± noise. Angor opened his hand and saw no change in its overall shape. However, some small cracks showed up on its edges.

    ¡°Weird. Earth Fiend Bronze is used to improve hardness. How did I break it with my hand?¡± Angor wondered.

    He decided to snap it in half and see what happened.

    To break something made from Earth Fiend Bronze apart proved to be quite difficult. Angor used up all his strength to break his creation from a small, existing crack.

    He finally realized what was going on when looking at the interior of the material. When kneading the metal with Hand of Spell, he did not pay attention to its density distribution. There was too much metal in some locations and too little in other parts. It was easy to crack up when external force was applied to the metal unevenly.

    However, being able to create a finished part, even a wed one, was still an amazing feat for a new alchemist.

    ...

    Since the problem was found, Angor had to solve it. He already had something on his mind.

    Alchemy was not all about thawing stuff and shaping it with Hand of Spell. He needed to use various tools.

    For example, he could use a t scraper to remove jagged edges and barbs on the metal. There was an engraving pen, designed for drawing runes. To achieve perfect density distribution, he could use specialized pressurize equipment. There were also paint brushes to make the product look better... Universal measuring sses, suction pipes, air tanks, bnce plugs... There were a huge number of different alchemy tools ready to be used.

    With enough effort, skilled alchemists could do everything without using these tools. However, that would take too long. Proper tools could save them a lot of time.

    Basically, every alchemist had his or her ownboratory.

    Angor wanted to build his own alchemyb as well. Combined with all the alchemy tools, he could quickly gain experience.

    When thinking about this, Angor could barely hold it back. He took his bone card and rushed to the underground market immediately.

    Of course, Angor went to Dave again. After resting for a day, Dave looked a lot better. He was unsurprised when he heard Angor¡¯s request to buy more alchemy tools. He simply took Angor into the shop storage.

    The storage was full of various products. Most things were contained inside sealed boxes. A corner of the storage was upied by some strange or really dangerous-looking nts.

    ¡°Master Prome studied Apothecary before. He said that real alchemists do not find metals, stones or vegetations different. The only thing that matters is how you convert them. But still, Master Prome is really good at Tooling. As for his potions...¡±

    He muttered a ¡°so-so¡± in the end. It seemed Dave did not really want toment on Prome¡¯s Apothecary skills.

    He brought Angor to one of the outermost shelves where several long desks were ced together. It had various alchemy tools disyed on them, and most tools were covered in thick dust. They looked really aged.

    ¡°You already know how there are many people who want to study alchemy, but most of them gave up in the middle of it. There are very few alchemists in Brute Cavern, so these alchemy tools are really hard to sell. I¡¯m positive this shop has the richest collection in the entire underground market,¡± said Dave. He shrugged and continued, ¡°Well, I think you can see how this stuff doesn¡¯t sell well. They¡¯re left here for decades. Even the dust-removal spell arrays already lost their effect.

    ¡°If you want them, I can give you 50% off. Master will agree.¡±

    Dave lowered his voice as he said, ¡°If Master Prome knows that someone actually came to buy them, he might even give you better prices.¡±

    ¡°Of course I want them. But are you sure they work fine? They won¡¯t rust or cause explosions or something?¡± asked Angor as he looked at all the dust-covered tools and felt a little worried.

    ¡°Won¡¯t happen. They¡¯re all made of special materials. They don¡¯t catch rust like iron. I borrowed these when making my propeller flyer, so I can guarantee their reliability for ya,¡± said Dave as he thumped his chest.

    Angor did not say anything. He walked to the desks and carefully picked up a bottle for keeping waste gas. Next, he cleaned the outside of the bottle with a handkerchief and saw the crystal-clear inner tank of the bottle. The mechanism on the bottle cap was also in perfect condition.

    ¡°Without the dust, they look pretty good,¡± Angor thought to himself.

    He looked through several tools he might use. They were all fine. Almost no traces of damage were seen on them.

    ¡°You sure I can have 50% off?¡±

    ¡°Master Prome said that when clearing the storage two years ago. He said if someone wants them, 50% is the lowest we should offer.¡±

    Half pricepared to average market price... that sounded pretty good. Angor considered a little and decided not to check out the other shops. He quickly picked a dozen tools in various sizes, plus a giant blower box which looked like a firece.

    Dave nced at Angor¡¯s selection and using the sharp mind of a wizard, he immediately worked out the final price.

    ¡°19,744 merit points in total. After discount... I¡¯ll take 9,850 points.¡±

    Angor checked the bnce on his card. A little more than 9,200.

    ¡°That¡¯s so expensive!¡±

    Dave spoke in an as-a-matter-of-fact manner, ¡°They won¡¯t be waiting for a buyer down here for several decades if they¡¯re cheap. These tools are only mid-tier ones considering their quality. Real superior tools will cost at least ten thousand magic crystals, each. Master Prome has a magic carving pen that cost him thousands of crystals. You already found a bargain here, so just consider yourself lucky.¡±

 Chapter 170 - Alchemy Product

    <h4>Chapter 170: Alchemy Product</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°So will you take them? If so, I¡¯ll give you an art design toolset for free,¡± said Dave as he took out a ck tool pouch from somewhere. It contained several utility tools such as pens, rulers, brushes, knives, and some inks for painting.

    Angor clenched his teeth. ¡°I¡¯ll buy them!¡±

    The bnce disy on his bone card instantly lost several digits. Angor had to take out seven magic crystals from his pouch toplete his payment.

    ¡°Want a delivery?¡± Dave smiled.

    Angor quickly shook his hands. ¡°No thanks. I¡¯ll find help on my own.¡±

    He paid 50 silver coins to five strongmen to carry his packed tools back to his house.

    Once the tools were ced in his basement, Angor asked his helpers to go to the marketce in town and carry back several specialboratory tables along with some simple chairs.

    During the entire afternoon, Angor redesigned his basement into an alchemyb with the help of the helpers. It still looked simple, but Angor was very satisfied with the result.

    The night hade, bringing an unpleasant chill into the town. Angor looked at his neatly-arrangedb and felt some sense of belonging.

    In the next days, Angor¡¯s alchemy work progressed smoothly.

    He spent three days and created his very first alchemy creation in his life: a folded fruit knife.

    The knife was made ording to a 3D printer blueprint saved in Jon¡¯s hologram tablet. It only required three major parts and two minor ones to assemble.

    Assembling was a popr way to create alchemy items. It required fewer skillspared to one-piece products. Assembled products usually had weaker effects. However, it was still a mainstream choice as the alchemy items were convenient to use and were universally epted.

    The folded fruit knife had its handle made of a special tree, and it had with wooden grains on it as decoration. When the de was unfolded, Angor could feel the cold sharpness on it. When looked closely, he could even see faint patterns on the de.

    With Earth Fiend Bronze to improve its hardness and a special casting liquid to sharpen its edge, these twomon materials created a cutting tool of superior quality.

    Angor took out a touchstone and gave it a small cut with his new knife. A shallow cut was easily made.

    A touchstone was a special tool used by alchemists to test the sharpness of an object. No ordinary des could damage the stone. Only weapons which could break open the magic defenses of apprentices could leave their marks on it.

    The fruit knife had no special traits, but its sharpness alone already surpassed mortal weapons by many levels. Being able to create a cut on the touchstone meant this knife was enough to be used as a supernatural weapon.

    Angor was satisfied with his first attempt.

    The weapon was his first alchemy creation and a memorable one. It was just like the dagger Angor found on the younger Sunders in the Nightmare Realm. The dagger was only a mortal weapon, but it was something really special to Sunders.

    Angor put the fruit knife away in his inner pocket carefully.

    He suppressed his great joy. Without taking any rest, he meditated for a while to recover his mana before immediately continuing with making his second creation.

    Again, he chose a melee weapon found among the 3D blueprints. Or rather, a cooking tool.

    A Chinese kitchen knife.

    He chose this one as his second practice attempt because he wanted to try to make one-piece creations.

    Instead of assembling a de with a handle, Angor nned to create an entire item in Thaw spell in one try.

    It proved to be harder than he imagined. Choosing the right materials already took him a lot of time. A one-piece item did not mean it required a single material. Instead, he had to use several materials to create a final product in Thaw spell.

    After some experiments, Angor found a dozenbinations from a book he recorded in Nightmare Realm called <i>Material Polymerization </i>and proceeded to try them out one by one.

    An ordinary alchemist might need months to discover a correct materialbination. Angor, on the other hand, could find help in the alchemy books of unknown origins and thus, skipped many steps. More importantly, everything he aimed to make already had a blueprint.

    Besides, the 3D hologram cast by his tablet could be observed from every angle withpletely no blind spots. Even if he did not understand how something worked, he could simply copy its shape and make it work.

    After five days, his Chinese kitchen knife was ready.

    Its handle and de were designed in an all-in-one style. As Angor never learned how to apply runes on stuff, or had any special materials or catalysts, the knife did not carry any special effect. Gaining a special weapon effect without meeting these conditions was almost impossible.

    Angor swung the kitchen de and easily left a one-centimeter cut along the surface of the touchstone.

    ¡°As expected, a one-piece is more effective then assembled items,¡± Angor mumbled. The weapon felt more harmonious in his hand.

    Since his second idea was a sess, Angor thought about something wilder.

    He decided to craft a series of Chinese weapons.

    He did not make up his mind like that because of Jon¡¯s teachings. He only wished to get more practice and get familiar with different materialbinations.

    Ten days passed. Angor walked out of his undergroundboratory while covered in dust. Three new weapons were disyed along the wall of hisb.

    A sword, a de, and a pair of spikes.

    A Qingfeng Sword, a sheathless Tang Dao <sup>1</sup> , and a pair of dual-wield Emei Piercers.

    Among them, only the Emei Piercers were one-piece. The sword and de were only assembled weapons like Angor¡¯s fruit knife. If sold on the market, he could probably earn a magic crystal or two. However, he did not intend to do that for now. Time was urgent. Even though they were actual alchemy weapons, these weapons were too weak. With enough effort, even mortal cksmiths could also forge something like these.

    After shutting himself in his basement for several days, Angor decided to spend half a day off to rest a little before he headed back to his soundproofed room.

    The overall process of making an alchemy item required skills at controlling the heat, shaping, and condensing the item. Angor already knew how to do them. He made all these cold weapons just to practice his skills.

    But this did not mean that he was an apprentice alchemist yet. At his current state, Angor could be regarded as a master cksmith in the view of mortals. However, he was definitely not an alchemist.

    Items made by real alchemists all had their own supernatural effects.

    Supernatural effects meant special traits such as a piece of equipment that enhanced its wearer¡¯s ability, a machine that stabilized energy, a weapon that cast spells, items with particr uses or other indescribable abilities. Even something like space storages and time-maniption items could be achieved with alchemy.

    Naturally, Angor was aiming for something like these.

    In general, there were several ways of crafting an alchemy item with special effect.

    First, Runecraft. When making an item, an alchemist could affix runes in ordance with the materials used and gain a supernatural effect when the materials and runes amplified each other.

    Second, magic array. An improved version of Runecraft.

    And third, activating the specialty of materials.

    These were not the only approaches, but they were mainstream choices.

    The first two approaches were also referred to as ¡°enchantment¡±. As for the third one, it was also called ¡°synthesis¡±.

    In the field of alchemy, an enchantment was a minor trick, while synthesis was moremonly regarded as a legit way of improving items.

    An appropriate synthesis brought way stronger effectspared to enchantment. When alchemists applied runes or magic arrays to an item to receive the special effect, they also had to consider the nature of materials instead of drawing any runes they wished. Beneficial effects created by enchantment were highly restricted.

    Synthesis, on the other hand, triggered certain specialties hidden within a certain material bybining different materials together. For instance, when Winter Gold and Ice Raven Feathers were added with dozens of catalysts and brought under a special condition, a special freezing effect could be triggered by them.

    An effect triggered in this way could be applied to any material without obeying the restrictions when doing enchantment. Also, the effect was a lot stronger.

    If Angor wished to achieve something great on the path of alchemy, he certainly had to choose the third approach.

    However, the time to challenge Sky Tower was imminent, so he chose to take a shortcut for now and decided to go for enchantment.

    Angor took out <i>Basic Alchemy </i>and began studying how to enchant items.

    The first thing he needed to learn was Runecraft.

    The art had its own set of characters, or rather, patterns. Every pattern inside a rune represented various reasons in the world.

    For example, a rune that quickened the growth of nts contained reasons for weather, dampness, dirt, season, and so on. Each of these lied within a pattern. Drawing the patterns ording to a set of fixed diagrams meant creating aplete rune.

    An apprentice learning Runecraft naturally had to start by studying the meaning of every pattern. There were 60 million basic patterns with different or identical meanings. Even a different time point could require a different pattern to express a certain reason. For instance, one had to use twopletely differed patterns to represent a setting sun in winter and a setting sun in the summertime.

    Angor did not have the time to memorize all those basic patterns.

    Instead of trying toprehend the meaning of each pattern, alchemists usually forced their minds to memorizeplete spell patterns and copied them onto their alchemy items.

    However, even copying was not an easy task.

    The process of drawing a rune also required a stable mana output and prolonged patience. Any mistake would not be tolerated.

    For example, when drawing a rune called Sea Wave, one had to add tens of thousands of strokes with different directions and curves inside a giant circle. The creator had to maintain his or her mana output while slowly applying the patterns onto an alchemy item, one by one.

    A tiny, miswritten stroke, no matter at which incorrect interval, direction or size, would basically ruin the entire work.

    For this reason, there were few alchemists who chose to study enchantment.

    For Angor, however, studying enchantment was a very good choice.

 Chapter 171 - Elementary Apprentice Alchemist

    <h4>Chapter 171: Elementary Apprentice Alchemist</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    An alchemist only had to pay attention to two factors when doing enchantment; maintaining a stable mana output, and ensuring that the patterns were wless.

    Maintaining mana was already possible for Angor. He just had to build a stable mana tunnel using the Axes of the Universe, like what he did when casting Thaw.

    Drawing absolute correct patterns onto an alchemy item was very difficult for apprentices. However, Angor could achieve it by using something else...

    <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters </i>was a book Angor recorded in the Nightmare Realm. It had more than 700 pages and was of a simr size to dictionaries if it was printed in papers.

    Every page described aplete rune.

    The rune on the first page was called Rune of Shapen, which doubled the sharpness of an item.

    The rune looked simple. It only required about 50 strokes to draw.

    Angor took out his pen and paper and tried to sketch it.

    Of course, he failed.

    He continued it for seven more attempts, which were all failures. Most of the times, he had to stop midway to think about how to draw the next line, and such pauses always disrupted his mana output.

    Even if he managed toplete a rune, there were always incorrect intervals or angles between the strokes.

    However, Angor already expected as much. ¡°Time to cheat again,¡± Angor muttered.

    He saved the rune as a picture in his tablet and projected a hologram of the picture onto a paper.

    Following the hologram, he used his pen to outline the picture.

    It went well!

    He inspected the perfect rune he just printed on the paper and silently thanked his godsend tablet.

    He knew he could use the hologram to draw runes, and this was why he chose enchantment in the first ce.

    However, this was not Angor¡¯s own idea. There had been alchemists throughout the history who carved hollowed-out runes on wooden nks. They would then hang the nks in front of light sources to project the shadow of a rune onto an alchemy item and drew the rune along the shadow. Such an approach shared a simr principle to Angor¡¯s idea. However, these shadows always had problems with sizes and angles due to environmental reasons. Human eyes often perceived light and shadow in varied ways, so this approach waster proved to be useless.

    Angor¡¯s hologram, on the other hand, had no such problems. A true hologram projection always showed the exact copy of something, down to everyst detail.

    ...

    Since his ¡°cheat¡± was sessful, Angor decided to try enchantment for real. This time, he would use his mana to draw Rune of Sharpen.

    Ordinary papers could not hold supernatural energy, so Angor first went to the underground market and bought several parchments. Next, he cast the hologram projection of Rune of Sharpen onto one of the parchments and controlled his mana output to finalize the rune onto the parchment following a 1:2 ratio.

    When thest stroke was finished, the parchment shined and quickly released a cold, knife-like aura.

    ¡°It¡¯s done? I made a Rune of Sharpen magic scroll?¡±

    Angor suddenly got a feeling that he did not need alchemy weapons at all. He could simply draw some magic scrolls to use them in challenging Sky Tower.

    As he was feeling really proud of his achievement, the Rune of Sharpen scroll abruptly exploded into pieces and scattered on the floor.

    ¡°Wh- What happened?¡± Angor was shocked. He found his <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters </i>and tried to find an exnation.

    He got his answer in the middle of the author¡¯sment.

    It seemed runes drawn by alchemists were different from those created by Runecraft. Alchemists could not craft magic scrolls because the runes they drew were used directly on alchemy items. Furthermore, most of them were passive ones.

    For example, Sharpen and Armor Break would passively improve the sharpness or armor-piercing ability of a weapon.

    Passive rune was considered an advanced technique in Runecraft. Only wizards who wished to study magic arrays would go for it.

    Whenbined with appropriate materials and an energy source, a passive rune could provide a permanent enchantment. Meanwhile, ordinary magic scrolls only had limited uses. Only advanced magic arrays had persisted effects.

    There were actively-triggered enchantments as well, but these were allposite enchantments. They were already considered magic arrays beyond the level of Runecraft.

    An active enchantment was created by ovepping multiple runes into a magic array following certain rules, and finally applying the array onto an alchemy item.

    For instance, Rune of Sharpen, Volley, and Midas could be fused together to create a magic array with the effect ¡°rain of des¡±.

    When the magic array was enchanted to an item made from a suitable material, it would grant ¡°rain of des¡± effect to the item.

    However, magic array enchantment was way too difficult. Even a sessful one was a lot weakerpared to synthesis. That was why most alchemists only chose to memorize several low-leveled runes and go for synthesis when they were skilled enough.

    ...

    Now Angor understood why his Sharpen scroll broke apart. An ordinary parchment could not contain a passive rune. What he just created was an advanced technique in Runecraft, a basic element used to createplicated magic arrays.

    He was still happy about it though.

    At least his rune was a sess, which meant he could try to draw more of them. He could go buy a book about Runecraft and some nk scrolls. He would then triumphed in the Sky Tower by dumping scrolls at his opponents for real.

    In the next week, Angor read through <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters </i>and practiced with the runes one by one.

    With the help of his tablet, he began to draw the runes faster and faster. Also, thanks to the holograms, all of his works were perfectly done. When he felt adept enough, he could even draw the runes on his own without using a hologram.

    The Month of Blossom had made its way for the Month of Offering.

    Today, Angor took out some materials which included Starfrost Gold, Ice Glue, Earth Fiend Bronze, Steel Wood... and made them into different parts with Thaw spell.

    For Earth Fiend Bronze, he shaped it into a crescent de and applied a Rune of Sharpen on it with the help of his tablet. Next, when the de was being cooled by Condense, Angor used a utility knife and carved the patterns of sea waves on the edge of the de.

    He was going to paint a picture of vipers as shown on the 3D blueprint. However, he could not keep up Thaw with his almost exhausted mana, so he only carved some random sea waves as his final art design.

    The crescent de disyed a terrifying glimmer when Angor ced it on hisb table.

    When he tried to assemble the de with the other parts, the sharp aura of the de cut his finger. Blood came out quickly.

    His bright-red blood flowed onto the surface of the weapon and dropped to the floor. Not a single trace of blood was left on the de itself, which always shined like a newly-produced mirror.

    ¡°Even the side of the de was affected by Sharpen. A finished weapon could probably be used as a fine supernatural alchemy weapon,¡± Angor thought.

    He finished assembling the weapon quickly. When he held the weapon in his hand, it could be easily recognized as a... farming sickle, used by working peasants.

    The de had a length of 31.2 centimeters and a width of 13.7 centimeters. The handle made from Steel Wood was 65.1 centimeters long. Overall, the sickle was not big and was a suitable one-handed tool.

    The design of the weapon was pretty average. There were simple art patterns on its de, and its handle was smoothed and polished. However, these were all ordinary stuff.

    As for its power...

    Angor took the sickle from hisb and walked into the woods along the river.

    He swung the sickle at the trunk of a grown maple tree. The trunk which was as thick as an adult was cut in half easily.

    Superior sharpness.

    He tried again. This time, he injected mana into the sickle, which created a faint aura along the de. Then he aimed for another maple tree.

    The tree snapped nice and clean. However, this time, the cut was not smooth. A number of cracks and barbs could be seen around the cut on the tree. Angor believed that this was the effect of Sharpen rune.

    He tested the weapon several times. At one point, a tree broke in half when the sickle did not even connect with it.

    ¡°So this is the power of a supernatural weapon!¡± Angor smiled in satisfaction.

    The Rune of Sharpen allowed the weapon to carry a sharp aura on its de and cut something afar.

    Being able to create a supernatural weapon meant Angor had officially be an elementary apprentice alchemist.

    And he had only spent one month on it.

    Any other alchemists who learned about Angor¡¯s achievement would probably run away in shame.

    From the beginning to finally bing an apprentice alchemist, most people needed many years. There were manyplicated steps on the way of learning alchemy, each of which could easily hinder someone¡¯s progress for a year or two.

    Angor... well, he was born to break these rules and maybe attract hate from others while at it.

    However, he still felt it a pity that he could only follow 3D blueprints he already had. He was yet to create something on his own.

    ...

    Upon returning to his vi, Angor decided to try creating another alchemy weapon before finally going for something he could use when challenging Sky Tower.

    He suddenly remembered Nausica. If not for Nausica¡¯s help, when the world¡¯s consciousness descended into the mirror world and brought a terrible gale with it, Angor would have been on the ground as a pile of broken human flesh and became fertilizer for the Tree of Eternity.

    Thinking about this, Angor decided to craft an alchemy weapon for Nausica.

 Chapter 172 - Smith Wesson Bear Claw

    <h4>Chapter 172: Smith Wesson Bear w</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Nausica always carried a soft dueling sword used by knights. Angor wanted to make one as well, but he could not find any blueprints for it. Besides, he still did not know many materials. Those he could use were basically for making ¡°hard¡± weapons.

    In the end, he gave up on the idea of making a knight sword. Instead, he was going to make something for closebats.

    Angor went through the 3D printer blueprints one by one. Finally, he chose a weapon with a bizarre design, but serious damaging power¡ª

    ¡°Smith Wesson Bear w Knife¡±.

    It was a slotting knife designed in the shape of a bear¡¯s w. The handle had three finger holes for more convenient wielding. When cutting people, the knife applied a biting force to its victim and ensured the cut went all the way through.

    When forging the knife, Angor used a Rune of Frost instead of Sharpen. The Rune of Frost allowed the weapon to leave a freezing effect on anyone it hit and cause a temporary slowing effect, which was highly effective during battles.

    Angor¡¯s first attempt ended up in failure.

    The Rune of Frost conflicted with Earth Fiend Bronze. Angor spent a night reading through <i>Material Polymerization </i>and changed his materialbination to Starfrost Gold and High Bronze. They would be the main materials for making the de.

    The bear w knife was pretty small in size. When he used Condense to cool the de, Angor carefully added some designs to it with his utility knife.

    However, he was not really good at art design. He only found existing pictures in his tablet and copied them. In the end, he drew a single butterfly wing on the de¡¯s handle and clusters of tea flowers on the de itself.

    When Condense spell was finished, Angor¡¯s mana was almost spent.

    He tossed the new weapon onto a table and closed his eyes to meditate.

    When he recovered a good amount of mana, Angor rubbed his sore arms and walked to theb table where a piece of silver, metallic artwork was disyed.

    The butterfly wing and tea flowersbined into a harmonious picture as if a real butterfly is collecting pollen. The small weapon looked both delicate and beautiful. The flower patterns were not colored, but they allowed the sharp de to release a cold, sweet atmosphere.

    If it was not seen as a deadly weapon, it would make a fine piece in a museum exhibition.

    Angor put his fingers through the grabbing holes and held the weapon in his hand. A chill quickly spread from his hand to his entire body.

    He tried cutting the touchstone.

    A knife cut about three centimeters long immediately appeared on the stone, which also released a current of faint, freezing air.

    Angor took out his note and wrote down the information of his creation: [Total length: 292 millimeters, de: 108 millimeters, Weight: 312 grams. Causes mild frost without using mana.]

    Next, he injected some mana and tried it on the touchstone again.

    A deep cut was left on the stone as if it was made of soft cotton. Visible cold air spread out from the cut.

    ¡°Definitely supernatural level. The exact extent of power remained to be seen by its user,¡± Angor noted down, satisfied with his artistic creation.

    He was not much of an artist, but he knew about cultures from Earth, which helped him make the weapon into a piece of art. Naturally, he was proud of himself.

    Angor felt great joy. Gifting such a beautiful weapon to someone would only improve his ego.

    Even if Nausica would give up the weapon one day, he could still hang it inside his house as decoration.

    ...

    In the afternoon, Angor went straight to the Cave Field with the Smith Wesson Bear w in his pocket.

    He came to Nausica¡¯s door and knocked.

    ¡°Come in.¡± Thedy¡¯s voice came from inside.

    Angor pushed the door open and was weed by a room filled with smoke, which was totally expected. Nausica was sitting in front of a desk and writing something. A lit pipe was ced nearby as it released more smoke into the room.

    Angor could not help coughing helplessly after inhaling some smoke.

    Someone suddenlyughed. Angor looked up and saw someone else besides Nausica in the room. A big male had been leaning against the wall on one side. Angor failed to notice him because of all the smoke obstructing his view.

    The man had short, gray shock hair and was wearing a short sweaterbined with buckskin pants. A giant sword was ced against the wall near him.

    Before Angor could reply to theughter, Nausica nced at the man and spoke first, ¡°Ebony? Shut your trap, if you will.¡±

    ¡°Okay, okay! I will,¡± said Ebony. He raised his hands in the air and surrendered. ¡°Satisfied?¡±

    It was Ebony, Nausica¡¯s previous subordinate.

    Then, Nausica turned around and looked at Angor. ¡°It¡¯s you. What brought you to my ce?¡±

    Angor nced at Ebony. Apart from orally offending him on the cloud whale at one point, the man never showed his presence much. Thus, Angor never paid much attention to him. Besides, Ebony appeared to be always looking down at him, so Angor preferred not to mind this man too much.

    ¡°Nothing in particr. Just checking you out,¡± said Angor as he sat on a chair in front of the desk. ¡°I didn¡¯t see the desk and chairs thest time I came. Now your room looks more... alive.¡±

    ¡°You mean I was dead before?¡± Nausica put down her pen, crossed her arms, and joined Angor.

    ¡°Uh, I mean, the room is now more suitable to live in,¡± Angor exined.

    Nausica only smiled. She knew what Angor wanted to say, but she just loved teasing this young boy. Pity, Angor tended to take everything too seriously.

    After some other random topics, Nausica realized Angor did not talk about what he really came for, and squinted her eyes.

    ¡°Getting a bit hungry. It¡¯s pretty rare for Angor toe, so maybe we should get Sailum and have dinner together?¡± Before Angor could reply, Nausica spoke quickly, ¡°Hey Ebony, go to the cave restaurant and order three servings to be delivered, alright?¡±

    Ebony instantly understood that Nausica was simply asking for some privacy. The man curled his lips, picked up his greatsword, and left the room. But he quickly stopped in his tracks. Three deliveries? So Nausica wanted to eat with Angor and Sailum, which meant... he was left out?

    When Ebony walked away, Nausica picked up her pipe. She breathed out some smoke rings and asked, ¡°Come on, what¡¯s on your mind? There¡¯s no way you came here to chat. I don¡¯t believe it.¡±

    Angor chuckled. Instead of talking about his gift, he tried to ask for some other information. ¡°What¡¯s Ebony doing here? I would never notice him sitting in a corner if he didn¡¯t make a sound.¡±

    Nausica shrugged. ¡°Sailum, I, and Ebony have been epting quests from the questing hall. Life is so hard without enough merit points. We went to ask you to join usst time, remember?¡±

    Now that she mentioned, Angor recalled that when he was busy studying alchemyst month, Nausica dide with Sailum. They were saying something about earning merit points but he refused.

    ¡°Well... I¡¯m kinda short on points too,¡± said Angor as he sighed. After buying his alchemy tools from Dave, he only had 50 points left.

    ¡°Will you join us on a quest together?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Not now. I can still manage. When I go challenge Sky Tower several dayster, I¡¯ll start earning points.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to the tower now?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, preparation¡¯s almost done. Which level are you on now?¡±

    Nausica released some smoke. ¡°I haven¡¯t been there for two weeks, so I¡¯m still at the third level. I want to get some merit points and buy magic scrolls before going further.¡±

    Nausica picked up some papers on her desk. ¡°I¡¯m studying Runecraft too. But I always forget what I just read. You saidst time that you¡¯re going to use alchemy weapons in the tower. So did you make them?¡± Nausica wondered. ¡°I heard someone saying that alchemy is extremely hard to learn. There¡¯s only one elementary alchemist in the entire Brute Cavern.¡±

    Angor shook head. ¡°No. I don¡¯t have my weapon yet.¡±

    Nausica tried tofort Angor.

    ¡°But I made one for you,¡± said Angor. He smiled and took out an object wrapped in white cloth from his pocket. ¡°An alchemy weapon just for you. Thank you for keeping me safe on the leaf back then. Otherwise, I¡¯d have kicked the bucket for sure.¡±

    Nausica revealed a doubtful look. ¡°You actually learned alchemy? You aren¡¯t pulling my leg right?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯m an elementary apprentice alchemist for now. The weakest sort.¡±

    ¡°... Were they lying to me? Is alchemy actually easy?¡± Nausica mumbled.

    Angor handed the wrapped object to Nausica. Nausica glimpsed at it. ¡°I don¡¯t want payment for helping you. I have my own weapon anyway. It¡¯s not supernatural, but it feels good on me.¡±

    ¡°But I want to thank you. It¡¯s just a cheap, low-level alchemy item. Just consider it a gift from a friend,¡± said Angor. He winked at her. ¡°It a new invention created by a future master alchemist. Take it, okay? Who knows, maybe it will value a lot more in several decades when I became more famous.¡±

    Nausica put down her pipe and picked up the wrapped item. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s see what kind of treasure is made by the hands of Angor the Great Alchemist.¡±

    She slowly unwrapped the object.

    Her hands stopped midway when she saw the silver bear w de.

    The small arm had a shape she never saw before. She was unsure of how sharp it was, but she already took a liking to the beautiful design.

    As a former pirate who dominated the sea, she had seen a lot of works of art, and she was confident that the short de in her hand could be considered a well-made piece. The carvings on it were not a masterpiece, but the designbining weapon and art already felt like the innovation of a promising artist.

    ¡°Niiiice. Butterfly on flower blossoms, and a shining silver edge. It doesn¡¯t look powerful, but I¡¯ll keep it in my collection,¡± Nausica eximed. ¡°My oh my, Angor, I never know you¡¯re so good at engraving. Maybe you really will be a master when you hit 30, or even earlier.¡±

    Angor blushed a little at Nausica¡¯spliment. He only copied the work of a master sculptor from Earth.

    ¡°The shape is so strange. What is it called?¡± Nausica held up the bear w knife and asked a question.

    When she tried to feel the de with her hand, a painful chill suddenly came from her finger. Nausica¡¯s expression shifted drastically when she realized something. She quickly stroked the edge of the de.

    A single drop of blood fell from her fingertip, which soon turned into ice.

    Her finger only connected with the de gently without applying much force, and it was already sliced open. At the same time, a freezing sense invaded her body.

    ¡°This is a supernatural weapon?!¡± Nausica was astonished.

 Chapter 173 - Solefly

    <h4>Chapter 173: Solefly</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Yeah, I applied a Freeze enchantment to it. Unaware enemies will catch frostbite when you hit them,¡± Angor exined.

    ¡°You are an apprentice alchemist for real?!¡± Nausica stared at the boy with great shock in her eyes. ¡°Do you have any idea how much supernatural weapons like this one go on the market?¡±

    ¡°Nope. Several magic crystals?¡± Angor took a guess.

    Nausica shook her head. Her expression was filled with mixed emotions. ¡°Last time I went to the underground market, I saw a machete with a simr effect on it. The seller asked for 130 crystals for it. And someone bought it really fast! Now this one... has a skilled design. With the frost effect, I think it¡¯ll sell for 150 crystals. At least!¡±

    Angor was also shocked now.

    <i>A hundred and fifty magic crystals?</i>

    In making this weapon, he had barely spent one crystal on the materials.

    No wonder how people with certain skills were rich beyond measure. The profit was real!

    Nausica saw Angor¡¯s dumbfounded look and shook her head again. ¡°Nice... Looks like you won¡¯t have to worry about earning merit points really soon.¡±

    Angor only scratched his hair. He did not know what to say now.

    Nausica stared at the innocent boy in front of her and quickly dispersed the tint of jealousy in her mind.

    <i>Maybe alchemy is actually easy? Or Angor just happens to be talented for it. Or...</i>

    ¡°This thing costs a fortune. You sure you want to give it to me?¡± asked Nausica.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind if I keep it then.¡±

    Deep in her mind, Nausica also adored this particr weapon much. Both its design and potential power really seized her heart. After fiddling around the weapon a bit, Nausica asked again, ¡°You haven¡¯t told me its name.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s called a Bear w Knife,¡± said Angor. He exined various specifications for the weapon as well as how to use it. ¡°You can think of a name for it since it¡¯s for you anyway. Oh right, check out inside the finger holes.¡±

    Nausica looked into the biggest of the three holes where her name was neatly engraved in the universalnguage.

    ¡°Oops, it got my name on it. Now I can¡¯t refuse it whatsoever,¡± said Nausica. She paused for a moment before saying, ¡°I¡¯ll call it ¡®Solefly¡¯.¡±

    Naming the weapon after the butterfly wing, but ignoring the flowers... Maybe Nausica had other meanings by giving it this name.

    She spun Solefly in her hand like holding a ded fan. The movement created a round and fuzzy outline in the air.

    Next, she released the spinning knife into the air and reached out her hand to a spot upon which the de was going to fall.

    ¡°Nausica? What are you¡ª¡± Angor was astonished at her action. Considering how sharp Solefly was and how fast it was spinning, if the de reached her hand first, Nausica would certainly lose a body part.

    Nausica did not say anything. Her gaze followed the Solefly closely.

    The knife slowly reached the peak of its course and began to drop. When it was about to hit Nausica¡¯s hand, Angor frowned stressfully.

    Zip!

    The de shed past Nausica¡¯s hand and kept falling without being obstructed in the least. With a loud ¡°thud¡±, it stuck onto the desk.

    Angor quickly checked Nausica¡¯s hand and found a faint, bloody trace along her wrist.

    He was really worried. Was she wounded?

    However, Nausica only retracted her arm calmly and put an index finger on the blood. Then she licked some blood off her finger.

    ¡°Frost effect without using mana on the de. Looks like I underestimated its value after all. The weapon costs at least two hundred.¡±

    ¡°You okay, Nausica?¡± Angor sighed in relief when he noticed Nausica could still move her wrist freely.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Just a shallow cut made by the freezing aura.¡±

    ¡°But what for?¡±

    Nausica gave Angor a bright smile. She picked up Solefly from the desk and put her thumb, index finger, and middle finger into the holes. For some unknown reason, Angor could feel that the de now had some kind of connection with Nausica; a connection like how someone and someone¡¯s possession began to attract each other after being together for a long time. Before Nausica¡¯s disy, she and the de were two separate objects. But now, they had joined as one.

    As if... Solefly had already served Nausica for several decades.

    ¡°It¡¯s a ritual.¡± Nausica chuckled. ¡°A ritual when every swordsman chooses a weapon. If my hand is cut off, it only means the weapon doesn¡¯t agree with me. Now I can see that Solefly has deemed me as its master and lifelong partner.¡±

    ¡°So the ritual was sessful,¡± said Angor. He wished to ask about the reasons behind the ritual and whether it was worth it, but in the end, he did not. Everyone had different senses of value. He had better not question someone¡¯s view just because it was different.

    ¡°Yup, very sessful,¡± said Nausica as she fixed Solefly along her waist. ¡°It really suits my style. Thanks!¡±

    Angor shook his head and smiled. ¡°Should the weapon get damaged in the future, just find me. It¡¯s one of the first creations of a master alchemist, so I¡¯ll repair it for free.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll use it carefully and make sure it doesn¡¯t reunite with you too soon. So, what¡¯s your next n, now that you¡¯re an alchemist?¡±

    ¡°Nothing in particr. Alchemy isn¡¯t easy. I need a lot of time and effort. It requires too much physical stamina and mental spirit.¡±

    Nausica agreed. ¡°You¡¯re right. A schoolmate mentioned this to me when I tried to study Runecraft too. Many alchemists only created something every other ten years. I mean, real alchemy products. As for apprentices... they probably needed simr time lengths. I heard there¡¯s an intermediate apprentice alchemist in the underground market called... pro something?¡±

    ¡°Prome?¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Yes, Master Prome. They said it usually takes him half a year to make a new creation.¡±

    Angor was speechless. When he said ¡°it took a long time¡±, he thought several days to make a single item was already pretty long. Now that Nausica mentioned it... he was d he did not tell Nausica how long it actually took him to craft Solefly.

    The reason why Angor could make something so fast was mainly due to the fact that he had already possessed blueprints and easy means of enchantment. The other alchemists usually needed a long time to design a blueprint and memorize runes. Half a year for an item was already fast enough.

    ...

    Together with his friends, Angor stayed at Cave Field and had roast beef for dinner.

    When Sailum heard that Angor had be an apprentice alchemist, he kept asking about all kinds of rted questions all night. Angor dly satisfied his curiosity.

    They had fun. The joyful reunion of friends finally ended with Sailum¡¯s loud snores.

    ¡°Ah, it¡¯s so good to be young. You can sleep whenever you want,¡± said Nausica as she lit her pipe. ¡°I don¡¯t remember how long ago since I had a good sleep. I always used meditation to rest.¡±

    Angor wanted to ask why she worked so hard, but he decided not to. Again, different views.

    After sending Sailum back to his room, Angor prepared to bid farewell to Nausica.

    ¡°I¡¯ll walk with you for a bit. To catch some fresh air outside,¡± Nausica said.

    The trip remained in silence. When Angor¡¯s house was already in view, Nausica suddenly said, ¡°Hookdick is taken to somewhere by his mentor, so you don¡¯t have to worry about him for now. But he did create lots of rumors about you.¡±

    ¡°I know. Sailum told mest time.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not bothered? He told people that you¡¯re useless, you take too much resource, you don¡¯t have any talent and only know how to hide behind people.¡±

    ¡°Did anyone believe him?¡±

    Nausica raised an eyebrow. ¡°Almost none, as long as they know Mister Sunders is behind your back. Still, there are those who get a little foolish...¡±

    ¡°That settles it then. Rumors will gradually break apart in the face of truth,¡± said Angor as he recalled Jon¡¯s words of teaching. ¡°Their doubts and misapprehensions cannot represent one tiny bit of my true self, but they can reflect the true natures of their creators instead.¡±

    ¡°Right. Only weaklings need rumors to support their incapable natures...¡± Nausica snickered. ¡°My oh my. You¡¯re an ideologist too? Welp. Since you¡¯re fine with it, I¡¯ll leave you be. Good luck on your tower challenge, and good night, young man.¡±

    ...

    Angor checked his calendar. ording to Butler Goode, the message about the garden of purification would be made public in 45 days.

    To avoid running into strong opponents who came to seek the opportunity, he had to do everything he could to reach the top level within that time.

    And the time was short.

    Angor decided that in the half month toe, he would spend all his time on the final alchemy weapon as well as getting used to thebination spells he chose.

    Half a month passed quickly.

    When the Month of Offering entered its second half, Angor left his house while covered under his ck ¡°bedsheet¡±.

    Toby fluttered around andnded on Angor¡¯s shoulder. The bird rubbed its tiny head against Angor¡¯s affectionately.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go to the tower today. You stay outside and get familiarized with the arenas for now,¡± Angor spoke to Toby. He also spent several days practicing teamwork with Toby. After learning the sequence of gravity, the bird gained several levels in strength.

    Previously, Angor thought he could defeat Toby easily with his finished alchemy weapon. But the truth proved otherwise. During one-on-one battles, Toby¡¯s swiftness was way beyond his imagination. He was using a long-range weapon, which would not help him at all if he could not get any good aim on Toby¡¯s figure.

    Still, the battles helped Angor understand his weaknesses. He would have a difficult time fighting against fast opponents, so of course, he needed to think about it. Angor had created several ns to prevent fast enemies from approaching. The best approach was asking Toby to take on the enemy head-on.

    In general, Angor was going to y dirty down to thest minute. All of his damage would rely on external help: alchemy weapons and Toby.

    His own cantrips were all about defense and opponent control. They were to help him wear down his enemies.

    The first floor of the Sky Tower was bustling as ever. Angor watched several matches first and gained a basic idea about who he was going to fight against.

    The matches still looked miserable, but at least they now appeared more heated aspared to ¡°King of Beasts VS Monarch of Eternal Freeze¡± that he saw the other day. The participants were actually fighting, causing the mortal audiences to cheer in excitement.

    After he had watched enough, Angor went to the registration hall.

 Chapter 174 - White Bear

    <h4>Chapter 174: White Bear</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Getting registered?¡± The clerk ced a registration form in front of Angor skillfully.

    When Angor took a pen to fill in the paper¡ª

    ¡°Sir, you should know that the title you chose in the Sky Tower will apany you to thest¡ª¡±

    ¡°Stop!¡± Angor waved a hand at him quickly. ¡°I know. A showy title is better.¡±

    The clerk gave him a big smile. ¡°Nice. I¡¯ll not bother you with the exnation then.¡±

    Angor quickly wrote down a title he already created and stuffed the paper in the clerk¡¯s hand.

    The clerk took the paper with the same smile and looked at the handsome and intelligent young man in front of him in satisfaction. But when he began to read the registration form, his smile froze instantly.

    ¡°I, am, the... truth?¡±

    Angor disyed a proud look. ¡°How about it? Showy enough right? The idea took me two weeks!¡±

    The clerk forced up a smile. ¡°Sir... the title is, well, outstanding. But it isn¡¯t a really good personal title.¡±

    Angor blinked innocently. ¡°Why? I think it¡¯s okay.¡±

    The clerk¡¯s lips twitched. ¡°Sir, please think about it. Once you be a wizard and get your name known around the world, how should people address you? Mister ¡®I am the truth¡¯? That doesn¡¯t have a good ring to it.¡±

    ¡°I think you¡¯re right,¡± said Angor. He took a new form and wrote down a new title he just came up with.

    The clerk looked at it with his expression unchanged. ¡°Absolute Ultimate Truth... Sir, that¡¯s quite difficult to pronounce too. How about something like ¡®Philosopher of Truth¡¯ or ¡®Keeper of Truth¡¯?¡± He suggested sincerely.

    <i>Philosopher? Toome.</i>

    Angor shook his head.

    ¡°So... what do you want to be in the future, sir?¡±

    ¡°Everyone¡¯s friend?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a phrase, not a title.¡±

    ¡°Then... I have a bird.¡± Angor poked at Toby on his shoulder. Toby quickly lifted its head high.

    ¡°That¡¯s... not good. People will get the wrong impression. <sup>1</sup> Please choose another one?¡± The clerk was still smiling, but he already freaked out deep in his mind. He witnessed many people who fantasized too much about themselves, but he had never met someone like Angor, who fantasized into apletely wrong track!

    At this moment, he only wished that Angor coulde up with a normal name quickly. Apple, Strawberry, Flower or h h, anything would do. He did not care whether it was showy!

    Seeing how Angor was still hesitating, the clerk quickly asked, ¡°Um, sir, how about choosing something you really like, and add a beautiful word along with it? Such as Queen of Sugar, Prince of Greatsword, Princess of Boobs?¡±

    ¡°Can I? What about... Baron Milk?¡± Angor then quickly denied his idea, ¡°No no no, that goes against my manly image.¡±

    ¡°Baron Milk, is it? Nice, I¡¯ll note it down.¡± The clerk¡¯s ears twitched and swiftly put the new title into Angor¡¯s form with a big smile. Then he quickly pushed Angor away.

    ¡°Sir Baron Milk, the lottery section is over there if you wish to join a battle right away. Please¡ª¡±

    Bam!

    The clerk mmed the office door against Angor¡¯s nose before the boy could register what just happened in his brain.

    Also, in thest second before the door fully closed, the worker tossed a transparent card object to Angor.

    Angor punched the door. ¡°No! I want to change my name! It sounds terrible!¡±

    Inside the office, the clerk found two cotton lumps and plugged them into his ears before resuming his daily work.

    Angor punched and kicked at the door for a while. His action attracted the attention of everyone inside the registration hall. In the end, he could only give up under the cold gazes of people.

    ¡°Baron Milk. Fine. I¡¯m gonna stay under my hood anyway. No one will see my face, and my manly image will be fine... right?¡±

    Feeling a little sad, Angor put on the hood of his ck ¡°bedsheet¡±, picked up his card from the floor, and quickly ran out of the registration hall.

    The lottery section was basically a backstage of the arenas. When Angor lifted the curtain and went inside, he saw a number of participants waiting in the room.

    Every fighter was dressed in strange styles. The whole ce looked like some kind of masquerade party and it took Angor some time to find the lottery box. He walked past all sorts of strange figures and smelled the weird scentsing from them.

    When Angor reached the box, everyone looked his way as his lottery might determine one of them as Angor¡¯s opponent.

    Different emotions were directed against Angor. Malevolence, stress, charm, disdain...

    ¡°Sir, please show me your profile.¡± A middle-aged woman standing behind the lottery box spoke in a serious tone. She was wearing a grayish-ck uniform and coiled-up hair.

    Angor took out his small, transparent card.

    The woman took the card and moved it against an alchemy machine. Next, Angor¡¯s title showed up in the ss screen on the desk.

    ¡°Baron Milk...¡± The woman¡¯s strict face went stiff a little upon seeing Angor¡¯s title. Also, her lips curled upwards in a mild smile. She then looked at the hooded but obviously immature boy in front of her and realized such a title really suited him.

    The other participants waiting in the backstage also saw the title. Laughters immediately boomed around the room.

    ¡°Baron Milk? Bah-hahaha! A freaking kid came to fight?¡±

    ¡°Ahhhahaha! I can beat down a dozen kids like that in one go! Oh please match him against me! I, Ocean Reaper, will chop him in half!¡±

    ¡°Ocean Reaper? Oh ho. I, Temr Authority, will try him out!¡±

    ¡°Get out of my way. I, Bishop of Twilight, will drink this cup of milk!¡±

    The middle-aged woman spoke to Angor in a gentle tone, which was rare for her. ¡°Mister Baron Milk, do you want to choose an opponent right now?¡±

    ¡°Yes...¡± A small, timid voice came from under the ck hood.

    ¡°Go ahead, please,¡± The woman signaled Angor toward the box.

    The lottery box looked like a small, square box on the outside. However, when Angor reached a hand in there, he realized that the inside was exceptionallyrge. Considering how they could ce a space-expansion rune into such a tiny lottery box, Floating Mech City was really a powerful ce for alchemy.

    Angor took out a random ball from the box. A number was printed on the ball: 038794.

    The woman took the ball from Angor and quickly noted something down. A momentter, the screen in front of her showed ¡°Baron Milk VS ckjack, in 30 minutes, Sky Tower Level 1, Arena 7.¡±

    The woman frowned a bit when she saw the name of Angor¡¯s opponent. She looked at Angor with a hint of sympathy in her eyes.

    ¡°ckjack, huh? Nothing to do with me then.¡±

    ¡°The kid got ckjack as his first opponent. That¡¯s gonna leave an ugly mark in his heart in the future.¡±

    ¡°Future? Ha! The brat won¡¯t have a future. Just think about how ckjack deals with his enemies.¡±

    From the discussionsing from behind him, Angor thought that this ckjack figure might be someone powerful. However, when he went through the participant information about seeded yers he received from Dave, he could not recall anyone by that name.

    Which meant there was nothing to be afraid of.

    Angor took back his profile card nonchntly and turned to the resting ce for participants.

    Because of his terrible title, he did not intend to talk to anyone for now. Instead, he chose a corner of the room which was free of people and hunkered down.

    With nothing to do while waiting, Angor simply started to meditate.

    He did not even get to meditate for long before he heard footstepsing near him. Angor frowned. He intentionally chose a corner where no people would pass by. Why would someonee here?

    He opened his eyes and saw someone... or something, standing in front of him.

    Yup, something.

    The figure was covered in a full cosy suit of a white bear. He was also wearing a headband with white, decorative bear ears on it. His face was exposed, but it was not obvious since his face looked white, round and chubby... kinda like a real bear.

    ¡°Nice to meet you, Baron Milk.¡± The white bear waved a hand at Angor.

    Angor would definitely respond with the same politely manner... if not for his embarrassing situation. Now, he only nned to disy a distant and unfriendly image for ¡°Baron Milk¡±, so that he would not get his true identity exposed.

    With that in mind, Angor humphed and disregarded the white bear.

    The white bear did not give up at all. Instead, he sat down beside Angor as if meeting with a close friend and revealed a big smile. ¡°Hey Baron Milk, I love milk too! Let¡¯s be friends.¡±

    <i>Friends?</i>

    Angor inspected the face of the white bear from under his hood. Putting that suit aside, the man¡¯s face looked really chubby, about... 20 years old? The man reminded Angor of a grown-up version of n Morn.

    Angor humphed again and pretended to have a hoarse throat. ¡°I¡¯m not interested in milk. The name¡¯s just... a big mistake.¡±

    The white bear remained friendly. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Fate gave you such a name. Even if it¡¯s a mistake, it still brought us together. Let¡¯s be friends. My title is ¡®Earthen Bear¡¯. You can call me White Bear, or just Cubby.¡±

    <i>Cubby?! </i>Angor shivered. And what was the deal with fate? This man felt like those unreliable fortellers that he read about in novels; those who always spoke strange and obscurenguages without making any sense.

    ¡°Humph,¡± Angor let out some air from his nose, ying his ¡°cold and unfriendly¡± figure to the best extent.

    White Bear did not mind Angor¡¯s attitude at all. He kept speaking while carrying his usual smile, ¡°I saw your first opponent being ckjack. Do be careful, he¡¯s far from the kind type.¡±

    Seeing Angor was still unresponsive, White Bear paused a little and spoke again, ¡°ckjack is a famous fighter in the first level. He¡¯s already strong enough to join the next level, but he¡¯d rather stay here even if he can¡¯t earn many points. Because... he¡¯s known for being a sadist. A very dedicate one. And he gets more excited when fighting against weaker opponents. That man remained at the first level and loves to pick on new fighters.

    ¡°ckjack is an ult apprentice, but no one has recognized exactly which branch. He knows a trick that could seal your voice. So, if you¡¯re not confident, make sure you tell the judge that you surrender before your match begins.¡±

    Angor was not interested in ckjack¡¯s strength at all. Instead, he nced at White Bear and asked in his pretended low voice, ¡°Just be frank. What do you want from me?¡±

 Chapter 175 - VS Blackjack

    <h4>Chapter 175: VS ckjack</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    White Bear paused at the question before speaking out, ¡°The fate has guided us¡ª¡±

    ¡°Human speech, brother,¡± said Angor. He kept pretending to be of cold temperament but with a little extra impatience this time.

    White Bear scratched his head in a silly manner. He thought Angor was agitated for real. ¡°Because, uh, I¡¯m wearing a couple set with your bird. That¡¯s the guidance of fate.¡±

    <i>Couple set? Bird?</i>

    Angor was taken aback. Then he looked at Toby, who had been standing on his shoulder.

    Toby chose different clothes to wear every day. Greya prepared countless selections for him. Today, Toby was wearing a fluffy animal costume, but it was not a bear. The bird was dressed as a white otter.

    Considering Toby¡¯s miniature figure... the pair of adorable otter ears did look like a bear.

    Toby was also shocked at White Bear¡¯s words. The bird dashed in front of White Bear and kicked at him in rage.

    A w mark was left on White Bear¡¯s face. The force of the kick pressed him against the wall, which further proved how much burst power Toby had gained.

    Then, Toby tweeted and chirped at White Bear non-stop. It was as if it was cursing at him.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s an otter costume, which is... different from your bear one,¡± Angor exined in a sympathetic tone. ¡°Also... my bird is... a ¡®he¡¯, and it just rejected your couple proposal.¡±

    With that, Angor called Toby back and turned to leave.

    A momentter, White Bear struggled to climb upright while still being a little afraid of the violent bird. After considering a little, he took out a short, ck cane from his animal costume and ced it on the floor. The cane stood upright, without anyone to support it.

    White Bear closed his eyes and chanted some strange words. Magic ripples slowly spread from him.

    When the ripples reached the standing cane, the cane fell down and pointed to the direction toward which Angor just left.

    White Bear scratched his head again. ¡°But I was right. The fate DID guide me to him.¡±

    ...

    Angor chose another spot to meditate until an announcement told him to join the stage.

    He felt tensed since this was his first battle. When he walked in the yer passage, he kept breathing in rhyme to adjust his heartbeat.

    ¡°Oh my. This milk kid really came for his first battle in his life?¡±

    ¡°Aw, look at his face. He¡¯s gonna have a really bad time.¡±

    ¡°You saw ckjack? I didn¡¯t see him anywhere.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s already here. Check out the passage at the other end.¡±

    Angor walked out of the passage and saw that the audience stands around Arena 7 was already filled with people of various ages. Almost everyone was cheering ¡°ckjack!¡± in unison. Some frenzied female fans even moved seductively with their bodies being over-exposed.

    Before Angor climbed onto the stage, he saw a figure already standing on the other end of it. Considering how the audiences were directing their excitement toward there, that must be his opponent, ¡°ckjack¡±.

    And it seemed ckjack had quite a fame around here. It was rare to see an arena so full of onlookers in Level 1.

    The ss screen above the arena showed their names.

    Baron Milk VS ckjack. Match starts in: 4:59.

    A portrait was also shown along with ckjack¡¯s name. It was a man wearing a ck gentleman top-hat and a ck monocle.

    Angor¡¯s name, on the other hand, only had a ck shadow beside it along with three question marks, which obviously meant that his information was not fully updated yet.

    ¡°ckjack¡¯s portrait kinda dressed like the professor. Maybe he¡¯s a fan of Sunders?¡± Angor looked at the screen and thought to himself. Apart from the different color of his monocle, every piece of clothing on ckjack basically copied Sunders¡¯ style, which gave Angor a really strange feeling.

    When the countdown reached 2:59, the screen showed something else: Fighters On Stage!

    Angor took a deep breath to suppress his stress. Then he whispered to Toby, ¡°Stay alert and don¡¯t attack him at first.¡±

    Toby tweeted and left his shoulder to circle in the air.

    ¡°Baron Milk? Such a weird name.¡±

    ¡°I think he¡¯s just a kid. Look at his body.¡±

    ¡°Maybe a little girl? Hey, look! ckjack is all worked up!¡±

    Angor walked up to the stage slowly. With the ck bedsheet covering his entire body, people could only take guesses ording to his overall size.

    ¡°Fafafafa!¡± ckjack suddenly put a palm over his face in an exaggerated manner and let out a series of strangeughter. ¡°Lady luck favors me today! Fafafa! A chick is my opponent. Let me snap those pathetic wings of yours! Fafafafa!¡±

    Angor was totally dumbfounded at those embarrassing words. How could someone even speak like that in public? When he heard about the name of his opponent, Angor thought ¡°ckjack¡± was a serious andposed participant aspared to those kings or lords or something. But he was wrong! This man was worse! A psycho!

    ¡°Lord ckjack! Go break his wings!¡± The audiences cheered in even more embarrassing manners.

    What was more, most of the audiences were now mimicking ckjack¡¯s pose¡ªthey covered their faces andughed maniacally.

    Angor nced at them and felt as if the embarrassment was going to materialize in reality.

    ¡°Lord ckjack, enough with that boring kid. Come and break my wings, sweetheart!¡± Some shameless female fans of ckjack teased.

    ¡°Fafafa... Fear me! Tremble before me, chick!¡± ckjack taunted again.

    Angor tightened his hood and made sure it would not fall off. He then looked up at ckjack and inspected the man.

    ckjack was pretty tall. Angor¡¯s own head only reached his neck area, so he must be at least 1.9 meters. His body was slim. To go with his ck top-hat, he was also wearing ck tuxedobined with white undershirt with ace cor. There was a red and ck checkered bow-tie at the cor.

    From what was exposed on his face, ckjack looked decent. No wonder so many women fell for him.

    Just... he might have a problem with his brain given the way he talked.

    ckjack kept taunting for a while. Even if he was ying a distant and wordless character, Angor thought he should at least reply a little.

    Angor humphed. ¡°You think you can be him if you copy his clothes? What a joke.¡±

    None of the audiences understood what Angor meant. Even Angor was not sure if ckjack couldprehend those words. He just spoke like that to improve his image; by pretending that he knew everything about his enemy.

    The audiences remained silent for a while. Him? What was Baron Milk talking about?

    ckjack, however, quickly put on apletely different expression. ¡°Who the heck are you?! How did you know my deepest secret?!¡±

    Angor was speechless now. <i>Your deepest secret? What¡¯s going on?</i>

    ckjack¡¯s expression shifted. In the end, he squinted his eyes and disyed a really wicked look.

    ¡°I was only nning to pluck your nails one by one and remove all your limbs. Since you know my secret... I¡¯d rather you die!¡±

    Angor remained speechless. <i>What¡¯s his problem? Is his secret all about copying Sunders?</i>

    ...

    When the countdown reached zero, the magic-inhibiting array on the stage was lifted. Angor felt his mana flow returning and quickly began constructing a spell model.

    But ckjack moved faster.

    The man revealed an eerie smile and took out four cards from his pocket.

    ¡°Fafafafa... Card, Kiss of the Tongueless.¡±

    A beautifully crafted card was tossed into the air. A shadow of a tongueless individual suddenly emerged from the card and covered the area above Angor.

    ¡°Quickened spell?¡± Angor immediately thought about such a word. The shadow¡¯s immediate effect caused Angor to panic a little.

    The shadow was not really fast, which somewhat soothed Angor¡¯s panic. He thought it was just some kind of attacking spell, so he quickly moved aside. However, instead of attacking him, the tongueless shadow only stayed afloat above his head while kissing the air like mad.

    Angor looked at the worming lips of the kissing shadow in disgust and cursed in a low voice. That was when he realized he could not speak anymore.

    He recalled White Bear¡¯s words; that ckjack could seal someone¡¯s voice to prevent his opponent from surrendering. Previously, Angor thought it was only a sound-rted spell, not such a... bizarre-looking trick.

    Angor controlled his mana flow fluently. Seemed like the tongueless shadow only blocked his voice and nothing else was affected.

    ckjack noticed Angor¡¯s panic and revealed another cold smile. He picked out another card from the three cards he was holding.

    From a quick look, Angor saw a man with a really long tongue whose neck was tangled in a rope printed on the card.

    That looked like something that could hurt or restrict people, and Angor did not wish to experience it. Before ckjack could throw the card, Angor quickly reached under his ck robe and released a golden light beam which pierced the air and reached ckjack in an instant.

    The light beam was too fast. ckjack already noticed it, but his body could not react in time since he was not a Bloodline wizard.

    The beam pierced ckjack¡¯s left arm. Blood sshed out quickly.

    ckjack yelled in pain and knelt on the ground. He held his wounded arm and looked up at Angor. ¡°You know Quickened spell?? That¡¯s impossible!¡±

    Angor humphed again to maintain his arrogant image, but he had already begun to build another cantrip model in secret.

    ckjack looked at the giant hole on his arm and clenched his teeth. He took out a card decorated with the image of a flower-watering goddess. The card melted into a warm puddle and slowly mended his bleeding wound.

    ¡°Thank god Baron Milk is such a newb who doesn¡¯t know he should finish me off when I¡¯m down. Fafafa... Once I patched up my arm, I¡¯ll grind you under my heel!¡± ckjack frowned and cursed. He now felt both lucky and a little anxious.

 Chapter 176 - Blackjackâ€™s Secret

    <h4>Chapter 176: ckjack¡¯s Secret</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Card: Garden of the Twilight Goddess.¡±

    This card in his card set had a healing effect which was as powerful as level-2 cantrips. However, it was very costly to use since he could only make one of these every other two days.

    After using ¡°Garden of the Twilight Goddess¡±, the wound on ckjack¡¯s arm was almost healed. At the same time, a tiny, golden arrow was removed from his damaged muscles by the healing effect.

    ckjack looked at the golden arrow and grimaced.

    ¡°A long-range alchemy weapon? So that was how he attacked me so fast!¡± A hint of greed showed up in ckjack¡¯s eyes. In Brute Cavern, where alchemists were rare, alchemy weapons were beyond valuable. Let alone a long-range weapon which could be used by level-1 apprentices.

    ¡°That alchemy weapon will be mine! Once I¡¯m healed, I¡¯ll use my Card: Punishment for the Hanged Man, and I¡¯ll break the chick¡¯s wings into pieces! Fafafafa!¡± ckjackughed in a low voice. ¡°He¡¯s just an inexperienced chick who doesn¡¯t know when to double tap his enemy. Must be a new wizard who never witnessed the cruelty of this world. He still has the pathetic sympathy of a mortal. Now, I only need toy low and pretend to be weak, and he¡¯ll hesitate, then I can crash him under my feet...¡±

    Thinking about this, ckjack put up a weak but stubborn and determined expression. He watched mortal dramas before, and he knew such a disy always did a good job of moving people¡¯s emotions.

    <i>Ha! The chick will cry at my performance!</i>

    ckjack directed his dramatic expression at Baron Milk, hoping to stop his action. Five seconds would do!

    However, when ckjack noticed what Baron Milk was doing, he felt his breath blocked and almost wanted to cough up blood.

    ¡°¡®Chick¡¯ my ass! That¡¯s a shameless bastard!¡±

    He was hit by the alchemy weapon six seconds ago. Six! Seconds! Ago!

    And Baron Milk already put up FOUR defensive spells in front of his face!

    And the brat was still chanting something else!!

    ¡°Are you afraid to get hurt so badly?! Is your spellbination all about defense spells?¡±

    When ckjack¡¯s wound waspletely cured by Twilight Goddess, Baron Milk was behind the protection of seven spells in total. Four defense ones, and three control ones that prevented people from approaching. There was also a firewall made from abo of Grease and Ember.

    ¡°Shameless! Impudent! Stupid! You dirty smurfing arse!¡±

    Even level-2 apprentices would probably need five or six seconds to prate all that defense. ckjack was only level-1, and he needed at least half a minute!

    Angor did not feel ashamed at all. He nned to trick his way to the top level of Sky Tower from the start, so some cursing words would not hurt. Besides, he had way dirtier tricks up his sleeves. No one knew his real identity anyway. He was a wordless and arrogant Baron Milk at this very moment!

    Angor lifted a hand and another golden beam was released from his sleeve.

    ckjack had just barely recovered from his wound, and he was in no condition to dodge this one. The golden arrow pierced his right arm this time.

    Angor¡¯s attack did not end here. A number of small golden arrows came rushing from him non-stop and aimed for ckjack¡¯s vital points as if Angor was simply throwing away free candies rather than using a valuable alchemy weapon.

    ckjack was terrified of the barrage in the air. From his remaining two cards, he quickly took out a card with the picture of a cross shield on it.

    ¡°Card: Knight Shield!¡± ckjack ced the shield in front of him which helped him deflect some of the arrows. However, under the constant attacks, the shield began to crack.

    ¡°Stop! I give up! Please!¡± ckjack yelled loudly and tossed his profile card into the air.

    He could neither break open his opponent¡¯s defense nor escape from the deadly arrows. Any longer and he would drop dead for sure!

    The Sky Tower arenas did not forbid people from killing each other. However, as long as someone surrendered and threw his or her profile card, the arena judge would activate a spell array to separate the participants instantly.

    When the card was shown in the air, a magic array appeared quickly, along with a faint ss barrier which showed up between Angor and ckjack, blocking Angor¡¯s further attacks.

    [Winner: Baron Milk]

    As the screen above the arena announced the end of the match, ckjack¡¯s profile card released a light beam in the air. It then flew toward Angor¡¯s pocket and disappeared into Angor¡¯s card.

    Angor took out his card to check. A message showing his victory against ckjack was now shown on the card. He had just earned three match points. Also, ording to the number of matches and the victory rate of ckjack, he also gained 150 merit points as a reward.

    ¡°Not bad. At least that¡¯s enough to pay for my bolts,¡± said Angor as he put away his profile card and strolled off the stage.

    ckjack slumped on the ground. He had several bleeding holes on his body. Several workers of the tower came and carried him away.

    When Arena 7 returned to being unupied, the audiences all eximed in wonder.

    ¡°But Lord ckjack! He was going to snap the chick¡¯s wings! How¡ª¡±

    ¡°Chick?! He destroyed ckjack! There¡¯s no way he¡¯s a chick.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a level-3 apprentice hidden under that robe?¡±

    Almost all the audiences were mere mortals, so they could only take blind guesses. The few apprentices among them, however, also whispered to each other.

    ¡°ckjack lost? THE ckjack?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you see Baron Milk used his alchemy weapon? A long-range weapon at that!¡±

    ¡°Of course I did! Damn it! I want one!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait when the kid got no one around and take his stuff!¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know who he is. A level-1 apprentice with a powerful alchemy weapon means someone really strong is supporting him. Let¡¯s not look for trouble.¡±

    ¡°Coward!¡±

    As Angor returned to the backstage waiting room, all the other participants now looked at him withpletely different emotions. Fear, astonishment... and mostly, greed.

    Angor walked to the lottery box again. The middle-aged woman watched his match too. She nced at the boy¡¯s robe-covered wrist and revealed an inconspicuous smile.

    ¡°Mister Baron Milk, do you want to keep going?¡±

    Angor nodded. He was stressed because it was his very first battle, and he exhausted most of his mana by casting seven spells in one go. Still, a little meditation should keep him going for several more matches. It was unlikely that he would keep running into opponents like ckjack.

    ¡°Alright. Draw a lottery please.¡±

    Angor reached a hand into the box ¡ª adeptly this time ¡ª and took out a ball using his instinct.

    035325.

    The woman took over the ball. Soon, a line appeared on the screen in front of her: [Baron Milk VS Ashen Warrior. In 30 minutes. Sky Tower Level 1, Arena 6.]

    ...

    While trying to ignore the whispers of discussion among people, Angor moved to a far corner and closed his eyes to meditate. He was still disying his ¡°leave me alone¡± temperament.

    He had not even meditated for long when he heard simr footsteps again.

    ¡°The fate guided YOU, not ME,¡± said Angor without opening his eyes.

    ¡°Hey, Milk, I saw your fight. You¡¯re so good!¡± White Bear still sounded joyful as ever.

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me ¡®Milk¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Baron, was that an alchemy weapon? Nice! Did you get it from Master Prome?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s it to do with you?¡± Angor opened his eyes this time and inspected the man in front of him from under his hood.

    The man was still in his white bear costume and was wearing the same smiling face. However, he was holding a short, ck-painted magic cane this time.

    Angor sighed in his mind. Why did this guy keep buzzing him?

    ¡°I¡¯m just curious. In Brute Cavern, there are only a handful of people who own alchemy weapons, and people have already squeezed everyst bit of information out of them. But your weapon only showed up for the first time. It didn¡¯t look like any of theirs.¡±

    ¡°So what?¡± Angor grew impatient. ¡°Again, what do you want from me?¡±

    White Bear kept smiling. ¡°Our fate intertwined, so I¡¯m destined to meet you again.¡±

    ¡°You crept up on me yourself. Don¡¯t give me that fate nonsense.¡± Angor waved a hand. ¡°If you¡¯re not going to talk, just leave me be. I have matchesing up. I have to rest.¡±

    Hearing these, White Bear took his cane and walked away, still smiling.

    When the figure of White Bear finally disappeared into the crowd, Angor frowned and wondered what was the deal with that man.

    After meditating for about ten minutes, Angor heard footsteps again. They sounded heavy this time whenpared to White Bear¡¯s footsteps.

    Angor looked up in frustration and realized it was ckjack.

    The man was heavily bandaged up. Neither his top-hat nor his monocle was there. Angor could clearly see his short, grayish-green hair and handsome face this time.

    ¡°You¡ª¡± Angor opened his mouth and immediately realized he was ¡°Baron Milk¡± for the moment, so he only let out a snort in the end.

    He waited for ckjack to speak first.

    ¡°I lost the match and I admit it. But I warn you! Don¡¯t you tell my secret to anyone, or I¡¯ll make sure to mess up your life, even if it costs mine!¡±

    The words sounded firm and determined. But Angor still did not know what ckjack meant. Secret? Was it about ckjack¡¯s dressing style which he copied from Sunders?

    Angor checked ckjack carefully. Without his hat, the short gray-green hair looked almost exactly the same with Sunders¡¯ own hair. Also, ckjack¡¯s face kinda looked familiar.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s the professor¡¯s bastard son?¡± Angor quickly thought about a touching love story in which a bastard son sought to be epted by his stern father by mimicking his father¡¯s clothing and character. However, the merciless fatherpletely disregarded his effort, which caused the son to develop a twisted mindset and found joy in torturing newbies...

    After warning Angor, ckjack limped away on his walking cane.

    ¡°Sigh... poor son.¡± Angor looked at ckjack¡¯s pathetic figure and concluded the story he just made up.

 Chapter 177 - Stalked

    <h4>Chapter 177: Stalked</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When ckjack was gone, Angor began thinking about his previous match. It appeared to be easy, but if ckjack chose something else to use at the beginning, such as using an attack based card, the result might be different.

    All four cards were Quickened spells, and they all had strong effects.

    ckjack lost his chance to retaliate due to his carelessness and the fixed approach he used in the other fights, and it allowed Angor to gain experience instead.

    ¡°I wonder which branch ckjack is studying. Those cards were good. They¡¯re as powerful as magic scrolls,¡± Angor thought to himself. Next time, he would go to Sunders and ask about this, considering how ckjack really looked like Sunders himself.

    The second match, Baron Milk VS Ashen Warrior.

    The name suggested that this one was a Bloodline apprentice. Bloodline wizards were rtively strongpared to the other wizards of the same level, but they had to absorb a strong bloodline to strengthen themselves first. Ashen Warrior was only a level-1 apprentice who had not found a suitable bloodline yet. He only knew basic punches and kicks. Angor only needed a Frost spell to control the field and easily defeated him with the alchemy weapon.

    The victory against Ashen Warrior won Angor 13 merit points, which was totally neglectablepared to his winnings from ckjack.

    Angor proceeded with the third match which was to fight against an Element apprentice adept at Frostfire spells. And he triumphed easily.

    His three consecutive wins caused all the participants waiting in the backstage topletely change their attitude. His tactic was a little dirty, true, but owning an alchemy weapon was still considered to be someone¡¯s strength, so no one really questioned Angor¡¯s victories.

    However, most of the fighters grew really curious about Angor¡¯s alchemy weapon.

    People guessed that his weapon could be something like a bow since they all saw the small golden arrowsing from under Angor¡¯s sleeve. But... could someone use a bow with only one hand?

    There were also assumptions that Angor was using a blow dart of some sort since it could be manipted remotely.

    Blow darts, however, were usually weak. In the end, someone concluded that Angor was using a fast and powerful weapon like a small crossbow.

    These guesses were all in the right direction, but none of them were urate.

    After his three victories in the first day, Angor¡¯s match point ended up at 9.

    With the arenas closed for the day, all the yers scattered and headed their own ways.

    Angor tightened his robe and left Sky Tower. But very soon, he noticed someone was following him.

    He frowned a little. He had already expected someone to get greedy, but not so soon.

    Angor sighed and kept walking, without minding his stalkers.

    With Toby to alert him, every movement of those people waspletely obvious to him. Angor was nning to head home straight away, but since someone was following him, he chose to take detours in theplicated paths of the underground market instead.

    There were many shops and human crowds here. Angor was confident that the stalkers would not dare to attack him openly in the market, so he boldly chose crowded paths and moved quickly, hoping to shake them off.

    Ordinary people would lose Angor¡¯s tracks at this rate sooner orter. But this time, Angor underestimated the abilities of supernaturals. Even level-1 apprentices might possess certain useful tricks.

    Among his stalkers, there was such an apprentice who could use canine summoning spells. With the animal¡¯s sharp sense of smell, it was difficult for Angor to get away just by running.

    After realizing that he could not get rid of the offenders by running around the market, Angor shook his head and decided to give up. The golden arrow was not his only creation. With the other stronger weapon and Toby¡¯s help, he knew he could take on two or three people at the same time as long as there were no level-3 apprentices or someone stronger.

    With that in mind, Angor stopped hiding and walked toward the surface.

    The people following behind also noticed Angor¡¯s change in behavior. They also gave up being all cautious and walked just about ten meters behind Angor without bothering to conceal their arrogant and violent looks on their faces.

    Angor noticed four people. Also, he recognized them since he saw these people in the participant waiting room at Level 1, which also meant they were merely level-1 apprentices at best. Angor grew more confident.

    Upon reaching Apprentice Town Eight, Angor headed to the woods near the town rather than his vi. He had to fight them anyway, so he might as well pick somewhere vacant.

    The Mirror World might look like a small paradise to outsiders... on condition that people only stayed low-profile for their entire lives.

    The Tree Spirit Garden was never a safe ce. Apprentices fought among each other very often; to live or die could be determined by a simple decision. Every inch of the ground might be hiding the corpse of someone beneath.

    Angor walked fast, and so were the four people stalking him. Angor even heard them discussing how to divide their loot after killing him.

    Disorder. The true side of Brute Cavern.

    After entering the woods, Angor was soon surrounded by the stalkers.

    ¡°Baron Milk, eh? Give us your alchemy weapon, and we MAY consider sparing your life.¡±

    The speaker was a bearded man wearing a bandanna. A hound with white and yellow coat crouched at his heel.

    There was a hot-looking woman who had aced, folded fan in her hand. When talking, the two giant objects in front of her chest area flipped up and down like two overfilled water balloons.

    ¡°Hey, handsome... I really like that weapon. So... pretty please?¡±

    Thest two people were twins. One of them wore his standard ck robe, while the other was in a white one. They looked almost identical apart from some small details. The man in the white robe had an ocean-colored earring, while the ck-robed man wore a me-colored one.

    ¡°Your weapon is so good on my big brother. I¡¯ll use it as his birthday present tomorrow,¡± said the white-robed twin.

    ¡°Your weapon is so good on my little brother. I¡¯ll use it as his birthday present tomorrow,¡± said the ck-robed twin.

    ¡°Big bro!¡±

    ¡°Little bro.¡±

    The twins looked at each other affectionately.

    ¡°To hell with you all. Come and get me if you want,¡± said Angor. He did not intend to waste any breath on these people or learn anything about who they were.

    Angor signaled at something. A swift shadow descended from the sky and rushed at the bearded hound user in a blink of an eye.

    At the same time, a number of golden arrows came from Angor¡¯s sleeve in a shower of light beams.

    ¡°Why you¡ª¡±

    That was the only thing the hound user managed to say before the ck shadow tore his throat open. He fell dead on the ground, along with his dog.

    Naturally, it was Toby who just disyed the perfectbo attack with Angor.

    Toby did not rest after its attempt. The bird used the corpse of the hound user as a leaping stone and shot himself toward the sexy woman next.

    Angor left Toby to its own job. His targets were the twin brothers in front of him. His instinct told him that these two were harder to deal with.

    Under the attacks of countless golden arrows, the brothers held each other¡¯s hands tightly like a pair of newly-married couple. Under Angor¡¯s troubled gaze, a fire wall came from the elder brother¡¯s body while a water wall came from the younger brother. The two conflicting elements somehow existed in harmony and fused into one.

    The golden arrows could only pierce the firstyer of the fused barrier and werepletely bounced away by the second.

    ¡°Brothers of one mind! Water & me Barrier!¡±

    ¡°Brothers of one mind! Water & me Barrier!¡±

    Angor felt really ufortable when he heard the brothers yelling in unison. Seriously, why would people announce the names of their skills like that anyway?

    He did not stop his action though. He still had two hundred bolts. There was no way that the barrier could hold on forever.

    The twins needed their mana to sustain the barrier while Angor simply needed to move a finger. ¡°Let¡¯s see who¡¯s gonna give up first.¡±

    As Angor released his arrows continuously, a woman¡¯s scream came from behind, along with the booming noise of an explosion.

    Angor nced away. The twins also spared some effort the check out the battle in the other direction.

    They saw the hound user already dead, and the sexy woman was pushed into the ground by a ck shadow. The explosion was caused by the woman¡¯s body when it broke the ground open.

    ¡°What¡¯s that? Baron Milk¡¯s familiar? What¡¯s the deal with that strength?!¡± The white-robed twin eximed in shock.

    ¡°I saw it, little brother!¡± The ck-robed twin yelled.

    ¡°It¡¯s a bird!¡± They both shouted.

    Angor, on the other hand, felt as if he was watching a drama disy.

    The water-and-me barrier created by the twin brothers was quite sturdy, and Angor could not prate it. Toby already finished its own fight really fast. The bird was now rushing toward the brothers like another bolt.

    ¡°This is bad, little brother. My mana is spent!¡±

    ¡°Me too!¡±

    As Toby was about to reach the barrier, someone else suddenly spoke in a puzzled tone.

    ¡°To¡ªToby??¡±

    Toby halted in the air and along with Angor, they looked at who just called his name.

    They saw a young man with a pockmarked face, who was wearing a pair of goggles over his forehead. The young man was carefully following behind another middle-aged, elegantly-dressed man, who had just emerged from a narrow path in the woods.

    ¡°Dave?¡± Angor realized who hade.

    It was Dave who just called Toby. Angor did not recognize the middle-aged figure beside him.

    The appearance of Dave distracted Angor and Toby¡¯s attention on the twin brothers.

    ¡°Master Prome? The alchemy weapon of Baron Milk was made by Master Prome?¡±

    It seemed the twins knew the identity of the man. They quickly exchanged a look and nodded at the same time.

    ¡°Run!¡±

    They ran in opposite directions. One toward the depth of woods while the other headed outside the woods.

    When Angor noticed their actions and looked back, they were already at a good distance away. Toby pointed a wing at them and asked Angor if it should chase them.

    Angor considered for a bit and shook his head in the end.

 Chapter 178 - Prome

    <h4>Chapter 178: Prome</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Angor?¡± Dave still sounded surprised.

    Angor removed his hood and revealed his identity.

    ¡°It¡¯s really you! Why are you here¡ªI mean, why were you fighting Chloe Brothers?¡± Dave walked out from behind the middle-aged man and asked. He then said, ¡°Master Prome, this is my friend, Angor.¡±

    ¡°Master Prome?¡± Angor looked at the man in front of him. So this was the famous alchemist in the underground market?

    The man looked a little bit overweight. He was wearing a violet-colored wizard robe decorated with many gold and silver charms. It looked really expensive.

    ¡°Ah, so this is the Angor you¡¯re always talking about,¡± Prome replied. But he did not pay any attention to Dave. Instead, his gaze shifted around the scene and quickly observed everything, including the hole behind Angor, as well as the corpses of a dog and a human nearby.

    ¡°Greetings to you, Master Prome,¡± Angor addressed Prome using his noble manner.

    Prome nodded. ¡°Impressive, child. You defeated two apprentices alone, and forced Chloe Brothers to run for their lives.¡±

    Dave was shocked at those words when he also noticed the corpse.

    ¡°¡®Canine Master¡¯ Potongue? You killed him, Angor?¡±

    Potongue was a pretty famous figure around the underground market. There were Three Genius Summoners and Three Useless Summoners, and Potongue was one of the useless ones.

    Since the corpse was just here, Angor could only nod and admit to it.

    Dave opened his mouth again but did not say anything further. It was Prome who spoke next, ¡°Dave, you stay here and spend some time with your friend. I¡¯ll go alone.¡±

    Dave jumped at those words, and then quickly shook his head. ¡°Please, I can visit Angor next time. Master¡¯s going to craft an energy core, and I can help as your assistant.¡±

    Dave threw Angor a meaningful nce, then quickly followed behind Prome and disappeared into the path.

    When they were gone, Angor walked to the hole on the ground and checked. Dave looked shocked when Prome said there were two dead wizards because he only saw the corpse of Canine Master. Angor, on the other hand, knew that Prome was referring to the sexy woman down in this hole.

    His heart skipped a beat when he looked down.

    The woman, well, was beyond dead. Her corpse looked miserable. There was a giant wound which cut open her entire chest and abdomen. Yellowish body fat, bloody flesh, and guts were exposed in the air, releasing a terrible stench.

    Angor could not connect this destroyed body with the beautiful woman he saw a moment ago.

    ¡°Toby... your burst power is, um, scary,¡± Angor managed toment.

    Before learning the sequence of gravity, Toby was fast but with average strength. It could not really damage people as long as its opponent was prepared. But now... the bird sted an entire human being into the ground. His speed and power amplified each other by several folds. Angor suddenly got the feeling that he would not even need a weapon to reach the top level of Sky Tower. Using Toby was enough.

    Toby lifted his head high and tweeted happily upon hearing Angor¡¯s words ofpliment.

    ¡°Stay alert in the air, and tell me if anyonees. I need to bury these two,¡± Angor asked Toby to fly higher. He tossed the corpse of Canine Master into the hole and proceeded to fill the hole up.

    It went smoothly. Apart from their bone cards and profile cards used in Sky Tower, they did not have anything else on them. From the cards, Angor learned that the woman was called Balius.

    He spent some time to recycle the golden bolts scattered about. Some of them were lost in the dense vegetations, so he could only give them up.

    After collecting about 30 bolts, Angor signaled Toby to leave the woods.

    This was the first time for him to actually maim someone. Angor¡¯s mind was only disturbed a little when he saw the ruined body of Balius, and it was only caused by his instinct to avoid ugly stuff. Maybe he felt calm because it was Toby who did the killing, or maybe the mindset of ¡°survival of the fittest¡± he always worked on ever since he came to Brute Cavern worked wonders.

    Nevertheless, he did not regret his action. Those people came looking for trouble first. Making such a decision meant they had to ept the consequence of it.

    ...

    Far away from Angor, Dave had already left the woods area while following behind Prome. However, he was still ncing back every now and then.

    The fact that Angor just killed Canine Master really shocked him. ¡®Canine Master¡¯ Potongue was one term ahead of him, and two terms ahead of Angor. That man joined Brute Cavern ten years ago. Potongue was not strong. Even if the man was titled a ¡°Useless Summoner¡±, Dave was still sure Potongue could at least defeat him with ease.

    But now, Angor killed Potongue. Besides, Angor¡¯s wizard robe did not seem wrinkled or tainted at all, which meant he did a really easy job at killing his opponent.

    That was shocking news! Dave clearly remembered that when he went looking for Toby to test his Propeller Flyer MK-II, Angor was still a mortal. And when Angor said ¡°his talent was poor¡±, Dave believed him!

    <i>Poor talent?!</i>

    Dave got the feeling that Angor was hiding a lot of things from him.

    ¡°Your little friend possesses a really good familiar. We interrupted his fight and allowed the Chloe Brothers to escape.¡±

    As a level-3 apprentice, Master Prome naturally knew a lot morepared to Dave.

    Dave realized that Toby stopped its attack because he called its name. Maybe the Chloe Brothers would actually get killed too, if not for his action.

    Was Toby actually really strong too?

    Wait. ¡°Too¡±?

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget to apologize the next time you meet him. You bothered his n and let his enemies live. If I were him, I probably would hate you to the guts,¡± Prome spoke.

    Dave went through what just happened. Master Prome was the one walking ahead and saw the battle first. Dave remembered seeing Master Prome stopped to observe without interfering with the fight. Dave, however, called out Toby¡¯s name immediately...

    And he felt really bad when thinking about this.

    Just as Prome said, if he had not made a sound, maybe the Chloe Brothers would not get away.

    ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll go and apologize to Angor tomorrow,¡± said Dave. He looked down. He just did Angor a disservice without realizing it, which could cause Angor some troubles further down the road.

    Prome looked at Dave¡¯s expression and smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. You know the Chloe Brothers. They never care about anyone else. Even if they are to retaliate, they won¡¯t find others for help. And your little friend should have no problem dealing with the brothers. To be frank, I think the Chloe Brothers will choose to give up first.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    Sure, Dave knew their characters. Everyone in the underground market knew about them. Still... people could easily change. Who knew whether the brothers were only faking their strange temperament while hiding their true natures deep inside?

    ¡°I wonder what Angor did to get ganged up by all of them. He¡¯s never the one to create troubles first,¡± Dave muttered.

    ¡°As for that... I may have an idea,¡± Prome suggested.

    Dave looked at his mentor in bewilderment.

    ¡°Here. Check this,¡± said Prome as he took out a small golden bolt from his sleeve and handed it to Dave.

    Dave epted the object. ¡°An... arrow? It looks... average. No special ripples, made of Starfrost Gold... Huh? Is it ammunition for a bow-shaped alchemy weapon?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Prome shook his head.

    Dave thought Prome just created a new weapon, so he examined the object as careful as he could.

    ¡°It¡¯s too small for a bow. A crossbow maybe? A really small one that can be used single-handedly?¡± Dave tried.

    Instead of answering, Prome mentioned his idea earlier, ¡°I think this is the reason why those people attacked your friend.¡±

    ¡°Attack Angor? For this? Wait, this is not yours, master?¡±

    Prome shook head again. ¡°This golden bolt came from your friend¡¯s robe sleeve, I think he has a remotely-controlled, long-range alchemy weapon hidden on his wrist. I saw it working just now, and it was very deadly. Two or three seconds more and the brothers¡¯ barrier would have been broken. Considering how Canine Master and Red Butterfly usually behaved, they must have gotten greedy about the alchemy weapon so they came to seize it.¡±

    ¡°This is Angor¡¯s alchemy weapon? His professor gave it to him? Oh, I never asked who his professor is,¡± Dave mumbled before he grew surprised again. ¡°Red Butterfly is here?¡±

    ¡°Red Butterfly¡± is Balius¡¯ title in Sky Tower. She was an extremely wicked and infamous figure in the underground market who was always described with words like greed, dissolute, lust, and crafty. She was not strong, but she gained the trust of several powerful apprentices using her charming looks. Because of this, few people would bother her for her unpleasant behaviors in the market as they feared her supporters.

    ¡°Correct, Red Butterfly also joined the attack. But she died in the pit. Tsk, such a beautiful body, wasted as a pile of broken organs.¡± Prome recalled the terrible scene he saw with his spirit feelers and sighed.

    Dave¡¯s face went pale when hearing about the death of the Red Butterfly.

    Bing an enemy of the Chloe Brothers was not a big deal. But Red Butterfly... if those people behind her back found out, Angor could be¡ª

    ¡°You¡¯re worried about your little friend?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Master.¡±

    ¡°Red Butterfly is just an expendable tool in the eyes of Vice. She¡¯s smart enough to pretend that she was in a rtionship with Vice, and she did a perfect job at avoiding triggering Vice¡¯s anger, so she both enjoyed Vice¡¯s fame and stayed safe from the man. Still, her vision is too limited. Her death will not cause anything too serious,¡± Prome exined. ¡°What¡¯s more important is, I want to know who created the alchemy weapon. A weapon which can be controlled freely and remotely, high attack frequency, and with a damage potential that¡¯s beyond average... It isn¡¯t anything ordinary.¡±

 Chapter 179 - The Trigger Crossbow

    <h4>Chapter 179: The Trigger Crossbow</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°An unordinary alchemy weapon?¡±

    Prome¡¯sment left Dave shocked in the entire day. Somehow, Dave already had an answer for where the weapon came from. But this answer was too unbelievable to anyone, including himself.

    Yet he could not get rid of the answer from his mind. It remained there like an unanswered math puzzle, waiting for someone to reveal the already existing solution.

    Angor returned home and nned to craft several dozens of golden bolts. It would take him some time to do so.

    After removing his robe, he lifted his inner sleeve and revealed the alchemy weapon affixed on his wrist.

    It was a small crossbow bound to his wrist joint. Butpared to a miniature hand crossbow, this weapon looked moreplicated. It was made of over six major parts and countless smaller ones.

    All the parts were assembled together to create such an automatic, long-range alchemy weapon¡ªthe Trigger Crossbow.

    It appeared simr to somethinging from science fiction. At least it was way different than themon alchemy items used today. There was a really long golden strap wrapped around Angor¡¯s arm, which climbed all the way toward his shoulder. The small golden bolts were fixed on the strap. If Angor knew space-expansion runes, he could store the bolts easier. But since he did not find such runes in his hologram tablet, he had to find the time and look for them in Cloud Library in the future.

    There were two energy sources for the Trigger Crossbow. One, micro-electricity generated when his body moved around, which was then turned into kic energy and boosted the golden bolts. The bolts themselves were only ordinary ammunitions without any special traits.

    The other energy was his own mana, which was used to control the Trigger Crossbow to shoot the bolts, as well as activating the runes on the golden bolts to grant them special effects.

    However, applying runes to each of the bolts was too tiring and time-consuming, so Angor only prepared ten bolts with runes on them. Most of them had Frost Runes, while the others had me Runes and armor-piercing ones.

    Making these special bolts cost his too much effort, so he only nned to use them when absolutely necessary.

    After replenishing his ammunition on the strap, he began his everyday meditation to expand his mana pool. Improving himself was always the foremost task.

    When Angor came to the Sky Tower on the next day, people in the participant waiting room immediately began to discuss this mysterious fighter.

    ¡°Baron Milk is here?¡±

    ¡°I saw several people going after him yesterday. Howe he¡¯s not hurt at all?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, Red Butterfly, Canine Herder, and the Chloe Brothers went for him. I thought the guy¡¯s dead for sure. But I was wrong.¡±

    ¡°By the way, Red Butterfly and Canine Herder are nowhere to be found.¡±

    ¡°Did Baron Milk kill them?¡±

    ¡°But the Chloe Brothers are fine. Did you ask them?¡±

    ¡°Those two only care for each other. They don¡¯t answer our question at all. F*ck those fools.¡±

    ¡°No matter what happened, Vice¡¯s gonna look into him since Red Butterfly¡¯s dead. Let¡¯s stay away from him for now so we don¡¯t get dragged into the mess.¡±

    Angor did not really care about their whispers. He simply walked to the lottery box to find his opponents for today.

    All three matches in the morning were easy. The overall strength of fighters in the first level was quite weak, and Angor quickly earned three wins, plus nine match points and 39 merit points.

    Most participants needed lots of mana in their matches, so two matches in a day were already tiring enough. Angor, on the other hand, obliterated his opponents using his alchemy weapon and did not spend much mana at all.

    The Sky Tower had not witnessed such a fighter in decades. Despite their showy titles, the participants were mostly low-leveled apprentice wizards. Few of them possessed alchemy weapons. It was only natural that Angor could progress so fast.

    However, the other participants were thinking about something else.

    ¡°Why would someone with such a strong weapone here and take merit points from us? F*ck the asshole. Do any quest and he¡¯ll earn way more points than that.¡±

    Someone even thought Baron Milk was the same type of figure as ckjack, who loved hurting others for fun, thus satisfying their twisted ego. The only difference was that Baron Milk never actually killed his opponents, while ckjack¡¯s victims usually ended up as corpses.

    It was just one day, and everyone was looking at Baron Milk with apletely different view.

    Angor was not interested in what these people were thinking about at all. He simply tried to gain victories as fast as he could. Reaching level 2 required 30 match points, which meant he could achieve it by getting four consecutive wins in the afternoon.

    After what happened yesterday, no one stalked him again when Angor left Sky Tower at noon. He had lunch, meditated for a while, and returned to the tower.

    The matches during the afternoon were still one-sided. The only thing that caught Angor¡¯s attention was when he went against King of Beasts during one of the battles.

    The weirdo who wore colorful feathers on his head had a bow he never used behind his back, and a white kitten named ¡°King¡±.

    Angor still remembered how this man fought hisst match. Half a month had passed, and he was still hanging around the first level, which meant he was just another cannon fodder. The match was even easier than the others. Angor simply cast several spells to lock up that kitten without the need to even shoot a single bolt.

    When his kitten was pinned down, the King of Beasts immediately knelt down and surrendered on the spot. Then he rushed to his pet quickly to check if the animal was wounded. It was as if Angor was some kind of mad cat-abusing scientist.

    Angor was wondering though; if the man really cherished his cat, why would he bring it onto the arena in the first ce?

    Still, the man¡¯s strange behavior left an impression in Angor¡¯s memory.

    ...

    ¡°You want to proceed to Level 2?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    Angor came to the registration office again but for a different purpose this time.

    Instead of the male clerk yesterday, a decent-lookingdy addressed Angor this time.

    She checked Angor¡¯s profile card and noticed the hooded figure gained 30 match points in just two days to get himself promoted. This was the first time she saw someone working so fast in her career, so she kept extra attention on Angor while handling the promotion papers.

    But with Angor¡¯s hood and fake voice, she never managed to figure anything out.

    When the work was done, it was already seven in the evening. Angor did not intend to fight thiste, so he took his updated profile card and quickly left the Sky Tower.

    Rather than heading home, he took a turn and went to Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop first.

    It had nothing to do with the incident yesterday. He only needed to buy some alchemy materials. Crafting the golden bolts had cost him most of his stock.

    Besides, he was nning to buy some new materials for the other attributes. He had read about a lot of useful runes in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters </i>, none of which were suitable for the materials he currently had.

    Upon reaching the cave wall where the shop was located, Angor saw the door of the shop tightly shut. A lock was ced on the door. Usually, Dave lived in the shop even when the shop was closed for business. It seemed that Dave was not here.

    Angor could only go back home.

    To his surprise, he saw Dave in front of the gate of his vi.

    From afar, Angor noticed that Dave was looking at something in his hand with the help of themplight around the gate.

    ¡°What¡¯s up? I went to your shop and missed my mark,¡± said Angor as he removed his hood and greeted Dave with a smile.

    Dave looked troubled. ¡°I came to... say sorry.¡±

    ¡°Sorry?¡± Angor opened the gate and signaled Dave toe in. ¡°For what? You said something funny behind my back?¡±

    Angor prepared Dave a ss of water and joined him on the sofa.

    ¡°Yesterday, you would have dealt with Chloe Brothers if I didn¡¯t call Toby like that.¡± Dave looked really ashamed now. ¡°The Chloe Brothers might bring more troubles to you. I¡¯m so sorry!¡±

    Angor was a little surprised. He then he smiled again. ¡°Killing and tricking each other... isn¡¯t that how the wizarding world goes around?¡±

    ¡°But I¡¯m still sorry!¡± Dave lowered his head to avoid Angor¡¯s gaze.

    Angor remained silent for a while. ¡°Alright then, I ept your apology. Let¡¯s forget it. I¡¯ll deal with Chloe Brothers. I already saw them today, and they tried to run away again. If you want to amend your mistake, tell me something useful about those two.¡±

    Dave nodded. ¡°The Chloe Brothers aren¡¯t a big deal. I don¡¯t think they would attack you again, but you should stay careful nevertheless. The real problem is the Red Butterfly.¡±

    ¡°Red Butterfly?¡±

    Dave briefly exined Red Butterfly¡¯s connections with other people.

    ¡°... Master Prome said that Red Butterfly didn¡¯t really have a deep rtion with Vice, like how everyone else believed. But Vice isn¡¯t the only one rted to her. She had several more admirers. If they team up ande for you, it¡¯ll be really bad.¡±

    ¡°I... see. I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡±

    Fearing that Dave would only grow more worried, Angor did notment much.

    ¡°Give me the information of those people through your transmitter next time. Oh right, I need to ask something too,¡± said Angor as he decided to change the topic. ¡°I want to buy materials, and maybe sell an alchemy weapon at the same time. Can you give me an appraisal for it?¡±

 Chapter 180 - Appraisal

    <h4>Chapter 180: Appraisal</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Sell a weapon?¡± Dave was shocked. He then he lowered his voice and asked, ¡°Are you talking about what I¡¯m thinking about?¡±

    ¡°What you¡¯re thinking about? What do you mean?¡±

    Dave took a deep breath. ¡°Are you selling an alchemy weapon you crafted yourself?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Of course, Dave choked a little at the answer.

    ¡°You already made an alchemy item?¡±

    ¡°Well, yes. You made one too, right? The propeller machine is way moreplicated than mine,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°That¡¯s different! I¡¯ve been studying alchemy for... five years!¡±

    Angor smiled. ¡°I used to learn to smith before. I know how to make molds or other tools, so making weapons is easy for me.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Of course!¡±

    <i>... Of course not.</i>

    But seeing how Dave was about to cry again, Angor decided to keep his ¡°white lie¡± going.

    Angor¡¯s exnation somehow soothed Dave¡¯s sadness and jealousy.

    ¡°Alchemy weapons arepletely different than ordinary weapons. Even if you¡¯ve had experience before, you still need really good talent to be able to craft a real weapon so fast.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go see my scythe. You can give me a price for it,¡± said Angor. He stood up and led Dave toward the basement.

    ¡°You made a scythe? That¡¯s a rather rare weapon.¡±

    ¡°Because I¡¯m familiar with it. I used to care for gardens and grow vegetables myself.¡±

    He was not lying this time. Ever since Jon could no longer move around freely, it was Angor who took care of his mentor¡¯s fruits and vegetables.

    ¡°You mean a farming scythe? I thought it was those used inbats,¡± said Dave. He paused for a moment before saying, ¡°There aren¡¯t many scythe users in Brute Cavern, but war scythe still sells well. If it¡¯s a farming tool though...¡±

    ¡°No problem. As long as I earn something. One crystal will do.¡±

    It was the first time for Dave toe to Angor¡¯s basement. The broad space was now filled with all kinds of alchemy equipment. The tables still had stains and unfinished materials on them, along with burnt damages caused by melted metal. The whole ce looked messy.

    The mess did not prevent Dave from casting an envious look around the basement. Every corner of the ce gave him a familiar sense.

    ¡°Telling from all the marks, you really have be an alchemist,¡± Dave eximed. He really wished he had his own alchemyb.

    ¡°Overpraising me now?¡± Angor wiped his tables clean quickly and took out the scythe wrapped in cloth from a cab.

    When he turned around to ask Dave to look at the scythe, he saw Dave in front of the weapon rack, looking at the Chinese weapons he made the other day.

    ¡°They look simple. No engraving on them, but their overall designs are beautiful.¡± Dave looked at Angor and asked, ¡°You made these? Can I check them out?¡±

    Angor lifted a hand to tell Dave to help himself.

    ¡°This is a sword? A really interesting one. But isn¡¯t it easy to break apart?¡± Dave picked up the Qingfeng Sword and moved it along the touchstone in the corner, leaving a shallow cut on it. ¡°A basic alchemy weapon. It could sell for a small sum.¡±

    Next, he picked up the Emei Piercers and moved them around. ¡°Nice. Both good design and power and they¡¯re easy to carry around. Ideal self-defense weapons for certain witches. The design will attract buyers quickly.¡±

    In the end, Dave picked up the sheathless Tang Dao. Of the three weapons, he loved the design of this one most. The de disyed a deadly beauty without having any extra decoration on it. Moving it in the air proved to be easy and smooth as well.

    ¡°This weapon will sell for at least 10 magic crystals, I¡¯d say.¡±

    Dave seemed very satisfied with them. ¡°If you sell these, you can probably earn back all the materials you have bought from me.¡±

    Dave was jealous again. Alchemy weapons always sold well on the market, including ones without special effects. His own creation might seem more advanced than Angor¡¯s weapons, but it was not meant to be used by the public, so it would not sell as much.

    ¡°So do you want to sell them?¡± Dave asked.

    ¡°I do if I can. But I don¡¯t have a ce to sell stuff.¡±

    Dave thumped his chest. ¡°Put them in Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop and I can help you with it.¡±

    ¡°Can I?¡±

    ¡°No problem. I¡¯ll ask for a 10% share in the process. Master Prome¡¯s requirement.¡±

    Ten percent was pretty high already. However, without a proper shop, Angor probably could never get the weapons sold on his own, so he agreed in the end.

    ¡°Alright. Along with the scythe, I¡¯ll leave them in your hands.¡±

    Dave thought that the scythe was just something simr so he nodded without a second thought.

    But when he saw the shining edge on the scythe, he felt he was just tricked by Angor again.

    ¡°... You said you learned to smith before, so you can forge weapons easily.¡±

    ¡°I did.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me then, what kind of cksmiths teach you how to draw runes?! This is a perfect Rune of Sharpen! Could an ordinary cksmith create that?!¡±

    Dave felt defeated now. As long as Angor knew how to use Thaw and utilized his smithing knowledge, the previous three weapons were not really hard to make.

    The scythe, though, was NOT a basic alchemy weapon. The obvious Sharpen rune shining on the surface of the de meant it was already a tiered weapon. A low-tiered one maybe. But even something like this would be valued at a hundred magic crystals or beyond!

    Dave took another deep breath to calm himself. ¡°I warn you! Don¡¯t you tell me you happen to be talented to learn Runecraft too.¡±

    Angor recalled how Dave almost cried out when hearing about his alchemy talent, and carefully arranged his words. ¡°Maybe I have a really good memory?¡±

    Dave gave Angor a thoughtful look. ¡°You¡¯ve already tested my nerves thest time, and I thought that was it. I was wrong.¡±

    Dave picked up the scythe and triggered the rune on it using mana. He gave the touchstone a mighty sh.

    Looking at the deep cut on the touchstone, Dave turned back slowly. ¡°Okay. I¡¯m a failure. A terrible failure.¡±

    Angor did not know how to respond.

    It took Dave half an hour toin about his frustration before he could talk like normal again.

    ¡°The scythe is a tiered item. Only a low tier, but it still costs a hundred crystals, at least. It may go for more if there¡¯s an urgency,¡± said Dave.

    ¡°Urgency?¡±

    ¡°For example, someone is going to explore a ruin and needs a new weapon real quick. Or when someone is dueling another wizard for his life and will spend anything to buy a weapon that can save his life.¡±

    Angor considered. ¡°I see... Can you put them up for sale one and a half monthter?¡±

    ¡°One and a half month? Is there a reason?¡±

    ¡°Well, yes. You¡¯ll know by then.¡±

    After agreeing upon a price for the weapons, they came to Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop together. Angor spent 17 magic crystals on some new materials.

    Before Angor could leave, Dave took out an object and asked Angor a question.

    ¡°Is this yours?¡±

    Angor looked at the small golden bolt in Dave¡¯s hand and raised an eyebrow. ¡°Yes. You found it in the woods?¡±

    ¡°Not me, Master Prome did.¡± Dave paused a little before saying, ¡°Master Prome seems really interested in your long-range weapon. Can you show it to me?¡±

    Angor lifted his sleeve and revealed the Trigger Crossbow on his wrist.

    ¡°An... alchemy item?¡±

    ¡°Sort of, yes.¡±

    Dave carefully inspected the weapon¡¯s delicate designs, but he saw no runes on it.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a tiered item, but the creation alone is impressive. And it¡¯s deadly. Even without runes, it can prate most defensive spells with enough shots,¡± Davemented.

    He did not know that Angor drew runes on the bolts, not the crossbow.

    ¡°By the way, who came up with such an interesting idea?¡± Dave asked out of instinct.

    When he saw Angor trying to answer, Dave quickly raised a palm. ¡°No, stop. I¡¯ve had enough terrible surprises today.¡±

    ...

    Angor reached the second level of Sky Tower by the third day of his challenge n.

    Scattered around the underground market were cableways for participants to reach higher levels. Being able to board a cabin hanging on such a cableway also disyed one¡¯s strength to others.

    Audiences had to buy tickets to watch the matches at higher levels.

    Those with enough money all went to the top level. No one would waste money on the second level. Mortals who did not have magic crystals could only stay on the first level to satisfy their hunger. This was why the second level had fewer people. Angor¡¯s first match only had two or three spectators. They were also participants at the same level with nothing better to do at the moment.

    The opponents here were a lot stronger. Still, using his Trigger Crossbow and ¡°coward¡± tactic, Angor did not run into any real trouble.

    The only heated match was when he fought against an apprentice called ¡°Lord of Darna¡±, who used blizzard and wind spells. The mighty wind caused his golden bolts to stray off their mark, so Angor had to shoot a great number of them in the air without specific aiming and forced Lord of Darna to surrender in the end.

    At the same time, his name was spread around the level quickly.

    Angor kept winning. He earned another 40 match points in only three days and gained entrance to the third level soon.

    He carefully looked around the participants in the third level. Once he made sure that there were no level-2 apprentices, he grew confident that he could progress without having to worry too much.

    However... the very first battle in the third level proved to be harder than he expected.

 Chapter 181 - Dripping River, the Sleeper

    <h4>Chapter 181: Dripping River, the Sleeper</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The woman on the other end of the stage stood there with her eyes closed, seemingly having nothing ready at all. Yet when Angor closed his eyes to listen carefully, he could hear the sound of flowing watering from the woman¡¯s position.

    Dripping River.

    She was the first female opponent Angor met in the tower, and also the strangest opponent.

    The arena screen had not announced the start of the fight yet, and the magic-inhibiting array was still working, but the woman already showed strange energy.

    Water. Angor felt as if he was facing a puddle of water rather than a human being.

    [Baron Milk VS Dripping River]. The countdown reached zero.

    The woman looked in enough. She had short curly blue hair and heavy panda eyes which remained closed before the start of the match. Now, she finally opened her eyes and revealed a pair of ck pupils behind her eyelids.

    Dripping River extended her fingers and when she drew a line on the floor, a string of river suddenly appeared in front of her.

    ¡°Quickened spell!¡± Angor constructed his defense line while carefully observing the movement of his opponent.

    There was something else strange about the spell. The ¡°river¡± was not on the ground itself. Instead, it flowed around Dripping River¡¯s body like a decorative strap on her clothes.

    ¡°Bind,¡± Dripping River spoke in a gentle tone which sounded like clear water running through porcin wares.

    The river strap rushed at Angor following hermand.

    Angor too had already established his first defense¡ªan ice wall.

    Angor avoided the river string behind his wall. He then initiated his dirty tactic again by showering the area around Dripping River with his golden bolts.

    ¡°Shield,¡± Dripping River chanted again.

    The river string left the ice wall and weaved itself into a water shield, blocking the flying bolts.

    A water shield that deflected his bolts... Angor could not believe his eyes. But it already happened. The shield made of water worked like a real shield. When the bolts hit its surface, they created the same noise as when metal hit metal.

    Angor kept shooting while gradually erging his target area. To his disappointment, the water shield grew in size as well.

    Nothing was perfect. If the water shield became bigger, then it would certainly grow thinner at the same time. With that in mind, Angor switched his attack pattern and focused on one spot.

    However, he had already spent half of his ammunition, yet the water shield did not even have a single scratch on it.

    More importantly, Angor could not sense any decrease of mana from Dripping River at all. She did not need mana to sustain her shield? If the battle dragged too long, Angor was sure he would lose in the end.

    Seizing an opportunity when Angor slowed down his attack, Dripping River mumbled something else, ¡°de.¡±

    The river strap became a water de and came down from the air, breaking Angor¡¯s ice wall in half.

    ¡°Use water as everything... such amazing skills. I can¡¯t catch a breather at all,¡± Angor thought to himself. ¡°She uses the flexibility of water like a master. Is she really from Brute Cavern? Not Song of the Deep?¡±

    Forging elements into objects was considered an extremely advanced Elementalist technique. He read about it in a book before, so he happened to know its weakness as well.

    The objects might look like real things, but they were still made of water.

    And an element that countered water would do a good job against such trick.

    Fire was always the natural nemesis of water. However, while fire could vaporize water, it could also get put out by enough water, so Angor did not choose fire spells. Instead, he used a cantrip which was not recorded in any of the books in Brute Cavern.

    During his preparations, Angor re-calcted the models for several level-0 cantrips and turned them into usable models when he had enough time.

    They included a variant version of Dust Removal.

    Dust Removal was a level-0 cantrip which was oftenbined with Cleanse. The cantrip used a correctbination of Wind and Earth elements. Now, Angor nned to use anotherbination for it.

    He named the new cantrip as ¡°Dust¡±.

    The nature of the new cantrip was using a certainbination of Wind and Earth elements to create dust which covered an area.

    It looked like Sandstorm spell but was a lot weaker. The best it could do was creating small dust grains which were barely visible to human eyes. The dust could not really do anything to people since human noses were enough to keep them out.

    However, the cantrip might do wonder in such a situation¡ªthe dust could absorb water and nullify the transformed objects.

    Angor kept shooting to keep the water de away while silently constructed the cantrip model for Dust in his mind.

    This cantrip was even weaker than average level-0 cantrips, so he established the model really fast. He never paid much effort to practice, yet it only took him three or four seconds to finish the model.

    Angor cast the stream of dust toward the water de in the air.

    When they connected, the water flow quickly began to absorb dust and lose its own volume. Just when Angor thought that he had solved the situation, Dripping River suddenly chanted another word.

    ¡°Oil.¡±

    ¡°Oil?¡± Angor wondered if he heard right. <i>Oil? How?</i>

    The water flow in the air visibly became something else following Dripping River¡¯smand. The once crystal-clear water quickly turned into turbid, ckish-yellow grease.

    ¡°That¡¯s... oil?¡± Angor was surprised.

    Of course, Dripping River did not answer him. She ordered the ¡°oil belt¡± to rush at Angor, and summoned a small ember at the same time.

    The oil belt immediately became a raging, ming snake.

    The ¡°me belt¡± hit the ground beside Angor and exploded, sting Angor away.

    Angor stumbled and struggled to halt his momentum at the edge of the arena.

    ¡°It¡¯s really oil! But water and oil arepletely different substances! How could element maniption do such a thing?¡± Angor was really shocked now.

    Again, Dripping River kept her secret. She raised an eyebrow and rubbed her temples as if she was really tired.

    Angor was sure she did not get tired because of the fight. But considering those panda eyes... maybe she really needed some sleep?

    Dripping River answered Angor¡¯s question this time, by... suddenly began to snore while standing upright.

    ¡°Woah. For how long was she awake?¡± Angor tried casting a Bind spell at Dripping River.

    And she was easily caught in it.

    She was asleep for real!

    At the same time, something showed up on the arena screen: [Winner: Baron Milk].

    Angor walked off the stage while still carrying his questions and a weird feeling. The medical team of sky tower came and ced Dripping River on a stretcher. Then they carried her away while walking past Angor¡¯s path.

    He clearly heard one of the medics muttering, ¡°The girl fell asleep on the stage again...¡±

    <i>Again? So this isn¡¯t the first time for Dripping River to doze off like that?</i>

    The participant waiting area at Level 3 was quite popted. Instead of malevolent attention, many people looked at him in jealousy this time.

    ¡°Man... Dripping River. He got a jackpot,¡± Someonemented in a small voice.

    Angor took a corner to rest, still puzzled. He did not meditate this time. He was still thinking about the previous fight.

    He did not really care about why Dripping River suddenly fell asleep. The important thing was, how did the water belt be oil? They were both liquids, true, but it was impossible to change something into apletely different material just like that.

    He could not find any answer in his mind.

    Angor had four matches in the morning. Apart from the fight against Dripping River, the other three proved to be easy enough.

    In the afternoon, he nned to get four more wins. However, after seizing the second victory, he saw Nausica in the waiting room.

    Angor hesitated a bit and decided to quit. When Nausica¡¯s battle began, he joined the audiences.

    Her opponent was an ordinary Elementalist apprentice who did not appear to know any special spells or abilities. Angor was confident he could defeat someone like that easily just by using his Trigger Crossbow.

    Nausica, however, did not proceed with the fight as easily as he expected. Nausica was a Bloodline apprentice now, who had not fused a bloodline into herself yet, and she only knew amon spellbination. Her only advantage was her superior closebat skills.

    Her enemy used his defensive spells and managed to repel Nausica¡¯s attacks just fine.

    Angor wondered. <i>Why doesn¡¯t she use Solefly?</i>

    If she used Solefly in her melee fight, she would have won already. But she did not. She was not even using the dueling sword on her waist.

    Nausica still defeated her enemy in the end, but it looked tough. And she only fought this one battle before leaving the Sky Tower quickly.

    After watching Nausica¡¯s battle, Angor gained another victory and returned home when the outside was already bathed in the dusk light.

    ...

    Upon reaching his vi, he quickly found his tablet and looked for books about Element Imitation.

    Reading several books only deepened his doubt. The theory in the books was just as he thought, that imitation could never change the natural property of an element.

    <i>So how did Dripping River do that?</i>

    <i>Besides, her water shield was too sturdy. It looked like metal rather than water. Maybe she actually used a metal shield?</i>

    But he saw her changing the water belt into a shield with his own eyes!

    A knock on the door interrupted his train of thought.

    ¡°Mister Padt.¡±

    Butler Goode¡¯s voice came from his garden entrance.

    Angor shut off his tablet with a start. He then quickly hid it inside his pocket watch and calmed his breath before finally going outside to open the door.

    ¡°Mister Padt. The master is expecting you.¡±

 Chapter 182 - A Glimpse of Truth

    <h4>Chapter 182: A Glimpse of Truth</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    In the chilly evening breeze, Angor followed behind Butler Goode and came to Phantom Ind.

    Upon entering Sunders¡¯ study, Angor saw Sunders sitting in front of his desk with his legs crossed while watching something in the crystal ball transmitter in his hand.

    Angor moved closer and realized the crystal ball showed one of his Sky Tower matches.

    Sunders was watching a fight when Angor fought against an Elementalist apprentice in Level 2.

    Angor silently watched his own figure from another perspective and felt a bit embarrassed. In the crystal ball, he had already constructed his line of defense and was now shooting his golden bolts while telling his opponent to surrender in a faked low voice. During that fight, Angor thought he had created a really sessful image for Baron Milk. But now... man, the shame!

    ¡°Eternal Resurrection! Ha! Lay down your weapon and give up, or my next attack willnd on your throat!¡± His fake voice came from the crystal ball.

    He said that out without giving it much thought during the fight. In Sunders¡¯ study though, terrible uneasiness crept up on his skin when he saw himself talking like that. More importantly, Sunders just gave him a curious nce which worsened it.

    Angor moved his hands over his head to rub his temple. However, he was just trying to hide his face.

    <i>Why did I create such an arrogant character?!</i>

    After the match ended, Sunders put the crystal down and looked at Angor with an... expression. Angor was not sure if the man was smiling.

    Sunders stared Angor down. Just when the boy was about to tremble, the gentleman finally spoke in his hoarse voice while trying to hold back hisughter, ¡°Nice disy. But a littlecking in power.¡±

    Angor lowered his head in shame. ¡°I just... I¡¯m trying to...¡±

    He could not find the courage to exin his ruined image, so Angor stuttered a little and tried to change the topic. ¡°How did you get this record, professor?¡±

    Sunders dly went along since he already saw how hard his little pupil was blushing.

    It turned out that Butler Goode went to find Angor at his vi in the early morning and did not find him there. After a little investigation, they learned that Angor had gone to challenge Sky Tower. Sunders grew curious about it and found the record of Angor¡¯s matches from a manager of the tower.

    Hearing about this, Angor just felt more embarrassed. He thought he did a good job concealing his identity, and the truth proved him wrong so fast. Angor no longer wanted to know how Sunders found out who ¡°Baron Milk¡± was. He only wished to run away this instant and hide in a spot where no one could find him.

    The awkwardness remained for several minutes when Sunders brought Angor to the balcony.

    Two armchairs were ced alongside each other on the balcony. Sunders took one and signaled Angor to sit in the other.

    The cool night breeze and the view of the Tree of Eternity shrouded in mist and stars soothed Angor¡¯s stressful mind a little.

    ¡°Your tactic should have no problem in the first few levels of the tower. However, the opponents you¡¯re going up against in thest three levels will not be so easy,¡± Sunders said. ¡°Those defense spells and an alchemy weapon with no particr effect are unlikely to help you reach the top.

    ¡°Throughout history, the top three levels are always battlegrounds for Bloodline apprentices. Some of them already fused with the blood of monsters, and they¡¯re at apletely different levelpared to those who don¡¯t have a bloodline yet. These apprentices can simply endure your attacks and reach you before you can put up your defense, and you¡¯ll have no hope of survival.¡±

    Angor was actually not worried about something like this. Contrary to what Sunders believed, his Trigger Crossbow was not a basic weapon. He also had several enchanted bolts as powerful as tiered weapons. Moreover, he possessed another tiered long-range weapon and Toby, who could always support him from the air.

    This was why Angor still looked confident.

    Sunders inspected the boy¡¯s expression and tried to guess how much potential his student was hiding.

    ¡°With the sequence of gravity, Toby can help you fight. But you should still be cautious. There are many people in this world who know wondrous spells. Don¡¯t get fearless just because you have three viable tactics.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ words reminded Angor of his opponent today, Dripping River.

    That water and oil transformation surprised him quite a lot and almost knocked him out of the arena. He was not sure if he could defeat her at all if Dripping River did not suddenly fall asleep for some reason.

    Out of curiosity, Angor mentioned his fight against Dripping River.

    Sunders took out the crystal ball again and looked for Angor¡¯s matches in Level 3. After watching the battle between Angor and Dripping River, the gentleman fell into deep thought with an intrigued expression.

    ¡°As far as I know, Element Imitation cannot change the property of something. And water and oil have different properties,¡± Angor said. He saw Sunders smiling when watching the match and was not sure what his professor was thinking about. Did his professor find it funny about how he was sted away by the oil explosion?

    ¡°I see you¡¯ve read a lot of books. Element Imitation is usually essible to level-2 Elementalist apprentices, or level-3 or formal wizards who aren¡¯t studying Element,¡± Sunders removed his joyful expression and exined.

    Angor choked a little and tried to exin, ¡°I... think I read something about it in your collection.¡±

    Sunders did not really mind how Angor gained such knowledge.

    ¡°This woman,¡± said Sunders as he pointed at Dripping River in the crystal ball. ¡°If my memory serves me right, when she came to Brute Cavern fifteen years ago, three wizards sent her their golden posters at the same time.¡±

    <i>Three golden posters?!</i>

    Angor looked at Dripping River in shock. He clearly knew what that meant.

    ¡°However, she¡¯s not an Elementalist apprentice as you may think. She is in fact, a very rare case, called Matter Handler, an ultist.¡±

    ¡°Matter Handler?¡± Angor remembered seeing something like this. However, there were just too many branches for ult Art, and he never managed to read them all.

    ¡°Wizards aren¡¯t the only supernaturals in this world. Some people are lucky enough to be born with supernatural powers, and she¡¯s one of such an individual. She possessed a natural ability: Water Convert.¡±

    ¡°Water Convert? To change the property of water?¡± Angor thought to himself.

    ¡°It¡¯s not the way you think. She can grant a new property to water, and turning it into oil is one of the many feats she can do. Back then, it was Flora who guided her to Brute Cavern. Flora also used the deathmatch chambers to recruit talents, but she did not restrict how many people could survive in the end. Those who could stay alive in the chambers for ten days were all considered sessful. On the first day, Dripping River turned a cauldron of water into deadly poison and killed everyone else in her chamber.¡±

    Sunders paused to arrange his wording.

    ¡°However... not everyone born with special powers is favored by this world.¡±

    ...

    After talking about something else about Sky Tower, Angor¡¯s previous embarrassment finally disappeared.

    Angor was a bit disappointed that Sunders did not ask about his alchemy weapon at all. He already knew that alchemists were extremely valuable in Brute Cavern, and Sunders would pay great respect to any alchemist. Angor was already ready to ¡°surprise¡± Sunders with his great talent in alchemy. Yet... Sunders did not mention anything about it. And there was no way Angor could initiate the topic on himself since Sunders would not get ¡°surprised¡± much in this way.

    ¡°Professor, why did you want to see me today?¡±

    They had not talked about it yet.

    Sunders stood up from his chair. ¡°Follow me.¡±

    The gentleman took Angor into the study, found a notebook from his drawer, and handed it to Angor.

    Angor opened to book and saw all kinds of spell models and characters which were tightly written on every page.

    The handwriting suggested that Sundersposed the notebook himself.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me anything for months, so I thought you weren¡¯t interested in the garden of purification. I called you here today to see how well you understand your true self, and to give this notebook to you if you¡¯re qualified for it,¡± Sunders chuckled. ¡°To be frank, your progress is quite surprising. The way you fought in Sky Tower is still immature since you only use extra help to do everything for you. But those defensive spells looked well practiced. One of them even showed your true self a little. No test is necessary now. You can take the book.

    ¡°There¡¯s no doubt that your talent lies in Illusions, but the exact direction still remains to be seen. The notebook contains the basic cantrips of an Illusionist, so try to learn them. Next time youe, tell me which one feels more suitable to you or which one gives you more inspirations.¡±

    Basic Illusionist cantrips!

    Sunders never taught Angor cantrips in order to allow the boy to look for his own path. He even prohibited Flora from instructing Angor. Today, Sunders just gave him these basic spells!

    Angor was filled with joy and looked at Sunders with a thankful expression. He no longer had to rent books about illusions from Cloud Library!

    ¡°Whilst battling Dripping River, the sandy cantrip you used already possessed a faint trace of truth. Instead of wondering in the wizarding world aimlessly, I hope you can keep it up and find your own path of truth soon.¡±

    ¡°Sandy cantrip? You mean ¡®Dust¡¯, professor?¡± Angor quickly realized that Sunders was talking about his new cantrip.

    ¡°Dust? A good name. It¡¯s a lot weaker than Sandstorm, but it has almost the same principle as Sandstorm.¡±

    ¡°Dust is a variant of Dust Removal. I rearranged its elementbination.¡±

    Angor was wondering though. Rearranging elementbination was an easy task, and most apprentices could do it. But why did the professor say that he had a ¡°faint trace of truth¡±?

    <i>Isn¡¯t truth something that¡¯s only rted to ultimate wizards?</i>

 Chapter 183 - Greyaâ€™s Whereabouts

    <h4>Chapter 183: Greya¡¯s Whereabouts</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    At this point, Angor still did not realize that getting a mere glimpse of truth and stepping onto the path of truth waspletely different.

    Wizards who had already found the path of truth would never tell others about it since every wizard must find his or her own path. A glimpse of truth, however, meant ¡°the will to create¡±, not finding new spellbinations.

    Creating something and using it, in reality, was one of the foremost qualities for finding the path of truth. Angor created a cantrip called ¡°Dust¡± and utilized it at a proper point. The cantrip did not really do anything to Dripping River. However, it was how Angor created the spell in the first ce, which really caught Sunders¡¯ attention.

    ¡°Dust Removal...¡± Sunders tried to rearrange wind and earth elements in his mind for this particr cantrip. He did not have a cheating tool like hologram tablet, but as an experienced wizard, his great knowledge helped him work out the correctbination for Dust quickly.

    ¡°Knowing how a spell is made will help you study spells easier,¡± Sunders said and asked Angor to open the notebook. Next, the gentleman began to exin some basic knowledge about Illusions.

    Confusing fake with real, false with true. Something that could not be touched, guessed or captured... This was the fundamental of illusions.

    When speaking of illusions, ordinary people would immediately think about tricks that deceived human eyes. For Illusionist Wizards, however, such tricks were merely the basics of basics.

    Real illusions had the same essentials as the other art branches¡ªaboutprehension and realization of oneself, nature, and the truth.

    For example, there were Mind Maniptors who could interpret human emotions and leverage people¡¯s desires and anxiety; Mirage Users who possessed full knowledge about natural weather change, reflections of light, and shadows, thusbining such knowledge with the environment to create mirages; Truth Maniptors who had great insight into everything and could remove the boundary between true and false.

    There were also many different branches for Illusionist, such as Transformation Illusionist, Acoustic Illusionist, and Sorcery Array Illusionist...

    Currently, Angor was way too inexperienced to think about something like those. What he needed was to study basic illusion spells and slowly finding out the branch that he should choose.

    ¡°The key point of using illusions is that you must see the reality very clearly. Only someone who knows reality can create illusions for other people. Otherwise, the illusions will be wed, such as nts growing in the wrong season, or tree-born fruits in the dirt. Anyone smart enough will easily see through your illusion.

    ¡°Of course, I¡¯m only talking about basic illusions. Once you determine your branch, you¡¯ll be able to experience the wondrous world of illusions freely. Trees on clouds, talking ragdolls, or dogs with the heads of cats... you can create anything you wish.¡±

    Hearing these, Angor suddenly remembered the strange creatures he saw on Phantom Ind... Did Sunders create them using illusion spells? But... those beasts looked so real.

    ¡°Apart fromprehending reality, you also need to learn how to seize up the environment and choose the correct illusions for the right situation.¡±

    What Sunders exined was all basic illusion knowledge and critical points that Angor should take care of so as to avoid useless effort.

    As for how to achieve them, Angor had to figure it out on his own. Sunders already decided that he would never interfere with how Angor studied spells.

    Next, Sunders answered several of Angor¡¯s questions during the boy¡¯s time of training.

    Angor did not have any questions since he had been spending his time on alchemy instead of ¡°legit¡± training, and there was no way he could ask Sunders alchemy questions.

    The interaction between teacher and student ended in harmony. Just when Angor was prepared to say goodbye, Butler Goode came to the study and reported that dinner was ready.

    Angor only had simple rations during all these months. When he caught the smell of fooding from the dining hall, the boy could not help gulping loudly.

    Sunders chuckled in his mind and spoke to Angor in a joking tone, ¡°Are you waiting for me to invite you to dinner?¡±

    Angor was startled a little. He thought he did not make too much noise. Now... He felt his cheeks burning with embarrassment. For a second time today.

    ¡°No, totally not!¡± Angor overreacted and turned away quickly. ¡°I really need to prepare dinner for Toby, professor, so I¡¯ll leave now.¡±

    ¡°Wait. You can have something here. I¡¯ll wait for you in the dining room.¡±

    With that, Sunders left his study first. He knew well that his little student tended to get bashful too easily, so the gentleman decided not to tease too much.

    Angor struggled for a while before finallying to the dining hall. His ¡°manly image¡± was already ruined anyway. A good meal would no longer hurt him.

    For Angor, ever since he left the cloud whale, this was the first dinner he had together with Sunders.

    The table was still decorated in an elegant noble family style. But this time, there was none of the ordinary food Angor was expecting.

    Rather than bacon or sausage, the sandwich in the te contained a green, transparent worm creature which was still twisting about. The soup bowls were filled with nts that looked like seaweed, but they changed colors as Angor was looking at them. The most ¡°ordinary-looking¡± food on the table were several fruits. Yet... there were scale-like objects growing on them.

    The bizarre appearance of the foodstuffs instantly erased Angor¡¯s will to eat.

    ¡°That¡¯s Warm Worm in the sandwich. It¡¯s a special cooking material which normally lives in cloud dirt and consumes twilight. Eating it will improve your mana flow. The soup is made of a magical nt. And the fruits are called Fishscales. They¡¯re all good for your health,¡± Sunders exined. ¡°These materials lose some of their special effects when cooked by someone other than a Gourmet Wizard. But most Gourmet Wizards only dwell in Fairytown. So... we have to make do.¡±

    Angor also knew about Warm Worm. It happened to be an alchemy material for brewing potions too.

    However... he did not want any special effects! He only wished to eat something normal! Angor silently cried in his mind.

    The boy proceeded with his meal in an... indescribable mindset. After eating what was ced on the table, he believed he could survive another month on raw rations without feeling any worse than this.

    Thankfully, the post-meal desserts looked ordinary enough.

    Whilst enjoying the desserts, Angor mentioned the new edition of <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>and asked Sunders if there was anything rted to Nightmare Realm in it.

    ¡°Ohh, I see you¡¯re well-informed. You already know that the Moonfrost Union hase?¡± Sunders bantered.

    ¡°Well, almost the entire poption of Apprentice Town Eight had left. Of course, I know about it!¡± Angor thought silently.

    ¡°There is something. But not much. One piece of information might interest you though. If you want to check it out, go to my studyter and take it.¡±

    Something he was interested in? Angor did not really know much about the Nightmare Realm. Could it be something about Nether City?

    Sunders did not answer him this time. The gentleman insisted that Angor should go read it for himself.

    Also, Sunders did not mention anything about paying rent for the magazine, and Angor was d NOT to remind his dear professor of it.

    ¡°This time, however, Moonfrost Union didn¡¯te only to publish their book,¡± said Sunders. He revealed a cold grin and seemed to be considering something. Angor waited for a while, but his professor did not say anything further.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go to myboratory. Once you¡¯re finished here, Goode will help you get the magazine,¡± said Sunders. He wiped his lips clean, flipped his cape, and left in his usual gentlemanly style.

    ...

    Angor left the Phantom Ind and headed home under the moonlight.

    The Falling Cloud bus stop was illuminated by faintmplight which cast a tranquil and peaceful aura on the green leaves nearby.

    While waiting for a sky bus, Angor took out the 17th volume of <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>and slowly read it under themp.

    Simr to every periodical published by Moonfrost Union, the beginning of the magazine contained an anthem praising the explorers.

    Next was the index of the magazine, which briefly introduced the newly discovered nes and major achievements in ne warfares.

    The index of the thousand-page periodical did not have anything rted to the Nightmare Realm.

    A sky bus arrived.

    Upon reaching his vi, Angor kept reading through <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>page by page. He finally found a short paragraph about Nightmare Realm when it was alreadyte into the night.

    [The Statue ne is one of the thirteen nes used to back up our expedition teams. Thirty years ago, the ne gained a tunnel connected to the Nightmare Realm by chance, which onlysted three minutes, and brought 37 people through. Their High Commander was a level-2 wizard. This team waspletely wiped out.]

    Angor could learn something from this paragraph; that tunnels of Nightmare Realm could appear in other nes other than the wizarding world.

    Was this the piece of information Sunders meant?

    He kept reading. When the horizon grew brighter, he found something else in thest pages of the magazine.

    It was not about the Nightmare Realm. But... a picture beside it showed an overweight, heavily powdered woman with violet curly hair andyered flesh on her fat face.

    ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya.

    [Half a year ago, Greya, the chef of Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, fought with one of the five 3-star Psychics from Haunt World, Granny Shikazaru, and ran away when she lost. Three monthster, she and a stationary wizard in an expedition team called ¡°Sapling¡± tried to ambush Granny Shikazaru at Thousand Sea and failed. The three of them were dragged into an unknown ne passage. Preliminary estimate suggested that the passage was a tunnel to Nightmare Realm.]

    When Greya asked Angor to take care of Toby, she said that in order to break through into the next ss, she would leave the southern region to look for cooking materials far away. Angor never thought she would actually go to another ne. More surprisingly, she was sent into a Nightmare Realm tunnel.

    He already knew how dangerous the ce was. The magazine just told him that a level-2 wizard and three dozen other wizards all perished in there. Greya, as Gourmet Wizard, was not really adept at fighting. Should she get surrounded by the creatures in Nightmare Realm... her hope was slim.

    Angor silentlymented Greya¡¯s possible fate.

    This further told him that the way of wizardry was full of great danger. Wizards who sought to break through or seek truths could easily end up as corpses somewhere far from home.

 Chapter 184 - Illusions And Music

    <h4>Chapter 184: Illusions And Music</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    For now, Angor decided to keep Greya¡¯s whereabouts to himself without telling Toby. He did not know whether Greya was dead. Telling Toby about it would only put an unnecessary burden on Toby¡¯s mind.

    Besides, if Toby learned about Greya¡¯s information and wanted to go looking for her in the Nightmare Realm, then how? Where was Haunt World? And was the ne tunnel toward Nightmare Realm still there? Any attempt would be futile. At least Angor was sure they almost had zero chance of finding Greya even if they teamed up together.

    Hiding the information from Toby was the best choice at this moment.

    Angor caught some restless sleep, troubled by the decision he just made.

    In the daytime, Angor proceeded with his routine and went to challenge the Sky Tower. Apprentices like Dripping River were still rare, and he gained victories easily. Four in the morning, four in the afternoon. Eight wins and 24 match points in total. The matches also earned him 96 merit points. It was not much, but better than nothing.

    In the evening, Angor took out the illusion notebook he received from Sunders and finally began to study illusions.

    Basic illusions were all about creating deceiving visions. Sunders already told him about how he had to choose the right illusions for proper situations to make them more real, and how to avoid logical mistakes.

    Obeying these two rules meant making more ¡°convincing¡± illusions.

    These basic illusions, however, only worked when someone bumped into them while unprepared. Casting illusions when someone was looking was meaningless.

    Basic illusions were not used for fighting. At the very least, they were useless in sudden encounters and public arena battles.

    Angor did very quick work at learning illusions. In half an hour, with the help of the notebook, he could already create an illusion of an underground cave by using his basementb as background. The illusion was wed though. There was dripping watering off the stctites and puddles on the ground, but the air was still dry just like what it should be in the vi basement.

    If he could use a water cantrip to ¡°decorate¡± his illusion at the same time, it would definitely look more real.

    Still, creating such aplete illusion in a short time was already impressive for a fresh learner. He had his superior channeling method and a suitable talent to thank for.

    Non-illusionists could also learn these basic illusion spells, but they would need way more time for it.

    Making illusions required their creator toprehend the reality first, so Angor at least needed to experience the scenes first before putting them into his illusions. Those created out of thin air could probably fool little kids at best. Anyone else would see them through quickly.

    For instance, when Angor tried to create an illusion of flowingva without ever seeing realva at all, he created an orange liquid ording to some books he read. Also, the books said thatva would release smoke, so Angor put up some white vapor as if theva pool was a hot spring. To make the smoke more ¡°real¡±, he also imitated the misty smoke clouds released by Nausica¡¯s pipe.

    Anyone who saw volcanoes before could easily point out his obvious mistakes.

    Of course, if Angor knew some really powerful spells, he could also make his wed illusions work. Certain magic arrays used by illusionists, for example, could quickly madden or kill someone when used in strange illusions.

    Now, Angor knew the overall knowledge of basic illusions. As long as it was something he experienced before, he could create immersive scenes for it. What he needed now was to practice and see the world more, to avoid making silly mistakes and to perfect his basic illusions.

    After learning the basic illusions, Angor did not proceed with the other low-level spells in the notebook right away. Instead, he decided to focus on his foundation first.

    In the next couple of days, he kept going to the Sky Tower and when he was free at night, he would spend the time to deepen his knowledge in basic illusion.

    Another fine weather outside.

    Angor told Toby that he was not going to the Sky Tower today, so Toby left to explore the woods on its own early in the morning.

    The boy watched as the bird disappeared in the distance and revealed a wicked grin. In the vi garden, he began to deploy a small illusion.

    The illusion was a simple one because he did not change many things in it. The fences, the mistletoe tree, and the house were almost left as they were.

    The only thing different was the window. In reality, Angor closed the right window and opened the left one. But in the illusion, the right window was still open like how it was in the morning.

    Such a small difference would not be obvious even for people who always lived in the house.

    Toby spent the whole day outside and finally returned at dusk. Angor stayed in the vi hall and observed the bird using his spirit feelers.

    As he expected, Toby did not feel anything wrong in the illusion. The bird aimed straight for the right window.

    Pong!

    Sounded like something just hit solid ss using its tiny little head.

    Angor held back hisughter while Toby was still puzzled at what happened. The window was wide open, so why could he not get in?

    Toby hovered in front of the window and reached out a w at it. Then it realized that in spite of what was shown, the window was actually closed.

    Toby could not understand. He chose to enter by the top window of the attic.

    The attic window, too, was already manipted by Angor. When Toby tried again, it crashed into the ss for a second time. The bird was now walking on the rooftop in a circle. Several tinier Tobies flew above his head.

    When Angor saw what just happened with his spirit feeler, he could no longer suppress hisughter.

    And Toby quickly heard him.

    The creature immediately realized what was going on since Angor had been practicing illusions all these days.

    Toby red at Angor furiously.

    ¡°Okay okay, no more joking. I lifted the illusion,e on in!¡± Angor came to the attic and smiled at the bird outside.

    Toby did not move. The animal had its cheeks plumped in frustration.

    Angor climbed onto the rooftop and apologized to Toby with a smile. The bird turned around and put its tail under Angor¡¯s nose.

    ¡°Come on, just a small joke,¡± said Angor. He smiled wider as he said, ¡°I think I¡¯ll take you to a feastter. I heard the salesman just imported some fresh deep fish. Want some?¡±

    Toby looked around just a little and remained silent. His little eyes showed some sadness this time.

    Angor began to feel a bit sorry. He really meant to y a harmless joke on Toby and while at it, maybe also testing out his illusions a little.

    He cleared his throat. ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll borrow your Echo Flower for a bit. I have a gift for you.¡±

    With that, Angor took an Echo Flower in the attic and went to his soundproofed room.

    After Angor had left, Toby¡¯s plumped cheeks finally shrank. He came in front of the window with a doubtful expression and made sure that the window was really open before going inside.

    Toby waited in the hall. He was not really angry at Angor. He only acted like that in the hope of forcing Angor to give him another Echo Flower.

    He did not expect that Angor would take a flower away instead.

    Toby wondered what kind of gift awaited.

    ...

    A momentter, Angor returned from the basement with a flower pot in his hand and saw Toby staring at him with all seriousness. Or rather, Toby was looking at the Echo Flower, fearing that Angor might identally damage it.

    From a quick look though, the flower was fine.

    ¡°Tweet ta tweet!¡±

    Thanks to his max-level birdnguage skills, Angor quickly understood that Toby was anxious to know where the gift was.

    He only gave Toby a mysterious smile and ced the flower on the table. Then he asked Toby to step on the flower¡¯s exposed root.

    The flower was an alchemy material used for sound-rted products. Toby had been using it as a recording tool.

    The bird tilted its head and looked at Angor in doubt. When Angor urged again, Toby finally put a w on the flower root albeit a little hesitantly.

    The pale, violet petals of the flower twitched a little.

    Gentle music was then heard from the flower.

    Distinctive instruments were yed in harmony and brought a peaceful melody. A stringed instrument yed in the most outstanding tone of all and it sounded like the peaceful humming of a skilled singer as she seized the senses of her audiences.

    This was the second time Angor listened to this piece, and it still raised goosebumps on his entire body because it was simply enjoyable.

    City of Sky.

    A masterpiece from another civilization.

    The divine music held a power that touched the hearts of people.

    The Echo Flower was able to record the sound of arge frequency range. Complicated octaves were all recreated perfectly.

    The music was yed by the Echo Flower wlessly, filling the hall with an intoxicating atmosphere.

    Toby¡¯s small figure waspletely frozen. The quartet it had been singing with the flowers felt like random dust on a giant castle whenpared to this very song.

    Previously, the bird thought he was doing music. Now, it finally realized how real music had rises, falls, and emotions in its melodies. The creator of a music piece had to imprint his or her wills into the music.

    As the music reached itsst note, Toby quickly pressed the flower root again.

    As a low-level nt though, the Echo Flower could only y its recorded sound once. The music was already removed from its memory.

    Toby kept trying without hearing the beautiful tone again.

    ¡°Pip...¡± The animal gave Angor a pleading look.

    Angor smiled and did not answer Toby¡¯s pleading right away. ¡°The song is called City of Sky. Consider it an apology for tricking you. So how was it? A nice gift, right?¡±

    Toby tweeted quickly, hoping to hear the music once again.

    Angor pretended to be hesitating before finally said, ¡°I see. If you give me two Echo Flowers, I can try to make a music box for you. But it¡¯s not for free, mind you.¡±

    Toby revealed a sad look: <i>I don¡¯t have money on me!</i>

    ¡°I don¡¯t need money. Just do me a favor.¡±

 Chapter 185 - Faster Matches

    Chapter 185: Faster Matches

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    To make a music box was a sudden decision Angor just came up with.

    Toby¡¯s pleading look reminded him of Greya¡¯s information. He did not tell it to Toby, so Angor felt a bit sorry for this. Now, he could satisfy Toby¡¯s desire with a new gift, and maybe he could use this chance as a ¡°failsafe¡± should Toby found out about Greya¡¯s matter in the future.

    The bird had no idea what a ¡°music box¡± was. However, he knew that Angor could create amazing alchemy items, so Toby was really curious about what Angor would give him. Toby did not hesitate at all when stuffing its favorite Echo Flowers into Angor¡¯s hands.

    Angor took the flowers and entered hisboratory.

    Angor was not sure if music boxes existed in other ces, but back in Goldspink Empire, a music box was always an expensive handicraft for noble families. Due to theck of advanced technology, such boxes could only y simple and poor melodies. Even then, they were still considered luxuries among higher sses.

    Angor had a music box before. It was a birthday present from Jon when he hit five. The box yed a short music piece called Happy Birthday. Angor really loved the music and used to y it a lot. Heter grew a little bored of it after hearing the music concerts of master musicians in Waterford.

    Even if music boxes only yed poor melodies by hitting metal pieces, they still belonged to Angor¡¯s cherished childhood memory. Of course, music concerts had ¡°better¡± music, but the small, delicate music box was still one of his best treasures.

    Instead of a simple toy of poor quality, the gift for Toby though should be something that could recreate every single music note perfectly. To do this, Angor chose to use Echo Flowers in his creation.

    None of his alchemy books mentioned such a ¡°useless¡± object. The only blueprint for creating a music box was found among Jon¡¯s data. Angor did not intend to follow the blueprint though. He needed to modify it and make something new.

    How to use the Echo Flowers in his music box, and how to address the problem about how the flowers could only rey something for once... He needed to tackle these challenges.

    Aside from these, Angor also had a small ambition.

    This was only a gift for Toby, and he just came up with such an idea today. Nevertheless, Angor was nning to do his best. He could definitely add some interesting mechanism into the item.

    He had only crafted alchemy weapons before, and he knew nothing about how to make other types of items. The music box was also an opportunity for him to find inspirations and helped him improve as he walked along the path of alchemy.

    Keeping Toby happy AND practicing alchemy skills. Why not?

    ...

    Before actually working on the music box, he still had a lot of preliminary jobs to do. The message about the garden of purification would be public soon, and stronger opponents would go challenge the Sky Tower thus lowering his own chance of reaching the top level. Thus, he had to focus on the tower for now. Each day, Angor only spent some time before sleeping to learn about Echo Flowers from his alchemy books as well as how to choose correct materials and modify the blueprint.

    His daily schedule was nowpletely taken up.

    One weekter, Angor sessfully reached level 5.

    He kept winning on his dirty tricks, but he still gained a lot ofbat experience such as how to avoid damage, how to choose the right cantrips, when to push on or when to fall back. They were only simple tactics for now, but he believed that time would gradually enrich his experience.

    He had never lost a single match. Yet his progress was slow.

    If Butler Goode¡¯s information was correct, the message about the garden would get announced within a month now, and Angor was only at the fifth level.

    There were 15 levels in the Sky Tower, which meant... ten more levels to go. Considering his current speed, he would never make it in time.

    He was now seriously considering a question: How to gain levels faster?

    One possible way was to deal with his opponents quicker. However... he was already pretty fast. Judging from how he kept most matches under five minutes, this was not an efficient approach.

    He progressed too slowly mainly because he waited too long between matches.

    If a fighter wished to join the next match immediately, the Sky Tower would ¡°considerately¡± give him or her half an hour to prepare. The rule was really helpful for other people. To Angor, however, such an interval hindered his speed too much.

    On the day when he was qualified for the fifth level, Angor came to the lottery box handler and asked if he could join matches faster without waiting too long. He wanted to enter the next match immediately without resting at all.

    The clerk was obviously shocked at his words. He had been working here for many years, and this one was the first fighter ever to ask such a thing.

    ¡°Mister Baron Milk, we are subject to the regtions of the management team and cannot do something like this for you,¡± said the clerk. He measured the hooded figure in front of him up and down. Was Baron Milk trying to earn quick money? Or did he really love to humiliate his opponents? When he looked into Angor¡¯s profile though, he noticed that this ¡°Baron Milk¡± never killed anyone. Actually, hardly anyone was hurt. This was a really rare case on the arenas of Sky Tower.

    But why else? Was Baron Milk really anxious about reaching the top? For what? Working slowly would always get him there in due time, in a safer way.

    Obviously, the clerk did not know about the garden of purification either, so he thought a ticket to the Tower of Infinity was the only prize in the end. Usually, many people would stay at lower levels with the purpose of avoiding getting squashed by stronger fighters. The participants here were either here for money, or to get battle experiences. There was no point looking for trouble at high levels.

    Maybe... Baron Milk was a battle maniac who was not afraid of losing his life at all? When thinking about this, the clerk regarded Angor with a little bit of respect. There were many such people in the Sky Tower. Actually, most fighters in thest three levels were bloodthirsty. But they were mostly Bloodline apprentices. It was really unusual for someone like Baron Milk to act like this.

    ¡°Is there really no way?¡± Angor looked disappointed.

    Now the clerk was more confident about his idea. The Sky Tower strongly weed battle maniacs because they always attracted more audiences.

    The clerk considered for a while before saying, ¡°Please go to the management office and ask Director Mntha. If she says yes, there should be no problem.¡±

    Angor thanked him and walked down to the first level.

    The management section was located here. It was the same ce where Angor got himself registered as a participant.

    When asking one of the workers about Mntha and exined why he hade, the worker also mistook Angor for another bloodthirsty crazy. He asked Angor to wait and left to look for Mntha somewhere else.

    A momentter, someone came into the management office.

    Angor looked at the door and saw a middle-aged woman walking in. She wore a tight, ck uniform, coiled-up hair, and had a strict look on her.

    They were both surprised when seeing each other.

    ¡°Good day, I¡¯m the director of the management team, Mntha Atar.¡± The woman revealed her identity and walked toward Angor. Her stern expression slowly turned into a gentle smile.

    Angor recognized her. She was the one handling the lottery record in Level 1. Previously, Angor thought she was only anothermon clerk.

    ¡°Director Mntha, I am¡ª¡±

    ¡°Baron Milk, is it?¡± Her smile looked a little stiff as if she did not do it often. ¡°Lots of people have their attention on you. We haven¡¯t witnessed someone who progressed so fast in a long time.¡±

    Angor blushed a little. He did not show it, but he still felt uneasy about how he had been tricking his way through the tower.

    It seemed Mntha already saw through him even though Angor was hidden under his robe. Without further courtesy, she cut straight to the point and asked, ¡°My man told me. So you want to join matches faster?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°May I?¡±

    Instead of answering, Mntha asked something out of curiosity, ¡°Can you tell me why, sir? If it¡¯s about money, your weapon will serve you a better job in the questing hall. But if you¡¯re looking to beat people down...¡± She paused a little and acted as if she knew Angor well. ¡°Frankly speaking, I don¡¯t believe it. So, are you willing to share the reason with me?¡±

    Mntha waited for an answer with an intrigued look.

    Angor arranged his wording carefully. ¡°I want to reach the top level as fast as I can.¡±

    Mntha immediately understood something and smiled. ¡°Within one month?¡±

    Angor never mentioned it, and Mntha still revealed his goal, which meant she already knew about the garden.

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°I see. The Sorcerer¡¯s Garden of Purification?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Angor admitted.

    Mntha nodded while still withholding her answer. ¡°Looks like you know quite a lot. Truthfully speaking, I don¡¯t think the alchemy weapon on your wrist can help you reach the fifteenth level. Who you¡¯re going up against in thest three levels are strong and beyond your imagination. You may even lose your life.¡±

    Angor did not say anything about this. He only sneered in his mind: Ha. I have another secret weapon.

    Mntha only intended to provide her reminder. She did not ask anything about Angor¡¯s secret. Since this Baron Milk was determined to keep fighting, she did not have a reason to stop him.

    ¡°Alright then. I can change the resting time to five minutes. Do remember, once the change is made, your interval between matches will always be five minutes until the end. Are you sure about it?¡±

    Angor did not hesitate at all. ¡°I am!¡±

 Chapter 186 - Starsoul

    <h4>Chapter 186: Starsoul</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When leaving the management office, Angor did not really believe that he just got what he needed so easily from Mntha. Also, Mntha set up a condition for him; he must not abstain from any match until he was allowed to surrender.

    And Angor did not have any problem agreeing to it.

    His exceptional case would not affect the fairness of the matches. However, he did wonder why Mntha agreed to help him when they hardly knew each other.

    Angor could not think about any reason and so, in the end, he concluded that Mntha was only a certain individual who was willing to help him out of kindness.

    He had forgotten that Sunders gained the records about his matches because the man had some kind of connection with Sky Tower. Mntha, as one of the managers in the tower, should certainly know about Angor¡¯s true identity, and it was natural that she would help him when she knew Sunders was his professor.

    Sunders was never the man to take students easily, which meant Angor must possess something special. Till now, Sunders had only epted two students, both of whom sessfully became wizards.

    And Mntha expected just as much from Angor.

    Earning a favor from a future wizard without affecting the fairness of the arena matches was totally eptable. She would dly do it even if Angor was unqualified for a wizard. No one wouldin since the exception might have actually increased Angor¡¯s risk.

    Angor himself, however, was still too inexperienced to realize Mntha¡¯s intention.

    ...

    After getting his request approved by Mntha, the lottery handler in Level 5 did not reject him this time and quickly changed his resting time between matches to five minutes.

    Angor began to progress in the tower a lot faster.

    Due to his now congested schedule, he had to manage his mana very precisely. As a level-1 apprentice, his mana pool was not big. Every bit of mana had to be spent carefully in order not to get exhausted too fast. He could no longer cast spells at free will like what he did in the previous matches.

    This meant keeping his 100% win rate had be harder.

    He ran into more and more opponents who posed a great threat to him such as puppet users, spirit attack users, and someone who could actually damage people by using oralnguage... He always had to spend lots of mana, sometimes even using his rune bolts, when facing these people.

    Now he finally understood why Mntha forbade him from giving up the matches in advance.

    Stronger opponents cost him way more mana and effort, as well as time, which meant he needed to rest a lot before taking the next match. If he chose his opponents intentionally by giving up matches against such opponents right away, he would be able to climb even faster by avoiding certain opponents, which was unfair. Mntha already predicted something like this, so she set a rule to restrict Angor from doing so.

    One weekter, Angor reached the tenth level.

    The audience stands in here were no longer vacant. Time to time, Angor could see small groups of people watching the matches. However, they usually watched the matches of famous fighters. He did not really have anyone around his own battles.

    Until one day, his lottery ced him against someone called Starsoul. The audience stands already received a lot of people before the match. When Angor came up to the arena, about 30% of the seats were taken.

    This was the first time he saw so many spectators ever since he left Level 1.

    He did not believe all those people were here for him though, which could only mean that they came to watch Starsoul.

    So... was Starsoul really good?

    He got his answer soon enough when it was only two minutes into the fight.

    Yes. Starsoul was strong. Very strong!

    Angor could not quite put his finger on why Starsoul acted strong. However, he was sure that the man in front of him had the most terrible character among everyone he had gone against before.

    Starsoul kept spitting on the floor and giving him twisted gazes during the match. This guy¡¯sughter sounded like the screaming of a thousand ghostsbined together. He looked like a mncholy handsome before the match, but after the match began, he immediately switched into some kind of frenzied mode.

    Angor did not understand Starsoul¡¯s strength because Starsoul¡¯s means of attacks werepletely new to him¡ªthe man manipted the shadow of a faint female figure.

    At first, he waspletely puzzled by it. However, after several close inspections, Angor finally realized what that shadow as well as who Starsoul was.

    The participant information he received from Dave contained the detailed description of Starsoul.

    Angor did not recognize Starsoul until now because Dave¡¯s data only showed someone with long hair which covered his shoulders. In the crystal ball, Starsoul looked just as ¡°dispirited¡±, but his image appeared more like an artist.

    The man in front of him, on the other hand, was aplete psychopath.

    ¡®Starsoul¡¯ Saka, ult Soul Maniptor, a Level-2 apprentice, student of ¡®Deadman¡¯s Redemption¡¯ Ness Byron. He was adept at controlling souls and always carried powerful souls around. He named the souls as ¡°The Three Stars¡±.

    Dave¡¯s data only recorded two of the Three Stars, ¡®Virgo¡¯ Silvia and ¡®Venus¡¯ Herrington. ording to the data, Saka was already strong enough to reach the top level, but the man had been staying at lower levels as if waiting for something.

    Compared to these, Angor was more concerned about Saka¡¯s mentor, ¡®Deadman¡¯s Redemption¡¯ Ness Byron.

    Hookdick¡¯s mentor.

    This was totally eptable though, considering the fact that Hookdick¡¯s talent was also Soul Maniptor.

    ...

    The female shadow beside Saka was ¡®Virgo¡¯ Silvia, the soul of a powerful apprentice witch.

    She used to be another participant in Sky Tower but waster killed by Saka and became his tool.

    Angor was having a hard time keeping himself up in the match. His physical attacks were pointless against Silvia. Also, she could move through his ice walls with ease.

    Saka, on the other hand, had a strange chain around his body whichpletely blocked Angor¡¯s bolts.

    Thankfully, Silvia¡¯s attacks were not really powerful.

    Angor was wondering though. ording to Dave¡¯s information, ¡®Virgo¡¯ Silvia could release powerful howls that shocked people¡¯s souls, thus rendering them unconscious for a while.

    Silvia had done it many times, but Angor did not feel anything at all. He thought Silvia was simply threatening him rather than using her rumored soul attack.

    Just now, Silvia looked really furious about something.

    It troubled Angor even more. None of his attacks affected Silvia, so why did she grow so angry all of a sudden?

    Red color caused by great rage slowly appeared around Silvia¡¯s cheeks. Her soul form began to shine with a faint red light.

    The sudden change immediately reminded Angor of something else in Dave¡¯s data. Apart from Soul Howling, Silvia could use another skill called Soul Absorption.

    A master at this skill could directly pull someone¡¯s soul away from its owner¡¯s body. Silvia, however, could only inflict pain on someone¡¯s soul at best.

    Still, pain on the soul meant unbearable agony which could easily force someone to surrender.

    Angor did not know what he should do. He never learned anything about soul defense. He could only keep shooting at Saka, hoping to do some damage.

    He did not bring Toby today, or he would already have asked Toby to go for Saka.

    Out of desperation, Angor took out a golden bolt with an armor-piercing rune on it. Surely this thing would break Saka¡¯s chain apart?

    Saka remained stationary when Silvia kept her attacks on Angor. The man only fixed his malevolent re at Angor while spitting on the ground now and then like a maniac. When Silvia began to use Soul Absorption, his twisted face became worse.

    Pong!

    The armor-piercing bolt left Angor¡¯s sleeve and broke the sound barrier.

    The golden beam headed straight toward Saka¡¯s chain.

    As Angor expected, Saka¡¯s chain was useful at deflecting his ordinary golden bolts, but not against the enchanted one.

    When the chain broke down, Saka¡¯s face went pale. What he had was not an actual chain, but a defensive tactic used by Soul Maniptors called Spirit Chain. The sturdiness of the chain depended on its user¡¯s soul. If the chain got damaged, so would his soul.

    Saka did not expect something like this to happen.

    More importantly, the enchanted bolt did more than damaging his chain and soul. After prating his defense, the bolt kept going for his body.

    In the end, the bolt disappeared into Saka¡¯s shoulder and created a bleeding hole on it.

    Angor was very good at aiming thanks to his archery training during his childhood. He had meant to shoot at Saka¡¯s shoulder, instead of going for his opponent¡¯s heart.

    In the participant data, Dave said that Saka ¡°identally¡± killed Silvia, and something like that never happened again in his Sky Tower battles. No matter how his opponents offended him, Saka would only order Silvia to shock their souls and leave them out cold on the ground.

    This was the reason why Angor regarded Saka as one of the ¡°rare, good wizards¡± in this world. The man looked crazy, sure. However, Angor did not really wish to kill him.

    Angor believed that the shot was enough to force Saka to surrender.

    The truth told him otherwise.

    Silvia did not stop casting her Soul Absorption, and Saka did not look discouraged at all. Rather, his eyes glimmered with blood-red color while his already twisted face grew even scarier. Angor was positive he just saw a hint of excitement on Saka¡¯s face.

    Excitement?? While his shoulder was still losing blood like mad?

    At this moment, Silvia¡¯s skill looked prepared. Angor sighed in defeat as the woman¡¯s soul released a red light beam.

    A strange ripple was released from Silvia¡¯s form.

    Saka looked overexcited.

    Angor thought he was going to lose it by receiving some kind of soul damage, so he was prepared to ept his first defeat.

    However...

    The ripples of Soul Absorption came, and he only sensed a sharp but brief tingle as if someone just poked him with a needle.

    ... And nothing else.

    Silvia was no longer releasing light. Angor stood on the arena just fine.

    When Angor noticed that everyone was looking at him with great shock¡ªexcept for Saka, who had a look of doubt¡ªhe asked in his faked low voice, ¡°That¡¯s it? That was your Soul Absorption?¡±

 Chapter 187 - The Third Star

    <h4>Chapter 187: The Third Star</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor did not mean to taunt. He really wanted to know if Silvia¡¯s attack had ended.

    The mild pain was nothingpared to what he went through in the Nightmare Realm when he saw the strange wall. It could not possibly be the rumored skill called Soul Absorption.

    His question somewhat angered Silvia even further. She lunged at Angor like mad. However, the soul of a former apprentice was too weak to use effective physical attacks. She could damage people by using spells for now, and both of her skills¡ªSoul Howling and Soul Absorption¡ªdid nothing to Angor. Her frenzied scratches and kicks were alsopletely useless.

    On the other hand, Saka was not angered like Silvia. He was now looking at Angor with great enthusiasm as if someone just discovered a treasure vault.

    ¡°Not giving up yet?¡± Angor lifted an arm at him. If Saka insisted on fighting, he would not show mercy this time.

    Saka only revealed an eerie smile.

    ¡°Such a beeeeautiful soul... hehe...¡± The man¡¯s expression slowly returned normal, like a gloomy yet dashing artist. ¡°Atst... my third star.¡±

    Saka¡¯s crazy look was reced by gentleness.

    ¡°Tell me your name, my precious,¡± Saka approached Angor with the steps of an elegant nobleman,pletely oblivious of the bleeding wound on his shoulder.

    Angor felt a terrible chill climbing along his back. This man was worse than a psycho!

    ¡°Freeze!¡± He yelled. ¡°One more step and I¡¯ll...¡±

    Pong!

    A golden bolt stuck in the ground in front of Saka¡¯s feet.

    ¡°... kill you.¡±

    Saka smiled brightly. ¡°My... Precious Star. Do you like this name?¡±

    <i>What the heck is Precious Star?</i>

    Angor felt really disgusted. This madman was beginning to give him nicknames now?

    Saka kept approaching.

    Angor grimaced. He released a golden bolt enchanted with Freeze Rune, directing it at Saka¡¯s heart.

    Saka was already hurt, and he was in no condition to avoid the attack. He tried his best to move aside a little, causing the bolt to hit the right edge of his chest.

    In the next instant, the entire right side of his body was frozen in ice.

    The result of the battle was clear. If Saka did not get treated in time, whether he could live was only a matter of time.

    Saka tossed his profile card into the air and surrendered.

    Angor would have really appreciated his decision... if Saka did not toss his card like throwing a love letter.

    After Saka admitted defeat, the medical team in the tower immediately came to the stage. When Silvia returned to Saka, another bulky, muscr man also appeared beside him. That must be his second star, ¡®Venus¡¯ Herrington.

    Angor suddenly realized something. Was Saka referring to HIM by ¡°Precious Star¡±? Or rather, his soul?

    While being carrying away, Saka was still looking at Angor with a certain lover¡¯s look.

    Angor trembled again.

    ¡°That monster really wanted my soul?! I should¡¯ve killed him!¡±

    Angor considered his options. Could he finish Saka off right now? Would it earn him a bad name or something? His moral did not really allow him to attack someone lying on a stretcher. How about... find a chanceter and get rid of Saka?

    As Saka was carried off the stage, Angor was still standing in the middle of the arena, wondering what to do.

    The audiences suddenly yelled in unison. Then they all cheered Angor¡¯s name under his puzzled gaze.

    ¡°Baron Milk! Baron Milk! Baron Milk!¡±

    Receiving such treatment from audiences usually meant great honor. Angor, however, only felt indescribable embarrassment. His title ruined it all! He should have insisted on using ¡°Absolute Truth¡±!

    In the end, Angor only waved at the audiences in a stiff manner to tell them that he heard them before heading toward the waiting room without looking back.

    The other fighters in the waiting area also paid him a lot of attention. Saka had been bullying other people in Level 10 for some time. His terrible wound which was caused by Angor would probably keep the weirdo off the stage for a week or two, which meant the others now had one less thing to worry about.

    Although... Baron Milk himself meant another threat to them.

    Angor did not go for another match. He spent most of his mana in this match so he was not confident that he could manage another. He decided to return home and rest up.

    Inside his house, Angor took some time to think about the fight against Saka carefully.

    He was taken by surprise too many times because of theck of knowledge about Soul Maniptors. If he had known that Silvia could not really do much to him, he would never waste mana on his defense spells.

    Speaking of Silvia... She did use Soul Howling and Soul Absorption, right?

    Angor checked in his hologram tablet for Soul Maniptor spells.

    ... And he found none.

    There were not many ult spells in the books he had. At least Sunders¡¯ collection did not record many of them.

    If Silvia¡¯s yelling and the red beam she released were skills, then why did he not feel anything? Well, maybe Soul Absorption tingled him a little but that kind of pain waspletely neglectable.

    Maybe it had something to do with the essence of Glutton Flower Lord? No way. ording to Sunders, the essence only mended damaged souls, not protected them.

    Angor gave up. He decided to go ask Dave about itter. Since Dave possessed data about Saka, he should know about Silvia¡¯s abilities as well.

    The match further helped Angor realize his weaknesses¡ªhis means of attack were too simple. Also, he had too little knowledge about his opponents before each fight.

    Whilst resting, Angor slowly went through the participant list Dave gave him and tried to check the abilities of elite fighters so he would not get too helpless when facing them.

    In the afternoon, Angor came to the Sky Towerte and only had four matches. He won them all. The matches attracted more and more audiences this time. It seemed his victory against Saka was known by more people, so they came to Level 10 just to watch him. And of course, they were mostly trying to spy on him to know his strengths.

    In the evening, Angor waited in front of the tower until nine o¡¯clock, hoping he could catch that pervert.

    He did not seed though. Instead, he saw Chloe Brothers.

    Angor never tried to hunt them down since the twins always stayed really far every time they saw him. However, now that the Chloe Brothers were right under his nose...

    Angor blocked them inside a small alleyway.

    His ck robe looked even darker in the narrow path at night. The Chloe Brothers recognized his identity immediately.

    They quickly stayed cautious and showed fear.

    Angor was d they did since this would make the situation a lot easier.

    Before Angor could initiate a ¡°friendly conversation¡±, the elder one of the twins¡ªck Chloe¡ªmoved in front of White Chloe and handed a tattered magic scroll to his brother.

    ¡°Mister Baron Milk, we don¡¯t mean to oppose you,¡± ck Chloe spoke.

    Angor ignored him. He carefully inspected the magic scroll in White Chloe¡¯s hand.

    Thoseposite runes and special markings... he saw them in Sunders¡¯ collection before.

    ¡°Crown Clown¡¯s Bnced Teleportation,¡± Angor slowly revealed the name of the magic scroll.

    ck Chloe remained calm. ¡°I see you already know about it, mister. I hope you can let us go. We promise never to tell anyone about you, and never to show ourselves in front of you again.¡±

    White Chloe looked really worried about something. ¡°Brother...¡±

    Angor, on the other hand, hesitated. The twins reminded him of Leon. While studying in an exclusive school in Waterford, people often bullied him for his timid nature, and Leon always stood in front of him like that.

    He was nning to get rid of the twins, but their magic scroll changed his decision.

    The Crown Clown was a demonic dominator in Abyss ne who sought absolute bnce in everything. If someone wanted to gain something from it, he or she had to pay an equal price. It enforced such a rule that was even harder than the ¡°equivalent exchange¡± convention between wizards. Because of Crown Clown¡¯s controversial behaviors, many wizards became its fanatic believers and preached the devil¡¯s name around the wizarding world.

    A magic scroll with Crown Clown¡¯s name on it could totally achieve powerful effects.

    This magic scroll looked really broken and iplete. However, with the ¡°blessing¡± of Crown Clown, anyone could now use it as a brand new teleportation scroll... by paying a price.

    The price for using the scroll was usually someone¡¯s life. And not anyone, for that matter. The sacrificed one had to possess the same blood of the scroll¡¯s user. In other words, one of the brothers had to sacrifice the other one in order to get away.

    ck Chloe was obviously prepared for this. If Angor insisted on killing them, he would use his own life to let White Chloe escape.

    Angor had no idea where the twins found such a scroll, but he knew he was not going to kill them both today.

 Chapter 188 - Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 188: Discussion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor decided to let Chloe Brothers go in the end.

    Before doing so, Angor warned them as well as asking them about what exactly happened on the day of the assault. Also, he asked White Chloe to give him some blood.

    The blood of a wizard basically held everything about the wizard himself. A wizard who learned blood-rted art could use someone¡¯s blood to curse or even kill people. Angor would not do anything like that, but he could still track down the current whereabouts of White Chloe by using the blood as a tool.

    The blood was his final warning for the twins.

    After the brothers left, Angor went toward Dave¡¯s shop instead of heading home.

    When he reached the shop, he saw Dave crafting some kind of machine part on his working table.

    Dave asked Angor to wait a bit. He was melting down a piece of metal using Thaw spell and carefully shaping it with his Hands of Spell.

    In order not to disturb Dave, Angor quietly sat down and watched.

    Dave already knew that Angor had more alchemy skills than him now, so he did not hide his work and kept going.

    Angor looked at Dave¡¯s crafting and quickly learned something new.

    He had to admit that Dave gained some serious experience during his five years of studying alchemy. The way Dave used Thaw looked very simr to him, yet there were many simple details that helped Dave to conserve mana.

    Angor did not show it. However, deep inside, he diligently tried to ¡°steal¡± the tricks disyed by Dave.

    A quarter of an hourter, Davepleted creating the part¡ªa strange-shaped gear used in some kind of alchemy machine.

    ¡°Expecting something better, huh? Well sorry, I can only make these little trinkets,¡± Dave mocked himself.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Actually, it looks nice. I learned a lot from you.¡±

    Believing that Angor was simplyforting him, Dave let out a hollow chuckle, ¡°So what do you need? More materials? It¡¯s only several days, and you already made something else?¡±

    Angor waved his hands in denial. ¡°Nah, haven¡¯t been doing alchemy for days. I¡¯ve been checking the participant data you gave me, and I got some questions.¡±

    Dave removed his goggles and wiped some sweat off his face. He looked at Angor in a doubtful manner. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re going to the Sky Tower for real?¡±

    Angor only smiled.

    ¡°You can try. That Trigger Crossbow of yours should have no problem getting you through the first few levels.¡±

    Dave began to analyze Angor¡¯s chances in all seriousness, about which level he could reach, or how many merit points he could earn.

    When Dave thought he reached a reliable conclusion, he stared at Angor with an innocent look. ¡°So, what did you want to ask exactly?¡±

    ¡°Do you know anything about ¡®Starsoul¡¯ Saka?¡± Angor cut to the point quickly, so Dave would not think about random things again.

    ¡°Him?¡± Dave took some time to think about how to describe Saka. ¡°Not much, but I¡¯d say that when fighting on the arena, Saka is a mad... and also a good guy.¡±

    By ¡°mad¡±, Dave was referring to Saka¡¯s terrible character. He said Saka was actually good because this individual almost never killed anyone in Sky Tower, which was pretty ¡°good¡±, considering how the tower was home to a good number of bloodthirsty murderers.

    However, Angor had a different opinion. He did not think that Saka was trying to avoid killing people. That lunatic just did not run into anyone he wanted to kill. For example... Baron Milk.

    ¡°Your data said so too. Can you tell me something about the ¡®three stars¡¯ he uses?¡±

    Again, Dave only exined something already recorded in his data. ording to Saka himself, the man had three stars on him. But in reality, people only saw ¡®Virgo¡¯ Silvia and ¡®Venus¡¯ Herrington before. As for the third star... no one ever witnessed it.

    ¡°Do you know how Silvia¡¯s Soul Howling and Soul Absorption worked?¡± Angor asked.

    Dave looked surprised at this question. ¡°Why? Are you nning to fight Saka?¡±

    Angor looked away and muttered. ¡°Who knows? Maybe.¡±

    Dave grew doubtful again. ¡°Angor... you¡¯re not serious, right? Saka became a supernatural ten years ago and always grew in strength smoothly. He¡¯s now at his bottleneck as a Level-2 apprentice. It¡¯s only a matter of time for him to be a Level-3.¡±

    <i>So what? I knocked him out for good. </i>Angor thought in his mind.

    ¡°Well, I just wanted to know about Silvia¡¯s skills, just in case, really.¡±

    Dave was unconvinced, but he proceeded to answer Angor¡¯s question anyway.

    Angor remained silent after hearing Dave. What Dave said about Silvia¡¯s skills was exactly what he saw during his battle against Saka.

    The problem was, anyone who was affected by Soul Howling looked miserable in the end. Even if they managed to survive, Silvia¡¯s Soul Absorption would definitely go for the win, unlike Angor¡¯s case in which Angor was not affected in the slightest.

    This meant that Silvia did not have any problem. He was safe because of something on him.

    Angor had a feeling that he was losing control of his own body. Whatever happened inside him?

    Instead of feeling lucky about how he resisted Silvia¡¯s soul attacks, Angor was more afraid of something unknown lurking in him.

    ¡°I think I need to ask Sunders about this,¡± he mumbled. He would never sleep well again if he did not get a clear answer.

    Outside the market, gentle moonlight had illuminated the sky, decorating the apprentice town like a calm, deep ocean. Angor stayed at Dave¡¯s shopte into the night to exchange some alchemy experience with him.

    For many times, Dave tried to ask why Angor wanted to know about Saka, but Angor only diverted the topic every time. Dave gave up in the end and asked about something else instead.

    ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want me to sell your weapons right now? There are many quests in the questing hall that ask to buy alchemy weapons. They would pay double price than average. A tiered long-range weapon may probably sell for twenty thousand merit points or more.¡±

    ¡°Not now, I can wait.¡±

    The message about the garden of purification had not been announced yet. Angor already decided to wait until then. To him, whether the information could raise his profit was unimportant¡ªhe was going to earn anyway.

    ¡°Why would the questing hall buy weapons though? There are alchemists in the organization, right?¡± Angor asked.

    Dave red at him. ¡°You¡¯ve been in here for half a year now. How could you not know something so basic?¡±

    ¡°Um, so... why?¡± Angor blinked innocently and acted as if he was only an eager student.

    Dave answered in a somewhat impatient tone, ¡°Who told you the quests are all from the organization?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re not?¡±

    ¡°No, duh! Brute Cavern only put up a really small number of quests for people. Most of them are published by other wizards or apprentices. The quests looking for alchemy weapons are initiated by Level-3 apprentices. I think they learned some kind of secret, so they are all preparing for something toe. There are many teams looking for new members.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor was not interested in their secret. He was still thinking about how the quests were published. ¡°So, I can put a quest there too, right? Say, if I need someone to help me find a potion or an alchemy material?¡±

    Dave nodded. ¡°Of course you can. Although finding a potion might be a little...¡± He nced at Angor and continued, ¡°You can¡¯t find alchemy potions in the underground market or from quests. We¡¯ve too few alchemists in Brute Cavern.

    ¡°But, you can try epting quests which ask for custom weapons. There are always such quests with great payment, and sometimes they give you rare materials in return. Keep in mind though, you should avoid quests which don¡¯t provide blueprints. No alchemist will ever ept them because creating a correct blueprint takes too much time. You also have to find proper materials for the new blueprint on yourself. If I had that kind of time, I¡¯d rather spend it on improving my skills.¡±

    Dave¡¯s suggestion provided Angor with a new idea. Angor did not really want the extra merit points because he could always earn points by making more weapons. He was, however, interested in the rare materials.

    However, he was busy with his tower challenge now. Any new idea would have to wait until he reached the top level.

    ¡°Are you going to make something new recently? You know, I can always help you with your n,¡± said Dave as he revealed an intrigued look.

    Apart from being a bit jealous about Angor¡¯s skills, Dave also developed respect toward Angor. He believed that he could learn something really good if he followed Angor¡¯s steps.

    Even if there was no alchemy knowledge to learn, he could still gain innovations from Angor¡¯s creations. Those alchemy weapons he sawst time all had wild, yet great designs, especially the Tang... Tang Dao? And Emei Piercers. Their names sounded weird, yet the simple shapes held great potential, which meant Angor possessed some unique and viable alchemy ideas.

    For alchemists, having their own inspirations was always more important than having great alchemy skills.

    ¡°ns?¡± Angor considered. ¡°There¡¯s one. But it¡¯s not a weapon.¡±

    ¡°Oh! Can you tell me?¡± Dave really wanted to know. It was not polite to ask for someone¡¯s alchemy ns so boldly, but Dave could not really hold back his urge to learn.

    Angor did not seem offended in the least. ¡°It¡¯s a music box.¡±

    ¡°Music box?¡± Dave rolled his eyes. He knew what that was. Some kind of ything in noble families,pletely useless.

    ¡°Why music box? Try something else maybe? Another weapon will do. You just began to study alchemy, there¡¯s no need to go for different stuff so early.¡±

    Angor shook his head and insisted. ¡°I¡¯m not really overdoing myself. It¡¯s just a simple toy for Toby. Toby loves music, so I want to make something using Echo Flowers.¡±

    This was what Dave thought:

    <i>To make a toy for a familiar pet... how much time and money does he have?!</i>

 Chapter 189 - The Three Levels of Death

    <h4>Chapter 189: The Three Levels of Death</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Wanna join me?¡± Angor quietly expected Dave to agree. Having someone working together meant they could make up for each other¡¯s shorings andplete tasks faster.

    However, Dave shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯m not interested in a music box... Come again when you n to make something else next time.¡±

    Dave believed that Angor could not possibly make something wonderful again like before. It was just a toy! Could Angor actually enchant a music box with Sharpen Rune of something?

    ¡°Well, alright,¡± said Angor. He seemed a little disappointed.

    The sound of a heavy bell being struck was heard in the entire underground market.

    ¡°Ten in the night... I should go.¡± Angor stood up and bid farewell to Dave.

    When he reached the door, Angor suddenly remembered something and turned around to ask, ¡°Hey Dave, do you have books about Runecraft here?¡±

    ¡°You mean runes used in enchantment?¡± Dave looked puzzled. ¡°But what for? You made Rune of Sharpenst time, don¡¯t you have the books yourself?¡±

    ¡°Not for enchantment. Just ordinary runes used elsewhere,¡± Angor exined.

    ¡°But you can¡¯t use those on your item, so why¡ªwait, you¡¯re not going to do magic arrays, right?¡±

    Magic arrays could be used to apply active effects on alchemy items. However, they were at apletely different levelpared to runes used in enchantment. Also, magic arrays had weaker effects than synthesis, so very few alchemists would actually go for magic array craft.

    ¡°Just want to check something out. I¡¯m not going to learn magic arrays of course.¡± For now, Angor was interested in Runecraft only. He did not n to pick up another subject yet. He simply wanted to see if he could create magic scrolls with the help of the hologram tablet.

    Dave gave him a piece of sincere advice, ¡°Angor, you haven¡¯t been a supernatural for long. Attempting too many things at the same time will only hinder your progression. I mean, you¡¯re studying alchemy AND fighting in Sky Tower, and now you¡¯re thinking about Runecraft too! As level-1, you should get yourself stronger as fast as you can. If you don¡¯t have enough strength, you can only make lesser items no matter what kind of alchemy talent you have.¡±

    Dave was right, and Angor knew it. However, he still could not tell the truth about his tablet to Dave.

    Seeing how his considerate words did not discourage Angor at all, Dave gave Angor a somewhat angry re as if he was a teacher who got really disappointed at his student. ¡°I only have enchantment books here, not Runecraft ones. And even if I do, I won¡¯t sell them to you. For your own good.¡±

    Dave¡¯s ¡°wise¡± disy looked real enough. Anyone else would probably get convinced. Angor, however, knew Dave¡¯s character well. Rather than trying to educate him for real, this guy was only acting like someone¡¯s teacher to feel superior for lecturing people.

    Angor watched Dave¡¯s ¡°kind expression¡± and sighed in his mind: <i>Okay, I¡¯ll try to y along.</i>

    He put up an enlightened expression.

    ¡°You¡¯re so right. I get distracted too easily. From today, I¡¯ll meditate as much as I can and leave the other matters aside.¡±

    Dave felt good at Angor¡¯s ¡°realization¡±, but he was kind of surprised at what Angor said. ¡°You don¡¯t really have to work so hard. Keep up your alchemy training when you have time. You know, bnced development.¡±

    ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll consider my meditation as first priority so I don¡¯t fall behind everyone.¡±

    With that, Angor bowed to Dave politely and walked out of the shop with firm steps.

    Dave stood in the shop, not sure what Angor was really thinking about.

    Angor left the underground area and stepped back into Apprentice Town Eight. Fresh air filled his lungs again.

    It was toote for dinner, so Angor bought some cooked ration from the town market and ate them in a haste.

    Once home, he entered the soundproofed room to meditate again. For some reason, he meditated a lot better this time.

    So was his mana flow.

    When done, Angor wondered what happened. Did he finally manage to ¡°calm his spirit¡± instead of ¡°calm his body¡± only?

    To calm one¡¯s spirit meant someone was able to enter a deep meditation while troubled by the worst noises.

    Angor considered and decided to try something. In his tablet, he found a song called ¡°Childhood Memory¡± which ording to its tag, wasposed by Bandari.

    The music was peaceful and soft. Angor realized that the song he just picked was just another masterpiece like City of Sky. The different instruments in the song really created wondrous melodies that reminded him of his childhood times.

    However, he did not find the song because he wanted to listen to music. Angor left the music going and closed his eyes to meditate. When bathed in the musical notes, he was d to find out he seeded!

    Did he really achieve ¡°spirit calm¡± in his meditation? Or was it because of the song¡¯s gentle nature which did not affect his meditation?

    Angor thought about another idea. He shut down his tablet and went to the attic.

    He asked Toby to scream sharply into the two remaining Echo Flowers in the attic to create some serious noises.

    Toby, however, believed that Angor came to enjoy his music, so the bird happily yed its little ¡°concert¡±.

    Angor tried to endure the harsh noise and forced himself to meditate. When his consciousness entered his chaotic mindspace, he noticed the noise outside was slowly blocked from his mind.

    The case was different from when he listened to ¡°Childhood Memory¡±. Previously, he could always hear the wonderful song while meditating. But now, Toby¡¯s disturbance was kept out of his mind. It was as if a mysterious organ in his head could tell noise from good music.

    Yet he could still sense the terrible frequencies caused by Toby.

    And he could not calm down enough to meditate at all.

    This meant he did not achieve ¡°calmness in the spirit¡±. ording to the records he read, this was something only possible for wizards, so the result was expected.

    After learning the conclusion, he returned to the soundproof room.

    He was still wondering why he suddenly meditated a lot better. He had just worked about 10% faster than before.

    He slowly went through what he did today and could not find anything special. The only thing that might have something to do with all this was his battle against Saka when he became the target of Silvia¡¯s soul attacks.

    But how did that affect his meditation efficiency?

    He could not understand. Still, being able to meditate faster was good news, so he decided to keep the question for now and go ask Sunders next time.

    ...

    Another week had passed. One day in the afternoon, Angor fell into a stalemate with an Elementalist apprentice who used Poison spells bybining wood and earth elements. Angor used a precious me bolt in the end and won the fight.

    The fight earned him enough match points to go to the thirteenth level.

    Thest three levels ¡ª 13th, 14th, and 15th level ¡ª looked very differentpared to the lower ones. They were the most upied as well as the most dangerous levels. Someone would get killed in these levels almost every day.

    This was why they were also referred to as the ¡°Three Levels of Death¡± by many apprentices.

    Instead of joining a match right away, Angor chose an arena and observed the fighters first. As another participant in this level, he did not need to pay for a seat on the audience stand. This was another reward given to the participants by Sky Tower.

    Here, the arenas were distributed in a different way.

    There were only three arenas in the entire level 13. They were a bit bigger than the arenas down below, and they had three times as many spectator seats around them. Each arena could allow thousands of people to watch the match.

    Currently, all three arenas had ongoing matches. Angor picked the one with the most audience and watched.

    The screen above the arena showed [Fox Master VS Herald of Typhoon].

    Angor knew neither of them, but the name ¡°Fox Master¡± somehow reminded him of someone simr and a terrible opponent at that.

    Herald of Typhoon was a big, bearded middle-aged male dressed in his uniform robe with green edges decorated by silver and white stripes. There were two shoulder straps on him showing his family emblem.

    As for Fox Master... The first thing that came to Angor¡¯s mind was that this individual¡¯s dressing style had too many problems that he did not know where to start toin.

    Fox Master had a young and handsome look on his face. His long, silver hair covered his shoulders loosely. But his white wizard robe and the wooden walking cane with a fox head on the tip somewhat made the man look like some kind of old hermit who hid from civilization. Also, Fox Master kept his eyes shut during the match. The man moved around, cast spells, and did everything else with his eyelids closed. He acted like a young man who had seen enough of this world and did not care about anything.

    Herald of Typhoon, as his name suggested, was a wizard skilled at controlling wind element, while Fox Master was a Summoner. However, thetter was not using any monsters. He only summoned the shadow of a beast to attack his opponent.

    Herald of Typhoon was at an obvious disadvantage. Fox Master pinned him down easily.

    The shadow of a Blood Vixen dashed around the stage like a lightning sh under themand of Fox Master. With his elegant moves, the fight was more like Fox Master¡¯s personal show rather than an actual Sky Tower battle.

    The man intentionally made bigger movements just to show his silver hair to everyone.

    And he cast spells while spinning so that every audience could see his face.

    At least this was what Angor believed so. Angor would admit that Fox Master¡¯s performance did make the match more appealing and it aroused the interest of the audience.

    A momentter, Fox Master defeated his opponent by leaving Herald of Typhoon in apletely hopeless state.

    Fox Master was exaggerating his moves, but Angor was sure that guy was a lot stronger than the opponents he fought against before.

    Even though he lost against Fox Master in a pretty pathetic way, Herald of Typhoon still looked really strong. Angor was positive that he had to use his enchanted bolts as well as a lot of time and hard effort if he hoped to defeat Herald.

    He needed to change his tactic.

 Chapter 190 - Ranking

    <h4>Chapter 190: Ranking</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    There were fewer participants in the Three Levels of Death. Also, the rules of the match were changed.

    Rules regarding match points remained the same. Actually, since there was lesspetition, they actually needed fewer points to get promoted here.

    The rules for fights were different. Previously, fighters could draw an opponent and join the match right away. In thest three levels, however, the match began the next day, which meant the participants had one night to prepare. Also, the audiences could take advantage of this rule and choose which match to watch in advance. Of course, they had to pay ticket money to Sky Tower.

    There were even cases in which a match between two popr fighters was scheduled one or two weeks earlier so that the workers had enough time to advertise.

    For this reason, Angor also had to wait until tomorrow if he wanted to do a match.

    Angor stayed at Level 13 and watched several more fights. All of the fighters were elites of their sses. Without using his alchemy weapon, he had no hope in defeating any of them.

    After seeing enough fights and getting to know the strengths of his opponents, Angor came to the lottery section to choose his rival for tomorrow.

    The lottery handler here was a small but sturdy old man who tied his hair into a tiny braid. He was reading a book with his legs crossed while smoking a pipe. The old man looked quite rxed.

    When approaching him, Angor smelled a sweet smoke scent. He did not smoke himself, but he knew how to tell the quality of tobos. He was sure that the old man was using something better than Nausica¡¯s product.

    ¡°Good day, Mister, I want to draw for a match,¡± Angor spoke respectfully, obeying the way of Confucianism that Jon taught him.

    The braided old man looked away from his book, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes.

    <i>Woah... how many books is he reading?</i>

    Angor silently eximed that this must be a really educated elder.

    The old man was not looking at Angor. He only lifted a palm without speaking anything.

    Angor paused, not knowing what the old man wanted.

    The old man curled his fingers several times in a beckoning manner. Hurry the fu*ck up!

    <i>Is he asking for a tip?? In public?</i>

    Angor quickly thought about the shadowy figures who were always hanging around old Viscount Padt like flies attracted to food. Sometimes, they came to bribe Leon and Angor when they could not get something approved by Viscount Padt. Angor knew well about such fishy matters, but he was always the one receiving a bribe.

    He carefully took out a magic crystal from his pocket and ced it on the old man¡¯s palm.

    The old man tried to move the magic crystal to the alchemy machine nearby. When he felt that he was not holding something he expected, he widened his eyes.

    ¡°Hey you, kiddo! What do you mean?¡± He looked so angry that his hair all stood up. ¡°You trying to buy me off?!¡±

    Angor wondered if he made the wrong move. <i>Maybe the old man is not asking for money?</i>

    ¡°Wanna buy me with only one crystal? Dream on!¡±

    ... <i>Did he want more?</i>

    ¡°Actually, forget it! I won¡¯t agree no matter how much you pay! Well, unless you can find me the collector edition of this book!¡± The braided old man gave Angor a determined look and picked up the book on his desk.

    Angor read the title of the book. <i>A Refreshing Summer </i>.

    The title was unimportant. The point was that the cover of the book showed a pair of sexy women who had their... private parts on the chest exposed.

    Angor silently cursed. <i>Shameless old fool!</i>

    After a brief exnation, Angor told the old man why he hade.

    ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re a neer?¡± The elder stroked his beard and disyed a kind expression. ¡°I was asking for your profile card, not your money.¡±

    At the same time, he stuffed Angor¡¯s magic crystal inside his pocket while not revealing a tiny bit of embarrassment.

    ¡°Consider the crystal as a... small lesson. You youngsters always need to learn these lessons so you don¡¯t make the mistake again.¡±

    Angor¡¯s hands which were hidden under his robe clenched into fists.

    ¡°Now, gimme your card.¡±

    Angor handed his profile card to the old man while trying not to punch him.

    After checking Angor¡¯s information, the old man suddenly inspected Angor up and down with a strange expression.

    Even under his robe, Angor still felt all ufortable.

    Something told him that this old man was not anyone ordinary. Angor sensed something powerfuling from the old man¡¯s gaze.

    ¡°Ho, ho.¡± The braided old timer chuckled. ¡°I thought you looked familiar. So it¡¯s you!¡±

    ¡°You know me, sir?¡±

    ¡°Not personally. But I know your name. That little Mntha girl was quite fond of you.¡±

    Mntha was the high director of Sky Tower. If he could call her ¡°little girl¡±... this old pervert had to be someone important.

    Angor was thinking though. <i>Did all these managers and important person in the tower have nothing better to do? Why are they all doing lottery jobs?</i>

    As Angor thought about his question, the old man already confirmed his profile card on the alchemy machine and handed it back.

    ¡°Are you sure you want to pick a lottery now?¡± The old man picked up the lottery box and shook it, making its content ttering. ¡°You hear? There aren¡¯t many participants here. Since Mntha spoke so highly of you, I can tell you a little secret: the lottery pool only has thirteen choices now. Eight of the fighters were in the ranking list.¡±

    The old man pointed to something posted on the wall behind him. It was a chart showing the rankings of participants in Level 13.

    Here, the ranking list determined the ces of participants ording to their match points instead of their strengths.

    The chart contained the names of 50 participants who held the most points on this level. Match points did not really determine their skill levels, but being able to earn more points could still prove something.

    ording to the list, the top ce now held 197 points, the second held 154, and the third, 99... Thest one had 47 points.

    Angor frowned a little after reading the chart.

    As he remembered, participants only needed 45 points to reach the next level. All of these people had enough points, but they chose to stay here.

    ¡°People all have simr levels of strengths in thest three levels, so they don¡¯t really need to move on. When someone gets his name on the list, he can receive a certain amount of merit points each month. Moving to the next level means eliminating your current points, so you see, they all stayed,¡± the old man exined.

    ¡°I understand now.¡±

    ¡°Do you see what I meant now? Most of the ones waiting in the lottery pool are on the ranking list.¡± The elder smiled. ¡°That weapon of yours isn¡¯t likely to help you get through these guys.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your kindness, Mister. But I still want to join,¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°Suit yourself then.¡± The old man handed the lottery box to Angor.

    Angor reached a hand inside. Just like the old man said, there were few balls in the box.

    He took out a random one with the number ¡°000539¡± on it.

    A line quickly showed up on the transparent screen in front of the old man: [Baron Milk VS Wastnd Warrior]

    ¡°Tsk, tough luck, you. It¡¯s a ranked one,¡± The old man shook his head.

    Wastnd Warrior, No. 37, 69 match points.

    In Dave¡¯s data, Wastnd Warrior was described as a level-2 Bloodline apprentice who had fused the blood of an Earthen Smander into his body. To Angor, this one sounded like someone with good defense. The ordinary crossbow bolts probably would not work.

    ¡°I can schedule more opponents, right? I¡¯ll keep going,¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°You sure about it?¡±

    ¡°I am.¡±

    The old man did notment. He stared at Angor¡¯s determined expression and grew really curious. He already scanned Angor¡¯s body using a special spell, and he did not find anything particr aside from that alchemy weapon on the boy¡¯s wrist. So... how could this Baron Milk be so confident?

    ¡°Alright then. I¡¯m looking forward to your... method.¡± The old man concluded that this boy was simply looking to die. He would not have spoken to Angor at all if Sunders was not behind this. ¡°Pick another one then. Mntha said you must wait five minutes between matches. But there are just too few matches in the queue, so that rule doesn¡¯t work here. Come tomorrow morning, and I¡¯ll arrange your matches. Now, draw another opponent.¡±

    The elder gave Angor the lottery box again.

    Match two: [Baron Milk VS Twilight of Night]

    Another participant on the ranking list. No. 41, 61 match points.

    Angor thought about Dave¡¯s data. This one was a level-2 Bloodline apprentice as well, but the exact type of blood was unknown. The only thing he knew was that Twilight of Night was someone extremely fast.

    <i>Fast, huh? </i>Angor sneered in his mind. <i>Faster than Toby? Not likely.</i>

    ¡°I¡¯m continuing,¡± Angor spoke again.

    The old man squinted his eyes and shook his head. ¡°You have zero points now. Granting you two chances is already a bonus. Earn some points first if you want to queue up for more matches.¡±

    Angor understood. People¡¯s points were only transferred between each other. The Sky Tower would not allow him to join further matches if he lost the first one and caused his points to go below zero.

    Also, if he was killed in the first match, his second opponent would gain a victory and points for free.

    This was unfair to everyone else in Sky Tower.

    Thinking about this, Angor nodded and epted the situation.

    ¡°I might sound bothersome, but I¡¯ve to remind you again. Don¡¯t die.¡±

    <i>... Or I¡¯m going to have a really hard time telling Sunders about it </i>, the old man mumbled the second half of his speech inside his mind.

    ¡°Thank you kindly, Mister.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me that, the name¡¯s Baroque.¡±

    ...

    People called thest three levels in Sky Tower as ¡°Levels of Death¡±. It meant that everyone who wished to triumph in the end had to go through three deadly paths.

    Angor, however, only had to get past two levels. His goal was to reach the top level instead of beating it. Thus, he did not have to join more matches in thest level. In other words, he was only going to fight against opponents in Levels 13 and 14.

    There were only two levels left, so Angor believed he could finally reveal his other secret tricks.

    During his days of challenge, he also practiced all kinds of teamwork with Toby. Now it was time to release his bird!

 Chapter 191 - A Good Start

    <h4>Chapter 191: A Good Start</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The cold mist had covered the evening peace in the apprentice town, but the underground market was still bustling with people in its eternal light.

    The base of Sky Tower was exceptionally crowded. People had gathered in front of a giant screen while patiently waiting for the schedule of Three Levels of Death tomorrow. Among them, there were also mortals who came here to pass the information to rich apprentices who employed them ¡ª Information on possible interesting matches and participants.

    ¡°I wonder if Fox Master has any matches tomorrow. I love his style. He looks so cool andposed!¡±

    ¡°Composed? The fake blind bastard only knows how to act all cool. None of his moves got any senses. He can only bully people at the lowest of the three levels.¡±

    ¡°You sound as if you¡¯re stronger. How about you go up there and prove it?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll never watch some unranked guy, thank you very much. I hope those in the top ces cane tomorrow. I haven¡¯t seen them fight in a long time.¡±

    ¡°The matches between the tops always got announced three days earlier. They won¡¯te here all of a sudden.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just saying! Geez.¡±

    Eight bell strikes announced that the time was now eight in the evening. The information on the screen was updated.

    ¡°It¡¯s here, tomorrow¡¯s schedule!¡±

    The beginning of the match list was a rmendation from Sky Tower:

    [The Ripper VS Eternal Rest, Level 15, Match 5]

    ¡°Not what I expected. The Ripper¡¯s one of the bottom ones on the ranking list of Level 15. And who is Eternal Rest? Never heard of him.¡±

    ¡°Forget it. The Ripper will tear his enemy apart in a minute. Let¡¯s not waste time.¡±

    Since the rmended match was not good enough, people moved their sights down to see if there was anything worth noticing.

    ¡°The Wailing King is up. But he¡¯s going against Lady Nightowl. The match will end pretty quick.¡±

    ¡°Gargoyle and Vampire Vamp... I think I¡¯ll check them out. Vamp almost reached level-3, and she¡¯s a lot better then Gargoyle, who just became a level-2 apprentice. But her fangs aren¡¯t going to get through Gargoyle¡¯s Stone Skin easily. Their fight might be interesting.¡±

    None of the onlookers were good enough to join the fights themselves. Yet they were all discussing the abilities and weaknesses of the participants like they knew everything; as if they could all hold their own grounds on the arena.

    ¡°Nothing in particr in Levels 14 and 15. Let¡¯s check out Level 13.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d vote for Fox Master of all people in Level 13. He had the best look! Don¡¯t you say otherwise!¡±

    ¡°But Fox Master doesn¡¯t have a match tomorrow. Look, none of the top ten guys are on.¡±

    ¡°We can always go watch the new fighters then. Hey, look. Baron Milk, zero points. This noob¡¯s going to fight Wastnd Warrior and Twilight of Night in one day!¡±

    It was a woman. She had just noticed Baron Milk¡¯s name and spoke to her boyfriend.

    ¡°Wastnd Warrior in the morning and Twilight of Night in the afternoon? Man, he got guts. But he¡¯s too stupid. Wastnd Warrior¡¯s gonna waste him for good, and Twilight will get three points for free.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so sure. Something told me that Baron Milk might win.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not a Prophet or Astrologist, so don¡¯t give me that. It¡¯s just your delusion.¡±

    ¡°Come on, women have good six sense. You¡¯ll never understand.¡±

    ¡°If Baron Milk wins, I¡¯ll strip myself clean and run around the Tree Spirit Garden!¡±

    The couple ¡°quarreled¡± while still holding each other¡¯s arm affectionately.

    Another gentle voice joined their conversation.

    ¡°I agree with thedy¡¯s instinct. Baron Milk will win in the end.¡±

    The couple turned to look at the neer. The man frowned. ¡°Who is it? And what¡¯s your proof? Are you Baron Milk?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not.¡± The neer was still smiling. He showed the couple his profile card. ¡°My title is Earthen Bear. Or you can call me White Bear.¡±

    The man in a white bear costume spoke in a joyful tone.

    ¡°As for my proof... Fate has already told me. Baron Milk will not lose.¡±

    ¡°Fate?¡± The man snickered. ¡°Okay, another fool who believes some kind of religion. If you all believe your fates and instinct whatsoever, let¡¯s get a ticket and go watch the match.¡±

    The couple went to purchase tickets. So did White Bear. He held his ticket firmly and revealed a determined expression.

    ¡°The fate told me that only by stepping on the path of supernatural could I get away from my life of suffering.¡±

    ¡°The fate told me that the path of the supernatural is filled with great challenges until I meet...¡±

    The voice of White Bear disappeared in the distance as he walked away. In the end, it could be heard that he was talking about someone who could change his life.

    ¡°That bear guy looks so odd. Could he be a real Prophet?¡± The couples looked at White Bear¡¯s direction and muttered.

    ¡°My six sense told me that he probably is.¡±

    ...

    The Month of Lingering Rains had given its ce to the Month of Wildfire.

    Angor¡¯s first match in the Three Levels of Deaths was scheduled on the first day of the Month of Wildfire. If he only considered the order of months, this day should be the Children¡¯s Day on Earth. The wizarding world had nothing special going on on this day. To Angor though, today was special because it was Leon¡¯s birthday.

    Leon was his only close rtive ever since they lost their parents. Naturally, Angor would remember the birthday of his most beloved brother.

    It had been one and a half year since Angor left home. Leon should have inherited his title and was now leading a glorious life in Grue Town. Maybe the war against Hen Imperials had ended?

    And when could he finally return home?

    Angor came to the Sky Tower in a mild state of homesickness as he thought about his brother.

    He did not really feel any stress. Probably because he already went through a good number of matches. Combined with that fact that the birthday of Leon distracted his thoughts.

    It was only when he stood on the stage and realized the audience around were all cheering loudly that he finally collected his spirit.

    The ss screen above his head showed the names of the fighters and a countdown timer.

    The names were ced aside portraits. Angor¡¯s portrait was there, but it only showed someone covered under his hood.

    As for the portrait of ¡°Wastnd Warrior¡±... Angor did not pay much attention. His opponent was already standing across of him, so he might as well look that way.

    ¡°Baron Milk... Unlike the others, I know about you,¡± said Wastnd Warrior. He was a bulky male who wore a khaki-colored armor. ¡°Surely you know who ¡®Battle Horn¡¯ is?¡±

    ¡°Umhmm.¡± Angor did not know who that was. But he was Baron Milk now, so he needed to pretend.

    ¡°He¡¯s my buddy. You beat him before, so I know well about all your skills. Nice alchemy weapon you got there, but it won¡¯t prate my defense.¡±

    Angor slowly recognized the name ¡°Battle Horn¡±. It was a prayer user back in Level 11, who buffed himself with all kinds of spells and attacked his opponents directly.

    ¡°I thank you for not killing my friend. Today, I¡¯ll make an exception and let you live,¡± Wastnd Warrior spoke in a way as if he was giving Angor some honorable gift. ¡°Nevertheless, I still need to imprint terror into your mind for going against me!¡±

    ¡°Baron Milk¡± remained silent as he maintained his distant and arrogant character¡¯s persona. However, Angor had already begun toin in his mind: <i>This guy¡¯s talking too much. Wastnd Warrior? How about calling himself the Waste-Word Warrior?</i>

    Waste-Word Warrior kept talking nonsense until the countdown reached zero.

    Angor immediately cast an ice wall to protect himself, then used the chance to gain more distance while applying various defensive spells on himself.

    Waste-Word Warrior, on the other hand, did not move at all. The man thumped his chest confidently.

    ¡°Come on, shoot. Right here. I won¡¯t try to dodge!¡±

    Angor could not help smiling: <i>Okay, I was wrong. He deserved to be called a warrior.</i>

    The novels in Jon¡¯s tablet were so true. People could actually get THIS stupid!

    ¡°Ha! I hope you don¡¯t regret your words,¡± said Angor as he gave his opponent a big smile. He already nned to use his secret weapon, but now he did not need to.

    Angor lifted an arm. While his robe was flipped up by the wind, Wastnd Warrior noticed a golden glimmering from Angor¡¯s sleeve.

    ¡°So that¡¯s your hand crossbow? It ain¡¯t getting past my shield!¡± Wastnd Warrior triggered his mana and the blood of Earth Smander in his body. His already bulky body grew bigger. Blood vessels pulsed on his skin.

    ¡°Perhaps one bolt won¡¯t do the trick. But how about ten?¡± Angor said.

    He did not tell his opponent that he was using ten enchanted bolts, not ordinary ones.

    Angor took the time to get a good aim at Wastnd Warrior. Since that guy was foolish enough to stand there like a striking dummy, he had enough time to set a n for where each of his rune bolts was going to.

    The three Freeze Bolts would hit the ground to the left in a triangle formation. Even if Wastnd Warrior managed to step left and avoid the bolts, the ice would cause him to fall off the stage. The three me Bolts would then go for the right in a straight line, making it impossible for Wastnd Warrior to dodge the fire. Another two armor-piercing bolts were aimed at Wastnd Warrior himself.

    Angor carefully calcted the angles for the bolts.

    When he was done, he warned Wastnd Warrior, ¡°I¡¯ming!¡±

    ¡°Do it! Right here! My body¡¯s ready!¡±

    The previously excited spectators all grew quiet at this point. Why did that conversation sound so... terrible?

    The innocent Angor did not feel anything wrong about what they just said in public. When he received an answer from Wastnd Warrior, he even nodded at his opponent politely. Next, he held his breath, triggered his mana, and released all ten enchanted bolts at the same time.

    Wastnd Warrior intended to terrify this arrogant Baron Milk guy by using the superior defense capacity of an Earth Smander. However, when he saw the bolts aimed at him, he suddenly received a terrible sense.

    <i>Something¡¯s wrong!</i>

    Beasts were naturally sensitive to danger. Wizards who fused the blood of beasts also inherited such instinct. Now, Wastnd Warrior only felt as if a giant thundercloud had covered himself up.

    No matter which direction he evaded to, the lightning released by the thundercloud would get him!

 Chapter 192 - Mysterious Alchemist

    <h4>Chapter 192: Mysterious Alchemist</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Shit! Those are tiered rune bolts!¡± Wastnd Warrior could not believe what he just realized.

    Everyone in the audience was supernaturals, so they also quickly noticed that Angor¡¯s bolts were not ordinary bolts.

    ¡°How rich is he? His weapon isn¡¯t tiered, but his bolts are! It makes no sense!¡±

    ¡°Which alchemist made them anyway? Can someone find so much time to craft tiered bolts like that? Is it Master Prome?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t be. Master Prome only knows synthesis, but the bolts are enchanted. Brute Cavern hadn¡¯t seen another enchantment alchemist in a long time.¡±

    ¡°A new alchemist maybe?¡±

    ¡°Whoever it is, it must be someone reaaaal free who has nothing better to do.¡±

    Thement caused everyone in the audience to fall into a dead silence.

    A new alchemist.

    A free alchemist.

    A new and free alchemist who could actually find time to create so many tiered crossbow bolts for a mere level-1 apprentice!

    Usually, every alchemist was so busy that no one could find them easily. Each time they created something new, people had to get in long queues early to buy them. It was like what always happened in front of Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop where there were always people waiting. Prome always shut himself inside hisb all year round and would note to the shop often. Even then, people still came looking for him all the time.

    All in all, alchemists were so scarce!

    If people could find this new alchemist to make weapons for them, they no longer had to spend all that time waiting in lines.

    Plus, Moonfrost Union just brought them a new message. People really needed an alchemy weapon to improve their chances.

    However, none of them showed their thoughts to others. They did not need more people as theirpetition.

    Nevertheless, they all kept this ¡°Baron Milk¡± in mind.

    ¡°So many rune bolts are going for Mundo. He¡¯s in trouble.¡±

    Mundo was the real name of Wastnd Warrior. Unlike Angor, he always showed his face on the arena, so everyone knew him.

    ¡°Serves him right, ying all tough like that.¡±

    On the arena, Angor¡¯s bolts almost covered all possible locations Mundo might escape too.

    Mundo really wanted to dodge the attacks, but he no longer knew how. There were even two shining bolts with Sharpen Runes on theming for him from right above his head.

    Since he realized he would get hurt anyway, his choice was to keep his damage minimum.

    He did his best to shift aside by kicking his left leg while fully covering his entire body under the hard defense of an Earth Smander. A mana barrier in the color of dirt and fire shrouded his body.

    Two armor-piercing bolts grazed against his left arm and leg, while his right leg was frozen solid by the Freeze Bolts.

    In the blink of an eye, the result of the match became obvious. There was no doubt Mundo had already lost.

    Mundo knelt on the ground on his left leg and felt his face burning in embarrassment. The wounds were not serious. As a Bloodline apprentice, his natural recovery was faster than average. However, he felt terrible for his previous deration. He got his face pped so soon!

    If he yed the match like normal without letting his enemy to figure out a good shot, he could have avoided the rune bolts by running. Now his attempt to pose in front of people cost his victory.

    If only he had known... Wastnd Warrior felt like crying.

    Mundo wished to get away and hide as fast as he could. He could not bear another second of having to remain here in the middle of the audience.

    He could already imagine how the other members in his team were going tough at him. Battle Horn was among the spectators too. Mundo nced at his buddy and realized Battle Horn had covered his eyes to pretend that he had no idea who was that on the arena. Mundo felt even worse now.

    Angor moved his sleeve up and revealed his Trigger Crossbow to the public for the first time.

    People all gasped upon seeing the finely-made machine.

    ¡°Such delicate craftsmanship! Its creator must be really skilled!¡±

    ¡°A new alchemist made that?! For real?¡±

    Of course, Angor did not do it to show off. He aimed the weapon at Mundo and revealed more spell ripples from a strap attached on his arm. He was obviously forcing Mundo to give up.

    ¡°He still got more tiered bolts!¡± The audience eximed in surprise again. There were not many left, but... that alchemist really had a lot of free time!

    Mundo also saw Angor¡¯s move, and he quickly understood what this meant.

    Mundo took a deep breath. ¡°Thanks for sparing me. I surrender.¡±

    He tossed his profile card.

    ...

    Angor walked off the arena and went back to the backstage while followed by the gazes of all people. There was jealousy, greed, and the will to seek information.

    Upon reaching the backstage, the other participants immediately swarmed up to him.

    Angor thought they came looking for trouble. To his surprise, these people all stayed somewhat polite.

    After listening to them talking though, Angor realized they were trying to learn about the origin of his Trigger Crossbow, either implicitly or boldly.

    Angor now became certain that alchemists were really important in Brute Cavern.

    However, as an unfriendly ¡°Baron Milk¡±, he could not possibly chat with these people. Angor simply repelled every question with humphs and sneers, then left the ce under everyone¡¯s angered gaze.

    ¡°Ungrateful wretch.¡± A ck-haired fighter who tried to inquire info from Angor spat on the ground and moved to another ck-haired, female participant. ¡°Selena, you¡¯re fighting him in the afternoon. Make sure you give him a good beating for brother.¡±

    Selena nced at her brother nonchntly.

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°Oh for what?¡±

    ¡°I heard you,¡± Selena still spoke with her unchanged expression.

    A fat fighter who carried a greatsword put a hand on the brother¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Hey, Dupond, is Selena really your sister? A chatterbox and a poker face... You two are an oddbination, you know that?¡±

    Dupond sighed and said, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve been asking that question too. Man, how I wish for a cute and soft sister...¡±

    ...

    Angor did not stay in the backstage. He took a participant cable car and left. Thanks to this choice, he avoided lots of people who wanted to buzz him with their questions.

    Upon reaching his vi, Angor focused on his meditation training.

    After the match between Baron Milk and Wastnd Warrior, a rumor about a mysterious alchemist was slowly spread around the underground market.

    It was like dropping ink into clear water. The number of people who heard about the rumor increased like crazy. It was only a matter of time before everyone could learn about it.

    Dave, who always kept to his alchemy works, also heard about it.

    Today, he opened the shop for business when it was almost noon. Like always, people gathered in front of the shop. To his surprise though, there seemed to be fewer people.

    He repeated his routine greetings to them.

    ¡°Master Prome isn¡¯t here today. New merchandise will be put on sale in a few days, pleasee next time.¡±

    Previously, people would scatter away quietly after they heard him. This time, however, they looked discontent for some reason.

    ¡°No one wille here if we find that other master alchemist. You didn¡¯t give us any new alchemy weapon for two months now, and you still want us to wait like fools?¡±

    Thement was like a small crack on a river dam. More people soon followed suit.

    These customers were mostly stronger than Dave in strength, so he did not dare to retort. Dave could only keep smiling and apologizing for the inconvenience while sending them away politely.

    After everyone left, Dave mumbled to himself, ¡°Did Brute Cavern just get a new master alchemist?¡±

    He did not really care much. Dave closed the door and resumed his work on Propeller Flyer MK-III.

    In the afternoon, he received a message from Master Prome to collect new items from Prome¡¯s house.

    <i>Huh... Master Prome will fill the shelves today? I should have told the customers, so they wouldn¡¯t yell at me like that.</i>

    Daveined in his mind, put down his work, and headed toward Prome¡¯s residence with several hired carriers.

    Master Prome lived in the woods around Apprentice Town Eight instead of inside the town. He dug up a giant cave inside a mountain to be his alchemyboratory as well as a ce for daily training.

    Usually, Master Prome would not say anything when Dave came here. He was always immersed in his alchemy experiments.

    Like how he did in the past few years, Dave went into the storage area to collect the alchemy items. There were a lot of items this time. He ordered the carriers to move the cargo away, while he stayed nearby to jot down the information of every item.

    He was surprised when he saw two finger crossbows and a hand crossbow among the items. Master Prome rarely made small, long-range weapons like these because Prome never figured out how to make the weapons release enough power. When Dave noticed that the weapons were not enchanted, he grew a bit disappointed.

    While Dave prepared to leave, Prome suddenly stopped him.

    ¡°Did you learn anything about the alchemist I mentionedst time?¡±

    Dave was a bit bewildered at the question. When Prome took out a small golden bolt, he finally knew what was going on.

    A bolt used in Angor¡¯s Trigger Crossbow.

    But as far as Dave remembered, Master Prome only showed some small interest in the said alchemist. He did not ask Dave to look into the matter.

    ¡°You... didn¡¯t ask your little friend about it?¡±

    He did. But then he realized Angor was probably someone who lived in solitude and did not want to be bothered.

    Dave¡¯s instinct changed his words. ¡°I went to his house, but didn¡¯t find him there.¡±

    That was a terrible lie. Dave saw the reflection of his face on a metal chunk nearby. His face looked really stiff. Anyone would notice his lying.

    Dave felt like crying in his mind. Master Prome always hated liars. Would he get on the nerves of his mentor?

    As Dave waited for a scolding with cold sweat on his face, he heard Prome mumbling in a small voice, ¡°I see. Your little friend¡¯s been fighting in Sky Tower these days. It¡¯s natural that you can¡¯t find him.¡±

    ¡°What? Angor went to Sky Tower for real?¡± Dave widened his eyes.

    Prome gave him a puzzled look. ¡°You didn¡¯t know? He¡¯s not your friend?¡±

    Dave scratched his hair in embarrassment. ¡°Angor asked for participant information from me. I never asked him why though. He came to Brute Cavernst year and is only a supernatural for a month or two. So I didn¡¯t believe he¡¯d go for the tower...¡±

    Dave did not lie this time, and Prome did not question his words. Prome only gave Dave an ¡°I understand¡± look.

    ¡°Looks like you¡¯ve been missing out too much about your little friend. Aside from joining matches in the tower, he has also reached the first level of Three Levels of Death. He defeated ¡®Wastnd Warrior¡¯ Mundo just this morning.¡±

    ¡°Angor defeated Mundo?! But that¡¯s impossible!¡±

 Chapter 193 - Exposed

    <h4>Chapter 193: Exposed</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Back in the woods, Prome only showed mild interest in Angor¡¯s alchemy weapon and nothing else. However, what Angor used during his battle against Mundo in the morning was no ordinary alchemy weapon. He shot more than ten tiered-level alchemy bolts with different enchantments on them!

    That totally attracted Prome¡¯s attention.

    Prome himself always followed the most correct path of synthesis. In the field of alchemy, synthesis possessed the best potential and possibility to achieve great deeds. On the contrary, enchantment had little such potential. Moreover, many alchemists who believed in ancient rules did not regard enchantment as legit alchemy at all.

    The core of alchemy was fusing materials and ideas together, thus creating truth in the process.

    However, most alchemists who studied enchantment never figured out the basic meanings of runes. They merely forcefully memorized them to do enchantment. This waspletely opposite to the essence of alchemy, so many alchemists did not ept enchantment as a correct way of alchemy.

    Yet they must admit that in the early stage, enchantment could create better resultspared to basic synthesis.

    To enchant something, an alchemist only had to remember a rune and then apply the rune onto the correct material in order to bestow a special effect to a weapon, thus making the weapon a tiered tool.

    Those who learned synthesis, however, required a huge amount of time to look into all kinds of data, gain new ideas, and calcte material usage. They usually had to spend years on end before they could finally create something.

    Prome had been diligently studying synthesis for 50 years now, and until now, he had only earned a simple glimpse of synthesis. Only when an idental idea popped up inside his mind could he make a new tiered alchemy item. This was the reason why he only provided something new to the shop once in several months.

    Compared to enchantment, synthesis required way more brand new innovations and decades of a learning experience.

    Prome, as a ¡°formal¡± alchemist himself, also regarded enchantment as a petty trick at the beginning. But after spending several decades without gaining much progress, he sometimes would question whether he had chosen the wrong path.

    Maybe he would have made a name for himself should he choose enchantment from the start?

    This was usually referred to as ¡°Ostrich Mentality¡±. Instead of admitting failure and epting the truth, Prome med his initial decision.

    Still, such a mindset helped him to avoid putting pressure on his mind.

    Prome never actually regretted choosing his current path. He believed ¡°synthesis¡± was the real entrance toward the final truth. Not every alchemist could reach the end of the path, but he should at least had an ambition.

    Prome was not trying to find the alchemist who made these bolts because he wanted to set a score between synthesis and enchantment. He had another reason for it.

    An old friend who once helped him before wanted him to craft a long-range alchemy weapon. Also, the weapon needed to possess special effects such as ¡°Expel¡±, ¡°Holy Light¡±, and ¡°Purify¡± which were effective against undead creatures.

    Prome received the request more than half a year ago. He had made many different alchemy weapons during the time but without finding any inspiration on how to craft something like that.

    He learned many materialbinations and the effects they granted to items. To create the effect of ¡°Purify¡± for example, he could use Mass Elixir and a Divine Stone,bined with several minor refinement materials.

    Extracting the special properties from these materials could give a weapon ¡°Purify¡± effect. However, the effect only worked in close range. It would dissipate if the weapon traveled in the air for too far.

    For anyone else, Prome could simply postpone the request however he wished. But he owed a big favor to this old friend. Keeping his friend waiting for half a year already embarrassed Prome a lot. Since he still could not get any idea on how to craft the weapon with synthesis, he began to consider enchantment.

    Brute Cavern had not seen another alchemist who mastered enchantment for many years... until Angor¡¯s enchantment bolts caught his attention.

    ...

    To satisfy his own goal, Prome was very curious about this unknown alchemist.

    Now, Dave¡¯s little friend was the only clue rted to this individual. When Dave asked him what had been going on with Angor, Prome exined everything he knew without withholding any information.

    Prome acquired every piece of information avable to the public in half a day, including Angor¡¯s match schedule, his previous opponents, and so on.

    When Dave heard that Angor had been fighting in Sky Tower for more than a month now, he felt really depressed. He always considered Angor as a friend. Also, they met several times during the month, and Angor never mentioned anything to him!

    More than anything, Dave was more surprised at Angor¡¯s amazing progress. Heck, Angor had not lost a single match yet!

    Dave remained dumbfounded until Prome told him Angor¡¯s title which caused Dave tough out all of a sudden.

    Now Dave somewhat understood why Angor had been hiding everything. With a title like that, Dave believed he would also keep it from everyone if he was in Angor¡¯s boots.

    Prome sighed in the end. ¡°Your little friend always kept a good distance from everyone. He doesn¡¯t talk much, but his actions are brief and efficient. Of course, he has all the reason to be proud when he has achieved so much at such a young age. What I don¡¯t understand though is how did you be the friend of someone like that?¡±

    Prome inspected Dave with a curious look.

    Dave, however, waspletely puzzled by Prome¡¯s question. Was his mentor talking about Angor at all? Not some kind of arrogant weirdo who always called himself the lord or the king of something?

    <i>Proud? Angor?</i>

    He did not talk much? Can¡¯t be. Well, maybe Angor was not a big talker, but he was far from being all silent either.

    Dave felt as if they were talking about someonepletely different.

    ¡°Um, personally, I don¡¯t think the proud and distant man you mentioned is Angor,¡± Dave stuttered a little.

    Prome was surprised too. Then he realized something. ¡°So how does your friend look like normally?¡±

    Dave considered for a long time before he finally came up with something. ¡°He¡¯s... nice. He¡¯s just, sometimes, mischievous.¡±

    Prome quickly understood the situation. ¡°I see now. He always hid under a hood during matches and disyed another character. So he must be trying to hide his true identity.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I agree.¡±

    Prome chuckled. ¡°Good for us then. Countless people out there are now looking for Baron Milk, but none of them knows who he really is. We, however, can find out the mysterious alchemist before everyone does.¡±

    Dave thought in his mind. <i>Mysterious alchemist? That¡¯s Angor himself!</i>

    ¡°So um, why are you looking for the... alchemist, Master?¡±

    Prome did not hide his intention at all. ¡°I have something that requires help...¡±

    ...

    At three in the afternoon, Angor walked out of his soundproofed room feeling fully refreshed.

    His match against Twilight of Night would begin in 30 minutes. He went through the participant information he read before.

    [Twilight of Night, Real name: Selena Walton, Age: 24, Female. A Bloodline apprentice who will soon break through into level-3. She fused her beast blood five years ago. Origin of the blood is unknown. Conjectures suggest that she used the blood of a phantom beast. She can use very swift moves and is skilled at confusing her enemies by constantly moving.]

    There were also descriptions about the skills she learned and those she was good at. Angor did not really pay them much attention. These were onlymon speed-rted spells.

    Which were pointless against Angor.

    Speed... Angor was confident that no apprentice could move faster than Toby.

    Angor put on his robe and called toward the attic, ¡°Toby! It¡¯s time to show what you can do!¡±

    Toby left the attic and slowlynded on Angor¡¯s shoulder. It could be seen from Toby¡¯s glimmering eyes and its puffed-up chest that the bird was also excited about its very first disy.

    Thirty minutester.

    Angor stepped onto the arena of the Three Levels of Death once again.

    He could sense the excitementing from the audience when walking out of the participant passage.

    The audience stands werepletely taken up. Back in the morning, when he was fighting Wastnd Warrior who ranked higher than Twilight of Night, there were still lots of vacant seats. Now, everyone had fixed his or her intense gaze on him.

    The attention from thousands of people caused Angor to shiver a little as if their sights were throwing needles at him.

    At the far end of the audience stand, a braided old man leaned against a stone mound and spoke to a middle-aged, uniform woman who had a coil-up hair bun and a fine body shape.

    ¡°You think the kid will win, Mntha?¡± The old man nced at Angor.

    Mntha usually handled the lottery box at Level 1. Today, she left her post and came to Level 13 instead.

    ¡°No idea,¡± Mntha said after some consideration.

    ¡°No idea? I think it¡¯s obvious. He defeated Mundo because Mundo was too careless. Now Selena got to be well-prepared. She¡¯s fast too. Bolts without speed runes can never hit her. And even if the kid has those bolts... they won¡¯t do much damage to Selena¡¯s bloodline-improved body... Not unless the bolt is enchanted with both speed runes and damaging ones.

    ¡°That means aposite rune. Composite rune! It¡¯s already a magic array! Even the headquarters don¡¯t have many alchemists who can do that.¡±

    By ¡°headquarters¡±, he meant the most famous ce in the entire southern region for its alchemy capacities¡ªFloating Mech City.

    Mntha agreed with him, but she also remembered when Angor came to her asking for faster matches. The boy did not seem discouraged by the danger in the Three Levels of Death. He looked confident and said he had some secret weapon.

    Mntha had no idea what weapon Angor possessed. Still, the boy had to have his own reasons for being so.

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see. Who knows, maybe he has a hidden weapon,¡± Mntha snickered.

    ¡°Oh really?¡± The old man also smiled. When observed by Truesight spell, Angor¡¯s robe could hide nothing from him. He clearly knew whether Angor brought anything else on his body.

 Chapter 194 - Tobyâ€™s Strength

    <h4>Chapter 194: Toby¡¯s Strength</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°If he has anything different than usual... it should be that bird monster,¡± Mntha mentioned.

    ¡°Too bad, its¡¯ magic aura¡¯s too weak.¡± The old man shook his head.

    Next, the braided old man looked back at Mntha and changed the topic. ¡°Your father sent a message again yesterday. He wants to know when you would go back.¡±

    Mntha crossed her arms and looked into the distance. ¡°I don¡¯t intend to go back before finding my own path.¡±

    The elder chuckled and did notment.

    Mntha raised an eyebrow. ¡°Now I¡¯m curious, Mister Baroque. Why are you even here? Brute Cavern has been treating you in a strange way too. They already know who you are, and they didn¡¯t expel you?¡±

    Baroque shrugged. ¡°They probably should. But... what if we¡¯ve got the same enemy? Or rather, amon interest?¡±

    Mntha was shocked at Baroque¡¯s words. Before she could pursue an answer though, Baroque pointed to the stage.

    ¡°The fight¡¯s beginning. Now, I want to see how Sunders would react if his student died in Sky Tower.¡±

    On the arena, Angor carefully checked the woman standing in front of him.

    Selena was an... ordinary woman wearing full ck. Neither her clothes nor her face showed anything particr. The only thing worth noticing was her hair. Those curly, short hair strings were extremely greasy that they reflected a good amount of light.

    Angor somehow felt good when looking at this ¡°below-average¡± woman. She was the only opponent who remainedpletely silent during the entire countdown.

    Someone of no words but swift actions... Angor really admired such characters.

    During the three minutes before the match began, they both stood there motionless and without making a sound up until the countdown reached zero.

    [Match start. Baron Milk VS Twilight of Night]

    At the same time, Selena, who had been disying a quiet temperament, suddenly disappeared from the stage.

    ¡°She vanished?!¡± Many from the audience yelled in shock.

    On one of the front seats, Selena¡¯s brother grinned. ¡°Vanished? Ha. She¡¯s too fast for your human eyes to see.¡±

    A fat swordsman sitting beside him smiled. ¡°Bloodline apprentices have a lot of advantages here. Before a match, the magic array only inhibits their mana, not their blood.¡±

    Dupond alwaysined about Selena¡¯s timid character, but as her dear brother, he never hated Selena. Now that someonemented about his sister in a good way, Dupond felt pretty happy and began to boast, ¡°Selena had never triggered her bloodline power during the waiting phase. This time, she spent three minutes to prepare her blood energy. Now she¡¯s strong enough to enter the top ten at Level 15! That¡¯s my dear sister. She¡¯s going to beat up the bastard for good! How dare he ignore me like that!¡±

    On the arena, Selena¡¯s disappearance announced the start of a heated fight.

    The woman now looked like a smoke string. People could sometimes notice a small trace, but quickly lost sight of it when they tried to look closely.

    The audience all knew that Baron Milk, as a fresh new apprentice wizard, reached Level 13 only because of his weapon. Now that the weapon waspletely useless against Selena¡¯s speed, Baron Milk had nothing to win the match.

    They all believed that Baron Milk¡¯s defeat would be determined the next time Selena showed herself.

    Someone already sighed in frustration. They should not have wasted money on a ticket only to watch such a pointless fight.

    As everyone expected, Selena¡¯s faint figure materialized on the arena.

    She appeared right behind Baron Milk¡¯s blind spot while holding a shiny de in her hand. It was not a tiered alchemy weapon but was still enough to prate someone¡¯s throat easily.

    ¡°This is it...¡± All audience reached the same conclusion.

    Mntha and Baroque, who had been staying at a far side of the audience stand, also shook their heads. ¡°He got no chance.¡±

    Baroquemented, ¡°Sunders was too careless when telling the information about the garden of purification to a kid who just became an apprentice for half a year.¡±

    As they all prepared to witness Baron Milk¡¯s defeat, a giant explosion came from the center of the arena which startled everyone. Smoke and dust covered the stage, preventing them from seeing what happened.

    Was that a spell?

    ¡°What¡¯s the deal? She already caught Baron Milk off guard, so why did she use such a powerful spell?¡± The fat swordsman near Dupond wondered.

    Dupond also looked puzzled. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Selena never knows how to change tactic like that. Besides, she doesn¡¯t know any spells that create so much dust. Don¡¯t tell me¡ª¡±

    Dupond realized something terrible.

    The explosion and all that dust was not Selena¡¯s work!

    While the audience had their views obstructed, Baroque and Mntha already saw what was going on on the stage.

    ¡°Oh ho, you were right, Mntha. The kid really has a secret weapon,¡± Baroque spoke.

    ¡°We thought the bird monster was weak... but it has such amazing burst power!¡± Mntha eximed in shock.

    They did not see dust at all when using their sighting spells.

    And the dust was not created by spells. It was the bird on Angor¡¯s shoulder who did it.

    When Selena reappeared on the stage and tried to stab Angor from Angor¡¯s blind spot, the ordinary-looking birdunched itself at Selena at an impossible speed and kicked her away with a w.

    Dust covered the arena when Selena¡¯s body created a giant pit on the floor.

    The floor of the arenas in Sky Tower was made from special materials. Only level-3 apprentices could damage them using their full power.

    And since level-3 apprentices usually did not participate in these matches, the arena floors remained in good condition for many years. Until today, when one of the arenas received a human-shaped crater on it.

    ¡°Unbelievable... that seabird¡¯s weak magic ripples can hardly make it a monster. But it has so much strength,¡± Mntha eximed. ¡°I can see how it flies so fast because it has curves and body build fit for a speed-type monster. But there¡¯s no way it can release so much power.¡±

    Baroque closed his eyes and sensed the energy ripplesing from the stage. When he re-opened his eyes, he widened them in astonishment.

    ¡°I see it now. Mntha, use Remove Delirium and you¡¯ll know why.¡±

    Remove Delirium was a spell only avable to formal wizards. The effect was mainly to find hidden truths. The principle behind the spell was using small traces to backtrack truths that appeared in history.

    It sounded like reverting time, but the spell had nothing to do with the most mysterious energy called ¡°time¡±. It only used traces left by energy to deduct what happened earlier. It was simr to how detectives recreated a crime scene by using details left behind by the culprit.

    Mntha cast a Remove Delirium and quickly sensed the change of energy in the bird¡¯s body several seconds ago.

    ¡°This is... the sequence of gravity!¡± Mntha yelled out. ¡°But a bird? Did it learn it when Sunders built his Sorcerer¡¯s Garden?¡±

    ¡°Should be,¡± Baroque replied. ¡°The sequence is still shallow. It can only change its own gravity because it only gained the ability recently. We were near the garden too, and none of us learned the sequence. Neither did everyone else, ording to what they saidter. However... a beast beat all genius wizards to it? Ha. I never expected to see such a thing in my life.¡±

    Baroque looked back at Angor with a serious expression. ¡°With the avian monster to help him, this kid will reach the top of the tower. There¡¯s no doubt.¡±

    ...

    As the other audience was still questioning ¡°what happened¡±, the dust on the arena had slowly settled down.

    The scene was now clear to everyone. Their once impatient looks were instantly reced by great shock when everyone¡¯s pupils shrank.

    Baron Milk, who was ¡°going to lose¡± ording to their guesses, was standing in the middle of the arena, untouched. He was pointing his Trigger Crossbow to a pit in the floor ¡ª a pit surrounded by more web-shaped cracks that extended outward.

    It was a pit that was about one meter deep. Inside the pit, a woman was shifting her body weakly. Her clothes and entire shoulder bone was shattered, and her eyes had rolled up into her head.

    ¡°But impossible! Selena was injured like that so fast?¡±

    ¡°Whatever happened just now? Shit! Everything was covered by freaking dust!¡±

    ¡°Any of you saw it? Why is the Level-1 weakling all fine? Selena¡¯s almost a level-3 apprentice!¡±

    The strongest ones among the audience were merely level-2 apprentices, so no one could really figure out the situation.

    Apart from Baroque and Mntha, the only other individual on the scene who knew what happened, or who had a possible idea about what happened, was Dave.

 Chapter 195 - Entering the Lottery Pool

    <h4>Chapter 195: Entering the Lottery Pool</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Dave left Master Prome¡¯sb at noon and came straight to Sky Tower. He then bought a ticket to watch Angor¡¯s fight.

    He only had a vague idea about Toby¡¯s strength. He saw Toby¡¯s superior speed before, and the tattered corpse of Canine Master when Toby killed the guy. Dave already believed Toby should be pretty strong.

    But he never expected what he was looking at right now.

    Dave felt a chill down his spine. When he met Angor for the first time, he asked Toby to test out his wed machine... He would never do such a thing if he knew Toby¡¯s true strength.

    In the center of the arena, Angor aimed his Trigger Crossbow at Selena.

    ¡°What? Not giving up?¡± Angor spoke in a hoarse voice.

    Selena did not answer. She looked determined for some reason and did not intend to surrender.

    But she now had several broken bones. Especially her shoulder, which waspletely shattered by Toby¡¯s kick. It was almost impossible for her to keep fighting.

    Yet she held on. Selena held her shoulder with a hand and struggled to stand up. Her legs were shaking.

    Pain on the body was not shown on her dust-covered, bloody face. Her expression remained nk.

    ¡°Why¡¯s she trying so hard?¡± Angor wondered. Losing the match only meant losing four match points, and it was not like he was going to kill her. Now Selena looked as if she was fighting with her ultimate enemy in the world.

    He admired Selena¡¯s quiet character at the beginning of the match because most fighters in the tower were so annoying. At this moment though, Angor felt a bit agitated.

    The arenas did not care for the lives of their participants, especially here at the Three Levels of Deaths. People died every day.

    ¡°Since you aren¡¯t epting your defeat...¡± Angor was unhappy because he looked like the final boss in a novel story while the woman in front of him was a hero of justice.

    ¡°If that¡¯s what you want...¡± Angor triggered his mana and injected energy into the Trigger Crossbow.

    ¡°No! She lost! She gives up!¡± Someone suddenly screamed madly among the shock-stricken audience.

    Angor, as well as Selena, looked toward the voice.

    A ck-haired man rushed down from the audience stand and reached the arena. He gave Angor a pleading look.

    Dupond, Selena¡¯s elder brother.

    Angor ignored him. He looked back at Selena when Dupond quickly yelled at his stubborn sister.

    ¡°Surrender now, Selena! I was wrong! I don¡¯t need you to beat this bas¡ªI mean, Mister Baron Milk.¡±

    Angor rolled his eyes. Did Selena hold on like that because her dear brother asked a shameless request from her?

    Selena looked at Dupond and responded in a in tone, coughing up some blood.

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°¡®Oh¡¯?? Toss your card already!¡± Dupond feared that Angor might change his idea.

    Selena nodded and threw away her profile card while still struggling a little.

    [Winner: Baron Milk!]

    ...

    Two minutes ago, when Dupond rushed to the arena...

    ¡°Someone¡¯s interfering with the match. You won¡¯t go stop him as the director?¡± Baroque looked at Mntha.

    Mntha shook head. ¡°He didn¡¯t go up the stage. We don¡¯t have the right to stop him from doing anything from outside. He can run in front of everyone naked if he wants. Rather, I wonder how Angor would react.¡±

    Baroque chuckled in a small voice and looked intrigued. ¡°Sunders¡¯ student didn¡¯t kill a single fighter during his matches... Such a pity.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think the kid is a saint. Just... no one has tested his limit yet.¡±

    As the managing director of Sky Tower, Mntha knew well of every single fighter. Unlike the others, she clearly knew how Canine Master and Red Butterfly suddenly disappeared.

    Self-control, knowing someone¡¯s limits, refraining from arrogance and greed... Those were all essential elements for a wizard.

    Most people regarded wizards as bloodthirsty and violent characters because most wizards had really terrible limits.

    ¡°Really? Then Sunders found himself a good student this time.¡± Baroque did not seem interested in Angor¡¯s character. He turned away and left. ¡°I¡¯m going. Match¡¯s ended, and that kid¡¯s going to the lottery soon. Now I think about it... ¡®Parasite Queen¡¯ had not lost a match in a long time. Maybe I should try her out against the kid, so she can go bother someone else instead of keep buzzing me on the same level.¡±

    ¡°Mister Baroque... Please refrain from doing anything unfair to the participants.¡± Mntha frowned.

    ¡°Take it easy, will ya? I guess you don¡¯t want to watch that kid go all the way to the top without meeting any challenge, eh? Fighting with different characters will help him grow up,¡± Baroque¡¯s voice came from the distance loud and clear even though he already walked far. ¡°And Sunders won¡¯t me me for it. Rather, he¡¯s going to thank me.¡±

    Mntha shook her head again. She turned back to watch Angor leaving the stage slowly.

    ...

    After Angor disappeared from people¡¯s view, the audience was still discussing what had happened in the dust cloud.

    Even Dupond tried to get an answer from his sister while helping Selena move away from the arena.

    Selena stayed silent for a while and thought about her previous fight thoroughly.

    She chose to show up from the right-rear side of Baron Milk so she could catch him off guard. As someone born from a killer family, Selena knew well about how to find the blind spots of people.

    However, before she could get the decisive hit, a shadowy figure assaulted her.

    She never figured out what attacked her because it came so fast. Her speed and reflexes were nothingpared to what ambushed her.

    Now that she could think about her fight carefully, she had an idea.

    Selena asked Dupond to removed her damaged coat.

    When her shoulder was revealed, she inspected the wound on her shoulder bone and saw several bone-deep w marks, which did not surprise her at all.

    ¡°This is¡ª¡± Dupond noticed the damage as well. ¡°It¡¯s the bird?¡±

    ¡°Umhm.¡± Selena nodded.

    ¡°I checked it before your match. It¡¯s just a low-leveled monster. In fact, it¡¯s even weaker than a typical monster. So the bird is so powerful...¡±

    Selena did not respond. Dupond was only an onlooker who had no idea what terrible strength the bird truly held.

    ¡°Weird. Nobody knew which art Baron Milk studied. From all the information I collected, he had never used any particr spells and only won by using his alchemy weapon. Those who lost to him in lower levels all called him ¡®Dirty Milk¡¯.¡± Dupond pondered, ¡°maybe he¡¯s a Summoner?¡±

    Angor returned to the backstage and headed to the lottery section.

    He was surrounded by people halfway. Being popr always meant attracting more troubles.

    Those who tried to act friendly with various unknown reasons formed up a circle around Angor and asked him different things they wanted to know, such as his winning tricks and who created his alchemy weapon.

    They did not really obstruct his way, so Angor kept on walking.

    Until he reached the lottery box, when the braided old man, Baroque, smiled at them and asked, ¡°You all want to join? Splendid. I really need more participants in the queue.¡±

    Everyone quickly left at those words.

    Next, Baroque smiled at the boy who stood in front of him. ¡°I assume you came to draw more opponent?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Getting two wins today proved your strength. I can allow you to schedule more matches now. However...¡±

    Baroque sighed. ¡°It¡¯s toote now, there are only four choices left in the box. Two of whom are on the ranking list. Are you sure you want to pick?¡±

    <i>Four? That¡¯s...</i>

    Angor frowned. Even if he could win against all four of them, he still could not get enough points.

    ¡°I won¡¯t draw. I¡¯ll go fight all of them one by one,¡± said Angor. He paused for a moment before he continued, ¡°Also, I wish to get my name into the lottery pool.¡±

    Lottery pool meant the box which contained the participant choices.

    The Sky Tower would not force its participants to join fights. However, if someone wanted to keep his position at a certain level, he or she had to join at least one match in each month until they reached the top level, in which case they would no longer lose levels automatically.

    The lottery pool consisted of those who waited for the minimum match. Most of these people would enter the lottery, finish a match right away, ande back next month.

    Angor never tried this before because when a matching would arrive waspletely at random. He had been drawing opponents nonstop, so he did not need to enter the pool.

    Since he was now at the Three Levels of Death... he might as well do so.

    Anyway, if someone actively chose him, he still had to wait until tomorrow.

    ¡°Is that so? Not a problem,¡± said Baroque as he squinted his eyes. ¡°The announcement screen outside will show the new schedule for tomorrow at eight in the evening. You can check who would fight you from there.¡±

    Entering the lottery pool did not mean that he would get chosen right away.

    Also, Dave¡¯s information contained the data of three of the four remaining participants. The fourth one was someone like Angor who just came to Level 13, so Dave had not found anything about that one yet.

    Among them, the first name that caught Angor¡¯s attention was Fox Master.

    ording to his memory, this one always turned battles into showy performances.

    ...

    The Sky Tower regarded participants in the Three Levels of Death as valuable assets. In order to ensure their safety outside, there were manyplicated cableways for these levels which also allowed their users to get off midway and to avoid being stalked.

    Angor used such a cableway to leave, so he did not have anyone following him.

    Later, he went to the mortal market. Before heading back to apprentice town, he hired someone to help him note down the new schedule shown in the evening.

 Chapter 196 - Parasite Queen

    <h4>Chapter 196: Parasite Queen</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The sun was setting. The gentle, red aura slowly shrank along with the tips of the mountains in the distance.

    Angor sat in his garden and stared at the disappearing sun. His mind once again returned to his faraway home back at Old Earth.

    <i>What¡¯s Leon doing at this hour? Already had dinner? Did he have a birthday party?</i>

    Without Angor, and with Jon ill, everything in Padt Manor had fallen into Leon¡¯s hands. Maybe he already forgot about his own birthday?

    Angor raised a ss of... milk, and toasted toward the direction of his home.

    Spacial distance could not separate the bond of brothers.

    ¡°Happy birthday, Leon.¡±

    ...

    Angor returned to hisboratory to continue learning illusions.

    He never tried to attempt anything deeper. What he had been doing was practicing the basic illusions he already learned again and again.

    This did not mean that he had never looked at advanced techniques. He already read through Sunders¡¯ notebook several times and could recite the spells perfectly.

    He did not find out which branch was suitable to him like what Sunders asked. He only memorized how to cast the spells and waited for the day when he hadpletely mastered basic spells so he couldprehend harder illusions with ease.

    He was extra interested in one of the advanced cantrips called ¡°Melodious Illusion¡±, a level-1 cantrip.

    The spell was one of the most basic Acoustic Illusionist spells. It was not so different from other basic illusions. The spell constructed a harmless illusion using sound to confuse enemies.

    He grew curious about this particr spell because of a new idea he thought about just recently.

    Aside from tower challenge, meditation and reading books, he had been working on something else¡ªToby¡¯s music box.

    He already determined the main material for making the music box: Echo Flowers.

    As for minor materials... he created a basic list for them. ording to his initial n, he was going to make something that could reyplicated, lossless music like the hologram tablet.

    But he hesitatedter because something like that was basically another ¡°crystal ball transmitter¡±. His own transmitter was too low-leveled to record sounds. However, when he visited Sundersst time, he saw his professor watching his matches in a crystal ball which perfectly recreated both image and sound.

    So... if he wished to make something to y music, he could simply refer to a blueprint in <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>and craft an advanced transmitter.

    Since he nned to make an alchemy music box, he was determined to do something interesting about it.

    Reading about ¡°Melodious Illusion¡± got him new inspiration. Could he make something happen bybining Melodious Illusion with music?

    Maybe when the music box yed a piece of music, it could also create an illusion ording to the music. For example, when it yed City of Sky, a scene would slowly generate around it where a faint, floating city appeared among clouds in the vast blue sky. The city was decorated by lush vegetation and artistic building blocks as well as chirping birds and lively butterflies... that would look so wonderful.

    As he recalled, gentle music did not affect his meditation. Rather, it sometimes helped him enter a meditation state faster.

    If so... he could also try applying a mind-soothing rune to it. That sounded interesting.

    Yes, he got his ideas only because they felt interesting.

    Before he could realize his creation of an ¡°interesting music box¡± though, he needed to know how tobine Melodious Illusion with alchemy. Angor had everything else prepared and that included runes, materials, and blueprint.

    ...

    While practicing illusions, Angor did not realize that it was already eight in the evening.

    More people had gathered under the Sky Tower; most of whom were hired mortals who came to note down the new schedule for tomorrow for their employers. There were also apprentices who came personally. The two different types of people could be distinguished by their positions.

    Apprentices mostly stayed right under the announcement board and chatted with the others while mortals kept their distance and looked cautiously at the announcement from afar.

    Mortals all remained quiet while the groups of apprentices already began to discuss tomorrow¡¯s matches.

    ¡°I heard. The handsome genius, Fox Master, entered the lottery pool when everyone¡¯s looking.¡±

    ¡°So he got a match tomorrow? Of all matches in thest three levels, I want to watch him most.¡±

    Two young witches chatted while holding each other¡¯s arm. When talking about Fox Master, they both blushed a little, probably excited or bashful.

    ¡°Even then... Aren¡¯t there too many people here today? For what?¡±

    ¡°I think Parasite Queen came to the tower today, so people thought she¡¯s going to join a fight.¡±

    ¡°Parasite Queen? The number one at Level 13?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a long time since one of the tops did a match in the tower. I hope the rumor is true!¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t be. Such matches are always announced a week earlier or two. The tower never told us something like that. Besides, if Parasite Queen entered the lottery pool, no one would go draw a match.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... Well, it¡¯s just a rumor. We¡¯re all here to check it out, aren¡¯t we?¡±

    ¡°Right. No hope means no disappointment.¡±

    People¡¯s voice slowly quieted down as the bell tower dered eight in the evening.

    As the bell strikes ended, the giant screen at the base of Sky Tower quickly reced its information with the new schedule.

    Everyone looked at the header of the list first. The header was always reserved by the Sky Tower to show a rmended fight.

    And people remained silent when they saw the two names shown on the screen.

    [Parasite Queen VS Baron Milk, Level 13, Match 4]

    They rubbed their eyes and checked again. When they still saw the same names on the screen, people finally pointed at the information with trembling fingers.

    ¡°WHAT?! Parasite Queen is really here!¡±

    Almost every apprentice yelled out at the same time. They came to check an ¡°unlikely rumor¡±, but they did not expect it to be real!

    The silence was instantly broken by loud cheering.

    ¡°Parasite Queen! Parasite Queen!!¡±

    ¡°My heroine hase! I¡¯m getting a ticket! NOW!¡±

    ¡°VIP seat, please!¡±

    ¡°Haha! I was right toe. Maybe I can get a VIP ticket as well!¡±

    ¡°Too bad we can only buy one. Otherwise, we can make a fortune by selling them to others... Hey, hey you! Mortals! Take these magic crystals and go buy tickets, then give them to me! One silver coin for each!¡±

    No one was interested in the other matches now. Everyone swarmed inside the tower hall just to buy a better seat. Some of them even thought about being ticket scalpers.

    Even the two witches who came for Fox Master had forgotten about him. They both followed behind everyone.

    Only several apprentices who could not afford a ticket remained outside.

    Still, they knew well about seeded yers in the tower, so they all knew about Parasite Queen¡¯s name.

    On the other hand though...

    ¡°Who¡¯s Baron Milk? How did he get matched against Parasite Queen?¡±

    ¡°And why didn¡¯t Sky Tower advertise the match earlier?¡±

    ¡°Something¡¯s not right...¡±

    Someone in a white bear costume came out of the sky tower after getting his ticket before everyone else. When he heard the remaining apprentices talking, he silently chuckled in his mind.

    ¡°Because they know that this match won¡¯t look so fun in the way you expected.¡±

    Somewhere far from them, a figure hidden in a ck robe appeared from the shadow.

    The figure stared at the schedule and at the name he had been thinking about all these days. He grinned.

    ¡°My precious... I can¡¯t wait to see you again...¡±

    It sounded like someone speaking to his long-lost lover.

    Also, there were other people who paid extra attention to Baron Milk, or rather, the mysterious alchemist behind Baron Milk.

    Prome also received the information while working in his personalboratory.

    ¡°Parasite Queen? Dave¡¯s little friend met some bad luck today. I still need to know who that alchemist is. I hope he stays alive.¡±

    After thinking about it, Prome decided to go watch the match. Parasite Queen was his acquaintance, so he might as well go and tell her not to ughter Baron Milk yet.

    Dave heard about it too, and he already got himself a ticket. However, his attention was not on Angor for now.

    ...

    About ten at night, Angor acquired his schedule from the mortal he hired.

    He had five matches tomorrow. There was one additional match apart from the four ones he already expected.

    It had to be a match when someone came and picked his name in the lottery.

    ¡°Parasite Queen...¡± Angor went through the data he saw before. Dave wrote a lot of information about Parasite Queen like how she was extremely beautiful, cool, and awesome. Everything showed Dave¡¯s absolute admiration toward this individual.

    There was no useful description. Her skills, no. Her expertise, no. Dave only expressed all kinds of meaninglesspliment.

    Since he did not have any idea who Parasite Queen was, Angor could only wait till tomorrow and see.

    He checked the timeline again. Two matches in the morning, three in the afternoon.

    Something caught his attention though ¡ª Angor would fight against Fox Master in the first match.

 Chapter 197 - Composite Cantrip

    <h4>Chapter 197: Composite Cantrip</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Why am I getting the feeling that I always ran into this Fox Master...¡± Angor thought.

    He had one night of good sleep, then prepared to head toward the tower with Toby in the morn.

    When he opened the garden door, he saw Dave leaning against a small stone lump nearby. Dave was thinking about something with his arms crossed. Also, Dave was blushing as if he was having some kind of happy dream.

    Angor removed his hood and approached Dave.

    ¡°Hey, Dave?¡± Angor said, wondering what was going on.

    Dave heard his name being called with a start. When he saw who it was, he greeted Angor in an uneasy manner.

    ¡°What are you up to, your face¡¯s all red,¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s... nothing.¡± Dave let out a silly chuckle. ¡°I came looking for you.¡±

    Angor knew Dave was hiding something, but he did not try to ask. Everyone got secrets. Angor did not really care about the problems of other people unless they had something to do with the truth of wizardry.

    ¡°So what do you need from me?¡± His first match was only half an hour away, so Angor did not stop moving when talking to Dave.

    ¡°I saw your match yesterday. You were so good! You¡¯re as good as the strongest genius in my year.¡±

    Angor gave Dave a surprised look, then he pretended he did not understand with an innocent expression, which he learned from Toby.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡±

    Dave looked proud for some reason. ¡°Stop it. I know everything. You started challenging the Sky Tower a month ago, and you¡¯re at Level 13 now. You won against Mundo and Selena yesterday. Oh and... your title is ¡®Baron Milk¡¯¡ª¡±

    Angor covered Dave¡¯s mouth with a hand.

    ¡°Ahem! Okay okay, keep it to yourself. A sh*tload of people have been looking for me, it¡¯ll be a disaster if they heard you.¡±

    Dave looked around doubtfully. There was not a soul around. They were walking somewhere far from the residential area, so no one woulde here.

    Dave silentlyughed, believing that Angor was only preventing people from hearing his title.

    Angor did not question how Dave learned about his identity. His hood was the only thing he used to hide his name. Anyone who knew him could easily recognize him on the stage by looking at Toby. Even though Toby only joined a match for the first time yesterday, Angor had started to bring Toby to the tower for a while now. He wanted to get the bird familiarized with battles among apprentices.

    Anyone who knew Toby could absolutely notice Angor.

    ¡°Okay, so, you know my identity. My match is starting soon, why are you here?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°To give you info on Fox Master, duh! Oh and, maybe there¡¯s another small matter.¡±

    What Dave already handed Angor only contained information about seeded participants and ranked fighters in the Three Levels of Death. Fox Master was not among them.

    ¡°Fox Master¡¯s no better than Selena.¡± Dave cut directly to the point. ¡°So you should have no problem defeating him.¡±

    <i>That¡¯s it? </i>Angor thought in his mind.

    ¡°Of course, there¡¯s something more important I want to tell you,¡± said Dave. He suddenly revealed a serious expression. ¡°If you can, try to... get rid of him on the stage, nice and clean.¡±

    ¡°You want him dead? Why? He¡¯s your enemy?¡± Angor wondered. He did not like Fox Master¡¯s showy style, but that was no reason for him to get personal. His impression of Fox Master was still neutral.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you this. There are Three Genius Summoners and Three Useless Summoners in Brute Cavern. Yes, literally,¡± said Dave. He paused to arrange his words. ¡°Fox Master is one of the geniuses. You don¡¯t know who he is, but you probably know his junior who¡¯s been studying from the same mentor.¡±

    ¡°Fox Master¡¯s junior?¡± A name shed through Angor¡¯s mind. A bad name.

    Dave noticed Angor¡¯s change in expression. ¡°You¡¯re right. ¡®Canine Master¡¯ Potongue. Potongue is one of the useless summoners, but rumor has it that he¡¯s a close friend with Fox Master. He even copied Fox¡¯s title. The deaths of Potongue and Red Butterfly aren¡¯t known by many people yet, but those who care about this information already learned about it. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ve found out you¡¯re the one behind this, but there are many spells that can help them reveal you. For example, Remove Delirium, which many level-3 apprentices can use.

    ¡°My point is, it¡¯s very likely that Fox Master already knows you.¡±

    ¡°This is why you want me to kill him on the stage?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    Angor remained silent. Killing people was not really difficult for him. When he maimed Canine Master and Red Butterfly, he did not feel bad at all. Since someone came for his life, they should be well prepared for the possible consequence.

    However... killing someone just because of a small possibility was against his moral standard. When Angor noticed that Dave was really serious about this, he did not refuse right away. In the end, Angor let out an ¡°I see¡± without giving any explicit answer.

    Since they finished talking about Fox Master, Angor changed the topic, ¡°You said there¡¯s another matter, right?¡±

    ¡°Master Prome wants to see you,¡± Dave briefly exined Prome¡¯s words to Angor. ¡°He still doesn¡¯t know that you¡¯re the mysterious alchemist. He asked me to talk to you and help him get into connection with this ¡®alchemist¡¯. Whether you want to go through it is your own decision.¡±

    ¡°I see no problem with meeting him, but it has to wait until I reach the top level,¡± said Angor. He had never intended to hide his alchemy skills. Being able tomunicate with other alchemists meant getting more experience or even profit, so why not?

    ¡°Okay.¡± Dave suddenly blushed again for some reason. He stuttered, ¡°A-actually, I have another favor to ask...¡±

    ...

    The first match in Sky Tower today was between Angor and Fox Master.

    As Angor climbed onto the stage, he was still pondering how to deal with Fox Master.

    Kill him? No. He had not made up his mind.

    Not kill him? But... Dave¡¯s words got a good point.

    The countdown began while he was still hesitating.

    Like always, ¡°Baron Milk¡± posed an arrogant indifference look and stood there without saying anything as he acted cool.

    Fox Master quickly felt irritated. <i>You beat me to it! No! I won¡¯t lose!</i>

    Fox Master¡¯s long, silver hair flowed in the air while his moonlight-white wizard robe flipped in the wind. He had his eyes closed on his simr indifferent expression. He looked like a wise hermit who just showed up in front of people, who supported his aged body on a fox-head walking cane.

    A poseur with closed eyes and a hooded, wordless weirdo stood motionless on the arena face to face.

    The waiting phase was about to end. Angor began to admire Fox Master a little, for remaining silent while waiting. This was a rare sight in Sky Tower.

    When the match began, Fox Master still had his eyes closed, but he already began to trigger his mana and prepared to attack first. Fox knew how Baron Milk fought before. He watched Baron¡¯s match against Selena yesterday.

    Fox Master knew he was weaker than Selena. Still, he was confident he could win this time.

    Selena¡¯s defeat was still a mystery. People guessed that when Selena reached Baron Milk, she was sted away by some kind of secret skill or alchemy item.

    As a Summoner, Fox Master did not have to get close to his opponents. For this, he believed that he could avoid whatever happened to Selena by keeping his distance, which meant he could seize the victory in the end.

    To make sure, he also summoned the true body of Blood Vixen this time instead of the shadow he used before. A tiny white fox smaller than a meter rushed toward Baron Milk under Fox¡¯smand.

    His n was obvious. Fox Master was going to keep Baron Milk busy with his Blood Vixen and cast spells to take Baron Milk down from somewhere safe.

    This was amon tactic for Summoners. This way, they could quickly learn about the strengths of their opponents. If their enemies proved to be too strong, they could simply surrender without going into a head-on fight. Otherwise, they could slowly wear their opponent down while staying at a safe distance.

    Such a tactic appeared simr to Angor¡¯s. Or, it was more effective.

    When the Blood Vixen came at him, instead of casting an Ice Wall like how he always did at first, Angor applied Frost to the ground to slow the creature down. Next, he used his ¡°simplified version¡± of Dust Removal, a cantrip he created called Dust.

    Dirt and frost shards on the ground were blown into the air. Wind, water and earth elements somewhat co-existed in harmony and created a strange, misty effect.

    ¡°Aposite cantrip that creates a mist. Interesting.¡± Baroque was also watching Angor¡¯s battle. He gave Angor a look of approval when he saw the kid creating mist on the stage bybining two low-level cantrips.

    There were many cantrips with such an effect. However, few of them were level-0, and many of them required their users to be skilled at a certain attribute. For example, apprentices adept at Darkness could easily learn a level-0 cantrip called Dark Mist, while other apprentices needed a long time to study the cantrip and would waste a lot of effort.

    Now, Angor created a weaker mist effect by using two level-0 cantrips at the same time. It might not do much good, but his idea was brilliant.

    ¡°It was Frost and... something that creates dust clouds. A new elementbination for an existing cantrip maybe?¡± Baroque pondered and began to admire Angor more and more. Composite cantrips and rearranging elementbinations were both essential traits for entering ¡°the path¡±. If Angor figured everything out on his own...

    Baroque realized why Sunders took him in as a pupil.

    Baroque thought he figured out the true reason for Sunders to pick a student. What he did not know was that even Sunders himself was quite surprised by Angor¡¯s growth.

    Now, on the arena, Angor was nning to do something special in the mist.

 Chapter 198 - Moral Standard

    <h4>Chapter 198: Moral Standard</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Thebination effect of Dust and Frost was not really a mist.

    Rather, it appeared more like a haze.

    Angor named his newposite cantrip as ¡°Dusty Haze¡±, the name of which described the nature of the cantrip.

    It only blocked the enemies¡¯ view in a really small area. Also, it had a serious drawbackpared to other simr spells: haze could pollute people¡¯s lungs.

    For this reason, Dusty Haze was not a perfect cantrip. Still, as long as its user can hold his breath for some time, the cantrip could be used to obstruct people¡¯s sight just fine.

    This was what Angor was doing right now¡ªcovering his nostrils. His wizard robe had a built-in Dust Removal spell on it, so he did not need to worry about getting all dusty.

    ¡°Toby, go!¡±

    Angor ordered Toby to take care of the Blood Vixen. The bird tried its best not the breath the particles lingering in the air and began to assault the fox.

    A Blood Vixen was a bloodthirsty, high-leveled summoned creature which was skilled at using illusions. A Blood Vixen at its peak condition could create an illusion that covered hundreds of square kilometers wide. Fox Master¡¯s animal, however, was only 5-10 years old. As one of the most longevous creatures out there, it was still far for this one to reach its maturity.

    It did not take long before the foxpletely lost its sense of directions under Toby¡¯s kicks. Angor told Toby to stay as quiet as possible, or Toby would have already killed the animal.

    As Toby pinned the Blood Vixen down, Angor tried to look toward the other direction of the arena. As an improvised cantrip, Dusty Haze had blocked his own vision too, so Angor could only notice the faint figure of Fox Master.

    A faint figure was enough.

    As Angor expected, when everything was covered under the haze, Fox Master remained far, only letting his Blood Vixen do the job.

    Angor checked the thickness of his haze and waited until it was time.

    Next, magic ripples came from Angor¡¯s body.

    When Fox Master saw Angor¡¯s ¡°mist¡±, he was really afraid that Angor might do something dangerous. However, he soon saw more or less of what was going on inside the mist and quickly calmed down.

    It was not clear, but Fox noticed his Blood Vixen engaging in a heated fight with Angor. When he checked through his mental connection with the beast, he also sensed that the animal could not respond because it was busy fighting.

    ¡°Oh my. So Baron Milk is good at closebat? He managed to survive from my Blood Vixen quite well,¡± Fox Master thought and revealed a wicked expression. ¡°But that¡¯s it. Once I get my spell done, you¡¯ll be dead!¡±

    Fox Master began his ¡°performance¡± confidently.

    He cast various tricky and dirty cantrips toward the Baron Milk¡¯s figure that he saw in the mist.

    The audience did not know what was going on. They were too far from the arena to see anything clearly in the haze. Also, there was a special magic array around the arena to prevent them from using their spirit feelers to observe the stage. As of mid or low-leveled apprentices, they could only stay put.

    Baroque was the only one who could watch the battle clearly, but even then, he was still confused by what he saw.

    Baroque thought Angor had further moves after casting his haze. However, he grew speechless when he saw the kid constructing a fighting scene in the haze by using basic illusion spells.

    A scene where Baron Milk was fighting with the Blood Vixen in full swing.

    Using illusions with mist was amon tactic for people, but... what was the point of that fighting scene?

    Fox Master did not see through the illusion at all. He kept using his long-range cantrips at ¡°Baron Milk¡¯s shadow¡± and waspletely unaware that he had been hitting his Blood Vixen instead.

    Baroque took a guess that Angor was trying to wear down Fox¡¯s mana. Yet... Angor could simply use his alchemy weapon right now to take down Fox Master on the spot. Why all the extra effort?

    ¡°Youngsters these days... I can never understand what they¡¯re thinking about.¡± Baroque sighed.

    Seriously, what was the kid trying to do by leaving the illusion there?

    Baroque did not know that Angor was trying to figure out whether he should kill Fox Master. Human natures wereplicated. ¡°Bad guys¡± might possess something good, while saints could have their dark sides. Angor did not intend to waste time on such matters though. He only needed to know one thing; whether Fox Master was trying to kill him.

    If Fox Master wanted him dead, Angor would not show mercy no matter what kind of character Fox was.

    The fight in the illusion remained in a stalemate. With the help of Fox Master¡¯s cantrips, ¡°Baron Milk¡± slowly fell into a disadvantage.

    When seeing the miserable condition of ¡°Baron Milk¡± in the haze, Fox Master grew more excited and began to direct deadlier attacks at Baron Milk¡¯s vital points.

    ¡°Baron Milk¡± yelled, ¡°You¡ªdamn! I surre¡ª¡±

    ¡°Surrender? Not so fast!¡± Fox Master cast another spell and knocked Baron Milk to the ground.

    In Fox¡¯s view, Baron Milk now had two broken arms which meant he could no longer toss his profile card.

    Seeing how Baron could no longer move, Fox Master finally approached him slowly with confident steps.

    ¡°Why are you doing this? I already gave up,¡± Baron Milk¡¯s voice reached Fox¡¯s ears. Fox Master was now too excited to notice that the voice was too calm to be true.

    Fox humphed. ¡°You know well. Think about what you have done!¡±

    ¡°What did I do?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t deny it. You¡¯re the one who killed Potongue, no?¡± Fox Master was no longer using his ¡°wise hermit¡± act. He looked furious about something.

    ¡°So you already know.¡± Angor sighed silently. Just like Dave said, Fox Master wanted to get revenge for the death of ¡®Canine Master¡¯ Potongue.

    ¡°Heh, even if I don¡¯t do it now, Braunk will. You might as well die here on the arena. A more honorable death that way, so you should be grateful.¡±

    ording to Dave, Braunk was an admirer of Red Butterfly. However, that man was away from Brute Cavern for now, so Angor did not need to worry about him at the moment.

    Fox Master did not try to hide his killing intent at all.

    ¡°Too bad then,¡± Angor grimaced.

    Inside the haze, Angor watched as Fox Master walked toward his dead Blood Vixen and sighed. A shining, enchanted bolt was released from his sleeve.

    Fox Master only had his attention on the fake shadow in the illusion. He failed to realize the imminent danger.

    Until a bolt enchanted with Sharpen Rune sunk into his throat... Fox Master widened his eyes in fear.

    And it was already toote.

    When drawing hisst breath, Fox Master saw the dissipating illusion and pointed a finger toward the real Baron Milk before dropping to the floor as a cold corpse who had no time to regret his decision.

    ...

    After watching the entire fight and eavesdropping on their conversation, Baroque finally understood why Angor put up such a dragging disy.

    The kid was... trying to find a reason to get over his decision to kill people.

    Baroque knew why Angor acted so. Still...

    <i>The kiddo is such a soft a*s!</i>

    <i>Just kill someone if you want! You find all those excuses and didn¡¯t change your idea in the end. Why waste all that time?</i>

    Sunders, who was famous for his swift and firm decisions when maiming people, found such an innocent student? This would be such a giantughing stock if people heard about it.

    Since he had watched enough, Baroque picked up the <i>Refreshing Summer </i>from under his bottom and walked away from the audience stand while carrying the look of a pervert when reading the book.

    ...

    When the haze finally disappeared and exposed the corpses of Fox Master and Blood Vixen, all the spectators were still attempting to register what they just saw.

    In the previous moment, Fox Master was still tossing spells into the mist in an elegant way. The man even looked confident as if he already won. But... he was dead! Along with his animal!

    There was no crater in the ground like the one during Selena¡¯s fight. Whatever did Baron Milk do??

    Like always, people were wondering how Baron Milk defeated his opponent. But this time, more people began to sulk over Fox Master¡¯s fall.

    Most of the audience were witches. Fox Master¡¯s admirers. They were totally not expecting the death of their beloved star. Baron Milk never killed a single fighter in Sky Tower. Not even those who offended him orally. Yet this time¡ª

    The audience stands were now filled with great sadness. Angor could already sense the terrible emotionsing from the fans of Fox Master.

    He looked around and as expected, he received lots of angry stares in return.

    Angor began to hesitate and pondered about whether his decision was wise. He killed Canine Master, so he needed to get rid of Fox Master. Now, more fans of Fox Master mighte looking for trouble... This would never end. Angor did not wish to be some kind of big boss that opposed the whole world.

    Angor wiped some beads of sweat off his forehead when thinking about his possible future. He walked off the stage with the audience hissing at him in disgust.

    At least no one troubled him again in the backstage this time.

    He did not really want to do this. However, the decision to kill did not stress him out either. It was just like when he killed Red Butterfly and Canine Master.

    He read it from a philosophy book from Earth that those who tended to kill people already gave up their rights to live. Especially here in the wizarding world, where there were nows or regtions to restrict people. Angor mighte across more simr situations in the future.

    He never considered himself a saint. In this dog-eat-dog ce, the only thing he wanted was to follow his own moral standard. He would appreciate kindness but he would not disregard the dark sides of mankind. He would walk down his own path while perfecting himself.

 Chapter 199 - A Unseen Battlefield

    <h4>Chapter 199: A Unseen Battlefield</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After battling Fox Master, Angor had to go against Parasite Queen soon.

    Until yesterday, Angor still had no idea who she was. Well, he knew that Dave really admired this woman. When Dave came to find him in the morning, he learned something else.

    Parasite Queen, real name unknown. A really strong apprentice. She was only a level-2 now, but she had overthrown level-3 apprentices many times. She was now the number one in Level 13 who owned 197 match points.

    Dave did not tell Angor how Parasite Queen usually defeated her opponents because he did not know much either. All matches she fought before all ended in strange ways. It was either her opponents who gave up first, or they just stood there doing nothing and got knocked out by Parasite Queen easily.

    Dave¡¯s assumption was that her opponents all fell for Parasite Queen¡¯s great beauty. They chose to surrender rather than hurting her.

    Many people also shared this idea. Although no one knew for sure. Angor did not really believe that wizards could be seduced by women so fast unless Parasite Queen was some otherworldly creature such as an Abyss Subus.

    That... was not impossible. Maybe Parasite Queen did imnt the bloodline of a subus into her body?

    Still, these were all assumptions. Angor needed to confront her first.

    Angor did not exclude the possibility of meeting a real subus, so he whispered to Toby before the match, ¡°If you ever see me spacing out or not moving at all, don¡¯t wait for my order. Just go get her.¡±

    He could not believe that a bird like Toby would get attracted by human beauty.

    His match against Parasite Queen was the fourth match for today.

    There were three arenas at Level 13. When his battle with Fox Master ended, the other two matches quickly drew to an end as well. The workers were already cleaning the stages, so Angor was positive that his next battle would be within half an hour.

    And he looked forward to it.

    The number one on the ranking list! She was basically one of the strongest apprentices of the same ss! Angor really wanted to know how far he was from these elites.

    As he expected, he was allowed to join the stage soon.

    When walking into everyone¡¯s view, Angor felt tension greater than that in any match he fought before.

    When he nced around the audience seats, he saw level-3 apprentices, as well several elite fighters who came down from Levels 14 and 15.

    Unlike Fox Master¡¯s fans, the genders of audience this time were even. However, simr to the previous time, they were all looking at the opposite direction of Angor.

    When someone covered under a white robe slowly emerged from the other fighter passage, the already tensed atmosphere among the audience was instantly lit up like oil. Men, women, the old, and the young... everyone expressed their... love, toward the white-robed figure.

    Someone even threw roses into the arena whilepletely ignoring the regtions of the tower.

    Parasite Queen paid no mind to the flowers scattered on the ground, which were soon ground to pieces under her high-heeled leather boots.

    She was still too far for Angor to see her face.

    When they got into their positions and waited for the countdown timer, Angor finally had a good look at Parasite Queen.

    He had seen many beautiful women in different styles before such as Aleen, an innocent yet adorable young girl; Flora, the strangely seductivedy; and Nausica who had a natural sexiness without having to express herself. All of them could be considered top-ss in the views of ordinary people.

    Whenpared to Parasite Queen though, they somehow missed by a score.

    Parasite Queen¡¯s level of beauty deserved the fanatical enthusiasm from her fans. She looked... breathtaking. Even maddening, in a good way.

    No words could describe such a divine wonder.

    Even Angor, an immature kid who did not know how toprehend women, blushed a little when looking at her beauty.

    Now he understood why Dave appeared so... possessed, when he was talking about Parasite Queen.

    Angor did not hide his look of appreciation. He always knew how to admire great beauty. However, the woman in front of him was not someone that could force him to surrender merely by her pretty face.

    That meant... Parasite Queen had other tricks for winning.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re Baron Milk?¡± Parasite Queen¡¯s voice sounded clear and pleasant. Her tone carried an emotion as if she was disappointed at something.

    Angor did not reply. The woman sounded like she knew his true identity, and Angor wondered how.

    ¡°What? You¡¯d hide your face in front of my absolute beauty? Because your own face is miserable?¡± Parasite Queen spoke in aplete taunting and narcissistic way. ¡°Only worms that struggle in dirty underground pits conceal their faces behind masks and do not show themselves in front of people.¡± Her voice contained a strange frequency. ¡°So, are you a worm?¡±

    It was natural for people to taunt in the waiting phase. Angor got a question though.

    <i>Why did everyone love this foul talker so much? Are they all masochists?</i>

    ¡°Hey, worm. Why don¡¯t you stay in your pit? That¡¯s your best ce to be.¡±

    Under her constant provoking, even Angor could not help frowning.

    He spoke in Baron Milk¡¯s low and indifferent voice, ¡°One of your admirers asked me to go easy on you. Looks like he¡¯ll be disappointed.¡±

    Parasite Queen sneered, ¡°My good master asked me to fight you, and maybe avoid killing you while doing it. I thought you were someone good. Turns out... you¡¯re just a worm, huh? I¡¯ll still listen to my master, but you probably will say goodbye to your limbs.¡±

    This was the first time when someone showed so much enmity to him before a match. Angor had no idea who Parasite Queen¡¯s ¡°master¡± was. Whoever that was, it had to be one of the reasons why Parasite Queen was being so hostile.

    The match had begun.

    Instead of taking his first move, Angor suddenly froze up in ce.

    In the eyes of audiences, Angor appeared just like another individual who fell for Parasite Queen¡¯s charm.

    Parasite Queen stepped toward Angor while wiggling her body. She held up a dagger high in the air.

    Angor¡¯s eyes were not focused at all. Parasite Queen¡¯s dagger would soonnd on his unmoving figure.

    But Toby moved.

    The bird left Angor¡¯s shoulder, gained speed by diving down, and threw itself at Parasite Queen¡¯s shoulder with the help of shifting gravity.

    A huge explosion decorated with sttering blood shocked everyone into a dead silence.

    What Toby disyed to them looked like a giant boulder which fell from hundreds of meters high. No level-2 apprentice could survive from something like that.

    Toby¡¯s attack came and ended in an instant. No one had the chance to register what just happened by the time Toby returned to Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°What-what was that?¡±

    ¡°Just like Selena¡¯s fight!¡±

    ¡°Oh no, my princess. My liege! Is she alright? Should she receive a tiny scratch on her skin, I WILL kill Baron Milk personally!¡±

    ¡°Chill off! Parasite Queen is the top in the ranks! How can a level-1 apprentice beat her?¡±

    There were only two level-3 apprentices among the audience who saw the action just now; Prome and Prome¡¯s partner. They did not really see what happened, but they still saw a small shadowshing out from Angor, which fully exined their question.

    <i>The giant explosion is caused by that small bird?</i>

    Prome already saw Toby¡¯s speed before. Now he also witnessed Toby¡¯s burst power and tried topare his own strength to it. As a level-3 apprentice, Prome could barely see Toby moving in the air. He probably had no chance of avoiding an attack like that if he was there.

    Which meant... if he would ever oppose Toby, he would lose instantly.

    ¡°s... If I¡¯ve known that Dave¡¯s little friend brought such a powerful familiar, I¡¯d not tell Parasite Queen to show mercy.¡± Prome shook his head and sighed.

    When the dust cloud settled, everyone lifted their heads to see whether their ¡°princess¡± was hurt.

    They feared that what happened to Selena would happen again.

    And their fear was right.

    The situation on the stage slowly grew clearer. A bleeding puncture which shattered her entire vicle and shoulder de had appeared on Parasite Queen.

    ¡°Parasite Queen!¡±

    ¡°My Queen!!¡±

    ¡°It really happened again! Damn it all! Why didn¡¯t Selena tell us anything about it? Or Parasite Queen can be more prepared!¡±

    ¡°Baron Milk, must, DIE!¡±

    ¡°He wounded my Parasite Queen! I¡¯ll fu*king destroy him!¡±

    The onlookers only expressed their grief at Parasite Queen¡¯s situation for several seconds before they all turned to condemn Baron Milk.

    It appeared that Parasite Queen had lost.

    Butter, they were surprised to realize that no one announced the end of the match even though Parasite Queen had lost consciousness.

    ¡°So Parasite Queen must surrender by herself? The judges are so cruel!¡±

    ¡°Baron Milk was charmed, he should¡¯ve been the loser.¡±

    ¡°If so, how did Parasite Queen got injured?¡±

    They were frenzied pursuers of Parasite Queen, but they were not stupid. When they saw Baron Milk still standing there with a nk expression while Parasite Queen was out cold on the floor, they quickly understood that there had to be something protecting Baron Milk.

    It could be an active-defense alchemy item, or a familiar pet that lurked in the shadows... Wait, the bird on his shoulder!

    They did not know which answer was correct. However, when Toby disyed a proud look which attracted a lot of hate, the scales in their minds tipped a little.

    A minuteter, even the other workers waiting outside the arena began to wonder.

    <i>Why isn¡¯t the screen showing anything?</i>

    ording to rules, Baron Milk should be dered as the winner now.

    One of the workers came to Baroque and asked him what to do.

    Baroque smiled. ¡°Winner? Not yet. The battle is just approaching its climax. Somewhere we can¡¯t see...¡±

 Chapter 200 - Parasite Host

    <h4>Chapter 200: Parasite Host</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Mntha suddenly showed up beside Baroque.

    After asking the other workers to go away, she revealed a serious expression and questioned the old man.

    ¡°Mister Baroque... Can you tell me why Bouy abandoned her shell and invaded him as her core?¡±

    Unlike the others, Mntha knew Parasite Queen¡¯s true identity¡ªBouy the Parasite, a mutated Elementalist.

    By using her Parasite Art, Bouy could fully manipte someone, even ¡°bing¡± her target.

    And this was not the only thing Mntha knew.

    For example, Bouy appeared to be a member of Brute Cavern, but she was actually a spy ced here by Floating Mech City.

    All wizard organizations more or less held grudges against each other. Even those who appeared as allies might have spies hidden in someone¡¯s ce.

    Floating Mech City was not an ally of Brute Cavern, but their rtionship was still good. Even then, Mntha knew about several spies sent by Floating Mech City. Bouy was only one of the weakest one.

    For her particr identity, Mntha had been keeping an eye on her.

    Usually, during her matches, Bouy used spores to pollute her opponents and won. The spores did notst long after the fights, and wouldpletely vanish from the bodies of her victims in several days or months, depending on situations.

    However, if Bouy used her core... the problem was serious now. Using her core meant Bouy was going to change her shell.

    Once her core entered the body of someone, it would no longer disappear until she chose another body.

    What Bouy just did meant she was going to use Angor¡¯s body as her new host. If she seeded, she could easily control or even be Angor.

    Baroque only smiled against Mntha¡¯s question. ¡°How should I know? Maybe she got tired of her old body and wants to try bing a man instead?¡±

    Mntha looked offended. ¡°And you think I¡¯ll believe that obvious lie of yours?¡±

    ¡°Why not? Angor¡¯s body looks good enough for her standard. Come on, Bouy wants to experience the body of a man. You can¡¯t deny it.¡± Baroque was still smiling, but there was now malevolence shining in his eyes.

    ¡°Mister Baroque... Of course, she can invade anyone she likes, but can you at least think about WHO ANGOR IS?¡± Mntha bellowed thest part. She did not want to imagine how Sunders would react when the gentleman heard that someone had taken his student¡¯s body.

    Why Sunders took Angor in was always a mystery to everyone. These two sharedpletely opposite characters, and Sunders still epted the boy, so Mntha believed that there had to be something really important about Angor.

    Mntha no longer cared what this ¡°important matter¡± was. She only came to the Sky Tower as a means of rxation while looking for the path of truth while at it.

    She would avoid getting involved in the wrath of a level-2 formal wizard at all cost!

    Even Floating Mech City would step back when a level-2 ¡°truth-finder¡± wizard was angered. Sunders was not called ¡°the killing machine in the south¡± for no reason.

    Baroque smiled again andforted Mntha. ¡°Rx. It¡¯s just a fight between kids. Do you think we grown-ups should join them?¡±

    Baroque sounded so calm, but Mntha clearly knew what was at stake.

    This whole matter might determine the final standing between two major wizard organizations.

    ¡°Mister Baroque, can you tell me why are you doing this?¡± Mntha suppressed her rage and tried to ask.

    ¡°Why? Nothing really. Bouy didn¡¯t use her core to invade under mymand.¡± Baroque skillfully avoided taking any responsibilities. When he saw Mntha¡¯s face twisting a little, he shrugged and said something else, ¡°Well, maybe I ¡®identally¡¯ told Bouy about Angor¡¯s identity.¡±

    ¡°identally?!¡± Mntha rolled her eyes. Bouy was only a spy. No one really wanted her to do anything for the moment, which meant she was just a ¡°backdoor¡± in Brute Cavern. She was a stubborn woman whose life was saved by Floating Mech City in an ident. She always insisted on repaying her organization, so she offered toe to Brute Cavern as their spy. Now that she finally saw someone who could help her approach the ¡°core authorities¡± of Brute Cavern, of course, she would not let this chance escape.

    ¡°Her parasite skill was too obvious. There¡¯s no way she can hide what she did from ¡®him¡¯,¡± Mnthamented.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. You know well how merciless Sunders can get.¡±

    Mntha understood what he meant. Aside from Angor, Sunders had two other students. One of them had not shown up for a long time. The other one was Flora who inherited Sunders¡¯ violent character. Previously, Flora stumbled into several deadly situations and came seeking help from Sunders, but her mentor did not do anything to save her at all.

    Sunders¡¯ ruthlessness was well-known around the world.

    ¡°Then let¡¯s pray that Angor isn¡¯t really important to Sunders,¡± Mntha sounded a little defeated.

    Baroque smiled yet again. ¡°Actually, maybe Bouy¡¯s attempt might fail. Who knows?¡±

    ¡°Oh really?¡± Mntha already heard from Baroque¡¯s tone that the old man did not even believe his own words.

    An elite level-2 apprentice who used her talent skill on a fresh level-1 apprentice and failed? Only fools would think that way.

    ...

    The stage was still troubled by the angry yells of audience. Everyone was cursing Baron Milk.

    Even Dave was looking at the bleeding woman on the ground with an irritated look.

    ¡°What¡¯s with Angor? I told him to be gentle!¡± Heined in his mind.

    Someone suddenly drew everyone¡¯s attention.

    ¡°Hey look, Baron Milk is down!¡±

    As he said, Baron Milk had lost bnce and copsed on the arena, face-down. He lost consciousness as well.

    ¡°Whatever is going on?!¡±

    ¡°Hey, judge, are you there? Tell us already! Which one is the winner?¡±

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you end the match? We didn¡¯t pay money to look at people lying on the floor!¡±

    ¡°Yeah! Quickly! I don¡¯t care if my queen wins or not! If she keeps bleeding like that, she¡¯ll die!¡±

    Despite their effort, the workers around the arena did not move. They had already received an order from their superiors which was that they were not to announce anything because the battle was still on.

    This further enraged the spectators. Someone began to curse the management team in Sky Tower. However, most of the people were still directing their hate at Baron Milk.

    There were... a few, who were actually concerned at Baron Milk¡¯s condition.

    On one of the VIP seats, a hooded man red at the damaged body of Parasite Queen and howled, ¡°Now keep that up! Bleed! How dare you hurt my precious! I¡¯ll make you regret forever for being born! When thest drop of your blood leaves your flesh, I¡¯ll seal your soul inside my furnace and burn it in mes for eternity!¡±

    ...

    Toby circled around Angor anxiously. He had no idea what was going on. He already knocked that stinky woman out. <i>Why is my young master not awake?</i>

    The bird flew under Angor¡¯s hood and gently poked Angor¡¯s face with his beak.

    No matter how he poked and called, Angor lied on the ground, motionless, like a... corpse.

    For the first time in his life, Toby felt fear.

    Despite the fact that Angor was always ¡°quarreling¡± with him, Toby knew how he loved living with the human boy.

    Toby was not the reason for Angor¡¯s current situation, but the bird still med himself for being too weak. If only he was strong enough to protect Angor...

    Toby only considered his strength for the first time. Ever since he was born, no one ever showed hostility to him, so Toby did not mind being weak or strong.

    At this moment, Toby desperately wished to grow stronger and protect those he cared for.

    ...

    Angor knew nothing about his situation. The discussions among the audience, the particr attention from a certain pervert, and Toby¡¯s change in mind... he knew none of these.

    As Baroque said, he was still inside the battlefield. Not on the arena, but a battlefield he never expected to see.

    A battlefield that determined his body and soul.

    It all happened at the start of his match.

    When the countdown timer on the screen ended, Angor quickly moved to cast a defensive spell.

    Right at that moment, he saw a shadowy figure made from small, greenish particles in his sight.

    No, he did not ¡°see¡± the figure. It directly showed up on the retina in his eye.

    The shadow looked like a woman.

    Before he could figure out what happened, he noticed that he could no longer control his body. In the next moment, he found himself falling into a strange ce.

    The ced looked like his mind space, with only endless darkness and chaos in there. But he did not see his Axes of the Universe and his spirit model.

    He could not feel himself anymore. He was now... existing as his own spirit.

    Suddenly, the dark space was illuminated by a green light and followed by some kind of t nts which appeared and grew quickly, gradually bing a green flower bud.

    The flower bud slowly spread open in a beautiful way. In the end, it became a giant, green flower withyered petals like those found on a rose.

    In the center of the flower stood the bright, decently-shaped body of a woman.

 Chapter 201 - Body is Lost

    <h4>Chapter 201: Body is Lost</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The beautiful sight reminded Angor of a story he read before, where a fairy living inside flowers was waking up.

    But... as the woman in the flower revealed her face, everyst bit of the beautiful fantasy in Angor¡¯s mind shattered like bubbles and vaporized in the air.

    Now, the woman in front of Angor convinced him that someone with a beautiful body might not be a fairy. It could be the deadliest devil in the realm.

    This terrible creature... no. She was worse than a devil.

    Swollen pimples had taken over half of her face. There were thin, worm-like creatures squirming between the pimples. Instead of eye sockets, her eyeballs hanged outside, connected by several white, fleshy organ parts.

    The other half of her face looked better. At least it looked human. However, it was still decorated by several ugly shing wounds.

    As the flower fully bloomed, exposing the woman¡¯s entire body, countless shiny green spots were scattered into the dark space by the twitching petals.

    When it happened, Angor somehow heard a message from somewhere.

    ¡°The war has begun.¡±

    <i>War?</i>

    Angor was not sure where he received that message. Before he could digest it, he felt his own consciousness leaving the dark chaos and going away. Next, he found himself existing in... another dimension.

    He was still on the arena, but... something was wrong. He could see the expressions of the audience, but they were not moving. It was as if time was frozen around him.

    At the same time, Angor could see himself lying on the ground.

    As well as the green light spots that appeared in his blood vessels.

    He appeared as his soul, which lived in another timeline. At this moment, he could clearly sense everything, including what was going on inside his body.

    However, he did not have the time to wonder why something like this was happening because his attention was fixed on the changes in his body.

    The green spots appeared everywhere. His blood, his organs... they slowly took over everything inside him like bandits who just found a new settlement.

    The same instinct from before told him that the green spots were pollens released by the previous flower, and he knew well what they were doing right now.

    They were taking control of his body!

    What was all this about? Green shadow, green flower, and the horrible woman. What were these things that suddenly appeared inside his body? Why were they doing this?

    Taking everything into consideration, Angor looked at the body of Parasite Queen, who had been lying on the other side.

    ¡°It is you, right? Parasite Queen?¡± Angor could not speak, but he managed to send his thoughts through spirit ripples.

    He never expected an answer. Surprisingly, another spirit ripple came flowing back.

    ¡°Mine. Mine! Bah-hahaha! It¡¯s all mine! This body shall be mine!¡±

    The spirit ripple was not directed at Angor. Someone was releasing a strong emotion into the air.

    Angor quickly sensed the particr emotion as well as the meaning it meant to tell.

    He did not do this by chance. Back in the Nightmare Realm, Angor had the same experience with the Glutton Flowers before. He even tried tomunicate with the lord of those flowers.

    ¡°Parasite Queen?¡± Angor tried reaching out his spirit again.

    ¡°Ha! Mister Baroque said this is Sunders¡¯ student. Wonderful! I¡¯m so iming this body for myself! Yes, YES! Quickly now... It¡¯s all mine!!¡±

    Angor felt the frenzied emotion again.

    He was confident now that he could sense the other spirit, while the other party could not sense him in return.

    Also, he could learn something from what he had sensed.

    <i>Baroque...</i>

    He knew that name. It was the braided old man who handled the lottery box at Level 13. That guy seemed like an important figure in Sky Tower.

    Which meant... a mysterious spirit came to take his body under Baroque¡¯smand?

    And of course, it was Parasite Queen. She was the only fighter who was randomly chosen for Angor after he entered the lottery pool.

    Who exactly was Baroque? And why was Parasite Queen trying to take his body? What did they want?? Angor got the feeling that the whole setup was some kind of plot against Sunders, while he himself was just a tool.

    Angor did not know what was going on, nor did he care. The only thing he had to do now was to retake control of his body, and getting rid of Parasite Queen.

    He saw the green pollens moving across his abdomen and slowly entering his legs.

    When every corner of his body was taken over by the pollens, it would mean that he finally lost his body for real.

    He tried to move.

    However, his body felt really weird. It was as if he was now living in apletely different world from the one his body was in. No matter how hard he tried, Angor never sensed the presence of his flesh let alone controlling it.

    ¡°Weak. So weak! Like a mortal! No. This is weaker than a mortal!¡±

    Another emotion came to him. Angor grew a little angry. He was sure he would sense his blood vessels pulsing on his forehead... if he had a forehead at all.

    He watched as green pollens slowly condensed into his body while he could not do anything about it. While not being able tomand his body, Angor only released all kinds of cursing words through his spirit. But no one could hear him. Not even the wizards around.

    ¡°This is miserable! Broken vessels... taints in the flesh... To hell with it! Why would Sunders ept this one as a student?!¡±

    All of Parasite Queen¡¯s thoughts reached Angor¡¯s consciousness but Angor no longer had the will to retort.

    ¡°Maybe his talent is really good? No matter. This is all mine. I¡¯ll figure out once I seize his soul.¡±

    People used their emotions all the time as long as they were alive. Angor fullyprehended everything Parasite Queen was thinking about even though she was not trying to talk.

    From what she just said, she would go for both his body and soul.

    Angor felt so powerless when his entire body was almost lost.

    Green pollens had filled up every corner of him. Only a small part in his brain remained untouched.

    Angor had nothing to interfere with the situation. He watched as his body became Parasite Queen¡¯s possession while he had nothing to direct his rage on.

    The great rage slowly built up like a giant pile of stones. At a certain point, Angor sensed growing restlessness in his once tranquil mind.

    Among the torrent of rage, he also noticed a strange ripple.

    He never saw such a ripple before. Yet as his anger grew intense, the ripple began to show up from somewhere.

    ¡°What... is that?¡±

    Something that looked both insignificant and majestic was shrouded in a lump of a dense, grayish mist cloud.

    Also, he felt something familiar with it. But he could not tell why.

    As he was attracted by the newly appeared ripple, Parasite Queen¡¯s emotions came again.

    ¡°This body is now mine! Gahahaha! His soul, mine! Mine! Give me your soul!¡±

    It all ended.

    He hadpletely lost his body!

    What he needed to do now was to fight for his soul.

    ¡°Where is it... WHERE IS IT! There you are!¡± The voice of Parasite Queen suddenly became louder.

    Angor saw countless green pollens appearing around himself.

    Not his body, but around his current consciousness.

    ¡°Yar-hahaha! Found you! Don¡¯t mind if I do!¡±

    Her emotion came from behind the pollens. Angor looked in that direction and saw the ugly woman sitting on the green flower she was born from.

    That horrible woman was... the real Parasite Queen?

    The realization looked so wrong considering Parasite Queen¡¯s previous beautiful figure was still on the floor. Yet Angor somewhat fully believed his idea.

    Since she could invade and take control of the body of someone else, maybe the pretty girl outside was just another of her shells.

    ¡°Such a beautiful soul. Too bad I can¡¯t control human souls. No matter! Once I take over your mind space and retrieve your memories, I¡¯ll just toss your useless soul into nothingness!¡±

    Green pollens surged at Angor¡¯s consciousness under Parasite Queen¡¯s order.

    Angor finally understood his situation.

    He was not really his consciousness now. He had returned to his soul form.

    This had to be why he could sense Parasite Queen¡¯s emotions. When inside the Nightmare Realm, he moved around as a soul and that was why he could alsoprehend the emotions of Glutton Flowers.

    But he had nothing to defend himself against the pollens.

    He could not move his soul now. Unlike what he went through in the Nightmare Realm, his soul was still trapped somewhere inside his body.

    And he could only watch as the pollens came at him.

    Desperate, Angor thought about the only thing he might do¡ªreleasing the strange ripple he sensed a moment ago.

    The thick, gray fog slowly spread from his soul.

    When it connected with the iing pollen waves, the pollens stopped in their tracks as if bound by an unknown force.

    Was he... safe? Angor had no idea what that fog was, but it did halt the pollens from advancing.

    ¡°Sh*t. What¡¯s this?! You¡¯re right there, right?! Baron Milk! Come out! Give me your soul like a good kid, or I¡¯ll let your body rot away like dead worms in the dirt while keeping you alive to feel it!¡± Parasite Queen also noticed the sudden problem in her n and began to release an angry emotion.

    She also knew that when being as a parasite in someone¡¯s body, she could not possibly talk with Angor¡¯s soul.

    Angorpletely ignored her outburst. He was no less furious then Parasite Queen. He had to keep his soul safe at all cost. And even if he could not, he would drag Parasite Queen along with him when going into hell!

    He never learned any soul-rted spells, so the only thing that might help him was the strange fog now.

    Angor attempted to manipte the gray fog that suddenly appeared in his soul.

    He slowly controlled his soul to reach out for the fog again.

 Chapter 202 - The Battle for the Soul

    <h4>Chapter 202: The Battle for the Soul</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The gray fog already existed in the depth of Angor¡¯s soul, so it did not repel Angor¡¯s attempt. Still, the thick, dense, and significant unknown substance caused Angor to worry a little.

    He tried to control the fog.

    No matter how many times he tried though, the fog remained there unchanged, like a viscous puddle, slowly shifting about.

    The only thing Angor could do was to make the fog spread or return to its original spot.

    Parasite Queen was still staring at him from her flower, with her terrible face covered in worm-like creatures. Angor shivered a little. If her fans outside looked at her current state... many people would probably have their sanity broken down right on the spot.

    Parasite Queen controlled her pollens to surround Angor¡¯s soul tightly.

    She could not sense Angor¡¯s emotion, but she could still see Angor¡¯s soul. She saw the soul trying to take control of some fog albeit a little clumsy. Still, the fog began to grow thicker now. She did not know what would happen if she did not break the fog¡¯s defense in time.

    More pollens crashed against Angor¡¯s soul like bullets.

    Angor kept moving parts of the fog around his soul. He could not do much else for now, but keeping the pollens away was not really difficult.

    Any pollen that connected with the fog instantly stopped moving. It was as if they were no longer ¡°alive¡±.

    These green pollens were spores of a rare magic nt called Green Velvet. Parasite Queen found them during a destiny she encountered before. She could control any creature who was polluted by the spores of Green Velvet. But unlikemon parasites, these spores had magical properties that allowed them to pollute someone¡¯s soul that existed in the depth of void.

    This was how Parasite Queen found her way into Brute Cavern ¡ª by taking the body of an apprentice she found.

    The spores she used were easy to deal with. An easy spell like Dust Removal could quickly get rid of them from the atmosphere. However, once they entered someone¡¯s body, it would be really difficult to remove them again unless their victim knew something to defend his or her soul.

    Level-3 apprentices or those beyond usually knew such techniques. Angor, however, as a level-1 apprentice, never learned anything like that. At least this was what Parasite Queen believed.

    What was happening now really shocked her. Not only did Angor possessed something to defend his soul, but he also did a perfect job fighting back against her spores.

    More importantly... the spores caught in the gray fog were no longer under her control. She could still sense those spores, but there was a terrible might around the spores that she did not dare to manipte them anymore.

    ¡°What defense is this? Seventh hell! Did Sunders put something on this brat to protect him?¡±

    Her emotion was clearly sensed by Angor.

    Angor was wondering the same question. Just like Parasite Queen, he had no idea what the strange fog was. Did Sunders really do this? Angor could not recall anything Sunders did to him that might be rted to it. Also, the sense of familiaritying from the fog had nothing to do with Sunders.

    The gray fog kept applying itself around Angor¡¯s soul, and it did not look like the fog would exhaust any time soon.

    Parasite Queen was worried about it.

    If the fogpletely covered Angor soul, what could she do?

    She had to get rid of his soul before that happened!

    Parasite Queen made up her mind to give it a hard push.

    Angor sensed her idea as well. In truth, he was unsure of how long he couldst.

    Just now, he thought about the same thing; he could simply spread the fog around his soul and repel the pollens even though he could not control the fog for real.

    That was why he kept releasing the fog without holding back.

    Angor did not know how much fog existed in the depth of his soul. He simply decided to keep releasing it and only stopping when he saw a decrease.

    But something happened too fast. There was only a brief, unnoticeable moment before the fog changed from ¡°sufficient¡± to the other end.

    Angor felt as if something inside of him was suddenly removed.

    He quickly tried to stop releasing the fog. And it was toote¡ªhe could no longer prevent the fog from escaping!

    As the remaining fog left its original spot, Angor writhed in pain. He felt there was something like a blood-sucking worm which just emptied his soul; one who came back to devour what was left of him.

    He now regretted his decision for fumbling over his own soul without knowing anything about it at all.

    The consequence of his foolish move was probably a suicide instead of getting killed by Parasite Queen.

    Parasite Queen did not stay idle during Angor¡¯s action. When she saw the gray foging from Angor¡¯s soul, she thought Angor was going to make himself an armor which fully protected himself, and that her spores could no longer do anything to him.

    She moved.

    From behind her spores, she ran toward Angor¡¯s soul herself while stepping on the velvet strings created by the pollens.

    If she would take a moment to observe, she would notice that Angor¡¯s soul was growing weaker, so she could simply wait for a victory when Angor¡¯s soul exhausted itself. Too bad though, she never learned much about souls andpletely missed her chance.

    When Parasite Queen reached Angor¡¯s soul, Angor was too weak to sense her further emotions.

    At this moment, Angor¡¯s soul was just an unmoving prey, waiting to be killed.

    Parasite Queen, on the other hand, only needed to be careful not to get caught in the mysterious fog.

    She avoided the area of the fog and slowly moved behind Angor.

    His soul was the least protected here, which meant she had the best chance!

    To make sure, Parasite Queen did not use her spores this time. She controlled the main body of her skill¡ªthe Green Velvet¡ªto dive into the soul.

    Before making her move though, Parasite Queen noticed a small wound on Angor¡¯s back.

    It was a small cut located on his debone which looked like something caused by a woman¡¯s long nail.

    ¡°Even god favors me!¡± Parasite Queen was afraid that Angor might have something else to protect his soul, so she was trying to look for an opening to go in. Now the wound was a perfect spot.

    She would invade Angor¡¯s soul right here!

    Parasite Queen made up her mind and ordered a vine of her Green Velvet to pierce itself into the small cut on Angor¡¯s back.

    ...

    Outside, the arena was still protected by a magic array because the screen still had not announced the end of the fight.

    Both Baron Milk and Parasite Queen had lost their consciousness on the ground. Baron Milk was hugging the floor face-down in a strange posture, while Parasite Queeny in a crater caused by Toby¡¯s kick.

    The audience had been yelling from their seats for five minutes, but no one gave them an exnation yet.

    ¡°They¡¯re still in it? Angor¡¯s body is fully upied by the spores of Green Velvet now. Why isn¡¯t he awake?¡± Mntha watched the arena with worry in her eyes. She was a formal wizard, but she had not learned how to observe someone¡¯s soul.

    Neither had Baroque. Unlike Mntha though, he was not worried in the least. He did not believe a fresh apprentice who earned his victories by using his pet and alchemy weapon had anything to prevent a soul invasion.

    ¡°Did something go wrong?¡± Mntha got a bad feeling.

    She would never allow Bouy to control Angor as a host as she feared that this would trigger Sunders¡¯ rage. However, it already happened. As another member of Floating Mech City, she somewhat hoped Bouy to seed. This kid called Angor did give her a fine impression, but it was not enough to change her personal standing.

    However, there was someone among the audience who could tell the state of souls.

    On one of the VIP seats, a hooded man suddenly frowned.

    ¡°How? The soul of my precious is getting weaker! Bitch! Is that stinky cunt behind this? No one shall touch my precious star! He¡¯s mine! Only mine!¡±

    He bolted from his seat and prepared to rush the stage to im the soul of his ¡°precious star¡±.

    But he stopped midway.

    ¡°Oh? My precious soul is returning... and getting stronger?¡± His eyes glimmered with joy. ¡°Good. Good! Keep growing, my precious! Ahh... I can¡¯t wait for the day when I shall finally conquer such a beautiful soul!¡±

    His face was twisting with both happiness and evil.

    An eerie and fearfulugh was then heard from him.

    Those who were close enough to hear him all felt a terrible chill crawling on their backs.

    On the other side of the audience stand, Dave was beginning to worry as well. Heined to Angor for hurting his ¡°princess¡± just a moment ago, but when he saw Angor staying motionless on the ground for such a long time, he could not help worrying about Angor¡¯s safety.

    Parasite Queen was only a dream which he would never reach, while Angor was his best opportunity for him to realize his ambitions in the future. Dave clearly knew which one was more important to him.

    The clock ticked, but nothing had changed on the stage.

    Someone already began to throw stuff at the workers. Juice bottles, half-eaten fruits, snack bags... various junks rained down.

    The arena was protected by a powerful magic array, but the workers around the arena were not!

    ¡°End it already! Can¡¯t you see my queen has lost so much blood??¡±

    ¡°Should anything happen to Parasite Queen, you¡¯re the murderers!¡±

    The workers tried to report the situation to their superiors again and again, but they only received the same response: Result unclear, the match should continue.

    Just as the audience was preparing for a riot, someone suddenly pointed to the stage and yelled loudly, ¡°Hey look! Baron Milk¡¯s hand moved!¡±

    More people quickly followed the direction of his finger and they noticed that the speaker was telling the truth.

    When most people shifted their attention to Baron Milk, they all saw him pushing against the ground, struggling to get up.

    ¡°Baron Milk came back to life!¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? You thought he¡¯s dead?¡±

    ¡°I do hope so! But he wasn¡¯t! Damn it!¡±

 Chapter 203 - Doubts

    <h4>Chapter 203: Doubts</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Dave quickly perked up in joy. ¡°Thank god. I knew Angor will be fine!¡±

    He did not realize that he hadpletely forgotten about his ¡°princess¡±, Parasite Queen.

    Mntha also watched intensely when ¡°Angor¡± slowly climbed up from the ground on his trembling arms.

    She sighed in relief. ¡°Looks like Bouy did it.¡±

    Baroque nodded, causing his small braid to flip behind his head. ¡°Good. I didn¡¯t think her host infestation would work so perfectly. The soul looks like it haspletely merged with the body. At least I can¡¯t find a single w in it yet.¡±

    Mntha looked further relieved now. ¡°You can¡¯t? So... maybe Sunders won¡¯t notice that Angor¡¯s consciousness has been reced?¡±

    Baroque did not answer this time. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. And it doesn¡¯t really matter. More importantly, I want to know why Sunders epted that boy as a pupil in the first ce.¡±

    ¡°We can ask Bouyter. She should have already gained Angor¡¯s memory.¡±

    ¡°Bouy, huh?¡± Baroque snickered at Mntha.

    ¡°Oh, oops... I forgot. She¡¯s no longer ¡®Parasite Queen¡¯ Bouy. She is now Baron Milk, Angor.¡±

    Angor already regained bnce while the two were chatting. His entire body was trembling very hard, like someone who was not used to his limbs after lying in a sickbed for years.

    Baroque smiled bigger when looking at the clumsiness of ¡°Angor¡±. Since this was the first time Bouy used a male body, this waspletely expected.

    All the audience was staring at Baron Milk¡¯s shivering body as well.

    Everyone was wondering what he would do next.

    They saw Baron Milk slowly looking up...

    He would never do that in his matches before because when he lifted his head, the hood would not hide his face fully.

    Now, however, it looked like Baron Milk could not control his movement properly as if his neck had a problem.

    The light went past the rims of his hood, casting shadows on his face.

    Baron Milk finally revealed his face in front of everyone. Well, only half of it, if one were to be precise.

    People could see below his nose, while the rest of his facial features were still in the shadows cast by the hood. However, the glimmer in his eyes was still clear¡ªa glimmer filled with negative emotions.

    White, smooth jaws; perfect-sized lips; and a high, healthy nose bridge.

    Combined with a pair of eyes shining with hatred, pain, and violence.

    From what was shown, people could tell that Baron Milk had a decent look¡ªbetter than the average handsome men they saw in daily life.

    ¡°I thought Baron Milk hide his face because of his miserable looks, but he looks... pretty good,¡± muttered a witch apprentice.

    ¡°No beard, and that skin and his body... I don¡¯t think he¡¯s a man. Well, maybe a really young boy. Hey you, stop it. You wanna rob the cradle?¡± Someone besides the witchined.

    ¡°I¡¯m not that old! And this is bing popr, you know? To raise up young boys. My sisters all found themselves many good-looking mortal boys. You¡¯ll never understand.¡±

    People were talking about Baron Milk¡¯s appearance, his moves or his possible ns next. Dave, on the other hand, was more concerned about Angor¡¯s expression.

    ¡°What happened? That¡¯s... Angor alright. But why does he look so angry?¡± Dave thought to himself. The Angor he knew was always a gentle young man. Well, maybe this ¡°gentle young man¡± tended to get mischievous sometimes, but his eyes usually looked clear and brimming with intelligence, not... so full of hatred.

    His posture just made it worse. Angor was now standing on stiff and trembling limbs. His jaw lifted high, and his violent-looking eyes were looking down.

    That waspletely someone else!

    As people discussed, Baron Milk lowered his head, hiding his face behind the hood once more.

    He mumbled something in a small voice. Those close enough heard the name ¡°Toby¡±.

    When they wondered what that meant, a ck shadow suddenly descended from the air and moved toward Parasite Queen who had been lying in the crater in the ground.

    Her angel-like beauty became a pile of broken bones under the assault of the shadow. Pale-white brain fluid covered the floor around her. Even Baron Milk¡¯s wizard robe was tainted.

    When the ck shadow slowed down its momentum, the spectators finally noticed that it was the bird which always apanied Baron Milk, who just killed Parasite Queen.

    And everyone was shocked into a dead silence.

    A small bird just killed someone?! Not just ¡°someone¡±, but THE Parasite Queen!

    They quickly realized that Baron Milk muttered the name of the bird to give it orders!

    Baron Milk killed Parasite Queen! When reaching this conclusion, the audience all bellowed in rage.

    Judging from how the bird destroyed Parasite Queen, they also understood how Selena lost yesterday.

    No wonder this level-1 apprentice had so much confidence to challenge Sky Tower. He possessed a monster bird who could wield such deadly speed and power!

    ...

    It waspletely normal for someone to die in the tower. However, it would be a big problem if the victim was the charming princess of thousands of people.

    Curses and hateful res were directed at Baron Milk. People were not sure about what happened during the match. However, they no longer cared about anything else since their beloved star just died in front of them. From what could be seen, Parasite Queen already lost consciousness on the ground, but Baron Milk did not hesitate to go for the kill! This was murder!

    Baron Milk stood in the center of the stage and remained motionless under people¡¯s cursing words. He only sneered. When Toby finally obliterated Parasite Queen¡¯s previous shell, he was satisfied at getting the final revenge.

    The raging fire in Angor¡¯s eyes died down. He felt good and refreshed even though people were still swearing at him.

    At least he was alive.

    Seeing what ¡°Angor¡± just did, Baroque¡¯s expression changed drastically.

    ¡°Something¡¯s not right!¡±

    ¡°What is it, Mister Baroque?¡± Mntha gave him a puzzled look.

    ¡°This can¡¯t be... No!¡± Baroque kept shaking his head in denial. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be like this. Bouy would never destroy her old host because it contained the spores of Green Velvet. Besides... Bouy never used that kind of expression in front of everyone before.¡±

    Mntha also revealed a frightened look. She pointed at the center of hate in the middle of the arena with a trembling hand. ¡°Do you mean¡ªthat¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s Angor. The original Angor! Not Bouy!¡± Baroque could not believe his own words but the truth already proved so. Even with Angor¡¯s memory, Bouy could never mimic the boy¡¯s character. Also, the familiar bird would not trust Bouy¡¯s order so easily.

    The answer was obvious.

    Bouy lost the battle which no one could see. Angor survived!

    Baroque stared at Angor with squinted eyes. ¡°Well well... I underestimated you. A fresh-new apprentice who knew how to defend his soul? He can even retaliate. Sunders must have put a lot of effort into his student. This Angor kid must have something really interesting on him.¡±

    ¡°Sunders imnted something in Angor¡¯s soul. This is the only exnation. Otherwise, there¡¯s no way Bouy would fail.¡± Mntha grimaced at the situation. If what they thought was right, Angor was much more valuable to Sunders than they expected.

    ¡°Now I REALLY want to know the reason behind Sunders¡¯ decision, and why he put such a powerful defense inside Angor¡¯s soul.¡±

    Bouy¡¯s death more or less surprised Baroque, but the surprise did notst long. To Baroque, this spy from Floating Mech City was not much different from the other apprentices.

    If Bouy did seed, he would be d to make further ns. On the other hand, he would not mind her failure at all. A mere spy was nothing important.

    Baroque remained calm as always. Even if Angor would question why Bouy came to steal his body, the boy had nothing to drag the old man into this.

    As Baroque believed, those two could not possiblymunicate as souls. Even if they could, Bouy would never reveal his name to Angor.

    All in all, what happened during the match was only Parasite Queen¡¯s personal decision. It had nothing to do with Floating Mech City.

    At this moment, Baroque still did not know that he could no longer keep himself out of the matter.

    Maybe he did not explicitly ask Bouy to do anything. Yet he did not know anything about Angor¡¯s special soul talent which allowed him to read clues from Parasite Queen¡¯s emotions.

    ¡°Since Sunders ced a defense mechanism in the soul of his student, he should have already learned about what happened here. Don¡¯t worry though. What Bouy did has nothing to do with us,¡± Baroque spoke in a careless tone.

    Mntha still looked troubled, but she understood what Baroque said. At least, with Bouy¡¯s death, she could not expose anything else.

    ¡°I see. Bouy is only anothermon fighter in Sky Tower,¡± Mntha replied in an emotionless voice.

    ...

    Sunders did not put anything in Angor¡¯s soul. Mntha and Baroque¡¯s assumption was incorrect from start to end.

    And of course, Sunders did not know what just happened to Angor. Yet.

    Inside Phantom Ind, Sunders abruptly looked up from his desk and toward the direction of the underground market.

    ¡°Huh... I sense something familiar,¡± muttered Sunders as he revealed a determined look. In the next second, his body vanished from his study.

    On the arena, Angor was using all his will to keep himself upright.

    He did not know how he won the battle against Parasite Queen, but he only managed to save his soul, not his body. Now that Parasite Queen¡¯s soul had disappeared, he had regained control of his body. However, the Green Velvet spores still remained in him.

    Standing up was the best thing he could do right now.

 Chapter 204 - Close Call

    <h4>Chapter 204: Close Call</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor felt as if his limbs were made of stone. Every bone on him appeared to be bound by hard strings, so he could hardly move at all, let alone walking like normal.

    When he tried to move his neck earlier, his head snapped back to an insane extent and almost exposing his face to the public.

    Now, Angor kept his head lowered and tried to limp down the stage slowly.

    Toby slowlynded on his shoulder and looked at Angor anxiously.

    When Toby just reached Angor shoulder, Angor suddenly fell down on one knee, panting heavily.

    Toby was not heavy. As usual, the bird put no pressure to Angor at all. At this moment though, Angor was trying his best to keep himself together. Any extra bit of burden meant thest straw.

    Angor¡¯s sudden reaction startled both Toby and the angry audience.

    Was Baron Milk hurt so badly? But Parasite Queen nevernded a finger on him!

    More and more people began to think about this strange fight which involved one of the top fighters on the ranking list.

    Everything was so weird. The tower never announced the fight in advance. Baron Milk spaced out in the fight, while Parasite Queen was somehow seriously wounded from the start. They already understood that it was Baron Milk¡¯s familiar who did it. But... Baron Milk himself just stood there without doing anything either.

    And the judges never ended the fight.

    Also, they could not understand why Baron Milk fell to the floor out of no reason.

    What was more, Baron Milk climbed up in a really weak way. Then he ordered his familiar to kill Parasite Queen. His twisted expression looked as if all the hate in the world had gathered on his face.

    Whatever happened in the match? What made Baron Milk so furious against Parasite Queen?

    Now, Baron Milk knelt on the ground. His painful look and panting did not seem fake. So... he was actually hurt? But how?

    The wiser ones from the audience had stopped yelling at Baron Milk and began to question the whole disy.

    However, not everyone could think clearly. People had rushed off their seats and reached the arena while a great number of them dered that they were going to kill Baron Milk. Their rage intensified when they saw the bloody remains of Parasite Queen up close.

    Soon enough, the arena waspletely surrounded by people. If not for the magic array still protecting the area, they would have already climbed up the stage.

    Most of the mobs were level-1 apprentices. They would never oppose Baron Milk like this when Baron Milk was fine. Right now though, Baron Milk looked dangerously wounded, and with someone taking the lead for them, it encouraged these weakest beings in the wizarding world to inte themselves.

    Angor was still kneeling on the ground. Blood came out from his mouth and nostrils, creating a bloody puddle beneath him.

    Looking at their target in such a state, the low-leveled, frenzied apprentices around the arena roared louder.

    Dave quickly ran toward the VIP seats while avoiding the crazy people.

    ¡°Master Prome! What should we do? An¡ªBaron Milk is in danger,¡± said Dave. He no longer cared about Parasite Queen. He only wished to help Angor at this moment, but he could never do it by himself.

    ¡°Stay put. Let¡¯s wait and see what happens next,¡± said Prome. He did not pay much attention to Dave. He frowned and tried to figure out what exactly happened during the fight. ¡°There must be something wrong hidden behind the battle. Normally, your little friend wouldn¡¯t kill Parasite Queen like that. Also, I already asked Parasite Queen to go easy on him before the match, and this still happened... There¡¯s something else we don¡¯t know about, so we¡¯d better not get involved.¡±

    As a dedicated researcher, Prome would avoid troubles at all cost. Of course, he could choose to save Angor. However, something told him that it would bring him a lot of nuisances, so he decided to stay out of it.

    Dave quickly understood what Prome was nning to do. He nced at Angor¡¯s terrible condition again and clenched his fist.

    ¡°Sorry, Angor. I¡¯m going to break our promise... I don¡¯t have a choice.¡±

    Making up his mind, Dave looked at Master Prome with a serious expression.

    ¡°Master, you¡¯re looking for the enchantment alchemist, right?¡±

    His words sessfully caught Prome¡¯s attention.

    ¡°What, you threatening me?¡± Prome frowned at Dave.

    ¡°No-no.¡±

    After acting cautiously around Prome all these years, Dave¡¯s legs shivered with the great fear that built up in his mind. However, he managed to suppress his urge to quit and with his teeth chattering, he told Prome the truth.

    ¡°There¡¯s no such ¡®mysterious alchemist¡¯. Those alchemy weapons are all made by... him.¡± Dave pointed toward Angor slowly. ¡°He crafted them himself.¡±

    ¡°Do you have any idea what you just said? He, made those enchanted bolts all by himself?¡± Prome looked very doubtful. Angor was only a supernatural for half a year or so. It was already a miracle to learn how to use Thaw in such a short time, let alone studying enchantment!

    ¡°I¡¯m serious. He already agreed to see you, but he said he has to wait until he reaches the top level of Sky Tower, so he asked me to keep the secret for now. But... I have to break my words now! Master, if you don¡¯t do something now, those people will¡ª¡±

    Dave did not finish his words. It was obvious what would happen when all the insane fans of Parasite Queen managed to reach Angor in their current state.

    ¡°Are you certain? He knows enchantment?¡± Prome asked again.

    Dave nodded quickly. ¡°Yes! I went to his alchemyb before. There¡¯s no doubt about it!¡±

    Prome did not notice any will to lie on Dave¡¯s face and chose to trust his words.

    If Angor was really the mysterious alchemist... saving him now also meant earning a favor. Thinking about this, Prome bolted from his seat and flew toward the stage on his overweighted body.

    ¡°Come! We should protect him quickly!¡±

    Dave perked up and dly followed behind Prome by running down the audience stand on foot.

    ...

    ¡°Director Mntha, the audience is in a riot now. Do we announce the result of the match?¡± A worker walked to Mntha.

    Once they officially ended the match, the magic array on the stage would disappear which in turn, would allow the audiences to attack the fighters. This was against the regtions in Sky Tower, so they had not given the result yet even though Parasite Queen already had her head broken apart.

    Mntha considered. ¡°Let¡¯s wait for now.¡±

    She was disappointed at Bouy¡¯s death. However, since Angor survived, she still had to follow the rules.

    Baroque suddenly spoke. ¡°No, end the match now.¡±

    Mntha frowned. ¡°Mister Baroque, we must obey the regtions of the tower and protect the participants. Maybe Angor is... I mean, we should still obey the rules.¡±

    Mntha omitted Angor¡¯s information because there were workers around.

    Baroque chuckled. ¡°Rules? I know them. They prevent a fighter from being pursued by his opponent after a match. But it only restricts fighters, not the spectators, so we¡¯re not really breaking the rules.¡±

    ¡°But still...¡± Mntha nced at the worker nearby and sent a message to Baroque using a spell. ¡°You know Angor¡¯s current condition. He¡¯s not going to repel all the mobs.¡±

    ¡°He got that monster bird. Some scratches on the flesh, at best,¡± Baroque replied.

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°Stop it. Killing Bouy doesn¡¯t mean I have anything personal against him. I ask you to end the match just because I want to see if Sunders would show up here,¡± Baroque spoke.

    Sunders¡¯ reaction to this matter would help them determine Angor¡¯s value in the gentleman¡¯s eyes and to what extent they could interfere with the boy in the future.

    Mntha thought it over and spoke to the worker, ¡°Announce the result.¡±

    ...

    Those around the stage already lost their sanity. Rather than getting revenge for Parasite Queen, they only wanted to vent out their discontent on Baron Milk.

    ¡°When the array gets lifted, let¡¯s go together and deal with Baron Milk once and for all!¡±

    ¡°How dare he hurt my queen! I¡¯ll tear him apart!¡±

    ¡°Kill him! Kill him!!¡±

    Either intentionally or not, the atmosphere grew more intense by the second under the leadership of someone.

    Such an emotion imnted an idea inside the minds of the weak apprentices which was that as long as they worked together, they could get rid of an elite fighter in the Three Levels of Death.

    As the air around the arena grew more and more ¡°mmable¡±, the screen suddenly showed something:

    [Winner: Baron Milk!]

    The magic array protecting the stage slowly vanished.

    ¡°It¡¯s gone! Let¡¯s go, people! Let¡¯s fight for Parasite Queen! Kill Baron Milk, now!¡±

    Someone took the lead, and he was followed by a human wave.

    Angor already sensed the approaching danger, but he could not move a finger now. The green pollens inside his body all went crazy when they lost theirmander. They triggered continuous agony inside Angor like a giant tornado on the sea which brought raging torrents into the air. The great pain only grew stronger and stronger, nullifying Angor¡¯s attempt to move and think clearly.

    Toby realized what those people around them wanted to do.

    As the crowds rushed onto the stage, the bird began to repel them without hesitating.

    Toby kept kicking people away, but there were too many people to deal with, and they came rushing from all directions. Without Angor¡¯s order, Toby did not dare to ughter people at its free will, so it could not attack the intruders fast enough.

    A frenzied apprentice managed to sneak toward beside Angor. He aimed a foot at Angor¡¯s head and stomped.

 Chapter 205 - Examination

    <h4>Chapter 205: Examination</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Arge patch of frost suddenly appeared on the ground.

    Someone just cast a Frost spell on the arena!

    The apprentice who tried to kick Angor¡¯s head lost his bnce and stumbled to the floor.

    This spell was nothing like the basic cantrip used by ¡°Monarch of Eternal Freeze¡±. It covered the entire stage.

    The weaker apprentices were all caught by surprise and fell down in their own ces.

    As everyone was struggling to get up, a mighty gale came and brought up many ice shards into the air.

    The stage was now covered by flying ice shards which prevented the apprentices from seeing anything.

    ¡°This is Surging Frost! The level-3 cantrip! A level-3 apprentice made his move!¡±

    ¡°Level-3 apprentice? Could it be-¡±

    A man¡¯s voice came from behind the stage. ¡°Dave, go get him. I¡¯ll stop these junks who only know how to fan the mes.¡±

    It was Prome. He did not intend to save Angor before as he wanted to avoid getting dragged into ¡°possible trouble¡±. He was not afraid of the level-1 apprentices in the least. Besides, unlike Toby who could not kill at will, he had nothing to worry about. As a renowned alchemist in Brute Cavern, killing several level-1 apprentices meant nothing to him.

    ¡°I¡¯m on it!¡± Dave put on his goggles and rushed into the area of Surging Frost.

    His equipment helped him locate Angor in the mess quickly.

    ¡°An-Ahem! Are you alright?¡±

    Dave almost revealed Angor¡¯s name, but he swallowed it back quick enough. There were too many people here, he certainly could not give out Angor¡¯s identity like that.

    Angor did not respond. His body was still shaking.

    Dave moved closer and saw Angor¡¯s eyes were closed in pain. Beads of sweat kepting from his forehead, and there were blood streams flowing from his mouth, ears, eyes, and nose.

    ¡°Oh shit. What¡¯s going on? What did that woman do to you?!¡±

    Dave could not help cursing the woman, who was his ¡°princess¡± just a moment ago.

    Angor was in no condition to answer him now. While still angered at Parasite Queen¡¯s action, Dave ced Angor on his back and yelled at Toby, who was still trying to protect Angor from the air.

    ¡°Toby! We¡¯re leaving!¡±

    Toby knew Dave well. The bird was d to see someone familiar and quickly followed behind.

    With Prome to keep the others away, they left the crowd sessfully and headed to a cableway used in Level 13.

    ...

    On one of the arena stands, Baroque revealed a disappointed look. ¡°I didn¡¯t think a level-3 apprentice would actually go help him... looks like we¡¯re not going to force Sunders to show up.¡±

    ¡°Should we stop them? The cableways are for fighters only. That goggled boy isn¡¯t one, so we have all the right to keep him here,¡± Mntha asked.

    Baroque shook his head. ¡°No, let them go. We shouldn¡¯t step up and give troubles to youngsters in the open anyway. Pity, that level-3 ruined our n to test Sunders¡¯ limits... We¡¯ll consider Angor as ¡®in observation¡¯ for now. We¡¯ll see whether we should raise his alert levelter.¡±

    Since their director said so, the other workers did not prevent Dave from boarding a cable car.

    When the car began leaving the tower, Dave finally sighed in relief. The cablework was extremelyplicated. It should be safe now.

    Dave tried to regain his breath after carrying Angor all the way here on his back. Usually, he really looked forward to riding a cable car like this. However, he did not feel any excitement from it now.

    He slowly removed Angor¡¯s hood to reveal a blood-covered face beneath.

    ¡°What on Merlin¡¯s beard happened back there? Parasite Queen never touched him, how did he get wounded so badly? And... what made you decide to kill Parasite Queen? Is there a dirty plot behind all this?¡±

    Angor already fainted so he could no longer answer Dave.

    Dave tried using Purify spell to remove the bloody remains on Angor. However, more blood came rushing out.

    Dave¡¯s heartbeat grew faster. Angor would be in great trouble if he kept bleeding like this!

    Dave only knew basic healing spells that quickened the recovery of external wounds. He already tried them on Angor but they were useless.

    After leaving the cable car, Dave carried Angor back to the alchemy shop. A whileter, Prome also showed up.

    ¡°Master, please check him out. His condition is so strange. I didn¡¯t see any open wounds on him, but blood won¡¯t stoping from his eyes and other ces on his head!¡± Dave looked really anxious now. ¡°¡®Heal¡¯ didn¡¯t do anything either!¡±

    Prome stepped into the underground storage and quickly noticed Angor who was lying on Dave¡¯s bed with his clothes removed.

    Angor¡¯s clothes, as well as the alchemy weapons he always carried around, were left on the bedstand.

    Prome¡¯s attention immediately fell onto the Trigger Crossbow and another strange-shaped golden item. He knew about the Trigger Crossbow. He had been trying to recreate one by himself. However, he had no idea what the other item was. Something told him that it had to be another powerful long-range weapon, and he already sensed the runes drawn on it.

    Prome¡¯s first reaction was to get his hands on the mysterious weapon. When Dave urged him, he suddenly remembered the important matter right now and cleared his throat.

    Then, Prome moved toward Angor while pretending that he was not interested in the alchemy weapons at all.

    As Prome examined Angor, his expression slowly turned into a big frown.

    ¡°What happened to Angor, Master?¡± Dave asked quickly when he saw Prome no longer releasing mana ripples.

    Prome remained silent. ¡°This is not right¡± was the only thing he said in the end.

    ¡°What¡¯s not right? You can¡¯t help him, Master?¡±

    Prome did not mind Dave¡¯s straightforward attitude this time. ¡°I used Expel Deceit on him. From what I saw, his body is full of taint.¡±

    ¡°Taint? But human bodies all have taint.¡±

    ¡°No... it¡¯s not the taint we usually talk about. It looks like some green powder substance, which has upied his entire body. Blood vessels, organs, bones... His bleeding is also caused by the powders.¡± Prome considered for a moment before saying, ¡°I don¡¯t know what the powder is, but it won¡¯t be easy to get rid of them.¡±

    ¡°Green powder?¡± Dave frowned and muttered, ¡°Did Parasite Queen do it?¡±

    ¡°Should be. The powder doesn¡¯t belong to Angor¡¯s organs, so it must be left there not long ago. I want to know though, why did Parasite Queen do it to Angor? What was her reason?¡± Prome thought about all kinds of strange matters around today¡¯s match. Everything was still a mystery.

    ¡°Parasite Queen¡¯s dead, and we won¡¯t know anything before Angor wakes up. His rage back there seems so real. I almost felt it myself. Angor is not someone who would kill people without a reason, so he must know something,¡± Davemented. ¡°The important thing is, how do we help him now?¡±

    ¡°The green powders stayed in his body in a very persistent way... they don¡¯te out with his blood. Let me see. I¡¯ll perform a little surgery and extract some green powder to do an experiment on it. I need to know what it is before figuring out how to deal with it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only the way...¡± Dave was still worrying about Angor.

    Prome quickly found some surgery tools. As he disinfected the tools and moved a scalpel to Angor, a strange figure suddenly appeared beside the bed.

    ¡°Who is it??¡± Dave jumped at the sudden appearance of the stranger.

    Prome thought one of the mobs hade. When keeping the assants away, he did not hide his face since he was confident that no one among the mobs would evere and find trouble afterward.

    Prome threw his scalpel at the figure out of instinct.

    The de stopped in midair before reaching the intruder.

    Prome stared at the floating scalpel in shock.

    The next second, the scalpelunched itself in the opposite direction, slicing past Prome¡¯s earlobe and stuck into the wall behind him.

    ¡°My spell barrier didn¡¯t work?!¡±

    Drops of blood emerged from the cut on his earlobe.

    Everything happened in a blink of an eye. Even though Prome was dumbfounded at his injury, they still took the time to check who it was.

    ¡°You-you¡¯re-Mister Sunders!¡± Dave looked at the handsome gentleman and stuttered.

    Prome also realized who hade, and his anger at getting a bleeding ear quickly submerged. It was already a miracle by how Sunders only damaged his ear for his ¡°rude wee¡±.

    ¡°Mister Sunders!¡± Prome bowed down while trembling. ¡°I-I didn¡¯t know it was you, sir. Please, please forgive my carelessness.¡±

    Sunders humphed.

    Prome¡¯s legs gave out and slumped on the floor.

    And Dave was still too terrified to do anything.

    ¡°You saved Angor, so I¡¯ll let it pass this time,¡± said Sunders. His expression was still cold.

    <i>Angor?</i>

    Prome and Dave both looked up upon hearing that name. Did Sunders know Angor?

    Sunders waved a hand at Angor¡¯s figure and thetter then disappeared from the bed.

    ¡°I¡¯m taking him away,¡± Sunders¡¯ own body began to fade, obviously leaving as well.

    ¡°Wait, Mister!¡± Dave suddenly spoke.

    Sunders stopped his teleportation.

    Dave pointed to Angor¡¯s possessions on the bedstand. ¡°They¡¯re Angor¡¯s stuff.¡±

    Prome rolled his eyes while trying not to show it. <i>You ungrateful fool! Sunders wasn¡¯t going to take them away! Why did you¡ªI could have kept them here and checked them out!</i>

    Sunders waved his hand again. His figure disappeared along with the items.

    Dave and Prome stayed on the ground for another three minutes.

    Once they were sure Sunders would note back, they both sighed in relief and further copsed on the floor.

    ¡°My legs... weren¡¯t working, when a formal wizard is around.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a level-2 wizard, someone well-known in the entire south.¡±

    They looked at each other in embarrassment when Prome broke the silence first. ¡°So what is their rtionship to each other?¡±

    Dave shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know, sir. Angor never told me.¡±

    ¡°I think I heard it from one of the wizards, that Mister Sunders found a new studentst year... Do you know who is Angor¡¯s mentor?¡±

    Dave was surprised by the question and grew even more embarrassed.

    ¡°I... never asked him.¡±

 Chapter 206 - Awakening

    <h4>Chapter 206: Awakening</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When Angor was still a child, Jon used to take him into the woods outside Grue Town.

    At that time, Angor still did not know who Jon really was. He only knew that Jon was a skillful botanist who often told him all kinds of knowledge about various nts. He would follow behind Jon and listen to his exnation on every flower or grass they came across.

    One day, Jon took Angor to an open area where a grass patch grew.

    There were fluffy, white flowers growing here. When Angor approached them, he realized he never saw such things before. The sturdy and tall scape supported a round ball which was made from silk-like down. From a distance, they looked like adorable rabbit tails fluttering in the air.

    ¡°Dandelions. They are born to wait for the arrival of the wind. When the windes, their seeds will follow the wind and travel somewhere far, far away,¡± Jon exined to young Angor.

    It was almost ten years ago.

    Angor already forgot all the other details. However, he still remembered when he blew at a dandelion yfully, the ¡°tiny parachutes¡± all left toward the horizon.

    The wind came, causing all the trees in the woods to waver, distorting Angor¡¯s hair and Jon¡¯s clothes.

    In the wind, the dandelions danced as if they were weing their long-awaited friend.

    The white florets were carried away by the wind, ready for a new home far and beyond.

    Angor was greatly shocked when he watched the movement of the dandelion florets. It was just like when he watched a starry sky for the first time.

    ¡°This is the perfect teamwork of the heaven and earth,¡± Jon said.

    Ever since then, Angor never forgot what he saw on that day.

    And this was why the flying green downs in front of his eyes reminded him of his childhood.

    Angor had no idea where he was now. Heid on the soft grass and watched as green pollens covered the sky. The fresh smell of nature somewhat calmed his mind.

    The green downs were just like the dandelion seeds dancing in a gentle breeze.

    He could not think of anything other than his memory about the dandelions. With a silly smile on his face, he watched and watched.

    A giant, green flower bud suddenly appeared in the sky, interrupting the peace.

    Angor wondered what that was.

    Next, all the green downs scattered on the grasses and in the air. It all became small, shiny dots which were soon absorbed into the bud.

    Angorid on the now empty ground and looked at the now clear sky. He felt something leaving his body.

    The green bud in the sky began to bloom.

    This reminded Angor of something he saw before, something about a simr flower, as well as someone standing in the middle of it. Angor went through his memory and tried to see who it was... when the figure in his mind also raised its head and stared back at him with an eerie smile.

    Half of her was terrible, and her swollen face was upied by worm-like parasites.

    Cold sweat immediately covered Angor¡¯s back.

    When the memory came back, the flower in the sky had fully bloomed, revealing the very same individual inside.

    Angor stepped back in fear.

    The woman in the air slowly raised her head...

    ¡°Stop!!¡±

    ...

    ¡°Stop!!¡± Angor bounced up from his bed.

    He was panting heavily, and his eyes were wide in horror.

    Sunlight came through the window and blinded him for a moment. Angor lifted a hand to keep the light away.

    He realized he was sitting on a giant bed.

    Was he dreaming?

    <i>It must be. So... Parasite Queen wouldn¡¯t show up again, right?</i>

    Angor did not really know the answer. He was not sure whether Parasite Queen had died.

    ¡°Where am I...¡± Angor shook his head to clear his mind a little. He put his hand on the bed beneath and noticed that it was really soft. He sensed the refreshing smell of newly-sawed lumbering from it.

    His own bed in the vi was ufortably hard. He finally realized that he could not recognize this ce.

    He looked down and saw himself topless. A pair of soft, white pants covered his legs and feet. They were a little too big for him.

    He then looked around the elegantly-decorated room and the long, exquisite window curtain which covered the floor underneath... The room somewhat looked familiar to him.

    <i>Where am I? And why am I here? I was at the arena in Sky Tower. I... asked Toby to kill Parasite Queen. What happened next? There were people who wanted to kill me. Dave came to help. But I lost it...</i>

    Angor tried to recall what he saw before he lost consciousness, but he only managed to gain more questions.

    He knew it was Dave who saved him, but this room did not look like Dave¡¯s.

    Someone suddenly knocked on the door.

    Angor stayed quiet. Without knowing the situation, he did not dare to respond to anything.

    When it quieted down again, and Angor thought whoever came to the door had left, the door was pushed open.

    A man fully covered in a robe and wore a strange mask walked inside.

    ¡°Oh? You¡¯re awake, Mister Padt? I thought you were still asleep, so I came to change your clothes.¡±

    It was Butler Goode.

    ¡°Butler Goode, why... why am I here? Is this Phantom Ind?¡± Angor just recognized that the decorations were of the same style as Sunders¡¯ mansion.

    ¡°Mister Padt, Master brought you here at noon the day before yesterday. You were injured, and Master already treated you,¡± said Goode as he ced a pile of clothes on the bedstand. ¡°These are Master¡¯s when he was young. I wonder if they suit you?¡±

    <i>It wasn¡¯t Dave, but the professor who saved me?</i>

    Angor was puzzled now.

    Angor checked the clothes and quickly recognized Sunders¡¯ dressing style. There was a ck gentleman suit with white inner trimmings, as well as a wine-colored bow-tie.

    ¡°Um, Butler Goode, where¡¯s my wizard robe?¡± Angor thought it was embarrassing to wear his professor¡¯s clothes.

    Despite Goode¡¯s mask, Angor was sure the man just smiled.

    ¡°Your robe is broken, so Master threw it away.¡±

    Threw it away.

    Threw, away...

    Angor did not know what to say. The robe was an alchemy item which came with a built-in Cleanse spell... and it was thrown away like junk?

    ¡°Meal is ready. If Mister Padt wishes to eat, please go to the dining hall,¡± said Goode. When he saw Angor¡¯s expression, he changed the topic while maintaining his smile.

    <i>Meal?</i>

    Thinking about this, Angor put a hand on his stomach. He did feel hungry. However, when he thought about the food he had herest time... Ugh.

    With his work done, Goode walked away. Before closing the door, he said something else, ¡°Master is in his study. Upon finishing your meal, you can go see him there.¡±

    Angor hesitated on the bed for some time before he decided to get himself washed.

    After making sure he removed all strange smells and dirt from his body, he put on the gentleman suit brought by Goode while feeling somewhat embarrassed by it.

    He was used to wearing the simple ¡°bedsheet¡± he wore these days. Now he felt uneasy when putting on the suit which required more steps to wear.

    Angor stood at the mirror and saw himself returning to being the young nobleman in Padt Manor. However, back in the manor, he always had to fake a serious and stern temperament. Now, he looked much more natural.

    The young man in the mirror was brimming with the energy of youth. His somewhat messy blond hair did not hinder his handsome look at all.

    He put on the bow-tie, tidied up several wrinkles, and stroke a good pose to the mirror, satisfied.

    He looked around the room again and saw his belongings on a desk. His profile card for Sky Tower, his bone card, some potions he prepared, and... the Alien Eye.

    He took the pendant and saw the object inside the casing just fine.

    ¡°Sunders had to remove my clothes to treat my wound, so... did he see Alien Eye?¡± Angor began to worry. This object was a special artifact from another world. Did the professor notice it?

    But... he had been carrying it on him ever since he came to the cloud whale. Sunders should have already seen it, considering the gentleman¡¯s terrifying skills. Since Sunders did not take it away, it should be alright.

    Angor decided not to stress himself too much. If something was wrong, Sunders would show it. Judging from the gentleman¡¯s character, Sunders was very likely to ask a straightforward question instead of keeping it a secret.

    Angor put away his items. However, he did not find his alchemy weapons.

    His Trigger Crossbow was not here. Neither was his ace card which was thest resort he prepared for Sky Tower ¡ª A handgun.

    ...

    Angor went over all possible scenarios while having his meal. Did he lose them on the way here?

    When he could not think of an answer, he simply gave up. It was not a big deal as long as he was alive. He could always craft more weapons again.

    ¡°Butler Goode said that I¡¯ve been sleeping for two days and nights... Wait! I had another three matches in the afternoon after fighting Parasite Queen!¡±

    He missed all three, which meant he lost 12 match points. His four victories in the Three Levels of Death only earned him 12 points for now, and he was back to square one!

    He was nning to reach the top level as fast as possible. Now his match points were reset, and he wasted two days doing nothing!

    Angor sighed again and calmed down. Being alive was more important. He still had more chances to go for matches and craft new alchemy weapons.

    Finishing his meal, Angor walked toward Sunders¡¯ study.

 Chapter 207 - Micro Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 207: Micro Illusion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor walked into Sunders¡¯ study and saw his professor fiddling something in his hands.

    Before Angor couldment on how their gentleman costumes looked so alike, his attention was attracted by the item Sunders was checking¡ªhis secret alchemy weapon.

    A golden revolver carved with glyphs.

    That was hisst secret trick in his tower challenge, apart from Trigger Crossbow and Toby.

    The revolver itself, as well as all of the six bullets in its wheel, were enchanted with different runes. It was his strongest weapon for now.

    Since Sunders found his revolver... where was his Trigger Crossbow?

    Angor moved closer and quickly noticed it on Sunders¡¯ desk.

    ¡°You¡¯re here,¡± said Sunders. He kept his attention on the revolver without looking up.

    Angor responded with a ¡°yes¡± in a small voice and did not know what to say next. He decided to thank Sunders in the end. ¡°Butler Goode told me. If not for professor¡¯s help, I¡¯d have... I¡¯m really sorry for the trouble, sir.¡±

    Sunders nced at him. ¡°I only helped you repress the Green Velvet in you. It was a young salesman from the alchemy shop who saved you from the angry mobs.¡±

    <i>Young salesman... it must be Dave.</i>

    So, Angor¡¯s memory was right. Also, he believed he saw Prome helping him as well.

    While Angor thought about the whole matter, Sunders lifted the strange handgun and spoke, ¡°This is quite an interesting design. Which alchemy shop provided this?¡±

    Angor shook his head, a little embarrassingly. ¡°It¡¯s called a ¡®revolver¡¯. I made it.¡±

    Despite his expression, Angor actually felt proud. He was waiting for Sunders to mention his Trigger Crossbowst time so he could show his professor his alchemy talent, but Sunders never did.

    Sunders raised an eyebrow and looked doubtful. ¡°You... created this?¡±

    ¡°Yes, professor.¡± If Angor had a tail, it should be wagging now.

    Sunders looked at Angor up and down in surprise. Then he pulled a piece of Blood Bronze from his earring and tossed it to Angor.

    ¡°Try melting it.¡±

    Angor noticed that this was another type of Blood Bronze called Blood of Demon Falcon. It was something a lot better than the Earth Fiend Bronze he used before.

    To Angor, Sunders¡¯ request appeared as if the gentleman thought he was lying. Angor was a bit irritated by it.

    Angor did not show it though. He epted the material without a second thought and began to cast Thaw right in front of Sunders.

    Common alchemists needed to be really careful when using Thaw so that they would not mess up their mana output. However, Angor had the Axes of the Universe to help him, and he was very used to this spell now, so he did a quick and handy job when handling the block of bronze.

    Sunders¡¯ surprise grew bigger upon discovering the alchemy talent of his little student. Such a talent was always an extremely valuable asset to anyone. Sunders himself once tried to study alchemy. He had spent several decades on it without gaining much progress in the end. The man really regretted it especially since he was so skilled at other subjects.

    Thaw was only a level-0 cantrip. However, it was the foremost challenge in learning alchemy and was difficult to master. Such precise control of mana flow disyed by Angor was only possible for Sunders when he nearly became a formal wizard. Meanwhile, Angor had only entered the wizarding world for half a year...

    Sunders only asked Angor to melt the material down. However, Angor was still discontent at how his professor distrusted him, so he proceeded to shape the bronze block using Hand of Spell.

    Sunders shook his head when seeing Angor¡¯s attempt. <i>Kids... so easily triggered. Without supplementary materials, what could he do with just a block of raw material?</i>

    Angor never intended to craft any significant items. He was only shaping the material to show Sunders what he could do. However, without proper tools, his Hand of Spell worked a little too slow.

    Sunders noticed the problem and handed Angor a utility knife. The gentleman was also curious about what Angor could do now.

    Angor epted his professor¡¯s tool and worked harder. He tried to make a small statue of a Demon Falcon since he was very familiar with one during his days on the cloud whale. Soon, the figure of a soaring Demon Falcon appeared in Angor¡¯s spell.

    Before using Condense to fix the shape, Angor suddenly thought about a new idea.

    He had been working on how to fuse Acoustic Illusions into his music box. He did not know how yet, but he had enough knowledge on how to fix the illusions inside a simpler item.

    A basic illusion deceived people¡¯s senses by putting mana into several important nodes in the atmosphere, and Angor was already good at deploying a basic illusion in arge area.

    But he had never tried putting a basic illusion in a small space. The fundamental was still the same¡ªhe just needed to shrink arge-scale illusion into a smaller range while obeying a fixed ratio.

    Before the shape of the Demon Falcon statue was determined, Angor must find the correct nodes to ce his miniature illusion.

    And this was only his first time attempting it.

    He was not afraid of failure. He had already satisfied Sunders¡¯ order, and he was now free to try something else.

    cing a small illusion while maintaining the forging process required great patience and attention, and Angor had them both. Angor carefully analyzed the coordinates for the nodes while keeping a stable mana output.

    Sunders had been observing Angor¡¯s work carefully. When he noticed that Angor began to inject more mana into the statue instead of using Condense to finish the job, the gentleman revealed a surprised smile.

    As the strongest illusionist in the south, he immediately realized what Angor was trying to do. Most illusionists were adept at using illusions in the macroscopic world and never paid much attention to micro levels. As a master of illusions, Sunders knew that micro illusions were no weaker than full-scale ones. Sometimes, they might be even stronger.

    Sunders was nning to tell Angor about it when the boy hit level-2. Yet... Angor learned it on his own!

    ¡°That¡¯s my student!¡± Sunders praised in his mind.

    Angor struggled a little when creating his first micro illusion. He did not intend to try anything too hard. Making the statue looked a bit ¡°strange¡± was the only thing on his mind, so Angor only needed to find out a few critical nodes.

    About a quarter of an hourter, he sessfully found thest node.

    Angor quickly used Condense to cool down the statue. This was also an important step, and he did not let his guard down.

    When the statue was finished, Angor looked around and found no cracks on it. He was excited when he sensed a small trace of manaing from the statue.

    It was a sess!

    ...

    After checking that the statue was fine, Angor looked at his professor.

    Sunders crossed his fingers and observed Angor¡¯s creation with a smile of approval.

    Angor sighed in relief. He ced the Demon Falcon statue on Sunders¡¯ desk.

    It looked so alive, like a real falcon hovering in the vast sky.

    The carving technique was average. Any skilled sculptor could do it easily. Because of Angor¡¯s experience during which he always watched the falcons patrolling the sky, he did a really good job at recreating the overall physique of the creature, especially the vibrant eyes.

    Sunders lifted a finger and injected a tiny mana stream into the statue.

    Upon receiving the energy, the Demon Falcon became ¡°alive¡±. The faint shadow of the animal emerged from the statue, spread its wings wide, andunched itself into the sky through the room¡¯s window.

    However, the shadow only persisted for several seconds.

    If judged using the standard of other illusionists, this one was neither logical or deceiving enough. It was not a useful illusion at all.

    But it made a fine decoration. At least Angor believed so.

    ¡°Decent work. It¡¯s wed, but I¡¯m d you learned how to apply illusions to real life and in micro scales.¡±

    Despite his in tone, Sunders felt really satisfied deep inside. What Angor just did prove that the boy had well-bnced talent in both alchemy and illusion, as well as the ability to find great innovations.

    Still, it was a rare sight that the stern gentleman smiled so much.

    ¡°Your alchemy skill is promising as well. Too bad I¡¯m not so good at alchemy myself, so I can¡¯t provide you much,¡± said Sunders as he handed the Trigger Crossbow and revolver to Angor. ¡°These two weapons showed me enough of your creative ideas. Maybe we Brute Cavern will finally witness our own master alchemist one day.¡±

    Angor blushed a little. Both the Trigger Crossbow and the revolver were created by following the blueprints left in Jon¡¯s tablet. Angor did not really put much of his own ideas in them.

    This was why Angor felt a little ashamed by Sunders¡¯pliment.

    ...

    After returning Angor¡¯s alchemy weapons, Sunders told Angor something else about illusions.

    Upon giving Angor enough advice, the gentleman suddenly changed their conversation.

    ¡°I sensed the Nightmare Realm the day before yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Nightmare Realm?¡± Angor was surprised at the sudden topic.

    ¡°Yes. It was weak, but it came from you. That was why I went to the underground market and found out about your condition, and brought you back to Phantom Ind to treat you. Otherwise, the Green Velvet spores in your body would have already destroyed your flesh.¡±

    ¡°Green Velvet spore?¡± Angor realized that Sunders was talking about the green pollens used by Parasite Queen.

    ¡°I saw your fight against Parasite Queen that day. I still have questions though. Tell me what exactly happened on that day, and how did you trigger something from the Nightmare Realm.¡±

 Chapter 208 - Plot

    <h4>Chapter 208: Plot</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>What happened that day?</i>

    Angor was not sure about it himself. However, he knew that there had to be someone else who asked Parasite Queen to take his body.

    ¡°Professor, do you know about Baroque?¡± Angor asked something first. Something that he believed to be an important clue behind all this.

    ¡°Baroque?¡± Sunders frowned. ¡°Why? Is he rted to the whole matter?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°I had four matches that day. But when I entered the lottery pool, the number one fighter at Level 13, which is Parasite Queen, chose my name immediately.¡±

    ¡°You assume that Baroque ced her against you?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s not an assumption. I¡¯m sure of it. That Baroque was secretly controlling my match. The Sky Tower always announce a match that involves the top fighters one week earlier. But my match against Parasite Queen happened so sudden. I mean, it only took one day for the tower to determine my match. There must be something wrong.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s still not enough to prove Baroque¡¯s involvement. Why, in the first ce, would Baroque want Parasite Queen to fight you?¡± Sunders doubted.

    ¡°We¡¯re not enemies. However, it¡¯s likely that he was trying to do something to you, professor, not me.¡±

    Angor had no idea whether this was the case. But from what he heard from Parasite Queen¡¯s emotion, this was very possible.

    Since he was sure that Baroque put Parasite Queen against him, Angor really wanted to put the me on Baroque just to get revenge.

    ¡°But why would you say that?¡± Sunders asked.

    Angor slowly exined what he heard during the match. ¡°Parasite Queen meant to take control of my body and soul. When the match began, I was immediately affected by something and fell into a strange state...

    ¡°... Later, I sensed Parasite Queen¡¯s emotions just like how I sensed the glutton flowers in the Nightmare Realm. But she couldn¡¯t read mine in return. She came at me because she already knew that you¡¯re my teacher. As for who told her the information...¡± Angor stopped and looked at Sunders.

    Sunders frowned again. ¡°Baroque?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Yes. Baroque thought that nobody knows it. But somehow, I can sense people¡¯s emotions in the strange state, and that¡¯s how I read Parasite Queen¡¯s mind. Her mind cannot lie. Baroque was behind this.¡±

    Sunders frowned hard. Baroque was a very particr figure in Brute Cavern. He was allowed to stay here because of certain cooperation between Brute Cavern and... somewhere. People had been keeping their eyes on Baroque¡¯s movements during these years, and they never saw the old man doing anything special. They would not expect Baroque to do such small tricks behind their backs instead.

    It what Angor said was true... then someone was trying to ce spies among the core authorities of Brute Cavern.

    Which meant... Parasite Queen could well be another special operative.

    ¡°Heh... nice going, Baroque,¡± Sunders sneered in his mind and immediately thought about a countermeasure. ¡°Let¡¯s put Baroque¡¯s matter aside for now. I¡¯ll send someone to look into it.¡± Sunders smoothened his eyebrows. ¡°Tell me what happened next.¡±

    Angor really wished to learn more about Baroque, but since Sunders refused to say anything further, he had to give up.

    ¡°... It felt really weird. I saw Parasite Queen using a strange nt that gave out green pollens. The pollens took over my body and I had nothing to prevent it. It didn¡¯t take long before Ipletely lost my body,¡± Angor said with a hint of hatred in his eyes.

    Sunders took out a crystal ball and watched the match again.

    When it reached the point where Angor suddenly copsed on the arena, Sunders paused the rey.

    ¡°This should be when your body was taken over by the spores of Green Velvet and you could no longer stand.¡±

    ¡°You mean the green pollens? What are those?¡± Angor asked out of curiosity.

    Sunders looked at Angor with a...plicated emotion. ¡°Green Velvet is an extremely rare magic nt. I don¡¯t know what Parasite Queen did, but I can tell you that Green Velvet is very beneficial to the souls of wizards. It... is almost as valuable as the essence of Glutton Flower Lord.¡±

    ¡°So um, the spores in me now...¡±

    ¡°Tell me the story. I¡¯ll answer your questionster.¡±

    After exining how he lost his body, Angor talked about how he fought for his soul.

    But he was not sure how to describe the fight. What was that strange fog? Why did Parasite Queen suddenly disappear?

    ¡°... Parasite Queen surrounded my soul with her spores and prepared to strike. I didn¡¯t know what to do, so I tried to release the gray fog from my soul. But it went too fast and I couldn¡¯t stop it. I was almost drained dry... Parasite Queen moved behind me and attacked from my back. I felt itchy first, then Parasite Queen yelled out for some reason and just, gone.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what that fog was. Oh, and the ce where I felt itchy on my back was the same spot where I was hurt by the strange stitched woman in the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    The crystal ball showed everything else, about how Angor woke up and ordered Toby to crack Parasite Queen¡¯s head open, as well as how the angry audiences attacked him but were prevented by Dave and Prome.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think the body killed by Toby was the real Parasite Queen, and I don¡¯t know whether her soul was defeated. It just, vanished.¡± Angor¡¯s instinct told him that Parasite Queen did not really die.

    ...

    ¡°Looks like I sensed Nightmare Realm right when Parasite Queen went for the wound on your back,¡± Sunders spoke. ¡°As for the gray fog... I have no idea what it is either. I¡¯m not really good at this subject. Let me see... I¡¯ll take you to a wizard who studied souls. He should know something.¡±

    It was an order. Sunders took Angor away from Phantom Ind without giving the boy any time to rest at all.

    On their way, Angor tried to ask his questions which still did not have an answer. Such as the Green Velvet spores. Were they still in his body?

    ¡°I helped you repress the spores and forced them back into the core of Green Velvet. Parasite Queen had been controlling that core. With her soul no longer here, the Green Velvet core remained inside you, and I made sure all the scattered spores are back into the core.¡±

    ¡°Green Velvet core?¡± It reminded Angor of the dream he just had. The green spores in the air were all absorbed by the giant flower bud, which began to bloom and was about to reveal Parasite Queen¡¯s body. Then he woke up from the terrible dream.

    Angor exined what he saw in the dream to Sunders.

    Sunders chuckled. ¡°The green bud is the core of Green Velvet. It¡¯s still there, inside your body.¡±

    ¡°Why not remove it?¡± Angor was puzzled.

    ¡°I said Green Velvet is extremely valuable, just because of its core. The core cannot survive outside. It has to draw energy from someone¡¯s soul to keep going. If I extract the core from you, it¡¯ll quickly wither away.¡±

    Sunders noticed that Angor still looked worried. He put a hand on the boy¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Calm down. As long as it receives proper care, the core of Green Velvet won¡¯t do anything harmful to you. It can also nurture your soul in the future. You know, it¡¯s considered another great treasure among all wizards. If you¡¯re still not convinced, you can transnt it into someone else¡¯s bodyter.¡±

    Angor believed Sunders¡¯ words. However, he still felt uneasy about how he had a... nt, growing in him.

    Once away from Phantom Ind, Angor and Sunders headed to the other end of the Tree of Eternity on the back of a giant Demon Falcon.

    ¡°Professor, is the soul wizard we¡¯re going to see Mister Ness?¡± Angor asked.

    Sunders nodded. ¡°He¡¯s the only soul master in Brute Cavern.¡±

    Angor considered and decided not to tell Sunders about what he went through when fighting Saka.

    So he had to meet Saka again? Oh god...

    Now both of Ness¡¯ students had grudges against him.

    Hookdick was not staying in Brute Cavern now so Angor did not have to worry about that one. Saka though... Angor did not really know how to approach this psycho. He only prayed that Saka was not with Ness at the moment.

    Still, Angor was sure that Saka would not recognize him at all. He did a good job hiding his identity on the stage.

    ¡°Professor, why did I sense Parasite Queen¡¯s emotion ripples when existing as my soul? And back in Nightmare Realm, there were other monsters I came across other than Glutton Flowers, such as Hover Heads and the Blue Tri-Eye Giant. But I didn¡¯t feel anything from them.¡±

    There was more. He failed to sense anything from ¡°Younger Sunders¡± too, but Angor did not really have the courage to mention it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But I have a possible theory to it. That is, you can only sense the emotions of something whose soul is of a lower level than you, like Parasite Queen, or something that¡¯s willing to open up its emotion to you, like Glutton Flowers. Of course, the theory only exined what kind of targets you can sense. As for how you did it... I think it has something to do with your Nightmare Form.¡±

    <i>Nightmare Form?</i>

    Sunders considered for a while and continued, ¡°Once we¡¯re at Ness¡¯ ce, make sure you don¡¯t mention anything about Nightmare Form or Nightmare Realm. Just tell him about the strange fog in you. I¡¯ll handle the rest.¡±

 Chapter 209 - The Valley of Souls

    <h4>Chapter 209: The Valley of Souls</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Understood,¡± Angor nodded.

    They spent some time on the back of Demon Falcon in awkward silence.

    ¡°Did you learn alchemy from the apprentice in the market?¡± Sunders raised another topic.

    Angor shook his head. Sunders was probably talking about Prome.

    ¡°No, I read books on my own.¡±

    <i>By himself?</i>

    Sunders began to admire Angor¡¯s ability toprehend and deduct. Knowledge in books could be disorientating. Without a proper teacher, this boy had to read a whole lot of books while drawing references from all of them to keep the knowledge together.

    ¡°Do you remember the name ¡®Leona¡¯?¡± The gentleman asked.

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°She¡¯s the only Apothecary in Brute Cavern. She owed you a favorst time, so you can go find her if you¡¯ve any questions about potions or basic alchemy. Try epting her quest from the Questing Hall, and she¡¯ll naturally help you when you two meet.¡±

    Leona already paid Angor for extracting the scent of Glutton Flowers. She created a brand-new pheromone spray which quickly became a treasured product among all witches in Brute Cavern, and Leona had earned hundreds of thousands of magic crystals from it.

    ording to Sunders, Leona had left Brute Cavern and went to Sweetmoon Federation located in Manda ne, where a Perfume Exhibition would be held which could attract all young witches in the world. The exhibition was, in truth, an auction for selling perfumes. Leona could well earn another great sum if she took her new creation there.

    Leona received the main material for her perfume from Angor at the cost of only 10 magic crystals. Sunders did not really mind it since wizards only had themselves to me if they lose or earn money-making chances. But Angor was an apprentice alchemist now, so the boy could find a reason to receive some pointers from Leona.

    At least Leona should teach Angor something about alchemy for free.

    There were just too few alchemists in Brute Cavern. Sunders really hoped that one of his students could be one so that he would not have to waste a huge amount of money by finding alchemists in Floating Mech City should he ever need help with something again. For example, such as when he needed help to construct the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.

    Several minutester, the Demon Falcon had traveled several hundred kilos from Phantom Ind.

    The Tree of Eternity was already far behind their current position.

    ¡°Mister Ness doesn¡¯t live near the tree?¡±

    The area near the Tree of Eternity was rich with elements. The aura of life created by the tree could keep people¡¯s spirit energized. For this reason, most wizards would choose somewhere near the tree to live.

    ¡°Not all soul wizards prefer life. Ness is an ult Soul Maniptor, but his subject is closer to Necromancy and Death. Life is something he usually hates... such as Tree of Eternity,¡± Sunders exined.

    When the Demon Falcon glided past the middle of stretching mountains, Sunders asked it to stop.

    Angor observed the area as the aviannded down. It looked like an ordinary forest. He could not see anything particr aside from the lively bushes.

    Sunders released a light spot from his finger.

    The spot disappeared into the stones on a cliff wall nearby. In the next second, a slit slowly opened up on the wall, revealing a path behind it.

    It reminded Angor of when he spent a night outside Twilight Town. Goode used a token to summon a road in the hills in a simr way.

    ¡°Is this an illusion?¡±

    Sunders lead Angor into the ¡°slit¡± while Angor looked around and tried to find the nodes for deploying the illusion.

    But he failed. Next, he tried to stretch his spirit feelers into the cliff walls. An unknown yet gentle energy quickly pushed his spirit power back into his mind space.

    ¡°It¡¯s an illusion array. There is no node,¡± Sunders spoke in a in tone.

    Angor scratched his head in embarrassment. His movements were clearly noticed by his professor.

    Illusion Array was another branch subject for Illusionists. However, it required knowledge of magic array first, so it was considered a very advanced subject. Sunders¡¯ notebook did not contain such knowledge.

    ¡°Better not touch anything when you¡¯re inside another wizard¡¯s territory. Careless moves can lead to hostility. If you triggered a trap, death will be the best oue you can hope for. This is the ce of a soul master, just so you know.¡±

    What Sunders meant was clear, that Angor should refrain from doing anything stupid, so that his soul would not fall into an eternal torturing.

    It reminded Angor of how apprentices described Soul Maniptors: Death is only the beginning.

    After being warned by Sunders, Angor no longer dared to do anything. The boy followed Sunders¡¯ steps closely.

    After leaving the slit between cliff walls, they entered a broad valley which was asrge as the central za of Tree Spirit Garden. The whole ce was decorated by a shallow fog, strange flowers, and buildings made of bluestones. It seemed a secret paradise away from civilization.

    Although Angor immediately stopped thinking that way when stepping into the valley.

    The flowers still looked good, and the exquisite buildings and other sceneries were just fine.

    The fog though... no. That was no fog. It was a stream made from countless souls in various shapes.

    Semi-transparent souls gathered together and gave Angor a delusion that he was looking at fog.

    There were souls of people, animals, magic nts... even otherworldly humanoid creatures. The souls all looked in good condition rather than the ugly beings described in ghost stories. The look on the soul was not affected by what happened to its body. This was the case even if the body was cut to pieces and ground to powder.

    Although... the souls Angor was looking at now were allpletely naked, and Angor felt really awkward standing here.

    Men were floating in the sky with their sticks pointing everywhere while women paid no mind to their wiggling buns. Also, the souls were all avoiding Sunders for some reason, and they simply chose something else to stare at¡ªthe timid boy behind Sunders.

    Angor felt his face burning with uneasiness.

    ¡°Saka might be a pervert, but at least his souls are properly dressed!¡± Angorined in his mind.

    They kept walking until they reached the base of a giant wizard tower.

    Under the curious gazes of the souls, Angor entered the tall structure built with dark stone blocks.

    They were immediately greeted by a half-naked maid, who only wore an apron around her waist. She knelt down and kissed Sunders¡¯ boots.

    ¡°Mister Sunders, my Master cannot leave hisb room at the moment. Please go meet him there.¡±

    Sunders frowned and cast a Dust Removal to remove the lip marks on his feet.

    ¡°This old shortie... I haven¡¯t seen him in some years. Whatever is he up to?¡± Sunders grimaced and asked the maid to lead the way.

    Angor followed behind with his gaze fixed on the floor. If he looked up now, his view would be weed by the pair of uncovered buttocks of the maid. Also, he really wished to ask a question: <i>Don¡¯t you feel cold like that, ma¡¯am?</i>

    The maid opened a door located at the top of the tower and invited cold wind inside.

    Angor looked through the door and saw a small bridge which stretched into the middle of a mountain in the distance, where the entrance of a cave could be seen.

    ¡°I thought his b room¡¯ is inside the tower?¡± Angor thought.

    The maid took the lead again. Her apron was now flipping in the mountain wind. Angor really did not wish to imagine what it would look like from her front.

    The maid stopped at the end of the bridge. ¡°The Master is inside.¡±

    When reaching the cave, Angor heard someone else greeting them in a respectful tone. ¡°Good day to you, Mister Sunders.¡±

    Angor looked up and grimaced as well.

    His prayer of NOT running into Saka had failed. ¡®Starsoul¡¯ Saka was standing right in front of the cave in a formal suit. A bashful woman¡¯s soul apanied him.

    Sunders stepped through the entrance, paying no attention to Saka at all.

    Saka kept his bowing, seemingly not offended in the least.

    Angor followed Sunders with unchanged expression. He did not believe Saka would recognize him since he never revealed his face during the match.

    As Angor finally entered the cave, Saka sensed something and looked at Angor¡¯s back in surprise.

    He frowned and said something to Silvia while releasing some mana from his hand.

    A whileter, Saka¡¯s eyes widened in joy. A gentle and happy smile appeared on his handsome face.

    ¡°So... you¡¯re Mister Sunders¡¯ student? My... precious.¡±

    Saka spoke in a lover¡¯s tone, causing Silvia to envy a little.

    Next, Saka calmed his expression and entered the cave as well.

    Inside the cave, Angor saw the vast space upied by various tools and equipment. Only the center of the ce was vacant. A small, gray-haired old man was working on something on his working bench with a knife in his hand.

    The corpse of a young girl.

    ¡°What brought you to my ce, Sunders? I mean, forget it. Good timing. Check out my new invention.¡± Ness looked up and waved a hand in the air. The wounds on the corpse were quickly sutured up, leaving a smooth and wless body behind.

    Next, Ness stuffed the soul of a... creature, which looked like a woman, into the corpse.

    The girl corpse opened her eyes. She noticed Sunders first and began to look at the gentleman with a thirsty look. On the sex level.

    A strange scent came from the girl¡¯s body.

    She then approached Sunders and began posing seductively at the gentleman.

    It was quite obvious that the girl was looking for love. However, Sunderspletely disregarded her attempt and pushed her aside with his walking cane.

    ¡°The soul of a subus?¡± Sunders did not seem affected by the woman. ¡°You joined those people and went to Abyss ne?¡±

    Ness shook his head. ¡°No, of course. Do I look like someone who would bully youngsters? Saka found the soul for me.¡±

 Chapter 210 - Sakaâ€™s Idea

    <h4>Chapter 210: Saka¡¯s Idea</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Saka soon entered their view when his name was mentioned.

    His usual malevolent expression had gone. Saka walked inside with a bright smile.

    Ness raised an eyebrow at the unusual disy of his student.

    <i>What¡¯s the deal? He¡¯s looking for love too? Maybe I should give this subus woman to him to vent out his desire?</i>

    When looking at Saka, Ness noticed that someone else was behind Sunders.

    It was a young man with a charmingly handsome look which was amplified by his healthy blond hair and blue pupils. Although Ness was more concerned about the boy¡¯s clothes. He was wearing a ck, slim gentleman suit, properly buttoned to the third button in front of his chest. His cor revealed the white linings inside and a wine-red checkered bow-tie.

    Such a dressing style was not anything special anywhere else, but it looked really interesting when the boy was ced together with Sunders.

    Apart from Sunders¡¯ top hat, walking cane, white gloves, and cape, the boy was wearing exactly the same thing as Sunders. Well, maybe the color was a bit off.

    Ness quickly recalled the boy¡¯s name. He saw this one among the recruits on The Savage. This was the new student Sunders found.

    <i>Is he trying to mimic Sunders¡¯ style?</i>

    Ness pondered. There were many people who loved to do this. Saka once mentioned that someone in the underground market called ckjack tended to imitate Sunders¡¯ clothes.

    Ness¡¯ eyes glimmered when he saw the buttons on Angor¡¯s sleeves.

    <i>No... the emblems on the buttons were Sunders¡¯ family emblem. So... Sunders gave his personal attire to his student?</i>

    Ness reached a conclusion in the end, that Sunders was really satisfied with the boy. Thinking about this, Ness began to regard Angor in a different attitude.

    While Ness went over his thoughts, Saka already reached him. He bowed to Sunders again and nodded toward Angor with a smile.

    Angor pretended he did not see Saka¡¯s gesture. He walked closer to Sunders and performed salutation to Ness as a youngster.

    This was the second time for Angor to meet Ness. Previously, it was Ness who led the new recruits into Brute Cavern. At the time though, the old man did not tell them his name because he thought these weaklings should not learn who he was.

    Ness responded to Angor¡¯s politeness with a smile and put a hand on Saka¡¯s shoulder. ¡°This is my humble student. Do introduce yourself.¡±

    Saka moved toward Angor and reached out a hand, still smiling.

    ¡°I¡¯m Saka. Nice to see you.¡±

    His slim hand remained in the air.

    Angor¡¯s lips twitched and forced himself to pull on Saka¡¯s hand. ¡°Eh, heh heh. Nice to see you too. Name¡¯s Angor.¡±

    The boy¡¯s unwillingness was in to see. No one minded it since he had properly responded to Saka¡¯s greeting, and Saka¡¯s smile did not decrease at all.

    No one paid any attention to the strange atmosphere. Although Ness still wondered why his student acted so weirdly.

    ...

    ¡°So how¡¯s my subus gal? It¡¯s yours! I guarantee her techniques will totally satisfy you,¡± said Ness as he pointed to the naked woman who was still staring at Sunders in a ¡°horny¡± way.

    ¡°No need,¡± Sunders sneered.

    ¡°I knew you¡¯d say that. Flora already told me that you¡¯re just a knucklehead. How many witches in Brute Cavern love you and fear you at the same time? Come on. Try to learn the way of humanity,¡± Ness muttered hisint, while Sunders did not seem offended at all. Angor believed that these two was probably good friends in private.

    ¡°Since this is the case...¡± Ness pushed the subus woman to Saka. ¡°You take it then. You found her soul anyway.¡±

    Saka put an arm around the woman¡¯s waist and smiled gently while the woman winked at him bashfully.

    Then, Saka wielded a de and cut the woman into two halves of bloody body parts. The man tossed the remains into the furnace in the room and pulled her soul into a small vial.

    ¡°I only need her soul.¡±

    Ness paid him no mind. The girl was already dead. The soul would only keep that body running for a short time.

    Angor was the only one who felt a bit depressed at what he saw. But only briefly.

    His moral standard was already lowering especially ever since he came across all kinds of incidents in the wizarding world. He was not sure if he would be one of the merciless killing machines one day.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t told me. What brought you here?¡± Ness looked at Sunders.

    Sunders nced at Ness¡¯ student and his mana quickly covered the area around Saka. Saka was still smiling as if he did not notice anything.

    Angor, on the other hand, noticed a faint ripple of illusion around Saka.

    ¡°A simple illusion,¡± Sunders exined. ¡°It¡¯s about Angor, and I don¡¯t want anyone else to know about it.¡±

    Ness nodded in acknowledgment. He already saw that the illusion meant no harm to Saka. It only stopped the sound while making Saka believe that everything was still fine.

    Sunders and Ness discussed the condition of Angor¡¯s soul and especially about the ¡°gray fog¡±. Ness provided his own assumptions while giving Angor strange looks now and then.

    A momentter, Ness took out several parchments and began writing something. He probably had a n in mind.

    It took some time, during which Sundersmented on the data Ness was working on. Angor could understand none of what they were talking about, so he kept his attention on Saka.

    Or rather, the illusion around Saka.

    Angor recognized it as a basic illusion and soon found the magic nodes for deploying it. He calcted something in his mind and reached the conclusion that he could also create the same thing with enough time.

    However, the illusion also contained something he knew nothing about. Angor sensed a strange rhythming from the illusion as if the pendulum of a clock was moving.

    The rhythm was not difficult to understand since it was Melodious Illusion, the basic of Acoustic Illusions. Angor could make something simr with enough effort.

    Although... what was the point of the rhythm?

    Being able to deploy the Melodious Illusion did not mean that Angor understood its effect on the entire illusion.

    He already memorized everything written in Sunders¡¯ notebook, and nothing in the book exined his question.

    Angor wished to ask. However, he decided not to when he saw Sunders in a heated discussion with Ness over some kind of form.

    Some minutester, Sunders came and extracted something from Angor¡¯s blood. He then went back to speak with Ness again.

    Angor kept observing the illusion which was simple on the outside, yet difficult toprehend in many aspects.

    If not for the situation, Angor really wished he could try the illusion out himself.

    While checking the illusion, Angor also noticed that Saka kept staring at one direction with an affectionate look, as if someone in the illusion really interested him.

    From what was seen, Sunders¡¯ illusion had to have given Saka an idea that they were still close to each other in the cave. Considering how Saka had been well-behaving, the illusion probably told him that Ness was still nearby.

    So... Saka could see himself, Angor, Sunders and Ness in the illusion... while Saka was staring at someone in an enthusiastic manner. There was no way Saka would look at Sunders or Ness in that way, which meant...

    Angor felt a chill on his back.

    <i>Saka is staring at ME?</i>

    <i>So, did Saka figure out who I am?</i>

    ¡°Baron Milk¡± defeated Saka on the stage. As Angor remembered, when Silvia¡¯s soul spells failed to work, Saka¡¯s previously frenzied expression suddenly turned gentle for some reason.

    And he kept mentioning some ¡°precious star¡± at Baron Milk.

    Saka¡¯s current expression was exactly how he looked like on the arena... and it gave Angor goosebumps.

    Angor was sure that Saka was not interested in ¡°Baron Milk¡± since he was fully covered under the robe.

    Saka had to have been attracted by his soul.

    Angor felt he would never sleep well again when someone was drooling over his soul. That was why he stayed outside Sky Tower during that day so he could find a chance to get rid of this madman. However, he only ran into Chloe Brothers in the end.

    Saka¡¯s reaction in the illusion proved Angor¡¯s idea.

    This pervert really recognized him.

    And this was bad...

    Angor even thought about getting rid of Saka right here, when that guy was still trapped in the illusion.

    But he could not possibly do this while Ness was still around.

    Also, Angor was worrying about whether killing Saka meant the end of it. Saka was a Soul Maniptor after all.

    To Soul Maniptors, ¡°Death is only the beginning of all¡±.

    Killing Saka might bring even more troubles. With this in mind, Angor decided to put the matter aside for now.

    Besides, Saka was still not on the top of his ¡°enemy list¡±. The one Angor would kill at all cost now was Hookdick.

    Hookdick was also a Soul Maniptor, but that man only joined Brute Cavern half a year ago. Considering howmon apprentices usually progressed, Hookdick should only know some basic spells at the moment. Killing his body would end everything.

    Angor was not really sure though. As he heard, Hookdick had gone to receive some sort of ¡°soul soil baptism¡±. Maybe Hookdick could earn something really good from it.

    To make sure, Angor decided to go to Cloud Library and look into soul-rted spells upon finishing his tower challenges.

    ...

    After making up his mind of disregarding Saka for the moment, Angor began to observe the illusion again.

    Several hourster, Ness stood up from his seat.

    ¡°Good. I¡¯ve worked out a perfect soul-separation experiment n ording to the data of Angor¡¯s body! Now we only have to get to it!¡±

 Chapter 211 - Nessâ€™ Secret Plot

    <h4>Chapter 211: Ness¡¯ Secret Plot</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Ness approached Angor with a pile of parchments in hand.

    The old man dragged Angor to his experiment bench.

    ¡°Hold on. I¡¯ll check your data onest time,¡± Sunders called.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about nothin¡¯. I¡¯m second to none when ites to experiments on the soul.¡±

    Sunders frowned and insisted. ¡°Let me take a look. I want nothing wrong with Angor¡¯s soul, and I¡¯m making sure.¡±

    Ness looked a bit worried. ¡°There¡¯s really... no need. Trust me. I mean, we worked out the data together. The boy¡¯s soul will be just fine.¡±

    As Ness said, he and Sunders worked on the key points on separating Angor¡¯s soul and gained the result together. They already made sure that Angor¡¯s soul would receive no damage at all in the process.

    Sunders was only acting cautiously. However, when he noticed that Ness was trying to hide something, he began to suspect.

    ¡°Give me the data,¡± Sunders ordered.

    Ness hesitated for a while and handed the parchments to Sunders.

    The papers contained the flow of the soul experiment, which consisted of four steps: [Soul Attuning], [Separating Soul From Body], [Soul Testing] and [Rejoining Soul and Body].

    Sunders was extra careful when reading every word and number in the data because he was sure he saw Ness¡¯ strange reaction.

    Step one was correct. So was step two. And three... four. They were all fine. All of the data and deductions were perfect.

    Sunders frowned again upon finishing the papers. Everything seemed right. But why did Ness look so weird?

    He looked at Ness again. The old man hadpletely removed his previous uneasiness.

    ¡°What did I tell you? The experiment¡¯s totally fine! I¡¯m a soul master, why would I do anything wrong?¡± Ness revealed a big smile, causing his aged face to wrinkle badly.

    Ness¡¯ sudden change in attitude raised more suspicion from Sunders.

    The gentleman read the data once more and found nothing.

    ¡°The data and flow of the test are okay.¡± Sunders gave Ness a warning look. ¡°I¡¯m telling you again, I want absolutely NOTHING wrong to happen to Angor¡¯s soul.¡±

    Ness nodded, still smiling. ¡°His soul will be fine! You read the experiment yourself!¡±

    Sunders was not really convinced. Yet he could not find anything wrong. He got the feeling that he might be a little oversensitive.

    Angor, who had been staying all quiet, suddenly spoke up, ¡°Professor, may I look at the experiment n?¡±

    Usually, it was very offensive for an apprentice to ¡°butt in¡± the discussion between two wizards, especially now, when the boy¡¯s reaction could easily beprehended as a question against Ness¡¯ expertise.

    It was like a patient who questioned the prescription he received from a doctor. If you did not believe the doctor, why did youe here at all?

    Sunders was a bit surprised at his student¡¯s boldness. To Sunders, Angor was always a cultured noble kid good at sizing up the situation. Well, maybe the boy had some kind of weird personal principle and could get a bit ¡°tsundere¡± sometimes, but Angor was very unlikely to do anything impolite.

    Angor too, knew that what he did was probably stupid at the moment. But the experiment was about his own soul. He had grudges against both of Ness¡¯ students. Saka¡¯s intention was still unclear, but at least Hookdick wanted him dead. Angor did not know if Hookdick already told Ness something.

    Besides, he also noticed Ness¡¯ unusual expression a moment ago.

    Of course, Ness was feeling very agitated now. He would have already destroyed both the body and soul of someone who dared to question him if this ¡°someone¡± was someone other than Sunders¡¯ student.

    The old man only sneered in the end, ¡°You, huh? You sure you know how to read anything at all?¡±

    Angor did not respond. Ness was right. He probably could not read a thing in the data.

    Ness did not retort further. It was just an apprentice... there was no point getting all worked up.

    Ness went to retrieve his parchments from Sunders. But Sunders did not let him. The gentleman picked out one of the papers and handed it to Angor while returning the rest back to Ness.

    Ness stared at Sunders with a questioning look. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Angor may notprehend much. But that one paper is different. He can read it,¡± Sunders exined in a nonchnt manner.

    <i>There¡¯s something the boy can read? </i>Ness grew more doubtful now. His soul experiment was veryplicated. Even Sunders required his exnation to get the big idea. Now a level-1 apprentice who was only a supernatural for half a year could understand something in the test??

    <i>Wait... only one paper. Which one?</i>

    Ness suddenly grew anxious again and quickly checked the remaining papers in his hands.

    The parchments exining major experiment flow of the four steps were all here.

    The paper Sunders gave Angor contained some annotations for step two [Separating Soul From Body]. These annotations mainly exined how to keep someone¡¯s body alive and nurtured after it lost its soul. It meant sustaining blood flow and metabolism while maintaining the normal functions of all the body organs.

    A body without its soul would slowly wither away. In order to make thest step [Rejoining Soul and Body] happen, they had to keep Angor¡¯s body alive during the experiment.

    A simr thing also happened when Angor went to the Nightmare Realm to look for the channeling book together with Sunders, in which case his body remained in the wizarding world while his soul entered the Nightmare Realm. However, the Nightmare Realm did not follow the rules of time. Angor spent several days in the realm, and it was only a brief second when viewed from the original world.

    That kind of time was too short for his body to undergo any real damage.

    Ness¡¯ experiment though, involved many different testing objectives which would keep Angor¡¯s soul outside the body for several hours, so they had to do something to sustain his body.

    The annotation page exined how to do this by using a nutrient fluid made from different magic nts and other special materials.

    Ness¡¯ heart skipped a beat upon realizing which page was taken by Sunders. As he promised, his soul experiment was perfect, and ¡°Angor¡¯s soul will be fine¡±.

    But he did not say anything about Angor¡¯s flesh, and Sunders did not notice the small missing detail.

    Ness did hide a little trick in the step of maintaining Angor¡¯s body. Although he did not really n to kill Angor¡¯s body, he wished to do something interesting to it.

    Ness looked at Angor and let out an embarrassed chuckle. ¡°So, can you read it or no? Give it back if you can¡¯t. I¡¯ll exin to ya.¡±

    Sunders raised an eyebrow when Ness talked to his student in a ¡°softer¡± way.

    Angor, on the other hand,pletely disregarded Ness¡¯ words. The boy was focused on reading the paper.

    Ness turned to Sunders again. ¡°You sure he can do this? There are magic nts for keeping a body safe. This Angor boy knows anything about them?¡±

    Instead of answering, Sunders only stared at Ness with a fake smile.

    Ness quickly grew uneasy again and cleared his throat. He was alreadyining in his mind.

    <i>Of all the others, why in the world must he choose that one paper?!</i>

    The old man prayed that Angor would not recognize anything particr.

    He already got the feeling that Sunders was determined to find out what he was hiding. Even if Angor failed to tell anything, the gentleman would probably find someone else to do it.

    Ness thought about admitting his little trick. It was nothing harmful anyway.

    ¡°Hahhhh...¡± Ness intentionally let out a really long sigh, then he nced at Sunders carefully.

    Sunders was still ¡°smiling¡± at him. Other than that, the gentleman did not say anything.

    Ness grew more and more frustrated.

    <i>Hey you! I¡¯m worried! Look! I sighed! Ask me why already! So I have a chance to exin!</i>

    The old man nned to put on a bitter show, so Sunders would forgive him for the little mistake on ount that they were old friends.

    And Sunderspletely ruined it by keeping up a silent yet meaningful smile.

    Ness pondered if he should tell them everything straight up.

    Before he could decide, Angor suddenly spoke while still reading the paper.

    ¡°Rainbow Reed, Apoptosis Powder, remains of burnt palm oil, water from Terror Fountain...¡± Angor read through the materials one by one.

    Each name caused Ness¡¯ heart to beat faster.

    Sunders also considered these names. As a cultured wizard, he knew about these magical materials as well as their effects. They all contained something to help sustain a human body.

    Angor read the names of thirteen types of materials.

    ¡°Is something wrong with them?¡± Sunders asked.

    Angor considered and shook his head. ¡°The materials are correct.¡±

    Sunders raised an eyebrow. He already realized that his student had something else to say.

    And as he expected, Angor continued, ¡°They all work fine, but I think there¡¯s an... how do I put it... A material that¡¯s an ¡®overkill¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Which one?¡±

    ¡°Mero Scorpion Flower.¡±

    A Mero Scorpion was a monster insect living in Abyss ne. It was a strange creature which existed as half-nt and half-animal. After giving birth to spawns during the breeding season, the queen scorpion grew weaker. To protect itself, the creature turned itself into stone for one or two days and a strange flower would grow on its tail, thus the name of the material.

    ¡°Mero Scorpion Flower...¡± Sunders held his chin and found something rted to the flower in his memory. Then his expression became a little weird. ¡°It quickens someone¡¯s blood flow.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Precisely speaking, it does so by applying an aphrodisiac effect.¡±

 Chapter 212 - Mero Scorpion Flower

    <h4>Chapter 212: Mero Scorpion Flower</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders frowned. ¡°The flower does improve blood flow, which helps sustain your body. It works in a strange way... but it¡¯s not a bad choice.¡±

    Ness quickly agreed. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking! Just a small arousal effect, it won¡¯t hurt.¡±

    Angor did not deny. ¡°There are many ways to improve blood flowing. Arousing sex is one eptable approach.¡±

    ¡°There you have it!¡± Ness nodded.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand though. Mero Scorpion Flowers are really costly. Its arousal property alsoes with a big side-effect. So... why don¡¯t we use something cheaper, like a Sweetblood Orchis? This one is easy to get, and improves blood flow just fine, without any side effects,¡± Angor suggested.

    Sunders nodded and agreed with his student. He realized he had been going the wrong way due to his excessive experience. A unit of Mero Scorpion Flower cost six times more than the same amount of Sweetblood Orchis. To Sunders, however, the difference in cost was never something that would concern him, so he never minded their prices.

    As a level-2 wizard, Sunders could earn quick money by any means. Some extra magic crystals would not hurt. Ness, however, was a stingy old timer who was always saving money to buy beautiful ves from other nes. He would never waste money like that.

    Sunders stared at Ness again. ¡°Exin, if you would?¡±

    Ness wiped his forehead, but he was not sweating at all.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t I use Sweetblood Orchis?¡± Ness quickly tried to think of something and revealed a wicked smile. ¡°You see, Sunders, I have a lot of ve girls here, hehe... So I always keep a good stock of Mero Scorpion Flowers. I don¡¯t have any Sweetblood Orchis left now. I¡¯m improvising.¡±

    The words sounded legit enough. However, Sunders was already sure that Ness was nning something in secret, so the gentleman only considered it as an excuse.

    Sunders already decided to reject Ness¡¯ idea of using Mero Scorpion Flowers, but he did not show it yet. Instead, he asked Angor again, ¡°Ness has his reason. Do you have any other questions?¡±

    Angor hesitated. ¡°I never learned Apothecary for real... but I think I read it in a book somewhere, that the locals in Abyss ne tend to use Mero Scorpion Flowers as a blender for a certain catalytic reaction.¡±

    He read it from a book he recorded in the Nightmare Realm, but he could not tell this to anyone.

    Ness stared at Angor in shock when hearing these words. How could a fresh apprentice know such trivia knowledge!?

    ¡°Blender for a catalytic reaction?¡± Sunders remembered something and remained silent for a while.

    Then he spoke again, ¡°I saw something like that when traveling in Abyss ne. There was an alchemist from Floating Mech City who did such an experiment while using some other magic nts in Abyss ne.¡±

    Sunders paused to recollect his memory. ¡°We were camping together. I stayed up to be the night watch while he was making a potion... There was a Bloodline Wizard who came to whisper to the alchemist. That man asked if he was making something to seduce a witch in the team. And his answer was...¡±

    Sunders closed his eyes to think carefully.

    Angor was much surprised by what he heard.

    <i>You heard all that when guarding the camp outside? And, how did you hear something from a ¡°whisper¡±??</i>

    Angor was surprised for hisck of wizardry knowledge.

    Wizards all possessed superior memories. Someone with a high spiritual power indicator could even do something simr to ¡°hyperthymesia¡±.

    Hyperthymesia was a rare mental disease, in which case the victim¡¯s brain registered everyst detail of experiences and events automatically, in his or her subconsciousness, when the patient did not intend to do it at all.

    For example, there was such a mother who was troubled by the disease, who could clearly recall the scene in her maternity room, such as whether a doctor¡¯s sleeve was buttoned, how many scars were left on an ear of one of the nurses, how many birds were perched near the window, as well as the colors and stripe patterns of each of the birds... The mother remembered all of these when she was already 80. Ordinary people could only memorize something important. But hyperthymesia patients could remember all, as long as something once happened in his or her view.

    The condition was considered a disease because the victims had lost the ability to ¡°forget¡±. They would be troubled by boundless memories for their entire lives until they met a terrible end when their brains could no longer hold the memories anymore.

    Wizards were different. They could do something simr only because their brains were amplified by their spirit power, thus gaining a better memory. They could choose to forget anything they liked, just likemon people.

    Sunders¡¯ memory was not good enough topete with a hyperthymesia patient, but his brain was already beyond the levels of average people.

    Sunders was still young in his story. He was interested in alchemy at that time, so he always kept his attention on the alchemist in his team. He did not really hear their conversation, but he could read their lips.

    Which meant... Sunders was now trying to remember someone¡¯s lipnguage which happened during one of his travels across the nes several years ago.

    ¡°ording to the alchemist...¡± Sunders imitated the alchemist¡¯s lip movement. ¡°When Mero Scorpion Flower reacted with magic nts originated in Abyss ne, its initial effect will be catalysis, not s*xual arousal.¡±

    Angor nodded silently. It was exactly what he saw in the book he read. When specifically mixed with magic nts native to Abyss ne, a Mero Scorpion Flower¡¯s catalytic property would cancel its aphrodisiac nature.

    Sunders nced at Ness again, who quickly avoided Sunders¡¯ eyes.

    Angor spoke again, ¡°The flower will naturally improve blood flow when used with the other materials in the nutrient fluid which keeps my body alive. Although the side effect might be a little... troublesome. If its ¡®catalytic¡¯ effect is triggered, it¡¯ll do somethingpletely different when added with the other material I read.¡±

    Sunders continued, ¡°Blood overflowing. Excessive production of androgen hormone. Unbnced metabolism.¡±

    Angor added thest part, ¡°A possible result... Death.¡±

    To put it simply, the body would be killed by impulsive libido which had nowhere to go.

    Angor believed he read something simr in the Earth novels. There were certain fictional medicines that forced the characters to ¡°vent out¡± on any women they could find, or they would simply die of uncontroble lust. Although these characters all conveniently had women nearby. Angor, however, only had these... guys, around. The only female creature was just sliced in half by Saka.

    ¡°What are you nning to do?¡± Sunders asked Ness with an emotionless expression. An aphrodisiac effect was fine. Angor might get ¡°hot¡± for some time, but a cold shower would end his embarrassment.

    But a catalytic potion... was a little too far.

    Ness stuttered something and finally spoke in a really small voice, ¡°I didn¡¯t put any Abyss stuff in the fluid. The secondary effect won¡¯te up.¡±

    His sophistry sounded pretty terrible now. Before Angor could point out where the ¡°Abyss stuff¡± was, he heard Sundersughing in a dangerous way.

    Sunders released mana from his palm and the entire cave was blown over by a strong gale.

    When it ended, an ice sphere appeared on Sunders¡¯ hand. The sphere was hollowed-out in the middle where some pink-colored gas could be seen.

    ¡°This is your second Abyss material. Tell me now, why are you doing this?¡±

    The gas was another type of magical material called ¡°Fragrance of Charm¡± which was released by the Abyss Subus. It was a popr pheromone perfume among witches.

    The gas was left in the air inside the cave. If they brewed the nutrient fluid here, the gas would naturally connect with the Mero Scorpion Flower in the liquid.

    Ness finally revealed an ¡°oh no my n was found out¡± look.

    And Sunders waited for his answer patiently.

    Ness sighed. ¡°Come on. I won¡¯t hurt Angor in front of you anyway. I just want to do a tiny experiment on my own.¡±

    ¡°What kind of experiment?¡±

    Ness spread his hands. ¡°Your deduction was mostly correct. Mostly. There was something you¡¯ve gotten wrong. When Fragrance of Charm is mixed with Mero Scorpion Flower, plus the other materials Angor mentioned, they will raise the level of someone¡¯s pheromone. But it¡¯s not the androgen hormone you believed. The gas came from a subus, the embodiment of women¡¯s desire which triggers the female hormone while the Mero Scorpion Flower triggers male one. So... the result is, both male and female hormone will elevate in your body.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°You mean, I¡¯ll die even faster?¡±

    There was no way Angor¡¯s young body could endure two hormonal surges. Several minutes at best, and he would kick the bucket in the heat for sure.

    ¡°It won¡¯t happen. Just a tiny experiment, as I said!¡± Ness noticed that Sunders¡¯ expression was growing colder, and he quickly took out a vial from his space bag. There was some pale pink liquid inside. ¡°Inject this thing into Angor¡¯s body and he¡¯ll be fine. Or, he can even get something good out of it!¡± Ness lifted the vial to Sunders.

    Sunders took the vial and sensed its content. Then the gentleman revealed another strange expression.

    ¡°Professor?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Ness is... right. You¡¯ll be safe with this. And yes, there¡¯s a benefit in it...¡±

    Ness did not wait for Sunders¡¯ exnation. ¡°I never lied, right? You won¡¯t have a problem. And you can get a beneficial effect for free. I wouldn¡¯t want to use it on outsiders if only Saka would ept my experiment...¡±

    Sunders chuckled. ¡°So, Saka refused, and you still want to do the experiment. When the Fragrance of Charm was released into the air, you thought about your n on the spot to force Angor into a situation where he must ept your medicine to stay alive?¡±

    Sunders gave the small vial several shakes. ¡°Smart n, I would say.¡±

    That was almost everything Ness was trying to do. Before they came, the old man had been trying to persuade Saka, who never agreed. Saka even used the visitors as an excuse and escaped.

    Ness smiled. ¡°I¡¯m working on a subject involving different genders, and I really need some result out of a test. Saka didn¡¯t want to help, and I don¡¯t want to use the valuable potion on random people. Now you¡¯re here. I can use it on your student, and the benefit still stays between friends.¡±

    Sunders ignored Ness¡¯ useless excuses with a hollowugh and turned to Angor. ¡°Do you ept it?¡±

    Angor was puzzled for good when listening to their conversation. He still had no idea what was inside the vial.

    ¡°Um, what¡¯s that stuff, professor?¡±

    Ness cleared his throat to interrupt. ¡°Come on, you kids don¡¯t have to know the details. It¡¯s good stuff, I tell you! Something that worths at least thousands of magic crystals on the auction!¡±

    That just gave Angor more reason to hesitate. He looked at Sunders again.

    Sunders did not disappoint his student. He replied in his hoarse tone while still smiling a little.

    ¡°Well. This is... the bloodline essence of a subus.¡±

 Chapter 213 - Succubus Blood

    <h4>Chapter 213: Subus Blood</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The bloodline essence of a subus, as its name suggested, came from an Abyss Subus.

    To know the effect of the essence, one should learn about the arts learned by wizards first.

    One of the three major arts, the Bloodline Art, allowed wizards to absorb the bloodline of powerful creatures into their own body in order to receive an evolved bloodline. For Bloodline Wizards, any creature that lived on throughout the history could provide a bloodline. For example, creatures such as monsters, magical nts, phantom beasts, humans...

    The major arts were not exclusive. Non-Bloodline Wizards could also use a foreign bloodline for self-strengthening. However, Bloodline Wizards could spend many years to make a bloodline fuse with their bodies more perfectly. Once they had mastered a bloodline, they could choose to go for a second one.

    The other wizards did not usually spend so much time on it. Injecting a bloodline only meant to improve their bodies to a limited extent.

    To put it simply, Elementalists and ultists used bloodlines to enhance their physique, while Bloodline Wizards considered the method as part of their long-term cultivation. Every bloodline could show its best effect and special properties on the body of a Bloodline Wizard. These wizards grew stronger by the day as they continued to draw more bloodlines while acquiring more and more special traits.

    However, drawing bloodlines came with a fatal drawback: having moreplicated bloodlines in one¡¯s body meant a lower chance of getting new ones sessfully. This was the reason why very few bloodline wizards could progress to higher levels.

    Of course, wizards who sought knowledge and truth for their lives more or less knew about methods to avoid the drawbacks. However, Angor did not know anything about such tricks yet.

    ¡°The Subus Bloodline will enhance your body, possibly giving you a special ability of the creature,¡± said Ness. He continued to encourage Angor by saying, ¡°Just think! A fresh apprentice with a bloodline! Your strength will be doubled! When any other apprentice opposes you, you can just go kick his ass like its nothing!¡±

    <i>Drawing a bloodline... </i>Angor pondered. Previously, he thought Ness wanted to harm him. Now it did not seem the case. As the old man said, the bloodline of a powerful creature was priceless for an ordinary apprentice.

    Angor never thought about using bloodlines before because something like that was simply beyond his reach. Now, however... a vial of an avable bloodline was ready to be used. Angor was really interested.

    But he still remembered Ness¡¯ strange reactions.

    ¡°Mister Ness, you said you need to get a result by injecting the bloodline into my body. May I ask what the result is?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°We haven¡¯t started the experiment yet. How would I know the result?¡± Ness muttered.

    ¡°So... sir, what kind of results are expected?¡±

    Ness muttered again, ¡°We need to actually do the test first.¡±

    Since he could not get anything from Ness, Angor turned to Sunders for help. ¡°Professor, will I get anything bad out of this? I mean, will the subus blood give me bad aftereffects?¡±

    Instead of answering, Sunders nced at Ness who in turn gave him a meaningful wink.

    Ness used a private messaging spell. ¡°Come on. Help me out. I really need the result! Just tell your student something good. It¡¯s not like he¡¯ll die from the test.¡±

    When Ness realized Sunders was not convinced, the old man clenched his teeth and decided to add to his wager. ¡°Okay! I owe you one this time!¡±

    Sunders finally smiled in satisfaction.

    The gentleman turned to Angor. ¡°Using any bloodline has its own risk. But at the same time, there are approaches to prevent that risk. The materials in the nutrient fluid already improved your sess rate for using the subus blood. I¡¯d say... 80% or more.¡±

    Ness nodded along. ¡°It¡¯s a mighty good one, mind you. Without proper methods, those who absorb the initial bloodline usually have a terrible chance at it. 30% at best.¡±

    ¡°So will I receive any negative properties from the blood?¡± Angor tried.

    Ness winked at Sunders again.

    Sunders nodded in return and continued. ¡°Any bloodline, even a human one, can affect its user. For instance, a wizard who draws the bloodline of an Earth Fiend might receive a different skin color, loss of hair, and hard skin. They aren¡¯t really important as long as the user doesn¡¯t care about his looks. Of course, these are ¡®possible¡¯ effects. It¡¯s likely that the wizard won¡¯t experience any changes at all.¡±

    Sunders was telling the truth, but Ness kept sending him messages. ¡°Tell him good things! Don¡¯t talk about unnecessary stuff!¡±

    ¡°... As long as you seed in fusing the bloodline, you¡¯ll always gain more benefit than negative effects. A weak body is a major problem for all Elementalists and many ultists, thus receiving a bloodline would solve the problem. Also, there¡¯s a chance in it that you can receive a special trait which grants you a talented ability like the one used by Dripping River.¡±

    Ness quickly went along. ¡°You heard the man! No shilly-shallying like a pussy! We still need to get your soul examined. Stop wasting time.¡±

    Angor was almost convinced. But the tiny bit of doubt still got the better of him. ¡°Will this change my appearance?¡±

    Ness interrupted before Sunders could answer. ¡°What are you worrying ¡¯bout? A subus looks just like a human! And man they all look good! The blood will only make you look better!¡±

    Angor ignored Ness and looked at Sunders. He only trusted his professor now.

    Sunders only smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about that.¡±

    Ness sighed in relief. <i>Looks like Sunders¡¯ willing to help me after all.</i>

    ¡°However...¡±

    Ness quickly sent the gentleman another message. ¡°Stop! No! Enough! A favor, remember?!¡±

    Sunders also ignored his words. ¡°I can give you an example of a bloodline user. Leona, who once injected subus blood into her body, didn¡¯t receive any physique change. And as Ness said, she looks even more charming, and... more feminine.¡±

    The words were not about any drawbacks. However, Sunders intentionally emphasized the word ¡°feminine¡±, and Angor noticed it.

    ¡°More feminine? You mean... more estrogen hormone?¡±

    Wizards usually would not know much details about s*x hormone. However, for Angor who had learned some medical knowledge from Earth before, he clearly knew what ¡°more feminine¡± meant.

    A fine amount of estrogen hormone helped a woman look more charming. For a man, however, this could lead to overgrowth on the breast, reduced desire, and degraded manly features.

    Something that could turn a gentleman into a ¡°she-male¡±.

    Angor shivered all of sudden when thinking about the idea. It basically meant bing a transgender... a terrible nightmare!

    He remembered that Ness mentioned something about ¡°a subject about different genders¡±. Previously, Angor thought it meant the ¡°private actions¡± between man and woman. Now he realized that the old man was aiming for something way moreplicated, such as... two different genders on a single individual.

    ¡°No! I won¡¯t use the subus blood!¡±

    Angor¡¯s sudden decision caused Ness¡¯ satisfied smile to freeze.

    ¡°Think again! It¡¯s good for your body!¡± Ness quickly grew anxious.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°No thanks.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°There isn¡¯t really a reason. Just... no.¡±

    Angor was not sure whether his assumption was correct. Nevertheless, he would totally avoid using the blood for now. At least not before he got the chance to look into rted knowledge himself.

    ¡°You ungrateful fool!¡± Ness cursed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t force him since he doesn¡¯t want it. Use Sweetblood Orchis instead, and let¡¯s begin the experiment,¡± Sunders spoke.

    Ness still looked angry. ¡°I don¡¯t have those. I only got Mero Scorpion Flowers here.¡±

    The old man was staring at Angor in rage now. ¡°How dare you little assh*le reject my offer! Just you wait. Once I get you aroused with the Mero Scorpion Flowers, I¡¯ll find the ugliest fatass woman in the valley, throw her at you, and record everything that happens next so that I can sell it to someone with the right fetish!¡± Ness made up his mind in secret.

    While Ness was being all happy with his wicked idea, Sunders pulled a colorful vine from his ear nail.

    ¡°I happen to have transnted some Sweetblood Orchis in my gardenst time. Now we don¡¯t have to find them elsewhere.¡±

    Ness looked at the nt in Sunders¡¯ hand and grew speechless.

    ¡°I fuc*king hate rich guys!¡±

    Sunders only chuckled at Ness¡¯ outburst. ¡°Remember your words. You owe me a favor.¡±

    ¡°But he never agreed!¡±

    ¡°I agreed that I won¡¯t tell Angor anything about the drawbacks of the blood. It wasn¡¯t my job to persuade Angor. Do you want to break your promise?¡± Sunders slowly revealed the powerful aura of a level-2 wizard.

    Ness lost his bnce a little.

    ¡°But, but... I agreed to help you check Angor¡¯s soul...¡± Ness looked defeated.

    ¡°Because you¡¯re also interested in his soul. We both agreed. Besides, you get to learn something about special souls, so you should thank me for that.¡±

    Sunders looked away.

    Ness felt about crying. ¡°Why can¡¯t I at least earn something for myself?!¡±

    ...

    The first step of separating Angor¡¯s soul was ¡°attuning¡±.

    There were individuals whose soul could not be easily separated from their bodies. If forced, they would experience conditions such as loss of memory, dementia, even a dead soul.

    Such conditions weremon on mortals with weak spiritual power, but it did not mean that supernaturals would be safe.

    To avoid problems, they had to determine whether Angor¡¯s soul was good enough for separation.

    The process of attuning was difficult and could only be done by Soul Maniptors. However, it did not take much time. Ness asked Angor to step into a magic array. Angor saw something colorful shing in front of his eyes before he was asked toe out.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Ness spoke, but he looked doubtful for some reason. ¡°Something¡¯s strange though. The volume of his soul is... simr to people of the same age. Maybe a bit bigger. Yet the quality of his soul is exceptionally good. Angor¡¯s soul is purer than Saka¡¯s.¡±

    Ness looked at Sunders. ¡°You sure he¡¯s an Illusionist? Not a talented Soul Maniptor?¡±

 Chapter 214 - Indulgence and Restraint

    <h4>Chapter 214: Indulgence and Restraint</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°The soul of a Nightmare Form is naturally purer thanmon people,¡± Sunders said.

    ¡°Yeah... you used to be a Nightmare Form too, eh? But why am I getting the feeling that the boy is even purer than you?¡± Ness still looked doubtful.

    ¡°Because Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form is of a higher level than mine,¡± Sunders thought in his mind. Many wizards knew about his Nightmare Form, but few of them actually knew what a Nightmare Form could do.

    ¡°Such a pure soul... he should have no problem studying soul spells,¡± Nessmented.

    Sunders paid him no mind, but the words drew Angor¡¯s attention.

    The boy was not interested in learning soul spells for now. He only needed to know how to thoroughly kill a Soul Maniptor. Hookdick already sent assassins toe after him, and Angor was determined to get revenge.

    They proceeded with the second step of the experiment: Separating Soul From Body.

    The materials for making nutrient fluid was sufficient, and they brewed the fluid soon enough. The pale-green final product was injected into a ss chamber.

    Following Ness¡¯ order, Angor removed all his clothes and crawled into the liquid-filled chamber.

    He felt suffocated at first. However, once the fluid fully covered his body, Angor no longer felt so. The liquid in his lungs did not prevent his breathing. The chamber felt warm and safe, like theforting embrace of a mother.

    Angor sensed his brain fully rested under thefort. His eyelids grew heavier until he fell into a deep slumber.

    ...

    When Angor was asleep, Ness prepared to separate the boy¡¯s soul.

    There was a simple spell that ripped someone¡¯s soul from his or her body. However, the spell did too much damage to the victim, and of course, Sunders would not allow it, so Ness had to choose aplicated method. He first needed to loosen the connection between Angor¡¯s soul and body, then ignite a precious grass material called Soul Attractor which would attract Angor¡¯s soul to leave his body on its own.

    The process was long. No one knew how much time it would take for Angor¡¯s soul to quit his body.

    When the Soul Attractor started to burn, Ness quickly grew bored and tried to kill time in some bizarre way.

    The old man called a group of young maids to the room and began moving his hands around their bodies. When he noticed Sunders staying put in front of Angor¡¯s ss chamber, he gained a dangerous idea and asked a pair of maids to go serve Sunders.

    The maids fainted on the floor before they could reach the gentleman.

    ¡°Remove that power of yours, will ya? They¡¯re only mortals,¡± Ness crept up, with perfume smells on his body. ¡°Angor¡¯s soul is still stable. This will take a loooong time.¡±

    Sunders remained indifferent. ¡°Losing yourself to your desires is the reason why you never improved much. If you wish to travel further down the path of wizardry, learn to control your lust.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a hobby! You sound as if you don¡¯t have any,¡± Nessined.

    ¡°I have them. But I know how to refrain myself,¡± replied Sunders. He sounded cold as ever.

    ¡°Are you lecturing me now? You know Bloody Mary from the Dark Castle? She baths in virgin blood every fuc*ing day and kept thousands of catamites in her cells. And she still became a legend and went to explore distantnds!¡± Ness felt irritated a bit. What he did was nothingpared to Bloody Mary.

    ¡°Desire is not determined by the number of tools. You can go all-out on a single woman, whereas Bloody Mary knows how to control, no matter how many kids she had.¡±

    Ness did not look convinced at all, so Sunders decided to leave the matter. Wizards all needed to walk their own paths to learn the ultimate truth. This was why he did not teach Angor anything at the beginning and only gave Angor his notebook when the boy learned how to pursue the essentials of spells and alter the spells ording to his own ideas.

    Sunders remained silent, and Ness went back to his maids. The old man got bored again soon, so he asked all the women to go away. He then joined Sunders near the chamber.

    ¡°So... how did you teach Angor? Where did he learn about all those magic nts as well as their effects?¡± Ness chattered, ¡°Look at my students... They¡¯re terriblepared to Angor.¡±

    Sunders briefly revealed an uneasy expression. He never taught Angor any alchemy knowledge. When Ness praised his student, the gentleman felt both proud and embarrassed.

    When Sunders did not respond, Ness continued to chatter, ¡°He even knows about the catalytic effect of Mero Scorpion Flower... I only learned about it recently. Impressive. Did he receive enlightenment from the Elder of Books?¡±

    Sunders was curious about Angor¡¯s knowledge, but he did not intend to look into it. Wizards all had their own ways to study, and everyone could know something that others did not.

    For example, Sunders did not know much about soul knowledge, and he had toe looking for Ness¡¯ help.

    ¡°Enlightenment? Not really. But he did receive some pointers.¡± Sunders felt proud of Angor¡¯s achievement.

    No one had gained anything from the Elder of Books in many years. Whatever Angor did, the boy proved his superior talent.

    Ness was jealous now. ¡°I¡¯d have been the one getting the recruits! Then maybe Angor would be my student instead. I¡¯ve got so many questions to ask the Elder of Books, but he always chased me out of his room! Damn it.¡±

    Sunders sneered in his mind. <i>You won¡¯t get Angor anyway. I intercepted the boy from White Coral Floating Academy¡¯s ship.</i>

    As they talked, Angor felt himself returning to the chaotic space again.

    This was the ce where he fought with Parasite Queen.

    ¡°I returned to my soul form again?¡± Angor looked around curiously. The ce might look like his mind space, but Anger knew that it was not because he did not see his Axes of the Universe here.

    It was mostly empty. Apart from his own soul, there was only one other object: a green flower bud which was releasing a pale green light.

    <i>So this is the core of Green Velvet?</i>

    Angor tried to move. He thought his soul was trapped in the body like how it was when fighting Parasite Queen. Surprisingly though, he realized that he could move around this time.

    ¡°Huh... I can move?¡± Angor floated about. It felt simr to when he was in the Nightmare Realm, where he was not bound by gravity at all.

    Angor floated to the Green Velvet and circled around the bud. He was not confident enough to actually touch the nt, but he sensed somethingforting when staying near the bud.

    Just like Sunders mentioned, the Green Velvet could nurture his soul.

    <i>But... the Green Velvet core should be inside some part of my body, right? Why can I see it here?</i>

    <i>Does this mean that the chaotic space is the inside of my body? But why are there no blood vessels and other body parts? It looks so empty.</i>

    <i>Where exactly is the Green Velvet? And what is this ce?</i>

    Angor decided that he would ask his professorter.

    He stayed near the Green Velvet and enjoyed the refreshing aura it released until a strange force appeared and drew him away.

    The strange force was like a delicious candy that lured a child.

    Angor thought he could easily ignore the urge to follow it, but his mind worked too slowly. By the time he came to, he already floated to an entrance that looked like a vortex.

    He could see the outside world through it. Sunders was right there, but the gentleman never looked his way.

    He saw Ness too. Unlike Sunders, Ness bent a finger at him and beckoned.

    Angor was already attracted by the unknown force. Now that Ness asked him toe out, he stepped through the entrance without a second thought.

    ...

    ¡°Good boy. And finally! His soul space is prettyrge. The Soul Attractor has been burning for an hour.¡±

    Ness snuffed out the me on the grass and the strange force that attracted Angor¡¯s soul vanished.

    ¡°So, it was sessful. Now we need to test his soul,¡± Sunders spoke.

    Angor could not feel the nutrient liquid around his body when existing as a soul, so he believed he was an ethereal being who could go through solid objects.

    He was quickly proven wrong. When Angor went for the outside of the ss chamber, he bumped his head on the ss. Hard.

    Sunders looked at the silly move of his student and held back the urge to facepalm.

    Nessughed out. When Angor¡¯s expression went darker, the old man slowly exined, ¡°My equipment are all made from special materials. Souls cannot go through them.¡±

    Looking at how Ness was stillughing, and his professor¡¯s embarrassed look, Angor found an exit at the top of the chamber and floated out, blushing.

    He tried to stand on the floor, but he failed to sense anything solid. It was strange when looking at his body submerged in the chamber. Angor still felt a connection between his body and soul, but he could not tell why.

    Ness spoke to Sunders. ¡°The kid is still trying to hide his ¡®privacy¡¯. Look, he even made some ethereal clothes around his soul.¡±

    Like what Ness said, Angor¡¯s soul was not naked. He was wearing some basic cover-up.

    Sunders sneered, ¡°Unlike you, people know about shame.¡±

    ¡°Ptui. Why would I need to know shame? That¡¯s mortal stuff that constraints a human¡¯s nature. Wizards should all let it loose!¡± Ness retorted.

    ¡°That¡¯s your one-sided and extreme standard, and the reason why you failed to break through,¡± said Sunders. He had grown tired of exining moral issues to Ness. ¡°Let¡¯s begin. We¡¯ll note down his condition first.¡±

    Sunders turned to Angor. ¡°Do you feel the gray fog in you?¡±

    Angor tried, and he did sense the strange rippleing from the depth of his soul. ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    ¡°Can you control it then? Release it,¡± Ness said.

    Angor tried again. ¡°I... don¡¯t think I can.¡±

    After how he released the fog to an extreme extentst time, the fog seemed to be in dormant. Now, it looked like a stagnant puddle that refused to move around no matter how hard he tried.

    ¡°I see. Then, we need more tests. We shall find where it exists, and do something specific to trigger it,¡± said Ness. He pointed at the experiment bench where he processed the female corpse. ¡°Get on the bench.¡±

 Chapter 215 - Secret of the Soul

    <h4>Chapter 215: Secret of the Soul</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor left the ground and floated onto the bench with ease.

    ¡°Ohh, you just became a soul and you know how to float around already? Clever,¡± Nessmented.

    This was not the case. Angor could move freely all thanks to his experience in the Nightmare Realm. However, Sunders already told him not to reveal anything about the ce, so Angor could only give Ness a timid smile.

    Angor hunkered down on top of the experiment bench while Ness walked to some strange-looking equipment.

    ¡°Check out my treasure! I worked hard for a century to save up enough money!¡± Ness bloated.

    The old man spun a reeling wheel and something opened up on the ground, revealing a series of tube-shaped devices.

    There was a rotatable light bulb to the left of the devices, which was apanied by different smaller light tubes to the right.

    ¡°All-Inclusive Illuminator!¡± Ness pointed to the device proudly. ¡°I got it from an auction at Floating Mech City ten years ago. It can simte visible light of all frequencies!¡±

    ¡°All-Inclusive Illuminator... a new invention of modern machine alchemy. A very valuable piece,¡± Sunders nodded. ¡°Why, you¡¯re actually willing to spend the money on it?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have a choice. This is the only thing that creates an effective light wave that illuminates a soul. Soul Wizards really need this thing to help test out different souls.¡±

    Angor listened to their conversation and realized what the device was used for. It seemed like something that released visible light within a certain spectrum.

    Visible light meant a certain range of light spectrum which could be sensed by human eyes. When Jon gave Angor a lesson on optical waves, he mentioned something simr to Ness¡¯ device called a Spectrometer. Thetter worked by separating spectralponents from environmental light and thus, it worked differently from Ness¡¯ device.

    This meant that the alchemy machine industry in the wizarding world had already reached a high level in terms of science.

    Still, this was the first time for Angor to know that someone¡¯s soul could be seen through with the help of visible light. Either Ness¡¯ All-Inclusive Illuminator contained something other than science, or the old man meant something else by saying ¡°visible light¡±. The eyes of wizards could always do something that mortals could not.

    By using specific spells, maybe wizards could see a wider range of spectral frequencies such as ultraviolet light and microwave. Angor believed that science technologies from Earth were essentially different from wizardry after all.

    Ness had already ced the All-Inclusive Illuminator beside the working bench, covering Angor up.

    ¡°I¡¯ll use different lights and see which one can light up your soul. Some of them might feel ufortable, but I¡¯m only using moderate light waves which cannot damage your soul,¡± Ness said.

    ¡°Understood.¡± Angor was a bit stressed. He felt like a guinea pig waiting to be tampered with.

    Ness started up the machine, which began to shine a series of different colors toward Angor.

    A pale light prated Angor. Ness kept adjusting the machine.

    ¡°The correct light must illuminate everything inside your soul to help us see them,¡± Sunders exined.

    ¡°Sunders said the gray fog in your soul is semi-uncontroble and can drain your soul if too much of it is released. I assume that something has polluted your soul. I¡¯m trying to see which light can help us find the gray fog,¡± Ness added.

    As a soul master, Ness could actually show his great expertise in front of Sunders, which was a rare chance. Ness really enjoyed it.

    ¡°A soul is basically the aggregation of pure energy. The gray fog is probably something bad for your soul. From what I heard, it already shares a close connection with your soul, which is the reason why losing too much fog will weaken yourself.

    ¡°There are many more mysteries hiding in human souls...¡±

    Ness¡¯ ¡°lesson¡± helped Angor learned a lot. For example, the chaotic area Angor saw when existing as a soul was called ¡°Soul Space¡±. Soul Space was both inside and outside one¡¯s body. Asmonly believed by soul masters, Soul Space existed in a different dimension. It was the embodiment of one¡¯s spirit.

    There was no proof of it yet. However, before such proof was found, people chose to ept this deduction. ¡°Dimension¡± was amonly used tool when people could not understand something. For instance, when unable toprehend what ¡°Nightmare Realm¡± was, people considered it as another dimension. At the same time, they considered the special rule of time in Nightmare Realm as another property of the dimension.

    Everything that could not be exined was put aside in this way, just like how ancestors regarded all natural phenomena as the works of gods.

    As Angor dly enjoyed Ness¡¯ lesson, he suddenly sensed a strange emotion ripple.

    ¡°So beautiful... Baron Milk, no, Angor! You know, your soul is beyond beautiful! Oh... how I want to kill you. No! I must wait! Just a bit longer! When you¡¯re ripe, your soul shall be mine! As my third star!¡±

    It was a frenzied and willful emotion.

    The owner of the emotion was so obvious. Saka was still acting all silent in the illusion. However, his shifting expression and the strong trains of thought were clearly sensed by Angor.

    ¡°Yeah... He knows who I am.¡± Angor sighed in his mind. ¡°And I was right. He¡¯s nning to kill me and im my soul.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Sunders noticed Angor¡¯s unusual look.

    ¡°Is the light affecting you? Just hold on for a moment,¡± Ness looked up at Sunders¡¯ words and also saw Angor¡¯s strange expression.

    Angor only shook his head.

    Sunders followed Angor¡¯s gaze and looked at the illusion he created.

    ¡°You sensed his emotion?¡±

    Angor was surprised a little. He only nced at Saka briefly, and Sunders already caught his idea!

    ¡°Yes, professor,¡± Angor decided to tell the truth.

    ¡°And not a friendly one, I assume?¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Perhaps...¡± Angor gave a neutral answer this time.

    ¡°So... Sunders was right when he told me that your soul can sense the emotions of people?¡± Ness spoke.

    Angor was unsure about this. He did not sense anything from Sunders and Ness. He probably would not have sensed Saka either, if the pervert did not just disy a very strong idea.

    ¡°Tell me what¡¯s on his mind,¡± Ness pointed to the illusion. ¡°He¡¯s always doing weird things and doesn¡¯t tell me anything about them. As his teacher, I¡¯m getting a bit worried.¡±

    ¡°You sure you want to know, sir?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Is it something dirty? But the kid always knows how to behave. He neverid a finger on a single woman in the valley. Is he pretending it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not... dirty.¡±

    ¡°What then?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s waiting to find a chance to kill me when you¡¯re not around. Oh, and he wishes to do it in a ritual and elegant way, maybe killing me while I¡¯m smiling.¡±

    Both Sunders and Ness remained silent.

    Nessughed it off in embarrassment. ¡°Looks like Saka respects you! You know, he wants to give you a good death.¡±

    <i>Respect my ass! </i>Angor cursed in his mind.

    ¡°Did he say why he wants you dead though?¡± Ness asked again.

    Angor shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Something about making my soul into his third star.¡±

    ¡°I see! He has a pretty good taste then. I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡±

    Angor thought Ness could at least prevent it from happening since Sunders was right here.

    On the contrary, the old man did not mind Saka¡¯s vicious n at all, if not supporting it.

    ¡°Grow stronger and try not to get killed too easily. Don¡¯t worry, if you¡¯re dead, I¡¯ll take your soul away. Nightmare Forms are very valuable in this world,¡± Sunders spoke along.

    Angor was speechless now. So they only wanted his Nightmare Form...

    Angor was sure that Sunders did wish him to get strong as an apprentice. At the same time, if Angor would die for some reason, Sunders would not mind taking his soul as a test subject.

    Angor felt that his rtionship with his teacher was both close and contradictory. More importantly, such a strange rtionship was very realistic in this world.

    He shook his head and decided not to get troubled by the idea.

    ¡°Now, try to sense my emotion,¡± Ness suddenly spoke to Angor.

    ¡°I can¡¯t. I can feel nothing from Mister Ness and Professor.¡±

    ¡°Remove your spirit barrier and lower your energy flow to the same level of an apprentice,¡± Sunders suggested.

    Nessplied and asked Angor to try again.

 Chapter 216 - Soul Spells

    <h4>Chapter 216: Soul Spells</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor tried and did feel something from Ness¡¯ emotion. However...

    Sunders watched as Angor¡¯s eyebrows knitted into a frown. ¡°You still can¡¯t feel him?¡±

    Angor shook head. ¡°I can. But¡ªMister Ness is thinking about¡ª¡±

    ¡°About?¡±

    Angor tried to exin in a calm tone. ¡°Mister Ness hoped that it would be best if a woman coulde and... orally... ahem.¡±

    Several blood veins pulsed on Sunders¡¯ forehead when the gentleman heard what his student tried to say, while Ness did not look embarrassed in the least.

    ¡°Correct! So you really can sense emotions! But only the emotions of weaker souls or those without spirit defenses. Still, that¡¯s a really good talent ability.¡±

    Sunders red at Ness. The old man intentionally transmitted that kind of idea to his student¡¯s mind.

    <i>This old fart... no wonder people tend to call this ce the ¡°Valley of Pervert¡±.</i>

    ¡°It¡¯s not really a talent ability. His soul is simply more sensitive and canprehend stronger emotions. A talent ability must work when someone is under normal conditions. Angor can only do it as a soul. It¡¯s only a trait possessed by his Nightmare Form.¡±

    ¡°I see. If he gets to learn Soul Coupling spell and how to eject his soul freely, the ability will be a lot handier,¡± Ness said.

    Ness resumed working on the lights, while Angor floated on the working bench and started to feel bored.

    The light sometimes gave him an ufortable feeling, but it was not anything unbearable. When the light caused his debone on his back to start itching again, Angor pondered whether he should tell it.

    ¡°It¡¯s happening again?¡± Sunders used a message transmission spell in private.

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°You remember how I told you that the wound is a ¡®seed¡¯? To get rid of it, you must go to the ce it meant to lead you to. Although this wound seemed... powerful. It woke you up in the gourmet illusion, and then caused Parasite Queen to vanish... Also, there was that unknown being that came for us in the Nightmare Realm. I guess whoever left the wound on you must be someone really strong, and the seed will probably take you to the inner area of Nightmare Realm instead of the outer ces.¡±

    Sunders ended his message here. It was not much, but Angor still learned a lot from it.

    The inner area of Nightmare Realm...

    Sunders spent centuries exploring the outer areas of the Nightmare Realm, and he still ran into several dangerous situations. There was also somewhere in Nether City that Sunders did not wish to approach; ces that threatened the lives of the most powerful legendary wizards.

    What kind of great danger lied in wait in the core of Nightmare Realm?

    He needed to go there in order to address the possible problems carried by the strange wound. Angor believed that he at least needed to be a legendary wizard himself before attempting something like that. However, that would take forever.

    There was something else that concerned him. The lord of Glutton Flowers in the Glutton Flower Tunnel told him that he carried ¡°the smell of queen¡±. Maybe the monster that gave him the wound¡ªthe strange woman with a sutured face¡ªwas the ¡°queen¡±?

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about your wound, and don¡¯t tell Ness about it for now. At least it gave you more help than danger till now. I guess the monster that wounded you didn¡¯t want to kill you. It¡¯s very possible that it¡¯s waiting for your growth, for the right time that it can collect its final fruit. There are many grand demons that love such tricks. History told them many times that an overgrown prey might devour them in the end, yet they never learned the lesson,¡± Sunders¡¯ messaging spell came again.

    Angor nced at Saka upon hearing those words.

    <i>Isn¡¯t that what Saka is nning to do? A grand demon? Hah.</i>

    Still, Angor got the feeling that the monster was nning something else. He needed to confront the monster to finally learn what it was. This was unlikely to happen any time soon.

    Sunders said that the wound posed no real threat for now, and that was enough.

    ...

    About half an hourter, when a yellowish-white light beam shined upon Angor¡¯s soul, he briefly took on a faint aura.

    Next, the light pierced into the depth of his soul.

    Unlike the other lights which either went through his soulpletely or dissipated in the air, this yellow one was absorbed by a gray lump of fog.

    ¡°Got it. Spectrum 3722,¡± Ness fixed the light beam at Angor and left his machine to join Sunders. ¡°There it is, gray fog,¡± said Ness as he took out some papers and began noting down something about the fog.

    Different spells shined in Ness¡¯ eyes, and the old man swiftly found out the density, viscosity, diffusion rate and other properties. Next, Ness listed out a series of substances that shared simr properties. They could be what they were looking for.

    ¡°Soul Mephitis? No... the gas pollutes someone¡¯s entire soul instantly instead of staying in one spot. Spirit Miasma maybe? Nah... Angor would have gone crazy in that case. Maybe it¡¯s White Frost?...¡±

    As Ness focused on his theories, Sunders observed the now visible gray fog and revealed a puzzled look.

    ¡°The ways it flows... it¡¯s like¡ª¡± Sunders caught a faint trace of a simr object in his memory and fell into deep thought.

    Ness put down his papers and approached Angor¡¯s soul to check the fog as well.

    ¡°Yes, I also saw it somewhere before,¡± said Ness. He took out a magnifying ss and spoke to Angor, ¡°Try to control it.¡±

    Under Angor¡¯s effort, the lump of fog moved just a bit before returning to its stagnant state.

    When the fog moved, a strange ripple caused Angor¡¯s soul to change a little, as if the fog tried to join with Angor himself.

    Angor did not notice it.

    Ness, however, widened his eyes in shock. ¡°It¡¯s absolutely not pollution, but a... Have you been studying soul spells these days?¡± Ness suddenly asked.

    ¡°Soul spells?¡± Angor had not expected such a question. He did think about them before, but he only decided earlier today about learning how to counter soul spells so he could get rid of Hookdick. He never nned to study them.

    ¡°No. I only know some basic cantrips and illusion spells.¡± Angor shook his head in denial. He still needed a lot of effort to learn advanced illusions. He had no time for anything else.

    ¡°Strange. The gray fog isn¡¯t a solid substance. It¡¯s a... product, some kind of crystallized result of intelligence, like a spell model. It¡¯s made when you sessfully make your innovation and knowledge into reality.¡± Ness paused. ¡°It looks like... the model of a soul spell.¡±

    The old man suddenly summoned a woman¡¯s soul.

    Next, he created a barrier around the three of them, while leaving the soul outside.

    As Angor tried toprehend what he just heard, Ness made his All-Inclusive Illuminator shine with another type of light and directed the light at the woman¡¯s soul. Angor could now see the energy flowing in her.

    ¡°Use Howling of Souls, Susan,¡± Ness ordered.

    Upon hearing the order, the energy in the woman¡¯s soul began to gather and created a strange ripple. Her face twisted, and a terrible screaming was heard. However, they did not feel anything other than her voice when inside the barrier.

    ¡°See that? The ripple on your soul when you moved the fog around looks very simr to her when she used Howling of Souls... That¡¯s why I suspect that you learned a soul spell.¡± Ness frowned. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, oh my... your magic potential is amazing. The spell is already existing as a condensed fog when you didn¡¯t even trigger it at all. If you actually released the spell... it will be something beyond a mere cantrip that could be learned by an apprentice.

    ¡°It exins why you felt your soul drained dry. It isn¡¯t something you can use with your current level of strength. A toddler with a sharp sword will only hurt himself.¡±

    Angor grew more and more puzzled now. ¡°Is it really a soul spell? But I never learned any.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only an assumption. We may learn something else if you can release it, but your soul is too weak to do so. Forcing it means exhausting your energy. Now that I think about it, how did you survive when you actually did it in front of Parasite Queenst time?¡± Ness asked.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    He felt that Parasite Queen was pulled into the wound on his back, then his soul was energized again. But it had something to do with Nightmare Realm, so Angor could not tell it to Ness.

    ¡°Welp. I have nothing else to work on, then.¡± Ness shrugged.

    ¡°Hold on,¡± said Sunders after he had finished his thoughts. ¡°His soul is too weak to release the fog, so he can do it if you lend him some soul energy.¡±

 Chapter 217 - Rise of Rhythm

    <h4>Chapter 217: Rise of Rhythm</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Soul energy could be ¡°borrowed¡±??

    Before Angor could consider the possibility of the matter, Ness yelled out hisint, ¡°You let me down, Sunders. You¡¯re asking for energy from an old friend just to help your student? I¡¯m sad, man.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you want to see what the gray fog is?¡± Sunders crossed his arms and put on his nonchnt attitude on disy again.

    ¡°I do. But let¡¯s not push it. We can wait for Angor to grow stronger, and everything will show itself.¡±

    Formal wizards all had long lifespans, and Ness would not mind for another decade or two. It would probably take him such a long time to finish his current subject on human genders, and he could wait for Angor¡¯s ¡°maturity¡± while at it.

    Sunders had been Ness¡¯ friend for nearly a century now. They might not be the best of friends despite how Ness always called Sunders a ¡°dear old friend¡±, but Sunders could still figure out what the old man was nning.

    ¡°Do you believe that student of yours can wait that long before going for Angor¡¯s life?¡±

    Ness frowned. Yeah, before Angor¡¯s soul could reach its top condition, Saka probably had already imed Angor for himself.

    ¡°It won¡¯t matter. I can still borrow the soul from Saka.¡±

    Sunders sneered, ¡°I did say that when it happens, I¡¯ll take Angor¡¯s soul away. You think you can borrow his soul from me instead?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I can! By paying you an ugly sum of money!¡± Nessined in his mind.

    ¡°And let¡¯s assume that your student didn¡¯t kill Angor by then,¡± Sunders continued. ¡°Angor should be a formal wizard by the time his soul matured. By then, he will know the nature of the gray fog himself. Why would he ask for your help?¡±

    Ness was getting convinced a little.

    Sunders pushed further. ¡°Suppose I can still allow you to do the experiment, we shall talk about the equivalent exchange rule. Exposing his soul to you means Angor trusts his own life to you. So, what can you give him in return?¡±

    Ness frowned harder. Sunders was right. Now was the easiest chance for the old man to do the test on Angor. If he missed today, he would have to pay a great price to look into Angor¡¯s soul again.

    However... if he insisted on doing it now, he had to give Angor some soul energy. To ensure a fluent process, he also needed to use his purest energy in order not to get repelled. This meant spending Ness¡¯ own strength to help cultivate Angor¡¯s soul.

    Using his own strength right now, or paying an unknown price to do the test in the future... Ness struggled between the two choices.

    Angor, on the other hand, grew a bit frustrated. He felt like he was used as a bargaining chip.

    Ness hesitated for some time and finally made up his mind. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll lend him my soul energy, for a time.¡± Ness turned to Angor and said, ¡°You lucked out, kid. I¡¯ll need to transfer at least two years of my own strength to you. The energy will also make your soul purer... You really have a good teacher, boy.¡±

    Sunders chuckled. ¡°Not really. Knowing the nature of the fog also means a lot to you, no? As a soul master, maybe you can find something valuable in it and learn another powerful soul spell. Don¡¯t pretend that it¡¯s a great favor. The boy owes you nothing.¡±

    Ness mentioned the ¡°damage¡± he would receive and how it benefited Angor, just so he could earn something back from the boy. Angor was too weak to provide anything now, but no one knew what could happen in the future.

    Ness did not look offended when Sunders ruined his n. What mattered was whether Angor would remember the favor, and Sunders could not decide for Angor. Ness already gave Angor the big idea. The rest depended on Angor¡¯s sense of value.

    ¡°Humans all have different attributes in their souls. Your soul will reject foreign energy, so I can only give you the purest, ¡®attributeless¡¯ soul energy,¡± Ness exined while preparing to refine his own energy. ¡°Remember, when the energy is enough to trigger that gray fog, get away from me at once. The energy is not yours. Too much of it will only harm you.¡±

    Ness walked to Sunders. ¡°I guess you have to take care of my body in the meantime.¡±

    Ness sat down and cast a Soul Coupling spell. His soul slowly emerged from his body.

    Angor was surprised to see that Ness¡¯ soul looked a lot different than the other souls he saw before. Ness¡¯ soul had a clearer and more solid look. Actually, his soul looked just like a human being. Angor would certainly mistake it as Ness himself if the boy did not see Ness¡¯ body sitting right next to it.

    Ness¡¯ soul floated to Angor.

    ¡°I¡¯m starting. When you receive my soul energy, keep trying to move the fog.¡±

    ¡°Understood!¡±

    A number of shiny light spots appeared around Ness¡¯ soul like fireflies. These contained Ness¡¯ purest soul energy.

    ¡°Absorb them until you have enough to control the fog!¡± Ness ordered.

    Absorbing the spots was not hard. Angor only needed to move closer to the spots, and his soul would begin drawing them in on its own.

    As he absorbed more energy, Angor felt as if a giant furnace had appeared in the depth of his soul, warming him up. Further energy spots caused the me of the furnace to burn hot like pumping oxygen into the fire.

    Usually, soul energy should be something calm and inactive. At this moment, Angor¡¯s energy began to run wild. He felt like boiling water which kept releasing bubbles and scorching steam.

    The burning and overflowing energy gave Angor a terrible feeling. He followed Ness¡¯ order and began to move the gray fog hidden in the depth of his soul while trying to ignore the pain.

    As he received more energy, controlling the fog became quite easy.

    Previously, Angor could only shift the fog just a bit. Now, he easily moved a small part of the fog away from its original spot.

    A minute or twoter, his soul was filled up with energy, and the ¡°temperature¡± in his soul had reached its peak. Angor felt extremely energized now. The gray fog was fully released from his soul under Angor¡¯s control.

    At the same time, Angor had the feeling that he could not take it anymore, so he immediately left the light spots, away from Ness.

    Ness noticed Angor¡¯s movement and took the remaining spots back into his soul.

    The old man¡¯s soul now looked a bit blurrypared to before. It was not obvious, but someone could still tell his soul from a real human body when he observed carefully enough.

    Ness returned to his body. His face was a little pale, and he did not look as spirited as before.

    ¡°st it. The kid¡¯s soul is better than I expected. He even got a soul furnace! I lost at least five years of my strength!¡± Ness bellowed toward Sunders. ¡°I ask again, you sure he¡¯s not a Soul Maniptor?? His soul is too good for a Nightmare Form!¡±

    ¡°Nightmare Formse in different levels,¡± said Sunders. He pointed at Angor. ¡°And he has a higher level than me.¡±

    ¡°Nightmare Forms have different levels?¡± Ness did not really know anything about this concept since it was created by Sunders. ¡°And he¡¯s not talented to be a soul wizard? I summoned my soul furnace when I was a level-2 apprentice. This little bastard can do it when he never even received any soul training?!¡±

    ¡°No. His talent is in Illusion.¡±

    Despite his firm answer, Sunders was not so sure. During Angor¡¯s talent test, the Tree Spirit mentioned that Angor had another ult talent other than his Illusionist talent. However, the Tree Spirit did not look into it because of Angor¡¯s spirit defense.

    ¡°Maybe this ¡®second talent¡¯ is something rted to souls?¡± Sunders pondered.

    Nevertheless, Sunders did not intend to say anything about it before Angor became a wizard. Going for a second subject during apprenticeship could be a reckless decision for Angor.

    ¡°One¡¯s talent cannot determine his future achievement. I do believe Angor can study soul spells just fine,¡± Nessmented.

    ¡°Perhaps.¡± Sunders was in as ever. ¡°You¡¯re not going to check his soul now?¡±

    ¡°Of course I am!¡± Ness grew angry again. ¡°I didn¡¯t lie! Five years of my strength! It would take the kid tens years or so to acquire the same amount! From today, no other apprentice can beat him when ites to soul quality.¡±

    Sunders chuckled. ¡°Think this way. When those people from Moonfrost Union see your current condition, they won¡¯t ask you to join the front line again.¡±

    ¡°Moonfrost Union...¡± Ness sneered and did not say anything further.

    Ness led Angor into the depth of the cave where Ness did the testing of his spells. It was a room fully encased in metal and came with the protection of a magic array.

    Ness asked Angor to stand in the center of the room. Then he pointed at the various alchemy items at Angor. These tools would help record various data of Angor¡¯s fog.

    ¡°You should have enough energy to cast a soul spell now. Let me see what that fog really is, right now,¡± said Ness. His eyes were literally shining. ¡°At least I can learn something good out of it.¡±

    Angor already felt terrible because of the overflowing energy. When he heard Ness, he was d he could finally let the energy out.

    Angor released all the extra energy he gained from Ness in one go. The gray fog in him flowed outward like crazy.

    As the fog left Angor¡¯s soul, the underground room was shrouded in a strange aura.

    When the fog slowly covered the area, they all sensed a type of heavy and sturdy energy pressed against their bodies.

    ¡°This is¡ª¡± Ness widened his eyes in shock. ¡°I see it now. I knew something felt familiar! This is the fuc*ing rhythm ofw we saw that day!¡±

    Ness gave Sunders an angry re. ¡°Damn it! Sunders, you ass! You fooled me again!¡±

    Sunders got a good feeling about the familiar aura in the room and nodded. ¡°My assumption was right... This is the sequence of gravity.¡±

 Chapter 218 - Tranquility of the Soul

    <h4>Chapter 218: Tranquility of the Soul</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Ness heard Sunders¡¯ words.

    And he was furious! Sunders knew about the nature of the gray fog all along!

    Ness spent years of his strength on Angor so he could learn the data of a ¡°new soul spell¡± from Angor¡¯s soul and recreate the spell using his expertise as a soul master.

    But there was no such thing as a ¡°new soul spell¡±! This was the embodiment of naturalw!

    And he could not possibly study the rhythm of aw! This was a gift bestowed to lucky people by the world¡¯s consciousness. Only legendary wizards had a chance toprehend the force of thew by other means.

    It was already a big question of whether Ness could be a level-2 wizard in his life. Legendary? Forget it.

    And Ness was infuriated about how Sunders tricked him into doing the experiment.

    Sunders was the owner of a gravity garden. He would see thew of gravity all day! Obviously, he could see it from the strange fog!

    Ness felt like crying. He was kept in the dark by this pair of shameless assholes. He spent a whole day on a useless experiment while spending his own resource, only to get nothing in the end!

    ¡°You knew! From the start! Huh??¡± Ness questioned Sunders.

    Sunders still looked indifferent as he replied, ¡°I was still uncertain when looking at the strange ripple when Angor tried to move the fog on your bench.¡±

    ¡°And you decided to trick me into helping?¡±

    Sunders was unmoved by Ness¡¯ sad expression. ¡°It¡¯s a harmless test. If my assumption was wrong, you would gain a piece of valuable knowledge. You were just not lucky enough.¡±

    ...

    When fighting with Parasite Queen, Angor managed to move his gray fog. However, instead of triggering the true power of the fog, he only ced the fog into a different position around his soul.

    But here, Angorpletely disyed the full potential of the gray fog with the help of Ness¡¯ soul energy and revealed its effect.

    When he did, Angor immediately understood the nature of the fog. He could manipte the fog however he wanted just like casting cantrips.

    Gravity. He was using the sequence of gravity.

    Angor always felt something familiar from the strange fog because he had been doingbat training with Toby, who often wielded the sequence of gravity right in front of him.

    Angor realized how to wield the new power almost instantly. He pointed a finger to a metal block nearby. The object which weighed several dozen kilograms immediately floated into the air.

    ¡°Use all the energy you have and throw it at me.¡± Sunders¡¯ figure shifted in front of Angor.

    Angor was trying to find a target to direct the object at when Sunders¡¯ offer solved his problem.

    Angor nodded without hesitating. He covered the metal block with all the gravity energy he could gather and hurled it against Sunders. He was not sure how strong the attack was, but he knew it would do nothing to harm Sunders for real.

    When Angor pressed his sequence of gravity against it, the hovering object gained a frightening velocity in a blink of a second and went for Sunders like a meteor. A trail of me was left behind it when the flying metal ignited the atmosphere around it.

    Before reaching Sunders, the metal was stopped by a semi-transparent barrier and created a deafening noise. Sparks were scattered sideways like fireworks from where the metal connected with the barrier. Some of them stuck into the metal walls in the room.

    Sunders¡¯ barrier wavered a bit, but it soon regained its sturdiness. The metal block had been trimmed into a smooth sphere, which finally fell onto the floor and created a loud nking sound while still releasing a stream of blue smoke.

    ¡°Such power... that¡¯s already deadlier than average cantrips. It¡¯s still far from a spell, but when he gained deeper knowledge about the sequence of gravity, this move will grow a lot stronger,¡± said Ness. He put on a jealous look. ¡°Lucky bastard. Once he¡¯s a formal wizard, he¡¯ll have a Quickened Spell without spending any spell slot. A powerful one at that! I mean, shit! Why didn¡¯t I have one?!¡±

    Angor had exhausted his soul energy. With the bloating sense gone, he felt exceptionally refreshed. Also, after being tempered by the soul furnace, Angor¡¯s soul was now purer than ever.

    The boy floated to Sunders with a joyful look.

    ¡°I get it, professor. It¡¯s the sequence of gravity,¡± Angor spoke proudly.

    Sunders nodded. ¡°Indeed. Compared to Toby, you gained a betterprehension of the sequence. You already know how to apply gravity to other objects.¡±

    Sunders spoke in his calm tone. However, deep inside, the gentleman had developed a mixed emotion. As the owner of the gravity garden, he never learned the sequence of gravity, which was still eptable. Yet his student beat him to it... Heck, even the bird of his student could do it. This could be a big joke when people learned about it.

    Although Sunders quickly got over this little embarrassment. He had seen too many things in the human world to get troubled by such trivial problems.

    ¡°It¡¯s a pity that you cannot use it again without enough soul energy of your own,¡± said Sunders. He revealed a puzzled look and asked, ¡°I¡¯m wondering... When the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was constructed, you really didn¡¯t sense anything?¡±

    Usually, when the world¡¯s consciousness injected aw into a finished Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, anyone who learned something about thew would quickly understand it. Toby had already proved it by showing them its new strength on the same day.

    Angor, however, only achieved the same thing after he understood the nature of the gray fog. When Angor said he did not learn anything from the garden, he really meant it.

    Angor went over his memory. ¡°I... did not sense anything back then.¡±

    And he was sure of his answer.

    ¡°But... I was in a really strange state when the world¡¯s consciousness worked on thew.¡±

    ¡°A strange state?¡±

    Angor tried to describe what he felt that day with the correct words. ¡°It was something new to me. It wasn¡¯t meditation, but I still felt the surrounding turning very calm and quiet. My mind felt like a giant grasnd. It could contain wind, clouds, the sky. I could sense everything that was happening around me, including the rhythm caused by the world¡¯s consciousness.¡±

    Ness sent a voice transmission to Sunders, ¡°I think I know what he¡¯s talking about. It sounds like...¡±

    ¡°Tranquility of the soul!¡± Sunders and Ness revealed the answer at the same time.

    The tranquility of body, mind, and soul meant three different meditation levels. The tranquility of the body was the first challenge that separated mortals from supernaturals because mortals could not enter the state of meditation with their distracting thoughts.

    The tranquility of the mind was only something possible for wizards. Such a state helped them enter a meditation quickly in the noisiest environments.

    An even higher level of the meditation was called ¡°tranquility of the soul¡±. When someone could calm his soul, nothing would ever disturb him again.

    This was mostly an unreachable state for wizards. Someone who managed to achieve tranquility of the soul would be able toprehend all reasons and learn knowledge faster than ever. Every wizard out there would give everything to meditate in such a level.

    How to enter such a state had been a constant debate topic among wizards in the south. There had been wizards of different levels who seeded in it, including legendary wizards and fresh apprentices. This meant that whether someone could achieve tranquility of the soul had little to do with their strengths.

    But not everyone believed so. There were ancient parchments which said that high-leveled wizards could all enter the state. Here, by ¡°high-leveled wizards¡±, the stories in the parchments referred to level-6 formal wizards or someone beyond.

    Today, only level-4 wizards who sessfully found their paths of truth were considered ¡°legendary wizards¡±.

    Level-6 meant two more levels beyond these people. The southern region had not seen another legendary since Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard disappeared from everyone¡¯s view a thousand years ago, which meant these ancient stories would never be proved.

    Nowadays, most wizards in the south considered such a meditation state as something brought by a rare destiny.

    ¡°Maybe he simply hit the luck? But why must he enter the tranquility of soul right when the world¡¯s consciousness brought thew? Such a coincidence,¡± Ness transmitted his voice to Sunders.

    ¡°Or maybe it isn¡¯t all about destiny after all. The appearance of the world¡¯s consciousness fulfilled one of the conditions,¡± Sunders pondered. Like Ness, he did not believe that his student only had his luck to thank for. There had to be something that helped Angor achieved ¡°soul tranquility¡±, and Angor found it.

    Angor continued his story. ¡°The rhythm brought by thew beat in my mind like music notes that came alive. But it didn¡¯tst very long. Some powerful drumbeats interrupted the music, and they pressed me on the ground. I couldn¡¯t move. I only felt better when thew was finallypleted.¡±

 Chapter 219 - Disadvantage

    <h4>Chapter 219: Disadvantage</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°You¡¯re just a freshman apprentice with an above-average spirit. Your body cannot endure the state of soul tranquility for too long. Any ordinary soul will simply be kicked out of the state in no time, but you¡ªyou¡¯re a little better! ¡®Tis a destiny sought by all wizards! Why does it have to be you??¡±

    Ness pointed a finger at Angor and did not know how toin further.

    ¡°Soul tranquility?¡± Angor did not hear the message transmission between Sunders and Ness. He had no idea that the state he went through that day was the highest meditation level one could hope for.

    Sunders gave Angor a brief exnation of it. ¡°Somehow, you achieved the conditions for soul tranquility without realizing it, and the world¡¯s consciousness triggered it in you. That was how you fell into the state. As mentioned by Ness, your body is too weak to experience the full potential of such a state.

    ¡°Although this exined how you learned the sequence of gravity. Your learning process was interrupted when you couldn¡¯t hold on any longer, so you failed to realize what you just learned because it was iplete. The partial sequence stayed in the depth of your soul since you earned them in the state of soul tranquility,¡± said Sunders as he looked a bit disappointed.

    ¡°The knowledge of such a power would exist in your mind space instead of your soul once you¡¯ve fullyprehended it, in which case you do not need to use soul energy to trigger it. Now, however... It¡¯s such a pity.¡±

    Ness added, ¡°That¡¯s to say, the sequence of gravity in your body works as a spell which uses your soul energy. You know, even soul masters mostly avoid doing that. They¡¯d use their mana to cast spells. Usually, soul energy isn¡¯t something you should use at all.¡±

    Angor began to understand. The sequence of gravity he learned sounded powerful, but he had to consume his own soul energy to wield it. Soul energy did not recover as fast as one¡¯s mana. Combined with the fact that Angor¡¯s soul was still weak, he would not be able to use the power at all in the near future.

    ¡°It¡¯s still something. A free Quickened Spell for you.¡± Despite all the disadvantages he mentioned to Angor, Ness still envied the boy. Soul energy was difficult to recover, but it still could grow with enough time. An extra Quickened Spell for a wizard meant something to save his or her life in dire situations. Angor had gained a failsafe for possible life-threatening cases he might encounter.

    ¡°We have the test result now. We can finish thest step.¡±

    Thest step was ¡°rejoining Angor¡¯s soul with his body¡±.

    As they moved back to theb room, Ness was still muttering in frustration. ¡°Damn you, Sunders. I gained nothing today, and I lost five years of my strength! Why is my life so miserable? I¡¯m staying at my own ce just fine, and troubles came to my doorstep! Which means you!¡±

    Angor would admit that he felt bad at Ness¡¯ misfortune. He had gained a lot from the experiment. Aside from the sequence of gravity, which was not avable for him now, Angor drained some soul energy from Ness which improved his soul by a whole level.

    Such merit would work wonders in theing days. With enough soul energy, Angor¡¯s soul would be able to affect the physical world without learning specific soul-rted spells. He could even live without his body, just like other Soul Maniptors.

    Although the guiltiness in Angor¡¯s mind was quickly snuffed out by what Ness said next.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to train Saka as best as I can from today... I¡¯m depending on him to get back what I paid today,¡± said the old man as he nced at Angor with a wicked look.

    As always, Sunders did notment.

    Angor grimaced and made up his mind. He would remember those who wanted to harm him and get rid of them one by one, for himself, and for his mentor, Jon.

    Thest step was simple. Ness cast a spell to re-open the Soul Space in Angor¡¯s body, and Angor only needed to float back inside.

    It went well. Several minutester, Angor opened his eyes in the liquid-filled ss chamber.

    He did not feel anything wrong with his body when climbing out of the chamber. After drying himself with a towel nearby, he could still smell the residue of the magical nts used in the liquid. Angor quickly dressed up and joined Sunders.

    The gentleman was now talking with Ness about something. Ness had calmed down from his jealousy and did not bad-mouth Angor again.

    ¡°... Those people won¡¯t leave you alone?¡± Ness said.

    Sunders nodded in his indifferent manner. ¡°Guess they¡¯ll stick to the end. Understandable. They¡¯re going for the offspring of ¡®him¡¯...¡±

    Ness sneered. ¡°Yeah... they need you to break the illusions.¡±

    Sunders shook head. ¡°That¡¯s not what matters. They want my gravity garden. You know, smuggling live specimens? Huge profit for them.¡±

    ¡°Live specimens? Did Karabits ask for them?¡±

    ¡°Probably. The Karabits is never stingy with money when ites to bioresearch,¡± said Sunders as he frowned. He never liked this particr human race.

    ¡°So they¡¯re not pushing you to the front line?¡± Ness asked. ¡°You won¡¯t really get any trouble if you don¡¯t get involved with that offspring.¡±

    ¡°No one knows for sure. Nevertheless, I don¡¯t want to join the nuisance.¡±

    ¡°Easy for you to say. They went so far as to aim for ¡®his¡¯ children, I guess Lord Monkey decided to y hisst gambit. You know, be legendary or die,¡± Ness sighed.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t worry too much. They only considered you as a filler in the team. Now that your soul energy decreased, they probably lost their interest in you,¡± said Sunders. He chuckled and added, ¡°Maybe today¡¯s test is a blessing in disguise to you?¡±

    Instead of insisting that he suffered loss, Ness only sighed again. ¡°Moonfrost Union is straying from the way of wizardry. Wizards explore the unknown to seek the truth, but those people only care about explorations now. The day they abandoned the will to search for truth will be when Moonfrost Union invites doom for themselves.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t decide the path of truth for them. Maybe they have their own standard. Who knows, someone might just be mocking you for having an incorrect idea about truth at this moment.¡±

    Sunders was far more experienced than Ness. He knew that there were many ways to approach truth in this world.

    They stopped their conversation here. Angor hadpletely no idea what was that all about, and he decided to leave it. It did not sound anything rted to him, so why worrying about it?

    ¡°It¡¯ste. We¡¯re leaving. I still need to do something about... another old crank.¡±

    ¡°Old crank?¡±

    ¡°A certain scoundrel among us who thinks he¡¯s smart.¡±

    Sunders did not reveal a name, and Ness was really confused.

    ¡°Oh wait, almost forgot,¡± said Sunders. He took out a small vial with pinkish content inside¡ªthe vial of subus blood.

    Sunders tossed the vial to Ness. ¡°If you really need to test it on another gentleman, use it on your student when he¡¯s asleep. I guarantee that he won¡¯t feel a thing in my illusion.¡±

    Ness shook his hands. ¡°Nah. Considering his character, the kid will probably use a forbidden spell to abandon his body right away.¡±

    Angor¡¯s ears twitched. So... Saka could use another body if the current one was destroyed? Just as expected.

    It meant he needed some other ns to take care of Saka. Also, could Hookdick do something simr?

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you find another studentst year?¡± Sunders asked.

    ¡°You mean Hookdick?¡± Ness held his chin and considered. ¡°That¡¯s... actually, one way to do it. For some reason, Hookdick¡¯s anxious about getting stronger. He doesn¡¯t know much about the wizarding world yet. A small bait will do the trick...¡±

    While concerned that Hookdick might receive powerful traits by using the subus blood, Angor also gave Sunders a thumbs-up in his mind.

    He really wanted to see what would happen to Hookdick if the muscr dude actually injected the stuff. Hookdick added with feminine features? That would look fun!

    Before leaving the Valley of Souls, Ness gave Angor onest warning.

    ¡°The sequence of gravity is now closely connected to your soul. I only saw such a case for the first time. We can consider it as a new soul spell for now, but I don¡¯t know if it has negative effects on your soul in the future. Someone¡¯s soul should always stay pure, and the sequence is something foreign.¡±

    Angor remembered those words, although he was not sure if Ness was only putting pressure on him. The sequence of gravity was probably a gift. However, Jon once told him that fortune and misfortune were always two sides of the same coin. Was this really a gift, or... something else disguised as a gift?

    On their way back, Sunders noticed Angor¡¯s uneasy expression and spoke, ¡°Every decision will bring a wizard possible risk. What you¡¯ve to do is learning the risk beforehand and know how to prevent it. And if you can¡¯t, try to mitigate its damage.

    ¡°Every question has an answer. It¡¯s a wizard¡¯s task to find the answer.¡±

 Chapter 220 - Sound

    <h4>Chapter 220: Sound</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The ultimate goal for wizards was the truth, an answer to all.

    ¡°You can find many ways to approach the answer,¡± Sunders lectured while they stood on the back of a demon falcon. The gentleman held his top-hat with a hand while his ck cape danced wildly in the wind.

    ¡°Besides, there might be more than one answer that awaits.¡±

    Sunders looked in another direction where some rainclouds gathered. It seemed a storm was approaching. Angor saw several apprentices floating near the clouds and writing something. He remembered seeing the same scene in Brute Cavern many times, in different ces.

    A philosophy book from Earth exined that one should ¡°learn as he goes¡± whilebining what he saw with his experience. This was just what those apprentices were doing.

    Some of them were collecting water element, some of them created traces of clouds around their bodies, and someone was trying to push the rainclouds and observe their movement.

    ¡°They are working on the same subject. But they¡¯ll each get a different answer in the end. Do you know why?¡± Sunders looked at Angor.

    ¡°Because... they learned different things in their lives. Also, they think in different ways.¡±

    ¡°Correct. They should walk their own paths. If someone tries to imitate the way of another without achieving his own first, he¡¯ll fail both.¡±

    Angor realized what Sunders tried to say. His professor was worried that he might get indulged by what his new power might bring and started to work on his soul energy from today instead of moving toward his original goal.

    Power was always an attractive treasure, especially for apprentices. There were many living examples in the Sky Tower, who aimed for advanced spells whilepletely ignoring their fundamentals. The sequence of gravity was very likely to get the better of a weak apprentice like Angor, and Sunders would be greatly disappointed if his student was blinded by the momentary benefit.

    ¡°I know what¡¯s more important, professor,¡± said Angor as he gave his teacher a determined look.

    Sunders nodded and did not say anything further.

    In truth, Sunders was being a bit oversensitive. Angor had another reason for his eagerness to grow stronger. He promised to save Jon in five years, and he already lost more than a year. Angor had no time to care about other matters.

    The Tree of Eternity was well within reach, which meant they would arrive at Phantom Ind soon. Angor still had questions, so he decided to ask them when he still had time.

    ¡°Professor, was that a basic illusion you used on Saka?¡±

    Sunders nodded and asked something in return, ¡°I saw you observe the illusion for a while. Did you figure out anything?¡±

    Angor told Sunders what he learned. He also recreated a smaller version of the illusion on top of his palm. A tiny yet vivid scene came alive in his hand.

    ¡°Good. You¡¯ve done well learning how to use micro illusions.¡± Sunders was not stingy with his words ofpliment.

    Angor giggled. He had only learned the idea of micro illusions when he was creating the demon falcon statue.

    ¡°Everything you said is correct. Nodes, logic, mana distribution... You even found out what I ced in the illusion. I see you¡¯re pretty skilled at basic illusions now. So... you wish to learn about Melodious Illusion?¡± Sunders revealed Angor¡¯s intention.

    Angor quickly nodded. His thirst for knowledge was in on his face.

    Instead of answering, Sunders grabbed the back of Angor¡¯s cor and leaped down from the demon falcon, which caused Angor to panic a little.

    But Angor soon calmed down. His professor would not do this without a reason.

    However, when they were about to hit the ground, he quickly realized that Sunders did not use any mana energy at all. In fact, Sunders was no longer beside him! The gentleman was floating near the demon falcon as he watched him fall.

    Angor¡¯s mind went nk, and he could hear his heart beating like a drum. There were only a dozen meters left. His face was now pale with fear.

    It felt exactly like how he was blown off the clouds and fall from the sky when the world¡¯s consciousness descended to Brute Cavern.

    But he had Lady Mirror to save him on that day. Would Sunders do that now?

    No! Something told Angor that Sunders was not going to help him at all.

    The fear in his eyes was quickly reced by violent determination¡ª <i>Why must I trust my life to someone else? I can do it myself!</i>

    Angor quickly went through the cantrip models he learned. He did not learn many from books, but he knew a lot of altered models.

    <i>But which one could help in such a situation? </i>Angor¡¯s mind worked so fast that time seemed to be slowing down.

    One particr model caught his attention. A model he noticed when trying to resolve the Cleanse spell.

    The Cleanse spell used abination of water and wind elements, and its model consisted of a ¡°surface¡± and a ¡°magatama¡±. If he used a ¡°shattered magatama¡±, more water element would show up. This meant that the spell would raise more wind element if both ¡°magatama¡± and ¡°surface¡± were kept intact.

    When the hologram tablet worked on the viable elementbinations for the spell, there was a certainbination that took the device fifteen minutes to figure out.

    Angor applied thebination to the correct magic form and reached a conclusion that it was a wind-aspectbination by using ¡°intact magatama and surface¡±.

    ¡°Maybe wind can help me slow down.¡± Angor desperately attempted the spell. His eyes were bloodshot due to great pressure on both his body and mind.

    Previously, when Angor tried to cast a spell that took such a long time for the hologram to calcte, he experienced a magic backfire and suffered from damaged spirit for half a month. He never dared to try it again.

    But he did not have a choice now. He did not know any wind spells, and there were no level-0 wind cantrips that allowed people to fly. This altered wind-aspect model was his only chance.

    ¡°Here goes nothing!¡±

    Before hitting the ground, Angor cast the cantrip.

    Mana was drained from his mana pool like crazy. It was depleted when the model was almost done.

    This was exactly what happened during the magic backfire. With no mana to finish the model, it began to crumble on itself.

    ¡°This is it...¡± Angor closed his eyes in despair. He did not have enough mana. The model he was using was probably a level-1 cantrip or something more powerful.

    When he waited for his imminent doom, he felt a stream of gentle energy in his body, which did not have a specific attribute.

    <i>More mana?</i>

    Angor did not have time to figure out where it came from. He quickly injected the mana into the unstable model, which was sessfully finished before it was toote.

    Apleted cantrip model!

    He released the spell from under his feet as fast as he could.

    A whirling wind suddenly appeared under him.

    Angor could hear something screaming in pain. It sounded like a bird too. When he wondered what just happened, he realized that he was gaining altitude again with the help of a small tornado under his feet.

    <i>Wait... tornado?</i>

    The Tornado spell was a level-3 cantrip whichbined water and wind elements. But it was a powerful one, unlike the miniature tornado under him now.

    At least he was safe. Angor sighed in relief and tried to get over his fear.

    A hoarse yet gentle voice came beside his ears, ¡°Oh boy. You hurt my demon falcon. How naughty of you.¡±

    Angor saw the scenery in front of his eyes... changing. He should be somewhere near the ground now. But when he could see clearly again, he was still flying high in the sky.

    And Sunders still had his hand on his cor.

    Not far from them, a demon falcon was struggling in the air while squawking terribly. A giant bleeding wound had appeared on its back. There were wind and water elements lingering on the wound.

    ¡°Is¡ªis that an illusion?¡± Angor¡¯s face went pale again in horror. It could also be the result of exhausted mana. Or both.

    ¡°Ha!¡± Sunders chuckled. Unlike his usual indifferent temperament, his reaction seemed energetic and sincere this time, which somewhatforted Angor¡¯s spirit.

    Sunders¡¯ reaction was also the answer Angor waited for. Angor released his spirit feelers to sense the environment. As he expected, there were traces of a basic illusion.

    Everything he saw was fake!

    Angor felt his face burning in embarrassment. During his maniacal attempt to survive, he probably looked miserable, like a drug addict suffering from withdrawal who crunched his own teeth with a twisted face.

    And Sunders had seen it all.

    Angor covered his face. His image... ruined! He worked so hard to establish a modest and timid character in front of Sunders!

    Sunders slowly carried the boy back to the demon falcon by his cor. Angor was not moving at all. Anyone who saw his pale face now would probably mistake him as a corpse.

    The demon falcon threw Angor an angry re, which caused Angor to lower his head further.

    Sunders used a simple spell to heal the demon falcon up. However, the spell did not bring back the creature¡¯s feathers. A giant patch on the back of the bird was left bald, which really stood out among the other beautiful plumes.

    Angor sat on one side of the demon falcon and remained silent.

    ¡°Did you just use an altered version of Tornado?¡± Sunders tried to get his student out of the embarrassment.

    Angor muttered in a small voice. ¡°No idea. I used something like that for the first time only.¡±

    Sunders nodded in acknowledgment. ¡°Aplete magatama located on top of a surface. Was that originally a Cleanse spell?¡±

    Since his professor knew the look of the model, Angor was sure he received the extra mana from Sunders himself.

    ¡°Yes... It was Cleanse,¡± answered Angor after a moment of hesitation. ¡°And... thank-thank you, sir. I¡¯d have gotten backfired again if not for your help.¡±

    ¡°It happenedst time when you attempted an altered Cleanse spell. Did you just use the very same one?¡± Sunders looked interested in the new model. Anyone would if a level-0 cantrip used for cleaning stuff suddenly gained the same amount of power of a level-2 attacking cantrip.

    <i>It wasn¡¯t the same </i>.

    Angor thought in his mind.

    ¡°Yes, professor,¡± Angor answered.

    ¡°Impressive. It¡¯s wed, but being able to turn a level-0 cantrip into something like that is already worth noting down in the history book,¡± said Sunders as he put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°If you¡¯re willing to, you can introduce this improved Cleanse of yours to a magazine for apprentices. People will like it a lot.¡±

    Angor mumbled again and did notment. He kept his head low as he thought about his miserable life.

    Sunders could not help smiling at his student¡¯s childish reaction.

    ¡°Did you find the effect of Melodious Illusion from that basic illusion?¡± Sunders changed the topic to distract Angor¡¯s thoughts.

    <i>Melodious Illusion? There was?</i>

    Sunders¡¯ question aroused enough of Angor¡¯s curiosity.

    Angor tried to recall what he saw in the illusion. But he could not think of anything in the end.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t?¡±

    Angor was only sure that was a basic illusion since he already found the nodes of it. But Melodious Illusion? He could not sense any of it.

    Melodious Illusions required sound. But there was no sound at all! Unless... Was it the sound of the wind?

 Chapter 221 - The Secret Of Sound

    <h4>Chapter 221: The Secret Of Sound</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>The sound of the wind?</i>

    They were now flying at an altitude of several hundred meters. The demon falcon pped its wings in the shifting clouds, and the howling wind was constantly assaulting their skin.

    Angor tried to think of his previous experience. There was nothing wrong with the sound of the wind in his memory.

    A stable wind blowing sound could not be used to trigger nodes for illusions, so the Melodious Illusion deployed by Sunders had nothing to do with wind.

    Angor frowned.

    <i>Was there any other sound apart from wind?</i>

    <i>Bird chirp maybe? No.</i>

    The only bird in the vicinity was the demon falcon they stayed on. And it did not make any noise aside from the painful scream caused by Angor¡¯s cantrip.

    <i>Clouds? Can¡¯t be.</i>

    Clouds did not make much sound in the sky. Sunders probably could do something to make them work, but Angor did not believe that his professor would make the test so difficult.

    Angor spent some time thinking over the question. With nothing else to go on, he looked at Sunders for help. Sunders pointed a finger toward somewhere.

    Sunders was pointing at the center of the falcon¡¯s back. He then asked Angor to sit on that spot.

    ¡°Something¡¯s here?¡± Angorplied, still puzzled.

    About half a minute, Angor felt something bumping heavily beneath him.

    A second bump appeared in another half minute.

    ¡°Is this... the falcon¡¯s heartbeat?¡± Angor immediately realized something.

    He thought about everything in the environment that could create sound, yet he forgot to think about his own body.

    And there were many different types of sound inside him.

    Moreover, as Angor was struggling in desperation, the surge of adrenaline amplified his heartbeat.

    Thump, thump...

    Angor ced a hand against his chest to feel his heart. It was now calmer,pared to when it beat wildly when his life was in danger.

    ¡°See it now?¡± Sunders asked.

    Angor nodded. ¡°My heart... So, Melodious Illusion is not limited to artificial and natural noises. We can also use something inside our bodies.¡±

    Angor felt happy about the knowledge he just learned, but it was not long before Sunders¡¯ment ruined his enthusiasm again.

    ¡°Your knowledge base is good,pared to other apprentices. So is your logic senses. But your vision is still too limited. You see matters just like mortals,¡± said Sunders. He did not hold back when pointing out Angor¡¯s problems. ¡°You need to develop a wider mind if you wish to seek the truth, or you¡¯ll just be another average wizard.¡±

    Angor¡¯s ego instantly deted.

    Sunders was right. He failed to look for reasons with a broader vision and only realized an answer with Sunders¡¯ hint.

    Sunders noticed the expression of his student calming down and grinned inconspicuously.

    ¡°As for your question,¡± Sunders spoke, ¡°you¡¯re right. The illusion was rted to your heartbeats. But do you know how?¡±

    It was something Angor had yet to figure out ever since he saw the illusion around Saka.

    <i>What are these different sounds used for in the illusions?</i>

    A simpler question was, why would a Melodious Illusion need sound?

    Angor was stumped. He thought he read enough about Acoustic Illusions. Now a small question totally got him stuck.

    He tried to remember the content in Sunders¡¯ notebook. The first page that exined the level-1 cantrip called ¡°Melodious Illusion¡± defined the spell as something that created illusions by tricking human senses with sound.

    ¡°To trick someone¡¯s senses with... sound?¡±

    He had been thinking in the wrong way. What really mattered in the definition was ¡°senses¡±!

    And ¡°sound¡± was only a tool used for disturbing, even manipting someone¡¯s sense.

    Sunders¡¯ Melodious Illusion leveraged his heartbeat. So which sense was affected by the sound of the heartbeat?

    A whileter, Angor lifted his head and answered in a in tone, ¡°Discrimination. I lost the ability to size up the environment around me.¡±

    Sunders smiled. ¡°Good. You¡¯ve got an answer.¡±

    By losing the ability to discriminate, Angor meant that his frenzied heartbeat prevented him from seeing the reasons around him. At first, he lost faith in Sunders, believing that Sunders would watch him die. Also, he failed to notice the abnormalities in his situation. The flow of wind did not change at all, and he never felt weightlessness, since he was not falling from the sky for real. Usually, even if he was in great trouble, Angor was unlikely to overlook such obvious matters.

    However, the sound of the heartbeat hindered his perception.

    ¡°I guess you also realized how the Melodious Illusion worked on Saka?¡± Sunders spoke.

    ¡°I think it was the same one that affected me. Saka lost his sense to see things correctly under the illusion¡¯s effect.¡±

    ¡°You are only partially correct,¡± said Sunders as he pointed out. It surprised Angor when Sunders said, ¡°You were right about how I used your heartbeat to create a delusion that you¡¯re in danger while making you unable to judge. But I used something different on Saka.

    ¡°Hypnosis.¡± Sunders did not wait for Angor to find an answer on his own this time. ¡°The experiment on your soul would take at least half a day. I used the sound of a ticking clock to put him into a sweet dream and block his ability to determine the truth. It was the easiest way.¡±

    Sunders put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Melodious Illusion is only a level-1 cantrip. But it involves a grand andplicated knowledge system. Wizards have been working on the spell for centuries. Of course, you¡¯re not going to learn it so fast.

    ¡°The other types of illusions are also tricky in their own ways. Yet most of them have something to do with disturbing human senses. Try reading some books about psychology, which will certainly help you study illusions.¡±

    ...

    They finally reached Phantom Ind. Angor was still thinking about Sunders¡¯ simple illusion.

    It was so simple and illogical, yet itpletely fooled him whenbined with a Melodious Illusion that affected his mind.

    It was an embarrassing experience. However, Angor was d he learned a lot from it.

    While basic illusions were used to trick people¡¯s eyes, Melodious Illusions could trick their minds when used correctly. If used together, they made a greatbination by creating way better illusions.

    In the world of wizards, one plus one was no longer a simple mathematical question. What people could gain bybining different knowledge was always unknown.

    On their way back, Angor felt something strange.

    The Phantom Ind was always a lively ce full of fantastical beasts. Why was it so quiet today?

    Angor followed behind Sunders and when he stepped into the manor, he saw a group of Phantom Servants standing in a straight line solemnly.

    Next, he felt great mana energy covering him up.

    When Angor tried to ask what happened, he realized he could no longer make any sound.

    <i>Is this... the level-1 cantrip, Silence? No. The cantrip only works on a single target.</i>

    <i>Then it must be the level-2 cantrip, Ward of Silence?</i>

    Angor once witnessed the power of the spell from Mara before he came to Fey Continent.

    The point was, whoever cast therge-scale spell in the home of a powerful wizard did note to show friendliness. Even Flora would never attempt something like this in Sunder¡¯s manor.

    <i>Did Sunders¡¯ enemye for him?</i>

    Angor carefully nced at his professor and saw the gentleman staring at the end of the hallway with a frown.

    ¡°Took you long enough, Sunders.¡± Someone appeared from the hallway.

    It was someone who looked quite aged. But his age did nothing to bend his body. This man was dressed in gray trousers and a white shirt covered in a brown, checkered vest. Everything on him was carefully trimmed and tidied. The old man¡¯s slicked hair was so smooth that not a single stray string could be seen.

    Angor¡¯s first thought was that he was someone who followed very strict principles.

    ¡°Mister Rein. To what honor do I owe the pleasure of having you in my humble abode?¡± Sunders removed his top hat and bowed to the visitor.

    All the Phantom Servants followed his example and bowed down.

    Angor was still wondering who this was. Sunders¡¯ action already told him that the old man had to be someone important. Therefore, the boy remained calm and bent down as well.

    ¡°Mister Rein¡± ignored the respectful attention and walked straight to Sunders with a somewhat frustrated look. ¡°You should already know why I am here.¡±

    Sunders pondered. ¡°Someone asked you toe, sir?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s Samantha.¡±

    ¡°I see. She¡¯s the only person I can think of that might convince you, Mister Rein. Looks like I¡¯ve no right to decline this time,¡± Sunders spoke.

    Rein opened his mouth, only to sigh in the end. ¡°Let¡¯s... talk about it inside. It¡¯s not really a difficult task.¡±

    As Rein and Sunders walked away, Angor wondered if he should follow or simply return home.

    ¡°Wait here just a bit. I still have something to tell youter,¡± Sunders¡¯ voice reached his ears.

 Chapter 222 - The Silencer

    <h4>Chapter 222: The Silencer</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders and Rein disappeared around the end of the hallway.

    Angor wondered what was the matter.

    He did not feel any mana ripple or strong emotions from the old man called Rein. It seemed to be an old gentleman with strict self-discipline. However, considering how everyone in the manor including Sunders paid him great respect, the old man had to be someone really special.

    ¡°Would you like to have a meal, Mister Padt?¡± Goode sent the other servants away and walked to Angor.

    ¡°Butler... Goode. Huh?¡±

    When Goode talked to him, Angor thought that the silencing spell was removed. However, he just realized he could only talk in a really small voice. He sounded quieter than a meowing kitten.

    Angor tried to clear his throat in a loud way, but his voice sounded even weaker.

    <i>What the heck?</i>

    Angor widened his eyes in disbelief. Unlike before, he could talk now. However, his voice was miserable.

    ¡°Speak gently, Mister Padt. Mister Rein dislikes noises. You¡¯ll sound quieter if you try to raise your voice,¡± Butler Goode suggested.

    ¡°You mean the old gentleman just now?¡± Angor tried. As Goode said, he sounded a lot better when he lowered his volume. Still, his words came out quieter than usual.

    ¡°Indeed. The meal is ready. How about eating something while waiting?¡±

    Angorplied while trying to ask Goode about the visitor in the meantime.

    And he was shocked when he finally learned who the old man was. It was only the first time Angor saw him in person, but he had read about the character many times.

    Rein Mute the Silencer.

    That was one of the figures in control of Brute Cavern, and one of the few level-3 formal wizards in the south who were expected to be legendary wizards.

    Every apprentice in Brute Cavern more or less heard about Rein¡¯s great stories. That man had mastered the ¡°power of silence¡± to an extreme and had almost made it into a type of naturalw. Even the world¡¯s consciousness would be affected, and it would remain quiet around him.

    He carried an aura of silence around without the need to use mana, which was also the reason why Phantom Ind seemed so quiet.

    Normally, Rein stayed inside the Cloud Tower on top of the Tree of Eternity. The tower could be seen from anywhere in the mirror world.

    From the records Angor read before, Rein had been staying in the Cloud Tower for many decades. Why did he suddenly decide toe looking for Sunders?

    While curious, Angor still knew that such a matter was not something he should interfere with. The business of a wizard was already beyond his reach, let alone something rted to a really powerful wizard.

    Angor tried to forget his curiosity and finish his meal. Next, he went to the garden for some fresh air. Rein¡¯s power only lowered his voice, but it still made him feel restricted.

    The garden outside the manor was just as quiet. However, the sound of the breeze and the smell of nature soothed his mind a little.

    Angor sat down on the bank of a river stream and closed his eyes to meditate.

    Sunders¡¯ energy helped him cast the improved cantrip, but he still used up all his mana. He had to wait for Sunders anyway, so he might as well use the chance to recover.

    Time slowly psed.

    When Angor quitted his meditation state, the sky was already curtained under stars.

    And his mana was fully recovered.

    Angor stayed in his mind space for a while and realized that his mana pool was now used to the speed of drawing raw energy. The energy flow was now stable than ever.

    He decided to work on further spirit power tunnels.

    His spirit model now looked like a sea urchin, where a singr point in the center was covered by many spirit tunnels that stretched into all directions. Each tunnel helped him contain primal mana, making his meditation and mana flow efficient.

    He got the feeling that several more tunnels would further expand his mana pool, which meant he would have enough mana to cast the improved cantrip on himself.

    Something suddenly clicked beside his ears, and he could clearly register the sounds of nature again, including the creatures in the woods, the water flow in the river, and the wind blowing past.

    Angor looked up and saw a figure flying away from Phantom Ind toward the Cloud Tower on top of the Tree of Eternity.

    ¡°Mister Rein has left.¡± He watched the old man disappear into the night sky.

    Soon, he heard Sunders calling, ¡°To my study, Angor.¡±

    ...

    Angor stood up quickly and walked toward the manor.

    Before reaching the door, he saw someone else approaching from another path in the garden.

    Under the gentle moonlight, Angor could see the individual covered under a ck wizard robe. But that was about it.

    Also, the figure was walking on elegant steps that suited a nobleman. Some details in his movements showed the man¡¯s proud and distant temperament.

    Angor felt something familiar from the unknown visitor. Something unbelievably familiar.

    More importantly, Angor was sure he knew the particr creature standing on the robed figure¡¯s shoulder¡ªa seabird with gray feathers who was wearing a beast-skin costume and a plumed tribal headdress.

    Angor frowned. ¡°Toby?¡±

    The tribesman¡ªno, tribesbird, heard him and tweeted in response. It quickly fluttered his way.

    Angor lifted an arm to catch the bird.

    Yes, it was Toby, since no other bird would lift its tiny head high in the air proudly in such a way.

    Toby tweeted and chirped while waving its wings around. Angor quickly realized that it was asking for a reward because of something.

    The robed figure also approached. Angor got a better look of him and... wait. It looked just like himself!

    ¡°Good evening, Mister Padt.¡±

    The cold and indifferent tone of the figure also sounded familiar. Angor always pretended such a character in front of everyone when he was ¡°Baron Milk¡±.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Angor tried to ask.

    ¡°Baron Milk¡± removed his robe to reveal¡ªwait, no. There was a second robe on him, and his face was hidden behind a mask.

    ¡°Phantom Servant?¡± Angor quickly recognized the patterns on the mask.

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m Number 233. You may call me by that number, Mister Padt,¡± said the servant. His voice slowly changed along with his physique.

    In a matter of seconds, ¡°Number 233¡± grew taller under Angor¡¯s gaze. His voice sounded sharper nowpared to the hoarse tone of ¡°Baron Milk¡±.

    ¡°Did you just, mimic me?¡±

    Number 233 bowed his head. ¡°When Mister Padt was unconscious on the bed, Mister Toby asked me to take on your look andpete in the Sky Tower in your ce.¡±

    ¡°You fought matches for me in these two days??¡± Angor asked in disbelief.

    Number 233 shook his head. ¡°My expertise is form-shifting and imitating. I¡¯m not adept atbat. I joined a total of 17 matches in three days. They were all managed by Mister Toby himself.¡±

    Toby raised its head high and waited for Angor¡¯s praise.

    ¡°Seventeen?! You won them all?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mister. You¡¯re now at the 14th level. And you¡¯re quite famous among the other fighters.¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t need fame! Are you alright, Toby?¡± Angor ced Toby in his palm carefully and checked if the bird was wounded.

    ¡°Mister Toby defeated every enemy with only one hit. Some of the audiences are beginning to call you the ¡®One-Hit Man¡¯,¡± Number 233mented.

    Angor made sure Toby was unharmed and frowned at 233¡¯s words. ¡°One-Hit Man, huh? Toby was the one who defeated the fighters. Shouldn¡¯t they use a name like ¡®One-Hit Bird¡¯?¡±

    ¡°No one called Mister Toby that way. But I did hear someone referring to Baron Milk as the ¡®One-Hit Birdy Man¡¯. Still, most people prefer the shorter version.¡±

    Angor walked toward the Manor with Toby while 233 followed.

    Number 233 told Angor about the details of the matches.

    And the details only gave Angor a big headache. He had earned quite a name for killing the champion of level 13. A bad one.

    The following matches were all taken care of by Toby while ¡°Baron Milk¡± simply stayed aside and watched, which caused his name to worsen further. People now considered him a fool who only knew how to rely on a familiar.

    The situation grew worse when people looked at his previous matches. They exaggerated the power of his alchemy weapon andpletely ignored the fact that Angor could also use spells.

    Since he killed the ¡°princess charm¡± of many audiences, all these foulments were totally expected. And usually, Angor would keep low-profile for some time to avoid too much trouble.

    But Toby did not know what ¡°low-profile¡± was.

    Without Angor, Toby grew more and more violent in front of people who kept badmouthing Angor. The bird finally lost patience and began killing everyone in the matches. He helped ¡°Baron Milk¡± reach the 14th level, leaving a pile of corpses behind.

    In just three days, the ¡°distant and cold character¡± of Baron Milk, which Angor spent so much effort to establish, became a ¡°Weakling¡±, a ¡°One-Hit Man¡±, and a ¡°Shameless Rogue¡±.

    By ¡°One-Hit Man¡±, people were actually being sarcastic.

    Also, he was known as ¡°someone who kills women mercilessly¡±.

    Angor simply gave up on worrying about it. He already had enough bad names. Some extra ones would no longer hurt.

    ¡°However, there are a number of females that support you,¡± Number 233 suddenly spoke.

    ¡°Oh yeah? Paranoias, I guess. You know, there are always those who love to be ¡®unique¡¯. If something is hated by the public, they act in the opposite way.¡±

    Number 233 shook his head. ¡°No. I think it¡¯s because Mister Padt identally exposed a part of your face in front of everyone during the match against Parasite Queen. Those women are all attracted by your handsomeness.¡±

    ¡°... So I¡¯m a ¡®Handsome A*shole¡¯ now? Damn. That sounds even worse.¡±

 Chapter 223 - Smuggling

    <h4>Chapter 223: Smuggling</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Number 233 did not add his ownment that there was another name used by the audiences: The Assh*le Son of Someone.

    To people, Baron Milk¡¯s powerful familiar and alchemy weapon had to havee from someone else. They believed that Baron Milk possessed an influential background.

    This assumption was the reason why despite many people hated Baron Milk to the core, no one actually came looking for trouble outside the matches.

    When they were at the door of the manor, Angor suddenly remembered something and asked, ¡°I still have the profile card on me. How were you allowed in the matches without it?¡±

    Number 233 took out a profile card from his robe. ¡°I don¡¯t really know. When choosing an opponent, I told Mister Baroque that I lost the card by ident, and he simply gave me a temporary one. The victories during these days are all recorded in this card. When you go to Sky Tower next time, you can go to the administration and transmit the victories into your original card.¡±

    <i>Baroque didn¡¯t mind the impostor?</i>

    ¡°I think that man can easily see through your disguise. He allowed you just so he can earn favor from my professor. Or... he was afraid of professor for some reason,¡± Angor sneered.

    Number 233 remained silent.

    ¡°Still, thank you for your help,¡± Angor thanked the servant sincerely.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, really. Mister Toby was the one doing the fighting.¡±

    Toby lifted its beak again to wait for Angor¡¯spliment.

    Angor chuckled. The bad influence was not something serious since only a selected few knew his true identity, and none of those who knew him would give him out easily. Even Saka would keep his secret safe.

    Angor bid farewell to Number 233 and entered the study on the second floor.

    He saw Sunders sitting in front of the desk again. The gentleman was considering something with his eyes closed while supporting his chin with an arm. When Angor approached, Sunders finally looked up and spoke in his usual hoarse voice.

    ¡°You came.¡±

    Sunders signaled Angor to take a seat.

    Angor sat down and waited for some time. When he looked up, he saw Sunders being all silent in deep thought again.

    ¡°Um, professor?¡± Angor called carefully.

    Sunders looked his way with a somewhat apologetic look.

    <i>He seems... concerned about something? </i>Angor hesitated and wondered whether he should be a little ¡°considerate¡± as a student.

    ¡°Did Mister Rein request something?¡± Angor tried.

    It surprised Sunders a little. The gentleman smiled when he realized that his student was only trying to help.

    ¡°He did. But it¡¯s nothing serious. He wanted to borrow my Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.¡±

    ¡°Borrow the garden?¡± Angor remembered something mentioned by Ness, that someone wanted to use the garden to smuggle ¡°live specimens¡±.

    ¡°To smuggle something?¡± Angor asked.

    Sunders nodded. He knew that Angor had a good idea about when to speak or withhold information, so he did not keep it a secret in front of Angor.

    ¡°Is it possible to smuggle creatures?¡± Angor asked in curiosity. ¡°Like your phantom beasts?¡±

    ¡°Some, yes. But most of the targets are intelligent beings from other worlds.¡±

    ¡°Intelligent beings in... other worlds?¡± Angor¡¯s heart raced faster for some reason.

    ¡°I think I mentioned something before, that any otherworldly creature must go through an ¡®official¡¯ path to enter the wizarding world and get registered. Otherwise, those ruffians from Supreme Cult will give you unending trouble like mad.

    ¡°However, those who came here legally are mostly from nes that shared a peace treaty with this world. We constraint each other either for profit or risk. Us wizards usually avoid doing anything to creatures from these nes,¡± said Sunders. He paused to arrange his words before he continued, ¡°Bioresearch is always a popr subject among wizards, and otherworldly humanoids are the most valuable test subjects. They always sell for a good price. Generally speaking... when someone is smuggling live specimens, he¡¯ll probably be dealing with such intelligent creatures.¡±

    ¡°Will the Supreme Cult do something about it?¡±

    ¡°The ultimate fate of these creatures will always be death, and this is just what the Supreme Cult strives to achieve, so they¡¯ll not mind.¡±

    It was a rare chance for them to talk about otherworldly creatures, so Angor tried to think of a way to divert the topic to ¡°how to prevent a smuggled being from getting rejected by world¡¯s consciousness¡±.

    But Sunders interrupted his train of thought.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to learn too much of it at the moment. I wanted to tell you something about bloodline.¡±

    ¡°Bloodline?¡±

    ¡°You made the right choice by rejecting Ness¡¯ offer. The bloodline of a subus is a really good one, mind you. However, as a rare case of being a Nightmare Form, it¡¯d be better if you use the bloodline of a monster native to the Nightmare Realm.

    ¡°Most of these monsters have counterparts in reality, but their blood tends to possess amazing powers that cannot be found in reality. Also, most of them help you learn illusions better. Some of my own illusion spells are connected to the blood of nightmare monsters. So is Flora¡¯s Red Reaper.

    ¡°Of course, it¡¯s up to you which bloodline you¡¯ll choose. I¡¯m only giving you a suggestion that you should choose carefully.¡±

    ¡°I understand, professor.¡± Angor did not know why Sunders suddenly decided to talk about bloodlines, but he was d he learned something.

    ¡°That¡¯s it for today. You can go now unless you have something else to ask.¡±

    Angor bowed to Sunders and prepared to go away.

    Sunders nced at the demon falcon statue on the desk and spoke to Angor¡¯s back, ¡°I think Flora mentioned something about Lady Mirror¡¯s particr interest in small inventions. She did save your life, so don¡¯t forget to go thank her properly.¡±

    ...

    Angor left the study and ran into Butler Goode. Somehow, he expected this to happen.

    ¡°Butler Goode, I¡¯ll take these clothes away and get them washed before giving them back. May I?¡± Angor pointed at the suit on himself.

    ¡°The Master won¡¯t mind. They¡¯re thrown-away anyway. Please don¡¯t hesitate to discard them if they don¡¯t suit you.¡±

    Angor quickly waved his hands. ¡°No, they¡¯re good on me. It¡¯s just... I feel a bit weird in them.¡±

    ¡°Do keep them then, Mister Padt. You remind me of Master when he was still young. It was such an enjoyable time...¡± Goode seemed to be enjoying something in his memory.

    Angor left quickly before Goode could start telling his old story.

    Angor boarded a sky bus from Falling Cloud Stop. Inside the cab, he enjoyed the night breeze while trying toprehend Sunders¡¯ reminder.

    Of course, he remembered Lady Mirror¡¯s favor. But... he did not really like Lady Mirror¡¯s character. Did he simply need to ¡°bring his handsome look¡± to Lady Mirror as per what Sunders said?

    Truthfully speaking, Angor would not visit Lady Mirror like that.

    ¡°Small inventions?¡±

    Speaking of inventions, Angor immediately thought about his unfinished music box.

    A music box was not really an invention. But... a beautiful illusion and pleasant music would make up for it.

    He did not have anything else that would interest Lady Mirror anyway. This toy was his only shot.

    He returned to Apprentice Town Eight while going over his thoughts.

    The town was quiet in the night. Only the marketce in the distance was still bright.

    Instead of heading home right away, Angor went down into the underground market first.

    ording to Number 233, the schedule for tomorrow¡¯s matches was already set. There were five matches. He also needed to check the announcement and see whether he was ced for extra matches.

    Besides, he had to buy another wizard robe as soon as possible.

    The old one was tossed away by Sunders, and he needed something to cover himself up in the tower.

    He neither had time nor knowledge to craft his own alchemy robe, or he certainly would try to make one himself.

    It waste. However, the underground market was still bustling with people like midday.

    The clock suggested that it was past ten o¡¯clock. Only a few people were in front of the announcement screen.

    Angor read the screen from top to bottom and saw his name appearing 11 times. He had a match in almost every hour, from seven in the morning till seven in the afternoon.

    He was allowed to draw five opponents in one day, which meant six other people chose his name in the lottery pool. It was not normal that Sky Tower gave him so many matches in one day. Angor took a guess that Baroque simply wished he could finish this level quickly and be gone.

    His assumption was mostly correct. Although it was not Baroque who wanted him gone. It was the Sky Tower. His matches all ended in ¡°shameless ways¡±, which did not help them attract audiences and ticket money, so the management team of the tower would like to see him finish his levels as soon as possible.

    Angor did a brief calction and realized the eleven matches would get him enough points to reach level 15. As for his opponents... it did not matter. He was going to ask Toby to finish the remaining job anyway.

    Number 233¡¯s words did not give him a good exnation about how bad his name was. Here, however, Angor finally saw how much hate he attracted.

    He saw an apprentice trying to decide which match to watch when someone nearby quickly suggested that he should avoid ¡°One-Hit Man¡±. Next, he exined all kinds of dirty moves of ¡°One-Hit Man¡± while asionally cursing something. Even Angor himself began to dislike ¡°Baron Milk¡± a little.

    More apprentices joined the discussion to boycott Baron Milk. Even some mortals agreed with them.

    Angor slowly turned to leave. He was getting worried that he would join them as well if he stayed here too long.

    When Angor walked away, someone wearing a white bear costume appeared.

    ¡°Tonight, is the fated reunion.¡± He walked to Angor¡¯s original position while muttering. When he arrived, he looked left and right without finding his target.

    ¡°Oops... Fate does sometimes go wrong. I came a little toote.¡±

 Chapter 224 - Professional Lackeys

    <h4>Chapter 224: Professional Lackeys</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The buildings in the underground market were ced together in a congested way. They all had very different colors and designs, but when joined together, they created a fantastic yet harmonious sight.

    Angor walked on a path where different shops stood on both sides. There were too many people that he could not help bumping into their shoulders now and then. It was unimaginable that the town above their heads was peaceful with sleeping residents.

    Smith shops, grocery stores, bars... Angor¡¯s eyes felt a bit sore when he finally noticed a tailor shop.

    This one was crowded with people as well. Most of the customers were female. Angor squeezed his way inside. Before he could talk to the shopkeeper, he noticed that there were onlydies¡¯ clothes hanging on the walls and inside disy cases.

    ¡°May I help you with something, Mister?¡± A youngdy with a round face walked to Angor. She was blushing for some reason.

    Out of instinct, Angor responded with a gentle smile. He then answered in a careful voice, ¡°Do you only sell women¡¯s clothing here?¡±

    Thedy was astonished by the question for a moment. ¡°No, sir. We also have male customers. But our designer mainly makes clothes for young women. If you do request so, you can also ce an order.¡±

    <i>A fashion designer? The clothes aren¡¯t made by an alchemist?</i>

    ¡°Do you have any wizard robes here?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°We have the base models here. You can choose a color you like and ask for custom pictures on them. Have you heard of ¡®Night Witch¡¯? Her robe was made by our designer. It¡¯s called the Lute of Night.¡±

    Angor did hear about such a character. Night Witch was taken in as an apprentice by ¡®Philosopher of Night¡¯ Kar thirty years ago, and she was now a level-3 apprentice who was about to break through soon. Sailum once mentioned her, since they had the same mentor. But unlike Sailum, Night Witch received a golden poster from Kar.

    The young saleswoman found a design paper from a counter and handed it to Angor.

    Lute of Night was a violet all-cover robe decorated withyered trimmings. The series of tassels and ck diamonds gave the robe a really luxurious look.

    But it looked overloaded. There were extra sutures everywhere.

    The saleswoman waited patiently as Angor checked the design. A group of witches nearby kept ncing at him and hinting something at the saleswoman, who blushed harder and waved a fist at her friends.

    ¡°How do you like it, sir? I did say that our designer prefers clothes fordies, but he should have no problem making a male one and helping you look cooler.¡±

    ¡°This is nice,¡± said Angor as he admitted his impression. ¡°But I see too many strings on the robe. Will they affect the effects of runes?¡±

    <i>Or maybe the strings contain runes in them, so they are both pretty and practical?</i>

    ¡°Runes?¡± The saleswoman was taken aback a little. ¡°You mean runes used in alchemy, Mister?¡±

    Angor scratched his hair. He forgot that most alchemists chose to study Synthesis. His previous robe came with a Cleanse rune, so he thought every wizard robe should contain runes, which was probably not the case.

    ¡°Well, yes,¡± Angor admitted his mistake. ¡°Sorry, are these synthesis runes on the robe?¡±

    The saleswoman revealed a stiff smile. ¡°Um, sir, we sell ordinary clothes here. We... don¡¯t have alchemy robes.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t?¡± Angor was surprised. He intentionally avoided shops run by mortals. Besides, the customers were all apprentices!

    ¡°An ordinary robe would do. Like the one apprentices received from the resource center,¡± Angor quickly said.

    The girl shook her head again. ¡°We offer design services. I¡¯m afraid we don¡¯t currently have the issued robe you mentioned.¡±

    ¡°Where can I get one?¡±

    ¡°Try to look from the other shop stands, but alchemy robes are usually costly to make. I don¡¯t think many people will sell them. Since they don¡¯t look good, you might find someone who¡¯s willing to part with one.¡±

    <i>Costly? </i>Angor realized that the alchemy level in Brute Cavern might be worse than he expected.

    Seeing how Angor looked ¡°disappointed¡±, the salesgirl added something. ¡°If you can¡¯t find them, you can check out Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop. Maybe you can find something you need there.¡±

    <i>Prome¡¯s?</i>

    Angor already nned to go there. However, rather than buying a robe, he was going there to thank Dave. When thinking about the robe, his instinct told him to look for shops run by women. Why would someone like Prome make clothes?

    Angor just realized that he was looking for an ALCHEMY robe, and Prome¡¯s shop was the right ce for it.

    After leaving the shop, Angor spent some time checking through the stands in the area and did not find anything he wanted. He decided to head for Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop in the end.

    It was almost midnight. As he recalled, Dave mentioned something about closing the shop at 11. Angor tried to hurry up and managed to arrive before then.

    The shadowsing from the window suggested there was more than one person in the shop.

    In front of the door, Angor heard someone talking inside.

    ¡°Fafafafa!¡± Someoneughed in a really strange way. ¡°You think I can¡¯t do anything to you when Master Prome¡¯s your teacher?¡±

    ¡°So, are you going to sell the sword or not?¡± Someone else spoke in a sharp voice.

    ¡°I told you it¡¯s only for sale next week! And it¡¯s not called a sword!¡± It was Dave this time.

    ¡°We¡¯re in a hurry! Fifteen magic crystals. The price¡¯s good enough for you!¡± This voice sounded low and deep.

    There were voices of four people. Apart from Dave¡¯s, Angor believed he recognized the other voices.

    He straightened his bow-tie and pushed the door open.

    ...

    Angor walked tall on firm steps. When he wore his wizard robe, he never paid attention to his looks. Now that he was using Sunders¡¯ clothes, he tried to regain the nobleman image he learned in Padt Manor.

    ¡°Angor?¡± Dave called in surprise.

    ¡°Angor??¡± The sharp voice and deep voice both called.

    Dave looked at thebination of a fat man and a pockmarked boy in front of him. <i>They knew Angor too?</i>

    Angor nodded to Dave and checked the other people in the shop.

    As expected, he knew them all. In a bad way.

    Fosah, Laffitte and... ckjack, in his usual ck gentleman attire.

    ¡°Fancy seeing you two here, Fosah, Laffitte,¡± Angor greeted them with a smile.

    The pair exchanged a look, then Fosah stepped up and smiled at Angor.

    ¡°We weren¡¯t expecting to see you either. And good timing, I always wanted to apologize forst time. I really shouldn¡¯t have done that. Do forgive me, please!¡±

    ¡°???¡± Angor was quite confused.

    <i>What the heck? Aren¡¯t you Hookdick¡¯sckeys? Maybe you don¡¯t want to fight, but shouldn¡¯t you at least say something offensive? Hookdick¡¯s gonna be disappointed!</i>

    Angor glimpsed at ckjack and realized something. <i>Maybe these two chose another boss to follow?</i>

    ¡°That woman, Mner...¡± Fosah spoke up again, ¡°I¡¯m really sorry. I was wrong about you. That bitch¡¯s just a cheap slut. My boss told me. She found someone else to snuggle with the next day. An ugly old geezer!¡±

    Angor was unsure where this was heading to. ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already forgotten about it.¡±

    ¡°Did youe to shop too?¡± Fosah asked in a friendly way. His eyes were shining deviously. He had already agreed with Laffitte that they should maintain a good rtionship with Angor. If they could not be friends, at least they should avoid bing Angor¡¯s enemies.

    Angor¡¯s teacher was called the killing machine in the south! Only a fool like Hookdick did not realize it. Maybe wizards did not care about the life and death of their students. But what if Sunders was different? Fosah and Laffitte did cherish their lives. They would not offend Angor for real just because Hookdick asked them to.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m just... looking around.¡±

    Fosah was unconvinced, but he did not say anything. He kept a smile on his fat face.

    ¡°Oh! Almost forgot. Here, this is our boss, Mister ckjack!¡±

    Both Fosah and Laffitte showed sincere respect. As Angor believed, they used the exact same attitude when acknowledging Hookdick as their boss.

    Angor was really puzzled now. <i>Did these two consider beingckeys as their profession? They changed their boss so soon!</i>

    ckjack humphed and walked to Angor with a really angry look.

    Angor was worried that ckjack had recognized his identity and came looking for a fight.

    But in the next second, ckjack calmed down and began to inspect Angor with a look of approval.

    ¡°Fafafa! Such good taste, man!¡±

    Angor remained calm and waited for ckjack¡¯s further reaction.

    ¡°Which shoppleted your suit? Tell me. Such a gentlemanly design! It¡¯s almost-¡±

    Everyone waited for him to finish. Almost what?

    ¡°Fafafa! I mean, it looks so brilliant!¡±

    Angor felt as if the look of admiration in ckjack¡¯s eyes was going to materialize in the air soon.

    <i>Oh right... ckjack is an admirer of Sunders.</i>

    ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t know. I received it from someone as a gift,¡± said Angor. He walked around ckjack and joined Dave.

    Dave quickly whispered something into his ear, ¡°They want to buy your ¡®Tang Dao¡¯.¡±

    <i>Tang Dao? </i>Angor looked at the shelf and saw the three oriental weapons he crafted already on disy.

    ckjack¡¯s group approached Dave again. Fosah gave Angor another smile and turned to Dave. ¡°So, the sword-¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s called a Tang Dao!¡±

    ¡°Right, Tang Dao, whatever. Our boss gives you fifteen magic crystals for it. It¡¯s our best price. You know, an alchemy weapon without any effect can only sell so much. This thing probably costs ten magic crystals in normal circumstances,¡± said Fosah with a sigh. ¡°I tell you, you won¡¯t find a better offer. The appearance of Moonfrost Passage raised the prices of weapons a little bit, but trust me, this one won¡¯t go beyond fifteen.¡±

 Chapter 225 - Blackjackâ€™s Rage

    <h4>Chapter 225: ckjack¡¯s Rage</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Fosah exined his offer to Dave ¡°sincerely¡±.

    And Dave knew that their offer was pretty good in the market. Dave¡¯s own evaluation for the Tang Dao was around ten magic crystals. Fosah¡¯s price was beyond his expectation.

    Dave nced at Angor, but Angor shook his head.

    Since Angor decided so, Dave had to follow his wish. After all, Angor was the owner of the weapon.

    ¡°It¡¯s not for sale for the moment. If you really want to buy it, pleasee back next week.¡±

    Fosah was pretty confused now. ¡°Can you tell me why?¡±

    Dave hesitated. He did not know either since Angor had never told him the reason.

    Fosah squinted his eyes. ¡°Are you simply trying to send us away cause you don¡¯t want to sell the weapon to us? ¡®Next week¡¯ is just an excuse, eh?¡±

    Dave remained silent.

    Angor spoke in a small voice. ¡°Maybe he¡¯s expecting a higher price? You know, something¡¯s happening recently. Weapons will sell better by the day.¡±

    Fosah looked at Angor and lowered his voice to be polite. ¡°You mean the Moonfrost Passage, right? It¡¯s been open for half a month. Those who need weapons already got them. I don¡¯t think this de¡¯s gonna be any different from now.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! The price is fixed,¡± Laffitte spoke along Fosah, ¡°and the price won¡¯t go up even if there¡¯s a second passage. People who¡¯re bold enough to challenge the second passage all need tiered weapons. This one¡¯s no good.¡±

    ¡°No one knows for sure,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know about the market, Angor. My father is the minister of economy in my country, and I can tell you that the price will not get any higher,¡± Fosah and Laffitte concluded. They were trying to persuade Dave, not Angor.

    ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll only put it on sale next week. Who knows, maybe something will happen by then,¡± Dave insisted. However, he did not sound so sure himself.

    ¡°I¡¯ll bet my head on it! With 15 crystals, I can get TWO weapons of the same ss from Twilight Auction,¡± Laffitte yelled in protest.

    Dave did not change his mind. ¡°Go to Twilight Auction then. I¡¯m not selling today.¡±

    ¡°Why you¡ª¡± Laffitte pointed at Dave and was about to get violent.

    Unlike ckjack, Laffitte and Fosah were merely two apprentices who just came to Brute Cavern. Dave was not afraid of them in the least.

    ¡°Why, want to start a fight in Master Prome¡¯s shop?¡± Dave stressed on the name of his teacher and grinned.

    There were only a handful of people in the underground market who were bold enough to offend Prome. A couple of days ago, Prome took ¡°Baron Milk¡± away from the arena and in the process, he killed off a number of people in the mob. Until now, no one hade looking for trouble yet, just because of his fame as an alchemist.

    Hearing the name of Master Prome, Laffitte¡¯s agitated expression immediately deted. He nced at his ¡°boss¡±, ckjack.

    So was Fosah. Theseckeys were now officially depending on their boss to help.

    ckjack frowned. <i>Cowards! You two just keep buzzing him until he sells the damn weapon! And even if Promeester, it won¡¯t have anything to do with me!</i>

    ckjack was expecting his followers to help him attract enmity, and he was obviously wrong about Fosah and Laffitte¡¯s character. When faced with a challenge, these two people would back out faster than everyone else.

    Since he was on his own now, ckjack could only step up.

    He walked in front of his subordinate and pointed a finger at Dave¡¯s nose... without saying anything.

    He did not want to get on the bad side of Master Prome either!

    A momentter, ckjack finally spoke something irrelevant, ¡°Keep hiding behind Master Prome then! If you evere out... heh!¡±

    With that, ckjack quickly turned to leave whileughing in his strange style as if he just won a war.

    Fosah and Laffitte exchanged a look and followed behind. Before going through the shop¡¯s door, Fosah looked back at Angor with a smile. ¡°We¡¯ll be on our way then. Let¡¯s have a drink at the Pinky Pub next time. My treat!¡±

    Angor did not respond.

    After the three left, Dave sighed in relief. ¡°I mean, 15 crystals is a decent price. They were right. This de... probably won¡¯t sell for any better price.¡±

    Angor did not know whether he should agree, but he did not really care about the tiny extra profit.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. This thing¡¯s easy to make. You can probably make something simr.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to make weapons,¡± Dave curled his lips.

    ¡°You wanted to join my project, right? Just watch me several times and you¡¯ll learn it,¡± said Angor. He clearly remembered how Dave tried his best to save him from the mobs, and Angor was thankful for it. Alchemy knowledge would be a great reward for Dave.

    Also, Angor believed that practical experience was something he really needed right now. Working together with Dave also meant he could learn something.

    ¡°But I don¡¯t want to make a music box. Ask me again if you¡¯re nning something else,¡± Dave grinned. ¡°You didn¡¯t stay at your house these days? Every time you finished a match, I¡¯ll go wait for you there, and I never saw you.¡±

    Dave looked a bit frustrated.

    ¡°Oh, um... I¡¯ve been staying at my professor¡¯s ce. I¡¯m only going home today.¡±

    It was Number 233 who was fighting on the stage, but Angor could not tell it to Dave.

    ¡°Oh, I forgot. It¡¯s Mister Sunders. Heck, if he¡¯s my professor, I¡¯ll probably stay at Phantom Ind all my life.¡± Dave still remembered how he and Master Prome were terrified by Sunders¡¯ appearance in the shop. ¡°No wonder you¡¯re so talented.¡±

    The talk reminded Dave of his sad experience with his previous teacher, and he really wanted to change the topic. ¡°So whatever happened to you during the match with Parasite Queen? Why did you suddenly faint?¡±

    Dave was still a little disappointed at the fall of Parasite Queen, but he no longer admired her.

    ¡°That woman...¡±

    ...

    Away from the shop, ckjack and hisckeys already left the area.

    ¡°That arrogant bastard thinks he got a strong shopkeeper behind his back! Man, I want to punch his face so bad,¡± Laffitte boasted and nced at ckjack. ¡°And to hell with Prome. Mister ckjack¡¯s gonna get way better than him, and the asshole will regret not joining us while he still has a chance.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. There are many people who want to join Mister ckjack!¡± Fosah chimed in.

    ckjack¡¯s cold expression did not change, but he somehow felt better at all the ttering.

    ¡°So you know that kid? I mean the one wearing the same style as me but who looks less handsome?¡±

    ¡°Angor? We¡¯re recruits of the same year,¡± Fosah answered.

    ¡°Those were pretty nice clothes. I wonder where he ordered them. Did he bring them to Brute Cavern himself?¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t really pay attention to the clothes of a guy¡ª¡± Laffitte said when Fosah quickly pulled his sleeve to stop him.

    ¡°Ahem!¡± Fosah continued, ¡°I think I heard that he¡¯s the child of a noble family of some ce. But we never saw him wearing an adult gentleman suit before.¡±

    Laffitte tried to remember as well. ¡°Yeah... but I think I saw his teacher wearing simr clothes.¡±

    ¡°Teacher? Who¡¯s his teacher?¡± ckjack grew curious.

    ¡°Well, he¡¯s called the ¡®killing machine in the south¡¯, Phantom Master Sunders. Lucky bastard. I don¡¯t know how they knew each other. Sunders was already giving Angor special treatment before we even reached Brute Cavern.¡± Laffitte grew a bit jealous.

    ckjack stopped his movement.

    ¡°What did you say??¡± ckjack grabbed Laffitte¡¯s cor and revealed a frenzied expression.

    Laffitte had no idea what he had done wrong. ¡°Uh, I said Angor was really lucky-¡±

    ¡°WHO IS HIS TEACHER?!¡±

    Laffitte jumped at ckjack¡¯s outburst and stuttered. ¡°It¡¯s Sun-Mister Sunders.¡±

    ckjack pushed Laffitte away. ¡°I heard that Mister Sunders took a new student, but he chose such a useless brat?? Balls!¡±

    He turned around and stomped toward Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop with an angered look.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, boss??¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill that sh*tter! I should be the one! I want him DEAD!¡± ckjack advanced on heavy steps as if nothing in the world would change his decision.

    Fosah and Laffitte looked at each other in doubt. <i>The one? What did ckjack mean?</i>

    More importantly... why did both of their bosses want to kill Angor so badly??

    ckjack pushed his way into the shop in rage. He did not notice that a big figure entered the shop along with him.

    ckjack went straight toward Angor. ¡°Get the fu*ck out, you loser! I¡¯m going to cut you in half and no one¡¯s stopping me!!¡±

    He took out a card at the same time. There was the picture of a wilted man whose neck was tangled in a rope on the card.

    ¡°Card: Death Invitation of the Hanged Man!¡±

    As ckjack called out, the shadow of a hanged man emerged from the card and rushed at Angor with a rope in his hand.

    Angor looked at the attack with unchanged expression.

    ¡°Get lost!¡± Someone bellowed beside ckjack.

    ckjack found himself kicked out of the door by someone before he could react.

    The card in his hand was torn in half, and he vomited blood at the same time.

    ¡°Messing up my shop... ckjack! You think I can¡¯t kill you?!¡±

 Chapter 226 - Obsession

    <h4>Chapter 226: Obsession</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ckjack felt the world around him spin around. Before he had even realized what just happened, he was sent away from the shop by a mighty kick and stumbled onto the ground outside like a barrel.

    ¡°Boss!¡± Fosah and Laffitte caught up to him and pretended to be worrying over his well-being.

    ckjack pushed them away and struggled to get up.

    ¡°It¡¯s Master Prome!¡± Fosah pointed at a man at the shop¡¯s door and yelled out.

    ckjack looked up. Prome was now standing on the stairs with Dave behind him. His target, Angor, was leaning on the doorframe and looking at him with a cold look.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to trouble you, Master Prome,¡± said ckjack once he regained his posture in front of Prome. ¡°I¡¯m looking for HIM!¡± He pointed at Angor and gave everyone a furious look.

    ¡°Who you¡¯re looking for is not my business. You dare start a fight in my shop, and right in front of me?! Did you lose your mind bullying weaklings in Sky Tower? Or did you forget what death means?¡± Prome did not care about ckjack¡¯s excuse. ckjack attacked someone in the shop right under his nose, which was enough to make him angry. Angor¡¯s special identity was just an additional reason.

    Prome glimpsed at the broken card on the ground.

    ¡°You like being hanged? I¡¯ll help you then!¡±

    Prome took out a thick rope from somewhere and ordered the rope to bind up ckjack like a mummy before hanging him in front of the shop door.

    Their strength gap was too big for ckjack to resist. A piece of cloth was stuffed in ckjack¡¯s mouth. The man¡¯s eyes were now red with both great rage and too much blood in his brain.

    ¡°You two are with him?¡± After ensuring that ckjack was ¡°in ce¡±, Prome dusted his hands and looked at the remaining two.

    Fosah and Laffitte had been staying still. When their names were mentioned, Fosah tried to speak while containing his fear. ¡°ckjack is our boss, but-but we¡¯re friends with Angor! Friends!¡±

    Prome was already moving to deal with them, but the second part of Fosah¡¯s exnation stopped him.

    Prome nced back at Angor with a questioning look.

    Angor looked at Fosah.

    Fosah and Laffitte responded with sad puppy eyes.

    When Fosah and Laffitte were about to faint due to the great stress, Angor slowly spoke out, ¡°They joined Brute Cavern together with me.¡±

    Angor did not say whether they were friends or enemies. However, Prome was experienced enough to read the meaning hidden in Angor¡¯s words.

    Prome turned around and walked into the shop while greeting Angor with a smile along his way.

    Fosah and Laffitte let out a breath in relief. Thank god they acted friendly to Angor a moment ago. Now they were wondering how Angor got to know Prome. Why on earth did Prome listen to Angor¡¯s opinion?

    As Angor talked with Prome, Dave walked outside and joined Fosah.

    ¡°What¡¯s with him? He looked just fine back there. Now he wants to kill Angor all of a sudden? Did you say something bad behind Angor¡¯s back?¡±

    Fosah quickly shook his head and his fat cheeks flipped like jelly from the motion. ¡°I don¡¯t know! He asked us where Angor found his clothes, and we said we don¡¯t know. Then Laffitte said something about how Angor¡¯s clothes looked like Mister Sunders¡¯, and ckjack turned all angry and rushed back. We couldn¡¯t stop him!¡±

    Angor heard their conversation and slowly got an idea. However, Prome pointed out the problem first.

    ¡°I expected much,¡± Prome spoke with a sneer.

    ¡°You know something, Master Prome?¡± Fosah knelt down in front of Prome respectfully, and Laffitte quickly followed his example.

    ¡°ckjack made quite a story for himself in his year, but his ssmates were either dead or proceeded into higher levels. The stories aren¡¯t so popr among the apprentices today,¡± Prome spoke to Angor andpletely ignored the twockeys on the ground.

    ¡°ckjack has a really good talent. Mister Tree Spirit once spoke highly of him. However, when assigning teachers, this man insisted that he would go to Mister Sunders. He discarded all the other professor posters.¡±

    ckjack¡¯s cheeks grew red. Maybe it was because he had been hanging upside-down for a while now, or maybe it was because he was simply too angry. The man kept giving Prome meaningful stares to stop him from talking, but Prome did not pay him any attention.

    ckjack tried to stare at hisckeys next, but those two were now attempting to find a new boss and had no time minding him.

    ¡°His strength remained at the same level because he had no one to teach him. A proper mentor would have helped him achieve great things already, but he never epted anyone. He¡¯s obsessed about joining Mister Sunders. See, he even imitated Sunders¡¯ clothes.¡±

    ¡°But why? Is his talent about illusions?¡± Dave asked.

    Prome shook his head. ¡°No. His talent has nothing to do with illusion. I... can¡¯t say I know his reason. But I can tell you that he¡¯s a rtive of Mister Sunders. Not a close one, mind you. It appears that his family came branched out from Sunders¡¯ original n some centuries ago. He heard about it from somewhere beforeing to Brute Cavern, and now here he is, a maniacal follower of Mister Sunders, the gentleman¡¯s wannabe.¡±

    Prome shook his head again and sighed.

    ¡°Now you know why he acted so? You¡¯re Mister Sunders¡¯ student, and ckjack can¡¯t ept that.¡± Prome looked at Angor.

    Angor nced at the hanged man under the roof. ¡°I think it¡¯s not the real reason.¡±

    Prome¡¯s expression shifted a little. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ckjack was now ring at Angor with all the hate he could muster while mumbling something fiercely.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe he can get so obsessed with another man. It¡¯s not like they¡¯re lovers. They¡¯re only distant rtives who happen to share the same root hundreds of years ago, and they¡¯re almost strangers now,¡± Angor slowly exined.

    ckjack¡¯s rage was in on the look. He was swaying left and right, trying to reach Angor using the momentum. But of course, his action was in vain.

    ¡°There are no people willing to be a namelessmoner for their entire lives just because they admire someone. If I were him, instead of dreaming to be Sunders¡¯ student and staying that way for many years, I¡¯d try to get stronger and approach Sunders¡¯ level as best as I can, and hopefully surpassing him in the end. As for rejecting other mentors and stopping the process of learning? I can¡¯t believe it. Unless he¡¯s downright foolish, his reason is just an excuse.

    ¡°I¡¯ll let it pass this time. I¡¯ll not hesitate to kill him should hee again.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t confident in his first match against ckjack. Now, however, he had enough experience after going through hundreds of matches. Killing ckjack wasn¡¯t a difficult task at this moment.

    Angor and Dave walked inside the shop, while Prome took out a knife and freed ckjack.

    Fosah and Laffitte hurried to his side.

    ckjack stood up silently and spat the cloth out from his mouth.

    ¡°Even outsiders can see your little problem. Stop living in a joke and being all insolent just because you¡¯re talented. Mister Magus won¡¯t wait forever for you to mend your way,¡± Prome spoke to ckjack in a merciless tone. ¡°Since Angor said so, I¡¯ll let you go just this once. Cause trouble at my ce again and I¡¯ll make sure you don¡¯t enjoy a good death!¡±

    ckjack silently wiped some dirt off his face. His eyes hid an emotion as dark as the deepest sea.

    When Prome also disappeared into the shop, Fosah finally spoke out, ¡°Should we go to Twilight Well, boss? Maybe the auction¡¯s already started.¡±

    ckjack stared at the three figures in the shop and fixed his gaze on Angor in the end. His clenched his fists so hard that the blood veins on his wrist looked about to burst.

    ¡°Let¡¯s head back. We¡¯lle for the de next week.¡±

    ...

    Under the dim yellow light in the shop, Prome presented a bottle of wine he had been keeping and ced it on an exquisite table made of fine lumber.

    ¡°Exotic merchandise bought from Shampoo Coast. This is the best of sweet wines. It is said to be made from fresh grapes carefully tasted by the hottest maidens, crushed by the most innocent virgins, who bathed their perfect feet in morning dews. The liquid was then fermented by wine masters and added with Moonshine Grass powder, which helps smoothen your blood flow.¡±

    Angor looked at the wine ss, which aroused his childhood memories. Wines produced by Padt Manor used to be popr among nobles in Waterford for a time. They used to tell people that the most fragrant wines were made by innocent virgins, while the most aromatic ones were made by beautiful housewives.

    He wondered if the nobles would cough up all theirints stored over many years if they learned that there were only fat or muscr dudes who crushed the grapes under their smelly feet.

    ¡°Thank you, but no,¡± said Angor. When he saw Prome¡¯s embarrassed expression, he quickly added, ¡°My teacher said that I should not try alcohol before turning 18. It¡¯s bad for brain development.¡±

    Angor was referring to Jon, but Prome thought the boy was talking about Sunders, and he really doubted whether that gentleman could say something so straightforward. Still, Prome put his wine away and epted Angor¡¯s decision.

    ¡°Let¡¯s have some tea then. I have some high-quality red tea I found in the tea farm in Midnight Sovereign.¡±

    ¡°No need, really. I came here today to say thanks. I would already be a corpse now if you didn¡¯t save me after that match.¡±

    Angor described his match against Parasite Queen. Even Prome was intrigued by the story a little.

    ¡°So Parasite Queen could invade someone¡¯s soul? I¡¯d admit it. I wouldn¡¯t have expected that if I was the one fighting her,¡± Prome eximed.

    Dave nodded along. ¡°If we tell everyone how Parasite Queen really looks like, maybe her fans won¡¯t keep ruining your name as badly.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Apart from you and Master Prome, not many people know who I am.¡± Angor was optimistic enough. ¡°Oh, by the way, tomorrow should be myst day in Sky Tower. When I¡¯m done, I¡¯ll have time to work on the alchemy weapon with Master Prome,¡± said Angor. He turned to look at Prome and asked, ¡°Can you tell me about the weapon you¡¯re making, sir? Such as what kind of properties you need on it?¡±

 Chapter 227 - Anti-Undead Rune

    <h4>Chapter 227: Anti-Undead Rune</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Dave mentioned something about the weapon to Angor before Angor went to fight Fox Master. However, there were not enough details. Angor only knew that Prome wanted his help for making a long-range alchemy weapon.

    Since Angor asked, Prome revealed his idea right away. He needed a tiered long-range weapon which should be able to repel undead creatures.

    ¡°The request is from an old friend of mine. I still owe him a favor. I¡¯ve tried to make many weapons without ever finding the right way, and half a year has already passed,¡± said Prome as he sighed in frustration. ¡°Synthesis has the best potential, but it requires great innovation and experience. I don¡¯t want to keep my friend waiting for any longer, and here¡¯s when your enchantment skillse in, young man.¡±

    Angor was not interested in Prome¡¯s story so he cut straight to the point. ¡°I haven¡¯t spent much time in the field of alchemy, sir, and I only have a basic idea of synthesis right now. May I know what you can do via synthesis at your current level?¡±

    ¡°If I try my best, I can give a weapon the effect of ¡®Holy Light¡¯, which requires constant mana to support it. This means the weapon must be used in close range. It loses its effect when it leaves the user.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve not read anything about runes rted to undead creatures yet. Can you tell me where to begin?¡±

    Prome looked a bit embarrassed as he exined, ¡°I¡¯m afraid my knowledge on this particr subject is as limited as yours. I can only tell you several basic runes, and they may not help at all.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, please tell me which runes are possibly effective against undead, and I¡¯ll see if I know something simr.¡±

    Angor had read through <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia </i>from start to end. He probably knew more runes than the entire rune collection in Cloud Library.

    ¡°First, you should know what ¡®undead¡¯ means...¡±

    Slowly, Prome exined the characteristics of undead creatures to Angor.

    Such creatures were mostly fallen souls which were different from ordinary souls made of pure energy. Anti-undead spells did not have any effect on ordinary souls. However, unlike pure souls, the souls of undead creatures had ¡°fallen¡±.

    Almost all undead creatures were filled with negative properties such as tainted energy, evil emotions, dark thoughts, the will to kill or bloodthirst. Such creatures could wield curses at will. Many of them also possessed various strange abilities, so getting rid of them was never an easy task.

    As far as spells were concerned, those with purifying effects usually worked best. Still, this did not mean that one could choose a purifying spell freely. For example, Cleanse and Dust Removal also had simr effects, and they could do nothing against undead creatures. There were several well-known spells for repelling undead such as Expel, Dimensional Rift, Holy Light.

    After hearing Prome, Angor assumed that there were mainly three approaches to get rid of undead beings.

    First was to send them away, such as another continent, inside a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, or another dimension. This was the ziest¡± way because when someone sent a creature away, it would ultimately go trouble someone else.

    Another way was to ¡°dpose¡± the creature and eliminate its consciousness. A fallen soul was still made of energy. By using certain spells to scatter, burn, or devour the energy meant erasing the undead creature itself.

    The third approach was purification. Here, it meant purifying the energy in the creature and returning it to its original, pure form. Most Dark Wizards knew how to do this.

    Generally, most wizards would use the first approach when facing undead beings. However, Expel spells including those which sent something into darkness, into another space, another ne, or the legendary spell that pushed something into another timeline were at least level-1 formal spells which were impossible for apprentices to learn.

    That was why apprentices usually chose the remaining means¡ªeither eliminating the creature or purifying its energy.

    ¡°Elimination, purification or expel...¡± Angor held his chin and mumbled. ¡°Allow me to think about it.¡±

    Prome sipped his wine and waited for an answer eagerly.

    Angor spoke a whileter, ¡°I don¡¯t know any rune with simr effects at the moment.¡±

    Prome quickly grew disappointed.

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember many runes, but I can go check through the bookster. There should be something helpful,¡± Angor said. He could only fully remember the content of <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters </i>, which did not yield anything useful. He was positive something might turn up in the advanced editions.

    ¡°Please do. I really need to get my request done, and I have nothing else to depend on right now. Myst choice was to look for a finished weapon from the Wizard Fair or one of the auctions,¡± said Prome before he sighed deeply.

    ¡°Wizard Fair?¡± This one drew Angor¡¯s attention. ¡°Is it a ce designed for wizards?¡±

    Prome chuckled and shook his head. ¡°Not quite. There, people sell anything rted to the supernatural. For example, alchemy items, magical nts, special mineral, books on particr subjects...¡±

    ¡°But can¡¯t you find them here, from the underground market?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s different. The merchandises here are aimed for apprentices. Do you notice that most shops here are run by mortals? Most of what they sell is still considered non-supernatural. There are only a few alchemy items or materials.¡± Prome paused a little before continuing, ¡°Of course, the random stalls sometimes get surprises in them, so there are many wizards whoe and check now and then.

    ¡°Still, most wizards would choose Wizard Fair. Mid-tiered and strong apprentices prefer to go there instead of wasting their time in the underground market.¡±

    Angor realized why he could not even find a simple wizard robe today.

    ¡°Um, where can I find it? Is it under one of the apprentice towns too?¡±

    Prome shook head again. ¡°The Wizard Fair is not inside the mirror world. Oh, and there are more than one. Some of them are stationary, and some travel around. One of the closest one to us is located in a tribe area on Parmigi Hignds, about a hundred kilometers away from the mirror world. But I heard that a serious blood-dissolving epidemic broke out there and killed many wizards, so the fair has been moved away somewhere near the Evernight Kingdom. There¡¯s another fair close enough to Brute Cavern which lies inside the capital of Darkivil Empire, a thousand kilos from here.¡±

    <i>Blood dissolve? </i>Angor remembered hearing about something like this which required Flora¡¯s presence. And she had not returned to Brute Cavern yet.

    ¡°A thousand kilometers... that¡¯s pretty far. Too bad. I really wanted to check it out,¡± Angor sighed.

    ¡°Far? Is it?¡± Prome and Dave both asked.

    ¡°Um, it¡¯s not?¡±

    Dave failed to hide his chuckle. ¡°You didn¡¯te from a primitive tribe yourself, right? Even mortals could afford to ride steam trains now. If we board a train that goes through the core tunnel, it¡¯ll only take us three days to reach Darkivil Empire¡¯s capital from here. And if we can find an airship and travel above Parmigi Hignds... half a day, or less.

    ¡°You can also use flying spells or alchemy items that help you fly and you¡¯ll reach there in just a day.¡±

    Angor was a bit embarrassed. Ever since he left Marginalized Ind, his knowledge about transportation did not grow at all. He still believed that people depended on horses to travel, which would cost them a month or two to go somewhere a thousand kilometers away.

    ¡°You want to see the Wizard Fair?¡± Dave asked.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°You cane with me next time then.¡± Prome offered. ¡°Whether you can find an idea for the weapon, I¡¯m going there anyway. If you have something to work on, I¡¯ll get the materials from the fair. Otherwise, I¡¯ll just buy a weapon there. The fair provides many rare materials. You¡¯ll always find what you need.¡±

    Angor did need some materials right now. He collected lots of greyspace microbes during the construction of Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, which were the major materials for making a space storage. Since he started to study alchemy, Angor always wanted to get the remaining materials and try to make something himself.

    But he never found them in the underground market. The resource distribution hall offered some of them... at an insane price.

    ¡°Please let mee with you then. I need to find some materials as well.¡±

    Prome nodded and agreed. He would not mind earning favor from Angor.

    ¡°You want some other materials? You can¡¯t find them here?¡± Dave asked.

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°It means... Do you have a new alchemy n? Or is it for your music box?¡± Dave asked eagerly.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s for something else. But I haven¡¯te up with the whole n yet. I¡¯ll tell you before I start doing it,¡± said Angor as he promised Dave.

    ¡°Music box? You¡¯re interested in such a trinket?¡± With the main business done, Prome proceeded to learn more about Angor.

    Angor chuckled. ¡°Toby really loves music, so I want to make one for him.¡±

    ¡°Toby is the name of Angor¡¯s familiar. You know, the really scary bird,¡± Dave exined to Prome.

    ¡°I see...¡± Prome was quite interested in Toby, but he managed to hold back the urge to ask. It was already something private. He would never hesitate to inquire such info from other apprentices, but he was more careful around Angor.

    ¡°Do you want a music box, Dave? You provided me the Echo Flowers after all,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Nah. It¡¯s just one of those boring toys for little girls. I¡¯ve no use from it.¡±

    ¡°You sure? I¡¯m going to apply Tranquility Rune on it, you know.¡±

    Despite its name, the rune could not provide absolute quietness. It only helped someone to concentrate.

    Dave considered and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve seen music boxes from other people before. It only gives out really noisy metal noises. The rune won¡¯t work much.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? I hope you won¡¯t change your mind,¡± said Angor who was quite confident in his creation.

 Chapter 228 - End of Challenge

    <h4>Chapter 228: End of Challenge</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Ha. I¡¯ll not.¡± Dave looked determined.

    Prome watched the conversation between the two kids with a grin. He was d that Angor was a friend of his assistant. He was always satisfied with Dave¡¯s swift reactions when dealing with people. To Prome, Dave¡¯s rtion with Angor only made his assistant more valuable to him.

    ¡°Once I get the request done, maybe I can give Dave some proper training,¡± Prome thought to himself.

    ¡°ckjack kinda messed everything up. I was going to ask, what did youe for today? And don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re here to see Master Prome. Master never nned toe today,¡± Dave said.

    ¡°Oh oops... I almost forgot about it myself,¡± said Angor as he scratched his hair. ¡°I came to thank you and Master Prome for saving me. But I ran into some problems on the way, and I need to buy a wizard robe now.¡±

    Angor exined his experience in the tailor shop.

    Prome smiled. ¡°A wizard robe is only a basic alchemy item, but it¡¯s already considered tiered. Only an apprentice alchemist can make one. Of course, ordinary tailors don¡¯t have them.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, but we don¡¯t have robes in the shop,¡± Dave spoke, ¡°but I can lend you mine if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    Angor pondered. He found it awkward to use someone else¡¯ robe. But... he only needed the robe for a day. Since he was already wearing Sunders¡¯ clothes now, borrowing Dave¡¯s robe should not be a serious problem.

    Prome suddenly spoke again, ¡°I still have the wizard robe that I received from the resource hall as a new recruit, and I no longer need it. You can have it if you need one.¡±

    Angor quickly waved his hands. ¡°Not for free please, I¡¯ll pay for it.¡±

    Prome did not insist. He only needed to leave a good impression on Angor, and he did enough.

    ¡°Okay then. It¡¯s left there for over forty years now, and it gets some damages here and there. I certainly can¡¯t ask too much for it. How about two magic crystals?¡±

    Angor did not know how the robe usually went on the market. However, since every apprentice could im one, it should not be anything expensive.

    ¡°Of course. I don¡¯t have crystals on me though, can I use my bone card?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    After transferring the points, Prome found a dust-covered box out of a corner.

    Despite its container, the wizard robe Prome took out from the box looked pretty clean.

    ¡°Thank goodness the robees with a Dust Removal spell, or it would have rotted away with the box. It¡¯ll be a big embarrassment for me,¡± Prome joked while handling the robe to Angor.

    Angor looked at the robe in his hands and did not know what to say.

    The robe was freaking purple! A shiny, pinkish purple color usually seen on certain perverts!

    There were no other patterns on the robe, but its color already gave Angor a headache. He did not really have a problem with purple. In fact, Angor had several purple handkerchiefs because he believed purple was for someone mysterious, quiet, and calm. This robe, however, had apletely different hue on it. He had never seen such ¡°showy¡± purple in his life!

    Angor looked at Prome¡¯s current robe, which was of the same color and had glittering golden and silver charms as decoration.

    When seeing Prome for the first time, Angor thought that this man¡¯s ¡°shiny purple¡± wizard robe was only a special selection which did not mean anything particr. His brother Leon happened to have a pink undershirt withce trimmings in his wardrobe. Wearing it asionally did not give Angor any funny idea about his brother.

    Angor did not expect that ¡°Master Prome¡± possessed such a bizarre taste when the man actually looked quite gentle on the outside.

    ¡°You don¡¯t like it? There was only one purple robe left in the hall, but I still managed to grab it.¡± Prome¡¯s middle-aged face revealed a smile as if a kid sessfully bought a limited-edition game from a toy shop.

    ¡°It-it¡¯s fine!¡± Angor forced a smile.

    <i>It¡¯s only one day! I can do it!</i>

    Angor could already imagine how ¡°Baron Milk¡± would earn another word in his title, and that would probably be ¡°pervert¡± or ¡°freak¡±. There was no chance that this robe would earn him ANY good name.

    The bell tower announced the arrival of midnight, and Angor prepared to bid them farewell.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go and cheer for you tomorrow!¡± Dave waved a hand behind Angor¡¯s back.

    Angor stumbled a little and turned around. ¡°No need, really. I won¡¯t fight myself anyway.¡±

    Seriously, he did not want to make any movement on the stage at all in the purple robe.

    Dave took out a stack of tickets from his pocket. ¡°I¡¯ve bought tickets for all your matches!¡±

    Angor let out a sillyugh and left the shop quickly.

    ...

    The next day, Angor fully witnessed how ¡°Baron Milk¡± was hated by people.

    Before his match, some fighters already gathered up to yell at him. When he moved closer, those people fell silent and only stared at him with either fear or disgust.

    And entering a match only gained Angor more invasive curses.

    Most seats were empty, but those who came to watch were all looking at him with killing intent. Angor did not see any female audiences who ¡°supported him¡± ording to Number 233. Probably scared away by his terrible robe color, if there were any at all.

    Angor endured the harsh screams directed at him. He really did not expect that he would be the enemy of so many people in such a short time.

    Thankfully, he was always good at tolerating stress. Someone else in his boots would probably lose their sanity and cried.

    His opponent stayed silent during the waiting phase and did not say anything to offend Angor. It was likely that he was afraid of Toby, who would not hesitate to turn him into another corpse.

    There were still people who used verbal harassment, and Angor did n to get rid of them once and for all. However, they instantly surrendered the second the match started without even giving Angor any chance to move. Also, they all left the stage while enjoying the praise and cheers of the audience as if they were the winners.

    Such stupidity.

    Under the maniption of Sky Tower, Angor¡¯s opponents today were all weaker cowards. He seized eleven victories without running into a single enemy who put up a fight.

    After hisst ¡°match¡±, the shiny purple robe of Baron Milk had be a flying mosquito in people¡¯s dreams which would keep bothering them in their sleep.

    Angor took his profile card for Level 15 from Baroque, which finally announced the end of his challenge.

    ¡°I see you¡¯vepleted your goal, kid. Will youe again?¡± Baroque closed his pornographic book and smiled at Angor.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Angor scoffed. He was d he chose to give Baron Milk an indifferent and unfriendly character. He could not think of other ways to talk to Baroque.

    ¡°A piece of advice for a promising young man. You¡¯ll encounter someonepletely different in Level 15. It¡¯ll be difficult to get over them just using a bird who knows the sequence of gravity.¡±

    Baroque was still smiling, but his words contained a hint of threat.

    Under his hood, Angor¡¯s eyes glimmered with hatred.

    ¡°Is that so? Thanks,¡± Angor spoke in the same cold tone and turned to leave.

    Baroque watched him go and grew a bit puzzled.

    ¡°I was... expecting a different attitude from him.¡±

    The figure of a decent-looking woman appeared behind Baroque.

    ¡°The Green Velvet spores in his body vanished. It must be Sunders who can deal with them so quickly. Also, Sunders sent a phantom servant to fight matches in his ce. It seems Angor is really important to that man.¡±

    ¡°Sunders should know that we can recognize his servant, and he still did so. Maybe he¡¯s warning us as well,¡± Baroque replied.

    ¡°You mean... Sunders already learned about our connection with Bouy?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. He probably didn¡¯t. He was just warning us since his student got wounded so badly in Sky Tower,¡± Baroque pondered. ¡°Well, he¡¯s on the top floor now. I don¡¯t think anything¡¯s going to happen.¡±

    ¡°I see. I¡¯m wondering though... If Sunders wants to protect Angor, why doesn¡¯t he simply give the kid a ticket to the garden instead of allowing Angor to risk his life in the tower?¡±

    ¡°Who knows... Have you learned anything from your end, Mntha?¡± With Angor¡¯s matter done, Baroque asked something else in a serious tone.

    ¡°A little, and I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s rted to the quarantine of that ce,¡± Mntha answered.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°Samantha sent her scout avatar to Rein Mute, and Rein went to Phantom Ind yesterday. After that, Rein sealed the ce up.¡±

    ¡°We know what Samantha wants. Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Garden,¡± Baroque scoffed. ¡°The fools want to go for the offspring of the very grand demon... Such insolence. I don¡¯t think Rein would ask Sunders to join, or they¡¯ll lose more than the lives of a few people.¡±

    Baroque frowned. ¡°This has nothing to do with the quarantine though. Is there something involved which we don¡¯t know about?¡±

    ...

    Angor left Sky Tower and slowly got over his rage against Baroque.

    It was a miserable day. He would nevere to the tower ever again regardless of Baroque¡¯s taunt.

    It was 5:30 p.m. in the afternoon. Those who saw his matches could recognize him easily thanks to the bizarre color on him.

    On his way back, Angor received all kinds of attention as well as a group of stalkers who clearly did note to show hospitality.

    He walked to somewhere far-off and before the stalkers could even realize what he wanted to do, Angor ordered Toby to go for them.

    Under Toby¡¯s absolute speed advantage, they were all sitting ducks who quickly became a pile of motionless bodies in a matter of minutes.

    Angor did not tell Toby to hold back, and he did not know whether they were dead, nor did he care at all. Angor made sure that no one could stand up and follow him before he spat in disgust and left the area.

 Chapter 229 - Growing Strength

    <h4>Chapter 229: Growing Strength</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Two dayster, inside Angor¡¯s soundproofed training room.

    Angor was trying to construct a spell model in his mind space, which looked like a simple ¡°W¡± when observed from one side.

    More mana was drawn from his mana pool as the model was perfected, which only took several seconds.

    The shape of a crescent moon showed up on Angor¡¯s palm, and it began to attract wind element from the environment.

    He pushed his hand forward and triggered the mana, thus allowing the inconspicuous wind de to be released.

    The de reached the touchstone in an instant and created a shallow cut on it.

    ¡°A single wind de isn¡¯t so powerful...¡± Angor inspected the cut on the stone. ¡°But this is not the original Wind de cantrip.¡±

    In the next second, dozens of wind des appeared from Angor¡¯s stretched hand and all assaulted the touchstone together. The stone could no longer stay intact this time and was quickly cut in half by the constant attacks.

    By the time Angor finally finished his move, he had already released 27 wind des.

    ¡°Wind de¡± was a level-0 cantrip which created a sharp de of wind to damage something within a certain distance. The farther it traveled, the less damage it could do.

    ¡°Crescent Barrage¡± was a level-1 cantrip. It created a magic sigil which turned mana into wind des. How much mana it could convert depended on how well its model was constructed.

    And Angor just sessfully used ¡°Crescent Barrage¡±. His first attempt almost created a perfect model for it. A basic Crescent Barrage could only release three wind des. As the model grew better, the number of des it released would increase. The most perfect one ever recorded released ten times as many, which meant 30 wind des in one cast.

    Angor¡¯s initial attempt just now almost reached the same level. Most apprentices only managed to use six to nine des. In other words, two or three times of the cantrip¡¯s basic power. It was usually difficult for them to get any better.

    Angor had the Axes of the Universe to help him build a superior cantrip model. With just a little more effort, he would likely wield the most powerful version of Crescent Barrage.

    In other words, he turned a single level-1 cantrip into something as powerful as a level-0 cantrip used 30 times. This was a miracle in the history of wizards.

    Angor took out his notebook to note down the important factors of his first level-1 cantrip. At the same time, he activated his hologram tablet to rearrange the elementbination for the cantrip.

    The tablet showed that it would take 126 hours to gain 417 different results.

    Angor simply left the device working on its own. During his tower matches, he always left the tablet inside the soundproofed room to work on altered models for the cantrips he already learned.

    Apart from today¡¯s Crescent Barrage, he now studied 23 level-0 cantrips in total, most of which were defensive ones. During thest two months, Angor already got the possible differentbinations for each one of them.

    The cantrips led to 14,000 variations. Most of them were useless, but a few of them were potentially outstanding. Only potentially. Angor had not done anything to test them out yet.

    At least the tornado he created out of ¡°Cleanse¡± was not bad.

    He put the tablet aside and began to sense how much mana was left in his mana pool.

    A ¡°ninefold¡± Crescent Barrage cost him around a quarter of his mana resource.

    Angor was d at the result. It meant he could use the cantrip four times under full condition. A powerful level-1 cantrip for four times!

    Just two days ago, he still could not find enough mana to cast a single level-1 cantrip. Forcing his way despite theck of mana would result in magic backfire.

    To gain so much strength in only two days... Naturally, Angor was satisfied.

    Although the achievement was not a surprise¡ªAngor already expected it.

    The quantitative change led to qualitative change. Angor sensed that one of the new spirit tunnels on his singr point felt different from before. It changed his mana flow efficiency to a whole new level.

    Unlike the other tunnels that ¡°stuck out¡± from the singr point, this one went around the point and surrounded the singr point in the center.

    Also, this particr tunnel connected with six other spreading tunnels on its way.

    Sessfully constructing the tunnel increased Angor¡¯s mana capacity tenfold. This was why Angor finally decided to try out Crescent Barrage.

    Inside his mind space, Angor¡¯s spirit model had just taken on another look. Most apprentices would have their spirit models fixed in a short time, which also determined their mana flow efficiency and capacity. Angor¡¯s model, however, did not seem fully developed at all.

    This meant he held more potentialpared to his peer.

    At this moment, his spirit model consisted of three parts.

    First, the singr point, a sphere in the center.

    The second part was made of ¡°tubes¡± that stuck out from the surface of the sphere. He had constructed 81 of them, and it made the model looked like a spiky sea urchin.

    The third part was the ¡°run-around¡± tunnel he built today. It looked like a halo around certains. However, it also connected with six of the tubes which allowed it to transfer mana with the singr point.

    As a whole, these three parts gave his spirit model a really strange appearance. However, this model also granted him the ability to channel mana efficiently better than any other channeling methods known in the south.

    Once he could fully build the model ording to the book... what the model could bring would be unimaginable.

    However, that would not happen for now since <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation </i>was an unfinished book.

    ...

    A perfect channeling method still could not help someone to grow strong overnight.

    Meditation was a training process which required lots of time. After getting over his excitement of having a strengthened mana pool, Angor had to return to this slow routine.

    Still, his mana pool grew bigger by the day.

    One weekter, he could release five level-1 cantrips with full mana. This was already above what an average level-1 apprentice could do.

    If added together with other factors, such as his alchemy weapons and Toby, he could probably defeat average level-3 apprentices by this point.

    Angor did not give up other jobs at the same time. After spending ten days, he had read through the first two editions of <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia </i>. In the end, he found an anti-undead enchantment in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced </i>.

    The enchantment was called ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡±.

    The name itself was way different from the runes recorded in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters </i>such as ¡°Rune of Something Something¡±. Its creator obviously tried to give the rune an outstanding name, which meant it was something powerful.

    The difficulty of the rune was in to see. From a quick look, Angor believed that this one required a hundred times more workpared to ¡°Rune of Sharpen¡±.

    Or... this was not a rune at all. It was a magic array!

    Runes and magic arrays were both used for enchantment, but they were ofpletely different levels. A magic array consisted of multiple functioning runes. Also, unlike a single rune, a magic array allowed the user to actively trigger its effect.

    For example, when Angor applied Rune of Sharpen to his scythe, it only improved the tool¡¯s sharpness, which was a passive effect.

    With the correct magic array, he could make the scythe release energy and freeze up everything it connected with, or toss the weapon in the air and fly away while standing on the weapon. With proper materials, he could even make the weapon into a kind of space storage.

    There were various magic arrays with different effects. The effects were still weaker than the result of synthesis, but they could also achieve something unique.

    For alchemists, rune enchantment was all about memorizing runes, getting used to them, and recreating the runes.

    Magic array required more than a memory. The process of making a magic array asked for the absolute concentration of an alchemist. Looking away, even just a little, would cause fatal ws in key points. Besides, one had to alsoprehend how different runes could work with each other.

    When drawing runes, Angor could ¡°cheat¡± with his tablet by copying runes with the help of projections. With enough practice, he could memorize them and proceeded to draw runes on himself without using the tablet. Also, drawing smaller runes due to limited space on items was not really hard for him.

    For magic arrays, however... Angor was not sure he could do the same.

    He checked ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡± which contained six runes again. Angor thought ¡°Rune of Sharpen¡± or ¡°Rune of Frost¡± lookedplicated enough, but they were just child¡¯s ypared to what he was looking at now.

    He used his tablet to project the pattern of ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡± onto a piece of paper.

    The 1:1 projection of the magic array looked like random ink spread on paper. Angor moved his eyes closer to the paper, and everything still appeared to be a ck mess.

    From the ¡°messy ckness¡±, he could barely see some really thin, congested lines which were drawn next to each other.

 Chapter 230 - Prelude to Elimination

    <h4>Chapter 230: Prelude to Elimination</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Copying such aplicated mess would be really difficult. From the size of the projection, Angor could tell that it was used on medium to small sized items.

    Drawing a rune on a small item such as a golden bolt required Angor to shrink the rune ording to equal proportion. A full-sized ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡± already looked like an ink puddle. Any smaller, and no human eyes or pens would be useful to work on it.

    However, that was not a problem for now. First, Angor needed to draw ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡±.

    Instead of doing it right away, Angor picked up <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced </i>and kept reading.

    Despite itsplicated pattern, the oue of the magic array was quite simple: when triggered, the enchantment would release a low-frequency sound wave which would then disrupt the already chaotic energy inside undead creatures to eliminate them.

    Angor remembered reading about something called ¡°infrasonic sound¡± before. It defined sound with a frequency of below 20Hz. Such sound had longer wavelengths, which made it persist longer in travel mediums.

    He took a guess that ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡± could create something that resonated with undead energy and it could cause an imbnce, thus destroying undead beings.

    Of course, it was only his assumption. He did not have an acoustic spectrum analyzer anyway.

    Angor kept reading to see if there was anything else that worked against the undead. Hopefully, it had something easier to draw.

    He spent a day quickly going over the book which contained almost ten thousand different magic arrays. Now his vision felt dark even without looking at anything.

    The other ones all looked asplicated as ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡±. Angor could only see their differences when he looked close enough. Otherwise, he would only be seeing ¡°ck ink¡±. In the advanced book, he found a total of 13 magic arrays for dealing with undead creatures. However, some of them were not created just for this reason.

    For instance, there was an array called ¡°Mass Brilliance¡± which meant to purify polluted earth and dispel darkness, but it could also purify the filthy energy inside undead beings and cleanse their souls.

    ¡°Mass Brilliance¡± could be applied to achieve a number of goals. ordingly, it also consisted of a terrifyingly big number of runes, which was 36. Every single rune looked difficult to draw. ording to the book, ¡°Mass Brilliance¡± was used onrge items, and the materials suitable to go with the magic array all cost dearly. A sessfully-made item with this particr magic array could well be used as a tactical deployment in a war.

    Before even thinking about whether he could draw the magic array, Angor knew he would never find enough money to afford the materials at his current state. It would probably cost the entire centurial ie of a small-scale wizard organization. Furthermore, having enough money did not mean the materials could be found easily. Some of the key materials were nearly extinct in the wizarding world as well as the nes nearby. Also, even if he had them, it was impossible for Angor to do anything about the materials.

    Perhaps he would have a chance after turning into a wizard.

    The other anti-undead arrays were either too difficult to achieve like ¡°Mass Brilliance¡± or were simply moreplicated than Prelude to Elimination.

    In the end, Angor had to consider Prelude to Elimination.

    He hesitated for a while and decided to open the next folder ¡ª <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Masters </i>.

    He had only opened this folder when he was arranging the pictures of books he recorded. This was the first time he actually tried to read its content.

    A great number of images were presented in front of him.

    A quick look told him that there were about two thousand pictures. One magic array usually took two pictures to exin¡ªone with the picture of the array, and one with exnatory texts. This meant the folder contained around a thousand magic arrays.

    It was a smaller numberpared to the first three editions. As for the difficulty of the arrays...

    Angor opened one of the pictures and quickly closed his eyes in horror.

    He was already used to looking at congested lines drawn on a surface, but this one was a different case!

    ¡°Is that a magic array or solid geometry textbook?!¡±

    In a sense, this array did not look so difficult since it only contained 16 runes, which were aligned in a pretty loose way. But... the runes were not drawn on a surface this time. They intersected, ovepped or mirrored each other in a three-dimensional space.

    Alchemy items were three-dimensional alright... but how did someone draw a three-dimensional picture on stuff?!

    ¡°Heh. Hehe... see youter.¡± Angor tapped the ¡°X¡± in the upper-right corner and decided not to bother with this folder again. At least not before bing a wizard.

    Now he was back at ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡±.

    The array now looked a lot friendlier to him. Such a ¡°simple¡± array was already a rare sightparing to the other ones, and Angor really wanted to cherish it.

    Still... how to actually work on it was still a problem.

    Angor thought about an idea soon.

    <i>Since the 1:1 pattern looks too congested, why not erging it?</i>

    Making the projection ten times bigger proved to be easy enough. This would be impossible for other alchemists who had not already learned the array. Changing the size of a magic array was only possible formon alchemists on condition that they had already mastered it.

    Now, Angor could do it with just a tap of a button. He quickly found a size that was suitable for him to practice on. This would help him learn alchemy way faster than anyone else.

    The strokes and nk intervals inside the bigger ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡± were now clear to see.

    Looking at the picture that upied quite some space, Angor sighed in frustration.

    ¡°So much work to do... I probably need a day or two topletely copy it. Aw, hell. I¡¯ll give it a go.¡±

    He only had one thing on his mind by doing the first attempt, which was to see whether he could sessfully draw the transition part between two runes.

    Due to the special functions of magic arrays, memory alone would no longer do the trick. Alchemists needed to fullyprehend the meanings hidden behind the runes and remember them as well. Angor believed that his memory would not fail since he could do it in an easier way by copying the projection. However, he still had to make sure.

    The first try led him to the 69th stroke. He failed when a drop of sweat dripped onto his pen, which caused the current line to stray.

    The second try failed at the 419th stroke.

    The third, still a failure.

    And the fourth, the fifth...

    He finally managed toplete a rune on his eighth attempt. Now was the important part, since he must create a smooth transit and keep working on the second rune.

    Left, right, turnover, a circle, and a counter-clockwise arc...

    The transition cost him half an hour to draw. Thest stroke wasnded perfectly, which meant he could finally proceed to the second rune.

    Angor could not hold back his excitement, which caused his pen tip to tremble again, thus putting a stop to his attempt.

    He was still happy though. At least he could keep trying and create aplete magic array in the end at this rate.

    But another problem soon appeared. He could draw aplete array alright. However, it only existed on a piece of paper.

    Applying a functional enchantment to something asked for a stable and continuous mana output. Drawing the picture alone would take him two days. Suppose Angor could stay focused for that long, could he store enough mana for it?

    He could try getting better at drawing the array, but his best speed would still cost him a full day.

    Angor did a brief calction and realized that he could maintain a stable mana flow into his enchantment for... half a day, at best.

    Where could he find the extra mana? Also, he had to keep Thaw and Hand of Spell running in the whole process, which would consume more mana.

    Before finding a solution, his n had to be put on hold.

    ...

    After keeping himself shut in his house for a week, Angor came to Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop again.

    He chose a time when there were fewer customers in the market. Upon arriving, he saw Dave cleaning the surface of a chopping de with a wild design by using some kind of green liquid.

    The de possessed a look that could not be found anywhere in the wizarding world.

    A Chinese kitchen knife.

    Angor had ced most of his alchemy creations in the shop so Dave could help him sell them. The kitchen knife was his second creation when he tried to make a one-piece item. Aside from its above-average sharpness, the knife did not have any special traits.

    Dave applied his green liquid to the entire de before he noticed someone hade.

    ¡°Angor?¡± Dave put the knife aside. ¡°Finally. Master Prome¡¯s been waiting for you in the shop the past few days, but he left yesterday evening.¡±

    Angor felt a bit sorry upon hearing this. He had been focusing on his training and was not expecting that Prome waited for his answer so diligently.

    ¡°I... had too much information to check. Ahem! But I finally found a clue,¡± said Angor as he coughed and pretended that he was tired from his research.

 Chapter 231 - Info About Sky Tower

    <h4>Chapter 231: Info About Sky Tower</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°I see.¡± Dave believed him. ¡°Truth be told, I¡¯d really hope you don¡¯te here too soon. Master Prome has been teaching me lots of alchemy knowledge these days. I think I can start trying out basic synthesis once I digest what I learned.¡±

    ¡°Right away? You¡¯re not starting with enchantment first?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°No. I¡¯m afraid that I might no longer have the motivation to do synthesis in that case.¡±

    To alchemists, both rune enchantment and magic array enchantment were only temporary solutions. They considered synthesis to be the ultimate way of alchemy.

    Dave was showing the same extent of enthusiasm about alchemy just like how Nausica was eager to get stronger. He knew that Angor could provide good enchantment knowledge, but Dave still chose to aim for something higher instead of going for a chance when he saw one right away.

    ¡°I understand. Enchantment does not have as much potential.¡± Angor nodded.

    Dave seemed to be worried about something. ¡°Would you ever study synthesis, Angor?¡±

    Angor considered for a while.

    ¡°I think I will.¡±

    The decision to study enchantment was only one way to help him get over imminent challenges as a new apprentice. If Angor wished to reach deeper into the subject of alchemy, he would have to learn synthesis sooner orter.

    Besides, most alchemy books he recorded in the Nightmare Realm were about synthesis. He could not possibly disregard all of them.

    Dave smiled at the answer. ¡°Nice. I was worried that you might get too obsessed with enchantment. I¡¯m not saying that enchantment is useless. There are just too few alchemists in the south. Anything would help.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the point of joining me then?¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°Enchantment is the only thing I know now, and your techniques are way better. I haven¡¯t even learned Smelt and Freeze yet.¡±

    ¡°I want to learn your ideas,¡± said Dave as he pointed at the kitchen knife and another three oriental weapons on the desk. ¡°You¡¯re so creative. These weapons all look weird, but man they¡¯re powerful. And that Trigger Crossbow of yours! Master Prome really spoke highly of it!¡±

    In general, Dave simply wished to find out what other amazing inventions Angor mighte up with.

    He had no idea that Angor was learning from apletely foreign civilization. Science from Earth might not look like the technologies in the wizarding world, but Angor could still use their ways of thinking.

    Angor never ¡°created¡± anything till now. Everything he made followed the examples of predecessors, and he was d he did. Finding one¡¯s own creations might sound brilliant but doing so without acquiring enough experience first only meant empty dreams.

    Creation was made perfect by using the rich experience to lower potential risk. The gaining of experience was what Angor meant to do right now. Studying more would help him gain a bigger knowledge system, which would slowly be a treasure vault of human brilliance that enriched his mind forever.

    Angor smiled back and tried to change the topic. ¡°So Master Prome isn¡¯t here at the moment? Should I go visit his residence?¡±

    ¡°No, Master only went back to get something. He said he would be here today.¡± Dave checked a hanging clock on the wall. ¡°It¡¯s almost noon... he¡¯ll be here any moment now. What about we have lunch first in the meantime?¡±

    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ve been feeding on rations for an entire week and I really need something better to bite on,¡± said Angor. When he put a hand on his stomach, he quickly felt hungry.

    Dave closed the shop door and gave Angor a mysterious look. ¡°I¡¯ll show you a really good ce to eat. I bet you¡¯ll remember and go there again!¡± He sighed. ¡°The only problem is its price. A meal will cost nearly a hundred merit points.¡±

    Now Angor was curious. Eating cheap rations for a while did not hinder his taste at all. He really missed the amazing dishes cooked by Jon.

    Angor expected Dave to take him to somewhere luxurious, or at least somewhere unique. Yet he found them arriving at one of the most chaotic streets in the underground market.

    The street was full of dark alleys on both sides. It was not easy to find dark ces here since the underground market was always bright as day, and this particr street seemed to contain every dark corner there was to offer. Every entrance to one of the alleys stood there like a giant maw of a beast that waited to devour someone who dared to venture inside.

    Last time, Angor caught Chloe Brothers in one of such alleyways.

    ¡°You sure we can eat in this ce?¡± Angor grew doubtful.

    ¡°Come on. Trust me, I know the ce better than you!¡± Dave responded while nodding to several mean-looking apprentices that walked by, who also nodded in return. They all looked pretty violent for some reason.

    About five minutester, Dave dragged Angor into a small alley.

    It grew darker and darker until they saw a small light spot around the end of the path.

    The light came from a sign hanging on the wall which read ¡°Bartterfly Pub¡±.

    ¡°A pub?¡± Angor frowned. Going to a pub at midday? Seriously? ¡°I don¡¯t drink liquor, just you know.¡±

    Angor said something simr to Prome the other day; he had another three years before he was allowed to drink alcohol. It was only an excuse though. Angor used to drink milk wine brewed in Padt Manor, and he loved it. He never touched any alcohol drinks ever since he left his home.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to. We¡¯re having a barbecue here! Just follow behind.¡±

    Despite its location, the pub was actually bustling with customers. Angor even had to get registered, and he had to enter the pub with a membership card.

    They took a corner when Dave ordered himself a ss of Penang rum and exined the pub to Angor.

    ¡°You need to get a card on your own. An Iron Card costs one magic crystal. There are better ones such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Better cards allow you to take better orders and use more luxurious rooms,¡± Dave exined. He showed his own card to Angor as he continued, ¡°I only have an Iron Card, so I can only order a few things and eat them here, in the hall.¡±

    This reminded Angor of something.

    ¡°Tiered membership cards... Isn¡¯t that what Candy House usually does?¡±

    ¡°You know Candy House?¡± Dave¡¯s eyes brightened up. ¡°I heard that the chef here is a neighbor of an apprentice who happened to be Lady Greya and Felicia¡¯s student, and he brought the card system here.¡±

    ¡°Oh, heh.¡±

    Greya¡¯s Barbie¡¯s Restaurant and Felicia¡¯s Butterfly Tavern were the two most renowned dining spots run by gourmet wizards. So the owner of this pub mixed those two names together and created the ¡°Bartterfly Pub¡±? Smelled like a cheap copycat.

    ¡°So is the chef a gourmet wizard?¡± Angor asked.

    Dave shook his head. ¡°You don¡¯t find those people in random ces. He¡¯s not. But I tell you, the dishes are good.¡±

    A te of roasted meat was soon served. Angor took a small bite.

    <i>Uhm. Not bad.</i>

    His bias about the pub quickly disappeared when he realized that the sauce on the meat was made of honey and milk.

    Dave looked proud when he noticed Angor digging in his meal. ¡°What did I say, right?¡±

    As theypleted the meal and prepared to leave, a man wearing a costly-looking suit suddenly rushed out from one of the privatepartments and whispered to another bulky man with a sword, who eximed aloud, ¡°Are you sure?!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s confirmed!¡±

    The bulky man dragged the speaker as well as two other individuals around his table and hurried out of the pub.

    Dave was just trying to leave through the door. The big man yelled ¡°Outta my way!¡± and simply hauled Dave aside before the poor boy could react.

    Dave was unharmed, but he failed to hold back a curse behind the man¡¯s back.

    ¡°You got a problem, son?¡± The big man looked back at him with an angered expression.

    Dave quickly flinched. When Angor tried to help, the man in beautiful clothes dragged hispanion away. ¡°Stop wasting time! Let¡¯s get back to Sky Tower and get as many wins as possible before the info goes out!¡±

    The bulky man nodded, spat on the ground, and turned away.

    He did not spit at Dave, but Dave still looked furious.

    ¡°Naru...¡±

    Angor heard Dave mumbling something when helping him up. ¡°What did you say?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s ¡®Raging de¡¯ Naru! I¡¯ll get him!¡± Dave revealed a grieving expression as if he wanted to physically put a curse on that man.

    ¡°You can use my Trigger Crossbow.¡±

    ¡°No, thanks. I¡¯ll make my own weapon once I learn synthesis.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to say, we can go and deal with him right now,¡± said Angor who also looked offended.

    ...

    Outside the pub.

    ¡°Bartterfly Pub provides something else to Gold Card owners too,¡± Dave spoke, ¡°they sell information to them. That man must have heard something important about the Sky Tower.¡±

    ¡°Something important about the tower?¡± Angor pondered. <i>The purification garden maybe?</i>

    They soon reached Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop and saw a pair of people sitting on the stairs in front of the shop while chatting. They quickly stood up and greeted them with smiles on their faces.

    ¡°Them again? Such coincidence,¡± Angor muttered.

    This was the samebination of the fat and the thinnerckey Angor metst week, Fosah and Laffitte.

 Chapter 232 - A Blade

    <h4>Chapter 232: A de</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Hey, Angor!¡± Fosah greeted Angor with a bright smile. ¡°What lucky day! We meet again. So, are you going to study alchemy from Master Prome too?¡±

    ¡°Good day, Angor.¡± Laffitte also showed politeness.

    Angor never figured out why Fosah suddenly changed his attitude, and he already believed that Fosah was nning something. Nevertheless, since the man was being polite, Angor decided not to respond with hostility for now.

    ¡°Good day to you too. I have something to ask of Master Prome. Did you just say Master Prome is taking students now?¡±

    Angor nced at Dave, who looked as puzzled as himself. They never heard anything like that.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know? People have been saying that Prome is nning to ept a new student now. He¡¯s been staying in his shop for a week just to find a potential apprentice.¡±

    Dave realized something and spoke, ¡°I was wondering why so many people came for apprenticeship these days. Someone¡¯s been spreading the false rumor.¡±

    ¡°False rumor?¡± Fosah looked at Laffitte in surprise.

    Laffitte was the puzzled one now. ¡°Is it? But Mister ckjack-¡±

    ¡°Ahem!!¡± Fosah interrupted him and turned back with a grin. ¡°Mister ckjack sent us here to buy an alchemy weapon. You know, the rapier we talked aboutst week.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s called a Tang Dao!¡±

    ¡°Oh. Right, Tang Dao.¡±

    Dave went to unlock the door and spoke to them, ¡°You two wait outside. I need to get something arranged with Angor.¡±

    Fosah and Laffitte nodded. They had ckjack to boost their egost time. Now they had to stay put.

    Inside the shop, Dave curled his lips. ¡°You see that pimple man mentioning ckjack? I guess ckjack wants to be Master¡¯s student too, but Master¡¯s never going to ept that arrogant fool. I think Master said something about how ckjack always refused to be someone¡¯s student unless it¡¯s Sunders. Why did he change his mind? Did you say something on that day?¡±

    ¡°No idea.¡± Angor did not really care. He did not believe he could convince such an obsessed man anyway, so there had to be another reason for it. ¡°You¡¯re not letting them inside?¡±

    Dave removed the Tang Dao from the wall. ¡°I need to ask you this, duh. So do you want to sell it at a higher price? If not, I¡¯ll just agree to their offer.¡±

    ¡°Did something happen during the week?¡± Angor asked instead.

    ¡°Something? What exactly?¡±

    ¡°Such as... something that might raise the price?¡±

    ¡°Pfft. No way something like that always happens. The Moonfrost Passage is already a really rare chance.¡±

    ¡°Well, you told them toe back one weekter, just do what you agreed then. It¡¯s not like the weapon¡¯s anything valuable.¡±

    ¡°See? Told you we have to ept that price. Man, I went along with you and said that the price would keep raising. That was embarrassing.¡±

    Since it was decided, Dave called the pair inside and disyed the weapon to them. ¡°You want this thing then? How much will you pay?¡±

    ¡°Price¡¯s still the same, right?¡± Fosah chuckled.

    Dave looked away. ¡°Just give me a price already.¡±

    Laffitte rolled his eyes a little and spoke. ¡°Ten magic crystals.¡±

    Dave mmed the desk. He would not ept the sudden decrease in profit.

    Before he could say so, however, Fosah red at Laffitte and dragged him behind. ¡°It¡¯s 15 crystals. His tongue slipped.¡±

    Laffitte seemed pretty irritated and tried to protest.

    ¡°Stop it,¡± Fosah whispered to Laffitte. ¡°The favor will cost more than five crystals. We don¡¯t need to save the small money.¡±

    Both Angor and Dave heard him.

    ¡°Funny,¡± Dave grinned. ¡°You wanted us to hear that, didn¡¯t you?¡±

    Fosah waved his hands. ¡°I¡¯m just buying the weapon for my boss. Nothing else, really.¡±

    Dave nced at Angor and saw Angor still calm as ever, so he decided to strike the hammer. ¡°Alright then, 15 crystals it is.¡±

    Fosah smiled again at his sess. Just as he took out the money from his pocket to pay, another voice suddenly came from the door.

    ¡°Hold it! I¡¯ll take the sword! I give you 20 crystals!¡±

    The visitor was wearing exquisite-looking jackets and pants. He also had a short sword decorated with gems hanging on his waist. It seemed that he came in a hurry since he was panting a little.

    ¡°Who the heck are you? We already took it!¡± Laffitte grimaced. They just ¡°humiliated¡± Dave since the weapon¡¯s prices did not change, and someone came proving them wrong so soon.

    Fosah frowned and wondered if the shop just hired a shill. He glimpsed at Dave and did not notice anything that proved his assumption. Rather, Dave¡¯s expression turned darker when looking at the neer.

    This meant it was someone not weed here. Also, the man used the word ¡°sword¡±, which further proved that the visitor was not with the shop.

    But why the heck would he offer more?!

    ¡°Get lost from my sight, peasants.¡± The visitor taunted and tossed a money bag onto the counter. ¡°Twenty magic crystals. It¡¯s mine.¡±

    He proceeded to take the Tang Dao.

    Fosah held it down.

    ¡°What the f*ck¡¯s wrong with you, peasant? Get your filthy hands off!¡±

    Fosah grimaced harder. This man was obviously stronger. But he already agreed to bring the weapon back to ckjack, and he could not back out now.

    ¡°The shop already agreed to sell us the weapon. Do you know what ¡®manner¡¯ means?¡± Fosah spoke with a hint of uncertainty. He needed Dave to back him up on those words. Otherwise, he would absolutely lose the weapon.

    ¡°You? You want to pay 15 and you haven¡¯t, while I ALREADY paid 20. Use your brain. Do you think he¡¯s going to choose an inferior offer?¡± The sumptuously-dressed man taunted and pointed at Dave.

    Fosah also knew that the wizarding world did not go around ¡°manners¡±. He still needed to wait for Dave¡¯s decision.

    Both of them gazed at Dave, whose shifting expression suggested that he was also hesitating.

    Twenty magic crystals meant big profit. But this man... he was the one walking alongside ¡®Raging de¡¯ Naru back at Bartterfly Pub. Dave was not hurt during the small conflict, and he probably would forget it in a day or two. But the incident just happened a little while ago, and Dave was still angry about it. Looking at this man instantly made him feel disgusted.

    However... that was not a reason to reject money! Sure, Dave wanted to humiliate the man. But Angor, who was the owner of the weapon, happened to be watching nearby.

    Fosah grew more and more embarrassed since Dave did not answer him.

    The visitor pushed Fosah away. ¡°Money talks, you know? Only poor bastards depend on reasons. Don¡¯t expect others to be kind. Yeah, I¡¯m talking to you, peasant! When you earn enough money, you¡¯ll find it a joke reasoning with people.¡±

    The words struck the vital point in Fosah¡¯s mind. Beforeing here, Fosah was the son of the minister of economy in a nation, and he never experienced a shortage of money. At that time, he regarded the world just like how the man in front of him did. Now that he no longer had money in the wizarding world, he began to seek ¡°reason¡±.

    Fosah¡¯s face blushed in frustration, while Laffitte red at the intruder in rage.

    ¡°What? You have a different idea? Prove me wrong with your wallet then,¡± said the man as he kept lecturing them.

    ¡°Why you-¡± Laffitte bellowed, but Fosah quickly dragged him back. They only brought 15 magic crystals. They did save up some money by doing quests together, but five crystals was not a small number to them.

    When the brightly-dressed man scoffed, another person entered the shop.

    It was a woman with curly hair in a wild style which covered half of her face. The exposed features gave her an attractive look. She was wearing a tattered ck robe. Several holes on the robe revealed an armor on her body and a pair of charming, white thighs.

    ¡°What¡¯s the problem, Te? Grab the weapon and let¡¯s move!¡± She approached the man on pigeon steps.

    ¡°Tell you what, Queena, a peasant is trying to teach me manners,¡± Te sneered.

    Queena nced at Fosah and Laffitte, then at Angor and Dave. She tried to speak, but her attention was attracted by something shining with an arc-shaped light.

    ¡°What... is that?¡± Queena pointed at the tool bench behind Dave.

    Everyone looked that way. There were all kinds of misceneous objects scattered on the bench. At a corner, there was a ss case which contained a crescent-shaped object that glimmered with a cold aura.

    ...

    ¡°Hey, boy. Can I check that out?¡± Queena pointed at the object.

    Dave also recognized this ¡°Queena¡± as someone who apanied Naru, but he showed them the ss case anyway.

    He ced the case on the counter which drew everyone¡¯s attention.

    Inside the case was a short-ded scythe with inconspicuous patterns on it. The elegant arc of the weapon was releasing a faint blue light which was reflected on the ss and gave them the delusion of seeing a moon.

    ¡°It¡¯s a tiered alchemy weapon!¡± Queena sensed the power of runes on the de and revealed wild excitement.

    Every new item created by Prome would attract countless people to the shop to fight over it. A stock of tiered alchemy weapons would get sold out in a matter of minutes. They were not expecting to see an avable one here at all.

    As people inspected the scythe, Te tossed an even bigger money pouch onto the desk without a second thought. ¡°I¡¯m buying it!¡±

 Chapter 233 - Talking Reason

    <h4>Chapter 233: Talking Reason</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Te dropped his money pouch and reached for the scythe.

    Dave quickly took it away. ¡°Not yet. We haven¡¯t agreed on a price yet!¡±

    Te pointed to the pouch on the counter. ¡°That¡¯s a hundred crystals. Absolutely a decent market price.¡±

    Usually, a weapon enchanted with Rune of Sharpen would sell for a simr price. However, this one might go a little lower since a scythe was not amon weapon used by people.

    Dave hesitated. He really did not wish to sell anything to these two people. What was more, those were Angor¡¯s weapons, and Angor had not provided his opinion yet.

    ¡°What, you want more? How about selling it to the peasants?¡± Te pointed at Fosah and Laffitte.

    Fosah was still staring at the Tang Dao in Te¡¯s hand, unmoving.

    ¡°Are you selling it or not? You got a good offer!¡± Te tapped on the desk impatiently.

    Dave struggled a little and finally decided to ce the case back on the desk.

    Queena smiled and winked at Te who then nced at Fosah again. ¡°See that? Give me reasons when you earn enough money or don¡¯t be an eyesore.¡±

    Queena sneered, ¡°Enough wasting time with these lots. Naru¡¯s waiting!¡±

    ¡°Okay okay! Just let me grab the weapon,¡± said Te with a chuckle.

    He believed he had everything under control and that no one would oppose him now. Those two peasants already lost their speech, and the shop clerk only needed money.

    Money was the rule.

    With enough money, he managed to receive the message earlier from Bartterfly Pub and even asked them to keep it from others for a while.

    Te reached for the scythe slowly while giving everyone a proud look... wait.

    <i>Why is it so heavy?</i>

    He looked down and saw someone¡¯s hand holding the weapon down. Telling from the healthy features on the hand, it had to be someone really young.

    Te moved his sight up and saw the young man who had not made a sound until now.

    ¡°Hands off, peasant,¡± Te spoke in a cold tone.

    Everyone else in the shop stared at Angor.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re rich,¡± said Angor as he smiled at the man in front of him. ¡°I¡¯ll reason with you.¡±

    His words startled everyone, especially Fosah, who suddenly felt a bit relieved. Was Angor trying to help him?

    Queena raised an eyebrow and ced a polished finger on Te¡¯s chest. ¡°Oh my, little handsome. Do you want to reason with him? I¡¯m afraid his... ¡®reason¡¯ is bigger than you expected.¡±

    As she spoke, Queena slowly moved her finger down toward Te¡¯s abdomen and stopped at a convenient spot to draw a circle. What she meant was obvious.

    Te sneered again, ¡°Good. I¡¯ll show you some reason then.¡±

    He let his hand go from the case. ¡°So, how much can you offer? Let¡¯s see who got more ¡®reason¡¯.¡±

    Angor remained calm and pointed at the other weapon in Te¡¯s hand. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about this de first.¡±

    Te was surprised a little, then heughed out. ¡°And I thought you were going to show me some real money. So you want to talk about this cheap shit? Okay then, I¡¯ll give you a chance.¡±

    Angor took the Tang Dao back from Te¡¯s hand. Te frowned a bit, but he did not try to stop Angor. The man was curious to see what this particrly stupid kid was going to do.

    And Angor¡¯s move shocked him for good.

    Instead of ¡°offering a price¡±, Angor tossed the weapon to Fosah under everyone¡¯s gaze.

    Fosah hurried to catch the weapon with a nk expression. He had no idea what just happened.

    ¡°... What¡¯s the meaning of this? Peasants helping each other?¡± Te scoffed.

    ¡°I¡¯m reasoning with you,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°What reason? Where¡¯s your offer?¡±

    Angor only smiled. Even Dave began to chuckle and ced a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Man, he¡¯s either deaf or blind,¡± Dave spoke, ¡°you already showed him the ¡®reason¡¯.¡±

    That angered Te a little. He realized that this kid was referring to something different by mentioning ¡°reason¡±.

    ¡°I see. So, you want to help those two?¡± Te was losing his patience.

    ¡°Not at all. As I said, I¡¯m being reasonable,¡± said Angor. He extended a hand to Fosah. ¡°Fifteen crystals and the Tang Dao is yours.¡±

    Fosah was still not sure what was going on, but he reacted quick enough and ced the money in Angor¡¯s hand. Since Angor meant to sell him the weapon, he would not let the chance slip.

    Next, Angor picked out two crystals and handed them to Dave while putting the rest into his own pocket.

    ¡°What the heck are you doing?¡± Te grimaced.

    ¡°Reasoning, duh. They came first, you second. I agreed to sell the weapon to them, and I¡¯ll keep my words no matter how much you pay. That¡¯s how my reason works,¡± Angor said.

    Te looked at Dave. ¡°Hey, you. You¡¯re letting an outsider decide for you?¡±

    Dave shrugged without speaking and pretended that he was staying out of this.

    ¡°So, 20 crystals aren¡¯t enough? And you¡¯ll join these peasants against me? Hah! You¡¯re just a lowly worker in the shop, no? I bet Master Prome will fire you for good when he hears about this.¡±

    ¡°Fire him? Of course not.¡± Another voice came from the door.

    Everyone looked outside and saw a middle-aged man in a shiny purple robe walking in on casual steps.

    ¡°Master Prome!¡± Fosah saw his ¡°potential boss¡± and quickly went to kneel down.

    ¡°Master Prome...¡± Te was shocked. He mentioned Prome¡¯s name to scare off Dave, but Prome came for real!

    ¡°Speak of the devil... and just in time,¡± Angor thought to himself.

    Prome did not know what a bunch of people was doing in his shop, but he already heard Te¡¯s previous words. He was pretty satisfied with Dave¡¯s outstanding performance recently. Earlier this week, when he taught Dave alchemy knowledge, Dave showed an open mind as well as great determination. Added with the friendship with Angor... Naturally, Prome would never kick Dave out of the shop.

    ¡°Master,¡± greeted Dave as he weed his teacher inside.

    Prome¡¯s action pped Te¡¯s face really hard. However, when Te thought about how the stupid kid took the ie of the shop for his own, the man was confident that Master Prome would ¡°do justice¡±.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± Prome asked.

    Before Dave could exin, Fosah and Laffitte rushed to Prome¡¯s side and quickly described the whole matter.

    Prome did not reveal his standing. Deep inside, he would support Te this time. However, since Angor was the one opposing Te, Prome was fine with selling a cheap alchemy weapon at a bad price. He could always make another one.

    He had no idea that the Tang Dao was not from his shop.

    Prome was going to speak up for Angor, but Te spoke first, ¡°Master Prome, the young man gave the weapon to these... two, and only gave two magic crystals to your clerk, while he kept the rest. That¡¯s why I¡¯m unsatisfied.¡±

    Since Prome was here, Te would not call people ¡°peasants¡± now.

    Prome looked at Fosah, hoping that a third party could prove Te¡¯s words for him.

    Fosah hesitated a little and nodded.

    ¡°I... see,¡± Prome was not sure how toment now. Angor should have many ways to earn money. Why would he use such a bad trick in broad daylight? Prome pondered whether he should still support Angor.

    Te was satisfied to see Prome ¡°doubting the kid¡±.

    Angor spoke up, ¡°I¡¯m not done with my reasons. Let¡¯s talk about who should get served first.¡±

    Te pointed to Fosah. ¡°I think you should ask HIM. Say, if he has enough money, will he care about whoes first?¡±

    Fosah felt like crying when he became the center of attention again. However, since Angor just helped him, he decided to tell a lie for now by declining Te¡¯s assumption.

    He nodded firmly. ¡°I will! I¡¯ll let whoever arrives first to buy the weapon!¡±

    Despite his sincere look, no one in the shop believed him. Not even Angor.

    ¡°I see what you mean,¡± Angor said, ¡°and I do believe that Fosah will not tell reasons if he¡¯s rich.¡±

    Fosah looked at Angor in shock. <i>Hey brother! I¡¯m trying to help! What gives??</i>

    Angor¡¯s words also caught Te by surprise. The man already prepared some speech to hurt Fosah, but he no longer needed to.

    Angor continued, ¡°So you don¡¯t reason, Fosah doesn¡¯t reason, we¡¯ll not find reasons from both of you. But that doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯ll tell you the reason!¡±

    Angor gave them a bright smile.

    Te humphed. ¡°What¡¯s the point? You think you can decide on behalf of Master Prome?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Of course I cannot.¡±

    He then pointed to the de in Fosah¡¯s arm. ¡°But I have the right to decide the fate of this weapon.¡±

    ¡°How?!¡±

    ¡°Because the weapon is mine!¡±

    His words startled everyone in the shop again. Well, except Dave.

    Prome carefully looked at the weapon and wiped some sweat drops from his forehead. He thought people were arguing over something he made before, and he was d he did not say anything like that or that would be so embarrassing.

    Te was taken aback. If what Angor said was true... then yes, Angor should be the one deciding how to sell the de.

    And Angor had all the reason to ¡°be reasonable with them¡±.

    Te¡¯s heart sank when he realized that neither Dave nor Master Prome said anything. So the de really was from this damn kid!

    No wonder the clerk ¡°dly¡± epted two magic crystals for the weapon.

    Te only felt great shame troubling his mind now. Every word he said until now, which all meant to boast about his wealth, only deepened his embarrassment.

    As he tried to think of an excuse, Angor¡¯s voice interrupted his thoughts again.

    Angor picked up the scythe and smiled at Te. ¡°Okay, I finished telling my reason. Now it¡¯s your turn.¡±

    He handed the scythe to Te.

    ¡°I hope you have a reason to convince me to sell this to you. Oh right, just so you know, the scythe is mine as well.¡±

 Chapter 234 - Reason Puzzle

    <h4>Chapter 234: Reason Puzzle</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Te¡¯s hand twitched a little when hearing Angor¡¯s words. He looked at Prome, hoping for a proof.

    Prome smiled. ¡°The scythe is enchanted with Rune of Sharpen, a very typical enchantment technique.¡±

    Almost everyone in the underground market knew that Prome was a synthesis alchemist. He was clearly trying to tell them that the scythe had nothing to do with him.

    Te was too surprised to get surprised again now. The only thing he wanted to do at this point was to achieve his goal of buying a weapon. He did not care who the kid was.

    ¡°You¡¯re the seller. Sell it if you want. Enough with your reason bullshit or whatever,¡± said Te as he mmed the scythe on the desk in rage.

    Angor was calm as ever. ¡°But you¡¯re the one trying to talk reason, right? I ced the weapon in the shop, so obviously, I¡¯ll sell it. Look, I just gave it to you.¡±

    ¡°Do it fast then. We don¡¯t need no reasons!¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand me? Guess I have to say it again. I don¡¯t need a reason. It was you who need a reason.¡± Angor acted calm even though Te was getting furious in front of his face.

    ¡°What the f*ck? What do mean by ¡®your reason¡¯ and ¡®my reason¡¯? You trying to mess us up with your tongue twisters?¡±

    Angor could not help sneering. Dave, Fosah, and Laffitte all shook their heads. Even Prome looked away.

    Te was still dumbfounded.

    Queena quickly whispered, ¡°He¡¯s asking for an offer! Don¡¯t get itplicated!¡± She began to feel embarrassed as well. ¡°You haven¡¯t had enough? Let¡¯s buy the weapon and be on our way! Boss is waiting for us.¡±

    Te finally realized what was going on. He was one saying ¡°money is the reason¡±, and Angor was asking for money.

    And he repeated ¡°sell me sell me!¡± like a fool... Te felt his face burning.

    ¡°Shame ya. So you know how to blush? I thought you can¡¯t since you never remember what you said yourself!¡± Laffitte taunted. Te had been calling him ¡°peasant¡± all the time, so he could not give up the chance to humiliate Te.

    Te¡¯s shame quickly turned into rage. He gave Laffitte a threatening look. ¡°Shut your trap peasant! Or else-¡±

    ¡°Or what?¡± Prome spoke up with a cold look. ¡°Dear me. Why are there so many people making scenes in my shop these days? You all looking to die faster?¡±

    Prome¡¯s mighty aura as a level-3 apprentice already caused Te to flinch in horror. His fame as an alchemist only made it worse.

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t mean that, Master. He used foul words at me, so I-¡±

    ¡°Argue however you like,¡± Prome frowned. ¡°But don¡¯t you dare attack people for real at my ce, or I¡¯ll make sure your days are numbered!¡±

    Te was trying his best to remain calm. Now he was losing it.

    Angor chose to add fuel at a proper time. ¡°So, your reason? If you don¡¯t have one, leave the weapon and get lost!¡±

    Te¡¯s rage built up, but he deted again when Prome snorted as a warning.

    Queena face-palmed herself.

    Te tried his best to contain his emotion. ¡°I already paid the money. It¡¯s on the desk.¡±

    There were two pouches on the counter, one big and one small. The small one contained 20 magic crystals Te paid for buying the Tang Dao, while the other had 100 crystals for the scythe.

    Angor picked up the bigger pouch and felt its weight. ¡°Nah, this is not enough to convince me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s already amon market price. Ask people if you don¡¯t know the market. Ask the clerk! He must have sold lots of weapons like this. He should know.¡±

    Dave had been feeling really satisfied with Te¡¯s misfortune. He did not know how to respond right away when addressed by the man¡¯s question. Te was right, that the current offer for the weapon was pretty decent. Actually, it was more than decent, considering how a scythe was not amonly-used weapon.

    Te calmed down a little when he did not receive an answer from Dave. He felt his ego returning again. However, he could not show it in front of Prome.

    Angor spoke up, ¡°Again, the scythe¡¯s mine, and I need a reason to convince me. The market price is not a regtion anyway. It always changes.¡±

    Fosah spoke along Angor by using his experience as the son of an economy minister, ¡°Supply and demand greatly affects something¡¯s price. The market price may also be manipted by people.¡±

    Angor gave Fosah a thumbs-up. ¡°So don¡¯t give me the market price. I¡¯m expecting your own price, and it¡¯s not enough yet.¡±

    Te, as someone who always knew how to spend money, was just as experienced in the economy as Fosah. ¡°We consider supply and demand on condition that there is at least some demand for the item. Your short scythe is such an umon weapon. I don¡¯t think people will buy it at all.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you here for it?¡± Angor asked.

    Te choked a little.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be irrational! It¡¯s your honor that someone actually wants to buy it!¡±

    ¡°And of course I can raise my price if someone needs the weapon badly. This is how the market works, no?¡±

    ¡°Heh. I don¡¯t need it ¡®badly¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? See you next time then.¡±

    Angor did not care whether the weapon was sold at all.

    ¡°Why you-¡± Te was only trying to gain himself some room for bargaining. He did not expect Angor to end his attempt so fast.

    Queena, who had been watching their conversation, leaned down toward Angor to let the boy see her breast area through her cor.

    ¡°I apologize for Te, little handsome boy. He¡¯s too rash a man, and he tends to cause trouble for all of us. I¡¯ll buy the weapon, is that okay with you?¡±

    ¡°Of course. Your offer?¡±

    Queena put a finger on her chest and spoke in a timid voice, ¡°A hundred crystals from me. Is that good for you?¡±

    Usually, a kid around the age of fourteen or so would easily lose his temper against the temptation of women. At least Queena believed so.

    She had no idea that the boy in front of her did not even hesitate for one second when killing Red Butterfly, who was someone who would not lose when it came to beautiful looks.

    ¡°No.¡± Angor was firm.

    Queena quickly stopped her seductive movement. ¡°So what price are you expecting?¡±

    Angor did not drag the matter for any longer. ¡°Three hundred.¡±

    Everyone looked at him in surprise. That was three times the original offer. A simr weapon made by the hands of a master would probably cost the same price, and this one obviously was not a masterpiece.

    ¡°Damn. Angor¡¯s so bold. But I like it!¡± Dave thought to himself.

    ¡°Three hundred, huh? Really? Just tell us if you don¡¯t want to sell it at all,¡± Te sneered.

    The other people were thinking in the same way. Angor¡¯s price waspletely unreasonable.

    ¡°Of course I¡¯m selling it. Why else would I ce it in the shop? I¡¯ll sell as long as you pay enough.¡±

    ¡°But it ain¡¯t worth 300 crystals! Hell, even a hundred is a bit overpriced.¡±

    Angor grinned. ¡°Really now? Let¡¯s see... your boss, what¡¯s he called? ¡®Raging de¡¯ Naru? He¡¯s waiting for you guys in Sky Tower, right?¡±

    Te and Queena both had their pupils constricted when Angor mentioned Sky Tower.

    Queena let out a pretentious chuckle. ¡°What are you talking about? I don¡¯t get you.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t? It¡¯s fine,¡± said Angor as he ced the scythe back into its case. ¡°I think the weapon will sell better if I wait several days. Don¡¯t you think so, Mister Te?¡±

    ¡°What-what did you know?¡± Te asked.

    ¡°You¡¯re asking me now? But didn¡¯t you guys just buy the information yourselves?¡±

    ¡°Information? What information?¡± Fosah and Laffitte looked at each other, puzzled.

    Angor only smiled. ¡°Something that helps me sell the scythe at 300 magic crystals.¡±

    Te and Queena both stared at Angor with an uncertain look. ¡°Who the hell are you? And how did you find out?¡±

    ¡°So, you aren¡¯t buying it? But you want to buy it low before the information goes out, right? What, three hundred is too much for you?¡±

    Not knowing what Angor was referring to, the remaining people nced at each other.

    ¡°Someone who believes money is the reason... can¡¯t afford to pay mere 300 crystals?¡±

    Te¡¯s face grew red again at Angor¡¯s sarcasm. He was criticizing Fosah in the exact same way, and someone used the same trick against him so soon.

    To make it worse, Te did not have so much money on him. Besides, for ordinary apprentices, that kind of money was not something easily collected.

    ¡°I think you¡¯re on the point. They don¡¯t have the money,¡± Dave spoke along. He was also wondering what the ¡°information¡± was, but he was d he had something to add salt to Te¡¯s wounded ego.

 Chapter 235 - Swap Places

    <h4>Chapter 235: Swap ces</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Te was only a level-1 apprentice. The 150 crystals he carried included the fund for his team. There was no way he could find 300 crystals.

    ¡°Alright... I¡¯ll remember this! Just you wait!¡±

    This was the first time Te was humiliated so badly in his life. He always believed that money was the only thing that dominated the world, and he was confident in his wealth. Now a kid just ruined everything, including his personal image.

    He cursed and turned away to leave the shop.

    Prome suddenly spoke, ¡°Is your ¡®information¡¯ about how the purification garden in Floating Mech City is about to open up?¡±

    Both Te and Queena jumped a little. Then they looked away with uncertainty.

    ¡°On my way, I saw the questing hall already announced the message to everyone.¡±

    Before anyone couldment on Prome¡¯s words, a group of apprentices rushed into the shop.

    One of the apprentices walking in front of the group was also wearing very bright clothes. Despite Te¡¯s decorative clothing, this man was dressed in a real wizard robe. He swiftly went through all the shelves and bought all kinds of weapons, then asked his followers to carry them. Even Angor¡¯s kitchen knife was among his purchase.

    The man suddenly noticed the ss case and widened his eyes.

    ¡°How much for this one?¡± He asked eagerly while ncing at Te anxiously, fearing that someone might beat him to it.

    ¡°Four hundred crystals,¡± Angor said without a second thought.

    He startled everyone else by increasing his price by another hundred crystals so soon. That was four times of Te¡¯s original offer. Smelled like a scam!

    Next, they carefully nced at Te. If someone actually epted the price... it would be another huge insult to Te.

    The new customer frowned a bit.

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    He took out his bone card right away and paid 40 thousand merit points.

    He paid on the spot! Together with the other alchemy weapons he already bought, this man had spent over six hundred magic crystals in the shop!

    No one was expecting that kind of money. Even Prome could not help giving the man several more curious glimpses.

    Just several minutes ago, Te was yelling ¡°You just don¡¯t want to sell it to us!¡± into Angor¡¯s face, and Angor¡¯s price was 300 by then. Now that someone paid even more for the scythe...

    Te¡¯s cheeks were now of a pure, bright red color due to his great embarrassment.

    His partner, Queena, was in no better condition. The woman just helped him by saying ¡°Te¡¯s got a ¡®bigger reason¡¯¡±.

    <i>Bigger reason... devil¡¯s a*ss! </i>Queena only wished to get away from everyone as soon as she could. She could no longer hold back a hint of hatred when she looked at Te again.

    The wealthy customer, on the other hand, was inspecting the scythe in his hand and felt very satisfied.

    ¡°Aha! I hit a treasure vault today! With this baby, nothing¡¯s stopping me from reaching the top floor!¡± The manughed out. Most of the time, there would not be any level-3 apprentices in the Sky Tower, which meant a level-2 apprentice who owned a tiered alchemy weapon was very likely to seed. Besides, he had great talent.

    ¡°I¡¯ll remember this, friend. If you need help, just call my name¡ªRamanbell!¡±

    Ramanbell told ¡°I¡¯ll remember this¡± to Angor for the same thing, but with a totally different intention.

    Someone bought the scythe for 400 crystals and was content with it. He even thanked the seller sincerely. On the contrary, Te gave Angor a mouthful of curses for a lesser price... and earned himself a sarcastically different impression to others.

    Te¡¯s cheeks had changed from red to grayish ck. He had not escaped from the shop yet because he considered it even more embarrassing when people were looking.

    ¡°Thank you kindly. I¡¯m Angor.¡± Angor nodded in acknowledgment.

    Without further ado, Ramanbell took his goods and left right away.

    On his way out, Ramanbell saw the Tang Dao in Fosah¡¯s hand and did notment. When moving past Te and Queena though, he noticed them empty-handed, and could not help ridiculing them.-

    ¡°Lousy beggars.¡±

    Te and Queena did not make a sound since Ramanbell¡¯s group ofpany was still waiting nearby.

    Ramanbell humphed and walked away. His men followed behind, creating quite a scene on the street with their sheer number.

    The remaining people in the shop all stayed silent for a while.

    A series ofughter broke the quietness.

    ¡°Beggars? Bahhaha! What a joke today!¡± Fosah wasughing so hard that his eyes were hidden behind all the flesh on his overgrown face.

    Laffitte gave Te a disdainful nce. ¡°That¡¯s what you call rich! Angor already gave a better price, and SOMEONE didn¡¯t know how to appreciate it. Poor bastards wanted to act big! Ha!¡±

    Te¡¯s ego was too broken to keep arguing. Ramanbell¡¯s taunt at the end had ruined his spirit for good.

    ¡°What the f*ck are you waiting for? Just go already so you don¡¯t invite more trouble!¡± Queena quickly dragged Te away.

    At the door, she nced back at Angor with a pair of eyes shining with cunning violence like a viper.

    After those two left, Dave alsoughed out loud. ¡°You¡¯re awesome today, Angor! Too bad it¡¯s just Naru¡¯s henchmen. Aw, why didn¡¯t Narue with them?¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t awesome before?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°You were! That woman, though... Did you see her face? I think they do remember you now,¡± Dave looked worried.

    Angor waved a hand nonchntly. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. If they get in my way... heh.¡±

    Fosah approached them and bowed to Angor. ¡°Thank you, really, or we would be the ones in trouble. If we can¡¯t get the boss¡¯ request done, we¡¯ll have to find another boss.¡±

    The fatty nced at Angor next.

    Angor quickly backed away. ¡°I didn¡¯t do that for you. Don¡¯t get me wrong. If your business is done, just go away.¡±

    Fosah was nning to ask where Angor got the other two alchemy weapons. Now that Angor openly rejected his friendliness, Fosah only chuckled and took Laffitte away from the shop.

    ¡°What¡¯s about the purification garden, Master? Why¡¯s everyone buying weapons? I mean, four hundred crystals! This is insane,¡± Dave spoke.

    Prome grinned. ¡°You should ask Angor about this one. He knew about the information way earlier than us. That¡¯s why you went to challenge the tower so early, am I right?¡±

    Angor smiled and exined everything to them.

    ¡°Ah... That¡¯s why you asked me to sell the weapons a month and a halfter? You already knew their prices are gonna go up!¡± Davemented.

    Dave did not mind Angor¡¯s decision to withhold the information. Even if Angor told him, he did not have what it took to challenge the tower.

    Prome was still waiting for an answer from Angor and he could not really wait any longer.

    ¡°Angor, you... Did you find an anti-undead rune?¡±

    ¡°Sadly, I didn¡¯t find a rune to repel the undead.¡±

    Prome looked down a little.

    ¡°But I saw a magic array for that purpose called ¡®Prelude to Elimination¡¯. Have you heard of it, sir?¡±

    Prome went through his memory and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve little knowledge about rune enchantment, let alone magic arrays. I only know severalmon ones. As for the one you mentioned... No, I have no clue.¡±

    ¡°You... learned magic array enchantment, Angor?¡± Dave asked in surprise.

    Dave knew that something enchanted with a magic array was at least a mid-tiered alchemy item or something better. With such a technique, Angor could already be considered a better alchemist than Master Prome.

    Prome also gave Angor a curious look.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can do it yet. I tried. Before I can see any result, I don¡¯t have enough mana for it. How can I draw a magic array without mana?¡±

    ¡°I see. You¡¯ll have a hard time drawing arrays even if you know how,¡± said Prome as he sighed. ¡°Looks like I¡¯ll have to check out the Wizard Fair.¡±

    ¡°Is there a way to address this problem?¡± Angor tried to ask, ¡°I¡¯ve been experiencing ack of mana before when trying to draw some of the runes.¡±

    ¡°If you have problem with mana... this is pretty simple. One direct approach is to spend money¡ªyou can use magic crystals as a source of mana.¡±

    Angor already knew that magic crystals could be used as a power source for alchemy items, however...

    ¡°But the crystals only provide primal mana, right? I still need to convert them into my body. That will be too slow.¡±

 Chapter 236 - Energy Stabilizer

    <h4>Chapter 236: Energy Stabilizer</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Every problem has an answer,¡± Prome said. ¡°People have always been tackling this problem with primal mana in magic crystals. There are many solutions today. Considering your current condition, the only one suitable for you is to buy an Energy Stabilizer.¡±

    ¡°Energy Stabilizer? I think I saw it somewhere before.¡±

    ¡°From one of the books in Cloud Library, I assume?¡± Prome chuckled. ¡°If my memory serves me right, the alchemy draft about Energy Stabilizer has a rental fee of 1.1 million merit points.¡±

    <i>Million! </i>Dave was agape upon hearing this. That meant 11 thousand magic crystals. It would probably take his entire life to make so much money.

    Angor remained calm. He did see the book Prome mentioned, but he was also sure that his <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>contained something like this as well.

    However, Angor never read the book for real. He only saw the name of Energy Stabilizer when arranging his pictures, so he had no idea what this thing did.

    ¡°As wemonly believed, primal mana is untamed energy which is almost impossible to control. In order to store it into mana pool and use it, wizards construct spirit models to filter the energy into pure energy,¡± Prome exined. ¡°As for Energy Stabilizer... it is a tool that divides energy. If you put unstable energy into the device, it condenses the unstable part to a lower level while leaving pure energy on top, just like what happens if you put oil and water into a ss.

    ¡°Primal mana is also considered unstable energy, while an Energy Stabilizer can be used to extract pure energy out of it for you to use.¡±

    When hearing this, instead of considering how to use the item to draw magic arrays, Angor¡¯s first thought was whether he could gain more pure energy in this way to strengthen his own mana pool. If he could, he would be able to develop his power a lot faster simply by consuming magic crystals.

    And this was exactly what most people who learned about Energy Stabilizers thought about.

    Dave helped him by asking the question out loud.

    ¡°Master Prome, can we erge our mana pool by using this stabilizer? My mana flow is pretty slow, so if I can gain pure energy in this way-¡±

    Prome interrupted him. ¡°Only in your beautiful dream, my boy.¡±

    Dave scratched his nose and let out a silly chuckle.

    Prome continued, ¡°A spirit model is the foundation of a wizard, and the mana pool is his core. The energy in your core depends on yourself to convert primal mana, even slowly. Foreign energy cannot enter your mana pool, no matter how pure it is. However, you CAN inject foreign energy directly into your spirit tunnels. But such energy still needs to go through the conversion process which won¡¯t help you gain mana in your mana pool faster.

    ¡°Also, an Energy Stabilizer does not ¡®convert¡¯ energy. It condenses violent energy to a lower level. Primal mana contains both violent and pure energy, while an Energy Stabilizer extracts the purer part of the energy, leaving the violent one out. This is unlike your spirit model which converts all primal mana into pure mana. And here¡¯s a problem.

    ¡°As I said, this approach means ¡®spending money¡¯. A magic crystal contains a good amount of primal mana, but an Energy Stabilizer can only filter out a small part of it. No matter how much pure energy you gain in the end, the magic crystal used in the process will shatter and go to waste. A single magic crystal cannot provide enough pure energy for even a level-0 cantrip.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°How many magic crystals do we need to cast a level-0 cantrip, if we only use an Energy Stabilizer?¡±

    Prome considered. ¡°I¡¯ve never tried something so wasteful, but I can give you a vague answer.¡±

    Prome took out several magic crystals and sensed them using his spirit feeler.

    ¡°They all have simr primal mana, but with different purity. I¡¯d assume that a level-0 cantrip must use at least two or three crystals. More, if the cantrip is a continuous one.¡±

    Angor went over his own calction. If one level-0 cantrip consumed three magic crystals, he would need somewhere like 510 of them to apply Prelude to Elimination to an item during an entire alchemy process. Considering he also needed to use Thaw and Hand of Spell... it would take 600 crystals or so.

    Six hundred magic crystals just to craft an alchemy item enchanted with Prelude to Elimination.

    And this was based on the condition that his attempt was sessful. Should anything go wrong, everything would go to waste.

    Angor hesitated. He wanted to give up. However, when he recalled how Prome did save his life back there, he decided to give it a shot anyway.

    He did not reveal his n since he still had many problems to solve, such as where to find the magic crystals and materials. Besides, if Prome could actually find a usable weapon from the Wizard Fair, he could avoid ¡°wasting money¡±.

    Dave asked a question in the meantime, ¡°Master, from what I heard till now, an Energy Stabilizer doesn¡¯t seem so useful. Why is the draft so expensive to rent? And how much does it cost when a full-functional stabilizer is sold?¡±

    Prome sneered, ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything about the true potential of a stabilizer. It isn¡¯t used for extracting pure energy only. Any experiment that involves energy application could use such a tool, and any wizard who strives to achieve something good should get one. It has a high demand on the market, thus it¡¯s an expensive blueprint.

    ¡°You should already know that anything rted to alchemy knowledge costs a fortune. As for a full-functional stabilizer... it actually is affordable. I think Floating Mech City provides them at less than 200 crystals. We don¡¯t have many alchemists here though, so you may find them in Brute Cavern at a higher price.¡±

    ¡°Can you make one, Master?¡± Dave asked.

    Prome cleared his throat. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be running a shop in this ce if I can. If I go to Wizard Fair and sell stabilizers there, even if only one each day, I¡¯d be richer than most people!¡±

    Prome noticed Angor¡¯s expression and thought the kid was still thinking about Energy Stabilizers.

    ¡°No need to worry. I was nning for the worst already. I¡¯ve found enough magic crystals so I can go check the grand auction held in Twilight Well next week.¡±

    Twilight Well, the name of the Wizard Fair in Darkivil Empire.

    Apparently, auctions in Twilight Well were managed by their local wizard families. But in truth, they were sponsored mainly by Brute Cavern. Aside from routine auctions every month, they also held two grand auctions each year. One during the middle of a year, and one at the end.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go as well, maybe I can learn something. I really need some new alchemy materials too.¡±

    Angor already mentioned thisst time. He was d he was just in time for the mid-year grand auction.

    ¡°Of course. Youe with us too, Dave. Go find a space capsule so we can stock up for the shop.¡±

    Since it was decided, Angor needed to prepare something for his own. The foremost task was to earn some money. If Prome failed to find anything useful from the auction, he would need to ¡°spend money¡± and make one, and he currently did not have enough money for that.

    Besides, he also needed some other materials for his space storage, which would probably cost him more crystals.

    The mid-year grand auction would start in the middle of Month of Soothing Wind, which meant it was only ten days away.

    ¡°Master Prome, do we use a steam train or airship?¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°I nned to take an airship. But a ticket costs two crystals, which is... a little more expensive than a train ticket. There will be a lot of people going for the grand auction, so we better go pre-order the tickets now.¡±

    Angor offered to take this job, but Dave asked to go instead since he earned 50 magic crystals today.

    Ramanbell bought all of Angor¡¯s weapons. As promised, Angor shared 10% of the ie with Dave, and it was about 50 crystals. When Dave asked whether he should give a share to Prome, his master declined.

    Dave earned money equal to his sry for two months in a single day.

    With Dave away to buy tickets happily, Angor and Prome exchanged all kinds of tips about alchemy. ¡°Exchange¡± might not be the right word for it, since Prome was the one talking most of the time. Angor was also interested in synthesis, so he dly listened to Prome¡¯s lecture as a ¡°student¡± and asked several really childish questions of his own, while Prome did not mind enlightening him.

 Chapter 237 - Orlando, Showing Off Friend

    <h4>Chapter 237: Ondo, Showing Off Friend</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Prome already made up his mind that he would build a good rtionship with Angor, so he tried his best answering Angor¡¯s questions. If something involved his unique technique, he would just exin in an implicit way.

    By the time Dave came back, Angor had already learned the basics of synthesis.

    Angor took his ticket and prepared to leave.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to make some weapons and make some money to attend Wizard Fair. You want to tag along?¡± Angor spoke to Dave before leaving.

    His intention was to make money this time, so Angor did not have specific ns for the weapons.

    Dave considered. ¡°Alright. I have to keep the shop during the day so I¡¯ll join you in the evening.¡±

    After leaving Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop, Angor headed toward Cave Field instead of his vi.

    He had been concealing himself during his tower challenge and did not contact Sailum and Nausica in a long time. Now that he was done, Angor nned to say hello, while telling them about the Twilight Well.

    Angor felt a bit sorry when he failed to fulfill his promise of taking his friends to the underground market. He still felt bad even though they went there by themselves. Now he wanted to pensate¡± them by inviting them to Twilight Well instead.

    Angor believed that his peer did not know about Twilight Well just like him. Truth to be told, by shutting himself away from everyone else like an old wizard despite his young age, he had always been the ¡°exception¡± among people.

    The caves weed him with hot and damp air. Angor saw many of the room doors were wide opened, and the apprentices inside had all left their upper bodies bared. These people now looked more likeborers working in shipyards rather than talented supernaturals.

    The mirror world always had a moderate environment, but it still had different seasons. It was the Month of Soothing Wind (July). The outside still felt nice, yet the interior of these caves was moist and frowzy. Living here for too long would gradually cause people¡¯s bones to ¡°rust away¡±.

    ¡°They should have made some savings by now. I should tell them to get out of here as soon as possible,¡± Angor thought.

    Unfortunately, both Sailum¡¯s and Nausica¡¯s doors were shut tight. Seemed like they were both away.

    ¡°Are they doing quests again?¡±

    There was nothing Angor could do at this point, so he decided to head back.

    Before reaching the exit to the caves, he ran into Fosah and Laffitte again. The pair also had no idea where Sailum and Nausica had been.

    ¡°Maybe you should go ask Ondo. That guy seems pretty close to them,¡± Laffitte suggested.

    Sailum did mention Ondo¡¯s name several times. As Angor remembered, the information about how Hookdick kept ndering his name also came from Ondo.

    Angor still had time to spare today, so he agreed to check out Ondo.

    He rejected Fosah¡¯s offer of leading the way. Last time when trying to find Balba, Sailum already took him to Ondo¡¯s room, so he still knew the way.

    About fifteen minutester, Angor stopped in front of one of the doors.

    The door was slightly ajar, revealing faint candlelight inside, as well as the sound of someone snoring. For some reason, it sounded pretty rapid as if someone just came back from strenuous exercise.

    Angor was going to knock on the door, but his hand stopped when he thought about what could possibly be going on inside the room.

    Of course, he should not knock if there were two people who just finished their ¡°exercise¡±. He wondered if he should use his spirit feelers to check the room first.

    Someone suddenly mumbled in the room.

    ¡°Roffig... I want more...¡±

    <i>Roffig?</i>

    The image of a giant man with handlebar mustache shed in Angor¡¯s memory. Roffig was Ondo¡¯s great friend. But ording to Sailum, Roffig was assigned to somewhere outside the mirror world. Was he back already?

    Nevertheless, nothing could go wrong if Roffig was with Ondo, so Angor decided to knock on the door anyway.

    No response.

    Next, Angor spread his spirit feelers through the opening of the door, only to see Ondo alone in the room, snoring heavily while sprawling in an awkward manner on his bed. His moving lips suggested that Ondo was dreaming of eating something delicious.

    ¡°Mmff... roastmb... so nice. Roffig, more please...¡± Ondo¡¯s nose twitched. He was probably enjoying the smell of his nonexistent feast.

    Angor facepalmed himself outside the door. He could not believe what he just thought about. Maybe he needed to do something to cleanse his mind of funny ideas.

    Since the man he was visiting was sound asleep, Angor decided to leave for the time being...

    Not!

    He cast Hand of Spell and picked out a sock from Ondo¡¯s boot. It was a greasy, yellowish sock which obviously was of a brighter color when it was in its better days.

    ¡°Ughhh. And I thought he was aposed and cultured young guy. Well, at least his sock is ¡®cultured¡¯ for good.¡±

    It seemed studying Hand of Spell was a REALLY good choice since Angor could move a hazardous object around without worrying about getting affected.

    While still outside the door, Angor moved his Hand of Spell and ced the stinking sock on Ondo¡¯s nose.

    Ondo was still inside his sweet dream of enjoying his ¡°roastmb¡±, but his olfactory already did its job by sending a terrible signal to his brain.

    And his sweet dream instantly turned into a nightmare.

    Ondo¡¯s body twitched a little. His eyeballs began to move around madly behind his eyelids.

    Angor noticed Ondo¡¯s reaction and quickly hid the sock back into the boot.

    In the next second, Ondo bounced up from his bed while panting heavily like someone who barely escaped the fate of drowning.

    Angor felt a bit sorry while looking at Ondo¡¯s overreaction. Using a ¡°chemical weapon¡± was not really a good way of greeting someone.

    When Ondo¡¯s breathing finally calmed down, Angor knocked and pretending that he just arrived.

    Ondo looked toward the door with a nk expression. His eyes were still watering a little. ¡°Come on in.¡±

    ¡°Good day. Am I interrupting something?¡± Angor pushed the door open and ¡°surprisingly¡± saw Ondo¡¯s condition. ¡°Oh...¡±

    Angor decided not to ask ¡°what happened¡± since he was not really good friend with Ondo yet.

    Ondo rubbed his nose, still not sure what just happened. ¡°Ah, Angor. Something you need?¡±

    Angor was finished with his ¡°performance¡± and put on his usual smile. ¡°I want to ask something. Do you know where Sailum and Nausica went? They aren¡¯t in their rooms.¡±

    Ondo was still torturing his nose until it became red. ¡°Those two? On a quest, I guess. I haven¡¯t seen them for days. Nausica always goes to the underground market now and then. I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s up to though.¡±

    Angor believed he had an idea about that.

    ¡°Oh, thank you. I¡¯ll not take more of your time then, sleep well. ¡±

    He knew well he was the one waking Ondo up.

    ¡°Why are you looking for Nausica?¡± Ondo asked before Angor could leave.

    Angor briefly exined the auction which was about to start in Twilight Well, and Ondo suddenly brightened up. ¡°You¡¯re going to the grand auction too? Nice. But I heard the tickets for the seats are pretty expensive. I¡¯ll have to watch from the screen outside the hall. It¡¯s fine though. I¡¯m not really buying stuff anyway. I¡¯ll go there because I get to meet with my partner! Partner, you know?! Roffig! His dishes are sooo good! And he¡¯s so kind to me...¡±

    Ondo began to chatter non-stop. Angor never found a chance to cut in again. It seemed that as long as someone was listening to him, Ondo did not care who he was talking to.

    Sailum mentioned something to Angor before; ever since Ondo was separated from Roffig, this guy had been harassing others with his teary speeches all day long. Even Hookdick was not spared from it. When Ondo asked where Angor lived, Sailum did not tell him, which saved Angor a lot of trouble.

    Now Angor invited trouble bying here on his own.

    He really regretted replying to Ondo¡¯s question. He should have left when he could.

    Angor felt really relieved when he finally left Ondo¡¯s room. He would rather chat with a flock of squawking crows than talking to Ondo again. At least crows would not expect answers. Ondo, on the other hand, always assaulted Angor by asking whether Angor agreed with hisment on Roffig. Angor had to keep his attention so as not to give the wrong answer, which would cause Ondo to repeat his prolonged speech again.

    But the experience was not harmful. Angor was d he found Ondo bing friendlier with him.

    People tended to keep away from that man. But at the same time, Ondo did not receive any foul treatment from them because he was quite the socializer and was never discouraged by people¡¯s unfriendly gazes. Those who were troubled by Ondo might feel like kicking his ass, but they could not really find a reason to.

    Angor did not know about Roffig. However, this did not prevent him from admiring this particr figure. Anyone who managed to be Ondo¡¯s best friend would not be anyone ordinary. At any rate, Roffig should at least possess great patience.

    ...

    Next, Angor went to underground market again and headed to Sky Tower. He just decided that he would nevere here again a week ago... but now here he was, not as the notorious ¡°Baron Milk¡± but as another bystander.

    He came here looking for matches Nausica participated recently.

    The dense crowd on the first level of the tower caught him by surprise. They were all fighters who were waiting for their matches since the waiting room could not take in any more people.

    Angry yelling, unfriendly grumble, heated quarrel... the entire main hall felt like a chaotic wet market.

    ¡°Oof. The information about the garden was a bomb. It blew so many chilling apprentices out of the water...¡± Angorined while pushing his way toward the inside.

    It took him a lot of effort to finally find a worker. However, this worker was too busy dealing with other people to give him any information about Nausica.

    Before he could do anything else, the crowd slowly forced him outside again.

    Angor looked at the terrible human wave in the tower from outside and sighed in frustration. ¡°Geez. Guess I¡¯lleter when the effect of the news dies down a bit.¡±

    As he turned around, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him.

    ¡°Fate has guided us together...¡±

 Chapter 238 - Fate Walker

    <h4>Chapter 238: Fate Walker</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor nced back at the funny man in a white bear costume who just showed up from a path nearby. He had a ck-painted cane in his hand.

    Angor frowned a bit. He was not dressed as ¡°Baron Milk¡± today, so this man probably did not recognize¡ª <i>Hey wait, he¡¯sing right this way with a smile!</i>

    The white bear stopped beside Angor and still smiling innocently.

    ¡°Fate let us reunite.¡± His chubby face revealed a joyful expression.

    The word ¡°Reunite¡± probably meant White Bear knew who Angor was.

    ¡°Excuse me, what are you talking about?¡± Angor turned to face the man.

    ¡°Oh, nice. You finally spoke to me like normal.¡±

    ¡°Do I know you? I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ve mistaken me for someone else,¡± said Angor as he kept up his good manner.

    ¡°It cannot be. I do not find people with my eyesight. Fate has always been guiding me,¡± said White Bear as he bowed down. ¡°I believe you got the wrong idea about mest time, mister. I simply want to befriend you.¡±

    ¡°Last time? Which time?¡±

    ¡°Before your match against ckjack, of course. Trust me, I know who you are, Baron-ahem. Pray rest assured, for I¡¯ll not tell anyone about it.¡± White Bear lowered his voice when mentioning Angor¡¯s title.

    Now, Angor was certain White Bear really found him out. Unlike before, Angor was getting curious about this individual. This man always talked about ¡°fate¡± this and ¡°fate¡± that. Was there really ¡°fate¡± in this world?

    Angor neither admitted nor declined White Bear¡¯s assumption. He only tried to observe the man¡¯s expressions carefully. ¡°Guidance of fate, huh? What did it tell you?¡±

    White Bear scratched his head embarrassingly when Angor stared at him with scrutinizing eyes.

    ¡°Fate told me that my life is full of troubles, and the only way to escape from all the trouble is to be supernatural. Following the guidance, I¡¯ve arrived here.¡±

    ¡°Here?¡± Angor was not sure if this man was referring to him, or Brute Cavern in general.

    ¡°I was birthed in Goman Kingdom. Following the guidance of fate, I spent 13 years on my travel and finally came here.¡±

    <i>Thirteen years? </i>From a quick look, Angor believed White Bear should still be in his 20s, which meant... he had gone through quite a journey, and he had to have run into many incidents, either good or bad.

    However, none of these had anything to do with Angor himself.

    ¡°Then?¡±

    White Bear expected Angor to at least say something about his story, or maybe show disbelief. Yet Angor did not. In fact, Angor did not seem interested at all.

    ¡°Then... I¡¯m out of trouble!¡± White Bear chuckled in a silly way. ¡°I joined Brute Cavern, thus avoiding troubles.¡±

    What White Bear said still did not concern Angor. Since Angor was no longer the unfriendly Baron Milk now, he tried to respond just to show courtesy.

    ¡°I see. Good for you.¡±

    White Bear noticed that Angor was losing patience. ¡°Once I¡¯ve be supernatural, fate guided me again. It told me if I wish to proceed farther on the path of supernatural and return to my home, I need to meet someone...¡±

    ¡°And that ¡®someone¡¯ is me?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Fate never showed me clear images. I only saw someone unclear, as well as a bird... your bird.¡± White Bear gestured at the sky, then at Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    Angor was now sure that White Bear was talking about Toby. He did not bring Toby today because the bird could easily give his identity away.

    ¡°Fate must be telling me about the owner of the bird.¡± White Bear concluded.

    Angor nodded. ¡°I guess so.¡±

    ¡°You do? Wonderful. So are we friends now?¡±

    It seemed there were many steps missing before they could be friends. However, Angor did not really care.

    ¡°Nice story. I¡¯m sorry to tell you that Toby-oh, I mean the bird who refused your ¡®proposal¡¯, is not my bird. His real owner asked me to take care of him for the moment.¡±

    White Bear was taken aback when he failed to find any will to lie in Angor¡¯s eyes. Had he been looking for the wrong person?

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m not the one you¡¯re looking for. May I ask how you recognized me?¡± Angor always wanted to know the answer. He was confident that only wizards were powerful enough to notice his true identity. However, reality had proven him wrong more than once.

    The first one was Saka, who could sense his soul, which was totally understandable. Now White Bear did it again. Unlike Saka, White Bear was only a level-1 apprentice. How did this man find out?

    White Bear was still thinking about whether he got the wrong man, and responded out of instinct, ¡°Fate has guided us together once more.¡±

    ¡°Fate. Again,¡± Angor sneered. ¡°If fate does exist, she must be someone really busy who worries about you every day regardless of whether it was important or unimportant matters.¡±

    White Bear finally realized that Angor was being sarcastic, and quickly shook his head.

    ¡°I was... referring to something else just now. Please don¡¯t get me wrong.¡±

    ¡°But I didn¡¯t. Your story doesn¡¯t necessarily concern me. You¡¯re looking for Toby¡¯s owner, and I can tell you that she¡¯s not in the wizarding world right now,¡± Angor believed he had told White Bear enough and decided to leave.

    ¡°The ¡®fate¡¯ which has been guiding my path in my life is a very mysterious sequence of the world, while the ¡®fate¡¯ that asked me toe to you is this.¡± White Bear pointed at the ck cane in his hand.

    ¡°A wooden cane?¡±

    ¡°It is. But to us ¡®Fate Walkers¡¯, it¡¯s called the Telltale of Guidance.¡±

    <i>Fate Walker? </i>Angor remembered reading about something simr.

    ¡°You¡¯re a Prophet?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± White Bear nodded. ¡°I¡¯m an apprentice studying Fate knowledge under the subject of Prophet. I used a Prophet cantrip to locate you. It¡¯s called Guidance of Fate.¡±

    Angor finally figured out what was going on.

    ¡°I see. Still, you came for the wrong guy. The one you¡¯re looking for is a real wizard, while I am only an apprentice who just came here. Please don¡¯t use your Guidance of Fate on me again. It felt like I was being constantly stalked.¡±

    With that, Angor turned away.

    ¡°Can we be friends?¡± White Bear yelled.

    Angor pondered. Toby seemed pretty agitated around White Bear, while Angor himself did not really mind. A Prophet apprentice as a friend might be able to help him predict disasters.

    ¡°Of course. Name¡¯s Angor.¡± Angor¡¯s voice came from afar since he already walked some distance.

    ¡°Hobson! I¡¯m Hobson Seeley!¡± White Bear shouted back.

    Angor was already nowhere to be seen, and White Bear did not know whether he was heard.

    White Bear was still wondering whether Angor was the man he had been looking for. Unintentionally, he used his Telltale of Guidance to inspect Angor¡¯s fate string.

    ¡°It¡¯s gray...¡± He frowned. ¡°Looks like this new friend of mine¡¯s having a tough luck today.¡±

    ...

    Angor was now too far to hear White Bear¡¯s mumbling.

    Since he failed to learn anything about Nausica, he could only return to apprentice town.

    It was nearly dusk. Both the mountains far away and the structures in the town were coated under an orange aura.

    Dave said he woulde in the evening. Angor decided to check out the questing hall when it was still bright. ording to Dave, the hall provided many quests which asked to buy alchemy weapons.

    It was ten days away from the grand auction in Twilight Well, and Angor really needed some money. He did not wish to keep asking Dave to help sell stuff, so he nned to see if he could ept some quests on his own.

    Speaking of questing hall... Angor never went there since he joined Brute Cavern.

    The questing hall was located in the middle of Tree Spirit Garden. Angor took a sky bus. There was another young apprentice on the bus with him. However, Angor failed to notice this since he only spaced out on his seat in his own thoughts.

    The young apprentice drew Angor¡¯s attention by eximing loudly as the bus climbed high in the sky along the tree and was surrounded by clouds.

    Angor looked his way and noticed the apprentice was looking outside the bus through the window.

    He was eximing when a middle-aged witch in a ck wizard robe and moon-tattooed wizard hat flew past the bus on a broomstick.

    ¡°Nice. I wish I have a vehicle like that too! But it¡¯s so expensive...¡± The young apprentice deted a little while he stared at the flying witch.

    <i>Vehicle? </i>Angor listened to him and considered whether he should get one of those as well. He could use a sky bus in the mirror world to travel around, but there would always be a time when he had to go outside.

 Chapter 239 - Alchemy Quests

    <h4>Chapter 239: Alchemy Quests</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    He still remembered how Leon once told him that a mighty steed was the romance of men.

    To most hot-blooded gentlemen, a vehicle always held irresistible charm. Angor was not an exception. But at the same time, he also needed to think about whether a vehicle was necessary.

    It was, at least before he could learn any flying spells.

    More buildings appeared as he approached the center of the Tree Spirit Garden. There were high-leveled apprentices everywhere. Angor could also sense the prowess of someone suddenly show up now and then.

    This was where people usually gathered, which meant there would always be fights and conflicts... as well as someone¡¯s painful screams.

    In several minutes, Angor already saw multiple individuals flying past the bus, escaping from something.

    People in this violent district all tended to regard everything with indifference. Not long ago, Angor saw a man covered in his own blood reaching out a hand to a passerby for help.

    As expected, the passenger never lifted an eye.

    Seeing such a sight, Angor suddenly got a feeling that the apprentice town he was living in was such a paradise.

    The questing hall was right in front of the central za. Compared to the smaller houses nearby, the hall looked exceptionally big and majestic. The entire building was decorated by golden bricks, shining painted ss, and a pointy red rooftop like the tip of a mountain. The ce looked like a religious church.

    Crowds kept shifting in and out of the building. Everyone was walking on hurried steps.

    The first thing that drew Angor¡¯s attention when he entered the hall were a dozen giant, round-shaped counters. Each counter had a 360-degree curved screen above it, which showed all sorts of information to patrons. Meanwhile, the workers at the counters swiftly noted down different records about ongoing quests.

    The information on the screens was all about quests. There were alsorge ss screens ced on the walls on both sides, which disyed simr info. Angor also noticed that there were different sections on them. Quests issued by Brute Cavern and wizards were ced on top, while those issued by apprentices were located at the bottom-right. As for the bottom-left area, it showed some other important notices.

    This was only the first time for Angor toe here, so he was unsure of how to ept quests. Angor simply moved to a less-crowded corner and began to observe the other people.

    He learned the basic workflow after watching for a while. Most apprentices would check the screens for quests they were interested in and note down the code number of them. They would then ask one of the workers to register the quest. People could also directly ask for quests ording to certain criteria.

    Angor followed their example and looked at the screen.

    Most easy-to-do quests would disappear as soon as they were published, while those that persisted on the screens were mostly time-consuming, less rewarding ones. For example, there was a quest that asked someone to go looking for talents in other continents that had been scrolling on the screen for years.

    There were also difficult quests with great rewards such as ruin exploration or guard post for ne expeditions. They were still meant for apprentices even though most apprentices knew that the quests expected them to be expendable cannon fodders.

    There were some other seemingly easy jobs with great pay but still discouraged everyone from taking them.

    Angor quickly learned why when looking at their issuers.

    ¡®Miniature Creator¡¯ Dumartin Bayer, a wizard known for his brutal experiments in which he extracted the brains of live creatures.

    There was a quest issued by Dumartin:

    [Looking for an apprentice to join my experiment. The coborator must have a spiritual power indicator of 15 or above. Reward: 100 magic crystals (daily).]

    Some of the difficult quests had great reward because they required knowledge from a certain profession, such as magic array or alchemy. These were the ones Angor was looking for.

    Due to theck of alchemists, there were always quests that required alchemy skills which all provided insane rewards. And the rewards were still going up by the day.

    Angor saw a quest that asked to buy ¡°White Orchid Potion¡±. As he looked, the reward changed from 200 crystals to 230. The issuer already prepared the materials for making the potion, and he only needed an Apothecary alchemist now.

    Angor had not learned about Apothecary yet. He recalled something mentioned by Mara that the Morning Dew had simr properties as White Orchid Potion, which helped apprentices break through their bottleneck.

    He still had some Morning Dew leaves, but he was not going to give them out.

    Next, Angor checked for Tooling quests. Most of them asked for the necessaryponents to be used in wizardry experiments. There was such one asking for an Energy Stabilizer while providing 300 magic crystals in return.

    Of course, there were people looking for alchemy weapons.

    One month ago, Dave mentioned that a tiered alchemy weapon could at least sell for 200 crystals. At this point, however, most such weapons already went beyond that price. There was even someone willing to pay a thousand for a weapon.

    This was unsurprising to Angor since he had already expected it.

    When the message about the purification garden was announced, a simple scythe he crafted sold for 400 crystals. Naturally, there would be better ones.

    Angor started from the most rewarding quest and looked down to see if he could ept one.

    He found several of them doable, and they provided nearly 1,000 magic crystals. However, when he thought about the time they would take,bined with his own intention toy low among people, Angor decided to put them aside.

    In the meantime, he also noticed that those asking for customized weapons usually had higher pay. There was someone asking for a non-tiered custom weapon for 50 magic crystals, while tiered ones all paid 500 crystals or above.

    He only had ten days to spare so he could not possibly meet with everyone and negotiate. Angor went for quests with easier requirements which provided raw materials.

    He chose seven quests in the end. Upon finishing, they could probably earn him 3,000 crystals.

    When this was done, Angor took some time to look through the announcements disyed at the bottom-left of the screen. Most of these announcements were important matters rted to apprentices.

    As expected, the info about the purification garden was there.

    The second message said that the second Moonfrost Passage was about to open.

    Nothing else caught his attention. Angor turned away and headed toward a less-upied counter.

    The clerks at the counters were mostly mortals who paid good respect to the patrons in the hall.

    Angor told the clerk the code numbers of the quests he epted. epting multiple quests was not something rare, so the clerk did not express anything in particr.

    ¡°Please show me your bone card, sir.¡±

    When Angorplied, the clerk revealed a strange expression. ¡°Sir, the record says that you haven¡¯t done any quests before, so you need to pay a 10% security payment for each quest. Also-¡±

    A young man wearing a gold-rimmed white robe came from behind Angor and interrupted the clerk. ¡°Also, you need to pay assurance for materials provided by the issuers.¡±

    The clerk nodded. ¡°As this gentleman said, sir.¡±

    Angor frowned and inspected the stranger behind him.

    The young man smiled at Angor. ¡°Sorry to barge in. I happened to hear the quest numbers you registered, so I knew you epted alchemy quests.¡±

    <i>Happened? Not likely.</i>

    Angor was sure that this man was nowhere near him just a moment ago. He came straight to this counter after the clerk checked the bone card.

    Angor humphed and looked at the clerk who looked away to avoid his gaze.

    ¡°Just as I thought then...¡±

    The white-robed man did not mind Angor¡¯s sess in finding out his little trick. ¡°Excuse me, sir, are you an alchemist?¡±

    Angor put up his cold expression. ¡°What¡¯s it to do with you?¡±

    The stranger kept his bright smile against Angor¡¯s indifference. ¡°Oh, please don¡¯t be like that. Trust me, I highly respect all alchemists. Maybe I used a small... tactic, to find you. But even if I didn¡¯t, someone else will. Ask this man if you would. Every alchemy quest you epted had countless people watching from behind.¡±

    The mentioned clerk trembled a little. ¡°He¡¯s right, sir.¡±

    Angor grimaced, ¡°You... gave my information to someone else too?¡±

    The clerk shook his head quickly. ¡°No. Not yet.¡±

    The white-robed man chimed in. ¡°I paid a higher price, so I should be the one receiving the information first. But I think I drew enough attention by speaking to you, which meant they woulde to you soon.¡±

    ¡°Just because I epted alchemy quests?¡± Angor frowned hard.

    ¡°Correct. You probably know how valuable an alchemist is in here. My quest is up there for half a year now, and no one took it. But don¡¯t worry, people who looked for your information, including me, simply wish to establish a friendly connection with you. Most people will not actually do harm.¡±

    ¡°Are you one of the ¡®most people¡¯?¡± Angor asked.

    The man was taken aback by the question. Those who meant harm to this kid would never admit it. Now that he looked at Angor closely... he realized he was looking at a really young man at the age of sixteen or so. Someone so young had not sumbed to the darkness of this world. The kid asked such a childish question because he still believed in humanity.

    ¡°Of course I am,¡± replied the man. He then asked, ¡°So, can you listen to my offer, sir?¡±

    ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°The same question. Are you an alchemist, sir?¡±

    Angor considered for a while and nodded.

    ¡°Brilliant! I¡¯ll get to the point then. I saw you epting quests for making tiered alchemy weapons. Are you interested in quest 5428?¡±

 Chapter 240 - A Chain

    <h4>Chapter 240: A Chain</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor was d the white-robed man did not drag the conversation unnecessarily longer with useless courtesy.

    He looked at the screen and searched for number 5428. As expected, it was a quest asking for a customized weapon.

    It did not say the exact type of the weapon, but the reward of 1,100 magic crystals was good.

    ¡°Are you interested, sir?¡± The man asked again.

    Angor did not reveal his decision. ¡°It didn¡¯t say anything other than the reward. I¡¯ll not ept a quest like this.¡±

    ¡°I need a customized weapon, and we can always negotiate. It¡¯s fine if you decline after hearing me out. There¡¯s a guest room on the second floor, shall we go there? And just in case, there¡¯s a safe exit on the second floor for you to leave this ce.¡±

    Angor nced around and realized that many people were giving him curious gazes now. Some of them were using their transmitters to send messages.

    ¡°Hold on,¡± said Angor. He then turned to the clerk and said, ¡°I ept those quests. Take any security payment from my bone card.¡±

    The clerk was still terrified by Angor¡¯s questioning gaze a moment ago, but he quicklyplied and worked on a machine on the counter.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get the money back after I¡¯m done with the quests, right?¡± Angor questioned.

    ¡°Yes, you will. However, some of the quests have a time limit, so if you miss the deadline-¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that,¡± said Angor as he waved a hand.

    The white-robed young man frowned a little when seeing Angor¡¯s decision. The kid epted so many quests which meant that his own quest would probably take a long time. Yet as a mere bystander, he could not make up decisions for Angor.

    He only sighed in the end. His quest had been left hanging for half a year now. Some extra waiting would not hurt anyway. For now, the most important thing was to befriend this young alchemist.

    The registration process took several minutes. Three out of the seven quests Angor epted already came with materials provided by the issuers. When Angor took back his bone card, he also received three one-time space capsules from the clerk.

    Angor turned to the stranger. ¡°Lead the way.¡±

    Along their way to the second floor, Angor learned that the man in front of him was called ¡°Bobota¡±.

    ¡°Everyone who learns about my name for the first time will find it strange. It¡¯s kind of a tradition from where I came, that we must use a name that leaves enough impression to others,¡± said Bobota with a chuckle. ¡°Letting our names be forgotten by people is the biggest insult to us. We used to use ordinary names a long time ago, but the ancestors decided to use this new approach so as to obey our n motto.

    ¡°My name is already a better one. You should know about my young sister... A Fringi Sparrow is the signature bird of my country. To give her an impressive name, my father called her ¡®Spaparrow¡¯. Funny, eh?¡±

    Using the interesting names as an opener, Bobota exined his home traditions to Angor.

    Angor found Bobota¡¯s stories quite interesting. The names were surely easy to remember, which also helped them melt down the barrier between strangers without the need for finding other topics to initiate a conversation.

    <i>Man... their ancestors were so smart.</i>

    ¡°Hey, Bobota, long time no-oh, who¡¯s this gentleman? Your new friend?¡±

    A bulky man showing chunks of shiny muscles on his body suddenly yelled at them from a distance.

    Bobota curled his lips. ¡°See that? Someone¡¯sing for you already. Let¡¯s move. This will only get worse. The second Moonfrost Passage is about to open, and people are looking for alchemists like wolves hunting for meat.¡±

    Bobota began to jog toward the guest room.

    The muscr guy was still too far for Angor to see his face, and he was already introducing himself.

    ¡°Hey, mister! Name¡¯s Hercules! It¡¯s nice knowing you! Can we shake hands?¡±

    But they were still hundreds of meters apart!

    Thanks to the distance, when Bobota shut the door to the private guest room, Hercules was still far away.

    Bam! Bam!

    ¡°Open up, Bobota! We¡¯ve been away from each other for some time! Let¡¯s get together! And hey you! Mister alchemist, or are you? Check out number 5487, please! The reward is-¡±

    Click!

    Bobota activated the soundproof ward of the room.

    Everything quieted down.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him. Even his brain is filled with muscles. Thank the lords that I rented this private room yesterday, or that guy will ruin our talk,¡± said Bobota. He pointed at a teleportation array in the corner of the room as he continued, ¡°You can use that to get to any teleportation node in Tree Spirit Garden, so don¡¯t worry about anyone waiting to catch you outside.¡±

    Angor made sure that the array could be activated anytime and finally nodded.

    Like before, Bobota asked Angor to take a seat and got to the topic right away. He did not even ask for Angor¡¯s name.

    ¡°First off,¡± Angor tried to speak first, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re looking for. Just so you know, I only make alchemy weapons.¡±

    A weapon was the only thing he was confident in making now.

    ¡°No problem. Just what I¡¯m looking for. It¡¯s just that it has a weird shape. Also, I need to use an Altar of Blood.¡±

    <i>Altar of Blood...</i>

    Angor gave Bobota a strange look, but he did not say anything.

    An Altar of Blood was another artifact rted to a grand demon in Abyss ne. It was as foul-named as items granted by Crown Clown.

    ¡°Looks like you know about the altar,¡± Bobotamented.

    ¡°I do. I don¡¯t care what you want with it, just keep in mind that I do enchantment alchemy, not synthesis. The effect I apply to weapons is fixed beforehand. Don¡¯t expect a random surprise because it¡¯s not likely to happen.¡±

    Bobota looked pretty satisfied with this. ¡°A qualified wizard does not depend on chances.¡±

    ¡°Onest thing. I¡¯ll arrange my quests ording to their difficulty, and I can¡¯t tell you when your item will be finished,¡± Angor said that because he feared Bobota¡¯s request would prevent him from making enough money in ten days.

    Bobota nodded. Since he had been waiting for half a year, he did not mind waiting for a little bit more. Besides, ¡°that matter¡± would not happen any time soon.

    Once Angor finished exining his own conditions, Bobota exined about his request.

    Angor frowned after listening to Bobota¡¯s item.

    It did not sound too hard. But... was that a weapon at all?

    Bobota asked him to craft a chain while using the heaviest material Angor could find so that anyone who was trapped in the chain would never get out. Plus, he needed a Rune of Silence on the chain.

    A chain enchanted with Rune of Silence? Why not just use a Ward of Silence?

    A synthesis alchemist might need enough experience as well as to look for proper materials to make such an item. It exined why the quest was not taken up by anybody after half a year. To Angor, however, it was not really difficult¡ªhe simply had to apply the Rune of Silence onto a chain and that was it.

    Still, Angor wondered what Bobota nned to do with such an item, and what was the deal with Altar of Blood?

    ¡°Can you do it?¡± Bobota looked at Angor eagerly.

    Angor pondered for a while and nodded. ¡°I can.¡±

    Whatever it was used for, he only meant to earn money out of it. Furthermore, the chain was notplicated.

    ¡°Nice!¡± Bobota stood up in the excitement and clenched his fists out of joy. Half a year! If he could achieve ¡°that matter¡±, he would find his path of wizardry bing smoother than ever!

    ¡°I don¡¯t have knowledge of alchemy materials, so you have to prepare them on your own. My only requirement about the material is its weight. The heavier the better,¡± said Bobota as he took out 200 magic crystals and handed them to Angor. ¡°This is down payment. You¡¯ll get the remaining 900 crystals once you give me the chain.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to the questing hall?¡±

    ¡°The hall will ask for a share as a service fee. We can avoid that if we do it in private. I won¡¯t trick you. Let¡¯s see... You decide where we finish the deal so you can make sure I don¡¯t do anything funny.¡±

    It seemed legit enough, and Angor did not decline.

    Angor exchanged contact method with Bobota and left through the teleportation array.

    Bobota stayed in the room for a while to calm his excitement. His was determined to make sure nothing went wrong during his job. Another must-do to ensure the oue was to silence that young alchemist once and for all.

    However, he needed to figure out who he was first. Bobota still had no idea who the alchemist was called.

    He considered a little and decided to go to somewhere which happened to be familiar to Angor as well¡ªthe Bartterfly Pub.

    A momentter, Bobota walked out of the pub with a dark expression.

    He used his transmitter to record Angor¡¯s picture so he could ask for the boy¡¯s information. He thought it would take some time for the informant to find him a result. Instead, the informant immediately told him what he needed by looking at Angor¡¯s photo.

    Bobota was a bit shocked when he learned that he was dealing with Sunders¡¯ personal student.

    ¡°Looks like... I can¡¯t do anything to him. For now.¡±

 Chapter 241 - Troubles Keep Coming

    <h4>Chapter 241: Troubles Keep Coming</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    While Bobota went to investigate Angor, Angor was having a really bad day on his end.

    He rode a sky bus away from the Tree Spirit Garden and when he got off at the Cave Field Stop, he was attacked before he could enter the apprentice town.

    The ambusher was a woman¡¯s soul hidden in the woods.

    Silvia.

    Again, Silvia used her Howling of Souls which tingled Angor¡¯s mind just a little. Next, Angor heard someoneughing in a low voice.

    ¡°As I expected. Attempts to shock your soul will not have much effect on you.¡±

    The speaker stood on a tree branch. The hood of his loose wizard robepletely covered his face.

    However, Angor already recognized the individual by the strange yet distinctiveughter of the man.

    ¡°Saka... you came looking for death so soon?¡± Angor revealed a grim expression. He had not nned to deal with Saka yet, but the man came to him first.

    Saka smiled nonchntly. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be mad. I¡¯m just delivering a message for you. Well, maybe also use this chance to do a tiny test on the soul of my third star...¡±

    As Saka talked, Angor began to construct a spell model in his mind space.

    Angor could not use Quickened Spells, but thanks to his Axes of the Universe, he could cast spells a lot faster than an average apprentice. By the time Saka noticed the mana ripples from Angor, Angor already had his spell ready¡ªa faint crescent-shaped object appeared around his palm.

    Woosh!

    A semitransparent wind de was unleashed toward Saka.

    In thest blink second, Saka jumped away, and the wind de only managed to tear a part of his robe off. The de crushed inside a tree trunk behind, causing branches and leaves to scatter.

    With a swift backflip, Sakanded beside Silvia.

    ¡°As I said, I¡¯m only giving you a messa-¡±

    Angor¡¯s second attack came at Saka, along with another shadow which pierced the air with great speed.

    Angor used both wind de and a golden bolt this time. One aimed at Saka¡¯s center, one at his head.

    Battles between apprentices were mostly determined by who moved first. Wasting breath before a fight could well cause someone to lose the entire fight.

    Saka was not a bloodline user, and he did not have enough physical reflexes to avoid both attacks. However, he was not alone¡ªwhen the smoke cloud caused by the attacks cleared up, a muscr figure showed up in front of Saka.

    ¡®Venus¡¯ Herrington, the second soul owned by Saka.

    There was a faint barrier made of air in front of Herrington which deflected Angor¡¯s wind de and golden bolt.

    ¡°Okay... I thought you¡¯d ept the test as a thank-you after receiving my message. If this is what you want, I¡¯ll take the initiative,¡± Saka¡¯s voice came from behind Herrington. ¡°I wonder...¡±

    Herrington moved. The bulky soul rushed toward Angor at an insane speed.

    ¡°You can resist negative effects on your soul, but can you stand against direct soul attacks? I¡¯m going to get the result today,¡± Saka spoke from under his robe.

    Out of instinct, Angor created an ice wall in front of him to prevent the sudden attack. However, he immediately regretted it when he saw the form of Herrington¡¯s semi-transparent soul moving through the ice wall like it was nothing.

    Angor rolled aside and barely avoided the rush. He did not know anything that could cause damage to souls yet, so he still ced his attention on Saka. If he could take this man down, all problems would be solved.

    While supporting himself on his left palm, Angor released a series of wind des from his right hand. More than ten wind des went for Saka¡¯s vital spots as well as the possible escaping routes around him.

    Angor was confident that Herrington would not help Saka survive this one.

    ¡°Ho... You¡¯ve grown pretty fast. You can use Crescent Barrage already? And a fivefold one at that,¡± Saka sounded cheerful. ¡°Now that¡¯s my precious!¡±

    Angor was sure Saka could not get away this time. This psycho might use defensive spells to repel the attacks. However, Angor never expected to get rid of Saka so easily. He had his revolver and Trigger Crossbow as well as enough mana to cast a 30-shot Crescent Barrage, so he nned to wear Saka down bit by bit.

    But what happened next quickly voided his n¡ªSaka did not use anything to protect himself. The wind des allnded on Saka¡¯s body, tearing the man into several parts.

    ¡°He died so fast? No, not likely...¡± Angor regained bnce and frowned at the sight. He could not find any trace of illusion. The blood stains on the ground and blood streaming out from the damaged arteries seemed so real.

    While Angor had his attention on Saka¡¯s ¡°corpse¡±, something suddenly covered him up from above.

    Herrington dropped from the air and punched at Angor with a mighty fist covered in light.

    Angor tried to move away. It was toote¡ªHerrington¡¯s fist hit his chest in the dead center.

    And no, Herrington did not mean to punch. When his fist almostnded on Angor¡¯s body, Herrington spread his hand open and unleashed a beam of light into Angor¡ªtoward the depth of Angor¡¯s soul.

    Inside the borderless Soul Space, the beam was as small as a trail of dust, but it went direct at Angor¡¯s soul as if something was guiding it.

    Without particr means, Angor¡¯s soul was fixed in his Soul Space and could not move around at will. Before the beam could hit his soul though, several green petals moved in front of Angor¡¯s soul as protection. The beamnded on the petal barrier and easily breached them.

    The beam was obviously weaker after going through the protection, yet it still managed to reach the soul.

    Angor sensed a sharp paining from the depth of his soul, which was quickly reflected on his body. Cold sweat instantly covered his forehead. His eyes grew bloodshot, and his muscles began to convulse.

    The terrible conditionsted for several seconds. When it ended, Angor copsed on the ground, exhausted.

    Inside the Soul Space, his soul gained a fresh wound from the beam attack. At the same time, the Green Velvet released streams of green light which covered the wound up.

    Under the green light, Angor¡¯s damaged soul began to recover.

    However, Angor knew nothing about what happened inside him. He only panted heavily on the ground.

    The soul of Herrington had vanished after that attack. Angor turned his head weakly and saw Saka¡¯s remains still leaking the smell of fresh blood into the air.

    ¡°Did I win?¡± Angor still had a lot of questions regarding the fight, but the result seemedforting enough.

    Thefort did notst long as Saka¡¯s voice came from somewhere nearby.

    ¡°Test result: a direct attack against the soul worked wonderfully. But it was weakened to almost 20% of the original power... what a brilliant soul you have, my dear.¡±

    Angor¡¯s pupils constricted. ¡°Saka? You¡¯re still alive?¡±

    Saka sounded as if trying to hold back hisughter with great effort. ¡°To soul wizards, death is only the beginning. But I¡¯m not strong enough to throw away my bodies just yet. We had a good time today! A brief reunion will lead to another beautiful encounter. We shall meet again.¡±

    Saka¡¯s voice grew more distant until it was muffled by the sound of the wind.

    Angor stayed on the ground for a while to regain strength. Saka did not show up again when Angor could barely get up, which meant the man probably left for good.

    <i>But how?</i>

    Angor looked at the broken body on the dirt and wondered.

    He suddenly noticed a round-shaped objectying beside a body part entangled in broken wizard robe. It looked like a... crystal ball transmitter.

    He could walk now, but his steps were still unstable.

    He decided to check out the object. To be safe, Angor intended to use Hand of Spell to pick it up.

    But as he limped closer, someone else suddenlyughed in an eerie voice.

    ¡°Tsk. The arrogant fool was talking all big just a while ago. Now, look at him! Poor bastard.¡±

    Angor looked around and saw three men appearing from a bush nearby. It was ¡®Raging de¡¯ Naru, apanied by the pair of customers Angor met in Prome¡¯s shop the other day, Queena and Te.

    Unlike before when Naru threw Dave away like picking up a kitten, the man looked injured all over his body like a defeated dog in a ring fight for animals.

    ¡°Hey, boss, that¡¯s the one I was talking about. If he sold you the weapon at a better price, you would have won!¡± Te pointed to Angor and yelled.

    Queena chuckled and nodded along.

    Naru stared at Angor with hatred. ¡°You, huh?¡±

    Angor sighed. This day was miserable.

    ¡°Come at me and be done with it. Unlike you lot, I have important matters to do. Time¡¯s a-wastin¡¯.¡±

    Angor did not show the slightest of fear, which worried Naru a little. They saw the fight between Angor and Herrington so they nned to be the collector of spoils. However, Angor¡¯s reaction gave Naru another idea.

    ¡°Heh. Still acting strong? You two, get him,¡± Naru ordered hispany while taking several steps back himself.

    Te looked at Angor with a malevolent and cruel grin.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a big seller? Ha! Serves you right. I was going to find time to deal with you, but man I ran into such a good chance when walking on the street!¡±

    Te stepped toward Angor, but Queena dragged him back.

    The woman let out a timid chuckle. ¡°Boy, you can¡¯t get away anyway. Tell me where you found your alchemy weapons. Maybe I can persuade boss into sparing your life.¡±

    This was exactly what Naru was hoping for. The three of them all perked up their ears and waited for Angor¡¯s answer.

    ¡°What, you want to kill me?¡± Angor spoke.

    ¡°Yes, if you don¡¯t tell us the truth,¡± Te warned.

    Angor sighed again. ¡°Pity... You aren¡¯t really my enemy and I didn¡¯t intend to kill you. But...¡±

    Angor¡¯s tone worried Naru even further. The man stepped back more out of instinct.

    Angor already lifted his hand at them and several wind des went for Queena and Te, cutting the unaware pair¡¯s heads off instantly.

    Blood rushed into the air from the clean cut on their necks, suggesting that these two people were still alive just a second ago.

    ¡°Crescent Barrage? Again?!¡± Naru eximed in surprise. He saw Angor cast a fivefold Crescent Barrage just now. <i>How can he still have enough mana??</i>

    Naru turned tail right away. As a Bloodline Wizard, his superior body helped him escape dozens of meters in only a second. Wind des would not do much damage to him at such a distance.

    Angor shook his head. His took out his revolver and pulled the trigger.

    Along with the noise of a sonic boom, a bullet shining with Rune of Precision sunk into the back of Naru¡¯s skull and went out between the man¡¯s eyebrows.

    One shot, one kill.

    Angor did not feel any happier after killing the three people. Naru, who seemed to be the strongest of them, probably was someone who could only make a living on level seven or eight in Sky Tower. Angor was not interested in their lives at all, but they should stay away from him first.

    After making sure no one¡¯s alive, Angor walked to Saka¡¯s ¡°corpse¡± and used Hand of Spell to flip Saka¡¯s robe open.

    As he expected, the round object was a crystal ball transmitter.

    While puzzled, Angor injected some mana into the object, and a line of characters slowly emerged on the item.

    [To My Precious Star:]

 Chapter 242 - Darkness and Hope

    <h4>Chapter 242: Darkness and Hope</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Instead of reading the message, Angor found the head of the broken corpse and removed the hood covering it, while bearing the stink of blood.

    Just as he thought, it was not Saka¡¯s corpse. He killed a total stranger.

    He checked through the other corpses without finding anything useful. He only took several random objects, including some money pouches, from Naru and his partners.

    He put the money away and proceeded to burn the bodies up.

    Several apprentices walking past by saw his action, but no one spared the effort to care. Those who were going through this path all tried to avoid the ¡°crime scene¡± by taking a small detour.

    Just like how it was within Tree Spirit Garden. Every apprentice had learned to avoid ¡°unnecessary trouble¡±.

    Angor waited until the bodies turned into bone chips before leaving. The moon was already high in the air.

    He had aplex mood. Too many incidents happened today. Cold, merciless incidents in which he even had to kill a total stranger who was used as a pawn. Angor began to feel more determined about the way he would live in the wizarding world.

    When he was leaving Grue Town and Old Earth behind, he only told himself to stay cautious. After reading all kinds of sad stories from books, he thought he was prepared enough to face the world.

    Now he realized that he had to personally go through certain matters to learn the way of people.

    Books or stories only provided experience from someone else. He had to walk his own path. Orallymenting on matters as a bystander was always easy, but people all had to experience their lives on their own sooner orter.

    Angor walked through the quiet town and waveringmplights while he dragged his fatigued body back to his vi.

    He saw someone leaning against the entrance door and fiddling around a metal object under the faint light.

    The sight gave him a smile. The cold truth in the wizarding world could not stop eager learners. Light and shadow were always two sides that existed on the same coin. Darkness could help people see light better.

    ¡°Angor!¡± The figure noticed Angor and looked his way. ¡°Just in time. I¡¯ve got a genius idea! Listen, I call it the ¡®Mechanical Wizard Eye¡¯! It uses machinery to imitate the function of a Wizard Eye. Check this out...¡±

    Dave showed the metal object to Angor and began to rattle endlessly.

    Angor listened to Dave¡¯s ideas and nodded along while providing his own opinions every now and then.

    Once they finished discussing, Dave noticed Angor¡¯s unusual pale face as well as the smell of sweat and blood.

    ¡°What happened... to you?¡± Under themp, Dave found several blood stains on Angor¡¯s robe.

    ¡°Nothing serious. Some unreasonable assholes found me, and I did a little revenge for you,¡± Angor unlocked his door and invited Dave inside. ¡°I¡¯ll go get washed. Man, this stinks...¡±

    Dave realized that Angor¡¯s spirit was fine and quickly grew relieved. ¡°Revenge? What revenge?¡±

    Angor shut himself in the bathroom, removed his clothing, and poured a bucket of warm water onto his head.

    ¡°That Naru guy. He took his twockeys, Te and Queena, and tried to pin me down. I got rid of them along my way.¡±

    ¡°¡®Raging de¡¯ Naru? You got rid-you mean you killed them?!¡± Dave yelled.

    ¡°Yeah, kinda,¡± Angor mumbled while washing his greasy hair.

    ¡°But I told you I wanna deal with them with my own alchemy weapon!¡± Dave eximed in sadness.

    Dave clearly knew that Angor was strong enough to fight those three. Angor had reached the highest level in Sky Tower after all. He just felt it a pity that he could not face Naru personally.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to. But they meant it.¡±

    Angor left his bathroom as a ¡°fresh and handsome young man¡±. His hair was still dripping with water. ¡°I epted some alchemy quests today. Shall we start with them?¡±

    He tossed his bone card to Dave. The quests were shown on it.

    ¡°You decide. I¡¯ll work as your assistant anyway. I¡¯ve never created any weapon before as the materials are too expensive,¡± Dave replied.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the price, just do as you like,¡± said Angor. He showed Dave several quests which asked for des and swords that did not have specific requirements on materials. ¡°You¡¯ll make these models while I¡¯ll do the enchantment in the end, so we can get them done quicker. And don¡¯t worry about breaking the models. The mats are cheap.¡±

    Dave perked up when he heard about Angor¡¯s ¡°wealth¡±. Dave had good knowledge of alchemy theories, but he was too poor to try them out and gain practical experience. Now Angor was doing him a giant favor! He would learn something good from the quests even if Angor did not show him any new ideas this time.

    They entered the undergroundb and each took an alchemy stand to work on.

    Angor kept his attention on Dave during their work and saw Dave handling the materials with extreme care. Even asional mistakes only cost a small part of the materials. Angor was unable to exert such caution and any mistake he made was too fatal which only caused him to give up the entire process.

    Angor tried his best to learn about Dave¡¯s preciseness. He sessfully made less mistake this time and finished something overnight when it would usually take him two days.

    The horizon began to glow, announcing a brand new day.

    Angor had finished crafting two alchemy weapons¡ªa broad sword and a fencing sword, both of which shined with runes. From a quick look, people could easily tell that these two weapons were way better than the scythe Angor sold yesterday.

    In the meantime, after several failures and listening to Angor¡¯s advice, Dave sessfully made the billet of a kris de. Inside the area of Thaw, the billet already disyed the shining sharpness of a fine weapon.

    ¡°I did it, Angor! I did it!¡± Dave could not contain his excitement now. Making an alchemy weapon, even an untiered one, could help him solve his money issue. Angor¡¯s Tang Dao was not enchanted with anything, and it sold for 20 magic crystals. The materials for making it only took something like one or two crystals. Eighteen magic crystals meant Dave¡¯s monthly sry!

    ¡°Calm down. Keep your spell up, I¡¯ll do the enchant,¡± Angorforted Dave. Unstable mana flow could easily disrupt Thaw, which was very likely to happen when Dave did not have the Axes of the Universe to help.

    Dave nodded quickly and used Hand of Spell to move the weapon closer to Angor.

    Angor draw his rune. The kris de needed Rune of Frost on it. He was familiar enough with these basic runes to draw them quickly without relying on his hologram tablet.

    A momentter, a freshly-made tiered weapon came into existence in front of Dave¡¯s eyes.

    Angor was extremely satisfied. He created THREE alchemy weapons in one night. If this kept up, he could finish the seven quests he epted in two or three days. Those quests worthed almost 3,000 magic crystals!

    As he enjoyed the happiness brought by the future ie, he heard someone snoring loudly. After a night¡¯sbor, Dave fell asleep on the working bench while still smiling in his dream.

    Angor decided to get some snack and rest as well. Before doing so, he saw Dave walking out from the undergroundb while rubbing his eyes.

    ¡°I need to get back to the shop...¡±

    ¡°You can catch some shut-eye here if you want. I have some ration here, need them?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± said Dave as he waved his hands. ¡°I still need to go back even if I¡¯m to sleep. It¡¯ll be big trouble if I miss any important orders. Thank you, really. I gained a lot of experiencest night.¡±

    Dave bowed to Angor sincerely.

    ¡°Likewise. The quests are too hard for me to do all by myself. I¡¯ll give you half of the reward of any quest that involves your effort.¡±

    Dave tried to refuse, but Angor stopped him. ¡°You see how I need little time enchanting the weapons? Making the billets was a harder job. I should give you more.¡±

    Dave was too tired to think over Angor¡¯s words. Before he could register what happened, he was already leaving Angor¡¯s garden.

    Dave decided to remember the debt for now and headed back to the underground market.

    Angor, on the other hand, went back to his bedroom and slept to his heart¡¯s content.

    It was two in the afternoon when he woke up. Toby was doing his little music concert in the attic again.

    Angor took some time in his soundproofed room to meditate. When finished, he remembered that he still had Saka¡¯s transmitter on him.

    And Saka mentioned something about sending a message yesterday.

    He injected mana into the crystal ball and more texts appeared on the object.

    [To My Precious Star:]

    Angor sneered at how Saka addressed him.

    [You must have already killed my body by the time you read this message. Such a pity. I went through a lot of trouble finding a container most suitable for my soul. But well, it¡¯s still an honor to witness you killing it.]

    [I really did n to give you a message: Beware~ Hookdick has returned from Soul Soil. I know you hate each other. So how about it, am I being helpful?]

    ¡°Heh. I hate Hookdick as much as I hate YOU.¡±

    [There¡¯s something else. My mentor had given the blood of subus to Hookdick. It went smoothly. I hereby attach a picture of Hookdick¡¯s current condition to you. Enjoy!]

    Angor scrolled the message down and revealed a pink-themed picture.

    He looked at the man inside the picture, widened his eyes, then rubbed his eyes, and looked again, more carefully this time.

    ¡°This is Hookdick?!¡±

 Chapter 243 - Level-1 Cantrip

    <h4>Chapter 243: Level-1 Cantrip</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ording to Angor¡¯s memory, the man called ¡°Hookdick¡± was a big, rough character with a spiky hairstyle and clothes which looked like tribal rags.

    However, the individual shown up in the crystal ball was a slimdy with a finely-curved body, abundant breast, and round buttocks who only had semi-transparent silk covering his (her?) body.

    As for her face...

    ¡°She¡± still had unshaved remains of beard around the cheeks, which kind of gave out the unspoken truth behind that pretty face.

    This person lookedpletely transgender now. However, one thing was for sure; none of Angor¡¯s peers would easily recognize Hookdick again.

    Angor pressed a hand on his chest to calm his breath. He was really d that he rejected Ness¡¯ offer back there. Rather than bing the effeminate monster he was looking at now, Angor would rather do something topletely shift his gender, if he must.

    He put the transmitter away. Hookdick¡¯s current image troubled his mind, but he still found the information useful since he could now avoid getting caught off guard by Hookdick. At the same time, this could be an interesting joke during a social conversation. Who knew, maybe it coulde in handy someday...

    Angor rested a little and proceeded to do his remaining quests.

    When the clock on the basement wall announced 8 o¡¯clock in the evening, Angor had just finished making another weapon when Dave came to visit again. Likest night, Angor asked Dave to make a simple weapon billet on another working bench.

    Dave was smoother at doing his job now. He only managed to make the billet for one weapon overnight, but he had already learned how to perfect the shape of the weapon.

    Dave read the illustrations of a monster in his crystal ball. He then tried to carve the weapon model by following the picture.

    In the end, Dave made a dagger which had its handle sculpted with a me raven. He also embedded several gems on the handle. They were only decorative gems, but they did give the dagger a better look.

    Angor found Dave¡¯s extra work to be rtively simple, yet it was better than nothing.

    Angor finished making two alchemy weapons on his end. He did not have any time to decorate them, so his weapons looked a lot more inferior on the outside.

    ¡°I thought I need a week or so to finish all these quests. It only took two days! And all thanks to you,¡± Angormented happily.

    Next, they discussed whether they should go ept more quests.

    Dave quite enjoyed being able to ¡°waste materials¡± to his heart¡¯s content, so he immediately agreed. Meanwhile, Angor simply wanted to make more money. With this decided, they nned to go to the questing hall again.

    Dave offered to go find quests this time. Many people were familiar with this assistant from Prome¡¯s shop. For this reason, Dave would not have to worry about being caught by someone looking for Angor. As for the finished weapons... Angor nned to keep them for now and hand in everything altogether in the end.

    Due to Dave¡¯s work, he had to wait until evening to go to the questing hall. With nothing else to do, Angor decided to learn some new cantrips.

    He was aiming for level-1 cantrips which were something of a totally different difficultypared to level-0 ones.

    For example, Crescent Barrage was one of the easiest level-1 cantrips, which only required a perfect spell model to function.

    Still, a good number of people would find this cantrip challenging because they could not construct decent models to maximize the oue of the cantrip. A moderate Crescent Barrage was only as powerful as several level-0 cantrips added together, which was weaker than an actual level-1 one.

    Angor, however, could easily master Crescent Barrage with the help of Axes of the Universe, and this was why he chose this one as his first level-1 cantrip.

    But not all level-1 cantrips had such a simple requirement to fully disy their potential. Level-1 cantrips were difficult to learn because many of them asked their users to possess certain knowledge.

    For instance, there was amonly-known level-1 cantrip called ¡®Detect Disease¡¯. As its name suggested, the cantrip could be used to tell if something was infected with a disease. The oue sounded simple enough, yet actually using the cantrip was not.

    The prerequisite of learning this cantrip was expertise in human bodies. One without such knowledge would not be able to leverage this cantrip no matter how well he constructed its model.

    Another example of level-1 cantrips were three cantrips with simr effects: Voice Transmission, Distant Sound, and Spirit Synchronize.

    Voice Transmission ¡°packed up¡± sound and sent it to a target. Its user should have basic knowledge of sound waves.

    Distant Sound was divided into three levels. A high-leveled Distant Sound cantrip could push sound directly to a faraway target through air. The user had to be experienced in dimensional knowledge.

    Spirit Synchronize could be used to connect the spirit of someone as long as the target did not resist the attempt, thus establishing a spiritual conversation. Those who wished to learn Spirit Synchronize had to learn to read spirit waves just like how they learned signnguage. And learning a newnguage always took time.

    These examples described how most level-1 cantrips required knowledge in various subjects. There were many level-2 apprentices who could only wield level-0 cantrip, because of theirck of practical knowledge.

    Angor had been receiving systematic and academic education from Jon since childhood, which put him in an advantageous positionpared to his peers. He knew a little of everything including human bodies and sound waves. Since knowledge from Earth tended to be a lot different from those used in wizardry, he had to work out the differences before applying his knowledge to cantrips.

    Angor once heard about a ssroom in Tree Spirit Garden that was designed to teach such knowledge. However, the tuition was quite high. Still, he nned to take several courses from there in order to learn about the differences between civilizations so as not to stray off the correct path.

    For now, he did not intend to study any cantrip he was not confident in.

    There was, however, something he could study right now. A cantrip about which he received a lot of pointers from Sunders: Melodious Illusion.

    This cantrip also asked for specific expertise. Angor already learned a lot from Sunders, plus the fact that he had read about sound waves before, he could definitely try this one out.

    He seeded without spending much effort. Apart from his talent, Angor¡¯s knowledge base was superior after being Jon¡¯s student for many years. He could also fill in any missing spots by referring to the hologram tablet. If Sunders was here, the gentleman would also get quite surprised by how fast his little student could learn.

    Angor fullyprehended the theories of the cantrip and stopped there. Knowing the cantrip did not mean he could apply it in reality, which was the key point.

    Being able to create a perfect illusion merely by using someone¡¯s heartbeat was his ultimate goal for now.

    So, instead of going for something else right away, Angor was going to see how well he could wield Melodious Illusion and realized as much as potential as he could.

    Time passed by quickly as he was fully devoted to his study.

    As the color of the night covered thend again, Dave came back from the questing hall with another ten new alchemy quests.

    When Dave entered Angor¡¯s vi, he saw Angor snap a finger in front of him for some reason.

    In the next second, ¡°Angor¡± was sliced into two halves. Blood immediately came surging out, and several blood dropsnded on Dave¡¯s cheek.

    Dave¡¯s legs gave out on the spot. He could do nothing but trembled in horror.

    ¡°An-An-Angor??¡±

    ¡°I would prefer that Red Butterfly does not use my name to scam others. But... she¡¯s still MY woman!¡± A fat-looking male walked from behind Angor¡¯s corpse with a knife in hand. ¡°I gave you a quick death, and you should be thankful.¡±

    ¡°Vice?!¡± Dave called out the man¡¯s name.

    But Dave immediately realized something wrong.

    ¡°How did I know his name? Is that Vice? Is Vice... fat?¡±

    Next, Dave looked at his hand, which was tainted by several drops of blood from Angor¡¯s body.

    Dave took a sniff and could not smell anything.

    He felt it again and noticed that the blood-covered area was still dry.

    He realized what was going on at this point. ¡°Angor... don¡¯t test your illusions on me, alright? You scared me! And you got so many things wrong! Did I ever tell you that Vice looks rather cool, which gave him more admirers than Parasite Queen? Besides, Vice doesn¡¯t talk much. There¡¯s no way that man¡¯s going to kill you and dere the reason. What do you think he is, a drama actor?¡±

    ¡°Oops. Is that so?¡±

    The reality in front of Dave suddenly shattered, revealing Angor in his usual condition. Angor¡¯s hand was still lifted in the air after he snapped his fingers.

    Angor held his chin. ¡°Looks like I need a lot of work before making an illusion. Someone with the right knowledge will see through it so easily. Maybe I should let him say ¡®I¡¯ve eaten too muchtely so I gained weight¡¯?¡±

    Dave rolled his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s even worse! Who the heck says that after killing someone?¡±

    ¡°Maybe someone will buy it. You never know.¡±

    ¡°Idiots, you mean? And if you¡¯re dealing with idiots, just point behind him and say ¡®Look! Alien!¡¯ and get him when he¡¯s looking back. You don¡¯t need illusions for that.¡±

    ¡°You do have a point. I guess I should avoid using people in illusions, or just create someone strange who¡¯s wearing a mask,¡± Angor considered.

    ¡°The beginning was pretty good though. I almost fell for it. If I¡¯m an intruder, you can catch me when I was surprised and gain an upper hand from it,¡± Dave suggested.

 Chapter 244 - Whereabouts

    <h4>Chapter 244: Whereabouts</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor already knew the trick. However, currently in his early stage after learning the cantrip, he had to stay fully focused at all times. Any distraction would cause the illusion to fail.

    If he could use simple sound to trick someone and inject terrible terror into their mind, the effect of Melodious Illusion would grow tenfold and be deadlier. However, to achieve that, he had to learn how to manipte the minds of people, which he still had no clue yet.

    ¡°Man... the more I get into illusions, the lesser I feel about myself in this world,¡± Angor sighed. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get to the quests. What did you find?¡±

    Dave passed his bone card to Angor. ¡°Every subject is like this. Alchemy isn¡¯t an exception.¡±

    ¡°Alchemy? I don¡¯t have much problem yet,¡± Angor was looking at Dave¡¯s card and only replied absent-mindedly.

    Dave was terrified at Angor¡¯sment. However, he soon remembered that he was looking at someone with insane alchemy talent, which... exined everything.

    Dave brought ten quests in total which were all about a simr difficulty as the previous ones. These new quests had about 4,500 magic crystals as their total reward.

    ¡°Good. We should have enough crystals to attend the grand auction once we get them done, right?¡± Angormented.

    ¡°Only if you¡¯re not nning topete with wizards over valuable stuff. In that case, you should have enough without doing these ones. You already earned enough money to buy some of themon materials, even if it means bidding against others.¡±

    <i>... But you still need to worry about taking them away in one piece if you try that </i>. Dave thought but did not tell Angor.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t need valuable things. I¡¯m not at that level yet.¡±

    ¡°Then we¡¯re good. We can probably keep some crystals in the end.¡± Dave knew about the prices of materials since he often helped Prome purchase them in Twilight Well.

    They worked hard in theing days and sessfullypleted all ten quests in the morning of the fourth day. This was already longer than expected since Angor failed several times when drawing runes, which caused them more time.

    Angor was a bit sorry for his mistakes while Dave did not mind at all. Rather, a 100% sess rate when drawing runes should be the wrong case. Dave already found Angor¡¯s sess rate these days to be frighteningly high. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would not believe that someone could apply runes so smoothly at all.

    However, it did not bother Dave too much. He had seen too many surprises from Angor.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get you in the afternoon, and we¡¯ll go report the quests together,¡± said Angor after he made his decision.

    The quests were registered in Dave¡¯s bone card so Dave had to be present when reporting in.

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    Angor could at least find time to rest during the day while Dave had to keep the shop running. He had developed terrible panda eyes after all the hard work the past few days. However, fatigue on the body did not prevent him from being extra happy. Every billet he made could get him two or three hundred magic crystals. He was always happy with more money.

    The quests had earned him thousands of crystals as well as sufficient practice. Dave would not mind experiencing such tiring yet rewarding days. Compared to them, he felt his previous life was almost useless.

    ¡°We got enough quests so we¡¯ll stop here. Good job. Have some good rest from now on,¡± Angor spoke.

    Dave really hoped he could do more, but he was content enough. With Angor¡¯s help, he gained huge experience for the first time in many years during which he almost made no progress in alchemy.

    ¡°Thank you, Angor. I mean... really,¡± Dave could not find better words to express his gratitude.

    ¡°No need. We helped each other. I¡¯d definitely need more days if not for your help.¡±

    Their teamwork convinced Angor of the convenience of streamlining. He would have asked Dave to keep working with him if he was not trying to hide many secrets from people.

    Angor rested for a while and walked into the undergroundb again.

    He still had another ¡°private¡± quest to do: to make a chain for Bobota.

    The chain was notplex to build, but this was the first ¡°customized¡± item he was going to make, so Angor intended to give it his best.

    Since it was easy to make, Angor nned to give the chain some extra decoration, so as to go with Bobota¡¯s great reward. Angor picked up his tablet and searched for runes suitable in limited space. Bobota required weight on the chain as well as the ability to be used on a Blood Altar, which meant Angor had to choose something not corrodible by blood.

    In the end, he chose the Vacuum Iron, which was of a pale blue color the same as clear sky, as the main material,

    As for decorating the color... Angor decided to engrave white clouds on the chain which would look perfect along with the color of the sky.

    It took him about half a day to make a six-meter-long chain. Before applying Rune of Silence to it, he began to paint cloud patterns on the item carefully.

    The work bestowed a significantly better appearance to the otherwise ordinary iron chain. The item now looked like an ancient yet elegant tool from a foreign civilization.

    Angor could already imagine what kind of beautiful sight could be created when someone wielded it.

    The next step was giving the chain Rune of Silence. This was still an umon rune to him, so Angor had to rely on a projection to draw it.

    It went smoothly. After going through Condense, an exquisitely-crafted chain shining with the power of magic rune came into being.

    Angor was quite satisfied with his work. Now he only needed to find out whether Bobota could say the same.

    ...

    It was around four in the afternoon. Angor ced the chain into a space capsule while storing all the other weapons into another separate one.

    The capsule for the chain was provided by Bobota. The remaining ones came from the questing hall, and that would cost a small fee.

    With the capsules, Angor left his vi.

    His first stop was the Cave Field. Unfortunately, Nausica and Sailum were still nowhere to be found. Angor began to worry that those two might have already moved away. However, if that was the case, their rooms should have changed owners.

    He went to the underground market next and checked out the Sky Tower. The ce was still overcrowded.

    Now Angor was feeling a little anxious about the safety of his friends. When arriving at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop, Angor pondered whether he should hire someone to look into Nausica¡¯s information.

    Dave also noticed Angor¡¯s unusual mood. After hearing Angor out, he suggested with a smile, ¡°If you want to hear from your friends, you can always pay some money to Bartterfly Pub. They usually provide any information as long as it¡¯s not something extremely umon.¡±

    Angor recalled that Te found out the information about purification garden in the same way. However, the pub only provided the info several hours before the questing hall announced the info to everyone, so he did not really trust the ce. Besides, ¡°Bartterfly Pub¡± sounded like a very cheap copycat to him.

    Still, he would check out the ce anyway.

    Dave closed up the shop and apanied Angor to the pub.

    The middle-aged bartender working in the pub was their informant, who instantly recognized Angor when he approached.

    ¡°Mister Padt, how can I help you?¡±

    ¡°You know me?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve earned yourself quite a name when you entered Brute Cavern, have you not?¡±

    Angor remembered the day how he drew everyone¡¯s attention in the resource distribution hall. Many random people around the bus stop already learned his name in the same day.

    Besides, someone who sold information to people had to have his own sources, so Angor decided not to ask too much.

    ¡°I want the information about someone.¡±

    ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°Nausica Asbel.¡±

    The bartender pondered and took out a gold-colored booklet whose cover was decorated with a pair of eyes.

    ¡°You mean ady who goes by the title ¡®King of ckberry¡¯, sir?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Can you tell me something about her?¡±

    ¡°Two magic crystals.¡± The bartender extended a hand, and Angor paid without much of a thought.

    ¡°If my intelligence¡¯s not mistaken, thisdy epted a quest and went to the Moonfrost Passage.¡±

    ¡°Moonfrost Passage? She didn¡¯t keep up her tower challenge?¡±

    ¡°She spent a week on the 11th floor. Judging from the result of her matches, her challenge did not go very well. It was already a miracle for her to make such an achievement by using a mere tiered alchemy weapon and several scrolls. She would need more than that to keep going. I assume she went to the passage looking for destiny.¡±

    Angor understood Nausica¡¯s decision. The Moonfrost Passage was connected to the Abyss ne, where tons of monsters lurked. Many Bloodline Wizards would find bloodlines from those monsters to power up themselves. The vial of subus blood that Saka found also came from that ce.

    ¡°Is she apanied by a boy called Sailum?¡±

    The bartender reached out his hand again. ¡°Two magic crystals.¡±

    Angorplied.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Dave spoke up before Angor could ask something again, ¡°That¡¯s it? A ¡®yes¡¯ for two crystals? Man, easy money!¡±

    The bartender did not look up from his ss. ¡°You¡¯re asking for personal information, and I charge money by how many people you¡¯re interested in. Simple as that.¡±

    Dave wanted to protest but Angor quickly stopped him. ¡°How are they doing now? Are they safe?¡±

    The bartender shrugged. ¡°I do not know about that. They went to the passage in a team one week ago. I don¡¯t think they have run into any serious danger yet.¡±

    <i>So they are safe...</i>

    Angor stopped here. That was exactly what he wanted to know.

 Chapter 245 - Hercules

    <h4>Chapter 245: Hercules</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor and Dave left the pub and took a sky bus toward the questing hall.

    Before they could go for a counter, they saw Bobota waving at them.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that man?¡± Dave said.

    ¡°Someone who gave me a quest. You go and report the other quests, I¡¯ll get youter.¡±

    Angor sent Dave away and approached Bobota.

    ¡°Wanna check it?¡± Angor took out a space capsule.

    Bobota seemed surprised. ¡°Finished? Already?¡±

    Bobota did find it necessary to verify Angor¡¯s work. However, the hall was too crowded for that, so they went to the private guest room again just in case.

    Inside the room, Bobota eagerly crushed the capsule open, and a sky-blue chain materialized in the air. Out of instinct, Bobota reached for the object. However, a frighteningly solid touch immediately caused him to back away.

    The chain fell down and created a loud noise, causing the floor to crack up a little.

    This had proved the item¡¯s weight to Bobota.

    Next, the man proceeded to test the ¡°Silencing¡± effect of the chain, which worked wonderfully.

    As Bobota checked the chain, Angor exined the materials he used as well as some key points when wielding the item as necessary. When Angor¡¯s exnation was done, Bobota was also finished with his inspection.

    ¡°The effect, weight, and its looks are all perfect. Good!¡± Bobota held up the chain and grew excited again. This artifact would almost ensure his sess in hising task.

    The man was always straightforward about everything. Since the chain was fine, he immediately paid the remaining reward to Angor.

    ¡°Now that we¡¯re done, I¡¯ll take my leave.¡± Without further ado, Angor bid goodbye as well.

    ¡°You¡¯re not using teleportation? There must be many people who saw using here.¡±

    ¡°My friend is still waiting outside.¡±

    Angor left through the door.

    Despite his neat disy, Bobota still felt a bit sad when looking at his now near-empty bnce.

    But he quickly got over it when thinking about the possible profit he would soon earn from the chain. However, the task would determine the fate of his n, and he would prefer that no outsiders knew about it. He could not do anything to Angor right now due to Angor¡¯s particr identity in Brute Cavern. Otherwise, he would not hesitate to ensure a more perfect oue.

    Outside, Angor who was on his way to meet Dave was caught by someone, just as how Bobota assumed.

    Someone he saw before.

    ¡°Hello, sir! Name¡¯s Hercules, we metst time.¡± Hercules moved in front of Angor. His greasy and shiny muscle chunks jiggled on his giant body.

    Angor sighed in his mind and put on his usual indifferent expression. ¡°Something you need?¡±

    Hercules¡¯ eyes glimmered with joy. ¡°Are you an alchemist, mister? Can I ask you to help me make a weapon?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m busy right now.¡±

    Hercules realized that Angor did not deny being an alchemist. ¡°When will you be free?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Angor said and tried to move past Hercules. The bulky man did not do anything to stop him, which surprised Angor a little.

    Angor thought that Hercules was one of the bothersome figures who could not leave him alone, but it seemed he was mistaken.

    His eased mood did notst long though. When he joined Dave and made sure all the quests were handed in, Hercules showed up again before they could leave the questing hall.

    ¡°Are you free now, sir?¡± Hercules blinked innocently.

    ¡°No.¡± Angor shivered a little. He could not ept the fact that a big muscle man was talking to him in the same way as a young girl trying to act cute.

    Again, Hercules let them go just fine.

    About ten minutester, when Angor and Dave were on their way to the bus stop, Hercules appeared again.

    ¡°Are you free now?¡±

    ¡°Can you hear me at all? I said no. And stop following me.¡±

    ¡°But you didn¡¯t tell me when you¡¯ll be free,¡± Hercules spoke in the same innocent manner.

    ¡°Not today. Just go away.¡±

    ¡°Tell me where you live, I¡¯ll look for you tomorrow!¡± Hercules asked in an as-a-matter-of-fact manner.

    Angor began to understand why Bobota said that this man only had muscles in his brain. He could not read human speech properly!

    ¡°Let¡¯s... hear it first. What kind of weapon do you need?¡± Angor sighed helplessly.

    ¡°An ax! With a long handle,¡± Hercules described the weapon in his mind. ¡°And I hope the ax can have a burning effect. Is that okay?¡±

    <i>A long-handled ax with Rune of me? </i>Angor pondered. That did not sound so hard.

    ¡°How much would you pay?¡± Angor would rather get rid of this lubber as soon as he can. A lower payment was fine, as long as he could get away.

    Hercules scratched his hair. ¡°I have no magic crystals on me. Can I reward you with my body?¡±

    ¡°No, thanks!¡± Angor turned to leave.

    Hercules followed on their heels. ¡°I¡¯m good at fightin¡¯! If I get the ax, I promise I can keep you safe. For a year!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t like being followed, so sorry, but no. I won¡¯t ept no matter how strong you are.¡±

    Angor did not tell the man that Toby would easily do a better job as a bodyguard.

    Hercules slumped down.

    Before they could keep moving, Dave suddenly spoke to Hercules. ¡°Can you defeat a Steel Hedgehog?¡±

    Hercules hesitated. ¡°I think I can if I have a proper weapon.¡±

    Dave perked up all of a sudden and turned to Angor. ¡°Hey Angor, can I pay for his weapon?¡±

    Angor already realized Dave¡¯s n when ¡°Steel Hedgehog¡± was mentioned. ¡°You want to go to the Moonfrost Passage too?¡±

    A Steel Hedgehog was a weak monster living inside the Abyss ne. It provided a bloodline which gave someone decent defense, and nothing else, so almost no Bloodline Wizards would choose to use the blood of this monster. However, the defense helped people withstood most explosion attacks, so there were many alchemists who found the trait useful.

    Using the bloodline of a Steel Hedgehog meant permanently gaining a high-leveled magic barrier, which was extremely helpful during alchemy experiments.

    Dave nodded and confirmed Angor¡¯s idea. ¡°The monster¡¯s blood can help me study alchemy better.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°So you¡¯ve decided you¡¯ll keep going down this path?¡±

    Bloodline could be removed, but notpletely. The bloodline of Steel Hedgehog basically had no merit except for alchemy.

    Dave was firm. ¡°Yes! I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever find anything other than alchemy to prove myself.¡±

    Angor thought about it. The favor was easy to grant, and it would help his friend realize his ambition, so why not?

    Angor turned to Hercules again. ¡°I¡¯ll help you then, on condition that you must sign a contract with Dave, that you¡¯ll protect him for one year while helping him get the blood of Steel Hedgehog when at it. If you agree, I¡¯ll start making your weapon today.¡±

    Angor¡¯s condition was a little more than what Hercules offered. A Steel Hedgehog was weak, but its blood would still sell for a thousand crystals in auctions, while Hercules¡¯ ax probably only cost several hundred.

    But without the ax, Hercules would never be able to defeat the monster. The whole matter was kind of a paradox.

    Hercules was sulking in despair when Angor refused him. When he saw another chance, he answered without giving it much thought. ¡°I agree!!¡±

    The two of them created a one-year contract in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness.

    Back at Angor¡¯s vi, Angor and Dave worked together and finished Hercules¡¯ request in one night.

    Dave was the one forging the original weapon, so Angor only asked for 100 crystals, which was considered a payment for his effort in enchantment.

    Angor¡¯s bone card now had a bnce of nearly 800 thousand points, which meant 8,000 magic crystals. Very few level-1 apprentices could possess such a fortune. In fact, many wizards would find it difficult to gather so much avable fund in a short time.

    ...

    The grand auction in Twilight Well was three days away.

    With no other quests to do, plus that he had mostlyprehended Melodious Illusion, Angor decided to use the remaining time to craft the music box which he had been neglecting. Maybe he could also pay Lady Mirror a visit in the meantime.

    He already made up a detailed n for creating the trinket. His music box was going to have two special effects.

    One was to trigger a Melodious Illusion using the music that it yed. There were many problems to consider here, such as choosing the best illusion to go with the music, whether the illusion should be ¡°animated¡±, and how much space it should cover.

    The second one was applying Tranquility Rune to the music box which would help people calm down with the help of gentle music. Dave mentioned that music should be something that disturbed meditation. Angor did several experiments on himself, during which gentle music did not hinder his meditation. However, he was not sure whether other people would not be bothered by the same music.

    He still needed to find out the result.

    Before everything else, he had to first determine the appearance of the music box.

 Chapter 246 - The World of Films

    <h4>Chapter 246: The World of Films</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Originally, Angor was making the music box as a gift for Toby. However, since Sunders mentioned to him that Lady Mirror loved interesting trinkets, Angor decided to make a second one for her. Lady Mirror did save his life, and Angor currently had nothing else to repay such a big favor, so he had to rely on his innovation.

    Since it was a gift, the music box had to at least look good on the outside. Even if Lady Mirror would not mind it, for good faith, Angor was still going to try his best.

    He took out his pen and paper and began to design.

    He learned how to sketch before. Soon enough, the basic shape of a music box appeared under his pen tip.

    A small, golden box which revealed a ck stage inside, where a dancer dressed in white danced on her toe tips.

    It was the same music box Angor saw in his mother¡¯s bedroom during childhood. When wound up, the music box would create crystal tones, while the dancer would dance around along the melody.

    Angor inspected his sketch and frowned. It looked like a typical music box that one would find in any toy shop. A child might find it fun, but Lady Mirror should be a real aged being who existed for gods-know-how-long. Angor did not believe that Lady Mirror would be tempted by such a simple doll toy.

    He quickly drew several more designs. Heart-shaped, round ones, square... he found every avable music box design in his memory.

    And no matter how he looked, something always felt wrong about them.

    He rubbed his hair and tossed the paper away.

    Typical music boxes all needed a certain space to contain the necessaryponents such as cylinders and springs. But the one he was trying to make was based on Echo Flowers, which did not need all those. He could try to make something a lot different.

    But how?

    Usually, alchemists who sought new ideas could easily do it by traveling around the world and seeing new things. Angor, however, did not need to do so. When he realized that his vision and experience were still too limited, he simply gave up on thinking further and took out his ¡°cheat¡±¡ªthe hologram tablet.

    The system always held more things to discover.

    The Earth only witnessed the era of science for a few hundred years, yet thanks to various indescribable human natures, people from Earth had created many ways to satisfy their spiritual needs.

    From some of the novels, Angor could see that humans from Earth had not achieved total prosperity. Even then, many of them tended to idle their lives away in pleasure. One of the authors from the novels created a world in which everyone admired young idols, while the main character, or the author himself, became the one that ¡°owned¡± the idols in the end, and he began to show off his wealth and ego to everyone, gaining much self-satisfaction.

    The novel might be exaggerated stories. However, Angor could tell that people from Earth knew a lot of things to entertain their spirits.

    The wizarding world also had simr concepts, such as entertainment magazines, adult books, and various story collections. However, they only had limited audiences, unlike what was offered during the era of information explosion on Earth.

    Angor found the entertainment section and looked through the folders one by one.

    He never checked these files much. He only once read several novels to kill time when he had nothing else to do on the cloud whale. But ever since he came to Brute Cavern, he barely had enough time to meditate, study spells while doing other jobs, so he never checked them again.

    Thest time he opened these folders was when he chose a piece of music to y.

    He went for random files this time, believing that there had to be something that would give him the inspiration he needed.

    ¡°Literature... no, they kill too many brain cells. Cheap novels? They always make something big in another world and do everything that looks fun, they don¡¯t have much professional knowledge. How about science articles? I guess not. Cuisine recipes...?¡±

    Angor checked through several food menus out of curiosity. The pictures of different bright dishes quickly reminded him of Jon¡¯s cooking. His mouth watered.

    A folder named ¡°art galleries¡± caught his attention.

    He opened the folder and saw various artworks performed by all kinds of famous artists around the Earth.

    Angor¡¯s eyes widened again and again when looking at the masterpieces disying their creators¡¯ great emotions and ideas.

    The paintings from both worlds all had simr levels. Well, maybe the wizarding world was better since this world existed for way longer than the history of civilization on Earth.

    Angor saw many modern pictures as well, which showed sky-piercing buildings, streams of vehicles and crowds, as well as all kinds of strange-looking shop signs that shined with different colors.

    His curiosity about Earth rose again. He really wished to find out how a metropolis that amodated tens of millions of people looked like.

    And he was answered soon enough.

    He saw a folder called ¡°films and movies¡± and wondered what ¡°film¡± meant until he opened one of the files within and realized he had been missing out a whole new world.

    The file was called ¡°Mystery of The Deep Blue¡±. Under Angor¡¯smand, the tablet projected a new reality around him.

    As a narrator told a story in a gentle voice, the scene of an ocean appeared in front of Angor, and the camera suddenly went down from the air and dived into the water, causing schools of fish to scatter around their coral homes in panic...

    Angor was shocked speechless by the wonderful disy. So this was what ¡°film¡± meant!

    He could not understand the narrator. However, he could see subtitles below that exined the speeches in the samenguage he learned from Jon, which told him that ¡°Mystery of The Deep Blue¡± was filed by a foreign storyteller group which meant to tell knowledge about the sea.

    Angor quickly got an idea. Since there was something that described the sea, there had to be films about cities!

    He quickly scrolled down the files and saw a film called ¡°A Man and A City¡±. Upon opening the file, someone spoke beside his ears in anguage he knew well¡ªMandarin.

    This was the first time Angor heard thenguage again after leaving Jon. It felt even better when the narrator talked in such a clear, emotional tone.

    As the storyteller spoke, beautiful scenery emerged in front of his eyes.

    The film described a number of cities with the views of the local residents.

    Angor¡¯s dream of learning about the cities of Earth was finally satisfied today. He had been dreaming about the fantastic and mysterious ces since he was young, and now he got to witness them by his own eyes.

    Angor quickly grew addicted to the film andpletely forgot about his original n. He spent the entire day watching films until midnight.

    After ¡°A Man and A City¡±, he watched a number of films of different genres, including romance, sci-fi, even ancient wuxia.

    And he felt greatly satisfied. Of all the films, he preferred watching documentaries, which always helped him learn something about Earth with their neutral, unbiasedments.

    When he grew tired, he finally realized it was already the next morning.

    Angor looked at his nk draft paper and sighed in frustration. He nned to find innovation from the films and only got dragged into them instead.

    He spun his pen between his fingers while trying to recall what he watched. He was not thinking about the music box at all while watching the films. Now that he calmed down to think them over, he noticed he just learned a lot from them which could be helpful in his creation.

    Using the great ambition still lingering on his mind, Angor quickly expressed a new idea on the paper and created something with an exotic yet intriguing design.

    A number of crystal tubes climbed downward in a spiral manner. Each turn on the rubes was marked with a star, which meant there would be an illusion node ced.

    The tubes all moved in different patterns. The simple twists and turns created an overall design which looked like a growing tree.

    Angor ced a flower-shapedponent in the center of the tubes. This idea came from a gramophone he saw in one of the films. Instead of copying the bronze-colored flower-shaped speaker, he used transparent crystals plus pale paints to express the form of shifting sea waves.

    The simple sketch on the paper already looked luxuriously artistic. Angor hoped that his final product could be as astonishing.

    Since the shape and illusion nodes were determined, Angor would need to find proper materials and decide which music and illusion to use.

 Chapter 247 - Story Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 247: Story Illusion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor hoped to make something crystal clear, so he spent some time selecting materials with proper colors.

    Next, he needed to choose a piece of music as well as an illusion that went with the music.

    He already had something in mind; he would use ¡°City of Sky¡±.

    Now the question was, what kind of scenery suited the music best? Different people might have different views about this one since they all had different tastes. Angor did not expect to find a perfect answer. However, the least he could do was to try and find somethingmonly epted.

    He would go for something that was ¡°rtively perfect¡± to apany the City of Sky. Something that most people would find eptable.

    And he would do so by listening to the music carefully just like how peopleprehended books by reading them a lot.

    He opened the music folder and yed the song.

    The gentle melody quickly soothed his stressed mind. His brain grew less and less active before he finally fell into a deep sleep.

    He dreamed about cruising the vast skyline on the back of a demon falcon. Floating clouds decorated the blue background which was Angor¡¯s path. Even asional thunderclouds did not stop the avian from advancing. Whilst flying, he could forget all troubles and concerns. His mind spread wide and became one with the great sky.

    More dark clouds appeared in his way. They gathered and swirled, dering hidden danger.

    The demon falcon kept flying and dived inside the clouds.

    Endless lightning surrounded Angor as if the god of thunder was fighting something with his powerful weapon. Each strike would tear up a part of the sky.

    Angor advanced on the demon falcon and between the thunder strikes like the bravest warrior, oblivious of the danger around. After surviving the hellish ce, the dark clouds in front of Angor slowly spread open to the sides, revealing light.

    In the end, a giant floating ind was shown in Angor¡¯s view.

    It sat there like a treasure, a reward for getting past the roaring thunders.

    Angor¡¯s first thought when looking at the ind was that he might have stumbled into Phantom Ind again.

    But on closer look, he saw the ind filled with structures built with concrete and steel, as well as greennds and colorful gardens. The ind showed both highly-developed civilization and primitive nature, creating a fantastic yet harmonious sight.

    Angor did not know for how long the ind existed, but it had to be really ancient.

    A silent, majestic being that connected stories from the past, the present, and the future.

    It awaited someone to go there and discover the myths it held.

    Angor suddenly opened his eyes and woke up. The ¡°City of Sky¡± was still lingering around his ears. Thanks to the music, he felt as if the mysterious ind at the end of clouds was still right in front of his eyes.

    It was seven in the morning, which meant... he left the music going for an entire night.

    Great innovation flooded his mind. Angor quickly found his pen and left every detail he remembered in his dream on the paper.

    As he believed, few people could resist the thirst for new adventures, and he was going to fascinate people by creating a scene above the clouds, where an unknown city waited for eager explorers.

    Who knew? Maybe Lady Mirror would love it.

    Speaking of Lady Mirror... Angor got the feeling that he could do a better job if he ced the handsome figure of Sunders on the ind.

    But he quickly got rid of that strange idea. He still wanted to stay as Sunders¡¯ ¡°modest and cultured¡± student.

    With the illusion, the correct materials and the draft of the item prepared, he only needed to get to it.

    Before doing so, Angor went to his attic again.

    But he did not find Toby there.

    He had been too busy with his alchemy work to spend time with Toby these days. However, since the sack of dried fish was still sufficient, he did not really need to worry about the wellbeing of the bird. The only thing that might be inconvenient for Toby was that the bird could not change its clothes easily without a helper.

    ¡°Huh... Where did he wander off to? Did he find a wife bird outside?¡± Angorined aloud.

    He came here to get the Echo Flower he needed. The two flowers he received from Toby were used up in his preliminary experiments, which did not go in vain¡ªhe sessfully learned how to solve the problem about how the flower could only rey something once.

    He needed new flower as the main material to craft the music box. Not one, but two, since he also needed to give a gift to Lady Mirror. And Toby only had two flowers left.

    He heard something flying past the air when taking the Echo Flowers.

    A colorful shadow dashed past the window andnded in front of Angor. Toby was dressed as... a fairy in children¡¯s tales. There was even a tiny gand on Toby¡¯s head made from a number of beautiful flowers.

    Toby pointed a wing to the flowers in Angor¡¯s hand. ¡°Tweet! Ack! Squark!¡±

    ¡°I need them for the music box. The ones you gave me are spent in a test,¡± Angor replied to Toby¡¯s birdnguage like it was as easy as talking to people.

    Toby gave Angor a doubtful look. He was quite impressed when listening to the City of Sky, and hoped that the young master could create the promised music box as soon as possible. However, it had been some time now. Toby was struggling to decide whether he should wait for the music box or keep the valuable flowers.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll make it within today. I give you my word,¡± said Angor as he thumped his chest.

    He did not consider that this was his first time trying to make something other than weapons, which meant he might fail.

    Toby chose to believe Angor¡¯s words and finally nodded.

    ¡°Alright. Just do something else while waiting. I have everything prepared. I¡¯ll give you the box tonight if nothing goes wrong,¡± Angor spoke. He suddenly noticed a faint smell of mountain flowersing off Toby¡¯s feathers. ¡°By the way, who gave you the flower dress? It¡¯s new, right? Look, there are still dew drops on it.¡±

    Toby waved his wings here and there while chirping quickly as an answer.

    ¡°You made a new friend? Nice. Just be careful not to get tricked by bad guys, okay?¡±

    Angor was not worried about this in the least since Toby was probably many times more deadly than himself. Rather, Toby was the one who would get concerned of Angor¡¯s safety, so the bird often followed Angor from afar to protect his young master.

    However, Angor did not really believe that someone who weaved such an exquisite flower dress was a ¡°bad guy¡±.

    Angor took the two flowers back into hisb and immediately began working.

    Various materials melted into strange-colored substances in his spell and became differentponents under the maniption of Hand of Spell.

    His crafting process was smooth. However, something went unbnced when he was trying to apply runes onto the finished model and caused a giant explosion.

    Thankfully, he noticed the energy disruption in advance and moved away in time.

    When thinking about his mistake, he realized that he had ced the runes inside the area of the illusion.

    He had to keep a stable mana flow while drawing the rune. Since the rune was located too close to the illusion nodes, the mana identally triggered the nodes and ruined the whole process.

    It was nothing unsolvable though. He simply needed to finish and stabilize the rune first before applying the illusion.

    He looked at the broken Echo Flower and silently apologized to Toby.

    The second attempt went well. Angor carefully drew the Tranquility Rune onto the object beforeying down the illusion nodes.

    He had already learned the experience when creating the demon falcon statue in Sunders¡¯ study, which helped him finished the micro illusion in a short time.

    The next important step was to record the music into the music box and create a trigger for the Acoustic Illusion.

    He had done many perfect simtions before, but he would act as cautious as possible when doing the real deal.

    As the music started, Angor immediately determined it as a way to trigger the illusion.

    To make the illusion appear more forting¡± to people, he made the illusion gradually materialize in the air like ripples on water surface caused by a cobblestone. This way, he could tell people that the illusion was harmless as well as allowing them to enjoy the smooth transition as if traveling through time and space.

 Chapter 248 - Success

    <h4>Chapter 248: Sess</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After making sure the Melodious Illusion could be triggered properly, Angor began thest step¡ªusing Condense to cool-fix the final product.

    White vapor shifted around until the shining surface of the music box was revealed.

    For a moment, the object shined so brightly that Angor had to close his eyes. When he looked again, a perfectly-made semi-transparent object lied in his palm.

    The crystal tubes acted like multifaceted prisms like diamonds. Any light that went inside the object woulde back out with greater brilliance.

    Surrounded by the intertwining tubes, the flower in the center of the creation easily fascinated the minds of its viewers.

    Everything about the trinket possessed very simple colors, such as pale blue on crystals in droplet shapes, pale yellow on the blooming flower, and pale white on the ocean wave paints. Butbined with each other, they gave the entire object a modest yet luxurious feel.

    Anyone would find this thing an outstanding art piece.

    Angor was not sure that his creation was enough to please Lady Mirror. At least he himself was satisfied with it.

    But as a music box, its functionality was the important part rather than its looks. He quickly got over the great excitement and began testing the music box itself.

    The trinket held two special effects. One was a calming aura created by Tranquility Rune while the other was an illusion facilitated by the music that it yed.

    Both effects required mana support. The music box was designed to help people enjoy its music in a dreamy scenery, so Angor would not want people to keep sustaining it by spending mana.

    The music box had to have an energy source. Since Angor had not learned about any highly-efficient energy sources, he chose to usemon magic crystals.

    The chamber to contain the magic crystal was located in a small area at the flower¡¯s root. Users could simply rece the crystal as if renewing a battery.

    As long as the magic crystal was not depleted, anyone could trigger the special effects by operating a winding key on the music box.

    Angor used the original design of a winding key as a trigger, but the music box did not really need any spring mechanism in it. Angor kept theponent merely to salute the inventors of the amazing toy.

    Once the music box was started, its user could spin the key clockwise for two clicks to active its full effect, or spin counterclockwise for one click to shut off the illusion while keeping the music running. Another counterclockwise click meant turning off the music box.

    Angor opened the crystal chamber and ced a magic crystal inside.

    He took a deep breath and operated the winding key carefully.

    Colorful light streams flowed on the surface of the item.

    Next, a strange aura was released from the box, and Angor suddenly felt his stressed mind growing quieter.

    For a moment, he forgot everything that troubled his mind.

    ¡°The Tranquility Rune worked well.¡±

    Angor grinned a little while enjoying the amazing effect.

    Soon, the prelude of the City of Sky came from the ¡°flower¡± in full perfection without any quality loss. The gentle musical notes brought by the strange instruments slowly drew their listeners into another dimension...

    As the music began, Angor¡¯s illusion also came into effect.

    A water ripple effect was shown in the air. In the next moment, Angor found himself in the midair again. There were the boundless sky and drifting clouds above him and fresh-green fields beneath.

    The Melodious Illusion was constructed so well that Angor could not help praising his own work. He spent a long time on the back of cloud whale, so he fully knew how to create the scenery in the sky to the fullest extent.

    As the music continued, the illusion slowly changed.

    Clouds moved apart until the ¡°mysterious floating ind¡± came into view.

    ...

    After repeated tests, Angor was certain that the music box was a huge sess. Everything he wanted on the item was realized.

    Common artists expressed their emotions and their ideals on t surfaces, sometimes even through sculptures. Angor, however, managed to break the barrier and indulge people by their eyes, ears, and minds. In this way, even those with less taste for art could easily read Angor¡¯s great innovation.

    He might not have the same level of artistic senses as the masters, but his music box was creative enough to attract more crowds.

    The only pity was that he only created one music box. The other Echo Flower was ruined.

    Should he give the creation to Lady Mirror or Toby first?

    Angor¡¯s first thought was to satisfy Toby since the bird was his true partner. But again... Lady Mirror saved his very life, and he already promised to pay thedy a visit. He had yet to fulfill that promise.

    He struggled a little and decided to present the gift to Toby anyway. He just said that he would get the work done tonight a little while ago. He could always go buy another flower from Daveter.

    When leaving the undergroundb, Angor was weed by a colorful figure dashing through the air. Toby, in his flower dress,nded on Angor¡¯s shoulder and gave his master a gentle peck on the cheek. Then it looked at the interesting item in Angor¡¯s hand.

    As a creature created by Greya, Toby already learned how to appreciate beautiful creations such as art pieces and human clothing.

    Toby pped its wings happily and looked around the music box in curiosity.

    Angor smiled. ¡°Here, the gift I promised. Told you I¡¯d get it finished today.¡±

    Toby nodded madly, causing his bird body to shift up and down in the air, like a butterfly fluttering above a flower.

    Angor exined how to use the music box as well as its effects, before handing the trinket to Toby.

    The music box was a lot bigger than Toby. However, the bird did not seem bothered by the size difference. He held the box in his beak and returned to the attic immediately. Soon, City of Sky began to y upstairs, followed by Toby¡¯s own chirping.

    Angor chuckled and shook his head. He would go find Dave to buy another Echo Flower now.

    Instead of finding Dave in Prome¡¯s shop, Angor ran into the bulky guy called Hercules instead.

    ording to the man, Dave asked him to watch the shop while Dave himself went to do some alchemy work down in the storage.

    Angor thought it fine to leave Dave be and tried to buy the flower from Hercules. However, the muscle guy could not understand a thing about alchemy, so Angor had to go looking for Dave in the end.

    Inside the storage, Angor saw Dave working on a model of a fencing sword using Thaw. And Dave looked pretty adept at this, after spending all those days working with Angor.

    Angor stayed at a distance and waited.

    The shape of the sword was soon made under the maniption of Hand of Spell. However, Dave did not use Condense to fix the shape next like Angor expected. Instead, he took out some extra materials and began to chant something before a stream of mana was injected into the materials, causing them to glitter.

    ¡°Synthesis?¡± Angor realized what he was looking at.

    Before he could observe more of Dave¡¯s work though, another mana stream sank into the sword, and the weapon waspletely shattered to waste.

    ¡°Damn. Again,¡± Daveined. He already saw Angoring. ¡°That was my third try today.¡±

    Angor looked at the remains on the floor and noticed that they came from more than one weapon.

    ¡°Are you always so hard-working?¡± Angor teased, ¡°Or did I flip a switch in your head?¡±

    Dave lifted his head proudly. ¡°I was too broke to buy materials before. Now I have money! And I better put it to use. Enough about me. What are you here for? You epted more quests?¡±

    ¡°Nah. I came to buy an Echo Flower,¡± said Angor as he checked through the shelves. ¡°You still have them?¡±

    ¡°You still going on with your music box? Did you fail?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but I didn¡¯t fail. I already made one for Toby. I still need to make another though, as a gift for my... helper.¡± Angor decided not to reveal his incident with Lady Mirror.

    ¡°Helper?¡± Dave realized what Angor meant and did not push. ¡°You¡¯re in luck. I just have one flower left here. After getting scammed by Toby, we never restocked them again. It¡¯s not like many people need them.¡±

    Dave checked through several crates and finally took out a flower from a corner. Then he refused Angor¡¯s bone card. ¡°I think I got this one for a mere 30 merit points. I never spared the effort to ount it yet. Just take it.¡±

    In Angor¡¯s memory, the man called ¡°Dave¡± used to be someone stingy over every merit point. But now...

    Such a change in character was expected though, considering how Dave had earned like a thousand crystals already.

    Angorplied and epted the flower. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be leaving then. I need to get it done tonight and send it out tomorrow.¡±

    Dave nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that our tickets are for tomorrow afternoon. If you miss it, you¡¯ll have to attend the second grand auction at the end of the year.¡±

 Chapter 249 - Visiting Lady Mirror

    <h4>Chapter 249: Visiting Lady Mirror</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor was nning to check out Toby and ask if the bird had any feedback for the music box, so he could do something on the second box ordingly.

    Surprisingly though, he did not hear anything in the attic. Usually, at this time, Toby would be holding his ¡°personal concert¡±.

    Why was he suddenly all quiet?

    Angor walked into the attic and did not find Toby there. The music box was also gone.

    Angor frowned. ¡°Did he take his new toy to his new friend?¡±

    He would not mind Toby¡¯s decision to visit new friends. However, when thinking about how many wizards were cunning enough to trick the bird... Angor grew a bit worried. He had to keep Toby safe for Greya¡¯s sake.

    With that in mind, Angor decided to wait for Toby and have a good talk with him, while hopefully checking out who Toby¡¯s new friend was.

    He was not going to get anyments on his music box now, so he simply followed his previous example and spent the night making another one.

    The finished product glimmered with the same vivid color. After making sure that nothing was wrong, he put it away in satisfaction and prepared the head for Lady Mirror¡¯s ce.

    When leaving the door, he heard City of Sky being yed in the attic again, so he quickly called Toby¡¯s name in the yard.

    Toby poked his tiny head from the attic window.

    ¡°We¡¯re leaving for Twilight Well in the afternoon, stay home today so you don¡¯t miss the trip.¡± Angor decided to put his question regarding Toby¡¯s new friend forter. Maybe he could ask the question while on the airship.

    Toby nodded and returned inside. More bird chirps came about along the music.

    Angor chuckled at Toby¡¯s terrible voice and turned to leave.

    It was Lady Mirror he was going to visit, so Angor put on his best appearance today. He chose to wear a customized noble attire Leon gave him, which was decorated by his family emblem. He also spent some time to carefullyb his otherwise messy hair into a neat slicked style. Combined with his smooth skin and sky-colored pupils, Angor now had what it took to charm a good number of women.

    The only problem was the dark circles around his eyes after all the days during which he worked so hard. He did not really mind since he was going to spend a lot of time on the airship soon, and he had plenty of time to sleep.

    Lady Mirror lived at the entrance of the mirror world which was located at the bottom of the abyss, through which Angor and his peers came here.

    There was only one entrance to enter the mirror world, while there were many teleportation arrays to leave the ce. Angor was heading to one of these arrays.

    The teleport node he went for was inside the Tree Spirit Hall.

    The hall was quite vacant in the early morning. Only the workers on duty were here busy with their routines. Angor nced around and did not see the terrible woman called Mner here. Also, the Tree Spirit did not appear in the hall either, which was totally expected. Angor walked directly to the teleport node and paid some merit points to leave the mirror world.

    He re-appeared in a bright room where a mortal sat beside a desk near the teleport node was spacing out.

    The mortal jumped a little when the array suddenly lit up. Then he bowed to Angor politely.

    Angor walked to him and asked in a low voice, ¡°You work here?¡±

    ¡°Ye-yes.¡± The worker was trembling a little.

    ¡°How far is this ce to the entrance of the mirror world?¡±

    The worker pointed toward a certain direction. ¡°This is the Windmill Town, sir. Keep walking that way, and you¡¯ll see a cave. Walk into the cave and you¡¯ll find the mirror entrance.¡±

    Angor recalled that there were several ces of residence centered around the mirror world, and Windmill Town was one of them. The ces appeared to be ruled by Darkivil Empire. However, in truth, they mostly depended on Brute Cavern.

    Angor left the room and visited the town outside the mirror world for the first time.

    He did not see anything interesting, because the ce looked almost the same as the underground market. There was more green here as well as smaller houses and more mortals. Other than these, the town was only a copy of the market. Even the lightening level was the same.

    Angor followed the direction he was told and reached the entrance he was looking for soon.

    The giant surface of a mirror lied at the bottom of the horrific abyss. Everything in the area was totally dark except for what was shown inside the mirror. From his position, Angor could clearly see the Tree Spirit Garden, the Tree of Eternity, and all kinds of familiar ces through the mirror.

    Angor jumped down andnded onto the mirror.

    The surface felt like both ice and ss, which somewhat refreshed his mind when he put his hands on it.

    As Angor pondered how to call Lady Mirror out, a puff of smoke suddenly raised up.

    ¡°I was wondering which bastard moved his hands up and down my body... so, it¡¯s you,¡± Someone spoke in a teasing manner.

    Angor realized he still had his hands on the mirror, which meant... the mirror was also thedy¡¯s body? Angor quickly retracted his hands in embarrassment and bowed toward the smoke.

    ¡°Good morning, Lady Mirror.¡±

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± The smoke slowly turned into a human shape. ¡°Sunders is noting?¡±

    Angor lowered his head. ¡°My professor is busy with something, so I-¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. You¡¯ll do the trick. I love both mature gentlemen and... tender ones,¡± said Lady Mirror. She smiled and asked, ¡°So, care to join me for morning tea?¡±

    Angor was still not sure how to respond. ¡°I... came to thank you,dy. You were there to save me, or I would-¡±

    ¡°Show some guts and get to it then,¡± Lady Mirror interrupted. ¡°Don¡¯t thank me with your tongue. Let¡¯s drink, and we¡¯re even.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°I will then. Thank you for your hospitality.¡±

    Lady Mirror floated closer and put a misty arm around Angor¡¯s. ¡°Let¡¯s go inside.¡±

    Before Angor could react, he found himself suddenly showing up in a totally different ce¡ªa beautifully-decorated hall room.

    A number of expensive-looking objects suggested that someone spent a huge fortune to make this ce. Even the most inconspicuous corners of the wall cabs had well-designed engravings on them.

    Lady Mirror dragged him to a corner where a carved table with golden rims and two armchairs were ced.

    She waved a hand and two cups of hot tea suddenly materialized on the table.

    ¡°Sit down and let me have a gooood look at you,¡± said Lady Mirror as she took her own seat and held her chin while staring at Angor with great interest.

    Angor could not read her expression since her facial part was all white mist. However, he still felt ufortable for some reason.

    He tried his best to suppress the uneasiness, then put some red sugar into his cup and took a sip.

    ¡°Tsk tsk, such a young handsome fe, like a piece of freshly-butchered, juicy meat waiting to be bitten on,¡± Lady Mirror¡¯sment reached Angor¡¯s ears, causing the boy to choke on his tea.

    ¡°Ah, you still look adorable when coughing.¡± Lady Mirror sipped as well. A stream of liquid disappeared as it reached her misty face.

    Angor did not want to find out what kind of terrible descriptions thedy would express again, so he put down his tea and took out a one-time space capsule.

    It contained his music box. Angor was hoping that he could divert Lady Mirror¡¯s attention to his gift so that thedy would stop looking at his body.

    ¡°Oh, what¡¯s this?¡± Lady Mirror¡¯s tone raised. Somehow, Angor believed the woman just raised an eyebrow despite the fact that he could not see anything on her. ¡°Are you bribing me for something?¡± Lady Mirror put a finger around Angor¡¯s chin. ¡°But I would like YOU to be the gift.¡±

    ¡°Um, no, I want to thank you for your helpst time, and I don¡¯t really have anything valuable, so I made a music box myself. I hope you¡¯d like it.¡±

    ¡°A music box? Such... a memorable object. How many centuries have passed since I heard about such a thingst time?¡± Lady Mirror fell into deep thought. ¡°I think it was about ten thousand years ago when some noble visitor tossed one in front of my door. God, how it hurt my ears. And I can still remember the terrible noises it created.¡±

    ¡°I... crafted this one,dy. It has a Tranquility Rune, so the sound won¡¯t hurt-¡±

    ¡°Tranquility Rune? You know enchantment alchemy?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Oh, nice. We Brute Cavern does need more alchemists.¡± Lady Mirror seemed happy. ¡°But Tranquility Rune and a music box? They don¡¯t sound a goodbination. Anyway, let¡¯s check it out. Be prepared though, if it turns out to be another junk, I¡¯ll simply discard it into the void.¡±

    With that, Lady Mirror broke the capsule and released an object onto the table.

    She was surprised a little when looking at the crystal-clear art piece.

    Her impression on music boxes was still traditional, and she was not expecting something so pretty.

    After staring at the object for a while, Lady Mirror spoke again. ¡°An interesting design. I must admit I¡¯ve never seen anything like this before. Strange, yet... well-made. You created it yourself?¡±

    Angor nodded again. ¡°Yes,dy.¡±

    ¡°Good. At least I¡¯ll give you a ¡®pass¡¯ considering its looks.¡±

    Still, when it came to a music box, the music it yed was the most important. Lady Mirror still wanted to find out about it and toss it away if it proved to be inferior.

    Following Angor¡¯s instruction, Lady Mirror found the winding key.

    Click, click!

 Chapter 250 - Journey in Heaven

    <h4>Chapter 250: Journey in Heaven</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The prelude of the City of Sky gently came about, along with the soothing aura of Tranquility Rune.

    Lady Mirror slowly nodded as she listened. She already decided to keep this little charm since it did not release those awful metal clinks she expected.

    ¡°The start¡¯s pretty good,¡± Lady Mirror enjoyed the calming effect brought by the rune and forgot about teasing Angor again for the moment.

    As she prepared to enjoy the music to its fullest, she suddenly saw ripples surrounding the space around her.

    ¡°Melodious Illusion?¡±

    When the ripples were no more, she saw herself traveling through clouds in the endless sky.

    Along with the Tranquility Rune, the beautiful scenery gave her a strange yetforting sense. For the moment, she only wished to join the dreamy game with all the clouds and birds above the boundless earth.

    Both the music piece and the illusion were created by masters of their own fields. Theybined perfectly together and aroused even more fantastic effects, immersing people within.

    Lady Mirror had forgotten about all distractions in the musical journey. Only the purest and the most rxed mood remained. It was rare for her to find such a pleasurable moment in her prolonged life.

    She was expecting the music to finish while traveling in the sky, but Angor provided her with yet another surprise at the end of it.

    A floating ind was hidden behind raging thunderclouds, which only the bravest adventurers could find.

    On the ind, primitive jungles and concrete building co-existed strangely well.

    To her pity, time seemed to be frozen on the ind. Every single structure was covered in thick moss. Only the asional traces on the buildings suggested the inds¡¯ previous prosperity.

    However, it seemed to be how the City of Sky meant to tell the story in the first ce.

    Beside Lady Mirror¡¯s ears, the music whispered and slowly depicted the history of the ind like a dedicated storyteller.

    Whilst listening to the story, Lady Mirror could see how the ind once came into being: residents worked together to create majestic buildings on top of the ground, then they danced around the campfire in joy, celebrating their great achievement. During the dance, those who shared amon emotion found their lovers and joined...

    A shallow cut on the bricks, a damaged monolith, a dirt pile... everything was telling a different story to the audiences.

    Lady Mirror felt the corners of her eyes watering for some reason. The now deserted ind seemed to be reminding her of something, yet she could not tell why.

    As the music came to an end, clouds moved into their views and hid the ind behind them once again, locking it back into history.

    Ripples appeared, suggesting the end of the illusion.

    Lady Mirror remained still for a long time, trying to recall the mysterious ind lost in time.

    She let out a deep breath in the end.

    ¡°Strange... it¡¯s just an empty ind. The mirror world had many better inds for you to see, better buildings and magnificent touring spots. But none of them ever triggered my deepest memory like this one.¡±

    Angor did not know what kind of story Lady Mirror thought about in the illusion, but he could understand how thedy appreciated the music box.

    ¡°Maybe this is the potential of music?¡± Angor carefully suggested.

    Lady Mirror grinned gently. ¡°Not only that. Maybe the author of the music did tell us something through his work.¡±

    <i>Author? </i>Angor realized he never checked who the author was. However, he did want to tell the story he saw in his dream by creating the illusion. It was the music ¡°City of Sky¡± that helped him weaved such a beautiful dream.

    ¡°What¡¯s the song called?¡± Lady Mirror asked.

    ¡°City of Sky.¡±

    ¡°That... gives us a lot to imagine.¡± Lady Mirror sipped her tea. ¡°This is the best gift I¡¯ve received in the past thousand years. I¡¯m not expecting such a big surprise from you, boy.¡±

    Angor smiled. ¡°It¡¯s nothing, really,pared to how you saved me from doom.¡±

    ¡°Ah, if you put it that way, yes.¡±

    Angor was surprised a little. He said that just to be polite. Yet...

    It seemed being too modest would not always work in the wizarding world.

    ¡°So, to repay my favor, you must give me yet another surprise,¡± Lady Mirror asked. Angor was not sure if she was being serious this time.

    ¡°Another surprise? No problem. I¡¯ll be honored to.¡±

    He already began to think about what to give thedy. Maybe a new music piece?

    Lady Mirror was quite satisfied with Angor¡¯s swift response. The kid knew how to y the game!

    She never wanted any payment from Angor, and she almost forgot about the incident the other day. But now, she was really curious about Angor¡¯s potential. Upon realizing that the kid in front of her was much talented at both illusion and enchantment, she could not help thinking about gaining a little more profit.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what I wantter. For now, I have some questions about this music box. Can you indulge me?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Of course,dy.¡±

    ¡°Does it have a name?¡± Lady Mirror picked up the small artistic piece and inspected it.

    ¡°I¡¯ve not given it a name yet. Please feel free to do so.¡±

    Lady Mirror considered.

    ¡°The ¡®Journey in Heaven¡¯ then. I enjoyed the trip very much.¡±

    Angor nodded in acknowledgment.

    ¡°Tranquility Rune, City of Sky, and a Melodious Illusion... The rune soothes the mind, the music calms the spirit, while the illusion sends our imagination wild. Each element required great talent and expertise in the respective subject, and you did a perfect job. Tsk... people will be jealous of you,¡± Lady Mirror did not hold back when praising Angor¡¯s excellence.

    The music box was only a low-leveled alchemy item. Supernaturals with great longevity would keep seeking truth in their lives, true. But they would not mind some additional, colorful decoration along their way.

    Journey in Heaven was such a decoration for Lady Mirror, something that gave her spiritual enjoyment.

    ¡°I¡¯m d you like it.¡± Angor smiled back. The uneasiness for visiting Lady Mirror out of the blue hadpletely vanished.

    ¡°Rune and music are fine. More importantly, how did you construct such an illusion?¡± Lady Mirror was still curious about how the floating ind reminded her of so many emotions.

    ¡°I chose several spots on the item as illusion nodes when the music starts...¡± Angor carefully exined the principle of the illusion when Lady Mirror stopped him abruptly.

    ¡°I mean, the strange feeling inside the illusion. How did you do it? Most illusionists can create realistic illusions, but there¡¯s something in yours that... reached my heart, and triggered something I¡¯ve hidden in my memory for a long time.¡±

    Angor was really puzzled now. He simply followed his dream to create the illusion. There was nothing else.

    Lady Mirror looked at Angor¡¯s dumbfounded expression and decided to ask in another way. ¡°What¡¯s in your mind when making the illusion?¡±

    She really wanted to find out about it. Aged beings usually had colder natures. She could not remember when she felt so movedst time.

    ¡°My mind? I made the moving clouds because I know how. I spent many days on a cloud whale, during which I¡¯d watch the cloud.¡±

    ¡°What about the ind in the end? And everything else on the ind.¡± Lady Mirror wanted to know how everything on the ind hid a story behind it.

    ¡°When I drew the floating ind, I was thinking about...¡± Angor tried to remember. ¡°... Nether City.¡±

    He was referring to what he saw in the Nightmare Realm. When creating the remains of a campfire on the ind, he even thought about a sad couple he read in a diary¡ªa one-sided lover called Augustin, and an elegant youngdy called Margaret.

    Of course, there were other elements he collected from the films from Earth. Since he could not really exin the films or the Nightmare Realm to Lady Mirror, he could only give her a name ¡°Nether City¡±.

    ¡°Nether City? I heard about that somewhere... you mean the ruins in the garden of thebyrinth?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Lady Mirror¡¯s eyes, or at least where her eyes should be, suddenly glimmered. ¡°You¡¯ve been to Nether City in the Nightmare Realm?¡±

    Angor looked up quickly in shock.

    Lady Mirror immediately understood Angor¡¯s thoughts. ¡°Sunders took you there, right?¡±

    ¡°You already know about it,dy?¡±

    ¡°Because Flora visits me quite a lot. By the way, the ¡®Little Red¡¯ behind her back came from Nether City as well. So that¡¯s why your illusion looked frozen in time. Isn¡¯t that how the Nightmare Realm looks?¡± Lady Mirror nodded. ¡°Still, it¡¯s very interesting that you can actually express such a special element in your illusion, along with more personal feelings. Maybe you illusionists all know the tricks? Oh my. I wish the Elder of Books is here so I can ask him. Too bad the old fart never steps out of his library.

    ¡°Well, so much about my questions...¡± Lady Mirror downed her tea and put on a mysterious look. ¡°Now, let¡¯s talk about the other surprise you¡¯re going to present me.

 Chapter 251 - Strange Request

    <h4>Chapter 251: Strange Request</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor left Lady Mirror¡¯s ce on uncertain steps.

    Her request was a bit... distasteful.

    Just a while ago, he told Lady Mirror in all seriousness that a solid gift was always better than empty promises.

    And Lady Mirror dered that she wanted both.

    An hour ago...

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s talk about the surprise you¡¯re going to present me.¡±

    Angor put on a serious attitude and nodded.

    Despite being inside her private chamber, she still asked Angor to move closer so she could whisper into the boy¡¯s ears.

    ¡°Do you know about the ¡®Phantom of Festivity¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Phantom of Festivity?¡± Angor tilted his head. ¡°Is it someone¡¯s title?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Lady Mirror shook her head and nced at Angor as if looking at someone very pathetic. ¡°You¡¯re about the age to think about women. How could you not know this opera?¡±

    <i>Women?? </i>Angor suddenly got a really bad feeling about this.

    ¡°You... never went to Midnight Sovereign, did you?¡± Lady Mirror raised an eyebrow.

    Midnight Sovereign was the capital of Darkivil Empire as well as the home of Twilight Well.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t. But I¡¯ll head there this afternoon,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°This afternoon? Oh, it¡¯s about time for the midyear grand auction? Good. You can go to the Enchanting Theater to watch the show.¡±

    ¡°Enchanting Theater? So I can go watch an opera called ¡®Phantom of Festivity¡¯ from there?¡±

    Lady Mirror nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. It¡¯s a famous musical. I have some picture collection here from when the opera was in its best years, take a look.¡±

    She found a transparent, square-shaped crystal from a corner of the room.

    ¡°A transmitter produced by Floating Mech City. This one¡¯s a lot easier to usepared to the balls. You know alchemy, right? Next time you see that Rein kid, tell him that I want all crystal balls reced. I¡¯ve been looking at them for thousands of years and I¡¯m so fed up,¡± Lady Mirrorined while putting mana into the transmitter.

    <i>Someone that governs the transmitters in the entire Brute Cavern? </i>Angor already realized who Lady Mirror was referring to by ¡°Rein Kid¡±. It had to be ¡®Silencer¡¯ Rein Mute, one of the most powerful figures in the south.

    Angor could only stay quiet at Lady Mirror¡¯sint. It was totally fine for her to address Mister Rein like that. But it did not mean that Angor himself could y along. He still remembered how a simple silencing aura produced by Rein easily muted the entire Phantom Ind.

    Lady Mirror found several pictures in the transmitter and showed them to Angor.

    Angor found the pictures somewhat clearer to observe in the square transmitter. His hologram tablet also had a square screen.

    But his ease was instantly reced by disgust when looking at the images. He could not fix his eyes on the content of the pictures at all because they were so... ridiculous!

    The first picture showed a brown-haireddy with elegantly-designed bubble skirt dancing around a feast, while all the other guests were nobles in their formal attire.

    There was nothing special about this one. In Angor¡¯s own view, thedy had to be someone¡¯s wife or a noble guest herself, judging from the conservative and constrained styles she was wearing.

    But Angor¡¯s face quickly turned red when looking at the second picture.

    ¡°This-this is-¡±

    Lady Mirror chuckled. ¡°How does it look?¡±

    Angor stuttered and could not make out aplete sentence.

    The ¡°nobledy¡± suddenly disyed a different manner in the second picture by flirting around all the gentlemen in a very explicit way, and it only looked like things would be worse from here.

    Angor looked away from the transmitter. ¡°I forgot to ask, why did you tell me about the Phantom of Festivity?¡±

    Lady Mirror smiled. ¡°Come on, check out thest picture. That one¡¯s the biggest st.¡±

    Angor turned his stiff neck back andplied.

    As he expected, thest picture was downright uneptable to look at.

    <i>A theater put on such an adult show in public? Performed by nobility?</i>

    Angor knew that there were a good number of noblemen who tended to lead an extravagant life. But a noble should always maintain two things in front of everyone: honor and baseline.

    A noble¡¯s baseline determined his or her identity, while ¡°honor¡± was something that they mostly regarded as important in public. Angor remembered how he heard a story about a viscount family in Waterford, where their horsekeeper and gardener fell in love with each other and had their love story exposed by ident. Usually, the love between two lowly servants was not anything serious. However, fearing that something could go wrong and ¡°dishonor¡± the family, the viscount still expelled them, along with their families.

    Such an overreaction proved that nobles valued their honor really badly.

    This opera though... showed noblemen doing filthy promiscuous action in broad daylight. How was something like this even allowed in a theater?

    Lady Mirror spoke against Angor¡¯s embarrassed silence. ¡°I mentioned the show because I find the opera quite creative.¡±

    <i>Creative?? </i>Angor would really like to lecture whoever it was about the standard of nobility if it was not Lady Mirror in front of him.

    ¡°I want my surprise to be something simr like Journey in Heaven, whichbined an illusion like the opera with a music piece. Can you do it?¡±

    Her tone did not sound like a question.

    Angor hesitated. His bad feeling had be a reality.

    Of course, he could make something like that, but...

    Angor took a deep breath and attempted to refuse in an indirect way. ¡°Making the item is no problem,dy. But I¡¯ve never seen¡ª¡±

    ¡°I told you to go watch the show, didn¡¯t I? You¡¯re going to Midnight Sovereign anyway, might as well broaden your view a little. I mean,e on, at least get some knowledge about how to do business with a girl, if you ever get your hands on one.¡±

    <i>But that¡¯s not the point here! </i>Angor blushed. ¡°I¡¯ve no, um, experience, so my illusion might seem off in a lot of ways.¡±

    Lady Mirror stroked Angor¡¯s cheek and silently eximed on the perfect quality of the boy¡¯s skin.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything about making those dirty scenes. I¡¯m only asking for an alchemy item simr to Journey in Heaven, which tells a meaningful story.¡±

    Angor was still stumped. How the heck did someone tell a ¡°meaningful story¡± by using horny men and uncontrolled women?

    Lady Mirror shook her head. ¡°The Phantom of Festivity might not have a good story in it, but you can learn something from it and make something else. I¡¯m not asking for the opera, but a simr story. Think this way: you can put some handsomes on your floating ind, or create a scene where a queen is getting crowned. Of course, there are always handsome men around queens, right? Or, you can use a piece of sad music in the illusion to tell people that the gentlemen are gonna be disappointed...¡±

    Angor kind of registered Lady Mirror¡¯s idea. She simply wanted something both distasteful and meaningful.

    ¡°Distasteful¡± meant having gentlemen with obvious intentions, and ¡°meaningful¡± meant they should not be TOO obvious.

    <i>How¡¯s that even possible?!</i>

    ¡°Can I just, add someone on the ind while ying City of Sky?¡±

    ¡°Let me see... no. The music doesn¡¯t go well with my ideal.¡±

    Angor asked ¡°Then what do you want me to do??¡± in his mind.

    Lady Mirror waved an arm nonchntly. ¡°Just get your own ideas and bring the final product to me. And keep making new ones until I say yes. I can wait. Consider my favor repaid once you have me satisfied.¡±

    Lady Mirror realized that she was being too harsh to a promising young man, so she decided to add something. ¡°If you can do it, I¡¯ll gift you a special destiny as a reward.¡±

    Angor had nothing to reject the request by now. He only nodded helplessly.

    While trying to think about possible ways to fulfill Lady Mirror¡¯s strange conditions, Angor asked a question, about which he would regret for the next half month.

    ¡°Can I use someone that exists in reality in the illusion?¡±

    Lady Mirror almost danced when hearing the question.

    ¡°Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m expecting from you! Such innovation!¡±

    <i>Innovation?! Where?</i>

    Lady Mirror moved closer to Angor again and spoke in a small voice, ¡°Have you ever witnessed your professor without his clothes on?¡±

    Angor¡¯s eyes widened in horror. He realized he just dug his own grave.

    ¡°No no no, never!¡± Angor quickly shook his head as madly as possible.

    ¡°Tsk. Pity. Give him clothes then. And I do trust that you¡¯ll create something real. You¡¯re his personal student, after all.¡±

    ¡°Can-can I use someone else?¡± Angor tried desperately.

    ¡°You can. Put yourself in there then. I¡¯d enjoy it. Aw, look at your hair, so adorable!¡± Lady Mirror covered her mouth and chuckled. ¡°Since you know full well of your own body, don¡¯t you dare cover yourself up.¡±

    ¡°Um, I think we should talk about how to make Professor Sunders more real.¡± Angor cleared his throat. ¡°I believe he is not going to mind this matter.¡±

    Lady Mirror grinned and carried a wooden basket to Angor with her mana.

    Angor saw several paper rolls inside the basket.

    ¡°These are portraits I received from Bolisa. You can have a look.¡±

 Chapter 252 - Regret

    <h4>Chapter 252: Regret</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>Bolisa...</i>

    Angor did not know who that was, but it had to be someone important since Lady Mirror would use his or her stuff.

    Angor picked one of the scrolls and spread it open.

    The portrait showed a short-hair man in a strange metal suit who stood in the air. A majestic mechanical city existed in the background.

    ¡°This is Guardian 37 from Harbor of Machines in Grand ne,¡± Lady Mirror exined. ¡°Cool guy, but he¡¯s a half-puppet.¡±

    Angor took out the next portrait, which showed another decent gentleman.

    Lady Mirror exined in the same anthomaniac manner, ¡°The Staff Wielder from Tower of Hurricane. He has such a charming voice too. Pity... he¡¯s only attracted to other dudes.¡±

    The third paper still had a man on it.

    ¡°The tinum Enforcer from Shoman ne. Someone already imed him. Ouch.¡±

    Angor kept on looking even though he already lost interest.

    Next was a red-haired man.

    ¡°Bog from Floating Mech City. A terrible pervert.¡±

    Another red-haired man.

    ¡°Thewis from Goman Kingdom. Looks rather handsome. He got a really bad temper, though.¡±

    <i>Thewis? </i>Angor looked at the picture again. The man in the portrait had bright red hair which flipped against the wind and in great contrast with the dark cape he was wearing.

    ¡°What, you know him?¡± Lady Mirror spoke.

    ¡°Yes,dy. I think someone by that name came to my homnd, the Old Earth. He went after a... certain criminal.¡±

    ¡°Criminal? Probably the ¡®Bloodied Stabber¡¯. The little girl stole the Crimson Crown, the very national treasure of Goman Kingdom. It was quite the big news back then,¡± Lady Mirror exined in a casual manner.

    Angor knew nothing about Thewis. He only heard it from Mara, that Thewis was pretty famous for his easy-to-trigger character, about which Lady Mirror just mentioned.

    Angor did not really want to check the remaining portraits now. He only did so since Lady Mirror asked him to.

    ¡°¡®Lord of Night¡¯ Moodick. He¡¯s always so grim.¡±

    ¡°This is the enforcer of Supreme Cult¡¯s Eastward Expedition Team. Now dead.¡±

    ¡°This... was how ¡®Light Walker¡¯ Gandolf looked like when he was still young. That man never took care of his looks, thus his current old face.¡±

    Every portrait in the basket described a handsome-looking man. And each time, Lady Mirror would leave a negativement.

    Angor even saw Sunders in there. Lady Mirror blushed when mentioning the gentleman, though she still ended herment with a ¡°but¡±.

    ¡°Sunders meets everything about the very man I dream about, but he always gives everyone the cold shoulder.¡±

    When Angor was finished with all the portraits, Lady Mirror gave him a conclusion. ¡°These men all have their own problems. But at the same time, their problems make them special. You see, Bog¡¯s just an average charmer if not for his extreme character. Moodick¡¯s always so dark, but it gives him charm.¡±

    Next, Lady Mirror grinned at Angor. ¡°So how about it? Can you ce them all inside an illusion?¡±

    Angor revealed a sad look. Every single man he just looked at was someone who led a legendary life over at least multiple centuries. If he made them into Lady Mirror¡¯s tool of pleasure and was found out... he did not want to imagine what would happen.

    He really wished he could travel back in time and prevent his former self from asking ¡°whether he could use real people¡±. It was stupid!

    ¡°Um,dy, if there are too many people in the illusion, you¡¯ll quickly develop Stendhal Syndrome if you stay in the illusion for too long. Let¡¯s just consider my professor. I know him better, so I can do a better job recreating him. I don¡¯t think I can make these people good enough just by looking at their pictures.¡±

    Angor was totally fine with ¡°selling his professor out¡± now. The worst thing that could happen was probably receiving several cold stares from Sunders. However, Angor had no clue what kind of bizarre reactions he would expect from other people.

    ¡°Stendhal... what the hell was that? I told you about the Phantom of Festivity because I¡¯m expecting something simr, like, a woman surrounded by wolves! Handsome wolves!¡± Lady Mirror began to lose patience. ¡°It¡¯s settled. Get every one of them into the illusion, or keep trying until I¡¯m good with it!¡±

    ¡°But I only have their pictures! I don¡¯t know about anything else about them...¡± Angor protested helplessly.

    ¡°Are you questioning Bolisa¡¯s expertise in painting?¡± Lady Mirror raised an eyebrow.

    Angor did not even know who ¡°Bolisa¡± was, and there was no way he could negativelyment on someone unknown, so he quickly shook his head.

    ¡°Wait...¡± Lady Mirror suddenly spoke again, ¡°Maybe you have a point. Bolisa has been studying oil painting in a mortal school for ten years, and she¡¯s still a repeater now. I can understand if she doesn¡¯t yet know how to express people properly.¡±

    Angor brightened up just a little. ¡°So...?¡±

    Could he avoid creating these terrible figures now?

    Lady Mirror pondered. ¡°s... I guess I¡¯ll have to lower my standard, just a bit. Okay, you can give these people new characters as you see fit, but the illusion must look real. It should be something like the floating ind that triggers my deep emotions, or I won¡¯t ept it.¡±

    Angor tried not to cry. It meant he still had to create all those people.

    ¡°We¡¯re done here. Give it to me when you seed,¡± Lady Mirror ordered Angor to leave.

    Angor could no longer find the courage to protest again. He tried tofort himself by considering the request as another illusion practice. He even thought about a title for the lesson: ¡°How to Give Emotions to Imaginary Characters¡±.

    But why would he need such a lesson?!

    He picked up the basket with a sad face and Lady Mirror teleported him away.

    Lady Mirror did him a small favor by sending him directly into the mirror world so that he did not have to go through the mirror again.

    Above, was what Angor went through in the past hour.

    Angor walked toward his vi in a trance. His entire mind was upied by ¡°distasteful elements¡± and ¡°real beings¡±. How could he achieve a bnce between them?

    ¡°Damn. Maybe my almighty tablet will save me again...¡± Angorforted himself. However, he did not believe Earth could provide something to help him with this.

    He was unaware that creators on Earth already developed many amazing ways to express the ¡°business¡± between men and women and make either films or novels to fully indicate vulgar culture in a realistic way while avoiding going over certain boundaries just right.

    Angor entered his house while sighing in frustration.

    The hanging clock told him that it was ten in the morning, and his airship would depart in four hours. He decided to put the troublesome matter aside until he was back from Twilight Well. Lady Mirror never gave him a deadline anyway.

    Since he had time to spare, Angor was going to find something proper to eat outside.

    And of course, he would not forget to bring Toby together. But again, he did not find Toby in the attic. The music box was also gone.

    He frowned. Did Toby go to the mysterious friend again? But he just told Toby to stay and get ready for the trip a while ago!

    Angor was determined to talk with Toby about the matter. At least he should find out who Toby was dealing with.

    For now, he had to go eat on his own.

    Angor went to Bartterfly Pub again, for he really liked the roast beef there. Besides, he had enough money to enjoy some extra-expensive meals.

    He came back again around noon, and Toby was still nowhere to be found.

    Angor sighed and sat in his garden to meditate.

    He enjoyed a good moment in the gentle breeze which carried the smell of his mistletoe tree. About an hourter, he finally heard a familiar sound of pping wingsing from the woods.

    He opened his eyes and looked toward the other side of the river.

    A green shadow dashed through the sky and glided into Angor¡¯s yard swiftly.

    When Tobynded on the tree, Angor noticed that Toby was dressed in another green skirt that he had never seen before. The skirt was weaved from soft vegetation vines. There were velvet-like fringes around the skirt shifting gently in the wind.

    Angor did not immediately mention his concern. ¡°You¡¯rete. Go and take some clothes to change on the road. We¡¯re leaving now.¡±

    Toby seemed a bit worried just a moment ago. However, he quickly perked up again when he realized Angor was not going to question where he went in the morning, and immediately dived into the attic window.

    A quarter hourter, Angor came to Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop with Toby.

    To prevent getting found out due to Baron Milk¡¯s ¡°prominence¡±, Angor ced Toby into his chest pocket. When looking from outside, people could only notice a small head poking out from the pocket, ncing around curiously.

    ¡°This way, Angor!¡± He saw Dave beckoning him from afar.

    Prome also appeared from the shop and nodded to Angor with a smile.

    ¡°Sorry foring sote, sir.¡± Angor returned the courtesy.

    It seemed Prome did not mind. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We have enough time.¡±

    ...

    The airport was located at Windmill Town.

    When he came herest time in the morning, Angor failed to notice another giant cave beside the entrance toward the mirror, where the airship was parked.

    The other end of the cave was the cliff of the mirror abyss. The airship could directly ascend to the sky from there.

    Angor had spent half a year inside the mirror world. Now that he was outside, he leaned on the guardrails of the ship and looked down at the familiar teau, as well as the giant gap through which the ship just emerged. This was where he followed Ness and jumped into the abyss, which led him into the real wizarding world for the first time.

    Despite the short interval, looking at the great wilderness which was Parmigi Hignds gave Angor a strange feeling, as if he had been cut off from civilization for ages.

 Chapter 253 - Failed Negotiation

    <h4>Chapter 253: Failed Negotiation</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The steam airship boomed across the sky, leaving a trail of ck smoke behind.

    Angor intended to enjoy the outside on the deck while thinking over his past life. But soon, the greasy smoke invaded the area, causing everyone who was out enjoying the fresh air to retreat inside.

    Prome returned to his own room, while Angor followed them back and stayed in the main hall to chat with Dave. They could see through the ss around the hall, and one direction was already taken over by the terrible pollution.

    Angor looked at the smoke outside and could still sense the sharp smell. Also, he was getting worried that the airship might scatter apart any moment, considering how the floor beneath his feet was trembling ominously.

    Dave noticed his look and chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the airship has always been like this. I mean the big smoke and terrible mobility with the engine always running wild... but nothing serious will happen.¡±

    ¡°The Savage was a lot better than this.¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°Well duh, The Savage was a customized ship we ordered from Floating Mech City while this one is just a private airship managed by some individual. The difference is huge.¡±

    Dave exined something else about the airship.

    It seemed that the airships parked in Windmill Town were mostly private ones. The one they were currently traveling on was owned by a level-3 apprentice, who nned to earn ticket money from the travelers. It could not go very fast, so it only chose the shortest routes.

    Dave pointed to the window. ¡°Look at them.¡±

    Angor looked his way and saw several people flying past the sky outside. Some of them were using spells, while some were sitting on different vehicles. There were also people on the ground traveling through the terrain on their familiar pets.

    ¡°Those who can do that will never use an airship,¡± said Dave. He sighed and continued, ¡°I guess I¡¯ll get a vehicle from the resource hallter. It¡¯s not that fast, but still better than a steam train. A vehicle can take us from Brute Cavern to Midnight Sovereign in less than a day.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to learn flying spells?¡±

    Dave shook his head. ¡°It calls for a lot of effort. I¡¯ll probably need some years if I start from zero. And the books are expensive too. I¡¯m not going for that before turning level-3.¡±

    ¡°But you can make your own vehicle, right?¡± Angor remembered Dave¡¯s flying propeller. ¡°Maybe you can create something really nice if you keep working on that flyer of yours.¡±

    Dave blushed for some reason.

    ¡°That¡¯s... too simple a machine. It can¡¯t carry people.¡±

    ¡°You should keep trying,¡± said Angor as he was also interested in doing something simr. However, it was mostly an ambition for now. He had to check out <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>first for something useful.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do that if I have enough time. But the Moonfrost Passage which leads to the outer Abyss ne will be closed in another three months. I need to get there before then, and I must buy a vehicle for that.¡±

    They spent some time chit-chatting over random things.

    Angor spoke, ¡°I stayed upte again yesterday and I haven¡¯t slept yet. I¡¯ll retire to my room. Let¡¯s talkter.¡±

    Dave nodded. ¡°Alright. Good luck sleeping in this terrible noise though.¡±

    Angor walked on unstable floors towards his room and felt a bit dizzy.

    Inside his cabin, Angor took Toby out from his pocket and ced the bird on his hand.

    Toby pped his wings and began to tidy his feathers. Angor helped Toby smoothen his feathers a little, and the small creature moaned in pleasure.

    ¡°Where¡¯s your music box?¡± Angor suddenly asked.

    He remembered that he did not see the item in the attic this morning, which meant Toby took it away.

    Yet Toby did not have the box with him when it came back at noon. Angor was waiting for a chance to ask about it. Now was a good time tomunicate with Toby about everything on Angor¡¯s mind.

    Toby froze up when hearing the question. Then he blinked innocently and pretended ¡°I can¡¯t understand anything¡± again.

    And whenever this happened, Angor could do nothing to get the bird to talk.

    Angor sighed. ¡°To realize my dream, I¡¯ve been spending every day on stuff that helps me with it. Meditation, alchemy, study... they almost take up all my time. I don¡¯t even have time to eat properly. You must feel bored around me, right? Hey, I¡¯m sorry for that... Lady Greya asked me to take good care of you, and I¡¯m kinda a failure.¡±

    Toby chirped once when hearing the name of Greya.

    Angor learned about the information that Greya was in trouble in Haunt World, and he had been keeping it a secret. For this reason, he always felt sorry for the bird. When he discovered that Toby did not listen to him in the morning, Angor did not me the bird so hard.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m d you can find some fun outside, and I¡¯ll not prevent you from making friends,¡± said Angor. He paused a little before continuing, ¡°But you should know, this ce is full of evil and bad guys. Almost all supernaturals only pursue personal gain. Even those that have not done any crimes might not be the kind type. You can¡¯t trust them just because they promise something.

    ¡°I won¡¯t worry about your safety since you know the sequence of gravity, but I¡¯m concerned that someone might use you to their advantage.¡±

    Toby kept his head lowered.

    Angor thought that his ¡°gentle talk¡± was working. ¡°You have no idea how cruel the human world can get. When we get back, show me who your new friend is and I¡¯ll help you find out more about him, alright?¡±

    Angor waited for an answer with a kind look.

    Toby lifted his head in the same innocent manner: <i>What are you talking about? I don¡¯t get it!</i>

    Angor groaned and copsed on the bed.

    ¡°Man. Do as you will then. I give you the music box and you¡¯re free to do whatever you want with it. Just throw it away or give it to people, I don¡¯t care. But remember not to easily trust someone, and stay safe.¡±

    Toby fluttered his wings and tweeted.

    ¡°You mean you only lent it to someone?¡± Angor understood Toby¡¯snguage.

    Toby nodded.

    ¡°And your little partner will return it when we get back?¡±

    Nod again.

    Angor did not say anything further. However, in truth, he was not really convinced. The music box was nothing too important, but it was still a piece of artwork which received highments from someone as powerful as Lady Mirror, which meant it at least held some value in this world.

    Would whoever get his hands on something valuable easily return it?

    Not likely.

    Still, Angor only nodded to Toby. ¡°d to hear that. I spent some good effort in making it, better get it back.¡±

    Angor made a new n that he would buy more Echo Flowers in Twilight Well, so he could make a new music box for Toby after the bird was disappointed by the ¡°hard truth¡±.

    Toby was Angor¡¯s best friend. Letting his best friend learned the way of the wizarding world by losing a music box was not a bad deal.

    And Angor would wait for Toby to discover the truth by himself instead of lecturing him right now.

    Theirmunication today was mostly a failure. However, Angor did not really mind. Some reasons were only learned through the hard way.

    Several hourster, the airship arrived at their destination when the skyline was dyed in red dusk.

    Angor managed to catch some sleep. He felt a lot better when walking off the airship.

    The airshipnded on a t area located in the middle of a gentle mountain slope. When leaving the airship, Angor trembled a little due to the cold outside.

    It was still summer, but the Parmigi Hignds was always shrouded in cold air. The slopes around the mountains were all covered in white.

    Angor saw several bunker-like structures with round tops scattered around the t ground. There were also two caves near the cliff and a railway running through them.

    Dave and Prome joined him.

    ¡°The train will get us to Midnight Sovereign in half an hour through that core tunnel. Let¡¯s wait a bit. The owner of the airship already contacted the train runners. A train will be here soon.¡±

    Soon enough, a trail of smoke appeared from one of the caves along with the sound of train wheels and steam whistle.

 Chapter 254 - A Flawed Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 254: A wed Illusion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The train dived deeper into thend, while its wheels nked against the metal railway with unchanging frequency. Apart from the asional candles along the tunnel which illuminated a small part of the walls, the tunnel waspletely dark.

    Half an hourter, the train entered a spacious area inside thend.

    Angor was very shocked at the amazing ce hidden under the surface. There were extending woonds, glittering river streams as well as wildlife running around. He could not see the edge of the ce at all. Actually, he would not believe that he was below the ground had he not gone through the tunnel.

    He poked his head out of a window and looked up. There was no ceiling in sight. The whole area was bright as day.

    ¡°There are nts up there that reached all the way to the surface, which transmit light to here. In the night, they can even bring stars and moonlight,¡± Prome eximed. ¡°The residents in Darkivil Empire are rough thanks to their nature, and you¡¯ll find many criminals gathering here who came from different nations. However, we must admit that the gods bestowed such a paradise to these underground folks.¡±

    The underground race a.k.a the Subterrians was another variation race of mankind. They were still considered humans but were not exactly the same beings.

    On the outside, Subterrians was a bit shorter than average humans. There were asional exceptions when a Subterrian would grow taller than two meters, but in general, they were smaller than homo sapiens and the Karabits.

    Just likemon people, Subterrians also came with different characters, such as kind ones or evil ones. However, most of them tended to have tough natures due to theck of resources underground.

    And Angor soon got to experience what it meant.

    It was obvious that the train was intended for supernaturals, and someone still went to steal on the train, who was then burnt to crisps by the offended apprentices.

    A mortal who dared to steal from supernatural was a rare sight. Most other mortals would keep a respectful distance.

    The train station sat in the northern suburbs of Midnight Sovereign. Angor saw the silhouette of the capital in the distance when getting off the train.

    The vast city held structures of different styles. From here, Angor could not see the boundary of the city. However, the Midnight Sovereign still seemed smaller than some of the biggest cities he saw in the Earth films.

    In this world though, it was one of the biggest cities in the southern region.

    Angor suddenly coughed when a sharp smell invaded his nostrils. He looked around and saw a steam boiler in the station releasing a greasy smoke trail into the air.

    He also noticed that there was a thickyer of dust collected on the nts nearby. Even the air looked a bit unclear under all the smoke.

    ¡°The air underground grew a lot worse ever since Evory built their railway into Midnight Sovereign. Mortals who keep the trains going have no choice but to pollute the air like this. So short-visioned,¡± Prome joined Angor and exined.

    ¡°But thanks to the traffic, it¡¯s easy for them to establish economic rtions,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°One of the obvious merits, yes,¡± said Prome. He pointed to the great city far away and said, ¡°Let¡¯s move. Wizards always cause unnecessary troubles among mortals. Let¡¯s go to Twilight Well as soon as possible. At least the air is better over there.¡±

    Just as Angor was wondering what ¡°trouble¡± meant, several people dressed in elegant attires rushed into the train station with children in their arms.

    Next, they went for anyone that looked like a supernatural and immediately knelt down.

    ¡°Please take my child, sir! Look at his skin! He¡¯ll definitely grow into a beauty! He can run errands for you!¡±

    Angor realized that these people all came looking for someone to take their children as students. But as he recalled, there were only level-2 apprentices or lesser people on the train aside from Prome. Those who studied under these people would probably never achieve anything good. More importantly, one could not just go find a teacher and be supernatural. It called for talent.

    However, mortals did not care. They only wanted their children to join a wizard so their families could enjoy fame and prosperity over several generations.

    This was the reason why wizards tended to stay low among mortals. Otherwise, something bothersome would always find them.

    Prome was naturally the center of attention with his bright robe. He sighed and prepared to chase them away. If not for Angor, Prome would have used his flying vehicle toe here so he would never get troubled by these mortals.

    Usually, when something simr happened, Prome would simply disy his power and blow the nuisance away with a spell. But ording to Dave, Angor preferred more gentle means, so Prome nned to deal with the mortals in a peaceful way this time.

    Prome put on his disy as a seasoned master and prepared to ept all the ttering first. Before it could happen, however, a giant explosion came from the boiler room.

    ¡°Huh, the boiler exploded?¡± Prome wondered.

    Everyone looked toward the source of the ruckus, including the mortal nobles.

    Thick smoke came flowing out from the boiler, covering the entire train station in a matter of seconds.

    ¡°Dammit. Cheap mortal shit,¡± Someone yelled in the smoke.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go already, under the smoke¡¯s cover.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t see the way! Lemme use something to clear it first... Hey, wait. That¡¯s no smoke. My spell didn¡¯t work.¡±

    Prome frowned and felt something wrong. Before he could look into it, someone patted him on the back.

    In the next second, all the smoke, noises, and blown boiler suddenly vanished. The air was still hazy, but nothing troubled their view.

    ¡°Man, Angor, next time you do an illusion, try to remind me earlier, alright? You always scare me,¡± said Dave as he joined them. ¡°I almost ran outside with everyone else if you didn¡¯t tell me otherwise.¡±

    Prome looked back and saw it was Angor who touched him.

    ¡°That¡¯s an illusion?¡± Prome finally realized what just happened. Now that he thought about it, the scene looked so wrong in many ways¡ªthe boiler would never produce so much smoke in such a short time.

    But the illusion still tricked him for a good moment!

    Prome stared at Angor, somewhat terrified of the boy¡¯s potential.

    ¡°Just a simple illusion so the nobles don¡¯t drag us down. Let¡¯s go,¡± said Angor as he nodded to Prome.

    The three of them left the station and heard someone who was left behind cursing loudly.

    ¡°This ain¡¯t real smoke!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fake! Someone used an illusion!¡±

    ¡°F*ck it! Who the hell did this shit?¡±

    ¡°Hey! How do you get rid of this thing? Shouldn¡¯t it go away after I discovered the truth? I can still see the smoke!¡±

    Dave looked back at all the level-2 apprentices stumbling inside the train station. He was startled as well when he realized Angor used something so simple to trap so many people who were of a higher level.

    He was d that Angor was his friend, or he would be wandering aimlessly in the illusion like everyone else.

    ¡°Um, what about those people?¡± Dave pointed to the confused apprentices.

    Angor shrugged. ¡°My illusion only covered so much area. They can always walk out of it, or they can wait for someone to discover the illusion nodes and break them.¡±

    ¡°But what about mortals?¡±

    ¡°I only used enough mana to sustain the illusion for five minutes. They can wait it out.¡±

    ¡°Good job you did there,¡± Promemented. ¡°If you go for the tower now, I believe you can reach the top without relying on your alchemy weapons or Toby.¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°People will get wary if I use illusions too much. I still need weapons topensate for myck of strength.¡±

    As they talked, Angor sensed that his illusion was breaking apart.

    ¡°Someone found the nodes,¡± Angor wondered who managed to break his illusion so fast. But on second thought, he should leave as fast as possible so no one learned that he was the ¡°culprit¡± behind this. ¡°Anyway, we should go.¡±

    Soon, a group of apprentices covered in dust rushed out of the train station furiously.

    ¡°Come on out, bitch! Whoever you are!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m so killing this bastard today!¡±

    Despite their yells, the ¡°criminal¡± was gone.

    Among the angry crowd, a woman wearing tree leaves as decorations spoke to herpanion. ¡°I think that was a Melodious Illusion... Didn¡¯t you learn something like that before?¡±

    ¡°It was. But whoever deployed the illusion was a lot better than me. He blocked our senses with some unknown effort. But he didn¡¯t keep doing it, or we¡¯d have a hard time escaping from the illusion.¡±

    The speaker was a woman who only wore a transparent silk veil and violet cloth which covered her breast and back door. ¡°It must be someone really talented in illusions. Not every illusionist can block our judgmental senses with such ease.¡±

    ¡°An Illusionist... You can find many illusionists among ultists. I wonder which master did that,¡± said the leaf woman with a tilt of her head.

    ¡°I smell no blood. He only used an illusion to get rid of the annoying mortals. Good job, I must say. He got rid of the flies, and gave a lesson to these arrogant apprentices.¡± The silk woman leaned on the shoulder of her beautifulpanion. ¡°Lady Daichese... you mentioned something about a strange treasure, right? May I check it out?¡±

    ¡°Daichese¡± shook her head. ¡°No way, Anna. I¡¯m going to use this thing to buy a ss of White Orchid Potion. The moment you see it, you¡¯ll try to steal it.¡±

    The woman in silk, Anna, curled her lips. ¡°Come on... What¡¯s so precious that I can¡¯t even take a look?¡±

 Chapter 255 - Phantom Servant

    <h4>Chapter 255: Phantom Servant</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Midnight Sovereign was one of the most flourishing cities there were to find.

    As Angor stepped into the city, he realized he was looking at a brand-new human creation.

    Unlike any other big cities that he had been to before, Midnight Sovereign allowed many different elements to co-exist within a rtively small area. For example, one of the mostmonly seen structures here was skywalk. Most streets in Midnight Sovereign were quite narrow. The sides of the streets werepacted with steel buildings, while the skywalks connected something else higher up. Despite their height, the solid designs of the skywalks and their flower decorations made them looked very safe.

    Angor recalled seeing simr structures in the films from Earth. Even Brute Cavern had paths between trees hanging in the air called sky bridges.

    The skywalks in Midnight Sovereign though were all too short to be called ¡°bridges¡±. They simply provided another path above people¡¯s heads to cross the streets, and they were notplex to build.

    Nevertheless, the city still took on another look when every corner of the city had these extra ways in midair.

    When watching ¡°A Man and a City¡±, Angor did not find single buildings attractive, no matter how strange their design was. But it was something different when the whole city was designed in a certain, creative style.

    This was the case in Midnight Sovereign. One or two skywalks were nothing impressive. However, Angor was looking at them stretched out in the city everywhere, built in different shapes and materials.

    asionally, people would appear on them and hang their clothes on the railings to dry them off. From a distance, all the clothes appeared like colorful festival gs decorating the city.

    Angor¡¯s first impression of the city was that it had to be a really lively ce full of the energy of civilization.

    However, when he moved deeper into the city, something else began to show up.

    His enthusiasm when visiting the giant city quickly became stale after he witnessed angry citizens fighting over trifle matters, more than one time.

    However, he kind of expected a race which was believed to be rough in nature to fight a lot. Angor never paid much attention to the conflicts along the way. He carefully followed behind Prome and headed toward Twilight Well.

    There were also other interesting elements in Midnight Sovereign.

    Asmonly believed, the Subterrian was the major resident in Darkivil Empire. Although Angor noticed many other different races who all shared strange looks, such as people with the heads of lions, pink-skinned dwarves, someone with tails or an extra toe on their feet... they more or less resembled humans.

    ¡°They¡¯re considered ¡®Humanoids¡¯, who are pretty distant from real humans,¡± Prome exined.

    ¡°I think there are Humanoids in other nes too. Are they the same with these people, sir?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°I... have no knowledge about that. But I assume they aren¡¯t the same thing. At least Humanoids in the wizarding world are allowed to study wizardry in certain ces even though the Supreme Cult would discriminate them. Those from other nes, on the other hand, are absolutely forbidden from our arts.¡±

    ¡°I heard that if creatures from other nes came to the wizarding world, the world¡¯s consciousness will repel them. Is it true?¡±

    ¡°It is. I once saw such a case. The creature was left with rotten blood and flesh in the end like a dried corpse... It was horrific.¡±

    ¡°Then... is there any way to prevent this?¡±

    Angor tried to pretend that he was simply curious. However, deep inside, he was getting really tensed up.

    He failed to get a chance to seek an answer from Sunders. Now that Prome was with him, Angor really hoped he could learn something.

    As Angor believed, Prome had to be very wise after spending his life in the wizarding world as a renowned alchemist all these years. However, his hope was met with greater disappointment.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. Why do you ask?¡± Prome¡¯s answer was quick.

    Angor forced a smile. ¡°Just curious, sir.¡±

    Prome did not seem concerned. ¡°There should be a method. Real wizards might know about it. We apprentices would never learn something like that.¡±

    Angor nodded and decided to stop here.

    When passing through a quiet alleyway, Angor suddenly felt a weight on his waist lifted. He looked down and noticed that his money pouch was gone.

    And there was no one else around.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Dave noticed Angor¡¯s unusual look.

    ¡°My wallet is gone.¡±

    ¡°You-Oh shit. Same here!¡± Dave yelled out before he couldment on Angor¡¯s misfortune.

    Dave¡¯s face immediately went pale. Angor only ced several magic crystals and one-use space capsules in his pouch. Most of his money was inside his bone card, which stayed with Toby in his chest pocket. Dave, however, had almost everything in his bag. Losing it was disastrous for him.

    ¡°They are still nearby,¡± said Angor. He acted quickly and ced a Grease spell on the ground.

    Someone suddenly eximed. ¡°Damn it! They¡¯re wizards!¡±

    A series of footprints appeared on the oil trail, giving the thief¡¯s location away.

    Angor prepared to capture whoever bothered them. Before he could, he saw Dave yelling in an exceptionally angered way. In the next second, something which gave out a metallic glitter appeared from Dave¡¯s finger and went for the thief.

    They could only see footprints right now. But Angor was confident that Dave¡¯s attack would hit whoever stood on the trail.

    It did not happen. The attack went through the air above the footprints without hitting anything.

    ¡°He has no body?¡± Angor pondered.

    Soon, Prome followed up by casting arge-scale Frost spell, covering the entire ce in white.

    The temperature visibly dropped around them. Judging from the slow movement of the footprints, the thief had to be affected.

    Prome already released his second attack. Several ice des went for the supposed position of the thief, which... missed again.

    ¡°Void Shift?¡± Prome frowned. ¡°No. Only a formal wizard can use that spell, and a formal wizard can obliterate us in no time instead of stealing.¡±

    The footprints were approaching the edge of the spell. Dave was so worried that he was about to cry now.

    Angor lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers. A blizzard-themed illusion soon came into being based on the Frost spell used by Prome.

    Then, Angor dragged Dave and Prome away from his illusion.

    ¡°He¡¯s trapped. I think he can avoid single attacks using something simr to Void Shift. See, when your attacks missed, the footprints vanished for just a second, and reappeared soon. I guess that whatever he¡¯s using cannotst very long. We can get him with continuous attacks.¡±

    Dave understood Angor¡¯s words and immediately prepared another spell.

    Angor pressed Dave¡¯s hand down. ¡°No need to waste mana. He¡¯s not getting away from the illusion. Just wait, and Master Prome¡¯s Frost will drain his strength.¡±

    Just as he said, it was not long before they heard someone crying in a weak voice.

    ¡°For-forgive me, my good sirs. I¡¯ll return your wallets. Please spare my life.¡±

    Two money pouches appeared on the ground.

    Angor pulled them closer with Hand of Spell. Dave inspected his bag and made sure everything was still inside before he sighed in relief.

    The culprit still had not shown himself. He only begged them to cancel their spells as soon as they could.

    No one listened to him.

    About five minutester, a figure covered in robe materialized in the air and copsed.

    ¡°He¡¯s frozen stiff,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Finally, you filthy thief. Anyst words?¡± Dave stomped to the figure and flipped him over to check his face.

    Dave was going to finish off the offender, but his hand stopped in the air.

    Angor and Prome joined Dave to check what was going on.

    ¡°A kid? But he didn¡¯t sound like one,¡± said Angor as he looked at the pale face of the thief and noticed that it was someone pretty young. Probably younger than Sailum. Seven or eight, at best.

    Dave hesitated when looking at the kid¡¯s face. He might be stingy before, but he worked together with Angor for long enough to learn kindness.

    At least Dave was not going to ughter a kid with his own hands.

    Dave struggled with his mind for a while and sighed in the end. He dragged the thief away from the frozen grounds by the cor.

    ¡°Well, we get our wallets back. Now he has to make it away on his own.¡±

    Despite his decision, Dave never intended to help the thief. He left the kid against a wall and prepared to leave.

    ¡°You know, sometimes little kids are more terrible than adults,¡± Prome suddenly spoke.

    ¡°Because they¡¯ve no idea about what¡¯s right and wrong,¡± said Angor as he picked up from Prome¡¯s speech. ¡°When a kid decides tomit a crime, it means pure, sheer malice.¡±

    Angor did not really care about the difference between ¡°pure evil¡± and other types ofplicated emotions. The only thing that mattered was whether something affected him personally.

    Angor gave the small thief a final nce and suddenly noticed a strange-looking pattern on the kid¡¯s neck.

    He moved closer to inspect it carefully. ¡°This is...¡±

    He saw something simr before. The masks of Phantom Servants also had simr patterns on them.

    ¡°Phantom Servant,¡± Prome saw Angor¡¯s question and exined. ¡°And he has a talent ability too.¡±

    Prome¡¯s revealed an uncertain expression. ¡°Phantom Servants are native to Darkivil Empire. Thanks to their natural abilities, they usually hold important positions in the nation. Why would a Phantom Servant kid end up as a thief?¡±

 Chapter 256 - Twilight Well

    <h4>Chapter 256: Twilight Well</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°That must be why he managed to dodge our attacks. He was born with an ability that works like Void Shift,¡± said Prome as he felt a little jealous. ¡°Such a gift... If he can be a wizard, the ability means an extra formal spell. A Quickened Spell, at that, which didn¡¯t cost him anything to learn.¡±

    Angor quickly thought about someone else who possessed a ¡°natural ability¡±, Dripping River.

    The woman knew how to change the property of water by nature. The ability was as powerful as what the thief just showed them. Maybe even more useful. Besides, Dripping River was already a talent among wizards. What she could achieve in the future was unpredictable.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. Thank goodness we have our money back, or I¡¯m so shredding him to pieces. I don¡¯t care if he¡¯s a kid or old man or pregnant,¡± Dave scoffed. He felt like giving the kid several hard ps when thinking about how he almost lost all his precious possessions.

    Prome considered for a while and picked the frozen body of the kid up.

    ¡°Are you taking him away, Master?¡± Dave wondered.

    Prome nodded. ¡°A Phantom Servant is a born ve for wizards. If he¡¯s going to stay as a thief, he might as welle with me. I might gift him to another wizard or keep him with me. Either way, he¡¯d have a better life.¡±

    In truth, Prome was thinking about doing experiments on the kid to learn something about that natural ability. At the very least, he could extract the kid¡¯s bloodline and earn a good fortune out of it.

    He would never tell that to anyone though. Prome still wanted to give Angor a good impression.

    And Angor trusted Prome¡¯s words just fine. Angor did felt it weird, but he then convinced himself that being someone¡¯s ve was still better than thievery. The thief was still young, and he had plenty of time to mend his ways.

    Prome took the Phantom Servant child in his arms. Then they continued walking toward Twilight Well.

    Not long after they had left, another Phantom Servant wearing elegant attire appeared with a group of hired hands.

    The leader of them sniffed the air. ¡°That brat was here just a moment ago... He couldn¡¯t have gone far-acho!¡± He sneezed all of a sudden. ¡°Why is it so cold here?¡±

    One of the thugs spoke up, ¡°Please check under you, Master.¡±

    The Phantom Servant had his head high in the air in an arrogant manner, so he never looked at what was on the ground.

    ¡°Oh shit, why is this ce frozen? Wait... so a wizard was here! Dang it, did the wizard take that brat away?¡±

    He quickly ordered his men to look around. There was only one person left with him, the one that reminded him to look at the ground.

    p!

    The Phantom Servant nobleman hit the face of his follower.

    ¡°Did you mean I was blind just now?¡±

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t, Master,¡± said the thug in a low voice as he put a hand on his face.

    ¡°Humph!¡± The noble walked away. ¡°I¡¯ll let it pass this time. Mock me again and you¡¯ll be dead!¡±

    ¡°But where are you going, Master?¡±

    ¡°To report to my father. It¡¯s about the deal with Lady Lotus. I want nothing to go wrong.¡± The voice of the phantom noble already went far.

    ¡°But, Master!¡± Theckey called again.

    ¡°What is it this time?? You still not done?¡±

    Theckey gulped and could not express his mind for some reason.

    The noble humped again and turned to leave. However, he only got several steps before he tripped and fell down face-first.

    ¡°I want to remind you to check the floor again... you¡¯re walking toward the ice, sir.¡±

    ...

    ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± Prome spoke and pointed to a white wall in front of them.

    They were now standing at the dead end of a narrow street. There were junks piled high up nearby, which almost reached the skywalk. A white wall blocked their path, behind which stood a giant, square-shaped steel building.

    ¡°Is that Twilight Well?¡± Angor looked toward the other side of the wall.

    Dave shook his head. ¡°The wall is our entrance. Most wizard markets do not stay in broad daylight. They are usually inside special dimensions. I think it¡¯s only a theater over that wall.¡±

    ¡°The Enchanting Theater. A... beautiful ce,¡± Prome added with a mysterious smile.

    <i>Enchanting Theater? </i>Angor looked at the giant building again.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just say that they put on pretty, how do I put it... yeah, ¡®pretty¡¯ shows. I think you two are at the right age now, so you can check the ce out when you have time. For now, let¡¯s go to Twilight Well. I really need to find that anti-undead weapon,¡± said Prome as he walked to the wall and exined to Angor. ¡°Use your spirit feelers to touch the wall and you¡¯ll see the entrance.¡±

    Prome moved ahead and disappeared into the wall.

    ¡°I think there¡¯s an illusion on it...¡± Angor pondered and followed behind Dave.

    Angor walked through the wall and found himselfing into a bustling street.

    People here all dressed in different styles although there was somethingmon; they all disyed faint mana ripples around them as a warning for potential offenders. The shops along the street were all wizardry shops. Angor saw a stand selling magical nts to his left, which had a sign he could not read. On the right was another shop whose door was covered by a ck curtain. The name of the shop read ¡°Curious Grocery¡±. To their front was a three-way junction, where another building called ¡°Lady¡¯s Juice¡± stood. A small sign indicated that the shop was run by the branch of an organization called ¡°The Pleasure House¡±.

    Every single shop had magic array shining around it to avoid being peeked upon from outside as well as attract interested customers.

    As they moved further, Angor noticed that the whole ce shared a simr style with Midnight Sovereign¡ªthe streets were narrow and congested, so they could not see very far. Only the asional cooking smokes suggested there might be dining spots nearby.

    Every now and then, they would run into a well which released a faint red light of the color of dusk. Prome told Angor that the wells were branching nodes of arge-scale magic array in Twilight Well, which were used to monitor the market. There were several wizard ns behind the management of Twilight Well who were responsible to maintain order in the ce.

    Prome took them into a structure whose door had the emblem of a giant tree on it.

    ¡°This is an operational base of Brute Cavern. We can find rooms in here for free with our bone cards. Ordinary rooms, of course. If you pay money, you can rent a smallpound protected by magic arrays,¡± Prome exined to Angor while smiling. ¡°I¡¯ve rented such one over here since I often need toe here to pick up goods. We¡¯re only staying for a couple of days. You cane with me so you don¡¯t have to get another room.¡±

    Angor pondered and agreed. He had no reason to refuse Prome¡¯s hospitality.

    Prome smiled bigger. ¡°Just about right. I¡¯ve taken some alchemy notes these days. We can exchange something useful about what we learned.¡±

    Angor was d toply. Prome did not seem interested in enchantment at all, while Angor intended to study synthesis in the future. Here, ¡°exchange ideas¡± basically meant to learn something from Prome, and Angor would not give up such a great opportunity.

    Angor already knew why Prome acted so friendly around him. He did not mind it though. He found an exchange of pure benefit to be better than emotionalmunication. Besides, Prome once saved his life, and he meant to remember it even if Prome had his personal reasons.

    Prome¡¯spound was not big. It was a private area of a simr size to Angor¡¯s vi. There was also arge basement which was used as a stockpile area by Prome. However, there were only less-important materials here. Prome already sent the valuable ones back to Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Sigh... I hope I have space storage so I can get these things back quickly instead of running back and forth,¡± said Prome. ¡°If you find anything you need, just take it, so I have less stuff to worry about.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be d to,¡± said Angor with a smile.

    ¡°Good. Take as much as you can carry. All of them, if you really can.¡± Prome waved an arm and acted all rich.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really need expensive items. Some Echo Flowers will do.¡±

    An Echo Flower was pretty cheap material, and Angor would not feel shameful if he took something like that for free.

    ¡°Echo Flower? I... am afraid I don¡¯t have those here.¡± Prome was a bit embarrassed. ¡°There aren¡¯t many things you can do with them, and they can only record a certain frequency range. You can¡¯t create sound weapons with those. The mostmon thing that requires the use of an Echo Flower is a transmitter.¡±

    ¡°I see. I think I¡¯ll check at the other shopster,¡± Angor replied.

    With their amodation settled, Prome hurried away to search for his weapon. Angor nned to look around as well. But then, he realized that it was toote for the day, and he only slept briefly on the airship, so he decided toy his head down for now.

    Angor and Dave shared two rooms on the second floor. When going back to his room, Angor saw Dave caring for the Phantom Servant child.

    ¡°Ohh, I see you¡¯re pretty soft on the inside,¡± Angor leaned on Dave¡¯s door and joked.

    Dave revealed a sad face. ¡°I didn¡¯t want this! Master asked me to, so the kid doesn¡¯t die of cold.¡±

    ¡°Give him something to stay warm and leave him there. Do you really need to stay at his side at all times?¡±

    ¡°Because of that weird ability of his. I¡¯m worried that he might escape the moment he finds a chance.¡± Dave was really frustrated. It would be a real joke if an apprentice wizard let a mortal kid slip under his nose.

    ¡°I see. Here, I¡¯ll help you,¡± Angor walked inside the room and skillfully deployed a simple illusion.

    The scenery in the room began to flip upside-down.

    Dave was looking at Angor in the meantime, and he was still quite shocked when the illusion was made. It felt as if he was doing a handstand in the room.

    ¡°Is that even a basic illusion? I don¡¯t feel pressure in my head, or I¡¯d easily fall for that,¡± Dave eximed.

    ¡°It is. I simply did something to trick your sense of direction. If that kid wakes up now, he¡¯d never leave this room when he can¡¯t tell up from down.¡±

    ¡°Trick my sense of direction? A basic illusion?? That¡¯s not what I read from the books.¡±

    Angor knuckled at his head and chuckled. ¡°I gained many new ideas recently so I know how to make interesting things work.¡±

    Next, Angor moved to Dave to help him escape from the illusion. However, Dave refused.

    ¡°Wait, I¡¯ll try to get out on my own. I mean, Melodious Illusion¡¯s just a level-0 cantrip!¡± Dave seemed unconvinced.

    ¡°Suit yourself then,¡± Angor yawned. ¡°I¡¯ll hit the bed now. That was a lot of traveling today.¡±

 Chapter 257 - Balance

    <h4>Chapter 257: Bnce</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The night was not peaceful. Angor could not sleep well because he was always troubled by noises of someone yelling or things being smashed.

    Angor climbed up from his bed with sleepy eyes the next morning. He nned to sleep a bit more, but he was prevented by someone screaming madly next door¡ªthe Phantom Servant child.

    Toby was chirping loudly on his bedstand. Anyone else here would find the bird terribly bothersome, although Angor knew that Toby was only singing the City of Sky in a really bad way, due to theck of musical senses.

    Angor helped Toby changed into a fisherman suit and smoothened his feathers. ¡°There are a lot of wizards attending the fair, so don¡¯t go wander off this time. Stay inside Prome¡¯s yard, alright?¡±

    Toby nodded.

    Angor spent some time getting washed, then went to Dave¡¯s room. He could still sense the illusion he deployed yesterday, and the Phantom Servant child was still yelling.

    ¡°Good morning, Angor.¡± Dave showed up, also yawning badly.

    ¡°Morning,¡± Angor replied in a somewhat fatigued way, despite his best effort to psych up in the bathroom.

    Dave tilted his head to the kid¡¯s room. ¡°It took me half an hour to figure out how to get out. And only because you already told me about tricking my directions. I had to close my eyes and imagine the room to find out the door located on the ceiling inside the illusion.¡±

    ¡°Or you can just punch a hole on the wall to get out. My illusion¡¯s pretty small. We can patch up the wall for Master Prometer.¡±

    ¡°... Right! How could I not know it? And I burned my brain cells just to redraw the room in my mind...¡±

    Angor pointed toward the room from which the scream of the child was stilling out. ¡°So did you learn anything from him?¡±

    Dave scoffed, ¡°I should¡¯ve killed him yesterday. The bastard tricked me.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s no kid. Just listen to his voice. That sounds like a kid to you?¡± Dave looked pretty agitated. ¡°He woke up in the middle of the night and didn¡¯t stop screaming ever since. I tried to ask him questions from outside the door, and man, his lips are tight. He told me something in the end, probably because he can¡¯t withstand your illusion anymore.¡±

    They chatted while walking downstairs. ¡°He seems like an eight-year-old kid, right? No! He¡¯s 18. He said something about his growth stopped when he reached the age of seven when his ability awoke. He didn¡¯t tell me his name, nor the reason why he started stealing. But he mentioned someone that he has to find.¡±

    Dave punched the air. ¡°An 18-year-old, grown-up asshole! I should really...¡±

    They came to the kitchen and Angor started to prepare their meal while Dave was still cursing the Phantom Servant.

    Angor sliced some pancake and found some milk, somewhat unfocused at his task. He was thinking about Dave¡¯s words.

    <i>So the Phantom Servant child-no, Phantom Servant young man, didn¡¯t grow in the body since the age of seven.</i>

    Angor recalled that Sunders once mentioned something about how ¡°not everyone with special powers is favored by this world¡±.

    Angor began to understand Sunders¡¯ words now. Dripping River tended to fall asleep a lot, and now this Phantom Servant was left with a child¡¯s body forever... This could also be the very basic rule in the wizarding world¡ªequivalent exchange. Something unknown out there always maintained such a rule. If someone gained something, he or she had to lose something in return. And sometimes this was not optional.

    The Phantom Servant probably did not have a choice when he gained the ability of ¡°Void Shift¡± in exchange for his future growth.

    At least Angor would not ept an exchange like that. Growth on the body was necessary as it brought many new forms of development in one¡¯s life. It was evolution.

    Despite his real age, the Phantom Servant still seemed like a kid, both body and mind.

    To Angor, gaining a natural ability at the cost of body growth was a really bad deal. A Peter Pan might gain sympathy from mortals, but his talent would not help him survive in the brutal wizarding world. Besides, this was Midnight Sovereign, the home of merciless criminals.

    Angor and Dave finished their meal and put the matter of the Phantom Servant behind. They still had their own business to attend to.

    Angor was going to search for materials outside, while Dave went into the basement to arrange things to be taken back to Brute Cavern.

    Again, Angor took Toby by cing him inside his chest pocket in afortable position. Toby would not refuse the chance to take it easy in the warmth of his young master.

    At the entrance of the base, Angor saw Prome returning with a frustrated look.

    Prome did note back thest night. His expression suggested that his search went in vain.

    Angor went to greet Prome, who proved his assumption.

    ¡°I checked every alchemy shop in Twilight Well, as well as several private meetings. Nothing. There are weapons for closebats, but not long-range ones. And none of the melee weapons will satisfy my friend.¡±

    Prome sighed helplessly. ¡°Looks like I must rely on Twilight Auction... although I¡¯m not expecting anything from it.¡±

    ¡°Have faith, sir, we¡¯ll find something,¡± said Angor as heforted him.

    He was going to draw Prelude to Elimination anyway, Angor thought to himself.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so.¡± Prome forced a bitter smile. ¡°So, are you going to buy materials? Want me toe with you? Some of the alchemy shops are hidden from in sight, so you need someone to guide you there. They always sell better things.¡±

    Angor looked at Prome¡¯s tired look and shook his head. ¡°I only need cheap materials such as Echo Flowers. Besides, I need to save money to attend the auction this evening.¡±

    ¡°I see. Then I¡¯ll show you to those shops tomorrow,¡± said Prome with a grin. ¡°You can go hire mortals in Midnight Sovereign if you have a lot of things to carry.¡±

    ¡°Mortals can enter Twilight Well too?¡±

    ¡°Yes, if a wizard is with them. When their job¡¯s done, they¡¯ll forget almost everything that happened in here as if it was a dream.¡±

    ¡°Wow. Wizardry never ceases to amaze.¡±

    Angor bid farewell to Prome and entered another path on his own.

    Prome watched Angor¡¯s back with a meaningful look until the boy disappeared from sight.

    ...

    Nobility houses gathered near the center of Midnight Sovereign.

    Inside a luxurious manor near the pce, a young man walked inside with his head lifted high proudly. An aged butler led him into a study of the family.

    ¡°Why are you here? You found Hobbiton yet?¡± A middle-aged Phantom Servant inside the study spoke. This man shared a simr look with the young man who just came in.

    ¡°Father, I found his smell in a small alley, but a wizard took him away.¡± The young man lowered his head when speaking to his father.

    ¡°A wizard? Do tell me.¡±

    The young man described what he saw at the scene.

    ¡°It was a spell called Frost. And whoever did it was still a mere apprentice. You don¡¯t find real wizards often.¡±

    ¡°But apprentices are still someone we can¡¯t offend,¡± the young manmented.

    ¡°Lady Lotus wants Hobbiton. If we can¡¯t bring Hobbiton to her, a real wizard will send her fury upon us and burn the whole family to the ground.¡± The middle-aged servant sighed.

    They were in an awkward condition where they had to offend the lesser of the two evils.

    The bane of being Phantom Servants.

    ¡°You keep looking for Hobbiton. Lady Lotus will arrive in half a month. I shall tell her about the situation by then. Let¡¯s hope she can forgive us considering all the tributes we offered before.¡±

    ...

    Angor followed the path he went yesterday and entered Midnight Sovereign again.

    ording to Prome, he could buy manpower from anyone he wanted, be it children, women or the old, as long as he paid enough money.

    He did not see anyone around the hidden entrance. He only heard the noise of crowds gatheringing from the other side of the wall.

    The Enchanting Theater.

 Chapter 258 - Enchanting Theater

    <h4>Chapter 258: Enchanting Theater</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The opera ¡°Phantom of Festivity¡± was a repertoire of the theater. Angor already knew that the opera was about dirty stuff, but he still nned to go have a look. Lady Mirror¡¯s words were probably both a joke and a sincere suggestion.

    ¡°Ahem... I guess I¡¯ll observe the show in the view of a schr.¡±

    With the decision made, Angor climbed onto the junk boxes nearby and leaped over the wall.

    The first thing he saw was a dense crowd moving toward the entrance of the theater.

    Angor tidied up his clothes a little and joined them.

    He was wearing a typical gentleman style. Every trim and corner on him was carefully managed, which gave Angor the look of a cultivated young child born to an ancient patrician family.

    And his looks made him really stood out among themon folks. Usually, people would avoid someone like Angor just to avoid potential troubles. But here, in the capital of Darkivil Empire, which was home to the tough-natured Subterrians and escaped criminals from different nations, people already developed apletely different way of life. Instead of avoiding him, a number of people began to move closer with their eyes looking left and right with unknown intents.

    Angor had barely moved a hundred meters before he already chased off several thugs who tried to steal from him. The shameless figures only smiled apologetically and stepped back when they were found out instead of running away.

    Angor spread his spirit feelers after them and noticed all the rogues retreating behind a tree and reporting to a young-looking woman.

    It was obvious that this woman was their leader.

    A woman was the gang leader! Angor realized that he should never underestimate females in Midnight Sovereign. It also exined to him why there were only guys who came after his wallet.

    The area near the entrance of the theater was too crowded for Angor to see anything. When he nned to use his spirit feelers to check the area again, a gentle voice suddenly came directing at him.

    ¡°Hello, young handsome boy. Do you want to watch the Phantom of Festivity tomorrow evening?¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow evening?¡± Angor looked back and saw the gang leader came herself.

    He could not get a good look at her just by using spirit feelers. Now he had a chance, he realized the woman looked pretty decent.

    Orange wavy hair, small and exquisite face, brown, tender pupils and unveiled skin exposed under her hot pants... She had what it took to charm any unwary man easily.

    And Angor would not have believed someone so beautiful to be a thief if not for his previous observation.

    ¡°You¡¯re not from Midnight Sovereign, I assume?¡± The woman giggled in a seductive manner. ¡°It¡¯s a grand y offered by Enchanting Theater. They only do it twice each year; one around midyear, and one at the end. See all these people? They¡¯re all here for a ticket.¡±

    Angor nodded. It seemed the y was arranged together with the grand auction. Also, he sensed mana ripplesing from many of the patrons.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded and pretended a in attitude.

    ¡°So, little handsome boy, are you here to watch it?¡± The woman reached a finger toward Angor¡¯s chest.

    Angor frowned. He already felt Toby getting restless. If the womannded her finger on his chest, something painful would probably happen.

    He moved away from the woman and maintained his indifferent look. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m thinking about it.¡±

    The woman squinted her eyes. ¡°The show is better when watched with someone. How about I join you and make it a lot more ¡®enjoyable¡¯?¡±

    Angor revealed an innocent look. ¡°Who are you anyway? Why are you doing this?¡±

    ¡°I quite adore your good look, little one, so I want to befriend you.¡± The woman winked. ¡°I¡¯m Ananda. The guard captain of the city is my father, so don¡¯t worry about me doing funny things.¡±

    Angor did not believe a single word of it. He got the feeling that this woman wanted more than money from him.

    ¡°Are you here by yourself, young handsome boy? Let me be your local tour guide and show you around the beautiful city.¡±

    When Angor did not respond, the woman reached an arm again to try and take Angor¡¯s.

    At the same time, Angor registered someone sneaking behind him with his spirit feelers. This thief had his gaze on the money pouch hanging on his waist.

    ¡°Teamwork, huh?¡± Angor sneered in his mind. He was wondering why so many people in Midnight Sovereign enjoyed theft so much. Were there no proper jobs to do?

    Angor released his invisible Hand of Spell which caught the approaching thief by the ankle, causing the man to fall down with a loud ¡°Ouch¡±.

    Angor looked around ¡°in surprise¡± while trying to shake off Ananda¡¯s arm which already got his arm. To his surprise, Ananda¡¯s grip was pretty strong.

    Ananda also saw the embarrassment of her subordinate and clenched her teeth inconspicuously.

    Angor noticed Ananda¡¯s above-average strength and got a new idea. He smiled big at her.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really need a tour guide. I just came to buy something. I see you¡¯re pretty strong. How about you help me carry things?¡±

    Ananda was taken aback a little. Did a guy just ask a woman to be his carrier on the street?

    ¡°Did you lost your-¡± Ananda tried to protest, but she swallowed her words back when she saw two gold coins on Angor¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll pay you.¡±

    Ananda quickly amended her speech while nodding madly. ¡°Help with carrying? Leave it to me! I didn¡¯t earn my title in Midnight Sovereign as ¡®Ananda the Armstrong¡¯ for nothing.¡±

    ¡°Well, you only have to find a cart and help me drag it,¡± Angor pointed to a tree nearby and smiled at the woman. ¡°Wait for me behind that tree.¡±

    Ananda looked that way and panicked a little. That was the same tree she was hiding behind a while ago.

    ¡°I... I think I¡¯ll just stay by your side, boy.¡±

    Ananda saw the kid jumped over the wall and always kept her attention. At that time, she was sure the kid did not notice her unless he could see through the back of his head.

    Angor kept smiling. ¡°Alright, you stay here. Ask your man to help me buy a ticket, okay?¡±

    Angor took out two gold coins and tossed them to the thug on the ground, who was now bleeding from the nose. Before the thug could realize what happened, Angor signaled Ananda to leave the crowds.

    ¡°What... do you mean?¡± Ananda gulped and stuttered.

    ¡°Geez. You don¡¯t make a good leader, do you? Come on, I yed my part. Shouldn¡¯t you summon yourckeys to take me down, so I can beat you all up into submission? Follow the script already,¡± said Angor as he stared at the thug who was still spacing out. ¡°Get your butt in line. I¡¯ll be pretty angry if you don¡¯t get me a ticket!¡± Angor used Hand of Spell to pick the thug up and tossed him into the crowd. He avoided bothering anyone with mana ripples by throwing the thug somewhere less-upied.

    His spell still drew attention. However, none of the supernaturals directed hostility to him. They all smiled at him with the look of ¡°mutual understanding¡±.

    A middle-aged apprentice witch winked at him and sent him a message, ¡°How about we spend tomorrow together and ¡®discuss¡¯ the show?¡±

    Angor did not know how to transmit voice yet, so he could only wave a hand at the witch awkwardly who then rolled her eyes.

    ¡°You... you¡¯re a wizard?¡± Ananda saw her man flying away for no reason and quickly realized something. She stared at the boy beside her in shock.

    Angor nodded nonchntly. ¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll go on a shopping spree once I get the ticket from your man. You¡¯ll be busy. Trust me.¡±

    ...

    Angor expected Ananda to act more carefully after the incident. But he was wrong¡ªAnanda began whispering all sorts of questions into his ear, like ¡°Can I be a wizard, sir?¡±, ¡°What should I do to be one?¡±, and ¡°Can you be my teacher if I help you warm your sheet?¡±

    Angor lost patience in the end. ¡°Shut it. One more question and I¡¯ll kill you.¡±

    Anandaplied and kept on looking at Angor with an innocent look.

    Angor sessfully received a ticket for the opera and went back to Twilight Well, during which Ananda kept giving him meaningful stares. But she did not say anything again.

    And Angor dly enjoyed the brief moment of peace.

    He also noticed Ananda ncing around Twilight Well joyfully as if she was trying to remember every detail she saw.

    Pity, she was going to forget everything when she left.

    With a hired carrier, Angor began searching around different shops.

    He started from the most basic materials ording to his needs. Echo Flowers, Magic Bellflowers, Moon Brew, Scorpion Wort, scales of Bear Butterflies... Some of them were already on his shopping list, while others were his new choices once he saw their properties.

    The first shop already filled almost half of their cart.

    Several hourster, a pile of goods had formed on the cart which included nts, minerals, jars, and pots. Ananda thought Angor would stop here since the cart was filled. To her surprise, he saw Angor taking out a strange capsule and when he opened it up, a good number of the materials were all sucked inside.

    ¡°Let¡¯s keep going!¡± Angor seemed pretty satisfied.

    Ananda was not sure what she just saw. Was that something that could help people carry stuff? Why did the kid not use it earlier?

    Angor followed his carefully-made n when going through the shops. There were materials for the music box, an Energy Stabilizer, supplement materials for a space storage, and so on. Every time he entered a shop, he immediately knew what to buy.

    Some of the shopkeepers tried to figure out what Angor wanted to make. However, they all gave up when they saw Angor purchasing various stuff for a lot of different things.

    By lunchtime, Angor had filled up five of his one-use space capsules.

 Chapter 259 - Hobbiton

    <h4>Chapter 259: Hobbiton</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor was in a very good mood after finding many useful materials at cheap prices. By lunchtime, he did not mind answering several of Ananda¡¯s questions, the most important one being ¡°How to be a wizard¡±.

    ¡°First and foremost, you must possess talent.¡±

    Angor did not exin what exactly it meant. He told Ananda that one should show a spiritual power indicator of above 10, or there would be no hope at all.

    ¡°Am I talented?¡± Ananda asked eagerly.

    Angor shook his head which caused Ananda to immediately felt despair over it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t read people¡¯s spirit levels yet, and I don¡¯t have a testing item on me.¡±

    Ananda perked up upon realizing what Angor really meant.

    As Angor finished his meal, Ananda asked another question out of instinct, and she would be d she did this in theing future.

    ¡°Can someone born without talent do something to be a wizard?¡±

    Any other apprentices who heard this question would probably give her a vague and inurate question to discourage her. Angor, however, still had his Potion of Austere Night saved for his brother Leon, as well as the knowledge about the strange wall in Nightmare Realm which could power-up one¡¯s spirit, so Angor more or less believed that there were many ways to raise someone¡¯s spirit power.

    ¡°There¡¯s something to get your spiritual power indicator over 10 if you¡¯re lucky. For example, drinking a ss of Potion of Austere Night can increase it by two right away.¡±

    Ananda tried to remember that one as best as possible. She even took some colored soup on her fingers and wrote the words ¡°Potion of Austere Night¡± on her jacket. Angor did not try to stop her.

    More shopping in the afternoon.

    Angor had found everything he needed to make an illusion-based music box and Energy Stabilizer. What he needed now were three types of items required to craft a space storage: the core of a White Dense Stone, ne Corrosion Fragment, and ne Genesis Fragment.

    ording to his books, <i>Material Polymerization </i>and <i>Alchemy Material Illustration </i>, none of these were rare materials.

    White Dense Stone was something people could find everywhere in Vacuum ne. ne Corrosion Fragment and ne Genesis Fragment were two types of substances with specific properties which were generated inside ne passageways. They were usuallymonly found in ne passageways, and wizards could also bring something with simr properties into the passageways and manually create them. They were rtively expensive but were still easy to find.

    However, Angor did not manage to find any despite his effort. Furthermore, the sun was already setting.

    ¡°Maybe I need to go to one of those secret shops Prome mentioned...¡±

    The grand auction was drawing near, so Angor decided to go back for today and speak to Prome about itter.

    He had a huge haul after today¡¯s work. Nine out of the ten space capsules he brought for this case were filled up. Fearing that he might need thest one for something important, Angor ced everything else into the cart which had to temporarily stay in Prome¡¯spartment. He would go sort them out before leaving Twilight Well.

    He asked Ananda to push the cart while he led the way toward Brute Cavern¡¯s operating base.

    Ananda really meant it when she said she was referred to as ¡°Ananda the Armstrong¡±. The cart had to be at least a hundred pounds heavy, but she did not seem troubled by the weight at all.

    Prome noticed Angoring in his yard. He nced at Ananda first and made sure she was just a mortal before addressing Angor. ¡°Good hunting today, eh? Your space capsules can¡¯t satisfy you?¡±

    ¡°I used nine, only one left. I probably should keep it forter, so I asked her to help me carry.¡±

    Angor needed to ask Prome about the ¡°secret¡±, so he asked Ananda to go ahead first. ¡°ce the flower pot into my room, the green door on the second floor. Leave everything else in the basement for now.¡±

    The flower was a special magical nt he bought today which had to be tended to with his spiritual power every several hours, so Angor had to keep the flower nearby.

    After Ananda walked away, Angor quickly went to Prome and inquired about where to find the remaining materials.

    ¡°Oh, you trying to make a one-use space capsule yourself?¡± Prome was pretty surprised. The three materials mentioned by Angor were supplementaryponents in making one-time space capsules. However, without the main material called ¡°greyspace microbes¡±, he would have to seek help from a wizard who mastered space-rted knowledge.

    Angor only smiled as an answer. Space storage was always a valuable asset among wizards, and it was quite difficult to create. Before actually getting one, Angor was not going to tell anyone about it.

    Prome still had his doubts about Angor¡¯s intentions but he still answered, ¡°They might not be rare, but you can¡¯t find them just anywhere. These materials are meant for formal wizards, and every shop intended for wizards usually conceal their locations. Also, you probably should prepare more money than you think.¡±

    ¡°I see. Thank you, sir,¡± said Angor with a nod. He could ept higher prices as long as they were not too insane.

    When they talked about some other random things, they heard someone yelling madly on the second floor.

    ¡°Why Ananda?! Come at me if you want anything! Leave Ananda alone!¡±

    ¡°Hobbiton?? Why are you here?¡± It was Ananda¡¯s panicked voice this time.

    Prome and Angor exchanged a look when Prome chuckled. ¡°I nned to use a spell to get him talking. But now, your carrier recognized him and saved us the effort. What a small world.¡±

    Angor was quite surprised at first. However, he quickly epted the situation when thinking about Ananda¡¯s ¡°upation¡± as the leader of a gang of thugs. The Phantom Servant was also a thief, which meant they had all the reason to know each other.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go have a look.¡±

    They ran into Dave and learned that the Phantom Servant somehow broke through the illusion and was preparing to escape. He almost seeded, but then he saw Ananda entering Angor¡¯s room and failed to hold back his great surprise, which then alerted Dave.

    Angor shook his head upon hearing the Phantom Servant¡¯s immature tactic. It seemed he really had the heart of a child. By yelling loudly, the man both ruined his escape n and exposed his rtionship with Ananda.

    Was someone so slow in thinking be suitable as a wizard¡¯s ve? Angor thought about Butler Goode, who was aposed and experienced servant beside Sunders. Goode seemed to be the perfect servitor one could hope for, while this young man they were dealing with... was aplete disaster.

    Angor arrived on the second floor and saw the young man using his captors to Ananda in a child¡¯s way as if someone took his candies.

    Angor smiled and secretly deployed an illusion in the hallway in which the window at the end of the way and the stairs swapped ces. Then he stayed put and listened to their conversation.

    He did not hear anything too useful, but he managed to learn who the young Phantom Servant was.

    The man was called ¡°Hobbiton¡± and he was no petty thief, but the son of a very authoritative figure in Darkivil Empire¡ªDuke Tepikkhu.

    Hobbiton did not say why he, as the son of such a powerful official in the country, resolved to thievery. He onlyined trifle matters to Ananda nonstop, such as how he was scared of the terrible illusion in his room, how his legs were still trembling, and so on. Next, he hugged Ananda tight and buried his face inside Ananda¡¯s breast area.

    ¡°And a lecherous little a*sshole too.¡± Angor shook his head.

    Knowing his identity meant they could easily find something else about him, so they did not listen for any longer. Prome stepped up and dragged Ananda away before he gazed at Hobbiton. ¡°I guess you haven¡¯t learned your lesson since you still know how to run away?¡±

    When Prome tried to grab him, Hobbiton screamed again and used his Void Shift to disappear for a brief moment, Next, he bolted toward the stairs.

    Of course the ¡°stairs¡± he aimed for was fake. His face mmed into the wall at the end of the path at full force before he then copsed on the ground and fainted, eyes spinning.

    Angor could not helpughing when Ananda hurried to Hobbiton¡¯s side and helped him up.

    ¡°He¡¯s still a kid, good sirs, can you please let him go?¡± Ananda looked toward Angor with a pleading look. Angor was the only person here she knew.

    ¡°Kid? You do know that he¡¯s an adult, right?¡± Dave visibly grew furious again.

    ¡°Yes, we were born in the same year and we¡¯re always good friends. But ever since he discovered his ability at the age of seven, Duke Tepikkhu always locked him up in his home, and we rarely ever met again. He still has a child¡¯s heart, so please don¡¯t be too harsh to him...¡± Ananda tried.

    ¡°Harsh? We won¡¯t even bother with him had he not stolen from us!¡± Dave bellowed, ¡°As true wizards, we¡¯re already doing him a favor by letting him live!¡±

    Angor rolled his eyes when Dave addressed himself as a ¡°true wizard¡±. But he did not say anything. He would let Dave establish that personal image this time.

    Ananda looked embarrassed when she heard the true reason why Hobbiton was caught.

    ¡°It... was me, who told him how to steal. You can have me if you want someone to me, but please free Hobbiton from here.¡±

    However, they could all see that Ananda was not sure about that decision herself.

    ¡°Forget it. Tell us about Hobbiton, and we might spare him if your answer is truthful,¡± Angor spoke. Previously, he believed that it was better for Hobbiton to end up as Prome¡¯s ve than being a thief. However, when Angor heard that Hobbiton still had a family, he somewhat changed his mind.

    Prome should be the one deciding Hobbiton¡¯s fate though, so Angor looked at Prome to confirm his opinion.

    Prome only smiled back and let Angor decide. To Prome, Hobbiton was a decent test subject. Yet it was something he would pay to earn Angor¡¯s trust.

 Chapter 260 - Twilight Auction

    <h4>Chapter 260: Twilight Auction</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Ananda exined more about Hobbiton to them.

    At first, Angor thought Hobbiton was a child who felt too restricted or bullied in his noble family and chose to run away from home, thus his current condition.

    It was not the case. ording to Ananda, Hobbiton¡¯s family was a peaceful and lovingmunity, which was a very rare case among typical nobility. Hobbiton was not the only son in the family, but his brother loved him just fine.

    The only thing Ananda tried to muddle through was why Duke Tepikkhu locked up Hobbiton in the first ce. Since the age of seven, the Duke forcefully forbade Hobbiton from going out but did not restrict outsiders from visiting him.

    And this seemed not right. Hobbiton¡¯s father grounded him while allowing him to receive information freely from outside?

    ¡°I always meant to find out why Hobbiton was imprisoned for ten years. But every time I visited him, I cannot find anything. Duke Tepikkhu acted friendly to me. I was allowed to do anything as long as I don¡¯t take Hobbiton away. At least that man¡¯s a lot better than my own father,¡± said Ananda as she revealed a worried look.

    ¡°Still, Hobbiton was about to reach eighteen now, and he had little experience regarding the outside world. His mind is still that of a child. Please don¡¯t punish him too hard, kind sirs!¡±

    Instead of worrying about whether they should forgive the child, Angor was getting curious about Hobbiton¡¯s family.

    Dave suddenly pointed to a clock on the wall. ¡°Angor, the auction is only half an hour away.¡±

    Angor nodded and turned to Ananda again. ¡°You take care of Hobbiton for now. We¡¯ll talk when we get back.¡±

    The three of them left thepartment.

    ¡°But isn¡¯t that bastard going to run away if we leave them there?¡± Dave asked along their way.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Angor said. ¡°It¡¯s not like he¡¯s anyone too important to us.¡±

    ¡°Gods. I should¡¯ve given him a good beating while I still have time!¡± Dave was still angry over his wallet being stolen.

    <i>Strange. Why are there so many people who are thieves in Midnight Sovereign? That Ananda woman must be someone with a good background too, considering how she can enter a duke¡¯s mansion freely. How did she be a thief?</i>

    Angor wondered.

    The importance of the grand auction could be obviously seen by the huge crowds of supernaturals walking on the streets. Even the sky was getting congested with all the people traveling in the air.

    Angor felt like going to a battlefield when walking among countless people in the same direction. Every step felt heavy as if something really significant was happening in history.

    Soon, they reached their final destination: The Twilight Auction House.

    It was a square-shaped steel tower which looked pretty tattered from the outside. Several buildings nearby all had skywalks connected to the top of the tower. There were gs ced along the skywalks of a pale white color like the moon, giving the whole ce a deste feel.

    The tower was both high and broad. Each level had a chimney releasing smoke into the environment.

    The tower itself did not have any other decorations. Its steel skin had rusty red spots here and there, as well as small breaches which were patched up using steel of different colors. The tower stood tall, like a ruinedndmark that never wavered in the path of history.

    Each side of the tower was a solid wall stretching several dozen meters wide with a giant gate on it, thus allowing the terrible crowds to proceed smoothly.

    ¡°Master Prome, we don¡¯t need a ticket or invitation to get in?¡± Angor suddenly thought of something.

    He once apanied old Viscount Padt to an auction in Waterford before, which required them to have an invitation. He was still too young by then and could not remember the details.

    Prome chuckled. ¡°You never asked, I thought Dave already exined this one. During two grand auctions each year, the area is divided into outer stage and inner stage. The outer stage means the great hall on the first floor where you can watch the inner stage from a central screen. Anyone can enter the outer area and participate in public biddings. But each individual is only allowed to make three bidding attempts, and each costs a service fee of five magic crystals. Meanwhile, those who can enter the inner stage do not follow these restrictions.¡±

    Angor found it pretty interesting. It meant whoever bidding from the outside had to make every attempt count and make sure no one in the inner area could bid against him, or they would never get an item. On the other hand, the outer stage was an open area with a lot of people around, so anyone who bid here could avoid being chased by someone with malevolent intent.

    ¡°So we need an invitation to go into the inner area?¡±

    ¡°Invitations are for private gatherings. There are too many people attending the auction, so they can never find enough time to send invitations to everyone,¡± Prome exined. He continued, ¡°There are two ways to go inside. You either be their VIP or spend enough money to buy a ticket.¡±

    ¡°Um, should we get the tickets now? How much for them?¡± Angor frowned. He was only going for a number of cheap materials so it was unlikely for him topete with other wizards which meant the inner area was a better choice.

    Prome shook his head and chuckled again.

    Dave understood Prome¡¯s gesture and quickly ttered, ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about it, Angor! We don¡¯t need those. Master Prome is a Silver VIP in Twilight Auction!¡±

    ¡°Silver VIP?¡±

    It reminded Angor of Greya¡¯s restaurant, which also regarded their customers who were on different levels differently. Was this something popr in this world?

    ¡°A Silver VIP can bring five other guests into the inner stage and enjoy the Silver VIP seats. But it isn¡¯t easy to get such a qualification. You must make one-off spending of 5,000 crystals in the tower, and the auction will validate your personal background before making you their VIP. I¡¯m afraid Master Prome is the only one who earned such a privilege as an apprentice.¡±

    Prome smiled brighter at Dave¡¯s smart reaction. Letting a third individual exin the value of his trait was always better than doing it himself. Having Dave around meant he could disy his superior prowess to people while remainingpletely chilled.

    ¡°I see. Nice!¡± Angor pretended to be amazed, although he was not at all.

    The auction would start in twenty minutes now, and the great hall was mostly filled up. Prome nced at the struggling participants and led Angor and Dave toward the VIP passage with his head lifted high proudly.

    When he heard about ¡°Silver VIPs¡±, Angor thought they could use private chambers or something simr. However, it turned out that the Silver VIP seats were merely bigger seats scattered about on the second floor which allowed them to watch the auction from a vantage point with more personal space.

    They took their seats. Angor unbuttoned his pocket to let Toby observe the auction as well.

    He spent some time looking around the inner stage. It was smaller than he expected, and he did not see many people. There were probably several hundred people sitting down there at best.

    Also, Angor noticed that most of the participants here were apprentices. Only a dozen powerful wizards were among them, who disyed their auras which resembled Flora¡¯s level of strength.

    There was a third floor where the private chambers for Gold VIPs were located. Angor could not see into the chambers although he was sure that only wizards could go there.

    Angor¡¯s inspecting gazes attracted some attention from people, but they soon ignored him when they saw it was only a teenager looking at them.

    Since there was still time, Prome went ahead and exined more information to Angor, ¡°Ordinary auctions are usually held in different sections, such as materials section, potion section, weapon, and so on. People can choose a section ording to their own needs. But the Grand Auction isprehensive, so we¡¯ll see everything here.¡±

    Prome boasted about his experience of bing a Silver VIP until they heard the sound of a blowing horn, and from there, the inner stage suddenly grew dark.

    ¡°It¡¯s on. If you want to bid on something, inject your mana into the transmitter on your seat,¡± Prome lowered his voice.

    ¡°For countless decades, I seek the eternal truth. Yet the path is distant, and the sight slowly grows stale. Yet there is the twilight, who remained to soothe my troubled mind.¡±

    A middle-aged woman materialized on the auction stage, covered in glittering spots like fireflies.

    ¡°Good evening,dies and gentlemen. I shall be your auctioneer tonight. While my humble name is long forgotten, you can call me ¡®Twilight¡¯.¡±

    The light spots beside her body gradually vanished, revealing her face in front of everyone. She looked rather average.

    ¡°Without further ado then. After our careful review, we have a total of 173 items attending the auction. Of course, there are curious objects among them. Now, let¡¯s begin.¡±

    Twilight spoke in an absolute in, unemotional tone, but her words strangely grasped everyone¡¯s attention.

    ¡°Our first lot is a batch of Glowing Velvet Potion produced by Winter Pharmacy. Neen sses in all. We shall start from zero, and I only ept raises of above 30 magic crystals.¡±

 Chapter 261 - â€œFriendlyâ€ Competition

    <h4>Chapter 261: ¡°Friendly¡± Competition</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The sale proceeded fast. Most of the items shown earlier were nothing too valuable, and each lot was determined within minutes.

    As more of the items were sold, the average bidding soon approached 500 crystals, and there were fewer and fewer responsesing from the outer stage.

    Angor tried topete for a gaseous material which could be used as an alternative for another catalyst. He simply quitted when someone else offered higher since it was nothing of vital importance to him.

    Angor nned to go for an alchemy container when it was brought up, but he decided to leave it since Prome bid earlier, who then won the item at 400 crystals.

    Everything went smoothly until the 30th item was shown, which caused a small ruckus.

    It was a booklet containing the analytic equation for ¡°energypression¡±.

    All the wizards were shocked when they saw the book being sold in the auction. It was not valuable among major wizard organizations. The crafting draft for an Energy Compressor in Angor¡¯s <i>Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy </i>also provided the form.

    They were shocked because this piece of knowledge had always been strictly controlled by powerful organizations. Wizards without a certain background could not find such a thing easily.

    Now Twilight Auction was selling it in public?

    Most wizards sitting on the first level joined the bidding, while none of the guests in Silver and Gold VIP sections joined. Angor heard a woman sneering in one of the private chambers, ¡°This auction is getting worse. They sell such junk now? Guess I don¡¯t have toe next time.¡±

    Angor heard her loud and clear, which meant everyone else had to have noticed her as well.

    A number of participants from the Gold VIP chambers all mumbled to agree with her.

    Those who were stillpeting on the first level all looked embarrassed. However, no one protested when they thought about who it possibly was inside that VIP room.

    Twilight also frowned a bit when she heard the woman badmouthing the auction. She remained calm until the book was sold before exining in the same neutral tone, ¡°Pray rest assured, Lady Lotus. What we have to offer tonight will not disappoint you.¡±

    The witch called ¡°Lady Lotus¡± chuckled. ¡°Is that so? I¡¯ll be waiting then.¡±

    Twilight forced herself to calm down and focused her attention on the next item.

    The 44th item drew Angor attention.

    It was a box of a rare material called ¡°Rosegold Gargoyle¡¯s Tongue Blood¡±. The magical liquid could be used to cultivate Rosegold Blood Ores as well as providing amazing effects in enchantment practice. Whenbined with some other sub-materials, the liquid could create a special ink called ¡°Gargoyle¡¯s Blood¡±.

    When using this ink to engrave runes, an alchemist had a chance to maximize the potential of magical materials as well as gain an extra special effect.

    For example, mythril was often used in alchemy due to its superior magic conductivity. Items made of mythril helped their users conserved a lot of mana. Using Gargoyle¡¯s Blood to enchant a mythril item might cause the final product to have a magic resistance of zero. The product could also directly draw primal mana from the environment, allowing its user to achieve way stronger effects by spending very little mana, such as casting level-2 cantrips by using the same energy required for level-0 ones.

    Compared to this, Angor was not really interested in the other effect which randomly triggered a special effect on an item since it was extremely rare a case. By using certain special materials, he could achieve something simr.

    At least Angor never witnessed any random surprises during his study. He always believed in solid enchantment work rather than chances.

    Due to the valuable property of the ink, Angor immediately offered his bid when Twilight dered ¡°begin¡±. His first bid was 500, which was enough to discourage anyone in the outer hall frompeting.

    ¡°Five hundred crystals called by Number 187, anyone? Each raise shall be 50 or higher,¡± Twilight spoke loud and clear.

    Rosegold Gargoyle¡¯s Tongue Blood also helped with other subjects besides alchemy, such as extracting Rosegold Petrification Virus and making certain potions.

    Angor knew this as well, so he was really worried that someone might follow up.

    ¡°Five hundred, still waiting!¡±

    ¡°Five hundred, can I get an increment?¡± Twilight¡¯s voice began to show a hint of haste.

    Something suddenly changed on the screen in front of her.

    ¡°Five-fifty by Number 35!¡±

    Number 35 was... someone among the Gold VIPs.

    Angor frowned quickly. There were only richer wizards inside those private rooms. Did they really need topete with him over this item?

    Twilight was already counting down. ¡°Five-fifty! Going once, twice, and-¡±

    Before she couldnd her gavel, Angor clenched his teeth and raised the bid to 600, causing both Dave and Prome to gaze at him with worried looks.

    Twilight raised an eyebrow at the new price. ¡°A raise by Number 187 once again. We have six hundred!¡±

    For the first time today, two VIPs from two sections were going against each other.

    ¡°Number 35 called seven-fifty!¡±

    Angor was getting determined now. He did not hesitate this time and called for eight hundred.

    To everyone¡¯s surprise, the price for a box of ¡°Rosegold Gargoyle¡¯s Tongue Blood¡±, a material mostly useless tomon wizards, reached all the way to 1,100 magic crystals.

    Number 35 called again and offered 1,500, hoping to break Angor¡¯s mental barrier once and for all.

    ¡°Fifteen hundred!¡± All people inside or outside all yelled out. It was the highest bid they saw today.

    The price itself was not anything impressive. Yet the item being sold was not something well epted. It might be rare, but its price could hardly go beyond a thousand in normal conditions. An offer of 1,500 crystals was a little too much even for Twilight Auction.

    ¡°Oh, this is fun, a silver guest and a gold one are fighting,¡± whispered someone.

    ¡°But shouldn¡¯t that thing only work for enchantment alchemists? So are we seeing two alchemists outbidding like that? I don¡¯t think there are many enchantment alchemists around Darkivil Empire.¡±

    Angor was now rethinking about whether he should keep up. The current price was pretty high for the box of blood.

    The price was approaching an uneptable level even if he considered its alchemy potential. Approaching, only. There was still room. Sessfully making a maximized alchemy item would quickly get him more money back.

    Butpared to the price, Angor was more concerned with the Gold VIP¡¯s attitude.

    ¡°You should give up. It has gone too far,¡± said Dave as he tried to persuade Angor.

    Prome nodded to agree. ¡°Keep in mind that gambling is a bottomless money drain. Don¡¯t rely on chances while at your alchemy studies.¡±

    Angor also thought about quitting. He still felt a little depressed at how he missed the valuable alchemy material. Rosegold Gargoyle¡¯s Tongue Blood was of a higher quality than any other simr inks.

    As everyone waited for Angor¡¯s decision, a woman inside Chamber 35 suddenly spoke in an extremely eerie voice.

    ¡°The blood will be mine, no matter how much you have on you. Heeheehee!¡±

    As those sitting outside wondered who that was, people in the inner stage all looked at each other in shock. Those who coulde here were all experienced enough to recognize that voice.

    ¡°So, SHE came to the auction!¡±

    ¡°And that Number 187 went against her? Really? Who is Number 187, anyway?¡±

    ¡°Wait, who are you talking about? Who¡¯s that Gold VIP?¡± There was still someone left dumbfounded by the heated discussions.

    ¡°How ignorant can you get??¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the most bloodthirsty witch you can ever know in the southern region, Lady Flora!¡±

    ¡°Lady Flora seemed determined to get her hands on that blood. Even if Number 187 won it, she¡¯ll probably go after himter and get it back. Man, I wonder what Number 187 looks like right now.¡±

    ¡°Wet his pants, I guess!¡±

    So... how exactly did Angor look?

    Trembling? Wet pants? Fear? None. He was only shaking his head in frustration after finding out that it was only Flora who yed with him. He would not have tried to raise the price if he had known!

    If anyone would find out their rtionship now... Angor could already imagine what would be printed on the headline of tomorrow¡¯s gossip news.

    ¡°Unbelievable! The Killing Machine¡¯s Two Loving Pupils Fought Among Themselves Just For THIS!¡±

    Angor face-palmed himself while Dave and Prome gave him a sympathetic look.

    Dave put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder and yed all mature. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to see this, my friend. Now, you should hide away and pretend that Number 187 never came.¡±

    Angor looked at Dave. ¡°Maybe we should switch ces?¡±

    Dave backed away quickly. ¡°Nah. A Prophet told me that 186 is my lucky number today, while anything nearby is an ill omen. Please, I still want to have a bright future.¡±

    Since ¡°Number 35¡± was Flora, Angor simply gave up on the item. He had not expected to see Flora here after that woman went away from Brute Cavern for half a year.

    <i>Did Sunderse as well? </i>Angor pondered.

    ...

    Without anyone in her way, Flora sessfully earned the box of ¡°Rosegold Gargoyle¡¯s Tongue Blood¡±. She still humphed in frustration, for having to spend more money than she expected.

    And everyone heard it.

    Before Twilight could bring out the next lot, someone sneered in Chamber 1 in a taunting manner. ¡°Oh my, Flora... I didn¡¯t take you to be someone who bullies the weak.¡±

    It was the witch by the title of ¡°Lady Lotus¡±.

    ¡°Someone who made a lot of noise back there. So, it was you, Lydia the horny stuff?¡± Flora ¡°heehee¡± again. ¡°Bully? So did you fall in love with Number 187 or something? Maybe we should call him here and see if he suits your taste?¡±

    Lydia did not seem offended at all. ¡°Unlike someone, I¡¯m quite loyal. I¡¯ve already decided that Mister Sunders shall be my only love.¡±

    ¡°Who knows, maybe Number 187 is my dear teacher who just came personally,¡± said Flora who did not forget about dragging Angor down.

    Angor tried to shrink as best as he could.

    ¡°So, Mister Sunders isn¡¯t with you? I shouldn¡¯t have wasted so much breath on you,¡± Lydia concluded with another taunt, thus ending their verbal war.

    But she did not stop here. Lydia directed her attention to Twilight this time.

    ¡°So, despite your promise, it¡¯s still a big disappointment until now. Are you wasting my time, em?¡±

 Chapter 262 - Azure Bloodline

    <h4>Chapter 262: Azure Bloodline</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°We¡¯re hardly one third through the night. Please calm down, Lady Lotus,¡± said Twilight as she reassured the wizard.

    Lydia scoffed, ¡°Just no more wasting time.¡±

    The small incident quickly gave way to further auctions, which all proceeded smoothly once again.

    Angor was still frustrated after bidding against Flora, and he failed to stay focused on the following items until someone on the first floor suddenly yelled loudly and drew his attention.

    ¡°Azure Bloodline, origin unknown. The seller ims that it came from a specific creature in a special ne from Eastern Borderline. Eastern Borderline is many dimensions away from the southern region, so our appraiser cannot provide their opinions on this one. The avable information is only for your reference.

    ¡°We just received the item not long ago. From what we¡¯ve found out, using the bloodline has a chance to make you into a Sage Morph, and I believe you all know what that means to a wizard. We shall start from a thousand magic crystals, and each raise will be at least a hundred. Begin.¡±

    Twilight struck her gavel.

    It was followed by absolute silence. While Twilight stood on the stage awkwardly, no one provided a bid.

    Angor wondered why.

    Sage Morph was a particr being simr to his Nightmare Form. The former could improve the overall mental abilities of someone. A Sage Morph might also gain a talent called the ¡°Sage Moment¡± which was a talent ability almost as powerful as a naturalw.

    And no one was going for such a valuable item?

    Besides, one thousand was not overpriced for something like this. Angor still remembered how Ness dered that the vial of subus blood would go for at least ten thousand magic crystals when sold.

    And it was obvious that the Azure Bloodline was something better.

    Angor decided to ask Prome about it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about this bloodline,¡± Prome replied, ¡°but I can tell you why they aren¡¯t going to buy it. There are many reasons. For one, injecting a bloodline always has a risk. We know ways to lower this risk as long as we know which bloodline we¡¯re using. Bloodline Wizards even know about a special art that reduces this risk to null. However, this ¡®Azure Bloodline¡¯ is something we don¡¯t know about, which means no one knows how to avoid its risk.

    ¡°Secondly, she used big words that the bloodline MIGHT change us into a Sage Morph. True wizards do not trust in chances. To them, anything below a hundred percent means zero. And she never mentioned the sess rate of the bloodline, which already tells us it must be a terrible gamble.

    ¡°There are other factors. But the two reasons you just heard are enough to discourage anyone from using the bloodline. So you see why everyone¡¯s staying put.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s pretty cheap, right? We can use it in experiments too,¡± Angor muttered, ¡°the subus blood worth tens times more.¡±

    ¡°Subus blood? That¡¯s an extremely rare treasure for all witches, and it definitely should sell high,¡± Davemented. ¡°It¡¯s so easy to earn money from women. I saw a magazine several years ago about a certain rumor that someone extracted the seminal vesicle from a disgusting slug-like creature in abyss ne, diluted it in holy water, and found out that the remains gave out a strange perfume. You know what that was?¡±

    Dave did not expect Angor to answer and revealed the answer right away, ¡°That¡¯s the infamous ¡®Honeydew¡¯. They gave it such a beautiful name to cover its filthy origin. Also, Honeydew is the prototype of all pheromone perfumes. A slug¡¯s seminal vesicle! They rubbed that stuff on their bodies! Damn, women are crazy.¡± Dave shivered at the thought of it.

    Angor blushed a little. He agreed with Dave, true, but he was in no position to provide his opinion, because... he once sold his ¡°perfume¡± to someone as well.

    ¡°Well, wizardry is dull, maybe we all need to find pleasure now and then, hehe...¡± Angor tried to end the topic by chuckling in a silly way.

    Twilight was going to dere a bought-in when her screen suddenly showed something.

    ¡°We have someone from the outer hall bidding a thousand crystals. Anyone else? Or the item will go to Number 13769!¡±

    It seemed that as long as someone helped her escape the embarrassment, Twilight would no longer care who bought the item.

    No one else responded during her countdown, which meant the Azure Bloodline was taken by someone outside.

    At a wall corner in the outer hall, a woman covered in a ck robe who carried a strange dagger with a butterfly engraved on it leaned against the wall as she smoked her pipe. When the central screen showed the result, she spoke to another young man beside her.

    ¡°The Azure Bloodline sounds nice, but there must be a reason why everyone ignored it. Are you sure you made the right decision?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve no use for the Moonfall Stone anyway, so I might exchange it for something I can use. Besides...¡± The young man in a white robe was trembling. He grasped a thick-looking book against his chest tofort himself. This was his first time spending such a great fortune.

    ¡°Besides, the Elder of Books told me that bing a Sage Morph can help me turn it into a ¡®spirituality¡¯. It¡¯s my only chance.¡±

    The young man looked up at the woman and smiled. ¡°You¡¯ve been an inspiration to me, ma¡¯am. I want to fight for my destination even if it endangers my life, just like you.¡± He looked at the woman¡¯s hidden right arm and became sad for some reason. ¡°And as a man, how can I proceed down the path of wizardry if I can¡¯t even find such courage?¡±

    ¡°Man? You? Aha. You and Angor are both kids to me,¡± said the woman. She held her long-handled pipe and remained silent for a while before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s hope you seed then. After the auction, I¡¯ll return to the organization and keep up my tower challenge. I¡¯ll ask my professor about how to reduce the risk of using that bloodline if I have a chance.¡±

    Just as she left the wall and stood upright, a gentle breeze blew over and lifted her robe a little to reveal her body.

    Where her right arm should have been... there was nothing.

    ...

    A good number of unimpressive items followed behind Azure Bloodline.

    Lydia expressed her impatience for many times now. Even Flora agreed with her. Twilight was beginning to lose control of herposed attitude.

    During this time, Angor sessfully won his first bid. It was a stack of fifteen papers made from the hide of a beast called Chaos Beater. The paper could support magic arrays without breaking apart, which meant enchantment alchemists could practice drawing magic arrays on them. However, they could not really be used to unleash the power of the arrays.

    The starting price was 500, and Angor won his bid by paying 700 because Flora saw his attempt and simply tried to y a prank.

    Angor facepalmed when Twilight struck her gavel.

    <i>Why would she do such a thing??</i>

    As the 100th item was going to be presented, Twilight received a message from someone and grinned.

    ¡°Our next lot is a special and unique item. It¡¯s an art... if you would trust me.¡±

    ¡°Art? Well, we know some wizards love to collect them, but do you really need to sell it at an auction?¡± Someoneined.

    ¡°Maybe a legacy left by a very famous master?¡±

    Twilight only gave them a mysterious smile, before she looked up at the third floor. ¡°I believe that Lady Lotus loves music quite a lot. You used to enjoy going to mortal concerts, no? Then you will definitely like this item.¡±

    ¡°Oh? You¡¯re right, I do enjoy good music, but not just any music. There¡¯s something else you failed to mention, that many of the mortal concerts were bathed in blood because they failed to amaze me.¡±

    Twilight smiled again. ¡°We shall see it then.¡±

    The stage grew darker. When the item was brought to the auction stand, a beam from the spotlight was focused on it.

    ¡°Oh... it¡¯s pretty. No wonder Lady Twilight regarded it as art!¡± Someone eximed.

    ¡°The 100th lot for tonight is this¡ª¡¯Land on the Sky¡¯!¡± Twilight pointed to the showcase. ¡°You will not find anything quite alike in this world. Also, it possesses some special properties. Feel free to take your guesses, but I do believe that you won¡¯t get the right answer.¡±

    The stage was protected by a magic array which prevented anyone from inspecting the area with their spirit feelers. This meant they could only examine the item with their eyes.

    Someonemented, ¡°I sense a soothing aura.¡±

    ¡°A water-themed alchemy item maybe?¡± Someone saw the ocean wave design and guessed.

    ¡°But Lady Twilight said ¡®music¡¯ right? I think it¡¯s a sound weapon.¡±

    Twilight waited for a while to arouse their curiosity before finally introducing the item.

    ¡°This is a music box.¡±

    Everyone frowned at those words. When thinking about music boxes, they all thought about those terrible metal clinking noises. No wizard would enjoy listening to these cheap toys designed for rich mortals.

    ¡°Beware, this is no ordinary music box. It¡¯s a tiered alchemy item.¡±

 Chapter 263 - Tobyâ€™s Losing It!

    <h4>Chapter 263: Toby¡¯s Losing It!</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°A tiered music box??¡± Someone mumbled, ¡°Some alchemist made such a boring toy? Really?¡±

    Dave also shook his head. ¡°Such a beautiful design... for a music box? Now I think about it, weren¡¯t you nning to make something simi-¡±

    Dave wanted to tease. However, he was surprised to see Angor holding something down on his chest with a really anxious look.

    ¡°Stop! Toby! Get inside! Now!¡± Angor ordered.

    Angor got a bad feeling when he heard the name ¡°Land on the Sky¡±, and his concern was justified when he saw the item.

    The innovative crystal tubes, the ocean waves, and the glittering surface and illusion nodes... that was exactly the same music box he crafted the other day!

    Why was it being sold at the auction?

    Before he could think about the question though, something moved restlessly on his chest.

    Toby was bing wild for some reason.

    Angor could feel Toby losing control slowly. He was sure the bird would do something really bad at this rate.

    But this was the inner stage of Twilight Auction where countless powerful wizards gathered!

    Angor quickly pressed Toby down and ordered in a low voice, ¡°Keep it together! We don¡¯t know what happened yet, don¡¯t scare yourself!¡±

    ¡°Ark! Quark!¡± Toby¡¯s sad voice came from his pocket.

    ¡°I made a second music box for Lady Mirror yesterday, maybe that¡¯s what we¡¯re seeing,¡± Angor lowered his head and whispered.

    Toby stopped struggling for just a brief moment before he began to move again.

    Angor quicklyprehended the bird¡¯s intention. Toby sensed his own smelling from the music box on the stage.

    There was no doubt now that Twilight Auction was selling the very music box Angor gifted Toby.

    But there was nothing they could do since it already happened right in front of their eyes.

    When Toby told Angor that the music box was lent to someone, Angor already assumed the worst. Angor did not say it because the music box was not really valuable, and Angor nned to use this chance to teach Toby how to avoid being used by bad guys. Angor already had a n in mind that he would talk and conclude the ¡°lesson¡± with Toby once they got back to Brute Cavern.

    He had not expected the lesson to happen so early, and at a bad time too. Still, it seemed the lesson left a pretty deep mark in Toby¡¯s mind.

    Just yesterday, Toby happily lent his precious music box to his partner, and the cold truth hit him hard the next day. The bird lost both his ¡°new friend¡± and his music box, which was now being sold in public. It had to be really hard for a bird who always lived a carefree life.

    Despite his bad mood, Toby never looked at Angor¡¯s eyes.

    And Angor fully understood it. Toby did not know how to face him after losing the precious gift to someone so fast.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can make another one. I¡¯ll get to it once we leave the auction. An even better one.¡±

    ...

    Angor had been talking to Toby in a really small voice. Dave could not hear them. However, he somewhat grasped a tip of the truth when thinking about the sad Toby, and how Angor once mentioned that the music box was meant for Toby because the bird loved music.

    Dave got an idea of what happened even though he was not sure of it yet.

    Twilight kept exining the item to everyone, ¡°Later, I¡¯ll show you the special properties of the music box. For now, please look at here.¡± Twilight put a finger on the box¡¯s energy chamber and unleashed her mana.

    Quickly, an aura was spread from the music box which calmed everyone¡¯s mind.

    ¡°A tranquility effect?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a Tranquility Rune! I¡¯m sure of it! I saw something simr in Floating Mech City, a pillow enchanted with the same thing. Man, that night was damnfortable!¡±

    ¡°But it makes no sense. What¡¯s the point of Tranquility Rune when the box tingles our eardrums?¡±

    Twilight nodded and smiled. ¡°Correct, the Tranquility Rune. As for your question, you¡¯ll understand after watching me.¡±

    Both Dave and Prome looked at Angor. Angor already told them about applying a Tranquility Rune onto the music box he was going to make.

    And Angor was probably the only person in this world who could use such a strangebination.

    They were almost sure that the music box was Angor¡¯s. So... however did it end up here? Angor came to Twilight Well with them. They never saw Angor sending anything to the auction for review.

    Dave saw both Angor and Toby grew calm and tried to ask in a small voice. ¡°What¡¯s going on, Angor? That¡¯s... your music box, right?¡±

    His words caused Toby to go berserk again.

    Angor only said ¡°Let¡¯s talkter¡± before trying tofort Toby again.

    It was not like Angor could really hold Toby down considering the bird¡¯s ability. It was just that Toby was unsure of what to do himself. He knew he made a huge mistake, and he did not want to anger Angor. Angor¡¯s calm expressionforted Toby just a bit. However, Toby felt anxious again when he suspected that Angor was acting all calm because Angor was going to break up with him.

    Angor clearly knew that even if he had ten extra hands, he would never be able to suppress Toby if Toby meant to attack for real. Toby was fumbling up and down in his pocket simply because the bird was trying to distract him, simr to how kids cried to their parents for candies.

    And Angor dly yed along.

    Dave watched the interaction between his friend and a bird and sighed. ¡°Master Prome, I guess there¡¯s some kind of reason behind this. Maybe someone stole Toby¡¯s music box.¡±

    ¡°Angor can tell us if he wants to, or he can keep it private, I won¡¯t mind. Look carefully, Twilight¡¯s going to show us the music box. I always want to find out what special properties Angor created on his invention.¡±

    As an alchemist himself and even though they studied different subjects, Prome could not helppeting with Angor over their alchemy skills. The man never revealed his idea. Prome always believed that his path of synthesis was superior to Angor¡¯s enchantment, so he always considered himself on a higher level than Angor.

    But now, something was troubling him. Usually, Prome could get some of his items sold on the ordinary auctions, but not the Grand Auction. Angor¡¯s music box though was presented at a Grand Auction so easily. And it was cedter in the queue too. Also, the auctioneer spoke highly of the item and even addressed ¡®ming Lotus¡¯ Lydia personally.

    It gave Prome a terrible feeling as if Angor was a better alchemist than him.

    He really wished to find out what was so special about Angor¡¯s item now.

    ...

    Twilight carefully ced the music box back onto the stand. ¡°As a music box, the most important factor is, of course, music. To protect the privacy of our potential buyers, I¡¯ll only y a portion of the music. Please listen to it and decide whether you¡¯ll make the purchase.¡±

    People did not seem interested at all. They simply considered it as taking a break.

    Lydia sat in Chamber 1 and stared at Twilight¡¯s movement carefully.

    They saw Twilight covering the music box under a strange-colored cloth and that she was operating a winding key.

    The Tranquility Rune soon covered the entire stage.

    The power of the Tranquility Rune was fully disyed. But thanks to the cover cloth, neither Angor¡¯s music nor his illusion could be observed.

    Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what Twilight was up to.

    ¡°What are you waiting for, Twilight?¡± Lydia¡¯s impatient voice came again.

    ¡°Just a minute, Lady Lotus. I already activated the music box. I need to cover it for the sake of the final buyer. I¡¯ll remove the cover to allow you to enjoy the ending of the music.¡±

    People knew what Twilight meant and decided to stay put.

    When the inner stage had enjoyed Tranquility Rune for five full minutes, Twilight finally spoke to the yawning audiences, ¡°The music is almost finished. Please take a good look now.¡±

    She slowly uncovered the item, when a strange light came from under the cloth, along with gentle melodies.

    Before anyone couldment, they saw ripples appearing in the air.

 Chapter 264 - Aroused Memories

    <h4>Chapter 264: Aroused Memories</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Wait, someone used an illusion?¡±

    Some of the apprentices grew rmed, while the other wizards sneered at them.

    ¡°The magic array isn¡¯t triggered, so the illusion is not harmful. No need to get all worked up.¡±

    When the piece of cloth was fully removed, the ripples became a fully functional illusion which covered the entire auction hall up together with music, thus surprising everyone.

    <i>We could ¡°see¡± music? </i>People wondered.

    <i>We could use a music box like this?? </i>Prome, as well as the other alchemists, wondered.

    The gentle music yed by the box and the Tranquility Rune that was ced on it masterfully amplified each other.

    Lydia quickly lost herself in the music. She enjoyed different styles of music. This gentle piece might not be the best one she heard of yet, but it was beautiful enough.

    When enjoying herself in the soothing clouds, Lydia was getting convinced to make her first purchase of the night.

    Inside another chamber, Flora was also quite shocked at the item. However,pared to the music, she was more interested in the illusion.

    Flora was not an illusionist. But as Sunders¡¯ student, she knew the correct way to examine illusions. She already found out that the music box was based on a Melodious Illusion.

    Whoever deployed the illusion had to possess a solid knowledge about basic illusions as well as expertise in micro illusions.

    The important factor was that the creator of the music box never used anything tooplicated. Hebined a simple cantrip with music and enchantment and produced something worth noting down in the textbooks of Acoustic Illusion.

    It was not all about praises though. The clouds and sky were perfectly made, but Flora easily noticed ws when looking down.

    There were vast grasnd and stretching mountains down below. They stood too high in the air to observe the scenery clearly, and this was where the illusion was wrong.

    Flora was sure that the creator of the illusion never spent much time flying in the air, or he would not have made such an obvious mistake when determining people¡¯s range of visibility.

    However, only someone who knew illusions well enough could notice the mistakes. Flora concluded that the music box was a finely-made and creative alchemy piece of art.

    Those who loved it would love it very much, while the remaining people would not leave any harshment about it. Both Flora and Lydia reached the same conclusion.

    On the second floor, Prome was also immersed in the cloud illusions and enjoyed the soothing melodies.

    ¡°A work of genius!¡± Prome gave Angor an approving look. He had willingly admitted that the music box was an outstanding creation when he himself would never be able to find such an inspiration.

    Dave enjoyed the illusion while feeling a bit down. He regretted not joining Angor. If only he knew that Angor was making something so beautiful...

    Almost everyone in the hall presented their positivements for the music box.

    Twilight nced at Chamber 1 and grinned. She knew well that the illusion had not shown its full potential.

    As people all believed that the music would end like this, the illusion shifted.

    Dark clouds suddenly came into view, blocking sunlight.

    Snakes of lightning danced wildly inside the clouds.

    ¡°Ohh! Something¡¯sing!¡± Someone mumbled.

    The sudden change raised everyone¡¯s curiosity again, including Lydia and Flora.

    Another shadowy figure in a Gold VIP chamber secretly raised his eyebrow.

    As the music went on, people found themselves dive into the thunderclouds head-first.

    Several string instruments worked together to announce the end of the thunderclouds and white mist and clouds showed up once again. However, there seemed to be a ck shadow hidden behind.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± People pointed to the shadow.

    With several lively beats, the mist dissipated towards the sides, presenting a floating ind to everyone.

    ¡°So that¡¯s what the name meant. There¡¯s really an ind in the sky!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s so special about a floating ind? Hey, wait... look!¡±

    That was more than a floating ind. It was an ind with stories hidden behind every trace and detail, urging people to go there and read.

    Here, the time had stopped ticking.

    ¡°It¡¯s... it¡¯s love.¡± Someone wept. ¡°When my lover left me ten years ago, I felt so isted. I sensed the same thing when looking at the deserted ind... It reminds me of the love lost in time.¡±

    ¡°Hey, look at that tattered building. Who built it? Hey, wait... why did I want to know?¡±

    ¡°Tales... creations! I feel like writing a storybook now!¡±

    Everyone felt their minds pulsing with curiosity when looking at the ind sitting still in the sky.

    Beside their ears, the gentle music whispered the history of the ind at the end of clouds.

    Lydia got a strange feeling. The ind also reminded her of something decades ago, something she locked deep inside her memory.

    She released a deep breath. ¡°Land on the Sky, right? I¡¯m buying it.¡±

    In another chamber, Flora stared at the scenery with widened eyes, and for apletely different reason.

    <i>Frozen time? This is exactly what it looked like in the Nightmare Realm! But how did a simple illusion carry an element of the Nightmare Realm?</i>

    Also, Flora was shocked to find out that she was getting affected by the illusion as well. Her emotion was still calm but looking at anything on the ind would cause her mind to pulse with unknown realization.

    Something she decided to forget long ago. The days before she was adopted by Sunders. The memories from the miserable days easily came flowing back into her mind.

    Strangely, she did not feel pain when thinking about those memories. The gentle rhythm and the still beautiful ind somehow mended the scars in her memory.

    ¡°Who created such a thing?¡± The shadowy figure in another Gold VIP chamber wondered. ¡°Music, enchantment alchemy, Melodious Illusion, Nightmare Realm. The story of Augustin and Margaret... and those clouds. Is that the scene on cloud whale?¡± He pointed out the elements in the illusion in a low and hoarse voice.

    The figure could not understand all of the elements. However, from what he could see, the vivid image of his adorable little student quickly popped up inside his mind.

    ¡°Oh... I never thought I¡¯d remember those stories from centuries ago ever again. Is that you, Angor?¡±

    He moved his head around, briefly exposing a gentlemanly face.

    ...

    Angor was oblivious of what was going on in the hall. By using the effect brought by Tranquility Rune, he was now stroking Toby¡¯s feathers to calm the bird.

    Thanks to the soothing music and the tranquility aura, Toby finally quieted down.

    ¡°Thank goodness I used a Tranquility Rune on it, or I don¡¯t know if I can control Toby,¡± Angor sighed. He always trusted Toby and allowed the bird to wander outside in a carefree way. He was afraid that the bird might have a hard time getting through such a heavy blow.

    When something like this happened, as his guardian, Angor needed to protect Toby.

    The music was ending. The misty ind was hidden behind approaching clouds, and Angor could sense that Tobypletely cooled his tiny head.

    Angor tried to tease the bird again and was d to see Toby responding to his attempts, though somewhat unwillingly.

    The illusion was no more, yet all the people in the hall did not make a sound. It seemed they were still thinking about the great music and beautiful sight which had traveled far from their minds.

    ¡°Angor, I don¡¯t know what to say,¡± said Dave as he gave Angor a sad look. ¡°Why am I getting the feeling that you always learn stuff a hundred times faster? You can do something in a day when it¡¯d take me years! I mean, you¡¯re Angor, right? Who are you and what have you done to him?¡±

    Angor facepalmed. ¡°Well, maybe you¡¯re talking about ¡®yesterday¡¯s me¡¯.¡±

    ¡°I see... So, an Angor that I don¡¯t know about created such an amazing artifact,¡± Daveforted himself.

    Prome also spoke to Angor with mixed emotions, ¡°I know what we should discusster...¡±

    Angor thought about their agreement yesterday and nodded.

    Twilight waited for everyone to collect their senses.

    ¡°As you all see, this is ¡®Land on the Sky¡¯.¡±

 Chapter 265 - Insane Price

    <h4>Chapter 265: Insane Price</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    There were still a lot of items waiting in the queue, so Twilight immediately proceeded to start calling for the music box.

    ¡°The auction for our 100th item shall begin, starting at a thousand magic crystals. All raises should be 50 or above.¡±

    People went silent again.

    Twilight looked at her screen with an uncertain look. It was almost half a minute but nothing was shown yet.

    Twilight felt herself in an embarrassing situation again. She did not believe that there was no one who was interested in the music box. Their appraisers already reviewed the item as something rtively useless, but with great artistic value. There were definitely people who liked such things.

    Besides, they already knew that the number one Gold VIP ¡®ming Lotus¡¯ Lydia woulde. Thedy was known for her great taste in music. Why was she not bidding?

    Twilight was not the only one worrying. Angor, as the creator of the music box, was getting anxious as well.

    Just a little though. He was not the item¡¯s seller anyway.

    A woman who wore tree veins and branches over her body frowned. She was sitting at the back on the first level, and she muttered in a small voice, ¡°No one called? No way.¡±

    A sexy-looking woman wearing thin silk beside her removed some tears around her eyes after experiencing the beautiful illusion.

    ¡°Maybe people from more flourishing regions will appreciate such a creation. But here, people usually want to make their magic crystals worth as best as possible. The music box is beautiful, sure, but these people don¡¯t find it practical enough to spend money.¡±

    ¡°Will you buy it, Anna?¡±

    The woman in silk called ¡°Anna¡± was the one who broke Angor¡¯s smoke illusion yesterday.

    ¡°I...¡± She hesitated for a bit and shook her head. ¡°No. Before turning a formal wizard, I¡¯ll not use my resource on pleasure.¡±

    ¡°Pleasure? Actually, I think the floating ind at the end hides some more secrets in it. Maybe it can help wizards cultivate their minds,¡± Daichese mumbled.

    ¡°That¡¯s still too far for me,¡± Anna thought about the floating ind again as well as the memories she was reminded of. But she got over her emotions soon and spoke to Daichese in a teasing tone, ¡°Why would you care anyway? It seems you¡¯re getting more worried than Twilight.¡±

    Daichese sighed.

    ¡°Because I¡¯m the seller.¡±

    Anna widened her eyes in shock. ¡°THAT is the ¡®secret treasure¡¯ you mentioned to me?!¡±

    Daichese rolled her eyes. ¡°Silly. Why else would I worry about something that has nothing to do with me?¡±

    As they talked, Twilight was still trying to endure the great awkwardness on the auction stand. A minute already passed, and she received no bid yet.

    ¡°Ahem. Since no one is calling, this item is now bought-in.¡±

    Angor felt a mixed emotion when seeing such a result. For one, a bought-in meant the item remained the possession of Toby¡¯s ¡°new friend¡±, and once they returned to Brute Cavern, they could confront whoever it was that brought the music box here and hopefully get it back.

    However... as the item¡¯s creator, Angor felt embarrassed that his item had no buyer.

    There was something else he could do, which was to buy the music box himself. However, the materials he used barely cost him 20 crystals. Should he pay 50 times more money to get it back? No way. That would be too stupid.

    Dave put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t get it wrong. It¡¯s really nice. But none of these people are someone who knew how to appreciate art.¡±

    Twilight suddenly announced in a joyful voice, ¡°A thousand crystals, called by Number 186!¡±

    Someone offered a bid!

    Most people here had enough money to afford the music box. The problem was, they did not really want to spend their hard-earned money on something like this. Now that someone made the first move, people started to exchange whispers again.

    Dave was 185, while Angor was 187. Upon realizing this, they looked at Prome at the same time.

    Prome smiled brightly. ¡°I quite love it.¡±

    He did not speak like this to tter Angor this time¡ªhe truly wanted to get the music box. Besides, the item might provide him with new alchemy inspirations, so why not?

    ¡°One thousand going once! One thousand, twice!¡±

    Despite her in tone, Twilight was feeling pretty depressed. Their appraisers estimated a bid of at least 1,500 out of the item.

    It was such a pity that Lydia seemed not interested in buying it.

    Twilight carefully glimpsed at Chamber 1. Well, at least Lydia did not mention any sarcasticment this time, which meant thedy did not hate the music box.

    Before Twilight could strike her gavel and give the victory to Number 186, something surprised her on her screen.

    Three new bids appeared almost at the same time: 1,100 by Number 35. 1,500 by Number 19, and 2,000 by Number 1.

    Twilight felt her heart skipping a beat. Three Gold VIPs just joined the fray.

    She took a deep breath to hide her great excitement. ¡°We just received three bids from Number 35, 19 and Number 1. The current bid is two thousand, called by Number 1!¡±

    The participants started their heated discussion again. Three Gold VIPs? And Lady Lotus just joined the auction! She was still showing her discontent at the auction house just a while ago!

    Also, the Blood Witchpeted? And who was Number 19?

    Twilight had no idea who was inside Chamber 19. As she recalled, the room was not booked at all. But that was not important now. Lydia just offered to double the reserve price, which was higher than their estimated price.

    ¡°Two thousand, going one!¡± Twilight yelled.

    ¡°Twenty-one hundred,¡± A charming woman¡¯s voice came about.

    ¡°Oh my, I never took you as someone who knows elegance,¡± Lydia¡¯s voice sounded as sarcastic as ever. It was Flora who just bid higher.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t mock me, Miss Lydia. I believe you noticed something hidden in the illusion as well, right?¡±

    ¡°So what? The music is more important to me,¡± replied Lydia. She then looked back at Twilight and said, ¡°Twenty-two.¡±

    ¡°The illusion might be a valuable research subject for my professor. Twenty-three.¡± Flora did not stop here.

    ¡°Is that so? Then I¡¯ll be the one conveying the item to Mister Sunders.¡± Lydia did not back down. ¡°Twenty-five!¡±

    ¡°Really, someone as powerful as you would go out of your way topete with me? Twenty-seven.¡±

    ¡°Compete? Oh,e on. Are two thousand crystals too expensive for you?¡±

    The music box was neglected just a moment ago. No one could have seen such a high priceing so quickly.

    Also, they wondered what Flora meant by ¡°something hidden inside¡±. What exactly? The illusion did affect their memories a little, but it was not something too special.

    Dave was as puzzled. ¡°Did you hide something inside the illusion, Angor? A treasure map? Or a clue that leads people to a secret vault or something? Oh I know, that floating ind is the treasure vault, right?¡±

    Angor put a hand on Dave¡¯s forehead. ¡°Weird, no fever. Then why are you talking nonsense? Something damaged your brain?¡±

    ¡°Quit it!¡± Dave shook off Angor¡¯s hand. ¡°I¡¯m serious!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the problem. There¡¯s nothing in the illusion. No treasures, no nothing.¡±

    ¡°Then why did Lady Flora speak like that?¡±

    ¡°How should I know?¡± Angor was getting frustrated again. He did note to sell the music box. He would not mind spending some time making another one for Flora if the woman had requested for it. There was no need for price wars.

    Thepetition between Flora and Lydia was getting out of hand. Their raises became bigger and bigger. Twilight was calling five thousand now.

    It was still an eptable price for other useful items, but definitely not for a mere music box. People could find a mid-tiered alchemy weapon or something even better with such money!

    A lot of people expressed their disbelief when they saw someone wasting money like this. Even Angor felt a bit sorry for Flora.

    Daichese, on the other hand, was getting more and more excited. She thought she would not be able to sell music box tonight. However, the truth proved her wrong so fast, and she was d for it.

    Five thousand magic crystals! She was nning to buy an ordinary-quality White Orchid Potion, but she realized she might have enough money to buy a bottle of Greater Orchid Potion.

    ¡°You¡¯re rich!! Aw god, I¡¯m jealous!¡± Anna eximed beside her.

    ¡°Aha! The spirits favored me tonight!¡± Daichese smiled big.

    Anna groaned and put an arm around Daichese¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Hey, tell me, where did you find ¡®Land on the Sky¡¯? I should try my luck too!¡±

    Yesterday on the steam train, Daichese mentioned how she got her hands on some kind of treasure, but she did not say how. Now Anna was eager to learn something about it.

    Daichese was still smiling at her fortune as she said, ¡°That¡¯s... a secret.¡±

    For some reason, there was a hint of anxiety hidden behind her smile.

    ...

    The war between Flora and Lydia continued.

    Also, they each expressed a different reason for buying the music box. Lydia imed that she simply loved great music, while Flora said she would give it to Sunders as a gift. No one knew whether they spoke the truth, though.

    The two women fell into a stalemate and began to announce their bids without minding Twilight. Twilight was d she could catch some breath. It seemed those two were the only ones-

    <i>Wait. </i>Twilight suddenly noticed several new bids on her screen from different participants.

    Twilight cleared her throat to catch their attention before saying, ¡°We have eight thousand magic crystals, called by Number 19. Ladies, please start from there if you wish to continue.¡±

 Chapter 266 - Master Alchemist?

    <h4>Chapter 266: Master Alchemist?</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>Eight thousand crystals??</i>

    All wizards on the scene grew silent and frowned at the price. Every single participant here was experienced enough to stay calm at all times. Despite the heatedpetition, they could still size up the situation carefully.

    Sure, the music box was pretty unique and fun to see. But was it really worth spending eight thousand magic crystals on it? Maybe yes, for people with certain tastes.

    However, they did not believe they could find such people here, which meant the price was now unreasonable.

    Those who had money to spare might ept the item at the cost of three thousand or so. To formal wizards, the music box was only a trinket used in personal collections or something to start a fun topic during social conversations. That was about it.

    Did it really contain something valuable like Flora said?

    None of the wizards would lose their mind and join thepetition just for something ¡°possible¡±.

    The price already went out of bounds.

    Angor was d he was not the one selling the music box, and that no one knew he was the creator of it, or he would draw a lot of unwanted attention.

    Prome did not have to worry about drawing attention, but he was quite shocked at the current bid as well.

    ¡°Who is Number 19? And why did he suddenly add fuel?¡± Compared to the insane price, people were more curious about whoever could offer such a price for a music box.

    Even Lydia could not stay put now. ¡°Who¡¯s that? Come, my friend. Let¡¯s talk.¡±

    No response.

    Lydia grimaced. ¡°So, are you doing this just to give me trouble?¡±

    Again, nothing.

    Twilight tilted her head and sent a transmission to a worker waiting behind the stage. ¡°Who is Number 19?¡±

    Chamber 19 was vacant at the beginning of the auction. Twilight took a guess that someone came midway.

    She received an answer soon and her eyes widened in horror. She intended to assist Lydia. But now... after learning who was currently inside Room 19, she dared not intrude thepetition.

    She understood why Number 19 offered such a price, considering that man¡¯s identity.

    She quickly decided to change side. When Lydia demanded a response from Number 19, she pushed the auction with her loud voice.

    ¡°Eight thousand by Number 19, going once.¡±

    ¡°Eight thousand, going twice.¡±

    Twilight no longer cared about Lydia¡¯s opinion. She only wished to get her gavel down as soon as possible.

    As she said ¡°going thrice¡±, Lydia¡¯s voice came again, in a colder tone this time.

    ¡°Eight thousand and a hundred. Youing, Flora?¡± She looked at Chamber 35.

    Flora giggled in her eerie manner. ¡°It¡¯s yours, sister, since you want it so badly.¡±

    Lydia looked toward Chamber 19 next. ¡°You. How about you? I wouldn¡¯t mind giving it up if you pay more.¡±

    The price was getting out of hand even for formal wizards.

    Once again, Number 19 did not say anything, and the bid on Twilight¡¯s screen remained still. After confirming it three times, Twilight announced, ¡°The 100th lot, Land on the Sky, goes to Lady Lotus.¡±

    Twilight ¡°congratted¡± Lydia. The music box both stopped Lydia from discriminating Twilight Auction, as well as getting them a higher share than expected. Twilight smiled and failed to maintain her neutral expression for a moment.

    Before she could bring the 101st item though, Lydia suddenly stopped her.

    ¡°Hold on.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Lady Lotus?¡±

    ¡°I want to know who originally owned the music box. I really enjoyed the music, so I want to ask something regarding itsposer,¡± Lydia exined.

    ¡°I can¡¯t do that due to our policy, Lady Lotus,¡± said Twilight as her smile disappeared.

    Twilight was not the only one who was troubled by the question. Actually, Lydia shocked everyone in the auction hall.

    Even Flora raised an eyebrow at Lydia¡¯s bold attempt. She already knew that ¡®ming Lotus¡¯ Lydia was known for her arrogance and indifference regarding social rules. But she still was not expecting Lydia to ask such a question out loud during a public auction. Lydia might find an answer from the auction house in private if she askedter. However, there was no way Twilight would answer her right here in front of everyone.

    Also, there was someone who was in apletely different mindset. Daichese, who had been sitting at the backseat, suddenly had her face drained of color.

    ¡°Policy?¡± Lydia sneered. ¡°Okay then, let me ask something else. Who was the alchemist who created ¡®Land on the Sky¡¯? At least you can tell us that much, no?¡±

    Twilight was relieved a bit since Lydia asked an easier question. However, she still could not answer this one. ¡°Lady Lotus, please do not put me in a bad position.¡±

    ¡°Not even its creator?¡± Lydia chuckled. ¡°So your policy is all about serving your sellers, but not us buyers?¡±

    Twilight tried to contain her rage. ¡°We can try asking the seller about such informationter. However, we¡¯ll ultimately respect our customer¡¯s decision on whether the information could be told.¡±

    ¡°Please do then,¡± Lydia chuckled again. However, people were unsure of what would happen when someone who never knew how to follow rules acted like that.

    With that settled, Twilight resumed the auction.

    Dave gave Angor a concerned look when Lydia mentioned finding out the source of the music box. However, Angor waspletely fine with it¡ªhe was not the one selling the item, so nothing woulde to him.

    Angor sessfully bought another itemter called the core of a ck Dense Stone.

    He needed three extra materials to craft a space storage, one of which was ¡°core of a White Dense Stone¡±, which was a verymon object scattered around Vacuum ne. Yet he never found one at the wizard stores.

    Angor was nning to ask Prome to take him to the secret alchemy shops. To his surprise though, he found something even better at the auction.

    The cores of White Dense Stone were easy to find because they were everywhere in Vacuum ne. It was one of the mostmon materials used in making storage items, so people never bothered to find an alternative to it.

    The core of ck Dense Stone was not an alternative. A ck Dense Stone which was originally white went through a reforming process for thousands of years. Apart from possessing all the attributes offered by a White Dense Stone, a ck one could also maximize the construction of a space storage by its catalytic effect.

    For example, if an alchemist prepared enough material to craft a space of 5,000 liters, the volume meant the max possible oue of the final product, but not the average volume. Under normal circumstances, the alchemist would create storage of 3,000 liters or so.

    The core of ck Dense Stone, however, could help the product achieved the upper limit.

    Of course, Angor was happy at gaining such important material.

    It cost him 1,300 crystals, but he still found it worthy.

    In contrast to him, Prome¡¯s mood became worse and worse as more items were brought up. The 158th item was being sold now, and he still had not found an anti-undead weapon.

    Angor was going tofort Prome and im that he was going to attempt drawing Prelude to Elimination. Before he could do so, the next auction lot drew his attention.

    ¡°This is the horn of an Abyss Nightmare,¡± Twilight introduced the item in her good old neutral tone, ¡°it came from the third level of Abyss ne, and I believe you all know what it can do. We¡¯ll start at six thousand magic crystals. Only raises of one thousand or more will be epted.¡±

    The initial price and increment limit already proved to them that the item was only intended for formal wizards.

    Once again, the hall remained silent.

    This was totally expected though. Abyss Nightmare¡¯s Horn was a rare alchemy material, and only master alchemists knew how to use it.

    Real master alchemists all received their names because they could create high-tiered items. They were unlike Prome, who was only addressed as ¡°master¡± out of courtesy when he was merely an intermediate apprentice alchemist.

    If the item was sold at Floating Mech City where great alchemists gathered, it might go as high as ten thousand magic crystals. The problem was, people could not find alchemists as easily in Midnight Sovereign. An extremely rare material might attract enough buyers to achieve a good price, but the horn was not something THAT important. It held an awkward value which could prove to be superfluous in a ce like this.

    Twilight shook her head when a full minute had psed inplete silence.

    Naturally, everyone understood the situation. Why would someone other than a master alchemist buy the horn? To ce it in their homes as decoration trophy?

    Twilight was going to ask the workers to bring out the next item when she saw a bid appearing on the screen.

    She did not show it, but she was really curious to find out which master alchemist came to her humble auction. Even Floating Mech City had a limited number of alchemists who were considered ¡°masters¡±.

    Nevertheless, she had to consider these questionster. For now...

    ¡°Six thousand called by Number 187. Can we get another?¡±

    <i>Number 187? </i>People all began to check the auction record. Gases, Rosegold Gargoyle¡¯s Tongue Blood, Chaos Beater Hide Paper, and now this, Abyss Nightmare¡¯s Horn. Number 187 only went for alchemy-rted items.

    People were now certain that Number 187 was an alchemist or at least someone who knew an alchemist and came to buy items in his ce.

    Buying the horn meant either Number 187 himself or the alchemist he knew could be a master alchemist.

    Here, no one had to be reminded of the great value possessed by someone like that. No one showed what they were thinking about. But in the dark, people all made their own ns and plots.

 Chapter 267 - Rosegold Nightmareâ€™s Horn

    <h4>Chapter 267: Rosegold Nightmare¡¯s Horn</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Let¡¯s give our congrattions to Number 187 for winning the Abyss Nightmare Horn at six thousand magic crystals!¡± Twilight announced and nced at the Silver VIP seats on the second floor.

    Angor grinned widely.

    Prome nced at him in surprise. Like everyone else, Prome was beginning to wonder if Angor was really acquainted a master alchemist. But he did not really believe it, considering how Angor often asked him very basic questions.

    Prome gazed at Dave and signaled his assistance to ask in his ce.

    Dave dlyplied while hoping to satisfy his own curiosity as well. ¡°What is that horn used for? And why do you need that thing?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s very useful to me,¡± Angor gave them an irrelevant answer.

    Then Angor grinned again without telling them what exactly the material could do.

    <i>Abyss Nightmare¡¯s Horn? </i>Angor chuckled in his mind. What he just bought was more than a horn. Simr to the core of ck Dense Stone he got earlier, this one possessed more value than people imagined.

    Its real name was ¡°Rosegold Nightmare¡¯s Horn¡±.

    In a broad sense, the name used by the auction house was correct because it dide from an Abyss Nightmare. Except that this one had more to it.

    A ¡°Nightmare¡± was essentially a fallen war steed resurrected by dark power and corroded by resentment; something extremely powerful by its own existence. Meanwhile, a Rosegold Nightmare was a rare case among all Nightmares.

    In its previous life, a Rosegold Nightmare was an honorable war steed specifically bred by noble families. A Nightmare originated from such a breed became a ¡°Rosegold Nightmare¡±.

    When breeding this special war horse, people used the blood of a certain creature called Holy Horse of Cygnus a.k.a a Unicorn.

    A Unicorn was a powerful monster who could manipte life and death, and it was impossible to witness a Unicorn to turn into a Nightmare. A war steed with the blood of a Unicorn, however, could not escape from the ultimate death, making it vulnerable against the dark power. However, their bloodline could somewhat lower their chance of being fallen after death.

    Every ¡°fallen¡± monster possessed evil and power rted to death. A Rosegold Nightmare was not an exception. Also, a Rosegold Nightmare possessed other traits thanks to the trace of Unicorn blood in it. As the power of darkness upied its flesh, the power to ¡°manipte life and death¡±, albeit just a little, would ultimately be forced into the horn on its head.

    For this reason, a Rosegold Nightmare¡¯s horn contained both the power of death and power of life. This was how it was different from other Nightmare Horns.

    The power of life in such a case was too weak to be considered visible energy. Instead, it only left inconspicuous traces of white strings inside the horn. Angor noticed the tiny traces appearing on its outside as well, so he quickly noticed that the item being sold was something special.

    As for why he needed it... the horn was an entry material which could help him to start learning Mortality Alchemy!

    It was intended for formal wizards, this much was true, and there was no way Angor could do anything to refine it right now. Yet he did not need to. There was something recorded in his Tooling book ¡± <i>Basic Alchemy </i>¡± which provided another theory, that to Mortality alchemists, the horn¡¯s potential was fully expressed when used as a mana conductor.

    Angor found <i>Basic Alchemy </i>from the Nightmare Realm. There was a simr book in Sunders¡¯ collection. However, the one Angor found contained extra information in it.

    A spell called ¡°cken¡±.

    cken was a specific spell used by alchemists from the Mortality Sect, and it did not require the alchemist¡¯s level. The oue of the spell depended on the mana level of its user.

    Angor already tried to learn cken during his alchemy studies. However, he never managed to make thest step of the spell, which was generating dark matter by ¡°ckening¡± substances.

    After some careful research in his books, he realized that he failed because of theck of a mana conductor.

    Mana conductors came in many forms and most of which could only be made by master alchemists. There was only one naturally-urred mana conductor which did not require any processing¡ªRosegold Nightmare¡¯s Horn.

    The horn contained the purest form of death power, as well as a small part of the power of life. This was exactly what fascinated Mortality alchemists the most since they always pursued ¡°death and resurrection¡±.

    Angor found the horn at Twilight Auction which could finally help him use cken. Of course, there was no way he would not let the chance slip.

    An Abyss Nightmare¡¯s Horn already worth more than six thousand crystals to alchemists who needed them. Getting a Rosegold Nightmare¡¯s Horn at such a price was a huge bargain.

    And Angor had to thank the appraisers of Twilight Auction for that. Those people made a huge mistake.

    He was too excited to realize that he had be the center of attention by buying something only useful to master alchemists.

    The auction continued. Participants were presented with a selection of items typical to the usual style of Twilight Auction, which meant there were all kinds of items.

    The 159th item was ¡°Starry Night¡±, a ss of pheromone potion.

    The 160th was the cerebellum of a Domon Beast, used in human body modification.

    The 161st, a baby cloud whale, vehicle pet.

    The 162nd, Rainbow Beads, storage item.

    Angor was quite interested in the baby cloud whale. He spent a lot of time on the back of one, so he could understand how valuable it was as a means of travel.

    But it took centuries for a baby cloud whale to go full-fledged, and there was no way he could afford to feed the creature over such a long time. More importantly, the bid for the creature went all the way to 30 thousand magic crystals. Angor wondered if he could earn so much money by selling himself as someone¡¯s ve.

    The cloud whale was not the most expensive one yet. The next item, Rainbow Beads, created a biggerpetition.

    The ne was obviously ady¡¯s essory. Yet it was a male wizard who won it at 50 thousand crystals in the end. Angor knew this because Lydia and Flora worked together to badmouth someone this time.

    ¡°A gentleman buying a woman¡¯s charm? What a joke.¡±

    The wizard was furious at this. But he did not retort since those words sounded pretty legit.

    The man had been saving up for a long time just to find a storage item at the grand auction, and he was always disappointed. Today, he finally saw what he needed so he did not hesitate when going for the item even though the design of it was meant for women. It was a ne anyway. He thought he could wear it under his clothes so no one would notice.

    Before the 163rd item was brought up, Twilight paused and gave them a speech.

    ¡°The remaining ten lots are the finales of Twilight Auction, and I believe you all know what to expect.¡± Twilight pped and the stage went darker again, leaving only the spotlight to focus on the disy stand.

    Angor heard the sound of wheels running on the floor. He saw a series of iron cages being pushed onto the stage, covered in ck curtains.

    Their curiosity was not left hanging for long. Soon, an auction worker came and moved the rightmost cage and lifted its curtain.

    Angor was startled a little when he saw what was inside the cage.

    He expected to see some kind of dangerous monsters inside the cages. However, he realized he was looking at a mermaid. Her upper body waspletely naked, while the remaining half was a fishtail covered in pink-colored scales.

    The mermaid looked extremely charming. She was panicking inside a transparent water tank in the cage. The tank was sealed up aside from a small venthole, which meant there was no way for her to get out.

    ¡°Mermaid captured somewhere 200 sea miles off the shore of Shampoo Coast. She is a Figg Mermaid, average life expectancy is 300, and they usually decline at the age of 250. This one is now 16, a child, a virgin. ording to our appraisers, she had a fully functional reproductive organism and no... reproductive istion, from mankind. But the offspring developed in this way will always be a Humanoid,¡± Twilight exined in her neutral tone. ¡°Also, she¡¯s probably a royalty among Figg Mermaids. She possessed a natural talent ability.

    ¡°You can dissect her for experiments or use her as your tool. Either way, she can prove a valuable ve to you.¡±

    Many male wizards chuckled ominously.

    Angor frowned a little when he saw a ve being sold at the auction, but he did not say anything about it. There were always ve merchants in mortal nations. A number of servants in Padt Manor also used to be ves.

    However, most of the ves Angor knew about in his home world all chose such a path willingly because of poverty. They became ves to feed their empty stomachs.

    The mermaid, however, was ¡°captured¡± ording to Twilight, a different case.

    To Angor, forcing someone into very for personal gain was something he would not ept. Something like this wasmon in wizard world where true strength ruled over everything else, and Angor could do nothing about it. He would try his best to maintain his own moral ground despite being inside this brutal world.

 Chapter 268 - The Eyeless Man

    <h4>Chapter 268: The Eyeless Man</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The young mermaid panicked badly when all the wizards stared at her with their merciless gazes. People grew more and more excited when they saw the poor yet beautiful creature¡¯s timidness turning into fear.

    Angor watched the auction with a in mood. Mermaids tended to invite bane due to their beauty. But at the same time, such beauty was their deadliest weapon. On the sea, these creatures always bewitched innocent sailors and destroyed entire fleets.

    The mermaid went to someone at the cost of 320 crystals.

    The second cage was revealed, revealing another ve inside¡ªa dwarf covered in crystal-like scales.

    ¡°A Crystal Folk from Grand ne, a born craftsman. They do wonderful jobs when constructing buildings, either above or under the surface,¡± Twilight exined.

    <i>A Humanoid from another ne? </i>Angor did find traces of damage left by the world¡¯s consciousness on the creature.

    He was considering whether he should buy this ve and then used this chance to ask the auction house about how to prevent the ve from being expelled by the world¡¯s consciousness.

    But the cold truth quickly discouraged him. The crystal dwarf was sold to someone at 1,500 crystals. Angor only had 600 left after buying the nightmare horn.

    The cages were revealed one after one. There were all kinds of beautiful woman-like creatures or ves from other worlds, and every single one of them went higher than a thousand magic crystals. Angor never had a chance.

    He heard from people before that capturing otherworldly beings and selling them to wizards meant huge profit. But he did not expect them to be so costly.

    What he did not know was the Twilight Auction always provided the best merchandise which all went through careful selections. Also, the creatures they sold all came here by legal means, so the Supreme Cult could not do anything to the ves. The process increased their value, too.

    There were only thest three lots left.

    Usually, these would be the most valuable items there were to offer. However, people noticed that there were still two cages left on the stage, which meant two of the three ¡°ace items¡± were ves.

    <i>Concluding the auction with ves? </i>As people wondered what kind of creature held such value, another cage was revealed.

    Angor raised an eyebrow when he saw yet another grand beauty; a blond woman with a pair of pure-white wings on her back.

    The woman had the same look as told in certain stories which described angels from heaven. Obviously, they would not be seeing a real angel here. She might have the same look, but the hatred hidden in her eyes was real, the same hatred one would find from demonic beasts.

    All the ves more or less disyed hatred. But unlike them, this woman did not specifically direct her hatred to anyone present. Also, she wore fine clothes and was not constrained in anything like the other ves. She just sat there quietly, with her wings covering her sides.

    Angor sensed mana ripplesing from her. It seemed she was a Humanoid supernatural.

    Twilight pointed a finger to the woman. ¡°She¡¯s called Gabriel.¡±

    Many people expressed their surprise upon hearing that name. Angor saw them whispering to each other.

    ¡°Excuse me, Lady Twilight...¡± Someone asked, ¡°She¡¯s Gabriel? Which Gabriel, if I may?¡±

    ¡°The one you all believed to be. She is Gabriel Fudo Inle, the current saintess of Parmigi Winged Folks.¡±

    <i>Saintess? The saintess of a race closely rted to Subterrians?</i>

    Someone gasped in shock.

    Winged Folks usually dwelt in the sky. However, some of them were once persecuted by the Karabits and were forced to move underground. After thousands of years, the ancestors of these Winged Folks established a tight bond with underground dwellers. They settled on a floating ind to the north of Parmigi Higndster and named themselves the Parmigi Winged Folks.

    ¡°Lady Twilight, is it really okay for you to sell the saintess of those people as a ve in public?¡± A Subterrian wizard asked.

    In truth, people could hardly contain their thirst for beautiful women. However, they still had to nod and agree to the question, just to be ¡°polite¡±.

    Gabriel grinned a little when looking at the horny audiences. She nodded to Twilight and closed her eyes.

    Twilight sighed in her mind.

    ¡°I think you all know who she is. Of course, we¡¯d never sell the orphaned child of the Holy Wing. She... came at her own will, on condition that her buyer must help her with revenge. She wants to kill... ¡®Lord of Night¡¯ Moodick.¡±

    Her words startled everyone for good.

    ¡°If anyone can help her get it done,¡± Twilight continued, ¡°she¡¯ll deem herself as that man¡¯s eternal ve and agree to do anything. A test subject, a tool of pleasure... anything.¡±

    ¡®Holy Wing¡¯ Sariye, the former saintess of Parmigi Winged Folks, a formal wizard, and Gabriel¡¯s beloved teacher.

    Three years ago, Sariye died in the hands of Moodick. Nobody knew what exactly happened. Moodick only admittedmitting the murder, but the man never said anything else.

    Twilight did not exin why Gabriel was so determined to kill Moodick even at the cost of bing a ve. She only followed her profession and began the auction. ¡°There¡¯s no reserve bid for this one. Anyone willing to ept her quest may sign the contract with her.¡±

    The discussion among people grew more heated, but no one stepped up and took the job. ¡®Lord of Night¡¯ Moodick was an illustrious figure in the entire Sleepless City, and no one here would try his or her luck against that terrible man.

    Twilight secretly glimpsed at Chamber 19. As she believed, that man was the only one here who ¡°might¡± have a chance at this.

    Five minutes went by.

    Twilight sighed and ended the auction with a sad look.

    Instead of being taken away by the workers, Gabriel opened her cage on her own, bowed to Twilight, and flew out of the inner stage with a desperate yet determined look.

    People remained silent for a while.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope desperation can bring her strength and the courage to oppose the cruel world. Able women should not rely on useless dickheads,¡± Lydiamented.

    ...

    With Gabriel gone, there were only two items left, one of which was another ve.

    They frowned when they saw what was inside thest cage.

    That looked like... a person?

    The figure had a slim body; short, gray hair; and dark skin. He wore a clean servitor suit one would find on any waiters in restaurants.

    He had a high nose bridge and average, pale-colored lips too. Everything on him suggested that he was an ordinary human. Everything apart from... one thing.

    He had no eyes.

    It did not mean he was blind. Rather, there was only bare, empty skin where his eyes should have been. Someone drew a pair of cartoon-style eyes on his face with ink, which looked horribly cute.

    ¡°What the heck is that? I don¡¯t sense the mark of the world¡¯s consciousness on him. He¡¯s not a foreign creature?¡±

    ¡°Is there a race called the ¡®eyeless¡¯ in this world? I never heard of one.¡±

    ¡°What can he do? Why did you ce him at thest but one?¡±

    Angor did not have those questions. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the ve carefully.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Angor?¡± Dave saw his movement.

    ¡°I think... I saw him somewhere before. He looks so familiar.¡±

    ¡°Familiar?¡± Dave also poked his head higher and inspected the figure, but he did not notice anything.

    Angor tried to remember if he saw someone like that in the Nightmare Realm, but nothing came to his mind.

    Toby suddenly moved in his pocket. During the music box incident, Angor sessfully soothed the bird down and put it to sleep. It seemed Toby just woke up.

    Angor changed his attention to the bird and no longer cared about the ve on the stage. ¡°Only two items left. Good timing, we¡¯re leaving soon.¡±

    Toby tweetedzily. Angor smiled when he understood that the bird hadpletely gotten over the previous trouble.

    As Angor and his bird joked at each other, Twilight began her introduction.

    ¡°As you all know, there are two absolutely divine dining ces in the south: Felicia¡¯s Butterfly Tavern, and Greya¡¯s Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.¡±

    Angor froze up when he heard the name of Greya.

    ¡°Those who¡¯ve read the newest edition of <i>Expedition into Endless nes </i>should know that Greya got herself into a fight with Granny Shikazaru in Haunt World, and the two of them, together with another station wizard of the expedition team, ¡®Sawai¡¯, were sucked into the Nightmare Realm. It¡¯smonly believed that Greya has fallen, which meant her restaurant is no more.¡±

    Cold sweat appeared on Angor¡¯s forehead as he finally remembered who the ve was.

    ¡°All the other workers in the restaurant are gourmet wizards. Apart from those who escaped back to Candy House, the rest scattered away into different parts of the world. This one is one of the workers, captured by a wizard during an incident. I think I do not need to remind you of the value of gourmet wizards. He¡¯s not yet a formal wizard, but he already knows how to cook amazing dishes which share the same level of properties as alchemy potions. Now, let¡¯s get some bidding done. We start at 10,000 magic crystals, and I expect raises of no less than 5,000!¡±

    A scene shed through Angor¡¯s memory, in which he entered Barbie¡¯s Restaurant with Mara and a group of other wizards. They saw a number of strange workers and waiters along their way. The dancing Tom Weasel, a ghost janitor who always spoke nonsense, head waiter Greasy Neo, and another man with a stiff body who could only advance by hopping forward, the ¡®Eyeless Man¡¯.

    The very same figure locked up inside that iron cage!

 Chapter 269 - Terrible Foolhardiness

    <h4>Chapter 269: Terrible Foolhardiness</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor did not really have time to think over the situation because something terrible already happened.

    When they heard about the ¡°possible death¡± of Greya, Angor felt great sadnessing from Toby. Before he could do something tofort the bird again, Twilight announced the price for enving Eyeless in a loud voice.

    Toby¡¯s sadness instantly turned into rage.

    It was different fromst time when Toby felt both wronged and worried that Angor might scold him, so the bird did not really do anything too harsh. Back then, he only hoped that Angor could forgive him.

    This time, however, Toby did nothing to contain his emotion. Even powerless humans could lose their sanity and go against stronger beings when afflicted with uncontroble anger, let alone an innocent bird. Without waiting for Angor¡¯s action, Toby unleashed the power of gravity sequence andunched itself from Angor¡¯s pocket.

    The magic array protecting the inner stage inhibited spells only, while Toby¡¯s power of naturalw was not affected.

    Like a meteor, Toby broke the sound barrier and mmed into the auction stand.

    Angor¡¯s heart almost stopped beating when he saw Toby going berserk like that. This ce was full of mighty wizards! Toby would meet a quick death at any moment!

    The booming noise of broken sound barrier quickly drew everyone¡¯s attention, including the eyeless man inside the iron cage.

    He did not have eyes. But as an apprentice, he could always sense his surroundings with spirit feelers. He had been in great despair when he learned that he was being sold as a ve. Now the ruckus aroused his curiosity again.

    He sensed a familiar figure approaching. Gray feathers, red talons, an adorable but deadly-sharp beak, and beady, green eyes. More importantly, those clothes...

    ¡°Toby?... Why...¡±

    Meanwhile, inside Chamber 35, Flora raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Wait. That¡¯s Toby?¡±

    The brief second was enough for wizards to register the whole situation in their minds.

    Of course, Twilight, as the host of the show, noticed the abnormality as well.

    ¡°A bird... who possesses the sequence of gravity?¡± She frowned.

    <i>The sequence of gravity? Brute Cavern? So, the gravity garden, Sunders... </i>Twilight quickly sized up the situation and wondered whether she should do something about the bird which possibly came from Sunders.

    The other workers on the stage already moved. They were not among the targets affected by the magic array. Soon, Angor saw mana ripples of different colors showing on their bodies. Obviously, a powerful spell was in the making.

    His best choice for NOT getting involved in the trouble was to stay put and pretend he did not know Toby.

    And he would totally be that way if it was not Toby who was in trouble. For Dave, Prome... Angor definitely would choose to observe first and act ordingly.

    However, it was Toby, his best partner. The bird helped him and even saved his life during the months they lived together. Toby was the only one he fully trusted in this merciless world.

    Despite his usualposure, Angor only thought about the days they¡¯ve spent together. The mean and yful but adorable creature always brought a smile to his face.

    Without much hesitation, Angor bolted from his seat.

    Emotions and the rashness of youthpletely upied his mind. Under Dave and Prome¡¯s startled gazes, Angor dashed to the railings and jumped down from the second floor.

    ¡°Angor!?¡± Dave yelled out and looked down from the railings.

    On the stage, Toby was now aiming at the eyeless man¡¯s cage. The workers beside the cage were all apprentices who did not know any Quickened Spells, so Toby had enough time to reach the cage and st a hole through it with his raw strength.

    The bird stopped in front of Eyeless.

    ¡°Toby...¡± Eyeless called. Despite his physical condition, people could clearly read the great excitement as well as disbelief in his tone.

    ¡°Toby!¡± It was Angor this time. He tried to leap onto the stage but was grabbed by the guards.

    The workers were going to cast their spell now. Angor clenched his teeth and took out a golden revolver from his pocket before firing it at the casters.

    Due to the magic array, his bullets became ordinary bullets which could not hurt anyone. However, the attack was enough to interrupt their spell.

    It was only several seconds, and the sound of the broken sound barrier, gunshots, and someone yelling hadpletely turned the inner stage into chaos.

    The onlooking wizards sat upright and enjoyed the show. They did not know how many decades it would take to find someone so bold to assault Twilight Auction, but at least they would not miss the chance to watch it.

    While the auction stage was an utter mess, the audience seats remained quiet and still in great contrast.

    Twilight knew she could wait no longer. She had to do something no matter who that bird was. But first, she had to deal with the intruder boy first since that one seemed to be the bigger problem.

    Twilight simply needed to lift a hand to get rid of a Level-1 apprentice. She unleashed a beam from her hand, which went for Angor at lightning speed.

    While constrained by the guards as well as the magic array which prevented him from using spells, Angor could do nothing at all. The beam hit him in the dead center.

    A destructive shock wave sent him a dozen meters away, mming his body against the wall in the hall.

    As he slowly slumped to the ground, unbearable pain almost removed all of his senses. Using what was left of his consciousness, he only sensed his own blood leaving his body, the ringing around his ears, and his racing heartbeat.

    ¡°Angor! No!!¡± Dave called again.

    Toby looked back and noticed what just happened. His young master now had his shoulder bonepletely shattered, and his body bathed in blood.

    ¡°Tsk. Such a young handsome... and such a pity,¡± Lydia taunted just in the right time.

    ¡°s. He lost his mind.¡± It was Flora. She had no intention to help her little ssmate. She was once in a simr situation when many wizards wanted her dead, and Sunders never cast an eye at her.

    One could only rely on oneself in this world, and Flora believed people would agree with her.

    She would remain still and watch... unless something changed her mind by ¡°equivalent exchange¡±.

    Inside Chamber 19, someone in gentleman attire lifted his head and closed his eyes. The man shook his head and sighed.

    From the central screen, people staying in the outer hall could also see what was going on inside.

    A young man in a white robe was quite happy for winning the Azure Bloodline. However, he suddenly stared at the bloody figure on the screen and trembled.

    ¡°An-An-that¡¯s Angor!¡±

    ...

    Angor felt his spirit slipping away. He managed to recover his senses, although he could not move a finger.

    There was a giant bleeding puncture on his shoulder. His hand was shattered, so was his leg. Actually, he did not have many fine parts on his body now. Even his heart was getting weaker.

    He silently sneered at himself. <i>A mere apprentice trying to offend a powerful wizard... like an ant trying to challenge a lion.</i>

    With Angor dealt with, Twilight prepared to do something about the intruding bird.

    When she looked back though, she only saw the eyeless man still inside the cage. The bird had moved to the injured boy.

    ¡°Just as I thought, they came together. They should go together then.¡± Twilight was not showing any mercy. There was only absolute authority and arrogance in her expression.

    She lifted her hand again. Another light beam went for Toby¡¯s body.

    ¡°Get... away!¡± Angor used all his remaining strength to speak.

    Toby did not listen. He knew he was thest defense in front of Angor.

    Toby was already regretting his decision now. He was too angry when he heard Greya¡¯s fate. Now he both failed to save eyeless man and brought his young master into danger. Deadly danger.

    Toby unleashed as much gravity power as he could, which did not affect the light beam at all. The beam hit Toby at full force.

    ¡°Toby!!¡± Eyeless and Angor both called out when they saw the beam pierced the bird and hit Angor¡¯s arm.

    Toby was hurled into the air and dropped beside Angor¡¯s feet like a stone.

    Angor¡¯s eyes were still fine. He saw blooding out Toby¡¯s beak. The bird was twitching while trying to move his tiny eyes toward Angor¡¯s direction with a guilty look as if saying hisst goodbye.

    Angor could no longer take it. Tears rushed from his eyes.

    ¡°It was me... it was my fault! I should have told you about Greya sooner...¡±

    But Toby could not hear it anymore. Those small, once lively eyes were beginning to turn deadly still.

    ¡°No... no!!¡±

 Chapter 270 - Wonder Nightmare Domain

    <h4>Chapter 270: Wonder Nightmare Domain</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Everything happened so fast.

    Dave felt as if he was still teasing with Angor in the previous minute, and now he saw both Angor and Toby drawing theirst breath on the floor.

    ¡°What should I do??¡± Dave panicked. He had no idea how he could possibly help Angor in such a situation.

    He looked at Prome desperately.

    Prome closed his eyes and shook his head. ¡°The gap between real wizards and apprentices is like the difference between the vast sea and a ss of water. There¡¯s nothing I can do.¡±

    ...

    While desperate with sadness, Angor heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

    He lifted his head weakly and saw Twilight standing not far from him.

    ¡°Now tell me, why did you attack the Twilight Auction House?¡±

    Angor said nothing. It was true that he was the intruder. But he did not really have a reason for it. He was simply trying to save Toby.

    And he had his own rashness to me.

    Twilight stared at Angor¡¯s silent in disdain.

    Angor looked back at Toby, when Toby returned his own gaze, trying to enjoy thest moment with his young master.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Something to do with that eyeless man, I assume? I don¡¯t care if you wanted to save him of what. The result is clear, you¡¯ll be executed.¡±

    Twilight turned back to the auction stage. One of her hands was still pointed at Angor, which was about to unleash that light beam again.

    ¡°So cruel, Twilight,¡± Lydia¡¯s teasing voice echoed in the hall again. ¡°Aw look at the beautiful friendship between the bird and young gentleman... I¡¯m crying now. You know what, this is more beautiful than the Phantom of Festivity tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Lady Lotus... I believe you quite enjoy grinding such beauty under your heel, am I right?¡± Twilight responded in her in tone.

    ¡°You know me well!¡± Lydia¡¯s gentle voice suddenly became that of a maniacal witch. ¡°Yes, be cruel! I like it! Cruelty is beauty, heehahaha!¡±

    Twilight did not mind her. She was only doing her job, and those who dared to oppose Twilight Well had to pay, whoever they might be.

    Angor was going to ept his death willingly, but he then remembered his promise to Jon.

    ¡°I... can¡¯t die yet!¡±

    Jon was still waiting for his return!

    He wished he could go home and attend his brother¡¯s wedding. He wanted to see the Padt Family rise and achieve glory. He still had not seen the me of lion heart burned bright. He had so much to do!

    But how to get out of here?

    A level-1 apprentice, in the face of a mighty wizard.

    ¡°Calling for help¡± was the first idea that came to Angor¡¯s mind.

    But who would help?

    <i>Flora? </i>Angor tried to look at Chamber 35. He was sure Flora had seen all. But... she did not do anything. There was only dead silence.

    He knew Flora chose to stay out of this.

    He had already determined to always rely on himself instead of others before. Angor felt a bit ashamed at how he needed someone¡¯s help so soon.

    No one helped strangers in this world without a good reason. Just like how Gabriel was disregarded by everyone. Even willing very was not enough.

    Angor saw Twilight¡¯s beam about toe and grimaced.

    He only had himself now. With the magic array around, he could not use spells, and even if he could, he did not believe he had a spell to help him escape from a real wizard. Twilight was not the only wizard here.

    Angor desperately stressed his brain, trying to grasp at least a tiny hope of survival.

    <i>Spells wouldn¡¯t work here, but... maybe illusions could? The music box disyed its illusion in the hall just fine.</i>

    He did not have time to consider whether an illusion was helpful. He decided to deploy one first.

    There were a lot of noises around, which meant it was a good time to use Melodious Illusion. But when he tried to create illusion nodes nearby, he found himself unable to unleash any mana at all.

    So the magic array was still a problem.

    The music box showed its illusion probably because it was not a harmful one, so the magic array allowed it to pass through.

    Using illusion was a no-go.

    Then what?

    Angor grew more panicked when he saw Twilight¡¯s attack fully prepared, which somehow strengthened his heartbeat despite his wounds.

    He suddenly got another idea when listening to his own heart beating madly.

    Sunders once used his heartbeat to construct a Melodious Illusion. Illusion nodes did not have to be in the environment. He could ce them inside his body! He could create an illusion by using his own brain as a medium.

    A new idea meant he would get to it immediately. Angor quickly tried to create illusion nodes inside him.

    The nodes running on his organs brought him pain, but it was nothingpared to what he went through just now.

    First, it was his forehead. Then his body... more sweat and blood came flowing out due to the great pressure inflicted by magic.

    Twilight, as well as every wizard in the hall, noticed Angor¡¯s movement.

    And Twilight immediately saw what Angor was doing. However, a Melodious Illusion made by a weak apprentice was not worth her attention at all.

    Inside Chamber 19, the man in gentleman suit slightly opened his eyes.

    ¡°Such folly.¡±

    Twilight stopped her attack. She was getting curious about what would happen when an apprentice fought for hisst breath. Maybe it would prove to be something childishly fun.

    Angor did not care what people were thinking about.

    During these days, he learned how to trick people¡¯s senses. However, he was sure it would not work on real wizards. He had to think of something else.

    Lady Mirror once mentioned something about his illusion carrying the trace of the Nightmare Realm. Angor thought it was because he was referring to the scenery of that ce when making his music box, but heter denied that idea.

    Besides, an illusion like that would not help him escape from wizards. Something from the Nightmare Realm might affect people¡¯s emotions, yet that was not going to save him from someone as strong as Twilight.

    Speaking of strong... someone else shed through Angor¡¯s mind.

    Or was it ¡°something¡±? He was not sure.

    Angor wondered whether he could buy enough time if he managed to create the illusion of ¡°that being¡±.

    There was no choice anyway. Angor tried his best to deploy the illusion while thinking about a certain woman who left a deep scar on his back.

    ...

    ¡°Using his own body to support an illusion? Dear me. Angor is such a fast learner when ites to micro illusions. But... isn¡¯t using one¡¯s body like that kinda foolish?¡± Flora chuckled. ¡°Yes, you can make your illusion happen that way. But what next?¡±

    Flora floated into the air and observed the situation happily.

    The Red Reaper behind her back suddenly let go of Flora¡¯s back. Its bony hands grabbed its skull as if having a headache.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Little Red?¡±

    ¡°Save... him...¡± The mes in the skeleton¡¯s eye sockets blinked as if they were about to vanish.

    ¡°Save Angor?¡± Flora pouted. ¡°Why me? My professor never helped me when I was the one being hunted down.¡±

    Little Red did not answer. It kept holding its skull in pain.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening to you??¡±

    Inside the hall, people saw white smokeing from Angor¡¯s body. As the smoke covered the ce, they began to see strange scenes of forest, then strange animals, before the reality returned again. It felt like some beginner apprentice was trying to practice illusions in a really bad way.

    ¡°Tsk. That¡¯s the worst illusion I¡¯ve ever seen yet,¡± Lydia sneered at the scenes around her. After witnessing the perfect illusion created by the music box, this one was total junk.

    Twilight also shook her head in disdain.

    The man inside Chamber 19 frowned and grew puzzled a little.

    ¡°The child¡¯s y ends here,¡± Twilight nced at the terrible illusion and unleashed her finishing blow at Angor.

    Before the light beam reached Angor¡¯s forehead, the illusion shifted again, as a thick mist came rushing out from Angor.

    Unlike the thin smoke earlier, the mist instantly blocked people¡¯s sight. The beam used by Twilight simply disappeared in it.

    Twilight was shocked now. What just happened? A bad illusion blocked her beam attack?

    They suddenly heard somethinging from the white mist. There were drum beats, ringing gongs, trumpets...

    People all lost their sight of the auction hall for a moment. When they could see again, they found themselves inside an exquisite hall of an ancient castle.

 Chapter 271 - Teacup Band

    <h4>Chapter 271: Teacup Band</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    They could see the wounded young man still releasing mist from a corner of the castle¡¯s hall. As the mist grew denser, the blood-covered body of the boy slowly vanished from sight.

    ¡°Ohh, this one¡¯s pretty good, considering the little boy¡¯s age. The castle looks real enough,¡± Lydia¡¯s voice came from behind.

    People turned around and saw Lydia sitting in front of a luxurious round desk. She had a me-red robe, coiled-up pink hair as well as a very charming look. She blended in with the scenery of the castle hall quite well.

    Lydia frowned when she saw people looking at her.

    ¡°Weird... I should still be inside my private room now. How did they see me?¡±

    She looked aside and saw another white-haired old wizard admiring a painting hanging on the wall. She knew that wizard. A famed man who booked the room next to her.

    The old wizard noticed Lydia¡¯s gesture and returned his own gentle smile.

    So the walls of the private chambers became transparent inside the illusion?

    ¡°Interesting,¡± Lydia grinned deviously.

    She inspected the chair she was sitting on, then the round desk, none of which should belong to her room. The original sofa she used had gone.

    She also saw some of the apprentices sitting on their butts on the floor, which meant... their seats disappeared under them?

    ¡°A special illusion then?¡± Lydia pondered. She fought with Truth Maniptors before. Those masters of illusions could create something real enough to bend the very reality. For example, they could change the wizard wand in a person¡¯s hand into a deadly viper. And even if that person already knew it was an illusion, the viper could still hurt or kill him.

    But could a young apprentice do that?

    Lydia stood up and tried moving toward one of the other apprentices.

    Normally, she would have to leave her room and climb down first to reach this apprentice who stayed on the first floor. But she found no need for all that walk. She reached her destination real quick.

    ¡°Is this really an illusion?¡± Lydia began to doubt.

    And almost everyone was thinking about the same question. Were they teleported to somece else?

    ...

    Dave did not have time to question what just happened around him. When he appeared in the strange castle, he quickly rushed to Angor¡¯s side.

    ¡°Angor!¡±

    He knew well not to draw people¡¯s attention. As the others were attracted by the scenes, he approached Angor carefully.

    The mist had covered a big area around Angor, which helped Dave avoid getting noticed.

    Dave crouched toward Angor and tried to inspect him, and he heard Angor panting heavily and fearfully.

    ¡°Don¡¯te... Stay away from me, Dave...¡±

    ¡°Are you okay Angor??¡± Dave panicked. ¡°What should we do? Can you escape when your illusion is working?¡±

    Angor was feeling very strange now. He saw ¡°that ce¡± again, as well as the bizarre creatures that brought him great fear. He got a feeling that he MUST NOT alert them now, or something disastrous would happen.

    This was why he asked Dave to keep away.

    ¡°Don¡¯t... don¡¯t mind me. Bring Toby to Master Prome and ask him to save Toby,¡± Angor spoke between his breaths, ¡°and tell him that if I make it out, I¡¯ll help him make the anti-undead weapon. I can draw Prelude to Elimination... but please save Toby. Toby must live!¡±

    Dave was still terrified of the situation, but heplied and picked up Toby carefully.

    ¡°What about you?¡±

    ¡°Leave me here. I¡¯ll think of something.¡±

    Dave decided to move away under Angor¡¯s demanding gaze.

    Angor sneered at himself after Dave left. Something? He had nothing. He could barely stay alive now.

    Dave hid Toby inside his pocket and carefully sneaked out of the mist and went for Prome.

    Most people did not notice his action due to the distraction of the illusion, but Twilight did. However, she did not do anything other than giving Dave a nonchnt nce before returning her attention to the mist again.

    She still could not see through the illusion yet. Or was it an illusion at all?

    Twilight was regretting her previous decision of waiting for the boy to finish the illusion without stopping him, all just because she wanted to mock at the Level-1 apprentice weakling. It was not like the illusion did anything to her yet. But... something was making her worried.

    Someone yelled. Twilight looked around to see what happened.

    She saw a barefoot woman floating toward her with a really dark expression.

    Twilight knew her¡ªFlora the Blood Witch, the Gold VIP in Chamber 35.

    However... the woman looked strange.

    Putting Flora¡¯s unusual expression and clothes aside... Twilight believed she saw something behind Flora¡¯s back. Was that a skeleton?

    Twilight looked more carefully and became sure of her idea, but the skeleton kept blinking out of existence for some reason.

    ¡°Dear me, Flora, since when did you develop such a... fetish?¡± Lydia suddenly moved in Flora¡¯s way. Her me-red robe formed a great contrast with Flora¡¯s dark-violet doll skirt.

    ¡°Fetish? Are you referring to drinking blood or toying with the corpses of my victims? Oh right, I LOVE to kill women who wear red,¡± said Flora as she smiled.

    ¡°I mean, when did you start bringing a skeleton on your back when going outside?¡±

    <i>Skeleton? </i>Flora squinted her eyes. ¡°What do you mean? You can see Little Red?¡±

    ¡°Little Red? That... skeleton who¡¯s holding his head screaming? What a dumb name,¡± Lydia taunted again.

    Instead of retorting, Flora grabbed an apprentice nearby and demanded, ¡°Can you see Little Red behind me?¡±

    ¡°What-Little Red? I think I see the shadow of a skeleton.¡±

    Flora frowned and tossed the apprentice away.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on? What the heck did Angor do? People can see Little Red now?¡± She thought to herself. ¡°Argh! This is such a pain!¡± She clenched her teeth in irritation.

    She no longer cared about Lydia and stomped her way toward Angor in rage.

    When Twilight thought about what Flora possibly wanted to do, something else happened.

    Someone screamed in pain inside the mist, and Flora immediately realized it was Angor.

    Following the scream, people began to hear the faint sound of musical instruments, which was bing louder.

    As they looked toward the source of the noise, they suddenly felt an unknown fear slowly grasping their hearts.

    Twilight felt it too. She frowned and turned to the guards behind her. ¡°Can you get in touch with the house?¡±

    The guard captain shook his head as he replied, ¡°Lady Twilight, we¡¯ve lost contact with everyone outside. The illusion seems to be a real dimension. The walls around us are all real. The only way out is behind that mist.¡±

    Twilight felt his heart twitching. She turned to the mist and lifted her hands.

    Ten light beams pierced the air and went inside the mist.

    She was aiming at where Angor copsed. Despite what she expected, people heard the noise of something bouncing on metal.

    And they were shocked to see all the light beamsing back out.

    Most of them hit nothing, while two hit the guards of Twilight Auction House. One of them had his head pierced and fell dead on the spot. The second one had a ruined chest, which meant he probably did not have long to live.

    Twilight grimaced. The small incident caused by an apprentice and a bird had turned worse. They had casualties now...

    ¡°It was my fault... I¡¯ll confess my mistake to the nter,¡± Twilight looked at the struggling guard and spoke sadly.

    As she talked, a team of... teacups walked out from the mist-covered area.

    People frowned at the strange sight. Those were white porcin cups which all had the marks of hearts on them. Each teacup grew stick-like arms and legs while carrying a musical instrument. A teacup was even ying the piano while floating in the air.

    What was worse, the music they yed had materialized. Lines of stave slowly came moving in midair while tadpole-like notes bounced on them along with the lively melodies.

    However, the ¡°music band¡± which seemed like something in little girl¡¯s stories was ying an extremely terrifying musical piece.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Twilight unleashed her beams without much of a thought.

    The beams were immediately bounced away by the instruments.

    Now Twilight realized what had just happened to her attacks.

    But what were them, really?

    Several more attempts were soon proved to be useless. The other wizards and guards followed her example and tried their own attacks, but they were all in vain.

    ¡°That damned boy... Kill him and this is all over,¡± Twilight growled.

    She dashed into the mist and quickly found Angor still lying on the floor. She grinned and lifted a hand with knife-like nails. She then went for Angor¡¯s heart.

    Laughter suddenly came from Angor¡¯s body. Sharp, coldughter, which was as horrid as hearing the sound of ringing knell in the middle of a graveyard.

    ¡°Heeheeheehe-¡±

    As theughter was heard, the teacup band stopped moving and announced together in a strange, child-like voice.

    ¡°Behold the Queen! It¡¯s time for nightwatch!¡±

    Before Twilight could understand what happened, someone grabbed her hand and stopped her attack from reaching Angor.

    ¡°Mister Sunders?!¡±

 Chapter 272 - Inside Nightmare Domain

    <h4>Chapter 272: Inside Nightmare Domain</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Outside the dense mist, all wizards attending the auction had gathered. They shared different attitudes about the situation. Curiosity, surprise, shock, and mostly, fear.

    Something unknown was exerting an aura from the mist, which brought fear to even the powerful wizards.

    An aura of terror so powerful that no one could escape from being affected.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that boy??¡±

    They could not understand why a level-1 apprentice could do something to nt fear into the minds of wizards.

    ¡°The point is, are we inside an illusion? I don¡¯t sense mana ripples.¡±

    People all pondered about that question. To them, the ce felt more like reality.

    ¡°You! What¡¯s about that boy? Tell us!¡± A guard of the auction house grabbed the eyeless man and questioned.

    The eyeless man looked at his captor with those fake doll eyes. ¡°Gege, gege... I don¡¯t know him.¡±

    The man¡¯s limbs were so creaky that he would create noises whenever he moved.

    ¡°I ask you again, WHO IS HE?¡± The guard thought the ve was ying tough.

    ¡°I can read minds. Let me try it.¡± The white-haired old man from Chamber 2 left the painting he was watching and joined the guard.

    ¡°Mister Kooper, please do.¡±

    The old wizard named Kooper stood in front of the eyeless man. Mana ripples shined in his eyes as he chanted something.

    A whileter, he wiped some sweat from his forehead and moved away.

    ¡°He spoke the truth. It¡¯s not the young man he knows, but that bird. The bird was once Greya¡¯s beloved pet before it was handed to someone else¡¯s care,¡± Kooper pondered. ¡°Although he did hear Greya speaking of who she entrusted her pet to... Mister Sunders¡¯ student.¡±

    Everyone froze up upon hearing that name, especially the guards.

    The boy used an illusion... the student of ¡®Phantom Master¡¯ Sunders... the bird just used the sequence of gravity, and Sunders recently obtained a gravity garden...

    They quickly concluded that the wounded young man was Sunders¡¯ pupil.

    The guard captain could not help shaking his head. If they did kill Sunders¡¯ student, something terrible would probablye to them. More importantly, Sunders was here watching the auction all along!

    Next, people looked at Flora, believing that the other student of Sunders had to know something.

    Flora shrugged at the attention. ¡°Yeah, that little one is my professor¡¯s new student.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Flora, so your little junior is being bullied, and you seem pretty happy to watch,¡± Lydia spoke.

    Flora scoffed. ¡°Help him? Why should I? And besides, he doesn¡¯t need my help to trick you fools. Just look at you. Heh, if you have time to mind people¡¯s business, how about finding a way out of this Nightmare Domain?¡±

    Everyone else looked away when hearing Flora addressing them as ¡°fools¡±. They already tried, and no one had seeded in breaching the walls around them. They werepletely trapped in the castle hall.

    ¡°Nightmare Domain? This is not an illusion?¡± Kooper noticed something in Flora¡¯s words.

    Flora did not answer. She nced at Little Red with a worried look and moved toward Angor somewhat furiously.

    The guard captain could no longer conceal his concern. He dragged one of his men and ordered, ¡°Get in there and tell this to Lady Twilight. I mean the identity of that young man. Move!¡±

    Before anyone could move, people felt their heart racing as if the fear they sensed earlier just grew tenfold.

    ¡°Heeheeheehe-¡±

    Cold sweat appeared on their foreheads upon hearing the eerieughter.

    ¡°Who-who¡¯s that? Even Mister Monkey did not sound so horrifying when I saw himst time!¡± Someonemented.

    The teacup band stopped their music and announced in unison. ¡°Behold the Queen! It¡¯s time for nightwatch!¡±

    ...

    Inside the white mist, Sunders grabbed Twilight¡¯s attacking w.

    ¡°Mister Sunders?!¡± Twilight called out in surprise.

    ¡°Leave him. You get out, I¡¯ll handle this.¡± Sunders cast a careful nce at Angor, who was barely breathing now. ¡°You... my boy. What a pain you are...¡±

    Twilight felt something jumping in her mind when she noticed the hint of care in Sunders¡¯ words.

    ¡°I have no idea what you did to lead the Nightmare Domain here... if that womanes, I¡¯m afraid the entire underground world will crumble.¡±

    His student had created the Nightmare Domain. He did not know how Angor learned such twisted art, but he was pretty angry at Angor¡¯s rash action.

    Sunders could create illusions feared by anyone in the southern region just because of the Nightmare Domain elements that was hidden within.

    The Nightmare Domain was almost another reality which shared the same attribute ¡ª project reality from imaginations ¡ª as the Nightmare Realm, making Nightmare Domain way deadlier than ordinary illusions. However, this dangerous art could not be used freely. There was only a thin barrier separating Nightmare Domain and Nightmare Realm. Powerful nightmare monsters could tear through such a boundary and find their way toward reality easily.

    For this reason, Sunders always had to use other means to create a ¡°private¡± space to deploy his Nightmare Domain and use it against his enemies. Little Red also used such a way to exist in a separate Nightmare Domain which hadpletely lost connection with Nightmare Realm.

    Now... not only did Angor create a Nightmare Domain, he even summoned creatures from the Nightmare Realm.

    The barrier protecting the Nightmare Domain was still intact, and theughter from those monsters already disyed the same level of might as legendary wizards. Sunders could not imagine what would possibly follow behind.

    ¡°We have trouble now...¡± Sunders amplified his voice with mana. ¡°Get up, Angor!¡±

    The strange frequency of his voice entered Angor¡¯s wilting consciousness, briefly rejuvenating Angor¡¯s mind as if presenting water to someone who was lost for a long time in the desert.

    Angor slowly opened his eyes, still puzzled at what was going on around him. In his blurred view, he saw someone in ck standing near him.

    ¡°Pro-professor... thank, thank heavens... quickly, help To... by...¡±

    Sunders was going to scold his student for attempting dangerous arts carelessly. However, he could not when he saw Angor¡¯s terrible condition.

    ¡°Do you have any idea what outrage you¡¯ve just done??¡±

    Twilight was still behind Sunders to hear the man speaking. She was even more surprised when she realized the young man was Sunders¡¯ student.

    She quickly collected avable information in her mind and determined what was more important. Then she quickly turned to leave.

    Someone suddenly screamed.

    A Twilight Guard tried to enter the mist. He identally tripped on the materialized musical stave created by the teacups, which torn his legs into two halves nice and clean. Upon losing his bnce, the guard tumbled among the teacups, and more stave and ¡°tadpoles¡± shredded the guard to pieces, leaving bloody organs and guts on the floor.

    Twilight grew more infuriated at the sight. She should have killed that kid when she had the chance!

    She did not care whether Sunders was here now. That kid was the one attacking their auction, and people would support them even if the incident was known by the public.

    She clenched her fists to contain her great rage.

    ¡°He¡¯s just an apprentice. I have had plenty of chances-¡±

    Moreughter came and interrupted her thought. Unlike the previous one which nted fear into the minds of people, this one meant to harm. Almost all apprentices started bleeding from their ears.

    ¡°Using sound to damage people?¡± Lydia grimaced as well. ¡°It means at least something stronger than level-3 wizards...¡±

    Twilight¡¯s face grew pale. How could a small kid create that kind of attack?

    She immediately gave up her previous idea about killing the boy. It seemed she needed to tread carefully and look for more info first.

    Inside the mist, Angor also heard the terribleughtering from his own body. It did not harm him, but he could still sense the horror carried by that sound.

    ¡°What are you waiting for? Cancel the Nightmare Domain at once! Or we¡¯re all dead if those monsters get out!¡± Sunders bellowed.

    Sunders did something to cure most of Angor¡¯s external wounds. Angor still had broken bones, so he could not move now.

    ¡°But I didn¡¯t do anything! I was thinking about deploying illusion nodes in my body, and I thought about that woman when creating the illusion...¡±

    ¡°Which woman?¡± Sunders frowned.

    ¡°The one that scratched my shoulder,¡± said Angor as he lowered his head in shame. ¡°I didn¡¯t know it would be so terrible, but I didn¡¯t have a choice. I just wanted to bring out something, or someone really strong, so I can hopefully survive.¡±

    In the beginning, Angor could only remember a vague figure of the woman, and maybe the sutures on her face. But as he constructed his illusion, he realized the face of the woman became clearer and clearer in his mind. In the end, he could definitely describe every single detail on her, including her clothes, the way she moved...

    Then he felt the back of his shoulder started to itch again.

    Next, the illusion appeared.

    When he checked again, Angor found his vision in an extremely strange state. Half of his vision still registered the reality around him, while the other half showed him another ce, where all kinds of strange creatures dwelt.

    He also felt numbness on his shoulder bone when the white mist began to seep out from the old wound.

    Inside his ¡°vision¡±, the strange creatures on the right side began to move through a thin barrier, entering the left side.

    He watched as a flock of dragonflies shining with rainbow colors appeared from the white mist, circled around his head, and left the area.

    He did not see the previous teacup band because he almost lost his consciousness. Now the bizarre visionpletely baffled him.

    At this very moment, there were more creatures approaching the ¡°thin barrier¡±.

    At the end of the army of strange creatures was a throne of the color of the starry sky, upon which sat that sutured woman.

    As Angor looked that way, the woman also lifted her head.

    Across the army of countless pawns, they stared at each other.

 Chapter 273 - Beyond Legendary

    <h4>Chapter 273: Beyond Legendary</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Those pupils showed nothing more than insanity. A simple glimpse and Angor started to feel something crawling on his spine.

    The sutured woman in heavy face powder grinned at Angor. She thenughed madly while swinging back and forth on her throne. Her ck heart-shaped crown barely remained on her head.

    Angor felt something simr to when he met the Glutton Flower Lord. He could senseplex emotion from the woman. Except that this time, he could not tell a word of it, as if a child who only learned single characters could not read words.

    Still, he couldprehend the terrible madnessing from the woman... as well as unending killing intent.

    ¡°She cannot get out!¡± Angor thought.

    Sunders ordered him exactly the same thing, ¡°Think of something to end the Nightmare Domain!¡±

    Sunders felt his heart growing a little cold when he looked at the rainbow dragonflies. In the view of wizards, those previous teacups were something as strong as level-2 apprentices, while these dragonflies were almost at a wizard¡¯s level. And there were at least a hundred dragonflies out there! If they did something together, even a real wizard would not guarantee a victory.

    ¡°What¡¯s the Nightmare Domain? How do I end it??¡± Angor panicked. He was now the medium of two worlds, and he could observe both.

    But he had no idea how to stop all this.

    ¡°The Nightmare Domain is the link between the Nightmare Realm and reality, and only Nightmare Forms can create it. Monsters from the Nightmare Realm must go through this link to enter our world!¡± Sunders bellowed, ¡°The woman you mentioned must be something from the core area of the Nightmare Realm, something stronger than legendary wizards. DO NOT let her pass, or we-No, the entire south will see doom!¡±

    Sunders stared at Angor with the seriousness he never disyed to his student before and said, ¡°You saw her first at your home, right? When she gets out, it¡¯s very likely that your home will get involved as well. Stop her at all cost, for your family¡¯s sake!¡±

    ¡°But what should I do?¡±

    ¡°Close the Nightmare Domain and stop any monsters from advancing! Those insects earlier are nearly at wizard level, the next who gets out will be real wizards!¡±

    ¡°How do I close it? And I can¡¯t stop them! The owl ising out!¡±

    ¡°Owl?¡± Sunders was unsure of what he referred to.

    Soon, he saw a green, cartoon-style toy owl emerging from the mist around Angor while pping its chubby wings.

    And the gentleman only grew more rmed at this. ¡°As I expected, this one is as strong as a wizard now.¡±

    Sunders suddenly recalled Angor¡¯s ¡°warning¡±.

    ¡°You can see into the Nightmare Realm?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    Sunders widened his eyes. That was something he could not to when using Nightmare Domains! But he did not have the time to question the reason now.

    ¡°How many monsters areing?!¡±

    Angor tried not to cry. ¡°A lot! I can¡¯t see the end of them! And there¡¯s that woman, on her giant throne at the end of the army...¡±

    Sunders could not help shaking his head. ¡°Boy, do you have any idea how much trouble you brought??¡±

    ¡°But, but...¡± Angor never expected that he suddenly had to take the me for endangering the lives of people in the entire south, when his own life was in danger just moments ago. Seriously! He just wanted to survive!

    Sunders clenched his teeth as he said, ¡°A ¡®secure¡¯ Nightmare Domain is only possible for you when you be a wizard. But we can¡¯t mind that now! I¡¯ll go sever your domain while you try to stop the monsters froming! Especially that woman!¡±

    Sunders¡¯ figure already disappeared before Angor could say anything else. Only the man¡¯s voice lingered in the air, ¡°You are the medium of two worlds, and you should be the one shutting the passage. Do something, or we will have to face our deaths!¡±

    Angor did not get an answer to that at all. <i>How to close this god-damned passage??</i>

    ...

    The green toy owl circled around in the air beforending on top of Angor¡¯s head. It seemed the creature preferred tidiness too. It blew some green air on Angor¡¯s hair, which removed his blood stains as well as curing some of the scars still on his head.

    But Angor did not have time to mind the creature now. He was desperate for an idea to block the monster passage.

    Sunders did say that the toy owl was as powerful as a wizard, yet Angor did not feel anything. Besides, the adorable and silly look of the owl did not scare him at all.

    Still, he wondered why birds all liked to perch on his hair.

    Once the toy owl steadied itself, it immediately exerted a terrible aura around it.

    Those outside the mist quickly felt it. Some of the apprentices gave up right away and fell on the floor, while the wizards only frowned, not knowing what just happened.

    Next, the flock of rainbow dragonflies stopped patrolling the mist and formed up a line in front of the toy owl.

    Green ripples appeared around the owl, enveloping both Angor and the insects.

    Angor sensed emotionsing from the toy owl. Unlike the iprehensible sutured woman, he sessfully read the owl¡¯s mind.

    In general, the owl was asking the rainbow dragonflies to clear the path ahead so their Queen could do the nightwatch.

    Angor believed it was referring to the woman sitting on that throne. But ¡°queen¡±? Queen of what? Was she the same queen mentioned by the Glutton Flowers?

    Upon receiving the order, the dragonflies all left the mist.

    The wizards outside frowned again at the strange sight.

    ¡°Something else showed up. What are these monsters? I never saw them before.¡±

    ¡°The boy¡¯s illusion, I guess?¡± A wizard with punk hair scoffed at Twilight. ¡°You guys are always such bullies. It¡¯s just a kid who¡¯s almost dead, and you still wanted to execute him? See what happens now? Maybe Mister Sunders gave his student some kind of power as hisst resort.¡±

    Those words worsened Twilight¡¯s rage. As the auctioneer and host of the auction, she was responsible to maintain order. And now she was getting med?

    She could not say anything about it though. The woman only cursed Angor silently.

    Lydia rolled her eyes and decided to divert some hate to Flora. ¡°Poor Flora. Mister Sunders is so... unfair. He never helped you in your worst desperation, and he sent so many creatures to protect this new one? Ah... I feel sorry for you now.¡±

    Flora was already in a bad mood since she came to the scene. Theughter from the mist caused Little Red¡¯s vitality to waver, and Flora was only worried about the skeleton. Now she was in no mood to mind Lydia¡¯s provocation.

    ¡°So you think Sunders did this? I see my little junior was quite sessful in tricking you.¡±

    ¡°Enough! Let¡¯s deal with these dragonflies first. Are they invulnerable to our attacks like those teacups?¡± Twilight barged in.

    A Twilight Guard cast a cantrip at a dragonfly who was resting on a wallmp.

    And he was quite surprised to see his attack making a small hole on the insect¡¯s wing.

    <i>It worked?!</i>

    The guard turned to Twilight to report, only to get knocked aside by Twilight¡¯s spirit feeler.

    Kaboom!

    A small crater appeared where he was standing a second ago. People could see elements flowing around the dragonfly.

    ¡°Stay focused! These things are at least level-3 apprentices at their best conditions, if not wizards already!¡± Twilight demanded.

    Now that they knew the insects could be hurt, Twilight immediately ordered her guards to work together and get rid of the creatures.

    With the help of wizards, the number of dragonflies was halved within several minutes. When they tried to keep going, they saw the insects changing colors and... vanished from their sights.

    Someone used Remove Delirium, which failed to catch the whereabouts of the dragonflies. Another area-of-effect spell managed to bring out several more corpses, which meant the creatures were still inside the hall.

    Moreover, they noticed that the dragonflies did not attack people unless they were triggered first, so the situation was not really dire.

    Shifting mana ripples suddenly emerged from the mist.

    Flora quickly noticed it. ¡°This is... professor?¡±

    As she expected, Sunders stepped out from the mist while casting something on his own. The man was also taking out strange items from his ear nail which looked like ss sharps. He would drop one of them on the floor every several steps.

    ¡°Mister Sunders?¡±

    ¡°So he¡¯s here because his student is getting killed?¡±

    People started whispering.

    ¡°Why did youe, professor?¡± Flora floated to him. ¡°And why is a Nightmare Domain here? Angor did this?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯splicated. We¡¯ll talkter,¡± said Sunders as he gave her a serious look. ¡°Get ready to fight. If Angor fails to shut off the nightmare passage, we¡¯ll have to force ourselves inside a ne passageway and escape.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s THAT bad now?¡±

    Sunders lowered his voice so only Flora could hear him.

    ¡°Yes. Something many levels stronger than a legendary is waiting behind the domain barrier.¡±

 Chapter 274 - Solution

    <h4>Chapter 274: Solution</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The other people could not hear their conversation, but they still saw Flora¡¯s expression changed dramatically. Shock and fear, mostly.

    And they all wondered what could possibly scare a powerful wizard so.

    Those who intended to ¡°enjoy the show¡± as bystanders suddenly felt their hearts bing heavier.

    After talking with Flora, Sunders returned to the edge of the mist and continued tossing his ss shards while gathering mana.

    Flora was currently the only one who knew what Sunders was up to¡ªto sever the Nightmare Domain from reality. It was Angor who brought the Nightmare Domain here.

    But could the boy make it through at his current condition? If he could, what should he do about his Nightmare Domain afterward?

    When facing uncertainties, wizards tended to assume the worst. Now, the worst scenario possible was letting the ultimate monster broke through the barrier and allowed it to bring cmity to the wizarding world.

    Naturally, these wizards were not going to rely on Angor to prevent it from happening. And if it did happen, they would all escape into ne passageways so the disaster went to someone else.

    Throughout history, there were already cases during which the grand demons from the Abyss ne descended upon the wizarding world. However, the world¡¯s consciousness would always show up to deal with the situation. People simply had to hide for some years and wait it out.

    That was always the best decision for wizards¡ªto guarantee their own survival instead of entrusting their lives to other people.

    And this was exactly what Flora would usually do.

    Now, however, Sunders believed otherwise. The gentleman put faith in Angor that the boy could handle the situation. Sunders was now helping Angor by severing the Nightmare Domain so the boy could im it in the end. No one knew whether Angor was strong enough to im the domain. If he seeded... his future would be unpredictable.

    A level-1 apprentice who owned his own Nightmare Domain would make him invincible among his peers.

    Flora was getting a little jealous. Lydia was right. Compared to what she went through, Sunders was using a way gentler approach on Angor.

    ¡°Angor... you...¡±

    Flora closed her eyes to get rid of unnecessary thoughts. The situation was dire, and she should understand what was important.

    She reopened her eyes while resuming herposed self and prepared for all possible circumstances.

    ...

    In Angor¡¯s view, the area which belonged to the Nightmare Realm appeared as a strange amusement park.

    A ce that could not be found in the wizarding world.

    Colorful merry-go-rounds, exciting roller coasters, swinging pirate ship rides, circus and beast tamers... Apart from the circuses, Angor believed that he only saw the other facilities in the films from Earth. They did not exist in the wizarding world.

    There was something else that did not belong to this world. Angor could see a team of card soldiers which looked very simr to the ones he saw the first time he wondered into Nightmare Realm. However, these card soldiers had different weapons and had different pictures drawn on them.

    They were pokers, another foreign invention in the wizarding world. People used to y poker in Padt Manor, which was brought to them by Jon first.

    Angor could not understand why all these foreign beings gathered in the Nightmare Realm. Could Nightmare Realm ¡°project¡± something from Earth too? But as he assumed, the Earth and the world he was currently in existed in two different universes. Did this mean the Nightmare Realm projected something across another universe?

    No. Angor could not believe it.

    Then why was he seeing this scene? More importantly, he knew about all of the foreign objects which would otherwise make no sense to anyone else in this world.

    Why?

    Angor kind of lost himself in his thoughts again. When the poker soldiers approached him, he suddenly remembered Sunders¡¯ warning.

    Their stick-like limbs had all kinds of weapons on them. Lances, shields, swords, axes... wait, was that firearm?

    The gun had a bizarre color, but since he now had the same thing in his pocket, Angor could recognize it as a revolver.

    He shook his head quickly. He was getting distracted again.

    Sunders never told Angor how to shut the passage between realms, so Angor had to think of something himself. He scratched his head desperately.

    When the poker soldiers almost reached the mist, he just yelled to them. ¡°No! Don¡¯t go this way! Back! Back!¡±

    The pokers halted for just a moment before advancing again.

    Angor watched helplessly as the team of five card soldiers crossed the barrier in the middle of his vision and entered the Nightmare Domain.

    More mist surged from the wound on his shoulder de when the cards stepped out of the air and stood still in front of Angor.

    As he looked in horror, Two of Clubs, Two of Spades, Two of Diamonds and Two of Hearts bent their thin legs and knelt in front of the fifth card with strange patterns drawn on its back.

    The fifth card turned back, and Angor noticed that it was one of the two Jokers.

    While the other cards only had static pictures on them, this Joker had a clown on it which could move freely on its t surface as if the card was a screen showing cartoons.

    With a vivid gesture, the clown bowed to Angor with great respect.

    Before Angor could feel proud of the unexpected attention, he felt green ripplesing from his head again, which contained an emotion. ¡°Go, and conquer morend for Her Highness!¡±

    ... So the card was bowing to the green toy owl on his head.

    Sunders mentioned something about how the toy owl was as strong as a real wizard. What about these card soldiers then? Angor tried to observe but he could not sense anything on them. The cards were not disying any mana ripples, nor the powerful aura possessed by mighty beings.

    The Joker acknowledged the order and shot toward the air using its revolver.

    Hearing the signal, all the soldiers rushed out of the mist, and Angor could do nothing to stop them.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, professor. They don¡¯t seem so strong, I hope you can do something about them.¡±

    Angor simply closed his eyes and forgot about what just happened so he could focus on finding a solution.

    ...

    The suture woman had to be someone really important to the monsters. Angor knew that the woman had been staring at him, and he never dared to return his gaze again. Looking at her would bring endless negative emotions into his mind.

    Violence, cruelty, madness, and a thirst for blood... It seemed that all possible negative traits were gathered on that woman. She was a vessel who contained enough dark energy to destroy all.

    In contrast to the suture woman, the other monsters in the amusement park did not seem so horrible. Rather, they all had adorable looks. Angor did not sense any dangerous emotions from them.

    After the poker soldiers, Angor soon noticed something else approaching him.

    It was a team of toy soldiers with red uniforms and white caps. Each was only as big as Angor¡¯s hand, and they had a silly but cute expression.

    Angor had no idea how dangerous they were despite their harmless look. He only worked his brain quickly to think of something to stop them.

    He tried to think about the root of the situation. How did everything start?

    Because of death. He did not want to die and miss everything he still wanted to achieve in his life, so as ast resort, he decided to construct an illusion.

    Here, he remembered that Lady Mirror once mentioned something special about his illusions, that they simted an element of Nightmare Realm ¡ª ¡°frozen time¡±.

    He was going to make an illusion to distract wizards and use the chance to bring Toby to safety.

    As for how to distract the powerful wizards... he nned to create something so powerful that it might scare the wizards. He thought about mimicking Sunders first but gave up on that idea for many reasons. And he did not really know anyone else who could do the trick.

    Then the image of the suture woman came to his mind.

    Sunders mentioned to him before that the woman might be something stronger than legendary, so Angor believed if he could create just a tiny bit of the woman¡¯s prowess, he might have a chance to trick Twilight.

    With this in mind, he started making the illusion. However, as he continued his work, he noticed that the image of the woman as well as his memory about the Nightmare Realm became clearer and clearer.

    The memory became so impressive that he actually felt something on his body¡ªthe wound on his back or on the back of his soul began to itch.

    It seemed like a warning too. For a brief moment, he hesitated and wondered whether he should continue. But on second thought, giving up the only thing he could do meant absolute death. Thus, he kept on and let the strange itchy numbness grew stronger and wormed into his heart, giving bloom to a flower of death which greatly horrified everyone including Sunders.

    Now that he remembered the cause of all, he wondered if he could do something to break the illusion nodes, destroy the illusion, and shut the passage.

    He did not know whether this would work out, but he had to try.

    He put the nodes inside his organs. It did not mean that he had to destroy his organs for real. An illusion node was only a way to express magic, and it could be ¡°taken off¡±.

    Nevertheless, forcefully removing the nodes would still hurt his organs a little.

    To make sure whatever he was doing would work, Angor went for the core node whichy on his heart.

    <h4>Comments (4)</h4>

    VIEW ALL COMMENTSRate this chapterVote with Power StoneSend Gifts<h4>Chapter 275: Sir Ori</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The broken node brought great pain which slowly spread onto his entire body.

    He was doing something to his heart, which meant a tiny mistake was fatal. Breaking this node meant affecting all the other ones, and it would further damage his other organs.

    And Angor was not expecting this.

    ording to his n, Angor believed he simply needed to break the lumps of mana in the node which would not cause anything serious. However, the resulting magic surge brought a worse consequence than he thought.

    Uponmitting the move, he felt all the organs inside his body fell into a seizure. Thest thing he knew before fainting was vomiting blood, which... was not just blood. There were parts of flesh in his vomit.

    ...

    Several minutes ago.

    People more or lessprehended the situation they were in. ording to Flora, they were now inside somewhere called the ¡°Nightmare Domain¡±, not the auction hall.

    They felt unsafe when seeing Sunders¡¯ sudden appearance and Flora¡¯s disturbed expression, which was made worse when they noticed Sunders doing his own work and ignoring everyone including Lydia.

    And Sunders¡¯ sweat-covered forehead told them there was looming danger about.

    ¡°What a hideous ce...¡± The white-haired wizard Kooper was really worried now. ¡°Such a mess. When will this end?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re only here for the auction, and now... Are we safe at all? Lady Twilight, don¡¯t you think the auction house should take the me for this?¡±

    Twilight had been in a bad mood since she learned the boy was Sunders¡¯ personal student. She tried her best to contain her emotion just to avoid being provoked by someone. The speaker did not directly me her for this, but she still found it irritating much.

    Anyhow, she needed to say something to people.

    ¡°When we get out of here, Twilight Auction will providepensation to you should anything happen to you. If nothing happens, please consider it as a harmless incident.¡±

    In certain nations wherews had enough power over people, this incident which wasted people¡¯s time might incur greatpensation. But in the wizarding world where profit and one¡¯s own life was more important, they all knew how not to ask too much.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. Then we shall watch this... harmless incident.¡±

    Twilight still needed to give people an exnation to protect the name of Twilight Auction and the best exnation was the boy lying inside the mist. However, she needed to get past Sunders to do something to the boy, which meant... impossible. She had to tell people something else, such as the exit hidden behind the mist.

    Twilight beckoned at a guard to her side. ¡°I¡¯ll put a spirit connection on you. Go in there and check out the exit. Do not do anything else without me giving the order.¡±

    The guard nodded and headed to the mist area.

    ¡°Don¡¯t. No one shall touch the mist before Angor could... finish his business, or I¡¯ll personally kill that man!¡± Sunders¡¯ emotionless voice was heard by everyone.

    That was the first thing Sunders said to them since he showed up.

    It sounded like a threat.

    ¡°Why you-¡± Twilight pointed a finger at the gentleman but did not say anything. She could not.

    Sunders nced at the woman. ¡°Go ahead, if you dare try.¡±

    His terrible aura enveloped everyone, eliminating all wills which might oppose him.

    Lydia wiggled her way the center of the castle hall and dered in a timid voice, ¡°Mister Sunders... that¡¯s YOUR student in there, and we know we outsiders should not meddle with your business. But don¡¯t you think we need a solution right now? Or do we just sit here and wait for the ¡®harmless incident¡¯ to conclude on its own?¡±

    Sunders looked around the hall which trapped hundreds of the customers of the auction house before he then sighed in his mind.

    <i>Angor... you little troublesome kid.</i>

    ¡°As Twilight said, you should all watch. The oue is already determined.¡±

    ¡ªIt would be either peace or a great apocalypse which meant an end to the southern region.

    However, Sunders did not wish to exin to anyone about anything about the Nightmare Realm.

    People exchanged looks. Since the most powerful being on the scene just made his decision known, they might as well listen and stay put.

    It was not long before they heard someone yelling inside the mist.

    ¡°No! Don¡¯t go this way! Back! Back!¡±

    Before they could figure out what that meant, they saw five strange cards running out of the mist. Armed cards.

    ¡°Near-wizard monsters again... but there are only five this time, we can manage.¡±

    Twilight ordered people to get rid of the card soldiers, and Sunders did not stop them. He only nced at the gun held by the Joker card before returning his attention to the mist.

    The cards inflicted heavy damage to the Twilight Guards. They might be on the same level as the rainbow dragonflies, but they had weapons!

    The swords and shields they used were at least tiered weapons. People only recognized the Joker¡¯s gun because they saw Angor using something simr to stop a guard¡¯s spell. Back then, the weapon was pretty weak. However, the one wielded by the Joker was deadlier than they expected. Each bullet possessed unstoppable power.

    It was only seconds, and another guard was dead from a shot.

    Despite their previous decision, the other wizards all provided their help and quickly eliminated the card soldiers. In thest moment though, the Joker card vanished from their sight like the remaining dragonflies while the other cards were torn to pieces.

    They feared that the Joker might backstab them while hiding, but it did not happen. Like when dealing with the dragonflies, monsters who had gone invisible never showed up again.

    ¡°Maybe they were not here to attack us in the first ce?¡± Someone muttered.

    They heard Angor screaming again after several minutes.

    Everyone except Sunders looked that way and saw a group of small toy soldiers emerging from the mist. They stopped in front of the teacup band and marched on the spot without doing anything further as if they were preparing to wee someone important.

    Flora frowned and sent a transmission to Sunders, ¡°Should we leave Angor to face all those monsters by himself?¡±

    Sunders considered a little before replying, ¡°Suppose... a group of merciless bandits is trying to cross a river. Will they kill an innocent man who can help them build and maintain a bridge?¡±

    ...

    Angor lost consciousness as great pain took over all of his inner organs.

    However, he woke up in a short time. Also, when he saw the toy soldiers still crossing the barrier, he knew that he did not faint for long.

    ¡°You can¡¯t just suicide like that! No! No! You are the biggest serviceman for expanding the territory for Her Highness! Yes!¡± An emotion came from somewhere above his head.

    It was the green toy owl, who was now hovering in the air and staring at Angor in disapproval with those cute, round eyes. There was a stream of green airing from its beak.

    Angor saw the green air entering his body which gave him a chilly yet refreshing feel. It also mended his injuries including the one on his heart.

    He even found his limbs healthy as ever.

    The bones shattered by Twilight¡¯s attack were nowpletely recovered. Angor tried to stand up and seeded without a problem.

    <i>It felt amazing! The green air felt amazing!</i>

    However, the hole on his shoulder remained the same. It was still releasing white mist.

    Angor was somewhat grateful that the owl saved his life, but he still had to finish Sunders¡¯ order.

    Not paying any mind to the toy soldiers, his first reaction was to check whether the illusion was broken. Angor noticed that the illusion nodes had disappeared, but the Nightmare Domain was still here and the passage was still left open.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t work?!¡± Angor frowned. He really had nothing left now.

    He felt an extra burden returning to his head again, which meant the toy owl perched on his head once more.

    Angor rolled his eyes. He really, really did not appreciate the fact that birds, even a toy one, loved to nest in his hair so much.

    ¡°Um, can you go somewhere else, Mister Owl? And aren¡¯t you going to follow your soldiers? They already left,¡± Angor tried.

    The owl did not answer.

    Angor considered something and spoke again. This time, it was by sending his emotion.

    The owl understood him this time albeit not in the way he expected.

    ¡°Oi! You! Yes! You! I¡¯m the honorable Sir Ori! Don¡¯t ¡®Mister Owl¡¯ me! No! How disrespectful!¡±

    The owl pecked at Angor¡¯s head madly. Despite the toy¡¯s cute look, its beak was pretty solid for the ¡°attacks¡± to hurt.

    ¡°Sir Ori! I¡¯m sorry, s-stop, please!¡±

    The toy owl stopped and released green ripples again. ¡°Remember my name as THE Sir Ori! Yes! Do not get it wrong again! Her Highness bestowed the name upon me, yes! And it is an honor!¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Angor quickly acknowledged.

    Angor stroked his hair a little when he saw something elseing to him from the Nightmare Realm¡ªa red fox that was ying with harp and a green leaping frog singing an aria.

    ¡°A harp fox and a singing frog??¡± Out of instinct, Angor ¡°thought¡± that out loud using the wavelength of his emotion.

    ¡°Oh, Fox and Froggy! Just in time, yes! The Queen would love to have professional musicians apanying her nightwatch!¡± The toy owl spoke using emotion.

    Angor felt something familiar when hearing those names, but he did not really have the time to think about that because he just got a new idea.

 Chapter 275 - Sir Ori

    <h4>Chapter 275: Sir Ori</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The broken node brought great pain which slowly spread onto his entire body.

    He was doing something to his heart, which meant a tiny mistake was fatal. Breaking this node meant affecting all the other ones, and it would further damage his other organs.

    And Angor was not expecting this.

    ording to his n, Angor believed he simply needed to break the lumps of mana in the node which would not cause anything serious. However, the resulting magic surge brought a worse consequence than he thought.

    Uponmitting the move, he felt all the organs inside his body fell into a seizure. Thest thing he knew before fainting was vomiting blood, which... was not just blood. There were parts of flesh in his vomit.

    ...

    Several minutes ago.

    People more or lessprehended the situation they were in. ording to Flora, they were now inside somewhere called the ¡°Nightmare Domain¡±, not the auction hall.

    They felt unsafe when seeing Sunders¡¯ sudden appearance and Flora¡¯s disturbed expression, which was made worse when they noticed Sunders doing his own work and ignoring everyone including Lydia.

    And Sunders¡¯ sweat-covered forehead told them there was looming danger about.

    ¡°What a hideous ce...¡± The white-haired wizard Kooper was really worried now. ¡°Such a mess. When will this end?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re only here for the auction, and now... Are we safe at all? Lady Twilight, don¡¯t you think the auction house should take the me for this?¡±

    Twilight had been in a bad mood since she learned the boy was Sunders¡¯ personal student. She tried her best to contain her emotion just to avoid being provoked by someone. The speaker did not directly me her for this, but she still found it irritating much.

    Anyhow, she needed to say something to people.

    ¡°When we get out of here, Twilight Auction will providepensation to you should anything happen to you. If nothing happens, please consider it as a harmless incident.¡±

    In certain nations wherews had enough power over people, this incident which wasted people¡¯s time might incur greatpensation. But in the wizarding world where profit and one¡¯s own life was more important, they all knew how not to ask too much.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. Then we shall watch this... harmless incident.¡±

    Twilight still needed to give people an exnation to protect the name of Twilight Auction and the best exnation was the boy lying inside the mist. However, she needed to get past Sunders to do something to the boy, which meant... impossible. She had to tell people something else, such as the exit hidden behind the mist.

    Twilight beckoned at a guard to her side. ¡°I¡¯ll put a spirit connection on you. Go in there and check out the exit. Do not do anything else without me giving the order.¡±

    The guard nodded and headed to the mist area.

    ¡°Don¡¯t. No one shall touch the mist before Angor could... finish his business, or I¡¯ll personally kill that man!¡± Sunders¡¯ emotionless voice was heard by everyone.

    That was the first thing Sunders said to them since he showed up.

    It sounded like a threat.

    ¡°Why you-¡± Twilight pointed a finger at the gentleman but did not say anything. She could not.

    Sunders nced at the woman. ¡°Go ahead, if you dare try.¡±

    His terrible aura enveloped everyone, eliminating all wills which might oppose him.

    Lydia wiggled her way the center of the castle hall and dered in a timid voice, ¡°Mister Sunders... that¡¯s YOUR student in there, and we know we outsiders should not meddle with your business. But don¡¯t you think we need a solution right now? Or do we just sit here and wait for the ¡®harmless incident¡¯ to conclude on its own?¡±

    Sunders looked around the hall which trapped hundreds of the customers of the auction house before he then sighed in his mind.

    <i>Angor... you little troublesome kid.</i>

    ¡°As Twilight said, you should all watch. The oue is already determined.¡±

    ¡ªIt would be either peace or a great apocalypse which meant an end to the southern region.

    However, Sunders did not wish to exin to anyone about anything about the Nightmare Realm.

    People exchanged looks. Since the most powerful being on the scene just made his decision known, they might as well listen and stay put.

    It was not long before they heard someone yelling inside the mist.

    ¡°No! Don¡¯t go this way! Back! Back!¡±

    Before they could figure out what that meant, they saw five strange cards running out of the mist. Armed cards.

    ¡°Near-wizard monsters again... but there are only five this time, we can manage.¡±

    Twilight ordered people to get rid of the card soldiers, and Sunders did not stop them. He only nced at the gun held by the Joker card before returning his attention to the mist.

    The cards inflicted heavy damage to the Twilight Guards. They might be on the same level as the rainbow dragonflies, but they had weapons!

    The swords and shields they used were at least tiered weapons. People only recognized the Joker¡¯s gun because they saw Angor using something simr to stop a guard¡¯s spell. Back then, the weapon was pretty weak. However, the one wielded by the Joker was deadlier than they expected. Each bullet possessed unstoppable power.

    It was only seconds, and another guard was dead from a shot.

    Despite their previous decision, the other wizards all provided their help and quickly eliminated the card soldiers. In thest moment though, the Joker card vanished from their sight like the remaining dragonflies while the other cards were torn to pieces.

    They feared that the Joker might backstab them while hiding, but it did not happen. Like when dealing with the dragonflies, monsters who had gone invisible never showed up again.

    ¡°Maybe they were not here to attack us in the first ce?¡± Someone muttered.

    They heard Angor screaming again after several minutes.

    Everyone except Sunders looked that way and saw a group of small toy soldiers emerging from the mist. They stopped in front of the teacup band and marched on the spot without doing anything further as if they were preparing to wee someone important.

    Flora frowned and sent a transmission to Sunders, ¡°Should we leave Angor to face all those monsters by himself?¡±

    Sunders considered a little before replying, ¡°Suppose... a group of merciless bandits is trying to cross a river. Will they kill an innocent man who can help them build and maintain a bridge?¡±

    ...

    Angor lost consciousness as great pain took over all of his inner organs.

    However, he woke up in a short time. Also, when he saw the toy soldiers still crossing the barrier, he knew that he did not faint for long.

    ¡°You can¡¯t just suicide like that! No! No! You are the biggest serviceman for expanding the territory for Her Highness! Yes!¡± An emotion came from somewhere above his head.

    It was the green toy owl, who was now hovering in the air and staring at Angor in disapproval with those cute, round eyes. There was a stream of green airing from its beak.

    Angor saw the green air entering his body which gave him a chilly yet refreshing feel. It also mended his injuries including the one on his heart.

    He even found his limbs healthy as ever.

    The bones shattered by Twilight¡¯s attack were nowpletely recovered. Angor tried to stand up and seeded without a problem.

    <i>It felt amazing! The green air felt amazing!</i>

    However, the hole on his shoulder remained the same. It was still releasing white mist.

    Angor was somewhat grateful that the owl saved his life, but he still had to finish Sunders¡¯ order.

    Not paying any mind to the toy soldiers, his first reaction was to check whether the illusion was broken. Angor noticed that the illusion nodes had disappeared, but the Nightmare Domain was still here and the passage was still left open.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t work?!¡± Angor frowned. He really had nothing left now.

    He felt an extra burden returning to his head again, which meant the toy owl perched on his head once more.

    Angor rolled his eyes. He really, really did not appreciate the fact that birds, even a toy one, loved to nest in his hair so much.

    ¡°Um, can you go somewhere else, Mister Owl? And aren¡¯t you going to follow your soldiers? They already left,¡± Angor tried.

    The owl did not answer.

    Angor considered something and spoke again. This time, it was by sending his emotion.

    The owl understood him this time albeit not in the way he expected.

    ¡°Oi! You! Yes! You! I¡¯m the honorable Sir Ori! Don¡¯t ¡®Mister Owl¡¯ me! No! How disrespectful!¡±

    The owl pecked at Angor¡¯s head madly. Despite the toy¡¯s cute look, its beak was pretty solid for the ¡°attacks¡± to hurt.

    ¡°Sir Ori! I¡¯m sorry, s-stop, please!¡±

    The toy owl stopped and released green ripples again. ¡°Remember my name as THE Sir Ori! Yes! Do not get it wrong again! Her Highness bestowed the name upon me, yes! And it is an honor!¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Angor quickly acknowledged.

    Angor stroked his hair a little when he saw something elseing to him from the Nightmare Realm¡ªa red fox that was ying with harp and a green leaping frog singing an aria.

    ¡°A harp fox and a singing frog??¡± Out of instinct, Angor ¡°thought¡± that out loud using the wavelength of his emotion.

    ¡°Oh, Fox and Froggy! Just in time, yes! The Queen would love to have professional musicians apanying her nightwatch!¡± The toy owl spoke using emotion.

    Angor felt something familiar when hearing those names, but he did not really have the time to think about that because he just got a new idea.

 Chapter 276 - Coincidence

    <h4>Chapter 276: Coincidence</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Since the toy owl couldmunicate with him... could he ask the owl how to close the passage?

    Obviously, this would not be easy. At least the toy owl did not show hostility to him. Angor believed that it was only because he was the ¡°bridge¡± for the monsters to travel between realms.

    Just maybe... he could use this to his advantage.

    Angor rolled his eyes. ¡°Nice! Musicians! We want the Queen to have a grand entrance after all.¡±

    ¡°Yes! Yes!¡± The toy owl nodded.

    ¡°But music isn¡¯t perfect without dancers.¡±

    ¡°Of course there are dancers! Just wait! Yes! Chief Yellio will soon bring her ballet here and brighten the nightwatch for her highness! Yes!¡± The owl seemed proud.

    <i>Chief Yellio?? </i>Angor suddenly remembered something. But... it was only coincidence, right?

    ¡°There are other performers, right? We certainly need more men for such a wonderful asion,¡± Angor continued.

    The red fox ¡°Fox¡± and the green singing frog ¡°Froggy¡± had crossed the barrier and entered the Nightmare Domain.

    Angor did not stop them this time. Instead, he tried to act friendly and greeted them.

    ¡°Beautiful ying, Miss Fox. It reminds me of my campfire party at sunset.¡±

    Angor addressed the fox as ¡°Miss¡± since the animal was wearing a dress. Froggy, on the other hand, had swallowtail suit and brown curly artist hair. It was still a frog, but maybe, just maybe, it was a ¡°he¡±.

    ¡°Mister Froggy. Your voice is like the hanging moon which gives usfort in the cold night,¡± Angor bowed skillfully to the musicians. He was d the owl had repaired his body. This way, he could bow down and roll his eyes at his terrible ttery while the creatures could not see his face.

    It seemed his words worked wonders.

    ¡°Shava, your honor. You¡¯re as tasteful as ever,¡± Fox chuckled and wagged its tail, bringing a gentle air current which contained a sweet smell.

    ¡°Croak! Yeah, how long was it when Shava came to our theaterst time? Ahh... how I miss those wonderful days. Croak! I can still see them in front of my eyes,¡± the aria singer, Froggy, praised the old days with an emotional tone.

    Also, they did not use their emotions to talk. These two spoke in the universalnguage.

    However, Angor did not notice it. He was shocked by what he just heard.

    Who the heck was Shava? The toy owl was ¡°Sir Ori¡±, so... were they referring to him?

    But ¡°Shava¡± was a woman¡¯s name? Or was it something used by these creatures to respect people?

    He was in no position to ask that though, so Angor decided to y his part as ¡°Shava¡± for now and blend in.

    Sir Ori spoke again, ¡°Go forth, Fox and Froggy. Go bring your wonderful carol to this boringnd, yes!¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir Ori!¡± The two animal musicians bowed to the owl and slowly walked out of the mist.

    Angor watched them leave and thought to himself.

    <i>Professor, they¡¯re just two animals who y music. Nothing could go wrong here, right?</i>

    ¡°I really wish to hear more of their beautiful music,¡± Angor spoke against his own conscience, ¡°and Sir Ori, what were we talking about just now?¡± He pretended to be thinking. ¡°Oh, yes. We have dancers, so we have many more performers, right?¡±

    ¡°Of course! Consr Mana is here to guarantee that everything goes in order, yes!¡±

    <i>Mana? </i>Another familiar figure shed through Angor¡¯s mind.

    ¡°What kind of performances are we seeing?¡± Angor stroked his chest and forced a blush on his face. ¡°Shava... really wants to know. Pretty please?¡±

    He tried his best not to vomit at his own embarrassment.

    It seemed the owl did not particrly mind Angor¡¯s disy. ¡°Mister Glenn¡¯s speech, Tamer Loki¡¯s fire ring jumping, Magician Dink¡¯s card tricks, Farronduer¡¯s flower arts, Yorkshire¡¯s puppet show...¡±

    With each name mentioned, Angor would think of someone he knew.

    The gardener, Glenn; the farmhand, Loki; Doctor Dink; the shepherd, Farronduer; the mute servant, Yorkshire...

    Those mentioned earlier, thezy trickster, Fawkes; the knight, Froggy; chef maid, Yellio; Head Maid Mana; and... Ori?

    To Angor, these otherwise strange names all meant something to him. These were people from Padt Manor!

    So it was not a coincidence after all?

    Was the owl not Ori, but ¡°Auri¡±? The maid who used to take care of his daily necessities?

    Angor waspletely confused now. Why were these creatures using the names of people from Padt Manor? Could he find Leon, Jon, or even himself, somewhere in the Nightmare Realm?

    And there was the question: who was Shava? There was no ¡°Shava¡± in Padt Manor. It was only the name of a heroine from a story¡ª Shava in Wondend ¡ª that Jon used to tell him.

    Also, he wondered what was the ¡°queen¡± called. Was she someone from Padt Manor too?

    Such questions only led to more questions.

    It was absolutely not the time for such questions now. Angor spoke again to Ori. No, Auri. ¡°So many performers and artists to apany the queen. Such professionalism!¡±

    Angor ¡°wept¡± out of respect and quickly kept up his ttery when Auri epted his words. ¡°The entrance is too narrow. It¡¯ll take too long for all of them to get through. I want to meet Her Highness sooner.¡±

    Auri checked its dusty feathers and suddenly cried. Green tears came from its eyes.

    ¡°Yes... Ever since I left her, the taint in this world has been affecting me. Look at my beautiful feathers.¡±

    ¡°Then we must erge the entrance!¡± Angor rolled his eyes again. ¡°Do you know how, Mister Auri?¡±

    Auri did not respond.

    ¡°Shava wishes to meet the great queen faster! She¡¯s such an inspiration to Shava.¡±

    Auri considered a little. ¡°Erge the entrance? Isn¡¯t that your responsibility? Or did you not remember it, no?¡±

    ¡°It is?¡± Angor was puzzled now. When he saw the toy owl giving him a doubtful look, he quickly tried to amend his words. ¡°It-it slipped from Shava¡¯s mind!¡±

    ¡°Really now? Weird. But you¡¯re her most...¡± Auri frowned using its ¡°silk eyebrows¡±.

    Angor felt something terrible climbing on his heart. Sunders said something about how the owl was as powerful as a wizard, which meant the creature could easily take his life like how Twilight almost did.

    Angor felt something shifting on his head. He released his spirit feelers and saw Auri cleaning its string-weaved feathers.

    He did see ¡°dust¡±ing off the feathers.

    And it quickly gave him an idea.

    Angor¡¯s eyes glimmered. He pretended a sad look. ¡°Mister Auri, don¡¯t you know?¡±

    ¡°Know what?¡±

    Angor wiped his non-existent tears. ¡°Shava has always been preparing the territory for Her Highness out here. But this ce¡¯s so tainted! I feel... so tired. A lot of things are lost from my memory. I only know that I need to open the way and wee the queen, so... the queen cane and purify my body! Yes, I want to meet the queen sooner.¡±

    Angor clearly knew that his disy was awful. If anyone who knew him was here, they would question his sanity.

    He was always a bad liar, and now here he was, putting up a bitter drama which he used to hate.

    Well, maybe this was necessary for life. He would do anything to survive now.

    Green tears showed up around the eyes of the owl again. ¡°Yeah! I should have known! The air here is so polluted with filth, you¡¯re already doing your best service by remembering your job! Damn me, I shouldn¡¯t doubt you!¡±

    Angor was somewhat relieved to hear that. It seemed he gained the owl¡¯s trust.

    ¡°The inteyer is already so dirty, I can imagine what it¡¯s like out on the other side. I understand if it affected your memory.¡±

    <i>Inteyer? Did it mean the Nightmare Domain? </i>Angor wondered.

    ¡°So, can I do something to erge the exit?¡± Angor stopped his bitter y and asked with a serious expression.

    ...

    ¡°The park, croak, is our home.¡±

    ¡°The queen, croak, is our beloved Lord!¡±

    ¡°Croak! My dear Queen is the brightest star!¡±

    ¡°Music¡± which sounded like nails scratching on chalkboard and ¡°aria¡± full of croakings invaded everyone¡¯s eardrums.

    ¡°Gods, I can¡¯t stand it! My heart hurt when listening to that abomination.¡±

    ¡°What trick is it this time? I¡¯m fed up with music. I¡¯m waiting to watch the Phantom of Festivity!¡±

    ¡°Ha! And do something dirty while at it, I assume?¡±

    After themotion, people allughed out when they saw the fox harper and frog singering from the mist.

    ¡°Hey, look! Such a funny duo!¡±

    Singer Froggy widened his eyes and croaked louder, ¡°How dare you to mock at my voice when Shava gave us the best praise!¡±

    Crooooak!

    Green ripples came from Froggy.

    Under the influence, everyone except for a number of wizards froze up in ce.

    ¡°Such distasteful peasants!¡± Harper Fox plucked her strings, and her harp released red ripples into the hall.

    Those who were just frozen all began to lose theirposure.

    Some of them trembled nonstop, some began to remove their clothes, some cried loudly. There were even people who acted awkwardly around their ¡°private parts¡± while in full view of everyone.

 Chapter 277 - Nameless Hero

    <h4>Chapter 277: Nameless Hero</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Filthy desire...¡± Flora scoffed at their uncontrolled behaviors.

    ¡°A very strange fox.¡± Lydia raised her eyebrow. ¡°So, it can bring out the deepest desire of people? That looks like something the Sinister Mischief can do.¡±

    Sinister Mischief, a grand demon from the Abyss ne, also called the ¡°Devil of Lust¡±. It could capture and manipte people¡¯s evil intentions and ideas. One of the worst enemies wizards could expect.

    Twilight¡¯s expression grew darker as many people in the hall began to disy their worst side of humanity while under the control of their own desires. They were all customers of Twilight Auction. They would humiliate both themselves and Twilight Auction House at this rate.

    Twilight clenched her teeth in determination and began to chant something. Her forehead began to shine with a pale blue light.

    The light covered the entire castle hall. Even Sunders briefly turned around and watched Twilight¡¯s action carefully.

    All apprentices slowly stopped their movements and fell asleep.

    The light vanished after thest apprentice copsed. It shrank into a pink, tear-shaped crystal and sank between Twilight¡¯s eyebrows.

    The other wizards revealed their own envious looks when looking at the crystal.

    ¡°Flle¡¯s Slumber Chain,¡± Flora exposed the name of the pink crystal.

    ¡°Pity. The real thing had shattered to pieces in the long history. Without the chain, it should be called the ¡®Flle¡¯s Tear¡¯,¡± Lydia added.

    ¡°And it¡¯s still a Mystery Treasure, even at the current condition,¡± said Twilight as she made sure her item was well hidden.

    ¡°Aside from Brute Cavern, I¡¯m afraid you possess the only Mystery Item in the entire Darkivil Empire,¡± Kooper said.

    ¡°For now, maybe. But something might change today,¡± Twilight hinted.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Kooper asked.

    Lydia stopped them. ¡°Hey, those strange animals are gone. Anyone saw where they went?¡±

    Those who were awake looked around and did not find the creatures from earlier in the hall. The Flle¡¯s Tear distracted them for quite a long time.

    ¡°Maybe they went invisible too, just like the previous monsters?¡± Someone suggested.

    ¡°Probably... I wonder what they¡¯re up to.¡±

    Not everyone agreed to it though. Someone spoke another idea in an uncertain voice, ¡°Not really, I¡¯ve been paying attention. They... went for the wall, and just, walked through it, as if the wall isn¡¯t there.¡±

    Walked through the wall? Did that mean there was a way out?

    ¡°Where exactly did they leave from?¡± Sunders suddenly spoke to them.

    The speaker pointed to somewhere.

    Sunders quickly moved to the said ce and ced his hand against the wall, casting a spell.

    ¡°It¡¯s here!¡±

    ¡°Mister Sunders, did you find an exit?¡±

    ¡°No. This is a vulnerable dimension spot,¡± said Sunders with a shook of his head. ¡°Monsters stronger than wizards can leave the Nightmare Domain freely, and they always know how to find such spots. If... something goes wrong, you can try to rip open a ne passage from here and escape.¡±

    Escaping from a ne passageway was usually ast-ditch move when wizards were sure there was something they cannot defeat. Wizards who entered an unstable ne passageway were very likely to lose their direction and get trapped between nes forever, or get torn to pieces by the violent energy in the chaos.

    ¡°Our situation is so bad now?¡± Lydia frowned. ¡°That we have to forcefully open a ne passageway by ripping the dimension open?¡± Lydia nced at Twilight, putting the me on her.

    Twilight¡¯s expression was so ghastly that anything might detonate her now.

    Sunders simply nodded to confirm Lydia¡¯s words. That fox and frog were already wizard-level monsters. What coulde next would only be worse.

    ¡°Remember this spot... if you want to live,¡± Sunders¡¯ warning sowed fear in everyone¡¯s mind.

    Another terrifying aura came from the mist.

    This time, all the wizards froze in ce. Even Sunders failed to maintain his calmness.

    ¡°What... whatever could that be?!¡± Someone yelled.

    ¡°Twilight! You! This is all because of you! Why did you have to kill Mister Sunders¡¯ student so badly and drag us all into your mess?¡± Someone lost his temper and scolded.

    ¡°Something¡¯sing... something I¡¯ve never seen before...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s like when we see the world¡¯s consciousness. I can¡¯t lift a finger!¡±

    What they were sensing now was simr to when people were suppressed by thew of nature. The deadly aura slowly condensed into their minds and finally became a thunderous bellow:

    ¡°Shava, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?¡±

    What was that? Who was Shava?

    Sunders frowned. It was a male¡¯s voice, so... it was not the sutured queen?

    ¡°That¡¯s definitely a legendary being! But why here? Isn¡¯t the south void of legendaries for a long time?!¡±

    As people discussed in panic, Lydia looked at the old wizard Kooper and asked in a small voice, ¡°You¡¯re the most cultured wizard here. Can you tell me if that¡¯s really a legendary being?¡±

    Kooper considered and shook his head.

    ¡°I¡¯d assume that it¡¯s not a legendary, but... something more than a legendary. I won¡¯t be surprised if it turns out to be something of the same level as a grand demon from Abyss ne...¡±

    <i>Beyond legendary?</i>

    People panicked harder when they heard Kooper¡¯s words. Where were they? How was it possible that they ran into such mighty beings?

    Now, they all began to fear for their own lives instead of ¡°watching a harmless incident¡±.

    Another voice followed behind the powerful bellow earlier. ¡°Sir Auri, I¡¯m really sorry I made a mistake! To make up for it, I¡¯ll stay in this filthy ce and scout the way for Her Highness! Don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯ll stay strong!¡±

    It sounded firm and determined. Whoever said that was regretting about something dearly while trying to stay determined. The emotional speech really stood out in this atmosphere dominated by primal fear.

    ¡°What is it this time??¡± People wondered. They did not feel any power from that voice.

    Sunders and Flora remained speechless. Unlike the other wizards, they instantly recognized Angor¡¯s voice.

    Flora sent a transmission to her professor. ¡°What¡¯s Angor doing? Is he acting in a drama or something? Those words sounded so fake.¡±

    Sunders was just as puzzled. The exaggerating speech did not sound something from his little student who believed ¡°silence is golden¡±.

    Before they could think about the question for long, the mist abruptly vanished.

    They watched as the white mist shrank quickly into a whirl and went inside Angor¡¯s shoulder, like water in an unplugged bathtub.

    They saw Angor weeping at something as if bidding an eternal farewell to an old friend.

    It was only partly true. Angor did bid farewell to something¡ªthe green toy owl and the strange amusement park.

    Angor, on the other hand, suddenly could not hear Auri¡¯s voice anymore. He looked up and noticed the mist covering him was gone.

    And the other people were all staring at him in a daze.

    Angor blushed when he thought about the possibility that those people might have seen his ¡°performance¡±.

    His image! So many people were watching!

    ¡°Angor?¡± Flora broke the silence first. ¡°What are you... doing?¡±

    Angor cleared his throat, quickly removed his previous pose, and put up his serious expression.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. A monster possessed me and I couldn¡¯t control myself. But everything¡¯s fine now, hehehe.¡±

    Angor pointed to something non-existent behind his back, which was not really convincing.

    ¡°Is that so? Ha-ha,¡± Floraughed in a different mannerpared to her usual temper, which probably meant ¡°disbelief¡±.

    ¡°The mist is gone?¡±

    ¡°Did YOU bring all those monsters?¡±

    ¡°Where is that legendary? I mean, something beyond legendary?¡±

    Not minding Angor¡¯s terrible performance, the other wizards were more interested in the more pressing matters.

    And Angor could not think of anything to answer them now, so he only stuttered without making much sense.

    Twilight suddenly blinked in front of Angor and roared, ¡°You¡¯ve some exining to do, after causing so much trouble!¡±

    She exerted her wizard aura in her voice. Angor¡¯s legs trembled under the wizard¡¯s might. The woman¡¯s furious gaze immediately brought back all the painful memories.

    ¡°Exnation... about what?¡± Angor tried his best to sound calm, which was already impressive.

    ¡°Where were we? What were those monsters? Are you trying to get us killed?¡± Magic shined in Twilight¡¯s eyes. She cast a Detect Truth spell unknowingly.

    Angor went into a trance and opened his mouth to speak, but Sunders woke him up with a loud ¡°HA¡±.

    ¡°Don¡¯t use little ploys if you don¡¯t want to look for trouble,¡± Sunders approached them and spoke to Twilight with a in expression.

    When he had sessfully scared Twilight off, Sunders turned to the other people. ¡°Don¡¯t ask questions you shouldn¡¯t know. As she said, consider this a harmless incident, and keep it that way.¡±

    ¡°Harmless incident?! We lost three guards today, and you said it was harmless?¡± Twilight protested despite the dread she felt from the gentleman.

    <i>Three guards?</i>

    Angor looked around and did see three corpses lying not far.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not me who killed them!¡± Angor spat.

    He just saved the world! People should call him a hero! And he had no idea who those corpses were!

 Chapter 278 - Crazy Compensation

    <h4>Chapter 278: Crazy Compensation</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Then where did those monsterse from? Can you say it wasn¡¯t you who brought them here?¡± Twilight questioned, furious.

    Angor stammered. He did not know how to exin this one, and he was not supposed to tell people about anything about the Nightmare Realm.

    ¡°As I said, don¡¯t ask things that you shouldn¡¯t know anything about,¡± Sunders interrupted.

    Twilight tried to hide her discontent in front of Sunders as she asked, ¡°Then who¡¯s responsible for the death of our guards??¡±

    ¡°Go to whoever killed them,¡± murmured Angor as he hid behind Sunders¡¯ back and searched around for Toby¡¯s whereabouts.

    ¡°You might not be the one who killed them, but you caused everything. You must give us an exnation,¡± Twilight sounded more serene this time, and Sunders did not retort again. She was right about how Angor started all.

    There was now system in this world, yet wizards tended to obey social rules ording to where they were. Phantom Ind had its own rules, same for the Auction House. Those who broke such rules had to be punished, and Sunders would agree to let his student answer for this one.

    ¡°How did they die anyway? What kind of exnation can I give?¡± Angor felt wronged now. He just saved everyone¡¯s life!

    ¡°Angor, is it? I¡¯ll tell you since Twilight might not be in the right position to do so,¡± said Lydia as she joined them and stood in front of Angor. Her me-red witch robe shifted around her charming aura.

    ¡°If you¡¯d be so kind, Lady Lotus,¡± Angor said. He saw Lydia in person only for the first time. But he knew her voice since this woman fell into verbalpetitions with Flora many times during the auction.

    ¡°As far as I can see, these three dug their own graves.¡±

    Lydia¡¯s firstment immediately aroused rage among the entire Twilight Guard team.

    ¡°What? You believe otherwise? Ha! We didn¡¯t fight with them, but we¡¯re not blind. I assume people can all see what happened back there,¡± Lydia exined while winking at Sunders. None of her gestures worked though since Sunders never even cast an eye at her.

    ¡°Dumb asshole,¡± Lydia muttered to herself before continuing. ¡°Let¡¯s see... How did this man die? Shot by the weapon held by that clown card. As you can see, did those cards attack the people who left them alone?

    ¡°And these two. Funny, now I think about it. They attacked the teacups and were killed by their own attacks that were reflected back. Those cups never did anything.¡±

    Maybe because of the disappearance of the ne passage, the teacup band and toy soldiers were still here but had slumped to the ground in sorrow. They were not ying music or marching in rank now. They just sat there like defeated kids who had their toys taken away.

    ¡°So you see,¡± Lydia kept on. ¡°Maybe the little handsome boy started the incident, but these people caused their own death.¡±

    A number of wizards nodded to agree. They all had some injuries when fighting with the cards and dragonflies. But on careful thought, the monsters did not seem hostile at all. It was Twilight who initiated attacks first.

    Which meant Lydia was quite right.

    Sunders also realized what happened now. He did not see how the guards got themselves killed since he was talking to Angor inside the mist.

    ¡°If so, my student had nothing to do with this,¡± Sunders concluded without listening to Twilight.

    Twilight took a deep breath and struggled over the decision whether she should keep pursuing the matter in front of Sunders.

    ¡°Good... good! I admit that my guards died for themselves, but what about attacking my auction? He broke the rules of the auction house AND wasted everyone¡¯s time!¡±

    Twilight was going to gain support from the bystanders when Lydia stepped up again and disappointed her.

    ¡°Yeah, the boy did interrupt the auction. But I don¡¯t think he wasted our time. Rather, I quite enjoyed the show. I wouldn¡¯t mind watching two handsome guys for a little bit longer.¡±

    Lydia hadpletely forgotten about how she supported Twilight¡¯s decision of executing Angor.

    Some of the wizards nodded again.

    ¡°Nothing serious happened to us, and it proved to be fun. Yes, I don¡¯t mind spending several minutes watching such a fascinating asion,¡± said Kooper as he smiled and nodded to Angor.

    The remaining wizards all agreed just to show respect to Sunders.

    Twilight clenched her fists harder, yet she did not dare to vent out her rage for real. The wizards were no weaker than her, AND they were all long-term customers of the auction. There was no way she could offend them here. Besides, Sunders stood in front of the little brat like a solid wall and blocked all methods she could use.

    ¡°As for interrupting your auction, I¡¯ll tell him to do something about it,¡± Sunders spoke in a in tone.

    ¡°Something? What exactly?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯ll pay you, ording to the existing regtions of your auction.¡±

    ¡°A hundred thousand magic crystals, and we¡¯re even,¡± Twilight thought for a moment and gave her price.

    ¡°Hundred thousand?? You may as well go rob a bank!¡± Angor poked his head from behind Sunders and protested.

    Sunders pushed Angor¡¯s head back. ¡°Good. I¡¯ll let him send the crystals in half a month. It¡¯s settled. No one shall mention this incident again.¡±

    Angor almost cried. How was it possible for him to collect that kind of money?!

    ¡°But-but... I saved...¡±

    Sunders nced at him. ¡°We¡¯ll talk about itter.¡±

    Lydia walked to Flora. ¡°See that? Discrimination.¡±

    Flora rolled her eyes.

    ¡°Oh? I see your skeleton is a lot better now,¡± Lydia suddenly pointed out.

    Flora looked around and did see Little Red in a better condition. It had those mes in its eyes sockets turn into smiling crescent shape. When Angor looked this way, Little Red took out a rose from somewhere and reached out with a trembling skeletal arm toward Angor.

    ¡°Hey, Little Red!¡± Angor happily joined Flora and epted the blood-red rose. He put the rose in his chest pocket and hurried to another direction where Dave and Promey unconscious against a wall.

    He quickly found Toby being held carefully in Dave¡¯s hand.

    Angor took Toby in his own hands and sensed the bird¡¯s body temperature. The beam wound was slowly disappearing, which meant Prome already did something to help.

    However, Angor feared that Toby¡¯s wound would require more treatment than that. He returned to Sunders and begged his professor.

    Sunders sighed and said, ¡°You know, I wasn¡¯t nning to save you there, but you still dragged me here by your daring conduct. I¡¯ll let it pass this time. Only this one time! Next time before you do something, think of the consequences!¡±

    The gentleman took Toby over and cast a wizard-level healing spell which patched Toby¡¯s wound up drastically.

    After making sure the bird had stable vitals, Sunders passed Toby back to Angor. The creature was still unconscious.

    Angor was somewhat d about this. Being unconscious meant Toby could not cause more trouble for now.

    ¡°Did you close the passage?¡± Sunders looked at Angor¡¯s shoulder wound, which was still bleeding.

    ¡°As you ordered,¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°Not only that, but I also managed to trick the wizard-level toy owl into going back. Oh right, where¡¯s Fox and Froggy?¡±

    When he realized Sunders was giving him a puzzled look, Angor quickly exined, ¡°Fox is... the red fox with a harp and the green frog is called Froggy.¡±

    ¡°Huh. You know them well,¡± Sunders mocked.

    ¡°I have to join them to learn how to shut the passage!¡± Angor remembered how everyone saw his terrible performance and felt embarrassed again.

    ¡°They vanished. I¡¯m afraid they already left the Nightmare Domain. Not sure if that¡¯s going to give us troubles in the future.¡±

    ¡°They left? What about... them?¡± Angor pointed to the teacup band and toy soldiers.

    The teacups responded to his gesture by yelling loudly, ¡°Where are you, my queen??¡±

    They sounded like children crying in sharp voices.

    ...

    After some more hubbub, the wizards all realized that none of their attacks worked against these creatures. The attacks only bounced back at them. Also, it seemed the toy soldiers could drain energy from the attacks into their weapons and then unleash that power against whoever wanted to harm them.

    ¡°Leave these things to me. I¡¯ll think of something,¡± Sunders said in the end.

    By this, Sunders also prevented anyone from seizing the creatures for their experiments.

    ¡°Mister Sunders, how do we get out? Is it still dangerous?¡± Kooper asked politely.

    ¡°No. We¡¯ll leave soon enough.¡±

    Sunders sent a voice transmission the Angor next, ¡°You created the Nightmare Domain, and you should be the one who¡¯ll take it under your care.¡±

    ¡°My care? What does that mean?¡±

 Chapter 279 - Undertaking Nightmare Domain

    <h4>Chapter 279: Undertaking Nightmare Domain</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°It means the Nightmare Domain you cut out from space shall fall under your own management,¡± Sunders said.

    ¡°Um, you mean like a lord who owns hisnd?¡±

    ¡°You can put it that way,¡± said Sunders as he nodded.

    Angor¡¯s eyes twinkled. ¡°So this domain is mine from now on?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°Is it like Sorcerer¡¯s Garden? But without aw? I can put my stuff in there anytime, and I don¡¯t need a space storage?¡±

    Sunders sneered, ¡°In your dreams maybe.¡±

    ¡°I... can¡¯t do that?¡± Angor¡¯s enthusiasm instantly vanished.

    ¡°Do not consider Nightmare Domain as a space storage. They¡¯repletely different.¡±

    Angor was still confused.

    Sunders kept his voice transmission on, ¡°We cannot determine the nature of Nightmare Domain. In fact, I named it myself. You may think of it as a special illusion. An illusion does not exist in reality. Instead, it exists in people¡¯s minds or dreams. It¡¯s the conception of space, but not a conceptual space.¡±

    Those words confused Angor more. What was the difference?

    ¡°One means something that exists for real, while the other is theoretical,¡± said Sunders as he tried to make the exnation easier.

    ¡°But we¡¯re standing inside a Nightmare Domain, right? I mean, a real space. How can we exist in a theoretical ce?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯splicated. Reality and fake, time and space... everything you know has an opposite, counterpart concept. Here¡¯s an example... When you went into Nether Cityst time, you existed inside the Nightmare Realm where time is frozen. To those in the wizarding world, your travel was instant. You never ¡®spent time¡¯ in the Nightmare Realm. In other words, you never left the wizarding world. But can you say that the Nightmare Realm doesn¡¯t exist in reality?

    ¡°It involves knowledge that is still being discussed by wizards today. If you¡¯re interested, go read a bookposed by Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard called <i>Barzel Thesis: Time, Space, and Reality </i>.¡±

    Angor grasped just a tiny bit of the exnation.

    ¡°Nightmare Domain¡± was only theoretical space. It was closely connected to the Nightmare Realm, but it was not the Nightmare Realm.

    Sunders, who named the concept called ¡°Nightmare Domain¡±, had not gained systematic knowledge about it yet. He only knew its connection with the Nightmare Realm. Sunders could create a Nightmare Domain, yet he could not enter the Nightmare Realm through it. On the opposite, monsters from the Nightmare Realm could enter into their world by going through a Nightmare Domain. A newly established Nightmare Domain would always attract such monsters and this included many extremely powerful ones.

    To Sunders, Nightmare Domain was a special illusion that contained elements of the Nightmare Realm. These elements made his illusions uniquely deadly in the southern wizarding region.

    Due to the nature of Nightmare Domain, whoever created the domain carelessly risked allowing super monsters to show up in wizard world. For this reason, the art was both a powerful and risky weapon to Sunders.

    To prevent the risk, Sunders spent decades doing researches and finally gained an idea using knowledge rted to ne separation.

    When a Nightmare Domain was created then severed from the Nightmare Realm by particr means, its creator could fuse the domain with himself and enjoy the ability to wield nightmare illusions AND avoid attracting powerful monsters.

    This meant ¡°undertaking¡± the Nightmare Domain.

    Such a move brought lots of merits such as allowing an illusionist to gain control over powerful illusions perfectly almost immediately.

    However, following the universal rule of equivalent exchange, the merits also brought great danger. Due to the elements of the Nightmare Realm, fusing Nightmare Domain into oneself might easily cause the illusionist to confuse what was real and fake. One should gain enough knowledge and practice in illusion before attempting so.

    Flora was an exception. She was not an illusionist, but Little Red allowed her to undertake her own Nightmare Domain. It was a destiny Flora found, and no one could learn her way.

    ¡°... I¡¯d wait for you to be a wizard and achieve attainment in illusions before allowing you to undertake your Nightmare Domain. Now you did it as a fresh apprentice... and almost let that woman loose!¡± Sunders could not helpining. He thought Angor was the most modest one among his three students. Maybe the boy was a little slow to be a wizard, but the problem could always be solved with enough time. Sunders would not mind seeing Angor growing into an academism wizard.

    The man did not expect the timid boy to possess such guts. He almost destroyed the world! Thank heavens Sunders happened to be attending Twilight Auction just at the right moment. If any of the monsters from the core area of the Nightmare Realm showed up in the wizarding world, no one could predict the consequence.

    Innocent people would die just because a monster beyond legendary saw something he did not like and spat in disgust. The spat would be powerful enough to sink the entire continent.

    In which case the southern wizarding region would not have many wizards left.

    Sunders always acted neutral in front of people in the past centuries, and now he broke that personal principle just to clear Angor¡¯s mess. Naturally, he was angry.

    Also, clearing the mess was not the end of it. He was going to gift Angor a huge destiny by doing so.

    Sunders did not really mind giving people profits. However, he was still frustrated at how he had to waste his strength, while the ¡°criminal¡± of all was acting happy-go-lucky.

    It was made worse when the ¡°criminal¡± was looking at everyone proudly as if he was waiting for a badge for his heroism.

    Sunders did not know how many years had passed since he was so angryst time. He simply tried to quell it.

    ¡°You brought the Nightmare Domain, and you¡¯ll be the one to take it with you.¡±

    Angor nodded quickly. He had no reason to refuse such a giant gift.

    ¡°And if you fail, you¡¯ll definitely die,¡± Sunders had to remind his student.

    ¡°I understand. Thank you for being so considerate, professor!¡±

    <i>I was not! </i>Sundersined in his mind.

    ¡°Um, sir, since you¡¯re willing to help, can I ask something from you?¡± Angor looked down at Toby with a gentle look.

    Sunders gazed at Angor and his bird, quickly predicting what Angor was going to ask.

    ¡°You found a really good helper, Greya...¡± He sighed. ¡°Okay, go ahead.¡±

    With a passionate expression, Angor looked up and asked, ¡°I... can¡¯t get a hundred thousand crystals in half a month. Can I borrow some from you, professor? I¡¯ll pay you back soon!¡±

    Sunders clenched his fists. <i>I was wrong, Greya. This is an unthankful little bastard!</i>

    ¡°No,¡± replied Sunders as he remained calm. However, his tone gave him out a little. ¡°Apart from money for Twilight, the materials I used to help you sever the Nightmare Domain were about hundred-fifty thousand magic crystals. I give you one month. Fail, and the amount would be doubled!¡±

    Earlier, Sunders was nning to give the materials to his student for free. However, he changed his mind.

    ¡°A hundred and fifty thousand?? But I¡¯m a level-1 apprentice! This is unthinkable!¡± Tears moved around Angor¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Nice music box. Keep it up,¡± Sunders left those words and turned away.

    ¡°Did he ask me to sell music boxes to pay my debt?¡± Angor pondered. That was not going to get him enough money!

    ...

    The preparations for fusing the Nightmare Domain was done. Sunders took Angor to a corner of the hall.

    ¡°Get ready, I¡¯m starting,¡± Sunders warned.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Angor looked worried as he asked, ¡°While I do what I need to do, will the Twilight Auction start without me?¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°Yes, if nothing goes wrong again.¡±

    Angor had no idea how long the process would take, so he handed his bone card to Sunders.

    ¡°Professor, please help me finish the transactioning from the auction if I¡¯m not there to do it, and ept the items I bought,¡± Angor asked.

    Sunders checked the boned card and chuckled, ¡°So you¡¯re Number 187? Flora will be quite surprised to find out.¡±

    Angor¡¯s forehead started to sweat.

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll get your items, as long as you are still alive.¡± Sunders considered a little and decided not to ask Angor why he bought materials only master alchemists could refine.

    ¡°Prepare yourself.¡±

    ¡°Hold on!¡±

    Sunders frowned. ¡°You¡¯re changing your mind now? Too afraid to die?¡±

    Angor shook his head and revealed a pleading look. ¡°Professor, I have another request, may I?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± replied Sunders as he thought about Angor¡¯s previous request and grimaced.

    ¡°I want your help to buy the eyeless man. Spending some money is fine. I¡¯ll pay you back as fast as I can,¡± Angor exined despite Sunders¡¯ words of refusal.

    The gentleman hesitated a little and could not persuade himself into ignoring Angor.

    ¡°So you can pay me back, no matter how many crystals I used to help you?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m doing it for Toby this time.¡±

    He had been hiding Greya¡¯s information from Toby. Since the bird always helped him in times of need, Angor felt greatly indebted to his little partner.

    Sunders sighed. ¡°A gourmet wizard... even if he¡¯s an apprentice, he¡¯ll worth more than you can imagine. I¡¯ll put it this way... You¡¯ll probably need more magic crystals than the sum of your current debt. Are you sure you want to buy him off if the bid climbs beyond two hundred thousand?¡±

    ¡°Two-two hundred thousand?!¡± Angor did not even hesitate. ¡°Ne-never mind.¡±

    Sunders was speechless to see Angor¡¯s determination faltering so soon.

    ¡°Professor, can you note down the name of the buyer then?¡±

    ¡°You... want to hijack him after the auction?¡± Sunders would be really disappointed if that was Angor¡¯s n.

    ¡°I... think I¡¯ll buy the eyeless man from the buyerter... When I get enough money, that is.¡±

 Chapter 280 - Auction Recommenced

    <h4>Chapter 280: Auction Rmenced</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When the inner hall was affected by the spreading mist, people from outside could no longer see what was going on from the screen. There was only whiteness.

    When it happened, an aged man with brown hair immediately teleported from his chamber on the top floor into the inner stage.

    If Sunders was here, he would have quickly recognized this figure as ¡®Azure Lion¡¯ Devildare. This man was the supreme leader of the auction house. He used to be a wizard of Brute Cavern, whoter returned to his family to train his children after spending many years struggling to break the bottleneck as a level-1 wizard.

    His family n, the Waterward Lions, was one of the groups manipting Twilight Well behind the curtain.

    Devildare was still a level-1 wizard now, but he already stepped onto the path of truth, which earned him quite a name in the southern wizarding region.

    Every single wizard in Twilight Well attended the grand auction because of thest lot being sold today, and Devildare was here as thest assurance who had to keep everything under control.

    He totally did not expect something to go wrong just before thest item could show up.

    Devildare did not really mind the strange seabird flying into the stage, nor did he care about the seemingly weak apprentice. This was why he was quite shocked when the strangebination used some kind of unknown spell which obscured the entire inner hall.

    Surprisingly, the mist prevented all of his detection spells from working. Now Devildare could no longer stay put. He ordered his guards to engage possible enemies and quickly went for the auction hall.

    He believed that an enemy of his had to have learned about the final item, and they were here to seize it. The mist, as well as the bird and an apprentice, had to be a mere distraction. The real enemy should have already sneaked inside.

    However, things were not as he expected when he arrived.

    ¡°Where... is everyone?¡±

    It turned out that the white mist blocked his vision as well.

    Devildare knew well about theyout inside the hall, so he did not need his eyes to move around. The man quickly found the auction stage and called for Twilight.

    No response.

    Nothing came from the guards either.

    Devildare grew edgy by the second. He leaped onto the third floor and felt his way into one of the Gold VIP rooms.

    ¡°Phantom Master, sir?¡± Devildare tried. Again, no one replied to him.

    <i>Sunders is gone too?</i>

    Devildare started to worry for real now.

    Several other wizards arrived and joined Devildare.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening, Mister Devildare? I can¡¯t see anyone in here.¡±

    ¡°No idea. A hostile attack, for sure. I can¡¯t seem to find Mister Phantom.¡±

    ¡°Is it an illusion? I think I saw that level-1 apprentice deploy nodes inside his own body,¡± A wizard suggested.

    Someone denied that idea. ¡°Can¡¯t be. An illusion should at least prevent people from going in or out. We aren¡¯t affected at all.¡±

    ¡°It must be something about the mist then?¡±

    Someone took out a container bottle for storing gas and collected the mist. No matter what the situation was, the mist was worth looking into just because it could block detection spells.

    ¡°Strange. Is this mist... real? I can¡¯t get anything in my bottle.¡±

    ¡°My enchanted one didn¡¯t work either. So, the mist is fake?¡±

    ¡°Can something fake block our eyesights?¡±

    Devildare¡¯s expression grew darker as he listened to the fruitless discussions.

    ¡°Enough. Let¡¯s search around. Start from the first level and go up from there. Leave no stone unturned. Also, make sure none of those in the outer hall leaves this ce-¡±

    He suddenly saw something colorful shing past in front of his nose.

    ¡°What¡¯s that? Did you see something shiny passing by?¡±

    They could not use spells nor spirit feelers inside the mist, so they were having a hard time seeing things.

    A wizard called, ¡°I saw a clown going through the wall!¡±

    ¡°Clown? What clown?¡±

    To wizards, the first thing they thought about when hearing ¡°clown¡± was Crown Clown, a terrible grand demon from Abyss ne.

    And there was no way Crown Clown or his clown legion would show up here.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a clown from those circuses you usually see. But... weird. I think it¡¯s ¡®t¡¯.¡±

    They checked for a moment without finding anything. As they decided to consider it someone¡¯s hallucination, they heard someone singing an aria in a terrible voice.

    ¡°Croak! Shava loves my voice, but that dusk-colored old witch couldn¡¯t understand true art! Oh, and the white beard old thing! Croak! And that red ugly! Croak! Shite! Shava is my only friend!¡±

    Dusk-colored witch, white beard old thing, red ugly? Was the voice referring to Twilight, Kooper, and Lydia?

    As the music whichbined aria and harp went on, they saw a frog and a fox slowly showing up. Before they could make a move, the animals released some green and red ripples, which aroused a strange restlessness inside their minds. By the time they managed to suppress the emotion, the animals were already gone.

    ¡°Maybe this is really an illusion.¡± Someone spoke, ¡°Mister Sunders is in there, right? Maybe he did this.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, he can definitely do something like this.¡±

    A momentter, the white mist disappeared before they could reach any solid conclusion.

    It did not happen immediately. The mist dissipated in front of their eyes gradually and turned from dense to thin.

    As the mistpletely vanished, the inner hall returned to being crowded with people. Twilight was standing on the stage, while the participants were well on their seats. The VIPs also showed up inside their private rooms.

    Everything returned as if nothing happened. The wizard group led by Devildare was now the odd sight in the hall.

    ¡°We¡¯re back... we¡¯re really back?!¡± An apprentice eximed, which helped Devildare realize that they were not dreaming.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Twilight? Aren¡¯t you dealing with the intruder-¡± Devildare looked at the corner where the boy and a bird copsed. He did see blood and the crack on the wall, but the said intruders were not there.

    ¡°They¡¯re gone?¡± Devildare was confused a bit. ¡°Are we under attack? The rebels from Midnight Sovereign?¡±

    Twilight shook her head and signaled the other wizards to give her some privacy. She then told what she saw to Devildare using voice transmission. She also ordered the guard captain to arrange affairs for the dead guards and regain order of the hall.

    Devildare scowled harder and harder as he heard more information. In the end, he nced at Chamber 19. ¡°Resume the auction. We shall discuss when everything¡¯s done.¡±

    With that, Devildare¡¯s body slowly disappeared.

    Twilight watched as the guards reestablished order for the auction. The strange journey in Nightmare Domain gave them three casualties, but the buyers were all fine, apart from several slightly injured apprentices.

    Twilight Auction might suffer some disrepute, but not much, since the customers were alright.

    Twilight sighed and nced at Chamber 19 as well. She cursed in her mind.

    ¡°Everyone. We just experienced something unique in our lives. Let¡¯s turn the precious experience into a tool which shall pave our paths toward the ultimate truth.¡±

    Twilight gave the audiences a long, emotional speech, which was rare for her. Most of her words were useless overtalk. She mainly hoped that the customers could forgive the auction house about what just happened.

    It was something they already agreed upon inside the Nightmare Domain, so the wizards dly agreed.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s continue our auction. The 172nd lot, and thest but one item that¡¯s being sold today is a waiter from Barbie¡¯s Restaurant. Staring point is ten thousand magic crystals and raises should be five thousand or higher!¡±

    The eyeless man was ced inside the iron cage again. Theck of eyes did not prevent him from ncing at Chamber 19 every now and then. It was where Toby was staying in at the moment.

    ...

    Inside Chamber 19.

    Sunders¡¯ room now had two extra people plus a bird.

    The gentleman sat under the light as he quietly looked at the unconscious young man on a sofa nearby.

    ¡°You would keep staring at him while he takes the Nightmare Domain? Well, either he wakes upter or gets lost in illusions forever. Staring won¡¯t help,¡± Flora spoke in midair, bare-feet.

    There was a hint of jealousy in her voice.

    ¡°Those clothes... are yours, right? Is Angor trying to mimic your way, professor?¡±

    ¡°I gave him.¡±

    ¡°Aw... you never gave me things to wear.¡± Flora pouted.

    Sunders did not reply to the unproductivement.

    Flora kept ndering Angor, ¡°Look, he tore your precious clothes. So disrespectful.¡±

    Again, Sunders did not answer. The man looked back at the auction hall.

    The bidding for the eyeless man had gone all the way to 100,000. Considering the value held by a gourmet wizard, it waspletely expected. Everyone would want one of them to satisfy their appetite.

 Chapter 281 - Cursing Puppet

    <h4>Chapter 281: Cursing Puppet</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°One-fifty thousand, called by Number 19!¡±

    ¡°One-eighty thousand, called by Number 177!¡±

    ¡°One-ny thousand, called by Number 19!¡±

    Flora floated behind Sunders and whispered, ¡°Hey, professor. It¡¯s just a gourmet wizard. We don¡¯t need to spend money on that. Just find the time and go look for one from Fairytown.¡±

    By ¡°look for one¡±, Flora meant to search for whoever they see fit, knock the victim out, and bag him back.

    Sunders did not answer Flora directly. Instead, he asked, ¡°Do you believe Greya¡¯s dead?¡±

    ¡°Two hundred thousand, called by Number 327!¡±

    Sunders raised the bid by another ten thousand crystals, which meant offering 210,000.

    Flora hesitated before saying, ¡°I think so. Time in the Nightmare Realm is almost static. She should have alreadye out if she really can unless she¡¯s kept there by something we don¡¯t know. But that¡¯s really unlikely. Besides, if she¡¯s out, she¡¯d at least tell Candy House about it.¡±

    Flora curled her lips. ¡°So, I think she¡¯s deader than dead.¡±

    ¡°Be that way then.¡± Sunders did not provide his opinion. It was as if he did not mean to ask a question seriously at all.

    Flora squinted her eyes as she asked, ¡°Professor, you sound as if something¡¯s different?¡±

    Sunders remained silent for a second.

    ¡°People from Candy House may be carefree and strange-tempered, but they¡¯re actually stronger than we think. Now, an organization who united a group of powerful wizards under their wings didn¡¯t make a move when Greya¡¯s in trouble, and they watched their man being sold as a ve withouting to help. Don¡¯t you find it strange?¡±

    Flora tilted her head. ¡°You mean... Greya¡¯s still alive?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. But I did hear about a rumor.¡±

    ¡°Rumor?¡±

    Sunders showed a gloomy expression. ¡°Days ago, Felicia went to Brilliance ne to find an old man who went to Grand ne with her. The old man had his hair braided into moon shape and sun badges affixed on his beard.¡±

    <i>Moon hair and sun badges on beard... </i>Flora quickly thought of someone by that look.

    ¡°Brilliance ne...¡± Flora mumbled, ¡°That does sound fishy.¡±

    Brilliance ne was an appendage ne of the wizarding world.

    An appendage ne meant something sessfully fused to another ne during a ne fusion. An appendage had all of its free elements reced by the ruling ne, but it still existed independently.

    It was simr to how offshore inds were connected with the main continent. They looked independent, but they were still one deep down.

    In this case, the Brilliance ne was like an ind which affixed itself to the wizarding world.

    The wizarding world had many such appendage nes. A lot of wizard organizations were set inside these nes to avoid getting involved with mortals. Among them, the Brilliance ne was a very peculiar being.

    Appendage nes were usually extremelyrge like new worlds. Some of them were bigger than the entire Fey Continent. The Brilliance ne was special because it only had one wizard organization, which was a rare case among other appendage nes.

    The organization who dominated an entire appendage ne was called The Starliege Temple.

    A holy ground for Prophet Wizards.

    From Sunders¡¯ description, Flora remembered a famed Prophet called ¡®Stargazer¡¯ Prada.

    Sunders did not tell her the name directly because all Prophets could sense it when their names were mentioned. Just like the grand demons from the Abyss ne, who used their names as mediums to spread their prowess, their names could lead them across thousands of nes when someone spoke of them.

    And Sunders would avoid unnecessary trouble.

    ¡°Felicia invited a famous Prophet to Grand ne, the neighboring ne of Haunt World where Greya disappeared. Interesting.¡±

    As a woman who loved gossips, Flora already created several possible stories in her mind.

    <i>Maybe Greya didn¡¯t die. But...</i>

    ¡°But are youpeting for that waiter because of this, professor? So you can earn favor from Greya?¡± Flora pointed to the stage.

    ¡°No. It¡¯s just that I¡¯ve not tasted a dish made by a gourmet wizard for some time, and I¡¯d like to try some.¡±

    ¡°And you think I¡¯d believe that?¡± Flora humphed.

    Sunders grinned.

    ¡°Believe it or not, it¡¯s up to you.¡±

    ...

    Sunders did not win the eyeless man.

    As Twilight announced the result, a charming yetzy voice was heard inside the entire auction hall. ¡°Mister Sunders... shall we have dinner together? We shall ask the caged guy to cook for us.¡±

    Sunders did not respond.

    ¡°I bought him so he can serve us... It¡¯s the same, no matter which one of us won. I¡¯ll be yours... after all.¡±

    ¡°Same your fat ass, Lydia! Don¡¯t go too far!¡± Flora protested. It was Lydia who bought the eyeless man.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re pretty easy to provoke today, Flora. Let me guess, are you jealous of someone?¡±

    A rough male voice spoke before Flora could retort again. ¡°Enough of your trash talks in public, Lotus. Master Phantom does not wish to speak to you, and you should be smart.¡±

    Lydia scowled. ¡°Oh! It¡¯s you, Devildare, Waterward Pussy?¡±

    Some of the audiences could not help chuckling. ming Lotus was famous for her bad temper andck of respect for social rules, and the woman just proved it.

    Devildare humphed in mild anger.

    ¡°What, you¡¯re angry? Let¡¯s fight it out then. I¡¯ll be right here,¡± Lydia continued her taunting.

    Instead of facing Lydia¡¯s harassment, Devildare turned to Twilight.

    ¡°Continue the auction.¡±

    Twilight nodded. ¡°Please wait just a little moment, Lady Lotus. Have a look at ourst item, you¡¯ll surely be pleased.¡±

    After those words, the protective magic array inside the auction hall suddenly brightened up as it ran at full force. Now it needed to consume hundreds of magic crystals each minute.

    Meanwhile, a dozen wizards appeared on the stage in different positions, either in public or in inconspicuous corners, putting every angle of the stage under their observation.

    It meant the auction house did regard thest item as something important.

    The disy of force convinced all audiences to sit upright and wait carefully. Even Lydia stopped her verbal assault.

    Before today, no one heard anything about any precious items showing up during the auction, yet the house ced such solid bulwark here as if they were going to present some unequaled treasure found in thest century.

    However, this was not nned at all.

    Devildare sighed in frustration. Someone sent them the item just before themencement of the auction. He first offered to buy the item as the auction house, yet the seller insisted for the item to be sold in public. Devildare tried again by convincing the seller to wait until the grand auction at the end of this year, so the house had time to attract more participants and earn more benefit. Yet the seller never agreed, and the seller only demanded the item to be presented right now.

    Also, Sunders was here because Devildare sent him an urgent invitation.

    ¡°Please take a look at this.¡± Twilight wave a hand and a sealed-up ss case appeared on the stage.

    The case contained a cloth doll with a grim design.

    The doll was not big. It was only as tall as half an adult¡¯s arm. It looked so simple that it only had several strings hanging on its round head as hairs. Another long string was attached on its back so whoever owned it might hang it on something else.

    But on careful inspection, people could sense the terrifying auraing from the doll. The simple hairs could not cover the doll¡¯s eyes, which showed ck and crimson concentric circles that were pulsing with a strange glimmer.

    All wizards inside the hall, including Sunders, gasped at the item.

    They were expecting Twilight Auction to use some high-tiered alchemy item or something simr as the finale, not... this.

    This got to be the most valuable item provided by the auction during thest decade!

    At this moment, the wizards all considered their trip today worthy, no matter whether they could get the item or not.

    To apprentices, the toy doll was nothing special. It was just a bit creepy.

    Only wizards would notice the small secret hidden within.

    To wizards, the appearance of the doll somewhat darkened the auction hall. Then a ck, screaming shadow emerged from it and loomed over their heads. They saw a pair of blood-red eyes on the shadow as well as a bloody, grinning maw.

    Even the anti-magic case could not prevent the horrible shadow from showing up.

    This was something not yetprehensible for apprentices.

    ...

    ¡°No doubt about it... that¡¯s a Mystery Item!¡± A wizard stood up in excitement. It appeared he could not hold back the urge to run up the stage so that he could look at it closely.

    ¡°Mystery Item??¡± Hisment ignited everyone¡¯s enthusiasm.

    Most apprentices had no idea what a ¡°Mystery Item¡± was. However, they still knew there was something they could not see, judging from how the real wizards around them acted.

    ¡°Yes, a Mystery Item which showed itself in this world for the first time.¡± Twilight smiled at the gawking wizards. ¡°I¡¯ll call it the ¡®Cursing Puppet¡¯ for now.¡±

    Twilight only revealed the item¡¯s name. There was no introduction.

    The truth was that she did not know anything about the item either. The seller who was just as secretive as the doll did not even allow them to have a preliminary examination of the item. If they insisted, he would simply take it back and sell it somewhere else.

    A Mystery Item without an owner.

    Any auction, including the ones held by Floating Mech City, would definitely ce this one as a grand conclusion.

    Sessfully selling the item would earn Twilight Auction great fame across the world. That was why they epted it despite the seller¡¯s extremely tough requirements.

    ¡°I believe that there¡¯s no need for words. We¡¯ll start at a hundred thousand magic crystals, and it shall also be the minimum increment.¡±

 Chapter 282 - Awake

    <h4>Chapter 282: Awake</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders severed the Nightmare Domain and fused it into Angor¡¯s body, thus cing Angor in a strange trance.

    Before the gentleman made the move, Sunders told Angor that the boy would fall into different illusions, some of which would appear most enticing, and Angor must not surrender to them. Otherwise, the boy would never wake up again.

    In Angor¡¯s view, however, whatever Sunders warned him about never showed up.

    Angor was now in a weaka¡ªhe could hear everything around him, but he could not get up.

    He heard Sunders talking about how Felicia went to Brilliance ne, how Greya might be still alive... He did not know if the two pieces of information were rted but at least there was hope for Greya.

    Of course, he heard Flora maligning him.

    He also heard Sunders bidding for the eyeless man, but Lady Lotus won in the end.

    He heard them all while beingpletely unable to move.

    At one moment, he felt his body heating up. His blood moved faster, and his spirit was getting tired quickly.

    Especially around the back of his shoulder bone. One second, it was scorching in pain, and the next second, it was taken over by unbearable itchiness.

    The terrible feelings had prevented him from minding any other business. He soon put his full attention at the strange reaction on his body.

    Angor hid his spirit inside the mind space and waited. He waited for an illusion toe, a realistic illusion that would trick him, so he could see through it and inherit his Nightmare Domain.

    However, the Nightmare Domain had almost finished fusing into him, and the ¡°enticing and irresistible illusion¡± never came.

    And aside from the terrible itchiness on his shoulder, he did not feel anything at all.

    ¡°Today¡¯s auction shall end here!¡±

    Angor could hear his surroundings again once the Nightmare Domain was fully fused, and just at the right time as Twilight¡¯s voice reached his ears.

    <i>The auction ended?</i>

    He wondered what was sold as thest lot. He really hoped it was an anti-undead weapon.

    Angor tried and failed to get up again.

    He heard Sunders and Twilight talking about some kind of trade, then there was a rough male voice inviting Sunders to drink...

    Angor found himself existing at somewhere quiet.

    He heard the noises of beasts howling and birds chirping.

    He smelled flower and grass.

    He sensed something shifting restlessly in the depth of his soul.

    Angor grew excited a little. Finally! The illusion was here to mislead him.

    Yet he was disappointed again. The ¡°illusion¡± did nothing to affect his mind.

    ...

    Angor stretched himself and sat up. He had no idea how long had psed.

    He opened his eyes and realized something strange.

    He was lying on a stone bed. There were beautiful flowers and woods that were full of wildlife. A bookshelf stood beside the bed while a number of random objects scattered on a desk nearby.

    ¡°Desk and bookshelf here? Really, the rain¡¯s going to ruin them,¡± Angor muttered and walked to the desk.

    A pile of files was ced on it. He saw an opened the letter on top before he put aside its clean-white envelope.

    ¡°Mister Monkey has arrived at XXX, inviting Phantom to XXX...¡±

    Angor could not read some of the symbols. He sensed manaing from them. They were probably encryptions or something.

    He released his spirit feelers to sense the magic sequence contained in the symbols so he could hopefully decipher them.

    Before he could do so though, he saw his vision changing drastically.

    He appeared somewhere high up in the air.

    He did not fall. Instead, someone grabbed the back of his cor, rendering him a helpless kitten who got its scruff seized.

    Angor slowly turned around and saw a handsome yet emotionless face.

    ¡°Pro-professor...¡± Angor smiled in a silly manner. It was Sunders who ¡°picked him up¡±.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to wake up so fast,¡± said the gentleman as he raised an eyebrow.

    He did not question Angor about the Nightmare Domain. Especially since the particr auraing from Angor¡¯s body already proved it to him.

    Angor looked around before he looked down at his feet.

    It was evening. It seemed they were right above Twilight Well.

    Angor tried to be polite by smiling brightly. ¡°How long was I out, sir? Was that... your Sorcerer¡¯s Garden?¡±

    ¡°Mmhmm. Three hours. I¡¯m going back to Brute Cavern now,¡± said Sunders. He considered for a moment before saying, ¡°Since you¡¯re awake... you can get back on your own.¡±

    The man simply let go of the boy and waved a hand to say ¡°goodbye¡±.

    ¡°Wait-Professor! Help! I can¡¯t fly!¡±

    Angor never had a chance to ask about the auction or about Greya or the Nightmare Domain. Sunders only disappeared into the night sky.

    Angor fell from somewhere hundreds of meters high and he almost cried.

    ¡°But I just saved the world! How could you!¡±

    Sunders did not leave for real. He was going to save Angor if the boy could not save himself. However, when the man heard Angor yelling like that, he teleported away without a second thought.

    ¡°Serves you right.¡± Blood vessels were pulsing on the gentleman¡¯s forehead.

    Angor fell through clouds and began to drop faster.

    The ground was near, but he was not as panicked this time.

    He could not fly, true. However, he had gone through such experience twice. One of them was fake and was caused by Sunders¡¯ Acoustic Illusion. It did not matter though. He had full knowledge about how to save himself from falling.

    When there were only several meters left, he released a small tornado.

    The lifting force of the air current easily helped him slow down his momentum. He skillfully made a flip in the air and touched down safe and sound.

    Next, Angor checked his belongings. As expected, Sunders had returned his bone card. The bnce reading only had three digits now.

    His waist pouch had an extra space capsule in it, which contained everything he bought from the auction.

    While Toby... was sound asleep in his chest pocket. The bird was in good condition.

    Angor stroked Toby¡¯s feathers and smiled in relief. ¡°Don¡¯t act like that again, alright?¡±

    A momentter, Angor returned to Twilight Well.

    The Wizard Fair at night was even livelierpared to daytime. To avoid unnecessary trouble after making such a ¡°courageous show¡± during the auction, he lifted his cor high to cover his face before walking toward the base of Brute Cavern carefully.

    ...

    He pushed the door open and saw the guest hall that was lighted. Dave and Prome sat in the hall with grim expressions.

    Dave quickly looked toward the door.

    ¡°Angor!! You¡¯re safe!¡±

    ¡°How did you get out?

    ¡°And why did you run to Twilight like that? Lady Twilight was so scary then. I thought I¡¯d lose you forever.¡±

    Dave assaulted Angor with endless questions, and Angor did not feel troubled by it at all. Rather, he sensed a tiny trace of warmthing to his chest.

    After babbling for a while, Dave gave Angor a sad look. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I couldn¡¯t keep Toby safe... Toby¡¯s gone. I think Lady Twilight got him.¡±

    Angor was surprised now. Was Toby not right inside his pocket?

    Prome sighed and joined them. ¡°Let me exin. Dave brought Toby out from the mist and asked me to save him. I¡¯d only managed to stop the bleeding before something terrible shocked us into unconsciousness. By the time we came to, Toby is no longer with us.¡±

    Prome lowered his head to apologize.

    Angor recalled seeing all apprentices in the Nightmare Domain scattered on the floor right after he shut down the ne passage and amongst them were Dave and Prome. He was the one who hurried to get Toby.

    And he totally forgot to tell them about it.

    Angor waved his hands off embarrassingly. ¡°No, no. I thank you for your help today. And... Twilight didn¡¯t get Toby. He¡¯s sleeping in my pocket.¡±

    Angor exined what happened during their time out while omitting anything about the Nightmare Domain.

    ¡°... I was out too when the eyeless man was being sold. I don¡¯t know what was thest item. I just woke up not long ago.¡±

    ¡°Toby¡¯s fine? Oh, thank the spirit.¡± Dave released the breath he had been holding. ¡°So Mister Sunders saved you? I was wondering why Lady Lotus kept mentioning his name during the auction. So Sunders was inside Chamber 19 all along!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re all safe, and that¡¯s what matters,¡± Prome spoke.

    Angor looked toward Prome. ¡°I¡¯ll fulfill my promise, Master Prome. I¡¯ll start attempting to draw Prelude to Elimination once I returned to Brute Cavern. I¡¯ll probably seed if nothing goes wrong.¡±

    Truth was, Prome never believed Angor could do something like that. However, he did not show it. He only gave the boy a gentle smile. ¡°It¡¯s okay if you can¡¯t do it. I¡¯ll go check out Floating Mech City in a few days. They must have something I need.¡±

    Magic array enchantment was not something possible for a mere elementary apprentice alchemist, and Angor totally expected Prome to express his disbelief in him. He needed to back up his promise with the final product, not empty words.

    Angor always approached Prome by means of profit exchange, and that would be how he fulfilled his promises.

    To Dave, however, Angor did not express anything particr. He only put a hand on Dave¡¯s shoulder while carefully remembering the deed that his friend did for him.

    That was enough for their reunion. Now that they had time to spend together, they sat next to the firece and talked about random things.

 Chapter 283 - Mystery

    <h4>Chapter 283: Mystery</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Wizards all set their visions toward the future. They did not falter around the past.

    Even if it was something worth mentioning for the rest of his life, a wizard who did something memorable would only keep it in a corner of his memory instead of using it as a constant chat-topic.

    During their talk, Angor learned something about what happened when he was out cold, such as thest item on the auction.

    ¡°Twilight Auction received a Mystery Item and put it up as the final?¡± Angor imagined what miracle he missed out after hearing Dave¡¯s exnation.

    The word ¡°Mystery¡± was something to help wizards seek the unknown and pursue truth. The word alone already meant something extremely valuable in the world of wizards.

    And Angor, as an alchemist, certainly wished to witness something that only existed in legends.

    ¡°I wonder what it looked like... What¡¯s the difference between Mystery Items and alchemy ones?¡±

    ¡°I only heard that they use apletely different set of rules in this world,¡± Prome said, ¡°I¡¯ve never seen one up close, though.¡±

    The books Angor found in Nightmare Realm did not contain much information about Mystery Items either. He only knew that being ¡°Mystery¡± did not mean superior. Actually, in the right conditions, many mid or low-tiered alchemy products could be more useful than Mystery Items.

    Still, Mystery Items possessed way more value.

    It was like using someone in a battle arena. An ordinary peasant fighter might defeat the king of a country, but that did not mean the peasant was superior to the king. The king held much more assets on a whole other level.

    Most Mystery Items could not be exined using the level system of alchemy.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t get to watch the final auction... pity,¡± Angor sighed.

    ¡°Go ask your professor then,¡± Dave said. He then added, ¡°Did I forget to tell you? The Cursing Puppet went to Mister Sunders in the end. I think your professor¡¯s pretty nice to you, so he might not turn you down.¡±

    ¡°Wait. My professor bought the Cursing Puppet?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It was... seven million magic crystals. It broke the record of Twilight Auction in thest three centuries!¡± Dave eximed. ¡°I mean, seven million! I¡¯d need more than one lifetime to earn that much money. It looked like a toy made for a small girl... I think even I can weave something better than that.¡±

    Prome recalled what he saw and nodded. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice anything particr on that item either. As far as I can see, its handwork isn¡¯t anything professional.¡±

    It reminded Angor of a story he read before.

    ¡°I saw a book in my professor¡¯s library called <i>Wonderful Worlds </i>, written by Great Wizard Fein Werder. The book mostly poprizes knowledge of different nes. One of the stories mentioned a strange item, simr to what we¡¯re talking about.

    ¡°Inside a ne dominated by an ocean that had rainbow-colored sea waves, Fein Werder discovered a silver fish...¡±

    Angor continued.

    The fish was only as big as someone¡¯s hand. Fein Werder was interested in them because he identally discovered the fish¡¯s tribe. Yes, tribe.

    After observing them for two months, Werder noticed that the silver fishes had developed basic intelligence. They gathered in the same manner of ancient tribes and fended off predators together. They built their own habitat and established a primitive form of society.

    Such primitive tribes weremonly found in many nes, so Fein Werder did not linger there. About a hundred yearster when he visited the ocean ne again, he remembered the small fish tribe and decided to take another peek.

    The century did not help the silver fish tribe to developplete civilization, and what he saw was almost identical to a hundred years ago. However, Fein Werder noticed something new. The milters, otherwise known as the male fish, tended to build a ¡°room¡± as its mating spot by using whatever it could salvage from the environment, such as sand, seashells, corals, and seaweed.

    Fein Werder called this spot the ¡°Breeding Room¡±.

    If a hen, the female fish, was interested in a room, it would enter the room and wait for her pair to ¡°do its job¡±.

    Different milters built rooms of different styles. Some used whole shells, some used hard dirt, some dug ces inside corals... Fein Werder found it pretty interesting, so he stayed for a few more years to observe how the small silver fishes gave birth to their next generation.

    In the second year, he saw a silver fish who had ck spots on its body built a delicate breeding room inside a rotten nk from shipwrecks. However, no hens came.

    In the third year, the ¡°ck spot¡± did the same trick by making a rotten wood piece into his breeding room. Even Fein Werder was impressed by the stable triangle design which could support two mating lovers no matter how ¡°violent¡± they moved.

    Yet no hens joined.

    The fourth year, the fifth... The ck spot failed to attract a ¡°she¡± again in the eighth year, and Fein Werder was getting a bit worried about the small bachelor.

    The usual life expectancy of a silver fish was about ten years, which meant this one did not have many chances left.

    During the eighth year, the ck-spotted fish constructed a miniature and adorable room just like how humans did. Fein Werder could not help approving the genius¡¯ work. At this rate, it was very likely that this one silver fish would bring civilization to the tribe.

    Regretfully speaking, such a finely-crafted room still had no visitors.

    In the ninth year, Fein Werder began to understand that it was not the room that discouraged potential mates. It was because... the ¡°ck spot¡± looked unsightly among its folks.

    Fein Werder realized that female silver fish regarded someone¡¯s look as important as the room.

    He silently mourned for the misfortune of the little fish.

    In the ninth year, using rotten wood again, the ck spot created something yet moreplex. It was a fortress, a castle with multiple levels.

    It did attract hens this time. However, each time a hen entered the ¡°castle¡±, the ck spot would immediately ughter it with a weapon.

    This time, the ck spot managed to draw 39 hens to its home. He killed them all and used their blood to bath the castle in red.

    ¡°A fish left single for too long had gone insane...¡± Fein Werdermented.

    The ck spot did not get to meet its natural death. The ¡°chieftain¡± of the tribe ordered guards to siege the castle and executed the ck spot in the end.

    The story did not end here.

    Rather, this was where Fein Werder¡¯s story actually started. As an observer, despite his sorrow when he witnessed the sad ending of the little bachelor, Werder never interfered with the tribe¡¯s business.

    When it ended, Fein Werder prepared to leave this ne since there was no more to see. Before he could do so, however, he saw something strange. The ¡°castle¡± built by the ck-spotted fish had undergone amazing changes.

    It turned into a Mystery Item without being affected by any external magic!

    Fein Werder did not say what the item could be used for in his book. He, however, understood the great value possessed by such an item. Great excitement affected his neutral standing. The man thought he had discovered the right approach to create a Mystery Item.

    He no longer saw himself as an observer. He turned into a merciless killer and began ughtering the fish before using their blood to taint their ¡°breeding rooms¡±.

    But he did not find another Mystery Item.

    He did some more experiment on the bodies of the fish, which yielded nothing.

    In the end, the silver fish tribe became extinct in his hands while he only obtained that one Mystery Item in the shape of a castle.

    Previously, Angor only regarded the story as a ¡°story¡±. He did not believe someone would watch fish building houses for ten years.

    But he found it simr when he heard about the poorly-made cloth doll.

    Perhaps it was poorly made in the views of humans. To the fishes, however, the houses they built were great treasures.

    With no particr process, the simple castle became a ¡°Mystery Item¡±.

    A doll too simple to be a child¡¯s toy became a Mystery Item called the Cursing Puppet.

    They had the same ring to them.

    ¡°Maybe the appearance of a Mystery Item is triggered by strong emotions or desire?¡± Prome offered an opinion after listening to Angor.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. The story is not validated anyway. But I do know alchemists can create such items. I have no idea how though.¡±

    ¡°Mortals-wait, even fishes can produce Mystery Items? Such... mystery.¡± Dave was lost in thought. He then said, ¡°Now I really want to know more about them. Maybe I can identally create one, and I¡¯ll be beyond rich!¡±

    ¡°Thirty years ago, the Floating Mech City sold a Mystery Item called ¡®Whelk of The Dreaming Coast¡¯. It can put all non-lifeforms into dreams regardless of their levels. Due to such a useless effect, the item was only sold at ten thousand crystals. So don¡¯t get too worked up. Not every Mystery Item is valuable,¡± Promemented.

    <i>Put non-lifeforms into dreams?? </i>Angor was surprised. <i>Can randoms objects have dreams too?</i>

    ¡°Practice what you learned. There are cases where a tiered alchemy item sold for more than seven million,¡± said Prome as he patted Dave¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°You must mean those high-tiered ones, Master. There are even better ones called tactical deployments, which are priceless. I wouldn¡¯t care about Mystery or whatnot if I can make something like that,¡± said Dave as he pouted.

    They chuckled and decided to end the topic.

    Angor suddenly remembered seeing Lydia talking to Sunders in a strange way, so he decided to ask Prome about it.

    ¡°Who is ¡®Lady Lotus¡¯ who was inside Chamber 1 today? Why¡¯s everyone afraid of her?¡±

    ¡°Lady Lydia, you mean? She is-¡±

    Before Prome could say much else, a tiny head poked out from the corner of the stairway.

    ¡°Lady Lotus is now at Midnight Sovereign??¡±

 Chapter 284 - Faltering Ananda

    <h4>Chapter 284: Faltering Ananda</h4>

    ¡°Is Lady Lotus really in Midnight Sovereign now?¡±

    It was Hobbiton who just peeked his little head from the corner of under the stairs.

    Dave frowned and prepared to scold the mortal for eavesdropping the conversation between wizards when they heard panicked footstepsing from the second floor.

    Ananda rushed to the first floor, yelled in surprise, and pressed Hobbiton¡¯s head down so they both bowed to them.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, good sirs! I only took a nap, and this kid just left my side. I apologize for interrupting your talk. Punish me if you must!¡±

    Ananda¡¯s sincere attitude caused Dave to swallow his scolding words back.

    ¡°Stop it. You¡¯re going to break his neck,¡± said Angor as he pointed to Hobbiton whose eyes were spinning now.

    Ananda was famous for her strength in Midnight Sovereign. She was too panicked to mind how much force she used. Now Hobbiton was stumbling in ce in a daze, and a red handprint was left on the back of his neck.

    ¡°Man... that was violent,¡± Dave scoffed.

    Ananda quickly let go of Hobbiton, but it was a little toote. Hobbiton made two spins, and thud!

    He fainted.

    ¡°Hobbiton! No!¡± Ananda fumbled around the young man and was relieved to notice he was just sleeping.

    Ananda carried the boy in her arms and bowed again. ¡°I¡¯ll take him upstairs now. I¡¯ll make sure he does not run off like this again. Please forgive us, good sirs.¡±

    Angor called to stop her.

    ¡°I wanted to ask him something. Since he¡¯s out... you¡¯ll answer me then.¡± Angor pointed to a sofa nearby and signaled the woman to take a seat.

    Ananda hesitated a bit andplied. With his head resting on herps, she ced Hobbiton in a lying position.

    Angor grinned at the gentle gesture. Ananda blushed and looked down.

    ¡°I want to know why you¡¯re staying here instead of escaping.¡±

    He left a simple illusion on the second floor before leaving for the auction, and he found that the illusion was broken now. Yet Hobbiton and Ananda did not use the chance to run away.

    ¡°But sir, you asked us to wait here,¡± Ananda mumbled.

    ¡°I did say something about waiting for my return, but you still went through the trouble to remove my illusion when you didn¡¯t have to. So why did you do it AND then waited for me like a good kid? I think there¡¯s a reason behind it.¡±

    Prome and Dave rxed on their sofa and let Angor do the talking. Prome agreed to put Hobbiton in Angor¡¯s hand before the auction, so he would no longer interfere.

    Ananda stuttered, ¡°Hobbiton was curious about your illusion, sir, so I left him on his own. He somehow removed the illusion.¡±

    Angor considered for a moment and did not say anything about that answer.

    ¡°Fine. I don¡¯t really care what you were thinking about.¡±

    Ananda looked up, not sure what Angor wanted to do.

    ¡°You take Hobbiton upstairs and rest for today. You can leave tomorrow morning,¡± said Angor as he waved them off.

    Angor was thinking about letting Hobbiton became Prome¡¯s servant, which was better than being a thief. After meeting Ananda though, he learned that Hobbiton still had a family. It was strange that the boy¡¯s family ¡°imprisoned¡± him. However, that family seemed peaceful enough, and Angor did not really want to break them apart.

    He kept Hobbiton here just to give him a lesson for stealing from wizards.

    The illusion he used was notplex, and he had expected Hobbiton to escape on his own.

    For some reason, Ananda did not feel relieved when she heard Angor¡¯s decision. Instead, she looked at Angor again and again as if trying to say something.

    ¡°Go. And don¡¯t bother us again unless there¡¯s something important.¡±

    Ananda finally carried Hobbiton away while she looked back with uncertainty.

    Dave curled his lips once the pair was out of sight. ¡°You let them go just like that, Angor? Well, maybe the woman can leave, but that stinky kid stole my money! I mean, he disrespected us!¡±

    Angor sighed as he said, ¡°It¡¯s the best choice, so we don¡¯t invite trouble.¡±

    ¡°Trouble? What trouble can they do to us?¡± Dave was unconvinced.

    Prome moaned and knuckled at Dave¡¯s head. ¡°You¡¯re not deaf, are you? Did you not hear the child asking a question?¡±

    ¡°Question? Oh, he wanted to know if Lady Lotus arrived at Midnight Sovereign-hey wait...¡± Dave was astonished by his own words. ¡°How did a mortal know about Lady Lotus?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s something we don¡¯t know yet,¡± Prome replied, ¡°and it means trouble if the kid does know Lady Lotus. Letting them go will spare us whatever trouble there is.¡±

    Angor nodded to agree. That was exactly the reason why he did not question them further.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see... You¡¯re three years older than Angor, and your perception is nowhere near his level. What¡¯ve you been doing all these years? Daydreaming?¡± Prome med his assistant relentlessly.

    Dave chuckled idiotically, ¡°Come on, no one cares about such details all day. You should take it easy in your lives.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine with that but... dear me. You dare to joke in front of Master Prome now?¡± Angor bantered.

    ¡°I¡¯m just trying to ease the mood!¡±

    The hanging clock stroke at three o¡¯clock in the morning.

    ¡°I said something about alchemy discussion, right? Let¡¯s do it now. I¡¯m really curious about Angor¡¯s music box,¡± Prome said. He added, ¡°Dave, you join us too.¡±

    Dave could not help nodding in excitement.

    ¡°Speaking of the music box, I always wanted to know. How did your gift for Toby end up in the auction house?¡± Dave asked.

    Angor only smiled.

    ¡°Fine, if you want to keep it a secret. But wow! It was beautiful! Your illusion totally got me!¡±

    The three of them began an academic exchange based on the music box.

    At first, Angor told them about how he came up with the idea, as well as how he designed a draft for the music box. Then it was Prome who lectured them about his own synthesis experiences.

    The sky outside was getting bright.

    During their talk, Ananda took Hobbiton downstairs. The boy was still asleep. When it was finally time for her to leave, she looked back at Angor with an earnest expression.

    Angor wondered if he should let Ananda speak her mind. As mortals, they would forget everything about the Wizard Fair once they left this ce.

    Angor finally decided and said, ¡°Go ahead, if you¡¯ve got something on your mind.¡±

    Ananda nced at Hobbiton and seemed to be struggling with herself.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Thank you, kind sirs, for forgiving Hobbiton¡¯s rudeness.¡±

    She gently ced Hobbiton on the floor and groveled to the group, before walking away.

    ¡°At least that woman is smarter than the dumb kid,¡± Davemented.

    Angor chuckled as he said, ¡°Smarter? You know, you¡¯re very right about that. Do you know who she is?¡±

    ¡°Well?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a pickpocket too. The gang leader of them, actually.¡±

    ...

    Dave was too tired after going through the eventful auction and their academic discussion. He took his leave and went back to rest.

    Prome still seemed energetic. The man was a level-3 apprentice who had no problem spending a week or two awake.

    ¡°You need some shuteye too?¡± Prome asked.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I spent most of yesterday in aa. I don¡¯t feel sleepy at all.¡±

    ¡°Shall we check out the alchemy shops then?¡±

    Angor needed three types of materials to craft his space storage: the core of a White Dense Stone, ne Corrosion Fragment, and ne Genesis Fragment. He spent a lot of money during the auction to buy a ck Dense Stone core, which was a lot better than a white one. He still needed two other materials.

    Those fragments weremon. However, they were usually sold in stores intended for real wizards, and Angor had no connections to get into one. He needed Prome¡¯s help.

    ¡°Thank you kindly, Master Prome.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re quite wee. I just need to ask one of the shops whether they have the weapon I need. I¡¯ll take you there along the way.¡±

    Angor nodded. He went to the bathroom to spruce up himself a little and once he found a wizard robe to cover his face, he apanied Prome out.

    ...

    Inside a privatepartment at Twilight Auction House.

    Lydia was rxing with her legs crossed on a table. Her thin, clean, white thighs were exposed from the side-splits on her robe.

    When a clerk of the auction house brought the two youngdies here, the poor man was immediately weed by Lydia¡¯s charming disy.

    ¡°La-La-Lady Lotus, I brought them. She-she is the seller of ¡®Land on the Sky¡¯.¡±

    Lydia looked at the stammering clerk and could not help teasing him. ¡°Never tried it, have you? How cute. How abouting to my room tonight?¡±

    The clerk thought about the horrible rumors about Lydia and shook his head madly.

    ¡°Heh, ungrateful fool. Out of my sight.¡±

    Next, Lydia looked at the two apprentices who obviously did not know where to rest their gazes on.

    ¡°So you two brought ¡®Land on the Sky¡¯ here?¡±

 Chapter 285 - Changed Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 285: Changed Illusion</h4>

    ¡°Speak,¡± said Lydia as she shook her legs.

    Daichese and Anna exchanged a look before Daichese stepped up and spoke in a humble manner, ¡°What do you wish to know, Lady Lotus?¡±

    Lydia rolled her eyes. ¡°How dumb can you get? I already asked it loud and clear during the auction.¡±

    Daichese was taken aback. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know who created the music box, mydy.¡±

    ¡°Really now? Then however did you get it?¡± Lydia squinted her eyes and exerted a different aura. A pair of invisible hands grabbed Daichese by the neck and lifted her off the ground.

    Cold sweat gathered on Daichese¡¯s forehead. Her face was getting red, and she could not speak.

    Anna revealed a worried look and tried to do something. Yet a simple glimpse from Lydia forced her to back down.

    Twilight¡¯s voice suddenly came into the room, briefly halting the tension.

    ¡°Lady Lotus, please do not forget our agreement. We made an exception by presenting you with the seller, but it¡¯s not for you to threaten them.¡±

    Daichese¡¯s eyes glimmered with hope when hearing Twilight¡¯s words.

    Lydia sneered at her captive¡¯s response, ¡°Do you really think Twilight¡¯s here to save the day? Let me tell you one thing. Killing you by my hand might provoke her just a little, but she would never ask me to take the me. And if I take you to the door to kill you there, she won¡¯t mind a thing.¡±

    Daichese¡¯s hope quickly turned into fear.

    ¡°Am I right, Twilight dear?¡± Lydia spoke through the walls of the room.

    The silence was the response she needed.

    ¡°So, you¡¯d better tell me the truth instead of relying on Twilight to help you. As long as I get what I need, I don¡¯t really have to ruin such a... youngdy¡¯s face.¡±

    Daichese nodded madly. Her nose and eyes were running liquid after being choked for so long.

    Lydia humphed and tossed her away.

    ¡°Now talk. As simply as possible, if you can,¡± said Lydia as she took out her Land on the Sky and inspected the trinket with a delighted look.

    ¡°I really do not know who made it. I received it from my familiar,¡± Daichese spoke in trembling voice.

    Her familiar was a palm-sized Moonlily Fairy. The flower sprite usually helped Daichese collect flower pollens and brew Moonlily Perfume.

    The other day when she went to retrieve perfume from the fairy, she saw the music box lying nearby. The music fascinated her very much. She happened to be stuck at her bottleneck, so she decided to sell the item in Twilight Auction and buy White Orchid Potion using the money she earned.

    ¡°That¡¯s what happened, mdy,¡± said Daichese. She lowered her head and almost cried.

    Lydia had been using her detection spell, and she found no lies in Daichese¡¯s words.

    ¡°So your familiar didn¡¯t tell you where it found the music box?¡±

    ¡°I-I bought the low-level Moonlily Fairy from someone at a cheap price. It isn¡¯t intelligent enough to speak now. But...¡±

    ¡°But?¡±

    Daichese hesitated a little before she continued, ¡°When I took the music box from it, the fairy almost cried out and tried to stop me. It even attempted to attack me. That was the first time something like this happened. I didn¡¯t know what to do, so I just... knocked her out and locked her inside a cage...¡±

    Daichese was always worried during the past few days. The music box obviously did note from the Moonlily Fairy, so she was worried that it mighte from someone powerful. She could not sleep well again when thinking about this.

    ¡°Such a fragile mentality... You¡¯ll be a mere apprentice for the rest of your life,¡± Lydiamented on Daichese¡¯s concerned expression. ¡°As the master of a familiar, you can do whatever you want with the familiar¡¯s possession. If it opposes you, simply kill it and end all potential problems.¡±

    Away from them, Anna also realized why her partner was always restless these days. Like Lydia said, taking something from one¡¯s familiar by force was not a problem since the familiar itself belonged to its master. The problem was that they had not determined whether the fairy owned the music box.

    If the item was handed to the familiar temporarily, or worse... If the familiar stole it from someone... The whole matter would be fearful.

    ¡°Since it was your familiar who found the music box, bring it to me. I shall ask it personally.¡±

    Daichese quickly nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll board an airship right away, and return here with the fairy in the evening.¡±

    ¡°Airship? Evening?¡± Lydia tilted her head. ¡°You two came from Brute Cavern?¡±

    Daichese looked at Anna and nodded. ¡°Yes, my name is Daichese, that¡¯s Anna. We¡¯re both from Brute Cavern. My professor is ¡®Rosa¡¯ Neon Yethaway, while Anna¡¯s is-¡±

    ¡°Stop. You can tell me if it¡¯s someone of Sunders¡¯ level. Otherwise, spare me the useless names of weaklings. You don¡¯t have toe again. I¡¯ll go to Brute Cavern in a few days, and I¡¯ll go find you myself.¡±

    With that, Lydia waved them off.

    When the door closed, Lydia¡¯s expression shifted into a smile. She stared at the ¡°Land on the Sky¡± in front of her with an intrigued look.

    Shiny, unique design, umon innovation... Lydia could not stop fondling with the lovely item.

    She yed ¡°City of Sky¡± many times and traveled through the ¡°stories¡± of the floating ind for a long time before waking up from her dreamy experience.

    ¡°Such an interesting illusion... I feel something familiar from it too,¡± said Lydia as she grinned. ¡°Is that you, Mister Sunders, dear?¡±

    She stretched her body and yawned.

    ¡°Now that I think about it, I haven¡¯t paid Lady Mirror a visit in a long time.¡± Lydia smiled again at the name she remembered. ¡°Might as well check her out.¡±

    ...

    Angor and Prome left the shop, and soon, they were surrounded by someone.

    Angor recognized the leader of the group as one of the Twilight Guards. Together with four other apprentices, they blocked their way in a quiet alleyway.

    ¡°Lady Twilight might have shown her mercy, but not us! You killed my buddy, and you shall pay with your own blood!¡± The man in the Twilight Auction uniform bellowed at Angor.

    Angor looked at Prome. ¡°Please sir, give me some minutes.¡±

    Then he stepped to the guards under Prome¡¯s shocked expression.

    ¡°I¡¯ll say it again. Their deaths had nothing to do with me. Don¡¯t put all your mes on me.¡±

    Angor nced at their leader next. ¡°Stop pretending. You¡¯re so bad at this. Twilight¡¯s around here watching, right? And she doesn¡¯t dare do it by herself, so she sent you?¡±

    He was sure of it. The guard who mentioned the death of his brother did not reveal the tiniest bit of sadness. There was only cruelty in the man¡¯s eyes. Angor did not believe someone like that woulde and revenge for his friend.

    That was why he knew Twilight was behind this.

    The addressed guard sneered, ¡°You¡¯re dead. There¡¯s no way out.¡±

    Angor smiled. ¡°It¡¯ll take more than you lot to kill me. Twilight might do it if she¡¯s here. But if that¡¯s the case... I¡¯ll drag the entire southern wizarding region down to hell with me.¡±

    Angor spoke like that because he was still frustrated about how no one acknowledged his ¡°heroic deed¡± of saving the world yesterday.

    The guards did not understand what he meant, but it did not prevent them frommencing their attack.

    Angor grimaced and spoke to Prome, ¡°Please leave, I¡¯ll take care of them.¡±

    The scenery around him began to change.

    Somewhere a kilometer high in the air, Twilight observed the area beneath her with a cold look.

    ¡°Heeheehee. Professor¡¯s right, you really did it,¡± said a young barefooted woman in a doll-dress who floated her way.

    ¡°Are you here to stop me, Flora?¡± Twilight¡¯s expression grew darker.

    ¡°Oh no no. You do whatever you want. I came to keep an eye on Angor so he doesn¡¯t do something stupid again.¡±

    Twilight scoffed, ¡°This rat doesn¡¯t have much longer to live.¡±

    Despite her jealousy, Flora felt a bit irritated when an outsider called her junior a ¡°rat¡±.

    ¡°Yeah... of course someone as powerful as you can¡¯t care less about a rat. There¡¯s one thing you should know though. Do you think you¡¯ll be safe if my professor didn¡¯t intervene yesterday? Have you already forgotten about the beyond legendary powerful aura?¡± Flora pointed a finger to the ground. ¡°That boy wasn¡¯t threatening you just now. If he¡¯s desperate, we two will not be the only ones to fill the grave.¡±

    ...

    Angor¡¯s only doable tactic now was using illusions.

    He did not have time to make anythingplicated right now, so he simply covered the area in a mist to trick the senses of his enemies, so he could pick them out one by one.

    But he was surprised to notice something special after deploying the mist.

    His vision was ¡°split up¡± again. On one side, he could see people trapped inside the mist, while the other side was the Nightmare Domain that Sunders severed from reality.

    He could not understand how he brought out the Nightmare Domain when he was using a simple illusion. Sunders did say something about drastic changes to his illusions after he was fused with a Nightmare Domain, but Angor never asked the details.

    Now he could already see the ¡°drastic change¡±, and he did not know what to do.

    ¡°Shava... Shava...¡±

    He suddenly heard a child¡¯s voice calling out, and it wasing from inside the Nightmare Domain.

    Precisely speaking, it came from the teacup band in there.

 Chapter 286 - Backfired

    <h4>Chapter 286: Backfired</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Not only them. Angor also saw the toy soldiers beside the teacups.

    He recalled Sunders saying something about ¡°dealing with the monsters¡±. Did that man just threw them into the Nightmare Domain and left them there?

    ¡°That was terrible customer service, professor,¡± he mumbled in frustration.

    But it was not the time to care about those monsters now. Angor looked to the other side, at the guards covered in his mist, and decided to deal with them first.

    He did not know how to utilize the Nightmare Domain yet. But it did not matter since he had never intended to use the domain for help.

    Angor turned around and put a hand on Prome¡¯s shoulder. Prome¡¯s eyes immediately focused and saw through the mist.

    ¡°You go back first, sir. I¡¯ll handle this,¡± Angor spoke in a small voice.

    Prome frowned. ¡°We can get away together while they¡¯re inside the mist. Are you really going to fight Twilight Auction? You should escape.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I know what I¡¯m doing.¡±

    Prome decided to leave after he heard Angor¡¯s confident tone.

    There were five people trapped in the mist. The leader of the guards was a level-2 apprentice, while the others were all level-1. The team would do a quick job defeatingmon level-1 apprentices, but Angor was no longer a mon level-1 apprentice¡± now.

    Angor grinned. He was going to deal with them ¡°one by one¡±, but it did not mean he was going to kill them.

    ...

    A momentter, he snapped a finger and removed his mist illusion.

    He watched his enemies huddled together closely, chuckled, and turned to leave.

    Behind him, the Twilight Guards were doing indescribable things to the bodies of each other with their cheeks burning with heat.

    The alley was rtively quiet, but there were still people passing by.

    Angor wondered what kind of humiliation those fools would attract. He assumed that Twilight had to be watching from somewhere nearby, so he did not stop to enjoy the show. He quickly left the area.

    He was still afraid of Twilight, so he did not really wound those guards. He only did a little trick to trouble their spirit.

    Since Angor could fool people¡¯s senses, he also knew how to arouse desires from the minds of people.

    Just now, he constructed a ¡°customized dream¡± for each of the guards. To do this, he first needed to understand their personal tastes, and he was quite shocked to find out that the guard leader was actually attracted to other males. He wasted a lot of time using the images of women to affect his mind.

    Speaking of males... Angor quickly thought about the portraits he received from Lady Mirror. Those were all weirdos, true, but Angor would admit that they looked decent.

    Following his memory of the portraits, Angor created the images of those men for the guard leader.

    However, not all level of handsomeness worked. Angor tried to create Sunders¡¯ image, but it simply caused the guard to tremble, and he almost escaped from the illusion.

    Angor shook his head. Not everyone was bold enough to ¡°flirt¡± with Sunders like Lydia or Lady Mirror.

    Until he made something happened by bringing n into his illusion.

    ¡°Tsk. A boy lover?¡± Angor shivered in disgust. He quickly stepped farther.

    After giving every guard a ¡°suitable illusion¡±, Angor turned away and left.

    ...

    In the sky.

    ¡°Aw, Angor, you learned something nasty!¡± Flora tried to hold back herughter. ¡°I wonder who instructed him that. Oh, heehee, I¡¯m beginning to like this kid.¡±

    Compared to her joyful mood, Twilight scowled so hard that it would give her permanent wrinkles on her face.

    ¡°As expected, a rat only knows such petty tricks,¡± Twilight retorted and began to descend. Those were her guards, so she still had to help them.

    ¡°A trick is good as long as it works. You¡¯re an experienced wizard now, Twilight, and you didn¡¯t even realize something as simple as that? I think you have no hope in finding truth in your life,¡± said Flora as she followed her.

    ¡°Tell me that if you seed first, or your words are just empty banter.¡±

    Upon reaching the ground, Twilight red at a number of bystanders to scare them away before helping the guards.

    Flora simply stood there and watched the show, and Twilight did not mind it.

    Twilight woke a young and timid-looking apprentice first.

    ¡°Was I gentle enough, Lady Twilight?¡± He said.

    Twilight gave the man a furious stare.

    Flora snickered and looked away when Twilight red her way.

    ¡°Good job, Angor!¡± Flora silently gave a thumbs-up to her little junior.

    p!

    The now awoken apprentice was sent flying.

    ¡°Nice! Please, again, Lady Twilight!¡± The apprentice appeared to be enjoying it despite the blood around his mouth.

    ¡°How dare you!¡± Twilight could no longer hold back her anger. Her man was bewitched by the illusion because there was really that kind of filthy thoughts in his mind.

    And it was absolutely disgracing!

    Without hesitation, she released a light beam which pierced the poor apprentice¡¯s skull.

    ¡°Ouch. How cruel. How many people are going to answer your recruitment if they heard about this?¡± Flora would not mind adding fuel to the situation.

    Twilight only cursed loudly, ¡°Angor... I WILL kill you, for tainting the honor a wizard!¡±

    ¡°Oh,e on! It was you who killed your own man, and you still me him?¡± Flora pouted.

    ...

    Angor did not foresee that his attempt to ¡°act nice¡± to Twilight Auction had gained him more hatred instead.

    ...

    Prome sighed in relief when he saw that Angor was back.

    ¡°You got everything you need, Angor? We should leave now. Since Lady Twilight came for you, we shouldn¡¯t tarry in Twilight Well any longer,¡± Prome spoke.

    Dave nodded to agree. ¡°Yeah! Let¡¯s go now so no more trouble finds us.¡±

    Angor would usually agree to that as well. But... he looked at the hanging clock, which suggested it was past 4 in the afternoon. He already bought a ticket to watch Phantom of Festivity, which was at 7.

    He was not interested in the opera itself, but since Lady Mirror asked him to create something using the elements of the opera, he had to go and watch it just to fulfill her request.

    ¡°When is the most recent airship?¡± Angor asked.

    Dave considered. ¡°Nine, I think.¡±

    Angor pondered. Two hours should be enough to watch the drama. Furthermore, he did not really need to watch it from start to end¡ªhe simply needed to get that ¡°feel¡± of it.

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s leave by that time.¡±

    Dave offered to get them the airship tickets, so Angor retired to his own room.

    There was still time before the opera, so he intended to use the chance to experiment on his Nightmare Domain.

    With a snap of a finger, an Acoustic Illusion was made in his room. He constructed a simple empty illusion this time.

    As he expected, his vision became two again. The Nightmare Domain appeared in front of him. Since the other side wasplete emptiness, he could better observe the Nightmare Domain.

    There was that exquisitely-decorated castle hall which looked exactly like the hall of Padt Manor, AND it was the same hall in which he met ¡°Mister Bunny¡± during his first visit into Nightmare Realm.

    Also, he was not looking at the Nightmare Domain using the perspective of someone within. He could shift his vision around and look at the ce from all angles as if he could fly.

    There were desks, chairs, candle stands and clocks... They were all familiar elements he could remember from his memory about his home. The only things that were out of ce were the teacup band and toy soldiers.

    Some of the teacups floated in the air, some were ying music which became real, bouncing musical notes, while some of them was hiding inside the firece with a grim look. There was even a teacup hanging below the chandelier as it yed with its shadow.

    These teacups with stick-like limbs scattered about like children with different characters.

    The red-skinned toy soldiers, on the other hand, patrolled around the hall on solid steps. Their tiny figures made the hall appear like a Lilliputian world.

    All the creatures were doing their own business. They all stopped when they noticed Angor was observing them. Next, Angor heard a familiar name being called.

    ¡°Shava! Shava!¡± The calling voice from the creatures sounded joyful and friendly. Strangely friendly.

    ¡°Who... are you?¡± Angor tried to ask them.

    They kept calling ¡°Shava¡± as if they could not understand his words.

    Angor tried a couple more times but to no avail. Neither verbalnguage nor emotions worked. He had to leave them there yelling for Shava¡¯s name for now.

    Who was Shava anyway? Why did all the nightmare creatures call him that way?

    Angor wondered if there was someone inside Nightmare Realm that looked like him who went by the name ¡°Shava¡±. However... was that a man¡¯s name at all?

    He simply gave up on thinking about what he could not understand. He needed to find out how to use the Nightmare Domain with illusions.

    Did he need to drag someone in here for that to work?

    Or... maybe dragging Nightmare Domain into the illusions he created outside?

    He decided to give it a try. With Toby still sound asleep, no one could help him right now. He wanted to see if he could ¡°pull¡± the Nightmare Domain into the empty illusion.

 Chapter 287 - Caught

    <h4>Chapter 287: Caught</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Somewhat dazed, Angor stared at what existed in front of him.

    He had done the experiment¡ªthe Nightmare Domain failed tobine with the empty illusion as he expected. However, something else did happen.

    A teacup who was ying piano in midair was dragged out from the castle hall and into the illusion.

    The poor little thing realized it was separated from its partners, and its already terrible piano noise became worse. The bouncing musical notes it created turned into jagged and barbed objects as if someone trimmed them with an iron saw.

    ¡°Stop it!¡±

    Hearing Angor, the pianist teacup turned around and ¡°looked at¡± Angor by facing Angor with the heart mark on it.

    Next, the teacup visibly brightened up. ¡°Shava!¡±

    It rushed to Angor and began to run in circles.

    The piano did not stop here. With the teacup closer, Angor only felt his eardrums being tortured badly. He managed to pull the teacup back into the Nightmare Domain.

    When the noise was no more, he held his chin and thought about what just happened.

    He still did not know how to use the Nightmare Domain, but at least he could take advantage of the teacups. He knew they could reflect attacks from wizards, which meant... he could use them to defeat mighty wizards!

    Still, he had to do something to make sure.

    Two hourster, Angor left his room with a sad look.

    Of course, things did not go that well. He spent two hours testing the teacups as well as the toy soldiers, but the result was dissatisfying.

    Simr to otherworldly visitors, the creatures had lost most of their strength under the effect of the rules of the wizarding world as well as the world¡¯s consciousness. It happened probably because Angor had shut off the passage between the Nightmare Domain and the Nightmare Realm.

    The teacups could still block attacks¡ªlevel-0 cantrips. Anything beyond that would cause damage. During his test, Angor broke the hand of one of the teacups using his Trigger Crossbow. The ¡°victim¡± did not respond, yet Angor still felt sorry for it.

    They could reflect attacks too. Some of Angor¡¯s golden bolts were bounced back on the instruments. But Angor did not know how many attacks they could take, so he never tried anything more powerful.

    In terms of defense, the toy soldiers seemed more ¡°solid¡±pared to the teacups. They could actually absorb energy from the attacks into their weapons. It was still useless though.

    He had already given up on the idea of using these creatures to help him fight.

    Angor took the ticket from Dave and walked to the door. ¡°Let¡¯s meet at the airshipter, I need to do something first.¡±

    He could not tell them he was going to watch Phantom of Festivity. That would be so embarrassing.

    In order not to get recognized easily, he added a cloth mask over his face and chose a hooded robe.

    However, he was stopped by someone again before he could leave Wizard Fair.

    It was not just ¡°someone¡± this time. Twilight came personally and blocked his path with a horribly angry expression.

    Angor grimaced hard when he felt suppressed by the aura of a real wizard.

    He tried to think of something to escape when he saw Flora walking between them.

    ¡°As I said, you need to get past me first if you want to harm Angor.¡±

    Meanwhile, Flora winked at Angor madly to tell the boy to get the f*ck out of here.

    Angor had no idea why the woman suddenly changed her mind¡ªshe totally did nothing during the auction. Still, Angor knew there was no way for him to go against Twilight right now unless he reopened the nightmare passage once again.

    He needed time for that though, and obviously Twilight would not allow him to do it.

    Determined, Angor saw a chance and bolted for the wall entrance.

    Flora moved again to stop Twilight from going for Angor. A red aura was seen around her body. ¡°Heehee... I haven¡¯t seen blood for a while now. Do you wish to fight, Twilight?¡±

    Twilight possessed the unique Mystery Item in Darkivil Empire, the Flle¡¯s Tear, while Flora could wield the Crimson Nightmare Domain. If they were to start fighting here, no one could say for sure who would win.

    ¡°You can¡¯t protect him forever. We¡¯ll see,¡± said Twilight as she decided to quit for now.

    Flora spat on the ground as she said, ¡°I¡¯m not going to do that. Heck, I wouldn¡¯t be here at all if it wasn¡¯t professor who asked me to take care of the boy.¡±

    Twilight knew what Flora meant¡ªit was a small warning from Sunders. And she knew full well to keep that in mind. If they provoked Sunders, the entire Twilight Auction House would be in trouble.

    Twilight clenched her fists. She could not kill Angor... for now.

    ¡°Come, little boy. Let¡¯s see if you can keep hiding behind your almighty Sunders.¡±

    ...

    Going through the wall, Angor entered Midnight Sovereign, leaving Wizard Fair behind.

    He sat in a corner and panted heavily to wait out the surging adrenaline in his veins.

    The aura of a real wizard was truly terrifying to him. He had to stay put against a wall for half an hour to calm his heartbeat.

    ¡°Being too weak is a sin...¡± He hid his head between his legs and muttered.

    He could not find the tiniest courage to oppose Twilight when faced with that woman, and he knew that there was nothing he could do to cross that giant gap.

    A level-3 apprentice could already give him real trouble now, let alone a wizard.

    Angor closed his eyes in sorrow and wondered how many decades it would take for him to grasp his own fate.

    He sat until the Enchanting Theater grew bustling with people before he slowly stood up and walked away on uncertain steps.

    The colorful crowds around the theater helped him cool his mind.

    Most people were here in pairs. They were wearing their formal attire as if they were attending a ball party. However, they were all smirking for obvious reasons.

    Among such people, Angor¡¯s hooded robe was extremely out of ce. He attracted lots of curious gazes.

    He sighed and lifted his hood before he walked inside the theater only with the mask covering his face.

    A waiter allowed him inside after checking his ticket. His strange clothes were no reason for the waiter to deny a customer.

    Angor walked inside while removing his robe.

    He knew the robe was useless if Twilight wanted to find him. There were many ways for wizards to find someone¡ªstalking, special spells, prophets, and so on.

    He might as well get rid of the unnecessary burden.

    Angor decided to find timeter and look for a crafting draft for wizard robes. There should be something useful in the books he recorded in the Nightmare Realm. He never checked them because he thought sewing was for women.

    Now, however, he was desperate to find a robe which could help him to avoid detection or anything that drew enemies to him, or he would never be truly safe.

    His seat was pretty remote. It was a corner between the gate and the side wall. Anyone who watched the show from this spot had to have good eyesight.

    The show was not on yet, and he already heard all kinds of disturbing noises in the hall. Some pairs began to kiss each other, while someone from the private rooms above his current floor was huffing loudly.

    He thought he was only here to watch the show as a bystander. Now he could not help blushing.

    ¡°Thank goodness I came alone...¡±

    Phantom of Festivity started right at seven in the evening. At first, Angor watched with fair enthusiasm. But soon, his in expression turned into a tight frown, and his curiosity became indifference and disgust.

    The story was extremely dull. It described how the leading actress bnced her way among a group of guys. There were only insignificant twists and turns which drew some insincere apuses. Most of the time, Angor only felt distaste from the boring show of sheer human desire.

    It was just a badly-written harem story that used a woman as the main character.

    He left the theater before the midpoint of the drama.

    The entire theater had be a messed-up gathering ce for sexually-thirsty creatures. Angor¡¯s conscience would not allow him to stay for another second.

    It was almost eight now. He nned to head to the train station which would take him to the airshipnding. Leaving earlier also saved him the pain of struggling inside crowds, which might cause him to miss his trip.

    He walked away from the entrance of the theater and sighed deeply.

    When he nned to head to the train station whilst enjoying the refreshing night breeze, someone appeared in his way again.

 Chapter 288 - Grandfather

    <h4>Chapter 288: Grandfather</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    It was Ananda and Hobbiton.

    ¡°Thank goodness I found you, sir!¡± Ananda bowed to Angor and forcefully dragged Hobbiton over.

    ¡°You... know me?¡± Angor was a little surprised. Normally, Ananda should have forgotten everything about the Twilight Well when she left there.

    Ananda nodded, but she then shook her head. ¡°I already forgot about you, but Hobbiton reminded me of our tripter. Although I can¡¯t say I remember everything.¡±

    She cast a sad look on her clothes where some oil characters were written.

    Angor looked at Hobbiton who was pouting with a frustrated look and asked, ¡°You didn¡¯t lose your memory?¡±

    ¡°Why should I?¡± Hobbiton mumbled unwillingly.

    Hobbiton was a child both on the outside and inside, so Angor did not really mind the kid¡¯s behavior. He turned to Ananda next.

    ¡°So do you want something from me?¡± Angor continued walking toward the city gate while Ananda followed behind, dragging Hobbiton with her.

    ¡°Are you going to leave Midnight Sovereign, sir wizard?¡± Ananda tried to keep the conversation going while pulling Hobbiton close to her side like a mother trying to handle her child.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Ananda looked between Angor¡¯s indifferent attitude and Hobbiton, who was too slow to register her intention. Then she rushed in front of Angor and knelt down.

    ¡°Please save Hobbiton¡¯s life, sir!¡± Without giving a reason for her behavior, Ananda simply began to ¡®kowtow¡¯ loudly while forcing Hobbiton to do the same.

    She used too much force that she was bleeding on her forehead.

    Angor frowned. These two were trouble. They always were.

    ¡°Stop it. Get up and speak.¡±

    Ananda did not listen. She kept bumping her head while muttering ¡°save Hobbiton¡± as if she would keep doing this until Angor agreed whatever she was requesting.

    Angor used Hand of Spell to force Ananda up. ¡°I freaking hate moral superiority. Talk, if you have something to ask, or get lost. Don¡¯t waste my time.¡±

    Ananda shivered and quickly lowered her head. ¡°I-I asked Hobbiton about his family yesterday, sir. He heard something from Duke Tepikkhu by ident, that this kid is going to be presented to a wizard as a sacrificial tribute, so he ran away from his home.¡±

    ¡°Tribute to a wizard?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Wizards don¡¯t use Phantom Servants as tributes.¡±

    Ananda looked at Hobbiton, hoping for more details.

    Hobbiton only talked after Ananda gave him several painful pinches. ¡°I used my ability to hide in my dad¡¯s study so I can scare him. Then he talked to my big brother, that he will offer me to a wizard called Lotus. My brother said Lotus is a merciless killer and I¡¯ll definitely die. I was too scared, so I ran.¡±

    Ananda spoke along, ¡°I heard you mentioning Lady Lotus arriving at Midnight Sovereign yesterday, sir, and I was worried. I hope you can help Hobbiton.¡±

    Angor rubbed his temples, considered the situation, and kept walking to the gate.

    ¡°Lady Lotus isn¡¯t someone I can oppose. Sorry, but no can do.¡±

    Ananda almost cried out again. She followed closely behind until Angor reached the train station.

    ¡°Sir! Hobbiton will lose his life if you don¡¯t do anything! I know you¡¯re different than the other wizards, please!¡±

    Ananda was going to kneel again but Angor stopped her using Hand of Spell. There were people around the train station, and Angor did not want to draw too much attention.

    ¡°I¡¯ll say it again, I hate being forced by morals, and you did it a second time today.¡± He looked at Ananda with a colder look. ¡°I don¡¯t know you two, and there¡¯s no way I¡¯ll offend a being famous in the southern region just because a stranger asked me to. Lady Lotus is someone several generations beyond my level, and I can¡¯t save anyone or anything from her. Not even an ant.¡±

    Angor did not lie about that point, but Hobbiton found it irritating. The kid jumped forward and yelled at Ananda, ¡°I don¡¯t need this man¡¯s help. Let¡¯s go, sis. We¡¯ll go find a map in the library so we can get to Brute Cavern on our own!¡±

    Angor nced at the child. ¡°And you think you can escape like that? If Lady Lotus wants to find someone, she¡¯ll find you no matter where you go.¡±

    Hobbiton tried to retort again, only to be stopped by Ananda. ¡°Sir, Hobbiton means he¡¯s going to find his grandfather in Brute Cavern. He says that man can help him.¡±

    ¡°Grandfather? There¡¯s someone in your family who can hold off Lotus? Then why did you leave your family in the first ce?¡±

    ¡°His grandfather is called Goode,¡± Ananda replied, ¡°someone who is working alongside a great wizard.¡±

    ¡°Goode?!¡±

    ...

    A whileter, Angor was on the train toward Parmigi Hignds. The solid sound of wheels running on rails soothed his mind a little.

    Every now and then, amp hanging on the tunnel wall would repel the great darkness that loomed over the train.

    Angor leaned against a window and went over his thoughts.

    Hobbiton and Ananda sat across to him. The child Hobbiton had fallen asleep while listening to the train wheels running, while Ananda looked over him with gentleness. Anyone who looked at the adorable face of the child for the first time would mistake him as an innocent sleeping angel.

    Ananda looked up at Angor.

    Under the shiftingmplight, Ananda believed she saw a grown-up for a moment. She gradually grew lost when staring at Angor¡¯sposed temperament.

    Angor suddenly spoke up, ¡°I can help Hobbiton to buy an airship ticket, considering how Butler Goode did so much for me. As for you...¡±

    Ananda jumped a little. ¡°It¡¯s okay, sir. As long as Hobbiton is safe.¡±

    Angor nodded. Hobbiton¡¯s rtion with Goode did not mean that he should get too involved in this.

    He would avoid getting dragged into anything rted to Lady Lotus at all cost. A ticket cost two crystals. Sending Hobbiton to Goode was still something he could do.

    Time went by in silence. There was only the sound of train wheels running and Hobbiton¡¯s snoring.

    ¡°Sir... I don¡¯t have the potential to be a wizard, right?¡± Ananda asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. You need to go through a proper test to know that. But... maybe Hobbiton has something. Resisting the memory-erasing spell isn¡¯t something a mortal can do.¡±

    Ananda lowered her head and looked at the words on her clothes again. She no longer knew where or how she got those written, but she could still read them.

    ¡°Potion of Austere Night¡±

    About half an hourter, the train exited the deep tunnel and arrived at the airshipnding.

    Angor left the train and sensed coldness invading his bones.

    The underground world was quite warm. Now the chilling air on the hignds felt terrible.

    Angor was going to ask Ananda to wait on the train, so he could take Hobbiton and buy a ticket. He turned around and saw Ananda giving the child her coat. While the child slept soundly in the cold air, the woman¡¯s glossy shoulder and slim thighs trembled in the wind.

    Angor did not say anything and went to the ticket stand.

    The Parmigi Hignds at night was shrouded under shining stars which stretched all the way to the horizon in the distance.

    Looking at the scenery, Angor remembered a painting hanging in his bedroom: the Traveler Under Stars, which he found from the Nightmare Realm.

    He found himself bing the same traveler in the painting; one who walked alone on the vast wilderness, under the starry night, chasing his own destination.

    The ticket stand was a bit crowded. Angor soon bought an extra ticket back to Brute Cavern, but he suddenly noticed Dave sneaking to him, carrying a weird expression on his pockmarked face.

    ¡°Pee-kaboo! Aha!¡± Dave moved his face so close that Angor jumped a little.

    ¡°Oh,e on! What are you, a five-year-old?¡±

    ¡°Aw, chill out! And it¡¯s not like I¡¯m old. Man¡¯s pretty young!¡± Dave chuckled. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s that ticket for? Did you drop yours somewhere?¡±

    Angor shook his head and pointed to Ananda. ¡°It¡¯s for Hobbiton.¡±

    ¡°Hobbiton?¡± Dave looked at the direction. ¡°What happened to ¡®staying out of this¡¯? Why did you-oh... you like that woman called Ananda, right? Ha! I¡¯ll admit, she¡¯s hot.¡±

    ¡°Stop assuming things,¡± Angorined.

    ¡°So that¡¯s why you left to do something on your own. You went to meet with her, eh? Tsk. I thought you¡¯re someone who¡¯ll never learn about such things.¡±

    Angor put a Hand of Spell on Dave¡¯s head, heavily. ¡°Just stop. I was the one who got caught by these two on the street.¡±

 Chapter 289 - Deathly Music

    <h4>Chapter 289: Deathly Music</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Endless stars guided sleeping folks toward the horizon. Under the shining curtain, the airship went toward the great canyon while leaving a trail of ck smoke behind.

    Hobbiton created quite the scene when leaving Ananda¡¯s side by crying sharp and loud. The body of a child which trapped a simr child¡¯s soul grew tired quickly and fell asleep again. There were still tears hanging around his eyes.

    Angor leaned on the wall and watched the beautifulke going past the scenery. The tranquil and serene ambiance brought him sad memories.

    Footsteps approached and stopped beside him.

    ¡°I¡¯ll find time to do researches on drawing Prelude to Elimination when we¡¯re back, as fast as I can,¡± said Angor. He paused for a moment before continuing, ¡°There¡¯s only a number of problems to tackle. Dealt with, and nothing should stop me. Tell this to Master Prome.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± His visitor sighed in sadness as he said, ¡°Just listening to you makes me jealous. Magic arrays are nothing like ordinary runes. They are extremely hard to memorize, and you sound... so chilled. Man... maybe this is talent, something that people just can¡¯t learn.¡±

    The speaker put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°I trust you, Angor. You have what it takes to be the best alchemist ever.¡±

    Those words, a pair of sincere eyes, as well as the curtain of stars and the empty hallway in the airship, turned into a permanent portrait in Angor¡¯s memory.

    ¡°Same to you,¡± said Angor as he looked into the eyes glimmering under starlight and smiled back. ¡°We¡¯ll learn together, Dave.¡±

    ¡°Together.¡±

    Maybe the amazing scenery at night charmed their minds, the two young men observed the miracle creation of nature from the window and chatted over something they would no longer mention again upon reaching adulthood¡ªtheir dreams.

    Angor dreamed for the great future, while Dave dreamed about his own growth. But they mostly meant the same.

    By ¡°future¡±, Angor referred to something that could not be foreseen. It was something beyond time and space, even beyond dimensions.

    They both spoke their minds. Yet they each still held something back for their own. Not privacy, but room for better ambition.

    Probably because they were too indulged in their emotional discussion, they failed to notice Hobbiton sat behind their wall, eyes twinkling, also dreaming about the wonderful wizarding world.

    ¡°Angor, that kid, Hobbiton...¡± Dave was going to curse the little thief again but decided not to ruin the mood. ¡°He¡¯s loud, you know? I think the kid¡¯s gonna kick you if not for that woman to stop him. He probably hates you to guts. You sure it¡¯s a good idea, taking him to Butler Goode?¡±

    ¡°Hate me? Why? Because I didn¡¯t bring Ananda with him?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Yeah. Kids get emotional too easily. He thinks you¡¯re taking him away from Ananda so Ananda will never be a wizard. He¡¯ll hate you for that, up front,¡± said Dave. When he recalled what happened before they boarded the airship, he moaned, ¡°He¡¯s too stupid to figure out why you agreed to take him to Brute Cavern.¡±

    ¡°Like you just said, he¡¯s a kid. Well, maybe not chronologically but... he has a child¡¯s mind. And it¡¯s totally fine for kids to disregard social rules. Let¡¯s bear with that.¡±

    ¡°Heh. You¡¯re pretty open-minded. If someone, even a kid, yells or kicks me like a spoiled brat, I definitely will not help him with anything.¡±

    The airship dived into clouds when the starlight began to shift a little.

    ...

    There were three wizard ns controlling Twilight Well from behind the curtain who took turns for the job. It was Waterward Lions who was responsible for this month.

    The captain of the guards, Walmazan, was the sixth wizard from Waterward Lions who officially became a real wizard three years ago.

    The poption in Wizard Fair reached the peak of the year during the Grand Auction. Walmazan stationed in the guard tower for half a month, and kept his eyes on the magic readings of therge-scale magic array.

    Now that the auction had ended, and nothing serious happened apart from how Twilight attacked Sunders¡¯ student twice. The readings were all fine.

    Of course, Walmazan noticed Twilight¡¯s attempts, but he did not do anything about it. The said kid should well answer for his offense against the regtions of Twilight Auction, no matter who he was.

    Walmazan did not believe Sunders would go out of his way to attack Twilight Well just to help his student. Walmazan totally agreed with Twilight¡¯s decision.

    Also, he was the one who provided Angor¡¯s position to Twilight. As a Shadow Wizard, he was adept at shadow spells. The nose of an Abyssal Bat he imnted,bined with shadow tracking abilities, helped him know everything around the Twilight Well. Walmazan did not even need to use the magic array to locate Angor.

    Two hours ago, Walmazan lost track of Angor¡¯s ¡°signal¡± within Midnight Sovereign, which meant the boy had left.

    It was not something worth noticing either. The life and death of a mere apprentice had nothing to do with his job whatsoever.

    Walmazan sighed in relief as the auction concluded with a grand finale, and stepped out from the guard tower which he had been staying in during the past half month. He ordered his men to keep patrolling before he went back to hisboratory to do researches on his self-created spells.

    Walmazan was a man of great ambition, who hoped to find the path of truth using his own unique spells. However, a unique spell did not always help people achieve such a goal. For example, Angor turned ¡°Cleanse¡± into ¡°Tornado¡±, which was also unique. The spell was only modified based on someone else¡¯s experience, thus it was unlikely to help Angor seek the truth.

    A real self-created spell had to be based on its creator¡¯s original theories.

    There were only a handful of wizards who had sessfully found the path of truth, and there was a reason for it.

    Walmazan went back to hisb and barely had enough time to draft his theories before his transmitter shrieked loudly.

    ¡°Something¡¯s happening, sir! There¡¯s a HUGE mana reaction inside Twilight Auction House!!¡±

    Walmazan bolted from hisb, knocking the iron door of the room into scraps.

    Upon arriving at the guard tower, the man looked at the magic array and immediately put up a look of pure horror.

    A swarm of crimson-ck energy indicators had shown up around the auction house. Walmazan only felt faint when he realized the color suggested level-2 wizards. Level-2s who was at the summit of their level.

    <i>Someone so powerful came to Twilight Well?</i>

    ¡°Is Mister Phantom still here?¡± He asked. However, he was sure the gentleman would not do anything bad to Twilight Auction.

    ¡°Mister Sunders had left after the end of the auction. The array did not pick up his signature!¡± A guard replied.

    Walmazan scowled in great anxiety. ¡°Forget it. Two of you stay here. Everyone else, follow me to the auction house!¡±

    Several light streams brightened up the night sky and headed to the tattered steel tower.

    The moon was exceptionallyrge tonight. Under its great brilliance, Walmazan got a feeling that he was flying straight into the moon itself.

    Steel tower, skywalks, tattered gs pping in the wind... the auction house which already looked like ruins put up a more desting aura under the moon.

    Walmazan sensed something before reaching the vicinity of the tower.

    He saw terrifying energy reading back on the monitor. Why was the auction house ghostly quiet?

    It seemed as if an invisible barrier had separated the auction house from the outside. In the city, everything lived on. Meanwhile, inside the barrier, it was a deathly and lifeless graveyard.

    A dozen light streams arrived and stopped just outside the ¡°barrier¡±.

    Walmazan quickly saw the master of Waterward Lions, ¡®Azure Lion¡¯ Devildare, who was also one of the supreme leaders of Twilight Auction House.

    ¡°Sir,¡± Walmazan flew toward Devildare.

    Devildare was also here because he received the message from the guard captain.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± He cast a glimpse at the quiet tower.

    Walmazan replied in a stressful tone, ¡°My men told me just now, that there¡¯s a powerful energy reactioning from the auction house. From the monitor, I saw the energy almost breaking the capacity of the magic array.¡±

    ¡°You mean a level-2 wizard at his peak?¡± Devildare eximed.

    ¡°Yes, and I already asked, the only level-2 wizard who visited Twilight Well recently is Mister Phantom.¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t be. I know Mister Sunders. If he¡¯s doing something to Twilight Well, he¡¯ll notify me beforehand.¡±

    Devildare came from Brute Cavern. As another wizard on the path of truth, he was well acquainted with Sunders.

    ¡°The readings suggest that Mister Phantom left Twilight Well two days ago and never came again.¡± Walmazan spoke, ¡°If Mister Phantom isn¡¯t the one causing this, I... don¡¯t know who it is.¡±

    Devildare looked at the tower carefully. ¡°We¡¯ll see when we¡¯re in there. The reading of a level-2 wizard does not necessarily mean a real level-2 wizard hase.¡±

    Devildare could create a simr energy signature if he was determined to do so. It could also be achieved by using certain alchemy items. Now he had to get into the tower and check it out.

    He told the other guards to enter the tower in three divisions and flew into the tower together with Walmazan.

    Getting closer to the tower proved to him that he only ¡°assumed¡± that the tower was quiet, which was not the case.

    He heard faint music lingering in the air when he stepped into the first floor. Decent music.

    However, the melodies felt extremely weird. The musical notes were intentionally dragged longer and sharper as if an adult was putting on a child¡¯s show who was doing a terrible job at it.

    The music would do well in a circus but only made people¡¯s hairs stand on end when yed here.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Devildare asked the air when someone suddenly appeared in front of him.

    ¡°Sir! The Lion Princess... she¡¯s dead!¡±

 Chapter 290 - Mystery

    <h4>Chapter 290: Mystery</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Lion Princess?! Dead?¡± Devildare was furious hearing those words. Lion Princess was one of the six wizards from Waterward Lions. Someone as strong as her... was dead?

    ¡°What happened, Wood?¡± Walmazan asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know! I¡¯ve been following her closely. When she stepped into the inner hall, she just, exploded! There were body-her parts all about!¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s her soul? Give me her soul and I¡¯ll ask her!¡± Devildare demanded.

    Wood shook his head. His voice was trembling in fear. ¡°It¡¯s gone.¡±

    ¡°Gone?? Exin to me!¡±

    ¡°I tried to get her soul when I saw her die like that. But it was only a second, and her soul was drawn into the inner hall. I feared that there¡¯s danger in there, so I sent my familiar inside, whose body became pieces too! And I ran back to report it to you, sir.¡±

    ¡°Her body was shredded just because she entered the hall? But Lion Princess is a Bloodline Wizard!¡± Devildare felt his heart racing. ¡°Quickly, tell everyone to stay out of the hall. Assemble on me!¡±

    Wood nodded and created several avatars who scattered into different directions.

    Devildare sensed the strange energy flowing in the air around the ce which prevented all transmitters from working. He had to ask Wood to get his men.

    Walmazan spoke up, ¡°Sir, there should be a secondary auction held in the inner hall today. I kept my watch during the day, and I didn¡¯t see anything.¡±

    Devildare nodded. ¡°I know. I was there to maintain the magic array.¡± He frowned as he continued, ¡°Yet... I can no longer sense the presence of the array now. Like Wood said, the inner hall is void of life, perhaps the magic array is already destroyed.¡±

    A momentter, eleven individuals hade to Devildare¡¯s side.

    There were wizards who stationed at the auction house from all three factions, Waterward Lions, Enthralling Aroma, and Amber Dragonwing.

    All wizards from the three ns who were currently in Twilight Well hade.

    ¡°Mister Devildare, is Wood true? Lion Princess died in the inner hall? And her soul is no more?¡± A witch from Enthralling Aroma, Kagura, spoke. As someone from another n, she would be happy to see Waterward Lions losing one of their wizards if it was someone other than the Lion Princess. Lion Princess was her good witch friend.

    ¡°We were just having tea at her ce, and you¡¯re telling me that she¡¯s gone? You sure this isn¡¯t a terrible joke?¡±

    Devildare tried his best to contain his great grief.

    ¡°Follow me, if you would.¡±

    They followed the man to the west door of the hall and were all shocked in ce when they saw a broken human skull standing right under the door frame. Lion Princess¡¯ eyes stared into the darkness as if a powerful being was using her to disy its absolute domination.

    Kagura wept at the horrible sight. She tried to use her spirit feelers to pull the head closer, but the feelers were immediately cut off when they reached the door.

    Kagura screamed in pain and knelt down.

    ¡°No spells can enter the hall. There¡¯s some kind of powerful barrier.¡±

    ¡°What do we do now, Mister Devildare? As themander for this month, do you have an idea about the situation?¡±

    ¡°Well, we never ran into such a thing when we guarded the auction.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, maybe an enemy of Waterward Lions came to sabotage?¡±

    Devildare already expected the other two ns to disgrace him using the chance. The man sighed and summoned a dozen monster rats.

    These rats were low-leveled summoned beings, and one of the mostmon test subjects for wizards. No matter if it was to test dangerous spells or potions, the rats always ranked first on the material consumption list.

    They were born with superior sensitivity too. When Devildare ordered them to enter the hall, the creatures only trembled in ce.

    The man cast a spell and knocked them in there by force.

    Next, they saw several strange-looking strings appearing in the air which tore the rats to bloody parts. The area around the door was soon covered in blood and stink.

    Devildare moved to the door himself.

    ¡°Please reconsider this, sir!¡± Walmazan tried to stop Devildare.

    Devildare shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I amplified my right hand with a spell before, and I can always re-imnt a new one. I¡¯ll use this hand to feel what¡¯s going on in there. I can¡¯t learn anything if I don¡¯t experience this with my body.¡±

    Walmazan acknowledged and moved aside.

    Devildare stood right in front of the door and gazed at the dark hall which devoured all light.

    He slowly reached out a hand toward the door, which was shining with a defensive spell.

    Everyone looked at his move carefully.

    ¡°Hurph!¡±

    His right hand was instantly fragmented. It did not end there, Devildare felt something crawling along his arm. He quickly took out a de and chopped down his arm before he then copsed.

    ¡°Sir!!¡±

    ¡°Mister Devildare!¡±

    Devildare struggled a bit and stopped the bleeding.

    ¡°Get the n masters of Enthralling Aroma and Ember Dragonwing.¡± He said in a low voice, ¡°I need to start a tripartite meeting, right now.¡±

    A tripartite meeting was a decision-making meeting held by the authorities of Twilight Well, which usually meant to discuss fending off invasions or dividing significant profit. Of course, there was no profit to be seen here, so... an enemy was attacking Twilight Well?

    Everyone grew stressed when thinking about the possibility.

    Most wizards had gone to inform their own faction, while Devildare stayed at the door. His right arm was no longer bleeding, but his blood-soaked clothes created quite the horrifying sight in the dark passageway.

    ¡°You¡¯re here, Twilight?¡± He suddenly spoke.

    A middle-aged woman wearing dusk-colored robe showed up from the darkness. She quietly stood behind Devildare.

    ¡°What did you find out?¡± Devildare asked.

    Twilight came to the auction house together with him, but she did not answer Wood¡¯s assemble call. She only told Wood to send a message that she found something.

    Twilight hesitated a little before saying, ¡°Sir, the music came from the inner hall, so whoever ying the music must be inside.¡±

    ¡°I know that. Anything else you can tell me?¡±

    ¡°I saw two shadows, and I think I know them... yes, this has something to do with Mister Sunders¡¯ student.¡±

    ¡°Flora? Or...¡±

    ¡°Angor.¡±

    ...

    At the same time...

    Angor arrived at the mirror world. Before he could head home though, he heard Sunders¡¯ voice ringing around his ears.

    ¡°Get to Phantom Ind. I have a question.¡±

    Angor already thought Sunders was going to ask him something about the auction. However, he did not expect the gentleman to use a voice transmission. Also, it seemed Sunders noticed his arrival at mirror world right away.

    He sighed in frustration. <i>Some kind of tracking spells. It must be.</i>

    ¡°You go back first,¡± Angor said to Dave. ¡°I¡¯ll take Hobbiton to Butler Goode.¡±

    After seeing Dave off, he looked at Hobbiton who was now both worried and curious about what was going to happen.

    ¡°Follow closely and don¡¯t get lost. I¡¯ll get you to see Goode.¡±

    Considering Hobbiton¡¯s age, Angor walked a little slower.

    asionally, there were passers-by giving them curious nces, which caused Hobbiton to grow more and more nervous.

    The kid yelled out loud when amotion came about from not far, and a human arm suddenly dropped in front of them.

    Angor rubbed his temples. The Tree Spirit Garden was usually ¡°rtively peaceful¡±, but he ran into trouble so soon.

    They kept walking. Soon, Angor found a tiny trembling hand grabbing the side of his clothes.

    And he thought the kid was a fearless little rogue... Angor tried to hold back hisughter. He did not say anything just to spare Hobbiton¡¯s ego.

    Hobbiton grewforted when he received noment from Angor. He kept his hand on Angor¡¯s side.

    They climbed some stairs and reached a leaf bus stop when Hobbiton¡¯s face began to grow pale.

    The boy simply shrank into a ball on the sky bus and shivered badly. Now his lips were losing color as well.

    ¡°He¡¯s afraid of height?¡± Angor realized something funnier would soon happen.

    Those who could not fly had to travel across apletely transparent, unprotected sky bridge to reach Phantom Ind.

    Angor stepped onto the bridge with a in expression and prepared to enjoy the show.

    He walked some distance and looked back at Hobbiton, who stayed at the edge of the leaf, shuddering. The boy was so scared that he looked as if he was going to faint.

    ¡°We must go through here to find Goode,¡± Angor did not exert any emotion in his voice. ¡°It¡¯s a road you can¡¯t see called the sky bridge. Don¡¯t you want to find Goode?¡± Angor crossed his arms and gazed at the trembling boy.

    Hobbiton stayed silent for quite a while before stuttering, ¡°I-I-I¡¯m afra-afraid...¡±

    ¡°Then you can give up thinking about bing a wizard. Wizards don¡¯t walk around on their feet.¡±

    Maybe those words encouraged him just a little. Hobbiton poked his foot forward slowly and finally walked onto the bridge in slow motion.

    Just when Angor thought Hobbiton had gone over his fear, the kid rushed to him and clung to his leg with his eyes closed.

    Angor did not know how to feel. He never thought he would have someone hugging his leg like this.

    Considering that Sunders was still waiting, Angor only moaned without saying anything. He dragged Hobbiton on his leg and moved to the Phantom Ind.

 Chapter 291 - Peter Pan

    <h4>Chapter 291: Peter Pan</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor nced at the boy on his leg and wondered.

    <i>I thought this guy hated me not too long ago?</i>

    They almost fought before boarding the airship because Angor did not take Ananda along. Here, ¡°fought¡± meant Hobbiton was going to kick him, while Angor did not pay any attention to the kid at all.

    A kid might he be, Hobbiton had been spending his years receiving ¡°education¡± from Ananda, the leader of a thief gang. He knew all the dirty words used by adults. After Ananda prevented him from kicking Angor for real, he did not hesitate to use those words on Angor.

    Maybe the kid was too scared of height as well as the strange world around him?

    Angor did not believe those were enough reasons for the little devil to suddenly give up those gangster attitudes.

    Maybe Hobbiton was suddenly enlightened by something overnight?

    ...

    Once they ced their feet on the soft sand around Phantom Ind, Angor picked up Hobbiton by the cor and removed the kid off his leg.

    ¡°We¡¯re here.¡±

    Hobbiton opened his eyes when he heard Angor. He grew calmer at the sight of beach and palm trees. However, he did not dare to look behind him. The neighboring area of the beach on Phantom Ind was a sea of clouds. Anyone who could not fly and fell into the ¡°sea¡± would definitely see peril.

    Hobbiton blushed a little and avoided Angor¡¯s gaze. This was the first time for him to act so cowardly, and he just did it in front of someone he yelled at yesterday.

    Angor did not notice the boy¡¯s little thoughts. He was trying to think of something now.

    <i>Without an invitation or something, Hobbiton would either get torn to pieces or eaten by the phantom beasts on the ind. What should I do?</i>

    His low-leveled transmitter could not send anything to Goode over such a distance.

    ¡°Should I ask Hobbiton to hide behind me using his ability?¡± Angor pondered. That invisibility of the kid seemed solid enough to avoid spells and animals.

    However, Hobbiton¡¯s abilitysted too short. He could only hide for a second or two before showing up again.

    ¡°What to do...¡± Angor stood still on the beach and considered his options. Hobbiton had gotten over his stress. The boy was staring at Angor carefully while waiting for the next course of action.

    Angor grew a little uneasy after being stared at for so long. ¡°Ahem. Phantom Ind is where my professor trains at. I need to get his consent to bring you in there. You wait here, and I¡¯ll go ask him.¡±

    As long as he stayed away from the edge, Hobbiton would not need to worry about height or strangers.

    ¡°I understand. And... I mean, thanks,¡± said Hobbiton as he nodded.

    Angor raised an eyebrow when witnessing a little gangster actually thanking him.

    ¡°Okay, stay put.¡± Angor knew how not to tease a child¡¯s ego. He left quickly.

    Before he could enter the woods though, someone called him from behind in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°Angor?¡±

    He turned around quickly and saw Sunders just entering the ind from the sky.

    Did the gentleman not send him the voice transmission from the ind?

    Sunders was wearing his usual, wless gentleman wear. The man sometimes put on a ck robe with crimson bosoms which looked extremely stylish on his handsome figure.

    Sundersnded on the ground, and Angor quickly joined him.

    The man nced around and saw Hobbiton. He then looked back at Angor again.

    ¡°You... found yourself a Phantom Servant?¡±

    Angor signaled Hobbiton toe. ¡°No, he¡¯s here looking for Butler Goode. He says that Goode is his grandfather. His name-¡±

    Angor stopped and revealed a grin.

    ¡°He¡¯s Peter Pan the Never-Grow-Up.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s Peter Pan? My name is Hobbiton Moa,¡± said the boy, somewhat discontent.

    Angor exined to Sunders with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s a story from my homnd about a yful child who never grows up named Peter Pan. They¡¯re so alike.¡±

    He briefly exined how he met with Hobbiton, the kid¡¯s special ability, and the business between the boy¡¯s family and Lady Lotus.

    Sunders inspected Hobbiton. ¡°Goode isn¡¯t a servant from the Moa family, but the Moxa n. Also, I believe he¡¯s been away from the Moxas for forty years.¡±

    Hobbiton felt the suppressive aura from the gentleman even though Sunders did not disy any power.

    ¡°My mother is a Moxa Phantom Servant,¡± Hobbiton lowered his head while speaking. ¡°I¡¯ve never met Grandfather Goode before, but my grandma once told me of him, and, she gave me this,¡±

    He took out an aged-looking ring embedded with an emerald gem.

    ¡°Granny said, if there¡¯s any trouble I can¡¯t solve, I can take this ring to Grandpa Goode who worked alongside a great wizard,¡± said Hobbiton with a roll of his eyes as he ttered Sunders.

    Sunders checked the ring and did notice a trace left by Goode.

    The gentleman nodded and waved a hand to put a temporary allowance spell on Hobbiton to let him enter the ind. Then he turned away and flew off.

    Sunders never said anything about the trouble between Hobbiton and Lotus. In fact, he did not care.

    ¡°Go. Since Mister Sunders didn¡¯t say otherwise, he allows you to get in,¡± said Angor. He had also checked the emerald ring as an alchemist and did not notice anything in particr. He thought it was just something memorable, like Sunders¡¯ family dagger.

    Hobbiton watched as Sunders became a small dot in the distance.

    ¡°It¡¯s so nice, being able to fly. Will grandfather teach me how to be a wizard?¡±

    Angor did not answer. He knew Goode was not a wizard, but the butler possessed something as powerful as a wizard. At least that man acted way better than himself when Mister Rein came to visit.

    ¡°In the story, Peter Pan can fly too.¡±

    With that, Angor stepped into the woods first.

    They walked all the way to Sunders¡¯ mansion where Butler Goode weed them at the door.

    ¡°Mister Padt.¡± He bowed, then looked at Hobbiton with a gentle expression.

    Hobbiton already saw Goode¡¯s portrait in his family. The robe, as well as the mask with strange patterns, quickly helped him recognize his grandfather. Now the kid felt both happy to see someone who shared the same bloodline and nervous for being somewhere unknown.

    More importantly, Hobbiton was quite shocked to see his grandfather addressing Angor as ¡°Mister¡±. Did that mean Angor was actually someone important?

    ¡°He¡¯s Hobbiton, your family, ording to his own words,¡± Angor spoke. He added, ¡°Now I took him here, you can handle the rest, Butler Goode.¡±

    Goode replied in an emotional tone, which was rare for the butler. ¡°Master already told me. Thank you, Mister Padt. Let me take it from here.¡±

    Angor left Hobbiton and prepared to head to Sunders¡¯ study. However, he was stopped by Hobbiton¡¯s timid voice.

    ¡°Sir-sir!¡±

    Angor stopped and turned around to see Hobbiton blushing badly.

    ¡°Thank-thank you very much, for bringing me to my grandpa. I-I-can I ask something?¡±

    Behind the mask, Goode frowned a little and wanted to stop Hobbiton¡¯s rude act.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    Angor thought the kid was going to ask about Ananda again. He did not show it, but he was getting impatient deep inside.

    ¡°Sir, can you tell me that story about... Peter Pan?¡±

    That surprised Angor a little. He wondered if the kid was getting lonely, or simply wanted to find the cause of life from the story.

    Probably both.

    It was not a difficult task anyway, so he nodded to agree.

    ¡°I will... when we have time for it.¡±

    ...

    Upon going through the door of the study, Angor found Sunders writing something in front of a desk, as always.

    ¡°I know you have a lot to ask, such as the Nightmare Domain. I¡¯ll tell you about them in due time. Now, you must tell me everything first, about what happened during that day when you shut the nightmare passage, so we leave no loose ends.¡±

    The gentleman¡¯s serious expression made Angor worried.

    Angor put away his rxed attitude in front of his professor and carefully went over his memory.

    ¡°You asked me to close the passage, professor, and I had no idea how, so I thought about breaking the illusion nodes in my body...

    ¡°... I went for the node on my heart and fainted. Then that green toy owl saved me. It told me not to kill myself. When I realized I canmunicate with Auri, I thought about swindling him into telling me how to close the door.

    ¡°... There were monsters, and they were going through the passage one by one. Auri said something about arranging a ceremony for the queen¡¯s arrival, so I followed that lead and pretended that I wanted to erge the passage so the monsters coulde faster. If I can learn about how to control the passage, I¡¯ll have something to close it off.¡±

    Erging the passage and closing it should be different, but Angor believed they had something inmon.

    Using the excuse of losing his memory, Angor managed to trick Auri into telling him info.

    Whether the nightmare passage was open, as well as its size, depended on his own will. Auri told him how to control his will. It was then that Angor realized it was something simr to how he could sense the emotions of monsters.

    He used to municate¡± with the monsters using his subconsciousness. Now that Auri taught him how to control themunications for real, there was a lot more he could do now. He could even directlymunicate with a person through emotions, on condition that the target lowered his or her spirit defense.

    After learning the trick, instead of closing the passage right away, Angor attempted something else first.

 Chapter 292 - Mishap

    Chapter 292: Mishap

    He tried to fool the green owl into going back to the Nightmare Realm.

    He feared that Auri would kill him if he shut off the passage, so he tried everything he could to tell Auri to go inform the queen that they should prepare a bigger army to attack the wizarding world.

    Once Auri crossed into the Nightmare Realm, Angor closed the passage right away while putting on a show that he ¡°identally¡± messed everything up.

    ¡°Then the white mist disappeared, and you all can see the rest.¡±

    ¡°Anything else you found worth noticing?¡± Sunders asked.

    ¡°... There is, now I think about it.¡±

    ¡°Such as?¡±

    ¡°The monsters, they all recognized me. They called me ¡®Shava¡¯. But I don¡¯t know that name. Maybe they mistook me for someone else? That¡¯s good though, at least I can blend in with them and learn stuff from Auri. I did it because they think I¡¯m Shava.¡±

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°Do you think wizard-level monsters can misjudge people like that?¡±

    ¡°Not likely... But I don¡¯t have another answer for that. Am I really Shava? No way.¡±

    ¡°No way? I beg to differ,¡± said Sunders. He considered it for a moment before asking, ¡°Do you remember how wizards usually describe the Nightmare Realm?¡±

    ¡°The reality is projected into imaginary and gives birth to the truth,¡± Angor recited those words and suddenly revealed fear when mentioning ¡°birth of truth¡±. ¡°Professor, you mean there¡¯s my own projection somewhere in the Nightmare Realm?¡± Angor shivered at the idea.

    There was a ¡°second him¡± somewhere, and probably a monster.

    ¡°Possible. I never saw the projection of people before, but considering the level of your Nightmare Form, maybe something can change. It¡¯s only an assumption. Suppose there¡¯s really such a shadow projection of yourself, let¡¯s see, we shall call it ¡®your shadow¡¯ for now. If this shadow does exist, it should possess the same traits as you.

    ¡°One more thing. Why were the monsters so certain that you¡¯re Shava?¡±

    Angor quickly noticed what Sunders hinted and asked, ¡°You mean Shava wasn¡¯t inside Nightmare Realm by that time?¡±

    If thinking in this way, it exined why the monsters considered him, someone from ¡°the outside¡±, as Shava. It was because they could not sense this ¡°Shava¡± in the Nightmare Realm.

    ¡°That¡¯s another assumption. We need more proof for it,¡± Sunders said. The Nightmare Realm held too many secrets.

    ¡°But Shava sounds like a woman...¡± Angor found it really weird if his counterpart was a female.

    ¡°Wizards don¡¯t usually remember someone by his or her looks. A man¡¯s temper, properties on his soul, personal pheromone... We can determine someone¡¯s identity as long as most of this information fits, even if the man appears as someone else or different gender.¡±

    ¡°But Lady Mirror-¡±

    ¡°This is not the case for certain witches who only appreciate the outside appearance. I¡¯ll make this matter another research subject about the Nightmare Realm, and we shall work on it for some time. You, will be the coordinator.¡±

    Sunders took out a brand-new scroll, dipped some ink on his quill, and wrote something down in his elegant handwriting.

    The Properties of Nightmare Projections, Subject 3: Projection of Creatures

    Author: Sunders Eagle

    Coordinator: Angor Padt

    Angor paid extra attention when he saw Sunders writing his own family name, ¡°Eagle¡±. It was the first time Angor saw that name.

    Sunders put down the scroll and looked up again. ¡°Anything else you think you should tell?¡±

    Angor pondered and did remember something, such as why the monsters all used names of people from Padt Manor. But Sunders might have already exined it¡ªthose were projections.

    However, Angor could not understand why the projections appeared in the form of animals. It was not an important question though, considering how his own projection might be a woman.

    ¡°No. I think that¡¯s everything,¡± Angor said. He did not lie. He really could not think of other special matters. That incident itself was special enough. How did he summon the Nightmare Domain in the first ce? Why did that woman show up just because he thought about her?

    Sunders frowned a bit. He could always look into this ¡°Shava¡±ter. Angor¡¯s exnation about how he yed his part among the enemies to learn how to close the passage sounded too dramatic, but it was quite possible. The man had been using a spell on Angor too, and he found no trace of lying.

    If Angor was being truthful... then who was responsible for the current incident at Twilight Auction House?

    Sunders left the ind just a while ago to receive an urgent transmission which came from outside the mirror world.

    ¡°I asked you here because I just received a message,¡± said Sunders as he stared at his student and observed Angor¡¯s expression. ¡°A message about Twilight Auction.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°Did Twilight defame me again? I mean, she caught me on the street TWICE yesterday. I¡¯d be dead if Miss Flora wasn¡¯t there to help.¡±

    Sunders realized that the reactionsing from his student were all fine. Well, except that the boy was a little exasperated when he heard Twilight¡¯s name.

    It seemed Angor was not behind this.

    ¡°Yesterday night, the inner hall of the auction house was attacked by monsters, and no one managed to get in there yet. Anything that tried to enter the hall was killed, including wizards. If the information is correct, this is caused by a fox with a harp and a frog singer. Maybe another strange-looking card with a clown on it is also involved.¡±

    ¡°Fox and Froggy? And a card...¡± Angor was quite shocked.

    Sunders nodded. His student already told him the names of the animals earlier. ¡°Should be them.¡±

    ¡°But it can¡¯t be...¡± Angor mumbled, ¡°Are they so powerful?¡±

    ¡°Those two animals are both wizard-level monsters just like that toy owl. Why do you say so?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re visitors from a foreign world who should have their strength weakened if theye here, right? How can they kill wizards?¡±

    Angor cast a simple, empty illusion, dragged a teacup with a heart stamp on it from the Nightmare Domain and ced it in front of Sunders. ¡°Look, professor, I¡¯d say they only have like, one percent of their strength left. Ordinary cantrips are enough to hurt them now. Shouldn¡¯t Froggy and Fox be in the same condition?¡±

    Sunders denied. ¡°It doesn¡¯t work that way. The teacup is weak because it always is so. They¡¯re the first ones toe out of the passage, which means they are the weakest beings among that army. They reflected all attacks because of something else we don¡¯t know yet. But I can tell you it isn¡¯t their own strength.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Angor tossed the teacup back into the Nightmare Domain and removed his illusion. ¡°Now I think about it, how do I deal with these teacups and toy soldiers, sir?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s put it aside. Something more urgent is at hand now,¡± said Sunders as he grew a little impatient. ¡°A hundred years ago, I identally let a wizard-level monster loose. That monster was of a simr level to Flora, at her current stage. And it didn¡¯t grow weaker at all when it came to our wizarding world.¡±

    ¡°But how?¡±

    ¡°There are two possibilities for an otherworldly visitor to retain strength. One, a monster¡¯s power belong to itself. It¡¯s a simr power as the arts of wizards so that power is not affected by the environment. We can already exclude that reason for now. Many monsters in Nightmare Realm are not unique to that ce. For example, the Glutton Flower Lord you ran into once existed in the wizarding world as well. That monster is powerful because of its own natural instinct. It has nothing to do with wizardry.

    ¡°As for the second possibility... not all foreign visitors mean demerit to this world. The world¡¯s consciousness will allow ¡®beneficial¡¯ beings to exist here, such as certain magical nts.

    ¡°Although I don¡¯t think either reason applies to our situation, which leaves us one other theory.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a third reason?¡±

    ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll ever get expelled by the wizarding world?¡± Sunders asked a question instead.

    ¡°You mean...¡±

    ¡°If the creatures originate from the wizarding world and possess the mark of natives, the world¡¯s consciousness will not trouble them. The Nether City you saw in the Nightmare Realm is a projection of the real Nether City from the wizarding world. If I¡¯m not mistaken, the Glutton Flower Lord is also a projection, which meant its root belonged to our world. Suppose the Glutton Flower Lord in the Nightmare Realm would show up here... it¡¯ll probably keep its full strength.¡±

    ¡°Um, if a monster is projected into Nightmare Realm from another world, such as the Haunt World, and that monster ends up in the wizarding world, it¡¯ll still grow weaker?¡±

    Sunders nodded.

    ¡°The fox and frog must be creatures that already exist in the wizarding world,¡± Sunders sighed. ¡°They came from the core area of the Nightmare Realm too, which makes them stronger than wizards already. I¡¯m afraid they already equaled with wizards who have found the path of truth.¡±

 Chapter 293 - Persuasion

    Chapter 293: Persuasion

    Angor felt his hair stand when he heard those words. Thank graciousness that he did not allow the queen out back there. Something beyond legendary who was not oppressed by the world¡¯s consciousness would totally destroy this world.

    Sunders read Angor¡¯s expression. ¡°You¡¯re right, that the ¡®queen¡¯ you saw can bring deadly disaster to this world. However, if she uses her legendary strength too much and causes the wizard continent to falter, she¡¯ll ultimately go beyond the tolerance of the consciousness, who¡¯ll then chase her out.

    ¡°But! That¡¯s something well after many years, which means after the wizarding world is already plunged in blood and death. No matter what situation you encounter in the future, do NOT let her out!¡±

    Angor nodded, but he was not really convinced. Why should I care what cmityes to this world when my life is in danger?

    Sunders moaned in his mind. Now, there was an uncontroble weapon powerful enough to destroy the whole world, and the button to unleash that weapon was held by a kid. What was worse was that it was impossible to take the button away from this kid.

    Killing him could solve the problem. Yet Sunders would never butcher his own student, nor would he protect his student from other butchers¡ªthis was his doctrine.

    ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking about. Do you remember the motto of Soul Maniptors, that ¡®death is only the beginning of all¡¯? Wizards are capable of much more than you think.¡±

    Sunders stopped here to let his student figure out the rest.

    As for Froggy and Fox...

    ¡°ording to Twilight, she caught a glimpse of the animals in the hall. Considering there¡¯s the sound of harp and singing, we can almost ascertain that those creatures are behind this,¡± Sunders moaned again. ¡°This will never end... previously, each time I identally let such creatures loose, they always run wild everywhere in this world. I have no idea why these two stayed in the auction house.¡±

    The gentleman stared at Angor again. ¡°Devildare meant to ask you to handle this and pay for their loss. They want you to ept the punishment.¡±

    Angor widened his eyes and pointed to his own nose. ¡°Wait! Me again?¡±

    ¡°You caused this. Who else can they ask?¡±

    ¡°But I did it because Twilight wanted to kill-okay, I was wrong. But how can they put the me of the death of their people on me? It¡¯s not like I can control Froggy and Fox. I didn¡¯t ask them to kill their men.¡±

    Angor knew he should be responsible for breaking the rules of the auction house since he and Toby attacked them first.

    And he was willing to ept that crazy debt.

    However, the three guards who died inside the Nightmare Domain died from their own foolishness. Actually, one of them was killed by Twilight¡¯s attack.

    His current debt already containedpensation for the three dead guards, and he believed they were now even. What was going to happenter was beyond his control! Angor found Devildare¡¯s request to be downright unreasonable.

    But what could he do about it? There was no way he could oppose the entire Twilight Auction. Should he suck it up and admit his crime?

    Now that the powerful wizards already determined him as the culprit, as a feeble apprentice, he had no hope in changing their mind just by using pleas.

    Angor nced at Sunders and noticed his professor was calm as ever. Sunders had to know the reason behind this, but he was not doing anything, which made Angor pretty sad.

    ¡°Very well... I¡¯ll do something about it.¡±

    Sunders felt something strange in Angor¡¯s tone. He inspected Angor again and saw a trace of madness inside his student¡¯s otherwise serene pupils.

    The gentleman frowned¡ªhe knew what Angor was nning to do.

    He tapped at the demon falcon statue on the desk. The statue gave out a clear and tuneful eagle wail and the scenery in the study suddenly changed.

    A realistic illusion was presented in front of Angor.

    War, fire, and blood. The earth was tainted crimson by corpses and monstrosities.

    A giant monster with a head like a sun stomped, creating a mountain-sized crater under its iron heel. Lava and tidal waves surged ind and buried everything underneath.

    The bnce of nature was utterly destroyed. Every corner of the world witnessed the tragedy. No one was spared.

    Angor felt as if he was watching one of the post-apocalyptic movies.

    Mothers covered in blood hugged and protected their children in vain, lovers spent theirst momentforting each other¡¯s soul with painful smiles, a newborn kitten hid under the rubbles and gave Angor a pleading look...

    Sunders suddenly appeared beside Angor.

    ¡°Ten thousand years ago, the grand abyssal demon, Fallen Sun, descended upon the southern wizarding region. This was what happened within a mere fifteen days.

    ¡°The Fallen Sun was beyond legendary. Its strength was weakened by a portion, and it still brought total destruction to this world. What you now see is the consequence brought by him alone. Tell me, do you still want to release that queen?¡±

    ¡°I never said that...¡± Angor protested.

    Sunders looked his student into the eyes. ¡°It¡¯s what you thought about, no?¡±

    Angor could not find the words to retort again. He did think of something like that when he said he would ¡°do something about the situation¡±.

    ¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯re still a kid,¡± said Sunders as he rubbed Angor¡¯s hair. ¡°Don¡¯t lose control of yourself.¡±

    Sunders looked back at the Fallen Sun wreaking havoc in the illusion and revealed a mixed emotion.

    ¡°Try to grow up, Angor. The wizarding world is constantly changing, every second. Time awaits no one. Maybe this same thing will happen soon...¡±

    Sunders¡¯ voice grew smaller into a whisper. Angor was too busy adjusting his messy hair to register what Sunders said in the end.

    Sunders canceled the illusion. ¡°Those who died in the auction house may not have much to do with you, and that is true. But you may be the reason why Froggy and Fox returned there. I¡¯ll handle the matter for you this time.¡±

    Hearing this, Angor almost cried at the great kindness shown by his professor.

    ¡°Stay inside Brute Cavern like a good kid and find a way to pay back your debt. A hundred thousand magic crystals to Twilight, in half a month, and another hundred-fifty thousand for me. I give you one month for that.¡±

    Angor quickly felt faint at the insane number. F*ck kindness. F*ck teacher and student. F*ck it all!

    ¡°How can I earn two hundred and fifty thousand in one month??¡± Angor attempted to stir Sunders¡¯ decision by using his tears.

    ¡°It¡¯s up to you.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t!¡±

    ¡°I believe you can. I asked you to be an apprentice within a month, and then to attain the top level of Sky Tower in half a year. You seeded in both. Don¡¯t underestimate your potential.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s different! Potential doesn¡¯t help me make money!¡±

    Sunders was as frigid on the inside as his looks. No matter how hard Angor tried, the man never changed his mind.

    Angor had to give up in the end. He thought about selling Prelude to Elimination for moneyter. However, he had no idea how much a weapon enchanted with such a magic array would cost. Higher than rune-enchanted weapons, that much was sure.

    ¡°Don¡¯t make fusses to solve problems. If you did something stupid, people can kill you and imprison your soul for eternity, and you have nothing to escape from it. All in all, you should be stronger,¡± Sunders lectured sincerely.

    ¡°I understand, sir.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡±

    Angor thought about the illusion he just saw and trembled a little. ¡°Professor, the demon, Fallen Sun... Did the world¡¯s consciousness expel it in the end?¡±

    ¡°No. His sinful deed did not break the tolerance of the world¡¯s consciousness.¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t? Then how much sin can the world¡¯s consciousness allow?¡±

    ¡°It was a wizard from the Origin World who killed the Fallen Sun,¡± said Sunders while he looked into the distance as if yearning for something. ¡°Too bad, no one knows where Origin World went to. All passages toward that world in the south were destroyed during a man-made disaster. Maybe there are still ways in the other regions. But it takes more than time for us to travel there.¡±

 Chapter 294 - The Mystery of Nightmare Domain

    <h4>Chapter 294: The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°I know you still have questions.¡± Sunders walked to a bookshelf and pressed on the head of a gargoyle statue nearby.

    Click!

    The giant bookshelf split sideways and revealed anotherpartment behind.

    The space inside thepartment was big enough to contain an adult. There was another bookshelf in there which contained research reports or something alike. Sunders found a booklet made from parchment and handed it to Angor.

    Angor checked the book. It felt soft to the touch. Also, the book was bound using parchment sheets of different qualities and colors.

    <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>

    Author: Sunders Eagle, Flora

    ¡°Flora? But isn¡¯t she a Blood Wizard?¡±

    Following Sunders¡¯ instruction, Angor found the index of the book.

    <i>Theory Collection of Nightmare Domain (1);</i>

    <i>Theory Collection of Nightmare Domain (2);</i>

    <i>The Combination Between Nightmare Domain and Illusions;</i>

    <i>Practical Uses of Nightmare Illusions Against Enemies;</i>

    <i>How to Survive Nightmare Monsters </i>...

    The book was mostly a collection of different subjects on Nightmare Domain, most of which wereposed by Sunders. Only two pages which described something called ¡°Supplementary Appendix¡± were written by Flora.

    The content of the book immediately grasped Angor¡¯s curiosity. Everything was about the questions he thought about recently, such as how to utilize the Nightmare Domain or control the monsters in the right situations.

    ¡°Take it back and make a copy for yourself.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir!¡± Angor was overjoyed.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to. I already nned to give you the book once you be a wizard. I never expected you to undertake your own Nightmare Domain as a... fresh level-1 apprentice. By doing so, you also became the enemy of a great number of wizards. I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s lucky or unlucky to you.¡±

    Angor lowered his head.

    ¡°This book,posed by me and Flora, is absolutely unique in this world. You must handle it with care,¡± Sunders spoke in a more serious attitude. ¡°The knowledge within is priceless, so I¡¯m not going to give it for free. You must ept one condition before reading it.¡±

    Angor nodded. The rule of equivalent exchange always applied. Sunders might teach him basic skills as his professor, but he had to pay for anything beyond that level.

    ¡°You must... promise something.¡± Sunders¡¯ expression grew stern, causing Angor to do the same. ¡°You mustpose your own Nightmare Domain-rted subject in this book within fifty years. Meanwhile, I¡¯ll keep adding my new discoveries into it. If you wish to read something new, you must pay extra knowledge in exchange.

    ¡°There are Flora¡¯s theories in the book because she once borrowed the book as well. It¡¯s the same. If you provide a decent subject, I¡¯ll add your name to the book. Now, what¡¯s your answer?¡±

    Angor nodded without a second thought. He had fifty years! No one knew what would happen during such a long period. He had to snatch every chance to grow stronger.

    They signed a contract in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness.

    ¡°I hope I canplete the book in my avable years,¡± Sunders sighed. He knew well this was impossible to achieve on his own. His student seemed to be a talented academic¡ªas long as Angor did not get himself killed too soon, the boy would definitely contribute greatly.

    ¡°Now go. I¡¯ll go to Twilight Auction and finish that business. Meanwhile, you should avoid attracting attention. I suggest you stay in your house and do something about your debt. Don¡¯t go wander off and get caught by Twilight¡¯s men.¡±

    ¡°Wait, sir, can I ask a few questions?¡±

    Sunders sat back on his chair. ¡°You have ten minutes.¡±

    Angor used the precious chance to seek answers for the problems he encountered during his own training. When it was almost time to leave, he mentioned something that troubled him most at the moment.

    ¡°Can you give me an idea, professor? How do I earn money?¡± Angor created tears to win some sympathy again.

    ¡°Go ask yourself. Do I even need to teach you that?¡±

    Still, Sunders would admit two hundred and fifty thousand was a pretty huge sum. Not many wizards could bring out that much money in such a short time. He already had a n for this¡ªLeona would return from Manda ne in half a month, holding the great fortune she earned by selling Angor¡¯s ¡°body perfume¡±. He was not about to see that woman run off with the money for free.

    However, he could not tell this to Angor yet. He wanted Angor to learn the cruelty of the wizarding world. The boy should not acquire his Nightmare Domain so easily.

    Putting him under the great pressure of his debt for a month seemed a good approach.

    There was one thing Sunders overlooked¡ªsuch a crazy debt was usually enough to halt all hopes for ordinary apprentices for their entire lives. Angor, however, could totally get the money with enough time. And time was the only problem.

    Angor only felt stressed because of theck of time. As for the money itself... it was not so pressing.

    ¡°We¡¯re done. You should leave,¡± Sunders said.

    ¡°Wait, onest question!¡±

    ¡°Speak!¡± Sunders pretended to be annoyed a little.

    ¡°Sir, you told me that all kinds of illusions will try to take over my mind when undertaking the Nightmare Domain, right? And I may never wake up again? But I just slept for some time. I didn¡¯t see anything.¡±

    As he recalled, apart from the strange itchiness and heat on his back, nothing really happened during his sleep.

    Sunders¡¯ face wrinkled badly, and he clenched his teeth. ¡°So are you expecting me to praise you for that, or are you saying that I lied to you? Get out.¡±

    Actually, Angor was only asking for his opinion. He was not trying to mock his professor, but it seemed Sunders was pretty agitated for this.

    ¡°One-one-onest thing!¡±

    ¡°Out.¡±

    ¡°Really! Just one!¡±

    Despite his yelling, Sunders used Hand of Spell to grab his cor and tossed him outside the door.¡±

    ¡°I want to have a look at-¡±

    Bam!

    ¡°... the Cursing Puppet.¡±

    Angor climbed up from the floor, removed some dust from his rear, and walked away with a sad look.

    He walked into the great hall and saw Goode helping Hobbiton clean up himself. Then the butler dressed the boy in a smaller-sized servant robe.

    Every Phantom Servant on the ind wore such a robe as well as a mask. When Angor approached them curiously, Goode put down his towel and bowed to him. ¡°Mister Padt.¡±

    Goode signaled Hobbiton who then addressed Angor with a timid voice, ¡°Mi-Mister Padt.¡±

    Angor nodded at them. ¡°Can I ask a question, Butler Goode? What¡¯s your robe and mask used for?¡±

    Goode chuckled. ¡°We¡¯re not wizards. We need something to move around freely in Brute Cavern, and our mask and robe were imprinted with the emblem of Master Sunders. They both help us avoid mortals, and tell other wizards that we work for Master Sunders, so no one gives us unnecessary trouble.¡±

    Goode pointed to a button on his robe. Angor noticed Sunders¡¯ family emblem drawn on it. It was the same one he saw from his golden poster¡ªa winged sword stuck inside a thorned rose. However, the button was too small to write the family motto on it.

    Angor did not see the emblem on Hobbiton¡¯s smaller robe¡ªHobbiton wished to be a wizard, and he was not Sunders¡¯ student. Thus, the kid could not receive such protection.

    ¡°Butler Goode, so the robe has a... stealth effect on it?¡± Angor noticed a faint aura flowing around the robe, which could be either a built-in spell or a synthesis effect.

    ¡°Yes. There¡¯s something that prevents detection spells.¡±

    Angor brightened up. ¡°Do you have a spare robe? Can I borrow one?¡±

    Goode did not respond.

    Hobbiton went ¡°Huh?!¡±.

    ¡°There¡¯s none,¡± Sunders spoke. The gentleman left his study for some reason.

    ¡°I just... wanted to take a look,¡± Angor muttered. He believed Twilight found his whereabouts using some kind of tracking spell, so he nned to make something... Maybe a robe, which could help him block such tracking attempts.

    He did not have any knowledge about weaving, so he hoped he could borrow a servant robe to learn something.

    But Sunders quickly ruined his n.

    ...

    After leaving Phantom Ind, Angor headed straight home under the dawn-brightened sky.

    He saw his vi in the distance and walked there slowly. He had not enjoyed any sleep for some time.

    Before he could get to the door though, two figures suddenly showed up from under a tree nearby.

    ¡°Angor!¡±

 Chapter 295 - Missing Right Arm

    <h4>Chapter 295: Missing Right Arm</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The first light of dawn slowly chased the shades of night away like adding water to ink. It was still a bit dark for Angor to see the faces of those two. It was only until the shorter one walking in front approached him, showing both joy and anxiety, that he recognized his visitors.

    ¡°Sailum?¡±

    The shorter one was covered in a white bedsheet. Only his tiny head under themplight helped Angor recognize his name.

    ¡°It¡¯s you, Angor! You¡¯re okay! We were so worried!¡± Sailum quickly fell into tears.

    Angor found a handkerchief and handed it to Sailum. ¡°Hey, little one, we haven¡¯t met for some days and you turned into a crybaby? How will you spend all the years before you be a wizard? Learn to grow up!¡± Angor mimicked Sunders¡¯ tone, and he felt it awesome when lecturing someone younger.

    ¡°Good to see you well, Angor.¡± The taller woman behind Sailum joined them. Angor sensed her enthusiasm from her in voice.

    ¡°It¡¯s been some time, Nausica.¡±

    ¡°Have you recovered from your wound, Angor?¡± Sailum eximed, ¡°I saw you bleeding like hell. It was scary!¡±

    ¡°Wound? What wound?¡±

    ¡°Stop acting tough. I know, Toby is... cry if you want, it¡¯ll make you better.¡± Sailum pretended to be an adult and spread his arms out as he said, ¡°Come, cry into my shoulders.¡±

    Angor pushed him away. ¡°Toby¡¯s fine, right here sleeping.¡±

    He took out the bird from his pocket and ced his tiny body on his hand.

    Apart from some lost feathers, Toby hadpletely healed. The small creature¡¯s chest was raising regrly and healthily.

    ¡°Toby¡¯s alive? But I saw Lady Twilight-¡± Sailum stopped his words and put up a smile. ¡°I¡¯m d he¡¯s okay.¡±

    ¡°Twilight...¡± Angor realized something when he heard the name of the woman again. ¡°You two went to the grand auction too?¡±

    Sailum nodded. ¡°Yeah, but we stayed in the outer hall and watched through the screen. I saw Toby showing up in there when a ve was brought for sale, then there was you, and Lady Twilight attacked you... Man. Thank lords that you¡¯re both alive.¡±

    Nausica put her left hand on Sailum¡¯s shoulder. ¡°What did I say? The screen was blocked when Twilight was going to kill you, I thought someone was there to save you.¡±

    Angor sensed something strangeing from Nausica, although he did not question it.

    ¡°My professor saved me.¡±

    He only exined the result while omitting all the details.

    ¡°I thought so. Mister Sunders is the only figure I know who can interfere with Twilight Auction,¡± said Nausica as she revealed a jealous look. ¡°And Sailum never believed me. The kid forced me to wait in front of your door during thest two days.¡±

    ¡°You waited here for two days?¡± Angor felt touched and a bit sorry for them as well.

    ¡°Stop exaggerating things, Miss Nausica! We weren¡¯t always here. We came to get arranged so that we can live in apprentice town,¡± said Sailum. He pointed toward two side-by-side yards several hundred meters away. ¡°We rented those. I wanted to be your neighbor so we can have lunch together or something, but your vi is too remote, and we¡¯ll never have enough money to build a new house. Those two houses are the closest we can find.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. Just walk a little. I happen to n to give up those instant rations these days. Don¡¯t me me if I drop by at your ce to have free lunch,¡± said Angor with a chuckle.

    ¡°So, why did Toby go to the auction stage back there?¡± Sailum grew too curious.

    ¡°Oh, that... Let¡¯s talk inside.¡±

    Angor beckoned his friends to enter his vi.

    Inside his house, Angor first went to the attic and carried Toby¡¯s tiny bed downstairs to ce it in his bedroom. He then ced Toby down to rest on the bed before joining his friends in the guest room.

    He told them about Toby, about Greya, and Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    His guests spent a moment in silent to digest what they heard.

    Nausica exhaled a smoke ring and snickered, ¡°I can see why Toby was so reckless when he saw the eyeless man was enved.¡±

    ¡°I never thought Toby had such a troubled past behind him,¡± Sailummented.

    ¡°Troubled?¡± Angor smiled. ¡°His story¡¯s a pretty smooth one. It¡¯s his master who¡¯s troubled.¡±

    ¡°Greya, right? Such a legend. It¡¯s such a pity that she died.¡± Nausica had been reading a lot about famous witches, and she greatly respected Greya, a great witch on her path of truth.

    Angor did not reveal the possibility that Greya might still be alive. He only smiled back to end the topic.

    ¡°Burning throat much? I¡¯ll get you some water,¡± Angor took out two sses and cast a ¡°Create Water¡± to fill them.

    Sailum moved faster and grabbed the ss so he could attempt the cantrip first.

    Compared tost time, Sailum used a much shorter time to cast the spell. In fact, it was almost as fast as Angor. It could be seen that Sailum spent a lot of effort into practicing this particr cantrip.

    ¡°Am I good enough?¡± Sailum picked up the ss, winked at Angor proudly, and gulped down the water.

    Angor kept his smile and discarded the water in the second ss. He then refilled the ss and handed it to Nausica.

    ¡°Stable model and mana output, just...¡± He failed to hide augh. ¡°Just that, you didn¡¯t notice that the sses aren¡¯t properly washed for two months.¡±

    Sailum¡¯s smile instantly turned upside-down. ¡°You should tell me earlier!¡±

    ¡°But you seemed so eager toplete your little show.¡±

    Nausica watched the interaction between her friends and quickly forgot about all the negative emotions that developed in her mind recently. She grinned and sipped her own water.

    Angor had been keeping some attention on the woman while speaking to Sailum. He already noticed something ¡°out of ce¡± when he saw Nausica patting Sailum¡¯s shoulder. His doubt grew bigger when he saw Nausica holding her ss using her left hand... when her right one was conveniently closer to the ss.

    He looked at Nausica¡¯s right side that was entirely covered by her ck robe, and he then looked at her right arm or where her right arm should be.

    ¡°Hey, Nausica. Is your right hand... injured?¡±

    ¡°Injured? Nah,¡± Nausica shook her head with a snicker and lifted her robe. ¡°I lost it by ident.¡±

    <i>Lost?</i>

    Angor did notprehend what it meant for a moment, but his gaze froze upon seeing the empty space under Nausica¡¯s right shoulder.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s just an arm... it won¡¯t affect how I fight,¡± said Nausica as she smiled brightly behind her smoke. ¡°I¡¯ll just get a new one. Seven out of ten Bloodline Wizards can perform limb transntation. The auction was selling the right arm of a Gn Gibbon, but it was too expensive and ugly and with all those green hair on it... So I didn¡¯t buy.¡±

    Angor recalled seeing the item which was sold at 1,300 magic crystals.

    Nausica was never someone to mind how she looked, which meant she simply could not afford the arm.

    Angor remembered seeing more than one body part being sold at the auction, and they were all pretty costly. Some of them easily went beyond ten thousand crystals. However, not all of them were used on wizards since some of them were too powerful, some too weak, while the rest simply did not fit. Suitable organs all required long-term culturing process, but it would not necessarily guarantee the oue.

    Generally speaking, organ transntation was not something affordable for apprentices. The price went higher and higher when there were spells that required transnted organs such as a low-leveled cantrip ¡°Canine Nose¡±. The prices of usable organs on the market never witnessed any drop.

    ¡°Once I be a level-2 apprentice, I¡¯ll try my luck at the Abyss ne. Maybe I¡¯ll find something I can use there.¡± As a pirate captain, someone without proper limbs was never an umon sight to Nausica, and she did not find it bothersome when it happened to herself.

    ¡°You never know how long that will take you. Besides, the Moonfrost Passages around Brute Cavern will be closed soon. You have to join their expedition team to get into Abyss ne again, and we all know how those teams do their business.¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯ll wait and see. Maybe I¡¯lle upon a chance really soon. And if I can¡¯t find one, I¡¯ll just p a hook on it. There are many pirates who chopped off their arms so they can equip a hook to disy their leadership,¡± said Nausica as she recalled her past life. ¡°Sir One-Eye, Captain Hook, ck ¡®n¡¯ Red Beard... A hook is kind of a signature for all pirates back at my ce. Now I can use the same thing so everyone knows who I am.¡±

    While Nausica told her story, Angor went over his own thoughts.

    <i>Hook?</i>

    An idea shed through his mind.

    Speaking of hook... ¡°transnting¡± was not the only way to attach a hook. He once saw a sci-fi themed painting in his hologram tablet which presented a man traveling among stars. This character did not wear anything over his top, but his four limbs were dded in metal. He dashed through the sky, eyes closed, silver hair blowing in wind...

    Angor only felt that it was creative when he saw the painting for the first time. Now... it actually provided him with inspiration.

    If they could not find a limb of a powerful monster, would it a be a good idea to install a mechanical limb?

 Chapter 296 - Mechanical Limb and Alchemy Materials

    <h4>Chapter 296: Mechanical Limb and Alchemy Materials</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor¡¯s mind immediately worked at full force upon receiving the new idea.

    A mechanical limb could help them avoid paying for high-cost transntation. He might also try to enchant the limb and make it something simr to alchemy weapons.

    Crafting an alchemy weapon in the shape of a human limb was not difficult. The problem was, he had to allow Nausica to wield the weapon freely as if using her own arm.

    Mana tunnels? Artificial nerves? Or... spiritual controlling? Brain waves? Sound waves?

    It was something that needed more research as well as Nausica¡¯s cooperation. Angor needed to spend more effort in finding the best solution.

    He expressed his idea and said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to rely on a new organ. We can create a mechanical arm. What do you say?¡±

    ¡°A man-made mechanical arm?¡± Both Nausica and Sailum were astonished by that idea. To them, machine and someone¡¯s arm were twopletely different concepts, and Angor somehow put them together.

    Since he could not exin by just using words, Angor found his drafting book and swiftly created a simple sketch of Nausica¡¯s feminine body on the paper.

    Nausica raised an eyebrow. ¡°That was fast, and you never looked at me.¡±

    Angor thought Nausica wasplimenting on his drawing skills, so he prepared some words to boost his ego. However, what Nausica said next ruined his n.

    ¡°So, have you secretly fallen in love with me, Angor dear?¡±

    Angor¡¯s pen crashed on his paper and created a destructive ck line which ruined Nausica¡¯s portrait.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be shy. There were countless who sought my love during my years conquering the ckberry Waters. I don¡¯t mind another one,¡± said Nausica as she put a hand gently on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Well, maybe you¡¯re a bit too young. Look at your body, no bigger than a chicken. I can¡¯t say yes to you yet.¡±

    ¡°Nausica¡¯s right. I think you lost too much weight, Angor. Let¡¯s hold a move-in party tonight so you can eat something really good,¡± said Sailum as he joined the conversation.

    ¡°Don¡¯t go off topic. I¡¯m trying to help here.¡± Angor rolled his eyes in frustration. He got the feeling that he was worrying too much when the armless one herself did not seem so concerned about the situation.

    Nausica chuckled. She then inhaled some smoke before she extinguished her pipe.

    Two minutester, Angorpleted the sketch of Nausica¡¯s body. He left her right arm empty.

    ¡°The mechanical arm I mentioned is a product of machine alchemy. It¡¯s an existing practice in Floating Mech City, so I thought it would help with your case.¡±

    He continued drawing the ¡°mechanical arm¡± on the paper. However, he did not have many details yet¡ªhe had to go through discussions and experiments first.

    Soon, an awe-inspiring metal arm colored in blue and white came into existence on Angor¡¯s paper.

    ¡°This is a general idea. We¡¯ll use a machine instead of a transnted organ. If you find something betterter, simply remove it and use yours. So what do you think? If you agree, we¡¯ll talk more about the elementster, such as what kind of appearance you want, and which enchantment effect...¡±

    Nausica felt exceptionally touched when Angor spoke of the matter as if it was his job.

    Angor did not have anyplex reason for doing so. Nausica was his friend who saved his life before, so he would never refuse to help.

    ¡°If you create the arm following this draft... will it cost many magic crystals?¡± Nausica began to hesitate. She was not sure if she should ept Angor¡¯s help.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t mind the draft. It¡¯s just a basic idea. You should decide what it looks like in the end. As for the cost... for one, your body can¡¯t take high-leveled materials, and I can¡¯t refine those materials yet, so we won¡¯t be spending much money. Besides, I never said I¡¯ll provide materials for free. You can have my crafting service for free though,¡± Angor replied with a big smile on his face.

    Nausica was not sure about this. She clearly knew that materials were never the biggest share¡ªalchemy items were valuable because of alchemists.

    Seeing Nausica unresponsive, Angor simply continued exining his idea.

    ¡°I studied alchemy for less than half a year. There¡¯s no way I can do anything too awesome. And I just thought about the idea. Whatever I make this time is only a temporary solution until you find a better limb.

    ¡°Still, until then, by using this mechanical arm, it¡¯ll help you do quests or tower challenges.¡±

    Nausica grew more determined when she heard about the Sky Tower. She had to strengthen her fundamentals at all cost, and earning a ticket to the purification garden was the best way for now. Her professor, Fantase, said the same thing.

    ¡°Thank you for the help, I guess.¡± Nausica finally nodded and epted Angor¡¯s favor.

    Meanwhile, Sailum did not pay any attention to their conversation. The boy had been looking at Angor¡¯s design while muttering words like ¡°cool¡± and ¡°awesome¡±. It was only until Nausica made her decision that Sailum finally registered what just happened.

    ¡°It looks so nice. Miss Nausica¡¯s going to keep it all the time? Aw, I want one too!¡±

    ¡°Of course you can,¡± Angor joked, ¡°I¡¯ll help you. Come, which one will you remove first? Your arm? Or a foot?¡±

    Sailum stepped back quietly.

    Since Nausica agreed, Angor proceeded to make ns. ¡°I¡¯ll be busy with something in half a month so I can¡¯t get to it very soon. Come to my house half a monthter, and we shall discuss the details, such as how it looks, numbers and sizes, materials, enchantment, and so on. It¡¯s my first time making such a thing so I need a lot of references. More importantly, your thoughts.¡±

    His 100,000 debt to Twilight was the first priority in the next half month. Everything else had to be put aside. As for the other 150,000 for Sunders... Angor decided to dy it as best as he could.

    If he failed to convince Sunders...

    Then it could not be helped.

    With this settled, they talked about more ¡°entertaining¡± matters such as the Moonfrost Passage, the Abyss ne, and the Twilight Well.

    ¡°Did you go to the grand auction to buy something? Or, did you buy anything at all?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Nope,¡± Sailum said and looked at Nausica with a somewhat pleading look.

    Nausica looked away and kept Sailum¡¯s secret about the Azure Bloodline. Sailum did not want to tell Angor because the bloodline carried great risk, and he did not want to add to Angor¡¯s troubles.

    Angor did not pay much attention to his random question, so he failed to notice Sailum¡¯s strange attitude.

    Sailum wanted to avoid talking about it as well, so he quickly changed the subject by asking, ¡°Did you see the music box thingy, Angor? Land on the Sky, is it? Even across the screen, I could sense the perfectbination of illusion and music.¡±

    ...

    Sailum and Nausica bid goodbye when the sun was well over the horizon.

    ¡°Remember to join our meal in the evening!¡± Sailum waved back. ¡°It¡¯s a housewarming party!¡±

    Sailum made sure Angor nodded before walking away.

    It seemed the Tree Spirit was in a good mood today. Most of the giant leaves of Tree of Eternity were retracted, allowing sunlight to reach the earth. The figures of Sailum and Nausica appeared more lively when viewed from behind their backs. It was something magical that brought warmth to Angor¡¯s life after going through the distressing experiences in thest days.

    Angor stretched himself and since he still felt energetic, he went down to the basement.

    He sat in front of hisb table and created a list of items he needed to make quickly.

    Naturally, the foremost job was to pay off his debt. How to pay it remained something to think about. He had to ascertain the value of Prelude to Elimination magic array first. Considering how well rune-enchanted items sold, those enchanted by magic arrays could only aim for higher.

    To draw Prelude to Elimination, he had to have an Energy Stabilizer, or he would never find enough mana to finish the enchantment process.

    The first thing written on his list was ¡°Energy Stabilizer¡±.

    Next was the alchemy weapon enchanted with Prelude to Elimination. He agreed that he would give Prome the weapon, and he nned to use the same product to earn some money as well.

    Then he needed his ¡°space storage¡±. He had collected a good amount of greyspace microbes. Such an item usually sold high on the market, so he might also pay his debt in this way. It required more researches, so this one was the third on the list.

    The fourth, Nausica¡¯s mechanical arm. Due in half a month.

    The rest were: a music box for Lady Mirror, a vehicle, and a robe that prevented detection.

    He thought for a moment and added another ¡°music box¡± below Energy Stabilizer. This one was for Toby. He was too busy with his debt to look for Toby¡¯s ¡°betrayer¡±, so he was going to give Toby a new music box first.

 Chapter 297 - Housewarming Party

    <h4>Chapter 297: Housewarming Party</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The list full of items made Angor felt both tired and satisfied since he had so many meaningful things to do.

    Paying his debt was the foremost task at the moment. He did not have time to read <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain </i>yet, so he scanned the book into his tablet and put it away. He was going to look for information to finish his first item.

    An Energy Stabilizer was the foundation for all of his following alchemy attempts, so he ced it at the top of the list. A crafting draft for an Energy Stabilizer had a rental fee of 1.1 million merit points in Cloud Library, while his alchemy books provided it asmon knowledge.

    Soon, he found the files for it among the folders. He already read them before, now he did it again just to make sure. After carefully memorizing everything, he put away his tablet. While the device kept working on the arrangement of spell models, Angor took out his pen and paper and began his work perfecting the draft for an Energy Stabilizer.

    Soon enough, his paper was upied by all sorts of magic forms and illustrations.

    The materials used to craft an Energy Stabilizer were rtively cheap. The item was costly because of the requirement for energy-rted expertise which involved a good number of different aspects including something called ¡°wave frequency of energy¡±. An alchemist who wished to create an Energy Stabilizer had to spend money to study such knowledge first. Angor, on the other hand, knew something about it after spending his years with Jon. Now he only needed to apply the knowledge to his case.

    He spent some time working out the final form on his paper and acquired a conclusion by using Samuel¡¯s Energy Separation Law¡ªthat the energy should be increased or decreased ording to the ¡°golden ratio¡±.

    This was the basic application of an Energy Stabilizer, which was to condense chaotic energy and lift stable energy.

    ¡°The data is working... and the form is fine...¡±

    He could not help smiling at his initial sess. He expected to spend several days working on the result, and he just did it within half a day. In his mind, he thanked Jon for giving him the much-needed teachings.

    With the core theory in ce, he needed to get to the crafting.

    Again, knowledge was the most valuable asset in the making of this item. If he already had a blueprint, he would not need much wizardry effort to handle the materials. There was only the part that absorbed or retrieved stable energy which might require enchantment or synthesis.

    His basement was just the right ce to get to work too. There was enough space for him to design the appearance of the Energy Stabilizer as he liked.

    By the time the night had descended, he finally created a draft which presented a finished machine. It included a mechanism that would help him lift the machine onto hisb table, or put it back under the table when it was not being used.

    It had an egg-shaped material inlet, an oval energy separation chamber, and a cylindrical, duct-friendly outlet. The overall shape of the machine looked like a blower that was both handy and solid.

    Next was choosing materials for the drafted design.

    He took out several one-use space capsules from his pocket which contained everything he bought from Twilight Well, including the items he won from the auction.

    He ced the capsules with more valuable contents into a secret chamber in his soundproofed room and broke open the remaining ones to arrange the materials in the avable storage space.

    His once vacantboratory was almost filled up by the time he was done cing the materials. As a mild neat freak, he still arranged the items in a fine order ording to their types and storage requirements.

    It was bing a bit harder to walk in hisb.

    Heforted himself that everything would be fine once he got his space storage. Well, maybe not everything. There were materials that required special ¡°habitats¡±, such as magical nts, live organs, or mineral which required constant intake of air... He could not ce these into his space storage.

    Unlike a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, a space storage could not store live beings.

    With the materials ced, he prepared to start making the Energy Stabilizer. While picking the proper materials though, Sailum came to his door.

    ¡°Angor, it¡¯s me!¡±

    ¡°Open the door!¡±

    ¡°You home, Angor?¡±

    Angor walked away from hisb with two giant dark circles around his eyes. He always felt energetic while doing his work in the basement. But somehow, the air outside immediately triggered his tiredness.

    He opened the door, yawning. ¡°Here.¡±

    ¡°Come quickly! Miss Nausica is going to show us her cooking skills personally, and we¡¯re waiting for you!¡± Sailum urged.

    Angor nodded. ¡°One moment. You go on ahead. I¡¯ll get washed.¡±

    He entered his bathroom and somewhatbed his messy hair. Before leaving, he took a peek into his bedroom and made sure Toby was sleeping well. Then he left some food for the bird, deployed an illusion in the bedroom, and walked to the door.

    ...

    The yards rented by Sailum and Nausica were only a dozen meters apart. Their houses both looked simr to Angor¡¯s vi. Only the color of the paint and the objects in their yards were different.

    Nausica made her bigger yard into an outdoor training ground where a series of bloodline training devices were scattered everywhere. Sailum¡¯s yard was full of vegetations as well as a white greenhouse just like Angor¡¯s. However, the greenhouse waspletely unused.

    They were waiting for Angor in Sailum¡¯s yard. Sailum was preparing meat slices while humming a small melody, while Nausica was doing the grilling. When they saw Angoring, Sailum happily called out.

    The fence around the yard prevented Angor from seeing all details from outside. Once inside, he saw tables and chairs already in ce as well as a good number of well-prepared dishes on the table.

    Angor took a seat. Sailum quickly carried a bowl of pork broth to him as he said, ¡°Try this one Angor! I never thought Nausica could make such delicious food!¡±

    Angor took a small sip and sensed the rich vor. It was not top-ss, but it contained a good taste of life. It had been some time since hest had a good meal, so he could not help apuding.

    Nausica heard her cooking beingplimented and chuckled, ¡°Since when did little kids learn to tter people? Oh, I know. You want to make me feel proud, so I be your chef and cook for you every day?¡±

    ¡°No no no, Miss Nausica. Anytime you feel like cooking, I¡¯ll ept your invitation! Besides, I truly loved your cooking. Right, Angor?¡±

    Angor was busy enjoying his soup. Upon being mentioned, he simply nodded without minding what Sailum just said.

    After the pork broth, Angor felt greatly satisfied again by a bowl of creamed mushroom soup. Then an appetizer, snow scallops, was served.

    When it was time for the main dish, Nausica left her grill and joined them with arge tray of roasted meat and vegetables.

    Angor quickly lost himself in the food andpletely forgot about his nobleman manners.

    They talked about random topics, during which Angor also spoke of the meals from his homnd, especially the dishes cooked by Jon. When delicious food was mentioned, they naturally thought about Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, one of the most divine dining spots for wizards.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been to Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, Angor? Did you enjoy something made by Lady Greya?¡± Sailum asked.

    Angor shook his head. He had a Golden VIP card on him back then, but he had never actually eaten anything. He only received a ¡°living food¡± called Section Ephemera from Greya, and he had been keeping it alive in his soundproofed room.

    Speaking of Section Ephemera... Angor wondered if he could sell it to pay his debt. Surely something like that could get him at least a hundred thousand magic crystals.

    ¡°Aw, shame... Lady Greya¡¯s gone, and no one will ever see her dishes again...¡± Sailum looked down. ¡°So if we want to enjoy the best food in the southern wizarding region, we can only go to Lady Felicia¡¯s Butterfly Tavern, right?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not like you¡¯ll get to eat there easily,¡± Angormented.

    ¡°But we should have dreams!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a pretty small dream then.¡± Speaking of dreams, Angor remembered talking about dreams with another young man under the stars not long ago.

    ¡°Small?¡± Sailum seemed serious about his idea. ¡°Anyone who can go to the tavern is at least a wizard. I¡¯m aiming to be a wizard, is it a small dream to you?¡±

    Angor chuckled without responding. Now he thought about it, Sailum was the only one who did not have a clear goal among his friends. It was a good thing for the boy to have a dream.

    Sailum suddenly crept closer to Angor and asked, ¡°So, we two got our new homes. Aren¡¯t you going to celebrate for us?¡±

    ¡°Celebrate? How exactly?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    Sailum rolled his eyes. ¡°Maybe teach me a new cantrip? That ¡®Create Water¡¯ you told me was pretty handy.¡±

    The cantrip mentioned by Sailum was created by Angor through the rearrangement of the model of an existing cantrip. He was not allowed to tell anyone any cantrips he learned from his professor or from the books he rented¡ª if he did rent any¡ª from Cloud Library.

    He believed that with the help of his tablet, he should know more cantrip modelspared to the other apprentices of the same level. Most of the cantrip models were rtively pointless. Amongst them, only a small number of them proved to be quite useful, and of which, Angor had noted down in his notebook.

 Chapter 298 - Meeting Balba

    Chapter 298: Meeting Balba

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Alright, since I¡¯m here. A new cantrip it is!¡± Angor puffed up his chest. ¡°Tell me what kind of cantrip you want to learn.¡±

    ¡°Really, any cantrip?¡± Sailum was quite happy.

    ¡°Any, as long as it¡¯s an elemental one.¡±

    Angor¡¯s tablet could only work out very basic cantrips, most of which used natural elements.

    Nausica only nned to watch the kids having fun. However, when she heard Angor being so confident, she could not help teasing by asking, ¡°How about you show us something that causes mist in the area?¡±

    Among level-0 cantrips, Nausica only heard of a cantrip with such an effect called Dark Mist, which was avable for Dark Wizards. There were other level-0 cantrips with a simr effect which all required a specific attribute, and there was no Element one.

    Nausica asked this one to pull Angor¡¯s leg. She never expected a valid answer.

    Instead of replying her, Angor turned to Sailum again. ¡°So a mist cantrip? How about you? I¡¯ll show you one if you agree with her.¡±

    Nausica watched with a smile. They all knew that Sailum was talented at Dark Arts, so he could easily learn to cast Dark Mist.

    Nausica believed Angor asked Sailum¡¯s opinion because he wanted Sailum to give a different answer, so he did not need to actually try something impossible.

    She did not say it. It was only a harmless joke between friends, and she did not intend to embarrass Angor. Now that Angor was trying to distract their attention, she would dly y along.

    But she overlooked something¡ªeven if she sessfully saw through Angor¡¯s n, the other individual on the scene might not obey her assumption.

    ... Sailum had not learned Dark Mist yet.

    ¡°Let¡¯s do this then,¡± Sailum nodded happily. ¡°I need to learn this one too.¡±

    Nausica almost choked on her water. She saw Angor considering something with a serious expression. In order not to ¡°embarrass¡± Angor any further, she decided to change the subject quickly.

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not really interested¡ª¡±

    Knock, knock!

    Someone came to the door of their yard.

    They looked around and saw a bulky figure standing outside. Angor heard Sailum muttering something before he could get a good look at the visitor.

    ¡°Weird. He said he¡¯s going to meet his professor. Why is he here?¡±

    When Sailum invited the man inside, Angor noticed that it was someone he had not met in a while. Balba.

    Balba had changed his wild dressing style into an ordinary one by wearing amon wizard robe, which did not help him cover his ferocious aura.

    Nausica spoked to Angor, ¡°We were ambushed by a flock of Abyss Rodent half a month ago. I tripped and fell among them by ident. Thanks to Balba, I escaped alive. That was when I lost my right arm too. Balba joined our team since that day.¡±

    Angor believed he saw Nausica revealing a bitter look when she mentioned the ¡°ident¡±.

    ¡°We invited Balba to our meal tonight. However, he didn¡¯t ept the invitation because he heard Lady Flora came back to Brute Cavern,¡± Nausica exined Balba¡¯s reason toe here so that Angor would not mind Balba interrupting their meal.

    However, she worried too much. Angor considered Balba a savior when the man protected him from Hookdick¡¯s assassin.

    Balba joined them at the table. He gave Angor a really brief bright look before he returned to being all unruffled. He said nothing apart from a ¡°Hello¡± as a courtesy.

    Considering Balba¡¯s mild frown, Angor took a guess that Flora did something to annoy Balba again.

    Sailum went to bring a serving for Balba.

    The fourth man at the table sessfully turned their once joyful ambiance into an awkward silence.

    Nausica tried to strike a topic by asking something, ¡°Didn¡¯t you go see Lady Flora? Why are you back so fast?¡±

    Balba¡¯s spoon halted in the air. ¡°Someone told me that the professor already left by the time I arrived.¡±

    Sailum frowned. ¡°Again? Is she going to teach you anything at all? How irresponsible-¡±

    ¡°Hey, Sailum, careful with your words,¡± Nausica interrupted him with a serious look.

    Sailum sighed. ¡°It¡¯s just... not fair for Balba. You know, we don¡¯t see that many people stronger than Balba when we fought in the outer area of the abyss. If we know more spells, we would have kept that bastard!¡±

    Nausica looked down. ¡°It¡¯s alright. I¡¯ll find time to kill him myself.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about? Which bastard?¡± Angor was confused.

    Nausica lit up her pipe and inhaled. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. A cunning fool who tried to trick us. I can handle him.¡±

    Angor realized Nausica did not want to talk about it, so he did not push.

    ¡°You can always ask me if you need help.¡±

    Nausica nodded. ¡°Rx. I know what I¡¯m doing.¡±

    ¡°My professor already taught me a channeling method,¡± Balba suddenly spoke up.

    It took them several seconds to realize that Balba was answering Sailum¡¯sment earlier.

    ¡°But we all have one. She should at least teach you that,¡± Sailum said.

    Angor rubbed his temples. Now he thought about it, Flora never gave Balba anything yet. HE was the one who gave Balba the channeling method book.

    He nced at Balba and recalled Sunders words¡ª¡±Do as you like. His fate is sealed.¡±

    And he felt sad about it.

    It seemed Balba was born with something to silence people. The meal went on inplete quietness again. The only sound they could hear was the food being munched on.

    Angor tried to break the embarrassment this time. ¡°Back to our talk. Since Sailum wants to learn to use mist too, I¡¯ll teach you one.¡±

    Sailum¡¯s eyes twinkled. ¡°I almost forgot!¡±

    Nausica, on the other hand, looked at Angor in shock. She felt relieved when Balba came and interrupted their subject, which meant Angor no longer had to ¡°act tough¡±. But now...

    Or can he actually use such a cantrip? But that will break many rules written in the textbooks!

    Despite her doubt, Angor already began his lesson. ¡°I¡¯m not talking about one cantrip, but aposite one. First, you need to learn Frost.¡±

    Frost was one of the mostmonly-used movement-hindering spells among apprentices. Of course, Nausica and Sailum both knew about it. Even Balba found the textbook of it from Cloud Library.

    ¡°Aposite cantrip? But that¡¯s... something difficult, right? I saw that concept from a book,¡± said Sailum as he tilted his head.

    ¡°Then you¡¯re better than me, cause I never saw it before. What¡¯s aposite cantrip?¡± Nausica said.

    ¡°Two cantrips used together,¡± Angor exined.

    The principle of aposite cantrip was way moreplicated than his exnation. Any sophisticated wizard here would be beyond astonished if they heard Angor talking about a newly-createdposite cantrip.

    Being able to createposite spells was one of the essentials for stepping onto the path of truth!

    ¡°To learn thisposite cantrip, you need to use Frost, plus another cantrip I modified based on Dust Removal, called ¡®Dust¡¯.¡±

    Balba was quite shocked to see what Angor was telling them. A cantrip that was free to be passed to someone else either originated from somewhere outside Brute Cavern or was created by Angor himself. It was probably thetter.

    Balba smiled bitterly and shook his head. While ¡°his peer¡± was creating new cantrips, he had only learned several useless ones. He really wished he could listen to Angor¡¯s lesson, but he could not¡ªit was obvious that he was not invited for this.

    Balba stood up and prepared to leave.

    ¡°You can stay for a moment. It¡¯s not anything big anyway, just something to obstruct someone¡¯s view,¡± said Angor. After all, he initiated the topic just so Balba could study from him too.

    When Flora asked Angor to give Balba some random cantrips, she had never expected Angor to actually do it. Knowing something did not mean the ability to teach. To Flora, Angor was not qualified as a teacher yet.

    Flora never thought about the possibility of self-created cantrips.

    Hearing Angor, Balba hesitated for quite a bit and finally surrendered to his eagerness to learn. ¡°I... owe you one.¡±

    Angor did not mind him at all.

    ¡°I shall name this cantrip ¡®Dusty Haze¡¯...¡±

    ...

    Angor bid farewell to his friends when the moon hanged high in the sky.

    Inside Sailum¡¯s yard, Nausica, Sailum, and Balba were all writing something down, and their eyes reflected the glimmer of enlightenment.

    Nausica picked up her paper and eximed, ¡°So it IS based on Dust Removal! And such a solid model!¡±

    She thought Angor was bluffing when he mentioned it to teach them. But it was real! A moment ago, Angor showed them the oue of ¡°Dusty Haze¡±. The cantrip could not fully block vision, and they could still see the faint shadows of people inside the area of effect. Yet it was enough to be considered a smokescreen-inducing cantrip.

    While joyous, Nausica also felt a bit depressed.

    ¡°I¡¯ve fallen so much behind you...¡±

 Chapter 299 - Blueprint Determined

    Chapter 299: Blueprint Determined

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Following Nausica, Balba also put down his pen. He now felt both surprised and lucky as well as a bit confused.

    At the same time, he grew sad for some reason when he saw Angor¡¯s handwriting.

    Angor shaped each universal character like a solid square just like hisposed temperament, which was unlike how people usually wrote artistic curlicues in this world.

    Balba carefully read Angor¡¯s draft and revealed a depressed expression.

    ¡°So, it was you...¡±

    ...

    Angor began working in full swing in the following days.

    He managed to finish his Energy Stabilizer on the next morning after the get-together. Before seeding, he failed three times due to poorly-chosen materials.

    The final item came out just like how he designed¡ªsmall, handy, and easy to carry around. He installed the device inside hisb table while leaving two ducts outside, one for installing magic crystals and the other for output mana.

    An Energy Stabilizer had more uses than this, but Angor had no use for the extra functionalities for the moment. So, he simply fixed it inside his table.

    He did not rest here. Next, he continued working and finished his new music box.

    He already exhausted his mana on the Energy Stabilizer, so he relied on the Energy Stabilizer to provide mana to enchant his music box as a means of testing.

    The sessfully-made music box did not make him any happier. When Prome mentioned using an Energy Stabilizer to provide stable mana output, he described it as ¡°spending money¡±.

    Now Angor realized what Prome meant first-hand. Each magic crystal contained a decent amount of mana, most of which was unstable, primal mana. After being purified by the Energy Stabilizer, one magic crystal could only give him barely enough mana to cast a level-0 cantrip.

    He used 37 crystals to craft the music box which usually did not cost much energy.

    Feeling a bit of heartbreak, he took the music box to his bedroom and ced it beside Toby¡¯s tiny bed.

    He had not been sleeping for the past two days. When he did and woke up again, he heard City of Sky being yed in the main hall.

    Angor walked out and saw Toby perched on a guest table peacefully. The music box was ying its music nearby without unleashing the illusion.

    The darkness outside suggested that he slept through the daytime. He found some ration and joined Toby.

    ¡°Hoot...¡± Toby moved a wing around slowly. The bird¡¯s usual vigor was nowhere to be seen.

    ¡°No worries. The eyeless man was bought by ¡®ming Lotus¡¯ Lydia. We should grow strong, and I¡¯ll help you get him back... Negotiation, violence, one way or another.¡±

    Angor exined what happened that day while omitting everything about the Nightmare Domain. He only told Toby that Sunders saved them.

    ¡°We¡¯re officially enemies of Twilight now. She did agree to make it even if we pay her a hundred thousand, but I don¡¯t believe that woman will let us go so easily. Guess we won¡¯t be going to Twilight Well again,¡± said Angor. He tried giving Toby a sad look as he added, ¡°I need to collect the money during this half month, so you should sit tight at home. Don¡¯t go cause trouble again, alright?¡±

    Toby moved onto Angor¡¯s shoulder and rubbed against his master¡¯s cheek.

    ¡°Tweet!¡± ¡ª **d you forgave me.

    Next, Angor nced at the new music box. ¡°And try not to go meet your little partner again all by yourself. Once I¡¯m done paying my debt, we¡¯ll go together and confront him.¡±

    Toby looked pretty sad about this, but he still nodded and agreed. The bird already learned that he was no longer the treasured pet of Greya. Here, neither he nor Angor had what it took to mess around freely.

    As Angor said, they had to grow stronger, both body and mind.

    Angor had been taking care of Toby, and he just gave the bird a new music box. Toby could understand that despite their weakness, his young master was doing his best to provide him withfort.

    Besides, Angor never med him for real.

    Toby kissed Angor¡¯s cheek again.

    ¡°Tweet.¡± ¡ªYou¡¯re the best.

    Angor did not fully realize Toby¡¯s change in mind, but he was d to see the bird so obedient.

    ¡°It was selfish of me to keep Lady Greya¡¯s info from you. I¡¯ll not do that again, but promise that you won¡¯t lose control again too.¡±

    Toby became a little stiff when he heard the name of Greya. Then, he nodded.

    Angor took Toby in his hand with a smile. ¡°Mister Sunders told me something, that Lady Greya might still be alive...¡±

    He exined how Felicia went to Brilliance ne and invited a Grand Prophet.

    Precisely speaking, Sunders did not tell him about this matter. The gentleman spoke to Flora about it when they thought Angor cked out, which allowed Angor to seize the valuable information.

    And just as he expected, Toby visibly perked up at the news. Soon, the bird returned to being as spirited as always.

    With Tobyforted, Angor went back to his alchemy career.

    The Energy Stabilizer granted him hope of finishing ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡±. He needed this device both to fulfill his promise and to make money, so a weapon enchanted with this particr magic array was second on his work list.

    Before doing so, he went to Dave first.

    Following Dave, Angor came to a cave outside the apprentice town. It was Prome¡¯s personal workshop.

    He quickly saw Prome in the brightly-lit cave. The middle-aged alchemist was writing something on his desk while looking through his gold-rimmed sses.

    Angor noticed a pile of discarded alchemy weapons at the corner of a wall. He raised an eyebrow when he saw a ¡°hand crossbow¡± among them. A simple nce told him that the hand crossbow shared almost the same appearance as his Trigger Crossbow.

    He returned his attention to Prome without minding it much. Prome studied synthesis which was quite different from enchantment. His Trigger Crossbow was a product of machine alchemy, which contained a carefully-designed mechanism inside. Meanwhile, Prome¡¯s ¡°hand crossbow¡± was a... crossbow. There were no special elements on it. Prome¡¯s creation was weaker than his Trigger Crossbow in many aspects.

    Prome removed his sses and smiled at Angor. ¡°What brought you to my ce?¡±

    ¡°I have something to discuss with you, Master Prome. It¡¯s about the design of the long-range weapon.¡±

    Prome¡¯s eyes glimmered. ¡°Are you saying that you can draw Prelude to Elimination now?¡±

    Prome carried a chair to Angor using Hand of Spell and signaled Angor to sit down.

    Angorplied and continued, ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet. I borrowed an Energy Stabilizer from my professor and am going to try it out. There should be no problem if things go as nned.¡±

    Prome could not hide his great joy at the news. Angor had not given him a sure answer yet, but he sensed the boy¡¯s confidence.

    A sessful alchemy weapon enchanted with ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡± meant earning him a great fortune!

    Compared to rune enchantment which only granted the items passive effects such as Sharpen, Solidness, me, and Frost, a magic array allowed the existence of superior effects as powerful as permanent, built-in spells. Also, as long as there was enough mana support, the effect could be triggered for unlimited times.

    Any alchemy item with a magic array on it was always at least a mid-tiered item or beyond!

    If Angor really created the weapon, the boy could be well considered an intermediate apprentice alchemist, and one level higher, if Angor could produce such weapons continuously.

    But Angor was only 15 years old! Prome was d that Angor studied enchantment instead of synthesis, or the man would feel that his position was being threatened.

    ¡°Ahem... Shall we begin?¡± Prome suppressed his jealousy and spoke to Angor.

    Determining the exterior design of the weapon had nothing to do with enchantment or synthesis. They simply needed to consider the proper materials and ergonomic factors.

    Usually, it would take Prome a long time to create a design. Years, even. This time, however, he was shocked by Angor¡¯s terrifying creativity once again.

    Since Angor took over the drafting paper, he never stopped his movement. A number of different yet viable styles soon showed up under the tip of his pen, and Prome felt both surprised and enlightened when looking at them.

    If Prome would consider their meeting today as apetition of minds...

    He lost. Hands-down.

    Perfect workmanship, unrivaled wisdom, ingenuity... These words would not usually be used to describe someone¡¯s work, but they now seemed to be good choices toment on Angor¡¯s designs.

    To Angor, some of the designs were directly copied from the weapons from Earth while the others were modified versions he made bybining the ideas from both civilizations.

    Of course, Angor kept most of his secret and only presented Prome the overall shapes of the weapons. No alchemist would expose their creations to outsiders openly.

    And Prome felt extremely irritated at this. He loved every single one of the designs. Each one gave him room for further imagination. Yet every detail thatpleted each design was hidden from him, and considering the unspoken rules among alchemists, he could not ask about them. The man¡¯s only choice was to contain his discontent in his mind while gawking at Angor¡¯s scary innovation.

    ¡°Your opinions, Master Prome?¡± Angor put down his pen in the end.

    Prome gave the boy a meaningful look.

    ¡°None. And... please don¡¯t address me as ¡®Master¡¯. I cannot bear that name in front of you.¡±

 Chapter 300 - Rolling Black Cloud

    Chapter 300: Rolling ck Cloud

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°I see it now. My title is just a burden that slows me down,¡± Prome said. ¡°We shall regard each other equally from today and on. Just call me Prome.¡±

    ¡°Um, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s okay. I do respect you, Master.¡±

    ¡°Your talent is already beyond me. Looking at your current level of knowledge, it won¡¯t take long for you to surpass me once you begin to study synthesis. And it will mean dishonor to me if you call me a master.¡±

    Angor frowned at Prome¡¯s serious words.

    ¡°As an elementary apprentice alchemist, I should at least pay respect to my seniors.¡±

    ¡°Once you¡¯vepleted ¡®Prelude to Elimination¡¯, you¡¯ll be an intermediate apprentice. By that time, you¡¯ll possess both better skills and potential than me. It¡¯s a joke if you consider me a master by then.¡± Prome concluded the matter and resumed talking about the blueprint, ¡°I¡¯ve read all your designs, and I think the most convenient one is the gun.¡±

    Prome checked the golden revolver Angor showed him and could not help feeling inspired again. The particr creation was something that he would nevere up with in his life.

    ¡°Can you engrave Prelude to Elimination on a gun?¡± Prome asked.

    Angor considered it. It was pretty hard a task. Prelude to Elimination involved veryplicated runes, which meant he had to be extremely cautious and patient to put it on such a small space avable on a gun.

    ¡°It¡¯s difficult. I need to try it first,¡± Angor answered.

    Prome nodded. ¡°There¡¯s no need to be hasty. Take your time. We can use a different approach if it doesn¡¯t work out.¡±

    With the design of the item decided, Angor continued chatting with Prome about random things, during which he learned themon price for an alchemy weapon enchanted with Prelude to Elimination.

    An alchemy item with aplete magic array on it usually sold above 6,000 magic crystals. The price might vary due to the quality of the materials, how perfect the product came out, and how well the function of the magic array was epted. Anyhow, 6,000 was the lowest possible price. The price might go double or triple for a private, customized order.

    Angor learned everything he needed to learn and prepared to say goodbye.

    Before he left, Prome handed him a finely-crafted wooden box.

    ¡°What¡¯s this, Mister Prome?¡±

    ¡°Call me ¡®Prome¡¯.¡±

    Angor considered and nodded. ¡°You¡¯re elder and more experienced than me. I should at least call you Mister Prome.¡±

    ¡°Wizards do not mind ages. It¡¯s your strength and potential,¡± said Prome. However, he still epted Angor¡¯s decision. ¡°The box contains something... trivial, which may help you with your engraving work.¡±

    ...

    Angor returned home and opened the box. It was a rimless monocle inside.

    Precisely speaking, it was a rimless convex lens with a piece of silver hanging silk with golden patterns on it as decoration.

    He did not sense mana on the item, which meant it was an ordinary handicraft. He put it on and noticed that the lens did what it should basically do¡ªmagnifying.

    Still, it was pretty useful. Especially when he was going to engraveplex runes on the confined space on a gun.

    There was a hinge connecting the lens and its frame, which allowed the lens to flip and rotate. Angor could simply move the lens aside during his work instead of taking off the monocle.

    He hanged the item on his left ear and flipped the lens up, so it was ced above his forehead.

    Next, he proceeded to perfect the design of the gun. The active effect of Prelude to Elimination could be triggered again and again as long as there was sufficient energy, so he did not need any external storage for bullets. The trigger could be used to unleash the effect. With each pull, a fixed amount of mana enough to activate Prelude to Elimination for once would be sent into the magic array, preventing energy waste.

    However, he needed to think about something to determine this ¡°fixed amount¡±.

    A whileter, Angor listed a number of problems which required his attention. As for the final shape of the gun... he never intended to create one on his own. He would simply pick something from his hologram tablet.

    It took him half a day to fill his drafting paper with theories, materials choices, crafting steps, and all possible oues. Now he only needed to get to it.

    He opened his tablet and found a folder of temtes for ¡°guns¡±. Something from an anime who described a young demon hunter caught his attention.

    The young man wielded a silver revolver engraved with rose, skeleton and a cross.

    Compared to his other attempts, he did his crafting with extra caution since every second wasted was money burnt.

    The process went smoother than he expected. With the help of his Energy Stabilizer, the Prelude to Elimination which consisted of sixplex runes was sessfully made.

    Starting from his first move, it took him a total of 26 hours before hended the final touch, and 570 magic crystals burned in the stabilizer. Before this, he estimated a cost of around 700 magic crystals. The reason for using fewer was probably because of his strengthened mana pool these days. He did not feel sad about spending the magic crystals since Prome was the one who provided them.

    Once he finished thest step of Condensing the weapon, a silver beam of light shined over the revolver and kept the basement bright for ten seconds before it finally died down.

    Before he could finally take a rest and admire his new creation, he heard an eerie howlinging around his ears. Howling of perished souls.

    It tingled his mind greatly, but just for a brief moment. Next, he felt his shoulder bone itched again before the terrible sense stopped affecting him.

    He frowned and waited for the irritating noise to stop.

    To Angor, what he just did was only another alchemy attempt. What he did not know was that his new weapon created a giant ruckus outside.

    A single lump of dark cloud floating lower than normal clouds moved around his yard. It was noontime, yet the entire Apprentice Town Eight was shrouded under darkness because of the dark cloud.

    The wind howled, bringing dust and dirt with it.

    Most apprentices were doing their own jobs inside theirbs. First, it was one apprentice who discovered the abnormality. Using his transmitter and more transmitters toe, all apprentices noticed the sight within five minutes. There were even apprentices from the other apprentice towns heading here through the underground market.

    They stepped out of their doors and stared at the dark cloud in a daze.

    They were under attack? But why Apprentice Town Eight only?

    ...

    Prome was ounting for the materials he bought from Twilight Well with the help of Dave. A transmission came and startled him, and he quickly ran out of his cave.

    The looming dark cloud in the sky weed him.

    He once did some research on thunderclouds, and this one did not seem like a big cloud to him.

    But the size was not the issue. This was an omen, which suggested that a mid-tiered alchemy item or something better was born!

    There was once Prome managed to create a mid-tiered alchemy item, which also granted him the title of an intermediate apprentice alchemist. However, what he caused was only a small omen which covered some hundreds of meters. Now, he was looking at something that covered the entire apprentice town!

    He inspected theyout of the cloud and tried to work out the center of it using his practiced mental math ability.

    Then, he looked forward, fixing his gaze at one particr building hidden behind trees and stone walls.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s you!¡±

    Dave also came out of the cave and gazed at the dark sky. ¡°What do you mean, Master?¡±

    Before Prome could reply, the cloud changed.

    Quickly enough, as if water was being added into a bottle of ink, the color of the cloud grew paler.

    ¡°Is it ending?¡± Dave saw several apprentices in the sky who wanted to check the cloud. However, the cloud already dissipated before they could reach it.

    Prome kept his intense gaze at the sky and spoke in a low voice, ¡°Keep watching. It¡¯s not as you thought.¡±

    Dave looked as best as he could and soon noticed something. ¡°That¡¯s... not cloud! There are shadows, human shadows, that are forming something like a cloud!¡±

    The apprentices in the sky also noticed the same thing when they were close enough. There was no cloud, but a number of ghostly shadows. There were people, beasts, wailing around. When they gathered together, the whole area looked like a dark cloud in rainy weather.

    The ¡°cloud¡± was getting paler because the shadows were disappearing fast.

    ...

    Inside Ness¡¯ Valley of Souls.

    Ness was ¡°having fun¡± with a maid under broad daylight, outside. There were bare-bodied souls around him, cheering and hopping, causing their sticks and buns to dance around unsightly.

    Saka was taking a nap nearby, bored. The irritating huffing and moaning of the souls did nothing to affect his mind.

    He was quite surprised when all the noises suddenly halted. He opened his eyes and noticed that every soul in the valley had quieted down while looking at something with fear on their expressions.

    Saka followed their gazes and did not see anything. He only knew that the souls were looking toward the Tree Spirit Garden.

    He walked to Ness, who had dressed up properly.

    Before he could ask about the situation though, a timid voice beat him to it.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, professor?¡±

    Saka sensed someone bringing an air current carrying a sweet body fragrance. He saw someoneing his way¡ªa bulky, hot, big-breasted... dude.

    ¡°Hookdick... you disgust me. Every single time.¡±

    With that, Saka immediately left the scene.

    Hookdick watched Saka go with a grim expression and clenched his fists.

    Then ¡°he¡± quickly put up a different attitude and turned to Ness. ¡°Why are these souls not moving, professor?¡±

    Ness looked at Hookdick¡¯s smiley face. The ¡°man¡± was smiling, but Ness could still sense hatred from those eyes; hatred for turning him into a she-male monster.

    Still, Ness was quite satisfied with Hookdick¡¯s current condition.

    ... At least Hookdick learned how to hide his true emotion from people.

    Despite his bizarre look, Hookdick now had a better chance of bing a wizard. Being able to contain one¡¯s rage and think carefully meant mental growth.

    Ness smiled back. ¡°An alchemist just created a mid-tiered item and brought up an omen.¡±

    ¡°But what¡¯s that to do with these souls?¡±

    ¡°Because... the item might possess something to harm souls specifically,¡± Ness nced at the direction and read what was hidden in the cloud of souls. ¡°Or not. It¡¯s something that harms undead only. It won¡¯t have much effect on ordinary souls, but still...¡± Ness looked around the trembling souls in the valley. ¡°We never know if these things will fall and be undead beings one day. They¡¯re showing their fear just to pay respect to a man-made creation which MIGHT bring them doom.¡±

 Chapter 301 - Tree Spiritâ€™s Awful Taste

    Chapter 301: Tree Spirit¡¯s Awful Taste

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The Tree of Eternity was the first one to actually get affected by the dark cloud as the cloud had already engulfed some of its lower branches.

    On a giant leaf outside Tree Spirit Pce, the Tree Spirit ended its sunbath and due to the sudden abnormality, he removed his sunsses. With only a piece of leaf covering his private part, he looked down at the dark cloud underneath.

    Spells shined in his eyes, and he immediately registered the yard at the center of the area as well as the person inside the yard.

    ¡°Ha. It¡¯s you, little one.¡± He revealed a surprised expression, which was rare for someone like him. ¡°Let me see... He hadn¡¯t been in Brute Cavern for even a year yet, and he¡¯s already an intermediate apprentice alchemist now? My my. What a young genius.

    ¡°Of course, we should share such fun with others...¡±

    He took out his transmitter and contacted Sunders, only to find the gentleman was not inside Brute Cavern at the moment.

    Tree Spirit thought for a moment and took out a maple leaf which shined a green aura. The leaf spun in the air for a moment before Tree Spirit nodded. ¡°You¡¯ve gone to Twilight Well?¡±

    ...

    Sunders was sitting inside a hall in the depth of Twilight Auction House.

    Red curtains covered all directions of the hall. Sunders sat on the main seat on a long conference table. Both sides of the table were upied by wizards¡ªabout twenty wizards from the three ns behind Twilight Well.

    ¡°The auction has been postponed for two days. Many sellers can¡¯t wait anymore and took back their items. It caused us both financial loss and discredit. I call for a pledge of responsibility!¡± Twilight spoke loud and clear while looking at all the wizards. All except Sunders.

    ¡°I agree!¡± A witch from Enthralling Aroma, Kagura, seconded Twilight because her friend, Lion Princess, died in the incident.

    The other wizards did not say anything. They looked at Sunders and waited for the gentleman¡¯s opinion.

    The n master of Amber Dragonwing, Hannibal Ba, spoke up next. The man had a strange-looking totem blinking between his eyebrows. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we do something to get rid of the problem now... before getting to something else? You kept asking for responsibility and all that. Is that more important than solving the situation?¡±

    Twilight stood up and looked at Hannibal in the eyes. ¡°The aura of Yonk has vanished. That¡¯s the second wizard we lost this time. You¡¯re not worried because you didn¡¯t lose anyone of your own.¡±

    Hannibal spoke again in his calm tone, ¡°Vanishing doesn¡¯t mean death. Maybe he escaped into a ne passageway.¡±

    ¡°Enough!¡± Devildare exerted his aura over the hall. ¡°It¡¯s not the time to yell at each other. Mister Hannibal is right, we need a solution right now.¡±

    Devildare looked at Sunders next. They invited the gentleman here so as to get rid of whatever was inside the auction hall.

    Sunders spoke in hisposed tone, ¡°I checked. There¡¯s a special energy field inside the hall, and it¡¯s not from the wizarding world. The energy itself is only something from level-2 wizards, but whoever released it is at least a legendary.¡±

    The other wizards exchanged fearful looks with each other upon hearing the word ¡°legendary¡±.

    ¡°If a legendary creature did descend here, you should be thankful, for it didn¡¯t start a bloodbath on its own. As for those who died... they dug their own graves,¡± said Sunders as he looked at Twilight in a mocking way. ¡°And responsibility? Are you saying that my student, a level-1 apprentice, who was a mortal just half a year ago, summoned a legendary creature inside Twilight Auction House and ordered the creature to kill Lion Princess and Yonk? Really now?¡±

    Sunders looked around and whoever met his gaze looked away. Even Devildare closed his eyes.

    ¡°Although I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s a legendary yet... ording to the transmission sent by Yonk before he disappeared, he saw a fox, a frog, and a card with a clown picture. I know them, and they are no legendary monsters. They deployed the energy field using the strength they borrowed from something. Any details will have to wait until I get in there and check-¡±

    Before Sunders could finish, something shined from under his clothes, and a green maple leaf suddenly appeared from his pocket.

    Under everyone¡¯s gaze, the image of a bare-bodied handsome man showed up on the leaf.

    ¡°Hey, Sunders!¡±

    Sunders was not the first one to respond. It was Devildare, who stood up first and bowed politely to the image. ¡°Mister Tree Spirit.¡±

    The image nced back. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you, lion cub? It¡¯s been some time. I see your hairstyle is better than mine now.¡±

    Devildare remained silent. His hair was a messy lump of fluff right now.

    ¡°Oh my, what¡¯s going on with all of you? Waiting for your meals? Wait, don¡¯t answer, I don¡¯t care. I need Sunders.¡±

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit,¡± Sunders replied, ¡°something important must have happened, I assume? Since you used such long-range transmission?¡±

    ¡°Important? Nah-uh. I haven¡¯t seen important stuff over ten millenniums. Now I think about it, I do hope to see one soon.¡±

    ¡°So what¡¯s the matter, Mister Tree Spirit?¡±

    ¡°Hehehe. I saw something fun, so I thought I should share it with you.¡±

    Sharing ¡°something fun¡± at the cost of a great amount of mana by using a long-range transmission? Across two protective barriers? The remaining wizards allined in their minds. However, they had to admit that Tree Spirit could totally do this since this being was the one providing all the energy that supported the entire mirror world.

    ¡°Look for yourself.¡± The image floated higher and revealed a ck cloud under him.

    ¡°This is... an alchemy omen?¡± Devildare spoke. He was very experienced in handling alchemy items, and he immediately recognized the cloud.

    Sunders did not speak. An alchemy omen was only rtively rare in Brute Cavern¡ªit happened several times over each year. And something like this waspletelymon in Floating Mech City.

    Apart from Devildare¡¯sment as a courtesy, none of the other wizards provided their opinion.

    Although they were still curious about who created the mid-tiered alchemy item. Such an object would sell for at least thousands of magic crystals. They might contact the creator of it so that they could have one more lot for the Grand Auction at the end of this year.

    ¡°So, is it interesting? Are you interested?¡± The image of Tree Spirit moved closer to Sunders, smirking.

    Sunders was calm as ever. ¡°If you want to watch an alchemy omen, Mister Tree Spirit, Leona ising back to Brute Cavern soon. You can ask her to create one for you right inside your pce.¡±

    The Tree Spirit smiled big. ¡°You still didn¡¯t figure out what I meant? Look more closely. At the center of the ck cloud.¡±

    He simply disyed Angor¡¯s yard on his image, which finally brought a smile to Sunders¡¯ face.

    ¡°It¡¯s Angor who¡¯s performing alchemy?¡±

    ¡°I know, right? Look at him. A mortal half a year ago, an intermediate apprentice alchemist today. Hey, Sunders, a tiny suggestion for ya... Since Angor is so talented at alchemy, you should put him under my care and I¡¯ll teach him. Besides, my little friends adored him quite a lot...¡±

    ¡°Teach him? Alchemy?¡± Sunders already knew what Tree Spirit wanted. Angor possessed enough potential to be a master alchemist in the future, and Tree Spirit simply wanted to earn himself the title of ¡°The Teacher of a Master Alchemist¡±, which sounded awesome.

    ¡°What? There¡¯s a lot I can teach him. Enjoying the sun, tending and watering flowers, ying games...¡±

    Sunders snickered and cut the connection to stop Tree Spirit from telling them any more of his dailyziness.

    But the gentleman was still smiling.

    Devildare congratted him just to be polite, ¡°Wonderful. He became an intermediate at such a young age, such... talent.¡±

    He failed to hold back adding something to hisment, ¡°Abnormal talent¡±.

    A mortal turned into an intermediate apprentice alchemist in half a year? It was abnormal. None of the wizards here was at that level yet. Devildare himself once tried and realized that neither his Tooling or Apothecary potential was eptable. He spent several decades bing someone who found the path of truth, and his alchemy skills were still elementary.

    ¡°The boy is only lucky,¡± Sunders smiled.

    His smile hid much more emotions behind¡ª Angor¡¯s great alchemy talent was not the only thing. The boy was also talented in illusions. He already fused his Nightmare Domain! Now, how about that!

    Among everyone, Twilight was the most surprised individual when she heard the information.

    The eternal being, Tree Spirit, actually asked to take over Angor from Sunders... Could she kill the boy from now on? The woman had regretted many times, for not killing Angor when she had the chance during the auction.

    The intense negative emotion was seeping away from Twilight, and Sunders immediately noticed it.

    ¡°Now I think about it,¡± Sunders scoffed. ¡°Angor became an intermediate so quickly all thanks to Lady Twilight.¡±

    Twilight looked up suddenly.

    ¡°Just think about his debt to you, the one hundred thousand magic crystals. That damned boy would never work so hard considering how he kept cking off on me. Thank you, really.¡±

    Of course Angor never ¡°cked off¡±. Sunders said that both to emphasize his superior teaching skills and Angor¡¯s diligence while mocking Twilight at the same time. Three birds with one stone.

    Once again, Twilight scowled hard which almost gave her permanent wrinkles. Yet she still could not oppose Sunders.

    ¡°I... see. It¡¯s my pleasure.¡±

 Chapter 302 - Viceâ€™s Visit

    Chapter 302: Vice¡¯s Visit

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor frowned again when the howling of souls persisted around his ears for two minutes. It did not seem to affect him in any way, but no one would be happy to hear such an eerie noise in his house for such a long time.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Did I fail?¡±

    Just as he thought about the possibilities, the dark cloud in the sky quickly died off and became a ck tornado. The shadows danced and swirled within. In the end, the ¡°tornado¡± dropped down and disappeared into a small yard at a remote location of the apprentice town.

    All apprentices who observed the situation saw it happening. The stand-out yard quickly drew their attention.

    ¡°Was it not an alchemy omen? It didn¡¯te from the cave in the woods? So Master Prome isn¡¯t behind this?¡± Those who knew alchemy knowledge asked a question.

    An alchemy omen was nothing too special. It was still rare, but the Brute Cavern usually witnessed such a thing twice or three times a year. Most apprentices here still remembered something simr happening on the day when Prome created a mid-tiered item.

    At the center of themotion, Angor was the only one in the area oblivious of what just happened outside. He read about alchemy omens from a book before, yet he never saw one with his own eyes. He did not realize that he just caused one.

    ¡°A new alchemist came?¡± Someone realized the idea and quickly made their own ns.

    ...

    Inside his vi, Angor smiled again in his basement.

    The tornado of shadowsnded in his yard.

    Angor watched as the revolver in his hand drew the shadows in before the weapon then took on a gentle silver glimmer.

    The glimmer quieted down soon. An extremelyplicated pattern shined on the surface of the gun and disyed its hidden power.

    ¡°I¡¯ve done it!¡± Angor could sense the Prelude to Elimination he engraved.

    The gun grip was decorated with a cross and a skeleton, while the barrel was engraved with rose branches. Mimicking the main character he saw in the anime, Angor twirled the revolver around his finger, injected his mana into it, and pulled the trigger.

    In an instant, the magic array on the gun brightened up, and a pale silver stream left the barrel.

    Leaving the tip of the gun, the stream turned wider into a high-frequency sound wave and covered the area of 180 degrees in front of Angor. The attack crashed and disappeared into theb wall, which was ten meters from him.

    Next, Angor flipped the gun¡¯s hammer and shot again. Instead of spreading, the attack focused and traveled toward one point this time.

    Angor was d to find out that the Prelude to Elimination could both release widespread attack and concentrated one, which meant its user could either eliminaterge groups of undead creatures or aim at specific weak points. The power of the attacks changed ording to how much mana was used.

    ¡°The basement is too small to work out any details. I need to find out howrge it can cover, or how far a focused attack can go. Also, I need an actual undead to test its final result...¡±

    He had too little time to do all the tests on his own, so he nned to leave the questions to Prome.

    He holstered the revolver inside his pocket and left hisb to head to Prome¡¯s cave.

    However, the scene outside his door surprised him a little.

    A good number of people had gathered around his yard.

    They were doing different things¡ªleaning on walls, against trees, or sitting beside the riverbank. But no matter what they were doing, Angor believed that all the people were looking at him, either openly or in secret.

    Someone suddenly eximed loudly from somewhere.

    From a road rarely taken by people, a gray-robed young man walked toward Angor¡¯s vi. Compared to the other people who pretended to be ¡°hanging around¡±, this man was staring at Angor with an intense gaze.

    ¡°Good day, Mister Padt. Can I have a talk with you inside?¡± The young man lifted his hood and revealed a handsome yet invasive-looking face.

    ¡°Good day,¡± replied Angor. He had no idea what was going on so he kept his in expression. ¡°Who are you, and what do you need?¡±

    ¡°Vice Edward presents his most sincere congrattions to you, sir.¡± The young man put a hand on his chest and bowed to Angor.

    ¡°Congrattions?¡±

    However, Angor was more concerned about the man¡¯s name¡ªVice, which meant something to him. Something bad.

    One of the most powerful apprentices in Brute Cavern who shared the title of ¡°the most promising genius¡± with Nanagi, a man who had been growing strong at a terrifying speed before he even reached the age of 30. It was only a matter of time before he turned a wizard now.

    However, Angor was not concerned because of Vice¡¯s title and potential.

    This man was Red Butterfly¡¯s rumored lover.

    After Angor killed Red Butterfly, Dave warned him that Vice mighte looking for trouble. Then Dave said something about how Red Butterfly only used Vice¡¯s name for her own gain, and that in reality, Vice and the woman did not have much connection.

    Dave mentioned Vice¡¯s name many times, either with respect or fear.

    When practicing Melodious Illusion, Angor tried using Vice¡¯s image to trick Dave. Since he had never seen Vice before, he could only create the figure of a fat guy which was quickly discerned by Dave.

    ¡°Mister Edward. I know that name.¡± Angor tried to figure out the reason for the visit. ording to Dave, this man was unlikely here to get revenge for Red Butterfly. So... maybe Twilight sent someone here to kill him?

    Probably not. He was now inside Brute Cavern. Anyone who wanted to get his life had to think about Sunders first.

    ¡°You heard of me before, Mister Padt? What an honor it is,¡± said Vice. He kept his gaze on Angor despite his polite words. ¡°So, may I have some of your time, sir? If... the asion is not favorable, I cane again next time.¡±

    Angor sized up the situation. Toby had mostly recovered. He had weapons and illusions, and there were many people watching, so he believed Vice would not do anything stupid.

    He had ns to counter ¡°stupid moves¡± too, in case something did happen.

    ¡°Come in,¡± replied Angor with a nod.

    He opened his door and let Vice in. Before he could shut the door though, two other people squeezed inside.

    Vice frowned and tried to stop the intruders but he saw Angor spoke to them with a smile.

    ¡°Ah, you two came as well?¡±

    It was Nausica and Sailum. Once they went inside, they pulled Angor aside to talk to him in private.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll help!¡± Sailum whispered.

    The boy dragged Nausica¡ª who was looking at the sky with a helpless look¡ª and puffed up his chest.

    As a level-3 apprentice, Vice could hear Sailum¡¯s words clearly. Considering that these people were Angor¡¯s acquaintances, he did not say anything about it.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mister Edward. You won¡¯t mind my friends tagging along, right?¡± Angor gave the man an apologetic look.

    Vice smiled back. ¡°I came to visit you with fairness and legitimacy, Mister Padt. People are free to watch.¡±

    ¡°Oh, if that¡¯s the case-¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, can we join you as well?¡± Someone interrupted Angor again.

    They looked around and saw someone in a shiny purple robe walking down the same path as he waved to Angor happily. He was followed by a young man with a pockmarked face and a pair ofrge goggles.

    ¡°Hello, Master Prome. Of course, for you must know why I¡¯m here,¡± Vice said.

    ...

    A simple conversation between two men suddenly became a gathering of many.

    It was the first time for Angor to have so many visitors in his rented house. He realized he did not have enough sses to provide them water, so he simply gave them none¡ªthey would talk as it was.

    Angor and Prome took a sofa, Vice sat across from them, while the remaining people stood somewhere else.

    ¡°I wonder where did Mister Edward hear about my name?¡± Angor asked first.

    Vice chuckled, ¡°If I assumed right, there should be a great number of folks who just learned your name after the incident. I¡¯m one of them.¡±

    Incident? What incident? Angor disyed his confusion on his face.

    Dave moved closer and whispered to him to exin how the dark cloud covered the town.

    Angor was very shocked to know that those ¡°soul howling¡± created something outside his house as well.

    He frowned. If Dave was correct, the omen could be observed by everyone inside apprentice town. Was that why so many people were around his yard?

    Vice ced a piece of paper on the table. ¡°This is information that I received from Bartterfly Pub. Pray take a look, Mister Padt.¡±

    Investigations like this were usually done behind people¡¯s backs. Now that Vice told him openly, Angor was actually d about it given that the man did not hide his ¡°little tricks¡±.

    Angor picked up the paper to read it.

    The information contained everything he usually showed to others, such as his professor, his address, an evaluation of his strength. The paper pointed out that he was an alchemist who epted quests from the questing hall before andpleted everything with perfection.

    At the end the message, the Bartterfly Pub left an addendum:

    [ording to spections, the title used by Angor Padt in Sky Tower was ¡°Baron Milk¡±.]

    [A friendly giveaway: It seems Baron Milk is the culprit behind Red Butterfly and Canine Master¡¯s deaths.]

    His title was exposed? Angor put down the paper and shook his head. He somewhat expected this to happen, since thousands of people witnessed the incident caused by him and Toby inside the auction hall.

    Hister matches in the tower were all managed by Toby too. Anyone who checked his battle record could easily surmise that he was ¡°Baron Milk¡±.

    The embarrassing name itself was not much of an issue. However...

    Angor pinched his nose bridge and felt a big headache. To people, the name of ¡°Baron Milk¡± was beyond evil. It was... noxious.

    Considering Parasite Queen¡¯s huge fan base... Angor got the feeling that he was not going to be able to walk around while staying low-profile ever again.

 Chapter 303 - Viceâ€™s Request

    Chapter 303: Vice¡¯s Request

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°You¡¯re concerned about your title being recognized by the public, Mister Padt?¡± Vice sessfully read Angor¡¯s expression. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be. Let¡¯s put your rtionship with your mighty professor aside, your alchemy skill alone is enough to discouragemon thieves and rogues frommencing folly. Look at Master Prome! As I can recall, after your match against Parasite Queen, sir, Master Prome saved you from the arena while killing a good many assants, and no one confronted Master Prome yet.

    ¡°Pray not to underestimate yourself. Considering the fame of... your professor, I can tell you that we can count how many people who are bold enough to assault you inside the mirror world with one hand.¡±

    Instead of Vice¡¯s assurance, Angor was more concerned about Vice¡¯s ability to read his mind¡ªobviously, this man was an expert at this. Vice kept making straightforward moves including revealing his investigation behind Angor¡¯s back, and the man was confident in it. One wrong move could easily put him on Angor¡¯s bad side.

    And Angor would admit the Vice was doing a perfect job until now. The man had sugarcoated his otherwise disgusting intentions using sincereness, and Angor only found it to be reasonable.

    They were still strangers, which meant Angor would not really mind Vice¡¯s personal intention. With this out of the way, there was only sincereness left.

    Once the initial enthusiasm between strangers was over, it depended on such sincerity whether their rtionship could keep going. Vice masterfully established this undeniable bond, so even if something bad would happen in the future, Angor would not be able to find fault with the man.

    Angor settled his expression and hid his emotions. ¡°That aside, why have you visited me, Mister Edward?¡±

    Vice was surprised by the question a little. It seemed Angor saw through his n to establish a fine impression pretty quickly.

    Vice decided to end his attempt here without saying anything else. To someone with a keen eye, his previous speech was still too eager and obvious.

    ¡°It¡¯s quite simple, and I believe Master Prome knew why I came here today.¡±

    Angor looked at the middle-aged alchemist.

    Prome registered the gesture and whispered to Angor, ¡°Vice once came to me as well, asking for a weapon. He needs an anti-undead weapon too. But his requirement is much stricterpared to my old friend.¡±

    Angor looked at Vice again. ¡°You... require a long-range anti-undead weapon too?¡±

    Vice nodded. ¡°I saw the souls of dead beings among the dark cloud. May I assume that you created an item with such an effect, sir?¡±

    Angor nodded while wondering in his mind.

    People can notice the property of my item from the omen? So I must hide inside a cave or something if I¡¯m to make something I want to keep a secret?

    ¡°May I have the honor to take a look?¡± Vice asked.

    Angor looked at Prome again. The revolver was made specifically for Prome, so he had to ask Prome¡¯s consent for it. Also, Prome would have his name discredited if people learned that an alchemist asked another alchemist to make something. To spare Prome the trouble, Angor meant to inquire Prome¡¯s opinion using eye expression.

    Prome was really d Angor did so. The man rolled his eyes and recalled Dave mentioning something about Angor¡¯s urgent need for money, and he quickly thought about something to repay the boy¡¯s favor.

    ¡°The alchemy weapon Vice hoped for,¡± Prome slowly exined, ¡°must be able to achieve more than harming an undead creature. It must have something to eliminate weaker targets in arge area, as well as from a distance. Area-of-effect and long-range sniping... Well, I must admit that I cannot create something with such a difficult requirement.

    ¡°Such a weapon... maybe we can find an alchemist willing to craft it in Floating Mech City if we pay him... a hundred thousand magic crystals or so.¡±

    When mentioning the price, Prome noticed Angor¡¯s eyes twinkling in satisfaction, and he immediately knew that his ¡°favor¡± was just on point.

    In contrast to Angor, Vice¡¯s eyes revealed great disappointment. There was no way he could get such money.

    As an experienced negotiator, Prome quickly read Vice¡¯s thoughts.

    ¡°Of course, I¡¯m only saying the final price of the weapon. As for its true cost... half, or less. Ten thousand crystals might do you good if you¡¯re really lucky.¡±

    Vice revealed a tiny bit of hesitation despite his best effort to remain calm, and Prome easily caught it.

    Since he already decided to help Angor with this, Prome would need to test Vice¡¯s limits more.

    ¡°I¡¯m referring to the auction held in Floating Mech City, and you need to wait for one. If you¡¯re willing to stay put and wait for several years, you¡¯re very likely to find such a weapon at the cost of ten thousand crystals,¡± said Prome. He then turned to Angor and asked, ¡°As I said, it¡¯s not something I can make. What about you, Angor?¡±

    Prome secretly winked at him.

    Angor dly returned his own gesture. He had just put on a simr show in front of Twilight not long ago, in front of a hundred wizards, so he could easily do it again.

    Vice also cast his attention back on Angor. If this boy really could make the weapon, he might need to prepare money for it.

    Angor ¡°hesitated¡± for a while. ¡°This is... veryplicated.¡±

    Vice looked down.

    ¡°I can try though. I can tell you that I¡¯ll probably fail, but it¡¯s not impossible. Who knows, maybedy luck or something would favor me this time.¡±

    Vice contained his excitement. ¡°Then can I ask you to try this one, Mister Padt?¡±

    Vice had forgotten about seeing Angor¡¯s revolver. All his attention was seized by Angor¡¯s possible answer, and he desperately hoped Angor would say yes.

    ¡°I...¡± Angor pretended.

    Prome helped him by saying, ¡°The great potential of youth... For one, I won¡¯t even consider making such an attempt, but Angor seems courageous enough to think about it. That¡¯s... where he¡¯s more qualified than these old bones of mine.¡±

    Vice looked up with a determined look. ¡°I¡¯ve saved 15,000 crystals over the recent years. I¡¯m willing to pay if you can satisfy my wish, Mister Padt.¡±

    Angor was quite satisfied with the price already. Prome was right when he mentioned the higher prices since heatedpetition during an auction would certainly raise the price like that. Yet the real cost for making such a weapon was just several thousand crystals, at best.

    Due to his Energy Stabilizer, Angor could now attain his level as an intermediate apprentice alchemist even though he himself did not have the power to qualify for such a title yet.

    Until now, he still only knew three basic alchemy spells: Thaw, Condense, and Hand of Spell.

    To be an intermediate apprentice alchemist for real, he had to study the more advanced spells: Smelt, Freeze, intermediate Hand of Spell, and Magic Barrier.

    Among these, the Magic Barrier was optional. It was not a must-have if an alchemist knew about more powerful defensive spells or if he possessed a bloodline that hardened his defense.

    The remaining three, however, were crucial.

    Thaw and Condense could only process un-tiered or low-tier materials and it cost a lot of mana and time. Smelt and Freeze were the spells for dealing with better stuff.

    And Angor had not started to learn about those spells yet. His ¡°intermediate apprentice alchemist¡± title was mostly inted.

    Once he learned how to use Smelt and Freeze, he would handle more types of valuable materials which determined the potential of an item.

    Out of the low-leveled materials he could use, his revolver was already the best possible oue. In this case, ten thousand magic crystals was a very good price for him.

    Angor decided not to ¡°scam¡± Vice too hard¡ªhe might as well leave more room for their future encounters. Considering Vice¡¯s progression, this man was very likely to be a wizard.

    Angor made up his mind and prepared to finish his ¡°show¡±.

    ¡°The probability is still terribly low, I¡¯m afraid-¡±

    Before he could finish though, Vice added another chip to the table.

    ¡°I can provide you another material.¡±

    ¡°Um, material?¡± Angor was not expecting that. In fact, he was about to agree already.

    ¡°Yes. I ran across it by ident. I was nning to sell it at an auction in Floating Mech City. But if Mister Padt agrees to help me with the weapon, I can give it to you as a down payment.¡±

    Angor exchanged a look with Prome¡ªa material qualified to be sold in Floating Mech City would not be anything ordinary.

    ¡°Can I take a look?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± Vice signaled Angor to have some privacy.

    Angor nodded at Prome and took Vice into his basementb.

    Vice looked around the packed-up space and grinned at Angor curiously. ¡°Looks like Master Prome REALLY regards you as a good friend, Mister Padt.¡±

    Angor chucked embarrassingly. Vice had seen through their ¡°teamwork¡± so easily.

    Everyone in the guest hall was pretending back there, and they all knew it.

    ¡°Truth be told, I really need this weapon since it¡¯ll decide my destiny of bing a wizard in the end,¡± said Vice. He considered his words before continuing, ¡°And I¡¯m willing to pay with everything I¡¯ve got.¡±

    Obviously, Vice did not mind the little show between Angor and Prome.

    ¡°As for the material... it¡¯s a magical nt I found inside a ne passageway.¡±

 Chapter 304 - Promeâ€™s Gift

    Chapter 304: Prome¡¯s Gift

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    After seeing Vice off, Angor returned to the guest hall and saw Nausica, Sailum, and Dave chatting happily. When they saw Angoring back, Sailum was giving him inconspicuous grins. Even Nausica, who usually remainedposed, was snickering.

    Angor approached and heard Dave telling his friends about the glorious deeds of ¡°Baron Milk¡±.

    ¡°Hey, Angor, why did you pick such a title?¡±

    ¡°Not your business.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s Saka to do with you, Angor?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s my enemy.¡±

    ¡°Why did you kill Parasite Queen, Angor?¡±

    ¡°She deserved it!¡±

    Dave was quite smooth and slick when speaking to Nausica and Sailum for the first time. However, he did so by telling them Angor¡¯s embarrassing stories, and Angor really did not like it.

    Before leaving, Sailum whispered to Angor, ¡°You should¡¯ve introduced such an interesting friend to us sooner!¡±

    Nausica followed behind Sailum and put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°That was quite a mess you made in the town. Gods. I hope we can grow strong sooner, so we¡¯ve what it takes to back you up.¡±

    Angor saw his friends off and realized that despite Sailum¡¯s joyful mood, the boy was depressed deep inside.

    He totally understood, and he could not do anything about it. The path of wizardry waited for no one. The first andst chance to stop and rest would be their final.

    Angor returned to the hall and saw Dave still grinning at him.

    Prome joined them. ¡°Did you reach an agreement with Vice?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°I did. I think I know why Vice is addressed as one of the best geniuses. I don¡¯t know his true strength yet, but at least his flexible mind and refined disposition are something I would never be able to learn. He¡¯s a born wizard who knows how to perceive people¡¯s intentions.¡±

    Prome agreed. ¡°I knew he would notice our trick.¡±

    ¡°And you still joined me by going with it?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m telling him the truth, that creating such a weapon is extremely hard, and I think he understood it. We put up that show so he may present his best credit to us.¡± Prome grinned as he said, ¡°A resourceful man as him quite enjoys manipting the situation he¡¯s in. We acted smartly to show him respect.

    ¡°Anyway, as long as you get what you wanted, you shouldn¡¯t worry too much.¡±

    Angor nced at Prome and silently eximed that he should never underestimate any single individual he came across. Prome knew they would be found out from the start, while Vice only pointed it out when they were talking in private... Angor just realized he was the only ¡°honest one¡± in the whole matter.

    Out of courtesy, Prome did not ask Angor about the special material.

    Angor sat back on his sofa and ced the silver revolver on the table.

    Prome failed to hide his excitement upon witnessing the gun. ¡°This-this is-¡±

    ¡°A revolver enchanted with Prelude to Elimination.¡±

    ...

    Angor yawned when he was alone again in his house. He had been awake for the past 30 hours, and he really needed some rest now.

    In his bedroom, he found Toby sitting on his tiny bed pecking yfully at a small object.

    The bird had mostly recovered, but he slept most of the time these days due to blood loss, and for the first time since they returned, Angor saw him in such an energetic mood.

    Angor approached and was going to pat Toby¡¯s feather when he saw the bird ying with a space capsule.

    When he asked, Toby moved a wing slowly and told him that Prome left it here.

    Angor stretched his spirit feelers and found a number of books inside the capsule.

    He broke the capsule open and revealed the books, which were mostly about synthesis. He had the same books saved in his hologram tablet. However... the practical cases and Prome¡¯s personal annotations were most valuable.

    Angor picked up a coverless book from the bottom of the pile and was immediately shocked by its title.

    Prome¡¯s Alchemy Notebook

    It was the most precious personal experience collection of an alchemist. Angor had one of his own, about which he started writing since his first alchemy creation.

    And Prome gifted him something so valuable?

    He quickly turned the pages and read the texts which appeared inexperienced and inept at first, but slowly grew defter and defter. He felt that he had gone through the same learning progress when looking at Prome¡¯s own road of pursuing alchemy knowledge.

    He saw Prome¡¯s message to him on thest page:

    [Thank you greatly for your help, Angor. I do not think you¡¯ll ept my magic crystals, so I¡¯ll simply give you these worthless books of mine as a reward. ¡ªBest wishes. I¡¯ll keep watching your unstoppable advance from the foot of the mountain of alchemy.]

    ¡°Worthless?¡± Angor shook his head. The books were priceless treasures to him.

    Prome was right. He would probably return any magic crystal payment. He nned to use the revolver to return Prome¡¯s favor for saving his life. Now, however...

    He might have repaid the favor. Yet their friendship only deepened.

    And maybe this was exactly what Prome hoped for.

    ¡°Heh, old fox.¡± Angor sighed and threw himself on his bed. ¡°Now there¡¯s no way I can refuse his gift.¡±

    He slept until the next morning.

    It was thetter half of the Month of Soothing Wind, and 11 days to go before Month of Harvest (August). There were a little less than 2,000 magic crystals saved on his card. Suppose he could give Vice the weapon in two days... he still had a lot to make up for his 100,000-crystal debt.

    However, he was not too worried about this. If assuming the worst, he could simply sell his Section Ephemera which was enough to get him the money.

    Still, he would not do such a thing unless absolutely necessary.

    He quickly went down to his basement to work on Vice¡¯s customized weapon. He already had another n in mind, which could earn him the money he needed without selling his Section Ephemera.

    Before going to hisb, he took a peek behind his curtain and saw a good number of people still lurking outside. There were fewerpared to before. However, those who remained here would still cast their nces toward the mansion now and then.

    They were all mortals too. Angor took a guess that some apprentices hired them.

    Putting spies in front of his door openly... Angor huffed and closed his curtain. Yesterday when sending Prome away, he intentionally lingered outside for a while, yet none of the people spoke to him.

    He only wished he could write a note ¡°TAKING ALCHEMY ORDERS! NOW OR NEVER!¡± and stick it on his head, and hopefully, it would attract several more rich guys like Vice. However, it seemed unlikely for now.

    So what the heck were they doing at his door?

    Angor returned to hisb, somewhat irritated.

    He nned to base Vice¡¯s weapon on a revolver again. However, he was going to choose something more heat-resistant and stable this time. Vice asked for something that worked on arge number of targets, which meant the weapon should have bigger energy output.

    The different materials brought a different oue.

    One dayter, Apprentice Town 8 became the center of attention again when its sky was shrouded under a dark cloud again. There were even high-leveled apprentices from Tree Spirit Garden who came to check it out.

    Angor inspected his new item with great satisfaction.

    Unlike ¡°Rebirth¡±¡ªwhich was the name given to the silver revolver by Prome¡ªthis new revolver was of a deep bronze color. The overall design was still the same but without the delicate engravings. Angor only added some simple polish work and checkered the gun stock, so whoever used the gun did not lose grip too easily.

    He needed to work quickly on this. As long as the weapon worked, he would not spend time caring about its appearance.

    The bronze weapon was still good on the look even without specific decorations. At the very least, Angor admired the low-profile luxury.

    Before he could try the weapon out though, he heard someone knocking on his door.

    He yawned and walked upstairs. As he thought, another omen had attracted more people to his house.

    ¡°Now this is annoying. Do I really need to find somewhere secret when I do alchemy now?¡± Angor mumbled in discontent and walked into his yard.

    His appearance drew a lot of attention. And this time, people actually moved closer instead of pretending to be onlookers.

    Angor humphed. He no longer wanted to ¡°ept orders¡± from these people now¡ªthey missed their chances yesterday.

    Angor looked toward the yard door to see who just knocked. He already made up his mind that he would not consider any request with a reward below 50,000.

    Before he could get to think about how to turn down the visitors though, he saw Vice waiting at his door.

    The man had reced his gray robe with a bright, me-red wind coat. His white, golden-trimmed trousers and showy blond hair went well with his invasive character.

    Vice smiled when Angor opened the door. ¡°I came as soon as I saw the omen. Did you seed, Mister Padt?¡±

    Angor felt a bit awkward now. He told Vice it was going to be hard before, and now... he disproved himself so fast.

    ¡°Um, well, almost,¡± Angor mumbled and invited Vice inside.

    ¡°The omen is exactly like yesterday. I see you¡¯re getting good at this, Mister Padt.¡±

    Angor could not really tell if Vice¡¯s smile was sincere this time.

 Chapter 305 - Hollow Weed

    Chapter 305: Hollow Weed

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    As a visitor, Vice did not push the embarrassment further. He followed Angor into the house next.

    They both wanted to get down to business as soon as they could.

    Vice¡¯s attention was immediately grasped by the strange yet convenient design of the bronze revolver.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you¡¯re knowledgeable in machinery too, Mister Padt,¡± said Vice as he picked up the weapon with glimmering eyes and inspected it in his hands carefully. He was very shocked to see theplicatedwork of runes engraved on it.

    Every wizard more or less knew something about alchemy products, and so was Vice. He clearly understood how difficult it was to draw magic arrays.

    Compared to enchantment, synthesis required luck, skills, and a great experience to create better items. Enchantment, however, highly depended on ¡°experience¡±¡ªif someone seeded for once, his following attempts would be a lot easier.

    This was exactly the case shown by Angor and Prome. Prome only produced one single mid-tier alchemy item in a decade, while Angor made two in session and within three days!

    Still, there were fewer enchantment alchemists because it was a harder subjectpared to synthesis. Also, while there was a limit to how strong an enchantment effect could go, there was no such limit to synthesis products. Now, enchantment alchemists had be rarer in this world.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about machinery. The original blueprint isn¡¯t mine¡ªI simply copied from someone. Give it a try. Let¡¯splete the trade if you find no problem.¡±

    Vice nodded and took out an octagonal container. He pushed a button on it and released the soul of a gray-skinned woman from the box.

    The woman¡¯s face was hidden behind her messy long hair. There were several chains that bound her in the air, and she could only roar loudly.

    The chains were tightly connected to the box.

    Vice saw Angor checking the box curiously and smiled as he exined, ¡°A small trinket I found in Twilight Well by chance.¡±

    ¡°A soul locket that contains a full-sized undead spirit? That¡¯s no small trinket.¡±

    Angor saw something like this at Twilight Well too. It cost at least a hundred crystals.

    Vice chuckled. Following Angor¡¯s instruction, he pulled the trigger while aiming the gun at the woman.

    A surge of an infrasonic wave that could not be sensed by mortals was released from the barrel and covered the 180-degree area in front of Vice. It connected with the woman and instantly disrupted the chaotic energy inside the undead being. With a final yelp, the woman spirit disappeared into nothingness.

    Vice watched agape as the woman ceased to be within a mere second. He could sense the sound wave spread out in a fan-shaped direction, which meant the attack was enough to affect arge area in front of him as well as from a small distance away.

    The distance was not that far, but as long as he knew how to use it, the weapon already satisfied his needs.

    Vice put away the gun and spoke in excitement he could no longer conceal, ¡°Very good. This is exactly what I need!¡±

    The man took out a bone card and a ss tube about ten centimeters long and ced them in front of Angor.

    ¡°The anonymous card has fifteen thousand magic crystals in it. As for the tube-¡±

    ¡°Hollow Weed,¡± Angor stared at the green beads inside the container and revealed the name of the nt. He already sensed the aura of voiding from them.

    ¡°We¡¯re settled then,¡± said Angor as he quickly took the card and ss tube away, fearing that Vice might change his mind. Then he spread his hand toward the door.

    Vice did not expect Angor to send him away so quickly. However, he stillplied and walked to the exit, smiling.

    There were still people gathering outside the yard. Vice turned around and spoke, ¡°I said before, that the weapon shall determine an important destiny for me, Mister Padt. I¡¯ll leave Brute Cavern tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Good luck then,¡± said Angor as he waved his hand nonchntly. He was too focused on the tube in his hand.

    ¡°I rented an etherealboratory inside The Tributary for five years. It¡¯ll probablyy there in destion while I¡¯m away. If you don¡¯t mind, I can give-transfer it under your name.¡±

    On second thought, Vice did not say ¡°give¡± since it would make his friendly gesture too straightforward.

    ¡°The Tributary? Etherealboratory?¡± Angor was confused.

    ¡°Oh ho, I see Mister Padt has been too devoted to alchemy. No wonder you can achieve such greatness in a short time when others would usually spend their entire lives to achieve it.

    ¡°The Tributary is inside Tree Spirit Garden, an area for rent. It¡¯s arge, well-equippedb ce which allows you to do any type of experiment. More importantly, such a rentedb is located in another dimension. You can consider it something simr to the other side of the mirror. The Twilight Well is another dimension hidden inside Midnight Sovereign too.

    ¡°Inside an etherealboratory, you¡¯re free to create an explosion or disaster without having to worry about it affecting the outside world. Well, that is unless you did something serious enough to offend the world¡¯s consciousness.¡±

    ¡°It can hide an alchemy omen too?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Only those inside the same dimension can see it,¡± said Vice. He pointed outside the yard as he continued, ¡°At least you won¡¯t attract such a big crowd to you.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your kind offer. I¡¯ll try to rent one for myselfter.¡±

    ¡°The allowance to rent an etherealboratory is always hard to get. Without a connection, it¡¯s almost impossible for an outsider to get in there,¡± said Vice. He then considered before adding, ¡°Of course, no one will refuse to befriend an alchemist, if you¡¯re willing to open up to them.¡±

    Obviously, Vice knew that Angor was not someone who wished to spend time maintaining ¡°connections¡±.

    ¡°I see... Then how much should I pay for yours, Mister Edward?¡±

    ¡°The annual rental fee for theb is 50 crystals. Just give me 250, as per the original price.¡±

    The rental fee itself was not a problem. What mattered was how to get admitted.

    Angor would not want to owe people any favors, but since Vice offered to transfer the right to use theb for the original price, there was nothing to be indebted for.

    Angor pondered for a moment and agreed.

    ¡°Oh right, I already told Braunk not to trouble you, so don¡¯t worry about him. Let¡¯s hope I can get back alive. Farewell, sir.¡±

    Vice flipped his wind coat behind and disappeared into the path.

    It took some time for Angor to recall who ¡°Braunk¡± was. It was another admirer of Red Butterfly, and Dave mentioned that this figure woulde to Angor¡¯s door sooner orter. Angor had already forgotten about this since Braunk had been away from Brute Cavern for some time. Now Vice reminded him of this name.

    He looked at the growing crowd outside his yard and locked his door in frustration.

    A momentter, he opened the door slightly ajar and hung a small sign on it; a line was written using neat, universalnguage ¡ª ¡°Busy. No visitors will be epted.¡±

    ...

    Hollow Weed.

    The small ss tube filled with the transparent liquid contained 13 green, fluffy mold-like orbs that stuck on the wall of the tube.

    There was nothing to be seen when one observed them with naked eyes. However, when Angor unleashed his spirit feelers, he could sense the faint aura of a void, one which was only found where a space was full of unstable energy. A ne passageway was amon ce where wizards tended to find such Hollow Weed.

    It was a special magical nt that possessed both vegetal properties and the hollowness of void. It drained drifting space energy to sustain itself.

    There were many uses to it, such as brewing Void Potion. However, Angor was more interested in the major property of the nt which was used to create an area in the void which would then allow animals and nts to live inside.

    He could ce the Hollow Weed in a space storage, and the nt would create a habitable ce for creatures by generating oxygen and blocking hazardous elements of the void. The weed was one of the best supplementary items to be used alongside a space storage.

    There was no crafting involved. Angor simply needed to put the nt inside his space storage and leave it there.

    The only problem with the material was its cost. Also, the size of the ¡°safe area¡± depended on the number of nts ced.

    The 13 orbs of Hollow Weed possessed by Angor could create an area around 500 liters, and if they were brought to an auction, they would usually be sold at for six or seven thousand magic crystals.

    With this, Angor could enhance the space storage he was going to make and store valuable stuff, including his precious Section Ephemera.

    He put the tube away and began reading how to craft a space storage.

    ...

    While he did his researches in his house, his name already became widespread in the entire Brute Cavern after the two alchemy omens.

    Somewhere inside Tree Spirit Garden, a white-robed young man yed with a chain in his hand and revealed a grim expression. ¡°Looks like I can¡¯t do nothing about this guy now... fine. Hope he stays in Brute Cavern and doesn¡¯t bother with my n.¡±

    Bobota walked past another group of people who were discussing the omens.

    ¡°Oh, I know something about those clouds.¡± He joined the speakers with a smile. ¡°Angor Padt, student of Mister Sunders. Hey, don¡¯t be afraid, the boy¡¯s pretty gentle. He¡¯ll help y¡¯all with your orders as long as you don¡¯t y rough or act all bossy.¡±

    With that, Bobota disappeared into the shadows before recing his smile with a grim grin again.

    On the 12th level of the Sky Tower, people were engaged in a heated discussion over Angor¡¯s name as well.

    ¡°You heard? The ¡®One-Hit Man¡¯ is the new master alchemist who brought the omen!¡±

    ¡°One-Hit Man? Do you mean the rich pervert who ughtered Parasite Queen? Baron Milk??¡±

    ¡°Keep your damn voice down! He ain¡¯t someone we should oppose!¡±

    ¡°Well, damn it all! He¡¯s a master alchemist? Then when can I get revenge for Parasite Queen?¡±

    When they walked away, someone dressed in a white bear costume silently walked under the light with a joyful look.

    ¡°Just a bit longer, sister. If I follow his steps... I¡¯ll soon go looking for you.¡±

 Chapter 306 - Butterfly Necklaces

    <h4>Chapter 306: Butterfly Nes</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Time flew by.

    Two dayster, Angor exited his basementb while rubbing his swollen eyes. The space storage had moved to the top of his task list. During these days, he carefully went over everything, including materials and detailed crafting steps.

    After making sure everything was correct, he rested in his bedroom. When he woke up, he went to check the n again before finally getting to work.

    This one was differentpared to everything he made before. It was easy in terms of mana management. He only needed to create a covenant rune in the end. However, the requirement for pacing and detail maintenance was the hardest one he had ever seen.

    He had to ensure the correct time length for each step, down to every second, and the weight of materials in each spoon, down to micrograms. Also, he needed to maintain the right temperatures and moisture...

    He left the camera of his tablet switched on so that he could check his movester.

    The first try failed.

    From the video, he saw his spoon moving one second slower than the instruction of his book, which caused an unstable addition to the greyspace microbes in the cauldron.

    The second one failed again.

    Another problem with his movement speed.

    The third, the fourth... and the eighth.

    When the moon was already high in the sky, he finally managed to create the infrastructure of his space storage after spending thirty percent of his microbes.

    He stretched his spirit feelers into the lump of mud and felt the extra, unstable space in it. ording to the book, the space would turn solid in two minutes, by which he could consider his work sessful.

    But he only had two minutes to shape the ¡°mud¡± into the final form andplete the other steps. He nned to make a finger ring out of it. Yet he had spent most of his mana and stamina during the day, and he still needed to apply the covenant rune on the item. He no longer had time to spare to follow the original n.

    In the end, he simply rubbed the ¡°mud¡± into an orb and added some ocean waves as decoration.

    Something that looked like a child¡¯s toy marble shined andnded in his hand.

    The marble was pure ck with several random lines drawn on it. However, a stable inner space already existed inside.

    Angor sighed in relief. The Condense step went in more of a hustle than he imagined, but the final oue was fine.

    Well, maybe not. The water motif he added was kind of a terrible choice.

    Putting that aside, he was very satisfied with the storage space.

    He had not established the covenant yet, but he could already inspect the inner storage, which was only possible for the item¡¯s owner once the covenant was set. Without the master¡¯s consent, no one else could take items from the storage.

    ¡°Three square meters... yes, the max possible amount.¡±

    To prevent waste of materials, he had been using the least amount possible, which was expected to grant him a storage space of 1 to 3 square meters.

    But by using the core of a ck Dense Stone which pushed the estimated oue to its max, Angor sessfully attained the upper limit for his product.

    He was going to sell the ck marble instead of keeping it. He would make something better for himselfter.

    He feared that the poor design of the marble would hinder its price. Besides, the marble object wasn¡¯t easy to handle, so he thought about that problem for a moment. He then found several metal parts from his box and forged them into a pair of butterfly wings. Once he was done, he slotted the marble inside a socket between the wings and made the whole item into a ne.

    He named the ne ¡°Dusk Butterfly¡± and put it aside.

    The Rainbow Beads he saw during the grand auction, which was also a space storage, had 10 square meters inside, which was thergest possible volume for low-tier space storage items.

    That rainbow ne was sold at 50 thousand magic crystals.

    Considering this, Angor believed that his ¡°Dusk Butterfly¡± could at least earn him ten thousand or so.

    He didn¡¯t need much time to make this item. A space storage was expensive only because of theck of greyspace microbes, as well as the difficulty of actually finding an alchemist who could craft a space storage.

    The microbes Angor used were already pretty costly, if sold to others. Besides, he had enough books that told him how to do his work.

    With the experience, he could craft more of the items with much more ease.

    Following the recorded video of his first sess, he did it again while referring to the video and swiftly created his second space storage.

    To make his work more convenient, he still shaped the item into a marble; a gray one this time.

    Again, he embedded the marble into a ne shaped like a pair of butterfly wings and named it ¡°Silvery Butterfly¡±.

    The Silvery Butterfly had 5 cubic meters inside, which was the best he could do using the microbes he was willing to spend. He estimated that this one would get him 20 to 30 thousand magic crystals.

    ...

    Three dayster, at the end of Month of Soothing Wind.

    Angor had created five space storage items in different colors: ck, gray, white, orange, and pink.

    The Dusk Butterfly only had 3 cubic meters, while the other four all had 5.

    The sess meant he no longer had to worry about his debt, and he felt greatly relieved. The five items were surely enough to pay his debt. He might even sell them at an auction, which would get him more than 100,000 crystals.

    As for the other 150,000 crystals for Sunders... he originally nned to dy it as much as he could. Now that he had such an easy way to make money, he changed his mind.

    Besides, he wasn¡¯t going to spend his own microbes. As he recalled, Sunders collected tons of them when constructing the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.

    Angor finally realized that alchemy was a giant money-making machine, first-hand.

    After resting for a day, he returned to hisb to make a final space storage for himself.

    Naturally, he would want to make the best one for his own use. Moreover, he wished to make something more than a space storage, something that possessed multiple effects.

    There was a lot of room to add stuff beside the covenant rune. With the help of an Energy Stabilizer, he could even apply a magic array on it.

    He had to do something to bypass the two-minute restriction though. Considering the time needed to use Condense and shape the item, he had less than two minutes to draw his runes.

    Any alchemist would consider it impossible to craft a multi-purpose space storage. However, Angor could find many example cases from his alchemy books which could help him. He couldn¡¯t read them before due to hisck of experience. But now, he could finally put them to use.

    There was one such example that exined how to add new effects to a space storage by attuning inserted runes synchronously.

    For example, when Angor was applying a rune to his ring, he could cast two Hands of Spell, where one would keep working on the rune while the other one began to craft a space gem.

    During the finishing touch of the rune, he had to have the extra gem ready. He would then embed the gem onto the ring. Thereafter, he shouldnd thest line of the rune on the gem and apply the covenant rune on the gem instead, before condensing thepleted item lodged with a gem.

    There were many conditions to finish such a job.

    First, arge amount of mana, which was easily manageable using an Energy Stabilizer. However, this meant burning money.

    The second was multitasking. He had to maintain two Hands of Spell and ensure both hands performed wless jobs. It wasn¡¯t hard either; any wizard who could do deep meditation could split his or her logic into two. Angor only needed some practice beforehand.

    The third requirement was time management. He had to proceed with two tasks at the same time while ending them both at the same time. It was just a math problem¡ªhe might set up an alert in his tablet which kept him informed of the progression of his tasks at all times.

    All in all, the problems only lookedplicated. If he tackled them one by one... he didn¡¯t actually need much effort.

    An ordinary alchemist might back off at the challenge, but Angor wouldn¡¯t. After all, he had all the avable textbooks and the hologram tablet for help.

    With his great ambition in mind, he started making ns for his invention.

 Chapter 307 - Snowy Feather

    <h4>Chapter 307: Snowy Feather</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The light of dawn was still hidden behind the misty curtain of night.

    At such a time when light and shadow swapped ces, a pair ofdies wearing silk clothes were kicking the water of a river situated along the edge of the apprentice town.

    Dim light traveled through the woods nearby and brightened their sweet smiles.

    Thedy in white silk seemed about 17 or 18. With her fluffy blond hair that moved along with the morning breeze, she appeared like a fairy that came straight out of a fairytale book.

    The one in transparent, golden silk was about the age of 30, and she had distinctive yet charming body features. Her long, dark-brown hair went all the way inside the river water, sometimes wetting her alluring body with every movement.

    The other male creatures, who had been keeping their eyes on Angor¡¯s vi, now had their attention fixed on these women while drooling. They only wished they could lunge at the beautiful souls.

    Despite their elegant looks, thedies were talking about absolutely inelegant matters.

    ¡°Gods. It¡¯s been two days. My feet gonna swell.¡±

    ¡°Heh, you¡¯re better than me. I¡¯ve been flipping my hair in water for two days. I¡¯m definitely getting sick after this.¡±

    ¡°Just... hold on for a bit more, for our future.¡±

    ¡°Future, huh? If we somehow anger the great wizard, we will have no future.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think like that. Wizards are humans too, and all humans have desires. If we can get a start, we will keep going.¡±

    ¡°For other wizards, maybe. I doubt it will work on this one.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I have a sister named Mner, who tried to seduce this wizard while she worked at the Tree Spirit Pce. Guess what, he yelled at her! I tell you, this man doesn¡¯t know how women work.¡±

    As they talked, the vi door which was kept shut for several days suddenly opened up.

    Angor slowly paced toward the yard entrance while wearing a hooded wizard robe.

    When he walked out, the onlookers all approached the door.

    People immediately caught up to Angor the moment the entrance was unlocked.

    ¡°Mister Padt, this is a letter from my master, please take a look.¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt! My master has gifted you a one-use space capsule! Do check out this letter please!¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt...¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt!¡±

    Before Angor could say anything to them, a surge of magic suddenly came and squeezed everyone away. Then, a plump man with several gold teeth walked in front of Angor.

    ¡°Nice to meet you, Mister Padt. My name is Jurrington.¡±

    Angor sensed the man¡¯s magic aura. Another level-3 apprentice.

    ¡°Good to see you too. I have a business to attend to, Mister Jurrington. Pleasee next time.¡±

    Angor tried to walk around the man.

    Jurrington grimaced and put a fat hand to block Angor. ¡°Mister Padt, do allow me some time and listen to my words, alright?¡±

    Jurrington pped, and the women who had been putting on their show beside the river joined them, wiggling their buttocks intentionally as they did so.

    ¡°I shall present them to you as your gift, Mister Padt. A virgin, and an... extremely experienced hustler. I guarantee that you will be satisfied,¡± Jurrington said as he gave Angor a wicked wink. Meanwhile, Angor expressed nothing. Only the other visitors showed their own jealousy.

    Jurrington asked the women to go and join Angor¡¯s side.

    When the women prepared their sweet expressions and poses, Angor lifted an arm to stop them from reaching out to him.

    ¡°You keep them. I¡¯m not interested.¡±

    Jurrington rolled his eyes and pushed the women away. After that, he dragged a decent-looking man from the crowd.

    ¡°How about this one?¡±

    The fellow quickly got over his initial surprise and fingered his hair bang to show his self-proimed handsomeness.

    Angor tried not to vomit. ¡°I don¡¯t have that... fetish! My professor is expecting me. If you really have something important, Mister Jurrington, I guess I can dy my meeting just a little.¡±

    Upon hearing the word ¡°professor¡±, Jurrington quickly stepped aside with mild fear on his face. ¡°Of course I can¡¯t dy your appointment with Mister Sunders, Mister Padt. I¡¯ll see you next time.¡±

    With the help of Sunders¡¯ name, Angor walked away while everyone was looking at him.

    After he left, Jurrington huffed and scoffed. ¡°Mister Sunders huh? Like I¡¯d buy it! Fine, I¡¯ll let you go this time,¡± He turned to address the silk-covereddies. ¡°I¡¯ll keep ¡¯em if you can¡¯t help yourself!¡±

    ...

    There were always people pointing and ncing at him discreetly. Angor finally found peace inside a sky bus.

    After making sure he was the only one in the cabin, Angor let Toby out from his robe, who fluttered around a little before hended on his shoulder.

    Toby hadpletely healed aside from some lost feathers on his breast area. However, it wasn¡¯t a problem with the bird¡¯s whitece princess dress on.

    Angor finished preparing a basic alchemy nst night. Considering theplicated magic array that he was going to use, he would probably create another alchemy omen. Therefore, he left his house in the morning and headed to the etherealboratory located in The Tributary.

    He brought Toby with him because he needed to bring lots of stuff.

    Hidden under the feathers on Toby¡¯s neck, there was an extra snow-white feather, which was the space storage Angor crafted for Toby. This one had a space of nine cubic meters, which was almost the biggest possible volume for low-tier space storage items. It contained Toby¡¯s clothes, food, and a tiny bed. Angor named it the ¡°Snowy Feather¡±.

    He needed to take tons of materials to The Tributary, but all of his existing space storages were for sale. That was why he had to make another one to hold everything, while also considering Toby as another item listed on his manifest.

    Toby kept chirping and tweeting on his shoulder. The bird had been in a super good mood ever since Angor gave him Snowy Feather, and he expressed his happiness by singing and rubbing against Angor¡¯s face.

    The bird had a terrible singing voice. However, Angor didn¡¯t mind it, as long as he could witness Toby stepping out of the grimness they went through. Besides, there was no one else on the sky bus.

    Angor watched as Toby dance on his shoulder for a while. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re a ¡®boy bird¡¯, right? How can you not feel embarrassed in that princess skirt?¡±

    Toby stopped his song and moved his wings around.

    ¡°Caw caw caw!¡±¡ª <i>I look beautiful in it!</i>

    ¡°I see. I can¡¯t judge the look of a bird using human senses,¡± Angor said as he nodded. ¡°But why do you want to look pretty anyway? To attract a wife bird? So you can mate?¡±

    Angor asked that one because he just watched an animal documentary the other day.

    <i>Mate my arse!</i>

    Toby rolled his tiny eyes. Since he just received a brilliant gift, he held back the urge to kick Angor. He then exined to Angor, about his special habits.

    It took a lot of time for Toby to do his exnation using bodynguage this time, and it was prettyplex. Angor kept asking questions until their bus arrived at Tree Spirit Garden, where Angor finally gained a basic idea.

    Angor stuffed Toby back into his wizard robe before heading toward The Tributary, all the while thinking about what Toby just told him.

    Greya¡¯s Artificial Life was one of the most powerful kinds among all original spells. This particr spell had breached the restriction of ult Gourmet and created a brand new, unknown field of subject.

    By using Artificial Life, Greya had created Section Ephemera, Steam Vortexes, Twisting Protozoa, and simr life forms who possessed amazing powers.

    However, none of these creatures was intelligent.

    Except for Toby.

    As an exception, Toby was the best creation ever made by Greya. Greya broke the rules of the world¡¯s consciousness by bringing something sapient with magic powers into this world.

    Toby¡¯s birth was an ident, but it did not fluster Greya in the least.

    Any chef would add seasonings to his or her dishes, and a Gourmet Wizard was also considered a chef.

    Greya was pretty surprised when she ¡°cooked¡± Toby out. But as soon as she learned the properties of her new creation, she immediately began giving Toby add-ons as a seasoned chef.

    It could already be seen from Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, that Greya hadpletely different tastepared to ordinary people. Actually, one wouldn¡¯t find many ¡°ordinary people¡± in the entire Fairytown and Candy House.

    The very first ¡°seasoning¡± Greya gave Toby was ¡°uncanniness¡±.

    Precisely speaking, the uncanniness referred to the bird¡¯s strange aesthetic and maniacal love for all kinds of colorful fabrics.

    Angor held his chin while walking.

    <i>So, Toby gained his strange ¡°taste¡± because of Greya¡¯s ¡°spice¡±? Not because of Greya¡¯s own influence?</i>

    ¡°Did Greya give you anything else when cooking you?¡± Angor asked out of curiosity.

    Using his spirit feeler, he saw Toby shaking head behind his robe.

    ¡°There were, but you don¡¯t know what exactly? Woah, Artificial Life sounds wonderful. I wonder if everyone who created their own spells without following existing examples would also create such wonders.¡±

    A self-created spellbined personal experience and conviction of knowledge as well as innovation. Rearranging existing spell models wouldn¡¯t produce original spells. There were also ult spells that couldn¡¯t be rearranged at all.

    Angor suddenly got a bold idea. Since he could learn from anotherpletely foreign civilization, could he also use some of their techniques to create his own spells?

    ...

    The Tributary.

    Angor stopped in front of ake with wavering blue water.

    He would travel past thiske every time he came to Tree Spirit Garden, and he never paid much attention to it.

    He didn¡¯t expect that ¡°The Tributary¡± referred to this blueke, which he found out from Vice.

    As Vice exined, to enter the other dimension, he simply needed to leap into theke water while having the name card in his possession.

    The Tributary was located at a remote spot from other gathering spots. Angor looked around and didn¡¯t see anyone around. After some consideration, he held the crystal-clear name card in his hand and slowly walked into the water.

 Chapter 308 - Iron Granny

    Chapter 308: Iron Granny

    The deep-blueke water slowly covered his ankles. He could see the water ripples shifting around his legs, yet he didn¡¯t feel anything wet on his feet. Actually, he felt lighter as if he were stepping on something afloat.

    When looking through the water surface, he could notice the weeds moving at the bottom of theke. However, he couldn¡¯t see his feet. The surface of theke was like a mirror that separated the two worlds.

    When he was fully submerged, he reopened his eyes and found himself standing at the foot of a giant mountain.

    A door that led to nothingness stood behind his back, while a path upwardid in front.

    He held up his name card again and injected some mana into a small hole in the middle of the card, where a red beam was unleashed from the hole and moved toward the sky.

    Vice told him that the red beam was a signal to summon the ¡°Iron Fortress¡±.

    Vice didn¡¯t tell him what was an Iron Fortress or where exactly could he find the etherealboratory. ¡°You¡¯ll see¡± was the only thing Vice said in the end.

    Back then, Angorined to Vice that the man was making things unnecessarilyplicated, and he still believed so as he looked at the strange light beam that pierced the sky.

    He waited in front of the void door for about ten seconds before he heard metal noises approaching from one side of the mountain.

    Clunk, clunk...

    He also heard the sound of a steam whistle.

    ¡°Is that a train? But it¡¯s getting closer too fast,¡± Angor mumbled and looked around without finding any railway.

    He then saw a trail of grayish-blue smoke showing up around the woods on the mountainside.

    Next, he saw an iron house with feet hopping down the mountain. The metal noises were created when the iron chunks on the house shed against each other when the house moved.

    Using its slim iron legs, the house rushed toward Angor.

    Angor also noticed that a chimney on top of the house was giving out the whistle sound.

    The iron house ran for a small distance and jumped into the air before it glided in front of Angor like a kite.

    When Angor was still trying toprehend what he just saw, the iron legs of the house bent down, and the house door opened up, revealing a hunched, silver-haired old woman who was dressed in blue and white.

    Angor was shocked again when he saw the womannded in front of him skillfully with two or three swift jumps. It seemed the woman wasn¡¯t as slow as she appeared to be.

    ¡°May I know your name, ma¡¯am?¡± Angor tried to be polite.

    The old woman smiled kindly. ¡°You must be Angor. Come closer and let granny check you out.¡±

    She looked at Angor up and down, which embarrassed him a little. He wasn¡¯t sure if he could move already.

    ¡°Hmm! Good boy. A handsome gentleman, you are. It¡¯s a pity that Sunders found you. You¡¯ll make a better student for Wace,¡± the woman said. She then signaled Angor to follow her. ¡°Little Vice already told me. You can use your name card toe here in the next five years.¡±

    She climbed back onto the house and turned around, only to see Angor still watching her from the ground.

    ¡°What? Hop on.¡±

    Angor was still confused. ¡°Um, how may I call you, Granny?¡±

    The woman pped her forehead. ¡°Ouch. I forgot about it. I¡¯m the manager of the Iron Fortress and the caretaker of the entire Tributary.¡± She then put a hand on the iron wall of the house as she said, ¡°This is the Iron Fortress. When you want to get to thebs, just call for me, and it will send you there.

    ¡°As for my name... call me ¡®Iron Granny¡¯. I forgot my real name a long time ago.¡±

    Iron Granny beckoned Angor again. This time, Angor dlyplied.

    ¡°Since it¡¯s your first time here... I shall take it slow and tell you about the rules around here,¡± Iron Granny said. She then told Angor to find a seat.

    There were three stories inside the iron house. Angor was now on the first floor, where all kinds of objects were ced. Machine parts, flowers, bread... A great number of things were arranged in fine order. There was a wooden square table in the middle of the room covered under a blue-and-white checkered tablecloth. Two cups of hot tea were on it.

    ¡°Come, have a drink,¡± Iron Granny said as she lifted a cup in front of Angor.

    Angor hesitated for a bit upon sensing the smell of rose. ¡°Thank you, Granny, but I¡¯m not thirsty.¡±

    Iron Granny didn¡¯t force him. She sipped her own tea slowly and let out a deep breath.

    ¡°There are a total of 138 etherealboratories inside The Tributary, while only 36 of them are rented to outsiders. You¡¯re the 36th.¡±

    ¡°What about the other 102?¡±

    Iron Granny smiled and asked something instead, ¡°Do you know how many wizards we have in Brute Cavern?¡±

    Angor tried to recall Abelle¡¯s introduction when he came to Brute Cavern for the first day.

    ¡°A hundred and eighteen?¡±

    Iron Granny shook her head. ¡°There were 118, on the day you came. This year though, eleven of them died, three betrayed, three voluntarily left, one apprentice broke through... Today, there are 102 wizards in Brute Cavern.¡±

    Angor quickly realized that these wizards had to be the ones upying the remaining 102bs. However, he was more concerned about how Iron Granny¡¯s simple exnation contained a bloody fact.

    Within a single year, 11 wizards perished, while only 1 apprentice joined the rank. Angor felt a chill crawling on his back¡ªthe number of wizards was decreasing. Fast.

    No wonder the great wizarding world was a mere legend to mortals.

    Angor put his unnecessary concerns away and asked in a small voice, ¡°Are the 102bs reserved for these wizards?¡±

    ¡°No. They are gifts, given to them by the organization. Each time a wizard dies, another allowance bes avable for you apprentices.¡± Iron Granny took out a map and showed Angor the locations of the current 102 wizards. ¡°Only less than five of thesebs are currently in use. Still, do not trespass on their territories. Many wizards would ce traps around theirbs, and you definitely cannot survive them.¡±

    Angor nodded carefully.

    ¡°You¡¯re free to use yours however you like. But you must paypensation, should you break anything in it.¡±

    Iron Granny enjoyed her tea while she told Angor about the regtions inside The Tributary.

    ¡°... That should be everything you need to remember. Oh, one more thing. If you bring your friends, make sure that they stay close to you at all times. Without a name card, no one will go and rescue them if they run into ¡®troubles¡¯ in the mountain woods,¡± Iron Granny said with a smile as she pointed toward Angor¡¯s chest.

    Inside the inner pocket that she was pointing at, Toby was sound asleep with his legs sticking upward in an awkward manner.

    ¡°Understood, Granny,¡± Angor chuckled.

    ¡°Okay, we¡¯re here. Feel free to call me if you need toe or leave this ce again,¡± Iron Granny said. She then walked upstairs. ¡°I¡¯ll not see you off this time. The otherb closest to yours is a hundred kilometers away, so don¡¯t worry about attracting curious folks with your omens.¡±

    With herst ¡°friendly reminder¡±, Iron Granny disappeared into the second floor.

    Angor scratched his head in embarrassment. Iron Granny, who lived in this quiet ce, also heard about his alchemy omen, which meant he created a really big fuss out there.

    What Iron Granny just said reassured him. If nothing went wrong, the next space storage he was going to craft would be another mid-tier item. Letting it known by too many people would be really troublesome.

    An alchemy omen did not necessarily suggest the work of a master alchemist. However, it was still umon, considering how Brute Cavern only witnessed such omens two or three times each year. If he brought a different omen every other day with hispetent alchemy attempts, people would soon consider it a very serious matter.

    In his mind, Angor thanked Vice again for granting him such a safe ce to do his job.

    Even if someone would wander near hisb, they wouldn¡¯t actually enter his territory, which was one of the most important rules inside The Tributary.

    ...

    The ¡°Lab #13¡± building was aposite, castle-like structure with three levels and about ten meters high. Like the Iron Fortress, theb was also built with iron.

    The interior of theb also showed great craftsmanship just like the distinctive design of the outside.

    All three levels above the ground were designed for daily activities. Angor took a small tour and found all the basic furniture he might need. The basement was turned into ab room¡ªargeb room, which was divided into several dozen different sections for different purposes. He even found some weaving and tailoring tools.

    The alchemy section alone was ten times bigger than his basement back at the vi, and it had more advanced tools. Angor picked up an engraving pen that sped up enchantment work and couldn¡¯t help admiring it for a long time.

    He cast a Dust Removal. Once it was done and before he woke Toby up, he checked all the magical devices in theb to make sure there were no traps or fishy tricks.

    Toby released all the materials stored inside Snowy Feather onto the floor, and Angor carried them to the material section. This section came with a number of greenhouses and gardens. There were also devices that transferred sunlight from the outside as well as culture chambers for the observation of live specimens. The tools almost covered the needs for the use of all possible materials. To Angor, this alone was worth the trip.

 Chapter 309 - The Desolated Path and The Bustling Town

    Chapter 309: The Dested Path and The Bustling Town

    Angor told Toby not to wander away from the territory of his etherealboratory before he began his work.

    There was one more thing he needed to do before actually creating his item, which was to practice multitasking. Usually, any wizard who could calm his mind and meditate could do something like this. However, it was apletely different case when someone wished to multitask while handling extremely difficult alchemy processes.

    Here, Angor needed to draw a magic array while forging a space storage item at the same time; both of which required his attention. He had to maintain a stable mana output during the entire course without getting distracted.

    However, Angor had help.

    While drawing a magic array, he could copy from his hologram projection without having to spend too much of his own effort. A stable mana stream wasn¡¯t a problem when he could use the axes of the universe, which meant he only needed to concentrate on the second task¡ªmaking the space storage item.

    Another major challenge was drawing two runes at the same time, which was also the main reason why there were very few alchemy items withposite effects in this world.

    It was thest step of his work. While drawing the magic array, he had to work on the covenant rune as well. Doing so required wizard-level mental and controlling abilities.

    And not many people became wizards while they studied alchemy.

    Because of this, mostposite-effect alchemy items sold on the market were products of synthesis, not enchantment.

    With the help of his tablet, Angor could disregard such restriction. It might appear as something that did not belong to his current level, yet there were no such things as ¡°conventions¡± for alchemists¡ªways set up by predecessors weren¡¯t necessarily the best ways.

    Besides, practical experience was always more important when it came to alchemy. Before, Angor had to rely on projections to draw runes. With enough practice done, he could already draw the simpler runes straight out of his memory.

    As long as he could gain the oue that he wanted, the method he used didn¡¯t really matter.

    Angor spent two days getting familiarized with multitasking. He made sure that every step and time point was perfect before he began to craft.

    And it took him another two days.

    When it was finally time for the final forging step, the skin around his eyes was almostpletely ck.

    On one side, his ¡°Infinite Reticence¡± was approaching its final phase, while on the other end, the ¡°covenant rune¡± also had onest stroke left. He controlled two pairs of Hands of Spell which carried two engraving pens to join the two lines together. Once he did so, the joining point of two runes began to release an amazing energy aura.

    Time for Condense.

    As his eyes burned with passion, he lost bnce for a brief moment and almost fell down. Luckily, the spell area of Condense wasn¡¯t affected by the small quiver.

    He was just too tired. He only got to rest for five hours in the past four days.

    He slowly removed his clothing and tossed them aside. The wet clothes gave out the terrible smell of sour sweat on the floor, while his bare backside was tainted by patches of sweat salt after being trapped under poorly-ventted fabrics for such a long time. He simply used his Hand of Spell and rubbed his back a little using a wet towel.

    The chill of water sank into his back, loosening the tensed skin.

    Meanwhile, he kept his concentration on the ¡°ring¡± that was being condensed in his spell. The area of the spell was shing with white beams of light, and the finishing move was imminent.

    ¡°That¡¯s it!¡±

    A strong glimmer was released into the room, causing Angor¡¯s already tired-out eyes to water uncontrobly.

    When it darkened again, Angor wiped his tears away and found himself standing at somewhere strange.

    It was dark, stale, and void of life.

    A crescent moon hanged in the sky. The mountains in the distance and the water nearby were all coated under a dark color.

    The omen hade.

    ...

    An alchemy omen wasn¡¯t just a signal that told others about the appearance of a new alchemy item. It was also a challenge, a trial, for the alchemist who created it.

    It was to test whether the alchemist could bear to possess the new creation which defied the rules of nature.

    Back then, when Angor learned about the ¡°dark cloud¡± he caused, he immediately went to search for rted information in the evening.

    Any mid-tier alchemy item would cause such an omen. Also, the omen existed both on the outside, and on the alchemist.

    The ¡°dark cloud¡± which covered the entire town was the ¡°outside omen¡±, while the omen that affected the alchemist... now appeared as this deserted area that Angor was standing in.

    The item was only considered a sess once the alchemist could clear the trial. Otherwise, the item might suffer degradation in its effect or level.

    Angor wondered why the silver revolver didn¡¯t present him any ¡°personal omen¡± before.

    When there was a dark cloud outside, he also heard the howling of perished souls around his ears. He believed that the noise was his omen since it somewhat hurt his head at the beginning. However, the itchiness on his shoulder soon prevented it.

    It looked very simr to when he fought Saka in Sky Tower when Silvia¡¯s howling didn¡¯t affect him at all.

    It seemed none of the negative effects aimed at souls would work on him.

    When he was creating that revolver, Angor unknowingly avoided an omen thanks to his special trait. This time, however, he had to face the challenge head-on and survive whatever was presented in front of him.

    He carefully looked around the dark area. The dirt under his feet was totally ck. The river nearby was ck. Looking further, there was a ck forest, and then shadowy mountains... even the sky was pitch-ck. The sickle-shaped moon was the only noticeable object. There were no stars, no clouds.

    Nothing.

    Next, Angor looked down at himself. His upper body was still bare, and he only had a pair of simple trousers.

    The wind in the night blew over, injecting painful chills into his bones.

    When he moved to cast a cantrip to warm himself, he realized he could no longer control his mana. The mana that was flowing in his mana pool now enteredplete stasis, just like the environment.

    He walked to the riverbank and saw the dark water moving below. Yet he couldn¡¯t hear anything. The whole world around him was deathly and terrifyingly quiet.

    He moved on, trembling a little.

    He was walking on the only path he could see. There was a dense forest behind him, and in front of him, there was only total darkness. He chose to move forward into the dark, for he feared that some unknown and deadly trap awaited him behind those trees.

    Following his instinct, he moved toward whatever that looked smoother on the path.

    He didn¡¯t know how long he walked. One hour, or maybe one day.

    He felt tired, but he couldn¡¯t stop. Something told him that danger would quickly catch him if he were to rest now.

    It was the same instinct that warned him of great danger when inside the Nightmare Padt Manor, as well as when possessed by Parasite Queen. And he always trusted it.

    The end of the path led him toward a small town.

    The town seemed lively. When he moved closer, he saw residents in the town talking, singing, and dancing joyfully. There were snack vendors, colorfulmps, party spots, and children ying along the street.

    When he stepped into the town, he suddenly sensed the fearful quietness gone. Even the lonely moon in the sky appeared gentler, and it now shined a soothing light onto the earth instead of the cold gleam just a moment ago.

    Everyone was having fun in this energetic town, and Angor felt himself getting influenced by them. Someone walked to him to invite him to their dance. Angor only stepped forward a little before he backed away out of cautiousness. He moved to a corner of a wall when the passionate dancer moved away to look for someone else.

    Angor kept moving again, during which more people invited him to join their activities, be it singing, eating or drinking. Angor rejected them all, and each time he did so, people simply shifted their attention to something else instead of insisting.

    He felt it strange. It seemed people here could all see him, yet the passionate folks never requested him to stay.

    He walked through the crowds while pondering about the situation. Was this an illusion? Yet as a talented Illusionist apprentice himself, he didn¡¯t sense any properties that indicated that it was an illusion.

    Everything he could see, feel, or touch told him that this was a reality. Everything was real. The dested path, the cold wind, the dark water in the river, or the bewitching happiness which made up this small town.

    Did something really create a whole reality just to give him a ¡°testing omen¡±?

    Angor recalled something simr called ¡°mental demons¡± which he read about in the novels from Earth. It was both an illusion and the truth. It tricked your senses, yet... it did not.

    It was like a game, which gave you a challenge ording to the item you built. You clear the challenge to get the reward, and if you fail, you would receive a punishment.

    So... what kind of challenge was created by his space storage?

 Chapter 310 - Infinite Reticence

    Chapter 310: Infinite Reticence

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    When Angor nned to make aposite-effect space storage, he read through the entire Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters and didn¡¯t find any rune he wanted. The passive effects granted by these basic runes all looked too simple. He simply gave up and moved on to the magic arrays described in Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced.

    He had to choose which enchantment effect to give his space storage.

    Attack abilities? No. He might as well make another weapon for that purpose.

    Defensive effect? He thought about it and denied his idea. Anyone who managed to break his defense could damage his space storage too, which would do something bad to the stored items. For defense, his best choice was to make something else.

    The magic arrays were either too difficult to draw or unsuitable to his situation.

    Until he was attracted by something called ¡°Infinite Reticence¡±.

    It was a magic array simr to ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡±, which consisted of six runes. The book Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced provided a detailed exnation.

    ¡°Stealth and istion¡±.

    Stealth, as the word suggested, was used to hide something.

    An item enchanted with ¡°Infinite Reticence¡± was able to conceal its physical form. In other words, bing invisible. Since he was going to keep his most precious items in his space storage, this effect alone had almost convinced Angor of the choice. Being able to hide it from in sight would be perfect.

    Also, ¡°Infinite Reticence¡± could conceal the aura of an item as well. Even wizards wouldn¡¯t be able to sense the presence of something hidden in this way, which further secured Angor¡¯s possessions.

    Apart from ¡°stealth¡±, the ¡°istion¡± effect of Infinite Reticence could be considered something simr. But ¡°stealth¡± was a semi-passive effect that could keep going for a long time at the cost of a very small amount of energy, while ¡°istion¡± required its user to actively trigger it. The actual level of the effect depended on how much energy was used.

    Under the effect of ¡°istion¡±, the presence of the user became weaker. If he used full force to activate the magic array to its max level, he would avoid being noticed by anyone as long as he stayedpletely still.

    Generally speaking, the supportive effect of ¡°Infinite Reticence¡± worked wonders for Angor, who preferred to stay low among people. It helped him keep his items safe while evading too much attention.

    However, the effect couldn¡¯tpletely cut off his connection with the outside world. Using the magic array, he could only escape someone who tracked him by eyesight. Anything or anyone that could sense his hormone or use a prophecy spell could still locate him easily.

    Angor fully remembered the stealth effect of Infinite Reticence and wondered how to clear the ¡°stage¡± he was in.

    Suddenly, a four-wheeled vehicle decorated by colorful shiningmps appeared on the busy road.

    There were five horses pulling the vehicle with a giant stage as its main body. Pairs of dancers who wore beautiful masks and getups showed their performance to the onlookers around.

    At the same time, they were tossing colorful feathers and flowers into the crowds.

    The townsfolk grabbed the objects joyfully as if they were picking up free coins.

    When Angor watched the scene in a daze, the door of a bakery nearby suddenly opened up with a loud ¡°squeak¡±, and a gentle-looking woman carried a big te of hot bread outside.

    Upon smelling the sweet bread, Angor¡¯s stomach growled helplessly. The woman heard him and approached him with a bright smile.

    Yet Angor only felt his heart beating faster as the woman drew closer.

    Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

    Angor turned around and bolted to the other side of the street. He turned around and saw the woman speaking to a beggar.

    ¡°Was it you? I thought... Never mind. Go ahead and take one. Don¡¯t starve yourself.¡±

    As Angor remembered, the beggar was sitting right behind where he was a moment ago.

    The terrible sense of danger vanished when he saw the woman giving a piece of bread to the beggar.

    ¡°Are you telling me not to ept anything from these people?¡±

    As he went over it in his mind, a milky-white ca flower came from the sky andnded on his shoulder, then it tumbled along his arm, reaching his hand.

    He noticed that the flower came from the dancers¡¯ vehicle and frowned.

    ¡°No. I didn¡¯t feel it again when I take their stuff...¡±

    As he considered, he quickly sensed the uneasiness growing in his mind again. He looked up from his hand and soon realized the problem.

    Anyone who found a flower or plume would attract jealous looks from people. Now with his ca flower, those standing in front of him were turning around to find out who the ¡°lucky guy¡± was.

    And this was when Angor felt the terrible sense reaching its climax.

    ¡°I know it now! My instinct is telling me to avoid their attention but not their things!¡±

    He felt the warning every time someone looked his way. For example, when the bread maker heard his belly rumbling and moved to him...

    ¡°Wait. Did she not see me at all?¡± Angor realized something else.

    And he got another idea about his situation. When he entered this strange ce, he was holding his space bracelet, which was enchanted with Infinite Reticence. Now, the effect of Infinite Reticence was affecting him. He was ¡°isted¡± from the crowd.

    The bread maker did hear his belly noise and checked. But she never actually saw him. His presence was weakened, and the woman thought it was the beggar behind him who made the noise.

    He looked at his hand again. The ca flower had broken through his ¡°protection¡±. Of course people would easily notice who just won a flower, which would ruin his trial.

    With that in mind, Angor immediately tossed the flower on the ground and moved into the shadows of the buildings.

    As he expected, the sense of danger disappeared.

    He understood now; he had to avoid catching anyone¡¯s attention in this happy town.

    But he still didn¡¯t know how to get out.

    ¡°Guess I¡¯ll keep going forward.¡± He already noticed that the town only had one street, which probably meant the same one he had been walking on.

    To stay safe, he slowly walked toward the exit of the town while staying as low as possible.

    ...

    In reality, Angor had his eyes shut tightly. The ¡°ring¡± in his hand was still glowing.

    When the light died down a little, it could be seen that the ¡°ring¡± was a simple-looking bracelet, which had been releasing a strange aura into the environment after it left the area of Condense.

    Angor¡¯s etherealboratory #13 was located in the southwest area of The Tributary, a remote corner around the rising mountains.

    When he moved in, Iron Granny mentioned that there was no one else within an area of a hundred kilometers, so he could do whatever he liked. Even if he would create omens, those outside the area wouldn¡¯t notice him across thendscape which blocked their sights.

    The granny spoke the truth, that there was ¡°no one else¡± in this area¡ªno one other than Angor and her.

    ...

    The Iron Fortress was parked on top of a small hill lump, about five kilometers away fromb #13.

    Iron Granny was sitting on a soft armchair on the balcony on the third floor of the fortress, enjoying the smell of the Dusk Blossoms she nted. She had an exquisitely-decorated tray in one hand and a teacup of the same style in her other hand. The rose tea in the cup was still releasing vapor into the air.

    She sipped her tea and gazed at the clear blue sky. ¡°s... the same boring day goes on. Why won¡¯t you alle here and have some tea with this old bone, young¡¯uns? Is this ce not fun for you?¡±

    The shadows of several figures shed in front of her eyes¡ªwizards, who once owned theirbs inside The Tributary. But they were no longer here.

    As Iron Granny summoned her memories, a surge of strong mountain gale suddenly rose and created nking noises on the iron wall of the fortress.

    The mountain gale kept going and grew stronger as if the sea were witnessing a storm.

    The mist covering the mountains were gone. Trees that were growing at the mountain foot bent to one side. The Dusk Blossoms on the balcony all left their stems. For a moment, purple, red, yellow, and white flowers joined the wind and floated into the horizon like dandelion seeds.

    Even Iron Granny¡¯s silver hair bun was messed up.

    With an ¡°oof!¡±, she ced her teacup on the tray and freed up a hand to rearrange her hair. Then she looked toward the southwest whereb #13 stood.

    Where the mountain gale came from.

    ¡°Ho... Angor, um? What a talented little one. It¡¯s only several days, and you made another mid-tier alchemy charm?¡± Iron Granny stood up, releasing the glimmer of spells from her eyes. ¡°Let me see what the omen is telling us...¡±

    Aboveb #13, the sky was blue and clear while the clouds gathered in peace. Nothing particr could be seen apart from the blowing mountain wind, yet Iron Granny clearly registered what was going on using her special power.

    A momentter, she canceled her spell and squinted her eyes.

    ¡°Strange ripples, concealed omen, mountain gale that tries to blend in with the woods... something that helps you hide? Clever. He knows when to stay low. It¡¯s true that strong wind ismonly seen in mountain woods. Yet an experienced hunter can easily tell when something¡¯s wrong from the umon weather. Although... with Sunders protecting you, there is no hunter who¡¯s brave enough to mark you as prey.

    ¡°Now that I think about it... Why did Sunders suddenly change his ways? Did Wace do something to him?¡± Iron Granny looked away from the unseen omen and indulged her mind in other matters.

 Chapter 311 - The Way of Solitude

    Chapter 311: The Way of Solitude

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    It seemed the whole omen world was targeting Angor. Wherever he went, something would happen.

    For example, a careless mother who was tending flowers on her balcony identally broke the floor beneath her when her child was ying right downstairs...

    Anything that would attract people¡¯s attention came happening around him.

    At one time, Angor saw a patch of moonlight shined inside a small yard. When he approached the light to check his environment, he immediately backed away when his instinct warned him again. After more careful observation, he noticed a kid peeking from behind a curtain in a small house. The kid was looking at the same moonlight spot with a captivated expression,.

    Going into the light would ruin everything.

    He slowly got ahold of the difficulty of the trial. ording to a book he read before, a mid-tier alchemy item wouldn¡¯t give him anything harmful, while only stronger or mystery items sometimes presented deadly omens to their creators.

    Still, it wasn¡¯t easy to pass this test. He would have already failed if not for his instinct.

    He began to realize that drawing Prelude to Elimination was already a bold move. Without his soul wound, the terrible howling of souls would have broken his sanity.

    Angor remained extremely careful in this peaceful yet stressful world. The street wasn¡¯t long, yet he walked for two hours before he reached the end.

    As he left the small town and saw the extending, deste wilderness again, he sighed in relief.

    Before he could fully calm down, a giant explosion suddenly burst out from the town behind him, shaking the ground. Angor stumbled a little and barely kept his bnce.

    Following the glowing smoke, he heard the screaming of children and adults alike.

    Out of his own instinct, he wanted to turn around to check what happened.

    But the other ¡°unknown instinct¡± stopped him.

    ¡°So I can¡¯t look back?¡±

    He regained calmness and kept walking away, ignoring the painful cries that tingled his conscience.

    He hesitated for many times, and each time, that foreign instinct would immediately persuade him to give up.

    He felt better when he could no longer hear anything.

    He walked down the only path for a long time and reached a forest that showed a pale white color under the lone moon. It didn¡¯t look so safe, but he still walked inside.

    Despite the worrying shadows and ghostly ambiance, the forest was peaceful enough. It didn¡¯t take long for Angor to pass through.

    The first thing that weed him outside the forest was a dark gate which stood on a plot of empty ground. A shining magic array¡ªInfinite Reticence¡ªwas drawn on the closed gate.

    At the edge of the woods, near the bank of a dark river...

    Angor looked up and checked the moon, as well as the footprints on the path in front of him. It seemed he just walked back to where he started.

    The only thing different was the ck gate.

    Did it mean he could get out now?

    He went over his previous experience; the lonely path he had to walk, the lively town in which he had to avoid attention, and the second path where he had to ignore the suffering of the people behind him.

    He believed those were his trials... yet he also felt as if he was warned of something else.

    Entering the wizarding world meant stepping onto a path of solitude, where halting his progression meant getting left out by everyone. As an apprentice, he had to keep away from the pleasure of civilization and focus on his own study, or he would never stand out. And to achieve his goals, he had to keep going forward, while forcing his mind to bear with the cruelty of this ce.

    He stared into the dark path again and no longer felt fear. The path was both his trial and the path of wizardry that led him toward truth.

    Eternal night, lonesome stillness... A wizard had to endure them for a lifetime.

    ...

    Angor felt dazed when he walked through the gate. He opened his eyes to see himself inside theb again. The space bracelet was still glowing with a faint light in his hand.

    When he put his attention on the simple-looking essory, a strange aura suddenly showed up from nowhere and sank into it.

    It ended along with the remaining glimmer on the object. Now he was holding a simple, insignificant bronze bracelet.

    He knew that this finally suggested his sess.

    Angor got rid of his initial excitement and began to check his new creation.

    The bracelet looked... in. Poor, even. The Infinite Reticence magic array was engraved on the inner circle, so it couldn¡¯t be seen from the outside. There was only a single line that reached toward the covenant rune which was drawn on a gem that was embedded on the surface of the item.

    This single rune line determined that the two special effects had joined as one. Otherwise, it would only be a bracelet with Infinite Reticence and a space gem with a covenant rune.

    He reached his spirit power inside and concluded that there were 9 cubic meters inside, which was the best he could do. A space storagerger than 10 cubic meters was a mid-tier item on itself, without the need for any extra effects.

    Since the bracelet was for his own use, he quickly injected his signature mana into the covenant rune. Soon enough, the red gem began to release a series of shining ripples which covered the entire bracelet, thus determining the final contract.

    From now on, Angor was the only one who could use the space bracelet, and unless the item was forcefully destroyed, no one else could use their spirit feelers to look inside.

    He put the bracelet on and slightly injected his mana to activate Infinite Reticence. The bronze-colored object slowly faded out on his wrist until it becamepletely transparent.

    Now, neither eyes nor spirit feelers would be able to sense anything on his wrist. However, direct contact might still give out the secret.

    This was the first time he actually used a space storage, and yet, Angor couldn¡¯t help fidgeting around the item like it was a newly-obtained toy. He then felt faint again, and he finally remembered that he hadn¡¯t caught any sleep for several days. He stopped ying with the bracelet and walked to a small bed ced against a corner of theb wall, yawning.

    Before falling asleep, Angor remembered to put his Hollow Weed inside the space bracelet. The magical nt was extremely easy to use¡ªit would live on its own after it was put inside the space, and it would begin to cultivate its ¡°tiny habitat¡±. Angor only needed to wait and enjoy the final oue.

    He slept to his heart¡¯s content. He couldn¡¯t sense day and night inside the basement section. When he woke up, night had passed and it was already noontime.

    He yawned again before he sensed the Hollow Weed inside his bracelet. Overnight, the 13 orbs had opened up a small patch of green at a corner inside the space storage. It was about half a meter in length and width.

    It was almost the best he could get with so much Hollow Weed. However, he was pretty satisfied. The only thing that needed to live inside the ¡°tiny habitat¡± was the Section Ephemera that Angor received from Greya.

    He tidied up the messyb a little, and before he headed to his bathroom, he went to the material stockpile to transfer every precious thing into his bracelet.

    Yesterday, he fell on his bed as he was, and now, he could smell rotten bread[a][b] on his skin.

    While waiting for the bathtub to get filled, Angor removed the Alien Eye from his neck.

    This valuable artifact was the ¡°culprit¡± that brought Jon to this world, and he had always kept it close. But now, he was going to keep it inside the bracelet.

    To his surprise though, he couldn¡¯t put the Alien Eye into the space storage. Or rather, something told him that forcefully stuffing it in would destroy the space storage.

    He hesitated for a while before hanging it around his neck again. Anyway, nothing would go wrong since even Sunders didn¡¯t notice anything from the artifact.

    Angor enjoyed a nice, hot bath. He then put on some clean clothes. Then, he walked upstairs in a joyful mood.

    ¡°Toby?¡± Angor heard the gentle melody of City of Sky when he entered the main hall, along with sharp bird chirps. He then saw Toby singing along with the music box again.

    He didn¡¯t really want to interrupt Toby¡¯s pleasure. However, he still called out, just to save his eardrums.

    ¡°Tweet!¡± Toby fluttered to Angor. The animalnded on his master¡¯s shoulder and began toin to Angor about various things.

    Basically, Toby felt too constrained.

    Ever since the incident at the auction, Angor didn¡¯t allow Toby to go outside on his own. And now Toby was trapped in theb again. As a bird, Toby¡¯s nature was to fly freely in the sky.

    Realizing this, Angor also felt a bit sorry for his action. He stroked Toby¡¯s feathers andforted him in a small voice, ¡°We¡¯re going home soon. I just happen to have some free time today, so how about we go meet your little partner tonight?¡±

    Toby immediately slumped down upon hearing ¡°little partner¡±; he did so by lowering his head and wings.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to deal with this matter yet. He only put a finger on the bird¡¯s tiny head.

    ¡°Profit moves everything around. Just keep that in mind when you make friends again.¡±

    Toby nodded and rubbed against Angor¡¯s palm.

    ¡°Get your things ready, and we¡¯ll leave.¡±

    Again, they needed to ride on the Iron Fortress to leave The Tributary.

    Iron Granny greeted Angor with the same gentle smile. She asked about random things like what an elder would do. When Angor exited through the portal, the woman put up a frown.

    ¡°Good job, kid. I can¡¯t find where you put your new item. Did he hide it inside a space storage?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t hear the old woman¡¯s grumble; otherwise, he would find it quite funny.

    Walking away from theke portal, Angor put on his wizard robe and injected some mana into Infinite Reticence to trigger the ¡°istion¡± effect.

    On Angor¡¯s shoulder, even Toby felt something strange when their presence was actively weakened by the magic array.

    ¡°Did you see the alchemy omen yesterday?¡± Angor asked the bird in a small voice.

    Toby escaped from his confusion upon hearing Angor¡¯s voice. He then shook his head and waved his wings around.

    ¡°There was nothing apart from strong winds blowing over?¡±

    [a]rotten bread? just to confirm

    [b]Maybe ¡°his skin smelled like rotten bread¡± would be better?

 Chapter 312 - Urgency

    Chapter 312: Urgency

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    It was an extremely luxurious hall, decorated by simrly deluxe furniture. There was a long desk crafted from millennial wood found in an ancient catb, a floor carpet made from the hide of an Abyssal Pr Bear, and shiny oilmps that burned from the fat refined from body oil of white-bellied shark folks.

    The only thing that didn¡¯t go well with the exquisite, brightly-lit hall was itsck of habitants.

    Thud, thud, thud...

    Clear and loud footsteps were suddenly heard inside the deste hall.

    The chamber pirs had been illuminated by theirmps through thest century. Beside the first pir, a pair of snow-white legs walking on red-striped brown high-heels suddenly showed up beneath the shadows.

    The body of a beautifuldy wearing a me-red dress soon came under the light.

    ¡°Ah, so it¡¯s you. What are you here for?¡± a woman sitting in front of the long desk asked.

    Across the semi-transparent silk curtain and waveringmplight, a finely-curved feminine figure sat on the main seat beside the long desk as she stirred the liquid inside a teacup.

    ¡°Can¡¯t Ie to take a look?¡± The visitor pushed the curtain aside, walked around the desk, and inspected the hot firece and fragrant Frost Blossom flowers on a cab. She then stomped her foot at the bear hide carpet as if venting out her discontent. ¡°I see your little home is getting more sumptuous. And you haven¡¯t formed a body on top of all that mist yet. Why do you need all these stuff anyway, Lady Mirror?¡±

    The woman¡¯s figure that was made up of pure white mist shifted. She was Lady Mirror, the embodiment of the entire mirror world and one of the three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern.

    ¡°I like it this way. Why do you care?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care. I¡¯m just saying. Since you can already get a body, why would you show up in front of everyone as a lump of smoke?¡± The visitor lifted her red robe and sat down next to Lady Mirror. ¡°That great being has been away for many years. He can alwayse back easily, and he didn¡¯t, which means he doesn¡¯t care about you anymore.¡±

    Lady Mirror¡¯s misty facial features scowled. ¡°You went to listen to some random gossip again? Did Antique Love Poems publish another edition, and did they use ME as some kind of widow-waiting-on-husband again? What great being? I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡±

    ¡°Oh, stop pretending. No, it¡¯s not Antique Love Poems. It¡¯s Yorditemis. She told me that you¡¯re once in love with the great being behind Candy House.¡±

    ¡°Yordi... what now? What¡¯s that strange name?¡±

    ¡°A new wizard from Tree of Paradise, who inherited her teacher¡¯s title, ¡®Bird of Paradise¡¯. She¡¯s also a new idol of the magazine writers from the south. And... my bestie. She¡¯s fun.¡±

    ¡°Tree of Paradise?¡± Lady Mirror huffed. ¡°The organizations under Candy House is getting out of control, I see. They are bold enough to joke about that ¡®great being¡¯ now? So they think he¡¯s nevering back again? Trust me, Lotus, keep away from your new bestie, for your own good.¡±

    The visitor held Lady Mirror¡¯s hand. ¡°Come on, we¡¯re friends. Just call my name.¡±

    ¡°Know your ce, Lydia,¡± Lady Mirror scolded, but she still smiled happily. ¡°And don¡¯t listen to those stories¡ªI¡¯ve nothing to do with that man. He pursues the truth, while I seek immortality. We parted ways a thousand years ago, and we never changed our ambitions since then. We are not together.¡±

    ¡°But she sounded so sure of it.¡± Lydia wasn¡¯t convinced, and she asked, ¡°You remained without a body just to wait for him, right?¡±

    ¡°I continue to stay like this because I haven¡¯t found a body I like. You¡¯re a renowned witch now, Lydia. When will you get rid of those mortal women¡¯s ideas?¡±

    Lydia rolled her eyes and poured herself a cup of Lady Mirror¡¯s tea. She then gulped it down in one go. ¡°I see you¡¯ve already gained a way deeper awareness of wizardry than me, Lady Mirror. I came to show you a keepsake I obtained from Mister Sunders. I guess you won¡¯t be needing it.¡±

    Lady Mirror¡¯s teacup halted in the air.

    ¡°Sunders?¡± Excited, she dragged Lydia closer. ¡°Oh dear, Sunders finally learned how to please a woman? He gifted you something?¡±

    Lydia cleared her throat. ¡°I met with him by chance at Twilight Well. He said he missed me, so he gave me a small gift.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Lady Mirror grew doubtful. ¡°Did Sunders really care about you? So... should I shape my body like yours and be something like a subus?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say you don¡¯t have anything you like yet?¡±

    Lady Mirror wasn¡¯t ashamed at all. ¡°I like what Sunders likes. What¡¯s the problem?¡±

    Lydia was speechless.

    Lady Mirror spread a hand. ¡°Come, show me what Sunders possibly gave you.¡±

    Lydia came here both to visit her old friend and to show off her ¡°Land on the Sky¡±. She really hoped it would impress Lady Mirror more than those portraits of gentlemen.

    Lydia pretended to hesitate before she finally took out the music box from her pocket.

    ¡°A gift that Mister Sunders presented to me. Maybe a token of love,¡± Lydia said. She seemed proud as she continued, ¡°It held Mister Sunders¡¯ feelings for me. Listen, Lady Mirror, this thing ys wonderful music, and it creates an amazing illusion...¡±

    Lady Mirror stared agape.

    Looking at the familiar object, Lady Mirror only wished to thank whichever god there was that prevented her from bringing out her ¡°Journey in Heaven¡± first.

    Sunders¡¯ token of love?

    This was totally embarrassing, for whoever that showed her ¡°trophy¡± first.

    And Lady Mirror thanked the unknown entity many times that she wasn¡¯t the first one to ¡°show off¡±.

    Lydia was still enjoying her exnation. ¡°... This is ¡®Land on the Sky¡¯...¡±

    Lady Mirror stopped her and smirked. ¡°¡®Land on the Sky¡¯ huh? Who named it?¡±

    Lydia was a little surprised.

    Did Lady Mirror hear about the grand auction? But shouldn¡¯t she be more interested in the more valuable items?

    Lydia considered and decided to measure the situation first. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I heard that name when I received it.¡±

    Lady Mirror grinned. ¡°Are you sure Sunders gave it to you?¡±

    Lydia squinted her eyes. She was now certain that Lady Mirror already knew about the music box. She only needed to find out whether Lady Mirror actually learned about the whole auction.

    Lydia smiled and covered her mouth. ¡°I was joking. I bought the music box from Twilight Auction. But I didn¡¯t lie when I said it was from Mister Sunders. Come on, check out the illusion.¡±

    Lady Mirror watched as Lydia intentionally yed the illusion. When the floating ind came into their views, Lydia winked at Lady Mirror as if saying, ¡°I told the truth, right? It must be Mister Sunders who personally created such a true illusion!¡±

    When Lydia was done, Lady Mirror chuckled and slowly revealed her ¡°Journey in Heaven¡±.

    Two identical music boxes with different names appeared together awkwardly.

    Lydia looked at the second music box and fell into the same awkwardness.

    Lady Mirror couldn¡¯t stop snickering. ¡°I got this one half a month ago. Its creator made this for me personally. Heh, smart boy. He said he was repaying my favor for saving his life, and soon after, he put it on sale at the auction. Next time he brings my CUSTOMIZED music box, I¡¯m so going to lecture him for good.¡±

    Lydia felt her embarrassment grew worse when she heard the word ¡°customized¡±.

    ¡°It¡¯s not Sunders who crafted the music box?¡±

    ¡°Of course not.¡±

    ¡°But¡ªI see the shadow of Sunders inside the illusion!¡±

    ¡°Because it was Sunders¡¯ student who made it.¡±

    Lady Mirror didn¡¯t intend to keep it a secret. She exined about Angor¡¯s business in detail without considering Angor¡¯s privacy at all.

    Lydia remained silent for a while.

    ¡°HE invented this? No wonder he could create that strange illusion at the auction house.¡±

    ¡°What? Feeling ashamed when your little lie was found out?¡± Lady Mirror teased.

    ¡°You knew it all along, eh? You set me up.¡±

    ¡°Every setback is your chance to mentally grow up.¡±

    Lydia scoffed. ¡°Never mind. At least I now know who¡¯s the creator, so I don¡¯t have to interrogate that Moonlily Fairy... I wonder why Angor gave a tiered alchemy creation to a lowly familiar though. Something doesn¡¯t add up.¡±

    Lady Mirror, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t interested in Lydia¡¯s business at all. The ancestor soul was thinking about how to tell Lydia about the ¡°brilliant and pleasurable¡± customized music box Angor was going to give her, without being too obvious.

    ¡°I¡¯d admit that Sunders found himself a pretty outstanding student. That kid created two alchemy omens the other day. An intermediate apprentice alchemist in less than a year... and you already saw his talent in illusions. I¡¯d say he got more skills than Sunders when that man was young,¡± Lady Mirrormented on Angor¡¯s achievement. ¡°It¡¯s just that the boy is too gentle-tempered, which doesn¡¯t go well with Sunders.¡±

    Lydia smirked. ¡°Go well? Ah, you haven¡¯t heard, Lady Mirror? Several days ago, Angor provoked Twilight Auction, and Twilight almost killed him. It was Sunders who saved him in the end. And you say they don¡¯t go well?¡±

    ¡°For real?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I think Flora¡¯s gonna die of jealousy at that time.¡±

    ¡°Then... should I copy Angor¡¯s shape?¡± Lady Mirror mumbled.

    ¡°Nice idea. I believe you¡¯ll look pretty good if you be a she-Angor.¡±

    They kept talking about random gossips when Lydia suddenly frowned. ¡°Huh... My Phantom Servant provider sent me an urgent message using blood sacrifice?¡±

    She took out a piece of brown paper which contained a covenant written in strange symbols. The symbols weren¡¯tprehensible when observed using eyes¡ªthey had to be read using spirit power. It was one of the top-ss means of documenting in the general ne.

    Lydia¡¯s name was printed on one side of the covenant, while the other side showed ¡°Moa¡±.

    ¡°The Moa n? Phantom Servants in Midnight Sovereign? Those are pretty potent servants,¡± Lady Mirror thought to herself.

    The paper slowly floated up, and Lydia turned to Lady Mirror. ¡°Can I get a fire?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t really a question¡ªLydia helped herself by pulling the fire from amp nearby and ced the paper above it.

    As the me devoured the paper, the symbols suddenly became ¡°alive¡± and began to move around on the paper. Finally, they turned into a new line of characters.

    ¡°Lady Lotus, the Midnight Sovereign is now almost devastated, and the Moa n is near its doom. Please, Lady, we beg for your merciful assistance...¡±

 Chapter 313 - Not Human?

    Chapter 313: Not Human?

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    With his presence reduced, Angor sessfully traveled through Tree Spirit Garden and Apprentice Town 8 without arousing any attention.

    He saw the crowd around his house getting bigger. Still, none of the people saw himing.

    He might increase his mana usage and make himselfpletely invisible. But the observers could still see him opening the gate, which could possibly give out his special item. There weren¡¯t many cantrips that hid human bodies. Infinite Reticence was something powerful enough to trick both the eyes and spiritual detections.

    Considering Angor¡¯s level of strength, people could easily determine that he possessed a special alchemy item.

    After some consideration, he decided to enter his house openly.

    Before he did though, he first headed to another yard several hundred meters away from his vi.

    The yard was an outdoor training ground full of tools used by Bloodline Wizards. Under the sunlight, Nausica was performing different maneuvers while carrying her knight sword in her left hand. Mana ripples were flowing about her body as they followed her movements.

    Angor stood outside the door and watched for a while. Due to the concealing effect of his item, even though Nausica¡¯s eyes scanned past his location several times, she never actually noticed him.

    He waited until Nausica took a rest before he knocked on the yard door.

    The effect that was protecting Angor wavered as he created the knocking noise. Nausica looked at the source of the sound. Probably because of the great contrast, Angor¡¯s presence was now more obvious in her eyes.

    She walked to the door. ¡°When did you start watching? I didn¡¯t notice you were here.¡±

    Angor only smiled. ¡°I got too many stalkers recently, so I used a small trick to cut my... sense of existence.¡±

    There were tons of different wizardry tricks, so Nausica thought that Angor used a cantrip that she didn¡¯t know. ¡°There have been fewer apprentices after your visitst time. But they sent more mortals now.¡±

    They entered Nausica¡¯s house while chatting.

    Angor came into Nausica house for the first time. And as he expected, there was nothing else apart from the default furniture that came with the house. Nausica¡¯s ultimate goal was immortality, and she paid no effort to improve herfort.

    After asking Toby to take it easy somewhere nearby, Angor put up a serious look. ¡°I¡¯m done with my jobs, and it¡¯s time for us to talk about your mechanical arm.¡±

    Starting from Nausica¡¯s current body condition, Angor noted down a series of details about her, including her injuries, electromyography, magic sensitivity, and vein capacity. Even her spiritual power, brainwave, and voice frequency were taken into consideration.

    Many of these were private information. There were many curses used by certain wizards which harmed or even killed people by using their blood, hair, fingernail, or scraps of skin. Angor recorded so many details that anyone with the wrong intentions might use such information to annihte Nausica.

    Nausica trusted Angor enough to answer everything she could. She didn¡¯t question Angor¡¯s purpose at all. She had no idea what did her brainwave or voice have to do with the man-made arm, but she still told them to Angor.

    Angor was quite relieved when Nausica¡¯s cooperated with him. It was very difficult to exin some of his theories to someone who didn¡¯t have the right knowledge, and Nausica just saved him much effort.

    After he learned all he needed, Angor carefully read through his note and tore the paper to pieces.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got them in my brain. No one will learn about them unless they crack up my head.¡±

    Nausica chuckled. ¡°I believe you.¡±

    Getting the information was Angor¡¯s main task foring here today. There was another trivial matter that he had to do.

    Or not really trivial, since it might prove to be important to women.

    They needed to determine the look of the arm.

    He reserved enough space on his draft paper and handed it to Nausica. As long as it didn¡¯t break the limit of his design, she could decide on the appearance of the arm.

    ¡°You... want me to create the picture? I mean, do you really think I can give you anything serviceable at all?¡±

    Angor drew a boundary line around his design. ¡°Leave everything I marked out in ce and do whatever you wish with the rest. It¡¯s your own arm, and it must suit your taste.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s pointless if I can¡¯t use it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ll help you modify it in the end.¡±

    Nausica blew out a smoke ring as she considered about it. ¡°Alright. I used to be a pretty famous painter on ckberry Waters... I provided our pirate g. I guess I¡¯ll let our master alchemist evaluate my skills.¡±

    She put down her pipe and took out a ck hairband to constrain her long hair into a ponytail so that it wouldn¡¯t affect her painting. Next, she started drawing the ¡°right arm¡± in her mind.

    While she did her work, Angor stayed aside to arrange the data he collected so that he could apply the data to Nausica¡¯s sketch.

    ¡°It¡¯s done,¡± Nausica said as she put down her pen a momentter.

    Angor took the paper with a smile. But that smile quickly turned stiff when he saw the random ck lines snaking around on the surface of the paper.

    There was a slim main body, and small... hooks, at the end of it. The first thing that came to Angor¡¯s mind was that Nausica just painted a ¡°paramecium¡±.

    ¡°This is the mark of ckberry. I want this one to keep reminding me not to forget about my past,¡± Nausica exined while Angor ¡°admired¡± her picture.

    ckberry? This is not some electric coil?

    Angor thought in his mind.

    ¡°This, is the mark of Brute Cavern, which means the present.¡±

    The sigil of Brute Cavern was a lump of burning me, while Nausica presented it by using a straight line smooth enough to be used as a ruler.

    ¡°This hook, is both a close-range weapon and a concealed throwing weapon. It means the future.¡±

    ¡°The past, the present, and future...¡± Angor mumbled. ¡°Neat idea. But... you sure you are a ¡®famous painter¡¯ back at your ce?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, my men all said ¡®ayyy ya genius!¡¯ when they saw my work. It¡¯s not my cup of tea, but I guess I¡¯m pretty good at it?¡±

    ¡°Um, yeah... just, you might need to get some proper ideas about what is ¡®beautiful¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying I¡¯m actually bad?¡± Nausica frowned.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a big pirate who dominated the sea? Then you must have many valuable paintings lying in your treasure vault. You did a pretty good job when admiring the painting hanging in my room.¡±

    ¡°Well, that was an ordinary painting in your room, while what I just did is impressionism.¡±

    Angor groaned and took back the drawing pen from the ¡°genius painter¡±. ¡°Okay, I get your idea. Past, present, and future, right? I¡¯ll work based on it. And sorry, but I really can¡¯tprehend your ¡®impressionism¡¯ masterpiece.¡±

    Nausica picked up her pipe again and lit it. ¡°¡®Kay, I¡¯ll leave it to you.¡±

    Since they had time, they invited Sailum and went to the Bartterfly Pub to enjoy a good meal together.

    At night, Angor squeezed across dense crowds and managed to get back to his house. Nausica¡¯s arm wasn¡¯t an urgent matter. He nned to spend some time to arrange his things. Anything that was rtively valuable ormonly used would go into his bracelet.

    His yard was protected by runes, but they wouldn¡¯t prevent determined intruders from stealing from his house.

    It was just to be safe.

    When he was almost done collecting everything, including the secret stash inside his soundproof room, he took Toby and left his house again. He was soon surrounded by people. Most of them were mortals, and he couldn¡¯t really do anything to them.

    ¡°I won¡¯t take any orders for now. Go back.¡±

    He cast a small-scale Acoustic Illusion, which convinced the mortals that he suddenly disappeared. However, the apprentices could easily see through the illusion.

    By the time they broke the illusion nodes, Angor already activated his ¡°istion¡± effect and walked away from the crowd.

    ...

    ¡°He¡¯s in Apprentice Town 1?¡± Angor followed Toby¡¯s instructions and found himself walking toward the other end of the Cave Field. ¡°You sure your little partner is here?¡±

    As he recalled, there were only senior apprentices who were many years ahead of him living there.

    Toby shook his head and pointed to the woods outside the town.

    The woods were connected to a series of mountains that stretched hundreds of kilometers far. No humans woulde here¡ªthere were only birds and beasts.

    ¡°Someone lives inside the mountains?¡± Angor asked, puzzled.

    Toby nodded, then shook his head again. ¡°Tweet, tweet!¡±

    Angorprehended Toby¡¯s birdnguage and widened his eyes. ¡°You mean your partner is not human? An animal? Another bird? Wait, no... It can weave clothes out of flowers and leaves, so it must be intelligent. Is it a monster?¡±

    Toby shook head again and kept posing in different ways. Angor never managed to read anything clear again. Toby was hinting flowers, sweet smell, and flying... could it be a flower monster?

    Angor gave up thinking in the end. He just needed to find out.

    It wasn¡¯t long after he walked into the vicinity of the mountains when the ¡°istion¡± effect on him started to falter.

    ¡°Someone noticed me?¡± Angor frowned. Did he do something that exposed his position? Or... someone just used a spell to detect him?

 Chapter 314 - Incident in Midnight Sovereign

    Chapter 314: Incident in Midnight Sovereign

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Could it be someone who wanted to ask him to make something, who was now looking for him, used a prophecy spell? That would be so wasteful!

    It wasmonly believed that prophecy spells posed the strongest backfire hazard among all arts. People almost never used such spells to directly predict the result of something, since such attempts easily provoked the world¡¯s consciousness. When trying to look for someone, a prophet usually looked for other less relevant matters first. The prophet would then deduce the location of the target by referring to the stars, the weather, or theyout of stones. This was why prophets always acted absurdly in the views of people.

    Now that Angor felt his ¡°istion¡± effect swaying, it was obvious that someone was checking on him directly.

    And if a prophecy spell was involved, whoever that did it aimed to get his location immediately. It was a dangerous act.

    He called Toby back and ced the invitation poster of Phantom Ind into Toby¡¯s Snowy Feather. He then ordered the bird to hide somewhere safe. It would be nice if someone simply wanted him to craft. But if someone were here to attack him... then he would let Toby escape to Phantom Ind, and hopefully, he would ask for Sunders¡¯ assistance.

    As he tried to convince Toby into running away, someone spoke to him in a clear voice.

    ¡°So cautious. Am I so scary to you?¡±

    A disturbingly shiny, half-naked man showed up from the trees.

    ¡°Mi-Mister Tree Spirit?!¡±

    ...

    An hour ago, inside Lady Mirror¡¯s residence, Lydia received a transmission from Tepikkhu Moa, which was sent at the cost of the blood of his kin.

    As the symbols becameprehensible characters on the paper-

    ¡°Devastated?!¡± It wasn¡¯t Lydia, but Lady Mirror who eximed first.

    Lydia did sign a contract with the Moa n that she would receive tribute from them. Yet she wasn¡¯t someone from Darkivil Empire. She wasn¡¯t even from Parmigi Hignds. Lydia originated from another wizarding family millions of kilometers away.

    As a small, self-sufficient family who enjoyed the brilliance of ancestors, Lydia¡¯s family was pretty abundant.

    To Lydia, whether the Midnight Sovereign was drowned with blood had little to do with her. However, Midnight Sovereign fell inside the territory of Brute Cavern, while the other side of Midnight Sovereign, which was Twilight Well, was mostly controlled by Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Something happened in Midnight Sovereign... What has be of Twilight Well?¡± Lady Mirror looked worried.

    Lydia carried the same grim expression. Lady Mirror might believe that she didn¡¯t care about the Midnight Sovereign, but Lady Mirror didn¡¯t know that her contract with the Moa n involved a sanctuary pact¡ªshe had to protect the n. If something caused the Moa n to die off, she would suffer a terrible bacsh from the covenant.

    ¡°As long as Twilight Well stays at the opposite side of Midnight Sovereign, we can¡¯t watch Midnight Sovereign go down. If Tepikkhu spoke the truth... something must have happened,¡± Lydia spoke.

    ¡°All of my energy is for supporting the mirror world. I¡¯ll go look for the Tree Spirit. He has enough spare energy to sense what¡¯s going on inside Midnight Sovereign,¡± Lady Mirror replied.

    When Lady Mirror prepared to leave, Lydia quickly stopped her. ¡°Wait, I can speak to Tepikkhu.¡±

    ¡°You can?¡± Lady Mirror frowned. It was possible tomunicate over such a long distance, but it was extremely hard to do it with a mortal.

    ¡°I left an alchemy puppet over there when I signed the contract. The puppet contained my blood which would help me to establish a connection. But my strength isn¡¯t enough to do it from too far. I need your help, Lady Mirror.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a problem. Go ahead.¡±

    Lydia injected her mana into her blood to create a resonance with the tiny trace of blood far away.

    ¡°I got it!¡±

    It was only several seconds, and Lydia was sweating badly on her forehead. ¡°Assist me, Lady Mirror, so I can bring the image here!¡±

    As Lady Mirror provided her extra energy, a scenery slowly materialized in front of them.

    Thousands of kilometers away, inside a secret underground chamber in Midnight Sovereign, a wicked ritual was beingmenced.

    An old man, who was wearing strange, colorful clothes like clown costumes, was tightly bound on top of an altar. He was mumbling nonsense. He would cry, scream, and suddenlyugh in the next second. His childish behaviors were decorated by a pair of maniacal eyes.

    ¡°Do we really have to do this, Father? Butler Horey has been serving our family for 60 years, body and soul. I can¡¯t bear to look at him being sacrificed...¡± a young man said with tears around his eyes.

    ¡°And you think I wish for this, Domino?! This man has apanied me for longer than your lifetime! But the outside has be hell. We must hide in this chamber, and Horey is the only one who ¡®turned¡¯. It¡¯s our only choice. Or should I kill someone normal instead? Or go outside and look for another of those things? We don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll get infected out there. To save ourselves, sacrificing Horey is the only thing we can do.¡±

    The speaker was a middle-aged Phantom Servant, Duke Tepikkhu, a powerful figure in the entire Midnight Sovereign.

    The young man who protested was Domino, Hobbiton¡¯s elder brother.

    Domino was fully aware of the situation, so he nodded. ¡°Hobbiton has gone missing... I wonder if Lady Lotus is willing to save us.¡±

    ¡°Again, it¡¯s the only way. We have to try.¡± Tepikkhu sighed when thinking about his younger son.

    The duke turned to his guard and revealed a determined look. ¡°Do it!¡±

    A guard moved a de to cut screaming Horey¡¯s leg artery. Blood came surging out like a fountain, tainting the guard¡¯s face.

    Tepikkhu quickly ordered another guard to take the blood-covered man into an observation room nearby. They didn¡¯t know the exact manner as to how the infection spread, but body fluid contact was one of the possible ways.

    Horey¡¯s blood slowly flowed down the altar and filled the base of the structure across the small gaps. In the end, it created a strange diagram, where a piece of brown paper floated at the center of it.

    Horey didn¡¯t respond at his wound. He keptughing, crying, and doing every creepy move he had been doing.

    Tears came flowing down both Domino and Tepikkhu¡¯s face as they watched Horey grew paler.

    When the brown paper suddenly glowed, Tepikkhu knelt down and screamed in a miserable voice, ¡°Lady Lotus, the Midnight Sovereign is now almost devastated, and the Moa n is near its doom. Please, Lady, we beg for your merciful assistance...¡±

    Time slowly went by. The paper lost its brilliance, while Tepikkhu kept at his kneeling position. Domino felt his heart aching with sadness and decided to join his father to pray for help from the great wizard.

    A momentter, something suddenly squeaked from a corner of the secret chamber.

    Tepikkhu and his son quickly looked up toward the source of the noise.

    This room was established by Lydia, and they usually didn¡¯te here. They had no idea what was ced in here, and they were both confused to see a legless doll with a giant head floating in the air.

    They then felt great joy when the dull-colored doll gave out a familiar woman¡¯s voice.

    Lady Lotus was here!

    ...

    The image was fuzzy, but Lady Mirror still managed to read the situation shown in it.

    ¡°They are the Moas? Good choice. They used a psycho as the sacrifice.¡±

    Horey was not dead yet but very close now. His eyes still disyed total madness.

    As someone who visited Tepikkhu¡¯s mansion before, Lydia quickly recognized the man on the altar. ¡°That¡¯s no psycho. I think he¡¯s the butler of the mansion. A prudent old man. How did ite to this?¡±

    She didn¡¯t worry about it too much. The man was going to die anyway.

    Using Lady Mirror¡¯s power, Lydia controlled the doll to approach Tepikkhu and Domino, who had been staring at the doll in shock.

    ¡°Keep it brief. Tell me what¡¯s happening inside Midnight Sovereign.¡±

    Lydia and Lady Mirror frowned harder and harder as they listened to Tepikkhu¡¯s exnation.

    ¡°Ask them if any wizard from Twilight Well came out and dealt with the situation yet,¡± Lady Mirror said in a low voice.

    The Twilight Well was only a legend to most residents in Midnight Sovereign, but an authoritative figure like Tepikkhu already knew about the ce. However, he never really went there.

    ¡°Has any wizarde out and help?¡± Lydia asked.

    Tepikkhu shook his head. ¡°No. I¡¯ve sent people to watch the entrance of Twilight Well ever since it started. No one came.¡±

    ¡°Something¡¯s not right,¡± Lydia replied to Lady Mirror in a small voice. ¡°Twilight¡¯s got to do something by now if it¡¯s just a new disease. Well, unless...¡±

    ¡°Oh, Lady Lotus, there¡¯s one more thing,¡± Tepikkhu said to the floating doll. ¡°Before entering the chamber, I saw a witch flying in the air while riding on a broomstick. She was wearing strange things and talking nonsense just like Butler Horey.¡±

    Both Lady Mirror and Lydia grimaced at those words.

    ¡°Now this is trouble. It must be an apprentice who can use a flying vehicle. Yet the ¡®disease¡¯ can affect her. We must quarantine Midnight Sovereign, now!¡±

    There were many types of illnesses that could affect supernaturals. But something that could do so in such a short time without allowing anyone to get the message out was somethingpletely different. Also, no one had shown up from Twilight Well yet, which meant...

    Were the wizards inside Twilight Well infected too?

 Chapter 315 - Suspicion of Parasites

    Chapter 315: Suspicion of Parasites

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°I left Twilight Well half a month ago. I traveled to Abyss ne first, then I¡¯m here in Brute Cavern with no other stops in between,¡± Lydia said. She then pondered about it. ¡°If Tepikkhu is right, the incident started in Midnight Sovereign three days ago... and no one noticed it? There was nothing wrong when I was still there.¡±

    ¡°Or maybe it all started from Twilight Well,¡± Lady Mirror mumbled, ¡°and it only spread into Midnight Sovereign when the entire Twilight Well fell?¡±

    ¡°Possible. The three ns of Twilight Well have more than 20 wizards and more in the dark. Something must have gone wrong since none of them get the message to Brute Cavern,¡± Lydia said. She tried to calm herself as she continued, ¡°An infection that affects wizards is no small matter.¡±

    ¡°And there¡¯s Devildare, a wizard on the path of truth. If that man failed to deal with whatever that¡¯s happening, it means great trouble!¡± Lady Mirror agreed. ¡°Let¡¯s go find Tree Spirit and ask him to contact Devildare. We must find out what exactly is going on.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave my connection on and send the puppet into the city to check the situation.¡±

    ¡°You do it. I¡¯ll provide the energy for the link.¡±

    The twodies departed and flew toward the Tree Spirit Pce. When they were halfway there, Lydia suddenly frowned. ¡°It¡¯s happening!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Lady Mirror asked.

    Lydia considered and disyed the image showing Tepikkhu¡¯s chamber.

    On the altar, Horey already closed his maddened eyes. The man¡¯s facepletely lost its color, and he wasn¡¯t breathing now.

    Soon, something shiny came rushing out of his mouth and swiftly ran into the body of another guard before anyone could react.

    Next, the affected guard disyed a twisted face. His neck abruptly jerked onto his left shoulder, while his four limbs bent and twisted beyond what was humanly possible. He was now singing and dancing madly inside the chamber in a weird way while shing at random things using his equipped long sword.

    Caught by surprise, Tepikkhu had his arm cut by the sword, and it began to bleed.

    ¡°Father!¡± Domino quickly assisted Tepikkhu. He stared at the mad guard in fear as he said, ¡°Laury! But howe? He didn¡¯t touch Horey! Or his blood!¡±

    After witnessing the death of Butler Horey, the wound on his father, and his childhood friend who had lost his sanity, Domino could no longer control his emotions. Tear streams came running down his cheeks.

    Lady Mirror scowled at the sight. ¡°Looks like it¡¯s not something we expected.¡±

    Lydia nodded. ¡°Yeah... Mortals cannot see that thing, so they think it¡¯s some disease. But it¡¯s not an infection. It¡¯s probably a type of parasite.¡±

    She controlled the big-headed doll to float in front of the mad guard.

    At the same time, Lydia pressed her palms together and performed a series of strange movements; the slim arms of the doll followed her example and did the same gesture.

    A scorching fireball appeared in the air and engulfed Laury.

    ¡°No! Laury!¡±

    When Lydia saw Domino rushing toward the mes, she ordered, ¡°Get out of there. Take Tepikkhu with you!¡±

    Tepikkhu already joined his son while he pressed down on his bleeding wound. The duke dragged Domino away before his son could say anything. But before they could reach the door, a shiny object emerged from the guard¡¯s burning body and shed into Tepikkhu faster than Lydia¡¯s doll could react.

    Tepikkhu had be another victim under everyone¡¯s gaze, even though Lydia¡¯s doll was just beside them.

    Lydia grimaced. She knew she should have asked them to escape BEFORE burning the guard. Now Tepikkhu was affected, which was mostly her fault.

    Tepikkhu¡¯s body began to flop around madly. He stepped onto Laury¡¯s burnt corpse and did a ballet spin, while his limbs zigzagged beyond human recognition.

    ¡°Why... why is this happening...¡± Domino couldn¡¯t take it anymore, and he knelt down. ¡°We called a mighty wizard, but my father...¡±

    While Domino sulked, Lydia controlled her magic doll and floated to Tepikkhu.

    Domino quickly looked up when he heard his father screaming in pain. He saw the doll holding Tepikkhu high in the air, preparing to drop the man down.

    Domino immediately ran to the doll and knelt. ¡°No, please! Lady Lotus! I can¡¯t... I can¡¯t watch my father die like this, even if he has turned. I beg of you, spare my father!¡±

    Lydia wouldn¡¯t hesitate to kill Tepikkhu at all, even if anyone else were there to beg. However... Tepikkhu¡¯s condition was her fault, and Domino Moa was the one who signed the contract with her. Lydia wasn¡¯t going to act harshly on someone who simply wished to save his father.

    ¡°I won¡¯t kill him.¡±

    Lydia cast a low-level cantrip ¡°Bind¡± and constrained Tepikkhu in a rope she created. Then, she tossed Tepikkhu¡¯s trapped body in front of Domino.

    ¡°I¡¯ve stopped the bleeding. Do take care of him. It¡¯s not an infection, but a monster parasite. There¡¯s still hope to get him back.¡±

    ...

    After the matter was dealt with, Lydia fell into a worse mood. She was now more anxious about the incident than Lady Mirror.

    ¡°Since we know it¡¯s a parasite, we only need to use the right approach,¡± Lady Mirror said.

    Lydia nodded. By ¡°right approach¡±, Lady Mirror meant to use spells like Expel or something stronger to chase the parasite away from its host. Every wizard knew about such spells. But... why hadn¡¯t any wizards from Twilight Well done anything yet?

    They both got a bad feeling about the situation.

    Upon arriving at Tree Spirit Pce, Lydia was surprised to see two Phantom Servants, one taller and one smaller, standing right beside Tree Spirit while wearing those usual robes and masks.

    Lydia sensed something familiaring from the shorter servant. However, Sunders¡¯ family emblem on the taller servant convinced her not to do anything to offend Sunders. Therefore, she decided not to use her spell to check them.

    With that in mind, Lydia returned her attention onto Tree Spirit.

    Lady Mirror already approached and exined the situation in Midnight Sovereign.

    Three days ago, the Midnight Sovereign was suddenly covered in thick mist, which abruptly turned the ten-thousand-square-kilometer city into hell.

    Inside the affected area of the mist, a malevolent anomaly began to affect the residents like a disease. Anyone who was tainted would be a maddened psycho who sang and danced while wearing strange clothes.

    Together with the eerie singing voices, the mist-covered city had be an ursed prison.

    The number of infected increased faster and faster, and nobody knew where the disease came from. Within three days, more than 99% of the entire poption, which was nearly a million citizens, became victims.

    After Lady Mirror exined the overall situation, Lydia joined them and provided some details; all the while showing them the image sent by the magical doll.

    When the image materialized in the air, they suddenly saw the shorter one of the two Phantom Servants knelt down with a loud ¡°thud¡±.

    ¡°Father... Father?!¡± The servant cried out from behind his mask.

    Father?

    Everyone else looked at the image and saw Tepikkhu¡¯s mad face disyed on it.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Lydia turned around and asked in confusion.

    ¡°Lady Lotus... he is my blood,¡± the taller servant replied.

    Lydia immediately recognized the voice of Goode Moxa, Sunders¡¯ personal butler.

    ¡°Your blood? I... don¡¯t think he¡¯s a Moxa. He¡¯s a Moa, no?¡± Lydia sneered and dragged the robe off the shorter Phantom Servant, thus revealing Hobbiton¡¯s child face.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s you, Hobbiton,¡± Lydia sneered again. ¡°Now tell me, why are you here at Brute Cavern instead of waiting for me like a good kid at Midnight Sovereign?¡±

    Hobbiton was still sad about his father¡¯s condition. Upon hearing Lydia¡¯s question, he suddenly recalled Grandfather Goode, who just addressed the woman in red as ¡°Lady Lotus¡±.

    Lydia was the reason why he escaped from Midnight Sovereign to look for Goode, and he had no idea what to do now that Lydia suddenly showed up right in front of him. During the half month he lived with Goode, he learned many things about the wizarding world, and he knew that Goode couldn¡¯t oppose Lydia despite his rtion with Sunders.

    Lydia briefly exined why she was looking for Hobbiton. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for you now, kid. Let¡¯s have a nice little talk when we¡¯re done dealing with the situation.¡±

    Then she turned away and continued speaking about the Midnight Sovereign. ¡°Mister Tree Spirit, ording to what¡¯s happening to Tepikkhu, I¡¯m almost sure that it¡¯s a parasite. I have no expertise in this, so I don¡¯t know what was that shiny thing I saw. But we must be extremely careful since it¡¯s something that affects Twilight Well.¡±

    Lydia would speak to Lady Mirror in a carefree manner because they had always been best of friends. Now, when facing the Tree Spirit, a powerful ancestor soul who had lived for countless millenniums, Lydia would disy her best manner.

    ¡°I recorded the image of the shining object with my transmitter. Maybe if we can ask the Elder of Books...¡±

    Lady Mirror shook her head. ¡°That old man won¡¯t answer us, considering his temper. As long as it doesn¡¯t affect him, he would sit in his library even if the outside world is crumbling down. And no, the two of us won¡¯t make a difference.¡±

    Tree Spirit also moaned and agreed.

 Chapter 316 - World Monitor

    Chapter 316: World Monitor

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s not wise to bother the Elder of Books when we have not determined the nature of cause yet.¡± Lady Mirror thenforted Lydia as she said, ¡°Having no news itself is at least something¡ªat least the situation isn¡¯tpletely out of control.¡±

    ¡°The important thing is,¡± Lady Mirror turned to Tree Spirit and said, ¡°we need to get in touch with Twilight Well and learn everything we can. I don¡¯t have enough energy to establish such a connection. Please help us contact the wizards inside Twilight Well, Mister Tree Spirit.¡±

    The Tree Spirit didn¡¯t look as anxious as the rest of the people. He even smiled in his usual casual manner. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Sunders is right inside Twilight Well. Nothing will go too far when he¡¯s around.¡±

    ¡°Mister Sunders is there?¡± Lydia was quite surprised. ¡°Then why aren¡¯t we getting any message from them? The entire Midnight Sovereign fell while Mister Sunders is watching?¡±

    Tree Spirit pointed to Goode and said, ¡°Of course we¡¯re getting something. Butler Goode is here to convey Sunders¡¯ message.¡±

    They all looked at Goode, and the butler slowly bowed to Lady Mirror and Lydia. ¡°Yes, my master sent a message from Twilight Well not long ago.¡±

    ¡°What did Mister Sunders say?¡± Lydia quickly questioned, ¡°What¡¯s the condition inside Twilight Well?¡±

    Goode hesitated.

    Before Lydia lost her patience, Tree Spirit said, ¡°Nothing of importance. Sunders asked Goode to go look for Angor.¡±

    ¡°Angor? What for? He¡¯s caring for a kid at a time like this?¡± Lydia rolled her eyes, while Lady Mirror held her chin, wondering if she should really be a ¡°female Angor¡±.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know the reason. I didn¡¯t find Mister Padt at his house, so I¡¯m here requesting help from Mister Tree Spirit,¡± Goode replied politely.

    ¡°Oh, I know about this one!¡± Tree Spirit raised a hand as if attending a quiz show.

    ¡°I heard that Angor caused something during the grand auction which killed several of their guards, and Twilight demanded 100,000 magic crystals aspensation, which is due tomorrow,¡± Tree Spirit said as he smiled brightly. ¡°So, I think Sunders is going to ask Angor to bring the money in time.¡±

    ¡°Angor didn¡¯t kill any guards. They asked for their own deaths,¡± Lydia said as she recalled the strange experience she went through. ¡°And it was Mister Sunders who set up the deadline. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the case though. It¡¯s just some magic crystals. Mister Sunders doesn¡¯t need to remind the kid like a babysitter. Can¡¯t Angor remember it on his own?¡±

    Tree Spirit spread his hands. ¡°We¡¯ll see when we contact Sunderster. Now, however, we must bring Angor here first.¡±

    Lady Mirror stepped up. ¡°I manage everything inside the mirror world. I¡¯ll do it.¡±

    She closed her eyes and began to sense for Angor¡¯s presence.

    To Lady Mirror, she could quickly scan through the entire mirror world in a matter of seconds¡ªthis ce was only a big sand table in her eyes.

    All the wizards appeared as different icons inside this ¡°sand table¡±, and she simply needed to look for the right one.

    She didn¡¯t need any spells for it. This was her talent as the soul who manipted the mirror world.

    As people waited, Lady Mirror started to sweat a little on her forehead.

    Where the heck did the boy go? I can¡¯t find him!

    Lady Mirror frowned. Maybe inside The Tributary? She knew Angor had been visiting The Tributary recently, so she sent her vision in there next.

    On a mountain at the southeast part of The Tributary, the giant Iron Fortress was ¡°squatting¡± up and down on its iron leg as if it were doing a funny morning exercise.

    No matter how it moved, the three-story house on the iron fortress remained stable as if it stood on t ground.

    Iron Granny was enjoying the mountain wind and clouds on the balcony. She suddenly opened her eyes and looked into the sky.

    ¡°Huh... Lady Mirror is monitoring this world again? Weird. She didn¡¯t do it in a long time sincest time when she peeked into Sunders¡¯ bathroom and got her door broken down by the gentleman.¡±

    With that, Iron Granny closed her eyes again to enjoy the peaceful nature.

    ...

    Lady Mirror grew irritated. ¡°No. No! Angor¡¯s not inside the mirror world!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not?¡± Goode was surprised this time. ¡°A while ago, someone near Angor¡¯s house told me that he left there just half an hour ago.¡±

    Considering Angor¡¯s walking speed, the portal located inside Tree Spirit Pce was the only ce he could reach in such a short time. And of course, Goode didn¡¯t see Angor.

    Lady Mirror was a bit angry now. Goode was questioning her ability!

    Tree Spirit noticed it and quicklyforted her by saying, ¡°Your talent only allows you to see something in in sight. You can¡¯t find him if Angor used a spell to conceal himself like how Sunders didst time.¡±

    ¡°Last time? What did Sunders do?¡± Lydia noticed something interesting from those words.

    ¡°Forget it. None of your business,¡± Lady Mirror said as she shooed Lydia away. ¡°Guess we still need your help, Mister Tree Spirit. I¡¯ve lent my energy to Lotus, and I don¡¯t have much left.¡±

    As she said, Lady Mirror¡¯s mist body now appeared pale.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Tree Spirit said as he also spread his consciousness farther. ¡°Huh? I can¡¯t see him...¡±

    ¡°Told you! That damn kid knows nothing more than studying Sunders¡¯ sneaky tricks!¡±

    Tree Spirit snickered when he also recalled the incident 20 years ago, when Sunders attacked Lady Mirror¡¯s home because of a very bold move of the woman.

    ¡°Let me see... I¡¯ll just locate his bone card then.¡±

    Every member of Brute Cavern possessed a bone card, which was issued by Tree Spirit himself. The card contained a tiny trace of leaf fluid of the Tree of Eternity, which helped Tree Spirit to find its current location.

    Using this approach, Tree Spirit quickly looked through Angor¡¯s ¡°istion¡± and ascertained the boy¡¯s whereabouts¡ªin the woods outside Apprentice Town 1.

    ¡°I got him. I think he has something that reduces his presence... interesting. I¡¯ll ask him to make me one next time, so people don¡¯t always yell at me when I go outside. I¡¯m just too awesome.¡±

    ¡°They do that because you¡¯re an indecent pervert!¡± Lady Mirror silentlyined.

    Tree Spirit blinked out of existence and appeared right beside Angor.

    ...

    ¡°So cautious. Am I so scary to you?¡±

    Angor was anxiously asking Toby to get away when his ¡°istion¡± was broken. Before he could finish, he heard Tree Spirit¡¯s voice reaching his ears.

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit?!¡±

    The ancestor soul walked to him with a bright smile. ¡°Let me take a look. What did you use to escape Lady Mirror¡¯s monitoring?¡±

    Angor watched Tree Spirit¡¯s gentle expression and felt his hair stand up.

    In the next second, Tree Spirit trapped him in midair before he could react. Then, the mighty soul moved his hands all over Angor¡¯s body until he sensed an invisible bracelet on Angor¡¯s wrist.

    ¡°Ho... A bracelet that cannot be seen. I¡¯ll take a look.¡± Tree Spirit closed his eyes and sent a surge of gentle energy over the item.

    ¡°Space ripples... A space bracelet? But it¡¯s not strong. Only a low-tier space storage? The stronger mana ripplees from some... runes? No, it¡¯s a magic array,¡± Tree Spirit said. He then opened his eyes wide. ¡°It¡¯s aposite effect involving a magic array? Golly. What else are you hiding from us?¡±

    Angor kicked his legs helplessly in the air. He felt greatly embarrassed when hanged like this by the Tree Spirit.

    One of his kicks somehownded on Tree Spirit¡¯s chest, but the elder simply dusted it off. ¡°Oh dear... I don¡¯t know what will be of you if you keep studying from Sunders,¡± Tree Spirit said as he put Angor down. ¡°Such an adorable little spirit you are. I¡¯m so afraid that Sunders will create a terrible rascal out of you at this rate.¡±

    Angor felt really bad after kicking the elder soul like that. But he quickly thought otherwise when he recalled how the man in front of him just picked him up like a kitten and touched him all over.

    Angor pouted without speaking or apologizing.

    Tree Spirit, on the other hand, didn¡¯t mind this at all. To anyone else, Angor was a teenager who had not learned the way of adults. And to him, a great soul who had lived for countless ages, Angor was a mere toddler.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a mid-tier charm, there¡¯s no need to get all stingy,¡± Tree Spirit said. He neither took nor damaged Angor¡¯s bracelet. He was only curious about the ¡°reduced presence¡± effect of it. ¡°Hey, tell me, which magic array did you use? Neat. How about giving me er?¡±

    Angor panted heavily. ¡°... Infinite Reticence...¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°The magic array is called Infinite Reticence!¡±

    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t know about magic arrays. You don¡¯t need to tell me that.¡±

    ¡°Then why the hell did you ask?¡± Angor thought in rage. Previously, he regarded Tree Spirit as a knowledgeable, carefree, and experienced individual. Now, all his impression of the Tree Spirit was getting worse.

    ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m here for something important,¡± Tree Spirit said as he dragged Angor. ¡°Come with me to the Tree Spirit Pce. Sunders have a message for you.¡±

    ¡°Professor? He¡¯s back?¡±

    ¡°Not yet. Lotus said something happened in Twilight Well,¡± Tree Spirit said as he flew into the sky with Angor pulled behind him.

    Angor quickly asked Toby to return to his pocket. It seemed they needed to wait for another chance to meet their ¡°non-human partner¡±.

    ¡°Lady Lotus is at Tree Spirit Pce too?¡± Angor asked in a small voice when Toby stuck his head from Angor¡¯s pocket and gave his young master a pleading look.

    Angor sighed and shook his head at Toby.

    Toby grew a little sad and shrank back inside.

    Angor already told Toby that Lydia had gotten the eyeless man. He promised to go ask Lydia about it when he earned enough money, and hopefully, he would be able to buy the eyeless man back. But he had to be strong enough to confront Lydia first. Otherwise, the woman would have no reason to negotiate with him.

    Toby was simple-minded, but he wasn¡¯t foolish. He already understood Angor¡¯s words and chose to ept the truth.

    Toby held hope that Greya might be alive. One day, Greya would return here as a glorious wizard who found the path of truth, and anyone who dared to humiliate Barbie¡¯s Restaurant would regret their decision.

 Chapter 317 - Situation in Twilight Well

    Chapter 317: Situation in Twilight Well

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Lady Lotus, Lady Mirror,¡± Angor said as he bowed. He didn¡¯t expect to see these two powerful beings here.

    Lydia simply gave an ¡°oh¡± as a response, while Lady Mirror inspected the boy with a smile. ¡°Did you finish my customized illusion, Angor?¡±

    It meant the illusion which was both realistic and lewd.

    After watching the show in Enchanting Theater, Angor mostly understood what Lady Mirror expected. But he didn¡¯t have much to go with yet, so he only shook his head as an apology.

    Lady Mirror only smiled again. ¡°Don¡¯t rush it. Give it five or ten years, as long as you satisfy me. But if you make it too long AND fail to meet my needs... heh.¡±

    Lydia nudged Lady Mirror from behind. ¡°What is that ¡®customized illusion¡¯?¡±

    Lady Mirror already nned to show off her personal order to Lydia, and she was d Lydia mentioned it first. After considering her words, Lady Mirror prepared to exin the whole matter while pretending that it wasn¡¯t anything important.

    Before she could say anything though, Tree Spirit interrupted her. ¡°You¡¯re all concerned about Twilight Well, right? Since we have everyone here, I¡¯ll contact Sunders and let him exin what¡¯s going on.¡±

    Lady Mirror stepped back. Learning about the situation was currently more important than showing off.

    Tree Spirit took out a shining maple leaf and closed his eyes to concentrate on Sunders, who was now thousands of kilometers away from their position.

    Angor approached Goode, who had beenforting Hobbiton, and asked what happened in a small voice.

    ¡°Master sent a transmission, asking Mister Padt to head to Twilight Well as fast as possible. I didn¡¯t find you at your house, so I came here to ask Mister Tree Spirit for help.¡±

    Sunders asked him to go to Twilight Well? When he heard about this, Angor¡¯s first impression was that Sunders was urging him to pay Twilight¡¯s debt.

    ¡°But Lady Lotus came here next,¡± Goode continued, ¡°and she said something bad is happening in Midnight Sovereign. Many people ¡®turned¡¯. Even Hobbiton¡¯s father...¡±

    Angor was getting more confused now.

    Midnight Sovereign? Turned?

    ¡°Did that have something to do with Sunders¡¯ request?¡±

    When Angor asked his question, Goode shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I assume not.¡±

    ¡°... Weird. I¡¯m using three times as much energy,¡± Tree Spirit suddenly said. ¡°I guess something really bad is going on over there. And... I got him. I think he doesn¡¯t look so good though.¡±

    ¡°Is the professor wounded?¡± Angor asked.

    The remaining people also waited for an answer eagerly.

    ¡°He¡¯s fine...¡± Tree Spirit shook his head. ¡°Just...¡±

    He sighed and said, ¡°Look for yourselves.¡±

    He showed the image to everyone.

    Inside a dark chamber that looked like a conference room, Sunders and Devildare sat across each other in silence. A number of bodiesid on the floor behind their backs¡ªwizards from the three ns of Twilight Well.

    ¡°They are all unconscious, and wearing colorful clothes like jesters... just like the ¡®turned¡¯ individuals in Midnight Sovereign,¡± Lydia said. She grimaced. ¡°As we expected... wizards cannot resist the parasites either.¡±

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit...¡± Devildare spoke in the image. The aged man looked extremely fatigued.

    As the connection was established, Devildare and Sunders could see into the Tree Spirit Pce as well.

    Devildare slowly shifted his gaze onto Angor while he disyed a mixed emotion.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on on your side, Devildare?¡± Tree Spirit asked first.

    ¡°Are your wizards controlled by the parasites too?¡± Lydia also spoke up.

    ¡°Parasites? You already knew?¡± Devildare sighed deeply. ¡°Yeah... sort of. The three ns would have been exterminated if not for Mister Sunders¡¯ assistance. As for what exactly happened... I think I should ask Mister Sunders to exin.¡±

    Sunders looked at the image and directly fixed his gaze on Angor, ignoring everyone else.

    The gentleman seemed both helpless and... proud?

    ¡°You already saw our condition, Angor? Tell me, what do you think?¡±

    Sunders was speaking in such a way as if a teacher was lecturing his student. Meanwhile, the others looked at each other in doubt, not knowing what Sunders meant by asking somethingpletely irrelevant.

    Angor, on the other hand, frowned. Since Sunders asked him such a question... maybe the whole situation was rted to him?

    ¡°Nothing in particr. I¡¯m just d to see you safe, sir.¡± He could either y blind or tter his professor in such a situation, and he chose the former.

    ¡°Slippery kid,¡± Sunders said. He then chuckled and addressed the others. ¡°How did you learn about the outbreak in Twilight Well? This dimension haspletely fallen, and all ne passageways are blocked out. The monsters have built their nest at the only exit. No one should know how to get the message out.¡±

    There was no one who could establish such effective connections without spending an insane amount of energy like Tree Spirit. Sunders only managed to find a chance to get a brief transmission to Goode at the cost of half of his mana, when the parasite nest was being attacked.

    ¡°We guessed so, since... the Midnight Sovereign is fallen as well,¡± Lady Mirror answered with a cold look.

    Sunders nodded¡ªhe expected such.

    Devildare was quite shocked at the information because Midnight Sovereign was the foundation of Twilight Well. If something bad happened to Midnight Sovereign, then as its ¡°other dimension¡±, Twilight Well wouldn¡¯t remain safe.

    Devildare was so anxious that his hair all slumped down,pletely ruining his usual mighty image of the ¡°Azure Lion¡±.

    ¡°The situation is too dangerous, Sunders. Do you have any idea how to end it? Do you know what exactly is this type of parasite yet?¡± Lady Mirror asked. By asking this, she also meant to ask Sunders whether they should contact Rein and use Expel spells to get rid of the parasitic monsters.

    Sunders sighed. ¡°It¡¯s not the ¡®parasite¡¯ as you may have assumed. To human bodies, it¡¯s notpletely harmful. It even enhances the functions of body cells to a certain extent.¡±

    Everyone looked confused.

    ¡°Let me put it this way; this parasite does not kill its host. Rather, it drains pure energy from the environment to keep a human body alive. Such energy is actually beneficial to human bodies.¡±

    They began to understand; an Expel spell only worked on something that harmed people. Everything had two sides, such as certain bacteria which both benefited and destroyed the organism. Expel only determined whether it should cleanse something in this way. It had no effect on something that provided more merit than harm.

    ording to Sunders, the parasite might control the minds of their hosts, yet it did more good to human bodies. Expel wouldn¡¯t help with such a case.

    ¡°The spell won¡¯t work... Do you have something else then? I¡¯ll go call Rein here if we need to,¡± Lady Mirror said.

    ¡°No, Mister Rein won¡¯t know what to do either,¡± Sunders said as he shrugged. ¡°Or rather, Mister Rein might get too interested in it and decide to research instead. As for the victims... they are the perfect test subjects.¡±

    Lady Mirror considered and agreed that Rein Mute would totally do something like that. The Silencer was very famous for his determination in doing his own researches.

    ¡°So... do you know what to do?¡± Lady Mirror asked for the third time.

    Sunders pointed at Angor. ¡°I¡¯m trying, alright? Get him here. That¡¯s our solution.¡±

    ...

    Under the stars and clouds, a bright-red shadow cruised into the distance at high speed.

    Angor sat on a red-skinned flying lizard behind Lydia, who crossed her legs in a really ufortable way which caused most of her private areas to be exposed.

    Angor couldn¡¯t bear with the sight, so he closed his eyes to meditate.

    ¡°Geez. This kid knows how to endure,¡± Lydia murmured. She had kept her posture for ten minutes now, and Angor never gave her a straight look. Lydia was nning to ¡°ckmail¡± information out of Angor by using her beauty, but now, she was very disappointed.

    Angor already ended his meditation when Lydiained out loud. But he still kept his head lowered without opening his eyes.

    ¡°Tell me, Angor, why did Mister Sunders ask you to go alone?¡± Lydia asked in a gentle way.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Lydia noticed the small hesitation before the answer, which meant Angor already had an idea.

    And she felt her mind was itching for an answer. Back inside Tree Spirit Pce, when she asked about it, Sunders didn¡¯t say anything. And when Tree Spirit asked, Sunders said something iprehensible which seemed to satisfy Tree Spirit but not anyone else. And her ¡°bestie¡±, Lady Mirror, suggested that they shouldn¡¯t insist on asking.

    Lydia only grew more curious about this.

    What exactly was that parasite that was affecting Twilight Well, and whatever was that mist that was covering Midnight Sovereign?

    ¡°You¡¯re lying. Tell me. I won¡¯t say to others.¡±

 Chapter 318 - Fair Chance

    Chapter 318: &quot;Fair&quot; Chance

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Lydia kept coaxing and pestering, hoping to get something from Angor, but Angor remainedpletely unresponsive.

    When Lydia grew so impatient that she would use force, another female voice suddenly came from her pocket. ¡°Enough, Lydia. We are keeping it from you for a good reason. If you really wish to know, join Brute Cavern personally, and I¡¯ll tell you myself.¡±

    It was Lady Mirror¡¯s voice.

    Back at Tree Spirit Pce, Sunders told them that the solution to the current crisis was to send Angor to Twilight Well.

    He never said why. Tree Spirit and Lady Mirror seemed to have an idea, yet they didn¡¯t tell. They only gave Angor several meaningful gazes for some reason.

    And neither Tree Spirit nor Lady Mirror could leave Brute Cavern easily, so Lydia offered to escort Angor to Midnight Sovereign. At the same time, Tree Spirit left a connection going since he ¡°had too much energy to spare¡±.

    ¡°Fine, since Lady Mirror said so,¡± Lydia huffed and shut her mouth.

    A long moment passed in silence. The only thing Angor could hear was the sound of the flying lizard piercing the wind.

    About an hourter, the lizard stopped in the air.

    Under Lydia¡¯smand, the creature descended down inside an abyss-like pit. Upon reaching the bottom, Lydia pointed toward a small tform on the side.

    ¡°We¡¯re here. This is the most convenient way to the underground world. Wizards usually go through here.¡±

    She left the lizard outside and led Angor into the passage.

    Angor was here for the first time. He carefully followed behind Lydia for five minutes before they reached the underground world where Midnight Sovereign resided.

    There were still several kilometers to go before they could reach the city. However, they could already see the dense mist that shrouded the ce in the distance.

    They could also see the obscured structures across the mist barrier.

    ¡°Strange. That¡¯s definitely not natural.¡± The bare-bodied image of Tree Spirit suddenly appeared beside them and apanied them on their path toward Midnight Sovereign.

    ¡°ording to Tepikkhu, the abnormality started as soon as the mist appeared. I think the parasite is hiding in there,¡± Lydia said.

    ¡°It¡¯s such a pity that I cannot go there myself... or I can check out whatever that is.¡±

    Angor remained quiet while Lydia and Tree Spirit talked. The grayish-white mist didn¡¯t seem so different from the ordinary mist, yet... Angor sensed something familiaring from it.

    He took a guess that it was the same mist that covered himself when he opened the nightmare passage.

    And he immediately felt a headache.

    This whole matter might have something to do with the nightmare passage he identally created. Sunders didn¡¯t say so, but Angor was getting nervous nevertheless.

    Things wouldn¡¯t end up this way if Twilight had not tried to kill him, but Angor believed he should still take some me.

    He felt sorry for the countless residents in Midnight Sovereign and the innocent wizards and apprentices in Twilight Well.

    Yet he had no regrets¡ªhe did so to survive.

    When he was receiving teachings from Jon, he learned that anything done by people when in danger was out of instinct. Besides, he had no idea he would bring such a serious consequence when he made that decision.

    Morality might improve human society and lead to better lives, but it wasn¡¯t a human instinct. In certain situations, morality was something that restricted a human¡¯s potential. It was also a tool used by rulers to restrain their subjects.

    Angor was d that he learned about morality. At the same time, he wouldn¡¯t satisfy morality by giving up his own life. Neither he nor Jon would consider this the right choice.

    After walking for about ten minutes, they came to a small farm outside Midnight Sovereign.

    The farm was in good condition, but the owner was already dead by suicide. An old man, who was wearing a tattered gray robe, was hung by a rope on a roof beam while a chairid not far from his feet.

    ¡°He died recently... and he wasn¡¯t controlled, judging from his clothes,¡± Lydia said as she inspected the dead man and considered. ¡°It¡¯spletely normal since this ce isn¡¯t affected by the mist yet. And he still chose to die... such a fragile mentality, typical mortals.¡±

    Lydia beckoned Angor to keep moving.

    Angor looked at the farm for a while and left.

    Before they could step into the mist area, Angor heard a familiar, hoarse voice reaching his ears.

    ¡°Come in alone, Angor.¡±

    Sunders used ¡°Distant Sound¡± to send him a message because they were already within Midnight Sovereign. ¡°As for Lotus... you should wait outside the city. Do not enter the mist.¡±

    ¡°Why? My men are trapped inside, I need to help them,¡± Lydia said. She seemed irritated.

    ¡°As a wizard without the knowledge of the truth, you can¡¯t resist the parasite. Of course, I won¡¯t stop you if you insist,¡± Sunders said in his usual emotionless tone.

    Lady Mirror¡¯s image appeared beside Tree Spirit¡¯s. ¡°Sunders is right, Lydia. You already saw, apart from Devildare, everyone from the three ns has fallen. It¡¯s very likely that you¡¯ll end up in the same ce if you go in there.¡±

    Lydia scratched her hair in discontent. ¡°I didn¡¯te here just to escort the kid. I have a covenant with the Moa n. If they¡¯re wiped out, I¡¯ll suffer backfire from my contract.¡±

    ¡°The little servant beside Goode is a Moa, right?¡± Lady Mirror asked as she tilted her head. ¡°As long as he¡¯s alive, the Moas won¡¯t be considered ¡®wiped out¡¯.¡±

    Lydia shook her head. ¡°He doesn¡¯t count. That boy has the blood of the Moxas, and my contract explicitly says pure-blooded Moa.¡±

    No one protested further. As she said, staying outside probably meant getting wounded by the contract backfire. It was nothing lethal. But to wizards, ¡°lethal¡± wasn¡¯t always the worst consequence.

    ¡°Mister Sunders, won¡¯t Angor gets affected if he goes in there?¡± Lydia suddenly asked.

    Lady Mirror and Tree Spirit were wondering about this as well. Sunders did say that Angor was their ¡°solution¡±, but the gentleman never said why. Also, he said it as if Angor would have no probleming here. Now they wanted to know why a mere level-1 apprentice could stay safe inside the mist.

    Angor wanted to know about it too.

    But the question was met by silence. After a long time, Sunders finally gave them a brief response.

    ¡°No, he won¡¯t.¡±

    The REASON behind this was what they wanted to know. But since Sunders didn¡¯t tell, they didn¡¯t insist on pushing for an answer. Sunders probably would never satisfy their curiosity.

    Lydia thought for a while before she said to Angor, ¡°I have a quest for you. Help me bring the Moas out of there. Only one would do.¡±

    Angor looked at Lydia, then at Tree Spirit and Lady Mirror. He gulped and tried to resist the suppressive aura of a powerful wizard.

    ¡°Do... What do I get in return?¡±

    Lydia squinted her eyes malevolently. ¡°You¡¯re asking for a price, from me? I see. No wonder you¡¯re Sunders¡¯ student. You¡¯re the first level-1 apprentice who dares to bargain with me.¡±

    Lydia intentionally disyed her aura, and Angor almost knelt down under the great pressure. Lady Mirror and Tree Spirit only watched from the side out of interest without any intention to intervene.

    Angor bit his lips so hard that a drop of blood came out.

    ¡°Alright then,¡± Lydia said as she removed her aura. ¡°What do you want to get?¡±

    Angor panted badly. He was thinking about asking for the eyeless man, but he gave up on second thought¡ªhe overestimated his ce.

    He could ask such a thing only on the condition that Lady Mirror and Tree Spirit helped him. From what he saw, no one really considered him a necessary asset even though the Midnight Sovereign was in a dire situation.

    The bane of being a weakling.

    ¡°I wish... hah... hah,¡± he said with cold sweat on his face. ¡°I wish Lady Lotus can grant me a ¡®personal chance¡¯¡ª¡±

    Lydia almost moved to p Angor.

    How dare this ignorant brat covet my body?

    Lady Mirror and Tree Spirit also exchanged a surprised look at Angor¡¯s bold move.

    ¡°... Ha... I hope you give me a chance to purchase the eyeless man,¡± Angor said. He finally finished his sentence.

    Everyone remained speechless.

    Lydia didn¡¯t kill Angor already because a pair of cold gazes had been watching her back. And what Angor just said convinced her that her anger wasn¡¯t necessary.

    ¡°The eyeless man?? I see... You did all those hubbubs at the grand auction just for him, right?¡± Lydia considered it before she said, ¡°Fine. If you bring me a Moa alive, I¡¯ll give you a fair chance to buy him. As for the price... 3 million crystals. If you can pay the money, I¡¯ll give you the eyeless man, in one piece.¡±

    Three million magic crystals. Ten times the final bid of the ve!

    Even wizards would never collect that kind of money easily. Not even half. And Lydia simply presented such a price to Angor.

    Angor nodded without a second thought. ¡°Okay. I ept!¡±

 Chapter 319 - Wake Them

    Chapter 319: Wake Them

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°... Five years. If you pay me 3 million in five years, you can take him away,¡± Lydia said.

    The price was notpletely impossible for a promising alchemist, and the deadline was only something to urge Angor. It seemed Lydia decided such a condition on careful consideration without intentionally making it too hard for the young man.

    And Angor had no problem agreeing to it.

    ¡°I¡¯ll wait here then. Hope you don¡¯t break your words,¡± Lydia said as she floated to the sky to take it easy.

    Angor grabbed Toby out of his pocket. ¡°You wait here too. I¡¯ll be back soon.¡±

    Toby chirped unwillingly and approached the edge of the mist while waving his wings around, with obvious intentions.

    Angor didn¡¯t really want to leave Toby outside. He wasn¡¯t sure whether Lydia would attempt something bad even though Lady Mirror and Tree Spirit were watching.

    ¡°Can I bring Toby inside, Professor?¡±

    He had thought for a moment before he asked out loud.

    It took some time for Sunders to reply.

    ¡°I won¡¯t be sure about it. I assume it¡¯s okay as long as he stays with you.¡±

    Angor was d about the answer. He asked Toby to stay on his shoulder and stay alert. The bird would definitely react faster if any of the ¡°mutants¡± came close.

    They walked into the mist-covered city.

    Lady Mirror turned to look at Tree Spirit. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to follow him?¡±

    ¡°Nope. I won¡¯t do it even if Sunders allows me to.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±

    Tree Spirit smiled widely. ¡°Because I trust Angor. We should not hinder his growth by being overprotective. Well, it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll actually help him, but I think he¡¯ll be more determined if no one¡¯s around.¡±

    ...

    Angor could barely see his own hands. He slowly stepped toward the gate of the dested city with a strange mindset.

    It should be morning time. None of the streetmps were lit, so the entire underground city waspletely dark. He could only rely on his spirit feelers to sense his way around.

    And he couldn¡¯t help imagining all kinds of ghosts and goblins inside such darkness, especially when he already knew that there were madmen lurking everywhere. He trembled again when he thought about the possibility of one such maniac looking at him from a corner right now.

    He walked deeper into the mist and was surprised to realize that none of his concerns actually happened.

    When he felt at peace again, the initial terror he felt in the dark was reced byfort and... joy.

    And he couldn¡¯t understand his mind. An unknown form of happiness was somehow growing inside his mind, like a wild horse that had escaped into the grasnd after being constrained by ropes for a long time.

    Something told him that there was no danger ahead. Still, he walked as slow as he could, no faster than a weak old man.

    He did so because he was struggling with his own mind.

    His sanity suggested that this ce was wrong, while his instinct persuaded him that the mist area was a paradise.

    And he couldn¡¯t move too fast when two different emotions were pulling him in different ways.

    The narrow streets of Midnight Sovereign, as well as the skywalks, stood there like hidden monsters, waiting for someone to walk into their traps. Any mortal or supernatural alike would stay cautious under such a condition, yet Angor did not. In his eyes, the shifting shadows around the wall corners appeared as a pair of yful ck kittens, who were simply meowing for love.

    In order not to get surrounded by any strange men, Angor chose to walk down the main road of the city. It was still narrow, but a lot better than the other alleyways.

    A momentter, he was attracted by a strange melody.

    ¡°I¡¯m a happy little¡¯o cleanerrr- I¡¯m getting here wholly brighterrr- My queen¡¯s gonna present¡¯er, to see my streets fitterrr-¡±

    Angor couldn¡¯tprehend the voice or music, but he could read the emotions contained in them, and he felt greatly annoyed at this.

    ¡°Of course... that queen again!¡±

    Two shadowy figures suddenly showed up in his path. He immediately halted and took out his golden revolver, while Toby also lowered his posture and prepared to attack.

    Angor frowned when he saw the two figures be clearer. It was two Subterrians. Male adults, precisely speaking. They both had long limbs and short torsos, typical for their race.

    As Lydia described, they were wearing very colorful fabrics. The one on the left had a diamond-checkered red-and-green overall, while the other one wore a gradient purple dotted hoodie.

    They were moving in strange ways as well, in the same way of string puppets being controlled by someone. But despite the fact that their limbs were twisting in inhuman angles, they moved around pretty fast.

    Such distinctive features instantly told Angor that he was looking at ¡°infected¡± people.

    As they drew closer, Angor prepared tond the first and decisive hit the moment they were close enough.

    But he didn¡¯t get to. The pair stopped in their tracks when they noticed Angor¡¯s presence.

    So did the strange music.

    Then, they bowed deep to Angor in the same way of circus clowns and slowly stepped back into the dark mist.

    The music started again, in a different style this time. It was no longer singing for the queen but for Shava.

    ¡°Shava hase, far, far from home. She inspects, she checks, for the queen¡¯s royal tour-around. Her eyes shine and spark starry. O Shava, my gracious, pray bestow your brilliance of glory!¡±

    Angor listened to the ttering lyrics as he watched the two infected victimspletely vanished from his sight.

    He could no longer deny the fact that what he was looking at now was another consequence he caused by opening up the nightmare passage.

    He ran across more maddened people on his way, who all changed their clownish behaviors into that of well-mannered townsfolk upon seeing him, as if he were a noble lord inspecting his subjects.

    Angor never managed to ¡°speak¡± to them, either usingnguage or emotions. Every time, people would politely step into the dense mist which stopped Angor from going after them.

    ¡°This is all wrong...¡±

    To Angor, none of the things he saw in the city made any sense. These strange people, the way they acted, as well as his sudden happiness...

    He believed all the people were paying respect to ¡°Shava¡±, not himself. Yet he had no idea who Shava was.

    He stopped in front of a fountain in the center of a smallmunity. There was a water statue of a goddess in the middle of the pool.

    Before he came, there were nearly a hundred people dancing madly around the fountain while singing their strange songs, as if they were attending some kind of ritual. When he approached them, everyone praised ¡°Shava¡± and stepped away. And when he reached the fountain, there was not a soul around. The once lively spot quickly became deadly silent, like a graveyard.

    ¡°Come out already! Why are you all hiding?¡± Angor yelled loudly, ¡°I-in the name of Shava, I demand you toe and see me!¡±

    No response.

    He wanted to rage and vent out whatever anger trapped inside his heart. But on the other hand, he enjoyed the solitude as well as the tranquility when no one was here to bother him. He felt... conflicted.

    He leaned on the fountain wall helplessly.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± A familiar hoarse tone broke his temporary peace.

    ¡°This is not right, Professor,¡± Angor tried to exin what he had gone through in his mind. ¡°I should be afraid. I should fight this! But I can¡¯t. I feel... safe, in here. It¡¯s like my very soul foundfort in this darkness.¡±

    Sunders remained silent for some time.

    ¡°Do not get distracted by unnecessary emotions. You felt wrong because your sanity is urging you against your instinct. Rx, and consider the ce a fun park, if you can.

    ¡°Remember though, that a park is still not your final goal. Kids can y here at their free will, but they always have to head home in the end.¡±

    The gentleman¡¯s voice grew gentler as he continued, ¡°Don¡¯t panic. Lotus said the city is doomed, while I beg to differ. I didn¡¯t contact you earlier because I didn¡¯t believe the situation is so dangerous yet. Now, do you know why I called you here?¡±

    ¡°Because I caused all this?¡± Angor muttered.

    ¡°No. A cause will not always bring a consequence as people may assume. You did something half a month ago, and what¡¯s happening now isn¡¯t necessarily your responsibility since there are many things that can change the oue during all these days.¡±

    Angor only understood half of those words.

    ¡°I called you here because you¡¯re the only one who can wake them up. The victims... They are alive, but they¡¯re sleeping. The parasites have taken control of their bodies without killing them. It isn¡¯t easy for the parasites to find new hosts. You¡¯ll actually do merit if you wake them up now because the parasites can strengthen their physical forms.¡±

    These people were waiting for him to wake them? Instead of feeling relieved, Angor sensed a huge burden ced on his mind.

    There were millions of residents living inside Midnight Sovereign!

 Chapter 320 - Save Them

    Chapter 320: Save Them

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor temporarily put his concerns aside and asked, ¡°How do I do it?¡±

    ...

    He proceeded down the path, more assured this time. ording to Sunders, the mist-covered area was a peaceful paradise to him as long as he ¡°let his instinct free¡±. Nothing actually harmed him.

    The shadows, funny. The strange music, not so bad. Even the misty air felt refreshing after he became determined.

    Without his mental burden, he walked a lot faster than before as well. In his view, the entire Midnight Sovereign was a happy city with ¡°clowns¡± singing and dancing everywhere.

    The only problem was that their singing voices were terrible.

    But this happiness only existed far away from him. Whenever he approached someone, all the clowns would immediately scatter, putting him back intoplete loneliness.

    And he didn¡¯t intend to chase them again. Sunders said that he simply needed to deal with the root of the problem, and everything else would be solved on its own.

    He came into the city through the north gate. In order to reach the ¡°wall entrance¡± that led to Twilight Well, he had to travel through half of the city. The central main road would be the most convenient. Also, it would take him past the pce, so he decided to visit the pce along his way.

    The area around the pce was usually taken by nobles and officials. The manor of Duke Moa was also there.

    Angor nned to fulfill his promise by saving the Moas first. He could escort them to the south gate and then return to Twilight Well, which was located not far from the gate.

    Without a vehicle, it took him two hours to reach the central pce. And he ran as fast as he could all the way.

    The next task was simple enough. The closest and biggest building near the pce gate was Moa Manor.

    The manor covered in the mist was simrly dark and quiet. The gate was wide open. He walked inside the structure and quickly heard the strange song again. Several maids in clown suits, as well as another knife-wielding clown, instantly escaped from his sight.

    During his long walk, a good number of ¡°clowns¡± avoided him, either out of fear or some other reason he didn¡¯t know about. He was actually d they did because their twisted movements somewhat disgusted him.

    And this was the first time he felt ¡°disgust¡± since he came here.

    Also, Angor got a feeling that the clowns ran away because they knew they appeared disgusting, and they wouldn¡¯t show up in front of ¡°Shava¡±. At first, they would still bow to him politely. But now, none of them remained for a single second.

    When he came to the Duke Manor, there waspletely no living creature within his sight. He checked around for a long time without finding the so-called secret entrance, which meant he had no way to help Hobbiton¡¯s father and brother.

    He thought about asking Sunders for help. But again, he couldn¡¯t control the voice transmission on his end, and he didn¡¯t know how to cast one. Besides, he didn¡¯t have enough energy to contact Sunders, who was now inside another dimension.

    As he struggled through his nonexistent options, he suddenly heard squeaky sound from a room to his right.

    He didn¡¯t hear any singing voices from there, which meant... someone who wasn¡¯t possessed was in that room?

    He considered and moved to the door while he told Toby to stay alert. A pair of transparent Hands of Spell appeared in the air and slowly pulled the door open.

    Next, he extended his spirit feelers inside and noticed that it was a study. It wasn¡¯t ¡°someone¡± who made the squeaky sound, but a purple floating doll with a really big head.

    He knew Lotus ced something like this inside the manor, but he wasn¡¯t sure whether he was looking at the right one.

    ¡°Lady Lotus?¡± Angor tried to call out.

    The doll floated out of the study while its limbs swayed around in the air.

    ¡°Mister Sunders was correct. You aren¡¯t affected...¡± Lydia¡¯s voice came from the doll. ¡°Gods. I so want to examine your body.¡±

    Some other iprehensible noises came from the doll. It seemed Lydia was talking to Lady Mirror.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t find anyone in the manor, Lady Lotus. Can you tell me where Tepikkhu and his son are located at?¡± Angor waited for the noise to stop before asking politely.

    With a squeak, the doll pointed a limb to the study.

    ¡°There¡¯s a hidden passage behind the bookshelf. Now go.¡±

    With that, the doll floated toward the exit of the manor. It seemed like Lydia didn¡¯t intend to keep her watch.

    And Angor felt relieved by this. He stepped into the dark room and spent some time finding the switch that triggered the bookshelf.

    The secret passage was pretty long and dark. He walked for two minutes before reaching the light at the end. There were storage rooms along the path. They were full of daily necessities which were enough to support Domino for half a year if he were to keep hiding down here.

    Walking in this underground path made Angor feel as if he returned to the Cave Field again. Except that the secret path was pretty narrow.

    He heard people talking. The path ended at a spacious chamber, which had several separated sections behind mirrors. Each section had someone inside. Armored guards, mostly.

    A young man who was wearing ck fur overcoat sat on a high chair in the middle of the hall as he stared at the ceiling, seemingly in a trance. A servant with sharp and distinctive facial features stayed near him.

    Angor¡¯s arrival immediately attracted their attention.

    In a matter of seconds, the guards in the small sections rushed out and moved around the young man.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± the servant beside the man asked.

    Angor only had a loose robe that couldn¡¯t conceal weapons well. Combined with his young appearance and sane temperament, the guards didn¡¯t make any harsh movement aside from staring at him cautiously.

    The ¡°sky-gazing¡± young man also looked toward Angor when he heard the ruckus.

    ¡°Who¡¯s Domino?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°I am,¡± the young man replied. ¡°You are?¡±

    ¡°My name doesn¡¯t matter. Lady Lotus requested me toe here and get you out,¡± Angor said. He then turned around before he continued, ¡°You have five minutes to pack your stuff. I¡¯ll wait at the entrance of this path.¡±

    Domino quickly called out when he saw that Angor was ready to leave. ¡°Are you a wizard, sir? Can... can we leave here at all? There¡¯s a disease spreading. Aren¡¯t we going to get affected?¡±

    Angor¡¯s voice came from the depth of the path. ¡°Since I can get here, I know how to take you away.¡±

    Domino called again, and Angor never replied.

    Angor already returned to the study outside and took a seat. He felt a bit irritated when he was facing those people. Now the mist spreading into the manor calmed his mind a little.

    He already sensed it; normal people bothered him much more. His joyful mood was greatly affected when he talked to them. He would prefer to run into the mad clowns than meeting ¡°healthy¡± people.

    ¡°This is not my true self...¡± he murmured. He was even more worried now. Something was controlling his emotions. ¡°Shava, Shava...¡± he sighed and muttered this name. ¡°Who are you, really?¡±

    ...

    Five minutester, Angor saw Dominoing out of the secret entrance with his guards following behind him.

    It seemed this man was going to rush his chance. They would either get out as a team or die together.

    Angor¡¯s uneasiness upon seeing them again somewhat disappeared. He admired Domino¡¯s determination.

    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re taking everyone?¡± Angor asked. ¡°I can¡¯t guarantee to save all of you should anything happens.¡±

    ¡°Sir Wizard, as long as Master Domino lives, our lives don¡¯t matter,¡± the servant spoke, and all the guards nodded to agree. Angor got a feeling that these people wouldmit suicide without a second thought, should Domino asked them to.

    ¡°The great loyalty of Phantom Servants...¡± he thought to himself.

    ¡°Follow me then. There¡¯s one thing you should know. Getting infected isn¡¯tpletely a bad thing.¡±

    He didn¡¯t exin the details¡ªthat once the parasites were gotten rid of, the victims would actually enjoy enhanced physical properties.

    He didn¡¯t know whether he could solve everything yet, so he couldn¡¯t speak the truth to them.

    ¡°Anyone who¡¯s fallen ill will die,¡± Domino said as he looked down.

    Angor noticed something strangeing from the guards behind. It seemed they intentionally put taller guards in the front to hide something.

    He used his spirit feelers and found a body bag being carried by a pair of guards at the end of the line. Also, the bag was moving.

    One of the guards said in a small voice, ¡°But how? We just administered a tranquilizer to the duke. He was fine in the chamber, why did he suddenly wake up when wee out?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. If he keeps doing this, the wizard will definitely see us.¡±

    And Angor had been looking at the direction all along.

    Domino gulped. ¡°Sir Wizard, I¡ª¡±

    Angor simply pushed the guards away and approached the bodybag.

    ¡°Sir.¡± The guards looked between the bag and Angor, and they quickly turned pale. However, they didn¡¯t let go.

    ¡°Open it up,¡± Angor ordered.

    When the guards hesitated, Domino quickly joined them. ¡°Sir Wizard, I didn¡¯t mean to hide. But that¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°Duke Tepikkhu, I know,¡± Angor said as he nced at the young man. ¡°Get him out. I just need an infected person who can¡¯t run away from me so that I can do a little test.¡±

 Chapter 321 - Parasite

    <h4>Chapter 321: ¡°Parasite¡±</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The guards slowly unzipped the body bag, revealing a middle-aged male tightly restrained by ropes.

    Duke Tepikkhu was still wearing normal clothes, probably because Lydia tied him up the moment he was affected by the parasite. However, the way he twisted his arms and the maniacal gazes in his eyes exposed his condition.

    Even though he was bound by the ropes, Tepikkhu was struggling so hard that the two guards were having a hard time keeping him under control.

    He writhed harder as Angor approached.

    When Angor reached him, Tepikkhu suddenly stopping moving and looked away.

    The guards, as well as Domino, nced at each other in confusion. They wondered if the young wizard used some kind of spell.

    Using the chance, Domino asked a medic member to inject tranquilizer into Tepikkhu¡¯s arm. The duke didn¡¯t resist at all.

    ¡°Lift his head,¡± Angor said.

    A guard slowly held Tepikkhu¡¯s head upward until he was looking at Angor¡¯s eyes. They noticed that the duke was no longer showing madness. There was a tiny trace of respect in his expression.

    Domino suddenly regretted his decision to take everyone away, for he wasn¡¯t sure if Angor was really Lady Lotus¡¯ helper. Angor only imed to be.

    And he felt afraid, looking at how his father was reacting.

    His father never showed such fearful respect even in front of Lady Lotus¡¯ magic doll. Did this mean the young wizard was actually stronger than Lotus? No. As Domino recalled, this young wizard addressed thedy as ¡°Lady Lotus¡± instead of using her true name, and this tiny detail suggested a lot in the world of wizards.

    But this didn¡¯t make the situation any less chaotic.

    The entire Midnight Sovereign was currently in a strange condition, and Domino felt more fear whenever something else happened. He was regretting his decision, yet he couldn¡¯t back off now.

    Angor stared at Tepikkhu for several seconds and pulled the silencing tape off Tepikkhu¡¯s mouth.

    With his mouth freed, Duke Tepikkhu began to sing in a low voice. While everyone else listened to the strange music, Angor read the emotion which praised Shava, again.

    ¡°Shava...¡± he murmured.

    ¡°Sir Wizard, are we leaving?¡± Domino looked toward the mist-covered door. He didn¡¯t hear any other ¡°mutants¡± singing, but he was still terrified that one of his guards or even himself would ¡°turn¡± at any moment.

    ¡°Hold on. You all stand back.¡±

    Angor asked them to keep some distance and began to release mana from his mana pool, swiftly constructing a cantrip model.

    When he opened his eyes again, the environment around him suddenly shifted.

    It was no longer the dim study room. He was now standing inside a bright, exquisitely-decorated chamber.

    He only dragged himself and Tepikkhu into this illusion while leaving everyone else outside.

    Tepikkhu wasn¡¯t surprised when he appeared somewherepletely different. Rather, he felt happy, as if he really liked this new area.

    A group of teacups suddenly showed up from a corner while ying a strange song.

    Meanwhile, a few red-painted toy soldiers moved in rank in front of Angor like real marines who were weing theirmander. But those palm-sized bodies didn¡¯t really do a good job.

    It wasn¡¯t an illusion, but the piece of Nightmare Domain Sunders severed for him.

    Angor tried to remember Sunders¡¯ words.

    ...

    ¡°How can I wake them?¡± After learning that the possessed citizens could be saved, Angor asked his professor.

    ¡°Do you know what exactly controlled them?¡±

    ¡°No...¡± Angor shook his head as he answered truthfully.

    ¡°When you identally opened a nightmare passage at the auction house, you should know there were many monsters that escaped into reality. Just like how each wizard has his or her own expertise, monsters do as well. For example, the teacup musicians can resist and reflect harm, while the toy soldiers can absorb energy and shoot it back. There is one particr monster you let loose who can cause the outbreak.¡±

    Angor went over his memory and tried to think of what monsters left the nightmare passage in front of him.

    The aria singer Froggy, harper Fox, joker card, and...

    Several small, colorful figures shed in his mind.

    ¡°The rainbow dragonflies?¡±

    ¡°Precisely,¡± Sunders said. He then sighed as he continued, ¡°They only have strength simr to level-3 apprentices, so I didn¡¯t expect them to cause such a serious influence. My attention was fully distracted by the pair of animals and a card who had been lurking inside the auction hall, and here¡¯s what happened; those ¡®insignificant¡¯ dragonflies brought both Twilight Well and Midnight Sovereign into a disaster.¡±

    There were about a hundred of them which escaped from everyone¡¯s sight. No one thought they would cause so much trouble half a monthter.

    ¡°They set up their nests on top of two energy sources of Twilight Well and gave birth to countless twinkle parasites in merely two weeks. They¡¯re extremely fast, and they can control wizards too,¡± Sunders said. He then paused to arrange his words before he continued, ¡°They do not pose any threat to you or me, who can manipte a Nightmare Domain. The problem is the tunnels inside these nests, which are releasing the mist into the city.¡±

    ...

    Sunders asked Angor toe so the boy could shut these tunnels off. Getting rid of the parasites was only a secondary task. Angor didn¡¯t really mind the victims he ran across since Sunders pointed out that the longer they were controlled, the more benefit they would receive in the end.

    Now that Angor had such a victim who couldn¡¯t escape from him, he wanted to try Sunders¡¯ theory out.

    ording to Sunders, he could get rid of the parasite by utilizing the property of Nightmare Domain and force the parasite from leaving its host on itself.

    Sunders also mentioned that the whole issue wasn¡¯t really dangerous because the parasites could only survive within the strange mist. If they were connected with the environment outside, they would immediately die off. This meant the outbreak would never leave the ground of Midnight Sovereign.

    The mist that covered the area was a special nightmare aura that escaped into this world via the nightmare tunnels. It wasn¡¯t difficult for Angor to deal with the parasites since they were restricted here.

    However, he couldn¡¯t solve the problem by taking the victims away from the mist.

    If he did so, the parasites would attempt to sustain themselves by absorbing the life energy of their hosts. Considering that they didn¡¯t need much energy, neither the parasites nor their hosts would die once they leave the mist.

    Killing the host would force the parasite to expose to the outside and die. But obviously, this wasn¡¯t an optimal option.

    After learning that the parasites couldn¡¯t live without nightmare aura, Sunders easily found a solution. The mist covering the city was only a temporary, ¡°fake¡± nightmare, while a Nightmare Domain was the real deal.

    When a parasite was put inside a Nightmare Domain, it would grow livelier, and it would quickly absorb the abundant energy around it. And since all the energy inside a Nightmare Domain was controlled by the owner, once the parasite was ¡°filled up¡± by the energy, this domain owner would be able to force the parasite into leaving its host.

    Angor didn¡¯t know how to control the energy yet. He had been too busy with his alchemy works to read <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain </i>.

    In order to learn this, he carefully listened to Sunders¡¯ lecture while heading toward the duke manor. Now he already gained an overall idea.

    ...

    Tepikkhu looked really happy. Just as Sunders said, the parasite within him was d to devour the rich energy inside a real Nightmare Domain.

    Angor tracked the energy flow and noticed that there was a concentrated spot inside Tepikkhu¡¯s body.

    He grinned at his sess. Following the energy-control technique he just learned from Sunders, he pulled the parasite, which looked like a glowing spot at first, from Tepikkhu¡¯s mouth. The parasite obedientlynded on his hand.

    At the same time, Tepikkhu copsed while his eyes rolled back into his head.

    Angor stared at the shining sphere in his palm. There were a number of vortex-like structures on the surface of it which looked like the parasite¡¯s eyes.

    <i>Creepy.</i>

    The parasite stayed put on Angor¡¯s hand. Even if it were to escape, Angor could easily pull it back using the nightmare energy it already absorbed.

    ¡°Professor said this is another nightmare creature, so I can put it here.¡± He didn¡¯t have time to worry about other matters now, so he simply tossed the parasite to the teacups nearby. He assumed that they would get along well.

    Next, he grabbed Tepikkhu¡¯s clothes and canceled the Nightmare Domain.

    In the views of the onlookers, Angor suddenly vanished with Tepikkhu. Domino was terrified when he saw this. He feared that Angor had taken his father to somewhere prone to infection.

    Before Domino could do anything though, the old servant called him.

    ¡°Sir Wizard and the old master have returned.¡±

    Domino looked back and saw the young wizard appearing again, along with Tepikkhu, who was no longer held in ropes.

    He was about to speak when Angor stopped him by pushing Tepikkhu into his chest.

    ¡°Take him. He¡¯s fine now.¡±

 Chapter 322 - Return to Twilight Well

    <h4>Chapter 322: Return to Twilight Well</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Domino didn¡¯t understand what Angor meant... until he heard Tepikkhu moaning.

    ¡°What are you doing? Go and protect young master!¡± the old servant yelled out, and all the guards quickly went to restrain Tepikkhu again.

    ¡°Ow... such pain...¡± Tepikkhu rubbed his temples.

    The guards were already moving to pull him away.

    ¡°Stop!¡± Domino ordered his men to back away. He then assisted Tepikkhu to a chair nearby.

    ¡°Father?¡± he asked eagerly.

    Tepikkhu opened his eyes and slowly recognized the figure of his son. ¡°Domino? Ugh, my throat... Give me some water, Muwa.¡±

    ¡°Muwa¡± was the name of the servant beside Domino.

    ¡°Ma-master, you are okay? This is unbelievable!¡± Muwa had both his eyes and nose running badly.

    Tepikkhu coughed and said, ¡°What do you mean?... Quickly, water...¡±

    Tepikkhu felt confused. He hadn¡¯t remembered how he fainted yet.

    However, his behavior convinced everyone that he was back to normal, which was exactly what Angor said.

    Domino pulled his father into a tight hug and began to cry loudly as well, while all the other guards silently wept along.

    Tepikkhu slowly recalled the situation. He saw something going into his mouth, then everything went dark... He wondered if a wizard came and helped him.

    He wanted to enjoy the reunion with his family and servants, but as the master of a n, he knew there were important matters at hand.

    He gently pushed Domino aside and stood up, preparing to thank Angor.

    Then he sprained his ankle and knelt down painfully. The parasite had messed up his limbs.

    After somemotion, Tepikkhu was carried by a guard. He then ordered everyone to kneel down in front of Angor.

    Thud! Thud!

    Two dozen pairs of knees hit the floor.

    ¡°Thank you kindly, Sir Wizard. If not for you, I would have¡ª¡±

    ¡°Get up. I¡¯m here because Lady Lotus asked me to. It¡¯s my job,¡± Angor said. He didn¡¯t intend to watch the family hugging each other for any longer. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We can¡¯t waste time now.¡±

    Tepikkhu watched Angor walking to the door and sighed helplessly. A life-saving favor was such an easy task in the view of a wizard. No wonder the king of Midnight Sovereign was so determined to seek wizardry...

    Outside, under the mist-covered evening, a young man in casual attire walked in front, while a group of guards and noble-looking n members followed him carefully, as they headed to the south gate of the city.

    Domino knew that Angor could save the infected people, but he was still terrified when he thought about how a million mutants were lurking out there in the city.

    After walking for around two hours, Domino grew more and more puzzled because he never ran into another mutant again. There was only one ¡°hostile¡± far ahead of them, who immediately ran away.

    Domino couldn¡¯t believe that the mutants were avoiding their guards, which only meant one thing¡ªthese monsters were afraid of the young wizard in the lead.

    This boy possessed amazing powers. Just by following his calm andposed footsteps made Domino feel better already.

    The dawn was approaching, and they finally reached the south gate. Upon exiting the affected area of the mist, they could see the train station in the distance as well as the woods and cave walls on the edge.

    There was a group of Subterrians who weren¡¯t infected, who were waiting at the train station. When Angor¡¯s group emerged from the mist, a bulky man with a full suit of armor quickly ran toward them in excitement.

    The man removed his helmet and revealed an aged and battle-scarred tortured face. He went down on one knee in front of Tepikkhu. ¡°Your honor!¡±

    ¡°d to see you well, Captain Neboa,¡± Tepikkhu said as he kept walking toward the train station with the help of a guard.

    ¡°This is Sir¡ªmy life savior. He helped me escape the city,¡± Tepikkhu said as he pointed at Angor. Since wizards preferred to remain in tales and legends to mortals, Tepikkhu didn¡¯t exin Angor¡¯s identity to the captain of the guards.

    Neboa quickly went to Angor and was going to kneel again.

    Angor stopped him and walked away. ¡°I¡¯ve finished Lady Lotus¡¯ request. You can go on your own.¡±

    Before he moved far, he heard the survivors discussing loudly. Neboa was asking Domino whether they saw Ananda in the city.

    Angor curled his lips.

    <i>So that Neboa man is Ananda¡¯s father.</i>

    He just saw all the residents paying respect to the captain sincerely. He couldn¡¯t really put this man and his thief daughter together.

    ¡°Don¡¯t go into the mist yet. If my assumption is right, it will disappear not long after. Wait until then so you can go home safely,¡± Angor¡¯s voice came from the distance.

    When everyone turned to look toward his way, they could only see a faint shadow sinking into the dense mist.

    ...

    Angor walked on the street of Midnight Sovereign, alone this time, in a more rxed mood. It didn¡¯t take him very long to reach the white wall.

    The wall was a portal toward Twilight Well. When he was still some distance away, he saw countless tiny light beamsing from the wall.

    No doubt these were the parasites produced by the rainbow dragonflies.

    As he drew closer, the light beams changed their courses to steer away from him. There were so many of them that Angor easily caught several parasites by grabbing the air.

    They looked simr to the one he caught inside Nightmare Domain a moment ago, just a bit smaller.

    He observed the parasites for a while before he tossed them away.

    Then he looked at the white wall which was still giving out parasites like crazy. He took a deep breath and walked inside.

    Before he could check his surroundings again, Sunders¡¯ voice transmission came.

    ¡°I sensed your aura. You¡¯re inside Twilight Well now?¡±

    ¡°Yes, professor.¡±

    ¡°The nest of the bugs is right beside the entrance, guarded by the dragonflies. So that you don¡¯t run into them, stay there and don¡¯t move. I¡¯ll go get you.¡±

    Without waiting for an answer, Sunders cut the connection.

    Angor looked up at the tri-branch fork road ahead. Guards? He already saw them.

    A swarm of shiny, colorful dragonflies was circling around the fork road. Their wings caused a loud buzzing sound.

    Not only could he see them, but he could also sense them as well.

    ¡°Lord Shava!¡±

    ¡°Good day, Shava, your highness!¡±

    ¡°Oh, Miss Shava! Shiny like the moon, as ever!¡±

    ¡°Enjoy the brilliance of the queen, Shava!¡±

    It seemed the rainbow dragonflies weren¡¯t very intelligent. Angor only sensed childish and simple thoughts. He had to guess a lot to figure out what the emotions actually meant.

    About a hundred dragonflies kept praising him. Each time a dragonfly managed to say something brilliant, it wouldnd on Angor¡¯s hair and release its color more brightly.

    Angor didn¡¯t felt any fear at all. Rather, he found these insects quite funny.

    It wasn¡¯t long before a good number of dragonflies had gathered on his hair while shining brightly. If someone were here to observe, he or she would find a walking humanmp, who was illuminating everything with different colors.

    Angor waved the bugs away. The dragonflies remained at a close distance, but Angor didn¡¯t mind them further.

    He carefully inspected the environment. The shopfronts near the entrance were always the most expensive to rent. A magic florist nearby had its door wide open, and the interior of the shop was in aplete mess. Another grocery store was locked up; its magic array was still shining away. Further away, the buildings around the fork road were too obscured for Angor to see clearly. But he believed he saw bloodstains and debris on the road.

    This ce was bustling with people just half a month ago. But now... It wasn¡¯t totally ruined yet. However, everything was too barren and quiet.

    He didn¡¯t see any mutants here. They were probably hiding in the buildings. Angor was already used to being left alone now, so he simply wandered into the magic florist shop to check.

    The door toward deeper inside was locked, while there was a magic array protecting the stairs, so he could only check the outer room of the first floor.

    He thought about taking something he could use from the shop. However, he was disappointed to notice that the nts on the first floor were all untiered cheap stuff such as Echo Flowers. Besides, most of the nts were torn up.

    Several intact specimens were mostly used by beginner Apothecary Alchemists, and he had no use for them.

    Sunders¡¯ voice came again, ¡°Where are you?¡±

    ¡°The florist shop to the left of the entrance,¡± Angor quickly replied.

    ¡°You encountered the dragonfly guards?¡±

    On the roof of a building several hundred meters away, Sunders watched the scene with his physical form concealed. He saw the dragonfly swarm outside the florist waggling around as if performing some kind of performance.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Angor said as he walked out of the shop. ¡°They didn¡¯t attack me though.¡±

    Next, Sunders saw the shining insects allnded on Angor¡¯s head, turning his young student into a humanmp.

    Angor chased them off again. ¡°I think they mistook me for Shava again. I sensed their emotions. They¡¯re singing for her.¡±

    Sunders remained speechless for a while. And he was just worried about the safety of this kid...

    ¡°That name again...¡± Sunders sighed. He was getting frustrated at how Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form contained too many mysteries. Now he really wished to bring Angor to Nightmare Realm again so that the kid could grow stronger at a faster pace.

    ¡°Since they¡¯re not hostile to you, try to go to their nest. Our target is right inside,¡± Sunders said.

    ¡°Okay. Where is the nest?¡±

    ¡°Inside a shop called ¡®Lady¡¯s Juice¡¯. It¡¯s managed by The Pleasure House. Be very careful. If you sense ANY negative intent, get out immediately, and I¡¯ll assist you from outside. Do you understand? Do NOT do anything reckless!¡±

 Chapter 323 - Nest

    Chapter 323: Nest

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Starting from the entrance of Twilight Well, Angor only needed to walk straight to the tri-fork road to reach ¡°Lady¡¯s Juice¡±, which was located in the middle of the fork.

    Apart from the broken debris and blood trails, he couldn¡¯t see the ce clearly earlier because of all the mist. Upon moving closer, he noticed that the building was more damaged than he imagined. More so,pared to the other buildings nearby.

    He took a guess that Sunders did this when he was fighting the dragonfly guards.

    Lady¡¯s Juice was an oval-shaped structure that looked like an egg cut in half. Angor thought this was a theater or dancing stage because these kinds of ces usually needed to be big.

    When going in, though, he found out that it was just a high-ss,prehensive entertainment spot for wizards. There was a ve market here, which mainly sold mortal ves to be used as sex toys. Sometimes there were low-level apprentices who willingly came in order to gain resources by ¡°serving¡± wizards.

    As long as there were people, there was filth. Angor didn¡¯t particrly hate this ce. He just felt ufortable since it was the first time he entered such an environment.

    Pity, there were no beautiful ves left¡ªonly tattered, gold, gem-embedded walls and furniture.

    The grand hall was empty. There was a wine fountain that was still releasing sweet red wine from the mouth of a dolphin statue. He didn¡¯t need to approach it to sense the smell of grapes.

    He saw golden sparkles shining inside the liquid stream. The strange smell of energy suggested that it contained some kind of pheromone which soothed nerves, disturbed people¡¯s judgment of right and wrong, and made them obsessed.

    Simply put, the wine was also an addictive drug.

    Angor walked around the wine fountain and saw some vegetation nted below a wall painting.

    There were only cheap, non-tiered magic nts inside the florist shop, and he never needed them. Here, however, he was surprised to see that Lady¡¯s Juice used low-tier magic nts as decorations.

    ¡°Snake Rot, used for brewing Blood Coagte. Pill Castor, which tranquilizes people by a small whiff. Midnight Branch that creates ze Blooms...¡± He looked through the nter boxes and sighed. Of course... Such a shop always earned huge money from human desires.

    He picked the sapling of a Pill Castor and a small portion of the Midnight Branch. He then put them into his bracelet. He would have taken more if the ¡°habitat¡± in his bracelet was bigger.

    He grinned a little upon receiving some extra materials for free. These would usually cost a hundred magic crystals.

    Following Sunders¡¯ direction, Angor walked toward the inner hall where the monster nest was supposed to be.

    When he stood in front of a closed door, Sunders¡¯ hoarse voice came again, ¡°Are you alright? We can always make another n if you don¡¯t feel like it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine!¡± Angor was still happy about his gain. He wasn¡¯t nervous in the slightest.

    And Sunders noticed the particr emotion that came from Angor¡¯s voice.

    ¡°You¡¯re... excited? Because there¡¯s an unknown challenge ahead?¡± As a pragmatist, Sunders was d to see that his young student was willing to face challenges rather than hiding behind books.

    ¡°I am,¡± Angor said as he rubbed his palms and prepared for more adventure ahead. ¡°This ce is so rich. They put magic crystals inside walls as... decors! I picked 50 or so along my way!¡±

    You¡¯ve been proceeding slowly because you were prying crystals off walls and not because you¡¯re being careful?!

    Sunders yelled out in his mind.

    ¡°... It¡¯s been almost an hour since you entered Lady¡¯s Juice. How much do you think you can earn if you¡¯ve spent the time doing more alchemy?¡± Sunders lectured in a gentler way instead of scolding Angor in the face.

    Angor frowned a little. Sunders was right. Earning 50 crystals was so easy if he could use his time wisely. He was wasting time now.

    Still... Free stuff felt so good!

    ¡°Fine. The Pleasure House won¡¯t really mind it if you help them get rid of the dragonfly nest. They¡¯d even reward you several thousand in return.¡±

    Angor quickly shook his head. ¡°Please don¡¯t tell them about me, sir.¡±

    Twilight alone was enough as a threat. Angor really didn¡¯t wish to provoke another entire organization.

    Wimp.

    Sundersined in his mind.

    ¡°Now get in there. If those insects attack you, release your Nightmare Domain immediately and send the teacups to stop them. I¡¯m hiding in the mist under the ceiling. Buy me a second or two, and I¡¯ll get you out.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    Angor was still calm, but he still put up a careful attitude since Sunders meant for him to get serious.

    He pushed the door ajar and peeked inside.

    Nothing other than mist.

    He left the door open for several seconds but nothing else happened, so he moved to open it fully.

    As his view of the room grew wider, he noticed a giant silhouette hidden behind the mist.

    He stayed outside the door and exined what he saw to Sunders.

    ¡°Right, that¡¯s the dragonfly nest. It asionally releases a bunch of parasites. You can take a good look then.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ words came out fast because the gentleman was getting ready for a fight as well.

    Soon enough, Angor saw the light streamsing out.

    When it happened, the mist inside the hall was blown away for a moment as if strong gale traveled over the hall. In the next second, countless light beams swarmed toward the outside like fireflies.

    Angor found it to be quite beautiful¡ªhe sensed no fear at all.

    Using the brief light, he got a good look at the monster nest. The ceiling of the inner hall of Lady¡¯s Juice was about a dozen meters above the floor, while the nest itself stood seven or eight meters tall. It was a strange object made from several hundred spheres glued together by some yellowish sludge. Each sphere had something dark inside, which was releasing those light beams. The whole thing appeared like a giant beehive.

    Angor wondered if these creatures worked like ants or bees, which meant countless ¡°drones¡± served a single ¡°queen¡± who dominated the hive.

    He asked Sunders.

    ¡°No. When I broke a part of their nest, I only saw a hundred dragonfly guards defending it. They produce the parasites using some sort of ritual ability, while only the dragonflies are results of breeding. So they didn¡¯t attack you?¡±

    ¡°Well, some of them followed me from behind and kept singing Shava¡¯s name. I didn¡¯t see any guards yet.¡±

    ¡°Keep moving to the nest. Slowly.¡±

    Angorplied, and soon, he saw the guards showing up around the nest. They floated to him in the same waggling manner.

    Sunders saw this from the ceiling. Last time when he encountered them, the gentleman killed several and left the rest, since he only aimed to shut the passage. He would keep the remaining insects for experiments.

    Unlike his own experience though, the guards only stayed near Angor without doing anything else.

    ¡°Can you feel their emotion?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but not much. They can¡¯t express themselves very well. But I¡¯m sure they mean no harm to me.¡±

    There was more¡ªthese dragonfly guards were also praising Shava using simple and basic words.

    Sunders sighed in relief. ¡°Good. You should now test out their tolerance. Approach the nest and climb to the top of it. The final tunnel is right there. Remember, your mission is done when you see them stop you. Back away immediately, and I¡¯ll watch you from outside.¡±

    Following the instruction, Angor slowly walked near the nest to test their limits.

    However... he found no such limit. He already reached the top of the nest and saw the tunnel mentioned by Sunders. The guards never did anything.

    When he left Lady¡¯s Juice safe and sound, Sunders showed up beside him.

    Sunders put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°It went pretty well. It seems this ¡®Shava¡¯ is really important in the Nightmare Realm. I had several emergency ns which... all went to waste. As long as you can shut the tunnel, this whole incident won¡¯t do much damage. And those who¡¯re possessed will benefit greatly.¡±

    Sunders led Angor into a manor where a giant statue of a roaring lion guarded the gate.

    ¡°This is the private mansion of ¡®Azure Lion¡¯ Devildare.¡±

 Chapter 324 - Close Off

    Chapter 324: Close Off

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Devildare was a bulky old man with stand-out hair. He wore a ck robe and was sitting at the main table in the middle of the great hall.

    ¡°So you¡¯re Angor Padt. I see your professor never overstated you,¡± Devildare said as he smiled at Angor with a mixed emotion shown in his eyes.

    Angor clearly remembered how this man demanded him to ept punishment and solve the crisis inside Twilight¡¯s auction house. It was obvious that Devildare wasn¡¯t speaking his true mind.

    But this didn¡¯t mean Angor wouldn¡¯t return his own good manner, albeit insincere.

    Devildare was a wizard on the path toward ultimate truth, and Angor had to contain his discontent and face the man with politeness. Under the great pressure exerted between Devildare¡¯s words, Angor couldn¡¯t find the slightest courage to retort.

    ¡°Mister Phantom already told me about the reason behind the parasite outbreak. Yes, you have nothing to do with it.¡±

    However, the grim glimmer in his eyes gave the man¡¯s true intention away.

    ¡°I also know that their bodies will be strengthened. It¡¯s... a betterment for all people.¡±

    Angor kept up his simr fake smile while he listened to Devildare¡¯s fake words.

    Sunders sat nearby. He was grinning while he enjoyed the awkward show.

    When Devildare couldn¡¯t bear to ¡°act¡± further, he turned to Sunders and said, ¡°Mister Phantom, since Angor is here, shall we get to solve the problem?¡±

    ¡°Already?¡±

    ¡°Our auction has been postponed for two weeks now. There are many items about to rot away. And... I don¡¯t know whether our customers are willing toe to Twilight Well again after the incident. I must join the other two ns to find a solution so that we don¡¯t close up shop like the marketce on Parmigi Hignds.¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°I see. Better do it earlier then... You know, I and Angor must do separate jobs simultaneously. I won¡¯t have any problem on my end, but considering Angor¡¯s strength...¡± Sunders looked hesitant as he continued, ¡°I can¡¯t send any wizards to protect him since anyone else will get possessed by the parasites, so...¡±

    Devildare already realized what Sunders meant, and he sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Mister Phantom. I¡¯ll go find some gear to protect Angor.¡±

    Devildare shook his head and headed to his storage. Behind his back, Angor grinned brightly.

    ¡°Thanks, professor.¡±

    Of course he knew Sunders spoke like that to earn him something in return. They already knew he would have no problem walking straight into the monster nest without getting into any trouble.

    ¡°Well, you¡¯re saving lives after all. Since you don¡¯t want to get recognized, at least take a souvenir,¡± Sunders joked.

    Save lives?

    Angor didn¡¯t really consider his action to be so noble. He felt ashamed each time he thought about how the incident was caused by his own recklessness.

    ¡°While waiting for Devildare to get his things, I¡¯ll tell you about our n,¡± Sunders said as he beckoned Angor to go into apartment nearby. ¡°The parasites aren¡¯t a big problem. To tackle the root of all, we must remove the mist...¡±

    After shutting off the tunnels, they simply needed to clean up the rest. Angor¡¯s job was to close the tunnels together with Sunders.

    There were two dragonfly nests in Twilight Well, which meant two spots that generated mist. Apart from Lady¡¯s Juice, the second one lied in the inner auction hall, along with Froggy, Fox, and the Joker poker card.

    ¡°I¡¯ll deal with the one inside the auction hall, while you go to Lady¡¯s Juice. We must shut them at the exact same time, or an energy bacsh will reopen whichever is closed too early.¡±

    The point was ¡°exact same time¡±. Angor and Sunders were the only two who could do the job now.

    ¡°The tunnels are connected to the Nightmare Realm. But only the outer regions, since the nightmare aura is very weak. Without a Nightmare Domain as the ¡®filter¡¯, the other nightmare monsters cannote out. They can only send their energy to our world.

    ¡°As for how to close the tunnel...¡± Sunders stopped talking and used mind synchronization to convey the message to Angor. This was his family secret, and he would stay extremely careful even if no one else were around.

    Angor and Sunders were the only ones up for the job because closing the tunnels required them to use their Nightmare Domains. Flora possessed a Nightmare Domain as well, but she couldn¡¯t control it.

    As he exined, Sunders handed several stones of different sizes to Angor. The biggest among them was like a kid¡¯s fist, while the smallest was just the size of a grain of sand.

    Angor looked at the stones and sensed a familiar aura from them.

    ¡°Nightmare Stones,¡± Sunders exined. ¡°When you attune your Nightmare Domain with the tunnel, throw the stones into the tunnel and it¡¯s done. They will fix up the broken space by themselves.¡±

    Nightmare Stone?

    Something shed through Angor¡¯s mind. A statue of a praying maiden.

    When he was traveling from the Old Earth to Fey Continent, he first boarded a ship called The Redbud. The ship had a figurehead which was a statue of a praying woman, and there was a Nightmare Stone ced on the woman¡¯s forehead.

    He recalled someone created an illusion using the stone.

    So they can repair space ruptures too?

    ¡°We usually find these from the Nightmare Realm. It can seal the opening between the Nightmare Domain and the Nightmare Realm, as long as the opening isn¡¯t toorge yet. The one in Lady¡¯s Juice is still small enough, and you won¡¯t need many stones. Seal the tunnel and keep the rest. Many nightmare illusions require these to unleash their full strength. If youe across more Nightmare Stonester, try to buy some. They¡¯re pretty expensive, but you should be able to afford them if you work hard.¡±

    Sunders felt a bit jealous of Angor¡¯s alchemy talent as well. When the gentleman ventured into Nightmare Domain, he started from zero and took ages to find out the property of Nightmare Stones. Even a sand-sized one cost several hundred magic crystals, and he always spent them carefully.

    Angor, however, didn¡¯t have to go through all that. With the boy¡¯s alchemy skills, there wouldn¡¯t be many wizards in Brute Cavern who couldpete with him in the future.

    Money always made things easier.

    ¡°Understood, sir. I¡¯ll buy them whenever I see them,¡± Angor said as he nodded without a second thought, like a typical rich dude.

    Sunders chuckled helplessly. And this kid was just stealing crystals off decorated walls...

    ¡°Oh, professor? Is the auction house dangerous? I can go there too because Froggy and Fox are pretty friendly to me,¡± Angor said.

    Sunders¡¯ expression remained in. ¡°You¡¯re questioning my skills?¡±

    ¡°No. Just, I think it¡¯s easier for ¡®Shava¡¯ to do the job. I also want to know why Froggy and Fox remain there.¡±

    Sunders stared at Angor for a while and sighed. Then he ruffled Angor¡¯s hair. ¡°You don¡¯t know who Shava is, right? Don¡¯t get too obsessed about a strange name yet. If one day, you actually believe that you¡¯re Shava, then Shava wille out for real. For now, he or she is only something we imagined. We don¡¯t know if it¡¯s something that can rece your existence.

    ¡°So, do not indulge yourself in Shava¡¯s dream before you learn who that is. And try not to approach monsters who regard you as Shava. It might be a blessing, or it might be Shava¡¯s corrupted n. We never know.

    ¡°I¡¯ll handle the auction house. Besides, the situation there is moreplicated than you think.¡±

    The gentleman didn¡¯t tell Angor that there were a lot of wizard corpses at the auction house already.

    ...

    A momentter, Devildare came back while holding a magic scroll and a brand-new ck and white checkered overcoat.

    ¡°The scroll contains a magic array called ¡®Aster Barrier¡¯, which can hold off wizard attacks. It disappears when it runs out of energy,¡± Devildare said as he handed the scroll to Angor.

    When he was taking the scroll, Angor noticed that Devildare¡¯s hand was covered in scales. It was transnted.

    ¡°The coat has a built-in Magic Barrier spell,¡± Devildare said with a frown as he gave Angor the overcoat.

    ¡°It¡¯s only a level-1 cantrip, but I think you know its value as an alchemist, so I¡¯ll not exin further. Just...¡± he sighed and said. ¡°I hope you don¡¯t fail our expectations.¡±

    Level-1 cantrip Magic Barrier was amon defensive spell used by apprentice alchemists to avoid idental explosions when they were doing alchemy.

    The cantrip¡¯s defense property was as powerful as some of the level-2 cantrips. It had a lower level due to its extremely long cast time and short effect duration. Many alchemists would rather choose a bloodline to use than studying this useless cantrip.

    However, being built-in would maximize its potential, either for alchemy protection orbat.

    Angor also noticed a low-level segregation effect on the overcoat, which prevented detections. But it only worked against people of a simr level as the wearer.

    The coat looked really nice, except that... its color was too showy.

    Usually, ck and white worked well together. And a checkered coat would be totally fine.

    But this one came in a size was too big for Angor¡¯s body. It almost covered his knees. And when he buttoned the coat up, only his left side showed checkered design, while his right side waspletely ck. It definitely would bother people who suffered from OCD, who felt itchy whenever they saw something that wasn¡¯t in perfect order.

    The buttons were a problem too.

    Each round button had a ck base color with two white dots and a white curve, creating a really weird-looking smiling face.

    Smiles on buttons?

    The strange designs hadpletely ruined a fine coat!

    Angor recalled the day when he came to Apprentice Town 8 for the first time. He also saw the other apprentices wearing all kinds of bizarre clothes. Heck, a man called Hobson walked into Sky Tower while dressed as a white bear!

    Angor was wondering what had gotten into the tailors who lived in the southern wizarding region. Did they really believe that wizards all needed unique looks?

 Chapter 325 - Paying Debt

    <h4>Chapter 325: Paying Debt</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Free gifts were always good gifts. Angor still quickly epted the overcoat despite his badments on its terrible style.

    Apart from its size, it went well on his body without hindering his movement.

    He cast an Ice Wall and used the polished surface of the ice like a mirror. The strange coat seemed... pretty good on him. While looking at his own reflection, Angor remembered a certain wicked gentleman he read about in a child¡¯s story.

    ¡°Nice fit. A hat would be better,¡± Sundersmented.

    Devildare jumped a little and took out a ck top-hat from his space ring.

    There were two te-like objects affixed on the hat, with the same ¡°smiling face¡± image on them, in reversed colors. It was obvious that this hat was meant to be sided with the overcoat.

    Devildare chuckled at Sunders in an awkward manner. ¡°Thanks for the reminder, Mister Phantom. I forgot the coat came with a hat too.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t want toin further now. He already looked weird in that coat; an extra piece wouldn¡¯t hurt.

    Upon receiving the hat, he quickly noticed that the hat contained a level-3 cantrip called Purification Field. It was a higher version of ¡°Purify¡±. Anything affected by this cantrip was free from dust, bacteria, and dangerous temperatures. It was one of the mostmon spells to be affixed onto clothing.

    The cantrip alone suggested that the top hat was way more expensive than the overcoat. Devildare wouldn¡¯t have shown it if not for Sunders¡¯ ¡°reminder¡±.

    ¡°My gratitude, Sir Azure Lion. With these, I¡¯ll have a better chance of removing the tunnel at Lady¡¯s Juice,¡± Angor said as he bowed to Devildare with a smile.

    Devildare hesitated for a while and nodded. ¡°As long as Twilight Well can return to its right track... everything elsees second.¡±

    Angor wondered if Devildare meant to overlook his other responsibilities by those words.

    ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll do my job as best as I can.¡±

    Devildare could resist the parasites. ording to the n, he was going to help Sunders distract the frog and fox.

    The two of them began to talk about it.

    Meanwhile, Angor silently put the magic scroll into his space bracelet and took out a pouch from his waist.

    Toby circled around him to observe his master¡¯s new suit. Then the bird waved his wings around.

    ¡°Tweet!¡±

    He wanted his own set of checkered suit.

    Angor stroked Toby¡¯s feather. ¡°I¡¯ll find a time and make you one when we¡¯re back at Brute Cavern.¡±

    As an alchemist, Angor wanted to expand his list of recipes as much as he could instead of keeping to a few items. Weaving was also a possible choice. Toby only needed the look of the clothes, so Angor nned to use ordinary fabrics to practice with.

    When Toby heard the answer, he perched on top of Angor¡¯s hat happily. The bird soon created a small crater in it to let him sit better.

    About half an hourter, Sunders finished speaking with Devildare. Then the three of them left Devildare¡¯s house.

    When passing through the great hall, Angor saw several dozens of wizards from the three ns either floating, sitting, or meditating. They escaped from the parasites with Sunders¡¯ help just a moment ago. Some of them still had those clown outfits on.

    No one spoke, mostly because they felt humiliated about what happened to them. When they saw Sundersing, they all looked away in embarrassment.

    Devildare spoke to them.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to help Sunders solve this mist. You all remain inside. The n master of Ember Dragonwings, Hannibal, shall take lead and discuss a strategy on how to restore the fame of Twilight Well afterward, and how we¡¯ll exin to everyone about the whole matter.

    ¡°I think you all noticed that your strength and reflexes are improved. We shall consider this a destiny. It¡¯s a good excuse too. I hope I can hear a detailed n from you when I get back.¡±

    These ¡°non-truth¡± wizards would definitely get possessed if they chose to leave the manor, which meant they had to wait here. To spare them some awkwardness, Devildare simply asked them to work out a n in the meantime.

    With this settled, Devildare, Sunders, and Angor left through the gate.

    Back inside the house, the wizards engaged in a rtively friendly discussion since they now had amon goal.

    While they talked, Twilight suddenly stood up. ¡°I¡¯ll leave for a second. Need some fresh air.¡±

    Hannibal gave her a meaningful look and sneered, ¡°Don¡¯t get lost in the mist.¡±

    Twilight walked onto the balcony and watched the three individuals who were walking away.

    She fixed her gaze on the young man with the checkered overcoat and revealed a vicious grin.

    ...

    Inside the mist-covered area just outside the manor.

    When the three of them were about to part ways, Angor approached Devildare and handed a pouch to the old man.

    Devildare nced at the in-looking pouch and sensed what was inside without having to check it.

    Sunders also stopped to look at them. ¡°I saw you putting away that scroll just now. So you crafted a space storage?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°All thanks to your greyspace microbes, professor.¡±

    Sunders smiled withoutmenting further. He collected arge number of microbes when he was constructing the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, and he had been wondering if he should sell them. But now, Angor just presented him yet another big surprise.

    The microbes were costly, true. But a space storage made out of them was even costlier. Ten times more expensive than the raw materials, or more.

    Since Angor could create space storages, the extra microbes would bring him more fortune. Thinking about this, Sunders couldn¡¯t help but grin brightly.

    Devildare clearly knew what Sunders was nning, and man, he was jealous! Twilight Well had a good stock of greyspace microbes, but they didn¡¯t have an alchemist who could use them!

    If only Angor was in a better rtionship with Twilight Well...

    It didn¡¯t matter though. They could always make it up slowly. Twilight Well would never thrive if they rejected a genius alchemist just because of a small conflict.

    The old man decided to talk to Twilightter and persuade her into forgiving Angor¡¯s offense. Anyway, it wasn¡¯t like they could do much to the boy when Sunders was around to protect him.

    Lion Princess died during the incident. Sunders managed to retrieve her soul from the auction hall. She might suffer some loss of strength, but she would recover.

    As for the missed auctions... They didn¡¯t achieve as big auction volume as the grand auction. The ordinary auctions that were postponed for several days only caused manageable damage.

    Everything was still eptable, and Devildare nned to set his vision further. Angor, at his current level, already possessed decent alchemy skills. The boy could produce items good enough to be used as highlight lots for an auction. Establishing a friendly connection with Angor meant more to Twilight Well,pared to pursuing a petty debt.

    Wizards always judged people by the profit they held. Devildare didn¡¯t like Angor, but he certainly could seek cooperation with the boy.

    While Devildare went over his thoughts, Angor unbound the pouch in his hand.

    ¡°There are five space nes in different colors. The Dusk Butterfly, Silvery Butterfly, a white, orange and pink one. The Dusk Butterfly only had 3 cubic meters, while the other four all had 5,¡± Angor said as he handed the pouch to Devildare. ¡°I think they hold a value of a hundred thousand crystals added up. This is for paying my debt to Twilight Well.¡±

    Devildare took the pouch and inspected it with his spirit feelers. Everything Angor said was correct.

    The nes cost more than the debt already. After careful consideration, Devildare took out the ¡°Dusk Butterfly¡± and returned it to Angor.

    ¡°The other four are enough. You can have this one back.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reject it. He took the ne and prepared to head to Lady¡¯s Juice.

    Sunders suddenly put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I was expecting you to get the money by selling Greya¡¯s food. So you really gathered a hundred thousand in half a month?¡±

    Angor remained calm, but his proud eyes gave him out.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget about my hundred fifty, which is due in the next half month.¡±

    Sunders and Devildare disappeared into the mist while Angor remained agape.

    Angor put up a bitter look when he thought about what he just heard. It seemed he wouldn¡¯t be sleeping much for a while. Again.

    He sighed and walked toward Lady¡¯s Juice.

    ...

    Once again, nothing stopped him from advancing. Angor went straight to the monster nest.

    As for the rainbow dragonflies, they all tailed him while praising Shava.

    Following Sunders¡¯ instruction, Angor climbed onto the top of the nest and waited for his order while he ignored the insects.

    With nothing better to do, he simply began to observe the mist tunnel ahead of him.

 Chapter 326 - Nightmare Watcher

    <h4>Chapter 326: Nightmare Watcher</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The tunnel appeared as a shattered space rift about two or three meters wide. The dark tunnel floated in mid-air without any support, while the space around it seemed stable enough.

    Angor carefully looked inside without finding anything. It was like staring into an unlit train tunnel. However, he could sense the surging nightmare aura that was assaulting his face.

    ¡°The aura is still weak...¡± he murmured. He then pondered about it.

    Probably because the tunnel was too far from the Nightmare Realm, most of the aura was lost in the void while it passed through the tunnel.

    He reached out his spirit feelers around the seemingly stable tunnel, and he didn¡¯t sense any danger near the entrance of it.

    Using the feelers, he could see that the nightmare aura that was deeper inside was stronger than the ones outside. Only a small portion of it escaped into the wizarding world.

    ¡°So the other side of the tunnel is the Nightmare Realm...¡±

    ¡°What did you say?¡± Sunders¡¯ voice suddenly reached his ears. ¡°What¡¯s your situation over there?¡±

    Before reporting that everything was fine, Angor heard Devildare¡¯s voice in the transmission and quickly amended his words. ¡°I met some resistance, but I can manage.¡±

    Sunders remained silent for a while and chuckled.

    ¡°I¡¯m not using a wide-broadcast connection as what the Tree Spirit did. Just speak the truth. No one will hear us.¡±

    ¡°Oh, heheh... I¡¯ve reached the top. I¡¯m looking at the tunnel right now.¡±

    ¡°Good. We¡¯ll probably need a moment longer. Wait there. I¡¯ll keep in touch.¡± Sunders sighed and changed into a more careful tone when he asked, ¡°Did you learn anything from the tunnel?¡±

    ¡°Nothing in particr. I just saw that the tunnel is pretty solid, and I think the Nightmare Realm is just at the opposite side. Um, you told me that there¡¯s no stable tunnel that leads to Nightmare Realm, right? Say, if we keep the tunnel here, can we use it to travel to Nightmare Realm?¡±

    ¡°Naive assumption. It¡¯s true that the tunnel is connected to Nightmare Realm, but that¡¯s not a two-way pass. The tunnel is a special ne passageway. Without directions, the worst thing that awaits you in there is to lose yourself for eternity.

    ¡°Going into the Nightmare Realm requires more than a tunnel. You also need something that is once rted to the ce as a coordinate. You yourself is such a coordinate since you were hurt by a nightmare monster before. You don¡¯t know how to locate a space coordinate yet. And suppose you somehow managed to enter the Nightmare Realm, you¡¯ll probably end up at the inner regions. There¡¯s no way you can trick your way around using Shava¡¯s name.¡±

    From the exnation, Angor understood that the Nightmare Realm was moreplicated than he expected.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to execute our n,¡± Sunders said, ¡°and I¡¯ll cut the connection for now. The next time you hear from me will likely be the moment for you to close the tunnel. Stay safe and don¡¯t wander off.¡±

    ¡°Understood!¡±

    ...

    Outside the inner auction hall at Twilight Auction House.

    The door was blocked by a series of inconspicuous white strings, which took Lion Princess¡¯ life as well as Devildare¡¯s arm.

    Sunders stared at the mist-covered doorway. ¡°We¡¯re going in. Stay alert, Devildare.¡±

    The gentleman brought out his usual ck walking cane and tapped on the floor.

    A ck horse covered in dark, burning scales galloped out of the ripples created by the tap.

    ¡°A Nightmare Substitute!¡± Devildare stared at the handsome creature in shock. It was Sunders¡¯ original spell, and no one else could learn it. The spell wasmonly believed to be the most efficient means of escaping in the entire southern wizarding region.

    When the Nightmare Substitute shrieked toward the sky and ran around Sunders and Devildare, Devildare saw dark gleams and a strange pattern forming under the Nightmare Substitute¡¯s hooves. In the next second, they were teleported into the inner hall.

    The Nightmare Substitute could be used to ¡°rece¡± someone from a dangerous situation. At the same time, it could teleport people for a short distance.

    ¡°Keep your Truesight on so that we don¡¯t run into the white strings,¡± Sunders warned.

    He had barely finished his words when a thick light beam emerged from the mist. Sunders didn¡¯t react, while Devildare stomped the floor and summoned the image of arge blue lion from his body.

    ¡°Guardian Lion!¡±

    Devildare could avoid the parasites because of this original spell that he created after finding the path of truth. It could block all sorts of spells and evil tricks.

    The light beam paused in front of Sunders and moved away. It went for Devildare and quickly turned to dust-like glitter dust when the lion image stared it down with those mighty eyes.

    At the same time when the light beam came, a surge of wind also blew over the hall and removed the mist. And now, both Sunders and Devildare were attracted by the giant nest inside the room.

    This one wasrger than the one in Lady¡¯s Juice. More importantly, three extra monsters stood beside the colorful dragonflies.

    A card painted with a clown stood right in front of the nest. The clown card was making all kinds of funny poses. With each move, the mist began to gather. When the clown bowed in the manner of a curtain call, the mist from both sides joined together to block the view once again.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind the card. You distract the animals. Let¡¯s move!¡± Sunders ordered.

    Devildare released a series of meteor strikes toward the frog and fox.

    The animals had been ying their music. They immediately retaliated. Froggy would send an attack to Devildare each time it opened its mouth, while the fox harper flipped its harp strings and created more white strings in the room.

    ¡°Tank the frog while watching the fox¡¯s movement, Devildare!¡± Sunders yelled as he flew toward the top of the nest. As he expected, the dragonflies threw themselves at him like bombs. But they were one level below real wizards. Each of Sunders¡¯ attacks could easily wipe out a great number of them.

    The fox harper also looked at Sunders and revealed a grim look. When it yed its instrument again, a white string appeared right beside Sunders.

    Using Truesight, Sunders easily leaped away from the string.

    He believed that the fox was the most dangerous being. Therge energy reading they saw before came from the harp held in the animal¡¯s paws. Using it, the fox creature could release legendary-level energy even though the fox itself was only as powerful as a level-2 wizard.

    It was very likely that the harp once belonged to a legendary. Or rather, the harp was a Mystery Weapon.

    At that thought, Sunders disyed a passionate look. The harp was the second reason why he chose toe to the auction house.

    ¡°Stop that harp!¡± Sunders called and began to release his own mana. As more energy ripples showed around him, the image of a giant ck tower materialized behind him, decorated by swarms of bats and a full moon.

    The Nightmare Tower.

    Sunders spent two centuries tobine three Nightmare Domains into one and named it the ¡°Nightmare Tower¡±.

    All the monsters in the auction hall were immediately engulfed inside this Nightmare Domain. They were all surprised when they sensed the rich nightmare aura.

    ¡°A foreign breath...¡± The clown made a strange pose and caused the energy of the Nightmare Domain to shift. Sunders squinted and quickly suppressed the unwanted energy surge.

    ¡°He who tries to fool the moon-blessed Froggy shall be spat on by the moon itself!¡± the frog scoffed.

    The fox harper remained silent. It always was.

    While the wizard-level monsters managed to refrain from getting attracted by the Nightmare Domain, the rainbow dragonflies failed; they all began to absorb Nightmare Aura eagerly.

    When the insects absorbed enough nightmare aura, Sunders detonated them and wiped the floor with bug juice.

    ¡°Close the tunnel!¡± Sunders moved to the mist tunnel and hurled several Nightmare Stones inside.

    At Lady¡¯s Juice, Angor also received the message and quickly disyed his own Nightmare Domain to fix the broken space.

    They sessfully started their work at the same time, although Sunders was having more problems on his end.

    ¡°Damn it, the fox is slippery. It won¡¯t fight me!¡± Devildare yelled out while reflecting Froggy¡¯s attacks. ¡°It¡¯s heading toward you!¡±

    Sunders was still focused on the mist tunnel on top of the monster nest. He suddenly heard something moving behind his back.

    ¡°How fortunate of me to meet a live Nightmare Watcher. Harper Fox, at your service.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t look back. He already saw the fox showing up just behind him, flipping its me-red tail while stroking that harp.

    ¡°Nightmare Watcher? Is that how you address people who own Nightmare Domains?¡±

    Fox lifted its harp with a smile. ¡°My queen cannot wait to descend upon this realm for any longer. Please do not bother her highness, Mister Watcher.¡±

    Sunders asked another question before Fox could y its harp, ¡°Is Shava a Nightmare Watcher too?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t easy to run across a monster who couldmunicate properly, so Sunders asked something he wanted to know most instead of ¡°ying calm¡±.

    Fox revealed a cold look. ¡°The true name of her grace is not for you humble watcher to use!¡±

    Following another harp note, several white strings rushed toward Sunders.

    As the attack approached, Sunders sighed deeply and mumbled, ¡°The day and night are divided by more than light and shadow. Heh. It¡¯s been a long time.¡±

    Under the surprised gaze of Fox, a dark shadow struggled to climb out of Sunders¡¯ body. The shadow¡¯s white-glove covered hand slowly brushed past the iing white strings, when the strings all caught fire. ck fire.

    When the mes died down, Fox looked at... Sunders, in the familiar ck gentleman suit, who just broke the strings.

    But there was... another Sunders, who was still fixing the tunnel.

    A new Sunders just appeared out of Sunders¡¯ body?

    Fox looked more carefully and noticed that the ¡°second¡± Sunders appeared younger and had darker skin. This one¡¯s sclera was ck instead of white, while his irises were of bright, blood-red color.

    The second Sunders looked more handsome in a sense. Devilishly handsome.

 Chapter 327 - Boundless Darkness

    Chapter 327: Boundless Darkness

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Lady¡¯s Juice. On top of the monster nest.

    Angor exerted his Nightmare Domain. Without much knowledge to go with, he simply followed Sunders¡¯ instructions carefully. Everything went smoothly until now. His Nightmare Domain engulfed the tunnel and slowly mended it.

    First, he tried his best to sustain the Nightmare Domain. But when he threw arger Nightmare Stone in there, the tunnel began fixing itself without the need for an extra effort.

    And Angor was left with nothing to do.

    He turned around to observe the dragonflies nearby.

    There were a lot of ¡°wanderer¡± dragonflies and ¡°guard¡± dragonflies who possessed more vivid colors. The creatures created a dreamy rainbow around the area, which looked brilliant when observed from a distance.

    The guards didn¡¯t react at all when they saw Angor doing something to the tunnel. They kept praising the queen and Shava.

    Also, the teacup band and toy soldiers all hopped out from a corner of the Nightmare Domain and began to sing and dance around the colorful ze.

    Compared with Sunders¡¯ tensed situation, Angor was enjoying a child¡¯s circuit, easy and rxed.

    About three minutester, the tunnel was almost closed up. Only a small opening which barely allowed one adult to squeeze through was left.

    ¡°Is everything okay, Angor?¡± Sunders¡¯ voice came.

    Angor quickly shushed the teacups. ¡°Yes, sir, only a tiny bit left. It should disappear soon.¡±

    ¡°Heheheh... I so very wish to see you soon, Angor, my disciple...¡± ¡°Sunders¡± replied in a strange tone, like a whisper.

    Angor tilted his head. Was that Sunders?

    ¡°Um, what¡¯s going on, professor?¡±

    He heard someone panting badly.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Just... I met a long-lost friend. You just heard him.¡±

    Before Angor could speak again, he heard the same strange voice.

    ¡°Ah... I¡¯m eager to examine your soul. Will you die for me, my dear disciple?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him. Tell me about what happened on your end,¡± Sunders said.

    Angor found it weird that Sunders¡¯ ¡°old friend¡± just called him ¡°my disciple¡±. He considered and decided to leave the matter. However, he still believed this strange character sounded a lot like the younger Sunders, who he met when he was inside the Nightmare Realm. But that individual looked more serious andposed.

    ¡°I have no problem here. The dragonflies didn¡¯t do anything to me. They are still calling for their queen and Shava.¡±

    ¡°Good. My tunnel will close up in about one minute. We must seal them at the same time, with our dy below 5 seconds. Can you manage it? If not, I¡¯ll slow my progression ording to yours.¡±

    Angor noticed the noise of explosions in the background which meant Sunders¡¯ situation was not as safe. He considered a little and nodded. ¡°I can control my speed.¡±

    ¡°Very well. Get ready!¡±

    As Angor watched the hole grow smaller and smaller, he felt a little nervous.

    Ten, nine, eight...

    He counted while he looked carefully at the remainder of the tunnel shrinking visibly.

    Three, two...

    Angor felt his heart racing madly. Under such tension, he failed to notice a shadowy figure slowly materializing out of thin air behind his back.

    Only one second left. Angor was confident that the tunnel would soon vanish.

    A sudden hurricane assaulted his back.

    He couldn¡¯t react at all. His body was knocked into what was left of the tunnel by the powerful wind.

    ¡°What¡¯s going¡ª¡± Sunders heard Angor yelping. But the gentleman didn¡¯t get to finish his question as Angor¡¯s tunnel hadpletely closed up by the Nightmare Stone.

    At the same time, the connection was lost. Angor could no longer hear Sunders¡¯ voice.

    Angor¡¯s heart was still beating like crazy. He reached out with his hands but he couldn¡¯t find anything he could grab on.

    Desperation quickly took over his mind.

    Why¡¯s this happening?? At thest second?

    He already began to regret his decision ofing here alone, just because he was too confident that nothing could hurt him. He should¡¯ve asked one of the wizards to apany him just by using a simple excuse, and Devildare could give them something to keep off the parasites.

    But he quickly gave up that thought. This was no time for regrets.

    He felt his body falling and falling as if a bottomless swamp awaited below. He could do nothing to stop his fall.

    He quickly remembered Sunders¡¯ words¡ªthat the tunnel was essentially a special ne passageway. Compared to those constructed in a hustle, this one was rtively stable.

    He desperately searched for anything rted to ne passageways in his brain.

    A ne passageway was an endless space where day and night, maps andndmarks didn¡¯t exist. If he were to keep falling, he would probably get trapped in an eternal time stream and die of old age at this rate.

    He needed a space coordinate to get out of here.

    But where to find such a thing?

    Besides, only wizards who could fly around could travel through a ne passageway, and Angor didn¡¯t know how to fly. His only way was down. Forever.

    He panicked when he thought about the possibility of spending the rest of his life falling in this darkness.

    But he didn¡¯t get to freak out because he suddenly found himself slowing down. Then he came to aplete stop and... began to float upward?

    He had lost his sense of directions in thisplete darkness.

    It took him a while to realize that his cor was strained against his neck, which meant... someone was holding his cor as they moved up.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Angor asked and noticed that his voice came out smaller, in a very strange frequency.

    He also found out that it was getting difficult to breathe here. However, he could still manage.

    Since there was air... maybe an exit that led to the outside was nearby? Even so, he didn¡¯t know how to locate it. He couldn¡¯t possibly feel his way around using pure luck.

    ¡°Hoot!¡±

    ¡°Toby?¡± Angor reached out a hand and felt a pair of talons grabbing his cor.

    Wait, Toby was strong enough to carry him now? As Angor recalled, the bird had powerful burst power but not in the long run.

    Did Toby grow stronger? Or... was gravity here actually lower?

    He didn¡¯t have time to consider these questions now. ¡°Are you stressing yourself now? Call twice if yes, once for no.¡±

    He couldn¡¯t really see Toby¡¯s bodynguage in here, so he thought about a dumber way tomunicate.

    ¡°Tweet!¡±

    So, Toby didn¡¯t have any problem with carrying him.

    Feeling desperate didn¡¯t mean he would give up hope easily. He had to find a way out¡ªfor Toby, for Jon, and his brother, Leon!

    With Toby here, he would have no problem moving around for now. So he had to think of how to leave the ne passageway next.

    He had nothing to go with yet. ording to Sunders, without a space coordinate, he could go nowhere. Not even the two ends where the tunnel originally connected.

    And of course, he couldn¡¯t leave Toby to wander aimlessly. Doing so meant circling around the same ce and wasting strength. Jon once told him that someone blindfolded could never walk down a straight line on t ground because his or her brain couldn¡¯t ensure the direction without any extra information as a reference. All the tissues in the man¡¯s body would make small ¡°mistakes¡± and cause the human body to walk in arge circle.

    He had to think of something to escape the situation.

    He recalled Jon¡¯s words, about how to avoid ¡°running in circles¡±.

    ¡°Andmark...¡± Angor remembered one viable way to do it.

    But was there anything like that in this darkness?

    He could see no directions, no light, nothing...

    He thought about cing something of his own and using it as a sign. But he had nothing that could remain in one ce. He could not use something falling down as andmark.

    Then he thought about the nightmare aura he felt when he stood in front of the tunnel just now.

    There was a nightmare aura inside the tunnel. Could he follow it?

    He closed his eyes and released his spirit feelers, and he was thrilled to sense something.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if we can get out that way,¡± he said. His voice brightened up a little as he continued, ¡°I found the stream of nightmare aura which is slowly decreasing into a direction. We¡¯ll head toward the source of it. Listen to my guidance, Toby!¡±

 Chapter 328 - Traveling in Darkness

    Chapter 328: Traveling in Darkness

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor could barely sense the nightmare aura from his position. Luckily, he didn¡¯t fall for too long, and a tiny trace of the aura was still left above him.

    He didn¡¯t know where this would take them. But he had no other choice.

    He already assumed the worst, yet he couldn¡¯t say it. Angor only smiled at Toby tofort the bird. ¡°Go that way. There must be a way out.¡±

    ¡°Tweet!¡± Toby didn¡¯t sound pessimistic at all.

    As he guided Toby¡¯s flying course toward where the nightmare aura was richest, Angor slowly went over his current situation in his mind.

    Before falling into the tunnel, he only had a very brief glimpse at his back and saw the silhouette of someone... no. That wasn¡¯t ¡°someone¡±, but a human-shaped skeleton.

    He knew because the skeleton looked really impressive, in a weird way.

    That was definitely not a nightmare monster. Maybe a summoned creature or a magic puppet. Angor was sure that someone was controlling it from the dark, someone who attacked him just before the tunnel was closed.

    And he could only think of one such individual who would do this in the entire Twilight Well.

    ¡°Twilight?¡± he wondered out loud. He couldn¡¯t determine the culprit yet. But being contained in this lonesome darkness made him want to vent out his rage somewhere. Otherwise, the negative emotions would burst out of his mind.

    His sanity and moralistic beliefs didn¡¯t prevent him from using Twilight as an imaginary target for his anger. And he only grew more and more furious the more he thought about it.

    But the only thing he could do right now was to roar into the abyss of darkness, which did no good apart from troubling Toby¡¯s ears.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Toby... we¡¯ll get to the exit soon,¡± Angorforted his partner as well as persuading himself that there was still hope.

    There was a novel he read before which said that ¡°a world dominated byplete darkness obeys no rule of time. An era passes on every time you blink your eyes.¡±

    He didn¡¯t regard these words more than a simple method of establishing a meaningful atmosphere in the story. But he began to understand what it meant when he himself was trapped in dark.

    It wasn¡¯t about the rules of time. He couldn¡¯t sense ¡°time¡± at all.

    He felt as if he had been here for a long time. A week, or maybe a month. However, his body kept telling him that a day had not psed yet.

    He wasn¡¯t hungry or tired. The mana he spent when he brought out the Nightmare Domain had not fully recovered.

    It was barely several hours, at best.

    Not being able to tell time gave him the false impression that he was here for a long time. Maybe when the inner organs adjusted to the darkness, he would finally believe so.

    He took out the pocket watch which contained his hologram tablet and affixed it onto his chest carefully. He then activated the device.

    The shining screen somewhat dispelled the looming darkness.

    He didn¡¯t feel particrly afraid before. But when there was a light source, he could look into the monstrous void all around him, injecting endless fear into his brain.

    It was like someone who suffered acrophobia who stood on a safe, barred tform, where a bottomless abyss lied below. He knew he was safe, yet he felt terrified.

    Angor looked back at his hologram tablet without minding the area around him too much.

    It was the first day of Month of Harvest (August). Eight in the evening. He recalled it was thest day of Month of Soothing Wind (July) when he left Brute Cavern. At a simr evening time. After a brief calction, he concluded that he only spent an afternoon inside this ne passageway.

    It meant four or five hours. Yet he felt as if a month already passed.

    ¡°Hoot?¡± Toby called in a curious tone.

    The bird saw Angor¡¯s tablet for the first time. Angor didn¡¯t wish to expose too much information regarding this yet, so he only told Toby it was a time-measuring tool he obtained from his teacher.

    He wasn¡¯t lying, since his teacher, Jon, did give him the tablet. He meant to give Toby the wrong impression that he was referring to Sunders.

    Under Angor¡¯s instructions, Toby kept flying for half an hour. Meanwhile, Angor opened a folder to look for information rted to ne passageways.

    Everything that was exined looked simr to what he assumed¡ªthat he had to know about a space coordinate in order to escape the tunnel in one piece. In most cases, a ne passageway only had one viable way that led to two points. Wandering around and relying on luck was very likely to get him nowhere.

    He considered and opened another different folder.

    It contained a book that he recorded in Sunders¡¯ library when they were on the cloud whale¡ª Fantastic Treasures and Where to Find Them (10th Anniversary All-in-One Edition).

    It was a magazine published by a magazine office located inside a Wizard Fair called ¡°Archaic Rivershore¡±. Monthly release. Angor was reading a volume they published to celebrate their 10th anniversary. The front page of the book even dered that the book was specifically gifted to Mister Phantom.

    Angor looked through the index and quickly found what he needed:

    [Section Ephemera: a non-existent creature of unknown origin. Rumor has it that it is rted to Candy House, an organization administered by Fairytown. The Section Ephemera held such great value that every single piece of information regarding its presence will attract a great many wizards. It has a unique property that establishes a new two-way passage inside a stable ne. The passage was only single-use, but it can achieve a lot of different goals in the hands of capable wizards...]

    Angor carefully read the exnations, hoping that his Section Ephemera could help him escape.

    However, the book only said that the creature worked in a ¡°stable ne¡±, not a stable passage between different nes. Besides, Angor¡¯s ne passageway was only rtively solid. Without the protection of the world¡¯s consciousness, the tunnel could easily crumble if anything went wrong.

    He sighed. It seemed he couldn¡¯t use the Section Ephemera properly here.

    Toby kept flying toward where the nightmare aura felt thicker. They would take a rest every now and then, where Toby would sit inside Angor¡¯s pocket and have a snack. But they would immediately fall down again, albeit not very fast. In order not to lose track of the nightmare aura, Toby only rested for several minutes each time before returning to being a pilot.

    About another half day passed by as they continued their seemingly endless journey.

    Before Angorpletely lost hope of their chance of survival, he finally saw something shining in the direction they were heading to.

    ...

    Inside the inner auction hall of Twilight Auction House.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Angor?!¡± Sunders called anxiously. ¡°Damn it. His signal vanished!¡±

    The gentleman grimaced hard. There were many possible reasons for one to suddenly disappear from his ¡°radar¡±. Considering Angor¡¯s condition, the most probable conjecture was that Angor somehow entered the nightmare passage!

    Sunders stomped and jumped down from the monster nest. Then he dashed toward the outside at full speed.

    ¡°Where are you going, Sunders?!¡± Devildare endured another hit from Froggy and noticed Sunders¡¯ action. ¡°Hey wait, there are two Sunders?! But the other one is ck...¡±

    Sunders called back from a distance, ¡°Angor¡¯s in trouble. I¡¯m checking him out!¡±

    ¡°Angor?¡± Devildare also put on a grim look. What about the nightmare tunnels if something happened to that boy?

    Sunders already read Devildare¡¯s mind. ¡°The tunnels are already closed!¡±

    ¡°But you can¡¯t leave me here!¡± Devildare yelled, ¡°And-¡±

    Who¡¯s that ¡°ck¡± Sunders?

    Devildare didn¡¯t get to ask the question because Sunders already vanished from his sight.

    Devildare growled and looked around. He saw the harp-wielding fox still alive. The animal was wounded a bit but nothing too serious.

    However... the harp was still here!

    As they spected, this item might be a Mystery-level weapon!

    And Sunders just, left it here? To help his student?

    ¡°So the rumor is correct. His new student is really special to him...¡±

    But what exactly happened over there? Devildare suddenly got a bad feeling about it. There was one terrible possibility that lingered in his mind, and he hoped it was not the case.

    ...

    Since the tunnels were closed off, the mist covering Twilight Well was also disappearing rapidly.

    Sunders hopped among the buildings quickly and grew more and more worried as he watched the mist growing thinner and thinner. In thest second, before he lost contact with Angor, the boy sounded rxed, which meant whatever happened was very serious.

    ording to Fox, Shava was ¡°her grace¡± to the monsters. This meant ¡°Shava¡± was a really important figure in the Nightmare Realm. Maybe someone powerful in the core regions of that ce.

    This was why the dragonflies would never harm Angor.

    But something got Angor in thest second. It was obviously not the nightmare monsters who did it, which only left the possibility that someone else ambushed him.

    ¡°Such a pity. It seems my beloved disciple has been murdered... He cannot provide his body to my experiments now,¡± a low voice came from beside Sunders.

    Sunders looked around and saw the ¡°younger version¡± of himself, who had ck eyes and crimson pupils.

    ¡°Return. You can¡¯t show up in front of ordinary folks,¡± Sunders said as he reached out a hand and released a tiny vortex which ¡°absorbed¡± his other self.

    ...

    Soon, Sunders reached Lady¡¯s Juice. As he expected, no one was here. There were no traces that indicated a fight.

    Sunders¡¯ eyes shone with the light of ¡°Remove Delirium¡±, a level-1 spell, which looked through the history using information that remained at the scene.

    But he got nothing. There was no useful lead.

    The entire Lady¡¯s Juice was clean. No energy ruptures, no foreign hormones.

    It was exactly the cleanliness that told Sunders that someone plotted against Angor.

    But who the culprit was didn¡¯t matter for now. Angor would still question if Twilight attacked him, yet Sunders would not¡ªkilling an innocent wizard or two wouldn¡¯t make a difference now.

 Chapter 329 - Bacabrado

    Chapter 329: Bacabrado

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor saw a light.

    Seeing light in this never-ending darkness was strange no matter how one looked at the matter. Instead of hoping for an exit, Angor¡¯s instinct told him that it might be an unknown danger.

    When he read about ne passageways, he learned that this ce wasn¡¯tplete emptiness. There were still specific creatures living here, such as Hollow Weed.

    Or certain monsters.

    The chance of finding a monster in a ne passageway was as terrible as seeking a needle in a haystack. But it wasn¡¯t zero. Monsters, phantom beasts, or evenmon animals might wander around this particr ce.

    Some of them might have stumbled in here by ident, while the others considered the ne passageway their home.

    No matter what it was, any other lifeform Angor might meet could be dangerous. Anything that managed to survive in a ne passageway had to have some kind of abilities.

    From the books, Angor read about a certain ¡°glowing beast¡± called ¡°Bacabrado¡±. ording to a wizard¡¯s note, Bacabrado was a gentle-tempered monster that had a shiningntern on its head. The creature used the light to attract Hollow Weed where it would then consume them.

    However, the book was written by a wizard and meant to be read by other wizards. A ¡°gentle¡± monster in their eyes might be something downright deadly to Angor.

    The book might have described Bacabrado as herbivorous. But it was probably because there wasn¡¯t anything else for it to eat.

    The creature was usually used by wizards to find Hollow Weed. They just needed to follow one to locate the nt. However, Angor wasn¡¯t sure he could do the same without the same power.

    Actually, he didn¡¯t even know if the light came from an exit or a Bacabrado.

    It didn¡¯t really matter. He also wasn¡¯t sure how long he was going to spend in this total darkness. Even a piece of uncertain hope was better than nothing.

    He considered his option and spoke to Toby, ¡°Head to the light. And... be prepared. If it¡¯s a monster, you just get away. Don¡¯t mind me.¡±

    Toby didn¡¯t reply this time.

    The light source was still far and tiny, but it was enough to be used as a ¡°lighthouse¡± which guided them.

    ...

    It drew closer.

    They kept flying; Angor noticed that both of his assumptions might be incorrect. The light was neither an exit nor a Bacabrado creature.

    ording to the book, a Bacabrado released pure white light which could be seen up to ten kilometers away. But Angor was looking at something colorful. It moved and flowed in the darkness ahead like a rainbow gxy.

    Toby stopped moving.

    ¡°That¡¯s not a door. It¡¯s moving...¡± Angor chuckled helplessly. ¡°And I think it¡¯s heading this way.¡±

    Since a Bacabrado was considered rtively gentle, something other than a Bacabrado meant that it could be even more dangerous. Judging from the books, none of the other monsters living inside ne passageways was anything friendly. Even wizards had to avoid running into them.

    ¡°Drop me, Toby! Run!¡±

    Again, Toby didn¡¯t answer. The bird dragged Angor and turned back.

    Angor tried to force Toby away. But he then realized that Toby¡¯s talons were extremely strong¡ªhe couldn¡¯t move them off at all.

    ¡°Let go of me!¡± Angor looked back and saw the ¡°flowing rainbow¡± catching up. There was no way Toby could outrun it while carrying him.

    Angor thought about using an illusion to trick Toby into escaping on his own. He didn¡¯t get the chance because he soon sensed emotions.

    Joyful emotions.

    ¡°Praise the moon!¡±

    ¡°Praise the queen!¡±

    ¡°Praise our Shava!¡±

    Angor was very surprised to sense the familiar emotions. He then smiled in joy.

    ¡°Okay, stop running. I think... we¡¯re safe!¡±

    ...

    The ¡°journey in darkness¡± was only true for the first half. Angor quite enjoyed the remaining half of it.

    The flowing rainbow turned into a flying carpet which allowed Angor to sit on it. Toby perched against his cheek, while the colors around him praised his, or Shava¡¯s name. It was quite the luxury one could expect in such a deste environment.

    Half an hour ago, when Angor just heard the praising chants, he immediately realized the nature of the ¡°flowing rainbow¡±¡ªthe rainbow dragonflies.

    They had to be the same ones who came from the Nightmare Realm, or he wouldn¡¯t be hearing Shava¡¯s name.

    Angor also noticed that these were not the guards that protected the monster nest in Lady¡¯s Juice because he was looking at a swarm of a thousand. There were only about a hundred insects that wandered around in Twilight Well.

    So what were these dragonflies doing inside a ne passageway?

    Angor didn¡¯t really need to know. There had to be a way for these rainbow dragonflies to survive here, and Angor believed that they knew about the coordinate of Nightmare Realm.

    With this in mind, he tried tomunicate with the dragonflies, hoping to ask them to get him out of here.

    It was difficult. The insects had very limited intelligence. They knew nothing more than praising people.

    Angor considered and decided to tell the dragonflies that he would stay with them. And they understood him this time.

    This was exactly what was happening now¡ªabout a thousand rainbow dragonflies gathered together as a colorful carpet and supported Angor who was sitting on top of them.

    With their help, Toby finally got to rest properly.

    Angor had no idea where the insects were heading. They had to have a destination though, be it Nightmare Realm or somewhere else. This would exin why they were acting as one.

    Angor wouldn¡¯t be picky now. As long as he could get the hell out of this ne passageway and away from the eternal void, he would take another adventure inside the Nightmare Realm.

    ...

    They traveled for a long time.

    Angor had been keeping his eyes on the pocket watch. The hour arm had moved several rounds now. He didn¡¯t know whether time here shared the same flow with the wizarding world, but at least, his watch suggested that it had been two and a half days since he fell.

    Which meant the outside was the 3rd day of Month of Harvest.

    Toby had some sleep during the period, while Angor also took a small nap. His spirit had recovered. Yet he was soon met with another problem: hunger.

    He had ced all his valuables inside the space bracelet... but there was no food.

    He had another choice though, which was to eat some of Toby¡¯s dried fish.

    Toby¡¯s Snowy Feather was stuffed with his favorite fish slices, along with all kinds of strange clothes.

    Under Toby¡¯s doubtful gaze, Angor pretended to be having a good meal while he chewed the salty and odorous fish.

    ¡°This is nice. I¡¯ll buy you more next time.¡±

    Toby waved his wings twice: I want twice the volume.

    Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll give you five!¡±

    He silently made up his mind that he would find a chance and stock some food inside his bracelet. Wizards could survive on their energy for years on end without eating, but he couldn¡¯t do that kind of wonder yet.

    Or maybe he could try to learn a Gourmet Spell called ¡°Mana Bread¡±.

    As an Illusionist apprentice though, it would take forever for him to learn a professional spell which wasn¡¯t his expertise.

    While he went over his random thoughts, the rainbow dragonflies had carried him near a real Bacabrado.

    It happened pretty fast. The leading dragonflies suddenly strayed off the course of nightmare aura and headed toward somewhere below their direction.

    Angor looked around, puzzled. He saw a giant lizard-like creature not far from him, who had been surrounded by the rainbow dragonflies. The lizard had a glowing ntern¡± on its head like those of an anglerfish, which released bright white light.

    ¡°A Bacabrado?¡± Angor was shocked when he realized he just won the jackpot. Finding a monster inside a ne passageway was almost impossible.

    He took a close look and saw the Bacabrado trembling badly. It seemed as if it was terrified of the dragonflies.

    ¡°Go. Wee next time!¡±

    ... was what Angor sensed from the insects.

    Next, he saw the Bacabrado bing somewhat relived before it then swiftly traveled into the darkness, wiggling itsntern to and fro.

    ¡°Is that creature tamed by the dragonflies?¡± he wondered out loud.

    After the beastpletely disappeared, the biggest dragonfly in their rank approached Angor while carrying a small, green light spot.

    It presented the green spot to Angor like a peasant who was sending a gift to a king.

    ¡°Hollow Weed... For me?¡± Angor already saw some of the nts around that Bacabrado. He didn¡¯t take them since he saw the dragonflies feeding on them. These insects already gave him a ¡°ride¡±. Even if the Hollow Weed was extremely valuable, he wouldn¡¯t take their ¡°fuel¡±.

    But since the dragonflies meant to give him one as a gift, he didn¡¯t reject it.

    The green lump was asrge as an egg. From a quick look, Angor took a guess that there had to be hundreds of Hollow Weed spheres congested together. Those 13 units he obtainedst time got him a small habitat of around half cubic meter. Now with these extra ones, he could probably make his entire storage space liveable. With some to spare!

 Chapter 330 - Mana Bread

    Chapter 330: Mana Bread

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor didn¡¯t know what was the rtionship between that Bacabrado and rainbow dragonflies, but he was d for the little surprise.

    His happiness didn¡¯tst very long though. If he couldn¡¯t get out, the treasure would be meaningless inside this darkness. When he thought about this, his mood worsened once again.

    He ced the Hollow Weed inside his bracelet to let them expand their territory.

    ...

    More travel went on.

    Another three days passed.

    Following the nightmare aura, Angor experienced a wonderful journey that no one would believe if he ever told them.

    He thought that running into a Bacabrado was a rare experience, which was not the case. Along their way, they came across all kinds of giant beasts, as if they were a king and his guards who were patrolling a city.

    There was one such beast that was sorge that the colorful light released by the dragonflies could not help Angor to see the tail of it.

    It dwelt inside a misty cloud created by the nightmare aura. When the dragonflies traveled through, the magnificent creature nced at them with its alexandrite eye before it slowly moved out of the way.

    Angor never managed to see the full size of the creature. He couldn¡¯t remember the books ever mentioning anything with alexandrite-colored eyes and pure white scales.

    Its size alone suggested immeasurable power. The monster was probably beyond wizard-level.

    Angor could read the great intelligence that was disyed in its eyes. But it seemed like the giant beast didn¡¯t wish tomunicate as it merely shut its eyes and simply let the rainbow dragonflies carried Angor away.

    And this wasn¡¯t the only wonderful thing Angor witnessed.

    He even took a guess that the ne passageway he was in was actually a ¡°ranch¡± of Nightmare Realm, while the rainbow dragonflies were the managers. Every monster he came across only lived near the nightmare aura. He now felt it lucky that he found the dragonflies. If he followed the nightmare aura by himself, these unknown monsters would probably have made quick work of him.

    Maybe fate didn¡¯t want him dead after all.

    ...

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how far he had to travel. Both he and Toby began to take less food, and Toby reduced his own movement to conserve his strength. The bird perched inside the small crater on Angor¡¯s top hat while he thought about something on his own.

    Angor, on the other hand, took out his tablet and searched for the gourmet spell ¡°Mana Bread¡±.

    He was d that Sunders¡¯ collection included a small number of low-level ultist cantrips. ¡°Mana Bread¡± was among them.

    And as he expected, the learning process was extremely slow.

    Learning cross-subject abilities wasmonly seen among wizards. Angor¡¯s Elemental Spells were also something out of his field of expertise. But to learn an ultist skill was apletely different matter. These skills were considered ¡°ult¡± because they were mysterious and unique.

    But he still had to do this. Toby¡¯s dried fish would run out sooner orter, and they had no idea where their journey would take them. He had to learn the cantrip to make sure that they didn¡¯t die of starvation.

    More time went by.

    A weekter, which was about the 16th day of Month of Harvest, Angor looked at the ckish substance in his hand. It was heavy like iron scrap, and it smelled like someone¡¯s unwashed sock which had been sealed somewhere wet and poorly-ventted for an entire month.

    This holey ck lump of ¡°Object-X¡± was the mana bread he managed to create after studying for nearly a hundred hours.

    He could barely hold back from vomiting, let alone actually trying to taste the disaster.

    Toby¡¯s fish slices were a little stinky too, but it was in a different way. Angor wondered if Toby would like this one.

    Using such an excuse about which he himself wouldn¡¯t believe, Angor carried the ck object in front of Toby¡¯s face.

    ¡°Hey, Toby, a piece of tasty bread for you. If it¡¯s good enough, I¡¯ll make you more,¡± Angor said as he presented the smelly lump with both hands and a bright smile.

    Toby looked at Angor in doubt and hopped onto his hand to take a sniff.

    ¡°Caaaarw!¡± The bird pped the object away violently which knocked against Angor¡¯s forehead.

    Angor felt dazed for a moment. ¡°Oh gosh. Perhaps Gourmet Wizards use this spell to attack people? That hurts!¡±

    He rubbed his swollen forehead and tossed the object into the void.

    He tried several more times. Maybe because of his incorrect way of learning or some other reason, he only managed to bring out a simr bulge every time. The only difference between them was how long a sock was kept inside a drawer.

    ording to the book, a ¡°Mana Bread¡± should be something with a sweet smell and soft on the tongue. A Gourmet Wizard could change the vor of it by following his or her own taste, such as orange, mushroom, tomato or cheese...

    It was only in books. Angor¡¯s creations all smelled like worn footwear.

    However, considering the fact that he was learning somethingpletely foreign to him, him being able to create an object after learning for a week was already something.

    During an afternoon, he forced himself to take a small bite of his mana bread while he endured the overwhelming stench.

    As he thought, it was like chewing kibble used for feeding pigs. Or rather, kibble was way better than this.

    Still, as long as he pinched his nose, his tongue couldn¡¯t really register the bad smell. He could totally swallow it if he tried not to think about it too much.

    He was determined though, that unless they were left with absolutely nothing else to eat, he would not rely on this sorry stuff.

    Their journey continued. During their time, Angor noticed some other details about this ce, such as his meditation helped him to expand his mana pool at an extremely fast pace.

    The rate at which he purified primal mana was still the same. Yet his mana pool grew visibly. After another two days, Angor finished another meditation session and sensed that his mana pool had swelled. The books said that such a feeling meant he hadpleted all necessary training for a level-1 apprentice.

    He was now at his bottleneck before turning into a level-2 apprentice.

    The Singrity Dispersive Meditation already helped him grow a lot faster than everyone else. He was shocked once again, that his training speed inside the ne passageway was three or four times more efficient.

    His previous progress suggested that he would achieve such a condition in the Month of Frost or when the purification garden was opened. But he did it four months earlier!

    Reaching his bottleneck in Month of Frost was already a bold estimation. It would usually take others several years to do the same. Dave, for example, was still a level-1 apprentice who was far from the bottleneck even though he came to Brute Cavern five years earlier than Angor.

    Angor found this to be both unbelievable and exciting. It seemed training was faster in a ne passageway. There were no books that mentioned such a thing.

    He wondered if it happened because of the rich nightmare aura.

    But he couldn¡¯t ascertain the reason yet. Getting stronger was more important right now. He had no idea where the dragonflies were taking him to, and no matter where it was, having enough strength to survive was rule number one.

    Usually, the bottleneck which prevented a level-1 apprentice from bing level-2 was rtively easy to managepared to the next one. Even the most ordinary person could break through with several years of effort. Of course, those who were rich enough could always buy potions for this, while others simply needed enough time.

    Angor was different. The channeling method he learned suited him perfectly, and he sessfully established the axes of the universe in his mind space. To him, breaking a minor level bottleneck was like a walk in the park. His real challenge would only begin when he was near the wizard level.

    It only took him three days to break through to level-2 apprentice. Nothing went wrong.

    Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. He would never train so fast if not for the unknown assant who pushed him down here.

    He had another problem now.

    He improved too fast, without learning many of the essential skills and knowledge.

    He could count the number of level-1 cantrips that he had learned with one hand, and he hadn¡¯t started to study the Tooling, Smelt, and Freeze cantrips. He was nning to make a list for the cantrips he needed to learn after the Twilight Well incident was over. Maybe he would even join several ss sessions in Tree Spirit Garden while at it so that he could adjust what he had learned from Jon properly before he proceeded for real.

    He did none of these. No lessons, no cantrips. And here he was, a level-2 apprentice, forced by fate and opportunity.

    He was now determined to take some time to strengthen his foundation upon returning to civilization. Otherwise, his ¡°level-2 apprentice¡± title would bepletely fake.

    But... could he really return at all?

    He got an answer a dayter.

    ...

    It was the 21st day of Month of Harvest, as well as the 21st day since he had been inside the ne passageway.

    Due to the help of the rainbow dragonflies, his lengthy journey finally drew to an end.

    He saw a bright exit at the end of the direction, which looked very outstanding in this dark ce.

    As he wished, the dragonflies flew toward it as fast as they could manage.

    The exit looked very simr to the entrance in Lady¡¯s Juice, but a little bigger and more stable.

    Before they reached it, Angor could see the silhouette of buildings behind the exit.

    ¡°Is that the Nightmare Realm?¡± Angor didn¡¯t know whether he should really feel happy.

    Nevertheless, he should get out. Anything was better than staying in the void. And it wasn¡¯tpletely impossible to find a way out of the Nightmare Realm.

    While heforted himself, Angor slowly floated out of the ne passageway in which he had spent half a month...

 Chapter 331 - Abandoned Village

    Chapter 331: Abandoned Vige

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor stepped out of the ne passageway and immediately felt something was wrong.

    He thought the rainbow dragonflies were taking him to the Nightmare Realm, which... didn¡¯t happen. The area outside was still full of nightmare mist, but he did not sense that particr stillness which suggested frozen time.

    When he turned back, he saw a giant monster nest about ten meters high.

    It looked exactly the same as the one he saw in Lady¡¯s Juice. Even the dragonfly guards were patrolling in the same manner.

    He looked around further and only saw more mist in every direction. There were faint building silhouettes across the mist, which all looked like small wooden cottages.

    He then sensed more carefully and noticed that everything here was ordinary, apart from the nightmare aura.

    ¡°This is not the Nightmare Realm... Is it the wizarding world, or another ne?¡±

    Of course he hoped he was back at the wizarding world. However, even if someone was here to tell him otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t really feel depressed.

    Those who just went through true desperation would findfort in the tiniest bit of hope.

    Being able to escape the ne passageway was already a miracle. For now, he wouldn¡¯t ask for more. The situation already seemed better since this wasn¡¯t actually the Nightmare Realm. He had no reason to get sad.

    He took Toby and walked for a while.

    Meanwhile, the dragonfly guards and some other wandering dragonflies all followed behind him like a shiny carpet flowing in the wind.

    He didn¡¯t use the ¡°Infinite Reticence¡± effect of his bracelet since it wouldn¡¯t work with the sparkling little creatures hung so closely to him.

    He sighed and waved his little pursuers away as he asked them to return to their nest.

    These creatures saved his life. He didn¡¯t really want to force them away like how Sunders would usually do.

    Perhaps they did their job by helping ¡°Shava¡±. To Angor, however, this was a life-saving favor that he couldn¡¯t forget easily, even if his saviors were... dragonflies.

    He considered for a moment, and by using his emotions, he tried to tell the insects to go back and guard their nest.

    They didn¡¯tply at first. They only slowly moved away when Angor told them ¡°the queen demands you to protect your post instead of wandering about¡±.

    Yet several hundred of them still remained beside Angor, including the bigger member who gave Angor the Hollow Weed lump.

    This particr dragonfly was about twice to three times bigger than its kin and brighter as well. Angor took a guess that this was their leader.

    Instead of ¡°mass-broadcasting¡± his emotion, he directed his thought to this big dragonfly alone this time, hoping that it would bring its members away.

    It seemed this one was more intelligent. After several attempts, when Angor actually ¡°ordered¡± it to go back, therge dragonfly finally took the others back to the nest.

    Or not, again. There was still one single dragonfly left, which had been doing its bee-style waggle dance all along. It seemed this one was too indulged in its dance to notice anything else, and it followed Angor closely wherever he went.

    Angor simply expanded his Nightmare Domain and put the dragonfly inside so that it could join the teacups.

    Good, now the music band got a new dancer.

    He had been walking about 10 minutes since he left the monster nest, and he slowly learned thendscape around him.

    It seemed to be a vige, but he didn¡¯t see any vigers. The entire vige was covered in a dense mist. He couldn¡¯t see the sun.

    Maybe the vigers were possessed just like what happened in Midnight Sovereign? No. He should be seeing mad clowns if that was the case. He hadn¡¯t heard any singing yet.

    Besides, he saw no parasites.

    So it¡¯s just an ordinary vige that¡¯s swallowed by the nightmare aura?

    With this question in mind, he opened the door of a small cottage nearby.

    It was rather narrow. Something simr to a temporary hideout for a hunter. The wooden walls had patches everywhere.

    He didn¡¯t get to open the door fully before it broke apart into several pieces, along with the door frame. Then the whole house crumbled down on him, burying him under wooden rubbles.

    Since he activated the Magic Barrier on his overcoat in time, he wasn¡¯t really harmed. He struggled and climbed away from the ruins. He then looked back with a frown.

    The house had decayed awaypletely... How much time had passed since this ce was abandoned?

    His n of finding information or directions from this vige just got a whole lot harder.

    He turned his attention to another small vi, which looked rtively solid with its design mixed with wood and bricks.

    ¡°Nothing special... The doors and the ceilings all suit the size of a human...¡±

    It meant the vige was inhabited by humans or humanoids.

    The yard of the vi was full of weed. Angor carefully pushed the gate open, which worked fine without breaking down. The designer of the house probably considered this.

    The furniture inside the house, however, wasn¡¯t so sturdy. Wooden desks, chairs, dusty tforms... Everything would quickly crack up the moment Angor put force on it.

    ¡°It¡¯s been like this for at least several centuries or longer.¡±

    Each of his movements would bring up lots of dust. It wasn¡¯t an issue when the ¡°Purification Field¡± of his top-hat was working. He was only worried that whatever he might need was either hidden under the thick dust or had rotten away.

    In the end, he gained nothing from the small vi. The stairs weren¡¯t usable, and when he extended his spirit feelers into the second floor, he couldn¡¯t sense anything.

    He proceeded to check a number of houses. Nothing.

    Until he finally noticed something inside a giant, fortress-like structure in the center of the vige.

    This ce looked like amand center. Angor found rotten pens, paper scraps, and semi-intact parchment with drawings on them. Whatever was written couldn¡¯t be seen under the dust. And since any attempts to remove the dust would only break the paper, he had to give up.

    The only thing he managed to find was a map about the surrounding area of the vige which was engraved into the wall of the fortress.

    Arge circle contained the entire map within. There were trees, probably woods. House icons in the center, likely suggesting this vige. There were alsokes, tents, torches... The map clearly exined all possiblendmarks nearby.

    But Angor had a question.

    Everything was inside that circle. So what was ¡°outside¡± the circle? Did the circle mean ¡°safe zone¡±, while the area beyond was dangerous?

    He had no idea about that until he ventured out to see for himself.

    He took out his hologram tablet and took a photo of the map. He then left the vige behind.

    There was nothing else to see there, so he might as well go outside.

    As long as he was away from the ne passageway, anywhere else would be fine.

    ...

    Half a dayter, Angor trotted back into the vige with his head lowered in distress.

    He was all ambitious when he left the vige, believing that his feet could take him anywhere as long as he stayed determined.

    And he was wrong. After taking a great tour, he finally understood what the circle around the map meant. It didn¡¯t mean ¡°safe zone¡±, but a restriction.

    The area inside the circle was the only passable ground.

    As for the circle itself... It was a stone wall that reached all the way into the sky.

    Angor spent half a day as he made a full trip along the ¡°circle¡±, but he did not find any opening or anything that he could use to climb the wall. And with the mist over his head, he could not see the top of the wall.

    This meant he was either at the bottom of an abyss or an underground area like Midnight Sovereign. Either way, it wasn¡¯t easy to get out.

    His most important task right now was to find an exit.

    And he believed such an exit existed. There was only a dense forest around the vige. There was no cultivable soil or ranch field. The vigers who once lived here couldn¡¯t possibly survive by picking fruits off the trees only.

    Those pens and forging tools had to havee from somewhere outside. There had to be a way to go somewhere, and he had to find it as soon as possible.

    He walked on the main path of the vige while thinking about this question. He left his spirit feelers out to scan the surroundings so that he could notice anything of interest.

    Also, he began to realize that the vige might have been more beautiful than he imagined.

    The decayed houses didn¡¯t prevent him from noticing the careful designs of them. Almost every family had trees nted around their house. It was just that most of them had died due to theck of sunlight. He tried to establish the image of a lively vige in his mind, where friendly vigers, colorful flowers, and fruitful treesid everywhere.

    It seemed like a perfect paradise to escape the war too, should any war broke out outside.

    But despite his imagination, there were only ruins and silent sadness left behind.

 Chapter 332 - Dead Water and Living Water

    Chapter 332: &quot;Dead&quot; Water and &quot;Living&quot; Water

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor went back to the dragonfly nest and cleaned out a usable house nearby to use it as a temporary shelter and spend the night.

    He didn¡¯t sleep. He lit up a fire inside a stove in the middle of the house, then stared into the wavering orange light quietly while he thought about his future ns.

    Toby, on the other hand, had no problem bringing out his tiny bed and afortable nket, both of which had been kept inside Snowy Feather. The bird gently pecked at Angor¡¯s cheek before it fell asleep quickly.

    Toby¡¯s carefree way of life somewhat dispersed Angor¡¯s uneasiness foring to this unknownnd.

    At least he wasn¡¯t alone.

    He chuckled slightly and put aside his concerns for which he¡¯d never figure out any answer for now. He stretched a little and came to the window to watch the dreamy rainbow dragonflies that were flying outside.

    He didn¡¯t feel sleepy at all, so he took out the tablet again and began to read The Mystery of Nightmare Domain.

    Life continued. As a future wizard, he wouldn¡¯t give up on learning just because of some tiny setback.

    Time went by quickly as he was immersed in the book.

    When dawn arrived, he put away the device and began to consider today¡¯s n.

    Apart from being joyful for getting out of desperation, there was a second reason why he couldn¡¯t sleepst night.

    He could only use the coloring of the mist to tell night from day. It appeared grayish-white when it was daytime and bluish-ck when it was night.

    Observation told him that the daysted for about 14 hours, while the night was 9. It more or less obeyed the average day-night cycle in Month of Harvest.

    The clock on his tablet also suggested that day and night were arriving at almost the correct times.

    From these details, it was very possible that he was in the wizarding world. Probably the southern wizarding region.

    Even though it was only an assumption, it was already good news. And it kept him in a high spirit for the rest of the day.

    When he didn¡¯t find the exit by evening, he no longer felt anxious about this. Spending more time in this dested vige wouldn¡¯t do him harm anyway.

    Also, he expected that Sunders would help him this time. He fell into this situation while ¡°saving the lives of many¡±. Maybe Sunders would really ask a prophet for his location ande save him!

    He didn¡¯t know where that confidence came from. And he was only half-right¡ªwhen he escaped the ne passageway, Sunders quickly learned about it.

    The gentleman did go find a Prophet. He didn¡¯t visit the Starliege Temple in Brilliance ne for any top-ss Prophet, but an ordinary one. It had nothing to do with Angor¡¯s value. It was just that, Angor was too weak to require a high-leveled Prophet.

    Besides, Sunders wasn¡¯t trying to find Angor. He only asked the prophet one question: ¡°Is Angor alive?¡±

    The prophet failed to tell him anything for half a month, during which Sunders always kept a stern face. Until Angor left the ne passageway.

    When he left, the prophet finally sensed something changing on the strings of fate.

    ¡°He is alive and fine. Moreover, he¡¯s very likely to gain something out of the misfortune, and you need not worry about him now.¡±

    Since Sunders¡¯ expression looked so terrifying, the prophet gave Sunders a straight answer instead of ¡°beating around the bush¡± like how prophets usually did.

    And the gentleman finally resumed his in posture upon learning the news.

    When the prophet asked whether he should get Angor¡¯s position, Sunders declined. ¡°I only need to know his survival. How he proceeds from now on is his own to decide.¡±

    Sunders ended his request here. He believed that Angor needed the challenge. The boy should not live a carefree life inside an ivory tower.

    ...

    Since Angor¡¯s ¡°confidence¡± only worked halfway, he still needed to get out of here on his own.

    Angor didn¡¯t totally depend on Sunders¡¯ help either. He didn¡¯t rush his way around because he needed time to settle his condition.

    The previous destiny helped him to be a level-2 apprentice but without the necessary foundation skills. He should at least study the level-1 cantrips he needed and read The Mystery of Nightmare Domain carefully.

    These ns all required time. Staying inside this abandoned vige seemed to be a good choice.

    He spent the next few days as a lone learner.

    Studying The Mystery of Nightmare Domain was at top of his priority list. He kept researching the book without catching much sleep, and he began to know more about his Nightmare Domain.

    Also, something in the book convinced him to stay at the abandoned vige for a longer period of time.

    ¡°A Nightmare Domain can be improved and further fused, on condition that sufficient nightmare aura is present.¡±

    Sunders once mentioned to him that Nightmare Stones contained nightmare aura. However, he was going to save these stones for the right conditions, such as when fighting powerful foes.

    Since the mist was full of nightmare aura, staying here was a very good choice to quickly improve the amount of nightmare aura in his Nightmare Domain.

    More nightmare aura tomand meant more powerful nightmare illusions. Also, nightmare aura could be used to sustain nightmare monsters. ording to the book, he could even tame nightmare monsters andmand them at his will as long as he could provide enough nightmare aura.

    He didn¡¯t really need to go through this step now, since the wanderer dragonfly he left in his Nightmare Domain, the parasite, the musical teacups, and the toy soldiers were pretty obedient to him.

    The only problem was they were pretty weak.

    He thought about getting some of the guard dragonflies to strengthen his little army, but his Nightmare Domain couldn¡¯t sustain these near-wizard level monsters at its initial state. Forcefully putting the guards inside would cause them to starve slowly.

    Two months went by. Angor stopped his learning when it was the first day of Month of Looming Frost. He mostly mastered the nightmare illusions he could use, and the nightmare aura in his Nightmare Domain was abundant enough.

    The abandoned vige was like a lost paradise, which was safe and quiet. But it didn¡¯t have any food source. No crops, no wild animals. He had been living on his Mana Bread, and his mouth now smelled like socks.

    He nned to leave now.

    ...

    He had checked through every single building during these months, and he got...pletely nothing. Any written record, if there was any, was blurry beyondprehension. More observations convinced him that the ce had been in this state for a thousand years. Nothing on paper could survive such a long time without proper preservation.

    Now that he was trying to get away for real... the major concern had returned. How?

    Once again, he left the vige to search the forest for a cave or something. Most of the trees had withered away, while rotten branches covered the dirt. He used his spirit feelers to sweep every corner he could find.

    Circling for two rounds yielded no result. He went back into the vige while trying to find another tactic.

    How would a local resident get out of here if one were here?

    Judging from the finely-crafted vis, those who once dwelt here enjoyed an abundant lifestyle. There had to be a way for them to receive resources from the outside.

    Angor tried to imagine himself as a viger without minding anything else. For a while, he would live like how amon viger would.

    After spending three days in this way, he found a ce. Ake, which was situated on the outskirts behind the vige.

    As a mon viger¡±, he needed water during certain times such as getting washed in the morning, cooking, and bathing. Without casting ¡°Create Water¡±, theke was one of the mostmon spots he had to visit.

    The ckke water was giving out the stink of rot. Previously, he thought about fishing for something out of theke to eat. But the gloomy substances floating on the surface of the water discouraged him.

    Usually, a water source could lead him to an underwater passage which meant a way out.

    But the condition of the water didn¡¯t suggest such a case. Angor believed it was still water or dead water. Probably arge pool manually dug out by people or natural crater filled with rain.

    Thetter was unlikely. Angor once asked Toby to fly and check the sky. There was a hard stone wall above with light-absorbing nts growing on it. It couldn¡¯t rain here.

    This ce was an underground space like Darkivil Empire. Just a lot smaller.

    And he got another question¡ªsince the water didn¡¯te from rain, then where?

    He found no other water spots or wells in the other ces, which meant thiske was the only thing to provide water to the vigers.

    And... here came yet another question.

    How could a ¡°dead¡±ke be used as a water source for daily usage? There was no way the vigers lived on stagnant water.

    Assuming that there were no other water sources, the only exnation was that theke was once filled with running water.

    He looked at the ck water again, which probably had been like this for a thousand years. In order to learn something new, he had to go in there.

    He lowered the brim of his top hat and fully activated the Purification Field. With a faint, white barrier covering him, he hopped inside the fetid and murky liquid...

 Chapter 333 - Corpses Under the Lake

    Chapter 333: Corpses Under the Lake

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The environment under theke waspletely dark. Angor quickly constructed a hexagonal model in his mind space and triggered it using mana, bringing out a bright sphere inside the Purification Field to illuminate his surroundings.

    Level-0 cantrip¡ªLight.

    During these two months, he learned manymon cantrips, including this one, which he always considered useless before.

    This only function of this cantrip was to create light. It wasn¡¯t bright either. It only allowed people to see an area about two or three meters around, like a small torch. But while a torch couldn¡¯t work underwater, Light could.

    There was actually an advanced version of it called ¡°ze¡± which could brighten up dozens of meters around its user. It was a level-1 cantrip that required certain knowledge and long-term effort, and Angor didn¡¯t n to learn it yet.

    Using his cantrip, the cold and dull water under the surface finally became a little clearer.

    When Angor looked around, he saw all kinds of unknown substances as well as ck strings that looked like human hair floating around.

    Even though he was protected by the Purification Field, when Angor looked at the hair that was clumped together along with dirt and filth, it still made him want to vomit.

    Theke wasn¡¯t deep, which was only about five meters. He soon reached the bottom and saw theke bed covered under ayer of ck, tar-like stuff. He thought it was a natural-urring resource such as petroleum. But when he picked up a small lump of it and checked inside his Purification Field, his nose immediately twitched aggressively upon smelling the vomit-inducing stench.

    At least it wasn¡¯t oil. His experience couldn¡¯t get him any answer, so he simply gave up on trying to figure it out.

    The size of theke convinced him again that the viger had to have some other ways to fetch water. It was very likely that the water in thiske used to be running, but now, it was ¡°blocked¡± for some reason.

    With this in mind, he searched around at the bottom of theke, for a possible tunnel or pipe.

    He would cast a small tornado every few steps to remove the blockage away. Many different things that were once hidden under the dirt and rubble were brought out.

    Angor kept his Purification Field on so that the dirty water and objects didn¡¯t reach him, and he saw many strange things that appeared in his view.

    For example, there was a small, tattered iron chest that floated in front of him.

    He quickly pulled the chest closer and into his Purification Field. He didn¡¯t open it though. He was afraid that something inside might annoy him again, so he only reached the inside with his spirit feelers.

    And he was quite surprised to notice what was inside the chest. The delicate design of it made him believe that it might be a jewelry casket or something. It turned out that there were medical devices, such as syringes, vials, and needles, that were almost in their perfect condition.

    After some consideration, he used Cleanse and Purify to keep the chest free of filth and smell before he put it inside his space bracelet.

    He didn¡¯t discard the chest because he was interested in a special marking that was printed on every medial tool.

    A serpent-entwined rod.

    He believed this mark might tell him something about the vige.

    As more and more ¡°small tornadoes¡± traveled through the water, one after one, they uncovered objects and secrets that were kept hidden under the still water for a thousand years, including several pale-white human skulls that still had hair on them.

    Angor didn¡¯t find any remains back in the vige, so he thought the residents had all escaped from here. Now, something told him otherwise. He only cleared out a small portion of theke bed, and he already discovered 8 corpses. He couldn¡¯t imagine how many more were buried under the entireke.

    Were all the vigers down here?

    He shivered at this terrible idea. This, however, exined the terrible smell of theke. This would be natural if one considered how the water had concealed countless dead bodies for centuries.

    He brought the eight corpses and leaped out of the water to inspect them carefully.

    He was d to find out that they were all human, not humanoids. Telling from the sizes of their bones, Angor was sure these weremon folks living in the southern wizarding region.

    Which meant he did not stray from the wizarding world.

    There were humans living in the other nes, true. But only supernaturals. And these bones certainly belonged to mortals. Also, none of the traces and marks in the vige indicated any supernatural being.

    There was no mortal vige in other foreign nes.

    And one of his major concerns finally disappeared¡ªas long as he was still inside the wizarding world, he could always seek a way back.

    He dug a giant crater using Hand of Spell and ced the eight corpses inside. He would still pay respect to the deceased, even though he didn¡¯t know who they were.

    Instead of filling the crater up, he continued to search under theke first.

    As he expected, the entireke was used as a mass graveyard. He found the bodies of men and women, old and young. There were even toddlers, who were still held by their mothers.

    He felt different emotions in his mind when he looked at the pair of lovely, yet cold bones.

    Of course a toddler wouldn¡¯tmit suicide, which meant one thing¡ªthe people here were either murdered, or the majority of the adults killed themselves.

    If thetter was the case, Angor couldn¡¯t imagine how the mother decided to bring her child into her grave.

    ¡°Bless them...¡± He sighed helplessly. Whatever happened here was decayed with time, and no one could ever uncover the truth. Compared to wizards, mortals usually made their lives more passionate due to their shorter lifespan. Sometimes, wizards would envy them for this.

    Maybe a great ughter visited this ce a thousand years ago, or...

    Angor looked back toward one particr direction, where an ancient dragonfly nest was at. He wasn¡¯t sure if the insects caused this.

    And he had no way to find out now.

    He gradually dug out all the corpses from theke and piled them up. He then ced them all into the giant crater he created.

    Unknown to him, a pair of golden eyes with slit-like pupils had been watching him from a concealed corner under theke while he did his work.

    ...

    He found about a hundred corpses in the end, which... wasn¡¯t much, judging from the size of the vige.

    ¡°Maybe the rest of them managed to get away?¡±

    He managed to find thest corpse from theke, but he still didn¡¯t discover an ¡°underwater tunnel¡± which would prove his theory.

    ¡°Am I wrong then? Is there another source of water somewhere around the vige? Maybe theke was just built for decoration?¡±

    It didn¡¯t make sense. An artificialke that would turn deadter didn¡¯t make a fine tourist spot.

    Or... could it be meant to be the vigers¡¯ grave? Did they choose to end their own lives in this way?

    Without any answer or exit, he left the water and proceeded to fill up the giant grave outside.

    There were too many bodies for his crater, so he asked Toby to m the ground and make something bigger.

    When the bodies were fully buried, Angor found a giant boulder nearby and used Thaw to forge it into a stone monument. He then used Hand of Spell to engrave several lines on it using the universal tongue.

    [Here lie a hundred and more folks of a nameless and long-forgotten vige. May they find peace in paradise and beyond.

    [Monument caretaker: Angor Padt]

    With the giant gravepleted, he began to consider other options. He thought about digging his own way out, but he pushed that idea aside quickly. After all, he had no idea about theyout of thend around him. Causing arge-scale cave-in would be disastrous.

    He suddenly heard bubble-breaking noises from theke.

    There was a vortex on the surface of the water!

    What a vortex suggested was so obvious. He quickly called Toby back and dived into the water once again.

    When he approached the base of the vortex, he was shocked to see a dark entrance toward deeper down.

    This entrance had to have caused the vortex.

    ¡°Was this thing here a moment ago?¡± Angor was confused.

    But he couldn¡¯t remember every detail he went through since theke bed was very dark even with his Light cantrip. All the ck substances didn¡¯t help him memorize thendscape at all.

    ¡°Maybe I cleared enough debris away, and water pressure slowly breached the cave?¡± He took a guess. There was nothing else around here, so he couldn¡¯t think about anything in particr.

    As for the possibility of a ghost or spirit... He was sure it wasn¡¯t the case since he didn¡¯t sense any of that. A soul of a mortal could not survive very well. And a thousand years had already passed.

    When the water returned to being still again, he carefully stepped into the shadowy opening.

    An unknown cave, an unknown future. The only thing he could do was to stay extremely cautious.

    ¡°You stay alert too, Toby,¡± Angor warned. But when he turned, he saw Toby disyed a serious attitude unlike any other times before.

    ¡°Toby?¡± he asked again.

    Toby signaled using his wings. Tweet, tweet!

    ¡°You mean you want to check from outside?¡± Angor was pretty surprised. Toby was more or less obsessed with cleanliness. Why would the bird ask to go away from the Purification Field and touch the dirty water?

 Chapter 334 - Golden Eyes

    Chapter 334: Golden Eyes

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Toby kept trying to say something by using bodynguage.

    ¡°You sensed something terrifying?¡± Angor read Toby¡¯s meaning and frowned. He reached out with his spirit feelers.

    Nothing.

    When he nodded to the bird, Toby quickly dived into the murky water. Toby closed his eyes and remained there for two seconds before he dashed back into the Purification Field.

    Angor threw a Cleanse and Purify at the bird.

    Toby waved his wings around again and took out a new outfit from Snowy Feather so that Angor could help him get changed.

    ¡°... Bikinis,¡± Angor murmured as he looked at thece-brim, breast-support undergarment in his hand. With a disgusted expression, he proceeded to tie it around Toby¡¯s body. ¡°I don¡¯t really need to remind you that you¡¯re a male bird, right?¡±

    Toby didn¡¯t know anything about a human¡¯s perspective. He only enjoyed his new clothes while he kept pping and tweeting.

    ¡°You smelled something different in the water?¡± Angor read Toby¡¯s posture. Without a special nose, he couldn¡¯t sense different smells out of the pure stink. ¡°You mean a powerful monster is living here? But, nothing like that showed up when Ipletely messed up theke,¡± Angor considered.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have another way anyway. We¡¯re going, even if a monster awaits ahead. The monster probably isn¡¯t that strong since it didn¡¯t attack us already. Or... maybe there¡¯s something else.¡±

    Being cautious didn¡¯t mean acting cowardice. Since Toby told him, he really believed that there was a monster. Though he wasn¡¯t going to run away before facing it.

    ¡°I have a magic scroll I got from Devildare. A powerful monster won¡¯t be really deadly to us,¡± Angor said as he took out the Aster Barrier scroll from his bracelet. This powerful magic array could deflect wizard-level attacks.

    They felt somewhat safer with the magic scroll in hand. Wizard-level monsters were always rare since every part on its body meant valuable treasure. A wild wizard-level monster wandering outside would quickly get overwhelmed by hunters.

    They kept swimming deeper inside the cave.

    The tunnel first went downward, before it tilted up slightly. Now Angor found them moving upward instead, at a very mild angle.

    He felt good about it too. A way up meant this path was very likely to take him outside.

    The me of hope returned to his mind.

    After swimming for about a minute, the tunnel grew wider and the sides around him moved almost ten meters apart.

    Before he could draw a map in his mind and figure out their possible position, they reached the surface of the water, unexpectedly.

    He didn¡¯t see light though.

    So the path didn¡¯t lead toward the outside world?

    He cast another Light and noticed that he was now looking at a small cave. Another path was ahead of him, and it was leading toward the dark distance.

    Angor climbed out of the water and canceled the Purification Field.

    And he immediately smelled the stench in the air, as well as breathable oxygen. This meant the cave wasn¡¯t sealed, and there had to be another way out.

    He maintained Light and carefully walked down the path.

    He noticed something strange soon. The air in the cave was moist, but the ground was still too wet.

    He walked to the cave wall and rubbed a finger against it, collecting something wet on his hand.

    A whiff suggested that the wall didn¡¯t smell bad at all.

    Next, he tried against the water on the ground, and he didn¡¯t need to move his finger close to sense the encroaching stench.

    So the water on the walls and on the ground is different...

    Angor poked at Toby, who had been very rmed until now.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. A monster is here, and it¡¯s watching us.¡±

    The watermark on the ground was proof.

    It led to another question though. The tunnel had to have been made by this unknown monster. Why? To draw them in?

    No one knew. One thing remained the same, that they had to act really carefully now.

    They proceeded slowly, and Angor kept observing the surroundings. He went over possible encounter scenarios in his mind so that he could act quickly enough to take the upper hand.

    The cave path wasrge. There were hanging stctites above his head, dripping water. Stones of different sizes and shapes collected on the walls on the sides. There were many corners he couldn¡¯t see from his position around the obstacles, so he kept his spirit feelers out, just in case.

    After walking for about half a kilometer, Angor saw a corpse at an open ground.

    The corpse already rotted all the way to bones, along with most of the corpse¡¯s clothes. A shoulder strap still remained, which was connected to a small iron chest.

    Angor recognized the chest because he had just obtained one from theke bed not long ago.

    ¡°Another medical box?¡± He opened it out of curiosity.

    The content of it was exactly the same. Healer tools.

    He only inspected the first box by using his spirit feelers. Now that he could look into one, his attention was attracted by the strange marking again.

    A snake covered in glossy ck scales swirled around a silver, pointy rod.

    A n emblem? Not likely. Angor didn¡¯t believe that any family would draw their emblem on needles too. The mark seemed to be in perfect condition. The snake looked very lively after all these years.

    He put down the box and looked at the corpse.

    The bones were still intact, which shouldn¡¯t be the case if a monster killed this person.

    He kept walking for about another ten minutes and saw about 20 more corpses along the way, along with six more medical boxes with the same design.

    ¡°These people came from the vige too. How did they die here though? And... why are there so many doctors?¡± Angor was getting more and more confused. Was the vige actually an academy of medicine or something?

    There were different types of academies and schools in the mortal world, such as cloisters, art schools, medical schools, musicals... Each ce might or might not major in a certain field. If Angor didn¡¯t enter the world of wizards, he would have attended the Burgeon Knight Academy in Goldspink Empire, aprehensive institute.

    Their designs were very different too. Some appeared like castles, pces, while some preferred to present themselves as small viges. A vige-like academy in remote underground space was totally eptable.

    Soon, he reached the end of the path.

    He thought he would run into this hidden monster in the end, which did not happen. The path ended at another deep pool with dark green water.

    The surface was only five or six meters wide. However, he couldn¡¯t see the bottom of it.

    He took a sniff and didn¡¯t sense the stench this time.

    ¡°The monster may be down here. And it could be our way out too,¡± Angor mumbled.

    Either way, he had to go down and check to embrace danger or hope.

    He nodded to Toby and jumped down.

    He felt his heart beating with joy after swimming downward for several meters. The pool was really connected to ake outside!

    He already saw an underground cave ahead, across which was vast, clean running water.

    He smiled brightly and dashed through the short cave swiftly.

    While inside the brighter water, he carefully sensed the direction of the water flow so that he could follow it.

    Toby suddenly called out beside his ears, loudly. Following the bird¡¯s direction, he slowly turned around.

    Somehow, a giant serpent was waiting right behind him.

    The creature was sorge that Angor immediately felt like a newborn child in front of an elephant.

    A round head, golden eyes, white belly, and ck scales. The animal was three or four meters in width, and... Angor had not seen its tail yet, since the end of the creature stretched all the way into the darkness beyond.

    He felt his heart trembling under the serpent¡¯s terrible gaze.

    Out of instinct, he took out his revolver and shot at the monster. The bullet enchanted with Armor-Piercing rune connected with the serpent¡¯s belly and bounced away, without even causing a scratch on the scale it hit.

    Even after considering the fact that the bullet was weakened by water, the creature¡¯s defense was still scary.

    When he attacked, Toby also kicked at the snake. The bird unleashed power simr to a level-3 cantrip which caused a visible sonic boom underwater.

    It had no effect!

    ¡°Stop it! Run, Toby!¡± Angor¡¯s eyes widened in fear. ¡°A wizard-level monster, here? Go! Now!!¡±

    He simply used Hand of Spell to pull Toby closer, and he then triggered Aster Barrier without a second thought. A stream of starlight emerged from the magic scroll and engulfed him and Toby within.

    Under the protection of the spell, he dashed along with the water flow madly.

    Something that could resist Toby¡¯s attacks wasn¡¯t necessarily a wizard-level monster. However, its defense property definitely was.

    And of course, such a monster was fast.

    Angor was nning to escape back into the abandoned vige and let the rainbow dragonflies defend him. He didn¡¯t get very far before the serpent moved in his way, somewhat casually.

    He was never a fast swimmer. The serpent¡¯s swift moves quickly injected desperation into his mind.

    He tried to change directions, and every time, the giant monstrosity would block his way while staring at him with those trunk-sized golden slits.

    ¡°Are you toying with me?!¡±

    Upon realizing the total hopelessness, Angor simply gave up on running.

    The serpent did not attack him yet. It only prevented him from leaving. Those golden slit eyes looked creepy, though he didn¡¯t really sense hostility in them.

    He panted heavily and looked at the creature. Then he yelled out, ¡°What is it that you want?!¡±

    He already felt this was the case; otherwise, the serpent would have already disposed of him after Angor shot it with his revolver.

    The serpent remained still for a long time. It seemed this wizard-level monster couldn¡¯t speak or release emotions.

    It gave Angor one final meaningful nce before it turned away...

 Chapter 335 - A Hidden Coffin

    Chapter 335: A Hidden Coffin

    Angor hoped that the magnificent creature would leave.

    But the truth disappointed him soon enough. The serpent looked back again. It did not make a sound, but those in yet meaningful eyes already told Angor what it wanted.

    ¡°Alright alright, I¡¯ll follow you,¡± Angor said with a sigh. Previously, he felt safe when the Aster Barrier could help him escape wizard-level monsters. However, he didn¡¯t expect to run into one for real!

    ¡°Hey, Toby. Can you leave first and help me scout the area?¡± Angor tried to persuade Toby into leaving.

    But the bird remained still on his top hat.

    The serpent was swimming along with the water flow as well. Angor wasn¡¯t foolish enough to actually believe that a monster would be friendly to him, so he kept the Aster Barrier activated while he observed the surroundings to find a way out of the situation.

    The waterway was broad and dark. It was easy to lose one¡¯s direction here. And his Light couldn¡¯t let him see very far. He hadn¡¯t ascertained whether the area above the water was the outside or another cave again.

    After traveling for a few more minutes, Angor began to doubt that the water path wasn¡¯t a way out after all.

    That pool he went through earlier was short enough for ordinary people to get through simply by holding their breaths. However, he didn¡¯t believe the current path was manageable without any specific abilities.

    What about the corpses then? It wasn¡¯t likely that the giant serpent killed them and left their bones intact for a thousand years.

    As he found more and more questions, the serpent suddenly began to ascend.

    Angor followed behind helplessly.

    He reached the surface soon. Using Light, he noticed that the area above the water wasn¡¯trge this time. The ceiling seemed like a giant bowl ced upside-down. There was a hole in the ¡°bowl¡±, which only led to more darkness.

    The serpent kept its head above the water and remained there quietly.

    Angor was floating about 5 meters from the serpent¡¯s head, and he once again felt terrified at the creature¡¯s sheer size.

    The serpent didn¡¯t move ashore. It only stared at him with those golden eyes. However, the creature seemed anxious for something this time.

    Angor had no idea what he was supposed to do. Getting back into the water wasn¡¯t a good idea because he¡¯d never outrun the snake. It was not like he knew where to go either. But he didn¡¯t feel safer staying here either, as it was probably the serpent¡¯s nest.

    ¡°What do you want from me?¡± He tried.

    No response. More stares.

    Angor changed his tactic by sending his emotion to the serpent, which didn¡¯t get him anything either. He only sensed his fear escting under the cold gaze.

    He tried to think of something in his bracelet which might get him out. The bracelet¡¯s Istion effect wouldn¡¯t work well since it couldn¡¯t actually make him disappear. The water flow around him would give him out easily.

    He thought about it and climbed ashore. At least Infinite Reticence would help him when he was out of water.

    The serpent followed him up and revealed its giant shape in front of Angor for the first time. The creature wiggled its way into the ¡°bowl cave¡±. Angor watched as giant water drops fell off its scales, causing the whole ce to get wet.

    He was now sure that the watermarks in the first path were left by this snake too.

    Which meant... it had always been watching him, and it opened up that tunnel and drew him inside.

    This was all strange. The serpent could have already killed him underwater if it wanted to do so.

    Angor decided to stay put for now and keep following the serpent to see what it really wanted.

    ...

    The cave path grewrger again as he walked. He came to a ce where it could contain a hundred of such serpents without getting too crowded.

    And he was d about this. A wide area meant his Infinite Reticence could do a better job of concealing him.

    He also saw some nts acting as light sources around the area. Unlike the light-absorbing nts that grew under the ceiling of Midnight Sovereign, these ones looked like glowing dandelions. They appeared like swarms of green fireflies when observed from a distance.

    They weren¡¯t very bright, but there were a lot of them. When he walked further in, he didn¡¯t really need his own cantrip to observe the giant cave clearly.

    They finally reached their goal. The path didn¡¯t end, but the serpent had stopped moving.

    Angor looked further down the path and wondered if that were their way out.

    It wasn¡¯t time to think about that though. He wanted to know what the serpent meant to do.

    The creature led him into another path, which was a dead end. It was a big chamber illuminated by the green glowing dandelions.

    The serpent moved in front of a pit.

    Angor approached it and looked down. He could see nothing other than darkness. He took a guess that the serpent rested down there.

    The monster picked up a glowing dandelion and threw it into the pit.

    Using the shining swirling object, Angor¡¯s eyes grew bigger when he saw the bottom of the pit covered in piles of white bones.

    The limited area uncovered by the dandelion was already filled with bones. He took a quick guess that there were at least thousands of corpses lying down there.

    Also, his great surprise didn¡¯t prevent him from noticing the perfect condition of the bones as well as... medical boxes, scattered beside almost every corpse.

    These corpses were also the vigers.

    Did this mean the ¡°assumed survivors¡± all ended up here? No one escaped?

    But who killed them? Since the creature would easily grind the bones up if it traveled down there, it couldn¡¯t be the one who killed them.

    Angor looked back at the serpent and noticed... sadnessing from those golden eyes.

    Sadness? A serpent was mourning for the dead people?

    Did the creature share a certain connection with the deceased?

    ¡°Wait, connection...¡± Angor thought about that word and took out the first medical box he found in the deadke. Then he picked out a potion vial, which was decorated by a strange mark¡ªa ck-scaled serpent swirling around a silver rod.

    He looked at the mark and checked the ck serpent beside him again.

    ¡°... This, is you?¡± He asked the sad snake in a small voice.

    The serpent nced at him without speaking, which was totally expected. Then it slowly climbed down along the stone wall.

    At least it did not deny Angor¡¯s question. Angor was now almost certain that the strange marks indicated this snake.

    But using a real serpent as the signature of something? He quickly thought about certain wicked cult groups.

    A devoted doctor always vowed to steer away from cults and whatnot when he started his career. Did this mean these doctors believed that the serpent was special? Their spiritual beliefs?

    As he wondered, the serpent climbed back up again, and this time, it brought something with it.

    Angor already noticed that the creature was searching for something down below. Looked like it seeded.

    And he was surprised yet again to see a coffin.

    It was made from glossy, ck oil wood, which was a very rare material that could stay in good condition even though it was in a bad atmosphere for thousands of years. Mortals usually used this thing to make coffins, while wizards only considered it a low-level magic nt. It was also the best axle bearing substitute in machine alchemy.

    The coffin was ck apart from its cover, which was pure white. The cover also had a ¡°serpent-entwined rod¡± mark on it.

    The serpent ced the coffin down and slowly nudged it toward Angor.

    Then it kept staring at him quietly. Those reptilian eyes disyed faint, yet truthful emotion.

    Pleading.

    ¡°You want me to help you bury it?¡± Angor looked at the coffin in confusion.

    At the same time, he tried putting a hand on the wood.

    Something suddenly came up.

    The coffin began to shake madly, and the coffin lid twitched as if an unwilling and alive victim were trying to get out.

    ¡°Zombie?¡± Angor quickly retracted his hand and stayed alert.

    By certain means, a dead body whose soul was left behind could be ¡°alive¡± again in the form of a ¡°ghoul¡±. However, a body without a soul could also be a ¡°zombie¡±.

    Either of those was a low-level monster which didn¡¯t help wizards much. Wizards preferred experimenting on live specimens and turning them into puppets. For example, the infamous wizard in the southern wizarding region ¡°Puppet Master¡± Bog loved to craft beautifuldy puppets from live women.

    Angor frowned at his own words. ¡°No... A zombie at least needed a body. It has been a thousand years. Is there a Wanderer Skeleton inside that coffin then?¡±

 Chapter 336 - Pocratee

    Chapter 336: Pocratee

    A skeleton was one of the mostmon familiar creatures used by wizards. However, wizards preferred to use necromancy spells to stuff certain soul inside an existing skeleton to make a Dead Man¡¯s Skeleton, in which case the soul could interact with the physical world using the skeleton as a host. Flora¡¯s ¡°Little Red¡± was essentially a Dead Man¡¯s Skeleton. But that one was special, considering how it came from the Nightmare Realm.

    For a Dead Man¡¯s Skeleton, the soul was its true body, while the skeleton was its outer shell. They could always change that shell as they needed.

    A Dead Man¡¯s Skeleton was man-made, while a Wanderer Skeleton was created naturally.

    As a start, a Wanderer Skeleton usually possessed a stronger soul. However, its final strength still depended on chances and luck.

    ¡°Is this a Wanderer Skeleton?¡±

    Angor looked up at the serpent. He was quite certain that the serpent was also confused by what had happened.

    It didn¡¯t know what was inside this coffin?

    Now... this had gotten a whole lot more interesting.

    As he considered, he suddenly sensed a sharp stench again. It wasn¡¯t the rotten smell from the ck-waterke, but a pure stink of spilled blood.

    To prove his thought, blood began to seep out between the gaps under the shaking coffin lid!

    ¡°Blood? What the heck?¡± Angor frowned again. Of course, skeletons didn¡¯t bleed. So what on earth?

    A strange voice suddenly answered his question.

    ¡°My, blood, this.¡±

    It sounded aged and distant, but pleasant. Angor felt as if a great being wished to talk to him even though it had to travel through the most ancient forest, climb over mountains, sail the seas and break the boundaries of time and space.

    As the voice came about, a gentle breeze blew over the ground and caused the dandelions to sway. Shiny green lumps left their bases and floated around Angor and the great serpent.

    Angor looked up again and noticed the serpent was disying a tired look.

    ¡°You spoke to me?¡±

    It was a nod.

    ¡°Take him, away. Save, him.¡±

    The pleasant tone brushed against his eardrums gently, and it somewhat charmed his mind.

    As Angor listened to the strange voice, it caused him to feel calm. It seemed as if the voice had such power which suppressed all irritations and conflicts of the mind.

    And he sensed no magic at all. Angor believed this was the most beautiful voice he ever listened to.

    Even Toby looked at the giant serpent with respect.

    However, it seemed that speaking like this took a lot of strength away from the serpent. After he spoke those words, the serpent slumped to the ground and breathed heavily.

    ¡°Speaking will cause you pain? Don¡¯t speak then, you can nod or shake your head,¡± Angor said.

    It was a nod.

    Angor finally realized why the creature had been quiet. ¡°You want me to take the coffin away to save... someone?¡±

    A pleading nod.

    Angor was confused again. The coffin had someone alive in there? A vige survivor? No way, not after a thousand years!

    ¡°Is it someone from the abandoned vige?¡±

    He even exined the word ¡°abandoned¡± to make it easier for the snake.

    While it listened to the exnation, the serpent grew sad a little. It then nodded again.

    ¡°For real? But it was ruined a thousand years ago... Unbelievable.¡±

    By this, Angor meant that both the possible survivor in the coffin and this thousand-year-old serpent were miracles.

    He guessed that there had to be another reason behind it. The serpent mentioned that it was its own blooding from the coffin, which probably meant the creature had been keeping the person inside the coffin alive. But... even the blood of a wizard-level monster couldn¡¯t sustain a mortal for so long.

    Which meant the captive wasn¡¯t anyone ordinary.

    ¡°Why is it shaking? Can I open it up?¡±

    The serpent nodded, albeit with some uncertainty this time.

    The serpent didn¡¯t know what was going on here... Angor actually felt reassured now that he knew the serpent didn¡¯t mean harm.

    After getting the serpent¡¯s consent, Angor kept his Aster Barrier up and slowly pried the lid open with Hand of Spell.

    The lid wasn¡¯t nailed at all, which made it easier for the serpent to ce blood inside. Angor didn¡¯t need much force to easily flip the coffin open.

    Meanwhile, the individual inside was struggling harder. Angor saw the interior of the coffin that was full of blood, and a blood-covered figure restrained in vine strings was writhing madly.

    He couldn¡¯t see the face of the person clearly. From the person¡¯s outline, he could only tell that it was a young male.

    Compared to this, he was more concerned about how the eyes of the man showedplete madness mixed with fear.

    And he recognized that look.

    ¡°He¡¯s possessed?¡±

    Upon hearing this, the resting serpent suddenly bolted up and looked at Angor with a stern look.

    ¡°Who, are you? Why hathhhh youe, to Pocratee?¡±

    Unlike the gentle voice before, the serpent sounded frigid this time, as if the voice had turned into a sharp knife against Angor¡¯s throat. Even the fluffy greens around them put on a colder atmosphere and were now ready to be des and assault Angor should anything go wrong.

    ¡°Pocratee... Is that the vige¡¯s name?¡±

    The serpent remained silent for a second before nodding.

    Angor more or less understood what just happened. The serpent had to have been guarding Pocratee, so it knew that the vige was void of people. Angor¡¯s arrival meant hope and threat.

    There was hope for the man in the coffin, but Angor¡¯s unknown origin was the threat.

    ¡°I¡¯m an apprentice. I identally fell into a ne passageway, and luck brought me to an exit which then led to Pocratee,¡± Angor said. He then took out his bone card from his bracelet. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you recognize this, but this card is proof of my identity. I came from Brute Cavern, a wizard organization in the southern wizarding world.¡±

    The serpent nced at the bone card without any response. It seemed like it didn¡¯t know what that was.

    Angor simply put the card back and pointed to the man in the coffin. ¡°As for his condition... From where I came from, I saw something simr before, so I know what¡¯s happening to him. Possibly.¡±

    The serpent still disyed disbelief in its eyes. The air grew colder, causing Angor to tremble again.

    Angor sighed and exined everything about Twilight Well, the ne passageway, and how he got here. He didn¡¯t hide his connection to the rainbow dragonflies either. However, he amended his words by telling the serpent that his professor, Sunders, left a powerful ¡°sigil¡± in his body. The powerful sigil of a level-2 wizard who had found the path of truth could allow him to control the dragonflies and escape the passageway.

    The serpent was still unconvinced, and Angor couldn¡¯t really do anything else. He couldn¡¯t tell the creature everything about the Nightmare Realm, which was both his secret and Sunders¡¯ strict order. Speaking more about it would easily give Sunders¡¯ family secrets out to outsiders.

    ¡°Great snake, I believe you can see that I¡¯m not your foe. Do you think someone my age can destroy Pocratee?¡±

    The giant creature nodded this time. It brought Angor here because it witnessed this young human burying the victims carefully.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have anything else to convince you. I can tell you that my professor can treat his condition. If you let me leave, I¡¯ll take him to my professor and ask him for help,¡± Angor said.

    He told the snake that most wizards in Twilight Well suffered from the same situation. Only a more powerful wizard on the path of truth like Sunders could help the man in the coffin.

    To prove this, he showed the power of his ¡°sigil¡±. He moved to the coffin and looked at the struggling man.

    ¡°Stop moving!¡±

    The man looked back at him in fear and slowly quieted down.

    This worked because of Shava¡¯s name. It had nothing to do with his non-existent ¡°sigil¡±. Angor knew how to pretend because he learned about it when he was dealing with Duke Tepikkhu.

    While still confused, the serpent felt like showing respect to Angor¡¯s teacher. It met other wizards before, so it clearly knew what a ¡°truth-finding¡± wizard meant.

    It slowlyy back down, tired out.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take him to my professor and remove his condition.¡±

    ¡°Thankssss...¡± the serpent said, using thest bit of strength it could muster.

    Angor sighed in relief and tried to ask how to leave this ce.

    The serpent lifted the tip of its tail and pointed at the path outside this chamber, which extended further into the distance.

    Angor quickly felt joy. It seemed that he finally discovered his chance.

    He remained to talk to the giant serpent for a while, in a gentler way this time. He learned a lot of useful information. Also, he realized that the snake wasn¡¯t really as fearsome as it appeared to be. It was like chatting with a wise old man. He could read a lot from the creature¡¯s gazes even without it speaking.

    ording to the serpent, the abandoned vige was named ¡°Pocratee¡±, and it was once a research ground for a group of doctors who decided to conduct their studies away from civilization. It was also called the ¡°Sanctum of Healers¡±.

    One day, a disaster fell upon the vige and brought a mist passage inside the ce, as well as a bunch of evil visitors.

    The rainbow dragonflies.

 Chapter 337 - Akeso

    Chapter 337: Akeso

    The arrival of rainbow dragonflies turned the entire Pocratee upside-down just like what happened to Twilight Well.

    Caught by surprise, almost all vigers were possessed overnight. The vige was home to countless healers who saved many lives in the outside world, yet they couldn¡¯t save themselves.

    The parasites could survive by absorbing nightmare energy and didn¡¯t need to kill their hosts, yet mortal bodies couldn¡¯t live long in such a condition. One after one, the residents of Pocratee died off in the following years.

    Angor reached the conclusion above by his own assumptions and with the help of bodynguage, or in this case, the ¡°headnguage¡± of the giant serpent. There were many details that he couldn¡¯t figure out, such as why there were so many corpses thaty along the path that led here. He took many guesses, but none of them were approved by the serpent.

    Also, the serpent didn¡¯t know why the individual in the coffin could live through the thousand years, and neither could it tell Angor about the man¡¯s identity or name. It only knew that the man was a viger from Pocratee.

    Angor assumed that the serpent took the pain to keep someone like this alive for so long because it wanted to keep thest bloodline and hope of Pocratee. As the serpent told him, there were no survivors. The man in the coffin was the only one ¡°alive¡±.

    When Angor asked information about the outside world, the serpent only shook its giant head. It had spent centuries in the waters nearby without knowing anything beyond the bounds.

    In the end, Angor decided to keep his remaining questions for the man in the coffin for when he woke up.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll take him away now,¡± he said.

    The serpent didn¡¯t move. It looked at Angor with hope and gratitude.

    Angor sighed in relief and covered the coffin up. He cast a Bind spell to restrain the coffin tightly and ced it inside his space bracelet.

    Thanks to therge lump of Hollow Weed he obtained in the ne passageway, the entire storage space could sustain life forms now. He even had some spare Hollow Weed left.

    Before he could walk away though, the serpent moved in his way again and tilted its head toward somewhere, with the hope that Angor could follow it. The creature seemed to be in better shape after resting for a while.

    After walking for a while, Angor thought the serpent was simply seeing him off. In the end, he was a little surprised to find out that he had entered another small, concealed cave.

    He noticed traces of human works inside the cave, such as a really big stone bed and drainage pipes. The marks on the bed and the smell of animal waste suggested that this was where the serpent slept.

    The serpent moved behind the bed.

    Angor joined it and saw a pile of molted snakeskin, snake teeth, and dark-colored scales.

    ¡°Thingsss... for you.¡±

    It picked up a shiny ck skin patch and a pale-white snake fang. It then tossed them to Angor.

    The body parts of wizard-level monsters were always valuable. Angor took a quick guess that these were at least mid to high-tier materials!

    He was very satisfied despite the fact that the serpent only gave him a small portion from the pile. He never expected this anyway. Anything would be weed.

    Next, the serpent waved its tail and asked Angor to leave on his own.

    Angor said thanks and prepared to leave for real. He then turned back and asked onest question, ¡°May I know your name, mighty one?¡±

    The serpent lifted its head again and stared at Angor with those golden eyes.

    ¡°Mine name... Akeso.¡±

    ...

    After leaving Akeso¡¯s domain, it took Angor about half an hour to reach the end of the caves.

    Another water pool.

    He saw animals this time. There were only bite-size fishes and shrimps, but he was very d to find them.

    Toby¡¯s dried fish already ran out one month ago, and they had been munching on his Mana Bread. Not considering Toby¡¯s opinion, Angor himself was going to vomit at this rate.

    The water full of fresh seafood was like a gourmet table in his eyes.

    ¡°Not now... I need to get out of here first,¡± he said as he tried to persuade himself to move. However, he failed to contain his primal urge once he was in the water. He caught several small prawns and boiled them in hot water. He then quickly ate them.

    After spending such a long time without eating proper food, he couldn¡¯t help but tear up when the slick and soft shrimp meat touched his tongue.

    Toby urged him eagerly. Compared to humans, this seabird felt as if he just returned to paradise.

    Now Angor had enough reasons to haul fishes and shrimps while swimming along with the water flow.

    They didn¡¯t find anyrger sea creatures probably because they were still inside Akeso¡¯s territory. And Angor was d about being free of potentially hostile predators.

    He spent another ten minutes in water to head downstream. When the sky had taken on the darker tone of the evening, he then finally saw the light,

    The golden-red color of dusk painted the sky above the lush forest full of wildlife. The trees stood solemnly beside the water where only the sound of leaves rustling could be heard.

    This was what Angor saw when he emerged from the surface of theke.

    He looked back briefly to check the quiet and stillke behind him. No one could ever believe that such a tranquil ce covered an underground vige for a thousand years.

    Angor still didn¡¯t know where he was now, which wasn¡¯t really important since he had a bigger task at hand¡ªTo satisfy his stomach!

    They feasted upon the delicious fish, and they used the cleanke water as wine, the beautiful scenery of nature as a spice, and the falling sun as decoration.

    They didn¡¯t actually have spice. However, being able to swallow meat was already good enough.

    Stars and the moon hung in the sky. Angor didn¡¯t really feel tired yet, so he decided to continue his travel during the night.

    As a ¡°pseudo¡± level-2 apprentice, he didn¡¯t have trouble staying fed in the wilderness. Besides, he also had Toby¡¯s help.

    The bird circled around in the sky for a while and told Angor thendscape that surrounded them.

    The mountain range was absolute a no. The other directions were full of trees but with different density. ording to Toby, he could walk toward the southeast as there were fewer and shorter trees.

    Shorter trees didn¡¯t necessarily mean that there was an exit. However, it was very likely that there was one.

    Anyway, he didn¡¯t have any other clues to follow. Angor believed that as long as he could walk, he would always reach someone.

    He didn¡¯t intend to ask the man in the coffin for now. Wizards and wizard-level monsters alike could all observe something hundreds of kilometers away as if it were right in front of their eyes. Perhaps Akeso was still looking at him by using some supernatural powers.

    He lied to the serpent that only Sunders could restore the health for possessed beings because he feared that Akeso might change its attitude once he actually saved the man in the coffin down there.

    For this reason, he nned to take the man farther, just in case.

    Every once in a while, Angor would ask Toby to check the surroundings, which was mostly meaningless at their current condition. But it was still better than having nothing.

    Even with the help of the ¡°Haste¡± spell, he still couldn¡¯t travel very far. It was already two days, but he was nowhere near the edge of the forest.

    Angor watched as Toby flew around, and he suddenly felt jealous of those wings.

    ¡°Can you give me a lift, Toby?¡± he asked the bird with an eager look.

    Without much of a thought, Toby grabbed Angor¡¯s cor and tried its best to fly upward. However, Angor¡¯s body remainedpletely still.

    Until Toby unleashed his power of gravity, which... hurled Angor into the air likeunching a rocket.

    Angor would certainly scatter into several parts if it wasn¡¯t for his ¡°tornado¡± which helped him to break his fall. It seemed like Toby couldn¡¯t do anything to speed up their trip now. Maybe it was something about lower gravity that allowed Toby to carry him in the ne passageway, and once they were back in the wizarding world, everything returned to normal.

    He thought and quickly gave up on the idea of crafting a vehicle item on the spot. He didn¡¯t have many basic materials in his bracelet, and it was not like he knew how to make one.

    Another two dayster, he ran across a river.

    A river meant potential colonies. Angor chose to change his route and travel along the river. This way, he could satisfy Toby¡¯s need for fish as well.

    In theing days, he saw several random beasts from the forest including a ferocious tiger.

    They all ended up in his belly.

    It was already the 16th day of Month of Looming Frost when he finally found the presence of a human.

    While still inside the forest, he discovered a hunter hut beside the riverbank.

    It was built with several simple wooden nks and by using dry hay as the roof. It would provide an eptable shelter from rain and snow, but it would not shelter anyone from extreme temperature or anything else.

    Angor entered the hut and saw a simple bed and desk inside. There was a bow hung on the wall as well as several patches of tanned animal hide. The collected dust suggested that no one had been here for several years.

    Maybe the hut was abandoned long ago.

    Still, it told him that someone used to hunt here, and it shouldn¡¯t be hard to find a way out now.

 Chapter 338 - Tail and Bowl

    Chapter 338: Tail and Bowl

    After sleeping and dining under the sky for several days, Angor decided to rest in this small hut for the night and to use this chance to wake the ¡°coffin man¡± up so that he could figure out who he was carrying. He also hoped that he could learn something about any ces of interest in this area.

    The night hade. He lit an oilmp and partially brighten up the narrow space.

    Then he took out the coffin from his space bracelet.

    When he opened the coffin lid, the man submerged in blood immediately opened his maddened eyes.

    ¡°Stay still, and be quiet!¡± Angor ordered.

    The man listened to his words and slowly rxed.

    Angor inspected the individual curiously.

    ording to what he learned before, the parasites would absorb energy from the nightmare mist, which in turn would benefit their hosts. However, once they left the mist, they would begin to absorb energy from their hosts until the said hosts were sucked dry.

    It was obvious that the coffin man left Pocratee a long time ago, which meant a parasite should have already killed him. But Akeso¡¯s blood managed to keep him alive. Or rather, the blood provided enough energy to sustain the parasite in his body.

    Even though Akeso was feeding the parasite using its blood, there should be another reason as to why the man¡¯s body stayed fine for a thousand years.

    ¡°A thousand years? And...¡± Angor looked at the man¡¯s blood-tainted face. ¡°He looks pretty young too.¡±

    He couldn¡¯t pursue an answer to all these questions yet. He had to save the man first.

    But he had another task before he expelled the parasite.

    He checked the blood inside the coffin next and revealed a desiring grin. ¡°Man... The blood of a wizard-level monster just spilled everywhere. Such a waste!¡±

    Apart from several alchemy applications, the blood could also be brewed into a special blood ink.

    Back at Twilight Auction, he saw a bottle of Rosegold Gargoyle Blood Ink, which was considered a high-ss material. Such an assumption was made whenparing inks of simr types. The blood ink made from a wizard-level monster would easily surpass them all.

    The blood inside the coffin had lost a portion of its properties, but it didn¡¯t make it any less valuable. It was still as costly as the snakeskin and fang.

    Naturally, Angor wasn¡¯t going to discard such prized material. Also, to avoid unnecessary questions, he nned to sweep the blood clean before waking up the coffin man.

    To prevent the parasite from sucking the man dry, Angor unleashed his Nightmare Domain in advance so that the parasite could absorb energy from it.

    He untied the man and took him out of the coffin. Any fabrics that were on the man previously had already decayed to dust over the long period of time, and when the man came out from the blood pool, he was naked.

    A mortal body that sat still for such a long time should have been unable to function. To Angor¡¯s surprise, the man only looked weak; his limbs were mostly fine. When he pinched the man¡¯s arm, it felt healthily sturdy.

    ¡°Has the parasite been sustaining his body? Or...¡±

    He left the man to wander inside the Nightmare Domain while he took everything rted to the coffin back into his bracelet. He didn¡¯t have a suitable container for now, and so, he had to leave the coffin as it was. The oil wood was also a low-tier material which could reduce the speed at which the blood would start to spoil.

    When this was done, Angor looked at the man beside him again. There was still blood on the coffin man¡¯s face, but it did nothing to hinder the man¡¯s good look. Angor estimated that this man had the looks of a 17 or 18-year-old, and he had a wiry figure.

    Nothing on the first look seemed particrly wrong.

    Angor raised an eyebrow when he saw the man holding something in his left hand. He couldn¡¯t really see the details with all the blood that was in the way.

    He used Purify and gave the man a bath from head to toe. With no blood or bad smells, Angor carefully checked the object.

    It was... a bowl.

    The bowl was crafted using some unknown metal, which showed a silvery-white color. The inner side of the bowl was decorated with the ¡°ck serpent twisting on rod¡± mark, and there wasn¡¯t anything else worthing noticing.

    He checked again and again, but he couldn¡¯t find any information from the ordinary silver bowl.

    But he somehow felt something strangeing off the object.

    He couldn¡¯t tell what or why. Every time he tried to think about it, the strange feeling would immediately vanish, and the bowl would return to being a pletely ordinary container¡±.

    He recalled the feeling again and couldn¡¯t remember or sense any dark or evil from it. On the contrary, it felt indescribably holy.

    But... a water bowl? Holy?

    Still, he didn¡¯t n to take the bowl. The coffin man didn¡¯t need Akeso¡¯s blood anymore, so Angor took the blood away. However, the bowl could be something dear to the man since he never let go of it. Maybe a family heritage or some kind of spiritual memento.

    Angor proceeded to observe the man for some time. With the blood washed away, he noticed a small ¡°bump¡± just above the man¡¯s butt area, near the cyx bone. It was as big as his little finger.

    When he pressed it, he felt an extra length of bone, which seemed to consist of multiple interlocked sections. He managed to sense three parts, which felt simr to the bones of human fingers.

    ¡°Atavism?¡± Angor thought about cases in which humans resembled their ancestors.

    But whether the primal ancestor of mankind had a tail was still pending debate.

    ¡°Is he a humanoid then?¡±

    Without Expel Deceit, Angor couldn¡¯t tell the man¡¯s race. If it wasn¡¯t mutation or atavism, this man probably didn¡¯te from Pocratee. During his previous examinations, he didn¡¯t find extra tail bone on the skeletons of vigers.

    The coffin man¡¯s race wasn¡¯t the problem though. He had to wake him up first, by which he could simply ask the man anything he wanted.

    The parasite had been inside the Nightmare Domain for a while now. Angor could manipte every element in his domain, including the energy absorbed by the parasite.

    With an order of Angor¡¯s mind, the parasite found its way out of the coffin man¡¯s body.

    For a brief moment, the man¡¯s eyes regained sanity. He mumbled a single word ¡°Dodoro¡± before he fainted.

    ...

    The arrival of sunlight was apanied by beast howls outside the hut.

    While traveling among the trees, Angor was used to hearing all the howls. He climbed down from the small bed and saw the coffin man still snoring on the floor.

    He walked to the door without waking the man up.

    After being cleaned by Purification Field, the wooden hut appeared more habitable when the warm sunlight traveled in.

    Angor looked toward the outside and saw Toby cruising the sky in his colorful skirt while an eight-eared Cloud Leopard dashed below the bird.

    Toby would asionally provoke the beast and quickly flutter away when the leopard attacked. After ¡°rough ying¡± for a while, their little show ended at the death of the poor beast.

    Toby joined Angor and pointed a wing at the leopard corpse¡ªHey I got us breakfast!

    ¡°You went hunting for too long,¡± Angor joked. ¡°And we¡¯re having a barbecue in the morning? Isn¡¯t this a little... greasy for our diet?¡±

    He still went to process the animal corpse even though he wasn¡¯t very good at this. The beautiful Cloud Leopard hide was broken into several slices, and the meat also came out in big and small chunks.

    While he cooked their breakfast, the door of the hunter hut was pushed open, and the coffin man walked outside while rubbing his eyes.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± Angor said as he nced his way.

    ¡°Good morning...¡± The man slowly walked to Angor.

    ¡°I guess your stomach isn¡¯t fit to consume meat right now. Should I tell Toby to pick some fruit?¡± Angor pointed to several stone bumps nearby which should be the original hunter¡¯s chairs. He then said, ¡°Take some rest. I have some questions for youter.¡±

    The coffin man didn¡¯t respond. He had been standing still in a trance.

    Angor looked up and saw the bright sunlight casting a faint aura around the man¡¯s bare skin. The man had his hair dragged all the way to his knees while his yellow eyes were spinning terribly.

    The man replied after quite a while, ¡°I... guess your stomach... meat. Hmmmffffruit... questions for youter.¡±

    His words were broken at the beginning, which grew better in the end.

    After those words, the man looked at Angor proudly as if he were waiting for apliment.

    Angor, however, wasn¡¯t in the mood to praise him now.

    A flock of birds suddenly left for the sky when they were startled by someone bellowing among the woods¡ª¡±Don¡¯t you DARE TELL ME you lost your fuc*ing memory! This plot is getting old!¡±

 Chapter 339 - Totally Innocentâ€¦ and Empty

    <h4>Chapter 339: Totally Innocent... and Empty</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Tell me your name. Surely you remember that much?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Tell me your name. Surely you remember that much,¡± the man repeated joyfully and waited for Angor to praise him.

    ¡°Stop copying me! Did you really forget everything or are you ying dumb?¡±

    ¡°Stop copying me! Did you really forget everything or are you ying dumb?¡±

    The coffin man repeated those words very smoothly.

    Angor facepalmed. Jon taught him both western and eastern medicine, but most of the modern knowledge he learned was about dealing with external wounds or simple diseases. He knew about amnesia too. Many such cases were caused by mental trauma, or sometimes, it could be caused by brain damage. Apart from physical damage, passive amnesia was usually due to the brain¡¯s self-protection which helped the victim to actively forget about the memories that caused them harm.

    Angor had nothing to look into the coffin man¡¯s brain at the moment, and it was not like he knew how to diagnose his condition. Angor might have learned a lot of theories, yet he had nearly zero practical experience.

    Angor assumed that the coffin man¡¯s brain decided to discard the memory of witnessing everyone inside Pocratee getting killed. But he couldn¡¯t be sure of it yet.

    For now, he had to find out whether the coffin man had lost all of his memories or only a part of them.

    He ced some meat over the campfire and tried to strike a topic with the man.

    ¡°How are you feeling now?¡± Angor wanted to see if the coffin man could get ahold of his own condition.

    ¡°How are you feeling now?¡±

    ¡°Do you know Pocratee?¡± Angor tried another one. Maybe he could use something rted to the man¡¯s past to trigger whatever was buried in his brain.

    The coffin man still looked at him proudly. ¡°Do you know Pocratee?¡±

    Angor nned to ask the 3rd ¡°question of life¡± which was ¡°where are you going?¡±. However, he decided not to since it probably wouldn¡¯t work either.

    He thought for a moment and snapped his fingers.

    Pah!

    The coffin man¡¯s vision changed. When he could see again, Angor was no longer there. He was standing in a snowfield with more snowing down from the sky.

    And he waspletely naked.

    He looked around hysterically as if he was looking for someone.

    The snow grew heavier, and the man was trembling badly. Following his instinct, he returned into the hunter hut, which didn¡¯t provide much warmth. But at least there was no snow here.

    The man saw a mink coat on the bed and was puzzled for a moment. But again, his instinct reacted faster than his brain, and his body was already moving to get the coat.

    The coldness wasn¡¯t a problem now. He rushed outside again and looked around with unfocused eyes.

    The scenery faded out once again. When he came to, the snow, as well as his coat, were gone.

    A powerful gale started to blow over from the forest.

    Rotten leaves and dust got into his eyes. The man tried to cover his face.

    Dark cloud approached from the sky. Without any warning, a sh of lightning struck the trees and caused a spreading wildfire.

    The coffin man looked at the mes in fear.

    Then it was heavy rain. The man searched around again without finding the hunter hut or the boy who just talked to him.

    The only thing within his reach was an umbre. He didn¡¯t take it though. The man walked under a tree and sat down.

    Angor showed up.

    The man¡¯s eyes brimmed with happiness. He rushed back into the rain and joined Angor.

    He opened his mouth without making any sound¡ªhe didn¡¯t know what he was going to say.

    Angor sighed and picked up the umbre off the ground.

    The man epted the item and remained still, confused.

    Angor shook head and snapped his fingers again.

    The rain, forest fire, and the umbre all vanished. They were now staying on the bright open ground outside the hut again.

    Angor was still roasting meat in his previous position, while Toby searched the sky happily as if everything were a dream.

    The coffin man looked at Angor while smiling in the same silly manner.

    The bad weathers were caused by Angor¡¯s illusions. With them, Angor mostly ascertained that the man¡¯s memory was damaged.

    This guy couldn¡¯t remember his past. He tried to avoid cold or rain due to human instinct. Yet he didn¡¯t know how to use an umbre... which meant he had forgottenmon senses.

    The man had to know about umbres before since Angor saw many of such items in Pocratee. However, Angor didn¡¯t understand why people needed umbres underground.

    Procedural memory loss.

    Also, it seemed that the man could remember how to use words. However, he couldn¡¯t talk normally.

    ¡°It¡¯s not really amnesia... I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ve be an idiot.¡±

    ¡°Idiot¡± was something Angor used to show his discontent. What he meant was that the man had be ¡°empty in the brain¡±, like a newborn child.

    Maybe the man could pick up human knowledge again by undergoing proper educations and be anew. In that case, it would be another philosophical debate about whether the man would still be his ¡°old self¡±.

    ...

    Thankfully, the man still knew how to satisfy his basic needs like eating and dumping. He would eat anything Angor gave him, and if he were still hungry, he would stare at Angor with puppy eyes.

    With both of their stomachs fed, Angor prepared to resume his travel.

    As for the coffin man...

    Angor considered and decided to take him along. A man in such a condition would meet a quick death in this deep forest on his own.

    ...

    Angor kept groaning in distress along the way. Previously, he hoped that this coffin man could answer his questions. Now he got himself a huge burden instead.

    He silently decided that he would drop the man somewhere as soon as he found civilization.

    Angor kept trying to trigger the man¡¯s memory while walking. He even used the extreme approach of presenting Pocratee¡¯s destruction in front of the coffin man¡¯s eyes in the most brutal way.

    And it didn¡¯t work well. Angor didn¡¯t really see how Pocratee was ruined, and he mostly based his illusion on what happened in Twilight Well.

    Until he ced the parasites and rainbow dragonflies in the illusion.

    The coffin man then began to hesitate. While Angor waited for a result eagerly, the man copsed.

    When the coffin man woke up again, he had forgotten everything he saw. And when Angor brought up the dragonflies again, the man didn¡¯t react at all.

    ¡°I overdid it and caused the opposite result?¡± Angor rubbed his temples and gave up on the ¡°violent¡± means of restoring one¡¯s memory. Actually, all the books he read about strongly suggested against using such a method.

    Angor had lost interest in looking into the coffin man¡¯s past. It wasn¡¯t important anyway. Forgetting painful events was probably the better choice.

    Angor began to talk about random daily topics with the man, even if the respondent only repeated his words. The coffin man probably needed practice.

    It was dull, but it was weed during the boring journey.

    Also, Angor gradually grew interested in the coffin man¡¯s special ent.

    The man¡¯s voice sounded clear and gentle, but every end of his pronunciation was upturned slightly.

    It seemed to be the ent from a remote vige. Angor felt that he might have heard something simr before. But he didn¡¯t remember where. Maybe he only heard it from a random passerby by chance?

    At least Angor was sure that the man used the universalnguage as his mother tongue before. Otherwise, there was no way the man could mimic his words so fluently.

    Angor took a test by speaking Mandarin, but the coffin man twisted his tongue badly and did a poor job at it.

    This meant the coffin man had to have originated from the wizarding world.

    As for the exact location... Angor needed to get to civilization to find out.

    ...

    With the coffin man still in his memory loss condition, Angor kept walking along the riverbank.

    They walked for two days and nights.

    The river ended at argeke. Or... sea?

    Angor couldn¡¯t see the edge of the water, and they didn¡¯t have another way to go. Their sides were blocked by the extending mountain range.

    They could either walk around the mountains or climb them, or they could go into the water too.

    The first option seemed too far. Traveling by water seemed to be a good choice... if Angor didn¡¯t have to consider the ¡°idiot¡± that tagged along with him.

    He chose to climb the mountains. Something told him that there were people behind.

 Chapter 340 - Dodoro

    <h4>Chapter 340: Dodoro</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The mountains weren¡¯t steep. They moved quite easily, especially after Angor found a man-made mountain path. It meant there was a civilization nearby.

    Angor asked Toby to observe from the sky. Toby happilyplied and returned to Angor¡¯s shoulder after a short while.

    ¡°There is? A big city on the other side?¡± Angor¡¯s eyes brightened up. He was worried that small viges might not provide him with much useful information, but arge city would totally do the trick.

    Since they had a certain destination now, Angor proceeded in a brighter mood. He turned back and spoke to his little follower, ¡°There¡¯s a city just ahead. I can¡¯t keep ¡®hey you¡¯. You need a name now.¡±

    The man replied to him with another confused gaze. However, there was a tiny trace of innocent happiness in it.

    The coffin man had stopped repeating Angor¡¯s words. But that was about it¡ªhe couldn¡¯t express anything yet. And Angor wasn¡¯t sure whether he should be worried or happy about this.

    Angor did notice that every time he talked to the coffin man, those eyes would twinkle brightly with pleasant emotions.

    Maybe it was ¡°imprinting¡± like how newborn chicks recognized anything they saw first as their mothers? Wait... it should be ¡°father¡± in this case.

    Angor shook his head. He wasn¡¯t going to consider someone who might be older than Sunders as his son.

    ¡°Tell me, what do you want to be called?¡± Angor asked.

    The coffin man would asionally say simple words he learned from Angor¡¯s sentences. He couldn¡¯t really answer Angor yet, but Angor only wished to use the first word he heard as the man¡¯s new name.

    A ¡°Devil Angor¡± in Angor¡¯s mind was expecting a funny word like ¡°poop¡± or ¡°puppy¡±. It would be so much fun when the coffin man regained his memory and found out about the terrible nickname he chose for himself.

    However, Angor¡¯s evil n didn¡¯t work out. The coffin man didn¡¯t say anything yet. He only tilted his head to one side like a curious baby.

    ¡°I¡¯ll help you then. How about ¡®Pocratee¡¯? The ce you used to live in. You can use it so you won¡¯t ever forget it,¡± Angor said. He continued talking on his own, ¡°Wait, no good... That ce met with a terrible fate.¡±

    He hoped to get the coffin man to talk by constantly speaking. One word would do.

    Yet the man never made a sound.

    Angor sighed. ¡°Forget it, I¡¯m so bad at this. Just get your own name. You look pretty well when I helped you get rid of the parasite. Why did you suddenly be an idiot?¡±

    Angor suddenly thought about something. ¡°Wait... you said something at the moment before you faint. Let me think...¡±

    He tried his best to recall what happened in the Nightmare Domain.

    When he dragged the parasite out of the coffin man¡¯s body, the man¡¯s eyes showed intelligence albeit briefly. He muttered something at that moment.

    ¡°It¡¯s ¡®Dodoro¡¯. I remember it. You said ¡®Dodoro¡¯ and went out cold. Should I call you ¡®Dodoro¡¯ then?¡±

    It sounded pretty weird. Angor believed that it meant something since it was the first and only thing the coffin man mentioned in the condition. Maybe a really important concept that he had to remember.

    Anyway, it was a good choice. There were many strange names in this world. Besides, ¡°Dodoro¡± was quite catchy and easy to remember.

    As Angor went over his own thoughts, the coffin man suddenly shivered a little.

    Something uncertain shed past his eyes when he heard ¡°Dodoro¡±. It seemed a series of scenes were brought up. There were des, armor, blood, and horse hooves... as well as a kind-looking elder who carried an iron box...

    ¡°What do you think?¡± Angor looked at the man again.

    The coffin man¡¯s memory ended along with Angor¡¯s question. He looked at Angor and tilted his head again.

    ¡°Guess I shouldn¡¯t be asking you. It¡¯s settled then. You¡¯re Dodoro, at least until you recall your past. As for yourst name... it doesn¡¯t really matter. It was Akeso who kept you alive for a thousand years, and you shouldn¡¯t forget that. We shall use that then. ¡®Dodoro Akeso¡¯ will be your name for now.¡±

    The coffin man nodded with uncertainty.

    Mountain wind traveled past and momentarily moved the man¡¯s long hair to one side. This very moment when Dodoro obtained his own name under the clear sky and fallen autumn leaves had be a permanent print in his mind.

    ...

    When they were halfway to the peak, Angor noticed a double-story wooden house that was out on the open ground among the woods. There was a sign not far from it.

    Angor approached and saw several lines written on it using differentnguages. The topmost one was the universalnguage.

    [Byzan Mountains No.0039, Ranger of Kana Ridge]

    There was a date printed at the bottom left suggesting the day the sign was ced, along with an emblem which showed a sun rising above sea horizon.

    A forest ranger¡¯s house...

    Angor held his chin and considered. There was nothing wrong with the house, but he was quite interested in the small sign. The simple record could tell him a lot.

    The emblem, as well as the ¡°plot number¡±, suggested that it was something determined by officials. Only government-like organizations would give numbers to plots. Also, it could be seen that whoever set up the sign enjoyed the peace. A country suffering from warfare or conflict would not have time to care about protecting mountain woods.

    The Goldspink Empire had its own forest rangers as well, but it became a lost profession ever since the battle against Hen broke out.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯m lucky to arrive at somewhere peaceful,¡± Angor murmured. He rubbed a finger against the sign and noticed there wasn¡¯t much dust on it, which meant someone had been taking care of it.

    Next, Angor came to the wooden house.

    ording to his spirit feeler scan, it was unupied. The door was locked, which... didn¡¯t matter. Angor could always open it easily either by using spirit or mana power.

    He pushed the door open and stepped inside.

    The two stories were only two different rooms¡ªone hall and one bedroom. There were only basic furniture and several locked cabs.

    ¡°Some weapons and foodstuff... no books. Guess our mister ranger doesn¡¯t have much spiritual entertainment,¡± Angor murmured as he opened a cab. He was d to find a map inside.

    The map only showed the locations of such houses of ¡°Byzan Mountain No.0021 to No.0040¡±. Judging from the map scale, there were 20 such houses around the mountain range of about 400 kilometers.

    That was a lot.

    It seemed this nation was in good condition since they took such an effort to preserve nature.

    Angor put down the map and smelled mild smoke. He looked and saw a series of smoked and dried pork hung below the ceiling beam, as well as some unknown jerky.

    After surviving on inly-cooked food for months, he was immediately attracted by the smell of salt and rich spice.

    He picked a slice of pork jerky. He then silently apologized to the owner of the house before he used a pot to boil water on the kitchen stove.

    Man, the smell was heavenly!

    Even Toby couldn¡¯t help digging in like mad.

    Sitting away from them, Dodoro¡¯s mouth also watered at the delicious smell. However, he only looked at the pot without actually asking for food.

    Angor thought it over. Dodoro didn¡¯t seem troubled by all the fruits in these days. So, he decided to give Dodoro a really soft part of the meat.

    Their meal was very satisfying. When leaving the ranger¡¯s house, Angor ced a gold coin on the table as ate payment. Anyway, it was better than paying nothing.

    The coin wasn¡¯t only for buying meat. He also took a set of clothing and a pair of shoes.

    For Dodoro.

    Angor¡¯s bracelet contained a bright-purple wizard robe that he received from Prome, which served as Dodoro¡¯s outfit during the previous days. Without any other inner fabrics, the robe didn¡¯t do a very good job.

    Even though he was wearing nothing on the inside, Dodoro didn¡¯t seem troubled at all. However, Angor couldn¡¯t help feeling uneasy about it. Every now and then, the wind would expose Dodoro¡¯s private parts under broad daylight... very clearly.

    They were heading toward a city now. In order not to look too unsightly, Angor had to find him something to wear from the house.

    With the new set of clothes, Dodoro looked more ¡°civilized¡± now. To prevent unnecessary trouble, Angor also cropped his long hair into a crew cut.

    When everything was settled, they moved out of the ranger¡¯s house. There was a path leading away from the house. Following it should lead them to a colony quickly enough.

 Chapter 341 - Terribly Common Plot

    Chapter 341: Terribly Common Plot

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    It was already noontime when they reached the mountain peak.

    Toby told Angor that there was a big city on the other side of the mountain. Angor didn¡¯t know exactly know how big it was until he saw the city. He finally realized that he had totally underestimated Toby¡¯s message.

    He thought the water along the mountain foot was a giantke that was connected to the sea. But now, he just saw that theke was actually ind, which was asrge as half of Midnight Sovereign.

    The wless water surface sat there like a giant natural mirror that showed the reflection of the sky and clouds. Countless waterfowl were chasing each other among the clouds above.

    The city was established near theke. It wasn¡¯t walled-up like what Angor had expected. Instead, it started from the mountain foot and stretched along the edge of theke until it reached the horizon.

    As far as Angor could see, this entire part of theke bank was full of buildings. From a quick estimation, the most popted gathering spot amodated nearly a million people.

    Angor even noticed that some of thends were actually artificial inds. Certain buildings were built directly on top of the water.

    ¡°A wonderful ce to build a city...¡±

    Apart from a giant water source and bountiful mountain forest, Angor also saw arge number of paddy fields around theke as well as fishing vessels, all of which suggested that people in this city had been enjoying peace and plenty.

    Maybe he could stay in the city for a while once he learned where he was.

    But he still had to get to Floating Mech City before the purification garden opened up next year.

    ...

    Descending from the mountain was easier. Even though it looked huge from the mountain peak, the city was actually still some distance away. Angor had to hurry up and find a ce to live before nightfall.

    Also, to avoid troubles, he activated Istion.

    His ck-and-white checkered overcoat and the top hat with a smiley face design were simply too noticeable. The passive effect of his bracelet was almost nullified in such a case. Hence, he needed to active Infinite Reticence instead.

    Under the effect, Angor became a shadow walker who showed minimal presence even under the bright sun.

    Dodoro was briefly confused when Angor activated the magic array. But since his attention was always fixed on Angor, Dodoro didn¡¯t really lose track.

    After getting away from the mountain, Angor walked past another dense forest.

    The first thing he felt when stepping into this rtively dark ce was ¡°chill¡±... and the second was an ominous atmosphere.

    He sensed it because of the instinct of a wizard.

    Anyone with strong spirit power would have his instinct strengthened. Such a man could sense all kinds of evil presence without using specific detection spells.

    ¡°Many people died here... or,¡± he murmured. As he frowned and checked the dirt under him, he continued, ¡°Many people are buried under here?¡±

    The ominous aura wasn¡¯t strong enough to give birth to undead creatures yet. Angor only briefly noticed it. He then stopped paying attention to it.

    After several steps, he suddenly saw a shadow dashing away from a tree and into the leaves of another lush tree.

    It looked pretty small. Probably as big as his hand. It was so quick that he didn¡¯t really recognize its nature.

    ¡°A flying squirrel?¡± Angor tapped at Toby¡¯s head. The bird had been sleeping after getting a full meal. ¡°Hey, stay alert. Our safety depends on you.¡±

    He didn¡¯t actually believe there was any danger. He merely woke Toby up because he felt a bit jealous of the bird¡¯s living style. He also very much wanted to eat and sleep without caring for anything else, while also growing in strength!

    Toby, on the other hand, was unaware of Angor¡¯s thoughts. He moved onto Angor¡¯s hat and began his job willingly.

    As Angor expected, they never encountered anything along their way. The small shadow and evil atmosphere quickly became insignificant scrap of a memory, which he soon forgot.

    Behind the range of forest was a broad in. Angor already saw people. There were houses built along theke¡¯s edge, and some residents were fishing or working in their fields. They were all mortals who woremon clothes simr to what Angor found in the ranger¡¯s house. Most women had skirts and aprons, while males had long trousers and field coats. They weren¡¯t anything special, but they all looked tidy enough.

    He didn¡¯t approach these people. Instead, he used spirit feelers to eavesdrop on their conversations.

    ¡°Universalnguage, and without much foreign ent...¡± Angor looked at Dodoro again. To him, Dodoro¡¯s ent was stronger than the citizens. But somehow, he preferred to listen to Dodoro¡¯s gentle voice where he ended every sentence with a slight rise in pitch.

    It was obvious that Dodoro didn¡¯te from this city. But again, it had been a thousand years, and his ent might have changed?

    The farmers were mostly talking about random small talks. It happened to be the time for harvesting crops, so people all discussed their gains or whether someone had a bountiful or lesser yield this year. Someone managed to notice the traveling pair, but no one really cared too much. asionally, there were young girls who wouldment on Dodoro¡¯s handsome look before they returned to their chores.

    The peaceful sight reminded Angor of his time at Padt Manor. At that time, he would also work on the tea farm while he talked to Maid Auri and Head Maid Mana about trivial matters.

    Those days were rxing, yet unproductive. Still, Angor really missed them. Probably because he had always been stressed out in the wizarding world, thus the mere sight of the mortals triggered his urge to take it easy again.

    He shook his head and got rid of the thought. Before saving his teacher, he wouldn¡¯t let his guard down.

    ...

    The main road slowly steered away from the cultivable fields along theke. Soon, Angor was seeing fewer people and houses again.

    A road that was far from the residents, which was apanied by the mountain woods nearby... For bandits, this looked like the perfect ce for an ambush.

    Usually, carriages and caravans would take this road, while individual travelers could easily use the shortcuts among the trees. Angor chose to walk on the main road because he didn¡¯t know the directions well, and he didn¡¯t wish to walk through the fields and interact with the mortals too much.

    A carriage meant riches. If they could get their hands on one, bandits would not hesitate to intercept one and quickly retreat back into the woods.

    Angorined about the strange location of the road while he thought about the possibility of whether the government of the city intentionally built the road like this. Even if they wanted to avoid affecting the farms, the road still looked too remote.

    A hostile yell soon proved his idea.

    He looked toward the particr direction without getting surprised much. About some hundred meters away, a ck fully covered high carriage was surrounded by a group of de-wielding folks. In addition to their eye patches, they all had simple vests that exposed their chest area. The leader was a big and fat individual who had such an oversized stomach that it looked like a balloon. The leader didn¡¯t wear an eye patch. But his right eye was troubled by a deep cut scar, which actually looked more threatening than the eye patches of his men.

    The carriage obviously belonged to someone rich. Even the driver was a silver-haired old man with an expensive-looking gentleman suit.

    The driver looked at the gang leader through a pair of round-rim sses, showing a bit of fear. ¡°What do you want? I can give you money, but please leave us be once you take it.¡±

    ¡°Money? Oh sure. But...¡± The fat leader grinned wickedly. ¡°I also need your passenger. Hand over Miss Margot. We¡¯ll treat her well...¡±

    Upon the mention of ¡°treat¡±, all the bandits smiled in unison, in an evil way.

    ¡°Lone-Eye Brotherhood, you will attack innocent people in Water Grasse? Do you not care about Count Leonrick¡¯s fury?!¡± the old cart driver bellowed.

    The bandits of ¡°Long-Eye Brotherhood¡± allughed out.

    ¡°His fury? Not anymore. Today, we don¡¯t give a damn to that Leonrick fart.¡±

    It seemed these men were serious about not fearing the name of Count Leonrick. Upon realizing this, the old driver grimaced badly.

    It seems like I¡¯m not going to get out of this today.

    He suddenly saw a lone figure traveling not far.

    ¡°Do you think you can keep your crime a secret? If the count learns about this, he¡¯ll make sure you will cease in this world!¡±

    While talking, the driver secretly disyed a hand gesture to the traveler who had been approaching the scene.

    He was simply asking the man to go away. He didn¡¯t care about dying, as long as a witness could get the message to Count Leonrick.

    The old man only hoped that the traveler had decent eyesight to see his gesture.

    The ¡°lone traveler¡± in his eyes was, of course, Dodoro. And Dodoro had no problem seeing things clearly. However, a ¡°mentally handicapped¡± person couldn¡¯t possibly understand the driver¡¯s signal.

    Angor saw this and shook his head.

    Dodoro did see the driver¡¯s hand moving, but he didn¡¯t realize what it meant. He only wanted to follow behind Angor.

    When he was only a hundred meters away from the bandits, some of the men on lookout quickly turned back upon hearing their footsteps.

    ¡°Hey, boss! Someone¡¯sing from behind. I think he¡¯s a peasant from nearby,¡± a scout spoke to the bandit leader while he stared at Dodoro.

    ¡°Peasant?¡± The leader also turned around. ¡°Humph. An arrogant kid who wants to y the hero. Get him, and we¡¯ll dispose of him together with the old timer.¡±

    The old driver revealed a sad look. His life was forfeited, and so was the dignity of thedy. And they even dragged an innocent farmer into this...

 Chapter 342 - Ring of Illusion

    Chapter 342: Ring of Illusion

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor pulled his hat lower and stayed at the side of the road as he watched two eye-patched men dragged Dodoro to the carriage.

    ¡°Boss? I think this one has some problems in his brain.¡±

    It was so obvious. Dodoro¡¯s eyes remained clear and innocent like a toddler, and he never showed any fear. He only fixed his gaze in Angor¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Is he faking it?¡± The bandit leader walked over and grabbed Dodoro¡¯s cor. Then he threw Dodoro aside.

    Dodoro tumbled to the ground and quickly climbed back up with a sad look. Then he walked toward Angor again.

    The others couldn¡¯t see Angor. To them, Dodoro ¡°willingly¡± ran back to their boss after being bullied. And this guy was still looking at their boss as if he wanted to cry.

    This funny guy was an idiot no matter how they looked at him.

    ¡°Um? For real?¡± The scarred leader scoffed as he inspected Dodoro up and down. ¡°He looks pretty good. Maybe we can...¡±

    A bandit suddenly spoke up, ¡°Boss, I heard that Lady Mary loves to torture silly and innocent boys. We can sell this guy to her for a big price!¡±

    Dodoro still carried that pure look even when people talked about selling him off right in front of him. He kept looking toward Angor¡¯s direction like an obedient puppy, fearing that he would lose Angor if he allowed his attention to stray.

    ¡°Har har! You¡¯re damn right. The poor bastard¡¯s gonna have a bad time with Mary¡¯s whips.¡±

    An idiot would never tell anyone about the robbery. The bandit leader felt a lot happier since they just found some extra cash. ¡°Good hunting, my men! You, keep an eye on him. I¡¯m going to check out our appetizer!¡±

    He asked the bandit who made the suggestion to guard Dodoro. He then walked to the ck carriage and shed at it using the giant machete he had been carrying on his back.

    Thick veins emerged on the man¡¯s arms when he wielded the weapon. It only took one try for him topletely split the carriage in half.

    Angor noticed that when the scarred bandit used that de, the man released a certain aura from his body which traveled onto the veins on his arm, giving him unnatural strength.

    And Angor knew about it. The power of faith used by knights.

    Knights all believed in knighthood spirit instead of gods or kings. By forcing themselves to obey certain doctrines, they strengthened their inner organs and gained power.

    Angor learned about such a thing before going into the wizarding world. After he started to study wizardry, Angor learned that the so-called ¡°power of faith¡± was actually a basic method used by Bloodline Wizards to train their physical forms.

    Every creature possessed a bloodline. Knights simply knew how to disy the power of the bloodline. And such basic method was applicable to anyone. There was no requirement for spiritual power or wizardry potential, which was the reason why wizards didn¡¯t im ¡°copyright¡± for it and allowed it to be used among mortals.

    Also, Angor was nning to be a knight too, if he didn¡¯t meet his particr destiny.

    ...

    Following a loud horse neigh, a woman with a pinkish-white bubble skirt stumbled down from the broken carriage. She had been trembling all along. And when she finally looked at the violent bandits directly, she quickly lost it and began to scream.

    The noises caused by a horse and a woman quickly brought the scene into chaos.

    The scarred bandit rubbed his ear and walked to the panicked horse. With a swift sh, the horse became two halves.

    Blood and guts covered the dirt.

    All the brotherhood bandits yelled hysterically upon the smell of blood and the scream of Margot. Even the old driver closed his eyes in despair.

    Dodoro and Angor were the only ones who didn¡¯t react at all at the violent disy. Dodoro had been bathing in blood for too long to get troubled by it, while Angor couldn¡¯t smell it at all when his Purification Field was working. Besides, Angor wouldn¡¯t mind even if he did¡ªwizards all tended to be cold-natured.

    The ruckus drew the attention of a farmer, who immediately ran away upon seeing the bandits.

    The bandit leader ordered a man to chase after the farmer while he took out a ring, which shone with dark glimmer, from his pocket.

    ¡°Witness, huh?¡± He walked in front of the old driver and kicked the helpless old man onto the ground. ¡°You see, everything we did today will remain a secret, and Leonrick can kiss goodbye to his good days. The entire Water Grasse will sumb to Lord Magician¡¯s nightmares. Gah har har har!¡±

    He flipped the green gem on the shining ring, which released several ripples into the air and covered everyone.

    The old driver helped Margot up. ¡°What have you done?! What is this? How did you find such power?¡±

    ¡°Do you know what this is?¡± The scarred man looked proud. ¡°A treasure we obtained from Lord Magician. It¡¯s the Ring of Illusion. See what¡¯s happening now? Hah! Let me tell you, as long as we¡¯re inside this power, no one will see what¡¯s happening here! Outsiders will see nothing. No horse sh*t, no carriage, no Margot, or you, old bastard.

    ¡°This is a supernatural power! Something mortals can never hope to wield! Leonrick, huh? He¡¯ll get killed by Lord Magician¡¯s might sooner orter!¡±

    To prove his words, theckey he sent out to catch the farmer had returned. However, this guy was wandering around the carriage aimlessly without looking at them.

    The other bandits allughed at their silly brother, and their leader ordered another man to drag the wanderer into the illusion.

    The old driver slumped down upon witnessing the amazing power. Theirst bit of hope had just escaped.

    ¡°See that? Water Grasse¡ªno. The entire Zeal Dominion shall heed to the wills of Lord Magician!¡± The fat banditughed maniacally and raised his machete at the old driver. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for you now. We¡¯re taking Margot away, while you should meet your doom right here!¡±

    ...

    Angor¡¯s eyes gleamed.

    He tended to avoid trouble or be the center of attention. The Lone-Eye Brotherhood seemed to be a bunch ofmon viins, but no one knew if somethingplicated would show up.

    He came here because he sensed the power of illusions. It wasn¡¯t strong, but it suggested the presence of a supernatural.

    Compared to mortals, whoever that owned the ¡°Ring of Illusion¡± might provide him with more useful information to help him find the southern wizarding world.

    As for the driver in danger...

    That old man did try to warn Dodoro. Might as well save him.

    ...

    The driver covered his head and shivered, while Margot was captured by the two other bandits nearby, still screaming and crying.

    The old man already began to see his past life shing in from of his eyes. He waited for the final strike toe, which never did.

    Did the bandit change his mind? With uncertainty, he slowly looked up again.

    Bright sh quickly blinded his aged eyes.

    The bandit leader did not show mercy. It was a crystal-clear ice wall, which suddenly appeared between them. The sharp machete was stuck inside the ice, while its owner was trying to pull it out.

    ¡°What¡ªhow... Ice?! What just happened?¡± The other bandits pointed to the wall in shock.

    The bandit leader was only surprised for a brief moment. He then regained hisposure.

    ¡°Lord Magician, sir?¡±

    No response.

    He slowly looked around. There were his men, all shock or terrified. The old driver looked happy for surviving that attack, while Margot desperately called for help under the restraint of her captors.

    ¡°Not them...¡±

    He looked at Dodoro in the end. This guy was the only one who ¡°didn¡¯t belong¡±. The idiot wasn¡¯t terrified of blood or violence at all. That smile never vanished.

    Maybe the man is a big deal who¡¯s pretending to be weak?

    When thinking about this, the bandit leader felt a chill crawling down his spine. He just mmed that man like he was bullying a chicken!

    He quickly asked his man to let go of Dodoro.

    ¡°Please forgive my offense, good sir.¡± While speaking, he pped his own face so hard that a tooth was knocked off.

    He knew the terrible powers of the supernaturals. Even if it were only a small possibility, he would act extremely careful.

    He made several more ps without getting any response.

    Dodoro was still in that same silly manner. Actually, Dodoro never lifted an eye at him.

    ¡°Did I get it wrong?¡± He searched around again.

    Hisckeys, as well as the driver and Margot, were all giving him strange stares for his self-imposed ps. He didn¡¯t mind it though¡ªif a supernatural were really here, he would willingly lose an arm or leg in exchange for his own life without any hesitation.

    The search yielded him nothing.

    He looked at Dodoro again. This man was the only one who looked ¡°strange¡±, even if it was in an idiotic way.

    He tried to observe Dodoro¡¯s expression, but he was confused by it. He might look rough and uncultured, but as someone who controlled thergest underground organization in Water Grasse¡ªthe Lone-Eye Brotherhood¡ªhe knew how to size up people and the small details about them.

    And he just noticed that Dodoro had been looking toward one direction, in a joyful mood.

    Someone¡¯s over there?

    He followed Dodoro¡¯s gaze and... didn¡¯t see anything for a moment.

    But soon enough, his brain sent him a warning.

    There!

    A male wearing a ck-and-white checkered overcoat and a hat with a smiling picture on it slowly materialized.

    And the fat bandit was sure there was nothing just a second ago.

    Under everyone¡¯s awestruck gaze, the intruder slowly took off his top hat and held it in front of his chest.

    ¡°Good day, gentlemen.¡±

 Chapter 343 - A Small Trick

    <h4>Chapter 343: A Small Trick</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The sudden visitor was wearing an unusual yet fine suit. His blond hair and blue eyes looked exceptionally well on that young and handsome face.

    From the way his hair was taken care of, to his mild smile and tidy dressing style, everything about him suggested strict noble protocols.

    This man slowly appeared out of nothing and walked into the crowd to join the carriage driver.

    The old man didn¡¯t know who hade, but he still thanked him. Meanwhile, Margot blushed a little when she saw the young gentleman walking past her.

    All the bandits tried to move away.

    In the end, the gentleman stopped in front of the scarred bandit leader.

    Even though he had no idea who this intruder was, the fat man was prepared to kneel down and beg for his life immediately. He was wondering if Leonrick sent someone here, which would exin why the young man saved that cart driver.

    Angor didn¡¯t really like the bandit leader¡¯s brutal and violent manners. However, he was in no mood to teach lessons. He simply used Hand of Spell to prevent the guy from kneeling.

    Next, under the shocked gaze of the fat bandit, Angor slowly took the ¡°Ring of Illusion¡± in his hand.

    No one dared make a move to stop Angor¡¯s action. Not a word was spoken.

    As everyone watched, Angor carefully examined the Ring of Illusion.

    It looked like an ordinary round ring decorated with a five-petaled flower, while a loose green gem was slotted in the middle of it.

    Everything suggested cheap materials. It wouldn¡¯t cost much among mortals¡ªabout several gold coins, at best.

    Angor gently moved the green gem. He closed his eyes to sense and quickly noticed that there was a single sand-like particle hidden under the gem which was used as a trigger.

    ¡°I see, a ring without any alchemy sense. The tiny nightmare stone scrap creates a small illusion around it.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t interested in something like this in the slightest, so he returned it to the scarred man, who had been staring at him with an expression of uncertainty. A nightmare stone was expensive, true. But something this small could not provide much nightmare energy.

    ¡°Mi-mister...?¡± the bandit stuttered. He hadn¡¯t found out why this young gentleman showed up yet.

    Then he was VERY scared to see the ¡°idiot¡± walking to the supernatural gentleman with a silly smile.

    <i>This is the reason?!</i>

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t know that he¡¯s with you, sir. Please forgive me.¡±

    Before Angor could ask the bandit where the ring came from, Margot somehow shook her captors off and rushed toward him.

    Perhaps she intentionally used too much strength or because of a stone on the ground, but as she approached, Margot suddenly tripped on her feet, which caused her to tumble toward Angor¡¯s chest while blushing.

    Angor nced her way.

    Under Margot¡¯s frightened gaze, he took one step back.

    Thud!

    Margot hugged mother earth, face-first, bringing up a small dust cloud around her.

    The woman looked up at Angor with a crying face. Her nose was bleeding badly.

    Angor made no response. Compared to this insignificant woman, he was actually more curious about the old carriage driver.

    ¡°Do you know who I am?? How could you do this to me!¡± Margot pouted.

    Even the other bandits rolled their eyes¡ª <i>something funny had gotten into this bitch¡¯s head?</i>

    Margot felt humiliated. This young visitor¡¯s manners told her that he had to be a noble from a n. How could a nobleman just sit idly while he watched the daughter of Count Leonrick crashed onto the ground with cold eyes?

    As the valuable girl highly protected by Leonrick, Margot had developed an arrogant and wayward temper. She was just screaming for her life a moment ago when faced with the bandits. Now that a possible court gentleman had shown up, she immediately put up her image as a well-respected ndy.

    Before she could say anything else though, the old driver quickly covered her mouth.

    ¡°Mydy is still young, good sir, please do not feel offended,¡± the old man groveled to Angor.

    Angor looked at the woman who seemed to be around the age of 18 and humphed. This woman was actually older than him. The old driver¡¯s apology just earned a minus score.

    Angor wouldn¡¯t offend or bully mortals like certain ck wizards. But he would never back down when someone tried him first.

    He snapped his fingers and injected a small trace of nightmare aura into Margot¡¯s brain.

    Margot grabbed her neck. ¡°Hmpf! Ummmph!¡±

    She pointed at Angor with widened eyes. She then held the old driver¡¯s arm as if she was asking for help. She tapped at her own neck and shook her head madly.

    Her driver quickly understood the situation and looked at Angor helplessly.

    ¡°Muted for ten days as a punishment,¡± Angor replied nonchntly.

    There was nothing wrong with Margot¡¯s throat. Angor simply used some nightmare aura to trick Margot¡¯s mind into believing that she had lost her voice. It was a new trick that Angor learned after reading <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain </i>carefully. He could now do something simr to the level-1 cantrip ¡°Mute¡± without actually using too much mana.

    The old driver epted it. Getting muted for ten days was a negligible punishment one could expect from a supernatural being. Margot was too reckless to treat a mighty supernatural like an ordinary nobleman.

    Next, Angor looked at the scarred bandit again.

    The fat man immediately tried to apologize again. His fear of Angor just grew worse after he witnessed Angor¡¯s amazing power.

    ¡°Dismiss the others. You,e with me.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to reveal his intention in public yet. The bandits¡¯ leader seemed to be a big shot scoundrel among the locals, which meant that he was the perfect guy to get information from.

    The fat bandit quickly grew restless. It seemed this gentleman wasn¡¯t going to mind the other bandits, which was good.

    He shivered a little when thinking about how one of his men was cut in half by Lord Magician just because the poor dude coughed a little for having a cold.

    He then wondered if this young one was the ¡°gentle¡± type. If not, Margot¡¯s previous behavior was enough to get her killed several times over.

    The bandit sighed for meeting such aplicated fate today. He canceled the illusion and ordered his men to leave with a serious look.

    ¡°Hold on,¡± Angor called.

    ¡°Sir-sir?¡± His heart skipped a beat. Did the young gentleman change his mind?

    Angor released some nightmare aura to cover the brotherhood bandits up. In the next second, these people all lost their focuses and walked back into the woods slowly.

    Their leader had no idea what Angor had done. Telling from their direction though, his men were returning to their hideout.

    Angor was only trying to find out whether he could manipte or erase these guys¡¯ memories.

    It turned out that he could only block their memories for a brief moment. He couldn¡¯t change or delete memories yet. He probably needed to study human brain structures and how different parts of a brain worked in order to achieve something better.

    With the other bandits dealt with, Angor continued to walk down the main road while Dodoro trotted behind him. The leader of the bandits hesitated a bit before he chose to follow behind Dodoro.

    Angor never paid any attention to the old driver and Margot again. The fat man, however, gave them onest nce before leaving.

    ¡°You can¡¯t always be so lucky...¡±

    The old driver watched as all the bandits vanished from sight and let out a deep breath.

    ¡°Lady Margot, I¡¯ve read a story from an ancient tome, that a small number of supernatural beings live their reclusive lives somewhere in this world. They can bend the rules of nature and exist for eternity. They are the keepers of preeminent human intellect. Normally, we won¡¯t run into them. But their great intelligence had spread upon many different worlds. ording to the tome, they are called ¡®wizards¡¯.

    ¡°That young man did something to seal your voice. I think the book mentioned a simr strength like that. If he is a real wizard, he needs only a flicker of mind to overturn Water Grasse¡ªno, the entire Zeal Dominion.

    ¡°They are strong. But their long lives have chipped away most of their conscience. Lady Margot, you weren¡¯t thinking clearly enough. No one would be able to help you had he wished to take your life.¡±

    Margot finally thought over what just happened and began to tremble badly.

    The old driver nodded. As Margot¡¯s butler, he said what he could.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± he said as he assisted Margot to stand up. ¡°We can¡¯t tarry here. Those bandits maye back again... Do pay attention to your surroundings from now on, Lady Margot. We made ast-minute decision of not bringing any guards, but ¡®Bloody Butcher¡¯ Baal happens to know. There must be a reason behind this.¡±

    Margot was a spoiled child, but she wasn¡¯t foolish. She quickly understood what her butler was trying to say.

    ¡°Also, the ¡®Lord Magician¡¯ mentioned by Baal must be another supernatural being. If someone like that wants to harm us... oh dear.¡±

 Chapter 344 - Zeal Dominion

    <strong>Chapter 344: Zeal Dominion</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The scarred bandit followed closely behind Dodoro, trembling a little.

    They didn¡¯t walk for very long yet. But to him, it was like walking on hot iron.

    He already thought about all possible fates he might meetter, all of which didn¡¯t end in happiness. All the scenarios suggested that he would die under a wizard¡¯s rage and be amon corpse hidden within the wilderness.

    It was only several minutes, and he had thought of many different ways of dying.

    He got such strong imagination that he suddenly lost it and began to cry on the spot before Angor could think of the right questions to ask.

    Confused, Angor spent some effort to learn what the bandit was thinking about.

    He felt it funny that this thug would act like a coward, but he decided to y along since the bandit¡¯s fear would make his job easier.

    ¡°I can spare your life, on the condition that youplete my orders... Or else-¡±

    ¡°Yes, YES! Anything I can do, I¡¯ll try my best!¡±

    As a merciless bandit, the fat man never expected Angor to show mercy. To him, what Angor meant was ¡°letting him live just for now¡±.

    And this meant there was still hope.

    ¡°Now get up, I have some questions.¡± Angor preferred not to see a greasy fat man weeping like a kid on the dirt with his eyes and nose running.

    He waited for the bandit to wipe his face clean before he asked, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±

    The bandit lowered his head carefully. ¡°Baal Faak, sir. Please just call me Baal.¡±

    Angor turned away and kept walking. ¡°I need to learn everything about this city, this nation, and the nations around.¡±

    Baal was taken aback a little. However, he didn¡¯t dare to question Angor¡¯s question, so he carefully tried to remember everything that he learned before.

    ¡°This is Boya Bay, sir. Boya Sea is the biggest ind sea in Zeal Dominion. There¡¯s a canal connecting it and the Heaven Sea, which is nearly a thousand kilometers away.¡±

    An ind sea?

    Angor tried and failed to remember anything called ¡°Heaven Sea¡± around Fey Continent. He only knew about Devil¡¯s Water, which he passed through when he was traveling to Fey Continent from Old Earth.

    I¡¯m not at Fey Continent?

    ¡°The city ahead is a vital economic base for foreign traders in Zeal Dominion. It¡¯s called Water Grasse, meaning ¡®pearl lodged in the middle of the bay¡¯. The Griffin n, one of the nine major supporters of the court, is now in charge of the city. The n master is Count Leonrick, and he¡¯s also the father of that woman.¡±

    Baal noticed that Angor did not change his expression, and he felt relieved. It looked like this young gentleman didn¡¯te from the Griffin n.

    ¡°Water Grasse is a trading city that is home to merchants from all over the world, but it is also an exporter of raw materials...¡±

    Baal observed Angor carefully while he exined. Using his experience at reading people, he noticed that Angor was more interested in geographical information, so he began to choose his words carefully.

    Angor stopped Baal when they almost reached the city gate of Water Grasse.

    As Angor expected, Baal had good knowledge about this city and its surrounding areas. He was pretty surprised to notice that this bandit was even well-informed of the situations between different nations as well. He even learned some fishy business deals thatmon citizens shouldn¡¯t know.

    Angor took a moment to arrange what he had heard.

    So, the nation was called Zeal Dominion, a ce still in its initial and prosperous stage. It was only 900 years since the very first court was established, and they remained rtively neutral and peaceful since then. The city in front of them was the secondrgest city and themercial center of Zeal Dominion¡ªWater Grasse.

    Zeal Dominion was bordered by two other countries bynd and another ind country by sea. However, Angor had never heard of any of the names before, and Baal couldn¡¯t tell him anything about Fey Continent.

    Angor couldn¡¯t determine his current location yet. For one, Fey Continent was HUGE, and he never took the effort to memorize the map of it.

    It seemed that he had to have a little chat with that ¡°Magician¡±.

    ording to Baal, the entire Water Grasse was upied by mortals who had never witnessed any supernatural-rted concepts in their lives. As the leader of the bandits, who lurked around in the city, Baal only heard some small rumors and never actually met one before. Magician was the only one he had ever encountered. He knew nothing about Magician¡¯s origin. Magician came to him because of a plot in which they had to kidnap Leonrick¡¯s daughter, Margot.

    Baal didn¡¯t know why Magician wanted Margot though. The mysterious figure only gave him the Ring of Illusion to assist his mission.

    Judging from Baal¡¯s description, Magician usually wore a silver half-mask, and Baal couldn¡¯t tell Magician¡¯s age. Also, Magician had a really bad and easy-to-trigger temper. That man would start ughtering whenever he felt discontent in any way. Many of Baal¡¯sckeys became victims.

    Also, Baal¡¯s men died of ¡°amon de wielded by hand¡±. To Angor, this meant ¡°Magician¡± was only a low-leveled apprentice. Real wizards would never sh people in such an old-fashioned way.

    This also meant Angor didn¡¯t need to worry too much. He could always escape from an apprentice if both he and Toby failed in a fight. He also had two parasites in his Nightmare Domain, which could affect unwary wizards. He had no reason to fear a mere apprentice.

    Angor nned to go and meet this ¡°Magician¡± figure. Maybe he could learn something more useful.

    ...

    Unlike the simple gate of Midnight Sovereign, which only served as the city¡¯s protection, the city gate of Water Grasse was established as a toll station.

    They had such ¡°gates¡± on the seaways too. The station was responsible for issuing temporary passes to visitors, which only cost some coins. Anyone who wished to stay in the city longer would have to ask for a residence permit from the government hall.

    With the help of a local mafia, Angor had no trouble getting a pass. He then lowered his top hat and activated Infinite Reticence to blend into the crowd.

    Water Grasse was more prosperous than he had imagined. Compared to the rough-natured Subterrians in Midnight Sovereign, the citizens here were a lot more friendly. Apart from peaceful passers-by, he would asionally see stray cats with obviously full stomachs enjoying the sunlight. The streets were clean and tidy. This meant the people in the city quite enjoyed their lives, and the government of Water Grasse was pretty decent.

    Following Baal, Angor came to a port-like public boat station.

    ¡°I have a house in Bay District. You can stay there, sir, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    When he mentioned ¡°Bay District¡±, Baal looked pretty proud. Every city had different ces for rich people and poverty-stricken ones. Bay District was the ¡°rich area¡± for Water Grasse.

    The area sat on top of the Boya Sea.

    Previously, Angor saw a city called ¡°Venice¡± in a movie, and the Bay District of Water Grasse reminded him of it.

    Despite its location, Bay District looked more thriving than thend. Countless beautiful skyscrapers scattered about the ce, while all types of shops and canals ran between.

    Riding on a small boat looked fun andfy. Angor chose a boat shaped like a crescent moon. He then slowly headed for Bay District while he enjoyed the salty sea breeze.

    ...

    In the central area of Water Grasse, there was a building decorated by a number of white clinical gs.

    A middle-aged male wearing a blue and white striped robe walked into a room.

    ¡°Count Leonrick, sir!¡± a silver-haired elder in gentleman suit addressed the visitor.

    This was the carriage driver that Angor met earlier, while the ¡°Count¡± was the man in charge of Water Grasse, Leonrick.

    ¡°Margot was assaulted by Lone-Eye Brotherhood? How dare them! I guess Baal has lived long enough!¡± Count Leonrick bellowed. He then quickly put up a worried look and asked, ¡°Is Margot alright?¡±

    ¡°Thedy¡¯s fine. She only has a scratch from falling down the vehicle. But...¡±

    Leonrick saw his daughter sitting in the hospital hall instead of lying in bed. The girl seemed to be thinking about something.

    When Leonrick approached her, Margot noticed her father and instantly broke into tears.

    Leonrick patted her on the back tofort her, but he soon noticed something strange.

    Margot was crying badly, but she couldn¡¯t speak a word!

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Margot? Oh, please don¡¯t scare your father. Talk to me!¡±

    Margot only shook her head non-stop.

    ¡°You said she only had a scratch, Thuru! Why can¡¯t she talk?!¡± Leonrick gazed at the old man in a rage.

    Thuru sighed. ¡°It wasn¡¯t the Brotherhood who did it. It was... a strange young man.¡±

    ¡°A strange young man?¡±

    ¡°I have reasons to believe, sir, that he is... a wizard, as mentioned in the legends.¡±

 Chapter 345 - Magician

    Chapter 345: Magician

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    A night without any starlight.

    The lone moon shone in the sky like a giant jade dish, acting as the only noticeable object in this dark night.

    Several palm-sized shadows swiftly leaped through the sky. Even when they moved directly under the bright moon, there was only faint ck mist visible, along with eerie giggles.

    Inside the Golden Cross Academy of Medicine in Water Grasse, Leonrick stayed with his daughter.

    The count¡¯s attention was suddenly distracted by the sound of the rustling leaves outside the window. He somehow felt great uneasiness growing in his mind.

    He thought he saw something brushing past the window at great speed, but on careful observation, nothing could be seen. Leonrick kept watching the window and didn¡¯t register anything else apart from the swaying tree branches.

    He rubbed his temple. Maybe Thuru¡¯s words stressed his mind too much?

    It totally should... It was a great wizard they were talking about.

    Tomon folks, wizards only belonged to tales and legends. But as the n master of Griffin, Leonrick knew much more, including the true existence of wizards. Three hundred years ago, the queen of Zeal Dominion tried to study wizardry, and sheter vanished for some reason. Records said that she died in her pce. However, a rumor passed down among the Griffins told them that the queen had left Zeal Dominion in pursuit of immortality.

    Leonrick himself never saw a real wizard before, but he did read a lot about them. When he was young, he had thought about bing one as well.

    Unfortunately, he had never found a chance to be one.

    ¡°Is it really?¡± Leonrick watched the moon and mumbled. ¡°If Thuru spoke of the truth, Margot should never...¡±

    He then sighed and said, ¡°So be it. It has already happened, and we have to make it right.¡±

    The man wouldn¡¯t be too harsh on his own daughter even if she made a huge mistake.

    ¡°And who is ¡®Magician¡¯? If only we can capture Baal and ask him about it...¡±

    But he knew they could not offend Baal yet. The informants of his n already told him that the young wizard had taken residence in Baal¡¯s mansion.

    How in the world did that thug sweet-talk the wizard into not killing him?

    The sound of footsteps interrupted his thought. Thuru entered the room.

    ¡°Why is it so noisy outside?¡± Leonrick asked.

    Thuru looked really worried. ¡°Count Leonrick, sir... It¡¯s that strange disease. We just got another two victims. They were the director and doctors who were running in the hallway.¡±

    ¡°Another two? Do we have a hundred affected yet?¡±

    ¡°Exactly a hundred of them, sir.¡±

    Leonrick rubbed his hair in irritation. Why different incidents had to happen at the same time?!

    ¡°Anyhow, since I¡¯m the one managing Water Grasse... Fine, I¡¯ll go check them out. You stay here with Margot.¡±

    ...

    Somewhere far away, Angor was also watching the bright moon. However, he was looking at the moon¡¯s reflection in the water, and not the moon itself.

    The mansion gate was met by a water canal, while the moon ced its beautiful avatar in the water. The scenery looked extremely gentle and tranquil as the mild breeze asionally shifted the mirrored moon.

    Angor was paddling his boat slowly as he admired two moons at the same time.

    He stopped when the moon moved just above his head.

    He was right at the gap between two giant buildings, which was another narrow canal. When he moved his boat inside, he saw beggars and homeless people sat at various corners as they trembled in their tattered rags.

    When Angor passed through, a beggar suddenly looked up and picked up a stringed cup phone. ¡°My lord, the target¡¯s here.¡±

    The beggar spoke in a really small voice. However, since Angor had been using his spirit feelers to sense the surroundings, he easily heard the man¡¯s words.

    ¡°A string phone? Looks like their ¡®lord¡¯ isn¡¯t a big deal.¡±

    There were useful voice transmission spells which were all level-1 cantrips. Maybe Magician was worse than he expected.

    Angor was traveling at night just to meet Magician. With the help of Baal, Magician agreed to the meeting, on the condition that he would be the one to decide on the time and ce.

    Angor didn¡¯t protest. He was the one seeking information, and he should at least show some respect.

    Angor traveled downstream and stopped in front of an iron which stopped all boats from advancing. There was an inconspicuous door on one side of the wall.

    He left his boat and pushed it open. There were stairs leading downward, as well as several oilmps that lit the small passage.

    After walking for about one minute, Angor came to an ordinary-looking bronze door at the end of the stairs. He estimated that he was now about 10 meters below the water surface.

    The door was left open, which allowed him to look inside.

    A man, who was wearing a standard wizard robe, was sitting at the main seat beside a long table. There was no one else in sight.

    But Angor sensed breathinging from the dark corners.

    Angor had expected the Magician to set up a trap or something, but he was disappointed.

    There were only mortals that were hiding in the dark. To be precise, they were formal knights who knew how to fight.

    But it was meaningless.

    As for Magician himself... Angor didn¡¯t attempt to scan the man¡¯s power recklessly. He only lowered his top hat a little and sat down at the opposite end.

    He and Magician were now separated by the five-meter-long table. There were tea, snacks, candles, and flower pots arranged on it.

    ¡°Good evening, Mister Magician,¡± Angor said as he removed his hat and put it on the table.

    Magician looked at the smiling face icon on the top hat and suddenly got a feeling that he was being mocked at.

    ¡°How may I call you, sir?¡± he asked in a low, gruff voice.

    Angor inspected the mask on Magician¡¯s face. ¡°You can call me ¡®Mask¡¯, mister.¡±

    ¡°Mister Mask?¡± Magician chuckled. It was so obvious that the young boy made that up, but it didn¡¯t matter.

    Magician never managed to see through the boy¡¯sposure. He had been keeping an eye since the boy in front of him left Baal¡¯s mansion, and everything looked fine. Yet everything also contained something indescribable and... fishy, just like the strange smiling mark on that top hat, which only made him feel disturbed.

    ¡°Baal told me that you wanted to speak to me, Mister Mask?¡± He would get down to business as soon as he could.

    Angor smiled brightly. ¡°I¡¯m new in this city. I hope to learn if there are any wizard groups or organizations nearby. This is so that I can avoid offending them by ident. Maybe even seek shelter from them.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reveal his goal. Exchanging information meant exchanging benefits. Acting too hastily by exposing his intention meant losing the upper hand. By ¡°beating around the bush¡±, he would appear more friendly and establish a better conversation.

    Magician hesitated. ¡°There is no wizard organization around Water Grasse... or rather, I¡¯ve never heard of anything like that in the entire court or the nations nearby. If there is, I¡¯d have gone to them seeking knowledge already.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Angor rolled his eyes a little. ¡°You self-educated yourself too, Mister Magician?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I learned wizardry by ident, and I only began tomunicate with someone alike recently.¡±

    Angor was now sure that Magician was only a level-1 apprentice who happened to get his hands on a channeling method book. And unless he was extremely lucky or was suitable to study the channeling method, this man was likely to stay at the same level for the rest of his life.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor pretended to be surprised and worried. ¡°Do you know the closest wizards I can get to, sir? I¡¯ve reached a bottleneck which stopped me from learning any spells or meditation, so I really need someone to teach me properly. This is why I left the woods and came here.¡±

    Angor meant to tell Magician that he dide from the forest and that he wished to interact with wizards. It was both true and false.

    Magician shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Angor observed him carefully, but he didn¡¯t find any trace of lies. The question wasn¡¯t worth a lie anyway.

    He sighed a little. This was his best chance to learn something about his situation, and he failed.

    It was totally expected though. Just from Magician¡¯s getup, he could tell that this man was only a random lucky guy who learned how to begin as a supernatural, but he didn¡¯t have the necessary potentials.

    ¡°Sir, you mentioned that you talked with simr wizards before, right? Are any of them well-informed of thend around here?¡± Angor didn¡¯t want to give up yet.

    Magician considered for a moment before he answered, ¡°No. They are scattered across several different countries nearby, and I think we all share simr circumstances.¡±

    Angor sighed again. Maybe he should check the court next? At least the ruler of such a ce would know something about wizards.

    Magician suddenly said, ¡°Wait. Perhaps there is such an individual who can tell you something.¡±

 Chapter 346 - Invitation From the Count

    Chapter 346: Invitation From the Count

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor returned to his residence and thought it over.

    The ¡°individual with information¡± mentioned by Magician wasn¡¯t here. It was a powerful and mysterious figure, who shouldn¡¯t be an acquaintance of someone like Magician. ording to Magician, ever since he began attending the gathering of supernatural beings two years ago, that mysterious man would show up every time. And each time he spoke, the other guests would learn something new.

    Also, the Ring of Illusion that Magician gave Baal also came from that man.

    People didn¡¯t use their real names during the meetings. They called that man ¡°Shadow¡±.

    The next supernatural meeting was nned around the beginning of Month of Freezing Earth, which was almost a month away. The spot was set near Water Grasse. Magician agreed to introduce Angor to those people, on condition that Angor could provide something in return; it could either be knowledge or other useful information.

    Angor didn¡¯t agree right away. He would think about it.

    As a ¡°self-educated supernatural¡±, Magician also knew the value of knowledge, so he didn¡¯t push Angor. Amunity gathering was the only way to obtain new knowledge for someone like them.

    This was why they usually held such meetings often, which was about twice every year. It helped them to conclude their own learnings and obtain more.

    Angor, as an apprentice from a decent organization who owned a lot of books, didn¡¯t need such help from amateurs.

    He knew some cheap knowledge that he could use as payment, but he still asked for some time to consider it.

    He nned to go to the capital of Zeal Dominion. If he agreed too early, he would have to wait in Water Grasse and dy his n.

    After some careful consideration, he still decided to ept Magician¡¯s offer for now.

    It meant he needed to spend some time in Water Grasse.

    He didn¡¯t idle his time away. He still continued his studies diligently, day and night. He almost learned everything that he could about nightmare illusions, but there were many more ultist cantrips that he still needed, such as Voice Transmission, Heal... These were all necessary cantrips for a level-1 apprentice, and he had not looked into them even though he was already level-2.

    He enjoyed theing days. The cuisine in Water Grasse was decent, and the lifestyle was slow and easy, without any potential hostile forces plotting against the country. Angor had not enjoyed such a rxed life in a while.

    Magician would sometimes pay him a visit. And as they interacted more, Angor realized that this figure did not value people¡¯s lives, just like how Baal described.

    Magician wouldn¡¯t venture out and ughter people yet. But Angor noticed that Magician really hated Zeal Dominion for some reason.

    Magician even suggested that he would start digging from the base of Zeal Dominion and slowly worked his way up to break down their supporting ns and families. He would then slowly take over the economy points and authorities until he overturned the court as a whole.

    Without providing his own opinions, Angor only smiled as he listened to those words. It was probably another poor man who was betrayed by his nation. To Angor, Zeal Dominion was only his temporary touring spot, and he didn¡¯t intend to get involved in anything.

    He simply mentioned to Magician that a true wizard should not intervene with the mortal world too much, but Magician only grinned wickedly in response.

    Once Magician made sure that Angor wasn¡¯t going to settle down at Zeal Dominion or get acquainted with anyone, he began to visit less.

    And Angor was d that he didn¡¯t have to speak to Magician too much. He always found it difficult tomunicate with people who shared different ideas with him.

    Compared to showing awkward courtesy, Angor preferred to study in solitude.

    His study went slowly. Unlike level-0 cantrips, level-1 cantrips required certain knowledge and expertise to wield.

    For example, he had to study sound waves in order to use Voice Transmission. He could receive such teaching from the sses held in Tree Spirit Garden. Now, however, he had to rely on himself.

    This was also the reason why a self-educated amateur like Magician couldn¡¯t learn many cantrips. They needed frequent meet-ups to make it up.

    Angor only knew sound-wave-rted insight from Earth, and he wasn¡¯t sure if things worked the same in the wizarding world. He had to proceed slowly and go over lots of trials and errors.

    Days quickly went away as he immersed himself in his experiments.

    One weekter, he rubbed his aching temples and looked up from his desk.

    After working on countless calctions and data demonstrations, he concluded that the subject of acoustic waves was slightly different in the two civilizations. In the wizarding world, where the atmosphere was full of primal mana, wizards could use this energy to change the speed of sound in certain mediums. And this had greatly contradicted the knowledge system of Earth.

    However, Jon already mentioned that certain physical constants in this world appeared to be different from those on Earth.

    The other basic applications of sound waves were still the same, but they might yield different results.

    To learn Voice Transmission, Angor only needed some very basic proficiency in the subject. And he already knew enough.

    Next was to look into the foundation of this cantrip.

    It needed much time, so Angor nned to put it aside for now. He wished to solve the problems regarding Dodoro and Pocratee first.

    He wasn¡¯t going to pursue the history and memories of Dodoro, but he was still concerned about Pocratee. Those rainbow dragonflies seemed to be harmless to him for now. However, they could be a great threat in the future.

    Also, the ne passageway in Pocratee had to be connected to the Nightmare Realm as well. ording to Sunders, it was hopeless to actually travel to the Nightmare Realm without a coordinate. But... a tunnel like that was like a time bomb.

    Angor wanted to search for information about Pocratee, just in case. And he already did it by presenting the serpent mark to Baal while asking the thug to investigate it in his ce.

    While waiting for Baal, Angor returned his attention to Dodoro again.

    How to deal with this guy?

    Previously, he thought about dropping him off somewhere in this city. But... Dodoro held too many secrets. How could a mortal survive for a thousand years? Angor hoped he could learn something to help his brother and Jon to achieve the same thing.

    He didn¡¯t know how to do it, but back in Brute Cavern, there had to be someone who could do it.

    Angor sighed and decided to keep Dodoro for now... unless something forced him to give Dodoro up.

    And since he would spend more time with Dodoro, he had to think about something else, such as how to ¡°educate¡± him.

    Dodoro¡¯s mind seemed innocent and empty, like a child. It was up to Angor on how to ¡°shape¡± Dodoro¡¯s character.

    Before all that, however, the least that Dodoro should know was to learn how tomunicate with people.

    Angor had to find a way to teach Dodoro about basic human senses. He nned to ask Baal whether there were such schools in Water Grasseter.

    However, he wasn¡¯t going to let Baal decide on which teacher they should ask. A thug would only find more trouble.

    ...

    Someone knocked on the door at noon.

    When Angor opened the door, he was surprised to find someone he didn¡¯t know standing outside.

    It was a middle-aged man, who was wearing a neat ck robe. The man was obviously trying to remain calm, but his terrified expression gave him out.

    ¡°Who are you, and why are you here?¡± Angor asked first after the visitor remained silent for quite a while.

    The visitor tried not to tremble too openly, and while he was still shivering, he spoke in the best manner he could manage.

    ¡°Sir-sir, I-I-I am the butler of Count Leonrick. Since he heard that a great wizard has visited Water Grasse, he would like to invite you to join him for a friendly talk.¡±

    With a trembling arm, the butler handed Angor a gold-stamped invitation letter.

    Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Count? You mean Leonrick?¡±

    Apart from Baal, Magician also mentioned Leonrick multiple times¡ªfuriously¡ªand so, Angor knew well about that name.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the butler replied as he lowered his head.

    Angor watched the man sweating badly and frowned. Am I so scary?

    ¡°I see. You can go now.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t give the man a definite answer, but the butler was very d he had finished his delivery unharmed and showed the wizard their sincerity.

    After the visitor was gone, Angor opened up the letter.

    Leonrick had invited him to a dinner party that was to be held the day after tomorrow. The letter explicitly mentioned that there would be no other guests.

    Angor smiled at Leonrick¡¯s smart move.

    Compared to Magician, Angor was actually interested in Leonrick. He believed Leonrick to be a capable leader since Water Grasse was such a flourishing and peaceful ce.

    He decided to ept the invitation.

    It wasn¡¯t wise to put all bet on that ¡°Shadow¡± entity. Leonrick was the leader of the city as well as the master of a n that held power for centuries. That man had to know a lot of things.

 Chapter 347 - Dinner Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 347: Dinner Meeting</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Baal came to the manor shortly after the butler¡¯s departure.

    ¡°I sent someone to ask for the biggest-a*s schr they can find. But nobody can tell us anything about that ¡®Pocratee¡¯ ce. Not even the seasoned professors in those academies.

    ¡°But sir, I wouldn¡¯t havee here empty-handed, heh heh. One of my men saw this snake thing somewhere the other day, so he told me. Following his lead, I finally got someone.¡±

    Baal boasted his little merit and continued his story.

    Theckey he mentioned saw the exact ¡°serpent on rod¡± picture from somewhere... or at least, a very simr picture.

    After proceeding from there, Baal found a certain woman. The woman had a small clinic whose g showed that emblem on it. ording to her, it was her grandfather who saw the emblem from an ancient book in the central library. It seemed that the emblem often appeared in medicine-rted files, probably because there were doctors who considered it as certain totem of belief. The old man found it interesting and decided to keep the emblem, which was somehow passed down.

    ¡°Too bad her old man kicked it some years ago, and she can¡¯t remember which book has that emblem. I¡¯ve sent my men to the library, sir, and they didn¡¯t find anything like that yet. Trust me; we¡¯ve gone through every medical book. I think it¡¯s either lost or sealed away inside the secured section for the really old tomes,¡± Baal said as he rubbed his chin. ¡°It¡¯s probably thetter. I mean, who the heck wants to steal a medical book?¡±

    ¡°What old section?¡± Angor noticed something interesting.

    ¡°It¡¯s a locked chamber where they preserved the old books, located under the central library. No one gets inside without the director¡¯s approval,¡± Baal said. He shook his head. ¡°F*ck those old nutheads. I tried, sir, and they just wouldn¡¯t let me in.¡±

    Angor nodded. He understood that old schrs tended to insist on certain disciplines. It was a stubborn but effective method in the preservation of human wisdom.

    ¡°I see. You can leave this matter,¡± Angor said, and he decided to look into this matter by himselfter. ¡°Ahem, another question. Do you know any famous teachers that teach young children in Water Grasse?¡±

    Baal couldn¡¯t answer him right away. Water Grasse was a giant city with tons of different professionals, and teachers for children were usually seen as someone insignificant, so Baal never paid attention to them.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go ask around right away, sir.¡±

    ...

    Baal was pretty fast. Soon enough, he returned again and handed Angor a small booklet, which contained the names of all the teachers of several famous elementary schools in the city.

    Angor opened it and noticed there were even retired teachers in the book.

    He asked Baal to leave so that he could carefully look through the names.

    Most schools were still in sessions, and he didn¡¯t want to interrupt anyone, so he chose to search among the retired ones.

    After checking their career reviews, he shortlisted a number of names as well as their addresses. He then left Bay District.

    When the dusk arrived, Angor returned to the mansion with a gentle-tempered olddy, who was wearing a pale blue skirt.

    Her name was Trusan. Angor chose her after carefulparison, and he found her to be a kind-natured and neutral-minded woman with a regr lifestyle. She was also the only former teacher who was willing to ept a full-time job currently.

    After arranging Trusan¡¯s lodging, Angor took her to Dodoro.

    ¡°As I said, Dodoro has forgotten almost everything. Common knowledge, how tomunicate... Nothing¡¯s left. Apart from looking and walking like a man, he¡¯s basically a newborn kid. So... please.¡±

    Trusan looked at Dodoro, who was bigger than herself. She then put up a worried look. She was too old to restrict the behaviors of a naughty kid.

    However, she gradually rxed when she noticed the innocent gaze that came from Dodoro¡¯s eyes.

    She had educated too many children in her lifetime. Children with various characters. She knew how to read them through their eyes and apply her tactic ordingly.

    Yet she never saw such a pair of innocuous and untainted eyes. Just watching Dodoro¡¯s expression made her feel safe and calm.

    It would be a great pity if such a ¡°clean¡± soul remained uneducated.

    ¡°Rest assured. I¡¯ll do my best,¡± Trusan said as she smiled sincerely.

    Angor nodded. ¡°I will not interfere with your sessions. You may tell him, but do not force him to learn some of the extreme concepts, and don¡¯t trigger his forgotten memory, as it might cause him secondary trauma. As for the rest, you¡¯re free to do whatever you find proper.

    ¡°How to paint this fresh paper is up to you.¡±

    ...

    Trusan never held any fixed sses. Instead, she took Dodoro out, and they did many different things, such as sightseeing in the wilderness, embracing nature, and having pics. In the meantime, she also taught Dodoro the necessary knowledge along the way.

    She asionally brought Dodoro into the bustling city and told him about the stories of mankind and their daily lives. Even though Dodoro never showed many reactions, Trusan kept telling her stories as if she were Dodoro¡¯s true grandmother who never got tired. The stories sounded redundant sometimes, but they did a perfect job in teaching Dodoro how to use words correctly.

    Once, Angor followed behind Trusan for an entire day while using Infinite Reticence. He was content with her means of teaching, so he decided to leave the pair be. He would only talk with Trusan about her progress during dinner.

    The day grew darker.

    Inside arge manor located at the outskirts of Water Grasse, Leonrick paced back and forth anxiously. He would sip some wine every now and then before he started to pace around again.

    His daughter, Margot, sat in front of the table while she held her chin, seemingly thinking about something.

    This was what the mistress of the count¡¯s manor, Cyndia, saw when she came to the great hall.

    She looked at the butler who was in charge of serving wine. ¡°How long have they been like this?¡±

    The butler lifted two fingers and whispered, ¡°Two hours, mydy.¡±

    Cyndia scoffed at Margot and joined Leonrick. ¡°What are you worrying about? He epted your letter. Whether hees or not, we¡¯ve sent our regard. Besides, it¡¯s not time yet.¡±

    Leonrick moaned. ¡°You don¡¯t understand. If he¡¯s really a wizard, the whole Zeal Dominion won¡¯t stop him from doing something terrible.¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t do anything, right? You worry yourself,¡± Cyndia said as she dragged Leonrick to a seat. ¡°Stop thinking nonsense and wait. We can¡¯t let that mister see you drinking while walking around like a fool.¡±

    Leonrick nodded. He surely didn¡¯t want to smell like alcohol in front of a great being.

    But he couldn¡¯t help it!

    A standing clock announced that it was 8 o¡¯clock in the evening, which meant it was half an hour away from the time indicated on the invitation letter. ording to conventions, guests would usually arrive at such a time.

    <i>That sir is probably on his way... if he means toe. </i>Leonrick thought.

    A manor guard entered through the wooden door of the hall.

    ¡°My lord, the guest is here.¡±

    ¡°He is?¡±

    ¡°He is!¡±

    Leonrick and his daughter eximed at the same time, but with different emotions¡ªsurprise and joy.

    Cyndia and Leonrick stared at Margot.

    ¡°I-I-I just¡ª¡±

    ¡°Stop,¡± Leonrick interrupted his daughter. ¡°Once you apologize to our guest properly, get back to your room and stay inside.¡±

    Margot looked about to cry. ¡°But father! What do you mean? It¡¯s not polite to leave in the middle of dinner!¡± She winked at Cyndia whileining.

    Usually, Cyndia would help her daughter in different situations. Today, however, she chose to side with her husband.

    Margot¡¯s intention was so obvious in the eyes of this couple. It was natural for a young girl to pursue apanion. But... this was not a properpanion!

    She had spent a week ¡°muted¡±, and she still hadn¡¯t learned how to read the situation!

    Before Margot could protest further, they heard footsteps approaching.

    A team of knights walked inside, and they split into two lines. They ced their spears down on the floor in unison, removed their helmets, and went down on one knee.

    As a visitor walked into the hall, they bowed down their heads one after the other.

    A way of salutation that was only meant for honored guests.

    Between the two lines of knights, a young man with ck-and-white checkered overcoat walked in with steady steps.

 Chapter 348 - Strange Disease

    <h4>Chapter 348: Strange Disease</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Leonrick quickly walked up. He invited Angor to take a seat while he introduced himself.

    Angor looked around the table. Cyndia nodded politely and epted Angor¡¯s inquiring gaze, while Margot blushed and lowered her head.

    Leonrick pointed to the middle-ageddy to his right. ¡°This is my wife, Cyndia.¡±

    Next, he moved his finger to Margot and sighed a little. ¡°What are you doing, Margot? Come and apologize to sir.¡±

    Margot stood up and did a curtsy, bashfully. ¡°Sir,st time I-¡±

    Angor looked away from her and addressed Leonrick. ¡°No need. I¡¯ve already punished her, so let¡¯s settle it there.¡±

    Margot froze in the middle of her gesture.

    She had prepared passionate speeches and confessions, but at this moment, she only managed to blush. She couldn¡¯t get any of them out of her lips.

    Because of Angor¡¯s disregard toward her.

    Skillfully, Angor sat down on the first ¡°guest of honor¡± seat.

    ¡°How may I address you, sir?¡± Leonrick also sat down and spoke carefully, taking great caution with every word.

    Angor thought about how he used a fake name in front of Magician and decided to keep it that way.

    ¡°Call me ¡®Mask¡¯.¡±

    Using one¡¯s codename instead of a real name in such a situation was very rude. However, Leonrick didn¡¯t show any discontent. ¡°Mister Mask it is. It¡¯s so kind of you to forgive Margot¡¯s mishap the other day. As her father, I still feel regretful about it, so I want to apologize to you properly this time.¡±

    Leonrick downed a ss of wine.

    Angor did not stop Leonrick¡¯s attempt this time, and Margot felt really bad about it.

    When Leonrick put down his ss, Angor finally put up a fake smile. ¡°I ept your apology.¡±

    Everyone else was a bit surprised. Didn¡¯t this young man just say ¡°the matter was settled¡±?

    Leonrick considered a while and realized that Angor was referring to his own fault as a father, which was failing to teach proper manners to his daughter. Angor had forgiven Margot¡¯s behavior, but he just epted Leonrick¡¯s words of atonement.

    Everyone on the scene was quick enough to register Angor¡¯s hint. Margot felt her eyes swelling and tried to speak, but her mother quickly pressed her legs down and gave her a warning nce before smiling at Angor again.

    ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, sir,¡± Cyndia said. ¡°Margot is my only child, and I have been too easy on her. From now on, I¡¯ll ask the harshest etiquette instructor to lecture her until she changes her waypletely.¡±

    It basically meant being grounded, which was disastrous for Margot who loved being free.

    Cyndia had been keeping her restrained by pressing her legs down below the table, and so, Margot could only nod helplessly.

    ¡°Let¡¯s stop it here. You didn¡¯t invite me here just to talk about this, right?¡± Angor didn¡¯t intend to waste his time by watching the family drama.

    When Angor held up his ss, Leonrick quickly winked at the butler.

    But Angor raised a hand to stop him. With a simple cantrip, the ss was filled with water.

    ¡°Alcohol disrupts one¡¯s mind. I prefer... water.¡±

    He was going to say ¡°tea¡±, but he feared that Leonrick would present him tea for real, which wasn¡¯t actually his favorite. He only enjoyed milk tea and not the strange fermented stuff loved by ordinary nobles.

    His little trick which created water out of thin air shocked everyone.

    Leonrick spent some time to regain hisposure. ¡°By inviting you, sir, I do have another matter that I wish to ask.¡±

    Angor simply looked at Leonrick while thetter continued to speak.

    Leonrick asked Cyndia to take Margot away first. He then ordered all the other people away as well. In the end, only the butler was left in the room with them.

    ¡°Is Mister Mask a... wizard, as told in legends?¡±

    Angor considered his words. He nned to ask Leonrick about wizard-rted information, and he didn¡¯t expect Leonrick to mention such a thing first.

    ¡°Of course, you don¡¯t have to tell me if you don¡¯t wish to. I¡¯m just curious.¡± Leonrick was terrified that he might have just bothered Angor.

    Angor smiled. ¡°Actually, I can tell you. But first, I want to know where you learned about wizards, Count Leonrick?¡±

    Leonrick didn¡¯t hesitate this time. ¡°This family has existed for nearly 900 years, and we have many secret records which contain information about wizardry. But... I have been regarding them as mere rumors.¡±

    ¡°Can I see those records?¡±

    Leonrick struggled with a decision. His family records documented many things that he didn¡¯t wish to share with an outsider, such as dirty business and unpublished deeds done by the court.

    ¡°I¡¯m indeed a wizard,¡± Angor said.

    He didn¡¯t tell Leonrick about the difference between wizards and apprentices. After all, they were all the same in the views of mortals.

    Leonrick nodded slightly and revealed some of his fear. ¡°I... never believed before. So wizards really exist.¡±

    ¡°Wizards don¡¯t usually interact with the mortal world, nor will they affect your lives so easily.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t really wish to break down Leonrick¡¯s senses by exining how wizards didn¡¯t offend mortals because they considered mortals as ants. Even the most wicked wizard would find it a waste of time to intervene with mortal folks.

    ¡°Mister Mask, I keep the family record of Griffin. ording to the rules, I shouldn¡¯t show them to a stranger. But if you do wish to read them, I can bring them to you,¡± Leonrick said as he tried his best to arrange his next words. ¡°Meanwhile, can I ask a favor, Mister Mask?¡±

    Leonrick believed that using his family records as payment to ask a wizard for a favor wasn¡¯t a really good deal. This mighty wizard could simply take anything he wanted by force.

    Leonrick felt his heart beating faster as Angor remained silent. He almost decided to give up and present the files to Angor as an apology.

    ¡°You may express yourself, and I¡¯ll listen,¡± Angor suddenly said.

    Leonrick¡¯s attempt reminded Angor of how he negotiated with Lotus, and at that time, he was in such an absolute disadvantage too.

    But still, there was no reason for him to agree right away.

    Leonrick found this to be a great and pleasant surprise, and he quickly exined what was on his mind.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to ask for my own gain, sir,¡± Leonrick said with a sigh. ¡°On the outside, Water Grasse is a bright and prosperous city. Yet as the true manager of it, I know there are too many things that are hidden in the dark, which I have no control over. I¡¯m hoping to ask you for help, to deal with these unreachable troubles.¡±

    ¡°You mean underground offenders? Baal?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. Every city and vige should and must have its own dark side. Baal isn¡¯t my concern at all.¡±

    ¡°Then... Magician?¡±

    Leonrick shook his head. ¡°I do not have the courage to ask you to go after another wizard. I¡¯m talking about something we mortals cannot solve, which might be easy for you.¡±

    ¡°Something mortals cannot solve? Do tell.¡±

    ¡°It all started a year ago...¡±

    One year ago, a citizen of Water Grasse suddenly encountered a strange disease and was sent to the Golden Cross Academy of Medicine. He showed no particr symptoms at the beginning. But as time passed on, he grew weaker. First, it was his muscles. Then, he slowly lost the ability to talk. His eyes gradually lost the luster of emotion. In the end, he was only ¡°alive¡±. But that was about it¡ªnone of his other body functions worked, apart from basic reactions.

    Today, there were over a hundred patients that were hospitalized in the facility.

    ¡°All researchers in Golden Cross are searching for a cure. A family even offered their patient to us as a test subject. But a dissection test yielded no results¡ªeverything on him looked healthy. Can you help us with this, sir?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t expect such a request. If there wasn¡¯t any fishy business, then this Leonrick man was a really decent leader and an umon nobleman, especially after one considered how nobles usually treated their people.

    Angor basically knew nothing about curing diseases. He did learn some western and eastern medical theories, but he mostly had to rely on guesses to actually treat a patient. He did not back out though. After all, he hadn¡¯t even agreed to it yet.

    ¡°How can you tell if it¡¯s the special disease and not some othermon conditions?¡±

    ¡°Good point, sir. You noticed it so soon. We can tell because all of the patients share amon symptom¡ªthey¡¯ve all lost their shadows.¡±

 Chapter 349 - Margot is Down

    <h4>Chapter 349: Margot is Down</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>Shadows?</i>

    Angor was surprised. Turning into a living dead could still be caused by some kind of virus, but losing one¡¯s shadow was definitely something supernatural.

    No wonder Leonrick asked him.

    Before Angor could ask something else, he suddenly heard something.

    ¡°What was that?¡±

    ¡°Pardon me?¡± Leonrick seemed confused.

    ¡°Someone¡¯sughing?¡± Angor carefully listened and released his spirit feelers.

    With his strengthened senses, he heard the strangeughter more clearly. It sounded sharp and a little bit painful to his ears. It was as if he were listening to a metal scratching on something.

    ¡°Man... that sounds terrible.¡±

    Leonrick followed his example and paid attention. However, he didn¡¯t notice anything. He was wondering if this young wizard was doing a prank or if something really happened.

    There were footstepsing from the second floor. Leonrick looked up and saw Cyndia, who usually acted polite andposed, running down the stairs with a panicked look.

    ¡°Margot... Something¡¯s wrong with Margot!¡±

    ¡°What happened to her?¡± Leonrick yelled.

    Cyndia shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I was lecturing her, and she said I was rambling too much, then I felt faint. When I came to, I saw Margot lying on the floor. I can¡¯t wake her up!¡±

    Leonrick frowned. ¡°Calm down. Ask our guards to bring her to Golden Cross. I¡¯ll go after you once I¡¯m done talking with Mister Mask.¡±

    Cyndia looked between her husband and Angor. She then nodded.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me, Count Leonrick,¡± Angor suddenly said. ¡°Please go and check her out. By the way, thatughing I mentioned came from the second floor.¡±

    Leonrick felt his heart twitching. ¡°I... Yes, I¡¯ll go then. Should I ask the chefs to prepare a meal for you in the meantime?¡±

    ¡°No. I want to find out what just happened too. We should go together.¡±

    As an overprotective father, Leonrick usually would never allow another man into his daughter¡¯s room. Now, however, he didn¡¯t hesitate for one bit.

    ¡°Thank you, sir!¡±

    ¡°No need to. I¡¯ve no experience in healing. I¡¯m just... curious about that noise earlier.¡±

    They followed behind Cyndia. As they moved closer to their goal, Angor frowned because he could no longer hear theughter. He was sure it came straight from Margot¡¯s room one second ago.

    Behind a beautifully decorated door, Angor quickly saw the unconscious Margotying on the floor.

    Shey on the pink fur carpet, and her eyes were shut tight. Her face looked pale too, and her mouth was moving a little as she mumbled something. But when Angor listened closely, he only heard iprehensible murmurs.

    Then he looked around the exceptionally ¡°girly¡± room. It was too pink. The carpet was pink, the walls were pink, and even the furniture was painted in pink as well. There were also a number of plush toys and expensive-looking dolls ced around.

    However, the smiles on the dolls only looked creepy in such a situation.

    Leonrick checked Margot¡¯s face and sensed her heartbeat. He noticed his daughter¡¯s life wasn¡¯t in danger, but he was still worried. How was it possible that someone who looked energetic just a second ago suddenly went out cold like this?

    Instead of calling for his guards, Leonrick held Margot in his arms. ¡°I¡¯ll take her to Golden Cross.¡±

    ¡°Hold on,¡± Angor said. He grimaced as he said, ¡°Her shadow... It¡¯s gone.¡±

    He then pointed toward the floor.

    Leonrick looked down, and just as Angor said, the oilmp in the room failed to create any shadow of Margot. There was only the shadow of Leonrick who lifted his arms... but no Margot.

    Both Leonrick and Cyndia panicked. They looked at each other in disbelief before Cyndia slumped down and cried.

    Their own daughter had contracted an incurable disease that troubled even the most renowned medical professors.

    Cyndia already began to imagine how her daughter would turn into a ¡°living dead¡±.

    ¡°How... How did this happen... Why my daughter... Our only child...¡±

    She and Leonrick had been a loving and faithful couple. Losing Margot meant losing the root of their family!

    Leonrick quickly knelt down and pleaded.

    ¡°Mister Mask! My daughter... my daughter! Please help her, I beg of you!¡±

    Cyndia also realized that a legendary ¡°wizard¡± was with them. Like a drowning man who had just found a lifebuoy, she looked at Angor with great passion and... didn¡¯t say anything.

    Because she couldn¡¯t.

    Leonrick also found himself unable to speak all of sudden. More panic and fear quickly crept up his face.

    Angor lifted a finger in front of his lips and carefully sensed around the girl¡¯s room with his spirit.

    Abruptly, he gazed at the girl¡¯s bed, where a 3-heads-tall curly doll with a creepy smile was ced.

    One of the many toys in the room.

    ¡°Got you.¡± Angor¡¯s Hand of Spell was already out. In a blink of an eye, he pped the toy away.

    A small shadowy figure was exposed. It was hiding behind the toy earlier.

    The figure was about the size of a child¡¯s hand, which was around 10 centimeters long. It was too ck to present any recognizable feature. There was a pointy part on top of it, which looked like a head. Meanwhile, it was carrying a tiny gray sack behind its back, which had been shifting about, as if something alive was trying to get out.

    The tiny figure jumped and waved its limbs around after being found out. No matter how it moved, the small sack remained tightly on its back.

    Without giving it any time to react, a gray-feathered birdshed out from Angor¡¯s pocket and rushed at the ck figure immediately.

    The shadow jumped again and began to chant something in a strangenguage.

    It managed to create a small door that was onlyrge enough for itself to get through. Before Toby could get it, it jumped into the door and closed it.

    Toby failed to catch anything. The door vanished.

    Angor kept sensing and did not register any energy residue.

    ¡°Damn. I let it escaped so easily!¡±

    He calmed down and tried to recall what he just saw. That thing mostly looked human-ish. Maybe something that resembled humans. Yet he couldn¡¯t be sure.

    What he could determine was that the strangeughter had to have been made by that shadowy thing, since those chants sounded exactly the same.

    Angor sighed and looked around, only to find both Leonrick and Cyndia watching the ruckus with widened, terrified eyes. They seemed to want to talk, but they couldn¡¯t.

    Angor snapped his fingers and recovered the trace of the nightmare illusion that was hanging around the couple.

    ¡°I sensed something. I had to mute you both to ascertain its location. But I... still let it slip,¡± he exined.

    Leonrick gulped. ¡°Mi-Mister Mask, oh god, whatever was that thing? Did it do this to Margot?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know whether it¡¯s connected to the shadowless condition. But I assume it has something to do with it. There must be a reason for it to show up in your daughter¡¯s room at the moment your daughter fell ill.¡±

    He thought about the small sack. Could that thing contain the lost shadows?

    Leonrick looked down. Even if they learned about the true culprit, mortals couldn¡¯t do anything to something with obvious supernatural abilities.

    ¡°Can you save Margot, Mister Mask?¡± Cyndia tried to ask. Her eyes looked both desperate and hopeful.

    Angor moved closer and inspected Margot. It seemed her body was fine, and her soul was still intact.

    ¡°I do not know,¡± Angor said in the end.

    It wasn¡¯t a sure answer, but it was enough to break Cyndia¡¯sst hope. The woman sat on the floor and sobbed sadly.

    Angor looked at Leonrick next. This man looked equally sad, but at least he still retained his ability to reason.

    ¡°This is your request, right?¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s nothing I can do.¡±

    Leonrick smiled painfully. ¡°It... It¡¯s okay. I understand, sir.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t cure your daughter, but I still want to look into the small shadow. Can you show me the other patients?¡±

    Leonrick¡¯s eyes brightened up again, and he quickly nodded.

    ¡°But of course! Shall we go there immediately?¡±

 Chapter 350 - The Shadowless Epidemic

    <h4>Chapter 350: The Shadowless Epidemic</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Golden Cross Academy of Medicine was a renowned medical facility established over 300 years ago, during which it witnessed all types of serious ormon illnesses. But what happened tonight was the most shocking news to the hospital yet.

    Margot, the only daughter of Count Leonrick and the future princess of Water Grasse, had be another victim of the terrible disease called ¡°Shadowless¡±.

    All members of the academy moved once again. The directors of three departments brought nearly 200 professors to their HQ, along with two national-level doctors who had retired.

    Everyone gathered in the conference room to discuss how to treat Margot.

    As time went by, the discussion grew so heated as if a quarrel would begin at any moment.

    Angor observed in surprise as he learned more and more great insights from these professionals. He thought he could easily use his modern medical theories to surpass thesemon doctors. Yet he felt awkward when he found out that he had underestimated the intelligence of many great schrs.

    Unlike the outdated medical system in Goldspink Empire, the medical field of Water Grasse contained differentprehensive sections that applied practical medicine rather than blind faith and religious witchery. They almost looked exactly the same as the western medical practices that Angor learned from Jon.

    Angor was quickly convinced by the capability of true professionals. When a national-level doctor came and acted as their leader, these people began to reach advanced theories. However, they were still unconvinced that it was rted to a supernatural being.

    ¡°Come. Show me the patients,¡± Angor said as he looked at Leonrick beside him.

    Cyndia had gone to look after her daughter. Angor only asked to watch the conference out of curiosity, and he felt greatly satisfied.

    Leonrick asked his butler to go contact the director of the hospital. He then led Angor away.

    Their departure caused a brief halt to the conference as the doctors wondered who was that man in showy-looking overcoat.

    They all knew that the shadowless disease couldn¡¯t be cured right now. Their heated discussion was also a show to the count.

    And they had no idea why Count Leonrick acted so politely to the mysterious individual.

    When Leonrick¡¯s butler went to address their director, the other doctors began to chatter with each other.

    Hedrick, the HQ director of Golden Cross, frowned upon hearing the butler¡¯s request.

    The count wanted to see the shadowless patients? Why? Or... was it actually the overcoat man who wanted this?

    Hedrick grimaced as he thought about the possibility that the overcoat man was simply another curious official from Zeal Dominion. ¡°Those good-for-nothing fops!¡±

    But he still agreed to the request.

    Then, Hedrick turned to the vice director. ¡°Count Leonrick wishes to go to Shadowless Care Unit. You go and apany him for now. I¡¯ll join youter.¡±

    Hedrick didn¡¯t intentionally keep that confidential. Everyone in the conference room heard him.

    And like Hedrick, many doctors considered the young man beside Leonrick a mere civil minister who came here for fun. However, they dared not speak their minds out loud.

    With the exception of national-level doctors.

    The pair of greatly respected doctors were both above the age of 70, with over 50 years of clinical experience. One was a man, and the other was a woman.

    They had what it took to despise certain authorities.

    ¡°Hedrick, wait up,¡± an old doctor, who had his long, white eyebrows dragging all the way in front of his chest, called.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Tyrael?¡± Hedrick looked back with mixed emotions. He and Tyrael studied in the same term, but Tyrael had gained great fame as a seasoned master. Meanwhile,pared to his schoolmate, Hedrick was just the director of a hospital, whocked in both fame and expertise.

    ¡°We are in the middle of a research meeting. And you just leave like that?¡± Tyrael asked.

    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t offend the count¡¯s order,¡± Hedrick replied. He didn¡¯t want to go either, but there was no way he¡¯d reject Leonrick.

    ¡°We¡¯re called to hurry here in the middle of the night, just to help his daughter. Leonrick will understand.¡±

    Tyrael turned to the count¡¯s butler. ¡°Tell your master that we need to focus on Margot¡¯s condition for the moment. As for the other irrelevant matters, please tell him to wait.¡±

    The butler hesitated. He knew that, as a matter of fact, Count Leonrick had ced all hope on that particr young man. This conference was actually the ¡°irrelevant matter¡±.

    ¡°Mister Tyrael, it¡¯s an order of the count,¡± the butler emphasized on the word ¡°order¡± as he said, ¡°and it¡¯s urgent. Please don¡¯t make it hard for me.¡±

    ¡°Urgent?¡± Tyrael chuckled. ¡°Can you tell me why he wants to see the care unit suddenly? It¡¯s been in quarantine for months. He should have a good reason for bringing an outsider inside.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m here to carry out his order. I don¡¯t know about anything else.¡±

    ¡°Then you all should listen to me!¡±

    Tyrael simply pushed them out of the conference room.

    ¡°Hedrick... Medicine is a hallowed subject that has no ce for any corrupted power of filthy coins. As the director of a hospital, you should be the first one to guard your post.¡±

    With that, Tyrael returned to his seat.

    Hedrick changed his expressions several times before he went back to his conference stand.

    ¡°Are you sure about this, Tyrael? We all know that Leonrick isn¡¯t a tyrant. He¡¯s the most beloved leader throughout the history of Water Grasse,¡± Caroline, the second national-level doctor, said as she sat beside Tyrael.

    ¡°I know, Leonrick is a decent man. And you know I wasn¡¯t trying to oppose him,¡± Tyrael replied in a small voice.

    ¡°Then... that young man? I saw him. He looks fine to me.¡± Caroline chuckled.

    ¡°He¡¯s young, huh? A spoiled brat from some rich family,¡± Tyrael scoffed.

    Caroline shook her head. ¡°You¡¯re right; the field of medicine is holy to us. But you do remember that doctors cannot hold prejudice, right? We all swore to it.¡±

    ¡°Of course, no prejudice against our patients. We treat peasants and nobles alike. But do you think that man with a top hat is a patient?¡±

    Caroline didn¡¯t speak this time.

    On the stand, Hedrick continued to establish the ¡°obviously pointless but still necessary¡± treatment n with the doctors.

    Bam!

    The room door was knocked open. Leonrick entered with a grim look, alone this time.

    ¡°You would defy my words now, huh? Hedrick?¡±

    Despite his words, Leonrick was staring at Tyrael. His butler already told him that it was Tyrael who postponed his order. However, Leonrick wasn¡¯t going to scold the most treasured doctor in the country.

    And neither could Hedrick. The poor man only shook his head and epted the usation.

    ¡°Come with me this instant, to the Shadowless Care Unit!¡± Without waiting for an answer, Leonrick asked his guards to drag Hedrick away.

    All the doctors and professors in the room watched in great surprise. This was the first time they saw Leonrick acting like this.

    Tyrael scowled as well. But Caroline quickly put a hand on his shoulder and said, ¡°Wait. There should be a reason why Leonrick did this in front of you. Maybe that young man isn¡¯t a useless official like you expected.¡±

    Which meant... an actual representative from the national court?

    Tyrael nodded to Caroline. Then he stood up and walked to Leonrick. ¡°I happen to have a theory about how to treat Margot, and I need to test them on the patients. I¡¯ll go with you.¡±

    Leonrick stared at the old man. Since Tyrael said ¡°to treat Margot¡±, of course he couldn¡¯t reject him.

    He sighed. ¡°By all means, Doctor Tyrael.¡±

    As the doctors began to gossip again, Caroline went to the vice director. ¡°I¡¯m a bit worried about them. You handle the meeting for now.¡±

    ...

    Leonrick came to the entrance to the care unit for shadowless patients and saw Angor ying with that small bird. And he knew it was no ordinary seabird, for he just witnessed the creature dashing through the air like a powerful arrow.

    The other people, however, couldn¡¯t say the same, especially Tyrael. The old doctor frowned badly when he saw the mentioned young man fiddling with a bird that was wearing a silk dress.

    ¡°Such a disgrace!¡± he spat.

    Caroline hade as well, and she looked equally annoyed at the sight. Raising birds was one of the mostmonly seen hobbies among nobles. And this young man even put clothes on his bird?

    ¡°The director is here, Mister Mask. Shall we go inside?¡± Leonrick spoke to Angor politely.

    Angor nced at his newpanions and recognized the pair of ¡°national doctors¡±. From what they provided during the meeting, they obviously deserved their titles. Angor dly addressed them with a smile.

    The aged doctors were a little surprised at the gesture. Caroline quickly returned her own smile, while Tyrael only humphed.

    Angor was pretty confused at the unexpected unfriendliness.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    He didn¡¯t find it necessary to question it and asked Hedrick to lead the way.

    They slowly walked into Section Zero, which was now blocked off to contain patients who suffered from the ¡°Shadowless¡± illness.

 Chapter 351 - Tyraelâ€™s Rage

    Chapter 351: Tyrael¡¯s Rage

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    While walking through Care Unit Zero, Caroline kept trying, but she failed to trick information out of Leonrick about who Angor was, after which she only grew more eager to ascertain Angor¡¯s identity.

    Everyone stopped talking when they finally arrived at the patients.

    Each ward hospitalized a single shadowless patient, most of whom were almost at their terminal stage, which had minimized their brain activities. These souls could do nothing more than relying on the external machines to stay alive.

    Angor heard someone crying and headed in that direction. As the others wondered if they should follow him, Leonrick simply told them so.

    Which proved that this young man meant to take the lead.

    Caroline noticed Tyrael scowling again. ¡°Please do as what Leonrick says, for now,¡± she whispered.

    ¡°I know what I¡¯m doing.¡± Tyrael nodded.

    Angor was standing at the door of a ward. He opened the door next, which startled someone inside the room. The patient looked to the door and immediately saw a stranger in a weird-colored overcoat.

    ¡°Who... who is it?¡±

    It was the timid voice of a young woman.

    Angor saw a young, adorable-looking, blue-eyed blonddy on the sickbed, who was obviously in a bad shape.

    Without answering, Angor went straight inside and checked the floor under the moonlight.

    No shadow.

    ¡°When did this start?¡± he asked.

    The woman¡¯s eyes brightened just a bit. ¡°Are you a doctor? I... Do I still have hope?¡±

    ¡°YOU are a doctor?¡±

    An old man¡¯s voice came from behind Angor. Tyrael then came to the room.

    Angor kept looking at the patient without minding Tyrael.

    The old man¡¯s expression immediately darkened. Was this kid refusing to answer his simple question?

    Caroline didn¡¯t speak this time, for she found both the boy and her old friend to be a little impolite. Tyrael¡¯s question was simple, true, but the man¡¯s tone sounded more like a demand.

    ¡°Mister Tyrael, you mentioned something about a clue for treating Margot, right? Aren¡¯t you going to see her?¡± Leonrick asked in a small voice.

    ¡°Are you questioning or forcing my decision?¡±

    ¡°Heh heh, no, of course. I¡¯m worried about my daughter, please understand.¡±

    The feverish conversation somewhat scared the young patient in the room. She retreated to a corner of her bed and trembled.

    Hedrick went to Angor. ¡°Sir, she is the 100th shadowless patient. We received her several days ago.¡±

    ¡°When did she wake up after getting affected?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°On the second day after she lost her shadow.¡±

    ¡°Did something happen to her before?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a family member of one of our patients,¡± Hedrick continued. ¡°It was her husband, who fell ill back then, and she has been looking after him. She suddenly lost consciousness as well, and we managed to diagnose her condition after that.¡±

    ¡°Something else worth noticing? Was it at night?¡±

    Hedrick pondered. ¡°Nothing, ording to her husband.¡±

    Leonrick joined them. ¡°And yes, it was evening. I was watching the hospital that night.¡±

    ¡°Mister Count also came here to pay his kind regard to the patients that day,¡± Hedrick said as he rolled his eyes while he ttered Leonrick.

    ¡°Did you notice anything then?¡± Angor looked at Leonrick.

    Leonrick quickly realized that Angor was asking about strange things like that ¡°ck shadow¡±.

    He shook his head, but he nodded afterward. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, sir. I was in Margot¡¯s room. I can remember a bright full moon outside, and it was windy. I think I saw a ghost or something among the trees, but... maybe I was seeing things.¡±

    The other people all grew confused. Those words weren¡¯t useful at all.

    Except for Angor, who nodded in acknowledgment. ¡°So Margot was ill on that day?¡±

    Leonrick looked a bit awkward. ¡°Sir, it was the same day you came to Water Grasse.¡±

    Angor quickly understood it had something to do with his ¡°mute trick¡±.

    He could also remember the moon being very bright that night. He was visiting Magician at that time. Angor wondered if this had something to do with Magician. But since Magician seemed too weak to cause such a serious crisis, he quickly denied that idea.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll check the other patients,¡± Angor said. He nced at the tremblingdy and sighed.

    He clearly heard Tyrael scoffing at him. But again, he didn¡¯t mind the old man.

    While walking to the other wards, Angor listened to more information. It seemed that the ¡°infected¡± patients could live for quite a long time before theypletely became a ¡°living dead¡±. During such a time, they would slowly lose their verbal and emotional abilities. Different patients showed different lengths of time before they sumbed to the illness. Someone managed to stay awake for half a year, while someone stopped speaking at the 3rd day after they lost their shadows.

    But ultimately, they ended up as a ¡°living dead¡±.

    Angor looked through several rooms and saw both men and women in different stages.

    He didn¡¯t sense any energy ripples, and none of the patients suffered physical or soul-rted wounds. Those who already ¡°turned¡± all had their souls intact. And Angor didn¡¯t know how to examine their souls without learning any soul maniptor spells.

    He still found something else though.

    ¡°So every patient lost his or her shadow at night?¡±

    Hedrick nodded. ¡°Yes. Also, they are all between the age of 12 to 40. No younger children or older men were discovered with the disease.¡±

    ¡°I think their age has nothing to do with it,¡± Angormented.

    ¡°He has no idea...¡± Tyrael muttered in discontent.

    They kept walking. Angor didn¡¯t enter any room again. He only used his spirit feelers to sense the rooms.

    In the end, everyone stopped in front of a ward which held the very first patient of this incident.

    Angor opened the door and looked at the unconscious young man who almost had his limbs wilted.

    ¡°As I expected.¡±

    Tyrael felt extremely irritated after following behind this ¡°spoiled kid¡± and seeing his pointless behaviors, but as a master doctor, the old man couldn¡¯t contain his curiosity when he heard those words. ¡°Did you find anything?¡±

    This question sounded sincere enough, and Angor didn¡¯t embarrass the old man this time.

    ¡°Not really. Just an interesting detail.¡± Angor shrugged.

    ¡°Interesting... detail?¡± Everyone else was confused again.

    ¡°What detail? Can you help him?¡± Tyrael moved closer.

    ¡°Help?¡± Angor nced at Leonrick. ¡°I never said anything about helping people. I came here because I¡¯m curious about the condition.¡±

    ¡°CURIOUS?!¡± Tyrael widened his eyes in rage. He was hoping this wasn¡¯t the case! ¡°You¡¯re disgracing the title of a doctor!¡±

    Angor gave Tyrael a puzzled look. ¡°How do you be a doctor if you¡¯re not curious about stuff?¡±

    Curiosity was what forced mankind to improve. Those without such a property would keep treading in one ce and achieve nothing.

    ¡°ying with your words!¡± Tyrael pointed a finger at Angor¡¯s nose. ¡°Do you know what you just did in order to satisfy your curiosity? Hedrick, the director of the academy, ended the meeting for Margot¡¯s treatment halfway! And your petty curiosity kept all of us here wandering aimlessly for an entire hour!¡±

    This was the first time that Angor got scolded at like this. He didn¡¯t feel angry though; there was only... confusion.

    Leonrick noticed Angor¡¯s in expression and quietly sighed in relief. Then he interrupted them.

    ¡°Mister Tyrael, you did say you have something to do about Margot. Technically speaking, it wasn¡¯t us who asked you toe here. And I believe Lady Caroline followed us on her free will. Pray not me Mister Mask for now. We need to find a cure.¡±

    Those words made both Tyrael as well as Caroline, who nned to stay out of the quarrel, feel ufortable.

    ¡°Mister Mask? Is that how you call him? Tell me kindly then, who the hell is he? And why is he interrupting the work of the entire academy? Even the king cannot juste here sniffing about the patients¡¯ privacy while defiling our holy hospital grounds!¡±

    In normal circumstances, those words sounded legit. But Angor¡¯s identity wasn¡¯t anything normal¡ªhe was a supernatural being.

    Leonrick believed this young wizard could help them solve the crisis.

    Leonrick didn¡¯t know how to respond this time. He dared not expose Angor¡¯s true identity without being allowed to.

    And the silence only convinced Tyrael further.

    He kept pointing at Angor in a virtuous manner. ¡°Get out of here! I don¡¯t care who you are. Show your power and might to someone else but not here!¡±

    Leonrick felt his heart racing madly. He was now terrified about what would happen if the old man kept angering the great wizard.

    Leonrick chose to help Angor with the situation just to prevent the boy from getting too offended. Tyrael had no idea who he was going up against!

    There was more silent. Leonrick slowly turned his head to look at Angor, while desperately praying that the young wizard would remain calm.

 Chapter 352 - Interesting Detail

    Chapter 352: Interesting Detail

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    As the receiving end of Tyrael¡¯s ¡°righteous scolding¡±, Angor only replied in a cold tone, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m not a professional when ites to medicines. But are you sure the patients can be saved by medicine?¡±

    No one spoke since they didn¡¯t really know what to say. There was something fishy about the ¡°Shadowless¡± illness. ording to normal senses, shadows should exist whenever there was light. The doctors weren¡¯t really convinced when they regarded the strange matter as an ordinary epidemic.

    But they didn¡¯t have another choice. They couldn¡¯t possibly tell people ¡°there¡¯s a demon hunting for shadows¡±. One wrong move could break down the hard-earned peace in Water Grasse. This was why Leonrick demanded that the patients were kept in quarantine and that no outsiders were allowed inside.

    Sometimes, maintaining peace and order was achieved at the cost of someone¡¯s loss.

    Although Leonrick wasn¡¯t sure about this anymore, especially since his own daughter was on ¡°the losing end¡±.

    ¡°Besides, are you sure your ¡®conference¡¯ can save Margot? Oh, don¡¯t make meugh.¡±

    With that, Angor turned away.

    He wasn¡¯t going to waste time with mortals. Tyrael was only partially correct when he was scolding him. But that meeting was still pointless, and Tyrael didn¡¯t have the right to put the me on him.

    In other words, whether he came here today wouldn¡¯t make a difference to the patients.

    To Angor, Tyrael was just a doctor in a city he didn¡¯t know well, who had nothing to do with him in the future. Debating with someone like this waspletely meaningless.

    Seeing Angor leaving, Leonrick immediately knelt down, despite the presence of his guards and other doctors.

    ¡°Please! Sir, save Margot... You¡¯re our only hope now...¡±

    Even then, Leonrick didn¡¯t actually hope to achieve anything. It was already a miracle that Angor didn¡¯t get angry with them.

    He would still try, for his only daughter, even if it meant bothering this great wizard.

    The other people were startled by Leonrick¡¯s sudden move. Leonrick¡¯s butler and knights immediately followed their master¡¯s example and went down on their knees.

    The ones who were still standing¡ªHedrick, the director of Golden Cross, and Tyrael & Caroline, the two most renowned doctors in the country¡ªwatched the scene in horror. Leonrick wouldn¡¯t act in such a humble way even when he was facing the king!

    The three of them stared at Angor again.

    Who is this guy? The dominator of Water Grasse is kneeling and begging in front of him?

    Meanwhile, Tyrael was more curious about how this young man seemed so confident as if he knew how to save Margot.

    An immature, self-indulgent, bird-ying kid had something to remove a disease that kept all masterminds of medicine in check?!

    The knees hitting the floor didn¡¯t stop Angor from leaving.

    ¡°As I said, I never agreed to your request, and I came here to check something I¡¯m interested in. As for the patients...¡± Angor said while he slowly vanished into the darkness, ¡°I can¡¯t help them. You have all these good-and-almighty doctors and your conference. Go ask them.¡±

    Angor suddenly stopped, and under Leonrick¡¯s eager gaze, he turned around.

    ¡°Oh, almost forgot.¡± Angor pointed to Tyrael and grinned wickedly. The grim hallway and the faint moonlight gave his distinctive facial features a devilish hue.

    A trace of invisible nightmare aura left his finger and sank into Tyrael¡¯s forehead.

    ¡°A tiny punishment. It willst for three days.¡±

    In the next second, Tyrael looked at Angor in horror and yelled out, ¡°It... It¡¯s the devil!¡±

    The old man stumbled backward and knocked into Hedrick.

    He looked back. ¡°A goat... A goat demon!¡±

    Then his pupils moved into the back of his head as he fainted.

    Everyone was startled again, except Leonrick, who somewhat understood what just happened to Tyrael.

    Apart from being terrified, Hedrick, who was just called a ¡°goat demon¡±, scowled a little. People tended to describe him as a goat for his wrinkled skin and goatee, and he felt great offended just now.

    ¡°Count Leonrick. Our previous agreement still stands. I want to see it delivered by tomorrow noon, or else...¡±

    It was obviously a threat.

    Although desperate, Leonrick still managed to nod in return. ¡°Rest assured, sir. I¡¯ll ask my men to send the records to your residence right away.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t speak in such a manner very often, but it worked better than he expected. It seemed that exerting one¡¯s pressure was sometimes the most efficient way ofmunication.

    He considered and added something ¡°useful¡±. ¡°I refuse to help your daughter because I can¡¯t. As I checked, their bodies are totally fine. The cause must lie on that strange little shadow. Mister Leonrick, if you can find something about that shadow, I might be able to help you dig deeper into the matter.¡±

    As a supernatural, Angor was really interested in the particr being. His instinct told him that a bigger secret was hidden within.

    But he didn¡¯t intend to investigate on his own. He didn¡¯t know this city well, and besides, asking Leonrick¡¯s help could save him tons of time.

    Leonrick¡¯s sad eyes brimmed with hope again. ¡°I¡¯ll look into it immediately!¡±

    ¡°Keep it low so that you don¡¯t alert the culprit,¡± Angor said and looked at the other people.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll tell you the ¡®detail¡¯ as a reminder¡ªpay close attention to the colors of their hair and eyes. Now,¡± Angor grinned as he said, ¡°since the drama has ended, I wish you all goodnight.¡±

    He activated Infinite Reticence and blended in with the dark environment.

    In the views of the others, his body just ¡°gone¡±, abruptly.

    ¡°Where¡ªhow? He¡¯s gone?¡± Hedrick dragged Leonrick closer. ¡°Tell me my eyes aren¡¯t tricking me!¡±

    Leonrick stood up and addressed his guards. He said, ¡°Send the records requested by Mister Mask. Do some investigation about that small shadow, and do it quietly.¡±

    Caroline stared at the spot where Angor stood. She then looked at Tyrael, who was just carried onto a sickbed by Hedrick.

    The old man was still mumbling, ¡°No-no! Go away! Away with you, foul demon! HELP! Don¡¯t kill me, please...¡±

    Caroline held her chin and tried to remember some of the secret collections she read in the court library.

    ¡°Hey, Leonrick... Was that, a wizard?¡± She looked at Leonrick.

    Leonrick froze, while Hedrick also looked their way. Hedrick had never been to the court library before, but he did hear rumors about wizards.

    Bad rumors.

    ¡°It¡¯s not your business,¡± Leonrick said.

    ¡°Come on, I want to know,¡± Caroline insisted. ¡°He is, right? Or you wouldn¡¯t have acted like that. Is he the culprit behind the outbreak?¡±

    ¡°Lady Caroline!¡± Leonrick bellowed. ¡°Please stick to your post. As for your concern, I should tell you that Mister Mask just arrived at Water Grasse a week ago. He¡¯s not rted.¡±

    ¡°Wizards are stone-hearted, right? Maybe he has arrived here a long time ago, but we only see him recently.¡±

    ¡°I said he¡¯s not behind this, and it¡¯s what it is! Besides, I may have a clue now...¡±

    Caroline lowered her head a little while she maintained her gaze at Leonrick. ¡°So you admitted it? We were talking to a wizard?¡±

    Without waiting for an answer, Caroline walked to Tyrael¡¯s bed and moaned, ¡°You stubborn knucklehead. We know we have nothing to help the sick, and you still yelled at someone you shouldn¡¯t offend, for nothing... Hey, Leonrick? Is Tyrael alright?¡±

    Leonrick shook his head. ¡°I do not know. Mister Mask said it was only a ¡®tiny punishment¡¯. I guess it¡¯s not lethal.¡±

    ¡°Umhmm. So the legends are true. I need to talk with Tyrael when hees to. Can you tell me where the kid¡ªMister Mask lives? I want to apologize personally.¡±

    Leonrick didn¡¯t answer. He definitely couldn¡¯t.

    ¡°Fair enough.¡±

    Hedrick, who had been listening to them in shock, finally remembered how to speak. ¡°I think I know why he¡¯s the only one who can help us now. You were right, Mister Leonrick. And is Tyrael going to be okay after... that?¡±

    Upon hearing the name of the old man again, Leonrick couldn¡¯t help but get furious again. ¡°Mister Mask isn¡¯t really an acquaintance of mine, and Tyrael just... made it worse!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry too,¡± Caroline said. ¡°I left the meeting just to stop Tyrael. I must admit I didn¡¯t really like that wizard and added my share of fuel to the situation.¡±

    Leonrick shook his head again. ¡°Enough about that. Mister Mask mentioned something about the colors of their hair and eyes, right? What does that mean? Can you take a look?¡±

 Chapter 353 - Unreasonable Questioning

    Chapter 353: Unreasonable Questioning

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    On the same night, Angor received the family records sent by Leonrick.

    These files contained every secret recorded by the Griffin n in the past 800 years. At first, Angor was going to look for anything rted to wizards. But his attention was diverted by all kinds of interesting things soon.

    Reading the records was like reading a novel filled withmon dramas. Actually, they were better than dramas. He found many of the historical deeds done by the Griffins to be more exciting than the fictional stories he read before.

    In history, the entire Zeal Dominion was like a messed-up incest group like certain ns that were often mentioned in Greek mythologies.

    Angor kept frowning as he made his own deductions while reading the records. It seemed the current queen of Zeal Dominion, Huey, might be the sibling of the current King, Bayerkh. Yet the history books for the public imed that they were not rted¡ªthat the queen was a daughter of an imperial official, while the King was the descendant of royalties.

    This simple fact gave Angor a lot to imagine, such as what kind of madness was going on in the court.

    There were also shadowy businesses between various noble ns. For example, one of the nine major supporter ns of Zeal Dominion, the Rodney Family, who was as famed as the Griffins, might have already lost their true bloodline six generations ago. It was very likely that the Rodney Family today was only the descendants of a hunter, who no longer had any sons or daughters of the original Rodney.

    This was because seven generations back, the master of the family suddenly changed his sexual orientation and lost interest in women. He fell in love with a hunter in the mountains, and the said hunter had himself a number of wives and concubines, whoter became the new family members of the Rodney Family.

    Simr matters happened again and again in history. Angor found it disgusting, yet he couldn¡¯t hold back his curiosity as he kept reading.

    It was already the next morning by the time he finished reading the records.

    He sighed as he felt another great burden removed from his mind. He had gained a brand newprehension about what ¡°evil¡± was. It seemed that the real evil came from the eyes staring into the abyss but not the abyss itself. It was mankind who earned true evil from the abyss.

    Humanity was more evil than he imagined.

    Also, he found something he actually needed from the records, which was descriptions regarding wizardry. Three hundred years ago, the queen of Zeal Dominion once studied rted subjects. The public history said that this queen had gone missing, but the secret record imed that she left the country in pursuit of immorality.

    Herst trace ended at Heaven Sea.

    Anyone could reach Heaven Sea by traveling outward through Boya Bay. The ind sea which was home to Water Grasse was actually a branch of Heaven Sea.

    ¡°I¡¯ll check out that ce if I can¡¯t get anything from the supernatural meeting next month.¡±

    Most of the information regarding anything supernatural was provided by this particr queen. It mentioned the concepts of wizards and spells and on, which were pretty useless, probably because the queen had no thorough understanding of wizardry herself.

    And... these were all that was written down in the records.

    It seemed recordsposed by mortals weren¡¯t reliable after all. Still, Angor felt greatly enlightened after reading the corrupted stories, which could tell him how to avoid certain tricks and plots when meeting other people in the future, even if it was someone noble or king-like.

    Staying up for the entire night didn¡¯t tire him out in the slightest. Being a level-2 apprentice had strengthened his spirit, which allowed him to stay in a good condition for three to four days even without sleeping.

    He took out the hologram tablet and nned to study Voice Transmission.

    He knew almost every theory that he needed to learn this spell. But the theories all belonged to the knowledge system of Earth, which was different from the wizarding world. However, Voice Transmission was only a level-1 cantrip; he didn¡¯t need anything too professional.

    Now, what he needed was the time to work on and establish spell models.

    While he studied, Granny Trusan diligently brought Dodoro around the city to rx. Dodoro still couldn¡¯t speak, but his eyes were beginning to show more intelligence.

    By noon, when Angor almost finished another databination, someone knocked on his door.

    A young man, who was wearing a set of formal attire and holding a walking cane, stood outside.

    Angor raised an eyebrow when he saw that familiar half-mask. ¡°I must say I wasn¡¯t expecting you. Is ¡®Shadow¡¯ here already?¡±

    He checked the time and made sure that it was still one week away from the meeting. Still, it was understandable if someone woulde earlier.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know when he¡¯sing. Heck, maybe he never left Water Grasse,¡± the visitor said. He bowed a little before asking, ¡°May Ie inside?¡±

    ¡°By all means.¡± Angor moved aside.

    It was Magician, who agreed to invite Angor to the supernatural meeting.

    Previously, Magician attempted to ask Angor to join him for many times, but Angor only rejected him politely. The reason was obvious¡ªthey shared different senses and goals, and Angor would not be staying in this mortal city for long.

    That was why Magician didn¡¯t visit him again for some time.

    Angor brought out a ss and filled it with ¡°Create Water¡± before he handed it to Magician. ¡°I apologize. I don¡¯t have any tea or wine stocked, so you¡¯ll have to drink this.¡±

    Magician looked at the water and felt jealous all of a sudden. He found the legacy of someone by chance, which led him into the world of wizards, and he never managed to learn many cantrips. Not even something to create water.

    ¡°So, do you need anything today?¡± Angor sat on the sofa.

    Magician sipped the refreshing water. He was about to speak when he suddenly saw the pile of drafting paper on the table in front of him.

    They showed all kinds of data and forms. The only thing he could recognize was Samuel¡¯s Conduction Law, which was a mana-rted expression that he read before in the books that he found. Even so, he still had no idea how to use it yet.

    And that was only one of theplicated calctions written on the papers.

    Did this mean... the boy sitting in front of him actually knew more about wizards? Was he stronger?

    ¡°What... is this, if I may?¡± Magician pointed to the papers.

    ¡°I was trying to work out a cantrip before your visit,¡± Angor answered nonchntly.

    ¡°Which cantrip?¡± Magician grew really curious.

    Angor grinned. ¡°Aren¡¯t you asking too much?¡± He used Hand of Spell to arrange the scattered papers to one side and looked at Magician again. ¡°You haven¡¯t answered my question yet.¡±

    Magician cursed something in his mind while putting on a smile. ¡°Of course I won¡¯te here for nothing. You know, it¡¯s not easy toe across someone your own kind. I just want to talk a little.¡±

    ¡°Sure. But again, expect to pay something when you want to gain.¡±

    When obeying ¡°equivalent exchange¡±, Angor wouldn¡¯t mind losing a little as long as he could learn something useful. Magician already introduced him to the supernatural meeting, and he found it reasonable to pay something in return.

    But Magician kepting to his house to ask for valuable cantrips at the cost of something negligible. Angor was getting irritated by these unfair trades. And it seemed it was happening again since Magician still didn¡¯t offer anything on his end yet.

    Magician, on the other hand, had apletely different mindset. This man only knew severalmon cantrips and one single special one, which he couldn¡¯t afford to tell. Now, he found Angor to be too stingy instead of realizing his own poor end of the deal.

    ¡°Fine... I¡¯ll say something else since you didn¡¯t want to talk.¡± Magician looked frustrated.

    Angor silently scoffed. Magician still hadn¡¯t realized the true problem.

    ¡°You told mest time, that you will leave Water Grasse in search of wizard organizations,¡± Magician said.

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    ¡°You visited Leonrickst night, right? What are you two up to? Did you inform him of my n?¡±

    Angor tried not to roll his eyes. ¡°Is visiting Leonrick a problem? Can¡¯t I go outside and see someone as I wish?¡± Angor used the same questioning tone against Magician when he asked, ¡°Are you saying that I can¡¯t meet someone just because he¡¯s your enemy?¡±

    He managed to swallow back the end of hisint¡ªAnd who do you think you are?

    ¡°You¡¯re different!¡± Magician yelled.

    ¡°What¡¯s different? I¡¯m a human just like everyone else.¡±

    Magician looked disgusted. ¡°We are NOT humans! We, are something beyond! We are supernatural! How could filthy mortals stand by the side of someone like us?¡±

    And here ites again...

    Angor moaned helplessly. This was why he didn¡¯t wish to interact with Magician too much.

    It seemed this man had lost hope in humanity. To Magician, humans were wrong. The whole world was wrong.

    Any wizard in his or her right mind wouldn¡¯t deny the fact that they were once ¡°humans¡± too.

    Magician only learned several cantrips. It would only take several able-bodied mortal adults to take him down. But he just made an extreme deration, which most real wizards would disagree.

    Angor remained calm. ¡°Try that when you abandon your human body, your soul, and extinguish the spirit of the man in the depth of your mind space. Maybe then, you¡¯ll sound more convincing.¡±

    Magician revealed a cold look.

    ¡°Sure, I can¡¯t wait for that to happen.¡±

 Chapter 354 - Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

    Chapter 354: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor was getting really impatient. He was going to send his guest out.

    Magician cursed Angor in his mind. Although he managed not to show it. ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll leave this matter. So why did you go see Leonrick anyway?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t really want to answer that one. But he suddenly got an idea.

    ¡°How long have you been in Water Grasse?¡± Angor asked something instead.

    Magician wasn¡¯t expecting a question, but it wasn¡¯t anything private, so he still answered.

    ¡°Ten years.¡±

    ¡°Ten years... Then you must¡¯ve heard of the Shadowless illness which started sincest year, no? Leonrick invited me to talk about it.¡±

    ¡°Shadowless?¡± Magician frowned. ¡°Oh, I see. I thought that bastard only pretended to care about the victims and that he would simply give them up.¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Well, I know nothing about it, and he wasted his time asking me.¡±

    ¡°Heh. So I was using you wrongfully then?¡± Magician sounded sarcastic.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m just curious about this ¡®Shadowless¡¯ thing. Do you know anything about it?¡±

    Magician rolled his eyes. ¡°Not much. But I can tell you what I learned... for a price.¡±

    Angor chuckled. ¡°What¡¯s on your mind then?¡±

    Magician quickly grew excited and thought about how to maximize his gain.

    ¡°How about that cantrip you were working on?¡±

    ¡°Do you even know what I was working on at all?¡±

    ¡°No. But that¡¯s what makes it fun. It¡¯s fine if it turns out to be something weak of something I already know,¡± Magician said in a shameless manner.

    He already knew Angor was working on something good, judging from theplex forms. Magician couldn¡¯t help praising himself for finding something so valuable.

    Angor picked up the papers and pointed to a random form. ¡°Do you know what this is?¡±

    Magician shook his head.

    ¡°This is ¡®Caigo¡¯s Supplementary Law¡¯, amon form used by level-1 ult Acoustic cantrips. Do you see the point now?¡±

    Magician seemed shocked. ¡°You¡¯re working on a level-1 cantrip? Good lord. I¡¯m in luck!¡±

    Angor felt choked a little by that outrageous disy. He really wanted to know what kind of life Magician went through to develop such an unprincipled brain.

    He humphed and got straight to the point. ¡°Enough. You want to tell me something unnecessary in exchange for the knowledge of a level-1 ult cantrip? Tell you what, your information isn¡¯t even enough for the ¡®Caigo¡¯s Law¡¯ alone!¡±

    Magician scowled.

    Angor¡¯s cold look prevented Magician from protesting further. Judging from the drafts, Magician believed that this boy was stronger, and he knew strength meant everything to wizards.

    Magician tried his best to suppress his rage. ¡°What can I get then?¡±

    Angor was already nning to imprison Magician and force him to talk. He didn¡¯t expect Magician to stay calm, which meant his n wasn¡¯t necessary.

    ¡°What kind of things do you want?¡±

    ¡°I... only need cantrips. Level-0 ones would do.¡±

    Angor was actually d that Magician didn¡¯t ask for knowledge, which was the core of strength for wizards. It was like someone asking you for the final answers to your homework but not the calction process.

    Angor looked down and pretended to be hesitating.

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll tell you about that ¡®Create Water¡¯ cantrip. You good with that?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t an attacking spell, but it could be a good disy of power in front of mortals. Magician quickly nodded, for he also knew that his information was nothing too valuable.

    ¡°Create Water¡± was something Angor received from his tablet. It was an overstatement to call it a level-0 cantrip. Still, there wasn¡¯t a way to address something weaker.

    As Angor believed, ¡°Create Water¡± shouldn¡¯t be regarded as a cantrip at all.

    Angor spent several minutes writing down the cantrip model and vital points and handed the papers to Magician. ¡°You have three days to ask me anything rted to this spell. After that, you¡¯re on your own.¡±

    After obtaining the new cantrip, Magician told Angor what he knew about the epidemic without further ado.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about the patients themselves, but there¡¯s something that might be a clue.¡±

    ...

    After their talk, Magician left Angor¡¯s ce happily with the tutorial papers in his hand.

    Angor stayed in the guest room and thought about what he learned. Magician didn¡¯t know much, not even the small ck shadows. But this man had enough talent, superior insight, and imagination, which helped him study wizardry all by himself. Actually, Angor believed this man had such wild imaginations that he had never seen on anyone before.

    Magician wouldn¡¯t have found his destiny to be an apprentice if not for his great observation skill.

    When the ¡°shadowless epidemic¡± started, Magician immediately realized it was something rted to supernatural powers, so he snuck into the forbidden zone in Golden Cross right away, hoping to learn something useful.

    He noticed the same detail Angor found¡ªevery single individual who lost his or her shadow had blond hair and blue eyes.

    Last night, Angor learned this small detail after checking through all the patients including Count Leonrick¡¯s daughter. They didn¡¯t have exactly the same colors since the shades could be different, and someone had variegated hair, so the detail wasn¡¯t easy to notice.

    Now, both Magician and Angor caught this particr feature thanks to their observant nature.

    Meanwhile, Magician¡¯s above-average imagination quickly led him to someone else¡ªShadow.

    Ever since ¡°Shadow¡± starteding to the supernatural meetings two years ago, that man always kept low and didn¡¯t talk much. And every time he did say something, people could learn practical pointers and advice.

    Magician tried to befriend him many times, but ¡°Shadow¡± never agreed.

    Still, this didn¡¯t prevent Magician from keeping an eye on Shadow.

    He found something interesting too. During each supernatural meeting, ¡°Shadow¡± would sit beside a beautiful apprentice witch called Khabazar, who came from Zeal Dominion.

    Magician thought Shadow was attracted by Khabazar¡¯s charm. Butter, he noticed that Shadow wasn¡¯t interested in this woman at all.

    In this case, it was strange that Shadow would join Khabazar every time.

    One time, Khabazar didn¡¯t attend the meeting, and Shadow chose to sit beside someone called ¡°John Junior¡±¡ªan apprentice who had not shown up for a while.

    Half a year ago, Magician ran into Shadow in Water Grasse and invited him to a bar. When Shadow agreed to the offer, Magician asked a group of female dancers to apany them, and only three of them joined Shadow closely in the end.

    Women with blond hair and blue eyes.

    Magician quickly thought about Khabazar and John Junior, a woman and a man with simr hair and eye colors.

    Then, he associated the detail he found on the shadowless patients along with Shadow¡¯s particr taste and quickly drew an assumption.

    The ¡°shadowless epidemic¡± was probably caused by Shadow.

    However, Magician never told anyone about this. Neither did he pay much attention to the incident again. Until today, when he ¡°paid¡± Angor the information in exchange for something.

    The assumption wasn¡¯t proved yet, but with so many coincidences together, it seemed true enough.

    Before he left, Magician told Angor one more clue.

    ¡°Just wait. John Junior and Khabazar won¡¯t attend the meeting next month. If Shadow chooses to sit beside you instead... you will know what I mean.¡±

    Of course, Angor himself had blond hair and blue eyes.

    ¡°We¡¯ll see then.¡± Angor shook his head and decided to put this matter aside for now. He wasn¡¯t interested in the epidemic, but he got a feeling that something hidden behind this plot might get him a way back to the wizarding world.

    It was most likely that the ¡°Shadow¡± guy was behind the strange illness, which didn¡¯t really matter now, for Angor already nned to go and meet this character.

 Chapter 355 - Upheaval at the Port

    Chapter 355: Upheaval at the Port

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Three dayster, at the beginning of the Month of Freezing Earth, Angor finally established the model for Voice Transmission cantrip with the help of the hologram tablet.

    When apprentices tried to learn a cantrip of the same level, this process would usually cost them most of their mana reserves.

    Angor, however, barely spent one-thirtieth of his mana.

    For one, Singrity Dispersive Meditation allowed him to develop his skills with great efficiency. And when he could find nothing else to do in the ne passageway, he trained so fast that he skipped a level without learning the necessary spells.

    He was d his tablet could make up for it.

    After Voice Transmission, he nned to learn ¡°Heal¡±, which was another essential cantrip for apprentices.

    However, before he could get to it, he heard someone at his door again.

    When he opened the door, he saw a pale, wrinkled face behind it.

    ¡°Mi-Mi-Mister Ma-Mask... I...¡±

    ¡°Mister Mask,¡± an old woman beside him said, ¡°Tyrael had realized his terrible mistake. Could you please forgive him?¡± It was Caroline, the other national-level doctor in Zeal Dominion.

    Of course, the old man who couldn¡¯t speak well was Tyrael, who no longer looked so energetic and righteous after being tortured by terrifying illusions for three days.

    ¡°I already gave him my punishment. Don¡¯t bother me again without a good reason.¡± Angor mmed his door shut without much of a thought.

    He went back to the guest room and thought about Tyrael¡¯s visit.

    It was nothing personal with the old man. He just found it troublesome to have visitors who kept interrupting his work. Baal and Magician should totallye, while Leonrick and Tyrael obviously learned his address by some other means.

    He didn¡¯t intentionally conceal his presence, but it was still irritating that people kepting to his door, oblivious of his privacy.

    Angor thought for a moment and called Trusan. He told her that she had to give her lessons to Dodoro indoors for the next few days.

    Next, he deployed several illusion nodes around the house.

    The illusion wasn¡¯t physically harmful to anyone. Angor simply ced something that ced fear into the minds of trespassers. As for potential mental trauma... he didn¡¯t really care. Unwanted visitors should definitely pay their price.

    ...

    The night had arrived. Using the moonlight, Angor traveled along the canal and reached the central area of the Bay District.

    A giant za decorated with fan-shaped ground bricks sat here. In the middle of the za was the statue of an old man immersed in a book while a water fountain surrounded it.

    This ce was a lively gathering spot during day time, where people would enjoy the songs of traveling bards and pigeons.

    At night, however, it was quiet and without a single soul around. Apart from the sound of the night breeze, only the water that was still flowing in the fountain could be heard.

    Angor pulled his hat lower and walked to the end of the za, which was a multi-towered building that looked like a church.

    The Central Library. The very core of wisdom in Water Grasse.

    There were armored guards stationed in the front hall, who didn¡¯t notice Angor¡¯s arrival at all.

    The main hall on the ground floor was situated behind a long hallway decorated by ornamental church windows. Several dozen bookshelves upied the hall in different sections. However, Angor didn¡¯t intend to stay here. He kept walking deeper inside.

    Following Baal¡¯s info, he found another passage at the end of the hall which led to the underground area, which was his destination¡ªthe Ancient Tome Chamber.

    Under Infinite Reticence, none of the patrolling guards stopped his advance.

    The key to the chamber came in three parts, which was held by the library¡¯s director and two vice directors. Anyone who wished to go inside had to receive approval from all of them.

    Of course, Angor had no time for that. He simply used his spirit feelers to pick the lock.

    Once inside the chamber, he ced a simple illusion at the door so that no one would notice what had happened.

    The chamber wasn¡¯trge. The whole ce smelled like rotten papers, but there was not much dust and dirt, which meant people had been taking care of it.

    Intending to use his time to its fullest, Angor immediately began reading through the books.

    The woman¡¯s grandfather, as mentioned by Baal, saw the ¡°serpent-on-rod¡± mark from a book. Angor didn¡¯t need to read too carefully. He used three Hands of Spell, added with his own pair of hands, to check four books each time and look for that particr totem.

    Time went by quickly as he swiftly went over the books.

    ...

    While Bay District had fallen into a peaceful slumber, the ind area of Water Grasse was still brightly-lit; especially the Tarot Port, which had never snuffed out itsmps, given its position as the most prosperous trading port in the entire Zeal Dominion.

    Groups of sailors and merchants came and left, while countless vessels switched ces at the port. Many of them came and joined the queue in the morning and waited until midnight to get admitted.

    This lively sight would persist until thetter half of Month of Freezing Earth, by which time Tarot Port would enjoy temporary peace for three months, after which the travelers from everywhere woulde rushing once again as the canal thawed.

    ¡°Your shift already? How many ships have we got now?¡± the manager of the dock asked when he saw a man in a nightshift suiting his way.

    They were responsible for keeping the sea gate running. Simr to the city gates onnd, members who managed the sea gate were responsible for issuing temporary passes to visiting vessels. But they were usually busier than thend gates since the vessels would keeping at night.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± The second man shook his head. ¡°I reckon we¡¯d stay this way for two to three days. Ya see all that ships over there? They said the Heaven Sea lifted their limits again. Soon, Wood Empire and Eve Imperial will send their ships our way too, and we¡¯ll get a hell¡¯ot busier.¡±

    ¡°Just two weeks.¡± The manager put a hand on the man¡¯s shoulder. ¡°A three-month vacation is a-waiting, and I bet thosend guards will get jealous again.¡±

    ¡°Things said, I still want to swap ces with them. At least their schedule is predictable, unlike us.¡±

    They suddenly heard yelling, and they saw all the sailors and carriers had stopped their works.

    ¡°A ship¡¯s going down!! Lend a hand!¡±

    The night guard widened his eyes. ¡°Sh*t, it¡¯s around the sea gate. I gotta head back!¡±

    There were six ships for the sea guards; all parked around the bars near the gate. When the guard on shift arrived, he was shocked to see a patrol ship in terrible trouble.

    The patrol ship, which was about 15 meters long, was broken in half. It was now sinking slowly with both ends gradually tilting upward.

    What was still left above the water level was burning in mes. In order not to get toasted alive, those still alive all jumped into the water and called for help while they floated on the starry surface.

    The sailors and workers at the port all began to swim to the victims.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening here? Why¡¯s the ship broken from the middle?¡± The night guard couldn¡¯t believe his eyes.

    Among the chaos mixed with screams and cries, no one noticed that a small kayak boat slowly sailed into the Tarot Port.

    A man wearing a pair of ck leather boots walked ashore. ¡°Huh, I need more practice... Breaking a ship cost me a third of my mana,¡± he rubbed his shoulder and mumbled.

    A strong wind blew around him, extinguishing several portmps.

    The mysterious man put a hand on his ox-hide wide-brimmed hat. ¡°My my, so eager, my cuties.¡±

    Three small shadowy figuresnded on his shoulder.

    The wind slowly died down. One of the small figures whispered into the man¡¯s ear, and he nodded before he walked into the curtain of night.

    When the figures presented a dozen small sacks to the man, he chuckled in an evil way and grinned at the objects which were still twitching a little.

    When he walked into a small alleyway, he suddenly stopped and looked toward a dark corner.

    ¡°Come out. Why keep hiding?¡±

    With uncertain steps, another small shadow slowly approached him.

    The man reached out a hand. ¡°Come here.¡±

    The shadow hesitated before he jumped onto the man¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Now tell me, what¡¯s the matter?¡±

    The shadow whispered something into the man¡¯s ear.

    ¡°Someone saw you? My my... Now this is trouble. Fine, you can leave now.¡±

    He waited for the shadow to walk into the darkness before he held his chin.

    ¡°Interesting... There¡¯s someone here who can sense a Krakok.¡±

 Chapter 356 - Encounter on a Snowy Night

    Chapter 356: Encounter on a Snowy Night

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor spent almost the entire night searching for a clue, and he finally saw a book which described how a group of healers saved lives in ancient times. Probably to idolize them, every doctor carried a shining rod decorated by a serpent-like object.

    There were even story strips that told a story in history. A man with the serpent rod saw a ¡°shining cloud¡± as an omen, which led him to a city gued by a serious illness. He went there and managed to save the suffering patients.

    If it were not superstition, Angor would assume that the ¡°shining cloud¡± was some kind ofrge-scale healing spell.

    There was the ¡°serpent on rod¡± picture at the end of the book again.

    It wasn¡¯t a doctor¡¯s tool this time, but a giant statue ced in the middle of a za, where a number of doctors in healer robes paid their respect to it.

    The picture that showed a solemn scene had a line written beneath it.

    [Doctor¡¯s Oath]

    A doctor¡¯s oath dered that he or she would never abandon a patient or show disrespect to their job.

    But Angor got even more confused as he looked at the picture. ording to the previous pictures, the rod was a tool for the doctors. But it suddenly became a symbol of belief in the end...

    He took a guess that there was a wizard healer, who was praised by the people he saved. After he left, people regarded his stories as legends and gradually regarded his mark¡ªthe serpent rod¡ªas a spiritual belief for doctors.

    This was the most reasonable assumption Angor could think of.

    However... What did this have anything to do with Akeso? And Pocratee?

    The book only described the information as to ancient mythology. There was no real snake, nor any meaning held by the symbol. And Angor learned nothing about Pocratee, which was his biggest question regarding this matter.

    Having wasted his time, Angor could only sigh in frustration. He rearranged the books in ce and left the chamber quietly.

    When he returned to the za outside, he was surprised to find snowing from the sky.

    He spent his childhood in a coastal area with a moderate climate, and the mirror world always retained gentle temperatures. He did see snowfield on Parmigi Hignds before, but this was the first time for him to see snowy weather away from home. He barely remembered the time when he saw snow at the capital of the Goldspink Empire as a child. To experience the amazing weather again made him feel extremelyforted.

    It seemed the snow around him had shut all irritations and noises away. With a rxed and serene mood, Angor slowly paced toward where he came from.

    Every season had a symbol. Angor believed that such pure and holy snow was the symbol of winter. His spell-enhanced overcoat always prevented him from feeling the changes in temperature, but now, the floating snowkes finally reminded him that winter had arrived.

    He thought about his family faraway. He thought about Leon and Jon.

    He left Grue Town just during the Month of Freezing Earth. At that time, he followed Mara and joined a whole new amazing world.

    Two years had already psed.

    Two years wasn¡¯t long for wizards, but it was for Angor, for he had not grown strong enough to protect his family or save Jon.

    Heck, he didn¡¯t even know where he was right now.

    He had beenforting himself that he would return soon enough. But... could he really?

    The Purification Garden was about to open. Could he get there in time?

    Angor shook his head to get rid of the random concerns which would affect his decisions.

    ...

    As the night grew darker, more snow came floating down.

    Angor didn¡¯t activate the Purification Field, and he allowed the snowkes tond on him. Instead of giving him chilliness, the lovely objects melting on his shoulder somewhat calmed his mind.

    Across the curtain of white velvet, he saw a shop at the end of the street which still had its lights on.

    It was a small clinic, which he already noticed on his way to the library. Across the blurred window, he could see narrow rooms, bright oilmps, and simple desks and chairs inside. A young female doctor was sipping on some hot drink while watching the snow falling through her fogged sses.

    Angor briefly stopped in front of the window, and the young doctor quickly noticed him. She took off her sses and gave Angor a gentle smile.

    Out of instinct, Angor wanted to lower his hat and leave. But when he thought about the ¡°Doctor¡¯s Oath¡± that he just saw in the library, he nodded to the woman and entered the clinic instead.

    The doctor was a little surprised. She put down her drink and came to the door.

    ¡°The weather¡¯s getting worse. Come in and have some tea.¡± She noticed that the man, who was in a strange suit, didn¡¯t n toe inside a second ago. He didn¡¯t look ill either. She believed this man was only here to escape the cold.

    She quickly brought out another water ss and served Angor hot tea.

    Angor thought about rejecting, but he decided otherwise upon smelling the scent of milk.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I only have milk tea here because I kinda love it.¡± She looked somewhat embarrassed. ¡°Please try it out, sir. It¡¯s from Winton, and it¡¯s a perfect warm-up drink in this cold winter.¡±

    Angor hesitated a little before he epted the ss.

    Instead of drinking right away, he ced the ss on a desk first. He then removed his top hat and smiled at the woman.

    The woman noticed that she just addressed a teenager as ¡°sir¡±. A handsome teenager at that. This boy reminded her of someone she loved while she was still studying in the academy. She wondered how many women would fall in love with this guy once he grew up.

    She then shook her head for losing another perfect dating chance.

    ¡°I¡¯m Sherry, the chief doctor of Sherry¡¯s Clinic. I think the snow caught everyone by surprise. How about spending the night here until it clears up a little?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Doctor Sherry, did you graduate from Golden Cross?¡±

    Sherry looked surprised at the question. She then spoke while blushing a little.

    ¡°Golden Cross is the very best academy a doctor can hope for in Zeal Dominion. I was never good enough to get admitted. I came from Fn. It¡¯s not that famous, but they still gave birth to a lot of great doctors. Lady Caroline, who just came to Water Grasse, was once a student in Fn as well.¡±

    Angor nodded nonchntly. He simply wished to strike a topic.

    ¡°I heard doctors all need an oath when they graduate. Can you tell me something about that, Miss Sherry?¡±

    Sherry wasn¡¯t sure why this gentleman asked such a thing. Since it wasn¡¯t anything private, she dly joined the topic so as to pass some time.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting that from a young traveler. Are you nning to study medicine too?¡±

    Angor only grinned gently.

    Sherryined in her mind.

    How could a kid disy such charisma by a simple smile...

    ¡°You are right. There is a ritual when we leave school and officially enter our profession. We did it upon joining the academy too. And I still remember those words...¡±

    Sherry recited her oath.

    It sounded almost the same as what Angor read in ¡°Doctor¡¯s Oath¡±. However, hers came with one extra line¡ª¡±To disregard theology.¡±

    Angor squinted upon hearing this interesting detail. Even the highly-developed civilization from Earth which relied on science did notpletely ¡°ban¡± mythologies from their books. Certain scientists even dered that the end of science was theology.

    It was so interesting how the wizarding world, which actually had ¡°unscientific powers¡±, imed to give up theology in an oath.

    ¡°Doctor Sherry, I can understand how doctors must be responsible to their patients and to themselves. But why are they distancing themselves from theology?¡±

    ¡°Because gods and deities are something to foolmon people. There are no gods in this world, right? If a patient believes in gods, how are we to treat him? My teacher once told me that theology defies the real work of doctors.¡±

    Angor nodded. He partially agreed with Sherry. It was true that rulers always needed something to control crowds, such as beliefs, morals standards, andws. And Sherry was right about how god-believing patients would sometime reject real doctors.

    But he didn¡¯t really think theology would taint the field of medicine.

    To Angor, theology didn¡¯t necessarily mean religions, but it was something beyond human recognition. Gods and devils were only imaginary symbols made up by mankind to represent good and bad.

    All in all, theology pursued the ¡°unknown¡±. Something unknown couldn¡¯t possibly ¡°defy¡± doctors. The oath seemed a little bit extreme about this one, but he wasn¡¯t going to discuss it with Sherry.

    ¡°Do you believe in any supernatural phenomenon in this world, Doctor Sherry?¡±

    ¡°I... don¡¯t think so?¡±

    Angor nodded and ended the topic here.

 Chapter 357 - Krakok

    Chapter 357: Krakok

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Seeking truth and practical technique was a good choice for doctors, so Angor decided to leave the matter here.

    He took out a leather scroll from his pocket, which showed a ck snake swirling on a long rod.

    ¡°Have you seen this thing before, Doctor Sherry?¡±

    ¡°No... Someone¡¯s family emblem?¡± Sherry tilted her head.

    Angor smiled and put the scroll away. ¡°I have onest question. Have you heard of... Pocratee?¡±

    Sherry stared at Angor and was confused by all these strange and irrelevant questions.

    ¡°Pocratee...¡± She thought for a moment and felt as if she knew it. But then, she couldn¡¯t quite catch it in her mind.

    Suddenly, a man in a fur uniform rushed into the clinic.

    ¡°A nightshift officer?¡± Sherry stood up.

    ¡°From the sea gate!¡± The man confirmed his identity. ¡°Doctor Sherry, pleasee with me right now! There¡¯s an ident at Tarot Port. A patrol ship is down, and we got lots of people who are wounded!¡±

    Sherry quickly packed up her tools. ¡°Alright. Any serious injuries apart from drowning?¡±

    ¡°Yes! Many are losing blood from their arteries. We tried to call every doctor that we could find!¡± the man exined anxiously and nodded to Angor as an apology, for he thought he just interrupted a patient. However,pared to this seemingly healthy young man, the issue of wounded sailors was the more pressing matter now.

    Sherry found her scalpels and suturing tools.

    ¡°Oh, and they have burns too!¡± The officer added.

    Sherry stopped her movement and looked at the man in shock. ¡°My word! Are you sure it¡¯s an ident and not a war?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s just, the patrol ship was broken from the middle and it started burning all of a sudden. I think it¡¯s weird too. Those who have already escaped didn¡¯t notice anything before it happened. It looks like someone actually cut the ship with a weapon. But... who the heck can do that? I guess the ship needs more maintenance after all these years.¡±

    Sherry kept looking for more tools to be used for the different situations and arranged all of them in her medical box.

    ¡°I¡¯m good. Let¡¯s move!¡± Sherry joined the officer, but she quickly remembered she still had a strange guest in her clinic. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, sir, you see, I need to¡ª¡±

    Angor sipped some milk tea and picked up his top hat. ¡°Well, it¡¯ste, I think I need to leave too. Thanks for your tea. It was really good.¡±

    With that, Angor slowly left on his own and disappeared into the darkness behind the snowy curtain.

    Sherry suddenly thought about Angor¡¯sst question, which was about ¡°Pocratee¡±.

    She already found that name familiar, yet she couldn¡¯t remember it a moment ago. Now, she just recalled that Professor Caroline once mentioned such a name during her ss. It looked like some kind of sanctuary. Most of the details had slipped from Sherry¡¯s mind. She realized now that Pocratee had something to do with the ¡°Doctor¡¯s Oath¡±.

    And the strange gentleman also asked about the oath.

    She didn¡¯t have more time to think about it though since the guard officer dragged her toward the Tarot Port quickly. There were patients to be saved.

    ¡°Thank goodness your clinic is still up,¡± the officer moaned, ¡°or I¡¯ll have to run to the academy instead, by which time those people would all be dead. I guess arge city isn¡¯t all about the good things.¡±

    ...

    Angor felt a bit disappointed since Sherry couldn¡¯t give him an answer, but it wasn¡¯t anything serious. He didn¡¯t expect to find information about a long-lost vige in a small clinic anyway.

    On the contrary, he was quite curious about the ¡°incident¡±.

    Several days ago, he also went to watch the patrol ships roamed around the Bay District. Those vessels were all at least 20 meters long. How could something that sturdy suddenly break in half for no reason?

    Judging from the documentary movies from Earth, the keel structure of a vessel, which was the base support of a ship, was bound to undergo the most careful examinations often. Any breakdowns on it would have been discovered. It was very unlikely for maintenance staff to overlook something so severe.

    The officer mentioned something about how the ship appeared as if it was cut by a man... This might seem impossible to mortals but not to wizards.

    The supernatural meeting was drawing near. A bunch of rogue apprentices who didn¡¯t belong to any wizard organization was very likely to do stupid things.

    Angor assumed that it should be one of the apprentices who caused the ident. Probably a madman who sought fun in blood and chaos.

    The snow started less than an hour ago. The streets were already covered under a thinyer of white, like a clean carpet which showed people a bright path toward the distance.

    Angor suddenly stopped in his tracks.

    He stood under a streetmp that illuminated an area of several meters around him.

    Thump, thump...

    A series of footsteps came in front of him, apanied by a surge of powerful yet strange mana energy.

    Angor remained still under themp and gazed toward the source of the footsteps quietly.

    The first thing that came into the light was a pair of ck, polished leather boots. After that, it was a pair of deep-blue x trousers, ck leather waist belt, checkered ocher vest, and a showy-looking ck leather coat decorated by punk-style rivets.

    The owner of these clothes was wearing a wide-brimmed soft hat. He was also smoking a cigarette, which provided a small light spot in the dark.

    Angor looked at the man carefully without making any move. Meanwhile, the snowy scenery behind him began to blur and shift a little, which was followed by strange music and melodies that sent a shiver into the bones of anyone who would hear them.

    ¡°My my... an Illusionist? Such a rare sight...¡± the man in boots spoke in a pleasant and charming voice. He removed his cigarette and tossed it into the snow nearby, which released itsst brilliance before it finally died out.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Angor asked cautiously.

    ¡°Ha. I am-¡±

    The man suddenly stopped and took several steps back. ¡°An Acoustic Illusion? Oh my, that was close.¡±

    Angor was surprised now. The man was correct; he did deploy an Acoustic Illusion just now. He was trying to trick the man¡¯s mind by cing the right illusion nodes, which didn¡¯t work since the man noticed his attempt soon enough. This strange figure would step into the effect of the illusion if he just moved one or two steps further.

    Angor believed that whoever just came to him had to have superior reflexes.

    ¡°A Bloodline User?¡± Angor pondered.

    ¡°So hostile. I just want to see who disturbed my Krakok. And dear me, who would have thought a legit apprentice hase to the city?¡± the man muttered to himself. ¡°Should I get him? Speaking of legit organizations... There¡¯s only Silent Hill around here, and I certainly don¡¯t want to get on their bad side...

    ¡°Oof, forget it. I don¡¯t know how to exin it to my teacher.¡±

    The man looked at Angor in a ¡°you¡¯ve met your luck today¡± manner. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll let you go. But I should warn you. Don¡¯t, tell anyone about the Krakoks.¡±

    The man turned away and disappeared into the street.

    Angor frowned at the sudden arrival and departure of the strange individual. He decided not to go after him for now.

    ¡°What is a Krakok?¡±

    With this question in mind, Angor walked on the soft snow as he headed toward his own house.

    ...

    The first thing that greeted his sight was Dodoro and Trusan, who were both looking at the canals from the mansion yard.

    Trusan sighed in relief when she saw Angoring. ¡°Dodoro wouldn¡¯t sleep ever since you left, mister.¡±

    Angor looked at Dodoro and quickly sensed the familiar affection in those eyes.

    He shook his head and chuckled. He thought Trusan¡¯s education would gradually remove Dodoro¡¯s ¡°imprinting effect¡±. It seemed like it didn¡¯t work out.

    ¡°I¡¯m okay. You can go to sleep now.¡±

    After sending Trusan and Dodoro back into their rooms, Angor returned to thinking about the strange man he saw.

    He had already noticed that he might be another apprentice; a powerful one at that. From the man¡¯s words, it was something rted to something called ¡°Krakok¡±. Unfortunately, for some reason, the man decided to change whatever he had nned and left the area.

    Why? And more importantly, what¡¯s a ¡°Krakok¡±?

    An answer came to him the next day.

    ...

    In the morning, Trusan began her job of teaching Dodoro in the mansion yard. Her schedule required them to wander around the suburbs today. However, since Angor asked them to stay in the mansion for some days, she changed her n.

    During their lesson, Trusan saw a small boat moving toward them from the canal. A fat, violent-looking man with a scarred eye dismounted the ship and moved toward them on hurried steps.

    Trusan stopped her lesson and watched the man, who was approaching them, anxiously.

    Even though she didn¡¯t know this individual, it was so obvious that this man wasn¡¯t a kind figure. She was afraid that someone was here to seek trouble.

    However, Trusan¡¯s concern was soon reced by doubt.

    The scarred man suddenly screamed ¡°GHOST!¡± and stumbled backward. Then he kept changing directions while stepping back, which caused him to tread around the same spot instead.

    ¡°He¡¯s gone insane?¡± Trusan wondered.

    After failing to get away from whatever he saw, the fat man¡¯s face went pale. With a final yelp, he fell and fainted.

 Chapter 358 - Meeting Shadow

    Chapter 358: Meeting Shadow

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    In Baal¡¯s dream, he saw those victims he ughtered before.

    These people, who were supposed to be dead, chased after him on their broken bodies. They kept yelling ¡°reveeeeenge...¡± until they forced Baal into a corner.

    ¡°NOOOO!¡±

    When a moving corpse grabbed Baal¡¯s neck with a pair of bloody hands, the man finally fainted in his dream.

    In the next second, Baal bounced up from his bed, panting heavily. His back was covered in his own sweat.

    ¡°That¡¯s... a dream?? But it looks so real!¡±

    ¡°Your nightmares won¡¯t leave you alone. It seems you¡¯ve done many guilty things, Baal.¡±

    A bright male voice came from nearby.

    Baal immediately gazed at who might have just offended him, only to get terrified when he recognized the figure leaning against the door frame.

    Baal stumbled down his bed and almost crawled to his employer on all fours. ¡°Why-why have youe, sir?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s MY question.¡± Angor looked behind and nodded at Trusan tofort her. He then closed the door to join Baal in the room.

    ¡°So, your business?¡± He sat on a sofa and nced at Baal.

    Baal frowned and tried to recall how he ended up on a bed. When Angor began to show signs of impatience, Baal suddenly remembered what happened in the morning.

    Baal was feeling very proud today, since the ¡°powerful and mighty¡± Leonrick actually sent him a letter, pleading for something. It seemed like Leonrick already forgave him for his attempt to kidnap Margot. He even sent him a big gift and asked him to bring a message to ¡°Sir Wizard¡±.

    Baal couldn¡¯t understand why Leonrick did not go visit the wizard on his own, but he didn¡¯t really care since he already received a huge sum of coins.

    After receiving the offer, Baal rode a ship to the mansion. Before he could get in, he saw ¡°ghosts¡±, and soon after, he lost consciousness just like that.

    Baal secretly glimpsed at Angor and wondered if Leonrick tricked him into this mess because he already knew something was around the manor.

    ¡°I... I came here to deliver a message for Leonrick...¡±

    ¡°Leonrick?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°He asked YOU to deliver something?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why, sir. He just used something to trick me¡ªI mean, no! It¡¯s wasn¡¯t a trick!¡± Baal pped his cheek. ¡°Damn my stupid mouth. I mean, his message sounded rather fishy, so I think he¡¯s trying to trick you, sir.¡±

    ¡°Just tell me the message.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s something like... he found a city legend, which described a race called... Krokbara? Kobakara?¡± Baal looked up and frowned. ¡°I can¡¯t remember. I can¡¯t understand any of it.¡±

    ¡°Kobakara?¡± Angor muttered, ¡°You mean ¡®Krakok¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Yes! Yes, that¡¯s it!¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?!¡± Angor grabbed Baal¡¯s cor.

    Baal found his feet leaving the floor and nodded in fear. ¡°That¡¯s right, sir! Krakok! I get it now. That¡¯s exactly what he said to me.¡±

    Angor tossed Baal onto the bed. ¡°If those shadows are called Krakoks, then maybe that manst night...¡±

    He left the room quickly.

    ¡°What about me?¡± Baalined as he watched Angor walked away.

    ...

    Inside the basement area under a dark canal...

    Magician was still studying ¡°Create Water¡±. He almost finished establishing the spell model, but he feared that something might go wrong in thest step, and he wondered whether he should go and ask Mask about it.

    As he pondered, the bronze basement door was suddenly pushed open, revealing Angor in his usual checkered overcoat.

    ¡°Mask?¡± Magician looked at his visitor in shock.

    Someone managed to get inside without triggering any rms?

    ¡°Why are you here?¡± he asked carefully.

    Angor didn¡¯t intend to waste time on useless courtesy this time. He released his mana aura straight away, and Magician stepped back in fear while he tried to establish his most powerful cantrip.

    Before he could though, he heard Angor asking a question.

    ¡°Is this man ¡®Shadow¡¯?¡±

    Magician looked up and saw Angor¡¯s mana energy fusing into a series of nodes, which then created an illusion.

    He knew it was fake because his basement couldn¡¯t see snow and a streetmp.

    ¡°What a realistic illusion...¡± Magician eximed in his mind. How he hoped that he could do something simr.

    Also, he noticed that Mask didn¡¯te for a fight. However, he still maintained the spell model in his mind so that he could use it whenever something went wrong.

    ¡°Is he ¡®Shadow¡¯?¡± Angor grew impatient when Magician stayed silent.

    Magician was still inspecting the fine illusion presented in front of his eyes. If he were to witness it somewhere else, he would definitely appreciate such a sight filled with a sense of loneliness and destion.

    A dark street covered under a nket of white snow, a dimmp, and a man smoking a cigarette.

    The man¡¯s face was covered under the brimmed hat, but Magician still recognized the bright-looking boots and rivet coat.

    ¡°Yes. That¡¯s Shadow.¡±

    ¡°You sure about it?¡±

    ¡°I am. This guy doesn¡¯t talk much, but he always wears showy stuff like that. I see him in that outfit many times. Last time when we visited the bar, he even scratched a dancer with those nails. Wait, you saw Shadowst night?¡±

    It was obvious, judging from the snowy weather in the illusion.

    ¡°Yeah. He talked to me, and he was... weird.¡±

    Magician nodded. ¡°He is. I still don¡¯t know why he joined the previous meetings. I mean, he¡¯s too strong to actually learn anything from the likes of us. He even provided his own knowledge to us. I don¡¯t believe anyone can be so generous.¡±

    Magician didn¡¯t lie. As someone who only believed in the exchange of benefits, he was actually more cautious than Angor when he hung out with Shadow.

    ¡°I see. Thanks.¡± Angor turned away.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Magician chuckled. ¡°I¡¯ve been working on Create Water and need to ask something. I can, right?¡±

    ...

    After leaving Magician¡¯s ce, Angor headed to the suburbs of Water Grasse.

    After learning that Margot¡¯s condition was no ordinary disease, Leonrick took her back home so that she didn¡¯t need to be constantly surrounded by the useless doctors.

    Leonrick hired a group of caretakers to look after Margot. He even nned to ask Tyrael and Caroline to stay in his house. However, after being tortured by Angor¡¯s illusions for three days, Tyrael was in no condition to ept that job.

    In the end, only Caroline agreed to the offer to stay in the count¡¯s manor.

    Right now, Leonrick was discussing with Caroline about how to soothe Margot¡¯s mental condition.

    Margot received quite a shock after learning about her situation. She had been staying in a dark room and refused to see anyone. As her father, Leonrick had to think about how to treat her mental illness first.

    Caroline sighed helplessly. ¡°No one can ept the fact that they¡¯re going toward the abyss with no hope of turning back. If we can¡¯t get her shadow back, she¡¯ll have to face the truth herself and get over it... although I don¡¯t think that¡¯s anything less painful.¡±

    Cyndia broke down again after she heard those words.

    Leonrick held his wife by an arm. ¡°There¡¯s still hope. We have Mister Mask.¡±

    ¡°But... Will he still help us after Tyrael scolded him like that?¡± Cyndia wept badly.

    Caroline looked away in embarrassment. Yesterday, when she went to apologize to Mister Mask, he had shut the door in her face.

    ¡°I... I¡¯m not sure,¡± Leonrick mumbled. He had just sent the information regarding ¡°Krakok¡± to the wizard, but he didn¡¯t know whether it would help.

    A knight dded in silver armor entered the room. ¡°Sir! Mister Mask is here!¡±

    Leonrick quickly stood up while Cyndia also stopped her tears.

    ¡°I... I¡¯ll be right there!¡± Great excitement quickly upied the man¡¯s face.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± Angor said. He was already walking into the room as he said, ¡°We¡¯ll talk right away.¡±

 Chapter 359 - Fairies of the Attic

    Chapter 359: Fairies of the Attic

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Leonrick invited Angor to a seat.

    ¡°Can you help my daughter, Mister Mask?!¡± Cyndia immediately spoke, fearing that Angor would disappear all of a sudden.

    Angor looked at this royal madame who had taken on apletely different look after a mere five days. She looked tired, and her once healthy cheeks had shrunk. Her skin had earned a pale yellow hue instead of her usual white.

    A mother always suffered for her child¡¯s misfortune.

    Angor looked down and thought about his own mother, who devoted her love toward him and Leon until thest second of her life.

    When Angor remained silent, Cyndia quietly sobbed on her seat.

    ¡°Doctor Caroline, can you bring Cyndia to her room?¡± Leonrick tried to remain strong. As the family¡¯sst line of defense, he couldn¡¯t afford to break down now.

    Caroline nodded. ¡°Alright. Thedy needs her rest too.¡±

    ¡°Baal told me you found something?¡± Angor asked after Caroline and Cyndia had left.

    Leonrick hesitated a little. ¡°I¡¯m... not sure. I saw a city legend in the central library...¡±

    Leonrick spoke faster and faster until he finally lost his calm. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem rted to the small shadow, but... but I don¡¯t have anything else! Margot is awake, but she¡ª¡±

    ¡°Stay on topic,¡± Angor interrupted. ¡°Tell me about that rumor.¡±

    Leonrick thought what he found waspletely useless, but since the wizard in front of him seemed interested, he immediately exined in a more serious manner.

    ¡°They said that, one thousand years ago, in a ce called Hippocratee, a race named ¡®Krakok¡¯ lived together with humans. They loved to stay in people¡¯s homes. The locals of Hippocratee called them ¡®little households¡¯ or ¡®Fairies of the Attic¡¯.

    ¡°They were tiny, kind-natured, adept at dancing, and they loved music. They could craft beautiful charms and decorations for houses. Anyone with Krakoks around them would find their lives getting better by the day. For this, people really loved theirpany. They would often offer their spare rooms to the creatures. However, Krakoks usually didn¡¯t wish to cause trouble, so they often found their residence in the attics or under the floor, thus their name.

    ¡°At first, Krakoks shared a finepanionship with mankind. People in Hippocratee believed that a family with Krakoks would enjoy eternal fortune. And, for the same reason, the Krakoks witnessed a terrible fate.

    ¡°One day, a war descended upon Hippocratee, forcing everyone to leave. The war raged on for ten years. When the new dominion was determined, the once lively and prosperous city of Hippocratee had be tattered ruins, which weed its former residents who still thought about returning.

    ¡°The strange thing was, those houses upied by Krakoks were all fine. People found the Krakoks who were still living in the same ces as they waited for their human friends to return.¡±

    Leonrick sighed and continued, ¡°The Krakoks were innocent creatures. They believed that the good old people hade back to them. However... after spending 10 years drifting away from warfare, people changed. They learned many things, and at the same time, lost many things.

    ¡°They learned about greed, depriving, and strife. They had lost the way of goodness, innocence, and wellbeing. These ¡®new people¡¯ of Hippocratee brought devastating disasters to Krakoks. Many Krakoks were captured, sold, or tortured; all just to satisfy the selfishness of men.

    ¡°Next, Krakoks vanished, and they could no longer be found in the course of history.¡±

    Leonrick finished his story with a sadment, ¡°The war did not break their homes because Krakoks had been protecting them while waiting for their masters. Yet...¡±

    ¡°... The Krakoks only weed a group of demons in the end,¡± Angor added his own ending to thement.

    Leonrick nodded. ¡°Krakoks made both the right and the wrong decision to fully trust mankind. They had no idea that the human was the most... inconstant creature in this world.¡±

    Angor pondered over the story. It sounded like something to enlighten kids, to tell them that people should remain kind, and to refuse war and suffering.

    But what if it was real?

    A thousand years ago. War. Hippocratee... Something shed through his mind.

    ¡°Is Hippocratee actually Water Grasse?¡± Angor looked up.

    ¡°Yes... the city in the story was the history of Water Grasse.¡±

    ¡°So the war a thousand years ago was the one that established Zeal Dominion?¡± Angor remembered that part of history. ording to what Baal told him before, Zeal Dominion had existed for roughly a thousand years.

    Leonrick nodded. ¡°It should be. The old king changed the nation¡¯s name to Water Grasse.¡±

    Leonrick shook his head, and he continued, ¡°Forty years ago, when I was 16, I became the leader of Water Grasse. Back then, our people were just like those described in the story. Barrennds and unwholesome environment that gave birth to ill-natured thugs. I spent half of my life improving the city, building better homes, and teaching virtue. And now... we almost seeded.

    ¡°Now, it should be time for me to enjoy the fruit, but my only daughter, she, she¡ª¡± Leonrick began to cry again. ¡°If it is a Krakok who stole my daughter¡¯s shadow, does this mean it¡¯s finally time for us to pay for the sinful deeds of our ancestors?¡±

    Angor waited for Leonrick to settle down a little. ¡°That¡¯s not it.¡±

    ¡°Then... why is this happening?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t exin why they only aim for blond hair and blue eyes,¡± Angor said while he put a hand on his own hair.

    ¡°Sir, is it really a Krakok then?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know yet.¡± Angor thought about how Magician mentioned Shadow¡¯s special taste toward the particr hair and eye color. ¡°But I¡¯m almost certain it is.¡±

    ¡°What should we do? Where can I find this Krakok?¡± Leonrick quickly asked when he saw a possible solution.

    Angor only stood up and bade goodbye to the old man.

    ¡°Thank you for your information. I¡¯ll take my leave for today.¡±

    Leonrick could only watch the young wizard walked away helplessly. Was there no hope for his daughter?

    When Angor hadpletely left his sight, Leonrick covered his face and sobbed quietly.

    Next, he suddenly heard a familiar voice speaking to him.

    ¡°Come find me, if you¡¯re prepared to face a furious wizard who¡¯s capable of burning down the entire Water Grasse.¡±

    ...

    Instead of leaving for real, Angor was hiding somewhere nearby under Infinite Reticence. He wanted to see how his first Voice Transmission worked out.

    And Leonrick¡¯s expression suggested that he had seeded.

    ¡°Which wizard? Is it Magician, that Baal told us about?¡± Leonrick asked loudly.

    After making sure his cantrip worked fine, Angor slowly left the count¡¯s manor.

    ...

    A strange sight in the yard greeted Angor when he returned to Bay District.

    Baal and Dodoro sat together while Trusan sat opposite them with a serious look on her face. Dodoro still looked innocent and carefree, while Baal had his head lowered inplete silence.

    ¡°What, you want to study with Dodoro too, Baal?¡± Angor asked as he entered the yard.

    Baal quickly stumbled to Angor and knelt down. ¡°Please! Take me out, sir! I can¡¯t take it!¡±

    With a running nose, Baal exined his painful experience in the morning.

    Every time he tried to leave, the illusions of his victims woulde haunting him again. He had to go inside the mansion to escape them, and he could only stay inside while he waited for Angor to return.

    Trusan managed to hear his random ramblings when he was troubled by the illusions, which were about how he ughtered countless people in his ¡°career¡±. When Trusan came to scold him, Baal simply tried to threaten her into giving up by his usual violent means. However, the olddy didn¡¯t back down at all. Instead, Trusan began to assault Baal with really harsh lectures.

    And Baal couldn¡¯t really harm Trusan because he knew that Angor hired this woman toe here. In the end, Baal¡¯s only choice was to ept the lectures like a good kid.

    Angor chuckled. ¡°Come on. Granny Trusan only wanted you to amend your ways.¡±

    But I don¡¯t want to! Baalined in his mind.

    ¡°Heh, I see. Baal, from today, you¡¯ll be staying with Trusan. You have to ensure the safety of Trusan and Dodoro. At the same time, maybe you can also learn about how to act like a good man. I¡¯ll allow you to travel in and out of the house.¡±

    Baal shook his head madly. He didn¡¯t want to imagine what those days would be like. Yet he dared not protest for real when he looked at Angor¡¯s devilish grin.

    ¡°Welp, since Baal¡¯s your bodyguard now, you can resume your original n, Granny Trusan,¡± Angor said.

    With that settled, Angor asked Baal toe into the mansion with him.

 Chapter 360 - Gathering of Supernaturals

    Chapter 360: Gathering of Supernaturals

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°I ced an illusion around the house,¡± Angor said to Baal as he sat down on a sofa. ¡°I call it the ¡®trap of mental demons¡¯. It arouses anything you fear most from the depth of your mind.¡±

    Baal shivered. As he expected, it was really something created by this wizard. And... it was only an illusion? He still couldn¡¯t forget how those ghosts choked him like it was a real deal.

    ¡°So, you stepped into the illusion, but how did you get out?¡± Angor asked curiously. He added something else in that simple illusion to trick people¡¯s sense of direction.

    Angor discovered how to maximize the effect of illusions by blocking the human¡¯s five senses some time ago, and he was getting better and better when he learned how to use nightmare illusions.

    Both Lady Mirror and Sunders highly praised his theory. So how did Baal¡ªa mortal¡ªescape from the illusion so easily?

    ¡°Mister Dodoro brought me back, sir,¡± Baal said.

    Dodoro?

    Angor wasn¡¯t expecting that answer.

    He could understand how Dodoro could avoid getting affected by the nightmares as he had an empty mind, but how did Dodoro escape the tricks that blocked human senses?

    Angor believed that any mortals would easily lose their orientations in the illusion and so would supernatural beings who possessed weaker knowledge systems or powers.

    Angor decided to keep that question forter.

    ¡°Give me one of your essories,¡± he said as he reached a hand out toward Baal.

    Baal was a little surprised, and he quickly began to search his pockets.

    He first went for the gold ring on his finger, but on second thought, he feared that the wizard might despise ordinary trinkets, so he took out an exquisite-looking casket instead.

    When Angor opened the container, he saw a pink earring decorated with a rose.

    It was a gift Baal took with him today, which he nned to give his girlfriend. But since the great wizard asked for it...

    ¡°Are you sure you will give me this?¡± Angor checked the girlish essory and gave Baal a weird look.

    Baal nodded quickly. ¡°This is an exclusive collection made by the best goldsmith in the city. It¡¯s all yours, sir!¡±

    ¡°Well, I won¡¯t take it. It¡¯s meant for you.¡±

    Angor injected some mana into the earring and deployed a micro illusion on it.

    ¡°For... for me?¡± Baal was confused.

    Angor handed it back to Baal with a smile. ¡°Put it on and you can avoid that mental illusion. Come on, try it out. You¡¯re going to guard Trusan and Dodoro tomorrow.¡±

    Why didn¡¯t you say that earlier?! Baal bellowed in his mind.

    ¡°But, but I thought¡ª¡±

    ¡°No buts. I must say that I wasn¡¯t expecting you to have such a... peculiar taste.¡±

    ¡°Can I keep it in my pocket? Sir, I... don¡¯t have a piercing on my ears, as you see,¡± Baal said, and he almost cried. His finger ring would be a way better choice!

    ¡°You must put it outside so that the nodes aren¡¯t blocked.¡±

    Without giving Baal any time to react, Angor held the earring using Hand of Spell and forced it into Baal¡¯s left ear.

    A drop of blood gave the rose emblem on the essory an even brighter look.

    ¡°Oh, it suits you well. Now go,¡± Angor said with a grin, ¡°and don¡¯t remove it until I leave Water Grasse. Oh, and before you leave, don¡¯t forget to ask Trusan about her schedule.¡±

    Baal nodded sadly and left the manor while he covered his ear with one hand.

    Trusan came to Angor next. ¡°What happened to his ear?¡±

    ¡°Who knows, perhaps he¡¯s happy about something,¡± Angor said and chuckled.

    ¡°Happy?¡± Trusan didn¡¯t quite understand why the thug would be happy after receiving her lectures.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it a happy thing for one to find his old self?¡±

    When Angor returned to his own room, Trusan stayed in ce and pondered over what she just heard.

    Old self?

    ...

    The city had fallen asleep at night.

    Angor came to Dodoro¡¯s room and saw the young man huddled up under the nket like a kitten.

    Without waking Dodoro, Angor used the room to deploy a small illusion.

    The illusion was only a simple lump of mist, but Angor also tried to block Dodoro¡¯s sense of direction.

    He then retreated outside and used Hand of Spell to shake Dodoro awake.

    Dodoro sat up and looked around the misty room in confusion. He then fell down and began to snore again.

    Angor facepalmed.

    Again, he shook Dodoro. This time, before Dodoro could lie down, he said ¡°Come out¡± in a small voice.

    Dodoro¡¯s ears twitched upon hearing Angor¡¯s voice. He headed straight to the door of his room and looked at Angor with a bright smile.

    Angor facepalmed again.

    The trick that¡¯s supposed to affect Dodoro¡¯s mind didn¡¯t work at all?

    Angor considered and smiled back at Dodoro. In the next second, Dodoro felt his vision getting blurry. He saw Angor bing a Cloud Leopard which lunged at him at great speed.

    Dodoro ducked toward one side in fear.

    The beast suddenly disappeared, and Angor was standing at the door again.

    ¡°Goodnight, you can sleep now,¡± Angor said with a smile.

    Dodoro was still confused, but heplied without saying anything else.

    Angor returned to his room again and thought about his test.

    ¡°Just like at the hunter¡¯s house... illusions can trick his eyes, but not his senses? Maybe Akeso¡¯s blood had granted Dodoro a higher level of mana energy? No. That would prevent all illusions from working.¡±

    Angor tried, but he failed to think about any viable answer, so he simply gave up. Dodoro held too many secrets, and he needed to be patient.

    For now, he would continue working on his next cantrip¡ªHeal.

    This one required knowledge about basic human body structure, which Angor already learned from all the western and eastern medical theories he obtained from Jon¡¯s sses.

    ...

    Time always went by extremely fast whenever he immersed himself in his studies. Soon, it was time for the meeting with the other supernaturals.

    Leonrick never came again. It was probably because the count was terrified when he heard that he had to face ¡°the rage of a wizard who could destroy Water Grasse¡±. Angering a great wizard MIGHT save his daughter, but it would definitely bring doom to Water Grasse. It was a hard choice.

    And Angor only went to visit Leonrick because of Shadow and Krakok. He didn¡¯t intend to help the shadowless patients for real.

    He had no time to care about someone else¡¯s trouble when his own future was still unclear.

    Compared to Krakoks, Angor was more curious about Pocratee. How did a ne passageway appear over there? Why did the rainbow dragonflies settle down, and why did they guard the ce for a thousand years? And what about that wizard-level monster, Akeso?

    Still, he thought about these questions purely out of curiosity. To him, these matters didn¡¯t have imminent profit, so they weren¡¯t important. He wasn¡¯t one of those apprentices who had been stuck at their bottleneck for decades and desperately needed to find a destiny out of random stuff.

    The real concern for him now was to find a way back to either Brute Cavern or straight to Floating Mech City.

    And he would rely on today¡¯s meeting.

    If he still couldn¡¯t find an answer from the participants, he had to prepare to travel around again.

    The meeting was due at midnight. He needed to prepare something first¡ªa material list.

    He nned to purchase or exchange for some materials from people so that he could craft a vehicle item.

    No matter what the oue of the meeting was, he would need to leave the city, and he preferred not to continue his journey on foot.

    While learning new cantrips, he spent some time looking into how to make alchemy vehicles. There were instructions on how to create low-level ones in Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy.

    The core of a vehicle was its ¡°engine¡±. He wasn¡¯t going to design one by himself because he had already found something which he could work on, which came at an eptable cost.

    Still, the other parts of the vehicle were problems that had to be solved.

    He needed to build a ¡°shell¡± around the engine. In most cases, shells were crafted from nontiered materials. Angor had a lot of valuable materials saved up but not cheap ones that he could use in bulks.

    This was why he thought about buying some materials from the apprentices during the meeting. Even ¡°amateurs¡± should at least have some cheap stuff at hand.

 Chapter 361 - Deadmenâ€™s Dent

    Chapter 361: Deadmen¡¯s Dent

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    A crow with glowing red eyes glided under the dark night andnded on Magician¡¯s hand.

    Magician removed a small paper from the crow¡¯s leg before he released it.

    [Deadmen¡¯s Dent, Hollow Wood]

    ¡°Here? What¡¯s Michel thinking?¡± Magician frowned and handed the paper to Angor.

    Since Angor needed Magician to take him to the meeting, he decided to wait at Magician¡¯s ce. He had been at Magician¡¯s ce since eight in the evening.

    Unfortunately, the message that announced the meeting ce only arrived when it was almost midnight.

    ¡°Who¡¯s Michel? Is that a real name?¡± Angor read the paper and didn¡¯t recognize the name at all.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. He¡¯s in charge of telling us the message this time. We use a different man for each meeting.¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t someone use this chance to set everyone else up?¡±

    Magician shook his head. ¡°No one will. To us, the meeting is our only chance of improving.¡±

    Angor nodded. He assumed that these dabblers didn¡¯t possess anything worth taking anyway. Being alive meant being useful.

    ¡°Let¡¯s move. If not for you, I won¡¯t be going to such a ce,¡± Magicianined.

    ¡°Is there a problem?¡±

    ¡°No, but... rumor has it that the ce is haunted. I once went there to check and didn¡¯t find anything. It smelled terrible though.¡±

    ¡°Deadmen¡¯s Dent... that doesn¡¯t sound good to me.¡±

    ¡°Of course it doesn¡¯t. That¡¯s a huge graveyard! The Hollow Wood is among the Byzan Mountains, and the dent is where the rangers ce corpses. Grave robbers, folks killed by beasts... They toss them all in there. The dent¡¯s filled with filth after all the years,¡± Magician said as he scowled.

    Angor thought about how Magician described the previous meetings, which all appeared as great feasts. Even if they wanted to stay low, they should at least choose somewhere like an ancient castle.

    No wonder Magician looked so disgusted.

    ...

    They left the city and headed for the Hollow Wood as fast as they could.

    As they traveled, Angor began to notice that they were walking on the exact same path from where he came to Water Grasse, and when he finally saw the ¡°Hollow Wood¡±, it proved his assumption.

    These woods were what Angor went through after he left the ranger¡¯s house. He still remembered that he sensed something strange when he traveled in there before. The dense trees covered most of the sunlight. It appeared dark even at the brightest noon. More importantly, Angor sensed a deathly aura among the trees.

    He already assumed that there were many bodies buried under the trees, but now, he knew that his guess was mostly true.

    ¡°We¡¯re here. The Deadmen¡¯s Dent,¡± Magician said as he pointed to a dark tunnel entrance.

    It was located between several lush trees, which were about five or six meters tall. Even though the inside was too dark for Angor to see further in, he could already smell something rotten.

    ¡°Well, the trees are growing so well thanks to this thing,¡± Magician said as he looked into the tunnel. He really didn¡¯t want to go into that stench.

    But when he thought about what Angor could possibly provide during the meeting, he still jumped inside, while pinching his nose.

    Angor followed suit. He asked Toby to stay alert in case anything happened. Now that he witnessed the terrible gathering spot for real, he realized that something had to be wrong with whoever that made the choice.

    ¡°Oh f*ck that Michel. I¡¯ll let him know how to make better choicester,¡± Magician murmured as hended on solid ground. He then took out a small lighter.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Angor quickly dragged the man when he smelled rotten corpse smell as well as dangerous gas.

    With a flicker of mind, he cast Light. Soon enough, the area was bright enough for them to see.

    There were corpses everywhere. Some already turned to bones, while some were on their way there. Magician jumped a little when he saw a half-rotten corpse right beside his feet, where white maggots and ck dung beetles were busy doing their jobs.

    Magician kicked the corpse¡¯s head away. ¡°How could anyone even think about eating in this sh*thole? Is Michel trying to annoy us??¡±

    Angor nced at Magician. He¡¯s still thinking about eating?

    ¡°So... we need to go in deeper?¡± Angor saw a path ahead which only led toward more darkness.

    ¡°Should be,¡± Magician said as he moved ahead. Meanwhile, Angor lowered his top hat to weaken his presence.

    ¡°It¡¯s that ¡®Light¡¯ cantrip, right?¡± Magician asked. He sounded jealous as he continued, ¡°Nice... you know way more spells than me.¡±

    Angor smiled without answering.

    At first, Magician attempted to press some information out of Angor to help him learn the cantrip, but since Angor insisted on staying quiet, he simply gave up in the end.

    The silence continued until they reached the end of the path.

    There was a door, which was already opened. A number of people were sitting around a round table inside where only one seat remained.

    Everyone turned around to look at Magician while smiling.

    ¡°Come on, Magician. We¡¯re all waiting on you.¡± A brown-haired young man on the main seat waved a hand.

    Magician didn¡¯t return the friendly gesture. He only yelled back, ¡°What the actual f*ck, Michel?! Why here?¡±

    Michel grinned. ¡°You aren¡¯t bored with food and drinks every time? Well, surprise!¡±

    ¡°Surprise my a*s!¡±

    ¡°Ohh, nice. It¡¯s only half a year, and you learned how to cast Light?¡± Michel didn¡¯t mind Magician¡¯s anger at all. He left his seat and went to drag Magician inside with the same smile.

    ¡°It¡¯s not¡ª¡± Magician tried to introduce Angor, but when he turned around, he didn¡¯t find anyone there. The Light cantrip was gone as well.

    When Magician was pulled inside, he tried to look back at the door to find Angor, only to see Michel in his way.

    ¡°Stay for a while, since you already came.¡± Michel grinned in a strange way.

    Magician quickly got a worse feeling upon seeing the weird expression on Michel. He looked around the room and saw everyone smiling at him in unnatural manners. It was as if they were forced to do so.

    ¡°What¡¯s... going on here? Vennie? Chief? Long-Ear? Pluto?¡± Magician called their names but no one responded.

    Next, Magician looked at someone with a wide-brimmed hat. ¡°Shadow?¡±

    This time, the man that he addressed made a gesture by removing his hat. ¡°My my, it¡¯s been pretty long.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Shadow?¡± Magician slowly stepped back from the others. He already sensed a terrible crisis approaching him.

    But Michel was behind him to stop his track. Also, Michel was still carrying the same stiff smile. It was almost as if he were a stringed puppet.

    ¡°What do you mean? Come and join our meeting already. I¡¯m going to tell you something really good today,¡± Shadow said as he pointed at the only vacant seat.

    ¡°N-no. I need to attend to something else outside,¡± Magician stuttered.

    However, before he could turn around, the thick bronze door of the room shut close with a loud ¡°Bam¡±.

    Magician reached the door and pulled, only to find he couldn¡¯t. Not without a key.

    ¡°What are you nning? To rob my stuff? I don¡¯t have anything you need!¡± Magician remembered Mask¡¯s words, that someone could use the meeting as a trap. And he just said it was impossible...

    Wait, Mask! Where¡¯s he? Did he notice the problem beforehand and hide somewhere nearby?

    With that in mind, Magician quickly tried to call for help.

    ¡°Help¡ª¡±

    A small shadow suddenly came down on him and brushed past his face. Before Magician could react, the shadow pulled Magician¡¯s shadow away and stuffed it into a small sack.

    With a series of strange giggles, the small figure jumped onto Shadow¡¯s shoulder and handed the sack to its master. Shadow then rubbed the figure¡¯s tiny head as apliment.

    ¡°What... was that?¡± Magician felt faint for a moment. Unlike the other shadowless victims, he did not lose consciousness right away.

    ¡°This, my friend,¡± Shadow said as he stroked the sack, ¡°is my spoil.¡±

    Spoil?

    Magician quickly looked under himself.

    ¡°My shadow¡ªso it was really you who¡¯s been causing the ruckus in the city!¡±

    ¡°Oh my...¡± Shadow raised an eyebrow. ¡°When did you find that out?¡±

    Magician was beginning to breathe heavily. ¡°Blond hair and blue eyes... Khabazar and... John... Junior...¡±

    ¡°Ohh, that. Well, I didn¡¯t expect you to be the smart one around here. Let me see... to smart people goes the reward.¡±

    Shadows stretched his hands. Several white strings were suddenly released from his ten fingers, and the strings rushed into the sack that contained Magician¡¯s shadow.

    A tiny human-shaped figure was dragged out of the sack.

    The figure shared almost the same body features as Magician himself, just a lot smaller and... ck.

    Shadow used his strings to force the small figure to move on the table.

    Meanwhile, Magician¡¯s body followed the puppet¡¯s example and slowly moved around while he carried the same ¡°dumb¡± expression like everyone else.

    A real, living puppet that was manipted by Shadow.

 Chapter 362 - Door

    Chapter 362: Door

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Using countless strings, Shadow could control every part and joint on Magician¡¯s body.

    Shadow began to hum a small melody. Following the music, Magician began to perform a solo dance.

    The man jumped, spun, and hopped with superior agility.

    When Magician bowed as a finale, Shadow released some more strings, which controlled the shadow of another pink-haireddy sitting across from him.

    Controlled by the trick, thedy joined the music and danced together with Magician.

    When Shadow¡¯s music ended, Magician and thedy both bowed again, while holding each other¡¯s arms.

    Shadow recovered his white strings and ced Magician¡¯s shadow in the middle of the table. A tiny round table was ced in the middle of nine tinier chairs, which made it appear as if a child had been ying house.

    Seven small shadows already sat there when Magician and the pinkdy¡¯s shadows filled the remaining seats.

    ¡°Did you like your reward? A fine dance to celebrate the end of your own life, together with the girl you secretly loved,¡± Shadow said with a chuckle. ¡°And I¡¯ll be your personal musician. You should feel honored!¡±

    A white string reached out again, forcing Magician to nod.

    Magician had fallen under the same trick which affected everyone else in the room. He slowly grinned as he said up in a robotic tone, ¡°Thank you, my, master.¡±

    Shadow grinned to himself. Then, he slowly lifted his head.

    ¡°What about you? Are you satisfied?¡±

    ...

    Angor had been staying cautious since he entered the dent.

    Or rather, he always was while he walked among the trees, especially when he remembered that he saw the strange small shadow right here, on the day when he left the ranger house.

    Back then, he thought it was a squirrel or something. Now that he learned many things in the city, he believed the shadow looked very simr to the one he saw in Count Leonrick¡¯s manor.

    Was that a Krakok? If so, the Krakoks always lurked around the city?

    So Shadow was controlling the Krakoks? What was he nning to do?

    It couldn¡¯t be mere coincidence that someone picked the ¡°Deadmen¡¯s Dent¡± in these particr woods as the meeting spot.

    Angor¡¯s questions forced him to keep alert. When he saw the door at the end of the path was left wide open, he immediately activated Infinite Reticence to hide.

    It wasn¡¯t natural for someone to build a room inside a corpse pit. Judging from the marks, this ce was carved out recently.

    Angor believed that the Krakoks created this temporary ce just for the scheduled meeting.

    It was probably Shadow who distributed the message, not Michel.

    Angor had been staying hidden inside the room so that he could find out Shadow¡¯s n. To prevent any unwanted surprises, he had used all means of protection he had, including Toby.

    Of course, he saw everything that just happened.

    It seemed Magician lost his own consciousness after being affected by the white strings.

    Angor couldn¡¯t understand the point of that strange dance in the end.

    When Shadow asked a question to someone other than Magician, Angor began to wonder if he was already exposed.

    ¡°Magician¡¯s friend, my dear. Won¡¯t you give me your apuse for the brilliant performance?¡±

    Angor believed that Shadow already noticed his presence since there had to be some kind of sentries outside the door that saw him before he activated Infinite Reticence.

    He also believed that Shadow couldn¡¯t tell his exact position now. Angor was confident with the capability of his Infinite Reticence, which could even fool someone as powerful as Lady Mirror.

    Shadow waited for a while and didn¡¯t receive any response.

    He had been pretending to be calm and well-prepared, but he almost lost his fakeposure because he already lost track of whoever it was that apanied Magician in here.

    He did all those shows just to trick the unknown intruder into giving out himself, but it seemed that his n had failed.

    ¡°He already left?¡± Shadow pondered. However, he quickly thought otherwise as the barrier that he ced around the entrance of the tunnel was still intact.

    Someone was still inside this room!

    Shadow released more white strings, which began to scan over the room.

    Angor slowly stepped back. Infinite Reticence couldn¡¯t make his body disappear. The strings would detect him sooner orter in this small room.

    But he had another choice, which was to ¡°erge¡± the room.

    With quick work, a spell was made.

    His Nightmare Domain was slowly spread open. The narrow and dark room gradually turned into arge guest hall in front of Shadow¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°An illusion?¡± Shadow frowned. Using his strings, he realized that the boundaries of the room had grown much bigger. He knew about certain illusion arrays that could simterger environment bybining alchemy and magic arrays.

    He stood up and controlled all the ¡°puppets¡± to walk around the hall.

    He suddenly sidestepped as a golden arrow that shone with magic power pierced the space to his side. It surely would have wounded him badly if not for his timely reaction.

    ¡°So, an illusion array it is.¡± Shadow nced at the arrow stuck in the wall and grimaced. ¡°Come. Show yourself,¡± he said into the thin air. ¡°I don¡¯t wish to fight you because of a fool like Magician or the other useless wizard wannabes. Now that you¡¯ve shown me your strength, how about a fair talk?¡±

    He spoke in a sincere manner while slowly lifting his hands over his head as if asking for peace.

    Angor silently scoffed. His Nightmare Domain allowed him to see every detail, including Shadow¡¯s small moves. He saw the man released three small figures under the table.

    Three Krakoks.

    As long as they were inside the Nightmare Domain, Angor could inspect the figures carefully even if they were hidden in darkness.

    They looked exactly like humans, only smaller and darker-skinned. Their ck hooded overalls caused them to look like clumps of shady imps.

    Angor already saw their bright eyes glimmering in the dark.

    The three Krakoks were carefully looking around the area and moving in unison, while Shadow was inspecting the illusion by some other means.

    Angor fixed his attention on the small creatures. He sensed mana ripples from them.

    Apprentices. Low-level ones.

    Angor tried to cast Bind to capture the Krakoks, but as soon as the ropes materialized in the air, the Krakoks screamed and created a small door that allowed them to escape.

    ¡°It happened again!¡± Angor could no longer sense their presence in the Nightmare Domain.

    Was that a spell that allowed inter-space travel? Usually, spells like these were only avable to wizards. However, there were certain races with the right talents that could do this as well.

    As Angor pondered about the question, Shadow immediately dashed toward him and released an area-of-effect cantrip at his location.

    He had overlooked Shadow¡¯s movement when looking at the Krakoks!

    Angor cast Bind in a concealed way so that it would be hard to notice, but a warning from the Krakoks still gave his location out.

    Shadow was moving so fast with the help of wind elements, and Angor didn¡¯t have enough time to escape or cast another nightmare illusion. Out of desperation, he ordered a group of music teacups to block the attack.

    Most of the iing attacknded on the teacups, while a portion of it managed to reach Angor, knocking him away and breaking his sneak effect.

    At the same time, Shadow also stumbled backward with a painful yelp.

    Shadow believed that his Bloodline-enhanced instant level-2 cantrip was enough to kill an unwary level-3 apprentice. He didn¡¯t expect a number of... teacups to suddenly get in the way and bounce his power back.

    The teacups grew weaker after being separated from the nightmare tunnel, and many of them were shattered by Shadow¡¯s attacks. However, the attacks were still dampened and partially reflected, which inflicted serious damage to Shadow.

 Chapter 363 - Carelessness

    Chapter 363: Carelessness

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor crashed onto the ground and felt his windpipe blocked for a moment.

    While trying not to faint, he mmed his chest again and again. Finally, he managed to force a lump of congealed blood out of his throat.

    He still felt pain in his chest, but at least he could breathe again.

    Meanwhile, the noise of someone brawling came from the distance. Angor looked up and saw Toby already on top of Shadow.

    Shadow seemed badly hurt by his own reflected attack. A giant wound on his head gave out so much blood that the ground underneath him was almostpletely red.

    Shadow was then ambushed by Toby. The bird¡¯s gravity attack, which was as powerful as peak-level cantrips, mmed into his chest and broke several of his ribs.

    To Shadow, it was the first time he was in such a bad shape ever since he came to the mortal world.

    ¡°Damn bird!¡± Shadow managed to cast Heal while he endured great pain. When his bleeding was stopped, he cursed again and triggered his bloodline power.

    The power of a mutated Earthen Smander¡ªa Magma Smander.

    Angor watched as the wounded body of Shadow slowly stood up and began to change.

    Shadow¡¯s eyes gradually turned ck, while his pupils shone with a dark green hue. The man¡¯s skin went red and began to release hot vapor, while several de-sharp bone pikes came growing under his skin!

    ¡°Bloodline ability!¡± Angor quickly realized what just happened. This would exin how Shadow healed so fast.

    Bloodlinebined with a level-2 Quickened cantrip...

    A Quickened cantrip meant something that did not require cast time. Angor only managed to survive from it because of the killed teacups.

    And if Shadow didn¡¯t have a special power like Toby¡¯s ¡°gravity sequence¡±, then the man had to have used a spell slot.

    A ¡°spell slot¡± was a special location built within one¡¯s spirit model, which could hold the model of a spell permanently. This permanent spell model would allow the wizard to cast the spell instantly.

    Spell slots were usually something avable to wizards. An apprentice had to reach his or her final bottleneck to open up a spell slot at the cost of huge time and effort, as well as a spirit model solid enough to support a spell slot.

    It meant that someone who owned a spell slot was either a wizard who already had a solid spirit model or a non-wizard who managed to establish a fine model by using a decent channeling method.

    It was very likely that Shadow had been studying such a channeling method.

    A special channeling method suggested that Shadow came from a formal wizard organization. There was absolutely no way a random amateur could obtain such confidential knowledge.

    And this meant a possible way back to Brute Cavern!

    Previously, Angor nned to talk with the participants and exchange for something he needed. Now that Shadow decided to flip the table and do it the hard way, he would ept the challenge.

    Toby was still engaged with Shadow. Thanks to his talent, Toby knew some attacks as powerful as level-3 cantrips, but he still couldn¡¯tpete with a real level-3 apprentice.

    Using his great speed, Toby managed to hold off Shadow¡¯s attacks. He would have already lost if Shadow were in his top condition.

    And as Shadow¡¯s bloodline power healed his wounds, it was only a matter of time before Toby would be defeated.

    ¡°Toby, keep him busy but don¡¯t fight him head-on! Just buy me some time!¡±

    Angor prepared to deploy another illusion, but a sudden pain in his chest forced him to kneel down again.

    His mortal body was failing because of the previous wound.

    His movement sessfully caught Shadow¡¯s attention. The man¡¯s monster bloodline was slowly chipping away his sanity, but when he noticed Angor, he quickly regained some consciousness and unleashed his white strings toward Angor.

    ¡°YOU! I let you livest time, and you would still bother me?!¡± Shadow no longer cared about Toby¡¯s attacks. He fully aimed his strings at Angor¡¯s head.

    ¡°I¡¯m here for the damn meeting! Why did you suddenly go nuts anyway?!¡± Angor found it funny that Shadow actually thought it was ¡°showing mercy¡± when they met on the streetst time.

    Angor summoned an ice wall as cover while he ordered the nightmare monsters to assault Shadow.

    It seemed Shadow was determined to take him down no matter the cost. The manpletely ignored all other attacks by using his superior healing effect; all just so he could end Angor and everything.

    Angor desperately went over his options.

    His revolver and trigger crossbow wouldn¡¯t work well against a level-3 apprentice.

    With a quick decision, he ced the rainbow dragonfly, which was in his Nightmare Domain, in front of Shadow.

    Shadow simply tried to eliminate the sudden monster, but he didn¡¯t know that the wanderer dragonfly was almost as strong as a level-3 apprentice.

    As Angor expected, the dragonfly sessfully kept Shadow in check for the moment.

    Using the chance, he forced himself to stand up and cast nightmare illusions to disrupt Shadow¡¯s moves.

    He first tried to trick Shadow¡¯s mind, only to find that the great power gap between them had prevented all mental effects from working.

    He needed something else.

    He then tried to block Shadow¡¯s senses by using the ¡°home court advantage¡± of his Nightmare Domain. Again, due to Shadow¡¯s strength, the trick couldn¡¯t retain its usual effect. Angor could only trap Shadow for a brief moment, but he couldn¡¯t break through Shadow¡¯s defenses.

    Angor never thought he would seed so easily. He calmed down and began to deploy a new illusion in his domain.

    It drained a great portion of his strength.

    About ten secondster, when Shadow was about to lunge at him again, the nightmare aura in Angor¡¯s domain began to shift, and a new nightmare illusion engulfed Shadow.

    ...

    When Shadow recovered his five senses, he found himself standing inside a white mist.

    He slowly tuned down his bloodline power and only kept up the basic defensive and healing powers. A bloodline user¡¯s worst choice was to break the ¡°threshold¡± of his power andpletely lose his mind. Shadow almost reached that point while fending off all the attacks.

    He wasn¡¯t expecting his enemy to present him with another illusion instead of attacking him.

    ¡°The mist is obviously an illusion. So that young apprentice is an Illusionist?¡±

    Still, he couldn¡¯t recall any illusion skills that would block his five senses.

    As he pondered over the situation, a shadowshed out from the mist and lunged at him with great power. Shadow quickly triggered his bloodline again and retaliated.

    Nothing happened. The shadow suddenly disappeared.

    Soon, another shadow materialized from the mist. Shadow managed to take a good look this time. It was a giant fox about three meters tall.

    ¡°A Blood Vixen?!¡± he yelled out in shock. The creature was a high-level being used by powerful summoners.

    He didn¡¯t unleash his attack. Something convinced him that he only needed to use a white string.

    As the string approached, the fox shadow dissipated into nothing.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s fake...¡±

    When another shadow came, Shadow only tried to wave it away, only to be knocked flying by a great force.

    ¡°That stupid bird again!¡± Shadow braced himself and could no longer see anything. He realized that his enemy was trying to wear him down bybining real and fake attacks.

    ¡°Heh. Nice try. With my strings, I¡¯ll break your illusion nodes in no time.¡±

    Shadow released his white strings around him again, both to protect himself and to scan for illusion nodes.

    His ¡°puppet string¡± was his signature ability. It both allowed him to control other people and to sense his surroundings.

    But his confidence was soon reced by doubt.

    ¡°I can¡¯t find any nodes?¡±

 Chapter 364 - Fairy World

    Chapter 364: Fairy World

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    After he finished setting up his illusion, Angor immediately sat on the ground and panted badly. His clothes were drenched in sweat.

    ¡°I... it was so tiring, to deploy an illusion inside Nightmare Domain...¡± He almost exhausted his mana reserve to create a low-level illusion which was mostly thick mist.

    Then, he looked at Shadow, who was wandering aimlessly in the illusion. At least it looked sessful.

    The tactic was described by Sunders in The Mystery of Nightmare Domain. ording to Sunders, he could turn everything to his advantage by deploying illusions right inside his Nightmare Domain, and since such illusions did not have breakable nodes, it meant anyone trapped in them would find it extremely hard to escape.

    This was caused by the indescribable nature of a Nightmare Domain. As a peculiar illusion itself, a Nightmare Domain was filled with countless illusion nodes, which instead appeared as if there were no nodes at all. Another illusion did not require nodes to exist in such a case since the domain itself would support the illusion fully.

    In his book, Sunders didn¡¯t rmend such a tactic since it was only manageable by someone adept at manipting a Nightmare Domain. If a victim managed to break the illusion, it meant breaking the Nightmare Domain as well.

    A Nightmare Domain was a valuable asset. It could be repaired like a broken mirror, but it would also leave ¡°scars¡± behind like a broken mirror.

    Unfortunately, Angor didn¡¯t really have a choice now. He thought he could let the parasite go into Shadow¡¯s body, but then, he realized he couldn¡¯t. The parasite wouldn¡¯t upy anyone when there was rich nightmare aura around. Besides, there were many people in the room, and he couldn¡¯t control the parasite at will yet.

    This was why Angor chose a more ¡°reliable approach¡±.

    And it worked, at least for now. Shadow wasn¡¯t going to escape from that mist any time soon.

    Angor sighed and began to order Toby and the other nightmare monsters to attack Shadow in order to eat away the man¡¯s stamina.

    It was a slow process too. Angor had to cycle between real and fake attacks to slowly damage Shadow¡¯s patience.

    At first, Shadow would keep yelling something like ¡°I¡¯m so gonna kill you!¡± furiously. Now, the man had changed his attitude entirely.

    ¡°Stop! Please! Let¡¯s talk this over!

    ¡°What do you want? I¡¯ll give you anything as long as I can!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t mind him at all. He might as well capture Shadow alive and proceed from there.

    While Toby led the assaults, Angor began to meditate in order to regain his spent mana as soon as possible.

    About an hourter, he managed to recover most of his mana reserve.

    Meanwhile, Shadow almost exhausted his own power. His healing ability could no longer stop new wounds from showing up now. As he lost more blood, his ¡°Smander Form¡± gradually disappeared.

    In the end, Shadow copsed on the floor helplessly.

    Curse it all! How did I run into a tough guy out here?!

    Shadowined in his mind. He was nning to use the puppets to enter the ¡°Otherworld¡±, but now, something just ruined his n at the veryst moment.

    He still had onest secret trick up his sleeves but using it would prevent him from going to the Otherworld for a while, as well as sending his preparations over these years down the drain.

    ¡°F*ck you, asshole. Do you really wish to fight till ourst breath?¡± Shadow huffed painfully.

    Since he had regained enough strength, Angor retorted this time, ¡°Do I need to remind you who caused this first?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m sorry! I can pay you something, alright?¡±

    ¡°Toote. I guess I¡¯ll just take it from you.¡±

    ¡°Ha! But can you take what¡¯s inside my mind?¡±

    Shadow saw Angor was unresponsive, and he revealed a smile. ¡°So, what do you want? My knowledge? Channeling method? Cantrips? Information? I can give you anything as long as you let me go.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reply. He asked Toby and the dragonfly to keep suppressing Shadow.

    Shadow clenched his teeth and endured several more attacks. That damned bird and strange insect seemed tired as well because the attacks hurt less than before. However, he wouldn¡¯t be able to take many more of them at such a rate. Soon, his mana would be emptied, and his own flesh would be exposed to harm.

    He considered and decided to use hisst move as a bluff.

    ¡°My professor is visiting your organization! You know who that is, right? Are you really going to do this? As I said, I can give you anything you want! If you don¡¯t give up, I¡¯ll use myst tool even if it costs years of my effort! And I don¡¯t know what will happen, mind you.¡±

    Shadow was already going to exin what his st move¡± was, but he was surprised to notice that the young attacker wasn¡¯t interested at all.

    ¡°Your professor is at our organization? Do you even know who I am?¡±

    ¡°What¡ªyou¡¯re not from Silent Hill? But that¡¯s the only organization around here, in the real world!¡±

    Real world? Silent Hill?

    Angor searched around his mind and failed to find anything rted to those concepts.

    ¡°You¡¯re not one of them?¡± Shadow tried again when he noticed Angor¡¯s confused reaction. ¡°So are you from... Dark Castle?¡±

    Angor¡¯s eyes brightened upon hearing that name. ¡°Do you mean the Dark Castle under Fairytown?¡±

    ¡°Huh... You¡¯re not from Dark Castle then. You¡¯re not even from Fairy World.¡±

    ¡°This is Fairy World?¡± Angor asked, which also confirmed Shadow¡¯s question.

    ¡°Yes, this is Fairy World! So which organization are you from? Don¡¯t tell me you are frence. I don¡¯t believe it.¡± Shadow realized that Angor had been asking for locations and their names. He wondered if this young man came here identally without going through any ne passage.

    The Fairy World, like the Brilliance ne, was another ¡°appendage¡± ne of the wizarding world, which shared the same seasons and time cycles. There were certain fixed passageways to travel into these nes, which might appear as a door, ake, or a small well. The entrance to Fairy World was a hole located at the base of an ancient tree.

    People had to pay something to go through these entrances. Sometimes they needed to offer a sacrifice or bring a valuable magic nt with them. The cost of entering Fairy World was fairly cheap, which was only 10 magic crystals. Those who paid the price would receive a general map of the Fairy World from the office near the entrance.

    ¡°A smuggler?¡± Shadow wondered.

    A smuggler wasn¡¯t an issue in the appendage nes since every wizard knew how to create their own ne passageway.

    ¡°But this young one is obviously an apprentice... Did someone bring him here?¡±

    As Shadow went over his thoughts, Angor tried to remember everything he knew about Fairy World.

    Fairy World was solely dominated by Fairytown. ¡°Fairytown¡± was a general name that referred to a number of wizard organizations that joined one single union. For example, Candy House was one of them, and it gave birth to most of the known gourmet wizards around the southern wizarding region.

    There were also the Rainbow Forest, Heaven Tree, Dark Castle...

    Despite the knowledge though, how to get out of here was still a problem for Angor to solve.

    ¡°You saw that Krakok leaving, right?¡± Shadow said, ¡°Their door can take them to or from the other worlds.¡±

    ¡°And?¡±

    ¡°Heh. I¡¯m saying that I don¡¯t need to use myst move to get the message out to someone, including my professor.¡±

    ¡°You threatening me?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a fact. Again, I can tell you any information you want, and I can take you away from Fairy World too. Or give you a map. You showed me your strength, and I¡¯ll respect you. We can talk peacefully.¡±

    Angor looked at Shadow¡¯s battered body and didn¡¯t point out that the man was in no ce for a ¡°peaceful talk¡±. Still, he was a little worried about Shadow¡¯s ¡°secret move¡±. The student of a major organization could definitely possess something powerful.

    ¡°How can I trust your words?¡± Angor thought about it and asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ll swear in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness. Otherwise, we can make a temporary covenant.¡±

 Chapter 365 - Kurnaâ€™s Temporary Covenant

    Chapter 365: Kurna¡¯s Temporary Covenant

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    After careful consideration, Angor decided to make a covenant with Shadow.

    Compared to swearing to the world¡¯s consciousness, a written magic covenant was better and more convenient for restricting apprentices.

    To apprentices, who didn¡¯t know how to check the ¡°integrity¡± of a contract bymunicating with the world¡¯s consciousness, it was easy to leave ¡°bugs¡± by using tricky words. This was why Angor chose to use a weaker but safer approach with Shadow.

    Of course, Shadow could also attempt to leave defects when writing down a covenant. To prevent this, Angor was going to copy something he saw from a wizard magazine before, which had been proved to be almost perfect.

    [Kurna¡¯s Agreement, Signed at the Crypt of the Tyrant of Despair]

    With the hope of regting each others¡¯ actions, an apprentice named Kurna created this contract with hispanion before they explored the catb of an ancient wizard ¡°Tyrant of Despair¡±.

    It was already rtivelyplete when it was created thousands of years ago. After that, more and more people did all kinds of revisions to it, making it better and better.

    Drafting a covenant powerful enough to restrict people required equally powerful paper that could hold magic.

    Angor failed to find anything suitable from his bracelet. In the end, he reluctantly took out a piece of Chaos Beater hide that he bought from Twilight Auction, which was a parchment capable of sustaining magic arrays. His stack of 50 parchments cost him 700 magic crystals back at the auction.

    He never actually used this thing before because it was so costly, and he didn¡¯t expect to spend one for making a covenant instead.

    It was definitely a drastic move, but he didn¡¯t have another choice right now.

    While his heart felt like it was bleeding, he swiftly wrote down the covenant and tossed the parchment into the mist.

    When Shadow saw itnding at his feet, he jumped a little.

    ¡°Kurna¡¯s? Heh, of course, you¡¯re no wandering amateur.¡±

    This proved to Shadow that the boy had to havee from a ¡°legit¡± wizard organization.

    Shadow carefully read the covenant and felt d that he didn¡¯t need to use his ace card, which would probably postpone his breakthrough.

    Basically, the covenant forbade them from harming or tricking each other in any way. They had tomunicate on neutral terms for the next 365 days, and it would take effect immediately.

    Shadow confirmed everything written on it while bearing the pain of his wounds.

    In the end, he nced at the shining insect and the seabird in a tailcoat, who had been watching his moves.

    He sighed and said, ¡°Fine, you got me.¡±

    Using his own mana, Shadow dropped his blood on the parchment, which slowly turned into a round-shaped mark at the bottom-right of the paper.

    ¡°Wait, that mark looks perfect, and there¡¯s no magic leakage... This is quite an expensive paper, I think,¡± Shadow murmured as he checked around the parchment and flipped it over to look at its backside.

    And he was astonished to see the cloud patterns on it.

    ¡°Are you kidding¡ªthis is a Chaos Beater hide?!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer since he could somewhat understand what Shadow was implying. He simply retrieved the parchment, and once he checked Shadow¡¯s signature, he left his own signature on it.

    A powerful aura came upon their bodies which governed their pact.

    As the paper slowly floated in the air on its own, Angor lifted his illusion around Shadow. They had to witness the final step of the pact together.

    Shadow limped to Angor while holding his biggest wound, and he looked at the paper in midair with a frown.

    ¡°Come on, tell me I was right! There¡¯s no mistake, I know those markings!¡±

    As Shadow questioned him, Angor felt sadder and sadder about wasting a piece of valuable material. He could have saved a lot of money if he¡¯d brought something more proper.

    The Chaos Beater hide slowly burned out, which gave birth to a pair of light beams that sank into Shadow and Angor, thus determining the effect of their agreement.

    ¡°That WAS a Chaos Beater hide, eh?¡± Shadow was still asking.

    ¡°Oh for the¡ªdo you really have to ask?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe it! Where the hell are you from? If I¡¯d known earlier, you can just give me that paper, and I¡¯ll tell you everything I know!¡±

    Angor shook his head and canceled the Nightmare Domain. Since the pact was already made, there was no way Shadow would do something stupid again. Otherwise, the man would face eternal doom that was worse than death.

    They stood inside the narrow and dark room again.

    Shadow manipted his strings and made all the victims return to their seats.

    Nine of the ten seats were upied.

    Shadow glimpsed at the remaining one, which should have been his, and turned away to treat his injuries.

    ¡°You¡¯re not taking that?¡± Angor said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll heal up first, I guess.¡±

    Angor chose to sit down. He then began to ask questions while he looked at all the emotionless smiles of the other apprentices. ¡°So, why did you control them?¡±

    Shadow secretly grinned and ordered one of the puppets to stand up. He then took the seat which was on the opposite end of Angor.

    ¡°That covenant won¡¯t force me to tell you my private matters, right?¡±

    ¡°Fine by me.¡± Angor didn¡¯t really care about that question.

    ¡°So... we should at least introduce each other properly, no?¡±

    ¡°Call me ¡®Mask¡¯.¡±

    Shadow cast a Cleanse to remove all the dirt and blood from his body, revealing a handsome look. ¡°Mask, eh? Fair enough. Guess we¡¯ll both use fake names.¡±

    Angor nodded and remained silent. It wasn¡¯t easy for people who were enemies just a second ago to sit down and chat, and they both knew what was more important right now.

    Shadow managed to recover some mana and stopped all heavy bleeding. He adjusted his mood and finally chose to talk. ¡°Tough luck, me. I¡¯ve been at my n freely in these parts for all these years, and something happened at the most critical point. Well, I can¡¯t say no to our agreement so... tell me what you want to know.¡±

    ¡°I have two reasons for following Magician here. First, I need to get out of Fairy World, so I need a map,¡± Angor said. He then paused and considered for a moment before he said, ¡°A map of the other areas of Fey Continent would be better.¡±

    ¡°I can give you the map of Fairy World, but I don¡¯t have the other one. It¡¯s not like I can just give you the map of Fey Continent for free anyway. Where do you want to go by the way? I might be able to just tell you the direction.¡±

    Angor thought about his options. He didn¡¯t know many ces on Fey Continent. He had been staying inside Brute Cavern for a year without traveling around much.

    Should he say Brute Cavern? Or Floating Mech City?

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure if he could make it to the purification garden on time since he had no idea how far he was from Floating Mech City.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell youter. My second goal today is to exchange for some materials.¡±

    ¡°Materials, huh? I can trade with you if you need something from me.¡± Shadow nodded.

    Angor handed Shadow a list.

    ¡°Mystic Fog Strings, 37 standard units. Hairy Orchid Gravel, 20 cups. Mystic Fog Gel, 1 unit...¡± Shadow slowly read through the list as his expression turned from neutral to surprise. ¡°High Bronze, 9 kilograms. Standard density Meteorite, 1 cubic. Glum Wood...

    ¡°These are nontiered, but you need too much. I don¡¯t have enough right now. Why do you need them anyway? You trying to be an alchemist too?¡±

    ¡°¡®Too¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Well, I know many people who want to do that stuff.¡±

    ¡°You included?¡±

    Shadow shook his head. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m not talented. And I don¡¯t feel like shutting myself in ab room to imagine things all day.¡±

 Chapter 366 - Reopened Door

    Chapter 366: Reopened Door

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°So, are you doing alchemy or not?¡± Shadow asked.

    Angor considered and decided to confirm this question. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°My my...¡± Shadow sighed. ¡°Another one lost to his fantasies.¡±

    Angor was pretty confused to see Shadow¡¯s reaction. This was his first time to see someone disdaining the upation of an alchemist like this.

    He thought for a moment and said something which he had never told anyone before.

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯m pretty good at it.¡±

    Shadow seemed unconvinced.

    ¡°Is there a Wizard Fair around here? Maybe I can go buy something from them,¡± Angor asked. He didn¡¯t insist on persuading Shadow.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid there are only two Wizard Fairs in Fairy World. One north and one south. I just came back from one. But it¡¯s pretty far. You can follow the map if you really need to find it.¡±

    ¡°How far exactly?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not on Gloom Continent. You need to cross an ocean and anothernd...¡± Shadow considered before he added, ¡°With a flying vehicle and enough fuel, you will make it in about 90 days. If you don¡¯t have one... just don¡¯t go. Trust me.¡±

    Ny days on a flying vehicle?

    Angor felt his heart getting heavier.

    ¡°How long do I need to reach that tree exit of Fairy World?¡±

    Shadow noticed Angor¡¯s anxiety and chuckled. ¡°A little bit farther than Wizard Fair. Three months, or four.¡±

    Angor felt really disappointed now. There was no way he could make it to the purification garden at this rate.

    But he quickly went over it. The garden was only a plus for his wizardry studies. Without one, he could always proceed as he always had been.

    Angor made up his mind and gave up on visiting Floating Mech City. ¡°Where else can I find materials? They¡¯re not anything valuable. There¡¯s that Silent Hill you mentioned. Can I check them out?¡±

    ¡°You can... but that ce is also like, a thousand kilometers away. You sure you want to go?¡±

    ¡°I will.¡± Angor believed it would take him years or more to travel away from Fairy World by foot. He had to get himself a vehicle.

    Shadow took out a map and put an ¡°X¡± which indicated Silent Hill. He then passed it to Angor.

    ¡°The map of Fairy World.¡±

    Shadow then took out a pocket watch and checked. It was 2:38 am.

    Angor checked the map and noticed there were seven independent continents in Fairy World, while the sea stretched toward infinity. The map said that he was now on the ¡°Gloom Continent¡±, which looked the same size as Africa; it was also the third biggest continent among the seven continents.

    The exit of Fairy World was located on the edge of another crescent-shaped continent, which was across the vast ocean water.

    Angor felt his heart sunk.

    An appendage ne already looked so big. So howrge was Fey Continent, which was supposed to be countless timesrger than Fairy World? Could he make it back to Old Earth in three years at all?

    Angor managed to conceal his concern in the presence of a stranger and silently put away the map.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± he said. Shadow was only following their agreement, but it didn¡¯t prevent him from expressing courtesy.

    Shadow was looking at his watch again. Ten minutes till 3 am.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you leaving now?¡± Shadow felt uneasiness climbing onto his heart. ¡°I think you should.¡±

    ¡°Hold on, I still have another thing to ask,¡± Angor said when he noticed Shadow¡¯s strange reaction. He didn¡¯t want to trouble this man further, but he still nned to learn everything that he would need. ¡°How to get to Darkivil Empire once I¡¯m out of Fairy World?¡±

    ¡°Darkivil Empire?¡± Shadow frowned and went over his memory. ¡°You mean that underground nation?¡±

    ¡°Yes, their capital is called Midnight Sovereign. I¡¯m heading there.¡±

    Shadow inspected Angor again. ¡°You¡¯re an apprentice from Brute Cavern?¡±

    Brute Cavern was the biggest organization near Darkivil Empire, so Shadow was only taking the most probable assumption. ¡°I don¡¯t really need to know,¡± he said and waved a hand casually. ¡°You don¡¯t have to answer.¡±

    ¡°Well, I am from there,¡± Angor answered straightaway. He never intended to keep his origin a secret.

    ¡°I see. No wonder why you can use such illusions. The Phantom Master came from that ce...¡± Shadow nodded. ¡°It¡¯s too far to get to Brute Cavern even with a good vehicle. Ten years maybe. Well, unless...¡±

    ¡°Unless?¡± Angor would never attempt to spend such a long time traveling.

    ¡°Unless you can use a teleportation station. There is one in Silent Hill, but you need to pay enough crystals to use it,¡± Shadow said. He suddenly put a hand against his chest and scowled. ¡°Most wizard organizations provide teleportation. But I won¡¯t rmend it because the body of an apprentice usually cannot survive such long-range teleportation. You should find a wizard who¡¯s willing to protect you or get yourself a defensive bloodline. Otherwise, you¡¯ll find your body breaking down in the middle of a teleport.¡±

    After that, Shadow released a long breath in relief.

    Oh f*ck, this Kurna pact. It got me just because I wanted to keep the drawbacks of teleportation a secret!

    He cursed in his mind.

    ¡°And, and that seat¡ª¡± He felt his heart aching again when thinking about Angor¡¯s position.

    ¡°I can teleport from Silent Hill?¡± Angor asked.

    Shadow nodded painfully. ¡°Yes, but not directly to Brute Cavern. As I said, apprentices cannot undergo long teleportations.¡±

    ¡°Can they send me to Floating Mech City?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Shadow frowned again. ¡°Why do you want to go there?¡±

    ¡°Just tell me.¡±

    ¡°Yes. Floating Mech City is neutral standing and they remain on good terms with many organizations. But you can¡¯t endure that teleport either.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m an alchemist. I can always make myself some sort of protection or something, or... look for a bloodline in Silent Hill.¡±

    Sunders once told him that a better choice was to find the bloodline from a nightmare monster, but he didn¡¯t have many choices now.

    ¡°You do know that a bloodline¡¯s really expensive stuff, right?¡±

    ¡°Again, I¡¯m an alchemist. I know how to make money.¡±

    ¡°I see. But how can you tell if your bloodline will be sessful? Oh, forget it. It does me no good in breaking your hope. Can I ask your reason for going to Floating Mech City though? There¡¯s no teleport station toward Brute Cavern in that ce.¡±

    ¡°Why are you so interested in my routes?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± Shadow shrugged. ¡°I asked because I¡¯m from Floating Mech City.¡±

    Angor was surprised to find out that he had been speaking to a member of the Floating Mech City all along.

    Before he could speak again however, the pocket watch in Shadow¡¯s hand clicked as it indicated 3 am.

    Angor heard a series of distant giggles reaching his ears as if someone wasughing from another dimension.

    ¡°This is¡ª¡±

    Unknown fear suddenly climbed upon his spine, making him sweat all of a sudden.

    ¡°Argh!!!¡±

    On Angor¡¯s chest, just below his heart, a small door slowly emerged and was pushed open, tearing a small part of his skin off.

    Three Krakoks appeared from the door whileughing.

    When the door was closed again, the open wound on Angor¡¯s chest began to bleed out like mad. The sudden pain and blood loss from his chest immediately sent him into aa before he could do anything.

    Shadow watched Angor fall and grinned. ¡°You chose that spot on your own, and I asked you to leave already. It ain¡¯t my fault you didn¡¯t listen.¡±

    As scheduled, the three Krakok brothers would open up their door on that spot at 3 am each day, no matter who or what was upying the seat.

    Even if it meant opening a door from inside a human body.

    Shadow couldn¡¯t hold back hisughter anymore.

    Kurna¡¯s Pact eh?

    It was so easy to get around! Even a perfect covenant couldn¡¯t stop this young bastard from finding trouble on his own!

    Toby¡¯s feathers all stood up when he heard Shadow¡¯s previous words. The bird immediately understood that this shady figure just tricked Angor. He quickly took out some gauze from his Snowy Feather and tried to suppress Angor¡¯s chest wound.

    ¡°Hey, where did thate from?¡± Shadow looked at Toby¡¯s movement and wondered. ¡°A space storage?!¡±

    Many wizards would find such a thing to be too extravagant, and a bird was carrying one around?

    The look of unhinged avarice quickly crept up Shadow¡¯s face.

 Chapter 367 - Leave Him to Die?

    Chapter 367: Leave Him to Die?

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    When Shadow approached to carefully examine Angor, Toby immediately began to attack him again.

    Shadow simply huffed. The bird might be a big trouble inside that mist illusion, but they were now inside a narrow room where speed and flying weren¡¯t so much of an advantage.

    With a flicker of his mind, Shadow activated his Magma Smander power again. When his skin was hard enough to withstand Toby¡¯s attacks, he reached out a hand to grab the bird.

    However, he suddenly felt his heart twitching again. Before he could do anything, the great pain canceled the power of his bloodline just when Toby¡¯s next attack connected with his chest.

    Caught defenseless, Shadow found himself knocked flying against a wall, where he thennded on a pile of broken debris.

    The man moaned painfully. Toby¡¯s attack waspletely negligiblepared to the tearing pain assaulting his heart, which only grew worse and worse as if his beating heart were going to explode.

    Toby had no idea what had just happened to his enemy. He only knew that this ¡°Shadow¡± man was the bad guy who just killed Angor.

    When he thought about Angor¡¯s death, Toby cried and felt an immense rage building up.

    To Toby, if both Greya and Angor left him, he would never have anyone else who would care for him so much.

    He recalled the moment he was born under Greya¡¯s hands, where the great Gourmet Wizard used the body parts of legendary beasts as ¡°spice¡± which bestowed different emotions to him.

    At that time, Greya never expected that she would defy the primal rule of nature by creating a life form.

    Toby didn¡¯t show any supernatural power after he was born. However, right at the moment when he came into existence, Greya did feel an overwhelming aura looming around her as if she were facing a legendary wizard.

    The great might turned into emotions of sorrow, joy, hatred, and rage; it then sank into Toby¡¯s small form.

    Greya never understood what she saw. Aside from his above-average intelligence, the bird only acted like an ordinary seafowl during the process of his growth. To be safe, Greya once warned Toby that he should never let any strange emotions loose if they actually showed up.

    Yet at this point, Toby could no longer heed that advice.

    He felt sad when he was betrayed by his new partner. He felt angry when he saw Eyeless being sold as a ve. He was depressed when he learned the possible death of Greya. Despite that, none of those emotions surpassed what he felt right now.

    When he saw his young master died right in front of him, Toby stopped controlling his emotions.

    Different sentiments, including something that didn¡¯t fit with the situation, began to emerge from his mind.

    Among all of the emotions, extreme sorrow stood upon all. As it grew stronger, Toby could feel something physically crawling out from his body.

    For a brief and blurry moment, Toby sensed the figure of a great beast looming over an imaginary sky.

    When Toby managed to look around again, he saw his feathers puffing out violently, which tore his dress into bloody shreds.

    The exploding emotions triggered something inside him; a visible gray aura came surging into the area.

    Any seasoned wizard here would be greatly surprised to see the very sequence of gravity showing its physical form in this world.

    There was such a lump of energy aura in the center of Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.

    Toby¡¯s aura wasn¡¯t as thick, but it had begun to approach the level of naturalw.

    Toby didn¡¯t know why he suddenly released the aura, but he clearly knew what it was. Also, he felt stronger; his sequence of gravity had gained a whole new level.

    As Toby pondered over the situation, he suddenly heard Shadow¡¯s painful moans.

    When he looked up at Shadow, his great sorrow immediately became an uncontroble rage.

    Without waiting any longer, Toby began to attack the man on the ground by using his new power of gravity.

    Unlike before, he could now unleash the power into a distance, just like a long-range attack.

    It seemed weakerpared to his body ms, but with time, Toby could learn how to use such power in different and deadly ways.

    However, it was something forter. Now, Toby only used his new power in the most primitive way, which was to attack Shadow by hurling gravity waves like bullets.

    ...

    Continuous shock waves caused bruises for form all over Shadow¡¯s body.

    Shadow couldn¡¯t move while his heart was tearing up in pain, but he couldn¡¯t just ignore Toby¡¯s attacks either. Therefore, he ordered the Krakoks to defend him for the time being.

    Both the Krakoks and Toby were adept at speed, which was quite useless in this small room. They gradually entered into a stalemate.

    As the creatures fought, Shadow yelled out loudly to ease his pain, ¡°Why is this happening?! HE SAT THERE ON HIS OWN!! I f*cking warned him!

    ¡°Damn you! I can¡¯t die here! What¡¯s the f*cking deal?!¡±

    There was no doubt that his heartache was caused by Kurna¡¯s Pact. He didn¡¯t directly cause Angor¡¯s condition, so the pact didn¡¯t me him for Angor¡¯s injury, seeing how the pain didn¡¯te when the small door torn through Angor¡¯s chest.

    But why now?

    And this was getting unbearable!

    Shadow suddenly remembered something and struggled toward Angor by crawling slowly.

    When he saw Shadow moving toward Angor, Toby ignored the Krakoks andshed out at Shadow again.

    ¡°Gahhh!¡±

    Shadow¡¯s right hand was bent in a strange angle under Toby¡¯s kick.

    Toby went away to prepare for another attack.

    ¡°STOP IT, if you want to see your damn master alive!¡± Shadow barked.

    Toby halted his attack after he heard those words. He slowly fluttered andnded beside Angor¡¯s ¡°corpse¡±.

    Toby thought Angor was dead since the wound on Angor¡¯s chest looked so terrible, but now that he took another close look, he could see Angor¡¯s chest still rising slowly... albeit barely.

    As Toby regained hope, Shadow had reached Angor and began to examine him.

    ¡°Sh*t! He¡¯s not dead yet!¡±

    The Kurna¡¯s Pact had no problem with the Krakoks¡¯ door; it was punishing him for not saving Angor¡¯s life.

    And the pact was still working because it believed that Angor could still be saved.

    Shadow cursed, and despite his unwillingness, he had to take care of Angor¡¯s wound in order not to get burned alive by the magic covenant.

    ¡°Outta my way, filthy chicken!¡±

    Toby silently stepped aside. He would bear with the verbal assault as long as Angor coulde back to him.

    ¡°That coat¡ªa built-in level-1 defense cantrip?!¡± Shadow eximed in surprise as he removed Angor¡¯s outer outfit. This suit alone would sell for several thousand crystals out there.

    Next was Angor¡¯s shirt.

    ¡°What the hell is this?¡± Shadow saw a pendant in front of Angor¡¯s chest¡ªsomething that looked like a zed sphere.

    Shadow inspected for a second and regarded it as amon decoration. He then turned to observe Angor¡¯s wrist.

    ¡°A mid-tier space bracelet... with an extra enchantment?!¡±

    Shadow didn¡¯t know alchemy, but as someone who came from Floating Mech City, he was good at identifying magical items.

    ¡°Damn... it already got an owner.¡±

    Shadow really wanted to question Angor¡¯s identity now. These two items were worth at least 50,000 magic crystals if sold on any market.

    There weren¡¯t many wizards who could carry so much money around. How did a level-2 apprentice get his hands on such great trophies?

    Instead of thinking about Angor¡¯s alchemist title, Shadow believed that Angor came from someone powerful.

    While he endured the great jealousy, Shadow managed to look away from the valuable bracelet and looked at Angor¡¯s bleeding chest.

    Three ribs on the left were broken, but the heart was unharmed.

    Shadow red at his Krakoks andined, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you move your door just a little bit farther?! Then he¡¯d have died!¡±

    All the bleeding was caused by external wounds. Shadow cast a spell to temporary affix Angor¡¯s bones and used Heal to seal the other injuries.

    When Angor was stabilized, Shadow found his heartache gone.

    ¡°B*tch. I spent all my mana again! I got these wounds from your damn bird, and I still have to look after you!¡± Shadow kept cursing. ¡°And you only need to sleep!¡±

    When Toby saw Angor was safe, he suddenly felt faint and crashed alongside Angor.

    ¡°... And your bird! Just like you!¡± Shadow picked Toby up. Once he made sure that the bird was simply unconscious, he then tossed him back at Angor.

 Chapter 368 - Waking

    Chapter 368: Waking

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor had a really long dream, yet he couldn¡¯t remember what it was that he dreamed about. He only sensed that someone had been chattering non-stop beside his ear, as well as a pair of hands which had been moving all over his face.

    A series of strangeughter and the moving hands finally woke him up from his dream.

    Angor opened his eyes and immediately found himself staring into another pair of eyes.

    Those eyes looked passionate and... charmed?

    Angor¡¯s doubt quickly vanished when he felt those hands in his hair.

    ¡°Such beautiful, soft hair... like the most expensive silk! Ahh... it felt so good...¡±

    ¡°Get, away, from me,¡± Angor said and realized that his voice sounded rather hoarse.

    ¡°And those eyes... pure blue like the sky without a single cloud or the untainted sea brightened by the very sun...¡±

    Angor reached out a hand and pushed the harasser away.

    At the moment he used force, he quickly felt something burning through his chest.

    The pain quickly reminded him of what just happened. ¡°What have you done, Shadow?¡±

    Shadow was still praising Angor¡¯s looks as if singing an aria. ¡°Oh, how I wish that you¡¯re my trophy... No, I¡¯ll keep you in my collection and leave you there for eternity.¡±

    While enduring the pain, Angor pushed himself up from the bed and looked around. It was a in bedroom with several simple furniture, as well as a bow hanging on the wall.

    The room looked simr.

    Angor remembered that he ¡°bought¡± some clothes from a ranger¡¯s house when he was on his way toward Water Grasse, and the bedroom in that house looked exactly the same as this one.

    The ranger¡¯s house?

    Next, he thought about how he saw something ¡°opening up¡± right inside his chest and three tiny figures showed up from it...

    ¡°You knew that would happen, right?¡± He looked up at Shadow, who was still talking nonsense.

    Shadow stopped grumbling and grinned. ¡°So what? I told you that you should leave.¡±

    ¡°You intentionally guided me to that seat, eh?¡±

    ¡°Nah. The covenant won¡¯t let me live if I even think about killing you.¡±

    ¡°I see. So you did bypass the covenant. But why save me?¡± Angor also remembered how Shadow was smiling back there, which meant the pact did not me the man for the ident. The ¡°door wound¡± was mostly his own fault.

    So why did Shadow decide to help him when his death was certain?

    ¡°Because you have brilliant hair and eyes. If I let you die in there, my teacher will scold me dearly,¡± Shadow said with a sincere look.

    Angor wasn¡¯t convinced in the least. He quickly went over what was written on the covenant.

    ¡°The agreement forced you to do so, no?¡±

    ¡°Heh. Bingo, smart guy.¡±

    Angor shook his head and chuckled. ¡°Not really... or I wouldn¡¯t have fallen into your little trap.¡± He then put a hand on his chest and tried to get out of the bed.

    ¡°Your ribs aren¡¯t stable enough. I suggest that you stay put, or I¡¯ll have to open up your chest and set your bones again,¡± Shadow said.

    ¡°... How long do I have to stay like this?¡±

    ¡°A year or two. Maybe.¡±

    ¡°Very funny.¡± Angor tried to press his chest to feel the pain. Using his own medical knowledge, he assumed that he would need at least a few months for his bones to heal.

    ¡°Right. Two months, if you¡¯re willing to take it slow. Or only a week, if you know how to cast Heal at yourself,¡± Shadow said.

    Heal?

    Angor thought about his previous study which would grant him the cantrip in another three days, which also meant he¡¯d spend another ten days or so at Water Grasse.

    Spending ten days with someone who nned to kill him with all kinds of smart moves wasn¡¯t a wise choice, but there was no way he could ask Shadow to carry him to Silent Hill.

    Only the devil knew what kind of evil plot was in the making.

    Angor considered and decided to study Heal on himself. He would then leave on his own.

    ¡°How long was I out? Where¡¯s Toby?¡±

    ¡°Less than two days. And what the hell is Toby? That freaking winged beast?¡±

    Angor gave Shadow a really cold look.

    ¡°You have him there,¡± Shadow said as he pointed at Angor¡¯s pillow. ¡°It won¡¯t stop attacking me when you fell. It broke my hand too! Look! I still tried to get you back. I demandpensation.¡±

    Angor looked around and saw Toby sleeping nice and sound.

    ¡°Hey, I didn¡¯t do it. It fainted on its own,¡± Shadow quickly said as he waved a hand to deny the possible assumption that Angor was thinking about. ¡°I already checked. The bird got no wounds. Not outside, not inside. Now that¡¯s weird. You woke up, but it¡¯s still sleeping.¡±

    Angor put a hand on Toby and felt the healthy warmth as well as heartbeats.

    ¡°See? So, mypensation?¡± Shadow chuckled.

    ¡°Ha, I see. So what do you want?¡±

    Shadow crept closer and said in a timid voice, ¡°I want no physical reward. How about... you? I mean, give me your shadow. Oh man, I want to put you in my disy case. You¡¯re not a mortal anyway, losing your shadow won¡¯t do anything to you.¡±

    ¡°And you think I¡¯ll agree? Did you ask Krakoks to collect shadows just for your collection?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m going to present a gallery show in Floating Mech City, filled with the shadows of blond hair and blue-eyed beauties!¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t see anything on a shadow anyway. It¡¯s all ck.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll just have to turn them into puppets!¡±

    A Krakok giggled and appeared on Shadow¡¯s hand as it presented him with another twitching sack.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s shadow again?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    ¡°Not interfering with mortals was the first lesson I learned aftering to the wizarding world,¡± Angormented as he stared at the moving sack.

    ¡°Are you asking me to set them free?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m simply reminding you to stay low.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t have to worry about me. Let me see... I can return all the shadows if you give me yours. What do you say?¡±

    Angor only gestured toward the door. He wasn¡¯t going to trade his own freedom for the lives of someone else. He wasn¡¯t a saint, nor would he be one just because someone asked him to do some moral-rted stuff.

    When Shadow had left, Angor put a hand on his chest again¡ª to feel his heartbeat this time.

    At least he was alive. This was what mattered.

    When he saw the terrible wound on his chest back in the dark room, he hated both Shadow and himself.

    He regretted not killing Shadow when he still had a chance. He med himself for being stupid since he never noticed Shadow¡¯s ¡°hint¡±. His arrogance almost cost him his own life again.

    Now that he was alive, he still had a chance to amend his naive mind.

    He was determined to never underestimate any opponent from now on. Even when the world¡¯s consciousness was governing their pact, a small smart move could still ruin the whole situation.

    ...

    For the next few days, Shadow didn¡¯te to visit. Angor¡¯s spirit feelers told him that Shadow did not remain in the ranger house. However, the man left two puppets behind, one of which was Magician.

    Without minding the puppets, Angor began to study to cast Heal.

    After two days, he seeded. The cantrip created a pale-green light that slowly sank into his broken ribs.

    Using his spirit feelers, he could feel his bones slowly fixing up under the light.

    Since the cantrip was working, Angor nned to get out of the ranger¡¯s house... on condition that he could walk back to Water Grasse without tearing up his wound again.

    He checked and assumed that it would be fine, as long as nothing intentionally shocked him.

    He spent another night on his bed. When he was getting his clothes, he found his overcoat in a bad shape. It gained a big hole in the chest area which couldn¡¯t be repaired.

    It meant his valuable magic coat had officially lost its magic after having served him for only half a year.

    ¡°Ugh... such a waste.¡± He shook his head and put the coat inside his bracelet. The built-in magic was beyond repair, but at least, the fabric was still useful.

    He found another casual outfit.

    Without the strange-colored overcoat, his top hat would only appear weirder now; therefore, Angor put away the hat before he stepped out of the bedroom.

 Chapter 369 - Breaking Through

    Chapter 369: Breaking Through

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Just before he left the ranger¡¯s house, Angor was pretty surprised to see Shadowing in with a grim look on his face.

    Shadow looked up and quickly began to admire Angor¡¯s bright hair and eyes. ¡°Are you absolutely sure you won¡¯t join my collection? I promise you¡¯ll always be the best one.¡±

    ¡°Good timing, I have a question,¡± Angor said as he ignored Shadow¡¯s nonsense. ¡°What did you do to Toby after I passed out? Why is he still not up?¡±

    Angor assumed that Toby had been like this for five days since the ident. He would have already brought Shadow to justice if not for Toby¡¯s seemingly healthy condition.

    Shadow looked at the bird on Angor¡¯s hand and frowned. ¡°My my... I did nothing to it. I was almost killed by that damn pact, and I got no time to mind the little b*stard.¡±

    Angor understood that, despite Shadow¡¯s cunning nature, the man did not lie about this one. However, since their covenant did not prevent the act of lying, he wouldn¡¯t trust him just yet.

    Angor had nothing to do with Shadow at the moment. Even without the magic pact, his physical condition wasn¡¯t good enough.

    He put a hand on Toby¡¯s feathers again and sensed the ripples of spirit and soul, all unharmed.

    ¡°So what happened after I fainted that day?¡±

    ¡°Not an idea. My heart was going to bust out ¡¯cause the pact, and the bird was still attacking me,¡± Shadow said. He considered for a moment before he added, ¡°There¡¯s one thing though.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°What species is your bird anyway? A fighter? Or caster? It didn¡¯t know about long-range attacks before, but it suddenly learned how to. And man, it hurts like hell!¡±

    Shadow had seen many different beasts and monsters back at Floating Mech City, but there was nothing like Angor¡¯s bird, who possessed so much burst power in a tiny body.

    ¡°Long-range attacks? Tell me how it looked like.¡±

    Shadow noticed that Angor was just as surprised as him, which meant Angor had no idea about Toby¡¯s skill either.

    ¡°So it couldn¡¯t do that before?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    At first, even though it was a monster, Toby was always rtively weaker. It had to rely on speed. A mortal with the right armor could take Toby out easily.

    Since he learned about the sequence of gravity, Toby gained multitude strength and could unleash attacks as powerful as level-3 cantrips.

    However, the attacks were simple, and they were all about speed and burst power.

    Angor assumed that Toby¡¯s current condition had something to do with the new ability.

    ¡°So a new attack and unconsciousness... He¡¯s breaking through his level?¡±

    Shadow suddenly grimaced out of jealousy again. ¡°Yeah, it must be. It thought you were dead and cried like mad. Such mental stimtion often triggers hidden potentials.¡±

    Shadow grew more and more irritated as he thought about the recent incidents. First, this ¡°Mask¡± came and sabotaged his hard-earned n. After that, he actually lost against someone one level lower than him and was forced to sign a covenant.

    Even though he managed to set Mask up by using the Krakoks¡¯ door, it still didn¡¯t kill Mask, and in the end, he had to heal Mask up using his own energy.

    Also, that damn bird hurt him badly and... broke through just like that!

    The whole world was going against him!

    Angor, on the other hand, chose to agree with Shadow¡¯s theory.

    Shadow said that Toby knew how to use some kind of ¡°gray beam attack¡±, and Angor immediately realized that it was the sequence of gravity.

    ¡°So Toby is getting stronger...¡± Angor made a satisfied smile for the first time after the terrible experience. ¡°Thanks for your map. I guess I¡¯m leaving.¡±

    He carefully put Toby back into his pocket and headed to the door.

    ¡°Hold up,¡± Shadow called out. ¡°So you¡¯re going to Silent Hill and teleport to Floating Mech City from there?¡±

    Angor simply nodded to confirm. He already told Shadow about this.

    ¡°You need at least a month to reach Silent Hill from Water Grasse, and it¡¯s not like you can walk inside even if you find that ce.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I can take you there using my flying vehicle, on condition that you do me a favor.¡±

    Without any hesitation, Angor turned away. ¡°Thanks, but no.¡±

    He really, really didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with this crafty man ever again. The magic pact wouldn¡¯t prevent Shadow from using some other kind of evil moves to harm him.

    ¡°Come on, I¡¯m serious. I won¡¯t give you any traps again. Not like I can,¡± Shadow quickly said when he realized that Angor was still worried about the wound caused by the door. ¡°It was an ident! I didn¡¯t do it intentionally; even the covenant can¡¯t tell that it was my fault. Just one thought of doing harm to you will burn my heart again. I won¡¯t do that!¡±

    Angor began to walk down the mountain path without paying any attention to Shadow¡¯s words.

    Shadow was getting very desperate. He had wasted five years on his n of finding a destiny, and he had to keep attending the useless meetings, just to find himself a group of puppets.

    After he had enough puppets, he went to the Deadmen¡¯s Dent and tried to activate the long-lost magic array, only to find that he didn¡¯t have enough energy.

    One of the puppets still had an unfinished spirit model, which meant this one was still not an apprentice yet.

    A single puppet who couldn¡¯t unleash mana to the environment would cause a criticalck of magic power.

    Shadow was extremely irritated when his destiny for bing a wizard went botched because of this tiny mistake.

    It was made worse when the Krakoks came and told him that the Grand Priest of Krakoks decided to perform the ¡°ritual¡± this month.

    Such a ritual would determine whether Shadow could ¡°sneak¡± into the otherworld. The ritual was only several days away, and he had no time to look for another apprentice now.

    Shadow came to the ranger¡¯s house to ask for Angor¡¯s assistance, and he failed immediately.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll pay you with something!¡± Shadow said, though he immediately found his own words unconvincing.

    Angor kept walking away.

    ¡°My teacher is visiting Silent Hill! Just... one week! When I finish my n in a week, I¡¯ll go back to Floating Mech City with my teacher half a monthter, and I can ask him to bring you along with us! With his protection, you don¡¯t need to find other things to stabilize your teleport, and you save a lot of money!¡±

    Half a month? Which means arriving at Floating Mech City during Month of Frost?

    Angor was interested now. The purification garden would be open in Month of Resuscitation next year. Shadow¡¯s offer would help him to make it in time.

    A chance...

    Angor stopped his steps and turned back. ¡°Are you sure your teacher will agree to it?¡±

    ¡°I am! He will definitely do it for someone like you!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t notice Shadow¡¯s strange wording. ¡°So what do you want me to do?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s simple. You just have to help me activate a portal array...¡±

    ...

    After setting up a schedule with Shadow, Angor returned to Water Grasse.

    He had been away from the city for a week now. The first thing that waited for him was Dodoro, who was crying badly in the mansion.

    ¡°Finally, Mister Mask. Dodoro started acting up on the second day without you. He won¡¯t leave the house,¡± Trusan said anxiously as she joined them. ¡°And he won¡¯t listen to my lectures too. I think he¡¯s only waiting for you.¡±

    Angor looked at Dodoro¡¯s puppy eyes and sighed.

    ¡°I think I need to leave the city in half a month. Granny Trusan, I¡¯m afraid you need to speed up your ns. Can you teach him as fast as you can? At least, teach him how to understand my words.¡±

    ¡°So soon? Do you... have to?¡±

    Angor nodded. He had to leave, on condition that Shadow meant his words. Angor was going to resume his travel by keeping Dodoro in his bracelet.

    This meant Trusan only had half a month left for Dodoro¡¯s lessons.

    ¡°I see. I¡¯ll do what I can.¡± The olddy nodded.

    ¡°Thank you kindly.¡±

    Angorforted Dodoro for a little while before he returned to his own room.

 Chapter 370 - 10,000-Year-Old Magic Array

    Chapter 370: 10,000-Year-Old Magic Array

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    At night, Angor told Trusan that he would be going away for a couple of days again. After he handed her some coins, he headed out.

    He came to Water Grasse just to tell Trusan about his departure. He had to meet with Shadow tonight at the Deadmen¡¯s Dent at Hollow Wood.

    Before he could leave on his boat, another lone boat slowly approached the manor.

    Angor stopped and looked at the time-beaten face under the moonlight, as well as the visitor¡¯s silver hair that was moving in the night breeze.

    ¡°It¡¯s been only several days, and you look worse than before, Count Leonrick,¡± Angor addressed him.

    It was Leonrick. In Angor¡¯s eyes, this spirited and energetic middle-aged man had be a wrinkled and ill elder as if he was approaching hisst years.

    Leonrick put down his oar and looked up slowly.

    ¡°Mister Mask...¡± Even his voice sounded distant and husky.

    ¡°You came here alone, which means you¡¯re prepared to face the worst?¡±

    Leonrick shook his head and chuckled helplessly. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about what to do in these days. I... cannot use the lives of my citizens to go for something uncertain.¡± The man lowered his head in sadness as he said, ¡°But I do want to know who did this. Every time I tried to sleep, I¡¯d see Margot cursing me for not being a capable father. Those who lost their shadows... they were all here to spit on my failure as the leader of their city.

    ¡°And here I am, when I can no longer bear with the torture. No, I will not offend the great wizard. But may I at least know who he is?¡±

    Angor looked at the weeping man in front of him and could somewhat understand his feelings. It was personal gain against the greater prosperity of the city, and Count Leonrick had decided to go for thetter by sacrificing his daughter, along with the other patients.

    Angor thought about the question and believed that he would choose ¡°personal gain¡± if he were in the same boots. He was unlike Leonrick, who was tasked to take care of a great city and who had to make an honorable choice as the leader of many.

    ¡°I can tell you a name now since I just ran into him recently,¡± Angor said. He had no problem selling out Shadow¡¯s privacy.

    ¡°What does he want with the shadows?¡± Leonrick asked. This was his biggest concern because solving it might help the victims.

    Angor tried to arrange his words.

    ¡°We generally divide criminals into three types: those who are forced tomit crimes, those who cannot control their own actions, and...¡± he said as he put a finger at his temple, ¡°those who got a problem in their brains.¡±

    ¡°Do you mean... madness?¡± Leonrick grew confused.

    ¡°Madmen should be considered those who can¡¯t control themselves too. I¡¯m talking about people who have no mental problems but with very wrong ideas. You can call them freaks or antisocial perverts. As for his reason... Why would a pervert kill people? These individuals tend to insist on a particr discipline to satisfy their twisted obsessions.¡±

    As someone who managed to bring a whole city back to a better shape, Leonrick quickly understood Angor¡¯s hint. ¡°Discipline... Blond hair and blue eyes, sir?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°A weirdo who¡¯s obsessed with the hair and eye color, one who collects shadows for his own ritual belief.¡±

    ¡°Then... what¡¯s going to happen to the shadows?¡±

    ¡°To be his collection and be stuck in chests and cabs perhaps, just like the trophies of someone who like to collect strange things they do not wish to share.¡±

    Leonrick quickly grew desperate when he heard these. He thought he could help the mysterious wizard with whatever problem there was in exchange for the stolen shadows, but there was no way he could persuade a ¡°pervert¡± by mortal means.

    Leonrick thought about the rumors about wizards, which mostly described wizards as strange-natured freaks who loved burning down cities and towns because of tiny discontents... Then he glimpsed at Angor. He was d that this young wizard had a better character since Margot and Tyrael only received negligible punishment for their offenses.

    ¡°Anything else you want to know?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Can you tell me his name, sir?¡±

    With a snap of fingers, an illusion covered both of them, and Shadow¡¯s image was presented in front of Leonrick.

    ¡°This is the man you¡¯re looking for,¡± Angor said as he pointed at Shadow¡¯s image. ¡°I don¡¯t know his real name, but he goes by the codename ¡®Shadow¡¯.¡±

    Leonrick was terrified of the figure that suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. He quickly calmed down as he carefully inspected the individual.

    Shadow looked quite decent when judged by normal standards. He had ck, coffee-ish short hair, sharp and distinctive facial features, and bright, oblique eyebrows that reached into his sideburns.

    To Angor, however, Shadow was more like an ill-mannered ruffian despite that handsome look.

    ¡°Onest warning for you. This man¡¯s very powerful. I suggest that you stay away from him at all costs. I don¡¯t think a ¡®freak¡¯ will ever give you a chance to reason with him.¡±

    With that, Angor went away.

    Leonrick looked at Angor¡¯s back with a pleading look. He wished he could ask the young wizard to help his people, his daughter.

    But he couldn¡¯t.

    Angor sighed again when he sensed Count Leonrick¡¯s wistful emotion.

    ...

    The moon hung high above Angor¡¯s head when he arrived at the meeting spot.

    The trees in Hollow Woods grew rapidly by absorbing the nutrients provided by all the corpses underground, and they prevented all light from shining through, be it day or night.

    Angor cast Light and leaped into Deadman¡¯s Dent.

    The Purification Field on his top hat blocked all rotten smells. Angor walked along the dark path filled with broken bodies and wriggling maggots until he finally reached the small stone chamber that he was in a week ago.

    ¡°Finally. How I waited for you.¡± Shadow grinned. There were eight puppets standing behind him, all of whom had an eerie smile on their pale faces.

    ¡°We¡¯ll begin right away?¡±

    ¡°Yup. Follow me. The array is a little bit ahead.¡±

    Shadow took the lead while all the puppets trod behind them.

    Angor thought what he sawst time was theplete area of the chamber. Instead, Shadow took him toward a small opening on the side.

    There was an even thicker smell of filth and endless darkness inside.

    ¡°The ancient magic array lost for ten centuries is right there,¡± Shadow said as he stepped into the small hole first.

    Angor found the terrible aura that came from the small passage to be the same as what he felt from Shadow in the morning, which meant Shadow had been spending his time in there.

    The dark path no longer smelled like dead people, yet something told Angor it was even more filthypared to corpses and maggots. His Purification Field couldn¡¯t fully expel the overwhelming griminess now.

    ¡°That hat of yours will get you at least several thousand crystals if you sell it at Floating Mech City,¡± Shadow said. He seemed jealous again. ¡°Does Brute Cavern consider you a primary trainee or something? I don¡¯t remember them teaching apprentices this way. They always let their recruits do whatever they like... Or maybe you¡¯re from some rich wizard n?¡±

    Instead of answering those questions, Angor pointed to the puppets tailing them. ¡°What are you going to do with them after half a month, when your n¡¯s done?¡±

    Shadow shrugged. ¡°Let them go, of course. I can¡¯t take them back to Floating Mech City. Well, unless I find someone as charming as you, in which case, I¡¯d trade anything for a chance to bring him back home, even if it means my teacher will kick my a*s for it.¡±

    ¡°What, I thought you¡¯re going to kill them after you¡¯re done...¡±

    ¡°Hah. I¡¯ve no interest in bullying these wimps.¡±

    ¡°My own teacher once told me, that even the weakest dog might find its day. Who knows, maybe one of them will grow super strong in the future, and you, will be their enemy,¡± Angor said as he thought about the random novels he read in the hologram tablet. Those who appeared weak at first all tended to be big shotster.

    ¡°You know what, I agree. But that won¡¯t happen this easily in the wizarding world, where the weak will quickly get eaten by the strong.¡±

    After walking along the terrible path for about ten minutes, they finally reached another concealed chamber.

    Angor immediately sensed strange energying from the drawn patterns under his feet.

    He was pretty familiar with magic arrays now, and he could see that the room had a typical, triggered array. He couldn¡¯t tell the exact level or effect of it, but the ancient patterns suggested that it to be something from really long ago.

    ¡°Can you see anything from it?¡± Shadow noticed that Angor was inspecting it. However, he didn¡¯t believe the young apprentice could actually read such aplicated magic array. An alchemist at this age would know about some simple runes at best.

    ¡°It was here for at least ten thousand years,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°How do you know?¡±

    ¡°The drawings are primeval. Whoever created this never learned about ¡®Bental¡¯s Tri-Intersection Rule¡¯. There are many points that can be simplified, such as this corner here. I don¡¯t know what this thing does, but I can say that this corner is overdone. Most alchemy books will tell you how to fix it. You can use ¡®Six-Oveying Method¡¯ to draw a simple straight line here without wasting mana,¡± Angor slowly exined while pointing to a small edge inside the array.

    ¡°You... learned about magic arrays?¡± Shadow¡¯s mouth dropped open. He didn¡¯t know if Angor was correct, which was what made those words sound amazing.

    ¡°No. But I saw it from a book before.¡±

    Shadow took a deep breath and looked at Angor with a more serious expression.

    ¡°One thousand years ago, when the Krakoks met with a terrible disaster, a wizard from Dark Castle came and activated this portal to take the Krakoks into the ¡®Midworld¡¯, where they enjoyed peaceful lives.¡±

 Chapter 371 - The Midworld

    Chapter 371: The Midworld

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°This portal was never used again since that day,¡± Shadow said with a sigh. ¡°And I only learned about this secret entrance because Gummy, Gao, and Gamus told me.¡±

    Three dark-skinned Krakoks hopped onto Shadow¡¯s shoulder one by one, and each of them struck an overdramatic pose while they stared at Angor with their twinkling green eyes.

    ¡°So that door they always use leads to the Midworld?¡± Angor said as he pointed to the small creatures.

    ¡°Right. That¡¯s their home.¡±

    ¡°Can all Krakoks do this?¡± Angor suddenly felt curious. If so, the Krakoks in history wouldn¡¯t have suffered so much when they met the war-thirsted humans.

    Shadow shook his head. ¡°As far as I know, they received this talent when the wizard from Dark Castle imnted something into their bloodline. And after countless generations, only about one out of ten Krakoks can use that power now.¡±

    Angor was shocked to learn that a wizard could change the gic property of an entire race.

    That must be a REALLY powerful wizard.

    ¡°But,¡± Shadow continued, ¡°since that war, the Krakoks hadpletely lost faith in humans. No Krakoks will ever use their door to enter our real world. Gummy only went to Floating Mech City because of a nicely-timed ident.¡±

    ¡°I can sense their manas, which were simr to the level of level-1 apprentices,¡± Angor said. He then asked, ¡°They can help you activate this array, right?¡±

    ¡°They can¡¯t, because of their tribe¡¯s discipline. It forbids them from bringing any humans into theirnd. Anyone who breaks that rule is considered a traitor and shall be eternally expelled by the Krakoks. I never wish that to happen to these three brothers. They are already taking a great risk by telling me the location of this thing.¡±

    Angor nodded, but he had another question.

    ¡°Did that mean that the Krakoks still hate mankind? Which means... the Midworld should forbid all humans from going inside too?¡±

    Shadow chuckled at the question. ¡°You¡¯ll see when you get over there.¡±

    There were ten trigger nodes on the magic array. Shadow took one and ordered his puppets to upy eight other ones. He then signaled Angor to stand on thest one.

    Before he moved, Angor asked something, ¡°I¡¯ve no problem doing this, but you haven¡¯t told me your real n yet. What am I gonna do after the array is started?¡±

    He asked because Shadow only mentioned ¡°we¡¯ll proceed from there¡± when they talked about the magic array in the morning. He had never said anything about what woulde next.

    This was what made Angor feel uneasy. For many times, Shadow assured him that there were no lies or danger involved, but Angor never fully trusted this guy.

    There was one time Jon served him hotpot while he promised that ¡°the dish isn¡¯t hot at all¡±. When Angor earned a reddened tongue, he realized Jon wasn¡¯t lying at all¡ªby Earth standards.

    He had to know what would happen once the portal was opened, and he had to figure out whether it was ¡°dangerous¡± by himself.

    Since it was the very critical point of his n, Shadow had no choice other than to tell him the truth. ¡°I¡¯m heading to the Otherworld where Dark Castle¡¯s located, and I need to find something there.¡±

    ¡°You... want to steal something from Dark Castle?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not stealing! The stuff¡¯s originally ours. A damn witch took it away from us. Now that there are only her apprentices who are guarding the castle, it¡¯s a good chance for me to go and take it back,¡± Shadow said while his eyes glimmered with craftiness.

    ¡°¡®Ours¡¯?¡±

    ¡°I mean, it¡¯s my teacher¡¯s item. But he said it¡¯s mine if I can get my hands on it.¡±

    Angor grinned and quickly turned away. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m staying out of this. See ya.¡±

    There weren¡¯t many worse ways to die than trying to steal from the HQ of a major wizard organization!

    ¡°Hey, stop!¡± Shadow quickly called out. ¡°I know what you¡¯re worried about. Where I¡¯m going is the real ¡®Dark Castle¡¯. Well, it has something to do with that organization called Dark Castle, but the one inside Otherworld is only a training ground for the old witch. It¡¯s just an old building with some thunderclouds above it. There¡¯s no wizard. Maybe they have some apprentices, but I can squeeze them to death in the blink of an eye.¡±

    ¡°Nope. I think you know how dangerous the base of a mighty wizard is, and you¡¯re pretending,¡± Angor said. He thought about how Sunders¡¯ Phantom Ind was well-defended when the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was being prepared. Any intruder who dared to trespass would be cut in half by the powerful magic arrays.

    Every wizard would definitely set up careful protections and traps around his or her residence, which were absolutely deadly to outsiders.

    ¡°Hey, chill! Those traps against wizards are all shut, and I¡¯m not afraid of the remaining ones that are left for apprentices,¡± Shadow said as he thumped his chest.

    ¡°Okay, so, no wizards, no wizard-level traps, only weak apprentices. How convenient! How did you learn about this anyway?¡± Angor crossed his arms as he waited for an answer.

    Shadow stuttered for a while and moaned.

    ¡°Okay, fine! I¡¯ll tell you. It¡¯s a challenge that my teacher gave me. He sorta made an agreement with that old hag. They will not interfere with my actions in my n, and if I can seize that item, I can take it with me. This is all true. I swear to the world¡¯s consciousness!¡±

    Angor considered. Those words seemed to be hiding something else, but Shadow wasn¡¯t a fool. This man epted the challenge because there was enough profit in it.

    ¡°So... what do you want me to do?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t know yet,¡± Shadow said as he looked away embarrassingly. ¡°I only nned to get you to help me with the portal. But when I saw your powers, I thought maybe you can help me with my mission. I¡¯ve no idea what to expect though. I¡¯ve never been to Dark Castle myself.¡±

    ¡°Then we should stick to your original n. I¡¯ll help you start up the magic array, and that¡¯s about it. Don¡¯t ask anything else from me.¡±

    With those words, Angor stepped onto thest magic node.

    Shadow spread his hands and murmured ¡°uh¡± and ¡°em¡± for a while, but he didn¡¯t say anything else in the end.

    Following Shadow¡¯s signal, everyone and the puppets unleashed their manas at the same time to trigger the ancient magic array which had been staying dormant for a thousand years.

    Light beams showed up from the array one after the other, which formed into a bright circle of brilliance that swallowed everyone in it.

    Angor closed his eyes to avoid getting blinded. He felt as if he were walking through a thin film in the air when the light slowly died down...

    He opened his eyes and... didn¡¯t see anything in particr. They were still standing inside the small chamber, while the same magic arrayid under their feet.

    Did the portal fail? Wait...

    Angor closed his eyes again to sense the air around him. He could no longer sense the dread. The air was still stagnant, yet it wasn¡¯t as terrible as before.

    ¡°This is the Midworld,¡± Shadow said. He left his spot and joined Angor while holding a small meter device in his hand. ¡°The amount of primal mana in the atmosphere is about... 30% higher than the original world.¡±

    Angor tried to feel the density of the mana, and he quickly agreed with Shadow.

    ¡°And when we get to the Otherworld,¡± Shadow continued to exin, ¡°it will keep rising again and again until it doubles what you would usually get.¡±

    However, rich primal mana didn¡¯t mean anything to them. The bottlenecks of mana reserves for apprentices were usually determined by the speed at which they converted their primal manas, not the speed they absorbed it. Drawing too much primal mana would damage one¡¯s mind space instead.

    Only wizards who knew how to convert primal manas with high efficiency could make use of somewhere with an abundance of primal manas.

    Shadow ordered his puppets to stay put inside the chamber, and he noticed Angor doing the same.

    ¡°... You¡¯re not going out there to check? I know, you¡¯ve done your part. But aren¡¯t you curious about the Midworld? You can¡¯t find it anywhere else other than Fairy World, you know.¡±

    ...

    Angor was convinced by Shadow.

    He didn¡¯t wish to get involved in Shadow¡¯s business, but he was very interested in Krakoks and their home.

    The two of them headed to the exit of the underground cave while Shadow exined what appendage nes were to Angor.

    The Fairy World was such an appendage ne. And just like the other appendage nes, it came into existence during a ne fusion.

    A ne fusion could either happen when a ¡°powerful ne¡± moved to absorb a ¡°weaker ne¡±, or vice versa, when a weaker one chose to join a bigger ne for some reason.

    The fusion would exterminate most of the high-level creatures in the weaker ne until nothing could potentially harm the stronger ne, by which the weaker ne would officially be the appendage of the bigger ne.

    Different nes had different ¡°characters¡±, just like people. For example, there were nes filled with pure gas, liquid, or vacuum. The basew of an appendage ne would slowly get affected by its ¡°master¡± while it kept some of its own properties.

    For this reason, appendage nes tended to appear varied andplicated in nature.

    For example, the Brilliance ne, which was a famous appendage ne of the wizarding world, enjoyed eternal daytime because of the unchanging star orbits. This ne did not have ¡°night¡±. And because of the fixed patterns of the stars, it was a brilliant residence for wizards who studied astronomy.

    The property of Fairy World was that it had two other levels of worlds hidden under the real world¡ªthe Midworld and the Otherworld. The three worlds possessed different rules and different amounts of primal mana distribution.

 Chapter 372 - Under the Dome

    Chapter 372: Under the Dome

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    To wizards, the Otherworld was naturally the mostforting ce, while mortals enjoyed the peaceful Real World.

    The Midworld sat in between.

    While talking about different concepts, Shadow led Angor toward the entrance of the cave so that they could go up to the surface again.

    When passing through the ¡°meeting room¡±, the three Krakok brothers opened up a small door from their original ce in Real World and joined them.

    Angor carefully checked the small door. ¡°Can wee here by this door without using that magic array?¡±

    ¡°But how do you fit in that thing?¡± Shadow frowned and quickly added something when he saw Angor staring at him with a ¡°you know what I meant¡± expression. ¡°You mean to use something to change your size? I don¡¯t know, but I guess you can. But you can¡¯t learn Transform spell easily now. That technique¡¯s almost extinct now that Mutation Larva is bing scarce among wizards.¡±

    Transform was a cantrip that changed someone¡¯s shape. The user could either shrink to the size of a mosquito or grow into a giant. It was considered one of the hardest cantrips that an apprentice could learn.

    People considered it ¡°hard¡± when speaking in an academical way because there were too many prerequisite subjects to it, including biological structures, imitation, mana control... and several dozen more expertise. Furthermore, knowing all of these wouldn¡¯t guarantee a sessful attempt at Transform.

    However, there was one method to ¡°bypass¡± all the studies, which was to use the skin of a Mutation Larva on oneself to temporarily gain the ability to use Transform. However, as the demand went up, the supply of Mutation Larvae was almost exhausted; it had been that way ever since 500 years ago. Each time someone did manage to find some, it would create intense price wars.

    They finally reached the cave entrance.

    ¡°You want to know if the Krakoks own this ce, right? Now, take a look.¡± Shadow grinned as he urged Angor to go out first.

    Angor nced at Shadow. The covenant didn¡¯t activate because of any tricks, which meant going outside shouldn¡¯t be dangerous.

    He climbed out of the Deadmen¡¯s Dent.

    While inside, Angor believed that the Deadmen¡¯s Dent was exactly the same as the one in Real World. He expected to see the Hollow Woods outside or some trees at the very least.

    However, what came to his sight was brown, barren mountainnds that didn¡¯t even have a single grass growing on it.

    The mountains looked dry and dead; it was as if they had traveled into one of those after-apocalypse movies.

    As Angor looked around, he suddenly felt terrible fear poking at his heart as if some monster was looking right at him.

    He slowly lifted his head while shivering a little.

    A single, huge eyeball hung in the night sky, while its crimson-colored iris fixed its deathly gaze right at him.

    The giant eye full of greed and blood-thirst saw Angor¡¯s fear and slowly shut itself; it was as if it were mocking Angor¡¯s cowardice.

    When the eye shut itself, the night sky and moon regained their original looks.

    The monstrous eye slowly disappeared. Everything that happened just now looked like a dream.

    But Angor knew it was real because his whole body was still shaking like mad.

    After making sure the eye was gone, he slumped to the ground and breathed heavily. The back of his clothes was nowpletely soaked by cold sweat.

    When Shadow climbed out of the cave, he quickly saw Angor¡¯s condition. ¡°My my... what is it? A Magic Giant? A flying ghost ship? Or those magma-bastard birds?¡±

    Angor was still panting badly. ¡°What... What are those things?¡±

    ¡°Something that hunts the Krakoks. Do you really think Krakoks own this world to themselves?¡±

    Angor remained silent and thought it over.

    ¡°I saw a big eye. Red iris, high in the air...¡± When imagining the look of the eye again, Angor quickly felt more sweating out of his pores.

    Shadow held his chin. ¡°Well, no wonder you sh*t yourself then. That¡¯s one of the most mighty beings of the entire Midworld¡ªSesaybelles.¡±

    ¡°Sesaybelles?¡± Angor quickly sensed a familiar ring to that name. ¡°Does that have something to do with Abelles?¡±

    Apprentices probably didn¡¯t know about ¡°Abelles¡±, but they should have all used ¡°Abelles¡¯s Eye¡± before since they needed the item to test for their magic talent.

    Abelles was the name of an abyssal beast. An Abelles¡¯s Eye was made from its eyeball.

    ¡°Clever. They do share a blood rtion, but a Sesaybelles is way more powerful than Abelles. A level-2 wizard, I assume.

    ¡°A Sesaybelles is huge. Each of its movements always shakes the whole world up and down. To prevent too much harm done to Midworld, wizards forced it to staypletely still. It has to use its eye to look around the Midworld. I guess you just saw it happen,¡± Shadow said. He suddenly pointed to the sky. ¡°Look, Molten mingos.¡±

    Angor looked up and saw a cloud made from burning birds approaching them. The creatures circled above them for a while before they disappeared into the horizon of dusk.

    ¡°Near-wizard level bird monsters. Even wizards will not offend them easily because they always stick inrge groups,¡± Shadowmented.

    ¡°They saw us, right? Won¡¯t they attack us?¡±

    ¡°They can¡¯t,¡± Shadow said. He grinned again and pointed somewhere toward the northwest, ¡°See that Magic Giant? You¡¯ll see what I mean.¡±

    Magic Giant?

    Angor followed Shadow¡¯s direction and saw a giant figure staring toward somewhere while it crouched on the sky.

    Wait. Crouching on the sky?

    Angor rubbed his eyes and looked again. And yes, the giant sat right in the sky with nothing to support it.

    The somewhat funny-looking giant creature noticed Angor¡¯s gaze and looked his way. However, it quickly lost interest in Angor and returned to staring into the other direction.

    For a brief moment, Angor saw something reflecting light in the sky. It seemed a structure that looked like a ss dome existed right above their heads, which allowed the giant to sit on top.

    ¡°See that sh*t?¡± Shadow said, ¡°That¡¯s what¡¯s protecting us from the monsters. A bowl-shaped barrier covering our heads, stopping invaders. They can only peek but can¡¯te inside. And the Krakok is the only race living under the dome.¡±

    Shadow sounded impassioned as he continued, ¡°Whoever from Dark Castle that did this to Krakoks must be a superman or something. She made this great barrier which actually held off all the deadly monsters out there.¡±

    Shadow then pointed in the same direction that the Magic Giant had been looking at. ¡°The Krakoks live right that way. Shall we go check it out?¡±

    ¡°How do you know that?¡± Angor wondered since Shadow just told him that ONLY the Krakoks should live here.

    ¡°I once rode on a flying ghost ship and observed their home. From outside the dome, that is.¡±

    Angor tilted his head. It meant there were other entrances to go into Midworld.

    ¡°Oh, you think that was our only way in? Of course not. You didn¡¯t find supernaturals often in the Real World because most of them are staying here. The Midworld and the Real World are the same in size. Most wizard organizations in Fairy World would fix their homes in Midworld or Otherworld. Silent Hill is inside Midworld too. Remember how I told you that you can¡¯t just walk inside on your own? This is why.¡±

    Shadow began walking toward the Krakoks¡¯ habitat. ¡°As you see, the dome is super strong that nothing can break it. I¡¯d sit outside and look at the Krakoks like that giant too, if the little brothers didn¡¯t tell me about the portal. I guess I have to be a truth-finder wizard before I can force my way in.¡±

    ¡°You sound as if bing a truth-finder is easy,¡± Angor scoffed.

    Shadow didn¡¯t mind those words. ¡°I can be a wizard, as long as I get that item hidden in Dark Castle. And if I¡¯m a wizard, I¡¯ll know how to find that path of truth!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t protest further. Having faith and confidence was always better than being too humble.

    ¡°Since there are many wizard organizations here, they can take you to the Otherworld too. Why did you choose to use that portal?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Shadow smiled as he said, ¡°But you should know that I¡¯m not going to the Dark Castle organization, but the ACTUAL Dark Castle. And there are only two ways to go there. One is to use a portal located in the center of Dark Castle HQ, and the second one is where we¡¯re heading to. There¡¯s no way I can kick the door of their home base and wander inside when there are a whole lot of wizards watching, so... here we are.¡±

 Chapter 373 - Another Sorcererâ€™s Garden

    Chapter 373: Another Sorcerer¡¯s Garden

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The Krakoks lived right where Water Grasse should exist in the Real World.

    Angor and Shadow descended from the mountain and slowly headed to the Krakoks¡¯ habitat. Along the way, Angor only saw ruins and lifelessnds everywhere¡ªbald dirt, tattered grounds. Even the original ind ocean which nurtured countless people in the Real World became ck, still water.

    ¡°The Krakoks live in this ce? Is everything the same outside the barrier?¡± Angor asked a question.

    Shadow nodded slightly and sighed. ¡°Almost, apart from where wizards set up their bases. This is what you usually see in both Midworld and Otherworld. Too much primal mana can kill nts. I guess this is what they call the ¡®bnce of energy¡¯? Pity... Yet that¡¯s the price you have to pay for going through a ne fusion.¡±

    Shadow looked up again and saw Angor looking into the distance with a frown.

    ¡°Are you feeling sorry for the Krakoks?¡±

    Angor nodded. ording to Leonrick¡¯s city legend, the Krakoks used to be a group of peaceful and loving creatures. Due to their naivety, they met a terrible oue when they dealt with humans, which forced them to live in this deadnd.

    What a sad story.

    ¡°Don¡¯t assume things yet,¡± Shadow said and chuckled. ¡°You saw how that Magic Giant and Molten mingos have their eyes on the Krakoks all the time, right? Greed, man. Just like how I used to be.¡±

    Shadow huffed at himself. ¡°Something that attracted the greed of so many other monsters... Do you think they¡¯re miserable?¡±

    Shadow pointed toward ahead. ¡°Here, they are a lot happier. That¡¯s why they never left this ce again during thest thousand years.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t really understand Shadow, but he did see different monsters gawking at the same spot from outside the barrier dome. Those thirsty looks suggested that they would immediately swarm inside should the obstruction be lifted.

    He realized that Shadow was right. There had to be something else that was special about the Krakoks.

    With that question in mind, Angor moved on top of a small hill so that he could get a good look at the ins near the seashore.

    As expected, everything looked so different from the lively and greennds around Water Grasse. There was almost nothing here. No human traces, no buildings.

    Almost nothing, apart from a shining sphere that hung in midair.

    Angor was pretty confused to see it. The object looked like a ze ball about 20 meters in radius, which stood quietly in the air as it released dim green light around it.

    He couldn¡¯t see into the sphere. The surface was all blurry.

    Angor didn¡¯t believe that Krakoks could hide underground since all the monsters were looking right at them. Shadow also mentioned that the Krakoks could be observed from the sky.

    So...

    ¡°They¡¯re living inside that ball thing?¡± Angor mumbled, ¡°It¡¯s not big though. Does it mean that their poption is only like, a dozen?¡±

    Shadow joined him at the hill peak. ¡°Right by half. Krakoks are inside that thing, yes. But they got more than a dozen. Gummy told me that after all the generations, they have at least ten cities, each holds thousands of folks. I think their capital has a six-digit poption.¡±

    Angor took a guess that Shadow¡¯s exnation suggested more than 200,000 Krakoks, but he couldn¡¯t imagine how those creatures would fit into that sphere. There was no expansion rune powerful enough to create such arge space.

    And there was no way that floating ball was a space bracelet as that would cost an immeasurable amount of Hollow Weed.

    Was there another dimension in there?

    Next, Angor thought about mirror dimensions like Twilight Well and The Tributary. However, he denied that assumption soon enough because such mirror dimensions usually reflected the same environment of their counterparts.

    A mirror world inside the ball should look simr to the barren grounds outside, which wouldn¡¯t hold anything worth thirsting for.

    Shadow noticed Angor¡¯s confusion and chuckled again. ¡°I think you know the answer, but you refuse to believe it. It will look like a joke to everyone who hears about it.¡±

    Angor still failed to get a viable answer on himself, so he waited for further exnation.

    ¡°It¡¯s quite simple. Have you heard of Sorcerer¡¯s Garden?¡±

    Angor widened his eyes upon hearing the familiar word.

    A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden?

    The specific treasure that drew the attention of all wizard organizations. A small area that had its own naturalw and was blessed by the world¡¯s consciousness?

    He did think about it a moment ago. And as Shadow said, he never believed this was the case. A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was always a valuable tactical asset for wizards. How could a garden just sit in the middle of nowhere as the home of a bunch of small creatures?

    ¡°So you know about that thing,¡± Shadow continued. ¡°Well, you should totally have heard. Mister Phantom Master found himself a personal Sorcerer¡¯s Garden not long ago, and it was quite the news around the wizarding world. Man, those gossipers spent half a year digging for every scrap of information from Gravity Forest. They almost forced Gravity Forest to get a new name.

    ¡°Now I think about it, I made exactly the same expression as you when I heard about this answer five years ago. It¡¯s true though. That wizard who created this ce was strong. But that wizard was a weirdo just like that old witch. She left Fey Continent and left the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden to the Krakoks, and the old witch agreed.

    ¡°There are many who seek to take the garden for themselves. The witch dered that anyone who attempted that would be considered an enemy of Dark Castle. You understand why all the monsters are drooling over this ce now?¡± Shadow sighed again and said, ¡°I still don¡¯t know why that great wizard did this. Well, she can do whatever she wants with her personal possession, but her choice doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±

    ¡°Maybe the Krakoks have something special or really valuable that¡¯s worthy enough for that decision?¡± Angor tried. This was what he learned after spending his time in the wizarding world¡ªthat personal profit always mattered.

    ¡°Maybe. But the Dark Castle ain¡¯t a charity. They must have a really good reason to keep the Krakoks,¡± Shadow said. He then shrugged. ¡°None of our business though.¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡±

    As apprentices, they should not question the acts of wizards. They might as well set their eyes upon something they needed to do right now.

    ¡°You said there¡¯s a way to the Otherworld and to the ¡®real¡¯ Dark Castle.¡± Angor pointed to the floating ball and asked, ¡°Inside that thing?¡±

    ¡°Yup. Each time the Krakoks hold their ritual, people from Dark Castle wille into the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden via that ne passage. And it¡¯s our ticket this time.¡±

    ...

    This wasn¡¯t an easy task. First and foremost, Angor and Shadow had to sneak into the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden and reach the ritual spot.

    The Krakoks were as weak as mortals, but in order not to cause too much trouble, they couldn¡¯t just force their way in using violence.

    ¡°You already got an idea?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°No. There¡¯s no way we can blend in with those tiny creatures. We have to use the magical approach,¡± Shadow said. He took out a cloak from his backpack and continued, ¡°You know how to go invisible? If not, you can borrow my cloak. It has a built-in Optic Confusion on it.¡±

    At first, Angor didn¡¯t n to apany Shadow that far, but on second thought, he was REALLY curious about the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden and whichw it had. It would be a good choice to check that out if this one had something simr to the purification garden.

    Since the Krakoks survived inside for a thousand years, thatw should be harmless to life forms.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°No. I can manage.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I forgot. I never saw how you snuck into that room with Magician back there. Which spell did you use? Come on, tell me. I¡¯ll try to get it once I¡¯m back at Floating Mech City.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer. It wasn¡¯t a big issue to tell Shadow about the Infinite Reticence magic array, but he still wished to keep his secret moves from this tricky individual.

    ¡°Heh, fine. Since the owner of the garden had already left the southern wizarding region, we can only get inside through the portal on top of it.¡±

    Shadow took out a silk scroll from his backpack.

    ¡°This is a vehicle I found by... ident. Don¡¯t get me wrong, it has nothing to do with my personal taste.¡±

    Personal taste?

    Angor didn¡¯t understand those words until Shadow spread the silk scroll open and revealed a soft silk cloak that would fit well on any beautiful woman.

    Shadow put on the cloak with an embarrassed expression and floated up into the air.

    ¡°Shall I give you a lift?¡±

 Chapter 374 - Singing Girl

    Chapter 374: Singing Girl

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor checked their distance and went over some calctions in his mind. He then shook his head.

    ¡°You know Levitate?¡± Shadow asked in surprise.

    Levitate was only a level-1 cantrip, but it required many years of effort to learn and an even longer time to acquire the necessary knowledge. Wizards didn¡¯t need this cantrip because they could use their superior mana control abilities to fly around without spending much energy.

    Shadow was confident in bing a wizard, so he never tried to learn Levitate. Therefore, he was very surprised to see Angor rejecting his help.

    ¡°I can¡¯t fly, but I don¡¯t need that to get over such a small distance.¡±

    With that, Angor did a high jump and cast a spell he already prepared under his feet.

    A small tornado pushed him forward, and each time he fell back down, another tornado would boost him up again.

    Using three tornadoes and three great leaps, Angor sessfully reached the sphere andnded on top of it, nice and sound.

    Shadow also arrived shortly after. His beautiful cloak had left a colorful trail behind him, which looked extremely showy.

    ¡°That isn¡¯t Levitate, right?¡± Shadow quickly put his cloak away. ¡°It looks like something to hurt people.¡± He already felt sharp wind hidden in those tornadoes. It was definitely not used for flying.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, but I can totally use it in another way,¡± Angor admitted.

    He learned about this trick when he was studying in Pocratee. It wasn¡¯t difficult, but it asked for quick mental calctions and a proper, spacial environment to use. He had to build the next spell model before crashing, which could be achieved by using his axes of the universe.

    ¡°Three tornadoes... Was that one cantrip used three times?¡± Shadow grew curious again.

    ¡°Why does it matter?¡± Angor nced his way. ¡°Too many questions, my friend.¡±

    Angor clearly knew that Shadow was trying to figure out whether the tornado was a Quickened spell. No wizard or apprentice would answer such a question which could be used to evaluate their true strength.

    Shadowughed it off and changed the topic. ¡°Let¡¯s move,¡± he said as he pointed ahead, ¡°the portal should be right there.¡±

    The surface of the sphere wasn¡¯t smooth. There were rises and falls, and Shadow was pointing at the tallest point they could see.

    Upon reaching their goal, Shadow looked down at the magic array beneath him. ¡°Yup, we got it here.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Something triggered by magic crystals.¡±

    There was a crystal slot in the center of the array. It seemed they had to spend three crystals to activate it.

    ¡°Shall we do it now?¡± Angor moved ahead.

    ¡°Wait up.¡± Shadow suddenly closed his eyes and said, ¡°Don¡¯t reject me.¡±

    A mind connection visibly left Shadow¡¯s forehead and reached Angor¡¯s, bringing some sharp spirit ripples to him.

    ¡°This is... the level-3 cantrip, Spirit Bond,¡± Angormented.

    ¡°Yes. We better use this to talk once we go invisible.¡±

    Angor nodded and released his own spirit around him. Their different spirits were now connected by the simple bond.

    ¡°Ohh, a nice spirit you got there. Flexible and sturdy.¡± A trail of emotion reached Angor through the bond.

    This method ofmunication was simr to the level-1 cantrip ¡°Spirit Synchronize¡±, but the caster of Spirit Synchronize could more or less dominate themunication. The caster could invade the spirit of the receiver if he or she wanted to.

    Spirit Bond, however, was neutral. They ¡°talked peacefully¡± through their bond by using pure spirit power.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go now,¡± Angor said. He then fully activated Infinite Reticence which both decreased his visual appearance and presence.

    Shadow put on his invisible cloak and slowly disappeared into thin air. Three magic crystals appeared out of nowhere and were put inside the magic crystal.

    ¡°Now!¡± Shadow¡¯s voice came.

    Bright light engulfed them both.

    When Angor could see again, he found himself standing among lush trees and chirping birds. The smell of fresh grass and flowers was a great contrast to the deathly air outside.

    The trees around him looked simr to the woods in Real World. There were also several ruined structures at the edge of the woods, which looked suitable for humans to live in.

    ¡°The Krakoks can travel away using their ¡®door¡¯, and people from Dark Castle always go to the capital through that ne passageway. This portal array has not been used for a long time. There used to be Krakoks guarding this ce but not anymore,¡± Shadow spoke through their connection; the man¡¯s true location could no longer be sensed.

    ¡°I guess the Krakoks felt so safe that they forgot about possible enemies?¡± Angormented. It seemed the Krakoks had forgotten about their disaster so soon. Such naive creatures would definitely go extinct without the protection of Dark Castle.

    ¡°Yup. Peaceful times kill people quicker than looming troubles,¡± Shadow said with a chuckle.

    ¡°So where do we go? Where¡¯s Gummy and the Krakok brothers?¡±

    ¡°They can¡¯t help us any further because of their discipline, so I asked them to leave us,¡± Shadow said. He paused for a moment before he continued, ¡°I think we should get away from these trees first.¡±

    There were a good number of buildings around. They each picked somewhere to explore and parted their ways.

    But a brief look around didn¡¯t yield any result.

    In the end, they simply headed outside the woods. It only took them about an hour to leave the trees, and what they saw next shocked Angor greatly.

    The trees prevented them from seeing much a moment ago, but now, they could see a number of floating inds above their heads which were connected together by thick chains.

    The interior of the sphere was full of floating inds. Angor couldn¡¯t see the edge of the sphere. There were only inds with richnds and a habitable environment on them that were scattered in the clear sky.

    No wonder the Krakoks enjoyed their lives.

    As they observed the inds, they suddenly heard someone singing.

    ¡°O the first warrior, he who brought his sword upon the morning garden and found the first rose for the red queen...

    ¡°O the second warrior, who hides in thends of serpents and waits for the next dawn, away from evil humans...

    ¡°O the third warrior, who spreads his wings and joined the song of Grand Priest. Together, they waited for the third beloved patron...

    ¡°O the fourth warrior...¡±

    Words of a poem-like aria recited by a gentle girl¡¯s voice reached Angor¡¯s ears.

    Following the sound, he saw a small girl in a green miniature bubble skirt singing toward the sky while she sat on a small hillock.

    ¡°My my my. Herees our answer.¡±

    Angor felt a wind brushing past him when the singing girl suddenly fainted.

    Shadow re-appeared behind a tree while he carried the small human-like figure in his hand.

    ¡°First time I see a white-skinned Krakok. She looks pretty! A pity she isn¡¯t blond or blue-eyed,¡± Shadow said as he poked at the ¡°Thumbelina¡± yfully.

    Before the man could check what was hidden under the girl¡¯s skirt, Angor quickly took the Krakok away.

    ¡°Aw,e on. Let a man satisfy his curiosity!¡± Shadow spoke in a perverted manner while sniffing his finger madly as if he really wanted to keep the smell of the small girl.

    Angor didn¡¯t mind his words. With a snap of fingers, his Nightmare Domain was brought out.

    Angor walked to a dining table and ced the girl on it.

    He then thought about something and took out a box of cream and a ss of milk from his bracelet. With a quick freezing cantrip, he made some iced milk smoothie and left if beside the Krakok girl.

    Shadow joined him and inspected the luxurious castle hall around him. ¡°Woah man, you¡¯re part-time pastry chef too? Can I have some of that?¡±

    Shadow took a seat and noticed Angor didn¡¯t answer him. ¡°So good to have a space storage... You can bring anything you like.¡±

    He put a finger on the tableware and realized the illusions looked too real. Before he could ask something else though, the Krakok girl slowly opened her eyes.

    ¡°Ummf...¡±

 Chapter 375 - Papaya the Thumbelina

    Chapter 375: Papaya the Thumbelina

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The little girl had green eyes, and she was wearing a green hairband, like the color of newborn saplings.

    She didn¡¯t seem scared at all after being knocked out just a moment ago. Instead, she sat up casually and looked around the area with great curiosity.

    She saw glittering decorations in a brightly-lit castle hall. Everything was big, and she was curious.

    ¡°What are you looking for?¡±

    The girl looked up at the ¡°giant¡± sitting at the other end of the table. ¡°Are you talking to me?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Oh, I like your voice. It reminds me of the small stream flowing in the morning wind. Gentle and clear.¡±

    Angor was a little surprised by her words. He then smiled and said, ¡°Thank you. It¡¯s an honor to hear such words.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re so big and pretty!¡± The girl put her hands on a dish with beautiful carvings. She then put her hands on a teacup which was almost as big as herself.

    Angor pointed at a smaller ss, which was still too big for the girl. ¡°Milk smoothie, if that¡¯s okay for your taste.¡±

    The small Krakok sniffed and licked her lips. ¡°Thank you! But I can¡¯t use that.¡±

    She pointed at the spoon in the ss.

    To her, the small spoon wasrger than a war hammer.

    ¡°You see? Can I have it instead?¡± Shadow joked and tried to reach for the ss.

    The Krakok girl pouted while she watched Shadow reaching out for the ss.

    That milk smelled so sweet... My granny wouldn¡¯t let me eat anything sweet. And that cream! I want to have them all!

    When Shadow picked up the spoon, Angor took out a metal fork and stuck it toward Shadow¡¯s hand.

    Shadow jumped and quickly let go of the ss.

    Angor skillfully caught the drink and put it in front of the small girl again.

    ¡°Hey! Well, she can¡¯t drink THAT, so we better not waste it!¡± Shadow protested.

    Angor nced at Shadow and didn¡¯t spare the effort to reply. He then took out the spoon and used Thaw to recreate it into a smaller tool in a matter of seconds.

    He cooled the now smaller spoon with Condense and handed it to the girl.

    ¡°That¡¯s perfect! Can I really drink this?¡±

    ¡°By all means,¡± Angor said as he gestured at the ss of milk.

    Shadow frowned as the girl satisfied her stomach. He thought this ¡°Mask¡± was lying about knowing alchemy, but what he just saw proved that Mask was actually good at it. That ss spoon would easily turn to a useless liquid without careful control.

    And Mask did that work nice and easy... There was even a tiny cartoon design on the handle of the spoon. It was an animal that wore ace skirt and a bow-tie. Was that a cat or a rabbit?

    Making the spoon smaller in such a short time and in a perfect way meant Mask was very skilled at alchemy.

    ¡°Nice trick there, man. How about helping me with something?¡± Shadow said through the Spirit Bond.

    Again, Angor didn¡¯t answer him. He was watching the girl as she happily consumed her drink.

    The ¡°smoothie¡± he made was only iced milk added with some cream. It was nothing top-ss. Still, he felt content to see the little girl enjoying it so much.

    Angor¡¯s noble manners told him not to speak when someone was eating, and so, the silence persisted.

    It was the Krakok girl who broke the silence first. ¡°This is so nice! My grandma won¡¯t let me have anything like this. She would only force me to sing every morning.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Angor dly found something to talk about since the girl seemed willing.

    ¡°Well...¡± The girl rubbed her nose bridge awkwardly. ¡°She said sweets eat away my teeth, so I¡¯ll look terrible when singing in front of others.¡±

    ¡°Do you really need to look pretty when singing?¡±

    ¡°I know, right? But granny said if I do a good job at singing, the Sky Choir will bring me to sing for the Queen over at Citadel.¡±

    ¡°Citadel?¡± Angor looked at Shadow, who returned with the same confused expression.

    ¡°But aren¡¯t you the same as those big people from Citadel?¡± the girl asked.

    Shadow spoke before Angor this time, ¡°So you aren¡¯t afraid of us because we¡¯re from Citadel?¡±

    By this, Shadow pretended that he and Angor dide from the ce mentioned by the girl.

    ¡°Yup. When I went to the ceremony at the capital, Hippocrotee, I saw a really, really beautifuldy who came from Citadel. You all looked the same size. Our Grand Priest was talking to her then, so I can¡¯t get close.¡±

    Those words got both Angor and Shadow to start thinking carefully.

    Angor was interested in the name ¡°Hippocrotee¡±. The former name of Water Grasse was ¡°Hippocratee¡±. It seemed that even after the thousand years, the Krakoks still couldn¡¯t forget their old home.

    Shadow was more curious about the ¡°beautifuldy¡± from Citadel. He was now trying to ask about her information from the Krakok girl.

    ¡°She had really bright blond hair. It¡¯s long and all curly, like those clouds you see before a big rain. She has brown eyes and a small spot around her lips. And, um, she was wearing a red robe.¡± The girl tried to remember while finishing her iced milk.

    ¡°That should be an apprentice of the old witch,¡± Shadow spoke through Spirit Bond. ¡°If this girl¡¯s right, she saw ¡®Mercy Witch¡¯ Fiona. A peak level-3 apprentice like me.¡±

    Next, Shadow smiled at the girl. ¡°I see! That¡¯s Fiona, my dear wife.¡±

    ¡°Oh yes! I heard Grand Priest mentioning her name, Fee, Fee...¡±

    ¡°Fiona.¡± Shadow chuckled.

    ¡°Lady Fiona it is! So, she¡¯s your wife, mister? Oh, you two must be so happy!¡±

    Shadow didn¡¯t seem shameful at all. ¡°Of course. She always sticks close to me all day, and at night we get to bed and¡ª¡±

    Angor snapped his fingers, and Shadow suddenly lost his voice.

    The man didn¡¯t find anything wrong with his throat. Rather, he ¡°forgot¡± how to make sounds.

    Shadow touched himself quickly and found a small trace of aura lurking around his eyebrows. When he tried to chase it away, Angor moved a hand again and ordered the aura to return into the Nightmare Domain.

    ¡°Don¡¯t start fooling yourself with those lies.¡±

    ¡°Well, we gotta pretend to the fullest,¡± Shadow said with a grin. He then turned to the smalldy again. ¡°So the Citadel will send someone again soon?¡±

    The girl nodded innocently.

    When looking at the green figure sided with white cream milk, Angor somewhat got a feeling that everything was looking tasty.

    ¡°Yes. The grand ceremony was the day after tomorrow.¡± The girl suddenly looked confused and asked, ¡°Hey, Hat Uncle, why did they suddenly change the schedule?¡±

    Hat Uncle?

    Angor exchanged a puzzled look with Shadow. Angor already removed his top hat, so the girl had to be referring to Shadow now.

    Shadow took off his wide-brimmed hat. ¡°Do I look ¡®uncle¡¯-ish to you? Come on, call me big brother.¡±

    ¡°Oh, um, Brother Hat?¡±

    ¡°Okay fine, enough with the hat stuff. Call me Diablo,¡± Shadow said. He then looked at Angor and said, ¡°That¡¯s my real name. Won¡¯t you introduce yourself too?¡±

    Angor nced at Shadow before he spoke to the girl, ¡°I¡¯m Angor. What¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡°Angor, huh?¡± Shadow searched his mind and didn¡¯t find anything he needed.

    The little girl licked her lips clean. She then used a small handkerchief and did a curtsy. ¡°I¡¯m Papaya from Seedling Vige, kind sirs from Citadel.¡±

    ¡°So, the Citadel changed the date for the ritual?¡± Shadow asked.

    ¡°Yes. I was nning to take it easy, but they just moved the date two months earlier. That¡¯s why my granny asked me to practice early in the morning. Why did you do that, Brother Diablo?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it should be a secret. You¡¯ll see soon enough,¡± Shadow said. He then quickly changed the topic. ¡°Your grandma asked you to sing so that you can make a show during the ritual?¡±

    Papaya looked both timid and proud. ¡°Right! The choir chose me. I¡¯ll leave for Hippocrotee tomorrow. I never thought I¡¯ll actually meet someone from Citadel today. Are you the one choosing singers for Sky Choir, Diablo?¡±

 Chapter 376 - Hymns of Fairies

    Chapter 376: Hymns of Fairies

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    People from Dark Castle came to Krakoks to choose singers for a choir?

    As Shadow thought about the question, Papaya was still waiting for an answer while blinking her innocent green eyes.

    Shadow rolled his eyes and quickly created another lie. ¡°No. It¡¯s my wife, Fiona, again. I came earlier so I can surprise her. Hey, don¡¯t tell her that I came, alright?¡±

    Papaya looked so excited. ¡°Really? I won¡¯t!¡±

    Shadow tried to inquire for some other information from Papaya, such as the location of Hippocrates, and whether the Krakoks possessed any special abilities.

    Papaya had no problem answering the first question. She even invited Angor and Shadow to join her journey, but Angor didn¡¯t agree.

    For the second question, Papaya only mentioned all sorts of strange rumors and legends, which had little to do with what they wanted to know.

    Angor and Shadow talked to each other using Spirit Bond. And to Papaya, the silence meant the end of their conversation.

    Since the sirs no longer ¡°spoke¡±, Papaya smiled and moved to the center of the dining table. ¡°Mister Angor, Mister Diablo, thanks for your invitation! Well, I don¡¯t have anything to pay you back. May I sing something for you?¡±

    Angor smiled and signaled Papaya to continue.

    Papaya nodded. She then crossed her fingers and closed her eyes.

    ¡°O the first warrior, he who brought his sword upon the morning garden and found the first rose for the red queen...¡±

    As she sang, Angor felt as if the voice of heavens materialized inside the Nightmare Domain.

    Combined with the girl¡¯s cute look, Angor greatly enjoyed the impressive respite.

    ¡°O the second warrior, who hides in thends of serpents and waits for the next dawn, away from evil humans...¡±

    Angor heard many dramas and choirs before. His mother once asked him to write his own one, which mostly consisted of made-up randomness. But all the experience did teach him how to evaluate songs and choirs. Using his high-standard musical taste, he believed Papaya¡¯s song was brilliant.

    It probably wasn¡¯t the best choir he heard yet, but it was melodic and beautiful.

    As the poem progressed, they felt different emotions vividly seizing their hearts.

    ¡°O the third warrior, who spreads his wings and joined the song of Grand Priest. Together, they waited for the third beloved patron...¡±

    Papaya¡¯s voice somehow attracted the musical teacups which had been staying in a corner of Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain.

    The teacups floated around Papaya for a while, and as Papaya entered the next chapter of her poem, they suddenly began to y along.

    Piano, oboe, horn, harp...

    Angor always found the music yed by the teacups to be annoying. They sounded sharp and painful to his ears. Now, however, he realized that these creatures created wonderful music, which was even better than some of the most renowned music bands, because their cooperation was perfect.

    ¡°O the fourth warrior... He reveals the sky gate, apanied by light and holy chants, is the fourth soul hidden in the ck tome...¡±

    As Papaya reached the climax of her song, the teacups brought out more exciting melodies as well.

    Probably because of the good musicians that apanied her, Papaya was using way more strength than ever while singing, which helped her create the best possible performance for her song.

    When everything ended, Papaya remained silent for a while before she did a curtsy again.

    She wasn¡¯t afraid of the ¡°flying teacup men¡± around her at all. She even went to perform high-fives with them, whileplimenting their great job. ¡°Oh dear. You¡¯re all better than the Sky Choir already!¡±

    ¡°Nice song. Can you tell us the story behind it?¡± Angor suddenly asked a question.

    ¡°Of course. This is the ¡®Hymns of Fairies¡¯, passed down by us Krakoks for a thousand years!¡±

    ¡°That again...¡± Angor grinned. He heard about this particr time frame many times ever since he arrived at Pocratee. And every time, it would remind him that Dodoro was a really old being who lived through all that time.

    ¡°Thanks for your song. It reminds me of many old stories,¡± Angor said. He then stood up and bowed to the girl.

    Papaya blushed. ¡°It-it¡¯s my honor to sing for you, mister. Oh! It¡¯s almost noon now. I need to get back. Granny¡¯s going to worry.¡±

    Angor nodded and snapped his fingers to cancel the Nightmare Domain. The three of them re-appeared on grassynds.

    Papaya bowed to Angor and Shadow onest time. She then waved her hands and ran down the hill, leaving a trail of girlish giggles behind her.

    ...

    When Papaya had fully disappeared from their sight, Shadow said, ¡°Look at you. You scared her dearly.¡±

    Angor shrugged. ¡°Well. She knows how to pretend better than you.¡±

    Yes, it was pretended.

    Papaya only looked calm and carefree, but she was actually nervous and terrified right from the start. Both Angor and Shadow noticed.

    Angor could sense every detail in his Nightmare Domain. Papaya was a mortal creature; she couldn¡¯t hide the changes in her emotions.

    ¡°So, how did you notice?¡± Angor looked at Shadow.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe a small girl, who upon meeting with a pair of strange giants, can stay so calm. She answered each of our questions loud and clear. It means she obeyed us, not because she¡¯s being nice. Actually, she did it so perfectly that I can¡¯t find a reason to punish her.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°At least her words are all true.¡±

    ¡°Heh. The moment she tries to lie to me will be herst.¡±

    ¡°Oh man. Are you always so violent in front ofdies?¡±

    ¡°I only respect people with blond hair and blue eyes. While the others... I don¡¯t care about her gender, her age, or her race.¡± Shadow gave Angor a meaningful nce.

    ¡°Freak...¡±

    Angor thought about the previous encounter. In truth, he was impressed by Papaya¡¯s performance. He didn¡¯t n to let the girl go at first. However, since Papaya did wonderfully by presenting her song and asking to leave afterward, everything seemed natural and smooth.

    Angor greatly appreciated such flexibility of mind and trained mentality. That was why he chose not to trouble the Krakok girl further.

    This didn¡¯t mean that he fully trusted her. Before Papaya left, he ced a small trace of nightmare aura on her, just in case.

    Meanwhile, he noticed that an evil yet familiar aura was hidden in Papaya¡¯s shadow.

    Shadow¡¯s trick, no doubt.

    Angor and Shadow exchanged another meaningful look before they vanished into the air. They then headed down the hill.

    ...

    ¡°What do you think of that song?¡± Shadow asked through Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Do you mean the story or her voice?¡±

    ¡°Is there something worth asking about her voice?¡± Shadow chuckled.

    ¡°To me, it sounds more like a narrative poem which exins the history of Krakoks. The second and third paragraphs are obviously talking about the war a thousand years ago and being saved by the Dark Castle wizard. Except that they left out the part about how they looked miserable and sugarcoated themselves as brave warriors. I don¡¯t know about the other two parts. I guess thest one is talking about something inside Dark Castle.¡±

    ¡°I agree. We should pay attention to the fourth paragraph.¡±

    As they were both invisible, Angor didn¡¯t notice that Shadow appeared extremely curious about something.

    They were both trying to hide something, butpared to Shadow, Angor chose to ask his question by speaking in a casual manner.

    ¡°Remember the second use? She said the nds of serpents¡¯, which means the former Water Grasse¡ªHippocratee. Why did they call that ce thends of serpents?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re interested in mortal history now?¡± Shadow replied.

    ¡°Just curious, that¡¯s all.¡±

    Shadow wasn¡¯t doubtful at all since mortal history wasn¡¯t anything important. ¡°The Zeal Dominion destroyed everything rted to the old nation, so it¡¯s natural that you don¡¯t know about it. They forbid all citizens from mentioning that part of history under any circumstances.

    ¡°The one that ruled over thend before Zeal Dominion came was called Akesolya.¡±

    Angor felt his heart beating powerfully as he remembered the name of Akeso, the giant serpent that was living near the water where Pocratee hid underneath.

    Shadow continued, ¡°It was a really weird ce too. They worshiped a giant beast, which was a snake or something like that. Papaya¡¯s nds of serpents¡¯ should be referring to Akesolya.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that snake called?¡± Angor tried to ask.

    ¡°The snake? Dunno. It¡¯s only a symbolic totem or something. Do you really need to name a totem?¡±

 Chapter 377 - Origin

    Chapter 377: Origin

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    A small vige straight out of a fairytale¡ªthe Seedling Vige¡ªsat around a giant Cranbul Tree which presented the residents with benevolent fragrance throughout the whole year. There were traces of life everywhere. Under the leaves, along the tree trunk, among the branches...

    The entire vige showed brilliant craftsmanship. Every house was built using mortise and tenon joints, without using any metal or nails. Every single tile and brick was carefully carved with delicate decorations, including small corners under roof hinges which couldn¡¯t be seen usually.

    Houses on different heights were connected by a number of exquisite ¡°elevators¡± that were powered by wind generators made from giant tree leaves. Here, the Krakoks had shown the most perfect side of their construction talent.

    It was high noon, and each of the houses was had smokeing out of its chimney.

    A small green figure dashed down the mountainside and entered the vige, leaving only a brief moment for potential onlookers to see.

    ¡°A littlete, Papaya!¡± An old Krakok, who was smoking from a pipe, greeted the girl with a smile. Another heavy-looking woman appeared from the house while dusting her flour-covered hands.

    ¡°Dear Papaya¡¯s going to join the Grand Ceremony in Hippocrotee tomorrow. Of course she needs her practice, silly!¡±

    After scolding her husband, the woman smiled gently at the girl. ¡°Hello, my dear, I made some Granbul cakes today. You can try some.¡±

    Papaya forced a smile on her pale face. ¡°No thanks, I really need to pack my luggage for the travel now.¡±

    The old woman nodded.

    As Papaya traveled through the vige, many vigers came to pay her their regards.

    ¡°As the only choir singer in this ce, do make us proud, girl!¡±

    Unfortunately, Papaya was too panicked to answer them with her own politeness now.

    ...

    Her grandmother already prepared lunch at home.

    ¡°Ah, you¡¯re back? Come. I¡¯ve made an exception by making you Cranbul cheese bread today. Just this once though!¡±

    Despite feeling joyful at being able to eat sweet food, Papaya still rushed into her grandmother¡¯s chest while crying.

    ¡°I¡¯m so scared, grand...¡±

    ¡°Papaya? Whatever¡¯s the matter?¡±

    ¡°When I was practicing singing on the hill, I saw intru¡ª¡±

    She suddenly stopped and looked up, only to see her loving grandmother speaking in a male voice.

    ¡°What did you see?¡±

    The gentle and clear voice sounded nice to herst time. Here, however, Papaya immediately found it cold like the worst winter frost.

    She took another careful look and saw the wrinkled and kind face of her grandmother had be that of a young man... Angor¡¯s.

    When she backed away in fear and sat on the ground, she heard her grandmother¡¯s voice again. ¡°What is it, Papaya? Are you tired?¡±

    Papaya¡¯s eyes lost focus for a while. Then, she saw her grandmother again.

    Hallucination?

    The old woman quickly helped Papaya up and dusted her clothes while giving her gentle lectures as she had always been giving in the past decades.

    These kind words couldn¡¯t possiblye from anyone else.

    Papaya tried again. ¡°Granny, I just saw¡ª¡±

    Again, her words were interrupted by a series of strangeughter. She turned around and saw her own shadow shifting.

    A terrible, grinning maw suddenly emerged from it.

    Papaya backed away against a wall, sweating.

    ¡°Papaya dear? What happened to you today?¡± Her grandmother asked again.

    Papaya no longer dared to answer. She knew that those pair of giants would never give her a chance.

    ...

    Meanwhile, on a hill slope not for from Seedling Vige, two concealed individuals were looking at the giant Granbul Tree in the distance.

    ¡°She stayed awake? She got a strong heart, that girl,¡± Shadow¡¯s voice came.

    ¡°Stronger than you expected, no doubt. Even such a small soul knows how to act strong in front of supernaturals,¡± Angor¡¯spliment was sincere.

    Despite their topic, Angor was more interested in the Krakok vige in front of them.

    He only heard about the perfect craftsmanship of these creatures from legends. And now, he got to witness the work of true geniuses for real.

    ¡°Their small bodies possess some really amazing intelligence... frightening, even,¡± Angor mumbled to himself.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go already. Guess we already convinced her not to speak about something that she isn¡¯t supposed to,¡± Shadow called.

    Angor nodded and turned away, leaving the ¡°toy vige¡± behind.

    The experience was something like a child¡¯s dream, in which ¡°bigger¡± people stumbled into thends of ¡°smaller¡± people, and it depended on the story¡¯s reader to find out who was the main character.

    ¡°This is quite fun.¡±

    Angor began to realize why so many wizards loved to write down all kinds of travel diaries and fantasies; it was because this world was full of fun things that were worth noting down.

    Seeing more meant seeing things with more perspectives and broadening one¡¯s mind. Such was the point of traveling.

    ...

    They had learned about the location of Hippocrotee from Papaya. The city sat in the middle of all floating inds.

    Shadow was heading to Hippocrotee to travel to the Otherworld by going through a tunnel that was activated during the Grand Ceremony, while Angor was nning to learn about the w¡± of the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden they were in.

    ording to what he already knew, the rule of a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden should exist everywhere in the garden as long as it wasn¡¯t exhausted. However, he never sensed anything like that ever since he came here.

    And even if the power of thew was fully spent, the core of it should still exist, which would give birth to more power again given enough time. No wizard would ever try to exhaust the core of a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden because it wasn¡¯t renewable.

    Usually, such a core shouldy in the center of a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, which meant where Hippocrotee was.

    Since Angor and Shadow had the same destination, they decided to travel together for a while.

    Along the way, Shadow kept trying to strike up conversations with the intention of pressing for Angor¡¯s information. He tried by asking all sorts of daily topics.

    Shadow was very interested in Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain, which was mostly what he had been asking about.

    And when Angor did not entertain him much, Shadow suddenly changed his topic.

    ¡°By the way, about that Akesolya... I¡¯ve heard something about it from a wizard.¡±

    ¡°What, wizards are interested in mortal history?¡± Angor replied.

    Shadow grinned when he sessfully drew Angor¡¯s response. ¡°Well, the story of a mortal nation isn¡¯t necessarily intended for mortals only. So, you want to learn about this Akesolya?¡±

    ¡°Well, it won¡¯t hurt to know,¡± Angor said. He didn¡¯t want to reveal too much of his mind to Shadow.

    ¡°There are many books that talked about it,¡± Shadow continued, ¡°but they¡¯re all ambiguous and all. But that wizard I mentioned did tell me something solid... Have you heard about the Originers?¡±

    ¡°Originers? Some kind of humanoid creatures?¡± Angor was puzzled.

    Shadow carefully watched Angor¡¯s emotions and was disappointed to find no changes, which meant Angor knew nothing about the rumor.

    ¡°Not humanoid. They¡¯re seen as humans. A special and rare human race.¡±

    In the wizarding world, the major race of ¡°human¡± was divided into several more genera like animals. Unlike humanoids, these genera were still considered human.

    Angor, as well as most people he encountered before, were Homo Sapiens, who dominated the southern wizarding region. There were other human genera who lived here, such as the curious Karabits, and the rough-natured, shorter-bodied Subterrians, who mainly dwelt underground.

    But Angor never heard about anything called ¡°Originers¡±.

    ¡°The Originers fell under the index of the human race about 20 thousand years ago. They weren¡¯t found in many ces. Primitive hignd areas only. Their abilities, intelligence, and general looks were all simr to Homo Sapiens. However, they possessed a gift, which allowed some of their sages to receive really important prophecies from the world¡¯s consciousness.

    ¡°And yes, a gifted race always draws enviousness and hate. Because of their talent, they met with a simr disaster as the Krakoks. After undergoing forced very and researches, they were officially dered to be extinct about 10 thousand years ago.

    ¡°But the wizard I just said told me that, a small number of Originers lived on in the nds of serpents¡¯ Akesolya, some thousands of years ago. They never showed up ever since Zeal Dominion took over the ce. Maybe some wizards managed to seize them, or they all died during the war.¡±

    Shadow sighed as he exined the sorrowful fate of an entire race. Who knew whether Homo Sapiens themselves were another race who survived such a cmity?

    Angor, however, quickly thought about Dodoro after hearing those words.

    All the corpses he saw in Pocratee were certainly Homo Sapiens, but he still couldn¡¯t be sure of Dodoro¡¯s race. Dodoro held too many secrets; both unseen ones and visible ones, such as that ¡°small tail bump¡± on his back.

    Was Dodoro actually an ¡°Originer¡±? That would be quite a coincidence.

 Chapter 378 - Hippocrotee

    Chapter 378: Hippocrotee

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Different floating inds were connected by iron chains which also served as traffic routes. They were guarded by sentries. However, all the protections were pointless to Angor and Shadow.

    They traveled through the ¡°indwork¡± which appeared like a spider web and headed to its center, where the ¡°biggest spider¡±¡ªHippocrotee¡ªwas.

    They finally reached their destination when the sky was painted by dusk.

    However, they didn¡¯t get to take many steps on the central ind because Angor suddenly knelt down due to a sudden strange feeling that overwhelmed his body.

    It was an indescribable pain that came straight from the depth of his soul.

    The pain surpassed everything else there was. Angor couldn¡¯t do anything but to struggle on the ground helplessly, and without the mana support, his Infinite Reticence broke down as well.

    This was what Shadow saw when Angor¡¯s body re-appeared under the dusk light.

    ¡°What¡¯s gotten into you?¡± Shadow quickly asked when he noticed that the painful writhing was real.

    Angor had no strength to answer at all. What was left of his concentration was fully seized by the impulsing agony, which finally went away when he lost consciousness.

    ...

    When he woke up again, he found himself lying beneath the shade of a giant tree.

    The color in the sky was reced by the bright light of dawn.

    He felt something on his skin too. It seemed Shadow had given him the invisibility cloak.

    Hey under one of the many trees in a forest since no one else was nearby. The Spirit Bond had also vanished because of his condition.

    Angor tried to recall what had happened. He couldn¡¯t understand where that pain came from. Was there something wrong with his soul?

    He had not learned anything to actively enter his Soul Space yet, so he couldn¡¯t check his soul condition. However, he could sense the Green Velvet in his body moving a little, which meant something did happen inside him.

    When he heard the sound of rustling leaves nearby, he looked aside and saw the leaves on the ground moving as if someone was walking on them.

    ¡°Angor?¡± Shadow¡¯s voice came.

    Angor removed the cloak and was about to prepare to talk when another Spirit Bond asked for ¡°connection¡±, which he quickly epted.

    ¡°Finally. What¡¯s with you yesterday?¡± Shadow spoke through their Spirit Bond.

    Angor realized that he slept through the night.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... I think the ind has something that hurts my soul. That¡¯s what I felt yesterday.¡±

    Shadow considered. ¡°I know what that is, but it only makes me feel ufortable for a while. Maybe you don¡¯t have any soul defense?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything since he knew Shadow was wrong. He already knew that his soul could resist most types of negative effects, judging from his battles against Saka. Also, the Green Velvet was there to protect his soul.

    And there was no way ¡°he doesn¡¯t have soul defense¡±.

    Still, he wasn¡¯t going to reveal his abilities to Shadow.

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s something to do with the garden¡¯sw?¡±

    ¡°Possible. I¡¯m not sure though,¡± Shadow murmured as he tried to remember what he learned about soul-rted Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens.

    Most of such gardens weren¡¯t used for human bodies. Some of them only permitted souls to go inside, such as a Garden of Deceased.

    One of the most famous soul-rted gardens should be Soul Soil, which could be used to enhance Soul Maniptors. The most noticeable property of this type of garden was that the garden¡¯s rule was spread throughout the ground, which obviously wasn¡¯t the case here.

    Shadow considered, but he couldn¡¯t reach any answer.

    ¡°Ugh, no use thinking about it. I checked around Hippocroteest night. The ceremony won¡¯t happen inside the city. It¡¯s at an altar to the east. The ceremony is tomorrow, but Hippocrotee¡¯s almost empty now¡ªthe Krakoks already went to the ritual ground. I think I¡¯m gonna check the city since no one¡¯s looking after it. What about you? Want to rest here?¡±

    Angor considered before he replied, ¡°I think I¡¯ll go to the altar so that I don¡¯t identally step on their houses in the city. I got a feeling that the core ofw might be right there.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s split ways then. I¡¯ll maintain our Spirit Bond. Be careful though. If you do find that core, stay far enough so that you don¡¯t get lost in it.¡±

    ¡°Get lost?¡± Angor grew confused.

    ¡°The core of thew is an addictive source of strength to wizards, and deadly. Without the world¡¯s consciousness to guide you, you can¡¯t even attempt to learn thew. If you try it anyway, you will quickly get absorbed inside.¡±

    ¡°I see, thanks,¡± Angor said. He then removed the cloak and handed it back to Shadow. ¡°I can manage on my own without this thing now.¡±

    ¡°There are loads of Krakoks near the altar. Keep your head down so that you don¡¯t kill any of them,¡± Shadow said and left the forest.

    Angor chuckled and activated Infinite Reticence again.

    ...

    The ancient ritual altar was located in the eastern suburbs of Hippocrotee city. Angor thought it was still far, but he hadn¡¯t even walked far before he heard the beautiful music of chanting choirs which were performed by countless singers. Even the Krakok Knights riding on hummingbirds in the sky were singing along.

    After the song came the narration of the history of Krakoks.

    By chasing the sound, Angor quickly found the ceremonial spot, which was a six-level dish-shaped shrine built on the in ground at the mountain foot.

    The fine designs of the shrine suggested that Krakoks built it. Angor was surprised to see that the shrine was about ten meters tall, which appeared moderate to humans but definitely not to Krakoks.

    At the peak of the small mountain, a group of Krakok Clerics stood in front of the Grand Priest¡¯s temple and presented their holy song.

    Countless Krakoks had gathered around the shrine under the mountain; there was only one narrow path left in the middle of the crowd.

    Angor observed the shrine carefully. He could sense amazing energying from it, which seemed to be the work of multiple runes. A magic array, perhaps.

    ording to Shadow, the magic array was probably a portal made by Dark Castle.

    There was another energy source though, which came from the temple at the peak of the small mountain. It released the same energy which made him faint yesterday¡ªsomething that shocked souls.

    He looked at the temple in the distance and forced himself into giving up the idea of adventuring further.

    Something suddenly chirped from inside his pocket. Toby, who had been sleeping all day long, began to flutter toward the mountain peak with his eyes closed.

    Angor jumped and immediately dragged Toby back.

    Also, the more he tried to stay away from the mountain, the more Toby would try to fly away. And the bird never responded to Angor¡¯s calls, which meant he was still sleeping.

    ¡°What¡¯s the deal with that temple?¡±

    Angor tried moving forward again, but Toby only became more and more active in his hand.

    In the meantime, his instinct of ¡°wanting¡± to check out the strange energy was getting stronger.

    When he moved to the middle of the mountain slope, Toby suddenly stopped moving and quieted down again.

    And Angor decided to stop as well. He wasn¡¯t going any further. Not before he learned what was hidden inside the temple.

    He found a rtively concealed spot and sat down. He then listened to the holy chant as he continued to observe Toby¡¯s condition.

    Everything on Toby seemed fine. When he cast Heal and received no injury feedback, Angor quickly suppressed his anxiety.

    He was getting a little scared of the temple too. He didn¡¯t know about anyw generated in a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden that could attract Toby like that.

    Or was this ce a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden at all?

    ¡°You good over there?¡± Shadow¡¯s voice came from the Spirit Bond.

    ¡°I think I just found the source of the power, but I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s thew of the garden,¡± Angor said. He considered his words before he added, ¡°It¡¯s inside the temple of the Grand Priest. What about you?¡±

    Shadow suddenly snickered. ¡°Oh, I have something really interesting. Do you want to take a look?¡±

    ¡°Something interesting?¡±

    ¡°A magic array which covers the entire Hippocrotee. Sounds good enough?¡±

 Chapter 379 - Interpreting Magic Array

    Chapter 379: Interpreting Magic Array

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    A magic array that covered Hippocrotee?

    Angor wasn¡¯t really surprised to hear about this. Back when Shadow mentioned how a wizard from Dark Castle had given an entire Sorcerer¡¯s Garden to Krakoks to be their new home, Angor already had a question about the wizard¡¯s intention. There wasn¡¯t anyone that would be so generous in this world.

    ording to rumors, people from Dark Castle were even more ¡°brutal¡± than Brute Cavern. In the views of apprentices, Dark Castle was full of ¡°ck wizards¡±. Could someone from Dark Castle bestow such charity to Krakoks?

    He highly doubted it.

    ¡°What does it do?¡± Angor asked Shadow.

    ¡°Heh, I don¡¯t know much about this kind of stuff. As far as I can see, it ain¡¯t anything that does you good. So, will youe?¡±

    Angor looked at the sleeping Toby on his hand. He then looked back at the enchanting temple which held some unknown power that attracted Toby in his dream.

    Angor assumed that the temple held something that asked Toby to explore, just like what he felt a moment ago. Unfortunately, Toby was in no condition to control his own body right now.

    Before he got to learn what was hidden in there, Angor would not risk venturing into that uncharted temple.

    ¡°Wait there. I¡¯ming.¡±

    To prevent Toby from ¡°dream walking¡± again, he ced the bird in the space bracelet. Once he made sure that Toby didn¡¯t resist, he left the mountain.

    As soon as he left, a certain individual inside the mountain temple suddenly opened his eyes.

    It was a bald, wrinkled Krakok elder with a long beard that reached the ground. His gray and muddy eyes weren¡¯t focused, which suggested he was blind.

    The old Krakok slowly limped to the center of the temple on his walking stick.

    A lump of gray aura floated here, which kept spinning and releasing strange ripples into all directions. When engulfed by the ripples, the old man¡¯s eyes slowly lost their vividness, and the several strands of ck hair that remained on his head gradually turned white.

    The old Krakok aged visibly and rapidly, but he did not back away from the strange aura. He only stared into it with great emotions mixed with yearning, sadness, and regret...

    A cleric wearing a gold-rimmed white robe walked inside.

    ¡°Grand Priest, the singers we chose from all viges have arrived. Do you wish to look at them?¡±

    The old Krakok slowly turned around and shook his head. ¡°No... We¡¯ll let those from the Citadel choose for themselves.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡± The cleric watched the old man with a worried look. ¡°Sir, the Soul Essence is too dangerous for your body. I shall watch it for you.¡±

    ¡°No. I can still do it.¡± The old man shook his head again.

    ¡°You can at least have some rest. We need you to direct the ritual tomorrow. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll get any trouble at this point.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. Just... leave me be for the moment.¡±

    The cleric opened his mouth and closed it again. He then left the temple while sighing.

    The old Krakok walked onto the temple balcony to look at his people who were at the bottom of the mountain. Then he looked at the dense buildings with another sad look.

    He slowly moved back in front of the ¡°Soul Essence¡±.

    ¡°A human intruder? The gap won¡¯t open, and the torrent cannot leave here... You¡¯ll have to stay here forever. Guess it¡¯s only an insignificant opportunity for us. Whether it can help us with the revolution... does not matter now.¡±

    Slowly, he paced into the shadows.

    ...

    As Angor descended from the mountain slope, he sensed something familiar.

    He looked around and saw Papaya in her silk dress. She was near the altar where she stood among a group of partners with the same outfit. They were moving their heads and singing the holy chant together.

    Papaya didn¡¯t look very outstanding, but the particr peaceful temperament on her seemed unique whenpared to the other singers.

    Angor easily sensed her presence because of the nightmare aura he left on Papaya. After the ¡°jump scare¡± in Seedling Vige, Papaya never tried to tell others about her encounter with them again.

    And Angor only nced at her for a brief moment before he walked away.

    ...

    The city of Hippocrotee upied nearly a thousand square meters which held countless structures tightly stacked together. The density of buildings did not hinder the exquisite craftsmanship of Krakoks. Even the smallest streetmps disyed perfect designs on them.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re here,¡± Shadow said. He sensed Angor¡¯s arrival because he was beginning to use less mana to sustain their Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Yup,¡± Angor said. He was walking along the edge of the city instead of heading inside right away.

    ¡°I¡¯m at the west gate. There¡¯s a small spire thing at my knee level,¡± Shadow said.

    Most structures in Hippocrotee had two stories. Something tall enough to reach Shadow¡¯s knees was obvious enough, which quickly helped Angor to locate Shadow.

    ¡°Aha!¡± Shadow smiled at Angor as he said, ¡°We can be those evil giants that invade small cities in those childhood stories. Let¡¯s crush some houses, and maybe a hero will ride a dragon and hunt us down. Oh wait, they only have hummingbirds here. So a hummingbird knight wille for us.¡±

    Angor only chuckled at the joke.

    ¡°No kidding. I really feel like stepping on these nice little houses when looking at them.¡±

    Shadow wasn¡¯t really going to actually do stupid things when their n was more important right now.

    ¡°So, did you feel the magic array?¡±

    Angor stayed quiet and scanned around Hippocrotee. He didn¡¯t feel anything when he walked around the city just now.

    He frowned when looking at a small open ground near the center of the city.

    ¡°That statue... has something in it.¡±

    Shadow frowned at Angor¡¯s discovery. A moment ago, he had to get really close, and he had to use his spirit feelers to find the ¡°trick¡±. But now, Angor just disyed that he had better skills.

    It was amon thing for wizards to have gaps in their strength. However, Shadow was feeling VERY stressed out when even such a young apprentice could show him so much, especially since he himself was an elite from Floating Mech City.

    Angor moved to somewhere higher and looked down at the city. ¡°I see. Each statue was a node of a magic array. The nodes scattered across the whole ce... I see 373 of them. They belong to 12 different runes, which made up one giant magic array.¡±

    ¡°You know about this array? What does it do?¡± Shadow asked.

    ¡°No...¡± Angor considered for a while. ¡°Not now anyway. But I learned about all the basic runes before. If I check their variables and apply them to those magic forms... I can do some reverse engineering and understand the effect of the magic array.¡±

    ¡°You can do that? Alone?¡±

    Shadow knew what that meant, and he also knew how much calction was involved. Getting a result with fixed variables was easy but definitely not the other way round. Without preceding rules, there were countless ways to reach a result. Shadow didn¡¯t believe Angor could reconstruct the calctions on his own.

    If only he¡¯d known how Angor already learned about insane mental-calction skills when he was studying Singrity Dispersive Meditation.

    Still, Angor didn¡¯t intend to tell Shadow about it. ¡°You know more about this ce. You should check out the ritual spot and find out if that temple I mentioned contains the core of thew or the exact nature of thew. I¡¯ll stay here and work out the magic array.¡±

    Without giving Shadow any time to protest, Angor found a concealed spot. He then took out some tools and began working.

    Shadow moaned and headed toward the temple mountain.

    After Shadow had left, Angor took out his tablet. He then entered several variables that required arge volume of calction before he let the machine do its wonder.

    He could also do everything without the device, but that would take much more time.

    It had been some time since hest performed ¡°mind overdrive¡±, but it wasn¡¯t a big deal as he already memorized the tactic down to the depth of his soul.

    When he opened his eyes again, the city of Hippocrotee had be a bunch of numbers or data in his view. Starting from the city base, different base numbers traveled into higher variables. They then turned into forms, and finally, final answers began to show up at the topmost level.

    Time went by as he scanned each section of the city for more data.

    This Sorcerer¡¯s Garden was a small world which could simte day and night as long as there were sufficient materials and energy.

    Angorpleted his calctions just the night began. He didn¡¯t go over all of the runes since what he worked on was already enough for him to find the nature of the magic array.

 Chapter 380 - Isabelle

    Chapter 380: Isabelle

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor frowned at his result.

    Of course... Dark Castle would never do anything too kind.

    The magic array was nothing deadly. Otherwise, the Krakoks wouldn¡¯t have enjoyed peace for a thousand years.

    But sometimes, ¡°deadly¡± wasn¡¯t the darkest abyss.

    The sleepless night only existed around the altar at the mountain foot, while Hippocrotee had fallen intoplete silence due to theck of residents. There were only lone streetmps that provided some luminescence.

    Angor looked at the quiet city again. No one would ever imagine what kind of darkness was hidden behind the peaceful illusion.

    An entire abyss sat down there, gazing at anyone who dared to return the gaze.

    Angor suddenly saw someone who was still inside Hippocrotee. It was a white-haired old Krakok woman, who just left her house with a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

    There was not another soul in the streets. The woman proceeded alone.

    She slowly moved in front of a statue at the end of the street¡ªone of the ¡°nodes¡± in the city.

    A small streetmp sat near the statue, while some flying insects were drawn to the light.

    Using the dim light, Angor carefully inspected the Krakok citizen. The corner of her eyes hung a little due to her old age, but her wrinkles suggested that she loved smiling. All the curving wrinkles on her skin only added to her gentleness.

    Also, Angor noticed that the old woman didn¡¯t seem so well. Her face was pale, and her eyes were dispirited with illness.

    She ced the bouquet at the base of the statue and smiled gently.

    Angor saw the old woman¡¯s lips moving while changing expressions. It seemed she was talking.

    Angor knew how to read lips. However, the old woman was barely moving her tiny lips, so he couldn¡¯t really understand her.

    He took a guess that the woman was recollecting her past life. She would sigh in distress or smile brightly now and then, which all looked like an old soul who was approaching the end of her time.

    While muttering, she would asionally bow toward the statue to show respect.

    Her bowing caused Angor to look at the statue again. Now that he had time to observe the statue itself instead of the rune node in the center of it, he suddenly noticed something was wrong.

    The statues in Hippocrotee all had different looks, but they also had one thing inmon; they all appeared as women.

    They might havee from the hands of different artisans. Still, Angor got the feeling that they were designed to present the same figure.

    The statue in front of the old woman was a kind-lookingdy in a silk robe, who was praying with her eyes closed. It could be seen that whoever created the statue highly respected thedy while trying his or her best to show the ¡°powerful and distant¡± nature of a goddess.

    ¡°Hey, Diablo, do you know who¡¯s that woman shown by the statues?¡± Angor initiated a topic with Shadow, which was rare for him.

    It took some time for Shadow to respond. ¡°Ahh... I so very want to go to that temple right now and see what¡¯s inside... Oh wait, the statues, you say?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Are they all the same woman?¡±

    ¡°My my, you just noticed? And yes they are. If my guess is right, it¡¯s that wizard from Dark Castle who took the Krakoks here a thousand years ago, ¡®Sundown Sultan¡¯ Isabelle. She¡¯s also the teacher of that old witch I talked about. Speaking of that ugly hag... She copied everything from Isabelle, including her name. Guess she will never find the path of truth on her own now.¡±

    ¡°Sundown Sultan...¡± Angor looked at the statue again and didn¡¯t want to believe that title. Thedy statue looked holy and bright, which had nothing to do with ¡°sundown¡± at all.

    While Angor talked to Shadow, the old Krakok woman had finished her prayer and knelt down. She now had her head against the ground in a groveling position and remained still.

    Angor waited for a long time, but the old woman never moved again.

    He approached the statue area and spread his spirit feelers to check. As he expected, thest bit of warmth hadpletely left the old woman¡¯s body.

    Perhaps she knew she would perish soon. Instead of attending the ritual, she spent herst moment here alone with the statue before she finally departed from this world with the heart of a faithful believer.

    Angor still felt the woman¡¯s soul lingering behind as if bidding farewell to her vessel.

    However, the instant her soul began to ascend for real, a light beam invisible to mortal eyes emerged from the statue and dragged the helpless soul into an unknown dimension.

    Angor saw it all, but he wasn¡¯t going to change the sorrowful oue. He couldn¡¯t.

    He only felt it extremely ironic.

    The poor woman believed in the statue until herst breath. And by the time she realized that the statue would take her to hell, it was way toote.

    Ironic, but truthful enough.

    ¡°Isabelle¡± granted the Krakoks a peaceful and protected ce to live in at a terrible cost¡ªtheir very souls.

    A soul could always find another chance to survive in other forms, even if its body no longer existed. But if one¡¯s soul was exterminated... then he or she would stop existing for real and forever.

    Angor shook his head and turned away.

    At the lonely street corner, a cold body was still in a kneeling position in front of the statue of Isabelle. As the old woman prayed for something with her fingers crossed, the wind blew over and carried the old woman¡¯s bouquet over to her.

    Her white hair and the soft, white petals joined together as if they were epting each other¡¯s final words.

    ...

    When Angor crossed the silent city and approached the vicinity of the holy mountain again, he heard the holy songs which persisted throughout the entire day.

    From quietness to vigorous crowds. It was like entering apletely different world.

    The temple on top of the mountain was still disying its mighty ripples as if announcing its dominance over everything.

    ¡°You¡¯re here already?¡± Shadow¡¯s voice came. ¡°Finally giving up on your ¡®reverse engineering¡¯?¡±

    Shadow never thought about the possibility that Angor could work out the magic array in less than 10 hours.

    ¡°I already got it,¡± Angor replied. ¡°And everything was as expected.¡±

    ¡°I know, right? There¡¯s no way you can¡ªWHAT?! You did? God damn it. You¡¯re not pulling my leg, eh?¡± Shadow almost yelled that out. His hat already fell on the ground because of his overreaction... but Angor couldn¡¯t see that now.

    ¡°I checked some of the critical runes. They more or less showed me the result. And I just needed a little bit extra confirmation.¡±

    Shadow asked again and again. He finally believed Angor¡¯s words when Angor was getting impatient. ¡°Ugh, I see. So, whatever does that thing do?¡±

    ¡°Trapping and absorbing souls. There are several Bloodline-rted runes in it. I think the magic array isn¡¯t only restricted to Hippocrotee. It connects everything that has Krakok blood. A Krakok far away from here, across many dimensions, will alwayse back here, eventually.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re saying¡ª¡± Shadow scowled.

    ¡°This ce is Dark Castle¡¯s soul farm, and the Krakoks are their livestock.¡±

    To Angor, these creatures only enjoyed happiness when they were alive, which was presented to them by Dark Castle. After death, however, wicked fangs and ws would suddenlye out of their hiding ce and eagerly devour their souls.

    ¡°I knew something like this is here, but I never noticed how they do it,¡± Shadow said as he snickered. ¡°Maybe Isabelle did sympathize with the Krakoks by saving them from extinction. But to her, such kind deed deserved payback. An expensive one.¡±

    ¡°Expensive or not, we¡¯re not the ones to judge. To mortals, death meant death. Who knows, maybe the Krakoks already knew about the magic array. They just don¡¯t care.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... they¡¯re short-sighted alright. d I learned about that. Do you know where those souls go to in the end?¡±

    Angor pointed to the mountain temple. ¡°There, probably.¡±

    ¡°I guessed as much. The core of thew is inside the temple too. I also saw thew ripples around the mountain to be pretty stable, so the power ofw isn¡¯t exhausted. But... why isn¡¯t the power reaching out to the other inds if it¡¯s sufficient?¡±

    ¡°Now that you mentioned it... I may have an idea. The Sorcerer¡¯s Garden uses the souls as its energy source which sustains itsw. But we have a problem here¡ªmortal souls aren¡¯t powerful enough to feed aw.¡±

    ¡°They have something to purify and refine souls?¡± They both reached a possible conclusion.

    Angor nodded hard. This trip would be worthwhile if he could learn how to purify souls.

 Chapter 381 - Isabella

    Chapter 381: Isabe

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    As the highest point at thend, the holy mountain was always the first thing that enjoyed the first sunlight each morning.

    Blurry aurora had given it a more sacred look. As the sun rose, all the Krakoks knelt down and prayed for their wellbeing.

    The holy song came once again from the mountain peak, while hummingbird knights patrolled the sky while dispersing white petals among the crowd to strengthen the solemn atmosphere.

    When the sunlight reached the altar, groups of choir singers moved around it into a perfect formation.

    A group of clerics in gold-rimmed white robe emerged from the temple above them, led by the old priest.

    ¡°Hail the Grand Priest!¡± People called in perfect unison.

    The old man slowly walked onto the tform on one side of the mountain peak and gazed at his people with the look of a religious dominator.

    ¡°May eternal peace bless us.¡± He prayed for his people before he began to present today¡¯s ceremonial speech. ¡°Mankind turned their greed-infested hands against us, and our ancestors almost perished. But the master of Citadel bestowed flourishing peace upon us... We hold the ceremony today to show our respect to our savior.¡±

    While the old man talked, Shadow suddenly spoke to Angor while hiding on top of arge tree. ¡°That old thing has some strong energy, but he¡¯s still a mortal.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Even a mortal who spent too much time near the core of naturalw can get affected by godly powers.¡±

    ¡°Mortals know nothing about true strength, which helps them to resist the temptation. Isabelle did a really disgusting job by building the temple here. The Krakoks alwayse here to worship the broken souls of their ancestors, but they never realized it.¡±

    ¡°Ironic, yeah. But I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what Isabelle wanted. She wants something else.¡±

    Asking mortals to guard the core ofw made no sense at all. Angor believed that a ¡°truth finder¡± level-3 wizard should have some other reason for building this ce.

    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s done? I thought he¡¯d keep up that shit for hours like the other god and idol wannabes,¡± Shadowmented. It seemed the ceremony was starting after the Grand Priest spoke for one minute. ¡°But isn¡¯t that a little too simple for such a grand event?¡±

    Angor noticed mixed emotions from the priest¡¯s expression even though the old man had been trying to remain serious and solemn.

    ¡°Say... Do you think he knows about the magic array under Hippocrotee?¡± Angor asked Shadow.

    ¡°No?¡± Shadow snickered. ¡°Now that would be fun... if he gave those pretentious speeches to his people while he knew about the secret business in the dark.¡±

    ...

    As the ceremony officially started, the choir groups around the altar began performing their poems as well.

    A team of armored guards carrying a decorated stretcher moved across the crowds and walked onto the central tform of the altar. The stretcher had a magic crystal as big as a Krakok individual on it. The four guards worked together and carried the crystal into a slot on the altar.

    ¡°Here ites,¡± Shadow said when the altar began to shine brightly.

    ¡°You sure there are no wizards today?¡± Angor watched the familiar energy ripples that suggested a portal.

    ¡°No. The old witch isn¡¯t here, that means no wizard will apany them.¡±

    They saw a short figure emerging from the portal.

    Short, in the views of ordinary human women. To Krakoks, however, the visitor was still giant.

    ck bubble skirt; ck half-sided veil; long, ck hair; pale skin; and a delicate face. Judging from the looks, the visitor was a little girl about 12 or 13. Angor didn¡¯t sense any supernatural energy from her. She looked like a mortal.

    The small girl slowly opened her eyes as the light of the portal died down.

    She was looking directly toward where Angor and Shadow were hiding.

    Angor frowned when he noticed her gaze. How could a mortal find them so quickly? It called for really superior perceptions.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that, Diablo?¡± he asked through their Spirit Bond.

    Shadow didn¡¯t answer.

    And Angor couldn¡¯t see that Shadow had started to tremble all of a sudden while looking at the girl on the altar in fear.

    ¡°It can¡¯t... It can¡¯t be... Why would shee to this ce?!¡±

    The little girl grinned at them as if she sensed Shadow¡¯s fear. She licked at her lips in a charming yet terrifying way as if thirsting for something. Blood, probably.

    ¡°Ooh, look at that. Little puppet lover Diablo?¡± A giggling and sharp woman¡¯s voice invaded the Spirit Bond between Angor and Shadow.

    Angor jumped a little at the sudden voice. He was very shocked to see someone ¡°barge¡± into their Spirit Bond so easily. It was not difficult to break such a Spirit Bond, but no ordinary apprentice could join their connection easy-peasy.

    ¡°La-Lady Isabe, why-¡±

    Angor heard Shadow¡¯s trembling voice through the bond. Now, he didn¡¯t need to see Shadow¡¯s figure to know that the man was scared.

    Isabe?

    That sounded a lot like ¡®Sundown Sultan¡¯ Isabelle. Wait, Shadow mentioned that the ¡°old witch¡± from Dark Castle imitated Isabelle in many ways...

    Reaching such a conclusion, Angor felt his heart pounding harder.

    ¡°Oh, I just wanted to check if you¡¯re fit to be my sweetheart¡¯s student,¡± Isabe said while giggling. Her words somehow sounded loud and clear among those giggles as if she could speak with two voices at the same time.

    Angor stopped regarding her as a ¡°little girl¡± when he thought about her possible identity.

    ¡°Aw, look at you, chickening out like that. Am I so scary? Tsk. Minus point!¡± Isabe¡¯s ¡°double voice¡± came up in their Spirit Bond again. ¡°Maybe the young handsome boy beside you is better.¡±

    Angor quickly realized she was referring to him.

    Before he could reply, however, Isabe¡¯s voice suddenly turned louder and harsher as she snapped, ¡°I HATE blond hair and blue eyes! Hey Diablo, kill him and I¡¯ll admit you! Now! DO IT! KILL HIM!¡±

    The Spirit Bond was nowpletely upied by the repeating ¡°kill him¡± line that assaulted their sanity.

    Shadow¡¯s eyes suddenly grew red. He slowly reached out a hand toward Angor¡¯s location and began to gather mana.

    Next, he shrieked in pain and stumbled out of his Optic Confusion effect while writhing on the ground helplessly.

    The voice in the Spirit Bond was still ordering him to kill, but he was in no condition to heed that order now.

    Angor silently watched as Shadow struggled. There was no doubt that their magic covenant just worked its wonders. Shadow would soon find his heart ripped apart if he didn¡¯t give up on the idea of killing him.

    But Isabe¡¯s voice kept alluring Shadow¡¯s mind, which prevented him from thinking rationally. He could not ¡°unthink¡±, which in turn caused him his terrible fate.

    As Shadow yelled painfully, Angor looked up toward the altar again.

    ¡°Little girl¡± Isabe was still smiling eerily on the altar. Time seemed to be frozen around her. The choirs weren¡¯t singing anymore, and none of the Krakoks were moving.

    Angor said to her, ¡°I don¡¯t know why you want to kill me, but you might as welle to get me yourself.¡±

    Isabe didn¡¯t answer. She kept urging Shadow to do the work.

    ¡°I see,¡± Angor said with a grimace. ¡°You¡¯re not ¡®really¡¯ here, am I right?¡±

    He reached out a hand and released a trace of nightmare aura.

    As the aura traveled around, the ¡°frozen¡± Krakoks immediately began to move again. Meanwhile, Isabe revealed a surprised look before her body broke into fragments.

    ¡°Nice illusion... but it¡¯s only something created by a small part of consciousness,¡± Angor muttered.

    Once the illusion was broken, the Krakoks continued their routines again.

    The portal was still shining, and it then gave birth to another figure. However, it wasn¡¯t Isabe this time.

    Angor looked at Shadow again. With a snap of his fingers, an Acoustic Illusion covered them both.

    Shadow¡¯s eyes quickly regained the vividness of sanity.

    ¡°Bah!¡± The man let out a painful breath and tried to endure the lingering pain on his body. ¡°God damn that old hag. Almost died back there. Hey, thanks for the help.¡±

    ¡°She used her voice to hypnotize you. You wouldn¡¯t have fallen for it if you don¡¯t have any wrong ideas in your mind though.¡±

    Shadow stood up without minding Angor¡¯s hint. ¡°Ahem! So someone hase? Oh, so I guessed right. It¡¯s Fiona.¡±

    ¡°Well, whatever. Just remember, you owe me one.¡±

 Chapter 382 - Shadowâ€™s Teacher

    Chapter 382: Shadow¡¯s Teacher

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    At one corner of the vast yet lifeless Midworld, there was a dark valley hidden in the shadow of mountains.

    A lone wizard tower stood in the valley; it was surrounded by darkness and the pale light of a cold moon.

    Unlike the harsh environment, the inside of the tower was warm and cozy.

    On the top floor of the tower, a firece burned brightly as several fire-element spirits who just earned intelligence chased around yfully. However, they immediately dived back into the fire when they saw the girl in the ck dress outside.

    ¡°What, my beauty isn¡¯t enough to arouse your inspiration?¡± She spoke in her ¡°double voice¡± at a tall male figure who was working at a workbench.

    No response.

    She moved closer and checked the man¡¯s work with her crimson eyes.

    The man tilted his head while licking around his mouth with a long, slickery, serpent-like tongue. He had been gazing at his ¡°masterpiece¡± with his eyes that twinkled in excitement.

    There was a snake woman puppet with a fine body curve on his workbench. She had two tails, one silver-white and one azure, which corresponded with her hair and eyes¡ªblond-white hair and azure irises.

    When the man released a trace of mana into the puppet, the creature suddenly revealed a gentle smile.

    ¡°Greetings, my master.¡±

    The man¡¯s tongue was moving faster now as heughed in a strange way.

    The woman in the ck dress frowned at the puppet creature. ¡°You really like these half-man-half-beast things, huh?¡±

    ¡°Jajaja... Isn¡¯t she a beauty? Look at her eyes... I think she just got my heart,¡± the man replied without looking at the woman at all.

    ¡°Beauty? Better than me?¡± The woman crept closer and licked the man¡¯s ear.

    Any male wouldn¡¯t resist such a seductive tongue gesture, but there were always exceptions.

    The man pushed her away. ¡°Get off me. You stink of blood.¡±

    The woman grimaced and stood up. Then she moved in front of the puppet, still giggling.

    ¡°She¡¯s a beauty eh? What about... now?¡±

    She reached out a hand with ck fingernails and pulled an azure eye out of the puppet. With a mighty squeeze, the eyeball became shards and liquid.

    The snake-woman puppet yelled and copsed. Then she looked at her master with ck, bleeding eye socket.

    ¡°It hurts... master...¡±

    The man slowly retracted his tongue and put up a more serious look.

    He spat and moved one hand around the puppet, dissecting the creature into several parts.

    ¡°Disgraceful.¡±

    The woman in the ck skirt was not bothered by the man¡¯s ill-natured attitude at all. ¡°Right? Such a being will neverpete with my own beauty,¡± she criticized with her giggling voice.

    ¡°Isabe...¡± The man gazed at her with a cold look. ¡°Are you perhaps taunting me?¡±

    ¡°Heh. It¡¯s just a reminder. As my futurepanion, you need to change your personal taste.¡±

    ¡°Jajajaja! I¡¯m not interested in ugly women. Especially someone who actually chased her teacher away with the excuse of love.¡±

    Isabe scowled at those words.

    A stronger bloody smell emerged from her body. As the aura grew thicker, several bloody phantoms appeared inside the cozy room.

    ¡°You know, I have nned to kill you a long time ago.¡± The man didn¡¯t seem scared at all.

    A pair of puppetdies with blond hair and blue eyes appeared from behind him. They began to exert their own might which slowly suppressed Isabe¡¯s phantoms.

    Isabe clenched her fists and canceled her power. They were both level-2 wizards, but she clearly knew that shecked strength for now. The man in front of her had almost found the path of truth, while she was far from it.

    Since Isabe gave up whatever she was nning, the man also returned his puppets back into his own space storage.

    He returned to the workbench and cleaned up the bloody remains. He then took out another female corpse from his storage before he began working again.

    ¡°You can leave now, Isabe,¡± the man murmured while he gazed manically at his ¡°material¡± again. He would like to get rid of the ¡°ipatible element¡± in hisb before getting back to work for real.

    Isabe looked really pissed off now. ¡°YOU invited me to Silent Hill, and now, you are asking me to go back to Dark Castle?¡±

    ¡°Do whatever you like. Just don¡¯t bother my work.¡±

    Before Isabe could retort further, she suddenly stopped moving to sense a strange ripple that just came to her.

    The man also lifted his head when he noticed the ripple that was now trying to get inside his wizard tower.

    ¡°Let it in. It¡¯s the power of consciousness that I left in the Soul Genesis Garden,¡± Isabe said.

    The man waved a hand casually and allowed something inside, which quickly headed to Isabe.

    Isabe absorbed the message and grinned. ¡°Well, it looks like I need to go back to Dark Castle now. Your student has reached the garden. It won¡¯t be long before he gets in.¡±

    ¡°Jaja... Diablo? But the passage shouldn¡¯t be opened at the moment.¡±

    ¡°It did. The ritual in the garden was brought forward. And if my assumption is right, Diablo is preparing to get inside now...¡±

    ¡°Brought forward? For what reason?¡±

    Isabe sat on the workbench and ced her bare feet on the man¡¯sp. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you if you allow me to spend the night here.¡±

    The man grabbed her feet and pushed her away. ¡°How many times do I have to tell you that you look too awful for my liking?¡±

    Isabe wasn¡¯t offended at all since she experienced such treatment many times. Besides, she was trying to seduce this man for another secret reason.

    She dusted her skirt a little and headed out of the tower.

    ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°Back to Dark Castle, duh.¡±

    The man summoned his female puppets to block Isabe¡¯s path. ¡°Don¡¯t forget about what we agreed on.¡±

    ¡°You just said I can do whatever I want, right? And don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not doing anything to Diablo. I¡¯m going back to deal with someone else,¡± Isabe said while thinking about the image of a blond-haired, blue-eyed young man in her message.

    ¡°Someone else got into the Soul Genesis Garden?¡± The man grew curious.

    ¡°Together with your chicken student, I think. But this one¡¯s a lot more able-minded than Diablo, that coward,¡± Isabe said and tried to move around the puppets.

    She tried and failed. The puppets swiftly blocked her way no matter which way she went.

    ¡°What¡¯s this supposed to mean?¡± Isabe felt really irritated now.

    ¡°We agreed that we are not going to stop Diablo from using anything to achieve his goal.¡±

    By this, he meant that Diablo¡¯s helper was also a viable method.

    Isabe rolled her eyes. She thought about her guest who was visiting Dark Castle and decided toply for now.

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll stay here. You know, Diablo might get Naga if I¡¯m there to watch him. But if I¡¯m not... I don¡¯t know what¡¯ll happen!¡±

    The man didn¡¯t question Isabe¡¯s hint. He was still working on his puppet with the smile of a freak.

    Isabe only snickered in response to the silent treatment.

    Her guest wasn¡¯t the kind type, especially now. If Diablo ran into her... He would definitely look ugly.

    ¡°So unlucky for you to do it at this special year, kid...¡± Isabe muttered to herself. ¡°Guess you¡¯ll have to ept your fate.¡±

    ...

    ¡°You¡¯ll have to ept your fate! Give up!¡± Shadowughed madly.

    A beautiful womany on the ground in front of him. She was still carrying the same expression before she was knocked out, which was both surprise and confusion.

    She was the one who came to the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden from Dark Castle, ¡®Mercy Witch¡¯ Fiona.

    As for why Fiona ended up here...

    ording to Gummy, the ceremony would persist for three days, during which Fiona would stay in Hippocrotee.

    Gummy provided another piece of important information¡ªthat the visitors from Citadel would all stay inside a pce south of Hippocrotee. Krakoks spent almost 100 years to build something to house a human visitor.

    Since they knew the exact time of Fiona¡¯s arrival and her destination, Shadow proceeded to kidnap her by waiting in the middle on her scheduled path.

    Fiona was also a level-3 wizard, but when caught by surprise, she had no choice but to sumb to Shadow¡¯s dirty tricks.

    Previously, Shadow prepared to have at least a decent fight with her. Yet Angor¡¯s illusion saved them all the effort. Fiona was trapped in the mist illusion before she could resist.

    An Illusionist was always the best when it came to backstab unwary victims.

    Once Fiona was lost in the illusion, Shadow simply knocked her out. Actually, even Shadow wasn¡¯t prepared to ept the easy victory.

    Next, he unleashed his strings from his fingers, which sank into Fiona¡¯s limbs.

    When Fiona reopened her eyes, they showed emotionless res rather than intelligence, which meant she was now another puppet controlled by Shadow.

    ¡°Got¡¯er. Let¡¯s continue with my n.¡±

 Chapter 383 - Election?

    Chapter 383: Election?

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The next step of Shadow¡¯s n was basically using Angor¡¯s illusion to confuse the Krakoks, while Shadow would go for the portal and sneak into the Otherworld.

    Previously, Shadow didn¡¯t n to attack Fiona. He only needed to get to the portal while she was away.

    Since Angor was here, they decided to remove the ¡°uncertainty¡± and let her go once everything was done.

    ¡°I¡¯ll let you decide where to put her,¡± Shadow said to Angor.

    Angor nodded. He was going to keep Fiona indoors until Shadow returned from his mission.

    Once they ced Fiona back in her residence, Angor apanied Shadow to the holy altar.

    The ceremony wouldst three full days, so the mountain foot was still lively with singing Krakoks. The crowd wasn¡¯t a problem, but they still needed to do something with the Krakok knights that were protecting the portal.

    Angor couldn¡¯t cast spells from within the crowd, so he had to deploy his illusion from afar, which proved to be quite a challenge.

    Fortunately, there were only mortals around. Shadow was the only one who managed to sense Angor¡¯s nightmare aura.

    A momentter, Angor ced shading barrier around the portal, as well as the ¡°fake¡± ceremony illusion which covered the guards.

    ¡°Alright, you should be fine now,¡± Angor said with a nod. ¡°And be quick. If you aren¡¯t back before the end of the ritual, I¡¯ll ask Fiona to send me back to Real World without you.¡±

    ¡°Oh chill, I can always sense the location of that thing. I¡¯ll definitely make it,¡± Shadow said. He considered for a moment before he continued, ¡°Or even faster, if you can go there and help me.¡±

    ¡°Isabe wants me dead, and that¡¯s her home base over there. Maybe she¡¯s not inside Dark Castle right now, but we don¡¯t know whether she left more of her consciousness behind, so... no.¡±

    Angor would not risk anything after he experienced the strange rage that he received from the woman.

    Shadow more or less had an idea why Isabe was so hostile to Angor, but he couldn¡¯t say it since it had something to do with his own teacher. ¡°Right. Meanwhile, you can stay here and look for a clue about that soul-refining power they have here. I¡¯m expecting a double-gain when I get back!¡±

    With that, Shadow prepared to float toward the altar.

    Before he left for real, Shadow suddenly turned around and said again, ¡°Fiona looks pretty good too. How about you try to get her into ¡®business¡¯ using this chance? I assure you that she won¡¯t notice anything when we let her loose.¡±

    ¡°Get lost already.¡±

    Shadow proceeded to the altar. Again, he said something else before he ¡°disconnected¡± their Spirit Bond, ¡°You know why she¡¯s called ¡®Mercy Witch¡¯? She¡¯ll forgive you for whatever you do to her! Believe me, just go for it!¡±

    Shadow¡¯s body slowly disappeared on the altar.

    After Shadow was gone for real, Angor¡¯s expression slowly turned grim.

    Despite those joyful jokes, Angor knew that Shadow was only acting friendly because of their magic covenant. This man was forced.

    Angor decided to check out Fiona¡¯s ce before exploring the holy temple.

    Before he could leave, he suddenly noticed that the white-bearded priest had been looking at him from the mountain peak.

    He wasn¡¯t sure how long the old man was there. Not sure what to do, they just stared at each other across the distance for a while.

    While Angor was confused, the Grand Priest remained peaceful and calm. Still, Angor got a feeling that those harmonious eyes were hiding something. Something rather violent.

    ¡°Did you see everything?¡± Angor asked quietly. He was using lipnguage.

    The priest lowered his head a little and shook his head. Then he stepped back into the temple.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure what that meant. He felt that the old man had seen their movements, but for some reason, he didn¡¯t stop them.

    As someone who watched over the ne passageway, the Grand Priest had to have something to contact Dark Castle... Yet he chose to stay silent...

    Angor nced at the temple onest time and left the mountain area.

    ...

    At one corner of the southern ins of Hippocrotee was a round-domed pce. The outer wall of the building was full of beautiful carvings and decorations while its colorful, painted windows shone brilliantly under the sunlight.

    The pce was called ¡°Centenary¡±. The Krakoks built it as a temporary residence for visitors from Citadel.

    Behind the bronze gate of the pce was a brightly-lit hall with luxurious furnitureying around. However, theck of inhabitants made the ce look a little dested.

    Fiona was sitting in front of a long desk in the center of the main hall while she carried the same, pale smile like all the other puppets that were controlled by Shadow.

    Angor used Hand of Spell to carry her into the bedroom on the second floor. He nned to take some rest during these two days in the pce. However, he didn¡¯t wish to stay with the creepy puppet.

    As for Shadow¡¯s ¡°suggestion¡±... No. Just no. For one, He wasn¡¯t interested. And even if he was... he would never be able to feel any urge for that kind of business while looking at Fiona¡¯s hollow gaze.

    After cing Fiona in ce, Angor took Toby out of his bracelet.

    Toby had been sleeping for more than a week now, but Angor wasn¡¯t really worried about him since he knew that Toby was undergoing a breakthrough.

    He decided to keep Toby outside for now. ording to some of the books he read, a monster would cause all kinds of strange phenomena in such a case. He didn¡¯t wish Toby to destroy his stash.

    Footsteps suddenly came from outside the pce.

    A sound transmitter at the pce gate was activated. ¡°Lady Fiona, the choir has been assembled. May I know when is the election going to happen?¡±

    Election?

    Angor jumped a little.

    An election for choosing Sky Choir members? Papaya mentioned something like that before.

    He hadpletely forgotten about it!

    Getting no reply, the cleric outside the door repeated his question again.

    Angor rubbed his temples and frowned.

    Oh, this is troublesome...

    He made a quick cantrip which immediately covered the visiting clerics. He could easily mimic Fiona¡¯s voice in the illusion. But since he had never heard Fiona talking before, his only choice was to block their sound-registering sense instead.

    ¡°In the evening,¡± Angor replied in his own voice. Thankfully, the clerics didn¡¯t realize something was wrong.

    ¡°Shall we do it at the same spot?¡±

    They always held the election under the holy mountain. The cleric was only asking out of courtesy.

    ¡°Umhmm, we will do it here,¡± Angor said. He had no idea where ¡°the same spot¡± was.

    ¡°Um, Lady Fiona? Do you mean we¡¯ll start the election HERE?¡± The cleric was confused since those words sounded as if the location had been changed to this pce.

    ¡°Yes, right here. I... feel a bit tired today, so let¡¯s use somewhere quiet.¡±

    The Krakok clerics were gesturing to each other while trying to get over the sudden change in n, and Angor saw everything with his spirit feelers. He didn¡¯t quite understand why the Krakoks acted so strange just because of a small change in the n.

    And he felt something might be wrong.

    The clerics had finished theirmunication. ¡°Understood. We¡¯ll go ahead and make the arrangement. Please excuse us, Lady Fiona.¡±

    Angor was still thinking about the situation after the clerics had gone. What was the point of the choir selection? Did Dark Castle need to do this every time they came? Or was it special this time?

    Perhaps Isabe loved music just like Lydia?

    ...

    Meanwhile, the clerics had returned to the holy mountain while bearing the new message.

    The guards in front of the temple stopped them from going in. Usually, only the Grand Priest and his two service clerics were allowed inside.

    ¡°You can¡¯t go inside, by order.¡±

    ¡°We have something important to report to the Grand Priest!¡± The clerics panicked a little, but the guards did not listen.

    Their quarrel eventually drew the attention of the Grand Priest, who slowly walked out of the temple with the help of his walking cane.

    ¡°Oh, Grand Priest! Good gracious you¡¯re here!¡±

 Chapter 384 - Soul Essence

    Chapter 384: Soul Essence

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Seeing the Grand Priesting, the clerics immediately knelt down, and the guards followed their example.

    The Krakoks did not have a monarch or ss system. They were all considered equal with the exception of the Grand Priest. To the other Krakoks, Grand Priest was the embodiment of wisdom, who guided their entire race to their present life and the future.

    This was why those who met the Grand Priest would show their greatest respect regardless of the situation.

    ¡°Now, stand.¡± The old priest asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you all going to arrange the election stage?¡±

    ¡°We-we came for something important, Grand Priest.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. We just paid a visit to Lady Fiona to ask her about the election, but she...¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± The old man appeared as peaceful as ever.

    ¡°... She wishes to change the election ground, which is inside the Centenary Pce, and¡ª¡±

    The Grand Priest lowered his head while listening.

    ¡°¡ªand Lady Fiona said she¡¯s tired. I think she doesn¡¯t wish to show the election to our people this time.¡±

    ¡°Sir, we already prepared the stage. What should we do now?¡± The other clerics grew anxious again.

    ¡°Yeah, our tradition remained unchanged for a thousand years, we can¡¯t just alter it all of a sudden! Our people are waiting!¡±

    They couldn¡¯t raise their questions in front of Fiona, but now that they were talking to the center of intelligence of all Krakoks, the clerics all began to express their minds.

    The Grand Priest knocked his cane on the floor, and an energy ripple powerful enough to shock souls silenced everyone.

    ¡°Quiet! It¡¯s just a trivial matter.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not trivial! Our brothers outside¡ª¡±

    ¡°Silence! Do you not remember who we are? And what ¡®Hymns of Fairies¡¯ is telling us?!¡± The old man bellowed, ¡°We have what we have today all thanks to the saints from Citadel. If they wish to change something, we will do it!¡±

    ¡°But, the election spot was decided by Lady Isabelle, our first savior a thousand years ago...¡± a cleric muttered.

    Upon hearing Isabelle¡¯s name, the Grand Priest¡¯s eyes revealed a grim glimmer. However, he quickly hid it back.

    ¡°No buts. The saints granted us everything, and we shall listen to theirmands. If Fiona tells us to use somewhere else, we will.¡±

    The clerics could only nod and agree.

    ¡°Now go and prepare ording to her request.¡±

    After sending everyone away, the old priest remained silent and thought about something. A whileter, he found one of the guards.

    ¡°Prepare a hummingbird for me. I¡¯m going to visit Lady Fiona personally.¡±

    Next, he moved back to the front of the pulsing aura in the center of the temple.

    ¡°A chance suddenly showed up. Or is it? Nevertheless... If we can make the revolution happen this time, maybe all of you will finally be set free from the abyss...¡±

    He reached a hand slowly into the grayish aura.

    His already dimmed eyes grew darker like those of a blind man, while his skin quickly turned aged.

    When he exited through the temple door again, the guards were terrified to see their Grand Priest in worse shape than ever.

    They knew about a certain rumor that the Grand Priest could foretell their fate and lead them to prosperity.

    At the cost of his life.

    So he just did it again?

    ¡°Priest, sir...¡± The guards knelt down and almost cried.

    The old man walked past his people with a in expression, which he always used to hide his true feelings.

    Fortune Telling that guided their path? Heh. Beautiful words.

    He was no sage that guided the Krakoks; he was but a criminal that assisted the devil.

    ...

    The hummingbird was tiny but swift. It only took the creature a quarter of an hour to reach the Centenary Pce.

    Angor was preparing to head out to explore the mountain temple when he heard someone approaching again.

    He facepalmed and moaned helplessly.

    ¡°Lady Fiona, it is Beyer. May I have an audience?¡± Someone spoke in a slow, aged voice.

    Angor found it familiar. Who the heck was Beyer?

    He unleashed spirit feelers and saw someone he knew¡ªthe Grand Priest of all Krakoks. It was both expected and... not.

    The old man had his head lowered politely, which lookedpletely different from the careless manners disyed by those clerics.

    Angor was actually nning to go and meet this figure. He didn¡¯t expect the old Krakok toe alone instead.

    He considered, and without using any tricks, he replied in his own voice, ¡°Come in.¡±

    The old priest wasn¡¯t surprised at all when he heard the man¡¯s voice.

    When the hummingbird carried him onto a desk, Angor swiftly crafted a tiny chair to make the old Krakokfortable.

    The priest bowed deeply to Angor and epted the seat.

    Neither of them spoke for the next moment. Using the chance, Angor carefully inspected the old man in front of him.

    He never got a good look at the old Krakok back at the mountain due to the distance and surging energy ripples. Now, he could clearly see the bald head, speckles, and white beard thick enough to be used as a cleaning mop.

    Also, those terribly, sickly, emotionless eyes...

    Besides, he was very interested in the energy he sensed from the old man, which felt the same as the ripples around the holy mountain.

    ¡°So, you aren¡¯t questioning why me instead of Fiona?¡± Angor spoke first.

    ¡°I already saw iting. I am here to see you, good sir,¡± the old man replied in a in tone.

    ¡°Me?¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°Do you want anything from me?¡±

    ¡°No... But I think you have something to ask from me, and the temple isn¡¯t a good ce to talk. So I¡¯vee here.¡±

    Angor noticed a secret line from those words. The old man was intentionally hinting something just now.

    Was the temple always being monitored?

    It made a lot of sense though. The core ofw was extremely valuable, and there was no way Dark Castle only left a mortal in the temple to protect it.

    ¡°Are you perhaps feeling discontent with Dark Castle, Grand Priest?¡±

    ¡°No. Our people have survived the brutal history until today all thanks to Citadel. I don¡¯t feel discontent. I cannot.¡±

    ¡°I see. Do you know about the magic array hidden under Hippocrotee then?¡± Angor changed the topic. He could somewhat understand the purpose of the sudden visit if the Grand Priest did know about the magic array.

    The old man¡¯s face twitched a little. His most painful mental scar was brought up so soon.

    ¡°I... do.¡± The priest closed his eyes.

    ¡°And you still don¡¯t hate Dark Castle?¡±

    The old man stayed silent. He finally shook his head and said, ¡°I do not.¡±

    ¡°Do you know I¡¯m not from Dark Castle?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I noticed it the day you two came to Hippocrotee.¡±

    ¡°How did you find us?¡± Angor grew curious.

    ¡°The Soul Essence, inside the temple. With it, I can see everything that¡¯s happening around Hippocrotee.¡±

    Angor knew that the ¡°Soul Essence¡± meant the core of this garden¡¯sw. However, he wasn¡¯t going to tell the old man his true intention before he learned the old man¡¯s n first.

    ¡°Since you know I¡¯m an outsider, you don¡¯t have to worry about your true thoughts being heard by them. I¡¯ll ask again, do you hate Dark Castle?¡±

    ¡°I do not.¡± The old man shook his head willingly.

    Angor nodded. Since the leader of Krakoks said so, he wasn¡¯t going to interfere with their business as an outsider.

    ¡°So, you already found us out. Why didn¡¯t you report us to Dark Castle then?¡±

    The priest looked up at Angor with his dimmed yet meaningful gaze. ¡°I wish that... one day, we can open the ¡®gap¡¯ and release the torrent which has been staying dormant for a long time.¡±

    ¡°Gap? Torrent?¡± Angor grew confused again.

    ¡°The peace that Krakoks enjoy is a fake delusion that hassted for a thousand years. I wish for a chance which can lead us to revolution.¡±

    The priest did not hide anything from his words, but he didn¡¯t exin his exact n.

    Angor decided to put it aside for now. He then asked a question that he derived from the priest¡¯s original question. ¡°You said I have something to ask from you, and that the temple isn¡¯t a good ce to talk. So... what do I possibly need to ask?¡±

    The Grand Priest considered for a moment.

    ¡°The Soul Essence.¡±

 Chapter 385 - Soul Genesis Garden

    Chapter 385: Soul Genesis Garden

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°And what makes you think I¡¯m interested in that ¡®Soul Essence¡¯?¡± Angor gazed at the old priest.

    The old man simply returned his gaze with those nk, emotionless eyes. Angor felt as if this Krakok wasn¡¯t looking at him, but... something within his body.

    ¡°Your soul is special... Like an unpolished gem,¡± Grand Priest said with a very slow pace, but yet, each of his words could trigger something in Angor¡¯s heart. ¡°Unpolished, but beautiful. Even Lady Isabelle will probably admire your soul if she¡¯s here.¡±

    ¡°What are you trying to say?¡± Angor quickly got tired of such an unproductive conversation.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you want to make your soul... better? That gray energy inside you. It needs nourishment, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    Angor remained silent for a while. He was surprised. Not only did the priest point out his intention, but he also knew about that power that was hidden within his soul...

    The master Soul Maniptor Ness needed to n ahead and a lot of time to find the particr aura. But this mortal old man saw it almost right away?

    ¡°Did the Soul Essence tell you about it?¡± Angor asked while trying not to expose his emotion.

    The old man shook his head. ¡°My eyes cannot help me see the world anymore... but I can see into souls.¡±

    Angor snickered¡ªhe didn¡¯t believe it. Ness already proved to him that it took more than that to find the sequence of gravity aura.

    But he didn¡¯t care. It was natural that they both wanted to hide something.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. I do want to purify my soul. But I didn¡¯te to Hippocrotee for that purpose. I¡¯m here to help... someone. Of course, what you¡¯re implying would be an extra gift for me.¡±

    By saying ¡°extra gift¡±, Angor was trying to lower the value the priest was providing. ¡°So what do I have to pay in return, if I want to receive this gift?¡± Angor asked.

    The priest shook head again and smiled. ¡°Nothing.¡±

    The words actually made Angor be on alert. He never believed in free lunch in this world. By ¡°nothing¡±, the priest might be referring to something dearer instead.

    ¡°I can purify my soul at no cost at all? Yeah, sure,¡± Angor said sarcastically.

    ¡°You misunderstood me, young mister. I said you don¡¯t have to give me anything because you already did.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°You did me a favor by changing the location of the choir member election.¡±

    ¡°... What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Because the election is used to purify souls.¡±

    ...

    ¡°If you wish to talk to me, young mister, go to the Souliege Lake nearby. I¡¯ll remain there until the election begins at night,¡± the priest said before he left the pce hall.

    Angor considered their conversation.

    He followed Shadow here because he wanted to pursue a possible destiny. Now that he actually found one... he wasn¡¯t sure about this anymore.

    He feared that he might offend Dark Castle. It wasn¡¯t about Fiona since they never hurt her for real, and it was mostly Shadow who controlled her.

    But he did change the ancient convention established by Isabelle a thousand years ago.

    He understood that the Grand Priest was referring to this by ¡°paying the cost¡±.

    And the consequence would be unpredictable.

    Would he be an enemy of Dark Castle for real? He should decide whether he would give up this destiny.

    He thought about it and decided to check out the Souliege Lake anyway. He still had a lot of questions about the matter, and the priest was keeping a lot of secrets. He needed to learn more before making the final decision.

    Theke was right beside the Centenary Pce. When Angor arrived, the old priest was gazing into theke river quietly.

    ¡°Well, you didn¡¯t have to make me decide. Just let the election happen inside the pce, and everything will go as you wanted,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Ha... I cannot afford to anger you OR the Citadel, young mister.¡±

    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you report me to them? You didn¡¯t, which means you want something else.¡±

    The old man didn¡¯t reply.

    ¡°Why is the election used for purifying souls?¡± Angor asked his number one concern.

    The priest slowly turned his tattered body around. ¡°Do you know the name of our small paradise?¡±

    ¡°A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, with itsw rted to souls.¡±

    The priest neither agreed nor denied it. He only stared at nothing as if recalling something in his past life.

    ¡°I... used to serve by Lady Isabelle¡¯s side. She told me that this is called the ¡®Soul Genesis Garden¡¯.¡±

    Soul Genesis Garden?

    Angor didn¡¯t find anything rted to that name in his memory, but he did notice the particr name.

    ¡°Who was it that you served?¡±

    ¡°Lady Isabelle.¡±

    ¡°Rumor says that Lady Isabelle left the wizarding world a thousand years ago. So she didn¡¯t?¡±

    The old man smiled bitterly. ¡°The rumor is right. She already left.¡±

    ¡°You mean...¡± Angor immediately thought about Dodoro. ¡°You¡¯ve been alive for a thousand years now?¡±

    The old man sighed and said, ¡°I have, by using different vessels while bearing the title of the Grand Priest. One dead vessel means I simply need to find another one. It¡¯s only my soul and my memory that continues to live on.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s no easy task to resurrect by putting your soul into another corpse,¡± Angormented.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a corpse. One thousand years ago, Lady Isabelle fused me within the Soul Essence, which is the core of thew of this Soul Genesis Garden. If Isabelle does not wish for me to die, then I cannot. My soul will never perish. Even if all my bodies rot away, I will keep going through endless reincarnation cycles... You can even consider it immortality. I¡¯ll live forever as long as I don¡¯t leave this garden.¡±

    Angor nodded. Such immortality was achieved at a great price, yet it was totally possible in a soul-rted Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.

    ¡°Speaking of Soul Genesis Garden... I think you already knew how different gardens possess differentws. Thew of Soul Genesis Garden is to keep the absolutepleteness of souls.¡±

    Angor widened his eyes a little.

    When he saw the old Krakok woman passed away in the streets of Hippocrotee, he already noticed that her soul was very intact. And he just learned why.

    Only supernatural beings could keep their soulsplete upon death, while mortals would only leave pieces of their souls behind, with the exception of mortals who possessed very strong spiritual power or obsessive regrets. That old woman was certainly not the case, which meant the Soul Genesis Garden helped her soul to stay intact.

    This ce was a true paradise for Soul Maniptor wizards to conduct their researches!

    Souls were always in high demand since they were used in many applications including Soul Maniptor researches, Tooling puppets, and certain potions. There were also spells which needed to consume intact souls.

    The priest continued, ¡°Using such aw, our souls always stayplete upon death. However, Lady Isabelle does not need mortal souls filled with unwanted impurity, so she put a treasure inside the Soul Essence. Once enough souls are gathered, we perform a series of steps and remove the impurity by using a certain melody.¡±

    ¡°A certain melody...¡±

    ¡°The Hymns of Fairies, yes.¡±

    ¡°Then why do you have to select singers? Everyone can sing, right?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°Not everyone has the correct voice to activate that treasure. Lady Isabelle already put something into our blood. Now, only a small number of our female members possess such power. We have to go through the election event to find who can activate the treasure.¡±

    Angor more or less understood the whole situation now. It was the secret treasure that purified souls instead of the garden itself.

    ¡°What does that have to do with me changing the location?¡±

    ¡°... The original location should be around the ceremonial ground where the other half of the treasure is buried. When the two halves join together, the treasure will remove ALL impurities from souls. This includes emotions, memories... After this process, the souls from dead people throughout thest year will turn to pure energy entities. We call them Soul Orbs.¡±

    This meant if the location was changed, the ritual would not generate Soul Orbs.

    ¡°Can I use the treasure to purify my soul, then return it to the ceremony to finish the job?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°No. After each activation, the treasure will enter dormancy and remain that way for 300 days and nights.¡±

 Chapter 386 - Soul Orbs

    Chapter 386: Soul Orbs

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor had to make a choice.

    He could either use the treasure to purify his own soul or left it be so that the Krakoks could repeat their routine.

    ¡°What will happen to me if I break the convention of Dark Castle?¡±

    The priest considered and shook his head. ¡°I do not know.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll ask something else then. What will happen to YOU if the location is changed?¡±

    The old man shook his head again.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say something about ¡®revolution¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Your arrival has caused uncertainty in our fate, and so has the change of election ground. Such uncertainty might help us begin our revolution.¡±

    Angor thought about someone else who used to speak to him in such an obscured way. Hobson, the apprentice prophet in a white bear suit.

    Since the old priest couldn¡¯t tell him an answer, Angor had to ponder over the situation by himself.

    Profit against risk.

    The profit out of this incident was to purify his soul. It sounded wonderful, but there were other ways to achieve it, such as using certain potions.

    Compared to this, Angor was more curious about how this would affect his sequence of gravity power.

    He couldn¡¯t use that power right now. Doing so required huge amount of soul energy, which he couldn¡¯t afford to spend.

    If epting the purification could help him wield the power, Angor would want to try it out.

    ¡°You said something in my soul needs ¡®nourishment¡¯. So what kind of effect will the gray energy receive?¡±

    ¡°The gray aura inside you ispressedw power, am I right?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Ordinary soul purification has no effect on it. After such a long time, the treasure inside Soul Essence has gained a certain level of Soul Genesis power, and it might help your sequence power grow stronger.¡±

    Angor thought about it and felt that such a profit was... in fact, not very attractive.

    Next was to consider the ¡°risk¡±.

    And he didn¡¯t really know about what kind of risk awaited him. The priest couldn¡¯t tell him how important the ceremony was to Dark Castle.

    However, he could try making an assumption by some other means, such as learning about the true value of Soul Orbs.

    ¡°So, you hold your ritual once every year. Those who came from Citadel are here to retrieve Soul Orbs?¡±

    The old man nodded slowly.

    ¡°What does this thing do?¡±

    ¡°Lady Isabelle mentioned it before she left. A Soul Orb is a special product used by Soul Maniptors as a source of energy that strengthened the Soul Essence. That or they consume them to replenish someone¡¯s soul energy without worrying about the risk of being rejected.¡±

    The old priest suddenly lifted a finger and pointed at Angor¡¯s chest. ¡°That iplete soul in your pocket can also be whole again by absorbing Soul Orbs.¡±

    ¡°Iplete soul?!¡± Angor carefully took out Toby from his clothes. ¡°His soul is iplete?¡± Angor checked Toby¡¯s body and made sure everything looked healthy.

    ¡°He¡¯s not your summoned familiar?¡±

    ¡°No. He¡¯s my... friend.¡±

    Grand Priest inspected Angor for a while. ¡°Friend... I see. This avian must be important to you.¡±

    ¡°So he has a broken soul?¡± Angor asked again.

    ¡°He¡¯s been like that for a long time now, right?¡±

    ¡°Over a week now, yes.¡±

    ¡°I can sense his soul. Something that shines with the same amazing brilliance as yours. Oh, wait... even more so...¡± The old man grew more and more surprised as he spoke. ¡°No... his soul looks avian, yet I cannot sense anything that fits its shape. How... does such a thing exist?¡±

    Angor was surprised too. The priest managed to find so much just by looking at Toby.

    Angor quickly spoke again before the old man could begin mumbling on his own.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t told me why he¡¯s ¡®iplete¡¯. I thought he¡¯s like this because he¡¯s breaking through his level?¡±

    ¡°Breakthrough? Perhaps. The creature cannot wake up because his soul is now confronting a certain emotion. Rage. He will seed if he can defeat it. But, from what I see, your friend is slowly losing the battle. The emotion of rage is beginning to taint his soul. If you don¡¯t do anything to help, he will soon be a puppet of primal anger.¡±

    Angor understood none of those words.

    How could a soul fight with emotion? He could more or less understand that someone¡¯s body could be the battlefield between two different souls. But how did ¡°emotion¡± be an enemy?

    The old man noticed Angor¡¯s question and continued, ¡°I don¡¯t know the nature of that ¡®rage¡¯, but I¡¯m sure his soul is being consumed by it. He... already lost a good portion of himself.¡±

    ¡°What should I do then?¡± Angor was now fully focused on helping Toby. He no longer cared about anything else.

    ¡°As I said, he will wake up and achieve a breakthrough as long as he defeats that emotion. But it¡¯s difficult now. His soul is weakening.¡±

    Angor quickly tried to find a solution.

    ¡°He can win if his soul is repaired?¡±

    ¡°Replenishing his soul energy only provides him with the necessary strength. It still depends on himself whether he can triumph in the end.¡±

    ¡°And I can use Soul Orbs to give him energy, right?¡±

    ¡°I know what¡¯s on your mind,¡± the old man said and lowered his head. ¡°Even if you keep the ritual in its old way and acquire Soul Orbs from it, you will not get enough to repair the soul of your winged friend.¡±

    Angor now realized that Toby went for the mountain temple because the bird was seeking help out of instinct.

    ¡°There are Soul Orbs ready to be used in the temple, right?¡±

    ¡°How... do you know?¡± The old man was the one who was surprised now.

    Angor exined Toby¡¯s ¡°dream walking¡±.

    ¡°I see. Yes, he was asking for assistance. It isn¡¯t the temple, but the center of the holy mountain, which hid a single Soul Orb within. Your friend stopped on the mountain slope because he sensed the orb.¡±

    ¡°Give me the orb,¡± Angor said. He considered and continued, ¡°And tell me a price. I¡¯ll try to pay.¡±

    ¡°No... The orb inside the mountain was left behind by Lady Isabelle. It contains a trace of her consciousness, and it¡¯s of great importance to the queen. Trying to get closer will quickly rm her. Trust me. You can go steal hundreds or thousands of Soul Orbs from elsewhere and stay well, but not that particr one. The queen will not allow it.¡±

    Angor would agree, after witnessing how their queen, Isabe, maniacally loved her former teacher.

    Wait... steal from elsewhere?

    ¡°Do you mean that I can go steal Soul Orbs from Citadel?¡±

    ¡°I did not say that.¡± The old man shook his head casually.

    ¡°Oh, fine. Are there a lot of Soul Orbs in Citadel?¡±

    ¡°Lady Isabelle is a Soul Maniptor. She needs them.¡±

    Angor understood that Isabelle had left the southern wizarding region. Telling from how Isabe loved her mentor, maybe Isabelle¡¯s stock of Soul Orbs was still there.

    He looked at the sleeping bird on his palm and made a determined decision.

    In this brutal wizarding world, he would not give Toby up for anything.

    ¡°Can we postpone the election?¡± Angor looked up at the priest again.

    ¡°Yes. But only until the day after tomorrow. Evening.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s do just that then. How do I identify a Soul Orb?¡±

    ¡°You are going to Citadel?¡±

    ¡°I must.¡±

    ording to Shadow, Dark Castle was unprotected since neither Isabe nor any wizard-level guards were there. This was a perfect chance.

    He might fail. However, he¡¯d regret for the rest of his life if he gave up on Toby too early.

    The Grand Priest exined how a Soul Orb looked like to Angor.

    ¡°If his instinct still knows how to protect itself,¡± the old man pointed to Toby and said, ¡°then follow him and you will find the orbs soon enough.¡±

    Angor nodded. He then reached out a hand and released some nightmare aura around the priest.

    ¡°A safety measure. If you don¡¯t mention my name to anyone, the aura will go away in three days.¡±

    With that, Angor turned to leave.

    The old man looked down and sighed. After considering the greedy nature of wizards, he already asked the clerics to prepare the election inside the pce. He didn¡¯t expect for there to be another change in n.

    He suddenly heard Angor¡¯s voice again, which was carried by the wind.

    ¡°... If I make it before the ceremony begins, I promise I¡¯ll return the favor.¡±

 Chapter 387 - Undead Woman

    Chapter 387: Undead Woman

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Before going for Dark Castle, Angor first returned to Centenary Pce and put Fiona inside his space bracelet.

    He didn¡¯t fully trust the Grand Priest. Leaving Fiona behind meant leaving an unwanted surprise.

    With Fiona secured, Angor came to the altar again. But instead of heading to the portal, he first took Toby onto the holy mountain.

    Soon, Toby was ¡°dream walking¡± by fluttering along the mountain slope while sleeping.

    Angor followed behind until they stopped in the middle of the hillside. From here, going up or down would cause Toby to struggle again. Angor tried walking at the same altitude until he saw a small path behind the mountain which was connected to the temple.

    The other end of the path ended at a cliff.

    Angor could sense that the cliff was actually created by an illusion, behind which lied a deep cave. He didn¡¯t need to approach the cave to sense a dangerous auraing from it.

    Toby was now trying to fly toward the cave. Angor quickly stopped him. If the Grand Priest was right, the cave led into the core of the mountain where Isabelle put her special Soul Orb.

    Angor nced at the cliff onest time and left.

    He came here to check if the priest told him the truth. From what he saw... it was.

    Nevertheless, he was going to explore Dark Castle right now. He activated Infinite Reticence and entered the passageway toward Otherworld.

    Just as he left, a small door appeared inside Centenary Pce. The three Krakok brothers, Gummy, Gao, and Gamus stumbled outside while they giggled in their strange manner.

    They were also carrying a piece of paper. They yelled around inside the pce as if looking for someone, only to get no response at all. Angor had left the pce together with Fiona.

    In the end, the brothers returned to the center of the hall in a bad mood.

    A gust of wind came and carried their paper into the air. The paper had some brief words written with blood¡ª¡±Angor¡±, ¡°Leave¡±, ¡°Silent Hill¡±, and ¡°HELP¡±.

    ...

    The sky was fully covered by dark clouds which gave birth to endless lightning strikes.

    ¡°This is Otherworld?¡±

    Everything was dark. Using the brief light provided by another lightning, Angor managed to see himself standing among some shrubs.

    With all the clouds above, there was no way to tell day from night. He dared not cast Light as it might give his position away. Therefore, he waited for the next lightning while under the effect of Infinite Reticence.

    Another sh revealed a small path leading away. Angor quickly registered what he saw into his memory before he slowly followed the path.

    Using the lightning shes, he saw rotten weed and stone debris around him. There were no man-made structures nearby apart from the small path created by many people walking on the same route.

    A momentter, he suddenly smelled blood and heard a woman crying from somewhere.

    The crying sounded distant, yet it lingered around his ears for a long time.

    Instead of getting himself into trouble by checking the source of the sound, Angor kept walking along the path. But he then realized that the crying was getting louder, to the point that he could hear iting from all directions as if countless women were crying in the woods.

    As another lightning sh came, Angor briefly saw one bare-bodied woman crying while floating in the air.

    She had her face covered behind her hands, but when Angor looked at her, she quickly sensed something and looked up.

    It was a pale, white face decorated by stretching fangs and empty eye sockets.

    As she looked around, strong energy of resentment which almost materialized in the air emerged from her body.

    ¡°Undead?¡± Angor carefully inspected the creature.

    An undead was created by a fallen soul. Ordinary souls were made from pure energy, which wasn¡¯t affected by anti-undead means. Undead souls, however, were usually filled with negative emotions and power. They were always considered evil and filthy by everyone.

    The female soul did not see through Angor¡¯s Infinite Reticence. After failing to sense anything, she slowly covered her face and wept once again.

    Angor kept walking. Each lightning sh would expose several undead souls in his sight. There was one time when he actually saw a hundred female souls packed up together on top of a giant tree.

    They were all crying. Naked.

    Angor remembered Ness¡¯ Valley of Souls, where all the souls were naked as well. The only difference was that Ness kept some male ones in his valley, while there were only women here.

    And there were so many of them. Angor was beginning to wonder what kind of disaster created so many female souls that were born from pure hatred.

    Cold air suddenly invaded his body.

    Angor looked carefully and saw an opening among the trees, through which he saw more dark clouds and snakes of lightning that assaulted the environment relentlessly.

    He moved closer and noticed that he was standing on top of a cliff.

    It wasn¡¯t a mountain peak. Rather, he was now in the middle of a hillside. The path had led him to a cut-off in the route.

    Here, Angor could use the brief shes to check the surrounding area.

    There were more mountains nearby. A strange-shaped rock sat about a kilometer away from him, which served as the base of an even strangely shaped castle.

    There were even more bolts of lightning that were striking around the castle, which asionally revealed crawling vines and creepy decorations around the building. The sight immediately reminded Angor of certain ancient castles of vampire lords he read from stories. Just looking at it made him feel depressed and terrified.

    But it was the only building in sight. His instinct told him that Dark Castle was right there.

    He had no other choice.

    He checked around and found two routes. One was to walk along the cliff, which would eventually take him to the castle. But he would need to travel through those woods again, which meant going near those crying women.

    The other route looked shorter. There was a path right below the cliff which led toward the castle, but this one actually went through a graveyard at the bottom of the cliff. From Angor¡¯s position, he could see the scattered tombstones and floating will-o¡¯-the-wisps in there.

    Across the graveyard was a straight way toward Dark Castle.

    Should he take the long way by going through the undead-possessed forest or explore the obviously death-rted graves?

    He didn¡¯t hesitate for very long. Angor jumped from the cliff swiftly.

    Since both ways looked terrible, he might as well take the shorter one.

    As he fell, the messy graveyard was bing clear in his eyes. A good number of tombstones were broken, and some coffins even rested above the surface without a proper burial.

    With a small tornado, Angornded safely.

    Hended not far from the graveyard gate. There was only a giant crater blocking his way.

    The moment his feet touched the ground, endless moans and shrieks came about, apanied by pairs of pale hands and undead woman spirits.

    Angor jumped a little and quickly moved away from his position.

    The undead creatures couldn¡¯t see through his Infinite Reticence, but they still sensed hisnding movement. He had to make sure nothing paid him enough attention. Otherwise, it would render his invisibility effect useless.

    With several jumps and rolls, he hid behind an opened coffin.

    He peeked the corner and saw all the undead swarming to hisnding point in search of human flesh.

    His Purification Field prevented him from leaving any smell behind. When the creatures found nothing, they crawled back into their graves, disappointed.

    Although Angor was beginning to wonder again.

    Why only female souls?

    And why would they put a graveyard on the path toward Dark Castle?

    The undead creatures weren¡¯t strong, but Angor would have some trouble dealing with them without the right approaches.

    Even wizards would avoid getting surrounded by undead.

    Angor wished he still had the revolver he made for Prome, which was a weapon enchanted with Prelude to Elimination. The weapon would help him dispose of these souls fast and easy.

    He crafted two revolvers, one for Prome and one for Vice. He never got the chance to make himself another one when the incident in Midnight Sovereign summoned him, which then brought him to Fairy World.

    And he absolutely didn¡¯t have enough materials on him to perform alchemy work here.

    After making sure all of the undead souls had returned to their pits, Angor quietly stood up.

    Instead of heading to the crater, his attention was attracted by the opened coffin in front of him.

 Chapter 388 - Crying in the Graveyard

    Chapter 388: Crying in the Graveyard

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The ck coffin was exposed to air. There was no tombstone nor a coffin lid. Angor could clearly observe the skeleton inside.

    It looked like someone small. From a quick assumption, the skeleton belonged to someone about 1.2 or 1.3 meters tall. A child, probably.

    Next, he nced at something shining around the skeleton¡¯s skull. He saw the object during thest lightning sh.

    He reached for it and found a ne, which was made from a tinum chain and a heart-shaped gem. The gem was polished into a hexadecahedron[1.16-faced entity], which shone brilliantly each time more lightning came.

    Angor moved a finger around the gem and found a small trigger.

    Click!

    Another secret chamber was revealed in the gem.

    As he expected, the gem was polished in this way to confuse human sights. The design concealed the fact that the gem was only a thin shell, while more space existed inside.

    Many nobles loved such tricks to hide their personal artifacts. However, such charms weren¡¯trge enough to keep something valuable. The nobles mostly used this trick to show off small surprises to their friends.

    As a nobleman himself, Angor also kept this habit. For example, he hid his hologram tablet in a small space inside a pocket watch.

    And such knowledge helped him find something on the gem easily.

    The secret chamber held a piece of broken silk. The silk was thin, yet it contained countless finely-crafted needleworks. This was definitely not something essible tomon folks; it meant that the child corpse mighte from a noble family.

    Angor carefully spread the silk open. It was almost asrge as his hand. There was the embroidery of a smiling girl on it. She didn¡¯t look quite beautiful, but her smile was gentle and bright.

    There was another young figure beside her who held her shoulder, but the part showing the figure¡¯s face had broken.

    On the girl¡¯s raised right hand was a small bird with colorful patterns that looked like the ¡°eye¡± of a peacock feather.

    A line of characters was written at the bottom of the silk.

    It was too tiny and poorly-written. Angor waited for several lightning strikes and finally managed to read something from it.

    ¡°To... the ninth birthday... sister...¡±

    So the silk was a present given to the little girl by her brother or sister, which probably meant the second figure shown on the picture.

    Angor put the silk back into the gem and returned it to the skeleton. The corpse should be the owner of this childish present. However, there was no way to find out why the little princess of a noble n ended up in this terrible grave in Otherworld.

    There was nothing else in the grave that provided any information, but Angor didn¡¯t really care. He didn¡¯te here to respect the dead.

    He moved around the coffin and headed to the crater blocking the path. He had to somehow move across it if he wanted to leave by the gate.

    He didn¡¯t cause any more alerts among the souls this time. While walking along the edge of the crater, he began to feel more and more troubled because the shes of lightning had shown him that there were piles of corpses huddled together down the bottom of the crater.

    Skeletons, rotten and rotting bodies, as well as fresh ones.

    The half-rotten bodies looked particrly terrible. All the corpses had kept theirst moment by dragging each other and reaching toward the outside. The whole sight looked like the painting of a master artist who wished to present how a mass grave looked like.

    The painting was made worse by the fact that all the deceased were women, which added a twisted sense to its general theme.

    Telling from their appearances, they died at different time frames. The earliest ones only died in recent days, while some died maybe a century ago.

    Their corpses all looked clean too. Each of them had one single bloody wound right on their chest. Someone from Dark Castle was probably the culprit.

    But why women only? And so many of them?

    Also, all the undead spirits meant that these women suffered greatly before their deaths.

    Angor looked into the distance and at the Dark Castle again. He was now getting disgusted about this ce.

    The current owner of Dark Castle, ¡®Sundown Queen¡¯ Isabe, showed a terrible nature by trying to kill him without a reason.

    It made a lot of sense that someone like that wouldmit such ughter.

    ¡°Yes. That madwoman Isabe could totally do something like this.¡±

    After passing around the crater, Angor reached the graveyard gate.

    The gate was left open. Angor was surprised again when he saw footprints around the gate.

    The patterns left by the footprints looked simr to Shadow¡¯s boots.

    Did Shadow pass through here recently?

    As he thought, he suddenly felt something shifting in his pocket again.

    Toby¡¯s moving?

    Angor carefully took out the bird. Toby was now ¡°dream walking¡± again as it tried to fly away while sleeping.

    ¡°There are Soul Orbs nearby?¡±

    But they were still pretty far from Dark Castle. Angor quickly grabbed Toby when the bird almost left him. The undead souls would quickly notice Toby if he wandered far, and Toby was in no condition to protect himself from the undead souls¡¯ attacks right now.

    Angor kept Toby closer while trying to tell where Toby wanted to go. He frowned when he noticed Toby pointing to the opposite direction of Dark Castle.

    Angornded near the right side of the graveyard while Toby was trying to go left. He didn¡¯t remember seeing anything special when he was observing from above the graveyard. There were only more tombstones over there.

    He considered and followed Toby¡¯s direction.

    Toby probably sensed Soul Orbs or at least something that could help repair his soul. They had to check it out.

    The left side of the graveyard looked cleaner than the rest. At least there were fewer exposed coffins. Angor still heard women crying, but there were no souls that stayed outside.

    Some of the tombstones were nk, while some had names written with blood. The characters had all be blurry after being affected by moisture in the air.

    Angor tried to imagine what happened here¡ªNaked women, using their tears of blood, who left their names on their own graves while cursing the names of their killers.

    Wait. Could the deceased possibly write on their own tombstones? That would be so horrifying.

    Angor shivered a little and kept following Toby¡¯s signal until he came to a stop in front a well.

    The well looked ordinary. There were no strange smells or anything particring from it. Still, it was already a strange thing for a well to exist in the middle of a graveyard. Also, Angor sensed lingering dark magic around the well. Any undead being who approached would get purified by it.

    Someone intentionally left it here, that much was obvious.

    When standing near the well, Angor could no longer hear women crying, which meant the ¡°purification power¡± was pretty strong.

    Everything suggested that there was some secret down there. Toby was also asking to go down the well.

    After careful consideration, Angor jumped inside.

    Hended on solid ground again after about two seconds. The well waspletely dry, and there were no negative emotions released by undead souls. Therefore, Angor decided to cast Light to see around.

    The bottom of the well looked like a cave. There were miniature stgmites growing on the ground. A dark tunnel sat behind the curtain of pointy stones.

    While still in his dreaming state, Toby pointed a wing toward the tunnel.

    Angor remained cautious and began going into the cave. He soon heard someone crying again. Butpared to the crying of resentment outside, this voice sounded a lot more innocent. It was simple, and it wasn¡¯t trying to show any particr emotions.

    The cave wasn¡¯t big, and Angor reached the end of it soon.

    The source of the crying voice was also here¡ªa small girl wearing a yellow overall dress.

 Chapter 389 - Big Sis

    Chapter 389: Big Sis

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    To Angor, this was the first clothed soul he saw in Otherworld.

    But she was still a soul.

    As something made of energy, her body was glowing slightly, which made her very obvious in this dark cave.

    When Angor came, he saw this ¡°glowing girl¡± sitting among the stgmites, sobbing. However, her voice wasn¡¯t full of hatred and resentment like those souls out there. There was little negative energy on her¡ªher soul was still pure.

    Someone who had not ¡°fallen¡± like the other undead spirits.

    Toby was growing restless. The bird kept trying to reach for the girl.

    Angor slowly examined her soul before he finally looked at her hand.

    While the girl asionally wiped her tears, a white, shining sphere was seen on her opened palm.

    ¡°Like a pearl, smooth and lustrous. The clearer, the better.¡±

    This was how Beyer, the Grand Priest of Krakoks, described a Soul Orb.

    The sphere in the girl¡¯s hand fitted the description, and Toby seemed attracted to it. That was a Soul Orb, no doubt. Judging from the appearance of it, this orb was of high-quality too.

    However, Angor would not take it from her by force now... even though she was already dead.

    When she sensed the Light cast by Angor, the little girl sobbed again and looked up slowly.

    She looked about the age of 8 or 9. She had short blond hair, emerald eyes which looked a little red because of all the crying, a small nose bridge, and pockmarks all around her cheeks, which made her look both funny and adorable.

    ¡°She¡¯s...¡± Angor quickly thought about the skeleton he saw just now. The image of the girl weaved on the silk looked just like her.

    The weaving didn¡¯t look very fine, but the creator of it perfectly disyed all of the necessary details on the girl, including her hair, nose, and pimples.

    The little girl was now looking at the shining sphere of Light with great curiosity. She then reached out with her chubby hands and tried to touch the light.

    ¡°Big sis? Is that you?¡± She spoke in a timid voice.

    Big sis?

    Angor considered while looking at the small soul floating in the air and chasing after the light.

    So there was someone who shoulde visit her?

    ¡°Where are you, big sis?¡± The girl looked around and failed to find anyone. ¡°It¡¯s so cold and boring here... Can I go back now?¡± The girl sobbed again while muttering to herself.

    ¡°Big sis, please... I want to go back and get my brother¡¯s present.¡±

    ¡°Big sis...¡±

    While listening to her, Angor assumed that someone had taken this girl here from her coffin. Now the girl was trying to return to her grave where she could find that gift from her brother.

    Angor was almost certain that this soul belonged to that skeleton he checked a moment ago.

    ¡°Who is ¡®big sis¡¯?¡± Angor decided to ask.

    The girl backed away in fear at the sudden voice. She trembled when she saw Angor¡¯s body materializing in front of her.

    ¡°You¡¯re not her...¡± She was going to crying again.

    Angor frowned and rubbed his temples. He was never good at dealing with crying kids.

    He stepped back a little and lowered his voice. ¡°I won¡¯t hurt you. Can you please tell me something about your big sister?¡±

    Angor was actually more curious about why the girl possessed such a high-quality Soul Orb. There was no way she could keep it when all the other terrible undead souls would hunt such a treasure down like hungry hyenas.

    He had a feeling that the little girl just found the orb recently, which probably had something to do with that ¡°big sis¡± of hers.

    The girl stared at Angor and remained silent.

    Angor thought she was too scared and prepared tofort her again when he suddenly felt a trace of weak soul energy reaching out to him.

    It seemed the girl chose to ¡°try him out¡± first.

    Without waiting, Angor released his own spirit feeler to contact with the girl¡¯s soul energy.

    It seemed the small soul felt safe upon sensing the gentle nature inside Angor¡¯s spirit, and she finally asked, ¡°Who are you, mister?¡±

    Before Angor could answer her, he noticed Toby struggling really hard in his grasp. The bird desperately wanted to reach for the Soul Orb held by the girl.

    The girl also noticed Toby¡¯s movement. ¡°Wow, birdy!¡±

    ¡°Do you like birds?¡± Angor stroke Toby¡¯s feathers and slowly calmed the creature.

    ¡°Yes. I had one before, she was called Flo, Flow...¡± The girl¡¯s smile slowly vanished. ¡°I... forgot her name...¡±

    ¡°But she¡¯s your good friend, right?¡± Angor swiftly released an illusion based on the small bird he saw on the silk.

    The bird had tiny wings, beautiful feather patterns like that of a peacock, and a really cute look. The only problem was that the bird did not have any colors since the simple drawing on the silk didn¡¯t show any.

    ¡°Yes! That¡¯s her, my best friend!¡± The girl approached and tried to reach for the illusion.

    Angor let the illusion loose so that the made-up bird could flutter around the girl happily.

    When the girl realized that she couldn¡¯t touch the illusion, she put her hands down. But she was still smiling brightly.

    ¡°How about you tell me about its color?¡±

    ¡°Green!¡± The girl answered quickly.

    Angor smiled. In the next second, the flying illusion took on a bright new look.

    ¡°What about her neck?¡±

    ¡°Red!¡±

    ¡°This part?¡±

    ¡°Her eyes?¡±

    ¡°And...¡±

    As Angor asked more questions, the bird looked more and more colorful, until it began to look weird. But it was still pretty.

    The girl was super happy to see the bird looked exactly as she expected. Her sweet giggles echoed in the cave.

    And by this, the girl slowly lowered her cautiousness in front of Angor.

    Angor quickly asked his question again using this chance. ¡°So, who is your big sis? Did she give you that orb?¡±

    He felt as if he were trying to take pocket money away from a youngster... but he didn¡¯t have another choice right now.

    ¡°She is... big sis!¡± The girl looked at the item which always provided her warmth and nodded. ¡°And she gave me this thing! She said I will not feel pain again if I hold onto it.¡±

    She held the orb close to her chest and gave him a big grin.

    Meanwhile, Angor noticed that the resentment energy lingering around the girl was being expelled slowly. Her soul was looking purer and purer.

    It seemed the Soul Orb was left here for this purpose.

    Even if she started as an innocent soul, the girl would eventually grow tainted by the negative energy which filled up the entire graveyard outside. She would have ended up as another screaming wraith if she stayed there.

    However, ¡°big sis¡± brought her to the bottom of the well and left a Soul Orb to help her remove negative energy. There was also something around the well¡¯s entrance that stopped the undead souls from approaching. These would definitely help the girl to stay pure.

    But Angor wasn¡¯t happy about this conclusion. If the assumptions were true, the Soul Orb was a really important item to this girl. He couldn¡¯t just take it from her.

    As he considered, the girl approached him again as if she saw through his mind.

    ¡°Do you like it, mister? You can have it! I think my illness is almost gone. I don¡¯t feel the pain anymore.¡±

    Angor was surprised by the unexpected offer. He then smiled and pushed the girl¡¯s hands back.

    ¡°Thank you. I do need it, but I¡¯ll visit your big sis first. If she can give me another one, you can keep yours,¡± Angor said. He blushed a little when speaking.

    What those words meant was that, if he failed to obtain any orb from elsewhere, he woulde back.

    A little shameful, but this was the truth.

    Even though he felt bad about his n to take the Soul Orb from this little girl, he would still do it if he couldn¡¯t find enough from Dark Castle. The girl was only a stranger who deserved sympathy, while Toby was his best friend, his family. The choice was obvious.

    The girl, however, didn¡¯t know any of Angor¡¯s thoughts. Confused, she put her Soul Orb away.

    ¡°Can you tell me who your big sis is? What¡¯s her name?¡± Angor asked again.

    The girl tilted her head and considered.

    ¡°She said she is... Greya?¡±

 Chapter 390 - Familiar Accent

    Chapter 390: Familiar ent

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Greya?!¡± An image of a bulky woman shed through Angor¡¯s mind. He shivered and quickly tried to get rid of the fat figure from his head.

    Greya¡¯s the ¡°big sis¡±?! That¡¯s a terrible joke!

    Angor couldn¡¯t believe that this girl actually met with ¡®Warrior Barbie¡¯ Greya, the famous Gourmet Wizard. But... what if? The Fairy World was the home base of Fairytown, and Candy House was administered by Fairytown. It made a lot of sense if Greya would show up here.

    ording to Sunders, Felicia found a prophet in Brilliance ne so that she could go find Greya. Did she seed already?

    With that question in mind, Angor created another illusion. This time, it was about Greya.

    Dramatic pose, purple, curly hair, me-red lips, a nose too tiny for her face, overdone eyeshadows... Greya actually looked not bad... if not for her overgrown body and fat jaw which hung loosely in front of her neck.

    Even if it was an illusion, Angor still felt hard to breathe in front of the overwhelming image.

    ¡°Is she your ¡®big sis¡¯?¡± Angor pointed to Greya¡¯s phantom.

    The girl quickly stepped back. Here, Greya¡¯s image probably looked like an evil queen out of some child¡¯s ghost tale.

    ¡°No, no mister.¡± She shook her hands quickly. ¡°Big sis looks pretty! And she¡¯s only a little taller than me. She¡¯s not so fat!¡±

    Angor held his chin. So it wasn¡¯t the Greya he knew, but someone with the same name?

    He removed the illusion and smiled gently. ¡°I¡¯ll go now. May I know your name, youngdy?¡±

    The girl looked disappointed at the idea of being alone again. When she realized Angor just addressed her as a dy¡±, she blushed.

    ¡°I¡¯m¡ª¡± She pulled her dress and was going to do a curtsy, only to stop midway. ¡°I-I forgot my name too, mister.¡± She looked down sadly. ¡°I¡¯ve forgotten a lot... I can¡¯t even remember my brother¡¯s name.¡±

    ¡°Brother¡± was probably in reference to the other figure drawn on that silk. Although that part on the silk was broken.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think about the past then,¡± Angorforted her and thought about the terrible sight in the graveyard. It was probably a good thing for the girl to forget what kind of torture she went through.

    The little girl felt unsafe because she no longer knew who she was. At this rate, she would have no future as well.

    ¡°Shall I give you a nickname for now?¡± Angor made up another decision. A proper name was the first step for the girl to see further.

    The girl nodded slowly.

    Angor said ¡°nickname¡± because he couldn¡¯t simply give the girl a real name. ording to the disciplines of nobles, naming someone meant he had to be responsible for the individual¡¯s future. This was why noble ns usually didn¡¯t properly name their servants and ves.

    Angor considered and thought about the girl¡¯s reaction when referring to her pet bird.

    ¡°Flowey. I¡¯ll call you Flowey.¡±

    ¡°Flowey...¡± The girl muttered, ¡°I am Flowey?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Hello, Flowey.¡±

    The girl suddenly held her head and trembled madly. ¡°Flowey... I¡¯m Flowey... Ahh...!¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to react at first. He was d that the girl calmed down a whileter, but for some reason, she started crying again.

    ¡°Um, you don¡¯t like that name? I¡¯ll find you another one.¡±

    ¡°Mister... I remember something. There was... someone. Someone dear to me. He¡¯s calling me Flowey too. Am I really Flowey before?¡± The girl put up a determined look. ¡°I¡¯ll use this name!¡±

    Such a coincidence...

    ¡°Nice,¡± Angor said. He smiled again. ¡°Miss Flowey, I¡¯ll leave for now. Can you stay¡ª¡±

    He suddenly stopped talking. He couldn¡¯t really imagine how the girl could remain happy in this dark ce.

    After careful consideration, he began to release more mana. As the girl watched in confusion, the cave suddenly grew brighter. The dark underground space slowly turned into a cozy, girlish bedroom. Pink walls, animated plushies, wind chimes, and toy soldiers... Across arge French window, they could see floating petals and livelyke water outside.

    ¡°This is so nice!¡± Flowey went to open the window. As she admired the vivid illusion, she asked, ¡°Can I go outside to y?¡±

    ¡°Um, better not. You can only watch,¡± Angor replied, a little embarrassed.

    Flowey realized that everything was fake and smiled back at Angor. ¡°Thank you, mister. This looks better than my home when I was... um...¡±

    Angor thought the girl would refuse the fact that she was dead, but it looked like she had always epted her fate.

    He pointed around at several objects in the illusion. ¡°You can y with the toys and read the books if you feel like it.¡±

    Granting fake objects their original properties was one of the basic tricks about nightmare illusions. As for the content of the books... They were all old books that Angor had read when he was a child. It wasn¡¯t difficult to recreate them.

    Flowey grew visibly excited when she learned that she could actually use the objects.

    ¡°Thank you so much!¡± She happily picked up a stuffed bunny.

    Angor considered and decided not to ask how the girl died. That would definitely bring up painful memories.

    ¡°Goodbye now!¡± Angor left two high-quality magic crystals behind as the power source of the illusion. The illusion wasn¡¯t used for defending or hurting people, so the crystals wouldst for a long time.

    ¡°Can I know your name too, mister?¡± Flowey suddenly called.

    ¡°Padt. Call me Padt.¡±

    With that, Angor waved goodbye and left the cave.

    Two magic crystals were very cheap in exchange for a Soul Orb... even if he wasn¡¯t sure whether he woulde back for it.

    On his way out, Angor carefully thought about the brief encounter.

    He felt something familiar and friendly when speaking with the girl, which made him act gentler. He didn¡¯t realize why he felt that way until he reached the gate of the graveyard, where someone¡¯s face suddenly shed through his mind.

    It was a handsome yet naive-looking face¡ªDodoro.

    ¡°Their ent...¡±

    Flowey¡¯s childish voice prevented Angor from noticing certain details in her tones. Now that he had time to think carefully, the townish voice and certain upturned pronunciations sounded exactly the same with Dodoro¡¯s voice.

    He immediately entered the graveyard again. Instead of going back to the well, he first moved to Flowey¡¯s coffin.

    Last time, he was attracted by the heart-shaped pendant, so he didn¡¯t pay much attention to the skeleton. And if his assumption was right, Flowey might have ¡°tail bones¡± too, just like Dodoro.

    However, he didn¡¯t find anything like that after careful examination.

    ¡°Maybe they are from different ces after all?¡± Angor considered. Also, he already found Dodoro¡¯s ent to be familiar before, as if he heard it from somewhere.

    He decided to ask about it before leaving the graveyard for real.

    He ced Flowey¡¯s coffin inside his bracelet and headed into the well again. Then he left the coffin somewhere near the entrance and walked deeper inside with the ne in his hand.

    Flowey might not want to see her own corpse.

    Upon arriving, Angor saw Flowey gazing through the window while holding her stuffed bunny.

    ¡°Mister Padt!¡± The girl saw Angor and stood up happily. ¡°You¡¯re back!¡±

    ¡°Is this yours?¡± Angor showed her the pendant.

    Flowey immediately cried out again. ¡°Yes. My brother gave it to me...¡±

    ¡°I saw it just now, so I think I should give it back to you.¡±

    Flowey tried to ept the ne and failed¡ªthe item went through her hand and dropped on the ground.

    Angor shook his head. Flowey was a soul now, and she was not powerful enough to interact with the physical world.

    Flowey scratched her head. ¡°I forgot, after ying with all the toys... I can¡¯t pick up stuff now. I¡¯m already dead, right?¡±

    She could pick up items from the illusion because Angor¡¯s nightmare illusion convinced her so. But in reality, she couldn¡¯t touch anything.

    Angor picked up the ne. ¡°I¡¯ll leave it on your bed then, so you can watch it all the time.¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt, there¡¯s a secret on the ne. Can you help me take something out?¡±

    Angor nodded and skillfully exposed the secret chamber.

    When Flowey looked at the piece of silk, she smiled. ¡°I only want to have this drawing, Mister Padt. You can have the ne. Thank you very much for the amazing gift. I love it!¡±

    The girl looked around the illusionary room and smiled in happiness.

    The ne was only an ordinary trinket without much value. Since Flowey insisted, Angor decided to ept it.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± he said as he put it away into a corner of his space storage. ¡°Now, Flowey, do you remember where you used to live when you¡¯re younger?¡±

 Chapter 391 - Venturing into Dark Castle

    Chapter 391: Venturing into Dark Castle

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor stepped out of the underground cave.

    He didn¡¯t learn much information from Flowey. The only thing she remembered about her past life was that she had a brother and that her home was pretty cold.

    Anything else had slipped from her mind. Why she ended up in Otherworld, and how she died... she knew nothing about them.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure if the little girl simply didn¡¯t wish to think about these matters. It didn¡¯t matter anyway.

    The small bird was also a clue. Angor couldn¡¯t remember any bird with such magnificent peacock feathers. Following this lead might help him find where Flowey lived before.

    He proceeded to leave the graveyard through the gate. The zigzagging path ahead led straight toward the towering castle on the distant mountain. There were more woods on both sides, where the cries of the female souls could still be heard.

    There was a trail of footprints on the wet and somewhat bloody path. Angor assumed that Shadow walked through here before.

    Angor felt his spirit being suppressed as he approached the castle. The lightning snakes shifting above his head suggested that a great storm woulde sooner orter.

    And as he walked, the uneasiness only grew worse.

    In his view, the castle had turned into a thunder-wielding monster, who was now gazing at its prey and preparing for a feast of human flesh.

    His stress was made worse as his heart thumped heavily while listening to the terrible ghostly screams among the trees.

    He even thought about rushing into the woods and fight the undead spirits head-on, just to ease his mood.

    The great pressure reached its climax as he finally reached the iron fence of the castle. The inside of the fence looked quiet, but it only appeared extremely dangerous in this situation.

    He thought about escaping this ce, but he immediately gave up that thought when he noticed that the path from which he came was now filled with souls. Thousands of them.

    Like before, they were all naked female souls. Even if he hadn¡¯t been discovered by them yet, Angor still felt dread crawling on his spine.

    Click!

    A noise like metal bumping into each other came from behind him.

    He slowly turned around and saw the once locked iron gate of the castle was now open. The metal lock on the gate had dropped on the ground.

    Someone in Dark Castle saw meing?

    Angor stepped back, only to sense the great dread unleashed by all the undead creatures gathering around him. They were beginning to swarm toward the entrance of the castle, which meant where he was standing.

    The air was still. Yet the castle gate somehow opened wider on itself.

    He was exposed. No doubt.

    He didn¡¯t know how. Even the mighty being, Tree Spirit, took some time to look through his Infinite Reticence. Perhaps there was someone equally powerful in Dark Castle?

    Since there was no point figuring out the intention of the castle¡¯s master, Angor decided to ept the ¡°invitation¡± and go inside.

    He suddenly felt calm at the decision. Since Shadow chose to explore Dark Castle alone, those words about how the castle was unprotected were probably real. Angor believed that there were no wizard-level beings here to harm him.

    Behind the fence gate was another small path about 10 meters long, which ended at the hall gate of the castle.

    While walking, Angor kept his gaze on the ground to find Shadow¡¯s trail. Soon, he noticed familiar footsteps to the right of the path. He couldn¡¯t see where Shadow went, but it was definitely not the main castle gate.

    Upon consideration, Angor decided to quit the path. He chose to follow Shadow¡¯s trace instead.

    While walking under a giant tree, he canceled Infinite Reticence and quickly cast a nightmare illusion. Another ¡°Angor¡± emerged from his body.

    Meanwhile, he activated Infinite Reticence again.

    He ordered the ¡°fake Angor¡± to walk in front while he hid behind the illusion. He still didn¡¯t believe someone had really broken his Infinite Reticence. As far as he knew, the owner of Dark Castle was Isabe, an ordinary level-2 wizard. She wasn¡¯t strong enough to look through Infinite Reticence in such a short time.

    He assumed that something identally gave away his position. In this case, using an illusion could help him be fully hidden again.

    The ¡°fake Angor¡± followed Shadow¡¯s footprints and walked to one side of the castle openly while pretending that he didn¡¯t care about being discovered.

    Angor moved behind his image under the effect of Infinite Reticence. By this, even if someone could found his location from afar, they would only see his illusion instead.

    And that meant a chance to get away in case of danger.

    Even though the atmosphere still felt suppressive, Angor felt as if his mental pressure had mostly disappeared. Maybe because of theck of undead presence.

    The footprints ended at a drainage pipe along the castle wall. Angor looked up and saw a window on the third floor left open where its curtains were pping in the wind.

    Did Shadow climb this pipe?

    But there was no way anyone could sneak into a wizard¡¯s residence by such simple means.

    Angor asked his illusion to put a finger on the wall and received a very weak mana feedback. There were magic arrays inside the wall, but they weren¡¯t activated.

    Shadow did say that Isabe agreed to shut off all wizard-level mechanism in the castle so that Shadow could do his personal challenge. There were only several apprentices left behind.

    This would exin the unprotected entrance.

    Angor asked his phantom to climb the pipe first just in case. A momentter, he went up after making sure nothing was wrong.

    Before going into the window which led to a hallway on the third floor, Angor sensed energy ripples.

    It seemed someone or something was hidden behind the window. Since he could sense it so easily, it was either something weak or something pretending to be weak.

    A good choice was to use his illusion to scout ahead.

    Sunders¡¯ nightmare illusions helped him wield illusions unlike anything known to this world. For example, he could create a girl¡¯s room so real that they became a physical reality in Flowey¡¯s view. Her toys, her books... even if she was a soul now, Angor could let her feel anything she wanted.

    Also, Angor had read about ¡°virtual reality¡± from several books in his tablet, which even imitated other senses such as taste, smell, and bodily pleasure. However, he wasn¡¯t strong enough to create such illusions right now.

    But now, he could still easily use an illusion to scan for traps.

    The ¡°fake Angor¡± jumped into the window when a woman covered in blood immediately came out of hiding and attacked with a machete in her hand, obviously going for the kill.

    ¡°Fake Angor¡± grinned at the woman and blinked away to the other side of the hallway.

    ¡°How... A spell? Or physical skill?¡± The woman was surprised for a brief moment, and with her weapon raised, she quickly went for ¡°Angor¡± again.

    With another shift, ¡°Angor¡± reappeared behind the woman.

    The real Angor had already entered the window in the meantime. Together with his illusion, he went for the woman¡¯s nape area with a mana-enhanced karate chop.

    She copsed with a yelp.

    Angor reactivated Infinite Reticence and walked into the shadows while his illusion began to examine the strange woman.

    Now that the brief battle was over, Angor noticed that this one was also naked, but her body was fully covered in bloodstains.

    Did she have something to do with the undead spirits outside? Maybe she was also the ¡°victims¡±.

    However, a further examination didn¡¯t reveal any wounds on her except for her swollen neck, which was from the previous attack.

    That wasn¡¯t her own blood?

 Chapter 392 - Secret Room

    Chapter 392: Secret Room

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor looked around and tried to find someone or something who could exin all the bloodstains on the woman.

    But he found nothing. It was an empty hallway, lit by the asionalmps that hung on the walls, which didn¡¯t provide much visual in this dark ce.

    Since there was his illusion to attract potential attacks, Angor cast Light and moved the spell around for a while.

    Still nothing. There was not another soul around apart from the fainted woman.

    More importantly, there were no bloodstains around the hallway. The blood under the woman suggested that the floors and walls didn¡¯t have anything to clean themselves. So where in the world did the blood on her bodye from? How did shee to the window without leaving her own trail in the hallway?

    Again, Angor carefully looked around the passage. The pale-yellow floor was mostly clean, apart from where the woman just stepped on.

    Did she just materialize out of thin air?

    Angor moved to the woman¡¯s previous hiding spot, which was the wall corner behind the window. He could see bloody footprints which suggested the woman was hiding here. But there was nothing else.

    The woman wasn¡¯t strong. Maybe a fresh level-1 apprentice. There was no way she knew how to teleport.

    Walking through walls? There was only the drainage pipe outside, from which he just came¡ª

    ¡°Wait, a pipe?¡±

    He suddenly got an idea.

    He peeked from the window and was shocked to realize that the pipe ended at this window. It only led to the third floor.

    What was the point of this pipe then? It did enter the third floor, but there was nothing connected at the end.

    He clearly remembered that when he was climbing the pipe just now, he sensed something flowing in the pipe. Where did that liquide from?

    There couldn¡¯t possibly be something that was hidden in between¡ª

    Wait, it totally could! This was the wizarding world, anything was possible. There were whole new worlds that hid behind mirrors, so of course someone could hide something behind walls and pipes.

    The owner of the castle was a wizard. She could definitely do it.

    Thinking about this, Angor asked his phantom to go to the woman¡¯s hiding spot and put a hand on the wall, while he carefully sensed for any energy ripples sent by his illusion.

    As he expected, there was a space-expansion rune inside the wall, which meant there was a room ¡°in¡± the wall.

    This would exin where the woman came from.

    It was very likely that the owner of all those blood was also in there.

    Angor controlled his phantom to strike a dramatic pose as if he were going to attempt something really big. He had no idea whether someone was watching, and he would make sure that his illusion looked real enough.

    It wasn¡¯t difficult to enter the secret room. He simply needed to find the critical node of the rune.

    As he sessfully triggered the rune, the wall twitched a little and revealed a door.

    He heard someone crying again before entering the room. He was now used to hearing about such noise.

    While staying extremely cautious, Angor slowly pushed the door open.

    He was ready to turn tail right away if there were another undead inside. These creatures couldn¡¯t do anything serious to him, but the same went both ways.

    Angor widened his eyes in shock when he looked at something even more surprising than undead.

    The room contained one single bathtub filled with hot liquid. But it wasn¡¯t hot water in there¡ªit was boiling blood, which released crimson vapor into the air.

    He always had his Purification Field on, or there was no doubt that he would both smell and see the terrible stench now.

    Tap, tap...

    Drops of blood came from a female corpse hanging down the room¡¯s ceiling. There were a series of sharp hooks affixed on the ceiling, with more than 30 naked female corpses on them. Each hook seized a woman by her ripped-open chest, where more blood wasing down.

    Hot, fresh blood full of resentment energy slowly entered the bathtub.

    Most of them were corpses; a small number of them were still alive albeit barely since their hearts were badly damaged. Those crying he heard just now was their desperate mourning in theirst moment.

    So that was why all the corpses in the graveyard all had a giant wound on their chests...

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to imagine how many women were killed in Dark Castle like this. His face went pale a little. He couldn¡¯t muster the courage to step inside.

    It wasn¡¯t fear. Something else in his mind refused to let him go.

    A trail of footprints led from the bathtub to the door. It seemed the woman outside was enjoying her bath when she quickly moved to ambush him after she heard the climbing noises.

    The drainage pipe was probably used to get rid of the ¡°bath blood¡±.

    Angor forced himself to go inside despite his instinct.

    The room wasn¡¯t rigged, but he preferred dealing with traps rather than facing the dreadful sight, especially when those still alive were staring right at him with pure hatred.

    He didn¡¯t know what to say to these dying women. It was not like anything could help them anyway. The basic Heal spell he just learned wouldn¡¯t achieve anything at all.

    Angor endured the terrible gazes for a while before he decided to say something.

    ¡°I¡¯m not here to save you.¡±

    His first sentence surprised the women.

    ¡°And I¡¯m not your killer either. I just want to know how you ended up here, at Dark Castle.¡±

    A momentter, a sharp, mad voice responded, ¡°Dark Castle? This is DARK CASTLE? HA! I see it now! I¡¯m gonna turn to a ghost and haunt everyone who lives in here, FOREVAH!¡±

    Angor looked her way and saw a woman with long hair over her shoulders. Both her eyes and her body disyed energy ripples of madness. There was no doubt that this mortal would have herst wish fulfilled upon death.

    As she struggled in her rage, a stream of blood came surging out from the center of her chest.

    Angor quickly cast a Heal so that the woman wouldn¡¯t die right away.

    She seemed to be the only one who knew how to talk in this room, which meant the only individual who could provide information.

    The woman breathed heavily and stared at Angor with an unyielding grudge. ¡°Why did you save me?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t save you. Your heart is beyond help,¡± Angor said in a in voice, ¡°but I need to know where you all came from, and how you came here.¡±

    ¡°Who are you? You¡¯re not with that... b*tch?¡± While speaking, visible negative energy began to gather around the woman¡¯s dying form.

    ¡°I¡¯m not from Dark Castle. I¡¯m here to... save someone.¡±

    ¡°Gah¡ªhaha! Save someone?? Gah¡ª¡± The womanughed and coughed madly while tears and blood emerged from her eyes.

    The dark aura around her was growing quickly. Angor got a feeling that even a mortal would be able to see it now.

    With another Heal, Angor prolonged the woman¡¯s lingering consciousness just a bit further.

    ¡°Answer me. How did youe here? Did you see this man recently?¡± Angor spoke while releasing Shadow¡¯s phantom.

    No answer. The woman keptughing and yelling in pain.

    As her wound was patched by Angor¡¯s spell and ripped open again for many times, her hatred intensified.

    Angor realized that this woman was using him to strengthen her dark energy. Doing so would boost her initial strength as an undead spirit.

    He considered and decided to go with her n.

    At first, the woman would say something insignificant so that Angor had to keep her alive. Eventually, she noticed that Angor was actually helping her and simply stopped talking.

    As she forced thest bit of her life energy again and again, her negative power multiplied terribly.

    Angor never expected a mortal woman to endure such pain which would otherwise totally destroy anyone. She would have be quite the heroine like Nausica if she wasn¡¯t captured by Dark Castle.

    Pity. She had bad luck.

    When the woman realized that her limit hade, she gave Angor a final, gentle nce instead of the hateful re before.

    ¡°I am... the 13th daughter of Goman King. When we lost our Crimson Crown, the elder princess framed me as the culprit, and the King depreciated me like a peasant. The princess then sold me off as a ve... After all kinds of torture, I¡¯m here... Heh. I thought I was going to satisfy the filthy desires of some guy for the rest of my life. No. This is true hell. They bath in the blood of virgins... You already saw it.¡±

    Thest trace of life was visibly leaving the woman now. ¡°I don¡¯t know about the others. Cowards, ves, sold here, like me. Maybe.¡±

    Deep inside, Angor was very surprised to hear the name of Goman King. The Goman Kingdom wasn¡¯t anywhere near Fairy World. It would take mortals their lifetimes to travel here.

    Whoever that sold the ves here wasn¡¯t anyone ordinary.

    Considering this, the ¡°cold home¡± mentioned by Flowey might be another distantnd. There were countless areas with cold climates in the southern wizarding region.

    ¡°I... saw him.¡± The woman pointed toward Shadow¡¯s image with a trembling finger. ¡°Hours ago, the b*tch monster fought him. Then he came inside, looked at us, and left. That woman came back after that, cursed his name, and took her damned bath.¡±

    The dying woman¡¯s eyes slowly rolled upward.

    ¡°Thank you.¡± Angor lowered his head in respect.

    ¡°Ha...¡±

 Chapter 393 - Change in Plan

    Chapter 393: Change in n

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    As the woman drew herst breath, the dark energy around her immediately sank into her body to conquer her soul. There was more than enough energy topletely create another clone of the woman¡¯s soul¡ªa darker, filthy one.

    In the next second, a pale, ugly undead soul emerged from her corpse and howled. This one was born with such abundant dark power that it looked just like another living individual.

    Her howling was also a talent possessed by most undead creatures, which shocked all other souls nearby.

    Although Angor only felt a little weird thanks to his special property. The howling only quickened the death of the other women who were hung by the hooks.

    The newborn soul lifted her head and quickly rushed toward the only target in the room¡ªAngor¡ªwith her sharp ws raised high.

    She no longer had any sanity left, and Angor never expected her to actually remember his ¡°favor¡±. Angor already ordered his image to leave the room, while his real self hid somewhere else.

    He nned to draw the spirit away. The woman¡¯s real ¡°killer¡± was still lying unconscious outside. Angor nned to let them confront each other while he would use the chance to slip away.

    Suddenly, a series of golden patterns on the wall started to glow. They rotated around and left the wall to be a circle-shaped trap in the air, which quickly surrounded the woman¡¯s soul and dispelled her.

    ¡°Something that... captures souls and teleports them?¡± Angor examined the runes and figured out their effect.

    It made a lot of sense that the Dark Castle had something to move the spirits around. Maybe the runes were used to transfer useless souls to those woods.

    Angor sighed silently. Now he knew where the corpses and crying female souls came from.

    One man couldn¡¯t possibly use so many dead corpses. He assumed that there were lots of people in Dark Castle who took ¡°blood baths¡±, which produced so many dead bodies lying around.

    Wait... bathing in virgin blood?

    Angor remembered a book he saw in Sunders¡¯ library; it was Glorious Legends.

    The book recorded all legendary wizards who existed in the southern wizarding region in the past 10,000 years. There was a legendary witch from 3,000 years ago, ¡®Bloody Queen¡¯ Mary, who originated from Dark Castle. She was famous for her dissipated lifestyle and her habit of keeping countless young catamites. Also, she loved virgin blood baths, which was said to help her keep her young looks. Later, this method was proved to be quite useless. She simply did those baths to satisfy her personal taste¡ªthat she preferred to see beautiful women suffer.

    It seemed the twisted custom was passed down in Dark Castle after all these centuries.

    Today, people already knew that such baths did nothing more than giving someone a really bad smell. Perhaps her sessors believed that they could achieve the same glory as Mary if they copied her ways?

    Foolish, considering how Dark Castle was quickly losing its fame. This once renowned organization had zero ¡°truth-finder¡± wizards today. The highest being was Isabe, who was only a level-2 wizard. Dark Castle would have already been seized by others if it wasn¡¯t under the protection of Fairytown.

    Angor shook his head and closed the door behind him.

    He saw the ambusher apprentice still sleeping on the floor. He immediately felt disgusted by what she had done, although he wouldn¡¯t do anything reckless yet.

    For now, he would not condemn people¡¯s actions using his own moral grounds. There was no such thing as mon moral¡± in the wizarding world. He had no right to judge Dark Castle.

    He prepared to walk around her body and proceed. But on second thought, he approached her again.

    He just got a new idea.

    ...

    Venees had a really long dream. After taking enough virgin blood baths, she finally became a legendary witch and conquered countlessnds as well as the hearts of men.

    Before she was going to enjoy another tumble in the sheet with a gentleman, a grinning figure suddenly appeared in front of her and knocked her out.

    Venees opened her eyes again while rubbing her aching neck.

    ¡°Goddammit. That Diablo bastard isn¡¯t enough? Another moth to the fire.¡±

    She seemed extremely angry, probably because her sweet dream was interrupted or because she was knocked out twice in session.

    She stood up and looked at the blood under her feet. ¡°Geez. I need to do this again! Or professor¡¯s going to scold me.¡±

    She found a mop from somewhere and worked in the hallway while muttering, ¡°When can I learn that Cleanse spell? This is so tiring.¡±

    Then she checked all the corpses above her. ¡°All dead? How long was I out? Curse you! Whoever you are. All the fresh blood, wasted!¡±

    She pushed a button, and the hot blood in the bathtub all went down the drain. She wiped her body clean, put up a translucent silk dress and went to mop up the hallway.

    Thud!

    The sound of something knocking on the floor suddenly echoed around.

    Venees looked into the hallway and only found more darkness.

    ¡°Taira? Larisa?¡± she called out the names of the other apprentices who lived on the same floor.

    No response.

    She put her tool down and carried amp toward the sound.

    At the end of the hallway, she saw someone lying on the floor,pletely still.

    The man¡¯s tattered garment suggested that he wasn¡¯t from Dark Castle. The organization did allow both genders as their apprentices, but this ¡°real¡± Dark Castle only had women inside.

    She wondered if the man was the previous intruder who attacked her. She moved closer with her machete ready just in case.

    Soon, she noticed that the man wasn¡¯t the second intruder, but Diablo, in a bad shape.

    ¡°Tsk. He got out of the blood prison? Did he have some kind of item to help?¡± Venees excitedly searched around Diablo¡¯s body, but she found nothing.

    Irritated, she pped Diablo¡¯s groin area to vent out her discontent, which caused the ¡°fainted Diablo¡± to moan in pain.

    ¡°Good talent... Man, I wish I can have a little taste of you... if only master didn¡¯t give us that order.¡± Venees chuckled and tied Diablo with a rope. ¡°Now this is some luck. My teacher will reward me for capturing you again.¡±

    With that, Venees dragged Diablo¡¯s body back toward the prison area.

    Shortly after she left, Angor¡¯s form emerged from the shadow nearby.

    ¡°Shadow is caught? Blood prison?¡±

    Shadow said his mission should be easy. Was he actually defeated by apprentices or... Did something else happen?

    Angor decided to follow behind Venees.

    ...

    On the first floor of Dark Castle, a tall, slim woman in a ck dress was frowning at a crystal ball in her hand. asionally, a pair of ck and white butterfly wings would blink behind her back.

    The crystal ball was showing Venees¡¯ position. Venees was now dragging Diablo¡¯s body along the hallway.

    ¡°She¡¯s actually happy about getting tricked by an illusion... That¡¯s as stupid as that Isabe.¡± She frowned harder when speaking of Isabe¡¯s name. ¡°She¡¯s such a joke! Instead of following Queen Mary¡¯s glory, she only looks for shortcuts and dirty tricks. And she¡¯s even trying to charm that puppet master! United challenge? My a*s. No wonder Lady Isabelle would leave this ce and nevere back.¡±

    She looked into her crystal ball again; this time, she was looking at another figure.

    ¡°Now this boy just did a fine illusion...¡±

    She had her eyes on Angor all the time; otherwise, she would also be tricked by Diablo¡¯s image. The illusion looked real, but it still had many ws that could alert keen eyes. If Venees were more careful, she would have easily noticed that ¡°Diablo¡± had too little blood on his body despite his wounds, which shouldn¡¯t be the case if he had just escaped from the blood prison.

    ¡°That illusion... Why does it remind me of Mister Phantom?¡±

 Chapter 394 - Felicia

    Chapter 394: Felicia

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    She did notice traces of Phantom Master¡¯s signature skills from that illusion.

    ¡°Ugh. It can¡¯t be. How could this boy have anything to do with that ¡®Killing Machine¡¯?¡±

    While she considered, there was another youngdy who was sitting on a fur carpet while enjoying all kinds of strange foodstuffs on a small table.

    Panicking Beauty Fruits, weeping Star Mussels, Sesame Ants with ¡°bread scraps¡± on their backs...

    The girl wielded wizardry me in one hand and spices with the other hand. With several swift moves, the downright terrifying materials all turned into steaming hot and delicious dishes.

    Next, she proceeded to stuff the cooked food into her mouth and closed her eyes in pleasure.

    The woman in the ck dress looked up from her crystal ball at the munching sound and rubbed her temples.

    ¡°Hey, Greya... it isn¡¯t easy to find such a slim shape. Why would you eat like that? You¡¯ll get bigger again.¡± The woman walked to the girl on gentle steps while speaking as if she were someone¡¯s mother who was lecturing her kid.

    ¡°Little girl¡± Greya only returned an innocent gaze. ¡°Sis?¡±

    ¡°Ugh. My god.¡±

    The woman took out a beautiful vial from her space ring, which contained glowing, green liquid. Along with the movement of the vial, small glitters shone in the liquid as if the container had a miniature gxy in it.

    The woman uncapped the vial and immediately released a rich aroma into the room.

    ¡°Greya¡± beamed with delight upon sensing the great smell. ¡°Can I have some, sis?¡± Greya gulped while she kept munching on some mussel meat which was obviously screaming at the top of its lungs. Well, it would be screaming if it had lungs.

    The woman took out a small amount of green liquid and handed it to the girl.

    The amazing smell grew stronger as the liquid was brought out of the vial. It even traveled out of the room, away from time and space, attracting several beams of light that entered the castle.

    Greya took a small lick. As the liquid traveled down her throat, a burst of magic suddenly aroused something inside her. She felt as if she had a pair of wings, which took her into a beautiful paradise.

    She could see fluffy clouds, rainbow-like flower fields... It reminded her of her childhood.

    The woman in ck put away her vial and waited for Greya to get over the trance.

    Greya reopened her eyes soon enough, but the innocence earlier had been reced by maturity and a cunning look this time.

    ¡°Tsk. Butterfly¡¯s Dream. Such enchanting drink as ever.¡±

    Greya spent another minute to evoke the beautiful vor and looked at thedy in front of her.

    ¡°Ohe on, Felicia. You can always find more of this food. Don¡¯t be so stingy,¡± Greya spoke in her ¡°real¡± voice, which was charming and seductive like an inviting woman; it didn¡¯t fit with her current form.

    ¡°It¡¯s a piece of friendly advice. Don¡¯t you want to keep your hard-earned body? Don¡¯t ruin it so fast,¡± Feliciained.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t good before?¡± Greya winked at Felicia. ¡°Besides, what¡¯s the point of being slim anyway? It¡¯s not like I need people to look at me. I like having more weight, it keeps more energy,¡± Greya replied. She looked down a little when thinking about her previous experience. ¡°Trust me. That¡¯s exactly what helped me to survive the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    She was still terrified about the dangerous ce even though she was no longer there.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand. Did you go in as yourself or only as a soul?¡± It wasn¡¯t easy to initiate a topic about the Nightmare Realm, so Felicia quickly used the chance to ask something.

    Greya shook her head. ¡°My whole body, probably. But my soul got separatedter. I... don¡¯t really remember much. I lost most of the memories, and I¡¯m d I did.¡±

    ¡°Well, you should stop thinking about it then.¡±

    Greya calmed her mind and continued, ¡°Speaking of slim body, ¡®Sawai¡¯ starved to death in that ce because she can¡¯t find anything to eat.¡±

    ¡°What about Granny Shikazaru? There were three of you, right?¡±

    Greya scowled. ¡°That old dimwit had her Psychic power cut off when she was no longer in Haunt World. When I and Sawai tried to collect ourselves, she just slipped away. God knows if something already killed her. I hope. Anyway, she¡¯s not going back to Haunt World ever again. She tried to kill a wizard of Moonfrost Union, who¡¯s now in charge of the entrance to Haunt World. They¡¯d never let her go back.¡±

    Greya frowned again upon mentioning Moonfrost Union. ¡°I heard they captured my workers and sold them to vers?¡±

    Felicia was equally furious about what had happened to Greya¡¯s restaurant.

    Because of theck of alchemists, many wizards could no longer afford powerful potions, so they set their eyes upon Gourmet Wizards instead.

    Gourmet Wizards did not have a leader strong enough to protect them. Greya was capable enough in terms of strength, but she could only take care of her own restaurant.

    With her gone, her workers all lost their sanctuary and fell into greedy hands.

    ¡°Several ran back to Candy House...¡± Felicia replied in a small voice. ¡°But most were taken away.¡±

    Several veins pulsed on Greya¡¯s forehead. ¡°A*sholes! They promised to look after my shop when I¡¯m gone. That¡¯s how they kept their words?!¡±

    Felicia put a hand on Greya¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Take it easy now. We have to face it. Moonfrost Union isn¡¯t the only organization that joined the hunt. You rest up and recover as fast as you can. We still need you to guide us.¡±

    To Felicia, it wasn¡¯t hard to rescue Greya¡¯s gourmet apprentices. She did not because she didn¡¯t really care about them as an outsider. And Greya fully understood Felicia¡¯s choice.

    But to Greya, her workers had been helping her with the restaurant for decades. She was really sad to see her old friends meeting such a sorrowful fate.

    Felicia saw Greya still sulking and tried to say something else, ¡°Remember that little fat boy you introduced to mest time? He¡¯s pretty good. His barbecue sided with my wine is now a pretty famous dish in my tavern. He¡¯s already better than most apprentices of the same age. Maybe even richer than some wizards.¡±

    It took Greya a moment to realize who Felicia was talking about. ¡°n, right? He¡¯s actually talented?¡±

    n was a potential gourmet apprentice Greya identally found on The Redbud. She sent the boy to Candy House since she nned to leave the wizarding world by then.

    When thinking about n, Greya quickly remembered another young man in her memory. She wondered if that adorable little gentleman and her beloved baby were doing well right now.

    Felicia took out a small casket. ¡°The wine¡¯s going to wear off now. Try to consume these Soul Orbs and see how the blending is going.¡±

    Greya looked at the glowing orbs and moaned, ¡°If I make it back, what about the soul of the girl?¡±

    ¡°Shall we get her another body?¡±

    ¡°I guess we have to... This body isn¡¯t that good. I don¡¯t know how long it will take for me to reach my original level. I really hope I can get my old body back... yet it¡¯s lost in Nightmare Realm. No no no, I¡¯m not going into that hellish sh*thole again. Even if I want, I don¡¯t know how to get in for a second time.¡±

    While speaking, Greya slowly swallowed the Soul Orbs.

    Greya managed to escape the Nightmare Realm, at the cost of losing her body and a good amount of her soul strength. She needed the Soul Orbs produced by the Soul Genesis Garden to heal. This was the reason why Felicia took her to Dark Castle as a temporary residence.

    Greya felt her soul being repaired just a little bit, and she then rested on a couch. Soon, the ¡°real owner¡± of this body would wake up again.

    Before Greya¡¯s consciousness faded away, she asked something else, ¡°I saw you using your Butterfly Spirit power just now. Did your enemies chase all the way here?¡±

    ¡°Nah,¡± Felicia shook her head and said, ¡°it¡¯s just a young apprentice who broke into Dark Castle. He got some interesting skills. I sensed intruders, but I couldn¡¯t find him anywhere until I used my Butterfly Spirit.¡±

    ¡°Apprentice? An apprentice snuck into Dark Castle? Well, he¡¯s gonna be another human shower spray,¡± Greya said and made a face.

    ¡°He looks too young. But, you already heard, it¡¯s a ¡®he¡¯. I don¡¯t think they are interested in a young boy¡¯s blood,¡± Felicia snickered. ¡°He¡¯s probably here to help Diablo. That too is a good one. Too bad he belongs to Puppet Master.¡±

    Felicia didn¡¯t look at Greya while speaking, and she failed to notice that Greya¡¯s eyes were showing the pure innocence of a tiny girl again.

    ¡°Those illusions and invisibility tricks are interesting though. They remind me of Mister Phantom. You know him, right? You should check out¡ª¡± Felicia moved her crystal ball closer to Greya, only to see ¡°Greya¡± blinking at her with puppy-doll eyes.

    ¡°Hey sis, can I have some more of that green drink?¡±

    ¡°Ughhh.¡±

 Chapter 395 - Butterfly

    Chapter 395: Butterfly

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Oh dear, I¡¯m not going to let you get Diablo out so easily.¡± Felicia grinned while looking at Angor from her crystal ball. Slowly, a glowing ck butterfly emerged from her hand and flew away.

    On the third floor of Dark Castle, Angor had been following behind Venees, but he was growing really nervous now. Venees never walked any ordinary passage. She would sneak into all kinds of secret doors which were hidden behind strange mechanisms such as a lever in a book or a rope on a hangingmp. Sometimes she needed to do a certain action to trigger a portal, like pulling a rope at a fixed speed.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure if any of these secret ways were safe, but since Venees walked into them... they should be fine.

    And he felt lucky; he would never find these paths if he didn¡¯t ¡°trick¡± Venees into helping him.

    This also exined how Shadow was captured. That man might be careful and smart, but he was still an apprentice who would obviously fail when faced with so many traps.

    Angor was amazed by the number of expansion runes that were used in the whole ce.

    Next, Venees entered an ordinary-looking bedroom with a pinkish-red design. All the plush toys anddy dresses suggested that the room belonged to some woman.

    Venees walked deeper inside and dragged ¡°Diablo¡± toward arge teddy bear.

    Is there another door behind that thing? Angor pondered.

    And he was wrong. Venees turned the toy over, unzipped it, and walked inside the bear.

    Angor followed her again and found himself standing in a giant lobby. The lobby was mostly empty apart from the statue of a praying goddess in the middle of it. It looked a lot like those statues in Hippocrotee. Isabelle¡¯s statue, probably.

    Venees knelt down in front of the statue and remained in a groveling position for a long time.

    A glowing portal suddenly appeared in front of the statue, which led into a dark cave.

    Angor decided not to move yet since Venees was still praying.

    A momentter, the scenery across the portal slowly turned into a room filled with a blizzard. Venees trembled a little when the cold wind came from the entrance.

    But she kept still.

    As more time passed, Angor saw different views in the portal such as hallways, colorful rooms, narrow gaps... He realized that Venees was still waiting because the correct path wasn¡¯t here yet.

    Angor began to admire the great creativity presented by the person who set these traps. No one would easily find the right path without knowing it beforehand.

    As he carefully inspected the shifting portal, a ck butterfly suddenly descended into the lobby.

    Venees, who had her head on the ground, didn¡¯t notice the blinking butterfly. Angor, on the other hand, was terrified to notice that his illusion was failing when the butterfly moved closer.

    With each wing p, glittering scales came off the butterfly, which immediately disrupted Diablo¡¯s phantom.

    Angor realized that someone, who had been watching him, finally decided to sabotage his n.

    He wasn¡¯t sure about this before. Now that he saw the butterfly showing up out of nowhere, he was almost certain that a certain being had been monitoring him since he entered Dark Castle.

    Judging from the butterfly¡¯s effect, his ¡°Diablo illusion¡± was already found out, which probably meant his own phantom was exposed as well.

    So... did someone find out his real location too?

    He nned to try it out.

    Diablo¡¯s image was almost broken now. Angor unleashed more mana onto the image to repair the affected illusion nodes so that ¡°Diablo¡± wouldn¡¯t vanish too soon.

    He managed to sustain the illusion under the butterfly¡¯s attack. Angor wouldn¡¯t mind wasting some strength since Shadow¡¯s prison seemed pretty close now. He could win as long as Venees took him into that ¡°blood prison¡±. And whether Venees would discover his trick afterward didn¡¯t matter.

    Venees noticed nothing about the silent battle right behind her while praying.

    On the first floor, Felicia snickered at Angor¡¯s retaliation. She moved a finger to control her butterfly across the distance.

    Upon receiving the order, the glowing butterfly suddenly became two.

    The ck one was still releasing scales. At the same time, it began to glow more brightly and gave birth to another white butterfly.

    The white butterfly didn¡¯t go for Diablo¡¯s phantom. Instead, it halted in the air for a moment and headed to a concealed corner in the lobby.

    It then patrolled in the air, chose a certain direction, and mmed into it.

    With a violent space ripple, Angor was knocked out of his invisibility effect and crashed against a wall behind him. The sudden pain kept him stunned on the ground while coughing up some blood.

    No longer supported by Angor¡¯s magic, Diablo¡¯s phantom quickly vanished under the ck butterfly¡¯s effect. The ropes used to restrain Diablo all fell on the floor.

    ¡°Know your ce... kid.¡± Felicia grinned while looking at Angor¡¯s condition in her crystal ball.

    At the same time, Venees hadpleted her waiting. The portal was now leading into some stairs that connected to darkness.

    ¡°Oookay, the blood prison. Lady Butterfly¡¯s going to reward me for bringing Diablo back. Maybe I can get some of her wine!¡± Venees picked up the ropes which now held nothing and slowly walked into the portal.

    Felicia gazed at Venees in shock.

    What just happened? Venees didn¡¯t notice her stupid action? Her captive is gone!

    And that little apprentice just hit a wall which should have attracted Venees¡¯ attention! Why didn¡¯t she check the noise out?

    Felicia shifted the focus of her crystal ball back to where the ¡°little apprentice¡± was at.

    ¡°Where is he?!¡±

    This was all so strange. First, Venees never noticed the violent actions happening in the lobby or the disappearance of Diablo¡¯s body. Now the wounded apprentice just escaped so easily?

    Felicia frowned and moved her finger again, and another butterfly with both ck and white coloring emerged from the ck one.

    The third butterflynded on the floor where some blood was spilled. The insect glowed for a while and created a white vortex above the blood.

    At the same time, the same vortex appeared in front of Felicia.

    She reached a hand into the vortex, which acted as a small portal and allowed her to reach all the way to Angor¡¯s original position. She then captured some of Angor¡¯s blood on her finger and retracted her hand.

    To her, this level-2 apprentice looked so strange. She nned to use his blood to look for his information.

    But when she moved her finger closer, she only smelled something sweet.

    As a Gourmet Wizard, Felicia immediately recognized the familiar smell.

    Tomatoes!

    A level-2 apprentice just fooled her!

    ¡°Interesting. I see you¡¯re capable enough to take Diablo away. However... you¡¯re going to pay for tricking me like that.¡±

 Chapter 396 - Shadow in Prison

    Chapter 396: Shadow in Prison

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor would have already fallen if Felicia meant to get him for real. Thankfully, the witch never nned to use her wizard-level strength to stop the intruder.

    The third butterfly she unleashed already contained most of her true power. It would have no problem destroying the entire lobby including that apprentice.

    Felicia disliked Diablo¡¯s mentor a lot, but she would admit that Puppet Master was very likely to be a ¡°truth finder¡± wizard, which meant the same level as Sunders. Of course, that man would still be a lot weaker than Sunders even if he made it.

    Felicia wouldn¡¯t want anyone to intrude Dark Castle and disrupt Greya¡¯s rest. However, she wouldn¡¯t kill the intruder yet, considering her agreement with Puppet Master.

    She wouldn¡¯t stop Angor from saving Diablo... as long as Angor didn¡¯te and bother Greya first.

    She lifted her crystal ball again to check the prison area.

    Venees was walking down the stairs happily with an empty rope in her hand.

    ¡°Oh my. Venees just got bamboozled badly.¡± Felicia nodded and grew curious about the illusion used by the young apprentice. ¡°No wonder Puppet Master asked him to assist Diablo,¡± Felicia murmured as she scanned around the prison and tried to find where the apprentice was hiding. And she was disappointed when she found no trace. ¡°And nice hiding skill too.¡±

    She was sure the young man was following behind Venees. She thought about using her ¡°Butterfly Spirit¡± to track him down again but then decided not to.

    Her Butterfly Spirit was a legendary artifact more powerful than wizard-level items. She couldn¡¯t afford to waste the energy a second time just on a level-2 apprentice. That would be a joke.

    It wasn¡¯t like she could do anything to the apprentice even if she found him. She had no reason to bully an apprentice right now.

    She simply decided to leave the matter aside. With a simple gesture, Felicia shut down all teleportations in Dark Castle.

    The blood prison was inside the basement nine floors under Dark Castle. Without portals, whoever wished toe out would have to travel through several sections filled with deadly monsters.

    This was to punish Angor for that naughty trick.

    ¡°If you can still make it out... you¡¯re free to leave.¡±

    ...

    Angor was following Venees while under the effect of Infinite Reticence.

    During that small conflict, he was d that the ¡°white butterfly¡± only discovered the location of his image. It seemed the one watching him was fooled by that illusion.

    This meant he could keep following Venees without worrying about being exposed. Angor used some nightmare aura to block Venees¡¯ senses, so she never saw what happened around her and Diablo¡¯s body.

    Angor feared that those butterflies woulde after him, which never happened until they traveled far down the stairs.

    He assumed he was still being watched, so he used the same trick again¡ªby cing his illusionary image nearby just in case.

    The stairs ended at an ordinary-looking wooden door. A small hatch on the door allowed him to look at the dark and moist prison area behind it. The door wasn¡¯t locked. A small gap was left open, from which came the smell of blood.

    Instead of going for the door, Venees moved to the stone wall on one side. She put her hands on a brick and activated another glowing door on the wall.

    Angor was no longer surprised by such traps now. He already assumed that the wooden one was fake.

    I think they should change this ce¡¯s name into ¡°Maze Castle¡± instead.

    Across the real door, they first arrived at the small room which contained arge bathtub that was filled with hot blood.

    Just like that concealed room he discovered previously, this had to be another ¡°bathroom¡±. There were more woman corpses hanging on the ceiling hooks.

    A charming woman with long ck hair was washing her glossy skin inside the bathtub. She would look rather fine, if not for all the blood on her body.

    Venees looked at the woman and briefly revealed the look of greed and enviousness.

    ¡°Look at you, still in here? Diablo¡¯s escaped! Thank goodness I found him and brought him back,¡± Venees said while she showed the empty ropes to the other woman.

    Angor already tampered with her voice. What she actually spoke was ¡°that bastard hit me! I¡¯m going to get some payback!¡±.

    ¡°Really now? Not because you want something else?¡± The woman in the bathtub scoffed. She knew that Venees was actually trying to seduce Diablo. Diablo was an apprentice at peak level, who also studied under a very famous wizard. He looked handsome too. There were many women who tried to get close to him. As a matter of fact, she was bathing to prepare her pretty looks just for this purpose. She didn¡¯t expect Venees to beat her to it.

    To Venees, however, those words referred to her n of impressing Lady Butterfly for recapturing Diablo. It was true, but Venees was still irritated when someone pointed her n out so openly.

    ¡°Heh, just you wait!¡± Venees blushed badly out of shame.

    Venees proceeded ahead, while the bathing woman grinned at her sessful taunt. She was confident that Diablo wasn¡¯t interested in Venees¡¯ t chest.

    Neither of them realized that with Angor¡¯s maniption, their conversation didn¡¯t go where it should.

    ...

    Venees stepped into the blood prison while she cursed her rival¡¯s name in rage.

    After taking several turns, she finally stopped in front of an iron door. Angor already heard someone cursing inside the prison cell.

    ¡°F*ck you, Isabe! F*ck you, you wrinkled, ugly hag! You deserve to be raped by a bloated frog!¡±

    Angor tried not tough out too obviously.

    Venees, though, grew really confused. ¡°Someone¡¯s in there? Wait, is that Diablo? But isn¡¯t he¡ª¡±

    With that question in mind, she pushed the door open.

    The interior of the room was a blood pool that was glowing slightly. A man was submerged in the blood with only his head exposed in the air, while several enchanted chains and hooks fixed him in ce.

    ¡°Diablo? Why are you¡ª¡± Venees called. She suddenly realized something and immediately turned to run away.

    She didn¡¯t get to run because she suddenly felt sharp paining from the back of her neck.

    ¡°Not there again... please...¡±

    Thud.

    Shadow stopped cursing and watched the strange sight. He couldn¡¯t see anything else apart from the fainted woman.

    ¡°Gummy? Gao? Or... is that you, Mask?¡±

    Even though he knew Angor¡¯s real name now, he would still be careful in order not to reveal it to any strangers.

    ¡°But weren¡¯t you really confident in your n?¡± Angor chuckled.

    Shadow widened his eyes. He also looked... passionate, somehow. ¡°Mask! It¡¯s really you?¡±

    Angor slowly materialized but only as his illusionary image.

    ¡°Get me out of here, Mask! This blood stinks!¡± Shadow was excited now. ¡°I never thought you¡¯de for me.¡±

    ¡°Answer me first. What happened to your n?¡± Angor grimaced. ¡°Did a wizard do this to you?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but she¡ª¡± Shadow halted suddenly and disyed a terrified expression. ¡°Get me out first! There¡¯s... something! In this blood. I¡¯m gonna die for real!¡±

    Angor sighed. As long as their covenant was still in effect, he couldn¡¯t let Shadow die when he could help him.

    Using Hand of Spell, Angor dragged a chain and slowly pulled Shadow out of the crimson liquid.

    As Shadow¡¯s body came out of the blood pool, Angor quickly turned around to look away.

    Shadow had been stripped clean. His ¡°stuff¡± was dangling openly in the air.

    Angor didn¡¯t feel awkward because of this. He had no problem seeing another guy naked. The reason why he didn¡¯t want to look was that he was trying to hold back hisughter for another reason.

    There was a ck tail sticking out of Shadow¡¯s backside, which was wagging left and right.

 Chapter 397 - Cut Off

    <strong>Chapter 397: Cut Off</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Hey, what are ya thinking about??¡± Shadow quickly grew frustrated at Angor¡¯s response. ¡°Get this thing off my b*tt. I can¡¯t use my hands right now.¡±

    Angor removed some of Shadow¡¯s restraints. When the man crouched on the floor, he noticed that it wasn¡¯t a ¡°tail¡± behind Shadow, but an eel-like creature with a slickery body which had its bite on Shadow¡¯s buttock.

    ¡°Oh. I thought you¡¯re... pfft.¡±

    Angor was still cackling uncontrobly. He couldn¡¯t help it. Shadow looked so funny!

    For some reason, Shadow didn¡¯t seem bothered by it. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not gonna get inside. I¡¯m holding my a*s together real tight! The fish can¡¯t beat my Bloodline-enhanced body. You see, I can even kill it with my b*tt. I didn¡¯t do it ¡¯cause I don¡¯t want a scar on my backdoor.¡±

    Angor had no idea what Shadow was trying to show by those words, and he didn¡¯t wish to continue with this topic either.

    Kill a fish using someone¡¯s b*tt... Oh man, he couldn¡¯t ¡°unthink¡± that now.

    ¡°Oof, I didn¡¯t expect you toe for real. I thought you got my message and went to Silent Hill already,¡± Shadow said. He was sincerely grateful for Angor¡¯s help. ¡°And you came just in time too. This blood stuff has something in it that taints my soul, and I can never get off those chains by myself. A little longer and you¡¯ll see my bones here instead.

    ¡°Everyone who followed that old witch is crazy!¡± Shadow kept cursing while Angor helped him to remove the chains. The man was extremely angry even though he was imprisoned for less a day.

    ¡°Message?¡± Angor didn¡¯t know that Shadow had sent him a letter with the help of the Krakok brothers. However, it wasn¡¯t time to talk about this now. ¡°So, did a wizard do this?¡±

    Shadow shook his head. ¡°She didn¡¯t, yet. But she changed all the traps! When Isabe and my teacher gave me the challenge, they already told me the correct route. But then I ran into all sorts of traps deadly to level-3 apprentices. I was captured. Then I learned that SHE tampered with the traps just to bully me.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s ¡®she¡¯?¡± Angor assumed that this unknown individual might be the one controlling the strange butterflies as well as the one who had been monitoring him.

    ¡°Shhh. She¡¯s right inside Dark Castle. Mentioning her name will bring her to us. I¡¯ll tell you once we get out.¡± Shadow suddenly grew confused and asked, ¡°Hey wait... How did you get in here? She didn¡¯t stop you?¡±

    Angor spread a hand and disyed the image of a butterfly.

    ¡°Is ¡®she¡¯ behind this thing?¡±

    Shadow nodded and widened his eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you fought her?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Angor said as he canceled the illusion. He then described his brief adventure in Dark Castle to Shadow, apart from the part about using his own illusion to trick others.

    ¡°You did fight her then. Her butterfly counts. And you actually slipped past her? You should be thankful that she hasn¡¯t used her true power on you, or you¡¯ll be dead before you know it.¡±

    Shadow then looked at Venees. ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering... Where did you learn about your illusions? I never know apprentice Illusionist can trick a real wizard.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that my trade secret. Let¡¯s talk about you. What about your n now?¡±

    ¡°n?¡± Shadow shrugged. ¡°No n anymore. Let¡¯s get the f*ck out by taking the way you came from.¡±

    ¡°But what about your mission?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s run and see. I¡¯ll still try my best to finish that challenge. It determines whether I can finally be a wizard,¡± Shadow said. He put both hands on Angor¡¯s shoulders as he continued, ¡°Thank you, really. I can¡¯t believe you came to help after reading my message. Just... help me get Naga. Once I¡¯m done, I¡¯ll forget about everything that happened in Deadmen¡¯s Dent, and I¡¯ll pay you a favor instead.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t get your message. I came here for something else, and I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t help with your quest.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you didn¡¯t? Then why did youe to me?¡±

    Angor briefly exined what he heard from Grand Priest.

    ¡°Are you absolutely sure the old man was right?¡± Shadow looked at Toby.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I do know that Toby needs Soul Orbs right now.¡±

    Angor told Shadow about Toby¡¯s condition because he needed to sooner orter. And he hoped Shadow, who knew about Dark Castle, could provide some advice about this matter.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about Soul Orbs,¡± Shadow said as he considered, ¡°so I can¡¯t tell you where to find¡¯em. You just help me get Naga for now. You said the bird will look for those orbs, right? If it moves again when we¡¯re on our way, I¡¯ll just go with you to find those orbs first. Come on, let¡¯s help each other. We both need it.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t agree right away. Instead, he pointed at Venees first.

    ¡°Let¡¯s interrogate her for what we need.¡±

    ¡°... I suggest that we don¡¯t. ¡®She¡¯ is probably watching us right now.¡±

    ...

    They quickly left the prison area.

    Angor decided to apany Shadow for now. They didn¡¯t know where to go yet, so they might as well keep moving together.

    ¡°Oh right, do you have clothes? They took everything from me,¡± Shadow asked. He was walking behind Angor while being naked.

    Without a word, Angor found a random suit and tossed it to Shadow.

    Shadow got dressed and used Spirit Bond again so that they couldmunicate better.

    They had arrived where the ck-haired woman was bathing. She was still at it. While Shadow and Angor walked past the room with their bodies concealed, the woman was licking at some virgin blood from another corpse.

    ¡°They¡¯re trying to learn Queen Mary¡¯s way, but they¡¯re never going to learn the real thing,¡± Shadow scoffed while speaking through Spirit Bond. ¡°They¡¯re stupid, you know? Mortal blood can¡¯t give them anything.¡±

    ¡°Are you feeling sorry for the mortals?¡± Angor joked.

    ¡°Heh. No. I guess you already knew that I only like blond hair and blue eyes. The others can die and I won¡¯t care a thing about them.¡±

    After the bathroom was long stairs that led upward.

    Angor suddenly stopped moving when they were standing in the middle of the stairs. ¡°Wait, the portal is gone.¡±

    He clearly remembered where the entrance portal was, and he couldn¡¯t see it.

    Shadow grimaced as well. ¡°Looks like ¡®she¡¯ doesn¡¯t want us to leave.¡±

    Since the castle was full of deadly traps and confusing passages... They both thought about turning back.

    ¡°Let¡¯s find that woman and ask her to show us the way,¡± Shadow said. He didn¡¯t want to do this while ¡°she¡± was watching, but they didn¡¯t have another choice right now.

    The way back was peaceful enough. Venees was still unconscious. Shadow moved closer and pped her face.

    Before Venees could realize what had happened, Shadow lifted her up in the air by the neck. ¡°Answer my question or be my puppet. Your choice.¡±

    While speaking, Shadow disyed his puppet strings.

    Those inside Dark Castle already heard about Diablo¡¯s n since Isabe informed them. And they fully knew how terrible these strings were.

    Venees almost wet her pants.

    ¡°Any... anything,¡± Venees replied while ncing at Angor. Compared to Diablo, she was more terrified of this silent gentleman, who probably tricked her multiple times.

    Diablo stripped the woman¡¯s shadow and ced it inside a small sack.

    ¡°This won¡¯t affect you for now. I¡¯ll give it back when I¡¯m done.¡±

    Venees checked the sack and nodded slowly. As a fresh apprentice, she couldn¡¯t hope to oppose Diablo.

    ¡°Get us out of here. The portal we came from is closed,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Y-yes. I¡¯ll lead the way.¡±

    Angor and Shadow activated their invisibility effect again while Venees walked ahead. She thought about asking the woman in the bath for help. In the end, she decided not to, especially when she saw that her rival was ready to taunt her again.

    They arrived at the original portal spot.

    ¡°It¡¯s... deactivated,¡± Veenes looked around for a while and said in a low voice.

    ¡°How to open it again? I have magic crystals on me if that¡¯s what we need,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°No... Someone closed it from the main control room. Now we can only take the main path to leave.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s where we¡¯re going then. You first.¡±

    Venees seemed really scared now. ¡°I can take you there. But bear in mind, this is floor B9. And I don¡¯t know if we can walk all the way to the outside at all.

    ¡°Because this route isn¡¯t meant for humans.¡±

 Chapter 398 - Ice Cave

    <strong>Chapter 398: Ice Cave</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Not meant for humans?

    Angor and Shadow exchanged a puzzled look and waited for the woman to exin.

    To Venees, she would die rather than walking on this dangerous path. And she wasn¡¯t going to keep it a secret now.

    ¡°Each level of Dark Castle has a certain ¡®theme¡¯. For example, B9 is Blood Prison...¡±

    There were 18 more levels under Dark Castle.

    B1 was the Corpse Forest; B2 was Spirit Realm; B3 was Soul Exile; B4, Swarm Nest; B5, Ice Cave; and B6 to B18 were all prisons.

    ¡°From here to B6 are prison areas. I don¡¯t think the apprentice guards can stop you, but starting from B5, we¡¯ll start facing danger. The most troublesome ones should be B2 and B3. They are meant for souls and spirits... not human trespassers.

    ¡°I can take you till there, but I¡¯m not going into those two floors. There¡¯s no way I can survive in there. Just... kill me. That¡¯s a better death.¡±

    ¡°So B3 and B2 are very dangerous. What exactly are in there?¡± Shadow asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never been there myself,¡± Venees said while she shook her head. ¡°But I saw B3 from a portal before. The entire ce is full of souls. I mean, thick crowds of souls. You can¡¯t walk past them without bumping into any, so your invisibility won¡¯t work. The only way across is to fight them off.

    ¡°As for B2... It used to be Lady Isabelle¡¯s secret training room. There are many soul barriers she left behind. There¡¯s a rumor that Lady Isabelle left a part of her soul in there which contained her knowledge, but it was proved a lie. Now, everyone knows for sure. A very powerful Soul Maniptor apprentice once went in there and came out with his brain broken.¡±

    After listening to her exnation, Shadow spoke through Spirit Bond. ¡°I think she¡¯s telling us the truth. But we have to climb the levels. What do you say? Do you know how to deal with souls?¡±

    ¡°Not really. I¡¯m an illusionist,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°What do we do then? I¡¯mpletely useless in this situation. Can you use your illusions to trick souls?¡±

    ¡°Yes... for ordinary souls. But as she said, the floor is packed with souls. My illusions won¡¯t work well like this.¡±

    They remained silent for a while since no one knew what to do.

    ¡°There are no other portals except this one?¡± Shadow asked Venees.

    ¡°Each level has a portal. But... since this one is closed, we can assume that all the others are the same. Whoever in the control room can shut them all at the same time.¡±

    That left them only one way up.

    ¡°¡®She¡¯ might want me dead, since she... really hates my teacher. And if you have blond hair and blue eyes... she¡¯s gonna treat you in the same way. I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll show mercy and let us out,¡± Shadow said. He put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder and shook his head as he added, ¡°Sorry about dragging you into this. But I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll actuallye and personally deal with us, or use her true strength, which means we still have hope.¡±

    ¡°You mean...¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s do this.¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Venees had no choice since her shadow was in Shadow¡¯s hands now. ¡°I can¡¯t stop you, but as I said, I¡¯ll stop in front of B3. Please don¡¯t force me. Unless... you can do something to ensure my safety.¡±

    As a level-1 apprentice, Venees would meet a quick death if she approached the wandering souls. Still, she had to move ahead now.

    Before they could begin, Shadow called and stopped her. ¡°I¡¯ll take the lead. Mask, watch our back. As for you... What¡¯s your name again?¡±

    ¡°Venees, sir.¡±

    ¡°Okay. You stay between us and tell us where to go. Careful with your words. One wrong move and I¡¯ll kill your shadow,¡± Shadow took out the small sack again as he threatened her.

    Shadow made this decision because his Bloodline-enhanced body would work better against potential hazardspared to Angor. At least that was what he believed.

    Venees nodded and epted the order. ¡°Go ahead for now. There are no traps on these stairs between floors.¡±

    As she said, they proceeded swiftly until they reached the entrance gate of B8.

    ¡°Don¡¯t touch the door. Use fire to light thatmp nearby.¡±

    Shadowplied and didn¡¯t notice anything. ¡°It didn¡¯t work?¡±

    ¡°Blow it out again and you¡¯ll see the door,¡± Venees said and moved to snuff out the fire.

    Angor dragged her back and asked Shadow to do it instead.

    When themp was extinguished, they saw a door emerging from the wall.

    ¡°This is B8, the Water Prison. But there are no prisoners right now. I think we only have one apprentice watching this area.¡±

    They walked through the prison and arrived at another blood bathroom. But they didn¡¯t see anyone in here.

    Shadow scowled at the hanging corpses and turned away.

    ¡°There¡¯s a button that triggers another portal,¡± Venees said, ¡°and if it doesn¡¯t work, we can tell that Lady Butterfly has shut off all portals.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll check it out,¡± Angor offered. He believed he knew better about magic arrays.

    A momentter, Angor moved back from the button. ¡°There is a portal. And no, it doesn¡¯t work anymore.¡±

    It meant Venees spoke the truth. Their only way out was to climb the floors on foot.

    They left this floor and moved to the stairs toward B7, during which they never saw the ¡°apprentice guard¡± mentioned by Venees.

    They kept moving. Both B7 and B6 were empty.

    Venees visibly grew nervous. There was only one exnation to this¡ªthat the guards already received the message and escaped.

    At this moment, she and the two intruders were the only ones trapped underground. Venees felt desperate about her fate.

    Meanwhile, Shadow and Angor also realized the situation.

    ¡°Welp, she¡¯s not letting us go easily,¡± Shadow moaned through Spirit Bond.

    They previously thought about kidnapping the guards as hostages. It seemed that the option no longer existed.

    After walking through another wooden door, they were weed by freezing air.

    ¡°We¡¯re at Ice Cave,¡± Venees said.

    ¡°What are we expecting here?¡± Shadow asked.

    ¡°... When Lady Isabelle was still here, she used this floor to train her soul. And it was left unused since she left until my teacher brought some cheap materials and stored them here several years ago.¡±

    ¡°So it¡¯s an icebox?¡±

    ¡°You can put it that way, yes.¡± Venees nodded.

    ¡°Cheap materials... What exactly? Do you have Mystic Fog Strings, High Bronze, and Meteorite?¡± Angor asked.

    Shadow glimpsed at Angor. He knew Angor was looking for materials, but he didn¡¯t expect Angor to ask about them in such a situation.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know their names,¡± Venees said as she considered. ¡°But I think there are enough materials kept here, if you only look for cheap ones, that is.¡±

 Chapter 399 - Icebox

    <strong>Chapter 399: Icebox</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°There¡¯s no danger in here?¡± Shadow gazed at Venees. ¡°You told us that every floor from here has something wicked. Are you lying then?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not. This used to be Lady Isabelle¡¯s training ground. You won¡¯t run into anything as long as you don¡¯t wander too deep inside.¡±

    As they talked, they arrived at a fork which required them to choose a direction from two.

    Both paths were full of more breezing air that caused them to shiver uncontrobly.

    ¡°The left one leads deeper inside. You can go right if you want to go to the exit,¡± Venees said.

    ¡°Where are those materials ced?¡± Angor asked.

    Venees gave Angor an uncertain nce. ¡°They may be cheap, but my teacher won¡¯t be happy if you take them without her permission. There was an apprentice who identally damaged something, and our teacher banished her into Soul Exile.¡±

    Shadow also spoke up, ¡°I know what you¡¯re looking for and it¡¯s not the time for that. Venees¡¯ right. That old ugly is a stingy and narrow-minded b*tch. If we get out of here alive, I¡¯ll find those materials for you, free of charge.¡±

    ¡°So, do you think you can get past Soul Exile?¡± Angor said through Spirit Bond.

    Shadow was taken aback a little. ¡°We can... sneak by, if there¡¯s enough space between those souls.¡±

    ¡°What about Venees? Can we proceed without her?¡±

    As they already experienced until now, there were countless traps and secrets in Dark Castle which included mind tricks and misleading clues. Without someone who knew this ce well, it would be too difficult to reach the upper floors.

    ¡°What are you nning then?¡± Shadow could understand their situation, but he didn¡¯t know why Angor brought that up.

    ¡°I¡¯m an alchemist. With the right materials, I can make something that works against the undead.¡±

    Shadow didn¡¯t believe those words at all. ording tomon sense, it was impossible for an apprentice alchemist to make something effective enough. However, Shadow wasn¡¯t sure anymore, especially after he noticed that Angor looked very confident about it.

    ¡°Are you sure about this?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Then...¡± Shadow wanted to trust Angor, but something told him that he needed more than ¡°trust¡± right now. ¡°Do you need a lot of time? We can¡¯t tarry for too long.¡±

    Angor considered and replied, ¡°One day. If we have the materials, I¡¯ll need only a day.¡±

    That was how long it took him to craft a revolver for Vice. He still had his Energy Stabilizer and magic crystals in his bracelet. He knew he could do it.

    ¡°That¡¯s it? Twenty four hours?¡± Again, Shadow found his knowledge about alchemy busted. Still, there was no way Angor could lie to him at this moment. ¡°Something that kills the undead? You can create it so quickly?¡±

    Angor nodded again and presented his confidence through their Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Oookay... I think we can at least take the time.¡±

    Venees couldn¡¯t hear their conversation. The woman only stood in the cold while sulking at her abandoned fate.

    She only had a really thin bathrobe on her body after leaving the blood bathroom, which almost did nothing against the cold. Her skin was already turning red with frostbite. She desperately hoped that these two intruders could take her away as fast as possible.

    She felt terrible, as both her mind and her body were being tortured.

    Something suddenly covered her head.

    ¡°Take it,¡± Angor said to her.

    Venees reached for the cover and realized it was a ck cotton coat. It was for men, and it was too big for her. Still, it wasn¡¯t time to get picky right now.

    She thanked Angor in a small voice and immediately sensed her condition getting better.

    ¡°Where are the materials?¡± Angor waited for Venees to get dressed and asked.

    Venees noticed that Diablo wasn¡¯t protesting anymore, which meant they reached an agreement.

    ¡°That way,¡± she said as she pointed to the left.

    ¡°In the depth, huh?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s colder that way, so the materials stay fresh. The further we move into the ice area, the more dangerous it will be. The materials are located outside of the danger zone, so I think we should be fine.¡±

    Shadow moved ahead. ¡°Let¡¯s go then. Venees, we¡¯ll remain on this floor for a day.¡±

    He didn¡¯t tell her the reason, and Venees knew she should not question it, so she onlyplied.

    They hadn¡¯t walked very far when the temperature around them dropped drastically. However, it was still bearable.

    The walls had obvious frost marks on them. They even saw several spots that were cracked by the cold.

    ¡°Do you mean all this cold by ¡®danger in the depth¡¯?¡± Shadow spoke.

    Venees breathed into her hands and replied in a weak voice, ¡°Ye-yes... I heard that it¡¯s so cold in the center of the floor that even souls get frozen solid. Powerful wizards also need soul protections if they want to go in there.¡±

    ¡°Frozen souls huh... Yeah, that sounds dangerous alright.¡±

    Using this chance, Angor slowly diverted their topic onto ¡°souls¡±. ¡°Hey Venees, do you know about Soul Orbs?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Yes, I do.¡±

    ¡°So we can use them to repair souls?¡±

    ¡°Not only that, they can replenish your soul energy. It¡¯s one of the most convenient and hazard-free energy sources too. My sisters mentioned that our Dark Castle is the only ce that produces them.¡±

    ¡°Are there any orbs in there?¡± Angor pointed ahead.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know where they keep them, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not underground. Soul Orbs attract hungry undead. Putting them down here will start a riot easily.¡±

    About ten minutester, Venees signaled toward the front. ¡°Here, this is where they ce the materials.¡±

    They had arrived at a small lobby about 20 meters in width. A number of iron doors scattered around the walls. They had different pictures on them that indicated separate chambers for keeping certain materials such as magic nts, ores, or liquid.

    ¡°Behind those doors. There are no traps in here.¡± Venees nced at Angor and said, ¡°If you don¡¯t care about angering our teacher, go help yourself.¡±

    ¡°Go. Just cheap junks,¡± Shadow spoke through Spirit Bond. ¡°Those chains you broke in the blood prison are already more costly than the average stuff. You know what. If the witch¡¯s gonna chase after you for stealing garbage, I¡¯ll help you.¡±

    Angor nodded. He asked them to wait outside while he began to explore the doors.

    Venees was right. The chambers were full of cheap, low-tier or non-tiered crafting materials. Enough of them.

    And this was what Angor needed most right now. He quickly traveled among the doors and found what wascking on his list.

    When he came back again, Shadow and Venees had ced a torch on the floor to get some warmth.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get to work. Don¡¯t speak to me for the time being, and keep an eye on Venees. I don¡¯t think she haspletely given up on escaping yet,¡± Angor spoke through their Spirit Bond.

    Shadow nodded.

    Angor went inside the path they came from and activated his Nightmare Domain. Here, he could enjoy absolute peace. As long as Sunders wasn¡¯t here, he didn¡¯t have to worry about anyone finding his secret. However, he still left an illusionary image of himself outside the domain just in case.

    Since he had enough experience with the previous two sessful attempts, he nned to make another revolver enchanted with Prelude to Elimination.

    Without the need for nning ahead, he arranged the necessary materials and tools, which included the hologram tablet, and began working right away.

 Chapter 400 - Abnormalities in Ice Cave

    <strong>Chapter 400: Abnormalities in Ice Cave</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    He had no trouble making the item, but the alchemy omen could be an issue.

    Shadow came from Floating Mech City, the home of all genius alchemists, so that man should have no problem seeing another omen.

    However, ¡°she¡± might also see his omen. And Angor wasn¡¯t sure if ¡°she¡± could sit tight in that case. Shadow assured him that ¡°she¡± would not trouble them further, but Angor wasn¡¯t fully convinced by those words.

    But he didn¡¯t have any other choice right now.

    Angor stopped thinking about his concerns and concentrated on his work.

    Meanwhile, Shadow was sitting in front of a campfire while gazing into the path that led into the depth of Ice Cave.

    Something kept bothering his mind. Just looking at the dark passage and the cold air blowing from it made his heart run wild.

    He looked at Venees again. The woman had fallen asleep by resting her head on her knees.

    Damn. Should I tell Angor to get away from here first?

    Before he could make the decision, another trail of wind filled with snowkes emerged from the deep tunnel.

    Shadow quickly created a dirt wall to block the wind.

    The wind persisted for a while. When it ended, the ground was covered under a thinyer of frost again.

    Shadow canceled his spell and carefully observed the surroundings. Everything seemed quiet and fine, yet his thumping heart was telling him otherwise.

    ¡°Did you start your work already, Angor?¡± He spoke through Spirit Bond.

    It took a while for Angor to respond. ¡°Yeah. What is it?¡±

    ¡°I think... something¡¯s not right here. Let¡¯s get to somewhere else first. You can always resume your work when it¡¯s safer, right?¡±

    Angor checked his half-melted material and nodded. Shadow was good at reading details and potential danger. If Shadow believed something was wrong, it was probably true. Also, Angor was nning to discuss with Shadow about his alchemy omen first.

    ¡°Alright. Bring Venees here and let¡¯s get away.¡±

    Shadow called Venees¡¯ name and received no response.

    ¡°Is she too tired?¡± He frowned and nudged the woman.

    Thud.

    Venees¡¯ body lost bnce and fell on the floor.

    Shadow lifted her head to check. Venees¡¯ face was now fully covered in white frost. There was blood seeping from her closed eyes.

    Next, Shadow tried to sense Venees¡¯ body using spirit feelers.

    The moment the feelers reached Venees, a freezing aura quickly traveled through them and headed toward Shadow rapidly.

    He jumped away in fear and quickly cut off the feelers.

    ¡°Are you alright over there?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with Venees!¡± Shadow was slowly backing away from the woman while speaking. He sensed great dangering from Venees¡¯ body.

    While he ran back toward the path they came from, he saw Angoring his way.

    ¡°No. Turn back! Let¡¯s get out of here.¡±

    Angor quickly noticed Shadow¡¯s scared expression and listened to him.

    ¡°Where do we go?¡±

    They had arrived at the fork again, which either took them to B4 or back to B6.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go down. I think there¡¯s another woman in the blood bathroom in front of blood prison,¡± Shadow said.

    Angor nodded. This seemed the better choice.

    When they reached the gate and closed it behind them, Shadow finally sighed in relief and exined what he saw.

    They still didn¡¯t know what happened. However, since Venees was in trouble, there should be great danger lurking in the material lobby.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think Venees¡¯ gonna make it. Let¡¯s go back to B9 and bring that ck-haired woman with us. Otherwise, we¡¯ll never get out.¡± Shadow was still trembling a little. He only wished to get away from Ice Cave as fast as he could.

    Angor stopped him first. ¡°We don¡¯t have to. Fiona is right inside my bracelet. Can you make her talk?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s whaaat?¡± Shadow widened his eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you got those Hollow Weed stuff? Enough to hold someone alive? You need like, 100,000 crystals for that lot of weed!¡±

    Angor dragged Shadow into his Nightmare Domain so that ¡°she¡± couldn¡¯t hear them talking.

    He released Fiona into the domain. The woman still carried the eerie smile of a mindless puppet.

    Shadow confirmed his puppet string in Fiona¡¯s body. Instead of controlling her, he nced at Angor first.

    ¡°Oh,e on! Who the heck are you? Where did you find so much Hollow Weed? Even Floating Mech City can¡¯t find such arge amount to sell at their auction.¡±

    Previously, Shadow decided not to question Angor¡¯s identity too much. But now, seeing all those mysteries on Angor had forced him to get curious again.

    Alchemy skills, ¡°reverse engineering¡± a giant magic array within a day, expensive equipment, a strange monster bird, illusions powerful enough to fool Lady Butterfly... Everything told Shadow that this young apprentice was NOT ordinary.

    Angor simply pushed Fiona to Shadow. ¡°Not the time for it. You¡¯ll know everything once we get to Floating Mech City. And if we can¡¯t, telling you about myself won¡¯t help us escape.¡±

    There were too many wizards that feared Sunders or hated him. Angor didn¡¯t know what would happen to him if he mentioned his professor¡¯s name to a stranger, so he chose to keep that a secret.

    Shadow went over his memory and remembered several alchemists and master illusionists, but he couldn¡¯t remember anyone who came from Brute Cavern that possessed both expertise.

    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll not ask again, but do tell me if you feel like it. After we get out, that is. Now, I suggest that you put her back inside. I don¡¯t know what will happen if ¡®she¡¯ sees Fiona in our hands. Let¡¯s check out B9 first. If we can¡¯t find that ck-haired woman, we¡¯ll use Fiona.¡±

    Angorplied and apanied Shadow down the stairs.

    After they left, Venees, who was believed to be dead, suddenly reopened her eyes.

    Her brown eyes had be white, which glowed slightly like ice reflecting sunlight. Her hair had put on a pure white color as well.

    She slowly sat up and looked toward where Shadow had escaped.

    ¡°I sense such a strange soul...¡±

    ...

    Angor and Shadow spent another hour traveling all the way back to B9. Along their way, Angor mentioned his alchemy omens, and Shadow nced at him again with a meaningful look.

    ¡°It might be a good thing. Just imagine. When she knows that you can create a mid-tier alchemy item at such a young age, she¡¯ll understand your value and think about who you are as well as who your teacher is. Maybe she¡¯ll decide to let us go. I mean, don¡¯t worry about the omen. I don¡¯t think she¡¯s going to attack us because of it.¡±

    They arrived at the blood bathroom and saw the ck-haired woman who was still in the bathtub. It seemed she didn¡¯t evacuate like the other guards.

    The woman was shocked by their arrival. Before she could find her weapon, Shadow quickly subdued her by using his puppet strings.

    She was also a level-1 apprentice like Venees, who couldn¡¯t oppose Shadow¡¯s power at all.

    ¡°Diablo?! Where did youe from? Where¡¯s Venees? Did she let you out? And who the heck are you?¡± She glimpsed at Angor next.

    ¡°You give her orders. I¡¯ll find somewhere quiet and continue with my work,¡± Angor said to Shadow without minding the woman.

    ¡°Leave it to me. I think we¡¯re safe on this floor.¡±

 Chapter 401 - Savage Omen

    <strong>Chapter 401: Savage Omen</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    In the southern wizarding region, Dark Castle used to be the limelight of all ns and organizations due to the help of ¡°Bloody Queen¡± Mary, a legendary wizard. But ever since Mary left, they had entered a shortage of capable inheritors.

    Until Isabelle made her name known one thousand years ago. She became a level-3 wizard before she turned 100 and achieved the mark of a ¡°truth finder¡± Soul Maniptor.

    Just when people believed Isabelle would start another era of legend after Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard, she suddenly disappeared from everyone¡¯s sight and was no longer to be seen again.

    And since that point of time, there hadn¡¯t been another legendary wizard in this region.

    No one knew where Isabelle went or whether she was alive. At the same time, it was uncertain whether she woulde back. This was why no one attempted to attack Dark Castle even though there was an unupied Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Midworld with only one level-2 wizard, Isabe, watching over it.

    The Dark Castle organization had enjoyed peace for a thousand years, and so had the real Dark Castle estate, which was located in Otherworld.

    Until today.

    The Dark Castle estate was built upon Lightning Basin, which was constantly troubled by raging thunderclouds. The forest nearby was named ck Forest, and the barend was Scorched Earth.

    As everyone inside Dark Castle prepared to spend another peaceful yet boring day, something suddenly happened in Lightning Basin.

    At first, the air stopped flowing and became still. No one inside Dark Castle noticed this since it wasn¡¯t a serious abnormality.

    Next, the undead spirits in ck Forest suddenly ceased their cries and trembled.

    The apprentices responsible for discarding corpses never attracted any hostile souls while doing their work. Previously, they always drew hungry souls who hunted for fresh human flesh like mad. But now, they weren¡¯t sure why everything was so quiet.

    The dancing lightning in the sky slowed down until theypletely stopped. Not only that. Those thunderclouds which usually kept the surroundings of Dark Castle shrouded in eternal darkness also began to disperse.

    Those who managed to notice the clearing sky was now looking at the true color of the sky in Otherworld, which was pale blue mixed with gray mist as if the sky were heavily polluted.

    Not many people paid attention to these changes since they were nothing harmless... until the disappearing dark clouds revealed a giant hole behind them.

    Countless souls emerged from the hole, screaming and dancing around. As their number increased, another cloud that was purely made out of souls came into existence in the sky.

    Meanwhile, streams of ck trails appeared from the forest, the graveyard, and barend, which all floated into the hole. As the spirits on the ground trembled in fear, their negative energy was absorbed by the undead cloud above them.

    The cloud grewrger as it consumed more energy. It now reached dozens of thousands of meters in width and was still expanding toward the horizon.

    As it grew, more ck streams rose from the ground while more undead spirits screamed in pain.

    The air current caused by the surging energy knocked against the windows of Dark Castle. The strange sight outside had grownrge enough to draw everyone¡¯s attention, including ¡®Lady Butterfly¡¯ Felicia, who had been brewing her wine on the first floor.

    Dragging her slim, ck dress, she slowly moved to the castle gate on elegant steps and opened the door.

    Violent gale flipped her dark colored hair around. For some reason, the strands of her hair disobeyed the wind current and moved on their own as if they had their own consciousness.

    As the gate was opened up, the terrible howls in the environment instantly filled the inside of Dark Castle.

    Felicia looked up at the soul energy that was gathering in the sky and grinned slightly.

    ¡°An alchemy omen? Impressive.¡± She took out her crystal ball, which began to disy different areas in Dark Castle. It then stopped at floor B9, the Blood Prison.

    She quickly found Diablo and scanned toward another direction, which was the source of the omen. However, she couldn¡¯t see the actual source because everything was hidden behind a thick ck aura.

    ¡°To make a mid-tier item in such a short time... This little apprentice does have a lot of surprises,¡± Felicia murmured as she tilted her head and considered. She thought the boy was another student of Puppet Master, but it seemed not to be the case.

    Puppet Master was good at creating puppets, but he wasn¡¯t so good at alchemy. What she just saw was the heritage of a master alchemist. There was no way Puppet Master knew how to teach such knowledge.

    Did someone from Floating Mech City send his or her student here to help Diablo?

    As she went over her mind, the soul cloud in the sky had grown sorge that no one could see the edge of it. Even Angor didn¡¯t expect that he would create such a gigantic alchemy omen.

    ¡°Too bad you made a poor choice, boy,¡± Felicia muttered.

    Trying to make an anti-undead item in this birthce of undead spirits was a terrible mistake. This was onemon mistake often made by apprentice alchemists¡ªthey forgot to size up environmental factors.

    This area was full of souls. They provided too much negative energy that the soul cloud was getting out of control.

    ¡°And he still needs to get past the omen challenge...¡± Felicia shook her head as she thought about the possible fate of the young apprentice. Such a waste of talent.

    Experienced alchemists all knew how to pick a suitable spot for their work. It was obvious that Angor wasn¡¯t ¡°experienced¡± yet, which she could tell from such a reckless attempt.

    Felicia put away her crystal ball and stopped observing. She couldn¡¯t see into the core of the omen. A failed omen challenge would either wound the young apprentice or kill him¡ªprobably thetter.

    She closed the gate and prepared to go back to brewing her wine.

    However, before she could get to work again, an overwhelming pressure suddenly descended and pressed her body down a little. She quickly stood upright again and opened the gate to check; a little bit panicked this time.

    The monstrous soul cloud was shrinking rapidly. In a matter of seconds, it appeared as big as an ordinary cloud.

    As most of the soul cloud disappeared, the sky of Otherworld showed itself in front of people again after being blocked by thunderclouds for decades. The dull color of the sky didn¡¯t look so good, but it was still betterpared to darkness and lightning.

    To ordinary apprentices, seeing the sky was a refreshing experience.

    Felicia, however, was fully attracted by the great pressure exerted by the now smaller soul cloud. The powerful undead energy had beenpressed so much that it was more solid than the core of abyss.

    She got a feeling that if the soul energy suddenly gained intelligence and became a monster, then she would probably get defeated easily.

    ¡°Oh boy. You¡¯re going to get known by the whole world even if you die in that omen challenge...¡± Felicia mumbled while watching the cloud continuously shrinking, further increasing the density of negative energy.

    She suddenly got an idea. A bold and absolutely unreliable idea.

    If. Just if... that the young apprentice survived the omen challenge. Then what kind of item would he create?

    It was definitely not mid-tier. High-tier? Tactical? Or could it be... a Mystery item?

    She brought out her crystal ball again and checked the Blood Prison. The alchemist was still covered in flowing ck aura. Felicia had nothing to look through that barrier right now.

    ...

    Away from them, Diablo and the ck-haired woman were huddled against a wall; their faces were slowly losing color.

    They stayed too close to the source of the omen, where the undead energy was raging.

    The violent aura had stripped all air around them. They had no choice but to wait for death, either by suffocating or letting their life energy taken by the anti-life surge.

    Diablo had no idea why this happened just because someone was crafting an item. He saw many different alchemy omens before in Floating Mech City, and he couldn¡¯t imagine what the outside would look like now.

    ¡°Angor!! You hear me? Damn it! Stop!

    ¡°I¡¯m dying here!

    ¡°What about our covenant?! Hey, he¡¯s killing me! Make him stop!¡±

    Diablo called Angor¡¯s name like a madman, but he could no longer sense the other end of their Spirit Bond.

    He felt his vision fading and his blood boiling. His past life was shing in his mind.

    He was so sad right now. In the end, he wasn¡¯t killed by Isabe, Felicia, or those dangerous floors like Soul Exile or Spirit Realm, but at the hands of his teammate!

    And he was the one who agreed with Angor¡¯s decision...

 Chapter 402 - Mystery Soul

    <strong>Chapter 402: Mystery Soul</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Out of the corner of his eye, Diablo saw the ck-haired womanpletely motionless beside him. Dead, probably.

    ¡°Heh. Wasn¡¯t expecting this, eh?¡± Diablo felt like crying. ¡°Angor... you b*stard...¡±

    The covenant didn¡¯t work, which meant Angor wasn¡¯t intentionally trying to kill him. To Diablo, he was going to die for no reason at all.

    He sensed a small hole around his forehead. He would be dead for real if he let his soul slip through it. He tried very hard to suppress his soul from escaping his body.

    ¡°Not yet... Not so fast...¡±

    When he thought he could no longer make it, a glowing barrier suddenly emerged around him. The barrier cut off all energy surges and hazards. Diablo and the woman nearby fell from the wall as the sharp current assaulting their bodies was lifted.

    ¡°HA! Thank, thank heavens...¡± Diablo gasped as he breathed painfully. Not minding the stinky blood on the floor, hey sprawling and tried to ease every part of his body.

    As he felt better, he slowly sat up again to check the captured woman. She was their best hope of getting out of Dark Castle, as long as she was alive.

    But he stopped when he smelled something sweet in the air. Wine?

    Diablo turned around and saw a swarm of ck and white butterflies gathering in front of him, which slowly turned into the image of an elegant woman.

    ¡°Lady Butterfly!¡± Diablo quickly stood up and bowed. It was obvious she just did something to protect him. ¡°Thank you for saving my life, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have done that if not for this unintended crisis,¡± Felicia said as she gave him a cold nce. ¡°I must say that your n surprised me.¡±

    ¡°I-it wasn¡¯t my fault. H-he made up this decision on his own.¡±

    When in front of a powerful wizard, Diablo wouldn¡¯t hesitate to sell his teammate out.

    ¡°Heh. Now speak, who¡¯s the mentor of that apprentice? Kusino? Mithra?¡±

    Diablo stuttered, ¡°He said he¡¯s Angor, ma¡¯am, but I don¡¯t know anything else about him.¡±

    Felicia wasn¡¯t convinced. She believed that whoever came to Dark Castle to help Diablo had to have known him well. With a simple gesture, a ck butterfly with white stripesnded on Diablo¡¯s shoulder.

    Diablo¡¯s body instantly froze up. Only his eyes were moving around now.

    ¡°His name.¡±

    ¡°He said he¡¯s Angor.¡±

    ¡°His identity.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. He said he¡¯s from Brute Cavern. That¡¯s the only thing I heard.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s his mentor?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Felicia frowned. She just used a spell to directlymunicate with Diablo¡¯s consciousness, and those words sounded truthful enough. Brute Cavern was a powerful organization, true. Butst time she checked, they didn¡¯t have any famous alchemist.

    ¡°Could it be ¡®Rose Crown¡¯ Leona? No... She is no master alchemist.¡±

    As Felicia recalled, Leona studied Apothecary. Perfume Brewing, to be precise. It was a very rare branch too.

    But Felicia couldn¡¯t remember any other alchemist worth noticing in Brute Cavern.

    Speaking of Brute Cavern... The young apprentice did disy some interesting illusion skills. And ¡°Phantom Master¡± Sunders Eagle was in Brute Cavern. Could it be Sunders¡¯ student?

    Felicia shook her head. If Sunders did find a new apprentice who was also talented in alchemy, there would be numerous gossips spread all around the southern wizarding region. Yet she never heard of such rumors and ¡°Angor¡± yet.

    Previously, Felicia nned to learn about who sent this young apprentice so that she could prepare an excuse to get herself out of trouble if a master alchemist ever came to me her for putting Angor in danger.

    But he turned out to be a nameless wanderer? Such a pity.

    Felicia was feeling regretful about her decision. If she had known that the young apprentice didn¡¯t belong to Puppet Master or any other renowned alchemist, she would make sure the boy joined Candy House, even if by force.

    But this crisis...

    Felicia looked at the source of undead energy and moaned. The young apprentice was looking for a quick death by crafting an anti-undead weapon here.

    She was expecting to see a corpse that was sucked dry by undead spirits. This was when she suddenly noticed that the ck aura was shrinking as well, just like the soul cloud outside.

    Her ¡°true self¡± was still at the castle gate, and she could also observe the growing energy inside the cloud despite its decreasing size.

    Why is the source of the omen shrinking? Don¡¯t tell me the apprentice really made it? But this is impossible! Even I would have trouble surviving that kind of negative energy. How could an apprentice get out alive?

    She couldn¡¯t believe it, but it was already happening in front of her eyes.

    The ck aura surrounding Angor¡¯s location was disappearing. The soul cloud in the sky also became smaller. However, the negative energy remained the same; it grew so concentrated that Felicia found it difficult to look into it.

    She still tried to observe. In the end, the cloud gradually became one single ck soul.

    The soul was about three meters tall. Any details couldn¡¯t be seen because it was totally ck. However, Felicia still noticed a pair of giant, ox-like horns, a finely-shaped body, a pair of ck, leathery wings, and a weapon that looked like a trident.

    It looked like those female devils straight out of the depth of an abyss.

    The ck soul howled loudly, which soon caused all the other souls in ck Forest to cry again. But unlike before, they were crying because of pure fear this time.

    Felicia looked at the strange soul and felt her heart racing faster.

    This being might not be very strong. She felt stressed because of another reason.

    A series of strange ripples emerged from the soul while carrying the might of the world¡¯s consciousness.

    Such might had another name to it¡ªMystery energy.

    A Mystery power. A Mystery soul.

    Felicia¡¯s image in Blood Prison quickly turned around toward Angor¡¯s location, and she gazed at him with great passion. Was she going to witness the creation of a Mystery treasure?

    If so, she would do anything to seize it!

    Every Mystery item possessed a specialw, which could sometimes bypass the basicws that operated in this very world.

    There was one such item in Candy House, which was the ¡°Butterfly Spirit¡± possessed by Felicia. Getting a second one meant better protection for their Gourmet Wizard members.

    Felicia prepared herself. The moment she set her eyes upon the item, she would take both the item and its creator away. An apprentice who could do something that was impossible for most master alchemists was enough reason for her to use violent means.

    As she waited, someone yelled loudly among the surging energy waves, ¡°I DID IT!¡±

    The simple words seemed to be carrying amazing andmanding power, which caused the strange soul in the sky to crumble to fragments. Soon, all the Mystery energy disyed by the soul rushed toward the Blood Prison under Dark Castle.

    It gathered around Angor. The ck barrier around Angor also disappeared and revealed his form¡ªAngor was now holding a silver weapon with a strange shape in one hand, while his other hand moved in the air as if ying an instrument. As his fingers moved in rhythm, the Mystery energy slowly sank into the silver weapon.

    ¡°He¡¯s alive... he really made it through. And a Mystery treasure ising!¡± Felicia was now feeling overexcited. She no longer cared how Angor survived the terrible omen; she only wanted to look at the wonderful weapon and be its first witness.

    Also, she didn¡¯t hide her voice just now, so Diablo heard her words and slowly dropped his mouth open to a funny extent as if he were performing a mimeedy.

    ¡°A Mystery treasure? Angor? This is nuts!¡± Diablo felt his heart failing after going through so many drastic scenario changes. ¡°Am I dead already? Yes, it must be. This is all a dream!¡±

    As more Mystery energy went into the silver weapon, it took on a brighter, shinier look as it gained more levels.

    As everyone waited for the final, decisive moment toe, they suddenly heard a gentle, female voice speaking right beside their ears.

    ¡°Thou steal the wealth of Dark Castle. Nugatory assets... but still not yours to take. You, who contribute to thy own name as a Mystery alchemist, by using properties that do not belong to you. Improper, is it not?¡±

 Chapter 403 - Remains From 1,000 Years Ago

    <h4>Chapter 403: Remains From 1,000 Years Ago</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The voice came from a distance, yet everyone heard it loud and clear.

    ¡°Who is it?!¡± Felicia was the first one to respond. She should definitely, for she already nned to take the Mystery item away. Anyone here to interfere was her enemy.

    However, the voice sounded like it came from someone from Dark Castle, and what she said seemed ¡°legit¡± enough.

    Angor¡¯s alchemy attempt was unique and unrepeatable because itbined coincidental factors including all the soul energy collected from ck Forest, Scorched Earth, and the mass graveyard.

    He used the souls gathered by Dark Castle over thest thousand years as a resource to challenge the title of a master alchemist, so the strange voice was right to use him of stealing.

    It wasn¡¯t really a serious mistake in the wizarding world, but it was considered an offense nevertheless. Angor already thought about this while making the weapon, and he wouldn¡¯t protest now.

    The voice was also true that the souls were ¡°nugatory¡± since Dark Castle had no use for them. They wouldn¡¯t me Angor at all if he were simply here to kill the undead souls for fun. Rather, they might even thank him for getting rid of the undead that swarmed out there.

    However, wizards pursued profit. Now that Angor created something extremely valuable, the other wizards would not hesitate to use their moral ground to gain something out of Angor.

    Double standard. Such was the way.

    Everyone knew it. But still, the voice spoke truly in the views of Dark Castle, and Angor could not deny his ¡°crime¡±.

    Since the mysterious female speaker pointed out that what Angor took away was useless, it meant there was still room for negotiation.

    The voice didn¡¯t mind Felicia¡¯s protest. It spoke to Angor again.

    ¡°Today, you steal the assets of my Dark Castle, and I must stop you. Here, I will im half of that Mystery soul. Consider it a price you have to pay.¡±

    The Mystery energy in Angor¡¯s weapon immediately halted and began to disperse toward another direction.

    ¡°STOP IT!¡± Felicia bellowed in rage. ¡°A long-dead soul wants to have Mystery energy? That¡¯s a hideous joke!¡±

    While speaking, Felicia already moved to attack the source of the voice.

    Angor decided not to join the fight since someone already yelled at the greedy presence. He didn¡¯t recognize the woman in front of him, but judging from the floating butterflies around her, she had to be the one who had been monitoring his moves.

    From one corner of the blood prison, another girl with silver hair and icy-white iris slowly entered their sight.

    Felicia unleashed her attack right at this girl. Yet it only took the strange girl a simple gesture topletely grind Felicia¡¯s butterflies to pieces.

    ¡°I¡¯m speaking for my Dark Castle. Why do you, an outsider, meddle with the matter?¡± the silver-haired girl questioned.

    ¡°Humph! I forced him into a chance to finally create that treasure. How can YOU juste and take it? Useless, discarded souls in exchange for a world-ss treasure? Is Dark Castle shameless?!¡± Felicia yelled, ¡°Now speak. Who are you and why did you possess the body of an apprentice? Do you not want to show your face because you don¡¯t want anybody to hear about this joke?¡±

    While the two women spoke, Angor received a message from his Spirit Bond, which was sent by Shadow.

    ¡°Hey, look at that woman. Isn¡¯t that Venees? Man, she looks ¡®cooler¡¯ all of a sudden!¡±

    ¡°You were right. There IS something wrong in Ice Cave. Something took Venees¡¯ body. And those powers look like wizard-level,¡± Angor replied. He considered and said, ¡°You were right beside Venees back then, right? Why didn¡¯t it possess you instead?¡±

    ¡°Duh. That sounds like a woman, right? Her choice was obvious.¡±

    The silver-haired ¡°Venees¡± suddenly changed the subject. ¡°Telling from the memories of this body... You¡¯re Felicia, no? My disciple invited you to Dark Castle to stay here temporarily. Like I said, an outsider. And you would question my reason for minding the problem inside Dark Castle?¡±

    ¡°Your disciple? You mean... Isabe?¡± Felicia was shocked. ¡°You¡¯re Isabelle?¡±

    ¡°Venees¡± nodded.

    ¡°She¡¯s Lady Isabelle?¡± Shadow also yelled through Spirit Bond. ¡°Didn¡¯t she leave the southern wizarding region a long time ago?¡±

    ¡°Felicia... Felicia from Butterfly Tavern?¡± Angor was more curious about the other presence right now.

    ¡°Yeah!¡± Shadow nodded. ¡°Well I told you about ¡®Lady Butterfly¡¯ many times and you didn¡¯t realize who that is?¡±

    Angor never learned about Felicia¡¯s title before. And since Felicia was here...

    <i>Did Flowey meet the actual ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya back down the well?</i>

    But Flowey described ¡°Greya¡± as a tiny girl not much bigger than herself. That sounded way too different than the Greya in Angor¡¯s memory. So did Greya use something to change her shape?

    On the other side, Felicia and Isabelle had finished their conversation. Felicia would totally respect this great wizard who created a brand new era for wizards a thousand years ago.

    Still, she could not believe that Isabelle really came.

    It seemed Isabelle didn¡¯t intend to prove herself either. With another simple gesture, a dark, glowing soul emerged from the ground and tied Felicia¡¯s body up.

    Felicia was terrified to realize that she could do nothing to shake free. The presence in front of her was only a soul who possessed a foreign body, which meant the real being actually possessed way more strength.

    Upon realizing the gap in their strengths, Felicia chose to stay silent.

    Isabelle walked past Felicia and approached Angor. The Mystery energy in Angor¡¯s creation was still leaving for Isabelle.

    ¡°You have a peculiar soul...¡± Isabelle gazed at Angor with a in look. ¡°It both attracts me and... scares me, just a little. This soul remnant I left in Ice Cave cannot exist much longer. I was nning to observe you and use your body as my host.

    ¡°But you actually created something with a Mystery soul inside... Then I will not risk invading your body. I¡¯m taking half of that Mystery soul in exchange.¡±

    Angor had no idea if Isabelle spoke the truth. However, it was obvious that his creation couldn¡¯t retain its true strength now, and he could do nothing about it since a legendary wizard was here.

    It was impossible to gain a Mystery item when half of its strength was gone, which meant his opportunity of challenging the title of ¡°Mystery Alchemist¡± had slipped.

    It was unfortunate, but Angor didn¡¯t really feel bad. The great sess wasn¡¯t expected at all. It was already a good thing that he didn¡¯t die in that uncontroble omen.

    Finally, Angor¡¯s Mystery soul was cut down to half by Isabelle while Felicia watched everything happening helplessly.

    Angor¡¯s new revolver reverted to amon mid-tier item. Before he could examine his creation, Isabelle swiftly took it from his hand.

    Angor revealed an irritated look, just briefly. He could only endure the rage because he was in front of a powerful being mighty enough tomand a wizard army.

    When Angor thought he had to say goodbye to his revolver too, Isabelle handed it back to him.

    ¡°It¡¯s mid-tiered, but it still has a small trace of Mystery energy inside. I¡¯m letting you figure out the nature of it on your own.¡±

    After absorbing the Mystery energy, Isabelle looked a lot more rxed¡ªshe needed some time to ¡°digest¡± her new meal.

    The woman in Venees¡¯ body nced at Angor onest time, somewhat apologetically this time.

    ¡°One week. Come to Spirit Realm on floor B2. After one week, I shall give you a special destiny. Consider it a reward, after which we¡¯ll not talk about today¡¯s matter again.¡±

    With that, Isabelle turned away and disappeared.

    After she left, the soul that was restraining Felicia also vanished. Felicia still felt extremely disturbed after failing to get another Mystery item, but there was no way she could vent her anger out in front of a legendary wizard.

    She still had Angor though.

    ¡°Come with me and join Candy House. Or else...¡± Felicia was showing her worst rage against Angor while speaking.

    Both Angor and Shadow were surprised by the sudden demand. Shadow knew that Felicia would realize Angor¡¯s value after the incident, but he still didn¡¯t expect Felicia to ¡°hijack¡± the talented apprentice of Brute Cavern so openly.

    Of course, Felicia couldn¡¯t afford to offend Brute Cavern under broad daylight. She believed that Brute Cavern wouldn¡¯t really mind the fate of an insignificant apprentice. Besides, a lot of apprentices who wandered around the world would often die from unexpected crises.

    Since Angor was pretty far from Brute Cavern now... It would definitely happen.

 Chapter 404 - A Turn in the Path

    <h4>Chapter 404: A Turn in the Path</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor slowly looked up at Felicia after hearing the order.

    Shadow secretly gestured at him, asking him to surrender for now or at least not to reject too soon. They couldn¡¯t afford to anger a great wizard right now.

    Felicia noticed Shadow¡¯s small moves and scoffed. Her attention was fully on this young apprentice. As for the silver alchemy weapon... it was just amon mid-tier item. There was no point in going for it.

    Angor looked at Felicia for a moment before speaking, ¡°Miss Felicia, is Lady Greya with you?¡±

    Both Felicia and Shadow were stunned by this question. Why did Angor ask about ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya all of a sudden?

    Felicia quickly pondered over the situation. She brought Greya to Dark Castle to use the Soul Orbs to heal her soul. With her original body missing, Greya was in a terrible condition right now. It would be dangerous if her old enemy or any profit-sensitive thugs learned about their situation.

    They had been staying in Dark Castle for less than a month, so how did this little apprentice know about Greya?

    Did he know Greya was right here? Or... did hee for her?

    Felicia¡¯s expression turned dark. If the assumption was right, she couldn¡¯t let the apprentice go alive.

    ¡°Why do you ask?¡± Felicia tried to suppress her killing intent.

    ¡°She told me.¡± Angor used what was left of his mana and created an Acoustic Illusion that showed the image of a little girl.

    Weird but adorable face with pimples, curly hair, and innocent eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for Soul Orbs. I saw one from her, and she said that ¡®Sister Greya¡¯ gave it to her.¡±

    Felicia checked the image. She did know about her. Once, when Greya wandered somewhere out of boredom and ran into this girl, she gifted her a Soul Orb out of sympathy.

    But it was really Greya back then. The current body of Greya possessed two souls. Most of the time, ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya would remain dormant while the soul of a young girl would in charge of the body.

    ¡°Soul Orbs huh?¡± Felicia humphed coldly. ¡°What do you want from Greya then?¡±

    ¡°Miss Felicia... do you know about Toby?¡± Angor asked another weird question.

    ¡°Toby?!¡± Felicia scowled and quickly thought about the image of azy, showy, up-to-no-good seabird. ¡°WINE THIEF!¡±

    Angor jumped a little at the outburst. However, he managed to understand why Felicia looked so angry, especially when he thought about Toby¡¯s naughty character and how Felicia ran a tavern.

    ¡°What¡¯s about that wine thief? You know him?¡± Felicia felt faint. Since the damn bird was Greya¡¯s beloved pet, she couldn¡¯t really do anything to it. Felicia was extremely happy when she didn¡¯t find the bird with Greya, but she got a bad feeling when Angor mentioned Toby¡¯s name.

    Angor already ced Toby inside his bracelet so that the bird didn¡¯t get affected by the alchemy omen. At first, he nned to show Toby to Felicia. But now that Felicia looked so furious at the mere mention of Toby¡¯s name, he wasn¡¯t sure if this was a good idea.

    Still, he decided to bring Toby out to help him prove himself. The most important thing right now was to lift Felicia¡¯s hostility toward him.

    With a flip of one hand, a small bird in pajama appeared on his palm.

    ¡°Toby is... with me.¡±

    Felicia stepped back a little as her terrible prediction became reality. ¡°Why is the WINE THIEF together with you?¡± She clenched her teeth.

    Before Angor could exin, a little girl suddenly showed up in the prison and rushed at Angor with tears all over her face.

    ¡°Toby, my darling! I thought I¡¯d never see you again!¡± The girl reached Angor while leaving a trail of dust and smoke behind her which didn¡¯t fit with her small body.

    She looked at Toby¡¯s sleeping form passionately.

    ¡°Toby, sweetie...¡± The girl stroke Toby¡¯s feathers with a smooth hand. ¡°Angor, why is he sleeping?¡±

    ¡°You... know him, Greya?¡± Felicia looked at the girl in shock.

    ¡°Little girl Greya¡± nodded. ¡°I left Toby in his care before leaving the wizarding world,¡± she said and looked at Angor again; she was clearly waiting for an exnation.

    Angor frowned. He absolutely couldn¡¯t rte this young girl with that meat chunk he used to know. Yet everything else suggested that this was the real Greya.

    And he felt embarrassed, for he had to exin Toby¡¯s condition to his real master.

    ¡°Lady Greya, I came to Dark Castle for Toby. I think there¡¯s something wrong with his soul. A man who knows about souls told me that I need Soul Orbs to help him, and I can only find them here.¡±

    He slowly described the incident about Toby and his travel toward Dark Castle.

    Shadow remainedpletely speechless in the meantime. The changes in the story seemed too drastic. Not only did Angor and Greya know each other, but they also seemed to be in good terms?!

    <i>So that bird isn¡¯t Angor¡¯s, but the pet of ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya?</i>

    Now... this was troublesome. Shadow knew he was somewhat responsible for Toby¡¯s condition. Maybe not the main reason but... it was very likely that Angor believed so.

    With that in mind, Shadow desperately winked at Angor in hope that Angor could forgive his deed. However, Angor still had to describe their fight just to recreate what exactly happened the day Toby fainted.

    ¡°There¡¯s no wound on Toby, so I think Diablo is right. He didn¡¯t attack Toby for real,¡± Angor said. He decided to speak the truth. ¡°I thought Toby¡¯s breaking through. Later, I went to Soul Genesis Garden and met with the Grand Priest of Krakoks. He told me an ¡®angry emotion¡¯ inside Toby is attacking his soul...¡±

    Greya carefully took Toby in her hands.

    ¡°I see.¡± Greya frowned when she heard about the ¡°emotion¡± part. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of him. Thank you very much, for keeping Toby well. You even came to this undead-infested ce for him,¡± Greya looked at Angor again and nodded. ¡°You grow fast, boy. So did Toby. Stay a little longer with us. I want to hear about what happened around you two in the past year.¡±

    Angor was still worried. ¡°Is Toby alright? We can save him with Soul Orbs, right?¡±

    ¡°That Grand Priest you mentioned... he¡¯s probably right. There are several powerful emotions raging inside Toby. As a matter of fact, the moment I created Toby, I already knew there were problems in his soul. But he was always too weak and naive to make the problems real,¡± Greya exined. She suddenly seemed joyful. ¡°So he grew strong in such a short time? The sequence of gravity? Oh my. I see it now. Letting him wander freely is always better than keeping him close or in a birdcage.

    ¡°Now rest easy. Toby¡¯s going to be fine.¡±

    Next, Greya turned to speak to Felicia. ¡°I¡¯m going to Isabelle. Don¡¯t be harsh on Angor, mind you. Trust me, his teacher isn¡¯t someone you can offend.¡±

    With this, Greya took Toby away from the Blood Prison.

    Felicia gave Angor a serious look. ¡°Since Greya said so... well, let¡¯s find time tonight, and you shall tell me about your teacher. Oh, and also how you survived that giant omen. I¡¯ll wait for you on the first floor,¡± Felicia said as she walked away, ¡°with my precious wines ready.¡±

    Angor released the deep breath he had been holding. It seemed his single alchemy attempt solved many more problems than he imagined.

    The biggest pity was that he missed a chance to tackle a Mystery item. He¡¯d ept the oue dly. It was not like he had another choice.

    He still gained something though. At the very least, he had sessfully ¡°attempted¡± to craft a Mystery item and tried to channel Mystery energy with his own hand. That was a nice experience.

    With all mental concerns solved, Angor looked at Shadow who was sitting on the floor and trembling badly.

    ¡°d Lady Greya is fair-minded.¡±

    Shadow slowly pointed at Angor.

    ¡°Who the heck¡ªugh, never mind! I don¡¯t even care anymore.¡±

 Chapter 405 - Back to the Garden

    <strong><i>Chapter 405: Back to the Garden</i></strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor pressed a hand against the bathroom wall. ¡°We can use the portals now. But we still need a guide since we don¡¯t know where this thing takes us to. Is she alive?¡± He pointed at the ck-haired woman on the floor.

    Shadow tossed a ¡°Detect Disease¡± her way. ¡°Alive and kicking. Just need to wake her up now. I mean, impressive. I almost died back there, but she¡¯s still fine?¡±

    Angor looked down. ¡°I have no idea that it can be so dangerous, and Ipletely overlooked environmental factors. Sorry about that.¡±

    ¡°Nah... it came out good, right? Can I take a look at that weapon? I REALLY want to know.¡±

    Angor handed the silver revolver over.

    ¡°My my... The first time I put my hands so close to Mystery energy,¡± Shadow murmured as he fiddled around the strangely-shaped item and quickly got used to the ergonomic design meant for human hands. ¡°Machine alchemy and enchantment...¡± He carefully examined theplicated runes. ¡°Wait, it¡¯s a magic array? How old are you again? Man, I feel like a loser.¡±

    Shadow shot the gun toward empty space and released near-invisible energy ripples toward a wide, fan-shaped area in front of him. The ripples did nothing to the environment, which meant the weapon was meant to harm ethereal beings.

    ¡°Quite handy,¡± Shadow remarked as he returned the weapon to Angor. ¡°So the magic array is for killing the undead?¡±

    ¡°Prelude to Elimination. Yes.¡± Angor twirled the gun around his finger.

    Shadow was surprised again when seeing Angor¡¯s move and tried to imitate it. ¡°Sh*t. It looks good, it works well, and you can y cool with it. Hey, can you make me another one? I¡¯ll provide the materials.¡±

    ¡°Sure. It¡¯s called ¡®Rebirth¡¯. Thest customer paid me 15,000 crystals in cash and some materials of a simr price. Since we¡¯re a team, I¡¯ll make a discount. 20,000 crystals and it¡¯s yours.¡±

    Shadow quickly slumped down at the scary price. However, it was totally eptable. Such a weapon that was effective against swarms of undead souls could sell for an even higher price at an auction.

    ¡°I see how you can carry that wealth around,¡± Shadow mumbled. Before meeting Angor, he thought he was one of the god-chosen elite talents. But now, he felt defeated.

    Next, they talked about their ns. Angor intended to stay in Dark Castle for a while. So did Shadow, who still had toplete his personal mission.

    ¡°I¡¯ve no f*cking idea if Lady Butterfly will bother me again, but I¡¯m going to get Naga no matter what.¡± Shadow seemed very determined as he said, ¡°It decides whether I can be a wizard. I must not miss it.¡±

    Angor wouldn¡¯t question Shadow¡¯s goal at this point. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here first. Everything else has to wait. Can you wake her up now?¡± He pointed at the unconscious woman.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Let¡¯s... bring her along and enter the portal first. We can always wait for her to get up or use Fiona.¡±

    Angor nodded and triggered the portal array in the blood bathroom. A light beam carried their bodies away.

    When Angor could see clearly again, he saw himself standing in a brightly-lit castle hall. Most of the decorations were of a dark theme, which made the ce look a little deste.

    Here, he felt like a wealthy noble gentleman who lived far away from civilization. All the treasures and valuables couldn¡¯t fill the emptiness in his heart.

    They were not alone. Felicia was sitting on the other side of the hall working on some wine, while a maid in ck-and-white dress waited nearby.

    Felicia raised an eyebrow at the visitors. ¡°Angor, don¡¯t forget to join me for dinner tonight.¡±

    She ordered her maid to take Angor to a guest room.

    ¡°As for you... You¡¯re looking for that puppet, right? Go help yourself,¡± Felicia nced at Shadow as she asked him to leave, somewhat impatiently.

    Shadow couldn¡¯t wander around the castle without knowing the directions, so he could only follow behind Angor for the moment.

    They arrived in arge bedroom. It looked pretty dark due to the ocher-colored floor and walls. A French window and a small balcony allowed them to observe the outside.

    ¡°Sir, a mute servant wille momentarily. Please tell her if you have any needs,¡± the maid said and left them.

    Shadow tossed the woman he had been carrying onto the floor and threw himself on the bed. ¡°Ahh, nice. Been some time since I slept on a proper bed.¡±

    Angor moved to the window and checked the clear sky above the castle. A Thunder Eagle was soaring, which quickly reminded him of Toby.

    He didn¡¯t n to stay because of Isabelle¡¯s promise. In fact, he wanted to stay with Toby. Greya might look a lot different, but her love for Toby was unchanged. And since Toby¡¯s real owner was here... Angor probably needed to enjoy hisst moment with his feathered partner.

    All good things had toe to an end, especially for wizards. Angor already expected to say farewell to Toby someday. He had to learn to bear with loneliness if he wished to walk on the path of wizardry further.

    He thought about lots of things and slowly grew sad until Shadow¡¯s call dragged him back into reality.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get Fiona out. Or at least we should throw her back to Hippocrotee.¡± The man had transferred all the blood and dirt on him to the bedsheet, but he didn¡¯t seem bothered at all.

    ¡°Let¡¯s. I told the priest I¡¯ll be back in Soul Genesis Garden before the ceremony. I can still make it to the ceremony and maybe use the chance to purify my soul.¡±

    He never told Shadow how the garden produced Soul Orbs. Now that he mentioned purifying his soul, Shadow quickly grew interested.

    ¡°You learned how? Oh, it¡¯s a Soul Genesis Garden then? That¡¯s really valuable stuff since wizards always need hell lotta souls. But I don¡¯t think this one can actually purify souls. Is it like a really powerful one?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not the garden. ording to the priest, purification and Soul Orb production all rely on a certain treasure,¡± Angor frowned as he exined. ¡°I assume it¡¯s another Mystery item. Maybe we can check it out.¡±

    Angor stuffed the ck-haired woman in his bracelet and left the room.

    A servant was waiting outside. It was a middle-aged woman with weak energy signatures. She probably exhausted her potential, so her only choice was to remain a lifelong servant for another wizard.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to Soul Genesis Garden in Midworld. Can you take us there?¡± Angor asked.

    The servant nodded and led the way.

    While walking past the main hall, Felicia only glimpsed at them without speaking. She was focused on her work. Those crystal clear drops of wines would asionally be dancing fairies which showed amazing power; they would probably taste divine.

    Their trip was peaceful this time. The mute servant took them into ck Forest while holding a strange-looking cane. The cane released a low-frequency noise which kept all undead spirits away.

    Angor¡¯s alchemy omen already scared off most undead. They probably would not get troubled by any even if the servant didn¡¯t use the cane to chase off the souls.

    Also, Angor did wish to test his gun and find out what Isabelle meant by ¡°small trace of Mystery energy¡±. But it seemed he couldn¡¯t find any target now.

    The servant took them to the portal and waited there, while Angor and Shadow traveled back to Soul Genesis Garden.

    They appeared directly on top of the holy altar. They immediately concealed their physical forms and moved away.

    Inside the temple, the Grand Priest instantly sensed their arrival.

    ¡°Prepare a hummingbird. I¡¯m going to Centenary Pce and meet with our guests from Citadel,¡± he ordered a guard.

    Upon returning to the pce, Angor¡¯s first move was to release Fiona from his bracelet.

    Soon, the old priest was outside the pce door asking for an audience again.

    ¡°We meet again, young mister.¡± The old man bowed politely.

    Angor asked him to take a seat on the table with a smile. ¡°You were right. Toby needs Soul Orbs. Thank you for telling me, or I don¡¯t know what will happen to him.¡±

 Chapter 406 - Paying Favor

    <strong>Chapter 406: Paying Favor</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°It¡¯s the least I can do.¡± The priest lowered his head.

    ¡°I meant my words and I¡¯ll keep them,¡± Angor said as he put on a serious look. ¡°Anything you want to be done, you can ask me for it, as long as it¡¯s within my power.¡±

    The old priest remained silent for a long time to go over his thoughts.

    ¡°For a thousand years... I¡¯m so sorry for the terrible ending that awaits my brothers. I... do not know if this can be done, but I don¡¯t have any other options now.¡±

    ¡°You mean...?¡± Angor looked at the old man, who slowly knelt down and put his head on the table.

    ¡°I hope you can save my kins, young mister.¡±

    Even though Angor somewhat expected such a request, he didn¡¯t know how to respond to it.

    It sounded too vague. There were many extents as to how the Krakoks could be helped. And if the priest wanted the whole race to be brought out of their destiny... Angor definitely could not do it.

    The priest already noticed Angor¡¯s thoughts and sighed in his mind.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, as long as you can make sure that we do not be extinct.¡±

    To the Krakok priest, this was the minimum of his wish.

    ¡°You know you can stay pretty well if you keep living like this in Soul Genesis Garden, right?¡± Angor spoke in a in tone.

    ¡°No. I don¡¯t want my people to live in fetters and shackles for eternity. Only if one small branch of us can find freedom...¡±

    ¡°Is that the ¡®revolution¡¯ you mentioned?¡±

    ¡°While you¡¯re away, young mister, I¡¯ve been thinking. And I reached the conclusion that it¡¯s impossible for us to raise a thorough revolution at this rate. I wasn¡¯t the only one who sought for a change, but now, I¡¯m the only one left. I no longer pursue aplete revolution. If you can help a small number of us seek true freedom... then I¡¯ll be very happy.¡±

    Angor considered. Telling from how Gummy, Gao, and Gamus could travel among the three worlds freely, the Krakoks weren¡¯t actually restricted inside the garden. No one else left yet because they didn¡¯t want to.

    What the priest was asking was for a small number of Krakoks to have the ¡°mark¡± removed from their blood and strive elsewhere, away from the magic array in Hippocrotee which would im their souls in the end.

    It was not really an easy task.

    Angor spoke to Shadow through Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Are the three Krakok brothers recruited by Floating Mech City?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. They are very good at micro-carving. My teacher thought it would be a good choice to take them in, but it isn¡¯t official yet.¡±

    ¡°Do you know if they have a problem in their blood?¡±

    ¡°My teacher mentioned something about it, that their blood was tethered to some kind of base... I know it now. It means the magic array under Hippocrotee,¡± Shadow moaned. ¡°The request isn¡¯t hard if you can do something about that array. But you know, if you did, something big might happen.¡±

    The magic array ensured that the soul of dead Krakoks would return to Hippocrotee no matter where they died. To achieve freedom, Angor had to sever this restriction.

    ¡°The old thing knows it¡¯s too hard. He just wants to take advantage of your promise,¡± Shadowined.

    ¡°Say, do you want the three brothers to achieve such freedom?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°I... think so? But that¡¯s not something that¡¯s up to us. The magic array is created by a truth-finder wizard! How can you remove such a powerful blood bond? Well, unless¡ª¡±

    ¡°Isabelle.¡± They both reached the same conclusion.

    Angor looked back at the priest. The old man¡¯s body had broken down badly. After staying in a groveling position for such a long time, the old Krakok wasn¡¯t doing very well.

    ¡°I... cannot say for sure yet. Give me a week, and I¡¯ll see what I can do. If I can¡¯t, I¡¯ll find my mentor back at my organization and ask for help.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t a promise, yet the Grand Priest already felt excited. Having a branch of his people to escape this soul trap had always been his lifelong wish.

    ¡°Thank you truly, young mister...¡± The table surface beneath the priest was now wet. Probably tears mixed with sweat.

    He struggled to get up and bowed again. ¡°Since you¡¯re back now, can we start the ceremony?¡±

    ¡°Yes, right here at the pce.¡± Angor nodded.

    The old man quickly left. There were still preparations to be done.

    ¡°Are you serious about asking Isabelle?¡± Shadow asked. ¡°Suppose she actually agrees to help, you¡¯ll probably miss that destiny she mentioned.¡±

    ¡°I never expected much from that destiny anyway.¡± Angor didn¡¯t seem bothered at all. ¡°You know what¡¯s worse? That the old man doesn¡¯t ask anything and keeps my promise hanging. I¡¯m d I can pay him back as soon as I can. One concern out of my mind.¡±

    Shadow nodded. As wizards grew stronger, their old promises might turn worse. If the favor was dragged into the future, the priest might ask Angor to help the entire Krakok race or even fight for independence against Dark Castle.

    Soon, a cleric came to the pce and knocked on the door.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ll leave it to you.¡± Angor nced at Shadow and went invisible.

    Shadow slowly disappeared as well and prepared to control Fiona to deal with the clerics.

    He did a perfect job in tricking the Krakok clerics. After discussing some insignificant matters, ¡°Fiona¡± went upstairs with the excuse of feeling unwell.

    Meanwhile, a number of Krakok knights and crafters began to arrange the pce hall.

    An hourter, a simple yet exquisite stage was left in the center of the pce.

    Next, a choir group that consisted of about 100 Krakok singers entered the pce. They were led by Grand Priest while the clerics saluted them to show respect.

    Fiona appeared on the second floor and took a random seat to inspect the singers. Whoever she looked at would quickly lower their head.

    ¡°Hey, priest,e here.¡± ¡°Fiona¡± released a single string and asked the old Krakok to walk on it.

    The other clerics looked at each other in shock. It was the first time for them to see their Grand Priest invited to join a Citadel visitor.

    Of course, it was Shadow who asked the priest toe.

    Upon approaching, the priest quickly noticed that Angor and Shadow had been sitting not far from Fiona.

    ¡°There¡¯s an illusion that prevents them from seeing us,¡± Angor exined. ¡°So, where can I find the treasure that purifies souls?¡±

    The old man lifted a hand, and a lump of white mist emerged from his palm. It then slowly turned into an object. The priest then tossed the object into the air; it slowly grewrger until it was handy for human hands.

    ¡°It can change its size?¡± Angor gazed at the item in wonder. ¡°It¡¯s at least a tiered alchemy item.¡±

    The initial appearance of the object was a ck dish made from an unknown material. Angor couldn¡¯t see anything particr on the surface of it. It seemed like ayer of paint or something had covered the object.

    When Angor tried to reach for it, the priest suddenly warned, ¡°The queen has left her mark on the treasure. Anyone other than me who connects with it will alert the queen.¡±

    By ¡°queen¡±, the priest referred to Isabelle¡¯s disciple, Isabe; the current leader of Dark Castle.

    Isabe was obsessed with following her teacher¡¯s example, which could be seen from her name and her title, ¡°Sundown Queen¡±. Angor decided to heed the warning. He clearly knew about Isabe¡¯s mad character. Anything might happen if she noticed his careless attempts.

    He had to use his eyes.

    There were no obvious runes on the surface which meant possible Synthesis works, and Angor couldn¡¯t tell its material, so he failed to find any information he could use.

    However, he sensed some weak energy ripples from the item. Familiar ripples. It felt simr to the Mystery energy he wielded not long ago.

    Shadow was also inspecting the item curiously. ¡°It should be. I felt it too.¡±

    ¡°Yup. But the energy isn¡¯t strong. The priest said there¡¯s another half of it. That will probably make it ¡®real¡¯.¡±

    Even though the current half of the object held a simr amount of Mystery energy as the silver revolver, it was already powerful enough to purify souls. Angor wondered what kind of property was hidden inside his revolver.

 Chapter 407 - Selecting Singer

    <strong>Chapter 407: Selecting Singer</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The clerics sounded their horns to create a rising echo in the hall, which suggested the start of the choir selection.

    Group by group, potential Krakok singerdies ascended the stage to show their voice.

    The ¡°Hymns of Fairies¡± was the key that activated the secret treasure, and only certain Krakoks with a special bloodline power could use this key. It had nothing to do with their voices. The point of the ceremony was to find such a key user.

    To make it quicker, four singers entered the stage each time, and each of them performed one paragraph of the poem.

    Every singer sounded amazing. Angor and Shadow dly enjoyed the show just for the sake of rxing.

    ¡°So the Hymns recorded the history of Krakoks, right?¡± Angor spoke to the old priest.

    ¡°Yes. Certain wordings are amended to go with the rhyme, but most of what you hear are historical facts.¡±

    ¡°I understand the second and third parts. What does the ¡®warrior who found the first rose for the red queen¡¯ mean? Is it something from a thousand years ago?¡±

    The old priest looked into the distance. ¡°Yes, it is, young mister. The ¡®warrior¡¯ in the story refers to our Krakok ancestors. Embellished, of course.¡±

    Angor nodded. It was natural for historyposers to ¡°dress up¡± their stories with beautiful words.

    ¡°Do you know the reason why Lady Isabelle came and saved us from extinction, young mister?¡±

    The Krakoks were natural builders, but apart from that, they were still mortal creatures with no particr powers.

    ¡°So the ¡®red queen¡¯... refers to Lady Isabelle?¡± Angor tried.

    ¡°Correct. One thousand years ago, a real warrior among our people stumbled into a wondrous garden and helped someone in need, naming, Lady Isabelle. The warrior was my father.

    ¡°But he... perished, inside the garden. Lady Isabelle brought his remains to us and gifted us her horn. We can use this horn to summon her.¡±

    While talking about his father, the old man¡¯s eyes began to water.

    Angor considered the story. So Isabelle owed a great favor to the father of Grand Priest and came to save the Krakoks when they were tortured.

    She took them into Soul Genesis Garden and ced a magic array that absorbed their souls. But she spared the old priest¡ªthe son of that Krakok warrior¡ªand gave him immortality, which kept the old man alive for a thousand years.

    Angor waited for the priest to calm down and continued his questions:

    ¡°In the second part, the nds of serpents¡¯ means Akesolya, right?¡±

    Shadow frowned while listening. Angor had mentioned this matter for a second time now, and he wasn¡¯t sure why Angor was interested in mortal history. It couldn¡¯t be a mere curiosity.

    He didn¡¯t raise the question. He just paid more attention to Angor¡¯s conversation.

    The Grand Priest was surprised by it too, but he still answered without much of a thought.

    ¡°Yes. It is called Akesolya.¡±

    ¡°Do you know where that name came from?¡±

    Shadow was growing more confused, while the old priest didn¡¯t seem bothered by the strange question. ¡°You want to know about ¡®Akeso¡¯, no?¡± said the priest.

    ¡°How¡ªyes. So it¡¯s called ¡®Akeso¡¯?¡±

    ¡°It is correct.¡± The old priest noticed that Angor didn¡¯t want to talk about it openly and chose to end it here.

    And the abrupt stop of their discussion greatly bothered Shadow. ¡°Hey, quit poking around. What¡¯s Akeso? What are you talking about?¡±

    The priest only smiled.

    ¡°Do you know about Pocratee?¡± Angor kept asking without minding Shadow.

    This one confused both the priest and Shadow.

    ¡°Pocratee... I heard it from somewhere,¡± Shadow muttered.

    And Angor wasn¡¯t expecting this. He failed to find any trace of Pocratee after searching around Water Grasse for a long time. How did Shadow know anything?

    ¡°I think Pocratee is... a city, inside Akesolya. Or something like that,¡± Shadow said.

    But the old man quickly denied it. ¡°Pocratee is the sanctuary of healers, and it¡¯s a piece ofnd that¡¯s protected by Akeso.¡±

    Those words helped Angor to confirm that the giant serpent called Akeso was really protecting thest survivor of Pocratee even after the city had turned to ruins.

    ¡°Where is Pocratee?¡±

    ¡°I do not know,¡± the priest answered and shook his head. ¡°Such knowledge is only known to the royal branches of Akesolya. As a matter of fact, when our people still lived in Hippocratee, those who wished to be healers must take an oath while facing somewhere toward the southeast. They said that Pocratee was in that direction.¡±

    Southeast... Angor tried to recall his journey after getting out of the waterway. And yes, it sounded like where the hidden vige lied.

    Angor decided to stop asking since Shadow was giving him really curious looks now. Every time he looked away, Shadow would move in front of him as if the man wanted an answer no matter what.

    Angor didn¡¯t intend to reveal Akeso¡¯s information to anyone. A wizard-level monster known by the public would probably be split into several parts by profit hunters within days. The serpent showed him the way out of the concealed vige as well as presented him with many gifts. He couldn¡¯t just betray Akeso like that.

    However, Shadow was smart enough to notice enough details, since Angor also asked him about the serpent¡¯s name before.

    ¡°So this serpent thing, is called Akeso?¡± Shadow asked.

    Angor remained silent.

    ¡°And you¡¯re pretty curious about Akeso. You¡¯ve seen it? Or... maybe you saw something rted to it?¡±

    Angor looked down, which gave Shadow confidence.

    ¡°I see, you know where Akeso is.¡± Shadow grew excited. ¡°It¡¯s still alive? A thousand years... It must be a wizard-level monster now?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not your business.¡±

    Shadow chuckled. ¡°So, Akeso and Pocratee...¡±

    ¡°You better stay away from Pocratee,¡± Angor said when he quickly read what was on Shadow¡¯s mind, ¡°That¡¯s not something you can sniff about.¡±

    Shadow yed innocent and rolled his eyes.

    ¡°I think I¡¯ll warn you, just for the sake of our covenant¡ªstep in there if you wish to die. It doesn¡¯t matter if you make it as a wizard or truth-finder hero.¡±

    Angor knew as a fact that Pocratee was far from safe, considering how the rainbow dragonflies built their nest in the middle of the ce. He still didn¡¯t know why, and he wasn¡¯t strong enough to figure it out either.

    ¡°I¡¯ve told you enough. Feel free to go on if you want a quick death.¡±

    Shadow was actually surprised to see Angor acting so seriously. He gave up most of his urge to explore the secret in his mind, but the tiny remains of his idea could rise again... if given the chance.

    While they talked, the choir selection also proceeded ording to schedule.

    Several dozens of singers had finished their performance, and they still hadn¡¯t found a proper ¡°key singer¡± yet.

    ¡°Why do this every year? You can¡¯t just use the same singer?¡± Angor frowned when he watched the singer group getting smaller. ording to the old priest, about 3% of their female members possessed the required power. That was quite a lot, considering the poption of Krakoks.

    But it seemed as if their selection was going to fail at this rate.

    ¡°No. The bloodline power can only be used once. After each ceremony, we must choose a new singer.¡±

    ¡°Once? What will happen to the singer when she uses the power?¡±

    ¡°Nothing in particr. In fact, she will gain fame and wealth for joining the Sky Choir.¡±

    A new group of singers hade onto the stage when Angor quickly noticed someone familiar among them.

    Papaya from Seedling Vige.

 Chapter 408 - Soul Purification

    <strong>Chapter 408: Soul Purification</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Papaya was asked to sing the fourth paragraph. The Krakok girl seemed extremely nervous. Once on the stage, she kept moving her hands around her dress, unable to decide where to ce them.

    Angor failed to hold back hisughter. Last time they met, that little girl did a perfect job pretending to be innocent. He thought she could do better.

    ¡°You know Papaya, young mister?¡± the old priest suddenly asked.

    ¡°Yes. She knows how to act, I tell you.¡±

    ¡°Pardon me. Act?¡±

    ¡°Aw, stop calling her girl. Who knows, maybe she¡¯s older than you,¡± Shadow joked.

    The Grand Priest nced at Angor again. Speaking of age, he never paid close attention to Angor¡¯s age till now. Now that he took a careful look, the wizard sitting next to him had quite an immature appearance.

    ¡°I think she¡¯s 17, young mister.¡±

    Angor blushed a little. So Papaya is ACTUALLY one year older than me!

    He never realized this because Papaya¡¯s tiny figure easily gave him a false impression.

    ¡°See? So, you aren¡¯t even 17 yet?¡± Shadow joked again. But in truth, the man was really envious of Angor¡¯s achievement right now. Shadow always believed that he was an ¡°elite disciple¡± from Floating Mech City in the past 30 years. And Angor just ruined his confidence.

    Angor humphed against Shadow¡¯s joke.

    Shadow¡¯s eyebrows twitched a little. He knew Angor felt embarrassed, but he didn¡¯t know how and whether he should tell more jokes right now.

    Three of the four singers hadpleted their performance, which still failed to trigger anything from the treasure.

    It was finally Papaya¡¯s turn. She quickly stepped up while pulling on her green bubble skirt so that it didn¡¯t trip her legs.

    She put a hand on her chest and began. However, her first note strayed far off course due to stress.

    As she looked around in uncertainty, the other singers snickered at her.

    Papaya almost cried out of shame when she suddenly felt a chilly and refreshing power on her forehead, which silenced all noises in the hall.

    ¡°Now, go ahead.¡±

    Fiona spoke from her seat. Her voice sounded gentle andforting, yet Papaya couldn¡¯t help but think about someone else in her mind¡ªa human gentleman.

    She looked around again and noticed that no one wasughing at her anymore. She felt calm and peaceful.

    The strange power came again. This time, she saw the green field around her vige and her beloved grandmother.

    ¡°O the fourth warrior... He reveals the sky gate...¡± Her notes were precise and skillful this time.

    ¡°Ohh, such gentlemanly manners!¡± Shadow spoke through their Spirit Bond. He already saw how Angor helped the Krakok girl by speaking in Fiona¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Easy favor, so why not?¡±

    ¡°You know, being too kind to mortals might be your weakness in the future, and your enemies can take advantage of it.¡±

    Shadow suddenly warned him.

    ¡°So, are you going to take advantage of me?¡±

    ¡°Heh. I¡¯m not your enemy. We¡¯re all love and peace, eh?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer and decided to keep watching the performance.

    Papaya hadpleted her part as well. The four singers were now waiting for the Grand Priest¡¯s order on the stage.

    The old man looked at the unresponsive item and shook his head. ¡°You can go now. Next.¡±

    The singers looked down. They only had one chance at the choir selection in their lives. To Papaya, she had disappointed her vige and her grandmother.

    Still, the ceremony had to go on. Several clerics came and escorted the crying singers away.

    ¡°Aw, shame. I wonder what they¡¯ll look like if someone tells them that it has nothing to do with their voices,¡± Shadow joked. Despite his words, the man seemed to be enjoying their misfortune.

    The old priest looked down in sadness, while Angor didn¡¯tment.

    There weren¡¯t many singers waiting in the pce now.

    ¡°What happens if you can¡¯t find anyone?¡± Angor asked.

    The old priest nced at Fiona. ¡°In that case, the Citadel visitor shall go look for one on her own. She¡¯ll always find someone in time.¡±

    Which meant people from Dark Castle had their own special way of determining a ¡°key singer¡±.

    The current ¡°Citadel visitor¡±, Fiona, was now a puppet of Shadow, so the priest could only hope that they would be able to find a singer during the ceremony.

    He wasn¡¯t disappointed.

    Finally, a singer in the remaining groups disyed the bloodline power. The Krakok singer with a birthmark on her face immediately drew the priest¡¯s attention when she started singing.

    The dish-like item began to present glowing pulses as if it suddenly started to breathe.

    ¡°You wait here. Everyone else, leave.¡± The old man pointed at the singer.

    The chosen girl was shocked. She then grinned in delight; the remaining singers stepped out of the pce hall while sulking.

    ¡°Today, you have the chance to join the Sky Choir and be their new member,¡± the old priest announced. ¡°Yellena, right?¡±

    The Krakok girl called Yellena nodded happily.

    ¡°Miss Yellena, please recollect your mood and start your full performance. This will officially determine whether you can join the Sky Choir for real. Make sure you give it your best.¡±

    To activate the treasure, the singer had to pronounce every note correctly. Otherwise, they would miss the chance and have to wait for another 300 days.

    Yellena too, knew how important this was. She breathed in rhythmically and prepared herposure for the final show.

    ¡°Say, will she mess it up like Papaya?¡± Shadow asked while he watched Yellena getting warmed up.

    ¡°Oh, stop jinxing,¡± Angorined.

    It wasn¡¯t likely. The Hymns of Fairies weren¡¯t long, and the singers all practiced since they were young, so they shouldn¡¯t make serious mistakes in such a situation. But... things could always go wrong.

    Angor considered and unleashed a small illusion on the stage.

    He presented different views to Yellena, including tranquil woods, rivers, snowfields, and clouds, while observing Yellena¡¯s reaction.

    The Krakok singer didn¡¯t seem troubled by the sight. She was only curious.

    Until she grew visibly excited when Angor presented the image of arge stage and crowds of audiences.

    ¡°So she wants fame and attention...¡± Angor pondered and positioned Yellena at the center of crowds and spotlights.

    Meanwhile, he asked his ¡°teacup musicians¡± to join the illusion as well. During their encounter with Papaya, he learned that the teacups could y good music if they tried to. They didn¡¯t at first probably because they only had nightmare monsters as audiences before.

    As he expected, the stage illusion and teacup band helped Yellena bring out her best shot.

    As she reached the climax of her song, the dish treasure began to glow brightly.

    The Grand Priest let go of the item which slowly floated in the air.

    ¡°Sirs. Stand under its light, and your souls will be purified.¡± The old man exined and moved the item above Angor and Shadow.

    More light came down along Yellena¡¯s angelic singing voice. Angor felt as if he were taking a refreshing hot shower on the inside.

    Probably because his soul was already rtively pure. Angor only feltforting warmth and nothing else.

    Shadow, on the other hand, moaned in delight non-stop. There were big chunks of ck aura leaving his body, which suggested that his soul was a lot ¡°dirtier¡±.

    As Angor enjoyed the ¡°sunbath¡±, he grew so rxed that he wanted to take a nap right away.

    The light of purification had reached the gray aura lingering in his soul. The aura was the energy of gravity sequence. It was both regarded as ¡°impurity¡± and something beneficial, so the light halted in front of the aura as if considering what to do with it.

    Angor grew curious. The Grand Priest did mention that the purification light could do something to the gray energy, but the old man never said what exactly.

    The light finally moved again. It expanded and slowly engulfed the gray aura.

    Next, the light-covered shape began to shrink until all the gray aura lingering in the depth of Angor¡¯s soul waspressed into a sphere.

    The light vanished.

    Angor frowned at the strange feeling. So the light only collected all the energy in one ce? What happened to ¡°purification¡±?

    The glowing treasure slowly stopped moving and returned to the Grand Priest.

    Shadow stretched himself and moaned in pleasure again.

    ¡°Now this is worthwhile. With most of my soul taint gone, I have way more hope of bing a wizard.¡± He then nced at Angor. ¡°If I¡¯m seeing right, the light didn¡¯t do much to you. Did you already purify your soul before?¡±

    Instead of answering, Angor looked at the Grand Priest while demanding an answer.

    ¡°Young mister, the sequence inside you isn¡¯t impurity, but the foreign power can still harm your soul if it spreads freely. Now, the light of purification has gathered the aura to a single spot. It¡¯s bound to be a good thing to happen.¡±

 Chapter 409 - Snake Emblem of Immortality

    <strong>Chapter 409: Snake Emblem of Immortality</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor didn¡¯t fully believe the priest, but he didn¡¯t question further because Shadow was trying to peek into his secret again.

    Angor didn¡¯t wish anyone else to find out the presence of the special energy within his soul.

    ¡°Do not tell others about this.¡± Angor used Sound Transmission to speak to the old priest.

    The old man nodded.

    Since the ceremony wasplete, the Grand Priest asked everyone including the chosen singer, Yellena, to leave the hall.

    ¡°Sirs, our ceremony hase to an end. But I still need to ask something,¡± he said as he nced at Fiona. ¡°The ceremony for this year was brought forward for two months. We received a message from Citadel that we are going to elect members for Sky Choir and perform a show in Citadel, in front of VIPs. Shall we do it now and attempt a rehearsal?¡±

    VIP? Citadel?

    Angor assumed that the ¡°guests¡± here meant Felicia and Greya.

    It wasn¡¯t a good time for the show right now. They already used the treasure and it couldn¡¯t disy its power again any time soon.

    ¡°Hold on. I¡¯ll ask Fiona about this.¡±

    Shadow suddenly spoke through Spirit Bond.

    Angor nodded and watched as Shadow took Fiona upstairs. ¡°Wait. They¡¯ll talk about the matter,¡± he exined to Grand Priest.

    The old priest nodded. He already knew what Angor meant by ¡°talk¡±.

    Since Shadow was gone, Angor used this chance to look for more information about Pocratee.

    ¡°Have you ever seen this, priest?¡± Angor created a micro illusion that showed a long silver rod with a ck serpent intertwining on it.

    ¡°Young mister... you went to Pocratee before?¡±

    Angor nodded. He more or less admitted it by asking the previous questions. There was no point denying it now.

    ¡°... When I was a child,¡± the old man said as he recalled, ¡°my family used to live inside the attic of a house owned by a single mother. Tarissa was her name. She had a daughter, Bora. Ohh, she was such a sweet girl... We were so happy before the war. Tarissa would tell stories to her child, and she often talked about Pocratee.¡±

    The old man looked into the distance with his blind eyes.

    ¡°ording to her story, Pocratee is a holy ce untroubled by war or disease. It is bright, safe, protected by Akeso as well as royalties. Humans cannot find a better ce to live. Young mister... I¡¯ve always been wondering. Is Pocratee truly such a divine ce?¡±

    ¡°Do you think such a utopia exist?¡± Angor asked a question instead.

    ¡°Ha... Our current home is probably a ¡®utopia¡¯ if not for that magic array you found, no?¡± The old man chuckled.

    ¡°Without the magic array, you wouldn¡¯t have enjoyed peace for a thousand years.¡±

    The old man remained silent¡ªhe clearly knew it.

    ¡°As for Pocratee,¡± Angor continued, ¡°I don¡¯t know what it was like before. But I can at least tell you that anyone who¡¯s brave enough to venture inside today, will die.¡±

    ¡°... Tarissa perished as soon as the war began,¡± the old man continued as he closed his eyes, ¡°and her daughter, Bora, believed that Pocratee was where she could find true peace, so she told us. She... deceived us with her smile. When she came back to Hippocratee, she took away my mother, my sister, my brothers, my child... They all ended up in the hands of vers who came to seek profit from far and beyond. I was the only one who escaped. It was Lady Isabelle who saved me.

    ¡°Bora loved us and hoped for the same love from us. She said as long as we provided enough coins, she could use the money to find Pocratee and redemption...¡± The priest grew visibly sad. ¡°You know, I do not me her. She and her mother had given me the best childhood memories I can hope for. Even now, I hope that she can finally find Pocratee and fulfill her wish.¡±

    He looked at Angor again. ¡°But if your words are true, young mister, she was also a victim of lies.¡±

    ¡°Maybe not. Maybe Pocratee was really a paradise a thousand years ago,¡± Angor said. He already noticed that Pocratee met a simr disaster a thousand years ago.

    ¡°I hope so. I know you went to Pocratee before because the vers who came for my family mentioned their search for Pocratee as well. They learned that the emblem you showed me just now is the holy sigil of Pocratee.

    ¡°It is the ¡®Snake Emblem of Immortality¡¯ that was used in Pocratee.¡±

    ¡°Snake Emblem of Immortality...¡± Angor mumbled. He immediately thought about the giant creature lurking in the underground waters, Akeso.

    Now that he found the ¡°snake¡± shown on the sigil, what about the ¡°staff¡±?

    ¡°Do you know anything about this staff?¡±

    ¡°Immortality. It¡¯s the Staff of Immortality.¡±

    ¡°Immortality...¡± Angor quickly thought about Dodoro next; he didn¡¯t see anything on Dodoro that was rted to the ¡°Staff of Immortality¡± yet.

    The only object carried by Dodoro when he left the coffin was a water bowl. Was that actually this immortality thing?

    When traveling with Dodoro, Angor tried to examine the bowl many times without finding anything. For some reason, Dodoro insisted on keeping it, and Angor simply allowed him.

    And Angor never paid much attention to it recently.

    Also, Angor didn¡¯t believe that Akeso would actually gift its staff to someone.

    Anyway, he had to wait. Once he was back to Real World, he could ask Dodoro about it.

    Shadow came back before Angor could ask anything else.

    ¡°Just ignore the matter,¡± Shadow spoke through Spirit Bond. ¡°Fiona said she was the one who came up with the idea, and she hasn¡¯t told Lady Butterfly yet. We can just pretend that this never happened.¡±

    ¡°Well, whatever you two did up there must be pretty... intense,¡± Angor said as he nced at Fiona. She was still controlled by puppet strings, and her face had bruises all over.

    ¡°Violence saves time.¡±

    ¡°Okay, we can cancel that show,¡± Angor said to the old priest. ¡°Should anyone question you about this, just tell him our names.¡±

    The priest nodded, and since there was nothing else left to do, he left the pce.

    Angor and Shadow prepared to head back to Otherworld. Shadow still needed to find ¡°Naga¡±, while Angor had to join Felicia with dinner.

    ...

    It was already evening.

    Shadow wandered off on his own, while Angor came to the first floor of Dark Castle.

    Inside, Felicia was waiting next to her wine counter, while Greya was sitting on the floor, cooking and swallowing food at the same time.

    ¡°Lady Greya, is Toby-¡±

    Angor stopped his question when he noticed that Greya was giving him an innocent stare like that of a small girl. There was no way Greya would look like this.

    ¡°Do you feel thirsty, mister? You can have this.¡±

    ¡°Greya¡± blinked and handed a ss to Angor.

    The ss didn¡¯t contain any liquid. Instead, some glowing presence like a small milky way was inside.

    Angor held the ss and was puzzled for a while.

    ¡°Greya¡± looked at him expectantly.

    Angor knew that Gourmet Wizards tended to create all sorts of weird-looking foodstuffs with strange effects. However, he wasn¡¯t sure whether he should ept the drink because ¡°Greya¡± was acting really weird.

    ¡°Just do it,¡± Felicia said to him. ¡°That¡¯s ¡®Aspected Vortex¡¯. It slightly improves your mana flow efficiency for a week. No drawbacks.¡±

    Since Felicia said so, Angor could onlyply. He then consumed the strange content.

    And he instantly felt amazing.

    Despite its bizarre look, the ¡°milky way¡± tasted like actual milk¡ªif not the best milk he ever had in his life.

    ¡°Such... rich and decent milk,¡± Angormented while trying to constrain his expression as best as he could.

    Felicia raised an eyebrow. ¡°Aspected Vortex has no vor. But we Gourmet Wizards can add a certain pheromone which triggers different senses of smell ording to your personal taste.¡±

    ¡°Oh oh! I can¡¯t taste anything in this drink, but big sis said it tasted like wine.¡± ¡°Greya¡± grinned. ¡°So, you love milk, mister?¡±

    Angor immediately blushed. He was tricked by Gourmet Wizard stuff again!

    ¡°How about some of this?¡± ¡°Greya¡± held up a dish with several objects on it and shared them with Angor. These looked like metal nuggets.

 Chapter 410 - Midnight Butterfly

    <strong>Chapter 410: Midnight Butterfly</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Again, Angor wasn¡¯t sure whether he should eat this thing at all, so he gave Felicia a pleading look.

    ¡°Forgery Stones. They help women growrger breasts,¡± Felicia replied casually.

    Angor quickly shook his head at Greya. He didn¡¯t wish to turn into a she-monster like Hookdick.

    ¡°Greya¡± made a duck face.

    Felicia looked at Angor¡¯s helplessness and sighed. ¡°Hey Greya, find something else to do first. I need to talk to him. If you act like a good kid, I¡¯ll give you some wer.¡±

    ¡°Greya¡± nodded happily as if she were a real little girl who was just promised candies. She then returned to her tiny table and started cooking and eating.

    Felicia grinned at Angor. ¡°You¡¯re still too weak. I brewed something for your fragile throat called Mythical Butterfly. Should I warm it up into ¡®Fickle Butterfly¡¯ or ice it into ¡®Midnight Butterfly¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Err, what¡¯s the difference?¡±

    Felicia released a phantom butterfly from her finger which began to spread its scales into a wine pot. ¡°Midnight Butterfly helps build a defense line around your soul. You can consider it a special soul barrier.

    ¡°Fickle Butterfly has no fixed effect. We never know what it will do to you. Maybe you can gain some mana growth which otherwise requires ten years of training, maybe you get a new ability, or maybe you can straight be a wizard overnight.¡±

    Felicia waited for Angor¡¯s answer while still smiling.

    Angor felt somewhat terrified in front of Felicia¡¯s smiling face. He looked down so that the woman didn¡¯t see his fear too easily.

    Upon consideration, he realized that neither choice was friendly.

    Midnight Butterfly, ording to Felicia, could help defend his soul. However, he also believed that Felicia was using this chance to examine his soul. Isabelle did mention that his soul was ¡°peculiar¡± in front of Felicia. It was very likely that Felicia wanted to find out why.

    As for Fickle Butterfly... Angor didn¡¯t believe that a master bartender didn¡¯t know the effect of her wine. Felicia used really attractive words such as ¡°special ability¡± and ¡°be wizard overnight¡±. What was the point of long-term effort if something like these could be achieved by drinking wine?

    It was obvious that Felicia was forcing him to choose the Midnight Butterfly.

    Of course, wizards only care about profit. How could she just provide wine and invite me to dinner for free?

    Felicia simply waited patiently. However, her grin grew bigger while she watched Angor¡¯s expressions that were constantly changing.

    ¡°What about pure, untreated ¡®Mythical Butterfly¡¯?¡± Angor asked.

    In her mind, Felicia scoffed at Angor¡¯s conceit, but she didn¡¯t show it.

    ¡°No particr effect in that case. You might get knocked out though. What, you don¡¯t want any extra effect?¡±

    Angor carefully observed Felicia¡¯s expression and failed to notice any emotion change.

    ¡°If I refuse¡ª¡±

    Felicia half-closed her eyes and immediately disyed a terrifying aura in front of Angor¡¯s face.

    ¡°¡ªthat would be impolite of me.¡± Angor quickly amended his words and said, ¡°Midnight Butterfly then, if you would.¡±

    ¡°You sure about this?¡± Felicia didn¡¯t lie about ¡°soul defense¡±, but just like Angor assumed, she also nned to include a tiny trace of her consciousness in the wine which could help her enter Angor¡¯s soul and check what was inside.

    She thought that the interesting apprentice already noticed her n and that the boy would probably choose ordinary Mythical Butterfly. But he didn¡¯t.

    Of course, even if Angor chose Mythical Butterfly, she always had other ns prepared.

    It was also true that Fickle Butterfly could help Angor break through into a real wizard... with a negligible chance. And if Angor was lucky enough, something worse would soon follow because his body couldn¡¯t contain the strength. By this, Angor would lose whatever he learned from his teacher, in which case Felicia would have enough excuse to force him to join Candy House.

    If Angor chose Mythical Butterfly and got drunk... She could simply do whatever she needed on the sleeping boy, including searching through his memory and soul.

    Generally speaking, all three choices meant something bad, with Midnight Butterfly being the most obvious one.

    So why did he choose Midnight Butterfly? Did he not notice my n, or does he believe that it won¡¯t hurt if someone peeks inside his soul?

    Angor only smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve decided. I feel hot both on my mind and on my body. I can use something that cools me off.¡±

    It was definitely a lie, which confused Felicia. However, she couldn¡¯t deny her offer now since she was the one presenting the choices.

    ¡°Find a seat then. I¡¯ll cool your wine now.¡± Felicia pointed to a round table in the center of the hall.

    Angorplied and closed his eyes to meditate. It was pretended¡ªhe was working his mind as fast as he could to size up the situation.

    As he believed, Felicia couldn¡¯t possibly kill him, considering his rtionship with Greya and the name of his teacher.

    He chose Midnight Butterfly because this one seemed to be the lesser of three evils. Fickle Butterfly was absolutely a no-go. Anyone could see the unreliability of it easily. And he didn¡¯t wish to get drunk and bepletely defenseless in Felicia¡¯s hands.

    If Felicia wanted something from his soul... so be it.

    Angor already learned a lot about his own soul. Or rather, he sometimes wasn¡¯t sure if it was his own soul in his body. Everything seemed so strange ever since the nightmare queen left a scar on him.

    During the battle against Parasite Queen, the woman reached for his soul scar and had her soulpletely banished.

    During Twilight Auction, he tried to use the scar to summon the nightmare queen, which almost destroyed Midnight Sovereign.

    If Felicia did do something to his soul... then he still had a chance to turn the table.

    Of the three choices, Midnight Butterfly allowed him to grasp his own fate.

    ...

    Greya also joined them at the dining table. A group of maids in ck and white servant suits brought dishes to them. Angor thought the menus were pretty good, but Greya didn¡¯t agree¡ªthe little girl knocked her share to the floor with a disgusted look.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want this junk, sis! I want your wine!¡±

    Angor frowned while listening to Greya¡¯s crying voice.

    This ¡°little girl¡± had nothing to do with the bulky chunk of meaty figure in his memory, and he didn¡¯t know how it happened. Back in Blood Prison, Greya at least spoke to him in her original manner. Why did she suddenly change so much?

    He didn¡¯t ask about it though. He didn¡¯t believe Felicia would actually answer him.

    Felicia approached him with a ss of dark liquid. The liquid was releasing visible cold air that slowly turned into butterfly shapes and disappeared into the air.

    ¡°Oh! Is that for me?¡± Greya quickly grew happy.

    ¡°I¡¯m still preparing your wine. This one is for our guest.¡± Felicia smiled at Greya and ced the ss in front of Angor. ¡°Now, enjoy your Midnight Butterfly,¡± Felicia said and sat beside Angor.

    Angor reached for the ss. The coldness of the ss made him tremble a little, but it also refreshed his mind.

    ¡°Thank you.¡± Angor nodded to the woman.

    ¡°You¡¯re wee. You know, only Silver VIPs can order this one in my tavern. Just consider it a reward for taking care of Toby for Greya.¡±

    By this, Felicia nullified Angor¡¯s favor of nursing Toby with a ss of wine which obviously wasn¡¯t a generous offer.

    Angor didn¡¯t protest. He couldn¡¯t anyway.

    ¡°Drink it as fast as you can,¡± Felicia said as she pointed to the ss. ¡°Once the ice is gone, it will be Mythical Butterfly again.¡±

    Angor held the ss up and gave Felicia a meaningful nce. ¡°Good luck, Miss Felicia.¡±

    He gulped the wine in one go.

    As the chilly liquid stimted his throat, Angor¡¯s irises shrank. He felt as if he fell into Ice Cave again.

    It didn¡¯tst long. A swarm of butterflies soon came and dragged him to a peaceful ce...

 Chapter 411 - Spirit Grassland

    <strong>Chapter 411: Spirit Grasnd</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°My luck? Heh, what nonsense.¡± Felicia raised an eyebrow at Angor¡¯s words.

    ¡°Hey sis, why is he sleeping?¡± ¡°Greya¡± pointed at Angor who had just rested his head on the table.

    ¡°Oh. Maybe he¡¯s too tired.¡±

    ...

    The fluttering butterflies took Angor into a vast and quiet space. Angor knew this ce since he was already forcefully brought here before; once by Parasite Queen and once by Ness.

    This was Soul Space, somewhere both real and fake, and both inside and outside his body. Soul Maniptors believed that Soul Space existed in another dimension created by human consciousness.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure what exactly happened to him. The only thing he could see was the swarm of butterflies which led him yet deeper inside Soul Space, while he could do nothing to resist.

    He looked around and didn¡¯t find his own form. Telling from his previous experience, he knew that his soul wasn¡¯t separated or forced away like what happened during the fight against Parasite Queen. He could still think clearly, which meant... he existed as his own consciousness maybe?

    For now, he would believe so.

    And since he could still control his thoughts... he assumed that he was going into Soul Space on his own, while the butterflies were simply following him.

    Soul Space was a boundless realm with no directions, and one could only find his or her soul by following his or her self-awareness.

    Apanied by butterflies, he soon saw something familiar.

    It was his soul. Compared tost time, his soul was now resting above a small patch of grasnd with fluffy spheres like dandelion seeds floating around it.

    The soul itself now looked more solid and purer.

    Next, his ¡°consciousness¡± moved away from the butterflies and went inside the soul.

    ¡°Soul Angor¡± slowly opened his eyes.

    ...

    Just as she had expected, Felicia noticed that Angor¡¯s consciousness returned to his soul. She was curious about how the boy¡¯s soul looked so solid that it almost appeared as another individual. Also, that grass field under his feet was obviously something with self-defense capability.

    She considered and ordered a single butterfly to enter the grass field.

    Usually, grass and butterflies were perfect and naturalbination. But here, as Felicia¡¯s butterfly touched the boundary of the grasnd, the floating fluffs immediately began to unleash their spores which dissected the butterfly into broken energy fragments.

    ¡°Green Velvet?¡± Felicia frowned. ¡°His spirit grasnd looks so real, so the Green Velvet is a pretty powerful one. Maybe it has almost matured?¡±

    Meanwhile, Angor was also inspecting the grasnd.

    He immediately thought about his Green Velvet when he looked at the fluff balls and deadly spores.

    But in his memory, the Green Velvet didn¡¯t look like this before. He never knew how to actively peek inside his Soul Space before. He could only feel the drastic changes inside him, such as thest time when he was knocked out by a powerful energy while approaching the Holy Temple.

    Was that when the Green Velvet gave birth to this grasnd?

    After witnessing how a butterfly was melted in a blink of an eye, he knew that the Green Velvet could defend his soul better now.

    ¡°Miss Felicia?¡± Angor couldn¡¯t really move or speak in his soul form, but he was adept at utilizing emotion ripples tomunicate now.

    A momentter, he received a mixed emotion directed his way.

    ¡°Nice spirit grasnd. It seems like you don¡¯t need my Midnight Butterfly after all.¡±

    ¡°As you see, I already have my own soul defense. Shall we end this matter?¡± Angor looked at the butterfly swarm that was still lingering outside the grasnd.

    Felicia looked at Angor¡¯s soul as well as those glittering eyes which looked more vivid than Angor¡¯s real eyes. If possible, she would even im those beautiful eyes as her collection.

    ¡°Leave? Sure. But you won¡¯t mind me taking another look at your soul, will you?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything since nothing would help right now. Felicia would do anything she wanted to satisfy her curiosity, and he couldn¡¯t hope to stop her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll not take advantage of this for free, of course. I¡¯ll tell you something useful in return,¡± Felicia¡¯s emotion continued to speak. ¡°Your Green Velvet is almost grown, and a matured Green Velvet may not be a good thing to you.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not your teacher, so you have to find out on your own.¡±

    Angor remained silent again.

    ¡°Smart boy.¡± Felicia grinned.

    Since Angor ¡°allowed¡± her examination, Felicia proceeded to inspect Angor¡¯s soul. Ordinary souls usually appeared semi-transparent, but Angor¡¯s soul looked almost like a real human. It was even wearing a robe.

    Should Angor learn how to eject his soul outside, most people without the right skills wouldn¡¯t be able to tell his soul from his body.

    ¡°Are you a Soul Maniptor?¡± Felicia asked.

    ¡°No,¡± Angor answered with a dry tone.

    ¡°And you still have such a substantial soul?... Rare case, indeed. Now, whatever made that legendary Isabelle so interested in you?¡±

    Felicia kept on looking.

    A ck butterfly with white stripes entered the grasnd upon Felicia¡¯s order.

    This one was clearly more powerful. The spores came and went through the insect without affecting it in any way.

    And it seemed the Green Velvet was ¡°angered¡± for some reason. Clusters of grass suddenly grew wildly from the field; they became thicker until they became a trap that swallowed the butterfly.

    Again, the butterfly moved through their barrier like it didn¡¯t exist.

    It seemed the butterfly could shift between dimensions. Under the attacks, it could simply escape briefly into another space.

    When the insect almost reached Angor¡¯s soul, the Green Velvet did itsst attempt by covering Angor tightly while leaving a number of white flowers outside as a defensive measure.

    However, Angor¡¯s ¡°cage¡± suddenly vanished into the grasnd again as the butterfly drew closer.

    ¡°You... canceled it?¡± Felicia asked.

    ¡°It can¡¯t stop you anyway. Why waste time?¡±

    Felicia chuckled, probably scoffing at Angor¡¯s weakness.

    The butterflynded on Angor¡¯s soul, followed by the second one, then a third... until a group of butterflies was crawling all over Angor¡¯s soul.

    Angor closed his eyes and let the insects send feedbacks to their master.

    ¡°Decent quality and density...

    ¡°As solid as apprentices at their peak levels.

    ¡°Huh... what¡¯s this?¡±

    Felicia suddenly grew confused. ¡°I found soul ripples which should belong to a real wizard. Did someone transfer his soul energy to you before? It¡¯s almost¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡®Deadman¡¯s Redemption¡¯, Mister Ness.¡±

    ¡°Thought so. That old pervert actually wasted five years of his strength just to solidify your soul?¡±

    ¡°My mentor took me to him.¡±

    Felicia frowned.

    She never asked Angor about the name of his teacher since she more or less had an idea by now. She nned to pretend that she didn¡¯t know the boy¡¯s teacher. She also nned to use this as an excuse if anyone were toe and me her for peeking into Angor¡¯s soul.

    However, she believed ¡°that man¡± wouldn¡¯t care about this at all.

    Still, she wasn¡¯t sure about her previous assumption after listening to Angor¡¯s words. As far as she knew, ¡°that man¡± was far from being a kind-hearted teacher who would seek help from Old Ness just to help a small boy.

    ¡°Is it actually Rein Mute or... Wace?¡±

    Felicia became hesitant when thinking about those two names since both of them were overprotective of their students. Especially ¡®Silencer¡¯ Rein Mute, who was now a level-3 wizard as well as the real controller of the entire Brute Cavern.

    She wondered if she should keep going.

    And she decided to proceed anyway. To others, she ¡°didn¡¯t know¡± Angor¡¯s teacher after all, and it was not like she was going to kill Angor. She was only inspecting the soul of a young apprentice. No one would actually consider this a serious crime or something.

    With the concerns gone, Felicia controlled her butterflies to further examine Angor.

    This time, she nned to go straight into the soul and see what was inside.

    ¡°He even got a Soul Furnace? Guess he has no problem concentrating on Soul Maniptor spells now. But... why do I feel that something keeps bugging me?¡±

 Chapter 412 - A Simple Glimpse

    <strong>Chapter 412: A Simple Glimpse</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Apart from the strange feeling, Felicia also felt unknown danger, which came from her instinct.

    It only made her more excited. As a wizard, she had gone through many different dangerous situations. These usually meant potential destinies.

    How dangerous could an ordinary apprentice be anyway?

    Felicia¡¯s butterflies began to spread their scales on Angor¡¯s soul.

    These scales were actually soul energy, which wasn¡¯t harmful to Angor. As parts of Felicia¡¯s own energy, they could help her observe the condition of Angor.

    Previously, Ness could only observe Angor¡¯s soul using his All-Inclusive Illuminator from a distance because Ness couldn¡¯t do as he wished when Sunders was looking. Here, Felicia wasn¡¯t a Soul Maniptor, and the only way she knew for examining souls was to enter them herself.

    As the butterfly scales sent information back, Felicia frowned again.

    She sensed... sequence power, in Angor¡¯s soul.

    ¡°Is this what Isabelle meant by ¡®peculiar¡¯?¡±

    Before she could proceed further, another piece of information stopped her.

    It seemed there was a stream of extremely pure soul energy joining Angor¡¯s soul, slowly but surely.

    Felicia looked toward the source of the information and saw a scar, whichy on the back of Angor¡¯s soul. The scar looked like a normal wound made by a cut, but the wound was releasing the soul energy she sensed earlier, which continuously strengthened Angor¡¯s soul.

    Usually, a scar on someone¡¯s soul would only cause an energy leak. Felicia was surprised to see the scar on Angor doing the opposite. Not only that, the energy was of perfect quality. The only problem was that the flow speed was almost negligible.

    What kind of wound helps people?

    As she believed, if the wound kept giving Angor such soul energy and given enough time, Angor¡¯s soul would be one of the strongest souls recorded in history even if the boy didn¡¯t do any soul training.

    Felicia looked at the scar and considered. It looked at an ordinary trauma, but it was strange to find such a thing on someone¡¯s soul. Usually, soul injuries could be healed over time without leaving scars behind... unless they were caused by certain special attacks.

    That wound didn¡¯t look like anything rted to ¡°special attacks¡±. Then why wasn¡¯t it healing?

    And where did that pure energye from?

    ¡°Do you know your soul has a scar on the backside?¡± Felicia decided to ask.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Angor sighed.

    ¡°How did it happen and what is it?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering about this too, but no one could tell me. Not even my teacher. As for how I got this wound...¡±

    Angor thought about a certain being in the nightmare realm, and his mind quickly grew restless again. ¡°... A woman with stitches on her face. She did this to me,¡± he said while trying to calm down.

    Felicia didn¡¯t sense any untruthful emotions. However, she had no idea what ¡°woman with a stitched face¡± even meant.

    Next, she moved her energy stream closer and tried to reach for the scar.

    ¡°Miss Felicia, I suggest that you don¡¯t do this. It might rm that woman I mentioned.¡±

    ¡°So what?¡± Felicia scoffed. ¡°You want to know who she is too, right? I¡¯ll help you.¡±

    Angor remained silent again as he felt the familiar itchinessing from his back.

    The next thing he heard was someone screaming madly. It was so sharp and loud that both those inside Dark Castle and Angor, who was in Soul Space, could hear it clearly.

    It was Felicia.

    Meanwhile, Greya quickly looked up from her dishes. ¡°Hey sis, what happened¡ª¡±

    The little girl suddenly stopped talking. She then continued with apletely different voice, ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Felicia?!¡±

    Her eyes were now showing wisdom instead of childish naivety. ¡°Warrior Barbie¡± Greya had returned.

    Felicia was still screaming; her eyes showed pure fear and disorder. The woman was holding onto Angor¡¯s sleeping form and trying to speak but she couldn¡¯t.

    Greya tried to find a solution. Swiftly, she used a cantrip to check Felicia¡¯s condition.

    She failed. There was a powerful energy surge around Felicia that stopped her spell.

    Next, Greya looked at Angor. Angor was resting on the table peacefully. Greya quickly noticed that Angor¡¯s consciousness wasn¡¯t here. She then looked at the empty wine ss in front of Angor.

    ¡°Midnight Butterfly?¡± Greya muttered after taking a sniff at the ss.

    Combined with what she saw, Greya quickly reached a conclusion¡ªFelicia forced her way to examine Angor¡¯s soul and ran into some kind of trouble.

    But what trouble could possibly be inside Angor¡¯s soul, which caused so much pain to a wizard? Did Sunders put a trap inside Angor?

    Usually, it wasn¡¯t difficult for Greya to help Felicia. Yet her strength and soul energy weren¡¯tplete right now.

    Felicia suddenly wed at the table. While creating sharp noises, her nails left several trails on the surface.

    ¡°This is¡ª¡± Greya instantly understood that Felicia was trying to leave a message.

    Using their secretmunication codes invented by Candy House, Greya managed to read two words¡ªSoul Guidance.

    Greya got the idea and summoned a pile of strange cooking materials in her hand.

    ¡°Spiritualism Soup.¡±

    The soup was another of Greya¡¯s original dish. It had a simr effect as Soul Attractor, which was to attract someone¡¯s soul out of Soul Space.

    Slowly, Greya created a floating sphere of liquid nearby while breathing heavily. She didn¡¯t have the physical strength to cook special dishes right now. She was spending her own soul energy.

    However, feeding the soup to Felicia didn¡¯t yield any results. The woman was still screaming in pain.

    Between the blinks of her consciousness, Felicia forced her lips to work by burning away the foundation of her strength.

    ¡°GIVE IT TO... HIM!¡±

    There was blooding between her clenched teeth.

    Greya quickly ced her soup in front of Angor¡¯s nose.

    As the enchanted smell disappeared into another dimension, a trail of lightning suddenly illuminated the area outside Dark Castle.

    Greya¡¯s power slowly dragged Angor¡¯s soul away from Soul Space.

    When Angor¡¯s soul finally left the protection of his spirit grasnd, Felicia stopped yelling and reopened her bloodshot eyes.

    ¡°What just happened, Felicia?¡± Greya quickly went to help her friend.

    ¡°He... he... His soul¡ª¡±

    ¡°His soul? Is it a trap?¡± Greya scowled. ¡°I told you not to do anything stupid to the boy, why won¡¯t you listen?!¡±

    ¡°There... there... there must be, something, that left a mark on his soul. And she saw me. Oh my god, those eyes... she just looked at me, and she almost broke my mind.

    ¡°I-it tried to reach for my consciousness, it almost, grasped my brain! Just by LOOKING AT ME, Greya!¡±

    ¡°She?? It¡¯s not Mister Phantom?¡±

    Felicia was clearly surprised by that. ¡°So he¡¯s Phantom Master¡¯s student?!¡±

    ¡°I thought you knew! Yes, Mister Sunders took him in.¡±

    Felicia shook her head weakly. ¡°I didn¡¯t see Mister Phantom. It¡¯s some... woman. I didn¡¯t see her clearly, but there are stitches on her face...¡±

    ¡°Stitches?¡± Greya suddenly remembered something. ¡°Is she wearing a crown? Red hair? Face sutured all over?¡±

    ¡°I... am not sure. What, you know her?¡±

    Greya covered her head and trembled. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I think I saw her before but... you know, I¡¯ve forgotten a lot. What you described makes me feel scared...¡±

    They took a moment to recollect their spirits.

    Someone that scared Greya by a mere faint memory and broke Felicia¡¯s mind by a simple glimpse?

    Who was she?

    A legendary being? But wasn¡¯t southern wizarding region void of legendaries for a long time?

    As they went over their minds, terrified, the lightning strikes outside Dark Castle were getting more intense as if another crisis were imminent.

    The castle was no stranger to such hazardous weather, but somehow, its residents felt a terrible chill assaulting their bodies.

    Thump!

    Angor¡¯s body abruptly jerked backward and leaned against his chair.

    A hand slowly emerged from his chest...

 Chapter 413 - A Warning From Isabelle

    <h4>Chapter 413: A Warning From Isabelle</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Oh, the soup¡¯s working.¡± Greya looked at the hand which was trying to climb out of Angor¡¯s body.

    It was Angor¡¯s soul.

    The second hand followed behind. Then, his head and torso...

    When Angor¡¯s soul almost left his body, another lightning strike brightened the room with a loud BOOM. At the same time, the castle door was suddenly pushed open, allowing raging wind toe inside.

    A woman with white hair and ice-colored pupils stood outside the door.

    Before anyone could react, she already reappeared right in front of Angor.

    ¡°Foolish!¡± she yelled. With a glowing hand, she pushed at Angor¡¯s soul and forced it back into his body.

    ¡°Lady Isabelle?!¡± Greya called in surprise.

    The woman had Venees¡¯ body, but that mighty aura and dignity weren¡¯t something Venees could possess.

    There were beads of sweat on Isabelle¡¯s forehead for some reason. ¡°Cancel your spell right now!¡±

    Greya realized that Isabelle was referring to her Spiritualism Soup, which was still lingering in front of Angor¡¯s nose. Greya didn¡¯t know what Isabelle meant, but since Isabelle was a legendary Soul Maniptor, she should definitely listen to her.

    After Greya removed the liquid from Angor, Isabelle finally pushed Angor¡¯s soul back inside.

    With another spell, Isabelle managed to calm Angor¡¯s agitated soul. Now, Angor¡¯s soul returned to its original spot quietly and slowly opened its eyes again.

    In reality, Angor¡¯s head tilted to one side. His body fell ¡°asleep¡± again.

    Isabelle let out a sigh in relief.

    ¡°See what you¡¯ve done now?!¡± Isabelle looked at Felicia with great impatience. ¡°Stop assuming that you¡¯re all almighty and invincible, or your curiosity will kill you sooner orter.¡±

    Felicia was still trembling in cold sweat on her chair. When she received Isabelle¡¯s cold re, she slowly looked down.

    ¡°Lady Isabelle, whatever just happened?¡± Greya asked.

    ¡°She already told you, no? This apprentice has been marked by a very powerful being, and SHE tried to touch the mark. She deserved such an oue.¡±

    ¡°Powerful being? Who is it?¡± Greya knew there was a scene in her memory rted to this, but she couldn¡¯t tell why.

    ¡°I do not know,¡± Isabelle said as she shook her head. ¡°I was interested in his soul because I sensed a certain ripple in him. I didn¡¯t know there¡¯s such terror hidden within him too...¡±

    Isabelle also shivered a little. If she tried to possess Angor¡¯s soul like she initially nned, she might be the one in Felicia¡¯s situation.

    ¡°I¡¯m going back to Spirit Realm. Do NOT do anything to his soul again. That mysterious being might be... something beyond legendary.¡± Another lightning sh apanied Isabelle¡¯s words which made her words heavily terrifying.

    <i>Beyond legendary...</i>

    Greya¡¯s mouth dropped open, while Felicia¡¯s body trembled harder.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why it left such a mark on this apprentice, but it must have his or her own reason. Just remember that it¡¯s none of your business, whether that being meant good or harm to Angor. Don¡¯t ask, don¡¯t listen, and definitely don¡¯t meddle with it!¡±

    With that, Isabelle turned away.

    ¡°Lady Isabelle, is Toby...¡± Greya tried to ask something else.

    ¡°... He¡¯s getting better. Tell Angor toe to my Spirit Realm one weekter, and I shall return Toby to his hands. Don¡¯t bother me otherwise.¡±

    Both Isabelle¡¯s voice and her form slowly dissipated into the wind.

    The door closed on itself, stopping all interference that troubled the castle hall.

    Greya sighed and sat in front of Felicia.

    ¡°Mister Phantom is Angor¡¯s mentor,¡± Greya spoke in a tired voice, ¡°and I guess you already knew it. I must say it is unwise of you to snoop around his secret like that.

    ¡°As Lady Isabelle said, you tend to underestimate people too much. Well, I guess I can¡¯t me you since most wizards are like that, including me. I used to regard the whole world as something I canmand until my assistants changed my way.¡± When talking about her restaurant, Greya quickly grew furious.

    ¡°It will be very difficult to repair your rtionship with Angor now.¡± Greya shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be a dinner. Must you make it so unpleasant?¡±

    Felicia didn¡¯t answer. It seemed like she had epted the lecture.

    ¡°... So, why did you put Toby in Angor¡¯s hands? You already noticed his potential?¡± Felicia asked after a while.

    ¡°That¡¯s only one reason. I chose him also because Toby asked to follow Angor. You know, Toby¡¯s existence alone is already something that disobeys naturalws. Maybe his instinct already told us something.

    ¡°If you insist on regarding Angor as your enemy or test subject, you might as well kill him right now. Otherwise, don¡¯t worsen your terms further.¡±

    ¡°I see. By the way, do you remember anything about that stitch woman?¡±

    Greya considered and said, ¡°I think I saw... some old desks and a painting on the wall. But I cannot tell where exactly they came from. I think it¡¯s not inside the southern wizarding region.¡±

    ¡°Another ne, you mean?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s probably Nightmare Realm.¡±

    ...

    Angor remained on his bed for three days. When he opened his eyes, he saw a ck figure sitting right next to him. Out of instinct, he jolted up.

    It was Shadow.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake?¡± Shadow was wearing rags for some reason. Half of his pants were gone, and he had nothing over his top half. Angor could see the man¡¯s scarred stomach and thorax.

    ¡°What happened to you?¡± Angor checked Shadow up and down.

    ¡°That¡¯s MY question! That servant told me you¡¯ve slept for three days. I know the bed is soft and all, but do you have to sleep in like that?¡±

    Angor quickly tried to remember what he saw before he fainted the other day. The only thing he knew was that Felicia reached for his soul scar, and... his memory was cut off from there.

    ¡°Is Miss Felicia alright?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Well, I saw her making wines again in the hall, so I think she¡¯s fine?¡± Shadow tilted his head. ¡°It¡¯s strange though. She didn¡¯t badmouth me again when I passed through. She always did before, since she really hates my teacher.¡±

    Angor considered and decided not to ask about Shadow¡¯s teacher¡ªit wasn¡¯t wise to talk about gossips rted to wizards. Since Felicia was fine, then nothing serious really happened. Thest person who did something simr was Parasite Queen, whose soul just vanished instantly. Was it because Parasite Queen was only a weak apprentice?

    Shadow nudged Angor and interrupted his train of thoughts. ¡°Hey quick, got any more clothes?¡± Shadow seemed really angry. ¡°This damn ce is full of women. I didn¡¯t find any clothes for men.¡±

    Angor moaned and took out a robe from his bracelet. ¡°What¡¯s with those injuries? You ran into traps again?¡±

    ¡°Oh damn it!¡± Shadow epted the robe and sat on the floor. ¡°It¡¯s not a trap. Just, my teacher set me up!¡±

    Shadow exined his adventure.

    ¡°Since Fiona could lead the way, I can avoid all the traps. I found Naga inside the old witch¡¯sb...¡±

    As the others had promised, all wizard-level mechanisms in theboratory were shut down. Shadow smoothly discovered where Naga was ced.

    But something happened at thest moment.

    Naga was fully charged with energy.

    Only someone who learned puppet arts could do this, which meant Shadow¡¯s teacher left Naga here with full energy.

    Shadow failed to take Naga away because he couldn¡¯t defeat her. As an apprentice, it would take him years to exhaust Naga¡¯s energy.

    His only choice was to run away, and he could only do it due to the fact that Shadow was familiar with Naga¡¯s abilities; otherwise, he would probably get killed instead.

    ¡°I thought my enemies are those bitches in Dark Castle,¡± Shadow seemed sad now as he said, ¡°but not my stupid teacher!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to ask; what is ¡®Naga¡¯ anyway?¡± Angor grew curious.

    ¡°She is... an ownerless magic puppet, thrown away by my teacher. She was crafted using the live body of a wizard. But the most important thing is, I¡¯m a Shadow Puppeteer, and Naga is the only Shadow Puppet ever created by my teacher.

    ¡°I oncepleted a very difficult task. He told me Naga is my reward. But I can only take her when I be an apprentice at the peak level. I believed him.

    ¡°When I finally reached this level, he told me that Isabe took Naga away, so here I am, at Dark Castle doing this stupid challenge, only to be tricked by him again!¡±

    Shadow was almost crying now. His chance of bing a wizard turned out to be bogus!

    Angor frowned at Shadow¡¯s misfortune. ¡°How powerful is Naga?¡±

    ¡°Well, she can¡¯t possibly have her full strength in that body, but she¡¯s still at wizard level.¡±

 Chapter 414 - Prelude to Rebirth

    <h4>Chapter 414: Prelude to Rebirth</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°I think you should give up if she¡¯s as powerful as a wizard.¡± Angor frowned. ¡°But do you really think your own teacher put you in a hopeless situation which might even kill you?¡±

    It was true that there were wizards who weren¡¯t interested in teaching students, but as long as they epted the students, they usually wouldn¡¯t intentionally trick them. Wizards didn¡¯t need tricks to kill apprentices.

    There was the possibility that someone might have some twisted ¡°hobbies¡± of watching someone suffer. Yet Angor believed that such people would at least leave a trace of hope in their trap. Putting someone in a hopeless situation meant the victim would simply wait for death, which wasn¡¯t ¡°fun¡± at all.

    No matter how he considered, Angor didn¡¯t really believe that Shadow¡¯s teacher presented an impossible challenge. Shadow was almost a wizard now, as well as a disciple that inherited the same art as his teacher. Anyone in his or her sane mind would wee new blood joining their ranks.

    ¡°You know, I agree. But I can¡¯t beat Naga!¡± Shadowined. He spent two days in a heated battle against Naga, and he didn¡¯t even leave a scratch on her.

    ¡°At least your teacher doesn¡¯t wish you dead since you can get away in one piece. Now, think about what you can get from this challenge while staying alive.¡±

    Shadow somewhat got an idea from Angor¡¯s suggestion. ¡°Now that you mentioned it... I think there¡¯s something...¡±

    Shadow closed his eyes and thought about his previous battle.

    ¡°I think I got a theory,¡± Shadow muttered while walking to the door, ¡°I¡¯m going to try again.¡±

    With that, he left Angor alone in the bedroom again.

    Angor slumped down on his bed, not knowing what to do next.

    <i>Should I check on Felicia?</i>

    No. He didn¡¯t know how to answer Felicia¡¯s questions if she were to ask about his soul scar, and he couldn¡¯t possibly tell lies in front of a wizard.

    <i>Leave the castle?</i>

    No. He was still concerned about Toby.

    His mind got tired as he thought of more questions, so he simply emptied his brain and rxed.

    A whileter, he was woken up by more thunderous noises outside. He walked to the window and noticed that the sky outside was once again hidden behind dark clouds and lightning snakes.

    The scenery was mostly empty, apart from the asional undead souls among the trees who would stare at Dark Castle with hatred in their eyes.

    He suddenly got an idea and summoned a silver revolver in his hand.

    He had yet to test the power of this weapon. Isabelle mentioned something about ¡°Mystery energy¡± in the gun, and he wished to find out what it meant.

    In order not to alert anyone, he simply jumped out of the balcony and walked away from the castle.

    Of course this was not enough to conceal his movement. Felicia, who was in the castle hall, quickly looked up and nced toward Angor¡¯s direction. However, she didn¡¯t say anything and returned to her wines.

    Angor followed the small path leading away from Dark Castle.

    He decided to name his enchanted gun ¡°Prelude to Rebirth¡±. He got the idea when Prome used ¡°Rebirth¡± to name the first gun, and he decided to use this word as well since it sat well with the nature of the weapon.

    He was in a hurry then, so the gun didn¡¯t have any careful engravings and decorations. Angor simply exposed the runes on its surface, which gave the gun a mysterious appearance.

    Soon enough, he heard women crying among the trees in ck Forest. However, he didn¡¯t go inside since he didn¡¯t know the terrain well. Dark ces could have deadly traps.

    He nned to go to the graveyard.

    The graveyard also had lots of undead spirits, and the open ground was suitable for testing Prelude to Rebirth.

    Angor activated Infinite Reticence and moved to one side of the graveyard, where four souls were crying on gallows.

    He lifted the revolver and took aim.

    To the suffering souls, total elimination might be their best and final rest.

    As the trigger was pulled, the magic array on the gun received mana and began to glow.

    A series of silent ripples were unleashed from the barrel and covered a fan-shaped area in front of Angor, whichpletely engulfed the gallows.

    Prelude to Elimination would kill souls by using special soundwaves to disrupt their negative energy. The soundwave was almost visible while it traveled in the air.

    The attack didn¡¯t show any immediate effect when it reached the souls, but they all stopped sobbing all of a sudden.

    When Angor began to think that his weapon had failed, the souls suddenly began to release ck smoke from their forms before they turned into ashes.

    Angor was excited at his sess. He did some more experiments around the graveyard and easily eliminated a number of undead souls.

    Those smoke trails seemed to be the negative energy that supported the souls. If the energy were disrupted, the souls would disappear.

    The weapon worked as intended, but he had yet to figure out the nature of ¡°Mystery energy¡±.

    Next, he moved to the giant crater near the graveyard gate. The pit was full of rotten corpses and armies of souls.

    He held the revolver and shot into the pit.

    There was no noise from the pit. Thick ck smoke rose from it, which almost blocked Angor¡¯s view.

    Meanwhile, Angor got a feeling that something just came into his gun. It seemed to be a... white dot.

    <i>Am I seeing things?</i>

    Again, he moved around the graveyard to test. He didn¡¯t see anything special again until he wiped out arge group of souls. He saw another ¡°white dot¡± emerging from the smoke and entering his gun barrel.

    <i>What¡¯s that? Is that the ¡°Mystery energy¡± mentioned by Isabelle?</i>

    He spent more time doing research and realized that every killed soul would create such a ¡°white spot¡±. But it was so weak that it was almost invisible to the eyes. Only groups of more than a hundred souls could leave something obvious behind, which was as small as dust.

    In order to find out what the ¡°white spot¡± was, Angor searched for more souls.

    He almost cleansed the entire graveyard without finding the result, so he decided to check out ck Forest next. However, he didn¡¯t mean to venture inside the woods for real.

    About half a dayter, he had ughtered nearly two thousand souls, which was when he finally noticed something changing on his gun.

    Prelude to Rebirth was shaped like an ordinary revolver, but the ammo cylinder was only a decoration since the gun didn¡¯t need actual bullets.

    At first, he nned to use physical bullets enchanted with different runes which could help him attack other creatures as well.

    He did leave the cylinder design. However, without using the knowledge of expansion runes, the revolver only had room for six bullets.

    Before Angor could spend time crafting more bullets for it, the cylinder of Prelude to Rebirth was cosmetic only.

    However, something changed on the cylinder after he had killed two thousand souls.

    The tiny white dots slowly gathered inside one of the six chambers and upied the space intended for a physical bullet.

    Angor wondered what did this thing do. Maybe this was the ¡°Mystery energy¡± he meant to find out?

    His spirit feelers told him that the white bullet did contain foreign energy, but he couldn¡¯t tell any other details.

    Which meant he had to ¡°give it a shot¡±.

    The bullet was probably meant for dealing with undead creatures too, so Angor looked around for more souls.

    He failed. He had wiped out most of the souls around the edge of the forest.

    He walked back to the main path and headed to the other half of ck Forest. But he was surprised to notice a single wandering soul in the middle of the road.

    This one wasn¡¯t weeping like the others. She was looking into the distance, in the direction of Dark Castle, and Angor could only see her back as well as her long, ck hair.

    Still, he felt overwhelming negative energy and the sharp emotion of maliceing from the soul.

    ¡°You¡¯re next then.¡±

    Angor held up Prelude to Rebirth and aimed at the strange soul.

 Chapter 415 - Mystery Ability

    <strong>Chapter 415: Mystery Ability</strong>

    This time, Angor didn¡¯t activate the magic array on the gun.

    He simply pulled the trigger while the ¡°white bullet¡± was in the firing position.

    Countless light beams emerged from the barrel, which quickly shrank into one single bullet trail that looked like aet and sank into the undead presence.

    The soul screamed and copsed on the dirt.

    Angor stepped back a bit to observe the oue.

    The soul was trembling madly; her long messy hair had covered her head so Angor could not see her face.

    A momentter, the soul became still.

    ¡°It... didn¡¯t disappear? So the bullet isn¡¯t for killing the undead?¡± Angor muttered, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s the opposite?¡±

    He knew that there were all kinds of really strange Mystery abilities. Prome once mentioned an item called ¡°Whelk of The Dreaming Coast¡± which, ording to Prome, was used for ¡°putting non-lifeform items to sleep, regardless of their level¡±. Till today, no one had figured out the point of the item.

    It wasn¡¯t surprising at all if his ¡°white bullet¡± turned out to be something beneficial to undead beings.

    Angor regretted a little when thinking about this possibility. Carefully, he moved back further and fully activated Infinite Reticence to conceal his body.

    The female soul was not moving, but Angor saw something white shining around her.

    She suddenly lifted her head.

    And her appearance shocked Angor because he knew her face¡ªshe was the dying woman in Venees¡¯ bathroom who tried to use Angor¡¯s help to be a powerful undead creature.

    Angor remembered her identity to be the 13th daughter of Goman King. She never mentioned her real name though. Maybe because she didn¡¯t care anymore.

    She had been staring at Dark Castle probably because of her unyielding hatred toward that ce.

    As Angor went over his thoughts, the female soul suddenly screamed again as the ¡°white glow¡± began to gather at her head.

    Under the light, Angor noticed that the woman was slowly taking on her former look, which was a decent-looking woman with silk-like hair and adorable eyebrows.

    Angor grew even more confused about the nature of the ¡°white bullet¡±.

    Whatever did this thing do?

    The glow around the woman died down, leaving the female soul in a really strange condition. Her face now had twopletely different looks. Half of her was a gruesome wraith with sharp fangs and bulging blood veins, while the other half looked like ady from a well-educated family.

    ¡°Does this thing revert them to normal souls?¡± Angor pondered in awe. ording to books, there were no known methods for reverting fallen souls; yet the strange sight in front of his eyes had punched a giant hole in that theory.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Angor decided to ask.

    The woman¡¯s ¡°split¡± face immediately changed expressions. One half of her seemed scared, while the other was full of resentment like any other wraiths.

    The spirit looked around without finding who was talking and slowly moved away from Angor¡¯s position.

    Does she know fear?

    Angor continued ti ask, ¡°Hey, can you understand me? Do you remember your name? Do you remember Goman King?¡±

    The soul was backing away faster. The ¡°normal half¡± of her face frowned in confusion.

    ¡°You¡¯re the 13th daughter of Goman King. The elder princess put you in this situation. Do you recall that?¡±

    With an ¡°ARGHH!¡±, the female soul quickly left the ground and floated into ck Forest.

    Angor shook his head. He couldn¡¯t possibly chase after her without a PROPER flying skill.

    ¡°So... I wasted that bullet.¡±

    He felt like crying. Still, the test did give him some information to go by. The female soul managed to regain some of her consciousness, and her ¡°normal half¡± showed many emotions that didn¡¯t belong to fallen undead, such as calm, confusion, and fear.

    ¡°Is she actually under both states?¡±

    He wasn¡¯t sure. He needed to do more testingter.

    He nned to choose his next target more carefully. At least, he should make sure that the soul couldn¡¯t escape; otherwise, he would only be wasting his ammunition.

    It would be pretty difficult to run into soul swarms outside Dark Castle, so Angor intended to collect more ¡°white bullets¡± while he was here.

    He spent more time sweeping through ck Forest.

    Of course, the drastic decrease in the number of souls was easily noticed by Dark Castle.

    Felicia watched Angor¡¯s moves using her crystal ball and frowned. ¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡±

    ¡°Trying out his new weapon?¡± Greya moved closer. ¡°Told you, the boy got potential. When I first met him a year ago, he was just another mortal that everyone could bully, like a stray dog. Look at him now... He¡¯s strong enough to face the undead army. I don¡¯t know many wizards who are willing to confront filthy undead like this. Oh, look at his moves...¡±

    Greya smiled gently at Angor¡¯s image.

    Felicia would agree with Greya, for she already witnessed how Angor almost became a ¡°Mystery Alchemist¡±.

    But she was still puzzled about what she saw. ¡°That thing is pretty handy when killing the undead in arge area... An effective magic array, perhaps, which means he possesses the legacy of a great alchemist. But does he really need to kill that many souls to test a weapon?¡±

    ¡°Well, it did absorb one half of a ¡®Mystery soul¡¯. Maybe he¡¯s trying to find its secret power. Speaking of Mystery Items... Some arepletely useless, while some can disy amazing power even though it isn¡¯t whole, like that Soul Orb dish thing in Soul Genesis Garden. I don¡¯t know what Angor has created, but I do hope he gets something nice.¡±

    Inside Spirit Realm located on floor B2, Isabelle slowly opened her eyes when she heard Greya¡¯s words.

    ¡°Heh... There is no such thing as a useless Mystery Item. You just need someone to find the right way to use it.¡±

    She then nced toward Angor¡¯s direction, where the boy was still ughtering fallen souls in the forest.

    ¡°Now, that¡¯s actually helpful to Dark Castle. I¡¯ve always wanted to get rid of all the lingering spirits... But it¡¯s just hopeless when those inside Dark Castle do not change their way.¡±

    She closed her eyes and resumed meditating.

    ...

    Angor spent three days outside during which he eliminated countless fallen souls. He finally gained six bullets in the cylinder; all ready to be used.

    He nearly traveled to every part around Dark Castle. After making sure that no more ¡°white dots¡± could enter his gun, he put away the revolver and headed back. As a result of his ¡°hard work¡±, there was not another fallen soul in sight.

    When passing through the graveyard, he changed his direction to visit Flowey.

    And what he saw under the well surprised him a bit.

    Flowey was quietly reading a book in front of a desk. The little girl seemed fine. What shocked Angor was that Flowey¡¯s room had changedpletely. She had deconstructed her bed and ced all the wooden nks aside, probably because she wanted to make something with them.

    She now had a hanging hammock in the middle of the room as her new bed.

    Also, Flower was wearing something different too. Her ordinary yellow overall dress had some flower-shaped decorations on it. Angor quickly realized where they came from when he saw the scissors and cut-out bedsheet on the desk.

    It seemed Flowey grew bored and decided to do some handicrafts.

    With a flicker of mind, Angor created a second illusion that was full of illusionary materials, such as wood, paper, sewing threads, and fabrics. He ced the ¡°storage illusion¡± beside the window and hid it there. Flowey should easily notice it.

    Without interrupting Flowey, Angor silently left the cave.

    He felt happy after seeing Flowey¡¯s interesting crafting attempt. He never expected the little girl to ¡°y¡± with his illusion in such a way.

    Once he learned how to bestow more detailed properties to illusionary objects, he could even try practicing magic array drawing and alchemy in his illusion without having to waste any materials. He wouldn¡¯t do that now because he couldn¡¯t guarantee absolutely correct logics that would be required for delicate works. Still, doing ordinary arts in his illusion should be no problem.

    Angor returned to Dark Castle and saw both Greya and Felicia on the first floor.

    He was still a little worried that Felicia might question him about the incident the other day or the nature of the ¡°stitch woman¡±. Therefore, he was pretty surprised when Felicia only weed him with a smile.

    ¡°Angor dear! Come here.¡± Greya waved a hand at him.

    Angor saw Greya¡¯s expression to be that of a charming woman this time instead of the childishness carried by a small girl.

    ¡°Lady Greya?¡± he tried to call her by her name.

    Greya chuckled at Angor¡¯s careful call. ¡°The one and only. The little girl is sleeping right now.¡±

    ¡°The little girl?¡± Angor somewhat felt as if something clicked in his mind. Still, heplied and sat on the sofa across Greya.

    Greya smiled brightly.

    ¡°By the way, I found a single special feather on Toby¡¯s body...¡±

 Chapter 416 - Promise

    <strong>Chapter 416: Promise</strong>

    ¡°That¡¯s a space-storage item, is it not?¡± asked Greya.

    ¡°It¡¯s called Snowy Feather,¡± Angor said as he nodded. ¡°It¡¯s for keeping Toby¡¯s clothes and snacks.¡±

    Both Greya and Felicia remained silent for a while once they realized Angor¡¯s generosity. As his owner, Greya did love Toby but not to such an extent as to give the bird a valuable space storage.

    Now, not only did Angor do so, but he also went over the trouble by shaping the item into a feather which blended with Toby¡¯s own feathers perfectly.

    ¡°Such... luxurious gift.¡± Felicia failed to hold back herment. Even wizards would find such items to be costly. How could a bird have its own, customized space storage?

    Actually, Angor didn¡¯t find Toby¡¯s gift to be much of an issue. In fact, Toby¡¯s snacks helped him a lot when they wandered in the ne passageway.

    Using the chance, Greya asked Angor about Toby¡¯s life in the past year.

    She was the one that asked questions at first, but eventually, Angor dly began to voluntarily tell the wonderful journey that he had encountered with Toby.

    Greya simply listened quietly and created all kinds of images in her mind ording to Angor¡¯s words.

    Angor would omit everything that heavily involved other individuals, but it was fine; Greya was quite happy to hear about Toby¡¯s stories only.

    The most important matter about Toby was his destiny, during which he gained a brand new power¡ªthe sequence of gravity.

    Angor found it difficult to exin this part. There were many secrets around Phantom Ind and Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, about which he definitely couldn¡¯t reveal. Therefore, he decided to tell Greya the result¡ªthat Toby acquired the power of gravity when a new Sorcerer¡¯s Garden came into existence.

    Greya didn¡¯t press Angor for details. She already knew that Toby had grown stronger and that was enough.

    After the story about Toby¡¯s growth, it was mostly casual stories about their daily lives in Brute Cavern, which took Angor around an hour to tell.

    Also, Angor focused on rxing and happy stories while avoiding anything that involved violence and trouble.

    He stopped talking when he arrived at the story about Twilight Auction.

    Naturally, he would not tell Greya about his Nightmare Domain. He was wondering whether he should describe the incident about Eyeless Man.

    After more careful consideration, he decided to make it in anyway.

    However, he didn¡¯t use words this time. By waving a hand, Angor created the illusion of the auction hall when Eyeless Man was being sold.

    The sudden change of scenery attracted both Greya and Felicia, who stopped brewing her wine and inspected the illusion curiously.

    ¡°What¡¯s this? An auction site?¡± Greya looked at the lively crowds.

    ¡°The one inside Twilight Well, I guess?¡± Felicia joined them with two sses of wine and handed them to Angor and Greya. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. Just ordinary rice wine this time.¡±

    Angor thanked her and sipped the wine. He quite enjoyed the mild fragrance of liquid, which gently soothed his throat and body instead of stimting his tongue likemon strong alcohol.

    He felt refreshed too. Even his illusion became more colorful.

    Felicia sat beside Greya and pointed at the woman on the auction stage. ¡°I saw her before. Twilight from Twilight Well, a narrow-minded and intolerant woman.¡±

    ¡°Yes, this is Twilight Auction.¡± Angor nodded.

    Greya nced at Angor, not knowing what the illusion meant.

    Angor simply told her to keep looking. An iron cage, which was covered by a ck cloth, was brought onto the stage.

    ¡°They are selling something alive next?¡± Greya pondered over the situation shown by the illusion.

    The auction guards removed the cover and revealed a slim man in servitor suit and green bow-tie inside the cage. He had no eyes.

    Crack!

    Greya squeezed her ss to shards while she gazed at the illusion with bloodshot eyes.

    Felicia also checked the illusion and hesitated. ¡°Is that... Houston the Big-Eyed?¡±

    Big-Eyed?

    Angor silently repeated the strange name. That title didn¡¯t fit very well with the Eyeless Man.

    ¡°Yes... him.¡± Greya wasn¡¯t showing any particr expressions, but her voice sounded very violent.

    ¡°Twilight¡± in the illusion was describing her merchandise now.

    ¡°Those who have read the newest edition of Expedition into Endless nes should know that Greya got herself into a fight with Granny Shikazaru in Haunt World... and she was sucked into Nightmare Realm. It ismonly believed that Greya has fallen, which meant her restaurant is no more. All the other workers in the restaurant are Gourmet Wizards. Apart from those who escaped back to Candy House, the rest scattered away into different parts of the world. This one is one of the workers, captured by a wizard during an incident...¡±

    Apart from the scene, Angor entirely recreated Twilight¡¯s voice as well.

    ¡°... Now, let¡¯s get some bidding done. We start at 10,000 magic crystals, and I expect raises of no less than 5,000!¡± ¡°Twilight¡± dered to the audiences.

    The illusion halted here.

    Beyond this point was Toby¡¯s reckless attack which led to a series of disasters. Angor couldn¡¯t show them to Greya without exposing his Nightmare Domain.

    ¡°... Who bought Houston?¡± Greya asked between breaths.

    ¡°¡®ming Lotus¡¯ Lydia.¡± Angor didn¡¯t tell Greya the final bid price or his agreement with Lydia.

    ¡°Lydia... I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡±

    Greya then thanked Angor without showing much of her mind in front of the boy. She already felt grateful enough when Angor both took good care of Toby and told her about Houston¡¯s situation.

    Probably because of uncontroble rage, Greya suddenly grew weak. ¡°I need to rest my soul now. Tell Felicia to wake me up if you need me for something.¡±

    She paused and thought about something. She then added, ¡°Toby is now with Lady Isabelle inside Spirit Realm. You don¡¯t have to worry about him.¡±

    Greya¡¯s eyes slowly lost focus until she became ¡°little girl Greya¡± again.

    The change of personality seemed pretty smooth too. Angor knew this body now possessed two souls. However, he wasn¡¯t sure if this was caused by a split in the soul, or that Greya robbed someone else¡¯s body.

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to stay with Felicia and bear with the awkwardness, so he decided to leave.

    Before he could walk away though, Felicia suddenly said, ¡°The other day...¡±

    Angor¡¯s body became stiff. He was really worried that Felicia might mention the unpleasant dinner.

    Felicia grinned at Angor¡¯s reaction. ¡°How did you escape your alchemy omen the other day?¡±

    Angor rxed at the unexpected question. However, he quickly grew tense again since this one was also about his soul.

    He REALLY wanted to keep his secret, but he couldn¡¯t keep secrets in the face of a powerful wizard.

    ¡°Well, my soul has something speci¡ª¡±

    Felicia waved a hand and stopped his words. ¡°Okay, fine! I¡¯ll not look into your small mysteries anymore. Now go.¡±

    Angor tilted his head and wondered what just made Felicia change her mind.

    Still, he felt greatly relieved.

    Felicia silently sighed when Angor left for his bedroom on the second floor.

    In order for her to get away from ¡°that thing¡±, Isabelle warned her not to question or meddle with Angor¡¯s soul.

    This was why Felicia silenced Angor the moment she heard him mentioning the word ¡°soul¡±. She was scared. That suture woman who almost broke her sanity would haunt her mind like a nightmare every time she recalled the terrible experience.

    ...

    Time flew by.

    The next morning, when Angor was meditating on his bed, he suddenly heard someone speaking gently beside his ear:

    ¡°Now,e to Spirit Realm. It is time to fulfill my promise.¡±

    The voice came and went away quickly. Angor was dazed for a while before he realized that Isabelle just spoke to him.

    And he dared not tarry when a legendary wizard who dominated an entire era summoned him. He quickly got washed and changed. He then asked a mute servant to take him to B2.

    The servant remained outside the gate of Spirit Realm and told Angor to go inside.

    Walking past the gate, he immediately felt an ominous wind blowing against his face. Everything was too dark in here for him to see clearly.

    He felt even stranger when he realized that he could no longer use his spirit feelers.

    He walked for some more and began to doubt Isabelle¡¯s intention. What happened to the ¡°promise¡±? Why did he have to enter this darkness?

    Next, he noticed that he was now walking in a strange space. There were no longer walls or ceilings around him.

    Also, he felt extremely tired, as if a powerful being nearby was trying to put him to sleep.

    Every time he did feel like sleeping, his body would fall toward an unknown direction.

    It made him scared. Something told him that letting his body fall freely would only bring him to doom.

    With this in mind, he forced his spirit to stay awake and kept on walking. This way, he could slowly drag his body away from the unseen abyss.

    He gradually lost track of time until he heard a familiar voice.

 Chapter 417 - Spirit Mantra

    <h4>Chapter 417: Spirit Mantra</h4>

    _Isabelle¡¯s voice._

    It was a gentle whispering as if she were speaking right beside Angor¡¯s ears.

    But when Angor listened carefully, he realized he could understand none of it.

    He did notice, however, that upon hearing each of Isabelle¡¯s words, he would feel a little tickle crawling from his head to his toe like someone had been stroking him with a soft feather.

    It was like... the strangenguage was meant formunicating with his soul.

    There were a total of 33 notes in Isabelle¡¯s chant. She repeated twice and finally stopped.

    Angor tried to figure out what all these meant. Did it have something to do with the darkness?

    He kept walking and never found any light. He wasn¡¯t even sure if he should move at all.

    Absolute darkness could easily turn someone mad if it persisted for too long. Added by the fact that he knew little of where he was going, Angor only wanted to scream loudly to vent out his pressure.

    This was when he learned that he couldn¡¯t make any sound at all.

    Or rather, he couldn¡¯t hear anything anymore, not even his own voice.

    Then how did he ¡°hear¡± Isabelle¡¯s voice?

    Maybe Isabelle used something special?

    With that in mind, Angor tried to remember what Isabelle said. He then repeated those notes.

    As he sessfully recreated the first note, he immediately heard himself again.

    The second, the third... and the end.

    After he repeated the entire phrase, Angor sensed freedom. It appeared both his body and soul had escaped from some kind of shackles.

    Following Isabelle¡¯s example, he then tried to repeat the chant again.

    This time, he found himself ¡°ascending¡±. When thest note left his lips, he finally saw light approaching, as well as a giant pce inside the light and a human figure that was sitting not far away.

    Was that a password to the exit?

    Puzzled, Angor slowly entered the light.

    He quickly saw Isabelle, who was sitting not far away from him, opened her eyes that showed gleams of wisdom.

    ¡°Lady Isabelle,¡± Angor greeted her and immediately sensed something was wrong.

    He wasn¡¯t ¡°talking¡±. Instead, he was using his emotion ripples without even realizing it.

    He suddenly got an idea too. He turned around and saw someone lying unconscious on the ground. Someone with a young and slim body.

    ¡°My soul left my body?¡±

    It was exactly his own body on the ground.

    ¡°Do you remember those notes earlier?¡± Isabelle looked at Angor¡¯s soul.

    Out of instinct, Angor nodded. The chant wasn¡¯t long, so it was quite easy to remember.

    ¡°The chant is the destiny I promised to you,¡± Isabelle said calmly, ¡°and with it, you can send your soul away from your body freely.¡±

    ¡°Away from body... Is that a spell called ¡®Soul Coupling¡¯?¡± This was the only spell he knew with such an effect.

    ¡°No. In my early years when I was still traveling in Origin World, I acquired the right to use Augustin¡¯s Duality Mirror, albeit only for once. With the mirror, I traded with another individual.¡±

    ¡°Augustin... Duality Mirror?¡± Angor mumbled.

    Isabelle thought the young boy was interested in this Mystery Item. After all, he was someone who actually attempted to tackle the title of Mystery Alchemist.

    In truth, Isabelle felt shameful for seizing one half of Angor¡¯s Mystery soul by force. Teaching Angor ¡°Spirit Mantra¡± was not enough to even the scale.

    With this in mind, Isabelle decided to impart a little bit more knowledge to Angor since he seemed interested.

    ¡°Augustin¡¯s Duality Mirror is another Mystery Item from an ancient wizard organization inside Origin World. There, wizards have a detailed system to ssify these items. And Augustin¡¯s Duality Mirror is a very powerful one. It allows you tomunicate and trade with someone from a random world. ¡®Random¡¯ means the target world might be somewhere countless nes apart from our wizarding world... or even somewhere from apletely different universe.

    ¡°The ¡®Spirit Mantra¡¯ I told you is a skill I learned this way, by trading with a peculiar race who called themselves the ¡®Kirigakure¡¯. From my experience, this skill functions well in the wizarding world. The world¡¯s consciousness does not hinder it. Here, we can assume that Kirigakures possess their own special power that disys full strength in foreign worlds, just like wizardry.

    ¡°There are many destinies and treasures in Origin World. You can even learn how to craft Mystery items there. Suppose you can find a chance, make sure you go there and see for yourself. It isn¡¯t an overstatement to say that the Origin World is the backbone of all wizardry.¡±

    ¡°My professor once told me that the passage toward Origin World is broken.¡± Angor grew confused.

    ¡°Heh. The one in the southern wizarding world is, because of the greedy nature of humans. Yet the wizarding world has other regions beyond. The Western Continent, the Eastern Borderline and the Northern Province... They all have their own passages. As long as you hold the will, you may go there one day without using these passages. One thousand years ago, my body traveled to Origin World by using a special map I acquired.¡±

    There were lots of things to learn in Isabelle¡¯s exnation, such as Origin World, different parts of the wizarding world, and travels that separated body and soul. Yet Angor didn¡¯t intend to think about them too much since they were obviously not meant for an apprentice like him.

    He was still curious about Augustin¡¯s Duality Mirror. Not the item itself, but the name ¡°Augustin¡±.

    He saw this name in Nether City inside Nightmare Realm. It was a man who secretly loved Margaret, the daughter of a warden who managed Stairs of Hanging Prison. Inside Margaret¡¯s room, Angor discovered a number of letters written by Augustin which showed the man¡¯s passionate love for her.

    As he recalled, the man¡¯s full name was ¡°Augustin Noah¡±. Did this man have something to do with that mirror?

    ¡°Lady Isabelle, is Augustin the person who crafted the Mystery Item that you used?¡±

    ¡°I do not know. Perhaps he is.¡±

    Angor decided to stop this question here. It seemed Isabelle didn¡¯t know about Augustin, and so, Angor nned to ask something about ¡°Spirit Mantra¡± next.

    ¡°Ejecting my soul by speaking several words...¡± Angor found such a thing to be unbelievable. ¡°How exactly does this mantra work?¡±

    Isabelle chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s not that easy as you may think. This skill utilizes the unique signatures of someone¡¯s soul. Everyone is different. When you were wandering inside Spirit Realm, I was using your signature to work out the correct mantra that suits you.

    ¡°Due to an agreement with ¡®Kirigakure¡¯, I cannot tell anyone about the algorithm, so I only told you the result.¡±

    Angor nodded. The process was way more valuable than the result in this case.

    He did want to learn it, but he wouldn¡¯t press for it either. It was just like the sequence of gravity¡ªhe could wield such power without knowing anything about the essentials.

    Speaking of the sequence of gravity... Ever since he wandered away from his body as a soul, he could easily sense where the gravity powerid inside him. Angor knew he could trigger the power if he wanted, but he dared not.

    ording to Ness, using the sequence of gravity required lots of soul energy. Using it by force might exhaust his soul.

    He believed that once he could freely unleash the power, he would definitely gain several levels in strength.

    Isabelle interrupted his thoughts when she said, ¡°Once you get familiarized with Spirit Mantra, you can use it almost instantly, without consuming mana or constructing spell models. Consider it a spell slot that does not upy anything in your mind space. So, are you satisfied with this destiny?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    As of now, this skill wasn¡¯t really useful for him, but it was better than nothing. Something as fast as a ¡°Quickened Spell¡± could alwayse in handy in the future. And it was free!

    Again, his thoughts were easily perceived by Isabelle.

    ¡°You believe Spirit Mantra has no use?¡±

    ¡°Er...¡± Angor tried to think of an excuse. However, before he could, Isabelle lifted a finger and unleashed a light beam into his soul.

    The beam wandered around inside him until it rested around the source of the power of gravity.

    After being ¡°purified¡± by the treasure in Soul Genesis Garden, the gray aura inside Angor¡¯s soul now gathered in one spot. Now, Isabelle¡¯s light furtherpressed the power into a tiny marble which quietly floated in ce.

    ¡°You received your sequence of gravity by abnormal means, so you can only unleash that power by consuming soul energy. It¡¯s both a good and a bad thing for you. You will understand why in the future.

    ¡°What I just did was to fortify your power source. From now on, when you activate that power again, it will note out uncontrobly and wear down your soul. You can decide how much power you use, as long as it does not exceed your energy reserve. Doing so will not do harm to you.¡±

    Isabelle took out a parchment from her space storage. ¡°This is a scroll that teaches you how to perform soul training. Study carefully and you will be able to slowly recover spent soul energy.¡±

    Isabelle didn¡¯t tell Angor about how the strange soul scar could also slowly replenish soul energy for him; it was just a lot slower than proper soul training.

    Angor epted the parchment and tried to trigger his gravity power just a little bit.

    Just as Isabelle said, only a small part of the power went outside this time. It was like he now held a valve that helped him to determine the power flow.

    And Angor was extremely excited at this. The ability to use gravity power freelybined with Spirit Mantra might prove extremely powerful in the right situations.

 Chapter 418 - Five Emotions

    <h4>Chapter 418: Five Emotions</h4>

    The power of gravity concentrated around Angor quietly.

    Angor didn¡¯t know much about such power, but Isabelle already sensed the solid and heavy pressure presented by a naturalw. Angor¡¯s strength was still like a child¡¯s y to Isabelle, but there was no doubt that Angor could use such strength against powerful foes in the future.

    Since there was no usable target in the pce, Angor simply unleashed the power on his own body.

    As he increased power output, his body slowly left the ground.

    He didn¡¯t sense any serious energy loss by doing so, but he wasn¡¯t sure how to check the capacity of his soul energy. All in all, he could now use such a trick as a pseudo flying skill or maybe even as a way to escape from imminent danger... if he could get the hang of it.

    There were many different ways to utilize the sequence of gravity, and Toby had already shown him in some examples. Angor believed he only needed some practice.

    Isabelle waited for Angor to finish and said, ¡°Take caution when using Spirit Mantra. The first thing you should mind is to maintain the vitals of your body. You cannot leave your body for too long unless you have other methods to keep your body alive. Judging from your current physical condition... you can stay in soul form for ten minutes.

    ¡°Also, you cannot use magic as a soul. Instead, all you have is your soul energy. To protect your soul from harm, you better learn several Soul Maniptor spells.¡±

    Isabelle decided to end her ¡°lesson¡± here.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to use another spell to get back inside your body. Move closer to it and chant Spirit Mantra again. That will show you a way back into Soul Space.¡±

    With that, Isabelle showed Angor the exit of Spirit Realm.

    Of course, Angor was very happy about acquiring a new skill that was simr to Soul Coupling.

    But it was a pity that Isabelle didn¡¯t let him choose his destiny. Previously, he nned to seek help from Isabelle to help with Grand Priest¡¯s request. Now that Isabelle already decided how to return the favor, he couldn¡¯t raise another topic anymore.

    Isabelle easily noticed Angor¡¯s faltering expression and pointed to a water pool that had been releasing white smoke. ¡°Toby is inside that pool. You can take him with you. He¡¯s stabilized, and his damaged soul is repaired. However, there are still ws inside him. Go ask Greya if you want to know more.¡±

    Which meant it was time for Angor to leave.

    Angor moved to the pool and saw his little partner resting at the bottom.

    It wasn¡¯t really a water pool either. The pool was filled by Soul Orbs, which had been releasing visible ¡°vapor¡± into the environment.

    He carefully picked Toby up from the pool without tarrying in front of Isabelle.

    Next, he walked back to Isabelle, thanked her, and remained silent.

    ¡°Is there something else you need?¡±

    Angor considered. Whether he could help the Grand Priest or not, he should at least know Isabelle¡¯s attitude toward Krakoks.

    Isabelle was the one who brought the creatures into a sanctuary. If he nned to seek help from elsewhere, he should definitely speak with the owner of Soul Genesis Garden first.

    Angor carefully arranged his words before he said, ¡°Lady Isabelle, may I know your thoughts about Krakoks?¡±

    ¡°Nothing in particr. They¡¯re only mortals who have above-average soul quality. Why do you ask?¡±

    Angor sighed and exined what Grand Priest asked of him.

    Isabelle seemed lost in thought. ¡°I see... Beyer asked you? In fact, I established the bloodline bond after gaining Beyer¡¯s consent.¡±

    Isabelle chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s only a thousand years and he¡¯s already regretting it?

    ¡°Fine. His father helped me greatly. If he wishes to allow several members to leave, so be it.¡± Isabelle waved a hand casually. ¡°But you¡¯ll have to figure out how to remove the bond from them on your own. It¡¯s in their bloodline, and you shall find a solution within ¡®bloodline¡¯.¡±

    Isabelle signaled Angor to leave the pce.

    To Angor, it was obvious that Isabelle just gave him a hint.

    Should he find a Bloodline Wizard for this?

    He bid farewell to the great wizard and returned to the castle hall on the first floor.

    Only Felicia was here. Angor approached her to ask the whereabouts of Greya.

    Before he could though, Felicia shooed at him.

    ¡°Away with you. Get that Wine Thief out of my sight. If you¡¯re looking for Greya, find a mute servant. I think she¡¯s on the 4th floor watching animal shows,¡± she said while giving Angor disgusted nces. Toby was sleeping right on Angor¡¯s hand.

    Angor left while shaking his head. He wasn¡¯t sure what ¡°animal show¡± meant. Did they keep animals in Dark Castle? Or some summoned monsters?

    With a big question mark on his head, he followed behind a mute servant and headed to the 4th floor.

    The climb took longer than he thought. Again, he had to walk through all sorts of traps and mechanisms to reach where Greya was at.

    ¡°Lady Greya?¡± Angor knocked on the door he was taken to.

    ¡°Oh, Angor? Doe in.¡± Greya¡¯s voice sounded ¡°normal¡± this time. Angor felt relieved that he could meet her in her usual state.

    He opened the door and soon noticed that the walls of the room were transparent. He could easily see the mute servant that was standing outside.

    Greya was sitting in front of a table that had a dish of Soul Orbs on it. She was randomly stuffing the orbs in her mouth in a bored manner.

    Angor joined her while checking the room.

    The room wasn¡¯t big. Greya¡¯s table and chairs were the only noticeable objects. There were more things to see in the adjacent rooms since they could look through the walls.

    The room to the left had a giant fountain in it along with a number of monster statues. As for the one on the right... Angor felt speechless when he saw someone naked fighting against a blond-haired, blue-eyeddy.

    He didn¡¯t know who thedy was, but that man who had his private part openly dangling in the air was, undeniably, Shadow.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been to Spirit Realm?¡± Greya signaled Angor to take a seat.

    Angor nodded and slowly took Toby out from his pocket with a smile.

    He then handed the bird to Greya, albeit a little sadly.

    Greya didn¡¯t question what he gained from Isabelle. She only put a finger on Toby¡¯s head and cast a simple spell. ¡°It seems his wound is almost healed.¡±

    ¡°Lady Isabelle said his soul isplete now but that there are ¡®ws¡¯? She said you can tell me the details.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m d his soul¡¯s better. As for ws... yes, I can tell you about it. Toby¡¯s soul is wed because it is an unavoidable challenge for him.¡±

    ¡°Unavoidable challenge? You mean Toby is going to experience more of these conditionster?¡±

    Greya nodded and began to describe Toby¡¯s nature.

    The bird was born due to a mistake. By ident, Greya somehow created an intelligent life form, and she only seeded once in her life.

    Toby didn¡¯t seem special at all, yet Greya did use some extremely peculiar materials when creating him.

    During a journey, Greya acquired five internal organs of a legendary monster. Later, she ¡°cooked¡± the organs into five different spices¡ªsour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty.

    She spread the spices in the materials for creating Toby.

    The spices did a great job in creating the bird, but for the same spices, Toby earned an abnormality.

    ¡°In Toby¡¯s soul, there are five wandering emotions that cannot leave him. Five extreme emotions: love, hatred, grief, wrath, sadness. As you guessed, they came from the five spices.

    ¡°The legendary beast is only a dead corpse, but its powerful emotions affected Toby¡¯s soul. Toby is now possessed by the beast¡¯s emotions. And only when he finally conquers the emotions will he regain his true self.¡±

    Angor nodded slowly. ¡°So the ¡®wrath¡¯ emotion just showed up inside Toby. That emotion and his soul are fighting over the body?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly, but you can put it that way.¡±

    ¡°Which means Toby still needs to fight with the other four extreme emotionster?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡± Greya saw Angor getting worried again and smiled tofort him.

    ¡°It¡¯s his undeniable destiny to ovee the challenge in order to be free, and you don¡¯t have to worry about him. These fights aren¡¯t exactly bad things to Toby. You said that before he lost consciousness, he gained a higher level in gravity power which now works on something remote, no? Once he defeats ¡®wrath¡¯, he will enjoy even greater power. Who knows, maybe he can easily take you down when that happens,¡± Greya joked.

    Angor scratched his head. ¡°The truth is, if he wants to, Toby can already beat me.¡±

    Greya chuckled. ¡°Both men and beasts have to fight for their lives in our wizarding world. And these emotions are destined enemies for Toby. Do you not have your own challenges, Angor?¡±

    Angor fell into silence. It was true. He could either face the challenges and approach his goal or waste his life away.

    ¡°Such is the price for growing stronger.¡± Greya watched Toby¡¯s sleeping form with a gentle gaze. Back in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, the bird lived a happy and carefree life under her protection, and back then, she never thought about Toby¡¯s future.

    And he grew so rapidly when traveling with Angor...

    Greya didn¡¯t know if she wanted this, but it was definitely something good for Toby.

    She couldn¡¯t safeguard Toby forever. Someday, Toby would have to rely on himself.

 Chapter 419 - Animal Show and Boredom

    <strong>Chapter 419: &quot;Animal Show&quot; and Boredom</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    While Greya imagined Toby¡¯s future ns, Angor was still focused on the five emotions¡ª¡±five spices¡±.

    He could more or less understand how the five organs of a great beast possessed the powers of emotions. But however did Toby actually trigger them?

    If he could learn something about this, he might be able to get prepared for when Toby experienced another emotion attack.

    Angor tried to recall what happened on the day Toby fainted. It was the Krakok brothers who ripped his chest open by using their small door, which caused him to ckout. ording to Shadow¡¯s words, Toby began to attack him madly because the bird believed he killed Angor.

    Was that the reason? Toby was furious about what had happened, and it caused ¡°wrath¡± to show up?

    Angor agreed with his own deduction. At the same time, he was happy¡ªat least he wouldn¡¯t worry about dying alone in this world. There was someone who still cared for him.

    And if his assumption was correct... Toby could temporarily avoid emotion attacks by staying calm?

    Angor smiled at his own thoughts which attracted Greya¡¯s attention.

    ¡°Care to share your funny ideas?¡± Greya held her chin with one hand and looked at Angor curiously while her other hand was gently stroking Toby.

    Angor felt a bit ashamed to expose his true feelings and quickly looked around to find an excuse.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking at, er, him. He¡¯s... funny.¡±

    Greya followed Angor¡¯s sight and saw Diablo still entangled in a fight against the blonddy. Or rather, the man was being bullied one-sidedly, judging from how his pants had turned to shreds under all the attacks he received.

    Currently, Diablo was moving around the room with his pecker fully exposed. He was even intentionally showing that manhood of his to Naga while taunting her. He probably believed that nobody could see his private fight, which waspletely incorrect since the two individuals in the room next to his were observing his moves clearly.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s a lot of fun to watch,¡± Greyamented while tossing random Soul Orbs into her mouth as if she were eating popcorn.

    ¡°This ce is so dull. My body is lost, together with all the cooking materials I collected in thest century. I barely have anything to satisfy my stomach,¡± she said and winked at Angor charmingly. ¡°Such a show is the only thing that helps me spend time.

    ¡°Or, I can ask the little girl to take over so I can sleep some more.¡±

    Whileining, Greya kept swallowing the orbs.

    Angor decided not to recklessly ask about Greya¡¯s condition. It would be best if she were willing to share information first, but he should not ask about it.

    But he still needed a topic to get rid of the awkward silence, so he simply talked about Toby.

    ¡°There was one time when I and Toby were trapped somewhere with nothing around. I didn¡¯t have food stored in my bracelet. We stayed alive for enough time thanks to Toby¡¯s dried fish. And because of the dire situation, I learned how to create Mana Bread so that we won¡¯t die of hunger too soon.¡±

    Angor used ¡°somewhere¡± instead of ¡°ne passageway¡± so that he could avoid unnecessary questioning.

    ¡°But my bread looks really weird. May I get some pointers since you¡¯re here, Lady Greya?¡±

    Greya knew Angor was trying to look for things to talk, and she didn¡¯t find the question annoying at all. ¡°Mana Bread, huh? A basic cantrip learned by Gourmet Wizards. Let me see how you do it.¡±

    It had been pretty long since Greyast taught a student. She didn¡¯t feel reluctant to help the boy a little.

    With a bright smile, Angor presented Greya a ck bulge as if showing a tributary gift to his king.

    He did talk about Mana Bread out of random but getting Greya¡¯s enlightenment would be a big plus.

    He did it fast too¡ªa lot faster than how the Gourmet Apprentices in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant cooked their food. It could be seen that Angor had strengthened his foundation decently and gained proficiency in both mana control and building spell models.

    Greya kept nodding in approval as she imagined what Angor would create.

    ... Until Angor actually showed her the result.

    Personally, Greya wouldn¡¯t be harsh on Angor, an apprentice illusionist who was far from being a professional cook. It would be fine as long his food was... actual food.

    Yet she still went agape when she saw a ck lump of unknown substance with the smell of worn socks.

    In her life, this was the first time she saw such unqualified Mana Bread which had zero elements rted to ¡°edible food¡±.

    To make it worse, the creator of the disaster was smiling innocently at her as if he was really asking for his teacher¡¯s help.

    Considering that Toby was still sleeping nearby, Greya suppressed the urge to p Angor¡¯s creation to the floor. But she still looked disgusted by it. ¡°This is your Mana Bread? You¡¯re not joking on me, right?¡±

    ¡°I followed the instructions! And this is always what I get in the end.¡± Angor looked sad now.

    Greya went over Angor¡¯s movement as well as his spell model. As he said, there was no problem there.

    ¡°You did everything right, but Gourmet also requires talent... and you¡¯re just not fit for it. Don¡¯t waste your mana from now on.¡±

    Angor slumped. Since a famous Gourmet Wizard said so, he really could not hope to learn this art.

    ¡°Now take... Take it away! The stench!¡± Greya covered her nose and waved a hand at Angor. ¡°So you survived in some empty ce by eating THIS? Toby ate THIS?¡±

    Angor thought about declining just because Greya looked so terrifying, but considering what he just said earlier, he could only chuckle in a silly way.

    ¡°... Whatever. You already did a fine job keeping Toby safe.¡± Greya swallowed her rage back.

    Angor took a sniff at his bread again. As always, it smelled like socks. At least, it wasn¡¯t so terrible anymore. Maybe this was why bad smell became better after someone spent a lot of time in it?

    Defeated, he dissected and discarded the ¡°bread¡±, along with his childish hope of bing a chef.

    ...

    Greya continued to consume her Soul Orbs while she watched Diablo¡¯s ¡°naked battle¡±. She would say something asionally to exin what exactly was going on.

    The blond-haireddy was the Shadow Puppet that Shadow had been going after¡ªNaga.

    Angor suddenly felt that maybe Shadow¡¯s teacher was being pretty generous to his student. Even the appearance of Naga was designed ording to Shadow¡¯s taste.

    It was clear to see that Shadow couldn¡¯t defeat Naga, but the man never nned to do so. He was using the close calls in the fight to keep breaking his limits, and every time he did, he would do better against Naga.

    As the fight continued, Naga would lose energy faster and faster. As long as Shadow was persistent, the puppet would get exhausted sooner orter.

    The fight was fun to watch, but Shadow couldn¡¯t keep it up forever. Each time he received too many bruises on his body, he would stay far away and rest before confronting Naga again.

    And such intervals made Greya bored. With her soul iplete, she could neither meditate or cook. More importantly, the ¡°other soul¡± had consumed what was left of her materials.

    ¡°Should I go in there and y with him for a little while?...¡± Greya muttered.

    Angor jumped a little at those words. He still needed Shadow to take him to Floating Mech City. He certainly couldn¡¯t watch Shadow die right here. But again, he couldn¡¯t simply force Greya to change ideas.

    Since Greya was only bored...

    ¡°Lady Greya, shall we watch a drama to kill time?¡±

    ¡°Drama? Here? How?¡±

    ¡°Just a second. I¡¯ll do it with my illusions.¡±

    With that, Angor silently began to deploy illusion nodes.

    Greya was a little surprised at the idea. She knew Angor learned some nice illusions after watching the Twilight Auction rey, but she didn¡¯t expect the boy to be able to create actual drama.

    ¡°Ohh, this might be interesting.¡± Greya¡¯s eyes brimmed with curiosity. She wondered what Angor could bring her.

    Speaking of dramas watched by kids... Fairytale? War shows? Or pce harem fights?

    None of them sounded fun, but they were at least better than looking at a man swaying his stick around.

    Greya was surprised again when she saw Angor showing her his travels with Toby.

    From the trip on the cloud whale when Toby would deny all of Angor¡¯s questions like a spoiled kid, to the coastal area when Toby protected Angor from an attacker like a real friend, then to the bird¡¯s small music concerts... Angor skillfully manipted his illusions to disy a drama based on Toby¡¯s life.

    It was more like a hologram movie than a stage drama.

    Inside the ¡°movie¡±, Angor would asionally put himself in there as well as intentionally focus on certain details such as his fights in Sky Tower with the help of Toby. By this, he hoped Greya might teach him something else aboutbat.

    He wasn¡¯t disappointed. Maybe to show her approval toward the splendid illusion or to reward Angor for his innovation, Greya had no problem answering Angor¡¯s questions; all of which helped him a lot.

    Angor was showing the best extent of his illusion abilities by making the scenes real and touching. There were still small logic ws, but Greya didn¡¯t notice any thanks to his hard effort.

    To better satisfy Greya, he even added nightmare illusions inside the ¡°movie¡± so that Greya could interact with different presences.

    Unlike the room created for Flowey, this illusion was ¡°alive¡±. Each frame of the ¡°movie¡± required real-time calction, which forced Angor to work his mind like a restless machine.

    This experience also helped him broaden his view of illusions.

    At first, he was still doing this to entertain Greya. Later on, Angor gradually immersed his mind in the amusement of making illusions, and the details of his works were visibly improving.

    Greya simply observed the show with a constant smile. She always believed illusions were used for tricking and harming enemies. She did hear a rumor that Pleasure House had someone who could use illusions to serve their customers, but she never witnessed it for real.

    And man, this was good!

    Being able to make a wizard who had seen much of this world felt ¡°entertained¡± was worth boasting about.

 Chapter 420 - One Condition

    <strong>Chapter 420: One Condition</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    In general, Angor¡¯s drama showed what he already told Greya about Toby yesterday in a different way.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if any of the Earth movies he saw before would meet Greya¡¯s taste, but he knew that Toby was the key to trigger Greya¡¯s gentlest self. Even the most insignificant detail about Toby¡¯s daily life would greatly satisfy Greya.

    Time passed on. As Toby¡¯s story drew to an end, Angor also exhausted his mana.

    The illusion gradually vanished, while Greya kept her gaze at its direction with emotions that still lingered on her face.

    She then closed her eyes to remember the great visual feast. ¡°You¡¯ve almost caught the essential elements which are the same used by your teacher. Given enough time, the southern wizarding region will see the rise of another master illusionist.¡±

    Angor smiled politely.

    ¡°Aaaand you will be a brilliant alchemist too.¡±

    When talking about this, Greya quickly remembered the uncontroble alchemy omen the other day which was sure to dazzle most wizards in the southern wizarding region.

    ¡°Lady Isabelle took away half of your Mystery soul by force. Do you resent her?¡± she asked curiously.

    Angor hesitated just a little before replying, ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°That answer doesn¡¯t fit with your expression... Think carefully. You can count how many Master Alchemists are in this region with one hand. Getting such a title would mean absolute honor,¡± Greya said. Suddenly, her tone turned harsher as she asked, ¡°Honor might it be, do you think you can afford to bear with the title at your current age and level?¡±

    By saying ¡°afford to bear¡±, Greya was clearly giving Angor a hint.

    Angor realized he never thought about the problem of ¡°possessing great wealth¡± when creating the revolver. Or in this case, an absolute weakling who possessed wealth.

    Just the other day, Felicia was forcing him to join Candy House. His fate would be unknown if Isabelle and Greya weren¡¯t there to help him.

    And a potential danger was already getting to him before he even left the grounds of Dark Castle... It was obvious that ¡°the guilt of possessing wealth¡± wasn¡¯t something he could ¡°bear with¡± right now.

    As for the other matter. Did he really have what it took to be ¡°Mystery Alchemist¡±?

    No. Definitely.

    Mystery Items couldn¡¯t be predicted, copied, or produced by fixed methods. Hisst attempt was merely a head-bump with luck. ck Forest was conveniently full of undead energy, and his Prelude to Elimination was drawn perfectly.

    And once all the factors werebined, it created something wonderful.

    Angor fell into silence. It was not hard to imagine what would be of him if someone came after his wealth at a time when he couldn¡¯t evaluate his true strength correctly.

    As Greya said, he couldn¡¯t hold the showy title now. Both his alchemy skills and survival strengths were trivial in this world. He had no hope ofpeting with mighty wizards.

    Greya ended her lecture here since Angor already learned the problem. She finished eating the remaining Soul Orbs and reached out a finger. The walls of the room then returned to normal, preventing them from seeing beyond.

    ¡°This waking session is the happiest one since I came to Dark Castle.¡± Greya yawned as if she ate too much and said, ¡°I¡¯m going to rest. You take Toby with you or that girl will probably roast him into another dish.¡±

    She was obviously talking about the second soul in her body, which was a little girl with a voracious appetite.

    When Greya handed Toby to Angor, Angor hesitated without epting the sleeping bird.

    ¡°Em, Lady Greya, I¡¯m going to leave Dark Castle.¡± He lowered his head.

    ¡°Already?¡± Greya frowned. When running her restaurant, she was no stranger to bidding farewells to people. But Toby...

    ¡°Just as you said, ma¡¯am, every wizard has his or her undeniable challenges. I cannot idle my precious time away. I have tasks to do, and people... waiting for me.¡± Angor nced at Toby with sadness in his eyes.

    He knew he had to part with Toby sooner orter, and he believed there was no one better than Greya to trust Toby with.

    ¡°I see... You won¡¯t take Toby with you?¡± Greya held her chin.

    ¡°Can I?¡± Angor felt hope.

    ¡°Of course not.¡±

    Angor looked at the floor again.

    Greya rolled her eyes at Angor¡¯s reaction.

    ¡°I might change my mind... if you agree to one condition.¡±

    ...

    Greya left on her own, while Angor looked at his bulging pocket with a sleeping bird inside with a bright smile.

    Greya¡¯s ¡°condition¡± was simple. From the ¡°drama illusion¡± earlier, she knew Angor created a music box for Toby called ¡°Journey in Heaven¡±. She asked Angor to make a simr alchemy item. Not a musical one or anything rted to Tranquility Rune but something with a particr illusion.

    An illusion based on Toby.

    The ¡°illusionary Toby¡± had to possess basic properties like what Angor showed in his drama so that she could touch and feel the bird.

    If Angor could make this work, he would be allowed to keep Toby.

    It seemed to be a simple exchange, but Angor knew that Greya asked such a thing because something forced her to leave Toby. At the same time, she didn¡¯t wish to part with Toby for real.

    Greya¡¯s affection toward Toby was in to see. Of course she wouldn¡¯t trade Toby like an item.

    Angor decided to ept the condition.

    For one, he also didn¡¯t wish to be separated from Toby. And secondly, he was going to do another alchemy attempt by creating a flying vehicle after leaving Dark Castle. Doing Greya¡¯s request along the way wouldn¡¯t take much time.

    As for the materials... Greya simply allowed Angor to take whatever he needed from Ice Cave. There were only ¡°cheap junk¡± down there. She only needed to inform Isabe afterward, or maybe she didn¡¯t need to tell her at all.

    Without tarrying, Angor immediately decided to head to B5 for the materials. Before doing so, however, he first came into the room on the right side.

    Shadow was still taking his rest at a corner.

    Upon sensing a ¡°visitor¡±, Shadow quickly put a hand over his groin out of instinct. Then he quickly joined the new guest when he saw who hade. ¡°Are you worried about good ol¡¯ me, my friend? Good timing. I need to borrow clothes again.¡±

    Angor frowned and tossed a new robe to Shadow. He bought this one from the market in Water Grasse.

    ¡°Last one, mind you. Don¡¯t ask again.¡±

    Shadow halted his dressing attempt upon hearing these words and put the robe aside. ¡°Geez. I¡¯m still not done with Naga, and it will get ripped apart again. Guess I¡¯ll put it on after the fight.¡±

    Angor couldn¡¯t care less how Shadow would deal with an ordinary robe. He was only here to tell Shadow his next ns. ¡°Lady Greya asked me to make something. If you finish your challenge¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll wait,¡± Shadow quickly answered, ¡°inside Centenary Pce in Soul Genesis Garden. I¡¯m not going to stay in this mad women-infested sh*thole.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡± Angor nodded.

    ¡°Are you being sarcastic again? I¡¯m the one who should thank you. But whatever. We¡¯re buddies now!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t really care about those words. Shadow had shown his tricky side for more than once now. Angor would consider him a normal friend during the duration of their covenant, but this shady figure definitely wasn¡¯t qualified to be a BBF.

    Angor smiled and went to the door. Before leaving the room, he nced back at the other individual in the room who had really nice body shapes. The puppet creature had concealed her strength perfectly like a mortal. Angor wouldn¡¯t believe that Naga was as strong as a wizard if he hadn¡¯t witnessed how she fought.

    It seemed Naga sensed his gaze too. She gave Angor her own cold re in return.

    Which was soon followed by an overwhelming aura of might.

    Angor nced in another direction and noticed that Shadow didn¡¯t notice the silent disy of strength. The man was still waving goodbye with a smile.

    Angor felt the pressure disappearing when he finally got out of the room, by which his back was fully drenched in his own sweat.

    The only thing he could think of right now was ¡°leave¡±.

    ¡°Did Shadow not know about that strength or... was Naga being easy on him?¡± Angor pondered. ording to Shadow, Naga just reached the level of a wizard. Even so, the strength gap between a wizard and apprentices was still undeniablyrge. Since Shadow stayed alive under Naga¡¯s attacks for such a long time... then she was probably holding back.

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to find out why. However, he still another question.

    So the puppets made by Shadow¡¯s professor possessed intelligence?

    He always believed that they did not since they were made from corpses.

    Is that intelligence from a soul or some other medium?

    Or... is it something like ¡°artificial intelligence¡±?

    He would use his wildest imaginations when thinking about the technologies shown by Floating Mech City. Since people from that ce already created flying warships, it would be totally possible for them to create AI now.

    While trying to think of a possible answer, Angor followed behind a mute servant and headed toward floor B5 of Dark Castle again¡ªIce Cave.

 Chapter 421 - Anywhere is the Sea

    <h4>Chapter 421: Anywhere is the Sea</h4>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The danger in Ice Cavest time was caused by the rise of Isabelle¡¯s remaining soul. Now that Isabelle returned to Spirit Realm, this area had nothing special apart from being cold.

    After choosing the materials he needed, Angor found somewhere near the storage and began his alchemy work.

    In order not to reveal his tablet to anyone, he still unleashed his nightmare domain and activated Infinite Reticence before fully getting to work.

    He had two tasks now. One was to make an illusion item for Greya, and the second was a flying vehicle for himself.

    He nned to craft the vehicle first. The preparations were already done inside Water Grasse, and he only needed to find enough materials. He still hadn¡¯t made any ns for Greya¡¯s request yet. It would take some timeter.

    The core of the vehicle, which was its power source, hadplicated mechanisms that Angor had no time to think about. He simply chose an existing recipe from Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy.

    It was called the Transition Core.

    It was one of the most cost-effective power sources found in the book. All the required materials could be found around the icy storage.

    Next, he had to design a ¡°shell¡± to go with the power core. The shell wasn¡¯t important in terms of functions, but it still needed to be carefully shaped to provide optimal riding experience. One needed to choose what properties he or she wanted with the vehicle using runes, synthesis, or machine alchemy techniques.

    ording to Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy, a Transition Core was fit for a good variety of branches, including flying vehicles that relied on Rune of Floating,nd-traversing vehicles powered by gears, or something that sailed on waters.

    There were also all-inclusive ones that could travel on all kinds of terrains, but these asked for magic arrays, which meant the vehicle itself might turn out to be a mid-tier item already.

    For now, Angor dared not create another alchemy omen again. For one, he had no idea whether he could survive a second alchemy omen challenge. Besides, he absolutely did not wish to be the center of attention while inside someone else¡¯s territory.

    With these concerns, he was going to make something simple.

    To be precise, he was going to make a flying one, which obviously was the fastest for traveling great distances.

    With this determined, he had to decide the shape of the vehicle shell.

    After reading the book for more, Angor noticed that most shell designs that allowed the use of Transition Core had light and slim diamond-like shapes to optimize air current.

    However, he had to bring Dodoro along too. He couldn¡¯t keep the man inside his bracelet all the time, so he had to exclude all the extremely tiny designs that only allowed single passengers.

    As long as the power core worked its wonders, an optimized shell wouldn¡¯t really increase the speed of the vehicle.

    He nned to make something a bit bigger andfortable.

    ¡°Magic carpet? It looks handy... but it needs an extra protective rune.

    ¡°A floating house? Nice, you can decorate the rooms of it freely. But isn¡¯t this thing a bit too showy?

    ¡°An airship for solo driving... Nah. It looks like a balloon.

    ¡°Broomsticks. Ugh. Can¡¯t imagine how it will look like if Dodoro sits behind me.

    ¡°Is that a piece of tail grass? What the heck?¡±

    He read several dozen suitable designs and denied them all.

    Finally, he rested his gaze on another small vehicle near the end of the book.

    It was a boat, which appeared a lot like those tiny vessels sailing across the waterways in Water Grasse. However, this one had both ends tilted upward, which made its entire shape look like a new moon. It reminded him of the ¡°gonds¡± he saw in an Earth movie about Venice.

    The center of the boat, on the other hand, had an awning that created a small room hidden behind a curtain with starry patterns on it while the rest of the central space was empty.

    Angor felt satisfied with this one.

    This boat should have no problem supporting two passengers. The design suggested that the boat could be split into half that allowed it to be carried around conveniently, which was nice since his space bracelet was getting filled up slowly.

    The general look of the boat looked beautiful¡ªstars carved on an adorable, crescent moon.

    Since none of the other designs caught his interest, Angor determined this ¡°moon boat¡± as the shell of his new vehicle.

    Apart from theplicated Transition Core, which took him some time, the actual crafting process was smooth and fast. With the help of the hologram tablet, drawing arge-scale Rune of Floating on the boat shell went perfectly.

    He sessfully created the flying boat in two days, which also brought him a little bit of extra surprise.

    He mostly used low-tier or non-tiered materials during his attempt. Still, when one was lucky, the magical materials might disy their special properties.

    For example, there was such a material that Angor had spent a lot during his studies¡ªEarth Fiend Bronze. This non-tiered magical metal could improve the hardness and wear-resistance of products; it had a tiny chance of triggering a special effect.

    The chance itself was almost negligible, so alchemists wouldn¡¯t really take it into consideration when crafting items. If they did encounter such a thing, they might as well regard it as an ¡°Easter egg¡±.

    But still, getting the extra effect meant the product had be something withposite effects, which meant improved functionality and value. If it appeared when one was crafting a tactical weapon... it would probably multiply the item¡¯s assessment beyond what anyone could imagine.

    Things said, such luck only stayed mere luck. No one could ask for it.

    Since he started to learn alchemy, Angor had already spent maybe hundreds of tons of materials without running into such luck. Now, while crafting this flying vehicle, he could record such a jackpot in his career.

    The root of this pleasant surprise was something called ¡°Wavy Calm¡±. It was not a must-have material. Angor thought about removing it from his boat many times.

    A Wavy m was a tiny, white seashell-like object that usually floated on the surface of the water, unlike its close rtives, which often hid in sand and dirt.

    These ms tended to blend in with the white waves and foams created by the atmosphere above the sea and travel with the water flow.

    Wavy ms could be fused into the base of water-traversing vehicles to make them sail faster.

    Angor¡¯s boat, however, was meant to fly. It could still float on water like a normal boat. Even so, using Wavy ms would only increase its speed to a tiny extent.

    He wasn¡¯t nning to use the ms on his boat since they were meant for enhancing ¡°real¡± vessels.

    But he then found the ms to be pretty pleasant to look at, and their whiteness was pure like unpolluted snow. They went well with the gray wood he used to construct the bottom of the boat. After careful selection, he didn¡¯t find any other decorations better than the ms.

    In the end, he affixed Wavy ms to his boat as an extra piece.

    And the ¡°extra piece¡± brought him the greatest surprise.

    ...

    The crafting was sessful. Angor named it ¡°Gond¡± just to be convenient.

    The boat was 10.36 meters in length and 2.78 meters in width. The main body was mostly ck mixed with a blue hue, and it gradually turned to pure white toward the bottom.

    Both ends of the boat had the color of midnight, sided with luminous stones. Two winged goddess statues sat on the tips; one holding a bright sun while the other held a dim moon.

    The tips only disyed a portion of Angor¡¯s talented craftsmanship. All other details of the boat suggested careful designing and great innovation, especially the small room behind a half-transparent silk curtain decorated by more shining stars, which constantly presented something mysterious.

    The bottom of the boat was no less eye-catching.

    Angor didn¡¯t test his vehicle inside Ice Cave because the space was too small. He only activated the Rune of Floating and left the boat in midair to allow him to see the bottom carefully.

    There was no water here, but Angor believed he saw the faint images of water waves around the boat, which looked so real when he tried to push the boat around.

    Looking at the boat without minding the environment easily gave him the false impression that he was right on the sea.

    The water waves looked both like illusions and reality. Such was the ¡°pleasant gift¡± brought by the Wavy ms; anywhere the boat went, so was the sea.

    Normally, the actual effect of Wavy ms was to increase traveling speed while the vehicle was on a body of water. Now that Angor was lucky enough to bring out the hidden property of them, his flying boat would be able to fly faster without touching the water because the boat now recognized the sky as the sea.

    Now that his Gond gained extra speed, it was now as fast as most mid-tier flying vehicles.

 Chapter 422 - Gathering

    <h4>Chapter 422: Gathering</h4>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    After admiring his Gond, Angor divided it into two parts and put them inside his bracelet. It was not the time nor the ce to give the boat a ¡°test drive¡±.

    Since his desire to continue with alchemy work was still high, he decided to work on Greya¡¯s item right away.

    Greya had two requirements for this one. One, Toby had to be the ¡°theme¡± of the illusion. And secondly, she had to be able to interact with the bird in basic ways.

    A simple illusion like the room designed for Flowey would do a simr trick. However, Greya¡¯s illusion would have to be portable instead of fixed to one ce, which meant he would have to make an actual item for it.

    The first step was to design the shape of the item.

    Of course, he could make another music box like Journey in Heaven. But since he already showed the music box to Greya before, Angor found it to be a little improper... even if Greya didn¡¯t mind it.

    He decided to make something new.

    Next was about the illusion. Putting Toby inside the illusion was easy, but he still needed toe up with more details than that.

    Both steps required time. He sat down in his nightmare domain and began drawing all kinds of theories on papers while indulging his mind in the pleasant world of illusions.

    Meanwhile, some immeasurable distance away¡ª

    A bright sh of yellow light suddenly assaulted Parmigi Hignds. When the light died down, a woman with a hot body shape emerged from the light, along with an overwhelming aura of might.

    Next, everyone who was in Tree Spirit Garden za inside Brute Cavern suddenly received a warning that asked them to leave the za as fast as possible.

    Anyone who lingered after two minutes would be killed.

    Immediately, all apprentices showed fear and scattered away by their own means, either by using vehicles, teleporting, or running on legs.

    It was barely one minute when the central za waspletely cleared out.

    Next, a giant barrier descended from the sky. A group of Matter Handlers performed their spells from outside the barrier to eliminate all life forms still inside the area.

    A momentter, whatever that was alive and covered by the barrier soon lost their life, be it insects or birds.

    An opening appeared on the barrier. Led by ¡°Silencer¡± Rein Mute, several dozen wizards slowly entered the za. Sunders was also walking right beside Rein.

    ¡°She¡¯s here.¡± Without moving his lips, Rein somehow made a speech that was heard by Sunders.

    Again, Sunders was wearing his all-ck gentleman set. He was constantly walking one step behind Rein to show respect.

    ¡°I sensed it.¡± Sunders looked toward one direction; he was looking at the sexy woman on Parmigi Hignds and across countless obstacles.

    The woman also noticed his gaze. Across the great distance, they silently looked at each other.

    ¡°Hey yo. It¡¯s been pretty long,¡± the woman mumbled in a small voice.

    Her lips had the color of shattered blue crystals, with solid and fissure-like lines that of actual ss. Apart from looking amazing, the lip color also gave her an exceptional charming temperament.

    ¡°Disgusting, as ever,¡± Sunders looked away and muttered to Rein.

    ¡°That¡¯s... partially my fault. I owed her a lot...¡± Rein sighed.

    They moved again until the group of wizards reached the center of the Tree Spirit za.

    No one spoke. Everyone stood in silence.

    Flora slowly floated to Sunders and touched down beside the gentleman.

    ¡°Did they make any moves?¡± Sunders asked her.

    ¡°Nope. Still inside the underground market. But I think Mntha left her post in Sky Tower. Looking for Baroque, I guess.¡±

    Sunders revealed a cold grin. ¡°They spied on us for years on end, only to find their fruit already picked by someone else. Oh, I really want to see their faces now.¡±

    Meanwhile, the man being discussed, Baroque, was pacing back and forth on the top floor of Sky Tower, just like Sunders expected. Each of his steps would crack up the floor a little, while he kept cursing something between his breaths.

    ¡°Damn.

    ¡°Old shite!

    ¡°How dare he tricked me?!¡±

    ¡°Mister Baroque, please calm down. There are fighters below us. We don¡¯t want to break the magic arrays on this floor.¡± It was a middle-aged woman in a tight ck uniform, who had been staying with Baroque.

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t care less about them! Like, I¡¯d kill them myself just to rid my anger. Mntha, which side are you on anyway?!¡±

    Though irritated, Mntha still maintained her professionalism. ¡°I¡¯m with you, of course. But at the same time, I must protect the benefit of Floating Mech City. I can¡¯t see the hard-earned project built by Floating Mech City over the past years crumble just because you¡¯re angry.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m angry? I¡¯m angry! Do you know Samantha is already at the doorsteps of Brute Cavern?!¡±

    ¡°I do. But isn¡¯t that something we expected?¡± Mntha spoke in a casual tone. She then said, ¡°I believe I mentioned it to you half a year ago. Samantha sent her familiar, and soon, ¡®that ce¡¯ was sealed off.¡±

    Baroque stopped pacing and visibly slumped down. ¡°Back then, I thought it was Mister Monkey who asked Samantha to send a warning to Sunders by using Rein Mute as a tool.¡±

    ¡°But isn¡¯t that exactly what happened?¡± Mntha raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Well, yes. But I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d do THAT! The Thousand Spirit Garden! The best Sorcerer¡¯s Garden you could find in the entire south! I already told Rein Mute my intention when I came here, and he agreed! Look at him, going back on his words!¡±

    Mntha didn¡¯t say anything. She knew Baroque came to Brute Cavern for the garden to tackle his bottleneck, even if it meant lowering his head to his old enemy, Rein Mute.

    But in the end, it was those from Moonfrost Union who won the ticket.

    ¡°I¡¯d choose the same if I were Rein Mute,¡± Mntha said and considered. ¡°If Mister Monkey can use the demon offspring to be a legendary wizard... it means hope to Rein Mute. Rein isn¡¯t far from his goal after all.

    ¡°Besides, his decision didn¡¯t only damage your profit, Mister Baroque. He dragged an entire generation of Brute Cavern down with it. But it¡¯s still worthwhile, as long as it gives Rein a chance to peek into the future.¡±

    Mntha clearly knew that Baroque understood everything she said. It was just that Baroque couldn¡¯t ept the truth.

    ¡°Not only the future...¡± Baroque looked tired as if he suddenly gained several years of age. ¡°Samantha... I should¡¯ve known... He will repay his debt to Samantha. I thought he would use Sunders, not Thousand Spirit Garden...¡±

    ¡°Take it easy. There are always other ways to break through,¡± Mntha said as she tried tofort him.

    Baroque shook his head in defeat but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Mntha bowed to Baroque and turned to the door.

    ¡°So, are you going back to Floating Mech City?¡± Baroque asked before the woman left.

    ¡°Yes. It is time.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of other ways... The purification garden is one, and the souls of elite apprentices... might taste good.¡±

    Mntha only smiled back. Everyone and everywhere was the same when it came to personal gain. Brute Cavern and Floating Mech City were no exceptions.

    ...

    In Tree Spirit za, a witch who was constantly carrying a beautiful aura like a rose stepped toward Flora.

    ¡®Rose Crown¡¯ Leona, the only professional alchemist in Brute Cavern. She studied Perfume Brewing, a special subfield of Apothecary. And wherever she went, people could smell perfume around her.

    Witches were rare in Brute Cavern. She was a good friend of Flora. At the same time, they keptpeting with each other over different matters.

    ¡°Ugh. You instantly remind me of someone with all that smell.¡± Flora wrinkled her nose.

    ¡°Angor, is it?¡± Leona sighed. ¡°Thanks to your introduction, I earned a huge sum. Trust me, I would have given you a good share... if Mister Phantom didn¡¯t get to me first.¡±

    She secretly nced at Sunders and found no response from the gentleman. Sunders wasn¡¯t even looking her way.

    Leona pointed at Sunders and rolled her eyes at Flora.

    Flora couldn¡¯t hold back chuckling.

    Leona made a duck-face and whispered to Flora¡¯s ears, ¡°So Mister Phantom really cares about Angor? He asked me to give the boy alchemy lessons. Hundreds of hours of sessions!¡±

    ¡°Well, I heard Angor¡¯s pretty talented at alchemy.¡± Flora shrugged.

    ¡°Two alchemy omens, right? I know them.¡± Leona didn¡¯t seem impressed since she often created such omens during her career. ¡°Guess I have to listen to Mister Phantom now.¡±

    Leona said that one out loud in order to embarrass Sunders. But again, Sunders paid her no attention.

    ¡°By the way, I came back from Manda ne just to send invitations to those disgraceful students of mine so that they can go to the purification garden. You have a student too, no? How is he? Did you give him an invitation yet?¡±

    Flora humphed. ¡°You heard of him before, right? That half-blood from a foreign ne. Invitation? Oh,e on. I¡¯m not so generous.¡±

    Flora moved closer to Sunders next. ¡°Hey, professor, do you think Angor will go to the purification garden this time?¡±

 Chapter 423 - Samanthaâ€™s Arrival

    <strong>Chapter 423: Samantha¡¯s Arrival</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°I will go,¡± Sunders answered instead of mentioning Angor.

    ¡°Maybe he¡¯s dead?¡± Flora rolled her eyes.

    Her words attracted Leona, who dly joined their conversation. ¡°Angor¡¯s what now?¡±

    ¡°Missing.¡± Sunders looked at Leona.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, missing,¡± Flora quibbled, ¡°into a random ne passageway. Oh, and he doesn¡¯t know any coordinates.¡±

    ¡°Tsk. He came to Brute Cavernst year, right?¡± Leona shook her head. ¡°He¡¯s probably still a level-1 apprentice now.¡±

    A level-1 apprentice who was lost in an unknown ne passageway... As anyone would believe, death was the only possible oue.

    ¡°Now your request doesn¡¯t seem too bad to me.¡± Leona winked at Sunders charmingly. Sunders asked her to give Angor lessons. Now that Angor might be dead...

    ¡°So you agreed after all? Good, so I don¡¯t have to force you,¡± Sunders replied coldly.

    ¡°Lecturing a dead boy for a hundred hours isn¡¯t a big deal. Heck, you can ask me to give him a thousand and I¡¯d agree too.¡± Leona didn¡¯t seem worried at all.

    ¡°Remember your words. Again, he¡¯s ¡®missing¡¯.¡±

    Leona didn¡¯t argue with Sunders further. It was Flora who sounded her opinion next when she asked, ¡°You¡¯re sure Angor¡¯s fine, professor?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not qualified as my student if he dies this easily.¡±

    As always, nobody could really understand how this gentleman¡¯s brain worked. Well, maybe Flora could catch the drift just a little.

    ¡°I see.¡± Flora nodded.

    ¡°Do you hope to see him dead?¡± Sunders looked her way.

    ¡°No... I do want him toe back. The kid¡¯s good at alchemy, right? We need someone like that. I happen to have something he could help with.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ lips twitched a little, but he didn¡¯t add anything else.

    Before Leona could ask further, the mirror barrier in the sky suddenly shifted and revealed a hot-looking woman in a long, blue dress, along with her sharp giggling that echoed around everyone¡¯s ears.

    Leona quickly swallowed her question back down. She couldn¡¯t say anything even if she wanted to since Rein Mute had fully exerted his silence aura. Apart from several wizards, everyone on the scene could no longer move or talk.

    ¡°Samantha...¡± Rein¡¯s usually calm expression showed a tiny bit of suppressed excitement. ¡°It¡¯s been a hundred years. So, you finally did it?¡±

    Samantha slowlynded on the ground. Her long ck waterfall-like hair stopped in front of her breast. Her blue dress added with her crystal lips made her look both alluring and distant.

    Samantha scoffed at Rein, ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to follow the steps of Mister Phantom. And I can¡¯t fall too far behind. Now enough about me, my dear dad. You appear a lot different thanst time... old, I mean.¡±

    Samantha¡¯s sharp words sank into Rein¡¯s heart.

    ¡°Surely you¡¯re powerful enough to repair your looks?¡± Samantha floated around Rein, and she finally stopped in front of Sunders and tapped at the gentleman¡¯s chest with her crystal-blue fingernail. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you decided to learn from this nutskull and let time do its wonder to your face? Or is it because you felt bad for abandoning me?¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t let the woman finish her taunt. He pushed her away. ¡°I¡¯m not interested in broken ss.¡±

    Samantha steadied herself and looked back at Sunders with a grim look.

    She nned to make a scene in front of her father and gain an advantage, but she forgot to consider a certain ¡°party buster¡± among the group.

    ¡°Is this how you greet an old friend?¡± Samantha smoothened her hair without lifting her malevolent expression.

    ¡°Sickening, as always.¡± Sunders lowered his top hat and looked at Rein Mute. ¡°Let¡¯s get down to business, Mister Rein. I still have other nster.¡±

    Rein Mute simply sighed. He knew the gentleman¡¯s temperament. Sunders was already doing him a big favor by showing up.

    ¡°Let us begin.¡± Rein gave Samantha an apologetic look.

    ¡°You can pretend all you like.¡± That was what Samantha said against her father¡¯s courtesy.

    Then she turned to Sunders again. ¡°My teacher waited for your gravity garden for a long time. Don¡¯t displease him by dragging it longer. You MUSTe with me this time!¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t seem interested at all. ¡°I think Mister Monkey is well prepared, and to wait for a little more wouldn¡¯t hurt. I¡¯m just there to help with smuggling, not anything important.¡±

    ¡°Then at least tell me when are you going to Abyss? Or where are you heading to next? I need to find you so that I have something to tell my professor.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to Floating Mech City next. As for Abyss... I can¡¯t tell you.¡±

    ¡°The Thousand Spirit Garden is on,¡± Rein interrupted them before Samantha could protest again. ¡°Come, Samantha.¡±

    A fissure appeared in the center of Tree Spirit za. From the sudden entrance, they could hear the lively chirping of birds.

    Samantha gave Sunders a hateful re and walked into Thousand Spirit Garden, a ce she was most familiar with. But she had note here for a century now.

    Rein followed her to the entrance. ¡°Sunders,e with me. The rest of you, guard this ce.¡±

    Sunders nodded and followed suit.

    When the three wizards disappeared from everyone¡¯s view, the silent aura covering their bodies finally vanished. Leona stretched her arms and rested her head on Flora¡¯s smooth shoulder in azy manner.

    ¡°See? Your teacher¡¯s just a dumdum. He has zero reaction when Samantha¡¯s trying to get to him! Weren¡¯t they like really good friends in Brute Cavern a hundred years ago? I thought they would develop something better. But not like this. Well, I guess people all have different fates. Following Mister Monkey, Samantha is now a level-2 ¡®truth finder¡¯ wizard... She has a really bright future.¡±

    Flora giggled in her signature, eerie way. ¡°You¡¯re wrong about that one. He¡¯s not dumb. He can see clearer than anyone else.

    ¡°Suppose he¡¯s going to find a partner, she should be someone who can keep up with him on the path of truth. Samantha? She¡¯s not good enough.¡±

    While they talked, on a giant leaf of Tree of Eternity, well above Tree Spirit Garden, a young man in a white robe looked at the fissure entrance excitedly.

    ¡°Finally...¡± The end of his word was pronounced in a strange, upturned way. It seemed he was holding back a lot of emotions.

    He closed his eyes and thought about a number of different people.

    He then reopened his eyes. There were streams of red tears of blooding from his eyes. He silently turned away and walked toward the Tree Spirit Pce with a long, slim object that disyed a bloody aura in his hand.

    ...

    Inside Ice Cave, which was located on floor B5 in Dark Castle.

    Angor had spent a full day preparing all ns and designs for his work.

    His final decision was to craft an ear stud in the shape of a feather.

    He was going to use micro illusions to ce illusion nodes in the item and allow the item¡¯s user to trigger the illusion with mana.

    It wasn¡¯t a difficult attempt. The product was probably a simple, tiered item.

    However, Angor found it harder than he imagined when he actually got down to work. The process proved to be moreplicated than Gond.

    He had no problem weaving an illusion into an item or even more than one. However, Greya requested ¡°touch and feel¡±, which meant he had to blend nightmare illusion in the item as well.

    For ¡°Journey in Heaven¡±, he used emotion controls and energy that triggered someone¡¯s memory to help the illusion look more touching. Still. the clouds and floating ind weren¡¯t real.

    What he had to do now had to be better than Journey in Heaven.

    He failed many times while trying to fuse nightmare illusion with alchemy.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if it was natural for nightmare illusions and alchemy works to be exclusive to each other. The Mystery of Nightmare Domain didn¡¯t contain relevant information since neither Sunders nor Flora knew alchemy.

    He felt stumped. It was so easy to deploy a nightmare illusion or make itst longer. He just created one for Flowey not long ago.

    But he didn¡¯t know how to put such a thing permanently into an object and allow it to activate at free will.

    He tried shrouding the feather ear stud under nightmare aura.

    At first, the illusion created this way worked fine. As long as there was enough mana support, it wouldst for years.

    But once the illusion was canceled, the nightmare aura would disappearpletely, which would then make the illusion ¡°fake¡± when the item was used for a second time.

    Increasing the amount of nightmare aura used on the item or changing the orientations of illusion nodes didn¡¯t help him make any progress.

    After spending several more days without seeding, he could only give up using nightmare aura for now.

 Chapter 424 - Leaving Dark Castle

    <strong>Chapter 424: Leaving Dark Castle</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    He had to find other solutions.

    For example, could he try blocking someone¡¯s senses or tricking their minds?

    He already possessed peculiar illusion talent. When creating Journey in Heaven, he didn¡¯t add any particrly special elements into the music box. However, the final product amazed everyone, including Lady Mirror, who set their eyes upon the wonderful illusion that seemed to freeze time.

    Since that experience, Angor believed he gained a brand new level of knowledge about illusions. Swiftly, he learned how to mislead people¡¯s senses of directions or space.

    But when he got his hands on The Mystery of Nightmare Domain, he began to ignore his own talent after learning about nightmare illusions.

    He didn¡¯t know whether he should focus on one thing at a time, but he would admit that nightmare illusions were quite handy. Today, however, he realized that nightmare illusions couldn¡¯t be used together with alchemy, or at least not unless he learned how to.

    For now, he had to revert to using pure illusion to finish his task.

    Another three days had passed. Angor looked at the feather ear stud in his hand and frowned.

    He finally made this thing without using nightmare aura, which tricked someone¡¯s ¡°sense of touch¡±. But it only worked for someone of the same level as him, namely, level-2 apprentices or below.

    The illusion was based on Toby. Yet it would not work on Greya, not unless Greya chose to open up her mind to the illusion.

    Generally speaking, he failed. An alchemy product that required its user to ¡°cooperate¡± wasn¡¯t a convincing product at all.

    But he didn¡¯t have another choice. ording to a servant, Shadow had already obtained Naga and left before him.

    He had to go back. And this ¡°failed item¡± was the only thing he could provide Greya for now.

    With the hope to earn some scores back, he did his best to perfect the other details of the ear stud.

    Next, he returned to the first floor, and with a sad expression, he found Greya.

    His looks immediately told Greya about his ipetent job.

    And since Greya didn¡¯t know much about alchemy, Angor had to spend some time exining the problems about the item.

    ¡°... But the other day, I can connect with the existence in your illusion with my hand,¡± Greyamented.

    Angor certainly couldn¡¯t tell Greya about his Nightmare Domain. ¡°It¡¯s a special way of using illusion I learned from professor Sunders. But I just found it¡¯s impossible to do that with alchemy, so I can only make this thing that works by tricking your mind. But I can¡¯t make something powerful at my level. This one can only ¡®trick¡¯ someone like me, or people weaker than me.¡±

    ¡°That is to say, your ear stud is pointless to me?¡±

    Angor nodded, but he quickly shook his head after that. ¡°It will work if you open up your spirit to feel the illusion, Lady Greya.¡±

    Then he looked down in shame again.

    It was a joke, asking wizards to lower their spirit defense and ept the effect of an illusion.

    ¡°It¡¯s a failure. I... tried my best,¡± Angor muttered in a small voice.

    Greya didn¡¯t answer. In her point of view, Angor had satisfied her requirement. The item wasn¡¯t a failure. It was just that the boy held himself to really high standards.

    She knew that Angor meant to make something that worked for both apprentices and wizards, but to most people, this was almost impossible.

    Every time an apprentice managed to create something convenient for wizards, it would arouse celebrations and heated discussions. And 99% of the time, apprentice alchemists should NOT be able to achieve such things.

    Yet it seemed that Angor had apletely different idea.

    Greya silently sighed in her mind. She could see that Angor was truly feeling sorry for his ¡°failure¡±.

    She also knew that this wasn¡¯t because the boy had strict discipline. Angor underestimated himself too much because he never met many alchemists in his life.

    Any other alchemists who just presented this ear stud would already boast about their achievement at this moment.

    Angor carefully looked up, and when he noticed that Greya didn¡¯t show him any expressions, he quickly became uneasy again. ¡°Lady Greya, I¡¯m... I¡¯m still too inexperienced. I promise that one day, I¡¯ll be better, and I¡¯ll make something better and deliver it to your door.¡±

    He didn¡¯t mention returning Toby to Greya because he knew Greya would absolutely hate anyone who regarded Toby as a trade item.

    Greya grinned after a while. ¡°Okay, I ept your offer. But! I have another condition to ask.¡±

    ¡°What is it, Lady Greya?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to keep it in your n. I¡¯ll tell you when to start making the item.¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Greya already found Angor¡¯s descriptions to be satisfactory, but she wouldn¡¯t decline an extra offer from the boy since he said so.

    Angor had a bright future as an alchemist. Greya got a feeling that she just earned a promise from a potential Master Alchemist.

    ¡°Now, show me your item.¡±

    Angor had been telling her the drawbacks of the product without taking it out. With a start, he carefully took the feather ear stud in his hand and handed it to Greya politely.

    The feather had a silver theme and delicate engravings. Every single pattern followed how Toby¡¯s feathers looked. Soft, detailed, and exceptionally pretty.

    From the first look, Greya was content with the item¡¯s appearance.

    ¡°It looks good! As for the illusion... it doesn¡¯t really matter. I¡¯ll wait for your little surprise in theing days.¡±

    Angor scratched his head and chuckled.

    ¡°Can you show me Toby?¡± Greya put the item in her pocket casually.

    Angor then fumbled to open up his chest pocket and reveal the bird.

    Greya ran her hand gently along Toby¡¯s back.

    ¡°Toby¡¯s in your hands now. I... cannot take good care of him in my current condition,¡± Greya said and sighed. ¡°I lost my body in Nightmare Realm, and I believe my enemies already found out that I¡¯m still alive. It¡¯s too dangerous for Toby to stay with me.¡±

    ¡°Rest assured, Lady Greya. I will protect Toby,¡± Angor said with a solemn look.

    ¡°Oh, I trust you.¡± Greya grinned again and returned Toby in Angor¡¯s hands, albeit still a little hesitantly. ¡°So are you going to leave Dark Castle soon?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Greya took out a space capsule as well as a shining golden card. ¡°Take these. The capsule has Soul Orbs in there. Toby may need them if he runs into another emotion-rted conflict. The card is a golden VIP card for Butterfly Tavern. Felicia¡¯spensation for you. She hopes you don¡¯t mind what she did during that dinner.¡±

    Neither of them wanted to talk about the matter since Isabelle already warned them not to question it. Angor would also like to avoid mentioning the incident that involved the secrets of his soul. He epted the items without saying anything.

    ¡°Now, off with you,¡± Greya said as she gave Toby onest, affectionate look, ¡°and I hope you two can present me with more surprises next time.¡±

    Angor bowed deeply to Greya and turned away.

    He didn¡¯t need time to pack up his things since everything he needed was inside the bracelet. Following the zigzagging path, he slowly left the grounds of Dark Castle.

    Greya stayed near the window and saw the boy off.

    She sat back on a sofa after she finally sensed that Angor had left Otherworld.

    ¡°... If you really can¡¯t leave Toby, at least you can let me keep him. I can always ensure his safety.¡± Felicia emerged from the shadows.

    ¡°Oh pshh. He¡¯ll probably run away from you even if you don¡¯t chase him away first. I believe Angor cares for Toby with all his heart. And Toby¡¯s happier that way.¡±

    ¡°Are you certain you will entrust Toby to an apprentice?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m putting my belief in Toby¡¯s future. Angor¡¯s future. And...¡±

    My own future.

    Felicia nodded and didn¡¯t question further. She simply sat down beside Greya and sipped her wine.

    Greya took out Angor¡¯s ear stud and injected some mana inside while wondering what kind of illusion awaited her.

 Chapter 425 - Choosing Offshoots

    Chapter 425: Choosing Offshoots

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor opened the door of Centenary Pce and immediately saw Shadow sitting on top of Naga. Thetter was obviously breathing heavily with her face blushing all over.

    ¡°Am I interrupting? Guess I¡¯ll be off.¡± Angor closed the door again.

    A momentter, Shadow reopened the door awkwardly. He was now fully dressed.

    ¡°That was fast...¡± Angormented in all seriousness while ncing at Shadow¡¯s groin area.

    ¡°This is an adult business!¡± Shadow groaned.

    They walked inside the pce and prepared to talk about their next n when the grand priest came to seek an audience again.

    ¡°Geez, his nose¡¯s sharp like a dog, I tell you. When I came back here first, he immediately knew it too,¡± Shadowined.

    Angor asked the old Krakok toe in.

    A bright green hummingbird circled in the air for a while and ced the priest on a desk.

    ¡°Mister.¡± The old man quickly gave Angor a passionate re.

    Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve asked Lady Isabelle.¡±

    ¡°Lady Isabelle? She¡¯s back?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. It may be the remnant of her soul that she left behind.¡±

    The priest decided not to question about wizard business. ¡°What did Lady Isabelle say about the matter?¡±

    Shadow also looked their way.

    ¡°She agreed,¡± Angor said.

    The old Krakok immediately grew excited upon these words.

    ¡°However, we cannot break the magic array in Hippocrotee city. That is to say, to free a small number of your people, we must think of something to remove the bond from their blood.¡±

    The priest looked hesitant. It was both good news and bad news.

    ¡°I said I¡¯ll do what I can, and I¡¯ll keep my words, especially since Isabelle allowed so. I¡¯ll go back and ask my professor about a solution. If I get any info, I¡¯lle here again.¡±

    ¡°Young mister, so you cannot take them away right now?¡±

    ¡°Wait, did you already choose someone?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°That is correct. Their lives seem peaceful and happy here, yet we both know it¡¯s an illusion, a lie. It¡¯s better for them to go out earlier and adjust to foreign lives.¡±

    Angor took a moment to think about it. It wasn¡¯t a difficult task to bring several Krakoks along since he could keep them inside the bracelet. But he felt the responsibility to be quite heavy. He was going to protect the seed of hope of an entire race, but he was not even strong enough to protect himself yet.

    The wise priest quickly noticed Angor¡¯s concern. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about their safety, young mister. Just... find a suitable ce for them, and they will rise, even if their new home can be harsh. Trust me, Krakoks are hard-working folks.¡±

    That didn¡¯t sound too hard now.

    ¡°Well, I think you can agree,¡± Shadow¡¯s voice suddenly came through a spell as he said, ¡°the Krakoks are considered native in this world too, which means we can teach them wizardry. Suppose the Krakoks all have simr talent levels as those brothers with me, then they¡¯re pretty good too. You can bring them back to your organization as apprentices or ask them to follow you. Once they be strong, you¡¯ll get some decent followers.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reply. He never nned to actually take students, but Shadow¡¯s opinion seemed sound.

    ¡°Apart from wizardry, you see how good the stuff they crafted? Do you have a mortal family? They can help them receive good ie through their skills.¡±

    Angor¡¯s eyes brightened up.

    It had been 3 years since he left home. If nothing else went wrong, he would be returning to Old Earth at the end of next year, which meant it was convenient for him to take the Krakoks home. These creatures were too tiny to make human-sized furniture, but their smaller works of art could boost the ie of Padt Family pretty well.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll take them away.¡± Angor nodded toward the grand priest, who had been eagerly waiting for an answer.

    ¡°Thank you very much for the blessing!¡±

    ¡°Now bring them to me, with their luggage. We¡¯re leaving today. I have food and water for them for now, but they should take their own just in case something happens.¡±

    ¡°Right! I¡¯ll summon them right away!¡± The grand priest suddenly became a lot more spirited. He hopped on his hummingbird sprightly and departed.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to choose for yourself so that you can find more talented ones?¡± Shadow asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have any items to test out their talents. Do you?¡±

    ¡°Nah. Heck, even these clothes are yours,¡± Shadow said. He then revealed a wicked grin. ¡°You can just breach their spirit defense to look inside, you know?¡±

    ¡°No point breaking the rules for this.¡±

    Someone without zero talent could easily die or be retarded upon receiving such a violent test. Wizards usually forbid such a method even though no one would actually punish the offender as long as he or she did not make a fuss. Anyway, it was not as if somebody cared about the life and death of mortals.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really need to find talents. Let their luck decide.¡±

    Shadow shrugged and rested on a chair. ¡°Suit yourself.¡±

    The man began to fiddle around Naga¡¯s breast area.

    Angor looked away from the disgrace.

    ¡°Once we¡¯re back at Real World, I¡¯ll need a day to get food supplies. You good with that?¡± Angor asked when he made sure Shadow was done with his ¡°adult business¡±.

    ¡°Yeah, sure. I¡¯ll need to get something to wear too. Also, we must use my vehicle to travel to Silent Hill. Don¡¯t youugh at me!¡±

    They both knew that Shadow¡¯s ¡°vehicle¡± seemed pretty girlish. It was not like he had another choice¡ªhe looted it from a dead female apprentice.

    When Angor imagined how he would fly with another guy who was wearing a colorful silk cape, he shivered.

    ¡°No, thanks. I have a vehicle. I... made it the other day. But I haven¡¯t tested it out yet.¡±

    Shadow wasn¡¯t surprised at all when hearing this. Angor almost created a Mystery Item back at Dark Castle. Creating a vehicle wasn¡¯t a big deal.

    Still, Shadow felt jealous. ¡°Hey, let me have a look. What kind of vehicle is it?¡±

    Angor was already nning to test it out in the open, and he reached for his ¡°Gond¡±. Before he could get it from his bracelet, the grand priest returned.

    ¡°Guess we¡¯ll do it when we¡¯re leaving Water Grasse,¡± said Angor.

    The priest brought 30 Krakok families with a total of 81 individuals to the pce. Every Krakok was trembling in fear when they saw the two giants staring at them.

    Angor noticed that there wasn¡¯t anyone too old or too young. They were mostly in the prime of their lives or energetic teenagers.

    ¡°Young mister, I¡¯ve already told them about their mission,¡± the old priest exined. ¡°They know everything apart from the issue of our souls.¡±

    ¡°Pfft. You told them nothing then? Their soul problem IS why we need to do this.¡± Shadow snickered.

    The priest looked down. He didn¡¯t know how to exin the problem to his people, or how to tell them that the souls of their ancestors all became someone¡¯s fuel instead of resting in heaven.

    ¡°What exactly did you tell them?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°That there¡¯s an issue in their bloodline, and we need you to solve that problem. Also, I asked them to bring the bloodline of Krakoks farther and to establish new homes beyond,¡± the old man replied carefully.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded and approached the nervous Krakoks. ¡°I agreed to your grand priest¡¯s request to take you away to a new home. I have only one condition while we¡¯re traveling together; you must absolutely listen to my orders, at all times.¡±

    Angor saw the old priest trying to say something and spoke first, ¡°As a wizard, I swear to the world¡¯s consciousness that I shall not harm you along the way. And once you all settle down, I¡¯ll no longer intervene with your actions. What say you?¡±

    The Krakoks looked at each other. They then looked at their grand priest, who wasn¡¯t going to give them any opinions. The old man had already decided to let his people decide their own fate.

    The silencested for a while.

    The grand priest kept ncing at Angor¡¯s impatient expression and feared that the young wizard would suddenly change his mind.

 Chapter 426 - Leaving Home

    Chapter 426: Leaving Home

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    A greenish figure walked among the crowd until it reached the front. Then the figure knelt down in front of Angor.

    ¡°Mister, I shall listen to yourmand with all my heart.¡±

    She was a young Krakok girl in a green bubble skirt. Her gesture made her skirt spread a little on the floor like a newborn sapling ready to wee the first spring.

    Both Angor and Shadow knew that face. She was the first Krakok they encountered in Soul Genesis Garden¡ªPapaya from Seedling Vige.

    Angor nced at the grand priest. He believed this old man intentionally ordered the girl to present herself.

    There was something in Papaya¡¯s eyes. It seemed she wanted to say something else, yet she did nothing more than showing her absolute obedience to Angor.

    With someone to set off the domino effect, another Krakok boy who had been looking at Papaya affectionately also knelt down, followed by his parents. One after one, all Krakoks now had their knees on the floor as they showed their respect to Angor.

    Seeing this, the old priest stroked his beard and smiled with tears around his eye corner. He once heard Angor mentioning Papaya¡¯s name so he made this selection starting from Seedling Vige. Of course, Papaya was among the ¡°candidates¡±.

    Angor patiently waited for the crowd to quiet down before he finally nodded.

    He already agreed to take the Krakoks away, and now, he had to decide where to put them.

    Eighty-one seemed like a big number, but these creatures were tiny. A moderate-sized box should be enough to hold them all.

    His bracelet had enough space for them, but he couldn¡¯t just stuff them in there randomly since there were other precious items in the space storage. He couldn¡¯t afford the time to constantly check what was going on in his stash.

    Thinking about this, he picked out a piece of ebony woodmon, non-tiered material¡ªfrom his bracelet and skillfully put it inside Thaw while using Hand of Spell to carve it. Two minutester, a miniature wooden skyscraper based on the buildings he saw from Earth movies appeared on the desk.

    The ¡°model¡± stood about 4 meters high. A round base was fixed below it to steady the building.

    All the Krakoks eximed in awe at the amazing sight.

    Angor pointed at Papaya. ¡°You,e.¡±

    The girl pointed at herself and looked around only to notice that she was the one being asked. She then slowly walked toward the building on uncertain steps.

    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Angor pretended he didn¡¯t know her.

    Papaya was briefly surprised before she quickly understood Angor¡¯s intention. ¡°Papaya, mister. My name is Papaya.¡±

    ¡°Good. So, Papaya, you will be the leader of your small traveling n for now.¡± Angor pointed at the building model. ¡°This skyscraper has 15 floors and about a hundred rooms. You shall be responsible for the arrangement of your people inside.¡±

    ¡°For us?¡± Papaya seemed very happy. ¡°Understood! Thank you, mister!¡±

    ¡°You have an hour.¡±

    The building structure was something new to Krakoks, but the design was simple enough. He didn¡¯t need to do exnations.

    Papaya bowed and put on a serious look in front of others. ¡°Everyone, follow me and gather under the skyscra... Skyscraper!¡±

    While Papaya did her job, Angor signaled at the old priest and asked him toe.

    The old man nodded and followed Angor out of the pce.

    Shadow cast a curious nce at Angor and didn¡¯t follow. Instead, he began to scan the small building with his spirit feelers. Every floor inside was finely arranged with seven to eight rooms. The rooms weren¡¯t big, but they all had their small balconies. Also, none of the rooms had doors or furniture inside. However, there were spare materials lying around, which meant Angor wanted the Krakoks to perfect their own living space.

    ¡°Ohh, he even left them something to kill time on the trip.¡± Shadow would admit that he appreciated Angor¡¯s thoughtfulness.

    ...

    Outside the pce, Angor spoke to the grand priest.

    ¡°I can help them carry any Krakok-rted properties too. Vegetables, books, livestock, or art... as long as there aren¡¯t too many.¡±

    He offered this because he wanted the Krakoks to keep some of their own possessions. They wouldn¡¯t quite inherit the blood of Krakok if they started EVERYTHING anew.

    The old priest looked at Angor silently before he went for his hummingbird again.

    ¡°I now believe that it is our fate to meet with you, young mister.¡±

    Angor snickered. He didn¡¯t believe in such things.

    About an hourter, the grand priest returned with all the clerics as well as a team of hummingbird knights.

    The clerics were carrying the wisdom of their race¡ªscrolls, parchments, and books made from pattra leaves.

    The knights had misceneous items representing their daily lives. Handicrafts, seeds, and seedlings. Some of them even had struggling animal whelps in their ropes.

    ¡°Young mister, are these...?¡± Clearly, the old priest thought they brought too much.

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything. The Krakoks were small, so were their possessions. ¡°Too much¡± in their eyes basically meant an extra handful for Angor. If he wasn¡¯t looking closely, he¡¯d have thought the book-carrying clerics just brought him some sand.

    Next, Angor found some fertile dirt on the ground and returned inside the pce. He distributed the dirt inside several square-shaped slots on the skyscraper¡¯s base so that the Krakok could grow food during their journey.

    All the clerics and knights also stared at the amazing structure in wonder. Then, following Papaya¡¯smand, they began to load their legacy into the new home of the immigrants.

    It took another quarter for everything toplete.

    Angor asked the clerics and knights to leave the building. He then deployed several illusion nodes around it.

    It was a simple illusion that prevented the residents of the building from wandering away.

    ¡°Now, say yourst goodbye to your old home. You won¡¯t be seeing it again.¡±

    Almost all Krakoks began to cry over their sadness.

    Angor didn¡¯t intend to care about how the Krakoks managed their mood. He went to find Papaya, who was sitting on the entrance stairs of the skyscraper, behind her people.

    ¡°Did you have something to tell me?¡± Angor used Sound Transmission to talk to her.

    The Krakok girl was puzzled by the voice that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She then saw Angor looking right at her quietly.

    ¡°Mister¡ª¡±

    ¡°Keep your voice down. I can hear you.¡±

    Angor already noticed Papaya had some other idea hidden behind her calm expression. The girl didn¡¯t say it in front of others just to be considerate, and Angor would approve her wise choice.

    The girl obviously wanted to ask for help. Yet asking it out in the open would ce Angor in a somewhat awkward situation. Now that they could talk in private, Angor didn¡¯t have to worry about the opinions of the other Krakoks.

    ¡°Mister, I¡¯m the only family my granny has. If I leave her and nevere back, she will, she will¡ª¡± Her eyes quickly brimmed with tears when thinking about her elderly grandmother.

    ¡°You want me to take your grandmother too?¡±

    Papaya nodded.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how long this journey will take, and it probably won¡¯t be easy. There will be unknown incidents and dangers. Are you sure you want this? Does she really want to leave? Can you decide for her?¡±

    Papaya considered and nodded again. She and her grandmother needed each other, and she definitely would not leave her only family behind in loneliness.

    ¡°Okay, since you said so. I¡¯ll go find her before leaving. Mind that if anything bad happens because of this, you¡¯ll be the one to take responsibility.¡±

    Angor then returned to the old priest again. ¡°It¡¯s time for us to leave.¡±

    He waved a hand to move the small skyscraper into his bracelet. There was still crying voicesing from the building.

    The old priest stared at the now empty space in front of him in both sadness and expectation.

    ¡°Thank you, young mister...¡± He knelt down and ced his head on the surface of the desk again. All the clerics followed his example, while the armored knights removed their helmets and went down on one knee.

    ¡°Get up. Their future is still unknown. Don¡¯t thank me yet.¡± Angor then looked at Shadow, who had been enjoying their little drama. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Shadow nodded. The pair added with a beautiful puppetdy leaped over the kneeing Krakoks and disappeared.

    The Krakoks waited for a long time. One of the clerics tried to assist their priest to stand up, only to identally knock the old man¡¯s body over and revealing a pale face.

    They finally realized that their beloved priest had already passed away. There were still tears that lingered on the old man¡¯s cheeks, yet he was still smiling during hisst moment.

    ...

    Angor and Shadow heard someone chanting when they walked past the holy mountain.

    At the peak of the mountain, a choir group was singing Hymns of Fairies again, with their eyes closed. The one taking the lead was the young Krakokdy who had been elected as the ¡°key singer¡± during the ceremony.

    The sun of a new day was shining its benevolence over everyone.

    ¡°O the first warrior, he who brought his sword upon the morning garden and found the first rose for the red queen...¡±

    ¡°O the second warrior, who hides in thends of serpents and waits for the next dawn, away from evil humans...¡±

    ¡°O the third warrior, who spreads his wings and joined the song of Grand Priest. Together, they waited for the third beloved patron...¡±

    ¡°O the fourth warrior... He reveals the sky gate, apanied by light and holy chants, is the fourth soul hidden in the ck tome...¡±

    However, the poem didn¡¯t stop here. Using the same, angelic voice, Krakoks from Sky Choir began to cite a brand new, fifth paragraph of their story.

    ¡°O thest warrior... your brilliance reveals us a path in the forlorn fog. O souls lost in despair... pray follow the light to our daybreak...¡±

 Chapter 427 - Multi-Line Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 427: Multi-Line Illusion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Before leaving this small paradise of Krakoks, they took a detour toward Seedling Vige.

    Without bothering the vigers, Angor used a voice transmission to speak to Papaya¡¯s grandmother.

    ¡°Your granddaughter will leave for the human world, never toe back. She hopes that you can go with her. If you agree, take your belongings and go to the vige entrance in 10 minutes. Otherwise, we¡¯ll leave without you.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reveal his name to the old woman.

    He did make a promise to Papaya. But when he arrived at the vige, he realized that her grandmother seemed iller than expected. The old woman had problems both on her limbs and inside her body.

    At best, it would be a blessing for this old Krakok to live through another two seasons. The long trip was definitely not something she could survive. Angor didn¡¯t think she could make it in time at all.

    Yet he was once again surprised by the determination of these tiny creatures.

    Slowly, Papaya¡¯s grandmother limped away from her room with a small blue sack in her hand. Along her way, she greeted the other vigers with smiles and said that she was going to live with her daughter somewhere far away. She also told the vigers to use her house freely from now on.

    Apart from being surprised at the news, the vigers all wished her good luck.

    Angor sighed when realizing the great kindness disyed by the Krakok woman. It seemed she never tried to find out if the mysterious message was real or not. She made up her mind the moment she heard her granddaughter¡¯s name.

    Secretly, Angor cast a Heal at her. He didn¡¯t know whether this would help, but he did hope that the happy Krakok family could stay together longer.

    Papaya already knew the n. When Angor moved the old Krakok into the bracelet, Papaya was already waiting at the entrance of their skyscraper.

    The girl rushed to her grandmother, crying.

    Angor quickly stopped looking. Every time he witnessed such a touching sight, he couldn¡¯t help but think of his home and family, who waited for him beyond the horizon.

    Shadow grinned devilishly. ¡°Come on, your weakness is getting clearer. Why don¡¯t you at least try to conceal those emotions?¡±

    Shadow¡¯s words obeyed the basic attitudes held by most wizards, but since he spoke to Angor in such a condition, he meant to offer a sincere piece of advice.

    Angor only chuckled as a response. He knew he was being too kind to mortals.

    However, he didn¡¯t believe this was his ¡°weakness¡±. He would still offer help to strangers when he was willing to, be them mortals or supernaturals. However, he would only do this when such help was trivial. Anything beyond and he would expect a reward.

    As for those that he wasn¡¯t willing to help... well, he would see them die without lifting a finger.

    Since they had different moral grounds, Angor didn¡¯t intend to argue about this matter with Shadow.

    And Shadow could only shrug it off.

    They left the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden and returned under the dome barrier of Midworld.

    The moment they left the portal, Angor felt a familiar and terrifying sense covering his skin. He looked up, and as he expected, that giant eyeball that showed nothing more than cruelty and blood-thirst was staring right at them.

    ¡°Oh sh*t, how unfortunate can you get? You ran into Sesaybelles twice in a row.¡± Shadow gulped. ¡°Well, I guess you dragged me into your mess too.¡±

    ¡°You ming me now? Wait, is anything going to happen when it sees us?¡± Angor noticed a small detail in Shadow¡¯s words. The man didn¡¯t say anything particrst time because the monster only saw Angor back then. Now that both of them were being observed, Shadow kind of added something to his speech.

    ¡°... It¡¯s looking at you so that it can remember your looks. It¡¯ll be fine as long as you don¡¯t go bother it for real.¡±

    Angor gave Shadow a doubtful nce.

    When Sesaybelles closed its eye again, they quickly headed toward the ¡°Deadmen¡¯s Dent¡± in Midworld.

    Shadow scratched his head when he realized Angor was being TOO quiet. ¡°I didn¡¯t tell you anything because I think you¡¯d never leave the dome. You¡¯re going to get out of Fairy World, no?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you tell me Silent Hill is right inside Midworld?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but we¡¯re not traveling in Midworld, hell no. It¡¯s too dangerous.¡± Shadow began to tell Angor about the different monsters that lurked in Midworld besides Sesaybelles, Magic Giants, and Magma Birds. When he noticed that Angor wasn¡¯t paying attention at all, he said, ¡°Ahem! So, the safest route is in Real World.¡±

    ¡°Where are your Krakok brothers?¡±

    ¡°I told them to wait in Real World.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of them... Is their ¡®door¡¯ a space-rted spell?¡±

    ¡°I told you it¡¯s a bloodline talent they received from Lady Isabelle, right? But they can only use that thing in Fairy World.¡±

    Shadow suddenly crept closer and whispered, ¡°Lady Isabelle could do something like this because she was once the real leader of this entire ne. She went really close to the veryw of Fairy World ne before.

    ¡°But after she left, someone else took her position, and I think something big¡¯s going to happen around here since she¡¯s back again. Or at least her soul is.¡±

    Inside Deadmen¡¯s Dent, a group of ¡°puppet-fied¡± apprentices including Magician was still standing in front of the portal array motionlessly. They had been like this for nearly half a month, and their bodies were getting weaker.

    They¡¯d have been dead due to starvation if not for their supernatural bodies.

    Still, Shadow couldn¡¯t care less about how his puppets were doing. He simply asked them to take positions again. ¡°We¡¯re going home!¡± The man then made a thumbs-up gesture toward Angor.

    A bright sh of light carried their bodies away.

    ...

    Two hours ago, on the first floor of Dark Castle, Greya was talking about Angor again.

    Felicia was enjoying her wine when Greya decided to try out Angor¡¯s little gift. Upon triggering the illusion, they saw their vision blocked by a flock of white feathers.

    As they were covered by Angor¡¯s illusion, Greya felt her heart pounding madly; it even attracted Felicia¡¯s attention.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    Greya shook her head and frowned. ¡°There¡¯s something in this illusion... I¡¯m getting nervous.¡±

    Felicia failed to sense anything. ¡°Did that kid put some kind of trap in here?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Greya looked at the shifting scenery.

    Sun, beach, and sand.

    They were standing on a soft, golden sand field. Sea waves would asionally bring their gifts ashore, decorating the entire shoreline with colorful seashells.

    Behind them were clusters of palm trees.

    The sky was clear.

    Groups of seabirds chased each other among the snow-white clouds.

    A particr gray feather suddenlynded in front of them. They both looked up to see a strange bird in a sailor uniform.

    ¡°Toby.¡±

    ¡°Wine Thief!¡±

    Toby was enjoying his cruise slowly. The blue sky and sea waves in the illusion made them feel extremely rxed. Time seemed to be slowing down.

    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Felicia asked her friend.

    ¡°My heart is fine. I think... it was nothing?¡± Greya seemed confused.

    Toby suddenly changed course and flew toward the ind area. Greya tried to follow him, but she wasn¡¯t really going to move her body¡ªshe was surprised when her view followed her mind as if she were walking for real inside the illusion.

    Felicia stayed where she was and sipped her wine under the beautiful scenery. She had better things to do than minding that wine thief.

    A whileter, Felicia noticed that the sunlight was getting dim. A thick mist began to gather on the sea.

    ¡°It changes? Interesting.¡±

    Felicia thought the flying Wine Thief was everything the illusion had to offer. She totally wasn¡¯t expecting to see new stuff when ¡°Toby¡± already went away.

    The mist was getting so thick that she could no longer see very far into the ocean.

    Next, she heard a ship horn being sounded in the distance, followed by a giant, ck silhouette, that slowly emerged from the misty barrier.

    She watched with great curiosity as the shadow drew nearer.

    The shadow was now close enough for Felicia to see its details. It was a broken, wooden cruiser. The statue of a peeing child stood at the ship¡¯s nose, while the sailcloth had holes all over... In other words, it was a ghost ship.

    ¡°Ohh, this is nice. That kid ced TWO stories in one illusion?¡±

    Getting interested, Felicia floated toward the ¡°ghost ship¡±.

 Chapter 428 - Back at Real World

    <h4>Chapter 428: Back at Real World</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Two hourster.

    Felicia was checking each of the cabins inside the ghost ship. Each door would give her a different experience.

    Books covered in blood that helped her create intricate stories in her mind, broken letters that told of someone¡¯s love toward his lover, shattered mirrors that once served beauty-obsesseddies... Every room contained fun details that led to boundless imaginations.

    There were no people in the illusion. Yet Felicia found the stories she created to be quite convincing and perfect.

    Next, she arrived at a pure-ck door.

    The room behind the door was just as ck. Felicia entered the room and soon found herself wandering in chaos¡ªthe room was no more. There were no longer walls, ceilings, or directions.

    She kept floating ahead, and suddenly, she sensed that her soul was shaking.

    She thought someone was attacking her soul. Out of instinct, she tried to escape from the illusion and quickly found herself back at Dark Castle again. In fact, she was surprised by how easy she could quit the illusion.

    But this was totally natural since Angor didn¡¯t mean to trap people in his illusion.

    Now that she knew her safety wasn¡¯t a problem, Felicia calmed down and decided to find out more about Angor¡¯s little secret.

    Before she entered the illusion again, she cast a nce at Greya and noticed that Greya had tears on her cheeks.

    She wondered what Greya saw.

    Again, Felicia floated in the strange, dark space for some more, and she suddenly heard someone chanting strange letters around her ears.

    She couldn¡¯t understand the words, but that voice...

    <i>Lady Isabelle?</i>

    As Felicia wondered whether it was possible for Angor to recreate Lady Isabelle¡¯s voice, the chant was being repeated in a faster way.

    With each note, Felicia sensed that her soul was shaking. It seemed the strange chant contained a kind of magic that drew her soul away from her body.

    As thest note was repeated, Felicia felt as if a bright door just showed up in her Soul Space, and her soul could easily leave through that door. But the next second, she realized she was standing in front of the ck cabin door again.

    Felicia then sensed her Soul Space and found nothing. Her soul was peacefully in its right position. Nothing was drawing her soul out.

    ¡°Was that an illusion inside an illusion? It felt so real. My soul was really going to eject back there.¡±

    She considered. The experience would be a perfect training ce for someone studying Soul Coupling.

    Also, why was Isabelle¡¯s voice in there?

    ¡°Oh my. This is getting fun.¡±

    Felicia left the ck door and kept moving.

    Again, every cabin was like a secret treasure room that showed boundless imaginations and innovations. Felicia couldn¡¯t understand how Angor managed to conceal so many stories in the simple objects, but she would admit that the boy put his heart into the illusion.

    She was there when Angor presented the feather ear stud to Greya. She also believed that Angor was underestimating his potential, which was further proved by this work of genius.

    There weren¡¯t many alchemists in the entire world who could wield such excellent details and craftsmanship in a mere illusion.

    And Angor did so at such a young age...

    Felicia had arrived at the end of the hallway. Thest door was painted crimson, and there was a picture of an anchor drawn on it.

    The illusion didn¡¯t present her with any danger till now, which actually made her unsatisfied. What was the point of a harmless ghost ship?

    This was why her instinct told her that something special might be hiding behind this very door, which could show her the true nature of the ghost ship.

    She moved her vision through the crimson door...

    ¡°Argh¡ªget away from me!!¡±

    Someone suddenly screamed in the distance, which caused Felicia to lose focus. Before she could do anything, the illusion halted and turned into a swarm of white feathers again before itpletely vanished.

    She was standing in the castle hall while holding a ss of rice wine in her hand in the same manner before she entered the illusion.

    Felicia was still dazed at the unexpected termination of the adventure when she felt something shaking beside her. She looked around and saw Greya hugging her legs close to her chest, trembling in fear.

    The feather ear stud was tossed on the floor.

    <i>The illusion disappeared because Greya threw it away?</i>

    Felicia did want to check out the end of the ghost ship, but she was now more concerned about Greya¡¯s condition. ¡°Hey, Greya, what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    Greya looked up from her legs with a helpless and pleading look.

    Before Felicia could ask anything further, Greya chose to go into slumber and let the other ¡°little girl¡¯s soul¡± to take over her body.

    ¡°Greya¡± gave Felicia an innocent stare. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sis?¡±

    Felicia sighed, not knowing Greya¡¯s intention. Greya¡¯s soul was almost recovered, so it wasn¡¯t necessary for her to swap personalities now.

    ¡°Sis... I¡¯m hungry.¡± ¡°Greya¡± made a duck-face.

    Felicia shook her head and told Greya to cook on her own, while she picked up the ear stud with a grim look.

    <i>Did that boy do something stupid to Greya for real? Totally possible, considering his alchemy skills.</i>

    With that in mind, Felicia returned to her bedroom and nned to check out the illusion again. She was going to follow behind the wine thief and find out what scared Greya so much.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Angor had returned to Real World.

    It was high noon. When climbing out of Deadmen¡¯s Dent, he felt sharp wind tingling his skin. He looked up and saw the entire Hollow Wood covered under a thickyer of snow.

    The ground had ankle-level whiteness, which made it difficult to walk.

    Bam!

    Angor jerked his head at the sudden noise and saw Shadow intentionally kicking at a tree, causing all the snow on the tree to fall off.

    The man got away in time, yet the blond magic puppet, Naga, was assaulted terribly by Shadow¡¯s prank.

    ¡°Oh my my, Lady Naga, shall I help you remove the burden from your body?¡± Shadow held Naga¡¯s jaw with a finger. His wicked expression was fully reflected inside Naga¡¯s azure eyes.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t do this, Master.¡± Naga was clearly blushing. Her voice was that of a cold machine, but the way she talked somehow contained a bit of shyness.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do what?¡± Shadow put an arm around Naga with obvious intentions.

    It seemed this man finally got the chance to let his urges loose after obtaining Naga. He didn¡¯t attempt too many things while inside Dark Castle. Now that they were somewhere ¡°more private¡±, Shadow couldn¡¯t wait to have fun interactions with his new prize.

    And this was also when Angor noticed that Naga had her own consciousness as well.

    He already realized this when Naga disyed overwhelming strength at him. She was intentionally making Shadow¡¯s challenge easier then.

    A wizard-level puppet with intelligence... If not for their magic covenant, Angor would well stay away from Shadow.

    ¡°Master, it¡¯s too cold...¡±

    ¡°Oh! I shall warm you up with my chest.¡±

    Angor feared that the ¡°drama¡± would get out of control and quickly said, ¡°Do whatever you want. I¡¯m going back to Water Grasse. Let¡¯s decide on a meeting ce for tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Oh no no, we don¡¯t have to. I don¡¯t have a single coin on me right now. I¡¯ming with you! Also, can you lend me some coins so that I can get some clothes?¡± Shadow was wearing Angor¡¯s robe for now, but apart from it, the man was still naked. The loose robe didn¡¯t do a good job of concealing his ¡°stick¡±.

    ¡°... Fine. Let¡¯s go.¡± Angor frowned.

    Before leaving, Shadow released the apprentices who had been under his control for half a month. These people didn¡¯t dare to make any extra move in front of Shadow. There was only Magician who showed obvious hatred toward Shadow, as well as a doubtful nce at Angor.

    When in Water Grasse, Angor tossed a small coin sack at Shadow and returned to his mansion first.

 Chapter 429 - Greyaâ€™s Decision

    <h4>Chapter 429: Greya¡¯s Decision</h4>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Constant lightning bolts brightened the dark room.

    Felicia sat on her bed with an upright body and troubled expression.

    She had entered the illusion a second time. This time, she followed behind the wine thief and went inside the palm tree forest.

    After walking through a narrow path, she came to a small harbor town built beside the estuary of a river.

    The town sat along the mountain foot. All structures had a bright white theme. White bricks, white fences... even the roads were paved using white cobbles. Every house possessed a small yard with colorful flowers growing inside, which gave the entire town a further, lively look.

    Felicia entered the town, while ¡°Wine Thief¡± would asionally rest on her shoulder.

    After checking the houses, she came to a peeing statue fountain, where a small door led toward inside the mountain.

    Once she left the mountain again, the Wine Thief stopped wandering around and lingered above her head.

    Felicia realized that the story of the illusion had ended.

    She stopping pumping mana into the ear mana, which caused the illusion to scatter in a flock of feathers.

    The journey in the illusion was rtively fun. Neither the ghost ship nor the small town had any people in there, but the objects and details shown everywhere could tell her old stories better than any storyteller.

    The stories hidden in the small town were actually connected to each other. Together, they told her a secret concealed behind the town, which led her to the mountain door.

    Like a chain of quests.

    The interior of the mountain was a peculiar ce that looked both narrow and broad. Also, when Felicia stepped inside, she felt strange as if time were frozen. Everything around her carried the trace of eternity. Here, the stories began to involve supernatural elements. She found a certain, bloodstained hammer inside a shipyard. Using this, she imagined a story where a ship was being constructed. The same ghost ship she ventured into a moment ago.

    She learned a lot of extra clues inside the mountain, such as some secret ces she had yet to find. From a simple painting, she could tell that there was a hidden valley full of flowers somewhere. From a rusted key, she knew there was a prison cell at the bottom of the sea.

    They were just side stories like the ghost ship, while the ¡°main quest¡± was right inside the mountain.

    Telling from how long Greya had been inside the illusion, Felicia believed that Greya didn¡¯t have time to explore the side stories.

    However, she had finished looking around the mountain. There was nothing special apart from meaningful stories. Well, if she had to point something out, then maybe the time flow felt different.

    But what else?

    Felicia would admit that Angor¡¯s illusion came out almost perfectly. Some of the stories could benefit both apprentices and wizards.

    She recalled Greya¡¯s reaction that she saw earlier.

    ¡°Get away from me!¡±

    That reaction didn¡¯t fit with what Felicia saw. Did Greya see something scary?

    Felicia decided to explore the illusion again and find out what she possibly overlooked.

    However, the illusion scattered just as she entered the mountain door.

    She was sitting in her bedroom again, with an extra guest beside her¡ªGreya.

    Greya had taken the feather ear stud in her hand. She looked terrified, but at the same time, a little happy.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Felicia would care for the wellbeing of her friend rather than ming her for interrupting the illusion.

    ¡°I¡¯m okay now.¡± Greya shook head.

    ¡°Why did you... Is there something wrong with the illusion?¡±

    Greya stayed quiet.

    ¡°Something in the town? Or inside the mountain?¡±

    ¡°Thetter,¡± Greya said after a moment of hesitation.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong in there?¡±

    Greya sighed. ¡°That ce... reminded me of something rted to Nightmare Realm...¡±

    Her eyes slowly lost focus as she recalled the horrible experience she went through. ¡°You felt it too, right? When you step through that small door, there¡¯s something, that troubles you, as if...¡±

    ¡°Time stopped,¡± they said in unison.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Greya nodded. ¡°It aroused my memory again. I thought about Nightmare Realm and swarms of monsters around me, ready to feast on my body...¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why you yelled and threw the item away?¡±

    Greya looked down in mild embarrassment.

    Felicia never went to Nightmare Realm before so she couldn¡¯t understand what the ce looked like. But she could totally imagine what it was like if a familiar trace shown by an illusion could cause a ¡°truth-finder¡± wizard to lose herself like that.

    ¡°d you¡¯re okay. I thought that kid rigged the illusion; I was going to bring him back with my Butterfly Spirit. Well, you¡¯re already out of Nightmare Realm now, don¡¯t think about it too much.¡±

    Greya shook her head again. ¡°It... actually allowed me to remember something,¡± she murmured while under Felicia¡¯s confused gaze. ¡°When I fell into Nightmare Realm, I was imprisoned by a legendary sea monster.¡±

    Felicia went agape upon hearing this. Legendary monsters had been extinct for a long time in the southern wizarding world. The only legendary monsters she knew of right now all dwelt in the depths of Abyss.

    ¡°But then, there were another two humanoid monsters fighting each other. The sea monster got involved in the power surge and was badly wounded.¡±

    ¡°Wounded? When it didn¡¯t join the fight at all?¡±

    Greya shivered. ¡°Yes... It stayed pretty far from the battle, and it almost died.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying the two humanoid monsters are¡ª¡±

    ¡°Beyond legendary.¡± Greya closed her eyes. Even she didn¡¯t wish to believe her own words.

    Felicia gulped and tried to take in what she just heard. ¡°What happened next?¡±

    ¡°Together with ¡®Sawai¡¯, we set a trap so that we could kill the injured monster,¡± Greya said. She suddenly revealed a bitter smile as she continued, ¡°Of course we failed. A legendary monster, even near its death, isn¡¯t something we could hope to conquer. Luckily, it didn¡¯t have enough strength left to kill us, so we managed to escape.

    ¡°But then something went wrong. We were discovered by the monster¡¯s underlings. They were all monsters half-step toward legendary, as powerful as Mister Monkey, I would say. They created a perfect barrier that prevented me from escaping. I had to eject my soul. I then left my body on the ind as bait and snuck away with my soul.¡±

    ¡°So you left your body behind yourself?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡± Greya nodded before she said something which almost caused Felicia to stumble off her bed, ¡°I¡¯m going back to Nightmare Realm to retrieve my body.¡±

    ¡°Are you insane??¡± Felicia rushed to Greya and held her arms. ¡°You¡¯re going back to that hellhole? What for? So you can die quicker?! Have you forgotten our goal? You¡¯re the biggest hope of Gourmet Wizards and we need you to guide us! If something happens to you, Candy House will¡ª¡±

    Greya gently pressed a finger on Felicia¡¯s lips. ¡°I know. For you, me, Candy House, Butterfly Tavern and... my restaurant. I know everything. And this is why I must insist.

    ¡°I told Angor that Toby must face four extra challenges, something he cannot avoid unless he would waste his life away under someone¡¯s protection...¡± Greya lowered her head. ¡°The same goes for me. I must face this mission.¡±

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t, please. You understand me, right? Why haven¡¯t I fully upied this body? Why have I maintained my soul independently? Something told me that I cannot settle down. Something told me not to use this body. But the illusion finally reminded me why.

    ¡°Taking this body meant giving up my pastpletely. Will I have a future without a past?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re saying¡ª¡±

    ¡°Without my original body, I will not have the chance of advancing. It¡¯ll be difficult to regain the strength of a wizard, let alone my full strength.¡±

    Greya looked at the feather ear stud in her hand.

    If not for Angor¡¯s ¡°hint¡±, she might have decided to settle down in this foreign body for real, which meantpletely demise. Every time she thought about this, she felt endless gratitude toward the young boy.

    It took some time for Felicia to digest Greya¡¯s words. She finally found it impossible to persuade Greya otherwise.

    ¡°Still, Greya, Nightmare Realm isn¡¯t something you can enter and leave freely. Besides, will you be able to find your body at all even if you go there again?¡±

    Greya frowned. That was a serious problem.

    ¡°I can find solutions on how to establish a tunnel and go to the ind... but I need a guide.¡±

    Guide?

    Greya lifted her hand and showed Felicia the adorable ear stud.

    ¡°You mean... Angor?¡± Even if the boy somehow added the aura of Nightmare Realm in the illusion, Felicia didn¡¯t believe Angor actually went there before.

    ¡°No. Whether he knew about Nightmare Realm or not, he¡¯s not strong enough to help me. I¡¯m talking about Sunders.¡±

    In thest century, Sunders woulde to her restaurant and order a serving of ¡°Twisting Protozoa¡± every decade or so. Greya more or less knew about Sunders¡¯ secrets, including the man¡¯s connection with Nightmare Realm.

    Neither of them talked about it openly yet. Still, Greya was almost sure that Sunders knew how to enter Nightmare Realm, and a Twisting Protozoa was the key.

 Chapter 430 - Fear

    <h4>Chapter 430: Fear</h4>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    A single boat straight out of fairytale sailed through the sea of clouds.

    Even when there was no water in the sky, the boat still left a trail of water ripples and bubbles behind. Despite the rxing sight, the boat was traveling at great speed, putting different sights behind in a blink of an eye.

    Like a new moon that had decided to pick somewhere else on the sky to rest.

    The starry decorations on the boat, as well as a soft curtain with stars drawn all over it, made the adorable vehicle look marvelous.

    Four people sat on the boat; three men and one woman. A young man with a naive look was sound asleep in the small room at the back of the boat, while the other three passengers stayed under the sky.

    The man with a handsome yet devilish look rested his head on a small desk while he moaned in sadness.

    ¡°Do you really have to ride with me when you have your own vehicle?¡± Angor was pretending to sleep in an armchair nearby. He couldn¡¯t take it anymore after Shadow moaned non-stop for half an hour.

    Shadow gave Angor a sad look. ¡°I¡¯ve had enough misfortune today. And look at your flying boat...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s ¡®Gond¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Right, Gond. It¡¯s so big and faster than my Rider Cape. I mean,e on, it doesn¡¯t hurt to bring someone else on it, right?¡± While speaking, Shadow checked around the delicate carvings and decorations of the ship and felt extremely envious. Such a beautiful vehicle as fast as mid-tier flying items would cost at least thousands of crystals at an auction. And Angor just created this stuff in a few days? Goddamn alchemists!

    Angor rolled his eyes. Rider Cape? ¡°Lady Cape¡± would be a better name.

    But as Shadow said, Angor didn¡¯t really care about taking an extra man plus a puppet. The boat would still travel at the same speed at the same fuel cost.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, you can tag along alright. But can you be quiet? Are you so sad about returning the shadows?¡± Angorined.

    Shadow said ¡°misfortune¡± because he had to return all the shadows he collected in Water Grasse over the past few years.

    It happened yesterday. When Angor and Shadow returned to Water Grasse, Leonrick immediately heard about it.

    With his daughter getting weaker by the day, and his wife would do nothing other than weeping day and night, Leonrick left a suicide note at home and decided to visit Angor¡¯s mansion on his own, fully aware that he might meet his death.

    Since they were going to leave Water Grasse tomorrow, Angor had removed the illusion that was protecting the mansion. It was Granny Trusan who opened the door for Leonrick. After that, Angor simply allowed Leonrick to speak with Shadow.

    Leonrick knelt down in front of Shadow and pleaded. He hoped Shadow could return the shadows to his people and his daughter.

    Of course, Shadow paid him no mind. Neither did Angor offer any help.

    However, Shadow still agreed to release the shadows in the end. Because... Naga requested so.

    That made Shadow helpless. Satisfying Naga was way more important than having these shadows of some mortals. Defeated, Shadow had no choice but to listen to Naga¡¯s ¡°advice¡±.

    Because of this, Shadow had been holding his sad look for an entire day.

    ¡°I spent years collecting them! Years!¡± Shadow screamed. Even the three Krakok brothers came out tofort him.

    Instead of quieting down, Shadow was crying louder and louder. Angor nced at Naga, who also rolled her eyes impatiently. However, she couldn¡¯t really do anything to her master. Besides, SHE was the one who asked Shadow to give up his collection.

    When Naga noticed that Angor was looking at her, the puppetdy made a gesture behind Shadow¡¯s back¡ªDo something about it!

    Angor was already nning to do so. He didn¡¯t because of Naga¡¯s presence. Now that Naga actually asked him to, Angor grinned wickedly and pointed a finger at Shadow¡¯s face.

    A small trace of nightmare aura sank between Shadow¡¯s eyebrows.

    The man didn¡¯t maintain any self-defense when traveling with Angor. He was immediately affected by the trick.

    Surprised, Shadow pointed at Angor and ¡°ahhhh¡± ¡®d for a while. He could no longer speak like normal.

    Angor pretended like he didn¡¯t care.

    Next, Shadow turned around and gave Naga a sad look, hoping the puppetdy could help him.

    Naga ¡°misinterpreted¡± his intention and put an arm tightly around Shadow, thus preventing the man from making any moves.

    Finally, some peace.

    Angor made a thumbs-up toward Naga and closed his eyes, pretending to be sleeping again.

    In truth, he was trying to go over the notebook he received from Sunders. It contained almost all avable cantrips for illusionists.

    Since he almost finished studying all the basic cantrips, he nned to look at the more advanced ones.

    He was only adept at deploying illusions, and he basically knew nothing about how to attack people with illusions. ording to Sunders, he had to choose a branch to focus on soon, and he still had no idea how. He would have to keep learning more illusionist cantrips to figure it out.

    After remembering some of the pointers mentioned by the notebook, Angor set his attention on a level-1 cantrip called ¡°Fear¡±.

    The cantrip belonged to an illusionist subfield called ¡°Mind Maniptor¡±. It aroused someone¡¯s fear by controlling their desires.

    He did something simr before, on one of the national doctors¡ªTyrael. However, what he usedst time was nightmare aura, which created simple monster images to scare the old man.

    ¡°Fear¡± worked in apletely different way.

    Different individuals feared different presences, such as ghosts, beasts, or a certain event or person in the past. He couldn¡¯t possibly use one method to scare everyone. ¡°Fear¡± could help him in this case.

    Angor carefully ¡°read¡± the book in his mind to digest the essentials of the cantrip.

    Meanwhile, he got an idea. If hebined nightmare illusions with Fear, would the illusionary presences that scared people be real?

    Possible.

    With this in mind, he determined this cantrip as his next subject.

    This was a Mind Maniptor cantrip. Mind Maniptors were adept at reading people¡¯s minds and emotions; they would thenbine them with different elements to create results.

    Angor was going to study a little bit of every subfield so that he could find out which branch was the most suitable.

    ...

    The night had arrived, covering the sky with a starry carpet. The shape of Gond looked even more fantastic in such an ambiance.

    Someone suddenly grumbled in the small room at the back of the boat, which broke the silence.

    Angor and Shadow opened their eyes and looked at each other.

    ¡°What, your little pet boy is hungry?¡± Shadow snickered.

    Angor nced at him and quickly understood how the man escaped from the silence aura when he saw his nightmare aura sitting around Naga¡¯s finger.

    Without minding Shadow¡¯s joke, Angor called Dodoro¡¯s name in a gentle voice and received an ¡°ohh...¡± as a response.

    He stood up and entered the room.

    Dodoro was giving him innocent and happy looks again. Angor sat down and took out some food and drink from his bracelet.

    Dodoro put a hand on his stomach and blushed.

    ¡°Eat up.¡±

    After hearing Angor¡¯s words, Dodoro slowly picked up the food and took a small bite.

    Angor held his chin and observed Dodoro¡¯s now elegant table manner. He wasn¡¯t sure if this was all thanks to Trusan¡¯s lectures or because Dodoro already possessed such temperament deep inside.

    Angor recalled Trusan¡¯sst words before they bid farewell to each other:

    ¡°Now, Dodoro can understand basguages. It¡¯s just... It seems he¡¯s too timid. He can talk to people now, but he won¡¯t do it when there are strangers around. In this case, he¡¯d shut himself somewhere and stay quiet.¡±

    Angor never felt that way since Dodoro was always friendly to him. However, ever since they started traveling on Gond, Dodoro was all hush-hush just like Trusan described. Dodoro seemed constantly nervous too.

    This was why Angor asked Dodoro to stay in the small room. He didn¡¯t know how to change someone¡¯s nature yet. He could only wait and see if there would be a change in the future.

    When Dodoro finished his meal, Angor suddenly remembered something.

    ¡°Where¡¯s your¡ª¡±

    He halted. Shadow was still outside, and Angor thought that it wouldn¡¯t be a good choice to talk about Dodoro¡¯s ¡°water bowl¡± since Shadow was obviously interested in Akeso and Pocratee.

    He then tried to think about what had happened before they left Water Grasse. They only had a simple sack as their luggage, which contained some spare clothes. He tossed the sack inside his bracelet...

    Using spirit feelers, he quickly found Dodoro¡¯s sack as well as the particr bowl inside.

    Since the bowl was safe... he should leave the matter aside for now.

    Before retracting his spirit feelers, however, he noticed that the Krakoks were busy with their agriculture works at the base of their new home. They had diligently rented the tree saplings they received from the hummingbird knights.

    Everyone was working hard to earn their own future, including kids. There was only Papaya¡¯s grandmother, who rested on the stairs of the building with a basket of Cranbul Cheese Bread. She would asionally beckon at someone to invite themselves to her snack.

    Due to her age, she couldn¡¯t join them in the field, but no one med her. Still, it seemed she wanted to offer something that she could manage.

    When off work, she would summon a group of Krakok kids around her, and she would tell them stories.

    ¡°You can read?¡± Angor¡¯s voice reached her ears.

    The old Krakok looked puzzled. Then she realized that the great wizard was talking to her in private since no one else heard the voice.

    ¡°Yes, mister, I¡¯ve learned literature,¡± she answered nervously.

    Angor considered. He didn¡¯t know how long his journey wouldst, and he probably couldn¡¯t find time to teach Dodoro anything. It would be bad if Dodoro stayed idle for too long, which might let him develop azy character.

    And since Papaya¡¯s grandmother was looking for things to do...

    Angor hoped that the old Krakok could help Dodoro to open up his mind.

    ¡°Alright. I have a task for you.¡±

 Chapter 431 - Silent Hill

    <strong>Chapter 431: Silent Hill</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Shadow asked a question when he saw Angoring back, ¡°Hey, that¡¯s not your... pet? I thought you have a fetish or something, since he¡¯s so stupid and all.¡±

    Angor gave him a side-nce. For some reason, Shadow really loved talking dirty jokes.

    ¡°What¡¯s so special about that mortal?¡± Shadow looked toward the small room. Everything in there was hidden behind a curtain, but he could hear someone talking. Using spirit feelers, he saw the small wooden building used by Krakoks standing in the room.

    The mortal named Dodoro was crouching in front of the building while listening to an old Krakok woman telling stories.

    ¡°Is that Papaya¡¯s grandmother?¡± Shadow noticed the woman¡¯s identity. On closer inspection, he realized the woman was teaching Dodoro how to read.

    ¡°Tsk. Like I said, an illiterate retard.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t want to talk about Dodoro¡¯s particr background; he simply pretended to be asleep. However, this wouldn¡¯t prevent Shadow from guessing.

    And the man was giving really weird answers now. From Angor¡¯s pet to Angor¡¯s unknown rtive. He even thought Dodoro was Angor¡¯s bastard son in the end.

    Of course, Shadow was only trying to annoy Angor into giving him the answer. Yet the only thing he received from Angor was an ¡°are you nuts?¡± glimpse.

    Shadow suddenly turned to Naga, who had been silently resting. ¡°Hey Naga, is that mortal a talent in any way?¡±

    Shadow was still an apprentice like Angor, so he would either need a Talent Sphere to determine someone¡¯s talent or forcefully breach someone¡¯s spirit defense. Obviously, he could do neither, so he asked Naga instead.

    Wizards didn¡¯t need items to help check a mortal¡¯s talent, but they could only tell someone¡¯s spiritual power indicator in this way. It still required a specific test to judge the exact nature of one¡¯s talent.

    Shadow wasn¡¯t sure whether Naga could do this even though Naga was as strong as a wizard. He asked the question out of boredom.

    Angor was interested though. With his eyes closed, he secretly pricked up his ears.

    Naga nced at Dodoro¡¯s direction. ¡°High spiritual power detected. Higher than both of you. He¡¯s a talent.¡±

    Angor slowly nodded. To be frank, with so many mysterious elements, it would be weird if Dodoro was NOT a talent.

    Shadow, on the other hand, grew very surprised at something else. ¡°Wait, you can actually see that? Why didn¡¯t you tell me? I should¡¯ve stayed in Hippocrotee so that I can find more talents to bring back to Floating Mech City.¡±

    ¡°You never asked, Master,¡± Naga replied.

    Shadow slumped down in frustration, but this man was never troubled by emotions for too long. Soon enough, he began poking around Dodoro¡¯s secrets again. He was extremely curious since Dodoro was the onlypanion that Angor decided to bring. And everything about Angor was interesting as well.

    Like always, Angor¡¯s lips were tight. Shadow never got himself satisfied.

    A night had passed.

    Gond was fast. As Shadow previously estimated, they needed two to three days to reach their destination. It proved that he was right when they entered the territory of Silent Hill the next morning.

    As far as they could see, the ground was covered in woods, mountains, and wilderness. There was no human presence.

    ¡°Silent Hill is located in Midworld. We need to find the entrance.¡± Shadow took out a piece of paper and began writing on the desk. ¡°The entrance changes periodically. We just need to consider the positions of the sun and moon, apply them here, and work on this form...¡±

    Shadow did his calction while exining the basic idea to Angor.

    Soon enough, Shadow reached a conclusion.

    They reached the final coordinate. Just in case, Angor retracted his Gond and the passengers in the small room into his bracelet.

    They were now standing at the bottom of a valley. Three directions were blocked by more mountains, while a small river sat not far from them.

    Following Shadow, they entered a small forest in the center of the valley. Shadow suddenly pointed at a vicious-looking man-eater flower ahead and said, ¡°That thing¡¯s mouth is our entrance.¡±

    ¡°You sure about that?¡± Angor asked while gazing at all the sharp teeth covered in red.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Shadow stepped up and threw himself into the flower¡¯s opened trap first, and the flower dly opened its mouthrger as if it were expecting food.

    Next, Shadow¡¯s figure twisted and disappeared, leaving the flower confused. If it could talk, it would question why fresh meat suddenly vanished.

    Since Shadow showed him a good example, Angor followed suit and ¡°disappointed¡± the monstrous flower again.

    The flower shook its petals and set its ¡°gaze¡± on thest individual¡ªa mature-lookingdy with blond hair and blue eyes. It then opened its mouth wide and beckoned at her using its petals as if saying ¡°Come on! In here!¡±

    Naga sneered and stomped the flower to the ground before her body vanished as well. As a wizard-level presence, she could open up a portal toward Midworld anytime.

    ...

    Angor sensed his body shaking and shifting. When he opened his eyes, he saw somethingpletely different from before.

    The woods had turned into bare ground, and the dirt was dry and lifeless. It was morning, yet the sky was of a dark and grayish color as if the world were ending.

    Such was what one would normally see inside Midworld.

    ¡°This way,¡± Shadow said as he moved ahead while introducing the environment. ¡°Silent Hill may not be a big ce like your Brute Cavern, but it¡¯s famous. Outsiders can¡¯t get in easily.¡±

    Also, the man kept emphasizing the importance of his guidance. ¡°Nothing will go wrong as long as you follow closely behind me. Floating Mech City and Silent Hill are long-term trade partners. They¡¯ll let us in without a question once they hear my name.¡±

    He took Angor in front of a dim-looking mountain ridge with absolutely no vegetation growing on it. ¡°Here we are.¡±

    Angor looked at the mountain carefully and sensed illusion ripples. He wouldn¡¯t actually try to reach for the illusion recklessly.

    ¡°Hidden behind an illusion. You¡¯ll see once we¡¯re in there. Not bright and shiny like Floating Mech City, but it should satisfy your taste.¡±

    They stepped onto a small path leading upward. It wasn¡¯t long when they were stopped by a giant boulder.

    The boulder showed a strange human face that was divided into two halves. One side had its eye opened and had a white eyebrow as well as a young, smiling look, while the other half had its eye closed and had a ck eyebrow as well as an aged, calm look.

    It was like mixing two individuals withpletely different ages and temperaments inside a rock.

    ¡°Looky here, who do we have?¡±

    ¡°Oh, our little Diablo.¡±

    ¡°This amazing puppet is little Diablo¡¯s newpanion?¡±

    ¡°Yup, looks like it.¡±

    ¡°Worth celebrating!¡±

    ¡°Yes indeed.¡±

    ¡°Then who¡¯s this youngd?¡±

    ¡°Let me check. I smelled something familiar...¡±

    The stone was talking to itself in two different voices; it was like an old man was chatting with a youngster.

    ¡°Mister Talos, I need to enter Silent Hill!¡± Shadow said.

    ¡°Oh, geez, I hear ya! You¡¯re hurting my ears!¡±

    ¡°Hey, you should stop scamming kids. They don¡¯t have anything anyway.¡±

    ¡°Oh really? I smelled treasures.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right! Hey kid, give me your bracelet and I¡¯ll let you in.¡±

    ¡°That bracelet is bound to him, fool! Get his hat!¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah! You hear? Quickly, give me your hat!¡±

    Two slim, ck limbs suddenly emerged from the boulder and gestured at Angor aggressively.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to react. The stone monster seemed to be the gatekeeper of Silent Hill. It possessed a deep aura and actually disyed their scamming attempt so boldly... He didn¡¯t know how to evaluate this thing¡¯s strength.

    Shadow moved in front of him. ¡°Mister Talos, this is my friend. Can you let him pass? Hey, look at his hair and blue eyes! Such a nice standard, you know?¡±

    ¡°Talos¡± sized Angor up and down. Considering the particr taste of Diablo¡¯s teacher and how that man was almost a ¡°truth finder¡± wizard, it decided to y safe.

    ¡°Right. Get in there, and remember I did this just because of your teacher.¡±

    The boulder monster split up and revealed a narrow entrance in the middle.

    Across the entrance, Angor could see fine buildings in the distance.

 Chapter 432 - Unexpected Escape Plan

    <strong>Chapter 432: Unexpected Escape n</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    About an hour after Angor and Shadow entered Silent Hill, Talos suddenly began to whisper in a small voice.

    ¡°Oh, I think I remember something.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°That small kid, I knew something looks familiar on him. It¡¯s the same aura as Mister Phantom!¡±

    ¡°Mister Phantom? You mean...¡±

    The voice ended. Talos wouldn¡¯t dare to talk about Sunders in the open.

    ...

    After leaving the gate area, Shadow also whispered to Angor, ¡°Mister Talos is a Dual Sprite, the guardian of Silent Hill. Consider him our version of your Three Ancestor Souls. But Talos is of course, not as strong, since it was only born like two thousand years ago. It never stops talking, mind you. Make sure you interrupt and get away before it talks you into death.¡±

    Dual Sprite? A stone that developed intelligence?

    Angor thought about the Three Ancestor Souls in Brute Cavern¡ªLady Mirror, Tree Spirit, and Elder of Books. They all seemed to originate from certain objects. What was the difference between these presences and intelligent monsters?

    When he asked, Shadow could only say ¡°of course they¡¯re different¡±.

    But Shadow never said what exactly.

    ¡°Does it always ask for stuff like that?¡± Angor asked curiously.

    ¡°Yes, for anyone who doesn¡¯t belong to Silent Hill. Well, maybe except for people from Floating Mech City, like me.¡±

    The inside of Silent Hill wasn¡¯t barren and deste like the other parts of Midworld. There were grasnd and forest. They still couldn¡¯t see the sun, but the whole ce was almost as bright as Real World.

    Basically, it looked like Real World but with really cloudy weather.

    A momentter, Angor stopped and watched the buildings with unique designs.

    Sky-piercing wizard towers, random stone edges... Every structure more or less showed something wild. Just like Mirror World, the sky in Silent Hill was full of floating chunks of earth with a good number of apprentices traveling on them.

    ¡°Well, here¡¯s your Silent Hill. Don¡¯t go to the center. Without an identity, you can¡¯t buy things anyway. I¡¯ll take you to the market bazaarter. Floating Mech City has a branch set up there, and I can get you a room.

    ¡°Let me see... My teacher will leave Silent Hill in three days. You stay in the market for the time being. You need some other materials, right? Find them in the market.¡±

    It didn¡¯t take long for them to reach the market bazaar.

    I looked very simr to the underground market in Mirror World. Most individuals here were mortals, with a small number of apprentices scattered everywhere. There was also a giant Sky Tower in the middle.

    By ¡°Floating Mech City¡¯s branch¡±, Shadow was actually referring to the Sky Tower. In the end, they found a room just around the tower area.

    With Angor settled, Shadow prepared to do something on his own.

    Before he left for real, however, the man suddenly looked back at Angor with a hesitant look.

    ¡°... If possible, can you show up three dayster, just when we¡¯re going to leave by the portal?¡±

    Angor failed to understand him.

    ¡°You see, my professor¡ª¡±

    An old man with white hair suddenly beckoned at Shadow and interrupted his speech. ¡°Oh hey, Diablo! You¡¯re back atst.¡±

    Shadow quickly looked around, then back at Angor again. ¡°I¡¯lle back at night. We¡¯ll talk. Get some rest for now.¡±

    The old man tried to check out Angor, who was inside the room, when Shadow dragged him away hurriedly.

    Angor tilted his head in confusion. He felt something wasn¡¯t right, but he didn¡¯t really have a choice other but to wait for Shadow¡¯s return.

    The room wasn¡¯t big. A simple bed and an equally simple desk were all he had, but Angor didn¡¯t mind. It seemed this was the only thing Shadow could get him. It was only two days; he could manage.

    The room sat among a cluster of stone bunkers built behind Sky Tower, which allowed him to see the busy crowds gathering around the tower. He felt as if he were back inside Brute Cavern again.

    Everything here looked as amazing as Brute Cavern, if not better. The wizarding world was really full of wonders.

    Angor closed the room door to shut all the noises outside.

    Completing his flying vehicle earlier left him with nothing to do. Considering Shadow¡¯s strange attitude earlier, he wouldn¡¯t wander around this strange ce by himself; he simply stayed on the bed to work on the next Illusionist spell.

    His study on Fear wasn¡¯t going too smoothly. Mind Maniptor spells required mind-reading skills and great insights into human desires and emotions. For now, he still had nothing to go by.

    It was totally expected that he couldn¡¯t master a brand new art all of a sudden. However, Fear was only a level-1 cantrip that didn¡¯t require a deeper knowledge system. Knowing the basics of Mind Illusions was enough.

    The rest of the day quickly psed. It was nearly the next morning when Angor heard someone knocking on the door.

    As agreed, Shadow had returned.

    However, the man looked a bit more worried for some reason. He quickly dragged Angor¡¯s hand and began to move away. ¡°Come with me. You can¡¯t stay here.¡±

    ¡°What happened? Is there danger?¡± Angor could clearly see it from Shadow¡¯s eyes. The man was extremely anxious about something.

    ¡°I overlooked something. I thought everything¡¯s fine as long as I get my teacher¡¯s consent, but... There¡¯s more danger than that.¡± Shadow put up a grim look. ¡°Get out of Silent Hill before she finds you!¡±

    Although puzzled, Angor knew Shadow meant business, so he didn¡¯t question further.

    While walking toward the outside, Shadow handed Angor several parchments. ¡°Hide. I¡¯ll use Spirit Bond.¡±

    Angor used Infinite Reticence, while Shadow also cast Optic Confusion.

    ¡°Those are maps. Once outside, you can use your Gond to leave Fairy World and look for another way back.¡±

    With a hasty tone, Shadow spoke through Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Whatever¡¯s going on? Did your teacher refuse to bring me along?¡±

    ¡°He... urgh, how do I say it? He got a strange hobby, or should I say, obsession. I told you to wait until thest day because of this. But that¡¯s not a problem now. Even if he¡¯s going to do something to you, I can take you away again.

    ¡°The REAL problem now is someone I forgot to consider, that old hag Isabe. I knew my teacher invited her here, but I never actually saw her up close. I thought she already left Fairy World. But she¡¯s right here!¡±

    They sessfully left the market area.

    ¡°Take the main road. I don¡¯t know if she already found you, but she isn¡¯t going to do stupid things inside Silent Hill. It will get her in trouble.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with Isabe?¡±

    ¡°You forgot? She left a small trace of her consciousness in Soul Genesis Garden, and you broke it. She¡¯s the meanest bitch I¡¯ve ever seen among wizards. Trust me, she¡¯s onto you! When I went to report to my teacher, I said I¡¯m taking a friend to Floating Mech City together. He had no problem with it. But the old thing was listening in just outside the door back then.¡±

    ¡°So she heard you?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure of it, and I¡¯m also sure she knows who I was talking about. As far as I know about her character, she WILLe get you personally. And... there¡¯s a second reason why she hates you.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    Shadow moaned. ¡°Your hair and eye color... You know, she¡¯s trying to... bond, with my teacher. My teacher refused because she doesn¡¯t have blond hair and blue eyes.

    ¡°She got so angry and ughtered many people with such features. Old and young, men and women... Now she has TWO reasons to kill you, and she will do it at all cost.¡±

    Angor gradually got ahold of the situation.

    ¡°You mean your professor likes blond hair and blue eyes too? Is that the ¡®obsession¡¯ you mentioned? ¡®More danger¡¯ meant another danger beside your teacher?¡±

    ¡°Crap. Well, I can¡¯t lie to you now. Yes, my teacher will try to do something to you too. But he won¡¯t kill you¡ªhe will make sure you be his puppet willingly, so don¡¯t worry about your safety. Once we¡¯re at Floating Mech City, I can do something to help you escape. But I can¡¯t do anything to help you with Isabe. She¡¯s a psycho!¡±

    Abruptly, a third, giggling voice joined their Spirit Bond.

    This new voice that sounded beside their ears sounded cute and young, while at the same time, eerily creepy.

    ¡°Ohh, the coward student of my future husband... Little Diablo. Who¡¯s that psycho you¡¯re talking about?¡±

 Chapter 433 - Retaliation is Impossible

    <strong>Chapter 433: Retaliation is Impossible</strong>

    Both Angor and Shadow froze when they heard the strange voice that almost consisted of two different tones.

    They were currently walking on a narrow path among several trees. A shadow suddenly appeared behind falling leaves. In a moment of seconds, a little girl about the age of 12 stood in the middle of their way.

    Everything on the girl looked dark. ck bubble skirt with crimson braids, a ck veil that covered pale white skin, and long, ck hair that reached all the way to her chest... her dressing style would usually sit well on mature women with special tastes.

    Angor immediately recognized those looks. She was the individual he briefly encountered in Hippocrotee¡ª¡±Sundown Queen¡± Isabe.

    However, it was a tiny trace of her consciousness that troubled him back at Hippocrotee. Now, he was looking at the real deal.

    ¡°Lady Isabe!¡± Shadow was visibly trembling now. He just addressed Isabe as a ¡°mean psycho¡±. Their conversation was already heard by her. There was no doubt Isabe would do something about it.

    Bam!

    A giant blood-red hand suddenly appeared and pped Shadow¡¯s face.

    Shadow was sent flying into the air before he crashed some distance away. The crash created a small crater in the dirt. Half of his face was of a different color, and he was spitting broken teeth mixed with blood.

    All the while, Isabe kept giggling in a strange way that looked both mad and adorable. Anyone unaware of her identity would regard her as a ¡°little girl¡±, which would probably get them killed.

    ¡°I¡¯ll let you live for now, and you should thank your teacher. The next time you twist your little tongue behind my back will be your funeral!¡± The woman gazed at Shadow with a violent look.

    ¡°Plea... Please forgive my terrible manner.¡± Shadow forced himself to stand up on his damaged bones and knelt down.

    Isabe spat and rested her gaze on Angor.

    She quickly revealed a disdainful yet envious look when looking at Angor¡¯s hair and deep-blue eyes. Angor already had the look of a fine gentleman at a young age. The Puppet Master would absolutely give him full score when judging his appearance.

    Angor¡¯s form was blinking because his Infinite Reticence was already broken down by someone¡¯s awareness.

    ¡°Ohh, nice hiding, kid. I would have overlooked you if not for Diablo¡¯s Spirit Bond. And if you slipped from me... that will be so sad.¡± While speaking in her double-tone voice, Isabe grinned malevolently.

    Angor faced the mighty wizard with a serious look. This was the first time that he ever stood in front of a wizard who fully released her killing intent.

    During Twilight Auction, Twilight was still controlling her actions because many wizards were looking, which allowed Angor to find a chance. Yet Isabe was different. She was using her might to press Angor since the moment she arrived; it prevented him from lifting a finger.

    Angor couldn¡¯t help but imagine his possible ways to die.

    Shadow, on the other hand, lifted his head in great shock. ording to Isabe¡¯s words, HE was the one that exposed Angor¡¯s position. Without the Spirit Bond, Angor might have avoided detection!

    Even though what had already happened couldn¡¯t be undone, Shadow still med himself.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± Isabe pushed a hand forward, and a blood-red floating hand suddenly lifted Angor into the air.

    Unlike what she just did to Shadow, she was nning to torture Angor slowly to death in order to satisfy her twisted hobby.

    ¡°Such disgusting eyes... Oh wait, it¡¯d be good if I use them on a Hundred-Eyed Devil.¡± Her giggling and childish voice blended with each other perfectly, which worsened the mental stress she exerted.

    Angor couldn¡¯t move at all under Isabe¡¯s suppression. He couldn¡¯t even trigger his soul scar. The woman¡¯s death grip had halted the blood flow in his neck. His vision and hearing were failing.

    Shadow grew distressed when he saw Angor¡¯s physical condition worsening by the second.

    The Kurna Pact required them to help each other, but it only worked when the situation was within their abilities. At this moment, Isabe was way more powerful than both of them. The pact would not do anything if Angor was killed right here.

    But Shadow was still frightened. After spending some time with Angor, Shadow was beginning to like his newpanion.

    Usually, Shadow remainedposed and wordless in front of people. He presented his random and wayward side in front of Angor because he considered Angor a friend worth talking to.

    As a gentle-natured ¡°academism¡± wizard, Angor would meet a lot of disadvantages in the wizarding world. But there was one thing for sure¡ªsomeone like Angor could always be a worthy friend. Just like the famous academism wizard ¡®Light Walker¡¯ Gandolf¡ªeven without his brilliant alchemy skills, almost every wizard was willing to befriend this elderly gentleman.

    Shadow already decided to develop a good rtion with Angor. He was REALLY worried about Angor¡¯s safety now.

    ¡°Lady Isabe! Please spare Angor. I¡¯ll take him away and I promise he¡¯ll not show up in front of you again¡ª¡±

    Bam!

    The man was knocked away for the second time.

    ¡°He... he¡¯s a talented alchemist... he can pay you! He almost reached out to Mystery energy...¡± Shadow kept speaking despite theck of teeth.

    Mystery Item?

    Isabe gave Angor a doubtful nce, albeit just briefly.

    A level-2 apprentice? Mystery? What a joke.

    Isabe dropped Angor down, but it wasn¡¯t because of Shadow¡¯s words. She noticed that Angor would die any moment now, and she wanted him to suffer more.

    Angor copsed on the ground and gasped for air. The great pain and numbness in his body actually helped him to lift Isabe¡¯s suppressive aura just a little.

    Without waiting any longer, Angor unleashed his Nightmare Domain as fast as he could.

    A level-2 apprentice and level-2 wizard didn¡¯t sound too verbally different. But in this world, the gap between them was impossible to cross. To Isabe, Angor¡¯s strongest attacks might feel like mosquito stings.

    And there was only one thing Angor could do.

    With his Nightmare Domain in ce, Angor immediately began to imagine the face of the ¡°queen¡±, which sessfully caused his shoulder bone to itch.

    He didn¡¯t know what would happen by doing so, but he was d that he at least had something¡ª or not.

    It was now clear that Isabe wasn¡¯t one of the fictional viins who would give others time to retaliate. As soon as she saw Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain, she simply knocked him out with a spell without taking the effort to figure out Angor¡¯s n at all.

    Last time, Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain saved him from Twilight because his domain was still connected to Nightmare Realm. Now that Sunders severed the domain and put it under Angor¡¯s own control, this piece of Nightmare Domain had to rely on Angor¡¯s support.

    Of course, when Angor was knocked out, his Nightmare Domain quickly scattered.

    ...

    Anyone who wished to leave Silent Hill had to go through this path.

    It was already midnight, but there were still pedestrians who saw the conflict. Everyone simply turned away when they saw Isabe¡¯s face, fearing that the terrible woman¡¯s ordeal might identally fall upon innocent onlookers.

    asionally, there were wizards who noticed the disy of strength from far away. Simrly, they didn¡¯t pay much attention to it. The confrontation between an apprentice and a level-2 wizard wasn¡¯t worth the time.

    Nobody would care about what happened, either to be safe or to save their precious time.

    Well, maybe with the exception of extremely odd individuals, such as Dual Sprite Talos, who basically had nothing to do all day.

    ¡°Holy stones. How old is Isabe? A thousand years old? And she¡¯s stingier than a toddler.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand. It¡¯s better this way!¡±

    ¡°Why is this better?¡±

    ¡°Dark Castle is so close to us. She might bring us a fortune with that character of hers!¡±

    ¡°Ohh, you¡¯re right! Clever!¡±

    ¡°Of course I am clever! And if I¡¯m clever, you¡¯re also clever!¡±

    Talos spoke to itself while asionallymenting on Isabe¡¯s style.

    Angor didn¡¯t manage to disy his Nightmare Domain for long, but Talos still saw it, and the sprite suddenly stopped speaking.

    A momentter, Talos spoke again, in a very small voice that only itself could hear this time.

    ¡°No doubt. That¡¯s the same aura used by Mister Phantom.¡±

    ¡°So Diablo¡¯s little new friend is Phantom¡¯s disciple?¡±

    ¡°Should be.¡±

    ¡°Oh, this is gonna be fun. Will Mister Phantom get furious for this?¡±

    ¡°No. Remember when Flora did something simr?¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯s different. Flora asked for her own doom, while Angor is only a victim or Isabe¡¯s twisted ideal.¡±

    ¡°So you think Mister Phantom wille?¡±

    ¡°Maybe not? Aha! I said this because you said it first! And I am you!¡±

    Talos remained silent for a while.

    ¡°Should we tell Isabe? Maybe she¡¯ll let Angor go if she knows Phantom is the kid¡¯s teacher.¡±

    ¡°No! That won¡¯t be fun.¡±

    ¡°So what should we do now?¡±

    ¡°We sell the news to magazines, dumba*s! I already made up a title for it¡ªHoly Crap! Phantom¡¯s Personal Follower Surrendered Himself to a 10-Year-Old Lady!¡±

    ¡°Nice one! I can already imagine being paid!¡±

    ¡°Will we get 100 crystals out of this? Yes, we will!¡±

 Chapter 434 - Shadowâ€™s Favor

    <strong>Chapter 434: Shadow¡¯s Favor</strong>

    At a small corner of Silent Hill, there was a patch of wastnd without any forms of life growing on it. A lone, strange-shaped wizard tower sat among a number of tattered boulders; the round moon was its only decoration.

    The top floor of the tower had a brightly-lit firece that repelled all the bone-piercing cold, bestowing potent warmness into the room. Newborn fire sprites chased each other happily while they explored the world around them with great curiosity.

    A series of footsteps suddenly scared all the sprites for good. They instantly swarmed back into the firece and pretended nothing happened.

    The door was pushed open, revealing a man with a devilishly charming look.

    He inhaled the warm air in the room and enjoyed it briefly. He then set his gaze upon the fire sprites who were trying to blend in with the fire by keeping their twinkling eyes shut.

    ¡°Jaja...¡± The man licked his lips with a long, serpentine tongue without minding the naughty creatures.

    When they felt safe again, the sprites poked their tiny heads outside and looked at a workbench nearby.

    A series of strange-looking materials scattered on the surface, along with a blonddy with blue eyes. She wasn¡¯t moving.

    The woman had a fishtail covered in silver scales as her ¡°leg¡±. A mermaid.

    The man was going to start reconstructing the mermaid¡¯s body when he was stopped by another series of footsteps. The hasty frequency immediately reminded him of a young apprentice he found by chancest year¡ªToya.

    As he expected, a short boy around the age of seven showed up at the door.

    The chubby boy had dark skin and a feather headwear. He wasn¡¯t wearing anything on top; a tiny skirt with colorful totems made from beast skin covered his groin.

    Toya came from a primitive tribe n. He had been away from home for a year now, but the primordial and naive temperament on him was still clear to be seen.

    The boy approached his professor on hurried steps, which caused his calves to jiggle. ¡°Professor! Something¡¯s happened!¡±

    The boy¡¯s clear eyes showed visible panic.

    He then saw the naked mermaid on the workbench and blushed before he quickly covered his face.

    However, his little hands didn¡¯t do a good job at it. He was still peeking at the mermaid¡¯s upper body between his fingers.

    ¡°Hey, get rid of your drooling.¡± The man in the room waved a hand at the boy.

    With a start, Toya wiped his mouth, only to find nothing at all.

    ¡°You bamboozled me again, professor!¡±

    ¡°Now speak. What brought you here?¡± the man asked without stopping his work.

    ¡°Oh, right! It¡¯s Mister Diablo. Dodo told me that he¡¯s beaten up by Lady Isabe!¡±

    While speaking, Toya picked up a tiny creature that had been hiding behind his back.

    It was a cheetah cub that had a small horn growing on its forehead. However, at its current size, it looked more like a cat than a cheetah.

    When faced with the red-haired man, the creature was clearly terrified. Its tail went stiff, and its ears fell t.

    ¡°Em? Diablo angered Isabe?¡± The man raised an eyebrow.

    Isabe said Diablo¡¯s a ¡°coward¡±. Diablo¡¯s only been back for a day, but she already approved that he got guts?

    The man ced a glowing finger on Dodo¡¯s head.

    Green ripples emerged from the cub, which allowed him to read its memory fragments.

    A momentter, the man grew excited as his tongue wormed around his lips faster and faster.

    ¡°Jajaja... look what I¡¯ve found! A splendid specimen. Jajaja...¡±

    ...

    Meanwhile...

    Angor fell into a trance when hisst-resort move was easily countered by Isabe.

    Not long ago, he was happily making ns for the remaining months of this year, but now, he was already wrestling with death...

    He wasn¡¯t prepared to experience such a drastic change of events at all.

    He clearly knew that Isabe could easily end his life, but for some reason, he didn¡¯t feel stressed at all.

    He was only sad for his unfinished promises. There were still Krakoks inside his bracelet, who hoped to find a new home and start their new lives. Pity, they were going to die even though they had barely left their starting point.

    After breaking Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain, Isabe began mming Angor¡¯s body around using pure strength. It wasn¡¯t long before Angor was tortured by a good number of wounds. Broken flesh and bones covered his form.

    When there was barely any fine skin on Angor, Isabe finally dragged him closer to her face.

    ¡°Keep struggling, won¡¯t you? Come on, keep it up. It¡¯s more fun that way.¡± Isabeughed maniacally. Herughter gradually joined with her second, giggling ¡°background voice¡±.

    Angor hadpletely no strength left. He couldn¡¯t even show his hatred to Isabe now. This was the fate of weaklings in the wizarding world¡ªto be rotten bones with nothing to fight back.

    Using what remained of his consciousness, Angor spat at Isabe¡¯s face.

    Something shed between them. The spit mixed with blood was blocked by a simple barrier and slowly dropped to the ground.

    ¡°That¡¯s not nice.¡± Isabe kept smiling. ¡°That¡¯s all you can do to keep your dignity? How useless.¡±

    She felt bored at Angor¡¯s unresponsiveness. It was like beating up a dead pig. Pointless and unentertaining.

    ¡°Alright... Guess I¡¯ve had enough.¡±

    Isabe chopped at Angor¡¯s neck with an enchanted w.

    He saw the bloody attacking and closed his eyes as he waited for death to im him.

    But even after several seconds, he still didn¡¯t feel what he expected to feel. Instead, he sensed his body being tossed onto the ground again.

    Calmly waiting for his death didn¡¯t mean he¡¯d give up all hope. He would like to stay alive longer, if possible.

    The first thing he saw after reopening his eyes was the giant moon hanging in the sky.

    Looking lower, he saw Isabe looking at someone with a surprised expression.

    It was a beautiful figure who released a golden glimmer under the moonlight. The figure blocked Isabe¡¯s previous attack with a round shield.

    Someone saved me?

    Before he could think further, Shadow suddenly rushed to his side and dragged him away.

    ¡°Now run! We¡¯ll split, and you can use that skill to hide again!¡±

    While not stopping his movement, Shadow looked back at the golden figure who held off Isabe bravely. ¡°Keep her busy, Naga! For as long as you can!¡±

    The man looked determined.

    ¡°Yes, Master.¡± Naga nced back. Her elegant and stern face contained a small trace of kindness.

    Shadow¡¯s eyes watered a little as he kept dragging Angor until they entered the woods on one side of the path.

    Angor couldn¡¯t move anything on his body since Isabe had misced a good number of his bones. Shadow kept running while casting Heal at Angor asionally.

    Angor felt greatly relieved for escaping imminent death. At the same time, he couldn¡¯t believe what just happened. He thought the only thing that prevented Shadow from killing him was the magic covenant, and he wasn¡¯t expecting the man to save him for real.

    ¡°But what about Naga? There¡¯s no way she can...¡±

    ¡°Shut up! I don¡¯t want to hear it!¡± Shadow screamed.

    There was no doubt that Naga would lose against Isabe sooner orter, and there was only one oue waiting for her.

    Shadow inhaled to calm his mind. ¡°Sorry for yelling... Just, don¡¯t speak. Get up as fast as you can, and use your invisibility thing to get away.¡±

    He believed that if what Isabe said first was true, Angor could escape safely if they didn¡¯t use their Spirit Bond.

    And since Angor still had hope, Shadow decided to sacrifice Naga to buy some time.

    ¡°... Thank you.¡± Angor nodded and gave Shadow a meaningful look.

    ¡°I said I owe you a favor for helping me get Naga, and I¡¯m returning it. We¡¯re even from today and on, ya know?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t directly help Shadow with the mission, but the man knew that he would never seed if Angor didn¡¯t get him out of the blood prison or prevent Felicia from destroying his n.

    ¡°Put me down, I¡¯m okay now. Let¡¯s split, now,¡± Angor said.

    ¡°Stay well. Don¡¯t you die on me!¡±

    Shadow began dashing toward the wizard tower of his professor, while Angor activated Infinite Reticence again and moved to the depth of the night.

 Chapter 435 - Hide And Seek

    <strong>Chapter 435 Hide And Seek</strong>

    With no clouds to obstruct its way, a lone moon shined its cold brilliance upon the earth.

    Angor used Cleanse to remove all smells and bloodstains from his body before moving away carefully.

    The woods were dark. When Angor thought the only thing noticeable was the bright moon, a flock of flying ravens suddenly startled him.

    His current path led down the mountainside. It wasn¡¯t long before he reached the edge of the woods. However, he didn¡¯t move on when he saw the empty, barrennd outside the boundary.

    The wind had stopped. Nothing was making any sound around him. Angor couldn¡¯t sense anyone watching him, but he still felt wrong. His instinct told him to stay put and take a better look at his situation.

    After making sure his position was rtively concealed, Angor began to calcte different data using ¡°mind overdrive¡±.

    His calctions helped him notice a series of trails he left behind. The dirt he walked upon, broken tree branches, random objects he identally touched... Everything suggested where he was going.

    And since he could remember these trails, there was no doubt that a wizard with superior perceptions¡ªIsabe¡ªcould notice them as well.

    Whether his instinct was correct or not, he decided to calm down and change his destination.

    He had to make sure that nothing was left behind in order to avoid detection from the wizard. He proceeded along the edge of the woods with his mind overdrive constantly working

    A momentter, he heard someone screaming.

    Angor frowned at the familiar voice. It was Shadow.

    Following Shadow¡¯s painful yelling was a strange giggle sound that was mixed with madughter. ¡°Do you really think you can run from ME?¡±

    Isabe, no doubt. She seemed to be scolding Shadow and warning Angor at the same time.

    Next, Shadow let out several more screams, which gradually turned weaker. Combining a tiny trace of energy ripples with his mind overdrive, Angor managed to find something.

    Both Angor and Shadow expected that Shadow would get caught soon. With this in mind, Shadow decided to ask Naga to stall, while he ran back to his professor as fast as he could.

    As long as his professor was nearby, Shadow was confident that Isabe wouldn¡¯t do anything too harsh.

    However, it surprised them that Isabe dealt with Naga so soon.

    Angor grew a bit sad at the realization. He didn¡¯t want to imagine Shadow¡¯s condition too much, but it didn¡¯t prevent him from feeling sorry.

    He shook his head and forced his mind to regain reason as he kept walking along the edge of the forest.

    He never left the woods because his mind overdrive told him that something was waiting for him in the open. There was more danger outside than inside the woods.

    He soon heard noisesing from where he just trod on. It seemed Isabe found his previous marks.

    Angor nced back at a certain figure floating under the moon, and his pupils shrank quickly. Isabe was holding someone¡¯s severed head in one hand, and a broken human body in the other.

    Angor took a deep breath and walked away silently.

    Isabe had arrived at where Angor startled the ravens. As Angor estimated, the woman could easily follow all the traces he left behind.

    However, Isabe suddenly noticed the end of the traces. It only surprised her a little bit before she startedughing again.

    ¡°He intentionally left a false lead and went somewhere else... Oh, look at you, Diablo. Even a kid sees, runs, and thinks better than you.¡± Isabe chuckled at the human figure in her left hand.

    Shadow was suffering from injuries worse than what Angor went through. However, Isabe didn¡¯t go for the kill yet. The man was obviously in a way better condition than Naga, who only had her head left.

    ¡°Heh...¡± Shadow spat some blood and broken body parts from his mouth. ¡°Do you know who he is?¡±

    ¡°Huh, are you saying he belongs to someone powerful?¡± Isabe more or less felt that Angor got a special background. Those splendid hiding skills alone weren¡¯t something avable to an ordinary apprentice.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you kill him? You¡¯ll see then.¡±

    In fact, Shadow didn¡¯t know who exactly was Angor¡¯s teacher. Every time he asked, Angor would simply smile without speaking. The only thing Shadow knew was that Angor came from Brute Cavern.

    However, he heard Greya¡¯s warning to Felicia back in Dark Castle, and he deduced that Angor had a supreme man as his teacher.

    From the avable leads, Shadow had several possible answers on his mind. Greya was already a ¡°truth finder¡± wizard, and if she meant to warn Felicia of dangerous people... There were only a few names that would fit the description.

    The ¡°Silencer¡±, ¡°Phantom Master¡±, ¡°World Whisperer¡± and ¡°Thunder Wolf¡±....

    Although he wasn¡¯t 100 percent sure of it, Shadow assumed that Phantom Master was the final answer since both Sunders and Angor were illusionists.

    Isabe lifted Shadow closer to her face. ¡°I can read your mind, you know. And I know you¡¯re talking nonsense. Besides, I don¡¯t care who¡¯s behind the boy. Bog is right at Silent Hill, and he can¡¯t stop me from killing you.¡±

    Shadow grimaced. Bog was his only hope of survival.

    To outsiders, Bog was an extreme maniac, but as his student, Shadow knew that Bog¡¯s character was quite simple.

    And that man tended to protect his students surprisingly well.

    Still, Shadow wasn¡¯t sure whether his teacher could save him from another wizard.

    This was why Shadow had not taunted Isabe again by saying ¡°I dare you to try¡±.

    On the other side, Angor had returned to the main path among the woods where he and Shadow were intercepted by Isabe.

    He could see Talos at the end of the path.

    Should he leave through the exit or keep walking along the edge and enter the other part of the forest?

    After some more calctions, he reached the conclusion that the main path was safer.

    The answer went the opposite waypared to before, but everything including his instinct told him so.

    Should I?

    Angor felt his brain getting tired. His body had not recovered much, and he couldn¡¯t keep up his mind overdrive for too long.

    This meant he no longer had the stamina to search for safety in the woods.

    He finally made a decision.

    Isabe wasn¡¯t worrying about losing Angor¡¯s track at all.

    She might have let Angor slip away if the boy were to hide in the market, but she already saw him personally, and she had fully remembered Angor¡¯s signatures.

    At this moment, she could either use Angor¡¯s signatures to locate him or use Angor¡¯s blood in a remote cursing spell.

    With these ns in mind, Isabe didn¡¯t care about Angor¡¯s moves. She would dly y the cat-and-mouse game for a little longer.

    11*Cough*¡±

    Naga¡¯s head suddenly ¡°woke up¡± in Isabe¡¯s hand and started to cough up more blood.

    As a puppet, her brain was her core. She wouldn¡¯t die when her head was still intact.

    ¡°I failed my mission, Master,¡± Naga said to Shadow in a sad voice.

    Shadow didn¡¯t take a good look at Naga earlier because he didn¡¯t want to see what Naga had gone through because of his own recklessness.

    Now that Naga was trying to talk to him...

    It looked terrible. Naga had lost an eyeball, and half of her face was covered in blood and scars.

    Shadow couldn¡¯t help but feel more and more apologetic. ¡°I¡¯m... sorry, Naga.¡±

    Naga coughed. ¡°It was my own ipetence, Master.¡±

    ¡°Huh... you finally started talking emotions to these puppet things too, eh Diablo?¡± Isabe scoffed. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got no time to listen to your sickening mishmash.¡±

    Isabe released a blood-red sphere, which slowly swallowed Naga¡¯s head within.

    The sphere slowly solidified, stiffening Naga¡¯sst expression-a determined farewell.

    A waxen art piece with a bloody shell.

    ¡°Look at her face!¡± Isabeughed again. ¡°This is going to be one of the best collections I found these days.¡±

    ¡°You¡ª¡± Shadow closed his eyes and tried as best as he could to suppress the surging fury.

    However, he was still not experienced enough like real wizards. Sometimes, it was just impossible to defeat youthful foolhardiness with sanity.

    Shadow managed to hold back most of his emotions, which caused red streams of tears to seep from his eyes. In the end, his tongue still gave in to his rage and let out two simple words.

    ¡°Old... hag!¡±

 Chapter 436 - Bogulaâ€™s Arrival

    <strong>Chapter 436 Bog¡¯s Arrival</strong>

    Isabe earned many bad names due to her terrible personality, and she knew about them.

    Compared to being called a psycho, she hated it more when people called her ¡°old¡±. It was true that she had lived for ten centuries without going beyond the boundary of a level-2 wizard. Yet she would still like to avoid hearing anyone mentioning her age. She even used the look of a little girl. There was another reason. She feared that ¡°someone¡± might dislike aged beings.

    All in all, using ¡°old¡± was a great taboo to Isabe.

    Obviously, Shadow just triggered this taboo.

    She was staring at Shadow with pure hatred now. It seemed Shadow also got rid of his concerns and decided to provoke the woman all-out.

    ¡°What? Want to kill me huh? Old stuff? Well, do it! What are you waiting for?¡±

    Shadow didn¡¯t do this because he lost his reasons. He knew that he had to believe in his teacher. It was a gamble that depended on whether Isabe could really kill Bog¡¯s student at his home court.

    Isabeughed in rage. ¡°You think I can¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Prove it, old hag!¡±

    ¡°If you want it sooo much...¡± Isabe gathered her blood magic in a hand and mmed it toward Shadow¡¯s head. ¡°I¡¯ll fulfill your death wish!¡±

    Shadow closed his eyes and silently pleaded to his professor.

    Isabe¡¯s drill-shaped magic had sunk into Shadow¡¯s skull. More blood came sshing out.

    Shadow could feel the great pain getting deeper into his head. It seemed he lost his gamble. Even Bog couldn¡¯t help him get away from a level-2 wizard.

    Or maybe the man didn¡¯t know what happened here at all? Before his death, Shadow was still finding excuses for his teacher¡¯s absence.

    He waited for the drill of death to reach his brain.

    He suddenly sensed something cold shing past his hair before Isabe¡¯s death grip loosened and dropped him.

    He then opened his eyes and saw Isabe in the same position. She was holding a cluster of severed hair-his own hair-in her hand, but for some reason, the same hand was bleeding.

    Someone saved me?

    Shadow realized something and chuckled. Looks I actually won!

    They were originally floating high in the air. To Shadow, hitting the ground like this wasn¡¯t a better oue either, since the shock might kill his already damaged organs.

    Before it could happen though, he heard someone yelling in a familiar voice, ¡°Mister Diablo!¡±

    It was a little boy¡¯s timid voice. ¡°Go, Dodo!¡±

    Something swiftly dashed to Shadow. It was a kitten; it caught Shadow¡¯s cor in its teeth before Shadow could crash.

    With the help of the little savior, Shadow didn¡¯t suffer too much damage uponnding on rotten grass and branches.

    ¡°Thanks, Dodo.¡± Shadow let out a relieved breath while looking at the cute animal behind him.

    Bog¡¯s new student, Toya, also came running while calling Shadow¡¯s name anxiously.

    Shadow lifted a trembling hand and put it on Toya¡¯s short hair. ¡°No worries. Get me up... I need to stop this bleeding.¡±

    A giant hole in his head was still giving out blood like mad. No matter what happened, he had to do something about it first.

    Toya nodded and quickly took out a ss of green potion from his sling pouch.

    Shadow¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Glowing Velvet Potion?? Where did you get this stuff?¡±

    Toya puffed his chest up proudly. ¡°Gramps Mithra gave it to me as a reward after I helped him with alchemy works.¡±

    ¡°You? Helping Mister Mithra? You didn¡¯t make that up, did you?¡±

    Mithra wasn¡¯t a powerful wizard, but he was one of the best Apothecary alchemists in the entire Floating Mech City, and at the same time, one of the best candidates for restraining Bog¡¯s actions. No one knew why. People guessed that it was because Mithra was once Bog¡¯s teacher who saw Bog growing up. Today, Bog was a lot stronger than Mithra in terms of strength, but the puppet man still wouldn¡¯t do stupid things in front of Mithra.

    Toya protested and said, ¡°It¡¯s true. I offered him help, and he gave me this.¡±

    ¡°What did you help him with anyway?¡± Shadow downed the potion and asked while looking at his wounds healing quickly.

    ¡°I sat aside and watched! Gramps Mithra said that¡¯s all I have to do as his assistant.¡± Toya disyed a cunning smile.

    ¡°Oh, crap.¡±

    Woah shit. Speaking of young little bastards who knew how to take advantage of their ages and cute looks...

    Meanwhile, Isabe was looking at another individual, who was floating not far from her, with a dark look. ¡°Bog... still the babysitter I knew, I see.¡±

    Bog had his head tilted to one side. His bright red hair and serpent-like tongue pping in the wind gave him an extremely wild look.

    ¡°Jajaja... You¡¯re not anyone to tell me what to do.¡±

    ¡°I mean, it¡¯s not like you, protecting your student like guarding chickens.¡±

    ¡°How about you stop staring? Or I¡¯ll... kill you, jaja...¡± Bog suddenly changed the topic, but his malevolent expression suggested that he meant those words.

    Isabe suppressed her anger and put up a gentle smile. ¡°Ohe on, I¡¯m simply looking at my future husband with all my love.¡±

    Bog didn¡¯t react toward Isabe¡¯s change of attitude. The man looked side to side. ¡°Now tell me, where did that blond beauty go?¡±

    Jealousy was reflected in Isabe¡¯s half-shut eyes. ¡°Beauty? I¡¯m the only beauty here.¡±

    ¡°Get out of my sight. You¡¯re far from being a beauty.¡± Bog didn¡¯t seem to be avoiding using harsh words when taunting Isabe. ¡°Old and sick. Shoo, shoo.¡±

    Isabe clenched her fists without revealing too much emotion. She needed someone who could take her into another ne to find destiny, and Bog was the current best choice. Bog possessed enough resources and that meant absolute advantage during a destiny hunt.

    This was why Isabe would act as careful as possible when facing Bog; she hoped that the man could pay her at least some regards.

    But a freaking boy just ruined it for good!

    Another voice suddenly traveled far and beyond to reach their ears.

    ¡°My my, someone woke me up in the middle of the night.¡±

    ¡°I know, right? Who¡¯s being a nuisance when people are trying to sleep?¡±

    It was the Dual Sprite, Talos; the gatekeeper of Silent Hill.

    Isabe scowled. She thought Talos meant to criticize her actions, but something changed her mind when Talos continued to speak, ¡°Wait, isn¡¯t this little kid the one with Diablo in the morning?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes! Why is he leaving Silent Hill at night? Does he hate our home?¡±

    ¡°Tsk. He got blood all over his body.¡±

    ¡°Should we open the door?¡±

    ¡°To open?¡±

    ¡°Or not to open?¡±

    ¡°DON¡¯T OPEN IT!¡± Isabe and Bog almost yelled at the same time.

    ¡°Please open it, Mister Talos!¡± It was Shadow, who just added his own response. Obviously, this one was going to get ignored.

    ¡°I¡¯m so sleepy...¡±

    ¡°Here, I¡¯ll rest for another two minutes before opening it for you.¡±

    Isabe and Bog instantly reached the gate. They only needed two seconds to travel the distance.

    Shadow looked at the clear sky with the same grim look as before. He knew he just escaped his death, but...

    He slowly limped away and spoke to Toya, who had been giving him curious nces.

    ¡°Go that way. Help me look for Naga¡¯s body. I¡¯ll... teach you an interesting cantrip tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Really? Which cantrip?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll see it tomorrow. Go, find Naga¡¯s body and go back to the tower with Dodo.¡±

    ¡°What about you?¡±

    Shadow looked toward the gate area.

    ¡°I need to check out the final fate of a friend.¡±

    Angor was getting more confident. He could escape from Silent Hill as long as he went through the boundary.

    However, the moment he dashed past the bounds, he felt dizzy all of a sudden because of a familiar energy.

    The dizziness forced his body to move back inside again before he could do anything.

    And he finally regained consciousness when he was well inside Silent Hill again.

    The power of illusions.

    When he came to Silent Hill with Shadow, he already noticed that a giant illusory barrier concealed Silent Hill, but he didn¡¯t dare to check out the illusion recklessly.

    He ran into the illusionpletely off guard due to his stress. Fortunately, the illusion didn¡¯t do harm to him.

    Now that he could think clearly, he found it impossible to breach the illusion constructed by a major wizard organization.

    From what he could tell, the illusion was deployed by really powerful wizards. It might even be abination of several illusions.

    Angor reached the terrible conclusion that he had to pay a visit to Talos again.

 Chapter 437 - Recurring Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 437: Recurring Crisis</h4>

    A giant boulder sat motionless in his view.

    Both the ¡°young¡± and the ¡°old¡± side of Talos were sleeping like any ordinary folk would do in the middle of the night. Rather, the Dual Sprite looked even peaceful under theforting moonlight.

    Angor tried to talk. Yet Talos never woke up no matter how he called and yelled or revealed his body.

    Angor¡¯s expression darkened. He didn¡¯t believe that Talos, an ancient being who had lived for thousands of years, would fail to notice someone had disrupted its sleep.

    The only exnation was Talos didn¡¯t want him to leave.

    Angor would assume the worst. It was likely that Talos had sided with Isabe. Yet the sprite didn¡¯t want to make it too obvious, so it simply feigned it.

    Also, Talos probably had already informed Isabe of his arrival!

    In truth, only half of Angor¡¯s assumption was correct¡ªTalos was pretending to be sleeping, true. But this wasn¡¯t because it wanted to aid Isabe. Talos would like to avoid getting involved in the matter.

    The sprite was almost certain that Angor was a disciple of Phantom Master, which meant Sunders¡ªthe famous ¡°killing machine from the southern wizarding region¡±¡ªwas standing behind this boy. Of course Talos would NOT set Angor up so boldly.

    In case Sunders dide to protect his student, Talos meant to stay out of this and put all me on Isabe.

    However, Talos failed to predict the presence of Bog. As the gatekeeper of Silent Hill, Talos knew about Bog¡¯s special obsession toward people with blond hair and blue eyes. That man would DEFINITELY try to intervene.

    If Sunders found out that his personal student was made into a puppet by Bog...

    Talos silently thought about what to do.

    ¡°Maybe we should let him run?¡±

    ¡°Hey no! I want to get paid!¡±

    ¡°The kid has some crystals. How about getting some of that and let him go?¡±

    ¡°No. I¡¯ve alreadye up with a pen name! I want to get known around the south!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that sounds nice.¡±

    ¡°But you don¡¯t know what Sunders, Bog, and Isabe will do in Silent Hill. I¡¯ve got a feeling that this little kid will be safe no matter what happens.¡±

    ¡°If he lives on, he will be a real beast soon.¡±

    ¡°Will hee back to get revenge on us?¡±

    No one could hear Talos¡¯ whisper of mind. For now, Angor had decided to give up on this exit and return to human crowds.

    As long as there were people gathering around, Isabe had to think about Silent Hill¡¯s standing before she tried to make any harsh moves. This meant a chance to turn the tide.

    Of course, Angor wouldn¡¯t really want to ¡°turn the tide¡± in the middle of Silent Hill. He hoped to leave Silent Hill while hiding among people. Surely Talos would open the door for someone native to Silent Hill, right?

    With that in mind, Angor walked toward the market area.

    Before he could take any steps, a giant, blood-red barrier covered him as well as the surrounding area, which extended hundreds of meters away.

    Angor¡¯s heart skipped a beat when he saw Isabe appearing just outside the barrier. She wasughing in two different voices.

    The ground was slowly covered by flowing blood. Before Angor could react, both his ankles were submerged in heavy liquid.

    His Infinite Reticence instantly lost its effect.

    ¡°There you are! Come, Blood Fiend!¡±

    Following Isabe¡¯s lunatic order, the blood pool suddenly gained form and became a monstrous being that stood high above Angor. It howled toward the sky and mmed a w at Angor.

    Meanwhile, the blood beast was still draining all the blood inside the barrier while expanding in size.

    Angor found no room to dodge such a giant w. To make it worse, Isabe had already put her pressure on him, rendering him unable to move at all.

    To Angor, there was no doubt that his several viable tactics would appear like harmless breezes in the face of a level-2 wizard. Nothing would help.

    Angor stared at the iing attack in fear and desperation.

    Again and again, he would find chances of survival before he was hurled back into a deadly situation.

    Am I destined to die today?

    He didn¡¯t want to die yet, but what should he do? What would get him away from the pursuit of a level-2 wizard?

    Shackles on the body didn¡¯t prevent his mind to operate its wonder.

    Using what he could squeeze out of his mana pool, Angor tried his best to construct a spell model.

    He nned to get out the way of the bloody attack by using a ¡°small tornado¡±. With the help of his axes of the universe, he managed to finish the model in time... but the blood attack was right in front of him.

    He still unleashed the tornado. However, when going against a wizard-level spell, the tornado simply dissipated like a drop of water that was swallowed by a tidal wave.

    Angor was left with nothing to do.

    But it seemed fate really loved to toy around his life. Before he was harmed, a pair of Hands of Spell emerged from one side and dragged him out of harm¡¯s way at thest second.

    The hands held him in the air.

    Before Angor could see what was going on, he already heard Isabe bellowing in rage in her signature dual-voice, ¡°Bog... Are you sure you would oppose ME just for an apprentice weakling?¡±

    Angor heard strangeughtering from his back.

    ¡°Jajaja... To me, this is no apprentice weakling. He¡¯s an absolutely divine material.¡±

    Angor turned back and saw a red-haired man in soft, purple armor. The man looked decent... as far as his looks were concerned.

    However, all beautiful elements on the man were ruined when he stared at Angor with different-sized eyes and a worming, slim tongue.

    Angor couldn¡¯t think of anyone who could manage to disy such horrifying expressions.

    But on second look, Angor recalled something. He saw this man somewhere before... from the ¡°handsome candidate illustrations¡± he received from Lady Mirror.

    And Isabe just called him ¡°Bog¡±...

    ¡°Puppet Master¡± Bog?

    Angor recalled Lady Mirror¡¯sment about this man.

    ¡°Bog from Floating Mech City is a rare, one-of-a-kind genius and is very likely to be a truth finder. He looks good too. Pity, he¡¯s a terrible pervert...¡±

    A terrible pervert! ording to THE Lady Mirror!

    Earlier, Angor felt relieved that he was saved by someone, but now, he wasn¡¯t so sure about it.

    The point was, why did this ¡°pervert¡± help him?

    He didn¡¯t get to think about that question. Scorching pain suddenly rose from inside his body as if all of his blood started to boil.

    He screamed at the unbearable agony. Blood was seeping out from his eyes, ears, and nose. Hot, steaming blood.

    ¡°Gah-hahaha! No one can save him when I WANT HIM DEAD!¡± Isabe¡¯s mad voice came again.

    Bog nced at Angor¡¯s condition and quickly realized something. ¡°A blood curse...¡±

    Isabe had already extracted some blood from Angor¡¯s wounds. Using his blood, Isabe was putting a deadly curse on Angor.

    ¡°Burning Blood! Aw, isn¡¯t that an amazing sight!¡±

    Bog lowered his head. His hands glowed with blue light, and a pair of blond, blue-eyeddies appeared beside him.

    ¡°Get her.¡±

    Thedies instantly lunged at Isabe.

    Without much time to prepare, Isabe used one of the basic means of cursing against Angor. However, with Bog¡¯s puppetdies interrupting her, the curse on Angor halted.

    Isabelle was caught by surprise as well. In fact, she didn¡¯t expect Bog to attack her directly just for a ¡°material¡±.

    On the other hand, Angor felt the curse subside. But the lingering, burning pain in his veins was still torturing him alive.

    He breathed heavily. His nose, mouth, even his skin was releasing white vapor into the air. His clean, white face had turned red, like someone who spent too much time doing a handstand.

    Bog waited for Angor to recover just a little before he whispered, ¡°I¡¯ll save your life if you¡¯re willing to follow me.¡±

    ¡°Gah... Follow¡ªwhat do you mean?¡± Angor couldn¡¯t think too clearly. He replied out of instinct without addressing Bog properly.

    ¡°You will know once you agree,¡± Bog replied in a tone that sounded absolutely evil in Angor¡¯s view.

    Angor was taken aback as he realized something. ¡°You¡¯re Diablo¡¯s teacher?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    Angor nned to ask about Shadow¡¯s condition, but on second thought... Shadow would probably be okay since his teacher was already here.

    Then Angor remembered Shadow mentioning the ¡°bizarre fetishes¡± of his teacher...

    He already knew what this man wanted from him.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to make me into your puppet?¡±

 Chapter 438 - Ritual of Blood

    <h4>Chapter 438: Ritual of Blood</h4>

    Bog narrowed his eyes. ¡°Oh, it looks like you¡¯re a good friend of Diablo. Well, of course, he won¡¯t offend Isabe like this otherwise. He even sacrificed Naga... Oh man, how terrible.¡±

    Bog didn¡¯t mean to hide his intention since Shadow already told Angor enough.

    ¡°Correct, I will turn you into a puppet,¡± the man said while his tongue moved around his mouth like a real snake, ¡°but what¡¯s on your mind might be a little different than the actual puppet I use. Did you see Naga¡¯s intelligence? I can allow you to retain your own consciousness, and it will be easier for you to be a wizard as I¡¯d be making adjustments and upgrades to your body. What do you say? Will you follow me?¡±

    Bog stared at Angor with pure greed.

    Now that Bog revealed everything in the open, Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to react. If Bog didn¡¯t lie, then the man really gave him a choice that would determine whether he survived this day.

    However, Angor didn¡¯t believe that everything Bog said was truthful. Rather, it would be weird if a wizard didn¡¯t use word tricks at all. Besides, Angor¡¯s nature told him to steer away from being someone¡¯s underling. Bog¡¯s promises didn¡¯tpensate for what he would lose.

    But... what if ¡°bing a puppet¡± and ¡°death¡± were the only two options?

    In other words, he either lived on like someone¡¯s dog or disappeared from this world right here, right this moment.

    As he struggled with the choices, a young man appeared from the woods, limping.

    It was Shadow.

    The two ends of Kurna¡¯s Pact met each other in such an extreme situation. Angor nodded to Shadow and said ¡°thanks¡± using his lips. No matter what the final oue would be, he would not forget Shadow¡¯s help.

    Shadow saw Angor¡¯s gratitude and didn¡¯t say anything in return. The man only shook his head helplessly.

    And Angor felt puzzled at Shadow¡¯s response. There was no way Shadow would say ¡°no need to thank me¡± in this situation. This man was never the one to use such courtesy.

    So what did he mean?

    Angor looked up again and noticed Bog was giving him a strange look.

    Is Shadow telling me to NOT ept Bog¡¯s offer?

    But why? Isn¡¯t Bog Shadow¡¯s teacher?

    Maybe something else is off...

    Shadow wasn¡¯t disying any more movement. He only stood at the edge of the forest and waited for Angor¡¯s choice¡ªwhatever Angor chose, he had fulfilled his responsibility as a friend.

    Bog¡¯s blond puppets had stopped harassing Isabe. They now stood quietly behind Bog.

    Isabe was grinning again. Her hands were glowing again. At the same time, Angor felt something changing in his blood.

    It didn¡¯t hurt this time. His blood was changing as it followed an unknown rhythm...

    ¡°Jajaja... She¡¯s injecting her curse in the root of your bloodline. Once it¡¯s done, you¡¯ll suffer from her curse for eternity, whether dead or alive.¡± Bog chuckled and said, ¡°You have 30 seconds. Make up your mind.¡±

    The terrible feeling in his blood told Angor that Bog didn¡¯t lie about this one.

    Bog is forcing me to submit. He even uses Isabe as a tool?

    Instead of worrying about Bog¡¯s offer, Angor was wondering why a powerful wizard like this gave him a choice in the first ce. Why didn¡¯t the man simply knock him out or something and directly process him into a puppet?

    Angor had no hope of escaping from Bog, that much was certain. Angor couldn¡¯t understand why a perverted wizard like Bog was actually allowing him to decide his own fate.

    ¡°Twenty seconds,¡± Bog reminded. ¡°Once the curse sets in, I¡¯ll not care about you even if you agree. This is your only chance.¡±

    Angor quickly returned to the more pressing matter.

    He closed his eyes and used mind overdrive to think about all possible factors.

    Time was too short. Using mind overdrive was the only thing possible for him to get an answer. Also, he kept thinking about Shadow¡¯s previous signal.

    As far as he could see, rejecting Bog¡¯s offer meant death. Of course, Angor didn¡¯t want to live on as a ve. He had promises to fulfill. Jon¡¯s life, Nausica¡¯s mechanical arm, Toby, the Eyeless Man, and thest hope of Krakoks... If he had to choose, he would be someone¡¯s ve, which at least would allow him to continue fulfilling his vows.

    ¡°Ten seconds to go. So, will you follow me or will you ept your end?¡±

    Isabe didn¡¯t speak in the meantime. She was busy casting her curse. On the first look, she seemed to be assisting Bog. But in fact, she secretly hid another stream of power in her spell that was meant to kill Angor right away.

    Angor noticed none of that. He was still thinking about what he could deduce from the environment so that he could make the best choice.

    ¡°Even if my professor gets you, I can find a way to get you out.¡± Shadow¡¯s words shed through his mind.

    Shadow had no reason to lie back then. So could Shadow help him get away from Bog¡¯s control? But why did Shadow shook his head just now?

    Angor nced at Shadow again.

    The man stood therepletely still without presenting any emotions; it was as if his previous gesture didn¡¯t exist.

    Angor¡¯s ¡°mind overdrive¡± allowed him to catch every single detail he could see. Shadow was trying to conceal his mind as best as he could, yet Angor managed to notice something; Shadow wasn¡¯t looking at him or Bog. The man had his attention fixed on Isabe instead.

    Angor had been interpreting Shadow¡¯s signal in a straightforward manner, but what if he were wrong?

    Shadow wasn¡¯t trying to tell me whether I should ept Bog¡¯s idea. Maybe I should not choose at all?

    That exined why Shadow was looking at Isabe. Maybe there was a way to stop Isabe¡¯s harm.

    This seemed impossible, but Angor decided to scan around Isabe for more details.

    ¡°Five seconds,¡± Bog said as he wanted to put more pressure on Angor¡¯s mind, ¡°four, three, two...¡±

    Before he could finish the countdown though, Isabe suddenly interrupted him with another heartyugh.

    ¡°Now, DIE! Forget about my bloodline curse. What I have for you is... Ritual of Blood!¡±

    Bog¡¯s body shook upon hearing Isabe¡¯s words.

    Angor sensed that the strange ripples invading his blood had gone. There was no cursing power in his body.

    But the looming sense of death still arrived just in time.

    ¡°Ritual of Blood?!¡± Bog had put away his dramatic expression and reced it with a serious look. ¡°You¡¯ve been nning this all along?¡±

    Ritual of Blood was a very powerful level-2 blood spell. Under normal circumstances, Bog would avoid getting affected by it at all costs, but now, he waspletely defenseless in front of Isabe.

    Bog no longer cared about Angor¡¯s choice. He had to leave the area of the spell first.

    The man stepped into a rift. As he disappeared, the Hand of Spell that supported Angor also vanished, dropping Angor on the ground.

    Away from them, the Dual Sprite, Talos, also watched in shock at what just happened. Talos knew about Isabe¡¯s mad character from rumors and stories, but this was the first time for Talos to witness the woman¡¯s hysterical nature up close.

    A level-2 wizard was going to use arge-scale spell just to murder an apprentice. This was an outrage!

    Isabe never intended to mind the strength gap between her and Angor. She was simply using her best shot to kill an insect. There was not another wizard out there who would do such a thing. For one, it was an unnecessary waste of stamina. And secondly, it would be a joke that would stain one¡¯s name.

    However, Isabe cared for neither.

    Angory still on the ground and watched as the overwhelming spell sealed his fate.

 Chapter 439 - A Glimmer of Hope

    <h4>Chapter 439: A Glimmer of Hope</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    In thest blink of second before Isabe¡¯s attack connected with Angor, Angor suddenly lifted his head. A strange voice echoed from his mouth, ¡°Isabe.¡±

    It sounded too sharp to be a man¡¯s voice.

    Such action surprised everyone on the scene, including Bog, who had escaped somewhere else by teleportation. Everyone gazed at the young man who appeared to be fearless in the middle of Ritual of Blood.

    Upon hearing ¡°her voice¡±, Isabe froze up in the air. Her spell was halted for a moment.

    ¡°Professor Isa¡ª¡±

    <i>How could this damned kid speak in HER voice?</i>

    Soon enough, Isabe removed her unnecessary concerns and continued her spell. She assumed that Angor just used some kind of trick to mimic Isabelle¡¯s voice, which meant she had all the more reason to kill this apprentice who dared to ruin her teacher¡¯s name.

    Angor only gave Isabe a determined look.

    Bog shook his head as he admired the bravery disyed by Angor. The boy didn¡¯t back down in front of a wizard-level attack at all.

    <i>This Angor would make a promising wizard... if not for his unfortunate fate.</i>

    Despite their assumptions, Angor wasn¡¯t showing any emotions on his face. He simply spoke in an extremely calm tone, ¡°Lady Isabelle is now back at the southern wizarding region.¡±

    Those words forced Isabe to stop her action again.

    People were trying to figure out what the boy wanted to do. Isabelle? The very pioneer who established a brand new era for wizards a thousand years ago was back? Really?

    ¡°Are you serious? Say it again, slowly this time!¡± Isabe finally lifted her spell, but she did not cancel it. The spell was now hovering in the air.

    Angor was still looking at Isabelle with unchangingposure. ¡°Lady Isabelle has returned to the southern wizarding region.¡±

    Illusion ripples suddenly emerged from Angor¡¯s body, which slowly changed his appearance into that of a girl with white hair and cold gaze.

    ¡°Venees?! No... You¡¯re¡ªprofessor?¡± Isabe was using her lie-detection spell just now, and she found no lies in Angor words. Angor¡¯s body now looked exactly like Venees but with different hair and eye color.

    ¡°Venees¡± was showing the particr aura that Isabe would never forget; it was Isabelle¡¯s aura.

    Upon realizing that Angor meant his words, Isabe couldn¡¯t contain her excitement. She trembled.

    A thousand years... Isabe was willing to submit her ego to someone she hated just to leave Fey Continent and look for her professor elsewhere. If her professor was really back...

    Meanwhile, Angor felt greatly relieved when he noticed that Isabe had stopped her blood ritual.

    <i>I did it!</i>

    When his death was imminent, Angor recalled Shadow mentioning some interesting facts about Isabe, such as how she copied her name from Isabelle, as well as how she mimicked Isabelle¡¯s title, ¡°Sundown Sultan¡±, by using ¡°Sundown Queen¡± instead.

    Someone might believe that Isabe was simply using her teacher¡¯s fame to gain profit, but Angor believed that this was because Isabe was obsessed about following her teacher¡¯s way.

    Shadow also mentioned a rumor back then.

    ¡°People said that Isabe had been secretly showing her love toward her mentor, which grew so uncontroble that she actually forced Isabelle to leave the region.¡±

    Angor was never interested in such gossip, but when he thought about how to force Isabe into giving up on killing him instead of him running away, he suddenly got an idea.

    He then brought up the ¡°gossip¡± that he learned from Shadow.

    Isabe was visibly trying to bear with her emotions when she asked again, ¡°How did you know it?¡±

    ¡°I met with Lady Isabelle.¡± Angor ignored the sudden fatigue that assaulted his spirit and cast another illusion, which recreated his encounter with Isabelle back in Dark Castle.

    Inside the illusion, Isabelle sat in darkness and said to Angor, ¡°The ¡®Spirit Mantra¡¯ I told you is a skill I learned this way, by trading with a peculiar race who called themselves the ¡®Kirigakure¡¯...¡±

    Angor only managed to rey a small part of the conversation, which was enough to get Isabe to go agape again.

    Isabe also knew about Spirit Mantra, as well as where such art came from. What Angor just showed to her, including Isabelle¡¯s looks, manner, and small details when she moved, looked exactly the same as before.

    <i>That IS Professor Isabelle!</i>

    There were tears lingering around Isabe¡¯s eyes.

    The other people remained silent as they sized up the situation. Telling from Isabe¡¯s reactions, Angor was speaking the truth? Only this conclusion would exin the sudden change in Isabe¡¯s attitude.

    To others, what Angor just said was actually more important than the life and death of Angor himself. If those words were true... How powerful would Isabelle be right now? What would she bring to Fairy World or the southern wizarding region? It was true that Isabelle left a thousand years ago before she could perform any drastic deeds, but at that time, she was the real controller of Fairy World.

    Would her arrival bring peace or warfare to Fairy World?

    Angor, who was currently the focus of everyone¡¯s attention, had exhausted thest bit of strength after casting the illusion. The urge to survive helped him fight against his wounds and overworked brain. Now, the act of casting the previous illusion was the final blow that finally knocked him out.

    Seeing the boy copsed, Isabe canceled her Ritual of Blood and dispersed it into the air.

    Shadow too, sighed in relief.

    However, Isabe wasn¡¯t going to get friendly in any way. To acquire more info, she pulled Angor up by his neck and demanded, ¡°Exin everything you know or die!¡±

    The violent act didn¡¯t help Angor feel any better. What remained of his lingering consciousness was snuffed out, as his head tilted to one side.

    Isabe noticed Angor¡¯s condition and prepared something in one hand. She was going to forcefully wake the boy up by burning away his life energy.

    Upon noticing Isabe¡¯s n, Shadow quickly yelled while walking away from the woods.

    ¡°Stop it! Angor saved Lady Isabelle, you can¡¯t do this to him!¡±

    <i>Angor saved who?</i>

    Those words attracted three presences on the scene¡ªIsabe, Bog, and Talos.

    Usually, no one would believe that an apprentice could save the life of a wizard. However, after they considered the situation, they partially believed in Shadow¡¯s im.

    Now the question was, how and why did Angor help Isabelle? Did this mean Isabelle was in a bad condition right now?

    Realizing this, Isabe¡¯s expression darkened.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been with Angor. I know everything he knows! Ask me if you want to know anything!¡± Shadow yelled again.

    Isabe nced at Shadow¡¯s limping form and decided to give him a chance. ¡°Good. If you tell me what I want to know, I can give this thing back to you.¡±

    Naga¡¯s head appeared in Isabe¡¯s hand.

    ¡°But if there¡¯s even one false word from your tongue...¡±

    Shadow suddenly felt joyful. Originally, he only nned to help Angor again. He didn¡¯t expect to receive an extra reward.

    Isabe simply tossed Angor away as if she were throwing junk away. She still had her doubts, but what if Shadow meant it? Telling from how Angor learned Spirit Mantra for real, it was likely that the boy did do something good to Isabelle.

    Isabelle always repaid her debts to anyone. Previously, the father of the Krakok priest assisted her, and Isabelle rewarded the Krakoks with Soul Genesis Garden; she also forbade anyone from invading the Krakoks¡¯ new home.

    This was why even though the Soul Genesis Garden had sat in the middle of Midworld for a thousand years, nobody dared to im it.

    Supposed that Shadow spoke the truth, that Angor did save Isabelle in some way, killing the boy meant earning a bad impression from Isabelle. Isabe would not want this to happen.

    With this in mind, Isabe dropped Angor back on the ground; she no longer intended to kill him.

    With a swift move, Bog caught Angor in his hand, which didn¡¯t attract any hostility from Isabe this time. She had been maiming people with blond hair and blue eyes in order to thin down Bog¡¯s ¡°beauty candidates¡±. Now that she might find Isabelle in the southern wizarding region, she no longer had to bow down to Bog.

    Shadow made sure that Angor was only unconscious before he looked at Isabe with a determined look.

    Shadow wasn¡¯t going to hide what he learned about Isabelle at all. He¡¯d answer anything Isabe was interested in. However, this would only be limited to facts¡ªhe would not tell any assumptions that he heard from Angor.

    Such assumptions included the current nature of Isabelle¡¯s presence. They didn¡¯t know whether Isabelle had returned for real or if it was only a fragment of her soul inside Dark Castle.

    Revealing this would only cause trouble. Isabe had to ascertain her teacher¡¯s condition herselfter.

    ¡°First, how did Angor save Isabelle?¡± Isabe asked her number one concern.

    Immediately, a dozen spirit feelers from different wizards appeared around them¡ªBog and Talos, as well as a number of other wizards who were aware of the incident, would like to eavesdrop on precious clues.

    Isabe quickly saw through their attempts, but she didn¡¯t do anything. Normally, she would drag Shadow to somewhere private to talk. However, she couldn¡¯t do anything harsh to Shadow when Bog was looking. Besides, Angor, the possible ¡°savior¡± of Isabelle, was in Bog¡¯s hands. She couldn¡¯t act all imperiously right now.

    For this reason, Isabe chose to speak with Shadow out in the open and without any means of protection.

 Chapter 440 - Getting Famous

    <h4>Chapter 440: Getting Famous</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As Shadow provided answers to Isabe¡¯s questions, everyone who was listening slowly turned their focus back onto Angor again.

    This was because Shadow¡¯s description was downright unbelievable. Mystery soul, Mystery alchemist...

    An apprentice who tried to create a Mystery item? He did fail, but this was still something inconceivable.

    However, when people used their own means of lie-detection on Shadow, they were surprised to notice that Shadow spoke the truth.

    The young apprentice named Angor really summoned Mystery energy??

    Everyone was now giving Angor passionate looks as if they just discovered a hidden treasure. It no longer mattered whether Angor could be a wizard in the end. The boy already held as much value as a wizard... or even more.

    In fact, Shadow wasn¡¯t sure about most of the things he talked about because he never witnessed Angor¡¯s secrets. Still, the man always had a sly tongue. Combining his own assumptions, he made up a series of events that sounded very convincing.

    And these descriptions were all based on what he observed from Angor. They weren¡¯t lies.

    For example, Shadow said that Isabelle ¡°possessed¡± Venees as a damaged soul. She seized Angor¡¯s Mystery soul in order to survive.

    Of course, this wasn¡¯t what actually happened, but people still believed in his story.

    Upon learning that Isabelle was possibly wounded, people felt a great burden lifted from their minds.

    At the top level of a tattered stone tower inside Silent Hill, the ruler of the organization, ¡°Silent Raven¡± Taurus, lifted his frown.

    Inside the firece in front of him, Shadow¡¯s image was still speaking.

    It was already after midnight when Shadow finished speaking.

    Isabe was obviously concerned. She trusted Shadow¡¯s words that Isabelle had returned and that she was suffering from serious wounds.

    Isabe felt her heart aching at the news.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take your word for now. If I ever find out otherwise... I¡¯ll kill you for using my mentor¡¯s name, no matter where you are.¡±

    With that, Isabe tossed Naga¡¯s head back to Shadow and left Silent Hill quickly.

    She only wanted to get back to her teacher right now. Common sense dictated that she should be thanking Angor for helping Isabelle. However, her character didn¡¯t allow her to do so to a mere apprentice, so Isabe just left Angor here. The boy wasn¡¯t dead anyway. She believed Isabelle wouldn¡¯t me her.

    While everyone watched, Isabe turned into a blood-red bat and flew away.

    After making sure Isabe had left, Shadow dragged his broken body to his teacher. ¡°There goes that old hag. Good riddance... What a terrible night...¡±

    He quickly addressed Bog with a shameless grin. ¡°Hey, prof, can I do something to save her?¡±

    Naga¡¯s head was still sealed in Isabe¡¯s blood sphere. She seemed to be sleeping.

    ¡°You can.¡± Bog took a glimpse. ¡°However...¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± Shadow was excited that there was still hope. He decided to give up Naga earlier out of recklessness. Now that he could think it over, he REALLY did not want to abandon Naga yet.

    ¡°You¡¯re not up for it at your level. Get stronger. You¡¯ll find a way to repair her once you be a wizard.¡±

    Of course, Bog could help Shadow save Naga, but since Naga was now Shadow¡¯s personal property, Bog would leave all matters rted to Naga, including her maintenance, to Shadow.

    Shadow sighed in relief. ¡°d to hear it. I¡¯ll train as fast as possible.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so.¡± Bog lifted Angor up by the back of his cor. ¡°Let¡¯s get back.¡±

    Shadow didn¡¯t protest and slowly followed behind his teacher. They went back to their wizard tower.

    After they left, all the spirit feelers from various wizards also disappeared. There was only a giant blood pool and a lone boulder left on the scene¡ªDual Sprite Talos.

    ¡°The kid¡¯s not dead! I thought Bog is the trouble, but man, there are so many troubles! And Isabelle! I¡¯d say she is the one who helped the boy get away.¡±

    ¡°Fate, it must be. Maybe a prophet can tell us something... if we have one.¡±

    ¡°s...¡±

    ¡°Gods...¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s happening now? I¡¯ve almost finished my article! But it has no use if he¡¯s not dead.¡±

    ¡°Oh chill. You heard Shadow¡¯s news, right? Well, get to it!¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s not eye-catching enough! Isabelle¡¯s injured, and we don¡¯t really have a Mystery alchemist.¡±

    ¡°Make something up then!¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right!¡±

    ¡°Come up with a title first.¡±

    ¡°I got it¡ª¡¯Extra! The Sultan has Returned to the South! Will She Reshuffle All Forces in the Wizarding World?!¡¯¡±

    ¡°Oh, I got one too! ¡®Hear Ya! A Mystery Alchemist is Processed into Someone¡¯s Puppet?! It Turns Out to be¡¯¡ª¡±

    ¡°So which magazine are we going to contact?¡±

    ¡°Voice of Wizards or Wizardry Time?¡±

    ¡°They publish like every ten years or a century. We can¡¯t wait that long!¡±

    ¡°How about Precision Sky? They¡¯re monthly.¡±

    ¡°I guess you can... but it¡¯s held by Floating Mech City. We¡¯re going to anger Bog for good.¡±

    ¡°Aw who cares? To hell with him.¡±

    ¡°So we¡¯ll¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªdo this then!¡±

    With a smile on both sides, Talos slowly closed its eyes.

    Meanwhile, on the top floor of a stone tower in Silent Hill, a flock of ravens suddenly cried loudly.

    The ruler of Silent Hill, Taurus, sat beside the firece with a number of iron racks nearby. Every rack was full of ravens, each staring at each other with their bright beady eyes.

    ¡°Get in,¡± Taurus said in an old voice.

    Following his words, the room¡¯s window was knocked open by a sudden gale. Several spirit feelersnded behind Taurus.

    ¡°Mister Taurus, are we doing something regarding Shadow¡¯s news?¡± It was a voice recreated by pure spirit power.

    Taurus replied without looking back, ¡°Humph! Do something? How about you give us a suggestion?¡±

    The spirit feelers from different individuals fell into a heated discussion.

    ¡°Get her while she¡¯s weak!¡± an extremist said.

    ¡°I agree. I certainly do not want to go through her dominance again.¡± It was another old voice this time.

    ¡°But killing Isabelle does us no good. We aren¡¯t the one ruling Fairy World. She has nothing to do with us anyway.¡±

    ¡°But Dark Castle is too close to Silent Hill. Who knows whether Isabelle wille for us next, once she gains her true strength?¡±

    Another loud raven cry suddenly silenced everyone. They all looked at Taurus.

    ¡°Let¡¯s... put this matter aside for now.¡±

    Despite his voice, Taurus¡¯ form looked straight and energetic.

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Who among you can prove Diablo¡¯s im? During their conversation, Diablo used 13 words that suggested uncertainty. If we disregard these elements, we can only know two things for sure. One, Isabelle is back, and two, she¡¯s wounded. As for the extent of her wound, how she got wounded, her next move, her attitude toward Fairytown, and whether she¡¯s going to leave again... They all remain as mysteries. How can you be sure that we should kill Isabelle?

    ¡°Besides, let¡¯s suppose Isabelle is in a terrible condition. Will Isabe allow us to kill her teacher? Yes, Dark Castle has lost its former glory, but they still have their old tricks. Are we really going to dere war against Dark Castle? We¡¯re allies by name. Doing so will not help us in the long run.

    ¡°However... we CAN ask someone else to scout for info. Ourepa, I heard that you¡¯re a good friend of ¡®Bird of Paradise¡¯ Yorditemis, no?¡± Taurus asked a question.

    ¡°Yes,¡± a gentle female voice replied, ¡°several decades ago, I was invited to try out perfumes in Manda ne, together with Yorditemis.¡±

    ¡°Sweetmoon Federation presented an extraordinary perfume this time, and I managed to acquire a bottle of it. You can go look for Bird of Paradise and... talk about your old days.¡±

    A bottle decorated by an exquisite box appeared beside Ourepa.

    ¡°I see. Oh yes, we do need to meet each other after all this time.¡± Ourepa chuckled.

    ¡°Dismissed.¡± Taurus waved a hand.

    As everyone left the room, a new voice suddenly interrupted the silence.

    ¡°Mister Taurus, apart from Isabelle¡¯s matter, about that Mystery alchemist...¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± a second voice spoke up, ¡°he¡¯s not there yet, but he has an unpredictable future. Maybe we should... you know, seize him?¡±

    Taurus grinned and stood up from his chair.

    As he moved, the firece changed and shifted until it showed the image of Angor before the boy was taken away.

    ¡°About him... I just learned something interesting from Talos. Leave him be for the moment. He¡¯s not someone we Silent Hill can keep. Oh ho... Now I¡¯m wondering what Bog is going to do.¡±

 Chapter 441 - To the Floating City!

    <strong>Chapter 441: To the Floating City!</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Bog¡¯s n toward Angor? Many people would like to know.

    But in truth, Bog didn¡¯t do anything to Angor yet.

    Angor woke up during the next afternoon. He found himself lying on a warm bed, where the first thing that greeted his sight was a timid fire sprite.

    When he was sleeping, these naughty little creatures were having fun pulling his hair. Angor sat up and startled them for good, which caused them to dive back into the firece.

    Their sudden movement left a small ember on Angor¡¯s head. Hastily, Angor used Create Water to put it out. Then he created an Ice Wall as a mirror and realized that his blond hair had been seared into a ck mess.

    Defeated, he simply cut most of his hair and only left a thin crew cut.

    This was what Shadow saw when the man entered the room.

    ¡°Oh ho, trust me, I¡¯d tell you to dye your hair beforehand if this will actually help you.¡±

    ¡°For god¡¯s sake. Use your eyes,¡± Angorined.

    Shadow approached and saw the obvious burn marks on the hair left on the floor.

    ¡°Oh, I see. Those are newborn little troublemakers. They acted so because my professor created them. They don¡¯t mean harm.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, right...¡±

    An ordinary man who couldn¡¯t put out the fire in time might as well turn into a burnt corpse. Besides, Angor was not happy at all for having his hair ruined.

    ¡°You sure look better this way,¡± Shadow said as he looked at Angor up and down. ¡°Less childish and more manly.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t respond this time. He was busy removing the fallen hair using Cleanse. After that, he went to the bathroom to get changed. ¡°Thank you for helping me yesterday. Otherwise, I wouldn¡¯t have thought about how to deal with Isabe.¡±

    Shadow looked puzzled. ¡°Wait, did I?¡±

    ¡°You shook your head to tell me how to get Isabe into giving up her attack, right?¡±

    ¡°Eh, really?¡± Shadow tilted his head. He did it to tell Angor NOT to agree to Bog¡¯s promise. As Bog¡¯s student, Shadow knew that Bog tended to be pretty cruel to his opponents, but at the same time, he was very considerate when it was about his ¡°beauties¡±. Bog could even charm people into bing his puppet on their own will.

    But Shadow then noticed that his gesture was noticed by Bog. Bog quickly grew visibly angry and decided to utilize Isabe¡¯s curse attack to force Angor into making a decision. That was when Shadow quickly changed his mind and asked Angor to ept the promise instead; otherwise, Angor would surely die.

    However, Angor already developed another idea without paying attention to Shadow¡¯s following signals.

    ¡°Wait. That¡¯s wasn¡¯t what you were trying to tell me?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Huh? Oh! Of course it is! Hehehe, that¡¯s why I shook my head at you!¡± Shadow quickly tried to earn a new favor from Angor.

    Too bad for him because Angor already saw Shadow¡¯s change of expressions. He was wondering if he had really misinterpreted Shadow¡¯s hint.

    But on second thought... everything turned out fine. No point pursuing the details.

    Shadow saw Angor considering something and quickly tried to interrupt since the man didn¡¯t wish to lose his new favor with Angor. ¡°We¡¯re still inside Silent Hill, in the wizard tower which is my teacher¡¯s temporary residence. We¡¯re going to leave tomorrow morning and head to Floating Mech City.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°So Mister Bog...¡±

    ¡°No need to be all cautious. He¡¯s not in the tower right now. Mister Raven invited him to dinner. He won¡¯t get back any time soon.¡±

    Before entering Silent Hill, Shadow already introduced several important figures of the ce to Angor, including ¡°Mister Raven¡±¡ªthe true ruler of Silent Hill, ¡°Silent Raven¡± Taurus.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about my teacher. He won¡¯t use force as long as you don¡¯t actually agree to his offer...¡±

    It was an exceptionst night. I somehow bothered him so much that he used Isabe¡¯s threat to force you. Shadow thought.

    ¡°But you should still be careful nevertheless. My teacher will use everything he got to get his hands on someone he values, such as using his personal charisma to charm you,¡± Shadow warned with a serious expression.

    Angor asked a question that he had been thinking about, ¡°Why didn¡¯t Mister Bog just, you know, get me by force? He actually let me choose?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. That¡¯s another of his many ¡®disciplines¡¯, apart from his obsession with blond beauties.¡± Shadow raised an eyebrow. ¡°He¡¯s pretty cool, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    ¡°Nah. Still, at least I don¡¯t have to face danger too soon, and that¡¯s fortunate.¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°As for personal charisma... Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not interested in dudes. Should be no problem.¡±

    ¡°He has many more ways to show his charm, aside from persuading little girls by using his handsome face.¡± Shadow put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t think too much about it. Tomorrow, when we arrive at Floating Mech City, I¡¯ll do something to take you away. You want to get back to Brute Cavern, right? My teacher won¡¯t care about anything once he starts working on his puppets. That¡¯s our cue to escape.¡±

    ¡°But...¡± Angor looked hesitant.

    Shadow felt touched, for he thought Angor was worrying about his safety. ¡°Aw, don¡¯t worry about me. He¡¯s not going to do anything. Well, maybe some beating and yelling at best. I¡¯m going to leave Floating Mech City with you anyway. I won¡¯te back before bing a wizard.¡±

    It seemed Shadow was determined to be a wizard. The man would keep traveling and looking for opportunities instead of settling down.

    ¡°Hey, how about I go to Brute Cavern with you? I¡¯ve always wanted to check out the drama in Midnight Sovereign called the Phantom of Festivity or something.¡± Shadow seemed serious about this one. ¡°Maybe I can find a destiny for breakthrough over there.¡±

    Angor rolled his eyes. Phantom of Festivity? How could those disys of flesh give you any destiny?

    ¡°Ahem. I mean, I¡¯m not nning to leave Floating Mech City too soon,¡± Angor said as he took out a small card from his bracelet and handed it to Shadow.

    ¡°You¡¯re not? Then you really have to watch out for my teacher. If he can¡¯t get you to agree by normal means, he¡¯ll soon resolve to dirtier tricks,¡± Shadow said as he epted Angor¡¯s card.

    ¡°What kind of dirtier tricks?¡±

    ¡°Such as... using potions to bewitch you,¡± Shadow said and shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s one of his avable methods. Mister Mithra told me a story before, about this loyal woman. My teacher just, you know, did the business with her overnight. She somehow dly became a puppet in the end.¡±

    Angor shivered.

    While speaking about his terrifying stories, Shadow slowly looked at Angor¡¯s card. ¡°This is... your ID for Sky Tower?¡±

    Angor nodded, albeit a little bit awkwardly. He had hidden his title because it was pretty unsightly.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to attend the purification garden, are you?¡±

    ...

    Back in Brute Cavern. At the underground market and in Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop...

    A young man wearingrge goggles and all kinds of mechanical elements on his body was carefully doing his work. All kinds of materials slowly joined the red-hot area that he created between his hands.

    Gradually, the base model of a ¡°Tang Dao¡± de appeared.

    The room was suddenly brightened up by a sh, which suggested thepletion of the sharp weapon.

    The young man removed his goggles and used Condense to lower the temperature. He then used spirit feelers to check the cold aura released by the weapon before he widened his eyes in excitement.

    ¡°I did it, Master!¡± He ced the weapon in front of a middle-aged man who was sipping tea casually. ¡°It has the Sharpen effect on it!¡±

    The second man took the Tang Dao and squinted his eyes into small slits. He pressed his index and middle finger on the weapon while releasing white mana light; he then slid his hand along the de, which created metallic resonance.

    He let go of the weapon and nodded. ¡°Yes, your Synthesis skill is improving fast. This ¡®Tang Dao¡¯ is infused with the Sharpen effect.¡±

    The young man smiled brightly.

    However, the middle-aged man had yet to finish with hisments.

    ¡°However, your creationcked a little bit of fierceness,pared to Angor¡¯s work.¡±

    The young man didn¡¯t seem disappointed at all. ¡°Naturally! Angor invented this unique design.¡±

    Angor once said that he didn¡¯t invent Tang Dao even though he was the one who brought the weapon into the wizarding world.

    ¡°My word... Angor¡¯s alchemy talent is now second to none in Brute Cavern,¡± the middle-aged man said and sighed. ¡°I wonder where did he go.¡±

    They both fell into silence when Angor¡¯s name was mentioned.

    Half a year ago, Angor went missing from Brute Cavern with no trace left behind. No one could find him. They also didn¡¯t have the courage to question Sunders either, so they could onlyfort themselves by believing that Angor had left to travel somewhere.

    Although they also knew that, considering Angor¡¯s character, the boy would have told them before he left. At the very least, he would reveal his ns to his closest friends¡ªNausica and Sailum.

    Just as they thought about Nausica and Sailum, they showed up at the shop.

    ¡°Good afternoon, Master Prome.¡± Nausica¡¯s voice was heard first.

    ¡°Hey Dave, you don¡¯t look well. What¡¯s on your mind?¡±

 Chapter 442 - Escort Mission

    <strong>Chapter 442: Escort Mission</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    It was Sailum who just spoke. The boy was 15, one year younger than Angor, and at his prime age of growing. It was only half a year, and he was beginning to surpass Dave in terms of height.

    The boy also looked more grown-up, except that he was still wearing that white ¡°bedsheet¡± as his wizard robe, which didn¡¯t help him to stand out among all apprentices.

    ¡°I used Synthesis to make my first tiered weapon in my career. Then I thought about Angor... Where is he now?¡± Dave greeted the two customers with a smile. Ever since he met them in Angor¡¯s vi, they had be good friends since they didn¡¯t have any reason not to.

    Sailum also looked down in sadness.

    It was the second eldest presence, Nausica, who tried to lift the grim mood. ¡°It¡¯s just half a year, and you all make it like he¡¯s been away for a decade.¡±

    Apart from the fact that her feminine features looked ever sexier due to her Bloodline training, Nausica didn¡¯t change much. Her close-fit soft armor did nothing to hinder those grown breasts and outstanding hips; in fact, it made them more alluring.

    Dave couldn¡¯t stop looking at Nausica since he was just at the right age where he started to learn about women. He could only stare at the strangely-shaped weapon hanging on Nausica¡¯s waist. ording to her exnations earlier, Dave learned that the short-ded weapon was called ¡°Solefly¡±, one of the weapons Angor created at the beginning of his alchemy career.

    Nausica was smoking her pipe without minding Dave¡¯s gaze. ¡°Wizards always train for years each time they start one, right? Just consider it like, a really small one for Angor.¡±

    ¡°But Angor didn¡¯t say anything... to me or to you. Isn¡¯t he going to do something about your arm?¡± Sailum wasn¡¯t convinced.

    ¡°Angor isn¡¯t obliged to anyone. He can decide his ns and whether to tell them to us. It¡¯s fine. Remember, as his friends, we should not restrain him in any way.¡±

    Nausica suddenly recalled her stories while she was still dominating ckberry Waters. ¡°I told you that I once traveled to Versailles Principality at Land of Revtion, right?¡±

    It was Sailum¡¯s home, a small nation famous for its rose-rted products.

    ¡°The day before I made that decision, I nned to watch a show at Ocean Theater at Tristan. But that night, I suddenly missed the smell of Rose Ointment, so I took a small boat and sailed to Versailles Principality on my own, and I didn¡¯t go back to my men until a yearter,¡± Nausica said as she described her carefree lifestyle, which was clearly seen among her words.

    ¡°If one day, I would suddenly disappear from this ce, don¡¯t think too much. Maybe I¡¯m traveling somewhere again. And even if I don¡¯t evere back, I¡¯ll be living a happy life out there.¡±

    Both Sailum and Dave tried to digest those words in silence.

    Even Prome grew a little surprised at Nausica¡¯s story. He heard lots of people mentioning such lives before, but most of them were men. Maybe it was because there were too few female wizards in Brute Cavern?

    As the young ones recollected their spirits, Nausica was wandering around the shop out of curiosity.

    ¡°Hey, Sailum, do you need something from the shop?¡± Dave asked.

    Sailum had decided to put Angor¡¯s matter aside after listening to Nausica. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just hanging out with Miss Nausica. She wanted to buy some potions.¡±

    Prome was a Tooling alchemist, but he had many friends who ced their various products on sale at his shop.

    ¡°Potion? You¡¯re going on a mission?¡± Dave knew that these two were on the same adventure team who often epted all kinds of quests. Dave even joined them several times. However, he still preferred doing his alchemy training alone.

    Nausica was already returning with a sealed jar and several sses of Glowing Velvet Potion in her hands.

    ¡°Not doing mission. A wizard epted OUR escort mission.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to purification garden now?¡± Dave quickly realized what Nausica meant.

    The bodies of apprentices were too weak to go through long-range teleportation. To travel to Floating Mech City, Nausica had to ask a wizard to protect her or she would find her body breaking down in the middle of the magical tunnel.

    Nausica once mentioned that she had gathered a group of winners from Sky Tower, who would all provide some magic crystals so that they could afford the protection of a wizard.

    It was a rare case that a wizard would ept a quest posted by apprentices unless the quest was very simple like this one, which only cost the wizard minimum effort.

    ¡°Yes. The wizard asked us to meet up at Sleepless City a weekter.¡±

    There was no portal toward Floating Mech City inside Brute Cavern, so they had to go to another organization. The closest one was Sleepless City, which was just inside the Evernight Kingdom.

    ¡°I see.¡± Dave nodded as he checked Nausica¡¯s purchase. ¡°Glowing Velvet Potion, 3 portions. A jar of Karoline Witch Stew... That¡¯ll be 12 magic crystals.¡±

    ¡°Make it ten. Consider the discount as my blessing for your journey,¡± said Prome, who had been listening in to their conversation. ¡°The purification garden has little effect on a high-level apprentice; otherwise, I¡¯d happily join you guys.¡±

    Nausica thanked Prome and paid with her bone card.

    ¡°I think Angor won himself a ticket too,¡± Dave said while packing the items for Nausica. ¡°Maybe you can meet him at Floating Mech City. Make sure to say hi for me.¡±

    ¡°And me!¡± Sailum raised a hand.

    ¡°That¡¯s no problem. Just leave it to thisdy.¡±

    ...

    Phantom Ind, Sunders¡¯ Manor.

    Sunders was staying inside his study when he suddenly heard someone knocking on his window.

    The gentleman didn¡¯t look up from his work. He was still researching on a brand new application of the nightmare illusion. He caught the innovation from Angor¡¯s demon falcon statue.

    The visitor was still knocking, which failed to attract Sunders¡¯ attention. She rolled her eyes and asked Butler Goode to show her in through the ¡°normal¡± route.

    Then, she knocked on Sunders¡¯ door.

    ¡°Come in.¡±

    Flora immediately began toin about her professor¡¯s stubbornness. She could have saved the effort and enter through the window since the window was avable.

    ¡°What do you want? If nothing...¡± Clearly, Sunders was getting impatient already.

    Flora made a duck-face. ¡°Can¡¯t I pay you a friendly visit? I¡¯m your student! A student should ask her professor questions.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re Bloodline Wizard, and I¡¯m an Illusionist. I can give an apprentice some pointers, but I have nothing to teach you now.¡±

    Flora halted herint. Sunders was right. Besides, she would not have be Sunders¡¯ student if not for an incident where Sunders adopted her.

    ¡°I just got a message. Song of the Deep has butted in the matter. Guess who¡¯s leading them? Sliv, that stinky fish.¡± Flora narrowed her eyes as she recalled the unpleasant encounterst time. She felt ufortable all over her body every time she thought about Sliv¡¯s face.

    ¡°Song of the Deep?¡± Sunders frowned. ¡°And Mister Monkey agreed?¡±

    Flora sighed. ¡°Yup, he did.¡±

    ¡°They meddle withnd affairs instead of staying put at the bottom of the sea?¡± Sunders considered. ¡°As I recall, Song of the Deep has never joined ne expeditions before, and therefore, they¡¯re on bad terms with Moonfrost. How could Mister Monkey let them join?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what they came for, but I think I know something which might be relevant.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear it.¡±

    Flora took a moment to arrange her wording. ¡°About 30 years ago... I ran into a betrayer of Song of the Deep who just escaped the ce. He said they obtained a treasure.¡±

    ¡°A Mystery Item?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it¡¯s possible. He didn¡¯t tell me what the item was. He told me the information to trade for his life.¡± Flora shrugged casually. ¡°I didn¡¯t really care about the clue so I still killed him.¡±

    Sunders stared at Flora, speechless.

    Flora let out an adorable chuckle. ¡°I said it¡¯s relevant because the betrayer also said the treasure has something to do with the true name of a demon lord.¡±

    ¡°A demon lord¡¯s true name?¡± Sunders¡¯ eyes brimmed with realization. Mister Monkey¡¯s n was to wrestle with an abyss demon to fight for his destiny, and the source of a demon¡¯s power originated from its ¡°true name¡±.

    If what Flora said was true, Mister Monkey would ignore all grudges he held against Song of the Deep and drag them into his n at all cost.

    ¡°Well, if I had known that it has something to do with a random matter 30 yearster, I¡¯d pry his mouth open.¡± Flora spread her hands.

    Sunders thought about the new clue and decided to consider this new piece of information as another uncertainty in theing arrangement.

    They talked about some other facts about the n before Sunders decided to send Flora away.

    Flora nced at the demon falcon decoration on Sunders¡¯ desk and rolled her eyes. ¡°I heard you epted an escort mission from someone, right?¡± She floated closer to her professor. ¡°But the purification garden won¡¯t open up for another month. Why so early?¡±

    Sunders was a little surprised when he smelled somethinging from Flora¡¯s body. It was the same smell Angor once carried¡ªthe essence of Glutton Flower Lord.

    Again, the gentleman wondered how Angor was doing.

    ¡°I need to buy something in Floating Mech City,¡± Sunders said. He then decided to add something else, ¡°I think something wrong happened to the garden too. I need to check it out.¡±

 Chapter 443 - Gathering of Mights

    <strong>Chapter 443: Gathering of Mights</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Along the snowy mountain ridge at northern hintend, a giant figure suddenly swept past the sky and left a brief shade upon the ground. If anyone observed carefully, they would notice that the shadow was slowly shifting like a fluttering butterfly.

    However, they wouldn¡¯t actually see anything when looking up. There was only a clear sky with asional clouds drifting by.

    A whileter, a strange bird appeared above the snow mountain.

    The moderate-size bird was, in fact, made of metal. An experienced alchemist could easily notice countless springs and gears inside the mechanical bird.

    The bird was painted in blue and white. While flying, it released a specific frequency used by a certain wizard.

    As the frequency traveled around, the clear sky was suddenly upied by a giant, colorful butterfly that slowly cruised its vicinity. There was a delicate-looking wooden house built on its back.

    The mechanical bird circled around in the sky and approached a small postbox near the house. Then it dropped a letter with a red seal into the box and immediately left.

    Slowly, the giant butterfly vanished again.

    A short, plump boy showed up from the wooden pub house and bounced toward the postbox. He then joyfully yelled at the other waiters working inside. ¡°The professor sent a letter!¡±

    He was dressed in a clean, white chef uniform; his sleeves were covered in oil stains and different-colored powders. His round face was tainted by some ck charcoal marks, and he smelled like roasted meat.

    Following his call, another mature-looking woman, who barely wore anything on her body, came out of the pub. Her healthy, bronze-color skin reflected sunlight. Three pieces of scissored clothes were the only things that covered her private parts.

    ¡°What did the professor say, n? When will shee back?¡± the woman asked, which also aroused a series of discussions among the other waiters. They talked about different things, but all of them more or less showed interest in the return of their professor.

    The fat boy, n, gulped at the woman before two streams of blood came rushing out of his nostrils.

    The woman covered her mouth and chuckled, which caused her pair of giant buns to jiggle up and down. At such a sight, the fat boy bled faster and fell t on the ground.

    ¡°Stop it, Tana, or you¡¯re going to murder our little cutie n like that,¡± someone inside the pub said with aughter.

    Tana wiggled casually, which caused more people to stare at her and blush.

    ¡°But isn¡¯t that why I¡¯m here?¡±

    Next, Tana moved to n and began to drag the unconscious boy back inside by his ankle.

    A wind suddenly came and blew the letter away from n¡¯s hand. The letter flipped in the air andnded in Tana¡¯s unupied hand.

    Tana checked the letter to see the beautiful, butterfly-like penmanship which was created by her teacher. The characters were arranged behind a certain password that only those from the pub could read.

    [A private message to n and Tana]

    To me and n? Tana revealed a joyful look. Without minding n, Tana opened the letter, while n¡¯s body dropped on the floor again with a loud ¡°thud¡±.

    The letter also contained two cards inside.

    Tana had finished the letter and remained agape, while n rubbed his throbbing head as he stood up. The boy joined Tana and read the letter as well.

    ¡°Huh? What¡¯s a purification garden? Something to eat?¡± n¡¯s vision was blurry, so he could only make out several important words between the lines¡ªMonth of Resuscitation, Floating Mech City, Garden of Purification.

    ...

    The Sin World was an appendage ne to the northwest of the Fey Continent. It sat in the center of the Baikal Sea with its entrance left in the middle of a submarine volcano.

    There was a tiny nation located along the edge of Sin World called the Gambillon Kingdom.

    There was no wizard organization stationed in the Gambillon Kingdom, and almost none of its residents knew about supernatural beings. However, such a remote ce had given birth to a certain group hated by most wizards in the entire wizarding world¡ªthe Supreme Cult.

    Supreme Cult regarded the world¡¯s consciousness as their ultimate belief. The members dered that they were all ¡°believers¡±, but in fact, they were also wizards¡ªwizards favored by the world¡¯s consciousness. They hunted down every ¡°illegal traveler¡± from foreign worlds, which was also what the world¡¯s consciousness would usually do.

    This was the ¡°political correctness¡± in the wizarding world. By taking advantage of the unspoken rule, some of the higher-ups in the Supreme Cult could use special arts to acquire indescribable powers from the great consciousness.

    Supreme Cult was not a wizard organization. Yet it was so powerful that no wizard would disregard their presence.

    Today, a number of apprentices who had been epting training on how to hunt for otherworldly beings stood in line on the training ground to wee one of the authoritative figures in the cult, the ck Bishop.

    The Supreme Cult had three training sections. Most apprentices were youths below the age of 20. Some had not even reached 6 yet. However, despite their age, every single apprentice showed violent and deadly emotions after being lectured by the cult¡¯s creeds.

    ck Bishop felt very satisfied when inspecting their new generation.

    ¡°The purification garden in Floating Mech City is about to open. Those who wish to participate,e to me.¡±

    No one spoke.

    Instead of feeling offended by the unresponsiveness, the bishop nodded in contentment.

    ¡°Of course, the quota is not free. You have to fight for a chance if you want one. Candidates will be immediately arranged into deathmatches, and thest survivor can acquire an invitation from me. By ¡®deathmatches¡¯, I¡¯m expecting battles for your life and death. Do not show me your useless friendship and morals.¡±

    ck Bishop then left the apprentices whileughing madly. He had to present his speech to the other training sections.

    Half a dayter, the winner of the first training section walked to the bishop on bloody steps.

    ¡°Good. Tell me your name,¡± the bishop addressed the merciless-looking young man in front of him with a smile.

    ¡°Sdin Buer.¡± The young man¡¯s hair had clumped into several parts due to all the blood covering his head, which suggested the brutality of the previous battles.

    ¡°Very well. This is yours now.¡± The bishop handed him a card.

    The young man nodded and turned away without saying anything.

    As the bishop admired the brilliant young man, the vice bishop suddenly whispered to him, ¡°Sir, I heard rumors that Floating Mech City has prepared some little tricks this time.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I know about it. When I joined their discussion, an informant told me that the garden might turn into a bloody battlefield... But isn¡¯t that what brings the best destiny? Gah-haha!¡±

    ...

    A vast nation called the ¡°Lavish Division¡± was situated northwest of the Evernight Kingdom. Despite its name, three-fourth of itsnd was covered by deserts. This was why none of its adjacent nations ever attempted to attack Lavish Division.

    In the hintends in the middle of Lavish Division, a little boy riding on a white Sand Rhino suddenly showed up inside a small oasis town.

    The boy looked like he was about the age of 10, but he was extremely mischievous. Within three days, he had traveled among a dozen such towns. And each time he went into one, people would direct hostile yelling at him, which only seemed to entertain the boy.

    He always had a small whip in hand and used it to whip the creature under him. Bothered by the whip, his rhino would simply ram into every house it saw and turned it into ruins.

    However, he didn¡¯t get to do his usual game inside this town named ¡°Horse Hooves¡±.

    As soon as the rhino bumped into the walls of a stone castle, a young man descended from the sky and pinched the boy¡¯s ear.

    ¡°Aw aw aw...¡± the boy moaned in pain.

    ¡°Loki! Didn¡¯t the professor told us NOT to bother mortals?¡± the young man said with a in expression.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t! It was Alby who did it!¡± The boy named ¡°Loki¡± protested with tears around his eyes.

    ¡°Alby is your familiar, and you shall answer for its crime.¡±

    Next, the man dragged Loki by his ear and led him around the town to apologize to the local residents. He had been amending all the damage caused by Loki these days, and he decided he¡¯d never let Loki slip from his view again.

    Loki simply cried at the top of his lungs while pretending to be an innocent kid.

    In the end, the residents of Horse Hooves chose to forgive him. However, they still expectedpensation for the broken buildings.

    ¡°Aw sh*t! The Sand Pirates are here!¡± someone suddenly screamed.

    The small towns that scattered around the desert weren¡¯t ruled by any governments; as such, it allowed the existence of bandit groups. Upon hearing the terrible message, all people grew fearful.

    Fearful, but not yet desperate. The Sand Pirates only wanted money, not their lives.

    But their expressions darkened further when another folk dered that it was ¡°Baba Ali n¡± who just showed up. This was a very infamous bandit group that had already burned several towns to ashes.

    People either ran or hid. Someone even chose to escape into the unforgiving desert.

    A gentle-looking woman saw Loki and the young man standing in the open without moving and quickly called, ¡°Stranger, quickly,e to my basement!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± the young man replied.

    The woman sighed and returned to her own hiding spot when she saw the bandits drew near.

    The young man simply took Loki into hiding by vanishing into thin air.

    Again, Baba Ali n lived up to their name by killing everyone they could catch and taking everything they got their hands on. It was only a minute, and there were already a dozen corpses lying on the ground.

    Loki watched the ongoing ughter with a curious expression. ¡°Brother Hermes, aren¡¯t we going to help them?¡±

    Loki knew that Hermes had been repairing the broken buildings he left behind, so he believed that Hermes would save the mortals again.

    However, Hermes shook his head. ¡°Again, do not bother the lives of mortals.¡±

    Loki rolled his eyes.

    He loved doing mischief, but he would never maim people without a reason.

    Loki watched silently as countless lives perished in front of his eyes. He finally couldn¡¯t take it anymore when he saw several bandits dragging the kind woman from her basement and prepared to execute her.

    ¡°Go, Alby! Kill these bandits. All of them!¡±

    Hermes gave him a side-nce but didn¡¯t do anything.

    Alby howled and instantly wiped out the Sand Pirates after using several simple cantrips¡ªSandstorm and Sand Trap.

    When Horse Hooves Town regained its peace, albeit rtively, Loki showed his form in front of the people proudly while expecting words of praise. Yet the residents only gave him more fearful looks as if they just saw a demon. Several people began tossing lit torches at him. Even the ¡°kind woman¡± from earlier stepped back in terror.

    Loki felt his heart aching. How could Brother Hermes earn respect by repairing buildings, while he only received foul treatment after saving so many lives?

    ¡°The hearts of humans are difficult to fathom. Let¡¯s move,¡± Hermes said as he dragged Loki by his hand. ¡°Professor had arrived at Floating Mech City, and your naivety caused us to fall behind. We can¡¯t afford to miss our timing.¡±

    ¡°Yes, brother...¡± Loki pouted and nodded in sadness.

 Chapter 444 - City of Machines

    <strong>Chapter 444: City of Machines</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    A strange, blueish form that kept releasing water into the environment emerged from the endless sea. Its body waspletely transparent, which contained more seawater within. The creature was running on top of the sea in a strange manner. Upon reachingnd, all the seawater suddenly vanished, which was reced by a handsome-looking young man with a piece of blue fish scale covering his forehead.

    The young man lifted a card and put a finger on his scale. When his body released a faint blue glimmer, a miniature whale emerged from his forehead and rubbed against its master¡¯s cheek affectionately.

    ¡°Why are we standing onnd, Master?¡± The small whale floated about while spitting bubbles asionally.

    ¡°The purification garden is about to open, and my professor asked me toe.¡± The young man stroked the whale¡¯s belly.

    ¡°But Master, you¡¯re the son of the sea. The purification garden won¡¯t have any effect on your soul, which is already pure.¡±

    ¡°I dunno why I¡¯m expected. Professor already arrived. Maybe something else came about?¡± The young man¡¯s eyes brimmed with intelligence. ¡°You¡¯re right, the garden is pointless to me. But I learned that Miss Maine might go there as well. And of course, I¡¯m going too.¡±

    While speaking, the young man collected the bubbles released by the whale and created one giant bubble. Then he entered the bubble with the creature and disappeared behind a surge of foams.

    ...

    ¡°Miss Maine¡± was currently at Pleasure World.

    It was a very famous appendage ne not far from the southern wizarding region.

    There was no country or nation in Pleasure World. Each city operated on independently. Anyone with enough power could im somewhere as his or her own turf.

    Even though the cities had different names, there was one thing that they shared inmon¡ªeach city was full of criminals who enjoyed extravagant entertainment day and night. With enough money, people could buy all possible forms of pleasure they hoped for. For this reason, the Pleasure World was favored by both rich men, who wanted to burn away their cash, and corrupted thugs, who sought sanctuary.

    However, there was one single, special spot among all the filth-filled colonies that shone brightly like the moon apanied by lesser stars.

    Shangri-La.

    This was also the HQ of Pleasure House. Among all wizard organizations in the south, the Pleasure House was among the top ten in terms of strength.

    There was a foggy hot spring filled up with pure milk in the center of Pleasure House. Maine moaned in contentment and slowly stood up from the milk while caressing her smooth skin.

    Her perfect body shape was clear to see across the misty air. The woman didn¡¯t look as strong as Nausica, yet she showed a different kind of alluring aura that would easily entice men. Her bewitching temperament was further strengthened by the pair of pure white wings stretching behind her back. With each p, there would be snow-white feathers that floated around her body.

    After getting out of the bath, Maine found a semi-transparent silk cloak and flew toward a portal with a card in her hand.

    ¡°Where are you going, Miss Maine?¡± another woman bathing in milk asked her in a loving voice.

    ¡°To the purification garden. I need to see someone dead,¡± Maine answered without looking back.

    Simr scenes happened at a number of different ces.

    In the depth of a primitive jungle, a traveler equipped with a giant bow and green paints over his body suddenly twitched his ears as he heard something traveling through the air.

    He looked up and saw a single arrow that went past the sky; there was a letter attached to it.

    He lifted his bow and released his own arrow at the ground. The attack created a bright, green light, which quickly created several giant tree leaves in the environment. With several skillful jumps, the rogue leaped into the air and took the flying arrow in his hand.

    Hended back down and sat on the dirt to read the letter.

    There was a glowing card inside the letter as well as a single seed that showed strange patterns on it.

    The wanderer of the jungle cast a meaningful nce at the card before he slowly walked out of the jungle with his bow firmly held.

    Tens of thousands of miles away from the jungle was a vast grass field. A charming woman was walking among colorful flowers. Each time she put her bare feet on the grass, she would create more flowers and butterflies on the spot.

    She was heading toward the same direction as the wanderer.

    Freaks living inside swamps. Monks training under waterfalls. Bell keeper working in a bell tower. A young witch with a ck cat on her shoulder... Countless geniuses traveled to Floating Mech City for various reasons.

    ...

    Fey Continent was toorge for any wizard to fully measure its size, and this was made worse by the great number of appendage nes attached to it. Each appendage ne could be asrge as another whole world. Even wizards who knew how to fly fast had to spend several years to go through an appendage ne.

    For this reason, many nations scattered across Fey Continent only knew limited knowledge about their neighbors. They basically had no idea about anything beyond their field of vision.

    However, there were exceptions, such as a ce that enjoyed great fame among wizards and mortals alike.

    Evory.

    Mortals respected Evory because this country offered wealth and fortune to its surrounding area, providing jobs to countless people.

    Railways, trains, steel technology, clockwork, machines... Over the past thousand years, the distinctive technologies from Evory had spread to the entire Fey Continent. Even somewhere extremely far like Midnight Sovereign now had their own underground trains and other automation industries built by mortal hands.

    By its own power, Evory brought the age of steam to Fey Continent, leaving primitive societies behind.

    At the same time, Evory was famous among wizards because Floating Mech City¡ªthe center of alchemy art as well as the biggest trading hub¡ªwas located at Evory.

    Mortals barely had any chance to witness the magnificent city as it always floated above the clouds.

    Currently, Floating Mech City had halted above an ind saltke. More than a hundred airships were busy gathering salt from nature.

    The brilliant appearance of the city was fully reflected on the clear surface of theke.

    The city, which was entirely built with metal, covered hundreds of kilometers of the ground like a giant monster that prevented sunlight from reaching the earth. Stretching clouds couldn¡¯t do anything to cover even a small corner of the city.

    Despite its size, Floating Mech City possessed highly united construction style.

    As far as people could see, everything looked metallic, albeit in different colors. Darksteel, bronze, gold, and silver... Also, all chimneys of the structures all pointed downward to release smoke and waste. From above, the city looked exceptionally tidy.

    An oval-shaped buildingy in the middle of the city. This was what kept the city alive at most times¡ªthe teleport station.

    Floating Mech City was a neutral city with a good number of alchemists residing inside. It shared direct traffic connections with many other organizations. Since everyone seemed to consider the city as a trading center, they simply developed into one by slowly creating different services such as Sky Auction and Tower of Infinity.

    Due to the necessity of constant external resources, the teleport station was considered one of the most important structures.

    Today, a youngdy wearing a wizard robe decorated by stars and moon was standing in front of a pale blue barrier; she was looking at an ancient portal array behind the barrier.

    She was looking through the messages she received in her transmitter out of boredom.

    ¡°Portal handler Siria, be aware, your shift will end soon.¡±

    Siria had been at this post for two days, and the portal connecting Fairy World never lit up. This should be an easy job for apprentices, and it allowed them to earn some quick money. But not to Siria. She actually bribed someone to win this post. If no one from Silent Hill showed up... the money would go to waste.

    She watched anxiously. There were only three minutes left before the next apprentice would take over the post.

    Just as Siria silently bid farewell to her hard-earned money, the receiver shaped like a crescent moon suddenly lit up.

    Someone had sent her a new message from the main control. Excited, she quickly read the message.

    ¡°Portal handler Siria, take note, the Silent Hill portal of Fairy World is activating. Six individuals detected. Prepare to receive them.¡±

    Siria immediately brightened up. ¡°Copy that!¡±

    Silent Hill... She quickly thought about a certain someone with wild, bright-red hair. ¡°It must be him.¡±

    When no one was looking, she quickly activated her transmitter and sent a message to someone else.

    ¡°Silent Hill sent someone!¡±

    Another message came back a momentter. ¡°Roger. I¡¯m right here.¡±

    Siria looked up and saw a man in a coffee-color trench coat and a gray felt hat waving a hand at her.

    Siria carefully nodded and approached the portal array.

    A bright sh of light revealed a number of people standing in the middle of the portal.

 Chapter 445 - Falca

    <h4>Chapter 445: Falca</h4>

    As the light died down, those protected by Bog¡¯s power finally reopened their eyes.

    ¡°My my... home, atst,¡± Shadow spoke beside Angor and put a hand on the boy¡¯s shoulder. ¡°This is the central teleport station. What a mouthful, right? We should call it the bird nest cause, you see, it really looks like one!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reply since he couldn¡¯t see the general design of the building yet. He only inspected his surroundings out of curiosity.

    The ce was prettyrge as far as he could see, about half the size of Tree Spirit za. The farthest wall was about 500 meters away. Countless blue barriers scattered about the great hall and a screen above his head disyed all kinds of information, which was mostly relevant to the activation of portals. They showed clues such as newly activated portals and orders for waiters to ept the visitors.

    There was also information about portals that would be opened a momentter. Those who wished to travel through them had to get registered at the service counter.

    It was only a tiny part of the city, and yet, Angor already sensed the magnificence of the entire ce.

    He never saw such organized digitalization anywhere before. Superior machine-alchemy technologies allowed the city to operate in such a unique style.

    Angor felt something just clicked in his mind. He really wanted to see what else the great city had to offer.

    ¡°Peasant.¡±

    Someone suddenly spoke behind his back¡ªit was a voice showing mild smugness.

    Angor looked back and noticed the speaker never looked at him. The man kept checking around a small card in his hand¡ªthe ID card which allowed him to enter the purification garden.

    It was a young man with a bizarre dressing style. ck hair, ck eyes, dark eye circles, and ck attires... Everything on him looked ck except his exposed pale skin. There were a series of distinctive ck bandages and decorative nails on his clothes too, which looked quite... unusual.

    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t mean to offend anyone in particr,¡± he looked up at Angor in a cocky manner as he said, ¡°but it can¡¯t be helped if SOMEONE wants to ept the remark on his own.¡±

    The meaning of those words was clear. Angor simply looked away. He wasn¡¯t going to waste time on these random haters.

    The man revealed a meaningful look at Angor¡¯s response. He nced at Bog next and remained silent.

    Shadow crept up closer to Angor and cocked his head toward the young man with obvious intentions¡ªwant me to deal with him?

    Angor shook his head and said ¡°not now¡± using eyenguage.

    He was wondering who the man in ck was. This one was already waiting at the portal before they left Silent Hill. Bog never said anything about this extra passenger when activating the portal. Judging from how Bog also used his protection on the young man, Angor believed Bog should know about this stranger.

    Also, Shadow rolled his eyes when meeting with the young man, so there had to be something between them as well.

    Still, Angor wasn¡¯t expecting the strange figure to provoke him first before he could learn who he was.

    There were six individuals, or rather, five men and a cat, standing at the portal; Angor was the only one who only came to Floating Mech City for the first time. Still, Angor couldn¡¯t understand where that aggressiveness came from.

    While he considered, the blue barrier in front of them slowly disappeared.

    ¡°It¡¯s for preventing idents and space disturbance,¡± Shadow exined to Angor.

    As the barrier was lifted, Angor saw a woman standing outside. He immediately realized that she was the ¡°portal handler¡±, as shown by the screens.

    ¡°Wee back, Mister Bog. Handler Siria at your service.¡± The woman stepped up with a smile.

    ¡°Get out of my way.¡± Bog frowned.

    Siria didn¡¯t seem bothered by it at all. She stepped aside with the same smile on her face.

    Bog led everyone outside the hall.

    ¡°These are all apprentices,¡± Shadow spoke to Angor along their way. ¡°They took quests to work as portal handlers and provide guidance to wizards who are new. It¡¯s a pretty rewarding job too. Sometimes you run into generous wizards who actually reward you for your help.

    ¡°Speaking of it, I used to take this job before too. There was a really nice wizard...¡± Shadow kept mumbling until he noticed that Angor wasn¡¯t paying attention. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± he asked when he saw Angor frowning at something.

    ¡°... That portal handler, Siria. Am I mistaken or is she staring at me?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh,e on. I¡¯m the cooler guy here. She must be blind.¡±

    Obviously, Shadow read the situation in the wrong way by believing that Siria was interested in Angor¡¯s young and handsome looks. Angor, however, sensed something else. It was as if Siria were interested in other matters. The woman kept inspecting him from head to toe with a weird look.

    Does she know me?

    Angor quickly denied that assumption. He did make himself known in some ces, but not so far as to spread his name to Floating Mech City yet.

    Soon, they left the teleport station.

    The transmitter in Siria¡¯s hand lit up again.

    [Mission aplished.]

    ...

    Beforeing to Floating Mech City for real, Angor tried many times to imagine how the city would look like. He mostly based his imaginations on the cities he saw from the movies since both civilizations had trains, railways, and steam-powered machines.

    And what he saw nowpletely busted his previous deduction.

    There were still concrete and steel involved in the construction, butpared to the cities on Earth, Floating Mech City appeared more like a ¡°better¡± Midnight Sovereign.

    There were countless narrow streets and paths, and all the buildings tried to fetch more space by climbing high into the air. There were also iron bridges connecting the upper levels of the buildings.

    Compared to the harmonious city nning he saw from movies, this giant city was beautiful in a different sense. By mish-mashing all kinds of styles together, it created a cyberpunk atmosphere. Even the damages and scars on the metal buildings seemed to hold their own stories.

    Also, he quickly understood why the city was called the very center of all money flows.

    Countless shop signs upied every avable corner. The sight reminded him of a movie that described an old street in Hong Kong.

    Compared to the randomly arranged shops in the movie, all the signboards here carried special auras on them as well as the traces of runes.

    There was such a giant sign which introduced several potion shops above his head. It seemed a number of different shops decided to add different colors on the sign to identify their names.

    There weren¡¯t many potion shops in the entire Twilight Well, but here in Floating Mech City, Angor already saw four of them on a single sign.

    ¡°Tell me if you want to buy something,¡± a voice mixed with strangeughter suddenly reached his ears. ¡°Anything, as long as you agree to be my puppet.¡±

    Angor quickly got rid of his dumbstruck expression when he realized Bog just spoke to him. It was the first thing Bog said to him after the incident with Isabe, and the man was already getting straight to the point.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need anything,¡± said Angor with a nk expression.

    Bog cast a passionate look at Angor. His serpentine tongue almost reached Angor¡¯s ears. ¡°Then I¡¯ll be waiting for you to ask. Jajaja...¡±

    The man leaped into the air. ¡°Diablo, bring everyone back to my base. EVERYONE.¡±

    With that, his body vanished.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll get you away,¡± Shadowforted Angor.

    Someone chuckled behind him. It was the man in ck again.

    ¡°Diablo... Did you perhaps, just be a lot more considerate to people?¡± he said in a dragging and uncertain voice, which sounded extremely unpleasant.

    ¡°Are you perhaps expecting a beat-up, huh? Falca?¡±

    Shadow approached the strange character while lifting his sleeves as if they were two street thugs who were about to brawl.

    Falca took a step back. A number of bats emerged from behind his back and hovered in the air. ¡°I happen to want to figure out whether you live up to your title.¡±

    Falca was one level weaker than Shadow, but he didn¡¯t show fear in the least.

    Before Shadow could disy his own tricks, Falca already ordered his bats to lunge at Shadow.

    Shadow remained motionless with a smile.

    When Falca wondered what his opponent was up to, he suddenly heard a strange, mechanical voice speaking beside his ear, ¡°*Beep* *Beep* Combat-level energy detected.¡±

    An eyeball locked up inside a metal case floated above Falca¡¯s head. ¡°Nature of energy: a summoning array. Please halt your action at once, sir, or you¡¯ll be ced on our expellee list.¡±

    Falca pointed a finger at Shadow in shock. ¡°But he was the one¡ª¡±

    Shadow was doing nothing more than tidying up his clothes. ¡°Come on, I¡¯m just trying to look better. I¡¯m not fighting anyone. Hey, Rune Monitor, remember his face and make sure you kick his a*s the next time he does something stupid.¡±

    Falca¡¯s eyebrows stood on end due to his rage. He realized that Shadow already noticed a Rune Monitor was present; that was why the man pretended he wanted to fight.

    Now that the Rune Monitor already recorded Falca¡¯s act, more of them would keep their ¡°eyes¡± on his actions from now on.

    ¡°You¡ª¡± Falca pointed between Shadow and Angor with a trembling finger. ¡°I¡¯ll deal with you bothter!¡±

    You both? What the f*ck?

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure what just happened.

    Shadow waited until the Rune Monitor floated away before he ced a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t mean to do it since you said no, but he was bugging ME back there so... guess I had to teach him a lesson.¡±

 Chapter 446 - Puppet Base

    <h4>Chapter 446: Puppet Base</h4>

    Falca had been following them from a distance after the previous incident. Bog ordered them to go back to the ¡°base¡± with no one left behind, so Falca couldn¡¯t really leave on his own.

    Still, this didn¡¯t prevent Falca from giving them hateful stares.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him. His nutty mind is as narrow as Isabe,¡± Shadow said.

    The short boy, Toya, also nodded to agree. ¡°Yeah, Mister Angor. He¡¯s childish! Last time, he tried to put a ve mark on Dodo. When I found him out, he refused to admit it!¡± Toya stroked Dodo¡¯s belly with his tiny yet chubby hand.

    Angor just learned about this little apprentice of Bog yesterday. The boy had an exceptional talent that allowed him to reach the peak of a level-1 apprentice within a year.

    As for the boy¡¯s pet, Dodo... Angor failed to read anything from it. However, he could sense something terrible that was hidden within the small creature.

    When he asked, Shadow didn¡¯t tell him much information. For now, Angor only knew that Dodo was Toya¡¯s familiar pet that was brought by destiny. They had been together ever since Toya was born. Despite the creature¡¯s adorable appearance, it might be as powerful as Naga.

    ¡°Falca is the student of ¡®Silent Raven¡¯ Taurus, as well as a rtive of Taurus.¡± Shadow continued to exin, ¡°For the same reason, he got a bad character since he got a really powerful background and all. He hates you probably because you stole his spotlight.¡±

    ¡°I did what?¡± Angor wasn¡¯t sure what he did before to attract so much hatred from Falca.

    ¡°You see, when I told Isabe how you reached out to Mystery energy, many wizards heard about it and tried to meet you. But they never got in my teacher¡¯s door.¡± Shadow spread his hands and shrugged.

    Wizards? See me? Angor found it unbelievable that formal wizards would want to personally meet up with an apprentice.

    ¡°You only have to know that you¡¯re quite famous now. The info hadn¡¯t gotten too far yet, but it will be soon. There are lots of wizards who enjoy spreading rumors around the world all day. It¡¯ll only take several years for the whole wizarding world to know about your name.¡± Shadow seemed proud since his friend would soon be someone important.

    Angor nodded slowly. He was too inexperienced to understand what his name would bring him and whether it would be good things or bad things.

    Ever since they left the teleport station, they had been strolling along the streets casually. Bog didn¡¯t give him a time limit anyway.

    Along the way, Angor learned more and more about the city.

    Most people he saw were mortals, but they seemed to be families of supernaturals. They usually ran the shops for their families. Angor tried to visit some of them and noticed that most of the shopkeepers were mortals.

    ording to Shadow, most supernatural beings gathered at the ¡°other side¡± of Floating Mech City.

    The city came in two opposite sides. The upper side was the main city area, which amodated the teleport station, auction house, ordinary shops, and the bases of different organizations.

    The city also had a lower side below it. If anyone observed the city from the ground, they would see this ¡°lower side¡±, as well as a great number of chimneys, sticking out from it.

    When looking from the outside, all the creatures and buildings on the ¡°lower side¡± were ced upside-down. However, a special gravityw allowed anyone who stepped in there to walk and live like normal.

    As a major organization, Floating Mech City established its HQ at the lower side of the city.

    ¡°My professor used to live there, but a bunch of alchemists kinda polluted the air for good, so he moved back to the upper area.¡± Shadow sighed and said, ¡°As a matter of fact, the lower side has more primal mana in the air, but it got so dirty that most wizards moved away. Now, there are only alchemists and apprentices who love to go there. On the other hand, you can find many special materials and alchemy items over there. I¡¯ll show you if you¡¯re interested.¡±

    Angor shook his head. He didn¡¯t really need to buy stuff. What he needed most was to grow stronger.

    Apart from mortals and supernaturals, there was one other special element in the city¡ªrules.

    The upper side of Floating Mech City, which was the main city district, was full of Rune Monitors. Their job was to look forbat energy and prevent fights from breaking out.

    Anyone caught in such an act would be put on the city¡¯s cklist and had his or her future visits denied. Of course, such rules only worked on apprentices and wizards who weren¡¯t strong enough to resist them.

    Two hourster, the group finally arrived at Bog¡¯s base.

    The base looked like a half-sphere ced on the ground, with no particr decorations.

    Angor was surprised to see many strange puppets wandering nearby; puppets made from live beings, from corpses, from bizarre materials...

    Old, young, men, women, beasts... Everything looked weird.

    When they stepped into the boundary of the base, Angor quickly felt a cold aura covering his body. As they moved, all the puppets gazed at them with their emotionless eyes as they moved as one.

    Even Falca who kept his distance earlier quickly moved closer to Shadow.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get too far from me or the sentry puppets will attack you,¡± Shadow said.

    The way toward the entrance was peaceful enough.

    Angor saw another floating eyeball hovering at the door.

    ¡°Wee home, Mister Diablo,¡± the Rune Monitor said in its robotic voice.

    ¡°Take this stinky bat bastard to his room on the second floor, Butler Kazar,¡± Shadow ordered while pointing at Falca.

    ¡°Kazar understood.¡± The Rune Monitor shined a white light beam toward one direction. ¡°Please follow me, dear guest.¡±

    Falca gave Shadow a hateful nce while walking past him. ¡°We¡¯ll settle thister, Diablo.¡±

    ¡°Get lost already,¡± Shadow spat.

    It seemed Falca knew this ce well. He didn¡¯t really need the Rune Monitor to find his way.

    ¡°Welp, the nuisance is gone. I¡¯ll show you to your room.¡± Shadow said. He then turned to speak to Toya. ¡°You go back yourself and meditate for some more. I¡¯ll teach you that cantrip at night.¡±

    Toya nodded happily. Before walking away, the small boy looked at Angor timidly. ¡°Mister Angor, I saw your ¡®bird¡¯ earlier!¡±

    Shadow gazed at Angor as if he just saw a street

    pervert.

    ¡°When I took Dodo out to y in the morning, I saw you creating a bird in your hand like magic!¡± Toya made a gesture with his hands which represented pping wings.

    Shadow looked away. He just realized Toya was referring to Toby.

    Angor had been keeping Toby inside his bracelet so Papaya and the other Krakoks could take care of him. This morning, Papaya informed Angor that she saw Toby¡¯s eyelids twitching as if the bird were waking up, so Angor took Toby out to check. However, nothing really happened afterward.

    And by some unknown coincidence, his action was discovered by Toya.

    ¡°That bird has really cute clothes. Can you make some for Dodo too, Mister Angor?¡± Toya lifted Dodo higher until the creature was in front of Angor¡¯s face

    Dodo¡¯s belly area was fully exposed. It tried to cover its ¡°private area¡± by curling its tail in front.

    Shadow patted Toya¡¯s head before Angor could say anything. ¡°There are tons of tailor shops out there, little fool. You asked because you want Angor to make you an alchemy piece, right? It¡¯s all written on your face,¡± Shadows said while pushing the boy away. ¡°It¡¯s no use acting all cute in the wizarding world. Equivalent exchange, remember? Now, off you go.¡±

    Toya made a duck face and went deeper inside; he didn¡¯t forget to nce back at Angor.

    Of course, Angor never intended to create any alchemy clothes for Toya. However, Shadow¡¯s words aroused his curiosity. The protection spell on the coat that he received from Devildare was broken. He did need something to fend off attacks apart from the Aster Barrier magic scroll.

    He still had Akeso¡¯s scale in his inventory. It was unlikely that he could melt the scale yet, but at the very least, he could use the scale to cover his vital point like his heart.

    While trying to think of an idea, Angor followed Shadow to his room in the base.

    ¡°You¡¯d better not let Dodoro out. Professor probably can¡¯t tolerant another stranger,¡± Shadow said as he warned Angor, ¡°but letting Toby out won¡¯t really matter. Every wizard has a familiar.¡±

    Angor checked. Dodoro was still studying literature from Papaya¡¯s grandmother. Dodoro seemed extremely calm and obedient too. He was progressing faster than when he was learning from Trusan.

    Angor also noticed that Dodoro would asionally nce at the luggage sack in the other corner of the space storage, which contained his mysterious water bowl. Angor was sure that Dodoro would try to get it if he wasn¡¯t prevented from wandering freely around the storage.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded.

    ¡°Have a good rest for now. I¡¯ll find some of my old friends and see if I can find another ce you can hide in. As for the purification garden... remember what I said? Think carefully.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind my professor for now. I heard something big¡¯s going to happen in Floating Mech City, and he¡¯ll be busy with something at the lower side these days; therefore, he won¡¯t have time to deal with you. But make sure you tell me your decision before hees back.¡±

    Bird means ¡®cock¡¯ in Asian ng

 Chapter 447 - Something Fishy in the Garden

    <h4>Chapter 447: Something Fishy in the Garden</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Three dayster.

    Angor hadpleted his meditation session at midnight and was now looking out from the window.

    His room was located on the 6th floor of the base, which was the top floor. From this high up, he could clearly see the puppet army lurking around the ce.

    When they sensed Angor¡¯s gaze, all puppets turned around as one and stared back at him with their emotionless eyes; the pale moonlight made them look even scarier.

    The deathly gazes seemed to be warning Angor not to make any sudden moves.

    Angor could sense the varied powerful aurasing from them. There were at least several puppets that were as powerful as wizards. Under their pressure, Angor soon gave in and stepped back from the window.

    When he closed the curtain, all the pressure that was directed toward him earlier was lifted.

    More than once, he attempted to look through the window, but this always happened in the end.

    At first, he was extremely ufortable at being treated like a prisoner, butter on, he simply decided to use this chance to train his mental resistance.

    Still, he felt terrible.

    Back in Midnight Sovereign, he had to ept Lydia¡¯s unfair condition due to hisck of strength. When facing against Twilight, he had nothing to fight back, which indirectly put him in this remote ce. In Silent Hill, Isabe did spare his life in the end, yet Angor could not forget the great pain and helplessness he went through when he was being hunted down. Now, judging from all the puppets outside, he knew Bog had imprisoned him.

    There were just too many things that kept reminding him of the importance of growing stronger.

    He might be rtively better than people of the same level, but there were countless more levels than that in this world.

    Instead of being the king of weaklings, Angor wished he could soon learn how to avoid being toyed around by powerful individuals.

    During thest three days, he had been perfecting his spirit model. Currently, his model was already showing what ¡°dispersive¡± meant. If he kept going, his model would soon take on the shape of a spider web that reached into all directions in his mind space.

    However, he didn¡¯t proceed further, because he was afraid.

    As the strongest channeling method to ever be discovered, the Singrity Dispersive Meditation had no bottlenecks or limits before its user became a wizard.

    At this rate, Angor was confident that he only needed enough time to be a level-3 apprentice.

    Yet he shouldn¡¯t do so.

    He just turned level-2 half a year ago when he was inside the ne passageway, and he did it without fortifying much of his foundations. If he were to keep gaining level like this, it would soon cause his effort to crumble due to theck of experience.

    But...

    Time waited for no one. Angor assumed he still needed several years if he were to train at a normal, steady pace. It didn¡¯t sound too long for supernatural beings, but it was a very long time span to mortals.

    Jon was still waiting for him; Angor didn¡¯t wish to slow down now.

    Angor carefully considered his options. Reaching for something far without minding his foundation was a great mistake. As for how to amend his foundations... he could always study more knowledge as he went. As for theck of physical strength, he might find something in the purification garden.

    When thinking about the garden, he quickly felt depressed again.

    Shadow told him something the other day.

    ¡°Each time the purification garden is avable, people have to fight for the tickets even if it costs their lives. Those rumors you heard about how people get admitted easily are all lies. Such a beneficial garden will have itsw energy exhausted if too many people use it. Just think. Floating Mech City can barely satisfy its own apprentices, why would they let outsiders in? My point is, it¡¯s a strange thing that they opened up the garden to anyone who reached the top level of Sky Tower. Before this, they always limited it to those who can challenge the 30th level of Tower of Infinity.¡±

    One had to reach the top level of Sky Tower in order to enter the Tower of Infinity.

    The drastic decrease in difficulty suggested something was wrong. Angor already noticed it even without Shadow¡¯s warning.

    ¡°I mean, there¡¯s got to be another reason for them to do this; something we don¡¯t know.¡± Shadow meant to persuade Angor into giving up.

    During these days, Angor thought about epting Shadow¡¯s help to escape from this ce first.

    However... the benefit provided by the garden was undeniable.

    <i>Do I leave, or do I wait and enter the purification garden?</i>

    After spending another silent night considering various conditions he could think of, the scale in Angor¡¯s mind began to tip.

    ...

    It was early morning.

    Just as Angor was going to find Shadow and tell him his decision, Shadow came to his room first.

    ¡°So how¡¯s it going these days?¡± Shadow asked as he entered Angor¡¯s door casually.

    Angor pointed to the window. ¡°Not good. It¡¯s like someone¡¯s trying to put me under siege every night.¡±

    Shadow went to the window and smiled. ¡°That¡¯s their active-defense function. They do this to every stranger they see. Falca¡¯s been experiencing the same thing these days.¡±

    ¡°You mean Mister Bog didn¡¯t do this to me intentionally?¡±

    ¡°Nah. He¡¯s quite a simple man. He won¡¯t do small tricks like certain wizards.¡± Shadow slowly closed the curtain again. ¡°So what do you say? Shall we leave now or what?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll not leave Floating Mech City for now.¡±

    ¡°So you chose to enter the garden,¡± Shadow snickered. ¡°Well, maybe it¡¯s a better choice for you indeed.¡±

    Angor gave the man a puzzled look.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to talk to my old friends so that we can help you find a private portal or a hideout if you decide to stay.¡±

    From those words, Angor realized that Shadow had been using his connections to get help. The man even considered how to prepare if Angor chose to stay longer.

    Angor didn¡¯t openly thank Shadow, but deep in his mind, he decided to pay him backter.

    ¡°I said that because I learned a clue these days. Like I said, something strange is going on about the garden. But at the same time, you might find a great destiny out of it.¡±

    ¡°Can you borate?¡±

    ¡°Floating Mech City is going to send ten apprentices inside the garden this time. True geniuses. Two of them were children of truth-finder wizards. They are regarded as extremely important human resources by the organization. They learned special channeling methods; someone even possessed really special talents. No doubt they¡¯d be great figures in the future.¡±

    <i>Of course, they can¡¯tpete with YOU when ites to being talented...</i>

    ¡°No way the organization¡¯s gonna send them to their death, so at least we know the garden isn¡¯t a death trap. Instead, you can find something good in there. There¡¯s also something else. All major wizard organizations have sent simr talents this way. My professor is busy running around these days probably because of it.¡±

    Once Shadow said those words, he quickly turned away. The man had grown interested in the matter as well, so he wished to search for more information.

    ¡°I can get you a safe spot to hide at the lower side of the city. But I suggest you stay here. The city is kinda in an uproar. However, no one can trouble you while you¡¯re inside the base, not even my professor.¡±

    Shadow told Angor to wait for further clues and left on his own.

    Angor thought it over and sat in front of a desk. No matter what became of the garden, he had to train harder.

    He was almost done with Fear spell. He assumed he¡¯d finish it in a week. This particr cantrip disyed different effects on different people, and Angor believed that when added with his nightmare illusions, he could use the cantrip as a powerful weapon.

    The time passed soon.

    At night, Angor noted down thest digit on his draft paper. Next, he was going to build the spell model of Fear by using his axes of the universe and following his calctions.

    Before he could leverage his working momentum and proceed, someone suddenly knocked on his door.

    It sounded loud and distant in the tranquil night.

    Angor checked the wall clock, which suggested it was already the early morning of the next day. Supernaturals might not need to rest much, but they still wouldn¡¯t pay people a visit at such an hour.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Angor frowned.

    Someone responded in a robotic tone, ¡°Dear guest, Kazar wishes to talk to you.¡±

    <i>Kazar?</i>

    Shadow mentioned before; Kazar was an upgraded version of Rune Monitor. It now acted as the butler of the puppet base.

    Angor said e in¡± without moving. He thought the real butler should be able to enter the room without asking for his consent.

    The lock on the room door clicked, followed by a giant metal eyeball that slowly hovered toward Angor.

    ¡°Do you need something, Butler Kazar?¡±

    ¡°*Beep* *Squeak* Dear guest, Mister Mithra wishes to see you. He¡¯s waiting in the guest room.¡±

 Chapter 448 - Mithraâ€™s Request

    <h4>Chapter 448: Mithra¡¯s Request</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    It was a long and tranquil hallway lit by the asional wallmps. Angor silently followed behind Kazar.

    Angor didn¡¯t know who Mithra was. He only heard Shadow mentioning such a name before, but he never paid much attention to it.

    He wondered why this figure suddenly wanted to see him.

    Considering how Kazar acted, Angor assumed Mithra was at least another wizard. A wizard personally came to meet with an apprentice... Angor knew he should show up in time.

    He didn¡¯t feel stressed at all. No matter who Mithra was or what he wanted, at least nothing would go wrong inside Bog¡¯s home.

    After taking another turn, Angor was surprised to see Shadow waiting for him.

    ¡°Leave the rest to me, Butler Kazar. Return to your job,¡± Shadow said and approached Angor. ¡°Not expecting me, huh? Let¡¯s move. I¡¯ll take you to Mister Mithra.¡± Shadow beckoned. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It took me quite a lot of effort to get him toe. If you can develop at least some rtionship with Mithra, my professor¡¯s going to think carefully before he can do funny business to you.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s Mithra?¡±

    ¡°Shhh! ¡®Mister¡¯ Mithra. There are many powerful wizards who call him Master Mithra. As for you, just use Mister like me.¡±

    Next, Shadow briefly introduced the figure to Angor.

    Mithra was a master alchemist who majored in Apothecary, and he was also partially experienced in Tooling. The man was barely a wizard in terms of raw strength, yet his alchemy skills earned him great position and respect from people in Floating Mech City.

    There was another reason why people respected Mithra¡ªBog.

    ¡°Mithra used to be my professor¡¯s teacher. Professor admires him, and even sometimes listens to his words. Mithra is the only one in the city who can retrain professor without using force.¡± Shadow looked proud for some reason as he said, ¡°I already thought about taking you to Mister Mithra. But as part of his training, he¡¯s been in seclusion for two months. I thought I¡¯d never get to him in time.

    ¡°But he suddenly left his training tonight. Therefore, I immediately went to him and said how you reached out to the Mystery energy. He¡¯s interested now.¡±

    Seeing how Angor didn¡¯t respond, Shadow thought Angor was still worrying about confronting another wizard. ¡°Don¡¯t you worry. Mister Mithra is an academism wizard. He treats people in a more peaceful way.¡±

    Angor nodded. He was grateful for Shadow¡¯s help, but that didn¡¯t prevent him from feeling nervous when he got to meet with a true master alchemist.

    Across a curtain, he already heard someone whispering inside the guest room.

    When they entered the room, Angor quickly saw an old man sitting on a sofa. He had a monocle over one eye and was looking at a vial of green liquid in his hand.

    The old man had orange hair, which looked a bit withered due to his great age. There were also obvious burn marks on his hair.

    His clothing seemed ordinary too. However, Angor¡¯s attention immediately fell upon the good number of metal rings and sticks affixed on the old man¡¯s outer skin. He saw it from a book before; these were alchemy exoskeleton used for assisting one¡¯s alchemy works. They cost quite a fortune.

    There were two other individuals in the guest room. One of them was Toya, who held Dodo in his arms. The other one was a muscr, middle-aged male figure, who had been talking to Mithra.

    Angor frowned a bit when looking at the muscr man. That face looked familiar.

    ¡°Ah, Diablo,¡± the old man said in a gentle tone. He then looked at Angor and said, ¡°So, you must be Angor?¡±

    Angor looked at him and nodded slowly.

    Mithra began inspecting Angor with a smile as well as a special spell that shone from his eyes. Afterward, the old man closed his eyes to think something over.

    Meanwhile, the bulky man was also checking Angor with a curious look. <i>Have I seen him from somewhere before?</i>

    ¡°Here,¡± Mithra opened his eyes and pointed at a seat nearby as he said, ¡°you almost created a Mystery Item?¡±

    Just as Angor was prepared to answer the question in a more modest way, Mithra interrupted him.

    ¡°Diablo has told me everything. Isabelle has returned to the south. She took away half of your Mystery soul. The other half went inside the weapon you created, which should also hold a certain amount of the Mystery energy. I came here just to ask whether I can take a look at the weapon.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t speak for quite a while.

    Mithra didn¡¯t urge Angor since he knew it was a harsh request to ask of a fellow alchemist. He was asking the boy to show him a secret and probably an importantbat tool. Few people would agree to such a thing.

    Mithra still revealed his request because he REALLY wanted to look at the Mystery energy. He used to borrow other Mystery Items, which didn¡¯t provide him with enough knowledge because the Mystery energy on them was too powerful to observe. Now that someone possessed an item that was only ¡°half-step to being a Mystery Item¡±, he couldn¡¯t hold back his urge.

    ¡°It¡¯s a rude request, I know. If you can satisfy my curiosity, you can ask something from me as well, as long as it doesn¡¯t disobey my disciplines.¡±

    Angor considered for a little longer and took out Prelude to Rebirth from his bracelet.

    Instead of looking at the strange weapon, Mithra gazed at Angor¡¯s wrist first.

    Mithra¡¯s eyes glimmered with a different inspection spell.

    ¡°A fine space bracelet enchanted with multiple effects. I think you drew a really powerful magic array on it. What is this... oh, I can¡¯t recognize the array. Those runes though... something that conceals your body?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. The array is called Infinite Reticence.¡±

    Mithra¡¯s eyes widened a little upon hearing this name. ¡°You crafted the bracelet on your own?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Angor nodded without withholding info.

    He surprised everyone by it too. A space storage was always scarce, let alone one withposite effects.

    The bulky man stared at Angor¡¯s bracelet with a bit of greed in his eyes. As a wizard, he never found such a storage item yet.

    ¡°Magic array enchantment is no easy task. You seeded in drawing two of them at once...¡± Mithra gave Angor a gentle look as if admiring a promising student. He fully knew the difficulty of splitting one¡¯s mind and drawing two magic arrays at the same time while ensuring both of them ended up at the exact same node. Even master alchemists would have a hard time learning such a thing.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have enough mana to sustain such a draining process. You used an Energy Stabilizer?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    ¡°I guess you burned away thousands of magic crystals for it, and you probably did it many times. Ha, the boldness of youth! I¡¯d never attempt such a thing if I were you.¡±

    Mithra¡¯sment caused people to exim in wonder again.

    Next, Mithra took Prelude to Rebirth in his hand and began inspecting the weapon using an inspection spell.

    While Mithra did his work, Shadow crept closer to Angor and chuckled. ¡°Hey, when I get enough materials, help me make one of this bracelet thing, alright?¡±

    Angor nodded. Shadow provided him a lot of help until now. He should definitely return the courtesy.

    ¡°I want it too!¡± Toya moved closer and winked at Angor.

    Shadow pushed to boy away. ¡°Away with ya. Adults are talking.¡±

    Toya pouted and asked Dodo to bite Shadow¡¯s arm.

    ¡°Yaaawch!¡±

    Shadow ordered Gummy to join the fight.

    When the sofa had be a cover for a battlefield between a cat and a tiny Krakok, Mithra looked up and removed his monocle.

    ¡°Have youe up with a name for the weapon?¡±

    ¡°This is a ¡®gun¡¯. I call it the ¡®Prelude to Rebirth¡¯,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Prelude to Rebirth...¡± Mithra mumbled and put a finger on the cylinder. ¡°This magic array, I have not seen it either. Something to eliminate undead, I assume? But what is in this slot here?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s ammunition for the weapon. But... I don¡¯t know its exact effect,¡± Angor replied.

    Mithra confirmed Angor was telling the truth and nodded. ¡°Using Narda¡¯s Vision, I can see the Mystery energy inside these bullets. This must be what was brought by the half of your Mystery soul.

    ¡°I¡¯ve looked enough, and learned enough. Thank you very much for your generosity.¡± Mithra handed the weapon back to Angor.

    The old man then inquired something else about Angor¡¯s crafting work while not going over a certain boundary as to peek into Angor¡¯s secrets.

    Mithra also seemed satisfied by the knowledge Angor disyed. By the time they were done talking, Toya was yawning non-stop beside them. Mithra finally stood up and prepared to leave with the bulky man.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be staying at the Elixir Hut these days. Feel free to drop by, and please do,¡± Mithra said before leaving.

    ¡°Oh, yes, yes!¡± Shadow said before Angor could. ¡°I¡¯ll take Angor there tomorrow!¡±

    Shadow saw Mithra off and turned to Angor. ¡°That should get you out of this base for now. Mister Mithra just promised you a favor, no? Now, my professor will not trouble you when Mister Mithra is watching.¡±

    Angor returned to his bedroom and thought about the unexpected meeting. For the first time, he, as an apprentice, talked with a powerful wizard on equal ground.

    Skills and knowledge over strength and ego. Such was the poise of a master alchemist.

    Still, Angor had a question. Who was that muscr man who came together with Mithra?

    <i>And why do I feel like I met with him before?</i>

 Chapter 449 - Precision Sky

    <h4>Chapter 449: Precision Sky</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Mithra and his muscrpanion flew away from Bog¡¯s base. They were heading to Mithra¡¯s House, the Elixir Hut, which was located at the lower side of the city.

    ¡°Are you trying to protect that apprentice, professor?¡± the bulky man asked.

    ¡°He has great talent and has obtained decent alchemy legacy,¡± Mithra said as he held his chin. ¡°Such talented young men are already scarce. We should not let them go extinct in this world.¡±

    The bulky figure nodded uncertainly. ¡°If you want to keep the root of alchemy going, professor, you can simply extract his memory.¡±

    ¡°His talent goes well with his legacy but does not fit with my theories. It¡¯ll be pointless for me to acquire something I cannot use. Let¡¯s not destroy a promising genius like this.¡±

    The giant man nodded. He found it a good thing that he got to know a ¡°future¡± master alchemist. He could always ask for Angor¡¯s help in crafting itemster, which was even better if Angor really became a Mystery alchemist somehow.

    But the man still got more questions in his mind.

    ¡°Hey, Sabot. Where are you going?¡± Mithranded at his destination and watched as his student flew farther.

    The man name ¡°Sabot¡± halted and then returned with an embarrassed smile.

    ¡°What¡¯s troubling your mind?¡± Mithra asked while walking to his hut.

    The ¡°Elixir Hut¡± lived up to its name since it was just a simple wooden cottage. A chimney on the house was releasing smoke into the environment, which meant a fire was burning inside.

    From the ss window of the hut, people could see the cozy interior glowing with gentle, orange firelight.

    ¡°Still thinking about that apprentice,¡± Sabot replied as he rubbed his temples. ¡°I believe I saw him from somewhere but I can¡¯t find it in my memory.¡±

    Most wizards possessed superior memorization abilities. Certain wizards with exceptionally high spiritual power indicator could even do something simr to ¡°hyperthymesia¡±. However, this was not the case for ¡°Mad Bear¡± Sabot, who majored in Bloodline Art. The man only had an indicator of 12.

    He could still remember a lot of things in his life, but it wasn¡¯t so easy for him to recall the details.

    ¡°Did you really?¡± Mithra opened the door to the hut. There were no expansion runes used here. The inside of the hut looked as small as it appeared to be. A pudgy-looking woman was making bread using an iron box on a desk. When she saw Mithra entering, she wiped her hands on her apron and quickly addressed the old man.

    ¡°Good evening, Mistress Yeliya.¡± Sabot bowed politely to the woman. Yeliya was Mithra¡¯s wife, as well as his lifelong partner. They had been together ever since they were apprentices.

    ¡°Come, Sabot. Try some of my potato toast!¡± Yeliya took out some of her baked bread. ¡°You too, oldd. You both went to meet up with the alchemist that Diablo told us about. So, how was it?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s a brilliant child,¡± Mithra answered, ¡°I just invited him toe here some time.¡±

    ¡°I see you really like him. Sabot, did you see Toya today? How¡¯s the kid?¡±

    ¡°He says he misses you after spending his time in Silent Hill for three years. He¡¯lle to visit you tomorrow.¡± Sabot nodded.

    Yeliya¡¯s wrinkled face revealed a kind smile. ¡°Good. Then I shall prepare something nice to eat. The little imp¡¯s going to make a mess in the house, no doubt.¡±

    Despite her jokes, everyone knew Yeliya really loved Toya. She had been regarding the boy as her own child.

    ¡°He went to Bogst year, right? So what¡¯s in him that interested you so much?¡± Mithra asked as he smiled at his wife. ¡°Last time I thought about teaching him something in myb, you asked him to sit by and ¡®monitor¡¯ my work. Then I had to give him something precious instead. Aren¡¯t you going to spoil him like this?¡±

    ¡°Precious? It¡¯s just several sses of Glowing Velvet.¡±

    While the old couple ¡°argued¡± with each other, Sabot thought about something else in his mind.

    <i>Toya joined Bogst year... Last year?</i>

    ¡°I got it!¡± Sabot suddenly yelled.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Mithra and Yeliya both looked at the man who interrupted their quarrel.

    ¡°That apprentice, Angor... I knew I saw him before. Last year, I took a mission where I had to protect The Redbud. I agreed to the mission because I thought I could have some change of scenery for once. Three wizard organizations sent their guides to recruit, and Angor was one of the talents found by White Coral Floating Ind Academy.¡±

    ¡°You mean, Angor is the academy¡¯s student?¡± Mithra tried and failed to recall any famous alchemist who originated from there.

    ¡°No, he didn¡¯t go to the academy.¡± Sabot frowned and showed a strange expression. ¡°I think... Mister Bog might get himself in big trouble.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying Angor belonged to someone special?¡±

    Sabot nodded. ¡°If nothing went wrong after the incident, Angor was epted by none other than the killing machine from the south, Mister Phantom Master.¡±

    <i>Sunders?!</i>

    Those words shocked Mithra and Yeliya both. They quickly believed Bog¡¯s assumption that Bog would run into something really bad.

    ¡°You sure about it?¡±

    Sabot nodded again and described what happened in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    It took them a moment to digest what they learned.

    Yeliya broke the silence first. ¡°If this is the case... I don¡¯t think Mister Phantom will do anything. Just think about what happened to Blood Witch.¡±

    ¡°This is different,¡± Mithra said as he shook his head, ¡°and not only because of Angor¡¯s alchemy talent. Bog shouldn¡¯t have a good reason to harm Angor in the first ce.¡±

    ¡°Bog...¡± Yeliya sighed in distress. ¡°Gods know what¡¯s gotten into his mind, going after blond people like crazy. But maybe we can do something before it¡¯s toote. You just said you invited the boy toe, right? Let¡¯s ask him to stay here so that Bog can¡¯t do anything if that man goes mad again.¡±

    Sabot agreed with Yeliya. He still remembered how he felt like a helpless insect when faced with Sunders¡¯ might. It was so true that Bog was in deep trouble.

    Mithra frowned. ¡°Speaking of toote... When I was at Crystal Pce yesterday, I heard that Sunders already arrived at Floating Mech City. Sabot, find Bog and tell him what¡¯s happening. I¡¯m going to fetch Angor right now.¡±

    With that, Mithra quickly left the hut.

    ¡°Remember to bring Toya along with you,¡± Yeliya added.

    ...

    This was an eventful night.

    There was a long street in the main city district; it didn¡¯t have as many shops as the trading section, yet this ce was a famous consumer¡¯s heaven as well.

    There were all types of entertainment facilities. Pleasure House alone had set up multiple of their stores here. Along this street named ¡°Beinzweinz¡±, people could find proper ces for both men and women or someone in between.

    A short, fat man rushed into Beinzweinz Street and entered a small building while covered in sweat.

    Judging from his clothes and physical condition, he was undeniably an ordinary mortal. Even so, most mortals living inside Floating Mech City all shared family rtions with supernaturals.

    This man was called Pride. Both his father and twin brother were apprentices.

    Using their help, Pride won himself a job in this small building that was rted to supernaturals.

    The first thing he saw in the building were piles of papers flying about as if someone were tossing them around. However, there was no one carrying them. The papers headed toward designated locations on their own as if they possessed intelligence.

    There were a desk and a chair to Pride¡¯s right side, but their owner was currently somewhere else¡ªat a bar stand drinking and chatting with someone.

    The absence of an owner didn¡¯t prevent the quill and notes from working on their own as they drafted beautiful handwritings.

    Pride knew that this was done by using something called ¡°Spiritual Power¡±. He saw simr stuff in his father¡¯s study.

    He was envious of such power, but he only had a spiritual power indicator of 9, which prevented him from bing a talent.

    He didn¡¯t give up yet. Also with the help of his family, he learned that there was a special potion called Potion of Austere Night, which could increase his indicator by 2 points, thus granting him a chance of bing a talent.

    The potion was costly. He almost earned enough money. If his exclusive magazine kept selling well, he¡¯d soon get enough sry to buy a ss of the potion from an Apothecary alchemist.

    When thinking about this, Pride calmed his excited mood.

    There was a mortal girl with well-developed breasts sitting behind a desk to his left. Pride had been pursuing this girl named Jolene for a while now, both in reality and in his dreams. However, thedy kept her distance.

    Jolene was now reviewing all kinds of articles that they received from different parts of the world. Each article would be checked three times. She was responsible for the first one.

    Pride¡¯s working ce was a magazine intended for wizards; it was called ¡°Precision Sky¡± and the ce published an edition each month.

    Now was the 555th year since Precision Sky was established. This month¡¯s edition would be their 6666th volume in total. A memorable number, both to the magazine office and to Pride.

    The magazine office just began to hire mortals to manage the publishing works, and they wanted to see the oue of it.

    Since Pride was the main editor for Precision Sky this month, this was a perfect chance for him to gain a raise in sry or post.

    ¡°Pride, I got the sample for you. Personally, I think this one should be as good as thest one, if not better,¡± Jolene said as she handed Pride a moderate-sized book.

    Just to select better articles, they had been working together without sleeping for three full days. Pride already reached his mortal limit.

    ¡°I trust your capability,¡± Pride ttered his ¡°future wife¡± without looking at the book. ¡°If we release a good edition and help wizards kill time, then Mister Vonsman will make me a permanent chief editor. Then we can¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, stop it.¡± Jolene chuckled and said, ¡°Check out the sample, pretty please.¡±

 Chapter 450 - â€œEventideâ€ Kanter

    <h4>Chapter 450: ¡°Eventide¡± Kanter</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Pride epted the coverless sample book made from cheap papers. For official releases, they would use parchments crafted from a monster goat as it would remain in perfect condition for tens of thousands of years. They would then use Perpetual Rune to keep dampness and worms away to further increase the quality period of the magazines.

    Pride opened the book to read carefully. He had already read the selected articles before, but he still needed to modify the finalposing and style arrangements.

    He put the sample down a momentter.

    ¡°So how about it? I think it¡¯s pretty good already,¡± Jolene asked.

    ¡°I can see the decency. Especially these two. Whoever wrote them knew how to tickle the hearts of readers.¡±

    Jolene looked at where Pride was pointing at.

    [Extra! The Sultan has Returned to the South! Will She Reshuffle All Forces in Wizarding World?!]

    [Hear Ya! A Mystery Alchemist is Processed into Someone¡¯s Puppet?! It Turns Out to be¡ª]

    ¡°They came from the same submitter who goes by the name ¡®Your Stoney Granddaddy¡¯. Now that¡¯s an interesting pen name.¡±

    Pride smiled in satisfaction. ¡°These two articles alone shall be the sole highlight of our edition, especially the first one. I¡¯ve asked Mister Vonsman, and man, he was surprised to see the news as well. ¡®Sundown Sultan¡¯ Isabelle must be someone reaaaaly famous to wizards. As for the second one... Mister Vonsman said it might be a fake. ¡®Tis impossible for an apprentice to reach out for Mystery energy... or so he said.

    ¡°But he still found the news to be valuable. Everyone knows about Mister Bog¡¯s twisted hobby, and they all like to learn about such gossips.¡±

    ¡°Should we delete the mystery or something and only keep the puppet part?¡± Jolene suggested.

    ¡°... No, let¡¯s respect this ¡®Stoney Granddaddy¡¯ figure. He used such careful and attractive words and left a lot of room for imagination. Removing part of it will destroy the mood.¡±

    Pride paid extra attention to another piece of the message provided by ¡°Your Stoney Granddaddy¡±¡ªThe blond kid who had deep-blue eyes came from an extremely powerful figure in the wizarding world. Perhaps Bog would find himself in peril this time.

    <i>Vonsman did express disbelief about this part. But what if? This will give me a boost in my career!</i>

    ¡°I see.¡± Jolene nodded and asked, ¡°Is there anything else we should add?¡±

    Pride considered. ¡°¡®Meaty¡¯ managed to get in contact with the teleportation handlers, right? Did he have any film records about the boy mentioned here?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll look for it. I think ¡®Meaty¡¯ found a painter to recreate the image too. Another editor is still wondering whether we should use it.¡±

    Jolene left and soon returned with a portrait in her hand.

    ¡°Here it is.¡± She handed the painting to Pride, somewhat unwillingly. ¡°Such a handsome young gentleman.¡±

    Pride felt jealous when he saw Jolene¡¯s expression as she admired the young man¡¯s look, but after he checked the painting, he admitted that the young man had exceptionally good looks, which happened to be Bog¡¯s favorite.

    Clean, blond, buzz cut and clear eyes of the same color as the deep ocean.

    ¡°No wonder Mister Bog wanted him.¡±

    ¡°Beauty brings danger,¡± Jolene muttered and quickly regained her professionalism. ¡°Do we add this into the magazine, Pride?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes, we do.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we should tell Mister Vonsman to create a personal section just for ¡®Your Stoney Granddaddy¡¯...¡±

    ...

    The morning star was high up in the air.

    A metal tower built from machines and shafts stood tall. The tower had been shut for an entire day, and a number of apprentices outside were talking about why so many wizards from major organizations went in there.

    ¡°I heard they just discovered the coordinates of a brand new ne. They are here to talk about new expeditions,¡± someone imed.

    ¡°That¡¯s not right... Floating Mech City never took part in ne expeditions. If anyone wants to go, they should be looking for those Moonfrost Union b*stards.¡± The speaker was obviously discontented with how Moonfrost Union forced people to join their expeditions.

    ¡°You¡¯re all wrong. This is about a ne fusion on Devil¡¯s Water. The wizards are going for the new appendage ne so that they can capture resources earlier.¡± It was an ill-looking man with thick sses who just spoke. The man was holding a magazine he just bought, and he made up a story based on the ¡°news¡± he read.

    ¡°Oh, Adam the Nerd. Is that the newest magazine you got there? Give me that!¡± A rough-looking man tried to reach for the publication.

    While Adam struggled to resist, they suddenly saw the tower door opening up.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you toe personally, old friend.¡± A strange-looking old wizard with extremely long white eyebrows, curly beard, and blue triangr wizard hat approached another gentleman. The gentleman was dressed in a traditional ck suit and had a handsome yet somewhat cruel look. He was also carrying a short ck walking cane in his gloved hand.

    All other wizards who passed by decided to move away as if they just saw a nemesis.

    Angor would have quickly recognized his teacher if he were here.

    ¡°Something unexpected happened to the purification garden. As the mentor of someone who will enter the garden, I should naturallye,¡± Sunders said in a in tone.

    ¡°I see. I know you adopted a new disciple.¡± The white-browed wizard nodded. ¡°That failure of mine also arrived at the city the other day. We don¡¯t get together often. Why don¡¯t you bring your new student to my ce so that we can have a good talk?¡±

    Sunders nced at the old man named Kanter, who went by the title ¡°Eventide¡±.

    This old man was the current master of ¡°Lilith¡¯s n¡±. He became a truth-finder 600 years ago and possessed more experience than Sunders. But in terms of strength, they shared a simr level, which was just below level-3. They were both trying to break through the bottleneck.

    Lilith¡¯s n was a small wizard organization that had a limited number of wizards. However, no one would try to underestimate their strength. Each of their generations would give birth to at least one truth-finder wizard. There was one point of time around a thousand years ago when multiple legendary wizards emerged from Lilith¡¯s n; it was regarded as a major historical event.

    ¡°Eventide¡± Kanter had his name widely known in the wizarding world as well. At the same time, he was one of Sunders¡¯ very few friends.

    Sunders knew that the old man wished their students could meet up and broaden their social connections. Most of the time, this was beneficial.

    ¡°No. I¡¯ve no idea if the kid has arrived here yet. Let¡¯s talk again when he shows up.¡±

    Kanter smiled. ¡°True. I see none of your students can ever sit still for more than a day without causing trouble.¡± Kanter tried to recall how Flora looked like, but he failed. He once took his student and stayed at Phantom Ind for ten years, during which they only get to see Flora once.

    There was also Sunders¡¯ oldest student, Sumesh, who left to find the truth 50 years ago. He had yet to return.

    Sunders showed a strange expression and shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s different this time. That kid rarely leaves his door or does quests. He just... keeps himself shut in the room day and night. He¡¯s out this time because something forced him to.¡±

    ¡°Oh? So you finally found a ¡®trouble-free¡¯ student?¡± Kanter joked. Those words were obviously sarcasm.

    ¡°No. He¡¯s far from it.¡±

    What Angor did during Twilight Auction, which almost brought a world-ending monster to the southern wizarding world, could hardly be considered ¡°trouble-free¡±. Even someone like Sunders, who usually acted all calm and patiently, was startled for good.

    He had to deal with Angor¡¯s incident by wasting a lot of precious materials, and he actually helped the kid a lot by giving him a small piece of Nightmare Domain in the end.

    Sunders sighed in frustration when thinking about this. <i>That kid still owes me money for it.</i>

    Kanter grew interested when he saw his old friend looking so distressed. ¡°Now I REALLY want to see the kid with my own eyes.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t answer this time. He didn¡¯t know whether Angor could make it to Floating Mech City for real. He chose to believe in Angor since a prophet told him so.

    Unless something else happened to the boy after the prophecy was done.

    The officials of Floating Mech City had made it clear that unexpected elements appeared in the purification garden. The change in n was actually something good for wizards. However, it might not be good for apprentices who nned to enter the garden soon.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s your opinion?¡± Sunders asked while walking out of the tower with his friend.

    ¡°Floating Mech City has taken ten positions for their own candidates... It means the other apprentices will have to fight for their chances.¡±

    ¡°Frankly speaking, I don¡¯t think these preparations will work. Do you believe they can decide who will seize the opportunities once they are inside the garden?¡± Sunders grinned devilishly.

    The outside of the tower was full of curious apprentices, but they instantly quieted down when they saw Sundersing out.

    ¡°They are being too soft to their students.¡± Sunders frowned at the unorganized crowds.

    ¡°Well, those people are only interested in alchemy. They don¡¯t have much time to lecture their followers,¡± Kanter said and flew away.

    Just as Sunders prepared to leave, he saw a bright image from within the crowd below.

 Chapter 451 - Onset

    <h4>Chapter 451: Onset</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders halted his movement in the air.

    ¡°Something wrong, my friend?¡± Kanter came back to Sunders.

    Instead of replying, Sunders unleashed a Hand of Spell made from his shadow and pulled a magazine to himself. It was the same magazine fought upon by the two apprentices on the ground.

    The magazine was left open, which was currently showing a portrait of someone with blond hair and blue eyes.

    ¡°Angor?¡± Sunders muttered and read the article.

    The gentleman¡¯s expression turned dark. Boundless aura of might emerged from his form and slowly erging his shadow, which suddenly began to grow and expand until it covered every apprentice like a spider web.

    All apprentices stopping moving, including the owner of the magazine who was still trying to shake free from another man¡¯s grasp.

    People found it hard to breathe when covered under such evil and violent aura. At the same time, an indescribable pain started to grow inside their chests.

    Pong! Pong!

    Several muffled explosions were heard among the crowd.

    The bodies of several weak level-1 apprentices gave in to the power, and their hearts burst open and tainted the ground with blood and guts.

    Kanter was the first one to realize Sunders had done something terrible. He wouldn¡¯t really care if Sunders were simply showing off his power, but the old man was shocked to see Sunders¡¯ shadow bing alive; the shadow was absorbing the life energy and emotions of people on the scene.

    Kanter grimaced. They were staying right at the HQ of Floating Mech City with countless wizards scattered about. Sunders was testing their limits in a really bad way.

    ¡°Sunders. You¡ª¡±

    Before Kanter could say anything further, the shadow behind Sunders revealed a grinning mouth at him.

    Immediately, Kanter found himself affected by the horror. He quickly floated away from the gentleman.

    <i>What did he just do?!</i>

    The two words that Kanter spoke out sessfully reached Sunders¡¯ ears. Sunders looked around again with an even darker expression as he inspected the web-like shadow around him.

    He scoffed, ¡°Don¡¯t overuse the little freedom I granted you.¡±

    Following Sunders¡¯ cold words, the apprentices quickly shook free of the pain inside their bodies. The expanding shadow also began to shrink.

    When the shadow returned to being the ordinary shadow behind Sunders¡¯ body, its grinning mouth split wider. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I take my dear disciple¡¯s body since he is going to be someone¡¯s puppet anyway?¡±

    ¡°The sun is near, and you should wake up from your dream.¡± Sunders tapped his walking cane in midair; the shadow presence disappeared in a swirl.

    Kanter made sure there was no strange shadow lurking around before he asked in a small voice, ¡°What was that? I think your mind isn¡¯t right.¡±

    While speaking, Kanter tried to peek at the magazine in Sunders¡¯ hands. ¡°Bog¡¯s new puppet?¡± He frowned.

    <i>But what¡¯s that to do with Sunders¡¯ change of attitude? Is that young man his friend or rtive?</i>

    Sunders closed the magazine. The cover of it had ¡°Precision Sky¡± printed on it.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I saw something interesting, that¡¯s all.¡± Sunders¡¯ expression remained the same. Still, Kanter was sure his old friend looked distressed, which was rare.

    <i>Something interesting?</i>

    Kanter saw Sunders going back into the machine tower instead of leaving.

    ¡°Hey, Sunders? Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°Looking for someone.¡±

    Those words sounded like a merciless threat.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Kanter got the feeling that Sunders was going to kill whoever he meant to find.

    ¡°A certain arrogant kid with a red head.¡±

    ...

    Sabot was still waiting outside the machine tower. His mentor, Mithra, just asked him toe here and inform Bog of something. However, he was shut outside. He then discovered that a confidential meeting was going on inside the building.

    Sabot suddenly received a message and frowned.

    Two apprentices were caught in a fight in the main city district, which was considered a serious offense.

    Typically, this was nothing special because there were Rune Monitors to maintainw and order. However, the matter went out of hand when the said apprentices tore the Rune Monitor to broken parts instead of listening to warnings.

    Doing so meant challenging thew system of Floating Mech City. The organizations had issued a warrant for apprehension to any apprentice on guard duties.

    However, the criminals were too strong. All apprentices who arrived at the scene were beaten up. This included one of Sabot¡¯s personal student¡ªa high-level Bloodline Apprentice¡ªwho had his limbs snapped in closebat.

    Since none of the apprentices seeded in handling the matter, the mission fell upon avable wizards.

    And Sabot happened to be responsible for the district where the fight broke out.

    The organization had sent a direct order that requested Sabot to go there immediately. The man had no choice but to leave the machine tower for now.

    From his transmitter, he saw that both brawlers¡ªone man and a woman¡ªwere outsiders.

    The male offender was wearing a pale blue robe which glowed with the effect of runes. He had a single fish scale growing between his eyebrows. The man was flying around while riding on a giant whale.

    The female was an absolute beauty who showed nothing other than holiness and purity with her snow-white wings and equally white silk veil. However, from the poor quality of the transmitter image, Sabot couldn¡¯t tell if the woman was a humanoid or a human with wing transnts.

    When Sabot arrived, he found the entire district submerged under seawater. The mortals running the shops nearby all activated the defense mechanisms of the buildings and hoped for survival, while the apprentice guards who were knocked out earlier were drifting helplessly in the water.

    Sabot immediately exerted his wizard aura, which forced the fighters to stop and look his way.

    ¡°Professor...¡± Sabot¡¯s student pleaded in the water. All of his arms and legs were twisting in strange angles.

    Sabot growled.

    ¡°The old man hase to protect his chick...¡± the winged womanmented.

    ¡°Heh. So this is the best thing this city can do.¡± The whale-riding man didn¡¯t contain his sarcasm.

    Sabot scoffed. He already inspected. Both offenders were only level-2 apprentices. As for how they fought off all the stronger opponents... Sabot nced at the blue whale and the pair of wings growing on the woman¡¯s back.

    The whale was a familiar pet that was half-step to wizard level, while those wings also showed simr ripples¡ªit must be something transnted from a wizard-level Winged Folk.

    Sabot approached them slowly. His aura was making it difficult for the brawlers to move.

    Sabot¡¯s aura kept growing until the man and woman began to see a ck bear howling toward the sky. There was the mark of a half-moon printed at the bear¡¯s chest.

    ¡°¡®Mad Bear¡¯ Sabot...¡± The woman was surprised to recognize who hade.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care what your problem is. Anyone who dares to break the city rules to such an extent will be executed!¡± Sabot bellowed.

    Quickly, the young man turned into a puddle and sank inside the water tides below.

    The woman also moved. With a mighty p of her wings, countless needle-like arrows were unleashed toward Sabot.

    Sabotpletely disregarded the attack. He mmed an enchanted fist down, which visibly broke the very space around him, forcing both the man and the woman to lose theirposure. They then copsed on some debris.

    The power of the fist shattered the blue whale, which turned into another blue puddle and went inside the man¡¯s forehead scale.

    As the offenders watched in horror, Sabot raised his fist again.

    He suddenly felt his transmitter vibrating, which suggested a new message. This one also came from thew enforcement department, but it was only a brief one.

    [Do NOT harm anyone. Bring them back.]

    Sabot questioned the reason behind the decision.

    [The Child of Ocean and the Avatar of Light.]

    ...

    The day was brightened by sunlight by the time Sabot finally dealt with these offenders who happened to possess really important backgrounds.

    ¡°Damn it. The garden attracted all sorts of geniuses and whatnot from all over the world. And I had to lower my fist in front of these weaklings!¡± Sabot returned to the lower side of the city while cursing.

    He wondered if Bog¡¯s conference had ended.

    When he thought about Angor¡¯s matter, his mood quickly became uneasy again.

    This wasn¡¯t something he should postpone. ording to Mithra, Sunders already arrived at Floating Mech City. Only gods knew what would happen if the terrible gentleman discovered what happened to his precious student.

    Sabot already sensed something was wrong before reaching the tower. The area around the tower was always bustling with apprentices because another research department sat nearby. Now, however, Sabot found the ce to be as quiet as a graveyard.

    There was no noise from any apprentices.

    When he sensed the powerful aura of wizards being openly disyed, his instinct told him that something might have gone wrong.

    Moving at a faster pace, he went to the tower. Upon getting closer, he clearly sensed two powerful auras confronting each other.

    Before he could proceed further, a voice stopped him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t go in there, Sabot. It¡¯s not something you can deal with now.¡±

    It was one of his friends who just spoke.

    ¡°But who¡¯s fighting at the HQ of Floating Mech City?¡± Sabot asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know the reason. Mister Phantom suddenly just, started to duke it out with Bog!¡±

 Chapter 452 - Strength Gap

    <h4>Chapter 452: Strength Gap</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Right in front of the machine tower, several dark shadows were swirling about.

    A Nightmare covered in dark mes howled toward the sky and released ck ripples into the environment.

    The ripples reached a pair ofdies with blond hair and blue eyes, who immediately vomited blood.

    Bog had just barely escaped from the attack by using Void Shift, and he couldn¡¯t do it again any time soon. He could only use other defensive spells to survive. However, when faced against the Nightmare¡¯s attacks, his spells were fragile like paper.

    Another surge of ck me easily sent Bog flying, who then crashed on the ground like a stone.

    Thud, thud...

    Bog looked up and saw Sunders¡¯ ck leather boots... and a pair of emotionless eyes.

    Everything happened in a blink of an eye. Both Sunders and Bog were level-2 wizards, but while one of them was already a truth-finder, the other was only around its door. Bog was pressed into absolute disadvantage without any chance of fighting back.

    Such was the uncrossable strength gap between them.

    The onlookers shivered again when they realized that Sunders hadn¡¯t used any illusions yet. Bog, the biggest hope of Floating Mech City, who was very likely to be a truth finder in the near future, wasn¡¯t good enough to be considered a mere threat in Sunders¡¯ eyes.

    ¡°Now speak. You have onest chance,¡± Sunders said in his usual calm tone. No one could tell the man¡¯s true mood.

    ¡°Jajaja... I made him into a puppet. So what?¡± ¡°Puppet Master¡± Bog coughed up some blood. ¡°Kill me if you can.¡±

    Sunders kept his gaze on Bog and slowly began to gather mana. Even if what Bog said was true, he could kill Bog and free Angor¡¯s soul.

    ¡°Think clearly, Sunders! Don¡¯t let your rage judge for you.¡± Kanter¡¯s voice breached the violent energy and reached Sunders¡¯ ears. It was clear that the old man genuinely meant to warn his friend.

    Sunders also knew that it wasn¡¯t wise to murder Bog at the center of Floating Mech City. He already sensed there was arge-scale weapon aiming right at him. The moment he unleashed the killing blow to Bog, something devastating would happen to him as well.

    He was confident that his ¡°ck Tower¡± Nightmare Domain could help him escape, but his action would cause Floating Mech City to turn hostile against Brute Cavern. Killing Bog wasn¡¯t worthwhile just because of an apprentice who MIGHT be dead.

    But putting all reasons aside, Sunders couldn¡¯t help but feel offended.

    The gentleman felt an unknown fury building up inside his mind, and he didn¡¯t know why. While unaware, he began to value Angor¡¯s future to such an extent that he connected his own future with the boy¡¯s. Ever since Sunders learned that Angor might be ¡°someone important¡± in Nightmare Realm, he had established a series of bold ns during which he would uncover the mysteries hidden in that ce while taking advantage of Angor¡¯s gift.

    And now, someone took Angor away from him. He had all the reason to get angry.

    ¡°If you want Bog dead, you can wait until he¡¯s outside the city!¡± Kanter was still trying to persuade Sunders.

    Floating Mech City was a neutral wizard organization famous for its alchemy skills, but this didn¡¯t mean the city couldn¡¯t fight. While it was true that most alchemists didn¡¯t possess manybat skills, there were still powerful wizards who were drawn to them, including figures as strong as Sunders himself.

    ¡°Mister Phantom... If something¡¯s on your mind, why don¡¯t we sit down and talk? Maybe we can find a moderate solution.¡± A cold, emotionless voice was heard behind everyone as if a robot just talked to them.

    Sunders didn¡¯t have to look around to recognize that voice. It was ¡°Neo Beast¡± Lawson, one of the two city masters. Lawson was always in charge of managing the upper side of the city.

    ¡°I can talk or let him go, as long as he returns my student to me,¡± Sunders answered in a calm voice.

    Everyone including Bog was surprised to hear about this. Earlier, Sunders came to Bog and directly requested for him to hand Angor over. Since Bog was not someone who would listen to orders, they simply began to fight. Until now, Bog had no idea what the blond boy meant to Sunders.

    Kanter also failed to assume much even though he saw Angor¡¯s image in Precision Sky magazine.

    <i>That boy is Sunder¡¯s student?!</i>

    All the onlooking wizards began to discuss. It was the first time in history that Sunders actually stood up to protect one of his students. Most people knew how Sunders cast a cold shoulder to Flora when the witch was in peril. They were really curious about why a boy would cause Sunders to act so differently.

    ¡°Bog, Mister Phantom requested so. What say you?¡± Lawson decided to be the judge since he was the highest manager of the district.

    ¡°Jajaja! That small apprentice already became a magic puppet. Do you want to see him? Do you? I reced his ears with those of a Fanning Beast and changed his skin into the gluey husk of an Emerald Frog. You won¡¯t recognize him anyway!¡±

    Bog¡¯s ego wouldn¡¯t allow him to back down, and it only meant worse when he was on the losing side. He had decided to give up his life if it meant defending his dignity.

    As Sunders grew more and more furious at those words, his shadow suddenly began to glow with a red light. He then lifted a hand and began to cover the surrounding area with violent magic full of killing intent.

    Before ¡°Neo Beast¡± Lawson could try to intervene again, Kanter spoke first.

    ¡°Sunders, your shadow. It¡¯s happening again.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ irises shrank. The gentleman quickly recollected his senses and canceled the building spell. However, in thest second before the glowing shadow disappeared, he heard someoneughing in an evil voice.

    ¡°He¡¯s getting out by all means...¡±

    Sunders nned to wait until Angor became a wizard to solve his personal problem, but if Angor were...

    Seeing Sunders motionless, Bog continued to taunt the gentleman by describing how he processed Angor¡¯s body in various ways.

    ¡°His limbs are horse hooves now.

    ¡°I snatched his heart and stuff the core of a rotten ghoul inside.

    ¡°Even his soul ispletely obliterated!¡±

    Sunders suddenly smiled at something. ¡°You¡¯re lying. You can¡¯t do that.¡±

    Anyone might be able to harm Angor¡¯s body, but it was very difficult for people to meddle with the boy¡¯s soul. If something did happen to Angor¡¯s soul, that ¡°queen¡± would have done something by now.

    Bog was shocked when his lie was seen through. <i>Did the boy hide something else on his body?</i>

    The obvious doubtful expression on Bog¡¯s face further confirmed it for Sunders. Previously, Sunders thought Bog was lying about Angor¡¯s soul, but now, he believed that Angor might actually be totally unharmed.

    Sunders deployed a simple illusion to trap Bog before he turned around to address ¡°Neo Beast¡± Lawson.

    Lawson was a young-looking male wizard with a serious expression. He was wearing a long, hooded robe with ck runes drawn on it. He didn¡¯t look like much on the first look, but Sunders knew what it meant to have 80% of one¡¯s body reced with machinery.

    ¡°Take me to his ce. Now I want to see how my ¡®puppet-fied¡¯ student really looks like,¡± Sunders said to Lawson.

    Lawson checked Bog¡¯s position and realized he¡¯d have a hard time breaking Sunders¡¯ illusion. At the same time, he could sense that the illusion wasn¡¯t there to harm anyone. Sunders¡¯ intention was clear to see.

    ¡°Alright then.¡±

    Taking one step back wouldn¡¯t hurt much as long as he could prevent a war from breaking out in the middle of his city.

    Before they left, another energy signature that was obviously weaker than them suddenly arrived.

    Lawson frowned at the familiar presence. It was the student of his old friend Mithra, ¡°Mad Bear¡± Sabot. He wondered why Sabot barged in even though he already ordered people to keep everyone outside.

    ¡°Please wait, Mister Phantom!!¡±

    The first thing that drew Sabot¡¯s attention was Bog, who was trapped inside an illusion while carrying a number of wounds on his body.

    <i>I was only out to deal with some street fight and something happened!</i>

    Sabot was extremely stressful for failing his mentor¡¯s request.

    ¡°Angor¡¯s fine! Bog didn¡¯t do anything to him!¡± Sabot rushed to Sunders and bowed down. ¡°And it¡¯s good to see you again, Mister Phantom.¡±

    Sunders raised an eyebrow. ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Yes! My mentor brought Angor to Elixir Hut. They¡¯re talking about alchemy knowledge right this moment. The boy¡¯s healthy and well. Please don¡¯t be too harsh on Bog.¡±

    Sunders checked. It seemed Sabot chose to open up his mind so that anyone could sense the truthfulness of his words.

    Next, Sunders nodded and looked at Lawson. ¡°Looks like we don¡¯t have to waste your precious time, Mister Neo Beast.¡±

    Lawson also sighed in relief in his mind. ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡±

    ¡°Take me to Angor then,¡± Sunders said as he turned to face Sabot.

    When he saw Sabot fumbling with words, Sunders added something, ¡°Bog¡¯s not in danger. The illusion will disappear by itself once I make sure Angor¡¯s safe.¡±

    Sabot looked at Lawson, who nodded to reassure him, and finally agreed. ¡°Okay. Do follow me please.¡±

 Chapter 453 - Mystery Potion

    <h4>Chapter 453: Mystery Potion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor was brought to Elixir Hut before sunrise.

    At first, he felt uneasy since he didn¡¯t know what Mithra wanted... until they started discussing alchemy knowledge in a really rxed mood. Mithra was an Apothecary alchemist who also knew a little about Tooling. In fact, Angor realized the old man¡¯s ¡°subfield¡± was already way more cultured than him.

    Gradually, Angor forgot about his precious concerns and grew indulged in the discussion. It was basically Mithra who did all the talking since Angor¡¯s enchantment knowledge was quite useless to Mithra.

    Angor found himself greatly enlightened after receiving all kinds of Tooling advice from Mithra. When the sun appeared on the horizon, Mithra suddenly asked a question, ¡°Are you interested in studying Apothecary?¡±

    Angor was definitely interested. He had a full collection of Apothecary textbooks saved inside his tablet. However, the subject required great time and effort in which Angor couldn¡¯t spare any. He was nning to fulfill his promise and save Jon first before attempting more subjects. Wizards all had extended lives. Angor thought enchantment was enough to cover his expenses as an apprentice.

    When Mithra saw Angor nodding, he smiled. ¡°You don¡¯t have to pick it up now. But since we have a lot of time, I¡¯ll talk about the general idea of Apothecary.¡±

    <i>A lot of time?</i>

    Angor felt something strange about those words, but he didn¡¯t think much since he was going to learn something new.

    As a master Apothecary, Mithra filled his lesson withprehensive intelligence and interesting insights. Soon, Angor established his own frame of the subject in his mind like a growing tree.

    Just like Tooling, Apothecary also came in different branches. However, it came with unique ¡°school¡± systems.

    There was the Van Der Waals School that ssified materials ording to the ways they worked, such as monomeric materials, mixed materials, and extraction ones.

    The Gypsy School arranged potions ording to properties including potions which exerted smells, Witch Stews, and water-soluble potions.

    The Reformer School split potions into three basic forms¡ªgaseous, liquid, and solid.

    There were also other strange schools that might allocate potions by their effects, their superss, or their drawbacks. Some even regarded the colors and their ces of origin to be important factors.

    Just like Tooling, the different schools of Apothecary all contributed their own ideas and thoughts to the general subject. However, the different schools of Tooling mostly agreed on one basic rule, where there were generally two paths for Tooling¡ªEnchantment and Synthesis. For this reason, Tooling alchemists wouldn¡¯t usually consider their differences when talking.

    But Apothecary was different. Apothecary schools tend to regard the others as ¡°lesser, ipetent ones¡±. People all clung to their home school. In fact, the potions they produced all had simr effects. Before Apothecaries started talking to each other, they usually had to ascertain which school everyone came from and base their further conversations on it. Otherwise, a spar of words would soon follow.

    Mithra belonged to Reformers who only divided potions ording to their physical states. Anything that fell outside the three basic forms would be considered ¡°others¡±.

    While exining the ideas of Reformers, Mithra also mentioned things worth learning or avoiding, which was rted to most of the known schools. Angor was d to receive the extensive lessons.

    Apart from bloodshed and bodily assaults, wizards also waged wars in the field of academics.

    ¡°My book collection contained detailed knowledge about potions, so I¡¯ll not trouble you here. Head to my library when you have time. I¡¯ll let you in for free.¡±

    Again, Angor felt strange when receiving Mithra¡¯s generosity.

    Mithra wasn¡¯t any ordinary wizard; he was a master alchemist who was respected by many. Therefore, when he started to treat Angor like an old friend, Angor felt concerned by it.

    All the while, Mithra acted in a way like a friendly mortal old man who would tell stories to kids rather than an experienced wizard who had seen enough of this world.

    <i>This is strange...</i> Angor thought in his mind. <i>Knowledge is priceless to wizards. Why would he let me in his personal library just like this?</i>

    Mithra managed to read Angor¡¯s mind. Since he couldn¡¯t exin it, the old man could only reveal a bitter smile.

    It was only a matter of time for Sunders to meet up with Angor. As Bog¡¯s former teacher, Mithra was trying his best to soothe the boy¡¯s mood before something serious happened.

    But in truth, Mithra was overreacting. It was true that Bog ¡°imprisoned¡± Angor in his base for several days. However, the days weren¡¯t as terrible as what he thought.

    The old man saw Angor still doubting something and decided to change the topic. ¡°You once reached out to Mystery energy, right? Take a look at this potion.¡±

    From his dimensional storage, Mithra took out an oval-shaped ss sphere.

    Instantly, Angor sensed something familiar from it. His attention was fully attracted by the particr object, and all his concerns were gone.

    Any mortal or wizard would see the sphere as amon object, but in Angor¡¯s eyes, the object was glowing, and at the same time, grasping his attention like a ma.

    ¡°This is Mystery energy...¡± Angor mumbled. It was the same thing he felt when he crafted Prelude to Rebirth in Dark Castle.

    Through the sphere, he could see faint water ripples flowing inside while releasing insignificant blue light.

    ¡°As I expected, you noticed the Mystery trace before I trigger it.¡± Mithra sighed and added, ¡°I failed to notice the trace when I set my eyes on it for the first time. It is true that you once connected with Mystery energy.¡±

    Mithra seemed envious as he continued, ¡°It¡¯s extreme luck bestowed by the gods or something alike. Since you already recognized Mystery energy, it won¡¯t take long for you to find it again.¡±

    Angor scratched his head at the suddenplimentary words.

    ¡°Mister Mithra, are there Mystery Potions too?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Potions are products of alchemy as well. This sphere contained a Mystery Potion called ¡®Gaze of the Wise¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Can we drink this stuff?¡±

    ¡°Remember, all potions are for consuming, yet we have different ways for that. You can sniff at something to consume it or wrap your spirit feelers around something. Of course, drinking is one basic way.

    ¡°Of course you can consume a Mystery Potion. Sometimes you don¡¯t have to exhaust the potion to consume it. Such is the case for ¡®Gaze of the Wise¡¯. You may look at it to use the potion. It will never go away as long as you don¡¯t break the container,¡± Mithra exined.

    ¡°I can... consume the potion by looking at it?¡± Angor widened his eyes in shock. Then he tried to see how it felt like by consuming something with his eyesight.

    Mithra chuckled. ¡°You can¡¯t do it without me activating the potion first. Besides, it doesn¡¯t benefit you. This potion bestows a special effect on someone¡¯s eyes for a short time. You don¡¯t have what it takes to endure the powerful effect right now.¡±

    Angor scratched his head again.

    ¡°So it works like using an eye-rted spell?¡±

    Mithra chuckled again. ¡°Do you think amon spell canpete with Mystery properties?¡±

    ¡°But there are ¡®useless¡¯ Mystery Items, right?¡±

    ¡°Useless, maybe. But they are still Mystery Items. I once found some notes that belonged to a deceased Mystery alchemist. They said that every Mystery Item existed for a reason. People find something useless because they failed to learn how to properly use it.¡± Mithra shrugged and said, ¡°Such is the reason why certain Mystery Items sit in someone¡¯s cab to collect dust.¡±

    Angor wondered if, from now on, he should simply grab any Mystery Item he ran into regardless of their effect.

    ¡°And it¡¯s no easy task to let a disregarded item shine again,¡± Mithra continued. ¡°Maybe the item isn¡¯t meant for humans but an unknown creature living thousands of nes apart. In that case, you may as well consider the item useless since you¡¯ll never ascertain its true value.¡±

    Slowly, Angor began to learn a lot about ¡°Mystery¡± from Mithra as well.

    When the bright sunlight brightened the cozy room, Yeliya interrupted their speech and brought Toya inside. ¡°Now now, you¡¯ve been talking for an entire night. Have some of my milk sandwich bread.¡±

    The bread slices were all made in the shape of a kitten face. This was obviously to entertain Toya.

    As a milk lover, Angor tried very hard to maintain his ¡°serious persona¡±. After a bit of pretended courtesy, he slowly picked up his share.

    However, something else happened before he could enjoy the snack. Someone pushed the room door open.

    Against the strong sunlight outside, Angor could only see a handsome figure, who was shrouded in a golden rim, standing at the door.

 Chapter 454 - Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 454: Reunion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When looking from inside the hut, the figure¡¯s face was all dark. But those eyes still showed a fiery spirit.

    ck gentleman suit, white gloves, ck walking cane, and a shiny ear piercing... To Angor, everything suggested the name of his teacher.

    Angor still had a piece of half-bitten cheese bread in his mouth. The sudden appearance of his professor startled him for good, causing him to drop his snack on the floor.

    In fact, Angor didn¡¯t feel much since they were only apart for half a year. However, he was still surprised because he never thought he¡¯d run into Sunders in Floating Mech City.

    ¡°What, have you forgotten about me already?¡± the visitor asked in his usual hoarse voice which seemed a bit joyful for some reason.

    ¡°Pro-pro-professor...¡±

    Mithra and Yeliya looked at each other and made sure they both understood the situation before Mithra addressed the new guest with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s an honor to have you here, Mister Phantom. I was nning to go visit you on my own.¡±

    Sabot showed up outside the door as well. The man greeted Mithra with a look of great relief.

    From Sabot¡¯s expression, Mithra noticed that something else happened. Still, he didn¡¯t ask right away. ¡°Will youe inside, Mister Phantom? We can talk if something is on your mind.¡±

    Angor, on the other hand, slowly realized the situation.<i> So Mithra has been friendly to me because he knows Sunders wille looking for me soon?</i>

    ¡°Greetings, ¡®Elixir of Miracle¡¯, Master Mithra. I think I¡¯ll pass this chance. I¡¯ve been searching for Angor for some time, and I need to talk with him first. Urgently.¡±

    Sunders said these to express his attitude toward Angor in front of Mithra, as well as all wizards who were interested in the matter.

    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll not keep Angor from you.¡± Mithra looked at Angor with the same kind smile. ¡°And Angor, what I said earlier still stands. The Elixir Hut and my library will be open for you at all times. You¡¯re wee to chat with me at any time.¡±

    Angor thanked the old alchemist politely. No matter what the old man nned, the knowledge he learned today was real.

    ¡°ording to Mad Bear, you¡¯ve been giving my student alchemy lessons?¡± Sunders asked.

    ¡°Yes, and I¡¯m d to see Angor¡¯s exceptional talent at it. It¡¯s only a matter of time for the boy to be another master alchemist. A Mystery wielder, even. And plus, I also learned something from Angor in return.¡±

    Mithra¡¯s words sounded like a modest courtesy, but the other wizards all noticed that Mithra¡¯splimentary words for Angor were also true.

    Sunders also smiled in contentment. He wished Mithra could say so.

    Sunders already sensed hundreds of inspective traces fixed on Elixir Hut, including ones from very powerful wizards. The two city masters also had their attention on this small house.

    Sunders asked the previous question to show his will to shield Angor to those who were listening, especially the city masters, so that they would think carefully about Angor¡¯s value before opening the purification garden to apprentices.

    But at the same time, Sunders knew his im could cause trouble. As the ¡°killing machine from the south¡±, he had earned countless enemies. These people might be powerless against him, but they certainly could do an easy job killing Angor. Before today, Sunders¡¯ enemies probably wouldn¡¯t do anything to his students since the gentleman never cared about their life and death. Now, since Sunders openly expressed his concerns about Angor, it might attract unwanted adversary to the boy.

    When Sunders asked Mithra¡¯s opinion on Angor, Mithra quickly understood the situation and expressed what he thought about Angor.

    Great alchemy talent, future master alchemist, and a possible Mystery wielder.

    Now, anyone who wanted to harm Angor would first consider the boy¡¯s potential. Sunders¡¯ old enemies did not have a personal grudge against the boy. To them, getting to know a future master alchemist always came better than trying to kill him.

    With a smart conversation, Sunders and Mithra solved many hidden problems.

    Meanwhile, Sunders would dly return Mithra¡¯s favor by forgiving Bog¡¯s ¡°crimes¡±.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. I have lots of things to ask,¡± Sunders said as he beckoned Angor.

    Angor scratched his head, thanked the old couple, and joined his professor.

    Sunders was also content with Angor¡¯s manner. Now everyone could see that Angor was a moderate ¡°academism¡± apprentice, which meant one less reason for certain people to hunt him down.

    As Angor approached, Sunders quickly sensed the smell of milking from the boy and nced at the cheese bread left on the floor.

    <i>This adventure didn¡¯t remove his love for milk in the least...</i>

    The teacher and student had barely walked away from Elixir Hut when a red vortex suddenly blocked their path.

    Next, a giant fist descended from the sky and mmed at their position.

    Sunders leaped back while dragging Angor¡¯s cor. Angor¡¯s body barely avoided theing fist. The attack created a giant crater in the ground that was soon filled up by underground water.

    Angor¡¯s face went pale when he felt the deadly object grazing past his nose. He would surely die without Sunders there to help him.

    While Angor was still recovering from his shock, the vortex slowly dissipated, leaving a figure with bright red hair and violet soft armor behind.

    ¡°Bog.¡± Sunders grinned and said, ¡°I just decided to spare you, but I see you would disagree.¡±

    ¡°Jajaja... I don¡¯t need your mercy. It¡¯s either you or me¡ª¡±

    Bam!

    A young man in ck robe materialized behind Bog¡¯s back and knocked the man¡¯s head.

    ¡°I apologize for Bog¡¯s misbehavior, Mister Phantom.¡±

    Angor looked up and checked the new visitor who just spoke in the same, emotionless tone like a Rune Monitor. He also noticed obvious metal junctions from where the man¡¯s ankles and wrists were exposed. It appeared the young man was more of a machine than a human.

    ¡°Mister Neo Beast...¡± Sunders noticed Mithra walking outside to observe as well. Combining the situations he saw until now, he knew Bog didn¡¯t do anything to Angor¡¯s health. ¡°I see. I¡¯ll let it pass this time.¡±

    ¡°Let me go, Lawson!¡± Bog screamed madly.

    Lawson didn¡¯t mind him. He kept suppressing Bog¡¯s movement while asking Sunders to leave.

    Bog watched Sunders disappearing with Angor and grew quiet all of a sudden.

    ¡°I¡¯ve made up my mind. I¡¯m going to the Sonance Abysm.¡±

    ¡°You sure? Even I may not make it out alive,¡± Lawson said in a small voice that only Bog could hear this time.

    ¡°Yes, I must go.¡± Bog was still gazing at where Sunders left with a vengeful look.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Lawson grinned without saying anything further. It seemed he already expected Bog to do so.

    Meanwhile, Sunders had taken Angor to his temporary residence in the city¡ªa nobleman¡¯s manor with trees and flower gardens, which was far away from the steel and concrete of the city center.

    A Rune Monitor working as the butler of the house greeted Sunders. ¡°Wee home, Master. It has been 33 years since yourst visit. Number One misses you.¡±

    Sunders pointed at Angor. ¡°Number One, set him as the secondary administrator of the manor.¡±

    The machine butler¡¯s screen shed something that scanned Angor¡¯s body. After asking Angor for some basic information, the metal eye hovered in front of Angor¡¯s face. ¡°Number One at your service, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Take us to the study,¡± said Sunders.

    While following the strange butler, Sunders exined something to Angor.

    ¡°When I traveled to this city a hundred years ago, I bought this ce as a small base. This is Number One, the butler and manager of the manor. It¡¯s in charge of all the chores. Just ask if you need something done.¡±

    A hundred years ago, Sunders came to Floating Mech City seeking alchemy knowledge as well. However, the hard truth soon discouraged him from keeping up with that particrly difficult subject. It was soon proved that he didn¡¯t possess any talent for alchemy, so he gave up after insisting for 20 years.

    Of course, Sunders didn¡¯t wish to mention his sad history to Angor. He only imed that the house was a dwelling during long travels.

    As they entered the manor¡¯s study, before Angor could say something, Sunders tapped him with a finger, which caused them to vanish and reappear inside another study room that had no walls and ceiling.

    They were standing under a clear, blue sky while surrounded by a number of bookshelves full of tomes. The air smelled like flowers while the asional beast howls could be heard in the distance.

    ¡°This is the Garden of Gravity,¡± Sunders said while Angor was still looking around in bewilderment.

 Chapter 455 - Talk Between Teacher and Student

    <strong>Chapter 455: Talk Between Teacher and Student</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Gravity Garden?

    Angor only came here once before. It was when he was pulled inside by Sunders while unconscious and was immediately thrown out when he woke up.

    He checked the ce again. When the garden was created, it only upied a small patch ofnd in Phantom Ind. This time, however, Angor noticed that the garden wasrger than before. He couldn¡¯t see the edge of it.

    The sky was clear but without a sun. Angor couldn¡¯t find a light source, so he didn¡¯t know how the ce was so bright as day.

    They were standing within the outdoor library. There were desks scattered around the bookshelves with half-written files and quills in ink bottles on them, which meant Sunders often came here.

    Angor could tell that the Gravity Garden was a lot inferiorpared to Soul Genesis Garden in terms ofpleteness. The rules of the garden had not been established, and everything felt off. Also, he didn¡¯t find any gravity energy. Thew of the garden was probably still in its initial state.

    Still, Angor wished he could get his hands on such a miniature world too.

    While Angor inspected his surroundings, Sunders was also looking at his student curiously.

    The boy didn¡¯t change much on the outside. His skin was still pale white, and his eyes were as clear as always, without any hint of being tainted by the cruelty and mercilessness of the wizarding world. Everything on Angor looked just like before, apart from his blond buzz cut that barely covered the top of his head.

    Next, Sunders smiled when he checked Angor¡¯s strength.

    A level-2 apprentice at his bottleneck before breaking through to the next level.

    Angor was still a level-1 when he went missing in Midnight Sovereign. It was only half a year and he gained so much experience... Besides, the boy spent less than two years in the wizarding world in total. Such growth speed had busted allmon sense.

    The gentleman pressed a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Do not resist.¡±

    Angor felt something tickling his ear, and before he could find out why, a stream of gentle energy entered his body and circled around his mind space before it quickly left.

    Sunders sat in front of his desk, content with the test result. He didn¡¯t find any trace of potion usage in Angor¡¯s body, which meant the boy did not use such extra help to improve.

    It wasmonly agreed among wizards that anyone who became a wizard before the age of 30 was a top-ss genius. Considering Angor¡¯s speed, he was very likely to hit the milestone before 20. Only certain talents from Origin World showed such aptitude before.

    However, it took more than fast training to be a wizard. Angor also needed the umtion of knowledge and the proper use of such knowledge to build his own path toward the future. Sunders nned to ask Angor to study more after the garden challenge.

    It was time for Angor to pick a main subject.

    ¡°Nicely done. A level-2 apprentice in half a year without consuming potions. The magazine said you once performed Mystery alchemy, no? I see you didn¡¯t give up on the other ¡®profession¡¯.

    ¡°I see it now. You totally should travel around instead of staying inside Brute Cavern all day. It¡¯s good for you that way.¡±

    Sunders assumed that Angor ran into another great destiny. Nevertheless, the biggest cause for Angor¡¯s growth should still lie within Singrity Dispersive Meditation. The one-of-a-kind channeling method had given Angor a miracle.

    Sunders believed that Angor achieved so much by using a wed singrity model. He wondered what other miracles would happen should Angor used the thirty-six-dimensional locator to create the ultimate form of axes of the universe.

    Of course, Sunders never realized that Angor did so from the very start.

    Angor felt proud after receiving Sunders¡¯ praise. But then, he noticed he just heard something strange. ¡°Um, magazine?¡±

    Sunders chuckled at Angor¡¯s silly reaction and tossed the newest edition of Precision Sky he picked up. ¡°Read it. Is there anything untruthful?¡±

    The first thing Angor saw on the paper was the highlighted news about Isabelle¡¯s return.

    It¡¯s known by the public so soon?

    Angor read on and saw that the article was actually more detailed than what he revealed that night. Either someone investigated, or Shadow told someone more informationter.

    He checked the title again: [The Sultan has Returned to the South! Will She Reshuffle All Forces in Wizarding World?!]

    The title looks quite the bait. As for the author...

    Your Stoney Granddaddy?

    Angor quickly thought about Dual Sprite Talos.

    ¡°Oh? You¡¯re more interested in this one?¡± Sunders noticed Angor wasn¡¯t looking at the right page. ¡°Huh... Isabelle¡¯s back? As I remembered, she was half-step to legendary half a year before she left everyone¡¯s view. If nothing held her back since then... she should be a legendary wizard now.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯tment on Isabelle¡¯s matter and kept reading the next title, which had the same style of an overstatement.

    [A Mystery Alchemist is Processed into Someone¡¯s Puppet?! It Turns Out to be¡ª]

    He managed to keep calm while reading the article. When he finished it, he finally failed to hold back a curse.

    The first part of the page described how he was captured by Bog in Silent Hill, while thetter half said how he was turned into Bog¡¯s puppet. There was another short story in the middle that imed how he almost created a Mystery item.

    The second part of the article was definitely forged.

    However, the author used creative wording and fine assumptions that perfectly recreated how Bog usually made his puppets. Maybe the writer did see it before.

    Your Stoney Granddaddy.

    Again.

    Angor was almost sure that this writer was the strange sprite Talos who always talked to itself.

    He never liked that shifty gatekeeper. He would have been fine if Talos opened the gate and let him out. This article that was full of assumptions only added to his negative impression of Talos.

    ¡°This is all nonsense.¡± He tossed the magazine back on the desk.

    ¡°But Bog did take you away, right?¡± Sunders crossed his legs while fiddling his walking cane.

    ¡°Yeah... that part is right.¡±

    ¡°When I examined your body, I also found some new scars apart from your old ones. Bog did it to you?¡±

    ¡°No...¡± Angor shook his head and wondered if he should tell the truth. ¡°It¡¯s Lady Isabe.¡±

    ¡°Isabe from Dark Castle? How did you mess with that woman?¡±

    ¡°Um, if you want to know, sir, I¡¯ll have to start exining from when I fell into Fairy World.¡±

    ¡°Fairy World? The tunnel in Midnight Sovereign sent you to Fairy World? Well, you can tell me about your journey if that¡¯s no problem. Also, leave anything you don¡¯t want to say. It¡¯s fine.¡±

    Angor nodded. He was going to tell his professor anyway.

    ¡°I ran into the rainbow dragonflies in the tunnel again. They gathered together like a huge cloud and saved me. By sitting on them, I left the ne passageway and entered Fairy World...¡±

    Angor told Sunders everything about the abandoned underground vige including how he met Akeso. He only kept the origin of Dodoro a secret.

    He took Dodoro back in order to ask his professor to look into what helped Dodoro stay alive for a thousand years. Now that he did meet with Sunders, he thought otherwise.

    In the end, Angor said that Akeso let him go peacefully. After that, he encountered a man named Dodoro who appeared to have lost his memory. Out of sympathy, he took Dodoro along.

    After leaving Pocratee, it was the strange adventure in Water Grasse and in Dark Castle. Angor exined everything about them.

    Sunders took a brief moment to collect important points in Angor¡¯s story.

    ¡°There¡¯s a dragonfly nest in the abandoned vige? So it means there¡¯s another exit that leads to Nightmare Realm inside the ne passageway you went through. There must be a reason for someone to open such a passage and leave it there for a thousand years.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t say it aloud for Angor to answer. He nned to check out the vige once he finished Monkey¡¯s request.

    ¡°Now, I didn¡¯t think Isabelle has something to do with you. Judging from what you said about her... she didn¡¯te back for real. But it isn¡¯t easy to segment someone¡¯s soul and create an independent consciousness. Perhaps something happened to the real Isabelle that allowed her soul fragment to shake free from the host¡¯s control.¡±

 Chapter 456 - Inquiry

    <strong>Chapter 456: Inquiry</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Sunders didn¡¯t say anything about Angor¡¯s decision to take a group of Krakoks away. To Sunders, the Krakoks, as well as Dodoro, were only talents who weren¡¯t so different frommon mortals. Back then, he brought about a hundred talents to the cloud whale. Nine out of ten died in the deathmatches, and the gentleman didn¡¯t feel a thing about it.

    After talking about Dark Castle and Isabe, Sunders mentioned Angor¡¯s own training again.

    Angor said he could train and meditate many times faster when wandering inside the ne passageway. It took him less than 10 days to break through, and after that, he became a level-2 apprentice.

    Sunders tried to find the reason for it.

    The previous test told him that Angor built his strength nicely and stably without being too hasty. This meant Angor¡¯s training inside the ne passageway was ¡°legit¡± training.

    But Sunders never heard of such a case where an apprentice could train faster all of a sudden. The ne passageway had primal mana in the environment, but it was too poor for proper training, let alone enhancing someone.

    Is it because of Angor¡¯s second talent?

    The Tree Spirit once mentioned that Angor had another talent orientation, but Tree Spirit couldn¡¯t ascertain what it was without breaking Angor¡¯s spirit defense. He only said it was an ult talent too.

    ¡°Maybe Angor¡¯s talented in another dimension-rted art?¡± Sunders pondered. That would exin the boy¡¯s strengthened training speed in a ne passageway where dimension energy was more active.

    With this idea, Sunders took Angor out of the Gravity Garden and began to construct a stable ne passageway by using his own mana.

    Sunders¡¯ frown suggested that creating such a passage wasn¡¯t easy for him.

    Then, Sunders dragged Angor into the dark ce and whispered, ¡°Close your eyes and try to meditate now.¡±

    Unlikest time, Angor felt safe with his professor around. This passage had no noises and interferences. Soon, Angor entered the state of meditation.

    It took him quite some time toplete a session. When he reopened his eyes, he saw Sunders lost in thought not far from him.

    ¡°How¡¯s the training this time?¡± Sunders asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s not good, sir. There¡¯s little primal mana in the air, and I can only wait for the mana pool to regenerate on itself. This is a lot slower than meditating outside.¡±

    Sunders nodded and brought Angor out without saying anything.

    Sunders had been keeping his eye of the mana flow in the passage. The prima mana in there was extremely stagnant. It wouldn¡¯t move at all if Angor wasn¡¯t there to pull them. It was only natural that Angor couldn¡¯t meditate well.

    As a wizard, Sunders was sensitive to dimensional energy as well. He didn¡¯t feel anything triggered by Angor, which meant his previous assumption was incorrect.

    That left only one other exnation¡ªAngor¡¯s hastened meditation was caused by nightmare energy.

    ¡°Good for you. Once you gain enough experience, you don¡¯t have to actually go to Nightmare Realm to train faster. That ne passageway will do.¡± Sunders believed that the particr ne passageway would help Angor with his training just like using potions, if not better. People might develop tolerance after overdosing potions but probably not by using the energy inside a ne passageway.

    It was also good news for Sunders. They were both Nightmare Forms. Sunders ¡°discarded¡± some of his nightmare properties because of a reckless decision, but it was still possible for him to gain something from the ne passageway.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell anyone else about the vige, did you?¡± Sunders¡¯ expression turned serious.

    Angor shook his head. There was only Shadow who showed some interest in Pocratee, but Angor couldn¡¯t tell if that man would look for the ce.

    ¡°Good. And keep it a secret at all times. I¡¯ll find a time and look into itter,¡± Sunders said as he pointed at Angor. ¡°With you, of course.¡±

    Sunders had no problem dealing with the rainbow dragonflies. But at the same time, the insects were a form of natural protection that kept other intruders away from the vige. Sunders nned to explore the vige while keeping the dragonflies there, which meant he had to bring Angor along as he could keep the monsters in check.

    ¡°I understand.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°But, sir, I have to go home around the end of next year. You see, my former mentor¡ª¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t do it any time soon, so you can stick to your own ns. You decide when to get home. I already agreed before. If you wish to ask for my help to save your teacher, just bring him to me.¡±

    Angor slowly nodded even though he¡¯d never take Jon to Sunders and let someone find out that Jon was an illegal traveler from another world. He didn¡¯t know how to deal with Jon¡¯s condition yet, but he was confident he¡¯d make enough money to buy information soon.

    ¡°I think we¡¯ve talked what we should for today,¡± said Sunders. ¡°I need to rearrange my ns for theing years. You stay here for now. If you have any questions regarding your training, feel free to ask.¡±

    Angor was trying to ask something that had bothered him ever since he went on that strange journey when Sunders interrupted him.

    ¡°For alchemy-rted questions, Mithra allowed you into his library, right? Then you should go there. Read as many books as you can before the garden opens. Free knowledge.¡±

    Angor already thought about the same thing, but he never actually said it because it sounded so embarrassing.

    He calmed his mind and finally asked the particr question he always wanted to know, ¡°Professor, someone pushed me into the ne passageway back at Midnight Sovereign...¡±

    He already had a good assumption for it, but he¡¯d like to hear the answer from Sunders.

    ¡°It¡¯s Twilight.¡± Sunders didn¡¯t hesitate about this one. ¡°But she¡¯s not in Twilight Well at the moment and we don¡¯t know where she went. It¡¯s possible that she was still looking for you to finish her kill. If you want to get your revenge, get stronger.¡±

    In fact, the first thing Sunders did after Angor¡¯s incident was to look for Twilight to beat her to death. Sunders didn¡¯t actually kill her because Devildare was there asking for mercy.

    Sunders¡¯ fury was another reason for Twilight¡¯s disappearance, but the gentleman decided not to tell his student about it.

    ¡°I will.¡± Angor disyed a determined look. He managed to survive everything so far, but this didn¡¯t prevent him from resenting Twilight.

    He did break the rules of Twilight Auction before, and he already epted and paid for the punishment. A hundred thousand magic crystals were more than enough topensate for his mistake.

    Even so, Twilight attacked him again. Also, her intention was obvious. Anyone lost in a ne passageway was lost for eternity, both body and soul.

    He would never forget about Twilight¡¯s terrible deed.

    It took him some time to lock up the growing rage in his mind so that he could speak to his professor in a proper manner.

    ¡°Why are you here in Floating Mech City, professor?¡±

    ¡°Because of the purification garden, of course.¡± Sunders chuckled. ¡°I believe you came here for the very same reason.¡±

    ¡°But Diablo told me that something bad is going to happen?¡±

    ¡°There is... something. A great danger, even. But at the same time, you may find a great fortune.¡±

    Before Sunders could say anything else, his ears suddenly twitched a little, and he quickly pulled Angor out of the gravity garden.

    Next, Sunders spoke to Angor by using a Voice Transmission spell, ¡°Do not mention anything rted to Nightmare Realm or Nightmare Domain outside my garden. As for the purification garden... I¡¯ll talk to youter.¡±

    Something beeped outside the study.

    Sunders opened the door and revealed his Rune Monitor butler, Number One.

    ¡°Master, a guest is here.¡±

    ¡°I see. Leave us be for now.¡±

    There were a number of illusions deployed around the manor. Sunders already sensed that someone hade.

    ¡°Should I leave too, sir?¡± Angor asked in a small voice.

    ¡°No. Youe with me.¡±

    They both came to the guest room and saw someone already waiting. Angor checked the visitor and didn¡¯t recognize him. It was a strange-looking old man with really long eyebrows that reached his chest. He was dressed in an expensive-looking deep-blue wizard robe with lewisia flowers sewn on it, as well as a triangr-shaped wizard hat. Angor couldn¡¯t sense any energy ripples from him, but since Sunders addressed him in a careful way, he had to be someone important.

    ¡°I thought you¡¯d bring your student along, Kanter.¡± Sunders took the main seat, while Angor took a guest seat to the left after bowing to the visitor politely.

    ¡°¡®Eventide¡¯ Kanter, the current n master of Lilith¡¯s n,¡± Sunders told Angor through Voice Transmission.

 Chapter 457 - Soft Larva Egg

    <h4>Chapter 457: Soft Larva Egg</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Forget about her. She¡¯s got a really strange character,¡± Kanter said while his eyebrows flicked around, which looked quite funny. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure she won¡¯te if I tell her too much, so I left a note to tell her to look for me. Nothing else. She might show upter.¡±

    ¡°I see your student¡¯s still a burden on your mind.¡± Sunders chuckled.

    ¡°You tell me about it...¡±

    While they talked, Angor tried to search for anything he learned about Lilith¡¯s n. He already knew a lot about major organizations in the southern region but not so much about the rest. Lilith¡¯s n, however, was an exception. He once looked into this rtively smaller n before.

    Despite its size, Lilith¡¯s n was an all-inclusive organization that possessed just as muchbat power as most major ns.

    The n master was called ¡°Eventide¡±, a level-2 ¡°truth finder¡± wizard who would soon gain another level.

    Angor looked at the old man in front of him with great respect. This figure was just another famous wizard like Sunders.

    Kanter noticed Angor¡¯s gaze and returned a kind smile. He was interested in the boy who somehow made Sunders make an exception. Earlier, Kanter nned to bring Keely and visit Sunders once everything settled down. But when he realized that Sunders exceptionally valued Angor, he got a new idea.

    It was too difficult for Keely to make friends in the wizarding world thanks to her nature. Now that Angor was a valued student of Sunders, the boy was bound to develop considerable rtions with a number of people. Getting to know Angor earlier would benefit Keely much.

    Besides, Kanter also had high expectations about Angor¡¯s alchemy skills and his gentle character.

    Kanter sighed when thinking about his student. He was probably the only wizard in this world who actually worried about his student¡¯s personality.

    ¡°You must be Angor, right? I¡¯ve seen you in the newest magazine. To experience Mystery power at such a young age... You may well be a true master in theing years.¡±

    Kanter didn¡¯t believe what he read from the article at first. It was obvious that Bog didn¡¯t make Angor into a puppet, which meant at least half of what ¡°Stoney Granddaddy¡± said was fake. Butter, Mithra himself imed that the boy had an extremely promising talent for alchemy and that he might possibly create Mystery miracles in the future.

    Mithra had proved Angor¡¯s skills indirectly. Undoubtedly, there were already people who nned to take advantage of Angor¡¯s potential at this moment.

    ¡°You tter me, Mister Kanter.¡± Angor disyed his usual manner.

    Kanter took out a small box with a smile. ¡°It isn¡¯t easy to meet with a future master alchemist. Here, a gift to celebrate our pleasant encounter.¡±

    Kanter ced the box on a desk nearby, but Angor wasn¡¯t sure what to do. To him, Kanter¡¯s words had another meaning hidden behind¡ªWhen you actually be a master alchemist one day, I¡¯lle and get the payment for my gift.

    Kanter was putting his bet on Angor¡¯s future without knowing the result for certain.

    Angor didn¡¯t know whether he should ept the gesture. Asmon sense, he, as a youngster, should not openly deny an elder¡¯s offer without a good reason. But at the same time, he feared that epting it would bring him troubles with which he couldn¡¯t bear.

    Angor threw a concealed nce at Sunders who then picked up the small box and scanned it.

    ¡°The egg of a Soft Larva. Pretty good. But we¡¯re yet to see if it grows up properly. Mister Kanter, you¡¯ll need more than this to buy the ¡®future¡¯ favor of an alchemist. Besides, you don¡¯t need to wait for the future.¡± Sunders pointed to Angor¡¯s wrist. ¡°The items he created today are already attractive enough to even some of the most famed wizards. Maybe you should elevate your price?¡±

    Kanter also checked the bracelet on Angor¡¯s wrist.

    ¡°It¡¯s more than a space bracelet. Angor, show the old man your trick,¡± said Sunders.

    Angor nodded and quickly activated Infinite Reticence. Kanter was sure that he would have lost trace of Angor¡¯s presence if he had not kept his eyes on the boy.

    ¡°Weakening the sense of presence to achieve invisibility?¡± Kanter widened his eyes a little. Conventional invisibility spells could be countered using sight-enhance spells. However, Angor¡¯s ability could trick most of such detection means. This could be regarded as one of the most efficient hiding skills apart from Dimension Cloak.

    ¡°You created this?¡± Kanter looked at Angor in the eyes.

    Angor nodded.

    Kanter then began to reevaluate what he thought of Angor. The boy could already create items helpful to wizards. It was true that he couldn¡¯t earn a promise by using something with uncertain results.

    With this in mind, Kanter took out another box that was bigger than thest one.

    ¡°You can have this too. I scavenged the nest as well when I found the egg. The egg will hatch better when the nest is close to it. Thisrva nest is also a treasured material suitable in crafting space-rted items. Is this enough now?¡± While speaking, Kanter was looking at Sunders instead of Angor.

    ¡°This is quite sufficient, so I suggest you ept the offer.¡± Sunders finally nodded to Angor.

    Angor chose to agree. He was still at a loss at what a ¡°Soft Larva¡± was, but since Sunder said yes, it had to be something good.

    Kanter watched as Angor ced the gift inside the space bracelet with a gentler look. As the n master, Kanter just brought Angor into their socialwork. From now on, Lilith¡¯s n would consider Angor as a potential ally. As for how much the n would provide Angor... that would depend on what they could receive from the boy first.

    Sunders and Kanter spent another ten minutes talking about insignificant things when Kanter suddenly looked toward the window.

    ¡°Finally... my student hase.¡±

    It was about five in the afternoon. The outside was pretty dark since the sky was troubled by thick clouds and constant drizzle. The view wasn¡¯t as obscured as night, but close.

    Angor saw a tiny light spot approaching the house.

    He wondered if someone was going this way with a Light spell in use, but then he noticed the figure was simply using an oilmp with a nice design, which gave out bright orange firelight.

    Themp wasn¡¯t being carried by hand. Instead, it was fixed at the tip of a flying broomstick. The tip was bent a little to ensure themp wouldn¡¯t drift off.

    The broomstick was clearly a flying vehicle. Angor saw many witches in Brute Cavern who loved riding these things. Perhaps they believed the thin stick allowed them to show off their bodies?

    It was a young woman in deep-blue overall dress on the broomstick. She had a bright-red bowknot on her head and red dance shoes. Angor couldn¡¯t see her face well across the distance, but he did find her colors to be... atypical.

    Also, there was a ck kitten sitting on top of themp; it drew Angor¡¯s attention.

    Rain, clouds, wind, a brightmp in the dark, a bizarre-looking broomstick, ady in red dancer shoes apanied by a ck cat.

    Such fanciful sight was what Angor saw.

    Thedy moved around for a while, and when she saw Kanter in Sunders¡¯ manor, she descended from the sky.

    ¡°Professor,¡± she said as she leaped into the manor through the opened window while carrying themp in one hand and her broom in the other. The cat swiftlynded on the floor and settled down beside her feet.

    ¡°This is the student I epted the other year, Keely Lordran Lilith,¡± said Kanter. The old man was mainly introducing the woman to Angor.

    Those who joined Lilith¡¯s n would all get a new family name, while their original family names would be their middle names instead.

    Keely nced at Angor. She quickly realized what was going on and prepared to leave.

    Kanter¡¯s expression turned harsh. ¡°Learn some manners, Keely. How dare you enter Mister Phantom¡¯s residence by the window. And you should at least greet him!¡±

    Keely froze up upon hearing Sunders¡¯ name. She might act freely and willful in front of her teacher, but she certainly couldn¡¯t when Sunders was around.

    She moved back somewhat unwillingly and said hello to Sunders with her eyes fixed on the floor.

    Sunders, as a traditional nobleman who always followed the creed of his family, felt irritated at the impolite visitor. However, he didn¡¯t say it in front of his old friend.

    Keely sat down beside Kanter, still looking at her feet.

    Angor tried to take a better look at the woman. Her young and delicate face went well with that giant bow on her head. Judging from her previous behaviors, Angor believed this was another young girl with little selfposure. Still, she seemed timid when dealing with strangers.

 Chapter 458 - Keely The Friendless

    <h4>Chapter 458: Keely The Friendless</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As Angor looked at the woman mixed with two opposite personalities up and down, Keely also gave Angor an irritated re.

    <i>Did she just hiss at me? </i>Angor thought.

    Kanter noticed Keely¡¯s reaction and sighed. ¡°Forgive her. She¡¯s been through some unpleasant events during her childhood¡ª¡±

    ¡°Professor!¡± Keely interrupted the old man, clearly discontent.

    ¡°Okay okay, I¡¯ll not say it. Just so you know, you have to deal with the problems sooner orter.¡±

    Even though Kanter was her teacher, Angor was surprised to see Keely bold enough to yell at a renowned wizard like this.

    More surprisingly, Kanter actually gave up!

    Angor wondered if Keely was Kanter¡¯s family. Otherwise, the woman did a really poor job at learning proper manners.

    Next, Kanter took the initiative to introduce Angor to his student; Angor nodded toward Keely politely.

    Keely kept her head lowered in silence.

    Kanter gave Angor an apologetic smile and began to introduce Keely instead.

    She was 16, the same age as Angor. Keely entered the wizarding world a lot earlier. She had been training for 7 years and was now a level-2 Elementalist apprentice who majored in fire elements. Her talent allowed her to wield a very special me called Inferno.

    Keely kept her cold look as if she really wanted to stop her teacher from revealing her background.

    Kanter¡¯s n was to ask the kids to befriend each other. However, Sunders would never agree if Keely acted too terribly, so the old man simply used his might as a wizard to prevent Keely from doing anything.

    Sunders chuckled and shook his head.

    ¡°She¡¯s a little unmanageable. Please don¡¯t me her, old friend.¡± Kanter sent a voice transmission to Sunders.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. You shouldn¡¯t be asking me anyway.¡±

    They both knew what the meeting was all about. Kanter looked at Angor next.

    Angor had been keeping his expression neutral. He didn¡¯t really care about Keely¡¯s improper attitude. He couldn¡¯t judge whether Keely¡¯s character was good or bad as of now. However, he still disliked how Keely openly disregarded her demeanor when visiting Sunders¡¯ personal residence.

    ¡°She witnessed the death of her parents at Rambo Ind. Since then, she became reclusive and would not speak to anyone apart from me. I tried looking for a cure from many wizards and nothing worked well. Then I took her to ¡®Miniature Creator¡¯.¡±

    Since Keely didn¡¯t want anyone to talk about her story, Kanter used a sound transmission to talk with Sunders and Angor both.

    ¡°¡®Miniature Creator¡¯ Dumartin Bayer?¡± Sunders asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s him.¡±

    Angor heard about this name before. Dumartin was a wizard of Brute Cavern who was best known for his cruel experiments during which he extracted people¡¯s brains. The questing hall always ced Dumartin¡¯s quests on the top of the list because they were very rewarding, yet no one dared to ept them¡ªpeople had no use of reward when they no longer had brains.

    ¡°Dumartin did a test on her brain and found abnormal presynaptic membranes near her cerebral cortex, which might be the reason for her condition. She could no longer control herself.¡± Kanter shook his head in sadness. ¡°ording to Dumartin, this brain disease cannot be removed by mental treatment. She had to step out of her own shadow somehow.

    ¡°But... you see, she regards anyone but me as enemies and outsiders.¡±

    Angor slowly nodded. It sounded something like autism. Kanter already did a good job as a teacher since Keely at least knew how to fear powerful wizards. Typical autism victims would disregard this as well.

    His negative ideas about Keely lifted just a little.

    ¡°Keely Lordran Lilith...¡± Sunders muttered. ¡°Fifty years ago, you introduced another of your student to Flora. Her name was ¡®Lordran¡¯ if I remember right. Was she Keely¡¯s family?¡±

    Kanter looked down and nodded. ¡°Yes. That was Heidi Lordran, Keely¡¯s mother. Ten years ago, she and her husband, Cheri, were murdered by Flunza at Rambo Ind. Young Keely was there.¡±

    ¡°¡®God of Seas¡¯ Flunza? I¡¯m afraid the youngdy will have a difficult time seeking revenge.¡± Sunders didn¡¯t seem interested in Keely¡¯s past experience at all.

    Flunza was a ¡°truth finder¡± wizard from Song of the Deep. He rarely stepped onto drynd to show his power, but people believed that his talent for manipting water was among the best of the best.

    ¡°Song of the Deep, yes...¡± Kanter repeated that name. Lilith¡¯s n had many powerful fighters, but that was far from enough for them to go against Song of the Deep.

    Kanter removed his woeful expression and looked at Angor with a smile. ¡°Keely isn¡¯t born like this, Angor. She¡¯s a very kind girl. I hope you understand.¡±

    Angor had no idea what the whole matter had to do with him, but he still nodded, just to be polite.

    Since Keely wasn¡¯t invited to their private talk, she soon noticed what was going on¡ªespecially when Angor¡¯s mana ripples were clear to observe¡ªand gave Angor an angry re again.

    Kanter put a hand on Keely¡¯s hair. ¡°Angor is a brilliant alchemist, and I¡¯m discussing something with him. Don¡¯t take it wrong.¡±

    Keely looked at the floor again, causing the room to be awkwardly silent.

    Sunders didn¡¯t intend to join their talk, and Angor didn¡¯t know what to say either. It was Kanter who was responsible to break the embarrassment again. ¡°You¡¯ll enter the purification garden, right?¡±

    Angor knew something strange was going to happen during the event, but he didn¡¯t know the details. However, since Sunders personally came here and told him that a great destiny was waiting within the garden, he decided to go.

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± He nodded.

    ¡°Good. So will Keely. I hope you two can watch each other¡¯s back.¡±

    By this, Kanter mostly meant to ask Keely to look after Angor. He believed Angor mainly studied alchemy without paying much effort to sharpen his strength, while Keely was 100% an attacker who was good at burning things up. Naturally, Keely was better atbat.

    Keely moaned in protest.

    Kanter quickly sent her a voice transmission.

    ¡°Angor already agreed to help me make something. I paid him in advance. You don¡¯t want to see this poor old man have his order wasted because Angor goes dead too soon, em?¡±

    Keely gazed at Kanter to see if her professor was telling the truth.

    Kanter asked Angor to show them the gift from earlier. Angor didn¡¯t know what was going on, but he stillplied.

    Keely looked at the two boxes and finally nodded. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll keep him alive in the garden.¡±

    <i>Wait.</i> Angor felt at a loss again. <i>Shouldn¡¯t it be ¡°look after each other¡±?</i>

    Kanter was pleased with Keely¡¯s answer. She always kept her promise once she said something. Kanter hoped that Angor would slowly be fond of Keely after the teamwork.

    Sunders didn¡¯t forget to tease his student. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be happy to see youe back alive under someone¡¯s protection.¡±

    Angor only gave his dear professor a meaningful nce.

    ¡°That¡¯s settled then. It¡¯s gettingte; we¡¯ll not upy more of your time,¡± said Kanter after he received several more res from Keely who wanted to leave badly. ¡°We¡¯re staying at Lilith¡¯s ce for now. Feel free to drop by,¡± Kanter said to Angor.

    Angor nodded again; he then watched the strange pair flying away in the rain.

    Again, Keely¡¯s bright dance shoes and her kitten created a romantic scene under the gloomy sky.

    Beautiful, yet distant.

    ...

    It was just past midnight. Apart from the patrolling Rune Monitors, the entire Floating Mech City had gone quiet.

    A bright fire beam suddenly swept past the starry sky andnded inside a garden in the suburban area.

    Sunders was preparing ns for examining Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain and soul conditionter. Also, he wanted to look into the secret art Angor learned from Isabelle.

    He suddenly looked up at the window in his room.

    ...

    Angor was now having a pleasant rest on his bed. When inside Bog¡¯s base, he was always too stressed to sleep. Now that he no longer had to worry about his safety, he decided to rx as much as he could.

    Before going to sleep, however, he was going to check the two boxes he obtained from Kanter.

 Chapter 459 - Unwelcome Visitor

    <h4>Chapter 459: Unwee Visitor</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor already learned something about a Soft Larva egg from Sunders.

    A ¡°Soft Larva¡± was a particr monster worm natural to Abyss ne. These worms obeyed a strict social ss system. They weren¡¯t very powerful in terms of strength, so they were mostly used as alchemy material and test subjects by wizards.

    A Soft Larva was potentially valuable because of the presence of Mutation Larva among them, which facilitated a certain cantrip called Transform.

    The time and effort required to study a real spell and a ¡°cantrip¡± were vastly different. To master a spell, a wizard might need many centuries, while a cantrip only asked for several months, as long as someone¡¯s talent didn¡¯t go against it.

    However, there was one exception among cantrips¡ªTransform. It wasmonly believed that Transform was asplicated to study as real spells.

    This cantrip was used for changing someone¡¯s appearance. The user could either turn as small as an insect or be as big as a giant. But it only affected appearance. The user would not receive any changes in strength.

    There were two ways to use Transform. One was to study the cantrip by normal means, which was the ¡°hard¡± way. Whoever wished to go through this had to gain knowledge about biological structures, imitation, mana control, anatomy, precise scheduling, and nearly a hundred more subjects. It would take apprentices their entire lives to gain enough expertise.

    The second method was to ¡°cheat¡± one¡¯s way around it by using the skin of a Mutation Larva.

    This way, a user only needed to cast the cantrip model to transform his or her body. Therva¡¯s skin would take care of everything else.

    Due to such convenience, most wizards would use the second method to cast Transform, which quickly brought a drastic decrease in the poption of Mutation Larvae.

    Theservae were already scarce. After being hunted down for thousands of years, they almost went extinct in the wizarding world. Even the most renowned auctions had not provided them in recent years.

    The ¡°Soft Larva egg¡± Angor received from Kanter was a little different from Mutation Larva.

    Soft Larvae all had one singlemanding presence like how ants worked, while Mutation Larva was only one type of them. It was yet unclear whether Kanter¡¯s worm egg could be a Mutation Larva.

    Even so, a Soft Larva was already costly among wizards.

    The current question was whether Angor could hatch the egg at all.

    He thought about it and ced the egg inside the worm nest, which was the second gift he obtained from Kanter. Angor had no idea how to help the egg hatch, but he believed the nest could do something about it.

    Once the egg was kept safe, he prepared to keep the nest in his bracelet.

    Something suddenly clicked outside the room. Angor looked around and saw the room window shaking against the wild wind. The rain outside had be heavier.

    Creak!

    The window bolt gave in and snapped, causing raindrops to enter the room.

    Angor¡¯s bed was ced not far from the window. His legs were soon wet from the rain. He ced the worm nest down and went to close the window again.

    Before he could, he saw a pair of green spots shining in the dark just outside the window.

    Next, a shadow appeared on the balcony.

    Angor couldn¡¯t recognize the shadow under the curtain of night, but those bright red dancing shoes and a giant bowknot all suggested who hade.

    ¡°Keely?¡± Angor frowned and called.

    The shadow made a flip and swiftlynded inside the room.

    It was Keely, who was still wearing the same getup. The light spots Angor saw earlier were actually the eyes of her ck cat.

    Her hair waspletely drenched by rainwater, which stuck tightly on her forehead.

    ¡°Do you need anything?¡± Angor frowned again. He felt troubled by Keely¡¯s sudden visit as well as the improper entrance, but when thinking about her professor, he still tried to be polite.

    Keely kept her indifferent stare at Angor as if she were trying to remember thest detail of Angor¡¯s face. She finally spoke when Angor almost lost his patience.

    ¡°Luna has remembered your pheromone. I¡¯lle to you once we enter the purification garden. Don¡¯t run too far,¡± Keely said in her gravelly and cold voice with her cat in her arms.

    ¡°Luna... you mean... ¡± Angor pointed at the kitten.

    ¡°Yes. Also, know your ce. Stay away and don¡¯t bother me or my professor before the garden opens. Otherwise... I¡¯ll end your life.¡± Her expression abruptly turned cruel.

    Angor couldn¡¯t take it and also showed a fierce look. The woman made the whole matter look as if he were begging for help. Yet in fact, they didn¡¯t even know each other until today. Besides, Angor never nned to get involved with Lilith¡¯s n or Kanter.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to visit you anyway,¡± Angor said as he dropped his usual manners. ¡°I see we both agreed on something, and we might as well keep it that way after the garden event as well. I mean, I¡¯ll not go bother you, and you will note to me. Let¡¯s stay clear of each other¡¯s way.¡±

    It was true that Angor felt greatly offended, but he still used rtively polite words in front of ady.

    ¡°Good. As for the garden, just listen to my orders.¡±

    Keely turned away. Before leaving, she nced at the worm nest sitting on Angor¡¯s bed.

    ¡°Do not fail my teacher¡¯s alchemy request; otherwise, you¡¯ll face the consequences.¡±

    The woman leaped onto her broom and entered the rainy night again.

    Angor didn¡¯t know whether he should scoff orugh at the weird encounter. Also...

    <i>Did Kanter ask me to make stuff? When?</i>

    When Keely had left, Angor ced several illusion nodes around his window just in case. He never had such intruders in Bog¡¯s base, and he wasn¡¯t expecting one at his teacher¡¯s house.

    Also, it was clear that Sunders allowed Keely to go inside.

    ...

    Sunders called Angor the next morning.

    The gentleman said nothing about Keely¡¯s visitst night. He only took Angor into the Gravity Garden again. This time, theynded on a small slope instead of the outdoor library.

    There was only white mist around that blocked their view.

    ¡°Show me your Nightmare Domain and attack me. I need to see how much you achieved in thest half year.¡± Sunders lifted his cane and pointed it at Angor.

    Angor nodded. He quickly expanded his Nightmare Domain of a luxurious castle and swallowed Sunders inside.

    He gained extensive knowledge about how to wield his Nightmare Domain after reading <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>, such as mixing different nightmare illusions with all sorts of tactics. He nned to use his strongest moves to beat his professor.

    Of course, nothing worked. At all.

    Angor expected much. He only wished he could receive some more advice from Sunders.

    The gentleman remained still for a while to inspect Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain.

    ¡°It has grown, but there¡¯s almost nothing new in it.¡±

    Everything shown by Angor came from <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>. The only thing worth noticing was how Angor learned how to block someone¡¯s senses, which could achieve many interesting effects such as muting someone or arousing the victim¡¯s desires.

    Apart from this, Angor only recreated the tactics taught by the book. It didn¡¯t mean Angor did a poor job, but he might need some more creativity.

    Of course, considering how much time Angor spent in the wizarding world, he already mastered different skills at an amazing speed, even more so than the other two students of Sunders. But at the same time, Sunders had higher hopes for Angor.

    Which meant Sunders would get harsher about Angor¡¯s training.

    ¡°Nheless, you should read <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i> as carefully as you can. But I wish you can also create your own path before turning a wizard. Those who only know how to follow books can never find the truth.¡±

    Angor nodded. He fully knew what those words meant.

    After the small test, Sunders brought Angor to another spot in the gravity garden. It was the b room¡± ording to Sunders.

    A good number of equipment and devices scattered about. Angor managed to recognize some of them since these had something to do with alchemy as well.

    Labs weren¡¯t only for alchemists. Almost every wizard had his or her own ce formencing research. Spells, magic theories... Almost everything required trial and error.

    A personalboratory was a critical facility for wizards. There might be wizards who didn¡¯t need a home, but they still needed theirbs.

    Sunders took out a ss chamberrge enough to contain a human and asked Angor to go inside.

    Next, he injected nutrient fluid, which was vital for keeping a body alive, into the ss chamber as he demanded Angor to eject his soul.

 Chapter 460 - Promoted Garden

    <h4>Chapter 460: Promoted Garden</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders was interested in Spirit Mantra. He asked Angor to keep reciting those notes while he kept a note of the condition of Angor¡¯s soul.

    A momentter, Angor¡¯s soul floated to Sunders.

    ¡°Spirit Mantra is apletely different supernatural ability,¡± Sunders said after doing multiple tests. ¡°The ¡®Kirigakure¡¯ mentioned by Isabelle must be another supernatural being as powerful as wizards.¡±

    Wizards could travel through different worlds and nes freely because their strength depended on their knowledge, experience, and how much ¡°truth¡± they discovered. Therefore, being in a foreign ne would not hinder their power and skills.

    This test suggested that the Spirit Mantra used by ¡°Kirigakure¡± was also such a power unaffected by the world¡¯s consciousness. However, there was no way for Sunders to learn anything about this skill as of now.

    ¡°I can¡¯t do anything by repeating those notes, which means Spirit Mantra required different factors to work on different individuals, just like how yours was ¡®customized¡¯ by Isabelle. The ¡®Kirigakure¡¯ should possess a certain form or code that is used to discover the right mantra notes for people.¡±

    Sunders looked excited. This was the first time he saw such amazing skill. He really wanted to find out the root of it.

    Origin World, Augustin¡¯s Duality Mirror, Spirit Mantra, Kirigakure... Both Sunders and Angor knew that there were countless more mysteries to be found out there.

    ¡°It seems it¡¯s high time for me to set up ns for Origin World too...¡± Sunders muttered and looked at Angor again.

    Angor¡¯s soul looked more solid now; there was almost no impurity.

    The ritual inside Soul Genesis Garden condensed Angor¡¯s gravity energy into one small spot. Later, with Isabelle¡¯s help, the core of the strength was fortified further, which allowed Angor to unleash gravity power briefly.

    Doing so still cost soul energy, but such energy would slowly recover with the passage of time as long as Angor didn¡¯t overdo it. Also, Angor received the manual for soul training from Isabelle. Now, the gravity power was no longer a double-edged sword for Angor. He was free to use it as necessary.

    For now, Angor didn¡¯t know much about the power yet. Sunders did some other tests and concluded that the sequence of gravity, which could usuallypete with wizard-level spells, could only disy potency simr to level-2 or weaker level-3 cantrips in the hands of Angor.

    Angor needed a lot of practice before he could unleash the true potential of a naturalw.

    Sunders gave him several pieces of advice regarding such practice. Even so, Angor mostly had to rely on himself.

    It was almost high noon when everything was done.

    They left the garden and had lunch in the dining hall. Number One provided ordinary dishes that tasted pretty good. Both gentlemen, a young and an old, kept their table manners and remained silent during their meal until Angor decided to speak up when dessert was served.

    ¡°Professor, whatever happened to the purification garden?¡± Angor thought about the unpleasant visit of Keely. ¡°Keely said she¡¯d protect me inside the garden. Does it mean there will be fights?¡±

    Sunders considered his words.

    ¡°It¡¯s...plicated.¡±

    ¡°How so?¡±

    ¡°What you said is almost correct. Yes, there will be fights. Large-scale battles that involve groups of people. I was going to arrange some info and tell youter, but since you asked... guess I¡¯ll tell it now.

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to exin using words. Take a look at this.¡±

    Sunders deployed several illusion nodes around Angor and simted the confidential conference he joined in the machine tower the day before yesterday. However, he only showed what Angor was supposed to see.

    Angor was a little startled when he saw that his dining table became something different.

    It was a giant, round conference hall with a great number of seats arranged in a circr manner. Those sitting in the seats could clearly see a single stand in the center of the hall. Currently, there was a young man in ck robe speaking on the stand. Angor quickly recognized him¡ªit was the same individual who stopped Bog¡¯s ambush in front of Elixir Hut.

    Sunders already told him who this was. ¡°Neo Beast¡± Lawson, one of the two city masters of Floating Mech City. Lawson managed the main city district.

    Usually, such important conferences should be managed by the other city master, ¡°The Fool¡± Muse. However, Muse was an academician who disliked such meetings. By rules, Muse should take care of business at the lower side of the city, but he never did much work at it. It was his affiliate wizards who kept the lower side running at all times, while Muse spent most of his time in the research department. The manufacture of most products in the city was administered by Muse. For example, the All-Inclusive Illuminator used by Ness to examine Angor¡¯s soul was also Muse¡¯s creation.

    Muse was the ¡°brain¡± of Floating Mech City, while Lawson was the general. Lawson chose to step up this time because he could do a better job keeping the other visiting wizards in check.

    Centered around him, the seats were upied by wizards from various organizations.

    This was the first time for Angor to see so many wizards gathered together. A quick look suggested there were at least 300 wizards in sight. Angor wondered how many organizations sent people here.

    The faces of the wizards were all covered by faint smoke. Only a few of them had their faces exposed, including Sunders and Kanter, who sat in the front row.

    Sunders allowed Angor some time to look around carefully. When Angor looked at Lawson again, Sunders finally triggered the actions inside the illusion.

    ¡°The promotion for purification garden is imminent. We called you here,dies and gentlemen, to discuss this matter,¡± Lawson¡¯s robotic voice was clearly heard across the conference hall.

    <i>Garden promotion?</i>

    Angor knew that Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens came at different levels. Level 1-3 were seen as low levels, 4-6 were mid levels, and 7-9 were high.

    These levels indicated how much effect a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden could have on wizards.

    Low-level gardens worked well for apprentices but not so much to wizards. As a garden gained more levels, its effects began to benefit wizards more. A high-level garden was valuable to truth-finder wizards or legendary wizards. There was also a rumor that suggested the existence of even better Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens, but that wasn¡¯t something one could find in the southern wizarding region.

    For example, Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden could provide a gravity of 3.17 times at its initial state. ording to calctions, the center of the garden would have its gravity increased to 93 times when the gravityw fully matured.

    A Bloodline apprentice could undergo decent ¡°baptism¡± under the gravity of x10, while Bloodline Art wizards needed 30-100 times of gravity. Something beyond this would constantly help level-2 wizards in their training.

    Currently, Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden was level-4.

    From the avable information, Angor knew that the purification garden was a low-level one, probably level-3. It only worked for level-2 apprentices and someone weaker. Level-3 apprentices and beyond almost had no use for it, which was the reason why there was no level-3 apprentice who actually came.

    However, Lawson just said that the garden was going to improve...

    <i>Does this mean that the purification garden will be a mid-level one? That will make it something worthwhile for formal wizards!</i>

    Lawson continued his exnation, ¡°As you all know, the garden is currently a low-level one. Precisely speaking, it¡¯s just below level-4. Now, it has stored enough energy to experience a level up. ording to Muse¡¯s deductions, we only need a little boost for the garden to gain a level.¡±

    Lawson looked around the participants. No one reacted.

    Whatever happened, the purification garden stayed as the property of Floating Mech City. The improvement had little to do with the outsiders.

    ¡°The Floating Mech City invited everyone here because the incident will concern you... as well as your apprentices who are going to enter the garden,¡± said Lawson.

    ¡°Care to exin?¡± someone asked out aloud.

    ¡°You¡¯ll see soon enough. I said the garden promotion involves you all because of one certain decision made by me and Muse together. Once our garden bes a mid-level purification garden, the Floating Mech City will provide two extra invitations to each of the organizations every time it bes active.¡±

    Now that the other wizards could get something out of it, they finally began to whisper among each other and show great interest.

    ¡°What do we have to do to receive the invitations?¡± someone asked. ¡°Mister Neo Beast, you said something concerning the participants¡ªour apprentices, right?¡±

    Lawson looked at the speaker. ¡°Now this is why I mentioned we need a ¡®boost¡¯. Please look at this contract I drafted, and you¡¯ll know the reason.¡±

    Lawson waved a hand; a number of Rune Monitors appeared and dropped a scroll in front of each wizard.

    ¡°Sign your name on the contract and your organization will hereby enjoy the extra invitations, which will allow you or your people to utilize a mid-level purification garden in the future.¡±

    Lawson emphasized the word ¡°mid-level¡± because it meant such a garden was powerful enough to aid wizards.

 Chapter 461 - The Vicious Reality

    <h4>Chapter 461: The Vicious Reality</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor moved closer to a wizard to check what was written on the contract.

    And he immediately felt his back drenched in cold sweat.

    The entire contract was a heartless agreement that could be summarized by two simple words, which happened to be the ¡°boost¡± mentioned by Lawson.

    Blood sacrifice.

    It was like how Sunders herded a group of phantom beasts into the construction site of the gravity garden. Once the garden was made, these beasts used their blood and flesh as part of the building materials.

    The same thing would happen again in the purification garden.

    By absorbing enough body tissues of supernaturals with different properties, the garden would gain an increase in quality that would help it to advance into the next level.

    The agreement did not say how many people had to sacrifice, but it did mention an estimated proportion¡ª90% of the participants would die.

    Nine out of ten of those who entered the garden would lose their lives.

    The ¡°deathmatch in the nine chambers¡± used by Sunders to recruit talents sounded just as brutal as this one, but the purification garden would kill a lot more people this time.

    The Floating Mech City required the participants to reach the top level of any Sky Tower. There were countless such towers deployed by Floating Mech City all over the continent, which had existed for over a thousand years. There would be incalcble people who met the criteria.

    Even if they excluded unqualified people who were dead, too old, or those stronger than level-3 apprentices who wouldn¡¯te at all, Angor believed that there should at least be ten thousand participants. At least.

    By saying a ¡°boost¡±, Lawson meant to ce the lives of over ten thousand apprentices into a meat grinding machine.

    Angor looked around, only to see every wizard in the conference room including Lawson showing apletely indifferent attitude about the matter. Not a single one of them regarded the decision to be improper. Some of them were talking to each other using private sound transmissions; Angor was sure those people were discussing how to maximize their profit instead of how to protect the apprentices.

    The room was in silence for a while.

    People waited for a long time before someone decided to speak up. It was ¡°Eventide¡± Kanter.

    Kanter represented Lilith¡¯s n, a powerful organization that had a limited number of hands. To them, having too many apprentices dead would mean great trouble.

    As Angor recalled, Kanter only brought one apprentice to the garden this time¡ªKeely.

    Kanter seemed fond of his student too. It was totally expected that the old man would protest.

    ¡°Sacrificing 90% apprentices is a heavy blow to us minor organizations. I question the coherence of the agreement.¡±

    The other talking wizards all quieted down and fixed their attention on Kanter and Lawson.

    Kanter, Sunders, and Lawson were the three most powerful wizards on the scene. They were all level-2 ¡°truth finder¡± wizards. Lawson spoke for Floating Mech City, while Sunders and Kanter represented the other participants in a sense. No one sounded their opinion at Kanter¡¯s words since they were also concerned about the matter.

    ¡°I know what you want to say, Mister Kanter. I believe you all agree that your organizations differ ording to their scales. Major organizations tend to produce... unworthy apprentices, while smaller ones can focus their resources and give birth to elites,¡± Lawson said while scanning around the room of wizards. ¡°The sacrifice process means to eliminate ¡®unworthy¡¯ ones, while the real elites will receive great benefit. Unimaginable benefit, even.

    ¡°So, Mister Kanter, do you believe your own apprentice can¡¯t afford to take part? As I heard, Lilith¡¯s n provides better training and educationpared to most major organizations.¡±

    Kanter stroked his beard. ¡°Of course I believe in my student. I¡¯m only trying to see if the reward equals the risk. To us, every single apprentice stands for our future. I cannot give them up without a good reason.¡±

    ¡°Mister Eventide is quite right,¡± said another wizard who sought to agree with Kanter. ¡°In a general sense, killing so many is devastating to the poption of apprentices. How much ¡®benefit¡¯ are you talking about for us to willingly take the risk?¡±

    In fact, most wizards in the conference room came from smaller organizations. Even this was an overstatement¡ªsome of them were wizarding families, at best.

    People began to argue again.

    Angor clearly knew that no one would speak for the sake of their apprentices. And even now, people were still trying to gain out of the ughterhouse rather than protesting. They simply saw a chance to get more profit now that Kanter raised the issue for them.

    Lawson cleared his throat. ¡°As I said, only the unworthy ones will die, while the stronger apprentices will survive. To the survivors goes our sincerest reward.¡±

    ¡°What kind of reward?¡± asked Kanter.

    ¡°Thew of purification will reveal its core to the fullest when the garden is gaining a level. No doubt that those apprentices you value most will be able to gain great insight into the power of thew. Anyone who manages toprehend the sequence of purification will attain true strength in one step. And if they cannot, being inside the aura of purification will greatly increase their chance of bing wizards.¡±

    To learn the sequence of purification was something even the wizards would pursue, but at the same time, they knew that such a feat was almost impossible to achieve. Maybe there could be one lucky individual among all the apprentices. However, it was also true that entering the garden in such a situation was already a good opportunity for people to strengthen themselves. Well, as long as they stayed alive...

    ¡°Certainly none of you wish to shield your students within well-protected fences forever, right? Cruelty and death are always the main trends for wizards.¡±

    Lawson kept using words to stir up the minds of others, but everyone who came to the conference was wise enough to see the trick of words Lawson was pulling. Even Angor understood that what Lawson suggested was wed. It was true that wizards couldn¡¯t avoid killing and dying, but the blood sacrifice was brought upon unwary apprentices against their will. In other words, the participants were expendable pawns. They wouldn¡¯t ever enjoy the ¡°trend¡± of this world.

    ¡°Also, you¡¯re free to tell the n to your valued students. As for the weaklings... I hope you can keep the information from them,¡± Lawson added.

    Kanter chose to agree, either because what Lawson promised was tempting enough, or he was really confident in Keely.

    ¡°Any questions? If not, please sign your names,¡± Lawson urged again.

    The wizards already made up their minds to ept the n from the start. They had not signed the contract because Kanter only mentioned the gains of apprentices, yet what these wizards could earn out of the garden sacrifice was still unknown.

    Next, people all looked at Sunders. They wondered what kind of opinion would be provided by the strongest being who was also a visitor to the city.

    Lawson was staring at Sunders as well. What the gentleman had to say next would determine their final profit distribution.

    Sunders had been keeping his eyes shut while pretending that he wasn¡¯t interested in the discussion. Now that Lawson addressed him, he finally said two words¡ª¡±No objections.¡±

    Lawson sighed in relief.

    Angor wasn¡¯t surprised to see Sunders¡¯ decision at all. His professor was thest one to care about the lives of irrelevant people.

    ¡°But, as we all came from groups of different sizes, giving two fixed invitations to every organization isn¡¯t... impartial, torge-scale ns.¡±

    When absorbing the power of aw, wizards consumed much more powerpared to apprentices. This was why Floating Mech City didn¡¯t allow too many wizards to go inside the garden.

    But as Sunders said, giving the same number of invitations to bothrge and smaller organizations was just unfair.

    ¡°We can talk about it,¡± Lawson said; he didn¡¯t seem troubled by the opposition.

    Next, the wizards spent an entire day negotiating.

    Sunders sped up this part to allow Angor to see the final result. In the end, Lawson agreed to distribute 10 or more invitations to major organizations and 4 or more to moderate ones. As for the rest... they needed further discussionter.

    The illusion ended here. Angor found himself sitting in front of the dining table again.

    He still had his knife and fork in hand, while the cheesecake in his te tickled his nose with its pleasant aroma.

    ¡°Do you understand what happened?¡± Sunders didn¡¯t have dessert. He was sipping some hot tea.

    ¡°Can¡¯t they use other animals instead?¡±

    ¡°Does it matter?¡±

    Angor lowered his head. In the eyes of wizards, there was no difference whether they were using a human or an animal as a sacrifice.

    Sunders expected the boy to sulk over the merciless truth. He was surprised to see Angor getting over it soon.

    After experiencing all kinds of incidents and dangers, Angor alreadyprehended how this world ran. He was slowly blending in.

 Chapter 462 - Ways of Attacking

    <h4>Chapter 462: Ways of Attacking</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°So, do I just fight people in the garden and see whoes out in the end?¡± Angor put down his fork and looked at Sunders.

    ¡°Lawson didn¡¯t say anything about the rules yet but should be close to what you said,¡± Sunders held his chin while speaking. ¡°Are you afraid? You can always quit if you wish to.¡±

    Angor shook his head firmly. ¡°No. I¡¯ll join them and win.¡±

    He didn¡¯t really care whether he was afraid or not. Since he learned that the garden could provide him a great chance of bing a wizard, he had to ept the challenge.

    He had to grow stronger, both for himself and for those he loved.

    ¡°Good. I¡¯ll give you some lessons these days so that you don¡¯t die too fast in the garden,¡± Sunders announced the end of their meal.

    Next, Sunders took Angor back to the wilderness in the Garden of Gravity again.

    ¡°Do you still remember the illusion I showed you during the meal? Lawson¡¯s conference hall. Now create that illusion for me,¡± Sunders asked.

    Angor was a little surprised but didn¡¯t question why. He quickly tried to remember all the details he saw earlier and recreated his own illusion in another perspective.

    When Sunders showed Angor the illusion, they witnessed the scene in the conference hall as an outsider who was free to view anything from any angle.

    Sunders sensed the weak illusion and believed he could tear open Angor¡¯s trick at any time. He didn¡¯t really mind the obvious weakness since he only meant to examine how well Angor observed details.

    When he opened his eyes, Sunders was surprised to see Lawson standing not far from him on top of the central podium, while Kanter sat right next to him.

    In Angor¡¯s illusion, he was no longer the free observer. He was ¡°Sunders¡±. He didn¡¯t expect Angor to use such an interesting way to tell the story.

    <i>Did the boy realize that it is a terrible choice to pull someone who actually went through the meeting before into the illusion like this?</i>

    Curious, Sunders kept looking around the meeting hall.

    The logic seemed fine. So were the small details. There were some mistakes, but Angor managed to patch them up using imagination.

    As the conference continued, Sunders realized something and became more serious.

    When Angor canceled the illusion, Sunders looked at the sweating boy and smiled. ¡°Good try.¡±

    At first, Sunders was simply checking the logic and integrity of the illusion. Butter, it became apetition of power between the teacher and the student. Sunders noticed that Angor chose such a perspective because the boy meant to force him into believing that the conference was real.

    Angor had been using nightmare aura to trick Sunders¡¯ mind.

    Without a doubt, Angor had no hope of seeding if Sunders meant to retaliate. But this time, Sunders chose to ept the nightmare aura.

    Soon enough, he figured out Angor¡¯s n. It seemed Angor already knew that pure illusionpletely wouldn¡¯t work on his teacher, so Angor chose the hard way¡ªusing nightmare illusion to hypnotize Sunders.

    Usually, hypnosis should not affect Sunders, but something changed because of Angor¡¯s strange talent. The illusions he created were extremely immersive and touching. For a brief moment, Sunders found his emotion led astray.

    And Angor was proud that he affected Sunders¡¯ mind for a split second.

    Even though he was a man of few words, Sunders didn¡¯t hold back his praise after leaving the illusion.

    ¡°Your talent and nightmare property make a brilliantbination. Anyone other than me would have fallen into your trap by now. I¡¯ll note down your current abilities and judge what to teach you once you¡¯ve chosen a subfield to study.¡±

    ...

    Angor spent several more days inside the gravity garden as he trained his illusion skills under Sunders.

    Two dayster, he finally mastered the new cantrip¡ªFear.

    Sunders spoke highly of Angor¡¯s choice. Again, due to Angor¡¯s particr talent, his Fear disyed several times more potencypared to ordinary casters. This level-1 cantrip was as powerful as a weak level-2 cantrip in Angor¡¯s hands.

    Given enough time and practice, it wouldn¡¯t take long for Angor to strengthen the power of the cantrip even further.

    Again, Sunders realized that Angor had surprising skills when he saw Angorbining Fear with nightmare illusions. In the right situations, this ¡°Nightmare Fear¡± could fabricate realistic horror as effective as level-3 cantrips.

    He would admit that Angor just earned another trump card that could be used to devastate enemies.

    ¡°Fear is a Mind Maniptor cantrip, and what you just showed me is almost twice as deadlypared to most first learners. Maybe it¡¯s best for you to go for Mind Maniptor instead of Acoustic Illusion?¡±

    Angor¡¯s Acoustic Illusions were bnced. He could still major in Acoustic Illusion, but it was obvious that Mind Maniptor was a better choice.

    Of course, such choices were only temporary. As Angor studied more and gained more insights into different knowledge, he wouldn¡¯t be needing a main focus. Studying variant subjects might even provide him new ideas to tackle bottlenecks.

    Despite Sunders¡¯ suggestion, Angor insisted that he should try out different branches before making the final decision.

    Several dayster, he left the gravity garden to study another cantrip:

    Field of Fire.

    This cantrip belonged to another Illusionist branch called ¡°Sorcery Array Illusion¡±. Sorcery Array illusionists all needed knowledge rted to alchemy and magic arrays, so Angor found it worth attempting.

    The time for entering the purification garden was near. Angor knew a lot of defensive and crowd control skills, but he barely knew any cantrips that hurt people. Field of Fire was something that damaged foes in arge area, and a suitable choice to add to his skill list.

    After spending another morning doing researches, Number One suddenly came to Angor¡¯s door. ¡°Mister Padt, a guest is here to see you.¡±

    While speaking, Number One showed Angor an image in its eye, which also functioned as a screen.

    A tall figure wearing felt hat and an eye-catching trench coat was leaning against the door of the mansion in a carefree manner.

    ¡°Let him in.¡±

    Angor went to tidy up his looks before he went to the guest room.

    ¡°Now this is a surprise.¡± He smiled at the visitor and said, ¡°It just happens that I have something to tell you as well.¡±

    It was Shadow. Angor didn¡¯t see him in a while ever since Mithra took him away from Bog¡¯s base. He somewhat missed this wicked friend of his.

    Shadow sighed. ¡°When you told me about Brute Cavern, I had a hunch that you¡¯re Mister Phantom¡¯s student. Looks like I was right.¡±

    ¡°Oh, forgive me. I really didn¡¯t want to show off my teacher¡¯s name to people.¡±

    ¡°I feel ya. But I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll be really disappointed to know that your name is widely known by everyone today. The entire city has heard of how Mister Phantom kicked my teacher¡¯s a*s just for you.¡±

    Somehow, Shadow didn¡¯t seem concerned about Bog¡¯s safety at all.

    ¡°People are talking about you, you know? And there are people from all over the world who came for the purification garden. Soon, they¡¯ll bring the news to their homes. Feeling great now?¡±

    Angor had been staying indoors since nobody ever paid Sunders¡¯ mansion any unnecessary visits. He wasn¡¯t surprised to hear his story traveling around so fast, considering how Floating Mech City had gossip magazines like Precision Sky.

    ¡°Not really. Are you here just to tell me this?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°And did Mister Bog actually allow you toe?¡±

    Shadow crossed his legs in azy manner. ¡°My teacher¡¯s away again. He can¡¯t tell me what to do now.¡±

    ¡°Away? Can it be¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, it has nothing to do with Mister Phantom. I tell ya, he¡¯s shameless and doesn¡¯t care what people say about him. Kinda like me.¡± Shadow stretched his arms and yawned. ¡°And it¡¯s not like he¡¯d tell me where he went. So you see, I¡¯m totally free.¡±

    ¡°By the way, I came because of the garden again,¡± Shadow said. He looked at Angor and noticed that Angor didn¡¯t seem interested at all. ¡°Okay. You already know, right?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Ah, who am I kidding... Mister Phantom will certainly tell you. Let me guess, you will enter the garden anyway, right?¡± Shadow put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Be safe. I trust you, buddy. I know it¡¯s a waste of breath but I still need to warn you. Be very careful. There are many geniuses and whatnot you won¡¯t usually find who just came for the same purpose.

    ¡°When I was walking in the main district with Toya, we saw more than one fights broke out between these people. Most of them are half-step to the wizard level, ording to Mister Sabot. Some of them even have wizard-level items to help.¡±

    Shadow looked worried. ¡°This time, they don¡¯t have a limit for how many winners are admitted, so you should run away from any threat you see. As long as you¡¯re still breathing in the end, you will win this thing.¡±

 Chapter 463 - Supreme Cult

    <h4>Chapter 463: Supreme Cult</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°You didn¡¯t forget I have this, right?¡± Angor showed Shadow his bracelet.

    ¡°Oh, that trick of yours... I think it¡¯s the same as some of the wizard-level invisibility spells. Hah, even that old hag can¡¯t find you normally. There¡¯s no way those apprentices gonna track you down.¡± Shadow snickered. ¡°I see I don¡¯t have to warn you after all. You can just like, keep hiding until the fight ends.¡±

    When talking about Isabe, Angor quickly thought about Greya. Now that almost everyone knew about Isabelle¡¯s return, Greya probably had gone hiding somewhere else so as not to get dragged into theing storm.

    When Angor asked about it, Shadow gave him an uncertain look. ¡°Usually, such a big deal should attract all sorts of attention to Dark Castle. But somehow, they kept their information tight. I¡¯ve asked around and nobody can tell what exactly¡¯s going on in that ce. Mister Sabot doesn¡¯t know anything either. It¡¯s as if... both Lady Isabelle and the old hag suddenly disappeared from this world.

    ¡°But I can tell you that Lady Greya already left the castle. I think Miss Felicia went back to Butterfly Tavern, and just not long ago, the tavern building arrived at Floating Mech City.¡±

    This meant Felicia made sure Greya was somewhere safe. Angor was d to know it.

    Next, Shadow spent some time exining what he learned about the strengths and specialties of the participants.

    ¡°You said you have something to tell me too, em?¡± Shadow suddenly asked Angor.

    ¡°Yeah. I need your help looking into someone.¡±

    ...

    Not long after Shadow left, he sent someone to deliver a note to Angor.

    [No. 93 Champagne Road, Timber Pub]

    Angor noted down the address and left the mansion with a hooded robe to cover his face.

    Following Shadow¡¯s map, he headed toward Champagne Road, which was located in the main city district.

    While walking, he could clearly sense the tension on the streets. There were more Rune Monitors patrolling, fewer mortal pedestrians, and more shady apprentices lurking around.

    The time for entrance was still half a month away, and Floating Mech City already elevated their security level. Previously, they forbade people from using attacks in the city. But now, anyone that unleashed supernatural powers regardless of the nature of the power, would be tracked down by Rune Monitors.

    And those who actually started fighting would be directly taken away by apprentices on guard duty.

    Angor thought the safety in the city was at least improved by now, which wasn¡¯t the case. Along his way to Champagne Road, he witnessed more than one conflict.

    Most of them were oral harassment, but the guards couldn¡¯t care less about the severity of the conflict. The moment someone started yelling, they would be apprehended.

    And even so, there were still fights going around, such as what Angor was looking at right now.

    He didn¡¯t recognize the offenders, but he did recognize the violent magic aura released by both parties, which only meant trouble.

    The one standing to the left of the street was a giant man about 4 meters tall. Bulky chunks of vessel-covered muscles were everything there were on his bare upper body, while his lower half had a primitive-looking skirt made from animal hide. He also had a face mask which was decorated by some tribal totem.

    The sight was made stranger by another little girl sitting on his shoulder. The girl was wearing the same tribal style. A pair of small braids beside her adorable face was pointed to the sky, while both her cheeks had bright face paint. She also had a ne made from wolf canines.

    This strange pair was looking at their opponent¡ªa sword-wielding young man with really long hair.

    He didn¡¯t use any hair clips or bands and left his pure ck hair flipping wildly along his mana surge.

    Instead of giving him a weird look, the unbound hair sat well with his cold, distant temperament and handsome yet cruel face. Those who looked at him would feel like staring at a denizen from the underworld rather than a human.

    Angor didn¡¯t know why these people were confronting each other, but he felt bothered by it since they happened to be blocking the entrance to Champagne Road. Taking a detour around the city would waste him another five hours, so he considered and decided to sit on a nearby tree and watch the fight. The increased Rune Monitors would probably notice the incident soon.

    The fight already began. The big man was following the orders given by the small girl on his shoulder as if he didn¡¯t know how to think.

    Angor assumed that those punches and kicks were as powerful as attacks used by average level-3 apprentices. Still, there wasn¡¯t any mana signature, which meant the bulky man was using his pure physical strength.

    ¡°Tsk... that body...¡±

    The ck-haired man didn¡¯t seem interested in the strength disy. As his cold aura grew colder until it began to look frightful, he then swiftly used his long sword to damage the joints on his opponent¡¯s muscr body.

    It didn¡¯t work well. The giant man had an equally powerful defense. The young man¡¯s sword only managed to leave several white, shallow marks on the big man.

    There was no serious injury, but the big man still howled in a rage because he felt painful.

    The street had no other people around. When Angor looked farther ahead, he noticed that across the intersection, a number of apprentices inside Champagne Road were also observing the fight casually without trying to conceal their presence at all.

    Time went by. Angor watched as more Rune Monitors came to the scene, but to his surprise, none of them came down and intervened.

    This waspletely opposite to what he saw earlier. On his way here, the Rune Monitors would immediately deal with the smallest sign of a collision. But right now, these people had been fighting for five minutes and no one did anything to them?

    Using his fast moves, the ck-haired young man kept shing at the bulky figure with his mana-enchanted weapon. With enough hits, some of the attacks sessfully left bloody gashes on the big man¡¯s skin.

    In contrast, the big man was too slow tond any effective hit on his enemy.

    The little girl was getting angrier and more anxious. It was obvious that the ck-haired man would win the fight given enough time.

    She suddenly stood up and began to strike a series of poses while the big man mimicked her moves.

    The girl was fisting at the air with her tiny fists, which caused the big man to m the ground in the same manner. At the same time, he began to show an unknown power that gradually amplified his already terrifying strength.

    The ground beneath him was smashed open. The shockwave traveled to the nearby buildings and broke them down. Some of the mortals hiding in the buildings were unfortunate enough to get hurt. Many copsed as their bodies were torn by the surging power.

    Instantly, several apprentice guards showed up and brought the injured mortals away. However, no one moved to stop the fighters.

    Angor was getting confused. <i>Is it because these people are actually the apprentices of the city, so they¡¯re allowed to fight?</i>

    ¡°Where is Mister Sirui? He¡¯s in charge of this part! We have casualties now!¡±

    Angor heard someone talking behind him. He turned around and saw two apprentice guards in silver uniforms speaking on top of a house.

    It seemed they were talking about the fight, but the looks on their faces suggested that they weren¡¯t happy onlookers.

    ¡°We aren¡¯t going to do anything if Mister Sirui¡¯s not here?¡±

    ¡°You know who those people are, right? We can¡¯t! I¡¯m afraid that even wizards will want to ignore them. I think Mister Sirui didn¡¯te just because he didn¡¯t want to get involved.¡±

    <i>So those are influential people who aren¡¯t afraid of offending the rules?</i> Angor pondered and looked back again. Then he fixed his gaze upon the ck-haired young man.

    Something told him that he should be wary of the cold and dark aura.

    The bulky man¡¯srge-scale attack sessfully affected his enemy. Some of the flying debris connected with the young man¡¯s body. There was a small trace of blooding from his mouth, and his eyes went bloodshot.

    An even more ghastly aura began to emerge from him.

    ¡°Leave us alone, a-hole! Stand in our way again, and I¡¯ll let Gank kill you!¡± the little girl threatened when she saw the young man bleeding.

    ¡°He, must, die,¡± the young man replied in a deep and distant voice as if he spoke from another realm.

    ¡°Are you deaf? I told you Gank already got registered. He¡¯s a legit traveler! You Supreme Cult b*stards set up this rule, and now you¡¯re gonna break it yourself?¡± the girl screamed in rage.

    ¡°I obey my own rules.¡± The young man was still erging his might. Then he pointed his sword at the little girl. ¡°I¡¯ll kill you too if you dare to stop me.¡±

    Angor was surprised by what he heard.

    <i>Supreme Cult?</i>

    Sunders mentioned this name several times, and each time, the gentleman only used words such as ¡°lunatics¡±, ¡°fanatics¡±, and ¡°recycle¡± to describe them.

    Wizards used to call people from Supreme Cult as ¡°Mayhem Doers¡±. These people were constantly hunting illegal otherworld travelers and ¡°recycling¡± them.

 Chapter 464 - Saladin

    <h4>Chapter 464: Sdin</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders never explicitly exined what ¡°recycle¡± meant, but each time Angor heard about it, he felt something cruel hidden behind it.

    The city guards dared not stop the violent actions of someone from the Supreme Cult because the cult members shared a terribly notorious name in this world. They might not be strong fighters, but no other wizard organizations wanted to provoke them because the cult defined the ¡°political correctness¡± of the entire region.

    Most organizations tended to operate their own shady business somewhere, and they would perform researches on illegal otherworld creatures. Balba in Brute Cavern was such a case. Typically, the Supreme Cult strongly opposed such behaviors because this went against their creed. As the loyal believers of the world¡¯s consciousness, the cult members relentlessly messed around at people¡¯s ces and caused an uproar.

    Of course, the major organizations could wipe them out once and for all, but it would be at a great cost. Besides, no one knew whether the world¡¯s consciousness would simply give birth to a second Supreme Cult after the first one. No one wanted a bunch of revengeful psychos constantly biting their heels.

    Angor took a guess that the big man was an otherworldly visitor. He already sensed something from the bulky figure that didn¡¯t belong to this world.

    The ck-haired young man came from Supreme Cult, who regarded the big man as an intruder. This was what caused their street fight.

    The little girl mentioned that the big man already got ¡°registered¡±, but this didn¡¯t prevent a cult member from attacking him.

    Angor silently shivered. He once considered solving Jon¡¯s problem by getting him ¡°registered¡±. But now he realized that the Supreme Cult, as everyone suggested, was a bunch of maniacs who didn¡¯t even follow their own rules.

    Angor made up his mind to deal with Jon¡¯s condition more carefully from now on.

    The fighters were entangled in a more intense battle after their failed negotiation. The ck-haired man began to use deadlier attacks against the muscr man. For now, he didn¡¯t go for the little girl yet. However, his attacks were dangerous enough to harm her without specifically aiming at her.

    Angor had no idea where the little girl came from. She seemed pretty young, yet she already disyed the same level of strength as level-2 apprentices. She could unleash different cantrips without preparation. Combined with the superior physical defenses of her ¡°mount¡±, they fended off the cult member¡¯s assault just fine.

    Angor could also see that despite their effort, the duo was slowly losing. It seemed the cult member possessed an unknown ability that allowed him to grow more powerful as he received more wounds, which could be seen from his blood-vessel covered eyes. His cold expression had been reced by pure madness that was intensified along with his growing strength. His scattered hair danced wildly as if there were a hurricane blowing over.

    Finally. the little girl¡¯s defeat was determined when the bulky man lost an arm.

    After several follow-up attacks, the bulky man copsed on the ground, while the little girl tumbled down from his shoulder.

    ¡°Sdin! Are you sure you would oppose us Brute Cavern?!¡± the girl yelled.

    ¡°Heheehahahee...¡± the young man named ¡°Sdin¡± replied with a series of eerieughs. His eyes were nowpletely red. None of his previous ¡°cold andposed¡± character was left.

    ¡°He¡¯s mad!¡± The little girl turned to call the onlooking guards, ¡°Hey, you cowards! Aren¡¯t you going to do something when a guy is harassing a teen?¡±

    The guards chose to look at the floor.

    Sdin was moving to the girl with his sword lifted. It seemed he no longer cared about his original target after he lost his sanity.

    The girl¡¯s legs were wounded, so she could only crawl away in fear.

    With another maddenedugh, the cultist shed at the defenseless girl.

    A thin figure suddenly dashed into the street and dragged the girl away.

    ¡°Shan, run!¡± a female snapped.

    The girl realized she was out of danger before she noticed Sdin going for the bulky man next. ¡°Gank, no!¡±

    Hearing her call, Sdin¡¯s head jerked her way again. Whileughing in the same inhuman voice, the cultist kicked the ground and dashed at the girl like an arrow, aiming his sword at the girl as well as her savior.

    Before the cultist reached his targets, the entire street area was covered by a sudden mist.

    ¡°Shield.¡±

    People heard another female voice speaking behind the mist. The single word was followed by a giant explosion.

    ¡°Aqua Prison.¡±

    The speaker sounded tired this time as if she used all her strength.

    A brief momentter, people saw a one-armeddy, another woman with blue, curly hair, the wounded little girl, and the bulky man running out of the misty area. The bulky man carried his lost arm in his intact hand.

    The ck-haired cultist remained inside the mist.

    ¡°Shan, Shiliew, let¡¯s get away before Sdin shakes free.¡±

    The little girl named ¡°Shan¡± quickly nodded. ¡°Thank you, Nausica, Shiliew. I¡¯d have died for real back there.¡±

    One of the people who rescued her was Nausica. Her face looked pale, probably because Sdin¡¯s sword almost connected with her face. However, her determined eyes didn¡¯t waver at all.

    ¡°I was too reckless. It was Shiliew who actually helped.¡± Nausica pointed to the second rescuer, a woman with short blue hair.

    ¡°What was that mist spell though? We got out just fine, but Sdin looks like he just caught some kind of hysteria,¡± Nausica asked; she seemed puzzled.

    ¡°Shiliew knows how to use water to create a mist barrier, right?¡± Shan looked at Shiliew. ¡°So what exactly did you use?¡±

    Shiliew looked confused at the question. ¡°Actually, it was...¡±

    Her eyelids suddenly closed up. Next, Shilliew began to snore loudly while standing in the middle of the crossroad.

    ¡°She¡¯s sleeping again!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s ¡®Dripping River the Sleeper¡¯ for you. She does this anywhere and anytime. Hey wait, sh*t! Her Aqua Prison¡¯s gonna fail like this. We have to run!¡±

    They could walk away while talking because Shiliew used a spell to capture Sdin. Now that Shiliew fell asleep, her spell would quickly vanish.

    Nausica tossed Shiliew onto the bulky man¡¯s shoulder. After that, they dashed toward the direction of Champagne Road without looking back.

    They didn¡¯t know that even after they left, the mist around Sdin never went away. Shiliew¡¯s spell restraint on Sdin already went away, yet Sdin never escaped.

    The onlooking apprentices looked among each other in confusion

    ¡°Is Sdin dead? Why isn¡¯t heing out?¡±

    ¡°Now that¡¯s trouble. Supreme Cult sent more than one member. We don¡¯t want to anger those cranks.¡±

    The two guards standing on top of a building panicked and quickly used their transmitter to call Mister Sirui.

    The mist finally grew thinner, slowly revealing Sdin¡¯s form.

    Sdin didn¡¯t seem hurt. Also, he regained his previous calm and indifferent attitude, which meant he had gotten rid of his mad condition.

    Sdin nced at Champagne Road. He knew his target had escaped there, but he couldn¡¯t afford to chase them since there were more powerful wizards stationed there.

    Besides, he was more interested in who just tricked him with an interesting spell.

    It had been some time since he regained sanity. He couldn¡¯t understand why he failed to find the exit of the mist in his calm state.

    He looked around and failed to find out the caster of the mist. <i>Maybe it is one of the two women who showed up just now?</i>

    Under everyone¡¯s fearful gaze, Sdin grinned devilishly and walked away.

    By some unknown coincidence, he was walking past Angor¡¯s position just when Angor was descending from a tree branch.

    Sdin nced at Angor and assumed it was just another observer. Yet when he turned away, an instinctual feeling caused his heart to thump faster.

    Sdin red at Angor.

    Angor didn¡¯t mind Sdin¡¯s questioning gaze. He simply pulled his hood over his head and prepared to depart¡ªonly to find Sdin blocking his way.

    ¡°Need something?¡± Angor asked from under his hood.

    ¡°... You¡¯re carrying something from another world. Let me give you some advice¡ªdo not get involved with any otherworldly creature.¡±

    Sdin was staring at Angor¡¯s chest.

    Angor had a ne that came with a pendant containing the ¡°culprit¡± who brought Jon to this world¡ªthe Alien Eye.

    Sdin didn¡¯t mention anything about ¡°recycling¡± the item. Their job was to deal with creatures, not their possessions. There were many alchemy applications that required the use of otherworldly materials after all.

    Angor waited until Sdin left and frowned.

    <i>An apprentice noticed the presence of Alien Eye when Sunders cannot... They aren¡¯t lying about how the Supreme Cult cultists are extremely sensitive to otherworldly beings.</i>

    With a grim look, Angor watched as Sdin disappeared at the end of the road. Once the man was gone, he then headed to Champagne Road.

 Chapter 465 - A Get-Together With Old Friends

    <h4>Chapter 465: A Get-Together With Old Friends</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor slowly put a hand against his chest and touched the pendant.

    The Alien Eye.

    He had been keeping this item close at all times, which included bathing and sleeping time. Sometimes, he would forget about it since it was almost a part of him by now.

    He never paid too much attention to it. To him, it was only a memento left by Jon.

    To anyone else, the item appeared like any other cheap trinkets. Even a truth-finder wizard like Sunders never noticed anything special from it.

    But this didn¡¯t mean Angor had forgotten how important it was.

    The Earth where Jon came from probably belonged to apletely different universe from the one the wizarding world was in, and it was the Alien Eye who brought Jon here.

    ording to Nausica, something happened to the Alien Eye when Angor was sleeping on the cloud whale one day. Angor still had no idea what this meant, but he believed the particr artifact was hiding some amazing secrets.

    Another proof to it was that the Alien Eye ¡°refused¡± to go inside his space bracelet. Or rather, it was an unknown instinct that kept telling him that forcefully doing so would break his storage space.

    What Sdin just said had further convinced him that the Alien Eye was very special.

    He once read about otherworldly crafting materials from<i> Material Polymerization </i>and <i>Alchemy Material Illustration</i>, both of which described how items tainted by otherworldly aura would get slowly affected by the world¡¯s consciousness as time went by. For example, foreign magic nts would get ¡°adapted¡± and became native to the wizarding world in the end.

    For non-lifeform items, their foreign aura would simply disappear.

    However, the Alien Eye had been in the wizarding world for decades, and its special aura was still here. Angor knew because Sdin just told him.

    At the same time, Angor realized he had to be very careful when handling it. There should be more people in this world who could sense the presence of the Alien Eye, and perhaps soon, someone might show an unwanted interest in it.

    Besides, Angor was more concerned about the particrly ill-named organization that sent Sdin¡ªthe Supreme Cult.

    Sdin was only an apprentice of the cult. There were bound to be more effective methods for the cult to find such foreign items. What would happen if the Alien Eye provoked them one too many times?

    ording to the cking guards, the cult sent more than one person to enter the purification garden.

    Angor walked on with a determined look. He had to find a way to conceal the Alien Eye from prying eyes.

    ...

    The Champagne Road was famous for its good number of pubs and hotels. Usually. this ce was not so active. However, the garden event had attracted more than ten thousand apprentices from all over the world, most of whom had to find their lodgings here.

    Angor walked along the street and observed groups of apprentices in various dressing styles.

    Compared too how most people here looked like, his ck hooded robe was almost in.

    Also, clothing wasn¡¯t the only thing that made people stand out. There were people covered in ck mist, people who hovered above the ground instead of walking, and those with different-colored glows... It was as if people all needed some kind of special visual effect so that they didn¡¯t appear too humble.

    Angor made sure he steered as far as possible from these weirdos.

    Finally, he reached a pub house with a shiny and colorful sign.

    No. 93, Champagne Road, Timber Pub.

    From the opened wooden window, he saw crowds drinking, yelling, and singing inside; all of whom were fond of enjoying the noisy and ostentatious mortal lives even though some of them weren¡¯t mortals.

    Across the door, Angor felt hot air assaulting his skin.

    It was winter outside, but people still preferred heat and alcohol.

    His entrance caused a brief silence in the pub before everyone quickly returned to their own business. Only the bartender in his ck and white suit cast an extra nce at Angor.

    ¡°Wee, sir. What would you like to have?¡±

    The bartender was a mortal with a decent look. When he showed a professional smile, several apprentice witches giggled openly. One of them even openly invited him to her bed business at night.

    The bartender politely rejected the offer and looked at Angor again.

    ¡°Take me to the Budding Quarter,¡± Angor said in a pretended deep voice.

    Those words caused people to go quiet again. Everyone was now looking at Angor, trying to figure out something.

    ¡°Budding Quarter? Someone from the cult came looking for trouble?¡± a guest muttered.

    Just several minutes ago, Shan arrived at the pub with her big guy. All the guests knew what just happened to them. Now that someone else came looking for Budding Quarter, it raised their curiosity again.

    The bartender was also shocked. He might be a mortal, but he learned a lot about the business among wizard organizations.

    ¡°May I see your invitation, sir?¡±

    ¡°Invitation?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but without it, I cannot show anyone there as it might potentially bother the other guests.¡±

    Before Angor could reply, one of the witches from earlier who wore too few clothes moved to Angor aggressively. ¡°Hey you, get your sorry face out of here if you¡¯re not invited. Let me tell you, the owner of this ce is a powerful wizard who absolutely hates you Supreme Cult lot!¡±

    Angor nced at her without saying anything. He moved around the bartender and headed to the bar counter.

    He already saw who he came for. She was sitting at the counter¡ªNausica.

    Earlier today, he inquired some info from Shadow so that he could find Nausica in the city. As he recalled, Nausica managed to reach the top level of Sky Tower, which meant she would join the garden challenge too. Angor just freed himself from other matters today; otherwise, he would have gone to her earlier.

    Nausica was now asking for a ss of wine from someone. When Angor tried to speak to her, the interrupting woman moved to his face again. ¡°Are you deaf? Timber Pub doesn¡¯t wee you cultist bastards. Get lost, now!¡±

    She intentionally said that aloud to attract everyone¡¯s attention, including Nausica, who just looked Angor¡¯s way.

    ¡°Out of my way,¡± said Angor in the same deep voice.

    It seemed the witch nned to use the pub as a shield to humiliate a Supreme Cult cultist while perhaps earning herself a good impression among people.

    However, she found the wrong guy.

    The air around Angor suddenly turned dark. He lifted a finger and released a small trace of nightmare aura into the woman¡¯s forehead.

    Immediately, the witch froze on the spot with a terrified look.

    Without paying her any mind, Angor walked around and joined Nausica.

    ¡°You from Supreme Cult?¡± Nausica asked in her usual alluring voice with her eyes half-shut.

    Angor didn¡¯t answer. He took some time to examine the old friend who he hadn¡¯t seen in the past half-year. Due to Nausica¡¯s Bloodline training, her body shape was even more attractive. She was now wearing a bright-red cloak over her soft armor; the cloak helped her cover up where she lost an arm.

    Nausica also watched the wordless ck robed man with a doubtful expression. Something told her that she knew him.

    ¡°It¡¯s been some time, Nausica.¡±

    Nausica¡¯s heart beat faster upon hearing the youthful yet clear voice.

    ¡°You, you¡¯re¡ª¡±

    Before Nausica could say another word, she sensed something sweeping past her.

    ¡°What have you done to Shana?!¡± It was someone who just mmed a fist toward Angor¡¯s position.

    Angor didn¡¯t move. Again, he unleashed a nightmare aura that instantly knocked out the ambusher.

    ¡°Why you¡ª¡±

    After seeing two victims that either going down or standing still in horror, the other patrons in the pub all prepared to move.

    Angor turned to face the crowd and began to gather more nightmare aura. He punished the two attackers ordingly and didn¡¯t do anything beyond necessary. He would dly do it again if more people meant to assault him. Rather, he felt somewhat excited for angering so many people.

    <i>Maybe I can save their lives if I beat these guys to the ground and prevent them from going to the garden?</i>

    With that in mind, Angor¡¯s aura grew thicker.

    ¡°Don¡¯t take it wrong, please! He¡¯s my friend, not a cultist,¡± said Nausica as she moved in front of Angor.

    It seemed a warriordy from Brute Cavern was very convincing to apprentices from various smaller organizations. Following those words, people all returned to their seats.

    Except for Shana, who was still ring at Angor in both rage and fear.

    Nausica looked back and said, ¡°So, these two¡ª¡±

    ¡°They¡¯ll recover soon.¡± Angor meant to tell this to both Nausica and everyone else. ¡°Now, can we talk somewhere private?¡±

    Nausica nced at Shana first. ¡°Well, you heard him. You¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ll check on youter.¡±

    She nodded to the other guests and took Angor to the backyard of the pub.

 Chapter 466 - Direct Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 466: Direct Invitation</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When they entered the Budding Quarter, Nausica slowly turned around to look at the familiar figure.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that, Nausica? Why¡¯s he in here?¡± The little girl¡ªShan¡ªwho was trying to treat the wounded big guy looked at the stranger with obvious hostility.

    ¡°Calm down now,¡± Nausica said. She soothed the girl and looked at Angor again. She was still a little uncertain about what she saw, and so, she asked, ¡°You¡¯re... Angor, right?¡±

    Angor had gained an obvious boost to body height. Back in Brute Cavern, Nausica had to lower her head to look at Angor properly. Now she almost had to look up a little.

    Angor removed his hood and revealed his handsome face that was well on its way toward maturity.

    ¡°The one and only.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s really you!¡± Nausica¡¯s eyes brightened up. ¡°Everyone¡¯s been talking about you these days. I thought I have to find you in the garden.¡±

    Angor smiled at her. Before saying anything else though, the little girl named Shan came to him while looking at the ground timidly. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you! Mister Angor. I¡¯m Shan Gillyguya Muo. The tribesmen all call me Princess Shan but, just call me Shan, please.¡±

    She lifted her adorable head and winked at Angor as if she were a woman asking to spend a night together.

    Angor was surprised to see a girl at the age of 6 or 7 did such a gesture. More importantly, it looked well on her!

    ¡°Angor¡¯s ten years younger than me, and you still call him ¡®mister¡¯...¡± Nausica joked. ¡°What would you call me then? Oh, thisss¡¯ actually older than me, by the way,¡± Nausica exined to Angor.

    Angor was taken back, albeit very briefly. This was somon in the wizarding world. The ¡°thousand-year-old man¡± Dodoro was a worse casepared to this.

    ¡°Now,e inside. I¡¯ve read the magazine, and oh hell! I was worried about you.¡± Nausica took Angor into another cozy yard. The big guy called ¡°Gank¡± was sitting beside a campfire with a sad face. ¡°Then people said Mister Sunders took you away to safety. I was relieved to hear it.¡± She asked Angor to sit down on top of a white carpet made from an unknown beast fur. It felt warm and soft.

    Shan returned to Gank and continued to apply Cure and an unknown potion to his body, which slowly reconnected Gank¡¯s severed arm.

    Angor saw a small tent on the other side of the fire. Inside the tent, ¡°Dripping River¡± was sound asleep. She probably never woke up after the conflict on the street.

    ¡°You good these months?¡± Nausica¡¯s words sounded warm and considerate when apanied by the bright fire.

    Angor remained quiet for a while.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±

    He knew Nausica was being amiable, but he did not wish to spread his concerns to others.

    Nausica could tell from Angor¡¯s expression, and so, she wasn¡¯t going to press him for info.

    To Angor, Nausica was the most pleasant friend he found in the wizarding world. She knew how to read people¡¯s minds and decide what to say to others. Also, Angor greatly admired her determination and how she pursued her own future in such a carefree manner.

    ¡°Mystery item, huh? I¡¯m falling farther and farther behind,¡± Nausica said with a sigh. She looked disappointed all of a sudden.

    ¡°Magazines. You know how these things work. Don¡¯t take their words too seriously.¡±

    ¡°Well, true or not, you¡¯ve got your name on the sticker of this city. And it won¡¯t take long for the entire south to know you.¡±

    ¡°We cannot say whether its good or bad, no?¡±

    ¡°Agreed.¡± Nausica took out her old pipe, lit it up, and inhaled. ¡°It was you who trapped Sdin in the mist, wasn¡¯t it?¡±

    When Shan heard their words, she looked their way in surprise.

    ¡°Yeah. That¡¯s me.¡± Angor nodded.

    Nausica nodded. She then shook her head. When there was enough smoke covering her expression, she let out a ¡°thank you¡±.

    ¡°Mister Angor saved us?¡± Shan came again on her short legs and gave Angor a big smile. ¡°Did you do it because you like me?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a big misunderstanding,¡± Angor replied with a in look.

    Actually, anyone wise enough could see the situation. Angor never lifted a finger when Shan was getting pummeled by Sdin even though he already knew the little girl came from Brute Cavern. Angor only intervened after Nausica got dragged into the fight.

    And of course, Shan knew about it. But sometimes, ying dumb made things easier.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care! I¡¯ll just take it that you like me. From now on, you¡¯re the model of anyone who wants to be my husband. I¡¯ll never get married again if there¡¯s no one like you! Unless... Will you marry me?¡± Shan winked at Angor again.

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything. It was Nausica who responded with another joke. ¡°Then I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll be a single woman all your life, Shan.¡±

    Shan rolled her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m not going to find a partner anyway. I want to conquer the wizarding world and be a new leader queen!¡±

    Their loud conversation finally woke up Dripping River, who moaned a little and cast an uncertain nce at them.

    ¡°Dripping River¡± Shiliew looked average enough. The only thing people might use to recognize her would be her short, blue hair.

    She looked at Angor first, who was the only guy among thedies.

    Then she frowned a little and revealed a doubtful look on her pimple-dotted face.

    ¡°Come, Shiliew. This is Angor, Mister Sunders¡¯ student, and the one who helped us escape earlier.¡± Shan hopped inside the tent and giggled.

    Shiliew nodded slowly and kept her gaze. ¡°I sensed something familiar from your blood flow... Have we met? Let me think...¡±

    Angor tilted his head. <i>People can recognize me by listening to my blood flow?</i>

    ¡°Yes. Sky Tower? It must be...¡± Shiliew said.

    Angor was afraid that Shiliew would reveal his terrible title, so he quickly interrupted her. ¡°Don¡¯t try too hard if you don¡¯t want to. Please.¡±

    Nausica already heard about Angor¡¯s tower challenge before, and she knew what Angor was trying to hide. She giggled several times but didn¡¯t reveal the little secret of her friend.

    Shiliew was still thinking despite Angor¡¯s words. ¡°I got it. You¡¯re one of my opponents in level 3. Baron Milk, right?¡±

    ¡°Milk... Milk?¡± Shan gave Angor another surprised look.

    Angor looked down. He didn¡¯t deny it this time.

    Shanughed out loud. ¡°What, Baron Milk? Bah-hahaha! Nice, I love milk too! I¡¯ll find my teacher and ask for an invitation so that I can change my title into ¡®Baroness Milk¡¯ instead.¡±

    Compared to her joke, Angor was more interested in the other thing mentioned by Shan.

    ¡°You can change your title? What invitation?¡±

    ¡°Wait, you didn¡¯t know? Did you like, just reached level 15 or something? Mister Sunders has not given you an invitation card?¡± Shan was surprised yet again.

    ¡°You mean your professor can give you an invitation and you don¡¯t need to fight in the tower?¡±

    ¡°Now that I think about it, you and Nausica are the only tower challengers among us. It¡¯s such a pain! I and Shiliew can enter the garden because we got invitation cards from our teachers. Well, Shiliew did fight in the tower, but she stayed at level 3. She always fell asleep during her matches.¡±

    As if to prove Shan¡¯s words, Shiliew copsed on her bed again.

    ¡°See that?¡± Shan shrugged.

    Shiliew possessed a powerful talent at the cost of a great side effect. Her talent proved to be a useful tool in her current state, but it probably wouldn¡¯t keep helping her when she started to encounter mightier people.

    Angor didn¡¯t know what to say. Sunders could always get him inside the garden freely, but that man still asked him to take on those challenges in which he almost lost his life... while he was in the dark about the easier approach!

    Angor sighed in distress. He made up his mind to talk with Sunderster. At the very least, he would like a new ¡°invitation card¡±.

    ...

    After some insignificant chatting, Angor looked at Nausica again. He didn¡¯te here just to talk about the old days.

    First, he had to tell Nausica about the shady business in the garden. And secondly, he still remembered his promise to craft a new arm for her.

    He exined what he learned about the purification garden in detail, especially about the blood sacrifice that wasmon knowledge among elite apprentices by now. Other ordinary apprentices, however, didn¡¯t have resources to learn as much. They were ¡°expendables¡± after all.

    Naturally, both Nausica and Shan were shocked at the news.

    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Shan panicked a little. She forgot to tease Angor this time.

    ¡°I am.¡±

    ¡°Are you here to stop me?¡± Nausica quickly got over her emotions. ¡°Please don¡¯t. I know what I¡¯m going after.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll not stop you. I¡¯m just reminding you, that nine out of ten participants are going to die in there. I hope you can make your choices carefully.¡±

    Nausica nodded. ¡°I will.¡±

 Chapter 467 - Registration

    <h4>Chapter 467: ¡°Registration¡±</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The grim subject caused everyone to go silent again.

    Nausica simply smoked her pipe and went over her own mind while hiding her face behind the smoke cloud. Shan had finished repairing Gank¡¯s arm. The girl was sitting next to the campfire while hugging her knees to her chest, staring into the light.

    ¡°Will you join too?¡± Nausica suddenly asked.

    She wasn¡¯t looking at anyone, but they all knew who the question was directed at.

    ¡°I will,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Then I have all the more reason to go as well. I can¡¯t remain still while watching you improve.¡±

    Angor could see Nausica¡¯s in look across the dissipating smoke. Her eyes looked more even more determined than ever.

    ¡°... You know, you don¡¯t have topete with anyone. Supernaturals live longer lives. You¡¯ll always get somewhere, either earlier orter. Not much different.¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t want to burden anyone. At least I should be there when you or Sailum¡¯s in trouble, and not standing aside watching because I¡¯m weak. What happened at Twilight Auction... told us something. We were in the outer hall looking as you suffered by yourself. I don¡¯t want to go through that again.

    ¡°Besides, I¡¯m notpeting. Everyone wants to dive deeper on the path of wizardry.¡±

    Angor wished to respect Nausica¡¯s decision, but as far as he could see, Nausica was still a level-1 apprentice. She would surely be cannon fodder in the garden.

    He didn¡¯t want to see Nausica die like this.

    Nausica flipped her fringe with a dreamy expression. ¡°You see... Before I departed from Brute Cavern, Sailum made up his mind to inject Azure Bloodline. I wonder how he¡¯s doing now... Did he seed? Anyway, I¡¯m hoping to improve myself and go back and share the result with Sailum. Friends are happy to see each other grow strong.¡±

    Angor realized what was going on.

    While it was true that the purification garden was a killing ground for apprentices, Sailum wasn¡¯t any safer back in Brute Cavern.

    Azure Bloodline was a special merchandise offered by Twilight Auction. Until today, there was zero information or reference regarding this particr bloodline. Fusing a bloodline into someone¡¯s body alone was already something risky, but there were ways to mitigate such risk for known bloodlines. Some Bloodline Wizards even knew about secret arts thatpletely nullified the risk.

    Yet people had nothing to go by regarding Azure Bloodline. There was only a rumor that said the user of Azure Bloodline ¡°might¡± be a Sage Morph. But how likely? Nobody could say.

    The danger Sailum was facing by using an unknown bloodline on himself was no better than going through the blood sacrifice in the purification garden.

    Still, Nausica did everything while assuming that Sailum would triumph. At the same time, she wanted sess as well.

    People were improving in their own ways, and friends wanted to grow together.

    ¡°I respect your decisions.¡± Angor nodded.

    ¡°And thanks for telling me about the danger.¡± Nausica smiled.

    Angor thought about keeping Nausica inside his bracelet until the end of the challenge, but on second thought, he wasn¡¯t sure if he would be able to survive himself. Moreover, someone like Nausica would never agree to ept such help that would certainly damage her pride.

    This was why Angor didn¡¯t offer to help Nausica inside the garden. However, he already decided to finish her mechanical arm before the challenge began.

    The arm was the only thing he could do for now without hurting Nausica¡¯s ego.

    He said his offer half a year ago, and Nausica didn¡¯t have any problem epting it, which meant she would dly agree now.

    ¡°The other reason I came to you is to check on your right arm.¡± He flipped up Nausica¡¯s crimson cloak and revealed the empty space under her right shoulder. ¡°You won¡¯t mind a little body examination, right?¡±

    Nausica nodded somewhat uncertainly. ¡°I guess you can, but are you going to¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to finish your mechanical arm within these days. I should have done that half a year ago, but you know, something took me away. Sorry that I¡¯m a bitte.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. But we have to enter the garden real soon. You don¡¯t have to waste your precious time on me.¡± Nausica was as considerate as ever.

    ¡°Waste time? Not really. I have Mister Mithra to give me alchemy training these days. He¡¯ll help me make my work better.¡±

    It wasmonly known that Sunders found Angor from Mithra¡¯s house. Nausicapletely believed him.

    ¡°Will it trouble you too much?¡±

    ¡°No no no. I¡¯m going to create stuff anyway, might as well make something helpful.¡± Angor chuckled.

    ¡°... Thank you then.¡±

    Angor scanned her severed nerves and was surprised to find that her remaining muscle under her shoulder didn¡¯t wilt at all despite not having an arm for half a year. This was due to her bloodline training. What remained were as active and sensitive to potential treatment as ever.

    After learning what he had to, Angor prepared to leave.

    Before leaving for real, Angor nced at the giant figure sitting beside the fire called Gank.

    ¡°Did Supreme Cult attack you because of him?¡± Angor asked Shan.

    Shan was going through her thoughts about the purification garden. It took her some time to reply.

    ¡°Yeah. That Sdin is like a dog or something. We haven¡¯t even been inside the city for long, and he already caught our smell. He didn¡¯t attack us sooner because Mister Sunders was still with us as the escort wizard. We¡¯ve been staying at Timber Pub. There¡¯s this one time when we were hanging out a little, that guy immediately found us.¡±

    Shan was trembling out of rage; it caused her pair of small braids to shake as well. ¡°But Gank already registered an identity. He received it from the cult! And that fool still came for us.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me something about this registration stuff?¡± Angor grew curious.

    Shan answered without questioning why, ¡°The shaman granny in my tribe gave Gank to me as a reward for getting admitted by Brute Cavern. She asked Gank to protect me. Granny was a wizard once, and Gank came from a brute tribe from another world who signed a contract with her.

    ¡°As for registration,¡± Shan said and ordered Gank to stand up. Then she removed the giant mask covering Gank¡¯s face, revealing a horrific face and stretching fangs.

    ¡°This thing,¡± she said as she pointed at a leaf-like mark on Gank¡¯s forehead, ¡°is the registration. Different beings will receive different ones aftering to this world. Gank came from Lush Islet ne. This leaf mark suggests his home.¡±

    ¡°Who decided on these marks?¡±

    ¡°The cult, duh. They¡¯ll design a mark for every foreign ne that wees wizard expedition teams so that they can use it to tell where an otherworldly traveleres from.¡± Shan sighed in distress. ¡°Just like the marks you put on ves. The travelers can still enter or leave the wizarding world freely, but they must have a ¡®guarantor¡¯ with them.¡±

    Shan took out a parchment from her sling pouch. There was another leaf mark on it as well as the blood print of something.

    ¡°This blood mark restricts Gank¡¯s actions. He must stay with the guarantor who carries this certificate.¡±

    ¡°Someone from an unknown ne will not have a mark, right?¡±

    ¡°Correct. In this case, that traveler is ¡®illegal¡¯ even if a wizard brought him or her here.¡±

    Angor nodded in enlightenment. He thought ¡°registration¡± was only some paperwork. Now it seemed there was more to it. Just like Shan said, registration was like enving someone.

    He realized he wouldn¡¯t be helping Jon in this way. There was probably no wizards who actually explored Earth before. And besides, Angor didn¡¯t want such a ve mark on Jon. Even if someone got registered, there were people like Sdin who would break the rules.

    Angor tried to ask something else while pretending he was only looking for conversations. ¡°I heard such travelers get expelled by the world¡¯s consciousness. They get weaker and ill, but it didn¡¯t happen to Gank?¡±

    ¡°Weaker, yes. But not really ill. At least not for brutes. Supernaturals don¡¯t get ill easily. Only mortal bodies will.¡±

    ¡°Ohh...¡± Angor nodded. ¡°That¡¯s why Balba looks fine. He¡¯s a half-blood brute...¡±

    Of course, he said that aloud to divert people¡¯s attention.

    When Angor left them and walked through Timber Pub, he attracted everyone¡¯s gaze again. The two people who assaulted him earlier were lying on the floor motionless, while a man in a brown-checkered tail suit was examining them.

    A whispering patron told Angor that this man was the owner of the pub. A wizard, to be precise.

    The man looked up at Angor while his eyes glimmered with intelligence. ¡°I see. You¡¯re that man¡¯s student.¡±

    Angor bowed politely.

    ¡°I think I see what happened here. They were the ones looking for trouble.¡± He moved away to let Angor leave.

    <i>I guess being famous isn¡¯t all about bad things?</i> Angor thought while walking toward the street outside.

 Chapter 468 - Dodoroâ€™s Talent

    <h4>Chapter 468: Dodoro¡¯s Talent</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After reaching Sunders¡¯ mansion, Angor immediately started to work in front of a desk.

    He already recorded Nausica¡¯s body data in Brute Cavern and created a general blueprint for her arm. Now, he needed to put his ideas together and create several functions that could be used in fights.

    It took him about half a day. Now, he had to determine how to assemble and finalize the appearance of it. He didn¡¯t lie to Nausica when mentioning the name of Mithra. He was indeed going to see the old man tomorrow and hopefully receive some advice. Even though Mithra was an Apothecary, but the fact that this city was home to the most crucial machine alchemy knowledge meant that Mithra was bound to be experienced enough.

    The night sky was clear. Moon and stars shone brightly across the asional drifting clouds.

    Angor took out Toby from his pocket. It had been half a month since they left Dark Castle, but Toby was still sleeping. However, he sensed something powerful flowing within the bird¡¯s body, which was probably the emotion of ¡°wrath¡±.

    He took out a Soul Orb; Toby opened his beak out of instinct at the smell of soul energy.

    Carefully, Angor stroked Toby¡¯s feather and checked his condition. It seemed Toby¡¯s vitals were stable and fine.

    After putting Toby back into his pocket, Angor thought about checking on the Krakoks. He wasn¡¯t sure whether he coulde out of the garden alive yet.

    In order not to disappoint the grand priest, he decided to temporarily ce the Krakoks elsewhere.

    With a flicker of mind, all Krakoks, as well as their guest, Dodoro, appeared inside Angor¡¯s room.

    There was only Dodoro who gave Angor a puzzled look. None of the Krakoks noticed the change of environment because Angor had deployed a mist illusion around their home. It was both to prevent them from wandering off and to block what was going on outside.

    ¡°An...¡± Dodoro¡¯s eyes quickly regained innocent brilliance. He tried to call Angor¡¯s name.

    Angor put a finger at his lips.

    Dodoro blinked, understood the gesture, and closed his mouth.

    Angor was content with Dodoro¡¯s response. It seemed Dodoro was learning the way of civilization just fine with the help of Trusan as well as Papaya¡¯s grandmother.

    Dodoro had gone quiet, but his eyes followed Angor¡¯s actions closely.

    Next, Angor summoned Papaya from the Krakok building.

    The tiny girl looked around the room in curiosity. ¡°Sir, is this the new home you found for us?¡±

    ¡°What, you want to get back to being fairies in the attics again?¡± Angor chuckled.

    ording to history, Krakoks used to live inside human houses. Their attics, to be precise.

    ¡°We can settle anywhere. Attics are fine, if the other humans treat us as nicely as you, sir.¡± Papaya didn¡¯t forget to tter him.

    ¡°So, how¡¯s life recently? Everything¡¯s good?¡±

    ¡°Our people are trying to figure out how the ¡®skyscraper¡¯ was made, sir. They love it! Our neighbors are free to get together or retreat to their own rooms as they see fit. We have more time to socialize. They say we need to build more of these buildings when we arrive at the new home.¡±

    ¡°I see you¡¯re adapting pretty well. Look, I called you here to tell you something.¡±

    He took Papaya to Number One and asked the machine butler to handle the provision of Krakoks for some time.

    Once it was settled, Angor came to Sunders¡¯ study.

    The Krakoks might be small, but he still needed his professor¡¯s consent to take in all the extra guests.

    ¡°You can.¡± Sunders nodded upon hearing Angor¡¯s request. He already learned about Angor¡¯s newpanions when the boy told his stories. Anyway, these mortals beings weren¡¯t going to take up much space.

    Then Angor puffed up his courage and asked Sunders if something could be done about the Krakok¡¯s bloodline problem.

    Sunders took a moment to scan Papaya¡¯s body. ¡°You... can lift it, sure.¡±

    Before Angor could ask for further advice, Sunders stopped him. ¡°But not now. Figure out how when you¡¯re at the wizard level, or ask one of your friends who are training the Bloodline art. You have one such friend, right?¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t see it necessary to help Angor with this problem. The boy was asked to help the creatures, and he should be the one to finish his own end of the deal.

    Angor nodded. It meant he had to ask Nausica for helpter.

    With the Krakoks¡¯ matter dealt with, Angor stayed in front of Sunders and pondered how he should ask the next question.

    Sunders watched Angor¡¯s ¡°hey ask me what¡¯s wrong please!¡± expression and finally decide to end Angor¡¯s embarrassment. ¡°... What do you want?¡±

    ¡°Um, I heard that the purification garden gave wizards invitation cards?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Sunders nodded.

    ¡°Can I have one?¡± Angor blinked happily.

    Sunders stared at Angor with a poker face until Angor started to tremble.

    ¡°You want to get a new title?¡±

    Angor stammered something in a small voice.

    Sunders clearly knew what his little student was thinking about. He took out a card and tossed it to Angor while hiding an inconspicuous smile. ¡°Take it. Don¡¯t worry too much about your title. Not many people know who was fighting in the Sky Tower.¡±

    Angor nodded just to be clear to Sunders. Still, he believed anything, ANYTHING, was better than ¡°Baron Milk¡±.

    Once Angor epted the card, he prepared to head back to his room. Suddenly, Sunders¡¯ sudden question stopped him. ¡°What are you working on recently?¡±

    ¡°Field of Fire,¡± Angor replied truthfully.

    ¡°A Sorcery Array cantrip... good choice. It asks for expertise in alchemy and magic arrays. You can keep on. Just another piece of advice for you. Since you can unleash the sequence of gravity now, try to exploit the power as much as possible. It will be handy in theing garden challenge.¡±

    Angor nodded again. He didn¡¯t have much chance to practice the sequence of gravity because he couldn¡¯t persist for long once his soul was separated from his body. The gravity power could help him move around faster. He had to get familiarized so that he could stay alive better.

    As for how to keep his body safe while his soul was away, he nned to ask Mithrater. There should be some potions for this purpose.

    Next, Sunders tossed another object at Angor¡ªTalent Sphere.

    The gentleman pointed at Papaya, who had been staying quiet out of fear. ¡°She¡¯s a talented one. Since you have so many people with you, might as well test them out. If you manage to find five talents, you can go ept the recruitment quest and get some reward out of it. At the same time, the talents you find can join Brute Cavern as apprentices. Sometimes, letting people solve their own problems is better than helping them as an outsider, no?¡±

    Angor left Sunders and pondered what he just learned.

    Sunders was right; the Krakok could always find their own solution to address their bloodline problem, on condition that some of them stepped onto the path of wizardry and persisted.

    But it wasn¡¯t easy to find five new talents.

    ...

    Angor returned to his bedroom and saw Number One waiting at his door.

    ¡°Mister Padt, the master asked me to arrange the guest room next to yours for the new guests.¡±

    <i>Sunders said so?</i>

    Angor nned to keep the Krakoks in his own room for the moment. Sunders probably did this to grant him space for personal study, and Angor felt grateful for it.

    He took Dodoro and the Krakoks to the neighboring room and kept them there.

    The talent test wasn¡¯t an urgent matter. He nned to wait until the Krakoks found a new home. One thing at a time.

    Even so, he wanted to give Dodoro the test as soon as possible.

    When traveling on Gond with Shadow, Naga mentioned something about Dodoro¡¯s exceptionally high spiritual power indicator, which meant Dodoro was qualified as a talent. The Talent Sphere couldn¡¯t show people the exact nature of one¡¯s talent, but he could always refer to <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection</i> and take a guess.

    With that in mind, Angor called Dodoro to sit down in front of him.

    Dodoroplied with a friendly smile.

    Angor ced the Talent Sphere, a lit oilmp, and a ss of water on his desk. Fire and water were two of the mostmonly seen ¡°changes¡± during talent tests.

    ¡°Put your hand on the sphereter and observe your surroundings carefully. Tell me if you see something abnormal, like something new, something amiss, the fire burning bigger or going dim, or if the water moves... Anything. Stay focused.¡±

    Dodoro grew serious after hearing Angor¡¯s words. ¡°I understand!¡±

    ¡°Then let us begin.¡±

 Chapter 469 - Cloud, Mist and Fortune Telling

    <h4>Chapter 469: Cloud, Mist and Fortune Telling</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor ced a small hourss¡ªor ¡°minutess¡±¡ªonto the table. The test should take exactly one minute. If no ¡°changes¡± were observed before the end of one minute, the testee was considered to be untalented.

    ¡°Put your hands on it.¡±

    Dodoroplied and pressed his clean, healthy hand on the Talent Sphere.

    In the next second, Dodoro¡¯s eyes lost focus, while the pale red object began to glow, which suggested a talent had shown up.

    Angor wasn¡¯t surprised to see this at all. He was only curious about what kind of talent could possiblye from someone who was alive for 1,000 years. Was it Dodoro¡¯s strange water bowl that actually kept him alive?

    The sand in the ¡°minutess¡± was still flowing.

    During such a test, the testee would be immersed inside a strange view created by Abelles¡¯ Eye, which showed his or her ¡°changes¡±.

    In Angor¡¯s view, Dodoro had been sitting still. But Dodoro might be seeing all kinds of drastic things simr to Angor¡¯s nightmare realm adventure.

    Angor saw Dodoro¡¯s expression bing stranger. Dodoro was both smiling and crying while shifting his view as if trying to look at something better.

    Meanwhile, Angor took his guesses. <i>Will Dodoro find his interest in healthcare? Elements? Or is he another ultist?</i>

    Dodoro opened his eyes after a minute had passed.

    Angor thought he saw something shing in those clear, blue eyes, but he couldn¡¯t read it.

    Instead of giving him an answer, Dodoro fell into deep thoughts.

    It took him five minutes before he looked at Angor again.

    ¡°What did you see?¡± Angor finally asked.

    ¡°A strange ce...¡± Dodoro spoke in the same upturned tone, but it sounded even more intelligent this time. He also sounded doubtful. This was the first time for Angor to read so many emotions from Dodoro¡¯s words.

    ¡°Strange ce? So you¡¯re not in this room?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Dodoro shook his head and tried to remember the view.

    Angor suddenly felt afraid that Dodoro might have gone through a dangerous ce like Nightmare Realm.

    <i>It can¡¯t be. There¡¯s no such coincidence.</i>

    ¡°There are clouds and thick mist. I can¡¯t see things well... but it¡¯s strange, I CAN also see things clearly. I don¡¯t know...¡±

    <i>Cloud and mist?</i> Angor quickly thought about the records in <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection </i>that described wind and water elements. The magazine had published nearly 500 editions, and he only read 3 of them. What Dodoro mentioned was mostly rted to Elementalist talent.

    But he couldn¡¯t be sure yet. The Talent Sphere couldn¡¯t tell the exact orientation of one¡¯s talent.

    ¡°So what it is that you actually see clearly?¡±

    ¡°It is...¡± Dodoro frowned and stopped talking. It seemed he was wondering how to use the correct words.

    He stayed silent for ten minutes this time.

    Angor got a feeling that Dodoro had fallen asleep.

    ¡°What did you see?¡± Angor tried again.

    Dodoro suddenly revealed a painful expression as if he just strained his throat.

    He failed to say anything for a moment, yet it seemed Angor¡¯s urge persuaded him into trying harder. ¡°The bottom of the sea... and... you...¡±

    Thud.

    Dodoro coughed up some blood and copsed on the floor.

    Angor was a little startled by the disy. Why would someone bleed like that simply because of talking?

    Angor hurried to Dodoro¡¯s side and checked. He was d it was nothing serious. Dodoro simply went into a mild shock due to sudden blood loss.

    He ced Dodoro onto his bed and considered it.

    ¡°Bottom of the sea and me? What does that mean?¡±

    <i>Did Dodoro see ME in his test? Wait, is that even possible for me to be a guest in someone else¡¯s talent test?</i>

    He had not read such a case in <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection</i> and had nothing to go by. For now, he decided to calm down and wait for tomorrow so that he could consult Sunders.

    The next morning, Angor saw Dodoro still sleeping; the man¡¯s face color was a lot better and healthier.

    Angor asked Number One to look after Dodoro for the moment. He then took his mechanical arm draft and left his room.

    His first destination was Sunders¡¯ study.

    Sunders held his chin and pondered over what he just heard.

    ¡°Cloud, mist, unable to speak... Thest part sounded something rted to a prophecy. But the prophets usually see stars and sky. Could it be that Dodoro is talented for both Element Art and ult?¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯te up with a sure answer in the end. He asked Angor to wait until they got back to Brute Cavern. They could then seek help from Tree Spirit.

    Next, Angor headed to Mithra¡¯s Elixir Hut.

    On his way, Angor considered Sunders¡¯ description. He agreed that what was shown on Dodoro went well with certain prophet-rted stories that always regarded gods¡¯ words as imperceptible mysteries, while anyone bold enough to read them had to pay a cost. Even so, in this world, prophecy wasn¡¯t something so dangerous. There were many ways to read fortunes or predict the future, but they tended to be performed in really ambiguous ways.

    Still, the wisdom of wizards could always help them ¡°see through¡± the indirect hints.

    ¡°Prophecy, probably... Then did he say something about the future?¡± Angor thought. What kind of future involved him sitting at the bottom of the sea? Would he actually go on underwater adventures? Or something that forced him to sink?

    He simply gave up a whileter. There should be a solution to the question back in Brute Cavern.

    Besides, the Elixir Hut was already in sight.

    The small cottage seemed quiet as usual, but Angor noticed questioning gazes lurking around. When he approached the cottage, the gazes were all fixed onto him.

    People were trying to figure out who he was.

    The moment he stepped into the hut, the gazes showedpletely different intentions, such as indifference, envy, hatred, and mostly, the will to investigate.

    ¡°Oh, Mister Angor!¡±

    It was a childish voice that greeted him. Before he could see anything else, a small figure rushed to the door and stood in front of him.

    ¡°Good morning, Mister Angor! And a nice day to you!¡± The voice sounded more like ttery this time.

    An orange cheetah cub slowly rubbed its head at the small figure¡¯s leg and crouched down.

    ¡°Good morning, Toya,¡± Angor addressed the boy and smoothened Dodo¡¯s fur.

    ¡°Hey, Mister Angor, it¡¯s getting cold outside, and Doro¡¯s freezing... I need to get him something to wear.¡± Toya held Dodo and pinched the poor creature¡¯s leg, which caused Dodo to yelp with teary eyes.

    Angor gave the boy an uncertain look.

    ¡°The Month of Resuscitation and a new year ising. I only have this... lousy cloth on me. I want something colorful and warm!¡±

    Two pairs of puppy eyes stared at Angor.

    With a smile, Angor crouched down. He then took out a magic crystal from his bracelet and stuffed it into Toya¡¯s hand. ¡°Here, pocket money for you. Go find some clothes in the city.¡±

    Without waiting for a response, Angor walked around the boy and headed into the cozy house.

    Toya looked at the magic crystal. He then looked at Angor again.

    <i>But why isn¡¯t my puppy-eye tactic working?</i>

    ¡°Toya isn¡¯t bad in nature. He¡¯s just a little... naughty. Please don¡¯t mind,¡± Yeliya, Mithra¡¯s wife as well as another famous wizard in the city, said as she greeted Angor.

    Angor knew Toya was always a treasured child. He noticed the boy¡¯s intention right from the beginning, and it wasn¡¯t really a bad one.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. He¡¯s a sweet boy.¡± Angor chuckled. Toya¡¯s character reminded him of Leon in the old days. Leon was kind of a ¡°smarta*s¡± too when they were younger.

    ¡°Looking for Mithra, I reckon? He¡¯s in the basement. Oh, and don¡¯t bother with those people outside. Most of them are jealous of you, while the rest of them are simply looking to annoy your teacher. But they can¡¯t do anything here in the city. Just... ignore.¡±

    Angor nodded. He fully expected the oue of being more famous. Something simr already happened in Brute Cavern. Nothing new.

    The Elixir Hut appeared as a small cottage, but in truth, there were countless underground tunnels that connected to a series of caves under it, all of which had been modified into differentb rooms by Mithra.

    Angor already knew about this. It didn¡¯t take him very long to reach Mithra, who was working in an alchemy room.

 Chapter 470 - Alchemy Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 470: Alchemy Discussion</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Mithra was brewing a potion in front of an alchemy workbench. When the old alchemist saw Angoring from the corner of his eye, he signaled Angor to be quiet and wait.

    Angor politely stood aside. This meant Mithra didn¡¯t mind him watching.

    In the field of alchemy, Mithra was one renowned figure who belonged to the ¡°Reformer¡± school. As the name suggested, they perused new theories while gradually giving up old ones, retaining only the most useful elements in all kinds of alchemy works.

    Angor didn¡¯t know much about Apothecary. To him, Mithra¡¯s potion tubes and how different-colored liquids moved through different devices and containers looked exactly like what certain scientists did in some of the Earth movies. However, the mes and other spells wielded by Mithra all told him that this was not Earth.

    Time slowly went by. When a hanging clock told Angor that it was noon, Mithra finally halted his task.

    He just created a puddle of a pink potion, which showed crimson glitter. Slowly, Mithra stored the liquid inside a silver-gilded vial.

    Next, he gave the vial a small shake to hear how the liquid sounded when colliding with its container. Then he wrote something down on a parchment sheet and affixed abel onto the cap of the vial¡ªImproved Peach Potion.

    This was a pretty famous potion among wizards. People might have the wrong idea about its name, while the potion itself was only a supplementary tool used during bloodline purification.

    Even so, Angor didn¡¯t know there was an ¡°improved version¡± of it. He wondered what improvement was created by Mithra.

    ¡°I added some hemopoiesisponents that help the user¡¯s body to keep their basic functions healthy,¡± said Mithra after he saw Angor looking at the potion curiously. This was not really a secret, so he had no problem exining.

    <i>Keeping basic body functions healthy?</i>

    Angor¡¯s eyes shone. He happened to need something with such an effect.

    ¡°Mister Mithra, I¡¯m recently looking for methods to nurture someone¡¯s body. Can you tell me something?¡±

    ¡°It depends. For example, people need their bodies ¡®maintained¡¯ while undergoing bloodline injection or purification, but the exact method in each case is different.¡±

    ¡°How about soul ejection? Like, how to keep a Soul Coupling state going longer while keeping the body alive?¡±

    ¡°Oh that... I thought you¡¯re nning to get a bloodline,¡± Mithra muttered. ¡°You can use some basic magic nts to brew nutrient fluid for that purpose. Your body will be fine inside the liquid. It only calls for easy Apothecary skills. Nothing too hard.¡±

    ¡°Um, it¡¯s actually a littleplicated...¡± Angor considered and decided to reveal his condition without mentioning his sequence of gravity. ¡°I learned something that consumes soul energy and I can only use it after ejecting my soul. Yet I can¡¯t stay that way for too long without leaving my body in danger.¡±

    ¡°You want to keep your body safe in a pinch? There are many potions for it, all with different levels of effects. Some of them keep you alive for an hour, while some for several minutes. As for their cost... One of the cheapest one is Cillian¡¯s Witch Stew, created by the Gypsy School.¡±

    Angor knew a number of different witch stews since Prome¡¯s shop often offered them. The stews were originally invented by Gypsy School, and they possessed effects between alchemy potions and gourmet dishes. Different people used different materials and techniques while going over the very same brewing process to bring out their own stews.

    The name of a witch stew was determined by its creator. For example, there was the Karoline¡¯s Witch Stew, Cillian¡¯s Witch Stew, and Shanna¡¯s Witch Stew.

    These stews all tended to have restrictive effects; therefore, not many people could use them. But at the same time, they were known for their almost negligible side-effect to human bodies. In contrast, products made by the other schools were more or less risky to use.

    ¡°Cillian¡¯s Witch Stew helps Bloodline Wizards keep their bodies running after they exhaust their bloodline energy,¡± Mithra said. He pondered and added, ¡°Which means it should help your case as well. By the way, since there are many bloodline users who need it, you can find it in a lot of ces, such as the main city district.¡±

    Angor carefully remembered the name.

    ¡°And I believe you¡¯re not here just for this, em?¡± Mithra continued, ¡°Do you want to see my library? Or...¡± He noticed a stack of parchments in Angor¡¯s hand. What was exposed quickly aroused his curiosity.

    Angor quickly handed his drafts to Mithra.

    ¡°I want to consult you, Mister Mithra. I just designed a mechanical arm. Is there anything amiss or incorrect on it?¡± Angor asked politely.

    ¡°A mechanical arm?¡± Mithra quickly realized what those words meant.

    And what he saw on the paper immediately drew his attention.

    The Floating Mech City was proud of their machine alchemy skills. Mithra was an Apothecary, but he was no stranger to machines¡ªhe was actually the honorary vice president of the research department of the city. He had spent a lot of time observing or working on machine alchemy, which allowed him to develop a pair of keen eyes on the subject.

    The first page of Angor¡¯s draft was a picture that disyed various parts of the designed arm as well as their functions.

    To give any viewer a detailed sight, Angor also ced the simple sketch of a human body on the page.

    Of course, the draft was for finalizing Nausica¡¯s new arm.

    Also, Angor gained most of his ideas from certain sci-fi movies he saw on the tablet. His design looked nothing like what wizards usually expected, yet it looked shocking nevertheless. When Sailum first looked at Angor¡¯s idea, the boy could only use the word ¡°awesome¡± to express his mind.

    Back in Brute Cavern, Angor only finished a part of the machine arm. Now, he hadpleted the entireposition and created something with eye-catching metallic details and strange yet futuristic features.

    ¡°Have you ever seen mechanical armament before?¡± Mithra asked something while pointing at the papers.

    ¡°Um, what is that?¡±

    Mithra shook his head. ¡°Your idea is different from those developed by our research department, but there are some simr connections to it...¡±

    Mithra mumbled something to himself and gave Angor another look of approval. ¡°You have both brilliant alchemy talent and the bright mind for creation. I assume this arm is meant to go on someone¡¯s body like a piece of clothing, right?¡±

    Angor recalled what he saw from the robot movies¡ªpeople could either ¡°wear¡± the robots by going inside or control them remotely by other means.

    ¡°Basically, yes.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Mithra nodded again. ¡°Do you know about the research department I mentioned?¡±

    Angor nodded. That was the core institute of Floating Mech City that gave birth to all advanced alchemy machine products known to the world. One of the two city masters¡ª¡±The Fool¡± Muse¡ªran the department as its supreme leader.

    ¡°About 30 years ago, Muse initiated another grand project that was meant to develop machine armament¡ªan all-cover machine armor to be worn bybatants. They already finished building several prototypes, but they weren¡¯t satisfied by the armor¡¯s power output, so nobody released the product to the outside yet. Today, there are still less than ten people who knew about the secret project. It¡¯s such a surprise to see someone who came up with a simr idea.¡±

    By now, Mithra no longer doubted Angor¡¯s future achievement. Everything shown by the boy suggested the rise of a new master alchemist.

    Mithra sighed and suppressed his urge of bringing Angor¡¯s draft to Muse. He then carefully examined the interesting design.

    First, Mithra asked about the general purpose of the arm beforementing on every detail worth discussing.

    The fruitful talksted for half a day.

    When someone pushed theirb door open, the outside was already dark.

    What Yeliya saw in her husband¡¯s undergroundb was a pair of bodies, one big and one small, bending over a tiny table while debating about something. There were asionally illusions showing up around them to facilitate their theories.

    Yeliya thought the boy came here for lessons, but now, she thought differently. There were even times when Angor insisted on his own ideas, which caused Mithra to throw up his arms and protest with red cheeks.

    Such a heated discussion was usually seen when Mithra was working with other master alchemists.

    Still, Yeliya found the strange sight to be quite harmonious.

    She waited for almost an hour until the two academicians were about to enter the next phase of their seminar when she quickly intervened. ¡°Alright alright, go have a bite before continuing. Toya¡¯s little tummy is growling like a beast already. We can¡¯t leave a growing boy to starve.¡±

    Angor thought it best NOT to be freeloading on someone¡¯s family meal and prepared to say goodbye to the couple.

    But Mithra quickly stopped him. The old man began to treasure this childish yet creative young man. Many of Angor¡¯s alchemy ideas were wrong due tock of experience, but he had a really promising field of vision and a broad mind. Mithra believed he could actually learn a lot from the boy, even if Angor was only an apprentice.

    ¡°Stay with us!¡± Mithra wasn¡¯t going to let his new academic partner go so easily. ¡°I still need to convince you on a lot of stuff, especially the material selections. You¡¯re going to listen to me! Whether you like it or not!¡±

    Angor chuckled helplessly. ¡°Mister Mithra, I do want to listen to you, but those are-¡±

    ¡°Stop it!¡± Yeliya moved between them. ¡°AFTER the meal, if you would. Angor,e with me; otherwise, this old thing will keep you in this ce forever.¡±

    Without waiting for an answer, she dragged Angor¡¯s arm and went upstairs.

    When back inside the cozy hut, Yeliya asked Angor to take a seat while she went to finish her cooking.

    Probably because of the long wait, Toya had fallen asleep on the dining table while drooling. His cheetah cub, Dodo, huddled on the boy¡¯s legs while snoring.

    Angor looked out the window. He watched the moon and stars while enjoying the smell of home-made dishes that were ready to be served.

    Everything felt quiet.

    His mind appreciated the well-needed tranquility.

 Chapter 471 - Meal Talk

    <h4>Chapter 471: Meal Talk</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    During dinner, Toya kept bugging Angor with pretended protests in order to force Angor into crafting something. Toya used all avable methods for a kid, including yelling, crying, and acting cute, yet Angor simply maintained his table manners of a gentleman and remainedpletely quiet.

    Toya was far from being a gentleman. He loved talking during his meal. Since Angor would not entertain him, he turned to speak to Yeliya instead.

    Toya mostly talked about his childish ideas and ambitions, which might seem boring to any outsider. But Yeliya listened to him with her gentle smile while she answered Toya¡¯s questions patiently. There was one time Mithra grew irritated with Toya¡¯s bbering and asked the boy to stop talking, only to receive a painful ear-pinch from his wife.

    Both Yeliya and Mithra were renowned and powerful wizards in this world, yet Angor felt the warmth and harmony of a family. It was both pleasant andforting.

    Suddenly, Toya mentioned another name, which surprised Angor a bit.

    ¡°Hey, Granny Yeliya, I want to ask, why did you stop me yesterday?¡± Toya seemed unhappy about something.

    ¡°Yesterday? Oh, you saw...¡±

    ¡°Princess Shan! I saw her at Champagne Road. One of those cult guys were bullying her. I asked Dodo to help, but you dragged me back!¡±

    Yeliya giggled. ¡°Angor was there. You don¡¯t have to join the mess and make it messier.¡±

    Angor looked between Yeliya and Toya.

    ¡°Toya and Shan?¡± Angor recalled what he saw on the little girl. Shan looked around the age of six or seven. There was a pair of goat horn-like braids on her hair, a tribal style breast tube, animal hide skirt, paint on her cheeks, and a ne made from wolf fangs...

    Then he looked at Toya, also about the age of six. He had dark skin, a feather headband, and a leather skirt with simr colorful paintings.

    <i>These two looked so alike. Did theye from the same tribe or something?</i>

    ¡°What¡¯s it do to with Mister Angor? Luckily there was Princess Shan¡¯s friend who came to help, otherwise, that mean-looking man would have killed her!¡± Toya yelled.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t her friend who saved her, but someone else. Hey, he¡¯s right in front of you.¡± Yeliya smiled.

    ¡°You were there, Miss Yeliya?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Correct. And nicely done, Angor. I see you truly are Sunders¡¯ student. That signature illusion of yours is quite a sight to behold.¡±

    Toya realized what they were talking about and widened his eyes. ¡°It was Mister Angor who trapped the bad guy in the mist?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°That ¡®Princess Shan¡¯ came from Brute Cavern, the same ce where I came from, by the way.¡±

    He said this to tell others that he offered help as a ¡°colleague¡±, but the true reason for his decision was Nausica. Still, he wasn¡¯t going to tell them anything about Nausica for now, which would probably make the whole matterplicated.

    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s why you didn¡¯t let me do anything, granny. So Mister Angor was with them!¡±

    ¡°Did you and Shan used to live in the same tribe?¡± Angor asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°Yeah! Princess Shan is the daughter of our chieftain, but she left us a long time ago. Thest time I saw her was during our n festival three years ago.¡±

    While talking about Shan, Toya lowered his head and blushed a little, which was rare to see on the naughty boy.

    Angor remembered what Nausica told him¡ªShan was actually older than Nausica herself, which meant... over 30. But Toya was a kid, both outside and inside.

    Of course, wizards usually didn¡¯t mind the difference in ages. Still, Angor found it funny that Toya was having a lover¡¯s attitude toward someone at such a young age.

    ¡°But why did Supreme Cult break their own rules? Princess Shanpleted her registration before, and they still went after her,¡± Toya asked.

    Angor also wanted to know about this.

    Usually, Yeliya would use vague words to muddle through such a question because Toya¡¯s tiny brain couldn¡¯tprehend some of the shady business among different organizations. But when she saw Angor casting a curious nce her way, she decided to tell the truth.

    ¡°Even someone like those ¡®Mayhem Doers¡¯ are divided into conservatives and extremists. While the conservatives admit their ¡®registration¡¯, the extremists do not. Thetter will almost insist on eliminating all foreign beings regardless of their origin. The young cultist you saw yesterday was such an extremist. Also, he talked to you afterward, right?¡± Yeliya looked at Angor.

    Angor nodded. ¡°I had some magic nts on me that I bought from someone. He sensed them and came to warm me of staying away from foreign creatures.¡±

    ¡°You see, this is a typical extremist. They¡¯ll bother you for the slightest smell of foreign presence,¡± Yeliya exined to Toya patiently.

    ¡°That¡¯s... so pushy.¡± Toya scowled.

    Mithra, who had been enjoying his meal, spoke up, ¡°To hell with them. They only go after weak ones whose home has been conquered by a ne fusion. If a more powerful beinges from another world, they¡¯ll turn tail faster than anyone else. Do you remember when the grand demon called Fallen Sun showed up in the south and burned everything to ash within 15 days? The Supreme Cult never made a sound about it. They probably hid somewhere to change their wet pants.

    ¡°They¡¯re openly harassing people now because of some other funny business...¡± Mithra sighed. It seemed there was something he didn¡¯t want to reveal.

    Yeliya also looked down a little.

    Fearing that the meal would get too awkward, Angor tried to start another topic by asking, ¡°Is there a way to hide foreign aura from the cultists?¡±

    Angor would like to learn how to save someone from being harmed by the world¡¯s consciousness, but he couldn¡¯t ask something too obvious at the moment. Therefore, he asked the other question he wanted to know most. He urgently needed something to conceal the presence of Jon or his Alien Eye.

    ¡°Yeah, can we do something about Gank so that Princess Shan doesn¡¯t get stalked by any cultist again?¡± Toya also asked.

    ¡°Ohh, I see you love her. You even know the name of her servant!¡± Yeliya joked.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t-love-I just, honor her.¡± Toya was giving out silly smiles again.

    Yeliya covered her mouth and didn¡¯tment.

    ¡°There are ways to hide a foreign object or creature. One of the easiest is putting it inside a space storage or your personal dimension, such as a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden,¡± said Mithra.

    ¡°But I don¡¯t think Shan has any of those.¡±

    Angor frowned. He couldn¡¯t ce the Alien Eye into his bracelet for some reason.

    ¡°And if you don¡¯t have those items, you can try mixing the foreign aura with something else to hide or even eliminate it. There are spells, potions of the hides of special monsters to help with that.¡± Mithra looked at Angor¡¯s wrist. ¡°Your magic array... Infinite Reticence, right?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°It weakens your presence in other people¡¯s view. In other words, it covers your own aura to a certain extent, am I right?¡±

    Angor suddenly felt enlightened about something.

    ¡°Of course, it¡¯s better if you know proper magic arrays specifically designed for hiding someone¡¯s aura. Otherwise, you can use Perpetual Rune to keep something in a fixed state so that its aura does not get out easily. Of course, it won¡¯t work as effective as magic arrays.¡±

    A Perpetual Rune was usually used to keep something in good condition for a long time, such as how magazines always enchant their papers in such a way so that their published materials wouldn¡¯t rot away even after thousands of years.

    With Mithra¡¯s reminder, Angor realized he had been blindly looking for a solution elsewhere when he already had one. There was more than one magic arrays that could help!

    He kept thinking of finding a special box or something to keep the Alien Eye safe and neglected his own skills.

    ...

    When dinner was done, Angor returned to join Mithra as they discussed the mechanical arm. Previously, his n had many ws and missing spots beyond his knowledge. After thepetition of wits between the two alchemists, he slowly learned what he needed.

    By the time Angor left Elixir Hut on the next day, he had already established aprehensive construction n in his mind. Mithra, as a true master alchemist, did an easy job perfecting his unfinished theories while also providing ingenious suggestions.

    The old man even came up with an outer design both favored by and convenient fordies.

    Still, not everything they talked about was agreed upon. There were several points denied by Angor in the end, even though he knew that Mithra was only trying to improve the final product.

    For instance, Mithra insisted that they should use some precious materials and applyplex rules, but Angor decided not to ept that.

    While talking, Mithra somewhat forgot that Angor was only an apprentice who couldn¡¯t process high-level materials yet. Besides, it was only several days until the Purification Garden would open for entry, and Angor didn¡¯t have enough time to pick up new skills.

    Angor was going to make this arm to help Nausica survive better in theing challenge. As for more advanced techniques... he always had time to do soter.

    After Angor left on his own, Mithra also prepared something and stepped out of the door and went into the city, albeit in a different direction.

    Angor was heading back to the main city district, while Mithra went to the lower side of the city where the core facility¡ªthe Research Department¡ªwas located.

 Chapter 472 - A Painting About Future

    <h4>Chapter 472: A Painting About Future</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor returned to Sunders¡¯ mansion and saw Dodoro already awake. The man was sitting still on a bed, seemingly thinking about something.

    Dodoro smiled brightly when he saw Angoring and quickly stood up.

    ¡°Awake?¡± Angor asked Dodoro to sit beside the desk. He then asked Papaya about Dodoro¡¯s condition. ording to Papaya, Dodoro was already awake in the early morning, but he never spoke to anyone.

    Angor nodded. Dodoro was always like a newborn child despite his mature look. He only fully opened up to Angor.

    Angor asked Papaya to return to the Krakok building and looked at Dodoro gently.

    ¡°Yesterday, I saw¡ª¡± Dodoro quickly tried to speak when he received Angor¡¯s attention.

    Angor covered Dodoro¡¯s mouth. If Dodoro was truly talented for Prophecy, then the man needed more ¡°indirect¡± ways to exin what he saw. But as for now, Dodoro was still bad at talking. This could be a little too hard.

    Angor pondered and decided to proceed in a ¡°quiz and answer¡± manner.

    ¡°Listen. So, you saw me at the bottom of the sea? Tell me yes or no.¡±

    Sweat drops appeared on Dodoro¡¯s forehead. An unknown power just showed up and prevented him from talking. His cheeks soon became red when wrestling with it.

    As a mortal, there was no way for Dodoro to openly use his powers yet.

    Angor quickly stopped him from trying. ¡°Don¡¯t say anything. Use your eyes if you can.¡±

    Dodoro¡¯s eyes were just clear and innocent like children¡¯s, which meant what was on his mind was clear to observe. Also, Angor was really worried about this.

    <i>Can someone as naive and sincere as him be a prophet?</i>

    Without a problem, Angor read the hint from Dodoro¡¯s determined eyes as a ¡°yes¡±.

    ¡°I see. Do I look fine or am I in a bad condition?¡±

    Dodoro hesitated. It seemed like he couldn¡¯t tell.

    ¡°Do I look younger or older?¡±

    <i>No.</i>

    ¡°Did my hair grow longer?¡±

    <i>No.</i>

    ¡°Am I alone?¡±

    <i>No.</i>

    ¡°Someone¡¯s with me?¡±

    <i>Yes.</i>

    ¡°Is mypanion a man?¡±

    <i>No.</i>

    Angor asked several more questions while using illusions to facilitate them. A momentter, Angor stopped and tried to collect useful information from what he learned, while Dodoro looked pretty happy that Angor managed to understand him merely by looking at his eyes.

    Angor realized there was a lot to go by. While arranging his thoughts, he noticed that all the clues all led to the purification garden.

    ording to Dodoro, he didn¡¯t have any change in age or even his hair length, which meant what Dodoro saw wasn¡¯t anything too distant from now. By using the right illusions to go through all possible individuals he might encounter, Angor sessfully ascertained his panion¡± in Dodoro¡¯s sight. It was a youngdy wearing red dance shoes¡ªKeely.

    There was only the garden challenge that met with these conditions. It seemed he and Keely were heading to some pit at the bottom of the sea.

    It wasn¡¯t something shown by Dodoro; it was Angor¡¯s own assumption. It could also be the entrance to somewhere. Unfortunately, Dodoro couldn¡¯t tell him why he and Keely were in the water in the first ce.

    Next, Angor took out some papers to draw what he imagined while Dodoro watched quietly. When something was wrong with the drawing, Dodoro would mumble something in a small voice to alert Angor.

    Angor took the finished picture to Sunders.

    He was still doubting something though. <i>Is this really Dodoro¡¯s ¡°prophecy¡±? If so, are we going to change the future or something? Will it cause trouble? Butterfly effect? Paradox? End of the world?</i>

    Sunders snickered at Angor¡¯s words. ¡°You don¡¯t have to mind the mysteries of time. What I can tell you now is that bing a wizard means changing the future, both for you and for the world around you. There¡¯s no need to worry about the oues at your current state. For example, taking you in means changing my future. Should I fear it and reject you instead?

    ¡°To put it simply, Dodoro and what he told you is only a small variation of a possible event. You may or may not encounter this event regardless of what you do about the hint. Don¡¯t let it burden your mind.¡±

    Sunders then checked Angor¡¯s painting. First, he greatly admired the skillful art disyed by his student, which fitted well with his noble standards.

    ¡°What you guessed might be true, that this is something during the garden challenge. I¡¯ve never been there personally, so I can¡¯t tell you if there¡¯s a sea. The point is, what this painting is showing to us is not important. We do not know why this is happening or where it takes us to. In other words, don¡¯t waste time thinking about it.

    ¡°However, you can remember what you saw, and maybe when you doe across this situation, the painting may provide you with guidance. Of course, it still depends on you whether to follow it.¡±

    Sunders returned Angor¡¯s paper and joked, ¡°So, while growing in strength, you also found TWO more talents for your little crew?¡±

    Sunders was talking about Papaya and Dodoro.

    ¡°I think the recruitment quest fell to Wace this year. I still remember him crying like a babe in front of Mister Rein. Say, if you can take five talents to him, that man will thank you wholeheartedly.¡±

    Angor chuckled. Even if he somehow found that many talents, he wasn¡¯t going to give them to Wace. Who knew if something simr to the ¡°chamber deathmatches¡± would happen again?

    He heeded Sunders¡¯ words and kept the painting in his bracelet. Perhaps Dodoro only saw a possible time point in many. He still had to forge his own path.

    With this settled, Angor returned to his own room to prepare Nausica¡¯s mechanical arm.

    He had most of the required materials ready since he refilled his stock when he was in the Ice Cave in Dark Castle. However, the discussion with Mithra added several new things to the list, so he still had to pay visits to several shops.

    While hunting for materials, he also found a potion shop and asked to buy a witch stew.

    The shopkeeper rolled his eyes and pointed at a symbol on the wall. ¡°This shop here is Van Der Waals. We don¡¯t sell that cheap stuff. Yer looking for trouble?¡±

    Before Angor could exin his terrible mistake, the shopkeeper kicked him out.

    Angor sighed helplessly. Mithra reminded him of the bad rtionship among different schools for more than once, and yet, he still underestimated it.

    He wondered if every Apothecary could be tolerant like Master Mithra, which probably would end all these ¡°wars¡±.

    In the end, he sessfully found what he needed from a small house built in shadows with a sign that showed a steaming cauldron.

    Just as Mithra said, Cillian¡¯s Witch Stew was amon merchandise designed for bloodline training. A vial only cost 10 magic crystals.

    Most apprentices could afford it by doing several quests. Angor simply spent 1,000 crystals and stocked 100 vials of it.

    He didn¡¯t mean to waste money. It was just that he needed a lot of practice to get familiarized with the sequence of gravity. From a quick guess, he believed 100 vials of stew would barely be enough to support the intensive training which would take two weeks.

    With everything prepared, Angor shut himself in his room and began creating Nausica¡¯s mechanical arm. He wasn¡¯t going to apply any magic arrays to it since he didn¡¯t have enough time to study new ones, while the ones he already knew were pointless in this case.

    Still, what he had in mind was no inferior to the effect of magic arrays.

    In three days, he sessfully finished every part of the arm and assembled them into a thin yet powerful tool that shone with the brilliance of fine metal.

    The arm worked by receiving its user¡¯s myoelectric signals. Nausica might need some time to get used to it, but with enough time, the arm would be handy as if it were grown naturally.

    Angor also left each finger hollowed out like gun barrels and applied mana-enhancing runes to them, which meant Nausica could use the fingers to release ammunition that was pre-loaded in the chambers. If not, she could use the barrels to vent out her attacking magic.

 Chapter 473 - Mechanical Arm

    <h4>Chapter 473: Mechanical Arm</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    There was one other important feature about the arm used for attacking. Angor and Mithra both agreed to this final n after careful discussions.

    But they needed Nausica to test it out.

    Just as Angor prepared to head to Champagne Road with his new product, Number One greeted him at his door. ¡°Mister Padt, Mister Sabot is waiting for you in the guest hall.¡±

    ¡°Sabot?¡± Angor recognized that name. Sabot was Mithra¡¯s student. Angor found the man to be familiar when seeing him at Bog¡¯s base, but he didn¡¯t remember why by then.

    It was untilter when he had enough time to search his memories that he finally recalled who that was.

    When leaving his home and traveling to Fey Continent, the ship he used was called The Redbud, and one of the escort wizards protecting the ship was ¡°Mad Bear¡± Sabot. At that time, Angor didn¡¯t get to see Sabot for real. It was when a group of wizards and apprentices entered Barbie¡¯s Restaurant did they finally see each other. Back then, Angor was still a mortal who could only tremble in fear in front of wizards. He couldn¡¯t really look at people freely.

    Angor had no idea what Sabot wanted with him, but it was probably something rted to Master Mithra.

    ¡°I see, I¡¯ll be right there.¡± Angor removed his hooded robe and put up a more formal-looking suit before going to the guest room.

    Sabot was waiting while drinking some unknown liquid from a wine ss. The man¡¯s body was too big that he took up most of his sofa, which was intended for three people.

    ¡°Mister Sabot.¡± Angor bowed politely.

    Sabot gave him a friendly smile.

    ¡°No need for manners. Professor Mithra spoke highly of you. I think he would have taken you in personally if Mister Phantom has not done so already.¡± Sabot chuckled. ¡°I came here because Professor Mithra has a request.¡±

    Angor patiently waited for Sabot to finish.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re helping your friend with a new mechanical arm. Did you finish it?¡±

    Angor nodded and took out the brand new product he just created from his bracelet.

    ¡°No no, I¡¯m too dumb to look at this thing,¡± Sabot said. He then asked Angor to put the arm back. ¡°Since it¡¯s done, you¡¯re going to deliver it to your friend, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The garden will open soon, and I hope she can get used to it sooner.¡±

    ¡°Truth is, Professor Mithra sent me here to ask you to show him the arm first; he seems really interested in it. Of course, I¡¯ll go and invite your friend to Elixir Hutter so that we can do the test there.¡±

    The request sounded fine, and Angor would not reject it. Besides, Mithra helped a lot with the arm¡¯s design.

    Angor nodded and told Sabot where Nausica lived before he headed to Elixir Hut next.

    He was a little surprised to see both Yeliya and Toya absent. Mithra was the only one home.

    And for some reason, he felt something strange the moment he stepped into the hut. It was like when he entered the Midworld and sensed the terrible gaze of Sesaybelles¡¯ Eye.

    However, Sesaybelles¡¯ gaze meant malevolence and trouble, which only caused him to tremble in fear. The unknown feeling in the Elixir Hut, on the other hand, was at least not hostile. Even so, it wasn¡¯t really pleasant either.

    It was like someone affixed an iron chunk to his heart that stressed him out.

    Thankfully, when Mithra came and began a new session of friendly discussion with him, Angor slowly forgot about the mental burden.

    Of course, their topic soon focused on Angor¡¯s new product. When Angor showed the mechanical arm to Mithra, the old man didn¡¯t seem surprised at Angor¡¯s progress at all. After all, Enchantment alchemy was always faster than Synthesis.

    Mithra didn¡¯tment on the arm, but Angor could see from Mithra¡¯s eyes that he was mostly satisfied.

    And Angor felt really proud of it. His work was approved by a true master in the field!

    While Angor exined some of the small modifications he made and several extra questions, he got another weird feeling. Mithra responded to hisments just fine, but many of Mithra¡¯s opinions didn¡¯t sound the same as before. It was as if the old man had aplete change of mind over these days.

    Mithra was an Apothecary who mainly regarded Tooling Arts as a subfield, but today, Angor felt as if he were talking with another true Tooling master. Compared to the extensive knowledge reserve disyed by Mithra, his own ideas were like insignificant streams of water in front of an ocean. No matter what kind of questions he raised, the old man in front of him could always solve them using the briefest and easiest words.

    <i>Is this really Mithra?</i>

    Angor had his doubts, but he didn¡¯t really sound them. In terms of alchemy knowledge, he had no hope inpeting with a master like Mithra as of now, and he was in no position to question Mithra¡¯s expertise.

    He believed that Mithra was simply holding back during the past days.

    Their discussion still proceeded smoothly. From the mechanical arm, their focus slowly moved onto machine armaments and ¡°mech robots¡±. Angor only knew the general idea of such robot weapons he learned from certain sci-fi movies, and he could only exin what he knew as an alchemist in this world.

    When Angor almost finished exining his own ideas, Mithra gave him another satisfied and mysterious smile.

    Angor thought he saw something weird on Mithra¡¯s face, but before he could look more carefully, Sabot and Nausica appeared at the door.

    Nausica looked really stressful and cautious, but her spirit quickly loosened when she saw Angor greeting him with a smile. After receiving Sabot¡¯s consent, she entered the room and joined Angor.

    Sabot nodded to Mithra and left quickly. Angor failed to notice that Sabot wasn¡¯t looking at ¡°Mithra¡± like how he usually did. Instead, the Mad Bear looked more polite and fearful.

    ¡°Since your examinee is here, shall we begin the test?¡± Mithra kept his gaze on Angor without minding Nausica.

    Angor nodded. He felt it strange that Mithra called Nausica an ¡°examinee¡±, but he didn¡¯t say anything.

    Nausica didn¡¯t really mind what was going on since her attention was fully attracted by the mechanical arm on the desk.

    She had put her fine hand on the arm without realizing it. When Angor said ¡°mechanical arm¡±, she was expecting a big chunk of metal used for smashing things. However, it turned out to be something that looked just as slim and handy as her other arm.

    Slim, but not fragile. The silver metal used as the main material looked extremely solid and steady, while each junction and joint shone with the power of runes that only made the whole creation look more amazing.

    There was the engraving of a butterfly at the wrist area, which fit well with the de hanging on Nausica¡¯s waist¡ªthe ¡°Solefly¡±. She already saw that both designs came from the same pair of hands.

    ¡°This is... for me?¡± Nausica felt so excited that she almost couldn¡¯t believe what she saw.

    Angor nodded and proceeded to affix the arm to Nausica¡¯s shoulder. Since it was the first time she put it on, he had to exin to Nausica about how to align each nerve junction properly as well as points of caution.

    When the arm was set, Nausica tried to clench her fist, which didn¡¯t go very well. Such problems were expected. With enough time, the arm¡¯s movement dy will slowly disappear until Nausica couldmand it like her own.

    Angor flipped open a small chamber located just below the arm¡¯s elbow. ¡°This is a crystal slot. You can either spend magic crystals to trigger the runes or use your own mana as a power source. I suggest you do thetter for now and try to get used to the mana consumption rate first so that you won¡¯t run into any mistakes during your fights.

    ¡°These here are mana tunnels. Use them to channel mana in the same way as to how you¡¯d use your healthy arm.

    ¡°This is mana-enhancing rune that amplifies your magic...

    ¡°This is...¡±

    One by one, Angor pointed out the different functions and features of the arm, including the five finger barrels used for shooting bullets or unleashing magic attacks.

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you the blueprint for bulletster. You can give them special effects either by enchantment or synthesis. I can help you with the bullets too. If you can¡¯t find me, bring the blueprint to an alchemist for help.¡±

    Next, Angor pointed at the palm of the metal arm where a spiral rune was located. This was what took most of his time to design¡ªthe Helix Rune.

 Chapter 474 - Gate Card

    <h4>Chapter 474: Gate Card</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Usually, runes were used for applying passive effects. This Helix Rune, too, had such an effect that changed the flow of energy and made it rotate.

    To put it simply, any energy that went through the Helix Rune woulde out spinning.

    The rune was a rare one found in Angor¡¯s book collection; even Mithra failed to recognize it the other day when Angor mentioned it to him. After learning about its functions, Angor followed some of Mithra¡¯s advice and ced such a rune in the middle of the palm.

    The most obvious trait provided by the rune was power enhancement. Letting something spin meant adding more momentum to it. As a Bloodline apprentice, Nausica could use this feature to unleash deadlier attacks both to people and to objects.

    Secondly, the rune could amplify mana energy as well. Also following Mithra¡¯s advice, Angor ced a wind generation rune to the arm. This one was usually used by alchemists during forging processes to create wind flows. But here, the wind could travel through the Helix Rune, thus bing tornadoes as powerful as a level-2 cantrip.

    This ¡°spinning tornado¡± could help Nausica greatly both for fighting and escaping.

    The other forms of attacks could change their nature via the Helix Rune as well. For example, spinning fire bullets, spinning ice arrows... As for whether they would be stronger or weaker, Nausica had to do her own experiments.

    Angor meant to design the Helix Rune as a small boost that would allow Nausica toe up with a great number of her own ideas. With the right approaches, she might utilize the rune to its best extent.

    After exining everything, Mithra took them to an open ground under the hut and asked Nausica to test out the arm in a small arena.

    Nausica took out a hairband of the same bright color as her cloak and bound her long hair into a ponytail.

    Next, she took several deep breaths to calm her excited mood and began to move her newly obtained right arm.

    Nausica did her best to show her physical abilities as well as mana control. She already looked like a skilled warrior without the arm. Even Mithra couldn¡¯t help giving her nods andments.

    ¡°That¡¯s Brute Cavern for you... She has reached such a high level as an apprentice. Impressive.¡±

    Both Angor and Nausica found the results to be satisfactory. Everything worked well, except for several trips and bumps when Nausica attempted to use the ¡°spinning tornado¡± to escape.

    And the remaining problems would be addressed once Nausica spent enough time with the new arm.

    ¡°Thank you.¡± Nausica returned to Angor and bowed down.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t. We¡¯re friends. I just hope that you cane back out in one piece with my help.¡±

    ¡°Of course I will, even if I¡¯m only going to fulfill your expectation.¡± Nausica looked determined and vigorous.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so then. I don¡¯t want my invention to go wasted.¡± Angor smirked.

    Neither of them noticed that Mithra gave them a strange re after hearing those words.

    Since the test was finished, Nausica was going to return to her hotel. Angor would join her because he had bloodline-rted questions to ask so that he could do something for the Krakoks.

    At the door, Mithra called Angor while asking Nausica to go first.

    Nausica thought Mithra had some other alchemy stuff to discuss with Angor, so she didn¡¯t have a problem with it. ¡°Well, guess I¡¯ll go on my own and work harder. You can always find me at Budding Quarter.¡±

    After Nausica went away, Angor gave Mithra a curious look. The old man obviously had something private to say, and he wondered what to expect.

    Mithra took out a metal card from his pocket and handed it to Angor. There was a line of strange characters written on it, and Angor failed to recognize it.

    ¡°Em, what¡¯s this, Mister Mithra?¡± Angor checked both sides of the card and didn¡¯t recognize anything on it. No special markings, no magic residue.

    ¡°This is the gate ess card of the Research Department. Since you¡¯re good at alchemy, find a time and go check out the ce. There are a lot of machine alchemy products, eitherplete ones or unfinished ones. You will learn useful things, no doubt.¡± Mithra smiled kindly.

    <i>Research Department?!</i>

    Angor¡¯s eyes went wide. To outsiders, the Floating Mech City was the heaven and birthce for alchemists. And their Research Department was the true treasure vault in this heaven.

    This card meant a lot to him.

    ¡°Is-is it fine for me to take it, Mister Mithra?¡± Despite the great excitement, Angor suddenly grew concerned about potential troubles.

    ¡°It is absolutely fine. The ce is quite empty, only me and several more old souls are keeping our names running. Are you worried about people talking behind our backs?¡± Mithra chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t be. A young man like you will bring more passion to our works. Otherwise, I¡¯ll soon stop going there because it feels like a dead house.¡±

    Angor nodded madly since he had no other reason to reject the great offer. ¡°Oh yes! I¡¯ll definitely go there! ¡°But... the purification garden... I need to¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know. The ess card is renewed every century, so you don¡¯t have to hurry. Besides... you¡¯ll earn your way inside soon enough even without this thing, I believe.¡±

    Angor tilted his head as he failed to understand thatst part.

    ¡°The Floating Mech City is just another wizard organization as a whole. But the Research Department is independent. Several of those old men I mentioned aren¡¯t from the city. Once you be another master alchemist, or, let¡¯s say, you created something approved by us and allowed us to distribute your creation in the name of the department, we¡¯ll also let you join.¡± Mithra put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°And I¡¯m looking forward to the day when you¡¯ll finally create that ¡®mech robot¡¯ of yours and bring it to us.¡±

    ...

    After Mithra watched the boy return into the city, he saw a faint shadow materializing beside the hut along with a familiar voice:

    ¡°Oh,e on, Muse. Can¡¯t you just show up in front of people normally? And I have to ask my own wife to stay away from the house. When shees back, she¡¯ll order me to sleep on the floor for half a month, again.¡±

    ¡°Mithra¡± replied in apletely different voice, which sounded young and clear, ¡°Wasn¡¯t it YOU who came up with the idea? And you said something about not to startle the child. As far as I can see, the kid¡¯s not easily startled.¡±

    The shadow already took on a solid form of another individual.

    Orange, wilted hair strands with burn marks, wrinkled skin, hunched body... the real ¡°Elixir of Miracle¡± Mithra.

    While the original ¡°Mithra¡± who had been talking to Angor earlier slowly took up a different look as his body grew younger and taller.

    Any wizard here would soon recognize the second city master who always hid inside the Research Department¡ª¡±The Fool¡± Muse.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that when I said ¡®startle¡¯,¡± Mithra scoffed. ¡°Angor¡¯s a good kid. He¡¯s smart, hard-working, and gifted. We can¡¯t find better youngsters than him when ites to logical thinking and creativity. Also, he once saw Mystery power... I¡¯d say he¡¯s likely to surpass us both given enough time. I just don¡¯t want you to mislead his theories too much with your own.¡±

    ¡°Letting him roam freely might cost him his life quicker,¡± Muse said in a cheerful manner. However, his words somehow sounded cold and merciless.

    ¡°Well, nobody can tell. But you actually gave him the card? That¡¯s not like you.¡±

    ¡°Like what? I judge him worthy of such a privilege, simple as that.¡± Muse changed the topic. ¡°I just received info that Bog entered the depth of Abysm. I can no longer monitor him.¡±

    ¡°... He chose his fate. And he needs to make more choices carefully to get out alive,¡± Mithra said with a sad look. He watched Bog grow up just like how Yeliya cared for Toya. To Mithra, Bog was both his student and his son.

    ¡°As for whether he cane back... Let¡¯s take a bet, shall we?¡± Muse chuckled.

    ¡°What should we bet with?¡±

    ¡°If I win, you¡¯ll take charge and manage the lower city for ten years. Otherwise, I allow you to be absent from department duties for fifty years.¡±

    Mithra pondered. In ten years, he, as the vice chief of the Research Department, would stay on duty to administer that ce. He did love doing researches, but at the same time, he had to handle all other matters such as advertising and trivial chores, which he would avoid.

    ¡°Alright, I ept your challenge.¡±

    ...

    Instead of looking for Nausica, Angor headed back to Sunders¡¯ mansion first.

    The bloodline problem about the Krakoks wasn¡¯t an urgent matter. He decided to let Nausica fully enjoy her training before the garden challenge.

    Angor nned to use thest moment to train as much as he could. At the very least, he had to master Field of Fire and get familiarized with the sequence of gravity. If he could wield the gravity power properly, he would be able topete with some of the most powerful apprentices in strength, and at the same time, he would be able to improve his mobility, which would be his second trump card to stay alive in the garden, apart from Infinite Reticence.

    Time psed slowly but surely as he indulged in his schedules.

 Chapter 475 - Preface

    <h4>Chapter 475: Preface</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Month of Resuscitation had silently arrived, announcing the start of a new year.

    Renewing their calendar was always something worth celebrating to mortals no matter where they came from. Now, mortals in this world were already enjoying the first several sleepless days of the year with lively ceremonies and parades.

    In the world of wizards, only a few people noticed the particr time point, and none of them paid it any extra mind. There were many wizards who would spend decades studying a simple spell. A new year meant nothing.

    But to Angor, it meant he had one less year for fulfilling his promise to Jon. It was always hard for him to find breathers between training and working, and now, he had more reasons to work harder by using every second to its fullest. In order to strengthen his foundations before the garden challenge, he barely caught any sleep in the past two weeks.

    He was now a full-fledged level-2 apprentice. Such a tight schedule only stressed his mind a bit; it did not affect his health at all.

    Soon, it was the 10th day of the Month of Resuscitation, which officially signaled themencement of the purification garden event.

    ...

    The Month of Resuscitation got its name because the goddess of spring would soon visit this world and break all the ice blocking key traffic points; it would then allow everything to grow again. But nowadays, the ¡°resuscitation¡± of lives usually needed to wait until the Month of Blossom, which meant two months away.

    This was why the Floating Mech City was still troubled by heavy snowkes by the time the purification garden was opened.

    On this special day, the visiting apprentices living on Champagne Road all left their residence and walked toward the lower side of the city. Different individuals in bizarre clothing and decorations filled up the white street as if a masquerade party were being held.

    Even the sky would asionally wee several flying travelers who also aimed for the garden.

    When most people had gone ahead, the door of Timber Pub was pushed open again. Nausica, Shan, and Shiliew carefully walked together behind the major crowd.

    To be precise, it was only Nausica and Gank who were walking. Shan was sitting on Gank¡¯s left shoulder, while Shiliew was sleeping on the right.

    ¡°Oh dear...¡± Shan sighed and revealed a worried look on her young face. ¡°Is it okay for her to attend like this? If something bad happens in the garden and she falls asleep again, she¡¯ll just die for nothing.¡±

    It seemed Shiliew didn¡¯t share Shan¡¯s concern at all. She was still sleeping peacefully with a smile on her face as if dreaming of something sweet.

    Nausica was just as anxious as Shan. Butpared to the little girl, Nausica could think about the situation on another level. ¡°Since Shiliew¡¯s professor asked her toe, there should be a way to solve the problem. We can¡¯t keep worrying about her anyway. She has to deal with her own problems sooner orter.¡±

    Shan made a duck face. ¡°Why are you always lecturing people? Try that on Angor next time.¡±

    ¡°Angor huh?¡± Nausica smiled to herself. ¡°He needs no lecturing from me. He always knows which part of him to show us... Sometimes, I can¡¯t believe he¡¯s actually a teen. It¡¯s as if I¡¯m talking to a real gentleman.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Shan tilted her head. ¡°But he¡¯s pretty simple to me. Look, he gets embarrassed when talking about milk.¡±

    ¡°Well... It¡¯s a good thing to always keep a small innocence in you, no?¡±

    ¡°I think so...¡± Shan nodded and decided to talk about Shiliew again. ¡°But I¡¯m still worried about HER! I wish I can find you or Shiliew in the garden soon.¡±

    ¡°Shiliew, yeah, you can help her. As for me...¡± Nausica clenched her metal fist and focused. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. I must.¡±

    The snow was still falling under the gloomy sky. Here, Nausica¡¯s bright cape was like a small flower drifting bravely in the cruel world.

    Soon, they reached the gravity attunement gate and reached the lower part of the city.

    To outsiders, people and buildings in this part of the city were all upside-down. But those who were inside the city would not feel anything wrong.

    As they moved closer, Nausica saw thicker crowds gathering. A quick guess suggested that there were more than ten thousand apprentices who were preparing to enter the garden, if not twenty. She wasn¡¯t sure.

    Also, most of them were smiling because of the chance to improve themselves.

    Only a few knew that it might be theirst chance to smile in this world.

    Those who were hovering in the air using either vehicles or spells were mostly elites. Unlike the others, they all knew what was going to happen inside the garden.

    Only one in every ten people woulde out in one piece.

    The people celebrating their fortune at this moment would probably meet a more terrible endingter. As always, wise people would spend most of their time alone, and it might not be a bad thing as wizards all had to endure the absence ofpany in their prolonged lives.

    Nausica¡¯s group also calmed their minds as they readied themselves for the challenge. Only Shiliew was still sleeping, oblivious of the fake happiness shown by the outside world.

    Next, they went through another gate protected byrge, enchanted metal walls.

    By the time they arrived at the spot indicated by their invitation cards, they had a hard time moving around because there were too many people.

    ¡°No way back now...¡± Nausica muttered while looking at the Rune Monitors guarding the walls.

    Shan felt Gank trembling beneath her and also showed a serious look. ¡°Gank knows how to sense danger. There¡¯s... mana flows, bad ones, around here. Gank¡¯s terribly afraid of them.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re breaking the rules after all.¡± Nausica sighed. ¡°But again, there are no rules in this world.¡±

    More people swarmed inside the narrow space. Now, it was how much private area one could forcefully create that showed his or her strength, rather than their strange getups.

    Nevertheless, the whole situation was getting weirder.

    Nausica¡¯s group was also involved in someone¡¯s violent action. Around the edge of the area, they stumbled into another man¡¯s magic field. It was a wizard who was wearing heavy powders and a thick scarf, who just gave Nausica an angry stare. ¡°How dare you step into the royal territory of the prince of Yiberia! Do you wish to¡ª¡±

    Nausica pressed a hand against his chest. ¡°Get lost. We don¡¯t have time for your garbage.¡±

    In the next second, the man became a swirlinget. He created a fine curve in the air and crashed into the wall.

    The ruckus drew a lot of attention from the bystanders.

    Nausica paid no mind to people¡¯s hostile usations orments. No one actually did anything since what she showed prevented any potential thugs from approaching her.

    ¡°Ohh, you¡¯re getting good at this. That guy¡¯s still moving, so I guess you held back? You can¡¯t control its power just two weeks ago,¡± Shan talked to Nausica while trying to kill time.

    ¡°Yeah... I learned some new tricks about how to control mana flow in this thing.¡± Nausica chuckled.

    ¡°So far, this mechanical arm works better for youpared to transnted organs. It never showed any rejection problem and it only improved your power!¡± Shan looked a little jealous. ¡°Now I want one for myself too.¡±

    Putting her joke aside, she would admit that the splendid invention was an extremely useful tool.

    Shiliew suddenly sat up during their conversation and looked around uncertainly. ¡°Are we inside the garden already?¡±

    ¡°Still waiting outside. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going to happen from here though,¡± said Nausica.

    Shiliew nodded and checked the people around them. Then, she quickly covered her ears. There was too much noiseing from all sorts of people, which made her ufortable.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Shan asked out of concern. They knew about Shiliew¡¯s talent that made her sensitive to the flow of liquids, including human blood.

    ¡°I forgot to keep those unnecessary sounds away... I¡¯m okay now,¡± Shiliew said with a pale face. ¡°I heard many strong bloodlines. They¡¯re heavy like stones. They must havee from really powerful people.¡±

    ¡°Powerful? The really powerful guys are over there.¡± Shan pointed to an open space with only a few people standing there, which looked quite strangepared to the other spots.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Why won¡¯t anyone join them?¡±

    Shiliew checked and only found about a dozen people who upied a lot of space. They were either hovering, leaning against a tree, or sitting on the ground casually. However, everyone stood clear of each other¡¯s territory.

    ¡°Because no one¡¯s brave enough.¡± Nausica frowned. ¡°Those are the real elites from major organizations, which means they¡¯ll win if anyone fights them.¡±

    Shan nodded while pointing out several names.

    ¡°¡®Sky Dancer¡¯ Shayaron, ¡®Disciple of Philosophy¡¯ Suraithota, ¡®Dream Reader¡¯ Freud, ¡®Coeval Zerg¡¯ Yethew... They¡¯re all pretty well-known.¡± Shan finished speaking and looked around. ¡°Weird... Where¡¯s Angor?¡±

    Nausica shrugged. ¡°He¡¯s not the type to make a fuss in a situation like this. Besides, do you believe there are only so few elite apprentices who came?¡±

    Suddenly, they heard Shiliew screaming painfully. She had copsed on Gank¡¯s shoulder while covering her ears.

 Chapter 476 - Child of Ocean

    <h4>Chapter 476: Child of Ocean</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Shiliew! What¡¯s going on?¡± Using Gank¡¯s neck as support, Shan quickly hopped to the other shoulder and assisted Shiliew.

    Nausica also looked up in surprise from the ground.

    Shiliew eximed while still covering her ears. ¡°It-it¡¯s too loud... I blocked most of the water flowing noises and it still got me... Oh, this hurts...¡±

    ¡°Water?¡± Shan gave Nausica a puzzled look.

    Just as Nausica was wondering where this ¡°water¡± came from, she suddenly noticed something strange in the sky.

    ¡°Is that¡ª¡±

    Shan followed her direction and also looked upward. The sky was still blocked by gloomy clouds and heavy snow, but something new just showed up¡ªcontinuous sea waves that gradually grew stronger.

    Among the surging waves and sttering bubbles, a giant blue whale slowly descended from the sky while wiggling its huge tail.

    The sea waves were still approaching, and it would soon swallow those still on the ground.

    None of the apprentices knew what this was about, but they were fast enough to prepare their own tricks in order to defend against theing tidal wave.

    Although everything was soon proved to be unnecessary. The flying water was stopped by a giant magic array that just emerged from under the giant wall.

    It was only water that was blocked. The blue whale met no obstruction and went inside the enclosed area while still releasing blue bubbles around itself.

    Most apprentices flinched as the creature drew closer. The whale should be big enough to squash anyone to death if it ever crashed down for some reason.

    The corner shared by Nausica¡¯s group was not threatened by the whale, but they still felt the great pressure exerted by the magnificent creature.

    ¡°Someone brought the sea above our heads. No wonder Shiliew heard so much turbulence.¡± Shan frowned.

    ¡°No,¡± Nausica and Shiliew replied in unison. They exchanged a look before Shiliew continued, ¡°I love the sound of the sea. The sea is the marvelous creation of mother nature, and it¡¯s something pleasant. But now...¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s someone standing on that thing!¡± They heard someone yelling.

    Again, Shan looked at the sky. The disappearing mist created by sea waves slowly revealed a handsome young man in blue wizard robe leaning against a giant bubble casually while twiddling a small water stream between his fingers.

    ¡°Him... It¡¯s him. The terrible noise came from his blood flows,¡± Shiliew murmured while still rubbing her temples, ¡°as if... he holds another raging sea inside his body. There are only fierce tides and a bottomless abyss hidden beneath...¡±

    ¡°That sounds... scary.¡± Shan shivered.

    ¡°Look at his head,¡± Nausica said to them. ¡°There¡¯s a blue fish scale on his forehead. I read about a wizard organization when studying in the library. Every member of them has such a scale-like tattoo.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re saying¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Nausica affirmed while she revealed a grim expression, ¡°Song of the Deep.¡±

    ...

    Perhaps the noiseing from the young man was just too much to bear, Shiliew never recovered from her condition.

    Shan put a hand on Shiliew¡¯s trembling shoulder tofort her. ¡°Now now, you got us. Don¡¯t be afraid.¡±

    ¡°Afraid?¡± Shiliew jerked her head and looked at the young man with widened eyes as well as an eerie smile. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid! This is exciting! Oh, I¡¯m SO iming that water of his! Shall I turn it into poison or broil it up?! Boiling! Yes, that sounds fun! I¡¯ve never seen an entire sea fizzing in the heat!¡±

    She slowly reached out a hand and began to channel deep-blue mana. Her slick short hair slowly rose like dancing tentacles.

    ¡°Shiliew?!¡± Neither Shan and Nausica ever saw Shiliew acting like this before. To them, Shiliew should always be a calm and gentle woman who tended to sleep too much.

    Shan was startled by Shiliew¡¯s outburst and stepped back. Gank quickly caught her with a hand, or she would have fallen straight to the ground.

    ¡°What¡¯s gotten into her?!¡± Shan questioned Nausica helplessly. ¡°Should we do something?¡±

    Nausica shook her head slowly. ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see.¡±

    On top of the flying whale, the young man was still wondering if he should ask his littlepanion tond inside the crowd and see what kind of fun sight that would create.

    <i>They¡¯re going to die inside the garden anyway. Perhaps I should do them a favor and end their misery earlier?</i>

    He frowned and decided otherwise. ¡°Miss Maine will get here soon. I don¡¯t want her to see the ground full of stinky blood. Oh, how I love her... But she sees me as an enemy. Should I really care what she thinks?¡±

    As the young man struggled with his own mind, a wizard in silver uniform appeared in the sky. The color on him suggested that he was from the city.

    ¡°Perish those thoughts at once, Jebra. They need to die INSIDE the Purification Garden. We don¡¯t want to waste materials.¡±

    ¡°What if I disagree?¡± The young man named ¡°Jebra¡± gave the uniformed man an evil smile. Last time, no one actuallyined when he fought with Maine in the main city district. Now that his own professor was nearby, he had all the more reason to act unruly.

    ¡°If you damage our n, I¡¯ll personally kill you even if the God of Seas is watching,¡± said the uniformed wizard with a cruel expression.

    Jebra spread his hands. ¡°Okay okay. I didn¡¯t mean it, alright?¡±

    When Jebra put a finger against his scale, the giant whale slowly shrank in size and finally turned as small as someone¡¯s hand. Its ferocious aura was reced by cuteness instead.

    The uniformed wizard sighed in relief. Despite his previous words, it would be really troublesome if Jebra insisted on ruining everything.

    Suddenly, from one corner of the crowd, a beam mixed with the color of fire and water emerged, aiming right at Jebra.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s making a move!¡± several apprentices yelled in shock. No one was expecting people to actually get on the offensive.

    The elites to the right of the area also failed to stay calm and visibly grew nervous. They knew who the young man in the air was and how they should not offend him openly.

    Jebra smiled and nced at the iing attack.

    <i>Nice, someone did it first, so I need to defend myself, right? Maybe I¡¯ll ¡°identally¡± kill some people while at it. You can¡¯t me me for that!</i>

    He covertly channeled his water magic and looked at who was trying to harm him.

    He saw a woman with short, curly blue hair. Everything else on her looked average.

    But something was very wrong. The woman was looking at Jebra as if waiting for her next meal.

    And Jebra felt his heart skipping a beat.

    The terrible feeling worsened when he noticed the small trace of blue aura inside the beam.

    <i>This is not good!</i>

    Both his beating heart and his mind were telling him that he could NOT survive this attack.

    But he couldn¡¯t move. He felt like a mouse stared down by a hunting viper. His body had lost the will to resist.

    The uniformed wizard frowned at what he saw. He had just persuaded Jebra into giving up any stupid move when someone else showed up to embarrass him.

    The wizard didn¡¯t believe the attack was anything deadly. However, it would probably give Jebra an excuse to use violence. Therefore, the wizard decided to intervene and deflected the beam to another direction with one hand.

    The wizard meant to solve a potential conflict, but it waspletely not the case for Jebra. Jebra was d he was saved; otherwise, his life was probably forfeit.

    <i>Who¡¯s that woman?? Will she attack me again?</i>

    With that in mind, Jebra carefully nced at her again, only to find the woman snoring loudly on the body of an exceptionallyrge dude.

    <i>Was she trying to humiliate me?</i>

    Jebranded on the ground with mixed emotions. When he did, those around hisnding spot all chose to move away.

    He kept gazing at the strange woman while trying to figure out who she was. However, when Maine flew over the metal walls using a pair of snow-white wings, his attention finally went elsewhere.

    ...

    ¡°She¡¯s out again!¡± Shan sighed in distress and stroked Shiliew¡¯s hair. ¡°I think that man isn¡¯t going to retaliate. Nice.¡±

    Nausica returned from the crowd. ¡°I did a little ask-around just now. And yes, that man¡¯s from Song of the Deep. His name¡¯s Jebra. People say he got both a great talent and a supreme body. He¡¯s also the student of ¡®God of Seas¡¯. He¡¯s probably waiting to enter the garden and do something about Shiliew. Make sure you tell her to be carefulter.¡±

    Shan nodded. ¡°I know. But whatever happened to her just now? Was that the Shiliew we knew?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡± Nausica was smoking her old pipe again. ¡°Maybe it has something to do with why her teacher asked her toe.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I get you. No one came here empty-handed. They all have some kind of secrets or tricks, don¡¯t they?¡±

    Another small group of people entered the area.

    These people were clearly the most valued elites from various organizations. Just looking at them made people tremble uncontrobly.

    A woman with long, brown hair and a pair of wings on her back drew Nausica¡¯s attention.

    Her beautiful formbined with her semi-transparent silk attire disyed two contradictory auras¡ªpurity and alluring charm. Even so, Nausica was more interested in those wings that showed wizard-level power.

    The pair of wings was undoubtedly a wizard-level treasure.

 Chapter 477 - Two Sections

    <strong>Chapter 477: Two Sections</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Nausica was looking more and more grave.

    Someone came to the garden with wizard-level treasures, which meant the dubious business in the garden this time was even more unpredictable than people expected. Nausica was sure she couldn¡¯t survive using raw strength. She needed to think both carefully and fast.

    Of course, someone strong enough to beat down everything he or she came across did not have to worry about these. But Nausica was not such a case.

    The wingeddy moved in the air for a moment while fully releasing her aura for everyone to see, making it difficult for the weaker beings to breathe.

    ¡°That¡¯s... Maine from Shangri-La!¡± Someone revealed her name with a trembling voice.

    Maine had slowlynded among people, which immediately scared a good number of people away. No one dared to try their luck in front of those wizard-level wings.

    The woman didn¡¯t say anything. She folded her wings behind her back and nced at Jebra who was standing on the other end of the area.

    Jebra also looked her way. The two of them stared at each other across the distance.

    ¡°I will kill you inside the garden,¡± Maine dered violently, whichpletely did not fit with her charming look.

    ¡°I¡¯ll wait for you.¡± Jebra smiled while caressing his now smaller whale.

    Maine scoffed and jumped onto a nearby tree.

    There were fewer new apprentices entering the gate now. Most neers simply flew over the metal wall and made all kinds of grand entrances either by exerting powerful elements or great might.

    People were shocked again when another ten apprentices wearing the same type of silver uniforms showed up.

    Unlike the others, these people directly appeared from several hidden doors along the metal wall. Also, ¡°Neo Beast¡± Lawson was behind one of the doors.

    ¡°Why is Neo Beast here?¡±

    ¡°Hey, those are the strongest talents from the city!¡±

    ¡°Look, Dira is there!¡±

    ¡°But what for?¡±

    The Floating Mech City selected ten of their most trusted apprentices to enter the garden. Also, the city was fully confident that these ten would remain in the end and enjoy the purificationw.

    They were looking at the other apprentices without showing particr emotions. To them, the outsiders were their stepping stones toward their destinies.

    But there were still people even these city elites would not disregard, such as Jebra and Maine.

    When they left the wall and entered the gathering area, they all picked a corner and closed their eyes, oblivious of what was going on around them.

    Yet more people wereing.

    A forest rogue with a giant bow on his back, a pretty woman who created flowers and butterflies with each step, a short, hunched weirdo covered in swamp dirt and moss, and someone who was holding a cuckoo clock in his hand...

    They further silenced the already tensed atmosphere.

    No one was talking because they didn¡¯t have the courage to. Each of theters disyed unimaginable prowess without having to intentionally show it.

    Some of them even attracted the awareness of the most elite participants as well as the wizard guards.

    The great number of apprentices finally caused their personal space to be smaller. Of course, it was mainly the weaker apprentices who had to ept the bitter oue. Since they could neither speak or fight for a better spot to stand on, they slowly moved toward the left side of the area while leaving the entire right side to the elites.

    A small river stream acted as the border.

    Many people already began to wonder why so many powerful apprentices had shown up. Usually, these people didn¡¯t show their faces to others because they were always busy with training or something else.

    But today, almost every well-known apprentice in this world came here. There were level-3 apprentices too. Asmonly believed, the purification garden had little to no effect on level-3 apprentices. Did theye for another reason?

    People¡¯s concerns grew bigger and bigger until someone tried to call it quits and was stopped by the city guards.

    Of course, they were furious when someone prevented them from leaving. However, their protest meant nothing when going against thew enforcers of the city, who simply picked out several noticeable protesters and chopped off their limbs as a warning to the others.

    ¡°If you want to leave, prepare to do so as a lifeless corpse!¡±

    ¡°What the hell? This is not a voluntary event? Why are you forcing us?¡±

    ¡°But Floating Mech City is a neutral organization! Or are you nning to provoke the other organizations?¡±

    No matter what they said, the guards and enforcers didn¡¯t care. When anyone attempted something stupid, a wizard would quickly use his or her might to restrict the offender.

    People gradually stepped back. There were still several torso-only victims bleeding out on the floor.

    Almost immediately, fear had taken over their minds. Is the city plotting something terrible?

    Someone spread a message among the apprentices like dropping a bomb, either for fun or for some other evil intentions.

    ¡°Blood sacrifice! They are using us as live fertilizer for the garden!¡±

    More and more people began to yell and infect others with their horror.

    At first, most people didn¡¯t trust such a ridiculous im. After a while, they felt their hearts skipping several beats when the wizard guards did not deny the message.

    It¡¯s real?!

    They didn¡¯t know why this was happening, but they knew that the word ¡°blood sacrifice¡± meant people were going to lose their lives.

    Their emotions grew worse, yet they could only endure without actually yelling or screaming aloud. The guards had hanged the dead protesters on the metal walls to further ¡°convince¡± people not to do anything stupid.

    The entire area had gone silent again, although for a different reason this time.

    Those on the left side looked at the other part of the area with great hope¡ªas long as the stronger apprentices from influential ces could step up and fight, they still had a chance.

    But what they saw quickly snuffed out theirst bit of hope.

    To the right of the river border, the elite apprentices were simply minding their own business without caring about anything beyond their personal territories; several of them even gave the ¡°weak¡± ones cold res while snickering.

    Even the slowest minds could understand the situation now.

    The elites knew about this all along.

    Being on the left side didn¡¯t mean being miserable. There were still rtively strong apprentices among them, who were all calm as usual and were waiting to enter the garden, including Nausica.

    ¡°No worries... The elites are here, which meant there are great rewards in it. We just don¡¯t know yet!¡±

    People began to spread a new emotion either tofort themselves or to gain a fake hope.

    Once again, everyone waited quietly with only the asional whispers and the falling snowkes that could be heard.

    More apprentices were stilling. Soon, the elite apprentices on the right side all had topromise and move closer to each other.

    Nausica checked and realized that she might need to add another digit to the number of total participants. This area should berge enough to hold 100,000 individuals.

    ¡°Whatever¡¯s happening wille up soon,¡± Shan said as she put on a serious look. ¡°But why aren¡¯t the Supreme Cult fanaticsing?¡±

    As if to answer her question, a group of men in ck robes emerged from the entrance as one.

    ¡°Talking about the devil...¡±

    The arrival of the cultists only added to the strange ambiance in the area. Sdin¡¯s first move after showing up was to stare at Gank. He then revealed a bloodthirsty expression.

    Still, he didn¡¯t do anything since there were still guards and watchmen around. After giving Shan a violent gaze, he looked at Shiliew next.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Sdin?¡± an emotionless tone spoke from behind him.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± Sdin lowered his head.

    The strange voice snickered, ¡°A brute from another world... How disgusting. Remember to erase it when you see it in the garden.¡±

    Sdin scoffed in his mind. Even though he had already nned to do so, he still wouldn¡¯t want to listen to orders.

    Even so, he couldn¡¯t openly oppose the speaker for now.

    After the cultists, people heard something running loudly outside the gate.

    ¡°Faster, Alby! Hey, Brother Hermes! You too!¡±

    A kid around the age of ten arrived at the gate while riding on a white rhino, while another young man followed behind him. This young man who was just called ¡°Brother Hermes¡± was politely following behind yet another participant¡ªady with deep-bronze colored skin.

    ¡°Rest assured, Tana. I¡¯ve left a spirit mark on n, and I¡¯ll go to him immediately after I get in there. We¡¯ll be fine,¡± Hermes said while admiring his childhood friend, Tana, who had taken on apletely different look after reaching maturity. Tana¡¯s shiny, bronze muscles suggested her extremely well-developed physique, while her strong body did nothing to hide those bulging buttocks which even caused Hermes to develop some funny ideas.

    ¡°Maybe I should put a mark on you as well? So that I can get you after finding n. A gentleman should always protect ady¡ª¡±

    The kid sitting on the white rhino interrupted Hermes. ¡°Oh quit it, bro. Have you not had enough of Miss Tana¡¯s punches? I¡¯ll do a better job of protecting people. Right, Miss Tana?¡±

    ¡°Little Loki¡¯s quite right,¡± Tana giggled. ¡°But enough jokes today. Make sure you keep n well. He just eats and sleeps and eats again all day without learning the most basic cantrips... Why would the professor invite him to the garden anyway?¡±

    n, who had been following beside Tana closely, twiddled his fingers and didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Leave it to me!¡± Loki smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll keep him alive as long as he gives me more of his roasted meat next time!¡±

    Compared to the others, this particr joyful group of people really stood out. Although no one dared underestimate them¡ªbeing so rxed in such a situation only meant they were no one too ordinary.

    When Loki¡¯s group headed directly to the right side of the area, the other elite apprentices simply gave them some space without making any unnecessary moves.

    Which meant they had all the reason to chill.

    ¡°That¡¯s... n?¡±

    As the new group joined the other elites, a man covered under a ck hooded robe, who had been hiding among themon apprentices, muttered uncertainly.

 Chapter 478 - Gate Throws Open

    <strong>Chapter 478: Gate Throws Open</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    While holding her chin, Shan watched as more snowkes swept past her eyes. Since the city was stationed in the sky, the thick clouds looked extremelyrge and close to them.

    ¡°It¡¯s about to start,¡± she muttered.

    ¡°Fifteen minutes away, to be precise.¡± Nausica hid her excited expression behind the smoke clouds she released.

    ¡°We haven¡¯t found Angor yet. Aren¡¯t you wondering whether he woulde at all?¡±

    ¡°Why should I? It¡¯s his own decision whether toe here. That aside, you should do something to wake Shiliew up.¡±

    ¡°But I see him as my ¡®husband model¡¯. If he doesn¡¯t show up, I¡¯m gonna lower his grade among my husband candidates.¡±

    ¡°If Angor¡¯s already here and he hears what you just said, he¡¯ll immediately leave.¡±

    Shan huffed and set her eyes on the sleeping Shiliew. ¡°Hey, rise and shine! It¡¯s time to get down the road!¡± She nudged Shiliew.

    ¡°You made it sound like we¡¯re going to a funeral.¡±

    ¡°We are, in a sense.¡±

    After Shan pushed and pinched her several times, Shiliew finally opened her eyes slowly.

    ...

    There were still five minutes until the time limit indicated by the invitations. No one was going through the gate or flying over the giant wall now. The entire waiting area was quiet as a graveyard. The initial excitement of people was nowhere to be found, but at least the situation didn¡¯t seem TOO hopeless yet. At the very least, people had yet to express desperation.

    As they believed, a dangerous situation was always apanied by fortune and opportunity. Danger was something a wizard should not avoid in pursuit of strength and truth. They¡¯d dly join the challenge as long as the reward was worthwhile.

    ¡°Is Dodoro¡¯s prophecy wrong?¡± The man in the ck robe, who noticed n earlier, muttered to himself.

    Next, he heard the sharp noise caused by something piercing the air and looked up as someone approached from the sky. His movement caused his hooded face to be exposed just a little.

    Shan would have easily recognized Angor¡¯s face if she were to look this way.

    Angor already told them that he woulde, and he had no reason to deny his own words. In fact, he was one of the earliest ones to arrive. But just as Nausica said, he preferred to stay hidden without arousing too much attention.

    Of course, he saw Nausica¡¯s group¡ªGank¡¯s particrlyrge body was too difficult to overlook. But he never went to greet them. He already told or gave them what he should. Everything else depended on their individual abilities from now on. Even friends should not rely on each other too much.

    Angor had been keeping an eye on all theters to find Keely, who never showed up until now. Just as he was beginning to believe that Dodoro¡¯s ¡°fortune telling¡± was referring to something else, the woman finally came.

    Keely, who was still in her deep-blue dress, hopped down from her broomstick and took off the oilmp. Among the heavy snowkes and people with grim emotions, the light from the small me only added to her pale aura.

    Her ck kitten alsonded on the snow and sat beside her.

    As people tried to figure out who just came, Keely slowly moved to the right side of the river border on her red dance shoes. With each step, a small ice-cold ember would appear around her body.

    Meanwhile, Jebra, who had been tickling his blue whale, suddenly stood upright and gave the silent woman a cold look.

    Water waves slowly materialized behind his back.

    People looked between them uncertainly. Even Angor was wondering why these people looked so hostile with each other¡¯s presence.

    Also, everyone assumed that the woman was another special person since she was brave enough to confront Child of Ocean.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d see you here, psychotic bi*ch,¡± Jebra said as he released several water streams around his hand while his blue whale grewrger again.

    ¡°Today, it¡¯s either you die... or I live,¡± Keely replied in a cold tone.

    ¡°Hah! Do you think you can still run without that old b*stard to shield you? Oh, trust me. There¡¯s only one who¡¯ll win today, and it¡¯s me!¡±

    Keely was never the talkative type. All that was on her mind right now was to kill this man and end all trouble.

    Before the fight among them actually started, the metal gate slowly shut off, and a young man in a ck robe appeared above everyone¡¯s head and used his power to stop them from making any moves.

    Jebra and Keely too, could no longer initiate their attacks when affected by such might.

    ¡°Mister Lawson is here. It¡¯s time to get in the garden.¡±

    ¡°Aw such a pity that we can¡¯t see those two fight to their death. I think that¡¯s the third woman who wants Jebra dead today. Whatever did Jebra do to them?¡±

    ¡°Get them pregnant and ditch them of course. HA-haha!¡±

    The robed man floating in the sky was one of the city masters, ¡°Neo Beast¡± Lawson. His appearance caused the already silent waiting area to go even quieter.

    ¡°Time¡¯s up. Get ready to enter the purification garden,¡± said Lawson. He wasn¡¯t looking at the participants at all.

    With that, Lawson turned around and moved away. It was as if he was only here as a formality.

    At the same time, the apprentices felt the great pressure on their bodies gone.

    ¡°Mister Neo Beast, can you exin what exactly is going on?¡± someone asked loudly.

    Lawson stopped and slowly looked back.

    ¡°There are either the aware or the unaware, to whom the knowledge will make no difference. Do your best to withstand what¡¯sing. Those who seed will always get what you want, or even a chance to stand tall among everyone.¡±

    Lawson left those words and disappeared over the walls.

    The apprentices, as well as the elites, all looked at each other doubtfully. Some of them knew about the blood sacrifice, yet nobody told them how it worked. Were they supposed to kill each other or were there some other traps hidden in the garden?

    They thought someone from the city would tell them beforehand, which didn¡¯t happen. Neither Lawson nor the other wizards intended to talk to them.

    Soon enough, the ten apprentices selected by the city became the center of attention since they were likely the only ones who knew the secrets.

    The ten people in silver uniforms didn¡¯t back down under all the scrutinizing stares. Some of them even replied with their own mocking grins.

    But nobody actually moved.

    One side of the enclosed area was a tall mountain cliff. All of a sudden, a giant door about 30 meters in height slowly appeared on it.

    ¡°The gate is open. Now, please step inside. As for how to get out... you will naturally see when you reach there,¡± one of the enforcers announced to everyone.

    The ten apprentices from the city exchanged a nce before they dashed toward the gate as one.

    ¡°Get them! They can tell us the details!¡±

    After someone yelled out, countless more apprentices rushed after the city elites.

    The dense human wave flooded toward the single gate.

    Keely stood up and red at Jebra again. ¡°The purification garden shall be your grave. And soon, I¡¯ll find another coffin for your teacher, Flunza!¡±

    Then she walked away. She couldn¡¯t do anything to Jebra since all the guards were watching, but once they were inside the garden, no one would stop her.

    Jebra sensed a sweet smell sweeping past his nose. It was Maine, who intentionally walked beside his shoulder.

    ¡°Take a guess,¡± said Maine, ¡°will it be Keely or me who kill you first?¡±

    The woman giggled before she spread her wings and dived into the gate.

    Nausica, Shan, and Shiliew also moved toward the gate. Just before they could get in, Nausica suddenly looked around quickly. ¡°Huh...¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Shan asked.

    ¡°I think someone¡¯s watching me...¡± Nausica managed to catch a brief glimpse at a feminine figure, but that person was wearing arge bamboo rain hat that covered her face.

    ¡°Do you really care if people look at you?¡± Shan teased.

    ¡°That¡¯s not it. I felt something... hateful. Maybe it¡¯s an enemy of mine.¡±

    ¡°Enemy? Where? I¡¯ll help you kick her b*tt if I find her in the garden!¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s¡ª¡± Nausica only saw the imprable crowd in front of her. It was too hard to look for someone again. ¡°Forget it, let¡¯s move. I can always deal with an enemy by myself.¡±

    On the other side, Keely did not enter the garden after taunting Jebra. Instead, she asked her kitten to find someone.

    With several yful hops, the creature reached a hooded figure.

    ¡°Angor!¡±

    Angor looked up and saw Keely, who was still wearing the same cold expression.

    She was in an extra bad mood due to the previous encounter with Jebra.

    ¡°Good. You really didn¡¯te and bother us. I¡¯ll fulfill my promise and help you stay alive.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t need your help.¡±

    As a willful and spoiled girl, Keely chose to listen to her own words and keep talking without minding Angor¡¯s protest.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go find you as soon as we enter the garden. Stay somewhere safe and don¡¯t run off. It isn¡¯t my fault if you get into trouble and get yourself killed.¡±

    With that, Keely picked up her kitten, Luna, and jumped away.

 Chapter 479 - Flying Fish

    <h4>Chapter 479: Flying Fish</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor sighed in frustration. He couldn¡¯t possibly get angry with Keely¡¯s offensive attitude since she was mentally ill. Still, even though she had an excuse, he didn¡¯t like her manners.

    Other than feeling bad, he had nothing else to do about her.

    Without thinking about Keely, he tightened his hood and headed to the giant gate after everyone.

    Along his way, he heard many whispers and emotional words, most of which were about their uncertain fate or how people felt furious about the unfair treatment.

    Angor was also unsure of what to expect in the garden. Lawson was being vague when he said ¡°to withstand what¡¯sing¡±. People could either do so by killing everyone in sight or find a safe spot and hide.

    Also, there was another guard who mentioned how they would find the exit when ¡°it was time¡±.

    It meant the exit would not show up when the time was not right, which probably referred to the sessful level-up of the garden.

    This required sufficient sacrifices to be made. So how exactly did this ¡°sacrifice¡± work? To wait for people to kill each other until only 10% of the participants remained?

    Angor frowned again. If this was the case, the entire purification garden would be a merciless fighting ring that determined the strong from the weak.

    To make sure that there would be enough people who died, the garden had to be small so that no one could keep hiding.

    But again... Dodoro mentioned seeing a ¡°giant sea¡± in his vision, which didn¡¯t add up with the situation.

    Still, with all the questions in mind, Angor finally stepped into the gate.

    He walked inside a dark vortex-like environment for a while until he saw light ahead. He then swiftly prepared the model of a defensive cantrip in his mind space before he jumped through it.

    Hended on the solid ground soon. Before his eyes could adjust to the bright sunlight, a shadow emerged from one corner beside him. With another great leap, Angor moved away from his position while leaving an ice wall behind.

    When he had time to look back, he noticed that it wasn¡¯t someone who showed up, but a fish with a pair of wings growing on it.

    This otherwise ordinary-looking fish had silver scales, a pair of green eyes, and a slim body about half a meter long. It also had reallyrge fins that were releasing golden ripples into the air. With each move, the creature could cover dozens of meters instantly.

    It was not alone either. Angor realized he attracted a small school of several dozen flying fish to him.

    ¡°What the heck is¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish his thought, one of the fish released an ice arrow from its mouth.

    Angor was always prepared for potential attacks. Quickly, he built another ice wall in front of him. However, despite its insignificant look, the ice arrow directly went through the ice wall without slowing down one bit.

    Angor jumped a little and tilted to one side, barely avoiding the deadly projectile.

    The small arrownded on the ground behind him and created a giant crater, while the freezing aura carried by the attack covered arge patch of grass in frost.

    When the arrow grazed past him, Angor¡¯s robe also caught some frost around the edge.

    ¡°That was... close.¡± Angor¡¯s eyes widened in fear. There was no doubt that the ice arrow was more than enough to freeze up his own body.

    He was far from being safe. About 30 flying fishes moved together and released a series of ice arrows from different directions.

    <i>Those are enough to turn a football field into a fridge!</i>

    Out of instinct and fear, Angor ejected his soul and used the sequence of gravity to pull his body away, just in time to escape from the arrow barrage.

    Next, using the increased speed gained by gravity, he dragged his body to the other side of the grass field. Then he looked at the fish swarm, which was now a hundred meters away from him, and sighed in relief.

    It seemed as if the school of strange fish didn¡¯t mean to let him go yet. They quickly swam toward Angor¡¯s position again while spitting more ice arrows at him.

    ¡°What are those things? That attack is like some of the most powerful level-2 cantrips, and they are just spitting them out?!¡± Angor tried to dodge and run away while not forgetting toin aloud.

    To conserve his soul energy, he gained some distance and fused his soul again instead of using gravity power to escape. He then deployed a mist illusion along the path where the fish swarm was going to travel through.

    Their attacks were scary, but these creatures were obviously not intelligent enough toprehend the illusion. Almost instantly, the fishes ran into it and werepletely lost.

    Their once organized formation soon broke up as the fishes stumbled inside the illusion like alcoholics. And no matter how they bumped, they could never get out.

    <i>Now I just need to ¡°stir them up¡± a little...</i>

    Angor picked up a stone from the ground and aimed it at one of the wandering fish.

    Boop!

    The stone sessfully hit its nose.

    The blinded fish thought something just attacked it and immediately released another ice arrow toward where the stone came from.

    Next, those who sensed the ice arrow all began to ¡°retaliate¡±.

    The whole situation soon got out of hand... or fins.

    In the next second, the fish started shooting at each other while assuming that they were fending off enemies.

    Two minutester, Angor lifted his illusion and looked at the tattered ground and frozen fish bodies, either broken or intact.

    <i>Are these monsters or phantom beasts? They¡¯re quite strong...</i>

    Angor assumed that if his illusion failed, he¡¯d have to waste more strength or use Infinite Reticence to get away.

    Curious, he put a finger on one of the frozen scales that fell off from one of the fish.

    His finger instantly became red with frostbite.

    Although he didn¡¯t mind the mild pain. He quickly took out an ordinary dagger from his bracelet and tried to cut the scale.

    It didn¡¯t work. The scale didn¡¯t have a scratch on it.

    <i>Hard enough to be used as alchemy materials... </i>He pondered. <i>Even if I can¡¯t melt them, I can stuff them into clothing as armor ting.</i>

    He looked around and checked out the other parts of the fallen fish such as their fins and skin. As expected, everything more or less held supernatural properties that would work wonders in the right hands.

    ¡°Man... I should have learned Narda¡¯s Vision so that I can learn their exact use.¡±

    Narda¡¯s Vision, also called the ¡°Alchemist¡¯s Eye¡±, was the level-3 cantrip that helped its user to ascertain the truth hidden within the items. However, Angor was not strong enough to study it.

    Whether he could use these materials or not, he still decided to store most of the scales and fins. As for the others, he didn¡¯t have enough space in his bracelet for them.

    Next, he took some time to inspect the environment.

    He was standing on the grass, and there were the faint silhouettes of mountains in the distance. However, they were too far.

    He couldn¡¯t see anyone around.

    The sky was clear and bright as day. Only several asional clouds were drifting by, which made the scenery look quite rxing.

    This meant the purification garden was pretty huge. Otherwise, he¡¯d easily bump into someone since there were almost 100,000 people who just came inside.

    He assumed that this Sorcerer¡¯s Garden wasrger than the others that he saw before. But as he recalled, at this moment, the purification garden was only a low-level Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. This probably meant the size of a garden had little to do with its tier.

    Also, such a huge area meant that people could easily avoid fighting.

    <i>Then what about the blood sacrifice?</i>

    He suddenly noticed a number of small dots in the sky. After some careful looks, he noticed he was looking at another group of flying fish that were enjoying their sky cruise in a rxed manner.

    There were at least a hundred of them this time. Also, a particrly shiny, golden one was flying among them.

    Angor would not fight them now. Before getting to know what was going on, saving mana and stamina was the most important. He activated Infinite Reticence and carefully moved away from in sight.

    He didn¡¯t know which direction to go, but he did know that he couldn¡¯t stand still at this vast grasnd where there was almost no cover.

    Following his instinct, he headed toward the mountains while being as stealthy as possible.

    He didn¡¯t run into anything on the ground, but there were a lot of flying fishes above him. With different looks too. Some of them were dragging colorful ribbons behind their bodies; some hadrge, bulging eyeballs like goldfish; and some of them could even change their colors like shop signs. Also, not all fishes were in groups. There were the asional ¡°lone wolves¡± among them.

    Their appearance more or less resembledmon sea fish, but why they were all flying in the sky was beyond Angor¡¯s knowledge.

    Along his way, he saw two different groups of fish fighting among themselves. One side was a group of dolphin-like creatures who had ice-cold whirlwinds above their heads, while their opponents were a hundred ordinary-looking yellow carps.

    The dolphins unleashed several blizzard storms at their enemies.

    Angor shivered a little when he witnessed attacks that were as powerful as level-3 cantrips being used at the same time.

    The ¡°carps¡± didn¡¯t seem to be scared at all. They somehow ignored the attack and rushed into the smaller dolphin group until the dolphins all had their bones picked clean.

    Previously, Angor nned to get a better view in the sky by riding on his Gond. He quickly decided otherwise.

    There were almost no unupied parts in the sky. Angor believed it was quite easy for the other apprentices to run into these fish monsters.

    What could they do without simr hiding skills or illusion abilities?

    <i>Or is Floating Mech City trying to ughter 90% of us by sending all these fishes our way?</i>

 Chapter 480 - Shayaron

    <h4>Chapter 480: Shayaron</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor quickly denied his own thought. Those who managed toe here might not be strong, but at least, they should know how to deal with these animals without dying.

    Well, unless someone was foolish enough to climb to the sky and be a live bait.

    <i>Wait...</i> Something suddenly shed past Angor¡¯s mind. <i>To the sky? Bait?</i>

    Staying on the ground was safe, sure. But of course, the city wouldn¡¯t want the people to stay safe in the garden. They needed dead people¡ªa lot of them. And in such a case, sending people to the sky was one quick approach to produce corpses.

    But again, those with brains would never try to approach the sky.

    What if the city was nning to FORCE people to fly?

    For example... what if the exit of the garden was up there?

    Angor frowned at his assumption. It was quite possible.

    He carefully looked at the sky again and saw nothing apart from clouds and wandering schools of fish.

    Something told him that he was right. At the very least, there was something hidden in the sky.

    Even so, there were too many fishes up there, none of which seemed friendly. There were even some that were as big as whales.

    He decided to temporarily hold back his urge to explore the sky and check out the mountains first. If nothing showed up there, he would think of something to examine the air.

    He kept walking in his stealth mode. Being stealthy didn¡¯t really affect his traveling speed. About two hourster, he had already covered a hundred kilometers and reached the edge of the grass field.

    The remaining path was a barren wastnd. There were no nts or water that separated him and his destination, only more flying fish.

    After walking for a while on the wastnd, Angor began to feel the air getting hotter and thinner. The dirt under his feet was getting darker until he could almost see the flowingva that was hidden underneath the ground.

    He had reached molten earth uninhabitable to human beings.

    Far off, there were volcanoes that released gloomy smoke clouds that created a natural curtain. Even in such a ce, there were still flying fishes who were literally ¡°on fire¡±, either diving in and out of the burning smoke or swimming in the exposedva pools.

    If he somehow fell into theva pools, Angor wouldn¡¯t be able to survive it. Even walking on the less-hot dirt already felt painful enough.

    He couldn¡¯t move ahead now. He tried to walk along the edge of the deadly ce and see if he could find something.

    The walk took him almost a day. The setting sun had given ce to the moon and stars. Angor was still looking at the ming volcanoes and burningnd, and of course, the flying fish. When he finally decided to give up and change direction, he suddenly heard someone fighting.

    People often said that curiosity killed the cat. Still, Angor decided to investigate the noise since he had Infinite Reticence to help him. Besides, he believed his unsatisfied curiosity might just kill him if he were to ignore it.

    The sound of the fight didn¡¯te from the burning area. It was hidden behind a small hill outside the eruption area. However, there was too much smoke around that Angor only saw faint shadows moving in front of him even when standing directly on top of the hill.

    The violent energy surges already told him that someone were fighting inside the smoke.

    A minuteter, a red figure bolted from the smoke and dived into the volcano in the distance, leaving a trail of blue smoke behind.

    Angor managed to recognize the shadow as another snake-like flying fish with glowingva shards attached to its body.

    Everything quieted down.

    Angor considered and walked inside the smoke. He endured and braved past the sharp smoke of hot sulfur and blood, and soon, he found a burnt body lying inside a small hole on the ground while a broken magic wand that was still glowing dimlyid not far away.

    Angor didn¡¯t recognize this bulky man.

    He kept walking deeper inside without checking the corpse. What he saw earlier suggested there was more than onebatant.

    As expected, he saw another man, who was barely breathing.

    Angor found this man to be familiar too. It seemed this man, who grew a magnificent full beard, was one of the earliest ones to reach the gathering area. Also, he was among the elites who stayed on the right side.

    Both his hands were burned off, and he no longer had anything left below his abdomen. The only thing the man could do was to draw his remaining breaths helplessly.

    His eyes showed pure despair. He already used up the potions that he prepared, and there was nothing left for him to stop all the bleeding.

    He suddenly looked up at something. ¡°You... thank the gods. Quickly, help me...¡±

    Angor frowned and took a step back. <i>He saw me?</i>

    But on a careful look, Angor noticed that the wounded man was talking toward the sky.

    ¡°Help... Ron...¡±

    Angor looked up and saw another man in white robe hovering above him. Although this other person didn¡¯t make any grand entrance¡ªhis white robe had burn marks and blood all over, which looked quite miserable.

    Still, this one was in a better shapepared to the man on the ground. At least he didn¡¯t seem to be in danger.

    Also, Angor happened to know the name of the man in white. Before entering the garden, he heard someone mentioned his name.

    It was ¡°Sky Dancer¡± Shayaron.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have any limbs left. Even if you make it, you¡¯ll be a useless burden,¡± said Shayaron as he looked at his copsedpanion with a pair of cold eyes.

    ¡°I can... get an organ transnt. I saved enough money for it. Help me!¡±

    Shayaron didn¡¯t respond to the man¡¯s pleading look. He only turned away without ever looking back.

    ¡°It¡¯s strenuous to stay until the end. I don¡¯t want someone dragging me down.¡±

    Shayaron began to float away from the smoke-covered battlefield.

    The injured man grew more frenzied when he saw his only hope leaving. ¡°Shayaron! It would have been YOU who¡¯s bleeding out if I didn¡¯t help you stop that fish!¡±

    ¡°I never asked for help. Thank you for what you did, by the way. And I already repaid the favor,¡± Shayaron¡¯s voice already became distant as he said, ¡°by NOT finishing you off right now.¡±

    Left alone at death¡¯s door, the bearded man screamed at the top of his lungs using what remained of his strength.

    ¡°HOW DARE YOU! To hell with your trick of words, coward! If I make it out alive, I¡¯ll make sure to end your life myself!¡± Slowly, his angry yells became weaker mumble. ¡°If... I make it out...¡±

    Anyone, including himself, could see that survival was not an option since he had no hands or legs. Even if nothing showed up to im his life, he would soon bleed out.

    Before hisst moment, the man finally learned what it felt to lose his life slowly but surely. He felt cold despite the burning air around him. Everything was freezing up. His brain, his bones, his mind space, and his own soul...

    ¡°This... is it?¡±

    He tried to keep his eyes open. He wanted to enjoy one more sight of this world even if he wasn¡¯t looking at anything beautiful.

    Then he felt something warming from his wounds.

    <i>It¡¯s... Heal! Someone cast a Heal at me!</i>

    He felt his bleeding being slowed down. Some energy returned to his body and helped him climb back from the entrance to hell. He felt his skin burning because of the hot dirt below him, but he felt alive again!

    ¡°I-I¡¯m saved!¡± He looked around without seeing anyone. ¡°Is that you, Ron?¡±

    No answers.

    ¡°Right... of course he won¡¯t. Is that Yethew? Freud? Who are you?¡±

    ¡°A stranger,¡± someone replied in a voice that he didn¡¯t recognize.

    ¡°Th-thanks...¡± It was obvious that whoever helped him did not wish to get exposed. Silently, the man remembered the strange yet pleasant voice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. From here onward, whether or not you can keep living will be up to you.¡± The voice grew weaker as if the speaker was moving away already.

    ¡°Shayaron! That man is Shayaron. Together with Yethew and Freud, they ambushed another apprentice from Floating Mech City. Follow him and you may find a way out!¡± the man yelled and exined what he learned, although he wasn¡¯t sure if anyone was here to hear him.

    Naturally, it was Angor who just healed him.

    Using the cantrip cost him nothing. As for why he offered his help... This man did mention that he helped Shayaron to block an attack, and Angor quite appreciated such a noble act.

    Despite his effort, Angor knew that his cantrip was unlikely to help the man stay alive for very long. It was already difficult to keep up in the garden, let alone without one¡¯s limbs.

    Even so, Angor was d that he managed to learn something useful that could be cast at almost no cost.

    He cast onest glimpse at the strange man, who looked a lot more cheerful now, before heading toward where Shayaron disappeared.

 Chapter 481 - Lord of Tentacles

    <h4>Chapter 481: Lord of Tentacles</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Under the moon and stars, there was a giant boulder that was dug-out from the inside as a temporary shelter.

    A t stone b was used as a door. Across the small gap, one could see shadows and embers moving inside.

    There were three individuals resting in the stone house. A pot sat above a makeshift campfire and was brewing pleasant-smelling fish soup.

    Two of them were sleeping on the ground, while the third one was a man in a tattered robe who was tending to their meal.

    What was exposed from under his robe¡ªa smooth, tender hand¡ªhad bugs and maggots climbing on it. One of his hands was dropping some powder-like substance on the ground to attract more worms to go inside the soup.

    Someone moaned behind him.

    ¡°You alright, Freud?¡± The robed figure didn¡¯t look back. ¡°So, did you read anything?¡±

    His voice was gruff and harsh like someone who smoked too much in his life.

    ¡°No... He¡¯s just a weak apprentice who knows no more than what we already knew. But there¡¯s something interesting. Maybe Viking¡¯s group will find something on their way.¡± The man named Freud yawned and scratched his blond hair, which went messy after he slept on the rough ground.

    ¡°Do you mean there¡¯s really a way out in theva zone?¡± The robed man seemed interested.

    ¡°No.¡± Freud sat up and moved closer to the fire. ¡°But there¡¯s a half-step wizard-level monster, Lord of Tentacles, at the center of it. If what he heard is right, that ce might just be our exit.¡±

    ¡°Half-step to wizard? It should be a clue... but Viking¡¯s not gonna enjoy it.¡± The robed man chuckled. He wasn¡¯t concerned about the life and death of his teammates at all.

    ¡°Big Bear¡¯s not gonna make it. But Viking and Shayaron are fine. Those fish are strong but they¡¯re stupid.¡±

    ¡°Big Bear? Let him die. Even after getting a bloodline, he¡¯s still big and slow. He¡¯ll only slow us down by it...¡± The robed man suddenly looked hesitant. ¡°But how do I exin his death to his sister?¡±

    ¡°You told Michelle that you¡¯ll look after Big Bear, and you¡¯re going to regret now?¡±

    ¡°Nah. Michelle won¡¯t know as long as no one tells her. You won¡¯t sell me out, eh?¡±

    ¡°Of course I won¡¯t.¡± Freud was quick to answer, but he wasn¡¯t so sure deep in his mind.

    ¡°The soup¡¯s good now. Want some?¡± The robed man pointed to the pot.

    Freud took a sniff at the delicious aroma. He was the one who prepared the meal, but he wondered if Yethew added something unnecessary to it while he was asleep.

    ¡°No, thanks. I¡¯m not hungry.¡±

    ¡°Heh, suit yourself.¡± The robed man downed the pot of soup in one go.

    Freud suddenly looked at the door when he heard footstepsing. ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just me.¡±

    The stone was moved aside, revealing Shayaron¡¯s form. He sat beside the fire with a tired expression.

    ¡°Ron, how did it go? What¡¯s inside theva zone? Where¡¯s Viking and Big Bear?¡±

    ¡°We bumped into something big. They are... dead. I used a Stealth Scroll and got away.¡± Shayaron only told them a half-truth.

    ¡°Something big?¡±

    ¡°A Lava Eel. A lot stronger than the high-level apprentices we¡¯ve seen, mind you.¡± Shayaron shivered a little when thinking about the previous encounter. If not for his precious scroll, he would have be another corpse like his partners.

    ¡°Lava Eel? Not the Lord of Tentacles?¡± the robed man asked.

    ¡°Lord of Tentacles? What the hell¡¯s going on, Yethew?¡± Shayaron gazed at Yethew and Freud doubtfully. ¡°There¡¯s something you should tell me which you didn¡¯t, huh?¡±

    Freud shook his head and pointed to a short man in silver uniform behind them. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to keep it from you. I just seeded in reading his dream. He told me that the most dangerous monster in that area is something near wizard-level, the Lord of Tentacles, which has been lurking in theva zone.¡±

    ¡°He told you that in a dream?¡± Shayaron frowned. He always trusted Freud¡¯s ¡°dream reading¡± ability. Actually, Freud was titled as the ¡°Dream Reader¡± just because of this. He knew how to sneak into someone¡¯s dream and use it to his advantage, and it had never disappointed them.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see the thing that you mentioned, just the Lava Eel. But that eel¡¯s already half-step to wizard level too. I think it can beat all of us in under a minute.¡±

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Yethew was still doubtful.

    ¡°I mean it. Big Bear became burnt chips just by touching it. While Viking had time to prepare his bloodline power, the eel still knocked off many parts off him simply by swinging its tail. There was no hope for us... Also, it¡¯s smarter than the other fish we¡¯ve seen till now. We can¡¯t trick it easily.¡±

    ¡°Big Bear... Man. I failed Michelle¡¯s request,¡± Yethew murmured as he pretended to be sad over the death of his teammate. ¡°Viking¡¯s dead too? Yeah, that monster is something.¡±

    ¡°But if so, that Lord of Tentacles got to be deadlier, right?¡± said Freud.

    ¡°Yeah, but we need to check that area. Maybe the Lava Eel is just an exception. I wish Viking¡¯s with us... His bloodline helped him to adapt to a harsh environment really fast. He would have been a good scout.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t have him anymore,¡± Shayaronmented.

    ¡°Well, totally what I expected from that hot-headed guy.¡± Freud decided to put the fate of their friends behind.

    ¡°Nevertheless, we have to check out their of Lord of Tentacles. The Floating Mech City won¡¯t give an impossible mission to their own students. There¡¯s something helpful, I know it.¡± Freud red at the uniformed apprentice who had yet to wake up. ¡°Too bad we only found this loser. What did he say again? To fight for our chance from the worst danger, right? It makes sense. The city needs people to die. Putting the exit at the most dangerous spot is a good choice.

    ¡°Very well. We¡¯ll go and meet that tentacle monsterter.¡±

    ...

    Angor considered what he just heard while sitting outside the stone shelter.

    <i>To fight for our chance from the worst danger?</i>

    This was told by an apprentice from the city, which meant it was a clue that told them how to get out. Still, Angor got some more questions.

    <i>To what extent will the city help the challengers?</i>

    There should be some sort of restriction as to what kind of ¡°danger¡± one should expect. By mentioning ¡°the worst danger¡±, the city probably wasn¡¯t trying to send their students to their gallows.

    And was that ¡°Lord of Tentacles¡± thing something that apprentices could hope to defeat?

    From what he heard, Angor believed that this was not the case. Maybe there was another way to avoid fighting the Lord of Tentacles.

    Bypassing the monster meant to put one¡¯s mind and stealth abilities to test. That didn¡¯t sound like a ¡°fight¡±.

    His instinct told him that his previous assumption that the exit was located in the sky was more sound.

    Then he thought about Dodoro¡¯s ¡°prophecy¡±, which suggested that he and Keely were swimming at the bottom of the sea.

    There was no sea to be found around here. So how did that happen? Or was it something AFTER the garden challenge?

    With these questions in mind, Angor headed to theva zone again. For now, he nned to take a look at that Lord of Tentacles and see if he could escape detection by using Infinite Reticence. And if the monster was something beyond his strength, he would check out the sky.

    As Angor left the stone house, the robed man, Yethew, suddenly frowned at something. The Spy Bug he ced outside was killed by something stepping on it.

    Quickly, he changed his vision to another Spy Bug, but he saw nothing else apart from the squashed corpse of the previous one.

    In thisnd of fishes, any foreign creatures would soon be fish chum. And theck ofnd-dwellers caused the ground to slowly turn to a wastnd.

    <i>So what just stepped on my bug?</i>

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Yethew?¡± Shayaron saw Yethew not moving and nudged his shoulder. ¡°Stay with me, buddy.¡±

    ¡°Oh, what?¡±

    ¡°Get some preparation done. We¡¯re going to theva zone.¡±

    ¡°No need for that. We¡¯ll just go.¡±

    Yethew went outside first and walked to his dead bug while pretending that he was waiting for others.

    When no one was looking, he released another ant-like insect from his sleeve, which dropped down and devoured the dead Spy Bug.

    Once it was done, the second insect returned to Yethew¡¯s hand.

    Yethew took a sniff at it and frowned.

    This special ant could help him find and amplify hormones. This was also how Yethew found his teammates quickly after entering the garden.

    ¡°This is definitely the smell of a human. Someone was listening in?¡±

 Chapter 482 - Duchess of Facade

    <h4>Chapter 482: Duchess of Facade</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    After stopping by the stone shelter, Angor returned to the borderline that separated theva zone from the wilderness.

    In front of him, the dirt was on fire, and the air was filled with the smell of burning sulfur. Time to time, there would beva streams seeping out of the ground as it released more smoke into the already murky environment.

    The smell and heat that Angor felt from his spot already discouraged him from venturing further inside.

    Staying alive in the scorching air was quite a challenge, let alone trying to find a near-wizard-level monster.

    As Angor wondered if he should try his luck, he suddenly saw aet sweeping past above him.

    When he checked more carefully, he saw it was a woman covered in many flowers and tree vines, who just entered theva zone by gliding like a figure skater. Behind her were several groups of roaring flying fishes, including several reallyrge ones.

    The woman didn¡¯t seem to care about her pursuers at all. Casually, she performed elegant dance moves that helped her to evade every single attack directed at her. Meanwhile, as she moved, she left a trail of petals and shiny glitters.

    Angor didn¡¯t recognize her face, but he was sure the woman was really good since the deadly monsters looked like jokes at the moment.

    He weighed the situation and decided to follow the woman. She had to be well-prepared since she was heading straight into the burning ground, which meant she might have an answer to where to find the exit.

    Even so, Angor knew that his body was too weak to withstand the visible heat, and there was no way he could ride his Gond openly. His only option was to climb higher.

    He took out a vial of Cillian¡¯s Witch Stew and drank it. After that, he set several magic crystals as the power source for his bracelet while he silently chanted Spirit Mantra in his mind.

    His soul emerged from his body. He quickly felt lightweight and free as if he could fly to heaven or dive underground at his will.

    Swiftly, he activated the sequence of gravity.

    Using the power, he carried his soulless body into the air. Due to the effect of Infinite Reticence, nobody would notice that someone was flying while unconscious.

    Quickly, Angor rushed into theva zone as fast as possible.

    At this moment, Angor¡¯s flying speed was simr to when Toby first acquired gravity power.

    Even without Infinite Reticence, human eyes would have a hard time trying to ascertain his figure.

    To make it more convenient, it was nighttime.

    It didn¡¯t take him very long to catch up with the ¡°fishing¡± woman.

    While staying at a safe distance, Angor carefully surveyed the surroundings while thinking about what the woman was aiming for.

    Even though the area was constantly covered by the smoke, theva flowing on the ground made it possible for him to see clearly.

    As they went deeper inside, there was lesser and lesser ground and moreva pools. When they had traveled for about several dozen kilometers, Angor even saw a glowingke. However, he couldn¡¯t see the edge of theke.

    The woman just stopped above such avake. As for the fishes that chased her... They already fled since they couldn¡¯t survive the environment.

    Theva beneath was turning and shifting like boiling water, illuminating the woman¡¯s face just enough for Angor to observe.

    She looked beautiful. Every part of her, from her neck to her slim and smooth ankles, was covered in unknown nts and flowers. Some of the flowers were visibly withering, which created more glitters and colorful petals that scattered in the air.

    She hovered quietly still and gazed at one direction with a tight frown.

    Angor also looked that way and didn¡¯t see anything noticeable. Therefore, he tried moving higher to take a better look at thevake. Suddenly, he found something.

    In the center of theke, there was a ck patch that was void ofva. It seemed there was a giant crater or bottomless abyss right there, but the sight was made stranger when the flowingva wouldn¡¯t enter it.

    <i>Is that the exit?</i>

    As Angor considered, another apprentice entered his view.

    This one was an average-looking man dressed in even more average clothes¡ªcheap leather shirt and pants.

    While he slowly moved into the area, Angor tried but failed to recognize him.

    Angor tried to recognize him by thinking carefully, but he was sure that he didn¡¯t see them among the elites earlier.

    He had to use so many tricks to enter this ce, so he thought only a few others could make it. But the truth just proved otherwise¡ªboth the strangers didn¡¯t seem bothered by the dangerous heat at all.

    Angor only looked rxed on the outside, but truth was, his soul energy was draining at an rming rate. If he stayed too long, he might have to eat some of the Soul Orbs intended for Toby so that he wouldn¡¯t lose control and fall into the glowing hell.

    The two strangers weren¡¯t using any special tricks as far as Angor could see. If they were to fight now, Angor believed that he wouldn¡¯t be able to beat them.

    It seemed that hisck of experience had caused him to underestimate the strength of his peers once again. Even among people of the same level, there were still a lot of people with amazing powers.

    ¡°You came too, Sinehowze?¡±

    The man greeted the woman with a smile.

    ¡°You¡¯re toote,¡± Sinehowze scoffed and pointed at the abyss in the middle of thevake. ¡°I think the Lord of Tentacles is here. So how do we draw those fools to this ce?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them yet.¡± The man approached Sinehowze. He rested his head on her shoulder and pretended to speak in an alluring voice, ¡°I feel... hungry. I¡¯d like a treat.¡±

    He even licked at the woman¡¯s ear with obvious intentions.

    Angor widened his eyes a little. <i>Are these people going to have a lovers¡¯ pic right here?</i>

    Sinehowze pushed the other apprentice away. ¡°Enough, Carveline. Turn back already. You look awful.¡±

    The man named ¡°Carveline¡± suddenly giggled in a girlish way. His leather suit then began to glow and slowly became a brighter-looking armored skirt while his face turned into a decent looking woman¡¯s face.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t joking though. It¡¯s almost a day since the beginning and I haven¡¯t even eaten anything yet.¡± Carveline¡¯s voice also changed to fit her new look; she sounded casual andzy as before. ¡°You¡¯re a Gourmet Wizard, right? Can¡¯t you cook something?¡±

    She lifted Sinehowze¡¯s chin with a slim finger.

    ¡°No materials, sorry. And there¡¯s no way I¡¯m going to use those stinky fish down there.¡± Sinehowze looked down at thevake with a sly expression. ¡°When we get our hands on the egg of Lord of Tentacles, I¡¯ll try grilling it into a fine omelet. Sounds good?¡±

    Carveline frowned a little and sighed. ¡°Fine. I¡¯m to help you get it done anyway. Feel free to go.¡±

    ¡°Now¡¯s the real question... What if I can¡¯t defeat that Lord of Tentacles?¡±

    ¡°Just spit it. What do you need me for?¡± Carveline could somewhat read Sinehowze¡¯s expression toprehend her mind.

    ¡°Dira?¡± Sinehowze spoke carefully.

    Carveline remained silent for a while and nodded. ¡°Fine. But I can¡¯t mimic his voice, mind you.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine! You¡¯re THE Duchess of Facade. Just look pretty and pretend that you¡¯re too cool and awesome to talk to them. There will always be fools who will fall for that trick!¡±

    ¡°Alright then...¡±

    Carveline¡¯s red armored skirt began to change until it fully resembled the silver uniform used by the elite apprentices from Floating Mech City.

    Meanwhile, her face also turned into that of a handsome man.

    Cold, distant, and constantly mocking at people... This was exactly how ¡°Wintertide¡± Dira looked like.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯m going,¡± Carveline said in her new voice.

    ¡°Off you go! The more fools you bring us the better,¡± Sinehowze said while stroking Carveline¡¯s face. ¡°Also, Dira looks pretty good... How about you stay this way from now on?¡±

    ¡°Forget it!¡± Carveline smiled at her friend¡¯s joke and dashed away, leaving a freezing trail behind her.

    ...

    Angor was there to look at everything, and he was still trying to digest what he learned.

    The woman, Carveline, could imitate another person, including clothes, temperament, gender, or even abilities. And that Sinehowze, who already appeared pretty powerful, was the famous ¡°weakest¡± Gourmet Wizard in the southern region!

    Other than these, Angor knew little about these two women, except that they both came here for ¡°Lord of Tentacles¡±. They were not looking for an exit but to hunt for cooking material.

    Also, Sinehowze mentioned something about ¡°bringing fools here¡±.

    This probably meant that the secret invake was a fraud. A bait.

    Angor couldn¡¯t confirm it for now. The possibility that the exit really existed here still stood.

    <i>So is it down in that pit or above us?</i>

 Chapter 483 - Hourglass

    <h4>Chapter 483: Hourss</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    <i>I¡¯ll just go check the sky myself.</i>

    Angor decided. The flying fish weren¡¯t going to see his soul nor his body that was hidden by Infinite Reticence.

    As for the pit in thevake, he decided to wait untilter. He¡¯d try his luck that way if there was nothing else above him.

    After checking his remaining soul energy, Angor began to gain altitude.

    When he left, anotherdy wearing a giant bow-knot and dance shoes, both of which were of bright red color, wandered inside theva zone while following behind a ck cat.

    ...

    As he climbed higher, the hot air was soon reced by chilly air.

    Also, the number of roaming flying fishes quickly rose. Winged mob, slim-bodied eels, glowing angler fish, towering whale... Almost every part of the dark sky was upied by something.

    Of course, the majority of them weremon-looking, nameless fishes.

    Angor thought he was looking at too many of them. From a quick guess, he believed there were more than 100,000 of them in sight.

    ¡°Are these all monsters?¡±

    If so, this garden held a lot of resources. To alchemists, monsters were always valuable materials.

    He was thinking about various questions while flying and identally grazed past a manta-like creature that was blocking his path.

    He flinched in fear, but to his surprise, the creature didn¡¯t pay him any attention and swam slowly as if nothing happened.

    ¡°This one¡¯s not rmed?¡±

    Since he was fast enough to outrun the fishes, he decided to do a little test.

    He took out a small fruit from his bracelet. A Cranbul Berry, which was a traditional foodstuff grown by the Krakoks.

    He took aim and threw the fruit at a school of tiny, yellow fishes.

    The stone-like object sessfully stunned several of them, and they tumbled in the air for a while before recovering.

    ... And nothing else.

    <i>Are they just ordinary fish? But ordinary fish can¡¯t fly.</i>

    Angor¡¯s doubt grew bigger.

    Again, he tossed another fruit at a small group of red-colored fish.

    The result startled him much¡ªlike bombs, the red fishes exploded one by one in a chain reaction while their bloody remains scattered everywhere, which attracted countless hungry predators, including those with terrifying energy signatures.

    Angor immediately triggered his gravity power and flew away from the spot.

    Theing predators began to fight over their food while some of the red fishes were still going off. The whole sight looked not much differentpared to a battle between supernaturals.

    Angor gulped. He never thought his little test would cause such a disaster.

    But he did learn something from it¡ªthere were both powerful and weak fishes flying in the sky, and people wouldn¡¯t be able to easily tell them apart unless the powerful ones intentionally disyed their might.

    This had to be another trap ced by the city¡ªto let people grow unwary and send the deadliest fish at them.

    Angor sighed in relief. It seemed the sky was a lot harsher than the ground. From now on, he would not touch anything without a good reason.

    He kept flying for a while and soon realized something horrible. For some reason, his Infinite Reticence had lost its effect. There were now several shark-like creatures surrounding him.

    He could almost sense the smell of blood from their open maws. Also, they were beginning to release hostile energy ripples from their fins.

    Arge-scale attack!

    The attack didn¡¯t work on Angor¡¯s soul, but his body was quickly affected by it and began to bleed from the mouth.

    It was like dropping fresh meat among hungry wolves¡ªin the next second, he sensed more predatory attention directed at him.

    It didn¡¯t take very long for the source of the attention to show up.

    The Infinite Reticence could weaken his presence, but as long as someone or something kept an eye on him, the effect would quickly fail. Apparently, the sharks used something to track him down while bringing more hunters to him.

    Angor¡¯s soul couldn¡¯t use illusions. The only thing he could do was to unleash the sequence of gravity. He could try killing the sharks by hurling gravity energy at them, but the cost of the soul energy was something he couldn¡¯t bear with. Even by consuming Soul Orbs, he probably wouldn¡¯t have enough energy to get rid of all the enemies.

    And he knew that there were only more powerful beings on their way here.

    His only choice was to escape, which he didn¡¯t hesitate one bit.

    While going even higher, countless fish went after his trail in hot pursuit.

    He could slowly gain more distance if he could maximize his speed, but while flying, he also had to make sure not to bump into more of them. Otherwise, the explosions would cause another ruckus. This was why he couldn¡¯t really shake the enemies off.

    Angor realized the air around him was getting thinner, while the fish swarm behind his back was visibly growing thicker.

    He was regretting his decision now that he couldn¡¯t find any ¡°exit¡± or anything like that yet. He also couldn¡¯t possibly go down again as that might cause him to get caught easily.

    As he wondered whether he should choose another direction, he saw something shing above him.

    It wasn¡¯t the moon or stars. Rather, it looked like something that was reflecting light on its smooth surface.

    <i>But why is something like that here? Is it the exit?</i>

    He rushed straight to it and noticed he was looking at a thin barrier. There was water behind the barrier.

    Actually, there was a lot of water, like the sea.

    <i>Wait... the sea?</i>

    He thought about the painting of Dodoro¡¯s prophecy.

    He wanted to break the barrier and see what was inside, but the moment he put his hand on it, a strange message suddenly appeared in his mind. He saw a strange ce. Everything was dark while a glowing hourss floated in the center. The object had a bronze frame and strange symbols on it. There were fish, water, sun, moon, and an altar with something ced on top of it.

    Inside the hourss was fine sand which was slowly flowing to the bottom.

    Angor examined what was left on the upper half and used his ¡°mind overdrive¡± to work out the remaining time shown by it, which was 3 hours.

    <i>But what do all these mean?</i>

    The fish behind him weren¡¯t going to give him much time to think about it. By spending a good portion of his soul energy, Angor unleashed a powerful gravity attack at the barrier.

    It didn¡¯t work.

    From the looks of it, Angor believed that he wasn¡¯t going to break the barrier even if he could amplify that attack ten times.

    With nothing else to do, he kept running in another direction. The whole area above his head was blocked by the imprable barrier, so he moved along it while trying to see if there was an entrance.

    Most of the fishes behind him were significantlyrge ones, which only suggested their deadly strength. Each time they saw a chance, they would hurl different attacks toward Angor. Blizzard, ice arrows, wind des, visible howls, and shock waves...

    Angor could feel their power as well. Those were definitely as powerful as level-3 cantrips, which meant that his body wasn¡¯t going to be able to endure them.

    It was only due to his sequence of gravity that he managed to keep his distance just fine.

    He stopped after flying for about another three minutes because he saw a giant jellyfish floating not far. It stretched about several hundred meters in all directions and blocked all of his routes ahead. Also, there were blue embers floating around its transparent body.

    A stray flying fish moved too close to the embers and instantly became burnt bones.

    Angor sighed and chose to dive down. There was no way to go forward now.

    But there were too many fishes beneath him! He didn¡¯t think that he could just dash past them unharmed. Some of the attacks were enough to kill him even if they only hit somewhere close to him.

    His only chance was to throw something into the fish swarm.

    He made a quick decision and returned to his body.

    He immediately felt awful because of all the wounds he gained earlier. Without sequence of gravity, he began to free-fall, which only made the terrible feeling worse.

    He tried his best to concentrate. Soon, the model of a cantrip was made in his mind space.

    A small lump of mist that reflected the moonlight and stars appeared in his hand, which grewrger until it covered the area around him.

    The mist sessfully hid his form from the predators. To find their food, the fishes all rushed into the mist without stopping.

    Using the time when the fishes couldn¡¯t see their target, Angor ejected his soul again and flew toward the ground.

    Some of the smaller fishes, who were too slow to go inside the mist, saw him and attacked.

    Using his speed, he evaded most of the attacks. However, several of them still managed to create several bleeding gashes on his skin.

    His soul was still unharmed.

    He had no time to treat those wounds right now. After making sure there was no fatal injury, he took out a healing potion, plugged it into the mouth of his unconscious body, and dived.

 Chapter 484 - Lava Lake

    <h4>Chapter 484: Lava Lake</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    There was a patch of dry, fissured wastnd that served as the boundary betweenva zone and more wastnd. Here, about a hundred individuals gathered. They were either standing or flying,ughing or being all quiet. Most of all, they were all looking at the handsome-looking man in silver uniform in the center of them.

    If Angor were here, he would quickly recognize the surrounded individual as one of the elite apprentices sent by Floating Mech City¡ªDira. Or rather, he was actually Carveline who disguised as Dira.

    ¡°I believe we all know what¡¯s going on, Dira.¡± The speaker was a ck-skinned, bald woman with heavy makeup and a strapless robe. ¡°Now speak. What exactly is this ¡®blood sacrifice¡¯ thing? Where¡¯s the exit?¡±

    Dira revealed a mocking, silent smile as his response.

    ¡°What? You think you can go and fight all of us?¡± The bald woman gave Dira a side-nce while touching herrge ear stud. ¡°If you don¡¯t talk to us, we¡¯ll force you to.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead and do it, Chocte. But don¡¯t drag us all inside your business.¡± Another fine-looking woman with dark skin said to her, ¡°We¡¯re simply trying to talk with Mister Dira. No fighting needed.¡±

    Chocte quickly grew irritated when someone openly disobeyed her script so soon. ¡°Ohh, look at that, it¡¯s Tana. I was wondering, why did your drunk teacher ask you toe here in the first ce? So you can die sooner? Or...¡± Chocte nced at the young man standing beside Tana. ¡°Did you manage to find a new follower by spreading your legs?¡±

    The other onlooking apprentices chuckled ominously.

    Tana was wearing too little fabric. There was only a small, triangr piece of cloth covering her breasts, which did not hold back a pair of alluring, suggestive spots. Both her abdomen and thighs were fully exposed. To others, she looked like a professional hooker.

    There were many apprentices around who simply couldn¡¯t control their eyes when they saw Tana. Even a small fat boy beside Tana was looking at the woman with a bleeding nose.

    Tana herself didn¡¯t really mind Chocte¡¯s taunting words. She dressed like this just to retain her speed. However, most people would only regard her style in the wrong way.

    Still, there was someone who was unhappy about what Chocte said.

    ¡°Take back your words this instant, Chocte, or you¡¯re not going to get out of the garden alive. Who knows, this ce makes a perfect graveyard for you.¡± Hermes, Tana¡¯s childhood friend, struck the ground using the ming whip he was holding, which created arge gash in front of Chocte¡¯s feet.

    Chocte was already regretting her move. Offending Hermes was not in her n. Besides, she knew she couldn¡¯t defeat Hermes.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean¡ª¡± Chocte decided to stand down and make an excuse.

    Before she could, however, they heard someone yelling in a childish voice, ¡°Get her, Alby!¡±

    A white rhino rushed into the open and headed straight at Chocte with its sharp horn lowered.

    Chocte jumped a little when she saw the iing animal. She quickly gave up her n of ¡°ying nice¡± and dived out of the rhino¡¯s way while quickly constructing a cantrip model in her mind space. Next, she pressed her hands on the ground, causing a series of ck, unrooted flowers to grow rapidly.

    ¡°The ck Manda Flower, the blossom of death...¡± Someone recognized Chocte¡¯s skill. Simr to nightmare illusions, her flower also came from a unique legacy that only a few selected people could learn.

    ¡°Sh*t. Come back, Alby!¡± the childish voice yelled again, but he was toote this time. The rhino was already surrounded by the ck flowers.

    ¡°You attacked me first... so don¡¯t me me for this!¡± Chocte gave them a cruel look.

    Quickly, the flowers withered into a cloud of petals that covered the animal up.

    People suddenly felt cold air blowing over them. In a blink of an eye, the ck petals were frozen solid.

    Behind Chocte, Dira raised a hand while releasing visible cold air from it. His dancing cape also suggested he was the one who caused the wind.

    Before Chocte could question Dira¡¯s purpose, Dira turned around and moved into theva zone.

    ¡°You want to run?!¡± Chocte moved again and aimed an attack at Dira¡¯s back, which was pushed back by another cold gale.

    She shivered and lost her bnce.

    Chocte was among the elite apprentices, but she knew shecked strengthpared to Dira.

    ¡°Are you stupid or something? Brother Dira is asking us to follow him.¡±

    Chocte looked around in rage at the childish voice who kept offending her. She fixed her gaze at a small boy who was now sitting on top of the white rhino.

    Hermes poked at the boy¡¯s forehead. ¡°Stop, Loki. And nobody asked you to send Alby into the battle. Don¡¯t get hot-headed like that next time, or you¡¯ll keep getting into trouble.¡±

    Hermes then moved first and followed Dira¡¯s track with Loki. Soon, the others also joined the group.

    Before stepping into the burning area, Dira floated toward the sky and gave the followers another mocking smile as if he was discouraging weaklings from keeping going.

    When Dira finally entered the area, the others looked at each other uncertainly. They knew that some of them didn¡¯t have what it took to stay alive in there.

    Half of them chose to stop here, while about 40 people ventured forward.

    Nobody spoke, but they all believed that they had made the right choice by leaving weaker ones outside as ¡°materials¡± for the sacrifice.

    The white rhino was also flying in the air, but with one extra passenger on it¡ªa small, fat boy in a chef uniform.

    He was holding a wooden stick in his hand that had a flying fish pierced on it¡ªthe rhino just helped them catch their prey. On his other hand, a small ember was burning brightly, which slowly gave the fish corpse a deliciously brighter look.

    The boy then sent a strange energy into the fish, which instantly brought a pleasant aroma to everyone¡¯s nostrils.

    ¡°Oh god, I can¡¯t take it! n! Quick, give it to me!¡± Loki reached out a hand with an eager look.

    ¡°Just one more second. n¡¯s special-brand grilled fish ising!¡± The fat one, n, smiled joyfully.

    Hermes also gulped at the attractive smell of food. ¡°Man. I think there¡¯s something strange about that scent. In a good way.¡±

    ¡°Well, our professor spoke highly of n¡¯s skills. His dishes are on our rmendations at Butterfly Tavern!¡± Tana looked proud.

    Most people looked their way upon sensing the smell of good food. They hardly had time to eat earlier, and so, something cooked by a Gourmet Wizard had sessfully tickle their hunger-infested minds. Even Dira, who had been flying at the front of the group, cast a meaningful nce at n.

    ¡°He just looked at you!¡± Loki pointed to Dira while munching on his fish. ¡°Maybe Brother Dira wants some too!¡±

    ¡°Why are you calling everyone you see ¡®Brother¡¯?¡± Hermes chuckled.

    ¡°Maybe you really should offer Dira something. He did save Loki just now,¡± Tana suggested.

    n nodded. ¡°I can, but... why isn¡¯t he speaking anything?¡±

    Tana raised an eyebrow. ¡°Maybe his character¡¯s just shaped like that?¡±

    Dira didn¡¯t ept n¡¯s little gift. Again, he nced at the boy silently as he kept flying forward.

    People began to doubt something. Just like the small cook said, Dira never said a single word ever since they met with him. Were they going to where they were expecting at all?

    Dira¡¯s all quiet, which meant they had been following him by assuming Dira¡¯s intention.

    <i>Is he actually nning to take us somewhere dangerous and kill us all? Perhaps all the other apprentices from the city are waiting for us?</i>

    While thinking about the question, people found themselves arriving at a giantvake.

    Something was waiting for them, true. Not the apprentices, but a giant monster that was slowly emerging from theva.

    Even though only half of its head was exposed, it was already bigger than an adult cloud whale!

    Along with its monstrous head, several hundreds of tentacles slowly reached out from the abyss, causing the rtively peacefulva to go violent.

    Everyone froze at such a terrifying sight.

    They heard someone talking from afar, ¡°Here, we got backup! Just like I said. You keep it busy. I¡¯ll go talk to them!¡±

    The ¡°backup team¡± looked at each other, not sure what to do.

    ¡°He fooled us all!¡± someone eximed. ¡°Dira brought us here to get us killed!¡±

    Sinehowze appeared in their sight. ¡°Huh? Not really. The exit is just below that abyss. Well, believe it or not, I don¡¯t care.¡±

    ¡°But how? That thing¡¯s at least a wizard-level monster!¡±

    ¡°Actually, it¡¯s a liiiittle weaker than it appears to be. But we need something strong, right? Just think, you need to reach this ce, kill that thing, and enter the abyss. The whole process will kill 90% of us. And that¡¯s how the blood sacrifice works!¡±

    Someone slowly nodded. The woman did make sense.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you see that some people are already trying to finish the job over there?¡± Sinehowze pointed to the Lord of Tentacles in the distance.

    Keely, Freud, Yethew, Shayaron, and an old man they didn¡¯t recognize were confronting the monster. However, Keely wasn¡¯t moving for some reason. She just sat on her broomstick and watched while the others unleashed various attacks.

    Apart from the strange old man, the otherbatants were all famous figures too. Not long ago, Keely made quite a grand entrance by provoking ¡°Child of Ocean¡± Jebra in front of everyone.

    <i>So it is true? The exit is down in that pit? </i>People felt more convinced now.

    ¡°Shall we check it out?¡± Hermes stepped up first. Whether it was true or not, he believed they always needed to see with their own eyes.

    While the group moved to join the fight, Carveline sent a private transmission to Sinehowze, ¡°What¡¯s happening here?¡±

    Carveline was pointing at Freud¡¯s group. When she left earlier, Sinehowze was the only one in this area. Why were there so many people all of a sudden?

    ¡°These fools found their way here just after you left,¡± Sinehowze responded with another voice transmission. ¡°They knew about the Lord of Tentacles and the rumor about the exit below, so I said something to sway them into helping us. Although I don¡¯t really understand that Keely girl... She¡¯s not interested in the exit. She¡¯s using her cat to look for someone.¡±

    ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°No idea. She won¡¯t tell me. Each time someone approaches her, she growls like she¡¯s really angry. And I can¡¯t beat her in a fight, so I just left her there.¡±

 Chapter 485 - Outside the Garden

    <strong>Chapter 485: Outside the Garden</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    On the top floor of the machine tower, there was a great chamber that was built to resemble arge metal box. The metal walls were glowing with different runes while a screen hovered in the middle, which disyed a burningvake. asionally, several flying fishes would leap out of theva. They were then immediately killed by a witch before she stored the dead fishes inside her storage ne.

    A man in a ck robe was watching the screen. Using the brightness, one could see the man¡¯s skin, or what should have been his skin, giving out the glimmer of polished metal.

    Now and then, he would look away from the screen and fall into his own thoughts.

    The witch disyed on the screen was now looking at the abyss in the middle of thevake.

    ¡°Ho ho... she¡¯s coveting our main sacrificial material. Such a brave girl.¡±

    The door of the chamber was pushed open, and a handsome-looking figure walked inside while wearing a bright smile on his face.

    The robed man did not look back. ¡°I thought it¡¯s ¡®The Spade¡¯ who woulde first. So it¡¯s you instead, huh Muse?¡±

    ¡°The promotion of the purification garden is crucial to all of us. As the city master, of course I shoulde,¡± Muse said as he joined the robed man while still smiling. ¡°Oh? Isn¡¯t that the home of a Lord of Tentacles?¡± Muse showed a cold look. ¡°Hey, Lawson... is someone actually attempting to capture it?¡±

    ¡°Wait, so you¡¯re interested in our garden now? I thought the only thing inside your brain is doing research,¡± Lawson joked in his emotionless robotic voice. However, he still brought their topic onto the right track before Muse could retort. ¡°Yes. Two apprentices, and you¡¯re looking right at them.¡±

    Lawson already changed the disy that was now showing two individuals separately. One of them was still hovering above thevake¡ªa witch wearing flowers and tree vines¡ªSinehowze, while the second one was the dapper-looking man Dira, who had a good number of people floating around him.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t he one of the selected apprentices we sent?¡± Muse pointed at Dira. As a dedicated researcher, he never spent much time minding other matters. He only recognized Dira by thetter¡¯s silver uniform.

    ¡°He¡¯s not. A witch called Carveline copied Dira¡¯s appearance. You may not know her well, but you should be interested in her title¡ªthe Duchess of Facade.¡±

    ¡°Facade...¡± Muse frowned while searching his memory. ¡°Pastor¡¯s Garb?¡±

    ¡°Only Pastor¡¯s Outerwear, to be precise. Carveline is the current Pastor.¡±

    ¡°So... the real Pastor has gone to Origin World?¡±

    ¡°Should be. She left her outerwear at her n.¡±

    Muse stared at Carveline on the screen with an eager look. ¡°A piece of clothing left behind by Pastor... Wish I can bring it to myb. Someone said that there¡¯s a trace of demon¡¯s power hidden inside that thing.¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re being serious, we can always try to get it by some... indirect approach,¡± Lawson said and pointed at the giant monster lurking in thevake.

    ¡°Forget it, the Pastor n still holds too many secrets. You remember how they were working in the dark during the demon cmity? Maybe they looted something really good out of it.¡± Muse yawned and sat beside his partner. ¡°So, the two little girls want to get their hands on the Lord of Tentacles? Even with Pastor¡¯s parts, they won¡¯t make it.¡±

    ¡°They aren¡¯t aiming for the Lord of Tentacles, but its egg down in the nest,¡± Lawson said as he focused the disy onto the vine-covered woman. ¡°She¡¯s a gourmet apprentice. They came just so that she could use the egg to cook something.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s rare. A gourmet apprentice in the purification garden...¡±

    ¡°Thew of purification is valuable to all. Besides, she¡¯s not half bad. Maybe she¡¯s actually stronger than that Pastor inheritor, Carveline,¡± said Lawson.

    Muse didn¡¯t keep up with the topic. He simply crossed his legs and yawned again. ¡°Then let them get the egg, by all means. But they¡¯re going to offer me some of their new dishes. I wonder how the Lord of Tentacles¡¯ egg tastes like.¡±

    ¡°The egg is used for the ritual as well. Letting it into someone¡¯s belly means a hundred more apprentices have to pay their lives.¡± Lawson nced at Muse, who was always indifferent about everything apart from alchemy and research.

    Muse was one of the two city masters, but Lawson would never put Muse in charge of any critical city affairs since thetter wouldn¡¯t mind killing people just to escape his duty.

    ¡°If they really get the prize by their own hands, we¡¯ll let them.¡± Lawson ended the subject.

    After a while, the door was opened by someone again. A group of wizards entered the hall. Mithra was among them.

    ¡°Chief.¡± The wizards expressed their courtesy and took their respective seats, while a witch with short, ck hair, a tight-fit leather suit and a scar over her eyebrow walked in front of Lawson. ¡°Sir, how¡¯s Jolene doing?¡±

    Muse spoke before Lawson could.

    ¡°Jolene is your student, right, Spade?¡±

    Spade nodded. She sent Jolene into the garden as one of the elite apprentices.

    ¡°Well, she¡¯s not your daughter or something, so what¡¯s the fuss? Just chill. You can always look for another student if she¡¯s dead.¡± Muse grinned.

    Spade¡¯s eyebrows twitched a little. She fully expected such words from this city master. She looked at Lawson while hoping for a more reliable answer.

    ¡°Muse is quite right. Choosing to enter the garden means taking a potential risk. Even if they are our own apprentices, no one can guarantee their safety.¡±

    Despite his harsh words, Lawson secretly gave Spade a nod.

    ¡°I understand.¡± Contented, Spade returned to her seat since she already learned what she needed.

    Some of the other wizards also tried to ask for the situation of their own students, and simrly, Muse would say negativements, while Lawson provided useful clues, either openly or implicitly.

    The wizards all got what they wanted to hear, but Muse looked pretty unhappy about it.

    Lawson suddenly scowled at something. He quickly manipted the screen, which began to show different images in the sky above theva zone.

    ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± asked Muse.

    ¡°Someone just touched the dimension barrier...¡± Lawson narrowed his eyes.

    ¡°The barrier?¡± Spade also put on a serious look. ¡°There are still three hours away before the Sea of Purification opens. The sky is full of demon fishes now. Someone actually got past them?¡±

    The apprentices from the city all knew about this clue, and none of them would approach the dimension barrier at this moment because it might cost their lives.

    ¡°Is it ¡®Child of Ocean¡¯?¡±

    As they believed, ¡°Child of Ocean¡± Jebra¡¯s talent worked wonders in this garden. His familiar whale could help him evade most of the demon fishes, and thanks to his water-manipting talent, the Sea of Purification was like his home court.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t we see who just did it?¡± Mithra asked.

    The old man seemed impatient too. He was doing his own work at Elixir Hut when Muse barged in and asked him to check out the monitor in the tower.

    Mithra knew that Muse was mainly interested in Angor. Just as expected, Muse dragged him away with a cunning grin.

    ¡°I got a filming stone here. Since Angor is going to join our Research Department, we should have something to restrain his actions, and this is a perfect chance to collect one.¡±

    ¡°Restrain him, huh?¡±

    You¡¯re just having fun, Mithrained in his mind. Each time Muse got his hands on a new ¡°toy¡±, the man would quickly try something fun with it.

    That was why Mithra ended up here.

    The image shown by the monitor fixed at the location of the dimension barrier. They saw a huge swarm of demon fishes that included several near-wizard-level ones hunting for a single individual.

    ¡°That¡¯s... an Ignis Medusozoa!¡± someone eximed loudly while pointing at a giant jellyfish.

    This exceptionally eye-catching creature floated above all other fishes while releasing blue embers into the environment. Those unfortunate enough to touch them would soon be ash and bones.

    This ¡°Ignis Medusozoa¡± too, was one of the main sacrificial materials for the garden.

    Here, Lawson and Muse were the only two who were confident enough to confront all of these monsters, while the others would admit that they couldn¡¯t get away in one piece if they were there.

    It was easy enough to pick them off one by one, but when so many fishes gathered...

    ¡°Who¡¯s the brave b*stard that attracted so many monsters?¡± They all checked who was flying beside the barrier.

    Next, they either frowned, sighed, orughed when they could see the boy¡¯s face clearly.

    Clearly, whoever angered all the fishes had ejected his soul, which was standing right in front of the dimension barrier while dragging his body behind.

    ¡°Is he a Soul Maniptor?¡±

    ¡°Hey, look at his face. Do you remember what the magazine said the other day?¡±

    ¡°I see it now... He¡¯s Sunders¡¯ student, Angor, is it?¡± Soon enough, someone recognized Angor¡¯s identity.

    ¡°Yup. Who¡¯d think the boy¡¯s the first one to reach the barrier? It makes sense though. All of Phantom¡¯s students are weirdos. Brilliant weirdos.¡±

    As the others discussed, Mithra remained silent and tried to get over his surprise. He always believed that Angor, as someone extremely talented in alchemy, didn¡¯t have muchbat experience due to his age.

    But the damn boy is good! Both his strength and his gut!

    Lawson suddenly said something that drew their attention, ¡°Now this is interesting... That kid possesses the power of a naturalw.¡±

 Chapter 486 - Berserk

    <strong>Chapter 486: Berserk</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Everyone looked at Angor again after they heard what Lawson said. They did notice the faint aura of gravity power around Angor. Combined with the news about how Sunders built a gravity garden recently...

    They felt jealous. But that was about it¡ªAngor was too lucky, which couldn¡¯t be copied by anyone else.

    Toprehend the sequence of a naturalw during garden construction, a lot of factors would have to be in the exact right timing. For example, the current climate, how many people were there, or which spot one was standing on. Somehow, Angor met all these conditions and sessfully learned such power.

    ¡°The sequence of gravity helps him move extremely fast. That must be how he survived until now. But I think there¡¯s something wrong in his case... His sequence of gravity has been directly fused inside his soul.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s still something. Once he bes a wizard, it¡¯s no longer a problem.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know yet. Who knows, maybe he¡¯s going to die right here.¡±

    There were a few people with negative ideas about Angor¡¯s fate, but what Angor did next soon proved them wrong.

    Inside the screen, Angor returned to his body and released his mist illusion while using the brief distraction he caused to get away from the predators. Everything happened within two to three seconds, and there were many close calls too. Still, the onlooking wizards couldn¡¯t help admiring Angor¡¯s timely and skillful decision, including those who disliked Sunders.

    Angor managed to get away from the fishes just barely by diving toward the ground, but he wasn¡¯t going to shake them off yet.

    Everyone watched him carefully and wondered what would he do next.

    ...

    While Angor tried to stay alive in the sky, something else happened at thevake beneath.

    The apprentices thought they could reach the exit as long as they could get around the Lord of Tentacles. But apparently, they underestimated the monster too much.

    The Lord of Tentacles¡¯ body was huge. To humans, each of its moves looked rtively slow, which gave them the wrong impression that they could slowly wear it down with enough time.

    They assumed that the exit was just below the abyss upied by the Lord of Tentacles. Also, the monster¡¯s body itself was a valuable treasure. With these ideas in mind, the apprentices joined forces and began to attack the monster.

    Only a few who thought they weren¡¯t strong enough chose to stay afar and watch, such as Loki and n.

    When the Lord of Tentacles received a good amount of beating, the apprentices felt their adrenaline rushing and they all pushed forward.

    The giant eyes of the monster suddenly shrank. Before anyone could see what was going on, its giant body leaped away from the abyss.

    Instantly, the attackers found themselves dangerously close to the monster. Unfortunately, it was already toote.

    The octopus-like monster began to create a series of strange noises in the air, which sounded both likeughter and mocking curses.

    Countless tentacles emerged from it and stuck into theva. Using its own body like a roof, the monster locked up all apprentices who had just intruded its territory.

    Next, a sweet-smelling, murky mist was released from the root of all tentacles where the Lord of Tentacles¡¯ fanged mouth was located.

    When affected by the mist, the apprentices all began to tumble in the air aimlessly like drunk addicts while their expressions reflected pure insanity.

    Next, the stunned apprentices fell into the burningva themselves while the Lord of Tentacles watched from above.

    Apart from several bloodline users who were sturdy enough to resist the deadly heat, all others instantly turned to smoke and ash.

    One move, and the monster already killed more than half of the group. Only a few including those who didn¡¯t join the fight were spared.

    Shayaron used his unique flying skills to slip past the tentacles. He also managed to drag Freud along with him. The two of them were now trying to recover their breaths somewhere safe.

    ¡°Thank-thanks...¡± said Freud.

    ¡°That thing is enduring our attacks so that it can draw more people to it,¡± Shayaron cursed. ¡°Did you see its body? None of our moves did anything to it. Not a scratch!¡±

    Freud grimaced and slowly nodded to agree. ¡°It¡¯s not something we canpete with.¡±

    He watched as some of the stronger apprentices struggled in theirva bath. ¡°Are we wrong? Is that pit really our way out? The Floating Mech City isn¡¯t going to send us to something impossible.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... perhaps. But where else can we go?¡±

    Freud considered and looked up.

    It was still nighttime, and they couldn¡¯t see the sky well due to all the smoke.

    ¡°This is not the only dangerous ce,¡± Freud said. He pointed upward and asked, ¡°Maybe what we¡¯re looking for is up there?¡±

    Shayaron widened his eyes. ¡°I see... There were so many people who came into the garden, and yet, we only ran into a few of them. Maybe we really don¡¯t need all that travel. We can find something simply by going up.¡±

    But there was still a problem. There were many apprentices who couldn¡¯t fly at all. Did the city sentence them to death already?

    ¡°So are we going to check the sky?¡±

    ¡°Not now,¡± Shayaron muttered. He narrowed his eyes while looking around carefully. ¡°Let¡¯s keep the idea to ourselves until we get to somewhere private.¡±

    As they talked, the Lord of Tentacles was still ughtering those who were still trapped in its tentacle prison. It was as if the monster was bound to one ce. It didn¡¯t care about anything or anyone beyond a certain distance from it.

    Although not many people could stay alive long enough to realize this. Only about a dozen people still had their lives to watch the madness now.

    Previously, they thought they left the weaklings behind to die. But now, it seemed they were the ones who willingly stepped into a deadly trap.

    ¡°Hey, Dira! Say something! That thing¡¯s absolutely a wizard-level monster and you knew it! Did you ask us toe just to murder us?¡±

    ¡°Speak, you asshole!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky just because you¡¯re with the city!¡±

    Those alive turned their hostility to Dira and hoped for an answer. Someone even tried to attack Dira. Yet the difference in strength was too far¡ªwith several simple moves, Dira killed several offenders, which further decreased their already small number.

    Against Dira¡¯s dominating might, no one dared to speak again.

    Sinehowze moved to Dira with a smile. ¡°Almost time. You can turn back. I already sent the Staff Elder. We don¡¯t need these fools now.¡±

    The others didn¡¯t understand her words until they saw Dira¡¯s clothes began to shine brightly. Slowly, the handsome and distant man turned into ady in a red soft armor dress, and people finally noticed what was going on.

    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s why Brother Dira never talked to us. It¡¯s not Brother Dira, but Sister Dira!¡±

    A childish voice spoke behind them.

    Loki was still sitting on top of his white rhino. The boy was looking at Carveline,pletely shocked.

    ¡°It¡¯s not Sister Dira, little one. I¡¯m Carveline,¡± Carveline said as she looked at the pair of boys. For some reason, she didn¡¯t really hate these two. ¡°Little n is a gourmet apprentice, yes? Well, I did want to try out your fish, but I can¡¯t afford to give away my secret earlier. Can you cook something for me now?¡±

    n entered the garden without knowing what he was supposed to do. He still felt sad about how so many people died in front of him, and he failed to answer Carveline in time.

    It was Sinehowze who spoke in great curiosity.

    ¡°Huh... So, there¡¯s another gourmet apprentice here? And my oh my, a level-1? Such fearlessness.¡±

    n looked at Sinehowze while blushing. ¡°Are-are you a gourmet apprentice too, ma¡¯am?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I came here to find foodstuff.¡±

    An old man carrying a staff suddenly blinked into existence. The others quickly recognized him as one of the first ones to attack the Lord of Tentacles together with Shayaron.

    ¡°Wait... that old man also dropped into theva with the rest of them. How did he get out?¡± someone mumbled.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you see?? He¡¯s with them! Him going into the abyss is part of their n. While we distracted the monster, he went inside the abyss to do something.¡± It was Yethew who just spoke. As someone who cherished his life very much, he had been staying pretty far away while ordering his bugs to attack the monster. Therefore, he managed to escape the terrible fate as well.

    When the others heard his words, they directed more hostile res at Sinehowze and Carveline.

    ¡°Did you get it, Staff Elder?¡± Sinehowze didn¡¯t really care what people thought about her.

    The old man nodded with a gentle smile and handed a small pouch to Sinehowze.

    ¡°A small payment for dinner. Thanks for your treat.¡±

    The old man¡¯s body slowly became transparent until hepletely vanished from sight.

    When people tried to figure out what they saw, Yethew asked in his gruff, unpleasant voice, ¡°What did you find down there while we¡¯re keeping the monster busy? Come on, show us. Something to do with the exit? You can¡¯t have it all to your own.¡±

    Yethew emphasized the word ¡°exit¡± so that people had more reasons to stare at Sinehowze.

    One of the strongest apprentices on the scene, Hermes, also looked this way, which caused Carveline and Sinehowze to grew a little nervous. Among all people, Hermes was the only one who might pose a real threat to them.

    ¡°There aren¡¯t many of us left,¡± Hermes said. ¡°Might as well make it clear. So is it really the exit under the abyss? What¡¯s that inside your bag?¡±

    ¡°Do you really have to hear it from me? Well, we aren¡¯t jumping in there, so that¡¯s our answer.¡± Sinehowze didn¡¯t seem interested. ¡°As for the bag, feel free to take it if you want. I said it¡¯s for cooking, and I didn¡¯t lie. It¡¯s the egg of the Lord of Tentacles, for a dish I¡¯m going to make.¡±

    Before people could decide whether they should trust her, they heard a thunderous roaring from the abyss.

 Chapter 487 - Fatal Situation

    <h4>Chapter 487: Fatal Situation</h4>

    Thevake began to erupt as a whole asva streams surged high up into the air, followed by the mighty aura released by something extremely powerful and violent.

    At first, they only felt ufortable. But as the roaring continued, they quickly noticed the pressure getting worse.

    As the weakest apprentice among all, n couldn¡¯t take it anymore; he copsed on the back of Alby while coughing up blood.

    The howling was getting louder and deadlier.

    The energy ripples carried by the rage spread to the burningnd around theke and created craters and fissures under their feet.

    Next, they saw a monster¡¯s head emerging from the abyss.

    The Lord of Tentacles, which already retreated to its pit, appeared again, albeit much angrier this time. Its pale skin glowed with an ominous red color while its blood veins bulged and released white vapor.

    The monster¡¯s head also began to grow bigger like a balloon. Soon, it reached its limit as if it was going to explode.

    Anyone with eyes could see that the Lord of Tentacles was furious. But why?

    They looked at each other and finally fixed their attention on the small bag carried by Sinehowze.

    Sinehowze thought that it wouldn¡¯t hurt to show the monster egg to people, but when she saw them giving her strange and unfriendly looks, she quickly stuffed the bag into a butterfly-shaped ne, which was her space storage.

    ¡°A space storage?¡± The others were surprised once again. Asmonly believed, even wizards would find such items to be valuable, and they just found one on a gourmet apprentice!

    Sinehowze dragged Carveline¡¯s arm. ¡°Run! It¡¯s going nuts!¡±

    Without hesitating, they both dashed away. In the next second, the others also followed behind them since they were beginning to sense true wizard-level pressureing from the glowing form of the Lord of Tentacles, which only meant trouble.

    Roaar!

    When the monster saw the small creatures trying to leave theke area, it howled again.

    Everyone stopped in their tracks upon hearing the thunderous noise. They did not choose to stop¡ªthey couldn¡¯t.

    The energy released by the monster had frozen up the environment. People felt as if they were trying to walk in a neck-deep swamp. It was already hard enough to stay afloat. Several apprentices who failed to do so fell into theva and joined the previous victims.

    Yethew growled at Sinehowze. ¡°This is all because you stole its egg! Return it at once or we¡¯re all going to die because of you!¡±

    Sinehowze didn¡¯t seem convinced. ¡°Why¡¯s that? Can you prove to us the egg is the reason? Besides, it¡¯s just another sacrificial material for the garden. The egg¡¯s gonna get fried anyway, might as well let me take it!¡±

    ¡°Anyone would get angry when his child gets stolen. Not only did you trick us into your n, but you also put everyone in a dangerous position,¡± Chocte said. She already resented Carveline because of the conflict earlier, so she had no problem putting all the mes on Carveline and Sinehowze.

    ¡°Whatever! I¡¯m not giving it back. If you have a problem, fight me and see who¡¯s boss!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care who¡¯s boss but we¡¯re all gonna kick it at this rate!¡± Yethew bellowed and pointed to the Lord of Tentacles, which was now twice its original size. ¡°We can¡¯t move an inch. That thing¡¯s going to get us sooner orter.¡±

    ¡°Oh chill. There¡¯s a magic array under theke that prevents the Lord of Tentacles from going too far from its home. We can run, slowly.¡±

    As if to prove her words, a series of strange runes emerged from theva and imprisoned the Lord of Tentacles within.

    ¡°See that?¡± Sinehowze pointed her thumb behind her. ¡°Nothing to worry¡ª¡±

    The Lord of Tentacles roared again while mming its thick tentacles at the barrier created by the magic array. Each time, the tentacles would get pushed back or cut off by the protective energy. However, it seemed the monster no longer cared about losing arms or pain. It kept attacking the barrier while fixing its deathly gaze at Sinehowze.

    Its skin was growing redder. Its body,rger, along with its strength.

    With a loud ¡°crack¡±, they saw a small fracture on one of the shining runes of the magic array, followed by more cracks as the Lord of Tentacles struggled harder and harder.

    They didn¡¯t want to imagine what would happen if the Lord of Tentacles left its prison and reached them!

    ¡°What about now? Do you really wish to die with us?¡± Yethew screamed.

    Sinehowze finally began to waver. As far as she could see, they were very likely to perish in the next moment. But as a dedicated cook, she still couldn¡¯t understand why the monster grew so angry just because of a freaking egg!

    ¡°Can we really soothe that thing if I return the egg?¡± Carveline asked.

    No one spoke because they weren¡¯t sure anymore.

    ¡°It¡¯s possible. But if you don¡¯t, we¡¯re dead for sure,¡± Choctemented.

    ...

    At the same time, on the top floor of the machine tower, Lawson suddenly felt something and frowned while watching the screen.

    ¡°The magic array holding down the Lord of Tentacles has been broken.¡±

    The others had their attention on Angor. They failed to understand what Lawson meant in time.

    Lawson changed the disy and showed what was going on at thevake. When people looked at the erged, reddened body of the Lord of Tentacles, they all remained silent in great shock.

    ¡°It... went berserk? But why now?¡± No one apart from Muse and Lawson knew what just happened inside the garden.

    Muse squinted his eyes. ¡°So they really stole the monster¡¯s egg... Lord of Tentacles won¡¯t act like this just because of some biting insects.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s growing strong by abnormal means. Once its rage settles down, it will get weaker than before,¡± Lawson said with a sigh. ¡°And if our main material cannot offer its full strength, we¡¯ll need to add more fuel to the garden.¡±

    Lawson meant to say that the death toll, which should be somewhere around 90% of the participants, would rise.

    ¡°Heh. I wonder if it will end up with all of them dead.¡± Again, Muse didn¡¯t conceal his bad joke.

    ¡°We should either kill the Lord of Tentacles now and inject its energy into the garden or do something to calm it,¡± said Lawson. ¡°We can¡¯t afford to kill all apprentices; it will bring us more trouble than what we can deal with. Fine. I¡¯ll try to do something.¡±

    With that, Lawson stood up and prepared to leave.

    ¡°Hey, wait. Look there.¡± Muse stopped him and tapped at the screen that showed Angor¡¯s position again. The boy was heading straight to theva zone with a long trail of demon fishes on his heels.

    ...

    While trying to get past the fishes that blocked his way, Angor¡¯s body suffered some injuries. He then managed to seize a chance and began to fly down.

    To make sure he didn¡¯t run into unexpected trouble, he chose to follow the exact path through which he came.

    Normally, predators would give up on their prey after a long chase in order not to waste stamina. However, it was obvious that the hunting fishes weren¡¯t ordinary animals. It seemed they were determined to taste Angor¡¯s flesh no matter what.

    Angor also realized it and tried to think of another way of escaping rather than waiting for the fishes to go away.

    He knew where he was going. As he remembered, theva zone didn¡¯t have many roaming fishes, which meant it was a perfect spot to hide.

    But first, he needed to do something about his wounds. Otherwise, his blood would keep attracting more hungry monsters.

    To achieve this, he had to asionally return to his body, cast Heal, and eject his soul again. His wounds were slowly closing up, but the intervals also slowed him down quite a bit. In fact, it prevented him from shaking off the pursuers.

    It was only until he almost reached theva zone that he fully healed up his body.

    While at it, he discovered a small chunk of fish meat clung to his hood. It seemed this bloody piece that probably came from a bomb fish earlier was the culprit that gave his position away to the sharks, thus breaking his Infinite Reticence effect.

    He didn¡¯t check the condition of his physical body when flying around as a soul, which ultimately caused the series of events.

    He sighed in distress as he just learned another w in his skills.

    Since he had no time to wash his robe, he simply tossed it inside his bracelet.

    He already saw thick smoke in front of him as well as the glowingnd beneath. As nned, he would get back inside his body under the cover provided by the environment.

    After doing so and losing the effect of the sequence of gravity, he began to free-fall quickly. First, he immediately used Cleanse to remove the remaining smell on him. After that, he prepared to activate Infinite Reticence before the fishes could see him.

    But an ear-piercing bellow caused him to stop his action.

    He felt dazed for a moment. When he recovered and checked what was below, he saw arge, red ¡°octopus¡± unleashing its deadly tentacles to a group of people.

    Of course, they were the survivors from earlier. The egg thief Sinehowze, Carveline. Even n was among them.

 Chapter 488 - Fish Eat Fish

    <h4>Chapter 488: Fish Eat Fish</h4>

    The brief distraction caused Angor to miss his chance of blending in with the smoke barrier.

    He kept falling, and he was falling faster than he expected.

    He was now dangerously close to theva below.

    With quick work, he constructed a cantrip model in his mind space, and a small tornado soon appeared at his feet.

    He tried to use the tornado as a stepping stone to reach for another lump of thick smoke not far from him so that he could temporarily confuse the fishes and go on hiding.

    But he made a small mistake.

    The cantrip was fine. Yet his aim was a little off!

    He realized he was going to crash into the magic array restraining the Lord of Tentacles at this rate.

    He didn¡¯t know how exactly the array worked, but he already saw the monster¡¯s tentacles getting ripped apart by it.

    ¡°Get away from it, Angor!¡± someone yelled at him in a familiar voice.

    Angor nced back and saw Keely shouting at him at the back of the trapped apprentices.

    Quickly, he prepared to cast another tornado. However, he already fell into the pressure unleashed by the Lord of Tentacles; it prevented him from doing anything swiftly. Also, the chaotic energy in the area would disrupt any spells that he could conjure.

    The Lord of Tentacles somehow gained the same level of power as a real wizard, but it seemed it had not learned how to control such power, which was why it only used its newly-gained aura to suppress people¡¯s actions rather than doing real harm to them.

    Since he could still move slowly, Angor quickly thought about another idea. Once again, he ejected his soul.

    Most of the apprentices on the other side were still wondering about the fool that just bumped into the battlefield. They didn¡¯t have to figure out who he was since Keely already revealed his name aloud.

    Angor.

    This name meant nothing to them just half a month ago. However, since then, people often mentioned this name during their social conversations, albeit with different attitudes.

    It was written in human nature that one would envy someone with a powerful background. Angor¡¯s case was made worse when the magazine used lots of ttery words and overstatements. Combined with the fact that Angor tended to stay low and keep everything to himself, people basically knew nothing about his achievement, which gave them more reason to malign the rumored boy.

    Someone with an evil nature like Jebra would get his name known and approved by others, even if it was a bad name. But Angor only earned himself the title of a ¡°coward¡± due to his reclusive lifestyle.

    This was why people all frowned in disgust when they heard Keely yelling at Angor.

    Still, they felt bad when they saw that he was about to crash into the magic array because they would probably be in the very same fate soon.

    As they watched in despair, Angor¡¯s body suddenly gained an unbelievable speed and shed to somewhere far away within a second.

    He moved so fast that human eyes barely saw what just happened.

    More importantly, how did he move so fast in the monster¡¯s territory?

    Keely sighed in relief when she saw that Angor managed to escape. She nned to tell Angor to get out here first since Angor seemed capable of it.

    Suddenly, she saw her kitten, Luna, who had been sitting at the tip of her broomstick, puffed up its fur and meowed loudly toward the sky.

    Someone followed Luna¡¯s gaze and were shocked speechless by what they saw.

    ¡°S-so many¡ª¡±

    ¡°So many what? What did you see¡ª¡± When the others all followed suit, they failed to finish their question.

    There was a famous painting in the wizarding world called the Cmity of All. An ultist, ¡°Magic Painter¡±, a truth-finder wizard who could connect different dimensions using his painting brush, created it.

    The Cmity of All was used as an illustration by Expedition into Endless nes. The picture described the incident when a grand demon, Fallen Sun, invaded the southern wizarding region and brought civilization-ending disaster ten thousand years go.

    Inside the painting, the sky was filled with bloodthirsty monsters coveting human flesh while an ¡°individual¡± with a blurred face stood in front of all monsters. This individual was the main character of the painting, Fallen Sun. People said that each of his moves would bring swarms of monsters that sank the continent.

    Almost everyone in the southern wizarding region knew about the painting.

    Now, the apprentices trying to bear with the monster¡¯s pressure were terrified to see something simr happening right in front of their eyes.

    Countless demon fishes blocked the sky like thunderclouds. There were onesrge enough to upy half of their view, like giant whales and the Ignis Medusozoa, as well as shiny, smaller species that took up much of the space just by their sheer number.

    The apprentices felt their nerves slowly breaking apart when the entire sky was reced by monsters.

    It seemed all the fishes were still going after Angor. Their eyes, either tiny or big, were all looking at Angor while showing greed, hunger, and rage.

    Of course, it was nothing topete with what Fallen Sun caused in history. Even so, it was nheless terrifying.

    ¡°That¡¯s Sunders¡¯ student for you. He provoked so many demon fishes and still managed to survive!¡±

    The others tried to imagine what would be of them if they were in Angor¡¯s shoes. Torn to shreds almost instantly, no doubt.

    When most people werementing on Angor¡¯s actions in awe, some of them slowly looked toward where Angor showed up earlier¡ªthe sky.

    What was he doing up there?

    Both Freud and Hermes frowned as they took their own assumptions.

    ¡°Sh*t. Did he go pick their nest or something? What a pain...¡± They suddenly heard someoneining. When no one was looking, Keely had climbed onto her broomstick again and began to float toward Angor¡¯s position whilepletely unaffected by the Lord of Tentacles¡¯ might.

    When Angor managed to bounce away from the magic array, he saw the fish army approaching.

    And he knew getting rid of the fishes was his most important task right now.

    He could keep running by dragging his body with gravity power, but he already felt that he was losing soul energy fast. Soul Orbs couldn¡¯t keep him energized in the long run, and he had consumed three vials of Witch Stew. Each time he returned to his body, he would feel something hollow, which meant the side-effect for spending soul energy was getting to him.

    Cillian¡¯s Witch Stew could nurture one¡¯s body, yet it wasn¡¯t its main purpose. Drinking too much of it might cause Angor to have too much energy in his body, and without any bloodline enhancement, he had nothing to spend his energy on.

    He had to find a better solution soon; otherwise, he would die from drinking too much nutrient.

    The Lord of Tentacles howled again and interrupted his thoughts.

    Even in his soul form, the power carried by the howl dazed him a little.

    When he could see clearly again, he saw the magic array was almostpletely destroyed. Half of the monster¡¯s body already crawled out of it.

    Angor stared at the Lord of Tentacles and looked up at the fishes again. An idea suddenly came to his mind.

    He had a n, but he might need a little bit more time.

    Keely already arrived at his side and yelled into his ears, ¡°Get up, we¡¯ll get out of here!¡±

    Angor was surprised at how Keelypletely ignored the suppressive energy used by the monster.

    He wouldn¡¯t refuse the timely help of course. Angor then quickly returned to his body and grabbed onto the broomstick.

    But before Keely could ride away, Angor pointed to somewhere on top of the Lord of Tentacles.

    ¡°Drop me down over there!¡±

    Keely gave him a puzzled look.

    ¡°Twenty seconds. I only need twenty seconds!¡± Angor replied with a determined look.

    Keely decided not to ask and listened to Angor.

    What Angor had in mind was to deploy a giant illusion that was enough to cover up the Lord of Tentacles. To do so, he had to deploy a good number of illusion nodes around its body.

    He needed his body to deploy illusion, but he also needed to travel to each spot using the sequence of gravity in soul form. If Keely could help him move around, it would save him a lot of time.

    Working as fast as he could, he went through four major positions and left a dozen illusion nodes behind.

    Since the Lord of Tentacles had its attention on Sinehowze the whole time, it didn¡¯t realize that another ¡°insect¡± was plotting something.

    The fish army was almost onto Angor by the time he was done with his illusion.

    ¡°Thanks!¡±

    Under Keely¡¯s surprised gaze, Angor leaped down from her broomstick.

    Using his own body as the trigger, he activated all nodes he had created. Immediately, a thick mist began to expand and swallowed the Lord of Tentacles as a whole.

    At the exact same time, the fishes all swarmed into Angor¡¯s illusion.

    Angor nned to let the fishes and the giant octopus fight it out inside the ¡°arena¡± he created, which would give him enough time to escape. However, it would only work if he could sessfully trick the fishes into going into the mist.

    To achieve this, he used his talent to fool their senses.

 Chapter 489 - Ahead of Schedule

    <h4>Chapter 489: Ahead of Schedule</h4>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor could trick the senses of something weaker than him, but the near-wizard-level beings among the schools of fish, such as the Ignis Medusozoa, would merely shrug off his attempts.

    However, he didn¡¯t need to trick every single fish with his illusion. Just like how he dealt with the first encounter after entering the purification garden, all he needed was to cause a small ruckus among the fishes, and they would start a fight among themselves.

    Once there were enough victims inside his illusion, he quickly felt like he was in control of everything. Soon, he unleashed a unique power that began to change the minds of the fishes.

    A momentter.

    As he expected, only one out of every ten fishes was affected by his trick; all of which were the weaker ones in the group.

    He was quite surprised to see the mightiest being of all¡ªthe Lord of Tentacles¡ªshowed a brief moment of confusion inside his illusion.

    The condition onlysted for less than a second, but it was enough for the Lord of Tentacles to m its arms aimlessly while hitting several flying monsters, including the Ignis Medusozoa, which was not much weaker than the Lord of Tentacles itself.

    The Lord of Tentacles had lost its sanity when someone stole its egg, which gave Angor an opportunity to manipte its mind for a blink of an eye.

    Added with the already confused fishes, the ¡°arena¡± immediately fell into an utter mess.

    After getting hit by the Lord of Tentacles, the Ignis Medusozoa quickly retaliated by unleashing more embers into the air, which killed countless fishes in the area. In the end, some of the stronger creatures like the whale-like monsters began to attack the Ignis Medusozoa out of self-defense.

    Taking the chance, Angor activated Infinite Reticence. He then ejected his soul and moved to the edge of the mist illusion.

    He couldn¡¯t leave the illusion yet since doing so would cause his mind-tricking aura to fade. While carefully dodging stray attacks, he tried to further erge the illusion so that he had more room to run around.

    The battle between the Ignis Medusozoa and the Lord of Tentacles was reaching its climax. Soon, the Ignis Medusozoa also began to build up its rage and grow stronger. At this point, more than half of the smaller fishes were already burned to ashes.

    The originally pink-themed jellyfish-like monster turnedpletely red, just like how the Lord of Tentacles did. The jellyfish-like monster also began to unleash its wizard-level energy.

    As their battle continued, more fish fell dead.

    Angor felt d about the sess of his n, but he was also terrified of their strength. If a stray energy stream caught him, it would shatter his body without a doubt.

    Several of his illusion nodes were broken in the chaos, which caused the mist illusion to slowly go away. The smaller fishes saw how their ¡°bosses¡± were dueling each other, and all chose to run away without minding Angor.

    Soon, only the Lord of Tentacles and the Ignis Medusozoa remained behind as they continued to fight against each other.

    Angor moved as far as he could the moment his illusion failed, and that was when Keely caught him on her broomstick and began to retreat.

    Since that the Ignis Medusozoa was too big a threat to ignore, the Lord of Tentacles had to focus on its new enemy, which allowed Sinehowze¡¯s group to move out of the dangerous area. The Lord of Tentacles saw this and tried to go after them, but it was soon dragged back by the ¡°jellyfish¡±.

    When it saw Sinehowze almost getting away, the Lord of Tentacles bellowed again and began to grow further in size. As it visibly gained another level in strength, blood started to seep from its skin.

    Once again, the now enhanced pressure managed to catch up with the escaping apprentices and fixed them in ce.

    They felt desperate as their hard-earned hope vanished so soon.

    They suddenly heard someone speaking in an emotionless, robotic voice, ¡°Its strength has reached its peak. Bring forward the sacrifice.¡±

    People looked back and saw Lawson, still in his ck robe, had somehow shown up above thevake.

    Lawson was watching the fight between the two monsters with a surprised look. Earlier, Muse mentioned that Angor might be the one to turn the tide, and he thought Muse was merely joking. But it really happened!

    This didn¡¯t mean Angor gained anything out of it. The boy only managed to escape.

    But Angor still caused two powerful monsters, which would stay clear of each other¡¯s territory, to meet up and fight. The battle even raised their strength somehow.

    The Lord of Tentacles grew stronger purely out of uncontrolled rage. Once everything settled down, it would suffer a great side-effect that might strip all of its supernatural energy.

    But that didn¡¯t matter now.

    Lawson came so that he could sacrifice both monsters while they were enjoying the temporary moment of their lives. And this would work even better than their original n.

    As he estimated, this incident would decrease the number of ¡°fertilizer apprentices¡± by at least 20%, which meant Angor¡¯s deed might have saved the lives of thousands of people.

    Of course, Lawson didn¡¯t care about the number of apprentices who died. He was just d to see that less trouble would be directed at Floating Mech City.

    ...

    Along with Lawson, a giant vortex also appeared in the sky. Following Lawson¡¯s words, a towering, metal hand about a hundred meter in length emerged from it and covered up both the Lord of Tentacles and the Ignis Medusozoa.

    Strong as they were, the two monsters were no match against Lawson. Not in the least.

    With a simple squeeze, the metal w ground the monsters to scattering energy that disappeared to nurture the garden.

    With his job done, Lawson gave Angor a meaningful nce and vanished.

    When the others saw both Lawson and the violent energy in the environment gone, they all sighed in great relief.

    Loki sat up on the back of his rhino. ¡°Oh, thank goodness! We¡¯re safe. Are we safe?¡±

    Kaboom!

    Thend in theva zone exploded and moreva came sshing out like fountain water, turning the area into a dangerous ground for unwary creatures once again.

    ¡°Oh, you and your tongue!¡± Hermes pped Loki¡¯s head and yelled to Tana, ¡°Let¡¯s move! It¡¯s better not to stay here.¡±

    Tana checked n, who had fallen into a milda, and nodded.

    Whichever side they were on, people all agreed that they should leave first. While doing so, no one said anything to break the silence. Although they would asionally nce at a particr young man who was hanged on Keely¡¯s broomstick by the back of his cor.

    Lawson dide and deal with the wizard-level monsters. However, they all saw what happened earlier. That young man was the one who made the entire n work out.

    No one would regard Angor as a ¡°coward¡± now. Obviously, no coward in this world was brave enough to fly around with a bunch of deadly predators chasing after him while making up something to provoke two wizard-level monsters.

    And he seeded!

    They realized that the magazine wasn¡¯t overstating Angor¡¯s skill at all. Rather, they should have used better words.

    As for Angor... he had yet to get over his stressful mind. He was still panting heavily while trying to calm his heartbeat.

    While inside the battlefield, he didn¡¯t really feel anything even though he was so close to the terrible monsters. Now that he had time to think about it, he felt terrified¡ªone wrong move back there and both his life and his soul would be gone.

    *Purr*

    He felt something and looked around, only to see Keely¡¯s cat, who had been sitting on her broomstick, hopped onto his shoulder and meowed at him.

    Perhaps the creature sensed Angor¡¯s troubled mind. It licked at his cheek gently.

    Angor was a little surprised, but he was even more surprised when he felt his mood getting soothed.

    ¡°Luna said thanks,¡± Keely said in her usual cold tone.

    ¡°It did?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It believes that without you, all of us would be dead.¡±

    Angor felt something strange from Keely¡¯s voice. She still sounded distant and unfriendly, but... not as distant as before.

    ¡°I was just saving myself...¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Didn¡¯t expect such an oue though.¡±

    Keely wanted to ask why Angor brought so many fishes to theva zone in the first ce. But on second thought, she felt that it wasn¡¯t a good time to talk with people watching them, so she gave up and focused on controlling her broomstick.

    Angor reached for Luna¡¯s tiny head to show his friendliness.

    And he totally wasn¡¯t expecting to earn three bloody gashes on his hand.

    Luna turned around, pped his face with its tail, and returned to the broomstick.

    ¡°Cats... I¡¯ll never understand them,¡± Angorined as he used Heal on himself while ring at Luna. The kitten seemed indifferent about what it just did whatsoever.

    ¡°Luna hates it when people touch it. If you must, try to do it when Luna¡¯s happy,¡± Keely exined.

    Angor nced at the kitten in doubt. ¡°So... is it happy or not?¡±

    ¡°Somewhere in between.¡± Keely reached out a hand and rubbed Luna¡¯s chin. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s happy now.¡±

    ¡°Huh?!¡±

    But there¡¯s no difference! How can you tell? And wait, so the cat switches mood between seconds? Well, that doesn¡¯t help!

    ¡°I just... know,¡± Keely said as if she managed to read Angor¡¯s mind. ¡°I know what Luna is thinking about.¡±

    Angor couldn¡¯t helpining in his mind. Yeah right. They say pets resemble their masters. That so exins it!

 Chapter 490 - Old Friend

    <h4>Chapter 490: Old Friend</h4>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Mister Angor, is it? I see you truly deserve your position as Mister Sunders¡¯ disciple. Keely was right, you saved all of us.¡±

    Angor looked back and saw a young man, who was beside the giant rhino creature, spoke to him.

    Usually, he wouldn¡¯t respond to a total stranger in such a situation. However, when he noticed that n was also with them, he chose to address the speaker with a smile.

    ¡°It¡¯s only a coincidence. Besides, I probably would die there if Mister Lawson didn¡¯te.¡±

    ¡°Nevertheless, you helped greatly,¡± the young man said politely. ¡°I¡¯m Hermes, from Moxa Wesnd.¡±

    Loki, the naughty kid who had been poking the rhino¡¯s horn, chipped in, ¡°I¡¯m Loki, from Moxa Wesnd too!¡±

    ¡°... That¡¯s my junior. We study from the same teacher,¡± Hermes exined with a frustrated look.

    Angor didn¡¯t remember anything regarding ¡°Moxa Wesnd¡± in his memory, but he didn¡¯t really care. Before he could ask what was going on with n, Loki interrupted him by asking,

    ¡°So, Brother Angor, where did you attract so many fish monsters from? Did you go to the sky?¡±

    The abrupt question drew a lot of attention. Since they all wanted to know the answer, everyone, including Freud and Shayaron, chose to follow each other¡¯s example and looked at Angor. No one asked yet since they couldn¡¯t find a good time to raise the subject.

    Loki¡¯s question just helped them, either intentionally or not.

    Keely frowned a little. She didn¡¯t ask Angor because she wanted to maintain the peaceful silence.

    She gave Loki an unfriendly re that scared the kid off. ¡°It¡¯s none of your business. Just hide behind your senior¡¯s back and don¡¯t be a nuisance. Your age gives you no privilege to act freely.¡±

    Loki tried to protest, but both Tana and Hermes signaled him to stay put.

    The boy lowered his head while sulking.

    Angor was pretty surprised to find out that Keely actually assisted him. Personally, he wouldn¡¯t keep his previous adventure a secret. However, he could no longer exin now since it would put Keely in an embarrassing position.

    And when Angor chose not to speak, the others could only keep advancing while pretending that they didn¡¯t care.

    They moved forward for quite a while until they realized that theva-coverednd was dramatically expanding with no sign of stopping.

    They could see red-hotva pools everywhere; even the grasnd began to burn. Soon, there would be no grass left in this area.

    The general mood among people began to worsen. If they didn¡¯t find the exit soon, they would no longer have anything to stand on. And there was no way they could stay afloat since both the monster fishes and their mana reserves were huge problems.

    They killed a good number of fishes along their way, which also helped Angor witness the true strength of these people. Angor now knew that he had little hope of defeating any of them in head-on fights.

    Hermes was particrly strong due to his sand-maniption abilities. In his hands, the sandstorms he unleashed did quick work by draining all life energy from any trapped fish.

    Unlike Angor¡¯s ¡°smart moves¡±, Hermes could wipe out monsters using his raw power.

    Nobody could say which one was stronger without actually fighting each other, but at the very least, they couldn¡¯t deny Hermes¡¯ deadly abilities.

    After a while, they managed to catch up with the edge of the expandingva zone.

    Shayaron stopped moving and said to the others, ¡°Let¡¯s split. I have other things to attend to.¡±

    Shayaron and Freud looked at each other; they then exchanged looks with Yethew. Before the three of them left the group, Yethew said in his unpleasant voice, ¡°Sinehowze, you brought the disaster on us, and I hope you can give us an exnation soon. Of course, you¡¯ll do us a bigger favor if you drop dead inside the garden.¡±

    He nced at Angor next. His ant told him that Angor was the one eavesdropping on their conversation earlier, and he would like to condemn the boy. However, he had to admit that Angor did save his life earlier. Besides, there was no good reason to get on the bad side of Sunders¡¯ student.

    Thinking about this, Yethew only nodded to Angor as a courtesy and left with Shayaron and Freud.

    What Yethew just said turned Sinehowze and Carveline into the center of attention again. But like always, they didn¡¯t care about it in the least.

    ¡°We¡¯ll go as well,¡± Chocte scoffed. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be anywhere near these two. Otherwise, they will drag me into another one of their stupid plots again.¡±

    Likewise, Chocte expressed her gratitude to Angor. She then red at Carveline and Tana before disappearing into another direction covered by dense smoke.

    Following them, most people left as well. In the end, only Keely and Angor, Sinehowze¡¯s pair, and Hermes¡¯ group remained.

    Keely would like to be left alone as well, but she wasn¡¯t the type to say goodbye to others. She simply steered her broomstick away and prepared to depart.

    Angor released himself from the broomstick, took out his Gond, and hopped on.

    The exquisite design of the boat immediately attracted everyone. The door curtain decorated by shiny stars appeared extremely beautiful in the gloomy air.

    Keely gave Angor another frown, not sure what he was up to.

    Angor sat on his boat and shrugged. ¡°Leave, if you want to. I¡¯d like to stay with them a little longer.¡±

    ¡°Why would you do that?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer her. He had been wondering what the barrier above the sky, as well as the strange hourss, meant.

    Is something going to happen two hourster?

    When Lawson dealt with the Lord of Tentacles, the man mumbled something about ¡°sacrifice was brought forward¡±. Did it mean that the real ¡°sacrifice¡± had not started yet?

    Maybe they could learn something by the time the hourss finished its countdown.

    Something told Angor that the barrier in the sky was the exit they had been looking for. However, since they could not prate the barrier yet, it meant that the time limit might have something to do with it.

    While waiting, Angor nned to stick to Hermes¡¯ group so that he could enjoy some peaceful time while Hermes dealt with any iing enemies. Besides, he also needed some time to recover his mana.

    More importantly, he didn¡¯t want to apany Keely. He never liked the girl¡¯s attitude. Keely did fulfill her promise bying to him, and even though he didn¡¯t want to admit it, their teamwork earlier went pretty well.

    ¡°I promised my teacher that I¡¯ll protect you,¡± Keely said in her cold voice.

    Someone among the group chuckled. After witnessing how Angor fooled all those monsters, including the two wizard-level ones, what Keely said made little sense.

    ¡°Do you think I need your protection?¡± Angor decided to make this clear.

    Keely didn¡¯t answer. She just realized that Angor was far from being the coward and burden she assumed. Rather, judging from what he had shown until now, Angor was very likely to be a survivor in the end.

    Still, she did not want to fail her professor¡¯s order, so she chose to stay with the others as well.

    In fact, the others were also wondering why Angor chose to stay. Hermes thought about continuing with his teammates only, but he found no reason to reject Angor¡¯s decision. As for Sinehowze and Carveline... These two women had been acting shamelessly. Hermes wouldn¡¯t want to waste his strength by forcing them to go away.

    Also, Hermes got a strange feeling that both Angor and Sinehowze knew how to find the exit because they seemed so rxed.

    With different ns in mind, they all moved to one randomly-chosen direction. Nobody knew why they did so but no one provided another suggestion.

    Sinehowze was giving Angor¡¯s vehicle a lot of attention because she loved the design of it. But for some reason, she never moved to talk with Angor.

    Angor, on the other hand, had been observing the man called Hermes.

    Hermes had been using his flying spell all along, which probably cost a lot of mana, so Angor asked the man to join him on the boat.

    When Hermes asked if he could bring Tana along, Tana gave Angor a friendly smile.

    Angor felt a little dazed upon seeing Tana¡¯s bikini-style getup, but since Hermes was obviously her partner, and the man had been taking care of their safety, Angor chose to agree.

    Hermes and Tana took their rest on Gond while the white rhino floated alongside.

    While traveling, Angor secretly took a peek at n, who had been sleeping on the rhino¡¯s back. n did not possess much strength, which made him the same level as Sailum. Angor couldn¡¯t understand why n woulde here at all.

    Jon once told him about ¡°the three merriest things in one life¡±, and one of which was to ¡°meet an old friend in a distantnd¡±.

    n wasn¡¯t really his best friend, but they did spend half a year together after leaving Old Earth. As someone who called the same ce home, Angor would dly regard n as a partner.

    He noticed that n was unconscious but without any serious injuries. n was only knocked out by the great pressure unleashed by the Lord of Tentacles. Some rest would be good for him.

    ¡°By the way, n mentioned your name a lot...¡± Tana suddenly told Angor.

 Chapter 491 - Alanâ€™s Team

    <h4>Chapter 491: n¡¯s Team</h4>

    ¡°He did?¡± Angor gave Tana a puzzled look. ¡°But how? Why are you together?¡±

    ¡°We are both studying at Butterfly Tavern.¡± Tana looked at n and seemed to be recalling old memories. ¡°When we arrived at Floating Mech City, almost everyone was talking about you and your teacher, Sunders. That¡¯s when n told us that you two came from the samend.

    ¡°Man, n was so surprised and happy. He said that his sister will be even happier if she knows that you¡¯re fine.¡±

    Until now, Angor had not fully trusted the woman, but since she also knew about Aleen¡¯s name...

    ¡°n¡¯s sister didn¡¯te here, right?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Tana shook her head. ¡°I guess she didn¡¯t. n already checked the agency of the coral academy, and he didn¡¯t find Aleen there. Well, the girl has only been in the wizarding world for less than two years. She totally shouldn¡¯te. Now that I think about it... n said you started training a lotter than them, but woah, you¡¯re way better than him now.¡±

    The others all looked their way.

    ¡°Tana... you mean this boy started training like, only one year ago?¡± Hermes asked in surprise. As far as he knew, n had reached the summit of his level as a level-1 apprentice, which was already impressive.

    Tana nodded. ¡°Yes, if Little n did not lie.¡±

    Hermes looked at Angor again, more carefully this time. He already checked. Angor was also a level-2 apprentice like him, who was going to reach his level summit soon.

    But I¡¯ve worked hard for more than ten years! How did he¡ª

    Even someone who learned a special channeling method couldn¡¯t train so fast without the right talent to go with it. Hermes assumed that the ¡°fitness level¡± of Angor¡¯s channeling method was 15%, at best.

    What he didn¡¯t know was that Angor had been using Singrity Dispersive Meditation, something that guaranteed a fitness level of 30% minimum. And this number would keep rising if Angor¡¯s talent would go well with his training.

    ¡°That¡¯s why Mister Sunders almost killed Bog to get him back...¡± Hermes shook his head. Like most people, he couldn¡¯t help feeling jealous at Angor¡¯s great fortune.

    Tana, on the other hand, didn¡¯t feel as troubled. She already went through her shock when she heard the news from n half a month ago.

    Sinehowze raised an eyebrow and kept Angor¡¯s superior talent in mind.

    ¡°You... began to study wizardry less than two years ago?¡± Keely suddenly stopped being quiet and asked Angor.

    Keely and her kitten, Luna, had been sitting on her broomstick. Now, the two pairs of eyes were looking at Angor curiously.

    Angor always knew being outstanding meant drawing more trouble, so he did not wish to reveal too much about himself. But Tana already did so, and he had nothing to deny it now.

    When Keely had her question confirmed by Angor, she lowered her head and fell into her own thoughts.

    Luna hopped onto her shoulder and gently licked the girl¡¯s cheek.

    Wait... Angor remembered how the cat did something simr to him before. Is Keely feeling down?

    Although he wasn¡¯t going to ask her. After all, they weren¡¯t friends.

    Again, Angor looked at Tana. Before leaving The Redbud, he saw Greya trying to recruit n, and he thought n would end up with her.

    It seemed n went to Felicia instead.

    Angor did feel happy about bumping into an ¡°old friend¡± in this ce, but he still got questions of his own.

    ¡°Why did ne here?¡± Angor meant to ask ¡°Why did ne looking for death?¡±, but he didn¡¯t intend to speak so boldly.

    Tana already understood what Angor wanted to know, but she was just as confused. ¡°A month ago, we received a letter from our teacher. She asked both of us toe here, to the purification garden. At first, I thought she wanted to give us a chance to use the purification power in here, but then we ran into Hermes in the city...¡±

    ¡°Tana is my childhood friend,¡± Hermes picked up the subject and said, ¡°but we haven¡¯t seen each other in a long time. I didn¡¯t know she became an apprentice too. Oh, I was so d...¡±

    Somehow, people noticed that the man was dering his ¡°ownership¡± over Tana as if he wanted no one else to approach her.

    Tana frowned at Hermes and continued with her exnation, ¡°Thanks to Hermes, we learned about the funny business that¡¯s about to happen in the garden, and I soon understood what our teacher wanted me to do. But I never understood why she requested n as well. I don¡¯t know, maybe she thinks that n is too lucky to die in here?¡±

    Angor thought about his travels and assumed that Felicia was still inside Dark Castle one month ago. Did she really send n to this trap because she trusted his luck?

    ¡°So far, n has proved his fortune to us. Look, he found us soon enough. Trust me, I¡¯ll take both of you out of this ce safely,¡± Hermes said as he thumped his chest.

    ¡°Keep an eye on n. I don¡¯t really need your help,¡± Tana said as she nced at him.

    ¡°Please! I never nned toe here in the first ce. But I need to protect you¡ª¡±

    Angor chuckled as the potential couple ¡°quarreled¡± among themselves. He chose to stay out of their conversation instead of being a third wheel.

    He was worried about n¡¯s safety. Now that Hermes promised to keep n well, Angor knew it was no longer necessary.

    For now, Nausica was the only one he would fully trust inside the garden. Well, maybe n was another.

    But n was already in good hands, and Angor soon began to think about his other friend who had yet to show up.

    I wonder how Nausica¡¯s doing...

    ...

    A giant, snake-like flying fish was sent flying and crashed into the side of a mountain while spinning madly.

    Before it could see the rotating world around it clearly, a shiny, silver fist was already upon his head.

    Bam!

    The mountainside was painted with the fish monster¡¯s brain fluid.

    ¡°Nice one!¡± Shan apuded while sitting on Gank¡¯s shoulder. When the big man sensed the happiness from his master, he began to perform a tribal dance.

    Nausica used ¡°Create Water¡± to remove the bloody remains from her arm and joined Shan while smiling. ¡°Can you tell him to stop doing that? He¡¯s gonna shake Shiliew off.¡±

    Shan looked at Gank¡¯s other shoulder. Because Gank was dancing, Shiliew was now sound asleep while hopping in ce, which looked quite funny.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Remember how she fell to the ground and hit her butt yesterday? And not a scratch on her. It¡¯s not going to kill her.¡±

    Nausica sighed. ¡°If Shiliew learns about what happened during her sleep, she¡¯ll try to murder you next time.¡±

    Shan giggled, and it caused her small braids to swing around. ¡°Nah, Shiliew can¡¯t kill someone as cute as me.¡±

    Nausica chuckled at the silly conversation. She was d that her teammates managed to find her within a day after the entrance.

    To be precise, it was Shiliew who found Shan first. Then the two of them came to Nausica together.

    Before entering the garden, Shiliew left some of her blood on Nausica and Shan¡¯s body so that she could find them by ¡°smelling¡± her own blood.

    And it worked wonders.

    Nausica had been acting confident in front of Angor, but she already realized that she didn¡¯t have enough strength to back up her image.

    Even though she didn¡¯t show it, she felt reassured that someone could help her survive the challenge.

    ¡°Are we going to keep moving? I think we¡¯re wasting time without a destination. We should find someone first. An apprentice from the city would be better. We can force him to tell us their n,¡± Shanmented.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking,¡± Nausica said as she pondered. ¡°It¡¯s really strange that Mister Lawson didn¡¯t tell us anything about how the garden works.

    ¡°We didn¡¯t find any buildings or anything useful besides those fishes. They want us to go to the exit but didn¡¯t tell us how? We can¡¯t possibly look around aimlessly. Maybe the exit is actually easy to find?¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t see it.¡±

    ¡°Or maybe it will show up in due time. We just have to wait. Or perhaps...¡±

    ¡°Perhaps what?¡±

    ¡°Maybe it has already shown itself... but at somewhere we overlooked.¡± Nausica looked at the sky and observed the asional flying fishes.

    ¡°You mean it¡¯s in the sky?¡± Shan asked.

    ¡°Blood sacrifice means dead people. What if the exit is up there? In this case, people all need to try their luck while taking the risk of getting eaten by the fishes. This way, they¡¯ll die faster.¡±

    Nausica reached a simr conclusion that was also assumed by Angor.

    Of course, there were many more people who were smart enough to realize it.

    ¡°Yeah... but how are going to get up there?¡± Shan frowned.

    ¡°That aside... Focus! We got more fish iing.¡± Nausica looked toward somewhere and saw several dozen hungry-looking fishes swimming toward them. ¡°Get ready to engage!¡±

 Chapter 492 - Golden Ray

    <h4>Chapter 492: Golden Ray</h4>

    When Nausica was busy fending off her enemies, Angor¡¯s group also bumped into several flying rays that could release cold energy into the environment.

    Unlike most of the monster fishes they saw before, each of these rays had a wingspan of over 20 meters. There was also a shiny, golden ray among them that was twice the size of others.

    With each p of their ¡°wings¡±, more freezing air would emerge from their formation. Slowly, the condensing air had blocked all paths around.

    The rays were clearly hostile. One of them already sent aet-like ice orb into the rear of Gond.

    Hermes immediately leapt away from the boat and unleashed his own sandstorm attack, which blew all other iing iceets away.

    ¡°Guess we have to get serious this time...¡± Hermes set his gaze upon the biggest, golden ray. ¡°I¡¯ll handle that one. As for the rest of them...¡± Hermes looked at Tana. ¡°You just do something. I¡¯ll leave n and Loki in your hands.¡±

    ¡°No objections.¡± Tana put her hands on the floor of the boat and arched her back. Slowly, her body turned into a brown, winged leopard and flew ahead to engage the smaller rays.

    Carveline also moved. She was wearing her usual, unchanged armor dress while holding a longsword in one hand.

    An intensive battle soon followed.

    This had to be the most dragging fight they had after leaving theva zone. The rays had hard yet smooth skins that deflected most of their attacks. To make it worse, they could keep using their icy power as if they had limitless mana reserves.

    Most of the rays were as powerful as the best level-2 apprentices, while the golden one was already half-step to wizard level.

    Carveline was surrounded by six of them. Other than the blinding sword shes and ice shards, the others couldn¡¯t see what was going on at her end. It seemed her element went well against the ice rays, and she was doing pretty well.

    Hermes, on the other hand, was trying very hard to keep up. He had to face the golden ray as well as three smaller ones. More than once, he fell into dangerous situations and was helped by ¡°leopard Tana¡± and the white rhino.

    Tana had dropped n and Loki onto Angor¡¯s boat.

    Angor thought about helping, but he currently couldn¡¯t drink any more Witch Stew. This meant that he couldn¡¯t eject his soul and join the aerialbat. He could still attack the rays while sitting on Gond, but since n and Loki were with him...

    The tide of the fight was turned as more rays were ughtered. Carveline only had one fish left to deal with now. If was only a matter of time before she could join Hermes and end the battle.

    And Angor was d to stay put and rx.

    Loki had been watching the fight nervously, but he soon rxed after he saw his friends winning. He turned back and looked at Sinehowze, who was leaning against the rear rail of the boat casually.

    Sinehowze didn¡¯t join the battle, and no one noticed what she had been up to. Now that Loki felt safe enough to check, he saw the woman examining the carvings on Gond with great curiosity.

    ¡°Why are you not helping them?¡± Loki frowned and asked a straight question like how he always did.

    ¡°Those guys are enough.¡± Sinehowze yawned and put up a carefree look. ¡°Are you expecting a Gourmet apprentice to help them fight?¡±

    Loki thought about n¡¯s terriblebat capacity and chose to agree with her. Even so, something told him that Sinehowze was hiding a lot of secrets from them.

    Angor also heard their conversation. When he followed behind the woman while invisible, he witnessed Sinehowze¡¯s amazing flying skills and her courage to confront monster fishes. Also, judging from how Sinehowze was brave enough to ¡°fool¡± so many apprentices into helping her, Angor believed this woman wasn¡¯t really weak when it came to violence. Still, he wouldn¡¯t question Sinehowze¡¯s purpose right now since he was also a ¡°cker¡±.

    Sinehowze saw Angor looking her way and revealed a sly expression behind their backs.

    ¡°Just like that small fatty over there, I don¡¯t know how to fight stuff. But I can make you all something delicious afterward as thanks!¡±

    Loki immediately surrendered. After spending some time with n, he developed a demanding appetite, and he believed the woman was a more seasoned Gourmet apprenticepared to n, which meant he got to eat better stuff.

    Sinehowze chuckled and looked at Angor next. ¡°By the way, thanks for helping me with the tentacle thing. I¡¯m going to share the egg and cook something for you as well. Are you okay with it, Mister Angor?¡±

    Angor found no reason to reject a good meal, so he agreed without a doubt.

    ¡°Nice. So, what should I do with it? Let me see... Shall I roast it or boil it or should I add some other spices...¡±

    Loki suddenly yelled out and interrupted Sinehowze¡¯s self-talk, ¡°Hey, look out! That one ising for us!¡±

    It seemed the golden ray fish decided to pick on something weaker. It mmed Hermes away and began to rush toward Gond.

    ¡°Angor! Get out of there!¡± Hermes yelled.

    Angor nudged Loki away and hopped onto the tip of his boat.

    Something shed in his eyes; people began to see several shadows appearing from Angor¡¯s body.

    After they cleared their minds, they realized that it was an illusion.

    Before they could understand what Angor just did, the golden ray suddenly stopped moving and trembled in front of Gond as if it just saw the most horrific existence in the world.

    The gigantic creature then turned tail like a startled child.

    Hermes was already waiting behind it. While defenseless, the ray ran straight inside a sand prison created by Hermes.

    Slowly but surely, the monster¡¯s flesh and blood were sucked clean. It became a dry corpse before it crashed to the ground.

    Hermes reached out a hand and recovered the now red sand into a small bottle hanging on his waist.

    The death of the boss of the rays signaled the end of the fight. People all returned to their previous positions; even Tana changed back to her human form.

    The encounter had given Angor a clearer idea of each person¡¯s abilities, especially Keely, who kept ten rays away from the group and was still in perfect condition as if nothing happened.

    Also, Carveline was not someone to be underestimated. She killed six rays without even a wrinkle on her clothes.

    As for Hermes and Tana, Angor was more interested in Tana¡¯s form-changing ability. It seemed Tana fused the bloodline of a Winged Leopard into her body. Being able to ¡°be¡± a leopard meant she had mastered her bloodline.

    But isn¡¯t Felicia her teacher? So, she¡¯s not a Gourmet apprentice?

    Tana noticed Angor¡¯s questioning look and exined nonchntly, ¡°I have two talent orientations, Bloodline and ult. But my own potential is just... average, so I¡¯m good at neither, unlike little n, who can use way better Gourmet skills than me.¡±

    ¡°Two orientations? That¡¯s so rare.¡± Angor remembered something mentioned by a book he read before. ¡°My professor once told me about dual-talent people.¡±

    ¡°Mister Sunders told you?¡± Tana wanted to know what kind ofment came from the famous wizard.

    ¡°He said such people have more options in their lives but better not attempt too many things before bing a wizard. You should focus on one of your talents until you earn a longer lifespan.¡±

    Tana nodded to agree. ¡°Professor Felicia said something simr. But I didn¡¯t follow her words and began to study Bloodline too soon because I thought that those with Gourmet talent can¡¯t fight... and now, here I am.¡±

    Hermes saw Tana feeling sad and approached to hold her shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We can use the garden challenge to purify our spirits, and you can choose a main subject from now on. You still got a bright future.¡±

    Tana pushed him away. ¡°I nned as much. By the way, Angor? What did you do to scare that monster away?¡±

    ¡°Oh. It¡¯s a cantrip called ¡®Fear¡¯.¡±

    ...

    They enjoyed some peace after the fight against the rays.

    No one really cared where exactly they were heading to. Hermes believed Angor chose a specific direction for a good reason.

    Sinehowze was already working on the meal she promised earlier, and the others all wondered what they would enjoy when a Gourmet apprentice was on the team.

    When Sinehowze took out her materials from her space ne, Angor noticed that her pink, butterfly-shaped pendant was actually one of the storage items he gave Devildare to repay his debt to Twilight Auction. He was quite surprised to meet with his old creation in such a situation.

    Although he didn¡¯t say anything about it. Instead, he carefully watched Sinehowze¡¯s moves while hoping to learn something from her. His own Mana Bread always tasted like old socks, and nobody could tell him why. Greya did tell him to give up on studying Gourmet.

    However, as a young man who wouldn¡¯t admit defeat easily, when he saw a chance to observe a Gourmet cook, he simply decided to take advantage.

 Chapter 493 - Gourmet of Darkness

    <h4>Chapter 493: Gourmet of Darkness</h4>

    Despite his great effort, he failed to learn anything.

    Sinehowze did not conceal her cooking skills from the others. Nevertheless, Angor didn¡¯t quite understand the way she moved. He did, however, notice something about her mirage.

    A mirage was an illusion of food that naturally urred when a Gourmet chef cooked something. Angor once fell into a mirage on The Redbud when he almost mistook a lit oilmp as a delicious drumstick.

    While such mirages could be deadly to mortals, it basically had no effect on apprentices who had set up their spirit models. Rather, they could use such mirage to tell what kind of food they were expecting.

    For example, they saw the illusion of the Lord of Tentacles; it was literally dancing in cooking smoke while swaying its arms here and there to grab different, strange-looking side-materials such as miniature cyclones, the melted egg of some unknown monster, and tree leaves they couldn¡¯t recognize. Slowly, the Lord of Tentacles stuffed them into its opened maw before its body caught fire.

    When the fire died down, a dish of glowing ¡°Exploding Lava Egg Soup¡± was presented to them.

    Usually, people used such mirages to see what was used to create the dish, but as an illusionist, Angor saw something more from it, such as how the mirage was not created by the cook but was brought by a strange power generated when the enchanted cooking me and the vor of food joined with each other.

    There were no illusion nodes involved. The mirage was only a delusion subconsciously produced when a Gourmet wielded his or her supernatural cooking abilities.

    That was about everything Angor managed to see. He could understand none of Sinehowze¡¯s cooking secrets or use what he learned to help with his Mana Bread.

    ¡°Drinking the Exploding Lava Egg Soup will help your magic attune with fire elements better and temporarily raise the power of your fire-rted spells,¡± Sinehowze exined while preparing her tes.

    There were pieces of egg and green herbs asionally floating on the bright-red soup. While smelling the strong yet pleasant aroma, people could see the traces of remaining mirage lingering in the liquid.

    ¡°Ohh. It smells like fire.¡± Hermes inhaled as deeply as he could.

    Loki was gulping loudly while his hands fumbled. It seemed he could no longer wait to taste his share.

    Sinehowze ced a bowl of soup in front of Angor first. ¡°It¡¯s all thanks to you that I can get the monster egg. This shall be my reward.¡±

    Although he did his best not to show it, truth was, Angor was just as eager to satisfy his starving stomach as Loki.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± he said and smiled at Sinehowze. He was beginning to regard this woman as a friend.

    Sinehowze had been showing her joyful and carefree attitude as ever. There was only her friend, Carveline, who noticed something hidden behind Sinehowze¡¯s facade. When Sinehowze looked like this, it meant she was plotting something... against someone.

    Angor picked up his soup and took another sniff, which already sated his hunger to a certain extent. People said that food created by true Gourmet chefs was filling just by looking at them, and it wasn¡¯t an overstatement.

    Sinehowze¡¯s smile grew bigger when she saw Angor¡¯s lips moving closer to her soup.

    But before Angor could actually drink any, a white, chubby hand moved in and snatched his te away.

    Angor and the other bystanders were all surprised by the sudden ¡°intruder¡±, while Sinehowze¡¯s smile froze on her face.

    ¡°Hey, Tana, you should tell Angor not to try everything made by Gourmets without knowing what it does,¡± someone said in a childish voice.

    n had woken up and joined them. It was him that took Angor¡¯s soup.

    Tana failed to understand what n meant. ¡°But I¡¯ve been watching. There¡¯s nothing wrong with her cooking or materials.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but there¡¯s something wrong with HER,¡± n said as he nced at Sinehowze. Earlier, he would address Sinehowze as ¡°a beautifuldy¡±, but he had some doubts ever since he saw the strange old man that apanied Sinehowze.

    It reminded him of ¡°Gourmet of Darkness¡±, about whom Felicia once mentioned to her students.

    ¡°She... has something?¡± Tana frowned and checked Sinehowze again.

    Sinehowze moved to Carveline and used her signature smile at n. ¡°Hey, kid, please don¡¯t tell such nonsense. I¡¯m going to spank you if I lose customers because of you.¡±

    Carveline chuckled and didn¡¯tment.

    ¡°Wait. There¡¯s a problem with the soup?¡± Angor knew what n meant to say.

    ¡°Let me have a look!¡± n thumped his chest proudly.

    Angor couldn¡¯t help smiling at n¡¯s character. The fat boy seemed not much different from when they were still on The Redbud. The life in Butterfly Tavern was probably pretty peaceful and rxing.

    n checked Angor¡¯s te from various directions and put it onto a small desk on the boat with a tight frown.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s wrong about it?¡± Tana asked.

    ¡°Um... nothing. Yes, it does help you with fire magic,¡± n said, but he was uncertain about something. ¡°But something tells me that there¡¯s more to it.¡±

    ¡°Well, you¡¯re not a woman, and you don¡¯t have a ¡®sixth sense¡¯ for sure,¡± Sinehowze snickered. ¡°If you can¡¯t tell us anything, we just let people decide on their own. Everyone, drink it if you want. Otherwise, just leave more soup for me.¡±

    Tana also checked the soup and nodded to others. ¡°I didn¡¯t find anything wrong.¡±

    n did possess better talent at Gourmet, but Tana turned level-2 ten years ago, which meant she was more experienced. Therefore, everyone else chose to trust Tana¡¯s words.

    It was Hermes who made an example and downed his share.

    Since someone reassured them, the others soon followed suit.

    n made a duck-face, obviously unhappy about what happened.

    Angor and Keely did not drink the soup. Keely¡¯s lonely character prevented her from epting gifts from people even if the soup fitted well with her fire-rted talent. As for Angor... he chose to trust in n¡¯s instinct.

    Besides, he had no use for the soup¡¯s beneficial effect. There were also potions with such merits. As an alchemist, he could always find these potions if necessary.

    Sinehowze squinted her eyes at Angor¡¯s decision, but she didn¡¯t say anything since she just imed that people were free to choose.

    The brief meal allowed people to melt down their unfriendliness just a little.

    Later, Angor found n and talked about their adventure in the wizarding world.

    It seemed n went through a simr experience as Angor. The Butterfly Tavern traveled around the world on its own, which allowed n to see a lot of different ces. However, he basically stayed inside the tavern all the time while concentrating on Gourmet studies. He didn¡¯t pay much attention to the outside world. Coming to Floating Mech City was n¡¯s very first field trip.

    And Angor would say the same if he weren¡¯t forced to Fairy World by an incident.

    The two apprentices who had yet to see much of the world ended up talking about Old Earth.

    Angor imed that he might return home within this year. n was a little jealous about it since he missed his father, General Morn. However, he didn¡¯t have what it took to travel through Devil¡¯s Water again.

    n saw Angor¡¯s former teacher before¡ªan ill-bodied man named Jon. Using what he had learned until now, n suggested several menus that might help with Jon¡¯s condition.

    Angor thanked n, but he knew that none of the food would help Jon stay away from the world¡¯s consciousness.

    n said he never saw Aleen and Mara again after leaving for Candy House.

    After talking about their past and future ambitions, Angor tried to ask n about his ¡°instinct¡± earlier. Since Sinehowze was still nearby, he used Voice Transmission just in case.

    ¡°Did you think Sinehowze put something bad in her soup?¡±

    n nodded and replied in Voice Transmission as well, ¡°I think she¡¯s a ¡®Gourmet of Darkness¡¯.¡±

    Gourmet of Darkness?! Angor realized he never heard of such a thing before.

    ¡°They¡¯re different from the ordinary Gourmet Wizards from Candy House. How do I put it... You can consider a dark Gourmet chef as someone who seeks benefit via cooking, but not for the sake of creating food. I don¡¯t know if Sinehowze is a dark one, but her skills look like those used by a legendary wizard my teacher told me before: The ¡®Culinarian of Spirits¡¯, Shinsky.

    ¡°The books said that Shinsky was a Gourmet of Darkness from hundreds of centuries ago. She used dishes to attract the spirits from other worlds to fight for her, kinda like summoner spells. But summoner spells are restricted by their users¡¯ levels, and summoning something stronger than yourself can be risky and costs a lot of resources. Shinsky¡¯s food though... It was more like ¡®exchanging¡¯ rather than summoning. She used good food to pay the spirits. If a dish suited someone¡¯s taste well, that spirit would still heed her call even if he was a really powerful spirit.¡±

    ¡°You can do that?!¡± Angor widened his eyes.

    ¡°Yeah. The spirits called by Shinsky were bound by a certain contract. Once they took her food, they had to fulfill the conditions asked by Shinsky.¡± n nced at Sinehowze again. The woman had scattered petals here and there by floating above the boat. ¡°When that old man gave the monster egg to her, he said something like ¡®it¡¯s payment for dinner¡¯ and disappeared. That looks like one of the spirits summoned by a dark Gourmet chef.

    ¡°If Sinehowze really knows something like this, then you should absolutely NOT eat her food. Otherwise, you¡¯ll get caught in a contract without even knowing it.¡±

 Chapter 494 - The Sea of Purification

    Chapter 494: The Sea of Purification

    Nobody could tell whether Sinehowze had anything to do with dark Gourmet.

    Angor simply put this matter behind his mind. Since he didn¡¯t drink her soup, it meant he had nothing to worry about. Besides, he had something more important to mind right now¡ªthe time indicated by the mysterious hourss was near.

    What would happen to the purification garden? Would that barrier in the sky open up? If all those seawater flooded down toward the ground, it would be disastrous.

    n soon noticed that Angor wasn¡¯t paying attention to his words.

    When n asked, Angor chose to tell him, ¡°I need to leave you guys. As for the exit... I think it¡¯s above us.¡±

    He used Voice Transmission to convey the message to Hermes and Keely as well.

    Angor patted n¡¯s shoulder and whispered, ¡°Make sure you get out of this ce safely.¡±

    Next, he unleashed a simple mist illusion to hide everyone¡¯s sight, put away his Gond, and ejected his soul to carry his body away.

    By telling Hermes the clue, he meant to repay their favor for clearing out monsters. From now on, he would like to act on his own.

    The illusion confused the others for a brief moment. Hermes and n calmed down soon since they already knew what Angor was doing, while Sinehowze was startled a little when she thought Angor was attacking someone.

    When the illusion vanished, both Gond and Angor were gone from sight.

    ¡°Guess we¡¯ll split up,¡± Hermes said to Sinehowze who was still wondering what just happened.

    ...

    Angor didn¡¯t drink witch stew this time. He assumed that his body could endure the absence of soul long enough to reach the barrier.

    He still had to slow down while climbing. Since there were too many monster fishes up here, he did not want to run into the same trouble asst time.

    In his mind, the hourss almost finished its countdown.

    He prepared to face whatever that might follow. He felt tension building up in his mind as thest drop of sand reached the bottom.

    And... nothing.

    The barrier was still intact, and the garden seemed unchanged. With a frown, Angor approached the barrier again and put his hand on it.

    He didn¡¯t receive any mysterious message this time. Instead, his hand went through the barrier and reached the water behind as if there was no obstruction at all.

    ¡°I can go inside?¡±

    He took out a strange-looking top hat with the tattoo of a smiling face on it and activated Purification Field so that he could breathe underwater.

    Then he dashed through the barrier.

    As he looked around in the deep water, an emotionless voice suddenly spoke to him as well as everyone inside the garden:

    ¡°The sacrifice has started. The old garden will self-destruct soon. Please move into the Sea of Purification.¡±

    Before they could understand what was going on, a giant timer that appeared in the sky showed ¡°01:59¡±.

    Anyone could see the shining number by lifting their heads. About a minuteter, it was showing ¡°01:58¡±.

    The voice meant to tell them that the world they were currently in would get destroyed in two hours, and they needed to find the ¡°Sea of Purification¡± to stay alive.

    But where was it?

    Angor, however, did not have such concern since he was already following the water currents. He believed he was now inside the Sea of Purification.

    But what next?

    When he tried to look back at the barrier and see what was outside again, he noticed something weird.

    He could no longer see the fishes outside, nor the floating clouds. He was looking at stars and the moon.

    It felt as if the world had turned upside-down. The ¡°barrier in the sky¡± just now had be the surface of the sea above him.

    He couldn¡¯t see the garden world. He wondered if it had vanished from reality.

    After some consideration, he slowly swam to the barrier again to check if he could get out.

    When his head poked out from the surface of the sea, he saw the strange sky full of stars but no fish.

    ¡°So this is another world? I can¡¯t return now?¡±

    He left the water and checked what was around, but he couldn¡¯t find anything. There was only an endless sea in sight.

    He tried to climb higher and see if there was another ¡°sky barrier¡± above, but after flying for two minutes, something told him that if he kept doing so, it would bring him misfortune.

    And he chose to trust his instincts.

    He didn¡¯t believe that the city would use the same trick for a second time. He only briefly checked the environment and went back to the sea.

    So am I supposed to go deeper?

    He didn¡¯t know whether there wasnd or an exit above the sea. For now, he preferred to check the underwater area. After all, Dodoro¡¯s prophecy told him the possibility that something might happen at the bottom of the sea.

    Not long after he began to dive, he saw a giant school of fish approaching. Out of instinct, he activated Infinite Reticence to hide. It was only a secondter when he felt something nudging his back.

    When looked around, he saw a gray-skinned dolphin just behind him.

    Startled, he prepared to use a cantrip to defend himself. However, he then saw the dolphin quickly approaching his position in curiosity.

    The Infinite Reticence couldn¡¯t make him disappear. The dolphin already bumped into something, and it was only a matter of time for the creature to discover Angor now.

    It cruised around Angor¡¯s body in circles.

    Angor noticed that unlike the predatory hunger disyed by the monsters in the garden, the dolphin¡¯s eyes were showing innocence.

    A momentter, as Angor tried to be as cautious as possible, the dolphin crept closer and pressed its belly against Angor¡¯s.

    Angor was left speechless. He knew now that the dolphin was just amon animal and probably in heat.

    He surely did not want to do that kind of bizarre business, so he injected a small trace of nightmare aura inside the creature¡¯s brain.

    Next, the dolphin slowly swam away while humping something non-existent.

    Angor kept moving and observing the fishes nearby. He saw many different species, and as far as he could tell, none of the fishes were supernatural monsters.

    Is the Sea of Purification just... sea? Or is there something else that¡¯s deadly to us?

    What he didn¡¯t know was that the monsters outside the barrier had begun to enter the Sea of Purification as well, and these groups of monsters included powerful ones that were asrge as whales.

    ...

    His vision dimmed as he moved deeper into the water. When he was about three hundred meters below the surface, the area waspletely dark.

    He felt unsafe and a little lonely when covered in this absolute darkness. Since he never studied any night-vision spells, he could only cast Light.

    The weak cantrip managed to illuminate several meters ahead of him.

    The light was wavering and blinking as if it would disappear any time, yet it helped Angor to get rid of his negative emotions.

    A group of fish was attracted to the light and began to circle around Angor yfully. Without the killing intent, these little creatures appeared way more adorable.

    Apanied by his light source as well as peaceful swimmers, he moved down once again.

    On his way, he saw gigantic whales and unknown predators that fought among each other. They were all ordinary wildlife that showed little interest in a human diver. And even if there were flesh-hunting ones among them, Angor¡¯s simple alchemy weapons were enough to keep them away.

    He assumed he already swam for over three kilometers when he finally saw something. There were a series of stone walls of different heights ahead of him, and something was shining around a corner.

    He thought it was a glowing fish like an angler, but when he approached it, he noticed he was looking at a building.

    It was a round fortress with its roof covered in thick seaweed and colorful shells. There was a round window in the center of the building, which reflected his light.

    ¡°There¡¯s a window... and a door. Of course... fish can¡¯t build something like that. Could it be a sunken civilization?¡± Angor canceled his Light and activated Infinite Reticence before he slowly moved to the fortress.

    Before he could get close enough, a strange-looking creature showed up and hurled a harpoon at him,pletely unaffected by his Infinite Reticence.

    He quickly dodged.

    In an instant, the harpoon turned around and came for him again while aiming at his head.

    He didn¡¯t have time to worry about why his invisibility was broken. All of his attention was drawn by the creature that showed the same level of power as the monster fishes. And no matter how he turned and evaded, the harpoon could automatically follow his track.

 Chapter 495 - Toad Skin

    <h4>Chapter 495: Toad Skin</h4>

    Angor dodged again and pressed his back against a stone wall. When the harpoon came, he moved aside so that the weapon would get stuck inside the wall.

    He thought he was safe for a moment. But the thick wall that was about ten meters high was shattered by the harpoon, which then began to chase after Angor again.

    ¡°Leave me alone already!¡±

    After gaining some distance, he ejected his soul. With a swift move, he materialized the sequence of gravity. It became a gravity water cannon and knocked into the harpoon.

    He felt the extreme power disyed by his own attack. The original beam-like gravity power was dispersed by water and turned into arge-scale strike. It broke the harpoon into several parts while creating a giant explosion underwater.

    Being in water amplified the great noise by several folds. From the center of the explosion, violent ripples surged around, breaking corals and stones, and creating a storm of debris.

    Angor didn¡¯t expect his attack to be so drastic. Even he himself was dragged into the aftermath.

    Using the sequence of gravity again, he dragged his body to a safe distance. He couldn¡¯t see the fortress at this spot¡ªthere was only more darkness.

    But he still felt the water current changing around him.

    Again, he cast Light to see what was going on.

    The first thing that entered his view was arge whale with a body length of over 50 meters quietly swimming past him.

    The creature gave Angor an indifferent nce using itsrge eyes and slowly moved away.

    The whale was not dangerous to him, but he still felt his heart skipped a beat when he saw such a towering creature upon him without even realizing it until it was near him.

    Once again, he felt stressful and unsafe. Everything in this dark sea bottom could put fear in people¡¯s minds. No matter where one went, one would still at the mercy of the ocean.

    In such a situation, ordinary folks would soon get overwhelmed by loneliness, helplessness, and his own powerlessness, as well as the fear of the unknown.

    The giant whale left Angor¡¯s view without causing any trouble.

    Angor was no ¡°ordinary folk¡±. Soon, he recollected his spirit and got ready to move on. The sea was vast but not endless. Compared to the universe, this part of the sea was just as tiny as humans.

    Using Light, he checked below him once again.

    The cantrip couldn¡¯t help him see very far, but since his physical properties had been enhanced by supernatural power, he had no problem seeing what he needed.

    He saw a vortex emerging around the corner of a stone wall, which soon began to die down under great water pressure.

    When all turbulence had settled down, he slowly moved deeper again.

    Before he could reach the walls, a creature with a pair of glowing green eyes rushed at him.

    He quickly created an ice wall, which did not help him block the iing attacker much. However, it provided him with enough time to move away while casting Fear.

    Enhanced by nightmare energy, the cantrip instantly turned the unknown creature into a flinching coward.

    Those green eyes widened while the pupils shrank.

    Angor heard it releasing noises of a very low frequency, which was usually inaudible to human ears. Although the voice made no sense. To Angor, the creature was only yelling random stuff.

    Maybe that¡¯s what it does when it¡¯s afraid?

    Before he could understand what the creature would do, he noticed that it had stopped moving. He no longer sensed any heartbeat from it.

    Did I just scare it to death??

    His ¡°Nightmare Fear¡± could ce victims inside an illusion where their worst nemesis would take form and attack them. And by doing so, the victims would actually believe that they were hurt even though their bodies would be fine.

    Perhaps the creature ¡°believed¡± that whatever it saw had killed it, and it died for real.

    Angor frowned. It seemed his cantrip created something that did a pretty good job. Too good, in fact, that it didn¡¯t even give Angor a chance to interrogate the creature.

    Angor moved his light source closer and realized that the creature was the same one who attacked him earlier with a homing harpoon. It looked... weird. A pair of green eyes, a giant mouth, three tiny holes as its nostrils... Its skin looked like a toad, while a strange and creamy substance was leaking from it. Also, the creature¡¯s head looked round and jagged like a sunflower.

    It had six limbs. Angor guessed that it used ¡°hands¡± to wield a weapon, but he wasn¡¯t sure since all six limbs looked the same.

    Other than these, it also had a small tail that looked like a tadpole¡¯s tail.

    Angor didn¡¯t know how to describe the strange being. It didn¡¯t look like a humanoid, but it knew how to use weapons, and it probably lived in that building, so it was likely intelligent.

    Angor chose to call it ¡°Toad Skin¡± for now.

    He believed it belonged to a group of simr creatures that built their homes underwater, and it was possible that they knew something about the Sea of Purification.

    However, he couldn¡¯t possibly scrutinize a dead corpse. He had to move to the building or at least find another ¡°Toad Skin¡±.

    He took a brief moment to dissect the body and noticed that it had apletely different organ systempared to humans. It seemed the creature could breathe using gills, and it had developed a rtivelyrge brain.

    Although Angor found no trace of supernatural power. The gluey liquid that seeped from the creature¡¯s skin did contain small energy residue, but the energy would quickly dissipate in the water before Angor could even examine it.

    Simr to human blood, the blood of a Toad Skin was also red. It didn¡¯t take long for several ferocious-looking sea creatures to be drawn by the scent of the blood.

    In order not to draw any potential threat to the scene, Angor tossed the corpse somewhere far away and moved on.

    The walls were damaged after the previous battle, but the round fortress was spared.

    After making sure his Infinite Reticence was working, Angor moved to the building.

    He had no idea whether more Toad Skins would show up, nor did he know how he was found out earlier. To be safe, he maximized the mana consumption of Infinite Reticence.

    The fortress wasn¡¯t big¡ªabout three or four meters tall, at best. It didn¡¯t have any outstanding decorations or designs either, but the attached corals and seashells somewhat gave it a bright look.

    No monster appeared again when Angor reached the wall of it.

    So that Toad Skin lived here alone?

    He looked around more. As far as he could see in this darkness, there were no other buildings.

    The entrance of the fortress was located on top of it. Angor found a window and carefully inspected it. It seemed the ¡°window¡± was made from a semi-transparent gel-like material. He gave the window a gentle poke and noticed that the material felt soft and stretchable.

    He couldn¡¯t see through the window, but he noticed something giving out yellow light inside like an oilmp.

    The door was left open. He swam through the entrance. He then kept going deeper into a sealed tube-like passage until he squeezed through another gel-like barrier shaped like an egg.

    The egg was partially submerged in water, while the area above it was empty air. Angor moved upward through the egg and sessfully entered the room.

    He never thought such a habitat existed in this ce. Whoever designed the tube passage he just traveled through meant to use pressure closure to keep water outside. And such an entrance was enough to suggest sapient being.

    He looked around and realized that he was on the second floor of the building. A lit oilmp sat on top of a coral stand not far from him. Its cold fire was releasing a pleasant fragrance into the room without causing any smoke or sharp smell.

    He took a small tour around the room. Apart from themp and some seaweed that was meant to produce oxygen, he didn¡¯t find anything else that could pique his interest.

    There was adder hatch that allowed him to move to the lower floor.

    The ground floor was a bigger chamber with a patch of corals ced on the ground, which made it looked like a colorful bed. Also, there were strange paintings and characters on the walls that resembled the primitive cave arts left behind by ancient human tribes.

 Chapter 496 - Chaos in the Garden

    <h4>Chapter 496: Chaos in the Garden</h4>

    The painting showed figures that looked like mermaids, but the figures were not the kind of mermaids that Angor saw at Twilight Auction.

    These ¡°mermaids¡± shown on the wall all had freakish looks. There were deformed scales all over their bodies, and other than their tails, they had different body parts that resembled fish.

    One grew a fish head, while another looked like a fish but only on his left side. There was also an entire fish with human limbs. Angor didn¡¯t know if such creatures existed in this world. For now, he would consider them a sub-species of the well-known mermaids.

    The paintings described how the mermaids morphed into ¡°Toad Skins¡±, who were then performing a series of strange rituals by kneeling, carrying strange payloads or wielding harpoons.

    At the end of the ¡°story¡±, the previous strange mermaids showed up again and took the Toad Skins to a bright ce.

    The Toad Skins praised and danced before the mermaids disappeared again.

    Angor assumed that the art was used by Toad Skins to worship their god, the mermaid.

    There were other elements shown here such as the daily lives, hunting tradition, and the beginning of the civilization of the Toad Skins. Each painting was apanied by characters that consisted of dots, lines, and pictures as if a kid were drawing stick figures. Angor could not read them though.

    He tried, but he still couldn¡¯t understand a thing from the clues. In the end, he gave up.

    His instinct told him that there was an important message hidden behind the illustrations, but there was nothing he could do now. The level-2 cantrip ¡°Discern Letters¡± would help with such a case, but he had not learned it yet.

    The cantrip wasn¡¯t something he could grasp overnight. Such cantrips like ¡°Discern Letters¡± and ¡°Discern Language¡± required huge amount of knowledge achievement and the ability toprehend ideograph, phonogram, and pictorial logic.

    This was one great setback for Angor as he gained levels too fast. Formon level-2 apprentices, these basic subjects should be something that they already mastered. Wilderness survival, exploration, ne expedition... All these required someone to be able to read foreign letters.

    Angor decided to note down the pictures and characters for now. Maybe he could find someone and ask about themter.

    He searched around, but he didn¡¯t find a secretpartment or something alike. The fortress only had two rooms with simple furniture. Also, he found no food.

    Since there was nothing else to gain, Angor simply left the building. He believed that if he could manage to find the gathering spot of Toad Skins, he would be able to learn something useful.

    But where to find them?

    The end of the paintings showed how the Toad Skins were led to somewhere bright with sunlight.

    So they went to the surface? But why did that single one stay in the sea?

    For now, he would keep exploring the surroundings. Something told him that there were more secrets to see here.

    He remembered hearing the captured city apprentice mentioning ¡°to fight for our chance from the worst danger¡±.

    The peaceful surface above the sea didn¡¯t seem dangerous... unless all Toad Skins gathered there and that these strange creatures were as deadly as the monster fishes.

    But Angor didn¡¯t know where to find them yet. The one he just killed was his only clue right now. He decided to keep looking underwater.

    With that great ambition in mind, he kept swimming deeper.

    ...

    While Angor went through his deep, lonely, and dark adventure, the garden world upied by flying fish had taken on apletely different look.

    Nausica was injured during a battle¡ªbadly. She was now leaning against a tree, sulking over her failure.

    She looked at the timer in the sky and huffed. There was only one hour left, and she had no idea where to find the ¡°Sea of Purification¡±.

    She already guessed that it was up in the sky. Yet she couldn¡¯t fly. The best thing she could do was to use wind tornadoes to jump higher.

    Besides, she was wounded.

    Just now, she unleashed a ¡°spinning wind cannon¡± despite theck of mana to fend off attackers, and a small magic backfire hit her hard. Her potions could heal her, but before she waspletely healed, she couldn¡¯t move around freely.

    Even if the goal weren¡¯t on the sky, she didn¡¯t have the mobility to look for it.

    She chuckled helplessly for being a burden to her team.

    She felt the ground shaking a little as if something big was walking nearby.

    Must be Ganking.

    As expected, a giant figure blocked her view.

    ¡°What happened, Nausica?¡± Shan jumped to the ground anxiously. Nausica told them that she would go ahead and look for the Sea of Purification. But she had not returned in a long time. Shan decided to go look for her and was terrified to see Nausica in such bad shape.

    ¡°Someone... got me,¡± Nausica smiled and shook her head.

    ¡°Who is it?!¡± Shan hopped in ce in rage. ¡°And where did he go?¡±

    ¡°I chased her away. I said someone¡¯s watching me before entering the garden, right? Someone not friendly.¡±

    ¡°The same a*shole came just now?¡±

    Nausica nodded. She still didn¡¯t know who the woman with arge rain hat and a well-developed body carve was, or why someone like that hated her so much and followed her all the way here.

    ¡°Damn it. Hey, tell me how she looks and I¡¯ll kill her the moment I find her!¡± Shan moved to carry Nausica onto Gank¡¯s shoulder.

    Nausica pushed her away. ¡°Just leave me. Take Shiliew with you. I can¡¯t... keep up...¡±

    Shiliew suddenly interrupted her by yawning loudly on Gank¡¯s shoulder.

    She looked down and saw both Nausica and Shan giving her strange looks.

    ¡°Um... Good morning?¡±

    ...

    The horizon was brightly lit by a new dawn. Yet this beautiful sight might as well be thest dawn this world had to offer.

    Only 30 minutes left. The simple numbers in the sky were changing slowly but surely like Death itself was warning people to wee its embrace.

    As the countdown got nearer to its end, the apprentices who had yet to find the exit were panicking.

    People who were determined but not smart enough would tread in one ce and wee their doom, while those who could read the situation clearly were all attempting to figure out how to ascend to the sky unharmed. And most of them weren¡¯t courageous enough to advance first.

    A good number of apprentices chose to vent out their final dread by using violence on whatever they could catch.

    The ground trembled, shattered, and gave way tova, which hastened the destruction of what remained.

    mes, hurricane, storms, maddened apprentices, and monster fishes all took part in the final symphony of the massacre.

    A single blue whale was floating in the sky, and a man with a scale-like tattoo on his forehead watched the terrible bout joyfully.

    A woman in arge blue robe moved to him, and in a charming voice, she asked, ¡°Not leaving yet, Jebra?¡±

    ¡°Heh. This is such a rare sight to behold. I can¡¯t afford to miss the fun.¡±

    The woman moved to the whale¡¯s head and took off a red whelk-like object from the creature¡¯s horn. ¡°I¡¯ve recorded everything. You can always watch it againter.¡±

    ¡°Nah. I love being INSIDE while watching them suffer. This is the best. But... you¡¯re probably right. This isn¡¯t worth any more of my time.¡± Jebra turned around and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go, it¡¯s almost time. Soon, something bigger wille and bathe the entire southern region in terror.¡±

    The robed woman raised an eyebrow. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°You know the cmity from ten thousand years ago, em?¡± Jebra chuckled and ordered his whale to fly away.

    asionally, there would be apprentices or more flying fishes entering the dimension barrier.

    When Jebra arrived, there was a giant ray trying to get inside. Jebra¡¯s whale discouraged all monster fishes from bothering him, but that particr ray ignored such convention and casually floated into the barrier whilepletely ignoring Jebra.

    ¡°Did you see something?¡± the woman apanying Jebra asked when she saw the man ncing at the disappearing ray.

    ¡°Huh... A dude was sitting on that thing... But he doesn¡¯t have any arms or legs. Interesting.¡±

 Chapter 497 - Trench

    <h4>Chapter 497: Trench</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The timer indicated that there was only one minute left for the world to exist, and those who failed to reach the Sea of Purification waspletely desperate.

    The ground was vanishing while a flood crashed down from the sky as if someone just tore a hole in heaven.

    The apprentices finally understood what was up there upon seeing the iing flood.

    But it was toote¡ªthose still on the ground was unlikely to push through the deadly current and head to the sky now.

    The helpless apprentices were either swallowed by razor-sharp turbulence, incinerated by scorchingva, or devoured by unexpected sinkholes. Together with monsters that failed to reach the barrier, they slowly becamepost corpses that facilitated the growth of the garden.

    The chaos of destruction became irrevocable, and slowly, it came to an end.

    After dealing with the Lord of Tentacles and the Ignis Medusozoa, Lawson had returned to the machine tower.

    The monitor hall was empty. Wizards always valued their avable time, and nobody wanted to spend too much time watching the apprentices struggling for their lives. As for Lawson, he had toe since he was responsible to watch over the purification garden.

    Seeing the entire world slowly bing a burning furnace that digested everything inside, Lawson nodded in contentment.

    Knock, knock!

    ¡°Come in.¡±

    A middle-ageddy with a well-developed overall body shape cat-walked inside.

    ¡°When did you get back?¡± Lawson turned his chair around and looked at the woman who was dressed in a ck uniform.

    Her expression was made stern by a pair of sses and her coiled-up hair bun, and yet, the trace left by age and time couldn¡¯t deny that she used to be a beauty.

    ¡°I should have half a month ago, as nned. But I dropped by at the capital of Evory, which took some time,¡± she replied in a serious tone that fitted well with her looks.

    ¡°Evory... You visited your mother?¡± Lawson lowered his head a little. ¡°Is she... alright?¡±

    ¡°Heh, she was fine. A simple tombstone was all she needed. She never hated father, and she said that meeting you was the best thing in her life. There¡¯s nothing other than a cloudian tree beside her, and the flowers were falling when I arrived. It was... beautiful.¡±

    A cloudian tree was amon decoration used in Floating Mech City, but outside of the city, it would be hard to find it. The tree had cotton-like flowers, and when they withered, they would create a cloud-like sight around them.

    ¡°She passed away?¡± Lawson seemed sad about something. ¡°Yeah... A mortal¡¯s lifespan is but an instant to wizards. You¡¯re well over 100 years old now, right? Then she must have lived until 200. Impressive, for amoner.¡±

    ¡°Have you ever loved her, father?¡± Thedy also grew sad about her dead mother. The sadness was made worse when she saw her mother was still living in a simple wooden cottage when she went back to retrieve her things.

    It was in this cottage that her mother met Lawson, and she had never left the ce even though Lawson once invited her to the floating city.

    Thedy knew that her mother was worried about dying as a mortal and damaging Lawson¡¯s reputation, so she chose to stay in the mortal realm. Basically, her mother chose to ept the inevitable.

    ¡°I appreciate what she did, and nothing else,¡± Lawson said in his emotionless tone.

    Thedy chuckled in self-mockery.

    Lawson had more than enough to turn a mortal into a supernatural, but he did not, which already exined everything.

    Of course, someone as important and powerful as Lawson wouldn¡¯t be entangled in love affairs.

    ¡°Your mother is no more, Mntha, and I hope you can shake yourself away from mortal emotions as fast as possible. Since you have returned, don¡¯t go wander off again. You¡¯ve been with Brute Cavern, right? You should know that Brute Cavern cannot help you achieve what¡¯s on your mind,¡± Lawson lectured his own daughter sincerely even though this ¡°daughter¡± of his looked older than him.

    Mntha was the chief manager who helped Angor in Sky Tower.

    <i>So will YOU help me them?</i> Mnthained in her mind. She didn¡¯t want to talk about her future since she already had a n. Her own n.

    Mntha looked past Lawson. She saw the screen that was showing a world approaching its end with every creature within drained of their lives. ¡°So the sacrifice already started?¡±

    ¡°A little obstacle but nothing serious. We moved it ahead of schedule. As far as I can see, the small incident helped us reduce the required casualty by 40%,¡± said Lawson.

    He watched as the chaos gave birth to a pure energy stream. He then changed the disy to the Sea of Purification.

    Angor was still watching the wall arts inside the fortress of the ¡°Toad Skin¡±.

    Mntha didn¡¯t recognize the boy since Angor was wearing his top hat, and besides, the room was pretty dark.

    ¡°Oh? Someone found the Dugons so fast? Then he¡¯s not far from the goal.¡± Mntha looked surprised.

    Lawson had been keeping an eye on Angor¡¯s movements. He snickered when he heard Mntha¡¯sment. ¡°Not really. He can¡¯t use Discern Letters, so he¡¯ll have a hard time finding the Altar of Demise when he can¡¯t read what was written.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Mntha shook head. ¡°Such a pity.¡±

    Lawson was sure this Angor boy wouldn¡¯t reach the destination any time soon due to hisck of knowledge, so he stopped minding him and changed the disy to another individual.

    ¡°You didn¡¯te here just to say hello, am I right?¡± Lawson nced at his daughter.

    ¡°I came here for the Fountain of Souls.¡±

    ¡°Fountain of Souls...¡± Lawson gazed at Mntha for a while. ¡°Baroque told you?¡±

    Mntha nodded.

    ¡°Hah. He can never sit tight without doing mischief.¡±

    ...

    Starting from the strange fortress, Angor searched the expanse about a hundred miles around it carefully, but he didn¡¯t find another man-made or mermaid-like structure.

    He was currently floating above a dark sea trench. He could see nothing in it apart from the bubbles that asionally emerged from the entrance.

    He wondered if he should go in there and check.

    It was in human nature to fear the unknown, which was amplified while he was around the bottom of the sea. Angor was only in the wizarding world for two years, and that was not enough for him to develop fearlessness that allowed him to dive into a giant trap dug out by nature without worrying about his life.

    However,pared to his fear, he was more afraid of missing the possible clues left by Toad Skins, which would probably force him to remain in the garden. In the end, he might be another victim.

    He absolutely didn¡¯t want to die since there was still a lot for him to do.

    Thinking about this, he puffed up his courage and headed straight into the silent darkness below.

    Just after he left, a fire stream descended to his previous position, leaving a trail of roasted monster fishes behind.

    The fire was powerful enough to repel water. Across the dancing embers, one could see a girl in red dance shoes floating within.

    Her ck cat, Luna, was joyfully swimming around by paddling its chubby paws. The creature didn¡¯t seem scared of the ce at all.

    ¡°This is the ce then?¡± Keely frowned. ¡°But why would he go into that pit?¡±

    She couldn¡¯t help getting angry when thinking about Angor. ording to her n, she was going to protect Angor while dragging him along as she took the initiative and explore the garden. But after witnessing how Angor confronted the Lord of Tentacles, she changed her mind and was willing to treat Angor as an equal teammate.

    But then, Angor suddenly said something about going to the sky and left on his own, and he was too fast for Keely to catch up.

    Keely would not care where Angor went or what became of him had she not agreed to her teacher to assist Angor.

    While still not showing much of her emotion, Keely grabbed her cat by the scruff and pointed to the sea trench. ¡°Angor is in there?¡±

    Luna¡¯s nose twitched and released some bubbles. It seemed the creature was choked by water, so it failed to answer Keely for the moment.

    Finally, Luna nodded after receiving more of Keely¡¯s angry stares.

    ¡°Did he find the exit or... is this actually the exit?¡± She considered and also dived in.

    Angor had no idea Keely was following his track. He had swum for over 3,000 kilometers now, and he was getting slower since it was growing colder and terribly pressurized.

    The barrier created by the Purification Field was forced to shrink. If it somehow failed, Angor would have to rely on his own mana or spirit power; otherwise, his untrained body would easily get squashed.

    Thankfully, the Purification Field seemed stable enough.

    There were also different types of fishes down here, including dangerous-looking ones.

    At one time, he ran into the first supernatural creature he met in this sea¡ªa horned seal. But it wasn¡¯t strong enough to withstand a single attack from him. He kept going after dismembering the animal.

    When the purification barrier started to flicker dangerously, he finally reached the end of the trench. As he spected, the trench was more than five thousand kilometers deep, which was pretty impressive whenpared to the famous deep-sea trenches on Earth.

    There was soft, white sand under his feet, inside which several shrimps were wiggling about.

    Probably because of theck of light, the creatures living in this depth all had random, terrible appearances since there was no need to look pretty. The shrimps appeared more like scorpions.

    Without minding the insignificant wildlife, Angor used Light to survey the environment.

 Chapter 498 - Abandoned Settlement

    <h4>Chapter 498: Abandoned Settlement</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    A small tour told him that the bottom of the sea trench was not much wider than its entrance. About 500 meters in width.

    He found nothing other than strange deep-sea creatures. There weren¡¯t even any fish here.

    He didn¡¯t know whether he should move forward or back. After sensing the water current that appeared almost stagnant in this ce, he chose a particr direction.

    The walls beside him were slowly moving apart as he moved forward. Here, most things that moved were nkton, invertebrates, and arthropods such as shrimps. These creatures usually stayed hidden under the surface; they would show up when Angor disturbed their home by walking by.

    After going for half an hour, he noticed that the oxygen in the water was getting denser.

    When the trench grew even wider and had less sediment under his feet, he finally saw another building.

    He couldn¡¯t recognize the purpose of this one. It looked like a rock-based structure that sat on an isosceles triangle base about 20 meters high. A circle was fixed on the tip of the triangle, where two harpoons were ced over each other, creating a cross.

    ¡°Is that a statue or something?¡± He moved closer.

    The triangle base was built by piling up stones, while the circle was carved out using a giant boulder. The two harpoons that were slotted inside the circle could also be taken away.

    Angor took a harpoon and noticed it looked simr to the one used by the Toad Skins. There was no supernatural property on it, but the spearhead made from a polished fish bone looked pretty sharp.

    ¡°A weapon rack?¡± Angor shook his head to deny that idea. Even a primitive tribe would not leave their weapons in the open like this.

    He moved on and saw more of these strange structures along his way.

    He was sure they were all the same things since they all looked like ¡°a circle supported by a triangle¡±.

    ¡°Are they graves? Maybe the weapons are used tomemorate them?¡± He stopped in front of one of them and used mana to shock its base open.

    There were only more stones underneath. He didn¡¯t find a corpse.

    ¡°Not graves, not weapon cement... Then, totems?¡± Angor recalled certain stories that described tribes who built totems to worship their gods or to scare off people by hanging the heads of their enemies on them.

    The next structure had a skull affixed on the circle.

    It belonged to an unknown beast. A reptile, probably. This one somewhat helped Angor confirm his previous idea.

    <i>So what kind of enemies are they trying to scare?</i>

    It was unlikely that the Toad Skins needed to ¡°scare off¡± the harmless shrimps around here.

    <i>So is there something more dangerous? The owner of this head?</i>

    While thinking about all these questions, he reached an energy barrier and saw the ground inside tidy and clean. Obviously, someone had been taking care of the ce.

    He reached out a hand and felt no obstruction upon touching the barrier, so he simply walked inside. The inside of the barrier had air but no water, which further proved to him that a sapient race lived here before.

    But there was no light.

    With Infinite Reticence on, he walked deeper inside and found a dozen houses built with broken stones as well as the other end of the barrier.

    He didn¡¯t walk very far into the barrier, which meant the protected area wasn¡¯t big. Most of the stone houses were shattered, but they didn¡¯t seem like they were long abandoned. At most, only two years or so.

    Using his spirit feelers, he checked and found no creatures inside them.

    The houses didn¡¯t hold many things either. There were only some shells and decorative corals.

    He approached the house in the very center that had a round roof and a width of about ten meters. It was the biggest, least damaged house among all, but it was still smaller than the fortress he found earlier.

    He pushed the door open and was immediately weed by several arrows.

    He dodged them by tilting his head in time. It seemed a trigger affixed on the door just activated a trap.

    When he stepped through the entrance, his ears twitched, and he immediately looked back.

    There was only darkness.

    ¡°Something¡¯s not right...¡± He was sure he heard rustling sound behind him just now.

    But his Light cantrip did a really poor job at helping him securing the environment.

    ¡°Am I hearing things?¡± He wondered if his spirit was too tensed up while traveling in this natural abyss.

    Nevertheless, he chose to stay cautious.

    He checked the room and didn¡¯t find anything useful. Although he saw simr wall paintings on the ceiling, which meant this ce also belonged to Toad Skins.

    He also discovered a metal weapon with fine carving on it. This suggested that Toad Skins had learned metal smelting skills. However, he didn¡¯t see a ce for doing such work around here. There were probably more settlements out there.

    There were also fabrics weaved out of special materials that definitely did not originate from this trench.

    Again, unknown noises interrupted his thoughts.

    He quickly jumped out of the room and looked around without finding anything. Even if there was something, it wasn¡¯t easy to see it in this darkness.

    Taking another tour around the settlement didn¡¯t yield any results. He nned to leave and move on to see if there were more of such ces ahead.

    Before he reached the barrier, a pair of green, glowing dots slowly approached him from behind, quietly.

    Angor stopped moving. When he sensed an attacking, he jumped and did a swift back-flip. He thennded behind whoever just attacked him.

    The ambusher was clearly surprised as it believed it didn¡¯t make any noise just now.

    Angor cast Fear at the monster, and it started to tremble badly. Meanwhile, he moved his Light forward so that he could observe it better.

    The strange, reptile-like creature had a beak full of rodent teeth growing within. It was about 5 or 6 meters long. Its head looked simr to an alligator¡¯s or lizard¡¯s, yet its body formed a fine and smooth curve like a fish. Meanwhile, a pair of wide, fan-like fins grew on both sides.

    Also, it had been floating in the air.

    As Angor watched, the creature¡¯s eyes suddenly became red.

    ¡°Oh crap. It resisted my spell.¡±

    Fear was used to arouse the most fearful memory in one¡¯s mind, but it took more than intelligence and a keen eye to resist the spell. In fact, creatures that were easily angered would usually do well against it.

    Clearly, this unknown creature had such a simple mind.

    Its eyes were literally glowing in rage. The monster roared loudly, and it shocked Angor into a daze for a while, allowing it to see a chance to charge and ram into Angor¡¯s stomach.

    It grew wilder at the smell of blood. Under the monster¡¯s continuous and swift attacks, Angor¡¯sck of physical strength quickly put him at a disadvantage¡ªhe couldn¡¯t get enough time to cast illusions. His only choice was to keep rolling and jumping out of harm¡¯s way.

    After some close-quarter wrestling, the monster identally stumbled out of the barrier for moving too fast. Using the valuable chance, Angor downed a bottle of Glowing Velvet Potion and chanted Spirit Mantra.

    He saw the reflection of the monster¡¯s eyes on the barrier. Earlier, he saw iting from behind in the same way. Now, he could also use the pair of light dots in the dark to tell where the monster was.

    The creature was sneaky but far from smart.

    In his soul form, Angor carried his body and skillfully dodged several more attacks until he saw an opportunity when the creature opened its mouth wide to bite him.

    A gravity bullet precisely sunk into its throat.

    Bam!

    The bullet exploded from inside the monster¡¯s body and tore its body into scraps that scattered everywhere.

    Angor sighed in relief, but before he could go and check the monster¡¯s remains, he felt the ground shaking. In addition, there was something in the distance that made a lot of noise.

    A noise that echoed in the depth of the sea.

    When he looked toward the source of the ruckus, he saw a torrent of water heading right this way.

 Chapter 499 - Keelyâ€™s Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 499: Keely¡¯s Arrival</h4>

    The water current was made obvious since the force of it brought a lot of white bubbles and foams with it. It was heading toward Angor¡¯s position extremely fast.

    The torrent was so powerful that the barrier sunk a little when hit by it. The water did not get inside, but it indirectly created a strong hurricane inside the barrier that further destroyed the already damaged buildings.

    The ground was still shaking madly, while the violent water didn¡¯t seem to be stopping. It only grew worse.

    ¡°Why¡¯s the sea current suddenly turned opposite?! Hey Luna, don¡¯t let go!¡±

    Angor heard a familiar voice yelling from somewhere near him. He looked up and saw Keely trying pretty hard to descend through the current. She was aiming for his spot.

    It seemed she couldn¡¯t see what was under her due to all the bubbles and waves, so she could only rely on Luna to tell her where to go while trying her best to keep her body stable.

    When she felt a brief decrease in the strength of the current, she cast a bright ember using the oilmp she had been holding. The light finally helped her see where she was heading¡ªa series of ¡°man-made¡± buildings.

    She was very surprised to find such things 8,000 meters below the sea surface. However, judging from Luna¡¯s clue about Angor and how Angor always made the right choices until now, Keely believed that the buildings had something to do with the puzzle.

    ¡°He¡¯s ahead of me again!¡± She felt irritated. She then quicklyforted herself, ¡°Maybe I would have been the first one if I had not wasted so much time looking for him. The water¡¯s slowing down, let¡¯s get moving. I want to see what the asshole discovered.¡± Keely reached out a hand and patted Luna, who had been holding onto her skirt with both front limbs.

    Luna meowed gently and reached for Keely¡¯s hand with a paw.

    The broken stones and sand had obstructed their view, so they failed to notice another tidal wave that was almost upon them. This time, it was stronger than thest one.

    Luna failed to keep up after freeing one paw to ¡°high-five¡± with Keely. The kitten was instantly taken away by water.

    Keely felt her heart stopping when she realized that the torrent would soon bring Luna into the distance while she had nothing on her that could help the kitten. Luna was her only partner and friend now. She would never forgive herself if something were to happen to Luna.

    Keely panicked as she tried and failed to find any spell to break through the cascading water.

    A pair of transparent hands suddenly emerged from below.

    Intermediate Hand of Spell was a level-1 cantrip that had a longer maniption range and uracypared to the basic version.

    Before Luna fully disappeared into the dark vortex, Angor managed to grab it. He then dragged the creature back into the barrier.

    Meanwhile, Keely also joined him in the water-free settlement.

    Luna shook some water off its fur and meowed at Angor as a thank-you before it hopped to Keely¡¯s feet.

    Themp held by Keely gave out a brighter source of light that illuminated the entire settlement like a small sun.

    Angor canceled his Light and looked at the girl in front of him. ¡°Why did youe again?¡±

    Keely was going to thank Angor as well, but her expression quickly turned dark upon hearing Angor¡¯s words that sounded mostly like aint.

    ¡°And you think I want to follow you around?¡±

    Before Keely could say anything else, both of them tumbled a bit when the ground started to shake again.

    Keely decided to get to the more pressing matter. ¡°What¡¯s the deal with this ce? Are we so unfortunate that an earthquake or some underwater volcano went off right below us?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. This is all too strange...¡± Angor shook his head.

    The disaster showed up right after he killed the strange reptile creature. There were rumors that killing certain mighty beings would arouse nature¡¯s rage. For example, if someone were to ughter ¡°Child of Ocean¡± Jebra, it would be akin to provoking the ocean.

    However, that monster earlier didn¡¯t seem anything like that.

    Angor believed it was merely a coincidence. This was the only exnation that he could think of.

    The earthquake subsided a momentter, and the raging turbulence also calmed down.

    Keely used hermp to check what was outside the barrier without finding anything. It seemed she couldn¡¯t move too far in the water without spending mana on certain skills, so she quickly returned inside.

    ¡°Where are we anyway?¡± She looked around the ce and enjoyed the fresh air before she fixed her eyes on the pile of broken flesh in front of Angor.

    Angor was busy thinking about the strange phenomenon, so he wasn¡¯t paying attention. ¡°No idea. An old home left behind by something that used to live here.¡±

    Angor saw Keely checking the creature¡¯s corpse and kept exining, ¡°This thing ambushed me just now. I think it was sort of a threat around these parts back when the locals were still here.¡±

    While speaking, Angor tried to reassemble the broken skull of the animal.

    It appeared the creature was the same thing as the ones who had their heads hung on the ¡°totem altars¡±. This was how Angor reached his previous conclusion. Although this one was a little bigger than the rest.

    Keely found nothing interesting or useful from the corpse, so she went off and began to explore the ce on her own.

    She saw teeth marks along the edges of certain buildings and told Angor. When Angor used the skull in his hand to match with the teeth marks and confirmed that the same monster attacked this ce, they figured that it probably destroyed it.

    Next, Keely also saw the wall arts in the biggest house.

    ¡°Are they mermaids?¡± She frowned. ¡°But I¡¯ve never seen such... unsightly mermaids before.¡±

    ¡°Maybe they don¡¯t show us who lived here,¡± Angor said. He considered for a moment before creating an illusion of the Toad Skin monster. ¡°Did you run into this thing earlier?¡±

    Keely shook her head. ¡°You mean, these things are the natives?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I saw one of them before diving into this trench. It was highly developed. That Toad Skin that attacked me was as strong as a level-2 apprentice. I killed it.¡±

    ¡°Toad Skin?¡±

    ¡°I created that name,¡± Angor said as he grinned proudly.

    Keely looked away and didn¡¯tment on Angor¡¯s naming style.

    ¡°No. I¡¯ve never seen them before, or even anything simr to them. Did they originate from here or did the city move them in the garden?¡±

    Angor suddenly recalled the strange characters he saw among the paintings. ¡°Can you use Discern Letters?¡±

    ¡°Why? You haven¡¯t learned it?¡± Keely inspected Angor up and down.

    Angor chuckled embarrassingly.

    ¡°Yeah, right... You¡¯re an apprentice for less than two years, huh? Discern Letters, Discern Language, I know all of them. I can also read special characters such as the ancient rune scripts, the Mona tongue used in abyss, the scripture of winter...¡± Keely mentioned a number of strange concepts. ¡°Those are all necessary for an apprentice. You better go and study more if you like to venture outside alone.¡±

    Angor recognized none of these things and felt as if he was an unlettered peasant in front of Keely.

    Well... at least I know something others don¡¯t¡ªKanji.

    He forced a smile despite his wounded ego. ¡°I discovered theirnguage, but I can¡¯t read them. A little help?¡±

    It was rare for him to ask for assistance from a stranger, and when he did, he tried to be as polite as possible.

    Keely wasn¡¯t interested in the ugly creatures, but she assumed that Angor had some clue that could help them escape, so she agreed to it.

    Before Angor could prepare another illusion to disy the characters, an extremely deadly aura suddenly made his hair stand.

    It was followed by a sharp noise of something shing past the air.

    ¡°Get out of here!¡±

    The roof of the house was smashed in by a giant tentacle before it hit where they were standing a second ago.

    Keely also avoided the attack thanks to Angor¡¯s alert. They quickly left the house and were shocked by what was waiting for them outside.

    A ck octopus clung to a stone wall nearby as it gazed at them with its glowing blue eyes. That thing must be at least several hundred meters long, tentacles not considered.

    ¡°Is that a ck version of Lord of Tentacles??¡± Angor quickly thought about the terrible monster he dealt with not long ago.

    ¡°It¡¯s a half-step-wizard level monster too!¡± Keely nced at the trembling Luna and quickly ascertained the monster¡¯s strength. ¡°We can¡¯t fight it like this. Run!¡±

    Angor quickly listened to the order. The octopus couldn¡¯t use wizard-level power to suppress their movement from afar yet, which meant they could always avoid it.

    It seemed the octopus saw their n and quickly swung its thick arms around, causing the water currents to go berserk again.

    ¡°So this thing¡¯s behind the tidal waves earlier??¡±

    The deadly environment further convinced them to get away as fast as possible.

    ¡°Don¡¯t resist, I¡¯ll do something!¡± Angor still needed Keely to help him trante, so he ejected his soul and began to drag both his body and Keely toward where they came from earlier.

    Keely felt a strange force taking control of her momentum. It took less than a second before her body was hurled away from the settlement like a bullet.

    As they went farther, Keely nced back at the giant monster and saw something strange.

    Is there someone standing on its neck??

 Chapter 500 - The Dugons

    <h4>Chapter 500: The Dugons</h4>

    Angor followed the same path as before to get back so that he could move at full speed without worrying about obstacles. It didn¡¯t take long for them to reach thending spot of the trench where Angor came from.

    He couldn¡¯t tell the condition of the water current while he was in his soul form, so he could only rely on Keely to alert him.

    ¡°The water is fine now but...¡± Keely checked on Luna; it was still shivering in her arms. ¡°Luna¡¯s not right. The monster probably hasn¡¯t given up yet.¡±

    Angor immediately began moving farther. The trench would grow narrower ahead of them, which meant the octopus couldn¡¯t keep up.

    Using Keely¡¯s light to see the way, Angor kept flying for about an hour. The width of the path was smaller than a hundred meters now while the t ground was reced by a slope that led upward, which meant the end of the trench was near.

    ¡°We should be safe now. There¡¯s no way that monster will get inside. And Luna told me we¡¯ve lost it.¡±

    Angor released both bodies before he returned to his own body.

    Keely noticed how Angor gained so much speed while away from his body. However, she didn¡¯t ask since it was probably something private.

    The first thing Angor felt after returning to the body was the world spinning.

    Next, his eyes rolled back as he went out cold.

    ...

    ¡°The seer does not question your past, while the altar shall remain on its mast. Use Meraid¡¯s Sword to sever the previous, thus gaining your way to thend of demise.¡±

    Angor heard someone talking beside his ears in a trance. When he managed to open his eyes, he saw a pair of feet in red dance shoes moving around him while apanied by dim, orange light.

    The air smelled pretty good. It reminded him of the perfume he sensed in Sunders¡¯ study, which could physically calm one¡¯s spirit.

    He tried to inhale again and quickly realized something was off.

    Air? Isn¡¯t this the bottom of the sea?

    He sat up and quickly looked around, only to find that he had been lying inside a stone house. The bed under him was made out of corals.

    The environment was dry but with sufficient oxygen for them to breathe normally.

    Keely¡¯s favorite oilmp was ced on the wall. It was the thing that released that pleasant smell.

    ¡°You¡¯re awake?¡± Keely showed up at a door to the side of the room. ¡°How do you feel?¡±

    Angor checked her a little and noticed that her expression didn¡¯t look so cold in the cozy light.

    ¡°I¡¯m okay...¡± He rubbed his temples and made sure his vitals had stabilized. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Just repaying the favor,¡± Keely said as she moved to retrieve hermp. ¡°I looked at your body just now. You drank too much witch stew. All the energy it provided has nowhere to go since you can¡¯t use any bloodline ability, so it just knocked you out instead.¡±

    Keely kept exining with mixed emotions, ¡°Your body condition is... terrible. Even those without a bloodline will not go down so easily just by drinking that stuff.¡±

    Angor already guessed the reason of his condition. He scratched his head and chuckled to himself. ¡°Well, intense schedule. Can¡¯t find time to strengthen my muscles.¡±

    Keely didn¡¯tment. She knew Angor must have been spending a lot of time studying alchemy. It was already very impressive that he kept himself safe in the garden until now.

    It seemed Angor really needed basic training that epassed both physical strength andmon knowledge.

    ¡°Try to do something once we¡¯re out,¡± Keely said and left through the door.

    Of course, it wasn¡¯t hard for Angor to find or buy a bloodline to use. He didn¡¯t because Sunders told him to wait and find a bloodline from a nightmare creature.

    And as an ¡°academism¡±, he usually avoided solving problems with his fists. Therefore, he never nned to bulk up too much.

    But what happened earlier convinced him to try somethingter.

    A level-2 apprentice might have to deal with a lot of trouble in various situations. He would be theughing stock of people if they were to hear about how he passed out by drinking the otherwise harmless witch stew.

    He shook his head and followed Keely into the other room. The girl was thinking about something while looking at a painting on the wall.

    ¡°Is this the Toad Skin¡¯s fortress?¡± Angor asked when he saw Keely reading the strange characters.

    ¡°Well, when you slept, I dragged you for a while and reached a...¡± She took some time to find the right word. ¡°A watchtower? Yeah, should be something like that.¡±

    A watchtower at the bottom of the sea?

    Such structures were used to keep watch of the surroundings. So what to watch? The strange reptile or the giant octopus?

    Compared to these questions, Angor was more concerned about something else. ¡°How long was I out?¡±

    ¡°A little less than 10 hours?¡±

    It didn¡¯t sound like he was out for a long time, but Angor believed he wasted too much time because something told him that the ¡°real sacrifice¡± would happen soon.

    If they failed to find a way out before then...

    He decided to get to work and ignore all other matters. ¡°Is there anything rted to an exit written here?¡±

    ¡°I... think so.¡± Keely proceeded to recite what she had learned by using the universalnguage, ¡°¡®The seer does not question your past, while the altar shall remain on its mast. Use Meraid¡¯s Sword to sever the previous, thus gaining your way to thend of demise.¡¯

    ¡°I think that nd of demise¡¯ is what we¡¯re looking for. But we need a Meraid¡¯s Sword for it. Whatever is that?¡±

    Angor also fell into his train of thought. There should be a correct answer to every puzzle. So we probably can find this sword in this sea... Or is it an actual sword of something symbolic?

    He thought about the first building he found, where there were more characterspared to this watchtower. ¡°Here, I have more of these messages. Can you tell something from them?¡±

    He created the arts he saw inside the fortress, including all pictures and every single character, in great detail.

    Keely was a little surprised by the illusion in front of her. She then carefully read through the pictures while applying a spell on her eyes.

    A momentter, her magic subsided. She looked more tired than before, but her joyful expression suggested she learned something useful.

    ¡°There¡¯s something about the Meraid¡¯s Sword. It¡¯s not a sword, but a certain scale growing on something called the ¡®Duon¡¯, the ancestor of Dugons.¡±

    ¡°Dugons? Duon?¡± Angor thought it was some kind of tongue twisters.

    ¡°A Dugon is that Toad Skin thing you mentioned, while a Duon is this,¡± Keely said and pointed at the mermaids in the pictures. ¡°This ¡®uglier mermaid¡¯ is supposed to be something called the Duons, and the Dugons worshiped them.¡±

    ¡°You mean the Duons were what the Toad Skins looked like before?¡±

    Keely nodded, which made Angor really confused.

    He thought the ¡°mermaids¡± described by the paintings were abstract beings created out of religion, and he didn¡¯t expect them to be the ACTUAL ancestors of Toad Skins, or in this case, the Dugons.

    But at least the Duons looked like something humanoid, while their children are disasters! Who gave birth to them and how?

    Keely tranted the rest of what she saw in Angor¡¯s illusion.

    The characters below most of the painting were introductions that described the daily lives of Dugons, while thest few pictures were more important.

    ¡°The Altar of Demise is the finalnd of all Dugons. Many Duon clerics awaited there, served by their Dugon followers. You need the Meraid¡¯s Sword to guide us there, where they prayed to their Gods.¡± Following her exnation, Keely slowly pointed to thest picture that showed an altar built somewhere bright.

    ¡°Gods? What Gods?¡± Clearly, the Duons were no Gods to the Dugons. It seemed yet another entity was brought up.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t say.¡± Keely shook her head.

    ¡°But check this out,¡± she said as she pointed to one of the paintings in the middle. The painting showed a number of clouds covering up the Dugons, and the tides of the sea could be seen below them.

    ¡°This one is something rted to ¡®travel¡¯. I think the Dugons are not natives to this ce. Someone brought them here. The water in this painting must be referring to the Sea of Purification.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°You mean, people from Floating Mech City transferred an entire species here, while the ¡®Gods¡¯ they followed are actually... someone from the city?¡±

    ¡°Should be.¡±

    If what Keely assumed was true, then the Altar of Demise would be their final destination.

    Angor didn¡¯t care why the city did such a thing inside the purification garden. Finding the altar was more important.

    But where was the ¡°Meraid¡¯s Sword¡±?

 Chapter 501 - Back to the Trench

    <strong>Chapter 501: Back to the Trench</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°The Duons... I think I saw them somewhere before,¡± said Keely. She continued after receiving a puzzled nce from Angor, ¡°When you took me away from the Dugon settlement, I saw something hanging on the neck of that octopus. It looks like a Duon to me. But it¡¯s too dark to see clearly... I think he got a fishtail while the rest of him is all human.¡±

    A Duon was with the monster? Angor pondered. He was too focused on escaping, so he didn¡¯t have time to look back.

    ¡°Are you sure about it?¡±

    If what Keely said was correct, they might need to go back and face the octopus again. It was like diving back into a deadly trap from which they just barely escaped. Neither of them was sure it was a good choice.

    Keely nodded firmly. ¡°Suppose there are no real mermaids living here, and there is no mermaid that came here among us as a participant, I¡¯m almost sure what I saw is a Duon.¡±

    Angor tried to remember, but he didn¡¯t remember seeing anyone that looked like a Duon in the crowds when he was waiting outside the garden. This meant Keely was probably right about her idea.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor quickly decided and said, ¡°I¡¯ll go and check. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll have another chance to find a Duonter.¡±

    He might not be able to defeat the octopus, but it wouldn¡¯t be so hard to grab an individual off its body. The octopus was as powerful as a high-level apprentice, and Shadow was around the same level when the man fought with Angor. Angor believed he had a pretty good chance at this.

    Usually, monsters possessed deadlier abilities and instinctspared to humans, and it wasn¡¯t a good choice to fight an octopus underwater. However, since he didn¡¯t need to kill the monster, Angor decided to do it anyway.

    As long as the Duon riding the octopus wasn¡¯t a wizard-level being, he was confident in seizing the ¡°Meraid¡¯s Sword¡± from it.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go with you. One of us will distract the monster while the other one looks for the sword,¡± Keely said without a second thought.

    She knew Angor was right about how they had to seize the only possible opportunity of acquiring the key to their exit as it might be their only chance of survival.

    Angor had no problem epting her offer to help. After making a simple n, they left the watchtower and headed into the depth of the sea trench again.

    Soon, they reached the settlement barrier. However, the giant octopus was no longer here.

    ¡°It must have left,¡± Angor said as he observed the traces left by the monster. The houses were already broken and tattered earlier, but now they were about to fall t to the ground. ¡°Let¡¯s keep going. Maybe its nest isn¡¯t far.¡±

    They swam for over an hour without finding anything.

    ¡°Did it leave the trench already?¡±

    As they wondered about such a question, a pair of glowing green eyes opened up from above them.

    It vanished before Angor and Keely were able to notice it.

    The owner of the eyes carefully approached them. It nned to take down one of them and fight the other one afterward.

    But before it could get close enough, another pair of green spots brightened up in Keely¡¯s arm.

    ¡°Meoarrrrw!¡±

    Angor and Keely immediately looked up and saw the ambusher.

    ¡°That¡¯s the same thing I fought in the settlement!¡± Angor quickly recognized the reptile-like sea monster.

    This one was a little bigger than the one he killed earlier. Its size didn¡¯t seem to help it develop better intelligence. Instead of retreating and waiting for another chance, the monster charged at the already alerted prey with its maw wide open.

    Angor was pretty happy about seeing another one of these strange creatures. He still had some doubts as to how the earthquake and raging sea torrent were created. If he managed to kill this one without causing more natural disasters, he could be sure that the giant octopus was the culprit.

    With that in mind, he quickly ced a number of illusion nodes around.

    Last time, he didn¡¯t have enough time to react and allowed the monster to attack him directly. But now, the monster was still pretty far away from them.

    Just as Angor was enjoying the different ideas about how to torture the monster with illusions, a freezing ember swept past his face and hit the iing creature head-on.

    In the next second, the monster caught blue fire all over its body before it turned into an ice sculpture and dropped toward the bottom of the sea.

    Angor¡¯s hand was still lifted because he was about to activate his illusion earlier, but now... He didn¡¯t know what to say.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Keely said while she nced at him. It was as if she wereining about Angor¡¯s unnecessary preparations while they could simply solve the problem with violence.

    Angor sighed and discarded his magic.

    Before they could keep moving, however, something else came upon them.

    They looked up again as a familiar booming noise approached their position.

    A giant shadow slowly entered their view and grew bigger as they watched. Just likest time, it created deadly currents and sand curtains that blocked their views.

    They couldn¡¯t see what wasing, but they knew one thing down here with such an overwhelming aura.

    Back in the settlement, most of the octopus¡¯ body was hidden behind the darkness, so Angor didn¡¯t have a clear idea about its size. But this time, the monster had presented its full magnitude in their views.

    It was as big as amon mountain. Angor and Keely felt helpless simply by looking at it.

    Its ck skin allowed it to blend in with the surroundings. Only a pair of giant, pale-white eyeballs disyed the horrific presence of the monster.

    Soon, the movement of the water around them was dangerously disturbed. Without giving them any time to react, the octopusunched its attacks by iling its tentacles.

    Angor kicked the dirt beneath him to jump out of the way and nodded to Keely, who returned the gesture as they proceeded with their n.

    Keely would be the distraction, while Angor would eject his soul and use his speed to scout around the monster¡¯s neck.

    Before getting to it, Angor tossed a scroll to Keely. ¡°This is Aster Barrier. Use it in a pinch.¡±

    Keely¡¯s job was a lot more dangerous, so Angor decided to lend her the defensive magic scroll that he received from Devildare.

    The Aster Barrier could help someone deflect wizard-level attacks until the scroll exhausted its energy. Angor already used the scroll twice, but it still had enough power left to fend off something weaker than an actual wizard.

    While they both moved, Luna ran off to somewhere safe. It then dug a small hole in the sand and hid inside.

    Keely was unleashing embers of different colors from her hands¡ªwhite ones, purple ones, and even ck ones, but never themonly seen yellow fire.

    ording to her teacher, Keely studied a special fire element called the Inferno. People would believe that a Fire Elementalist wouldn¡¯t do well in water, but what Keely used wasn¡¯t affected by the environment. Her fire was something that did not exist under or affected bymon rules.

    A great number of embers had surrounded the octopus, which made the whole sight look as if a mountain forest had caught fire.

    Taking the chance, Angor activated Infinite Reticence, ejected his soul, and quickly headed to the monster¡¯s neck.

    The monster¡¯s tentacles would either turn to ice or shatter to pieces upon touching Keely¡¯s embers, and it seemed that the damage was irreversible. The creature was howling in pain as it lost many of its limbs.

    After learning the lesson, the octopus began creating more water currents to send the embers away instead of confronting them.

    When it felt safe enough, the monster suddenly released a strange frequency, and thereafter, many green, glowing dots appeared around the battlefield.

    Over a hundred reptilian sea monsters just arrived.

    Angor saw what was going on and realized that the octopus was controlling the sea monsters. This would exin why the octopus always managed to find them when a reptile was killed.

    Some of the reptiles went to bother Keely, while the rest of them moved to Angor¡¯s position.

    Angor thought he was safe under the effect of Infinite Reticence. However, the octopus soon discovered the abnormal water currents created by Angor¡¯s movement and ordered the reptiles to catch him.

    Angor saw what wasing in time and bolted away from their enclosing circle. When he saw the trail of bubbles that he left behind, he quickly realized how he was discovered by them.

    Of course, sea creatures were all sensitive to the flow of water. They could easily sense where he was even if he didn¡¯t move too much.

    And since his stealth tactic wasn¡¯t working, Angor simply shot himself toward his target without bothering to hide. He believed that the reptiles wouldn¡¯t be able to catch up with his gravity-enhanced speed.

 Chapter 502 - Perfect Teamwork

    <strong>Chapter 502: Perfect Teamwork</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor sessfully shook off his pursuers, as well as the tentacles that tried to block him, and reached the octopus¡¯ neck.

    Even the monster¡¯s neck was as wide as a ser field. Angor spent some time without finding anything, so he could only keep cruising.

    ¡°Front, Angor! Head to its front!¡± Keely¡¯s voice suddenly came.

    Angor followed the clue and quickly saw something he needed¡ªjust below the central point of the monster¡¯s two eyes, there was a transparent, bubble-like organ affixed to its face.

    A Duon was enclosed inside the organ, eyes closed. Just like how Keely described, it had a fishtail but everything else looked like a human.

    Angor didn¡¯t know whether the Duon was dead, but he was d he found it nevertheless.

    He tried many times and failed to approach it as the octopus did its best to protect its weakness by sending more tentacles and sea monsters into his way.

    This suggested that the Duon presence was something really important to the octopus, and it would do everything to prevent Angor from reaching that spot.

    Angor believed that before his n was fully exposed, he had to try to get his target as fast as possible. Otherwise, the octopus would only make his job impossible.

    He began to climb higher while avoiding the attacks. Before getting to his true objective, he nned to make the octopus believe that his attention was elsewhere.

    He sent a Voice Transmission to Keely, ¡°Can you do something to slow it down? Twenty seconds!¡±

    Keely remembered Angor saying something simr when dealing with the Lord of Tentacles. Is he going to use an illusion again?

    But it wasn¡¯t as easy this time. Unlike the Lord of Tentacles, this octopus had its full attention on them, which meant it would be difficult for Angor to cast his illusion as well as to keep it busy.

    Keely was already doing as much as she could in distracting the octopus AND the other reptiles. It was almost impossible to give Angor 20 seconds free of any assault.

    She hesitated for a moment. She then looked at their target, which was protected by the bubble-like object, and showed a determined look.

    ¡°I can use ze of Purgatory and drag that thing into a Duel of Souls. But whatever happens in there, I¡¯ll lose mobility for a while. I¡¯ll do it if you can make it and then take me and Luna away.¡±

    ¡°Duel of Souls? You sure that¡¯ll work out?¡± Angor didn¡¯t understand what that meant. It sounded like two people would fight using their souls and see who would be the boss.

    ¡°No, duh. I¡¯ll lose without a doubt. But I can keep its spirit away from you for several seconds as long as I endure it longer.¡±

    ¡°What will happen to you if you lose the duel?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I can use a ¡®ze¡¯ to pay the price for losing. The point is, someone must help me escapeter.¡±

    She meant to say ¡°someone I trust¡± but decided not to.

    Not being able to move in such a situation was undeniably fatal. Keely just decided to put her life in Angor¡¯s hands.

    Angor assumed that the ¡°ze¡± she mentioned was something valuable, but it seemed that Keely was willing to pay the price.

    ¡°Alright. Whether I seed or not, I¡¯ll make sure you and Luna get away alive.¡±

    ¡°You must seed! Don¡¯t waste my effort!¡± Keelyined while grinning.

    With the next n settled, Angor kept cruising around the octopus and pretending that he wasn¡¯t interested in the bubble on its face.

    ¡°Get ready!¡± Keely released another Inferno ember from her favoritemp. The almost transparent ember blended in with the others and slowly approached the octopus.

    ¡°Five, four, three...¡± Keely let Angor hear her countdown.

    When she said ¡°one¡±, Angor quickly returned his soul to his body and unleashed the illusion nodes that he prepared beforehand.

    The octopus was visibly slowing down. Its tentacles were still moving, but a lot clumsierpared to before, which allowed Angor to ce the illusion nodes around its body freely.

    He finished his illusion in less than ten seconds.

    He was nning to use something to trick the monster¡¯s mind, but since Keely did something to slow its movement, he simply used a mist to block its view so that the monster couldn¡¯t chase after them that easilyter.

    With the area covered in mist, Angor rushed toward the bubble while ncing at Keely¡¯s position. Keely was now bleeding from under her skin while Luna helped her dodged the now slower tentacle attacks by biting her skirt.

    It seemed that Keely hadpletely lost consciousness, while the octopus could still move its body, which meant Keely was losing badly in her ¡°Duel of Souls¡±.

    Angor would not want to disappoint her. He moved as fast as he could and finally made it to the bubble.

    When the octopus realized his n, its giant eyes showed sanity as well as great rage.

    Meanwhile, Keely vomited some blood before her body fully slumped.

    Angor was startled by it, and he thought that the octopus already won. But in the next second, its eyes returned to being unfocused again. Luna then yelped at Angor anxiously; it probably meant to tell him to hurry up.

    Angor took out an alchemy weapon and shed at the bubble.

    It didn¡¯t work¡ªnot a scratch was left on the bubble.

    He also sensed faint energy ripplesing from the octopus¡¯ skin. It was probably some kind of defensive spell.

    Quickly, he prepared a cantrip model in his mind space while praying that whatever the monster used wouldn¡¯t work against energy attacks.

    The octopus was slowly regaining its original speed, which meant that Keely was about to losepletely.

    Soon enough, their ¡°Duel of Souls¡± concluded with Keely screaming in pain while the octopus fully woke up.

    A red ring with a strange symbol in its center suddenly appeared around the bubble before bright mes cameshing out.

    ¡°Field of Fire!!¡±

    Pop!

    The bubble was broken in the deadly heat, and the Duon inside tumbled out along with some thick, gluey fluid. Angor quickly grabbed the creature and chanted Spirit Mantra. Before a tentacle could catch him, he dashed away from the octopus like an arrow.

    His next target was Keely. However, the octopus already read his mind and quickly unleashed another tentacle at Keely.

    Angor believed he¡¯d never reach Keely in time. He still moved while strengthening his speed as much as possible.

    When he caught Keely, the tentacle was almost upon his face.

    A glittering barrier suddenly appeared and blocked the attack. Keely activated Aster Barrier just in time.

    Angor risked getting pummeled by the tentacle because he knew Keely still had the scroll, and it seemed his n worked out just fine.

    The barrier remained intact under the attack of that tentacle. Taking the chance, Angor dragged Keely¡¯s body out of the mist illusion he left behind.

    ¡°Nice job!¡± Angor smiled at her.

    She had blood all over her body, but it seemed she could still manage to smile back. Earlier, she feared that she would meet a terrible end if Angor came to her toote or didn¡¯te at all. But Angor stuck to his promise and acted as a wonderful teammate.

    She only experienced such wless teamwork when working with Luna before, and she liked it.

    After getting out of the illusion, they both heard something roaring loudly behind them.

    Torrents, earthquake, and visible sound waves came after them. Angor wasn¡¯t afraid of them since he was escaping via a route he was familiar with at full speed. Combined with the mist illusion, which still covered the monster, the octopus wasn¡¯t likely to catch up.

    What he didn¡¯t know was that the giant octopus began to turn redder due to its great rage. If he had seen what was going on back there, he¡¯d immediately thought about the exact same thing that happened to the Lord of Tentacles.

    The bright red color that indicated uncontroble rage could help a monster gain strength in an abnormal way.

    At the same time, someone suddenly spoke on the top floor of the machine tower in the outside world.

    ¡°Huh... Something evolved into another Lord of Tentacles?¡±

 Chapter 503 - Meraidâ€™s Sword

    <h4>Chapter 503: Meraid¡¯s Sword</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor retreated back to the gentle slope along the end of the trench. He believed the giant creature wouldn¡¯t be able to get in here since it was narrower.

    He decided to return to his body. And since there was no time to recover soul energy, he ate a Soul Orb and let it slowly replenish his soul before he dragged Keely further away.

    Along their way, Keely managed to regain some strength, which allowed her to move just a little. Her face still looked pale, and her lips were of a sick purple color that indicated her terrible condition.

    ¡°Are you really alright for losing that duel?¡± Angor was getting worried now. ¡°Maybe you should rest more.¡±

    ¡°No... I¡¯m fine. I only lost a ze and I can always try to capture another one.¡±

    She sounded rxed, but she knew it was more than difficult to catch a ze of Purgatory.

    Angor didn¡¯t insist and let Keely move on her own.

    He checked the Duon he had been dragging and made sure that the creature was already dead. Its body didn¡¯t rot away since it was well protected in that bubble.

    He had no idea what the Duon meant to the octopus. Why would a monster carry it around?

    Keely moved closer and used hermp to help them check the corpse better.

    This Duon was a male with a naturally violent expression. However, whenpared to the other ugly Duons shown in the wall arts, this one was still ¡°eptable¡± by human standards.

    A piece of gray, broken linen fabric with strange symbols sewn on it covered its shoulders. Angor thought the symbols were decorations, but Keely disagreed. ¡°It¡¯s a means ofmunication. Must be the hieroglyphic writing used by their tribe. Hold on, I¡¯ll trante,¡± said Keely as she used hernguage-reading spell again.

    Angor felt d that he took Keely along, or he¡¯d have missed out on a lot of critical information.

    This garden challenge tested more than their strength and survival abilities. It also required a basic collection of knowledge, and this was just what Angorcked right now.

    Keely rubbed her eyes and exined in a tired voice, ¡°It¡¯s a type of prayer used during their ritual. This Duon was going to be offered to something called the ¡®Octobor¡¯. Most of these words are used to praise and tter that thing.¡±

    ¡°So that giant octopus is the ¡®Octobor¡¯ mentioned here?¡±

    ¡°Should be. There isn¡¯t anything else apart from the name of the monster. But I know this Duon is named ¡®Kagon Puton¡¯.¡±

    They looked at Kagon¡¯s body again.

    ording to the paintings, these Duons should be superior in their social sses. But it seemed that this poor Duon named Kagon ended up as a sacrificial tribute.

    After making sure nothing else was worth noticing on its body, both Angor and Keely nced at its chest area. Supposedly, a ¡°Meraid¡¯s Sword¡± referred to the scale that grew on a Duon¡¯s chest.

    Angor removed Kagon¡¯s clothes, and as expected, they saw four pieces of sword-shaped scales located right above the creature¡¯s heart. Under Keely¡¯s firelight, the scales gave out a golden glimmer as if they were gilded.

    It only took a simple pry to pick the scales off. They noticed that the scales came in pairs¡ªthey had tobine two for it to be aplete Meriad¡¯s Sword.

    While Angor fiddled with the scales, Keely looked at Kagon¡¯s chest that had four small holes where the scales were removed.

    ¡°Inside the painting that you showed me, the Duons all had such holes on them. So it meant every Duon only had four such scales?¡±

    Angor considered what he recorded in his illusion. ¡°Those that looked like mermaids had four holes on their chests, while those with a fish body on either left or the right side had three. Fish-heads with human legs had two, and the rest all had one... I think we¡¯re lucky enough to find one of the four-scaled ones so that we get to have swords for both of us.¡±

    Angor handed a Meraid¡¯s Sword to Keely and kept the other one.

    ¡°So this number means their social standing or something like that,¡± Keelymented. ¡°Also, there were fewer high-level Duons. Most of them only had one scale,¡± Keely snickered in disdain. ¡°Now I see what the b*stards are trying to do here. Most of the apprentices can only find one scale. To get a Meraid¡¯s sword, they either have to find more Duons or take it from the others.¡±

    ...

    With Meraid¡¯s Sword in hand, they had to think about how to find this ¡°Altar of Demise¡±.

    When Angor checked his sword again and tried to figure out how to use it, Keely suddenly extinguished hermp, which brought them back into total darkness.

    Next, Angor noticed a white light spot blinking from the watchtower they used earlier.

    Angor believed they didn¡¯t leave any burningmps in there after they left, which meant someone else was paying the ce a visit.

    ¡°Is it a Toad Skin or is someone other than us there?¡± Angor used Voice Transmission.

    ¡°We can just go and find out.¡±

    Angor nodded. If it was a Toad Skin, or, Dugon, they could interrogate it for information and learn how to reach their exit.

    They proceeded carefully and approached the tower quietly. The darkness made their attempt easier. Smoothly, they reached somewhere about a hundred meters away from the tower.

    Angor tried to think about his previous encounter with a Toad Skin, in which the creature noticed him from pretty far away. This meant that the one inside the tower wasn¡¯t a Toad Skin.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t a Dugon,¡± Keely spoke before Angor could provide his opinions. ¡°Luna heard someone speaking in the universalnguage.¡±

    They weren¡¯t interested in wandering apprentices right now. However, Angor insisted that they checked out the inside of the tower because he still wanted to meet up with Nausica.

    Keely chose to stay outside and rest, while Angor activated Infinite Reticence and crept closer to the entrance.

    He heard someone yelling inside:

    ¡°This is MINE now. You should rest in peace. Farewell!¡±

    <i>Robbery?</i> Angor felt curious about what was going on, and at the same time, he found the voice familiar.

    Following a strong energy wave, another voice spoke painfully, ¡°Yethew! Why you¡ª¡±

    <i>Yethew?!</i> Angor quickly thought about a certain man dressed in arge robe. Yethew was someone who worked together with Shayaron¡¯s group.

    He also recognized the second voice being someone called Freud.

    <i>They¡¯re fighting among themselves?</i>

    Angor thought Yethew was trying to rob an item from his teammate and prepared to leave. He only sensed two individuals inside the tower, and he wasn¡¯t going to meddle with their business.

    But before he could go, he heard Yethew¡¯s gruff voice speaking toward his position, ¡°Who is it?!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t even have time to question why his Infinite Reticence failed so many times when another attack that smelled like blood came after him.

    He evaded it with a side-step and looked back, only to see Yethew standing on top of the tower while a number of blood-red bubbles floated around him.

    Angor¡¯s body slowly materialized under Yethew¡¯s attention.

    ¡°You again!¡±

    Yethew looked a little surprised. He then gave Angor a mocking grin. ¡°So the beloved student of Mister Sunders enjoys eavesdropping on other people? I let it passst time when you did it outside our shelter. So, what¡¯s your excuse this time, huh?¡±

    Angor just realized Yethew found him for more than once despite his Infinite Reticence effect. He decided not to trust this ability too much from now on.

    It was natural for sea dwellers to smell his tracks in the water, but for an apprentice to see through his trick beforeing to the Sea of Purification meant that his Infinite Reticent wasn¡¯t very reliable.

    ¡°I saw a light from afar and wanted to check out. I didn¡¯t listen to your conversation on purpose,¡± Angor replied. He chose toy low for now, and he would like to avoid fights and conserve stamina.

    Yethew felt a little relieved since Angor didn¡¯te to attack. He didn¡¯t wish to offend Sunders¡¯ student as well as someone that saved his life from the Lord of Tentacles.

    ¡°Well, you can leave then.¡±

    Angor nodded and turned around.

    Luna suddenly showed up nearby and pressed its paw on something beside Angor¡¯s foot.

    Angor was a little startled by the ck cat. Then he saw Luna moving away from a small bug with a triangr head and colorful spots on its back, which was just caught under Luna¡¯s w.

    ¡°This is... a Tri-Poison Leech!¡± Angor didn¡¯t know much about insects, but he heard about this particr deadly poisonous little killer that could easily murder apprentices with powerful bloodlines.

    If Luna had not discovered it, the bug would do an easy job killing his untrained body.

    Angor slowly looked up at Yethew again.

    ¡°What¡¯s this supposed to mean?¡±

    Yethew checked the ck cat beside Angor and frowned. <i>This means that girl from Lilith¡¯s n is somewhere around...</i>

    ¡°Nothing, just a measure of safety. I didn¡¯t order it to attack you, did I?¡± Yethew shrugged.

    A semi-transparent shadow suddenly appeared from the tower and interrupted them, ¡°Don¡¯t trust him. He knows you¡¯re carrying a Meraid¡¯s Sword!¡±

 Chapter 504 - Freudâ€™s Hatred

    <h4>Chapter 504: Freud¡¯s Hatred</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The intruder was someone with short, gray curly hair and a pair of panda eyes that made him look pretty ill.

    In fact, it was actually the soul of someone, but not a person.

    Compared to Angor¡¯s solid soul, this one looked transparent, which meant his soul quality was a lot inferior to Angor¡¯s.

    Also, Angor recognized this soul. He was ¡°Dream Reader¡± Freud.

    Angor silently sighed in his mind. Just as Keely assumed, the apprentices were already fighting over the Meraid¡¯s Swords.

    What Angor heard earlier suggested that Yethew and Freud found one sword and started a fight. Yethew won in the end, while Freud managed to keep his soul ¡°alive¡± by using Soul Coupling in time.

    But since Yethew still ced a deadly bug at his feet with obvious intent, Angor believed that they only found one scale and needed another one.

    And of course, he wasn¡¯t going to give his sword away.

    Angor looked at Yethew again and considered the man as an enemy this time. He quickly prepared a cantrip model in his mind space.

    Yethew also put up a serious and dangerous look as Freud revealed his n. Angor had not known that one could use a single scale to detect the location of the other ones. This was how Yethew noticed Angor¡¯s Meraid¡¯s Sword and prepared a leech to kill Angor and seize theplete sword.

    But Luna ruined his n by discovering the bug first.

    And Yethew knew well that the ck cat belonged to Keely, a madwoman who didn¡¯t give a sh*t about the city guards and attacked Jebra when everyone was looking.

    When his bug was found out, Yethew nned to step down and pretend that he wanted peace so that he could use the bugter and ambush Angor again.

    But Freud just pointed out his plot in the open.

    Yethewined in his mind that he was too careless. He did not confirm Freud¡¯s death after he dealt the killing blow, thus allowing Freud¡¯s soul to get out so soon.

    Yethew looked at how Angor was fully prepared for a fight and realized he could no longer back down now.

    And he knew he had no hope in defeating both Angor and Keely, who was probably hiding somewhere nearby. Or rather, he didn¡¯t even know if he could defeat Angor alone in a fair fight.

    ¡°Don¡¯t listen to him,¡± Yethew tried to reason, ¡°he¡¯s all guesses. And I can¡¯t take the sword even if you have one. You saved my life earlier, right? I¡¯m not THAT shameless.¡±

    ¡°And you would listen to HIM?!¡± Freud red at Yethew while those bloodshot eyes on his soul were literally bleeding. ¡°He f*cking killed me just to take the scale for himself!¡±

    Freud¡¯s soul slowly turned darker while he kept using Yethew of his crime. ¡°I was the one who discovered the Duons. I was the one that captured a Duon. I WAS THE ONE who read about the sword and the altar from its dream. And what about YOU?! When something attacked us in the settlement, Shayaron ran off on his own while I dragged your F*CKING bleeding body away from the monsters and saved you! I TOLD YOU what I learned! And when I entered the dream to find more info, you murdered my body?! Is that how you help your partner?!¡±

    Freud turned back and stared at Angor with his now glowing eyes. ¡°I¡¯m a living example for trusting this disgrace of a man! Do you really want to listen to a single word from his filthy, god-forsaken mouth?!¡±

    Freud¡¯s hatred was fully reflected on his soul as the miserable sight of how his body got killed emerged from around him. His head was slowly shrinking as a giant hole appeared on his forehead.

    It wasmonly believed that the souls of supernaturals couldn¡¯t fall easily, but Freud was going to be an exception.

    Yethew didn¡¯t respond. But telling from his dark expression, Angor believed that everything Freud said was true.

    <i>How did these guys be a team anyway? Viking helped Shayaron, then Shayaron left Viking to die. And now something like that happened between these two...</i>

    Angor shook his head as he thought about the worst team he ever saw.

    Freud also realized something was changing in his soul, so he closed his eyes to suppress the uncontroble rage from taking over. He wasn¡¯t a soul maniptor, but he still knew basic knowledge about souls¡ªbing an undead creature meant he had lost in this world for real, and he couldn¡¯t let that happen.

    But there was nothing else he could do right now.

    He hoped that Yethew would move to confront Angor and get himself killed in return.

    When Freud¡¯s soul regained bnce, he spoke to Angor again, ¡°This man only has one scale on him. He needs another one to form a sword and he knows you already found one. He¡¯ll not give up this chance!¡±

    Angor finally noticed a piece of useful information from those words. <i>Is there a special method to locate these scales from afar?</i>

    ¡°I can either swear in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness or sign a magic contract with you, that I¡¯ll NOT go after your Meraid¡¯s Sword. We go our own away and mind our own business, and I promise I¡¯ll not bother you again,¡± Yethew said as he gave Angor a sincere look.

    Freud quickly grew anxious. Someone with a peaceful nature might agree to it and let Yethew go for real.

    <i>But THAT CANNOT HAPPEN!</i>

    Freud felt his rageing back again as he thought about his dead body still lying inside the tower.

    <i>Yethew! Must! DIE!!</i>

    Freud couldn¡¯t tell what Angor was thinking since Angor was being all calm on the outside.

    He clenched his teeth and made a grim decision.

    ¡°Mister Padt! If you kill Yethew right now and take my soul away from the Sea of Purification, I promise you that I¡¯ll give you a Mystery item!¡±

    Those words startled everyone, including Keely, who had been hiding in a dark spot nearby.

    <i>An apprentice just offered a Mystery item? Is that even possible?</i>

    Angor nced at Freud as his eyes showed great passion. As someone who almost created a Mystery item, he knew better than anyone present how valuable these things were. If he got his hands on a real Mystery item, he might learn something about how to be a Mystery alchemist for real!

    Previously, he nned to borrow the Cursing Puppet from Sunders to conduct his research. However, he needed to pay something to fulfill his end of the ¡°equivalent exchange¡±, and he wasn¡¯t sure if the puppet could provide anything he needed even if Sunders agreed.

    But if he could actually GET a Mystery item...

    ¡°Impossible! How could HE have something like that? And if he does, how did he get killed by me so easily? He¡¯s just an apprentice!¡± Yethew yelled loudly, fearing that Angor would listen to Freud¡¯s offer.

    Yethew was already nning to escape. But he didn¡¯t get a chance because the ck cat kept its gaze at him, which meant Keely was probably doing the same thing.

    Angor felt convinced. Yethew was right¡ªhow could a mere apprentice possess a Mystery item when 99% of true wizards didn¡¯t have any?

    ¡°It¡¯s something special!¡± Freud considered and began to chant a secret message into Angor¡¯s ears using his soul energy.

    Angor heard Freud¡¯s clue and frowned again.

    <i>Yes... Now, this sounds a lot more likely.</i>

    In fact, Angor never intended to let Yethew go even if the man offered to sign a peace pact. Yethew made TWO attempts to ambush him. Combining with this man¡¯s terrible character, letting him live meant leaving a great threat behind.

    And Freud just promised him a bounty.

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s do just that,¡± Angor replied to Freud.

    Yethew didn¡¯t hear what Angor just said, but he felt scared when he saw Angor¡¯s expression.

    He immediately moved to run. At the same time, a giant swarm of insects rushed at Angor as a group.

    These insects were dangerous when used together with the element of surprise. However, Angor didn¡¯t feel threatened at all when Yethew unleashed them in the open.

    The model of Field of Fire was already intact in his mind space. Angor simply lifted a hand and unleashed it.

    He learned such a cantrip as a means of damaging things in arge area. The seawater hindered its power greatly, but it was still enough to engulf all the bugs that were weak against both fire and water.

    With the insects dealt with, Angor ejected his soul and went after Yethew.

    Yethew checked behind him and saw his insects were surrounding Angor¡¯s body while Keely never showed up to stop him. Therefore, he was confident that he could get away.

    <i>And I¡¯ll find a chanceter to deal with both of them... And that ursed cat. Yes. That cat will be perfect for feeding my bugs¡ª</i>

    But he didn¡¯t get to make his following ns as a shadow soon moved into his path.

    <i>How did he move so fast?!</i>

    Yethew grew terrified when he sensed a strange sequence of energy covering him up, preventing him from moving in any way.

    Angor snickered and unleashed a gravity shot toward Yethew¡¯s head.

    Bam!

    Yethew¡¯s head popped open, and the innards of his brain were carried away by water.

    Following his death, countless insects crawled and wiggled out of Yethew¡¯s neck.

    Angor trembled a little while looking at the crammed pests that included a number of infamous hazardous ones. Although they couldn¡¯t really do anything to his soul since he left his body back at the watchtower.

    Once the bugs scattered away, Angor dragged Yethew¡¯s corpse and headed back.

 Chapter 505 - The Dream Whelk

    <strong>Chapter 505: The Dream Whelk</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    Angor came back and saw Keely diligently guarding his body.

    ¡°You done?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Angor mumbled as he tossed Yethew¡¯s body on the ground before returning to his own body. ¡°Thanks.¡±

    Keely quietly walked away and returned to Luna. It seemed that the kitten wasn¡¯t afraid of poison since it was still happily ying with Yethew¡¯s bug.

    Freud¡¯s soul saw Yethew¡¯s broken corpse, and suddenly, he began tough madly. He was still crying at the same time, but he was no longer crying tears of blood.

    His bloodshot eyes slowly returned to normal while the ck aura around him gradually disappeared as he enjoyed his sweet revenge.

    It took him some time to calm down. After that, Freud bowed and thanked Angor, somewhat bashfully.

    ¡°I mean, thanks. I¡¯ll stick to my word; as long as you take me away from this hellhole, I¡¯ll take you to that item I mentioned.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± Angor nodded.

    Keely grew curious and sent Angor a voice transmission, ¡°Does he really have something like that?¡±

    Keely didn¡¯t join the fight earlier, but Angor did feel grateful since her kitten helped him avoid Yethew¡¯s deadly trap. He had no problem exining this one to Keely.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about his words, but what he said sounded solid enough.¡±

    ¡°So what exactly did he say?¡±

    ¡°You ever heard of ¡®Whelk of The Dreaming Coast¡¯?¡±

    Keely pondered. ¡°Yeah, something deemed as the ¡®most useless Mystery item¡¯ ording to magazines. It pulls objects into dreams regardless of their levels, if I remember right.¡±

    ¡°Yup, that¡¯s the thing. It sold for ten thousand crystals during an auction held in the floating city thirty years ago. It has something to do with Freud¡¯s title, ¡®Dream Reader¡¯, so I think Freud wasn¡¯t lying about it.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Keely quickly lost interest.

    This item only worked on none-lifeform objects. People might use this thing to sleep better, and that was about it. Nothing else.

    Angor didn¡¯t have any use for the item either, but he believed he could investigate it to learn about Mystery energy. And ording to Greya, every Mystery item existed for a reason, which might not have been discovered by its user yet. He hoped he could figure out the true effect of the whelk. However, this was very unlikely.

    As they talked, something changed on Yethew¡¯s corpse. Slowly, Yethew¡¯s soul crawled into their view.

    Yethew¡¯s first reaction was to curse Angor using the worst words he could find. But when he saw Angor looking his way, he realized he was just killed by Angor and trembled in fear. In the next second, he switched his attitude and begged for mercy. He even promised that he would give everything he had to Angor as long as Angor could take his soul away from here as well.

    Angor paid no attention to Yethew¡¯s words. It was Keely who responded by sending a violet ember toward Yethew¡¯s direction because she grew so impatient at the man¡¯s rambling.

    The small ember floated to Yethew slowly. It didn¡¯t seem so dangerous, but to Yethew, he felt as if something that was as heavy as a mountain was trapping his soul, causing him to be unable to even lift a finger.

    Angor saw Yethew¡¯s soul remaining still before the ember ignited him like a lit match that fell into a pot of oil.

    The now greater fire burned brightly for a brief moment before it died down, along with Yethew¡¯s painful scream. What remained of his essence would soon get burned away.

    Freud also shivered a little while watching everything that was happening. As a soul, he knew what the purple ember meant. He was d he did not try to annoy Keely with his vengeful words earlier.

    Again, Angor didn¡¯t care about what happened to Yethew. He already nned to vanquish Yethew¡¯s soul once and for all, and Keely just saved him a lot of time.

    Before Yethew¡¯s soul could fully disappear, a guidance beam invisible to human eyes covered up both Freud and Yethew.

    Yethew didn¡¯t have any strength left to resist, so his soul was taken away by the strange beam instantly.

    Just as Angor saw it and wondered what was happening, Freud caught his attention.

    ¡°Something is pulling me into the void!¡± Freud was iling his arms helplessly while his soul slowly floated upward.

    ¡°Huh? There¡¯s something that¡¯s drawing people¡¯s souls...¡± Angor and Keely couldn¡¯t see the strange force, but they quickly realized what was going on.

    Angor caught up with Freud and took out a tiny, violet flower from his bracelet.

    ¡°Don¡¯t resist. I¡¯ll put your soul inside the Soul Floret.¡±

    Left with no choice, Freud nodded and rxed.

    Now, both the force of guidance and Angor¡¯s flower were trying to pull Freud. The former was slowly winning out as it dragged Freud¡¯s soul out of Angor¡¯s reach.

    Angor chanted Spirit Mantra and ejected his soul without a second thought.

    He didn¡¯t find the strange light beam, nor did he care where it was. He did so because the sequence of gravity could also affect other souls.

    He applied gravity force and pushed Freud toward his Soul Floret, which finally helped him win the tug-of-war.

    While yanked by Angor¡¯s gravity momentum, Freud sank inside the violet flower.

    When Freud disappeared into the Soul Floret, the strange guidance light retreated to somewhere unknown.

    Angor made sure Freud was safe in his item before returning to his body.

    ¡°Did you see what was taking him away?¡± Keely joined him while asking.

    Angor shook his head.

    ¡°So it only attracts souls of dead ones, but not those whose bodies are still breathing,¡± Keely said with a sigh. ¡°I think the business they¡¯re pulling is more troublesome than what we expected.¡±

    ...

    Meanwhile, inside an underground chamber near the location of the purification garden.

    Two individuals¡ªone man and a woman¡ªwere sitting in front of a water pool fully covered behind white vapor. The woman sitting on the right suddenly retracted her hand from the pool and let out a ¡°huh¡±.

    ¡°What¡¯s the problem, Signey?¡± the man to the left asked in a throaty tone.

    ¡°Mister Conor, someone just took a soul away when it should be following our Guidance Light.¡±

    Conor nodded and looked back at the water pool.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, just amon soul. Keep watching the Fountain of Souls and forget what just happened.¡±

    ¡°Understood, sir.¡±

    ...

    Angor knew what Keely meant. There was no doubt that the Floating Mech City was collecting people¡¯s souls.

    He didn¡¯t know what they nned by doing so, nor did he want to know. It probably wasn¡¯t something he should meddle with.

    After putting his curiosity behind, Angor picked up his Soul Floret.

    Freud had turned into a miniature figure who was now sitting in the center of the blossom while enjoying the gentle aura released by the nt, which helped him heal his wounds caused by the forceful dragging earlier.

    The Soul Floret was a leftover material that Angor used to craft his Prelude to Rebirth. It was used for stabilizing soul energy and had a secondary effect of keeping souls safe for a short period of time.

    He didn¡¯t have any other methods to keep Freud¡¯s soul, so he needed to rely on the flower. This way, he could maintain Freud¡¯s soul in an intact form for about half a month.

    ¡°You stay there for the moment. I¡¯ll let you go once I get out of the garden.¡±

    Freud sensed the remains of his concerns already gone. ¡°Thank you, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. Equivalent exchange, remember?¡±

    Angor said and walked to Yethew¡¯s body next. He searched and managed to scavenge something from it¡ªa one-use space capsule, a fine-looking bag, and a single Duon scale.

    The capsule contained some basic healing items and necessities that didn¡¯t draw much of his attention.

    The bag was giving out energy ripples, which meant there should be an alchemy item inside.

    Angor could see that whatever was in there was a product of synthesis. But without Narda¡¯s Vision spell, he couldn¡¯t tell the exact nature of it.

    And he wasn¡¯t going to open the bag recklessly. Yethew was obviously a bug-lover. Only the gods knew whether there were some sort of vicious biting imps in there.

    ¡°Do you know what this is?¡± Angor showed the bag to Freud. Since Freud was all covered up by the flower¡¯s petals, Angor had to move the bag really close for Freud to see.

    ¡°It¡¯s... a Magic Digger Sac, made from the nest of a certain insect called the Magic Digger Queen. But it can only help people to carry bugs. Yethew has a lot of bugs on him, either kept inside his body or on his skin. I don¡¯t think there are many bugs in this sac, though.¡±

    Freud also told him that one could use spirit feelers to check what was inside the sac. Angor tried and didn¡¯t find a single bug. There were only the eggs of something he didn¡¯t know.

    After making sure the item wasn¡¯t harmful, he asked Keely if she wanted to have it. Since Keely more or less helped with the battle, Angor guessed he should at least give her something.

    But Keely wasn¡¯t interested in bug stuff. She chose to pick some of Yethew¡¯s healing potions instead. ¡°I¡¯ll take these. You can keep the... whatever that is.¡±

    Angor nodded. Since he had prepared a lot of potions beforeing here, he didn¡¯t need extra potions.

    After putting away his loot, he looked at the scale left by Yethew.

 Chapter 506 - The Mystery of a Scale

    <strong>Chapter 506: The Mystery of a Scale</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The scale held by Yethew looked gray and dull as if the Duon who owned it had died a long time ago.

    ¡°This one¡¯s different from ours...¡± Keely checked. ¡°So apart from numbers, different Duons have different colored scales on them too?¡±

    Freud heard their conversation and offered to exin this one.

    ¡°I read the dream of a Duon, so I know how this thing works.¡± His voice was still trembling a little after witnessing how Keely burned Yethew¡¯s soul to nothingness just now.

    ¡°Well?¡± Keely looked at him.

    Freud did not hold back anything he learned since he already nned to disy his value as much as possible to Angor. ¡°Their scales represent their social standing. From the most important individuals to the lowest ones, they have gold, silver, white, and gray scales. But I don¡¯t think it has anything to do with us. Wait... there¡¯s something! We need two scales of the same color to get a Meraid¡¯s sword.¡±

    Angor took out his golden sword and chuckled. ¡°So this thing came from someone important?¡± He put the sword away and asked, ¡°So how did Yethew found me out? Is there a cantrip for that?¡±

    ¡°So, um, you alreadybined two scales, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    ¡°Pick up Yethew¡¯s scale and you¡¯ll see why.¡±

    Angor frowned andplied. When he put his hand on the gray scale, he sensed strange ripplesing from both his own body and Keely, which showed them who owned a sword.

    Then he handed the scale to Keely, who also realized the secret trick.

    ¡°We can use this to locate the other swords...¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Freud nodded and said, ¡°but the passive detection has a range limit. I think you can sense any scale or sword holders who are within a distance of a hundred meters.¡±

    ¡°Passive... you mean we can actively choose to sense others too?¡±

    ¡°You can. If you ce your spirit feeler on it, you¡¯ll get the general direction of other swords and scales, up to several dozen kilometers.¡±

    Keely followed the instruction and closed her eyes.

    ¡°Yeah... I think I saw several scales that way, where the Octobor roamed. This thing...¡± She gave Angor a serious look. ¡°They designed this thing so that the participants can hunt each other down.¡±

    Angor also realized the grim situation they were in. Most apprentices weren¡¯t lucky enough to find scales in pairs. They would all need to fight among each other like what happened to Yethew and Freud.

    The scale was a tool that helped build up more violence and bloodshed in the garden challenge.

    More importantly, people could tell the difference between scales and swords. This meant that instead of going out to find the scale and get disappointed if they were to get mismatched colors, they would try to take the swords off each other¡¯s hands.

    Angor and Keely had two Meraid¡¯s Swords. They would certainly be the target of anyone who discovered them.

    ¡°Nice n. This is pretty efficient if you want to thin out apprentices faster...¡± Keely looked really pumped up about something.

    ¡°But they can¡¯t tell if their prey is weak or strong, meaning, the ambushers won¡¯t know whether they will get killed instead,¡± Freud added. ¡°I guess you can call it a fair match in a really twisted way.¡±

    ¡°Well, the whole world is twisted,¡± said Keely. ¡°So... we can¡¯t sense anyone if we already got a sword?¡±

    They tried and realized that the sword couldn¡¯t provide anything like that.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Freud said and nodded. ¡°But the sword can tell you the location of the Altar of Demise, and that¡¯s where you get out.¡±

    ¡°To achieve freedom, we must hunt for scales. And after that, we need to reach the altar AND fight off those who have not found freedom,¡± Keely scoffed. ¡°They made it soplicated. Why not just throw us all into a battlefield and see who¡¯s the winner?¡±

    Angor shrugged. ¡°Maybe Freud was right. The city is trying to be ¡®fair¡¯.¡±

    Despite those words, Angor fully knew that the moment the expandable apprentices stepped into the garden, there was no longer fairness and justice.

    The city held such a challenge to ¡°pretend¡± to be fair. They meant to tell others that people all had chances to remain in the end.

    And in a sense, it was fair since weaker apprentices who were smart enough might still win in the end. Although they were not likely to keep it for very long.

    ¡°Guess we have to prepare against enemies now,¡± said Angor. ¡°I tried, but putting the sword inside my space storage can¡¯t prevent detection.¡±

    ¡°So be it. Elite or not, I¡¯ll kill them all.¡± Keely didn¡¯t seem to be worried.

    Angor chuckled helplessly. Keely had all the right to be reckless since she was strong enough to defend herself from something like the Octobor.

    Angor was pretty confident in theing crisis too. He just one-shot an elite apprentice. And if he couldn¡¯t defeat someone, he would simply run and nobody would be able to catch him. Still, he would have been happier if his Infinite Reticence still worked, which wasn¡¯t the case right now.

    He held Yethew¡¯s scale in one hand. ¡°With this, I can also sense who areing to us so that no one will take us by surprise. The question is, how to use the Meraid¡¯s Sword to tell the location of our goal?¡±

    ¡°You drop it,¡± Freud answered, ¡°and it will guide you there.¡±

    And they did just that.

    Just like what Freud said, the sword hovered and spun for a while before it pointed to a certain direction like apass needle.

    Angor nodded to Keely and prepared to head out.

    ¡°Mister Padt,¡± Freud suddenly asked, ¡°can I... look at my body onest time?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Angor had no problem since the request didn¡¯t take much time.

    ¡°I¡¯ll wait outside,¡± Keely said as she moved ahead.

    Angor tossed the gray scale to Keely and asked her to watch out for the signals. He then followed Freud into the watchtower.

    The inside of the building reeked of blood. Freud¡¯s corpse was lying on the coral bed Angor used before.

    His skin was all pale since half of his blood already left his body. There was a giant hole in the middle of his forehead, through which his brain was exposed.

    Angor sighed at the terrible sight and released Freud from the Soul Floret. ¡°I¡¯ll get you inside if that light beam shows up again.¡±

    Freud thanked him and floated to his former body.

    He watched in silence while his expression changed from that of sadness, joy, and yearning.

    Angor tried to imagine what he would feel if he were to look at his own dead corpse. It had to be hard, bidding farewell to the vessel that always proved your existence in this world.

    ¡°We came here because we sensed scales. More than one. But then we saw they weren¡¯t separate ones, but several of thembined together. I told Yethew to hide and watch, but he didn¡¯t listen. He wanted me to use my ability to read something from a Duon, and he killed me when I¡¯m defenseless...¡± Freud described what happened to him just now.

    ¡°My soul didn¡¯t get hurt, but I thought I¡¯d never get my revenge. Then you came, Mister Padt.¡± The pale face of Freud¡¯s soul smiled brightly at Angor as he continued, ¡°I saw Yethew checking his scale and then looking at you in a strange way. That¡¯s when I was sure you had the sword we were looking for.

    ¡°I knew my chance was here,¡± Freud bowed deeply and said, ¡°and I¡¯m d you helped.¡±

    Angor nodded without saying anything.

    ¡°I had several potions and scrolls left on me,¡± Freud said. He looked extremely tired after mourning his own death. ¡°You can take them.¡±

    With that, Freud dived back into the Soul Floret.

    Angor considered and said something else, ¡°I still have space left in my storage, and I happen to have a coffin in there. Maybe we can take your body along.¡±

    Angor was referring to the coffin used by Dodoro. Back then, the coffin was filled with Akeso¡¯s blood. Angor had retrieved the blood into a better container and the coffin was left empty.

    ¡°No...¡± Freud shook his head. ¡°We can¡¯t do anything with it anyway. Why bring along a burden?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t insist since Freud said no. He moved to take several one-use space capsules from Freud¡¯s corpse before he stepped out of the watchtower.

 Chapter 507 - Looming Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 507: Looming Crisis</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor continued his adventure again but with a partner this time.

    He still did not like Keely¡¯s character, but he would admit her strength and wisdom, as well as their perfect teamwork, were necessary. Keely and Luna had helped him many times in critical situations.

    More importantly, he knew Keely was way more cultured than him, especially when it came to fundamental wizardry knowledge.

    After considering what was best, Angor chose to stay with her.

    The Meraid¡¯s Sword was leading them away from the trench by pointing upward. As the water pressure decreased, Angor¡¯s Purification Field slowly reverted to its normal state as well.

    ¡°You¡¯re too squishy,¡± Keely examined Angor¡¯s protection and said, ¡°and this thing can only keep you safe up to a certain extent. What if you have to go to other dangerous ces? It won¡¯t keep your alive in a vacuum, freezing, or burning areas. Do something about your body as fast as you can. Getting a bloodline is your best choice. No matter what you study, you will always end up fighting someone.¡±

    ¡°I know, but it¡¯s not easy to get good bloodlines.¡± Angor fully knew what Keely meant. Each time he used his gravity power as a soul, he felt free and almighty and did not want to go back to his body. He was probably the only apprentice in his term who had not fused a bloodline yet.

    ¡°Well, just don¡¯t forget it.¡± Keely ended the subject.

    ...

    They ran into enemies as soon as they emerged from the trench.

    It weren¡¯t the apprentices, but a group of glowing jellyfish.

    These creatures could produce a type of deadly neurotoxin, but they weren¡¯t smart enough to escape from Angor and Keely¡¯s attacks.

    To save time and strength, Angor trapped them in his mist illusion and left them there. They were going to die at the end of the sacrifice anyway, so there was no point in wiping them out.

    After jellyfish, they encountered supernatural monsters for several more times. Angor was growing really confused about it. He never saw such monsters earlier, so why now? He felt as if he had returned to the original garden world ruled by the flying fishes.

    He decided to move more carefully especially after Keely exined that these creatures were actually the flying fishes that traveled through the dimension barrier.

    The current Sea of Purification was just like the fish-infested sky, but with more demon fishes and other monsters that joined the fray. Here, the water made Angor¡¯s Infinite Reticence useless.

    The good thing was that it wasn¡¯t easy to attract huge swarms of monsters now. But as the newly joined monster could blend in with the native wildlife, Angor and Keely had to make sure they steered away from ALL creatures.

    During their travel, they saw more than one monster that was as powerful as Octobor¡ªa humpback whale as big as a full-fledged cloud whale, and a green mossback turtle that was not as magnificent but possessed deadlier aura than the whale.

    To get away from them, Angor had to enter his soul form and drag Keely away. The chase forced them to run off from their course for a dozen kilometers so that they could shake off the monsters.

    And they were both terrified to see the Meraid¡¯s Sword pointing to the exact same direction, which meant their goal was a LOT farther than they expected.

    Having to move such a long distance would bring them trouble. A lot of trouble.

    ...

    There was an underground castle built by Dugons about ten thousand kilometers away from Angor¡¯s position.

    A candle made from the body fat of an ancient shark was giving out a bright light as well as sweet smell into the room. Here, Jebra was leaning against a coral bad with his eyes closed as he recovered his mana.

    A robed woman opened a side-door to another room, in which a Duon resembling a real mermaid had copsed in her own blood. There were four bleeding wounds around her breasts after someone ripped her four scales away forcefully.

    ¡°Found something, Feshie?¡± Jebra spoke.

    Feshie removed her blood-covered robe to expose her alluring body and changed into a pure-white silk dress. Then she tossed a small golden sword to Jebra.

    ¡°Here¡¯s your sword,¡± she spoke while yawning, ¡°I¡¯ll take the other one.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, by all means,¡± Jebra said as he caught his sword and put a finger on his scale tattoo. Following his gesture, a tiny whale emerged from his forehead.

    ¡°d you let me out, Master!¡± The whale turned back and pressed its belly against Jebra¡¯s cheek.

    Jebra pushed it away with a smile and ordered it to open its mouth.

    Behind the whale¡¯s mouth was a storage dimension about a dozen cubic metersrge that held Jebra¡¯s resources. A corner of the storage was full of scales of different colors¡ªDuon scales. He had collected a dozen gray ones, six white ones, and three silver ones.

    Earlier, he destroyed an entire Dugon settlement. There were only a handful of Duons among their poption, and there were no golden-scaled ones.

    They didn¡¯t know the secret about these different colors, but Jebra¡¯s character forced him topete for the best stuff at all times. After interrogating the silver Duons, they came to this castle and murdered the 3rd Duon princess to get her golden scales.

    ¡°I know it now. Gold ones are the higher-ups of these creatures, but that¡¯s about it. Although the princess told me something interesting,¡± Feshie said as she revealed a cruel smell.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear it then.¡±

    ¡°They say anyone with a golden Meraid¡¯s Sword has a better chance to serve their Gods. Heh.¡±

    ¡°Serve Gods? Pity. These things were fantasies made up by Floating Mech City.¡± Jebra shook his head. ¡°Basically, the color has little to do with us. But it¡¯s still better. I don¡¯t want to show up in front of peopleter with a junk sword in my hand.¡±

    Feshie chuckled at Jebra¡¯spetitive attitude.

    ¡°There¡¯s no more to see here, right? Let¡¯s move,¡± said Jebra as he stood up.

    They followed the hallway toward the outside. There were still patrolling Dugons in the castle yet they all realized nothing. Not even the death of their princess.

    ¡°Pfft. These things look terrible. Shall I kill them all?¡± Feshie asked in Voice Transmission.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need. They are going to die anyway. First, it¡¯s a half-built world, and now another well-developed civilization... They sure put a lot of effort in their garden.¡±

    After leaving the castle, they headed where their swords were pointing to.

    ¡°Master, I sensed scale owners approaching us. They are still a hundred kilometers away,¡± the blue whale alerted them.

    ¡°Enemies, huh?¡± Feshie narrowed her eyes.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them and keep going. Just kill them if they get in our way.¡±

    About ten minutester, a group of people entered Jebra¡¯s view.

    ¡°F*ck, it¡¯s him!¡± someone eximed in a timid girl¡¯s tone. ¡°We can¡¯t win this. Run!¡±

    Jebra was going to give them a mocking look, but his attention was immediately attracted by a certain individual among them.

    ¡°You! It¡¯s you!¡± He looked scared for some reason.

    The addressed woman who almost fell asleep just now scowled. ¡°He¡¯s... so noisy!!¡±

    She opened her eyes fully and stared at Jebra. She heard the noises created by the violent tidal waves from Jebra, and she couldn¡¯t stop them.

    In the next second, the woman changed her once gentle expression into an eerie smile. ¡°Ah, so we meet again!¡± Her eyes were already shining with the effect of magic as she said, ¡°Someone stopped my nst time. I REALLY want to see what it looks like if I turn an entire sea into deadly poison! Or should I boil it? Pity, the Sea of Purification is too big, so I can¡¯t do that. But ¡®your¡¯ sea... yes, I can manage!¡±

    The womanunched herself at Jebra.

    ¡°Shiliew?!¡± The little girl, who was nning to escape earlier, turned around in horror and saw her teammate going for the enemy.

    ¡°It happened again...¡± another woman said in a casual manner.

    ¡°Every time, she¡¯ll be like all high on drugs when she sees Jebra. This isn¡¯t going to end well!¡± The girl grew more and more anxious.

    ¡°To those guys, perhaps. Just take a look, Shan.¡±

    Shanplied and looked from behind her fingers. She didn¡¯t see Shiliew getting as hurt as she expected. Instead, it was Jebra who was running away from Shiliew without the will to fight back at all. A number of different-colored bruises had shown up on the man¡¯s body.

    ¡°Huh?! Jebra is losing?¡±

 Chapter 508 - Diverting Enmity

    <h4>Chapter 508: Diverting Enmity</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor and Keely spent several days covering a great distance of several dozen kilometers, after which they finally saw their Meraid¡¯s Swords changing direction just a little. After a careful calction, they believed that they were still halfway toward their final destination.

    Apart from monsters, they fought off several groups of apprentices who came after their swords. Even though four out of five teams were led by elites, they still weren¡¯t good enough to defeat Angor and Keely, especially when they worked together.

    Almost no one could resist Angor¡¯s nightmare illusions.

    In other situations, Angor needed time to prepare his illusions. But since Keely was with him, he just had to unleash his illusions right away while Keely kept the enemies in check using her Inferno embers.

    Angor finally understood why people all wanted to find teams when going on explorations or quests. Decent teamwork between two people would do more than doubling their strength.

    But he still believed that teams didn¡¯t always mean good things.

    Using spirit feelers, he saw Freud sitting on the Soul Floret while hugging his knees to his chest, thinking about something.

    Freud was a good example of bad teams. Even good friends or schoolmates studying under the same teacher would be enemies just for personal profit.

    There was no conflict of profit between him and Keely for now, but nobody could predict the future.

    Angor enjoyed having an extra partner on his travel and during battles, but if he had to choose again, he would still go on adventures alone unless he could fully trust someone. And the only one he could trust currently was Toby.

    He moved his spirit feelers and looked at Toby, who was sleeping on a pile of Soul Orbs.

    The bird never woke up after they left Dark Castle, but Angor could feel that the bloodline in Toby was growing stronger by the day. His inner power felt several times strongerpared to when he was awake. Also, Toby¡¯s physical shape changed; he was bigger now. Previously, Angor could easily grab Toby in one hand, but now, Toby had grown as big as a juvenile eagle.

    His once gray feathers had taken on a red hue, like the color of dusk.

    Angor was sure none of his old friends would recognize the bird now if they were to see Toby.

    Moreover, these changes all happened recently, maybe during thest two days. Angor guessed that it was almost time for Toby to reach the end of his mental challenge.

    These days, Angor would keep some of his attention on Toby when he wasn¡¯t fighting or doing other things. The ck kitten, Luna, noticed Angor spacing out and meowed at him.

    Luna¡¯s call caused both Angor and Keely to stay focused again. They had given Yethew¡¯s gray scale to Luna so that the kitten could help them monitor iing enemies.

    It seemed Luna was smart enough to understand the mental conditions of people. In fact, Angor believed that Luna could do a better job at reading emotions than Keely, so he trusted that Luna could tell them whether they were expecting Duons or raiders.

    And Luna just told them that something wasing.

    Keely took over the scale and beganmunicating with Luna while Angor watched. He felt it funny every time he saw Keely ¡°speaking¡± to Luna while Luna meowed back to her.

    <i>Can they really understand each other?</i>

    He never realized that the others also saw the same thing when he talked to Toby.

    ¡°Someone is heading this way,¡± said Keely, ¡°but probably not a robber, ording to Luna.¡±

    ¡°Then what for?¡±

    ¡°Diverting enemies.¡±

    Angor took the scale and quickly understood what Keely meant. About a dozen kilometers away, one single scale was approaching them quickly, while someone with a Meraid¡¯s Sword was going after the scale.

    Luna meowed again.

    ¡°Luna says that the scale has been following us closely. Whoever has that scale wants to attract that sword holder to us. Well, he can also be nning something bigger but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s likely.¡±

    When Angor returned the scale to Luna, the cat swallowed it.

    ¡°So what¡¯s the n? Do we fight them?¡± Keely asked.

    They could either confront the pursuers or run. Since that sword holder wasn¡¯t carrying a scale, it meant that he or she couldn¡¯t tell their locations. They might easily avoid conflict if Angor used the sequence of gravity and dragged both Keely and Luna away.

    However, Angor knew that Keely wasn¡¯t ASKING since her attitude already gave her answer away.

    ¡°Well, if you want.¡± Angor shrugged.

    Keely grinned devilishly and began to do warm-ups.

    They slowed down while continued to follow their original course. Every now and then, Luna would tell them the remaining distance of the enemies.

    Several minutester, they could see a dim light in the distance using their eyes, which was getting bigger and bigger.

    ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± Keely said as she lifted her oilmp and released a white ember that she prepared beforehand.

    Luna moved to Angor and clung itself to Angor by biting onto his clothes. During their previous battles, Keely always charged ahead no matter for attacking or defending, while Luna would dig a pit to hide. The kitten realized that Angor was the ¡°safer¡± spot since he always relied on illusions to stay away from enemies as much as possible so that his precious body wouldn¡¯t get any bruises or scars.

    Despite his casual stance, Angor already readied several defensive means and a number of illusion nodes around the water.

    Keely went for the light with a series of heartyughs. A huge group of embers instantly blocked all escape directions of the ier.

    The enemy also saw Keely and grew horrified since she just ran into another nightmare.

    ¡°Now die!¡± Keely rammed into the enemy with her body covered in mes.

    Before Keely could finish her attack, the targeted woman suddenly gained unbelievable speed and reappeared behind Keely as if she teleported.

    ¡°Angor, what are you doing?!¡± Keely red at Angor; only Angor could make something move so fast.

    ¡°Angor?! Angor Padt?¡± Keely¡¯s target turned around and quickly saw Angor¡¯s face. ¡°It¡¯s really you! I¡¯m so happy!¡±

    ¡°Wait. You know her?¡± Keely realized what was going on.

    Angor was trying to prevent the little girl from hugging him by pushing her face. ¡°Hey, Shan, aren¡¯t you going to check on Gank?¡±

    Shan finally realized that Gank was probably hit by that fire attack because Angor only pulled one person out of Keely¡¯s way.

    She turned around and saw Gank burning in blue mes. Half of his body was frozen.

    ¡°Gaaaank! No!¡±

    Keely frowned and canceled all the frostfire that was torturing Gank¡¯s body.

    ¡°This is Shan, an apprentice from Brute Cavern, and my... Let¡¯s just say that we met before,¡± Angor exined.

    ¡°That¡¯s not enough reason for her to bring danger to us.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡± Angor sighed. Shan wasn¡¯t really his friend. He saved her because the girl seemed to be on good terms with Nausica.

    ¡°So are you going to deal with whoever¡¯s chasing her too?¡± Keely was getting impatient.

    Angor was also thinking about this question. What he just did didn¡¯t mean he would keep helping Shan with her own problems.

    Shan returned with Gank with a worried look. ¡°Angor, Nausica and Shiliew are in danger! You gotta help them!¡±

    Shan knew she was asking too much but she had no choice right now.

    Clearly, Shan didn¡¯t know well about the friendship between Angor and Nausica.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Nausica? What happened to her?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We got separated when escaping. But Shiliew can tell us! She left her blood on Nausica. That¡¯s how she found us after entering the garden.¡±

    ¡°So where¡¯s Shiliew?¡±

    ¡°Tulip Pce. Shiliew sent me and Nausica away. She was trapped there by two witches.¡±

    Keely humphed while listening to their conversation. She already knew what Angor was going to do now.

    <i>Mortal kindness...</i>

    She wondered if she should go with him. She certainly didn¡¯t want to, but her professor told her to...

    <i>Nah. He can manage on his own.</i>

    Angor was still unsure about the situation. ¡°Details, Shan. Tell me what exactly happened.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Jebra! Shiliew wounded Jebra, then he somehow hired a bunch of people to attack us¡ª¡±

    Keely rushed in front of Shan and grabbed her cor.

    ¡°WHAT DID YOU SAY?!¡±

 Chapter 509 - Fragile Belief

    <strong>Chapter 509: Fragile Belief</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Je-Je-It¡¯s Jebra...¡± Shan replied to Keely¡¯s interrogation.

    ¡°Jebra... Oh, Jebra,¡± Keely mumbled this name several times. ¡°I finally found you...¡± Her expression had turned terribly cruel and hateful.

    Both Shan and Angor flinched a little when they sensed the overwhelming resentmenting from her.

    ¡°Now tell me where he is,¡± Keely said again after regaining some of her sanity.

    In Angor¡¯s eyes, this girl was now like a time bomb ready to go off.

    Shan shook her head, and when she saw Keely¡¯s killing re, she quickly changed her mind and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know, BUT! Those two witches might know something. I mean, Jebra hired them!¡±

    Keely kept her deathly gaze on Shan¡¯s eyes to make sure she wasn¡¯t lying.

    ¡°So that Shiliew person attacked Jebra, huh?¡± Keely let Shan go. ¡°Good. That alone is enough reason for me to help! Shiliew is trapped by two of Jebra¡¯s witches? Let¡¯s gut them.¡±

    Shan was still unsure of what happened just now. She expected Angor to move first to help Nausica since they seemed to be good friends. Instead, Keely offered her assistance first.

    Angor was left speechless by the disy as well. He had been thinking about a way to persuade Keely into going for the destination first, while he took a detour to get Nausica. He didn¡¯t think Keely would suddenly get so pumped up.

    Although he kind of understood what Keely was thinking about.

    It was ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza, a wizard from Song of the Deep, as well as Jebra¡¯s teacher, who murdered Keely¡¯s parents when she was younger. How could anyone NOT want to get revenge in such a case?

    Keely was surely not strong enough to confront Flunza right now, so she made Jebra her target.

    It wasmonly known that ¡°Child of Ocean¡± Jebra was the beloved pupil of Flunza. There were also rumors saying that Jebra was actually a member of Flunza¡¯s family. People didn¡¯t know whether Jebra was his son or grandson.

    Regardless, Keely wouldn¡¯t waste time confirming such rumors. She believed them and had considered killing Flunza¡¯s ¡°family¡± as one of her quests.

    ¡°Well... we have different ideas but the same ce to go, so we¡¯ll go together,¡± said Angor. ¡°Before that, we have to deal with something first.¡±

    He looked toward where Shan came from and noticed a powerful aura was approaching them quickly.

    Angor finally saw who wasing and narrowed his eyes.

    Long, ck hair, cold and distant temperament, and a silver longsword...

    ¡°Sdin...¡±

    Sdin already saw his target¡ªthe giant man to be ¡°recycled¡± and the annoying little imp who always sat on his shoulder. As for the other two on the scene... Sdin might not be someone who paid a lot of attention to the outside world, but he also knew about them.

    Keely from Lilith¡¯s n, and Mister Phantom¡¯s new student, Angor, who had his name posted everywhere in the city recently.

    Last time, Sdin did not recognize Angor because Angor was wearing arge hooded robe. It was the Alien Eye that drew Sdin¡¯s attention. Before entering the garden, Angor crafted something to conceal the item, so Sdin didn¡¯t connect Angor with the hooded figure he saw that day.

    Sdin didn¡¯t really care what they were doing here. He was going to do his job, and anyone standing in his way would be killed.

    ¡°Stopped running, eh? I give you onest chance. Hand him over and I¡¯ll let you live,¡± Sdin said to Shan whilepletely ignoring Angor and Keely.

    Shan clenched her teeth. ¡°In your dreams, a*shole! You filthy cultists don¡¯t even follow your own rules. I¡¯m not going to trust your words!¡±

    ¡°I see, then you two shall perish right here!¡± When Sdin drew his sword, the seawater around him immediately grew violent.

    ¡°He¡¯s a cultist?¡± Keely frowned in disgust. ¡°Jebra paid a cultist to act as his henchman too?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Shan denied, ¡°he found us midway and wouldn¡¯t give up on chasing Gank. We got registered at the Supreme Cult and it¡¯s like aplete waste of time!

    ¡°I and Nausica escaped from Tulip Pce and was looking for a ce to rest up so that we can save Shiliew. Then this guy appeared out of nowhere with a bunch of flying fish behind him. Nausica and I went different ways when running.¡±

    Keely didn¡¯t seem so interested now that she knew the matter had little to do with Jebra. Regardless, she still chose to help Shan for the sake of her teammate.

    Angor walked in front of Shan to face Sdin.

    ¡°So, you two are going to protect this foreign creature?¡± Sdin¡¯s violence was getting obvious. ¡°The world¡¯s consciousness does not allow these creatures to exist in this world; do you want to oppose the world¡¯s consciousness too?¡±

    Angor never liked the Supreme Cult, nor did he like Sdin. He felt worse when someone used ¡°moral high ground¡± as a defense and judged right-and-wrong by using false justice as an excuse.

    ¡°You done with your hypocrisy? Feeling better now?¡± Angor concealed his emotions and gave Sdin a cold grin. ¡°I¡¯m wondering... will this ¡®world¡¯s consciousness¡¯ punish me for killing you? I want to see what that looks like.¡±

    He immediately triggered his previously prepared illusion nodes, which then engulfed Sdin within.

    Sdin had moved into Angor¡¯s illusion area on his own, and he no longer had time to get away.

    It only took Sdin several seconds for him to sense something familiar in the illusion, a certain trick that ced the exit just several steps away from him yet he couldn¡¯t get there.

    ¡°YOU! You were the reason they escaped back at Champagne Road!¡±

    ¡°Correct,¡± Angor¡¯s voice echoed in the mist. ¡°You want to ¡®recycle¡¯ otherworldly creatures, right? You shall get past me first.¡±

    He said that because something in him wanted to speak for Jon¡¯s stead.

    ¡°You¡¯re abetting the enemy!¡± Sdin wielded his sword while trying to break the illusion by shing around. He never learned how to break an illusion, so he could only do it in a clumsier way.

    By some miracle, it worked.

    Angor ced his illusion in water; the water current would get disturbed by Sdin¡¯s energy attacks. More than once, the water moved strongly enough to break the illusion nodes. Sdin would soon get out of the trap at this rate.

    ¡°Need some help?¡± Keely noticed the situation. Usually, they could keep any enemies at bay using their teamwork. Her job was to burn them away while Angor kept them busy with illusions.

    ¡°No,¡± Angor rejected firmly. He wouldn¡¯t want Keely to enrage the cult established by total maniacs.

    Even without Keely¡¯s help, Angor had a n in his mind.

    It seemed Sdin could only grow stronger in his ¡°mad¡± state, which required some time to build up. In terms of strength, Sdin in his normal condition was weaker than Yethew.

    As the illusion began to falter, Sdin¡¯s eyes grew red as he approached the threshold of insanity.

    Angor lifted a finger and released the nightmare aura, which was only visible to himself, toward Sdin¡¯s direction, along with a cantrip that he had been preparing.

    Nightmare Fear, an advanced version of Fear.

    Sdin¡¯s eyes lost focus.

    He saw the environment changing before he reappeared somewhere familiar to him¡ªthe Kewpie¡¯s Bands. He once came here to ambush a group of otherworldly creatures¡ª¡±Registered¡± ones.

    But the world¡¯s consciousness wants them dead! The files and papers made up by the conservatives are meaningless!

    But I already killed them, didn¡¯t I? Why am I here-huh? Did I really kill them before? Is that what I should do right now?

    But I¡¯m inside the Sea of¡ªno! My job is to get rid of such abominations and I must do it!

    One kill. Two kills. Three... the victims¡¯ blood felt so real and pleasantly hot. Everything around him told him that this was the reality, while the Sea of Purification was a dream.

    Sdin kept killing. In fact, he killed too many creatures that he began to expect an end to it.

    In the eyes of the onlookers, Sdin fell for Angor¡¯s Fear and started swinging his sword randomly. The illusion was already broken, but the man was still trapped in his imaginary world.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?! You¡¯re at fault! I¡¯m gonna kill¡ª¡±

    ¡°No-no! Don¡¯t get closer! How are there still more?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that up there... ARRGH! That¡¯s... that¡¯s the devil, not the world¡¯s consciousness! THE DEVIL!¡±

    It seemed Sdin saw something horrific, and it was torturing his mental defense line. He kept mumbling ¡°the world¡¯s consciousness is the devil¡±. Before Angor could pay more attention to those words, Sdin yelled at something again, ¡°Wait, so it IS the world¡¯s consciousness... it¡¯s here...¡±

    He suddenly took out a magic scroll.

    Before Angor could do anything, Sdin ripped the scroll open and disappeared from their view.

    ¡°Teleportation?!¡± Angor was the surprised one now. A teleportation scroll was always a costly asset among people. Only those with brilliant space-rted talent as well as great expertise in Runecraft could create this item. Because of such harsh conditions, people could never find teleportation scrolls by going tomon markets.

    What did Sdin see that convinced him to use such a thing?! The world¡¯s consciousness, for real?

    But he believes that he works for it? Then, why did he run away?

    Fear basically functions by creating the image of one¡¯s most fearful memory. Does this mean Sdin actually feared the world¡¯s consciousness while pretending to be radical in public?

    Angor didn¡¯t know. Regardless, it didn¡¯t really matter since Sdin had left them.

 Chapter 510 - Night Caracal

    <strong>Chapter 510: Night Caracal</strong>

    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions

    The Tulip Pce was one of the eight underwater pces built by Duons to amodate their Gods.

    Both Duons and Dugons greatly respected their holy grounds and rarely came to them so as not to bother their Gods. For this reason, the Tulip Pce had not weed visitors for countless years, until today.

    Led by Shan, Angor¡¯s group traveled through great distances and finally reached a bright pce surrounded by gigantic seaweeds.

    ¡°This is the ce,¡± Shan murmured as she looked around while feeling uncertain about her words. ¡°Huh... I can¡¯t see those witches.¡±

    The Tulip Pce was protected behind an energy barrier that kept water away. There were six me pirs built just outside the structure that illuminated the area, causing it to be as bright as day.

    Due to the decent radiance, they could observe the dazzling coral decorations without any trouble.

    ¡°We got away through the backdoor because the witches were watching the front. But... did they leave already?¡± Shan looked really worried. ¡°Oh no! I think they got Shiliew!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and see,¡± Angor said as heforted the girl. He then said to Keely, ¡°I¡¯ll check first, help me keep my body safe.¡±

    Keely created a barrier using mes that covered up Angor¡¯s body.

    Next, Angor ejected his soul and dived into the pce. His soul could freely move through walls as long as there was no special protection. Combined with his speed, he finished scouting the entire building within minutes.

    Before leaving, he sensed energy ripplesing from the main hall. When he arrived, he noticed that the energy originated from below his feet.

    ¡°There¡¯s something underground?¡± He tried moving down, but he was blocked by another energy barrier. He decided to approach it in by going underground through another entrance and slowly move toward the main hall¡¯s position.

    He met no obstruction this time, and he sessfully entered a sealed underground chamber.

    The chamber was full of dust, which suggested that no one hade here for a long time. Several luminous stones were slotted into the ceiling so that the room wasn¡¯tpletely dark. Using the dim light, Angor could see some lines and symbols drawn on the floor.

    He used the sequence of gravity to blow the dust away and was surprised to see something familiar beneath him.

    Several runes bound together using certain forms, as well as slots for cing magic crystals... A short-range teleportation array.

    Right beside the array, there was a simple map that had multiple dots on it, which was apanied by names. One of the dots on the edge of the map indicated his current position, the Tulip Pce.

    Apart from here, there were also ¡°Bay Pce¡±, ¡°Temulin Pce¡±, ¡°Crystal Pce¡±, and so on. Eight pces in total.

    This is for traveling to other pces?

    Angor tried cing a magic crystal into an energy slot and sessfully activated the array. The locations on the map began to glow brightly.

    Although it wasn¡¯t time for this right now. He took off the crystal and left the secret chamber.

    Shan already told them that the Duons built these pces to worship their Gods. Angor didn¡¯t expect that he actually found a convenient means of traveling through them by floating around in his soul form. He wondered if they could use this way to get closer to the Altar of Demise.

    After getting back to his body, he said to Shan while shaking his head, ¡°I didn¡¯t find anyone inside. But there are traces left by someone fighting.¡±

    Shan looked disappointed. ¡°What should we do? If we can¡¯t find Shiliew, we can¡¯t find Nausica.¡±

    Angor frowned. He was just as concerned about losing Nausica¡¯s track.

    ¡°There¡¯s still a way... But I need to get in there first,¡± Keely suddenly spoke up, and as Shan watched her with great hope, she slowly entered the pce.

    Keely moved to find some broken stones on the floor and proceeded to check the energy residue left behind.

    ¡°Yes, someone got into a big fight not long ago,¡± she said. She then patted Luna¡¯s head and added, ¡°It¡¯s your turn.¡±

    Keely stepped back while Luna began hopping around the stones while sniffing the air.

    ¡°Oh, Luna can find people by sensing their hormone, right?¡± Angor still remembered how Keely disturbed his rest by threatening him right inside Sunders¡¯ mansion.

    ¡°Yeah. But they are almost gone. We may need to find something more solid, like body fluid dropped by someone.¡±

    Angor gazed at Luna and felt his vision going blurry for a second. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, only to see the ck cat now had three eyes... as well as nine tails that swung around behind its rear.

    ¡°It¡¯s a Night Caracal?...¡± Shan mumbled.

    Angor thought the name to be familiar.

    Keely nodded and exined to them, ¡°Yes, Luna is a Night Caracal... It¡¯s the only gift my mother left behind.¡± Her voice grew softer when she mentioned her dead mother.

    Angor managed to remember something he read before. People said that a Night Caracal was the herald of night, and one of the most beloved familiar pets raised by ancient witches. These creatures were extremely smart and sensitive, as well as capable of fighting. It was difficult to breed and train them. Also, it was known that many Night Caracals would grow up only to harm their owners. For these reasons, there were very few people that sessfully cultivated and trained Night Caracals.

    As ne expeditions grew more popr, which allowed people to find more varieties of easy-to-breed familiar pets, Night Caracals slowly stepped out of in sight and became a symbol of antiquity. Today, only wizards who had a particr love for cats were willing to get them.

    ¡°It might be tiny, but it has lived for more than 50 years. My mother started training it a long time ago...¡± Keely¡¯s voice grew gentle as if she considered Luna a personification of her own mother.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t easy to breed familiars. To allow a familiar to fully attune to your own mind and ways, you at least need to spend hundreds of years with it,¡± Shan said. She then sighed and continued, ¡°I once had a silver demon wolf. It died during an ident, and I never get another one. I¡¯ll not look for a familiar before turning into a wizard. I have Gank.¡±

    Shan looked at Angor with a smile. ¡°Brother Angor, Nausica told me that you have a familiar too?¡±

    ¡°Remove the ¡®brother¡¯ part. You¡¯re a LOT older than me.¡±

    Shan rolled her eyes.

    Angor checked Toby, who was sleeping inside his bracelet.

    ¡°Toby¡¯s not my familiar. He¡¯s my... family. But he¡¯s sleeping and eating and then sleeping again like a spoiled nerd.¡±

    Angor¡¯sint sounded affectionate and attentive, which meant he really cared for Toby.

    While they talked, Luna jumped away from the stones and pulled a blood-stained shard to Keely using its spirit power.

    ¡°There we have it.¡± Keely looked Luna¡¯s way.

    When Luna meowed several times, Keely frowned and began to ¡°chat¡± with her cat.

    ¡°... Luna only found the blood of one person, but it smelled that four people were fighting here earlier.¡±

    ¡°Four?¡± Shan was surprised by this. ¡°There was Shiliew and two witches... Did Jebra send reinforcement?!¡±

    ¡°Perhaps...¡± Keely¡¯s voice was getting violent again. ¡°That son of a stink fish can use any dirty trick you can think of. Come, Luna can take us to them.¡±

    When Jebra¡¯s name was mentioned, Keely quickly grew excited again and left Tulip Pce on her own.

    Angor thought and decided not to tell them about the teleportation array for now. They wouldn¡¯t need to use it any time soon.

    Following Luna, they went on their way again, during which they fended off several more groups of raiders until they finally caught up with the one who left the bloodstains.

    ¡°There are two Meraid¡¯s Swords somewhere 40 kilometers ahead of us. Luna said that blood smell also came from there,¡± Keely warned.

    ¡°Those two witches, no doubt!¡± Shan cursed.

    Both Angor and Keely frowned when they saw who they were after.

    Shiliew wasn¡¯t here.

    Angor and Keely knew well about the two individuals floating not far from them.

    ¡°Angor and... Keely?¡± A woman wearing flowers and tree vines all over her body raised an eyebrow as she spoke, ¡°Are you perhaps trying to get this?¡± She showed them a silver Meriad¡¯s Sword in her hand.

    She spoke in a casual tone, but she was seriously preparing for all kinds of countermeasures, especially against Angor. Angor had proved his ability by surviving from the giant swarm of flying fish as well as that Lord of Tentacles.

    ¡°Sinehowze and Carveline...¡± Angor muttered their names. When Shan described how the two witches looked ¡°old, wrinkled, and ugly¡±, he never thought Shan was referring to these two women.

    ¡°There they are! They trapped us inside Tulip Pce!¡± Shan yelled out.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you?¡± Sinehowze looked at Shan. ¡°We were kind enough to let you and the other woman go, and you came looking for trouble instead? Wait, so you actually managed to get Angor and Keely as your bodyguards?¡±

    While speaking, Sinehowze hid one hand behind her back and did a series of gestures. Several streams of smoke appeared from her palm.

    Carveline was wearing a blue armored skirt this time. She moved in front of Sinehowze, pretending to protect her, but her true intention was to conceal Sinehowze¡¯s movement.

    Shan didn¡¯t bother with answering Sinehowze¡¯s question. ¡°Where did you take Shiliew?¡±

    ¡°Shiliew? That blue-haired girl from earlier?¡± Sinehowze shook her head. ¡°No idea, sorry!¡± Then she looked at Angor. ¡°Did youe to us just because of this Shiliew woman?¡±

    Keely interrupted Angor¡¯s response byughing frantically. ¡°Stop wasting time. By selling your conscience to Jebra, you¡¯ve be his ves, his dogs! I¡¯ll get you and everything else can wait!¡±

    From Keely¡¯s body, countless embers flooded toward Sinehowze and Carveline¡¯s position.

 Chapter 511 - Scythe-Wielding Skeleton

    <h4>Chapter 511: Scythe-Wielding Skeleton</h4>

    The searing ze, which should not exist in this world, went for the two women on the opposite side,pletely unaffected by the presence of water.

    Boom!

    A giant explosion created a natural curtain made out of bubbles and vortexes.

    When everything cleared out, people saw a long-handled scythe, which blocked the fire attack, right in front of Carveline and Sinehowze.

    As the others wondered why such a thing showed up out of nowhere, a shadow slowly emerged from behind it.

    First, it was a white, skeletonized hand that held the scythe. This was followed by a tattered ck hood, under whichy a white skull with golden markings drawn on it.

    Apparently, this reaper-like being just materialized and dispelled Keely¡¯s attack with a swing of its scythe.

    ¡°A fine meal from the underworld that invites Death itself to dine with us...¡± Sinehowze spread her hands and chanted. Several trails of smoke unaffected by water came from her as she released different food materials into the environment, which were soon carried away by tides.

    The smoke trails gradually entered the skeleton¡¯s nostrils, which caused something to happen to it.

    The once ck eye sockets brightened up as a pair of green embers lit up inside them. Everyone heard someone talking in a deep yet clear voice as if someone just spoke to their souls directly.

    ¡°I shall answer your banquet invitation... ept my humble gratitude.¡±

    ¡°Then you must pay a price for my meal,¡± Sinehowze said. She showed a cold look and pointed to the other group. ¡°Kill them. That shall be my request.¡±

    ¡°As you wish.¡± The mes in the skeleton¡¯s eyes brightened further as it lunged at Angor¡¯s group, scythe raised.

    Keely moved to intercept immediately.

    A heated battle soon followed and fell into a stalemate, in which neither of them managed to win over the other.

    ¡°Amon skeleton from the underworld, huh?¡± Keely scoffed. ¡°A Death wannabe? Don¡¯t make meugh!¡±

    Despite her tone, Keely was treating their battle with a serious attitude. She could no longer use her ze of Purgatory as it wasn¡¯t so effective for battling with something from the underworld. Such a creature would deal with Inferno embers every day back at its home. It might not be the real Death, but that scythe looked pretty powerful.

    A real Death was always a wizard-level creature. A skeleton that could use a Death¡¯s Scythe was just a little weaker¡ªa level-3 apprentice, probably. Usually, Keely wasn¡¯t afraid of someone like this. However, this underworld native was a natural countermeasure against her Inferno mes.

    ¡°It¡¯s a novice Death... but still, it is a real Death.¡± Sinehowze chuckled. She seemed to be talking to Keely, yet her attention was on Angor the whole time.

    Angor and Shan did not join the fight yet. Carveline also stayed aside as Sinehowze¡¯s guard. Like her partner, Carveline had been keeping her eye on Angor cautiously.

    Both Carveline and Sinehowze would agree that Angor was the biggest threat here. When thinking about what Angor did in front of everyone at theva zone, neither of them knew for sure whether they could survive from Angor¡¯s speed and illusions.

    The battle between Keely and the skeleton continued without yielding any result. The skeleton couldn¡¯t use many long-range attacks, but it could shrug off Keely¡¯s Inferno cantrips while remained mostly unharmed.

    Seeing that the fight had been dragging on for too long, Shan and Gank also joined the fight.

    Sinehowze frowned and released another trail of smoke that was then devoured by the skeleton. After devouring the smoke, the skeleton gained another magnitude in size.

    Keely summoned more embers and unleashed them toward Sinehowze. She decided to kill the summoner of the skeleton first so that it would end all troubles.

    The skeleton saw it and quickly moved to intercept.

    Shan began to perform a strange dance move on Gank¡¯s shoulder. Following her gestures, Gank also leaped around while mming the water around him. Combining Gank¡¯s talent of a brute and Shan¡¯s technique, they brought up a giant vortex that surrounded Gank.

    Asmonly known, spells and cantrips all had more than one way of showing their effects. Shan altered Gank¡¯s War Stomp skill by applying the power to his hands and created an underwater whirlpool.

    The whirlpool grew so big that even Angor and Keely had to step down a bit so that they wouldn¡¯t receive any damage.

    As a native of the underworld, the skeleton simply turned into its ethereal form, which allowed it to ignore all physical attacks. It dived through the vortex and headed to Sinehowze to stop Keely¡¯s embers.

    Keely did not stay and watch. In the next second, her body grewrger as her once slim body gained size and muscles. Thick fur grew on her pair of white legs, and her red dance shoes turned into sharp ws of the same color, which looked more like blood in such a situation.

    ¡°A Red-Talon Hikhor...¡± Carveline put on a more careful stance upon seeing Keely¡¯s beast form.

    The bloodline of a Red-Talen Hikhor was usually used for strengthening one¡¯s overall speed. Anyone who could use such a bloodline was known to have superior reflexes.

    Keely did more than activating her bloodline¡ªshe also triggered the best extent of it by turning into a were-beast. She considered this necessary in order topete with the skeleton.

    Just as she nned, her enhanced physical properties helped her catch up with the skeleton in time.

    The skeleton was now too slow tond any effective hit on Keely¡¯s current form. It could only keep retreating from Keely¡¯s energy-enhanced ws.

    Without the skeleton to help them, Keely¡¯s embers managed to surround Sinehowze and Carveline. It then slowly engulfed them.

    ¡°Is it over?¡± Shan asked.

    Bang!

    A shiny light beam created by a sharp attack emerged from the burning embers and came for Keely.

    Keely had no problem evading the attack in her current form. When she did, the embers slowly died down, and they could finally see what was happening.

    A giant scythe and broken, ck hooded robe...

    ¡°Another skeleton?¡± Keely frowned. ¡°Wait... That¡¯s Carveline?¡±

    Carveline was now standing in front of Sinehowze with a scythe in hand. A simple swing was all she needed to get rid of the looming embers.

    ¡°This is Death¡¯s Garb,¡± said Carveline. ¡°Stop struggling. None of your moves will work.¡±

    Keely was surprised by Carveline¡¯s new outfit. ¡°You are the owner of Pastor¡¯s Garb?¡±

    Carveline didn¡¯t reply, which was just the answer they needed.

    Depending on the user¡¯s level, as well as what they wished to do, Pastor¡¯s Garb was able to appear as different types of equipment.

    Carveline¡¯s Death¡¯s Garb had granted her simr powers that a real Death would have.

    Meanwhile, the skeleton didn¡¯t allow Keely to have enough time to get over her surprise. Its scythe moved and created several shadows around Keely, which suggested it was going to use a big move.

    ¡°Keely, watch out!!¡±

    Keely heard Shan¡¯s words and looked back, only to find nowhere to go under the overwhelming scythe attacks.

    For the first time in the battle, she panicked. Getting distracted by Carveline¡¯s disy caused her to overlook the skeleton¡¯s moves. And when it sneaked closer enough in its ethereal form, Keely¡¯s speed would not help her get away from the well-prepared trap.

    Before the shadows could hit her head-on, a violent tide cameshing out and carried with it a series of illusion nodes. It created a white mist that obstructed arge area from view.

    ¡°That¡¯s Acoustic Illusion! Damn it, it¡¯s Angor!¡± Sinehowze quickly moved farther from the battlefield and saw Carveline doing the same. She had been watching the fight without doing anything so that she could keep an eye on Angor¡¯s movement. Unfortunately, she let her guard down when Keely was about to get killed by the skeleton, and this allowed Angor to intervene.

    ¡°Oh no, you don¡¯t!¡± Carveline moved toward the illusion again as her outfit gained bright colors and a pair of butterfly wings.

    The wings spread glittering scales into the environment that quickly broke Angor¡¯s illusion nodes before the mist could fully build up.

    But Carveline did not find Angor or Keely behind the mist. There was only the skeleton that was still looking around while beingpletely confused.

    Carveline jerked her head in another direction and saw that Angor and Keely were standing at a safe distance while they looked at her with rxed expressions. It seemed Keely was totally unharmed.

    Angor was looking at Carveline¡¯s new outfit with a curious expression. To Carveline, however, Angor¡¯s inspecting gaze was humiliating. It was as if Angor were mocking her failure.

    Carveline always believed in her speed. It only took her a second or two to break Angor¡¯s illusion, so she was confident that she would get to Keely before Angor did.

    But the truth proved otherwise. In two seconds, Angor managed to take Keely far away from danger, which meant Angor was a lot faster than her. Probably even faster than Keely¡¯s enhanced speed.

    ¡°Why you¡ª¡± Carveline felt her face burning in rage. She was about to taunt Angor when she heard something behind her that sounded like ss shattering on the ground. At the same time, Sinehowze screamed in pain and covered her mouth. There was blood leaking from between her fingers.

    Sinehowze is hurt? When and how?! Carveline hurried back to Sinehowze¡¯s side anxiously.

    When she moved past the skeleton, the water flow she caused knocked into it and created several cracking noises. As both Carveline and Sinehowze watched in horror, the skeleton¡¯s skull gained arge crack that slowly moved downward until it reached both its feet.

    In a split second, the skeleton snapped into a pile of shards as the long-handled scythe slowly disappeared as it returned to the underworld again.

    ¡°It¡¯s... dead??¡± Carveline nced at Angor, who actually nodded to her as an answer.

    Carveline immediately felt cold sweat running down her back.

    He killed that thing?

    But how?? Did he do it while rescuing Keely?

    The only exnation was that Angor grabbed Keely away AND shattered the skeleton while at it. However, Carveline couldn¡¯t believe her assumption.

    ¡°Man... I just gave it a little knock on the head and this happened? So fragile,¡± said Angor, who was still smiling casually.

 Chapter 512 - The Pastor Family

    <h4>Chapter 512: The Pastor Family</h4>

    Carveline gasped.

    She didn¡¯t want to believe her assumption about Angor¡¯s true strength. She couldn¡¯t believe it! Even though they were both level-2 apprentices, she owned Pastor¡¯s Garb! The legendary artifact!

    Yet she couldn¡¯t deny the truth, which had already happened in front of her eyes.

    She sighed and dispelled her butterfly dress, which then slowly turned into the armored skirt she had earlier.

    ¡°Heh. The student of Mister Phantom lives up to his name...¡± Carvelineforted herself and used Angor¡¯s mighty professor as an excuse.

    Previously, she was confident that they could defeat Angor if both she and Sinehowze used their best moves.

    They could not.

    Truth was, they still had some secret tricks up their sleeves. However, what Angor showed them already confirmed to them that those moves would not help.

    With a bitter mindset, Carveline went to assist Sinehowze.

    ¡°We lost. Just ask what you want to know and I¡¯ll tell you,¡± said Carveline.

    Sinehowze took out two magic scrolls from her ne. ¡°We can¡¯t defeat you, true. But you can¡¯t stop us from running. How about we end this thing with a good talk and be on our ways?¡± Sinehowze looked at Angor with a terrified expression. There was still blood around the corners of her lips. Unlike Carveline, she knew how powerful her summoned skeleton was. That was one of the deadliest helpers she could call using her Gourmet meals.

    But Angor broke it with one hit. ONE HIT. She couldn¡¯t muster any courage to resist right now.

    Sinehowze tried to calm herself down as she revealed the scrolls she had.

    Angor frowned at the familiar runes on the scroll, while Shan and Keely looked at each other helplessly.

    Teleportation scrolls.

    They had seen such things for a second time today.

    Angor wondered if every elite apprentice who came to the garden held these things. Their professors probably prepared the scrolls as a means for them to escape.

    He thought about the day when he went looking for Sunders to ask for something, but Sunders didn¡¯t even grant him permission to enter the study.

    Angor sighed in distress. Sinehowze was right that they could always get away. Besides, Angor was not in his best condition either, since that gravity hit he used to kill the skeleton just now emptied a great portion of his soul energy.

    He knew he could attack the skeleton¡¯s ethereal form if he also entered his soul form, but his n woulde at a great cost.

    Angor quickly made up his mind and nodded to Sinehowze with a smile. Then he took out a ne from his bracelet, which had a pendant shaped as an ink-colored butterfly.

    ¡°Sure, since you¡¯re a customer who bought my ne.¡±

    Angor meant to find an excuse to step out of the conflict while maintaining his neutral standing.

    Sinehowze looked at Angor¡¯s ne. She then looked at her own with her mouth agape.

    She didn¡¯t know if Angor was speaking the truth, but she did know that the two nes definitely came from the same crafter, and Angor probably had no reason to lie about it.

    ¡°Oh I... love it!¡± Sinehowze forced a smile on her face. ¡°So, you made this thing? This is fate I guess. Just ask me anything. Come on.¡±

    Keely didn¡¯t protest about the ending and canceled her bloodline effect.

    She would ept Sinehowze¡¯s surrender too if she were the one making decisions. Carveline came from a certain n who dealt with Abyss Demons before. They also possessed Pastor¡¯s Garb, an artifact that held a demon¡¯s true power. Keely would avoid provoking them without any good reason.

    Angor didn¡¯t know any of this, and since neither Keely nor Shan disagreed, he decided to get on with the questioning. ¡°Okay, I want to know where Shiliew is. The woman that fought against you guys at Tulip Pce.¡±

    ¡°That woman with blue hair? She... isn¡¯t THAT beautiful, so how did you two¡ª¡± Sinehowze saw Angor¡¯s eyes twinkling ominously and quickly changed her words. ¡°She fell asleep in front of us, so we took her to Jebra.¡±

    ¡°Heh. The daughter of the Pastor Family would sup upon Jebra¡¯s wealth?¡± Keely humphed.

    Carveline glimpsed at her. ¡°Why would I refuse something good that I can use? Suppose someone gives you a ze of Purgatory and asks you to kill a rat, will you do it?¡±

    Keely didn¡¯t reply. Carveline spoke the truth.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why Jebra wanted that woman. Since it¡¯s easy money, I decided to help him.¡±

    ¡°Where is Jebra?¡± Angor asked.

    Sinehowze took out a deep-blue scale from her ne and tossed it in Angor¡¯s way.

    Angor didn¡¯t catch the item. It was Shan who asked Gank to take the scale.

    ¡°This came from Jebra¡¯s horned whale. Use it if you want to find him,¡± Sinehowze said. She looked unsure about something. ¡°I kept this thing so that I can use it against Jebra one day... but I¡¯ll give it to you since you¡¯re looking to get him.¡±

    Luna went to take a sniff at the scale and nodded to Keely, which meant it had registered the location of their target.

    ¡°Last question. Have you seen her?¡± Angor disyed Nausica¡¯s image with an illusion.

    ¡°Ah, so she¡¯s the one you¡¯re actually looking for?¡± Sinehowze gave Angor a thoughtful look and pointed to Shan. ¡°No. I didn¡¯t see her after she and this little one left Tulip Pce.¡±

    Angor felt disappointed, but he didn¡¯t say anything further.

    ¡°I do love your Pink Butterfly. I bought it from an auction though. Hope you can design one just for me next time.¡± Sinehowze chuckled and left with Carveline.

    ...

    ¡°We let them go so easily!¡± Shanined.

    ¡°The Pastor Family... Let¡¯s leave.¡± Keely moved first.

    They continued moving forward while following behind Luna.

    ¡°Who is Pastor?¡± Angor asked. It had been bothering him for a while.

    Keely shook her head and whispered, ¡°They¡¯re a n that shared some connections with Abyss Demons, and don¡¯t ever get them angry. It is said that the power of a grand demon is deadly to all except for legendary wizards.¡±

    Even wizards wouldn¡¯t want to speak about the grand demons, much less Keely. Therefore, she ended the topic with those words alone.

    Angor did know about the grand demons, but he never expected that Carveline was someone rted to them.

    Why would the other wizards allow such a n to exist in this world at all?

    He gave up thinking about it soon since it wasn¡¯t something he should meddle with.

    After traveling for some time, Keely suddenly said to Angor, ¡°When we find Jebra, just leave him to me. You get Shiliew and I¡¯ll deal with Jebra myself.¡±

    What Keely meant was obvious¡ªshe didn¡¯t want Angor to earn another enemy who belonged to Song of the Deep and ¡°God of Seas¡± himself, both of which were mighty entities that they couldn¡¯t afford to anger.

    Angor disagreed.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what that man wants from Shiliew, but since he offered something that even a member of the Pastor Family epted, do you think he¡¯ll let Shiliew go easily? You think he won¡¯t mind if I take Shiliew away?¡±

    He meant to say that, by rescuing Shiliew, he would naturally be Jebra¡¯s enemy. And if so, there was no point holding back.

    Jebra might havee from a grand organization, but Angor was no namelessmoner either.

    All in all, Angor wasn¡¯t afraid of Jebra in the least.

    ¡°Suit yourself...¡± Keely said in the end.

    Keely nced at both of her partners and felt excited about theing challenge, while Angor looked at Shan, who had been lost in her own thoughts.

    ¡°You never told me what happened between Shiliew and Jebra. What did you guys do? Why did Jebra want to capture Shiliew?¡±

    Angor was only trying to ascertain the situation. He felt it strange that Shan couldn¡¯t give him a sure answer.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... I said Shiliew wounded Jebra, right? I didn¡¯t lie about it. But I never understood why Shiliew did it in the first ce. And when I asked her, she said ¡®I don¡¯t know¡¯.¡±

    ¡°She didn¡¯t know?¡± Angor was getting more and more confused. Is Jebra actually... innocent in this?

    Shan lowered her head as she exined, ¡°Well, every time Shiliew saw Jebra, she would be like another person. She wouldn¡¯t... be herself anymore. But once Jebra left her sight, she would return to normal. Neither I nor Nausica knows what¡¯s going on. ¡°

 Chapter 513 - Jebra, Guilt-Free?

    <h4>Chapter 513: Jebra, Guilt-Free?</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Lawson was carefully watching the screen, which was now showing a hunter wearing green camouge paint and a giant bow on his back. The hunter was slowly sneaking into an underwater cave.

    This hunter managed to interrogate a high-ss Duon for useful information. He learned that one of the ¡°real gods¡± of the Duons lived inside this cave. As a strict follower of his ancestor¡¯s motto, he decided to investigate.

    ¡°Oh, who¡¯s that? He came pretty far,¡± Mntha asked. She had been staying at the machine tower since she returned to the city.

    ¡°Kayaso Sunward Feinwerder,¡± said Lawson.

    ¡°You... actually memorized all of their names?¡± Mntha grinned. ¡°Do you still remember my mother¡¯s name, dad?¡±

    ¡°Sherry.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... Wizards have such good memories that they can¡¯t forget something even if they want to.¡± Mntha didn¡¯t mention her mother¡¯s matter any further. She looked at the screen again and asked, ¡°So, this man¡¯s family name is... Feinwerder? Which Feinwerder?¡±

    ¡°The same one you just thought about.¡±

    ¡°The author of <i>Wonder Worlds</i> as well as a wizard, Feinweirder?¡± Mntha looked at the hunter¡¯s movements more carefully. ¡°I see he inherited the ways of his family... Such a curious soul.¡±

    On the screen, Kayaso had entered the entrance of the cave and reached a giant underground section after going through a dark hallway.

    The area was as big as Pocratee vige, which was the first ce Angor arrived when he went to Fairy World by ident. However, the area Kayaso was at was almost empty. The only noticeable object was arge ice boulder, and inside it, one could see a silhouette of something unknown.

    ¡°Being curious isn¡¯t always a good thing,¡± Mnthamented. Immediately following her words, the ice boulder slowly shattered while the individual sealed inside opened his eyes.

    ¡°Good. This Kayaso man can write his own story, add something untruthful to it, and let everyone know his experience, just like how his ancestor did.¡±

    Lawson didn¡¯t seem to agree. ¡°There¡¯s no need for his stories. When the Duons begin their sacrifice, everyone will see it.¡±

    ...

    Angor¡¯s group was still heading toward Jebra¡¯s position.

    By listening to Shan¡¯s descriptions, he made up several stories regarding what happened to Shan¡¯s team. He then gained a conclusion that Jebra might be innocent.

    He assumed that Shiliew had a second hidden character, which only showed up in front of Jebra. This mysterious character of hers regarded Jebra as an eternal rival and wouldn¡¯t stop going for Jebra¡¯s life; she wanted to turn him poisonous boiling water.

    Angor believed the strange story told by Shan since he already witnessed Shiliew¡¯s change in personality before they entered the purification garden.

    The situation was made interesting when Shiliew¡¯s talent countered Jebra perfectly. And she met with Jebra in the garden for real.

    This caused Shiliew¡¯s hidden personality to take over, who then tortured Jebra for good before Shiliew fell asleep again, which meant Shan and Nausica had to clean her mess afterward.

    Anyone else would simply give up on Shiliew. Yet it was Shiliew who helped Nausica and Shan enter the Sea of Purification. For this, they decided to help Shiliew by protecting her.

    There was a female apprentice with Jebra, and she was no weaker than Jebra himself. However, she still needed to look after Jebra after he was wounded, so the witch did not chase Nausica¡¯s team for very long.

    What happened next was how Sinehowze and Carveline epted Jebra¡¯s ¡°mission¡±.

    Shan felt somewhat embarrassed when telling the whole story because it was her friend that caused such a series of troublesome events.

    After listening to the story, Angor chose to consider Jebra as an innocent outsider for now.

    But Keely didn¡¯t agree. She believed that all hatred had a reason, which meant Shiliew¡¯s strange attitude toward Jebra must have been caused by something they didn¡¯t know yet. Jebra was very likely a big viin in this.

    Angor could understand Keely¡¯s idea. However, he still could not find fault with Jebra when thinking in a neutral manner.

    Keely wanted to kill Jebra because she thought Jebra was the blood rtive of ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza. But did Jebra have anything to do with how Flunza killed her parents? Probably not. Keely was going after Jebra just so that she could vent out her vengeful rage on someone.

    Despite all this, Angor would still do anything to rescue Shiliew. He wanted to learn where Nausica was.

    Nausica was a good friend to him who saved his life before. As long as he could help her with something, he would.

    By rescuing Shiliew, there was no doubt that he would get on the bad side of Jebra. Angor had no problem with it¡ªhe already prepared to receive Jebra¡¯s grudge.

    It was until Luna finally showed them to an area full of corals that Angor realized his expectation waspletely off.

    Shiliew was still madly attacking her target; her body looked well and unharmed.

    As for Jebra... For some reason, the two halves of his face had different colors as if a knife just cut through his head from the middle. And the man kept retreating from Shiliew¡¯s attacks.

    Shiliew looked nothing like what Shan exined earlier. Right this moment, she was happily wrecking Jebra while yelling phrases such as ¡°boiling the sea¡± or ¡°turning you into poison¡±. In great contrast, Jebra¡¯s condition looked pretty dangerous.

    More importantly, Shiliew was fighting Jebra, another apprentice, and a giant horned whale at the same time whilepletely holding her ground just fine, if not enjoying an upper hand.

    Angor couldn¡¯t find any reason to ¡°rescue¡± Shiliew at this moment. Rather, Jebra was the one who needed someone¡¯s help. Otherwise, his terribly injured body would get destroyed soon.

    Shan was watching the ongoing fight with a very surprised expression. ¡°Uh, see that? That¡¯s how Shiliew looks like every time she sees Jebra. I don¡¯t know... if that¡¯s really her?¡±

    Angor shook his head as he didn¡¯t know what to do.

    Keely, on the other hand, was already rushing at Jebra at full speed. She had prepared herself for a big fight with Jebra, but she didn¡¯t expect to have such a big chance to pummel Jebra to her heart¡¯s content. Of course she wouldn¡¯t give this chance up.

    Faster than anyone could see, Keely reached Jebra¡¯s side full of killing intent.

    Angor stayed away and did not join the fight. Shan also remained at a distance while keeping an eye on Shiliew so that she wouldn¡¯t go dozing off in battle again.

    Keely yelled something at Jebra, which made Jebra¡¯s alreadyplicated expression to turn funny.

    Angor was beginning to feel sorry for Jebra¡¯s fate. But that was about it¡ªhe would not intervene in their business.

    Also, he noticed that, instead of helping, Keely¡¯s arrival had turned the battle into chaos. Shiliew was an ultist who could manipte water at her free will, which meant she enjoyed home-court advantage in the sea. However, Keely kept summoning underworld me that hindered many of her tactics.

    When Shiliew figured out that Keely¡¯s meddlesome moves actually helped Jebra to stay alive better, she quickly considered Keely as another enemy and began to use her attacks without minding friend or foe.

    Shan kept calling out to Shiliew, but her words werepletely ignored since Shiliew had pretty much lost herself in the fight.

    The battle was bing weirder as three parties wrestled each other while not forgetting to use verbal curses loudly.

    ¡°What should we do? One of them is going to get hurt like this!¡± Shan really wanted to help Shiliew out, yet she couldn¡¯t go in there as she might be Keely¡¯s next target. Therefore, she chose to rely on Angor.

    Angor sighed in distress. He only wanted to get Shiliew out of trouble. And if this fight kept going, there might be more troubleter.

    He decided to do something to actually help them.

    With several moves of his fingers, a number of illusion nodes were ced around the battlefield. None of the fighters were paying any attention to Angor, so they all bumped into the illusion.

    Next, Angor entered the mist illusion himself and unleashed his nightmare aura. This power was usually decisive when used against apprentices, especially ones who were tired out.

    Almost instantly, everyone in range fell into a trap woven out of both reality and delusions.

    ¡°What are you doing?!¡± Keely yelled.

    ¡°If I don¡¯t stop you two soon, Jebra¡¯s going to recover and escape. If you want him dead, why don¡¯t you just sit tight and watch Shiliew do it?¡±

    ¡°But I need to kill him with my own hands!¡± Keely protested.

    ¡°HE¡¯S MINE!!¡± Shiliew didn¡¯t stay quiet in the illusion either. Angor checked and saw that Shiliew¡¯s face was twisting in both anger and excitement. Meanwhile, the calm and gentle ¡°Dripping River¡± woman was nowhere to be seen.

    There was no way Shiliew could help Angor look for people like this.

    <i>If that¡¯s the case...</i>

    Angor freed Keely from his illusion first to let the girl deal with Jebra.

    Jebra remained quiet in the illusion while using the chance to regain his stamina. His partner, a female apprentice, was in a worse condition, which meant that she couldn¡¯t do anything to help him right now.

    Jebra watched Keely getting closer with a grim look.

    ¡°How I¡¯ve been waiting for this day...¡± Keely muttered under her breath.

 Chapter 514 - Second Countdown

    <h4>Chapter 514: Second Countdown</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Keely was gazing at Jebra excitedly like a tiger that just caught a helpless goat.

    Jebra was still trapped in Angor¡¯s illusion and couldn¡¯t see Keely¡¯s exact location. In his view, there were countless Keelys slowly moving to him, and every one of them looked real.

    ¡°You... psycho!¡± Jebra sounded pretty weak now.

    ¡°On the day my parents died, I SWORE that I¡¯ll kill everyone rted to Flunza, EVERY, SINGLE, ONE! And you shall be the first!¡±

    Keely did not drag any longer and unleashed a giant ember at Jebra.

    Jebra felt terrible. Half of his blood was on fire while the other half was slowly corroding his body like poison. Shiliew said something about ¡°boiling the sea and turning it into poison¡±, and she diligently followed through.

    His inner me already scorched and burned off all his body hair, and his skin was of a dim purple color because of the effect of the poison. His once nobleman-like image had turned miserable.

    Earlier, Feshie tried but failed to cure his condition. Therefore, Jebra had to put up a bounty on Shiliew so that someone could capture her. Once captured, he could then force her to remove the terrible trickery in his body.

    However, the only thing Shiliew did was to grow even more violent. She then caused Jebra¡¯s condition to worsen further.

    Then, another madwoman arrived.

    Keely wasn¡¯t strong enough to defeat Jebra under normal circumstances. But now...

    Jebra wondered if he were destined to die this day.

    He clenched his teeth and reached for a rainbow-colored fish scale hanging on his neck. He then shattered it. His action created a shiny, bubble-like barrier that shielded him from Keely¡¯s ember attack.

    ¡°Ohh, that color... the best Scale Shield.¡± Keely quickly recognized Jebra¡¯s trick since she had been hunting him for so many years. ¡°But that thing can¡¯t help you get away now. Your life is mine the instant your shield fails!¡± She didn¡¯t stop releasing more attacks against the shield while yelling.

    ...

    Somewhere in the sky away from the battlefield, a ck hole suddenly appeared and dropped a shiny sphere that slowly sank into the sea. It then broke apart and became one with seawater.

    As soon as the fragment reached the sea, those who were exploring underwater all heard a booming noise right beside their ears.

    As they wondered what was going on, they all witnessed the image of someone floating in front of their eyes.

    Inside the image, a wizard wearing a longbow was inspecting a giant ice boulder inside a cave area. As the man¡¯s hand glowed with a green light, the ice boulder cracked up and gave birth to a ck shadow.

    The shadow turned out to be arge Duon who resembled humans on his upper half while his legs were reced with the tail of a fish. The Duon had a crown on his head and a deadly-looking trident in one hand. Meanwhile, his eyes showed pure evil.

    When the Duon slowly looked around, those who watched all felt a horrific and powerful aura reaching their bodies.

    They could sense the aura across the image, which meant the Duon creature was at least wizard-level.

    The image disappeared as soon as the Duon was awake.

    When the apprentices were trying to figure out what the information meant to them, they heard someone else speaking to them in an emotionless, robotic tone:

    ¡°The forefather of Duons has risen ahead of schedule, and so, the sacrifice of civilization will begin earlier. Everyone, please proceed to the Altar of Demise within three hours.¡±

    The message ended here.

    The voice did not tell them what would happen if someone didn¡¯t achieve the goal. However, they could more or less take guesses, none of which seemed like a good ending.

    Those who had yet to reach the altar remained motionless for a brief moment.

    <i>Three hours left?</i>

    <i>But how?!</i>

    The Sea of Purification was HUGE, and the participants got sent to random locations upon reaching this ce. Even if they knew the location of Altar of Demise right from the start, there would still be some that wouldn¡¯t have enough time to reach it. This was downright unfair.

    There was no fairness and justice in the wizarding world, but the Floating Mech City should at least attempt to achieve a certain extent of justice in order not to dissatisfy major organizations who sent their elite apprentices to them.

    But now, this decision just broke that rule. No one was expecting the final countdown to begin so early.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?!¡± Shan eximed in shock and widened her eyes as she remembered the man she saw in the image. ¡°That¡¯s ¡®Wanderer of Wilds¡¯ Kayaso!¡±

    The voice told them that the giant Duon woke up ¡°earlier¡±, which meant he wasn¡¯t supposed to wake up now and trigger the timer.

    It had to be Kayaso who caused a change in n.

    Everyone began to curse Kayaso¡¯s name, while the ¡°culprit¡± himself didn¡¯t even realize that he became the center of enmity. In fact, Kayaso was happily working on his traveling diary so that he could recreate the glorious achievements of his ancestor.

    ¡°What should we do? There¡¯s no way we¡¯ll make it! I don¡¯t have a Meraid¡¯s Sword, and I don¡¯t know where the altar is! I¡¯m... I¡¯m done!!¡± Shan covered her head and trembled in desperation.

    Keely¡¯s mood didn¡¯t look any better. Even her attacks against Jebra were getting weaker and unfocused.

    ¡°Leave him. We need to go!¡± Angor dragged her away.

    ¡°We can¡¯t make it anyway! I¡¯ll kill him so that I have one less regret before I die!¡±

    Angor let Keely go by pushing her into another direction. ¡°And you think you can break his barrier any faster?!¡± He quickly thought about the teleportation array under Tulip Pce. ¡°We have three hours... There¡¯s still a way.¡±

    Keely considered and agreed that Angor might really make it in time using his gravity-enhance speed.

    However, she didn¡¯t know that Angor almost exhausted what soul energy he could use. There was no way he could gather enough energy OR keep his body alive without a soul for three full hours just by drinking the witch stew.

    ¡°Listen, let him go for now. If we move now, we still have a chance,¡± Angor said as he reced his casual and rxed look with a more serious one.

    Keely hesitated for a bit and nodded in the end. She gave Jebra onest hateful re and canceled her embers.

    Angor approached Jebra and said to him while ignoring Jebra¡¯s hateful gaze, ¡°Keely may not get through your shield any time soon, but I can. I can either forcefully end your life or trap you here with an illusion so that you¡¯ll naturally die in the end.¡±

    Jebra¡¯s ears twitched¡ªhe fully understood Angor¡¯s words.

    ¡°But unlike Keely, I have no grudges against you, so I have no reason to kill you.¡±

    ¡°What... what do you want?¡± Jebra coughed up some more blood.

    ¡°Three swords. Give me three Meraid¡¯s Swords and I¡¯ll take Keely away AND lift the illusion.¡±

    Before reaching Jebra, they already detected over a hundred signalsing from the man¡¯s location. This was why Angor asked for such a thing.

    Jebra plundered an entire Dugon tribe, which gave him enough swords. He knew how to reach the altar in time, on the condition that Angor stuck to his promise and free him.

    Since the exchange seemed reasonable, Jebra chose to agree. ¡°Okay... Hope you don¡¯t go back on your words.¡±

    Jebra took out six gray scales from his horned whale. He thenbined them into three Meraid¡¯s Swords before handing them over to Angor.

    With a swift move, Angor canceled his illusion.

    Jebra quickly hopped onto his whale and left this area with Feshie. Keely didn¡¯t say anything about it. She knew that Angor could kill Jebra for real, yet she was in no position to request so.

    Killing Jebra meant provoking the entire Song of the Deep including ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza. Keely would not want to drag Angor into this. And besides, she was always determined to finish her quest by herself, which was why she interfered with Shiliew earlier.

    Angor nodded to Keely and returned to Shan, who was still sulking badly.

    ¡°Hey, get up,¡± Angor said as he tossed a sword at Shan. ¡°Do something to wake Shiliew and let¡¯s go find Nausica.¡±

    ¡°Heh... so what? Three hours... there¡¯s no hope...¡±

    ¡°Stop wasting everyone¡¯s time if you still want to live! I can do something but you need to help me first!¡±

    Shan didn¡¯t feel any happier, but a part of her decided to ce her trust in Angor.

    Shan went to Shiliew, who was looking left and right with a in expression.

    ¡°You¡¯re still going for Nausica? You sure you¡¯ll make it?¡± Keely asked.

    Angor didn¡¯t answer. He was trying to calcte and arrange the avable time so that his next n would work. He would admit that going for Nausica was a great burden to their schedule, yet he couldn¡¯t convince himself to abandon Nausica like this.

    He prayed that Nausica would act heroically again by going back to Tulip Pce to look for Shiliew. As long as Nausica was there or somewhere nearby, Angor was confident that he had enough time to rescue her.

    But if not...

    ¡°Shiliew sensed her. Nausica¡¯s right at Tulip Pce! I think she went back there to help Shiliew.¡± Shan had finished exining the situation to her friend.

    Angor¡¯s eyes brightened up. ¡°Let¡¯s move. That¡¯s where we will go.¡±

 Chapter 515 - Summer Palace

    <h4>Chapter 515: Summer Pce</h4>

    Instead of swimming back to Tulip Pce, Angor asked everyone to go to the surface of the sea where he took out his Gond.

    Once everyone was seated, Angor activated the engine power that allowed the boat to bolt toward the distance while leaving a long trail of split water waves behind.

    It was the first time Shan saw Angor¡¯s vehicle, and she was really curious about it. But she wasn¡¯t in the mood to examine it since the deadly countdown was still haunting her mind, so she only sat at a corner and fiddled with her own fingers anxiously.

    Gond could move ten times faster than the fastest swimmer among them but was still slower than Angor¡¯s gravity-enhanced speed. Keely was pretty surprised by this since she was expecting Angor to drag everyone in the same way.

    ¡°Are we... going to make it?¡± Keely was about to offer a pessimistic opinion, but she decided not to when she saw Shan¡¯s mental condition.

    Shan also looked at Angor in uncertainty.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, stay focused,¡± Angor said as he tried tofort them.

    Truth was, he wasn¡¯t confident enough either. He was nning to use the teleportation array to travel to the other seven underwater pces, but he didn¡¯t know which one could help them reach the goal faster, or if there was even one that could.

    The map beside the array had a ratio scale on it; it helped him estimate the distances and directions of the pces. After considering where their swords were pointing to, as well as their current speed, Angor reached a conclusion that the altar was about 16,000 kilometers away.

    Then, he took the teleportation map into consideration and thinned down the pces into two¡ª Summer Pce and Crystal Pce.

    He wasn¡¯t sure which one was the best choice. Going for Crystal Pce meant they had to turn back and move for several hundred kilometers to reach the altar, but on the way, they might meet with potential obstacles.

    Meanwhile, if they were to start from Summer Pce, it required them to keep moving forward for a thousand kilometers... with fewer obstructions.

    The estimated ranges were all pure distances that didn¡¯t include possible roadblocks or bad terrains, which meant they probably needed to travel for a longer period of time.

    ¡°Monster ahead!¡± Shan suddenly called out and interrupted Angor¡¯s thoughts.

    Angor looked up and saw a group of thousands of crystal-like flying fishesing for their Gond while surrounded by cold air.

    Keely stepped in front of Angor. ¡°Leave them to me. You keep the wheel.¡±

    Keely had been in a really bad mood since she boarded the boat, probably because she was troubled by both Jebra¡¯s survival and the countdown timer.

    ¡°Alright,¡± said Angor.

    Keely lifted her oilmp and unleashed a giant cloud of dark-violet embers that overwhelmed the iing fishes.

    The magnificent and terrifying sight of the deadly me caused everyone else to flinch a little.

    Gond traveled from under the fish swarm unharmed, after which they heard a series of explosionsing from behind. They looked back and saw all the fishes sted into shreds by the eruptions and were now falling into the sea like the sky was raining blood.

    Keely turned back to the others and humphed. She used a pretty powerful move on weak monsters to vent out her rage.

    They sessfully reached the location above Tulip Pce in about 20 minutes.

    ¡°Is Nausica still here, Shiliew?¡± Angor asked.

    Shiliew closed her eyes.

    ¡°Yes... she¡¯s right under us.¡±

    Angor sighed in relief. So far so good.

    He put away his Gond and asked everyone to dive. Up until now, Shan and Keely still didn¡¯t believe Angor could take them to safety within the time limit. However, other than following him, they didn¡¯t have another option.

    Soon, they saw the giant seaweeds that surrounded the pce within. They didn¡¯t have to approach the building before they sensed strong energy surgesing from it.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s fighting?¡± Angor frowned and moved ahead quickly.

    They swam above the structure and saw Nausica fighting against a Duon plus two Dugons. She was wounded but nothing too serious. She was fending off her enemies using Angor¡¯s Helix Rune just fine.

    The three natives seemed to be at the same level as level-2 apprentices, while Nausica was still a level-1. This told them that Nausica was naturally talented forbat.

    ¡°Hey, Nausica!¡± Shan called out to her happily.

    Nausica was a bit surprised by the approaching group, which almost allowed the Duon to catch her off guard. Keely acted in time and used an Inferno ember to turn the Duon into an ice statue, while Shiliew used several water arrows to maim the two Dugons.

    ¡°Thanks!¡± Nausica nodded toward Keely as a courtesy. She recognized all except for this girl in a pair of red dance shoes.

    Keely nodded back and didn¡¯t say anything else.

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t expecting to run into you here,¡± Nausica said as she smiled at Angor.

    ¡°He came to help you,¡± Shan exined. ¡°To do that, he went all the way to Shiliew and dragged her away from enemies. I thought you two were onlymon friends?¡±

    Nausica tilted her head, and before she could thank Angor, Angor quickly stopped her. ¡°No need for that between us. We can talk once we get to the altar. Now follow me, quickly!¡±

    He led everyone into the Tulip Pce and headed for the secret underground chamber.

    He noticed that he couldn¡¯t sense anything without ejecting his soul, which meant someone put a lot of effort into keeping the teleportation array hidden.

    While Gank followed Shan¡¯s order and started digging, Angor exined the situation as well as his previous estimations, ¡°So here¡¯s the thing. There is a teleportation node under us. We need to go to either Summer Pce or Crystal Pce, but we need to consider and discuss more before deciding on which one. Your opinions?¡±

    ¡°We can teleport from here?!¡± Shan immediately brighten up upon hearing the news. She finally believed that they might have a chance.

    Keely also lifted her tight frown and thought about the choices Angor provided. ¡°Since we don¡¯t know anything about those unknown factors, I suggest we choose the one nearest to our goal, which means Crystal Pce.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking about this too...¡± said Angor.

    By doing so, they only have to pray that whatever obstacle thaty beyond Crystal Pce would not slow them down too hard.

    Both Shan and Shiliew agreed to it. As for Nausica, she would fully support Angor¡¯s decision.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Keely said again, ¡°the Duon I froze up earlier is still alive. Maybe we can interrogate it?¡±

    ¡°Oh, nice one!¡± Angor clenched his fists in excitement. ¡°I¡¯ll use illusion to make sure it does not lie to us.¡±

    Among all illusions, Mind Maniptor ones were the best choices for interrogation since these spells usually worked by controlling the victim¡¯s emotions and desires. Angor had only studied Fear, but he had read some basic knowledge about Mind Maniptor spells.

    Or he could just use Fear to achieve his goal, as long as he didn¡¯t break the Duon¡¯s sanity.

    ...

    A momentter, Keely executed the trapped Duon after learning what they needed.

    ¡°Summer Pce it is. The actual distance of the route from Crystal Pce to Altar of Demise is 3,000 kilometers, while we only have to move for 1,000 kilometers from Summer Pce.¡±

    Angor sighed in relief. If they weren¡¯t lucky enough to find this Duon here or if Keely identally killed it, they might have gone to Crystal Pce and missed their final chance due to the unreachable distance.

    He did a quick mind-calction to make sure that his Gond could take them to the destination in time. There was still the possibility of running into powerful monsters or other apprentices who wanted their swords, and there was probably a lot of desperate raiders whoy in wait in front of the final exit so that they could fight for their chances.

    Angor revealed his thoughts so that everyone would stay cautious.

    Their team almost had no other rivals in terms of raw strength, but there were always people with secret skills or items that might catch them off guard.

    Gank finally reached the secret chamber. Everyone stepped onto the teleportation array while Angor selected their destination.

    Their visions went blurry, and in a matter of seconds, they reappeared in a chamber that looked just like thest one, but without the hole in the ceiling.

    Again, Gank punched an exit, which allowed them to go outside. They checked the entrance of the pce and were d the see a name written above the door in Duonnguage¡ªSummer Pce.

    Also, the location indicated by their Meraid¡¯s Swords had changed from southeast to due south.

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t be far now. Let¡¯s move!¡±

    Once again, Angor led the group to the surface so that they could ride Gond.

    At full speed, Gond could cover the remaining distance in about an hour. Ever since the countdown had begun, they had only spent 30 minutes doing the previous tasks. This meant that they had more than enough time to reach their destination!

 Chapter 516 - Shiliewâ€™s Deadly Ability

    <h4>Chapter 516: Shiliew¡¯s Deadly Ability</h4>

    They didn¡¯t get to travel far before they encountered a great number of tiny, exploding flying fish that blocked their way. Any sudden disturbance in the environment would detonate them and Angor¡¯s group couldn¡¯t find a way through.

    ¡°Leave them to me,¡± Keely said as she took out hermp and lit it up.

    ¡°No,¡± Angor said as he dragged her back, ¡°you should save your strength for important matters.¡±

    Copying his tactic when dealing with the first of flying fishes he encountered in the garden, Angor tricked the fishes into a basic illusion. He then killed one of them from afar and caused a chain reaction that wiped out all the others.

    The explosions persisted for some time, tainting the entire sky in red.

    While avoiding the falling corpses as much as possible, Angor steered his Gond away.

    But another danger soon followed. They had not seen anything yet, but they were sure it wasn¡¯t peaceful since Luna was meowing madly.

    Nausica picked up a scale and frowned. ¡°Hey Angor, there are... thirty different signals within a range of a hundred kilometers, all heading our way.¡±

    ¡°Yup, that¡¯s what Luna just told me.¡± Keely nodded.

    Using the scale, Nausica could only sense 30 scale owners, which meant they were expecting more than 30 assants if some of the enemies were yet to obtain any scale.

    ¡°How many are straight ahead of us?¡±

    ¡°Six. Two to the southwest, one to the southeast, and three directly south,¡± Nausica said as she quickly deduced the general direction of enemies as well as their distances.

    Angor nodded and immediately made a n.

    ¡°We¡¯ll keep moving. Keely and Shiliew, prepare to engage them, I¡¯ll use illusions to assist. Nausica, take control of Gond. Shan, stop their attacks from damaging the boat.¡±

    Angor handed his revolver to Nausica and a trigger crossbow to Shan. Using the enchanted ammunition he saved,mon level-2 apprentices could also deal considerable damage with these weapons.

    They saw someone after moving for a dozen more kilometers. There were five, two of which were Bloodline users riding on their own vehicles.

    The battle ended before it could begin. Angor didn¡¯t even need to use any illusions because Keely¡¯s Inferno fire froze them into ice sculptures, which then fell into the sea helplessly.

    ¡°There are two signals moving together,¡± Nausica alerted them while steering the boat.

    Soon, Angor saw two figures getting bigger in the distance.

    ¡°¡®Gravedigger¡¯ Monroe and ¡®Dancer of Edge¡¯ Thorn!¡± Shan called out, and when the others looked pretty confused, she exined, ¡°Monroe is a level-2 apprentice while Thorn reached level-3 thirty years ago.¡±

    Both of them were elites since Shan knew their names.

    Shan didn¡¯t look too well upon realizing an elite level-3 apprentice was upon them, but Angor and Keely didn¡¯t seem too concerned. As for Shiliew... It seemed that she wasn¡¯t interested at all.

    ¡°Just someone with an undeserved reputation. Kill them,¡± said Keely.

    ¡°Look who we have here... ¡®Inferno Witch¡¯ Keely and... Oh, isn¡¯t this the new student of Mister Sunders?¡± The speaker, Thorn, was a middle-aged apprentice who was obviously approaching her senior years.

    ¡°And a bunch of nameless brats, I see. You found so many Meraid¡¯s Swords? How about sharing some with us?¡± Thorn then secretly sent a Voice Transmission to her teammate, who was a short hunchback, ¡°Can you do this, Monroe?¡±

    Monroe grinned widely, which caused his face to wrinkle all over. ¡°No problem of course! It¡¯s just a freaking alchemist with a false name and other guys who are even less well-known.¡±

    Despite his confident words, Monroe flinched a little when looking at Keely.

    ¡°Leave that woman be.¡± Thorn nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯ll go get the level-1 with a silver arm and the blue-haired witch. We¡¯ll seize their swords and leave immediately.¡±

    After setting their n, they both rushed toward Gond.

    ¡°Don¡¯t stop, maintain speed,¡± Angor said to Nausica when he saw her slowing down the boat.

    Nausica nodded and maximized the power output of the engine.

    Angor quickly deployed a small illusion around them, while Keely let out a burst of fierceughter as she prepared her mes.

    ¡°Water curtain,¡± Shiliew suddenly mumbled behind their backs.

    The water of the sea rose and became several walls of water in front of them. However, they could only block people¡¯s view; Thorn and Monroe simply went through them.

    ¡°Lava,¡± Shiliew chanted again in a small voice that only those on the boat could hear.

    Thorn and Monroe were drenched by water after pushing through the water curtains, and they didn¡¯t pay it any attention. But after Shiliew finished her spell, the water that remained on their bodies instantly turned into red, hotva.

    They screamed at the top of their lungs.

    Within a second, their skin was burned off, while their bones were slowly exposed to the air.

    Quickly, they triggered their bloodline power, which granted enough resistance to the heat, so that they could remove all theva. However, the scorching liquid already ruined their bodies beyond human recognition.

    ¡°MY HAIR! MY HEAD-This, this isn¡¯t my hand, nooo!¡± Thorn tried to reach for her face, only to see a white, bone handing up.

    She directed a furious gaze at Shiliew, who was dozing off again. ¡°YOU! I¡¯m going to kill you little b*tch!!¡±

    Monroe was trying to repair his body using Heal as much as he could. He quickly moved to stop Thorn¡¯s reckless action. ¡°Calm down! We can always find another target!¡±

    Monroe was smart enough to realize that they had zero hope against Angor¡¯s team. The others in the group had not even joined the fight yet!

    They had to retreat and see if they could catch another prey.

    Thorn was experienced enough to get rid of her rage. She slowly moved away while keeping her gaze at Shiliew. ¡°I¡¯ll remember this! I¡¯ll make sure you¡¯re dead next time...¡±

    Since the enemies backed off, Nausica pushed Gond to its limit and immediately left the area.

    ¡°Poison,¡± Shiliew muttered again.

    The others heard screaminging from behind them.

    Everyone looked back and saw the bodies of Monroe and Thorn quickly dissolving into deformed skeletons as their lives were taken away.

    No one spoke a word at the terrifying sight.

    Keely nced at Shiliew and decided she would be more careful around this woman from now on.

    Angor also recalled what Sunders told him about Shiliew before, that she was an ult ¡°Matter Handler¡± who was talented at manipting water. But he never thought Shiliew could actually create non-water-rted substances, such asva and poison, out of water. It seemed Shiliew could change water into any liquid.

    That¡¯s cheating!

    Angor tried, but he failed to think of anything that could counter those moves should he ever need to face them.

    Shiliew yawned loudly and slumped against the rails.

    ¡°That¡¯s the side-effect of her ability... the more energy she uses, the faster she falls asleep,¡± Shan exined while hopping down from Gank¡¯s shoulder. She then opened up a small pouch hanging on Shiliew¡¯s waist. When she found a pill, she stuffed it into Shiliew¡¯s mouth. ¡°Her professor prepared these beforeing here. They¡¯re used to forcefully wake her up.¡±

    The pill quickly took effect, and Shiliew opened her eyes. She looked totally fine, if one did not mind the thick ck circles around her eyes.

    ¡°Welp. Now I see how you pummeled Jebra as if you were bullying a helpless bunny,¡± Angor teased.

    Shan and Nausica nodded slowly. As Shiliew¡¯s teammate, they both knew Shiliew was strong. But not THIS strong.

    Shiliew looked puzzled by what she heard and lowered her head bashfully. She wondered why people kept mentioning Jebra¡¯s name in front of her even though she didn¡¯t know that name.

    Do I really have a second personality? But... why do I not know it? Shiliew fell into her own thoughts.

    Since Jebra¡¯s name was brought up again, Shan mentioned something else she learned about this matter, ¡°Shiliew never falls asleep when fighting Jebra. I wonder why.¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow at the interesting clue. He already believed that Shiliew was some kind of natural nemesis brought upon Jebra, and now, he had another reason to believe so.

    With Shiliew¡¯s help andbined with the fact that the sea was her ¡°home court¡±, they sessfully fought off several more groups of offenders. Angor and Keely almost didn¡¯t have to do anything.

    Half an hourter, they were halfway toward their final destination.

    Luna suddenly began to meow loudly again.

    ¡°Signals approaching from different directions,¡± Nausica alerted them, ¡°more than a hundred of them. Wait...¡± Nausica showed a confused look. ¡°I think there¡¯s a single one right in front of us.¡±

 Chapter 517 - Turbulent Journey

    <h4>Chapter 517: Turbulent Journey</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Due south?¡± Angor tried to confirm.

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    That didn¡¯t make sense. They were pretty close to the exit, which meant any robbers would show up inrge groups by now. This had always been the case as they encountered more and more enemies.

    Those who didn¡¯t have Meraid¡¯s Swords should all beying in wait and hopefully, work together. Why would someone break off from the group ande alone?

    Angor couldn¡¯t understand the reason. Nevertheless, it was good news since there was only one enemy to worry about. But again, something told him that the matter was moreplicated, and perhaps dangerous.

    He chose to keep the concern to himself right now instead of revealing it to others.

    Nausica was getting more and more stressful as they moved farther. ¡°Hey, Angor... something isn¡¯t right.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Angor asked. Nausica¡¯s warning had drawn everyone¡¯s attention.

    ¡°The one signal I mentioned is moving around one spot and it isn¡¯t getting closer. It doesn¡¯t seem like a raider to me... It¡¯s more like someone who got lost.¡±

    Angor looked at Keely, who nodded to confirm. ¡°Yes, just like Nausica said.¡±

    <i>Moving around in one ce? </i>Angor wondered whether this had anything to do with their n.

    <i>Is someone else chasing that guy? Or maybe the signal actually came from a Duon who was being chased?</i>

    ¡°We still keep going?¡± Nausica asked, uncertain.

    ording to Nausica¡¯s previous alert, there were over a hundred scale signals behind their position, which suggested way more enemies than they detected. Stopping now meant getting caught by them.

    ¡°We¡¯ll keep moving,¡± Angor said after some consideration. ¡°But as we have enough time, let¡¯s move around that signal ahead of us. It¡¯s fine if we stray off the straight path for several kilometers.¡±

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s head a little more to the southeast then.¡±

    After setting the route, they moved. When they were about to approach the single signal, Nausica made a turn toward the left so that they didn¡¯t run straight into it.

    It suddenly began to rain as more and more raindrops sshed on the boat as well as everyone¡¯s head.

    Shiliew looked up at the raincloud that appeared out of nowhere. ¡°This water... doesn¡¯t belong anywhere. And why does it stink?¡±

    Shiliew lifted a hand, caught some rainwater, and took a sniff. ¡°Wait... this is not rain!¡±

    The falling water created a misty effect that surrounded them. Soon, they found it hard to stay awake. One by one, their heads slumped down as people fell into slumber.

    Angor was also affected by the condition, but he wasn¡¯t fully asleep yet as he could still sense what was around.

    He managed to retain consciousness because he already noticed that the mist effect was an illusion. As an illusionist himself, he knew how to resist certain cantrips. He had not figured out the true effect of the illusion yet, but he knew whoever cast it was stronger than him since the illusion sessfully hindered his mind.

    He was awake, but he couldn¡¯t move.

    <i>So this is why I felt something was out of ce back there...</i>

    The only thing he could do now was to listen to the snoring of others. It seemed their health wasn¡¯t in danger.

    He waited anxiously.

    Ten minutes passed.

    He didn¡¯t want all their effort to go in vain just before reaching the Altar of Demise. But when he tried again, he couldn¡¯t even lift a finger; it was as if his body didn¡¯t belong to him.

    He suddenly heard something moving beside him.

    Shiliew slowly stood up.

    Angor quickly saw hope. <i>Shiliew took something that prevented drowsiness not long ago, maybe it¡¯s still working!</i>

    Angor hoped that Shiliew coulde and wake him up so that they didn¡¯t have to waste any more precious time. But to his surprise, Shiliew approached the edge of the boat instead of going for the others.

    Poom!

    She jumped into the water.

    <i>Wait, what?!</i>

    As Angor wondered what she wanted to do, another passenger stood up and followed Shiliew¡¯s example.

    It was Keely.

    Soon after, both Shan and Nausica left the boat and went swimming. Angor was left alone on Gond.

    He had already ascertained that the illusion caused their abnormal behaviors, yet he still couldn¡¯t understand the true purpose of it.

    <i>There¡¯s another illusionist who¡¯s a lot more experienced than me?</i>

    It wasn¡¯t long before he felt a strange force taking over his body. Just like the others, he slowly moved to the rail of the boat, unwillingly.

    Before his body leaped from the boat, Angor silently chanted Spirit Mantra and was d it worked. However, his body was still controlled by something and was already jumping overboard.

    Angor put away his Gond in his bracelet and followed behind. He wanted to find out who did this and why.

    The first thing that weed him underwater was a giant, ck vortex that immediately pulled him toward the center of it with great force.

    He quickly spent what remained of his spare soul energy and escaped from the pulling force.

    He dragged his body back into the air. He didn¡¯t find the others in the water, which meant they already sank into the vortex.

    The fiascosted for more than ten minutes, leaving only one hour left for the final countdown. Angor was wondering if he should head to the altar on his own since his soul had no problem resisting the illusion.

    <i>But Nausica...</i>

    When he struggled with a decision, he saw some bubbles emerging from the surface of the sea.

    <i>Someone made it out??</i>

    A pair of ck, pointy ears poked out of the water, followed by the body of a ck kitten. The kitten looked pretty miserable in the water as its fur clung to its body.

    ¡°Luna??¡± Angor called.

    Luna didn¡¯t see Angor floating in the sky until it heard Angor¡¯s voice and looked up.

    ¡°Marrrw!!¡± The creature¡¯s eyes brightened up in joy. It jumped high and steadied itself on Angor¡¯s clothes using its ws and teeth.

    With several swift moves, Luna found afortable spot on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t affected by the illusion?¡± Angor was sure Luna followed behind Keely when she jumped off.

    Luna shook head and kept meowing at him.

    Angor had no idea how toprehend catnguage. After some more failed conversation, Luna jumped back into the water again, and with a pleading look, it beckoned Angor with one paw.

    The gesture was obvious enough¡ªLuna wanted Angor to go help its master.

    Angor sighed. He couldn¡¯t possibly refuse Luna since it saved him from Yethew¡¯s poison bug.

    Quickly, he dived into the sea.

    While moving, he took a quick mental calction and concluded that they needed at least half an hour to reach Altar of Demise at full speed, supposing that there was nothing else to stop them on their way. This meant he had another half an hour to save everyone.

    And if he failed to do so within the time limit... he HAD to leave on his own.

    He wanted to save his friend, true, but only on the condition that his own life wasn¡¯t in danger.

    His life was number one in priority and nothing else could be more important than it. He believed that all wizards would do the same.

    Once in the water, Luna quickly led Angor toward the depth.

    Angor called Luna back and took over the gray scale Luna had been holding. Using the signals he sensed, he saw there were four swords and two scales at the bottom of the sea.

    The swords weren¡¯t moving. One of the scales was together with the swords, probably Nausica¡¯s scale.

    Angor checked the second scale and frowned. This one was moving toward the other signals.

    <i>So an expert illusionist set us up so that he could take our swords? But whatever was that vortex thing?</i>

    With multiple questions in mind, Angor cautiously moved toward the signals.

 Chapter 518 - Black Vortex

    <h4>Chapter 518: ck Vortex</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor quickly descended toward the depth of the sea while Luna stayed close to him by hanging on his clothes.

    They saw the ck vortex again. Angor tried to stay really far this time so that he could observe it. He could see nothing. Both the vortex itself and the area around it were hidden in total darkness.

    ¡°The signals came from inside that thing...¡± Angor couldn¡¯t make up his mind about whether or not he should enter the vortex since it might be too dangerous.

    Luna saw Angor having trouble with a decision and went for the vortex on its own.

    Angor watched as the kitten disappeared into ckness.

    A momentter, it poked its head out and meowed at Angor.

    <i>So we can get back out again?</i>

    Since Luna already did a little test, Angor immediately followed her example. Time was very precious now.

    He entered the vortex and immediately felt the pulling force gone. When he looked back, he could still see the exit behind him.

    Since escaping wasn¡¯t an issue, he calmed down and moved deeper inside.

    There was almost no light in here. He saw some unknown substance that released light they absorbed from the environment, but their number was growing thin as he moved downward.

    He couldn¡¯t cast Light in his soul form. When looking at theplete darkness underneath, he hesitated again.

    Luna suddenly spat two small Inferno embers that released dim blue light around them. By referring to what he had seen in Keely¡¯s battles, Angor knew that these embers were used for freezing things.

    Most of the light was dimmed by the unknown substance around them, so they could only see half a meter away.

    Luna controlled the embers and moved around. It allowed Angor to see that they were still in seawater, which didn¡¯t look much differentpared to the outside. There were asionally tiny fish swimming in the area but they weren¡¯t supernatural monsters.

    The only thing worth noticing was the exceptional darkness and illusion nodes with unknown purposes.

    Angor tried to attack one of the nodes and broke it without any trouble. But almost at the same time, a new one appeared at the same spot.

    He still couldn¡¯t tell the nature of the illusion nor which subfield it belonged to. Also, he wondered why the illusion didn¡¯t affect Luna. Maybe it only meant to trick humans.

    Using Luna¡¯s firelight, they kept moving deeper.

    Common fishes were soon reced by terrible looking deep-sea dwellers, which was made worse by Luna¡¯s dim, pale light. Thankfully, these ordinary creatures could do nothing more than giving them an initial fright.

    As they moved further, Angor began to see creatures with supernatural powers¡ªthe same ones that belonged to the original garden world. He didn¡¯t wish to waste time and strength on these things, so he tried to avoid their detection.

    But his attempt soon failed when he was blocked by a winged shark. Those weren¡¯t actual wings but really long fins with ice shards on them. No doubt they could help the creature with both flying and unleashing attacks.

    Angor¡¯s sequence of gravity was now as powerful as level-3 apprentices at the summit of their condition. He dealt with the shark within seconds.

    But something was troubling him. During the entire battle, the shark chased his soul whilepletely ignoring his body that was being dragged along. Also, it shattered to pieces and disappeared upon death. There was no corpse left behind.

    ¡°Is it some kind of spirit or... something created by illusions?¡± Angor looked around carefully. He was sure that none of the supernatural monsters had actual bodies. Only themon creatures were ¡°real¡±.

    <i>Is this really something done by an Illusionist apprentice? The enemies are fake?</i>

    <i>No... not exactly.</i>

    After going for two minutes, Luna meowed again and gave Angor the Duon scale.

    Angor sensed the signals and found out that the separate scale had reached his teammates.

    The other signals weren¡¯t moving at all, which meant Keely and others were still ¡°sleeping¡±.

    <i>Then whoever just caught them wasn¡¯t going to be nice...</i>

    Realizing this, Angor maximized his speed and headed to the signals as fast as he could without minding the monsters.

    He suddenly felt as if he pushed through a soft barrier. After that, he could no longer see water around him.

    Using the Inferno embers to look around the strange ce, he saw several of his teammates lying on the ground.

    Luna suddenly meowed at something.

    Angor looked that way and saw a shady figure carefully moving away while dragging Nausica¡¯s body.

    ¡°Who is it?!¡± Angor yelled out while unleashing a gravity bullet.

    The shadow jumped, dropped Nausica, and quickly turned tail. Angor failed to catch up with the individual, but he knew that his gravity power sessfullynded a hit when the shadow screamed in pain.

    Whoever it was tried to feign a gruff man¡¯s voice, but Angor still noticed that it was probably a woman.

    The shadow¡¯s body definitely seemed human, not a Dugon or Duon.

    <i>Is that the person who created the illusion? But why would she run away so fast?</i>

    Instead of going after the enemy, Angor checked on Nausica first.

    ¡°Mmmf... Aw...¡±

    Angor turned around at the noise and saw Luna pping Keely¡¯s face with a paw. It sessfully woke up its owner after leaving several paw prints on her cheeks.

    ¡°Luna?¡± Keely rubbed her aching face and looked around. ¡°Where am I?¡±

    <i>So the illusion is gone? </i>Angor returned to his body and did not feel the hypnotic effect again. But he could still sense the illusion nodes. Also, he felt something familiar from the nodes but he couldn¡¯t tell why.

    Keely moved to wake the others.

    When everyone came to, Angor exined what happened earlier.

    ¡°A vortex?¡± Keely rubbed her temples. ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. Guess I fell asleep for real.¡±

    ¡°Never mind then. Fifty minutes left and we gotta move!¡± Angor asked them to stand up so that they could get away ASAP. There was no time for them to explore this strange ce.

    Nausica had been keeping her head lowered. She hesitated and finally decided to speak, ¡°My Meriad¡¯s Sword is gone.¡±

    When her words attracted their attention, Shan suddenly yelled out, ¡°What happened to your face, Nausica??¡±

    Nobody saw her face earlier. Now that they had time to check, they all saw arge, bloody scar starting from Nausica¡¯s forehead and reaching all the way to her right cheek.

    Nausica looked up as she could no longer hide it. ¡°I don¡¯t know. The wound is here when I woke up. It¡¯s pretty shallow, I already treated it with Heal.¡±

    ¡°That woman did this?¡± Angor mumbled.

    ¡°Which woman?!¡± Shan quickly grew furious. ¡°She ruined Nausica¡¯s face! I¡¯m going to kill her!¡±

    Angor described the unknown woman he saw earlier. ¡°That¡¯s probably the culprit who hurt Nausica AND took her sword.¡±

    ¡°I gotta find her!!¡± Shan spoke and quickly grew confused. ¡°But my sword is here... why only Nausica? Did an old enemy of herse to the garden too?¡±

    ¡°Old enemy?¡± Nausica went over her memories and shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t think I offended any woman ever since I came to the wizarding world.¡±

    ¡°There is one. Therge rain hat, remember? She even attacked you before,¡± said Shan.

    Nausica widened her eyes as she remembered something.

    Yes, there was a strange female who openly showed hatred toward her even before entering the garden. And when they were exploring the fish-infested garden world, the same woman came and wounded her.

    ¡°But... I don¡¯t know who she is at all.¡±

    ¡°Well, like I said, I¡¯ll skin her alive the next time I see her!¡± Shan stomped her foot.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine though. Luna still has one gray scale, same for Nausica. We can still get another Meraid¡¯s Sword,¡± said Angor as he let out a sigh. ¡°Whoever that was, we don¡¯t have time to catch her. We have to move.¡±

    The others nodded to agree, while Nausica gave them an apologetic look. ¡°Sorry for the trouble... again.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not you to me.¡± Angor smiled at her. ¡°Easy, we understand. We still have enough swords for each of us.¡±

    They prepared to move back to the surface.

    ¡°I think I went through some kind of barrier to get here. We can get out again by going up. In case you all get affected by the sleeping effect out there, I¡¯ll drag you away using gravity power.¡±

    With that, Angor ejected his soul and began to fly upward.

    But instead of reaching the said barrier, he found himself trapped in mist.

    ¡°Oops. Where¡¯s the exit?¡± Angor grew puzzled and checked on the others, only to see that no one was following.

    The way back took way less time than he expected. When reaching the ground, he saw everyone looking around with their own puzzled looks.

    ¡°Something confused me and I found myself back at square one,¡± said Keely.

    ¡°It¡¯s the illusion...¡± Angor realized that this new trick could now affect his soul form as well.

 Chapter 519 - Active Nodes

    <h4>Chapter 519: Active Nodes</h4>

    Till now, Angor didn¡¯t know that illusions could affect his soul as well.

    With each passing second, he felt his mind to be even more stressed out than before.

    ¡°Give me a minute... I¡¯ll try again.¡±

    He left his body behind and used the best speed he could manage. He assumed that he could reach the surface under three seconds if nothing stopped him.

    One minuteter, he returned to the group again. His grim expression already told the others what happened.

    ¡°It¡¯s all because of me... If only I take our boat a little farther...¡± Nausica sulked as she used herself.

    Nobody said anything against her words, but they were beginning to direct annoyed looks at her.

    Nausica was always calm and confident about everything. As Angor believed, she would say sorry and then try to amend her mistake in normal circumstances, rather than wasting time on these self-usations.

    And why is everyone acting like that?

    Angor quickly felt something wrong and tried to survey the surroundings again.

    As an illusionist, he was sensitive to the condition of illusion nodes. He sessfully found out that several ¡°stale¡± nodes around his teammates were now active.

    So that¡¯s what happened...

    He decided to do a little test and began to release mana from his hand.

    ¡°What are you doing??¡± Keely braced herself with a questioning look.

    The others saw Angor¡¯s action and suspected Angor¡¯s intention.

    They acted this way without realizing anything was wrong, yet Angor knew that something was affecting their minds.

    Luna sensed the abnormality from Keely¡¯s behaviors as well, and it meowed anxiously at her.

    Keely lifted a foot and wanted to kick it away, but she refrained after some mind-struggling.

    Angor saw the others still giving him the look of ¡°prepare to face our rage if you can¡¯t give a satisfying exnation¡± and chose to speak since he had no other choice.

    ¡°We can¡¯t get out because of this illusion. I¡¯m going to attack it.¡±

    The others considered and epted his words.

    Moving as quickly as possible, Angor shattered the active illusion nodes that surrounded his teammates. The nodes reappeared a secondter, but it seemed that they were going to need more time to reactivate again.

    Meanwhile, Angor felt that the mental condition of his teammates had returned to normal.

    ¡°We can¡¯t afford to tarry anymore,¡± said Keely, ¡°shall we look around for another way?¡±

    ¡°Angor saw a woman attacking Nausica and took her sword, right? Then she must know how to get out. We should find her,¡± Shan suggested.

    Keely nodded. ¡°Agreed. Angor?¡±

    Angor made sure they were talking normally before he disyed a simple illusion in front of everyone.

    It showed them what happened a minute ago, especially the interaction between Keely and Luna, as well as the great impatience and unfriendliness disyed by Keely.

    Keely was a little surprised by what she saw. ¡°I almost forget about that... Yeah, we weren¡¯t ourselves back then.¡±

    ¡°But how could I me Nausica like that?! This is not her fault!¡± Shan also eximed in horror. ¡°And did I just, prepare to attack Angor??¡±

    ¡°Something amplified our negative emotions...¡± Keely scowled. ¡°It was only some verbal trouble. But a little ember to start a fight and the oue would be way more severe.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re fine now. Did Angor do something to help?¡± Shiliew spoke up, which was rare.

    ¡°Illusion nodes. There are a lot of inactive illusion nodes around us, but some of them ¡®woke up¡¯ around us,¡± Angor exined to them the things that he observed. ¡°We can¡¯t stay here. Nobody can tell what will happen if the nodes start working again.¡±

    People quickly grew fearful since something unknown could manipte their minds any second. Nobody wanted to be the distrustful jerks they just saw in Angor¡¯s illusion.

    Angor noticed that the nodes around Shan¡¯s position were lit up again.

    ¡°Shan, something is going to you.¡±

    Instead of stopping the unknown trick in action, Angor asked Shan to try to suppress the effect on her own.

    ¡°Really??¡± Shan panicked. ¡°But I don¡¯t feel anything. Are you... lying to me? WHY ARE YOU LYING TO ME?!¡± Her panic quickly changed into hysteria.

    Angor moaned and snapped his fingers to detonate the energy he already ced around the active nodes, thus breaking them apart.

    Shan slowly calmed down.

    The others all saw what just happened to Shan and fully understood the situation. What Shan just disyed had told them that they had no way to resist whatever was affecting them.

    When Angor moved his hand again, several streams of energy exploded beside Keely and Nausica. This time, they didn¡¯t need to ask Angor to figure out what he just did.

    ¡°I can sense the nodes but I can¡¯t tell their condition,¡± said Keely. ¡°Can you do something to stop them from working?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°They aren¡¯t under mymand and I have no idea what kind of illusionist created them. It¡¯s too hard to fight for their control.¡±

    ¡°Can any of our defense spells block their effect?¡± Nausica asked.

    ¡°Let¡¯s try.¡±

    A momentter, Angor destroyed several more nodes. ¡°It doesn¡¯t work. Simple defensive cantrips have no effect against them... Hey, wait. Simple cantrips? What about moreplicated ones?¡±

    He quickly had a new idea.

    What will happen if I upy the space around everyone with my own illusion nodes first? I can use MY illusion nodes to defend against the enemy¡¯s ones!

    He revealed his n and quickly got to it.

    ¡°... No, I failed.¡± He shook his head again after removing several more active nodes.

    They couldn¡¯t leave the strange area without solving the problem, and they were getting really fidgety as the remaining time ticked away.

    ¡°If only we can forcefully control our own emotions...¡± Nausica mumbled.

    ¡°They say that wizards can all do that. But... we aren¡¯t there yet...¡± said Shan.

    Their words just gave Angor another idea. Control emotions? But I can do that too.

    His special talent allowed him to create a music box that affected the emotion of someone as powerful as Lady Mirror. He did more testster and learned that he could do more than manipting emotions¡ªhe could warp someone¡¯s sense of direction, space, and about oneself.

    Usually, the victim of his attempts had to be weaker in terms of strength, but he could also make exceptions by blending nightmare aura in his illusions, which sometimes allowed him to affect the minds of mighty beings.

    He never figured out how it worked. It was probably because of his Nightmare Form.

    So, if I take control of their emotions first, will they still have trouble with the enemy¡¯s illusion?

    The others heard his suggestion and immediately agreed to the radical n as they didn¡¯t have any other options.

    Angor did his test on Nausica first, since Nausica was still a level-1 apprentice, which meant he didn¡¯t need extra effort to get inside her mind.

    But how exactly should I control her?

    Angor would like to avoid using anything that affected Nausica¡¯s own judgment or any joyful emotions which might be troublesome in this dire situation.

    He finally made a decision¡ªcalmness.

    He nned to forcefully tell Nausica to stay calm and suppress all other mental interference. However, he had to make it work by using illusions while the target was inside. He couldn¡¯t create ¡°mobile¡± illusions right now.

    He thought about another approach to affect someone¡¯s emotion. Nightmare illusions.

    This more advanced version of illusion relied on his own nightmare aura to trick people. He didn¡¯t need actual illusion nodes for this. Instead, he simply had to inject some nightmare aura into someone¡¯s head. It would carry the types of emotions that he wanted to achieve.

    As a small trace of gray energy sank in between Nausica¡¯s eyebrows, the woman¡¯s original carefree and indolent temperament slowly turned serene and aloof as if she had be a second Keely.

    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Good. All unnecessary thoughts are gone and I can think as clearly as ever. I believe I can start meditating as soon as I sat down.¡±

    The others grew extremely curious about Angor¡¯s wonderful mind-controlling ability, and at the same time, a little afraid of it.

    ¡°Get ready, the nodes around you are moving again.¡±

    They watched closely and waited for the result that would ultimately decide whether they could escape from the unknown illusion.

 Chapter 520 - Pulse

    <h4>Chapter 520: Pulse</h4>

    They waited for a while. Nausica maintained herposed character just fine, and she could still talk while thinking rationally.

    Angor saw more than a dozen illusion nodes ominously pulsing around her, yet they did not affect Nausica this time.

    ¡°It worked!¡± Angor smiled in relief.

    ¡°Fight poison with poison... Brilliant!¡± Shan eximed to herself.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯d say Angor¡¯s ¡®poison¡¯ is a LOT more potent than the other one,¡± Nausica hinted.

    ¡°Getting taken over by absolute calmness isn¡¯t exactly a good thing... but it¡¯s still better than falling for the harmful ones,¡± exined Angor. ¡°If no one has any objections, I¡¯ll go on and apply the effect to all of you.¡±

    As they all wanted to leave this dangerous trap, no one protested.

    Soon, everyone except Luna took on their brand new personality. Anyone else here to see them would get confused as to why so many people were imitating Keely¡¯s character.

    ¡°It feels strange...¡± Shan spoke first. Her old innocent girl style was nowhere to be seen as if she matured too early.

    ¡°Yes, my mind is sharper now.¡± It was Keely next, who didn¡¯t look so different than before as she was already distant and hard-hearted. ¡°I can¡¯t think of anything other than protecting my own profit now. Be careful, Angor. In this state, I may ditch youpletely if it means surviving on my own, so don¡¯t trust my words too much.

    ¡°But I don¡¯t think that will happen. You¡¯re the only one who can guide us out of here, so no one will abandon you. I think.¡±

    Everyone knew the potential side-effect brought by Angor¡¯s mind maniption, while Keely chose to point it out. She was probably right about how they couldn¡¯t fully trust each other from now on.

    ¡°But I already see a good way of using your skill. You know, you can force apprentices to stay calm and learn meditation better or study faster without getting distracted by stuff. Maybe you can use this to get rich!¡± Shan attempted to tell a joke like how she usually did, but her unnecessarily serious voice only made Angor ufortable.

    ¡°He¡¯s already rich as an alchemist. Your tactic will probably keep him broke for his entire life,¡± said Nausica.

    ¡°Okay, stop. Since your minds are protected, let¡¯s move on and find a way out of here,¡± Angor said. He considered for a second before he continued, ¡°The effect will wear off in about an hour.¡±

    ¡°Well, we¡¯re dead anyway if we can¡¯t get out in 20 minutes,¡± Nausica said as she moved toward one direction. ¡°Follow me, I sensed where the Meraid¡¯s Sword is.¡±

    Everyoneplied. Nausica had a scale in hand; what she detected was the previous woman who took her sword away. They all believed that finding the culprit was the foremost task.

    While they walked, Keely summoned a number of embers to help them see. The area was full of branching paths and small chambers that led to even more routes and caves.

    ¡°Is this an underground maze?¡± Keelymented.

    Shan put a hand on the cave wall and rubbed some broken sand off it. ¡°Or maybe the Duons built this thing. But why are there illusions here? Do Duons know how to use illusions?¡±

    ¡°Remember that strange image we saw earlier? That¡¯s a wizard-level Duon,¡± Nausica replied while she also checked the walls. ¡°Maybe that thing created this ce. Hey... Shan? Didn¡¯t you feel something pulsing on this wall?¡±

    ¡°Huh? No.¡±

    ¡°I think there¡¯s a rhythm.¡± Nausica switched to her ¡°healthy¡± arm but didn¡¯t feel anything this time. She then asked everyone to try, yet nobody could sense anything.

    ¡°It¡¯s a sensation block.¡± Angor frowned. ¡°There are illusion nodes around here that activate when you check the wall, but they soon shut off again when you give up. Nausica¡¯s machine arm cannot trigger the illusion nodes, so she can tell something we cannot.¡±

    ¡°So what exactly is this ¡®pulsing rhythm¡¯ she said?¡±

    They quickly reached a possible conclusion.

    ¡°Are we perhaps... inside the stomach of a monster?¡±

    ...

    They spent five minutes walking, and under Nausica¡¯s guidance, they reached a wide za-like area.

    Using Keely¡¯s firelight, they saw the same mist barrier still above their heads.

    ¡°There!¡± Shan suddenly pointed to a dark corner.

    The others followed her direction and saw a ck silhouette whose face waspletely obscured behind shadows.

    Angor was already going after the mysterious figure, but his target dodged his attack with a quick jump-away.

    ¡°Angor?!¡± The shadow looked back and spoke in a woman¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Who are you?¡±

    Instead of answering, the figureughed out madly. ¡°HA! So it IS you! I¡¯ve been staying here since earlier just so that I can see Nausica suffer. But you! You¡¯ll do better. Now die! Both of you shall die right here!¡±

    Her voice was full of resentment.

    ¡°We¡¯re asking again. Who are you?¡± Nausica joined Angor to confront the strange woman together.

    ¡°Does it matter? Hah! You¡¯re all going to be fertilizer for the garden!¡± The shadow waved an arm that was followed by a number of shadows that materialized out of thin air. ¡°Go! Kill every one of them!¡±

    The shadows gathered. They resembled different creatures such as monster fish, humans, and Duons. But as far as Angor could see, they were all created out of pure energy and didn¡¯t have actual bodies, just like the strange shark he met before.

    Those emotionless, pale-white eyes did not belong to anything alive.

    Are these souls? No. They¡¯re... undead!

    Upon realizing this, a theory suddenly shed through Angor¡¯s mind.

    Don¡¯t tell me that woman is¡ª

    But there was no time for him to confirm that idea now. They had to do something about the undead swarm.

    Any other forms of monsters might cause great trouble with such a big number, but since they were undead...

    Angor yelled at the others, ¡°You all stay behind me. I¡¯ll deal with them!¡±

    He quickly took out a silver revolver with strange engravings on it¡ªhis Prelude to Rebirth handgun. Ever since he crafted this weapon back in Dark Castle, he had yet to have a chance to use it.

    ¡°Angor! Those things! You can¡¯t kill them easily without any anti-undead spell, we should¡ª¡±

    Before Shan could even finish her words, she saw a cone-shaped energy wave leaving Angor¡¯s gun.

    In front of Angor, ten powerful undead creatures that were rushing in front of their army instantly had their negative energy broken apart while their forms shattered into nothingness.

    As the energy wave traveled farther, the other undead creatures that were following closely behind them were also reverted to a form of pure and untainted energy, which returned to earth.

    One single hit, and the undead army already had its size shrank by half.

    ¡°Angor has something to fight the undead creatures?! And it¡¯s so effective¡ª¡± Shan spoke out when she saw a shadowy figure sneaking away out of the corner of her eye. ¡°Over there! There¡¯s a Duon!¡±

    Everyone heard her words and when they looked over, they saw a wounded Duon leaning against a wall corner. It was still moving slowly.

    It can tell us how to get out! Everyone reached the same conclusion.

    ¡°Oh, not yet!¡± The ck shadow began to rush toward the Duon with a knife in hand.

    ¡°She¡¯s going to kill it!¡±

    The others tried to intervene, but they were too far to reach there in time.

    Another shadow suddenly moved in front of the Duon creature.

    ng!

    The woman¡¯s knife was kicked away by a swift attack before a second sh created a red arc in the air, which prated the woman¡¯s chest.

    It was Keely, who had turned into her beast form. Without giving her enemy any chance to retaliate, Keely picked up the Duon and jumped back to the group.

    The wounded shadow slowly vanished from their view.

    ¡°Is she dead?¡± Shan asked.

    ¡°No,¡± Nausica shook her head and said, ¡°she got away. I sense the Meraid¡¯s Sword moving farther from us. That shadow might be her clone or something.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... Otherwise, she didn¡¯t need to move so slowly to kill that Duon while Angor was busy.¡± Shan moaned in disappointment. She then asked, ¡°This Duon is still alive, right? We have some questions for it then.¡±

 Chapter 521 - Erdus

    <h4>Chapter 521: Erdus</h4>

    With the help of Prelude to Rebirth, the group of several hundred undead creatures was wiped out under five minutes.

    Even since he left Dark Castle, Angor didn¡¯t encounter that many undead creatures. It was a great pity that the cylinder of his gun was already filled with the white bullets, so killing these no longer yielded any results.

    Keely was now interrogating the Duon, who was obviously knocking on death¡¯s door. It seemed this creature with an upper body of a yellow carp and a pair of human legs was one of the weakest in their ranks.

    Everyone in the group apart from Angor and Nausica knew how to use Discern Language, so they all went to Keely to learn where the exit was.

    Nausica saw Angor lost in thoughts and decided to ask. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°That woman... Is she perhaps ¡®that person¡¯ we know?¡±

    ¡°Which one?¡±

    The strange woman¡¯s attitude suggested that she knew and hated both Angor and Nausica, with Angor being the main target.

    But Nausica thought and failed to remember any woman like that.

    ¡°Hookdick,¡± Angor said in a small voice.

    Nausica was quite surprised by that name. It was true that Hookdick offended them more than once and was a dedicated hater.

    ¡°But isn¡¯t Hookdick a dude?¡±

    As far as she could remember, the man named ¡°Hookdick¡± was a big, rough tribesman who always reeked of sweat and dirt. Meanwhile, even though the person who assaulted them hid her face behind the shadows, it was obvious that the person had a feminine body.

    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Nausica wasn¡¯t sure of the reality anymore.

    ¡°It¡¯s... likely, because Hookdick used Subus Bloodline on himself,¡± Angor replied while he recreated the message he received from Sakast time.

    Inside the image, Nausica saw someone with both giant breasts and buttocks as well as a wless body shape. However, her face kind of ruined everything because there was still stubble around her cheeks.

    ¡°Hookdick? A subus¡¯ blood?!¡± Nausica yelled in surprise despite Angor¡¯s mind maniption effect. As a Bloodline Art apprentice, she knew better than most people what that meant.

    Such a bloodline was usually favored by females. It was said to add to their beauty while having little to no side-effect.

    But to males... it was basically a nightmare.

    Using the bloodline could well increase one¡¯s strength, but males would experience an ¡°iplete¡± gender shift, which meant they would all end up as she-males.

    ¡°You saw her twice, right? Do they look the same to you?¡± Angor asked.

    Nausica checked the image carefully while thinking about the unknown assant. The woman was wearing a wide rain hat, so she couldn¡¯t see her face clearly. However, her body resembled what was shown by Angor.

    And the current face of Hookdick would exin why he(she?) would cover her face up in front of people.

    ¡°I¡¯d say yes...¡± Nausica nodded. ¡°Then I can understand why he wants me dead.¡±

    ¡°Yup. Hookdick is a soul maniptor, which means he canmand undead.¡± Angor sighed in disappointment and said, ¡°Too bad we let him slip.¡±

    ¡°Well, we can¡¯t actually kill him even if we have him. Soul maniptors. Death is only the beginning, you know?¡±

    Angor never considered Hookdick as a big threat until now. The man just brought so many undead creatures to them. So what would happen next time? What if he could control powerful souls?

    Soul spells that indirectly harmed people usually wouldn¡¯t work on Angor. And if somehow it worked, then apart from his sequence of gravity, Angor did not have many tricks that he could use to attack the souls. It would be troublesome if Hookdick were to drag him into a battle of endurance.

    Angor made up his mind again¡ªhe had to kill Hookdick at all costs.

    Keely, Shiliew, and Shan returned from their job. Angor nced their way and saw the poor Duon dead in its own blood.

    ¡°Oh no, we didn¡¯t kill it,¡± Keely quickly exined. ¡°Its scale was picked away by that woman and the other Duons will not ept it again. After answering our questions, it asked for a dagger so that it could end its own life.¡±

    ¡°Oh, such gantry,¡± Angormented without meaning those words for real. ¡°So, what did you learn?¡±

    Keely looked hesitant.

    ¡°You tell him,¡± she said as she looked at Shan.

    Shan¡¯s expression wasn¡¯t any better. ¡°There is a way, but it¡¯s difficult.¡±

    Shan briefly exined what they heard from the Duon creature.

    Their previous assumption was right, that they were now inside a certain giant sea monster. But this was not its stomach, but the inteyer between its shell and skin.

    This creature was a monstrous sea mussel called ¡°Erdus¡±, which was a pet of the ancient Duon. It was awakened by ¡°Wanderer of Wilds¡± Kayaso. It possessed talent in creating illusions. Since the greater ancestor of Duons fell into eternal slumber, Erdus picked somewhere near the Land of Demise to sleep. Every few months, it would open up to draw in sea creatures to nurture itself before falling asleep again.

    ¡°We stumbled upon its feeding time. The vortex you mentioned must be when Erdus opened its shell,¡± Shan continued. ¡°It kept this way for two hours, and there was one single minute at the end of the feeding session that Erdus would lift the barrier in the entrance so that water and the fish it ate could enter its belly, and that¡¯s when we can get out.

    ¡°But... we¡¯re toote for that now.¡±

    Immediately following her words, thick tides that contained different fishes and monsters surged into the area. Angor quickly ejected his soul and used gravity power to steady everyone so that they wouldn¡¯t get flushed away.

    Everything returned to normal after several minutes, except that they were submerged in the water again.

    Angor returned to his body and looked at Shan. ¡°Does this mean the mussel thing has closed its shell?¡±

    Shan nodded in silence.

    ¡°We have to wait until next month for it to open again,¡± Keely added.

    ¡°Well, we certainly can¡¯t wait that long. You were referring to something else when you said ¡®there¡¯s a way¡¯, right?¡± Angor asked again.

    ¡°We find the core of Erdus and... kill it.¡±

    ...

    There were 40 minutes left until the end of the final countdown.

    Lawson left the machine tower andnded in front of another metal building that reached all the way into the sky. The building itself was mainly a single, steel pir while there was an oval-shaped structure built on top of it.

    This was the Research Department¡ªthe business core of the entire Floating Mech City.

    Lawson had not even reached the building when a dozen wizards in their department uniforms came out to greet him. The current chief of the department¡ª¡±The Fool¡± Muse was taking the lead.

    Muse was wearing his usual professional smile, which usually did not mean his true feelings. But this time, Muse did mean to smile sincerely since his partner was here.

    ¡°You came already? I can take the job and save you the trouble, you know?¡± Muse said.

    ¡°Someone will get the wrong ideas if the two city masters move in different directions, so we¡¯d better go together,¡± said Lawson. ¡°The garden promotion is crucial to us and we ought to take extra caution.¡±

    Muse yawned. ¡°Is it? I can¡¯tprehend the sequence of purification with this average talent of mine anyway.¡±

    Some of the other wizards rolled their eyes. If Chief Muse is ¡°average¡±, are we garbage then?

    ¡°Learning the sequence is not impossible. Seed and you¡¯ll have a better chance at challenging the rank of legendary,¡± Lawson replied. ¡°Besides, we have over a thousand wizards from major organizations waiting. We should at least make it look official.¡±

    ¡°Yeah yeah, whatever, let¡¯s go.¡± Muse didn¡¯t seem interested at all.

    At the same time, apart from those who were in seclusions, all the wizards in the lower side of Floating Mech City began to head toward the valley where the purification garden was located.

    When Lawson arrived, the valley was fully upied by wizards from various ces.

    Several guards carried a number of screens to the scene andbined them into one singlerge screen. The screen shed for a while before it disyed a round-shaped za that had a number of strange-looking statues. The eyes of the statues were shining with different colors, while the light they emitted all gathered at the center of the area.

    The central point of the za was empty. As more light joined and gave birth to a growing light spot, the spot slowly began to pulse in rhythm like someone¡¯s heart.

    All wizards gazed at the light spot intensively, and they did not even bother to conceal their obvious desires.

    This location was called the Altar of Demise, while the light spot was the embodiment of the garden¡¯sw, the Law of Purification.

 Chapter 522 - Working Together

    <h4>Chapter 522: Working Together</h4>

    ¡°We only have one single minute in each month that we can use to escape,¡± Shan murmured and grimaced, ¡°and that woman chose such timing to fight Angor so that we can¡¯t get away. Damn it all!¡±

    ¡°Stopining. Let¡¯s find that core and kill Erdus. Otherwise, we are all gonna die in here,¡± said Keely.

    ¡°We don¡¯t even know where it is! And we don¡¯t have near enough time to look around randomly.¡±

    ¡°Meow!¡±

    Angor heard Luna¡¯s voice and remembered that the cat was unaffected by the illusion.

    Maybe Luna can help us?

    He thought Luna meant to tell them something, but when he looked that way, he noticed that Luna was busy hanging on Keely¡¯s clothes so that it wouldn¡¯t get flushed away by water currents. The creature just meowed out of panic.

    Angor reached out a hand to grab the small feline. With a stable footing, Luna slowly calmed down and huddled up into a ball in Angor¡¯s arm.

    Keely was quite surprised that Luna was fine staying with someone that they barely spent time with. Usually, other than its master, Luna would p anyone who attempted to touch it.

    ¡°Hey Luna, do you know how to find Erdus¡¯ core?¡± Angor asked the kitten.

    The others all looked this way curiously. They knew that Luna was the only one among them that could resist the illusion. Even Angor had to eject his soul to escape from the effect.

    When Luna saw itself bing the center of attention, its ck fur puffed up and the creature hopped back to Keely¡¯s feet.

    Then it slowly shook its head at everyone while it trembled a little.

    ¡°Luna says no. There are too many different smells mixed around us,¡± Keely exined.

    Nausica held her chin and thought about how Luna struggled with water earlier. ¡°Maybe we can follow the flow of water? Since Erdus needs to draw in water every now and then, surely we can get closer to its center by doing so?¡±

    ¡°Good idea, actually. We¡¯re still standing outside its skin, right? Then we can enter its body in this way.¡± Angor nodded. He then added, ¡°But we can¡¯t follow the water to the end because that will take us to its stomach where deadly acid or something dangerous is at.¡±

    ¡°So... what¡¯s your opinion?¡±

    Any ordinary people in a life-threatening situation would quickly break down under such pressure, but Angor did not. He felt calmer than ever.

    ¡°I do have an idea, but we still need to enter Erdus first.¡±

    He took the lead and dived into a small hole where all the water was going.

    Everyone followed.

    Using Keely¡¯s embers, they noticed that the ¡°cave walls¡± around them slowly turned into a bright orange color.

    ¡°We¡¯re inside now,¡± Angor said. He then checked the wall again and calcted their distance before he looked at Nausica. ¡°Now we depend on you to find the core.¡±

    ¡°Uh, me?¡±

    ¡°There are still illusion nodes here that will prevent us from sensing anything. Your mechanical arm, however, does not trigger them. So, you can lead us by feeling where Erdus¡¯ heartbeats areing from.¡±

    ¡°I see... Leave it to me.¡±

    Nausica wanted to provide something to the team since she had been receiving everyone¡¯s help instead of contributing. Now, she got a chance to do so.

    At first, someone still had doubts about the efficiency of this n. After Nausica helped them find a lot of the hidden paths, they were soon convinced by the n. These paths were all concealed behind superb illusions that even Angor could not see through without assistance.

    After walking through several more narrow routes, they entered a water-free area where lots of spiderweb-like objects were located.

    While walking, Gank identally stepped on and crushed a ¡°spider web¡±; this caused brief turbulence in the surroundings as if an earthquake wereing.

    ¡°Those should be nerve systems, don¡¯t get too close,¡± Angor exined after some observation.

    ording to that Duon earlier, Erdus had been sleeping for several thousand years. Someone who carelessly woke it up might cause serious trouble to their already tight schedule.

    A momentter, Nausica stopped in front of a thin, blood-red barrier and used her machine arm to touch it.

    ¡°There... the heartbeates directly from behind this thing.¡±

    Angor also moved to check, but before he could, the ground began to shake violently.

    And this time, it only grew stronger instead of stopping after a short period of time.

    Luna meowed something at Keely, who immediately gave everyone an anxious look.

    ¡°Erdus is waking up. We need to hurry!¡±

    It made a lot of sense. Anyone would wake up if there were creatures lurking around their heart!

    There was no doubt that breaking the barrier in front of them would be thest straw.

    Such a magnificent monster needed only its natural aura to cleanse some filth from its body, meaning, Angor¡¯s group. This meant they had to destroy Erdus¡¯ heart as fast as possible.

    Without any more time to make new ns, Angor simply sted the blood barrier open.

    At the same time, Erdus tumbled in ce and created a natural disaster to the sea. Deadly torrents, together with gigantic tidal waves traveled toward all directions to assault those who were unfortunate enough to be in their ways.

    Inside a cave at Land of Demise, a giant Duon creature suddenly looked up and nced at where Erdus used to be.

    ¡°Erdus has been woken up... This must be fate.¡±

    His voice sounded deep and distant while it carried great sadness unresolved by history.

    At the creature¡¯s feet, a young man with a longbow on his back was quickly writing something on his notebook, while a transmitter he used was working to record image data of the forefather of the Duons.

    ...

    Inside Erdus, Angor¡¯s group all tumbled inside the barrier-protected area while they tried their best to remain steady during the ¡°earthquake¡±.

    Once they were inside, even without Nausica¡¯s help, they all felt the great pulses unleashed by something.

    They found themselves standing in a giant chamber where a huge heart hung in the middle of the room. It was connected to countless blood vessels while it pumped the energy of life in all directions.

    They already felt a deadly and murderous aura looming in toward where they were standing.

    Without hesitating, Keely unleashed her strongest embers from her oilmp, which instantly covered up the giant heart and slowly charred a great portion of the magnificent organ into its lifeless form.

    When Nausica grabbed her right wrist using her left hand, a powerful spinning tornado emerged from her mechanical palm and hit the heart in the center.

    When the attack connected, Nausica was knocked back by recoil and crashed into a wall. Her attack earlier had opened up a hole on the surface of the heart, and now, both blood and concentrated energy streams came leaking out of it.

    Shan was doing her strange dance again, which caused Gank¡¯s already huge body to gain even more in size. Enhanced by Shan¡¯s magic, Gank wielded his fists and relentlessly mmed at the fresh wound ripped by Nausica.

    In a matter of a second, the hole on the heart grew terriblyrger.

    The monster¡¯s aura was upon them. In the next second, they felt their legs give in as they fell t on the ground.

    Using what she could manage, Shiliew gazed at the surging blood and called out, ¡°Grease of the Underworld!¡±

    Erdus¡¯ blood instantly turned into a green, mmable substance. It was then ignited by Keely¡¯s embers.

    The enhanced mes added with fuel quickly turned more than half of the organ into a ck crisp.

    What remained of the heart was still working. Also, Erdus¡¯ aura was getting maddened and uncontrolled, which pressed more pressure on everyone.

    They all felt something breaking in their bodies as blood moved up their throats.

    Angor was in the worst condition among all. His untrained body failed faster than anyone. Upon receiving the aura shock, he instantly lost most of his consciousness.

    ¡°It¡¯s not dead yet...¡±

    Angor mustered his remaining strength and chanted Spirit Mantra.

    This was a dangerous move as his body would get destroyed even faster without a soul. However, he had to take the risk. He had to finish off the beating heart before something worse happened.

    He briefly checked his soul and realized that after the various encounters in the past few days, he no longer had enough soul energy to use a ¡°sure shot¡± gravity attack now.

    Without minding his safety threshold, he braced himself and began to gather his remaining soul energy.

    ¡°Here goes nothing!!¡±

    That was thest attack they could manage, and theirst hope.

    Wham!

    A gray gravity bullet sank into the healthy part of the beating heart, and following Erdus¡¯ deafening bellow, the heart shattered apart, showering everyone and the area around them with red rain.

    The ground was soon covered in ankle-deep blood.

    ¡°Did... did we do it?¡± Shiliew asked as she watched more blood fall with her typical in expression.

    ¡°The aura is gone so... yes?¡± Keely stood up and stretched her limbs.

    ¡°Hooray!¡± Shan hopped about joyfully despite Angor¡¯s mind-maniption effect. ¡°We¡¯re saved! We¡¯re saved!¡±

    Angor returned to his body and wanted to enjoy the happy moments with his team. A momentter, he quickly decided not to move too much when he felt searing paining from every inch of his body.

    Aw, gods... Well, at least we have enough time to reach the altar¡ª

    ¡°Wait... no. The illusion nodes are still here!¡±

 Chapter 523 - Potion of Impedance

    <h4>Chapter 523: Potion of Impedance</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The others all closed their eyes to check. And when they reopened their eyes, none of them looked too happy.

    As Angor said, instead of disappearing due to the absence of a caster, the number of illusion nodes was increasing quickly as if they went out of control.

    ¡°Luna said Erdus is dead for sure.¡± Keely frowned as she asked, ¡°So why is this happening?¡±

    ¡°One exnation... the heart is not the core of the illusions. There¡¯s something else, something independent, which gave birth to the illusions,¡± Angor exined while wearing a tight frown. If his assumption was correct, the illusion would be a lot harder to deal with.

    ¡°We must find the source of it if we want to get out, or we¡¯ll be trapped in here forever,¡± Keely spoke in a low and cold voice that caused everyone to shiver.

    Then they all looked at Angor again. Angor was the only illusionist in the group, and the only one adept at breaking illusions.

    ¡°Let me try,¡± Angor said even though he didn¡¯t know whether he could. He only knew that he was their best shot.

    He stood up. Before he managed to do anything, he coughed up more blood and fell down again.

    Shan quickly helped him by casting Heal. The cantrip did some minor work easing Angor¡¯s pain, but he had some serious internal injuries that kept causing him to faint.

    Keely took out a one-use space capsule from her pouch that she looted from Yethew¡¯s corpse.

    She proceeded to break the capsule and picked up a bottle of ck liquid.

    ¡°That¡¯s Potion of Impedance?¡± Shan looked at the item with a surprised expression.

    Keely nodded and said to Angor, ¡°This potion will shut off all sensations regarding non-lethal injuries in your body, so you won¡¯t feel pain or loss of consciousness. Itsts for 24 hours. But it has a great side-effect that might worsen your wounds after the potion wears off. Want to use it?¡±

    Angor knew about such a potion. It basically worked as analgesics by forcing one¡¯s body to cancel certain nerves.

    ¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡± Angor nodded without a second thought. He couldn¡¯t afford to give up here, and without the potion, he would get knocked out by his condition sooner orter.

    He downed the ck potion in one go and felt nausea quickly building up. But soon, the terrible feeling went away together with all the other negative feedbacks sent by his own body; it was as if he had just fully recovered from a serious disease.

    ¡°Don¡¯t eject your soul again or your body won¡¯t make it,¡± said Keely.

    ¡°I know. Now let me do something...¡±

    He closed his eyes and spread his spirit feelers. He was quite surprised to find out that the number of illusion nodes around them had multiplied by several folds. He almost couldn¡¯t find any vacant spot.

    It was extremely hard toprehend the logic hidden behind such a great number of nodes.

    Angor felt his mind troubled by the mental pressure brought by the passage of remaining time as well as the expectation of his team. He forced his mind to calm down before he initiated ¡°mind overdrive¡±.

    In his view, the world around him turned into data and numbers that helped him to deduce the source of the illusion array by means of reverse engineering.

    The others couldn¡¯t see what was going on since Angor was only sitting on the ground while mumbling to himself. Nobody moved to interrupt him since Angor was their only means of survival.

    Angor saw countless data and forms forming up differentws and rules. As he didn¡¯t have near enough time to figure out every rule andw presented to him, he had to look backward and find where the illusion nodes came from.

    While at it, he began to feel a strange rhythm hidden behind the nodes.

    The rhythm tickled his mind and was trying to guide his thoughts in an unknown direction.

    At first, Angor ignored it and kept up with his own calction. He soon realized that the remaining time would never allow him to perform a full deduction, so he decided to take a bet.

    <i>Since the strange rhythm wants me to go somewhere, then I shall follow it and see.</i>

    Without considering any reasons or facts, he discarded his unfinished calctions and allowed the rhythm to take control.

    Soon, his mind reached a certain coordinate. He didn¡¯t know what awaited there but there was no other option now.

    ¡°Follow me,¡± Angor said as he canceled his mind overdrive status and called to the others.

    Following Angor, they traveled through a number of doors and entrances hidden behind different illusions. Angor then stopped in front of another blood-red barrier.

    Angor broke the barrier by prodding it with a finger. Following his gesture, a giant surge of illusion energy came rushing out at them like a flood.

    People began to see the chaotic sceneries of different natures. The illusions felt so real. If not for the effect of Angor¡¯s mind maniption, they would soon get carried away by the illusions where they would begin to spend their new lives.

    The illusion waves kepting. Angor could resist them just fine. However, he knew that the others would fall for them if they were to let their guards down for a second.

    Following his instinct, he unleashed his Nightmare Domain. In the next second, all the invading illusions vanished.

    Angor could still feel the illusion surge going wild around them, but when they approached his Nightmare Domain, they all steered clear as if they saw something dangerous.

    Angor didn¡¯t know what was going on. He took a guess that his Nightmare Domain was a ¡°mightier¡± version of illusions that discouraged all other illusions from approaching.

    His assumption was mostly true, but he had forgotten to consider an important factor¡ªErdus was dead.

    If Erdus were inmand, Angor¡¯s own illusion would have no hope ofpeting with its absolute strength. Yet Erdus¡¯ death had left such wild illusions that were powerless against Angor¡¯s nightmare aura.

    As the foreign illusions were chased away, Angor¡¯s group slowly cleared their minds.

    ¡°Where am I?¡±

    ¡°Another illusion? Oh, this castle looks pretty good. It even recreated all of you guys.¡±

    ¡°Actually, it¡¯s mine,¡± Angor told them. ¡°You all stay here for the moment so that you don¡¯t get carried away by the energy flows. I¡¯ll deal with the source of the illusions.¡±

    Without waiting for an answer, Angor left the Nightmare Domain and moved forward.

    By following the strange rhythm, he walked on without getting pushed back by the overwhelming illusion energy. He soon entered another small room and fixed his gaze upon a small glowing sphere in the center of the room.

    Immediately, the rhythm became more active as if it was weing Angor¡¯s arrival.

    ¡°So this bead... is the source of this ruckus?¡±

    Without a second thought, Angor moved and put a hand on the bead as if something were controlling his actions.

    A series of light beams emerged from the sphere and sank into Angor¡¯s forehead.

    Angor remained still and embraced the strange experience.

    The light beams slowly moved closer until they became one single string that connected with Angor¡¯s brain.

    He felt rxed andfortable as if he were sunbathing at a resort beach.

    Beside him was a small sea mussel. He saw memories. Erdus¡¯ memories, which told him how the small mussel grew into a gigantic miracle.

    From its birth, all the way to the end, Angor saw Erdus¡¯ entire life.

    The ordinary sea mussel lived a carefree life for a hundred years until a Duon showed up and changed everything. It was the same Duon that Angor saw inside the strange image when the final countdown was started.

    Together, they created the first Duon civilization, and from there, they established a legendary story that greatly attracted Angor¡¯s curiosity.

    But a disaster came upon the Duons a thousand years ago. Someone from Floating Mech City imprisoned the Duons and threw them into a foreign world, the Garden of Purification.

    The forefather of the Duons was forced into an ice coffin while Erdus was imprisoned in a simr way.

    The remaining Duons saw these intruders as their ¡°gods¡±.

    And from that day, they no longer had a future.

 Chapter 524 - Five Minutes

    <h4>Chapter 524: Five Minutes</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    At first, Angor feared that whatever upied him would take him too long and ruin their escape n. But soon, Erdus¡¯ memory intrigued him so much that hepletely forgot about his urgent matter.

    The memory wasn¡¯t long. It seemed the strange bead only contained random fragments of Erdus¡¯ past life. It wasn¡¯t designed for keeping memories.

    When the story reached its end, Angor realized where the bead came from.

    This item was called ¡°Erdus¡¯ Natural Mirage Bead¡±, a special artifact brewed using Erdus¡¯ blood and over the creature¡¯s prolonged lifespan, just like how seashells gave birth to pearls.

    Erdus¡¯ supernatural experience and power had bestowed a portion of its own intelligence to the bead. The bead was the very source of Erdus¡¯ illusion abilities.

    And Angor already understood why the illusions felt familiar¡ªthey were Mirages, a certain type of special illusions.

    Mirage was a type of illusion woven by using natural elements in the environment and was considered an advanced skill among all illusionists. Even the most basic Mirage illusions required someone to be a level-3 apprentice to master, which was why Angor never attempted this particr subject before.

    But a Mirage wasn¡¯t something new to him. For example, when Sinehowze was cooking the egg of the Lord of Tentacles, she created a small-scale Gourmet Mirage.

    Compared to this, what Greya caused around The Redbudst time was a lot more powerful, which covered an area of dozens of kilometers on the sea.

    Gourmet Mirages were not exactly real Mirages as they basically did not hurt people. Yet they all functioned in the same way by altering environmental elements to create visions.

    Angor always felt something familiar from the illusions without being able to identify them; it was because he never studied Mirage before.

    Since the record of Erdus¡¯ memory had ended, he thought he could hurry up and head to the Altar of Demise. But to his surprise, there was more intelligence madly rushing into his brain following Erdus¡¯ own story.

    This time, the intelligence was about the ¡°Natural Mirage Bead¡± itself.

    It seemed the artifact saw its end as well as the terminal of this very world. If everything ended like this, all the power and knowledge it gained would be lost forever. Combining coincidence and fate, it decided to draw Angor here.

    The artifact was intelligent enough to learn that Angor was the one who killed its ¡°host¡±. But it didn¡¯t matter¡ªErdus would soon perish even without Angor¡¯s interference. Since a very long time ago, Erdus had sought to end its own life, but the ¡°gods¡± prevented it from doing so.

    The Mirage Bead proceeded to inject everything about Erdus¡¯ talent abilities into Angor¡¯s mind.

    It was extremely difficult for an outsider to recreate such talent without having Erdus¡¯ bloodline. Yet the knowledge contained enlightenment regarding natural elements, which would greatly assist Angor in the future should he study Mirage illusions.

    Also, this was not limited to Mirage illusions. Such knowledge could help Angor with anything rted to environmental elements, such as certain Elementalist spells that manipted different types of weather.

    No matter how people looked at it, the knowledge of a wizard-level monster that had lived for 3,000 years was a priceless asset.

    Despite it being a priceless asset, Angor did not want this to happen.

    Because time was running out!

    He¡¯d dly ept the great legacy should an execution knife called the ¡°countdown¡± wasn¡¯t hanging right on his neck. The knowledge would be of no use to him if he missed the final countdown and had to forfeit his life in this garden.

    His unwillingness slowly turned into resistance, yet the Mirage Bead didn¡¯t intend to let him go any time soon.

    Still, the artifact sensed Angor¡¯s urge to leave and sped up its knowledge transfer.

    And this was bad news to Angor¡ªhe felt his head ready to explode as overwhelming wisdom that did not belong to him took over his mind.

    The light beam persisted for a while. Even the owners of the purification garden had not realized that the priceless legacy was being forcefully injected into Angor¡¯s brain, while the ¡°beneficiary¡± himself was trying his best to run away from it.

    When thest bit of the light beam finally disappeared into Angor, the Mirage Bead gradually stopped glowing.

    Next, the bead slowly broke apart into crystal-clear sand fragments that escaped from between Angor¡¯s fingers.

    Meanwhile, all remaining illusion nodes inside Erdus¡¯ corpse went away.

    Angor was trying to stay awake while his head felt heavier than ever. When thinking about the countdown timer that was still a threat to his life, as well as his teammates, he forced his body to keep walking.

    He didn¡¯t know how much time he wasted. However, since the Sea of Purification wasn¡¯t breaking apart, he believed the end was not here yet.

    He rushed outside the room and canceled his Nightmare Domain. When the protection was lifted, he saw his teammates in various situations.

    Nausica was fiddling her Solefly de while sitting on the ground with a sad look. Keely was mumbling the name of her parents, while Luna huddled quietly in her arms. Shan had copsed on Gank¡¯s head while leaving herst words using a small voice others couldn¡¯t hear.

    Their terrible mental conditions caused Angor¡¯s heart to sink.

    ¡°How much time do we have?!¡± Angor asked in a trembling voice.

    Keely and Shan didn¡¯t answer. It was Nausica who decided to speak up. She replied, ¡°You... did your best. But I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll make it.¡±

    ¡°Just tell me the time!¡±

    ¡°We have five minutes. At best.¡±

    Angor felt his ears went deaf for a brief moment as he lost his bnce.

    There were another 250 kilometers until they could reach the Land of Demise.

    <i>In five minutes?</i>

    His sequence of gravity MIGHT take them there in time in normal circumstances. Unfortunately, Angor almost exhausted his soul energy. Combined with the fact that he was under the effect of Potion of Impedance, to separate his soul from his body now would be suicidal.

    ¡°Go! Let¡¯s go!! We can do something... we must do something!¡± Angor moved ahead first while mumbling random words just for the sake offorting himself.

    Despite their desperation, the others still remained calm and in control of their actions, which convinced them to follow Angor¡¯s lead.

    ...

    Half an hour ago, over a thousand wizards had arrived at the valley where the purification garden was located. Some of them had old grudges against one another, and they all pretended that the others didn¡¯t exist. All wizards simply picked somewhere vacant and waited, while only good friends would stay together.

    All wizards from Floating Mech City joined together on top of a stone wall in various positions. Some of them seemed rxed while others looked quite stressed. But regardless of their moods, every single individual was looking at the giant screen that was showing them the Altar of Demise.

    They were all openly craving the glowing embodiment of the purificationw in the center of the altar. And at the same time, most wizards were trying to see if their students had reached the final goal.

    The countdown was reaching its end, and a number of apprentices who owned Meraid¡¯s Swords had already arrived.

    ¡°That¡¯s Dira? Nice. He¡¯ll make a fine example for the new generation,¡± several guards from the city whispered to each other.

    ¡°Oh, I see my Huitoni. Good job, girl.¡±

    ¡°Now where did that little brat of mine go?¡±

    Sabot and Mithra were also sitting at a corner.

    ¡°You know, Diablo can always participate in this,¡± Sabot said. He sighed. ¡°I saw many level-3 apprentices went in.¡±

    ¡°Those are the ones who failed to break through their limits for many years. Therefore, they can only gamble for that tiny chance that thew might bring. Diablo has great talent, he does not need such radical means.¡± Mithra chuckled.

    ¡°Angor onceprehended a naturalw, right? I wonder if he¡¯d do it again.¡±

    ¡°Nah. That will make these naturalws look like jokes.¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡± Sabot lowered his head and considered. He then murmured, ¡°I didn¡¯t see Angor at the altar. He¡¯s still on his way? Or...¡±

    Mithra didn¡¯t reply. He trusted Angor¡¯s potential. ¡°He¡¯sing, I know it. It isn¡¯t hard for him to stay alive in the garden.¡±

    Meanwhile, Muse was floating beside Lawson while thinking about the same question.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Angor? Come on, I have my filming stone ready here. I thought I can record something awkwardst time, but he actually beat the Lord of Tentacles and all the monster fish and still looked cool. So boring!¡±

    Muse nned to wait for the moment when Angor¡¯s bodily filth was purified by the garden so that he could keep Angor¡¯s embarrassing look andter use it against the boy.

    Lawson nced at Muse¡¯s cunning smile and sighed.

    <i>I wonder which one of them will get embarrassed today?</i>

    Lawson suddenly shivered a little and quickly took out a strange machine from his storage dimension. The item resembled a spirit indicator meter that had a number indicating 0 to 100%.

    The meter was shining. The original indication of 55% quickly increased to 62% under one second.

    Muse also noticed that change and understood what was happening faster than anyone else. After all, he was the one who invented this meter that was used to calcte the progress of the garden sacrifice.

    When it reached 100%, it meant the purification garden had sessfully gained a new level.

    Sacrificing the entire flying fish world only increased the meter to 50%, while letting the apprentices kill each other in the Sea of Purification boosted it to 55%. What they were seeing now suggested that something just happened and gave the progress another push of around 7%, which was bigger than the sum of all dead apprentices.

    ¡°One of the main sacrificial materials just died?¡± Muse asked in a small voice.

    Lawson frowned. ¡°Perhaps. Telling from the numbers... it should be one of the strongestponents, which means the forefather of the Duons or Erdus.¡±

    ¡°They are both wizard-level presence. You¡¯re telling me an apprentice killed one of them?¡±

    ¡°I... don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible.¡± Lawson shook his head and said, ¡°Let¡¯s just take a look.¡±

    When he waved a hand, the giant screen suddenly changed its disy.

 Chapter 525 - Brief Debut

    <h4>Chapter 525: Brief Debut</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The sudden change on the screen confused all onlookers. They all wondered what Lawson was up to.

    First, they saw the forefather of the Duons sitting still inside its cave, while a bow-carrying apprentice sat at its feet while writing something.

    ¡°That big dude is the main sacrificial material, right?¡± The other wizards discussed. They could sense the creature¡¯s deadly aura even though it wasn¡¯t moving or intentionally disying it.

    Some of the wizards from Floating Mech City exined the origin of the forefather of the Duons.

    ¡°Hey... that one looks familiar. Isn¡¯t he the little boy from Feinwerder Family?¡± A wizard pointed to the apprentice sitting under the Duon Forefather.

    ¡°That¡¯s him. He got guts... Is he writing an essay while the forefather is around?¡±

    The city wizards described why the Altar of Demise was activated ahead of schedule, while the others began to regard the apprentice shown on the screen with different looks as they realized this Feinwerder inheritor was the one who caused a change in n.

    Kayaso was still indulged in his diary, and he never realized that both the apprentices and wizards outside the garden considered him a culprit.

    For a brief moment, Kayaso felt his heart shivering a little. He then shrugged it off.

    Lawson looked around more and found no abnormalities in the forefather¡¯s chamber. He then switched the disy to where Erdus was dwelling.

    The sky was dark. Thunderclouds and tornadoes wreaked havoc on the sea, sending their deadly momentum in all directions.

    ¡°Yup. Something happened to Erdus,¡± said Lawson as he frowned again. ¡°Nothing serious. The sacrifice is approaching the end and it¡¯ll die anyway.¡±

    ¡°But who killed it and how?¡± Muse was confused.

    The disy headed to the depth of the sea, when all the observers eximed in awe¡ª<i>What a gigantic mussel!</i>

    ¡°Another wizard-level monster? But... it¡¯s dead. Did you send wizards in there again?¡±

    The city guards shook their heads to deny. Lawson was the only wizard who once entered the purification garden. He went inside to deal with the Lord of Tentacles, which conveniently saved the lives of a group of apprentices.

    Erdus¡¯ death had nothing to do with Lawson.

    Soon, the wizards wondered if an apprentice was behind this.

    <i>But an apprentice killed a wizard-level monster? Seriously?</i>

    The disy shifted again while it moved through Erdus¡¯ shell. But before the ¡°camera¡± could enter Erdus¡¯ body, they saw a lot of corpses floating just above Erdus¡¯ skin.

    Telling from the bite marks, they were killed by the monsters in the sea.

    <i>But those fish aren¡¯t exactly powerful... at least these apprentices should not die without putting up a fight.</i>

    They finally understood what happened when someone exined that Erdus was talented in creating illusions. This meant the apprentices could well get eaten alive while trapped in various deceptions.

    They were confused again when a city guard told them that Erdus should be sleeping right now.

    ¡°Maybe they detected Meraid¡¯s Swords inside Erdus, so they went inside the deadly trap by themselves,¡± a guard said as he took a guess.

    It was not the exact truth, but it was close enough.

    Lawson switched the disy to Erdus¡¯ heart and was surprised by what he saw.

    ¡°That¡¯s... Angor?¡±

    Inside the disy, Angor, who was in pretty bad shape, was standing in front of three other women and an otherworldly ve.

    Erdus¡¯ heart wasn¡¯t there, although people could tell what happened to it since the room was still raining flesh and blood.

    There was no doubt that the boy standing in the middle of the disy just destroyed the heart.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that? He killed Erdus?¡± A wizard asked.

    ¡°You¡¯ll know him if you have read the newest edition of Precision Sky,¡± a witchmented.

    ¡°Oh pff. That gossiping paperwork just wastes your time. I heard they let mortals take part in their editing works? Then I¡¯d say most of the magazine is about lies.¡±

    ¡°Still, it told you about who the boy is, and we all know it isn¡¯t a lie.¡± The witch noticed that more people were directing attention to her so she kept exining, ¡°Just think about what happened at Elixir Hut half a month ago.¡±

    ¡°You mean Sunders fought with Bog?¡± someone muttered. He then eximed in a louder voice, ¡°That boy was why Sunders went for Bog in the first ce!¡±

    Bog¡¯s twisted obsession regarding blond hair and blue eyes was not a secret among people. The man would go after ANY creatures with simr features.

    They checked the screen again. The boy in the disy had really short hair for some reason, but they could still see the bright blond color as well as those pair of deep-blue eyes... Angor still looked immature in many aspects, yet he was undeniably a perfect ¡°prey¡± in Bog¡¯s eyes.

    As for why Sunders wanted to take the boy away from Bog...

    ¡°I see it now. He¡¯s Angor Padt, Sunders¡¯ newly adopted student. People said that Sunders make many exceptions by doing so. And he¡¯s an alchemist who once reached out to Mystery items or something?¡±

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t make meugh. Mystery power at such an age? Well, I¡¯d admit he used some pretty tricks to kill Erdus. That makes him pretty strong in his rank. Do you think someone like that has time to study alchemy?¡±

    ¡°So whatever made Sunders so interested in him?¡±

    While the other wizards talked to each other, Lawson silently appreciated Angor¡¯s effort.

    <i>This boy contributed to the death of the Lord of Tentacles, albeit indirectly. But now, Angor killed Erdus with his own hands... Nice. Now I see why Sunders wants him so much.</i>

    <i>But I¡¯m afraid his life ends here.</i>

    Lawson felt it a great pity that the boy wouldn¡¯t make it out alive again. After killing Erdus, there were still Erdus¡¯ illusions to deal with. And it was no easy task.

    ¡°He has 30 minutes to break all these wizard-level illusions. Even if Erdus is dead, an apprentice like him won¡¯t make it,¡± a wizard also saw the situation and spoke to everyone. The wizard added, ¡°I think I need at least an hour if I¡¯m in the same situation.¡±

    ¡°An hour, huh? I¡¯ll give you a full day and see if you can live up to your words.¡±

    ¡°Such a waste of talent... dead inside Erdus¡¯ belly.¡±

    ¡°A dead talent is of no use to anyone, however good he is.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s check the altar already. There¡¯s no point looking at those who¡¯ll die soon.¡±

    The discussion ended as the wizards concluded on Angor¡¯s fate¡ªa sh in the pan, to be forgotten overnight.

    Not everyone would forget about him. A number of wizards were interested in Angor¡¯s brilliant disy of strength, and they would keep his particrly handsome young face and name in mind.

    While everyone had their attention on Angor, Kanter immediately noticed Keely inside the screen.

    And he was extremely shocked when he noticed that by telling Keely to ¡°look after Angor¡±, the oue came out reversed.

    But it didn¡¯t really matter since Kanter was really anxious about Keely¡¯s condition. <i>She¡¯s going to die at this rate!</i>

    With a swift move, Kanter shed away and joined Mithra.

    ¡°Mithra! Is there a way to rescue them out of there?¡± Kanter directly cut to the point.

    Mithra¡¯s expression looked as grim as Kanter. He valued Angor¡¯s alchemy skills and even introduced Angor to Muse. But something went wrong in the end. It always did.

    Mithra looked at Lawson and Muse instead of answering.

    The others also noticed Kanter¡¯s movement. Kanter was the strongest wizards here apart from Lawson and Muse, and the others knew what Kanter was trying to do when they saw Keely on the screen.

    They wondered how Lawson would react to this. Rather than expecting an answer, they merely considered the incident fun to watch.

    Muse saw Mithra looking his way and sent a Voice Transmission to Lawson, ¡°Guess we should get those two out of there. Keely is Kanter¡¯s only student, and Angor¡¯s a promising pupil. I already gave him the gate card to our Research Department. Don¡¯t let it go to waste.¡±

    Lawson gave Muse a surprised look as he didn¡¯t think Muse would treasure the boy that much.

    ¡°... No. You know well that any wizard that goes inside now will cause interference to the final stage of the garden¡¯s evolution. Also, with so many wizards watching, we cannot afford to do so just for personal matters.¡±

    Muse sighed and put away his filming stone. He also epted the fact that Angor would perish this day.

    And that was the response everyone was waiting for.

    The other wizards shook their heads as they missed a chance to witness a fun drama, while Kanter¡¯s face went pale.

    Muse nced at Kanter again. ¡°Well, Lilith¡¯s n is the only organization that cares about their students so much. Oh right, Sunders didn¡¯te today, did he?¡±

    Lawson was thinking about the same thing just now.

    While it was true thatprehending a naturalw was harder than finding a needle in the ocean, but it was something worth trying nevertheless. Why would Sunders disregard such an opportunity?

    Also, how Sunders reacted against Bog at Elixir Hut suggested that the gentleman really liked his student.

    Lawson nced at another direction. His sight prated concrete and steel until he saw a certain mansion surrounded by flower gardens.

    At the same time, Sunders also looked up from his desk and epted Lawson¡¯s distant gaze.

    Lawson grinned and looked away.

    ¡°Heh. That man looks fine, but he can¡¯t fool me...¡± Lawson squinted his eyes. ¡°He¡¯s not doing very well.¡±

    Lawson would not look into Sunders¡¯ thoughts. There was no point offending the gentleman now.

    ¡°Hey, Mister Lawson, why are we looking at a bunch of dead apprentices? I want to see if Jolene has reached the altar,¡± a witch named Spade came to Lawson and asked to check on her own student.

    Since they all believed that those inside Erdus would eventually embrace their end, Lawson decided not to pay them unnecessary attention and switched the disy back to the Altar of Demise.

 Chapter 526 - Falca in Distress

    <h4>Chapter 526: Falca in Distress</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As the countdown got nearer to its end, more apprentices began to show up around the Altar of Demise. Lawson¡¯s initial estimation about how 90% of all apprentices would die in the garden was disproved when more than 15% of the participants had already reached their goal. But still, as the garden sacrifice was brought ahead of the original schedule, such an oue was totally expected.

    The observing wizards were d to see so many winners making it to the end. Even though they did not really care about the life and death of apprentices, they still preferred to have the potential human resources of their respective organizations be alive instead of dead.

    Lawson was the only one who was aware of the fact that a great number of the survivors had to thank Angor for this.

    <i>Such a pity... that Angor boy himself will not have a chance to ept their gratitude.</i>

    ...

    ¡°Freeze and give us your Meraid¡¯s Sword! Or else¡ª¡±

    ¡°Stop talking and go get him, you fool! Nobody will give you their swords now. Just kill him and his sword is ours!¡±

    Two apprentices, one extremely fat and one skinny, blocked Falca¡¯s way.

    Falca simply grinned at the intruders. ¡°Do you even know who I am, brats? Now hear me... ¡®Silent Raven¡¯ Taurus is from my family. Are you sure you want a quick death?¡±

    The pair of apprentices exchanged a look before they began tough out loud. ¡°Yeah, Mister Taurus, we know him. But what¡¯s that to do with you? Will he actuallye in here and save yer a*s? Now prepare to die!¡±

    Falca narrowed his eyes as his body released an intense aura. The apprentice raiders saw a giant crescent moon emerging from behind Falca, which looked extremely bright in the dark night.

    <i>Wait... night??</i> The raiders grew confused. <i>It was noontime a second earlier!</i>

    ¡°An effect caused by some Darkness spells.¡± The fat apprentice canceled his attack and prepared another cantrip in his mind space. ¡°Call of Light!¡±

    It was a level-1 cantrip used for dispelling unusual darkness.

    ¡°Darkness? Heh, I¡¯m not one of those sneaky mice who only know how to backstab people,¡± Falca snickered. His form slowly became transparent under the moonlight, while a group of bats suddenly dived out of the moon he created. They then prated his enemies¡¯ bodies like arrows.

    Poom, poom!

    Two cold corpses dropped into the sea below.

    Falca sensed the smell of fresh blood on his returning bats andughed at the sky maniacally.

    ¡°Now THAT¡¯s your punishment for opposing the great Shadow Bat! Hey, wait... I didn¡¯t tell them my title! Sh*t!¡±

    <i>Well, no matter. They¡¯re dead anyway.</i>

    After killing these two robbers, Falca also reached where the Altar of Demise was supposed to be located¡ªthe City of Demise.

    The city was a beautiful capital built by Duons and Dugons using seashells and colorful corals. However, the former glory of the great city had beenpletely reced by mes and ruins. Apprentices who still needed Meraid¡¯s Swords all considered the city their final chance of survival. The Dugon and Duons were pretty strong in terms ofbat, yet they had no hope when facing countless bloodthirsty bandits who had various cruel tactics to ughter them. In a matter of hours, the entire city was cleansed of all life.

    This was what Falca saw when he came to the city¡ªburning buildings and piles of corpses.

    He scoffed at the man-made disaster and headed to the altar.

    There was a giant magic array built around the altar. It only allowed those carrying a Meraid¡¯s Sword to enter. There were still many apprentices that gathered outside the array. They sought to intercept sword holders, and since this was about whether they could live on, everyone looked ferocious and desperate like starving beasts.

    Falca was surrounded by a dozen such people. He saw a chance and sessfully dashed into the magic array using great speed by turning into a bat.

    He took a moment to catch his breath as he realized that the final push was actually way more difficult than the previous encounters. Nevertheless, he was d he made it.

    <i>Hah! Perhaps I¡¯m the first one toe here? I¡¯m the champion among them! Well, maybe not, but at least I¡¯m an elite among elites!</i>

    With that in mind, he looked ahead only to see countless individuals already waiting.

    <i>What the fu¡ªthere are at least ten thousand people in here!!</i>

    Falca instantly felt his passion snuffed out. <i>What happened to ¡°only one out of ten will survive in the end¡±?!</i>

    He looked back and checked those who were still fighting for their lives outside the barrier. He then felt a little better.

    Still in his bat form, Falca flew higher to take a better look at the area.

    But he was immediately knocked away by a water arrow and copsed among a group of people beneath.

    He managed to catch a glimpse at who shot him. It was Jebra.

    Or rather, it was the giant whale under Jebra that unleashed that water arrow at him.

    Jebra was surrounded by vapor, so people couldn¡¯t really see his face. His pet did more than enough to announce Jebra¡¯s presence to everyone. When the animal saw Falca flying annoyingly high, it used a simple water arrow to get rid of him.

    <i>How did I get hit by such a slow move?! </i>Falca panicked.

    ¡°Fold your wings... Batty. Did you not see the situation? Only the TRUE elites are allowed to stay up there. Stop pretending if you can¡¯t even avoid that water arrow,¡± someone said to Falca in a child¡¯s voice.

    <i>Batty?! Did that a*shole Diablo tell someone else about my stupid moniker??</i>

    Furious, Falca lifted his head and saw a boy around the age of ten sitting on top of a white rhino. He was not alone¡ªanother fat kid was also sitting on the animal.

    ¡°Who the f*ck is ¡®Batty¡¯?! I¡¯m Mister ¡®Shadow Bat¡¯ Falca to you. And I¡¯m kin of ¡®Silent Raven¡¯ Taurus!¡± Falca bellowed.

    ¡°Okay okay, you¡¯re not Batty, so how about... Mister Panda?¡±

    Falca¡¯s getup looked extremely unique even among all the apprentices from different organizations. He had ck hair, ck eyes with dark circles, and all-ck clothes. Everything on him was basically ck apart from his exposed skin. His bizarre style was made weirder by a bunch of ck cosmetic bandages and decorative spikes.

    Putting his clothes aside, everyone who saw him for the first time would believe that he really needed some sleep, especially when they looked at the ck skin around his eyes.

    If Taurus were here, he would tell them that Falca drew those circles himself using some cheap paint just to appear different from the others.

    ¡°Are you deaf?? It¡¯s Falca, Mister Falca!¡± Out of rage, Falca summoned two blood bats that rushed at the annoying boy.

    The boy was startled, but before the bats could reach him, a shield created out of sand appeared out of nowhere and drained the bats into dry corpses.

    Falca didn¡¯t even get to mourn his pets when another object made from sand¡ªa giant foot this time¡ªcame upon his face.

    Wham!

    Falca¡¯s body created a perfect arc in the air and crashed somewhere a dozen meters away.

    After getting rid of some stars in his vision, Falca opened his eyes and saw the rhino-riding boying near him.

    ¡°Uh, sorry, I forgot to tell you. My senior is up in the sky. There, that¡¯s him.¡±

    Falca looked up and saw a fierce-looking apprentice gazing at him from afar.

    ¡°Hermes?!¡± Falca quickly recognized that man¡¯s name.

    ¡°Oh, so you know my senior?¡± The boy chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m Loki by the way. Hey, get up and get moving, or all the good spots will be taken.¡±

    Upon learning that the ¡°annoying boy¡± was the junior apprentice of Hermes, Falca removed his aggressive attitude and sat up.

    He checked again and saw a dozen people floating around in the sky.

    Jebra was staying in the middle, while the others that scattered around were all powerful individuals in their ranks, and they were as strong as Hermes.

    An apprentice from Floating Mech City, Dira, was also in midair, although he stayed as far away from Jebra as possible.

    Only a dozen people were granted ces in the sky, while the remaining ten thousand apprentices had to stay on the ground.

    ¡°But who allowed them?¡± Falca protested.

    ¡°Nobody. They¡¯re there because they can,¡± an old man standing close enough to them said. ¡°Heh... you¡¯ll see. In this world, those with bigger fists set the rules, while the others follow.¡±

    Following the old man¡¯s words, another apprentice went flying over their heads. Falca looked up and recognized this man as another elite apprentice sent by Edge of Night. This elite apprentice was titled ¡°Eternal Night¡±.

    People who used such showy titles were either hero wannabes or those who were strong enough to deserve them.

    Nevertheless, Falca found the title to be pretty embarrassing.

    ¡°I know that guy. He¡¯s pretty good...¡±

    Not long after Falca said those words, a woman who was literally walking on flowers in the air waved a hand gently.

    People smelled something sweet before ¡°Eternal Night¡± crashed onto the ground¡ªhead first.

    ¡°See that? Don¡¯t try your luck if you don¡¯t have the strength for it,¡± the old manmented while taking out a gray Meraid¡¯s Sword. ¡°Well, the colors of our swords will ultimately decide where we¡¯ll stand. There¡¯s no pointpeting for a better spot right now.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re notpeting because you¡¯re too weak, right?¡± Loki pointed out the obvious.

    The old man¡¯s eyebrows twitched. He didn¡¯t do anything since Hermes was still looking at them.

    ¡°I¡¯ll not waste time with you kids. Time to find a better position.¡±

    The old man walked away.

    Falca was still confused about something he just heard.

    ¡°Colors? Where we¡¯ll stand? What¡¯s that supposed to mean? And what¡¯s with this ¡®better position¡¯?¡±

    Loki nced at Falca. ¡°Well, use your spirit feelers to check the Meraid¡¯s Sword and you¡¯ll see.¡±

 Chapter 527 - Last Moment

    <h4>Chapter 527: Last Moment</h4>

    Falca did attempt to attack Loki earlier, but Loki still decided to exin Falca¡¯s question. In fact, he didn¡¯t hate Falca at all.

    The nature of a naughty kid.

    Also, despite Falca¡¯s rebellious dressing style, he was only around the age of 15, which was not much older than Loki. There were very few apprentices around such young ages here, and Loki would like to be friendly to all of them.

    Falca felt puzzled upon receiving Loki¡¯s ¡°friendliness¡±, yet he chose to listen to the boy¡¯s advice. He was the one asking that question after all.

    He spread his spirit feelers around his gray Meraid¡¯s Sword. Previously, this wouldn¡¯t yield any results, but Falca was surprised that he actually sensed something strange this time.

    He saw the Altar of Demise from above in a bird¡¯s-eye view, which helped him notice that the area was divided into five zones.

    The central zone was giving out a dim light and was where the embodiment of the purificationw was located. Starting from there and going outward, there was the golden zone, silver zone, white zone, and atst, the gray zone at the edge. The golden zone was the smallest one while the gray one was several hundred timesrger.

    Falca quickly took a guess. ¡°So, the colors of our swords determine which zone we can enter?¡±

    ¡°Yup!¡± Loki nodded. ¡°Someone captured and interrogated some Duon priests. They told us that less than a hundred people are allowed into the golden zone. A thousand for silver. As for the other two ones... I¡¯m not sure. Many people.¡±

    ¡°But how does it work? Do we acquire more purification power if we stand closer to the center?¡±

    ¡°Basically, yes. But it doesn¡¯t matter if you have really little impurity in your body. Standing in the gray zone will help you cleanse it all. I heard that the purification power got amplified or something, so gray zone will enjoy really strong purification too.¡± Loki made a duck-face and nced at Jebra. ¡°That guy¡¯s body ispletely pure. He took a spot in the golden zone just because he wants to.¡±

    Falca frowned.

    In order to cultivate his Blood Bats, he gained a lot of impurity and old injuries. He really wanted to receive the best purification if possible.

    But how did so many people survive? If more people died out there, I can find a better ce!

    His arrogant mind never thought about the possibility that he might well be one of the victims if the challenge were harder.

    Loki saw Falca¡¯s sad look and rolled his eyes. Then he also took out a gray sword. ¡°Come on, the garden is not the only thing that helps us purify our bodies. Being alive now is the biggest destiny we can have. And think about thew of purification... standing closer to the core has nothing to with who canprehend thew. You need talent and some serious luck for that. Who knows, maybe one of us will seed.¡±

    Again, Falca felt ufortable with Loki being so amiable. Regardless, he didn¡¯t protest.

    Yeah... thew of purification. Everybody wants that.

    ¡°I find the entrance in the demon fish world because I¡¯m smart. I found a Meraid¡¯s Sword in the Sea of Purification, and I¡¯m lucky enough to get sent somewhere closer to the altar at the beginning...¡±

    Brain, destiny, luck, and talent, I have them all! Of course I should be the one who receives the enlightenment of thew!

    When thinking in this way, Falca felt great hope surging in his heart.

    Little did he know that most people were considering the same thing.

    Every single survivor believed that he or she was ¡°special¡±, was the ¡°chosen one¡±, and was very likely to win the rare chance.

    While Falca enjoyed his own fantasies, Loki looked at his partner who was also sitting on the white rhino.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, n? You look so sad.¡±

    n was always a carefree and happy-go-lucky little chef. Loki easily noticed something was wrong since n had not been speaking for quite a while.

    n sighed. ¡°Five minutes left...¡±

    Loki tilted his head and checked the countdown.

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s almost up, but it means we¡¯re going to enjoy thew of purification soon. Shouldn¡¯t you be happy?¡±

    ¡°When I was with Hermes, I looked around and didn¡¯t find Angor anywhere. He got left behind?¡± n looked at the protective barrier around the area and still couldn¡¯t find Angor.

    They were not really close friends, yet n only knew a handful of people in the entire wizarding world. Besides, Angor seemed to be a powerful alchemist. n would really want to keep him as a long-term acquaintance.

    But he was beginning to get a bad feeling now. Was Angor dead?

    ¡°Dunno, I can¡¯t see him either.¡± Loki didn¡¯t share n¡¯s concern. ¡°He¡¯s probably still on his way. I don¡¯t think many people can beat him in a fight,¡± Loki said. He then paused and lowered his voice to a whisper, ¡°Who knows, maybe even Jebra will get his a*s kicked if Angor¡¯s here.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just worried...¡± n looked down. If something bad happened to him...

    ¡°Angor? Angor Padt?¡± Falca crept closer to the rhino and showed a strange expression.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s him. You know him too?¡± n asked.

    Falca visibly grew excited about something. ¡°So, he didn¡¯t make it to the altar? Ha, nice! That¡¯s the best news I¡¯ve heard ever since I came here!¡±

    ¡°Huh? You hate him or something?¡±

    ¡°Nah, I just don¡¯t like him,¡± Falca said as he revealed a cruel smile. He fully med Angor for getting caught by a Rune Monitorst time. Also, Taurus spoke highly of Angor¡¯s talent for more than once, which made Falca really irritated.

    We¡¯re both level-2 apprentices, so what¡¯s the deal? That guy got nothing apart from his handsome face!

    Falca always believed that Angor¡¯s fame was forged out of lies.

    And why would Mister Taurus tell me to learn from him?? He hadn¡¯t even met Angor personally yet!

    Now that Angor failed the challenge, Falca was going to tell Taurus that he didn¡¯t have to learn from a loser who died in the garden.

    As the countdown ticked down, there was more than one individual who was concerned about Angor¡¯s fate, such as those who escaped from the Lord of Tentacles because of Angor¡¯s help¡ªSinehowze, Carveline, and Shayaron.

    ¡°Angor¡¯s not here yet...¡± said Sinehowze. She and Carveline also managed to upy a position in the sky.

    ¡°He¡¯s too far. That fight between us happened somewhere ten thousand kilometers from the altar. We can get here because of our static teleportation. I don¡¯t think Angor has anything like that... It¡¯s too hard for him to travel so far even if he moves at full speed.¡±

    Away from them, Jebra was also ncing at the barrier anxiously.

    No one could see him across the thick vapor curtain around him. He kept checking the barrier because he felt terrified.

    There were multiple apprentices here who wanted to kill him, such as Keely and Maine. Butpared to them, Jebra was very afraid of the water maniptor apprentice who bullied him for good. Even at this moment, some residue of the poisonous water in his body was still torturing him. Jebra hoped that the purification could do something about itter. Otherwise, he would have to ask his professor for help.

    Jebra kept praying that the madwoman wouldn¡¯t show up here. He put up his water barrier just so that the others couldn¡¯t see his terrified look. Otherwise, it would ruin his hard-earned personal image.

    His legs trembled again when he thought about that terrible woman.

    [Time remaining: 1 minute]

    n shook his head as he gave up on waiting for Angor. He always trusted Angor¡¯s strength, but it seemed his faith was forsaken.

    ¡°The promotion ceremony is soon. Let¡¯s find a spot in the white zone,¡± n sighed and said to Loki.

    ¡°Hermes already helped us clean out some space, let¡¯s head there.¡± Loki nodded and beckoned Falca.

    Since Hermes just taught him a painful lesson not long ago, Falca felt really embarrassed about receiving Loki¡¯s help. However, he stillplied since he only had a gray sword.

    Sinehowze shook her head as she murmured, ¡°Angor failed... I was looking for a chance to sign a Spirit Contract with him so that he can help me craft stuff. Well, I should forget about it.¡±

    Jebra checked the ticking number in the sky and felt his mood eased a lot.

    That woman¡¯s dead! Nobody will know about my weakness, and one less enemy for me!

    ...

    Outside the barrier and away from everyone¡¯s view, a bolt of ck lightning was approaching the barrier with great speed.

    Ten, nine, eight...

    When the number reached ¡°1¡±, the protective magic array around the Altar of Demise that stopped anyone without a Meraid¡¯s Sword from entering slowly changed its color from transparent to milk-white.

    When the barrierpletely sealed up, thest phase of the blood sacrifice would begin.

    When that happened, the entire Sea of Purification, including everything that called it home as well as apprentices who had not entered the barrier, would be fertilizers that would facilitate the growth of the purification garden.

    Before the barrier becamepletely white and shut off everything outside, the ck lightning barged inside and caused a violent air current to go off.

    ¡°We made it?!¡±

    ¡°Yes, we did!!¡±

    ¡°Gods bless us!¡±

    As several strange voices celebrated to their hearts¡¯ content, those that arrived at the Altar of Demise earlier, as well as the observing wizards outside the purification garden, widened their eyes in shock.

    Whatever is that thing?!

 Chapter 528 - Making Miracles

    <h4>Chapter 528: Making Miracles</h4>

    The giant creature that intruded the area immediately caught everyone¡¯s attention.

    It was a strange-looking monster with a pair of thick, reddish-brown wings with a wingspan of over ten meters. It also grew a gray head that looked like a falcon¡¯s head, a pair of crimson eyes, and a red curved beak that was undeniably a deadly weapon.

    But the rest of its body looked like a lion¡¯s body. There was a mane around its neck, which slowly turned from gray to brown as it blended in with the color of the creature¡¯s body.

    A falcon¡¯s head and wings, a lion¡¯s body and ws, a whipping tail that was glowing as it burned in bright mes... these otherwise ipatible featuresbined into the monster everyone was looking at.

    The monster pped itsrge wings and cruised around in the air. It was a lot smallerpared to Jebra¡¯s horned whale, but people were still surprised when they noticed that the whale did not react when the strange monster approached its territory.

    This only told them that the strange eagle-lion was something of the same level as the blue whale.

    Next, someone noticed several people sitting on the monster¡¯s back.

    ¡°Woah, that¡¯s some good luck. Hey, do you guys know who they are?¡±

    They couldn¡¯t see the faces of the new visitors against the sunlight above them.

    ¡°To hell with them. Someone will soon tell them not to fly above us in the hard way.¡±

    But no one moved.

    A momentter, the monster approached where Sinehowze was floating.

    No one knew much about these apprentices who upied an advantageous spot in the sky. Yet the others believed that they were strong since Jebra allowed them to stay there.

    People expected something fun to watch when they saw the strange monster heading toward Sinehowze and Carveline.

    Despite their thirst for drama, Carveline and Sinehowze carefully moved out of the monster¡¯s way to let it join them.

    ¡°Ohh, congrattions on hitting thest ride,¡± said Carveline.

    Sinehowze didn¡¯t say anything. She rested her head on Carveline¡¯s shoulder while inspecting a certain apprentice sitting on the monster with a cunning look.

    While they casually greeted each other, the others could no longer sit tight.

    Who the f*ck is that?! Those two women actually knew them?

    Next, the monster approached Hermes¡¯ position, who did the same by inviting the creature to him.

    People¡¯s doubts grew bigger and bigger.

    The monster kept moving toward the center of the sky. When it moved past the flower-treading witch, she considered and did not move¡ªshe would not start a fight with someone who was approved by both Hermes and Sinehowze.

    Not everyone would agree with her.

    As the monster approached the area above the silver zone, a slim-looking apprentice in silver uniform moved into its way.

    ¡°Oh, look at that, Dira is going to do something when neither Jebra and the other elites did. This will be fun!¡± someonemented.

    In fact, those sitting on the strange monster weren¡¯t expecting an enemy either. They saw Dira blocking their way with a cold look.

    ¡°Level-1s who made it here with pure luck but no strength? Get down there and wait for your share, that¡¯s where you weaklings belong!¡±

    Dira lifted a hand and created the shadow of a giant hand around him.

    ¡°Hand of Spell? No... that¡¯s Freezing Grip!¡±

    When the giant hand made of ice mmed at the monster, the ¡°passengers¡± finally realized that Dira was fighting them. Even so, they sat still without doing anything.

    The monster howled ferociously and swiped the air with one w, shattering the iing ice hand as well as knocking Dira toward the distance.

    Dira struggled a little and managed to regain bnce in the air.

    ¡°YOU DARE!!¡± He lifted his hand again and create a puddle of white liquid. ¡°Bow down before my Eternal Freeze!¡±

    He threw the puddle at the monster in rage.

    ¡°Water.¡±

    People heard someone chanting in a small, in voice.

    Instead of creating the freezing effect Dira was expecting, the puddle suddenly became transparent and dropped to the ground.

    Those standing below believed that Dira¡¯s ¡°Eternal Freeze¡± was diverted to their way and scattered in panic.

    A woman failed to move away in time and had her face drenched by the liquid. For a brief moment, she trembled and waited for Dira¡¯s spell to turn her into ice.

    But nothing happened.

    She rubbed her face and took a sniff at the liquid that hit her.

    ¡°This is... pretty sweet?¡±

    Her simple words caused a series of heated discussions among the onlooking apprentices while Dira froze up in the air.

    Sweet? What sweet? That wasn¡¯t sugar water! That¡¯s a special medium I brought from my organization called ¡°Tears of Eternal Freeze¡±! Something I need to cast a deadly spell!

    ¡°Um, I mean, it tasted good. Like spring water you find in the mountains,¡± the wet woman said and added some salt to Dira¡¯s wounded ego.

    Dira felt short of breath all of a sudden. He pointed a trembling finger at the group sitting on the strange monster but without saying anything.

    And since Dira didn¡¯t make any further moves, the eagle-lion ignored him and kept flying forward.

    Nobody followed Dira¡¯s example to cause trouble again, which allowed the monster to reach its final destination¡ªthe golden zone, where Jebra was waiting.

    Again, the other apprentices thought Jebra would get furious about this and summon water tides or something to attack the intruders. Yet Jebra didn¡¯t move.

    To the onlookers, Jebra appeared calm and rxed. However, Feshie was the only one who could see the man¡¯s thighs shaking madly in fear.

    There was no fight breaking out. Instead, everyone heard someone talking loud and clear.

    ¡°Hey, you! Give us some space, will you?¡±

    It was someone on top of the strange monster who just spoke. Obviously, he meant to direct those words at Jebra.

    ¡°Whoa, sh*t, which b*stard dares to talk to Jebra like that?¡± Falca, who had been staying with Loki, scoffed. He hadpletely forgotten about how he was humiliated by Jebra¡¯s whale not long ago.

    Loki glimpsed at Falca and didn¡¯t say anything.

    It was n who picked up the topic, ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think Jebra can defeat those guys. Didn¡¯t you see that Dira¡¯s attack was destroyed in one hit?¡±

    Falca sneered, ¡°That¡¯s Jebra, THE Jebra, ¡®Child of Ocean¡¯! The number one student of ¡®God of Seas¡¯!¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you from Silent Hill and the kinsman of Mister Taurus? Why are you afraid of Song of the Deep so much?¡± n looked at Falca up and down doubtfully. ¡°Oh, I get it, you have one of those fish scale tattoos somewhere on your body, so you secretly want to join them?¡±

    Falca¡¯s eyes literally glowed in rage. Did this level-1 damn fat boy just insult me??

    Falca summoned a Blood Bat to teach n a lesson, while Loki quickly stopped them. ¡°Chill. I agree with this ck dude. Jebra will not lose. A draw, at best.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really?¡± n chuckled. He said that because he already recognized the familiar voice that came from the eagle-lion.

    Everyone was still waiting to see how Jebra would react when someone told him to ¡°make way¡±.

    Ten secondster, Jebra clenched his fists and nced at a certain woman on the monster¡¯s back. She was giving him those hungry looks again.

    He then ordered his whale to slowly move away from the eagle-lion.

    More discussions and quarrels rose among the apprentices. Whoever forced THE arrogant Jebra to stand down?!

    Simrly, the valley area outside the purification garden was also filled with doubts and questions from all the wizards. Even some of the most seasoned wizards failed to recognize the bizarre-looking monster that just arrived at the altar.

    In the end, they all looked at Muse and hoped for an answer.

    Despite his title, ¡°The Fool¡± Muse wasmonly believed to be the most cultured wizard at the scene. Even a first-ss truth-finder wizard like Kanter would pay great respect to Muse in all situations.

    Muse¡¯s Research Department created many revolutionary skills and inventions for the entire wizarding world, and everyone believed that Muse was second to none when it came to knowledge and extensive expertise.

    ¡°... ording to an illustrated book I found from Origin World, that creature is called a ¡®griffin¡¯. There are different types of griffins such as the Grim Griffin that can control mist and shadows, the Ice Griffin thatmands freezing air. From the looks of it, what we are looking at right now is a me Griffin.¡±

    While talking, Muse whispered to Lawson in a small voice, ¡°But there are no records about griffins showing up at Fey Continent... Did that one identallye here from Origin World?¡±

    Lawson shook his head. ¡°The teleport arrays toward Origin World are already destroyed. I don¡¯t think so.¡±

    ¡°I heard that Isabelle returned to the southern wizarding region. Perhaps...?¡± Muse made sure both he and Lawson understood the situation and ended the subject here.

    Lawson looked back at the screen again and checked who was riding on the creature.

    And he immediately saw Angor, who found afortable spot on the griffin¡¯s neck.

    Heh, he actually made it to the end. How did he get past those wizard-level illusions? More importantly... where did that monstere from?

    They had been looking at the Altar of Demise, so they failed to understand what happened inside Erdus.

    He killed Erdus and brought his whole team to the altar?

    ¡°This boy sure knows how to create miracles,¡± Lawson muttered to himself.

 Chapter 529 - Fury Griffin

    <h4>Chapter 529: Fury Griffin</h4>

    Simrly, many wizards would agree that Angor had created quite a marvel by escaping from Erdus¡¯ illusions AND making it to the Altar of Demise.

    Besides, they all knew that Angor received no external help¡ªthere was no wizard who entered the garden to assist him. The boy did all this all by himself.

    But how?

    They assumed that Angor possessed something given by Sunders that helped him break the illusions fast enough.

    Yes, that exins why Sunders didn¡¯te to watch his student. He doesn¡¯t need to!

    None of them was correct. Angor¡¯s group traveled from Erdus¡¯ position to the Altar of Demise under five minutes, and Sunders didn¡¯t have anything for Angor to move so swiftly.

    Inside the garden, Angor¡¯s group was now casually floating above the golden zone after ¡°chasing¡± Jebra away. Not far from them was the embodiment of the purificationw, which was still growingrger.

    While sitting on the griffin¡¯s neck, Angor smoothened its mane with a hand. ¡°Thanks, Toby.¡±

    This griffin, who confused everyone inside and outside the garden with its magnificent entrance, was originally the palm-sized seabird, Toby.

    Toby finally woke up from its slumber five minutes ago, which was when Angor was feeling desperate due to theck of time.

    Angor freed Toby from his bracelet and told the bird to head to the altar so that he could stay alive. To their surprise, Toby¡¯s tiny body grewrger in front of their eyes and turned into this ¡°eagle-lion¡±. He then asked everyone to hop on.

    Next, Toby dashed toward the Altar of Demise at lightning speed using his sequence of gravity.

    Angor was quite astonished by Toby¡¯s drastic change in shape as well as the bird¡¯s unhindered speed. In fact, Toby now flew even faster despite his bigger body. It seemed Toby just gained several more levels at gravity maniption.

    With Toby as their ride, Angor¡¯s group managed to reach their goal at the veryst second. The raiders waiting outside the barrier never had a chance to catch up with Toby.

    Since they were safe, the group carefully observed the glowing presence in front of them, which was thew of purification. They all hoped to gain such great power.

    Angor, however, didn¡¯t pay any attention to the garden¡¯sw, nor did he care about why the apprentices were divided into groups. He was thinking about Toby¡¯s condition.

    What happened to Toby? Was he sleeping like that just to save strength for this ¡°change¡±?

    Toby didn¡¯t answer his questions. He simply carried the group toward the ground andnded inside the golden waiting zone.

    Toby¡¯s action shocked the other apprentices again. Why would they drop down instead of waiting in the sky?

    But on second thought, they believed that it would make no difference to this strange group of people. They already disyed their strength by scaring Jebra away.

    And we can have a better look at them now! Who are they anyway?

    After dropping Angor¡¯s group off at the ground, Toby grew smaller until his body reverted back to the gray, palm-sized seabird. He then returned to Angor¡¯s shoulder and gave his master a gentle kiss on the cheek.

    Angor felt his eyes watering at the affectionate gesture of his partner.

    ¡°All that sleeping and you still look the same...¡± Angor chuckled. He thought Toby would take on a brand new look with all those bright brown feathers. Still... Even though these dim gray feathers might not look as beautiful, this was the good-old Toby that he liked better.

    ¡°Tweet!¡± Toby reached for its Snowy Feather and took out a ck gentleman suit plus a ck top-hat, which looked simr to Angor¡¯s getup.

    After getting dressed, Toby removed its bashful manner in front of all the onlookers and puffed up his chest as if he really needed these clothes to back up his character.

    ¡°Many thanks, Toby, or we¡¯d be dead for sure,¡± Nausica said as she joined them and tapped Toby¡¯s head with a finger.

    Toby already knew Nausica, so he had no problem enjoying the petting.

    Meanwhile, the other apprentices all wondered who ¡°Toby¡± was.

    That griffin was awesome! It pped Dira away like hitting a fly. And people can ride it. We can¡¯t find many better familiar pets like this one!

    ¡°Hey Angor, who is¡ª¡± Shan also came and tried to copy Nausica¡¯s move by poking Toby.

    Toby moved his head away and gave Shan a side-nce.

    Angor snickered at the funny sight and exined, ¡°He¡¯s Toby, my best friend.¡±

    Keely and Shiliew also said their thanks but didn¡¯t do anything else other than that. They did want to learn how Toby changed his form, but they thought that it was probably a private matter, so they decided not to ask.

    Now that the introduction was done, Angor asked Toby about his previous questions again.

    Using bird chirps and wing gestures, Toby tried his best to tell Angor what happened during his a¡±.

    At the same time, some of the observing apprentices recognized Angor¡¯s identity.

    ¡°That¡¯s Mister Phantom¡¯s student. That¡¯s how he intimidated Jebra? I thought someone like him won¡¯te to the garden at all.¡±

    ¡°People said he¡¯s all talks but is actually a p*ssy. Nonsense!¡±

    Angor¡¯s name was a hot topic in the city ever since Precision Sky published the stories about him and after people learned about how Sunders openly attacked Bog in the city just to get Angor back.

    But there were only a few wizards, such as Mithra, who truly knew about Angor¡¯s alchemy skills. The other gossipers hadpletely considered what the magazine said as jokes, and no one believed that Angor actually reached out to a Mystery item.

    There were also some people, such as those with malicious intentions as well as those who were envious of him, that purposely maligned Angor¡¯s name, which ultimately caused Angor to earn a bad fame among his peers. Today, most people would describe Angor as either a ¡°liar¡± or a ¡°lucky liar¡±.

    They couldn¡¯t deny the fact that Sunders took Angor as a student, and they assumed that it was all because of luck.

    Asmon sense, only fools would believe such rumors. Sunders was always a great and feared wizard, who undeniably knew how to tell if someone was talented or was a lucky but useless cker.

    Yet most apprentices chose to act as ¡°fools¡±. They did not want to admit that a fresh apprentice was better than them, and they felt better when they chose to believe in those false usations.

    ¡°Humph! What¡¯s so special about him? I don¡¯t see it!¡± Someone protested even when the truth was already upon his face. ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s THE student of Sunders. But is he really the reason why Jebra backed away? Didn¡¯t you see Mister Eventide¡¯s student was also with them?¡±

    In fact, he was half-correct. It was neither Angor nor Keely who scared Jebra. It was Shiliew, who had sessfully avoided all attention until now. The others only had their focus on Angor and Keely while beingpletely oblivious of the three other people in Angor¡¯s group¡ªa blue-haired female apprentice that no one recognized, a level-1 apprentice, and a seemingly powerless little girl.

    ¡°Are you blind?! That monster bird belongs to Angor! Can you defeat Dira like that?¡±

    ¡°But his pet doesn¡¯t mean his own strength! Maybe he borrowed the bird from Mister Phantom?¡±

    There were always stubborn people who would find countless excuses to disprove Angor¡¯s capabilities. Even then, most people still chose to admit Angor¡¯s strength. Angor did more than staying alive and everyone could see it.

    ¡°Nice! Angor is here!¡± n could no longer hold back his excitement andughed alongside Loki, while Loki felt the same because he was among the group who got saved from the clutches of the Lord of Tentacles.

    Compared to them, Falca was looking rather displeased.

    ¡°Damn it. He¡¯s really alive?¡± Falca¡¯s joyful mood disappeared instantly. ¡°And he actually forced Jebra to go away?¡±

    Falca¡¯s mood was made worse when he thought about how Jebra¡¯s whale just humiliated him in front of everyone.

    Don¡¯t f*cking tell me that Angor¡¯s stronger than Jebra?

    Falca was nning to use Angor¡¯s death to protest against Taurus¡¯ lecture, but he got his face pped by the hard truth again.

    ...

    Toby described his sleeping experience to Angor in detail.

    First, Toby had to fight with ¡°wrath¡±, a certain monstrous emotion mentioned by Greya. The exact battle was hard to exin to outsiders. Toby only said that he sessfully devoured the emotion and became thest winner.

    Next, Toby said that his form change was rted to the emotion of wrath.

    After devouring the emotion, Toby could sense what was going on around him, which meant it was time for him to wake up. However, something stopped him from doing so.

    Toby discovered the legacy of a bloodline, and by epting that bloodline, it helped Toby to learn how to turn into a ¡°griffin¡±.

    Also, Toby was not the ¡°me Griffin¡± mentioned by Muse. The true identity of this griffin was ¡°Fury Griffin¡±.

 Chapter 530 - Seedling

    <h4>Chapter 530: Seedling</h4>

    Angor¡¯s eyes grew wider when he learned about the amazing transformation caused by Toby¡¯s emotion.

    A griffin born from fury... What will happen when Toby confronts the other emotions?

    ording to Greya, she used five ¡°spices¡± when creating Toby and bestowed five emotions to the bird. There were four others¡ªlove, hatred, grief, and sadness. Would that give Toby four new forms?

    Neither Angor nor Toby could answer that question. They had to wait for the emotion challenges toe again.

    Angor ended his questions here. He no longer had to ask what else Toby could do using his newly gained power. After all, he saw how Toby knocked Dira away with a single hit, and that itself already told them enough.

    There was another reason for why Angor stopped asking¡ªNausica wasing to him again.

    ¡°Hey Angor, guess I¡¯ll take Shan and Shiliew to the gray zone. Once we¡¯re out of here, make sure you hit the pub so that we can all thank you properly.¡±

    ¡°Gray zone?¡± Angor was confused.

    ¡°Oh, oops. We just learned about it too. ce your spirit feelers on the Meraid¡¯s Sword.¡±

    Angorplied and quickly ascertained the situation.

    ¡°The colors of our swords tells us where to go?¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± Nausica nodded and said, ¡°which means we have to go separate ways now.¡±

    Angor and Keely had golden swords and the current zone was where they belonged.

    Angor looked around and noticed that even though the golden zone was pretty big, it had fewer people¡ªless than 30 apprentices. Everyone was staying somewhere private while gazing at thew of purification in silence.

    The silver zone was simr in both its size and number of upants, while the white zone and gray zone looked pretty crowded. Most people had to share their avable space with someone else.

    While observing, Angor also saw n who was happily waving a hand at him from afar.

    Angor felt d that his friend was safe. Also, he was quite surprised to see Falca standing together with n even though that man dodged his gaze for some reason.

    Anyway, Angor wasn¡¯t going to find out the reason why those guys were together.

    Meanwhile, he also saw many people giving him different looks¡ªenvious and suspicion being the most.

    He did nothing more than casting indifferent nces back at them.

    After talking to Keely, he learned that those people staying in the air chose to do so just so they could disy their authority to others. Once the purification began, they all had to return to the ground.

    After learning everything about the environment, Angor returned his attention to the purificationw ahead of him.

    The glowing spot was quietly hovering above the center of the area while expanding. Also, Angor found it strange that the sequence power he sensed was extremely weak. In fact, it was of apletely different levelpared to what he experienced inside Soul Genesis Garden.

    Back in Soul Genesis Garden, Angor didn¡¯t have to get close to thew to feel its overwhelming power, which even knocked him out once. But here, thew of purification had its power restrained, which allowed people to stand close without getting affected.

    Still, the rhythm of thew was clear to see.

    Angor felt something warming up in his heart simply by looking at it. Thew power was like gentle sunlight that removed all coldness built up inside his body. His vtile blood flow caused by drinking too much Cillian¡¯s Witch Stew was slowly being mended.

    Soon, Angor was indulged in a pleasant experience.

    A momentter, he woke up when he could no longer sense thew power, and it disappeared from his view.

    Telling from the whispers among people, he realized that thew did not ¡°disappear¡± for real. For some reason, it fell from its spot and sank into the ground beneath.

    Suddenly, several shiny walls emerged from the ground, and the wallspletely blocked off all zones. At the same time, all of the Meraid¡¯s Swords held by the apprentices began to glow.

    Dira, who had been waiting in the sky, quicklynded in the golden zone with his golden sword in hand. His action more or less told the others what was going on. One by one, those who were enjoying their temporary fame above everyone all headed to the correct zones.

    The purification was starting.

    Previously, the center of the purification garden would emit its power toward the outside, which meant those closer to the center could enjoy more purification power.

    But it was a bit different this time.

    Everyone saw a tiny seedling growing up in the center of the area. As the seedling broke through the earth, they felt a rising auraing into existence, which was already strong enough to disturb the environment.

    While the power around the edge of the vortex was rtively weak, it grew more and more intense near the storm¡¯s eye.

    In the next second, without any warning, the energy rushed into everyone¡¯s body.

    This was the ¡°purification¡± everyone was expecting, something that enhanced their chances of bing wizards.

    Angor thought this would be a painful experience, but it was not. As the energy traveled through his flesh, he felt lightweight and free as if he were enjoying a cruise among clouds while a pair of soft, gentle hands were caressing his skin.

    While at it, the hands slowly but surely pulled all impurities off his body.

    Filth, old wounds, magical contamination... nothing could hide their forms as these unwanted stains were turned to nothingness, leaving people¡¯s bodies clean and pure.

    No one made a sound in the entire altar area as they carefully enjoyed the divine pleasure.

    However... the looks on their bodies weren¡¯t so ¡°pleasant¡±.

    From every pore on their skin, ck substance and tainted blood came seeping out and blemished the area with stink.

    Due to the protective magic array, the pollution was soon removed. Otherwise, the Altar of Demise would smell worse than a public outhouse.

    On the other hand, those still watching the screen from outside the garden were witnessing the terrible disaster.

    All wizards shook their heads and looked away in disgust. There was only Muse who lifted his filming stone and prepared to capture all of Angor¡¯s scandalous looks.

    But as time went by, Muse was beginning to look quite annoyed.

    Compared to the other apprentices who were basically shedding piles of dirt, Angor was clean¡ªtoo clean that it looked abnormal. Angor had nothing more than a thinyer of greasy sweating off his skin, that was about it.

    The grease did not destroy his handsome looks. Rather, it made his pale-white skin appear brighter and healthier.

    Of course this was not what Muse wanted to record.

    Did that boy undergo some sort of purification beforeing here?

    Since there were many more ways to do so apart from using a purification garden, Muse quickly epted his idea. However, this garden did more than purifying one¡¯s body; it also removed filth from one¡¯s soul.

    Now THAT won¡¯t be so enjoyable. This Angor has to look miserable when enduring the painful soul purification so that I can record his face...

    Inside the altar area, the purification power did little help to Angor since he had most of his filth cleansed in Soul Genesis Garden. And since he was standing pretty close to the source of the power, the purification power began to repair some of Angor¡¯s old injuries as it had nothing else to do.

    When the initial phase came to an end, Angor felt his body as lively and vigorous as ever.

    The seedling in the center was changing again. Gradually, it grew taller and gave birth to forks and branches.

    Eventually, it became a giant tree that stood tall above everyone else.

 Chapter 531 - Ineffective Aroma

    <h4>Chapter 531: Ineffective Aroma</h4>

    It was a towering and flourishing tree that reached all the way into the sky. People couldn¡¯t see the tip of it, but they still felt their minds soothed as the tree leaves rustled gently in the wind.

    Slowly, countless green spots emerged from the tree, and when the tree finally stopped growing, the spots went scattering away like dandelion bristles.

    The magic array protecting the area glowed and forced all the shiny spots toe to the ground. Each spot would then enter someone¡¯s body. Those staying in the golden zone was, of course, the first ones to enjoy the green spots. But this time, instead of the pleasurable and divine sensation, they were immediately tortured by great agony. Someone with weaker endurance was already writhing and rolling on the ground.

    The silence in the area was soon reced by painful screaming.

    Even Keely, who usually remain calm and unruffled, was sweating badly as her eyebrows knitted into a twisted frown.

    Compared to most people, Angor seemed rather fine.

    The green spots basically had no effect on him. These spots were essentially used for purifying impurities hidden in energy entities. To wizards, their ¡°energy¡± referred to their mana and spiritual power. However, thanks to Singrity Dispersive Meditation, Angor¡¯s mana capacity was greater than what the green spots could manage. And since the green spots couldn¡¯t work against such arge amount of mana reserve, Angor wasn¡¯t affected by their power at all.

    The spots did affect Angor¡¯s spirit power just a little. And to Angor, such mild pain waspletely manageable since it was almost nothingpared to what the strange wall inside Nightmare Realm brought to him.

    The second phase of purificationsted five minutes. People usually used this chance to purify their mana, while Angor had his spirit cleansed instead.

    Such an oue helped Angor gain another level in his spirit capacity. He might be unable topete with apprentices who majored in spiritual power, but his spirit was already better and purer than most people at the same level.

    Naturally, Angor¡¯s ¡°umon¡± demeanor raised a lot of attention among the wizards.

    Those who watched the garden promotion were all experienced enough to conclude that this boy had found a special channeling method, which allowed him to develop his mana pool beyond the effective threshold of the green spots. This meant Angor was a lot more likely to be a wizardpared to the other apprentices.

    Angor was not the only one who managed to stay put under the purification power. But he was the only one who waspletely unaffected, whereas the other ones were more or less disturbed.

    ¡°That¡¯s Mister Phantom¡¯s student for you... Another miracle,¡± a wizardmented. ¡°I think it¡¯s only a matter of time for this one to be a true wizard now.¡±

    ¡°Sunders¡¯ keen eye never failed once. Just think about Sumesh and Flora! They¡¯re both wizards with great achievements.¡±

    Lawson also paid close attention to Angor¡¯s appearance. ¡°Angor studied Montaus¡¯ Octahedrite Channeling? That¡¯s the best channeling method offered in Brute Cavern, and it¡¯s possible to go beyond the purification power limit by using it.¡±

    Muse nodded nonchntly. He didn¡¯t really care about Angor¡¯s channeling method since he was still disappointed at failing to catch Angor¡¯s scandal again.

    When the second purification phase ended, something changed on the tree.

    A single white flower bloomed on a tree branch and released a mind-soothing aroma that covered the entire Altar of Demise area.

    This was the third and the final purification phase¡ªthe purification of souls.

    Ever since the purification garden was constructed, the third phase had only been activated three times. People already knew that the garden promotion would bring such an opportunity again, and this was the reason why so many apprentices came to Floating Mech City.

    To be a real wizard, an apprentice needed a decent aggregation of knowledge as well as several non-bypassable factors such as one¡¯s energy capacity, physical strength, and soul quality.

    Energy capacity and bodily strength were both easier to achieve since they only required enough training and time. One could even enhance physical properties overnight by organ imntations or using a proper bloodline.

    Compared to these, strengthening one¡¯s soul was extremely difficult. There were only a few known potions or other means with such an effect, which were both hard to find and unaffordable for apprentices.

    The officials of Floating Mech City openly told everyone that a soul-improving chance was guaranteed inside the purification garden, thus attracting huge groups of apprentices toe.

    The sweet aroma released by the Flower of Purification was exactly what they needed right now.

    Instantly, the aroma traveled to every corner of the altar za and reached everyone. The locations of apprentices would greatly affect the final oue this time; those in the golden zone could take in most of the aroma, while apprentices in the outer areas could only acquire a decreased amount.

    Soon, the magical aroma reached Angor¡¯s soul space and found his soul.

    Before his soul was cleansed, however, something happened to the Green Velvet first.

    After receiving an early purification in Soul Genesis Garden, the Green Velvet had given birth to a small patch of grasnd that acted as a perfect barrier that protected Angor¡¯s soul.

    As the aroma approached him, Angor could see a number of tiny flowers growing on the grass, which quickly turned the otherwise empty grasnd into a colorful garden.

    As the purification power approached the center, the giant flower bud, which had always been floating quietly above the grasnd, moved a little as if a giant blossom were in the making.

    Angor frowned a little as he remembered Felicia¡¯s words. When examining his soul, Felicia mentioned something like ¡°allowing the Green Velvet to fully mature may not be a good thing¡±.

    Angor never took those words to heart since the Green Velvet looked pretty far from maturity. But it seemed the purification power unexpectedly quickened its growth.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure if Felicia was telling him the truth back then. He assumed that after the incident when examining his soul, Felicia should have no reason to lie to him. Angor was nning to ask Sunders about it, yet he never found a chance for it.

    As he considered the question, the aroma had traveled through the garden and reached his soul.

    The aroma slowly entered his soul...

    And... nothing happened.

    The visible aroma with the power of purification simply vanished. Precisely speaking, it vanished around the strange scar behind Angor¡¯s soul.

    What¡¯s going on??

    Another small lump of aroma entered Angor¡¯s soul space probably because it wanted to continue its job. But again, it disappeared and became nothing.

    As the other apprentices were enjoying the only drift they received, over ten units of aroma had entered Angor¡¯s body and were still going.

    Another minute had passed, with another dozen drifts of aroma sank into Angor¡¯s soul. Rather than cleansing Angor¡¯s soul, the aroma kept nourishing his Green Velvet.

    The aroma created by thew of purification was originally the power to cultivate someone¡¯s soul, and at the same time, the best fertilizer for Green Velvet. Angor could clearly sense that the strange nt in his soul space, which required at least ten years to attain its full growth, was developing at an insane speed.

    Angor watched the flower bud slowly opening up and felt his mind getting anxious.

    He opened his eyes and noticed that those around him were all showing painful looks. The one closest to him, Keely, had several thick blood veins pulsing on her forehead.

    Opposite them, Jebra looked pretty miserable as he tumbled back and forth on the ground while yelling loudly. As he could no longer keep up his vapor barrier, his bald head was fully exposed for everyone to see.

    The other apprentices didn¡¯t look any better.

    Angor felt his ears troubled by all the terrible screaminging from everywhere and didn¡¯t know what to do next.

    He might go to Sunderster and ask about the Green Velvet. But what now?

    Should I pretend that I¡¯m in pain? Otherwise, people will think that I didn¡¯t get anything from the purification. That would be sad.

    He made up his mind and made an ¡°ahh¡± sound as loudly as he could.

    Despite his true intention, it looked more like he just got a brain fart. Luckily, no one was in the right condition to see his foolish act.

    He then cleared his throat and decided not to make any sound. He copied Keely¡¯s expression by frowning as best as he could so that people would assume that he was distressed.

    Unknown to him, everything was fully recorded by the giant screen.

    Again, Angor was lucky enough that only a few people noticed his attempt since Lawson ordered the screen to show the entire Altar of Demise. Among all the suffering apprentices, Angor was not really eye-catching.

    These few people included several wizards who always focused on Angor¡¯s condition, such as Mithra and Muse.

    And when they saw Angor feigning his ¡°painful scream¡±, they were all at a loss of words at the boy¡¯s stupid performance.

    Sabot escaped from the great embarrassment first by rubbing his temples. So that¡¯s why Sunders didn¡¯te... He knew that his new student is a little nitwit.

    Mithra finally lost it and began tough out loud. ¡°HA! Such a pity that Yeliya isn¡¯t here to watch the boy!¡±

    Muse was also smiling joyfully, but with apletely different reason¡ªwhat he recorded just now could be well used to threaten the boyter.

    Angor¡¯s funny act was only a trifle matter that they would soon forget. Compared to this, they all silently noted down a bigger question in their minds¡ªWhy is this boypletely unaffected by soul purification?

    The only exnation for this was that Angor¡¯s soul quality was extremely good and was probably at the same level as some of the strongest soul-maniptor apprentices.

    But is that possible?

    Nobody could tell for sure.

    In the end, people made a conclusion that Angor had been intentionally training his soul because the boy seemed pretty good at soul ejection.

 Chapter 532 - Fruitful Law

    <h4>Chapter 532: Fruitful Law</h4>

    As more time psed and even though the aroma of purification had stoppeding, Angor was still maintaining his ¡°painful expression¡±.

    ¡°Ohh, check this out! I think I drew in ten units of purification aroma!¡± Angor heard an apprentice inside the golden zone boasting about his achievement.

    This man sessfully attracted a lot of envious attention.

    ¡°I got two... well, bad ce.¡± Another apprentice who was standing inside the white zone shook his head.

    Angor heard more of such discussion and noticed that whoever stayed in the golden zone received at least five units of aroma, while those standing farther away from the tree received fewer. Also, Soul Maniptors obtained less aroma because their souls were already pure.

    Every apprentice seemed overjoyed about the great experience even though they still carried filth and stench all over their bodies.

    Angor looked at himself again. He felt his skin to be a little oily and dirtier than earlier, but that was about it.

    It would be fine if he experienced no change at all while standing in the outer areas. However, he felt exceptionally ufortable because everyone was paying great attention to the few apprentices who upied the golden zone. Whenpared to the rest of the apprentices in the golden zone, he looked so out of ce.

    Keely also opened her eyes and looked his way.

    Telling from her twinkling eyes, which were full of energy and vigor, Angor could tell that Keely benefited greatly from the purification. In fact, Keely looked so happy that it somewhat reced her cold and distant character.

    ¡°So, how many units did you draw?¡± Angor asked her.

    Keely tossed a Cleanse on herself. ¡°Sixteen.¡±

    While speaking, Keely nced at Jebra.

    Jebra was now hidden inside a blue bubble. It was left by the horned whale. Upon realizing that Jebra¡¯s own barrier failed, his pet gave Jebra the bubble to protect his handsome image.

    And since she couldn¡¯t see Jebra across the bubble, Keely looked back at Angor again. ¡°What about you?¡±

    She looked up and down and saw no noticeable changes on or in Angor. Almost everyone in sight had taken on their brand new looks as if they just gained a new life, yet Angor did not.

    Is he perhaps hiding it? Keely thought.

    ¡°A little less than you,¡± Angor replied. He decided to give a vague answer.

    He couldn¡¯t possibly tell people that there were over 200 units of aroma entering his body, while he sessfully digested zero of them.

    Everyst bit of purification aroma that reached his soul sank inside the strange scar without leaving ANY effect on Angor¡¯s soul at all.

    He didn¡¯t know who could tell him why the purification process failed to work on him.

    This was why he couldn¡¯t find a proper answer to Keely¡¯s question.

    Keely raised an eyebrow upon seeing Angor¡¯s strange reaction.

    Did he not want to get embarrassed for absorbing too little aroma?

    She wouldn¡¯t care about anyone else in such a situation, but since Angor just saved her life not long ago, she would at least say something tofort him.

    ¡°Someone with high soul quality will not draw much purification aroma. See those Soul Maniptors who were in the same condition as you? I think that¡¯s what happened.¡±

    Angor tilted his head in confusion.

    Keely frowned. Oh, gods. Do I really need to make it clearer? Fine.

    ¡°Ahem. What I¡¯m saying is, it doesn¡¯t matter if you received too little aroma. This means your soul is already better than others, and it¡¯s a good thing. Well, I kind of expected this to happen since you¡¯re able to eject your soul often. You have a way to train your soul, right?¡±

    Angor finally realized that Keely was actually trying to cheer him up.

    Well, she knows how to care for others now, so I guess it¡¯s good?

    Truth was, Angor wasn¡¯t really disappointed about the failed purification since he already gained a lot of merits from the garden challenge.

    Previously, he came to the garden in order to get a better chance at bing a wizard, even if just a little. While at it, he received a lot of unexpected surprises.

    For example, Freud promised to give him a Mystery item as a gift. Well... his promise wasn¡¯t truly reliable at the moment.

    Then it wasbat experience. A lot of it.

    And not to mention, the great mirage legacy left by Erdus...

    Thest one was undeniably a priceless gift. Angor believed that, whereas one¡¯s body, soul, and spirit could be improved, such amazing knowledge wasn¡¯t something he could find with money or effort.

    He was sure Erdus¡¯ legacy would be a powerful tool in forging his path toward wizardry.

    And when thinking about this, not being able to gain anything from the soul purification did not look so depressing. He already earned some improvement from the first two phases anyway.

    There was no reason toin now.

    Angor smiled at Keely and yed along by pretending that he really appreciated her advice, while Keely put up a ¡°your little secret is safe with me!¡± expression. ¡°d you understand me.¡±

    A gigantic aura suddenly emerged from somewhere and interrupted everyone¡¯s discussion.

    ¡°Someone is breaking through?!¡±

    Angor looked up and saw the source of energy being Jebra, who had created a giant energy vortex above him that attracted people¡¯s attention.

    No one expected that someone would break through in such a situation.

    It didn¡¯t take very long. The energy surge was gone in three minutes. Yet people couldn¡¯t see Jebra¡¯s condition since he was always enclosed in that opaque blue bubble.

    Those who were bragging about their achievements earlier all quieted down¡ªwhat they did was nothingpared to Jebra¡¯s aplishment.

    The altar area was basically a stage for the apprentices topete against one another, and they all felt hopeless when someone was born with unsurpassable strength from the beginning.

    Angor looked at Keely and saw the girl showing a simrly grim look. However, she didn¡¯t seem to feel defeated. Rather, she appeared as if she would like to fight Jebra again as soon as possible.

    Angor thought about convincing Keely into giving up since her hatred against Jebra was probably illogical, but he decided not to after noticing Keely¡¯s determined look.

    The giant tree in the center was still growing by giving out more branches. They reached all the way outside the protective barrier and absorbed energy from the garden world, after which the tree kept getting thicker.

    The speed of growthsted for another hour. It then slowed down when a single glowing fruit popped up from the center of the white flower.

    ¡°That¡¯s... Fruit of Purification!¡± someone yelled in surprise while not hiding his greedy gaze.

    Most people did the same by ring at the fruit with their own greedy expressions even though they all knew that it wasn¡¯t something they could reach for.

    At the same time, Lawson addressed all the other wizards that were watching the monitor, ¡°Now, good luck to you all.¡±

    The wizards were getting restless when such a great treasure was presented in front of their eyes, but Lawson was confident that no one would do anything stupid in the center of Floating Mech City. Besides, all wizards who came today had signed a contract that prevented them from harming the city.

    Lawson nodded to Muse and teleported into the purification garden. The arrival of one of the city masters silenced all the apprentices.

    Lawson spoke to them while floating beside the fruit, ¡°Being alive already proved your luck and strength. The purification you just went through is not the only merit you¡¯ll gain today. There¡¯s still something that will help you be the champion among all. However... you¡¯ll need to fight for it.¡±

    Lawson said something to allure the apprentices but without telling them the terrible difficulty of it.

    Next, Lawson took out a silver walking cane and tapped at the purification fruit.

    A green magic array began to expand starting from the tip of his cane, which slowly engulfed the entire tree until it turned into the green, pulsing cocoon.

    He would now prepare for the garden¡¯s evolution.

    Lawson then reached out both hands. There was a blood-red glowing sphere in his left hand that disyed the illusions of the fish-infested world inside, while his right hand had a deep-blue sphere that showed the Sea of Purification.

    Cautiously, Lawson pressed both spheres inside the cocoon.

    Judging from the beads of sweat on Lawson¡¯s forehead, one could tell that the job was not easy even for this truth-finder wizard.

    Once the spheres fully sank into the cocoon, the array outside slowly crumbled away, and another overwhelming power descended from the sky.

    The world¡¯s consciousness had arrived.

    ...

    The arrival of the world¡¯s consciousness officially suggested the beginning of the evolution of the garden.

    When this happened, the purification power would start leaking from the center and travel outward, while everyone who stood in its way had a chance toprehend thew of purification.

    The wizards waiting outside the garden all carefully observed the ongoing evolution while preparing their own means of epting the power, either by theoretically calcting the routes of power or practically simting the course of the flows.

    But in the end, they all needed luck and destiny to seed.

    Compared to the wizards, the apprentices around the altar could only try their best to stare into the power, which was already hard enough.

    Angor recalled Sunders¡¯ words about how he ¡°partially¡±prehended thew of gravity by entering a strange condition called ¡°tranquility of the soul¡±. He was hoping toprehend the sequence of purification in the same way, but that amazing state wasn¡¯t something he could ask for.

    The evolution of the garden proceeded smoothly and gave birth to another brand new world, yet Angor did not sense anything.

    He sighed and epted the fact that he wasn¡¯t favored by fortune this day.

    When the exit of the garden was opened, the barriers that separated the different sections disappeared, thus allowing the apprentices to leave. Everyone looked disappointed, and nobody could tell if someone actuallyprehended the sequence of purification without showing it to others.

    Angor followed the crowd and walked toward the exit.

    But as soon as he started walking, he felt an itch behind his shoulder that worsened rapidly.

 Chapter 533 - Ice Coffin

    <h4>Chapter 533: Ice Coffin</h4>

    Why is it happening again? Because of that strange aroma?

    Angor didn¡¯t have more time to think about that question as the itchiness was getting unbearable. First, it was his skin. Then his bones and his entire soul started to feel ufortable as well.

    When he realized that the situation was more severe than he thought, he struggled a little and took out Toby from his chest pocket.

    ¡°Toby, use your speed and take me to the professor, quickly!¡±

    Toby failed to understand Angor at first, and he almost fell asleep again. However, he quickly noticed Angor¡¯s anxious expression and Angor¡¯s face, which did not seem very healthy. Without waiting, Toby turned into his griffin form and allowed Angor to climb on.

    ¡°Angor?¡± Keely was wondering what Angor was up to when Toby spread his wings and bolted toward the exit.

    Toby knew something serious was going on, so he moved as fast as he could. Anyone who was in the way was knocked aside by Toby¡¯s gravity wave.

    Falca was also inside the portal. Before he could step out, an unexpected force pushed him to somewhere far away where he hurt his back badly.

    He stood up and opened his mouth to curse whoever was being a nuisance, but he swallowed his words back when he looked at the griffin that he saw earlier.

    There was more than one apprentice who was forced away by the creature. Yet no one protested since they all chose to reevaluate Angor¡¯s true strength, and these people included those who did not believe in the rumors before.

    In a matter of seconds, Toby dashed out of the purification garden and entered the valley where all the wizards were waiting.

    Mithra moved ahead to ask some questions about the strange griffin. However, he never had a chance because Toby left the valley at lightning speed without looking back.

    Even some of the most powerful wizards on the spot would admit that they would never be able to move so fast.

    ¡°Sequence of gravity??¡± Shocked, several wizards looked at the sound wave that was left behind by the monster.

    Compared to them, Mithra was more concerned about Angor¡¯s unusually pale face.

    ¡°He¡¯s wounded? But he looked fine just a second ago...¡±

    Meanwhile, Nausica, Shan, and Shiliew also left through the portal and noticed a tiny spot in the distance. It was Toby.

    ¡°What¡¯s the hurry? Aren¡¯t we going to get a drink together at Timber Pub?¡± Shan looked pretty disappointed.

    ¡°Maybe he has an emergency?¡± Shiliew said.

    ¡°What kind of emergency immediately follows behind the god-damned garden challenge? I want to know how he got out of Erdus¡¯ illusions. And what was that castle? Was that really an illusion??¡± Shan saw Angor¡¯s toy soldiers, teacup musicians, and a glowing dragonfly in that Nightmare Domain, and there was so much more that she wanted to know.

    ¡°We can always meet again¡ª¡±

    Shiliew¡¯s head tilted to one side as she fell asleep.

    Shan quickly asked Gank to pick Shiliew up and ce her on the shoulder.

    ¡°Okay, you,¡± Shan looked at Nausica next and asked, ¡°do you know what that is? I was able to sense Erdus¡¯ illusion nodes, but not Angor¡¯s. Everything in there looked so real!¡±

    ¡°It was an illusion... I guess?¡± Nausica shook her head. ¡°Maybe something more powerful, we just don¡¯t know.¡±

    ...

    Angor had copsed on Toby¡¯s back while he tried his best to tell Toby the correct direction.

    There were asionally Rune Monitors that tried to tell them to stop since the sky around the purification garden was off-limit tomon apprentices.

    Angor knew about the city rules, but he couldn¡¯t follow their orders at this moment because he had to get to Sunders as soon as possible.

    Besides, the Rune Monitors couldn¡¯t catch up with Toby¡¯s speed anyway.

    For some reason, the subsequent Rune Monitors they encountered never troubled them again. They soon reached Sunders¡¯ garden mansion, where Number One greeted them.

    ¡°Take me to my professor¡ª¡±

    Angor felt his soul shaking madly, and before he could do anything else, he lost his consciousness.

    ...

    Angor found himself sleeping in darkness.

    He heard people whispering around him, a lot of people. He felt as if he was thrown in the middle of some busy street, but everyone was whispering right beside his ears, which made him ufortable.

    He opened his eyes only to see the same darkness obstructing everything. Yet he could still hear the noises that consisted of both human voices and unknown animals.

    He couldn¡¯t understand any of the chaotic speeches.

    Defeated, he gave up on listening and slowly stood up. There was a faint light in the distance, and he decided to head there.

    Where am I? Who¡¯s there?

    He reached the light and noticed that it was arge door. Behind the door was a beautifully decorated room, which he quickly recognized.

    A simple round wooden table with several teacups on top. A bright bed cover with the picture of a canary sewn on it. Several wash paintings on the wall that showed nature and kanji characters...

    This was his home. His old home back at Padt Manor.

    He saw piles of papers on his bookshelf. It was all the homework as well as the treasured gift he received from Jon throughout his entire childhood.

    Why am I home?

    Is this all a dream?

    He walked around the small room with a longing look, and finally went to the bed on which he spent so many years.

    The bed was fully covered, yet something told him that someone was lying there. Also, the strange whispers beside his ears slowly changed and urged him to lift the cover.

    He hesitated for a second and decided toply.

    Under the cover was a coffin made of ice, and beyond the opened lid, it waspletely dark. Therefore, Angor couldn¡¯t see if someone was inside.

    Is it... Jon?

    Angor reached for the coffin.

    The whispers suddenly became eerie giggles. Among all the iprehensible noises, Angor managed to recognize one phrase¡ª ¡°Wee back, Your Highness!¡±

    Whoever was inside the coffin fully pushed the lid away. A pair of pale-white handsshed out and dragged Angor inside.

    Angor felt his body shaking madly as he was assaulted by bone-piecing coldness.

    Then he sat up with a start.

    ¡°Are you feeling better, Mister Padt?¡± someone asked in a robotic voice.

    Angor looked around in confusion and saw a Rune Monitor wearing a top hat floating nearby. It was Number One.

    Wait... the Altar of Demise, something on my shoulder, Toby brought me back...

    Out of instinct, he scratched his shoulder and didn¡¯t find anything wrong. The strange itch was gone.

    Was that really a dream just now?

    He shook his head and felt that his brain was throbbing.

    That looked too real to be a dream.

    ¡°Mister Padt, should Number One prepare some food for you?¡±

    ¡°Where am I¡ª¡± Angor saw Sunders¡¯ decoration style and quickly amended his question, ¡°How long was I out?¡±

    ¡°Exactly seventy hours, Mister Padt.¡±

    Three days?! That¡¯s pretty long...

    Angor wanted to get out of bed, but his arms quickly gave out as he copsed again.

    He tried to move and realized most of his limbs weren¡¯t working properly. He couldn¡¯t even clench his fists fully.

    What¡¯s happening to me?!

    ¡°Mister Padt, ording to a test earlier, you should be experiencing the major side-effects caused by the Potion of Impedance right now,¡± Number One exined when he saw Angor¡¯s concern. ¡°But the effect won¡¯t be as serious since both the purification garden and your breakthrough had removed most of your injuries. The lethargy should go away in a few days.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that potion...¡± Angor remembered how he epted the potion provided by Keely. He then frowned in surprise. ¡°Wait, what did you just way?¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt, because of the aftereffects of the Potion of Impedance...¡±

    ¡°The next part!¡±

    ¡°The potion causes strong side effects, but your breakthrough¡ª¡±

    ¡°Breakthrough? What breakthrough?¡±

    Number One maintained its emotionless and neutral tone while speaking, ¡°It happened on the first day when you were brought back. Congrattions, Mister Padt, you are now a level-3 apprentice.¡±

    Angor quickly closed his eyes to check his mind space.

    Just as Number One said, the energy in his mind space was more active than ever despite his physical condition. His mana pool was almost twice asrge now, and it could absorb primal mana faster.

    Number One was right. He was really level-3 apprentice now.

    Although he wasn¡¯t really happy about this.

    He already knew that Singrity Dispersive Meditation could help him reach the wizard level without meeting any major obstacles. He already reached the bottleneck before hitting level-3, yet he never attempted to break through because he stillcked fundamental training, which included physical strength and knowledge.

    Initially, he nned to work on these while perfecting all the level-1 and level-2 cantrips that he could learn, and only after that would he attempt to go for level-3.

    How did this happen without me knowing?!

 Chapter 534 - Sundersâ€™ Strange Condition

    <h4>Chapter 534: Sunders¡¯ Strange Condition</h4>

    Angor checked many times and finally epted the truth, that he did reach level-3 for real.

    The following tests told him that he could channel mana just fine, which meant his breakthrough was ¡°proper¡± instead of being forced.

    As for why this happened during his sleep... he took a guess that it had something to do with that strange condition on his shoulder.

    It might have been caused by absorbing too much of the purification aroma. But how did that work?

    ¡°Is my professor here? Did he say anything about my condition?¡± Angor asked Number One.

    Number One ¡°nodded¡± by looking at the floor. ¡°The Master should be here, but he did not provide his opinion. I received a voice transmission from him, that I¡¯m to take Mister Padt to the bedroom, and that is all.¡±

    ¡°Voice transmission? He... didn¡¯te himself?¡±

    Number One nodded again.

    ¡°Then who treated me?¡± Angor believed that someone checked his body since Number One already told him something about an examination.

    ¡°It was Mister Mithra. He came not long after your arrival and helped diagnose your condition.¡±

    Mithra? Did Sunders ask him toe?

    But Number One denied when Angor asked that question.

    He was getting really confused. If what he heard was right, Mithra came here for some other reason and only treated his body while at it.

    So what was Sunders doing then? This strange itch is probably rted to Nightmare Realm, he should totally be concerned.

    Is he absent? Wait... Number One said Sunders ¡°should be here¡±?

    ¡°Are you sure my professor is here right now?¡±

    Number One remained silent for a second.

    ¡°Number One is not sure, Mister Padt.¡±

    The machine butler proceeded to exin.

    During the past few days, Sunders never left his study, and Number One couldn¡¯t check on him without the gentleman¡¯s consent.

    It was when Angor returned from the purification garden did Number One finally hear something from Sunders, which was to tell Number One to bring Angor to safety.

    And Number One couldn¡¯t tell whether Sunders gave the order from the mansion or somewhere else.

    Angor frowned. As he recalled, Sunders stayed out of his sight since a week before themencement of the garden challenge. And on the day of the challenge, he once went to Sunders for advice but wasn¡¯t allowed into Sunders¡¯ study.

    Did he stay there for nearly a month?

    Did something happen to him?!

    Mithra once mentioned that the strongest wizard in the entire city was undeniably Lawson, and supposed that Lawson and Sunders somehow got into a fight, nobody could foretell who would win.

    So what possibly could have happened to Sunders?

    Angor felt more and more anxious and decided to go check on his professor.

    ¡°Number One, give me a hand...¡±

    ...

    Angor didn¡¯t get to see Sunders. Again, he heard the gentleman¡¯s voice from across the door. And this time, Sunders sounded really tired for some reason.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. You get to your own business.¡±

    Since Sunders told him to go away, Angor didn¡¯t even get the chance to ask about his itch and the possible condition that was rted to Nightmare Realm.

    Sunders did not force him to go away, but still, Angor chose to stay quiet for now because he had something else to worry about right now.

    He heard someoneughing in the study, and it wasn¡¯t Sunders¡¯ voice.

    Or rather, the strange voice sounded a lot like Sunders but... not exactly.

    He has a visitor?

    Angor¡¯s curiosity got the best of him, and it told him to press his ear on the door.

    A sudden power wave pushed him away.

    The power did not harm him¡ªit only meant to keep him far.

    As Angor thought about what was going on with Sunders in vain, Dodoro showed up from the hallway.

    ording to Number One, Dodoro had been taking care of him during hisa. It was still early morning, and it seemed Dodoro was going to do his job again by bringing water and wet towels.

    Angor asked Dodoro to assist him back to the bedroom since he trusted Dodoro more than the machine butler.

    Instead of going for his bed, Angor went to a soundproofpartment to meditate. The absolute quietness helped him with meditation as well as to collect his thoughts.

    Just now, Sunders pushed him away from the door really fast. Yet he still managed to hear something¡ªa series of horrifying snickers and a short phrase he heard once before:

    ¡°Angor, my disciple.¡±

    Compared to the gentleman¡¯s usual tone, this new voice sounded younger and... flippant.

    Angor remembered hearing a simr phrase back at Midnight Sovereign when he had to remain in connection with Sunders while shutting off the nightmare passages. Just as the passages were being closed, someone spoke from Sunders¡¯ voice transmission in a simr voice.

    ¡°My disciple Angor¡± was what he heard back then. There was more to it, that someone was going to examine his soul and wee his death.

    Angor didn¡¯t mind it since the situation in Midnight Sovereign was too dire for him to care about anything else. Sunders also told him to ignore the strange voice.

    Also, Sunders mentioned something about a ¡°long-lost friend¡±.

    Is Sunders talking with a ¡°long-lost friend¡±, so he shut himself in his room for a month?

    But that didn¡¯t make much sense.

    Angor could only give up thinking about it because he had nothing else to go by.

    He still had to check his own condition, especially on what happened to his soul. Anything else could wait.

    He believed that the itch was caused by absorbing too much of the purification aroma, and ever since he woke up, he felt something was strange with his soul. He had been waiting for a chance to have some privacy so that he could eject his soul safely.

    As soon as he chanted Spirit Mantra, he saw what he was looking for.

    His soul, or what he believed to be his soul, looked no different than his real body now, which meant his soul quality had attained an even higher level. He realized he could affect the physical environment to a certain extent without even consuming any soul energy.

    He did a small test by picking up a book without using gravity power, and it went well.

    This also meant that his soul could now live on in this world for a longer period of time without the need for his physical body. And as long as he didn¡¯t run into any wizard who could recognize his condition, he could very well deceive people by presenting his soul form in front of them.

    As far as he knew, only high-level soul-maniptor apprentices could achieve such perfect soul quality. In fact, his soul was already beyond that level and was fit for bing a wizard now.

    Angor looked at the strange scar on the back of his shoulder.

    The scar was releasing pure soul energy at a slightly faster ratepared to before. It was still not enough to sustain his soul-rted abilities, which meant that Angor still needed to study the training method he received from Isabelle.

    Still, as long as he did not overuse his soul energy, his soul trainingbined with this continuous energy replenishment was enough to cover most of his expenses.

    Is this all because the scar absorbed so much aroma back there?

    He assumed it was a good thing to happen. Yet he ended up with more and more questions about the nature of this soul scar. Everything came with a price, and he didn¡¯t believe that the scar provided him soul energy without any cost.

    Something told him that even Sunders might not have an answer to this.

    He needed to use the scar as a ¡°seed¡± to explore the Nightmare Realm again. And that didn¡¯t look so easy.

    He did some further tests and noticed that the scar would stop pumping soul energy if his energy was full. And if he consumed some energy, the ¡°supply¡± woulde back again, as if the scar could tell the condition of his soul.

    Angor was worried¡ªit was as if the scar was somewhat intelligent.

    The good side was that he didn¡¯t need to fret about his soul exploding from receiving too much energy.

    His soul was strong enough for him to forcefully go for the next level now. This was exactly what happened to Jebra in the garden¡ªwhen Jebra¡¯s soul gained enough quality after the purification, he immediately proceeded with a breakthrough.

    Angor sighed. He then put all the questions aside for now and cleared his mind before he started to meditate.

    At the same time, a strange butterfly slowly entered the territory of Floating Mech City...

 Chapter 535 - Dream Whelkâ€™s Whereabouts

    <h4>Chapter 535: Dream Whelk¡¯s Whereabouts</h4>

    The aftereffect for using the Potion of Impedance finally went away after two days.

    Angor spent most of his resting time talking with Toby. He had too many questions about ¡°Fury Griffin¡±. And besides, there were many matters regarding Greya he needed to exin.

    It seemed form-shifting into ¡°Fury Griffin¡± was a new ability Toby acquired after defeating and devouring his ¡°wrath¡±. Angor had never heard about griffins before. He learned from Toby that a griffin was naturally favored by natural elements and was always born as a supernatural monster without the need of going through training and cultivation.

    Griffins were further divided into different types depending on the nature of the energy they could use, such as me Griffins, Grim Griffins, Thunder Griffins, and so on.

    Their names were not invented by people. Rather, when a monster gained its own intelligence, it would usuallye up with its own name like how Erdus did. And when the monster grew powerful enough to affect the very world around it, its name would then be a sign that disyed its strength across different realms.

    For instance, different me Griffins might get themselves various names such as ¡°Sphinx¡± or ¡°Odipus¡±.

    But Toby did not have such a privilege. His new ability didn¡¯t make him a ¡°real¡± griffin, and he was still the tiny seabird called Toby.

    Also, using his new ability would cost a lot of energy, and so, Toby would turn back once his energy ran out. In his current top condition, Toby assumed that he could stay in his griffin form for half an hour before he had to ¡°cool down¡±.

    Still, the ability would grant him the same power as a half-step wizard-level monster during its duration.

    Now, Toby was strong enough to confront some of the mightiest apprentices without using the sequence of gravity. And if he chose to use gravity power, he might even be able to fight against certain wizards in the future.

    Next, Toby exined that a ¡°Fury Griffin¡± possessed superior physical strength and a skill formanding fire elements and ¡°wrath¡±.

    Angor told Toby to do a small test, in which Toby filled Angor¡¯s mind with wrath.

    Angor found himself unable to do anything besides aimlessly venting out the unknown rage that upied his mind.

    Angor could do something simr by using his illusions or nightmare energy, while Toby could manipte someone¡¯s emotion by nature.

    Even so, the power might not always be a proper tool to use since ¡°wrath¡± could also boost one¡¯s strength in certain situations.

    Angor concluded that Toby had grown terrifyingly strongerpared to before. In fact, he was sure he would get beaten down pretty fast if they were to spar again.

    After learning about Toby¡¯s amazing skills, Angor quickly made up a series of battle ns, which would allow them to surprise their enemies through teamwork.

    Angor believed that if he had Toby to help earlier in the Sea of Purification, they could totally maim that giant monster called October instead of running.

    Meanwhile, Angor described his journey during Toby¡¯s absence, and Toby was very d to hear about Angor¡¯s experience in Dark Castle.

    Angor simply disyed what he went through inside Dark Castle using illusions, including his interactions with Felicia and Greya.

    Even though she was in a different body now, Toby still seemed greatly relieved when he saw that Greya was safe.

    Time quickly passed by as Toby enjoyed Angor¡¯s ¡°movie¡±.

    When the side-effect in Angor¡¯s bodypletely vanished, he began to make ns for the near future. First, he would like to go to Shadow and ask for help searching for Hookdick. It would be best if he could get rid of Hookdick before leaving Floating Mech City. Otherwise, it would be harder once they were back at Brute Cavern because Ness would be there to look after Hookdick.

    But before all this, Angor reached for his bracelet and freed Freud from the Soul Floret.

    After getting nourished by the flower, Freud¡¯s soul was in a better condition than before. The remaining dark energy that suggested a fallen soul had disappeared from around him.

    Freud floated to the balcony and quietly gazed at the city area in the distance before he returned to Angor.

    ¡°I made the right choice by asking for your help. Congrattions.¡±

    Freud looked down in sadness. His body, along with his old self, would remain in the Sea of Purification forever. And since the Sea of Purification was no more...

    He could no longer find a purpose for his life.

    ¡°I fulfilled my promise,¡± said Angor.

    Freud already knew what Angor wanted to say. ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll see to my end of the deal. I¡¯ve ced the ¡®Dream Whelk¡¯ somewhere absolutely safe, but it¡¯s not at Fey Continent¡ªit¡¯s at Land of Revtion. I think that ce is safe since most of the residents there are mortals.¡±

    ¡°Land of Revtion... Versailles Principality...¡± Angor quickly remembered another relevant name.

    ¡°Oh yes, the empiremands 19 principalities, and one of them is called Versailles. It¡¯s a really small ce though, and I think they¡¯re famous for their sweet flowers. Are you from Land of Revtion, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°No, but I have a friend who came from there.¡± Angor thought about a certain boy called Sailum who was always proud of his home.

    ¡°I see. I thought we came from the samend. Truth is, I didn¡¯t hide the whelk in Versailles. It¡¯s back at my home, the Suzerain Principality, which is also one of the 19 divisions.¡±

    ¡°So, you don¡¯t have it right now?¡± Angor narrowed his eyes.

    Freud grew panicked a little for he assumed Angor was angry. ¡°I-I can take you there, Mister Padt, or I can draw you a map if you prefer to send someone else to retrieve the item for you.¡±

    Angor waved a hand and told Freud that he was simply thinking about the location of Land of Revtion. It was just that his expression looked a little too serious.

    He was going to return to Old Earthter this year. Perhaps he could pay a visit to Land of Revtion along the way. He thought that the detour wouldn¡¯t upy much of his time since Sailum was there on Sunders¡¯ cloud whale, which meant the Land of Revtion was not that far away.

    ¡°Have you heard of Old Earth?¡± Angor asked.

    Freud slowly shook his head.

    ¡°What about ¡®Marginalized Ind¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes, it¡¯s a tiny ce to the south of the Whalebone Sea. There are many traders from Central Empire who would go collect merchandise over there.¡±

    Tiny ce?!

    Angor just realized that his old home was more un-famous than he expected. Although it couldn¡¯t be helped. This world was HUGE, which was what he had been learning in thest few years.

    ¡°Ahem, is that ¡®tiny ce¡¯ far from Land of Revtion?¡±

    ¡°Land of Revtion is to the north of the Whalebone Sea. I think the traders I mentioned need about two months to travel to Marginalized Ind by sea.¡±

    Angor considered the speed ofmon ships and assumed that his Gond could cover the distance in a few days.

    ¡°Are we going to pass through Land of Revtion if we travel from Fey Continent to Marginalized Ind?¡±

    ¡°It... depends on which port you leave from.¡±

    ¡°Um... how about Twilight Harbor?¡±

    ¡°You mean the seaport in the Goman Kingdom, Mister Padt? That will take you pretty close to Land of Revtion. But you have to enter Devil¡¯s Water.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m not going to get into the water anyway,¡± Angor said and nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll go to Marginalized Indter this year, and while at it, I¡¯ll check out Land of Revtion. If I find Dream Whelk, I¡¯ll set you free.¡±

    Freud looked down and nodded. He was in no ce to protest right now.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t mean to treat you as a prisoner or something,¡± Angor said. He nced at the Soul Floret, which was already withering, and said, ¡°I¡¯ll make something proper for you to stay inside in the meantime.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Mister Padt,¡± Freud said and bowed.

    ¡°Do you... have anything left to do at Fey Continent?¡± Angor thought about asking which organization Freud came from, but decided not to, as it might cause misunderstandings.

    ¡°I came from Tower of Hurricane,¡± Freud said as he had decided to let him know. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t have any possessions left behind. To those wizards, the death of an apprentice is like a passing cloud. They won¡¯t even mention my name again.¡±

    Freud said that to reassure Angor that he didn¡¯t need to worry about people from Tower of Hurricane. A dead elite apprentice didn¡¯t mean much to them.

    ¡°Alright. You can stay in the flower until I craft that new item I mentioned. And... do tell me, if you have something to ask. Don¡¯t be shy.¡±

 Chapter 536 - Shadowâ€™s Departure

    <h4>Chapter 536: Shadow¡¯s Departure</h4>

    Angor thought about keeping Freud inside his bracelet just like before. However, the Soul Floret could easily die without someone to look after it. It wasn¡¯t anything valuable, but Angor still didn¡¯t want to throw it away.

    With that in mind, he carried the Soul Floret, which was Freud¡¯s temporary home, into one of the neighboring rooms.

    The first thing that weed him was the smell of fresh grass and flowers. The miniature ¡°skyscraper¡± in the center of the room was surrounded by patches of nts. The tiny Krakoks were busily working in their fields around the building. The once empty base now had a good number of cultivated farnds on it, which were filled with different flowers and fruit trees.

    The strong ones were all doing their works, while kids were chasing each other for fun. Several older Krakoks were working on wood sculptures. A young Krakok was trying to impress his lover by ying a small instrument he crafted while a number of observers watched their lovely interaction.

    The small Krakok society was developing healthily.

    ¡°Angor!¡± Dodoro joined him with a big smile.

    Angor looked past Dodoro and saw Papaya¡¯s grandmother sitting in front of a desk with a pile of papers ced on top. The characters written on the papers suggested Dodoro just finished them.

    Angor smiled at the tiny residents to tell them to mind their works. He then went to check Dodoro¡¯s homework while Dodoro waited beside him with a yearning look as if he were a kid that was expecting a prize from his teacher.

    Angor was pretty surprised to see that Dodoro¡¯s work did not look like what was done by a fresh learner. Dodoro¡¯s handwriting was just like his innocent character¡ªtidy, clean, pleasant to read.

    Papaya¡¯s grandmother provided the same opinions, which further brightened Dodoro¡¯s smile. Even so, it seemed that Dodoro was still waiting for Angor¡¯sment so that he could find more motivation to keep studying.

    Of course, Angor was not stingy when he praised Dodoro¡¯s effort. When he did, Dodoro looked so happy that he almost hopped around like a bunny.¡±readics on our Read.live¡±

    Angor shook his head and chuckled. It seemed that Dodoro would still need Papaya¡¯s grandmother to teach him how to behave ¡°properly¡±.

    After satisfying Dodoro¡¯s needs for affection, Angor looked at Papaya. He nned to ask Papaya for help to look after the Soul Floret.

    The Krakok girl had no problem agreeing to it, and she quickly called over several able-bodied farmers.

    After telling them how to tend to the flower, Angor ced the Soul Floret behind the building.

    Even though Freud was pretty obedient until now, Angor still ced a small illusion around the flower to prevent Freud from swindling the innocent locals.

    The illusion was simr to the one he left for Flowey under the graveyard outside Dark Castle. It restricted Freud¡¯s area and stopped him from making unnecessary interactions with outsiders. On top of everything, Angor also recreated Freud¡¯s residence by leaving a lot of books and magazines so that the man wouldn¡¯t get too bored.

    After Angor left the room, Freud picked up a book and was delighted to see that he could read it just like reading a real book.

    His eyes watered as something came upon his mind.

    ...

    Angor greeted Number One and left Sunders¡¯ mansion to head to the city area with Toby.

    Just after his departure, a butterfly with ck and white stripes on its wings slowlynded at the mansion¡¯s door.

    ...

    The sessful evolution of the purification garden was supposed to be something worth celebrating, but this time, the sounds of celebration only belonged to the lower side of the city, while the upper side was instead troubled by grim silence.

    Angor couldn¡¯t tell how many people died in there. He assumed that there were at least more than 50,000 apprentices who were left behind, and apart from those who were close to them, no one else would ever remember the names of these apprentices.

    Floating Mech City attracted more doubtful attention because most of the people regarded the garden sacrifice as a trap. A deadly one at that.

    Combining all these factors, the streets of Floating Mech City seemed more dested than ever.

    The citizens and their leaders simply proceeded with their days as usual while they ignored the ongoing rumors.

    The garden sacrifice wasn¡¯t all about bad things. Various major organizations gained future invitations into the purification garden, which was enough to neutralize all the toxicments.

    For the city, time would always mend their ruined name. Some bad fame would not damage their development in the long run.

    ...

    Following the empty streets, Angor headed to Bog¡¯s base.

    He asionally heard people who talked about the Purification Garden. However, since they were not the ones who fought for their lives, they could only base their discussion on what they learned from magazines.

    From their talks, Angor realized that he had gained apletely different name.

    Forcing Jebra to back off was the most impressive incident people would know about him.

    Even so, his new fame mainly convinced people of his strength. As for his alchemy talent that was mentioned by the magazines, not that many people believed it except for several wizards who already saw him personally.

    Truthful or not, Angor didn¡¯t mind these rumors. Time would prove everything, and it probably wouldn¡¯t make any difference to him.

    He reached Bog¡¯s ce without meeting any trouble. The structure was still haunted by countless puppets of all sorts, who were already giving him cold stares from really far away.

    The sun was still high above his head, yet he felt an unknown chill invading his bones.

    He would never have approached this ce had he not known that Bog had left the city. In order to find Hookdick as soon as possible, he really needed Shadow¡¯s assistance.

    Soon after he reached the entrance of the base, the Rune Monitor that was dressed simrly as Number One slowly floated outside and approached Angor.

    ¡°Good afternoon, Kazar,¡± Angor said as he lifted his hood.

    Kazar¡¯s eye glowed in red ¡°in surprise¡±. ¡°Oh hello, Mister Padt. I¡¯ve been tasked by Master that I shall maintain the best condition of your personal room, every day. Are you going to live here again?¡±

    Angor quickly shook his head. He had more than enough reason to reject the hospitable offer. He still remembered how it felt like when several wizard-level puppets gave him deathly gazes every time he checked the window.

    ¡°No, thanks. I already found a ce to live in. I came to talk to Sha-Diablo. Is he here?¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt, Mister Diablo had left the city half a month ago. He said that, before bing a wizard, he will note back to Floating Mech City again.¡±

    Angor frowned at the news. He knew that Shadow would like to reach wizard level as soon as possible to revive Naga, and that the man wanted to travel around more to look for destiny. Even so, Angor didn¡¯t expect Shadow to leave so soon.

    And since Shadow was not around, Angor decided to get away from Bog¡¯s territory as soon as possible.

    Before he walked away, someone else showed up from the base. Angor immediately recognized those strange ck styles and thick ck circles around that individual¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°If you¡¯re looking for Diablo, try looking around Northern Fields. He mentioned something about going to ne expeditions,¡± Falca said in a small voice as he walked past Angor.

    Angor failed to understand those words at first, and Falca already left without giving him a chance to ask.

    That¡¯s... Falca, right? Did he suddenly gain a better character or something?

    ¡°Mister Falca received a message from Mister Taurus, and he must return to Silent Hill today,¡± Kazar exined.

    It wasn¡¯t what Angor wanted to ask, but he didn¡¯t really care. After bidding farewell to the machine butler, he turned away and left Bog¡¯s ce.

    Since Shadow was unavable, he nned to go to Timber Pub next and see whether Nausica could tell him something.

    Before heading into Champagne Road, he first went inside ¡°Moshi Street¡± to look for something he needed.

    As the business center of the entire southern wizarding region, the city basically had everything he hoped for. Even if something was out of stock, he could always tell the shopkeeper to restock within several days.

    He would probably leave this ce in a few days, so he decided to use this precious chance to stock up his stash.

    He had several new alchemy ns in mind, which were to craft some general-purpose weapons that he could use. Also, he wanted to do something about Akeso¡¯s scale and hopefully create a defensive item out of it. He still had the scale ced in front of his heart as a simple means of protection, and he didn¡¯t want any other alchemist tough at his silly idea.

    He also needed to craft another suitable ¡°residence¡± for Freud. And apart from all these, he was going to attempt apothecary with the help of Mithra.

    These alchemy ns all needed time. He assumed that during his travel back to Old Earth, he would have plenty of time to mind his own schedule.

    Now that he was still in the city, he wanted to purchase everything that he needed.

    Once again, the prosperity of Floating Mech City was presented in front of Angor¡¯s eyes when he arrived at Moshi Street.

    Buildings in the air, shops flying around on airships, dimension entrances scattered about... Everything looked unique and colorful yet they existed in perfect harmony due to the ingeniousyout.

    The depressing ambiance caused by negative rumors did not get into this area at all.

 Chapter 537 - The Fingernail

    <h4>Chapter 537: The Fingernail</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Flourishing streets, colorful banners, traveling crowds...

    Minerals and magic nts, easy cantrips and advanced spells, weapons and armor, apothecaries and research institutes... This area had every single aspect the wizarding world had to offer.

    And of course, one could never see the whole picture of the market¡ªthere was bound to be more secrets hidden beneath its bright mask, both good and evil ones.

    Angor walked around the market while noting down the prices of different merchandise as well as their quality before he carefully ced his orders.

    An hour went by quickly, during which Angor found himself denied by many of the shops.

    Some of the shops had very strict rules about who could enter, such as ¡°wizards only¡±. Most of them were bookstores selling spell books or materials that were only useful to wizards.

    Naturally, Angor had to stay away from them despite his curiosity. Besides, the shopkeepers did not need to chase him out¡ªthere were protective magic arrays ced at their entrances that would simply wound or kill any intruders who did not meet the requirements, while the severity of the punishment solely depended on whether the shopkeeper was in a good mood.

    There were other types of requirements, some of which appeared really strange. For example, Angor saw a small manor hidden behind vapor and mist; it was called ¡°Star Tailor¡±. There was a warning sign below the shop¡¯s name¡ª¡±Male forms are prohibited¡±.

    <i>Wait... </i>Angor wondered.<i> Does that mean a dude can enter this ce as long as he transforms into a woman?</i>

    Someone soon answered Angor¡¯s question. A beautiful woman slowly stepped out of the shop¡¯s door before her body melted and turned into a bulky-looking muscle man.

    <i>Oh crap.</i>

    Angor wondered what kind of stuff the shop provided. And since he did not know any form-shifting spells, he considered sneaking inside using illusions.

    He was disappointed when a Rune Monitor servitor told him no.

    This meant the shop chose to allow male wizards who knew very potent form-change abilities to go inside, such as by using gender-altering bloodlines or Transform, which wasmonly believed to be one of the hardest spells to learn. Simply put, apprentices basically had no hope.

    There were also other sorts of weird entrance conditions, such as ¡°non-humans only¡±, ¡°age below 200¡±, ¡°Magic array crafters only¡±...

    Some shops used ¡°softer¡± rules. Angor saw such a potion shop, where its Rune Monitor guard would allow anyone who ¡°praises Van Der Waals School and disdains others¡± to pass.

    Next door was a supply shop for alchemists, which required customers to pass a small quiz.

    As long as one could fulfill these conditions, even a weak apprentice could enter these shops that also provided wizard-level services.

    The aforementioned alchemist shop named ¡°The Fingernail¡± was what Angor was looking at right now.

    Putting its strange name aside, Angor noticed that the shop was pretty big, while a good number of alchemists were going in and out of it on hurried steps.

    When Angor approached, the gatekeeper, which was a puppet carved out of sandalwood, addressed him. The puppet didn¡¯t look like any finely-designed artwork¡ªsome extra size and it would look as terrible as a Treant.

    The puppet questioned whether Angor was studying Tooling or Apothecary, and after getting an answer, it showed several corners of a random rune and told Angor to identify the whole rune.

    ¡°This is one of the mostmonly used Elemental runes called Supplement, it¡¯s for¡ª¡±

    ¡°Correct. You do not need to provide the details, honored guest.¡±

    Angor was soon granted entrance after he correctly identified several more runes. Also, the puppet guard asked for Angor¡¯s identity card so that Angor could get registered and revisit this shop without going through the quiz again.

    He did have two identity cards. One was an anonymous card given by Sunders, while the other was certified under someone called ¡°Baron Milk¡±. Neither one was suitable to be used here.

    Before Angor could get a good look at the interior of the shop, he saw many pairs of scrutinizing eyes looking his way.

    A group of apprentices in alchemist uniforms that was chatting around a bench also gave Angor strange looks.

    As Angor wondered what those people wanted, he heard someone talking to him in an old woman¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Wee, young alchemist.¡±

    Angor looked around and saw a short, silver-haireddy who appeared at the counter out of nowhere. The woman¡¯s body looked as tall as Shan, but a bit wider. She was wearing a blue skirt with several embedded gems.

    The most noticeable feature on her was a giant hairpin behind her hair bun. The hairpin was shaped like a peacock¡¯s tail spread. Also, each ¡°peacock feather¡± was actually a bright, polished fingernail.

    Out of instinct, Angor looked down and realized that the woman¡¯s own fingernails were in the exact same colors and style.

    ¡°Good day, ma¡¯am.¡± Angor bowed to the strange woman whose true strength he couldn¡¯t identify. He assumed that she was at least at wizard level.

    ¡°Troubled by those people?¡± The old woman pointed a finger at the apprentices sitting nearby.

    Upon receiving her attention, the apprentices quickly looked away and pretended that they were minding their own business.

    ¡°May I ask the reason for it?¡± Angor maintained his neutral expression.

    ¡°Because they heard you talking to Nehaa. Oh, Nehaa is the wooden puppet at the door.¡± The woman then asked Angor to take a seat in front of the counter. ¡°There might be countless alchemists in Floating Mech City, yet everyone¡¯s name was more or less known by others. Of course they¡¯ll be curious when a new face shows up.¡±

    ¡°Ipletely understand.¡±

    The woman¡¯s eyes twinkled. ¡°You don¡¯t find many enchantment alchemists in our ranks. If I remember correctly... everyone¡¯s been talking about an alchemist who almost created a Mystery item. He¡¯s also an enchantment alchemist... if I¡¯m not mistaken?¡±

    Angor smiled and didn¡¯tment.

    The woman ended the subject and introduced herself, ¡°I don¡¯t even remember my own name now... They just call me ¡®Granny Fingernail¡¯. And if you don¡¯t know already, I¡¯m the owner of this shop. So, what I can do for you?¡±

    Angor suddenly recalled a familiar name in his memory.

    ¡°Are you perhaps acquainted with Iron Granny?¡± Angor asked as he tried to remember a certain old woman who lived inside a moving fortress.

    ¡°You mean Iron Granny of the Iron Fortress? I do know her name, but no, we never met.¡±

    Angor nodded. It was a wild guess, and it seemed that he was wrong.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking to buy materials...¡± Angor exined several names of rareponents that he failed to find elsewhere.

    Granny Fingernail showed a strange look while listening. ¡°You... have a pretty big ambition, young man.¡±

    Granny Fingernail would say so because Angor¡¯s material list included things for both Tooling and Apothecary of different schools.

    Again, Angor smiled without saying anything.

    ¡°Some of them are valuable stock... I would reject any random apprentice who asks for them because they¡¯ll only put them to waste. But you... perhaps yes. Mithra has been giving you apothecary lessons, no? It exins why you need those magical nts.¡±

    Angor just realized that the old woman already recognized him.

    He could also tell that Mithra was Granny Fingernail¡¯s friend or at least a colleague since even Sunders had no idea about his apothecary lectures.

    He wondered who Granny Fingernail truly was.

    Granny Fingernail went to the other side of the counter and took out two one-use space capsules. ¡°Here, one for tooling, and one for potions.¡±

    Angor nodded and checked the capsules using his spirit feelers.

    ¡°That¡¯ll be 13,590 magic crystals...¡± the old shopkeeper said as she waited for Angor toplete his examination. ¡°I¡¯ll make it 13,500.¡±

    The onlooking apprentices widened their eyes in surprise. Even though they could earn quick money with their alchemy skills, such a huge sum was still something that they couldn¡¯t gather easily. The money was enough to buy one or two advanced alchemy tools.

    Angor considered and epted the price. Previously, he nned to spread his orders among several shops so that he wouldn¡¯t draw attention by spending so much money in one go. Still, he couldn¡¯t reject the great offer since Granny Fingernail¡¯s merchandise was of superior quality.

    Upon seeing him making such a big purchase, the apprentices who had doubts about Angor¡¯s identity all became sure of their conclusion.

    Angor already heard someone mentioning his name, in a polite way. This told him that, at the very least, his fame wasn¡¯t so terrible among alchemists.

    ¡°Anything else you need? I also have the copied notes of several famous alchemists, or if you want to study certain exclusive or unique skills... I have them too.¡±

    <i>Alchemy notes? They sell the most precious experience of alchemists here?</i>

    When Angor asked, Granny Fingernail exined that the notes weren¡¯t for sale. Angor would have to use his own knowledge as an exchange for the notes.

    He did need the written experience, which was something not recorded in his tablet. But then, he learned that he needed to pay really high-end expertise of certain alchemy subjects, and it did not look like a good offer.

    He believed he could always gain experience by getting down to practical alchemy works. Without someone¡¯s guidance, he might take some unnecessary detours, yet it was nothing too serious.

    With that in mind, he decided to disregard the offer.

    He did need to buy something else from the shop. It was neither material nor knowledge, but a tailoring tool for making alchemy garments.

 Chapter 538 - The Astute Sigil

    <h4>Chapter 538: The Astute Sigil</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Soon enough, Granny Fingernail brought him an alchemy sewing kit.

    Angor was a little surprised when Granny Fingernail failed to find any threads used for sewing alchemy materials.

    Angor had no problem with this. He had not attempted alchemy clothes yet, so he could simply practice by using ordinary threads. As for Akeso¡¯s scale, he nned to fully understand how to create alchemy fabric before working on it.

    The sewing tool, as well as several supplementary materials, cost him another 400 magic crystals. There were different materials for making different clothes or armors as well. This time, Angor mainly purchased some tanned leathers and special cloth.

    When everything was done, he prepared to visit the other shops and see if they had the special threads that he still needed.

    Suddenly, a middle-aged man moved in front of him and blocked his way.

    ¡°Mister Padt, am I right?¡±

    Angor checked the speaker who looked rather average except for a small tattoo between his eyebrows, which looked like an eclipsed sun.

    Angor frowned as he recognized that symbol.

    The stranger didn¡¯t seem to be concerned with Angor¡¯s doubtful look. ¡°Sorry for upying your time, Mister Padt. I¡¯m Lantis from Astute Alchemy Guild. I want to offer an invitation. Do not worry, as our guild is fully open to those who wish tomunicate¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, thanks,¡± Angor said without waiting wait for the man to finish.

    He knew about such ¡°guilds¡±. These guilds were something simr to the scheduled apprentice meeting held in Water Grasse, but they weren¡¯t real organizations. People with simr interests gathered together and talked about their alchemy experience, and that was about it.

    It sounded good, but Angor didn¡¯t really need people to provide extra pointers or wisdom. There was another reason why he rejected the invitation without hesitation; he saw Granny Fingernail giving the tattooed man a very unfriendly re.

    He wondered if there were something fishy about the guild.

    Lantis considered and did not say anything further since Angor¡¯s decision seemed pretty firm. He still gave Angor a business card. ¡°If you ever change your mind, Mister Padt, look for this address. Oh, and you wanted to buy wizard-level sewing threads, right? During our meeting tomorrow, one of our members will offer a coil of ¡®Abyss Wyvern Veins¡¯ in exchange for something. Feel free to check it out.¡±

    Lantis walked away, while Angor went over the information he learned.

    <i>So they have some kind of private trading going on tomorrow?</i>

    ¡°May I ask what is the reason for your decision, young man?¡± Granny Fingernail spoke up from behind Angor.

    Angor sat down again because he wanted to ask about this ¡°Astute Alchemy Guild¡±.

    ¡°It appeared to me earlier that you didn¡¯t like them, and as a guest, I chose to believe in you,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Is that what was really on your mind?¡± The old woman chuckled. ¡°No. I just don¡¯t like that Lantis man. The apprentices over there are all from Astute Alchemy Guild. I wouldn¡¯t allow them to enter my shop if I hate them.¡±

    Angor turned around and saw Lantis joining the said apprentices. And from their reaction, Lantis was someone they respected.

    When he realized that he had Angor¡¯s attention, Lantis smiled back politely.

    ¡°You dislike Lantis? Is it because of... this?¡± Angor put a finger on his forehead.

    ¡°I see you denied his invitation for the very same reason?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Can you please tell me something about this Astute Guild, Granny Fingernail?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to join them? Just as I thought. In fact, they do not require that you be their member. Their gathering is more like a private meeting where people exchange stuff. You can either show that card or provide something of value, and they¡¯ll let you in without a problem.¡±

    ¡°Are they famous in the city?¡±

    Granny Fingernail shrugged. ¡°I never went there myself. I heard that such a meeting happens once every week, and so far, they¡¯re a bunch of... rtively peaceful folks. Of course, you can pay them a visit.¡±

    <i>This means, I¡¯m free to go inside, but it takes some effort to get back out?</i> Angor pondered.

    Angor thanked the woman politely and stood up.

    After Angor was gone, Granny Fingernail spoke into a small transmitter, ¡°I saw him. A promising kid indeed.¡±

    ¡°So, you agreed that I can give him the gate card?¡± someone replied in azy voice.

    ¡°Heh. You gave him the card without hearing my opinion anyway. He bought many wizard-level materials from my ce... If he truly knows how to use them at such an age, then I see no problem giving him a chance.¡±

    The woman believed that, since Angor did not ask for the alchemy notes, he should have already obtained some decent books or valuable alchemy legacy. Also, being able to recognize the guild¡¯s tattoo was quite impressive.

    Before this day, Granny Fingernail had protested against Muse¡¯s decision to let Angor into the Research Department. But now, she no longer against it.

    ...

    Angor kept walking along the market street. He had almostpleted his shopping spree, and he hoped he could find the magic threads from one of the shops so that he didn¡¯t need to join the Astute Guild.

    Granny Fingernail did not seem too concerned, yet Angor knew what the strange tattoo on Lantis meant.

    It was usually called the ¡°Astute Sigil¡±, and its full name should be ¡°The True Name of Astute King¡±.

    The name itself suggested that something powerful left his name behind. In this world, extremely powerful beings could spread their might upon others by distributing their names. At the same time, someone¡¯s true name could also be used against them by using certain curses. For this reason, very few of them would announce their true names to others like this.

    With the exception of Abyss Demons.

    Astute King was such a demon, which was as infamous as another grand demon called the ¡°Crown Clown¡±. Whereas Crown Clown sought absolute bnce in everything, Astute King loved receiving sacrifice and tributes. Or rather, the Astute King was the founder of most sacrificial rituals known today.

    Angor once helped Bobota craft an alchemy chain that was used in something called the Altar of Blood. This altar was one of the many inventions created by Astute King.

    From the alchemy books he recorded in Nightmare Realm, Angor once read about Astute King. It was a very ancient being that had lived long before history was recorded. Because it was Astute King who created certain alchemy items that had an ¡°owner authorization system¡±, this name was well-known among alchemists.

    It was totally reasonable for a group of alchemists to establish a small association using the demon¡¯s name. This was nothing harmful¡ªby using the true name of this demon, alchemists might be able to enhance their creations.

    Except that Angor also learned from the books that once someone decided to ¡°trade¡± with Astute King, that individual would need to offer his own name, which would then be at the mercy of this demon.

    Ordinary wizards had no problem offering a small price in exchange for the ¡°blessing¡± of Astute King. However, if the demon grew interested in someone who stood out among people... great troubles would soon follow. There had been countless outstanding wizards who had fallen into strange idents because they attracted the malicious attentions of Abyss Demons.

    Angor didn¡¯t think he would ever be so ¡°outstanding¡± as to get his name known among demons, but he would do his best to avoid even the tiniest possibility of that happening. This was why he rejected the invitation without a second thought.

    After a while, he quickly grew disappointed after visiting many alchemy shops as he couldn¡¯t find the threads he wanted. They were either out of stock or were disyed in high-level alchemy shops that did not allow Angor to enter.

    While searching, Angor entered a bookstore called the ¡°Sound of Wizards¡±. It was located behind the entrance to another dimension.

    The dimension was a beautiful forest with clean river streams and patches of flowers while the books were either disyed among bushes or hanging on trees like fruits. There were also man-made tree houses that served as different categories.

    Angor found this ce to be perfect for reading, as everything was so quiet and peaceful.

    He selected several books, most of which were magazines intended for wizards. He wasn¡¯t looking for gossip magazines like Precision Sky. He only went for those that were rted to certain professions and academic subjects.

    <i>Whisper of Mythril</i>,<i> Rune Talk</i>, <i>Gargoyle Annual</i>, <i>Element Premiere</i>, <i>Prominent Debates (remastered)</i>,<i> Collection of Truth</i>...

    They didn¡¯t offer any in-depth expertise. Angor bought them because he wanted to see how wizards came up with so many questions and theories by joining collisions of great minds.

    All these books cost him about 50 magic crystals. Before leaving, he also spent 800 crystals on a copy of <i>Runepedia: Basic</i>. The book contained some runes that would have to be drawn on magic scroll papers for it to take effect. Angor noticed that they were quite different from the enchantment runes he learned before, so he decided to take a look.

 Chapter 539 - A Visitor And Her Request

    <h4>Chapter 539: A Visitor And Her Request</h4>

    Number One was busily trimming grass and flowers in the garden again. It was supposed to serve Sunders as a house butler, but it had not seen its master for a long time.

    Again, it tended to the house alone, just like when Sunders wasn¡¯t here in thest decade.

    Gardening, cleaning... there were no changes except that it also needed to provide food and water to the Krakoks. And since the only other guest in the mansion, Angor, left in the early morning, the machine butler had nothing else to do.

    A teenage girl suddenly appeared at the manor¡¯s entrance, along with a group of fluttering butterflies.

    Number One quickly went to Sunders¡¯ study and spoke through the closed door, ¡°Master, a guest is visiting.¡±

    ¡°Send her away...¡± Sunders replied in a tired voice.

    Number Oneplied and told so to the girl. But as it turned around to head inside, it saw the same girl, who was dressed in a showy violet fur overcoat, was already inside the garden.

    ¡°Sunders... aren¡¯t you going to wee an old friend?¡± The girl ignored Number One and walked toward Sunders¡¯ location.

    ¡°You... what are you doing here?¡± Sunders¡¯ fatigued tone came from inside the shut study.

    ¡°Let me in, will you?¡±

    When she received no response, the girl rolled her eyes and pushed the door open. Number One quickly hurried over to stop her.

    ¡°Oh,e on. Your master didn¡¯t say no, did he?¡± The girl pushed Number One away and entered the room.

    Number One tried to follow, only to get bounced away by a small forcefield.

    ¡°Close the door,¡± Sunders ordered.

    Pong!

    Number One floated in front of the door for a while before returning to the garden to continue its work while several wizards that were passing by wondered what was going on.

    ¡°Hey, that Rune Monitor looks rather sad. Wait, how¡¯s that possible?¡±

    ...

    Inside Sunders¡¯ room, the girl immediately found Sunders who was sitting in shadows.

    ¡°Wait, your face...?¡±

    ¡°Speak. What do you want?¡±

    The girl tilted her head and feigned a confused look. ¡°Do you know who I am?¡±

    ¡°Greya... both of us are truth-finders. We don¡¯t recognize people by their looks.¡±

    Greya smiled. ¡°Yup, I do have something to ask, but...¡± Greya then inspected the gentleman¡¯s form carefully. ¡°I¡¯m sure you aren¡¯t exactly problem-free.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not your business. Just tell me what you¡¯re looking for. Do note that I won¡¯t be free to help with anything in theing century or so.¡±

    ¡°A soul morph and... manifestation taking over?¡± Greya suddenly grew puzzled about something.

    Sunders lifted a hand and grabbed Greya¡¯s neck from a distance. ¡°Did youe here to die?¡±

    Greya coughed. ¡°Come on! This new body has not attained wizard level yet, and you already want to kill me?¡±

    Sunders released her while he gave her a really murderous re.

    Greya calmed herself down. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to exploit your privacy. It¡¯s just... I can feel what¡¯s going on inside you.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ eyes glowed as he surveyed Greya¡¯s soul space. There, he saw another small, weaker soul beside Greya¡¯s own soul.

    ¡°Heh. You took her body but did not eliminate her soul. With someone else to disturb your condition, you will not regain strength any time soon.¡±

    Greya shrugged. ¡°I came just so that I can ask for some advice regarding this matter.¡±

    ¡°The soul is at apprentice level. You don¡¯t need my help to kill it. Or are you looking for another solution?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I want your help to look for my real body. I like it betterpared to this shortie.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have time for it. And I don¡¯t believe I¡¯m obliged to help you.¡±

    Greya chuckled. ¡°Of course I¡¯m not expecting free help. If you agree, I¡¯ll let you borrow this current body of mine, who is also a Gourmet. After giving her some training, she¡¯ll be at wizard level. What do you say?¡±

    In this world, people all found it a great honor to have a Gourmet wizard or apprentice undermand. Such talent was extremely rare, which was also the reason why Eyeless was sold at such a high price at Twilight Auction.

    Until today, Brute Cavern had found only a few Gourmet apprentices but zero Gourmet wizards. The apprentices all quitted Brute Cavern and joined Candy House in the end. Brute Cavern retained no Gourmet legacy at all.

    Greya, a master Gourmet wizard, was now offering her own student as a payment. Anyone would believe that such a gift could provide more than an honor to Sunders¡ªif everything went well, Brute Cavern might finally see their own group of Gourmet wizards.

    Greya was confident that Sunders was wise enough to see how valuable her offer was. However...

    ¡°I, don¡¯t, have, time, for this.¡±

    Sunders was never someone to talk in the stead of the organization, and he had no interest in adding to Brute Cavern¡¯s resources.

    Greya¡¯s expression froze.

    ¡°Are you sure? I know it¡¯s a difficult task, but to you...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let me repeat again. Now off you go.¡± Sunders opened the door and waved Greya off.

    Greya¡¯s expression changed many times as she struggled to make up her mind.

    ¡°I see. I¡¯ll change my offer then.¡±

    Sunders waited for her answer patiently.

    ¡°I can solve your soul morph problem. Surely you know about my unique spell ¡®Artificial Life¡¯, right? Using the abnormal energy inside you, I can make a dish that helps you tackle the issue.¡±

    Sunders grinned, which was a rare thing to happen.

    He allowed Greya to enter his study just to wait for such an offer.

    Sunders had an urgent problem, which he had been suppressing in thest month. He did not know for how long he could prevent ¡°him¡± froming out, and Greya might be able to provide the only thorough solution.

    In fact, Sunders had made aplicated n to ¡°lure¡± Greya into making the offer first. And he would dly ept it since Greya also seemed anxious about retrieving her body.

    ¡°You¡¯re willing to pay your precious time in exchange for that chunky carcass of yours?¡± Sundersmented.

    ¡°Chunky? Oh, hoho no. It is called ¡®plentiful¡¯, or sexiness, my friend,¡± Greya joked before putting on a more serious look. ¡°So, how about it? I just offered a great opportunity that I don¡¯t have many left in my life. I don¡¯t have anything else if you say no again.¡±

    Greya was considered a truth-finder wizard just because of a unique spell she created called ¡°Artificial Life¡±. This spell had helped her create many new life forms, such as Section Ephemera, Twisting Protozoa, and Toby.

    Apart from ¡°creating¡±, the Mystery-level spell could also be used for reverse-engineering certain magical effects, and the spell could also create a dish that recreated that effect. Section Ephemera was invented by Greya for such a purpose.

    But it couldn¡¯t recreate just any effect she wanted to. Firstly, theplexity of the dish had to be within her skills. And secondly, dishes created in this way were mostly supplementary, one-use meals. Above all these, Greya could only perform this art once in every 50 years or longer.

    It took her more time to create harder dishes. To make the ¡°live dish¡±, Section Ephemera, she spent nearly an entire century.

    Even with so many restrictions, Greya¡¯s ¡°Artificial Life¡± was one of the most flexible supportive spells recorded in history. Many wizards, including Sunders, still remembered the amazing omen brought by Greya on the day she created this spell.

    And since that day, Greya was acknowledged as another truth-finder wizard who turned Candy House into a paradise for Gourmet talents.

    Sunders did not know how much hardship Greya went through to make such impressive achievements. He did know that ¡°Artificial Life¡± was potent enough to remove his imminent problem.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Sunders nodded in the end.

    Greya smiled in relief. ¡°Then you¡¯ll have to bring me my body. I can¡¯t perform Artificial Life without it.¡±

    Sunders suddenly got a bad feeling. ¡°Where is your body?¡±

    ¡°Inside Nightmare Realm.¡±

    ...

    Greya slowly exined the bizarre adventure she experienced.

    Telling from the legendary-level monsters she encountered, Sunders assumed that Greya did not reach the core area of Nightmare Realm. She probably ended up at another outer region like Nether City.

    Greya was pretty surprised when she heard Sunders¡¯ conclusion. That was a legendary monster and a dozenckeys that were just a little bit weaker, and they only came from an outer area? Whatever does the core area look like?

    Little did she know that someone already answered her question. On the day when Angor exined his talent test inside Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, what he told everyone was the core area of Nightmare Realm. At least Sunders believed so.

    Sunders frowned after listening to Greya¡¯s story.

    It wasn¡¯t hard for him to enter the Nightmare Realm, but he couldn¡¯t say so when he had to steal Greya¡¯s body from the hands of a legendary monster. And even if he somehow managed, he wasn¡¯t sure whether he could physically bring the body back to reality.

    This was why he needed Angor to retrieve Singrity Dispersive Meditation, as he couldn¡¯t take something in Nightmare Realm out using his own hands.

    I either need Greya to apany me so that she can get her own body back or...

    Naturally, he thought about his young student again.

 Chapter 540 - Barbecue

    <h4>Chapter 540: Barbecue</h4>

    Angor only had several hundred crystals left after visiting the bookstore. He didn¡¯t believe he had enough money to buy magical thread even if he could find them, so he simply left Moshi¡¯s Street and headed to Champagne Road.

    On his way, he thought about making some more money since he would soon need it.

    He still owed Sunders 150,000 crystals. The debt was due about half a year ago, yet he never had a chance to get to it since he was forced to travel through Fairy World. Sunders did not mention the debt yet because nobody knew whether Angor could return from the garden challenge alive. But now that Angor came back, it was time to talk about money problems.

    Angor once read about how ¡°Nightmare Domain severing¡± worked. Sunders spent lots of wizard-level materials in order to stabilize Angor¡¯s own piece of Nightmare Domain. Added with Sunders¡¯ fame and great skills, 150,000 was a pretty cheap price.

    His Nightmare Domain had helped him escape from danger many times. Angor didn¡¯t intend to forget about his professor¡¯s timely help.

    I guess I have more alchemy to do...

    He saw the crossroad leading to Champagne Road still had several craters in it, which were caused by the fight between Shan and Sdin. He wondered if Sdin made it out of the purification garden.

    Soon, he arrived at Timber Pub. Likest time, the ss windows showed the bustling groups of people inside. It was when he entered the door did he feel something wasn¡¯t quite right inside.

    The inner area of the pub was divided into two halves. One side was upied by joyful apprentices who escaped the garden alive, while the other side had people who mourned and cried over their lost friends.

    Somehow, two types of people co-existed just fine.

    A bartender wearing a servitor uniform and white gloves quickly approached Angor. ¡°What can I get you, my friend?¡±

    It was the same mortal bartender Angor sawst time. This flexible man seemed like the kind who knew how to deal with different types of people professionally.

    ¡°Not drinking. I¡¯m looking for someone,¡± replied Angor.

    ¡°Who, if I may?¡± The bartender seemed determined to find Angor¡¯s purpose.

    Angor frowned at the courageous mortal. He guessed that it was the owner of this pub that allowed their workers to act so boldly. Since this pub owner granted him a swift exitst time, Angor decided to act as friendly as possible.

    From his bracelet, he took out a small card that had ¡°Budding Quarter¡± written on it.

    The bartender looked at Angor¡¯s hooded figure again and quickly took a guess. Is he that very same apprentice fromst time? At least he¡¯s of the same size...

    He was a little startled when he thought about the possible identity of this guest.

    ¡°This way, sir.¡± He stepped aside politely.

    The other patrons looked over when they saw the bartender acting strangely.

    When they saw the invitation card, they also wondered if this visitor, who was hidden under arge robe, was Angor.

    When Angor¡¯s teammates returned from the garden challenge, Shan was quite enthusiastic when telling their story to the other guests. She used many tteries and untruthful words when speaking, of which not many people were convinced. But no one would doubt that thedies all made it back safe and sound due to Angor¡¯s help because almost all survivors saw how Angor took his team to the Altar of Demise in thest moment on the back of a powerful monster that easily scared Jebra away.

    They couldn¡¯t contain their curiosity about Angor when all the survivors and city magazines were talking about the same name. However, no one went to question him for real since they didn¡¯t want to anger someone so brilliant.

    When Angor left the pub area and headed to the residence deeper inside, the patrons finally began to talk again.

    ¡°Angor was a level-2 apprenticest time he came, but that man just now was a level-3, right? That can¡¯t be him,¡± an apprentice said while several people all nodded in agreement.

    ...

    Angor soon saw the threedies resting in the yard of Budding Quarter. He still had his hood on. Even so, Nausica knew it was Angor since no one else possessed their invitation card.

    ¡°Hey! Did you-wait, you¡¯re level-3 now?!¡± Nausica¡¯s friendly smile was quickly reced by shock.

    ¡°I was lucky,¡± Angor said. He removed his hood and smiled when he noticed that Nausica had sessfully reached level-2.

    It seemed the purification mended all of Nausica¡¯s injuries caused by battles and conflicts while she was still the leader of pirates. Once she returned to Timber Pub, it didn¡¯t take her long to fully embrace her purified spirit and soul. In fact, her foundation grew so much that she was ready to challenge the next level right away.

    Nausica was nning to surprise Angor with her achievement. Now that Angor was once again one step ahead of her, she suddenly felt a little depressed.

    Such a great gap... And we joined Brute Cavern in the same year!

    Shan was also giving Angor astonished looks. ¡°Again?? You came to Brute Cavern two years ago, right? A level-3 apprentice?! Nanagi and Vice spent like ten years to get this far!¡±

    Nanagi and Vice were believed to be the two strongest apprentices that ever joined Brute Cavern. They were well-known because they were both under the age of 30, which meant they had more than enough time to achieve the wizard level.

    But Angor just broke their record by reaching level-3 before turning 20.

    ¡°You¡¯re kidding me... this world is kidding me...¡± Shan was muttering to herself as her sanity was on the edge of breaking apart. Many people told her that her talent was good, which seemed like a joke whenpared to Angor.

    Angor didn¡¯t know what to say, so he only shook his head embarrassingly. His breakthrough was totally unexpected, and it happened during his sleep. He couldn¡¯t say so as no one would believe him.

    A momentter, Shan managed to return to normal.

    ¡°Good timing, you. This thing will probably go bad in a few days.¡±

    She took out a chunk of fresh meat that still had some blood lingering on it. This was Erdus¡¯ meat. When escaping, Shan took several seconds and obtained the best part around Erdus¡¯ heart chamber.

    ¡°The meat of a wizard-level monster. We¡¯ve been waiting for you. Whatever good stuff hidden inside must have escaped by now,¡± Shan said while she helped Shiliew and Nausica getting a grill ready.

    She looked pretty skilled at it, which meant she barbecued a lot.

    ¡°Trust me, everybody in my tribe loves my cooking!¡± Shan added honey and various unknown but delicious-looking spices to her meat while humming a small melody. ¡°Too bad we don¡¯t have a Gourmet wizard here. I guess we¡¯ll make do.¡±

    Angor thought about n. He wasn¡¯t worried since n seemed fine with his team. And for some reason, Falca was with them on that day.

    Nausica finally remembered what she wanted to ask at first and went to Angor again. ¡°Why did you leave so fast back there? Was the Potion of Impedance getting to you? Did it work so fast?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing. I drank too much witch stew and I kinda need a quick respite.¡±

    Nausica nodded and didn¡¯t push further. She looked at Toby next, who was sitting quietly on Angor¡¯s shoulder while staring at Shan¡¯s meat with a really hungry look.

    ¡°Chill, buddy. We aren¡¯t going to disappoint our biggest lifesaver.¡± Nausica smiled.

    Toby folded his wings akimbo and put on a proud look.

    ¡°Oh, you and your appetite,¡± Angor said as he grabbed Toby with his hand and began to smoothen the bird¡¯s feathers.

    Again, Shan suppressed her urge for questioning Toby¡¯s strange ability as it might be something very private.

    Angor found a chance when no one else was talking and exined why he came today, ¡°Have any of you seen Hookdick?¡±

    ¡°Hookdick...¡± Nausica scowled. ¡°I¡¯m looking for him too. When we left the garden, he saw us and ran into the crowds. I¡¯ve been asking around these days and I get no answer. He¡¯s probably not in the city anymore.¡±

    ¡°So what?¡± Shan also showed a cruel look. ¡°He has to return to Brute Cavern sooner orter. And I¡¯ll do whatever it takes to gut him, just for what he did to us on that day. Hey Angor, you can leave him to us. I¡¯ve made some connections in Brute Cavern over thest decade, while Hookdick¡¯s only a damned rookie. I have more than one way to get him to beg for his life!¡±

    Shan¡¯s expression twisted in rage, which did not sit well on her young face.

    Angor didn¡¯t really believe that these people had what it took to fully kill a soul maniptor, but he chose not to reveal his mind.

 Chapter 541 - The Other Survivors

    <h4>Chapter 541: The Other Survivors</h4>

    Ordinary cooking fire and spices did not impede the divine vor of Erdus¡¯ meat. Apart from pleasuring one¡¯s tongue, the essence of a wizard-level monster contained rich energy that did wondrous benefit to their mana quality.

    While munching to their hearts¡¯ content, Angor and the others all quietly activated their channeling methods to guide the extremely pure and potent energy into their own mind space.

    ¡°Well, I thought my mana pool¡¯s not going to grow any time soon after my limit-break. Now, this meat just expanded it again!¡± Nausicamented.

    Angor also felt his mana pool growing, albeit just a little. It was still quite wee since he just had a breakthrough.

    He wondered what a Gourmet wizard could do with such remarkable foodstuff.

    Toby rubbed his belly while lying on Angor¡¯s shoulder. The bird seemed too satisfied to stand up.

    They suddenly stopped talking as they felt anomalous energy ripplesing from Shiliew¡¯s position. The energy came and left in a blink of an eye, yet they still sensed it because it was shockingly strong.

    Shiliew opened her eyes and saw everyone staring at her.

    ¡°Em, I tried breaking through my limit but... I failed, as you can see.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s not easy to break that barrier toward level-3. You need more than time and effort for that. Don¡¯t worry though. Last time I heard, nine out of ten apprentices in Brute Cavern had not seeded yet,¡± Shan said as sheforted herpanion.

    What she said was usually true¡ªeven when looking at the entire wizarding world, more than 90% of all apprentices would be stuck at level-2 for their entire lives.

    Shiliew looked at Angor who was sitting on the opposite side of the campfire and showed an uncertain look.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him,¡± Shan continued. ¡°What can I say? He¡¯s a freak. The kind of freak that shows up every couple of centuries to scare everyone else.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t know how to respond, so he only focused on his meal.

    No one took this to their hearts¡ªlong-term effort was always the ¡°right approach¡± for apprentices to grow, while what Angor disyed was the irregr case that couldn¡¯t be copied by anyone.

    Eating too much of Erdus¡¯ meat might get someone bloated with too much energy, so they did not push their limits. And since Toby had no such ¡°limit¡± in his tiny body, he dly enjoyed all the remaining meat all by himself.

    Toby was a seabird who always loved seafood, so Erdus¡¯ meat was a perfect dish for him.

    Shan felt her appetite returning while watching Toby gorging alone, so she summoned the bartender and ordered several roastedmb legs and a giant barrel of champagne.

    Now that they didn¡¯t need to stay quiet to absorb energy, they talked about all the aftermath following the garden challenge as well as the current conditions of the other survivors.

    Angor, who usually disliked gossips, quite enjoyed the chitchats under the effect of alcohol.

    Also, he grew interested when he heard a familiar person from one of Shan¡¯s stories.

    A level-2 apprentice from Valley of Breeze lost all four limbs in the garden and still made it out alive in the end.

    ording to Shan, this man named Viking was deceived by his teammates, who left him to die in the fish-infested world. Using his bloodline ability, Viking managed tomand a giant ray fish that carried him to the Sea of Purification.

    The same ray helped him defeat a Duon he encountered, after which Viking took great risk and transnted a pair of Duon arms onto himself without proper safety measures. Due to great luck and fortunate coincidences, he finally made it to the Altar of Demise.

    Shan told them the whole story just for fun. Angor knew that this Viking man was the dying apprentice left behind by Shayaron at theva zone. Angor helped him stop the bleeding, but at that time, he didn¡¯t expect Viking to be able to breathe for much longer.

    It seemed Viking also created quite a miracle.

    Angor knew well that it was impossible to achieve that feat all by one¡¯s luck. Viking survived because he was both strong and determined. Even the seemingly hopeless situation did not prevent Viking from striving for his life.

    Angor tried to imagine what Viking went through and figured that he might not seed if he were the one who got left to die without his arms and legs.

    After talking about Viking, Shan mentioned Jebra next.

    ¡°Jebra made it to level-3. But he left the city on the second day.¡± Shan chuckled and looked at Angor. ¡°People said that he was afraid of you, so he ran away as fast as he could. But we know that it¡¯s because of Shiliew here.¡± Shan put a hand on Shiliew¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Guess this is why they say ¡®everything has a vanquisher¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Jebra must already know about these rumors,¡± Nausica said as she picked up their topic. ¡°He didn¡¯t show up and exin, probably because he believes it¡¯s better if people considered Angor as the reason.¡±

    ¡°Yup, just what I thought.¡± Shan smiled. ¡°Angor? Like it or not, you¡¯re officially Jebra¡¯s enemy in ce of Shiliew now.¡±

    Angor frowned. He really did not wish to bear more unexpected enmity without being responsible for it.

    The ¡°true culprit¡±, Shiliew, interrupted them, ¡°What I heard is a bit different. When I visited my professor the other day, he told me that an apprentice from Pleasure House sessfully received the sequence of purification. A witch called Maine. Jebra left Floating Mech City because Maine hates him.¡±

    ¡°Oh... but I thought it was another false rumor,¡± Shan continued, ¡°and even if it is true, Maine cannot turn the newly-gained power into her own any time soon, so Jebra shouldn¡¯t be afraid. I mean, I still think Jebra was trying to get away from YOU.¡± Shan pointed to Shiliew again.

    Shiliew tried and still couldn¡¯t remember anything about her ¡°grudge¡± against Jebra.

    They spent a moment exchanging more information.

    Sdin was still alive; ¡°Duchess of Facade¡± and ¡°Spirit Chef¡± stood tall among all apprentices after showing their great achievement gained from the garden; ¡°Wanderer of Wilds¡± Kayaso was ambushed by a group of furious apprentices and managed to get away due to the help of the patrolling Rune Monitors, but he still got beaten up for good; ¡°Disciple of Philosophy¡± Suraithota defected from his academy and joined Song of the Deep; Hermes caused quite a scene by intruding Butterfly Tavern just to meet his lover...

    Most of these tales were told by Shan. Truthful or not, at least Shan was pretty good at remembering them. Later, she exined that she had read through a good number of gossip magazines in the city, after which she created all these stories by adding up her own experience and assumptions.

    ¡°Speaking of hot topics... you¡¯re still in the biggest spotlight, Angor. But they cannot find much about you since you don¡¯t show up in public very often. Everything is focused on your true strength, your pet, your alchemy skills, and where you came from. Most of the rumors are fine. But they get worse when people talk about your alchemy achievement...¡±

    Shan went ahead and exined everything she heard about Angor from other people.

    ¡°All in all, it¡¯s safe to say that you¡¯re the most famous apprentice in the entire Brute Cavern now. Don¡¯t worry about the false words because the truth will always prove them wrong.¡±

    Angor considered and decided not to mind such matters.

    There were really few apprentices and wizards who would take rumors seriously. Most of the magazine editors were mortals who presumed the ways of wizards in the wrong way while not forgetting to use forged words and overstatements so that their articles could shine. These magazines did not hold much value.

    Those who were able to be supernaturals were all wise enough to tell truth from lies. Angor had no reason to care about useless babbles, be them right or wrong.

    The empty wine barrel announced the end of their reunion. It appeared that Nausica, Shiliew, and Shan would head back to Brute Cavern soon; it was Shiliew¡¯s professor who would escort them.

    Angor did not tell them his schedule because he was not sure about Sunders¡¯ condition.

    Before bidding farewell, Angor told Nausica to note down any questions or suggestions about her mechanical arm so that they could hopefully make adjustments and improvements once they had a chance.

    It waste at night, yet the city built upon gears and machines did not darken in the least, if not brighter than daytime.

    Instead of going back to Sunders¡¯ manor, Angor headed to Elixir Hut, which was located at the lower side of the city. He wanted to properly thank Mithra for treating his condition, and at the same time, he wanted to learn more about alchemy.

    Inside Mithra¡¯s personal library, Angor found a notebook named Alchemy Cantrip Reference.

    Angor saw Mithra¡¯s handwriting in the nameless book and realized that Mithra intentionally left the book here to let him read. The notebook didn¡¯t teach him any cantrips. Instead, it provided rich experiences that might benefit an apprentice who was trying to study alchemy cantrips.

    And this was what Angor needed most right now.

    Delighted, he spent an entire night memorizing the book.

    Regarding alchemy cantrips, Angor only knew how to use Thaw and Condense, and he barely started to learn Smelt and Freeze. But here, the great insights in the book helped him quickly learn two tier-3 alchemy cantrips¡ªDisintegrate and Solidify.

    Knowing how to use Disintegrate meant that he could now attempt to process mid-tier materials while increasing the speed of his crafting process by several folds.

    The book also recorded instructions about Narda¡¯s Vision spell. Angor assumed that he could learn this one as well, and so, he tried.

    But something unexpected put a stop to his studies¡ªhis transmitter, which was issued by Brute Cavern, received an urgent message.

 Chapter 542 - Sundersâ€™ Experiment

    <h4>Chapter 542: Sunders¡¯ Experiment</h4>

    The message, which only contained three words, was sent by Sunders.

    ¡°Return at once.¡±

    Even though Angor had no idea what the gentleman wanted, he couldn¡¯t afford to keep his professor waiting for various reasons. After briefly exining the situation to Mithra, he quickly left Elixir Hut.

    Angor returned to the manor and saw the door to Sunders¡¯ study was left open.

    Sunders was alone in the room busily writing something at his desk when a ray of bright sunlight entered through a window and drew a golden outline around his handsome face.

    When Angor entered, Sunders stowed his quill in the ink bottle and signaled Angor to take a seat.

    Angor noticed that Sunders¡¯ voice sounded rather finepared tost time. Also, for some reason, there was an unnoticeable aura veil floating around Sunders, which made him look even more mysterious.

    At the same time, Sunders carefully inspected his student. He didn¡¯t have time for it previously because he was worried about his soul space in thest month. He only knew that the boy had returned from the purification garden alive, and that was about all.

    Sunders wasn¡¯t surprised about Angor¡¯s survival, but he was VERY surprised when he saw that Angor had reached level-3 so fast. In fact, Sunders was already astounded when he saw Angor attained level-2 before the garden challenge, which was impressive enough.

    And the surprises kepting.

    ¡°How did you¡ª¡± Sunders frowned upon his student¡¯s unimaginable training speed. ¡°Did you go to that ne passage again?¡±

    He was referring to the ne passage located at Pocratee, which was guarded by rainbow dragonflies. As far as he knew, it was the only exnation for how Angor could train so fast.

    But this was very unlikely, as Angor didn¡¯t have near enough time to travel there. Besides, even the passage couldn¡¯t help Angor to grow so quickly.

    ¡°Did you not get stuck at your limit?¡± Sunders questioned.

    Angor shook his head. Limit? None. I just... slept through, and boom, level up.

    ¡°You reached level-3 like this without using the thirty-six-dimensional locator?!¡±

    Looks like we have to keep the channeling method safe no matter what... more so than ever, Sunders thought. He still had not realized that Angor recreated the perfect axes of the universe system in his mind space, which allowed the boy to achieve the full potential of the channeling method.

    ¡°Now tell me how you did it,¡± Sunders said. He could no longer contain his curiosity.

    Angor didn¡¯t hide anything as he also wanted to find out more about the strange condition on his shoulder, so he exined what he went through in the garden as well as hisa in detail.

    Sunders¡¯ puzzled look suggested that the gentleman could not understand the situation any better than him.

    ¡°A scar absorbed all of the purification power? And it can replenish your soul energy faster?¡± Sunders did not recall anything that might exin these strange oues.

    Energy couldn¡¯t possibly be created out of thin air. They knew that the scar on Angor¡¯s soul was left by something from Nightmare Realm, yet this couldn¡¯t tell them how all the purification aroma became the source of pure soul energy.

    ¡°... Again, Nightmare Realm holds too many secrets that we will never understand. To answer your doubts, you must go to where the scar means to take you, inside Nightmare Realm.¡±

    Angor believed that going into Nightmare Realm equaled to suicide at his current level, yet he had no choice but to put all his questions aside.

    Sunders did another thorough examination on Angor and made sure there were no ws before he shook his head. ¡°As far as I know, there wasn¡¯t another human being who gained strength as quickly as you in thest ten centuries, apart from several humanoid individuals with really special talents.¡±

    The most important part of Angor¡¯s achievement was that he did not use any external help or ¡°trickery¡± that facilitated his growth. Angor¡¯s energy system and mana pool were both stable and well-developed. The only thing that might need more polishing was Angor¡¯s knowledge base.

    Again, Sunders was d that he went out of his way and epted this brilliant student, who proved to be quite an auspicious little genius.

    He wondered how White Coral Floating Ind Academy would react when they learned that they identally lost such a history-changing young man.

    ¡°What you should do next is to study. I don¡¯t think I need to remind you of that. Also, you may develop spell slots in your mind space now, but that will be something for a very long timeter... You haven¡¯t learned many level-2 cantrips yet, am I right?¡±

    Angor nodded, a little embarrassed.

    ¡°Fine. Once we return to Brute Cavern, you may settle down at Phantom Ind while I attend to something elsewhere. I¡¯ll tell Goode to ready my study so that you can amend your weakness in knowledge as best as you can.¡±

    Angor knew what getting inside Sunders¡¯ study, where he kept his personal book collection, meant. He quickly nodded while his eyes twinkled with delight.

    ¡°Heh. More free stuff for you, happy now?¡±

    ¡°Not going to disappoint you, sir! Er, are you going to leave because of that ¡®old friend¡¯ who visited you?¡±

    ¡°Old friend?¡± Sunders frowned. He had to depart and join Monkey¡¯s quest, which had nothing to do with any friend of his.

    Angor told his teacher the strange voice he heard that day; the one that called him ¡°my disciple¡±.

    Sunders looked down a little. ¡°It does not concern him. You don¡¯t have to worry about him right now.¡±

    Angor was always adept at reading someone¡¯s expression. He noticed that Sunders did not wish to talk about this matter.

    ¡°I called you here because I need your help to do an experiment,¡± Sunders revealed his intention. ¡°But it could be very dangerous and is very likely to ce you in extreme situations. What say you?¡±

    Dangerous experiment?! The first things that came to Angor¡¯s mind were bizarre research subjects that removed or reced someone¡¯s brain or heart while the victim stayed awake.

    ¡°Can I um, know more first?¡± Angor couldn¡¯t see Sunders¡¯ face really well since the gentleman was staring at his desk, and Angor didn¡¯t know what would happen if he were to refuse.

    ¡°I need you to go to Nightmare Realm again. Together with me, of course. Don¡¯t take me wrong. You¡¯re free to say no, I will not force you.¡±

    That did not sound any safer than the human body dissection Angor imagined.

    ¡°Nether City?¡± Angor would admit he was curious about the n.

    ¡°No, we¡¯re going to another region, which is still one of the outer ones. It¡¯s a lot safer than Nether City since I and Flora once cleaned out some monsters. Suppose there are no new monsters who decided to settle down there afterward, we¡¯ll only encounter creatures as strong as level-1 wizards. And it¡¯s not big. Several thousand kilometers, and you will make a full trip around.¡±

    Angor considered. The size suggested that Sunders could locate him soon enough. As for the monsters... he should have no problem running away using his sequence of gravity.

    Yeah, I can try it out.

    Angor always wanted to have a chance to explore Nightmare Realm again, although he didn¡¯t dare to do so since even the outermost areas might have legendary monsters living in them.

    But since Sunders mentioned that their destination was rtively safe...

    ¡°The monsters shouldn¡¯t be an issue,¡± Sunders said. He saw through Angor¡¯s mind and added, ¡°I¡¯m worrying about... that woman.¡±

    Angor was confused until he saw Sunders pointing at his shoulder. He finally realized what Sunders was referring to.

    The strange woman with a stitched face.

    While exploring Nether City, the woman showed up in the end and almost caught him when he was in Nightmare Realm. There was no doubt that she was the biggest threat if they ever went there again.

    ¡°You can consider this a secondary experiment. I wish to find out what that woman wants from you. You¡¯ll have to confront her sooner orter, or you¡¯ll never find enough courage to travel to Nightmare Realm ever again.¡±

    Angor fully understood those words¡ªas long as he wanted to figure out the mysteries in Nightmare Realm and the nature of the strange scar on his soul, the suture-faced woman was a non-bypassable obstacle.

    ¡°Can you tell me more about the ¡®experiment¡¯, sir?¡± Angor was determined to ept the quest.

    ¡°I want to do a test on your Nightmare Form. Precisely speaking, I want to see to what extent your Nightmare Form can ¡®create truth¡¯,¡± Sunders said as his eyes twinkled with intelligence.

    Last time, Angor physically took everything back from Nether City apart from the particr channeling method book. Thankfully, he was able to memorize the content of the book. Meanwhile, Sunders couldn¡¯t take any items or memory from Nightmare Realm.

    Sunders wished to find out which types of items Angor could bring back or take into Nightmare Realm.

    Being able to take extra items such as scrolls, alchemy items, space storages, or even Mystery weapons into Nightmare Realm meant that it would be safer when exploring the dangerous world. In addition, they would be able to bring back more loot. Sunders never seeded before and he nned to see whether Angor could do it.

    Angor believed that his professor should have another reason to do the ¡°experiment¡± at such a time, but he decided not to ask.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it. When will we depart?¡±

    ¡°The day after tomorrow.¡±

 Chapter 543 - The Drawback of Green Velvet

    <h4>Chapter 543: The Drawback of Green Velvet</h4>

    ¡°Unlike others, you use your soul to enter the Nightmare Realm. I give you two days to prepare so that you can maintain your soul at its top condition,¡± said Sunders.

    Angor nodded. He had yet to fully recover the sequence of gravity inside him, and he did need some more rest.

    Next, Sunders asked for more details about Angor¡¯s journey when he was inside the purification garden.

    ¡°I see... I¡¯m afraid even Lawson did not foresee that someone would receive Erdus¡¯ legacy. Otherwise, he would have made other arrangements. Apart from the sequence of purification, Erdus¡¯ talent would be the biggest destiny one could find during the challenge.¡±

    Sunders would admit that his own illusion achievement was inferior whenpared to the mirage abilities of a great monster who lived for several thousand years. This time, Angor gained the prize by risking his life, and the boy deserved it.

    ¡°You may not fully inherit its legacy, but you can stillprehend much of the knowledge it contains, which is also priceless.¡±

    Sunders did not investigate what Angor gained from Erdus. It wasn¡¯t written in books or scrolls since it was the guidance unknowingly sent by the consciousness of a mysterious artifact. Angor had to attain a higher level first before he could efficiently understand what was contained in the legacy, and only after that, he could pass it down to others.

    ¡°Do not start learning the legacy before choosing a main subject to focus on,¡± Sunders warned, ¡°or the powerful mirages can easily lead you astray. When choosing a goal, exclude such external help and resources and follow your true heart.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡± Angor nodded.

    Apart from providing him knowledge and insight into Mirage illusions, the natural talent of Erdus might also convince him to give up on other illusion skills, and this was not Angor¡¯s intention.

    Instead of ¡°following¡± Erdus¡¯ knowledge, Angor knew he should be the host and turn the knowledge into his own.

    That was about everything Sunders wanted to know regarding Angor¡¯s garden challenge. Following this, Sunders would like to know more about Toby¡¯s new body.

    Since Angor did not know much about Toby¡¯s strange abilities either, he could only exin to Sunders that a special bloodline inside Toby caused it.

    And Sunders had no problem epting the brief answer.

    ¡°One other thing. What Dodoro foretold is probably correct,¡± Sunders said in the end.

    Before Angor entered the garden, Dodoro described a scene in which Angor and Keely were exploring the depth of the sea. Even so, Angor never had much time to examine his surroundings, so he couldn¡¯t say whether what Dodoro hinted was precise.

    It seemed that Sunders no longer had any other questions to ask. Angor waited for a while, and when Sunders didn¡¯t chase him away, he revealed several matters that had been bugging him.

    The first thing was the ¡°drawback¡± of having a fully-grown Green Velvet inside his body. Angor believed Felicia told him the truth back at Dark Castle. So, when he saw the Green Velvet growing so rapidly after getting nourished by the purification aroma, he anxiously wanted to know Sunders¡¯ opinion.

    Instead of answering, Sunders sent an energy stream to observe Angor¡¯s soul space carefully.

    ¡°There are... many necessary conditions for a Green Velvet to fully grow. It seems the aroma of purification somehow pushed it to its pre-adulthood,¡± Sunders said. He considered more before he continued, ¡°And once it reaches itsst stage, the spores I helped you suppressst time wille back.¡±

    Angor quickly thought about Parasite Queen and her spores, which almost took control of his body.

    ¡°Moreover, the spores released by a grown Green Velvet can do more than you can imagine. Simr to before, they will create a natural barrier that both protects your soul space and heals all wounds inflicted on your soul. However... the spores still heed themand of Green Velvet. You must both have a powerful soul as well as the knowledge for controlling countless spores without letting even a single one of them slip and escape into the other parts of your body. Otherwise, the spores might create another colony somewhere and slowly turn your body into their own home.

    ¡°It is veryborious to control an adult Green Velvet. You either discard all spores it created, or spend lots of time and effort to fully manage the spores, in which case you still have to cleanse them timely as the Green Velvet will not stop generating them. Such is the ¡®drawback¡¯ that you wanted to know. Apart from soul maniptors, few wizards would use Green Velvet inside their bodies.¡±

    ¡°Is there an easier way to solve this problem?¡±

    ¡°There is. You can transfer the Green Velvet to your familiar pet while still maintaining the protection effect. And when the spores go out of control, they will be damaging your familiar instead,¡± Sunders said as his eyesight shifted to Angor¡¯s chest pocket.

    Toby was sound asleep. The bird somehow got a nightmare and huddled tighter.

    Angor put a hand at his chest pocket and shook his head.

    ¡°I guessed as much.¡± Sunders chuckled. ¡°You can also use ves controlled by a magic contract, or magic puppets, or any entity that you fully trust. You can also sell the Green Velvet for profit. Just a note, the body of a fully-grown Green Velvet cost over a million magic crystals if you can find the right dealer.

    ¡°That¡¯s about all your choices. I believe Toby has a very powerful soul, so giving him the Green Velvet might not be a bad choice. If you don¡¯t want to, just find some other familiar pets. ording to what I saw earlier, you have eight years or so before your Green Velvet truly matures. Think carefully before then. I suggest that you keep it because the benefit it brings is far beyond what you already know, as long as you know how to mitigate the ws.¡±

    Since he now knew that he had enough time, Angor dly put the biggest concern aside.

    Following some more discussions, Angor was reminded of his extremely weak physique again.

    During the garden challenge, hisck of physical strength dragged him down too much, which Keely also pointed out openly.

    He could move around at the depth of the sea due to Purification Field, but it probably would not help him forever.

    Training his body or getting a bloodline was another of his urgent tasks.

    No wizards would deny a chance for getting a superior bloodline. They fully knew that human bodies were generally at a disadvantage whenpared to monsters, so they would dly solve this problem even if it meant discarding several old body parts.

    Finding a new bloodline was always the easiest way to strengthen one¡¯s body. Besides, during the long history of wizards, people had found a good number of general-purpose bloodlines that had little to no side-effect on their users.

    ¡°That¡¯s what you get for leveling up too fast.¡± Sunders sighed when he heard about Angor¡¯s problem. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it necessary for you to find a bloodline any time soon, but I guess we need to change the n. Let me see... You can find them without a problem from some of the markets in Floating Mech City. I¡¯ll help to look too. Also, we can always look for a potent monster in Nightmare Realmter. Mind you, both extracting the bloodline from a monster or buying it from others are extremely costly, so get your money ready.

    ¡°Ness¡¯ Subus Bloodline was a pretty good one. Too bad you rejected the free gift.¡±

    Angor shivered a little when he sensed that Sunders seriously meant it.

    ¡°So much for today. Like I said, use the next two days to prepare ande here again.¡±

    ¡°Um... sir, what should I do about that... you know, my debt to you?¡±

    Angor dyed this matter for various reasons he had no control of, yet he dared not repudiate it for real. Now that he had time, he meant to find out Sunders¡¯ attitude toward the debt.

    In fact, Sunders was waiting to use this chance to restrict Angor¡¯s actionster. He didn¡¯t expect the boy to bring this up so soon.

    ¡°What, can you pay it right now?¡±

    ¡°Um, no. But professor, do you still have the microbes that are used for crafting storage items?¡±

    ...

    Angor left Sunders¡¯ study with a small bottle in his hand while feeling contented. The bottle contained a portion of greyspace microbes collected by Sunders during the construction of the gravity garden, which was about 20 times the amount of what Angor gathered on that day.

    Angor was nning to use the microbes to make some space storages, sell them, and divide the profit with Sunders.

    As per their agreement, most of the expected ie would belong to Sunders. Angor dly epted it because Sunders¡¯ materials yed the biggest part in his n.

    Angor could slowly earn money by using his alchemy skills, which was good as it also provided him with practice and experience while it cost nothing. Other than this, he couldn¡¯t think of a better solution to his debt problem.

    Of course, since Sunders also wanted Angor to grow into an experienced alchemist, he had no problem epting his student¡¯s offer.

 Chapter 544 - The Astute Trader Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 544: The Astute Trader Meeting</h4>

    The night soon arrived.

    Angor returned to Moshi Street with a small card in his hand. There was the picture of an eclipsed sun on it, while the back had ¡°Astute Alchemy Guild¡± written in the universalnguage.

    Above the characters was another engraved line of words, which could be felt by stroking it with a hand. Even then, Angor could not understand these letters that seemed to hold a special energy signature.

    ording to Sunders, the characters were ¡°Abyssal Tongue¡± used by certain intelligent monsters from Abyss ne. What Angor was looking at also referred to ¡°Astute Alchemy Guild¡±. This told Angor that the guild members did not care whether outsiders knew about their business with abyssal creatures or the Astute King.

    Most wizards respected great strength, which meant they both feared and admired Grand Demons. Revealing their names in broad daylight helped the guild members attract a lot of alchemists who desperately sought for power.

    The Moshi Street at night looked ever more prosperouspared to the daytime. Angor saw a piano ced at a fork road, which wasn¡¯t there before. An apprentice in a white robe was singing and ying at the same time, and it attracted many bystanders who stopped to enjoy the pleasant music.

    Also, Angor saw several runes on the ground that suggested a magic contract. The runes would shine and draw some energy from the audience. It would then fill the energy into some empty crystals ced inside a strange alchemy machine nearby.

    It seemed the small concert wasn¡¯t free to watch. The contract did not take too much energy from people, but there were a lot of them.

    Again, Angor just learned another means by which low-level apprentices earned their ie. Even supernaturals could be street performers.

    Angor would admit that the performance was good, but he wasn¡¯t going to join the concert¡ªnobody knew whether there was some sort of hidden unfair uses in the contract.

    To make sure, he took a small detour and steered away from the crowd.

    Soon, he reached a loft that sat outside the main marketing area. ording to the card, this should be the homebase of Astute Alchemy Guild.

    Instead of heading in, Angor remained outside and observed the building first.

    The door was wide open, and there were several Rune Monitors standing guard. Anyone who wanted to enter the building had to provide either an invitation card or an item that was to be further identified.

    Angor saw about a hundred people entering in ten minutes, which included both guild members and ordinary apprentices who didn¡¯t seem to be alchemists at all. Also, he saw someone he recognized among them.

    It was Viking, the apprentice who got left behind by his team and made it out of the purification garden by himself despite losing all four limbs.

    It seemed Shan¡¯s story was true. Viking now had a pair of transnted arms. However, Angor couldn¡¯t see whether those were really Duon arms since Viking was wearing gloves.

    He didn¡¯t have anything on his bottom half. Instead, he was riding on a small vehicle that looked like a windmill.

    When the time limit for entrance was approaching, Angor walked to the door.

    ¡°Your invitation card, sir,¡± a Rune Monitor said as it floated to Angor.

    ¡°So, a trader meeting is being held today?¡± Angor asked something first.

    ¡°Yes, sir. If you don¡¯t have an invitation card, you can present an item. We shall examine it and listen to your requirements for the exchange.¡±

    Angor nodded. It seemed that those without a card could join this ¡°exchange of items¡±.

    He didn¡¯t intend to put any of his possessions for sale, so he simply offered the card he received from Lantis.

    As soon as he stepped into the building, he saw Lantising to him.

    ¡°Wee to our humble meeting ce, Mister Padt!¡± Lantis put a hand on his chest and bowed.

    Angor assumed that there was either a way to identify guests or a detection spell to locate their invitation cards because Lantis didn¡¯t have any problem recognizing him even though he was wearing a hooded robe.

    Lantis saw through Angor¡¯s troubled mind and showed him an object shaped like a screen. ¡°This is a transmitter used by guild members. It tells us the arrival of the cardholders. But I tweaked your card just a little so that I can wee you personally today.¡± Lantis smiled.

    ¡°And to what do I owe such honor?¡±

    ¡°Our guild master just returned from Fairy World, and your name is pretty well-known in the entire Midworld.¡± Lantis pointed to a hallway. ¡°This way to the meeting, sir.¡±

    ¡°Your guild master is also a citizen here?¡± Angor asked while walking.

    ¡°You can try bing one of us, by which the guild master will undoubtedly meet you personally, Mister Padt.¡±

    Angor saw that Lantis did not answer his question, so he decided to return the courtesy from now on.

    ¡°They say Mister Padt joined the path of wizardry for less than two years, and my oh my, a level-3 apprentice already? Such is the great Mister Phantom for you...¡±

    Along their way, Lantis tried to pry Angor¡¯s information by mentioning Sunders¡¯ name first. Also, it seemed that Lantis didn¡¯t intentionally hide his intentions.

    Angor used his good old trick when he didn¡¯t want to talk, which was to smile like a good boy.

    There was no way Lantis could force Angor to talk. Angor maintained his silentposure until they reached the meeting hall. With a grim expression, Lantis watched as Angor walked into the hall.

    The hall was bigger than it appeared from the outside¡ªthere were expansion runes drawn on the floor. Several doors leading to private chambers were lined up along the wall, and there was a giant round conference table in the center of the hall, around which about a hundred people had already taken their seats.

    Most of them covered their faces just like Angor. Nobody paid much attention to another visitor, which allowed Angor to find a random spot without a problem.

    A momentter, Lantis walked inside when all the seats around the table were almost taken.

    ¡°It seems that everyone is here. Shall we begin?¡±

    No response.

    ¡°Then let¡¯s start since there¡¯s no objection. We have many new faces among us this time, and we shall begin with our guild members first.¡±

    Again, no one spoke up. Lantis looked around the participants and set his gaze upon a shortie with a pair of reallyrge ears.

    ¡°If you would, John Junior?¡±

    ¡°John Junior¡± fumbled a little and quickly stood up.

    ¡°I-I-I want to know something about ¡®Froststar Bones¡¯ used by Reformer apothecaries. When brewing Hakusan Potion and Highlight Potion, we used the exact same materials and reaction form but with different handling techniques. I want to know why...¡±

    As he talked about something rted to his expertise, John Junior quickly got rid of his initial stress and became confident.

    Next, he exined what he could provide in return¡ªsome potions or his help for brewing potions.

    Then he left the serial number of his transmitter.

    Every participant had a transmitter ced in front of them for them to contact the other traders during the meeting. Anyone interested in John Junior¡¯s offer could use their transmitters to talk to himter, either in one of the private chambers where the guild could guarantee their safety or somewhere else if they preferred outside the building, which might not be as safe.

    Angor saw John Junior waiting for a while but without finding anyone willing to talk.

    Next, the others stood up one by one and described their knowledge or items for exchange. If someone¡¯s offer had more than one potential ¡°buyers¡±, he or she was free to choose a customer.

    There was an apprentice who wished to buy an amphibious vehicle by offering a vial of Redmoon Potion. Together with three participants who wished to negotiate, they went inside a chamber and came back out, satisfied.

    This seemed to be a rare case as most of the offers didn¡¯t even get an answer.

    In Floating Mech City, people could buy anything they liked as long as they had enough money, so most of the people came here looking for knowledge.

    And in the wizarding world, everyone considered their knowledge to be extremely precious and would not trade them out easily.

    After several more people stood up, a man wearing a stylish ck robe stood up and bowed to everyone in a polite nobleman¡¯s manner.

    ¡°Fair trade! I¡¯ve gotten my hands on some new sh*t. Not themon garbage you find normally, mind you. Get my transmitter if you want¡¯em! My PERSONAL transmitter, not the junk provided by this freaking guild!¡±

 Chapter 545 - Dream Weaver

    <h4>Chapter 545: Dream Weaver</h4>

    Angor frowned at the man¡¯s strange character. For a second, he almost believed that this one was just another untalkative lone wolf like him.

    It seemed that he was very wrong.

    Even if they knew their items might not attract any buyers, most of the apprentices here would act as politely as possible because this private trading was the only ce they could find things that were nonexistent in the other parts of the city.

    Yet this man in ck just broke that rule by treating the meeting as some kind of underground fair where thugs and alcoholics gathered.

    As if to further prove his attitude, the man repeated his catchphrase, ¡°I represent the biggest employment market in Cork Street. Any helpers, ves, or other talents you seek, I have them all! Here¡¯s my transmitter code...¡±

    Employment market?

    Angor wondered if this was simr to the human resourcepanies he saw from certain movies.

    Lantis, who had been sitting at the main seat, stood up and stomped over to the man in ck before he ripped his hood off furiously.

    Without his hood, the slim-bodied man suddenly grew into an extremely fat guy who was five or six times his original size.

    ¡°Pierre!¡± Lantis bellowed. ¡°How did you get past the guards? Out! Now!¡±

    While Lantis pushed the fat man hysterically, the others watched the incident with smiles as if this were something that happened a lot.

    ¡°Ohh, Pierre is pretty good. He fooled the Rune Monitors!¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know he was here. Man, he¡¯s getting better.¡±

    From the whispers, Angor learned that Pierre was a strange businessman from Cork Street who imed that he owned an ¡°employment market¡±. Despite his im, everyone knew that it was actually a ve market sugarcoated with pretty words.

    For some reason, this man insisted oning to every guild meeting to advertise his shop.

    The strange thing was, every time, Astute Alchemy Guild would only chase Pierre away but without making further moves. People assumed that Pierre either had some connections with certain guild members or that Pierre belonged to another powerful group. Either way, Astute Alchemy Guild couldn¡¯t do anything too harsh. In fact, someone already started quarreling over this matter right at this moment.

    Pierre was a level-2 apprentice while Lantis was a level-3 at his limit. The fat man was easily dragged away by Lantis without fighting back, or rather, Pierre didn¡¯t intend to resist at all.

    While on his way out, Pierre was still yelling to the other people, ¡°Trust me, guys, good stuff! If you don¡¯t need helpers, I have maids! Absolutely divine maids smuggled from Manda ne! Cat ears, kuudere sisters, sweet and soft girls, any type you ever need! Don¡¯t miss out! My transmitter code¡ª¡±

    Pierre disappeared behind the door curtain while the other participants shook their heads.

    Some of the neers seemed interested in the maids, which caused the more experienced people tough at them.

    ¡°Give up. If you want a maid on your bed, try the ve auction at Moshi Street. Pierre¡¯s shop has too many weird rules, such as ¡®performing high-five with the merchandise is prohibited¡¯. Go study more, young ones.¡±

    Someone voiced a different opinion. ¡°But I must say, Pierre¡¯s ves are of the best quality. I think they¡¯re all nobles or at least educated mortals. Too bad we can¡¯t teach them wizardry.¡±

    ¡°Pierre got many constant customers who love art. You know, doing art might give mortals a chance to shine in this world.¡±

    Angor quietly listened to their discussion while his eyes twinkled under his hood.

    A whileter, Lantis flipped the curtain aside and returned to the meeting.

    ¡°Heh heh... apologies. Just a small annoyance. But it won¡¯t affect our trading!¡±

    Several peopleughed. When Lantis failed to notice what he had done wrong, John Junior reminded him, ¡°Hey boss, this is supposed to be an exchange of knowledge, not actual trading.¡±

    ¡°Oh! My bad! Let¡¯s trade knowledge, yes! So, any of you want to step up?¡±

    A muscr man with brown skin and a tight-fit vest stood up from his seat. ¡°So I¡¯m selling something...¡±

    Lantis looked a little pissed off when someone mocked his tongue-slip so soon. Even so, he didn¡¯t say anything. Everyone knew what this meeting was about, they just didn¡¯t want to point it out openly.

    Astute Guild was established by a group of alchemists, so most people would talk about knowledge or items rted to alchemy. Angor noticed that he had no problem providing answers to some of the questions, but he never offered to do so because none of the offers seemed valuable enough.

    The next speaker was an alchemy apprentice who was blushing badly. She wanted to learn about a critical step regarding the production of an energy stabilizer.

    Back at Brute Cavern, energy stabilizers were mostly nonexistent or got sold at the market at an insane price. One could find many of them in Floating Mech City. Despite that, none of the crafters would share their knowledge as it might potentially ruin their future ie.

    Almost every wizard and apprentice would need an energy stabilizer in their career, thus it guaranteed a stable market price for energy stabilizers. Alchemists who knew how to make one could always earn a profit out of this. Every alchemy apprentices would like to know how to craft this item, and since no one was willing to teach them, they had to purchase energy stabilizers and see if they could recreate one on their own.

    This shy apprentice had bought more than one stabilizer to achieve this, but when she reached the core functions, she was quickly discouraged by the extremelyplex mechanisms. She knew that an energy stabilizer did not need to be soplicated, which meant whoever designed these devices intentionally screwed up something in order to prevent people from copying it.

    This was why she had no choice but to look for an answer here.

    It was almost impossible to find someone who would tell her such trade secret, but she still came just to bet on her luck.

    When she was feeling disappointed about receiving no attention at all, the transmitter in front of her suddenly shed.

    [I can join you and discuss something regarding an Energy Stabilizer. Meet me at Fingernail Alchemy Shop after the meeting]

    She looked up happily and wished to find out who was the offeror, but instead of getting an answer, her careless move told the others that someone epted the offer.

    Which idiot agreed to something like this? They wondered.

    Despite the fact that he was regarded as a fool by everyone else, Angor was thinking about the item offered by the female apprentice¡ªa certain monster ant called the Dream Weaver that was believed to be extinct.

    Angor never heard about such an insect until today. ording to the witch, the ant could weave dreams for people, either good dreams or nightmares.

    The ant wasn¡¯t intelligent enough to understand human speech, but one could use a small trick to generally tell the ant what kind of dream they wanted by using the small pair of ¡°antennas¡± on the ant¡¯s head. Touching the white antenna would cause the ant to create a sweet dream while touching the ck one would do the opposite.

    To wizards, this sounded pretty useless since the dreams were just dreams. They couldn¡¯t benefit or harm people.

    People would consider the insect an exotic ything, and that was about it.

    In fact, many people were interested in the woman¡¯s item when they heard about it. Despite that, they all gave up when they heard what she wanted in return.

    However, Angor wished to take a better look at the Dream Weaver because it reminded him of a story Jon told him before:

    A drunken man fell asleep at the roadside and enjoyed a heavenly dream. Later, people found out that the man slept on a stone that had an ant nest hidden under it, so someone made up a story that the magical ants helped the man weave his dream.

    Angor didn¡¯t consider the story to be anything special, but now that he did see an ant that could create dreams, he decided to check it out.

    To him, the secret of an energy stabilizer wasn¡¯t anything too precious. He wanted to present the Dream Weaver as a gift to Jon when he traveled back to Old Earth.

 Chapter 546 - A Scroll And Bright Red

    <h4>Chapter 546: A Scroll And Bright Red</h4>

    Because of the Alien Eye, Jon was brought to this world and was forced to leave his family behind.

    During Angor¡¯s childhood, he would asionally see his teacher waking up crying after having bad dreams. By buying the Dream Weaver, he also wanted to ease Jon¡¯s mental stress even if just a little.

    The trader meeting was still going, and people were slowly warming up to each other.

    Angor also noticed that each time a neer spoke, the others would grow more interested because it was rtively easy to ¡°scam¡± information out of them. People hoped that they could find another idiot who would reveal the secret of an energy stabilizer.

    Currently, one such ¡°neer¡± was speaking his offer.

    Viking from Valley of Breeze.

    Many magazines had ced his bizarre story in their main sections, so even if he tried to conceal his identity, this man without legs would be easy to recognize. Anyone who ever heard about the garden challenge would know his name.

    ¡°I didn¡¯te here to tell knowledge. I heard that one of you is a Karabit,¡± Viking said while looking around the meeting hall.

    Karabits usually looked very simr to ordinary humans, so it wasn¡¯t easy to tell by their looks. When Viking saw no clues among the participants, he continued, ¡°I wish to negotiate a trade with you so that I can hopefully buy a pair of legs I can use. As for my price... trust me, contact me first and I¡¯ll give you something satisfying.¡±

    With that, Viking sat down and remained quiet.

    Lantis didn¡¯t look happy when someone openly used the meeting for real money trading. Even so, something told him that Viking was not someone to be messed with, so he chose to stay still.

    Angor carefully watched and saw more than one individual operating their transmitter. It seemed that there were many Karabits that were attending the meeting today.

    There were few Karabits in the southern wizarding region, while the majority of this race was scattered all over other faraway nes. Karabits were known to be fond of performing biological researches and body modifications. This was why Viking anxiously wanted toe here as soon as he received clues that a Karabit was attending the Astute Guild meeting.

    Instead of choosing a ce outside, Viking joined several men in ck robes and went inside a privatepartment.

    As more people found their customers and went into the private rooms, the number of people inside the main meeting hall was quickly decreasing. Angor intentionally chose to sit near the end of the queue, but it seemed his turn came earlier than he expected.

    ¡°I need a coil of Abyss Wyvern Veins. If you have it for trade, tell me your price and I¡¯ll see if I can ept it.¡±

    As soon as he sat down, he saw ¡°Room 17¡± showing up on his transmitter. At the same time, a figure left their seat and headed to the said room while Angor quickly followed behind.

    This room was also enhanced by an expansion rune, so it appeared bigger on the inside. Apart from seats and tables, there were two cups of hot tea that was still releasing white vapor into the room.

    Angor carefully examined the woman who closed the door behind them.

    The woman had clean, short red hair, and a leather overcoat. Angor couldn¡¯t see her face because of a strange mask that looked like a smiling monster.

    After tending to the door, she walked to the center of the room on swift steps. She then unfolded something on her leg, which looked like a whip, and pped it on the table.

    ¡°Abyss Wyvern Vein. Check it,¡± she said briefly and in clear words, which fit well with her adequate, trained body shape.

    ¡°You¡¯re not worried that I¡¯ll take it and duck?¡± Angor picked up the object.

    ¡°Nah. I don¡¯t think the famous Mister Padt will do that,¡± the woman said. She sat on a bench as if she couldn¡¯t care less about what happened next.

    Angor wasn¡¯t surprised that the woman revealed his name. Lantis could have told others about him. Yet he felt ratherfortable when someone addressed him as ¡°Mister Padt¡± and not ¡°Sunders¡¯ student¡±.

    Angor finished his examination soon. ¡°Good, a fine specimen.¡±

    Without retrieving the item, the woman asked from where she was sitting, ¡°So, shall we talk about the price?¡±

    ¡°Sure. What do you need?¡±

    The woman chuckled and moved closer to Angor¡¯s ear. ¡°I need you to craft something for me...¡±

    ...

    A momentter, the woman left the private room while Angor remained behind as he looked at the Abyss Wyvern Vein and a trimmed scroll ced on the table.

    He tried unfolding the scroll just a little and immediately saw something blood-red contained inside.

    Then he scrolled it up again. The woman told him NOT to open the scroll in public. Even though he didn¡¯t know why, he would follow the rules they agreed upon.

    After cing both items inside his bracelet, he slowly stepped out of the room. In that instant, he identally bumped into someone who just came out of the neighboring room.

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± he apologized out of instinct.

    The other man left without saying anything.

    The person who was still inside the neighboring room heard Angor¡¯s voice and quickly rushed outside. However, he did not see Angor.

    Was that...?

    ¡°Did you change your mind, Viking? Do you want to take Volta¡¯s ¡®leg¡¯? Come on, that snake tail looks so awful.¡± Another strange voice could be heard from inside thepartment.

    It was Viking who just heard Angor¡¯s voice. A Karabit named Volta offered him the tail of a great serpent, which looked pretty powerful. Despite that, if he chose to use it, it would render his Bloodline spells useless. After some consideration, Viking rejected the offer and continued to talk to thest Karabit in the room.

    It was then that he recognized the voice of the young man who was speaking right in front of the door. It sounded the same as the one who saved him in the purification garden.

    Angor said he was ¡°a stranger¡±. Yet to Viking, he was a god-send lifesaver. Naturally, Viking was surprised to find his savior at this strange meeting.

    ¡°Are you with me or not, Viking? Get in here!¡± the impatient Karabit yelled again.

    Viking looked for a little longer and still couldn¡¯t see anyone. He assumed that whoever was using a room to the left of the current one was recorded by Astute Alchemy Guild, and he had a chance to ask about itter.

    Angor prepared to leave the building since he no longer had anything else to do here. Lantis came to him and invited him to join their alchemy group, but Angor didn¡¯t mind him.

    He wanted to leave as fast as possible because he always felt as if someone were staring at his back with a cruel intention.

    ...

    Inside an underground cave beneath Astute Alchemy Guild, a woman in a shiny, gold-rimmed priestess robe knelt in front of a lump of swirling ck substance that looked like a ck hole.

    One would find nothing more than mysterious evil when looking at the strange presence.

    ¡°Is that young one good enough, Master?¡± The woman¡¯s voice sounded sharp and unpleasant to the ears.

    A single, blood-red eye emerged from the ¡°ck hole¡±, while a distant voice directly traveled inside the woman¡¯s brain:

    ¡°Leave him... he¡¯s already been marked.¡±

    In order to maintain its mighty image, the ck hole did not tell its servant that the mark on Angor¡¯s soul was beyond terrifying.

    ...

    Angor headed to Fingernail next.

    From a distance, he saw the shop still brightly lit, and the same sandalwood puppet was diligently doing its guard job by standing there like a dead tree.

    Without getting registered by the shop, Angor thought he needed to answer some questions again, which did not happen¡ªthe puppet guard moved aside and weed him inside.

    Puzzled, Angor entered through the door and noticed that there was only Granny Fingernail alone in the shop¡ªprobably because most alchemists were attending the meeting.

    ¡°Good evening, ma¡¯am. Did you remove the entry quiz?¡±

    ¡°No, of course,¡± the old woman answered as she looked up.

    ¡°Then¡ª¡±

    ¡°I told the puppet to remember you,¡± Granny Fingernail said. When she saw Angor still confused, she chuckled. ¡°Just to make it convenient for you. Besides, you seem like a lovely shopper, boy.¡±

    Angor¡¯s lips twitched, but he didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Do you need more materials?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I told someone to meet up with me here. May I?¡±

    ¡°Oh ho... it means you found something good at the meeting? Sure, as long as whoever that epted your invitation passes the quiz.¡±

    While waiting, Angor sat at a sofa and readied his paper and quill. He was working on a magic form for Disintegrate, about which he almostpleted.

    By the time he hadpletely figured out the correct cantrip model, the door of the shop was pushed open.

 Chapter 547 - Wrong Home

    <h4>Chapter 547: Wrong Home</h4>

    Angor stepped out of The Fingernail with a small insect nest in the shape of a pyramid in his hand. He couldn¡¯t see into the nest, but using spirit feelers, he felt a finger-size ant huddled inside.

    The insect waspletely white on the left and ck on the right side, as if something divided it from the middle. The coloring looked a lot like the overcoat he received from Devildare. Angor had been keeping the broken coat in his bracelet so that he could try repairing it after learning how to make clothes.

    While checking on the ant and leaving Moshi Street, he sensed something stalking him.

    He carefully ced the ant nest in his bracelet and whispered something to his chest pocket.

    At lightning speed, Toby scouted in the air and returned to Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Someone is behind us...¡± Angor frowned. ording to Toby, a short-bodied man had been following them from a distance. The only thing worth noting was that the man had a pair of reallyrge ears.

    Angor quickly thought about someone with that feature.

    Using a street mirror, he saw the alchemy apprentice named John Junior peeking warily at him.

    Since John Junior was taking the effort to stalk him, Angor assumed that it wasn¡¯t Lantis who exposed his information. Angor believed that John Junior somehow found out who was going to reveal the crafting method for an energy stabilizer and wanted to get his hands on the precious knowledge by force.

    Angor turned back and saw John Junior looking away while quickly covering himself up as if no one could see him as long as he couldn¡¯t see his own face.

    Angor frowned again. He believed he overestimated John Junior¡¯s hiding skills.

    After moving to somewhere more crowded, Angor activated Infinite Reticence, and John Junior soon lost track of Angor¡¯s position.

    ¡°Where did he go...¡± John Junior¡¯s shoulders slumped down. ¡°I hope he can tell me how to process Froststar Bones.¡±

    Defeated, the man turned away and left.

    While walking away, Angor more or less realized what John Junior wanted from him. Even so, he didn¡¯t feel obliged to provide the answer. And secondly, John¡¯s apothecary-rted problem was beyond his skill range anyway.

    ...

    The moon was high in the sky when Angor arrived at Sunders¡¯ manor.

    Floating Mech City had moved to somewhere cloudless, and the lone moon shrouded the tranquil garden mansion under a glowing, silver veil.

    Angor entered his room and heard noisesing from the neighboring room. When he used spirit feelers to check, he saw the Krakoks dancing and singing around a campfire while led by Papaya.

    Why aren¡¯t they sleeping at midnight?

    He listened more carefully and noticed that the Krakoks were performing their monthly festival. In other words, they would do this every month.

    Wait... it¡¯s a new month already?

    Angor checked and found out that the Month of Repose (February) had arrived without him knowing. He hadn¡¯t been paying much attention to the calendar since he was busy with the garden challenge.

    Jon traveled through time and space and fell into Grue Town in the exact same month. Currently, he had been living in the wizarding world for 23 years.

    Angor still remembered that at this time each year, Jon would take him to the initial nding point¡±, and they would watch the sky while he carefully stroked the Alien Eye. Jon hoped that the amazing artifact could take him back to Earth again.

    It was until Jon lost hope... He then discarded the Alien Eye in the forest.

    Today, Jon no longer had the able body to move around. Instead of clinging onto hope in futility, Jon epted his fate and never left Padt Manor again.

    Angor put a hand on his pendant and went through his cherished memory. Everything seemed so clear as if the experience happened very recently.

    The same, gentle moonlight shined upon the celebrating folks and the boy troubled by depressing sadness, while there was only a thin wall separating them.

    ...

    Angor got over his low spirit soon. Or rather, he couldn¡¯t afford to let his emotions get the better of him. Not before fulfilling his five-year promise and finally saving Jon.

    After collecting his senses, Angor prepared to look at the scroll he received from the red-haired woman.

    But something else in his bracelet caught his attention.

    Previously, he ced the pyramid-shaped ant nest on top of a material box, but for some reason, the nest had fallen down.

    He checked and saw the ant nest empty. The timid creature inside was gone.

    Confused, Angor quickly searched around his bracelet, fearing that the ant might touch something precious or dangerous.

    Soon, he saw something strange moving in his storage. It looked like a ho nest but was shaped like a ball.

    After removing Toby and Freud from the bracelet, there should be no other creatures apart from some nts in the storage, which meant the moving ¡°ho nest¡± was caused by the Dream Weaver ant.

    Angor looked carefully and realized that the ball-shaped object was actually the gift he obtained from Kanter before the garden challenge¡ªthe Soft Larva nest, which should still have some Soft Larva eggs inside.

    Angor reached his spirit feelers closer to the nest and saw the Dream Weaver diligently carrying the object that was several dozen times bigger than itself. Apparently, the Dream Weaver could move heavy stuff around just like any other ants.

    Angor wondered why the ant was busily handling someone else¡¯s home and continued to observe it. Since the Soft Larva eggs were not damaged, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to find out what the ant wanted.

    Soon, the ant reached its destination¡ªa small ss barrel containing Akeso¡¯s blood.

    Akeso used its own blood to sustain Dodoro¡¯s life for a thousand years. When Dodoro woke up, Angor retrieved all the blood in his coffin in case he might need itter.

    Angor watched the Dream Weaver ant slowly pushing the Soft Larva nest to the barrel. The ant left the nest and crawled onto the barrel. Then it reached for the solidified blood, dug a small chunk out, and carried it back into the Soft Larva nest.

    Next, the ant found somewhere t and stopped moving. It then hugged the blood chunk close to its body.

    Wait... did it just fall asleep?? But why would it sleep in someone else¡¯s home? The otherrva eggs are still alive!

    Did it carry the nest here so that it can get Akeso¡¯s blood faster? So, the blood is something beneficial to a Dream Weaver?

    Angor didn¡¯t have the answers. Since nothing seemed harmful for now, he decided to allow the ant to do whatever it wanted.

    He still deployed a small illusion around the nest so that the ant wouldn¡¯t wander off to somewhere else and damage the other alchemy materials... or get damaged by them.

    Then he picked up the scroll he needed to work on.

    While unfolding the scroll, he saw a picture on it, which was painted in bright red color.

    Is it a... crown of some sort?

    The crown had amonly-designed base, but its main body resembled a tiara worn by queens.

    A toddler-palm-sized pigeon-blood ruby was slotted at the center of the crown, supported by hollowed-out mythril frames. There were eight coronal beads along the upper edge of the crown, which were also pigeon-blood rubies but smaller.

    Apart from these, the most noticeable feature was the embossed runes scattered around the item. From a quick examination, Angor discovered at least six runes that were affixed on the crown.

    The crown was apparently enchanted with a magic array.

    Once the scroll was fully spread open, nine pigeon-blood rubies dropped onto Angor¡¯s table, one big and eight small¡ªexactly the same ones used on the pictured crown.

    The red-haired woman asked Angor to craft a crown ording to the blueprint. The exact oue didn¡¯t need to be a hundred percent equivalent, but the closer the better.

    Angor frowned as he considered the difficulty of the request.

    Making the crown doesn¡¯t seem hard. But that magic array...

 Chapter 548 - Witchâ€™s Town

    <h4>Chapter 548: Witch¡¯s Town</h4>

    The runes shown in the picture weren¡¯t very clear. In fact, the runes weren¡¯tplete at all, as the central mess of them was obscured behind either ipetent drawing or random ink.

    How did someone recreate runes without knowing what they were first?

    One viable approach was to look at a collection of runes and use the limited portions shown on the scroll to find out which runes were possibly used, then refer to the whole magic array to confirm the final choices.

    That sounded like a LOT of effort.

    Angor quickly regretted epting the request because it looked more and more like a bad deal now. He could have tried to find the magic threads himself while spending way less time.

    The woman told him not to check the scroll during the meeting, probably because she knew the difficulty of the quest.

    A*shole... and she said there was some kind of big secret in the scroll. So this was her n.

    He already epted the Abyss Wyvern Vein and agreed to the trade, which meant he could not back out now, especially if he wanted to maintain his fame as an alchemist. Thankfully, the task wasn¡¯t impossible. He simply needed enough time.

    Defeated, he took out his hologram tablet and opened Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters so that he could look over the runes one by one.

    Little did he know that hepletely misunderstood the woman¡¯s n.

    She had no idea about Angor¡¯sprehensive book collection about runes that could help him find the correct ones using very little information. Truth was, there was an easier way to do it.

    However, Angor failed to notice her true intention and was going to proceed with the task in a hard way.

    ...

    Angor rubbed his fatigued eyes and turned off the tablet.

    He spent two days to go over half of the book, only to find a single rune that was fit to be used as a connector for the other runes.

    Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters contained LOTS of information, which would probably take over tenrge-size books to physically record, and Angor had to read each page to find the remaining runes shown inside the scroll.

    Most of the runes were soplicated that he had to check every detail in order not to miss the correct choices, which further slowed him down.

    Even if he had his spirit strengthened as a level-3 apprentice, staying alert and constantly focused still tired him out.

    Luckily, the quest wasn¡¯t urgent. The woman gave him one month. The time was more than enough if nothing went wrong. However, he might need to find another wizard to escort him back to Brute Cavern if Sunders left too early. After all, he couldn¡¯t survive long-range teleportation with his current strength.

    There was another condition to this, that he did not die inside Nightmare Realm in theing journey. He wasn¡¯t really worried about dying because it wasn¡¯t necessary. There was no point in being all afraid of death day and night as it would only add unnecessary mental stress.

    After putting his tablet to safety, Angor left the room without waking Toby up.

    He had to join Sunders and explore Nightmare Realm today, and regardless of the danger, he knew he had to ept the challenge.

    ...

    Sunders was busy operating something in his study, so Angor waited for a brief moment. After Sunders put away his materials, he went straight to the point as he said, ¡°Our destination is the projection of a certain ce that exists in reality, which is around Lavish Division at Wesnd. It is a rumored town that only appears during a full moon. The locals call it the ¡®Witch¡¯s Town¡¯.¡±

    Previously, Sunders showed the terrain of their goal using a crystal ball. This time, however, the gentleman disyed several signature buildings with illusions instead.

    ¡°The Witch¡¯s Town inside Nightmare Realm is always covered by mist, and you will not see the correct path normally. Wandering aimlessly and the mist will misguide you to danger and traps,¡± Sunders exined while pointing to the buildings one by one. ¡°A butchery hunted by wizard-level wraiths and Deaths. The town center, also with wizard-level monsters hiding inside. This is the Redmoon Church, deadly as it appears to be...¡±

    Sunders described a dozen dangerous spots.

    ¡°Do not enter these ces if the mist takes you to them. Head back into the mist and keep moving until you see these...¡±

    Sunders reced the illusions with several ordinary-looking houses.

    ¡°Flora and I once killed all the monsters in these cabins. There shouldn¡¯t be anything too strong left in them, if any. I¡¯ll look through them one by one. Hide in one of them until I reach you.¡±

    After Angor carefully memorized the houses, Sunders took out several magic scrolls.

    ¡°Take these. Once you arrive at Nightmare Realm, immediately check if you still have them on you.¡±

    Sunders moved to prepare for departure, only to see Angor spacing out for some reason.

    ¡°Something on your mind?¡±

    Angor shook his head without speaking.

    Sunders thought Angor was still afraid of monsters and sighed in his mind. Can¡¯t be helped... he¡¯s still a boy.

    ¡°If I remember right, there aren¡¯t many monsters left in Witch¡¯s Town as long as you don¡¯t wander into the nests I told you, so don¡¯t worry about safety.¡±

    Truth was, Sunders wasn¡¯t really confident in those words because Nightmare Realm always offered dangerous surprises, such as a ¡°younger him¡±. No one could foretell the situations in that ce, and of course, telling Angor that the town was rtively save didn¡¯t sound very convincing.

    Sunders considered and added something else, ¡°Since your sequence of gravity is bound to your soul, you should have no problem using it to run away.¡±

    In fact, Angor wasn¡¯t thinking about safety at all. He was wondering whether he could take Sunders¡¯ scrolls into Nightmare Realm together with his hologram tablet. The tablet worked finest time, yet he wasn¡¯t so sure about the other items.

    Angor saw Sunders taking out a small bottle with something familiar inside¡ª a Twisting Protozoa.

    Wait... did the professor find a second one after using thest one? So, he met with Greya again?

    ¡°Those scrolls can help you in a pinch if you can bring them with you,¡± Sunders warned him again.

    Angor checked them and saw ¡°Aster Barrier¡± among them. This wizard-level defensive spell had helped him survive from deadly situations for more than once now.

    Once everything was prepared, Sunders ced a drop of blood into the bottle he was holding. Angor guessed that the blood was the ¡°seed¡± that would lead them to Witch¡¯s Town.

    As soon as the Twisting Protozoa devoured the blood, the space in front of them shattered and became a ¡°spider web¡±.

    Sunders cut the worm in half with a de and tossed one half to Angor.

    ¡°Good luck.¡±

    The gentleman ruffled Angor¡¯s short hair before he dashed into the spider web first.

    Copying the man¡¯s example, Angor threw himself into the space rupture without looking back.

    ...

    Angor opened his eyes and found himself standing in a thick mist.

    It was still betterpared to thest time when hended right between two monsters.

    He could barely see his own feet and the ck dirt path he was walking on. There seemed to be wooden fences on both sides of the path. Beyond the path were the silhouettes of buildings, which were drifting and blinking out of sight. Angor wasn¡¯t sure whether they were real.

    Instead of walking down the path, he tried floating upward first, about which he seeded without a problem.

    When he tried to climb higher to get a better look at the ce, he heard the sharp noises of wind that were caused by somethingrge.

    He looked up and saw the entire area above him upied by a giant shadow.

    There¡¯s something flying in the sky?! That thing¡¯s as big as a cloud whale!

    It seemed the ¡°monster¡± did not need to attack him at all¡ªthe disrupted air current it created easily pushed Angor away. Before Angor could do anything to steady his flying course, he felt a sharp paining from his back as he crashed on the ground.

    Aw... Well, that was at least a wizard-level monster. What happened to ¡°the Witch¡¯s Town is almost clear¡±?

    He feared that the monster above him mighte down and squash him like a bug, so he activated the sequence of gravity and bolted toward one direction.

    It seemed the mist could obstruct both his view as well as the monsters¡¯ views. He came to a halt after making sure nothing was chasing him.

    He didn¡¯t move for a very long time. He assumed that the full power of the sequence of gravity brought him somewhere like a hundred kilometers from his originalnding point. ording to Sunders, walking for a thousand kilometers meant taking a full tour around the entire Witch¡¯s Town, which meant he had moved for quite some distance.

    He didn¡¯t pay much attention to the environment while running. When he had time to check, he saw a small wooden house not far from him.

    He quickly tensed up when looking at the ordinary-looking house because the window was bright¡ªthere was firelight inside the building.

 Chapter 549 - Repeated Cottage

    <h4>Chapter 549: Repeated Cottage</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    A lone house in Nightmare Realm, a lit candle or oilmp.

    <i>Is there someone, or... is it Sunders? No, can¡¯t be.</i>

    Of course he wasn¡¯t going to walk to the house and knock on the door. Traps, monsters... there were more than enough things that could get him killed. The house might not be one of the ¡°red zones¡± mentioned by Sunders, yet Angor wouldn¡¯t trust Sunders¡¯ info too much because he just ran into something unknown. Nothing in Nightmare Realm followedmon senses.

    He carefully approached the house and nned to check through the window first. What if it were really Sunders in there?

    He floated to the window, and the moment he touched the ground, he felt pain on his back. Even though his soul could not be ¡°physically¡± damaged by the fall, but that ident still hurt him quite badly.

    Without thinking too much about the pain on his back, he peeked through the window. Using the faint light, he saw a small flower pot ced on the ledge of the window. There was trellis in the pot but whatever that needed it had withered away.

    Then he looked further into the room. From his position, the only thing he could see was a simple desk and the wall on the opposite side.

    The desk had nothing other than amp, while a painting was hung on the wall.

    To be precise, it was a Victorian oil painting.

    Angor was very puzzled to see such a delicate painting lodged inside an expensive-looking golden frame in a simple wooden cottage that looked like a farmer¡¯s home. The decoration did not fit in with the environment in many aspects.

    The painting showed a castle stood silently at night, whereas the lone moon shone brightly.

    Something told him that the painting contained useful clues, but when he looked more carefully, he felt an unknown fear crawling on his spine that told him to immediately look away.

    Startled, he stepped away from the window until the house was hidden behind the thick mist again. He was d that all the mist helped him stay well and hidden.

    Next, he turned around and decided to head somewhere else. Most of the space in the strange house could be observed from the window, which meant Sunders wasn¡¯t there. Unless of course, for some reason, the gentleman chose to hide in one of the blind spots.

    It was when Angor was well away from the house did he finally remember Sunders¡¯ words and checked the scrolls on him.

    He reached inside his clothes and had no problem taking out the packed-up scrolls. However, something was not right¡ªthe scrolls felt too light.

    After practicing and using the sequence of gravity, he was very sensitive to the weights of different objects. He was sure the scrolls looked exactly like before, yet he couldn¡¯t feel anything in his hand at all.

    Next, he saw that the runes that were drawn on the scrolls were obscured, which meant that the scrolls couldn¡¯t be used.

    <i>So I can¡¯t bring items to Nightmare Realm after all?</i>

    He checked his bracelet next, which was ¡°fake¡± in a simr way.

    In fact, everything that he had on wasn¡¯t solid¡ªHis clothes, his ne, and all the other misceneous stuff that he had.

    <i>But didn¡¯t my tablet start up just finest time?</i>

    He immediately regretted his decision of cing the hologram tablet inside his bracelet beforeing here. Now that his bracelet wasn¡¯t working, he had no way to tell whether the tablet was able to function.

    Defeated, he decided to keep walking.

    It wasn¡¯t long before he saw another building¡ªa wooden house with firelighting from the window. It looked no different than thest one.

    <i>Did I identally move backward in the mist??</i>

    He kept moving forward without minding the house. He wished to find one of the ¡°safe houses¡± as soon as possible.

    Soon, he ran into the lone cottage for the third time, and he was getting really stressed out.

    Sunders mentioned something about how the mist in Witch¡¯s Town could intentionally lead people to different locations, and that he only needed to keep trying until he reached somewhere safe.

    <i>What happened to the ¡°guidance¡±?</i>

    Angor didn¡¯t believe the mist could take him to the same ce three times in a row... unless something ¡°wanted¡± him toe here.

    He headed back into the mist again to make sure, and when he looked at the same house for the fourth time, he was unhappy as his assumption was right. This time, he wanted to see who or what kept dragging him here.

    Determined, he moved to the door and pushed it open. It was not locked.

    Theyout in the house was not much different from what he saw earlier. A bed, a desk, a flower pot without nts, a lit oilmp, and a painting that was out of ce.

    After making sure that the room had no hiddenpartments or hatches to the underground, he stepped to the oil painting and watched it with a frown.

    It still showed the beautiful castle shrouded in the moonlight. Yet something was not quite right.

    <i>Are there fewer trees beside the castle? I can¡¯t really remember...</i>

    He didn¡¯t memorize the painting earlier because of the strange fear that suddenly intruded his mind. The same feeling just came again, but he chose to keep looking.

    Nothing happened.

    He had no choice but to leave the cottage since there was nothing else to see here.

    It was as if the house was fooling him by telling him that something was there, yet there wasn¡¯t.

    He wondered if he could finally get back onto the ¡°right track¡± since he already explored the weird house. With that in mind, he activated his sequence of gravity and moved a great distance.

    Then his lips twitched when he saw what wasing.

    ¡°Not leaving me alone, eh?¡±

    He nned to take off and check the sky next. The house probably didn¡¯t know how to fly.

    But something caught his attention.

    The door of the house was closed. However, he clearly remembered that he did not close the door when he left.

    Sunders did say that everything in Nightmare Realm, both live and dead ones, could revert to their original states, while the time they needed to do so would depend on how ¡°powerful¡± they were. Common objects would return to where they were faster, while items that held power were slower.

    <i>But I only left the house ten seconds ago... I spent several minutes inside the house and the door did not close on itself.</i>

    <i>So is the mist actually taking me to different houses that looked the same?</i>

    He entered the cottage to check again, and still, he did not find anything worth noticing.

    Unless...

    <i>What about the painting?</i>

    His instincts told him that if there were differences, he should find them in this particrly strange painting.

    He tried to memorize the whole picture as clearly as possiblest time, which helped him quickly locate a small detail.

    The location of the ¡°viewer¡± was slightly off.

    Compared to thest painting, the angle of view for this painting moved a bit closer to the castle. Several trees on thest painting¡¯s edge could no longer be seen on this one as they were left outside the boundary.

    ...

    It seemed the mist insisted on messing up Angor¡¯s route. No matter where he moved, he always ended up at the strange cottage. He was now visiting it for the tenth time.

    Also, he noticed that the ¡°view¡± of the painting kept getting closer to the center, which was exactly what he guessed earlier. The castle that was originally a backgroundndmark in the entire drawing grew bigger until it almost took up all the space.

    There was nothing wrong so far. Angor expected something to happen when the painting finally reached the castle¡¯s door, just like how he entered the fairytale world in the bunny¡¯s book when he read it.

    <i>Perhaps I¡¯ll go to the castle for real in the end?</i>

    He couldn¡¯t prove his idea for now. Also, he didn¡¯t wish to proceed on this unknown path that was manipted by something unknown, so he stopped checking the painting and went for the sky next, even if it meant running into monsters.

 Chapter 550 - A Woman in the Painting

    <h4>Chapter 550: A Woman in the Painting</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Going for the sky wasn¡¯t a safe choice because of that giant monster that could knock people away by pping its wings or some other body parts.

    As a means of caution, Angor kept his sequence of gravity activated while climbing so that he could run away from danger the moment he saw any.

    Despite his effort, he was still sent away by a strong air current before he could see what caused it. Due to the gravity power, he did not crash down this time. After tumbling in the air for a while, he managed to regain his bnce.

    He looked up again and saw the same giant shadow looming over him. It seemed that this unknown monster that he couldn¡¯t see clearly was preventing him from going too high.

    <i>Was that some kind of wind spell?</i>

    Angor tried several more times, and every time, the strong wind would block his movement no matter how fast he flew.

    After making sure that there was no way to leave the shadow¡¯s territory by flying farther, he returned to the ground helplessly.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Sunders suddenly halted his movement while traversing through the thick mist.

    He thought there was something amiss, that he forgot to tell Angor something very important.

    <i>I told him the general size of this town but... I didn¡¯t mention there was a boundary in the sky as well.</i>

    <i>Well, he¡¯ll find out and give up after getting hurt.</i>

    <i>...</i>

    After getting assaulted by the strange power many times, Angor found the energy in his soul terribly disrupted, which didn¡¯t feel much different from getting his body seriously wounded.

    Sunders¡¯ assumption would have have been right if Angor did not find the strange cottage first, in which case Angor would keep exploring the mist instead of struggling with the barrier in the sky.

    But by some coincidence, the cottage was the very firstndmark Angor ran into. Since the sky was a no-go, he dragged his tattered soul back to the ground and looked at the seemingly harmless cottage in fear.

    The cottage was always there to wee him. It was like a nemesis that he could not escape from.

    He wanted to run away, yet something told him that he had to solve the mystery hidden inside that house if he wanted to get out of the ¡°loop¡±.

    He took a deep breath, straightened his body, and tidied up his dirt-covered gentleman suit and top hat before entering the house again. In such a situation, the noble disciplines helped him drive away unnecessary concerns.

    Carefully, he knocked on the door.

    No answer.

    He then entered the house and went straight to the painting without minding the other parts of the cottage.

    Just as he thought, the view of the painting drew closer as if he were a traveler who kept moving to the castle under the moonlight.

    He left the house and kept going. This time, he wanted to find the subsequent cottages and figure out where they meant to take him, or the ¡°ending¡± of the paintings.

    He believed that, if something evil was plotting against him, it would show up once the painting reached its end.

    He tried leaving some marks in the cottages he visited, and each time he entered a new one, the marks were no longer there.

    When he counted to the 29th cottage, the painting finally reached the castle door. Looking closely allowed him to observe the abandoned building better¡ªbroken wooden door with several nails missing, decolored banners full of cobwebs, window curtains with missing parts... There weren¡¯t any traces left by battles or conflict, which meant the castle was deprived of care and maintenance over a long period of time.

    ¡°Ready to wee me with your traps next time?¡± Angor muttered in a small voice.

    After getting everything ready, he pushed open the door to the 30th cottage.

    Everything was still the same.

    Carefully, he went ahead to check the painting again.

    Instead of moving into the castle, the ¡°viewer¡± looked up a little while the gate was still closed.

    <i>Is something up there?</i>

    Puzzled, he kept checking the next cottages. The 31st, the 32nd...

    Finally, there was something noticeable in the 34th painting.

    The ¡°viewer¡± did not change their view toward the sky. Whoever created the picture was staring at a window on the second floor. The window was left open where the broken curtains swayed in the wind.

    The 34th painting sessfully reached the window, which allowed Angor to see into the room.

    The decoration inside suggested that it belonged to ady. Also, there was another painting hanging on the wall opposite the window.

    Angor thought the strange circumstance would keep going as the paintings kept showing themselves. But it wasn¡¯t the case. Inside the 34th painting, Angor could see what was drawn on the ¡°inner¡± painting¡ªthe portrait of a blond girl who was smiling brightly. It was a typical family drawing for nobles.

    ¡°Is that the end of it? What does it mean?¡±

    Again, he stepped out of the cottage and moved forward.

    The individual shown by the ¡°inner painting¡± in the 35th cottage became a middle-ageddy who had a crystal ball floating above her palm. Her hair color and facial features suggested that she was the same girl from thest painting, but older.

    <i>Wait, a crystal ball, a witch... Witch¡¯s Town?</i>

    Sunders didn¡¯t tell him where the town¡¯s name came from. Angor took a guess that it was because of this witch.

    <i>Is it really? But why didn¡¯t Sunders mention this woman or these cottages?</i>

    With that question in mind, he went to the 36th cottage.

    And something went very wrong this time.

    Thedy became a wrinkled and grisly old hag unpleasant to human eyes. The few remaining strands of hair on her head told Angor that she was still the same woman from before.

    Also, the woman was gazing across the painting and straight at Angor¡¯s face.

    When he realized this, Angor stepped away from the painting in fear. At the same time, the witch became alive and slowly crawled out of the inner painting.

    Inside the castle room, she gave Angor a devilish grin. She then lifted a hand and created a glowing, green portal in front of her.

    An identical portal emerged from beside Angor.

    Startled, Angor looked aside and saw the witch standing nor far from him across the passage. And this time, the mighty and murderous aura of the witch traveled through the portal and fell upon his body like a tidal wave.

    <i>Run... I must run!!</i>

    The aura didn¡¯t feel much different from Isabe¡¯s aura when Isabe wanted him dead. Angor couldn¡¯t imagine what would be of him if the witch actually moved into the cottage.

    She was probably as powerful as Sunders, if not stronger.

    When the witch started walking, Angor immediately activated the sequence of gravity, which he had been preparing, and bolted toward the door. He was afraid that when the woman descended upon the world he was in, her power would easily render all his tricks useless.

    ¡°Give up... this is MY domain...¡±

    Angor heard a sharp voice talking to him. And of course, he wasn¡¯t going to listen.

    Also, he heard someone yelping in surprise. However, he paid no heed to it and kept running while believing that the old hag used some other tricks to fool him.

    Like a lightning bolt, Angor dived into the thick mist outside and left the cottage far behind, which sat there as quietly as before.

    The green portal was still up, yet the old woman did not go through it. She stayed in the castle room with a disappointed expression.

    She sealed herself in her old memories and drifted in an endless time loop so that she could wait for a Nightmare Watcher toe.

    <i>But that boy was already marked by something...</i>

    <i>On his back... those green lines, slithering like vipers...</i>

 Chapter 551 - Distorted Presence

    <h4>Chapter 551: Distorted Presence</h4>

    Angor was wearing clothes. However, they were only manifestations created by him to hide his form; they couldn¡¯t hide the strange green lines growing on his back.

    The witch considered and made sure that whatever was growing on the boy would keep expanding as it drew more nightmare energy until itpletely covered the entire back of that Nightmare Watcher.

    Anything that lived inside Nightmare Realm knew about these ¡°marks¡±. Yet the witch failed to recognize who left that one.

    She might be the dominator of Witch¡¯s Town, but there were way more terrifying presences in the other parts of Nightmare Realm. Just like how she failed to recognize the owner of the mark, she did not see a pure stream of soul energy slowly replenishing Angor¡¯s soul, and that the source of the energy was connected to an unknown realm.

    While providing energy for Angor, the mark also glowed brightly, which allowed certain beings to notice Angor¡¯s position.

    For example, there was a light spot emerging from boundless darkness, which was the center of Nightmare Realm. This area remained static and silent for gods-knew-how-long. Yet upon sensing Angor¡¯s pulsing energy, it slowly woke up.

    The manor that did not have any colors before gradually became vibrant.

    Something started breathing inside a small room in the manor and was getting louder and louder.

    The source of the noise came from a bed ced inside the room.

    Precisely speaking, it originated from inside a blue ice coffin on top of the bed.

    Squeak...

    The coffin lid was pushed aside, and a slim, white arm reached out of the beautiful casket, together with an enchanting sweet smell.

    ...

    Using the sequence of gravity, Angor dashed away from the terrifying cottage as fast as he could.

    He ran for a long time. Under normal circumstances, he would have traveled for hundreds of kilometers. Yet there it was¡ªthe cottage, patiently waiting for him again.

    The situation wasn¡¯t so bad because he did not see the old hag chasing him.

    But why?

    His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the pain on his back returning. The ¡°wounds¡± caused by crashing on the ground weren¡¯t going away.

    He rubbed his shoulder to soothe the pain just a little while he wondered whether he should check the cottage again.

    Can I escape from this ce by running around in the mist? Probably not. But going inside the cottage means I have to¡ª

    He hoped that Sunders would notice what was going on and that he woulde to find him soon. Before this happened, he would stay away from the cottage and wait.

    He didn¡¯t care whether Sunders woulde at all, but he didn¡¯t want to think about it.

    Without using the sequence of gravity this time, he walked slowly in the mist while hoping that he wouldn¡¯t have to see the cottage too soon.

    He hadn¡¯t moved far when the mist covering the entire Witch¡¯s Town started swirling like a tornado.

    ¡°Marked... I don¡¯t care! I MUST go away first and no one¡¯s stopping me!¡±

    Before Angor could understand what those words meant, the old witch popped up in front of him, and all the mist changed direction as it began reaching for the witch¡¯s position.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t going anywhere...¡±

    The witch then unleashed her aura around Angor without holding anything back.

    Angor found himself being lifted into the air by something he couldn¡¯t see. His sequence of gravity was useless against the witch¡¯s dominant strength. Helplessly, he watched as the witch got closer, who then gave him another creepy smile.

    Next, she reached out a skinny hand that looked like a bird¡¯s talon and tapped at Angor¡¯s forehead with a sharp finger.

    Another unparalleled energy wave surged into Angor¡¯s body.

    It was the soul energy left by a wizard-level being, which attempted to force its way into Angor¡¯s soul space.

    Angor tried to resist the invasion only to realize that everything he did was useless. There was nothing he could do to fight off the seemingly invincible power.

    As Angor felt his consciousness slipping, he heard someone snickering. It wasn¡¯t the witch, but another individual standing behind her.

    The old witch suddenly stopped her action and looked back in horror.

    Unknowingly, someone in bright and shiny attire was standing right behind her back. This stranger¡¯s long, blond hair that danced wildly in the raging wind covered most of his face. Yet those pair of glowing red eyes looked no less creepy.

    ¡°Your-your-Your Majesty!!¡± The witch shrank into her broken cape and fled toward the cottage by shooting off like a deting balloon.

    When the witch was gone, Angor fell back onto the ground. He had two different types of energy fighting against each other inside him. The foreign one sent by the old witch was trying to destroy the core of his soul.

    Even if the witch only sent a tiny portion of her energy, Angor¡¯s own soul was still defenseless against it.

    As the hostile energy tainted more of his soul space, Angor found his vision falling into darkness.

    Before hepletely lost it, he smelled something familiar.

    Is it... the purification aroma?

    When the smell reached his soul space, the hostile energy gradually lost its power and began to back off.

    It wasn¡¯t long before the witch¡¯s energy entirely disappeared.

    Angor felt both d and tired after spending much of his own soul energy to resist. Despite the ¡°victory¡± in the end, he finally cked out.

    Thest thing he could remember was that his arm was being grabbed by an ice-cold hand.

    ...

    On the other side of Witch¡¯s Town, Sunders stepped out of a small church and looked at the abnormal atmosphere while frowning.

    The mist was quickly growing thinner. Sunders tried and failed to remember anything that might exin it even after considering all of his previous explorations in Nightmare Realm.

    Whatever¡¯s going on?

    The next thing he felt was a strong energy waveing from the distance.

    That¡¯s a wizard? No... it¡¯s a truth-finder wizard.

    But here? How?

    Along with the overwhelming power, Sunders also sensed another insignificant one, like a small water stream flowing beside arge river. And as the owner of a gravity garden, Sunders immediately perceived the sequence of gravity.

    Angor is in trouble!

    Without hesitating, Sunders headed toward the source of the wild energy flood. With the mist gone, he could observe theyout of Witch¡¯s Town better and saw many objects and buildings that he had never encountered before, such as a small wooden house that contained the recognizable power signature of a truth-finder wizard.

    Angor¡¯s trace came from right behind that house. Instead of feeling relieved when finding Angor¡¯s location, Sunders was getting confused.

    When Flora helped me clean this ce outst time, we didn¡¯t see such a cottage here... and why would Angor show up here?

    It seemed that Angor would always attract trouble to himself. Back at Nether City, Angor was sent straight into the underground maze and bumped into Glutton Flowers and ¡°Younger Sunders¡±.

    And now this...

    Is he downright unlucky or is it because of his Nightmare Form?

    Sunders moved as fast as he could because that unknown aura beside Angor seemed extremely wicked. More sopared to certain viins who sought utter chaos and destruction.

    Who in the world did that boy mess with?

    When he arrived at the cottage, Sunders saw a ¡°broken cape¡± diving into the house like an escaping balloon. Also, the hostile intention he felt earlier came from the escaping entity as well.

    As soon as the cape entered the cottage, the evil aura around the area vanished.

    Without minding the cape or the house, Sunders quickly moved behind the strange hut.

    ¡°Dear me. What is that?¡±

 Chapter 552 - Someoneâ€™s Right Hand

    <h4>Chapter 552: Someone¡¯s Right Hand</h4>

    Angor woke up only to see endless darkness. There were strange whispers going off right beside his ears.

    What are they talking about? Or... are they humans at all? I hear growling...

    He felt something familiar. It was as if he just went through the same experience not long ago, yet he couldn¡¯t remember when. Or rather, his whole mind was too chaotic for him to think properly.

    When he saw a small light spot in the distance, he stood up and followed it out of instinct.

    As he moved closer to the light, the whispers grew louder and more unified as if thousands of different individuals of different races were trying to exin the same word in differentnguages.

    They made his head ache.

    He reached his goal¡ªa strange door that existed alone in the dark.

    Or... is it a mirror?

    He changed his mind because he saw someone inside the ¡°door¡± looking back at him. He couldn¡¯t see the reflection very clearly. The stranger was wearing different clothes, while their hair was longer than Angor¡¯s.

    Yet something told him that he was looking right at himself.

    Two different ideas fought inside his disturbed mind and somehow convinced him of the impossible.

    ¡°Are you... me?¡± Angor decided to ask.

    There was silence.

    Angor carefully lifted his right hand and moved toward the door. He wished to confirm whether he could touch ¡°him¡±.

    Following Angor¡¯s move, ¡°he¡± also reached out a hand.

    Two hands slowly connected in the middle.

    ¡°It¡¯s so cold...¡±

    The first thing that came to Angor¡¯s mind was that the other one¡¯s hand felt like ice.

    This strange feeling was also familiar to him. He believed he put his hand on something simr recently.

    ¡°What is that?¡± someone suddenly asked him.

    Angor thought the man in the door was the speaker. Before he could reply, he saw the darkness giving way to light, while all the whispers slowly stopped. At the same time, the ¡°door¡± shattered to pieces.

    He opened his eyes and saw something ck looming in front of his face.

    It was Sunders, who was wearing that signature ck gentleman suit.

    Where-where did that mirror go? Angor panicked a little.

    Then he saw Sunders smiling for some reason.

    Angor slowly looked down and noticed that Sunders had grabbed his right wrist while his right hand was still trying to catch the air.

    He then shook his head and looked around. It seemed he was lying on a bed inside a room he couldn¡¯t recognize.

    Was that a dream?? So while ¡°dream-walking¡±, I moved to touch- Wait! Did I do something funny to Sunders?!

    Angor couldn¡¯t imagine how he could carelessly ¡°stroke¡± the body of a formidable and strange-tempered wizard. He desperately prayed that his professor wouldn¡¯t punish him by chopping his hand off.

    ¡°I-I... There was this weird dream, sir! I didn¡¯t mean to touch¡ª¡± Angor retracted his hand with a start.

    Sunders raised an eyebrow. ¡°Pull yourself together. What is it that you¡¯re reaching for?¡±

    ¡°Um, you?¡±

    Sunders¡¯ expression grew dangerously funny.

    ¡°I mean, the air! Since there¡¯s nothing in front of me... right?¡±

    Sunders shook his head and put on a more serious look. ¡°Take your time and think again.¡±

    ¡°But there¡¯s not... wait, I think I caught someone¡¯s hand in my dream.¡±

    Angor felt that his memory was still blurry. However, several details wereing back.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Sunders looked at Angor¡¯s right hand with a stern look.

    Following Sunders¡¯ hint, Angor checked his own hand as well.

    His irises shrank.

    Starting from where Sunders was gripping at, his entire hand was... not his hand anymore.

    Compared to his left hand, his current right one was longer. To be precise, each finger on his right hand now had an extra segment.

    He tried moving the hand and immediately saw something green glowing around it.

    What in the-?

    He did more tests and noticed that he could control this strange hand just fine. On the other hand, it seemed that he couldn¡¯t do anything to the green lines floating about. There was nothing wrong as long as he didn¡¯t mind the alien looks of it.

    ¡°You¡¯ll have time to get used to itter. Now tell me, whose hand were you reaching for?¡± Sunders interrupted Angor¡¯s body experiment and asked again.

    ¡°I... don¡¯t know. It¡¯s someone in the mirror... or a door. I can¡¯t even make out their gender.¡±

    ¡°Long, blond hair?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s long, but I can¡¯t tell the color. The clothes seem pretty expensive, but I don¡¯t know the exact colors either. Did you see them too, professor?¡±

    Instead of answering, Sunders questioned Angor about his previous experience, including his journey so far in Witch¡¯s Town and what the strange dream looked like.

    Angor did not withhold anything. He told everything he could remember, including the terrifying old witch.

    Sunders remained quiet for a moment to digest what he just heard.

    ¡°You believe the man you saw in this ¡®door¡¯ was you?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Sunders rubbed his temples. ¡°When I arrived at the cottage and found you, there was another man beside you who was obscured by some mist or shady effects. I saw his blond hair, but his hair was a lot longer. His form dissipated as soon as I moved closer.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t see his face either, sir?¡±

    ¡°No. But I saw him taking your right hand. Or, I saw him trying to fuse with your right hand.¡±

    ¡°Eh, fuse with my hand?!¡± Angor lifted his strange hand again. He understood none of what Sunders was talking about.

    Does it mean ¡°he¡± affixed this bizarre hand on me? But why? Where did my old hand go?

    Angor tried clenching the hand into a fist and seeded without a problem. Also, there seemed to be a strong power hidden inside the hand, but it felt... foreign.

    He squeezed so hard that he saw several blood veins pulsing on his right hand.

    Blood? But my soul did not have blood!

    ¡°You finally noticed?¡± Sunders grinned. ¡°Your right hand is ¡®real¡¯ now.¡±

    ¡°Really?!¡± Angor quickly lifted his left hand and checked.

    Everything on him still suggested that he was in his ¡°soul form¡±, except for the foreign body part he just gained.

    A terrible realization struck his mind.

    What about my real body back in reality? Did my body grow a wrong hand too?

    He failed to remain calm as cold sweat covered his entire body, or at least he believed so, as his soul couldn¡¯t sweat.

    ¡°Don¡¯t take my words to your heart yet. I might be wrong,¡± Sunders spoke up again.

    ¡°What... do you mean, professor?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s another possibility that the strange character was pulling your right hand, your REAL right hand, into Nightmare Realm from the wizarding world. We had to get back first to confirm what really happened, and before we can, do not use that new hand.¡±

    Sunders nced at the green marks flying around the hand and felt something terrifying troubling his mind. He couldn¡¯t sense any energy signature from it yet, but something told him that they should be very careful when ¡°handling¡± Angor¡¯s newly grown body part.

    Angor nodded and slumped on his bed, not sure of what to do. Losing a hand was quite a heavy blow to him.

    ¡°I have another assumption.¡± Sunders continued when he saw Angor in such a low spirit, ¡°Perhaps you never lost your hand. This one is also YOUR hand, just looks different.¡±

    Angor looked up at his professor, confused.

    ¡°You ¡®felt¡¯ that the man in your dream was you, no? Maybe you were right. That man is Angor, a projection created by Nightmare Realm.¡±

 Chapter 553 - Unknown Projection

    <h4>Chapter 553: Unknown Projection</h4>

    Sunders left Angor¡¯s side to check the cottage. He was very curious about this strange house since he had never seen it during his previous explorations in Witch¡¯s Town.

    Left alone, Angor sat on his bed to think over Sunders¡¯ words.

    ¡°That man is Angor, a projection of him in the Nightmare Realm...¡±

    While mumbling the word ¡°projection¡±, Angor did not think about himself, but another man with short, green hair, a handsome face, a slim-build dressed in a gentleman suit...

    Younger Sunders.

    Back at Nether City, the strange properties of the Nightmare Realm perfectly recreated Sunders in his early years, including a family dagger used by the younger Sunders, which Angor even took back to reality.

    Angor thought itpletely possible to find his own projection somewhere.

    ¡°The reality is projected into imaginary and gives birth to the truth... I guess humans can also get ¡®copied¡¯?¡±

    He wasn¡¯t sure whether this was a rare thing to happen. The only ¡°projected human¡± he knew until now was Sunders. They had not ascertained the nature of that strange figure Sunders saw earlier, while the old witch didn¡¯t look like a projection.

    Angor didn¡¯t believe that the Nightmare Realm would randomly choose people to copy. There should be a set of rules for this. Finding these rules would answer most of their questions.

    Next, he thought about the names of the nightmare creatures he heard during Twilight Auction. Glenn, Dink, Farrounduer, Yorkshire, Auri... These names also belonged to people from Padt Manor. Were they ¡°projected humans¡± too?

    But they were monsters! Or at least Auri became a toy owl.

    His train of thoughts slowly ran wild and reached a lot of strange yet seemingly possible conclusions.

    If that man with long blond hair is really ¡°me¡±, so how old is he? I never left my hair so long before, and it¡¯s not that I want to do it any time soon.

    Maybe it¡¯s just a woman whose hair is of simr color?

    He didn¡¯t exclude Sunders¡¯st assumption yet, since it waspletely possible for Nightmare Realm to create a ¡°she-version¡± of Angor, considering how the maid Auri became an owl, while the gardener¡¯s son, Fawkes, turned into a fox.

    For now, he wasn¡¯t going to regard the unknown figure as his own projection. Even if it was, ¡°he¡± was not the real Angor, but someone alien.

    With that in mind, Angor found his mental burden removed.

    As for repairing his hand... he wasn¡¯t sure what to do next. He wanted to ask for Sunders¡¯ help, but it seemed the gentleman was more interested in this ¡°new hand¡± than the good-old one.

    Angor got up from the bed and pressed his right palm against the floor. Then he pushed downward, using only a small portion of his strength.

    Crack!

    The floor buckled under his hand and shattered into the shape of a spiderweb.

    Angor was quite surprised to see the strange hand as strong as certain bloodline-enhanced cases, but he wasn¡¯t really happy about it¡ªsuch strength did not belong to him, and it might go out of control sooner orter.

    Also, what are those green patterns?

    He stared at the flying green lines as best as he could, until he started getting a delusion that he saw a pair of crimson eyes from them, which went away very soon.

    After some further testing, he discovered another merit for owning a ¡°real¡± hand inside the Nightmare Realm; he could cast cantrips now.

    Using cantrips required mana, and his soul couldn¡¯t contain a mana pool. Forcefully drawing in mana at his current condition would hurt him by disrupting his soul energy instead.

    However, he just found out that this new hand could be used as a medium for containing mana. At the same time, the cantrip he used had to leave from this hand as well.

    He wondered what would happen once he returned to reality and ejected his soul. What would his right hand on his soul form look like then?

    Well, gotta find outter.

    Sunders had not returned yet. Feeling bored, Angor began to ponder over the reason why Sunders took him here in the first ce.

    He wanted to see if I can take stuff from reality, no?

    He already finished the test. The scrolls he received from Sunders were all ¡°fake¡± in this world. Although the test was very brief as he was in a hurry back then.

    Sunders did not ask for his result probably because the man already saw the condition of the scrolls. The gentleman had determined that the test failed.

    But I did take my tablet to Nether City once!

    Of course, he couldn¡¯t tell Sunders about the biggest secret as it might give away Jon¡¯s identity.

    Angor believed that there was a way to bring items here since he did seed once. He wanted to find out now that he had time for it.

    First, he thought about checking on something that also came from Earth¡ªthe Alien Eye.

    It was fake.

    This meant the secret had nothing to do with Earth technologies.

    He kept trying. Eventually, he found a clue at night just as Sunders came back from checking the strange cottage.

    ...

    Sunders returned to Angor¡¯s room with his suit covered with dust and cobwebs.

    When the mist in Witch¡¯s Town went away, he left his student in one of the houses he explored before, which he believed to be the safest.

    Sunders went away mainly to examine the strange painting mentioned by Angor. It seemed the old witch had returned into the painting, so Sunders nned to destroy it so that the witch couldn¡¯t cause further troubles.

    However, what Sunders found in the said cottage was just an ordinary painting. At least his eyes told him so.

    Besides, the painting did not have the ¡°girl¡¯s room with another painting inside¡±, which was described by Angor. What Sunders saw was the first ¡°castle under the moon¡± picture, which was the one Angor saw in the ¡°first¡± cottage.

    Sunders also tried leaving and entering the cottage repeatedly, yet the painting remained the same.

    He took a guess that there was a small world or special dimension hidden inside the painting, which was the witch¡¯s hideout.

    It reminded him of a truth-finder wizard titled the ¡°Magic Painter¡±, who could use his painting brush to connect reality with worlds that existed on papers.

    Is this painting perhaps created by him?

    If that were the case, Sunders would not be able to destroy the painting at all. He might have to temporarily seal it and wait for another solution.

    Once he did so, he went to the other parts of Witch¡¯s Town and collected some items. Even though Angor failed to take the magic scrolls here, Sunders still wanted to find out what the boy could bring back.

    Sunders looted a lot of things this time, from the mostmon necessities to wizardry items of different types. He wanted to cover all possible selections in order to ascertain Angor¡¯s ¡°carry limit¡±.

    For this reason, it took Sunders an entire day to move around the Witch¡¯s Town even though it wasn¡¯t a big ce, especially without the mist blocking their views.

    Sunders returned and realized his student brought him yet another surprise.

    He saw Angor copsed on the bed with an ill expression.

    Sunders immediately noticed that Angor¡¯s soul wasn¡¯t in good condition. It appeared that Angor somehow exhausted his soul energy again.

    But what could possibly happen in his room?

    Next, Sunders nced at an object beside Angor¡¯s position.

    It was a scroll, the ¡°Aster Barrier¡± he gave Angor before entering the Nightmare Realm.

    Delighted, Sunders move ahead and picked it up. Both the glowing runes on the scroll and the solid touch on his hand suggested that the scroll was ready to be used.

    What happened just now? All of Angor¡¯s scrolls were fake phantoms when I checked on them earlier...

 Chapter 554 - Creating Truth

    <h4>Chapter 554: Creating Truth</h4>

    Sunders checked again and saw several more scrolls scattered on the other side of the bed. But these were ¡°fake¡±¡ªshapes with no functions, just like Sunders¡¯ own alchemy items such as the ear nail that contained the gravity garden. Visually, they were there, yet they didn¡¯t really exist.

    But why is ¡°Aster Barrier¡± alive? What happened to it? Did Angor do something?

    He looked at his student again, especially that weird top hat with a picture of a smiling face on it.

    The hat also became real.

    As he remembered, this hat with Purification Field came from Devildare. He was sure the hat was another useless phantom item before he left Angor to explore elsewhere.

    Sunders slowly had a conjecture in his mind: Perhaps this was the true ability of Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form?

    Truthful or not, he could tell from Angor¡¯s terrible condition that doing so cost him a lot of energy.

    Sunders sighed and put away everything he collected. No matter what ns he had, he had to wait until Angor woke up.

    ...

    Angor was out for ten Nightmare Realm days. Without certain items such as soul orbs, spent soul energy required a lot of time to recover. Even if Angor knew about training methods that could help with this case, he couldn¡¯t do it while sleeping.

    An ordinary apprentice who had their soul depleted so much would fall into imminent danger and perish. Angor stayed well and alive due to the strange scar on his back, which ardently pumped pure soul energy that filled the emptiness in Angor¡¯s soul.

    It took ten days for Angor to regain enough soul energy to wake up.

    The first thing he saw was Sunders, who sat beside a lit firece while looking at a glowing magic scroll.

    ¡°Wee back,¡± Sunders said when he heard Angor moving.

    ¡°Oh, professor...¡± Angor sat up slowly. ¡°How long did it take?¡±

    ¡°Ah, so you know you lost it? This means your memory is fine. Ten days, by the way. Did you have any strange dreams again?¡±

    Ten days? Angor wasn¡¯t anxious to hear this. The concept of time didn¡¯t matter when they were inside the Nightmare Realm. After all, when they returned to reality, they would find that only one or two seconds had passed.

    ¡°No, sir, didn¡¯t have any.¡± Angor climbed down from his bed and joined Sunders beside the fire. He was d that the fire was real enough to warm up the small room around them.

    ¡°About these...¡± Sunders swung the Aster Barrier scroll and then pointed to Angor¡¯s top hat. ¡°Still remember them?¡±

    ¡°... Yes.¡±

    ¡°Tell me then. And how did you knock yourself out again?¡± Sunders turned to look at the fire, allowing Angor to observe his handsome face against the bright light.

    Angor knew what Sunders meant to ask and took a moment to arrange his words.

    ...

    ¡°You... ¡®want¡¯ them toe to you, and they did?¡± Sunders widened his eyes just a bit after listening to Angor¡¯s exnation.

    Angor nodded. This was how he seeded in the first attempt when trying to make Aster Barrier appear. There was only a flicker of mind... Poof!

    ¡°Your mind can affect projections?¡± Sunders frowned at the strange yet wonderful possibility.

    ¡°I was so happy that I ¡®brought¡¯ something, so I quickly tried again on my hat. I didn¡¯t realize theck of soul energy when I tried to bring my bracelet here as well...¡± Angor¡¯s voice slowly turned into a whisper.

    Sunders checked the boy¡¯s wrist, where the bracelet looked blurry and phony.

    ¡°Let me guess, you strained your soul without realizing it and fainted on the bed?¡± Sunders finished the rest of Angor¡¯s answer.

    ¡°Correct, sir.¡± Angor nodded helplessly.

    ¡°It¡¯s just reasonable... You can¡¯t create items out of projections freely. Since your bracelet is a space storage with all types of other objects inside, you can¡¯t ¡®bring¡¯ it into Nightmare Realm easily. Still... your Nightmare Form is VERY powerful.¡±

    Taking items from reality into Nightmare Realm meant solidifying their projections, which was one of the core properties of the entire Nightmare Form. Sunders asked Angor to do the test mainly out of curiosity, yet he did not believe that Angor would seed for real.

    Angor just opened up a whole new option for future Nightmare Realm explorations. They could bring different powerful items and weapons and use them against threats.

    It seemed that Angor¡¯s current level of strength would not allow him to take many things. However, as Angor¡¯s soul continued to grow, this ability of his would grow as well, and it would only be better in the future.

    Once Angor could bring a space storage to the Nightmare Realm, their survivability and chances of obtaining great loot would be multiplied.

    Deadly might it be, all wizards who ever stumbled into Nightmare Realm would admit that this ce was a huge treasure vault. It wasn¡¯t difficult to find priceless prizes such as Singrity Dispersive Meditation. This unparalleled channeling method book was openly disyed on someone¡¯s desk in Stairs of Hanging Prison, with almost no monsters guarding it. Anyone could take it as long as they knew how to bring the book or its content back to reality.

    For this reason, Sunders now considered Angor¡¯s value above everything else he ever got his hands on.

    An idea struck his mind, which told him to hide Angor somewhere absolutely secure and never let Angor see light again, thus eliminating all possible threats that might find their way to the boy.

    When he looked at the pure and knowledge-thirsty soul sitting in front of him, Sunders chose to discard those dark thoughts.

    A thriving little eagle grows his wings by facing freedom and challenges...

    After settling his mind, Sundersforted Angor that he would be able to ¡°materialize¡± items better as he gained strength. Also, Sunders created a detailed research project, which was used to figure out how Angor¡¯s ¡°soul energy consumption rate¡± was rted to the created items.

    It wasn¡¯t difficult for them to reach several initial conclusions.

    Materializingmon items required negligible soul energy.

    For wizardry items, depending on their natures and types, Angor needed to spend 1/5 to 1/2 of the total energy held by the item.

    Andstly, Angor could only bring out items he was carrying; he couldn¡¯t create things out of thin air.

    After learning these, Sunders would like to know whether Angor could bring lifeforms into existence too. However, he soon decided otherwise because theplexity of a living specimen might dangerously exhaust Angor¡¯s soul energy. Besides, Angor wasn¡¯t carrying any creatures with him.

    This meant they hadpleted one of the main tasks foring here. Next, they had to find out what kind of items or how many of them that Angor could take back to reality.

    Sunders dropped everything he looted from Witch¡¯s Town in front of Angor. This ce was projected based on a mortal settlement in the wizarding world, so there weren¡¯t many wizardry-rted items. Apart frommon objects, Sunders¡¯ ¡°payload¡± contained some weak magical nts and two monster corpses.

    One of them was an unknown beast that lived in the town¡¯s well. The monster had remained dead for quite some time, which caused its body to rot into gluey liquid. Sunders took the liquid that contained the energy of a half-step wizard-level monster using a random bucket he found beside the well.

    The other one was a Bloodrose Ghoul; it looked like a skeleton entangled by rose vines. Angor¡¯s keen eyes of an alchemist told him that both the bones and the Bloodrose Ghoul were top-ss alchemy materials. Although he had no idea about the details.

    Angor thought their adventure finally came to an end when Sunders asked him to carry everything. This meant that he had to lift the bucket in one hand and grab the ghoul¡¯s body in the other while all sorts of items and magical nts were stuffed in various ces on his body.

    Instead of preparing to leave, Sunders took him to the oil painting where the old witch was hiding within.

    Sunders believed that this painting was the most mysterious artifact in the entire Witch¡¯s Town. After some consideration, he decided to consider the painting as another item to be tested by Angor.

    Sunders already tried his best to seal the painting so that nothing could get out. To be absolutely safe, he only asked Angor to touch it at thest moment.

    When they put the two halves of Twisting Protozoa together, they once again saw the space around them shattering in a spiderweb form.

    ¡°Take the painting and let¡¯s move!¡±

 Chapter 555 - Enhanced Bloodline

    <h4>Chapter 555: Enhanced Bloodline</h4>

    Angor saw everything around him going blurry before the world around him shattered into small pieces, which floated about and traveled back again, fusing into a different world. The narrow and simple room they were standing in became somewhere full of books and a mind-soothing smell.

    Sunders remained still for a while to sense the familiar primal mana in the environment. He then quickly opened his eyes to check Angor¡¯s possessions.

    Angor had not opened his eyes yet, probably because his soul still needed time to fully merge with his body. Sunders saw some shapeless things in Angor¡¯s hands slowly absorbing streams of energy with unknown origins before they finally gained physical forms.

    Sunders couldn¡¯t understand anything about the amazing art of creation. He felt as if he could receive unknown enlightenment just by looking at it.

    Soon, each object carried by Angor had taken on their original looks. Daily necessities, magical nts, the ghoul corpse, and the bucket containing a monster¡¯s residue...

    He took everything back!

    To Sunders, the true value of Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form escted even further. From here on, they could well consider the entire Nightmare Realm a rich treasure vault ready to be looted, as long as they could survive the possible dangers.

    In fact, Angor already brought back quite a fortune, especially the corpse of a wizard-level monster¡ªthe Bloodrose Ghoul.

    Today, there were very few known wizard-level monsters living in the southern wizarding region. And each time one showed up, it would attract countless hunters. A wizard-level monster was basically a moving treasure box. One could easily earn nearly a million magic crystals by selling its body parts, and this was without including the rarerponents inside a monster¡¯s body such as its bloodline and soul.

    The Nightmare Realm was full of such monsters, which suggested unimaginable profit. Despite that, one couldn¡¯t hunt the monsters wherever they wanted. This was because some of the more dangerous ces like Nether City had legendary monsters or even stronger beings that dwelled within in those ces.

    They still needed to have proper ns for future expeditions.

    Besides, Sunders wasn¡¯t really interested in hunting monsters. He wished to find lost knowledge, such as Singrity Dispersive Meditation, as well as Mystery treasures.

    He still remembered the brief encounter against the ¡°fox harper¡± in Midnight Sovereign. Back then, the fox¡¯s instrument was such a Mystery weapon, while the fox was only a wizard-level monster.

    Sunders believed that what they had already seen of the Nightmare Realm was smaller than a drop in the ocean. To achieve greater goals, Angor had¡ªno, THEY had to grow stronger.

    To most wizards, the rank of ¡°legendary¡± was unreachable. Yet in the Nightmare Realm, legendary monsters were somon that they easily became the prey of others.

    ...

    While Sunders enjoyed the thoughts of their promising futures, Angor finally opened his eyelids, which revealed a pair of eerily crimson irises rather than his original ones.

    ¡°ARGH!¡±

    Angor screamed and knelt on the floor as he felt unbearable pain crawling all over his body.

    Every inch of his skin was seeping blood. In a matter of seconds, arge blood pool formed beneath him.

    Sunders immediately used Truesight to examine Angor¡¯s condition and ascertained the source of it¡ªthe strange right hand.

    Without using Truesight, one could see Angor¡¯s right hand slowly growing longer as each finger gained an extra segmentpared tomon human hands.

    While under the effect of Truesight, Sunders also witnessed Angor¡¯s muscles and nerves being torn down forcefully as they took on their new lengths. At the same time, streams of foreign blood were generated from this hand and slowly flowed their way into other parts of Angor.

    It seemed the ¡°new blood¡± was the culprit that caused Angor¡¯s bleeding.

    The process stopped very soon. Angor felt as if all of his strength were spent in the struggle, and he copsed on the dark blood pool.

    Sunders did not cancel his spell. He continued to watch as the foreign blood spread out before they disappeared into Angor¡¯s own blood veins.

    ¡°A bloodline fused with him?¡± Sunders frowned at the strange sight.

    Usually, one needed to go through three steps to ept a bloodline¡ªinjecting, attuning, and finally, fusing. What Angor showed just now appeared to be the final step. It wasn¡¯t exactly the same, however, as someone who was fusing a bloodline would always create a small-scale omen like how Gourmet wizards created food mirages.

    Also, it wasmonly believed by wizards that every type of bloodline, either known ones or new ones, had to be extracted and diluted first before being injected into someone¡¯s body. This process would include other supplementary materials that would facilitate a sessful oue. Yet the foreign bloodline born from Angor¡¯s right hand did not go through any of the necessary steps before heading into Angor¡¯s body.

    Apart from wondering whether the bloodline fusion could seed at all, Sunders failed toprehend the absence of an omen. As far as he could see, the bloodline did not rece Angor¡¯s own blood. Rather, it worked as an enhancement that strengthened Angor¡¯s mortal blood and body.

    Telling from how smooth the fusing appeared to be, Sunders assumed that Angor was very likely to digest the new bloodline without a problem.

    Sunders could only think of one exnation as to why the unknown bloodline caused zero negative effect to Angor¡¯s body¡ªthe bloodline was originally Angor¡¯s own.

    ¡°So that long-haired man I saw was really Angor¡¯s own projection in the Nightmare Realm?¡± Sunders mumbled to himself.

    Angor¡¯s condition stabilized not long after. The bloodline fusion finished without leaving any noticeable side effects.

    More importantly, Angor did not receive any bodily changes.

    Fusing with a monster¡¯s bloodline would more or less grant someone strange body features, such as horns or wings, or to shift gender like Hookdick.

    Sunders also experienced such changes after injecting the bloodline of a Rosegold Nightmare¡ªa monster native to the Nightmare Realm, which went well with his Nightmare Form. Because of this, he had several sharp bone spikes growing on his back. In normal circumstances, he could hide them just fine under his clothes. However, when he decided to fully unleash his bloodline power, all the erged spikes and burning ck me would easily turn his image as a gentleman into not so gentleman-like.

    Sunders was not a Karabit who were usually fond of dissecting people for academic reasons. Yet right now, he still felt something that urged him to cut open Angor¡¯s body just to enrich his knowledge.

    However, he didn¡¯t do it for real since Angor was apparently more valuable when alive and breathing.

    ¡°Now get up,¡± Sunders said as he tossed a simple healing spell. Under the powerful curing effect, Angor¡¯s pale face gradually regained its original vigor.

    Angor opened his eyes and immediately looked at his right hand without minding the lingering pain that was still troubling the other parts of his body.

    His right hand had stopped growing. At the moment, it looked exactly like the strange right hand he gained inside the Nightmare Realm. Putting the strange glowing green marks and the extra size aside, all five fingers looked delicate and slim as if they belonged to an experienced pianist.

    Angor would admit that the smooth and bright skin would easily cause thedies to be envious of him.

    But this was not his hand.

    Before they came back, he was hoping that everything would revert to normal once he arrived back at the wizarding world.

    The truth proved otherwise.

    While silently mourning his lost hand, he suddenly remembered another important matter that he had yet to check.

    What would my soul look like right now? Will it still have my normal hand or this bigger one?

    The question was like a pest gnawing on his brain. Without minding Sunders¡¯ presence, Angor immediately chanted Spirit Mantra and ejected his soul.

    He felt like crying in joy when looking at his tinier but lovely hand that was still attached to the right arm of his soul.

    Oh, thank goodness my soul remained ¡°loyal¡±...

    Sunders ignored Angor¡¯s hopping soul and returned to his desk. ¡°Your soul is fine, but there¡¯s more than one ¡®transmutation¡¯ on your body. Look again.¡±

    Confused, Angor slowly shifted his gaze from his right hand to the blood pool on the floor where his body remained.

 Chapter 556 - Extra Tests

    <h4>Chapter 556: Extra Tests</h4>

    Angor listened to Sunders¡¯ summary with wide eyes.

    I brought back a new hand AND solved my bloodline problem?

    But...

    ¡°Did I really?¡± Angor returned to his body and walked around without feeling anything special. ¡°I can¡¯t find any new abilities...¡±

    When he bent his legs and jumped, his body moved faster than he expected. Before he could crash into the ceiling of Sunders¡¯ study, he managed to halt his momentum by pushing at the ceiling using both hands andnded back down unharmed.

    ¡°I think my body is really stronger!¡± Even though Angor was d that he finally earned something good, he could not help but wonder why the bloodline fusing came and went away without leaving many traces behind.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably because this bloodline went well with your body. It¡¯s possible that it came from your nightmare projection, meaning, yourself, so your body will not reject it. However, as far as I can see... the enhancement isn¡¯t very noticeable.¡±

    Angor chose to ept this conclusion since there wasn¡¯t another exnation for this. He felt ufortable when thinking that he just epted ¡°his own bloodline¡±. There was no record of such a case in any bloodline-rted textbooks.

    While Angor gazed at his deformed hand with a doubtful look, Sunders was still trying to figure out what exactly happened to his student. He decided to create a brand new research subject and record everything in his The Mystery of the Nightmare Realm.

    Yes... the title shall be ¡°The Origins of Projected Bloodline¡±.

    There wasn¡¯t much to go by since Angor was the only live case they ever knew of, and they surely couldn¡¯tmence ¡°thorough¡± experiments on Angor, such as cutting him up. For now, Sunders had to observe Angor and indirectly surmise more theories from there.

    Such a pity that I did not catch ¡°younger me¡± at Nether City and extract his bloodline...

    There was an alternative to this. Angor once met with the projections of his house servants who appeared in the Nightmare Realm as monsters. Sunders believed that he could capture these monsters. He would then find Angor¡¯s servants and make them into supernaturals so that they could ept the bloodlines from their projections. This way, they could then provide valuable research data.

    Although no one knew where to find the said monsters.

    Sunders decided to put the subject on hold for now. Perhaps they would run into the projections of other people in the Nightmare Realmter.

    He still had some more tests prepared for the boy at this moment.

    With that in mind, Sunders created an ice wall in his room. ¡°This is a level-2 cantrip. Try to break it using raw strength.¡±

    Angor woke up from his fantasies and quicklyplied. He readied a fist and immediately felt an unknown yet powerful energy stored inside his new hand, which told him that breaking the ice wall should be easy.

    The truth also proved so. A simple push and the ice wall instantly shattered.

    ¡°Use your left hand and try again.¡±

    Angor¡¯s mouth went agape at the amazing power he just disyed. At the same time, he was anxious as he wielded his new hand like his own. It was as if his brain was convinced that the strange hand always belonged to himself.

    Sunders easily noticed Angor¡¯s troubled mind. ¡°Don¡¯t stress yourself out yet. We cannot say whether ¡®he¡¯ is really you. And even if I¡¯ve told you so, you will still consider him as a stranger. So don¡¯t waste time worrying about a paradox which does not help with your case.¡±

    Angor slowly nodded as he understood what Sunders meant. He was always Angor, and no matter how the projection was created, the projection would remain as someone else.

    ¡°Um, professor, I think you aren¡¯t really interested when you saw my right hand. I mean, it¡¯s as if¡ª¡±

    ¡°As if this strange hand is never a serious matter to me. Is that what you¡¯re trying to say?¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow.

    Angor nodded.

    Sunders lifted his own right hand.

    Confused, Angor saw a strange shadow slowly covering up the gentleman¡¯s hand and felt his vision go blurry for a brief moment.

    When he could see clearly again, Sunders¡¯ right hand had been reced by a sharp curved de, while the man¡¯s original hand was nowhere to be seen.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a hand. Just so you know, I reced my own hand using the scythe of a Phantom Mantis. What you normally see on me is just an illusion. Apart from this, I have more foreign organs in other parts of my body, including some very unsightly ones. Do you know why I¡¯m not bothered by your hand now?

    ¡°Also, getting a new body part is not the end to it. I can totally cut my right arm off and grow a human arm again. I¡¯m a wizard, and wizards can do many things that you cannot imagine at your current level.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ ¡°scythe¡± slowly melted and returned to being the perfect hand of a gentleman.

    ¡°I believe your right hand holds more secrets and potential waiting to be discovered, and it¡¯s not a bad thing.¡±

    Angor realized that he was still seeing everything with the eyes of a mortal. However, it couldn¡¯t be helped since he had only been in the wizarding world for two years.

    And whether it was his body or his mind, he had to train harder so that they could quickly grow stronger.

    Even though he had spent two years as an apprentice, it seemed that the time had not helped him break the mental limitations of a mortal, and this thought made him feel defeated.

    ¡°Cut the random thoughts. You have ample time to solve your problems. And even if you fail, time will always help you,¡± Sunders said as heforted his student. He then continued his test. ¡°Now get to it. Break the ice wall using your left hand.¡±

    Angor decided to put his concerns aside for now. While it was true that the strange hand posed an unknown threat, at the same time, it also provided him with opportunities to learn new knowledge, which was the most precious resource for wizards.

    No point worrying about stuff I cannot understand.

    Determined, Angor found his confidence returning. He punched at the ice wall created by Sunders using his normal hand.

    ¡°Take this!¡±

    Crack!

    While the wall remained unharmed, several of Angor¡¯s finger bones were dislocated.

    ¡°Aw awawaw...¡± He blew at his crippled hand with tears in eyes. Apart from pain on the body, he also felt terrible as his hard-earned confidence was destroyedpletely.

    Instead of caring for the injury of his student, Sunders held his chin while checking the ice wall curiously. ¡°Just as I thought. The physical enhancement isn¡¯t as potent as I thought.¡±

    ¡°You knew this would happen?!¡±

    ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t tell you to use all your strength,¡± Sunders said as he nced at Angor. ¡°You did not need much effort when using your right hand, right? Why did you suddenly change your tactic?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reply. No excuses.

    Earlier, he was trying to vent out the remaining distress aftering around his mental burdens. He wished to punch at the ice wall as hard as he could to show his determination.

    But he didn¡¯t expect the wall to be so solid.

    Ouch... I guess determination alone can¡¯t help me escape from hard truth.

    ...

    Wizards had established a set of rules for determining how much power one could receive from a certain bloodline. The same bloodline might disy different effects or levels of power on different users. This meant that one couldn¡¯t tell the potency of a bloodline just by looking at it. They had to take other factors into consideration.

    However, bloodlines were still generally divided into wizard-level bloodlines and apprentice-level bloodlines. There was no argument that wizard-level bloodlines were always stronger.

    Sunders was now trying toplete several basic tests so that they would at least know the fundamental properties of Angor¡¯s new bloodline.

    However, the final conclusion did not exist, as they failed to find anything which might tell them the details.

    Talent abilities? None.

    Other physical changes? None.

    Residue or traces caused by bloodline fusion? No.

    They did know that Angor¡¯s own bloodline had grown strongerpared to before. Previously, Angor¡¯s bloodline was not much differentpared to mortal humans. Now, it was no longer the case.

    The improvement wasn¡¯t much. Angor¡¯s body still couldn¡¯tpete withmon Bloodline apprentices such as Hookdick. However, he was sturdy enough to survive from certain hazardous environments, such as the depth of the Sea of Purification, without using extra help.

    ¡°With some proper training, your physical properties will be strong enough for you to hit wizard level¡± was Sunders¡¯ final conclusion.

 Chapter 557 - Projected Bloodline

    <h4>Chapter 557: Projected Bloodline</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    One needed to attain a certain level for their energy reserve, physical strength, and soul quality before bing a wizard. These were mandatory factors that couldn¡¯t be bypassed.

    Angor¡¯s soul quality was already beyond the requirement, while his biggest weakness¡ªhis body¡ªsomehow received an unexpected boost during this exploration. He still needed more training to reach the wizard level, but it probably wouldn¡¯t take very long.

    COMMENT

    This meant thest remaining challenge for him to go for the wizard level was his energy.

    Just not long ago, bing a real wizard was still a very distant goal that required a gods-knew-how-long time. Now that the achievement was almost within his reach, Angor suddenly felt at a loss.

    However, meeting the mentioned conditions did not guarantee a sessful breakthrough. He still needed knowledge and various skills for it.

    None of these were urgent. Angor knew that he would get to them in due time.

    Sunders¡¯ summary regarding Angor¡¯s newly gained bloodline didn¡¯t look very good. In fact, the bloodline¡¯s initial properties looked rather inferiorpared to most of the low-level bloodlines.

    But for some reason, the gentleman seemed really passionate about his discovery. With his quill, he noted down all his theories and data onto several parchments.

    Sunders didn¡¯t mind when Angor cast a curious nce at his writing. He even offered to exin some of the data he was working on.

    <i>The Origins of Projected Bloodline.</i>

    Spection 1: There is a bloodline that resembles someone¡¯s own bloodline to a degree of over 95%. Should we consider it ¡°external¡± at all?

    Spection 2: Does a projected bloodline only improve basic properties without causing ¡°qualitative¡± changes in one¡¯s body?

    Spection 3: If ¡°2¡± is correct, will the user of a projected bloodline be able to ept a new bloodline without undergoing other treatment beforehand?

    Spection 4...

    Sunders already reached the final, conclusive question: Is it optimal to use a projected bloodline? Will it be able to be used as a universal body-enhancement approach?

    From Sunders¡¯ notes, Angor learned that what he received couldn¡¯t be defined as amon-sense ¡°bloodline¡± yet. It made him stronger just a little, and that was about it. No extra abilities or talents.

    However, Sunders also mentioned that such a bloodline fusion was potentially and extremely beneficial. If his assumptions were correct, Angor was free to ept another ¡°proper¡± bloodline.

    This had saved Angor a lot of time and effort as he no longer needed to go through training to elevate his physical strength.

    Although a lot of further examinations were still required for them to reach any solid judgments.

    Also, did this have any unwanted side-effects?

    For example, certain wizards could hide their consciousness in their blood, and when someone injected the blood into their body, the aforementioned wizard could take control of the blood user from the inside.

    Discovering simr side-effects required a ton of data and steps. Instead of working on it slowly, Sunders nned to ask a prophet and hopefully receive a direct answer straight away.

    ¡°... Once we get back to Brute Cavern, I¡¯ll go to Maya and figure out the possible danger thates with the bloodline. She is the only prophet we have, by the way.¡±

    Angor nodded before he gave Sunders a pleading look. ¡°Um, my hand...¡±

    Sunders gave him an impatient side-nce.

    ¡°I mean, no! I¡¯ll look into it myself!¡±

    Sunders chuckled and appended the new parchments he just finished reading to <i>The Mystery of the Nightmare Realm</i>.

    ¡°It is true that the projected bloodline barely increases your strength, but as far as I can see, there isn¡¯t another bloodline that suits your body as well as this. Despite my spection, I suggest that you do not find another bloodline to use before bing a wizard.¡±

    Angor nodded as he understood the opinion. He was currently an ultist, so he didn¡¯t need a top-ss bloodline. Besides, better bloodlines were generally avable to wizards only. He would like to wait until he hit the wizard level so that he could choose among the better bloodlines.

    ¡°Alright, that marks the end of our test session,¡± Sunders said as he nced at Angor¡¯s right hand again. ¡°About that... I can only give you several initial conjectures, which might not be correct.¡±

    Angor quickly put on a hopeful look.

    ¡°That hand can unleash the same level of power as level-3 Bloodline Art apprentices who have yet to fully activate their power. I¡¯m referring to raw strength. As for other special powers...¡±

    Sunders pointed at the floating green marks. ¡°I cannot say for sure yet. I¡¯ll find timeter and make a detailed n to test it out. Meanwhile, make sure you note down anything special should you find any. It might make our test easier.¡±

    Even though he did not show it, Sunders was very careful when talking about Angor¡¯s new hand. He felt scared. He was mostly speaking the truth when he told Angor that someone with long blond hair was ¡°fusing¡± with Angor¡¯s right hand beside the strange cottage. However, he did not mention the hideous aura that was he saw on that stranger. It was even more dreadful than some of the deadliest monsters he ever encountered.

    1

    At that moment, Sunders felt as if he was witnessing a living nightmare inside the Nightmare Realm.

    This was the true reason why he did not want to perform any test on Angor¡¯s right hand carelessly¡ªhe could not find the courage to do so.

    Every time he looked at the green lines closely, a pair of crimson eyes would emerge in his vision, and the crimson eyes would stare back at him.

    While Sunders tried to get over the fear that was lingering in his mind, Angor was casually making all sorts of gestures using his strange hand to get used to it.

    Sunders considered something and took out a ck glove from his space storage.

    Next, he injected a small stream of nightmare aura onto the item that had the emblem of his family¡ªthe Eagle n.

    ¡°This will help you conceal the green light¡ª¡±

    He suddenly hesitated. He gave Angor the glove because he didn¡¯t want to see those green marks, yet he never asked for Angor¡¯s opinion. Some wizards preferred to expose their strange visual effects for everyone to see. No matter what his student would choose, it wasn¡¯t proper for him to force a decision like this.

    But at the same time, Sunders did not wish to take back the glove since he already revealed it with obvious intentions. It would look silly if he were to change his mind so soon.

    <i>Perhaps I can find an excuse, such as allowing others to see the green marks will give away the secret of the Nightmare Realm¡ª</i>

    ¡°Nightmare aura on such solid illusion nodes?! How do I do that?¡± Angor happily took the glove, which surprised Sunders a little.

    ¡°Oh, ahem. This is ¡®Imitation¡¯ spell but is based on nightmare power. You can figure out how to do it by looking at this glove.¡±

    Angor nodded and quickly wore the glove on his right hand, which instantly caused the floating marks to vanish. Also, the glove disguised the abnormal size of his right hand perfectly.

    He took a liking to the design of the glove as well. It was ck, and an emblem of a winged sword stuck inside a rose was sewn on the back of the hand using dark-silver threads. He knew this was Sunders¡¯ family emblem. The ¡°passport coin¡± for entering Phantom Ind had the same picture on it.

    While Angor joyfully admired his new glove, Sunders moved to check the items they took from Witch¡¯s Town.

    He discarded all themon objects into the void and gave the magic nts to Angor since he had no use for them.

    The liquid left by the water beast contained rich energy that could be sold to others. Sunders gave this one to Angor as well¡ªhe didn¡¯t really need the extra money.

    As for the Bloodrose Ghoul, Sunders eliminated its soul at the Nightmare Realm, and the remaining bones couldn¡¯t be used to extract a bloodline.

    Selling the corpse might earn him 100,000 crystals or so. He considered and stored the bones as his research materials. He then left the Bloodrose vine to Angor.

    The vine was a wizard-level material, so Angor could not use it yet. However, Angor had no problem epting the gift since he heard that he could sell it for big money.

    <i>I can get money to pay my debt!</i>

    Angor did not offer to give the vine to Sunders topensate for the bill because ording to Sunders, the vine was worth more than the amount of what was due.

    ¡°Good. You took everything I gave you, including the monster corpses. This means you can bring back wizard-level items, and perhaps something even better.¡± Sunders smiled in satisfaction.

    ¡°Everything?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°But... where is that painting?¡±

    ¡°Painting? What painting?¡±

 Chapter 558 - Seven Runes

    <h4>Chapter 558: Seven Runes</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Are you saying there was an extra painting I told you to bring?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Sunders frowned and tried to remember their exploration earlier, yet he failed to recall anything regarding it.

    Angor realized that this was simr to when he took <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation</i> from Nether City. Back then, Sunders at least knew there was ¡°a certain channeling method book¡±. Now, however, Sunderspletely forgot about the painting. It was as if it was entirely removed from his memory.

    ¡°You... Tell me about this item again, in detail.¡±

    Using illusions, Angor described what happened around the strange painting as well as the picture on it.

    Sunders¡¯ expression turned stern as he listened.

    ¡°I still remember that witch, but not the painting... This told us that the item must be something very special, perhaps more sopared to <i>Singrity Dispersive Meditation</i>.¡±

    Angor would agree. He also felt something not quite right when looking at the painting.

    Previously, he thought it was because of the old witch. Yet what Sunders said suggested otherwise. The painting might be the biggest mystery instead.

    ¡°I mentioned that I and Flora once killed most of the monsters in Witch¡¯s Town. After that, I nned to consider that ce our forward operating base for further expeditions. But now...¡± Sunders moaned. ¡°The cottage, the witch, and the painting; they¡¯re all something I never encountered before. And I do believe they aren¡¯t the only surprises.¡±

    <i>And I still need Angor to find out more about these secrets... But the boy is still not strong enough. I wonder if he can manage himself in theing crisis that is about to happen to the wizarding world...</i>

    Angor was still thinking about the painting, and so, he didn¡¯t notice Sunders¡¯ strange expression.

    ¡°What exactly was that, professor?¡±

    Sunders shook his head to get rid of the extra concerns. ¡°Since it slipped from my memory, I assume it¡¯s very likely another Mystery item. But we cannot tell its purpose or origin yet.¡±

    ¡°Mystery item?¡± Angor was confident that he knew how to sense one. He failed to do so probably because he couldn¡¯t do that in his soul form.

    <i>Argh, such a pity! Only if I can take it back and get a better look at it...</i>

    ¡°Since you cannot bring Mystery items back yet, so let¡¯s drop the matter. That witch must be how the town got its name. I¡¯ll look into herter, and maybe I can find something about the strange painting along the way.¡±

    Angor nodded and decided not to worry too much about losing the painting. He didn¡¯t have it and thinking about it wouldn¡¯t change that.

    Since everything was settled, Sunders was going to make a report for their travel as it might be able to facilitate their next expedition.

    Before leaving, Angor asked another question, ¡°How long are we going to remain in Floating Mech City, sir?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s an auction at the end of the month. I heard that an ancient scroll that contained information about the Nightmare Realm is going to be presented, so I¡¯ll attend the auction.¡±

    <i>It¡¯s still the beginning of this month...</i> Angor pondered. <i>I have time to finish that alchemy task.</i>

    ¡°An ancient scroll with Nightmare Realm information? But, wasn¡¯t Nightmare Realm first recorded by<i> Expedition into Endless nes</i> 200 years ago? Ancient?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that. Auctions, they always make up beautiful words to attract customers. True or not, I still need to see it with my own eyes. I believe the Nightmare Realm has existed since ancient times, but people just discovered it recently for various reasons.¡±

    Angor was interested in the auction, but he wasn¡¯t going for the scroll. He wished to check how an auction in this traders¡¯ heaven would look like and maybe sell his Bloodrose vine while at it.

    Sunders didn¡¯t have objections when he heard Angor¡¯s request. He would allow this student of his to tag along.

    ...

    Angor returned to his room and saw Toby still sleeping. Just as he thought, the time in reality didn¡¯t pse very much while he traveled inside the Nightmare Realm.

    He wondered whether he could spend all his training time inside the Nightmare Realm. Would he be able to get really strong ¡°overnight¡±?

    From what he had learned until now, this was impossible. There was no primal mana in the Nightmare Realm, and it was unlikely to gain levels in his soul form.

    Without waking Toby up, Angor stepped into the soundproof room. He still had to finish the red-haired woman¡¯s request.

    He spent the next few days reading the book. Finding the correct runes by looking at portions of them was a very taxing job.

    It took Angor an entire sleepless week to finally discover all six runes used on the crown. However, there were still several extra lines that he didn¡¯t recognize.

    <i>Is there a seventh rune?!</i>

    If so, it was almost impossible a task to ascertain the rune using these few lines.

    Angor considered and decided to figure out which magic array was established by the six known runes first. Perhaps he could find thest rune in this way. Thankfully, this step wasn¡¯t as exhausting as before.

    Before that, he nned to catch some sleep first. Thest week had drained him out.

    When he opened the door of the soundproof room for the first time this week, he saw something huge flying past the window.

    It was Toby, who had turned into his Fury Griffin form. For some reason, Toby was looking at Angor with teary eyes.

    Just as Angor wondered what was going on, he heard a familiar voice speaking right outside the window:

    ¡°Toby! Sweetie! Don¡¯t run. Show me your Fury me or I¡¯ll force you to!¡±

    Angor was momentarily confused until he saw a short figure standing below his window. It was a young girl in her teenage years.

    None of her possessions sat well with her image. Arge purple skirt, heavy makeup, a tamer whip...

    ¡°Oh ho! Hey, Angor, you finally came out!¡± The girl saw Angor through the window and called out.

    ¡°Lady Greya?!¡±

    Angor quickly jumped out of the window. At the same time, Toby swiftlynded beside him. Despite his size, he did not make any sound.

    ¡°What did youe here for, Lady Greya?¡±

    The girl was just Greya, the famous Gourmet wizard he met in Dark Castle not long ago. Angor thought Greya was going to attend to important matters and that they wouldn¡¯t be meeting again for at least a few years.

    Greya patted Toby¡¯s giant beak and giggled. ¡°Which old man taught you about freaking seclusions? Is it Sunders? I came here a week ago, and you¡¯ve stayed indoors all the way until now!¡±

    ¡°I... epted a quest from someone,¡± Angor exined as he scratched the back of his head. ¡°I need to do a lot of alchemy research these days.¡±

    Greya inspected Angor up and down. ¡°I¡¯ve been hearing rumors about you these days. I mean, ording to the magazines, you¡¯ve be a pioneer that represents an entire new generation of young men.¡±

    ¡°Oh, um, you know how magazines work, ma¡¯am, you can¡¯t take their words too seriously.¡±

    ¡°Now now, a level-3 apprentice already? How long did it take you, a few months? And you tell me that the magazines were wrong?¡±

    Despite her cheerful attitude, Greya was truly admiring the amazing training speed disyed by Angor. She still remembered the mortal boy being all timid and jumpy back in her restaurant.

    ¡°I guess I was lucky, Lady Greya.¡±

    ¡°Yeah right, luck, pfft. There are several wizards who came here looking for your alchemy service. I guess that¡¯s luck too?¡±

    ¡°Wait, wizards want me to craft for them?¡± Angor widened his eyes. Sunders never mentioned anything like this to him.

    ¡°They¡¯re looking for you alright, but I don¡¯t think they seriously want your help. As far as I can see, they¡¯re looking to expand their business rtions and you¡¯re a good choice.¡± Greya pointed to Sunders¡¯ position. ¡°That teacher of yours chased them away.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Professor did the right thing. I¡¯m not good enough to provide alchemy items to wizards yet.¡±

    Greya rolled her eyes. She was there in Dark Castle when Angor almost created a Mystery weapon! Even though it was true that Isabelle seized half of the Mystery spirit Angor created, the weapon was still considered a great achievement by many wizards.

    ¡°So um, Lady Greya, did youe here to visit Toby?¡± Angor saw Greya¡¯s expression getting threateningly strange and quickly changed the topic.

    ¡°Oh, no no. I have something to discuss with your teacher. Might as well check on Toby since I have time. Also, I think I¡¯ll remain here for a while. You can leave Toby to me so that I can give him some proper training. Go mind your own business. Now off you go. Shoo.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to question the business between two wizards, so he simply nodded.

    <i>Toby¡¯s going to have a good time with his old master¡ª</i>

    He turned around only to see Toby still giving him that pleading look.

    Then Angor looked at the whip in Greya¡¯s hand and somewhat understood what was going to happen.

    ¡°Now that Toby gained such wonderful power, I¡¯m not going to see it go to waste,¡± Greya said before Angor could say anything. ¡°Just so you know, Toby can be a better partner for you if he learns more.¡±

    Angor decided not to protest for now. Greya was Toby¡¯s master and creator after all.

    In the end, he gave Toby an apologetic look and turned away.

 Chapter 559 - Bloodline Retrack

    <h4>Chapter 559: Bloodline Retrack</h4>

    Angor did not know what Greya wanted from Sunders and didn¡¯t intend to find out. He was only d that Toby got to reunite with his old owner.

    He returned to his bedroom and slept until the next day.

    He woke up at someone¡¯s painful screaming outside the window. After getting washed, he checked the window and saw Greya still ¡°torturing¡± Toby, the griffin, using her whip.

    When Toby showed him his puppy dog eyes again, Angor shrugged.

    Toby then lowered his head in sadness.

    Greya giggled and started her new training session, while Angor watched and wondered how Toby managed to maintain that griffin form for such a long time. Last time they talked, Toby exined that the power could onlyst for half an hour. This new form change granted Toby some unimaginable abilities. Apart from superior body strength and me-based attacks, Toby could still use the sequence of gravity to move his giant body at lightning speed.

    Not only that, Toby already learned how to unleash the gravity power to attack targets from a distance. While watching Toby unleashing deadly attacks under Greya¡¯s instruction, Angor felt really d that he had such a strong friendship with him.

    A momentter, Toby¡¯s body trembled a little, which suggested that the griffin form was at its limit.

    Greya waved a hand and took out a leafy nt in her hand.

    With a sad look, Toby skillfully picked a leaf up with his beak and devoured it.

    In a matter of seconds, his energy was fully replenished as his griffin body grew vigorous and strong.

    Ah... so that¡¯s how Greya keeps Toby ¡°running¡±?

    Greya saw Angor¡¯s curious expression and sent a voice transmission his way, ¡°You know what this is, don¡¯t you?¡± She nced at Angor and showed the nt in her hand.

    It took Angor several seconds to realize who sent that voice. ¡°Oh yes, Lady Greya. It looks familiar, but...¡±

    ¡°Come on, don¡¯t tell me you forgot already. I received it from n¡¯s grandfather. ording to the old man, he found this tea leaf from your home.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Morning Dew?¡± Something suddenly struck Angor¡¯s mind.

    It was Morning Dew that helped him meet with Mara, who in turn took him into the wizarding world. Naturally, he knew about this particr nt.

    However, Mara only mentioned that Morning Dew could help an apprentice break their limit. Why was it working on Toby?

    Angor usually didn¡¯t need extra help for breaking through the limits, and since he didn¡¯t really like the bitter taste of Morning Dew, he merely stored his portion of the tea carefully in his bracelet.

    ¡°Yup. n showed me this nt which doesn¡¯t seem to belong to this world. It¡¯s already been kneaded, so I used a spell to backtrack its origin. Added with some new theories and spices, I created this brand-new nt called the ¡®Mana Flower¡¯,¡± exined Greya.

    Just as the name suggested, a Mana Flower could be used for replenishing someone¡¯s mana¡ªpurified mana ready to be used, but not primal mana. This effect had suggested that the flower was a perfect tool during battles. If someone had exhausted their strength in the middle of a fight, they could then devour a flower to fully recover their strength...

    Angor was quite surprised to hear that the Morning Dew was made into such an amazing consumable that could refill someone¡¯s purified mana. He never heard about anything else with simr effects before.

    The mana pools built by different wizards using different spiritual models all contained mana of varied natures. Each wizard or apprentice had to absorb primal mana and purify it into the right mana that they could use. There were certain ways that could help someone to restore their mana reserve, but they all had strong side effects.

    Greya allowed Toby to eat the flower like that because the Mana Flower didn¡¯t have such a side effect. Thinking about this, Angor wondered if Mana Flowers would be another treasure sought after by crazy wizards.

    ¡°It does not work on humans.¡± Greya¡¯s following words quickly denied Angor¡¯s idea. ¡°A monster like Toby does not have a fixed spiritual model. Monsters can use mana of different attributes.¡±

    Angor nodded.

    The effect did not sound so brilliant with such a big restriction.

    Using Mana Flowers, Toby could stay in his griffin form longer, which gave the bird more opportunities to practice his new abilities.

    It wasn¡¯t easy for Greya to create Mana Flowers either. Even so, she was not stingy when training Toby. After all, this would ensure that Toby had a better chance of surviving the challenges toe.

    ...

    Angor left Greya and Toby and returned to the soundproof room again. He still needed to work on finding the magic array used on the strange crown.

    The job was a lot easier after figuring out the six correct runes used in the magic array. Soon, by filtering out arrays that did not fit with the known runes, he found two possible choices left.

    Bloodline Remake and Bloodline Retrack.

    He already knew that the six runes suggested something rted to blood. Although he wasn¡¯t expecting that both possible magic arrays were relevant to bloodlines.

    The first one, Bloodline Remake, was used for cleansing someone¡¯s bloodline so that they could ept another one. There were many other ways to do this, so using this magic array was a very rare choice. Angor assumed that this magic array was almost lost in history.

    He never heard of Bloodline Retrack before. The description in the book reminded him of Astute King and a bunch of alchemists who used the demon¡¯s name to establish their group, the Astute Alchemy Guild.

    While spreading its name, Astute King also bestowed certain blessings to its followers, and these blessings included the ¡°Libation of Blood¡±.

    An item that went through such libation could be fully attuned with someone¡¯s bloodline, which allowed the user of said item to better unleash its potential while at the same time preventing others from using it. ¡°Libation of Blood¡± was considered to be a stronger version of a magic pact.

    Libation of Blood allowed many wizards to wield their favorite weapons as if they were parts of their own bodies. It was believed to be another great contribution provided by Astute King, whether the demon intended this or not.

    The Bloodline Retrack magic array had a simr effect as Libation of Blood. However, the magic array came with a special effect that allowed the owner of an item to sense the item¡¯s location no matter how far they were apart.

    While it was true that Bloodline Retrack had an extra locating effectpared to the Libation of Blood, no one would use this magic array nowadays because Bloodline Retrack required someone to bind their own blood with the item. When the item was damaged or destroyed, its user would suffer greatly.

    Angor still had to determine which magic array was used on the crown. He already had an idea when looking at them.

    Using Bloodline Remake called for a lot of extra materials to cleanse someone¡¯s bloodline, and the crown did not have enough space for it. Bloodline Retrack was the only choice left.

    With the magic array settled, Angor had to practice first so that he could draw the array on the crown perfectly.

    The crown itself was easy to make since it only required some basic materials, while the rtively valuable pigeon-blood rubies were already provided by Angor¡¯s client.

    Angor spent a week drawing drafts on papers, and finally, with the help of his hologram tablet and the energy stabilizer, he sessfully created the crown before the end of the month.

    Blood-red clouds gathered above Sunders¡¯ manor.

    ¡°An alchemy omen?¡± Greya briefly stopped her training on Toby and nced at the second floor where Angor¡¯s room was located.

    Sunders also looked up from his paperwork and gazed at Angor¡¯s direction.

    Angor now had his eyes closed as he tried to escape from the omen challenge. While an alchemy omen suggested the birth of a tiered alchemy item, it also presented a challenge to the creator. This was why Angor did not put the magic arrays in Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced to practice because he wasn¡¯t confident enough to survive the more difficult omen challenges.

    Thankfully, the omen challenge of the crown was rtively easy.

    As a level-3 apprentice who had his body strengthened not long ago, Angor had no problem escaping the stage he was sent into¡ªsail on the sea of blood on a simple skiff and find his way to thend.

    When he finally stepped onto drynd, he came back to reality and opened his eyes to look at

    the beautifully-made crown that was giving out a faint, blood-red glimmer.

    Before he could pick it up to check if there were any ws, someone suddenly popped up in front of him.

 Chapter 560 - The Crimson Crown

    <h4>Chapter 560: The Crimson Crown</h4>

    In his sitting position, Angor first saw a pair of polished ck boots. Then he looked up and saw the familiar and stern face of a gentleman.

    ¡°Professor?¡±

    He wondered why Sunders suddenly came. To offer congrattions on his sessful alchemy work? Probably not, since the crown didn¡¯t look like anything that might interest Sunders.

    Angor kept looking and saw Sunders gazing at the crimson crown with a doubtful look.

    ¡°I think I know what this is...¡± Sunders muttered.

    Huh? Angor frowned.* Did that woman copy the blueprint from somewhere else?*

    ¡°Who asked you to make this?¡± Sunders asked.

    Before going into seclusion, Angor exined to Sunders that he needed to help someone craft an item. Sunders never asked for the details.

    Angor checked the crown, which was still glowing with blood-red light, and felt a little anxious that this item might be rted to something fishy and dangerous.

    He proceeded to exin the whole matter including showing Sunders the scroll with the picture of the crown.

    Sunders¡¯ frown knitted tighter. ¡°A woman with red hair... Is she ¡®Badblood¡¯ Eureka? But Eureka left Fey Continent two years ago and can¡¯t make it back so soon. Red hair... maybe it¡¯s someone from Valley of Hurricane? Hmm...¡±

    Angor listened to Sunders¡¯ mumbling, but he couldn¡¯t understand anything.

    ¡°Sir, is there something bad about this crown?¡±

    Sunders replied hesitantly, ¡°It looks very simr to a treasure that has been lost for some time.¡±

    ¡°A lost treasure? Which one? Did that woman ask me to make a fake?¡±

    He had no idea what the crown meant and crafting a ¡°fake treasure¡± didn¡¯t sound so safe¡ªsomeone might me him for it.

    Angor looked at the crown again and was no longer sure how to handle the alchemy request.

    Sunders did not exin the lost treasure. ¡°You decide whether you will proceed with the request. As far as I can see, the woman initiated the trade right at Floating Mech City, and she¡¯s not likely to do anything ¡®illegal¡¯. At least not to you.¡±

    ¡°So I can give her the crown?¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°There are more than a few knockoffs currently going around in markets, and an extra won¡¯t make a difference. Even if she¡¯s a certain rising star from Valley of Hurricane, she¡¯s not going to do anything as long as I¡¯m here.

    ¡°But! You¡¯d better not go deeper into this business than you already have. This crown concerns the shady affairs between two major organizations, as well as the recement of kings for a wizard-controlled nation. Give her what she wanted and let it be the end. Do NOT listen to or agree to any of her subsequent requests.¡±

    With that, Sunders turned to leave.

    ¡°What¡¯s the name of the ¡®lost treasure¡¯?¡± Angor asked even though Sunders¡¯ form already vanished from his view.

    Just as he thought his teacher wasn¡¯t going to tell him. Sunders¡¯ voice came to him again.

    ¡°The ¡®Crimson Crown¡¯.¡±

    ...

    Angor stepped out of Sunders¡¯ manor with the crown in his hand.

    He heard about the crown¡¯s name before. Someone mentioned it in Dark Castle. The speaker was a naked woman. Yet rather than looking bewitching and attractive, the woman showed none other than depression and hatred.

    Angor recalled that it was a mortal woman who was captured by Dark Castle and used for providing fresh blood. Before her death, Angor helped sustain her life for as long as possible, which kept the woman in a suffering state for a long time. In the end, the woman instantly became an undead wraith.

    Also, Angor used the first ¡°white bullet¡± generated inside his Prelude to Rebirth revolver on the same woman.

    The woman said that she was the 13th daughter of Goman King and was banished to be a ve because someone framed her as the culprit who stole the Crimson Crown.

    Back in Dark Castle, Angor didn¡¯t really care what happened to her before. However, when the name of Crimson Crown was brought up again, he couldn¡¯t help imagining a series of dramatic events rted to a stolen crown as well as the conflicts of powers among kings and rebellious nobles.

    Meanwhile, he remembered another individual who once told him about the crown; it was before he went to Dark Castle.

    It was Lady Mirror, one of the three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern.

    Back when Lady Mirror showed him the portraits of men that she collected, she mentioned Crimson Crown when they were looking at someone called Thewis. Apparently, a wizard who was called the ¡°Bloodied Stabber¡± stole the Crimson Crown, after which Goman King asked for Thewis¡¯ help to hunt Bloodied Stabber down.

    Angor suddenly got a bad feeling. He saw this man named Thewis before¡ªnot at Fey Continent, but back at his home¡ªthe Old Earth. At that time, he was preparing for departure together with Mara so that they could travel to Fey Continent, while Thewis was leaving The Redbud and entering the Old Earth.

    By connecting everything he knew together, Angor realized that Thewis went to Old Earth to search for that thief. Angor was getting worried that someone so dangerous was so close to his home.

    But the Old Earth is pretty wide with thousands of billions of poption... It¡¯s just two wizards. They can¡¯t happen to be fighting around Grue Town... right?

    Putting the concern aside, he arrived at the main city district and found a small shop named ¡°Hurricane¡±.

    An old shopkeeper in a blue robe was tending to the shop by himself.

    ¡°What are you looking for, young man? I have the best hurricane ores, shipped from Valley of Hurricane just the other day!¡± The man smiled at the new guest.

    Angor looked around and noticed that the shop only offered these ¡°hurricane ores¡±. These were stones constantly bathed in strong gales for years on end, which developed special wind-rted energy inside. As they were useful for alchemists as well as certain wind-aspect spells, most wizards would asionally need them.

    Angor also had some hurricane ores stored in his bracelet. He looted them from the material cache in Dark Castle.

    Of course, he didn¡¯te here to shop today. The red-haired woman told him to meet up here.

    ¡°Are you in good terms with Valley of Hurricane, sir? Since you can ship the ores from them?¡± Angor pretended that he was only curious.

    ¡°Ha ha. If you don¡¯t know already, young friend, Valley of Hurricane owns this little shop.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor¡¯s eyes twinkled as he realized that the woman might just be the ¡°certain genius from Valley of Hurricane¡±. ¡°I apologize, sir. I know little about that name.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. So, what qualities are you looking for? I¡¯ll help you search.¡± The old man left his counter and joined Angor.

    ¡°No, sir, I¡¯m here looking for someone.¡±

    ¡°Oh? Who is it, if I may?¡±

    Angor showed the shopkeeper the scroll and slowly unfolded it. However, the old man quickly stopped his action as soon as the crimson ink was exposed.

    ¡°... It¡¯s you, Mister Padt? Miss Irisa is currently working on a new spell downstairs. Follow me, please. There are no Rune Monitors following you, right?¡±

    Compared to the woman¡¯s name, Angor was more interested in the ¡°new spell¡± part.

    Is she a wizard?

    A ¡°cantrip¡± was usually used for describing lesser spells used by apprentices, while only wizards would cast real spells. However, Angor tried to remember and didn¡¯t recognize any wizard-level signature from the woman when they met during the trader meeting.

    While thinking about this, the old shopkeeper brought him to a door that led to an undergroundpartment. The door was left open.

    ¡°Please wait for a moment, Mister Padt.¡±

    Angor knew what he meant because he already felt the rampaging power in front of him. An apprentice that carelessly stepped into the area ahead would surely die pretty fast.

    They waited for several minutes until the energy subsided. After that, a female¡¯s voice was heard saying, ¡°Come on in.¡±

    The old man stayed outside and let Angor enter alone.

    Angor walked down the stairs and reached what seemed to be a training area, which looked pretty broken. The woman he was looking for was waiting at the center of the area. Her voice and her short, red hair, as well as the strange mask, easily proved her identity to Angor.

    So my client IS a wizard... Angor pondered the situation carefully.

    He wasn¡¯t being modest when talking with Greya¡ªhe truly believed that his alchemy skills weren¡¯t good enough to attract wizard-level customers. But now...

    ¡°Hello again, Mister Padt.¡±

 Chapter 561 - Did Too Much

    <h4>Chapter 561: Did Too Much</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The woman left the arena while dusting her hands that were covered by leftover materials.

    She then pointed to several seats nearby and asked Angor to join her.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you¡¯re a wizard, Miss Irisa. Sorry for not presenting the proper courtesy during the meeting.¡± Angor showed his noble discipline and took a seat after Irisa sat down.

    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t matter. I believe you¡¯ll be a wizard very soon, Mister Padt. Besides... I¡¯m not the type to mind these small details.¡±

    Despite her attitude, Angor didn¡¯t really believe her words.

    ¡°I¡¯ve yet to find enough opportunity to challenge the title of a wizard. You tter me, Miss Irisa.¡±

    ¡°Each of Mister Phantom¡¯s students seeded.¡± Irisa raised an eyebrow and said, ¡°If what I heard is correct, you¡¯ve been studying wizardry for... less than two years, Mister Padt? A level-3 apprentice... Nobody can find a faster learner in the entire south. It¡¯ll be quite a joke if someone as talented as you fail to make it.¡±

    Angor chuckled and decided to divert from that topic. He talked about the main reason he was here instead. ¡°So... about the request...¡±

    ¡°Oh? Did you run into any problems? Do note that I can¡¯t help you with any alchemy-rted trouble since I¡¯ve zero experience in alchemy,¡± said Irisa.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no problem. I already finished your item.¡±

    ¡°Well, such a trinket shouldn¡¯t take much of your time anyway.¡±

    Angor was a bit puzzled to hear it.

    If another alchemist were to take on the job, he believed that the time allowed by Irisa would be far from sufficient. It was almost impossible to perfectly recreate the crown using the iplete runes drawn on the scroll.

    He wondered if Irisa said that because she had no idea what alchemy meant.

    Angor replied while concealing his true emotion as best as possible, ¡°Before I give you the item, Miss Irisa, I want to discuss something first.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear it then.¡±

    ¡°This ¡®Crimson Crown¡¯...¡± Angor revealed the treasure¡¯s name first. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that you wanted me to create a replica of an existing treasure, and if I knew beforehand, I probably would not ept your quest. But since I already epted your payment, so here I am, jobpletely.¡±

    Angor waited for a response so that he could ascertain Irisa¡¯s attitude. However, Irisa didn¡¯t say anything, and her mask hid her expression perfectly.

    ¡°... After we finish the deal today,¡± Angor continued, ¡°I will no longer have anything to do with this item. This means that I won¡¯t be providing any further services regarding this crown. Such is my intention as well as my professor¡¯s intention.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t sure he had what it took to protest against a wizard, so he chose to use Sunders¡¯ name as a bluff.

    Irisa chuckled. ¡°There are too many cheap knockoffs of Crimson Crown moving around people¡¯s hands. No one will care who crafted this one. This request is only to trick a certain bunch of idiots. I never meant to drag you to anything troublesome. You¡¯re worrying too much.¡±

    Irisa¡¯s tone turned into a sarcastic one. ¡°Besides, what makes you think that I¡¯ll bring a weak apprentice into any important business?¡±

    ¡°Sorry for my unnecessary concern, Miss Irisa,¡± Angor said as he maintained his neutral look. ¡°You must be really experienced and well-trained if an alchemy item enchanted with Bloodline Retrack is just a ¡®small trinket¡¯ in your eyes.¡±

    ¡°Bloodline Retrack? Whatever is that?¡±

    Irisa found Angor to do the crafting because she nned to befriend this promising alchemist who was very likely to hit wizard-level. As for the crown, it only required some low-level materials and some modeling work. Any alchemist could do that.

    Angor was just as confused to hear Irisa¡¯s words.

    ¡°Um... Am I wrong? So the magic array used on the crown is Bloodline Remake, not Bloodline Retrack? But who would engrave Bloodline Remake onto something so small? That¡¯s pointless...¡±

    ¡°Bloodline... huh? Magic array?¡± Irisa suddenly realized something. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you added magic array on the crown too?¡±

    Angor got a really bad feeling about this. ¡°... This wasn¡¯t your intention, Miss Irisa?¡±

    Irisa rolled her eyes behind her mask and spread the scroll open.

    ¡°See for yourself. I didn¡¯t give you any magic arrays.¡±

    Angor pointed at several corners on the blueprint while exining, ¡°This is part of a contract-rted rune. This is one intersection of a Tunnel rune. This here is ¡®Blood Link¡¯...¡±

    One by one, Angor told Irisa the names of the runes he found.

    Irisa stared at the random lines she couldn¡¯t recognize. ¡°Runes? Aren¡¯t these decorative engraving on the crown?¡±

    Angor was left speechless. Irisa¡¯s reaction just told him that he did more work than what was written on his job description... if there were one.

    ¡°Lady Irisa, just so you know, alchemists can use parts of a rune to discover the entire rune.¡±

    Irisa gave Angor a doubtful nce. ¡°I showed the scroll to other alchemists before. They didn¡¯t find any runes!¡±

    Angor moaned and dropped the Crimson Crown replica onto a desk nearby.

    ¡°Pray look for yourself, Miss Irisa.¡±

    Irisa immediately saw the red glimmer glowing from the beautiful artifact and widened her eyes more than she would normally like. Although Angor still could not see her face.

    <i>But-I-I asked him to make a duplicate!</i>

    To fool Goman King and his men, Irisa would asionally ask alchemists to make many simr fake crowns. But none of them looked as true as this one!

    Not only this¡ªthat ancient energy ripple disyed by the crown felt exactly the same as the real Crimson Crown.

    ¡°You-you MADE this? It¡¯s as good as real!¡± Irisa couldn¡¯t help admiring the brilliant craftsmanship aloud.

    Angor was not in the mood to ept herpliment. He was mourning his precious time wasted by doing something with zero rewards.

    <i>It was almost an entire month! AN ENTIRE MONTH! For nothing!</i>

    Struck by sadness, Angor responded to Irisa¡¯s following words by nodding absent-mindedly.

    ¡°This is so good! And that old man said I was wasting my time trying to buy your time using a cheap wyvern vein. Well, he was wrong! This is worth it!¡±

    Knowing that Irisa only wished to establish a potential connection with him instead of looking for his alchemy service, Angor felt even worse.

    He finally understood why Irisa referred to the crown by saying ¡°a small trinket¡±.

    <i>It really was! She wanted a model of the crown without any special enchantment on it!</i>

    Angor did all the extra work because he forgot that not all alchemists possessed rich book collections like him. And even if they did, no one would spend so much time and effort just to earn a coil of wyvern vein.

    As Angor sulked over his depression, Irisa was quickly making up a new n with the crown she just received. Since this thing looked so real, instead of giving those assassins another trap, she might convince them that this thing was the genuine one.

    ¡°Are you sure the magic array on this thing is the bloodline, bloodline...¡±

    ¡°Bloodline Retrack,¡± Angor replied, not so politely this time.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s it, Bloodline Retrack!¡± Irisa gaze at Angor.

    Angor somewhat felt her passionate stare across that mask.

    He briefly exined the two magic arrays he deducted from the identified runes and told Irisa what Bloodline Retract was used for.

    ¡°That¡¯s it!¡± Irisa yelled excitedly. ¡°So that¡¯s why Goman King can ALWAYS find where the crown is... Good! You helped me big time! Never thought you¡¯d provide so much extra service!¡±

    <i>Can you stop mentioning it?! </i>Angorined in his mind.

    When Irisa snapped her fingers, a shiny golden card appeared in her hand. ¡°This is a gold VIP card used in Hurricane Shops. You can buy stuff from all Hurricanes Shops established around the southern wizarding region at half price!¡±

    <i>Cards? Again?</i>

    Angor didn¡¯t want to ept the prize. He still did, just so he could leave as fast as possible.

    ¡°Thank you kindly. I think our agreement didn¡¯t involve this card. I¡¯ll dly take it as a tip.¡±

    ¡°Yup, collected and delivered.¡± Irisa let out a heartyugh. ¡°Consider it a bonus for giving me such a wonderful crown.¡±

 Chapter 562 - Cork Street

    <h4>Chapter 562: Cork Street</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor stepped out of Hurricane Shop with his head lowered. He felt his heart bleeding after working so hard for nothing.

    It seemed that Irisa wanted to use this ¡°fake¡± Crimson Crown to fulfill her ns. Angor didn¡¯t care about her n. This wasn¡¯t because of Sunders¡¯ warning. It was just that, every time he thought about this matter, he just wished to travel back in time and kick his old self¡¯s face for thinking more than what he needed to.

    He was determined that from now on, each time he helped someone with a favor, he would make sure to rify every single detail before getting to it.

    <i>An entire month! Well, almost an entire month. </i>

    He could have used the precious time for many better things. Technically speaking, he still learned a lot of extra runes by reading the book thoroughly. Still, he¡¯d prefer that it did not work out in this way.

    ¡°Sighhhh.¡±

    ...

    Cities, whether built by mortals or wizards, always contained darkness and filth somewhere, where shady characters did their business that couldn¡¯t be exposed under broad daylight.

    Cork Street was one such ce in Floating Mech City.

    However,pared to mortal streets controlled by gangs and viins, Cork Street appeared to be more ¡°regr¡± since those who knew about this ce were all wise enough to disregard insignificant profit and avoid unnecessary conflict. And when every customer tried to act as carefully as possible, this ck market wasn¡¯t so terrifying as one might expect.

    Here, ¡°terrifying¡± referred to the real danger that got people killed. But even without such an element, Cork Street still looked pretty scary on the outside.

    There were mortals scattered about the entire Floating Mech City. But not here.

    Angor stepped into the particrly dark territory and frowned. The streets were dim and unlit, the shops were simr, the shopkeepers... well, they looked pale and white as ghosts. Every single shop could be well considered a haunted house if it were brought elsewhere.

    In fact, there were actually semi-transparent souls floating about, or corpses created by some kind of failed biological experiments.

    Any mortals who wandered into this ce would probably drop dead without realizing it if they were to touch the poisonous bubbles that emerged from alchemy shops run by ouws.

    To wizards, however, this was just an ordinary shopping street as long as they did not offend the unspoken rules.

    The street was divided into several sections that had different numbers of shops. Angor walked past the soul-infested ¡°Dark Light District¡± and moved into an area where smoke and clouds of different colors drifted around the ¡°Forbidden Poison District¡±.

    Next was the ¡°Organ Market¡± where the smell of blood would never go away. After this was finally what Angor was heading to¡ªthe Serpentine Road, which looked rtively peaceful and crowded.

    This was one of the most infamous ve markets in the southern wizarding region. Wizards would asionally visit here to purchase ves or personal assistants.

    Apart from these, the shops also offered familiar pets, magic puppets, and anything considered to be alive, which could be bought as long as one paid enough money. And if something was out of stock, a dulypensated hunter would always be ready to finish the job in time.

    Before Angor could get a look at the shops nearby, a woman with a pair ofrge cat ears emerged from a store that looked too pink to his liking.

    ¡°Hello, sir, if you feel stressed, either mentally or on your body, a cute servant at Rosy Boutique can always help you with it!¡± The woman stretched her pheromone-covered arm and reached for Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°No, thanks.¡± Angor quickly moved away.

    Upon hearing Angor¡¯s teenage voice, the woman rolled her eyes cunningly. ¡°We can provide more than what I said. For example... How about a friendly meeting ce for apprentices? You should find a lover and get a taste of it while you¡¯re still young.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for someone,¡± Angor replied in his usual in tone.

    ¡°I see. We can help you with that too. You can use our informationwork as long as...¡± She spread a palm with obvious intentions.

    Angor considered and gave the woman a decent-sized magic crystal. ¡°Where is Pierre¡¯s shop?¡±

    The woman¡¯s expression turned softer upon receiving the tip. ¡°Pierre? You mean the one running the ¡¯employment market¡¯?¡±

    Angor was not sure how to respond. He only knew that he was looking for an extremely fat guy who left the contact code of his personal transmitter during the trader meeting. Since Angor¡¯s own transmitter that was issued by Brute Cavern did not have such functions, he had to ask around.

    Angor snapped his fingers and created an illusion that showed Pierre¡¯s image. ¡°Do you know where this man is?¡±

    ¡°Instant Acoustic Illusion... that¡¯s quite some skills, sir.¡± The woman¡¯s eyes twinkled as she said, ¡°About him... go to Punk¡¯s Employment Market. You will find Pierre right there.¡±

    After telling Angor how to get to Punk¡¯s, the woman added something else, ¡°If you wish to buy ves, there are a lot of better ces to check. Pierre has set up so many weird rules and regtions that he doesn¡¯t get many customers. We at Rosy Boutique provides ves as well. Take a look, pretty please?¡±

    During the Astute Meeting, Angor heard someone mentioning Pierre¡¯s ¡°rules¡±. Now someone else confirmed it for him.

    He came here to find ves, but his intention might be a little differentpared to the other shoppers¡ªhe wished to find an otherworldly traveler and learn how to keep Jon in this world safer. He didn¡¯t care about which shop to choose from as long as he learned what he wanted.

    He hesitated a bit and decided to follow this woman.

    The shop weed him with an even thicker pheromone smell that made him feel sick.

    Obviously, the shop wanted to stimte the brains of its customers to facilitate impulse buying. Angor usually had no problem with average pheromone usage. However, too much of it would cause addiction symptoms, and it might cause someone to lose their mind.

    As soon as he walked through the entrance, he elevated a barrier using spirit power and blocked the smell from reaching him.

    ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t like our scent, sir?¡± The woman was a little surprised to see Angor¡¯s reaction.

    ¡°Just show me your stock.¡±

    The woman nodded and slowly showed Angor around the shop, which was erged using expansion runes. Most of the other customers were more or less affected by the pheromone with their faces blushing brightly. With either wicked or hungry looks, they were eagerly checking the ¡°merchandise¡± offered in the shop¡ªwomen, or to be more precise, creatures with feminine features. Some were locked inside cages, while others wandered outside while beingpletely naked.

    ¡°Those locked up are yet to be ¡®tamed¡¯. They have different natures. Wild ones, shy ones... you can choose as you like, young mister. As for the others, they are all ready to serve you. Trust me, they know how to please you. Some of them also came here willingly for their own reasons.¡±

    Angor pretended that he was using his eyes to look around, while in fact, he was trying to sense the auras of the ves.

    ¡°Are these all you have?¡± Angor did not find any otherworldly creatures among the disyed ves. He saw humans and humanoids, which were all natives to this world.

    The woman replied while trying to figure out Angor¡¯s n. ¡°If you have special needs, do tell me and I¡¯ll see what we can do.¡±

    By saying ¡°special needs¡±, she thought the little boy had quite some interesting fetish. She did not say it, but her expression gave her out.

    Angor tried very hard not to frown when he saw the woman¡¯s questioning look.

    Before he could say anything else, however, the shop¡¯s curtain was pushed open violently when a group of men wearing tattered ck robes and swords barged inside.

    Without holding back, the sudden visitors fully exerted their auras and scanned through all the ves.

    The bewitched guests weren¡¯t very happy when their ¡°lover ves¡± were openly harassed by these impolite ruffians. Despite that, they all chose to stay quiet when they saw who hade. The cat-ear saleswoman also put on a grim, terrified expression.

    ¡°Supreme Cult...¡± Angor¡¯s irises shrank as he recognized the intruders.

 Chapter 563 - Discordance

    <h4>Chapter 563: Discordance</h4>

    Angor watched as a group of cultists rampaged in the shop. Also, he recognized someone in their rank.

    Sdin.

    Their violent disy easily silenced every customer. Someone was already trying to sneak away. Even powerful wizards would not want to provoke these vengeful and cold-blooded thugs and earn their endless grudge.

    An apprentice with a swollen body carefully moved to the back door to escape. But as soon as he put his hand on the doorknob, a knight sword came his way and shed his pouch apart, causing several items to drop on the floor.

    The fat man jumped and trembled as he watched one of the robed men, who just threw his sword, approached him.

    ¡°What-what do you want?? I-my teacher is-¡± the fat apprentice stuttered with running nose and tears.

    The cultist showed a disgusted look. ¡°By the world¡¯s consciousness... How did a junk like you be an apprentice?¡±

    Despite his hostile attitude, the cultist in ck did not harm his target. Instead, he searched among the dropped contents and picked up a white seedling with silk-like strings growing on it, which looked like a cobweb.

    ¡°Arachnid¡¯s Kiss, native to Abyss ne, chances of developing intelligence and turning into man-hunting magic nt...¡± Another cultist approached them and released a small ember from his hand, which burned the low-level magic nt to ash while the fat apprentice stood still and watched without saying anything.

    ¡°Get out of my sight,¡± the first cultist ordered and knocked the fat man away by kicking his backside.

    Instead of feeling humiliated, the apprentice looked pretty happy that he finally got to escape. While running, he knocked over an iron cage that contained a youngdy with gray hair inside.

    The cage fell right in front of the first cultist and blocked his way. It seemed the mortal girl was already terrified when the cultists spread their murderous intent all over the ce. Her face wasn¡¯t looking so well when she saw the man in front of her giving her a cold look.

    As the cruel-looking cultist crouched down to check her, the other onlookers all expected bloodshed since it was somon for apprentices to use tyranny against mortals, especially when a member of the infamous Supreme Cult was involved.

    However, what they imagined did not happen. The cultist lifted the cage to its right position and spoke to the girl, in an obviously gentler voice, ¡°Are you hurt?¡±

    The addressed girl only shook her head as she couldn¡¯t talk well in her mental condition.

    ¡°Good.¡±

    The cultist used a simple cantrip to smoothen the girl¡¯s messed up hair before leaving to check the other cages.

    Angor was pretty surprised to see a Supreme Cult member acting so ¡°friendly¡±. When he wondered what these people were up to, the same cultist turned to look at everyone else.

    ¡°This is a routine inspection for finding hidden intruders from foreign nes. Please feel free to go on with your own affairs.¡±

    Following his words, the other cultists spread to further check the rest of the store.

    ¡°Do they do this often?¡± Angor whispered to the cat-eared saleswoman, who was having trouble recovering from her fear.

    ¡°You-are you talking to me?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    The woman nced at the men in ck robes and showed an inconspicuous angry look. ¡°Yeah... every now and then. What a bunch of nuisance...¡±

    ¡°But who allowed them to?¡± Angor frowned. Cork Street was still under the administration of Floating Mech City. Judging from all the patrolling Rune Monitors and strict city rules, Angor believed that Lawson was quite the ¡°routineer¡±. Would someone like him sit by and watch the Supreme Cult as they forced their ownws upon the citizens?

    The saleswoman was a little surprised by Angor¡¯s question, but before she could answer, the cultist who just retrieved his sword moved to them.

    ¡°I can give you the answer to that,¡± the man said as he gazed at Angor with a scorning look. ¡°We don¡¯t listen to anyone¡¯s rule. THAT, is what we obey.¡±

    The man pointed at the sky.

    Angor narrowed his eyes and smiled. ¡°I see. I understand why Mister Lawson... chose to overlook such actions.¡±

    The cultist checked again and was a bit rmed when he noticed that this hooded figure in front of him was the only customer in the shop who wasn¡¯t afraid of them. He already ascertained this figure¡¯s strength¡ªa level-3 apprentice, just like him.

    ¡°You¡ª¡±

    Before the cultist could continue, Sdin¡¯s ears twitched as he looked away from the ve he was examining. ¡°YOU! You broke your limit and gained another level?¡±

    ¡°Oh, Sdin,¡± Angor replied, ¡°what a coincidence.¡±

    Sdin didn¡¯t say anything further but his fearful expression gave him out.

    Both Angor and the cultist he was talking to wondered what scared Sdin so much.

    ¡°Sdin, you-who is he?¡± the cultist asked while pointing a finger at Angor.

    His action sessfully put Angor under the spotlight. Everyone on the scene, including the cat-ear saleswoman, wondered who this hooded young man was.

    Sdin remained silent for a while and used voice transmission to answer in private.

    The robed cultist considered something and walked away, which yet again astonished the other customers.

    Did that bastard just back down from someone? But how?!

    Angor assumed that the cultist acted like this because Sdin mentioned Sunders¡¯ name. Everyone knew that the terrifying gentleman, who assaulted Bog out in the open just to retrieve his student, was still in the city. Of course, no one would want to get him angry without a reason.

    Soon, the cultists finished their ¡°inspection¡±, which did not yield any result, and left the shop as quickly as they came.

    Angor kept his attention on Sdin and noticed that this particr cult member never lifted that terrified look. In fact, Sdin¡¯s expression looked exactly the same as what he showed during the garden challenge, when Angor trapped him in an illusion created by Nightmare Fear cantrip.

    He considered and decided to do a small test by sending a voice transmission to Sdin:

    ¡°It is the world¡¯s consciousness? Or the devil?¡±

    This was what he heard from Sdin before the man used a teleportation scroll to escape.

    Sdin¡¯s irises shrank suddenly upon hearing Angor¡¯s words, and he quickly disappeared with his team.

    ...

    The entire Rosy Boutique remained quiet for a while even after the cultists had left. As people moved on the look at their desired ves, some of them began casting curious nces at Angor.

    The escaped fat apprentice had returned as well, but this man did not follow the rules and was cursing loudly.

    ¡°Hey, you there! Bring me that fox-girl from earlier. I¡¯ll buy her. And where did my stuff go? Don¡¯t f*cking tell me someone took them!¡±

    In fact, no one was interested in his dropped items as nothing in there looked very valuable.

    This fat man was a very typical apprentice who would act snobbish when dealing with different people. Just like the cultist who checked him said earlier, someone with such a crude nature was not fit to be a supernatural. It was a waste of talent.

    ¡°Those losers only know how to pick on these small shops!¡± He continued to bad-mouth the cultists since they were no longer here. ¡°Why not go and ¡®inspect¡¯ Sky Auction? I dare them! I mean, the auction has been selling otherworldly ves, and yet, the cowards have never made a sound! Obeying the world¡¯s consciousness? My a*s! They¡¯re a bunch of dogs who will get their a*ses kick when true wizards are around!¡±

    Many of the customers nodded to agree. Even the ck Bishop from the Supreme Cult could not openly disrupt the biggest auction held by Floating Mech City.

    ¡°You know what? The cowards can¡¯t even do anything to Pierre¡¯s little shop!¡± another guest added.

    Nobody continued on this matter, although Angor was very interested in what he just heard.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with Pierre? Does he have wizards as guards?¡± he asked the saleswoman again.

    Probably because she sensed that the boy was not an ordinary person, the woman replied in a clearly more polite manner this time, ¡°That¡¯s not it, sir. Pierre doesn¡¯t hire guards, and he himself is not very strong. It is... his ¡®goods¡¯ that are not to be underestimated. If all the ves work together, even the cultists won¡¯t dare to fight them.¡±

    Angor was still confused about this ¡°Pierre¡± man. He decided to check that ce outter since ¡°powerful ves¡± sounded like someone rted to foreign nes.

 Chapter 564 - Punkâ€™s Employment Market

    <h4>Chapter 564: Punk¡¯s Employment Market</h4>

    Since the Supreme Cult routinely searched the shops, Angor believed that Rosy Boutique couldn¡¯t provide what he was looking for. Without tarrying any longer, he left through the door.

    The saleswoman was still wondering who that boy was. She suddenly remembered that the boy showed her an Acoustic Illusion before entering the store.

    There were very few apprentices talented in illusions. Even if someone would like to cross-learn other subjects, they usually chose easier skills such as Elemental spells, but not ult.

    There¡¯s no way such a young man has enough time to learn illusions as a secondary major, so that boy is originally an Illusionist? Speaking of Illusionist apprentices in the city...

    The woman immediately thought about the rumored figure, about whom people still asionally talked about during mealtime even though it had been a long time since the garden challenge waspleted.

    Recently, many magazines would interview the survivors to create more eye-catching articles, and the interviewed apprentices were just d that they gained poprity and fame.

    There was one particr apprentice who never met with any journalist and still owned the top columns in various magazines.

    Mister Phantom¡¯s student.

    ¡°Was that really him?¡± the woman muttered.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Angor had arrived at a narrow and particrly dark alleyway.

    From what he heard, he knew that ¡°Punk¡¯s Employment Market¡±, which was established by Pierre, was located right here.

    Arge trash bin that upied almost half of the already narrow entrance was releasing a foul stench into the environment. Angor believed he saw a rotten human hand inside. He looked behind him and saw the other shops that were all decorated with shiny and colorful magic effects, which looked as stunning as the neonmps he saw from Earth movies.

    But Pierre¡¯s shop... No wonder he has to run around and broadcast his name everywhere.

    He stepped into the alley and felt the ground damp and sticky due to either blood or polluted water. Meanwhile, he tried not to touch the walls that had strange-colored molds growing on them.

    He traveled through half of the alley without seeing anyone. Although he did see many skeletons scattered about.

    He suddenly saw a pair of glowing green eyes staring at him from a dark corner above him. Using the faint light that managed to sneak inside this ce, he noticed an owl standing on top of a wall buttress.

    ¡°An alchemy familiar?¡± Angor quickly remembered something simr in his memory¡ªan alchemy familiar named Isa, which was Flora¡¯s pet.

    The owl did not answer him. It kept its gaze at Angor¡¯s back until he disappeared at the end of the path.

    ...

    Just as Angor thought he was about to reach a dead-end, he heard the sound of wings pping. The owl had left its original position andnded beside someone who was waiting at the end of the alley.

    The man only had simple underpants and a pair of sunsses on while he was taking it easy on an armchair as if he were sunbathing at the beach. Although there was only a dim wallmp nearby that could be considered ¡°bright¡±.

    ¡°Is it the Supreme Cult?¡± the man sat up and asked the owl.

    The bird considered before shaking its head.

    ¡°No?¡± The man grew confused. ¡°A customer then?¡±

    ¡°Excuse me, is this Punk¡¯s Employment Market?¡± Angor already arrived and saw the figure as well as a small door behind him.

    The door did not have any signs or slogans around it. Angor only saw a small line of words saying ¡°Punk¡¯s Employment Market¡± written under a road sign, which should be a street sign for Cork Street.

    Angor frowned as he didn¡¯t really believe that this hidden, easy-to-miss spot could be considered a ¡°market¡±.

    The man with the sunsses inspected Angor and made sure he wasn¡¯t a cultist. ¡°Yes. This will be Punk¡¯s... who are you?¡±

    ¡°A customer, like you just said,¡± Angor replied.

    The man took off his sunsses and gave Angor a shocked look as if he couldn¡¯t believe what he heard.

    ¡°Hey, Pierre!! We have a guest!¡±

    Angor was at a loss of words at the strange wee. He believed he might be the first customer of the day since he didn¡¯t see any other footprints beside his own footprints.

    ¡°You¡¯re the first guest we have this month. Sorry I got a bit too excited...¡± The man stood up and bowed.

    In this MONTH?! Angor tried not to act too surprised.

    A fat guy squeezed out of the door and stepped into the alley while busily handling his untied trouser belt.

    ¡°We have a customer?¡± The second man finished tidying up his clothes and approached Angor. Due to hisrge size and extrarge belly, this man¡¯s gentleman suit was funnily erged.

    ¡°Hello, Mister Pierre,¡± Angor greeted him. ¡°I heard that you provide best-quality helpers for hire.¡±

    He tried to be polite by saying ¡°helper¡± instead of ¡°ve¡±.

    Both Pierre and the man with the sunsses perked up.

    ¡°Yes, yes! I own the biggest employment market at Cork Street. Any types of talents, you find them all at my ce! So what¡¯s on your mind, sir? How about him?¡± Pierre introduced his shop proudly before pointing a finger at the semi-naked guy beside him.

    Following Pierre¡¯s gesture, the man with the sunsses smiled and began to introduce himself, ¡°A brilliant talent, right here! Take me home and I can help with anything you want, dear friend.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to reply at first.

    So this weird greeter at the shop¡¯s door is actually another ¡°handyman¡± on disy?

    The Rosy Boutique did have many ves who were free to walk around and serve the guests. They were ¡°cultured¡± or ¡°willingly offered themselves as ves¡±, ording to the cat-eared woman. So what about this one?

    Angor checked and did not notice any otherworldly aura. It appeared this guy was a trained apprentice. Not only that, he was at his limit as a level-2 apprentice and ready to challenge the next level.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t mind his... dressing style. He¡¯s strong, I assure you. He participated in the garden challenge and made it out just fine,¡± Pierre exined when he saw Angor getting interested in his ¡°merchandise¡±.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m looking for someone else.¡± Angor stopped Pierre from his endless bbering.

    While the man with the sunsses looked a little bit sad, Angor asked Pierre out of curiosity, ¡°Why would he ¡®sell¡¯ himself like this when he has enough strength to... you know, do better jobs?¡±

    Pierre and the man exchanged some puzzled looks.

    ¡°I guess he likes this way better?¡± Pierremented.

    ¡°I¡¯m not selling myself!¡± the man protested. ¡°I just... need some money to stay alive, but I don¡¯t know anything other than fighting, so I thought someone could use my muscles.¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Man, I thought your shop is just another ve shop. But I see this is legit ¡¯employment¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Pierre looked surprised to hear those words. ¡°Oh, I do provide a ce for people to temporarily hire workers, but my business is still mainly focused on dealing with ves. Do you want ves, sir? We have skillful maids that we smuggled in from Manda ne, cat girls, rigid and aloof big sisters, gentledies perfect for being your housewives... Everything! Just say the word and I¡¯ll help you look for it.¡±

    ¡°Can I um, browse them first?¡±

    ¡°No problem. Come with me!¡±

    Following Pierre, Angor stepped through the tiny entrance and after walking down some stairs, he reached a rtivelyrge area that lookedpletely different than the cramped space outside. In fact, it was generallyrger than Rosy Boutique, just without as many people inside.

    The round main hall was carefully decorated to amodate guests. There were a cozy firece and hot tea, and all the furniture smelled like fresh sandalwood.

    Angor would admit that he already took a liking to this ce.

    Several individuals in the hall looked his way to see who was the ¡°first guest of the month¡±, but they only saw Angor¡¯s hooded robe instead.

    Angor looked around to see if anyone here belonged to another ne, and he was disappointed when he found none.

    ¡°Like I said, tell me if you have special needs, sir. Even if we don¡¯t have what you seek right now, we can remain in connection so that I can help you find a suitable veter,¡± Pierre said as he invited Angor to a sofa beside the lit firece.

    Angor did meet with a number of otherworldly life forms before, but he had no idea which ones he could actually buy with money.

    Pierre mentioned a ¡°maid brought from Manda ne¡±, yet Angor wasn¡¯t interested in the least. For one, he was too young to understand how maids worked in private. And he could never find the courage to bring a maid to Sunders¡¯ manor. No matter what was his reason, he couldn¡¯t imagine what would happen if the stern gentlemen were to find out that his young student had purchased a woman.

    For this reason, Angor would avoid asking for any females. At least he was not going to look for humandies.

    A name suddenly came to his mind as he remembered something he heard from Twilight Auction.

    ¡°Crystal Folks. Do you have any Crystal Folk that I can hire?¡±

 Chapter 565 - Nano The Fibber

    <h4>Chapter 565: Nano The Fibber</h4>

    During Twilight Auction, Angor saw an otherworldly ve called a ¡°Crystal Folk¡± being offered. He still remembered how Twilight introduced it:

    ¡°A Crystal Folk is from Grand ne, a born craftsman. They do wonderful jobs when constructing buildings, either above or under the surface.¡±

    They usually looked like dwarves but with crystal-like scales growing on their skin. Of course, they were still a lot bigger than Krakoks.

    Angor chose to ask for a Crystal Folk because he could either keep one with him or send them back to his family. Unlike maids and women, a craftsman like that wouldn¡¯t cause any moral problems.

    ¡°Crystal Folks from Grand ne...¡± Pierre considered and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I do not have such costly ves here.¡±

    Costly? Angor grew doubtful as he remembered that the one that was sold at Twilight Auction only valued at 1,500 crystals.

    Truth was, Angor had the wrong impression regarding the prices of ves because he only saw ve-trading once during Twilight Auction; an auction that only offered the best of the best to their customers.

    Angor wondered if he should buy the maid instead and set her free as soon as he learned what he wanted.

    ¡°Speaking of Grand ne,¡± Pierre spoke up again, ¡°I have a Fibber with me, who also came from there. Fibbers are skilled crafters as well. But instead of processing mineral like Crystal Folks, Fibbers are good at handling fabrics and beast hides. If you put some effort into him... He can work with tiered materials as well. Oh, they can build houses too, if you ask them to. But that will just be standard houses without special traits.¡±

    Fibber? Angor never heard of such a race before. Still... Since Fibbers originated from Grand ne, they should also be targets that were repelled by the world¡¯s consciousness.

    Speaking of fabrics... Angor happened to n to work on making alchemy clothing recently. He believed this ¡°Fibber¡± would work well with his n.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to show his ideas to Pierre. He still feigned an indifferent look as he put up a hesitant attitude. ¡°I¡¯m not sure a Fibber is what I¡¯m looking for, Mister Pierre. Can I look at him first?¡±

    Pierre, on the other hand, was anxious about how his guest seemed to be only interested in Crystal Folks. Even though he did not know how to approach that strange-tempered Fibber properly, he figured he might as well let Angor meet with him first.

    Each of Pierre¡¯s ves had his or her own temperaments and needs that he had to take care of. The Fibber set up some really strict personal rules for potential buyers. Pierre wasn¡¯t sure that the young man in front of him could ept all those conditions.

    Well, got to let them see each other first.

    While using the smile of a professional salesman, Pierre silently prayed that nothing would go wrong too soon.

    ¡°Follow me, please. The Fibber lives on floor B3.¡±

    Underground? ¡°Live¡±? Again, Angor noticed that Pierre wasn¡¯t treating his ¡°goods¡± as ves.

    Also, while following behind the fat shopkeeper, he saw many people whispering to each other while giving him curious nces.

    Since he was the ¡°first guest of this month¡±, he assumed that the other people were either ves on sale or other individuals who sought to sell their manpower.

    But why do they look as if we¡¯re going to meet with some kind of monster? Is the Fibber dangerous?

    They arrived at arge bronze door, which was almost three times bigger than the shop¡¯s front as well as prettier.

    Compared to these, Angor was more interested in the strange design of the gate. There were many paints of different colors blended together, such as bean green mixed with wine red. The door was too bright to look at, if not bothering to the eyes. Surely nobody in their sane mind would admire such a chaotic coloring style.

    ¡°This is the Fibber¡¯s room.¡± Pierre gestured at the door.

    ¡°Are Fibbers perhaps, bigger than us?¡± Angor was very curious when he saw the extrarge room door.

    ¡°No, sir. All humanoids from Grand ne are of moderate sizes, including Fibbers, who are usually simr to Crystal Folks. As for this door...¡± Pierre¡¯s expression slowly turned into that of embarrassment. ¡°He... designed it himself. ¡®Inviting¡¯, as he said.¡±

    While introducing the door to Angor, Pierre¡¯s voice slowly became smaller as if he didn¡¯t wish the room¡¯s residence to hear him.

    ¡°Did he?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Such... ingenuity.¡±

    Pierre let out a sillyugh and knocked on the door, hoping to avoid Angor¡¯s further questions.

    One full minuteter, someone who appeared pretty pissed off yelled from inside the room, ¡°Who the f*ck is it? I¡¯m sleeping here!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just me, Nano. You have a visitor!¡± Pierre yelled back at the door.

    ¡°Visitor?!¡±

    Angor heard the sound of someone dressing up.

    ¡°Heh heh, sorry for that,¡± Pierre exined. ¡°Nano is a bit... fickle, when someone wakes him up. He¡¯s pretty nice otherwise.¡±

    Angor saw Pierre blushing when saying ¡°nice¡±, but he chose not to mind Nano¡¯s personality too much. ¡°So, he can speak the universal tongue?¡±

    Pierre nodded and before he could answer, the bronze door was pushed open.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been in this goddamn sh*thole for five years. Of course I learned yournguage. You take me as a fool or something, eh?¡±

    Angor narrowed his eyes as he looked at the speaker. This figure looked pretty small by human standards. He barely reached Angor¡¯s knees, hat included. Such body height was five or six Krakok standing on top of each other.

    The Fibber was wearing a miniature tail suit sided with a wide-brimmed hat. The clothes were fine if one did not mind the abnormal colorbinations¡ªa bright red suit and a bright green hat that looked extremely off when used together.

    Nano appeared as a male. Upon closer look, Angor noticed that the Fibber¡¯s skin was glossy and lustrous like fine silk.

    Nano¡¯s goatee was maintained into the shape of an anchor, which was usually favored by traditional noble gentlemen.

    Meanwhile, the Fibber was also inspecting Angor carefully. ¡°You are the visitor? At least show me that face of yours, will you?¡±

    Without waiting for an answer, he turned to speak to Pierre, ¡°Must be another of those shady vagabonds. He¡¯ll just take me on the run all day. I¡¯m not going with him.¡±

    Angor frowned. How did this guye up with such a conjecture just because of my hood?

    Pierre put on more apologetic smiles since he didn¡¯t want to lose a precious customer.

    They decided to talk inside Nano¡¯s room next.

    The room looked fine, if not luxurious. zed sses with decorative carvings on them, soft curtains that blew like river streams in the air, wooden furniture with delicate details all over them... This ce looked as bright and asfortable as Angor¡¯s ¡°castle hall¡± in his Nightmare Domain.

    Again, this was if he did not consider the disturbing colors. He thought the door was already the upper limit for offbeat designs, but he almost felt dizzy looking at all the colors in the room. It looked as if different kids who had just learned how to paint decided to work on a collective project.

    Nano seemed pretty proud when he saw Angor looking around his room. ¡°Nice ce, right? I created everything by myself, by the way. My effort paid off!¡±

    ¡°They... must have taken a lot of your time.¡± Angor chose to use a neutralment, which was urate enough.

    ¡°Of course.¡± Nano looked up and puffed up his chest. ¡°I¡¯m the most talented prince among my people after all!¡±

    ¡°Prince?¡±

    ¡°It seems Nano is the prince of his n,¡± Pierre exined.

    Angor failed to understand why a prince ended up as a ve in the wizarding world. Also, the Fibber mentioned that he had been staying here for five years...

    Has he always live in this room? Angor pondered. That¡¯s not very ve-like.

    While Nano kept boasting about his fine works, Pierre saw Angor¡¯s doubtful look and sent a voice transmission, ¡°As you see, sir, I don¡¯t really treat them like ves. They¡¯re... Let¡¯s say, my friends. Family, even. Certainly, I don¡¯t wish to lock my friends in cages and shackles and get bought by people who will only treat them in worse ways. If you wish to take anyone from here, sir, please understand that you have to agree to certain conditions, and as long as you keep it that way, you will find them to be the most loyal servants you can ever find.¡±

    Angor now understood why Pierre¡¯s shop looked so neglected. People said that Pierre tended to have some bothersome rules for anyone who wished to buy ves from him, and Angor just realized what that meant.

    Wizards usually considered otherworldly creatures as expendableborers or research materials that could be disposed of at free will. With all these rules, Pierre wouldn¡¯t get many customers in his shop.

 Chapter 566 - Conditions For Purchase

    <h4>Chapter 566: Conditions For Purchase</h4>

    Angor quite admired Pierre¡¯s effort for providing his ves, who were also his friends, with a better future in this cruel world. Jon once lectured him on the subject of human rights and simr affairs. Regardless, Angor already knew that the wizarding world did not obey such mortal disciplines.

    However, he still appreciated it that someone like Pierre was there to strive for the better.

    Angor assumed that most of the ves here were homeless wanderers who once lived better lives. They were lucky to have found Pierre, who was quite different from themon vers found in this world.

    ¡°Most of my men do not ask for too much. A safe and stable life is all they need. Some of them have special needs such as helping them kill someone for revenge or setting them free after a certain period of time,¡± Pierre exined via voice transmission while Nano was still bragging about his brilliant designs. ¡°But... Nano is a bit different. He doesn¡¯t want freedom or an enemy dead.¡±

    ¡°What is it then?¡±

    Seeing Angor getting interested, Pierre wondered if this young guest would actually ept the extra rules.

    ¡°Ahem. Truth is, Nano¡¯s home country was destroyed by another nation, during which he was captured as a prisoner and then sold to others. After serving different people for many years, he came here, the wizarding world. He didn¡¯t want to experience the life of a ve ever again, so his demand is to have someone who can provide him with a peaceful lifestyle. He doesn¡¯t need to be rich. As long as he doesn¡¯t have to worry about food, then that¡¯s enough.¡±

    Pierre blushed while speaking. Those words sounded as if the ve was asking for an easy life in which he didn¡¯t need to work too much. Everybody wanted that!

    Fearing that his guest would get bothered by it, Pierre quickly began to introduce Nano¡¯s qualities, ¡°Trust me, Nano is an able worker. As the prince of Fibbers, he¡¯s a master at weaving and carving. Those skills are no worse than Crystal Folks, as long as you don¡¯t ask him to build houses.¡±

    Angor chuckled and tapped a finger at a table that was painted in both red lines and irregr white spots all over it as if someone identally spilled their paint can.

    ¡°Ahem!¡± Pierre blushed again. ¡°Yes, as you can see, his... taste, is a bit different than others when ites to colors. But everything else is fine! You can let him do the crafting andplete the finishing touch on your own!¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t I just do everything myself then?¡± Angor scoffed.

    Pierre rolled his eyes as he thought about a new idea. ¡°Oh right, Nano has another great talent!¡±

    Angor looked at the Fibber again. It seemed Nano noticed that Pierre was exining the situation to the guest in private, so he had stopped talking. Nano was now staring at Angor in both disdain and a little bit of expectation.

    ¡°All Fibbers can produce silk. Nano, as the prince of his folks, can create silk that equals to the best-quality ones you can buy from mortals. And of course, if you give him the proper resources and training, he might be able to generate tiered materials for you,¡± Pierre said. He pointed at a window curtain nearby and added, ¡°This, and that scarf he¡¯s wearing, is made from his own silk.¡±

    Angor already noticed the said items. Putting their destructive color designs aside, the texture of the silk looked extremely gentle and soft. Even the tiniest air current would trigger their smooth movement.

    ¡°Can I check them out?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°... Go ahead.¡± Nano agreed even though his expression looked the opposite.

    Angor noticed that Nano was in fact very proud that someone liked his works, but the Fibber tried not to show it.

    Angor moved to put a hand on the curtain and realized that the material was ratherfortable on the touch. The fine threads felt colder than the environment and sent a mind-soothing pleasure through his finger.

    He considered and tried to apply some mana power to the curtain. It turned out that the material was a perfect mana conductor as well.

    It wasn¡¯t a tiered material, but it was strong enough to sustain weaker runes already.

    As far as Angor could see, this Fibber could provide him with silk for crafting alchemy clothes. In the future, if he no longer needed Nano, he could always send Nano back home so that the Padt Family could use the special talent to create another line of business.

    With that in mind, Angor returned to Nano and said, ¡°I¡¯ve heard about your requirements from Pierre, and I have no problem with them.¡±

    ¡°Really? How do you prove that?¡± Nano looked doubtful.

    ¡°If nothing else goes wrong, I¡¯ll take you to my family. They¡¯re all mortals, and you will easily earn a job. I will not tell them that you¡¯re a ve. As long as you make yourself worthy, you can get the life you want.¡±

    Nano pondered and quickly felt convinced by Angor¡¯s offer. It was true that finding a peaceful life with a group of traditional nobles was quite easy.

    However...

    ¡°I can¡¯t tell if you¡¯re telling the truth. I have one more condition to ask if you want me to work for you.¡±

    Pierre grew visibly restless when he saw Nano being so demanding. The fat salesman kept sending hints to Nano by using eyenguage.

    It was Angor who saw Pierre¡¯s attempt first. ¡°No matter. I¡¯ll hear it.¡±

    Nano took a moment to consider. ¡°I want to know who you are. If you want to be my future owner, at least show me your face, will ya?¡±

    Angor was quite surprised to hear the simple request. He kept his face hidden until now so as not to draw attention in Cork Street.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Angor said and lifted his hood without a second thought, thus revealing his young yet elegant face.

    ¡°You¡ª¡± Nano covered his mouth as he quickly recalled the individual described by many trending articles and reports. In fact, a magazine he was reading earlier today had Angor¡¯s face printed on its cover.

    ¡°You¡¯re Angor Padt?!¡±

    ¡°The one and only.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°You just wanted to learn who I am, right? Now it¡¯s your turn to make decisions.¡±

    Nano had actually prepared several more questions, but he chose not to reveal them for now. He really wished to ept Angor¡¯s offer as long as he could make sure that Angor wasn¡¯t going to torture him likemon vers. Now that he had seen Angor¡¯s face, he believed that the rumored Sunders¡¯ student wasn¡¯t someone who would deceive people so easily.

    ¡°I-can I ask something else? It¡¯s just a small question, not another condition.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Angor frowned a little but didn¡¯t protest.

    ¡°The-the magazines said that the disciple of ¡®God of Seas¡¯, Jebra, is your enemy. Will he harm your family someday, Mister Padt?¡±

    Angor rolled his eyes. Because of the gossip, everyone believed that he and Jebra were adversaries now.

    ¡°... I don¡¯t know him, and neither am I his enemy. The rumors are rumors, forged words created by people who can¡¯t control their tongues. Besides, Jebra doesn¡¯t seem the kind of nasty figure who can vent out his rage on helpless mortals. As far as I know, he is proud and confident in his strength.¡±

    Pierre also helped by speaking, ¡°You still don¡¯t know much about wizards, Nano. A powerful man like Jebra will not attack mortals as it will stain his own name. And Mister Padt? Is it true that you and Jebra really don¡¯t know each other?¡±

    Pierre saw Angor getting very impatient and quickly added, ¡°I¡¯m just curious! Nothing personal, sir! You don¡¯t have to answer.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t. As I said, the rumors are wrong.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to exin that Jebra was in fact trying to avoid Shiliew, and in order to maintain his fame and public image, Jebra wanted someone more famous¡ªAngor¡ªto take the ¡°me¡±.

    Pierre felt unsatisfied with the answer since many of the survivors from the garden challenge agreed with the rumors. Then again, Angor had no reason to lie about it.

    Even though he wished to find out more about whatever truth was hidden in the whole matter, he chose to stay quiet in the end so that he wouldn¡¯t carelessly offend this precious guest.

    Nano also made up his mind and nodded. ¡°Good. You¡¯ll be my new owner for now.¡±

    ...

    Angor purchased Nano by paying 300 crystals to Pierre.

    Pierre finished the transaction while smiling constantly. To him, the sessful trade just guaranteed the daily expenses for the next six months.

    A ve like Nano was usually more expensive if he were to be sold at the other ve markets. Pierre¡¯s prices were lower because of all the strange rules.

    Angor was d that he managed to find enough money for the purchase as he hadn¡¯t been earning any ie for a while now. After buying Nano, he was now left with about a hundred crystals.

    Beforeing over, he had prepared some items so that he could trade them in case his money wasn¡¯t enough. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t need to do any trading for now.

    Nano¡¯s ridiculous taste in colors wasn¡¯t a serious problem since there were always workarounds to it.

    Angor did note here to buy a Fibber; it was only a bonus. When the payment part was settled, Angor put on a serious look as he was about to deal with what he really came here for.

 Chapter 567 - The Vulgar Sage

    <h4>Chapter 567: The Vulgar Sage</h4>

    How to keep an otherworldly individual free from the consciousness of this world without getting them registered at Supreme Cult?

    Angor had been searching for an answer for a while.

    He thought Pierre could tell him since he just bought an otherworldly ve, but it didn¡¯t go as he expected. When he asked the question, Pierre tried to dodge it by beating around the bush.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about Nano. Fibbers can live 300 years on average. Nano is 47 this year, which means he can serve you for long enough.¡±

    Each time, Pierre would talk about Nano¡¯s life without listening to Angor¡¯s real question.

    Angor was really puzzled that someone refused to answer him again. First, the Cloud Library did not have any record regarding this matter, and when he asked the others, such as a seasoned schr like Prome, no one could really answer him.

    There were many otherworldly travelers, both legal and illegal, in the wizarding world. Angor didn¡¯t believe that what he was looking for was aplex knowledge.

    Perhaps this is a secret or something?

    Angor kept questioning Pierre because this man was unlikely to notice Jon¡¯s presence. He felt safe here because he knew Pierre was the gentle type when it came to treating ves. Even if Pierre grew suspicious of his questions, he probably wouldn¡¯t report him to the cult.

    However, Pierre¡¯s tongue never loosened no matter how hard Angor tried.

    Defeated, Angor had no choice but to leave Pierre¡¯s shop with a grim look.

    He still had one other option, which was to force his way to get the information he needed by spending enough money. There were lots of ces in the city where he could buy information, such as Rosy Boutique. He did not use this method earlier because he feared that people from Supreme Cult might notice his attempt.

    But it couldn¡¯t be helped now.

    Angor went upstairs and left through the shop¡¯s entrance while Nano followed him.

    When Angor and Nano went away, the other ves in the hall hoped that the young guest would visit them again. Anyone who agreed to Nano¡¯s terms would have no trouble buying the others as well. However, when they saw Pierre still staring at the door with a worried look, they decided not to ask who the guest was.

    The information requested by Angor was not really a big secret as far as people who dealt with otherworldly ves were concerned. Still, it involved the decrees and rules established by certain authorities, and Pierre dared not carelessly slip the information to outsiders.

    But Mister Angor seemed really pissed just now... will he treat Nano badly because of this?

    The conditions they discussed were just oral agreements, which were not bound by actual pacts. Angor was free to break his promise.

    Pierre was really nervous when thinking about this.

    He didn¡¯t have time to be worried about the matter as loud noises suddenly came from upstairs.

    The man with the sunsses was sitting in front of the entrance when he yelled, ¡°Get those guys up here, Pierre! The cult is here again. They brought ten men this time!¡±

    Pierre grimaced and quickly took out a transmitter. ¡°Time for some work, folks! The goons are looking for trouble again!¡±

    One after the other, the room doors were pushed open, and a number of apprentices who temporarily lived here came out. These people were the ones who helped Pierre stand against Supreme Cult.

    ¡°Oh,e on. The garden challenge ended a long time ago! Why are these d*ckheads still in the city?¡± Pierre cursed under his breath. He would show disrespect in the open because he knew the cultists would leave Floating Mech City sooner orter. If they refused to leave, Lawson would force them to.

    As Pierre led his men into the narrow alley to confront the enemies, he realized someone else was upying the cultists¡¯ time.

    ¡°We meet again, Mister Padt.¡± The man who spoke up was the one dressed in an armored ck robe and inspected the fat apprentice at Rosy Boutique earlier.

    Angor was already in a bad mood when leaving Pierre¡¯s shop. When he ran into the members of the Supreme Cult, it just made him feel worse. This time, he did not maintain his gentlemanly manners. ¡°Why are you guys everywhere? I know you have your own set of rules, but can you really poke around in the city so boldly?¡±

    The other cultists frowned at his offensive speech.

    Angor waved an arm impatiently. ¡°This ce is already small enough. Why are there so many of you anyway? It¡¯s getting really difficult to walk! Come on. Let me through, alright?¡±

    The armored cultist narrowed his eyes as he looked at the shorter individual walking behind Angor. ¡°The stink of Vulgar Sage... how unpleasant.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t know what was that about. He kept gazing at the man who was blocking his way.

    ¡°Are you going away or not?¡±

    ¡°Oh, of course. How can we be so rude to Mister Phantom¡¯s student?¡± While speaking, the robed man slowly moved to one side of the path.

    But the knight sword hanging on his waist suddenly became alive and rushed at Nano¡¯s position while covered under a fierce magic ripple. The weapon was aimed right at Nano¡¯s neck.

    ng!

    As Nano fearfully watched the attack approaching, an ice wall emerged from the ground and blocked the sword.

    Naturally, it was Angor who created the ice wall. He had already prepared the cantrip when he saw the cultist looking at Nano with a strange expression, and it seemed his precaution was very necessary.

    Without wasting any breath to talk, both Angor and the cultist moved to engage each other. The Supreme Cult wanted Nano dead, while Angor would like to prevent that. There was no other way to get around this other than settling it with a fight.

    In an instant, Angor unleashed an illusion and prepared to trap the enemies inside an imprable mist.

    But something unexpected came up.

    ...

    Pierre and his guards entered the alley only to see the battle already ended.

    There was still lingering mist, which soon went away. A number of people had copsed on the ground¡ªcultists in their ck robes. The only two people who were still standing were Angor and a short figure who was trembling beside him, Nano.

    Pierre watched in horror when he realized that all ten elite members sent by the Supreme Cult, who all remained until the end of the garden challenge, were wiped out.

    It was only a minute ago when his sunss-wearing friend warned him of approaching enemies!

    Pierre turned to his partner, hoping to learn what just happened. But the sunss-wearing man only stood therepletely still with his mouth agape. It was the owl, which had been standing on the sunss man¡¯s shoulder, that exined what it saw using ¡°wingnguage¡±. Although the alchemy familiar wasn¡¯t intelligent enough to describe too many details.

    The owl saw thick mist covering the entire alley, and then heard the noise of shing weapons. Next was what Pierre saw for himself¡ªmist gone, bodies down.

    Pierre couldn¡¯t tell how exactly the battle ended, but he was sure it was Angor who defeated the entire group of elite cultists all by himself.

    Pierre had many helper apprentices here who could manage to fend off the cultists, but it was impossible to defeat them.

    While the fat shopkeeper stood far away to observe the situation, Angor was ncing at his right hand with an uncertain look. His right hand, as well as the dancing green marks, were now hidden inside the ck glove he received from Sunders.

    How did that simple mist illusione out as arge-scale nightmare illusion? Is it because of my new hand?

    Truth was, Angor did nothing more than unleashing an illusion to obscure the sight of his enemies. But for some reason, the affected cultists suddenly started fighting among themselves and spared Angor any further effort.

    As Angor pondered over the situation, Pierre slowly approached him while smiling out of fear.

    ¡°Mi-Mister Padt, I¡ª¡±

    He almost jumped when he saw Angor gazing at him.

    ¡°I mean, how-how should I deal with these people?¡± Pierre pointed a trembling finger at the fainted cultists.

    Despite their condition, the cultists were not seriously wounded because they never intended to go for Angor¡¯s life in the first ce¡ªtheir job only asked them to deal with otherworldly intruders. And with such a mindset, they did not use lethal force when attacking their teammates.

    ¡°Do as you want. Kill them if you prefer. But whatever bes of them next has nothing to do with me,¡± Angor replied in a cold tone and took Nano away. He wished to find out why his right hand enhanced his illusion since it seemed like an urgent matter.

    ¡°Wait, Mister Padt!¡± Pierre suddenly called. He just realized that Angor didn¡¯t seem to be on good terms with the cult. He wondered if he could tell Angor about that secret, just for the sake of Nano¡¯s wellbeing.

    ...

    A momentter, Pierre took Angor back to the shop. They went straight into his private resting room while the other workers in the shop watched them go in shock.

    ¡°... What you wanted to know is Abyssal Inscription, Mister Padt,¡± Pierre said and asked Nano to remove his shirt.

    Angor saw a picture either drawn or tattooed on Nano¡¯s chest, which looked like a tailed demon wrapped inside a pair of ck wings. The demon¡¯s tail looked like a hook that caught a pile of beautiful-looking books on it.

    ¡°This, is an Abyssal Inscription,¡± Pierre told him through a private voice transmission. ¡°It was one of the basic means of protection left by a Grand Demon called ¡®Vulgar Sage¡¯.¡±

    Angor listened to Pierre¡¯s words, and finally, he got the whole picture of the business that centered around otherworldly intruders.

    Apparently, Abyssal Inscription was a kind of dark knowledge invented by Vulgar Sage. After receiving lots of expurgations and modifications, it was then brought to the wizarding world. Schrs from different generations researched on this particr subject and managed to remove all harmful elements of it, which finally turned it into the subject of Inscription known today.

    Throughout history, Inscription gradually became a more advanced techniquepared to the original Abyssal Inscription. ording to Pierre, this subject, which was no easier than Alchemy and Runecraft, was rtively popr around Western Continent and Northern Province, while very few people in the southern wizarding region would study it because of Supreme Cult¡¯s interference.

    The so-called ¡°registration¡± used by Supreme Cult was, in fact, applying inscriptions on the bodies of otherworldly travelers. Simrly, what they used was the modern, ¡°localized¡± Inscription, but not the primary Abyssal Inscription.

    ¡°In order to protect someone from being expelled by the world¡¯s consciousness, you must apply the protection bestowed by another equally powerful world, and the Abyss ne was one such great ne. Thanks to the Abyssal Inscription that represented the might of Vulgar Sage, Nano did not need to worry about getting affected in this world.¡±

    After Pierre finished exining to Angor, he felt anxious. He was afraid that someone might have eavesdropped on them.

    In the southern region, telling the knowledge of Abyssal Inscription to others equaled to challenging the authority of the Supreme Cult. vers all knew how to avoid provoking the cult, in which case the cult would mostly cast a blind eye to their shady business.

 Chapter 568 - Abyssal Inscription

    <h4>Chapter 568: Abyssal Inscription</h4>

    Pierre did not exin any Inscription knowledge because he didn¡¯t know much about it.

    ¡°Generally speaking, the smugglers who pass ves around are responsible for sticking inscriptions onto their goods,¡± said Pierre.

    ¡°So I have to talk to these ¡®smugglers¡¯ if I need to learn how to use Inscription?¡±

    Pierre remained silent for a while as he wondered whether Angor was asking such a question to help Nano or because of some other personal reasons.

    ¡°It¡¯s not the only way.¡± Pierre decided to provide thorough help and showed Angor a small card with the Abyssal Inscription, as invented by Vulgar Sage, drawn on it. ¡°This is copied from the authentic inscription print and is less effective. But it can still helpmon otherworldly ves resist the world¡¯s consciousness. Let¡¯s say... the severity of the corrosion will be halved.¡±

    Pierre proceeded to describe the inscription card.

    For example, a helpless toddler from another ne who fell into the wizarding world would have their life expectancy reduced from 100 to 15 due to the world¡¯s consciousness. With this card, they could reach the age of 55-65.

    The ¡°authentic print¡± would raise the resistance to about 80%. Nano¡¯s inscription was drawn in this way.

    And anyone who actually knew how to draw Inscription could achieve the full effect.

    Angor looked at the card and wondered how well it would work on Jon.

    Assuming that Jon could live until 100 under normal circumstances and putting his current age into consideration, Angor presumed that Jon could live for at least another 20-25 years in good health. In the meantime, he could attempt to acquire Inscription skills or help Jon be an apprentice, both of which would further extend Jon¡¯s life.

    He had already met with a live case before, which was Balba, the child of an otherworldly race. After bing an apprentice, the negative effect caused by the world¡¯s consciousness wasn¡¯t so obvious on him.

    ¡°Can I have this card? I¡¯ll pay, of course.¡±

    ¡°Sure, it ain¡¯t anything too valuable.¡± Pierre shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll just buy another one from the smuggler next time. Fifty crystals, and it¡¯s yours. BUT! Remember that from now on, this card has nothing to with me. If the cultes to you, you don¡¯t know where you found this thing, and I don¡¯t know how you found this thing. Understand?¡±

    ¡°No problem.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Is there a way to find the ¡®authentic¡¯ Inscription or learn how to draw it?¡±

    ¡°No no no. There¡¯s no way those smugglers I mentioned will sell it to you. As for studying it... I don¡¯t know. The cultists are everywhere in the southern region, so you¡¯ll have a hard time finding books or people who can teach you.¡±

    Angor fully understood the situation and paid for the card.

    Before he could leave, Pierre stopped him to warn him of something else, ¡°I will not question why you need the inscription, Mister Padt, but there¡¯s something important you must know.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°This one used on ves is Abyssal Inscription, but not the optimized Inscription. Ites with negative effects. Of course, it doesn¡¯t matter if you use it on mortals.¡±

    The Vulgar Sage was another Grand Demon living in Abyss ne. Just like dealing with the other Grand Demons, receiving their blessing meant paying a cost.

    However, a Grand Demon probably would not expect payment from mortals. Only wizards and apprentices had to be cautious about using their power.

    Demons would follow the rule of ¡°equivalent exchange¡± as well. In fact, sometimes they were even more faithfulpared to wizards.

    Angor thanked Pierre and turned to the door.

    ¡°Please take good care of Nano. He has suffered too much,¡± Pierre added in the end.

    ¡°I will.¡±

    ...

    While leaving through the narrow alleyway, Angor thought about the brand new knowledge that he had never heard about before. It seemed that this particr subject that was invented by Vulgar Sage held much potential, and at the same time, it was feared by people.

    Much of the knowledgeposition in the wizarding world came from Grand Demons such as Astute King and Crown Clown. However, this didn¡¯t necessarily mean that the demons were more intelligent. Wizards could also make miracles happen, such as by modifying Vulgar Sage¡¯s Abyssal Inscription into a new and more powerful subject.

    ¡°Inscriptions...¡±

    Angor checked the card in his hand. The back of the card had simple patterns drawn on ck background, much like how poker cards were designed, while the front of the card had the same picture found on Nano¡¯s chest¡ªa smiling demon with hooked tail that caught a pile of beautiful books.

    How does such a simple picture work wonders?

    While looking at the picture, he thought about someone else¡¯s name¡ªckjack, a certain bully who loved copying Sunders¡¯ dressing style and enjoyed picking on weaker fighters in Sky Tower.

    While battling with ckjack, Angor saw the man using several cards with strange pictures and names such as ¡°Kiss of the Tongueless¡±, ¡°Garden of the Twilight Goddess¡±, and ¡°Knight Shield¡±. Back then, he didn¡¯t know much about wizardry yet, so he regarded ckjack¡¯s skill as an ult art that he wasn¡¯t familiar with.

    Is ckjack an Inscription user?

    He decided to confirm it once he returned to Brute Cavern.

    ...

    With the inscription card safely stored in his bracelet, Angor took Nano away from Cork Street.

    He was going to attend the Sky Auction together with Sunders five dayster. Even though he didn¡¯t n to buy anything, he did have several items that he¡¯d like to sell.

    The auction this month wasn¡¯t the biggest auction held by Floating Mech City. Despite that, it was still a lot greater than Twilight Auction, not to mention that there were many visiting wizards currently in the city because of the garden challenge.

    Angor had less than a hundred crystals in his ount after buying the inscription card, so he thought of using this chance to earn more money.

    First, he was going to sell the Bloodrose Vine that he retrieved from the Nightmare Realm.

    Next was a series of trinkets such as several space storage items.

    After obtaining more greyspace microbes from Sunders, he had enough resources to craft more storage items and earn as many magic crystals as possible during the auction.

    This was his n¡ªhe would use the next five days solely on crafting storage items.

    ...

    The dusk had arrived when he arrived at Sunders¡¯ manor.

    He saw Greya sipping tea in the flower garden. Meanwhile, Toby had returned to his original form and was sprawling on Greya¡¯s tea table, asleep. Judging from Toby¡¯s rapid breathing, Angor believed his little partner had another tough day.

    ¡°You¡¯re back?¡± Greya looked up from her teacup. ¡°And who¡¯s that little cutie?¡±

    Nano didn¡¯t know who the girl was. He flinched when he felt a terrible aura covering him up as the girl nced at him.

    ¡°A Fibber ve I found in Cork Street,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Fibber? I heard about them before... Oh yes, an interesting race from Grand ne who can produce fine silk. Are you going to make clothes, Angor dear?¡± Greya tilted her head as she got an idea. ¡°s... Ever since I lost my body, I never found a suitable dress for this tiny form. I so want to present my great beauty in front of others again! A silk dress sounds like a nice choice...¡±

    Angor almost rolled his eyes. Why does she sound like Toya all of a sudden?

    ¡°Lady Greya, I haven¡¯t started studying tailoring yet, and I need time for it. As for this Fibber... you may want to check his own style first,¡± Angor said and moved aside to allow Greya to take a better look at Nano.

    Greya pursed her lips when she saw Nano¡¯s green hat and cherry-red outerwear.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s too bad. Guess we have to wait for another chance.¡±

    Nano, on the other hand, felt a bit pissed off after both his new master and the wizard-like girl disyed discontent about his designs. Even so, he dared not say it.

    ¡°Apart from new clothes, I also want a new essory.¡± Greya flipped a hand over, and an ear stud shaped like a white feather appeared on her palm.

    Angor gave her this item before leaving Dark Castle. At first, Greya only considered it an insignificant gift, but she changed her mind after experiencing the illusion left by Angor. The particr ambiance of the Nightmare Realm convinced Greya to return to the Nightmare Realm again to retrieve her body.

    She had been keeping the item with her because Angor¡¯s illusion meant so much to her.

    She always adored Angor¡¯s alchemy skills and wanted to request for another item, yet she never found a chance since Angor was busy with something else.

    Now that the boy seems to be unupied...

    ¡°The illusion contained in this ear stud is the most enjoyable one that I have ever seen. Say, if you can bring me a second surprise like this one... I¡¯ll serve you another customized meal!¡±

 Chapter 569 - Nightmare Domain Reborn

    <h4>Chapter 569: Nightmare Domain Reborn</h4>

    Angor took Nano to the room next to his own bedroom, where Papaya was having a dinner party with her people around their tiny skyscraper.

    They all stopped their actions and looked at Nano with puzzled looks.

    They felt confused because even though Nano was a lot taller than Krakoks, he was still tiny by human standards. Even after spending some time with Angor and Dodoro, the Krakoks still considered Nano a ¡°shortie¡±.

    ¡°Is that a dwarf?¡± Papaya broke the silence first.

    It was Nano who replied first by yelling furiously, ¡°WHO ARE YOU TO CALL ME A DWARF?! I¡¯m gonna kill you, you undersized freaks!¡±

    The Krakoks dived back into their building when they saw Nano rolling up his sleeves and getting ready to fight.

    Papaya remained calm and didn¡¯t move since she saw Angor was still with them.

    Angor lifted Nano into the air by his cor and warned, ¡°Do anything stupid to them and I¡¯ll cancel our terms. All of them.¡±

    Nano¡¯s anger instantly deted.

    ¡°... This is Nano,¡± Angor put the Fibber down and exined to Papaya, ¡°he¡¯s called a ¡®Fibber¡¯, a humanoid race, not a dwarf. He¡¯s going to live with you all from now on. Try to be friendly.¡±

    ¡°Friends?! With these short stuff?!¡± Nano protested.

    Angor narrowed his eyes and changed his words by saying, ¡°Alright, not friends. You¡¯re going to be their student and study.¡±

    ¡°Study? Nooo! What can these tiny brains teach me anyway? No, please don¡¯t!¡± Nano kept yelling, but he lowered the volume of his voice when he noticed Angor¡¯s expression getting colder. ¡°But, but... what possibly can they teach me?¡±

    Angor snickered. ¡°The Krakoks are brilliant craftsmen as well. Maybe you¡¯re better when ites to weaving and house designing, but you should learn how to paint properly.¡±

    ¡°Nonsense! My people all said that my sense of coloring is the best!¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see ¡®Fibbers¡¯ do tell fibs.¡± Angor smiled. ¡°Think carefully. Ever since you went to Pierre, did anyone ever tell you the same thing?¡±

    Nano wanted to protest again by saying that all Fibbers was honest, but he couldn¡¯t because Angor was right¡ªnobody wouldment on his coloring in the past five years when they talked about his crafting.

    ¡°They-they didn¡¯t know true art!¡±

    Angor turned to speak to Papaya. ¡°So, what is your first impression on Nano¡¯s clothes?¡±

    Nano puffed up his chest proudly so that Papaya could examine his attire better.

    Papaya considered before replying, ¡°The outline and texture are really good! But the color... ouch. Is this a new trend that people are falling in love with?¡±

    ¡°Nope,¡± said Angor.

    Nano¡¯s mouth fell agape.

    Next, Angor took out a piece of silk from his bracelet¡ªNano¡¯s product.

    ¡°How about this one?¡± Angor presented the silk to Papaya.

    ¡°Ohhh, this is so soft and chilly! We can make the best summer vest out of it!¡± Papaya¡¯s eyes brimmed with admiration.

    Nano was looking pleased again. However, he didn¡¯t get to maintain it for very long, especially when he heard Papaya¡¯s next words.

    ¡°But the hue on this thing is so messed up! We can try cutting it up and use a single color to make something...¡±

    ¡°You... you don¡¯t have the sense of an artist...¡± Nano looked rather defeated.

    Angor nced at him and added some salt, ¡°Thatdy you see outside is a famous truth-finder wizard. She loves to dress up too. What did she say about your clothes?¡±

    Nano lowered his head to his chest. He knew what a truth-finder wizard meant in this world.

    ¡°Do you think your colleagues, the Krakoks, and a true wizard are all telling ties? So, are you the only ¡®artist¡¯ here?¡± Angor decided to reveal the truth to Nano. ¡°Spend some time with Krakoks to learn what true art is, and help each other should you need it, because...¡±

    ... It¡¯s very likely that you will be neighbors for a really long time.

    He didn¡¯t say thest part. As nned, he was going to bring both Krakoks and Nano back to Old Earth so that they could work for his family.

    When Nano wanted toin again, Angor stopped him by dropping his bed onto the floor. Next, he set up a small private area in the room for Nano to stay in.

    ¡°Remember what I said? No fighting or badnguage, or else...¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t leave any other restrictions around Nano since Nano did not have any supernatural powers. Just in case Nano tried to misbehave, he asked Dodoro to keep an eye on the little guy.

    With Nano settled, Angor nced at the mist illusion behind the Krakok apartment where the Soul Floret containing Freud¡¯s soul was ced in. After making sure Freud was fine, he turned around and left the room.

    Freud¡¯s new home had to wait until after the auction.

    Angor¡¯s next destination was Sunders¡¯ study. He needed to tell his teacher about the abnormality he saw on his right hand earlier.

    As soon as Sunders¡¯ heard what Angor came for, the gentleman dragged Angor into the gravity garden to perform tests. At the same time, he also took some notes on his personal notebook.

    ¡°... I see. Any illusion that is cast through your right hand will be affected by nightmare aura, meaning, its potency will be multiplied.¡± Sunders failed to contain his envious expression as he said, ¡°It must have something to do with the green marks.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Angor removed his glove and gazed at the glowing sigils which seemed more active after he cast several illusions; it was as if his mana aroused them.

    ¡°There¡¯s another factor I need to find out,¡± Sunders continued. ¡°Deploy your nightmare domain.¡±

    Angor nodded andplied.

    When both of them entered the ¡°castle hall¡± created by Angor, Sunders immediately looked at Angor¡¯s hand again.

    ¡°Just as I thought...¡± Sunders widened his eyes when he saw the green sigils glowing brighter than ever.

    Angor also felt something different¡ªthe nightmare monsters living in his nightmare domain all became very vigorous and energetic, especially the lone rainbow dragonfly he captured in Darkivil Empire. The insect was now dancing around in the air while shining like a neonmp.

    ¡°This is... The marks are releasing nightmare aura into the area,¡± Sunders exined while gazing intensively at Angor¡¯s bigger hand.

    It seemed that nightmare creatures could only survive in nightmare aura. The amount of nightmare aura in Angor¡¯s own nightmare domain was slowly decreasing as time went by, which caused the ¡°residents¡± to lose their vitality as well.

    But now, the nightmare aura sent by Angor¡¯s right hand aroused them.

    Apart from the particrly bright insect, the teacups and the toy soldiers also visibly became brighter.

    ¡°Wait... if this keeps on, can these guys block and reflect powerful attacks again like how they did during Twilight Auction?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Those abilities will surelye back, but not to the same level as before. So... No.¡±

    ¡°But why?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡±

    Sunders asked Angor to wait for a bit longer.

    They remained silent for several minutes until the nightmare aura fully filled up the entire nightmare domain.

    Further tests told them that the teacups could now reflect level-2 cantrips, while anything more powerful would shatter them easily. Simrly, the toy soldiers could drain level-2 cantrips and unleash the power back out to harm their targets.

    ¡°Your nightmare domain can only contain so much nightmare aura at its current state,¡± Sunders exined. ¡°If you wish for these monsters to grow stronger, you must improve your capacity first. However, the only way to achieve that is to absorb new pieces of nightmare domains. This is as difficult as finding new destinies. And even if you somehow get lucky like how you didst time, I suggest that you do not attempt it before bing a wizard.¡±

    Angor was already satisfied with what he had right now. After all, he could use the nightmare monsters as another defense line against level-2 cantrips.

    Sunders asked Angor to cancel the castle hall. He then unleashed his own nightmare domain, the ¡°dark tower¡±. By doing so, Sunders wished to find out whether Angor¡¯s new hand could replenish nightmare aura for someone else¡¯s domain as well.

    The answer was yes.

    ¡°Those green sigils have a simr effect as nightmare stones, which also release nightmare aura into the surrounding area.¡± Sunders sighed and said, ¡°Nightmare stones are extremely expensive, if you haven¡¯t known. I guess your new hand can help us save a lot of expenses from now on.¡±

    Angor frowned as he remembered a certain invention he saw in Earth movies. As he remembered, that amazing item called a ¡°battery¡± was already considered obsolete in Jon¡¯s world.

 Chapter 570 - To The Auction

    <h4>Chapter 570: To The Auction</h4>

    Sunders did not figure out how or where the nightmare aura was generated. So far, it seemed beneficial to both of them.

    At the end of their testing session, Sunders recorded several more questions in his research notebook and ended their meeting there.

    Angor put on the glove again and waved his right hand while feeling uncertain about it. He guessed that enhancing his illusions was a good thing. Even so, he felt ufortable and unsafe because the strength did not belong to him. Even though the oue turned out to be desirable, it might not stay that way in the long run.

    For now, Angor would consider his new ability a secret weapon used for surprising enemies, while at the same time, he wouldn¡¯t rely on it too much because he might lose it someday.

    Only knowledge and skill gained with diligence and effort was one¡¯s own, true strength. He might have used his hologram tablet to ¡°cheat¡± when drawing runes. Even so, with enough practice, he could very wellplete most of the runes that he was familiar with without the machine¡¯s help. In other words, he fully mastered the skills for real.

    His right hand, however, came to him all of a sudden without going through anyborious endeavor. This wasn¡¯t right.

    He bid farewell to Sunders and returned to the soundproof room to finish his routine meditation. Once done, he took out his energy stabilizer and greyspace microbes as well as some supplementary materials. It was time to work on the storage items that he wanted to sell at the auction.

    ...

    While he worked into thete night, the cultists who were knocked out earlier slowly regained consciousness after lying on the cold ground for almost an entire day.

    It wasn¡¯t a serious issue to lose a fight¡ªthere was no constant winner in this world. Even mighty wizards would asionally run into trouble that they couldn¡¯t handle. However, things were different if ALL elite apprentices sent by Supreme Cult were wiped out in an instant by a single man.

    The situation was made a lot worse when they woke up only to see another shadowy figure, who was covered under ck smoke, standing right next to them.

    The ck Bishop hade.

    The bishop only sent an avatar to the city, yet it was enough to scare all the apprentices into dead silence.

    ¡°Such disgrace...¡± The bishop said in trembling voice as if he couldn¡¯t contain his rage. ¡°Right this moment, the entire city has known that a team of us was defeated by someone at Cork Street without even having a chance to put up a fight. Answer me, whose will are you following?

    ¡°It¡¯s the world¡¯s consciousness!¡± The bishop did not wait for a response. ¡°You have brought shame to its name! You are thew enforcers of this VERY WORLD! And you got knocked out like insects?! You all should end your misery by slitting your necks right here!¡±

    The scolded apprentices knelt with their heads lowered. No one dared to look up.

    For a moment, the bishop did wish to kill these apprentices. Yet he gave up on second thought, as doing so would not help with anything right now. Their defeat was already known by others.

    However... we can still do SOMETHING...

    ¡°Branso, get up. Tell me what happened here. Who sent those infidels upon us? WHO DID THIS?!¡±

    Branso was ck Bishop¡¯s personal student. He was the cultist dressed in an armored robe as well as the person who spoke to Angor in Rosy Boutique.

    As Branso carefully exined their fight earlier, ck Bishop¡¯s expression turned violent again. He thought that a group of rtively strong apprentices had defeated his men, which meant that it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to handle as they just had to find these people again and give them a little ¡°warning¡±.

    But it was just one man! ONE, MAN!

    Also, ording to Branso, the fight ended within several seconds with the offender being totally unharmed.

    If everyone else were to learn about this particr detail, it would then be the biggest joke that ever happened to the Supreme Cult.

    Most importantly, if they were to send people to take revenge against this lone attacker, it would only further smudge their name!

    ¡°Who is it?!¡± The bishop bellowed in rage.

    ¡°Angor Padt, sir.¡±

    ¡°Angor Padt? Angor Padt...¡± the bishop muttered this name several times and finally recalled a certain rising alchemist who was the center of attention among all alchemists who were working at Floating Mech City.

    Naturally, people mainly considered some of the articles that described Angor as a potential Mystery alchemist as jokes to beughed upon. However, wizards as powerful as ck Bishop had their own authoritative sources of information, which meant that they could get more informationpared to ordinary folks.

    He knew that the ¡°rumor¡± was true.

    There were many wizards who attempted to approach Angor recently, either to befriend him or to earn some recognition from Sunders. After all, everybody could see how the gentleman treasured his student. Angor¡¯s promising potential to be a future master alchemist was another reason for people to value him.

    ¡°I see...¡± ck Bishop pondered over the situation. He knew that Angor was an alchemist. Even so, how did an alchemist defeat so many apprentices so easily?

    Unless... he used that ¡°iplete¡± Mystery item? That must be it! Nothing else can exin how a freaking alchemist stood up against my men!

    When thinking about this, the bishop¡¯s anger was greatly reduced. Losing against the owner of a Mystery item, even a defective one, didn¡¯t sound as embarrassing.

    Besides, he couldn¡¯t do anything to Angor right now even if he were toe to the city personally, not when Sunders was still looking. Not only that, Angor was one of the most famous figures in the entire city. Harming him would bring unnecessary trouble to the cult.

    ¡°Okay... listen, it¡¯s fine to lose against him. If you didn¡¯t know, he possessed an iplete Mystery item. But don¡¯t let it happen again! The next time you fight him, do not give him any time to prepare that weapon, and with that, you¡¯ll beat him down without a problem.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll challenge him tomorrow, sir!¡± Branso tapped his sword on the ground and did a knight¡¯s salute.

    ¡°Humph! He¡¯s only an alchemist, not a fighter. Don¡¯t make the matter any moreplicated than it already is! Get back to Sin World tomorrow. All of you!¡±

    With that, the image of ck Bishop vanished.

    The remaining cultists looked at each other hesitantly. The bishop¡¯s words made them feel just a little bit better. Even so, losing was still losing. It was nothing to celebrate for.

    Among them, Sdin was the only one who still had doubts regarding what ck Bishop said.

    That mist... it felt like exactly the same as the Fear cantrip I experienced in the garden. Was that really caused by a Mystery item?

    ...

    As the cultists hurried to leave the dark alleyway, Angor was still focused on his crafting.

    Again, he conveniently ¡°cked off¡± on his job by slotting simple marbles inside pendants shaped as butterfly wings. For one, such items were extremely easy and fast to make. Besides, he could conclude each product as low-level storage items, which meant that there wouldn¡¯t be any alchemy omens.

    By maximizing the possible storage space, each ¡°butterfly ne¡± was a personal storage of 5 cubic meters. On average, each one would usually cost above 20,000 magic crystals. After giving Sunders his share, Angor could still earn 10,000 crystals out of each item.

    Making money was the most urgent task right now. As for further erging the storage space... he could, but it would take a lot of time, while the auction was only about five days away.

    Days quickly passed by while Angor indulged himself in work. As he gained proficiency, each new ne now only took him about 30 hours to make.

    The avable time allowed him toplete three nes. He added some extra paints and contrasts to these three nes, which made them different from the in-colored nes that he made before.

    Currently, he was attempting to finish the fourth and thest ne, which should be a golden one added with ck stripes. Even though the auction would stop epting new entries tonight, he still had enough time toplete his job.

    As nned, he finished his ¡°Darkgold Butterfly¡± before nightfall.

    Stepping out of the soundproof room, he felt tired and sleepy after all thebor he did. Even so, he couldn¡¯t rest yet as he needed to head to the auction and send the items to be registered.

    The sky was still bright with the color of dusk. He arrived at the main stage where Sky Auction would be held. It was one of the biggest structures in the main city district¡ªa multi-floor tower with a giant, round roof.

    A worker listened to Angor¡¯s request and took him to the inspection room. There weren¡¯t many people selling items this time, so he didn¡¯t need to wait for very long.

    The Sky Auction had a restriction that denied items below a certain price level.

    Angor¡¯s Bloodrose Vein and storage items easily earned a pass. Meanwhile, ording to the appraiser, his nes would be disyed earlier in the queue since they were less importantpared to the other items, which was totally expected.

    Once everything was handed in, Angor prepared to leave the inspection room and return to the manor.

    But he halted his movement when a familiar figure came into his view.

 Chapter 571 - Irisaâ€™s Request

    <h4>Chapter 571: Irisa¡¯s Request</h4>

    Short, trimmed red hair, a strange ¡°smiley face¡± mask, lightweight leather wind coat...

    Irisa from Valley of Hurricane.

    Angor wasn¡¯t expecting to see this woman soon after giving her a copy of Crimson Crown. He wondered if she came to the inspection room to sell it.

    It seemed Irisa had finished her item examination and was leaving from the neighboring room. There was an old wizard in a silver robe following closely behind her.

    ¡°Miss-Miss Specter Mask, are you sure you will not sell it during the action? I promise it will be one of the biggest prizes we can present today...¡± The old man was trying to persuade Irisa of something. His robe had pictures of machinery gears sewn on it, and with each movement, the gears appeared as if they were spinning.

    ¡°Leave me already. I¡¯m not selling and that¡¯s final.¡± Irisa didn¡¯t look pleased.

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°Shut it. That thing has nothing to do with the other one, and it¡¯s not like their prices are rted to one another. I¡¯m LEAVING!¡± Irisa yelled thest part to stop the old man from keeping up.

    Disappointed, the old wizard walked back into the inspection room and closed the door.

    They did not use any spells to hide their voices, so everyone around heard them.

    It was likely that they were talking about Crimson Crown. Angor didn¡¯t wish to find out since he already decided to stay out of everything rted to it. To be absolutely safe, he even moved farther away so that Irisa wouldn¡¯t see him.

    For one, helping someone craft a fake treasure wasn¡¯t any honorable deed. Since Sunders warned him not to get involved in Irisa¡¯s business, which might concern the gains and losses of multiple organizations, Angor decided to get away from her as fast as possible.

    But his overreaction was easily noticed by Irisa who, as a wizard, had developed a keen eye.

    ¡°Hey, Angor!¡±

    Before Angor could do anything further, he saw Irisa somehow already standing right next to him. ¡°Mi-Miss Irisa.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been looking for you. You¡¯re attending the auction too? Sunders told me that you¡¯ve locked yourself in a private crafting session when I went to his ce. Guess you were working on stuff to sell?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Miss Irisa. I made some small trinkets so that I can get some extra cash to spend.¡±

    Irisa simply wanted to strike a topic and keep talking from there, so she didn¡¯t question what ¡°trinkets¡± Angor had made. ¡°I have something to discuss with you. Let¡¯s go somewhere private.¡±

    ¡°No no, Miss Irisa. My teacher demanded that I get back to his manor beforete hours. It¡¯s already getting dark. Can we talk here if it¡¯s okay?¡±

    Irisa frowned as she didn¡¯t believe Angor¡¯s excuse. Even so, she couldn¡¯t use violence either.

    ¡°Alright, now listen...¡±

    Her lips moved, but instead of voicing out her words, she directly transferred what she was saying to Angor¡¯s mind using magic ripples.

    While ¡°listening¡±, Angor¡¯s expression changed from neutral to confusion before ending with a tight frown.

    ¡°... No, I cannot do that. I¡¯m afraid you must find a better alchemist.¡±

    ¡°But people said you almost seeded once!¡±

    ¡°That was an ident, Miss Irisa. By some coincidence, when I was crafting the item at Dark Castle, I attracted the undead energy that built up over several thousand years, which was what helped me to finish my work. It¡¯s impossible to recreate the process anywhere else. You must know that the level of a Mystery item isn¡¯t something you can ask for. Even the best alchemists in history needed luck and all kinds of unknown blessings for that.¡±

    Irisa tilted her head in confusion and moaned, ¡°Fine. I¡¯m gonna keep Goman King hanging then.¡±

    Angor pretended that he didn¡¯t hear anything.

    Since Angor said no, Irisa let him go without saying anything else.

    She moaned again while she watched Angor¡¯s figure disappearing at the end of the street. Argh! I had such a nice n to get away from Goman King once and for all. What a bummer...

    She couldn¡¯t think of anyone else in Floating Mech City who might work on a Mystery item.

    ¡°Sorry, dear brother...¡±

    ...

    Angor hadpletely forgotten about what Irisa just said to him. He didn¡¯t have another choice anyway since it waspletely impossible for him to help with Irisa¡¯s request.

    Irisa basically asked him to craft another Mystery item.

    And such items were called ¡°Mystery¡± for a good reason.

    Upon arriving at Sunders¡¯ manor, the overwhelming drowsiness that was built up over thest few days quickly got the best of him. Angor was nning to talk to Greya and find out what kind of ¡°illusion item¡± she wanted next, but he found his bed to be more enticing as he could no longer keep his eyes from closing.

    ...

    He woke up in the afternoon, and this was because of Sunders¡¯ voice transmission, which told him that the auction would start soon.

    In a haste, Angor dealt with his dressing and hygienic problems. He then put on a tight-fitting gentleman suit and stepped out of the door.

    A ck caravan that was pulled by two bulky ck horses was ready outside. Angor and Sunders boarded the vehicle and headed to the auction site together.

    ¡°Why are we using a carriage, sir?¡± Angor spoke first to break the silence. He believed flying or even walking on legs was faster than usingmon horses.

    Sunders showed aplicated expression, about which Angor had no problemprehending.

    ¡°Ah, I see. Formality.¡±

    Sunders always acted as a cultured noble gentleman in the eyes of others. When attending such a grand event held in the city, of course he would follow the basic disciplines.

    Whether he liked it or not, Angor had to apany Sunders like this while acting like another young gentleman.

    He thought they would be an embarrassing sight by arriving in a showy vehicle, but he stopped worrying about it soon, especially when he saw many wizards moving around in weirder manners.

    For example, there was a wizard who insisted on entering the auction while carrying a ten-meter-long orange tree full of juicy oranges growing on it.

    The gatekeeper wizard checked his identity and let him in without a problem.

    There were more people who came to the scene in carriages. In fact, Sunders¡¯ own vehicle was not so outstanding among them, since there were even carts pulled by giant eagles.

    Compared to them, Sunders¡¯ image of a traditional patrician was totally eptable, if not humble.

    Naturally, just likest time, Sunders easily earned a spot in one of the VIP rooms.

    A waiter took them into ¡°Room 012¡±, which was located on the third level of the main auction hall. The room was at a position that allowed them to directly look at the auction stage below without being blocked by any obstacles.

    As the auctioneer professionally did her job, a number of items came and went swiftly.

    The items that were brought out earlier were usuallymon consumables such as potions. The lots were quite expensive since they were usually provided in bulk, yet the auctioneer did not have many words to say about them.

    Compared to the items, Angor was more interested in the auctioneer standing on the stage. She was a middle-aged woman dressed in a silver city uniform and a traditional hair bun while carrying a persistent stern expression.

    ¡°Why is she here, professor?¡± Angor asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°She is originally from the city.¡± Sunders grinned. ¡°Guess she didn¡¯t find whatever she¡¯s looking for at Brute Cavern, so she came home.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s looking for something in Brute Cavern?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s the daughter of ¡®Neo Beast¡¯. Do you think she stayed in Brute Cavern and got herself amon job in Sky Tower without a reason?¡± Usually, Sunders would not tell too much irrelevant information to his students. However, he believed that Angor¡¯s scary potential would soon grant the boy a spot to learn about critical secrets in the organization, so it wouldn¡¯t hurt to tell him now.

    ¡°¡®Neo Beast¡¯?¡± Angor repeated that name. ¡°You mean Mntha is Lawson¡¯s daughter?¡±

    Sunders nodded.

    It was Mntha who assisted Angor to bypass a restriction in Sky Tower. For this reason, Angor once considered her a great helper. However, after the battle against Parasite Queen, the names of both Mntha and Baroque only suggested enmity to him.

    He tried to remember Lawson¡¯s face while looking at Mntha.

    These two looked nothing alike. Well, maybe they both had that serious expression that they never lifted. But even the expression didn¡¯t look identical on them. Lawson was usually cold-tempered and emotionless, while Mntha was only an old-fashioneddy who couldn¡¯t smile very well.

    ¡°I believe Mntha returned to the city to find ¡®the path¡¯. Pity. There¡¯s not much Lawson can do to help her,¡± Sundersmented.

    ¡°The path? The path of truth?¡±

    ¡°Correct. She has been too focused on finding her path, which is exactly what¡¯s slowing her down...¡± Sunders looked away and murmured, ¡°Just like Flora.¡±

    ¡°Miss Flora is looking for the path of truth, but she¡¯s also too focused? What does that mean?¡±

    Sunders chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re doing it right now. You¡¯re thinking too much about it when you shouldn¡¯t.¡±

    Angor only grew more confused after listening to Sunders¡¯ words. Despite having more questions, he didn¡¯t have time to ask because he saw his nes being brought to the stage.

 Chapter 572 - Travel In Dreamland

    <h4>Chapter 572: Travel In Dreand</h4>

    Just as the appraiser predicted, his items were scheduled in the first half of the session.

    The auction did not sell all the nes at once. Instead, they divided them and presented one each time several other lots were sold.

    Angor¡¯s products were low-ss storage holders. He originally estimated that each item would earn him twenty to thirty thousand crystals, but the actual bidding price went a little higher because there waspetition. This was also the reason why he took the items to the auction instead of selling them to other shops.

    After paying auctionmission and part of the ie to Sunders, Angor believed that each ne would bring him about ten thousand crystals. Selling four meant 40,000 in total. This was a big fortune even to some of the most powerful wizards.

    Despite that, whenpared to the prices of other lots, forty thousand crystals was like a drop in the oceanpletely negligible.

    Angor was hoping that he could use the money to buy some materials that he might use in the future, but in the end, he simply gave up because the final bid of every single item would reach at least ten thousand.

    He might be able to afford one or two lots, but he was not going to stock something he couldn¡¯t use any time soon.

    Sunders, on the other hand, won several spell mediums that weremonly used by wizards to cast spells easier. At the same time, such items could assist wizards to create new forms of spells. As a truth-finder wizard, most of Sunders¡¯ spells were unique. Still, the gentleman would like to constantly discover new ones.

    The auction entered a brief resting session after the 100th item was sold. There would be ten minutes for them to rest. In addition to letting their customers catch some respite, the auction also meant to tell them that those who couldn¡¯t participate in thepetition for the better items should leave as soon as possible.

    During the ¡°2nd session¡±, Angor noticed that the starting bids of the items were still eptable.

    There were more interesting entities being shown here, such as otherworldly ves.

    ¡°This creature can only speak lies...¡±

    ¡°This is a Finkenel. While 95% of its body resembles us humans, its internalyout ispletely different...¡±

    ¡°Someone sent us two ves. A Multi-Eyed Demon and a Grave Ghoul...¡±

    Most of the ves were extremely expensive because bringing them here required a huge amount of effort, such as transporting them across thousands of different nes. Listening to Mntha¡¯s exnation also helped Angor earn some basic insight into the countless foreign nes out there.

    There was a 3rd session of the auction. Angor knew that he could do nothing more than observing it since the bids would start at seven digits minimum. These lots were only intended for high-level wizards.

    Soon, Angor¡¯s Bloodrose Vein was brought up.

    The bid for the simple yet generally useful material easily reached 230,000 crystals, which was 30,000 higher than the appraiser¡¯s estimated value.

    Angor had to give 150,000 to Sunders as well as a percentage as themission fee, leaving him a profit of about 60,000 crystals.

    The sessful sale made him understand why so many wizards, including Sunders, considered Nightmare Realm a treasure vault. Each wizard-level monster was like a walking pile of money, and the Nightmare Realm was full of them! Too bad Angor couldn¡¯t defeat them yet.

    As the auction approached its end, even though he was not the one buying, Angor still felt his heart racing in excitement when the following bids reached ten million or more.

    When it was time for thest two items, Mntha took out a scroll from a safe storage and showed it to the participants.

    Angor looked and did not find any energy signatures on the item, which meant it was an ordinary scroll used for recording information instead of a magic scroll.

    There was only a simple line of words written in an ornamental style used in ancient times, which was exposed on the outside. There was no other decoration or binding on it.

    ¡°It¡¯s written by wizards from the old days?¡± Angor muttered. The texture of the scroll suggested that it existed before paper was invented.

    But he denied that idea when he noticed that he could actually read the line of words.

    ¡°¡®Travel in Dreand¡¯?¡± he read the name aloud. ¡°Is it like the traveling diary written by Feinwerder?¡±

    Sunders, who had been staying quiet most of the time, gave Angor a quick answer, ¡°Yes, that should be it.¡±

    It took Angor some time toprehend those words, which were irrelevant to his question. ¡°Is that the scroll that contained Nightmare Realm-rted information that you mentioned before?¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°I heard that the scroll is called ¡®Travel In Dreand¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Did ancient wizards call Nightmare Realm the ¡®Dreand¡¯?¡± Angor wondered.

    He went through his memory, but he did not find anything that was rted to such a name.

    He thought his professor might be cultured enough to provide an answer, but Sunders only shook his head upon hearing Angor¡¯s next question.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard about the Fantasy Realm and Fantasy ne. But no, I know nothing about this ¡®Dreand¡¯ ce.¡±

    Mntha was now speaking to everyone using her magic-enhanced voice, ¡°Travel in Dreand is a travel journal left by a wizard from primeval times.¡±

    The other wizards looked at each other in doubt. What was so special about someone¡¯s journal? Even the journal of an ancient wizard did not hold much value because ¡°modern¡± wizards would usually do better and faster jobs traveling to other nes and realms. They did not understand why the auction decided to ce the scroll sote in the queue.

    Unless... the item contained some special information or that the item developed its own intellect and became alive, like how Elder of Books of Brute Cavern was born from a book.

    Some of the wizards who heard about the scroll beforehand, including Sunders, remained patient and waited for Mntha¡¯s further exnation.

    ¡°Before you believe this to be another ordinary travel diary, I should tell you that ording to our most trusted appraisers, the ¡®travel¡¯ written in the title referred to the Nightmare Realm...¡±

    Someone immediately protested. The name of Nightmare Realm was made known to wizards several centuries ago, and only a few people managed to get there and return. How did the auction ascertain their conclusion?

    The ¡°most trusted appraisers¡± might not be as credible as they imed to be.

    Without minding the opposing ideas, Mntha continued, ¡°The consignor told us that the scroll holds some secrets rted to some of the core areas of Nightmare Realm, which includes but not limited to, the locations of wonderful treasures. Now, we shall begin bidding at 600,000 magic crystals. If anyone is interested, you know what to do.¡±

    This was the highest starting price seen today.

    Mntha waited for a while, only to see several impolite apprentices booing at her. Then she nced at the third level where the VIP rooms were located. Truth was, the scroll was intended for VIP guests since only a selected few among them knew how to explore elements rted to the Nightmare Realm.

    Yet Mntha was getting a bit uneasy when she saw no response from the VIPs either.

    ¡°Nobody heard about this ¡®Dreand¡¯ before, Mntha, and the auction only gave us empty words. How do you prove to us that the scroll is really connected to Nightmare Realm?¡± Someone who sounded pretty old spoke from Room 011, which was right next to Sunders¡¯ room.

    ¡°That¡¯s Old Qetesh from Sleepless City. So he came as well... Just right. He once found a fortune from Nightmare Realm too.¡±

    ¡°You mean¡ª¡± Angor widened his eyes.

    ¡°Yes. He once entered Nightmare Realm and somehow escaped alive while bringing some extra items with him.¡±

    Any wizard who went into the Nightmare Realm would tell others that the ce was deadly and horrific. Yet every time that there was a rumor or clue about Nightmare Realm, these wizards would go after it faster than anyone else for they knew better than anyone else that great fortune apanied great danger.

    Mntha was a little astonished to hear Qetesh¡¯sment, but she recovered soon enough and put on her professional smile as she said, ¡°As per our agreement with the current owner of the scroll, we cannot read the content. I apologize, Mister Qetesh, for we cannot prove that ¡®Dreand¡¯ is Nightmare Realm.¡±

    ¡°¡®Our most trusted appraisers¡¯, or so you said. So what exactly did they do?¡± Qetesh¡¯s words sounded like sarcasm this time.

    ¡°I can assure you that what I have said is the truth.¡± Mntha frowned as she thought about the individual who refused to entrust the other item to Sky Auction. ¡°Mister Qetesh, do you think we, Sky Auction, will ruin our hard-earned fame by presenting a fake scroll to so many customers? Please trust me. I have a reason when I said our conclusion is dependable.¡±

    When seeing Mntha using the name of Sky Auction as ¡°insurance¡±, Qetesh decided not to argue with her.

    However, not everyone trusted Sky Auction¡¯s dignity.

    ¡°This is my first timeing here, and I don¡¯t give a damn about your credit. You better do something to convince me that I won¡¯t be buying a piece of junk, or don¡¯t waste my time.¡±

    Angor listened to the female voice that he couldn¡¯t recognize and looked at Sunders again, hoping for a hint.

    ¡°She... why did shee here?¡± Sunders frowned.

    ¡°Who is that, professor?¡±

    Sunders hesitated for a bit and decided to tell his student. ¡°That¡¯s Sennefer, a very powerful Bloodline wizard, and one of the highmanders of Moonfrost Union who are in charge of their expedition teams. She stays at the other nes most of the time.¡±

    ¡°Sennefer? The ¡®Witch of Wastnd¡¯?¡±

    Sunders nodded to confirm.

    ¡°I see. Sennefer...¡± Angor repeated the witch¡¯s name, about which he heard a lot from Nausica.

 Chapter 573 - An Ancient Nightmare Form

    <h4>Chapter 573: An Ancient Nightmare Form</h4>

    ¡°Witch of Wastnd¡± Sennefer.

    Sennefer was considered a great heroine among all witches even if one did not consider her position in Moonfrost Union.

    Throughout history, the number of witches was always slimpared to wizards. And even fewer, when it came to witches with great achievements. Females were usually more prone to emotional affairs. There were many stories based on how a witch felt content for finding true love and thus giving up her future ambitions.

    However, such emotions were extremely fragile when wizards and witches tended to live long lives. Very few people could maintain their bonds to the end. And when such bonds were broken, witches were more likely to be victims who had their faith crippled.

    Sennefer, however, was a very different witchpared to others. This woman hadpletely given up on finding affection and love¡ªshe based her lifestyle solely on her own ideals, even more so than most wizards.

    Sennefer was a true genius. In less than a century, she became a level-2 wizard and found the ¡°path of truth¡±. Such a feat was almost as astounding as what Sunders had done.

    She was a Bloodline wizard too, which made her a perfect model for Nausica to study from.

    When he was with Nausica, Angor often heard her speaking of Sennefer¡¯s name as well as the many symbolic battles disyed by the great witch.

    ¡°That¡¯s Miss Sennefer... Did she go to the Nightmare Realm before?¡± Angor was curious to find out.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that,¡± Sunders shook his head and said, ¡°maybe, and maybe not. She constantly stays at the front line of foreign ne expeditions and helps Moonfrost Union handle news regarding new discoveries. Do you remember who told everyone about Greya¡¯s fall? It¡¯s the Union.¡±

    ¡°You mean... the Union can choose to keep the information confidential if they want to?¡±

    ¡°Information blockade is possible in the mortal world but not to wizards. To us, the only thing that matters is whether we want to know something. If we do, there is always a way.¡±

    Angor quickly recalled more than one approach for ascertaining the truth, such as truth-telling spells and skills used by prophets.

    ¡°Whether Sennefer has been to the Nightmare Realm doesn¡¯t concern us.¡± Sunders narrowed his eyes as he spoke again, ¡°What we should know is that she is interested in the Nightmare Realm. The real question is, is it Sennefer or the Moonfrost Union who¡¯s after the scroll.¡±

    Angor knew that his professor meant to talk about some other fishy business that involved the Union, and he somehow got an overall idea. ¡°Which one do you prefer, sir?¡±

    ¡°Well, I do hope that it¡¯s the Union looking for the Nightmare Realm. As for the reason...¡± The gentleman nced at Angor. ¡°I think you can tell.¡±

    Angor shifted to a morefortable position on the sofa. He knew what Sunders meant. Sennefer was strong enough to venture into the Nightmare Realm and even find treasures. If the entire Moonfrost Union decided to explore the Nightmare Realm by sending a team in, they mighte back after receiving some serious beating, or they might note back at all. To Sunders, who always disliked the Union, it was something worthughing for.

    Even if the Union somehow found new stuff in the Nightmare Realm, this would always benefit other explorers such as Sunders.

    While Sunders and Angor talked about the Union, several other guests from the other VIP rooms spoke to support Sennefer¡¯s question. They all hoped that Sky Auction could give them a better exnation regarding Travel In Dreand.

    ording to Sunders, many of the speakers entered the Nightmare Realm before. It seemed Sky Auction¡¯s ¡°bluff¡± was very sessful as they attracted so many Nightmare Realm explorers to them.

    Since so many important guests demanded so, Mntha finally decided toply.

    ¡°As you can see, the seal of the scroll is intact, which means we did not and cannot check what is inside yet. However, the consignor of the scroll just sent us a message and told us a portion of the texts. Please listen to it and then make your decision.¡±

    Her words instantly silenced all whisperers on the scene as everyone paid great attention to what was toe.

    Since they already saw so many Nightmare Realm explorers, who usually stayed far away from public attention, attending the auction, they knew that the scroll offered by the auction was not a trick.

    ¡°ording to the scroll, apart from the abundant Mystery items that can be found around the Nightmare Realm, there is also a mysterious shelter full of such items, such as a magic mirror which can copy absolutely everything, a swing that maniptes someone¡¯s very fate, a box that presents one with different surprises each time one opens it... ¡±

    Mntha couldn¡¯t help frowning as she read the message. Is this even possible?!

    None of the participants trusted those words. Several people evenughed loudly.

    Mntha paused as she was unsure whether she should continue.

    ¡°Do not use your trifling brains to judge the Nightmare Realm!¡± someone from a VIP room suddenly bellowed and silenced everyone again.

    The speaker was known by everyone as Graves, the only Nightmare Realm explorer who agreed to publish his story in Expedition into Endless nes.

    Graves was a truth-finder wizard from Chapel of Mystical Fife and was another symbolic genius during his earlier years together with Sennefer. Unfortunately, this man fell a little behind as time went by. He was only a level-1 wizard now.

    Since an ¡°acknowledged¡± Nightmare Realm explorer revealed his attitude, those who wereining earlier all stayed quiet.

    Mntha raised an eyebrow as she considered what she just heard.

    So this scroll is real after all? I see, so they weren¡¯t overestimating the true value of the Nightmare Realm...

    She spoke again after regaining her professional and neutral look, ¡°The scroll recorded the exact location of the shelter. Anyone who wins this scroll may go and confirm the reliability of it by yourself.¡±

    Everyone perked up upon hearing this.

    But soon, they deted again when they heard Sennefer¡¯s voice:

    ¡°So what? How do you enter the Nightmare Realm in the first ce? Nobody can tell when or how a tunnel will show up. Besides, I highly doubt that message. I won¡¯t exin why because everyone who knew about Nightmare Realm must have already noticed.¡±

    Sunders chuckled. ¡°Forget what I said earlier. Now I¡¯m sure Sennefer went inside Nightmare Realm at least once.¡±

    Angor nodded as he alsoprehended the message hidden in Sennefer¡¯s words.

    Mntha, however, couldn¡¯t understand why Sennefer said so. As the auctioneer, she chose to stick to her job by finishing the ¡°message¡± she received from the scroll¡¯s provider. ¡°There is more. Any memory that involves Mystery-level items or indescribable presences will be deleted from your mind once you leave Nightmare Realm. But it seems that theposer of this scroll is not affected by such a rule.¡±

    No one protested this time.

    Sennefer openly said her opinion just because she knew about the ¡°memory loss¡± issue. Sunders was also an example because the gentleman knew there was ¡°a certain amazing channeling method book¡± in Nether City, yet he couldn¡¯t remember its name or content.

    How was it possible that someone recorded the properties of Mystery items in such a detailed manner?

    However, if the author of the scroll could escape from the memory deletion problem...

    Thus, by mentioning this problem, it had already told the other Nightmare Realm explorers that the ¡°Dreand¡± mentioned by the scroll referred to the Nightmare Realm.

    ¡°Six hundred thousand.¡±

    Qetesh offered his bid first.

    ¡°Sixty-five hundred!¡±

    ¡°Seventy!¡±...

    After several calls from the VIP guests, the bid was increased to one million within a matter of seconds, and at the same time, this told the other participants that the scroll was probably real.

    Everyone, including those who mocked Mntha earlier, gazed at the item with passionate and coveting looks.

    Meanwhile, a certain young guest in Room 012 was thinking about another question.

    ¡°A Nightmare Form?...¡± Angor looked at his professor. The concept of ¡°Nightmare Form¡± shed in his mind as soon as he heard Mntha talking about someone who kept his memory.

    ording to Sunders, only Nightmare Forms could fully retain their memories upon leaving the Nightmare Realm. Or to be precise, high-level Nightmare Forms.

    Sunders considered and nodded firmly. ¡°Correct. A Nightmare Form is also called a ¡®Nightmare Watcher¡¯ by the natives living in Nightmare Realm. But the talent of a Nightmare Form cannot be observed before one enters Nightmare Realm for real. So, there was someone else in history who was lucky enough to stumble into Nightmare Realm as a Nightmare Form and made it out, just like you.¡±

    Compared to this, Angor was more interested in the fact that Nightmare Realm existed since ancient times.

    But why didn¡¯t any mighty wizard mention it then? Well, we have someone who called it ¡°Dreand¡± and that¡¯s about it. There should be more records!

    ¡°Perhaps Nightmare Realm existed very far from the wizarding world previously. So far, that the distance isn¡¯t something that can be exined by human knowledge. And by chance, someone found a tunnel to it, which soon disappeared. Whereas recently, the Nightmare Realm has been moving ¡®closer¡¯ to our world, thus allowing more tunnels to show up.¡±

    It was Sunders¡¯ assumption. Without solid proof, he could only provide these opinions.

    ¡°I think the scroll is honestly a record about Nightmare Realm, so um...¡± Angor saw his professor lost in thought and decided to remind him of something. ¡°Professor? The price is reaching two million now. Aren¡¯t you going to join thepetition?¡±

 Chapter 574 - Sonance Abysm And Fountain Of Souls

    <h4>Chapter 574: Sonance Abysm And Fountain Of Souls</h4>

    When Angor spoke to Sunders, the price of Travel In Dreand was pushed to two million magic crystals by Sennefer.

    Angor still remembered how Sunders won the ¡°Cursing Puppet¡± from Twilight Auction by paying seven million. At that time, he did not feel impressed when hearing the results from others. But now that he was witnessing all the wizards getting tangled in a heated price war up close, he felt a kind of great excitement in his blood that was ignited by something called ¡°money¡±.

    And when the VIP guests offered millions of crystals like it was nothing, Angor couldn¡¯t help but feel a monster called ¡°poverty¡± making it hard for him to breathe.

    He was not the only one feeling disturbed when seeing rich wizards throwing money like this. In normal circumstances, 10,000 was already a big number in the eyes of most wizards.

    The bid was soon elevated to three million, and even then, Sunders had still not joined the fight. Also, it seemed the VIP guests weren¡¯t feeling so rxed either.

    ¡°*Cough*¡± Someone in a VIP room hacked and painfully gasped for air. ¡°That¡¯s about everything I¡¯ve saved up in my entire life... Are you all really going to bully a poor old woman?¡±

    ¡°Miss Kikyo... I believe you¡¯re anything but ¡®poor¡¯ after you sold those witch stew of yours. Really now?¡± Qetesh humphed loudly.

    ¡°You¡¯re wasting money on something that can be easily copied. Say, how about I take this one? We¡¯ll make sure to distribute copies of the scroll to you,¡± said Sennefer.

    ¡°Get out of my sight. We all know how Moonfrost Union do their shady works!¡± Graves scoffed.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s... what¡¯s your name again, friend from the Chapel? Did your sanity break down after falling behind my steps and you want to vent out your rage on the Union?¡± Sennefer sounded sarcastic as she said those words.

    Graves humped again and did not say anything further.

    Angor frowned as he watched the truth-finder wizards verbally assault each other in the open and realized that the whole matter was more serious than he thought.

    The offers obviously slowed down once the price reached 3.5 million, as the VIP guest revalued the true profit held by the scroll.

    Meanwhile, Angor got over the excitement that was brought by the disy of wealth.

    ¡°I think Sennefer is right, professor. Surely someone can make copies of the scroll. Fighting like this will only give all the money to Sky Auction and that seller.¡±

    ¡°See that glowing seal on it?¡± Sunders pointed to the scroll where several runes were shining. ¡°Items affected by such a seal can only be read once. If others want to learn what was written in the scroll, they must pray that the first witness tells them the truth. Do you think Sennefer would share the knowledge after winning the scroll?¡±

    ¡°But we can always use truth detection spells or simr methods.¡±

    ¡°For one, being inspected in this way is humiliating. Also, someone as strong as Sennefer has many ways to cheat such spells.¡±

    The current bid was 3.7 million, and only Sennefer and Qetesh were still bidding now.

    Whereas Qetesh didn¡¯t seem so sure about this anymore, Sennefer still looked rather confident.

    When Qetesh remained silent for a long while, the others knew that he had reached his financial limit.

    ¡°Three point seventy-five,¡± Qetesh offered again after careful consideration.

    ¡°Three point seventy-six.¡± Sennefer did not even hesitate for a second.

    The difference wasn¡¯t so muchpared to his earlier bid, but Qetesh still gave up.

    ¡°Three million and seventy-six, going once. Going twice...¡± Mntha saw Qetesh¡¯s attitude and proceeded with her job.

    As Sennefer got ready to wee her undeniable victory, Sunders suddenly surprised everyone when he said in his in and calm voice, ¡°Four million.¡±

    Nobody questioned who was in Room 012 because they already knew.

    No one would deny the fact that Sunders was currently the strongest wizard attending the auction. Even Sennefer, as another level-2 truth-finder wizard, had no hope in defeating Sunders if they were to fight for real. Sennefer attained her current level not long ago, while Sunders had already reached the summit of his level and was ready to challenge level-3.

    As the other guests wondered why the gentleman suddenly decided to go against Sennefer, Sennefer raised her offer again. ¡°Four million and a hundred thousand.¡±

    ¡°Four point five million.¡±

    Sennefer grabbed the sofa she was sitting on so tightly that her fingernails sunk into it. Sunders¡¯st offer happened to be her st line¡±¡ªshe brought 4.5 million in total; it was all she had.

    But she did not say anything. It was Sunders she was going up against, not Graves.

    Sennefer clenched her fists and chose to give up.

    After dropping her gavel, Mntha concluded, ¡°The Travel In Dreand goes to VIP 012. Congrattions.¡±

    The other VIPs felt bad because Sunders¡¯ brief and decisive blow made all their earlier quarrels seem like jokes.

    Angor was looking at his professor with his eyes widened as well. He knew Sunders was rich, but he didn¡¯t know he was THIS rich. But again, it waspletely possible since Sunders was free to explore the Nightmare Realm.

    With that in mind, Angor felt d that he was also blessed with a great talent that allowed him to look for fortune in the same ce.

    There were still two items to be brought up, so Angor calmed his mind and waited for more surprises.

    Sunders, on the other hand, was looking at somewhere on the first level with a strange expression while moving his lips in silence.

    He wasmunicating with someone in private.

    When it was done, he fixed his gaze on Angor again. Meanwhile, Angor waspletely oblivious of his professor¡¯s movements and that final, meaningful look.

    The secondst item was a portable fortress invented by the city¡¯s research department. It was said to be a piece of tactical equipment created by multiple master alchemists, including the city¡¯s vice president of the research department.

    The item held superior offensive and defensive capabilities as well as great mobility. Using this, anyone couldmence flexible operations in different environments.

    Angor looked at the item and quickly thought about the ¡°space ships¡± he saw from certain movies. He only thought about it in a general sense because the overall designs, as well as many details, were quite different.

    A representative from a certain wizard n bought the item at three million crystals.

    It was finally time for thest and probably the most important lot for the entire monthly auction.

    Angor waited excitedly, but he did not see anything being taken out.

    Just as he thought there was something wrong with the arrangements, Mntha suddenly said, ¡°Thest lot is as always. But we will also provide an extra entry allowance to train in the Fountain of Souls. Let¡¯s begin!¡±

    Before Angor could even figure out what she meant, the bid had already reached three million.

    Simr to before, he looked at Sunders so that he could ask about it. However, he didn¡¯t say anything because he noticed that the gentleman was staring at him with a weird look.

    ¡°Professor?¡±

    Sunders looked away and checked the auction stage. ¡°Ahem. It is a convention for Sky Auction to sell a ticket into ¡®Sonance Abysm¡¯, which is... a certain ce created by a Mystery item. It helps you discover the path of truth. But only a small chance. After all, all wizards need their own insight and intuition for the discovery. Even if someone manages to find the path of truth by using extra help... they¡¯ll only be considered the weaker ones among all truth finders. As for the Fountain of Souls...¡±

    Sunders suddenly revealed a disdaining look. ¡°The souls of all dead monsters and apprentices in the purification garden all went into the Fountain of Souls, and after going through a certain cultivation process, the city can create another resource that assists you in finding the path of truth. However, this is an even worse method for cheating your way through the journey. Those who use such an approach might be unable to grow stronger ever again.¡±

    ¡°But... if it is impossible for someone to achieve the path of truth on their own, such help is worthwhile,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Worthwhile? Hah! The Sonance Abysm works by stimting your innovations and helping you to invent new spells, which is usually what helps to create one¡¯s true path. As for the Fountain of Souls... it forcefully injects the intelligence of other souls into your mind, which MIGHT grant you the knowledge of the truth. Yet it remains to be seen whether the soul that survives in the end is still you.

    ¡°I suggest that you do not think about such trickery. Look at Flora. She¡¯s been struggling with finding her path, yet she will never ept these double-edged workarounds, which are very likely to ruin her future potential.¡±

    Angor nodded obediently.

    The auction reached its curtain fall smoothly... if one did not mind the debate centered around Travel In Dreand.

    Angor did not pay attention to who won the ¡°ticket¡± in the end. After collecting their respective items, he and Sunders left the auction site in the same carriage.

    Angor took a brief nap on the vehicle. The sleepst night didn¡¯t fully help him mend his fatigued spirit, which was caused by working day and night for so long. The tranquility in the nightbined with the gentle swaying of the carriage helped him to quickly fall asleep.

    It was an hourter when he woke at the pleasant smell of hot tea.

    They were still inside the vehicle. Sunders was holding a teacup while casually reading the scroll.

    ¡°We haven¡¯t arrived yet?¡± Angor sat up and looked through the window.

    He saw lit buildings and bustling crowds outside, which suggested they were in the main city district, but not the suburbs where Sunders¡¯ garden manor was.

    Sunders slowly folded Travel In Dreand. Under the effect of the magical seal on it, the item turned into dust in his hand.

    ¡°We¡¯re going somewhere else. I¡¯m taking you to the person who sold the scroll at the auction.¡±

    ¡°Uh, the seller?¡± Angor frowned. What does he mean by ¡°taking me¡±?

    ¡°Because she asked to see you directly.¡±

 Chapter 575 - â€œBorrowedâ€ Treasure

    <h4>Chapter 575: ¡°Borrowed¡± Treasure</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Thirty minutester...

    ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting for you, Angor!¡±

    Even across her mask, Angor could tell from her cheerful voice that the woman was smiling widely.

    The woman then spoke to Sunders politely, ¡°Thank you, Mister Phantom. I¡¯ll not take any more of your time now.¡±

    Sunders nodded while the woman quickly disappeared into the crowds.

    Angor looked at the crimson crown in his hand with a sad look. For some reason, this ¡°fake treasure¡± had found its way back to him.

    Earlier tonight, Angor was very confused when Sunders said that they would be meeting the provider of <i>Travel In Dreand</i>, who requested to meet Angor personally.

    Until Angor realized that Irisa was this ¡°provider¡±.

    Also, this was not the only coincidence. During their brief meeting, Irisa imed that apart from the scroll, she possessed another item that came from the shelter mentioned in <i>Travel In Dreand.</i>

    Angor recalled what he heard outside the inspection room yesterday and realized that this second item was what the appraiser asked Irisa to sell at the auction.

    It could be clearly seen from Sunders¡¯ face that the gentleman REALLY wanted to get this item.

    Irisa summoned Angor just to discuss this matter. She would give the second item to them if Angor could help her grant a Mystery effect to the fake crown.

    Of course, Angor would like to refuse just like how he did yesterday. For one, he didn¡¯t want to be involved in Irisa¡¯s business, which was potentially dangerous. And secondly, he did not know how to create Mystery effects.

    However...

    Angor moaned and gave his teacher an even sadder look. ¡°Why would you agree to something like that? You know it¡¯s impossible for me to finish such a request.¡±

    They were talking inside Sunders¡¯ luxurious carriage, around which Sunders had deployed a soundproof ward.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I was the one that agreed to her request, and I¡¯ll not upy your time or effort.¡±

    ¡°Uh, are you going to enchant the item yourself, sir?¡±

    Sunders almost rolled his eyes. ¡°You know, you¡¯re better as an alchemist than me. How can I do something that you can¡¯t do?¡±

    ¡°Then... do you know another alchemist who can help?¡±

    Sunders shook his head again.

    Angor suddenly reached a shocking conclusion.

    ¡°Are you perhaps¡ª¡± ... <i>Going to break your promise... or even dispose of Irisa?</i>

    When Sunders agreed to Irisa¡¯s request, he received the said ¡°second item¡± from her. It was a wooden lock full of nightmare energy. After making sure the item was real, Sunders put it away in his gravity garden.

    Given that Irisa trusted Sunders so easily, Angor didn¡¯t expect that the other end of their deal would end up like this.

    Sunders chuckled at Angor¡¯s terrified look. ¡°Well... I can certainly make her disappear. But I¡¯m not the type to go back on my words.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s our n then? Just in case, there¡¯s no way I can even try to make an attempt at it.¡±

    ¡°We can probably count how many people who once reached out to Mystery-level items with one hand. You¡¯re the only one known to the public and the easiest to find. Even if you can¡¯t do it, it¡¯s not like she can find another person to help, so we don¡¯t have to pretend at all. Just tell her that we can¡¯t do it, and everything¡¯s settled.¡±

    Angor¡¯s mouth fell agape. <i>Why did you ept her request in the first ce?!</i>

    Sunders sighed when he noticed that his student still didn¡¯t get his idea.

    ¡°Do you know why I want this lock?¡±

    ¡°I... I don¡¯t, professor.¡±

    Sunders nced at him and took out a small vial from his storage in which a worming Twisting Protozoa was crawling about.

    ¡°Ohhh... you want to find the shelter by using this lock?¡±

    ¡°Correct. However, I¡¯m not interested in the shelter or the Mystery items inside because we probably can¡¯t take any back even if we find them. I¡¯m nning to explore a new location, and Irisa¡¯s lock is a ¡®seed¡¯ which can take us there.¡±

    In other words, Sunders meant to remove ¡°fog of war¡± on his expedition map so that they would have one extra destination to exploreter.

    ¡°Once we find this new ce, we¡¯ll no longer need this lock. I¡¯ll then return the item to her and tell her that we have failed. There¡¯ll be no promises broken because I have never said that I¡¯llplete the crown for sure.¡±

    Even so, this was still an embarrassing thing to do since it damaged both Sunders¡¯ personal image as an educated gentleman and as someone¡¯s teacher.

    Angor finally understood the entire thing. Sunders wanted to earn a free ticket to a new site in the Nightmare Realm without paying anything to Irisa. At most, he might earn several negativements, which would be eptable.

    Thinking about this, Angor put away his earlier concerns¡ªthe whole business had nothing to do with him.

    ¡°But you should still try to do something about this crown,¡± Sunders said as he nced at the item in Angor¡¯s hand. ¡°We cannot tell whether my next destination is an outer or core area, so I don¡¯t know if I cane back in time. If I don¡¯t, you should at least pay her something.¡±

    Angor¡¯s rxed mind immediately tensed up. <i>Must you jinx us like that?!</i>

    The discussion ended here, and since he now had free time, Angor began to inspect the magic crystals he just earned.

    After paying Sunders 150,000 crystals and the auctionmission, he still had about 100,000 magic crystals left.

    With a bright smile, he gently stroked his space bracelet while admiring the shiny money stored within.

    Sunders looked at Angor¡¯s silly expression and tried not to say anything about it.

    <i>Such a blessing to be young...</i>

    ...

    When their vehicle arrived at Sunders¡¯ manor, Number One was already waiting at the entrance.

    Sunders asked the machine butler to handle the horses and spoke to Angor again, ¡°Prepare your things. We¡¯re returning to Brute Cavern tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Oh, okay. When are you going to explore that new ce, sir?¡±

    ¡°Well... It¡¯s not urgent since Irisa gave us ample time.¡±

    Angor noticed Sunders dodged the question and decided not to ask again.

    He went to the garden area and saw Greya sitting on the grass in the middle of flowers. Greya was gazing at the starry sky while Toby apanied her.

    The sorrowful expression sat well on Greya¡¯s little-girl body, which was a rare sight.

    While Angor considered whether he should go talk to her, Greya lowered her head and sighed.

    ¡°Come over here.¡±

    While moving closer, Angor reached out a hand to catch a bird who rushed at him to kiss his face.

    ¡°Lady Greya, is there... something wrong?¡± Angor wasn¡¯t sure whether he should ask a mighty wizard such a question.

    ¡°Nah. In this new body, I¡¯ll get bad mood swings every now and then. Funny, right? For someone like me to be affected by mortal sentiments...¡±

    ¡°It will not affect your condition for real, right?¡±

    ¡°No. I¡¯m just worried, that if I ever get used to this weak body, I¡¯ll start to like it this way and give up what I should have,¡± Greya said while the speed of her speech got slower and slower.

    Angor considered for a moment before he replied, ¡°You¡¯ll be strong again as long as you don¡¯t lose the heart of a heroine.¡±

    Greya chuckled. ¡°Aw, I see you¡¯re smarter than me in this matter. Now speak. Do you have something to say in the middle of the night?¡±

    Angor tried to strike a topic so that he could hopefully learn why Greya was staying at Sunders¡¯ ce. However, it seemed like she didn¡¯t want to talk about it.

    ¡°Lady Greya, I¡¯m going to go back to Brute Cavern with my professor tomorrow, so I¡¯m nning to use tonight and start working on that second essory that you asked for. What kind of illusion should I use?¡±

    ¡°Nothing tooplicated. The white feather that you showed mest time was pretty good.¡± Greya considered thest illusion she experienced and said, ¡°Especially the secret area inside that mountain. It felt just like the Nightmare Realm. You¡¯ve been there, haven¡¯t you?¡±

    Angor scratched his head. This was supposed to be a big secret between him and Sunders.

    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± Greya said as she shrugged, ¡°that old bachelor gagged you, didn¡¯t he? Fine, keep it to yourself. I hope you can blend something you learned from the Nightmare Realm into the illusion. Something new is even better.¡± Greya sipped some tea with her legs crossed before she said, ¡°There¡¯s... something in your illusion. I can¡¯t tell what exactly, but I think it helps me gain new insights.¡±

    ¡°Uhh, really?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, like, learn new spells, sorta. Let¡¯s just say, maybe your illusions work wonders like Sonance Abysm.¡±

    Angor frowned. He believed the witch was overvaluing his potential.

    ¡°You can mix your own knowledge and emotions into your illusions. That¡¯s usually something impossible for other illusionists. Once you be a truth finder someday, you might be able to help people learn new spells in this way.¡±

    ¡°You tter me, Lady Greya.¡±

    Greya smiled. As a truth finder wizard herself, she knew that herment about Angor wasn¡¯t an overstatement.

    <i>Felicia is busy doing something; otherwise, she¡¯d be here asking for Angor¡¯s alchemy service too. Pity for her.</i>

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to rush it. Take it easy and think carefully. I¡¯ll go look for Sunders again within a month. That¡¯s when you should have it ready.¡±

    <i>Greya would go to Brute Cavern?! </i>Again, Angor wondered what was happening between Greya and his professor.

    Greya saw Angor¡¯s curious look but did not exin. As she believed, traveling to the Nightmare Realm to retrieve her body was too difficult a task and that Angor should not know about it.

    ¡°Now off you go. Remember to take Toby with you tomorrow. My training¡¯s almost done. Oh, and trust me, the next time something bad happens, Toby¡¯s going to surprise you big time.¡±

 Chapter 576 - Departing

    <h4>Chapter 576: Departing</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor returned to his room alone. He left Toby behind so that thetter could spend one more night with his old master.

    Number One was waiting for him outside the garden.

    ¡°Good evening, Mister Padt,¡± the machine butler spoke in its typical robotic voice, ¡°I happen to have a message for you.¡±

    Angor gave it a doubtful look.

    ¡°Someone visited not long after you left for the auction. When I exined your absence, he left this for you.¡± Number One took out a sealed letter from its sling pouch and handed it to Angor.

    [To Mister Padt]

    The handwriting seemed terrible. More than terrible. Even so, Angor did not believe the author of the letter was illiterate because the wordings seemed fine.

    The red wax seal had a picture that showed a windmill with a foreign but charming design, and it appeared that the picture was stamped on it using a gold-colored material. In addition to the picture, a single down feather was ced on top of it.

    ¡°Who is it? I mean, what does he look like?¡±

    Number One proceeded to describe what it saw.

    ording to the butler, the man looked strong and full of muscles, but he didn¡¯t have legs. Instead, he had four horse limbs galloping on the ground as well as a ck, glossy scorpion tail growing on his back.

    1Angor¡¯s first impression upon hearing the exnation was that the man looked like a monster that was known as a centaur. But a scorpion tail?

    He didn¡¯t believe any centaurs or some kind of visitor from Abyss ne who would send him letters.

    After thanking Number One, he returned to his bedroom with the letter in hand. After making sure the letter wasn¡¯t rigged with traps, he applied some heat to his fingertip using mana and broke the seal open.

    Reading the letter brought a smile to his face.

    It was Viking, the person who was betrayed by Shayaron when they were in the purification garden and then made it to the Altar of Demise with all four limbs missing.

    Angor wasn¡¯t expecting Viking to contact him at all. Of course, this man was no centaur or tailed demon; he was but an apprentice who sessfully attached two pairs of horse legs on him.

    ording to the letter, Viking had known that Angor was his ¡°savior¡±. The letter was a token of gratitude as well as an invitation for Angor to visit Valley of Breeze.

    Viking didn¡¯t leave many words, but what was written showed his sincerity. It was true that Angor did not help Viking for any particr reason, but Angor still felt a small warmth in his heart when he saw that Viking was trying to thank him properly.

    He put the letter away but did not n to ept Viking¡¯s invitation for real. After all, he might never need anything from Viking. Even so, the newly-gained friendship was still weed.

    It was alreadyte at night. Since Greya gave him enough time, Angor wasn¡¯t going to work on the new illusion item right now. He felt rather energetic after sleeping in Sunders¡¯ carriage, so he tidied up his image a little and stepped out of the mansion.

    He wanted to say goodbye to Mister Mithra before leaving the city.

    Mithra bestowed a lot of help and knowledge to him during his stay, including the valuable notebook that contained Mithra¡¯s own alchemy experience. Naturally, Angor would not disappear without at least paying the kind old man a visit.

    He spent almost the entire night chatting with the wise alchemist.

    ¡°You have the gate card of our research department, which means you¡¯re one of us now. I hope you can bring your youthful vigor to that ce soon,¡± Mithra said before seeing Angor off.

    Floating Mech City was an existing paradise for all alchemists, while the research department represented the core technologies of the city. However, Angor would not go there now.

    Of course, as an alchemist, he also craved the high-end alchemy skills and theories provided by other master alchemists. Even so, he didn¡¯t believe that he had what it took to learn from them right now. Before going for a higher goal, he had to enrich his foundation first.

    Mithra saw Angor¡¯s intention and chose to ept his decision.

    When Angor disappeared at the end of the path, Yeliya slowly walked out of Elixir Hut and joined her husband. ¡°You know, I like that boy!¡±

    ¡°Great talent and destiny... more importantly, he has a brilliant teacher.¡± Mithra sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ve given Angor more than what I intended.¡±

    ¡°You and Sunders both love him but you just won¡¯t say it.¡± Yeliya rolled her eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid Muse is going to feel very sad. He¡¯s been waiting for Angor day and night. You know him, acting all aloof and carefree but expecting someone to have it. Now that no one is giving him any attention...¡± Mithra chuckled and shook his head. ¡°Can¡¯t me him though. I really want Angor toe to us sooner as well.¡±

    ¡°Who knows? The next time hees, perhaps he¡¯d be way more brilliant than you, old man.¡±

    Mithra spat on the ground. ¡°You don¡¯t have to point it out! Come on, I need some morning tea.¡±

    Yeliya nced at the rising sun as well as where Angor departed to with a gentle smile. She then apanied her husband back inside.

    ...

    A flying boat was swiftly cruising among clouds and on top of the white water tides that it created; it was as if the sky was where it belonged. The silk curtain with a starry design had made the beautiful vehicle an even more fantastic sight.

    Two gentlemanly passengers, one older and one younger, sat across each other. The shorter figure was wearing a red shirt under his ck gentleman suit, which went well with his immature yet intelligent image, while the taller one was a more seasoned nobleman who was casually fiddling his ck walking cane while leaning against a cushion.

    Angor and Sunders used the teleportation station in Floating Mech City to travel to Sleepless City, which was still pretty far from Brute Cavern. Angor thought his professor could help them get home faster by using wizard tricks, but it seemed that Sunders wasn¡¯t going to do so when he simply took Angor and started walking on legs.

    At first, Angor thought there were other teleportation arrays or convenient vehicles outside Sleepless City, so he followed behind his teacher without a word.

    But when he realized that there was nothing other than barren wilderness ahead of them even after walking for half a day, he began to wonder if the gentleman was seriously nning to travel back on foot.

    While trying not toin out aloud, Angor offered his Gond.

    He and Sunders sat at the front of the boat while Nano and Dodoro rested in the small room at the back. As for the Krakoks, they were ced inside Angor¡¯s bracelet again.

    Sunders was very satisfied as he looked at the decorations on the boat.

    <i>Such an elegant taste befits the student of a gentleman like me.</i>

    With Gond¡¯s speed, it would take them about ten hours to leave the territory of Evernight Kingdom and around three days to reach Parmigi Hignds, and finally, Brute Cavern.

    Angor didn¡¯t intend to idle. It was a rare chance for him to spend so much private time with Sunders, and he had so many questions to ask.

    But something interrupted his n when he heard rustling noisesing from the room behind him.

    He looked back and saw Nano creating soft threads out of his fingers, which disyed weak energy ripples.

    Angor already knew that Nano had such a talent, yet he never witnessed it before.

    ¡°A cultured and trained Fibber can provide you with top-ss silk,¡± Sundersmented.

    ¡°I... want to take him to my family and help them establish a new line of business.¡±

    ¡°Do you have many family members in the mortal world?¡±

    This was the first time that Sunders asked about such a thing.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Currently, there is only my elder brother. I heard that we have another family n at the capital of Goldspink, but since my father passed away, we never contacted them again.¡±

    ¡°This single Fibber can provide enough silk for an entire family industry then. You came from Marginalized Ind, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m going hometer this year. My former teacher is still waiting for me on his sickbed.¡±

    ¡°I think you have enough resources to cure him now. And if not, you can always buy another Ice Coffin of Healing scroll.¡±

    Of course, Angor did not need to use the scroll anymore since he now possessed an Abyssal Inscription card.

    ¡°Marginalized Ind...¡± Sunders thought about this name for a moment. ¡°There are extremely few active elements in the environment there, so wizards usually refer to it as the ¡®deadnd¡¯. However, Marginalized Ind and Fey Continent weren¡¯t so different early in history. It was an incident that caused the depletion of elements overnight.¡±

    ¡°Something erased active elements overnight?¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a rather strange matter. Many wizards investigated the incident, but no one found any exnation for it. There is a quest that is constantly on disy on the monitor of the questing hall, which asks someone to solve the mystery. Since you¡¯re going to Marginalized Ind this year, you might as well give it a try.¡±

    In fact, the mentioned quest was put up a thousand years ago. Despite that, no one managed to solve it. Sunders was only striking a rxed conversation by telling Angor about it¡ªthe oue did not matter.

 Chapter 577 - Return

    <h4>Chapter 577: Return</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    It had been two days since they arrived at Brute Cavern.

    Angor had been very busy handling all sorts of matters, most of which were strange visitors.

    The news about the garden challenge as well as the exaggerated stories about Angor was already known by people in Brute Cavern. Since he arrived at his rented manor, Angor barely had a chance to rest as different people with various intentions kepting to his doorstep.

    Back when his alchemy omens attracted this many visitors, he could more or less remain undisturbed because nobody would actually invade his privacy. But now, each time he left his house, he would immediately be surrounded by people who either came alone or represented other groups or ns.

    No matter who they were, Angor wasn¡¯t going to ept any of their invitations. With so many people constantly bugging him, Angor felt that his vi was no longer suitable to live in. Therefore, he simply carried everything to theboratory inside The Tributary and stayed there.

    The Tributary was arge pocket dimension with a total of 138b facilities scattered about. The most important point was that less than 20 individuals woulde here often.

    Angor stayed in his Lab #13, which included the area of a hundred kilometers around hisb. This ce was the best choice in the entire Brute Cavern if he wanted to enjoy some peace.

    By the time he finished arranging all his unfinished matters he left behind, a week had already passed.

    Next, he had to work on things that involved others, such as giving the Krakoks a new home and where to send Dodoro to.

    Before all that, he had to take Dodoro to Tree Spirit¡¯s pce to ascertain Dodoro¡¯s talent as well as getting him a bone card.

    He thought about returning to the entrance of The Tributary by riding his Gond, but as soon as he left hisb, he heard loud noises created by colliding metal. He could tell that the noises were quickly approaching his position.

    A giant shadow emerged from a mountain nearby. The iron house could move swiftly despite its huge size. Within seconds, the house reached Angor¡¯sb and opened its door, after which a small woodendder was dropped in front of him.

    Angor epted the gesture by climbing thedder with Dodoro following closely behind him.

    Inside the iron house, a kind-looking old woman with silver hair was slowly enjoying her rose tea.

    ¡°You saw me about to leave, Iron Granny?¡± With a smile, Angor took a seat. He did not forget to put on his polite manners. ¡°I can always walk on my own if you¡¯re busy.¡±

    ¡°Ha ha ha, I see that I came just at the right time.¡± The old witch¡¯s eyes narrowed into slits while smiling. ¡°I¡¯m here to deliver a message for Sunders. He can¡¯t get your transmitter when you¡¯re in this dimension.¡±

    ¡°Professor is looking for me?¡±

    ¡°I think he wants you to meet someone.¡±

    Angor considered what the gentleman could possibly be nning. ¡°Alright, since I¡¯m heading to Mister Tree Spirit for a talent test anyway.¡±

    Next, he introduced Dodoro to Iron Granny.

    The old woman said ¡°he has pretty good spiritual power level¡± and remained quiet.

    Dodoro¡¯s spirit power couldn¡¯t suggest anything yet since he was still a mortal waiting to discover his supernatural talent. There wasn¡¯t much to say right now.

    While traveling inside Iron Fortress and enjoying Iron Granny¡¯s tea, Angor offered to tell his adventure inside the purification garden.

    Soon, they arrived at the portal of The Tributary.

    Angor activated Infinite Reticence and stepped out of the ¡°portalke¡±. Theke wasn¡¯t far from Tree of Eternity. To stay as low as possible, Angor took Dodoro on a sky bus and moved toward Tree Spirit Pce.

    Before a receptionist could greet Angor in the main hall, a handsome, half-naked man came into everyone¡¯s view. ¡°Oi, Angor! You messed up someone¡¯s business in Dark Castle, and you went to the purification garden and scared the hell out of Flunza¡¯s dear student? Man, you¡¯ve been busy!¡±

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit.¡± The other workers bowed politely.

    So did Angor.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t listen to rumors passed around by irresponsible reporters and magazines, sir.¡±

    ¡°s... when you¡¯re as old as me, you¡¯ll begin to like these gossips. Speaking of Flunza... I meant to teach him a lesson since a very long time ago. Hey hey, tell me, what did you do to his student? And did little Isabelle return to Dark Castle for real?¡± The ancestor soul as well as a group of workers nearby all pricked up their ears while waiting for answers that could satisfy their curiosity.

    Angor sighed helplessly. ¡°Sir, it¡¯splicated. I don¡¯t even know the student of ¡®God of Seas¡¯. Why would I scare him off? As for Lady Isabelle... it¡¯s not convenient for me to speak of her.¡±

    ¡°Not convenient?¡± Tree Spirit nced around and thought Angor didn¡¯t want to talk about the news in public, so he teleported both of them to the top of a giant tree leaf where he usually enjoyed the sunlight from.

    Dodoro hurried to catch Angor¡¯s arm and made it into the teleportation in time.

    This was when Tree Spirit finally noticed a mortal following behind Angor. He wanted to chase the intruder away at first, but didn¡¯t do so after checking Dodoro¡¯s face closely.

    ¡°You are¡ª¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s Dodoro,¡± Angor quickly exined. ¡°Mister Tree Spirit, I brought him here today to request help for examining his talent.¡±

    The great spirit looked at Dodoro up and down with a strange expression.

    Angor noticed something was wrong when the Tree Spirit no longer seemed to be interested in the fun news. He knew Dodoro possessed some big secret, but he didn¡¯t think anyone would know since even someone powerful as Sunders never mentioned anything.

    ¡°Sir, is there something wrong with him?¡± Angor decided to ask.

    ¡°No... I think I mistook him for someone else for a moment. No biggie.¡± The spirit turned around. ¡°Follow me. I¡¯ll do the test for you.¡±

    <i>Someone else?</i> Angor frowned. <i>Don¡¯t tell me Tree Spirit met with Dodoro before? Well, this is very likely since Dodoro was alive and walking around 1,000 years ago...</i>

    They arrived at a patch of bright sunlight where Tree Spirit usually slept. His armchair was still there. Judging from the soft texture that was still recovering from its bent shape, Angor could tell that Tree Spirit was still sleeping on it not long ago.

    ¡°Where did hee from?¡± Tree Spirit asked a question first.

    The great spirit pretended that it was random chitchat, but Angor knew something was off since Tree Spirit never asked extra questions when testing out most of the apprentices.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, sir. I found him in some woods in Fairy World, and he lost his memories. He insisted on following me for some reason. And when I learned that he was talented as a supernatural, I decided to bring him back.¡±

    ¡°Fairy World?...¡± Tree Spirit muttered doubtfully. ¡°I see. Wait here while I check him out.¡±

    Tree Spirit waved an arm and created the same leaf house used by Angor¡¯s peers when they first arrived at Brute Cavern.

    Before entering the small house, Tree Spirit tossed a bone card to Angor.

    ¡°Use this anonymous card for him. Lady Mirror already registered this one, so your partner can enter or leave from Mirror World freely. After the examination, his info will be updated in it.¡±

    Angor dly epted the card. It seemed that he didn¡¯t need to travel the extra distance to visit Lady Mirrorter. Also, he still ¡°owed¡± her an illusion creation. Every time he thought about Lady Mirror¡¯s nasty requirements, he felt reluctant about meeting her again.

    While left alone outside, Angor hunkered down and waited patiently.

    <i>Did Tree Spirit meet with Dodoro before or did he see someone that looked simr? What is Dodoro¡¯s talent anyway?</i>

    Bored, he moved his spirit feelers inside his bracelet, where the Krakoks were still busy with their farm work. Meanwhile, Nano looked as bored as him; he was creating silk again while sitting in the small area restricted by Angor.

    Next, Angor shifted his attention to a gray bag ced at a corner. The bag contained Dodoro¡¯s possessions¡ªsome clothes and a water bowl with the mark of ¡°a ck serpent coiling on a rod¡± engraved on it.

    The mark could be found on every medical kit scattered around Pocratee. ording to the Grand Priest of the Krakoks, the mark was called the ¡°Snake Emblem of Immortality¡±, while the rod shown in the picture was the Staff of Immortality.

    Angor once thought that Dodoro¡¯s bowl was actually the staff since Dodoro¡¯s extremely long lifespan seemed to be something rted to ¡°immortality¡±. Angor checked the item many times before, but he did not find anything peculiar with it. However he looked, it was just an ordinary water bowl.

    It seemed that despite his memory loss, Dodoro considered the bowl to be something dear to him. He had been keeping it close to him until Angor took him along on their travel. It was then that Dodoro carefully put it away in his luggage.

    <i>Maybe that thing¡¯s rted to Dodoro¡¯s secret? </i>Angor wondered.

    Soon, the door of the green leaf house was pushed open, and Dodoro slowly walked out of the house.

    At the same time, the bone card in Angor¡¯s hand glowed brightly for a second, which suggested Dodoro¡¯s information was now stored in it.

 Chapter 578 - Measurer Of Stars

    <h4>Chapter 578: Measurer Of Stars</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    [Name: Dodoro Akeso]

    [Foreign Blood: none]

    [Spiritual power indicator: 25. Rating: Qualified]

    [Physical quality: Outstanding. Rating: Qualified]

    [Soul quality: Outstanding. Rating: Qualified]

    [Advice on Talent Orientation: ult Prophet]

    Most of the information was expected. Even so, Angor was very surprised to find Dodoro¡¯s spirit power level to be so good.

    After all the training and the improvement he received from the Altar of Demise, Angor assumed that his spiritual power indicator should be somewhere around 17.

    Dodoro was 8 points higher!

    With an indicator of 25 as well as an eptable channeling method, Dodoro basically wouldn¡¯t have any trouble with his training as an apprentice.

    Tree Spirit also left the small room. The great spirit had his gaze constantly fixed on Dodoro as if he was lost in thought.

    ¡°This is an extremely rare talent to find in Brute Cavern. I think Maya is the only one who can train him, so you don¡¯t have to find professor posters. Take him to Maya. She¡¯ll be d to receive a brilliant disciple under her name.¡±

    For some reason, Tree Spirit¡¯s tone didn¡¯t sound as cheerful as usual.

    There was only one Prophet wizard in Brute Cavern. Simr to how most Gourmet wizards would go to Candy House, prophets tended to join Starliege Temple in Brilliance ne, which was said to be a paradise for everyone talented in prophecy. As a matter of fact, Maya once spent nearly a century studying at Starliege Temple.

    Also, when Angor was trapped inside a ne passageway, it was also Maya who helped Sunders tell his condition.

    ¡°I understand, sir.¡± Angor nodded.

    While Angor took Dodoro away, Tree Spirit stood where he was in silence.

    <i>His face... He reminded me of that funny old friend of mine. Even their talent orientations are the same. But he does not have any of that bloodline... Is this man called ¡°Dodoro¡± his descendant?Update by vip novel</i>

    <i>But... that god-blessed n was wiped out a thousand years ago...</i>

    ¡°Argh, I¡¯ll forget about it.¡±

    Tree Spirit was the carefree type who would never trouble his mind with unnecessary concerns. He just did so because Dodoro¡¯s appearance looked very simr to that of an old friend, who perished a long time ago. Since the talent test didn¡¯t suggest any possible connections with this matter, Tree Spirit would simply consider Dodoro another new apprentice.

    An old woman¡¯s voice suddenly reached his ears.

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit... did you mention my name just to see whether I¡¯mpletely deaf?¡±

    ¡°Oh geez. Where there are prophets, there¡¯s trouble. I just told your name to someone, nothing serious. Must you overreact like this?¡± Tree Spirit chuckled and returned to his armchair. ¡°You¡¯re not like those Grand Demons anyway. What¡¯s the point of getting a ¡®True Name¡¯?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not like that. This is... a natural talent that allows me to sense my name when it is mentioned. I¡¯d prefer that you call me ¡®Star Measurer¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Alright alright! Lady ¡®Star Measurer¡¯ Maya-sama. Better now?¡±

    Maya didn¡¯t mind the joke. Among all three ancestor souls, Tree Spirit Yule was known as the most gentle-tempered... and sometimes mischievous one. The only problem was that Tree Spirit tended to bestow more sunlight to those he adored by manipting the leaves of Tree of Eternity, which meant the less lucky people would always have their residence covered in shadows.

    ¡°So, what happened that you had to mention my name to someone, Mister Tree Spirit?¡±

    ¡°I found a talented prophet and sent him your way directly.¡± Tree Spirit exined Dodoro¡¯s situation.

    ¡°I see. I¡¯ll tell Hobson to get him.¡±

    ¡°No need. Angor will get to you soon.¡±

    ¡°Angor? Oh...¡± Maya remembered how Sunders was anxious to find this boy for some reason. ¡°So he came back?¡±

    ¡°Yup. He¡¯s Sunders¡¯ new student, by the way.¡± Tree Spirit thought Maya didn¡¯t know about Angor and offered to exin everything he heard regarding Angor¡¯s recent stories.

    ¡°... Oh, damn it. I forgot to finish our talk! I should¡¯ve gotten him to tell me all the interesting business in Floating Mech City!¡±

    ...

    Angor took Dodoro on a sky bus. While enjoying the view, he showed Dodoro each of the locations they came across while exining the basic rules among wizards.

    Soon, they arrived at the Falling Cloud Stop, from where the magnificent building that was Cloud Library could be seen.

    Angor transferred 10,000 merit points to Dodoro¡¯s bone card and told him how this particr currency worked. ¡°All wizards and apprentices obey the rule of ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯. Most of the time anyway. Everythinges with a price, especially knowledge. If you wish to learn something, you can search in the library or ask for your teacher¡¯s help. I¡¯m about to take you to her, by the way.¡±

    Angor hesitated and pointed a finger to himself. ¡°Of course, you can also ask me questions, but I¡¯m not so good at teaching so... don¡¯t expect much.¡±

    Dodoro nodded rapidly just like any fresh talent who newly came to the wizarding world who thirsted for all the amazing wonders to be discovered.

    Angor wondered what kind of personal goal Dodoro had in mind.

    They walked across the invisible sky bridge and entered the boundary of Phantom Ind. ording to Iron Granny, Sunders requested Angor¡¯s presence. Besides, Angor also needed to ask where Maya lived.

    Phantom Ind looked as lush and lively as before. They could hear the howling of beasts and the singing of birds in the distance.

    Since Dodoro didn¡¯t have a ¡°passport¡±, Angor had to temporarily ce him in the space bracelet again. Thankfully, Dodoro wouldn¡¯t feel lonely in there this time.

    Across the iron fence of Sunders¡¯ house, Angor saw a short figure wearing a Phantom Servant robe doing exercises on the grass while a taller Phantom Servant stood nearby.

    The taller one saw Angoring and bowed. ¡°Wee, Mister Padt. Master is waiting for you in the undergroundb room.¡±

    ¡°I see. Good to see you again, Mister Goode.¡±

    The smaller Phantom Servant bounced to Angor and interrupted Goode¡¯s following words. ¡°Nice! You finally came back, Angor!¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow upon seeing the cheerful ¡°pseudo boy¡± who was in fact a grown adult. ¡°Are you waiting for me?¡±

    ¡°Yup! You said that you¡¯re going to tell me that story about a kid who stays short, remember?¡±

    Angor was taken aback a little. It took him a while to realize that he did mention a story he read from Earth literature.

    Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn¡¯t grow up.

    Angor wasn¡¯t serious when he mentioned Peter Pan¡¯s name to Hobbiton. He only found that Hobbiton resembled the fantasy character in many ways.

    ¡°Your manners, Hobbiton!¡± Goode¡¯s stern voice came before Angor could answer.

    ¡°Gra-grandfather...¡± Hobbiton froze up and trembled.

    ¡°You¡¯re to be a Phantom Servant that serves Phantom Ind, you should use ¡®Mister Padt¡¯. Also, did you not hear that the Master is expecting Mister Padt right this moment? Do not keep him waiting!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m... sorry.¡± Hobbiton made a duck-face.

    Goode sighed helplessly. This child from the Moa n retained his young look due to his talent, which also hindered his mental growth. Hobbiton¡¯s intelligence was fine, but it was stuck in a childish way.

    Angor wouldn¡¯t mind how he was addressed by Hobbiton, but he stayed quiet just for educational purposes. However, he secretly sent a voice transmission to Hobbiton to tell him to wait a little bit longer for that story.

    After that, he went to Sunders¡¯b alone and knocked on the door.

    ¡°Get in.¡± It was the gentleman¡¯s typical hoarse voice.

    Angor stepped inside and saw his teacher testing the durability of an unknown material while taking notes with a flying quill. It took Sunders several minutes to finish his work.

    ¡°I want to test your right hand again and see whether it¡¯s beneficial to the overall development of your body,¡± Sunders said as he cut straight to the point. ¡°I¡¯ll bring you to Maya and ask her to verify the result of the test.¡±

    Surprised and d for the coincidence, Angor nodded eagerly.

    ...

    Inside an observatory built on top of a ¡°cloud ind¡±, Maya¡¯s ears twitched.

    <i>Oh dear... I¡¯m just done with that old pervert, and now someone inside the mirror world openly mentioned my name again?!</i>

    Irritated, she looked toward where the strange feeling came from.

    ¡°Huh... Phantom Ind?¡±

 Chapter 579 - Maya

    <h4>Chapter 579: Maya</h4>

    Angor freed Dodoro from his bracelet and used his Gond to head to Maya¡¯s residence while following Sunders¡¯ guidance.

    Simr tost time, Dodoro stayed quiet inside the cabin at the back of the boat, while Angor and Sunders stayed at the front.

    Angor felt a bit anxious about meeting a true prophet. He kept ncing at his strange hand and wasn¡¯t sure what would happen to himter.

    ¡°How-how do prophets work their magic, sir?¡± Angor tried to say something just to ease his mood.

    ¡°Most prophets refer to themselves as ¡®Bearers of Fate¡¯. They canpletely see through you, everything, should they wish to.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°So, we won¡¯t be able to keep anything private from prophets? And the other wizards are fine with this?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s more difficult to see the fate of someone strong. Also, the one being inspected by a prophet will easily notice it. Prophets usually do not peek at people¡¯s secrets without a reason. There is something else. Each time a prophet attempts to read fate, either their own fate or that of someone else¡¯s, they might suffer a ¡®backfire¡¯.¡±

    ¡°You get a backfire by reading fate?¡±

    ¡°Knowing fate itself might cause a change of events in the future, even if one does not try to intervene. And when fate is altered, it will seek ¡®revenge¡¯ on those who caused it. Such is the cost of tempting with fate.¡±

    Sunders then provided an example.

    Supposed that someone would find a bag of magic crystals on the ground one day without knowing it in advance, then fate wouldn¡¯t have a problem granting him the fortune.

    But, if that man ¡°predicted¡± the oue and then pretended that he did not know, should fate still fulfill his wish?

    The concept of ¡°fate¡± was fickle. It was like a yful imp that prevented anyone from understanding it. Predicted luck might turn into misfortune instead, while misfortune... would probably remain as misfortune.

    ¡°Trying to ascertain a clear path among the strings of fate is almost an impossible task, as it involves too many known and unknown knowledge and concepts,¡± Sunders continued to exin. ¡°Now, consider each person¡¯s life as a string that connects the start of their birth until their death. Each person you meet, each matter you solved, might affect the strings of other people. Their strings will always intersect with yours, and in some cases, your strings will intertwine with each other for a long time. Suppose a prophet wishes to read and perhaps affect your ¡®string¡¯, it will undeniably disturb mine as well because we¡¯re connected.

    ¡°Prophets cannot tell how severe the oue of their ¡®fate reading¡¯ will be and whether it will bring doom to themselves. More importantly, they can¡¯t easily read your fate in the first ce. Prophets cannot and should not daringly explore the secrets concealed behind fate. They can only perceive broken pieces of information from the strings of fate and use the skills they learned to infer possible answers. Or, they can throw the clues back your way and tell you to figure out the answers on your own.¡±

    Angor nodded as he understood the limits of prophets.

    Generally speaking, those who were powerful or brave enough might freely look into someone¡¯s secrets, yet most prophet wouldn¡¯t do that because of the dangerous restrictions.

    This was why prophets tended to speak random and iprehensible words¡ªthey did their best.

    Angor nced at his right hand again. ¡°Are we going to get a reliable result then?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that. Maya should have no problem getting a good answer regarding your hand since it isn¡¯t your secret or anything like that. Prophecy is a way moreplicated subject than what I can exin. There are many fancy sub-subjects such as the ¡®Conservation of Fate¡¯, ¡®Probability for Guidance¡¯, ¡®The Rhythm of Worlds and What is Hidden¡¯... Those who don¡¯t know much about prophecy, like me, can only derive inurate guesses.¡±

    Angor was getting really confused, but he gave up thinking too much since he knew the test on his hand was going to be alright.

    ...

    Maya lived on a cloud ind at the far side of Tree of Eternity, away from other people. This ¡°Starlight Ind¡± was only a few dozen kilometers away from Phantom Ind, thus it did not take them very long to travel.

    At first, Angor thought the name of the ind was meant to go with Maya¡¯s profession, like how ¡°Phantom Master¡± Sunders called his territory the Phantom Ind. He realized he was very wrong upon setting his eyes on this beautiful ce.

    Green forest, rising mountains, and misty waterfalls... This ind had every natural element avable on Phantom Ind, but with one extra, unique sight.

    The ind was full of glowing fireflies.

    It was dusk time now, but the sky was still bright like burning me. All the green spots wavering all around Starlight Ind looked like stars during sunset.

    ¡°The wonderful view of Starlight Ind is quite famous in Brute Cavern. Unfortunately, Maya does not like visitors as they will break her peace. And those who set foot uninvited will... let¡¯s say, suffer from some bad luck.¡±

    Angor¡¯s Gond already reached the ind. He raised an eyebrow when he saw someone in white waving a hand at them. At the same time, he felt Toby getting restless in his chest pocket.

    When Sunders saw himforting the bird, Angor quickly exined, ¡°That man over there, he once talked to us and said that one of Toby¡¯s outfits is um, ¡®couple set¡¯ with...¡±

    Sunders nced at Toby and then looked at the man in white again.

    ¡°Well, he¡¯s almost right.¡±

    Toby put up a glum look, while Angor remained speechless.

    It was Hobson, the person who wore a strange white bear costume and constantly tried to talk to Angor in Sky Tower. Everything he said sounded cryptic and vague.

    When Angor met him for the first time, Hobson said that Toby¡¯s white otter outfit looked very simr to his white bear one, since they both had cute, round ears.

    Today, Toby had a panda costume on. Angor crafted this one using bear hides of different colors the other day.

    He didn¡¯t know if ¡°pandas¡± existed in this world, but the adorable images he saw from the documentaries left a deep impression on his mind. While they were on the way back from Floating Mech City, he found some free time and finished his very first alchemy clothes by making a suit for Toby.

    A lot of materials went to waste in the process before he finally seeded.

    The suit was enchanted with a ¡°Preserve Heat¡± rune. It seemed Toby really liked his new outfit. In fact, Toby had been in this panda costume for over a week now.

    Compared to the otter suit, Angor would admit that this one went better with Hobson¡¯s ¡°white bear¡± image. Angor was afraid that after listening to Sunders¡¯ joke, Toby would never wear it again.

    Hobson, still dressed as a white bear, went to greet them as soon as theynded.

    ¡°Angor! Fate let us reunite again.¡±

    Angor rolled his eyes. I knew it.

    Next, Hobson looked at Toby with widened eyes. ¡°Such contrary yet fascinating colors! Why didn¡¯t I think of¡ª¡±

    He moved a hand to examine Toby¡¯s suit only to receive a mighty kick from Toby¡¯s w. It seemed that Toby didn¡¯t mean to harm as Hobson was knocked aside just a little.

    Hobson dusted his wrinkled costume and approached them from another direction. ¡°Ahem. My teacher knew that there will be dear visitorsing, so she asked me to wee you. Please follow me.¡±

    He bowed politely to Sunders. When he tapped his walking cane on the ground, the trees ahead of them bent to the sides and revealed a narrow path.

    While walking, Angor was still trying to ept the truth that Hobson was actually Maya¡¯s student.

    Well... I should¡¯ve guessed. This man¡¯s a Prophet apprentice, while Brute Cavern only has one Prophet wizard...

    Angor nced at Dodoro and realized that Dodoro was going to study alongside Hobson from now on.

    This guy got a strange temper, but he¡¯s not dangerous. Just... I hope Dodoro won¡¯t learn his characteristics.

    Soon, they left the forest and arrived at a giant tower-like structure.

    ¡°Professor is waiting on the top floor. Pleasee with me.¡±

    When they finally met with Maya, Angor¡¯s first impression was that the witch looked extremely short and weak.

    Thud, thud...

    Maya was currently walking around the projection of a star map while tapping on the floor with her walking cane. Her steps appeared extremely unstable as if she were going to copse at any moment.

    Angor waited for a while before Maya finished ¡°stargazing¡± and looked at them.

    Using her gleaming eyes, which showed none other than great wisdom, she slowly scanned through everyone before finally fixing her gaze upon Sunders.

    ¡°A brilliant future you have there, Mister Phantom. The fate has blessed you with an eventful yet fruitful morrow.¡±

    Her voice was slow and gentle, yet persuasive.

    ¡°Instead of checking this tedious life of mine, I think you should pay more attention to someone else here.¡± Sunders smiled.

    Also slowly, Maya gazed upon Angor while her eyes radiated a dim glimmer.

 Chapter 580 - Mindâ€™s Eye

    <h4>Chapter 580: Mind¡¯s Eye</h4>

    As he was being inspected by Maya¡¯s gaze, Angor immediately sensed something strange. It was mentioned by Sunders earlier¡ªanyone being checked by a prophet could easily feel it.

    Angor felt his entire mana pool growing restless as if it wanted to send all avable mana to prevent Maya¡¯s attempt. He felt goosebumps all over his body, yet his mind remained peaceful. There appeared to be a pair of pale green eyes peeking around in the depth of his consciousness.

    So this is how prophecy works...

    Angor now fully understood why prophets did not do this freely. This was so disturbing, especially if the one being observed knew what it meant.

    Soon, Maya canceled her skill and lifted the strange feeling from Angor¡¯s mind.

    After thinking about the right words, Maya said in a careful tone, ¡°The obstruction in my view is particrly strong, and I failed to read anything that reflects his future. But I see several images, where he¡¯s interacting with many powerful entities. This means his fate will be no less brilliant than yours, Mister Phantom.¡±

    Being together with strong wizards, either as friends or as enemies, only suggested that Angor himself was good enough to join their ranks.

    ¡°You found a very gifted student, Mister Sunders...¡± Maya recalled the faint images of the legendary wizards she just saw. There was no doubt that by receiving their attention, either good or bad ones, would bring great opportunities to Angor.

    Neither heroes nor viins would mind the presence of weaklings after all.

    ¡°Guess I had some serious luck finding this boy.¡± Sunders smiled.

    Maya raised an eyebrow.

    Just like the rumors went, Sunders treasured his new student more than thest two that he trained before. Due to Sunders¡¯ attitude, Angor¡¯s personal value would rise in the eyes of other wizards, but at the same time, it would also bring him danger.

    After giving Angor another thoughtful gaze, Maya ced her attention on thest visitor¡ªDodoro. Tree Spirit already told her that this young man would study from her from this day onward.

    ¡°Dodoro, right? Come closer, I shall have a better look at you.¡± Maya beckoned Dodoro using her cane.

    Dodoro hesitated for a second and stepped up.

    Maya checked and found Dodoro¡¯s overall temperament to be very pleasant, especially those pair of clear, twinkling eyes, like the purest ice on top of a snowy mountain, untainted by the many wicked ways of mankind.

    ¡°He has a good heart. A magnificent child indeed.¡± Maya nodded in approval.

    Next, she cast ¡°Mind¡¯s Eye¡± to read Dodoro¡¯s future.

    Plop, plop...

    Maya¡¯s expression remained calm and unchanged, but there were two streams of blood seeping from her green eyes, which went over her dry, wrinkled face and dropped to the floor.

    Hobson moved to help his teacher, but Maya lifted a hand to stop him.

    Angor was a little anxious upon seeing Maya¡¯s condition. What does that mean?

    Sunders was also curious about the oue. He knew that Maya invented this ¡°Mind¡¯s Eye¡± spell based on another moremonly known spell called the ¡°Future Sight¡±. Maya could use Mind¡¯s Eye to peek into someone¡¯s mind from the inside, although with some drawbacks and potential risks. If Maya could manage to perfect Mind¡¯s Eye into a more effective and safer spell, she¡¯d be officially acknowledged as a truth-finder.

    As of now, the Mind¡¯s Eye spell was not a real truth-finder spell yet.

    How did this happen then? Sunders wondered. Is she suffering from backfire? But what is so special about this man called Dodoro?

    Sunders gave Dodoro a serious look before returning his attention to Maya, who was still bleeding from her eyes. Also, he was a bit surprised to see Maya showing a tiny hint of apathy on her old face.

    Sunders knew that Angor¡¯s new friend usually stayed away from others and did not talk to anyone other than Angor. This was usually considered amon mental condition, yet Sunders would beg to differ because he saw something else from Dodoro.

    To Sunders, anyone that interacted with him, including Angor, would more or less show respect or fear.

    But Dodoro was different¡ªhe didn¡¯t seem to care about Sunders¡¯ mighty presence, or rather, his mind was empty. There was something amiss in Dodoro¡¯s mind.

    Seeing that Maya wasn¡¯t responding, Sunders decided to speak up first. He asked, ¡°Does he have a troubled future?¡±

    Maya shook her head while wiping the blood off her cheeks. ¡°I do not know. I... saw nothing in him. There is only red. Blood. And red.¡±

    ¡°A blood-red future? Interesting. But why did something so simple backfired on you?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not backfiring,¡± Maya lowered her voice into a whisper. ¡°I was... threatened, by... ¡®that¡¯.¡±

    Sunders saw Maya pointing her walking cane at the ceiling and widened his eyes. ¡°You mean the world¡¯s consciousness?¡±

    Maya nodded. ¡°Such is the price for peeking into his future. I did learn something, however. Looks like I¡¯ve gotten myself quite a special student.¡± Maya chuckled happily and didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by her condition at all.

    Next, she took out a golden poster and gave it to Dodoro.

    ¡°Alright, you¡¯re my student from today and on. There¡¯s a token in the poster that allows you toe here at your free will. You can find me here anytime.¡±

    Dodoro looked at the poster. He recalled the ¡°wizard rules¡± that he learned from Angor and bowed politely. ¡°Yes, professor.¡±

    Maya nodded with a big smile.

    Hobson, on the other hand, felt a little depressed because he never got a golden poster from Maya even though he had been Maya¡¯s only student until now.

    In front of his eyes, Dodoro proved to be a more treasured student in Maya¡¯s eyes. Of course he felt bad about it.

    But he got over the sadness soon and looked at Angor again. His own prophecy told him that Angor could help him confirm and even realize his ambitions and hopes. Unfortunately, the prophecy did not tell him how exactly.

    Well, no need to hurry. As long as we¡¯re friends, I¡¯ll find my way sooner orter.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re satisfied with your new student?¡± Sunders was still curious about why the world¡¯s consciousness ¡°warned¡± Maya from reading Dodoro¡¯s future. Was it possible that Dodoro¡¯s future will affect the world¡¯s consciousness in any way?

    ¡°Of course. I have a feeling that this young man will help meplete my Mind¡¯s Eye.¡±

    Thepletion of this spell would determine whether Maya could be a truth-finder. This proved to the others that Maya valued Dodoro very much.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so. I shall wait for the day when I can witness another truth-finder.¡± Sunders knew Maya did not wish to talk about the details, so he decided to move onto the other business.

    Maya asked Hobson to take Dodoro away as she knew that Sunders wanted to talk to her in private.

    ¡°I need your help to confirm the result of a test...¡±

    Sunders moved his lips without making any sound and exined Angor¡¯s condition using a private message.

    While listening to him. Maya¡¯s expression changed drastically as if she was trying to decide how to approach this matter.

    In the end, she gave Angor a final, mindful look. ¡°I¡¯ll try. Transnted hand of a humanoid monster from the Nightmare Realm? Such a rare case.¡±

    Maya was a prophet, not a surgeon. Even so, as a wizard who craved endless knowledge, she also wished to look deeper into Angor¡¯s curious condition. Although she couldn¡¯t do what she wanted when Sunders was still looking.

    She took Angor to the center of the star map. ¡°Now, sit here and fully rx your mind. Do not resist what is toe, for I shall guide you to the ultimate result...¡±

    Following Maya¡¯s whisper, Angor slowly fell half asleep.

    ...

    The entire world was painted in red.

    He stood beside a wooden pole while gazing at the buildingplex ahead, which was also red.

    For some reason, Angor felt safe in this otherwise bizarre environment as if he belonged here.

    He did not know why he was here, but he did know this ce.

    There was a litmp shaped like a lion figurine hanging on the pole nearby, which was giving out a faint, red light.

    ¡°The fire in the lion¡¯s heart never dies...¡± Angor muttered the n motto of Padt Family. Everyone working at Padt Manor would make sure that every lionmp stayed bright regardless of time and weather, which would strengthen their resolution day and night.

    ¡°Where is this ce?¡± A strange but gentle voice was heard.

    Angor did not question where the speaker came from. Instead, he answered the question subconsciously, ¡°This is Padt Manor. This is my home.¡±

    ¡°You have been away from your home for a long time. How about a nice visit?¡± The strange voice urged Angor to move ahead.

    Have I been away for a very long time?... I can¡¯t remember. I guess so... Shall I go home then? I wonder if my brother and Mister Jon are fine...

    Step by step, he walked past the fields, the tea garden, the greenhouse...

    He recognized the workers and servants that were working everywhere.

    A tall and elegant steed galloped by while a knight in iron armor sat on top of it.

    This was Leon, his dear brother.

    Angor wished to check on Jon next, but he lost his senses for a brief moment. When he could think clearly again, he was standing in front of a door.

    ¡°What is this room?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s... my bedroom,¡± Angor answered obediently.

    ¡°Check inside, perhaps?¡±

    Without hesitating, Angor opened the door.

    Just as he remembered, the room was small but cozy. Nothing had changed in it.

    The only thing that might be considered out of ce was his bed. The nket was fully spread open as if someone was sleeping on the bed.

    Wait, there IS someone there.

    The brightmp on the opposite wall helped him see the silhouette of someone huddled under the nket.

    Angor frowned. Did someone else take my room when I was away?

    Confused and a bit irritated, he moved to pull the nket away.

    The hidden individual slowly stood up, and Angor was shocked to realize he was looking at someone a lot taller and scarier than him.

    He then tried to see who it was, but the world around him suddenly began to ¡°flow¡± backward until the entire Padt Manor shattered to pieces.

    Angor did not see who the man on his bed was, but he did see the stranger¡¯s blond hair, grinning lips, as well as those familiar green marks.

 Chapter 581 - Plans And Plots

    <h4>Chapter 581: ns And Plots</h4>

    Angor found his memoriesing back.

    He also heard someone talking while approaching him. Unfortunately, his vision was too blurry to see clearly, and he only saw someone taller who was wearing that signature gentleman suit.

    ¡°What did you see?¡± The speaker¡¯s voice was hoarse and a little bit stern, yet it wasforting.

    ¡°I... I saw him. He has those green marks all over him. And he¡¯s inside my bedroom.¡±

    Those words might appear random and iprehensible to anyone else, but Sunders knew what they meant.

    ¡°You mean the blond-haired nightmare monster is in your bedroom?¡±

    Angor nodded as he fully recovered from his trance.

    Sunders didn¡¯t question Angor further and turned to Maya next. ¡°Did you see the conclusion? Is his right hand going to affect him in particr ways?¡±

    Using her walking cane, Maya slowly moved to a stone chair and sat down with her head lowered.

    ¡°Surely there are influences, but you should ask HIM whether they are good or bad ones, as he¡¯s the one who has to experience them for himself. Let¡¯s say, if he sensed anything wrong or unpleasant just now, it means that there¡¯s something you should be worried about. His body was sending him a warning. If he did not feel anything wrong... well, then nothing is wrong.¡±

    Angor saw his teacher looking at him again and tried to go over the strange dream-like journey.

    The red color everywhere was anything but normal, yet he did not feel disturbed by it at all.

    ¡°I... didn¡¯t feel bad. It was ratherforting.¡± Angor hesitated for a bit and continued, ¡°I moved until I saw ¡®him¡¯ in my bedroom. He surprised me a little... But, no. It didn¡¯t feel dangerous.¡±

    He spoke truthfully, but he did not mention that the monster might be his own projection. Sunders warned him not to reveal this matter to others before they could reach a more solid conclusion.

    Maya¡¯s eyes glowed as she put Angor¡¯s words into her calctions.

    ¡°... It should be fine. He might encounter some minor troubles, but the result wille out good.¡±

    Angor felt a great burden lifted from his mind. Maya basically told him that using his right hand freely wouldn¡¯t bring any serious consequences.

    Sunders was also d to hear it, except that he was d for another reason¡ªhe finally got his first reliable conclusion to be used in his new research subject. Based on this, a lot more problems now also had answers.

    Sunders only wished that he could dive into his research immediately. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t do that at Maya¡¯s ce.

    Besides, Angor¡¯s right hand wasn¡¯t the only thing he needed to discuss with Maya today.

    ¡°You wait outside, Angor. I have something important to tell Maya next,¡± said Sunders.

    Angor nodded and while heading to the door, he heard Mayaining, ¡°How many times do I need to tell you? Don¡¯t use my name like that! Call me ¡®Star Measurer¡¯!¡±

    Angor closed the thick bronze door, which then blocked all of Maya and Sunders¡¯ voices.

    Next, he moved downstairs while following the spiral staircase.

    He found ¡°White Bear¡± and Dodoro on the floor below Maya¡¯s observatory room. This floor looked like an office or a ssroom of some sort. It was a spacious chamber lit by a good number of wallmps, which gave the whole room a warm ambience. About a dozen wooden desks were ced in an orderly manner. The soft carpet and theck of chairs suggested that whoever used the desks were supposed to sit on the floor.

    White Bear was doing so right now by writing something on one of the desks, while Dodoro was reading a very thick book beside a bookshelf, on which several more books were loosely ced.

    Both of them saw Angoring. Dodoro quickly put his book away and greeted Angor with a bright smile, while Hobson took the paper he was working on and also joined them.

    Before the paper was fully folded, Angor noticed that Hobson was drawing the picture of a bear, in white and ck colors only.

    ...

    ¡°Heh. Your name is just a trigger you can choose to block from your senses.¡± Sunders snickered.

    ¡°Humph! Well, excuse me, I have a good reason not to do so. I need to know if any little b*stard is ndering my name, otherwise, they¡¯ll ruin my fame!¡±

    When talking to her old friend, Maya¡¯s ¡°mysterious and wise character¡± was nowhere to be seen.

    ¡°Enough. Just try not to quote my name unless necessary.¡± Maya put on a more serious expression as she said, ¡°I know what you came for. And yes, I can look into your fate. But you have to set a limit so that I don¡¯t disturb the strings of the other mighty figures who are connected to you.¡±

    ¡°You should look from here then.¡± Sunders lifted a hand and tapped at his golden ear stud.

    ¡°The gravity garden? No problem.¡±

    Maya drew a circle in the air using her cane, which began to release lumps of smoke in the room.

    Observers could only see Maya stirring the smoke randomly. To Maya, however, she could see something else from the smoke.

    There were usually three main elements for prophets to see when using their spells¡ªa running river that was constantly hidden under vapor and smoke, the ¡°Stream of Fate¡±; a ck vortex that contained unknown and unparalleled power within, the ¡°Wheel of Time¡±; and glowing and twirling strands, the ¡°World Strings¡±.

    These were abstract concepts that represented different things in different worlds and locations, and prophets could always use them to look into the unknown future.

    However, not every prophet was powerful enough to infer useful information from these clues. Even a great wizard like Maya could only try her best in catching insignificant pieces of information from afar.

    Maya frowned painfully; her wrinkled skin was covered in greasy sweat.

    A whileter, she opened her eyes and let out a deep breath, while at the same time, three streams of white vapor came out of her mouth and nostrils as if something were burning in her head.

    ¡°I saw it. The garden will be fine. Mister Monkey does not desire it. He only wants its help with ¡®smuggling¡¯.¡±

    Maya took a moment to recover her breath and continued, ¡°But you should pay great attention to Danae. She¡¯s nning to do something once you¡¯re in the abyss. It¡¯s very likely that she wants to seize your garden.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Sunders nodded. ¡°Gravity Forest simply cannot sit tight ever since I constructed the gravity garden. I know they¡¯re plotting something again.¡±

    Lady Danae was the only level-2 wizard in Gravity Forest.

    ¡°Their gravity garden is one level inferior to yours, and they can use yours to strengthen it,¡± Maya warned. ¡°Since they are boldly preparing to plot against you... they must have something that makes them confident. Do not underestimate the situation.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re just a small organization. I guess they want to find a chance and strike when I¡¯m busy with other matters. Heh, I do hope they bring their little n out in the open so that we can settle it quicker. They want my garden? Good. I¡¯m thinking about the same thing.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting so many organizations toe, though... I think there are almost twenty groups of peopleing this time, including three major organizations. Heck, even Song of the Deep hase despite their tendency to hide at the bottom of the sea.¡±

    ¡°Mister Monkey is prepared.¡± Maya looked at the floor and said, ¡°The southern region has enjoyed peace for too long. To someone as powerful as him, the descent of a Grand Demon isn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing.¡±

    ¡°To apprentices and mortals though... this is a world-ending catastrophe,¡± said Sunders.

    They spent a moment in grim silence.

    ¡°Are you still up for it?¡± Sunders asked. He then added, ¡°I wish to know why Mister Monkey would go so far as to provoke a Grand Demon... will he really achieve the rank of a legendary wizard by doing so?¡±

    ¡°I know you¡¯re going to ask that,¡± Maya shook her head and said, ¡°and no, it¡¯s not something I can predict. Even a master prophet from Starliege Temple cannot give you a definite answer.

    ¡°But I can tell you something else, which I heard from Brilliance ne: ¡®The south is shrouded in darkness, yet the new sun will rise again¡¯. It¡¯s time for a cmity to strike, and it remains to be seen whether the miracle will descend upon Mister Monkey.¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°Isabelle has returned. It¡¯s only a fragment of her soul, but I think her newly-found destiny will bring yet another... uncertain factor, into the turmoil.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps. But not too much. By the way, I heard your little boy has some interesting connections with Isabelle as well. Care to share?¡±

    The return of Isabelle had already been known by most people, yet only a few knew what exactly happened when she arrived at Dark Castle. Sunders was also one of those informed since his student was the one who personally talked to Isabelle.

    Without holding back, Sunders exined what he learned.

    ¡°Mystery item? I was right when I said that new student of yours is brilliant,¡± Maya eximed. ¡°I wonder how jubnt Old Rein looks right now. When was thest time Brute Cavern had a master alchemist? Some centuries ago?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s still far from that,¡± Sunders chose to be modest, but quickly revealed a proud smile as he said, ¡°and when it happens, he¡¯ll keep going and reach a level no one has ever seen before.¡±

    He¡¯s actually showing off! Mayained in her mind. Comparisons... the root of jealousy.

    ¡°Oh, onest thing. To how far should I assist with Mister Monkey¡¯s n?¡± asked Sunders.

 Chapter 582 - Icy Ace

    <h4>Chapter 582: Icy Ace</h4>

    Gond brought three people to Starlight Ind, and when it left, it only took two of them away¡ªDodoro remained behind.

    Angor thought about keeping Dodoro with him, but Maya came to him and suggested that she should be the one to provide Dodoro with basic wizardry lectures. After some consideration, Angor listened to her advice.

    Since Dodoro would be staying with Maya, Angor left Dodoro¡¯s ¡°luggage¡± on the ind as well, which included the water bowl with the serpent mark. Angor didn¡¯t think he was going to discover anything from the object, so he simply returned it to Dodoro.

    To Angor¡¯s surprise, Dodoro took everything else and gave the bowl back. He said that he wouldn¡¯t entrust the item to anyone else.

    Angor used voice transmission to ask the reason for it, yet Dodoro couldn¡¯t manage to give him an answer. ¡°Something told me this is very important¡± was all Dodoro could say.

    Most wizards were pursuers of solid knowledge, but they still trusted instincts and impulse because those worked wonders at times, just like how Angor¡¯s ¡°instinct¡± helped him escape from danger many times.

    Since Dodoro considered the bowl to be important, Angor believed that the item did contain the answer to Dodoro¡¯s secret. Angor agreed to keep it for now. He would return it when Dodoro was strong enough to protect it.

    Despite feeling rather reluctant, they still bade farewell to each other.

    ...

    On their way back, Angor was lost in thought when thinking about everything he heard from Maya as well as how to handle Dodoro¡¯s bowl from now on. He was in the same state until Sunders woke him up when they arrived at Phantom Ind.

    ¡°So, you hid inside The Tributary as soon as we arrived at Brute Cavern? Iron Granny told me.¡± Sunders gave his student a curious look.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t hiding, just...¡±

    I¡¯m so sick of all the people who asked me for crafting service or to join their ns!

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them too much. If someone goes too far, just kill them,¡± Sunders said casually as if it were nothing serious. ¡°You can move to Phantom Ind. Like I said before, I¡¯ll leave to attend to some other business in a few days. I¡¯ll leave Phantom Ind in your care in the meantime. Goode will help you with it.

    ¡°You still know too few spells. Feel free to use my books. I¡¯m expecting to see the results of your study when Ie back.¡±

    The Tributary was too isted. Angor considered and agreed to the arrangement.

    ¡°May I ask where are you going, sir?¡±

    Angor meant to ask this question back in Floating Mech City, but his attention was distracted when talking about Sunders¡¯ ¡°old friend¡±.

    Sunders considered. He eventually decided to satisfy Angor¡¯s curiosity since his student could be well considered a rising star in the wizarding world now.

    ¡°To Abyss ne. I¡¯m helping Mister Monkey of Moonfrost Union with a small request.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t going to tell Angor how this ¡°small request¡± might break the peace of the entire region.

    ¡°Mister Monkey? ¡®Icy Ace¡¯ Monkey?¡± Angor widened his eyes in shock.

    ¡°That¡¯s him.¡±

    Monkey was titled as ¡°Wizard of Permafrost¡±, butpared to this, people usually knew him as the Icy Ace. He wasmonly believed to be the strongest wizard when it came to manipting ice elements. The second title was also used by everyone in the entire southern region to acknowledge his achievement.

    Even without considering his ice-based spells, Monkey was still one of the strongest wizards in the south¡ªa level-3 truth-finder wizard who was one step behind the level of legendary.

    ¡°I¡¯m not the only helper. Mister Monkey invited many wizard organizations to attend his quest,¡± Sunders said. He didn¡¯t seem too concerned about it. ¡°There¡¯s nothing you should worry about. Stay at Phantom Ind and enrich your knowledge. You¡¯re a level-3 apprentice now, yet you haven¡¯t decided on a subject to major in. And not to mention spell slots... These problems will take you a long time. You can¡¯t afford to waste time on other irrelevant matters.¡±

    Angor nodded. Sunders was right¡ªgaining levels too fast had left him with many weak points that he had to deal with now.

    He was already nning to choose a major subject to study. As for spell slot... he never considered it yet.

    A spell slot was a special location built on one¡¯s spirit model, which could hold the model of a spell permanently. This permanent spell model would allow the wizard to cast the spell instantly.

    Usually, spell slot was something only wizards should work on, but apprentices with decently-developed spirit models or potent channeling methods could get to it as well.

    Angor studied Singrity Dispersive Meditation from an unfinished book, so he couldn¡¯t construct theplete spirit model of it yet. Despite that, his channeling method was good enough for him to sustain spell slots.

    Spell slots obtained as an apprentice could only hold cantrips, not real spells. Even so, being able to instantly cast cantrips could provide a lot of surprising advantages.

    ¡°Some of the books have rmendations on how to choose the proper cantrips. But again, I hope you can¡ª¡±

    Sunders suddenly halted his words and shook his head. ¡°Never mind. You decide for yourself.¡±

    Angor felt really bad when his teacher left him hanging like this. Regardless, it seemed that the gentleman had made up his mind not to say anything further regarding this matter.

    Next, Sunders told Goode about his schedule and asked the butler to handle Angor¡¯s daily needs.

    He also allowed Angor to temporarily ce the Krakoks at the manor garden, while their provision would be handled by several Phantom Servants.

    Angor did not particrly restrict Nano¡¯s actions, but since wandering around Phantom Ind only meant danger and stumbling into hostile supernaturals, he told Nano to stay indoors as much as possible except when studying (¡°Discussing!!¡± ¡ªNano) the art of crafting from Krakoks.

    Time passed by quickly while he was studying.

    During the first week, Angor spent most of his time reading books while asionally sparring with Toby. Their battles would usually end up in ties as long as Toby stayed in his ¡°small mode¡±. Sometimes, Angor could even gain an upper hand.

    However, Angor¡¯s hope for victory would quickly be slim whenever Toby activated his griffin power. And if Toby decided to fully unleash the power of ¡°wrath¡±, what remained of Angor¡¯s chances wouldpletely disappear.

    But these were only results of sparring. Angor wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if he were to engage Toby in a life-and-death battle, which would probably never happen.

    Besides, Angor intentionally reduced the usage of his right hand when fighting. His new hand was powerful; this much was for sure. Yet he didn¡¯t know how to fully control its potential. In order not to cause unnecessary issues to Toby, he usually avoided using his powered-up illusions.

    The fruitful week had given Angor muchbat experience as well as the knowledge he needed.

    He took some time and returned to Apprentice Town to retrieve what possessions he couldn¡¯t take awayst time, and at the same time, he wanted to pay a visit to his friends.

    To his disappointment, he only got to see Dave and Prome, whereas Nausica and Sailum were both absent.

    ording to Dave, after arriving at Brute Cavern, Nausica, Shan, and Shiliew went on a secret mission to find someone. While Dave didn¡¯t know who they were looking for, Angor was fully aware that the person they were going after was none other than Hookdick.

    It seemed they managed to find a clue. About a month ago, the three of them left Brute Cavern, and they hadn¡¯t returned since then.

    As for Sailum, Dave had no idea where he was. As soon as Nausica departed for Floating Mech City to attend the garden challenge, Sailum disappeared from people¡¯s view. The boy said something about fusing with a new bloodline, but he did not provide any details.

    Angor knew that Sailum purchased ¡°Azure Bloodline¡± from Twilight Auction, which seemed to be an unknown bloodline with great risk. Since Sailum seemed to be determined, Angor would respect his decision while hoping for a good oue.

    After leaving Dave, Angor took a detour to Bartterfly Pub and bought another piece of information.

    About Hookdick.

    However, it was basically useless. It seemed Hookdick never returned to Brute Cavern after the garden challenge.

    So what did Nausica find out? Or did they leave for another reason?

    Since there was nothing else to go by, Angor could only put this matter aside.

    He returned to Phantom Ind and enjoyed another tiring yet exciting fight with Toby.

    When he dragged his sore body back to Sunders¡¯ house, he saw someone that he hadn¡¯t talked to in a long time¡ªFlora.

    He once asked Sunders about Flora¡¯s whereabouts. Sunders told him that Flora was busy dealing with a ¡°blood dissolve epidemic¡± at Parmigi Hignds. The incident had been solved, but the culprit of it¡ªa certain virus called the ¡°Blood Melter¡±¡ªremained a mystery, and Flora had been going after this wonderful virus that could easily kill powerful wizards.

    Because this might be her chance to find the ¡°path¡±.

    Nobody had seen Flora in a long time since she was always busy doing research. Angor was quite surprised to see the witch in a shiny, red bubble skirt floating out of Sunders¡¯ study while carrying that adorable umbre.

    Even though she was constantly upied with her research, Flora managed to hear rumors about Angor, which she obtained from various sources. Despite that, she never trusted the unreliable gossips that were passed around multiple times.

    However, she was VERY surprised when she saw Angor in person.

    They had been apart for almost a year. When they metst time, Angor was a fresh level-1 apprentice who just started to learn wizardry.

    But now... he was level-3.

    To be a top-level apprentice within a year! Even Sunders was a little frightened by Angor¡¯s amazing progress, much less Flora.

    After getting over her initial shock, she felt depressed knowing that someone¡¯s talent had bested hers so thoroughly.

 Chapter 583 - Unfinished Words

    <h4>Chapter 583: Unfinished Words</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Flora regained her calm expression and discarded the unnecessary thoughts.

    <i>Oh, this is nothing,pared to what I heard about Sumesh...</i>

    ¡°Good afternoon, Miss Flora.¡± Angor bowed politely.

    Flora folded her umbre and gentlynded in front of him while bringing the smell of rose with her.

    ¡°Good afternoon, dear. I must say you scared me a little. I¡¯m talking about your growth in the past year.¡±

    ¡°I was lucky.¡± Angor maintained his neutral smile.

    ¡°Heh. Luck does not favor just anyone, you know.¡±

    Flora still had her ns, so she didn¡¯t intend to spend time chatting. Yet before she could leave, she felt Little Red trembling behind her back.

    Confused, Flora turned around and talked to Little Red.

    Then she looked back at Angor again. To be more urate, she was looking at Angor¡¯s right hand, which was hidden inside Sunders¡¯ ck glove. From it, Flora saw the particr aura of nightmare illusions as well as the emblem that came with a long sword stuck inside a thorned rose¡ªthe emblem of Eagle Family.

    ¡°That¡¯s... professor¡¯s glove. He used it in his early years. It suits you!¡± Flora said while taking a rose from Little Red and giving it to Angor. ¡°Little Red is afraid of ¡®that¡¯, so I have to deliver the flower to you this time.¡±

    When epting the rose, Angor felt the green marks on his right hand suddenly going active as a small stream of nightmare energy was injected into the flower. In the next second, the blood-red rose gained an even brighter gleam as if it were glowing.

    Angor grew a little bemused at the strange sight. He then smiled at Little Red.

    ¡°Thank you. This is beautiful.¡±

    Ever since he met with Little Red in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, this strange skeleton would give him a rose every time they met each other. Angor thought this was only a random gift and left all the roses somewhere to wilt. Therefore, he was surprised to notice that when the rose absorbed his nightmare energy, it could be used as a nightmare stone or a medium for casting powerful nightmare illusions.

    Sunders already mentioned Angor¡¯s condition to Flora. Yet when witnessing the amazing power up close, Flora still felt curious... and jealous.

    <i>Man... I want that. But I have to chop it off first...</i>

    She forced herself to discard the terrible idea and looked away.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I don¡¯t know where this thing came from either.¡± Angor was talking to Little Red.

    Little Red ¡°smiled¡± by turning the green embers in its eye sockets into crescent shapes; it then made a gesture to tell Angor that it was alright.

    ¡°Ignorance... and horrifying luck.¡± Flora chuckled. ¡°Keep the flower. I¡¯m leaving.¡±

    Angor quickly stopped her as he remembered something.

    ¡°Can I ask you a question, Miss Flora?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°About spell slots...¡± Angor described how Sunders suddenly changed his mind and did not finish his words on that day. ¡°I¡¯ve been reading a lot of books, yet I still don¡¯t know what the professor tried to tell me.¡±

    Flora, however, had no problem figuring out Sunders¡¯ intention after following him for so many years.

    Sunders always had one thing he regretted badly.

    It was possible to open up a new spell slot each time someone gained a level. As a level-2 wizard, Sunders currently had three spell slots, including the one he gained as an apprentice.

    Sunders fixed ¡°Imitation¡± to his first spell slot, while the other two were ¡°Nightmare Shade¡± and ¡°Nightmare Substitute¡±, which were created by Sunders himself after he became a truth-finder.

    Thetter two were powerful spells that went well with Sunders¡¯ talent, whereas ¡°Imitation¡± was an ordinary level-3 cantrip, which might be enhanced whenbined with nightmare energy, but generally speaking, it was still a cantrip that held limited potential.

    Sunders regretted that he wasted a valuable spell slot on amon cantrip.

    Naturally, the best choices to be affixed to permanent spell slots were someone¡¯s original spells, such as Greya¡¯s ¡°Artificial Life¡±, which was powerful enough to challenge the world¡¯s consciousness and bend the rules of this world. The other reason for using an original spell was that an original spell could disy its full power in the hands of its creator.

    It was clear to Flora that Sunders meant to tell Angor to aim as high as possible when opening up the first spell slot. Yet Sunders did not say it in the end. Flora wondered if her professor withheld the opinion because he wasn¡¯t confident in Angor.

    <i>No, that can¡¯t be.</i>

    Wealth, knowledge, even emotions... a wizard could miss such a thing or two. What a wizard needed was confidence. How could someone explore the ultimate truth if they were afraid to do so?

    <i>Then why did Sunders keep it from Angor?</i>

    Flora thought about Sunders¡¯ mission in Abyss ne and easily thought about a possible conclusion.

    <i>There isn¡¯t enough time.</i>

    To create a brand new spell, one had to receive the acknowledgment from the world¡¯s consciousness and challenge its very nature, which was only possible afterbining their rich knowledge with endless effort. If Angor were to take such a path, he would need more than time.

    However, theing incident in Abyss ne would soon shroud the entire southern region under the terror brought by a Grand Demon. If Angor spent too much time working on a new spell, he would not be able to be a wizard in time.

    It was ten millennia ago when a Grand Demon almost destroyed the entire southern wizarding world. There would be barely any chance for Angor to survive from such a disaster as an apprentice.

    If he were to be a wizard, it would mean that Angor would be able to protect himself better.

    Sunders did not tell his opinion because he did not want Angor to take the ¡°slower¡± path. If Angor were to die in theing fight, all his talent and effort would be wasted.

    Even so, no one would deny that it was quite an achievement to challenge the path of truth as an apprentice.

    ¡°Miss Flora?¡± Angor noticed Flora was lost in thoughts for too long. ¡°Do you know what the professor wanted to say?¡±

    ¡°I do! But are you sure you want to hear it? He didn¡¯t tell you for a good reason, you know.¡±

    Angor hesitated.

    <i>Is it something too difficult for me? Or is there another problem?</i>

    Angor did not know about the demon disaster that was about to hit this world. To him, he had to choose the best path that he could, just like how he decided to study ¡°thirty-six-dimensional locator¡± even though Sunders suggested him not to.

    ¡°Please, tell me.¡±

    Flora saw Angor¡¯s determination, yet she wasn¡¯t so sure whether she should alter Sunders¡¯ decision.

    A part of her said no, but there was another evil voice inside her mind that urged her to do otherwise. After learning about Sumesh¡¯s condition and seeing Angor growing so fast, Flora was worried that she would be the weakest student among them if Angor kept progressing so fast.

    <i>Maybe I can use this chance to slow him down just a little?</i>

    In the end, the rational part of her defeated the evil voice, and she remained quiet.

    She was a wizard after all, and wizards couldn¡¯t let their selfishness take control of their actions.

    ¡°Go find the professor if you really want to know. He¡¯ll tell you if you ask him.¡±

    By this, Flora told Angor that Sunders did mean to tell something. The question was whether Angor was willing to find out.

    Next, Flora looked at the second floor of Sunders¡¯ manor. Somehow, Sunders was standing on his balcony while looking at them with a thoughtful expression.

    Flora waved a hand to say goodbye while sending a voice transmission to her teacher, ¡°Instead of hiding it, how about letting the boy choose for himself?¡±

    Flora left the manor, while Angor and Sunders stared at each other across the garden.

    After bearing with the awkward silence for a while, Sunders shook his head and sighed.

    ¡°Come to my study.¡±

    ...

    Just as Flora said, Sunders had no problem revealing the answer.

    ¡°If you wish to fix something you created on the first spell slot, let¡¯s say, it¡¯ll take you a hundred years or more. Listen, in ten years, or twenty, at most, another Grand Demon will invade the south. If you are still not a wizard by then... you¡¯ll probably die with the other apprentices. There¡¯s nowhere to hide when the demon¡¯s army strikes.

    ¡°This is why I didn¡¯t tell you to spend so much time working on your first spell slot.¡±

    Angor took a moment to digest the terrible information.

    Rather than thinking about his choices, he was worried about something else.

    <i>What will be of my family when the cmityes?</i>

    Sunders did not mind when he saw that his student was distracted. ¡°If you be a wizard in time, it won¡¯t be hard to protect your kin. So, what is your answer?¡±

    Angor considered his words and answered as seriously as he could, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s time to choose yet.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re having trouble making up your mind?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. I mean, you sound as if I should either focus on creating a spell and not be a wizard in time or give up and quickly reach wizard level before the demonse. But, even if I choose thetter, how do you know if I can make it? I¡¯ve been studying wizardry for less than two years!¡±

    ¡°Oh... oops.¡±

 Chapter 584 - Words About Sumesh

    <h4>Chapter 584: Words About Sumesh</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Apprentices couldn¡¯t just turn into wizards because they wanted to.

    To 99% of all apprentices, bing a wizard could be well considered the ultimate goal. Under such a circumstance, aiming for the path of truth as an apprentice was downright impossible.

    However, it seemed both Sunders and Flora assumed that the otherwise absurd challenge was something possible for Angor. Not only that, but they also expected Angor to aim higher after bing a wizard, which ¡°might take him a lot of time¡±.

    To them, the question was whether Angor should ¡°take time¡± to ept the challenges. Unfortunately, Angor did not have such high hopes for himself. He did not have the confidence to be a wizard in the first ce.

    He became a level-3 apprentice so fast all thanks to his potent channeling method that allowed him to proceed while disregarding the limits that dragged down other apprentices for a long time. Yet this channeling method, however special it was, would not help him with attaining wizard level. To be a wizard, he had to have personal awareness, an enriched mind, and most importantly, endless time and effort.

    Angor was hoping to reach that level before turning 30, which was already beyond impressive in this world. This was why he couldn¡¯t tell his choice to Sunders, because the ¡°major premise¡± of Sunders¡¯ question was wrong!

    ¡°I see...¡± Sunders nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. I shouldn¡¯t be asking you all these if you can¡¯t get there yet. Regarding spell slots... you can put it aside for now. Think about it again once you reach your current limit and is sure you can move past it.¡±

    Angorplied. This was exactly what he was thinking.

    If someone were to force him to choose right now, he would probably go for wizard level first because he certainly did not wish to die helplessly when the cmity came.

    ¡°Something else you need?¡± Sunders saw his student considering something else instead of leaving.

    ¡°Um, sir, what did Miss Florae back for just now?¡±

    Angor decided to ask this question because he saw something out of ce on his teacher.

    The gentleman appeared to be different. Angor couldn¡¯t put his finger on it. He got a feeling that Sunders seemed ¡°loosened¡±pared to before, in a good way.

    <i>Did something good happen?</i>

    Angor tried to remember what he saw today. Sunders seemed fine this morning, and there was Flora¡¯s visit...

    <i>Maybe it was something rted to Flora?</i>

    It was such a rare sight to see the gentleman in such a ¡°cheerful¡± mode, albeit just a little, and Angor wanted to find out why. He chose to do so by asking an indirect question.

    Despite that, his intention was easily seen through.

    ¡°You want to know why I look different today?¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow.

    Angor scratched his head.

    ¡°You¡¯ll naturally know in a few days, but since you asked...¡± Sunders grinned. ¡°Sumesh has be a truth-finder wizard.¡±

    Angor was puzzled for a while as he tried to recall who Sumesh was. He then realized that whenever people talked about Sunders, they would often mention this name.

    As of now, Sunders had three students. Flora was an orphan found by Sunders when she was still young, while Angor joined Sunders the year beforest.

    The remaining one, Sumesh, was Sunders¡¯ first student; he had been studying under Sunders for over a hundred years.

    To Angor, the name ¡°Sumesh¡± only existed in rumors and tales. He knew Sumesh was also an illusionist. The difference was that Sumesh majored in Truth Maniptor, a special Illusionist subject that confused or convinced people by obscuring the boundary between real and fake.

    Also, Sumesh was titled as ¡°The Masked Man¡±.

    He left Brute Cavern 50 years ago in pursuit of his own path, and it seemed he had triumphed.

    Fifty years was not much different than a blink of an eye to wizards who had extended lives. Given that Sumesh managed to find his path of truth in such a short time, it proved that his talent was indeed unparalleled.

    Of course, Sunders was pleased to find out that his ¡°number one student¡± was a huge sess.

    Creating a truth-finder wizard would grant Sunders an even more influential position in Brute Cavern. The gentleman had no interest in political privilege. He was only interested in the fact that he would have more chips on the table when negotiating with the other authorities in the organization.

    Angor smiled as well. Even though he had not met with this rumored man, he felt happy that his ssmate was so sessful.

    ¡°Did Miss Flora bring the message to you?¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°When Flora was on an expedition quest with Moonfrost Union, whichsted 20 years, she became good friends with Sennefer. It was Sennefer who sent her the message, that in a wizard camp inside Xien ne, Sumesh created a new spell and caused arge-scale omen, which was seen by lots of people.¡±

    Angor wondered what kind of new spell was born in Sumesh¡¯s hands. Pity. He couldn¡¯t possibly travel to Xien ne and find out.

    Sunders suddenly frowned and took out his ¡°crystal ball transmitter¡±, which had several new messages shown on it. Most of them were congrattions sent by various entities when they learned about Sumesh¡¯s achievement.

    At the same time, Butler Goode knocked on the door, iming that several wizards were visiting.

    Of course, these people all wished to use this chance to establish friendly connections with Sunders. And this time, the unsociable gentleman decided to invite them inside.

    ¡°Lift the barrier around the ind and take them here!¡±

    Angor also noticed a message from Rein Mute. He invited Sunders to his ce for a chat.

    Soon, a good number of people set foot on Phantom Ind, where it was usually peaceful and rtively quiet.

    Angor quickly took his leave. He figured that he probably wasn¡¯t supposed to show up during the social meeting among so many wizards.

    ¡°When will Lady Greya arrive, professor?¡± Angor asked onest question before leaving.

    ¡°If all goes ording to n, in two days, at most.¡±

    ...

    Greya was currently leaving from a teleportation array in the Evernight Kingdom, which was located on the other side of Parmigi Hignds. She was traveling via Sleepless City, a city-organization located in the southeast part of the Evernight Kingdom.

    Sleepless City and Edge of Night were two major organizations in the Evernight Kingdom. Despite the fact that they were established inside the Evernight Kingdom, the authorities of Evernight Kingdom knew little about them.

    This was simr to how the mortals in Evory didn¡¯t know much about Floating Mech City even though the city constantly floated above Evory.

    Tomon folks in the Evernight Kingdom, Sleepless City was also called the ¡°Ever-Bright City¡±, because as its name suggested, the city had no nights. This was achieved by a giant magic array built alongside the city.

    When Greya stepped out of the teleportation portal, her eyes were almost blinded by the shining, dome-like barrier above her.

    The magic array under the city was called the ¡°eternal radiance¡±. When it was fully activated, it would create this barrier-like curtain that provided light to the city as well as drawing more mana from the environment.

    ¡°Ohhh, when under this barrier, I can absorb primal mana almost four times faster than from the outside. If Angor can draw the magic array, I¡¯ll ask him to get me one when I resume business at Barbie¡¯s Restaurant!¡± Greya spoke to herself.

    She floated toward the outside of the city. She would keep going like this until she reached Brute Cavern. Without her ¡°proper¡± body, she could no longer travel via ne passageways. Thankfully, she only had to fly past a short distance above Parmigi Hignds.

    Before leaving the city range, her ears twitched as she saw a group of people on the street below her talking about the news from Moonfrost.

    Greya was interested because she heard Sunders¡¯ name being mentioned.

    ¡°Oh... Sumesh has done it...¡±

    She still remembered when Sunders took a level-2 apprentice boy who always had a straight face on to her restaurant about a hundred years ago. At that time, the gentleman required another Twisting Protozoa.

    <i>And I¡¯m makingpletely no progress here... If I don¡¯t find my body soon, I guess even that Angor boy will surpass me soon.</i>

    She was annoyed by her condition. Even so, Greya still silently admired Sunders¡¯ keen eye for looking for good students.

    The gentleman found three students. A truth-finder wizard, a powerful witch, and a newly-found boy who was still an apprentice but had already scared the hell out of people with his preeminent potential.

    If things kept going like this, Sunders¡¯ students could probably create quite a legend in the south even without their professor¡¯s help.

    Greya shook her head and kept moving outside.

    Suddenly, a piece of strange music came out of nowhere. When the strange music reached her ears, Greya immediately stopped moving.

 Chapter 585 - Looming Monsters

    <h4>Chapter 585: Looming Monsters</h4>

    The music came so suddenly and its source couldn¡¯t be seen. But the melody sounded loud and clear as if the musician were just nearby.

    Greya looked around without finding such a musician, and since she didn¡¯t enjoy music or performances, she kept heading away without giving it much thought.

    The pleasant melody suddenly turned sharp and creepy, as if a diligent entertainer were reced by a drunk street performer who missed several fingers.

    The tunes kept rising and lowering to uneptable levels like a ghost was trying to sing soprano in the middle of the night.

    While terrifying, the music was so impressive that those who heard it only found it difficult to remove the lingering notes from their minds.

    Greya stopped her movement when she got a strange feeling.

    ¡°What the heck? Who¡¯s ying ghost in the daytime?¡±

    ¡°Oof... I feel cold already.¡±

    ¡°Is this a thriller show? Sounds good!¡±

    The pedestrians all heard the music, and most of them showed disgust.

    Before they could use more words to me the terrible music, they were stopped by another strange voice:

    ¡°Croak! Praise the Queen, praise our Shava, praise the Moon! Croak! God damn, there is no moonlight here! Who rejected the benevolence of the moon? Such a filthy, foolish idea! Foolish, I say! But don¡¯t worry! It will soon get better.¡±

    As soon as the speaker finished talking, the citizens suddenly feltplete darkness blocking their sight.

    Greya jerked her head up and saw a ck vortex spinning in the middle of the light barrier above Sleepless City like the eye of a storm. The vortex was releasing dark strings into the city, which crawled over the dome-like barrier like an expanding spiderweb.

    Within seconds, the entire barrier waspletely taken over by the dark.

    Simr to how Floating Mech City was divided into two sections, Sleepless City also came with an ¡°inner city¡± and an ¡°outer city¡±. While the inner area was home to organizations and officials, the outer city was upied by all sorts of shops where traders gathered.

    The entire outer city, which covered thend of hundreds of square kilometers, instantly fell dark.

    Soon after this happened, several light beams appeared from within the inner city and stopped in front of the now ck barrier.

    The wizards who presented themand system of Sleepless City looked at each other with their own confused looks, not sure what was going on.

    ¡°What is this? Can anyone tell me the situation here?¡± a middle-aged man in a white robe with golden trimmings yelled at the others. His muscr build, square face, and brown stubble gave him a heroic look.

    This was one of the three leaders of Sleepless City, ¡°The Radiance¡± Dous.

    ¡°Mister Dous, I sensed an abnormal dimensional energy surge, so I came to check. But we only saw this darkness that had covered up the entire outer city.¡±

    The speaker was a masked man in a violet robe. He was the chief security who was responsible for maintaining safety for the outer city, and the first one who discovered the incident.

    ¡°Is someone attacking us?¡±

    ¡°But who will? This came so suddenly. No forewarning at all.¡±

    ¡°Edge of Night maybe? They¡¯re always opposing us. Like, they built an entire city on top of a mountain and named it ¡®Evernight Mount¡¯ just to annoy us. Maybe they brought this thing to us!¡±

    ¡°But why didn¡¯t the Edge of Night aim straight at the inner city?¡±

    Dous listened to the unproductive discussion with a frown. ¡°Enough! The outer city cannot fall as our partner organizations all have their operation bases out there. Our number one priority is to figure out how to deal with the darkness and ascertain the condition of citizens!¡±

    Everyone stayed quiet and looked at him.

    ¡°Now let me see what exactly happened...¡± With a flicker of mind, Dous created a giant sphere that radiated unstoppable light above his head.

    He then moved the sphere into the dark area ahead.

    This was a simple spell created by multiplexing the potency of a cantrip called Light. It might damage the eyesight of weak mortals, but it had no particr effect on supernaturals.

    Dous nned to get rid of the darkness using this spell, but things didn¡¯t go as he expected.

    The dark curtain looming over the outer city was so thick that it was like a swamp that devoured anything that trod within. Dous¡¯ sphere vanished into it without causing any visible effect as if he threw a pebble into soft mud.

    ¡°Something is not right...¡±

    Of course, anyone could see this. While Dous worried about suffering fame loss should any of the wizard bases were damaged, several wizards decided to step into the darkness-covered area ahead.

    No one returned.

    Someone then tried sending their familiars or puppets inside to observe the situation.

    Nothing worked. As soon as something went inside the darkness, its connection with their owner would get severedpletely.

    ¡°... I¡¯m going in. You get ready to evacuate the others.¡± As a leader, Dous decided to step up.

    ¡°Please reconsider this, sir! No one knows the nature of the disaster. It may be too dangerous even for you!¡±

    ¡°No need to worry. Even if there¡¯s a danger, I still need to check it out first.¡±

    Dous created a shining armor that covered his form and dashed into the darkness like aet.

    A momentter, several more wizards arrived at the scene, including those who were locked inside their seclusions. Among them, an old man with a long, white beard hanging in front of his chest attracted everyone¡¯s attention.

    ¡°Mister Qetesh! Mister Dous just¡ª¡± The security wizard in violet robe wanted to quickly exin the situation.

    However, Qetesh lifted a hand to stop him. ¡°I already know.¡±

    Next, Qetesh gazed at the dark dome with a strange expression that was both shock and joy.

    ¡°This is... nightmare aura?¡± His voice trembled in fear. And at the same time, he failed to hide his greedy intention. ¡°Is there another Nightmare Realm tunnel showing up?¡±

    As someone who once traveled to the Nightmare Realm, Qetesh was sensitive to such clues. Failing to acquire Travel In Dreand the other day did not prevent him from coveting another chance to hunt for treasures.

    He really wished that his dream hade true. But when thinking about what happened thest time he was inside the Nightmare Realm, he couldn¡¯t help but shiver.

    To go? Or not to go?

    The space beside him suddenly shattered as a small rift appeared out of thin air.

    ¡°A ne passageway?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Mister Dous!¡±

    Under everyone¡¯s shocked gaze, Dous squeezed through the narrow tunnel with several more wizards following behind. None of them looked well. Some of them had multiple nasty injuries all over their bodies.

    The others noticed that Dous brought several survivors back and quickly asked, ¡°Whatever happened, Mister Dous?¡±

    The survivors were acting in a strange way. Some of them kept ncing behind their backs as if they would like to return to the portal.

    Dous had lost his determined temperament and was faltering about something. ¡°I do not know. What I know is that the entire outer city has been shut off from the outside. We had to use our strength together to open a ne passageway to escape.

    ¡°But I sensed something else. It felt so familiar...¡±

    When people kept questioning, Dous finally revealed a single word to them.

    ¡°Mystery.¡±

    ...

    Greya sensed danger as soon as she saw the darkness expanding and tried to leave the city area. But she moved a little toote.

    The whole city was covered by the darkness now. No matter where she went, Greya would always find herself returning to the city as if she was lost in a maze.

    Without any other option, she headed back to the teleport station and hoped that the teleportation array still worked.

    Geez. I¡¯ll just return to Floating Mech City again and go to Edge of Night instead. It¡¯s not so far from Brute Cavern¡ª

    The strange music interrupted her thoughts as it turned more and more painful to the ears. Also, Greya felt an unknown and foreign corruption growing in the depth of her mind.

    She frowned and tried to suppress the ominous emotion from affecting her judgment. It took some effort. She barely managed to stop the evilness from growing by using the full strength of her soul of a truth-finder, yet she couldn¡¯t erase itpletely.

    ¡°Common wizards cannot resist this mental pollution... Is it caused by the followers of Sinister Mischief?¡±

    Sinister Mischief was a Grand Demon from Abyss ne. It was also known as the ¡°Demon Of Desires¡±, who enjoyed manipting the emotions of people.

    Greya wasn¡¯t affected by the strange darkness. Yet she no longer felt safe when the eerie music sessfully disturbed her mental peace.

    While ignoring the passersby who already fell for their inted desires, Greya quickly returned to the teleportation station she just used.

    It wasn¡¯t there¡ªthe building had be a pile of debris, and a bipedal fox with bright red fur was standing on top of the ruins.

 Chapter 586 - Scent of Mystery

    <h4>Chapter 586: Scent of Mystery</h4>

    In contrast to the looming darkness, the fox¡¯s me-red fur appeared bright and eye-catching.

    Butpared to this, what shocked Greya most was the beast¡¯s behavior. It was wearing a violet skirt, which shimmered in the dark, and there was a harp in its paws, which looked as big as the animal¡¯s body.

    Wait... a harp?

    Greya gazed intensively at the instrument that was creating that ghostly music when it was being plucked.

    She sensed something familiar from it. It was a particr energy signature, which she felt before when Angor created a Mystery item under Dark Castle.

    That¡¯s a Mystery item!

    What remained of her anxiety immediately turned into greed.

    Thank goodness I returned here or I might have missed it! She already considered the harp as her trophy. It¡¯s just a fox! I¡¯ll kill it and take what¡¯s mine!

    The fox noticed Greya¡¯s thirsty look and slowly gave her its own, disdaining look.

    ¡°Such a beautiful night... Why are you so uptight, my dear friend?¡±

    With another move, the fox created several white strings from its harp, which it aimed at Greya.

    ...

    Meanwhile, several figures appeared outside an elegant building several kilometers away from Greya¡¯s position.

    Any wizard or apprentice would quickly recognize the emblem on the building that showed a giant tree¡ªthe Tree of Eternity. This was a mark that represented the operation base of Brute Cavern.

    This group of people was led by Dous. After covering his body under a shining armor, he rushed into the unknown darkness just so that he could travel around the ¡°agencies¡± of different organizations and take the survivors away.

    He already rescued a number of them, and the base of Brute Cavern was hisst destination.

    Brute Cavern stationed one wizard, Filo, at Sleepless City. When Dous arrived, he saw Filo having a hard time resisting the evil energy that tainted people¡¯s minds even though thetter was standing inside a protective bubble.

    The light brought by Dous reached Filo and eased his burden.

    ¡°Get over here, Filo! We¡¯ll gather our strength and force open a ne passageway so that we can escape!¡± Dous called out.

    ¡°Mister Dous! What is¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t f*cking know!¡± Dous bellowed. ¡°Ask questions AFTER we get out of this mess!¡±

    ¡°The darkness had taken over the entire outer city. If not for Mister Dous¡¯ assistance, none of us would escape the corruption of desire.¡± The speaker was a wizard from Foreboding Forest and Filo¡¯s friend.

    ¡°Whatever it is, we¡¯re not strong enough to resist it.¡±

    ¡°Fanatics of Sinister Mischief, I reckon! These heretics want nothing other than utter chaos. They have gone too far this time!¡±

    Dous¡¯ forehead was covered in sweat, and he found it harder and harder to defend his mind from such evil energy.

    ¡°Stop it! Let¡¯s open the passage NOW!¡±

    He didn¡¯t know who or what caused the evil energy, but he did know that his field of light, which kept everyone safe until now, was going to buckle at any moment.

    And when that happened, every wizard would be fully vulnerable to the dangerous effect outside.

    After he exined the situation, the quarreling wizards thought about the consequences should they get controlled by their own desires and quickly united.

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep the protection working for as long as possible. You all get to the passage!¡±

    As the wizards did their best to construct a dimensional path, a woman with a slim body and arge bamboo rain hat suddenly approached Dous¡¯ barrier.

    The dark aura lingering around her body suggested that her desires were fully aroused. Despite that, she would still asionally show sanity as if she at least had some form of protection.

    ¡°I-I can¡¯t hold it back anymore, Mister Filo. Can you take me with you?¡± the woman asked in a weak and tender voice.

    Unsure of what to do, Filo looked at her and then at Dous.

    Dous also checked the strange woman who appeared rather enticing under the effect of corrupted desire.

    But she was still amon apprentice.

    ¡°She¡¯s the student of ¡®Deadman¡¯s Redemption¡¯ Ness. She got talent¡ª¡±

    ¡°Enough!¡± Dous interrupted Filo¡¯s exnation. ¡°You¡¯re thest one I can hold in my barrier. Take anyone else and the protection will fail, and we¡¯ll be in great trouble!¡±

    Filo remained quiet. The woman was not his own student. He did not wish to risk his own life for her.

    Hearing their words, the woman¡¯s evil intention worsened.

    One extra and your pretty barrier will break, huh?

    Controlled by both despair and elevated immorality, the woman moved to force her way inside the barrier.

    ¡°Let me in or NOBODY GETS AWAY ALIVE!!¡±

    As all the wizards were busy controlling the ne passageway, no one could spare the strength to stop her.

    However, before she could reach the barrier, another mad-driven voice was heard shouting from a distance, ¡°You will die right this moment!!¡±

    Another woman with short, curly blue hair and a magic ward that looked like pure water suddenly appeared and began to attack the first woman aggressively.

    The rain-hat-wearing woman was forced to back away from the group of wizards. ¡°Dripping River... you lunatic b*tch!¡± she cursed while looking left and right.

    If Shiliew is here, the other two are probably somewhere nearby!

    As expected, she caught a glimpse of another bulky shadow in the dark, which was probably Shan¡¯s servant.

    ¡°They¡¯re opening up a ne passageway! How about we get out first before you do whatever madness you meant to do?!¡± she yelled to her enemy.

    Yet Shiliew didn¡¯t listen as she seemed lost in her hysteria.

    ¡°Damn you all!¡±

    The maddening music suddenly came to a halt. At the same time, Shiliew lowered her hands as she calmed down, while Dous also felt relieved as he no longer had to sustain his barrier.

    ¡°Pathetic...¡± He gazed at the woman with the rain hat in disgust. ¡°You want to die so much?! I¡¯ll help you with it and Ness is not going to stop me!¡±

    With a frown, Filo watched Dous gathering energy for an attack. However, he did not say anything.

    Before Dous could finish his move, however, everyone was attracted by another strange energy surge above their heads.

    The ck vortex at the center of the ¡°dome barrier¡±, which was the culprit that brought all the darkness, was changing again.

    It was releasing a type of energy that no wizards could neglect.

    ¡°That¡¯s...¡± Dous¡¯ fury instantly became greed. ¡°No doubt about it. This is Mystery energy!¡±

    Is this disaster caused by the appearance of a Mystery item instead of someone¡¯s attack?! Most wizards had realized the same thing.

    They all once read a book named Wonder Worlds,posed by Feinwerder the Traveler Wizard. The book contained a certain story that described how a Mystery item was created in a foreign ne. It happened when Feinwerder was observing a curious fish in a ne full of seawater. The treasure came into existence all of a sudden, without any warning.

    And this strange urrence appeared so alike.

    Now that the Mystery energy was almost within reach, people could no longer refrain from openly showing their coveting looks. Such a treasure would undeniably grant a whole new level of strength to anyone who managed to get their hands on it. And if by some miracle, the item went well with its owner¡¯s ability, he or she would be free of any obstacles on their path!

    A yet stranger voice suddenly came and disrupted their fantasies, ¡°Croak! Praise the Queen, Praise our Shava! Praise¡ªhuh?! Why are you here?¡±

    Following these words, the same vexing music came again to foment their evil emotions.

    Dous fully activated his barrier once again. ¡°Whatever that is, we need to run! Now!¡±

    The ne passageway was finally prepared. Most of the survivors nced at the source of the Mystery power reluctantly before leaving.

    Once all the wizards had left, the passage was shut off behind them, preventing anyone from actually getting back.

    With the wizards gone, the woman with the rain hat and Shiliew were left on the streets of the outer city.

    The woman with the rain hat did not get a chance to enjoy her peace because Shiliew was getting mad again under the strange music.

    Shiliew was no longer the only threat. From the corner of her eye, the woman with the rain hat saw a giant shadow approaching their position. There was another smaller individual who was sitting on the shadow¡¯s shoulder.

    Simr to Shiliew, Shan¡¯s eyes had turned red due to uncontroble rage.

    The woman with the rain hat jerked her head to one side when she sensed a violent air currenting from behind her.

    Next, she saw yet another feminine figure in a bright metal armor walking toward her. This woman was obviously responsible for the missed attack.

    ¡°Nausica...!¡±

 Chapter 587 - Creativity

    <h4>Chapter 587: Creativity</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor had returned to The Tributary.

    Even though he was allowed to remain at Phantom Ind, in order to finish Greya¡¯s requested illusion item before her arrival at Brute Cavern, Angor had to use his rentedb as it had better equipmentpared to what Phantom Ind could offer.

    He had spent two days in hisb watching movies, but not doing alchemy.

    Fusing illusions into items was a veryplicated task to other alchemists, but not to Angor, who was both an alchemist and an illusionist.

    He was simply trying to find out which illusion to present to Greya.

    While in Dark Castle, Greya asked him to create an ¡°illusionary Toby¡± that she could interact with. To do this, Angor recreated the experience from when he and Toby traveled to Twilight Town. He then put Greya into the first-person point of view as well as adding some elements of the Nightmare Realm into the illusion.

    This time, however, Greya did not give him a ¡°subject¡± to work on. Before leaving Floating Mech City, Greya told him to make a ¡°creative¡± illusion and ¡°put something that is Nightmare Realm-ish¡± in it.

    The second requirement wasn¡¯t hard since Angor was probably the only alchemist in the south who knew how to apply the ambiance of the Nightmare Realm on something.

    But creativity? That was too vague.

    Creating illusions, even if with some fixed preconditions, already required a lot of creativity and imagination.

    Angor was stumped.

    Greya¡¯s request was a lot harder than Lady Mirror¡¯s ¡°filthy but practical¡± one. And when thinking about how he still needed to work on another illusion item for Lady Mirror, Angor felt a huge headache.

    Thankfully, Lady Mirror gave him a lot of time for this. He only needed to worry about Greya¡¯s one for now.

    Whenever he needed new ideas, he would immediately refer to his hologram tablet that contained endless knowledge about an entire foreign civilization.

    People from Earth had ceaselessly created literature rted to supernatural powers even though they did not have such powers in their real lives. Of course, Jon saved a lot of relevant movies and stories on his tablet.

    Angor took out his tablet and wanted to find out how people from Earth fantasied about such things.

    As he watched more movies, his view of a schr gradually became that of a dedicated movie lover.

    Each of the movies presented him with a brand new world that provided new concepts and ideals. Even though they couldn¡¯t wield magic, people from Earth had broader minds when creating fancy content.

    Angor, as a supernatural himself, felt greatly inspired after seeing the contribution made by different people from differently-developed regions as well as their various ideas of the imaginary world.

    After watching about twenty movies, he noticed that all of them contained elements of religion. He certainly did not wish to mention anything like that in his illusions since Greya would probably mock the silly idea.

    Religions were born when uncivilized people either feared or respected the unknown, and wizards only sought absolute truth in everything. They knew that religions had the tendency to end up as tools for manipting people¡¯s minds.

    There was no way Angor would provide such an unproductive ¡°ingredient¡± to a truth-finder witch.

    Still, the movies provided him with a lot of perceptions and insights. When he had watched enough movies, he turned off the tablet and wondered whether he should copy one of the fantasy worlds he saw in the movies.

    But he quickly gave up this idea¡ªdoing so would be tooborious, and no matter how well he constructed the world, most of his efforts would be pointless as it would remain as illusions.

    This time, he decided to base his creation on his experience again by creating a ce he was familiar with, such as Witch¡¯s Town or Nether City.

    As for the details in the area... copying elements from the movies would work well.

    He did not wish to add a ¡°main story¡± this time since not everyone enjoyed being led by the nose. The ¡°ear stud¡± he gave Greya used such a story because Greya loved spending time with Toby. But she did not ask for something like that again.

    Angor decided to create a ¡°sandbox¡± illusion that would allow people to explore freely.

    He was still worried that the elements from the movies might not satisfy Greya¡¯s requirement for ¡°creativity¡±. The witch was probably asking for something that could mentally satisfy her instead of mere beautiful sights.

    While they were talking in Sunders¡¯ manor in Floating Mech City, Greya mentioned that thest illusion helped her ¡°learn something¡±.

    <i>But at my current level, what can I possibly teach a truth-finder?</i>

    Angor had no idea. His only option was to proceed with what he had at this moment.

    ...

    As usual, he first needed to determine the material to be used and the general design of the item. This wasn¡¯t so hard¡ªhe somehow knew Greya¡¯s taste, telling from how she always used heavy face powders and particrly bright lip colors.

    The item needed to look like something used by a moneyeddy who had a terrible sense of beauty.

    Angor would admit that the design in his mind was pretty awful. Yet he¡¯d still do it because it might just suit Greya¡¯s style.

    One couldn¡¯t just put an essory that looked too moderate on someone with arge violet skirt and dark-red lips anyway.

    With pen and paper in hand, he quickly got to his first task.

    It wasn¡¯t long before he heard Toby calling from outside his door. The hasty chirping suggested that Toby needed something.

    He opened the door and was immediately weed by a small figure flying joyfully around his head.

    ¡°Need something?¡± Angor returned to his desk and drew an unfinished line on his draft.

    Toby waved his wings around and took out a piece of paper from his Snowy Feather.

    ¡°Tweet ta tweet!¡±

    ¡°Professor sent a message?¡±

    While Angor spent his days in hisb, Toby would wander freely outside. The bird somehow befriended Iron Granny and would often visit the old woman. After a while, Iron Granny even gave Toby a ¡°passport¡± for The Tributary.

    It wasn¡¯t a passport that allowed Toby to use any of thebs. It was one that gave him free ess to and fro The Tributary.

    Since Toby now possessed passports for both The Tributary and Phantom Ind, Angor wasn¡¯t surprised to see his partner bing Sunders¡¯ carrier pigeon.

    ¡°Did Lady Greya arrive already?¡±

    Toby shook his tiny head. Toby did wish to see Greya, but he was also anxious about Greya¡¯s arrival because of the ¡°training¡± he received from her not long ago.

    Angor wondered what else could possibly happen and unfolded the paper.

    The characters that were written on the paper suddenly became alive like tadpoles. They slowly left the surface of the paper and gathered in the air. The image of Sunders was soon projected in Angor¡¯sb room.

    Telling from the background, Sunders created the message in his study.

    ¡°Angor. Do you remember a monster fox with a harp? It showed up again.¡±

    ...

    Angor put away the message and hurried to leave The Tributary with Toby so that he could head to Phantom Ind on his Gond as fast as possible.

    It seemed that ¡°Fox the Harper¡± and ¡°Froggy the Aria Singer¡± had returned after escaping from Midnight Sovereign a year ago. They had shown up at Sleepless City, which was part of the Evernight Kingdom, a ce that Angor and Sunders visited not long ago.

    And like always, they brought quite a disaster with them by coating the outer section of Sleepless City under imprable darkness. Apart from a group of wizards who managed to escape by forcing a ne passageway into existence, the other residents in the city were all trapped.

    Last time, they turned Midnight Sovereign into a mist-covered, parasite-infested hell. Because Midnight Sovereign was mainly a city of mortals, and Twilight Well was an ordinary wizard market with only a few powerful wizards there at that time, the incident was never considered something too serious.

    However, Sleepless City was a genuine wizard organization who owned a good number of influential wizards.

    The monsters assaulted an organization under board daylight!

    Angor didn¡¯t really care about this matter¡ªFox and Froggy could do whatever they liked as long as they did note and bother him.

    Even right at this moment, he knew there was a ¡°dragonfly nest¡± in Pocratee that might release all kinds of horror into Fairy World. And they were free to do so, for all he cared.

    Unfortunately, things were a lot moreplicated now. Sunders¡¯ message just told him that Greya was among the trapped victims.

 Chapter 588 - The Fallen City

    <h4>Chapter 588: The Fallen City</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    There was a natural boundary that separated Parmigi Hignds and the Evernight Kingdom. One side was barrennd and broken boulders while the other had patches of grass that slowly turned lush and abundant as it reached out to the forest-covered mountains in the distance.

    A space rupture suddenly appeared in the cloudless sky, which began to release raging energy ripples to the surrounding area. A careless fowl moved too close to danger and was instantly shredded to pieces by unseen des made out of pure energy.

    When the energy died down a little, two individuals stepped out of the rupture.

    ¡°This is as far as we can go. Any further and the dimensional energy will go out of control.¡± Sunders nced at the tunnel behind him, which was slowly phasing out as it turned unstable. ¡°Either a ne fusion happened nearby, or someone opened up a space passageway in a VERY incorrect way. I¡¯d say it¡¯s thetter because a ne fusion would always seal off arge area and let us see it from afar.¡±

    ¡°So there is another ne passageway nearby, sir?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s possible that the two monsters I mentioned did this. If this is the case... The passageway is likely connected to the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    They both knew what would happen if such a tunnel showed up in the wizarding world. Even so, they had to arrive at the scene first.

    ¡°We¡¯ll need to fly from now on. Let¡¯s move, the Sleepless City is only several hundred kilometers away,¡± said Sunders as he nced at Angor¡¯s wrist.

    Obviously, he meant to use Angor¡¯s Gond.

    Angor didn¡¯t understand why his teacher requested so when they could probably get there faster by flying on their own. Even so, he couldn¡¯t say no to his teacher for such a simple matter.

    Before going for his bracelet, however, Toby, who had been staying on Angor¡¯s shoulder, suddenly left him and turned into an elegant griffin with a ming tail.

    The now bigger Toby hastily called at Sunders.

    ¡°Toby says he can take us there,¡± Angor exined.

    Sunders nodded without saying anything, yet Angor believed that he noticed a tiny hint of disappointment in his teacher¡¯s eyes.

    <i>But Toby can fly a lot faster than Gond. Perhaps... Does the professor prefer sitting on Gond?</i>

    Angor wondered if he should give Sunders a Gond as a gift. Something told him that Sunders expected so, but the gentleman just did not say it out loud.

    It seemed that Toby couldn¡¯t wait for him to figure out an answer now. Toby already spread his broad wings and readied the power of gravity, which appeared as gray energy ripples around his form.

    Toby knew that Greya was in trouble. Receiving Greya¡¯s ¡°hellish training¡± did not prevent Toby from worrying about the wellbeing of his former master.

    Angor moved onto Toby¡¯s back and put a hand on his mane. ¡°Lady Greya will be fine! You know she has all kinds of amazing items like a Section Ephemera that can help her escape.¡±

    Those words were intended tofort Toby, but Angor knew for a fact that Section Ephemera only worked in stable areas. The surrounding area around Sleepless City was anything but stable. They could almost see the dimensional energy ripples going berserk with their bare eyes.

    Thankfully, Angor¡¯s ¡°partial lie¡± still worked¡ªToby managed to calm down and his unnecessarily tensed muscles became rxed.

    With Toby settled, Angor looked at his professor again.

    Earlier, Sunders summoned him to Phantom Ind and briefly exined the situation in Sleepless City. He then immediately opened a ne passageway to get there.

    Angor had no problem following Sunders to the rescue mission since Greya had been very nice to him. Besides, she was Toby¡¯s master. And this time, Angor would follow Sunders¡¯mand instead of foolhardily rushing into danger like how he did during Twilight Auction.

    This was also what he told Toby¡ªno matter what happened to Sleepless City or to Greya, they had to stay calm.

    ¡°Sir, when I fell into the passageway in Midnight Sovereign, how did Froggy and Fox escape?¡±

    Angor had learned that it was indeed Twilight who pushed him into the ne passageway toward Pocratee. Ever since then, no one knew where she went.

    He also knew that it was Sunders and Devildare who handled the second monster nest, which was located at Twilight Auction House. ¡°Fox the Harper¡± and ¡°Froggy the Aria Singer¡± were both there.

    ¡°When I lost sign of you, I immediately headed to Lady¡¯s Juice to check. When I didn¡¯t find you and returned to Twilight Auction House... the monsters were already gone, including the clown card.¡±

    Sunders exined some minor details but without mentioning anything that Angor wasn¡¯t supposed to know, such as how he took great risk and woke a certain dark presence up just to obtain the Mystery item held by Fox.

    When Sunders realized that something unexpected had happened to his student, he immediately gave up on his n and went to rescue Angor. He did not mention this either.

    ¡°They... waited for a year while hiding somewhere, and came to Sleepless City? What do they want?¡± Angor mumbled in confusion.

    ¡°Most nightmare monsters will have their strength weakened in this world. Just like your teacups and toy soldiers, they needed nightmare aura to stay energized. And if they cannot, hiding from in sight is a reasonable choice. As for why they¡¯re here... we need to find out whether they came of their free will first.¡±

    ¡°Their free will?¡± Angor soon understood Sunders¡¯ hint. ¡°If they came on their own, we can tell that they caused the disaster in the city. And if not... it means someone else is behind this?¡±

    Sunders nodded to approve Angor¡¯s wit. ¡°You¡¯re almost correct. Personally, I hope it¡¯s thetter because things are easier to exin that way.¡±

    ¡°If something forced them toe here...¡± Angor pondered and said, ¡°it might be that they can foretell when and where a tunnel to the Nightmare Realm will show up so that they cane in advance and absorb the nightmare energy they need.¡±

    ¡°Precisely. But I still cannot exin this unusual darkness. This never happened in the previous cases when a nightmare tunnel opened up.¡±

    Their discussion took them several minutes, which was enough for Toby to travel several hundred kilometers. When Angor looked up again, he saw the silhouette of Sleepless City ahead, as well as the giant, ck barrier around the city that was supposed to provide unending light.

    ¡°There it is. The eternal light has turned into an evesting prison...¡± Angor eximed.

    A group of apprentices in blue robes suddenly showed up in their path. As they were still far, they looked like a flock of bluebirds enjoying the sky.

    Angor looked around and noticed there were more supernaturals scattered about. These supernaturals wore different clothes and uniforms, which suggested they came from different ces.

    But the blue-robed apprentices were the only ones who tried to block Toby¡¯s course.

    ¡°The area ahead is too dangerous and is off-limits now. Turn back!¡± someone warned them using Distant Sound spell.

    Angor frowned. ¡°Off-limits? Are you guards from the city?¡±

    Angor traveled through Sleepless Cityst time since the city was a teleportation hub closest to Brute Cavern. During that time, Angor learned that the uniform used in Sleepless City was a white robe with golden trimmings; the apprentices ahead definitely weren¡¯t wearing the same thing.

    ¡°Lord Harris put us here to stop anyone from going into danger! Trust me, this is for your own good. Over a hundred thousand people are already lost in there!¡±

    ¡°Harris? Are you referring to a certain coward from Edge of Night?¡± Sunders spoke from behind Angor in his usual hoarse voice.

    Sunders¡¯ words were far from friendly, yet no one dared to retort.

    These apprentices dide here following Harris¡¯mand. Harris would like to discourage more people from entering Sleepless City so that he would have lesspetition when going after the Mystery item.

    Harris wasn¡¯t the only wizard with such a n. In fact, most of the apprentices waiting outside the city were left here for this very purpose.

    However, the blue-robed apprentices knew better than to offend someone who referred to Harris as ¡°a coward¡±. Trembling, they silently watched as Toby flew past them.

    The horror grew worse when they noticed a certain man sitting on the strange yet elegant creature. Some of them even sighed with great relief.

    They were looking at Sunders¡ªthe ¡°killing machine in the south¡±.

 Chapter 589 - Situation

    <h4>Chapter 589: Situation</h4>

    Angor encountered more than one group of apprentices and wizards, who meant to stop ¡°visitors¡± from going to the city. They were all from different organizations other than Sleepless City. Even someone from Brute Cavern was among them.

    They all spoke of the same phrase¡ª¡±Danger ahead, do not approach.¡±

    Anyone who at least learned about the incident could see what these people were up to. Even so, Angor did not meet with any real threat. The moment they saw Sunders, all the lookouts moved as far away from Toby as possible.

    Toby proceeded smoothly until they reached the inner city. There were several dozen people waiting at a za area. Despite the smaller number, these people were the ¡°main force¡± who might solve the problem,pared to the wandering apprentices outside.

    Toby touched down and began to circle around Sunders while tweeting anxiously¡ªhe knew Sunders was the ¡°man in charge¡± if they wished to rescue Greya.

    Sunders waved the bird away impatiently like chasing a fly.

    Toby returned to Angor¡¯s shoulder with a sad look and huddled against Angor¡¯s neck.

    Angorforted Toby gently and followed behind Sunders closely.

    ¡°Are we going to enter that ce, professor?¡± Angor nced at the giant, gloomy barrier that had covered the outer city. He already sensed nightmare energying from it.

    This was not all. There was another energy signature that confused him for good.

    The particr energy of a Mystery item.

    Different Mystery items might have different properties. However, anyone who interacted with Mystery items before could always recognize the unparalleled feel of it, either good or bad.

    And no matter what the item was intended for, it was always something that couldn¡¯t beprehended and did not blend in with the rules of this world.

    The other wizards here had no problem telling that a Mystery item was nearby because of the ¡°mysterious and iprehensible power¡±. Yet Angor was different. As someone who almost created one such item, there was more information that he could tell from the energy.

    He didn¡¯t know why, but he felt something familiar mixed within the Mystery energy. Also, the energy was apparently more powerfulpared to the strange energy that gathered outside Dark Castle. Here, it was even able to travel through the ¡°dome barrier¡± and could be sensed all the way out here.

    ¡°Not now. We¡¯re talking to Filo first,¡± said Sunders.

    Filo was a wizard from Brute Cavern who was stationed at Sleepless City, and the one who sent the message about the incident.

    Angor wondered whether he should tell what he felt to Sunders.

    ¡°Sir, there¡¯s something about this Mystery energy¡ª¡±

    Immediately, the wizards around them pricked up their ears to listen.

    Angor thought about using Voice Transmission spell instead, but he believed wizards had many ways to listen in.

    Sunders quickly established a Spirit Bond between them. This was a safer approachpared to Angor¡¯s cantrip. If anyone were to invade their ¡°connection¡±, Sunders would be able to notice it.

    The other wizards frowned at Sunders¡¯ attempt.

    Tomon apprentices, Angor¡¯s story in which he almost crafted a Mystery item was a big joke. Wizards, however, had more means of ascertaining the info they wished to learn. And they knew that the rumor was very likely to be true.

    This was why they wanted to hear what this young alchemist had to say about the matter as it might help them to find the Mystery item easier.

    But it seemed that Sunders would disagree.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them. These people know you meant business, so they¡¯ll pay close attention to your words,¡± Sunders mentally sent his message through the Spirit Bond spell.

    Angor nodded and exined his idea while maintaining his poker face in front of others.

    ¡°You sensed a Mystery spirit likest time?¡± Sunders held his chin and pondered. ¡°When I got Filo¡¯s message, I thought he was referring to the harp. But now... it might not be the case anymore. Perhaps there is a brand new Mystery item that we don¡¯t know about.¡±

    Angor hesitated before voicing his opinion, ¡°... I don¡¯t think so.¡±

    Sunders stopped walking and waited for Angor to finish.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... It¡¯s just, a hunch, but I can¡¯t put it into words.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps your ¡®hunch¡¯ is correct.¡±

    This was about the Nightmare Realm, and Sunders would trust Angor¡¯s instinct.

    He doesn¡¯t think so, which means the source of the Mystery energy is not a new Mystery item? What then?

    And what does it have to do with a nightmare tunnel? Is there a more powerful nightmare monster who came and brought a treasure to the wizarding world?

    A group of wizards, including several individuals who disyed the mighty aura of truth-finders, moved to greet Sunders.

    While minding his manners, Sunders introduced these people to Angor through their Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Manbo Chuko from Tower of Hurricane, Tulouch from Utopi Academy, Veanne of Foreboding Forest, ¡®Evil Dragon¡¯ Harris from Edge of Night...¡±

    Most of the wizards except for those who knew Sunders well only showed minimal courtesy. During this, Angor heard the different names of at least a dozen wizard organizations, including both major and smaller ones.

    It had only been two days since the darkness descended upon Sleepless City. Since the message indicating the presence of a Mystery item was spread out, there were probably more wizards on their way here.

    However, not everyone was interested in the item.

    ¡°We met so soon, Mister Phantom.¡± An old man approached them and said, ¡°I was nning to invite you to Sleepless City and hopefully learn something about that Travel In Dreand of yours!¡±

    Angor looked at the ck-robed figure who had a long white beard that reached all the way to his chest.

    ¡°If you wish to learn the content,¡± replied Sunders, ¡°I can always create a copy and trade with you.¡±

    Angor wondered if this stranger also attended Sky Auction.

    ¡°This is ¡®Lord of Evernight¡¯ Qetesh, one of the three controllers of Sleepless City,¡± Sunders spoke through Spirit Bond again while dealing with Qetesh at the same time. ¡°He¡¯s been to the Nightmare Realm before. Guess he smelled some clues already.¡±

    As expected, Qetesh tried to divert the topic and find out whether Sunders came for the Mystery item or the nightmare tunnel.

    Sunders perfectly dodged all the questions and brushed Qetesh away.

    ¡°While it is true that a Mystery item will attract countless wizards, a tunnel to Nightmare Realm is even more so,¡± Sunders told Angor. ¡°I think the presence of a tunnel is not known by most people yet. Otherwise, we¡¯ll be seeing way more people here.

    ¡°One of the many reasons why only a few people entered the Nightmare Realm before is that each time a tunnel appears, it only remains open for a short period of time.¡±

    Sunders nced toward the outer city and wondered whether his assumption was true. Only a nightmare tunnel could exin the unstable dimensional energy lurking around Sleepless City.

    Yet something told him that the situation was moreplicated.

    ...

    Filo was floating in the sky while gazing intensively at the outer city with a hungry look.

    ¡°Mister Phantom.¡± He saw Sundersing andnded on the ground.

    ¡°Tell me what happened when you were inside. What is making this ce so vtile?¡± Sunders asked.

    Filo nced at Angor and frowned.

    Since Sunders did not say anything, Filo exined, ¡°The darkness started from the tip of the Eternal Radiance barrier and spread from there. It didn¡¯t take very long for the abnormality to cover up the entire outer city. I heard... music. It was nothing special at first, but then it began to create a mental corruption that erged people¡¯s desire and dark thoughts.

    ¡°Next, by uniting everyone¡¯s strength, we opened up a ne passageway and escaped. Just after we got to safety, the source of the darkness, which is a ck vortex, started to spin faster and faster until itpletely destroyed the bnce of space around here. Nobody can use ne passageways to travel around now.¡±

    Most of Filo¡¯s description was already known by others after some people got the message out. Sunders wished to learn what details Filo might have overlooked and maybe figure out what happened after the survivors escaped from the darkness.

 Chapter 590 - Unknown Monster

    <h4>Chapter 590: Unknown Monster</h4>

    Angor heard noisesing from somewhere and looked that way. About a dozen apprentices in thick, ck robes were walking through the dark barrier and into the outer city while a witch with too few clothes followed behind. The whip in her hand and how she was wielding it suggested that she was in charge ofmanding the apprentices ahead.

    The witch had a see-through cape on, through which people could see her basic underwear that barely covered her privacy. The strangest part was a dark-crimson imp tail, which was currently yfully swaying to and fro, that grew on the top of her backside.

    There was a type of alluring energying off her body each time her whip pped the floor. When bathed in her pink aura, the apprentices showed frenzied smiles and rushed into the darkness ahead without looking back.

    Filo had finished his exnation to Sunders. When he saw Angor looking at the ruckus, he thought about satisfying the boy¡¯s curiosity so that he could leave a good impression both to Angor and Sunders.

    ¡°That¡¯s ¡®Whipping Witch¡¯ Rak¡¯sel. She¡¯s sending her apprentices to scout the darkness. That¡¯s the fifth team, by the way.¡±

    ¡°Fifth? Did they learn anything?¡±

    ¡°No, just as we all expected.¡± Filo shook his head. ¡°Even wizards can get lost in there, let alone those weaklings.¡±

    ¡°There are wizards exploring the outer city?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°Yes. Debnam, Kerry, Gragg... At least twenty wizards, including level-2 wizards, have gone inside, but not one of them came back, nor did they send any message to us. Anywhere within a range of a thousand kilometers from here is affected by the unbnced dimensional energy that stops anyone from establishing ne passageways, which means the wizards cannot get out that way. As you can see, many organizations sent their people over, but most of them remained outside. They onlymand their familiars or apprentices to do the job for them.¡±

    ¡°And they are not going to get anything by that.¡± Sunders snickered. ¡°Is there any truth-finder wizard inside?¡±

    Most such wizards knew about secret arts that allowed them to escape from great danger. It might cost them dearly in such a situation, but they would stay alive.

    ¡°None.¡± Filo¡¯s answer was firm.

    ¡°So we know absolutely nothing about the condition out there...¡± Sunders considered. ¡°They are waiting for a chance to get inside. Such a pity we can¡¯t bring Maya with us. She¡¯s only interested in that young man you brought back.¡±

    Sunders¡¯st sentence was meant for Angor.

    In fact, the gentleman went to ask Maya¡¯s assistance the moment he received Filo¡¯s message. However, Maya wasn¡¯t interested in the incident at all now that she had Dodoro.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t Miss Maya use her prophecy for this?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°No. It seems the disaster has disturbed the ¡®string of fate¡¯ of this very world. Prophets cannot tell us anything useful unless theye and see with their own eyes.¡±

    They weren¡¯t talking via Spirit Bond this time. Filo spoke again when he heard Sunders¡¯ words, ¡°There aren¡¯t any prophets in Sleepless City but... I heard that another wizard organization sent someone. I saw Mister Radiance speaking to him earlier. But the prophet didn¡¯t predict much other than the general condition of the wizards who went inside.¡±

    The general condition of trapped wizards can tell us a lot. Looks like we need to pay Dous a visitter. Sunders pondered.

    Next, Sunders questioned Filo about what he saw inside the darkness before he was rescued, especially about the monsters.

    ¡°The frog monster spoke strange things? What exactly?¡± Sunders noticed an interesting detail.

    ¡°I think... it said two things. Well except for all the ttering that praises some queen, the moon, and someone called Shava...¡±

    Sunders narrowed his eyes.

    ording to Filo, the frog¡¯s voice was heard across the entire city even though nobody saw it.

    Before the darkness came, the frog said, ¡°This ce is filthy without moonlight¡±. Next, it mentioned that ¡°it will get better soon¡±.

    It was obvious that the monster knew about theing crisis.

    As for whether it was the frog who brought the darkness... this could be seen by looking at the ¡°second thing¡± it said.

    People heard this one when Dous and a group of wizards created their ne passageway when it was still possible to do so.

    Compared to the ¡°praising words¡± before, the frog monster seemed surprised to see someone when it eximed, ¡°Why are you here?¡±

    Apparently, something else showed up from the dark vortex above them and surprised the frog.

    This meant Froggy and Fox did note to Sleepless City ¡°as nned¡±. Something else told or maybe forced them to.

    Also, Sunders was sure about his previous assumption that a nightmare tunnel did exist somewhere in the outer city, which was probably the vortex in the sky.

    As for who or what emerged from the tunnel and bewildered Froggy... It remained to be found out.

    Telling from Froggy¡¯s attitude, it probably recognized the third monster.

    Inside the uncharted darkness ahead, an unknown monster who likely came from the core regions of Nightmare Realm was wandering about.

    ...

    Sunders made sure Filo did not leave anything out. He then went to Dous to find out what the prophet had to say about the situation.

    While on their way, Sunders exined his theories to Angor through their Spirit Bond, especially about the unknown monster that might be carrying a powerful Mystery item.

    Since Angor was basically powerless against such a monster, Sunders meant to tell him to dive into the gravity garden at the first sign of danger.

    While Angor had no problem following the order, he was wondering about another matter that he just heard.

    ording to Filo, the ¡°god-damned student of Ness¡± was affected by the mental-corruption energy and almost destroyed their escape n.

    It was a woman wearing arge bamboo rain hat. Angor was sure Filo was talking about Hookdick.

    He failed to learn any clues about Hookdick from Bartterfly Pub, and he never would have thought he¡¯d find the man here.

    And it wasn¡¯t bad news.

    Filo also mentioned someone fighting Hookdick, which was Shiliew.

    And this suggested that Nausica and Shan were probably also here. As far as Angor knew, the three of them left Brute Cavern on a mission as a team.

    Angor sighed and shook his head. Even if this was the case, they would have to survive on their own¡ªthere was not much he could do.

    Following Filo¡¯s direction, they found Dous along with a group of powerful wizards inside a small hut constructed out of pure magic.

    They were currently simting the possible circumstances in the outer city by using a magic sand table. As for Dous, he was moving several pawns around the table.

    Sunders¡¯ arrival immediately caught everyone¡¯s attention.

    Angor had backed away to the wall just to avoid unnecessary trouble. None of the wizards said anything since it was Sunders who brought him here.

    Angor couldn¡¯t hear anything because of the soundproof ward, which covered the discussing wizards. Bored, he stepped to a window and gazed at the endless darkness in the distance while thinking about random concerns.

    He suddenly got a strange feeling, as if someone was watching him.

    Many people paid him various attention since he arrived at Sleepless City. But people did not usually keep staring at him because most wizards could ascertain his identity by a simple glimpse.

    Now, however, he felt that someonepletely focused their gaze at him... for a long time.

    He turned around to look at where the attention came from.

 Chapter 591 - Doctor Anglo

    <h4>Chapter 591: Doctor Anglo</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    It was a youngdy whose body was covered under a water curtain that had starry reflections of light on it.

    Angor couldn¡¯t see her face across the water barrier, but he noticed thedy¡¯s extremely well-shaped body and long, blue hair.

    Also, thedy was gazing at him across the water. Angor didn¡¯t know who that was, but he did not sense hostility from her.

    Thedy noticed Angor looking at her and moved to talk to another wizard as if nothing happened.

    Apart from these, Angor also noticed a small stream of energying off her body, which went into somewhere unknown. He didn¡¯t intend to inspect the witch for any longer as this might be considered offensive.

    He looked outside the window again, sending his thoughts wild.

    ...

    Dous exined what he learned until now.

    ¡°What do you think, Mister Phantom?¡± He looked at Sunders with a look that was both serious and respectful.

    Sunders nced at the sand table. ¡°My opinion doesn¡¯t matter now. The point is, what are you going to do, should the darkness expand further until it reaches the inner city?¡±

    Dous exchanged a worried look with the other wizards.

    ¡°... We¡¯ve taken that into consideration as well. We spoke to Doctor Anglo earlier, and ording to him...¡±

    Dous looked at thedy behind water, who nodded in return and stepped up.

    ¡°Doctor Anglo is still gathering data to analyze theposition of the darkness. He has not reached a definite answer yet, but he can tell that the darkness only exists on top of ¡®eternal radiance¡¯ magic array. It bes unstable and will dissipate if it goes beyond the range.¡±

    ¡°Which means the current darkness will not grow anymore?¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°Yes. Even if it reaches out, it won¡¯t be hard to erase the excessive darkness by simple means.¡±

    ¡°Compared to unproven theories, I¡¯d believe his ¡®plucking¡¯ more,¡± Sundersmented. ¡°Anglo is called the ¡®Plucker of Strings¡¯ after all, not an analyst.¡±

    ¡°Doctor Anglo is nning to do so,¡± Dous continued, ¡°but he needs more time to collect information. He¡¯s been doing this since he arrived the day before yesterday. I assume it won¡¯t take much longer.¡±

    ¡°Before his ¡®plucking¡¯ happens, there¡¯s not much point assuming things and looking at a sand table,¡± said Sunders.

    The other wizards didn¡¯t look pleased upon hearing Sunders¡¯ment.

    ¡°I heard that Anglo can tell the ¡®general conditions¡¯ of wizards who already went inside the outer city. Care to tell me?¡± Sunders asked.

    When speaking of the fate of other wizards, Dous put up a serious look that went well with his heroic look.

    ¡°There is some casualty. Doctor Anglo cannot tell the conditions of wizards from other organizations because they are not willing to provide the blood of their people. I can only tell you that Sleepless City sent six wizards. One died. It¡¯s Lady Debnam...¡± Dous visible became sad when mentioning a dead colleague.

    He then stuck a small g on the sand table. ¡°Initial estimations suggested that she died right here.¡±

    Sunders checked the map. ¡°Is that the teleport station?¡±

    ¡°Yes. We assumed that Lady Debnam wished to escape from there. She was either killed by the rupturing dimension energy, or someone attacked her there. It¡¯s likely the former since the other five people with her are still alive.¡±

    It waspletely possible for unstable dimension energy to kill wizards. However, wizards were wise enough to foretell such danger beforemencing teleportation.

    Unless she was forced to. In other words, she either took the risk or died due to something else.

    But what was it that endangered her life? The fox and frog? Or the third, unknown monster?

    While Sunders pondered over the situation, the witch in the water suddenly asked, ¡°Did youe here at such a moment because of Angor, Mister Phantom?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±

    ¡°As we all know, your student once worked on a Mystery item in Dark Castle but failed due to Lady Isabelle¡¯s interference. Even so, he¡¯s been considered a future master alchemist by most alchemists in the league.¡±

    She made her words sound like apliment, yet she did not fully hide her jealousy. ¡°It¡¯s possible that a new Mystery item is brought to Sleepless City. Didn¡¯t you take him here so that he can observe the miracle and make another attemptter?¡±

    The other wizards all nced at Angor, who was still standing in front of a window.

    Naturally, everybody knew that having someone who could create Mystery items was a lot more valuable than finding such an item. Unfortunately, they did not have such a brilliant genius. Should anyone¡¯s apprentice disy the tiniest chance of bing a master alchemist, their professor would probablyugh out in their dreams.

    There were less than ten alchemists in the southern region who currently deserved the title of a master alchemist, and most of them stayed at Floating Mech City. Even as one of the strongest organizations in the south, Brute Cavern only had one ordinary alchemist, which was ¡°Rose Crown¡± Leona.

    For lesser organizations, it was already a miraculous blessing to have an ordinary alchemist, let alone a master.

    ¡°So this is the prevailing young alchemist called Angor? You¡¯ve been a brilliant teacher, Mister Phantom,¡± Dous ttered.

    Sunders didn¡¯t say anything.

    What the witch said was not his intention at all. He took Angor here because of apletely different reason¡ªShava.

    He knew that the red fox would refer to Angor as ¡°Your Highness¡±, which meant Angor¡¯s ¡°second identity¡± might prove to be useful. Unlike when exploring the Nightmare Realm, Sunders was confident that he could keep Angor safe here. If something went out of control, he¡¯d just toss Angor into his gravity garden.

    As for letting Angor observe the Mystery item... No. Sunders never nned to do that.

    He wasn¡¯t going to reveal his idea to the others.

    ¡°Are you perhaps still troubled by the incident two years ago, Miss Heroline?¡± Sunders gave the witch a neutral smile.

    Heroline humphed, which was her answer.

    The others did not understand what happened between Heroline and Sunders. Why would a level-1 wizard hate a level-2 truth-finder?

    Their confusion grew bigger when they saw Sunders smiling wider as if his evil plot had been achieved.

    Sunders looked away and spoke to Dous, ¡°Why are you so sure that there¡¯s really a Mystery item in there?¡±

    ¡°Your meaning, Mister Phantom?¡±

    ¡°The unstable space is probably caused by a ne passageway. Of course, it could be a Mystery item that possesses space-rted properties.¡±

    Without minding their opinions, Sunders moved away and used Spirit Bond to tell Angor what he heard.

    Angor took a moment to understand the situation.

    ¡°Are you going inside, sir?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait for now. Anglo is still working on a conclusion. We¡¯ll wait for his ¡®plucking¡¯.¡±

    <i>Anglo? Plucking?</i>

    As Angor wondered what those things meant, Sunders offered to exin.

    ¡°Plucker of Strings¡± Anglo was the prophet invited by Dous. ¡°Plucking¡± referred to a special art that Anglo used for fortune telling. By using this move, he could judge unknown oues in the future by fiddling with the strings of this world.

    Angor noticed that Sunders did not mention Anglo¡¯s organization for some reason.

    ¡°Um...¡± Angor looked at Toby, who was anxiously looking at the darkness outside. ¡°What are we here for, professor? Do we kill the said monsters or are we helping Lady Greya?¡±

    Angor followed Sunders here just to save Greya for the sake of Toby, but he realized now that the condition was more severe than expected.

    He had no idea what to expect if they were to go inside the outer city. It seemed to be a very difficult job to look for Greya while his own life might be in trouble at any moment.

    Angor didn¡¯t believe that Sunders came here just to get Greya out. There had to be something else.

    ¡°I initially nned to acquire that harp and rescue Greya while at it. However...¡± Sunders cast a grim glimpse at the darkness in the distance. ¡°Things might have changed.¡±

    Angor did not ask what had changed exactly since Sunders probably wouldn¡¯t tell him.

    Ever since Greya¡¯s visit back at Floating Mech City, Angor thought that Greya and Sunders established some kind of agreement that required Sunders to keep her alive. He was d that he wouldn¡¯t be disappointing Toby this time.

    Angor looked at the window again. Now that he was INSIDE a turmoil that troubled so many mighty wizards, the feeling of being helpless burdened his mind more than ever.

    He somehow understood why wizards considered apprentices as insignificant insects or even expendable test subjects.

    Because in this world, even wizards might have trouble keeping themselves alive.

 Chapter 592 - Meeting Mara

    <h4>Chapter 592: Meeting Mara</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Two hourster, Heroline¡¯s ears twitched as she turned to speak to everyone.

    ¡°I¡¯ve received the message that Doctor Anglo is on his way here.¡±

    This meant they could soon set up their next n after listening to Anglo¡¯s ¡°plucking¡±.

    A whileter, the wooden door of the hut squeaked as two individuals walked inside. The one walking in the front was a middle-aged wizard with short, clean-cut gray hair and a pair of gold-rimmed sses. His clothes looked as orderly and tidy as his face. This man carried a pile of parchments mped between two wooden folder pieces, which made him look like a teacher who was about to start his lesson.

    The one behind him was an apprentice in a ck robe. The others nced at his hunched figure and no longer minded him.

    ¡°Do you have enough tomence your plucking, Doctor Anglo?¡± Dous stepped up and addressed the man with sses.

    Anglo bowed to Sunders first before speaking, ¡°Mister Radiance. No, using what I already have, it¡¯s almost impossible topletely pluck the strings of this world.¡±

    ¡°You mean...?¡±

    Anglo checked through several of the parchments he was carrying. ¡°Any result I might read now is likely to be incorrect. Do know that I¡¯ve tried my best. There¡¯s nothing else I can do, unless...¡±

    ¡°Unless?¡± Dous moved closer to him.

    ¡°Unless someone returns from the outer city and brings me more direct clues. A familiar, a puppet, anything will do.¡±

    ¡°If anyone can do that, they¡¯d havee to us already! And if that¡¯s the case, they can just tell me what¡¯s going on in there. Why do we need your help?¡± Someone outside the door scoffed before he came in.

    It was an old man with a dark-colored robe and long, white beard.

    ¡°Mister Qetesh!¡± Most wizards in the hut showed their manners. Angor also stood up from his seat.

    Sunders remained where he was without moving¡ªhis strength and fame in the wizarding world allowed him to disregard such conventions.

    As for Dous, he did not need to show courtesy to Qetesh since both of them were leaders of Sleepless City.

    ¡°Do you have an opinion, Qetesh?¡± asked Dous.

    ¡°I have none.¡± Qetesh pretended that he didn¡¯t care much about their discussion, yet he would asionally shift his gaze toward Sunders.

    As someone who once explored the Nightmare Realm, Qetesh recognized the particr nightmare aura hidden within the darkness, which probably suggested the existence of a nightmare tunnel. Yet he wasn¡¯t sure about it because every known tunnel in history only stayed active for a short period of time.

    Sunders was undeniably the most knowledgeable man when it came to anything regarding the Nightmare Realm. Most wizards had witnessed the gentleman¡¯s terrifying nightmare illusions and power. Qetesh was sure he could learn useful clues from this gentleman.

    However, his attempts, which included several private voice transmissions, did not yield any result¡ªSunders simply wouldn¡¯t tell him.

    Simrly, Qetesh did not want to tell Dous his own assumptions for selfish reasons, so he pretended that he wasn¡¯t interested in Dous¡¯ questions.

    Dous never expected Qetesh to provide any sound opinion at all. He was talking to Anglo again, ¡°What can you tell us currently, doctor?¡±

    Anglo swiftly read through his parchments again while his sses red brightly.

    ¡°I can make an attempt... and tell you a general conclusion of something.¡±

    Dous considered. ¡°Can you tell us what would be of the outer city? Will it be okay, or...¡±

    Anglo remained silent for a moment.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a hard question. However, different entities have varied ideas for what is good or what is bad. If I¡¯m to pluck for an answer for this, the oue will be based on this world, but not us. You must give me another precondition.¡±

    ¡°Can you make the answer based on Sleepless City?¡±

    ¡°So you wish to know whether this incident will benefit or harm the city?¡± Anglo held his chin and nodded. ¡°Alright.¡±

    Without waiting any longer, Anglo began to perform his original spell named ¡°String Pluck¡±.

    The wooden folder in his hand glowed brightly as it gave birth to a number of magical shadows. The parchments within the folder slowly turned to dust and disappeared into the shadows.

    An ancient and overwhelming aura that seemed to represent all beings of this world descended upon the hut.

    Several rays of light shed between Anglo¡¯s fingers. They swirled and intertwined with each other. Some of them were stopped by Anglo, while some were let go, which soon disappeared into somewhere unknown.

    Each time he ¡°caught¡± a string of light, Anglo would frown harder as beads of sweat appeared on his sleek face. Soon, his sses grew foggy.

    The amazing and colorful sight gradually died down; only about a hundred ¡°strings¡± remained around Anglo¡¯s fingers. He let out a deep breath and gave Dous a tired look. ¡°It¡¯s done. I need some time to deduce the result.¡±

    He then took out an empty parchment and began to write all kinds of strange numbers and forms on it while wrapping the strings he had obtained around his quill.

    It took him a long time.

    Angor wished to observe Anglo¡¯s work and see if he could learn something, but he soon felt sleepy for some reason.

    Sunders noticed his student nodding off and chuckled.

    ¡°Stop it,¡± Sunders spoke through their Spirit Bond, ¡°you can¡¯t possibly see anything at your current level. You¡¯ll risk damaging your own spirit instead.¡±

    Angor quickly gave up. ¡°Was that the ¡®plucking¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Correct. Do you remember the three main elements used by prophets, which I mentioned before? The Stream of Fate, the Wheel of Time, and the World Strings. Anglo¡¯s ¡®plucking¡¯ is used to read usable information from the World Strings.

    ¡°Apart from these three, there are other minor sects such as ¡®Axis of Stars¡¯, ¡®The Bell of Enigma¡¯, ¡®Wordless Deity¡¯, and so on. If you¡¯re interested in prophecy, try reading <i>Neb¡¯s Creed</i>. A new editiones out once every 50 years, and the editors can tell you the newest prophecy-rted arts.¡±

    Angor always believed that prophecy was all about reading stars or someone¡¯s palm. It seemed he was wrong.

    Again, he felt both depressed and excited for being mentally poor. There was so much to learn!

    Pursuing the ultimate truth helped wizards see how insignificant they were in this world, thus gaining the ambition to fear and learn the endless knowledge the world had to offer.

    ...

    While Anglo was busy with his work, the other wizards in the hut whispered among each other; they were either talking about the darkness outside or other irrelevant matters.

    Angor was gazing at the outer city through a window while praying that Nausica wasn¡¯t in there. Toby stayed with him as he prayed for Greya¡¯s safety.

    He suddenly heard footsteps approaching. He turned back and saw the apprentice in the ck robe who came together with Anglo walking to him.

    While Anglo and the other wizards talked, this individual stayed quiet and pretended that he did not exist.

    Angor wondered what this man wanted with him. Was it another person who simply wished to establish an association with him?

    The robed man spoke in a deep and old voice, ¡°It¡¯s been such a long time, Angor...¡±

    Angor failed to remember anyone with such a voice who might recognize him.

    When the robed man saw Angor¡¯s doubtful look, he let out a helpless chuckle and removed his hood.

    Angor froze up upon seeing the old man with a really ill look. He knew that face. Yet it seemed a little bit different from what he could remember.

    Age spots, hollowed cheeks, thin and wrinkled skin that barely covered his skull...

    Two years ago when Angor was still with him, the old man still looked energetic. How did a level-3 apprentice end up like this in merely two years?

    ¡°Mister Mara?¡± Angor called with an uncertain tone.

    The man in front of him was Mara, the person who introduced him to the wizarding world. Mara came from a family n at the Old Earth as well, which was the Morn Family. The Morn Family usually had no business with Padt Family since they possessedpletely different positions, both politically and geographically.

    When searching for ¡°Morning Dew¡±, Mara went to Padt Manor. Following his guidance, Angor managed to step onto the path of wizardry while also obtaining an ¡°Ice Coffin of Healing¡± scroll, which helped to sustain Jon¡¯s life.

    For these reasons, Angor held great gratitude toward this kind old man.

    He did have ns to thank Mara properly in the future, but he never expected that the reunion woulde so unexpectedly.

 Chapter 593 - Maraâ€™s Mission

    <h4>Chapter 593: Mara¡¯s Mission</h4>

    ¡°Just call me Mara. We¡¯re both level-3 apprentices. I don¡¯t deserve the extra respect now.¡± Mara gave Angor a sad look. ¡°Trust me, it won¡¯t be long before I need to call you ¡®Mister Angor¡¯.¡±

    Angor was taken back a little. He used ¡°Mister Mara¡± both unconsciously and to obey his noble discipline¡ªhe had forgotten that he was not the powerless mortal kid from several years ago.

    ¡°I was lucky to find a brilliant teacher who can guide me.¡± Each time Angor didn¡¯t know how to respond to such ttery, he¡¯d just make an ¡°excuse¡± that he had too much luck.

    ¡°Luck, huh?¡± Mara let out a hollow chuckle.

    Within two years, a mortal young man turned into a top-level apprentice as well as a future master alchemist...

    If this could be exined by a single word called ¡°luck¡±, then the whole path of wizardry would be a huge joke.

    It was true that luck yed an important part in one¡¯s development. Breaking one¡¯s level limit, winning a fight, or creating a tiered alchemy item... yes, they all required luck.

    However, gathering enough mana and strength for a limit-break, learning enoughbat experience prior to a fight, gaining necessary skills for doing alchemy... These were definitely NOT luck.

    Luck might give someone a temporary boost during critical moments, yet only talent and enough effort could allow Angor to achieve so much at such a young age.

    Of course, Mara didn¡¯t believe Angor¡¯s excuse, but he wouldn¡¯t protest either.

    ¡°Sure... Maybe you¡¯re right.¡±

    Mara did not wish to quarrel over the trifling matter. His task was to befriend Angor as best as he could, which meant he was to avoid anything that might be considered hostile.

    Truth was, Mara held some grudge against Angor that was kept deep in his mind.

    Two years ago, when sailing across Devil¡¯s Water, he did not teach Angor a channeling method because of his own selfishness, which allowed ¡°Phantom Master¡± Sunders to seize the boy in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant instead.

    It all happened when Heroline¡ªa wizard from White Coral Floating Ind Academy as well as the possible mentor of Angor, should Angor join the academyter¡ªwas watching.

    And because of this, Mara never stopped receiving foul treatment from the academy.

    Heroline did not intentionally malign him. She simply told everyone what happened at Barbie¡¯s Restaurant in detail, which naturally caused Mara¡¯s following misfortune.

    ¡°You gave your grandchildren the channeling method but not to Angor? Triangle Channeling isn¡¯t anything valuable! Why would you do that?!¡±

    After the incident in the restaurant, his colleagues had been scolding him like this for an entire year.

    The situation slowly became better because Angor was only a talented mortal. There were many such talents in the academy. And since the academy was too far from Brute Cavern to learn about Angor¡¯s conditions, people gradually forgave Mara¡¯s fault.

    But the terrible experience in one year had stripped most resources from his hands, which prevented him from gaining much progress even though he was already a level-3 apprentice.

    This was why Mara somewhat resented Angor.

    He thought things would gradually return back to the right track as more time passed by and when people hadpletely forgotten about Angor.

    But the news about the garden challenge in Floating Mech City came. It was Heroline who brought the news to Mara.

    Half a month ago when Mara was training on a new cantrip, someone called him and said that Heroline required his presence.

    Both confused and a little terrified, Mara followed the order and went to Heroline¡¯s office.

    Heroline never tried to harm Mara for real since there was no point for a wizard to act so narrow-mindedly on a mere apprentice. This was why Mara had no particr thoughts toward Heroline. He only med himself for making the giant mistake, and at the same time, ming Angor for showing up so untimely.

    Even so, he was scared when Heroline summoned him because the only thing they might talk about was the unpleasant incident in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    It was until he read through several pieces of news in Heroline¡¯s office that he realized a shocking fact¡ªAngor had be the center of attention in the southern wizarding region.

    The boy had both eye-catching rumors and a bright look, which granted him a ce on the covers of many trending magazines.

    As Mara looked at the portrait drawn by skilled artists and recalled the particr boy he met two years ago, Heroline exined why she needed him here.

    ¡°It was YOU who lost such a great genius to Brute Cavern, and it shall be you who bring him back to us.¡±

    By ¡°bring back¡±, Heroline didn¡¯t mean to force Angor to defect from Brute Cavern. She wished that Angor could at least assist the academy to a certain extent.

    ¡°You know how much value a potential master alchemist holds. Either you seed with your task, or I shall officially condemn you for failing to teach our apprentice a proper channeling method in time. Your grandson also left us and joined Candy House, right? That should be settled as well.¡±

    In fact, it was Heroline who agreed to send n to Candy House because it was the best choice for a talented Gourmet. After all, there were no wizards in White Coral Floating Ind Academy who could teach n.

    But it seemed that Heroline decided to bring the problem back for an obvious reason.

    Mara had been looking into Angor¡¯s information carefully since that day, and everything he learned subsequently only shocked him more and more. Alchemy talent, Mystery potential, fighting off a wizard-level monster in the purification garden, scaring away the student of God of Seas, a griffin familiar... This was like mixing the achievements done by different geniuses onto the same person.

    Heroline did not say what kind of result she expected. But Mara knew that Heroline sought Angor¡¯s cooperation for the benefit of the academy.

    But could an insignificant old man convince a young rising star who attracted the attention of so many great wizards to join him?

    Mara had been thinking about this question for half a month when Heroline told him to head to Sleepless City with her.

    Mara thought Heroline wished to meet with Angor after dealing with the disaster in Sleepless City, so he was surprised to see Angor right in this hut.

    He realized that this was Heroline¡¯s n all along.

    ...

    Just like this, Mara and Angor were both trying to recover from the surprising reunion.

    While Mara was anxious to establish a friendly rtionship with Angor, Angor was thinking about his promise to Mara. Before they parted ways, Angor agreed that once he became a level-2 apprentice, he¡¯d help Mara to explore some ruins.

    This was how Angor received an Ice Coffin of Healing scroll from Mara to help Jon.

    Mara gave him ten years to prepare, and he never forgot about his promise. Since there was a lot of time, he thought about treating Jon¡¯s condition first. After he had gained enough strength, Angor would then go and fulfill the promise.

    And now here he was, looking right at Mara as a level-3 apprentice.

    He had no problem proceeding with what he promised Mara. Yet he wished to know how much time he needed to finish Mara¡¯s request, and how to exin why he did not go to Mara earlier when he was at level-2.

    Mara spared him the awkwardness by speaking first, ¡°I heard that your name had spread to every corner of the southern region in these two years. When I was visiting my family on the Old Earth, I never thought I¡¯d bring such a little monster with me...¡± Mara smiled.

    Angor¡¯s tension loosed a little upon hearing Mara¡¯s joke.

    ¡°I was hoping to find a chance and go meet you so that I can answer to that agreement between us.¡± Angor decided to reveal the matter instead of dodging it.

    Mara frowned a bit as he didn¡¯t wish to mention this matter.

    The ¡°ruins¡± he wanted to explore was said to be theboratory of an ancient wizard. While it was true that finding something would benefit him greatly, it wasn¡¯t the right time to talk about it when he was supposed to seek cooperation.

    ¡°Oh, that... we can put it aside for now because of... some personal reasons of mine.¡± Mara muddled through and changed the topic. ¡°You need to save your teacher within five years, am I right? Please feel free to do it first. And... oh right, I¡¯ve been looking for relevant information. Maybe I know something that can help you.¡±

    It seemed that Mara wanted to use Jon¡¯s matter to strike a conversation with Angor.

    Angor did feel d that he no longer needed to worry about the promise. Even so, he didn¡¯t want to talk about Jon either. He already had something that could solve the problem, and he would like to avoid drawing any attention to Jon.

    While acting as politely as he could, Angor tried to divert the topic to something else. ¡°Did youe to Sleepless City alone, Mara? Is Aleen with you?¡±

    Mara shook his head. ¡°As you can see, we can¡¯t bring too many apprentices into this mess. Aleen is still a level-1 apprentice studying at the academy.¡±

    While exining Aleen¡¯s study during the past years, Mara was wondering why Angor suddenly mentioned her name.

    Does he have a crush on my granddaughter?

    Mara clearly knew that Aleen always adored this little handsome boy, but ever since he was treated badly by the academy, Aleen somewhat put the me on Angor as well.

    Maybe I can exin to her that Angor had nothing to with the ill-treatment to mend their friendship? Perhaps they¡¯ll be lovers, and Heroline¡¯s request will get solved in no time!

    Excited, Mara began to embellish Aleen¡¯s virtues as much as possible.

    To Angor, their conversation was fine until Mara kept emphasizing things such as ¡°Aleen misses you¡±, ¡°Aleen does not have a boyfriend yet¡±, etc. And he quickly understood what Mara was trying to do.

    Two years ago, Angor considered Aleen no more than amon friend. Naturally, he wouldn¡¯t develop further emotions when he had not seen her for two years.

    Angor wished to change the subject to something else. And since he couldn¡¯t interrupt Mara too eagerly, which might appear too impolite, he decided to mention Mara¡¯s other grandchild¡ªn.

    The old man couldn¡¯t possibly attempt to match two boys together, could he?

 Chapter 594 - Angloâ€™s Conclusion

    <h4>Chapter 594: Anglo¡¯s Conclusion</h4>

    The truth was, Mara would be very d to see some homosexual rtions between Angor and n as long as this helped with his mission. But obviously, Angor was not going to like it.

    Mara had noticed that Angor was getting impatient. Since Mara also wished to learn about n¡¯s recent conditions, he decided to follow Angor¡¯s will and stopped mentioning Aleen.

    As Angor exined, Mara gradually found the image of his chubby grandson returning to his mind after having parted ways for so long.

    He was shocked to know that n also attended the garden challenge. He didn¡¯t need to know how n survived. As long as the boy did, he would earn a better chance to be a wizard in the future.

    And when that happened... Mara, as the grandfather of a wizard, would enjoy a better ce at White Coral Floating Ind Academy. He might even be a wizard himself, using n¡¯s magical dishes.

    A woman¡¯s voice suddenly emerged from his mind and interrupted his fantasies.

    ¡°I see you¡¯re getting along well, Mara. How about finding a chance right now and invite him to the academy? You know we badly need a guest professor who can teach us alchemy.¡±

    Mara flinched and returned his own voice transmission, ¡°I¡¯ll try my best, Miss Heroline. But... I still need more time to mend our rtionship.¡±

    ¡°Humph! Suit yourself. I¡¯m reminding you for thest time, that acquiring the friendship of a master alchemist is crucial to both you and me!¡±

    Mara sensed Heroline¡¯s magic gone and silently let out a sigh.

    I... I am doing a pretty good job till now, am I not? I¡¯ll just keep going from here...

    ¡°So, Doctor Anglo came from White Coral Floating Ind Academy?¡± Angor saw Mara spacing out and took the chance to speak to Sunders, using their Spirit Bond.

    Sunders looked up from his seat and grinned. His expression appeared rather creepy when he was sitting at a shadowy corner. ¡°Correct. I see your ¡®old friend¡¯ has told you a lot.¡±

    It took Angor a moment to realize that Sunders just told a terrible joke.

    He then exined how Mara helped hime to the wizarding world and how he was grateful.

    ¡°Exchange of profit, simple as that. That ¡®Morning Dew¡¯ you mentioned is valuable enough to buy his scroll AND a ticket for The Redbud,¡± Sundersmented.

    Angor did not protest as he fully knew this was the case. Even so, he still appreciated how Mara offered to ¡°trade¡± with him instead of destroying the entire Padt Family and taking all Morning Dew by force when he could have done so.

    The more Angor learned about the unspoken conventions in the wizarding world, the more he admired Mara¡¯s peaceful way.

    And since they already had an agreement, Angor would have no trouble fulfilling his end of the deal.

    ¡°If Doctor Anglo is from the academy, then...¡± Angor carefully nced at the woman constantly hidden behind a water curtain. He felt as if the woman still had her attention on him.

    Is that ¡°Ocean Moray¡± Heroline?

    He met with Heroline in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, but he never paid much attention to her since he was still a powerless mortal back then.

    He did remember that Heroline had impressive long blue hair. This was why he wished to ask Sunders about this when he saw a simr hair color across that water.

    Sunders confirmed his idea while adding anotherment in a joking manner, ¡°Why did it take you so long to notice? Ever since you entered this house, she¡¯s been staring her eyes out at you.¡±

    Sunders did not hide his proud attitude because it was he who took Angor away right from under Heroline¡¯s nose. Somehow, looking at Heroline¡¯s resentful stare made him feel so great.

    Angor had no problem understanding theplicated attention Heroline was giving him, but he wasn¡¯t sure why his professor looked so happy.

    The wizards around the sand table suddenly stopped talking and hurried to join Anglo.

    ¡°We got something!¡± someone whispered.

    ¡°What¡¯s thatnguage? Who can read it?¡± People were confused to see random and iprehensible marks on Anglo¡¯s parchment.

    ¡°It¡¯s not anguage. It¡¯s the marks left by the strings of the world!¡±

    ¡°Whatever! Just tell us the result already!¡±

    After a brief ruckus, they all looked at Anglo.

    Anglo let out a painful breath and put down his quill, which was still dripping blood-red ink from its tip. ¡°Mister Radiance, I managed to read something, but¡ª¡±

    Dous knew something bad was to be expected when he saw Anglo¡¯s look, and the way Anglo was faltering didn¡¯t make the situation any better.

    ¡°Spit it out!¡± Qetesh spoke impatiently while his white eyebrows moved to a funny angle when he frowned too hard. ¡°There is no academism wimp around here. How bad can it get? Is something going to destroy the entire Sleepless City?¡±

    ¡°Quiet, Qetesh! Let Doctor Anglo speak.¡± Dous couldn¡¯t help scolding his colleague with an angry look.

    Anglo shook his head as his expression turned grim. ¡°It... doesn¡¯t look good.¡±

    ¡°Not good? We expected as much. The disturbance brought by this darkness already damaged the city for good,¡± said Dous as he sighed in distress. ¡°Can you tell us any details that we don¡¯t know yet?¡±

    ¡°You were wrong, Mister Radiance. You spoke as the current leader of this city, while my ¡®plucking¡¯ reached a result based on how the darkness will affect the wellbeing of Sleepless City in the long run. And my conclusion is, the effect will be really bad. What¡¯s currently happening inside the outer city is only part of the disaster. As time goes by, it will get worse.¡±

    Anglo saw the others still dazed and decided to make it in. ¡°To put it simply, you will not stop suffering losses as long as you don¡¯t abandon the city.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying we cannot get rid of this darkness at all?¡± Qetesh almost jumped up in rage.

    Anglo shook his head again. ¡°I do not know. What I can tell you is, this abnormality is dangerous. VERY dangerous.¡±

    Anglo flipped the parchment to its nk side. He then dropped his own blood on it. Countless characters, symbols, and rays of light emerged from thin air and rushed to the red spot like mosquitoes drawn to blood.

    The drop of blood slowly spread out and became a line of words.

    [The source of all darkness, the forebearer of unrelenting menace]

    Anglo cast a Cleanse to remove all sweat and grease off his body and adjusted his sses. ¡°Such is the result I reached. Do note that this is as much as I can do, Mister Radiance.¡±

    He turned to Qetesh next. ¡°Mister Qetesh, should you have questions about my prediction, please feel free to invite a prophet from Starliege Temple. Many of us came from different organizations far and wide, yet Starliege Temple did not send anyone. Doesn¡¯t it look strange?¡±

    Lastly, Anglo turned to Heroline and said, ¡°Considering the future of our academy, I suggest that we leave this ce as soon as possible, Heroline. You can do as you wish, but I¡¯ll be leaving tonight.¡±

    Anglo turned to the door.

    ¡°Hold on.¡±

    It was Sunders who called him.

    In order not to offend the famous killer wizard, Anglo halted his steps and waited patiently.

    ¡°Your prediction told us that the darkness will linger for a long time while we can¡¯t do anything about it?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°I do not know, sir. There are many possible ways to interpret the strings, and what you said is only one of them.¡±

    ¡°Will it be possible that the darkness will expand further?¡±

    ¡°I... do not know. This is very unlikely though.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me anything about the Mystery item hidden inside?¡±

    Anglo remained silent for a long time.

    ¡°I believe the World Strings I saw just now intentionally steered away from this matter. I assume that whatever is happening inside the darkness has altered the rules of this world. I might be able to tell you something if I can get my hands on more information.¡±

    ¡°Rules?¡±Dous¡¯ irises shrank. ¡°Are you saying something has bent the rules of the wizarding world? Is it truly as Mister Phantom mentioned, that a tunnel to a foreign world has appeared?¡±

    ¡°I... ahem, I¡¯m afraid that is no longer our expertise,¡± Qetesh replied with a somewhat hesitant look. ¡°If so, the world¡¯s consciousness will always mend it.¡±

    Anglo nced at Qetesh but did not reveal his doubt. ¡°Mister Qetesh is quite right. You can request help from the Moonfrost Union should you need their help. If I remember correctly, Miss Sennefer was still in Floating Mech City not long ago.¡±

    With that, Anglo left through the door.

    When Mara saw both Anglo and Heroline leaving, he hastily invited Angor to visit the academy and left as well.

    The remaining wizards fell into a heated discussion regarding Anglo¡¯s words, yet no one could set up a solid n.

    They didn¡¯t want to leave when the Mystery item was ready to be seized. However, Anglo told them that the darkness was beyond dangerous...

    Angor suddenly heard Sunders¡¯ voice through their Spirit Bond:

    ¡°I¡¯m going inside.¡±

 Chapter 595 - Returned Parasite

    <h4>Chapter 595: Returned Parasite</h4>

    Angor expected such a decision from his professor.

    The outer city might be dangerous, that much was true. But how dangerouspared to the real Nightmare Realm? The darkness was likely brought by something from the Nightmare Realm, and Sunders, as someone who explored Nightmare Realm multiple times, did not need to fear it at all.

    Sunders came and listened to extra information so that he could hopefully learn as many clues about the condition as possible. It seemed there wasn¡¯t much to find out here, so Sunders made up his mind to dive into the darkness himself.

    Angor considered his options.

    ¡°I¡¯m going with you, sir.¡±

    ¡°You can, but you will stay inside my gravity garden until I¡¯m sure I can guarantee your safety outside.¡±

    Sunders wished to get into the darkness because he was confident in escaping should anything forced him to.

    Without further ado, Sunders went to Angor and prepared to depart while ignoring all the questioning looks he received from the others.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and see what surprises those monsters can present us this time.¡± Sunders looked through the same window Angor was using.

    It was dusk, but the sky in the distance was still beautifully bright. When looking at the strange darkness in front of them, it was like observing an eclipse up close.

    The barrier wasn¡¯tpletely smooth and empty. At the very center on top of the dome-shaped barrier, the ck vortex was still releasing an unknown energy toward beneath it. This Mystery energy was what attracted so many wizards here.

    Angor nodded. ¡°Behind you, sir.¡±

    Before they could go and find the ¡°surprises¡±, something happened outside the hut surprised them first.

    All the quarreling wizards stopped talking and reached their spirit feelers outside the room at the same time.

    Doctor Anglo was still nearby as he waited for more information either from survivors or corpses. It did not matter where the information came from as long as it was something that could help him reach more conclusions.

    Now that he saw somethinging, he wasn¡¯t sure whether he should face it.

    What emerged from the darkness were shiny spots that were releasing more nightmare energy around them. There were so many of them that they almost covered up the sky above.

    Out of instinct, all wizards triggered their various defensive skills when they saw the spots rampaging everywhere.

    There were over ten thousand apprentices scattered around Sleepless City to ¡°alert¡± visitors. But now, they became perfect targets for the invading spots.

    Before anyone could react, the spots sank into their bodies.

    In the next second, their expressions twisted and turned. First, it was shock and fear. Then all the apprentices gradually began tough in joy and danced in the sky like kids who were brought to amusement parks for the first time.

    ¡°What-what happened, dude?!¡± Several apprentices who managed to activate their defensive barriers looked at theirpanions in surprise.

    What they received were maddened words full of praises.

    ¡°Faaa, praise the Queen, praise our Shava, praise Yorkshire! Shoo and begone, sinner of dusk! Let the moon shine upon us!¡±

    The song did not carry any magical power, yet those who heard it felt their hearts grow cold.

    There were even more apprentices that got affected by the light spots, and all of them became clownish and maniacal singers.

    Within two minutes, most apprentices patrolling the sky had ¡°turned¡±.

    The remaining people thought they were safe because of their timely action, which was soon proved to be wrong.

    Without any unprotected targets to go after, the light spots turned to them next. They mmed into the magic barriers like bombs, using their raw energy as a means of attack.

    Each light spot contained simr strength as a level-1 or level-2 cantrip, which was still manageable. However, there were endless spotsing from the darkness. The surviving apprentices tried to get as far as possible before their mana ran out.

    They soon realized that the spots had blocked all possible escape routes.

    Several apprentices managed to clear out a way toward the inner city by usingrge-scale attacking spells, hoping that the wizards could help them.

    It wasn¡¯t like the wizards wanted to see them die, but there were just too many spots to worry about, and more spots were stilling from the dark barrier. Even the wizards found it to be impossible to stop all spots from reaching them.

    Someone tried to deploy arge protective barrier to shield everyone within, but it did notst very long against the suicidal attacks delivered by the spots, which showed deadly power from their sheer number alone.

    As more people fell, the apprentices panicked and rushed toward the outside of the city chaotically.

    The wizards, on the other hand, hoped that those important figures currently staying in that hut nearby could provide a solution as soon as possible.

    However, those inside the hut were as helpless as the others when faced with such a catastrophe all of a sudden.

    ¡°What-what should we do, Mister Radiance?¡± Someone tried to reach Dous using Distant Sound.

    Earlier, Dous was trying to decide whether he should request assistance from Starliege Temple. Now, he had no choice but to spread his spirit feelers out in order to find Anglo again.

    Soon, he saw the temporary settlement of White Coral Floating Ind Academy, which was a small house with a pointy roof. Inside, Anglo and Heroline were discussing something with grim looks. Behind them, several apprentices from the academy were trembling inside a barrier created by a magic array drawn on the floor.

    ¡°Do you know what¡¯s going on, Doctor Anglo?¡± Without waiting, Dousmunicated with him directly.

    Anglo sensed Dous¡¯ presence and quickly responded, ¡°As I said, Mister Radiance... the disaster lingering around the outer city will only get worse. It is affecting the inner city already.¡±

    ¡°I want a solution! How do we deal with these flying spots?¡± Dous failed to maintain his usual patience. ¡°You need more information from the darkness, right? Now here it is! Something straight out of the outer city! Use your plucking again and give me an answer, NOW!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m on it.¡± Anglo adjusted his sses and activated his power again.

    Swiftly, he wrote down unknown characters on a piece of parchment while twiddling with the amazing strings of the world.

    ¡°Mister Radiance, whatever you do, do NOT touch the spots. The strings have told me that even wizards cannot resist their invasion!¡±

    ¡°What then? Do we just stand here and watch?!¡±

    Anglo shook his head as he made a decision. ¡°You can try asking Mister Qetesh, sir. I feel that he might be able to tell you something.¡± He considered and decided to add something, ¡°I sincerely suggest that you evacuate everyone from the city right now.¡±

    Dous didn¡¯t respond because Anglo basically told him to abandon Sleepless City, which was their home base.

    ...

    As the entire city fell into dismay, Sunders and Angor were having a rather rxed conversation.

    ¡°Heh. Such D¨¦j¨¤ Vu, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡± Angor nodded slowly. ¡°They can survive outside nightmare energy now? Did they evolve?¡±

    Both Sunders and Angor recognized the ¡°light spots¡± around the city. These parasites created by the rainbow dragonflies were the culprits that invaded Midnight Sovereignst time.

    But as far as they knew, the parasites could only stay inside nightmare aura.

    ¡°... That¡¯s not it.¡± Sunders considered and said, ¡°Do you see it? They are carrying a tiny amount of nightmare energy with them. As long as they find a host before the energy runs out, they can stay outside. But how did such creatures bring nightmare energy with them in the first ce? We¡¯ll need to find out.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to help the others, sir? I think I can solve most of the problems if I expand my Nightmare Domain.¡± Angor nced at the ¡°clowns¡± around them.

    ¡°This is not Midnight Sovereign. You only find supernaturals in this city. Do you want to waste strength just to earn a useless ¡®thank you¡¯ from them?¡± Sunders snickered. ¡°Leave them be. Just like thest time, the parasites might not be a bad thing to them.¡±

    They stepped out of the temporary hut together.

 Chapter 596 - Three Leaders

    <h4>Chapter 596: Three Leaders</h4>

    Dous canceled hismunication spell and immediately looked at Qetesh.

    ¡°Do you know something about all this, Qetesh?¡± He sent Qetesh a voice transmission when the others were distracted by the parasites outside.

    Qetesh was also greatly shocked by what was going on in the area. He was rather confused upon hearing Dous¡¯ question. ¡°What-what do you mean, my friend?¡±

    ¡°I wish you tell me the truth, Qetesh. You know full well that there¡¯s something you should tell me, which you haven¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Well, I¡¯m not the mother of these little shiny f*ckers! How should I know where the hell they came from?!¡± Qetesh was too stressed that he lost his temper for a moment.

    Dous remained calm. ¡°Doctor Anglo mentioned something else, and he told me that you should know.¡±

    In fact, Dous did not know for sure whether this was the case, so he tried to alter Anglo¡¯s words with the hope of forcing Qetesh to spill. Dous didn¡¯t wish to suspect his colleague, yet sometimes, the instinctual theory of a prophet was too important to ignore.

    His attempt sessfully scared Qetesh a bit.

    Qetesh wasn¡¯t sure what exactly Dous was asking about. After all, he was at a loss regarding the current situation just like the others.

    When Dous requested so, Qetesh wondered if he should reveal what he knew about nightmare aura and how he assumed there was a nightmare tunnel somewhere in the darkness.

    He didn¡¯t intend to hide it. He had not exined it yet because it was his presumption, not a fact.

    Dous saw Qetesh faltering and immediately established a ¡°safer¡± connection by sending a Spirit Bond to Qetesh.

    ¡°This will probably determine whether the city will survive! Doctor Anglo told us to evacuate ALL from the city. Do you know what that means?!¡± Dous questioned Qetesh while pretending that he was looking outside the window so that no one would notice them. ¡°If Sleepless City is gone, the glory that we have been working so hard for, the one we have been building in the past centuries, all of it will crumble along with the city!¡±

    Qetesh flinched.

    Is the whole matter so dangerous now?

    A wizard with a colossal body build and snowkes drifting around him entered the hut. He then removed his ¡°snow barrier¡± and moved to Dous on quick steps.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Dous?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Mister Payne!¡± The other wizards noticed him and all looked his way.

    ¡°Did you finish your seclusion, Payne?¡± Dous perked up a little and addressed the big wizard, while Qetesh sighed and followed behind.

    ¡°Those little dots have sneaked into my chamber and turned my students and ves into some clowns. If I don¡¯t do something fast, the city will have to change its name to ¡®Sleepless Circus¡¯!¡± Payne bellowed as more freezing air came from his body.

    The onlookers felt the chilliness and trembled as if the coldest winter came too early.

    ¡°Iceborne Sorcerer¡± Payne was the third leader of Sleepless City. He was the youngest but was believed to be the one who had the biggest potential among all three leaders.

    Payne had be a level-2 truth-finder wizard before hitting the age of 300. He was probably stronger than Dous and Qeteshbined together, which granted him an influential position in the city. However,pared to fighting for political power, Payne was more interested in inventing new spells. This was why he usually stayed inside his soundproof chamber and rarely showed up in front of people.

    But this didn¡¯t mean that he would keep away from public sight at all times. When he decided to do something, the other two city leaders had to obey him.

    ¡°Ah, so Qetesh¡¯s here too? Good. Now tell me, what are those things outside? What¡¯s that ck barrier around the outer city?¡± Payne sounded extremely impatient.

    Dous sighed and extended his Spirit Bond to Payne.

    ¡°Mystery? Strange spots?¡± Payne scoffed after listening to Dous¡¯ words. ¡°A perfect bait that has attracted so many flies to our city.¡±

    Next, Dous mentioned Anglo¡¯s prediction as well as the suspicion regarding Qetesh.

    Payne did not seem too anxious when he heard how the city was in great danger. ¡°It¡¯s fine. As long as we have people, we can build a new city somewhere else. But this didn¡¯t mean I¡¯ll get forced away by these things so easily. Otherwise, others will think of me as a defeated dog!¡± Payne frowned as he spoke, ¡°I¡¯ll be the one to decide what happens next.¡±

    Qetesh¡¯s expression changed many times during their conversation as if he was trying to decide something.

    ¡°It¡¯s high time you tell us what you know, Qetesh,¡± Payne said.

    Qetesh chuckled helplessly. ¡°I won¡¯t lie about it, but I really do not know much more than you do. The only thing is... there is nightmare energy in the darkness. Trust me, that¡¯s all I can say.¡±

    To prove his credit, Qetesh fully opened up his mind space so that anyone could check him using truth-detection spells.

    Payne frowned again and looked at Dous.

    Dous shrugged. ¡°Well, Doctor Anglo did not suspect Qetesh directly. I was simply trying to learn the truth, by any means possible.¡±

    Qetesh sighed in relief.

    ¡°So, nightmare energy...¡± Payne considered. ¡°But how? Is there really a nightmare tunnel?¡±

    All three of them felt something getting restless in their minds upon hearing about a nightmare tunnel. This was because the tunnel meant a chance for them to go after priceless treasures.

    ¡°But aren¡¯t all such tunnels very brief?¡± said Payne. ¡°Even if there was one, it should be gone by now. Wizards from Starliege Temple once said that Nightmare Realm holds energy of higher levels than the wizarding world. To avoid getting involved in a ne fusion and being devoured, the world¡¯s consciousness will always prevent the existence of such tunnels.¡±

    ¡°As I said, I don¡¯t know anything other than these, but...¡± Qetesh intentionally stopped his words so that he could draw Payne¡¯s attention. ¡°But I think Sunders might have something useful. All his spells are rted to nightmare energy, and he¡¯s the only truth-finder wizard who came here to check the incident. I¡¯ve asked him though, and he just won¡¯t tell me.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± Payne looked around the room and said, ¡°Mister Phantom came? Where is he?¡±

    Dous and Qetesh realized that they had not seen Sunders in a while. When they checked, they saw Sunders¡¯ student was absent as well.

    ¡°Where did Mister Phantom go?¡± Dous asked the other wizards.

    No response. No one knew.

    Payne frowned and immediately readied a spell called Remove Delirium. In his view, the movement of people in the room slowed down until they came to aplete stop. Next, time flowed backward and allowed Payne to see what happened recently.

    Including how Sunders and Angor left through the door.

    Payne canceled his spell and stepped out of the hut.

    ¡°What did you see, Payne?¡± asked Qetesh.

    ¡°... Mister Phantom entered the outer city. He went inside the darkness.¡±

    ¡°He did? Alone?¡± Dous came out and heard their words.

    ¡°He took that boy.¡±

    Payne wasn¡¯t interested in the apprentice boy right now. He only wondered what Sunders was up to.

    ¡°He did so because he knew how to resist the light spots out there. There must be something in the outer city which is of great interest to him.¡± Qetesh grimaced.

    ¡°Well, you should have said so earlier!¡± Payne red at Qetesh.

    ¡°I... I didn¡¯t know! It was an assumption!¡±

    ¡°What should we do now?¡± asked Dous.

    ¡°If he can survive, I can,¡± Payne said as he narrowed his eyes. ¡°We¡¯re both truth-finders, and I wish to find out how strong he really is.¡±

    Qetesh and Dous exchanged an uncertain look. They both knew Payne had great ambition and considered Sunders as a rival. They stayed quiet as they didn¡¯t wish to get involved in theirpetition.

    ¡°A wizard is affected!¡± A guard not far away from them yelled and drew everyone¡¯s attention.

    ¡°What¡¯s the deal?! Didn¡¯t we tell them to be wary of the flying spots?¡± Dous quickly looked that way.

    Even if there were too many spots, they would not break a wizard¡¯s defense too easily because wizards usually had enough mana to sustain their protection for a long time.

    ¡°A wizard brought an affected apprentice too close so that he could examine him, then someone got careless and let a spot sneak into his body!¡±

    ¡°Idiot! How did someone so sloppy and foolish be a wizard in the first ce?!¡± Dous couldn¡¯t help but curse loudly. ¡°Who is it? Which organization sent that b*stard?¡±

    The guard stuttered but did not say anything.

    ¡°Are you deaf or what? WHO THE F*CK is it?¡± Dous bellowed.

    ¡°It¡¯s-it¡¯s one of our wizards, sir, someone from Sleepless City.¡±

    ¡°WHAT?!¡±

 Chapter 597 - Removing Parasites?

    <h4>Chapter 597: Removing Parasites?</h4>

    Dous saw several wizards giving him funny looks and cleared his throat. ¡°Name. Tell me his name.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Mister ¡®Fiery Bone¡¯, sir.¡±

    ¡°Fiery Bone¡± Felder, a new wizard who attained his level not long ago.

    Dous swallowed his curses back as he couldn¡¯t possibly condemn a wizard of his own organization out in the public. He knew that Felder was always a passionate researcher who would go after any interesting knowledge he could find. It waspletely reasonable for Felder to make such mistakes.

    ¡°... Keep things under control. I¡¯ll go check him out.¡±

    Several wizards grew visibly stressed when they learned that a wizard had fallen. Silently, they put more effort into their protections.

    ¡°Listen, everyone, do not approach him no matter what kind of research you want to do,¡± Dous spoke to the others. ¡°Our first priority is to keep the situation¡ª¡±

    The guard from earlier returned again and interrupted Dous. He was almost crying for some reason. ¡°Sir-sir! Mister Felder is unleashing his attacks everywhere! And he¡¯s too strong! There are wizards who got their protection breached and the spots had taken them!¡±

    Dous lost his bnce and stumbled backward several steps.

    As someone experienced in battles and wars, he knew that their defensive line would break apart faster and faster at this rate until all wizards were overwhelmed.

    He looked at Payne, who showed a simrly grim look.

    Payne considered and said in a cold tone, ¡°Gather everyone who is not affected and send them to Monsoon Sector.¡±

    ¡°Monsoon Sector?¡± Qetesh frowned. ¡°But all critical infrastructures of Sleepless City are located there. Are we going to allow outsiders to see them?¡±

    The ¡°Monsoon Sector¡± was the core of the inner city where important facilities such as intelligence repositories, spell research halls, and resource storages were built. This forbidden zone was constantly protected by arge-scale magic array called the Curtain of Night.

    ¡°Sleepless City is not lost yet, but letting all wizards die will enrage the other organizations and bring doom to us. If someone attempts to get their hands on our resources, I¡¯ll personally kill them!¡±

    Payne originally nned to enter the darkness so that he couldpare his strength against Sunders¡¯ strength. But now, he could no longer do so since there were more pressing matters at hand.

    There was another reason for his decision. As the very core of Sleepless City, Monsoon Sector had a secret passage that led toward the underground. In the worst-case scenario, he could take the wizards to safety so that Sleepless City wouldn¡¯t be the enemy of all organizations.

    He would ask Qetesh to take all the wizards away while Dous should collect all the resources stored in Sleepless City. In the meantime, Payne would remain at the front line since he was the strongest wizard on the scene. He had to make sure that the affected wizards did not drag any more members into their ranks.

    He stood at the entrance of the Monsoon Sector and gazed at the six ¡°clownish wizards¡± whomanded an army of clownish apprentices.

    When he entered his seclusion session one week ago, the Sleepless City was still prosperous and bright.

    And it became aplete nightmare so fast...

    ¡°Mister Payne, Doctor Anglo is here.¡± A wizard from the Tower of Hurricane approached him.

    Payne looked around and saw two figures showing up from a dark street. The only streetmp and the dark ambiance in the area extended their shadows eerily long.

    Anglo was still wearing that ck uniform and gold-rimmed sses while Dous, in his city uniform, apanied him.

    ¡°Payne, I¡¯ve carried all books, scrolls, and important files into the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden,¡± Dous spoke through their Spirit Bond.

    Payne nodded and looked at Anglo. Since time was of great essence, Payne would get straight to the point. ¡°Is there a way to deal with the light spots?¡±

    Anglo did not give him a straight answer. ¡°Mister Payne, ording to the strings of the world, something simr happened not long ago.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± A wizard nearby looked his way. ¡°I never heard of it!¡±

    Anglo adjusted his sses and continued, ¡°It took ce at Midnight Sovereign. I don¡¯t know the details, but speaking of Midnight Sovereign... people from Brute Cavern might be able to tell us something¡ª¡±

    He suddenly stopped talking as he looked around in confusion. ¡°Huh... did Mister Phantom leave?¡±

    Several more wizards began to wonder where Sunders went.

    ¡°Mister Phantom has gone into the darkness, together with his student,¡± said Payne.

    Everyone remained silent. They believed Sunders had a good reason to do such a thing; it was probably rted to the Mystery item that everybody was thinking about.

    Still, no one had the courage to follow Sunders¡¯ steps.

    ¡°Yeah, perhaps we should ask Brute Cavern.¡±

    The speaker was ¡°Whipping Witch¡± Rak¡¯sel, who had sent many of her students into the outer city so that she could seize the Mystery item before everyone.

    ¡°If I remember correctly, we have more than one wizard from Brute Cavern here.¡±

    Following her words, the other wizards nced at a chapel-like structure not far from them. On the balcony on the top floor, a wizard in red wizard robe was spacing out while gazing at the ¡°Curtain of Night¡± barrier, which had kept them safe.

    ¡°Hey Filo, do you know what Mister Phantom is doing?¡± Rak¡¯sel leaped into the air and reached Filo¡¯s side. She then gave Filo an alluring wink.

    Filo did not fall for the witch¡¯s attractive aura and backed away slowly. ¡°How should I know anything about Mister Sunders¡¯ n? And why should he tell you about it?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re quite right, Mister Filo,¡± said Payne. ¡°However, you should at least tell us what happened to Midnight Sovereign. This will likely determine the future of Sleepless City. Many organizations have their people as victims here, and we need to give them a reasonable answer.¡±

    Filo saw everyone staring at him and decided toply. There were also apprentices from Brute Cavern wandering around. Helping them meant helping his organization.

    ¡°Yes, Midnight Sovereign was once invaded by something alike. But the incident was perfectly solvedter. Mister Payne, you should know that the affected will not necessarily die. While the light spots controlled their bodies, when we remove them, the victims will in fact receive physical enhancements.¡±

    We can remove the spots from their bodies? The listening wizards wondered.

    Filo¡¯s words were like casting sunlight to a clouded sky. Payne also felt greatly relieved. As long as people could be saved, they still had hope.

    However, what Filo said next snuffed out their hope.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to remove them though.¡±

    ¡°Then what¡¯s the point of telling us? Who knows how to remove the light spot?¡±

    Filo sighed helplessly. ¡°As far as I know, there are only two people who can do it. Mister Phantom and his student, Angor. But as Mister Payne said, both of them have gone into the darkness, so...¡±

    People all shook their heads in distress. They couldn¡¯t possibly go look for Sunders at this moment.

    But this was still better than nothing. Since an apprentice could deal with the situation, many wizards believed that they could as well.

    Apart from these, Payne was wondering about another matter.

    ¡°Mister Filo, can you give us more details regarding what happened in Midnight Sovereign?¡±

    ...

    Angor had been waiting in Sunders¡¯ gravity garden for a while. He was anxious to learn the situation outside, but he couldn¡¯t.

    Thankfully, Sunders ced him at the ¡°outdoor library¡± so that he could kill time by reading books or educational magazines. And if he didn¡¯t feel like reading, he had Toby with him.

    About an hourter, he suddenly felt someone¡¯s spirit power wrapping him up.

    His vision went blurry for a while. When he could see again, he found himself standing in a narrow and dark stone house. A single lit candle was ced nearby, while Sunders was leaning against a wall.

    Angor smelled blooding from the body of his teacher.

    ¡°Are you hurt, sir?¡±

    Sunders waved Angor off when the boy wanted to check him. ¡°Nothing serious. It¡¯s almost healed. I called you out because I have an important question to ask.¡±

    Angor saw the gentleman¡¯s stern look and also put up his serious attitude.

    ¡°Have you ever heard the name ¡®Yorkshire¡¯?¡±

 Chapter 598 - Energy Storm

    <h4>Chapter 598: Energy Storm</h4>

    Yorkshire?

    Angor immediately remembered someone.

    But he had no idea why Sunders would want to know about someonepletely irrelevant in the situation.

    To Angor, this name didn¡¯t mean too much. It referred to someone he had almost forgotten.

    ¡°I do, sir. But I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s the same person you¡¯re asking about.¡±

    ¡°Tell me who you¡¯re thinking about. Is it someone from your family?¡±

    Angor nodded and before he could answer, he felt his right hand bing heavy.

    In the next second, a strong wind began to blow inside the narrow room. It didn¡¯t take long before the wind grew so deadly that a small cyclone had covered up the entire room.

    The wind easily snuffed out the candle and put them back intoplete darkness. They could not see or hear anything apart from raging current sweeping past their ears.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Angor?¡± Sunders called through their Spirit Bond, a little anxiously.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know! Where did this winde from?¡±

    ¡°This is not wind. It¡¯s... an energy storm! An ener-om, centered-you¡ª¡± Sunders¡¯ spirit power connection was getting unstable.

    ¡°Energy storm?!¡±

    Angor knew what that was. This was usually caused when a stable energy source copsed on itself for some reason.

    Energy storms were atypical abnormalities in the wizarding world. It often happened when the bnce of primal mana or elements was disturbed.

    The Devil¡¯s Water was constantly invaded by deadly weather just because of the existence of unending energy storms. It was rather easy for fierce natural climates to keep causing energy storms if the environment was already unstable.

    The strength of an energy storm was determined by how stable the energy source originally was, and the amount of energy it held.

    Sunders probably meant to say that the current storm was ¡°centered around Angor¡±. Yet Angor had no idea what he did to cause it. Was the energy around here so fickle that he brought a disaster simply by showing up?

    No way!

    Thankfully, he was standing right inside the ¡°eye of the storm¡±, and the storm did not harm him yet.

    The ceiling of the simple stone house was soon hurled away, while the cyclone in the house raised into the darkened sky.

    While twisting and bending, the cyclone reached all the way to the dome barrier while stirring up all the dark energy in the outer city. It continued on until the darkness slowly grew thin.

    ¡°The nightmare energy around us just copsed, not primal mana.¡±

    Angor suddenly heard Sunders speaking right next to him. The gentleman¡¯s top hat was blown off to somewhere, exposing his short, grayish-green hair. His suit had tears all over them, probably caused by the razor-sharp energy surges.

    In the dark, Sunders¡¯ eyes were twinkling brightly as he gazed at Angor¡¯s right hand.

    ¡°Your hand has absorbed wandering nightmare energy in this area, which then caused a ¡®hollow¡¯ and facilitated an energy copse.¡±

    While speaking, Sunders grabbed Angor¡¯s wrist and lifted it above their heads.

    Following the movement of Angor¡¯s hand, the extended cyclone in the sky also swayed left and right.

    ¡°So... it can absorb nightmare energy... but where did the energy go?¡± Sunders muttered to himself.

    It was when his hand was taken by Sunders did Angor notice that he couldn¡¯t control his hand at all. There was a strange feelinging from his right hand, and it was flowing back into his body.

    Following the direction of the flow, Angor reached his mind space.

    ¡°Uh, professor? My mana pool is growing. The energy is rushing into it!¡± Angor panicked when he saw an obvious change in size in his mana pool within a minute.

    If one needed to further determine the ¡°phase¡± of an apprentice of a certain level, the apprentice could be in one of the four possible phases¡ªnew, median, senior, and finally, limit-capped.

    Angor should be a new level-3 apprentice right now, but this thing that was happening now was rapidly pushing the capacity of his mana pool toward the median level, and it was still going.

    And he was terrified.

    An overgrown mana pool without a proper foundation could easily break apart, and there was no way to repair it!

    Sunders was nning to further observe the strange urrence so that he might work on a new subject on the spot. But he decided otherwise and unleashed his spirit power as soon as he heard Angor¡¯s words. ¡°Don¡¯t resist. I¡¯ll take you into the gravity garden again.¡±

    Soon, Angor found himself being carried away from the raging energy. The peaceful sight of Sunders¡¯ gravity garden slowly appeared around him.

    Toby saw Angor returning and quickly went to greet him. Although the bird decided not to act too affectionately when he saw a second gentleman standing nearby.

    Angor tried to examine his mana pool and noticed that it had indeed grown for at least 15%, which usually required half a year to achieve.

    He did not find any ws in the rapid growth yet, which was exactly what made him worried.

    While Angor was anxiously checking his mind space, Sunders was gazing at his right hand with a tight frown.

    Previously, Sunders thought the strange hand was a giant nightmare stone used for replenishing nightmare energy to something or enhance nightmare illusions. But it just absorbed external nightmare energy and nurtured Angor¡¯s mana pool, which was unheard of.

    This didn¡¯t make sense. Someone¡¯s mana pool had to absorb primal mana, and nightmare energy was apletely different form of energy. This was notpatible.

    ¡°Is there something unusual in your mana pool?¡± asked Sunders.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s bigger now, and... no, I can¡¯t find anything wrong with it. But I can only look at the outside of my mana pool. I¡¯m not sure if the inside of it is damaged.¡±

    A mana pool gained size and capacity by constant meditation training through which it umted more mana. Angor didn¡¯t believe that proper growth could happen so fast without causing any problem. He was afraid that his mana pool was forcefully erged like how a water tank was filled with too much water. The pressure of its content might bust it open at any time.

    He couldn¡¯t tell by looking at it.

    Sunders saw his student growing panicked and chuckled.

    ¡°Fifteen percent isn¡¯t thatrge. Stop scaring yourself. You¡¯ve always been a different case. Do you remember how you turned from level-1 to level-2 so fast?¡±

    After getting pushed into a nightmare tunnel by Twilight, Angor managed to meditate a lot more efficiently, which helped him attain level-2 within a month. He never considered it as anything special because that ne passageway was probably something extremely rare.

    Now that something simr happened again...

    ¡°Nightmare energy can hasten my training?¡± Angor asked, surprised.

    ¡°Heh. Frankly speaking, I don¡¯t know. Whether true or not, this doesn¡¯t work on me.¡±

    ¡°Even if it¡¯s true... such power isn¡¯t mine. It¡¯s alien...¡± Angor lifted his right hand and did not feel any better.

    ¡°That attitude is not wrong. Only strength gained through effort is truly your own. However, this shouldn¡¯t prevent you from seeking ¡®shortcuts¡¯ when you can find one. As long as you canprehend how the foreign power came into being, it won¡¯t be difficult to master it. Otherwise, it might be a giant obstacle on the path of truth.¡±

    Angor slowly nodded despite being unsure of whether he was safe.

    Sunders shook his head and chuckled again. Angor was the only apprentice he ever met who looked so unhappy about having more strength tomand.

    ¡°Now open up your mind. I¡¯ll look into your mana pool.¡±

    While still a bit distressed, Angorplied as he weed a gentle spirit feeler into his mind space.

    Sunders¡¯ examination finished soon.

    ¡°... I didn¡¯t find any problem. The foundation is fine and steadfast as it should be. Remember Maya¡¯s words? Your right hand will not bring any serious crisis upon you.¡±

    Angor sighed in relief.

    ¡°To make sure,¡± Sunders continued, ¡°we are to keep an eye on it from now on. Once we settle everything in Sleepless City, we shall go to the abandoned vige you mentionedst time. We need to find out whether the nightmare energy in that particr tunnel can affect your right hand in any way.¡±

    The first thought that came to Angor¡¯s mind was that they might run into Akeso, and he didn¡¯t know whether it was a good thing.

    Sunders didn¡¯t notice Angor¡¯s worried expression as he was pondering over something at hand. ¡°I can¡¯t let you out for now or you¡¯ll cause more of those energy storms...¡±

    Sunders found the mystery hidden behind Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form getting bigger and bigger. Every time the boy stumbled into something rted to the Nightmare Realm, strange things would always happen.

    ¡°... Ahem, I should think about those thingster. Back to our first question, Angor, who is Yorkshire?¡±

 Chapter 599 - Interrupted Storm

    <h4>Chapter 599: Interrupted Storm</h4>

    ¡°Yorkshire is a servant working for my family. This mute man used to serve my parents. After my parents passed away and my former teacher grew ill, he had been helping my teacher.¡±

    Angor proceeded to exin some insignificant details such as how Yorkshire was tortured into a voiceless man by vers, how Count Padt bought him, and how Yorkshire stayed with the Padt Family ever since.

    There wasn¡¯t much to tell about Yorkshire¡¯s in and uneventful life. The only thing worth mentioning was how Yorkshire was lucky enough to run into Count Padt, and how he enjoyed a rtively peaceful lifeter.

    This voiceless man usually remained quiet and away from public attention. The name almost slipped from Angor¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Yorkshire, a mute servant...¡± Sunders mumbled that name with a strange expression.

    ¡°But why did you ask, sir? Wait... is that unknown monster you mentioned called Yorkshire?¡±

    Angor thought so because up till now, there were multiple figures from Padt Manor who showed up as nightmare monsters, such as Fawkes, Froggy, and Auri. It was quite expected to run into someone else at this point.

    ¡°It should be,¡± said Sunders. ¡°I saw a number of possessed folks in the outer city who were performing strange songs, just like how people at Midnight Sovereign did. However, apart from their ¡®Queen¡¯, Fox, and Froggy, I heard another name in their song, which is Yorkshire. There was a strange individual who ambushed me earlier. Yorkshire, very likely.¡±

    Angor believed this was how his teacher got that wound.

    ¡°Yorkshire is stronger than Fox and Froggy. I¡¯d say it¡¯s at least as powerful as a level-2 truth-finder, and you don¡¯t find many people at such a level in this world.¡±

    ¡°Are you okay, sir? What does the monster look like?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Taken by surprise, nothing serious. As for the monster... no, I only saw its shadow. But I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not human or human-shaped.¡±

    Angor expected much since every ¡°named¡± monster he met up until now was nonhuman. Well except that ¡°Queen¡± and Shava.

    A real fox, a real frog, and a toy owl...

    Speaking of Auri, whenmunicating with the toy owl during the incident in Twilight Auction House, the owl mentioned another name; one who was going to present a show following Fox and Froggy.

    It was Yorkshire.

    Angor tried to remember what else he heard on that day.

    He did not have superior memory like Sunders or other mighty wizards yet, but with his current mental capabilities, it wouldn¡¯t be hard for him to recall something as long as he once experienced it personally. However, it might take some time for him to recall it.

    Soon, he remembered the strange time point when he was covered by nightmare mist and had a strange owl sitting on his head.

    ¡°I got it. Auri said that Yorkshire is a puppet performer!¡±

    Sunders was preparing to leave the garden and explore the outer city, but he stopped when he heard Angor¡¯s words.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t Yorkshire a mute servant?¡±

    ¡°I mean, the Yorkshire from Nightmare Realm. During Twilight Auction, when I identally summoned all those monsters, the toy owl told me that Yorkshire was going to ¡®give us a puppet show¡¯ter.¡±

    There wasn¡¯t much to tell from this clue, but it was better than nothing.

    This had told them that ¡°Monster Yorkshire¡± was probably good at controlling its victims.

    ¡°Good. You stay here for now while I check the outside.¡±

    ...

    While Sunders and Angor had their brief ¡°intermission¡±, the other wizards in the inner city were terribly scared by what they saw.

    A giant cyclone, which was the energy storm created by Angor, was powerful enough to disturb the atmosphere outside the darkness-covered area.

    ¡°Someone caused an energy storm and it broke through the dark barrier?¡± Dous widened his eyes as he looked at the sky. ¡°Is it Mister Phantom?¡±

    They naturally reached such a conclusion since they knew Sunders entered the outer city with his student, and it wasn¡¯t difficult for Sunders to induce such a thing.

    ¡°Hey, look! The energy storm is absorbing the darkness around it!¡±

    The speaker was Tulouch from Utopi Academy. Utopi Academy was home to many ¡°white wizards¡±, and more than 80% of them were inclined to be academicism. These wizards might not be good at fighting, but they were second to none when it came to certain skills, such as energy observation.

    People all took a moment to observe.

    Heroline from White Coral Floating Ind Academy agreed. ¡°Correct. The density of the darkness is decreasing.¡±

    This was not all. When the storm came, the wandering shiny spots were grounded to nothingness in the deadly energy as well.

    ¡°Solving the problem by using an energy storm... Such ingenuity. Mister Phantom deserves his fame,¡± Veanne from Foreboding Forest said as she gave her words of admiration.

    People realized that Sunders was indeed going to eliminate the darkness at this rate. At the same time, they held different ideas and attitudes about this¡ªwhile some of them were d that the crisis was dealt with, the others were jealous because they basically allowed Sunders to im the Mystery item.

    ¡°But the storm is gone,¡± Qetesh said and drew everyone¡¯s attention.

    They looked up again and noticed that the cyclone was suddenly nowhere to be seen. The disrupted darkness in the outer city was getting thicker again.

    ¡°Did Mister Phantom fail?¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t be. An energy storm of that size can¡¯t just vanish all of a sudden!¡±

    While it was true that they still wanted topete for the Mystery item, they were more concerned about the returning darkness that might threaten their lives should anyone get too careless.

    Anglo suddenly covered his mouth as he coughed up blood.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Doctor?¡± Dous quickly joined him.

    Payne had been staying at Anglo¡¯s side, so he knew what had just happened¡ªAnglo began another ¡°plucking¡± session as soon as he saw the energy storm rising into the sky. This probably meant that Anglo¡¯s failed something.

    ¡°I-I forced my way to observe the strings, and I saw something curious,¡± Anglo said. He removed some blood off his lips while his eyes twinkled.

    ¡°Curious?¡± Payne meant to find out.

    ¡°Using the weakened darkness as a clue, I managed to read something regarding the situation in the outer city,¡± Anglo murmured as he rubbed his temples. ¡°That storm wasn¡¯t created by Mister Phantom.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Are you saying that the storm appeared over there out of thin air?¡±

    ¡°Mister Phantom had nothing to do with the start of the storm,¡± Anglo continued, ¡°but it was him who stopped it.¡±

    The others looked at each other in doubt.

    That energy storm might do good to the city by removing the darkness. Why would Sunders stop it?

    Naturally, people from Sleepless City, including Payne, appeared the most displeased upon hearing these words.

    Anglo shrugged when he saw Payne¡¯s annoyed look. ¡°I don¡¯t know his reason, but I can tell you that it was his student who caused the storm.¡±

    That shocked the others even more.

    An apprentice initiated an energy storm strong enough to prate that looming darkness? That¡¯s got to be a joke!

    Yet Anglo¡¯s serious expression told them otherwise.

    ¡°I think Sunders¡¯ student is called Angor Padt. He¡¯s said to be extremely talented in alchemy, and he almost crafted a Mystery item once,¡± a wizardmented.

    ¡°Yup. When ites to alchemy, that boy¡¯s as famous as his teacher.¡±

    ¡°Did he use some sort of alchemy item to facilitate that energy storm then?¡±

    Away from the discussing wizards, Mara was gazing at the outer city with a grim look.

    He¡¯s grown SO much... No matter what¡¯s happening in there, Angor still bes the center of attention even among wizards, while I¡¯m just a useless old man.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t joking... I did find a ¡®monster¡¯ from the Old Earth and brought him here.¡±

    ...

    Sunders leaped onto a small house and looked at two apprentices below who were dancing madly while their necks jerked into the shape of ¡°Z¡±.

    ¡°Do you know them, professor?¡± Angor¡¯s voice reached his ears.

    ¡°Yes. They¡¯re Wace¡¯s students. I didn¡¯t know Wace sent someone here as well.¡±

    Angor slowly descended from the sky andnded beside Sunders. His feet, however, weren¡¯t touching the solid surface.

    Sunders nced at him with a smile. ¡°Your soul looks as real as your body now. Ness will be terrified for good if he sees your current condition.¡±

    Previously, Sunders meant to keep Angor safe by letting him stay inside the gravity garden. But Angor couldn¡¯t stay tight as he had so many things to do, such as killing Hookdick and looking for Nausica, so he came out in his soul form.

    He didn¡¯t know whether Nausica was here, but it was very likely when Hookdick was around here somewhere.

    However, if he were to show up in the outer city, it might cause another energy storm because his right hand would then begin to absorb nightmare energy on its own. Therefore, Angor found another approach, which was to use his soul instead. The right hand on his soul was still at its normal size, and it would not interact with the nightmare energy around him.

    Sunders agreed to the decision. He then left a special spell that could sustain Angor¡¯s body in the gravity garden. By doing so, they could now explore the outer city together.

 Chapter 600 - Following Clues

    <h4>Chapter 600: Following Clues</h4>

    Wace¡¯s student?

    Wace was an influential level-2 wizard in Brute Cavern just like Sunders. But as Wace was more of an ¡°academicism¡± wizard, many of his ideas and standards were different or even against Sunders¡¯ style.

    Angor looked at the mentioned students.

    They moved their heads to look at Angor but without turning their bodies.

    ¡°Praaaise the queen, praaaise Shava, praaaise Yorkshire!¡±

    Upon finishing their song, they bowed to Angor politely and bounced away as if they were being dragged by invisible strings.

    This wasn¡¯t a strange sight to Angor as he had encountered such clownish behaviors for more than once now.

    Sunders waited for the clowns to go away before he moved toward another direction.

    ¡°We¡¯re not taking them with us?¡± asked Angor. He knew they should leave everyone be, but those two were Wace¡¯s students as well as apprentices of Brute Cavern.

    ¡°We should let Wace take care of his own students.¡±

    Angor nced at the disappearing duo and followed behind his teacher.

    On hastened steps, they quickly headed to the center area of the outer city where, ording to Filo, the sound of a strange instrument was heard.

    Sunders nned to eliminate the ¡°fox harper¡± that escaped from Twilight Auction Housest time, and at the same time, he wanted to search for Greya.

    Of course, killing that fox meant getting his hands on its harp.

    It was not easy to bring Mystery items from the Nightmare Realm to the wizarding world, but since such an item already appeared here...

    ¡°Do you have something to tell me?¡± Sunders suddenly gave Angor a curious nce.

    ¡°Did I make it too obvious?¡±

    ¡°Well, you¡¯ve been looking at me while pretending that you weren¡¯t.¡±

    Angor chuckled. Nowadays, he no longer felt embarrassed in such situations. ¡°I¡¯m thinking about checking Brute Cavern¡¯s office in the city.¡±

    Sunders nodded nonchntly as he had already seen through Angor¡¯s mind. ¡°You¡¯re going after that student of Ness? His name... Hookdick, who fused the Bloodline of a Subus, am I right?¡±

    When Filo mentioned seeing Hookdick in the outer city, Sunders easily noticed Angor getting distracted by it. Sunders expected his student to bring this matter up.

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Angor admitted his ns. ¡°It¡¯s such a good chance. That guy almost killed us back at the Sea of Purification. I tried finding him in Brute Cavern, but he ran off to somewhere else. Now that he¡¯s nearby...¡±

    Sunders gave Angor a thoughtful look.

    ¡°Go. I don¡¯t think there are many men or beasts in this darkness who can harm you.¡±

    ¡°Um, there¡¯s something else. I think a friend of mine is trapped here as well, and I want to help her.¡±

    ¡°Do as you wish. But make sure you can take her out of this darkness by yourself.¡±

    Angor realized that Sunders meant to tell him that no one else was allowed to use his gravity garden. The gentleman did not help Wace¡¯s students probably because of the same reason.

    ¡°I¡¯ll try my best, sir.¡±

    ¡°Good. Do note that taking somebody else outside with you might bring you unexpected trouble. When that happens, adjust your tactic wisely.¡±

    Sunders then pricked his finger; a drop of blood came out.

    Angor was terrified to see that the small droplet of blood contained more mana than his entire mana pool. In other words, if Sunders wanted to, the gentleman could easily shatter his body and soul with minimum effort.

    Next, Sunders lifted the bleeding finger. The blood condensed into a glowing red sphere and floated onto Angor¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Bring it with you so that I can sense your location at all times,¡± Sunders said. He put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder before his body became transparent and disappeared.

    Angor checked the strange gift left by his teacher and feltforting warmthing from it.

    ¡°Sigh... let¡¯s go,¡± he said to Toby. ¡°We go find Hookdick first. Maybe we¡¯ll run into Lady Greya along the way.¡±

    Toby fluttered around Angor carefully.

    ¡°Don¡¯t wander too far. I¡¯m afraid those parasites will try to take your body as well.¡±

    They exchanged a determined look and activated their gravity power at the same time.

    They then bolted into the distance.

    Using their enhanced speed, they arrived at the office building of Brute Cavern within a minute.

    Angor stayed afloat above the structure and looked down. From his position, the only thing distinguishable was the glowing emblem of Tree of Eternity; all other details of the building were covered in shadows.

    Everything was quiet. Angor waited for a while and did not hear anything, not even the strange songs of the mad clowns.

    They slowlynded on the ground. Angor took out an oilmp from Toby¡¯s Snowy Feather so that they would have a light source. Since his own bracelet stayed inside Sunders¡¯ gravity garden, and he couldn¡¯t cast any spells in his soul form, he had to rely on simpler means.

    Thankfully, he prepared enough misceneous tools in Toby¡¯s storage.

    The simplemp couldn¡¯t provide much light, but it wasn¡¯t a serious problem since Angor¡¯s soul form could see rtively well in the dark.

    Soon, he found marks on the ground left by battles as well as dried bloodstains.

    His improved senses also allowed him to find energy residue around the area.

    Whoever caused them had left a long time ago.

    ¡°Geez. I can easily track them with spells if I have my body...¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°ording to Mister Filo, Hookdick and Shiliew battled right here. The blood must have been left by them too. Hey, Toby? Can you check the blood out?¡±

    Despite being reluctant, Toby still listened to Angor¡¯smand by approaching the stains, which obviously didn¡¯t smell good.

    Angor watched Toby with a hopeful look. ¡°Can you follow the smell?¡±

    ¡°Tweet!¡±¡ªI¡¯m not a dog!

    Angor let out a silly chuckle.

    This had left him with only one choice, which was to follow the blood trail with his eyes.

    However, this wasn¡¯t so easy when there were bloodstains everywhere¡ªin the middle of streets, on top of buildings, hidden among grass and flowers... Angor couldn¡¯t find a definite direction to go after.

    While searching, a broken wall drew his attention. Precisely speaking, it was the swirling marks left on the wall that attracted him.

    There might be many people in this world who could make their attacks spin, but for now, Angor would consider this trace as something left by Nausica¡¯s mechanical arm.

    While mentioning the Helix Rune to Mithra, the old alchemist imed that he never heard of such a rune before, which meant one would be hard-pressed to find simr things around the southern wizarding regions.

    And this probably meant Nausica was here fighting Hookdick.

    He also sawrge footprints, which definitely did not belong to humans.

    Gank and Shan.

    It seemed that Nausica¡¯s team left Brute Cavern three months ago in pursuit of Hookdick and ended up in this unexpected mess.

    Angor shook his head and put all unnecessary concerns aside. If Nausica was here, he had to get her out, one way or another.

    With the oilmp in hand, he entered Brute Cavern¡¯s building.

    A brief tour-around suggested that the building waspletely abandoned. There were various objects scattered on the floor but nothing that indicated a fight.

    He left the building and nned to follow the battle marks outside as much as he could. It soon proved to be impossible because the trail was cut off not far from the building.

    Considering how the outer city was full of parasites, it was likely that Nausica¡¯s team was already possessed, in which case Angor had to run around the city while hoping to bump into them by some miraculous coincidence. After all, the clowns tended to wander into every random corner that they could find.

    Angor sighed. Since he didn¡¯t have any other choice, he was going to look around as best as he could. Thankfully, his soul form could move swiftly and scan through the outer city fast enough, as long as thedies did not hide and make his job harder.

 Chapter 601 - Spotted Dog

    <h4>Chapter 601: Spotted Dog</h4>

    After searching for half an hour, Angornded on the balcony of a two-story wooden house.

    ording to the message they received, the darkness invaded Sleepless City without forewarning, which meant that most citizens in the outer city did not have time to escape.

    However, Angor found it strange that he barely saw people around the city, either supernaturals or mortals.

    Even if the possessed tended to avoid ¡°Shava¡±, they couldn¡¯t stay away from Angor at all times when he flew around by using the sequence of gravity.

    While searching for Nausica¡¯s trace, Angor kept an eye out for colorful clowns and registered less than a hundred of them, who all escaped as soon as they saw himing.

    Less than a hundred people in the city? That couldn¡¯t be.

    Thest time when he visited the city with Sunders, he knew the city was rtively lively even though they did not take the time to look around. The streets might not be crowded, but they were far from deste either.

    Are they all staying indoors then?

    He turned around and looked at themon residential house that he was standing on.

    Whoever lived here had ced several flower pots with adorable purple buds growing in them on the balcony. The flowers appeared extremely bright in the dark ambient like stars.

    He then opened the door on the balcony and entered a room. The clothes that were ced around as well as the faint smell of perfume suggested that they belonged to ady. But just like everywhere else, random objects and clothes were discarded onto the floor. Perhaps after getting possessed by one of the parasites, the owner of the room changed into a colorful clownish suit or anything that looked simr.

    Next, he headed downstairs to check. He came to this house because he heard something just now, which sounded like a thief rummaging for valuables.

    As soon as he left the stairs, a shadow assaulted his face.

    Angor didn¡¯t need to do anything at all. The shadow was knocked away by a simple wing-p from Toby and crashed into the ceiling.

    The shadownded on a sofa beneath and steadied itself, before turning to Angor furiously.

    ¡°Woof! Warf!¡±

    Using the light from the oilmp, Angor saw a spotted dog standing on the orange sofa barking at them. The dog was not any bigger than Toby. While it tried its best to look threatening, it only managed to make puppy sounds.

    Angor did not react against the ¡°ambush¡± because he already noticed that the dog was only a mortal pet.

    ¡°Interesting. The owners of the family are affected but their pet dog was spared?¡±

    Angor held his chin and suddenly got an idea.

    Surely a dog¡¯s nose is better than Toby¡¯s?

    With that in mind, he slowly approached the puppy, which was still trying to intimidate him by baring its undeveloped teeth, with a bright smile.

    Toby waved a wing and created a small gravity field that restrained the puppy and lifted it in front of Angor¡¯s face.

    Confused, the puppy began to dog-paddle in the air.

    ¡°Hey, little guy, how about a little teamwork? You help me find someone, and I¡¯ll take you to your owner,¡± Angor said as he stroked the puppy¡¯s head.

    When the animal saw Angor¡¯s gentle approach, it instantly removed its hostile posture and nudged against Angor¡¯s hand while whining happily.

    ¡°Ugh, dogs, so easily convinced.¡±

    Angor carried the creature back to Brute Cavern¡¯s building where he found the bloodstains. He couldn¡¯t tell who left the blood yet. But it would be fine as long as he found someone, be it Hookdick or Nausica¡¯s teammates.

    Angor tried cing the puppy near the blood, and he told it to go after the smell. But themunication didn¡¯t work out very well as the animal kept licking at his hand while wagging its tail rapidly.

    ¡°Ugh! Toby? Can you talk to it?¡± Angor looked at his partner.

    Toby rolled his eyes.

    Angor somewhat understood why the parasites spared the puppy. Maybe they all preferred possessing something with proper intelligence.

    When he almost gave up, the puppy suddenly ran off to a random direction and yelped at Angor as if it wanted him to follow behind.

    Angor perked up andplied.

    As a man and a dog traveled through many streets, Angor felt his delight slowly turning into suspicion.

    ¡°Are you perhaps ¡®walking¡¯ me???¡± He lifted the puppy by the scruff and questioned, only to receive more licks.

    Angor was pretty sure that he was fooled for good. The dog was simply going for a walk, and he actually ran after it.

    As he decided to leave the ursed animal to its own fate, something suddenly exploded behind a building nearby.

    Angor turned around and saw the puppy staring at the direction of the noise with a ¡°serious¡± look.

    ¡°So you meant to lead me here?¡±

    More tail wagging.

    ¡°Forget it.¡± Angor shook his head and floated toward the ruckus.

    While flying, Toby whispered something and pointed a wing toward the street below.

    Angor looked down and saw the puppy still following them.

    When they stopped moving, the puppy sat still as well while gazing at them with an eager look.

    ¡°Are those parasites not interested in it for real?¡± Angor nced around and saw a good many flying spots wandering around the puppy but without attacking the animal.

    Without giving it much thought, he kept heading to the source of the explosion and reached a rtivelyrge building that appeared to be another teleportation station of the city. There were still noisesing from the building, which sounded like crumbling walls.

    Is someone fighting in there?

    Instead of going inside, Angor approached a window on top of the building and looked down. But he couldn¡¯t see anything because the window was too far from the floor and the inside of the building waspletely dark.

    He heard someone panting heavily. And it sounded pretty familiar.

    He only heard one individual though. He wondered why someone would start all that ruckus all by themselves.

    A hand suddenlynded on his shoulder and startled him for good.

    Out of instinct, he readied his gravity power to defend himself.

    ¡°It¡¯s me.¡±

    It was Sunders¡¯ raspy voice.

    Angor looked closely and saw his professor somehow standing right behind his back. The gentleman was also looking through the window while his eyes glowed with the effect of a spell.

    ¡°Did youe here for something, professor?¡± whispered Angor.

    Sunders quickly created a Spirit Bond between them. ¡°I heard the noise and decided to check. What about you?¡±

    ¡°Me? I... was led here by a dog before I heard the explosion.¡±

    ¡°A dog?¡± Sunders narrowed his eyes. ¡°Where is it?¡±

    Angor moved to the edge of the ceiling and looked down. However, he could not find the puppy who had been following them.

    ¡°Did it get lost? But I didn¡¯t fly very fast...

    ¡°Maybe the noise scared it away?¡±

    Since the puppy seemed safe from the parasites, Angor decided to leave it be and looked at the teleportation hall below again.

    ¡°Someone is there. Someone we both know,¡± said Sunders, ¡°Greya, no doubt.¡±

    Upon hearing Greya¡¯s name, Angor felt Toby getting restless on his shoulder as if the bird would rush into the building immediately.

    ¡°Lady Greya is down there? Did she cause themotion?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what exactly happened to her, but it seems like Greya is trapped.¡±

 Chapter 602 - Seeing Hope

    <h4>Chapter 602: Seeing Hope</h4>

    Greya was ensnared by strands, which had pierced her body and became reddened with blood.

    The strings had forced her into a strange posture just like the clowns outside. It was as if a puppeteer was hiding somewhere nearby while controlling her actions.

    There were glowing dots in the area that were trying to invade her body but without any sess.

    Greya let out a painful breath as she chased away more dots. Her original soul of a truth-finder wizard was getting weaker at an rming speed. Should she ¡°fall asleep¡± and allow the second soul of the little girl to take over, she would be possessed immediately.

    ¡°Ah...!¡± She moaned as she felt something sucking at her finger.

    Apart from affixing her body in ce, the strings were also draining her blood at the same time.

    She couldn¡¯t help but tremble under the great pain. Yet each time she did so, the pain would grow worse as the strings cut her flesh apart like the sharpest knives.

    Blood loss, razor-sharp shackles, and flying spots that kept tackling her body... Greya was not sure for how much longer she could endure.

    Her mana pool was almost depleted. For now, she solely relied on her soul to keep up her resistance. The hellish agony hadsted for two days now. She would either lose to the glowing spots or getpletely torn up by the sharp strings, both of which didn¡¯t sound pleasant.

    ¡°Heh...¡±

    As a Gourmet, Greya had lived through a difficult life when she used to get kidnapped by other wizards. Triumphing from all the hardships had granted her a ce on the path of truth.

    She never thought that she would get totally defeated by a fox.

    This strange darkness had blocked all possible means of transmission, so she couldn¡¯t contact Felicia for help.

    Is there someone else who wille save me? Perhaps not...

    She stared into the darkness as her eyes slowly lost focus. Due to her strange character, she barely had any friends in the wizarding world, let alone someone who would care about her condition.

    The second soul in her body was waking up.

    She knew, that when that happened, ¡°Greya¡± would never wake up again. She thought about admitting defeat and giving up. Yet there was something in her mind that refused to do so.

    She kept struggling. She forced her consciousness to stay alert.

    There were always miracles in this world!

    The strings had taken too much blood from her, and her face was getting paler. Luckily, none of the strings managed to pierce her heart, which gave her more time.

    But still, she couldn¡¯t hold on for much longer.

    She saw her vision growing narrower and darker, while her mind was slowing down to a halt. Thest thing she was wondering about was why did the fox leave her here instead of killing her?

    And... The ¡°miracle¡± did note after all...

    ¡°Tweet!¡±

    Greya thought she was hallucinating before death. But the delusion of hearing Toby¡¯s voice still gave her some strength.

    ¡°Tweeeet! Tweet!!!¡±

    Is it really Toby?? But why? Did... Are Sunders and Angor somewhere nearby?

    ¡°To-Toby...¡± Greya tried to call out, yet a string that was pierced through her throat prevented her from letting her voice heard.

    She saw a small ember approaching her from the darkness.

    ¡°You owe me a big one, Greya.¡±

    Following the light, a certain gentleman¡¯s voice came.

    Greya tried to look up so that she could tell whether it was delirium before her peril.

    It was not.

    Sunders¡¯ slim form appeared in the dim light while Angor floated beside him. Toby fluttered around them as the bearer of their oilmp.

    Greya felt her eyes watering up, while something in her nose made it difficult for her to breathe.

    She was d that her messy hair did a good job of hiding her miserable expression.

    ¡°Oh... how disgraceful of me, letting you see me like this...¡±

    ¡°Nice. You look just like a wired puppet out of a top-ss puppet show.¡± Sunders observed the strings with a grim look despite his joking tone.

    ¡°Are you alright, Lady Greya?¡± Angor wanted to step up and help, but Greya quickly stopped him. The sudden movement caused more blood and flesh toe from her mouth.

    ¡°Don¡¯t... these things are deadly. You¡¯ll get yourself killed.¡±

    While Angor listened to her advice and stopped moving, Toby rushed to Greya¡¯s side while avoiding the strings. His small figure allowed him to find a way through the dangerous maze without a problem.

    Toby gently nudged Greya¡¯s cheek.

    ¡°Oh, you... Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m fine,¡± whispered Greya.

    Sunders snapped his fingers and created a bright sphere, which brightened up the entire teleportation hall like a sun.

    This was a level-2 cantrip called Illumination, a further advanced version of Light. Wizards didn¡¯t usually learn this cantrip because its only effect was to provide a light source, while the inferior versions¡ªLight and ze¡ªwere good enough. They might use the cantrip to blind someone in a fight, yet such simple tactic only worked on unwary apprentices, while it was pointless when one was fighting against seasoned wizards.

    Angor didn¡¯t know why his teacher had so much time to learn this ¡°useless cantrip¡±. But he would admit that the potent light could help them see every corner of the hall without leaving any blind spots behind.

    Angor carefully looked around and saw a dozen teleportation arrays that were obviously sabotaged. Everything else in the teleportation hall was left as it was, which meant someone destroyed the arrays intentionally.

    The strings bound Greya in the middle of the hall, while the other ends of them were connected to several stone pirs. Several pirs gave in and crumbled, while the strings remained unscratched.

    So that was where the noise came from.

    There was arge blood pool under Greya¡¯s position.

    Angor thought they should rescue Greya as fast as possible. He saw Sunders still observing a string nearby, so he also moved to a string that was not connected to Greya¡¯s ¡°prison¡± and tried cutting it up by using the sequence of gravity.

    When affected by Angor¡¯s gravity power, the string trembled a little, while the pir that supported it suddenly shattered to the floor, causing smoke and dust in the hall.

    Angor walked out of the dust cloud and saw his teacher giving him a stern look.

    ¡°Sorry, I just... gave it a little poke, and this happened.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t ¡®poke¡¯ things with your gravity power.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t scold Angor too much since no harm was done.

    ¡°The red fox monster left these things here, didn¡¯t it?¡± Sunders suddenly asked a question.

    Greya coughed up some blood. ¡°Yeah... you already met with it?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯ve been going after it.¡±

    Sunders cast a healing spell called Resuscitation at Greya. The green aura of life slowly patched up the cut wounds on Greya¡¯s body, but it couldn¡¯t help her escape from the strings.

    Still, she looked a lot better after receiving the treatment.

    ¡°Thanks...¡±

    Sunders snickered and extended the Spirit Bond between him and Angor toward Greya.

    ¡°Let me deal with these strings first.¡±

    Since that string inside Greya¡¯s throat looked rather dangerous, Sunders did so to help Greya avoid some pain.

    Although Toby was left out of their ¡°private connection¡±.

    ¡°How did you run into Fox, Lady Greya?¡± Angor asked a question while Sunders did his work.

    ¡°Fox... Is this how that fox monster is called?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    ¡°I see. There are strange voices praising some names, and I heard this ¡®Fox¡¯ among them.¡± Greya frowned. ¡°There was quite a ruckus in this teleportation station just now. Why isn¡¯t anyoneing? Someone must have heard all the noises.¡±

    ¡°Do you not know what these shiny dots are?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°No... I only know I should not let them do what they want.¡±

    Since he had nothing else to do, Angor offered to exin what happened to Sleepless City since the darkness showed up.

    ¡°Are you saying the outer city is so dangerous that no one shoulde in? Then why are you here? Also, the spots all disappeared when you came. Did you two scare them off?¡± Greya wondered.

 Chapter 603 - A Dog in the Way

    <h4>Chapter 603: A Dog in the Way</h4>

    ¡°I think ¡®looking for the Mystery treasure¡¯ is enough reason. If you don¡¯t believe me, feel free to think that I¡¯m here to save you,¡± Sundersmented indifferently.

    Greya realized that both Sunders and Angor didn¡¯t want to talk about why they were here, so she didn¡¯t pursue an answer since her life still depended on these two gentlemen.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll dly consider you as my savior then.¡±

    While Sunders returned to examining the strings, Greya looked at Angor again. ¡°You want to know how I met with that fox, right? Guess I should start exining from the beginning of the darkness as well.¡±

    Greya¡¯s experience was quite simple. When she saw the abnormality covering the city up, she immediately headed to the teleportation station to get away from it. At that time, the dimensional bnce around the city was still fine, which allowed Dous to take a group of wizards away using a ne passageway. This meant teleportation arrays would function as well.

    However, someone arrived at the station before she did. It was Fox, who already destroyed most of the arrays.

    Since Greya would like to use one of the arrays to escape, the two of them started fighting each other.

    The fox was only a wizard-level monster that didn¡¯t pose much threat. However, the harp it used contained strength that easily surpassed Greya¡¯s weakened power.

    After defeating Greya, the monster yed a strange song that created all these strings and bound her in ce instead of ending her life right away.

    ¡°I see it now. It wanted to drain my strength so that the ¡®parasites¡¯ or whatever they are can turn me into one of the clowns. That would be better than killing me.¡± Greya sighed and muttered, ¡°Thank goodness you came.¡±

    ¡°Fox destroyed the teleportation points?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°There must be a reason for it. Are they going to make this ce their hideout or something?¡±

    Angor reached this conclusion because he knew that certain nightmare monsters were trying to invade the wizarding world for their ¡°Queen¡±. And they already seeded in establishing forward bases such as Pocratee.

    Perhaps there were more monster nests at some ces they didn¡¯t know.

    ¡°But why did they go so far as to openly invade the city of a wizard organization?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s a warning. They want to dere their ¡®mission¡¯ to us, and Sleepless City is unfortunate enough to get chosen as their first target.¡± said Sunders. ¡°Of course, our previous assumption still stands, that the nightmare tunnel appeared in this city by ident, while the monsters were drawn here.

    ¡°But from their actions, we can tell that they have decided to act high-profile, which means we should be prepared for more of such bold actions. So theing demon invasion isn¡¯t the only matter we should worry about. An enemy no less threatening has bared its teeth in this world...¡± Sunders shook his head as he was no longer sure what would be of this world, or whether it was good or bad.

    Angor remained silent as he anxiously wished to protect his mortal family, who was very likely to be sacrificed during such a disaster.

    He had to get stronger.

    ¡°What are you talking about? Demon invasion? Another enemy? You mean this darkness?¡± Greya understood none of Sunders¡¯ riddles.

    Again, her question was ignored. Since Sunders didn¡¯t wish to exin, Angor would follow his example and stay quiet.

    ¡°Okay fine. Can you at least tell me where that fox showed up from? Something tortured me for good and I want to know why I deserve such treatment.¡±

    ¡°That fox came from the same ce where your original body currently is,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°My body... You mean the fox came from the Nightmare Realm?¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t respond, which was his answer.

    ¡°I see... If monsters from the Nightmare Realm are invading our world... Yes, we have one hell of a catastrophe upon us.¡±

    ¡°You misunderstood my words. The fox probably originated from one of the core areas of the Nightmare Realm, which is hundreds of times more dangerous than where your body is trapped. Let¡¯s put it this way: even legendary beings won¡¯t stand a chance should they stumble into those ces,¡± said Sunders.

    Greya silently repeated those words in her mind, terrified.

    If that is true, then monsters from such ¡°core areas¡± can obliterate the entire wizarding world in a blink of an eye!

    ¡°Those beings aren¡¯t something we should care about. If they do show up here, let the world¡¯s consciousness deal with them. And if the world¡¯s consciousness cannot keep this world safe, neither can we.¡±

    Sunders pretended that he was not interested in this matter, but theplicated emotion hidden in his eyes suggested otherwise.

    ¡°Did you just say that the fox is only at wizard level?¡± Sunders suddenly changed the subject.

    Greya nodded as she cursed furiously. ¡°Surely I won¡¯t lose to that filthy animal if not for that Mystery weapon in its hands!¡±

    There was a tiny hint of greed in her eyes.

    Sunders smiled. Thest time he encountered the fox in Twilight Auction House, it was definitely stronger than most level-2 wizards. It had only been less than a year, but the monster¡¯s strength was weakened so badly...

    Sunders had realized that now was a perfect chance to kill the nightmare monsters, before they could absorb enough nightmare energy and regain their strength.

    Sunders removed his thoughtful look and looked at Greya. ¡°It¡¯s too difficult to sever the strings. I¡¯ve tried. My strongest attack does not have any effect. Thankfully, all the strings are independent of each other, so we can try pulling them from your body one by one. This will be painful, be prepared.¡±

    As far as they could see, there were over twenty strings lodged inside Greya¡¯s form. Angor shivered a little when he imagined how it would feel like.

    ¡°Just do it.¡± Greya didn¡¯t seem too concerned. ¡°I won¡¯t be a truth-finder in the first ce if I can¡¯t even stand some pain.¡±

    Sunders nodded. One by one, he destroyed the pirs, which locked the strings in ce, and each time he did so, he would swiftly remove the respective string from Greya¡¯s position by pulling it away as fast as he could.

    Angor couldn¡¯t see through all the dust caused by falling pirs, but he could somewhat tell Greya¡¯s condition judging from the spilled blood that came with the strings.

    When everything settled down, Angor saw Greya kneeling in her own blood while a number of bleedingcerations covered her body.

    Angor couldn¡¯t help wincing when looking at Greya¡¯s tattered form.

    Again, Sunders helped her mend her wounds by casting Resuscitation. Soon enough, Greya¡¯s skin regained its former smoothness.

    However, the healing spell couldn¡¯t help her regain all the blood she had lost. Greya only managed to stay awake for a short period of time before she copsed.

    Sunders turned away to leave.

    Angor thought his professor would further help Greya by putting her into his gravity garden. It seemed he was wrong.

    And since he couldn¡¯t just leave Greya like that, Angor decided to ask Toby to transfer Greya into Snowy Feather.

    With Greya safe, Sunders¡¯ next mission was to kill the fox and obtain that harp.

    As for Angor... he still nned to find Nausica first and maybe kill Hookdick while at it.

    Since they had different goals, Angor was ready to part ways with his teacher again.

    And he was rather surprised to see Sunders waiting at the entrance of the teleportation station. The gentleman was gazing at the za area in front of the building with a strange look.

    Angor looked in the same direction and saw a small shadow on the other side of the za. Using the Illumination effect, which was still shining behind them, Angor quickly recognized the shadow as the spotted puppy who brought him to this ce earlier.

    The puppy bared its teeth at Sunders, but it lowered its posture and started wagging its tail happily when it saw Angor.

    ¡°Professor, that¡¯s the dog I mentioned earlier.¡± Angor pointed a finger at the animal.

    Sunders frowned. As Angor said, the puppy appeared to be an ordinary pet no matter how he looked.

    When Sunders heard Angor mentioning a strange dog, he thought his student was referring to the unknown nightmare monster called ¡°Yorkshire¡±. But this puppy surely didn¡¯t look like a nightmare monster.

    Yet something felt extremely wrong...

 Chapter 604 - Puppet Lady

    <h4>Chapter 604: Puppet Lady</h4>

    After barking at Sunders for several more times, the spotted puppy sat in ce and remained quiet.

    ¡°What is that, professor?¡± Angor carefully asked through their Spirit Bond. ¡°The parasites won¡¯t approach it.¡±

    Angor knew something was off when he saw Sunders gazing at the animal with a serious frown.

    However, Sunders did not give him the answer he expected.

    ¡°It looks like an ordinary pet dog. But... yes, it shouldn¡¯t be here.¡±

    Sunders was using a Truesight spell, and even so, he only saw the animal as an everydaypanion raised by certain pet lovers.

    But there was no way a regr pet could run around this darkness like it was nothing.

    Without any forewarning, Sunders unleashed a deadly ember at the dog.

    ¡°We just need to find out.¡±

    He watched his attack going to the dog while carefully observing the energy signatures on the animal.

    A shadow suddenly appeared in front of the dog and blocked off the ember.

    It was a pale-white human-like figure, who just pped Sunders¡¯ ember to the ground.

    On careful look, Angor saw ady in a bright dress who was walking on her toes like a ballet dancer. Her exposed skin looked so smooth and white that it was almost glowing.

    But her face ruined everything. It was a still and emotionless face of a dead puppet. Her eyes were big and hollow, and there were traces of artificial joints around her lips from where several wooden parts could be seen.

    ¡°Is that...¡± Angor widened his eyes. ¡°Is that Yorkshire, sir?¡±

    ¡°No. The shadow who attacked me earlier did not look like a human. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    With several squeaks, the puppetdy held the hem of her dress and did a curtsy. ¡°Greetings, Lord Shava.¡±

    There were the noises of nking wood mixed with her voice.

    Until now, Angor had not ascertained who this ¡°Shava¡± was or whether it was the name of a male or female. But he WAS sure that the puppet was referring to him right now.

    What should I do? Should I pretend like how I did in front of that toy owl? That was so embarrassing.

    The puppy behind the puppet suddenly started barking again and interrupted Angor¡¯s thoughts.

    ¡°Garrrow!¡±

    The puppy became so violent that it started biting at the puppet¡¯s foot.

    Creak! Creak!

    The puppet lowered her head and looked at the biting dog with a confused look, or so Angor thought.

    Angor and Sunders were astonished by what they saw. Why would the dog attack the puppet that just saved its life?

    The puppet did not retaliate since the puppy couldn¡¯t damage it in any way apart from leaving several shallow teeth marks on her feet.

    The puppy finished its ¡°attack¡± and wagged its tail while looking at Angor with a joyful expression as if it were waiting for a prize.

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s only too dumb?¡± Angor shook his head.

    ¡°I agree.¡± Sunders nodded.

    The puppet opened her mouth somewhat clumsily and spoke again.

    ¡°Mister Watcher, are you going to interfere with our Queen¡¯s great n again?¡±

    Again? Sunders frowned. ¡°Did that little fox tell you about me?¡±

    ¡°Silence! A lowly Watcher like you is not allowed to call the minstrel¡¯s true name directly!¡±

    ¡°Of course I can. And not only that... I¡¯m going to kill it next.¡± Sunders narrowed his eyes and released some energy ripples toward the puppet.

    The ripples materialized in the air and instantly bound the puppet up like ropes.

    As soon as the puppet was restrained, Angor saw some shiny golden strings showing up around her limbs, which dragged it into the sky.

    Sunders¡¯ magical shackle was easily torn apart.

    More golden strings came from the sky as if someone nearby was controlling them. The strings were aimed at Sunders this time, but they all avoided Angor¡¯s position for some reason.

    Sunders blinked out of existence and reappeared behind the floating puppet. A simple hand chop was all he needed to break the puppet into several parts.

    But the golden strings swiftly reassembled it.

    Everything happened so fast while Angor was still trying to register what was happening around him.

    Wait, they¡¯re fighting already?!

    It obviously wasn¡¯t something he should meddle with, so he called Toby and quickly ran away.

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll leave for now and look for my friend, sir.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡± was all Sunders said to him.

    Before Angor could leave the battlefield, he saw the spotted puppy somehow standing right next to him and was nudging at his ankle.

    ¡°Run along, little one,¡± Angor said as he stroked the animal¡¯s head. ¡°Those two are very dangerous, you know.¡±

    Without minding the dog any more, Angor turned away, while the dog tilted its head and gazed at Angor in confusion.

    Angor suddenly felt something dark approaching him, and he heard Sunders calling out to him at the same time.

    ¡°Watch out!¡±

    Out of instinct, he looked behind him and was terrified to see the ¡°puppy¡± opening its mouth beyond its possible limit. The palm-sized head of the dog grew hundreds of times bigger, while its mouth came down upon Angor¡¯s position like a ck hole.

    It was already toote for Angor to react, and he fell into the animal¡¯s belly as a whole.

    Sunders witnessed everything. When he started fighting the puppet, he did leave some of his attention on his student just in case, especially when the strange dog went after Angor.

    But he let his guard down when he saw the dog asking for affection. At that time, he believed that the dog was ¡°dumb¡± just as they both believed earlier.

    Next, he saw Angor telling the dog something and ran off. The dog remained still for a brief moment and chased after Angor again, while its tiny head grew terrifyinglyrge.

    Just before Angor was swallowed, Sunders saw the dog running as fast as Angor when thetter¡¯s speed was fully enhanced by the sequence of gravity.

    And it was toote to warn his student!

    Furious, Sunders abandoned his opponent and dashed toward the dog.

    The dog had returned to being the tiny spotted puppy after ¡°eating¡± Angor. When it saw Sunders charging at it, it jumped in fear and bolted toward a dark alleyway.

    Sunders noticed that the dog was running faster than some of the quickest Bloodline users. There was no way he could keep chasing while fending off the golden strings, so he focused on the enemy behind him again. These strings were no less powerful than Fox¡¯s white strings. He could not afford to get distracted.

    While attacking the puppet, he tried to question Fox¡¯s whereabouts and who that dog was.

    But the puppetdy never satisfied him.

    ¡°Mister Watcher, please do not insist on your improper manners.¡±

    Soon, Sunders shattered the puppet to shreds beyond repair, and the golden strings were retrieved by whoever was controlling them.

    He suddenly heard someone speaking, but he couldn¡¯t tell where it came from.

    ¡°A Nightmare Watcher in the flesh... Such a pity. A resource that refused to follow our Queen¡¯smand.¡±

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Sunders questioned. ¡°Yorkshire?¡±

    No response.

    Sunders slowlynded on the ground and began to sense the droplet of blood he gave Angor.

    He looked toward the northwest where the ¡°signal¡± wasing from. Heading that way would take him to the center of the outer city as well as right below the strange vortex.

    Sunders had not explored that area yet because his instinct suggested unknown danger lurking around there. Also, the noises from the teleportation hall where Greya was distracted him.

    But it seemed the dog had gone that way, so he also had to check it out.

    He didn¡¯t know what happened to his student. But he could tell that Angor was still fine because a certain trigger he left in his blood was not broken yet.

    But why did the beast decide to swallow Angor? It looked fond of Angor just a moment ago.

    Everything he saw suggested that the dog was NOT an ordinary animal. However, things were made strange when he failed to find anything that suggested supernatural powers from the dog even after he had used Truesight and many simr spells.

    If Yorkshire was hiding somewhere while controlling the golden strings, then what is that dog?

    Is there a fourth monster who showed up from the nightmare tunnel?

 Chapter 605 - Mysterious Space

    <h4>Chapter 605: Mysterious Space</h4>

    Everything was dark.

    There were no walls, ceilings, or floors. Angor found himself trapped in this chaos, which appeared simr to his soul space. He couldn¡¯t sense directions or anything for that matter.

    He did not fall into the dog¡¯s stomach as he imagined. The dog¡¯s mouth was like a portal that sent him to this unknown realm. No warmth, no blood, no gastric juice. There was only darkness and nothing else.

    In fact, it was more than the concept of ¡°darkness¡±, which was caused by theck of light. It seemed the strange atmosphere around him could absorb and remove all light.

    Angor couldn¡¯t even see his own soul form. The only thing he could do was to ¡°think¡±, since he still had his consciousness.

    He tried touching himself and was d to find out that his soul form was solid and steady, which meant his spirit was not ripped from his form.

    Also, Toby¡¯s presence helped him confirm that he ¡°existed¡±.

    Toby also fell into the dog¡¯s mouth along with him. The bird was huddled against his neck while mumbling something.

    And it made Angor feel safe. In the worst case possible, they could ask for Greya¡¯s help since Greya was currently resting in Toby¡¯s Snowy Feather.

    However, his n was utterly snuffed out when Toby told him that an unknown power had sealed up Snowy Feather. They could no longer use it.

    It wasn¡¯t a rare thing to happen since there were many ways to temporarily disable a space storage from working. But how in the world did a dog do such a thing?

    Angor grimaced as he tried to think about something else.

    But how? He had no idea what the strange dog was or where exactly this ce was.

    Judging from everything, the dog was a very special being in this ce.

    Angor wondered if the dog was the mysterious ¡°Yorkshire¡±. He tried to call its name, curse loudly, and beg for help, yet no one answered him.

    Anyone with a fragile mental state might break down pretty fast in this absolute destion. But Angor believed he could still hang on since both Toby and Sunders¡¯ blood sphere provided him withfort.

    Speaking of the sphere, the professor is going to look for me, right?

    But he wasn¡¯t going to put all hope on his teacher.

    He tried moving around in case he could find something. This area might be enclosed by a wall or a boundary. If he could find it, he could think of a way to breach it.

    But something else soon caught his attention.

    He sensed something familiar.

    The main reason why so many wizards came to Sleepless City was that they heard of a Mystery item hidden somewhere. People believed that the darkness was a sign that suggested the birth of such a treasure.

    Angor also sensed the scent of a Mystery item before entering the outer city. Compared to others, he also felt that the scent appeared to be simr to the ¡°Mystery spirit¡±, which showed up outside Dark Castle.

    He felt it strange that he could no longer sense the Mystery energy once they entered the outer city.

    That was until now.

    He found it again, inside the weird animal that just ¡°ate¡± him.

    Is that Mystery item actually inside the dog? Or... is the dog Yorkshire, who carried a Mystery item from the Nightmare Realm?

    For now, he would proceed by following this clue.

    Treasure hunting was not among his tasks foring to Sleepless City. But if the treasure was just within reach, he would dly go after it.

    The ¡°scent¡± grew thicker as he moved toward its source.

    It wasn¡¯t long before the emptiness around him was entirely reced by Mystery energy just like when he was attempting to craft Prelude to Rebirth.

    The energy was stronger this time.

    Something told him that he would soon witness the very treasure that attracted so many mighty wizards here.

    However, he felt sleepy all of a sudden, and he found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open.

    ¡°What¡¯s... going on?¡± Angor couldn¡¯t understand why his soul needed to sleep.

    Soon, he lost the fight against the encroaching drowsiness and shut his eyes.

    ...

    When he came to, he found himself floating somewherepletely different.

    There was still emptiness around him, but the darkness had been reced by pure light.

    Also, Toby was no longer with him.

    He heard a distant voice echoing around him.

    ¡°I can give you a drop of water. Will you ept it?¡±

    ¡°Who are you? Where am I?¡± asked Angor.

    The strange voice repeated its phrase without answering him, ¡°I can give you a drop of water. Will you ept it?¡±

    Angor considered his options.

    ¡°ept or not, what difference will it make?¡±

    No answer. The voice repeated the strange question for the third time.

    A drop of water??! What does that mean? And who am I talking to?

    To make sure he didn¡¯t cause unnecessary troubles, Angor chose to remain silent.

    But it seemed the unknown voice insisted on pestering him until it got a proper response.

    ¡°Okay, I ept your water,¡± said Angor. Something told him that he had to make a ¡°change¡± in this situation, whether it was a good or a bad one. Compared to denial, epting the unknown gift might allow him to see a way out of here.

    The voice finally spoke differently.

    ¡°Let it be that way. One drop of water, for you.¡±

    A crystal clear droplet suddenly showed up in front of Angor¡¯s face, which looked extremely shiny when it reflected the bright light in the area.

    ¡°Uh, that¡¯s it?¡± Angor observed the ¡°water¡± and realized that it was just water. Purified, drinkable water. Nothing special about it.

    ¡°I can give you a fragment of power. Will you ept it?¡±

    The voice came again.

    ¡°What kind of power?¡± Angor asked out of instinct.

    And when he thought he would get no answer at all, the voice suddenly said something else, ¡°Unknown power.¡±

    What the heck is unknown power??!

    Angor hesitated for a moment and decided to ept it again. He wished to find out what this stranger was going to do to him.

    After hearing his reply, a second droplet, which looked like a gray lump of condensed gas, appeared beside the water droplet.

    Angor checked the ¡°unknown power¡± and only felt chaotic energy hidden within it.

    He reached a finger into the ¡°power drop¡±. His movement pushed the gray droplet aside, which caused it to crash into the water droplet nearby. The two different-colored droplets began to mix with each other. Angor suddenly saw more water spreading below his feet, and it grew asrge as the vast sea.

    Did the ¡°unknown power¡± just create the sea out of a drop of water? This is incredible!

    As he wondered if the sea would give birth to wildlife, several ancient-looking fishes hopped into his view. That was not all. A giant tree rapidly grew up from the seawater until it covered most of the sea under itsrge leaves.

    There were more creatures showing up on the tree. Soon, they developed enough intelligence to create a small colony.

    A brand new civilization based on a tree and the sea was presented in front of Angor.

    ¡°Did this all happen when you mix the ¡®unknown power¡¯ with water?¡± Angor frowned as he failed toprehend what was going on in this strange ce.

    The creatures living on the tree suddenly started a war and wiped out most of their poption. A gue soon followed, which slowly killed the tree as well.

    The tree crumbled into the water below, while the civilization was no more.

    Everything went backward. The broken tree slowly disappeared in the water, and the sea gradually shrank into one single drop of water, which then became two, until Angor was looking at two droplets of different colors again.

    But not everything reverted to its original state. Angor noticed that the ¡°gray droplet¡± was tainted by some ck and green traces.

    And he could tell that the ¡°ck¡± represented death and destruction, while the ¡°green¡± meant life and continuation.

    The two extra colors swirled around and finally joined with each other until the gaseous gobbet regained its gray hue.

    Once again, two droplets remained still in front of Angor.

 Chapter 606 - Memorizing Mystery

    <h4>Chapter 606: Memorizing Mystery</h4>

    ¡°What am I looking at? The fusion of world and nature? Or the other way round?¡±

    Is someone showing me the birth and termination of a civilization? But what¡¯s the point?

    Angor always believed that it was the most important thing for a civilization to create its own continuance, which could be passed down in history. The progression of it was not so decisive as everything had toe to an end.

    He did not know what he should learn from the strange sight presented to him. But he could feel something new contained in the droplets¡ªsomething mysterious that couldn¡¯t be interpreted by words.

    He waited for a long time, yet the two droplets never moved again.

    ¡°Do they need external help to transform?¡± He reached out a hand to touch the water droplet this time.

    Slowly, the water droplet was pushed into the gray one, until they fused together once again.

    Instead of expanding the water droplet into a vast sea, the gray droplet, which represented ¡°unknown power¡±, became the ¡°main subject¡± this time by growing into spaciousnd, while the water turned into several puddles, which covered upon thend evenly.

    Like a.

    For a moment, Angor thought he was looking at Jon¡¯s home, which was called Earth.

    Water gave birth to mist and clouds, while the collidingnd tes created high mountains and deep trenches. Seaborne creatures found their way onto drynd and evolved into curious beings, and soon, humans came into existence.

    Simrly, a brand new civilization was established and then destroyed in a matter of seconds.

    Thest of the human survivors knelt on top of the remains of their home and prayed to a statue called ¡°The Creator¡±. Unfortunately, their God never granted them their wish until thest human drew herst breath in despair.

    When all corpses disappeared into the soil beneath, Angor saw a single flower growing from it.

    The strange flower had six petals, three of which were glossy and shiny like crystals, while the other three appeared gloomy and dim.

    As soon as the flower appeared, time stopped and began to revert again. It was like a dream. Soon, Angor found himself floating beside two simple droplets.

    But again, not everything stayed the same. He saw the strange flower in the middle of the gray droplet slowly withering. Whereas the three shiny petals disyed the brilliance of ¡°hope¡±, the three darker petals released the depressing aura of ¡°despair¡±.

    In the end, the flowerpletely became one with the gray droplet and vanished.

    Angor felt as if something new shed in his mind after observing the amazing development of natural events, yet he couldn¡¯t put his finger on it.

    Eagerly, he tried pushing the water droplet into the gray droplet for the third time.

    The ¡°unknown power¡± chose yet a different way of development. Unlike thest two times during which civilizations were created, the droplets only presented two simple elements¡ªdarkness and light.

    As always, both the darkness and light joined the gray droplet in the end.

    Angor kept trying. He saw a great variety of contradictory elements came into being, which all ended up inside the gray drop.

    Death and life, elimination and creation, real and false...

    Just like the rules of this world.

    Different worlds had injected different ¡°rules¡± into the gray droplet. The droplet never gained any change in color, but each time it absorbed something, it would give birth to a more colorful world in the next ¡°cycle¡±.

    Until Angor noticed that the gray droplet almost became ¡°full¡±.

    He knew there were more worlds to observe, but the gray droplet refused his further attempts. It would no longer interact with the water droplet.

    Angor felt both disappointed and expectant.

    His instinct told him that it was almost time for the final answer to show up, which would tell him what this strange space was.

    Patiently, he stared at the two droplets, one of which was almost bulging with unknown power.

    He waited until he began to question his previous presumptions. Then, the water droplet slowly approached the gray droplet on its own.

    Instead of fusing, the water droplet covered up the other droplet and began to shift its shape.

    Angor immediately sensed Mystery energy, which he somewhat expected to happen.

    The Mystery energy came so suddenly and rapidly that Angor soon found himself overwhelmed by it, as if he had fallen into a swamp that purely consisted of such energy.

    Soon, his attention was distracted by the amazing Mystery power around him, and he was no longer paying attention to the morphing water droplet.

    When he identally worked on a Mystery item in Dark Castle several months ago, he did feel regretful when he failed to do so in the end even though the miraculous urrence was mainly made possible by the aggregated resources of Dark Castle, while he was only lucky to be the one who triggered the chance.

    But still, sessfully finishing that item would grant him the title of a Mystery Alchemist and thus allowing him to look into a brand new province of knowledge that he could never imagine before.

    Regretful, true. But at the same time, he knew that such miracles were not something he could ask for. And since he already lost it, he would not keep upsetting himself for it.

    He even believed that he was merely being used as a tool back then. That there was someone powerful who let him ignite the great energy saved in the entire Dark Castle so that he might wee Isabelle back to this world.

    By thinking in this way, Angor hadpletely gotten over his failure in bing a Mystery alchemist. It was not like he gained nothing out of it¡ªthe incident granted him fame among alchemists. Even the Research Department in Floating Mech City sent him an invitation. He was free to join the best alchemists in the entire southern wizarding region at any time.

    However, he did not give up his ambition yet.

    Creating a Mystery item in Dark Castle using the prepared resources might not earn him a ¡°solid¡± achievement since someone would consider his work wed or false. But how about finding a chance and craft a Mystery item purely by himself?

    There was such a chance right now! There was rich Mystery energy around him, and he was free to observe and even use it.

    Maybe I can fullyprehend what ¡°Mystery¡± meant and thus use the knowledge to create Mystery itemster!

    With that in mind, he fully immersed his mind in this amazing atmosphere.

    However, the truth was harsher than he expected. No wizard had ever prehend¡± such a mysterious concept yet. Surely, it was beyond difficult for a mere apprentice.

    Angor might notprehend the Mystery energy, but he had another exclusive way of approaching new knowledge.

    Sensing and injecting emotions.

    He managed to create a music box that bewildered an ancient soul like Lady Mirror because of the ambiance of the Nightmare Realm that he subconsciously blended into the item.

    The ambiance of the Nightmare Realm meant ¡°still¡±. Time did not move, while every small detail contained meaningful stories and implications waiting to be discovered.

    Mixing traces of the Nightmare Realm into illusions was Angor¡¯s unique talent. Since he could memorize the particr ¡°texture¡± of the Nightmare Realm and use it forter, could he do the same by remembering how ¡°Mystery energy¡± felt like as well?

    Angor gave up on ¡°interpreting¡± the energy around him. Instead, he tried copying the particr sense into his mind as it was.

    This tactic was a lot faster since he didn¡¯t need to learn the nature of the energy for real. But theplexity of the great power still made his head throb.

    While ¡°copying¡±, he also noticed something else.

    The mysterious impression of the power would easily slip from his mind if he tried to copy it directly. It would work better if he did it in a ¡°mindless¡± and unfocused manner.

    As he memorized more and more, he began to have a better understanding of what was shown by the droplets.

    He believed that whoever gave him the droplets meant to tell him that the foundation of ¡°Mystery¡± was unknown and contradiction. Destroying civilizations was not necessary¡ªit was only a method to create such contradictions.

    He almost saw the tip of a giant iceberg, which was already impressive enough.

    Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t cast illusions in his soul form, so he had no way to confirm whether he could put what he remembered into his illusions for real.

    It had to wait until he went back to his body.

    As more time went by, the Mystery energy around him gradually grew thinner.

    Angor opened his eyes and nced at the water droplet, only to notice that it had been reced by something else.

    That spotted puppy was floating next to him.

 Chapter 607 - The Center of Outer City

    <h4>Chapter 607: The Center of Outer City</h4>

    Telling from how all the Mystery energy came from the strange droplets, Angor thought it was finally time for the Mystery item to show up.

    He wasn¡¯t expecting to see the animal here.

    Precisely speaking, the ¡°puppy¡± did not fullye into being yet. It was the water droplet that was slowly turning into the animal¡¯s shape, while the gray droplet inside the water droplet represented the source of Mystery energy, which was now inside the dog.

    ¡°This is... a Mystery soul?!¡± Angor was shocked to feel something familiar yet again.

    Is this dog actually the Mystery soul brought by Yorkshire, and all the Mystery energy I sensed came from it?

    But on second look, Angor noticed that the dog appeared too differentpared to the Mystery soul outside Dark Castle. When crafting Prelude to Rebirth, the soul that appeared in the sky above Dark Castle looked like a deadly devil straight out of hell, while this puppy... not so much.

    However, the Mystery energy released by this spotted puppy felt deeper and massive.

    Back at Dark Castle, the Mystery soul shaped like a devil only existed in the sky for a short period before it went into Angor¡¯s revolver. He wondered if this dog was going to dive into something nearby. Or could a Mystery soul exist without a ¡°container¡±?

    He couldn¡¯t tell since he didn¡¯t know much about Mystery items yet.

    Perhaps, Mystery souls could wander around on their own just fine, or perhaps they could even gain self-consciousness. He just needed to wait and see.

    Slowly, the puppy¡¯s form became solid, and the droplets could no longer be seen. Angor would have considered the animal as an ordinary pet dog if he had not witnessed the amazing phenomenon earlier.

    He slowly approached the animal and poked it.

    The puppy stirred and opened up its twinkling puppy eyes, in which Angor saw his own reflection.

    Then the puppy tilted its head as if it was trying to remember Angor¡¯s face.

    ¡°Are you the Mystery soul?¡± Angor tried to ask.

    The puppy tilted its head to the other side while its tail wagged so fast that it looked like a propeller.

    Angor shook his head helplessly.

    He thought the distant voice he heard earlier was actually this dog speaking to him. But it seemed quite impossible now.

    Before he could do anything else, everything around him froze up as if time stopped moving.

    Next, he saw the bright space around him breaking apart into fragments, including the puppy, which also shattered like a mirror and disappeared.

    When he could think clearly, he found himself back at the absolute darkness again, while Toby was still nudging his neck.

    The Mystery energy was gone. There was only unending emptiness.

    ¡°Was that a dream? Or... was that an illusion created by some Mystery being?¡±

    He did not know the answer, but he clearly remembered every single detail of this ¡°dream¡±, and it felt pleasant.

    ¡°Woof!¡±

    He suddenly heard a bark, which sounded so loud and staggering, as if a hundred dogs were calling from all around him at the same time.

    Next, he felt himself being ¡°spat out¡± by the puppy. He then saw the buildings of the outer city around him.

    The animal that just released him was crouching beside him while wagging its tail happily as if it was a trained dog waiting for a treat.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to approach the strange dog anymore. He did not feel hostility from it, but this did not help him understand its intentions in one bit.

    Was it truly a Mystery soul? Or was it actually a Mystery item that looked like an animal?

    He shook his head and looked around to see where the dog had taken him to.

    It seemed like he was sitting in the middle of a crossroad. The streetmps were lit, but even if there was light, he knew too little about Sleepless City to tell where he was. Every building looked the same.

    But something else helped him ascertain his location. When he looked up, he saw the ck vortex right above his position.

    ording to what he heard, the vortex appeared at the center of the dome-shaped barrier above the outer city, which meant he was probably at the city center right now.

    ¡°Hey, Toby, is Lady Greya awake?¡± he asked Toby.

    Toby shook his head and made a ¡°wing gesture¡± to ask whether he should wake Greya up instead.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°No. We¡¯re going to find Nausica now, let her rest.¡±

    He asked because he thought Greya could tell him why the outer city looked so empty. But on second thought, he decided not to, since Greya had been trapped inside the teleportation hall for a long time, which meant she probably didn¡¯t know much more than him.

    One of his major tasks foring here was to rescue Greya for Toby¡¯s sake. Since Greya was sleeping in Toby¡¯s Snowy Feather and looked rather safe, Angor¡¯s next objective was to search for Nausica, and maybe dispose of Hookdick while he was at it.

    As for Sunders... With the ¡°blood sphere¡± in hand, he believed Sunders would have no problem finding him if the gentleman meant to, so he didn¡¯t need to worry about being separated from his teacher.

    Before he could go for the sky to check thendscape around him, he felt something dragging him down by biting his trouser cuff.

    He had no idea what this puppy wanted from him, but he decided to wait and see since it might be the ¡°Mystery soul¡±, something potentially powerful. While it was true that the dog didn¡¯t do harm to him yet, he would like to get rid of it as soon as possible.

    The puppy did allow him to get so close to Mystery power just now, yet Angor didn¡¯t really enjoy being swallowed. To be safe, Angor would keep an eye on the strange animal or at least keep his distance.

    It seemed the puppy did not want him to leave. After biting his pants, it ran to a corner of a random building and barked at him.

    Apparently, it wanted Angor to follow behind.

    Angor considered andplied.

    His irises shrank when he saw what was beyond the corner.

    People. Lots of people.

    A huge crowd of citizens was looking toward one direction, while Angor could only see their backsides. Their abnormal ¡°wriggling¡± suggested that they were all possessed by parasites.

    ¡°I can¡¯t find many people in the city because they all came here?¡± Angor muttered to himself. ¡°But why are they so quiet? Aren¡¯t they going to sing and praise someone?¡±

    The puppy nudged his ankle and interrupted his thoughts.

    Angor looked down and saw the animal putting up that ¡°rub my head, please!¡± expression again.

    ¡°You wanted to bring me to them?¡± Angor considered and asked Toby to take out a blood-stained stone he collected outside Brute Cavern¡¯s office building. ¡°Can you tell if someone rted to this blood is here?¡±

    The puppy took a sniff and barked at one edge of the crowd.

    ¡°Really?¡± Angor was at aplete loss now. Was this dog dumb or pretending to be dumb? Did it n to take him to this ce all along?

    Whether Nausica was here or not, Angor decided to go look among these people since there were so many of them, which meant there was likely someone he knew.

    As he approached the crowd, he once again felt it extremely strange that none of them were making any sound. No singing, no dancing.

    Are they just here chilling then?

    Angor stopped moving when he finally saw someone not far from him ¡°dancing¡± by twisting his limbs and torso to weird angles.

    Using the faint light provided by a streetmp nearby, he saw the dancer¡¯s lips moving as this person praised their queen.

    But he couldn¡¯t hear anything. The entire area was deathly silent.

    Speaking of streetmps...

    There was amp right next to him, which was burning on the body oil extracted from a particr monster shark, which helped themp stay bright for several years without the need for extra care.

    The light did not reach very far, but it did a decent job of repelling darkness in its surrounding area.

    However, there was a small patch of shadow on the ground about two meters from his position. There was no other obstacle in sight, yet the light was blocked by something, something that could deflect the course of light yet was invisible to human eyes.

 Chapter 608 - Another Interlayer

    <h4>Chapter 608: Another Inteyer</h4>

    Angor thought there was an invisible barrier in front of him that had bent the light.

    Carefully, he picked up a broomstick from a pile of junk and tried poking into the ¡°barrier¡±. The broomstick did not meet any resistance, nor was it cut or damaged in any way. It went through the unknown obstacle smoothly.

    But Angor saw something wrong with the light again.

    As soon as the broomstick went past where the ¡°barrier¡± was supposed to be, the tip of it suddenly grew darker as if the nearby light source could no longer reach it.

    Angor looked at the object in his hand, which disyed two different brightness at two ends, and was sure that there was something right in front of his position that had certain effects on objects nearby.

    Perhaps it meant to block light from traveling through, or even to block all sound, judging from how everything was so quiet around here.

    Angor then tried reaching an arm into the ¡°barrier¡±, before retracting it.

    Nothing was wrong. His arm looked fine.

    Now that he knew the strange boundary had no effect on his soul form ormon human bodies, since there were ¡°clowns¡± beyond the barrier who looked rather healthy apart from their strange behaviors, he puffed up his courage and stepped into the area ahead.

    And he was surprised to hear all kinds of voices suddenly booming around his ears, which almost sounded deafening because he was so used to absolute silence just a second ago.

    ¡°Praise the Queen, praise the moon, praise our new home!¡±

    Just as he thought, the unknown barrier meant to stop all sounds from reaching through, which allowed these noisy clowns to sing to their hearts¡¯ content without disturbing the outside world.

    But as he tried to check behind him, he realized that the path he was walking on just now was gone. The quiet street, the streetmp... the area behind him was reced by darkness.

    He then tried leaving by running into the darkness. But no matter how he moved, he always found himself back at square one just like how the darkness around the outer city prevented anyone from going out.

    Since he couldn¡¯t leave now, he chose to move ahead and look for Nausica among the singing clowns.

    There were too many people around him. While they danced madly, one of them happened to jerk his head around, which allowed him to notice Angor.

    The clown quickly stepped back from Angor while yelling, ¡°Praise Shava!!!¡±

    The dissonant voice immediately drew everyone¡¯s attention. Soon, Angor found himself bing the center of attention among the crowd.

    At the same time, the song, which echoed in the area, had been reced by a new one.

    While praising ¡°Shava¡±, all the clowns bowed to him politely before they moved far enough so that they left enough space for Angor to walk through.

    While Angor was wondering what he should do next, two shadows descended from the sky.

    The onending on the left was ¡°Aria Singer¡± Froggy, who wore a miniature tail suit, while the ¡°Red Fox¡± Fox stood to the right side in a glossy gauze dress.

    Fox began to perform a song using its harp, while Froggy took a deep breath, adjusted its cor, and started singing something Angor couldn¡¯t understand.

    Angor forced himself to smile while listening to the terrible performance.

    As soon as it ended, Angor pped his hands and pretended that he enjoyed it very much.

    ¡°Such a beautiful voice, Mister Froggy! Like the moonlight that provides my heart with warmth on a cold night!¡±

    Froggy looked quite happy upon hearing those words. At least Angor believed so, since he couldn¡¯t tell whether Froggy was ¡°smiling¡± when looking at its bulging eyeballs.

    Compared to Froggy, Fox looked rather modest as it patiently waited for Angor¡¯sment.

    ¡°Pleasant and tender melodies as ever, Miss Fox. Your song reminds me of the elegant visage or her highness.¡±

    His ttery worked well. Froggy was smiling so hard that he lost his bnce and tumbled to the floor, while Fox had covered her muzzle using her fluffy tail.

    ¡°We are d to receive your exquisitemendation, Lord Shava,¡± said Fox.

    ¡°Yeah, croak! May our friendshipsst forever!¡± Froggy stood up while speaking politely. ¡°It¡¯s such a pity that thisnd is forsaken by the moon, or I could have found the best musicians and present you our best music fest ever!¡±

    Just like when it was singing, Froggy¡¯s voice kept rising and falling dramatically.

    Angor maintained his bright smile while silentlyining in his mind, Oh god... Time to test my acting skills again.

    He was d that he went through many asions that required him to put up shows in front of other wizards. He might not be a professional performer, but he had learned enough not to mess up such a ¡°facade¡±.

    ¡°I sensed the brilliant power of Lord Shava just a moment ago. That sky-reaching power wave almost destroyed our hemi-passage. Thank goodness you stopped it in time, Shava, or our n will be postponed again,¡± said Fox as it gave Angor a curious nce. ¡°Is it perhaps... your true body has descended upon this world, Lord Shava?¡±

    True body? Angor wondered. Are they talking about my right hand?

    He rolled his eyes as he quickly gained an idea.

    ¡°Just a small part of it, and I still have some trouble controlling it fully. That¡¯s why I ejected my soul, I can¡¯t hold back that cyclone attack otherwise.¡±

    At least this wasn¡¯t aplete lie.

    Fox was easily convinced. ¡°I see! This humble world is too weak to fully wee your true valor. It¡¯s just reasonable that you have to take it slow.¡±

    Angor quickly changed the subject so that the monsters did not keep talking about him, which would ruin his show sooner orter.

    ¡°I see you have gathered so many people here, so you can...?¡± Angor intentionally dragged his tone.

    ¡°So we can give our Queen a warm wee as she presents her nightwatch!¡± Froggy picked up Angor¡¯s phrase, much to Angor¡¯s delight. ¡°Too bad the Queen¡¯s not willing to show her grace somewhere without moonlight, so she sent a dum-dum instead.¡±

    Froggy hopped in ce while speaking. It looked like it was angry about something.

    The queen won¡¯te? Angor narrowed his eyes. He knew that this ¡°Queen¡± nned to take over the wizarding world by sending her army. He believed there was probably something that prevented her froming here directly.

    ¡°A dum-dum. Are you referring to Yorkshire the Puppeteer?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s him, croak! The silly dog of Minister Dim hase as well! If the Minister hears about this, he¡¯ll get so embarrassed that he would go streaking on the moon and let us watch him!¡±

    Minister Dim? This name had reminded Angor of yet another figure working for Padt Family¡ªa cksmith.

    ¡°About that silly dog...¡± Angor moved aside and revealed the spotted dog behind him that was still wagging its tail madly.

    Froggy and Fox exchanged some looks.

    ¡°Sigh. That¡¯s the silly dog. It¡¯s supposed to stay with us, but it ran off to somewhere from this inteyer. So it met with you, Lord Shava.¡±

    Angor quickly noticed a particr word that might be useful: the ¡°inteyer¡±.

    He knew what it meant. During Twilight Auction, when he identally summoned the ¡°Queen¡±, that special realm of an elegant castle hall was an inteyer. Later, Sunders helped him sever the connection between that castle hall and Nightmare Realm, thus turning it into his own piece of Nightmare Domain.

    ording to The Mystery of Nightmare Domain, which wasposed by Sunders, an inteyer always suggested the existence of a ¡°hemi-passage¡±.

    As for the passage...

    He looked up at the ck vortex above his current position.

    Next, he quickly looked away and pretended that he wasn¡¯t interested in the vortex.

    ¡°Where is Yorkshire, if I may?¡±

    ¡°That dum-dum went off to find this dog! I think he ran into a Nightmare Watcher who betrayed us and is fighting with the watcher right now.¡±

    Froggy was smiling for some reason. It seemed he was happy to see Sunders and Yorkshire fight each other.

    Fox looked away and showed a worried look.

    Angor nodded and moved around while observing the possessed citizens so that he might find Nausica.

    It was too difficult. The area wasn¡¯t exactly bright, and his task was made harder when all people would stay away from him while making funny faces.

    Angor decided to ask Toby to fly around with a lit oilmp held in his beak so that they could check the surroundings better. Fox and Froggy didn¡¯t question the presence of Toby¡ªthey already saw Toby together with Angor during the Twilight Auction.

    ¡°Her highness won¡¯t do her nightwatch this time, so what¡¯s our next n?¡± While searching, Angor did not forget to pry information.

    ¡°This city looks rather fine. We may remain here and recuperate,¡± said Fox.

    Are they going to turn Sleepless City into another of their ¡°camp¡±, like Pocratee? Angor wondered.

 Chapter 609 - Expelling and Searching

    <h4>Chapter 609: Expelling and Searching</h4>

    Are they building more of such camps so that they could take over this world slowly? But... there are many different nes out there, they can¡¯t just focus on the wizarding world!

    ¡°Uh, good choice, here.¡± Angor nodded nonchntly. ¡°But why do we have so many humans here? They are... rowdy, you know?¡±

    Fox covered her mouth with her white paw and winked at Froggy[1].

    Froggy cleared his throat. ¡°I-I don¡¯t have the moon or the Queen to listen to my songs, so I... croak!¡±

    Foxughed out loud. ¡°He called them here so that he could get at least some audiences.¡±

    ¡°I see. Yes, a good vocalist needs his deserved attention.¡±

    Froggy puffed up his chest proudly. He loved his new title.

    ¡°I very much hope to keep admiring your arts,¡± Angor continued, ¡°but... it¡¯s not a good choice to do so with so many lousy peasants nearby.¡±

    Angor spoke while carefully observing the expressions of the monsters. ¡°Surely your masterful music isn¡¯t for anyone to audit?¡±

    Froggy considered and quickly understood what Angor meant. ¡°Yes, croak! Lord Shava is right. How could such lowly bumpkins fathom my aesthetic musical skills! Hey, Fox, let¡¯s drive them out already so that we can present Lord Shava a private and more proper performance!¡±

    Fox bowed to Angor. ¡°As you wish.¡±

    The fox lifted her harp and plucked at the strings softly using both paws. Following gentle melodies, a number of white strings appeared around the animal, which then created a giant shadow of a fox above them. The ¡°fox shadow¡± ascended into the sky and disappeared into the ck vortex.

    When Angor wondered what that meant, he saw lighting from behind him.

    He looked back and saw the path through which he came in reappearing in the darkness. The streetmp just outside the ¡°invisible barrier¡± was providing itsforting brilliance not far from him.

    ¡°Get out, croak! Didn¡¯t you hear that Lord Shava is tired of your petty presence? This means our Queen will not want to see you lot!¡± Froggy yelled in a loud voice that echoed around the entire area.

    The crowd of clowns moved in unison. Perhaps they also would like to obey Shava¡¯s order, so they were moving faster on ¡°less clownish¡± steps.

    ¡°Tell them to slow down. I want to find several assis¡ªI mean, ves, forter use,¡± Angor said a little hesitantly.

    From what he learned up until now, Angor knew that this ¡°Shava¡± figure was someone pretty influential to these monsters. He tried making a request to see how much ¡°privilege¡± he could enjoy from Froggy and Fox.

    Froggy immediately agreed while giving another order to the clowns so that they walked in front of Angor before leaving, whereas Fox gave Angor a timid nod without showing any suspicion.

    Angor was d that his somewhat clumsy attempt went through just fine. Since Froggy and Fox did not react to his request, which appeared a bit bold and sudden, he believed that either Froggy and Fox didn¡¯t know Shava well, or they simply would not disobey Shava¡¯s words as long as it did not go against their queen¡¯s creed.

    The running clowns slowly gathered into another formation and presented themselves in front of Angor one by one.

    Angor floated into the air to observe them, while Toby held amp just above the clowns so that they could look at their faces better.

    While possessed, all these people were showing inhumanly creepy expressions that might even prevent their best friends from recognizing them. Angor didn¡¯t really need to check their looks; he only had to keep an eye out for Nausica¡¯s metal arm.

    He swiftly dragged out a short figure among the clowns who were making funny faces while walking. The girl was wearing arge colorful robe which definitely wasn¡¯t her size.

    After being taken away by Angor, the girl trembled in fear.

    ¡°This is Shan...¡± Angor whispered before giving her an ¡°order¡±, ¡°Stand behind me and don¡¯t run off.¡±

    The possessed Princess Shan looked nothing like her usual self as she shivered badly. However, she still listened to Angor¡¯smand.

    ¡°But where is her big guy?¡± Angor looked around and failed to notice Shan¡¯s ve, Gank, who should be pretty noticeable among all the people.

    A momentter, Angor picked out someone else¡ªa woman with curly blue hair who was trying to walk on stiff legs as if she were suffering from muscle convulsions.

    It was Shiliew.

    The disgusting colors on her suggested that she was possessed as well. But even then... she was sleeping. It seemed that even the parasites could not wake her up when her particr talent was working its wonders.

    After putting the snoring Shiliew beside Shan, Angor kept looking.

    He believed that Nausica was here since he found both Shiliew and Shan. Yet he did not find her when most of the people had left.

    Did Nausica note into this ¡°inteyer¡± area?

    Toby called out to him and interrupted his thoughts. The bird had used his gravity power to drag a sexy-looking woman away from the leaving clowns.

    Angor checked the woman who showed a simrly twisted expression as the others.

    ¡°Is that¡ª¡±

    Before Toby could answer, the woman¡¯s expression suddenly turned normal. She then thrust a hand at Angor¡¯s chest.

    Angor almost fell for the attack if not for his gravity power. While in his soul form, he always kept his sequence of gravity ready just in case.

    While Angor retreated to a safe distance, the attacking woman yelled in pain. A single white string had pierced both her hands and her shoulder des, locking her in ce.

    Fox floated to them while ying her harp. ¡°Are you hurt, Lord Shava? This one has used a trick on her soul, which fooled our parasitic seed into coexisting with her.¡±

    On her soul? Angor carefully checked the woman again.

    Without the pretended expression, Angor easily noticed that the ¡°woman¡± had a square face and a dark stubble, which definitely did not sit well with her fine body.

    ¡°You¡¯re Hookdick!¡±

    The woman panicked when her name was revealed, or rather, it was her old name.

    She could not tell why Angor was working with these monsters, but she knew she should NOT admit her identity in this situation.

    There was a secret art she learned from ¡°Soul Soil¡±, which allowed her to keep some consciousness when possessed by a parasite. She was trying to find a way out while blending in with the other clowns, but she never managed to prate the strange darkness, so she had no choice but to temporarily allow the parasite to ¡°control¡± her body.

    She was d to see the darkness giving way to an exit, but she was extremely displeased to see that it was Angor who created that exit. She could not show her true emotion yet when a chance to escape was just within reach.

    She thought that Angor wouldn¡¯t recognize her since the parasite in her body had twisted her physical form greatly. But that ursed bird ruined everything!

    That very same bird saved Angor¡¯s life back at Twilight Town when he tried to murder Angor for the first time, and here it was again!

    ¡°You mistook me for somebody else. We¡¯re both humans, right? How about we cooperate and get out together?¡± Hookdick tried while enduring the great pain caused by the string[2]. He intentionally emphasized ¡°humans¡± so that he might alienate Angor¡¯s rtion with those monsters.

    But it didn¡¯t work.

    Froggy and Fox did not respond to his attempt. Well, except that Fox was using that harp to summon more strings, which looked rather terrifying in Hookdick¡¯s view.

    Hookdick quickly pretended to have a timid look and cried, ¡°I-I¡¯m just a poor woman desperate to survive. I didn¡¯t mean to attack you. Let me go, please!¡±

    When enhanced by the Bloodline of Subus, Hookdick¡¯s alluring attempt was pretty effective against ordinary men even with his miserable face.

    However, he picked the wrong target to use his charm on.

    Putting his grudge against Hookdick aside, Angor¡¯s soul form could not produce the necessary substance that stimted that kind of business anyway.

    ¡°Release her,¡± Angor said to Fox.

    Fox was a bit surprised at Angor¡¯s decision, but she still listened.

    Hookdick saw the white string disappearing and thought his ¡°seduction tactic¡± worked, so he kept up his performance while calling Angor ¡°dear handsome¡± affectionately.

    Angor approached him while trying not to throw up on the spot.

    As Hookdick believed Angor fell for his trick, a gray energy ray came from Angor¡¯s hand and pierced through his heart.

    [1] It wasn¡¯t explicitly mentioned before, but to avoid confusion, for now, Fox¡¯s gender is female while Froggy is male.

    [2] Changing the pronouns for Hookdick to ¡°he¡± since it is confirmed that the ¡°woman¡± is Hookdick

 Chapter 610 - Finesse of Carnage

    <h4>Chapter 610: Finesse of Carnage</h4>

    A fountain of blood.

    Hookdick widened his eyes as his seductive smile slowly turned into pure hatred.

    ¡°You... a*s...¡± He could no longer speak well when a stream of blood was escaping from his mouth.

    Fox and Froggy were also astonished to see Angor¡¯s sudden act of brutality. But their initial shock was soon reced by excitement and admiration.

    ¡°Oh my, Lord Shava, to y the enemy around her fingers[1]... just like the queen,¡± Froggymented.

    Fox nodded as she felt greatly satisfied by the disy. ¡°I once heard that Lord Shava has a unique ¡®finesse¡¯ when maiming enemies. Did you see that? I believe we both have lessons to learn.¡±

    Angor looked at Hookdick¡¯s bleeding form and showed a face-splitting grin. ¡°Do you really think I¡¯m as stupid as you?¡±

    Hookdick¡¯s eyes had turned red as his body showed a powerful energy signature.

    Angor quickly stepped back while fully preparing his gravity power. It seemed that Hookdick was going to use some kind ofst-ditch move. There was no point taking him on directly.

    From afar, Angor controlled several energy des made out of gravity power and used them to cut at Hookdick¡¯s body.

    The painful screaming hastened his blood loss.

    ¡°I¡¯m... going to... KILL YOU! Even after I¡¯m dead!¡± Hookdick red at Angor with all the malice he could muster.

    But Angor wasn¡¯t concerned about his threat at all.

    ¡°By the way... Do you know why I already knew about your bloodline and your new look?¡± Angor revealed a name which further surprised Hookdick. ¡°It was Saka, the other student of Ness, who told me.¡±

    While speaking, Angor did not stop his des from torturing Hookdick¡¯s remaining organs because he fully knew that one shouldn¡¯t let their enemies breathe when they had the chance to finish them.

    Hookdick revealed a bitter smile.

    ¡°Death is only the beginning. I will let you know the true horror brought by a Soul Maniptor...¡±

    Following his final yelp, his body exploded as broken organ parts and body fluid of different colors washed the floor, during which a single parasite was sted away.

    Angor gazed at the miserable sight with a cold look. He knew about Soul Maniptors. Just as Hookdick said, death was not the end for them. Soul Maniptors usually knew how to abandon their bodies and let their souls free. Without a physical limitation, their souls might even gain new levels of strength in this way.

    Something suddenly shrieked inside the bloody aftershock of the explosion.

    The strange sound wave instantly traveled into the surrounding areas, while any creature who heard it was stunned for a brief moment.

    Several weak mortals immediately broke down and began to tumble in pain.

    Toby lost bnce in the air and dropped the oilmp he was carrying, which identally ignited a wooden house and created a zing light source at the dark street.

    A semi-transparent figure covered in violent soul energy dived out of the bloody remains of Hookdick and lunged at Angor.

    It was Hookdick¡¯s soul. However, the soul possessed Hookdick¡¯s original physique¡ªa bulky tribesman who looked 100% male.

    Hookdick was smirking uncontrobly because he believed his n had finally seeded.

    ¡°Die!!!¡±

    Yet before his charge attack could connect with Angor, Angor stepped aside and avoided it.

    ¡°What¡ªyou can move? Why isn¡¯t my Soul Howling working?!¡±

    ¡°You should go and ask Saka about it. That soul of him, Silvia, is it? Her Soul Howling had zero effect on me, if you haven¡¯t known.¡±

    Hookdick was so confident in his attack that he did not put any effort into his defense. After his attack missed, he had left his backside wide open in front of Angor.

    But he did not care. He knew his soul form was immune to most cantrips Angor could possibly use.

    He was wrong.

    When the gray energy wielded by Angor struck his soul, he immediately earned arge gash that prated his soul form from back to front.

    Hookdick found himself being mmed to the ground by the terrible power.

    But my soul form is immune tomon cantrips! I could have used my soul spells to humiliate Angor! Why aren¡¯t things going as nned??!

    ¡°What did you do? How? How can you touch my soul?!¡± Hookdick yelled hysterically.

    ¡°You are a Soul Maniptor, right? You just said that.¡± Angor shook his head and asked, ¡°Did you even notice that I¡¯m in my soul form as well?¡±

    Hookdick showed a look of disbelief when he looked at Angor more carefully.

    But how can his soul look as solid as a real body?! It means his soul is as powerful as wizards! How could he?! Hookdick sensed another voice yelling inside his mind. That bastard is an Illusionist! Why does a freaking Illusionist possess a soul better than a Soul Maniptor?

    How could he use such powerful soul attacks? How could he shrug off my Soul Howling like it was nothing? We joined Brute Cavern as fresh talents at the same time! How could he be so strong?!

    How???

    Hookdick felt his soul energy rapidly escaping from the giant wound inflicted by Angor. If nothing saved him soon, he would undoubtedly die, for sure this time.

    And he could not ept it!

    An ominous aura suddenly appeared around him and began to seep into his soul, slowly tainting him.

    Hookdick¡¯s eyes glowed in red. His hands gradually became skinny ws. His soul was releasing dark mist into the surrounding area, which covered him up like a cocoon.

    Angor narrowed his eyes while he watched Hookdick ¡°change¡± without doing anything.

    Fox walked in the air on soft steps andnded beside Angor. ¡°Lord Shava, that soul will soon be an undead wraith. Shall I make it easy for you by eliminating it first?¡±

    Angor quickly sensed the hidden meaning behind those words. It seemed that Fox just suggested that ¡°undead Hookdick¡± was difficult for him to handle.

    Surely the real ¡°Shava¡± from Nightmare Realm needed only to lift a finger to utterly destroy Hookdick no matter what the man tried to do. So why did Fox offer to help?

    Earlier, Hookdick attempted to alienate Angor from Fox and Froggy by openly pointing out that Angor was human. Hookdick¡¯s n didn¡¯t work out as the monsters didn¡¯t respond to his call at all.

    However, the unusual unresponsiveness had told Angor that Fox and Froggy knew for a fact that he was human, so they didn¡¯t need Hookdick to remind them of it.

    Fox¡¯s offer to kill Hookdick just proved this.

    Judging from their previous actions and speeches, Angor was sure that these two monsters detested humans. So why were they regarding him as Shava?

    Angor gave Fox a meaningful look before saying, ¡°There is no need. Allowing others to help me does not fit with my... finesse.¡±

    He just heard Fox mentioning this word, might as well put it to use.

    Fox¡¯s eyes twinkled as she lowered her head. ¡°I apologize, Lord Shava. It seems I have abused my rights.¡±

    The fox monster silently retreated behind Angor.

    Froggy came and joined them while sending Fox a secret message with a special spell. ¡°What are you doing? How can Lord Shava deal with a mutated undead in her current condition?¡±

    Fox looked at Angor with admiration in her eyes. ¡°Such is her finesse, such is her creed. We shall not overstep our boundaries.¡±

    Froggy didn¡¯t say anything further. He observed Hookdick¡¯s condition carefully while secretly preparing for an attack.

    The ¡°ck cocoon¡± around Hookdick burst open.

    ¡°Angoooor!!! I¡¯ll get you, and nobody¡¯s going to stop me!¡±

    That was the only coherent phrase Hookdick managed to say. After that, there was only endless killing intent left in him.

    Hookdick¡¯s soul had fallen.

    [1] At this point, Shava¡¯s gender is not mentioned explicitly by the author, but to avoid confusion, we will consider Shava as female for now.

 Chapter 611 - Curtain Fall

    <h4>Chapter 611: Curtain Fall</h4>

    Crimson eyes, twisting face, inhumanly sharp nails. ¡°Undead Hookdick¡± bared his teeth randomly while yelling iprehensible noises like a drunken madman.

    Several possessed mortals who had not left yet were torn to pieces by a w-swipe. When bathed in fresh blood, Hookdick¡¯s corrupted soul grew even more hysterical.

    Whileughing maniacally, he suddenly heard someone¡¯s voiceing from above him and jerked his head up to look.

    There was a man up there. He didn¡¯t know who that was, but something inside him was urging him to sink his ws into that man¡¯s throat as if it were the only reason for his very existence.

    And Hookdick had no problem following that instinct since he no longer had the sanity to control his actions.

    ¡°DIE!!!¡± The ground beneath him cracked up as he bolted into the sky.

    While going after Angor¡¯s position, his ws aimlessly swiped at the air, which caused more of his ck aura to dissipate into the environment.

    ¡°Venom of the undead.¡± Fox wrinkled her nose and swung her tail to chase the ckened air away. ¡°Lord Shava... can handle this, right?¡±

    Fox was looking at Froggy while speaking. But Froggy did not answer as he was fully focused on Hookdick¡¯s moves while charging up an attack.

    ¡°Hey, if you disturb Shava¡¯s ¡®finesse¡¯, I¡¯m afraid Shava will never visit your aria concerts again,¡± Fox spoke through their ¡°private channel¡±.

    Froggy briefly halted his attempt and let out a ¡°croak¡± in distress.

    ...

    Above them, Hookdick¡¯s poisoned ws had almost reached Angor.

    Angor needed only to tap his feet for his sequence of gravity to carry his body away. After mastering the gravity power, Angor could navigate in the sky as if walking on t ground. Without the element of surprise, it was impossible for Hookdick to catch him.

    Hookdick was infuriated when he saw Angor slipping away from his assaults almost effortlessly.

    The unknown rage in his mind further incited his negative energy, which slowly took form and spread into the air like a poisonous mist.

    He didn¡¯t need to catch Angor¡ªas long as he could get close enough, the mist around his body would drag Angor¡¯s soul form into the ranks of undead as well.

    Angor remained still and watched Hookdicking to him again. The ck mist was so dense that he could only see Hookdick¡¯s pair of glowing eyes now.

    Before the mist could touch him, Toby descended between them as a giant Griffin. A quick wing-p was all he needed to knock Hookdick¡¯s charging form aside.

    Next, Toby slowly reverted to his normal size andnded on Angor¡¯s hand.

    Hookdick regained bnce and charged again.

    This time, Angor lifted an arm and aimed a revolver at Hookdick.

    Hookdick had no idea what the strange item was. He kept dashing until he sensed strange energy ripples being released from Angor¡¯s position, whichpletely covered him up.

    And it was toote to run now. His negative energy was rapidly eradicated like wax faced with heat.

    Negative energy was the fundamentalponent of an undead being. If such energy was removed, the remaining pure soul energy would quickly dissipate as it could not exist without a bnced medium.

    This was what was happening to Hookdick right now. As the negative energy ceased to be, his red, maddened eyes slowly showed human intelligence again.

    ¡°What... is that?¡± Hookdick didn¡¯t know why he asked that. He saw what remained of his presence being slowly carried away by wind and decided to at least say something.

    ¡°An alchemy weapon specialized in killing the undead,¡± Angor answered while not feeling sorry for Hookdick¡¯s sad fate at all. ¡°Plotting against me again and again... you left me with no choice.¡±

    Hookdick had turned from an unlettered tribe brute into a powerful level-2 apprentice capable of surviving the Purification Garden within two years. It was only natural that Ness sent a golden professor poster to someone with such brilliant potential. If Hookdick kept progressing so swiftly, it was quite likely for him to challenge the path of truth someday.

    But his simple and straightforward character set him back.

    ¡°I... lost...¡± Hookdick¡¯s final sadness was soon reced by deathly stillness.

    Angor silently watched thest particle of Hookdick¡¯s soul disappearing into the darkness.

    During their lengthened lives, wizards all needed to go through undesired events that tested their mentalities. Those who could control themselves and endure the present would win more chances to see the future, while foolhardy hotheads must pay for their careless decisions¡ªsometimes with their lives.

    Such was the cruelty of this world, and what Angor had already learned.

    At least Hookdick didn¡¯te and go while beingpletely useless. His pure soul energy that was left behind had rejoined this world to give birth to something new.

    Whening to Sleepless City, Angor never thought he¡¯d run into Hookdick and kill him for real.

    Guess one less burden to worry about.

    He twirled his gun and tossed it to Toby, who skillfully transferred the weapon into Snowy Feather.

    Before leaving Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden in his soul form, Angor made sure he was ready for all possible situations. Putting Prelude to Rebirth inside Toby¡¯s storage was one of the many preparations he did. And it proved to be very necessary. Without the revolver, he¡¯d have a rather difficult time dealing with Hookdick thoroughly.

    ¡°Lord Shava¡¯s killing finesse is captivating as always.¡± Fox approached Angor while recing the lingering stink in the air with the smell of perfume. ¡°Letting your opponent fully disy his strength, before using your decisive and unparalleled might topletely shatter his chances. Something we¡¯d never hope to learn.¡±

    Finesse my ass! Angor rolled his eyes when the monster could not see and put on his pretended smile before addressing her, ¡°Miss Fox, I do need to tweak my... tactics, just a little, so they look as elegant as your music.¡±

    Fox covered her snout with her tail and giggled.

    Froggy also came and presented them with a terrible hymn of war in which he praised the glorious victory of Shava and the deserved defeat of Hookdick.

    Angor was quite surprised to see the monster rearranging the one-sided ughter into such an exciting and lengthy story. The frog got skills!

    Simr to before, Angor ttered their ¡°great performance¡± unwillingly.

    Through some unproductive changes of words, Angor managed to confirm his earlier presumption that the monsters already knew he was a human who had lived in the wizarding world for quite some time.

    It seemed Froggy and Fox weren¡¯t interested in the reason why Hookdick hated him so much, and why the man had been calling him ¡°Angor¡± instead of Shava. One possible exnation for this was that they expected much.

    Of course Angor wouldn¡¯t act so boldly as to ask why.

    ¡°Hope you enjoyed watching this small ¡®intermission¡¯. Since all the humans are gone, I can continue admiring your beautiful music,¡± said Angor.

    Next, Angor returned to the exit of the inteyer through which the remaining clowns were leaving. Since Hookdick was dealt with, the only thing he needed to do was to find Nausica.

    Before he could order the remaining clowns to keep moving, however, Toby called out and told him to check something.

    ¡°Did you find Nausica?¡± With a bit of excitement, Angor looked toward where Toby was pointing at.

    It wasn¡¯t Nausica or anyone for that matter. He saw the spotted puppy gnawing at a pile of bloody flesh.

    ¡°This...¡± He approached the animal and noticed several broken patches of fabric clung to the remains. ¡°Is this Hookdick¡¯s corpse?¡±

    At first, he felt a little disgusted. But then he believed that it waspletely normal for monsters to consume humans. No big deal.

    Things said, he wasn¡¯t going to enjoy such a thing, so he quickly turned away.

    Toby called again to tell him to keep watching.

    Angor felt a bit irritated as he thought his partner was ying a prank, but Toby appeared to be rather serious as he was calling a little anxiously this time.

    Angor decided toply by looking behind him again.

 Chapter 612 - A Poor Concert

    <h4>Chapter 612: A Poor Concert</h4>

    From his position, Angor could see the animal nudging its head against the pile of broken flesh, which looked like a beast scavenging a corpse. But he waited for a moment and noticed that the corpse remained still without depleting.

    ¡°Is it eating at all?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow and approached the puppy to check more closely. Why would the animal ¡°dig in¡± the corpse without consuming it? Was it enjoying the smell?

    The puppy heard Angoring and turned around to look at him while its snout was covered in blood.

    This was when Angor realized why Toby wanted him to pay attention. There was a dark energy stream that connected the puppy¡¯s mouth and the dead corpse.

    Hookdick¡¯s body had broken into several parts and scattered everywhere. It seemed the dog was searching among these meat parts while absorbing the strange energy contained within them.

    Angor immediately thought about certain monsters he read about before, who loved draining the energy of lives from humans.

    But at the same time, he felt something familiar with the energy.

    ¡°Is that...?¡±

    Tobynded on his shoulder and whispered something while disying some gravity energy, which appeared as gray ripples in the air.

    Angor looked between Toby¡¯s gravity power and the strange energy being ¡°eaten¡± by the puppy.

    ¡°It¡¯s absorbing the sequence of aw?¡±

    The sense of a ¡°naturalw¡±ing from Hookdick¡¯s corpse wasn¡¯t very strong. Angor recalled that Hookdick had been training at somewhere called the ¡°Soul Soil¡±, which suggested that Hookdick might have received a soul-rtedw from it. And ording to what Angor heard from Ness before, this ¡°Soul Soil¡± was likely the name of a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden intended for Soul Maniptors.

    It seemed Hookdick managed toprehend the soul-rted sequence from the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. The power he acquired was too shallow to be considered useful yet, but this already proved that Hookdick was quite a superb talent.

    Thisw was likely what kept Hookdick ¡°safe¡± from the parasites. Although it didn¡¯t help him defeat Angor. And when he died, that power only went to waste.

    Wait...

    Compared to Hookdick¡¯s terrible fate, Angor was more interested in why a dog could ¡°eat¡± the sequence power of a naturalw.

    From his earlier experience, he suspected that the animal might be a Mystery spirit or a Mystery item. Was ¡°absorbing sequence power¡± something it was meant to do? Could such power still work after going to someone else like this?

    Angor tried and gave up on thinking. And since he could not ask the monsters for Nausica¡¯s whereabouts for obvious reasons, he had to look for Nausica on his own for now.

    With this in mind, he told Toby to ignore the puppy and returned to inspecting the remaining clowns.

    Toby¡¯smp was broken just now, but the burning house nearby had provided enough light, if not brighter than before.

    Like before, Angor stood beside the exit of the inteyer, while Toby scout above the leaving clowns.

    Half an hourter, over 80% of the gathered citizens had left this area, leaving about a hundred more people behind. And Angor still had not found Nausica among them.

    Thest clown left their view soon. Nausica was nowhere to be found.

    Angor grimaced as he wondered why Nausica was separated from her teammates. He looked back and saw both Shiliew and Shan still being restrained by his gravity power. Shan looked a bit terrified when receiving his attention, while Shiliew was snoring loudly.

    Angor could not use his Nightmare Domain in his soul form, which meant removing the parasites from thedies and asking them questions was a no-go.

    He then tried to think of an excuse that might convince Fox and Froggy into helping him, but he could not find any.

    If I can¡¯t use excuses... how about requesting so directly and see what happens?

    Fox saw Angor looking at her and approached him. ¡°Did you finish picking your ves, Lord Shava?¡±

    Froggy followed closely behind. ¡°Praaaaise the queen, croak! Although it pains me to say that we have not the moon¡¯s blessing, I still would like to express my love for the moonlight to Lord Shava!¡±

    Angor¡¯s lips twitched. Those words somewhat sounded like a man¡¯s confession.

    ¡°Ahem, music is a fine art that does not fit in this burning environment. I surely cannot let you perform when there is ck smoke around us.¡±

    ¡°Croak! The fire cannot snuff out my passion for poetry. I shall present a FIERY anthem of war to Lord Shava!¡±

    Angor felt choked when hearing Froggy¡¯s emotional outburst and could not think of anything to discourage the frog from proceeding.

    ¡°All... alright. Fire and heat do contribute to ardor and devotion. I wonder what lucid and fascinating bad I¡¯ll be witnessing!¡± Angor spoke dryly.

    Froggy immediately found several crates somewhere and made a stage to stand on.

    ¡°Please do not mind this simple setup. It will not hinder my spirit, croak!¡± Froggy took a deep breath as his chest area swelled bigger than a woman¡¯s breasts.

    Fox did a back-flip,nded beside Froggy, put down a wooden bench, and prepared her harp.

    Angor would admit that the fox monster looked rather elegant. Bewitching, even. Her music usually sounded refined, as long as Froggy was not singing. And when he did, Fox would adjust her melodies ordingly, which meant something weird and creepy to go with Froggy¡¯s voice.

    This was exactly what was happening right now.

    Froggy was doing his best to present that ¡°passionate hymn of war¡±, but Angor only heard poor wording and terrible clich¨¦ that did not make much sense. The beautiful picture of a gentle moon Froggy was trying to paint was fine, but it didn¡¯t go very well when he mixed it with battlefield and dead bodies.

    A story of war would be fine. Yet Froggy insisted on blending his love for tender moonlight into that story which sounded neither fish nor fowl.

    The performance was made worse when Fox had to asionally create sharp noises that sounded like scratching on a chalkboard to go with Froggy¡¯s ¡°changes of events¡±.

    Angor endured the almost painful show while trying not to frown too obviously.

    When Froggy finished a period, Angor did his best to show a smile. ¡°What a heartbreaking story!¡±

    Yeah, heartbreaking, literally.

    He waited helplessly as Froggy prepared to keep on. He told the monsters that he¡¯d listen to their show, and there was no backing out now.

    A golden string suddenly came from the sky and cut one of Froggy¡¯s crates in half.

    ¡°This is Yorkshire¡¯s puppet wire.¡± Fox put down her harp.

    ¡°Croak! Shite! Is this dum-dum trying to ruin my concert?! The moon will hate him! Yes, it will!¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow as he recognized the golden string as the same ones that controlled that puppet girl earlier.

    But isn¡¯t Yorkshire fighting with the professor?

    The string suddenly twitched and began to pulse with a strange energy signature.

    Fox closed her eyes for a second before she stood up. ¡°Yorkshire is calling us. It seems he has met some trouble.¡±

    ¡°Go yourself. I¡¯m staying here!¡± Froggy made a sullen face.

    ¡°So it will be then.¡± Fox didn¡¯t seem concerned about Froggy¡¯s response. After excusing herself, Fox took off and dashed into the darkness beyond the inteyer.

 Chapter 613 - An Important Clue

    <h4>Chapter 613: An Important Clue</h4>

    Apparently, the simple concert could not continue without Fox.

    Froggy was now cursing Yorkshire¡¯s name furiously as if he wanted to go and kill Yorkshire in the next second.

    ¡°Stupid dum-dum! Stu-stupid! Why would the queen send that guy anyway? He¡¯s only good at ying those strings but is otherwise useless!¡±

    It was pretty rare to see Froggy speaking without his ¡°aria style¡±, which meant he was REALLY annoyed right now.

    The monster took several deep breaths and bowed to Angor. ¡°Lord Shava, shall I continue my poem unapanied?¡±

    Angor quickly shook his head. He was just d that the performance was interrupted. ¡°Maybe next time. Your music will not sound as touching without an instrument. Surely you want your song to be perfect, Mister Froggy?¡±

    Froggy tilted his head. ¡°You¡¯re quite right, Lord Shava, for it is my responsibility to present a wless show to you. Since we don¡¯t have Fox with us... I¡¯m afraid we must call it off.¡±

    Disappointed, Froggy hopped off from the crates.

    Angor sighed in his mind before speaking, ¡°Mister Froggy, what happened to Yorkshire?¡±

    ¡°Croak! Hah! Someone beat that coward up for good! He deserved it!¡±

    Well, of course, we¡¯re talking about Sunders... Angor thought.

    He had never doubted Sunders¡¯ true strength before. Angor was confident that his professor would manage pretty well even if Fox joined the fight. And in the worst possible scenario, Sunders should have no problem running away.

    Angor¡¯s biggest concern was Nausica right now.

    ¡°Mister Froggy, can you remove the parasites from these two?¡± He nced at Shiliew and Shan. ¡°I need to question them for something.¡±

    From what he had observed, Angor believed that, while Fox tended to pay attention to details and raise doubts against anything that looked suspicious, Froggy was more of a simple-minded individual even though he loved singing arias and art.

    It was easier to make requests when Fox was gone.

    As expected, Froggy didn¡¯t think twice upon hearing Angor¡¯s words. The frog pointed at Shan and Shiliew. ¡°Hear that? Croak! Lord Shava demanded that you leave right now! Move it!¡±

    Two shiny dots escaped from thedies.

    Woah. You can do that? Give themmands? Angor wondered.

    Shiliew was still snoring, while Shan was stirring a little to ¡°wake up¡±. Angor looked back and saw Froggy gazing intensively toward where Fox left, as if he wanted his partner to return as soon as possible.

    Since Froggy wasn¡¯t paying attention, Angor dragged Shan to somewhere more private.

    As soon as Shan fully opened her eyes, Angor covered her mouth and whispered, ¡°Quiet. It¡¯s me.¡±

    Shan nodded.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Angor made sure the girl looked fine before removing his hand.

    ¡°What happened just now? And... why are you here, Brother Angor?¡± Shan showed a big smile and rushed to him.

    Angor dodged her by floating into the air. ¡°Stop it. I need to ask something, this is urgent.¡±

    Seeing Angor¡¯s serious look, Shan also decided to act more properly.

    ¡°What-what is that?¡± Shan saw Froggy in the distance and flinched.

    ¡°Shhh! Don¡¯t worry about it right now. Tell me, have you seen Nausica?¡±

    When he saw Shan was still confused, Angor briefly exined the general situation in Sleepless City as well as how thedies were possessed by ¡°parasites¡±.

    ¡°When you still have your consciousness, did you see what Nausica was doing?¡±

    ¡°We... we found Hookdick outside the office of Brute Cavern. But before we could kill him, that strange music you mentioned came. When I sensed how it affects our emotions, I ordered Gank to go after Hookdick since he doesn¡¯t have any emotions that can be controlled.

    ¡°After that... Sorry, my memory is all nk.¡±

    Weird. Hookdick was here, but I didn¡¯t find Gank... Angor rubbed his temples. It seemed Shan couldn¡¯t tell him anything more useful.

    ¡°Do you think Shiliew knows something else?¡±

    Shan nced at the sleeping woman not far from them. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I think her emotion doesn¡¯t get affected by the music much. Rather, the music only made her more sleepy, and when it happens, the ¡®other Shiliew¡¯ will show up. You know, that mad character who really hates Jebra. So I don¡¯t know what she can tell us right now. Let me see, I have that potion from her professor. I can wake her up.¡±

    Shan reached for her pouch only to find that her body was fully covered in an adult-sized clownish dancer suit, which looked both terrible and funny on her.

    Thankfully, her pouch was weaved from the colorful feathers of a certain bird, so she managed to keep it.

    She found the said potion and brought Shiliew to their corner while cursing whoever dressed her like this. Meanwhile, Angor kept an eye on Froggy just in case.

    In spite of all the sleep she managed to get, Shiliew still looked drowsy as she always was.

    ¡°I... heard it from Shan. I¡¯ll tell you what I saw before I fell asleep.¡±

    ¡°When going after Hookdick, it was the ¡®other me¡¯ who was in charge of my actions. But I think I can remember her actions now, which I couldn¡¯t do before.¡± Shiliew seemed hesitant. ¡°I saw Shan telling Gank to catch Hookdick. At the same time, I saw Nausica heading in the same way.¡±

    ¡°Nausica was after Hookdick too?¡± Shan perked up. ¡°Then we can find her as long as we get Hookdick! And I can get back to Gank too!¡±

    ¡°No!¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Shiliew and Angor said in unison.

    They exchanged puzzled expressions before Shiliew signaled Angor to speak first.

    ¡°I forgot to tell you. Hookdick was here with you.¡± Angor pointed to the bloody remains on the ground. ¡°There, that¡¯s him. I killed him.¡±

    Shan and Shiliew both looked disappointed.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been on his track for a month. Oh well...¡±

    They knew that Angor wanted Hookdick dead as much as they did, but seeing their prey taken by Angor so easily was still not pleasant.

    Angor looked at Shiliew next. It seemed Shiliew had something to say just now.

    ¡°I saw a strange creature taking Nausica and Gank away,¡± Shiliew said as she showed a grim look.

    Angor grimaced. Finally, he learned something of use, that someone they didn¡¯t know yet had joined the mess.

    ¡°How did this strange creature look?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s too dark for me to see.¡± Shiliew shook her head and said, ¡°But it must be strong since it can carry Gank away so easily. Strong, and perhaps big. There¡¯s something else. Before I fully went into sleep, I think I saw something yellow and shiny from it...¡±

    Yellow and shiny? Angor closed his eyes and tried to summarize what he heard from Shiliew, Shan, and Filo.

    Dous opened a passageway to escape. Someone showed up to attack Hookdick. The music came and overwhelmed everyone...

    Yellow light.

    ¡°Are you referring to strings? Golden, shining strings?¡±

 Chapter 614 - Prototype Puppets

    <h4>Chapter 614: Prototype Puppets</h4>

    A et¡± swept past the sky above Sleepless City. Itnded on the highest vantage point of the entire city¡ªthe top of Restless Clock Tower.

    On top of the dome-shaped roof of the building, theet slowly dimmed down, revealing three people plus a bird and a dog.

    ¡°What was that frog thing, Angor? I think it admires you.¡± Shan had returned to being the gossip-loving girl.

    ¡°It¡¯s a giant mistake. That monster mistook me for somebody else.¡± Angor avoided the question with a serious look.

    ¡°Fine, if you say so. But why did you bring this dog?¡± Shan pointed at the creature that was being lifted by Angor. Using the Light spell they prepared, she saw the spotted puppy, which was as big as Toby¡¯s usual form. And since Angor was pinching on its scruff, the poor animal could do nothing other than using its tail to cover up its groin area.

    ¡°We need its help to look for people.¡±

    ¡°You mean... by using its nose?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer. In fact, he didn¡¯t know whether this puppy worked like an ordinary dog. He took it along because Froggy said that the puppy could locate the locations of ¡°Prototype Puppets¡± since it was following behind Yorkshire when Nausica and Gank were taken away.

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to exin anything rted to the Nightmare Realm. To Shan, this meant Angor wanted the dog to help them in an old-fashioned way.

    Although Shiliew had been thinking about a very serious question until now. Why can¡¯t I hear any blood flow inside that dog?

    ¡°Focus. We need to find Nausica as fast as possible, or she... her condition will get more severe.¡± Angor looked at Toby next and asked, ¡°Hey Toby, is Lady Greya awake?¡±

    Tony shook his head.

    ¡°Wake her then. I need to tell her something really important.¡±

    Toby nodded and closed his eyes.

    Meanwhile, Shan and Shiliew were pretty confused to hear Angor¡¯s words.

    ¡°Lady Greya? Are you talking about THE Lady Greya?¡±

    Angor shushed them and watched Toby carefully.

    Soon, Toby released someone from his Snowy Feather¡ªa yawning young girl who was rubbing her hair while giving Toby aining stare.

    ¡°I really need some rest here. Whatever¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°Lady Greya, here!¡±

    Greya saw Angor standing on the edge of the roof, away from the others.

    She looked around and noticed that they were still inside Sleepless City, so she approached Angor with a stern look. While walking past Shan and Shiliew, she cast them a cold nce, which terrified them.

    ¡°Not bad, Angor. You found yourself two sweetdies in such a short time, huh? One of them is even a young girl. But her style is... well, curious.¡±

    Greya didn¡¯t lower her voice while speaking. Both Shan and Shiliew were visibly shocked when hearing her speech.

    ¡°They¡¯re my friends.¡± Angor gave Greya a meaningful wink. ¡°Lady Greya, please, this is urgent.¡±

    Greya nodded and swiftly deployed a soundproof ward around them.

    ¡°What is it? You asked Toby to get me, so... I guess it¡¯s nothing ordinary.¡±

    ¡°I just heard something. This darkness that covered the outer city, will soon turn into an entire inteyer space, which is controlled by someone called Yorkshire. And when that happens, it will be harder for us to get out. It seems Yorkshire has absolute control of the inteyer he created, which means we cannot afford to get trapped in here.¡±

    Greya frowned while listening.

    Who the heck is Yorkshire? And what is an inteyer?

    She had no idea what Angor was talking about, but she could see Angor was being very serious right now, which suggested that the situation was quite harsh.

    ¡°What should I do?¡± Greya decided to get to the point.

    ¡°Find my professor and tell him this message.¡± Angor looked at the twodies outside their ward and exined, ¡°I wanted them to deliver the message earlier, but they cannot resist the parasites, so I can only depend on you, Lady Greya.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me about this ¡®inteyer¡¯ thing? Is it so dangerous?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to describe it yet but... my professor knows all about it, or about Yorkshire. If I¡¯m not mistaken, he is fighting against Yorkshire right at this moment, and Yorkshire might be nning to lure him into danger. This is why I need you to alert him.¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡± Greya nodded. ¡°But how did you know all these? Aren¡¯t you going to rendezvous with Sunders?¡±

    ¡°Froggy told me. As for who is Froggy... My professor can tell you that too. I need to do something else right now. I have another friend trapped somewhere else.¡± He quickly added when he saw Greya giving him another questioning look, ¡°Oh right, that fox harper who attacked you also went to ambush my professor just now.¡±

    Greya¡¯s rage immediately returned. ¡°That filthy beast? Good! I¡¯ll get it this time! So where can I find Sunders?¡±

    Angor took out the ¡°blood sphere¡±. ¡°Lady Greya, can you sense his position by using this?¡±

    ¡°Sunders gave you this?¡± Greya epted the item with a shocked look.

    Angor nodded and exined how he received it.

    ¡°Tsk. Rumor has it that Sunders is slowly turning into a ¡®white wizard¡¯ recently. So it is true.¡± She tossed the sphere back. ¡°I know where he is now. You take good care of Toby. And yourself.¡±

    Greya leaped into the air and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

    Angor looked at the city beneath him and tried to ascertain the next n.

    ording to Shiliew, Nausica and Gank were likely taken away by Yorkshire. Yet he could not understand why Yorkshire wanted these two.

    When he asked Froggy about this by inquiring indirectly, he managed to learn that Yorkshire wanted to turn them into ¡°prototype puppets¡±.

    A prototype puppet was used as a container to ¡°sustain¡± an inteyer. While it was true that a nightmare monster could fully control the inteyer it created, there were several special conditions it must satisfy before doing so.

    One of the conditions was that Yorkshire must deploy several ¡°containers¡± around Sleepless City as hubs to allow his inteyer to fully spread into the city. Currently, Yorkshire only possessed one container, which maintained a small inteyer in the center of the city. He needed to construct more of them using human bodies.

    Seeding meant Yorkshire could cover more locations inside the inteyer sections, which could merge with each other and fully devour every corner of Sleepless City, by which time escaping would be a lot more difficult.

    Bing a prototype puppet meant losing one¡¯s mind and all bodily potential. ording to Froggy, the victim would be a ¡°fake¡± Nightmare Watcher, who could no longer act on their free will.

    This was an absolute disaster for Nausica, who pursued freedom and immortality.

    Angor wanted to rescue her in time. The question was whether he could still make it.

    He already sensed a familiar energy signature in the distance, which was slowly being connected to the inteyer he just left. This suggested that a new prototype was made.

    Hope it¡¯s not you, Nausica...

    He returned to Shan and Shiliew while ignoring every question they prepared for him. ¡°Nausica is in danger. We can talk after getting her out. Now follow me.¡±

    To move as fast as possible, Toby turned into Griffin Form and carried them while following Angor¡¯s directions.

    Angor told Toby to go this way because the puppy had been barking toward that direction. Although Angor wasn¡¯t sure if the animal was giving them pointers or was simply barking randomly.

    Yet he didn¡¯t have a choice. The puppy was the only thing he could follow right now.

    He hoped that Nausica could hold on for as much as she could before they arrived.

 Chapter 615 - Golden Strings Toward the Void

    Chapter 615: Golden Strings Toward the Void

    There was arge, white banyan tree that supported an equallyrge treehouse among its thick branches.

    This treehouse was called ¡°The Luminous¡±, which was shown by a luminous stone tablet hanging on a branch near its entrance. This hotel-like structure would be Angor¡¯s first destination during his search for Nausica.

    Theynded on the ground beneath the tree while listening to the spotted puppy still barking loudly at the beautiful structure in front of them.

    ¡°Is Nausica here?¡± Shan frowned as she looked at the unlit treehouse, which seemed to be haunted.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and see.¡±

    Angor never managed toprehend the puppy¡¯s intention. But they couldn¡¯t wander around the entire Sleepless City and look through the countless buildings without a lead to follow, and the puppy was the only thing that MIGHT give them a clue.

    There were about a dozen woodendders that led to the hotel house. When Angor¡¯s group climbed to the hotel¡¯s door, the door was knocked open by a swarm of parasites that appeared like countless fireflies above their heads.

    Shan and Shiliew immediately crouched down and covered their heads.

    They waited until all the parasites had left without touching them. It seemed these creatures intentionally escaped while avoiding Angor.

    ¡°Why-why are there so many of them in this ce?¡± Shan stood up, trembling.

    ¡°Maybe this is their nest,¡± Angor replied and walked into the absolute darkness ahead of them without looking back.

    Shiliew and Shan exchanged an uncertain look. Angor wanted them to follow him, but he never exined why he was safe from these parasites. These twodies never regarded this matter as anything serious before, but it was no longer the case when Angor just ¡°walked by¡± such a huge group of parasites untouched.

    ¡°Geez. Why is he all shushing?¡± Shan mumbled and also entered the hotel with Shiliew.

    They saw Angor standing still not far from them. They could not see anything yet as the inside of the treehouse didn¡¯t have any light source, but they heard the buzzing noises as if there were a lot of insects flying about.

    Shan gulped, and after getting Angor¡¯s consent, she prepared Light in her mindspace and released it.

    What they saw next shocked her greatly.

    There was arge monster nest located right in front of Angor, which was giving out that buzzing sound.

    ¡°An-Angor? What-what-what is that? Is this the home of all those parasites?¡±

    Angor nodded, which was his only answer. This thing was not necessarily a ¡°parasite nest¡± as there were moreplicated connections between the parasites and the Nightmare Realm, about which he didn¡¯t wish to exin right now.

    Since he had confronted this thing for more than once now, Angor didn¡¯t feel fearful or any particr concerns for that matter.

    ¡°Shan, move your Light higher, ce it near the top of the nest.¡±

    He was looking for someone, so he wasn¡¯t interested in the monster nest. He told Shan to move the light source because he sensed something strange above their position.

    While still trembling a little, Shanplied and controlled her cantrip.

    As soon as she did, a flock of several hundred rainbow dragonflies rushed out of the nest and surrounded them.

    Each dragonfly disyed the same level of power as the strongest apprentice an organization could offer. Upon seeing so many hostiles on top of them, Shan¡¯s face went pale as she almost lost control of her spell.

    ¡°What do we do?¡± Shiliew spoke up. She sounded rtively calmpared to her partner, but she was not doing very well either.

    Angor already sensed emotionsing from the creatures before he could respond.

    Shan and Shiliew could feel something as well¡ªexcitement, mostly. Angor could tell more. He heard the familiar praising chants that were admiring the queen, Shava, the moon... even though they could not see the moon for real.

    Simr to before, the dragonflies didn¡¯t seem too intelligent.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them. They won¡¯t do anything as long as you don¡¯t provoke them first.¡±

    As he said, the dragonflies kept flying around them while releasing their ¡°emotion signals¡±. But that was about it.

    ¡°Shan, your light,¡± Angor urged.

    They suddenly heard someone screaming.

    As Shan moved her Light higher, they finally saw a woman with pale green hair being restrained by several golden strings above the monster nest. One of the ends of the strings locked her in ce by piercing through her limbs, while the other ends were connected to a portal toward the void.

    After screaming, the woman¡¯s irises slowly vanished until her eyes turnedpletely white. A strange energy wave then emerged from the portal and traveled through the strings until they sank inside the woman¡¯s body.

    Angor saw a brand new inteyer space slowly spreading out, centered around the woman.

    It seemed the woman could no longer move or think. The inteyer expanded and reached a certain limit before it quickly shrank smaller and concentrated inside the woman.

    When this waspleted, the woman was dragged into the portal and vanished from their view.

    At the same time, Angor sensed the ¡°central inteyer¡± slowly reaching its influence toward this ce.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. Nausica is not here.¡±

    He just witnessed how a new prototype puppet came to be by losing her sanity, and he feared that Nausica would meet the same fate.

    Without tarrying any longer, they headed to the next destination.

    The dragonflies moved to both sides as if they were politely making way for Angor¡¯s departure.

    Again, Shan and Shiliew were curious to find out why, but it was obviously not the time for it, so they carefully followed behind Angor closely. They knew Angor was the only reason that kept them safe in this madness, so they could not afford to stray away from him.

    Once they stepped out of the hotel, Toby activated his Griffin power again to hasten their travel.

    The puppy saw what Angor was doing and began barking in another direction.

    Two minutester, Toby brought them to a cemetery area at the west of the outer city not far from the main city district.

    Across the ck iron bars, Angor noticed that the cemetery had been taken care of nicely. There were no random body pits or dug-out coffins like the graveyard he saw outside Dark Castle. Even the tombstones showed careful craftsmanship and delicate designs.

    ¡°This is Rosette Mortuary, intended for the rich. Anyone who can find a burial spot here should be someone influential in the city, as in, their family or n at least has a supernatural,¡± exined Shan.

    The iron bars were full of thorny vines that had bright-looking roses growing on them. Instead of the stench of dead bodies, the air was filled with a faint, sweet fragrance.

    They weren¡¯t exactly d to smell it because wizards usually had another name for this particr scent¡ªWhiff of the Dead.

    This was produced by a certain flower that survived by draining on the rotten corpses buried underground. There were wizards with special tastes who loved perfumes brewed by using this ominous flower. As long as one didn¡¯t mind how the perfume was made, they would enjoy the more potent aromapared to using other products of the same kind.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get inside.¡± Angor moved first.

    Shan followed behind on uncertain steps. ¡°Hey, Angor... what happened to that woman earlier? Is Nausica going to...¡±

    ¡°Yes. This is why we must find her before shepletely loses it. We don¡¯t have time now.¡±

    They reached their target soon. There was the same monster nest built at the center of the cemetery, where someone captured by Yorkshire was hung above it.

    It wasn¡¯t Nausica. Although the captive was someone else they knew¡ªGank.

    Simr to the other victims, hisrge body had been prated by several golden strings. He was roaring out both in pain and rage. That strange mask he used to wear was cut open, exposing a pair of bleeding eyes.

    ¡°We did something to remove most of his responsiveness against emotions and bodily harm. He¡¯s crying blood like that because he cannot take it anymore!¡± Shan called out to Angor.

    Gank heard Shan¡¯s voice and looked her way, calling her name weakly.

    ¡°He¡¯s not possessed! He knows me! How do we get him out? We must do something now!¡±

    Angor already knew that these captured people who were to be made into ¡°inteyer containers¡± were free of parasites, probably because it was easier to break their sanity in this way. This meant the time it took for theirst defense line to break down solely depended on their mental fortitude.

 Chapter 616 - Down in the Lake

    Chapter 616: Down in the Lake

    How to save him?

    Angor did not know the answer to this most urgent problem. The golden strings were controlled by unstable power of great level, which was as potent as the power wielded by truth-finder wizards. This was not something he could meddle with.

    He looked at the spotted puppy next.

    It seemed Froggy really hated this creature. When Froggy assumed that Angor was going to find Yorkshire¡¯s prisoners, he strongly rmended that Angor take the puppy along.

    Angor recalled his conversation with Froggy and found Froggy¡¯s attitude to be strange. Froggy indirectly told him that the puppy might help with his quest, but he didn¡¯t exin why.

    At first, Angor thought the puppy could help him find people like any ordinary dog.

    Until now, this was mostly correct.

    But why was Froggy so cautious when suggesting such a simple matter?

    ¡°Here, try it.¡± Angor took the dog and floated into the air until they were close enough to Gank.

    And this was when Angor realized that the strings were not exactly made of gold. They appeared so because there were countless golden runes drawn on them.

    Even so, he wouldn¡¯t carelessly touch these runes as they might not obey the rules of this world.

    ¡°It¡¯s only a dog. It... can help us?¡± asked Shan.

    ¡°No idea, but it¡¯s worth a try.¡±

    Angor considered and released some gravity power, which fixed the dog in front of Gank.

    ¡°Hey, little guy. Can you get this man out without hurting him?¡±

    He wasn¡¯t sure whether the creature could understand him at all. At least the puppy seemed happy that it was able to move freely since it was floating to Gank while wagging its tail.

    Angor was a little terrified to see the puppy opening its mouth bigger than it should be.

    Snap!

    A string popped under the dog¡¯s bite.

    ¡°It really worked!¡± Angor grew excited and told the puppy to continue.

    The puppy did quick work as it broke each string with one bite. And each time he did, Gank would scream louder when the disrupted energy on the strings invaded his body.

    ¡°Just a little longer!¡± Shan had covered her mouth and was trying to hold back her tears.

    Telling the puppy to proceed slower might ease Gank¡¯s pain, but they could not afford to waste any time right now. Both Angor and Shan knew that every second counted if they wanted to rescue Nausica, so neither of them said anything.

    Most of the strings were removed within a minute. Gank was expressing his agony by howling as loud as he could in the meantime, and while listening to him, the others could almost feel his pain as if they were the ones suffering.

    Finally, there was only thest string left.

    Gank¡¯s twisting expression suddenly turned serene as if he felt relieved.

    Angor and Shan both felt their hearts skipping a beat. This was exactly what happened to the woman whopletely gave up her sanity to the strings in the end.

    ¡°Gank, don¡¯t. You must hold on!¡± Shan¡¯s voice was shaking now. ¡°Only one to go, you can make it! You must make it!¡±

    It was toote for Gank to hear her words now. His eyes had given way to pure white color. His tensed muscles slowly eased up. A strange energy aura was emerging from his body.

    ¡°No good. He¡¯s a prototype puppet now,¡± Angor whispered.

    The strange aura repelled everyone until they were forced to retreat to a safe distance. Just like the green-haired woman, Gank was pulled inside the ck portal by thest remaining string.

    Again, Angor sensed the central inteyer just gained new territory. No doubt, it was built upon the sacrifice of Gank.

    Angor took a deep breath and spoke to Shan who had broken down in tears, ¡°We need to get out of here.¡±

    Shan slowly nodded. She cast ast glimpse at the portal of void before jerking her head away.

    ...

    Toby continued flying. Shan had stopped weeping, so all they could hear was the puppy¡¯s barks.

    ¡°Is Nausica going to be alright? I mean, even someone as strong as Gank...¡± Shan was still sobbing asionally.

    Angor considered and let out a sigh.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so.¡±

    ording to Shan, Gank was a typical otherworldly brute who had his emotions and mental sensitiveness weakened. If someone like this had sumbed to the torture, it was unlikely for a humandy to do better.

    Angor felt several new inteyer sections being built. Apparently, there were more victims who had fallen under Yorkshire¡¯s plot as they moved.

    The spotted puppy also changed its ¡°barking direction¡± when their original target was lost.

    The same thing happened four times. They had spent five minutes on Toby¡¯s back, and they already felt their mental equilibrium about to break.

    Shan found it impossible to mourn Gank and worry about Nausica at the same time, so she only prayed that Nausica wasn¡¯t among whoever gave in just now.

    After changing its directions several times, the puppy finally took them near the edge of ake.

    Theke was inside a city garden. This was usually a spot for young couples or strolling seniors. But there was only deathly silence right now.

    As soon as they touched the ground, the puppy ran off to theke and barked at the water.

    ¡°I think our target is underwater. Let¡¯s dive.¡± Angor moved ahead.

    Shiliew stopped him and swiftly cast something, which divided theke water and created a small path, while Shan used Light again to help them see better.

    They floated to the bottom of the path and noticed that it did not look as tidy and peaceful as the outside. There were lots of randomly discarded junk and... rotten bodies.

    They had walked on thekebed for about a hundred meters and saw at least ten corpses of different conditions. Some had turned to skeletons, while some were still bloating.

    Just like the wizarding world. When looking from the outside, the peacefulke was a lovely tourist spot for lovers. Yet there was indescribable filth hidden beneath.

    They saw another dragonfly nest at the center of theke, which was built inside a waterproof ward this time.

    Without waiting for Angor¡¯s order, Shan moved her Light to the top of the nest.

    Angor already sensed the familiar energy signature of golden strings before reaching the nest. He somewhat understood how Yorkshire ced each prisoner like this both to break their sanity and to guard them using the dragonflies.

    ¡°Nausica is here!¡± Shan suddenly called out.

    Angor quickly looked up and was d to see thedy he meant to find being bound by golden strings.

    However, her condition looked more terriblepared to the first two victims they saw. She was notpletely ced inside the water-free area. Instead, her face was drenched in the water above her. In order to breathe, she must lower her head, which would cause severe pain on her body as the simple movement would disturb all the strings inside her flesh.

    Shiliew immediately helped by lifting the boundary of the water to somewhere higher, while Angor and Shan approached her.

    Nausica had clenched her teeth so hard that it appeared as if she would break them at any moment. It seemed she was in no condition to sense what was going on around her as she did not respond when someone arrived.

    ¡°She¡¯s-she¡¯s still trying...¡± Shan wept again when seeing her friend safe, albeit only for the moment.

    It was Angor who had his voice shaking this time. ¡°Be gentle. Get her out, please...¡± He spoke to the puppy while stroking its head.

    The animal understood him without a problem. After leaving several joyful barks, it used Angor¡¯s gravity tform to move to Nausica and began chomping on the strings.

    With each string broken, Nausica would moan weakly as she bit deeper into her lips until they were torn and started bleeding.

    Angor¡¯s group waited anxiously. Each time a broken string injected unbearable misery into her body, they feared that Nausica would lose like the others and gave up her fate.

    It did not happen. Nausica had almost bitten off any fine flesh on her mouth, and her expression had twisted so hard that her skin looked like crumpled paper.

    But she did not surrender.

 Chapter 617 - Preserved Spirit

    <h4>Chapter 617: Preserved Spirit</h4>

    Truth was, Nausica knew what was happening when the strings on her began to break.

    She heard the voices of Shan, Shiliew, and Angor. Yet she could not reach out to them. She dared not.

    Even if she knew that her friends were there to help, something in her mind convinced her that she could not afford to show any sign of weakness in front of them, or an inner demon would immediately seize control.

    She kept her eyes shut. She refused to let her guard down. She did everything she could to resist the biggest crisis she would expect.

    Each broken string was like an energy pipe built from a hot iron that sent burning pain directly into her bones and organs until her entire body felt like on fire. The process was not better than going through the worst torment in this world many times.

    But Nausica held fast.

    The idea of ¡°surrendering¡± never even appeared in her mind once. She had endured this painful and lonesome darkness for more than a day now. She had absolutely no reason to give up since her friends were here.

    Nausica kept her spirit locked inside an unknownnd she imagined. In her mind, she had created a bright and elegant road that led toward the path of truth. Any pain and suffering appeared asva pits and poisonous thorns along this road. She would keep walking forward no matter what was in her way.

    It wasn¡¯t an issue to fall down asionally, for she needed only to climb back up again. And each time she did, she grew stronger, both body and mind.

    She had fortified her mental endurance to such a level beyond what her peers could imagine. Even some wizards would find her determination terrifyingly unbreakable.

    Such was Nausica¡¯s mettle. She demanded immortality, which was her life-long goal. Whatever could not kill her would only make her better.

    There was only one golden string left.

    Angor¡¯s group watched anxiously because they just witnessed how Gank lost at this critical moment.

    So far, Nausica seemed more stable than Gank¡¯s case, but they knew Nausica was suppressing her true condition, and sooner orter, she needed to let it out somehow.

    The question was whether she could hold on until thest string was severed.

    The spotted puppy stopped in front of the string as if it knew how important it was. It woofed at Nausica to warn her, while Nausica epted the hint and mustered all her courage.

    As the puppy put its teeth on thest string, torrential agony immediately found its way into every corner of Nausica¡¯s body. She felt like someone was stirring the inside of her using several barbed wires. However, whereas there was a limit to how much pain one¡¯s body could meet, Nausica was also met with pain on her soul this time.

    Before this moment, she managed to endure all the hardship because the strings only tortured her body. But now, it seemed whoever was controlling the strings had lost patience. Nausica heard a demonic whisper right beside her ears, that as long as she admitted defeat, she would be allowed into a brand new realm more beautiful than any.

    At the same time, the unknown presence granted an extremely pleasurable signal onto Nausica¡¯s soul and urged her to ept it. While she knew that it was a sweet trap, it was still too difficult to resist it.

    Nausica could control her body just fine, yet her soul never went through any particr enhancement like Angor¡¯s. While her entire body was mutted by burning pain, she failed to convince her soul NOT to approach the alluring sensation that was obviously a ticket to hell.

    She felt helpless as she watched her soul approaching the darkness against her will.

    ...

    Angor felt his heart missing a beat when he saw Nausica¡¯s expression showed relief when she shouldn¡¯t.

    ¡°Don¡¯t! Just a little longer!¡± Shan was crying so badly that her tears had messed up the colorful tribal paints on her cheeks.

    Shiliew, who usually remained unruffled no matter what happened, began to shiver in sadness.

    When no one was looking, the puppy suddenly released an insignificant soul energy wave, which traveled through the remaining string and sank into Nausica¡¯s soul space.

    Only Angor briefly caught a familiar sensation of the energy. He found it weird that the strange signature felt almost simr to Hookdick¡¯s soul. But he could not tell as the energy came and vanished very quickly.

    On the other hand, Nausica was surprised to receive the unexpected soul energy. The extremely pure and powerful energy improved her soul level in an instant, which allowed her tomand her soul to a certain extent before it fully fell into the abyss.

    With a firmmand, she demanded her soul to halt and take a step back.

    Meanwhile, the puppy sessfully broke thest golden string, which took it way longer than all the previous strings.

    Nausica saw everything shattering to pieces in her view. The deadly obstacles, the entrance to the abyss, the bewitching lure... all gone. She saw light weing her back into reality.

    As thest string vanished, Nausica fell from her prison.

    Angor quickly used his gravity power to catch her and carried her onto Toby¡¯s back.

    Nausica slowly opened her eyes to look at the three faces that showed anxiety and care in different ways.

    She wanted to say something, but a cold and solid object suddenly collided with her bleeding lips and prevented her from making any sound.

    ¡°Glowing Velvet Potion. Quickly, drink it.¡±

    It was Shan who just found the potion from her pouch and stuffed it into Nausica¡¯s mouth.

    Meanwhile, Shiliew was casting her spells nearby while mumbling words such as ¡°life¡± and ¡°cure¡±.

    Lights of different colors had covered Nausica¡¯s entire body. Thecerations caused by the strings were visibly disappearing.

    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Angor waited for Nausica to finish the potion before asking. While it was true that all strings were removed, he could not tell whether they had left something negative in Nausica.

    As a Bloodline Art apprentice, Nausica did quick work examining her body.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, thank-¡±

    A ck portal suddenly appeared where Nausica was restrained a moment ago.

    Ssssss!

    ¡°Wormsss! How dare you sabotage my work!¡±

    More golden strings emerged from the portal and created a work¡± in the air. At the same time, a shadowy figure escaped from the portal and swiftly moved around the strings.

    Everyone looked at the intruder with a grim look.

    ¡°The vermin seeks to bully the weak instead of fighting us. Are all nightmare monsters so shameless?¡±

    Angor heard another voiceing from behind the strange shadow. Following this voice, he saw Greya in her violet skirt stepping toward them in the air.

    Toby happily pped hisrge wings upon seeing Greya, which caused theke water around them to waver.

    Angor looked side to side so that he might find whether Greya brought anyone else. But before he could see Sunders, he felt someone standing right next to him.

    ¡°Professor?¡± Angor called.

    He knew it was Sunders because he already caught a glimpse of the man¡¯s gentleman suit as well as the particrly aloofposure.

    Sunders nced at Angor¡¯s group. ¡°Whatever did you do that forced Yorkshire to turn his back on us and teleport away?¡±

    Angor briefly exined how they rescued Nausica from Yorkshire¡¯s prison and how Yorkshire nned to create ¡°containers¡± to erge inteyer sections.

    Sunders frowned. Bybining the message he received from Greya just now, he more or less had a full picture of the situation now.

    He nodded to Angor and looked at the shadow dancing on golden strings not far from them.

    ¡°This ce will turn into a battlefield soon. Do you want to hide in my Gravity Garden?¡±

 Chapter 618 - Yorkshire

    <h4>Chapter 618: Yorkshire</h4>

    Angor rejected Sunders¡¯ suggestion.

    Sunders would only allow himself to use the Gravity Garden. If he did, it would be nearly impossible for Nausica and the others to stay alive in this darkness.

    Sunders chuckled as he had expected such an answer, but his attention was soon attracted by a small figure right next to Angor¡¯s feet.

    Beforeing, Sunders used his spirit power to sense everyone¡¯s presence, but he overlooked a certain animal among them.

    ¡°You still have that creature with you?¡±

    Sunders would like to question Angor for more details about the puppy, but Yorkshire interrupted him.

    ¡°You bothersssssome humans... especially you, Mister Watcher. Not only did you refuse to serve Her Highness, you even attempted to sabotage her nightwatch?¡±

    Yorkshire suddenly stopped moving as it looked at the boy standing next to Sunders.

    ¡°My greetings... Lord Shava.¡±

    Greya followed Yorkshire¡¯s gaze and was confused to find Angor to be the one addressed.

    Angor was preparing to leave and take thedies to the edge of the darkness so that they might find a way to escape, but he stopped moving when Yorkshire spoke to him.

    It was too dark for him to see Yorkshire clearly a moment ago. Now, Yorkshire had moved closer to the glowing monster nest beneath, and just as Sunders said, Yorkshire did not have a human shape.

    It was a snake.

    A crimson crown, a pair of yellow and muddy eyes glimmered with cruelty, and dark, glossy scales covered under countless golden strings that turned into different shapes as the monster moved. Sometimes the strings weaved into a pair of wings that lifted Yorkshire into the air, and sometimes they would turn into shiny ws and make the snake appear as certain mythical creatures Angor saw in Jon¡¯s stories about eastern cultures.

    There were three puppets being dragged behind Yorkshire. They looked identical to the one which fought Sunders earlier.

    ¡°Why are you together with this betrayer, Lord Shava? The queen would like to make this city her outpost for our next n. And you¡¯re opposing her will!¡± Yorkshire¡¯s tone turned harsh as it spoke.

    Angor narrowed his eyes while listening. This was the first ¡°projection from Padt Manor¡± that showed hostility toward him.

    When he considered how to reply, Sunders responded first by saying, ¡°Know your ce, Yorkshire. You¡¯re no one to question the decisions of Lord Shava.¡±

    ¡°You¡ª¡± Yorkshire stuttered but did not say anything against Sunders. It only stared at Sunders in rage.

    Sunders smiled as he found his earlier theory proved. ¡°As I said, you have no right to suspect Lord Shava¡¯s ns. Our battle is between you and me. Do not drag Lord Shava into this.¡±

    Again, Yorkshire gazed at Sunders without replying.

    Greya gave Sunders a questioning look as well, but Sunders didn¡¯t intend to exin to her.

    ¡°Get away from here. I¡¯ll look for youter,¡± Sunders told Angor.

    Angor intentionally cast a cold glimpse at Yorkshire, who avoided his look.

    ¡°Mister Watcher spoke the truth this time, Yorkshire. You know well that your question is improper. You also know what will happen to you if the queen learns about this, don¡¯t you?¡± Fox blinked into existence next to Yorkshire while holding that powerful harp.

    ¡°But you saw it, Fox! If I¡¯m not mistaken, Lord Shava just destroyed¡ª¡±

    ¡°Mind your words.¡± Fox¡¯s eyes twinkled. When she saw Yorkshire still not convinced, she sent a voice transmission, ¡°Which is more important to the queen? Shava, or a small outpost? Do remember. We both are merely pawns for Her Highness, whereas Lord Shava...¡±

    Yorkshire looked down.

    Unfortunately, nobody else heard theirmunication.

    ¡°Now go. Theing battle is not something you can interfere with,¡± Sunders urged again.

    Angorplied and hopped onto Toby¡¯s back.

    Toby lingered in the air for a brief moment and activated his gravity power to head into the darkness in the distance while Angor¡¯s group sat on his back.

    It wasn¡¯t long before Angor saw explosions and me pirs rising into the sky behind him. He could almost feel the intense fight even though Toby had brought them to a great distance away from the battlefield. He knew that he would get burned into ash should he remain behind.

    He shook his head and decided to concentrate on the journey ahead.

    Since he had achieved every goal, he told Toby to take it easy this time.

    Now that he felt safe, Angor pulled the puppy in front of his face and offered his sincere thanks. It was all thanks to the puppy that they managed to get Nausica out.

    This was not all. The puppy also helped him learn great knowledge regarding Mystery energy. Even though Angor could not put it to test in his soul form, he meant to truly thank the dog for granting him a chance to pursue the title of a ¡°Mystery Alchemist¡±.

    Things said, he still had not forgotten the various terrifying deeds done by the creature, such as how it ¡°swallowed¡± him and consumed Hookdick¡¯s sequence power. Angor would like to be on guard around the puppy even though it had been acting all innocuously.

    He kept the puppy with him because he believed it could also provide them with a clue that might help them escape from the outer city.

    Nausica had recovered some strength. She spoke to Angor while using Toby¡¯s mane as a resting pillow, ¡°Shan has told me. It¡¯s all thanks to you. Otherwise, every one of us will die in this ce.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re wee. I happen to have something that needs your assistance. Guess I paid you in advance.¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡± Nausica shrugged. ¡°What do you need?¡±

    Angor told Nausica to go to Phantom Indter and check out the bloodline problem of the Krakoks.

    ¡°That¡¯s simple enough. I¡¯ll get to it as soon as we get out.¡±

    She knew that Angor was using the favor as an excuse so that she would not feel bothered after receiving his timely help. Yet she would still remember the life-saving benevolence until she could truly repay it.

    ¡°Oh right. So you have disposed of Hookdick?¡± Compared to her friends, Nausica didn¡¯t seem sad about this matter. The only thing she cared about was whether their threat was dealt with. Who finished the job didn¡¯t matter.

    ¡°I did. Never thought that guy would keep hiding in Sleepless City.¡±

    ¡°¡®me Walker¡¯ Mister Filo, a Brute Cavern wizard stationed here, is a good friend of Mister Ness. It¡¯s only natural that he allowed Hookdick to stay here... Hey Angor, Hookdick was a Soul Maniptor. Are you sure youpletely eliminated his soul as well?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I know because I¡¯m using my soul form as well.¡±

    Both Nausica and Shan looked at him with widened eyes.

    ¡°Wait, you are?¡±

    ¡°Ohe on, you should have noticed. I never cast a single cantrip yet. The reason is so obvious.¡±

    Nausica and Shan looked at each other.

    ¡°No. We never noticed...¡± said Shan.

    ¡°Oh, my,¡± Nausicamented, ¡°if your soul is SO solid... you don¡¯t have to kill Hookdick at all. Just swagger your achievement in front of his face and that fool will die of jealousy.¡±

    They were talking in a more rxed way since all urgent problems were solved, but Angor noticed that Shan was trying her best to hide her true emotions.

    Apparently, she had not gotten over the sadness for losing Gank.

    As for Shiliew... she had returned to ying her part as ¡°Dripping River the Sleeper¡± by sleeping again.

    ¡°Speaking of souls, I think my soul just got stronger after escaping from those strings,¡± Nausica said, uncertain of something.

    ¡°Misfortune and blessing often apany each other. Guess you earned a new destiny after surviving the crisis.¡±

    ¡°What was the monster trying to make? A ¡®prototype puppet¡¯, right?¡± Nausica mumbled while thinking about the strange snake she saw earlier. ¡°What is this ce, Angor? Who is that monster?¡±

    ¡°This whole matter involves secrets that people of our level aren¡¯t supposed to learn. Trust me, it¡¯s better if you don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Nausica nodded and looked at the creature in Angor¡¯s hand. ¡°At least you can tell me about this little thing, no?¡±

    ¡°I... actually, I don¡¯t know where this puppy came from.¡± Angor scratched his head.

    ¡°Alllright.¡±

    Nausica spent some time describing what happened after she was captured by Yorkshire.

 Chapter 619 - A Way Out

    <h4>Chapter 619:</h4>

    <h4>A Way Out</h4>

    Angor¡¯s group arrived at a church not far from the city¡¯s south gate.

    ¡°Do you know how to get out?¡± Nausica asked while smoking a silver pipe. Her voice sounded rather tired and unfocused after what she had been through.

    ¡°To be frank, no. We need this guy to bring us luck again.¡± Angor shrugged and nced at the spotted puppy. ¡°By the way, did you get a new pipe? Never saw this one before.¡±

    Nausica exhaled some pale-white smoke, which smelled rather pleasant, and pointed to the church. ¡°Found it from there. My old one is lost somewhere. Whoever left this got Silvery Rose inside... It¡¯s usually too costly for me. You know, at least ten crystals for a roll. d I enjoyed it for free.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re smoking a stranger¡¯s pipe? You should at least clean it first.¡±

    ¡°I did. Create Water, you taught me this one, remember? Trust me, I never ck off on my training.¡±

    Shan heard their conversation and perked up. ¡°So the entire city is kinda dead now, we can take everything we want!¡±

    ¡°Valuables will always have some means of protection.¡± Angor nced at a bookstore at the other end of the road. ¡°You¡¯re free to try. I won¡¯t stop you.¡±

    Shan had no problem rushing into the said bookstore with her eyes twinkling with happiness.

    ¡°Putting my opinion aside, aren¡¯t you going to stop her?¡± he asked Nausica, who was rxing by leaning against a wall.

    Nausica shook her fringe away from her eyes and smiled. ¡°She¡¯ll only give up if she sees trouble for herself.¡±

    ¡°Alright. I see no parasites around here. You wait while I check out the city gate.¡±

    Angor told the puppy to follow him and headed to the south gate of Sleepless City, which was only about 50 meters from their position.

    The crisis struck the city during the day, so the gate was left open. But instead of the bright grasnd outside, the gate only led toward darkness right now.

    Angor told the puppy to wait and walked into the dark mist ahead.

    A momentter, he returned to the gate while feeling his head getting heavier. No matter how he tried, he would always end up at the starting point.

    ¡°Hey, Spotty, do you know a way out?¡± Angor crouched down and spoke to the puppy.

    The animal tilted its head as it wondered what ¡°Spotty¡± meant.

    Several secondster, it barked at Angor to protest.

    Angor only kept asking his question without realizing that his little partner was unsatisfied with its new name.

    The puppy lowered its head in defeat and slowly walked into the mist.

    Angor quickly followed behind. He noticed that the puppy did not walk in a straight line. Instead, it took way too many turns, which would usually cause them to walk in a circle. However, he soon saw the dense mist getting thinner.

    The puppy stopped moving and sat down when the dark mist almost turned bright.

    Angor took a step ahead and immediately found himself standing outside the boundary of the darkness-infested outer city. Further ahead, there was a wizardughing maniacally while whipping at a group of possessed apprentices using her barbed whip.

    It was ¡°Whipping Witch¡± Rak¡¯sel. Angor saw her once before entering the darkness with Sunders.

    Angor¡¯s appearance immediately drew her attention. The witch was shocked briefly. She then put away her weapon and rushed to Angor with an alluring smile.

    Angor saw hering and quickly took one step back into the mist.

    Then he heard someone cursing loudly, ¡°Get back here, stupid brat!¡±

    He easily made it back to the south gate again and found the puppy waiting for him quietly.

    ¡°Well, that was close...¡±

    He did not wish to think about what would happen if he were caught by a treasure-hunting witch who loved torturing apprentices.

    Also, he was very d that the strange puppy really was able to get them out!

    ¡°Is everything okay? I saw you wandering in and out of that barrier like a blind person. Can you find the exit?¡± Nausica approached him. Her body still smelled like a rose.

    Angor didn¡¯t answer. Instead, he saw Shan standing not far from them. She was supporting her sleeping partner with a really sad look. The earlier vigor for getting to take stuff for free was nowhere to be found.

    ¡°Did your hunt go well, Princess Shan?¡± Angor grinned.

    Shan red at him. ¡°You knew it! There¡¯s this odd magic array in the store. The moment I started reading a book, I was knocked out!¡±

    ¡°You can try destroying the array by force. But bookstores like this usually have countermeasures, such as destroying the books to prevent anyone from seizing them.¡±

    He didn¡¯t exin the second option, which was to ¡°disarm¡± the trap without causing any alert. This would cost much more time and effort. Also, he could not do it without his body. This was why Angor never copied Shan¡¯s grand n of plundering the city for resources.

    There should be people who carelessly left their possessions free of protection, but Angor wasn¡¯t going to spend time searching for them.

    Shan cursed after listening to Angor¡¯s words. ¡°What are they? Stingy dogs trying to hide their bones so that they cane back and relish their pathetic treatster?¡±

    The puppy felt bothered by her words and barked at her.

    ¡°Oh, I wasn¡¯t referring to you.¡± Shan quickly put on a gentle look as she said, ¡°I was talking about other dogs, heh heh.¡±

    Angor and Nausica smiled at each other. While it was true that losing Gank had put a great burden on Shan¡¯s mind, it seemed like she was slowly recovering.

    ¡°So how about it? Can we leave?¡± Nausica asked again.

    Shan also stayed focused. Putting the great dangers aside, not being able to take valuables from the shops was the second reason for her to leave this city as fast as possible.

    Angor nodded. ¡°The mist conceals our way like a maze, but little Spotty can lead the way.¡±

    ¡°For real?¡± Shan yelled in joy. ¡°And... Spotty? We should call our little friend the ¡®All-Powerful Poodle from the Gods¡¯!¡±

    Nausica chuckled at the joke. It seemed she hadpletely gotten over her suffering.

    Shan kept praising the puppy until the animal grew impatient and growled at her.

    ¡°So, are we leaving right now?¡± said Shan, as she decided to leave the puppy alone.

    Angor put on a grim look. ¡°We certainly can. But the outside is not exactly safe. There are possessed people, parasites, and I just saw Rak¡¯sel, who would have gotten to me if I were to move a little bit slower.¡±

    Nausica considered Angor¡¯s words.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. You¡¯re the only one who showed up from the outer city, and Rak¡¯sel saw you. They must have already ced many lookouts to keep an eye on you right now. It¡¯s... not a good choice for us to leave at this moment.¡±

    Shan nodded to agree. Despite her looks, she was in fact older than Nausica, which meant she had more experience dealing with people. ¡°Let¡¯s wait. I don¡¯t think the wizards out there will harm us, but we can¡¯t expect anything good from them either. They are looking to get their hands on the Mystery treasure. If we be the first ones to escape, we¡¯ll get caught in a serious conflict.¡±

    ¡°Agreed. Let¡¯s wait for my professor to find us, by which time we can leave this ce more safely,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Geez. I hope I¡¯m a wizard too so that I cane and go whenever I want!¡± Shan moaned.

    ¡°Work hard then. I hope you look as cute as you are now after a hundred years,¡± said Nausica.

    ¡°You sound as if you can seed and live that long!¡± Shan nced at her. ¡°I fully trust Angor. As for you... meh.¡±

    ¡°Heh. I will be a wizard. I must.¡± Nausica looked determined.

    ¡°Yeah, right. How convincing.¡±

    Angor watched their interaction and was not sure how to interpret their friendship. Or were they friends at all?

    ...

    Earlier, after Angor briefly emerged from the dark mist, Rak¡¯sel revealed what she saw to everyone, though unwillingly.

    At first, she nned to capture Angor and learn how to travel through the dark barrier as well as the situation in the outer city so that she could plot something ordingly and hopefully go look for the treasure herself. But then she noticed that there was a Wizard Eye ced nearby. She didn¡¯t know which wizard had their vision here or how much they had seen. She believed she should reveal the message just so that she could earn a favor from Sleepless City, while at the same time, avoiding suspicions.

    Inside Monsoon Sector, all wizards had started quarreling over Rak¡¯sel¡¯s discovery.

    ¡°Plucker of Strings¡± Doctor Anglo took great risk to monitor the condition in the outer city and managed to confirm that it was Angor who created thatrge-scale energy storm. The storm was likely to dispel the darkness if it went on, yet Sunders stopped it from happening.

    And the same apprentice surprised them again by leaving the forbidden zone when a good number of powerful wizards had been trapped in the darkness.

    How did he create so many wonders?

    The discussing wizards all assumed that the boy possessed a powerful alchemy item.

 Chapter 620 - Church

    <h4>Chapter 620: Church</h4>

    Dous looked at Anglo, who had been awfully quiet till now.

    ¡°Doctor Anglo, didn¡¯t you say that you may predict more information if someone shows up? Well, the student of Mister Phantom just provided a perfect chance.¡±

    Anglo didn¡¯t respond. It was ¡°Ocean Moray¡± Heroline who spoke up while giggling, ¡°Come on, you all believed it? So Rak¡¯sel imed that Angor came out, well bring him here then! How can the doctor do anything if he has not seen Angor yet?¡±

    Rak¡¯sel narrowed her eyes and gave Heroline a hateful look.

    Dous didn¡¯t mind them. He was waiting for Anglo¡¯s reply.

    ¡°Angor did show up from the boundary.¡± Anglo shook his head at Heroline and said, ¡°I saw him from my Wizard Eye.¡±

    Rak¡¯sel¡¯s eyes twinkled. ¡°It was you who sneaked a Wizard Eye inside a tree? But it was you who told us to abandon the city. What, you¡¯re getting interested too?¡±

    ¡°Interested? Do you mean the Mystery item? No. I¡¯m simply curious about the dark realm itself, and a certain omen I saw earlier, which was powerful enough to disrupt the strings of this world.¡± Anglo adjusted his sses, which glimmered in the candlelight. He then said to Dous, ¡°In fact, I performed ¡®plucking¡¯ as soon as I saw Angor, but the result did not change.¡±

    He showed everyone the topmost parchment on his wooden tablet, which had a line of characters written in blood.

    [The source of all darkness, and the bearer of unrelenting menace]

    Dous sent Payne a voice transmission, ¡°Anglo spoke the truth. The blood was left there recently.¡±

    Anglo continued, ¡°Nothing has altered the prediction, but the phrase is giving me a different feeling this time. I cannot exin this in words. Perhaps something else just happened in the outer city, and we must find the answer from Mister Phantom. Or his student, Angor.¡±

    ¡°Since Angor could walk through the dark mist unharmed, then¡ª¡± said Payne as he stepped up to Anglo.

    Anglo shook his head. ¡°I do not know. If you¡¯re anxious to learn about the situation, might as well wait for Mister Phantom. I assume that he will return soon enough. I wish to know what this disaster means to us as much as you do.¡±

    They all looked through the window and at the dark dome outside in silence.

    ...

    While the wizards outside were waiting to find out what the crisis meant to the city, Angor was looking at the dead city from the air and wondering about the same question.

    What is the ¡°queen¡± nning to do? Yorkshire regarded this city as an outpost. Why does that queen need an outpost? And what will be of this city?

    Angor could not think of any answers to these questions, but each time he decided to ignore them, there was something in his mind that tickled him and urged him to find out.

    He even thought about returning to the central inteyer and question Froggy. He managed to persuade himself into giving up. Yorkshire already seemed suspicious of his actions. Sunders did help him avoid further trouble, but he should not test his luck too much by asking things when he wasn¡¯t supposed to. He didn¡¯t know how much privilege he could enjoy using Shava¡¯s name yet.

    The Nightmare Realm always presented him with endless mysteries. Solving one meant discovering more, and Angor found it impossible to not get curious.

    He felt like a pawn being controlled by someone unknown. He could neither see where he was going nor resist his fate.

    To shake free of the control, his first choice was to make up his mind and never go to the Nightmare Realm again. However, this was not optimal since he had gained so much benefit from that ce. And even if he could, Sunders would not allow him to hide from danger and challenges all the time.

    The second choice was to get strong enough to oppose whoever wanted to manipte him.

    He was on this path right now, but it would still take a lot of time.

    He gazed at the swirling vortex in the sky and let out a deep sigh.

    ¡°Angor!¡± someone called.

    Angor looked down and saw Shan happily waving at him.

    He rubbed his temples and wondered what to do. He came to the sky just to avoid listening to the chitchats among thedies. While Nausica was not someone to waste time on small talk, she was currently trying to help Shan feeling better indirectly, which meant she would dly join Shan¡¯s conversations, be them productive or not.

    And each time Angor joined them, he just felt a huge headache.

    Hended on the ground and pretended that he felt tired by yawning. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    Shan hopped his way on bunny steps.

    Angor would really like toin that Shan didn¡¯t know how to walk properly without Gank despite the fact that she was several dozen years older than him.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I saw you pretty bored up there, so I want to talk to you!¡± Shan tried reaching for Angor¡¯s arm, but Angor moved faster by flying higher.

    ¡°Nah. I haven¡¯t had any sleep in several days. I need to rest.¡±

    With that, he turned to find somewhere more private.

    But he didn¡¯t get to move before they heard a sharp scream echoing across the sky.

    ¡°ARRRGHHH¡ª¡±

    Angor was rather surprised to notice that the voice came from not far away¡ªthe church near the city gate.

    Nausica limped to them while still breathing puffs of smoke. ¡°But I checked that ce earlier. There¡¯s no one inside.¡±

    ¡°I think it came from the top floor. Did you check there as well?¡± Angor looked at the pointy roof of the church but couldn¡¯t see many details apart from the colorful stained ss and the statue of a praying goddess.

    ¡°No. I only stayed inside a prayer room and found that pipe from a confession chamber.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s check it out. We don¡¯t have anything else to do anyway.¡± Shan looked thirsty for adventure.

    Angor secretly gave Nausica a wink, who nodded to him and made a rubbing gesture beside her ears. Apparently, she was getting fed up with Shan¡¯s bbering as well.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do it.¡± Angor smiled at Shan.

    The church was built for mortals to attend and pray for their families during weekends.

    The first thing that caught their attention on the first floor was arge goddess statue that seemed to be a fictional deity used for spreading religions among the citizens. While Angor was not interested in such things, he would admit that this ¡°fake¡± deity was still betterpared to actual demons from the abyss who kindled all sorts of fanatics and crazy cults around the world.

    The church was hollow and empty. They only heard their own footsteps echoing between the walls.

    They came to the third level and reached the bishop¡¯s office along with an ¡°enlightenment chamber¡±. It was likely that the bishop used this chamber to receive guidance from their goddess. Angor was pretty sure that this was only for a show.

    The door to the enlightenment chamber was shut. There were various pictures carved on the brown wooden door, such as wings, rays of holy light, or other symbols that represented life and blessing.

    ¡°There¡¯s something inside,¡± said Shan.

    Angor listened quietly. ¡°Yes. It¡¯s another monster nest if I¡¯m not mistaken.¡±

    They all heard the familiar buzzing noise across the door. While Angor and Shan didn¡¯t seem too concerned, Nausica¡¯s face instantly went pale since she knew how terrifying these parasites were, because she had been watching them roaming around her when she was bound by the deadly strings.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I got you,¡± Angor whispered.

    Nausica chuckled and spat out a smoke ring. ¡°Never, ever did I think that I¡¯d get reassured by a kid.¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow. That sounded weird in a sense.

    Nausica quenched her pipe and moved ahead to open the door with a determined look. As expected, a glowing dragonfly nest was fixed in the center of the room.

    They quickly looked up to see who was captured. Perhaps it was the victim they just heard.

    Again, using Shan¡¯s cantrip, they saw a man in a bloody and tattered robe hung in midair by the same golden strings that connected to the portal of a void.

    Unlike the other victims like Nausica, in whose cases the dragonflies hid in the nest and only came out when they sensed someoneing, this man was constantly surrounded by the insects who would attack him every time he tried to move.

    And it seemed the man managed to stay alive even though he had been enduring both the strings and the rainbow dragonflies, which were as powerful as top-level apprentices.

    Guess he¡¯s a wizard, Angor pondered in his mind.

    The prisoner suddenly opened his eyes and looked at them.

    ¡°Who are you?¡±

 Chapter 621 - Bloodline and Temptation

    <h4>Chapter 621: Bloodline and Temptation</h4>

    ¡°Forget it. Just a bunch of apprentices. You can¡¯t help with anything.¡± The prisoner lowered his head. ¡°You must be very lucky to survive the parasites.¡±

    Angor¡¯s group remained silent.

    ¡°And I do believe that luck will continue.¡± The wizard looked at them again, causing a giant wound on his neck to bleed out.

    He slowly inspected everyone. After briefly showing a disappointed look at Angor, he set his gaze upon Nausica.

    ¡°Name¡¯s Gragg. Does that ring a bell? Well, never mind. I¡¯m a dying fool who¡¯ll go to hell sooner orter. You don¡¯t have to remember me.

    ¡°Let¡¯s be quick. I¡¯m a Bloodline Wizard. As I said, I¡¯m dying and nobody¡¯s gonna save me...¡± Gragg continued in sadness, ¡°These goddamn wires and the insects that kept gnawing at me... I know my body. I¡¯m at my limit. Maybe one or two minutes, and I¡¯ll stop breathing.

    ¡°But before I die, I want to pass on my legacy to someone. You, thatdy in armor. What¡¯s your name?¡±

    Nausica wondered whether she should reply, but Gragg didn¡¯t give her time to think about it.

    ¡°Nah, it doesn¡¯t matter. Just another passerby I saw in my troubled life...¡± Gragg shook his head. ¡°The important thing is, this is your lucky day. I will give you everything I¡¯ve acquired so that they don¡¯t go to waste. This includes my bloodline. Mine, Gragg¡¯s bloodline, the bloodline of Nether Demons!

    ¡°Come closer,dy. Wee this brilliant destiny I present to you!¡±

    Gragg did his speech in a passionate and intoxicating manner, but when he finished, he realized nobody was making any response.

    ¡°Be quick,dy. I¡¯ll expire any moment now, after which no one¡¯s going to find my treasures ever again!¡± Gragg urged.

    Nausica took a step forward and was dragged back by Shan. She saw Shan had reced her carefree look with a serious frown.

    Don¡¯t. It¡¯s a trap. Shan spoke using lipnguage.

    Nausica gave Shan a reassuring smile and told Shan to rx.

    Angor was floating in the air while observing Gragg¡¯s show. He already noticed something fishy in the deal, but he chose not to warn Nausica because he believed that Nausica was way more experienced than him when it came to dealing with shady business. The former pirate captain of ckberry Waters was bound to be perceptive enough to discover such problems.

    ¡°Mister Gragg, my name is Ang, a Bloodline apprentice in training. I truly thank you for your generosity, yet I cannot go to you because I feared these dragonflies will turn me to pieces the moment I draw near.¡± Nausica bowed politely.

    Gragg¡¯s expression froze. Then he forced a smile while bearing the great pain inflicted on his body.

    ¡°The path of wizardry is always full of crises and threats. If you always step down in the face of such challenges, you will have no hope of pursuing the ultimate truth. Didn¡¯t you see that these dragonflies never minded your presence? This is because they only meant to keep an eye on me. Besides, you don¡¯t have to get close to me. Move under this nest and below my position. It will be fine.¡±

    Heh. Nausica scoffed in her mind. She already knew that the dragonflies were peaceful thanks to Angor, but she didn¡¯t show her true mind. On the outside, Nausica maintained that ¡°eager but fearful¡± attitude.

    While watching, Angor silently admired how Nausica was so masterful while putting up shows even though she spent most of her time training. He tried to observe Nausica¡¯s details as much as he could, for this might help himter, when he had to fake his attitude in front of different figures again.

    Gragg was getting convinced by Nausica¡¯s ¡°performance¡±, so he believed he just needed to throw another bait to lure thedy to him.

    ¡°Sigh. Are you really going to give up on this great treasure of mine? Fine. I do not care what is bothering your mind. It¡¯s just the unjust will of a dying man anyway... I thank you foring and letting me enjoy a few words with someone before I perish. Here, just take this.¡±

    By using what remained of his spirit power, Gragg pulled a small ss vial from his personal storage and tossed it at Nausica, whichnded at her feet.

    Using Shan¡¯s light source, they saw the ordinary-looking potion vial had expansion runes drawn on the inside, which allowed it to contain more liquid than it appeared to be.

    This was usually referred to as a ¡°Bloodline Vial¡±. As the name suggested, such vials were designed to hold bloodlines. As they were quite costly to make, wizards usually used them to contain rtively valuable bloodlines only.

    The vial had some red liquid inside.

    ¡°Ang, is it? Take it away. That¡¯s the watered-down bloodline of a Nether Demon, consider it a gift from me. Too bad, the knowledge in my mind will have no sessors.¡±

    Nausica, Angor, and Shan looked at each other in surprise.

    They knew how valuable this bloodline was. Even if it was a ¡°watered-down¡± version of a demon bloodline or something else despite Gragg¡¯s words, anything that required a bloodline vial to contain must be rather precious.

    Which meant something worth bing the highlight lots at auctions.

    Nausica always had a shortage of money because she had been working hard on saving money for a decent bloodline. It was likely that Gragg just showed her a real bloodline vial in order to set her up, and this was such a good chance to acquire her bloodline atst.

    Even if she could not use it for some reason, she could always sell it and use the money to buy something that would be more proper.

    Shan already changed her attitude by urging Nausica to ept the trade, while keeping an eye out for potential traps.

    Nausica made a thumbs-up behind her. I got this.

    Then she used that same hesitant look to nce between Gragg and the vial beneath her.

    She then moved to pick it up.

    Gragg smirked.

    But Nausica stopped her movement before touching the vial, which confused Gragg greatly. He had left a spell on the item, which would be triggered when someone touched it.

    Nausica pretended that she was taking her time to make the final decision. She then secretly winked at Angor.

    Angor saw her hint and slowly nodded.

    Nausica straightened up and spoke to Gragg while mimicking Gragg¡¯s tone, ¡°I know you wish someone to take over your great legacy, sir. But to me, such a fortuitous gift bestowed by a stranger will never be my true strength, nor will I have enough strength to bear with it. Using it might hinder my steps and even prevent me from bing a wizard. I think I will not disgrace your name by putting your power to waste, sir.¡±

    Nausica turned back and called at Angor and Shan. ¡°Go!¡±

    Immediately, Angor and Shan pushed the room¡¯s door open and bolted outside. At the same time, Angor created a string out of gravity power that pulled the bloodline vial away.

    Gragg was stunned for a second. He quickly realized that these lowly apprentices were simply tricking him, especially that woman.

    ¡°ursed morons!¡± Gragg¡¯s rage caused several of his blood vessels to pop open under the strings. ¡°You can run, but you aren¡¯t going to take my stuff for free! EXPLOSION!¡±

    When Gragg¡¯s bellow was heard, Angor quickly noticed a strange energy affecting the vial being dragged by his gravity power.

    ¡°Damn! He put a spell on this thing, and it¡¯s going to get out of control.¡±

    Nausica briefly showed a sorrowful look before she yelled at Angor, ¡°Throw it away. Don¡¯t mind me!¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure about this. Discarding the vial meant giving up something that could potentially be valued at a million crystals, but he found no other choice when the energy on the vial became so violent and dangerous. In the end, heplied and hurled the item as far as he could.

    A hand that was wearing a white glove suddenly materialized in the air and caught the vial. The hand glowed and easily dispelled the raging aura on the vial, leaving the item intact.

    ¡°Since when did you learn how to trick helpless apprentices, Gragg?¡±

    When Angor heard the familiar voice of his professor, he immediately stopped running. So did Nausica and Shan, who all turned around to look at the gentleman who was somehow standing behind them.

    ¡°Professor? Thank goodness you¡¯re here.¡±

    ¡°Are you blind, Angor? He¡¯s not your only savior.¡± Greya¡¯s voice came from above them.

    Angor looked up, but he immediately lowered his head as fast as he could.

    ¡°Lady... Lady Greya.¡±

    ¡°What? You won¡¯t even look at me properly now?¡± Greya spat.

    Sunders assisted Angor by saying, ¡°That dress of yours... Sure, you can get lower and let everyone have a good view of what¡¯s UNDER you, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    Greya was a little surprised to realize what Sunders meant, but she didn¡¯t seem to be ashamed at all.

    ¡°Oh... Mister Phantom, did you enjoy the view? Your opinion would be nice.¡±

    ¡°A little better than your old self, I must say. At least that purple undergarment does not strain too badly this time.¡±

 Chapter 622 - â€œLittle Impâ€ Gragg

    <h4>Chapter 622: ¡°Little Imp¡± Gragg</h4>

    While Greya tried to ¡°savor¡± Sunders¡¯ment, Gragg was giving them a really surprised look. ¡°YOU are here too, Sunders?!¡±

    Sunders tossed the bloodline vial to Angor. ¡°He¡¯s ¡®Little Imp¡¯ Gragg, from Edge of Night. A rebellious and rowdy kid. Do not trust a single word he says.¡±

    ¡°Oi! Sunders! What gives? We used to berades who fought together during the Demon Blood War. Do you have to run me down like that?!¡±

    The Demon Blood War was a small-scale war between wizards that happened inside Shallowtomb ne. It started because people were fighting over a vial of demon blood.

    ¡°That is exactly why I know your nature,¡± Sunders replied nonchntly. ¡°How many folks fell for your lies back then? A thousand?¡±

    ¡°But I never tricked you, right?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re free to do so, if you can, that is.¡±

    Gragg rolled his eyes but failed to think of any excuse. Yet he could not admit his n either, so he thought about diverting their attention. ¡°Greya? They called you Greya, right? But the Greya I know didn¡¯t seem so... slim. Your soul doesn¡¯t sit well with your body. Did you maybe rob someone¡¯s body?¡±

    Greyanded on the ground and red at him. ¡°None of your freaking business. Aren¡¯t you thinking about the same thing just now? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re interested in taking the body of a little girl?!¡±

    In fact, this was Gragg¡¯s intention, and he wasn¡¯t going to feel ashamed for it. ¡°Heh heh, I didn¡¯t mean it. Since you¡¯re here, how about a little help?¡±

    Greya shook her head. ¡°Nah. I can¡¯t deal with that thing.¡±

    Gragg then looked at Sunders. ¡°Come on, old pal. You aren¡¯t going to watch me die, eh?¡±

    Sunders lifted a hand and released an energy ray at him.

    Gragg was terrified at first, but he was relieved to see the energy going for the golden string above his head, but not actually his head.

    Bam!

    The energy vanished, while the string shivered a little but was otherwise unharmed. Gragg screamed in pain as the small disturbance spread a chain reaction toward all the other strings that further cut into his body.

    Unlike the white strings that imprisoned Greya, these golden ones inflicted both bodily and mental pain on their victims.

    As someone who went through the torture before, Nausica frowned and looked away from Gragg so that she didn¡¯t get reminded of the terrible experience.

    As Gragg howled, the rainbow dragonflies moved in unison and prepared to attack Sunders. It seemed they were provoked by Sunders¡¯ move.

    Sunders lifted his hand again and was going to kill the insects.

    Angor saw this and quickly told the dragonflies to go away by releasing his emotions.

    He didn¡¯t particrly like or hate Froggy and Fox, but he would like to prevent the dragonflies from dying since they helped him escape from a ne passageway before and saved his life.

    The creatures had no problem listening to Angor¡¯s ¡°order¡± and instantly backed away.

    Angor tried to do it in a concealed way. While Gragg didn¡¯t notice his attempt, the other two wizards close to him, meaning, Sunders and Greya, all saw his n.

    Sunders canceled his attack and nced at Angor, but he did not say anything.

    Greya narrowed her eyes and gave Angor a meaningful look.

    Gragg managed to recover from the shock, which obviously quickened his death. He was now breathing heavily while gazing at Sunders with unfocused eyes. ¡°I can¡¯t... Another hit and I¡¯ll lose it. There¡¯s something... whispering to me. It tells me to give in to darkness. But I don¡¯t want to... Help!¡±

    Gragg had given up his tricky and slicker way and was pleading for real now. And Sunders was his only hope.

    Sunders dusted his gloves. ¡°I just tried, and it failed. You should know that the attack was almost the best I can do. It has no effect on the strings.¡±

    He saw Angor winking at him, as if the boy wanted to say something, and established a Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Um, professor? Spotty can break those strings.¡±

    ¡°Spotty?¡± Sunders frowned and nced at the creature who deserved that moniker. ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°I am.¡± Angor exined how they rescued Nausica earlier.

    ¡°I see.¡± Sunders pondered. ¡°But we won¡¯t need it here. And don¡¯t tell this to others.¡±

    Angor nodded but was rather puzzled at it. He thought Sunders and Gragg were friends, but it seemed that he was wrong.

    ¡°I have a question about this dog though,¡± Sunders continued, ¡°do you know what exactly it is?¡±

    Angor hesitated and decided to tell Sunders his earlier theory. ¡°Maybe this is what attracted all the wizards to Sleepless City.¡±

    ¡°You mean...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s either a Mystery spirit or a Mystery item itself, but I can¡¯t tell right now.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t question further, but he was giving the dog more curious nces.

    Gragg was still looking for a means of escape desperately. He said, ¡°Just give me a body to live on. Such as that hot-looking woman.¡±

    They all knew that Gragg was referring to Nausica, but all females on the scene didn¡¯t look pleased upon hearing his words.

    Gragg suddenly looked at his bloodline vial, which was now in Angor¡¯s hand. ¡°That¡¯s your student, Sunders? I thought about taking his body. But god damn he¡¯s using his soul form right now, so I have to pick somebody else. I promise, as long as you get me out of here, I¡¯ll swear under Dinya Merkel¡¯s Oath.¡±

    Dinya Merkel¡¯s Oath was usually used by wizards as aprehensive magic covenant. Those bound by this oath must satisfy one wish of the beneficiary, as long as the wish did not restrict their future freedom.

    This meant once Gragg established this oath with Sunders, Sunders would be able to request anything that did not vite Gragg¡¯s freedom, such as forcing Gragg to hand over all of his possessions and knowledge.

    Sunders smiled. ¡°That¡¯s a tempting offer. Sure, I can agree. I have a container that protects souls so you can use it until I find a proper body¡ª¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Gragg shook his head quickly. ¡°I¡¯d already done it if I can eject my soul and go look for a body myself. But these wires prevent my soul from leaving! Now I can only travel to another body by sending the root of my soul, if such a body is within my reach.¡±

    Gragg looked defeated when exining. His case was a lot worsepared to Greya. At least Greya could retain most of her power in a foreign body due to her soul. Gragg¡¯s approach, however, meant to discard everything he had while keeping only his memory and consciousness.

    He basically had to start his life anew.

    Sunders didn¡¯t seem surprised to hear about this¡ªhe expected such when he saw Gragg luring Nausica close to him.

    The core of one¡¯s soul was extremely fragile, and it would lose its form under a second when exposed to the outside. Gragg needed Nausica to be close so that he could make sure that he could invade her body in time.

    ¡°If so...¡± Sunders nced at Nausica.

    Nausica did nothing more than bracing herself with a determined look.

    Sunders chuckled. He already saw through Nausica¡¯s mind¡ªshe was going to resist and kill Gragg the moment she couldnd a hit on his soul.

    Heh, good reflexes and promising potential. This one is likely to be a wizard of Brute Cavern and I probably should keep her alive as Angor¡¯s friend.

    ¡°How long do you still have?¡± Sunders asked Gragg a question.

    ¡°Huh? Two minutes, maybe.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Wait here,¡± Sunders said as his form vanished.

    Gragg more or less knew why Sunders suddenly left like that. He began to wonder who thatdy was since Sunders went out of his way to go look for a body elsewhere.

    Does that woman have a rtionship with Sunders too?

    While waiting, Angor whispered to Greya so that he could learn what happened to Yorkshire.

    ¡°It ran off to the city center. Sunders said we shouldn¡¯t give chase because there¡¯s something dangerous over there,¡± Greya exined. ¡°Hey, when did that man find a new Mystery item?¡±

    ¡°Mystery item?¡± Angor was puzzled for a while before he realized what Greya meant. ¡°Are you talking about the Cursing Puppet?¡±

    Sunders won this item from Twilight Auction by paying seven million crystals. Later, Angor tried to borrow it so that he could observe the Mystery properties hidden in the item, but Sunders never agreed.

    And Angor was still troubled by it somewhat.

    ¡°Yeah, a broken children¡¯s toy or something like that. Cursing Puppet? That snake was scared away by it. I didn¡¯t know that snakes could cry.¡±

    ¡°What about Fox? She has a Mystery item too.¡±

    ¡°That beast vanished as soon as Sunders reached for the Cursing Puppet. Oh, you should have seen Sunders¡¯ face! He almost got his hands on that harp, and the fox slipped away with it under his nose!¡± Greya happily mocked at Sunders¡¯ failure when the gentleman was not around.

 Chapter 623 - Spivet

    <h4>Chapter 623: Spivet</h4>

    Greya suddenly removed her joking manner and whispered to Angor, ¡°So you¡¯re acquainted with these nightmare creatures?¡±

    ¡°No. I¡¯m safe from them until now all thanks to the professor.¡±

    That was Angor¡¯s only answer. He responded to Greya¡¯s following inquiring attempts with absolute silence.

    Greya feared that Sunders woulde back soon and stopped trying. ¡°Well, I know you two got lots of secrets. Okay, fine, I¡¯m an outsider, I¡¯ll just forget about this.¡±

    Angor left Greya and approached the room¡¯s door where Nausica was waiting. He then tossed the bloodline vial to her.

    Nausica thought about rejecting, but Gragg yelled at them, ¡°Hey, that¡¯s my stuff! I still need it when I get a new body!¡±

    Sunders appeared at the door with an unconscious young man grabbed in his hand.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you would give it to her and threw the vial away yourself? It¡¯s toote to change your mind.¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯s... a trick! I just needed to lure her closer! It doesn¡¯t count!¡±

    Sunders tossed the man he was carrying onto the floor. ¡°Is that so? Then I can do the same.¡±

    Gragg halted his protest and inspected the man brought by Sunders. This one was a pure mortal with an above-average talent, which suited bloodline users. Gragg realized that using this body was a good choice right now.

    Goddammit, I fell for it today! But I WILL tear off that deceptive facade of yours someday! Gragg clenched his teeth while cursing in his mind. ¡°Alright, alright! That vial is all yours. Bring that body to me now! I can¡¯t hold it any longer!¡±

    Sunders walked closer. ¡°The oath. Now.¡±

    While Sunders and Gragg did their work, Angor smiled to Nausica to reassure her. ¡°See? My professor means to give it to you. Just keep it. You won it from a battle of wit.¡±

    The vial of Nether Demon Bloodline was a priceless treasure to all apprentices.

    Shan already epted a bloodline, which meant she needed to pay a great price to cleanse her current one to receive a new one, while Angor already possessed the ¡°projected bloodline¡± of Shava, even though it did not allow him to use any particr talent abilities yet.

    For now, letting Nausica use the bloodline was the best choice.

    She was a level-2 Bloodline Art apprentice without a proper bloodline, which prevented her from benefiting from certain skills and cantrips that she was supposed to learn. She managed herself just fine due to her superior physique, but this wouldn¡¯t help her forever.

    epting the bloodline meant finally ¡°unlocking¡± her true potential.

    On condition that the bloodline fusion was sessful.

    There were known tactics to improve such chances. And unlike Sailum¡¯s Azure Bloodline, there were records regarding the usage of Nether Demon Bloodline. Nausica didn¡¯t need to worry about failing as long as she did not proceed unprepared, which was unlikely for her.

    Nausica put away the item while trying her best to suppress her excitement, but her twitching lips gave her out.

    At the center of the room, Gragg sessfully transferred the very root of his soul into the body of the young man Sunders brought back while mercilessly killing the ¡°rightful owner¡± of the body.

    The young man opened his eyes.

    The first thing he did was to look at his old body, which was being dragged into the void portal by the golden strings. He then moaned in sadness.

    But the negative emotion onlysted for a brief moment. Gragg was a ¡°former¡± wizard who had developed a very strong and tenacious mindset. He made a quick decision to give up his old body, and he would not cry over his past.

    While it was true that he had a sly and deceptive character, he was still a true wizard.

    When Gragg¡¯s old bodypletely vanished, he looked down to examine his new, younger body.

    And he was quite satisfied.

    A chest badge shaped like an imp suddenly dropped from the sky as he caught it in one hand. This was his personal space storage. He received it from a Master Alchemist from Floating Mech City about a century ago. He had been using it to hold most of his valuables.

    Losing his old body meant losing the ownership of the storage. In other words, everything inside was currently free to take.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to take it?¡± ¡°Young Gragg¡± looked at Sunders.

    ¡°I¡¯m not interested. And I certainly will not waste such a great chance granted by the oath just to take your things. Now listen up, because I¡¯m going to tell you my request right now.¡±

    Sunders waited for a moment until Gragg began to look VERY worried.

    ¡°Do you know Flora?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. ¡®Blood Witch¡¯ Flora. Everyone knows her.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m asking you to be her disciple while swearing to Hendra¡¯s Oath.¡± Sunders grinned devilishly.

    Hendra¡¯s Oath was usually used by teachers when they epted new students. The oath did not inflict many restrictions on their students. The only thing worth mentioning was that the oath forbade the promisee from betraying their teacher. Otherwise, the power of the oath would obliterate their soul immediately.

    Sunders basically asked Gragg to abandon all resources and rtionships he had developed in Edge of Night and start a new life.

    Gragg looked hesitant about this. However, he did not have a choice when bounded by the Dinya Merkel¡¯s Oath, and Sunders¡¯ order did nothing to restrict his personal freedom.

    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll do it.¡±

    Gragg suddenly felt hopeless. Just now, he thought about ¡°ripping open the gentleman¡¯s facade¡±. But how could he do it when studying under Sunders¡¯ student?

    ¡°Bid farewell to your past then. From today, ¡®Little Imp¡¯ Gragg does not exist,¡± said Sunders.

    The man in a boy¡¯s body nodded in defeat. ¡°Gragg is not my real name anyway. Call me Spivet.¡±

    The others were quite surprised to hear this name.

    Spivet was a name known by every wizard in the southern wizarding region. The name suggested a legendary figure from 5,000 years ago¡ªSpivet, the wizard of unrelenting deceit.

    A great wizard who reached the rank of ¡°legendary¡± by cheating his way there.

    Greya sent Sunders a voice transmission, ¡°Good job. You hoodwinked ¡®Little Imp¡¯ under your league so easily. He¡¯ll make an exceptional student.¡±

    Sunders smiled in contentment. He did so because he knew Gragg had what it took to regain the power of a true wizard. He might even be a truth-finder wizard if this man would use more ¡°legit¡± means of progressing instead of returning to being the ¡°wizard of unrelenting deceit¡±.

    Both Sunders and Greya knew what it meant to obtain a guaranteed wizard under one¡¯s name, and Greya felt jealous about it.

    ¡°Now that we¡¯re settled, it¡¯s time to leave this ce.¡± Sunders joined Greya while Spivet followed him.

    ¡°You know how to get out?¡±

    Sunders nodded. He just learned the means of escaping from Angor earlier.

    ¡°Wonderful. Shall we check around the city and take some stuff with us?¡± Greya smiled and rubbed her hands. She was thinking about the same thing as Shan, which was to loot the city while they had the chance.

    ¡°No, we¡¯re leaving now.¡± Sunders shook his head. ¡°Tarrying means inviting trouble. Even at this moment, the size of the inteyer is expanding. We¡¯re doomed if we get trapped in there.¡±

    No one protested against the gentleman¡¯s decision.

    They walked to the south gate of the city and gazed at the dark mist ahead with aplicated mood. Even though they knew they would make it out, seeing Sleepless City fall like this was not pleasant.

    ¡°Let¡¯s move,¡± Sunders asked Angor to lead the way.

    With everyone watching him, Angor gently told the spotted puppy to be their guide again.

    The animal woofed happily and dived into the mist.

    ¡°Come with me, please.¡±

    The group followed closely behind Angor, while Spivet and Greya gave Angor several curious looks.

    Greya had been asking Sunders where the animal came from, but Sunders never told her. It wasn¡¯t that Sunders did not wish to tell her¡ªhe was busy asking Angor about the same question through their Spirit Bond.

    ¡°Telling from what I heard from Froggy and Fox, Yorkshire brought the dog over from the Nightmare Realm when it isn¡¯t supposed to do so. The dog¡¯s owner is someone called ¡®Minister Dim¡¯,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Minister Dim?¡±

    ¡°There is someone back at Padt Manor named Dim. A cksmith. I think ¡®Minister Dim¡¯ is his projection.¡±

 Chapter 624 - Conference at Monsoon Sector

    <h4>Chapter 624: Conference at Monsoon Sector</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Monsoon Sector had seen peoplee and go. The strange darkness that fell upon the outer city was obviously dangerous, but at the same time, it held mysteries that attracted academicism wizards who valued knowledge and research more than their own lives.

    Of course, there were many wizards who solely came in search of the rumored Mystery treasure.

    Since the major organizations had learned that sending apprentices here as scouts equaled sentencing them to death, no one had further provided their members for the parasites.

    Even at this moment, there were still people arriving and leaving from the Monsoon Sector.

    Dous was now together with about 30 wizards, who were sent by various organizations across the region, inside an onion-domed conference hall at the center of the Monsoon Sector.

    ¡°I¡¯ll not waste time by exining the purpose of this meeting,¡± imed Dous. ¡°Ouna, if you would.¡±

    He stepped aside and gave his ce to a middle-aged woman wearing a golden-rimmed monocle over one eye and a traditional robe decorated with stars and moons. Several insignificant wrinkles on her cheeks further added to her stern temperament.

    ¡°Mister Radiance asked me to go to Brilliance ne and seek help from Starliege Temple. However, before I teleported to Brilliance ne via Silver Hub, I encountered Mister Prada.¡±

    ¡°Stargazer¡± Prada, a famous Prophet from Brilliance ne.

    ¡°It seems he predicted that I¡¯ll be there, so he waited for me at the hub. When I asked his opinion regarding this crisis, Mister Prada gave a simr answer as Doctor Anglo¡¯s, that we should avoid carelessly tampering with the darkness at all cost.¡±

    The participants, especially wizards from Sleepless City, didn¡¯t look very happy upon hearing this. Prada basically told them for a second time that they had to abandon Sleepless City and find a new home.

    But there were exceptions.

    Those from Edge of Night appeared rather pleased, even though they tried not to show it.

    As another moderate-sized wizard organization inside the Evernight Kingdom, Edge of Night always considered Sleepless City as their major rival. They even built the Evernight Mountain just to go against Sleepless City. It was a rather childish act, but it had shown others how bad their rtionship was.

    Giving up Sleepless City and establishing a new base elsewhere would undeniably harm the foundation of Sleepless City.

    Besides, moving away meant giving Edge of Night more room for development. If things kept going like this, Edge of Night was likely to achieve the rank of a major organization first before Sleepless City did.

    The wizards from Edge of Night were already being as polite as they could by notughing out, but this didn¡¯t help them appear any less hostile in this room.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid we have topletely move out of Evernight Kingdom this time.¡± Qetesh nced at the smirking wizards and scoffed. ¡°Who knows? Perhaps this darkness will keep growing, bringing those shiny things and monsters beyond the current bounds, by which time... it will soon be someone else¡¯s problem.¡±

    Everybody knew what he meant by that, but no one protested, because it would probably be just the case.

    ¡°Did you all remember the hint provided by Starliege Templest time,¡± Ouna spoke up, ¡°that ¡®The south is shrouded in darkness, yet the new sun will rise again¡¯? We do not know when our sun is going to rise yet, but the darkness does not seem to be ending any time soon. Mister Qetesh is right. It¡¯s very likely that this shaded curse will find its way to Evernight Mountain tomorrow.¡±

    When they were openly offended again, ¡°Evil Dragon¡± Harris humphed. ¡°While it is true that we aren¡¯t being neutral about this disaster, we haven¡¯t interfered in any way. Yet SOMEONE actually brought this problem out in the open for everyone tough at... I believe everyone here is among the elite ranks of their respective organizations. Surely you all can see who¡¯s being the dick around here, right?¡±

    Someone chuckled in the room.

    Harris was true. Showing their enmity so boldly during this important conference was both foolish and unproductive. Qetesh and Ouna had overreacted.

    ¡°Yeah, right. Enjoy your peace. You won¡¯t have it for long,¡± Qetesh cursed.

    ¡°Get to the point, Qetesh! Don¡¯t waste our time,¡± Payne scolded him with a grim look.

    When no one sounded any other opinions, a wizard asked something about the shiny spots and whether Prada mentioned anything about them.

    ¡°Mister Prada told us to simply wait,¡± Ouna replied. ¡°¡®There will be a way¡¯, as he said. But he did not exin in what way exactly. You know how Prophets do their riddles.¡±

    ¡°Wait?? Both my students had fallen as victims in that ce. We need a solution right now!¡± An angry wizard stood up.

    Ouna sneered. ¡°The lives of your students do not concern us. We never requested them toe in the first ce. Either they came uninvited, or someone asked them to. And either way, the responsibility is their own to bear.¡±

    ¡°Several of my students have been on official business in your city before the crisis struck. At least you should give us an answer to that, no?¡±

    The speaker was an old wizard wearing white all over his body, who just entered the conference room.

    The other wizards quickly whispered to each other curiously, while Ouna bowed to the old man politely. ¡°Mister Wace, I didn¡¯t expect that you¡¯de as well.¡±

    ¡°Of course I¡¯lle. All of my students are unparalleled research assistants and I cannot afford to lose any of them. So you do not care for those who came to check the crisis and got trapped instead. What about the others who were staying at Sleepless City all along? Is the city going to answer for our losses?¡±

    This old wizard was Wace from Brute Cavern, who was very famous for his picky character and shamelessness when it came to scamming other people for his personal gain.

    Apparently, he was using the misfortune of his students as an excuse for obtaining profit from Sleepless City.

    Ouna quickly removed her dictatorial attitude. Wace just pointed out their biggest concern as well as their weakness¡ªthere were way too many victims suffering from the incident including the friends and rtives of influential wizards. The city needed to find a solution to quench their rage.

    Of course, Sleepless City could choose to ignore everything and run away, in which case their names would be spat at for the rest of the era.

    When Ouna tried to find a proper answer, Payne sighed and left his seat to join Wace. ¡°Do not worry. We have received a report which says that there aren¡¯t many casualties. People are only restricted, but not killed, which means your students might be just fine, Mister Wace. The important matter at hand is to look for a way to get them out. The city will providepensation afterward.¡±

    Wace knew for a fact that his students were well and alive, but it didn¡¯t matter!

    An apprentice suddenly barged into the room and whispered something to Harris, who immediately widened his eyes.

    Next, all wizards from Edge of Night left the conference room together.

    The other participants looked at each other and wondered what had happened. Wace and Payne too, had stopped talking nonsense and looked at the door.

    Later, they managed to hear it from an apprentice from Edge of Night, that another wizard just perished inside the darkness.

    To be precise, it was a wizard from Edge of Night.

    ¡°Heh. Which dumb*ss is it?¡± Qetesh couldn¡¯t help smiling when he questioned the apprentice for a name. He just said that ¡°Edge of Night would not enjoy their peace for long¡±, and his words were proved so soon.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s ¡®Little Imp¡¯ Mister Gragg.¡±

    ¡°Gragg??¡± The other wizards all wondered what happened. Gragg might not be a powerful wizard, yet he was the best when it came to trickery and smart ns. Besides, that man usually valued his life more than anything else. How did he die at all?

    ¡°What about his soul? Completely vanished?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, sir. It seems to be the case, telling from how people from Edge of Night are reacting.¡±

    Allowing one¡¯s soul to vanish meant he was dead for real. There was no way to resurrect him.

    ¡°Will Doctor Anglo be able to predict how he was killed?¡± asked Payne.

    ¡°No idea. Wizards from Edge of Night just went to Doctor Anglo. We¡¯ll get the result soon.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go check on them then.¡± Payne beckoned to Dous and Qetesh.

    They arrived at Anglo¡¯s house and saw Harris walking outside. When he saw them, Harris humphed and left without saying anything.

    Inside the room, Anglo was working on his parchment again.

    ¡°Something you need?¡± he asked without looking away from his work.

    ¡°Is Gragg really dead, Doctor Anglo?¡±

    Anglo nodded. He then shook his head. ¡°I suppose so, telling from what clues I can gather. But the strings have told me another message, which suggested that Gragg might still have hope... I just can¡¯t tell.¡±

    When Payne and his partners wondered what this strange message meant, Anglo suddenly stood up from his seat.

    ¡°Mister Payne, my Wizard Eye has seen Mister Phantom and his student showing up from the darkness. Time to find out the answer we¡¯ve been waiting for.¡±

 Chapter 625 - Mysterious Puppy

    <h4>Chapter 625: Mysterious Puppy</h4>

    Several minutes ago.

    Angor¡¯s group was traveling through the dark maze with the puppy taking the lead.

    Greya and Gragg, a.k.a Spivet, were still wondering what exactly this strange creature was. Telling from how the animal was walking on fast and confident steps, it sure knew how to get out of the darkness. Yet Greya and Spivet¡¯s inspection spells only suggested that it was an ordinary pet dog no matter how many times they tried.

    They were very thirsty for an answer, but since they also knew that Sunders was unlikely to tell them anything, they just kept moving without speaking.

    Spivet could never spend too much time without using his tongue, so he asked why Sunders wanted him to be Flora¡¯s student.

    ¡°I mean, why don¡¯t YOU be my professor instead? Or Sumesh! Speaking of Sumesh, he made it to a truth-finder, didn¡¯t he? And you know only truth-finders can teach me new stuff!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not qualified to be my student. As for Sumesh, I¡¯ll no longer make decisions for him. This leaves Flora as the only choice.¡±

    ¡°Not qualified? Howe? I¡¯m a famous wiza... rd...¡±

    Spivet¡¯s voice slowly grew smaller as he wasn¡¯t sure about his words anymore.

    ¡°You WERE a wizard. But now, you¡¯re amon mortal.¡± Sunders gave Spivet a serious re. ¡°Do remember to use the correct manners when talking to people.¡±

    When Sunders walked away, Spivet spent a momentpletely still. His expressions looked quite funny.

    ¡°Damn you! I¡¯lle back! Just you wait!¡±

    Sunders meant to tell Spivet that, if the man kept using his annoying ways when dealing with people, he¡¯d probably meet a quick death. Spivet had lost his power in this world, and he must learn to stay low.

    Meanwhile, Spivet sensed a hostile gaze from ady walking nearby.

    He saw Nausica looking his way and saw the woman pointing at him with her metal arm, who then made a neck-slitting gesture with a grin.

    Spivet¡¯s face went pale as he remembered that he imed to want to upy thisdy¡¯s body just a moment ago. Nausica was a level-2 apprentice training in Brute Cavern, which meant they would study in the same organization from now on. This was quite a disaster for Spivet.

    He quickly walked to her with a sly smile. ¡°Hey, Nausica...¡±

    ...

    A momentter, they continued their travel with their own satisfied smiles.

    ¡°What did you two talk about back there?¡± Angor moved closer to Nausica and asked.

    ¡°Well, that guy was afraid that I¡¯m going to get back on him, so he offered to tell me how to use the Nether Demon Bloodline and how to improve my chances.¡±

    ¡°Coward,¡± Shanmented while listening.

    ¡°This is called being perceptive of one¡¯s situation,¡± Spivet heard them talking and protested.

    Angor scoffed. As someone who knew Nausica¡¯s character, he was sure that Nausica would not give Spivet trouble as long as Spivet did not provoke her first. She was too busy for anything other than training.

    Whether it was his intention or not, Spivet did give Nausica her much-needed bloodline, which would finally open up a brand new path for her.

    Nausica¡¯s original n was to save money over several years so that she could afford an average-level bloodline. She would then use it to reach the wizard level. After that, she would cleanse the bloodline to get a better one. This process had too many drawbacks and required much more time, yet it was the mostmon method for bloodline apprentices.

    But the Nether Demon Bloodline saved her immeasurable time and effort.

    The gain was enough for her to tolerate Spivet¡¯s misdeeds. She threatened Spivet earlier just to give him a little scare, but she wasn¡¯t expecting Spivet to get so terrified as to spill so many secrets.

    As they talked, the dark mist around them was getting thinner until it looked almost bright.

    The puppy had stopped walking and barked at Angor.

    Even though Angor never learned any dognguage, he knew what the animal meant to tell him.

    ¡°We¡¯re here. One step forward, and we¡¯ll be out of the darkness,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°We walked pretty far...¡± Shan frowned as she spoke, ¡°Is the city gate so wide?¡±

    ¡°No. We only need a second to get inside but way longer to get back out. I guess the mist works like abyrinth.¡±

    ¡°A magic array that confuses distance and space maybe?¡± Greya rubbed her temples. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to remember the path but now I¡¯ve lost direction.¡±

    ¡°If it is a magic array, then the correct path will change every now and then. You can¡¯t possibly remember it,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°Heh, weren¡¯t you doing the same thing? Your eyes were scanning around us faster than I did!¡± Greya sneered and turned to Angor when Sunders did not respond. ¡°Do you even know how aposed and all unruffled man like him can be very funny on the inside? Well, now you see it.¡±

    Sunders approached them with a neutral look. ¡°You all get out. I have something to tell Angor.¡±

    ¡°What? Something important?¡± asked Greya.

    ¡°Not your business. There are possessed apprentices or even possessed wizards out there, as well as more parasites. You keep the others safe.¡±

    Greya was going toin that this wasn¡¯t her job, but she did not protest when she saw Sunders¡¯ expression getting dangerously cold. She had been acting freely and telling jokes in front of Sunders only because she knew how to avoid going over a certain boundary between them. She would never oppose Sunders for real. She dared not.

    Following Sunders¡¯ order, everyone except Angor walked out of the darkness. Greya also took Toby away.

    Sunders, Angor, and the strange puppy remained behind.

    ¡°Something you need, sir?¡±

    Sunders looked at the puppy at Angor¡¯s feet. ¡°Can you take it with us?¡±

    Angor shook his head. He tried once, but it seemed the puppy wasn¡¯t willing to leave the darkness for some reason.

    ¡°Use force then.¡±

    Angor hesitated and decided toply. He picked the puppy up by its scruff and moved toward the exit. But as soon as they started moving, the puppy vanished in his hand. It then reappeared somewhere else while barking at him.

    Sunders narrowed his eyes while observing. Angor¡¯s earlier presumption that the dog might be a Mystery treasure was not proved yet, but Sunders was sure that the dog at least had some sort of connection with the treasure.

    We must take it away.

    Bying to Sleepless City, Sunders mostly wanted to get his hands on Fox¡¯s harp. He even used his Cursing Puppet to improve his chances. However, the monster was so agile that she never gave him a chance to catch her.

    And Sunders felt rather annoyed about this.

    The entire darkness was slowly turning into an inteyer space, and its controller¡ªYorkshire¡ªwould have absolute dominance over it. Going after the harp inside the inteyer space was almost impossible.

    However, they just found another potential Mystery presence worth researching. The puppy probably would stick to Angor instead, but Sunders did not care.

    Sunders moved to catch the animal himself, but then he noticed that when someone other than Angor was going after it, the dog could run as fast as Toby when the bird used his top speed to fly.

    And Sunders didn¡¯t wish to chase the dog all the way back into the dark mist since he might get lost again.

    As he wondered what to do next, he saw the puppy showing up from another direction away from him and was looking at Angor again.

    ¡°Is it toying with us?¡± Sunders didn¡¯t look pleased.

    Angor tried approaching the animal while calling its nickname ¡°Spotty¡±, and he sessfully picked it up.

    He then moved to Sunders while stroking the creature¡¯s back.

    He felt the puppy struggling in his hands.

    ¡°Stay there. I¡¯ll pull it into Gravity Garden,¡± Sunders spoke through their Spirit Bond.

    Angor nodded and stopped moving. At the same time, Spotty also calmed down.

    He waited patiently so that Sunders could ¡°retrieve¡± the puppy, but it never happened. The puppy remained in his hands and was giving Sunders hostile stares.

    ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± Sunders shook his head. ¡°The Gravity Garden cannot recognize its existence.¡±

    This had suggested that they no longer had anything to bring the dog with them.

    No matter what they did, as long as the puppy did not want to leave, it would simply run into the dark mist using its amazing speed.

    Sunders decided to give up. The puppy was rted to Mystery, and Mystery was always a ¡°slippery¡± concept that could not be conquered by brute force.

    ¡°Let¡¯s leave.¡± Sunders beckoned to Angor and walked away.

    The puppy suddenly rushed to them and dragged Angor¡¯s pants.

 Chapter 626 - Spottyâ€™s Crystal

    <h4>Chapter 626: Spotty¡¯s Crystal</h4>

    Angor felt his vision going blurry for a moment as he stepped out of the mist together with Sunders.

    The first sight that greeted them was several dozens of wizards standing in a line, looking at them with hostile expressions.

    Greya was busy dealing with several attacking wizards, while Nausica and the others had been captured and left at one side. An old wizard with a white beard¡ªQetesh¡ªwas preparing to use a powerful mind-reading spell against them, which would undoubtedly damage their brains.

    Due to Greya¡¯s effort when she would asionally throw an attack at Qetesh, Qetesh¡¯s spell had not turned Nausica and her partners into mentally-handicapped victims yet.

    Sunders¡¯ arrival changed the tide of the battle almost instantly.

    With a simple gesture, countless illusions rose around him, which overwhelmed everyone nearby.

    Most wizards immediately stopped moving as their visions were blocked by terrifying illusions. Meanwhile, a ming Nightmare was galloping through the air, which convinced those who managed to resist the illusions into not doing anything stupid.

    The Nightmare was now rushing straight toward Qetesh, while Qetesh could only watch helplessly as the horrifying creature aimed its horn at his heart.

    An ice barrier suddenly rose in front of Qetesh¡¯s position and blocked the Nightmare¡¯s charge. At the same time, a figure covered in icy air materialized alongside the barrier.

    ¡°What is the meaning of this, Mister Phantom?¡±

    ¡°My meaning?¡± Sunders pretended that he was confused at those words. ¡°Are you asking me? Really?¡±

    Payne was now waiting beside his ice barrier, while a small ck ember was burning in one of his hands. He managed to stop Sunders¡¯ Nightmare, but it took him some time to fully extinguish the dark me left by the creature, which burned his hand for good.

    Several drops of blood fell from his wounded hand. The drops of blood were frozen solid before they shattered on the ground.

    ¡°I see that you¡¯re well prepared to ambush us. Am I right, Doctor Anglo?¡± Sunders nced at the man in sses, who was also restrained by illusions.

    Anglo adjusted his sses. ¡°I warned them.¡±

    He did.

    But Payne did not listen.

    ¡°You nned to assault members of my organization, and I meant to retaliate,¡± Sunders said to Payne.

    Payne grimaced. Of course he knew that those people who came out earlier might be together with Sunders. But he checked and only found apprentices and even a mortal among them, so he decided to give the order and attack them. But a witch who had been hiding her true strength managed to buy enough time for Sunders to arrive.

    ¡°They are just a bunch of apprentices. Surely you will not care too much about their lives, Mister Phantom?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s for ME to decide. You attacked Brute Cavern, and you should be prepared for the consequences.¡±

    Sunders smirked and summoned a dozen more Nightmares around him, which then began to bolt through the illusions.

    Payne was a little panicked now. ¡°Mister Phantom! Are you sure you would fight with all of us, including wizards from other organizations? Besides, we never harmed your members for real!¡±

    ¡°You haven¡¯t harmed them yet, because you lot are too weak and pathetic to do the job fast enough.¡±

    As the nightmare creatures threatened the wizards, more ck embers covered the air.

    Meanwhile, Angor fully activated his sequence of gravity and approached Qetesh¡¯s position. He then engulfed his friends including Spivet in his gravity power.

    Payne saw Angor moving and tried to capture him so that he would have another chip on the table when negotiating with Sunders. However, another Nightmare was on top of Qetesh behind him, which forced Payne to turn back and protect Qetesh so that his colleague would not get impaled on his watch.

    With swift moves, Angor and Toby worked together to drag everyone to safety behind Sunders.

    Greya also left her enemies and joined Sunders. While moving, she intentionally knocked over several trapped wizards who attacked her earlier while cursing loudly.

    ¡°You only mentioned possessed people and parasites waiting for us, but not these irrational a-holes.¡± She spat on the ground. ¡°Well, I outperformed my job. It wasn¡¯t easy, mind you.¡±

    Sunders nced at her without speaking, while Angor whispered a thank-you.

    Greya put an arm around Angor with a bright smile. ¡°See that? Your student behaves better than you!¡±

    Sunders pulled Angor into his Gravity Garden. Losing her support, Greya almost fell to one side.

    ¡°Damn you, you silent crook!¡± Greya cursed again.

    ...

    Angor was a little surprised when he noticed what had happened. After recollecting his senses, he moved to a small room nearby.

    He knew Sunders meant to tell him to return to his body since they had left the darkness. He should not expose his soul when there were wizards fighting, as a damaged soul could not be cured easily.

    Instead of going for his body immediately, he first took out two objects, which he had been carrying. One was Sunders¡¯ ¡°blood sphere¡±, and the other was a transparent, diamond-shaped crystal, which had been releasing a strange energy signature around it.

    Angor could read the particr signature too. It basically told him to ¡°consume¡± it. Right now.

    When in his soul form, the strange energy appeared alluring like the best gourmet meal in the entire world. Angor couldn¡¯t help vering even though he was not a food lover and that his soul couldn¡¯t produce any saliva for him to drool.

    He received the crystal from Spotty. Earlier, when Sunders gave up on capturing Spotty and was going to leave, the puppy dragged Angor to one side and carefully spat out the object into Angor¡¯s hand.

    The dog tried to do it when Sunders was not looking. However, the gentleman had no problem seeing everything. Sunders did nothing other than giving the crystal a simple glimpse.

    When he took Angor away, Spotty returned into the dark mist and vanished.

    Angor didn¡¯t know what was currently going on outside since he was the only one being pulled into Gravity Garden. But he knew his friends would be fine since both Sunders and Greya were there to watch them.

    Despite the fact that every particle of him was telling him to ept the crystal¡¯s ¡°suggestion¡± and swallow it, Angor managed to persuade himself into giving up so that he did not invite trouble by eating something he didn¡¯t know about.

    After removing all possessions carried on his soul, he returned to his body, which was being maintained in a fluid chamber prepared by Sunders.

    The first few moments felt strange, probably because he spent too much time as a soul, and his body felt a lot more restrained and heavier.

    After warming up a little bit, he ced the blood sphere and the strange crystal into his bracelet before leaving the room.

    Sunders did not summon him yet. With nothing else to do, Angor took a seat in the outdoor library and inspected the crystal carefully.

    The temptation he felt from it was almost gone as soon as he returned to his body. He could still sense the pulses of signature that told him to eat the object, but it was no longer so demanding.

    He took a guess that the crystal was something meant to be used on souls. He neither knew why Spotty gave this to him nor could he understand who Spotty was.

    Wait...

    After killing Hookdick, the puppy ¡°consumed¡± Hookdick¡¯s corpse. Or rather, Spotty was eating Hookdick¡¯s soul sequence.

    Hookdick had been training at somewhere called the ¡°Soul Soil¡±, which granted him a very weak level of soul sequence. This was probably what Spotty was absorbing.

    Angor did not worry too much about the matter because it might be one of Spotty¡¯s strange abilities, about which he could neverprehend anyway.

    But this might be a useful clue for figuring out what this crystal was. Could it be that Spotty epted Hookdick¡¯s soul sequence, which underwent some sort of reaction in Spotty¡¯s stomach and turned into this item?

    It was a wild guess, but Angor¡¯s instinct told him that this might be the right way of thinking.

    If so, then Spotty could take someone¡¯sw sequence that they gained from Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens and transfer it into a consumable item. This was never heard of in the wizarding world.

    Aw sequence was a priceless power sought after by all wizards because it could not be gained through talent or effort. One needed extreme luck to obtain such blessing, such as how Angor and Toby somehow gained the sequence of gravity from Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden.

    But Spotty¡¯s ability hadpletely busted this restriction... on condition that Angor¡¯s guess was correct.

    Angor flinched when he imagined how an evil wizard could get his hands on Spotty and hunt for lucky apprentices who receivedw sequences so that they could forcefully take their gifts away.

    No way. There¡¯s got to be limitations. Spotty cannot possibly absorb sequence powers freely.

    Isabelle once told him that in Origin World, wizards could freely craft Mystery items and divide them into different ranks. He believed that Spotty might be considered an extremely high-leveled Mystery item in this case.

    Then he shook his head to remove the concerns from his mind. It remained to be found out whether this crystal was something rted to Hookdick¡¯s soul sequence.

 Chapter 627 - To the Undercity

    <h4>Chapter 627: To the Undercity</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor had done retrieving his body and arranging his possessions, but Sunders had not let him go yet.

    Since he had time, he decided to memorize what he observed inside Spotty¡¯s ¡°stomach¡± and see whether he could put the knowledge into his illusions.

    Cycles of life, unknown paths that always led to destruction, conflicting yet amazingly congenial rules... Bit by bit, he gathered all the small elements in his mind.

    When it was almost time, he reopened his eyes as the model for an illusion was swiftly made in his mindspace, facilitated by the axes of the universe.

    This was one of the simplest illusions. He was confident that the illusion was well-made, and that the ¡°senses of Mystery¡± he blended in the illusion would be presented right in front of eyes soon.

    His eyes twinkled as his mana slowly constructed the basic shapes of something unknown.

    A powerful spirit suddenly restrained him in ce.

    Before he could do anything, the connection between him and his illusion was severed. He was forced out of the Gravity Garden by Sunders.

    Before he had any time to mourn over his failed attempt, a Spirit Bond reached inside his mind.

    ¡°Remember, do NOT tell anything rted to what you saw inside the darkness to outsiders,¡± Sunders demanded.

    Angor said ¡°okay¡± and quickly checked his surroundings.

    They were no longer standing at the dark boundary. It was a round-domed room that was as big as the za square in a park. The room was fully lit by the colorful light sources fixed on the ceiling as well as a number of shining runes.

    Several groups of wizards were chatting in the room, while Angor was currently standing in the center of the room, which meant he was surrounded by wizards.

    Angor saw Sunders walking toward one of the groups, where Payne, Qetesh, and Dous were waiting.

    In another direction, Greya, Nausica, and the rest of her group were resting around a stone pir.

    Of course Angor wouldn¡¯t approach the other wizards carelessly, so he chose to join Greya.

    On his way, he felt as if many of the wizards were gazing at him. Yet he could not see anyone openly looking.

    ¡°Angor, right? May I have some of your time?¡±

    Someone suddenly spoke to him in a clear and quick tone.

    Angor looked ahead and saw the speaker as a middle-aged man in tidy and rigid clothing. He knew this man¡ªa Prophet from White Coral Floating Ind, ¡°Plucker of Strings¡± Doctor Anglo, who still had that golden-rimmed sses and wooden clipboard he had been carrying.

    Angor did not wish to offend a wizard in such a situation, so he quickly agreed to talk.

    Just as he appeared to be, Anglo was not the type to waste words on courtesy. As soon as he saw Angor¡¯s response, he began to ask all sorts of details Angor might know about the darkness.

    Angor answered every question with either ¡°I don¡¯t know¡±, or silence, if he must.

    ¡°Did you cause the energy storm? Why didn¡¯t you let it continue so that it could dispel the darkness?¡±

    When Angor tried to act dumb again, he suddenly heard Sunders talking directly to his mind.

    ¡°Prophets do not infer answers by what they hear. They know how to observe you. Divert all attention to me if you can and get away from Anglo.¡±

    Angor considered. ¡°Doctor Anglo, it was my professor¡¯s decision. I don¡¯t know the reason though.¡±

    Anglo showed neither approval or disbelief. The man kept his intense gaze at Angor so that he could read every single detail from Angor¡¯s moves, such as how Angor was frowning, his heartbeat, his sweat, and other bodily signals.

    ¡°Why did you leave the darkness by yourself? Rak¡¯sel saw youing.¡±

    Anglo was continuing his questions without giving Angor any time to think. ¡°So you somehow found an exit, am I right?

    ¡°Thank you for your time. I do have more questions, but I¡¯ll leave them for another day, or Mister Phantom is really going to kill me with his eyes.¡±

    Anglo turned away, but he quickly looked back again as he remembered something.

    ¡°Just as Mara said, your nature does not sit well with Mister Phantom¡¯s way.¡± He adjusted his sses. ¡°Maybe you should consider joining the academy.¡±

    Angor saw Anglo leaving and continued walking to Greya. He still had not recovered from Anglo¡¯s ¡°interrogation¡±. He felt as if he was being controlled all along.

    He didn¡¯t tell Anglo anything useful¡ªat least he believed so¡ªbut Anglo seemed satisfied.

    Greya saw himing with a confused look and asked why.

    ¡°Oh, that...¡± said Greya, after listening to what happened to Angor just now. ¡°Don¡¯t mind that old lecturer. He always puts up that ¡®I know everything¡¯ look. But I really doubt it. If he talks to you again, don¡¯t be all hush-hush. He can get what he wants from your looks even if you don¡¯t say anything.¡±

    Spivet chipped in, ¡°It¡¯s awfully easy to deal with him. I mean, just make up stuff. As Greya said, that guy¡¯s good at catching details and using them to deduce what he needs. In other words, he imagines answers out of random. You can create some sort of dramatic story in your head and tell him that, and he¡¯ll get fooled in no time.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s right.¡± Greya chuckled and said, ¡°Spivet knew how to bamboozle Prophets back during the Demon Blood War. It¡¯s a piece of good advice that you should heed, Angor.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°What happened after I was taken away? Did you all stop fighting?¡±

    ¡°Those cowards backed out, that¡¯s why!¡± Greya shrugged. ¡°Sunders didn¡¯t tell us anything but I think he forced Payne to agree to something. I guess that¡¯s why Payne looks so pissed right now.¡±

    Angor looked at the wizard group on the other side of the room. As Greya mentioned, Payne and Qetesh didn¡¯t look pleased when speaking to Sunders.

    To wizards, fights and conflicts were mostly about profits. And if something could be solved by the exchange of profits, they would all avoid risking their lives.

    When Angor could no longer find things to talk about, he spent time going over what he sensed in Spotty again. This was what he usually did when he was unupied, so as to not forget the wonderful experience.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Sunders said in their Spirit Bond, after a while.

    Angor opened his eyes and saw Sunders standing right in front of him and was talking to Greya. ¡°Greya, you bring the others back to Brute Cavern and send Spivet to Flora.¡± He tossed a gold coin to her and said, ¡°This will allow you to enter Phantom Ind. Goode will prepare a room for you.¡±

    ¡°What about you?¡± Greya frowned.

    ¡°I¡¯ll remain here for a while with Angor. It won¡¯t take long.¡±

    With that, Sunders beckoned to Angor and left the conference hall.

    Toby saw Angor leaving and left Greya to join him.

    Greya stopped Toby and handed him a one-use space capsule.

    ¡°Mana Flowers. You take care of Angor for now. He needs your backup.¡±

    Toby bade farewell to his old master and returned to Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    While greeting his partner, Angor was wondering what Sunders nned to do next and whether it had something to do with the darkness.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind the crisis from now on. If anyone asks you about it, put all the me on me,¡± Sunders said to him. ¡°We¡¯re heading to the undercity, where they imprisoned all the possessed apprentices. We¡¯ll remove their parasites and leave the city.¡±

    The ¡°undercity¡± of Sleepless City was a ce simr to the underground market in Brute Cavern, but one could only hear ghostly noises in there right now.

    The entrances toward the undercity were all sealed up. Currently, there was only a dried-up water well that served as a temporary ¡°dumping hole¡± where all newly possessed people would go.

    The well was now the most guarded ce in the entire Monsoon Sector. There was a team of powerful wizards stationed here.

    After passing through several checkpoints, Sunders and Angor arrived at the well.

    ¡°Hey, Sunders, have you seen my students in the outer city?¡± Wace suddenly showed up from somewhere and walked to them.

    ¡°You go first,¡± Sunders said to Angor.

    Those who heard him talking all grew confused. Sunders would allow his student to go to the prisons where thousands of ¡°possessed clowns¡± dwelt?

    Angor did not have a problem with this. He nodded and jumped straight into the well without a second thought.

    Before hepletely fell into the darkness beneath, he managed to hear Sunders talking to Wace.

    ¡°I did not see them.¡±

 Chapter 628 - Back to Pocratee

    <h4>Chapter 628: Back to Pocratee</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor and Sunders left Sleepless City together on Angor¡¯s Gond.

    Angor nced back at the dark dome that covered the outer city. ¡°Professor? But we only saved about half of them...¡±

    He meant to ask why they left so soon while leaving so many possessed behind, but he wasn¡¯t sure whether this was a proper question.

    ¡°Those are apprentices from organizations that did not join our agreement. Saving them does not grant us any profit.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ reply was quite expected. Before entering the Purification Garden, Angor once asked Nausica about the situation in Midnight Sovereign. Her answer was, Midnight Sovereign had returned to being the ¡°rtively peaceful city¡± where citizens enjoyed their lives.

    Angor knew what she meant, that after he went missing, Sunders removed all parasites from themon citizens.

    But Sunders would not help the remaining apprentices in this case, which confused Angor.

    Sunders didn¡¯t seem concerned when Angor asked about this. ¡°I saved Midnight Sovereign because someone posted a quest in Brute Cavern. By doing so, I get paid for it.¡±

    Angor considered Sunders¡¯ answer. He didn¡¯t believe that whoever posted such a quest prepared enough reward worthy of his professor¡¯s effort. Sunders helped Midnight Sovereign probably because he simply adhered to his personal discipline, that he would provide help as long as he got something in return. As for whether he was satisfied with the reward... that was another question to be discussed beforehand.

    ¡°How did you remove the parasites at your end?¡± Sunders suddenly asked.

    While inside the undercity, they split ways to deal with certain sections in their own ways. Sunders remained cautious in the meantime and never saw his student using Nightmare Domain at all.

    But somehow, Angor only needed several seconds to ¡°cure¡±rge groups of clowns.

    Angor scratched his now longer hair. ¡°I just told them to get out. And they did.¡±

    ¡°You ordered the parasites to leave and they listened to you?¡±

    Angor nodded. At first, he nned to use his Nightmare Domain to force the parasites away like how he did before. But when thinking about how a parasite listened to Froggy¡¯smand, he tried to copy such a move and was d that it worked well.

    This made his job a lot simpler. He only had to give the word and be done with it. No need for spending mana.

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°As I said before, monsters in the Nightmare Realm are divided into different ranks. I think your rank is higher, and these lower rank ones can¡¯t oppose you.¡±

    He nced at Angor¡¯s right hand, which had his old glove on.

    <i>Shava, ¡°Your Highness¡±...</i> Sunders muttered in his mind. <i>We have so many mysteries regarding this Shava character we need to solve.</i>

    Meanwhile, Angor was thinking about his rescue mission earlier.

    Sunders did not tell him to save people for free. There were several special sections in undercity that even possessed apprentices would not approach because these ces had possessed wizards.

    It was Angor who saved the wizards. By letting him do so, Sunders meant to help Angor earn respect from these wizards, which would prove to be most valuable in the future.

    ...

    Gond had taken them away from Sleepless City and away from the darkness-infested sky. They could still asionally see stray parasites, which couldn¡¯t do them harm.

    When they first encountered the parasites in Midnight Sovereign, these creatures would die almost immediately the moment they left the nightmare mist.

    But the parasites in Sleepless City had wandered so far from the city.

    Sunders captured one of them and noticed that the parasite could live because of a tiny, golden spot on its body, which was almost imperceptible to human eyes.

    Using a strange magnifying tool, Sunders managed to see that the golden spot was in fact, a tiny portion of a broken golden string, which had intact runes drawn on it. This was what kept the parasite alive by releasing a small amount of nightmare energy around it. But it wouldn¡¯tst long.

    ¡°So it is Yorkshire who gave these parasites a new way of survival...¡± Sunders said.

    ¡°Sir, the crisis in Sleepless City... We can¡¯t remove it at all, right? Is Yorkshire going to remain there for a long time?¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡±

    ¡°But there¡¯s a ¡®hemi-passage¡¯ that connects to Nightmare Realm. Will that queen be able to arrive at our wizarding world?¡±

    Sunders sighed. ¡°We have enoughing crisis which would soon strike the southern region. We don¡¯t have enough time to worry about all of them. Besides... if that ¡®queen¡¯ wishes to invade this world, she already has an avable passage at Pocratee, about which you told mest time. Yet she did not. There must be a reason that stopped her.¡±

    They had no idea what exactly could stop such a mighty monster froming. Perhaps it was the world¡¯s consciousness or an even stronger being in the Nightmare Realm. Or perhaps she wasn¡¯t interested in attacking the wizarding world at all.

    There was no point in making blind guesses since this was obviously not something they should interfere with.

    They spent a moment in silence.

    It was Angor who spoke again when he noticed that Sunders was steering Gond toward another direction.

    ¡°Uh, we¡¯re not going back to Brute Cavern, sir?¡±

    ¡°No. To find out more about your right hand and why it absorbs nightmare energy, we need a ce full of nightmare energy. We¡¯re heading to Fairy World. To that ne passageway in which you gained a level extremely fast. I believe we can find an answer there.¡±

    ...

    They arrived at Edge of Night first. Using a teleportation array in Edge of Night, they could travel to Floating Mech City, then to Silent Hill.

    After leaving Silent Hill, which was located inside ¡°midworld¡±, they returned to the ¡°real world¡± and used Angor¡¯s Gond again to go to the strangeke in Angor¡¯s memory.

    Angor was worried about something else right now.

    <i>Will Sunders kill Akeso if they encounter each other?</i>

    He had full reason to believe so because he had witnessed how much money one could earn by selling wizard-level monster parts.

    But when they dived through theke and arrived at where Akeso¡¯s nest was supposed to be, Angor noticed that the giant serpent was not here. Even the air was free of that particr smell of animal feces.

    However, they still saw the ¡°graveyard¡±, which was full of the bones of vigers from Pocratee.

    Sunders made sure that these mortal bones held no interest before leaving.

    After going through another waterway, they arrived at the stagnant and oily water, which was the ¡°deadke¡± located just next to the Pocratee vige.

    Angor came out from the water and realized that the abandoned vige did not look very different than before. Not that it could get any more deste.

    Even the rainbow dragonflies greeted him by praising him joyously likest time.

    When Angor told the insects not to annoy Sunders, theyprehended the order and moved away from Sunders as far as they could.

    While Angor waited near the nest, Sunders traveled around the underground area before he returned to the vige.

    ¡°Telling from the traces I saw, this ce was already deserted one thousand years ago. I¡¯m afraid our visitors from the Nightmare Realm caused this.¡± Sunders rubbed his forehead. ¡°So the nightmare passage has been here for a thousand years? But there was no record about this. Who ced the passage here and what do they want?¡±

    Angor wondered if this was another of the queen¡¯s ¡°outposts¡± mentioned by Yorkshire.

    ¡°Leave this matter aside,¡± said Sunders, ¡°let¡¯s go to that ne passageway first.¡±

    They walked around the dragonfly nest and saw a portal behind it.

 Chapter 629 - Done Research

    <h4>Chapter 629: Done Research</h4>

    The first thing they needed to find out about Angor¡¯s right hand was the reason why it absorbed nightmare energy and used such energy to improve Angor¡¯s mana pool.

    As universally known in this world, one¡¯s mana pool stored ¡°purified¡± mana, which was converted from primal mana. How could nightmare energy enter one¡¯s mana pool?

    The best approach to do research on this subject was to take Angor somewhere full of nightmare energy, but it seemed that Angor¡¯s soul could not absorb nightmare energy like his right hand, which was proved when he entered the Nightmare Realm in his soul form. This was why Sunders decided to take him to Pocratee.

    Besides, Sunders would like to know more about this strange vige where Angor broke his limit and became a level-2 apprentice.

    While it was true that a ne passageway that connected to the Nightmare Realm was here, the vige did not have much nightmare energy drifting about. To better observe Angor¡¯s hand, they had to incite ¡°quantitative change¡±, meaning, going inside the ne passageway.

    After recording the space coordinate of the entrance, Sunders took Angor into the dark portal.

    The extremely scarce elements inside the passageway could only support basic cantrips. Sunders used Light to illuminate their surroundings and began wandering inside the passageway with Angor.

    Nightmare energy did not exist just anywhere in the passageway. It took them a moment to find a spot where the energy felt rich enough.

    As soon as they arrived, something happened to Angor¡¯s right hand.

    Sunders asked Angor to take off his glove earlier. Now they could see the green sigils crawling all over Angor¡¯s right hand while eagerly absorbing rays of nightmare energy around him.

    Sunders watched for a while before asking, ¡°Do you sense anything dangerous in particr?¡±

    Angor shook his head. Just like when he caused the energy storm but was standing in the storm¡¯s eye, he could not feel anything.

    ¡°Check your mana pool.¡±

    ¡°Um, the energy is going for my mana pool and... expanding it.¡±

    Next, Sunders dragged him away from the energy-rich spot, and Angor¡¯s right hand stopped drawing energy when it couldn¡¯t find enough.

    ¡°How did you level up so fastst time?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°I just, meditate like how I usually did. But the growth of my mana pool was several times fasterpared to when I meditate elsewhere.¡±

    ¡°Do it now. I¡¯ll see what will happen to you.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t hard for Angor to enter a meditation state in this tranquil and empty space.

    Sunders expected his student to fail because there wasn¡¯t nearly enough primal mana here to use. However, as soon as Angor started meditating, Sunders clearly saw him gathering the drifting nightmare energy around them even though they had retreated to a ce where the energy was weaker.

    No doubt that the energy was nurturing Angor¡¯s mana pool again.

    After several hours, Angor reopened his eyes while feeling extremely refreshed. While meditating in this ce, he could almost see his mana pool growingrger and ¡°fed¡± by the second.

    ¡°How did it go?¡± said Sunders.

    Angor carefully examined the condition of his mana pool before saying, ¡°About 20 times more efficient than my usual training. I usually needed a week or two to gain such growth.¡±

    Sunders expected a simr oue but was still surprised to learn about the amazing result. He already tried and realized he could not meditate here at all. It had to be something to do with Angor¡¯s special property.

    Last time Angor was here, he did not have ¡°Shava¡¯s right hand¡±, which meant absorbing nightmare energy for his own use was originally something Angor could do.

    And the right hand only served as a tool that assisted this process.

    ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s your Nightmare Form again...¡±

    Unfortunately, Sunders¡¯ own Nightmare Form was rendered unavable, and they could not easily find another Nightmare Form to help with their research.

    Sunders then took out some papers and began calcting something. ¡°You meditated for 6 hours and consumed nightmare energy that equals the capacity of 6.5 standard-sized nightmare stones. Back at the energy-rich area, your right hand took in energy equal to 3, within one minute...¡±

    Sunders reached a shocking conclusion that Angor¡¯s right hand could terrifyingly hasten his training speed.

    ¡°Let¡¯s keep going. Now, try to absorb nightmare energy from nightmare stones.¡±

    Angor tried and failed.

    ¡°So that¡¯s a no. Maybe the energy stored in nightmare stones had undergone property shifts that made them inactive. Next, I will reach my spirit power into your mindspace and observe how the conversion works.¡±

    Angor nodded and allowed Sunders¡¯ spirit feelers inside.

    Time went by swiftly as they were devoted to various tests.

    ...

    One weekter, they returned to the abandoned vige of Pocratee.

    Sunders recorded lots of data during the week, which helped him figure out the properties of Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form more directly. However, the only solid conclusion he had right now was that Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form could utilize nightmare energy extremely well. By doing so, Angor could train faster than some of the most talented apprentices in this world, if they did not take potential drawbacks into consideration.

    Angor also learned a lot from the experience. For one, Sunders shared all of his findings with Angor. And during the tests, Angor managed to ascertain how to ¡°switch off¡± his right hand and prevent it from excessively absorbing energy, as well as the minimum energy level for this ¡°function¡± to activate.

    The secrety within the green sigils.

    As they discovered, the sigils could do three things for Angor at the moment¡ªenhancing his normal illusions and turning them into powerful nightmare illusions; releasing ¡°inactive¡± nightmare energy into the environment like nightmare stones, which was mainly used for maintaining a Nightmare Domain; thirdly, absorbing avable nightmare energy.

    They assumed that there were more ¡°functions¡± to the green sigils, but for now, these three properties were very helpful to Angor.

    If Angor was to go to Sleepless City again, he no longer needed to use his soul form because he could tell his right hand to stop absorbing energy, which might cause energy storms.

    On a side note, Sunders had not discovered any obvious defects regarding Angor¡¯s ability. Even so, Angor imed that he would not rely on this method unless necessary since the extra strength was not gained through effort.

    Though this did not help them understand the nature of Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form in the least, they did allow Angor to stop his right hand from causing unnecessary troubles.

    They spent another day at Pocratee, during which Sunders did some further observations about the vige.

    Meanwhile, Angor also wandered around the ce and pretended that he was ¡°observing¡±, with the true intention of looking for the ¡°Staff of Immortality¡±, which was mentioned by the Grand Priest of Krakoks.

    Angor had an assumption that Dodoro¡¯s strange water bowl was actually the staff since Dodoro himself had lived for a thousand years as a mortal, which should absolutely be considered as ¡°immortal¡±.

    Yet Angor had checked the item many times and never discovered anything special with it.

    Since he had a chance now, he thought about looking around the vige again, more carefully this time.

    But once again, it was soon proved that Pocratee was simply a deserted mortal vige. There were no supernatural-rted items at all or anything of interest for that matter. Angor only found several medicine booksposed by mortals, which were rotten beyond use.

 Chapter 630 - Remaining Golden Strings

    <h4>Chapter 630: Remaining Golden Strings</h4>

    During the experiments inside the ne passageway, Angor had stepped across the ¡°midpoint¡± of his level, which brought him closer to the level limit of level-3. And this was when he tried his best not to draw too much energy.

    This was why he felt all tensed up when leaving Pocratee. He never liked strength that found its way into his body all of a sudden, but not gained through his own effort.

    Sunders saw through him and chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. Even if there are ws in your power, there will be a way to fix it. Besides, we didn¡¯t find any ws.¡±

    They left the vige by traveling through the same waterways and caves, without running into Akeso.

    While d that he didn¡¯t need to worry about Akeso¡¯s safety, Angor began to wonder why the great monster that had guarded Pocratee for a thousand years suddenly vanished.

    After swimming out ofke water, they headed toward Silent Hill using Angor¡¯s Gond again.

    The boat traveled so fast that they failed to notice a group of people covered in thick, cold-resistant clothes traveling along a snowy mountain path not far from them, where a man taller than everyone else and had arge ck fur coat was taking the lead.

    ¡°Sir, we found traces of excavation and rappel hooks on these walls. Our archaeologist said that they were left here about 1,500 years ago.¡± A middle-aged worker in white fur overcoat approached their leader.

    ¡°Keep moving. Let¡¯s find a way into the ancient ruin site.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    The taller man saw his employee leaving and nced at the tranquilke in the distance.

    ¡°That guy asked the Grand Priest about the nd of the serpent¡¯... It should be around here... Maybe I can find my destiny if I find it.¡±

    Drifting clouds moved away and allowed more sunlight to reach him.

    If Angor were here, he would easily notice this handsome yet a little viinous-looking man as Shadow, or Diablo, who left Floating Mech City in pursuit of destiny.

    ...

    Silent Hill.

    Whileughing joyously, Taurus took Sunders and Angor to their teleportation array, which would take them to the Floating Mech City.

    Before the array was fully activated, Angor saw a figure in the distance gazing at them. It was Falca, who still had the strange getup of a rebellious youth.

    In thest second when he was teleported away, Angor waved a hand at him.

    As they reappeared at the teleport station in Floating Mech City, Sunders asked Angor, ¡°Do you know that man?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. I think he¡¯s the blood rtive of Mister Taurus. He got an... antagonistic character.¡±

    They spent the next few moments in silence. Sunders took Angor and traveled through Edge of Night to get back to Brute Cavern. Sleepless City was ordinarily a better choice since it was closer to Brute Cavern, but it obviously wasn¡¯t the time to go there.

    Angor knew that Sunders could rip open a ne passageway to get back to Brute Cavern faster. But likest time, when they left the city of Edge of Night, Sunders waited patiently for him to bring out Gond.

    Angor was afraid that if he did not follow the hint, Sunders would simply measure their distance all the way to Brute Cavern on foot.

    He sighed andplied willingly.

    Just like this, a bigger and a smaller gentleman slowly floated toward Parmigi Hignds on an adorable boat.

    Angor had been wondering why Sunders insisted on using his vehicle. Was his professor nning to ask for one as well?

    Of course, Angor wouldn¡¯t ask such a question boldly. He tried approaching it using small talks, such as asking for Sunders¡¯ opinions regarding his creation.

    Sunders raised an eyebrow and crossed his legs. ¡°Better than average vehicles but far from the top-tier artifacts yet. A little too small as a means of transportation... but still better than the standard-issued vehicles used in Brute Cavern.¡±

    So he wants it bigger, Angor thought.

    Sunders continued, ¡°This is decent enough as your personal vehicle. It¡¯ll be useful when you reach the wizard level too.¡±

    So it¡¯s good enough for wizards, but not for truth-finders? Angor waited for Sunders¡¯ further hints.

    However, Sunders did not continue this time. Instead, he changed the topic. ¡°Enough about your boat. I have something else to ask. How did you know that dog is a Mystery spirit or a possible Mystery item?¡±

    Angor canceled his ¡°mental notes¡±. He was a little surprised. So was Sunders expecting him to craft a vehicle or not?

    Sunders asked again, ¡°What did you see when you were swallowed by the beast?¡±

    Angor cleared his mind and exined his general experience inside the puppy¡¯s belly. Although he wasn¡¯t so sure when telling Sunders how he witnessed the birth and termination of tiny worlds. He felt as if everything were a dream.

    When he finished, Sunders took a moment to ponder over the certain Mystery concepts he just heard. Just like Angor said, all those strange yet harmonious rules of nature did look like something rted to Mystery, yet they could not tell.

    Every known Mystery item possessed a certain property, such as copying, hypnosis, and perpetual motion. But Sunders did not find anything rted to the property in Angor¡¯s exnation. All the miniature civilizations and conflicting rules appeared to be temporary hallucinations.

    Wait, so the dog might be a Mystery spirit?

    ¡°The beast gave you a crystal before we left the darkness. What is it?¡±

    Angor quickly thought about his horrible theory, which suggested evil wizards might use the puppy to hunt down gifted apprentices. He found the crystal and handed it to Sunders without a second thought.

    Sunders did not discover anything particr about the item, apart from how the crystal urged people tobine it with their souls, about which Angor already noticed.

    Angor hesitated and decided to exin his idea.

    It surprised Sunders as well. If what Angor said was true, that the puppy could rip someone¡¯s sequence power and transfer it to another individual, this would well start another war.

    They needed to use the crystal in order to prove that theory, but before that, they had to identify it first.

    Speaking of identifying an item, the most convenient approach was to use Narda¡¯s Vision, which most alchemists would know.

    However, Angor had yet to learn this spell.

    ¡°Take the crystal to safety and don¡¯t tell anyone about it. Let¡¯s wait until you study Narda¡¯s Vision,¡± Sunders concluded.

    Angor nodded with a serious look.

    The discussion regarding the strange puppy ended here, but neither of them found their curiosity satisfied.

    About half a dayter, Angor saw the familiar sight of a great abyss as if the verynd were cut in half by a mighty weapon. They floated to the bottom of the abyss where the manifestation of Lady Mirror, as well as the entrance toward the mirror world, was located.

    Angor was a bit worried that Lady Mirror would see himing and ask about the illusion item she was expecting, but it seemed she wasn¡¯t paying attention to their arrival today.

    However, someone else was waiting for them just in front of Phantom Ind.

    ¡°Mister Tree Spirit.¡± Angor bowed politely.

    Like always, the ancient being only had a single leaf over his groin area as the only piece of ¡°clothing¡±.

    Tree Spirit gave Angor a casual nod and spoke to Sunders, ¡°Wace sent a message from Sleepless City yesterday. He asked that you go and meet him.¡±

    Sunders frowned. ¡°Is something else happening in Sleepless City?¡±

    Tree Spirit picked his ear. ¡°Something like... the possessed people you savedst time are all affected again and began walking into the darkness like wired puppets. Well, I don¡¯t know the details. You have to see it for yourself.¡±

    The spirit put a hand on Sunders¡¯ shoulder. ¡°No rest for the wicked. Since Wace asked, he must have prepared a hefty reward for you.¡±

    Sunders saw Tree Spirit off and turned to Angor. ¡°What¡¯s your opinion about the situation? Why are the citizens possessed again?¡±

    ¡°Um, we only removed the parasites from them, but there should be the residue of golden strings left in their bodies, and these strings are controlled by Yorkshire...¡±

    ¡°Should be.¡± Sunders nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll go check Sleepless City. You return to Phantom Ind by yourself.¡±

    ¡°Sir, do I need toe with you?¡±

    ¡°No. I¡¯ll not go into the darkness this time. It shouldn¡¯t be hard for me to deal with the strings.¡±

 Chapter 631 - Bloodline Examination

    <h4>Chapter 631: Bloodline Examination</h4>

    Angor watched Sunders leaving while feeling his heart getting heavier for some reason. He got a feeling that what they saw in Sleepless City was far from the end of it, especially when they just returned from Pocratee. Angor feared that the miserable sight of Pocratee would soon be the morrow of Sleepless City.

    They never figured out what Yorkshire wanted to do, and how the monster¡¯s n would affect Sleepless City.

    He shook his head and decided not to worry about someone else¡¯s problems.

    Using his Gond, he entered the boundary of Phantom Ind alone.

    The sky around Phantom Ind always enjoyed peaceful weather. While on his way, Angor¡¯s Gond attracted many people¡¯s attention when most of the people were sitting on poorly-made broomsticks. When Angor stayed inside the small room hidden behind a starry door curtain, nobody saw who was using the showy boat.

    Before going to the center of the ind, Angor saw ady slowly walking toward the entrance of the ind on the invisible sky bridge.

    ¡°Nausica?¡± Angor was d to see her.

    Nausica was smoking her new pipe again, which released clusters of smoke that blended in with the drifting clouds nearby, giving her a lovely ambiance.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you near the Falling Cloud bus stop. What took you an entire week toe back?¡± Nausica suddenly reced her rxed look with a more serious one. ¡°And... why do I feel that you grew much much stronger, again?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re just seeing things.¡± Angor quickly diverted her attention by asking, ¡°What are you waiting here for?¡±

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t it you who asked me to check the ¡®bloodline problem¡¯ of the Krakoks? If not for you, I¡¯d already have picked somewhere safe to fuse my new bloodline.¡±

    Even after spending a week outdoors, Nausica didn¡¯t seem bothered at all. Instead, she appeared extremely excited about weing her newly-gained destiny.

    ¡°This is a critical moment in your life, make sure you¡¯ve considered everything,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Of course I will. Well, I didn¡¯t remain at the bus stop all day. I took my time in Cloud Library and rented some books about the Nether Demon Bloodline. Combining these and what Spivet told me, I can tell you that the risk is really, really slim.¡±

    ¡°Nice.¡± Angor took Nausica into Phantom Ind while they spoke. ¡°I¡¯ve heard about these Nether Demons but never saw them before. You¡¯re not going to grow strange stuff like wings and tails, right?¡±

    ¡°They look pretty much like humans, just bigger. Strange stuff... yeah, they have horns and tails.¡± Nausica shrugged. ¡°Well, I can¡¯t control what happens to my appearance when using the bloodline. But it doesn¡¯t matter. As long as it makes me strong, I¡¯ll pay anything.¡±

    Despite her words, Angor knew that thisdy had her personal standards that disallowed her to breach certain boundaries. However, it seemed that her image was something she would willingly throw away.

    Speaking of bloodlines, Angor thought about his other friend, Sailum.

    ¡°Dave told me that Sailum disappeared to somewhere before the Purification Garden was opened. He was going to...¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± said Nausica, ¡°to fuse his bloodline.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been almost four months. Do you know where he went?¡±

    Nausica shook her head as she also showed a worried look. ¡°Azure Bloodline¡± waspletely unknown in this world, which suggested great risk and danger. They couldn¡¯t help getting concerned about Sailum¡¯s condition since they had not heard anything from him for such a long time.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to find him but... somebody can,¡± said Nausica. Then she revealed a name Angor would never think of. ¡°It¡¯s Elder of Books. Do you know Sailum¡¯s treasure? That he always keeps it close at all times?¡±

    Angor nodded. Anyone who knew about Sailum would easily notice this.

    ¡°The book. He has that really thick book.¡±

    ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t know what it means to him, but somehow, his obsession with that book helped him speak with the Elder of Books, who told him to be a ¡®Sage Morph¡¯ if he wishes to ¡®spiritualize¡¯ his book. This is why Sailum wants to use that Azure Bloodline so much.¡± Nausica held her chin. ¡°Since it was the Elder of Books who told him this, then the elder must know where Sailum is hiding. But... the Elder of Books has not shown up in front of people for a long time.¡±

    Angor looked down. Among the three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern, Elder of Books was the strangest one as he always remained inside Cloud Library and did not allow anyone to meet him easily.

    ¡°We can¡¯t do anything then,¡± Angor moaned. ¡°He chose this path, and we will respect his decision. Let¡¯s just pray.¡±

    They remained silent for a while to get over their troubled mood.

    Next, Angor exined the condition of Krakoks in detail, including Sunders¡¯ opinion about them.

    Nausica did not say anything about this. She had to see the Krakoks first before making decisions.

    ¡°So, Mister Sunders actually allowed you to ce them inside his personal mansion?¡± Nausica was curious.

    Angor, however, was not surprised by his professor¡¯s ¡°hospitality¡± about this matter. As someone who spent a lot of time with Sunders, he knew the gentleman was a bit differentpared to how he appeared to be.

    While listening to the sounds of beasts from the forest, they reached the center of the ind.

    This was the first time for Nausica toe to Sunders¡¯ ce. Even though Angor told her that Sunders was absent, Nausica seemed stressful nevertheless.

    ¡°Mister Padt,¡± Goode saw theming and greeted them.

    Angor nodded and told Goode to take Nausica to the Krakoks¡¯ room, while he returned to his own bedroom to get a casual robe. His current gentleman suit was in fine condition even after going through the incident in Sleepless City AND the journey to Pocratee. However, he felt it weird to use the same suit for such a long time.

    He left the bedroom feeling very refreshed. Before going to the Krakoks¡¯ temporary residence, he suddenly sensed the smell of good fooding from the kitchen, which told him to satisfy his stomach once in a while.

    He headed to the dining room and saw another figure who was attracted by food¡ªHobbiton.

    Even though Hobbiton was wearing that full-cover Phantom Servant robe, his short body still gave him out. It seemed that he had arrived at the door to the kitchen earlier and was peeking through the gap eagerly.

    But Angor didn¡¯t get to talk to him because another Phantom Servant arrived, who scolded Hobbiton and dragged him away.

    While walking past Angor¡¯s position, the second Phantom Servant spoke Angor in a small voice, ¡°Greetings to you, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Oh. You¡¯re... Number 233?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s me, sir.¡±

    Number 233 was the Phantom Servant who fought Angor¡¯s matches in Sky Tower together with Toby when Angor was knocked out by Parasite Queen.

    ¡°Who¡¯s cooking in there?¡± Angor pointed to the door of the kitchen.

    Hobbiton hopped in front of 233. ¡°I know, I know! It¡¯s Miss Greya!¡±

    Number 233 knuckled Hobbiton¡¯s head. ¡°Silence. You¡¯re not supposed to talk.¡±

    Angor noticed that Number 233¡¯s tone sounded considerate rather than harsh, which meant... Hobbiton had been enjoying this ce so far.

    After the two Phantom Servants went away, Angor approached the kitchen and heard Greya¡¯s voice. It appeared she was swearing loudly for some reason.

    Angor wondered who she was talking to and slowly opened the door to check, but Greya noticed him.

    ¡°Ah, you¡¯re back!¡±

    Angor chuckled helplessly and entered the kitchen.

    He saw the receiving end of Greya¡¯s lecture, which was a group of Phantom Servants. These people had white robes instead of ck. Apparently, they were responsible for managing cuisine in the manor.

    ¡°Where¡¯s your professor? He did note back with you?¡± Greya asked while arranging some foodstuffs.

    ¡°Mister Wace asked for his presence, so he went to Sleepless City again.¡±

    Angor exined the general condition in Sleepless City.

    Greya made a duck face and returned to her cooking stand whileining about how Sunders did not know how to cherish good cooking material.

    Angor looked around the room and noticed that the chefs had really costly provisions here. However, as Sunders once said, he did not have any Gourmet Wizard in the manor, so all the materials were only processed through basic means before they were served to the table.

    Greya had been yelling that the chefs here were ¡°too impotent and small-dicked to fully achieve the full potential of such divine aliment¡±. That how they had been cooking peasant meals out of royal-level supplies.

    Angor would agree. He once joined dinner with Sunders here and decided that he¡¯d never do it again if he had a choice. The meals were terrible both on the outside and when on his tongue. Many of them were served raw when they weren¡¯t supposed to.

    ¡°Golly! I won¡¯t do free cooking, but I REALLY can¡¯t stand seeing this happening,¡± Greya spat. ¡°I¡¯ll prepare a share for you since you¡¯re here. Don¡¯t let it go cold!¡±

    Angor¡¯s eyes twinkled as he nodded rapidly, fearing that Greya would change her mind too soon.

 Chapter 632 - On Separate Ways

    <h4>Chapter 632: On Separate Ways</h4>

    Angor left the kitchen area in high spirits. Greya¡¯s dishes weren¡¯t something one could expect normally. Under normal circumstances, one needed to somehow acquire an invitation card of Barbie¡¯s Restaurant to enjoy Greya¡¯s service.

    But Angor basically won his meal for free.

    ording to Greya, she was going to slowly roast ¡°Mermaid Shells¡± on special cooking fire today, which might take some time.

    In the meantime, Angor decided to go check on Nausica.

    He saw Nausica, who was done examining the Krakoks and was now resting in the hallway.

    ¡°Is it something that can be solved?¡± asked Angor.

    Instead of replying right away, Nausica took Angor away from the Krakoks¡¯ room, found somewhere more private, and lit her pipe.

    ¡°Combining what you told me and what I saw earlier, yes, there¡¯s a problem inside their blood. This problem has spread all the way to their souls, that¡¯s why their souls will always get attracted to a certain magic array. It isn¡¯t difficult to remove the problem from individuals, but it can be quiteplicated if you want to ¡®cleanse¡¯ the root of the cause from all of them.¡±

    She inhaled again and released some smoke that smelled like roses.

    ¡°What¡¯s your opinion?¡±

    ¡°My opinion... If I¡¯m in your ce, I would try to find more clues bymon means such as dissection. But we at least need to sacrifice like a hundred samples, and you don¡¯t have enough of them.¡±

    Angor frowned.

    ¡°Well,¡± Nausica continued, ¡°that¡¯s the best I can tell you. Perhaps my professor¡ª¡¯Grass Snail¡¯ Fantase¡ªcan do something better. But we¡¯ll need to use live subjects nevertheless.¡±

    Angor pinched his nose bridge as he felt a headache. ¡°So no matter what we do, we always need to kill some of them?¡±

    Nausica nodded grimly. ¡°Such is the price if they want help from outsiders. However, Mister Sunders had a point, that you can always tell the Krakoks to deal with their own troubles. They have talents among them. If someone manages to be a wizard... then they don¡¯t really need extra help.¡±

    Angor took a moment to think over the matter. The second option was better, since doing tests on Krakoks and killing them wouldn¡¯t guarantee a definite oue. What if he failed and killed them for nothing? Should he return to Soul Genesis Garden and ask for another group of Krakoks?

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor nodded and said, ¡°Since both you and my professor suggested so. If the Krakoks can¡¯t manage this on their own, I can always wait until I be a wizard myself.¡±

    ¡°Have you ever done any talent test on them?¡±

    ¡°No, but my professor once mentioned that Papaya is talented. As for the rest of them... I don¡¯t know yet.¡±

    Doing the test wasn¡¯t hard. Sunders once gave him a Talent Sphere. He could simply find some time and gather the Krakoks so that he could test them.

    Nausica quenched her pipe and prepared to leave. ¡°So you¡¯re going to return to Marginalized Ind this year?¡±

    ¡°Yup. In several months, maybe. My... former teacher is seriously ill. He needs my help.¡±

    Nausica shrugged. ¡°Then I guess we¡¯re not seeing each other in quite some time. After getting the books I need, I¡¯ll leave Brute Cavern and search for supplementary materials to be used during my bloodline fusion. Next... perhaps I¡¯ll go to a mortal nation and rent a house so that I have a safe ce to finally use my bloodline.¡±

    ¡°I hope we both reunite as our new selves.¡±

    ¡°Likewise. Safe travels, my friend.¡±

    Nausica smiled brightly and turned away. Slowly, her figure became a tiny dot in the distance, decorated by misty clouds nearby.

    Angor didn¡¯t know how much improvement Nausica could receive. He only hoped that his friends would find what they needed to achieve their dreams, and hopefully survive during theing crisis, which would loom over the southern region.

    While it was true that most wizards tended to spend their lives in loneliness, it wasforting to know that they had friends working hard along with them.

    Angor remained still and watched the bright dusk approaching. He then let out a deep breath and returned.

    Goode was waiting for him near the Krakoks¡¯ room. Though Angor could not see through Goode¡¯s mask, he felt as if this man¡¯s presence always broughtfort to those around him.

    ¡°Butler Goode, can you prepare me a room that is... rich in elements?¡±

    ¡°Are you going to give the Krakoks their talent test, Mister Padt?¡±

    Angor nodded. He could make this job simpler by observing the Talent Sphere used by the Krakoks and tell whether someone was talented, but Angor decided to make it more formalized and leave a good impression to potential Krakok wizards, should anyone be one in the future.

    ¡°It will be ready right away.¡± It seemed Goode was pretty experienced about this and did not need further instructions.

    The testing ground was located in a neighboring room.

    Angor went to Papaya and exined how they should remove their bloodline problem on their own because they might need to sacrifice their members if an outsider was to help them.

    When Papaya delivered the message to everyone, the Krakoks had no problem heeding Angor¡¯s advice since they always trusted him.

    Besides, ¡°bing a wizard¡± was an alluring temptation to the Krakoks as well. Most of the Krakoks brought by Angor were young ones in the prime of their lives. They truly wished to take on the exciting adventures in the amazing wizarding world.

    They dly formed into a line and waited outside the testing room, including Papaya.

    Angor was nning to observe the tests himself, but he was forced to leave when Greya told him that her meal was almost done and that Angor had to ept it right now in order to enjoy its ¡°full potential¡±.

    When Greya threatened that she would rather toss a cold dish away than letting him eat it, Angor had no choice but to head to the dining room.

    As for the Krakoks, Angor asked Butler Goode to take care of them. ording to Goode, it was also him who was in charge of giving new recruits talent tests on Sunders¡¯ Cloud Whale.

    ...

    Angor arrived at the dining room and saw Greya gazing at a clock.

    ¡°Thirty secondster and the soup will go into the drain.¡±

    ¡°Oh, heh heh... Sorry, Lady Greya. I¡¯ve been busy giving someone a talent test.¡±

    Greya knew about Angor¡¯s tinypanions and didn¡¯t ask about them. After mumbling ¡°what a Mister Goody-Goody¡±, she pointed at Angor¡¯s dish and left the room.

    Angor walked to the table and noticed that Greya¡¯s soup looked like ordinary seashell stew sided with melted cheese.

    There was no particr smell. But when he tried sipping some, he felt as if his spirit left his body and traveled to the sea while enjoying the beautiful sunlight and water waves.

    He heard beautiful music and looked around to see adorable mermaids dancing in the water...

    This was like an illusion but not as invasive. The food smoothly transferred the brilliant sights into his mind and allowed him to enjoy the sea as if it were real.

    He slowly returned to reality and realized that tears had been running down his cheeks uncontrobly.

    He did not know if he cried out of joy or passion, but he knew the amazing soup had bestowed something to him, just like how the strange energy inside Spotty allowed him toprehend something unknown.

    He finished his soup and took a moment to savor it.

    Greya¡¯s voice suddenly echoed beside his ears, ¡°This Mermaid Shell Soup is originally used to refresh one¡¯s spirit, but I added something nice to it so that it can improve your spiritual power indicator for a little bit, permanently, without depleting your potential. I can¡¯t use too much though. Let¡¯s say, your indicator will rise for 0.5, at best.¡±

    Greya paused for a moment before continuing, ¡°Consider it a reward for getting me out of Sleepless City.¡±

    Angor was surprised to realize what he just earned. While it was true that 0.5 did not sound like much, items that permanently increased someone¡¯s spiritual power was always scarce and priceless in this world, especially something that did not have any side-effects.

 Chapter 633 - Three Talents

    <h4>Chapter 633: Three Talents</h4>

    One could not just ask for or buy their spiritual power with money or effort freely.

    As far as Angor knew, the best and most convenient approach of increasing spiritual power indicator was to use a potion called the Potion of Austere Night, which usually improved one¡¯s indicator by 2 points.

    However, the cost of using this potion was to exhaust one¡¯s future potential, meaning, the user would no longer be able to receive ANY improvement afterward. There was no turning back.

    Even so, the price for a vial of the Potion of Austere Night had always been unaffordable to most people. Angor wondered how much he could earn if he were to sell this ¡°Mermaid Shell Soup¡±.

    When saving Greya, it was Sunders who did most of the work, while Angor mostly did nothing more than cheering for them.

    Another great and unexpected destiny.

    While savoring both the ¡°aftertaste¡± of the soup and his strengthened spirit power, Angor suddenly felt enlightened.

    A sudden sh of wisdom helped him better understand certain dilemmas that had been troubling him, such as Lady Mirror¡¯s request, which asked him to create an illusion that was both ¡°crude¡± and ¡°realistic¡±.

    While enjoying the peaceful sight of the sea, he did feel his blood pumping upon seeing several mermaids who conveniently wore too few apparels.

    If he simply reced the mermaids he saw with the handsome guys that Lady Mirror adored... problem solved!

    While both delighted about his new theory and his enhanced spirit, Angor spent several more hours relishing the lingering taste on his tongue.

    When it was almost midnight, Goode knocked on the door, and after getting Angor¡¯s consent, he entered the dining room.

    ¡°Here is the result of the talent test, Mister Padt.¡± Goode handed him a piece of paper.

    Angor saw three names on the paper: Papaya, Kudodo, Lococo.

    They all sounded pretty Krakok-ish, but when thinking about this, Angor quickly thought about ¡°Dodoro¡±.

    He¡¯s certainly not a Krakok. I gave him that name...

    ¡°The test involved 30 Krakok families, which had 76 members in total. I excluded five Krakoks because of their senior ages from the test. We have three of them who managed to light up the Talent Sphere.¡±

    Although Goode tried to exin it in a neutral tone, he failed to fully suppress his surprise.

    Angor was rather bewildered to hear about this. Mara once mentioned that one could hardly find a talent among tens of thousands of people. When Mara traveled to the Old Earth to scout for talents, he only found his grandchildren, n and Aleen, in the end.

    Angor brought 81 Krakok away from the Soul Genesis Garden and three of them proved to be talents?! And there were the three Krakok brothers who were studying under Bog... These creatures were blessed!

    It was such a pity that Dark Castle only used the Krakoks to produce Soul Orbs. If they ever tried to train Krakoks as apprentices, Dark Castle would have discovered an army of new talents.

    ¡°What kind of ¡®changes¡¯ did they see?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Kudodo said he saw a shining tree leaf. There are simr cases mentioned in the 7th edition of Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection. I believe this one might be talented in bing an Elementalist who majored in wood elements, or a Druid.¡±

    Angor looked pretty surprised to hear such a detailed exnation from Goode.

    ¡°Oh, when the master was searching for talents, he would always ask me to distinguish them. This is why I¡¯ve carefully read Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection so that I have more knowledge about my work,¡± said Goode.

    Angor nodded and asked the butler to continue.

    ¡°This one, Lococo. A rare case. She imed that she saw a glowing, golden ¡®flying piggy¡¯ that was wearing a red cape.¡±

    ¡°Glowing golden pig with a cape? That sounds like something from a child¡¯s story,¡± Angor muttered.

    Goode chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re right, Mister Padt. She also said that this was a character from her favorite story ¡®Piggy the Baby Hero¡¯. It was her grandmother who used to tell her the story, but her grandmother is no longer in this world.¡±

    Piggy the Baby Hero? Angor shivered when thinking about the childish name.

    ¡°I guess Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection doesn¡¯t have a record that exins this one, right?¡±

    ¡°While it is rare, I did remember seeing simr records in the 323rd and 345th edition of the magazine, where the tested saw something from their childhood tales. But regardless of what characters they saw, the magazines suggested that they had the talent to major in a rare subject, which was Summoner.¡±

    Summoner, a subfield under ult Art.

    There were very few Summoners in this world because they usually had vastly varied levels of strength when studying summoning spells as apprentices. How well they could fight solely depended on the creatures they could summon.

    Angor thought about a girl called Abelle he met in Brute Cavern. As he remembered, Abelle¡¯s tri-colored deer could neither help her fight or run very fast. For this reason, Abelle was considered the most useless student in her year. She had been epting the easiest quests in the organization to earn barely enough reward to feed herself.

    But this didn¡¯t mean that Summoners were weak. There were other Summoners known by Angor such as the ¡°Three Genius Summoners and Three Useless Summoners¡± in Brute Cavern. While ¡°Canine Master¡± Potongue did live up to his title as one of the useless ones, ¡°Fox Master¡± was quite strong when battling with Angor in Sky Tower. Angor believed that he won that match due to Toby¡¯s help.

    Summoner apprentices highly depended on what avable money and resources they could put to use. Also, their strength was not only determined by how they could fight. There were other elements to be used when evaluating their summoned creatures. However, Angor didn¡¯t know any details.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me Lococo could summon that ¡®flying piggy¡¯ thing?¡± Angor joked. That would look so much fun.

    Next, Angor waited for Goode to describe Papaya¡¯s talent. Angor was very curious to find out what this seemingly weak yet mentally durable Krakok girl could do.

    She put up a perfect performance when she was captured by Shadow. And during their travels, she managed her people orderly as a decent leader, which suggested that she was quite talented in various aspects.

    Angor wished to know how this little singer, as well as a promising heroine, would fare in the wizarding world.

    ¡°Thest one, Papaya... She saw a seed slowly sinking into her forehead, which then became a blossom, and gave birth to a fruit,¡± said Goode.

    Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Talent rted to wood and nature, like Kudodo?¡±

    Goode shook his head. ¡°Not quite. Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection provided many simr examples but none could be used to define her case fully.¡±

    ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°If we only mind the seed, Papaya might be a Wood Elementalist. However, a record in the magazine mentioned an ultist who let the seed grow and mature. However, personally speaking, I think Papaya is neither an Elementalist nor an ultist.

    ¡°She might be a Bloodline User. The seed itself is not important. She saw the seed going into her forehead because it was something that belonged to her body. In other words, Papaya is likely to be a Bloodline User who would fuse with the bloodline of a nt.¡±

    The bloodline of a nt? Angor frowned. You can extract bloodlines from nts?

    ¡°¡®Bloodlines¡¯ is only a word used to literally exin the concept. In this case, you can consider Papaya as someone who could fuse the life force of a nt into her body. Wizards like this are referred to as Bloodline Users as well, but this is not amon thing to do. If I remember correctly... ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko from Gravity Forest is such a Bloodline User.¡±

    Angor nodded as he once again felt frustrated for hisck of knowledge.

    He still had so much to learn.

 Chapter 634 - Recruit Mission

    <h4>Chapter 634: Recruit Mission</h4>

    Angor was hoping that Papaya turned out to be a talent. In this case, he could simply ask Papaya to handle the bloodline problem of her people once she became a supernatural.

    He believed that Papaya waspletely up for this job, telling from how she loved her grandmother and those who followed her lead.

    Delighted, Angor left the dining room and went to meet with the Krakok talents immediately.

    Apart from Papaya, the Krakoks had one male and a female as their new talents. One of them was called Kudodo. As Angor remembered, this Krakok boy was the second one who vowed to follow his lead, immediately after Papaya knelt in front of all the other Krakoks.

    Kudodo was basically a kind-looking young man with a smart mind.

    Thest talent was Lococo, a Krakok girl who was likely to be a Summoner. She was a timid soul who usually did not stand out among others. Even now, she was hiding behind Papaya and trembling a little while holding a tiny plush toy in her arms.

    Angor slowly exined their new fate and the amazing yet dangerous adventures that awaited them in the wizarding world, as well as their mission to save their n.

    Kudodo seemed pretty hesitant and even unwilling upon hearing his job, but he still epted it. However, Lococo was terrified from start to end and did not listen to Angor¡¯s words.

    Papaya looked as determined as ever. It seemed she already considered it her responsibility to provide a bright future to her followers.

    ¡°To set yourself truly free is the only reason you left the others and traveled with me,¡± Angor concluded. ¡°Perhaps you have other dreams to go after. You can do that after we¡¯re done solving the most important problem. Understand?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± said Papaya, while the other two only mumbled something uncertain.

    When Angor asked for their response again, the three of them all did their best to answer, for they feared that Angor was getting annoyed.

    Truth was, Angor was a bit unconfident about the other two Krakoks.

    ¡°Papaya, I have something to tell youter. Lococo and Kudodo shall go back first. When I¡¯m done talking, I¡¯ll take you all to get registered at Brute Cavern so that you be their apprentices.¡±

    Angor watched the two Krakoks leave. He then spoke to Papaya, who seemed a little bit worried, ¡°I don¡¯t think I need to further exin the curse that lies within your bloodline. The question is, are you sure you¡¯re fully willing to take this responsibility and help your people survive?¡±

    Papaya nodded firmly. ¡°Of course. It¡¯s my job, and I¡¯ll see through it till the end.¡±

    Angor nodded when he almost sensed her determination.

    ¡°Good. Then I should tell you something else. Do NOT tell anyone what I¡¯m about to tell you, or¡ª¡±

    He thought about threatening her with some kind of punishment, but in the end, he decided not to. ¡°Never mind. I believe you¡¯ll make the right choice after listening to me.¡±

    While listening, Papaya¡¯s look of determination was slowly reced by fear.

    ¡°Sir-sir, was that-was that true?¡± Her voice was trembling.

    ¡°I have no reason to tell such a lie.¡±

    Papaya stumbled a little and went down on her knees. Several tears dropped on her bright green skirt, which looked like saplings covered by morning dew.

    Angor wasn¡¯t surprised to see her reaction. Anyone would get frightened like this if they learned that their ancestors had been treated as ¡°farm pigs¡± who provided their souls for someone to eat. Papaya was doing pretty well by not breaking downpletely.

    Their Grand Priest only told them that they had something in their bloodline, which had to be removed, but he did not exin what exactly.

    And Angor decided to reveal the truth to Papaya.

    The Grand Priest made the right choice by agreeing to Isabelle¡¯s offer, who saved all Krakoks from extinction. Back then, the Grand Priest did not know that the price they had to pay wouldst forever and how terrible it was. That was until he had to watch over the Soul Genesis Garden in his extended life while watching the souls of his people being pulled into an abyss.

    This was why he saw a chance when Angor came and requested that Angor helped some of his people out of this eternal trap.

    Papaya looked up while still weeping. ¡°M-my parents. Were they... made into these ¡®Soul Orbs¡¯ too?¡±

    Angor replied with silence.

    Papaya shook her head and revealed a bitter smile.

    ¡°If... if my granny passed away one day, will she...¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°No matter how far you run, as long as the said problem is not removed, your souls will always return to the magic array under Hippocratee.¡±

    Papaya looked down again, causing her long hair to cover her face.

    ¡°I, Papaya from Seedling Vige, shall swear under the world¡¯s consciousness and everything there is, that I WILL help my people escape their old fate! Should I stray from my mission, my body shall be imed by the darkest abyss, and my soul will be put under an eternal curse!¡±

    Angor was quite shocked to hear Papaya¡¯s terrible swear. It was as if this innocuous young Krakok just grew strong, both body and mind. Instead of the singing girl he saw before, Angor began to notice the quality of a true heroine, like Nausica.

    A woman who could not be impaired or defeated no matter what crisis came to her.

    Angor took a moment to admire her great spirit before asking, ¡°Do you hate your priest?¡±

    Papaya sobbed several times as she considered the life they received from their Grand Priest.

    ¡°No, sir.¡±

    Angor nodded and stopped the discussion here. He was quite satisfied to see how Papaya did not let emotions judge for her. This was an extremely important quality if she wished to be a wizard.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. We¡¯ll head to the Tree Spirit Pce now. Clean up yourself a little and remember, don¡¯t tell this to anybody else, for any reason.¡±

    ¡°Understand, sir!¡±

    ...

    Angor handed three tiny, specially-crafted bone cards to the three Krakoks and left the ce.

    Tree Spirit told him something before he left, ¡°There was Dodoro not long ago, and you found another three little friends to join our ranks so soon! How about you ept the recruitment mission for this year?¡±

    As always, both wizards and apprentices in the organization would avoid getting involved in this job as much as they could.

    The reward was fine, but it would usually take a lot of time, which made the payment not worthy. Besides, one could never be sure whether they could find enough talents to meet the quota. For this reason, as soon as it was time for this quest to show up, the questing hall would immediately see fewer peopleing because nobody wanted to waste their precious time on it.

    Sometimes, Rein Mute even had to personally ask wizards to undertake this quest since wizards had more time to sparepared to apprentices. However, hismand could not prevent wizards from ¡°cking off¡± on the job by pretending to be sick, causing fights, making excuses, or even escaping into other nes.

    Last year, it should be Wace who took this job. When he tried shirking it in simr ways, Sunders decided to ept the quest instead since he was leaving Brute Cavern to search for Barbie¡¯s Restaurant.

    Tree Spirit was mostly joking when giving Angor the suggestion. However, after careful consideration, Angor decided to heed it.

    Since Tree Spirit was here, Angor did not need to go all the way to the questing hall. When Tree Spirit returned his bone card to him, Angor saw his new mission already printed on it.

    It required him to find at least six new talents for the organization.

    Apart from the three Krakoks he brought here today as well as counting Dodoro in, he only had to find another two within two years.

    As he nned, he was going to return to the Old Earth soon and travel to the Land of Revtion to look for Freud¡¯s ¡°Whelk of the Dreaming Coast¡± along the way. He believed he had enough time to look for new talents.

 Chapter 635 - Raging Thorns

    <h4>Chapter 635: Raging Thorns</h4>

    It took Angor some effort to read the ant-sized characters on the bone cards of Krakoks, but he still managed it.

    Just as Goode estimated, Tree Spirit had rmended Papaya, Kudodo, and Lococo to study Bloodline Art, Element Art, and ult Summoning, respectively.

    Their spiritual power indicators seemed decent too. Kudodo was 15, Papaya was 16, while Lococo¡¯s indicator was an amazing 18, which was higher than Angor¡¯s 17.5, after he received spirit enhancement from Altar of Demise AND consuming Greya¡¯s Mermaid Shell Soup.

    Well, I guess people all have different starting points.

    After registering their bone cards and determining their talent orientations, they had to head to the resource distribution hall next.

    Dodoro did not have to go there because there was only one Prophet who could teach him in the entire Brute Cavern. But in this case, the Krakoks still needed to find their professor posters even though some of them possessed rare talent.

    After arranging the necessary files, the Krakoks soon received their posters. Unfortunately, no one received a golden one.

    Kudodo shall study from ¡°Rose Crown¡± Leona, a witch famous for her perfumes. She was, in fact, an Elementalist majoring in wood elements and nature-rted spells.

    Lococo¡¯s professor was ¡°Whisperer of Underworld¡± Duncan, a Summoner who was skilled at summoning skeletons. This didn¡¯t sit very well with Lococo¡¯s timid nature, but Duncan was the only wizard who gave her a poster.

    Atst, Papaya¡¯s professor was ¡°Raging Thorns¡± Madelyne, whose name Angor had never heard of before.

    ording to a worker in the distribution hall, Madelyne was a Bloodline User witch who fused the bloodline of a nt in her body. Her full name was ¡°Madelyne Sillian¡±, who was supposed to havee from a wizard family near the Goman Kingdom. However, the Sillian Family was wiped out several years ago, and Madelyne was the only survivor who came to Brute Cavernter.

    Papaya was her first student.

    Angor more or less knew about Leona and Duncan. Like most wizards, they might be a little proud and arrogant, but they had very few records that suggested ¡°campus violence¡±. Kudodo and Lococo should be fine as long as they did not cause trouble first.

    After telling them directions, Angor let Kudodo and Lococo head to their teachers on their own.

    As for Madelyne... Angor was a bit worried because he knew nothing about her. What if she was a cruel individual who loved performing deadly experiments on her students like ¡°Miniature Creator¡± Dumartin?

    Papaya was important for Angor to finish Grand Priest¡¯s request, and she was the most valuable Krakok in Angor¡¯s view. He definitely didn¡¯t want something bad to happen.

    He thought about this and took Papaya to Bartterfly Pub. He then bought some information rted to Madelyne by paying one crystal.

    The pub also provided rumors and secrets regarding how the Sillian Family was eliminated, but at a higher cost. Angor did not go for them since he wasn¡¯t interested.

    The information he found wasforting enough.

    Madelyne behaved quite peacefully since she joined Brute Cavern, and she never did anything harmful to any apprentices. People mostly considered her as a wful¡± character.

    Angor was not going to pursue the details. There was never absolute justice or evil in this world anyway.

    After sending Papaya off, Angor yawned and returned to Phantom Ind.

    He knew that these Krakoks were unlikely to get any golden posters because they were naturally at a disadvantage because of their smaller bodies. It was already good enough that there were wizards willing to take them in.

    Personally, Angor believed that being small did not mean being weak. At least the Krakoks could escape from trouble pretty well. Besides, there were always ways that could help them get bigger if they wished to.

    Whether they could achieve great things still relied on their determination and effort.

    People once argued that smaller beings needed less time to level up because they needed less mana, which was soon proved to be incorrect. One¡¯s mindspace was an abstract concept that could not be measured physically. The Krakoks needed just as much mana as anyone else if they wished to improve their mana pool.

    Upon arriving at Sunders¡¯ manor, Angor saw ¡°Griffin Toby¡± being trained by Greya again.

    Toby saw himing and whined.

    Angor certainly could not go against Greya¡¯s will after he enjoyed her meal not long ago. Helpless, Angor gave his feathered partner a ¡°sorry but can¡¯t help here¡± look.

    It was Greya who struck a conversation with him.

    ¡°Goode told me. You found three talents among the Krakoks? Where are they now?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t know why Greya was interested in this. This wasn¡¯t really a secret, so he had no problem telling her.

    Greya tilted her head. ¡°You can just like, keep them at Phantom Ind and give them some random channeling methods to learn. Now that you sent them to someone else, if one of them suddenly bes a big-shotter, the credit won¡¯t be yours.¡±

    Angor realized that Greya was, in fact, being considerate. However, he never minded such a problem. It was fine as long as the Krakoks could seed. And besides, their families were still with him.

    More importantly, before leaving Soul Genesis Garden, Angor asked the Krakoks to take an oath that they would never betray him under any circumstances. For these reasons, who they considered as teachers didn¡¯t really matter.

    ¡°So you¡¯re going to return home and see your family soon?¡± Greya changed the subject.

    Now Angor was confused. He never told Greya about this.

    ¡°I mean, ahem.¡± Greya cleared her throat when she saw Angor getting doubtful. ¡°You were talking to that youngdy outside the house really loudly. Everybody could hear you.¡±

    By ¡°youngdy¡±, she was referring to Nausica, no doubt.

    ¡°But Lady Greya, we were talking around the entrance of the manor while you were probably preparing meals in the kitchen. That was at least 300 meters apart.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I have to listen to my soup while cooking! So I used something to enhance my hearing. I heard you talking by ident!¡±

    ¡°But... my professor mentioned that this building was built with Parmigi Celestite. It¡¯s soundproof.¡±

    Greya made a duck face. Must you get to the bottom of this?

    She put away the whip she had been using on Toby and sat on a bench nearby. ¡°Okay, okay! I was listening in, alright? Gosh, you¡¯re so persistent.¡±

    Toby saw this and lifted a fluffy paw to give Angor a ¡°thumbs-up¡±. He also closed one eye, which was supposed to be winking.

    Angor wondered how the bird learned about such a gesture.

    He then joined Toby and put a hand in his soft mane. ¡°Yes, Lady Greya. I¡¯m leaving in one or two months. Is there something you need?¡±

    ¡°Oh, nothing biggie. It¡¯s about that illusion item I mentioned...¡±

    ¡°Rest assured, I have a n. I¡¯ll finish it before departing if everything goes well.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± Greya nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting for a pleasant surprise then. Oh, since my restaurant is kinda out of business right now, if I¡¯m satisfied with your creation, I¡¯ll give you a chance to request something in the same manner as using a golden VIP invitation.¡±

    Angor¡¯s mouth fell agape. This meant being able to get a magical meal priceless to all wizards!

    ¡°This time, you don¡¯t have a bunch of people forcing your decision, so think carefully about what you want to get.¡± Greya winked. ¡°Things said, I have pretty high expectations about that illusion. It should be at least something that touched my mind, like how you did with thest one.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best, Lady Greya!¡±

    After saying goodbye and before leaving, Angor decided to ask something else, ¡°Why are you staying here, Lady Greya? Do you have something to ask from¡ª¡±

    ¡°Nonsense. I¡¯ve no interest in working with that muffled and crafty fool. I just... have an agreement with him. Before it is finished, I have to stay with him.¡±

    Since it was unlikely that Greya would tell him about this ¡°agreement¡±, Angor only nodded to her and left.

 Chapter 636 - Blending the Sense of Mystery

    <h4>Chapter 636: Blending the Sense of Mystery</h4>

    Angor returned to his rentedb in The Tributary.

    Greya just proved to him that it was fairly easy for wizards to monitor his conversations and actions. To avoid trouble, Angor decided to finish Greya¡¯s request in The Tributary, which was located in another dimension.

    Angor more or less had an idea about what type of illusion he should make before going to Sleepless City with Sunders. Greya only mentioned two things when she made this request. One, the illusion had to have the ¡°atmosphere¡± of the Nightmare Realm, and secondly, it should look something new and creative.

    Angor was mostly concerned about the second requirement. Earlier, he nned to create a ¡°sandbox¡± world like the Witch¡¯s Town or Nether City while allowing Greya to explore the illusion on her own free will without following a fixed storyline.

    But he just got another idea.

    He came to an open testing ground near theboratory, which was mostly empty apart from several striking dummies made of durable materials. This ce was meant for wizards to test their spells or alchemy creations. However, Angor had something else in mind.

    He wanted to try blending the ¡°Mystery sense¡± he learned into his illusions. He already tried this once inside Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden, but he was interrupted by Sunders at that time. When Sunders took him to Pocratee, he never found time for this job again.

    That was until today.

    He wished to see whether he could sessfully mix that particr mysterious sense into his illusions. And if he could, he would then attempt to do the same to his alchemy inventions.

    When he was inside Spotty, he thought about using the amazing sights he observed to slowlyprehend the concept of Mystery and hopefully be a Mystery Alchemist. But since Greya asked him to make something creative...

    Surely ¡°Mystery¡± was creative enough.

    He began his experiment with this in mind.

    Once again, he tried his best to recall what he saw and what he felt while surrounded by Mystery energy.

    Yet he found it impossible to fully recreate that experience in his mind. Every time when he believed he almost grasped the exact feeling, it would easily slip away.

    It reminded him of his childhood. During summers, when mosquitoes were active, these irritating little imps woulde to bother him whenever he wanted to sleep. When he stayed alert to p them, the insects would skillfully keep their distance. As soon as he gave up, they would immediately return as if they could read his mind.

    The sense of Mystery felt simr.

    As he recalled, when he was memorizing the sense in Spotty, he would work faster if he did it subconsciously instead of chasing the sense honestly.

    Maybe I should just empty my mind and let the unknown sense take the lead?

    He closed his eyes and did so.

    Soon, the sense of Mystery that was left in the depth of his soul began to emerge as if he were back in Spotty¡¯s ¡°stomach¡± again. He saw different and conflictingws of nature once again dancing around his mind.

    Slowly, he suppressed all uneasiness and entered into a meditation state.

    He went over what he memorized by using his body this time.

    It took him an entire night.

    When the sun was high on the next day, Angor slowly lifted a hand as a powerful cantrip was made.

    The empty testing field went blurry as if there were a wet ss barrier covering it.

    Centered around Angor, thick fog spread out and wrapped up everything.

    Any apprentice here could easily tell that Angor just used the most basic form of an illusion¡ªmist.

    The illusion was well prepared, but Angor kept his eyes shut and waited patiently.

    Something else soon followed.

    It was wind, which slowly stirred the mist.

    ¡°Woof!¡±

    Angor quickly opened his eyes. I did it!

    While trying to remain calm, he stood up and carefully approached the source of the noise.

    Across the mist around him, he saw a small figure sitting not far from his position. The figure was wagging its tail happily.

    As Angor moved closer, the figure stood up and barked at him.

    It was not Spotty, not even a dog for that matter. Even though it did look like Spotty.

    This was what Angor meant to achieve in his illusion¡ªthe ¡°sense of Mystery¡± he blended into it.

    When thinking about the sense of Mystery, he did not know how it would take form in his view until he saw the small figure.

    However, he did not understand why the sense showed up as something simr to Spotty. Was it because he had been thinking about this creature recently?

    Nevertheless, he sessfully created a foreign presence in his illusion, and this would help him furtherprehend the Mystery sense he had learned.

    The mist illusion was fully under his control, but the creature was not.

    He slowly approached the animal and crouched down.

    Next, he reached out his left hand and put it on the creature¡¯s forehead.

    In the next second, the creature scattered as if Angor just poked a bubble. At the same time, an overwhelming Mystery energy was released from the creature¡¯s original position. The Mystery energy soon filled up the entire illusion.

    Here it is!

    Soon, Angor found his whole mind dominated by the amazing energy, which prevented him from thinking about anything other than what was within reach.

    He no longer needed to subconsciously draw the Mystery sense from his soul. He could almost see the materialized Mystery energy using his eyes.

    This was his original n, which was to bring the Mystery sense in front of his eyes rather than savoring it using faint memories bit by bit.

    It only existed in his illusion, but it was enough for him to further learn about Mystery.

    While conflictingws of nature and unknown enlightenment filled his view, he eagerly began enriching his mind.

    Unlike thest time when he was busy ¡°copying¡± the sense, he was now free to look for what he needed.

    There was so much to see. The immeasurablews of nature alone were mind-blowing enough.

    About five secondster, the Mystery energy suddenly vanished.

    Angor was rather shocked when he saw his illusion returning to being a type of simple and in mist.

    But this was something to be expected since he somewhat knew that such Mystery energy meant unconquerable power and wisdom that could not be sustained using his simple illusion. Making itst for five seconds was his limit.

    He canceled the illusion and rubbed his forehead, which was beginning to throb.

    It was rather draining, but the oue was good enough.

    He would take some rest and try several more times until he got familiarized with it.

    ...

    Something yelped inside the darkness-infested Sleepless City.

    ¡°Woof! Woof!¡±

    Spotty stood on the pointy roof of a clock tower and was calling toward the direction of Brute Cavern.

    Following its voice, Fox glided past the dark sky andnded beside the puppy. ¡°Ah, I finally found you. The herald of Minister Dim has arrived. Dim will get very angry if you don¡¯t get back to him in time.¡±

    The puppy whined and lowered its head.

    ¡°Let us go.¡± Fox picked the puppy up and disappeared into the dark city.

 Chapter 637 - Manifestation of Mystery

    <h4>Chapter 637: Manifestation of Mystery</h4>

    Angor was carefully strolling inside a mountain forest while searching for something.

    Mountain wind came and caused the trees around him to rustle.

    He halted his steps and listened closely.

    ¡°Got you!¡±

    Following the unnatural air current he grasped, he leaped into the air andnded on the thick branch of a giant tree.

    Following the branch, he reached the center of the tree¡¯s crown. Using what light managed to slip through therge leaves, he discovered a yellow birdling huddled inside a small nest.

    The creature was sleeping sound as its chest rose and shrank.

    ¡°Stay right there...¡± Angor reached out a hand into the nest to catch the bird, but it sensed danger and quickly fluttered away from the nest.

    Angor spent the next two minutes going after his target.

    Fortunately, the forest wasn¡¯t real¡ªit was an illusion made by Angor, which meant the bird could not leave it.

    Angor held the bird in his hand. When he squeezed it a little, the animal suddenly melted and released Mystery energy into the area.

    Angor enjoyed the energy for about half a minute before it dissipated, rendering the forest as an ordinary and harmless illusion.

    ¡°Twenty-seven seconds...¡± Angor noted down a number and sighed. He felt rather annoyed when he had to spend so much time ¡°hunting¡± for the manifestation of Mystery by himself when he was the one who created that illusion.

    It couldn¡¯t be helped¡ªanything rted to Mystery tended to be slippery.

    Angor only managed to blend the ¡°sense¡± of Mystery into his illusion. He did not create Mystery beings for real. Even so, the presences he created were already reflecting the properties of Mystery.

    Each time he made a new illusion, it was like opening a Pandora¡¯s Box, for he never knew which form the Mystery sense would use.

    Even if he was the controller of his illusions, the manifestation created by the sense of Mystery was unpredictable.

    This might change once he fullyprehended Mystery and became a Mystery Alchemist for real, by which time even such unknown wisdom would be easy for him to master.

    A week quickly psed.

    Angor almost tested through a hundred different illusions, during which the ¡°manifestations¡± also showed up in his view as different beings, such as animals, humans, and random objects including stones, boxes, books, houses, or even pure elements.

    Most of the manifestations were rtively easy to find, but there were also cases in which he failed to find his target from start to end.

    He knew he sessfully brought the manifestation into existence because he could feel it, but he just could not locate it.

    Whenever this happened, he would simply cancel the illusion and began another session.

    As he did more tests, he slowly learned how certain elements would affect the ¡°duration¡± of the Mystery energy, that a moreplicated and perfect illusion that possessed intact logics tended to allow him to enjoy Mystery energy for a longer period of time after he discovered the manifestation.

    And it was even better when he mixed nightmare energy in it.

    The longest ¡°Mystery energy flood¡± he experienced till nowsted one minute. It was like an all-inclusive intelligence repository that always led Angor toward something he could learn from. However, he had no idea whether he could put such random and precocious enlightenment to use.

    Rather than learning new knowledge, he felt as if he had been blindly reading books that he could not understand and hoping to take advantage of the knowledge one day.

    Currently, he would like to make the ¡°energy flood¡±st longer. The longer he could spend inside the Mystery energy, the better he could benefit from it. For now, one minute was the best he could do.

    If he could sessfully make an ¡°evesting Mystery energy flood¡± happen one day... perhaps it could then be considered as a real Mystery treasure.

    ...

    He was almost done testing the Mystery sense in his illusions. The next step was to see whether he could do something simr to his alchemy items.

    He took out a block of Balm Wood from his space bracelet. This was amon, non-tiered material famous for its decent sturdiness and magic conductivity.

    With several masterly moves, he quickly carved a miniature garden out of the wood¡ªhe was very proficient when doing such simple crafting work now.

    While doing his work, he also left two illusion nodes in the item, which supported a basic illusion mixed with the sense of Mystery.

    As the simply-made decoration did not have an energy source or any noticeable feature, Angor had to provide his own mana to activate the illusion.

    When he did, the illusion on the tiny item suddenly spread wider until it turned the entire testing ground into an aromatic flower field full of drifting petals.

    Angor looked around the beautiful illusion but without finding anything other than colorful flowers. Again, he sensed the Mystery presence hiding somewhere, yet he just could not grasp its location.

    He thought about giving up and try something else.

    Wait. Flowers, their smell... is this a camouge?

    When thinking about this, he removed the element of ¡°smell¡± from his illusion and kept walking.

    He suddenly took a whiff as something reached his nose.

    The smell of flowers earlier belonged to the illusion. It was a fake scent that did not exist for real. After he removed all the smells, anything that tempted his nose had to be the ¡°foreign being¡±, and in this case, the manifestation of Mystery.

    But what caused the smell? The flowers or the wind?

    After careful searching, he put his attention on an inconspicuous white bud.

    When he poked it, the bud slowly spread open and began to release Mystery energy into the garden.

    The floodsted for 15 seconds before it ended.

    At the same time, the illusion disappeared.

    This told Angor that he couldbine ¡°Mystery illusions¡± with alchemy items, albeit not very efficiently.

    The garden was only a very basic illusion that was supposed to sustain the energy flood for less than 10 seconds. Since the oue turned out better than his estimation, he believed that it might be something to do with his material choice.

    Time for more experiments.

    He spent the next few days testing through over fifty different alchemy materialsmonly-seen, non-tiered ones.

    He reached a conclusion that anything that amplified mana could increase the duration of energy floods, especially materials that radiated mana flows, which usually doubled his estimated result.

    Following this clue, he chose several suitable materials to prepare for his workter.

    During the tests, he filled his turf with a lot of curious trinkets that he created, such as miniature sculptures and decorative gadgets. These poorly-made creations might earn him several dozens of crystals if he put them to sale. However, he was no longer the impoverished apprentice who would care for such minor gains now. After discarding them to a junk pile at the corner of the testing field, he entered theboratory.

    Time for putting theories into practice.

 Chapter 638 - Twinning Wings

    <h4>Chapter 638: Twinning Wings</h4>

    Angor had already determined the overall theme of the illusion he was going to give Greya, but he had yet to decide what kind of essory to support the illusion. He had to leave his work midwayst time because Sunders summoned him. Now that he had time, he could continue perfecting the unfinished draft he had.

    The ¡°feather earring¡± he gave Greyast time did not involve much work and innovation, and its modest design did not go very well with Greya¡¯s image.

    This time, Angor nned to customize his creation solely to fit Greya¡¯s nature, which meant a showy and unabasheddy who always wore garish dresses.

    Of course, an essory to be used on such ady had to be extremely eye-catching. Shocking, even. Anyone who met Greya had to notice her ornament on the first look, as well as understanding its excessive value.

    Apart from these, it had to please Greya.

    Angor tried to think about what kind of item Greya might like. As he recalled, the original and ¡°bigger¡± Greya did have a good number of shiny pieces all over her body, but not the ¡°small girl¡± Greya.

    When Angor met Greya for the first time as a mortal, he didn¡¯t have the courage to look at her directly, so the only thing he remembered about her essories was ¡°sparkly¡±.

    As for something else... ¡°cooking¡± and ¡°Toby¡± were the only concepts Angor could think of right now. There was no way he could add food-rted elements to his creation, which left Toby as his only reference.

    He spent the entire afternoon working on his draft papers.

    After watching several top-ss jewelry designs using his tablet andbining them with his current ns, he finally came up with a general result.

    In the sketch, two winged beasts were flying while crossing each other¡¯s path. ¡°Seabird Toby¡± spread his wings wide in the front, and ¡°Griffin Toby¡± disyed his muscr side-face and his ming tail at the back while the rest of his body was covered by ¡°Seabird Toby¡±.

    The two figures were both made of silvery materials sided with countless cut diamonds that looked both shiny andplex. Yet the in color did not hinder its luxuriant extravagance.

    Angor invented the item¡¯s shape, but the silver theme and the use of small diamonds were copied from an existing jewelry piece from Earth called the ¡°Bird Brooch¡±, a special post-war order designed by Cartier in 1948, ording to its description.

    He nned to craft a brooch that could be pinned in front of Greya¡¯s chest, thus allowing anyone to easily notice it.

    He found his design almost perfect, but there was something amiss about all that silver hue.

    After watching the draft for a long time, he considered and used his quill to add some colors to Toby¡¯s eyes.

    A pair of crimson eyes and a pair of radiant, purplish-red ones brought the whole creation to life.

    Now that they had more life-like eyes, Angor felt as if the birds might be alive in the next second and join him in the real world.

    ...

    Five dayster, Angor brought what was intended by the draft into reality.

    He carefully examined the finished product in his hand and couldn¡¯t help admiring his brilliant work. All materials he chose this time were tiered ones, like Mythril, Relic tinum, Phantasm Diamonds, Enchanted Blue Agate, Pigeon Blood Rubies, and so on, which helped him outperform his n¡ªthe brooch came out even more dazzling than he thought.

    Obeying his earlier theories, he made sure that everything had energy-amplifying properties so that the essory itself could function as an excellent magic conductor.

    He had not put it to test yet, but his estimation suggested the ¡°Mystery energy flood¡± created using this item would be longer than any of his previous attempts. Six or seven minutes, perhaps.

    Unfortunately, he could not cause the energy flood for real and see it because the flood could only happen once in every illusion.

    Still, he could activate the illusion and see whether the ¡°manifestation of Mystery¡± was inside.

    There was a tiny slot on the backside of the brooch, which was designed to contain a small magic crystal as its power source.

    He did so and ¡°switched on¡± the illusion, which worked just fine.

    Several hourster, he left the illusion with a strange expression.

    The illusion was wless. As he nned, there were many hidden secrets inside that allowed people to explore them for free, as well as several interesting ¡°Easter eggs¡± that he ced in the illusion.

    Since Greya requested that the illusion should have something rted to the Nightmare Realm, Angor simply filled up the entire illusion with such ambiance, meaning, the whole illusion felt silent, eerily strange, and frozen in time.

    The problem was, he never discovered the manifestation of Mystery after looking around the illusion for a long time.

    He could asionally pick up the sense of Mysterying from somewhere, but the source of it was well hidden.

    He wasn¡¯t too concerned since this happened many times during his previous tests. After exploring for some more, he just gave up and decided to let Greya figure it out on her own. Might as well consider it as another secret to be discovered.

    There weren¡¯t that many means of entertainment in the wizarding world. Perhaps Greya would like this little time-killer.

    As for whether Greya could find the manifestation at all, Angor would not worry about it because it would no longer be his problem if a truth-finder wizard failed to do so.

    He examined the delicate brooch again. He didn¡¯t know for sure whether Greya would like it, but at least he himself was very content with the gorgeous and excessively conspicuous look of it. It sure looked expensive, but at the same time, it was far from pretentious.

    Jon once mentioned to him that businessmen from Earth all agreed that it was rather easy to earn money from kids and narcissistic women.

    Angor didn¡¯t know about kids, but he¡¯d agree that the woman part of that sentence also applied in this world, telling from how Leona easily made nearly a million crystals by selling the perfume elements that she extracted from his body.

    He thought about finding some time to make more of such decorative charms so that he could sell them to witches. Maybe this would get him more money than ¡°honest alchemy work¡±.

    Until now, uponpleting every order, he just gave his item to the clients and let them do whatever they wanted with the item. But after watching the jewelry contests from Earth, he noticed that the designers usually named their creations themselves while registering ¡°trademarks¡± for them.

    And he liked that idea. Although there was no ¡°trademark system¡± in this world, many alchemists would leave their personal signatures on their inventions to im the uniqueness of their items.

    He decided to get himself his own unique mark or symbol as well. And he already did¡ªat an inconspicuous corner around the crystal slot of Greya¡¯s brooch, he left a miniature carving, which showed a mighty lion bound by thorny vines.

    He thought about using the emblem of Padt Family directly as his ¡°alchemy trademark¡±, but then decided not to do so as he did not want to invite unwanted trouble to his family, so he changed the emblem a little by turning the burning mes around the lion into thorns.

    He applied a Shroud Rune to the emblem so that it could not be seen unless someone used certain means to check. A means of further protecting his ¡°copyright¡±.

    From now on, he would leave this emblem on every item he crafted unless something required otherwise.

    As for naming the brooch...

    He was really, really bad at this.

    He gazed at the beautiful creation for a long time but without reaching any suitable name for it.

    A showy name might be a mouthful, but a ¡°not so showy¡± name wouldn¡¯t fit with its nature either...

    He then looked at the two creatures that returned their own gazes at him.

    ¡°Two Toby...¡± he mumbled to himself. ¡°Two pairs of wings... You¡¯re ¡®Twinning Wings¡¯ then.¡±

 Chapter 639 - Copied Work

    <h4>Chapter 639: Copied Work</h4>

    It was the 16th day in the Month of Lingering Rains.

    Upon sensing the first sunlight, Angor left his soft nket and slowly climbed out of bed while feeling a little dazed.

    He thought about closing the room¡¯s curtain and enjoying some more sleep since he really needed it after working day and night for half a month. However, when he walked to his window, he was fully woken up by the chilly morning wind that slipped into his room because the window was left open.

    He yawned and rubbed his sleep-mangled hair. He then looked at his nightstand, where an oilmp was supposed to be ced. But now, themp was reced by a miniature canopy bed. Across the translucent bed curtain, he saw a gray-feathered bird sound asleep under a bright yellow duvet.

    Angor listened to Toby¡¯s snores and quickly realized who was the culprit that invited cold air inside. It seemed Toby had grown terrified of Greya¡¯s training and escaped from Phantom Ind to find a better sleeping spot.

    Angor shivered a little and was going to wake his little partner up, but in the end, he decided not to.

    Well, guess he needs some sleep as much as I do.

    He stayed inside The Tributary for half a month without minding what was going on at Sunders¡¯ ce. Even so, he could more or less imagine how harsh Greya¡¯s ¡°lessons¡± were.

    Since he felt refreshed enough in the cold wind, Angor gave up sleeping in and walked onto the balcony to get more fresh air.

    The bedroom was located on the 3rd floor of his rentedboratory. From the balcony, he would see a narrow path leading toward a small river in the distance, while the sides of the path were lush mountain woods.

    He took a moment to admire the green nature. He then took a deep breath, stretched his arms, and exhaled.

    When he turned around and was going to get washed, he suddenly stopped moving as he heard something.

    He thought he heard someone¡¯s singing voice, which came from the other side of a hillock nearby. But then, it also sounded like whistling noises caused by the mountain winds.

    When he shook his head and tried to get back inside the bedroom, the sound came again, more clearly this time.

    And he was sure it was music.

    He gazed at the direction where the music came from with a confused look. The Tributary was a huge ¡°mirror dimension¡±, which allowed everyb facility to own arge, empty territory. ording to unspoken rules, those who trespassed on someone else¡¯s territory should expect the worst consequences, including getting killed, and there would be no one to help them. This was quite reasonable, especially since every owner of ab here would probably be doing important jobs during which they absolutely could not tolerate intruders.

    Angor checked again and made sure that whoever was ying musicy within several kilometers from his position, which meant INSIDE his rightful territory.

    Is it a wizard from anotherb? Surely they should know this vites the rules?

    He found a random wizard robe from his wardrobe, put it on, and jumped down from the balcony. He was going to check this unknown intruder. Whether they meant to harm or not, he should at least act first and be cautious.

    Two minutester, he revealed a relieved look when he saw an iron house with four ¡°legs¡± parked at another mountain peak.

    While the chimney of the house was releasing cooking smoke into the environment, it also gave out that music Angor heard earlier.

    The Iron Fortress was allowed to go anywhere in The Tributary. Or rather, Iron Granny did not need to get anyone¡¯s consent to enter their territory. On the outside, Iron Granny appeared as a kind-hearted old woman who loved talking to her guests. Angor once asked his professor about who she was. Instead of exining her identity, Sunders said that he should avoid offending Iron Granny at all costs.

    Angor always maintained his good manners in front of Sunders. He was rather surprised when Sunders would remind him of this matter.

    At least this told him that Iron Granny was not amonndy.

    Angor decided not to mind the music for now. Perhaps Iron Granny was meeting with another guest.

    However, before he could head back to hisb, the musicing from the Iron Fortress changed into something he knew.

    The City of Sky.

    Once again, he looked at the iron house with a confused expression. Up until now, he had only created three music boxes that yed the City of Sky, and these music boxes were held by Lady Mirror, Lydia, and Toby. So was it Lady Mirror or Lydia who was inside the Iron Fortress right now?

    The Iron Fortress suddenly changed its direction and began hopping toward his position on its metal legs, leaving the sound of a train whistle behind.

    Since it was no longer a good choice to leave, Angor chose to remain still and wait.

    The structure stopped in front of him, and a woodendder was released from its door. Angor climbed on without a second thought and entered the house.

    While stepping through the door, he managed to hear the music of the City of Sky clearer, and at the same time, he noticed something strange about it. It seemed the music he was hearing right now had its melodies lowered by a pitchpared to the original City of Sky. Also, he heard several apanying instruments that didn¡¯t belong to the original piece.

    The music was not bad though. He would admit that whoever made these changes was pretty good at music.

    The interior decoration of the Iron Fortress was the same as what he sawst time. Flower pots, bookshelves, a table with a fruit basket and a teapot on it... Everything suggested a lovely and cozy home.

    Neither Lady Mirror nor Lydia was inside the house. There was only Iron Granny alone, who was enjoying some hot tea.

    There was an octagon-shaped music box ced inside a cab beside her, which was ying the City of Sky or something that sounded like it.

    ¡°Good morning, Angor.¡± Iron Granny looked away from her teacup and smiled at him.

    ¡°Good morning, ma¡¯am!¡± Angor bowed.

    The old woman asked him to take a seat while she prepared another teacup for him.

    ¡°Do you like it?¡± Iron Granny saw Angor looking at the music box curiously and went to pick it up. ¡°Take your time. I know all about alchemists like you. You can never escape from the charm of these interesting toys.¡±

    Angor scratched his head. ¡°Um, what is¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. I know nothing about alchemy. YOU are the alchemist here, no?¡±

    Angor was trying to ask where Iron Granny found this music box, but it seemed she misunderstood him.

    He held the item in his hand and inspected it carefully.

    This one had apletely different designpared to the previous music boxes he made, but he still found something he recognized, which was a small button at the bottom of the music box used for activating the illusion.

    When he pressed it, the small room was immediately reced by the sky and drifting clouds.

    Angor frowned. He was just thinking about ¡°anti-copycat¡± problems yesterday night, and on the next day, he witnessed a copycat version of his music box.

    It even copied his illusion. Impressive.

    However, this illusion was obviously inferior, as the clouds nearby were only poorly-made decorations, which could do nothing more than floating about. They did not reflect the vividness of the real sky in the least.

    Besides, the music was approaching its climax, yet the ¡°floating ind¡± at the end of his illusion did not show up.

    Tsk.

    Nevertheless, this meant the creator of this item knew both alchemy and illusions. More importantly, Angor was beginning to like this altered version of the City of Sky.

    When the music ended, Angor thought about asking Iron Granny again, about where the music box came from. However, the item stopped him by ying another piece of music that he had never heard of before, and this one was just as brilliant as the City of Sky, if not better!

    Following the music, the illusion also shifted and became one that suited the theme of the melodies.

    But just like before, the illusion was not as perfect as the music. Angor now understood why Iron Granny had been listening to the music without activating the illusions.

    Putting the bad illusions aside, this music box had a nice ¡°function¡±, which allowed it to y different pieces like a music yer, and Angor liked that.

    ¡°Where did you find this, Granny?¡± Angor switched the illusion off and asked when the music was entering a small interval.

    ¡°What, you want one too?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just... interested.¡±

    ¡°Like I said, you alchemists are all curious souls. Well, it¡¯s not really a secret.¡± Iron Granny pointed to the window. ¡°The owner of Lab Seven gave it to me. He bought this music box from Twilight Well. He said something about how this thing is bing popr among people. It shouldn¡¯t be hard for you to find one in the markets.¡±

    ¡°Twilight Well...¡± Angor narrowed his eyes.

 Chapter 640 - Tea Enthusiast

    <h4>Chapter 640: Tea Enthusiast</h4>

    ¡°Here, your tea.¡± Iron Granny had poured a cup of her tea and handed it to Angor.

    Angor took a sip and sensed bitterness reaching his tongue. As he recalled, Iron Granny was drinking something differentst time.

    This bitter tea tasted a little simr to Morning Dew, just more bitter and without any special properties.

    ¡°The wizard who owned Lab Thirteen grew this tea in his garden, but he left Brute Cavern and asked me to take care of his nts.¡± Iron Granny savored her own tea and showed a yearning look. ¡°It tastes rather awful at the beginning, but somehow, I¡¯m starting to like it. Maybe it¡¯s something about getting old...¡±

    Iron Granny began talking about insignificant stories while Angor listened quietly. The good music and hot tea helped him calm his mind extremely well.

    After listening to her, Angor could tell that whoever used Lab Thirteen was someone who REALLY loved tea.

    ¡°Speaking of him...¡± Iron Granny continued, ¡°That wizard is not aplete stranger to you.¡±

    Angor tilted his head.

    ¡°He was... Sunders¡¯ first student. Sumesh is his name. I heard the news that the boy has sessfully be a truth-finder. Maybe he¡¯lle back at any moment now. Trust me, the first thing he would do upon returning will be checking his tea garden.¡±

    Sumesh... Angor slowly nodded. He wondered if Sumesh knew about him. Probably not.

    ¡°Thank you for telling me this, ma¡¯am.¡±

    Iron Granny mentioned Sumesh¡¯s name out of the random, but Angor thought she meant to give him a suggestion, as in, he should prepare some good tea should he meet with Sumesh one day.

    ¡°Telling you what? Oh, that. Everybody knows that. But you¡¯re wee.¡±

    Angor couldn¡¯t see her expression for the moment as thick vapor from her tea had blocked her face. But her intention did not matter for now. Sumesh was his ¡°senior ssmate¡±. Of course he wished they could be on good terms.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that before, and I¡¯m d I learned about it,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Oh dear. You alchemists... always minding your works without paying much attention to the outside world.¡±

    ¡°Do you know a lot of alchemists, ma¡¯am?¡±

    Thud, thud!

    ¡°Tweet!¡±

    He looked at the sudden noise and saw Toby hovering outside the room¡¯s window while knocking on it with his beak.

    ¡°Oh, you.¡± Angor chuckled and walked to the window.

    When he wasn¡¯t looking, Iron Granny¡¯s movement suddenly froze for a brief moment.

    ¡°Can I let him in, ma¡¯am?¡± Angor asked and saw Iron Granny sipping her tea again.

    ¡°Of course! Dear Toby is always weed here.¡± The old woman put down her teacup and smiled brightly.

    When Angor opened the window, Toby came in, flew around the room for a bit, andnded beside the music box happily.

    ¡°He loves music,¡± Angor exined while returning to his seat. ¡°He was sleeping just a moment ago. I think the music woke him up.¡±

    ¡°He does? Then feel free toe by often. I¡¯ll prepare musical instruments or find some music sheets for you, little friend.¡±

    Angor grinned as he shook his head. ¡°But he¡¯s bad at singing. Let¡¯s just say... Toby¡¯s songs were usually disastrous.¡±

    Toby gave Angor an annoyed re but soon returned his attention to the music box, which was ying another masterful tune right now.

    ¡°Do you know a lot about alchemists?¡± Angor decided to ask the previous question again.

    Iron Granny filled another cup and pushed it to Toby. ¡°No.¡±

    Angor was a little surprised. He thought Iron Granny would have met with a lot of alchemists who used thebs around here since she had watched over The Tributary for a long time.

    Yet the answer suggested otherwise.

    Angor nodded and did not ask further. Perhaps Iron Granny did not wish to talk about it.

    Since there was nothing else to do here, Angor prepared to leave. When there was no urgent work to do, he nned to deliver Twinning Wings to Greya and then work on Lady Mirror¡¯s illusion item.

    Greya¡¯s Mermaid Shell Soup allowed him to catch a glimpse of great wisdom, which told him how to satisfy Lady Mirror¡¯s request. He wanted to finish this request as soon as possible before leaving Brute Cavern.

    But Toby seemed reluctant to leave. The bird looked very fascinated with the music box.

    Iron Granny giggled. ¡°Take it if you want, Little Toby. I¡¯m not the musical type anyway. My tea still tastes the same without it.¡±

    Toby¡¯s eyes twinkled with excitement.

    Angor knuckled his head and quickly rejected the offer. ¡°I can always buy another one from Twilight Well, ma¡¯am, or craft one myself. Please don¡¯t indulge Toby too much. It¡¯s not good for his growth.¡±

    Iron Granny nodded. The item was nothing too valuable. Of course an alchemist like Angor could find one easily.

    Angor walked to the door but returned again. From his bracelet, he took out a wooden box with beautiful carvings on it.

    The box itself was only made ofmon wood, while the carving showed several bats floating above the clouds.

    It was made by Jon before his body turned weaker. ording to Jon, the engraving on the box meant ¡°imminent prosperity¡± when interpreted using his mother tongue.

    ¡°This is tea brought from my home. Since you like tea, you can have some of this, Iron Granny.¡± Angor ced the box on a table.

    The old woman epted the gift with a pleasant smile. She might not be a tea-maniac like Sumesh, but she more or less developed a liking to it after looking after Sumesh¡¯s tea garden for so many years.

    ¡°Oh ho, this is a magic nt I don¡¯t recognize!¡± She opened the lid and sensed faint energying from inside. ¡°What is it called?¡±

    ¡°Morning Dew, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ...

    Angor gifted Morning Dew to Iron Granny aspensation for learning about Sumesh¡¯s ¡°habit¡±. While it was true that she didn¡¯t intend to tell him useful information, he did benefit from it.

    Also, since Iron Granny was a ¡°professional¡± when it came to different teas, Angor would like to know her opinions regarding Morning Dew. And if it was good enough, he would bring the tea to Sumesh as a gift in the future.

    After managing his hygienic problems, Angor left The Tributary together with Toby.

    Instead of heading to Phantom Ind right away, he went for the underground market first while hiding under the effect of Infinite Reticence.

    He was still concerned about whoever copied his music box. Since Granny said that the music box was known by a lot of people, then Dave would know something about it too. Dave was the only friend Angor had in Brute Cavern when Nausica and Sailum were absent. He also nned to have a get-together with Dave when he had the chance.

    While on his way, he heard people mentioning his name more than once, either discussing his story in the Purification Garden or his alchemy achievements. It had been two months after he returned to Brute Cavern, and the apprentices here were still talking about him.

    However, none of them noticed that the ¡°main character¡± of their talks were there to hear them.

    Angor arrived at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop and saw a big crowd gathered at the door.

    This was usually the case when Prome brought new merchandise for sale, but when Angor approached the entrance, he noticed that he was wrong.

    ¡°Any left, Mister Dave?¡± A fat guy epted a one-use space capsule from Dave and showed a bitter look.

    Dave, who was still wearing those pair ofrge goggles, looked very proud for some reason. ¡°None. I¡¯ve been working on a new weapon model. I don¡¯t have time making these things.¡±

    ¡°But Mister Dave...¡± Another customer pleaded, ¡°My team depends on your supply. I can¡¯t just return to them with three des only.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s your problem. Three is the best I can do. Take them or leave them here so that I can sell them to someone else.¡±

    Dave was trying to keep a straight face, but he wasn¡¯t doing very well since the corners of his lips were twitching.

    ¡°Now off you go.¡± Dave waved his guests off and said, ¡°Need to close up earlier today. I don¡¯t have any left. Even if you stay here, you can¡¯t magically make more stuff appear.¡±

    People outside the shop moaned in disappointment and slowly dissipated.

    When no one remained behind, Dave hummed a small melody, tidied up the shop, and prepared to treat himself something good at Bartterfly Pub.

    But a familiar voice suddenly spoke to him in a mocking manner.

    ¡°Hey, Mister Dave, you¡¯re getting really skillful at your profession, are you not?¡±

 Chapter 641 - Daveâ€™s â€œPromotionâ€

    <h4>Chapter 641: Dave¡¯s ¡°Promotion¡±</h4>

    It took Dave two seconds to recognize the voice.

    ¡°Angor?!¡±

    He looked around but without finding the speaker, until he felt someone knocking on his shoulder.

    He turned back again.

    A blond young man was smiling at him while leaning against the stair railings at the shop¡¯s entrance.

    ¡°There you are!¡± Dave smiled. ¡°To what do I owe the honor? Aren¡¯t you always busy?¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s the busy one here? Look at you, people are requesting alchemy service from ¡®Mister Dave¡¯. Awesome! Right? Mister Daaave?¡±

    Dave scratched his nose. ¡°Ohe on, stop it.¡±

    Angor shrugged while maintaining his smile.

    Dave rolled his eyes. ¡°Seriously now, this is all thanks to you. I learned so much from youst year. That ¡®Tang Dao¡¯ you brought to me is quite popr among my customers. Each week I have to forge a dozen or so of these des for them. You just saw theming.¡±

    ¡°They are here to buy Tang Dao??¡±

    ¡°Yup. Oh, here!¡± Dave took out a one-use space capsule and handed it to Angor. ¡°There are about a thousand crystals. Each time I sold one Tang Dao, I saved a crystal in that capsule. Consider it a bonus for you.¡±

    Again, Angor refused to take it. Last year, when Angor sold his first Tang Dao in this shop, he rejected Dave¡¯s bonus. It seemed Dave was still insisting on giving him a share.

    ¡°I told you. I¡¯m not the creator of Tang Dao. I don¡¯t deserve the credit.¡±

    ¡°But I learned how to make this weapon all thanks to you!¡± Dave was persistent.

    ¡°I... don¡¯t really need more crystals right now.¡± Angor considered and said, ¡°Let¡¯s do this. Wait until my ¡®bonus¡¯ reaches ten thousand before you give all the money to me in one go.¡±

    He said so because he believed it was nearly impossible to find so many buyers for Tang Daos in Brute Cavern.

    Dave, however, had the opposite idea after selling his previous stock. He was confident that such a simple, convenient, and handsome weapon was way better than those rapiers and broadswordsmonly used by apprentices, which meant more customers who were searching for new weapons would fill up his shop in no time.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do just that.¡± Dave agreed without a second thought. ¡°So what brings you here today? I know you¡¯re busy, don¡¯t deny it. Buying materials? You came at the right time. I just helped Master Prome ship something new from Twilight Well.¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I stored enough while visiting Floating Mech City. It¡¯s just a casual drop-by. You know, we haven¡¯t seen each other for a long time. Kinda want to check you out.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Nice. I¡¯m nning to head to Bartterfly Pub just now. God, I miss their beef. Wait a bit while I close the shop. Let¡¯s talk on the way.¡±

    Angor stood at the door and wondered why Dave looked so joyous.

    When he met with Dave for the first time, he saw Dave as a lonely and nervous apprentice who lost his professor and without much talent or resources to proceed with his studies.

    But looking at the energetic young worker hopping around in front of him...

    Dave hadpletely changed.

    Angor couldn¡¯t help but smile when he thought about how all of his dear friends were growing so fast in their own ways. The wizarding world was cruel, but it couldn¡¯t stop them from pursuing their dreams.

    Nausica¡¯s only goal was to achieve immortality, and she had been resolutely working on it.

    Sailum risked his life to use an unidentified bloodline on his body just to ¡°spiritualize¡± his beloved book.

    Dave had also found his own way of achieving his ambitions as an apprentice alchemist.

    There were also Keely, n, Aleen, Shan, and Shiliew...

    Angor would dly see them advance.

    He wondered how the rest of his ¡°ssmates¡± were doing right now.

    Nausica had a ¡°former subordinate¡±, Ebony. Did that man remove his arrogant temperament of a typical pirate and devoted himself to proper training?

    Did Roffig and Ondo, the inseparable pair, get to reunite?

    And those unfaithfulckeys, Fosah and Laffitte... How many new bosses did they find?

    What about Balba? Did he finally realize the true reason why Flora was neglecting him?

    Among all people who joined Brute Cavern together with him, Hookdick was the only enemy in Angor¡¯s view, while the rest of them were more or less on fine terms with Angor. Even Fosah and Laffitte¡ªHookdick¡¯s ¡°former underlings¡±¡ªchose to act friendly to him in time.

    The path of wizardry was always apanionless challenge. Angor hoped that he could see more people seed through their own efforts.

    Dave came to him and interrupted his wild thoughts while carrying another Tang Dao in one hand.

    ¡°Hey, check this out. How¡¯s my work? Can this thriving little alchemist receive some pointer from a future Mystery Alchemist?¡±

    While heading to Bartterfly Pub, Angor took a moment to examine Dave¡¯s creation.

    ¡°Good. This is more refinedpared to the one I brought you at the beginning.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it? Can I have some... suggestions?¡± Dave looked disappointed.

    ¡°What is there to suggest? I mainly do enchantment, and you¡¯re going for synthesis. There¡¯s nothing I can tell you.¡±

    Dave moaned and took the weapon back.

    He knew Angor was right. The way of synthesis was all about unlocking hidden properties in various materials, while his new Tang Dao was better than Angor¡¯s original, unenchanted one.

    Most people believed that synthesis was ¡°the way to go¡± because it brought out stronger powers of items, whereas enchantment was usually regarded as inferior tricks because the subject was less time-efficient and not as rewarding.

    They reached Bartterfly Pub and found a privatepartment instead of sitting at the mess hall.

    The room provided them with privacy, which allowed them to enjoy their meat better and discuss recent rumors.

    Before Angor could ask Dave about the music box that hit the market in these days, he found himself attracted by Dave¡¯s stories, such as the situation in Sleepless City.

    ording to Dave, the officials of Sleepless City had decided to retreat and leave the Evernight Kingdom so that they could find another settlement elsewhere. As they observed, the strange darkness was expanding slowly, causing more parasites to invade the city¡¯s surrounding areas more aggressively.

    ¡°Those things, oh my god! They are saying that the entire Evernight Kingdom had not fallen yet because of the wizards who were watching over the darkness right now, but they couldn¡¯t prevent all parasites from slipping past them, which were beginning to cause troubles to wizards and mortals alike.¡± Dave trembled a little while speaking. He then added, ¡°I wish those things don¡¯t travel through Parmigi Hignds and mess up Brute Cavern.¡±

    ¡°Chill. We got Lady Mirror guarding the entrance,¡± said Angor.

    Dave shook his head. ¡°I think we haven¡¯t seen her in half a year. We only need a passport to go through the mirror entrance these days. I mean, if an apprentice from the organization is possessed, who then carries the parasites inside...¡±

    ¡°Lady Mirror had not shown up for half a year?¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t concerned about the parasites since Sunders could always protect Brute Cavern without any trouble. Compared to this, he was more interested in Lady Mirror¡¯s absence.

    ¡°Yeah. They said that Lady Mirror would enter a seclusion period, whichsts for several years, in every other century or so. Whenever she does, Brute Cavern will be vulnerable to invasion, sigh...¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. The organization has so many mighty wizards. Surely they know how to put up good defenses when Lady Mirror¡¯s away?¡± said Angor.

    This means... I can further postpone Lady Mirror¡¯s alchemy request? He thought, before asking something else, ¡°So there are many wizards waiting around the dark area right now?¡±

    ¡°But you should know about it, no? Mister Sunders just went there. Many wizard organizations sent manpower. I also heard a rumor about them...¡±

    ¡°Rumor?¡±

    Even when the private room was protected by anti-detection means, Dave still moved closer to Angor so that he could lower his voice.

    ¡°Rumor has it that the darkness is connected to the Nightmare Realm.¡±

 Chapter 642 - Mirage Boxes

    <h4>Chapter 642: Mirage Boxes</h4>

    ¡°At first, there were only the organizations near the Evernight Kingdom who sent their men, but as soon as people heard about this rumor, heh, you guessed it,¡± Dave took a big bite on his roasted beef and said, ¡°crowds of people scrambled there like mad.¡±

    ¡°Just because the darkness MIGHT be connected to the Nightmare Realm?¡± Angor sipped some juice, which tasted rather nice.

    ¡°Yeah. Nightmare Realm... This name attracts wizards like spoiled soup lures flies.¡±

    ¡°It might be dangerous though. A trap, even.¡±

    Angor looked down. He was getting a little worried when he knew so many people gathered at Sleepless City. Sunders left on a mission to deal with the remaining ¡°puppet wires¡± half a month ago and had yet to return. Angor wondered what happened.

    Next, Dave told him some more clues about Sleepless City, and as someone who traveled through the crisis personally, Angor could tell that most of them were false. However, he wasn¡¯t going to point it out because he had to keep everything a secret, as requested by Sunders.

    As Dave talked more, Angor was beginning to wonder something else.

    Why did none of the rumors involve my name?

    Dave exined everything to him in detail as if Dave considered him as a bystander who knew nothing about the incident in Sleepless City. Also, Dave¡¯s rumors did not involve Nausica¡¯s team either.

    Yet as Angor recalled, he and Sunders drew a LOT of attention when they showed up from the darkness. There were bound to be many wizards who wished to hunt for information about the situation. And if they could not question Sunders, the gentleman¡¯s student would naturally be the best target to interrogate.

    If someone managed to withhold his involvement from everyone... Angor considered and believed that Sunders was the only figure who could do such a thing.

    Dave ordered another te of beef and began talking about the situation in Brute Cavern.

    Most of what Angor heard did not interest him much since he had been away from the organization, until he heard a particr name from Dave.

    ¡°Remember ckjack? A man who dressed like Mister Sunders, who came to the shop and attacked you?¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow. ¡°Yeah. I had a match against him in Sky Tower. What about him?¡±

    ¡°He changed his ways. He stopped picking on fresh fighters in Sky Tower AND is no longer obsessed with bing Mister Sunders¡¯ student. He epted a professor poster from Mister Magus and became his disciple.¡± Dave looked jealous all of a sudden. ¡°Mister Magus, I say! ckjack¡¯s potential did not weaken in the least after all the time he wasted. As soon as he started training properly, he hit level-2.

    ¡°Now people are regarding him as another true genius like Nanagi and Vice. Do you remember how Master Prome hung that guy in front of our shop one day? Well, I asked Master Prome the other day, and he said he couldn¡¯t beat ckjack anymore.¡±

    Dave looked up from his meal and saw Angor was interested in the information, so he then added, ¡°Of course, you¡¯re different from all of them. You¡¯re more famous than some of the wizards now. When people speak of the apprentice who¡¯s under the biggest spotlight these days, they¡¯re definitely talking about you.¡±

    Angor would like to avoid beingpared to others, so he picked up the previous subject. ¡°I didn¡¯t think much when fighting ckjack because I knew too little about wizardry back then. Now that I think about it, ckjack¡¯s cards were as good as quickened spells made avable via spell slots.¡±

    ¡°Definitely.¡± Dave nodded. ¡°He knows some unique skills.¡±

    ¡°Do you know how he learned it? By talent?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe or maybe not. You know how he was without a professor for a long time? Someone believed he found his abilities during a destiny. But it¡¯s all guesses.¡±

    Angor would like to know whether ckjack¡¯s magical cards were rted to Inscription Art, but he stopped asking since Dave didn¡¯t know much about that man.

    After they were done talking about Brute Cavern, Dave returned his attention to Angor again.

    ¡°Your name cannot get any worse after you disposed of Parasite Queen. But you know what? Everything went the opposite way recently. I saw countless girls mumbling your name while daydreaming. Some of them even came to the shop, asking about you...¡± Dave winked at Angor. ¡°Do you want me to pick some candidates? You¡¯re at the right age to take in some women now.¡±

    Angor sneered and decided to divert the topic onto the new music boxes.

    ¡°Do you know where they originated from?¡± He then exined what he heard from Iron Granny.

    Dave looked surprised. ¡°Those Mirage Boxes have be lovable across many wizard fairs around the region. Don¡¯t tell me you heard about it only recently?¡±

    ¡°Mirage Box? Nice name. Can you tell me something?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how it¡¯s made but...¡± Dave looked angry for some reason. ¡°I noticed that whoever created this thing copied it from you. And those illusions are terrible. But people kinda like them because they are cheap and fun to use.¡±

    Angor remained silent.

    Dave thought Angor was feeling too annoyed to speak and continued, ¡°Last time, Master Prome found one of these without telling anyone. But I saw it by ident. I think he¡¯s trying to copy it and make a profit too. He didn¡¯t seed though. If you want to know about these boxes, maybe we can go ask himter.¡±

    Angor chuckled. ¡°Really, Master Prome is fine about you snooping around his secrets now?¡±

    ¡°But he knows you¡¯re the original creator! And he still wants to mimic your idea. Secret? I don¡¯t think so.¡±

    Angor shook his head. He didn¡¯t me Prome because it was so legitimate for wizards to seek profit.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then. The meal is almost done, and I have time today.¡±

    ...

    A whileter, Angor bid farewell to Prome while carrying a ¡°Mirage Box¡± in his hand.

    As Dave expected, Prome felt apologetic for viting Angor¡¯s ¡°copyright¡±. Besides, he never managed to learn anything from the item, so he agreed to give it to Angor.

    ¡°Why are you so happy?¡± Angor nced at Dave. After they had left Prome¡¯s residence, Dave¡¯s smile never ceased.

    ¡°That was the first time I saw Master Prome so embarrassed! Man, this is precious. Too bad I can¡¯t record his face with my transmitter for real!¡± Dave held his stomach and beganughing.

    Angor chuckled and began inspecting the music box he just gained.

    Dave noticed Angor¡¯s serious expression and quickly grew worried.

    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t let it get to you, Angor. It¡¯s just a random swindler who earned some short-lived profit using your idea. Justice will prevail soon.¡±

    Angor was rather surprised to see Daveforting him like this. Truth was, he never considered this a severe issue. As soon as he began showing his creations to the public, he knew something like this would happen. It was just that it came a bit too soon.

    When crafting the music box, he was a powerless apprentice who had neither fame or much resources. Now that he was known as an alchemist by many people, he was sure that his following inventions wouldn¡¯t be copied so easily as the ¡°criminals¡± might need to take potential risks into consideration.

    ¡°Sorry, I was just checking the craftsmanship on it,¡± said Angor. ¡°It feels familiar and... not. Is this alchemy at all?¡±

    ¡°Which part?¡± As an alchemist-in-training himself, Dave immediately grew curious.

    ¡°The illusion. When an alchemist wishes to mix illusions into an item, they either use enchantment approaches or synthesis. But neither way can make the illusions change on their own and reflect the nature of the music piece yed by the box so urately. I think the creator of this is not an ordinary alchemist.¡±

    ¡°Then...¡±

    ¡°They would at least know some illusion knowledge.¡± Angor moved a hand around the box and sensed the illusion nodes contained within. ¡°Someone proficient in Sorcery Array, perhaps.¡±

 Chapter 643 - Greyaâ€™s Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 643: Greya¡¯s Trouble</h4>

    The art of Sorcery Array fell into the category of Illusions and was considered as a rtively powerful art. Those who wished to learn this skill had to be talented in both alchemy and magic arrays. This requirement alone had discouraged over 99% of all apprentices from attempting it.

    In recent history, there were very few Illusionist apprentices in this region, which meant Sorcery Array users were very scarce.

    But at the same time, those who did seed in studying this art could easily benefit greatly.

    Under the art of Illusion, there were two categories that were said to be able to create ¡°world illusions¡±¡ªthe arts of Mirage and Sorcery Array.

    A ¡°world illusion¡± referred to certain illusions that contained aplete world inside. ording to records, users of Mirage and Sorcery Array were the only ones who could do so.

    However, a ¡°world illusion¡± was not necessarily powerful. What it could achieve still depended on its user and how they applied it. In the right conditions, other types of illusions could easily surpass world illusions.

    There were many wizards who considered the area of effect of illusions to be more important than their power. And when it came to the size an illusion could affect, world illusions were usually second to none.

    Angor was not aplete stranger to this art. The ¡°Field of Fire¡± he once learned was a Sorcery Array cantrip, used for harming foes in arge area.

    ¡°So this is why Master Prome can¡¯t analyze it?¡± said Dave. He knew that Sorcery Array involved alchemy knowledge but had much more beyond this. ¡°But this means it¡¯s easy for you to find who created this thing. There aren¡¯t many people who knew alchemy, magic array, and illusions at the same time. The Mirage Boxes are sold at several neighboring nations. The culprit isn¡¯t too far.¡±

    Angor nodded, but he wasn¡¯t nning to go after this ¡°culprit¡±. ¡°Mister Prome said that a Mirage Box only cost like several dozen crystals. I checked, the raw material for crafting one should be about ten crystals. The profit isn¡¯t that muchpared to other alchemy items.¡±

    Dave quickly understood what Angor was implying. ¡°Wizards all have their ways to earn quick money, yet this thing can only give him small turnovers. We¡¯re not talking about a real wizard.¡±

    ¡°Besides,¡± Angor continued, ¡°as far as I can see, the alchemy skill shown on this box isn¡¯t superior. Whoever made this didn¡¯t have a better choice.¡±

    ¡°A Sorcery Array apprentice who knows some basic alchemy skills, who lives not far. If we post a job at Bartterfly Pub, someone will help us find him in no time!¡± Dave grinned. ¡°Let¡¯s do it!¡±

    Angor dragged him back. ¡°Do what? What are we finding him for?¡±

    ¡°Well, he copied your idea and makes money out of it. We¡¯re getting him under justice of course! At least we should get him to pay you... what did you call it, copyright royalty?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡±

    Dave looked very confused.

    ¡°The gain does not equal the time and effort we need to pay. Rather, I would use the chance to learn more knowledge,¡± said Angor.

    Dave understood him but still looked unconvinced.

    ¡°Rest assured. Since I asked you about this item, I¡¯m not going to totally neglect it.¡±

    While it was true that Angor did not feel particrly angry, he did disdain such an act. He wouldn¡¯t pursue the criminal immediately, but he had another n.

    He created his own ¡°trademark¡± yesterday and had not shown it to anyone else. He wasn¡¯t nning to get himself a world-renowned brand or anything like that, but at the very least, he would like people to recognize his work.

    Earlier, he thought about requesting Mithra¡¯s help to distribute his name among alchemists, but this wasn¡¯t optimal as people might mainly consider his fame inted because of Master Mithra.

    But he just saw a better opportunity.

    Inferiority was recognized viaparison. In the wizarding world, a man¡¯s true capability always determined his achievements, and in this case, ¡°genuine work¡± was always better than knock-offs.

    The Mirage Boxes were bing popr probably because people loved the innovation. In this case, Angor only had to distribute a new product that could surpass the Mirage Boxes in all aspects to let his name known.

    His ¡°original¡± music box was sold at Twilight Auction. If people needed to tell real from fake, they¡¯d naturally go and ask someone from there.

    Angor whispered his n to Dave.

    Dave widened his eyes and palmed his fist. ¡°Nice one. You get to broadcast your fame AND destroy that filthy thief. Once your new item gets out, those who bought his Mirage Box will find him out and ask for a refund!¡±

    Angor shushed him. ¡°No no, I don¡¯t want to ¡®broadcast¡¯ myself.¡±

    Precisely speaking, Angor would like to do it in a ¡°quiet¡± way and allow people to notice his ingenuity on their own. Now that sounded more awesome.

    Dave chuckled. As Angor¡¯s friend, he knew well about Angor¡¯s modest yet somewhatpetitive nature.

    ¡°Just leave it to me!¡± Dave thumped his chest.

    ¡°I¡¯ll pay you of course. Let¡¯s say, out of my total profit, you get 10% asmission.¡±

    Dave had no problem epting the job but quickly grew worried for some reason. ¡°Hey, Angor, this all depends on the final quality and value of your new creation. I mean, it has to beat the Mirage Box thoroughly, or your n will get you the opposite oue.¡±

    ¡°Rx, you saw how my first music box did during Twilight Auction, didn¡¯t you? And I learned something new recently... Time to put it to the test.¡±

    Dave tilted his head but did not question what Angor¡¯s ¡°new trick¡± was. It wasn¡¯t nice to question an alchemist¡¯s secrets.

    ¡°Things said, there¡¯s something about the Mirage Box that I really liked,¡± said Angor. ¡°The music, he modified it and made it better than the original!¡±

    ¡°¡®City of Sky¡¯ is it?¡± Dave frowned. ¡°Really? I didn¡¯t notice anything different.¡±

    Angor nced at him but didn¡¯tment.

    Dave frowned again. He felt as if he was looked down upon for having bad music senses.

    ¡°Ahem,e find me in The Tributary the day after tomorrow,¡± said Angor. ¡°I¡¯ll tell Iron Granny to let you in. That¡¯s when I¡¯ll finish my new item.¡±

    Dave nodded and returned to Prome¡¯s shop, while Angor flew toward Phantom Ind.

    ...

    There was a purple, extravagant-looking hut constructed out of magic, which was located beside a smallke in Sunders¡¯ manor garden.

    Greya¡¯s temporary home.

    Butler Goode already prepared a room for Greya inside the manor, but Greya rejected it and built her own hut.

    Since she moved to Phantom Ind, people had been spreading rumors that ¡°Sunders might have found a new lover¡±. Of course, Greya was not the type to mind these rumors. Rather, she was d that she got to cause minor troubles for Sunders. However, she still remained low-profile and avoided drawing too much attention since her strength was weakened greatly.

    She had spent over half a month inside her hut.

    Using an equally eye-catching pen decorated by starry charms, she was swiftlyposing something on papers¡ªsymbols that facilitated her original Artificial Life spell.

    She suddenly botched one of the symbols, rendering all the other calctions useless.

    She rubbed her forehead and moaned impatiently, then tossed the crumpled paper into a dustbin.

    ¡°Geez...¡± She moved to her window and tried to calm her spirit by watching the tranquilke outside.

    But it didn¡¯t work.

    There were just so many things to worry about recently.

    Although she did not show it, she was VERY frustrated after the incident in Sleepless City proved to her that she was weak. And this had put her in a dangerous situation in this world.

    The other soul in her body, which was supposed to be the ¡°rightful owner¡± of her current body, was beginning to wake up without Felicia¡¯s magic wine. When that happened, the body would prevent Greya¡¯s consciousness from showing up freely, which further added to her risk.

    And there were workers of her restaurant who were either captured or on the run out there somewhere.

    Compared to everything, her biggest concern was to retrieve her old body as fast as she could. She felt uneasier by the day since Sunders had not sent her any messages for a long time.

    She sighed and nced at the dustbin, which was full of discarded papers.

    Ever since her Artificial Life spell helped her gain the title of a truth-finder, she never made much progress and never created any new spells sessfully.

    This was as big a problem as losing her body.

    Her body guaranteed the foundation of her strength at the present, while new spells meant her future. There was no way she could stay calm when both her present and her future were obstructed.

    Home Warlock Apprentice Chapter 643 ¨C Greya¡¯s Trouble

 Chapter 644 - Birth

    <h4>Chapter 644: ¡°Birth¡±</h4>

    The life of a wizard or anyone for that matter had its rises and falls. Greya believed that she was at one of the ¡°falls¡± when everything seemed to be opposing her. She might be a carefree soul, but this wouldn¡¯t help her neglect her true problems forever.

    She let out a deep breath and sat back at her table.

    Without her body, she could not train, suppress the foreign soul, or venture out and look for her workers.

    The only thing she could do right now was to work on new spells with pens and paper.

    The spell called Artificial Life had granted her an extremely elevated starting point on the path of truth, which made it harder for her to proceed.

    A certain mighty figure from Candy House once warned her that Artificial Life was a beautiful ident in her life when she barely knew anything about what ¡°life¡± was.

    He warned that such a path, which defied nature, was not something she could easily walk on and that she¡¯d better find another direction to go after. Or, she could enrich her foundations and keep walking on this path once she reached the level of legendary.

    Otherwise, the world¡¯s consciousness might decide to get rid of her one day.

    At first, Greya did not trust those words. She stayed blindly determined and idled a lot of her time away, fruitlessly doing research based on Artificial Life. This was until 30 years ago when she realized that she had not learned enough about life and creation.

    She began to understand the warning, that stepping onto the path of truth was basically pointless in her case. She had to reach legendary as a fresh start.

    She was still a level-1 wizard, which meant three more levels to go to reach legendary. She must make a choice. She could either give up on the art of creation and find another path to follow or perfect her foundations so that she could keep walking on her old path. If she failed, she¡¯d waste her life as an ordinary wizard while watching her strength fall.

    The first choice was easier since a legendary wizard who tempered with ¡°creation¡± would sooner orter vite the veryws of this world and provoke the world¡¯s consciousness.

    Not to mention that it was beyond difficult toprehend the concept of creation.

    After careful consideration, Greya still decided to keep walking on her old path. Unlike other wizards who might have all sorts of great ambitions, she as a Gourmet Wizard solely wished to search for new cooking materials, and the way of creation sounded tempting enough.

    She wouldn¡¯t give it up.

    However, no matter which path she chose, she had to be recognized by the world¡¯s consciousness by certain means such as creating new spells and causing omens. To others, doing so meant ¡°being recognized by the world¡¯s consciousness¡±. However, truth-finder wizards usually had another way of addressing this, which was ¡°being monitored¡±.

    As for whether this was good or bad, nobody could tell.

    The southern wizarding region had not weed a single legendary wizard in quite some time. There was no point for people to discuss something beyond their reach anyway.

    ...

    Greya was still working on a new spell.

    Since she was determined to keep pursuing ¡°creation¡±, she also based her calctions on Artificial Life.

    She named her new spell ¡°Birth¡±.

    It sounded rather simr to Artificial Life. She even used the same symbols, which she originally used to work out Artificial Life.

    While Artificial Life meant creating something out of thin air, Birth would allow her to make something happen based on existing materials. In other words, Birth was a derivative of Artificial Life.

    The warning she heard from Candy House was correct, that her Artificial Life was an ident. In fact, she knew she got to learn such a wonderful art all thanks to extreme luck from the start. It was like building a house on a single wooden beam. By miracles, the house remained stable.

    What she needed now was to add more foundation to the house and make it safer, and in this case, backing up the way of creation.

    The spell ¡°Birth¡± was something to strengthen the foundation.

    Yet she had not seeded after working for 30 years, even when she had a lot of references that she gained from Artificial Life.

    This had proved to her again that being able to learn Artificial Life was a coincidence. The way of creation was extremely arduous and unforgiving.

    ...

    Since she had nothing else to do, Greya had to force herself to work.

    Thirty years of effort had granted her no result. It was made impossible when so many concerns were haunting her mind.

    She had entered a dead end.

    She feared that no matter what she did in her current condition, everything would turn out badly.

    She needed an opportunity, something new that stimted her sess.

    But she didn¡¯t find such a thing over the past thirty years. She didn¡¯t believe that an opportunity would visit her when she sat still and waited.

    Pieces of crumpled paper balls were the only things that carried her frustration away, albeit just a little.

    ¡°Ughhh. How I hope I can discard my stress away like tossing papers. That would be convenient...¡±

    She quickly realized that she just ¡°dreamed¡± about something unrealistic, about which all truth-finder wizards would find ridiculous. This had told her again that her weakened state was getting to her. She was being affected by the young body.

    She knew it all along. She had to find her old body, but she could not do it on her own.

    When she was alone, she let her guard down and began disying her uncontrolled grievance.

    This was why Angor heard unusual noises when going toward Greya¡¯s hut.

    When he did, he silently backed away so that he would not bother a wizard who might be in a bad mood.

    ¡°Butler Goode, what¡¯s going on with Lady Greya?¡±

    Goode was giving Hobbiton ¡°servant training¡± again. Hobbiton didn¡¯t like this, but he had to study in order not to get chased out of Phantom Ind.

    The butler asked Hobbiton to keep working and whispered to Angor, ¡°Mister Padt, Lady Greya demanded that we do not approach her house, so I don¡¯t know her condition. Number 19, who has exceptional senses, just told me that he sensed chaotic emotions from there. Perhaps Lady Greya feels bothered by something.¡±

    Bothered? Angor held his chin. Something to do with Sunders, I wonder?

    Angor still had no idea what ¡°agreement¡± Greya and Sunders agreed upon. He took a guess that all his questions would be solved if he learned about it.

    Oh... please don¡¯t tell me Dave¡¯s rumors were true...

    Back at Bartterfly Pub, Dave also mentioned rumors about how Sunders epted a strange woman at Phantom Ind. Dave even asked Angor whether the woman was Sunders¡¯ lover.

    Of course Angor said no.

    But right now, Angor was beginning to have strange ideas about this matter. He could never fully understand his professor¡¯s weird tastes.

    ¡°I see, thank you, Butler Goode,¡± Angor said and returned to his bedroom.

    He took out Toby, who had been napping in his pocket.

    Toby had been sleeping ever since they left The Tributary, which meant the bird was really tired out.

    Angor tapped Toby¡¯s head with a finger.

    Toby slowly opened his eyes, looked around in confusion, and jumped up with a start.

    I just escaped from this ce! Why did you bring me back? Tobyined using ¡°wingnguage¡±.

    Angor saw how his little partner was terrified of Greya¡¯s ¡°lessons¡± and revealed a malicious grin. ¡°Hey, Toby, I have a favor to ask.¡±

    Toby carefully checked the room again. Once he made sure that Greya was not here, he waited for Angor to continue.

    ¡°Can you help me deliver a message to Lady Greya?¡±

 Chapter 645 - Meeting Freud

    <h4>Chapter 645: Meeting Freud</h4>

    Angor took out Twinning Wings from his bracelet.

    ¡°Take this to Lady Greya. Tell her that¡ª¡±

    Before he finished talking, he saw Toby heading for the window while pping his wings rapidly like a hummingbird.

    However, Toby wasn¡¯t fast enough without using the sequence of gravity. In the next second, Angor used Hand of Spell to close the window.

    Bam! Toby crashed head-on into the ss, and after getting rid of several fireflies from his vision, he found himself sitting on Angor¡¯s hand again.

    ¡°Rx, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to cook you up or something,¡± said Angor.

    Toby found it rather difficult to trust Angor¡¯s words when he felt as if Angor was grinning bigger, in a bad way.

    ...

    Five minutester, Angor reopened his window and let Toby out.

    ¡°Now go. Lady Greya needs you!¡± Angor was seeing his partner off while waving a hand.

    Toby didn¡¯t escape this time. He had epted his fated mission.

    Even though he knew that Greya¡¯s lessons and whip were meant to help with his growth, Toby would like to avoid all the taxing sessions as much as he could.

    But when he thought about what Angor said, that Greya was in a bad mental condition right now, Toby still convinced himself to go to her, for he loved his old master deep down.

    Before Toby arrived at Greya¡¯s small hut, he heard hysterical cursesing from it.

    Just as Angor said, Greya¡¯s mind was extremely unstable for some reason.

    The ¡°spices¡± inside Toby, which represented the emotions of a legendary beast, had granted him superior senses that allowed him to distinguish different emotions better than anyone. Toby immediately noticed Greya¡¯s burdened spirit.

    In fact, he could already tell that something was off with Greya during his earlier training. However, this was the first time for Greya to vent out her frustration so openly.

    Trembling a little, Toby moved to the door of the hut.

    ¡°WHO GOES THERE??!¡± Greya bellowed while releasing her mighty aura toward Toby¡¯s location, which felt like a tidal wave.

    Toby managed to respond by calling back, which sounded more like whining.

    The aura vanished. Toby heard Greya talking in a smaller and obviously restrained voice, ¡°What, Toby, you think I haven¡¯t given you enough drills?¡±

    Greya meant to ease the mood by speaking in a joking manner so that Toby would not feel bad after receiving her oppressive wee, but she failed to fully change her tone, which caused her words to sound like sarcasm.

    ¡°Tweeeet! Tweet!!¡±

    As Toby¡¯s former master, Greya had no trouble noticing that Toby was worrying about her.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine... You can leave for now. I need to be alone.¡±

    She didn¡¯t open the door because she did not wish to see Toby in her current condition. Any further impulse might identally hurt Toby, and she definitely would not let that happen.

    Toby grew even more concerned when Greya rejected his visit.

    Both of them remained silent for a moment. They were separated by a single door.

    Several minutester, Toby dropped Angor¡¯s brooch on the windowsill, gave the window two gentle knocks, and flew away in sadness.

    After making sure Toby had left, Greya went to the window and pushed it open.

    She had been monitoring Toby using her spirit power, and she knew that Toby left something by her window, which seemed to be a shiny item that reflected the sunlight.

    Her grievance did not prevent her nature of a curious woman to go for the interesting object and examine it. And when she did, she felt her mood getting somewhat brighter.

    As she carefully picked up the silver charm, a piece of note dropped from it.

    She picked the paper up and saw a message neatly written on it using the universalnguage. It was in and not so showypared to the ornamental handwriting popr among wizards. Yet she was d she got to look at something easier to read in her terrible mood.

    [Lady Greya, I hereby present the ¡°Twinning Wings¡± to you. Hope you like it. ¡ªAngor Padt]

    Greya chuckled while looking at the life-like jewelry, which disyed Toby¡¯s two forms.

    ¡°Twinning Wings huh... Looks good enough.¡±

    She tossed the note away, which turned to dust and dissipated among the flowers outside.

    She then took a moment to gaze at the clear sky andke water in front of her hut. She felt her anxiety leaving, albeit slowly.

    With her new gift in hand, Greya returned to her working table.

    She knew this was the illusion item she requested, but instead of checking the illusion right away, she ced Twinning Wings on the edge of her table.

    She didn¡¯t know why, but she was happy to feel the edginess in her mind vanishing after seeing Toby and Angor¡¯s creation. She wished to use this chance to continue her unfinished calction.

    Something told her that this perfect opportunity might even help her to finally seed.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Toby had returned to Angor¡¯s bedroom.

    ¡°What did I say? Lady Greya will never¡ª¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t get to finish since he was terrified to see Toby falling from the air before reaching his window.

    He jumped and quickly leaped onto the balcony and used Hand of Spell to catch Toby.

    He saw Toby flushing all over his tiny body. Toby¡¯s entire head was wet with sweat.

    Angor put a finger on Toby¡¯s head and realized the bird had a serious fever.

    With quick moves, Angor began sending a stream of soothing energy into Toby¡¯s form.

    He was d to see Toby getting better soon enough, who then fell asleep in his hand. But he could not understand how Toby was in such a condition. It was impossible for a monster with supernatural powers to gain fevers likemon mortals even if Toby spent too much time bathing in bad temperatures.

    No matter what happened, Angor had to wait for Toby to recover and ask about it.

    ...

    The clock on the wall suggested that Toby had slept for half a day.

    Angor stayed close to Toby in the meantime. After making sure that Toby was stable, Angor left his room and headed to the Krakoks¡¯ temporary home, which was located not far from theke in the garden. From there, he could easily see Greya¡¯s showy hut.

    He couldn¡¯t see into the hut from his position, but at the very least, he didn¡¯t hear any more curses.

    He was expecting Greya toe and talk to him after receiving Twinning Wings. Now that Greya had not shown up yet, Angor was getting a little upset because he feared that Greya was discontent with his creation.

    Maybe it had too many elements from another civilization that did not go with her taste?

    He put his concerns away and entered the Krakoks¡¯ room. As the tiny figures watched him, he moved behind their ¡°skyscraper¡±, where a simple mist illusion was ced. The illusion contained a small, purple flower called the Soul Floret, which housed Freud.

    Even though Freud acted obediently until now as if he had surrendered to his fate, Angor still kept the man alone in the illusion just in case.

    The Soul Floret could not sustain Freud¡¯s soul forever. Angor was nning to craft an item that could better act as Freud¡¯s residence, so he came today to ask for Freud¡¯s opinions.

    He reached his spirit feelers inside the Soul Floret until they reached another micro illusion. This one was only a simple room that had some books and magazines inside. Angor deployed this illusion so that Freud would not get too bored, but he did not make it anything exquisite like how he did with Flowey¡¯s new room.

    Angor saw Freud sitting on a bed reading a novel called Chronicles Of Dragons.

    It was a fantasy novel from Earth literature that basically told amon and overused plot in which a hero went on a quest to y a dragon to rescue an imprisoned princess. However, it turned out that the princess was beginning to like the dragon¡¯spany instead. After the hero finished his job, the princess grew so heartbroken that she sunk the hero¡¯s weapon into its master¡¯s heart.

    It was considered a terrible novel for having such a ridiculous bad ending in which all of the main characters were dead.

    Angor left such a novel in Freud¡¯s ¡°illusionary room¡± and considered it as a small prank. He wasn¡¯t expecting Freud to actually read it, and Freud looked pretty focused too.

    He wondered what Freud would say when the man reached the end of the book.

 Chapter 646 - Freudâ€™s â€œStudiesâ€

    <h4>Chapter 646: Freud¡¯s ¡°Studies¡±</h4>

    Angor inspected the other parts of the illusion.

    It seemed Freud maintained strict self-discipline even after his body was killed. The illusionary room was kept in good order. The only thing different was that Freud had carried a pile of books to his bed.

    Angor checked the books as this might tell him about Freud¡¯s personal tastes.

    He was rather surprised to notice that none of the books were from this world. Freud¡¯s ¡°to-read list¡± only contained books Angor copied from his hologram tablet.

    Adventure of a Swordswoman, a story about a transsexual guy in a foreign world; Sins of Lilies, the daily mishaps between two homoerotic sisters who served the same God; Beast¡¯s Mask, the tale of a monster who thrived and dominated the world...

    These were mostly non-productive fictions used for idling away one¡¯s time.

    When traveling on The Redbud, Angor read some of them out of boredom and found nothing apart from dull stories and unrealistic inspirations. However, he would admit that they were perfect for someone who had too much time to kill.

    These books were nothing special. Even the wizarding world had simr novels. Angor left them here just to fill up empty space so that Freud¡¯s room didn¡¯t look too poorly-furnished.

    But it turned out that Freud preferred cheap novels to the other wizardry-rted magazines that Angor prepared.

    Next, Angor noticed a desk on the other end of the room, which had a pile of papers on it.

    ¡°The Possibility For Further Enriching One¡¯s Soul¡±, ¡°Points Of Caution When Finding A Suitable Body For One¡¯s Soul¡±, ¡°Self-Discipline For Bisexual Entities (draft)¡±, ¡°Whisper Of Dreams¡±, ¡°Minor Notes Regarding The Dream Whelk¡±, ¡°Does Illusions Work Well With Dream Whelk?¡±...

    These seemed to be Freud¡¯s research papers. Most of them were about knowledge of souls and dreams, which was expected since Freud was talented in dream-reading.

    Freud was interested in soul-rted development probably because he already made ns for his future path. However, Angor was wondering whether Freud¡¯s n involved gender shift and lesbians since the man was reading books about these concepts.

    What attracted Angor most was the subject ¡°Does Illusions Work Well With Dream Whelk?¡± because he saw his own name on the paper.

    [The illusion created by Mister Padt looked rather realistic, which seemed as potent as the dreams made possible by the Dream Whelk. If used together, they might do wonders I can¡¯t imagine.]

    That was all there was on the paper, which was ced at the bottom of the pile.

    Angor assumed that the bottom-most paper was the first subject Freud worked on, but what did it mean?

    The ¡°Dream Whelk¡± was undoubtedly in reference to the Mystery item called Whelk of the Dreaming Coast.

    My illusions look simr to dreams?

    As Angor thought about his questions, Freud had put down his Chronicles Of Dragons and moved to the table Angor was checking.

    ¡°Um, Mister Padt?¡± Freud saw his research papers being moved by someone.

    An intruder who discovered the illusion would attempt to destroy it first. Freud knew Angor was the only one who could check the illusion without doing so.

    Angor quickly returned Freud¡¯s works to their right positions even though he did not need to feel embarrassed¡ªeverything in the illusion was made by him. He was free to look at Freud¡¯s papers at all times, and Freud knew it too.

    ¡°I see you didn¡¯t stay idle in these months,¡± Angor¡¯s voice was heard.

    Freud looked at his ¡°Does Illusions Work Well With Dream Whelk?¡± draft.

    ¡°I only made an outline for it. As for the major content... no, I haven¡¯t thought about how to start yet. I can certainly keep working, should I find a chance.¡±

    By ¡°chance¡±, he meant staying alive. He was indirectly reminding Angor to stick to their agreement.

    ¡°Of course you can, if you don¡¯t give up on yourself first.¡±

    Angor would like to ask Freud about that particr subject, but when he saw Freud carefully ncing at that paper, he realized that this man intentionally put his name on it and ced it there for him to see.

    Angor didn¡¯t know whether his doubt was correct, but he still decided not to ask about it for now.

    ¡°You have ns about how to proceed from now on, right? Since you look capable of it, you won¡¯t need my advice.¡± Angor changed the subject. ¡°The Soul Floret is getting weaker. I need to transfer you somewhere safer. I came today so that you can tell me what kind of ce you prefer.¡±

    He kept his full attention on Freud and easily saw the man showing disappointment when he stopped asking about the research subject.

    Heh. Guessed as much.

    Angor wouldn¡¯t take Freud¡¯s ¡°invitation¡± because he had so much work to do these days to mind anything else.

    Besides, he did not fully trust Freud yet.

    One of the reasons why he neglected Freud for several months was to tell Freud who was in charge. Deception and dirty tricks were not tolerated.

    As long as Freud finished his end of the deal by presenting Whelk of the Dreaming Coast, Angor would obey their agreement willingly.

    ¡°Ask away. I¡¯ll do everything as long as your conditions are eptable.¡± Angor tried to sound as friendly as he could.

    ¡°I...¡± Freud looked hesitant. ¡°Nothing in particr, really. Can you just move this illusion over? It¡¯s fine if you can¡¯t.¡±

    Those who wished to achieve great things on the path of wizardry had to know how to bear with loneliness. Freud was someone who was very likely to reach the wizard level should he enjoyed enough peace. But now, losing his body had greatly hindered his progression. Even if he could forcefully take someone¡¯s body now, he could not regain his original strength as the new body would not be a perfect vessel.

    This was the same case for Greya, who also had to retrieve her true body in order to move on. Otherwise, it was near hopeless for someone to keep up in this world without a proper body.

    Butpared to Greya, who knew where her body was, Freud¡¯s old body was already killed, which left his soul isted.

    ¡°Do you like these stories?¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°I can get some more into the illusion if you need them.¡±

    ¡°They help me forget about my burdens, Mister Padt. These books may be a little pointless to most people, but I believe certain wizards who always hide their true selves from people will love them, if you sell the books to them, that is.¡±

    ¡°It makes sense. Should the timee, you certainly can try writing simr stories and publishing them. Of course, you¡¯ll have to earn your ¡®time¡¯ with honesty.¡±

    Without waiting for a response, Angor brought several more novels into the illusion and ced them on Freud¡¯s bed.

    ¡°These will help you pass time for a little longer while I work on your new house. Hope you don¡¯t have high expectations.¡±

    He retracted his spirit feelers and put the Soul Floret in his bracelet.

    He could tell that Freud had something else to say, but he wasn¡¯t going to listen.

    This ¡°inspection¡± told him that Freud was setting up new objectives instead of giving up hopepletely. While it was a good thing for someone to recover from decisive blows, Angor was feeling a little annoyed when Freud considered HIM a ¡°factor¡± in the n.

    Angor did not know what kind of role he would be ying, but he really hated it when someone decided to drag him into random business without asking for his opinion first, and he absolutely wasn¡¯t going to entertain Freud.

    With the Soul Floret safe in his bracelet, he canceled the bigger illusion, which isted the item from the Krakoks.

    When the mistpletely disappeared, Angor saw several Krakoks standing near their ¡°skyscraper apartment¡±, looking at him, while the one standing in front of the group was a gentle-looking woman¡ªPapaya¡¯s grandmother.

    The Krakoks looked hesitant about something. When Angor saw the family members of Lococo and Kudodo among them, he quickly realized what they wanted to do.

    It was Papaya¡¯s grandmother who finally decided to speak up and ask for Papaya¡¯s situation.

    When the other Krakoks saw Angor talking to Papaya¡¯s grandmother patiently, they also joined them so that they could learn about what happened to Lococo and Kudodo.

    The entire Krakok tribe celebrated in happiness when they heard that three of their members were talented to learn wizardry.

    While Angor watched the tiny figures dancing in joy, he suddenly had a question in his mind.

    Papaya loved her grandmother and would always stick close to her. Now that Papaya was taken in by Madelyne as an apprentice, she was very likely to stay at Brute Cavern from now on. However, Angor was nning to return to the Old Earth this year and bring all the Krakoks with him. Should he leave Papaya¡¯s grandmother in Brute Cavern as well?

 Chapter 647 - Getting Over Obstacles

    <h4>Chapter 647: Getting Over Obstacles</h4>

    Papaya, Kudodo, and Lococo were now officially apprentices of Brute Cavern. Angor would still care about their personal needs since he was responsible to take care of the Krakoks.

    Even though most wizards were all ready to walk on their own paths alone, they would notpletely neglect their families.

    As for whether the three Krakok apprentices would like to stick to their family, Angor nned to let them decide on their own. No matter what they chose, some of the Krakoks would need to bid farewell to either their children or their n.

    He left the Krakoks¡¯ room and returned to his bedroom.

    Toby was still sleeping, but his fever was gone.

    Angor waited for a while without hearing anything from Greya.

    He considered and headed to The Tributary, with Toby in his pocket.

    ...

    Three dayster.

    When the sun showed its first brilliance over the horizon, Greya sighed and dropped her pen.

    The sound of the morning breeze and fish diving in theke water usually annoyed her greatly in the past several days. However, Greya was rxed enough today to enjoy the great concert of nature.

    The change in mentality had allowed her to approach everything around her in a different way.

    With a smile, Greya finished her brief respite beforending the finishing strokes on her paper.

    She met no obstacles this time. Using a bottle of precious red ink made from the blood of a Sun Unicorn, she left a trail of glossy, pink symbols under her pen tip.

    The pink color glowed brighter and brighter, along with Greya¡¯s bright smile, until Greya held her breath and left the finishing touch, which was a unique symbol thatpleted everything.

    The paper shone brightly. In Greya¡¯s view, thest symbol suddenly became a ck hole that began to draw all the other data around it. This symbol alone had represented everything Greya worked on so far.

    In the end, this particr symbol was left alone on her paper, which was still shining with pink color.

    This is it.

    She sessfully went over another challenge.

    ording to her estimation, creating the spell of ¡°Birth¡± involved 369 challenges in total.

    These challenges mainly required her to summarize her theories using solid calctions performed on papers. Unlike mortal scientists who needed to make new discoveries through trial and error, wizards usually could see the direction of their work from the start, as well as the numerous obstacles thaty along the way¡ªthey simply had to get over them.

    It was like climbing a mountain when you knew where the mountain peak was. As one proceeded closer to the peak, the obstacles also grew harder, which tested the challenger¡¯s knowledge, perception, and how well he or she understood the path they were walking on.

    Greya had spent 30 years working on Birth, and there were five more challenges to be solved.

    Knowing how to use Artificial Life had granted her a boost on this path. However, she had wasted most of her time on thest five challenges because she never managed to find the insight to tackle them.

    That was until today, when she finally solved one of them.

    Perhaps the remaining four challenges would take her a long time, but she knew that she still had hope. She could move forward.

    After memorizing the precious symbol in her mind carefully, Greya stretched her sore arms and moaned. The violence and impatience in her eyes had been reced by carefreeziness, like how she used to be.

    At the same time, the second soul in her body was no longer stirring too aggressively.

    ¡°Aha! Toby is my lucky star. He always is!¡± Greya¡¯s smile suddenly turned into an evil grin. ¡°I think I need to spend more time with him from now on. And maybe give him more lectures while at it!¡±

    For the first time in a long time, the door to Greya¡¯s hut was pushed open.

    Several Phantom Servants sent by Goode were already waiting outside.

    ¡°Any of you saw where Toby is?¡± This was the first question Greya asked them.

    ¡°Lady Greya, it seems that Mister Padt has brought Toby to The Tributary.¡±

    ¡°The Tributary?¡± Greya found that name to be familiar. ¡°Oh, theb area that was hidden in a mirror dimension?¡± She raised an eyebrow. ¡°I heard rumors that ¡®she¡¯ has been hiding there as well. Is that true?¡±

    The servants didn¡¯t answer her this time.

    ¡°Ugh, fine. I don¡¯t really want to poke around your secrets. And this is not a secret, ¡¯cause everyone knows it. Well, I feel pretty good today so... not going to mind these matters!¡±

    After sending the servants away, Greya nned to go to The Tributary herself and maybe visit that particr figure along the way.

    But on second thought, she believed Angor was probably doing alchemy again, so it was not a good time to bother him.

    With this in mind, Greya returned inside her hut and was going to check on her new gift.

    The item had been sitting at a corner on her desk for four days. Now that she had time, she wanted to find out what kind of surprise Angor presented her.

    ¡°So this is ¡®Twinning Wings¡¯...¡±

    She inspected Toby¡¯s two forms, which showed perfect, streamlined shapes decorated with small diamonds. This wasn¡¯t the first time she saw this item, yet its masterful design once again shocked her.

    Especially Toby¡¯s eyes. A pair of them were embellished using pigeon blood paint, while the other pair showed lucid crimson-purple, adding much more lifelike ambiance to the silver theme.

    Greya nodded as she felt content with the looks of the brooch.

    Even without the illusion inside, she would dly keep it in her collection. The item was made from tiered magical materials. It could be considered a decent personal ornament as it was.

    Next, Greya checked the backside of the item and saw a magic crystal already slotted inside a small chamber. Touching the crystal would allow it to send energy into the brooch and activate the illusion.

    Before doing so, Greya frowned when she noticed another energy stream concealed at a corner.

    But she couldn¡¯t see anything when looking at the energy source.

    Confused, she ran a finger on the seemingly smooth surface and sensed something like a relief engraving.

    ¡°What is this for?¡±

    She tried and failed to ascertain what this ¡°engraving¡± meant to show her, as if it kept changing on its own.

    She could tell that the engraving was absorbing a small amount of energy from the magic crystal and used the energy to sustain its function.

    ¡°How about...¡±

    Greya tried injecting more energy into the hidden picture.

    When she did, the engraving changed drastically until it became obvious enough for human eyes to see. It showed a lion entangled in thorns.

    ¡°Why would the boy use so much effort just to hide an emblem here? Wait...¡±

    She knew that every master alchemist from Floating Mech City tended to add their own ¡°identifications¡± to their creations. For example, ¡°Elixir of Miracle¡± Mithra always used his own bottles and vials that had his personal signatures on them.

    Greya wondered if Angor was trying to do the same.

 Chapter 648 - Cat Bus

    <h4>Chapter 648: Cat Bus</h4>

    Greya looked at Angor¡¯s mark and felt memories flowing back into her mind.

    That helpless and terrified boy who was threatened by wizards in my restaurant... He¡¯s grown so much. None of those bastards would have believed that Angor was such a great alchemist.

    And that guy, ¡°Mythril Innovator¡± Jel. He entered my restaurant all thanks to Angor¡¯s invitation, and then he forced the boy to order Section Ephemera.

    How long was it, three years? Angor is as famed as Jel now. Heh, how things have changed.

    ¡°Geez. Sunders recruited a future master alchemist under my nose for free. Lucky fool.¡±

    Greya inspected the lion emblem again and decided to keep it in her mind even though she had no idea what it meant.

    As far as she saw until now, ¡°Twinning Wings¡± had masterful design and material choices. Butpared to these, Greya was more concerned about its actual effect since it was supposed to be an alchemy item.

    ¡°I wonder how well Angor satisfied my requests...¡±

    After activating the magic crystal, Greya curiously waited for her vision to change.

    Angor was an apprentice. If he wished his illusions topletely work on a wizard like Greya, Greya would have to lift her spiritual defenses first.

    Typically, no wizards would do such a thing. However, Greya had no trouble with it since she knew how the previous ¡°illusion earring¡± made by Angor worked.

    She opened her mind and weed the illusion to invade her.

    At first, everything went dark.

    Greya heard the distant noise of blowing wind.

    The original smell ofke water in her hut was soon reced by the scents of grass and trees.

    It was still all dark, but Greya noticed that a lone moon hung above her head was slowly sending silver light around her.

    She wondered what Angor wanted to show her by using such a sight.

    She tried looking around, but she could not see anything when the moonlight barely illuminated her surroundings.

    ¡°So my night vision doesn¡¯t work in here...¡±

    She knew it had something to do with Angor¡¯s ¡°sense removal¡± abilities, but she did not forcefully resist Angor¡¯s trick as that might spoil the fun.

    She remained still and let her eyes slowly adapt to the dark.

    It didn¡¯t take very long for her to register something else in the area.

    She was standing on a narrow but well-kept path, where both sides were dense woods. The moonlight managed to brighten the crowns of the trees, but whaty under them was still covered by the darkness.

    ¡°This path...¡± Greya crouched down and noticed that the path looked extremely smooth, which appeared simr to the streets constructed out of polished cut stone she saw in the nation of Evory.

    But the current path seemed to be made from many different materials mixed together.

    ¡°Uhm. Strange...¡±

    Since she could not see anything ahead of her, she looked behind.

    There was a mountain behind her position. She couldn¡¯t tell how high it was in the dark night, but she saw the path she was standing on leading all the way to an artificial cave on one side of the mountain.

    ¡°That cave looked pretty neat too. Kinda like the underground tunnels used by steam trains, but... even better. Can mortals make something like that?¡±

    Following the unstoppable curiosity stirring in her mind, she walked to the entrance of the cave and saw a small stone stump.

    There were several ropes bound around the stump, which had strange-looking bells hanging on them. Also, she saw some tes scattered around the ce.

    ¡°Are these for preparing offerings for an idol?¡± She moved away and entered the cave.

    A momentter, she returned to the stone stump with a frown.

    There was a cave-in not far from the entrance, which stopped her from proceeding. However, she noticed that the path inside the cave was just as smooth as the way outside, and she saw no railways.

    So this cave isn¡¯t for trains but for ordinary carriages? That¡¯s so wasteful.

    Since this direction was a dead end, Greya decided to head to her starting point.

    But before she could leave, she felt mountain winding from her back, and the bells behind her began jingling.

    The chimes sounded loud and clear in the quiet environment. Also, they were bing louder as the wind grew stronger.

    The trees on the sides were swaying back and forth and dropping their leaves. For a moment, Greya found her vision blocked by too many floating tree leaves and fluffy clusters, which looked like willow catkins.

    A pair of vehicle lights suddenly emerged from behind the snowlike curtain of nature.

    While feeling blinded a little, Greya quickly grew nervous.

    But that cave was blocked off! How could a vehicle show up from there?

    Also, Greya felt the ground shaking a little, which definitely was not caused by carriages pulled by horses. It felt more like a giant monster running at full speed.

    Are those the monster¡¯s eyes but not lights?

    As she braced herself for potential danger, she suddenly heard the sound of a train whistle, as if whatever wasing was trying to tell her ¡°I¡¯m a vehicle¡±.

    Greya watched in shock when she finally saw the source of the ruckus.

    It sure looked like a monster... but at the same time, it was a vehicle too.

    She was looking at arge, striped ginger cat, and the cat¡¯s eyes were shining brightly like headlights.

    The strangest thing was, the body of the creature was hollowed out like a carriage.

    The giant cat stopped in front of her. Before Greya could figure out what to do, the ¡°door¡± around its waist area opened up, which revealed the furry space within.

    After releasing another round of whistle sound, the cat spoke to Greya in a strange tone.

    ¡°Cat Bus at your service, beautifuldy.¡±

    ...

    Angor was now looking at Iron Granny inside the Iron Fortress.

    Using gentle moves, Iron Granny picked up a porcin teacup from her table, took a sniff of the scent that she never experienced before, and drank the tea water that sent mild and soothing energy down her throat.

    She closed her eyes and took a moment to enjoy the aftertaste of the tea. This was the first time for her to consume this unknown magical nt, but she was beginning to like its taste already.

    The first thing she saw upon reopening her eyes was Toby, who looked rather thirsty while eagerly gazing at her teapot.

    The bird¡¯s master, Angor, was trying to calm the bird with an embarrassed look, but it was obvious that his effort could not beat Toby¡¯s nature of a gorger.

    ¡°Excuse me, ma¡¯am. This tea was what helped me meet with Toby, and I never showed it to anyone since then, so...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Iron Granny smiled and beckoned to Toby. ¡°Come, you¡¯re free to have some. Your young master left a lot of it at my ce, so you maye and enjoy it at any time.¡±

    ¡°Um, ma¡¯am, don¡¯t spoil him please!¡±

    ¡°Oh rx. This old soul just wants dear Toby to spend more time with her.¡±

    ¡°I... see.¡± Angor sighed and took out more Morning Dew from his bracelet. ¡°Thank you for taking care of Toby, but please don¡¯t give him too much of it.¡±

    Iron Granny put Angor¡¯s gift away and chuckled. ¡°Speaking of coddling Toby, you¡¯re doing a better job than anyone as his master. Toby was so lucky that he met you.¡±

    ¡°Yes! I¡¯m d we became best friends.¡± Angor scratched his head. ¡°So how¡¯s the tea, ma¡¯am? Will Mister Sumesh like it?¡±

    ¡°I can tell you that this tea is top-ss. Whether Sumesh enjoys it or not, he¡¯d thank you for the gift.¡± Iron Granny showed a gentle look when speaking of Sumesh¡¯s name. ¡°I think this tea possessed a simr effect as the White Orchid Potion while having minimum drawbacks. For this, it could be considered a very valuable magic nt.¡±

    ¡°You know about Apothecary too, Granny?¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t. But I did once use White Orchid Potion. A... friend, gave it to me.¡± Iron Granny saw Angor¡¯s curious expression but did not let him ask anything. ¡°So, how did you find Toby using your tea?¡±

    Angor exined their fated encounter on The Redbud.

    ...

    About an hourter, Angor left the Iron Fortress and watched the wonderful legged house hopping down the mountain path.

    He quickly thought about the ¡°Cat Bus¡± he ced in the illusion of Twinning Wings, who also traveled over distances and obstacles on all fours¡ªhe got the strange idea from a certain film in his hologram tablet.

    His illusion had many different sections, and the Cat Bus was responsible to help people travel among them.

    I wonder if Lady Greya had run into one already. She totally should. I left a lot of bus stops for her!

 Chapter 649 - Church of the Deceased

    <h4>Chapter 649: Church of the Deceased</h4>

    ¡°Please choose your destination.¡±

    Greya had heard the question for the third time. She had not said anything yet because she was too surprised to take in the situation she was in.

    This time, she finally decided to say something. ¡°Witch¡¯s Town.¡±

    ¡°Cat Bus will depart shortly. Please hang on tight. Next stop, Witch¡¯s Town!¡±

    As soon as it finished talking, the Cat Bus began bolting through woods, mountain ranges, and waters, like running on in ground. Greya was once again surprised greatly when she felt no bumping at all. It was as if the creature-vehicle¡¯s paw pads perfectly dampened all turbulence.

    While enjoying the chilly night wind that went through the bus¡¯ coverless windows, Greya admired the changing views outside on her soft fur seat.

    She lifted her head and looked at the small map affixed above her seat, which had the names of different ces on it. She said ¡°Witch¡¯s Town¡± earlier because this was the only name seemingly rted to wizards. There were other stops called ¡°The Bathhouse¡±, ¡°Tree Hotel¡±, ¡°Mermaid Sea¡±, ¡°Monument Valley¡±, and so on. They did not sound so interestingpared to Witch¡¯s Town.

    ¡°Angor used this thing as a means of transportation here? Weird, but pretty fun!¡± Greya stretched her body and moaned. ¡°I just solved an obstacle for my new spell. I deserve some rxation.¡±

    She closed her eyes and let her mind fully experience the extreme speed of the vehicle.

    The Cat Bus suddenly came to a halt. When Greya opened her eyes, she saw a strange road sign along the smooth path. Using a lit oilmp hanging on the sign, she saw a roon waiting nearby while carrying an umbre.

    Oh, Angor even put more passengers along the bus¡¯ way? That animal¡¯s bathrobe looked pretty cute.

    Slowly, Cat Bus turned to look at the roon using its glowing eyes. ¡°Cat Bus at your service.¡±

    The roon responded while ignoring Greya¡¯s presence, ¡°Is this ride heading to the Bathhouse?¡±

    Cat Bus slowly shook itsrge head. ¡°Current destination set for Witch¡¯s Town.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Alright, I¡¯ll wait for the next one.¡±

    While Cat Bus continued running, Greya turned around to look at the strange roon patiently waiting at the bus stop.

    ¡°So many interesting creatures... If I asked to go to Bathhouse, would that roon join me? Will something happen if so?¡±

    She was very impressed with Angor¡¯s previous illusion, where every small detail might show her a great story hidden behind.

    Is there such a story about that roon?

    Greya found her curiosity growing bigger by the moment when the illusion allowed her to choose where to explore instead of forcing her decisions.

    A momentter, Cat Bus halted at a corner of the path. Greya thought there was another passenger waiting for a ride, but she did not find anyone.

    The path took a great turn at the corner. If they didn¡¯t follow the path and kept going forward, they would end up at a cliff that sat above raging seawater.

    Greya saw an iron road sign ced at the turning point. Apart from an arrow that told them to head to the cliff, there was a line saying ¡°This way to Witch¡¯s Town¡±.

    As Greya wondered why the sign asked them to jump into the sea, Cat Bus suddenly crouched lower and leaped high into the air.

    Greya saw a strange door appearing in the sky, to which Cat Bus was going.

    As soon as they entered the door, Greya found her vision blocked by thick mist.

    She didn¡¯t feel stressed. Instead, she felt excited, because she sensed nightmare aura in the mist.

    The mist was moving around, yet she already noticed the particr stasis in the environment.

    It was like time itself had stopped advancing and was waiting for curious explorers to discover the tales and legends that once happened in history.

    Greya couldn¡¯t help but tremble. She did not know if she was too excited or afraid. And in aplex mindset, she failed to notice that Cat Bus wasing to a stop again in front of a wooden pir with an oilmp on it.

    ¡°We have arrived at Witch¡¯s Town. Please feel free to use my service again.¡±

    Greya finally returned to her senses when she saw the giant cat looking at her.

    ¡°Already? But why is everything blurry?¡± Greya said while looking around the mist, which prevented her from seeing too far.

    Cat Bus did not respond. It stared at Greya to ask her to get off.

    ¡°Yeah right... Angor can¡¯t possibly make his illusion too ¡®intelligent¡¯. That would ask for master-level skills...¡± Greya thought and hopped off the bus.

    As soon as she did, Cat Bus began climbing along the pir until it reached a single string affixed on the top of it.

    Greya couldn¡¯t see where the string led to, but she was bewildered to see Cat Bus walking on the string nice and stably, until it disappeared into the mist.

    Greya scratched her head and checked around her again.

    The only thing she could see right now was a road sign ced in the middle of a junction, which had three different paths. Through some spiderwebs and dirty clothes that were on the broken sign, she saw ¡°Witch¡¯s Town¡± written in ckened blood.

    There was another line of smaller characters beneath. ¡°Wee to Witch¡¯s Town, the carnival ground for your nightmares.¡±

    Nightmares huh? Greya chuckled. The nightmare aura around her felt good enough.

    ¡°Is this town a thriller park or something?¡± Greya didn¡¯t feel scared in the least. As a true wizard, there weren¡¯t many things in this world she considered terrifying. But still, she felt her emotion being slowly affected by Angor¡¯s illusion, which forced her heart to beat faster.

    Without hesitating, Greya walked into the mist.

    ...

    Angor was working on a new draft, which was supposed to be Freud¡¯s new residence.

    At first, he nned to make something simple to save time, but on second thought, he decided to do some honest work since this would be his second product that had his ¡°trademark¡± on it. Besides, Freud was going to live in the item temporarily. After Freud left, the item would be left for Angor to use.

    Since it wasn¡¯t hard to create a sanctuary that amodated someone¡¯s soul, Angor would spend more time perfecting the outer design of it so that the item might leave better impressions on whoever saw it.

    He had decided to use the ¡°skull of the departed¡± as the main material, which could sustain souls, which meant he had to take the fragile nature of bones into consideration when finishing the other parts of the design.

    Soon, he finished drawing a small structure that looked like a church built out of white bones on his draft paper.

    ¡°No... this looks too dull and white. And adding engravings won¡¯t help much...¡±

    He considered and added some alchemy gold gilding to the church.

    As the final product came out under his spell, he realized that the pale hue of the bones went rather well with all the shining gold.

    It might not be the work of a master, but it could be considered an art nevertheless.

    ¡°Nice. I¡¯ll call you ¡®Church of the Deceased¡¯.¡±

    He thought about using ¡°Bone Church¡± earlier, but this sounded too simple.

    The church was built upon a round-shaped foundation. The building itself was notplete yet. Angor left some space for cing extension runes so that it might contain more souls. He could not do it yet since he had not studied how to draw the rune.

    He left his ¡°trademark¡± along with a ¡°lifeless rune¡± on the foundation.

    This rune was usually used by wizards to preserve fresh organs because the negative energy it gave out could prevent dposition.

    At the same time, such energy could nurture souls as well.

    The ¡°skull of the departed¡± alone would work well for protecting souls. When added with the lifeless rune, the church would be a true safe house for someone¡¯s soul.

    As long as the energy source, which was an energy crystal, was renewed in time, the Church of the Deceased would work consistently, unlike the Soul Floret, which would wither sooner orter.

    To test the item¡¯s actual effect, Angor took out the Soul Floret that contained Freud and ced it into the small church.

 Chapter 650 - Illusions and Stories

    <h4>Chapter 650: Illusions and Stories</h4>

    Greya walked around Witch¡¯s Town and slowly understood what ¡°carnival for your nightmare¡± meant.

    She could not see where she was going while covered by the mist. Instead, it seemed the strange mist was intelligent, which intentionally led her toward different buildings.

    She did not find a single soul from these ces. However, from each item and object she saw, she could imagine a nightmarish story.

    For example, she visited a butcher house just now and saw a bloody machete that told her how the townsfolk suffered from a violent murderer.

    While reading a religious tome inside a dark church, Greya felt as if she were a condemned witch tied to a stake, while the irrational residents watched her burn.

    A tattered coat with an arm missing, scattered files in the governmental hall, hazy gardens... Each sight presented her with a ¡°nightmare¡±, while the entire town was a thriller theme park full of such nightmares.

    Compared to Angor¡¯s ¡°feather earring¡± illusions, the nightmares here were alive. They allowed Greya to enter the stories and experience them.

    ¡°Ah, I guess the boy sincerely listened to my request.¡±

    She mentioned two things when telling Angor about the item she wanted. One was that it had to show her the ambiance of the Nightmare Realm, and secondly, it had to be creative.

    The particr feeling of the Nightmare Realm was authentic enough.

    And Greya had grown a liking to the style of reading stories through nightmares, which was surely creative.

    Ever since she became a wizard, she never had many nightmares during her sleep. Angor¡¯s nightmares did not scare her, but he left something in the illusion that manipted her emotions and forced her heart to beat harder.

    She had not seen the entire Witch¡¯s Town yet, but she would like to check the other sections now.

    However, she realized she could no longer find a ¡°bus stop¡±.

    She thought about the first bus stop, which was a stone stump and bronze bells, and the iron road sign with a roon waiting nearby.

    Perhaps the stations all had different designs?

    After looking around Witch¡¯s Town to no avail, Greya considered and canceled the illusion.

    She took a moment to calm her heartbeat in her hut. It was usually impossible for an apprentice to disturb her mental condition like this, but she had to open up the vulnerable part of her mind just so that Angor¡¯s illusion could affect her.

    When she felt good enough, she activated Twinning Wings again.

    She did so so that she might start over from the smooth path in front of the blocked cave. However, she entered the illusion only to find herself at Witch¡¯s Town again.

    ¡°Angor recorded my progress in the illusion?¡± Greya muttered in confusion. ¡°You can do that?¡±

    As a wizard, Greya knew a lot about illusions. Yet she had never witnessed a continuous illusion like this one.

    Since she could not cheat her way out, she simply moved on and kept looking. As she believed, bus stops should be easy to find.

    She was wrong.

    Two hourster, she entered a lone house that was built away from other buildings. She had not checked this house yet because nobody in their sane mind would hide a ¡°bus stop¡± in such a ce.

    She almost cursed out loud when she noticed that an oil painting hanging on the wall of a room showed a bus stop in it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you tell me this is used for summoning that cat!¡± Her lips twitched.

    She put a hand on the painting, and in the next second, she was drawn inside and was standing right next to the bus stop.

    Soon, she heard familiar running noisesing toward her. Across thick mist, she saw two shining ¡°headlights¡± getting bigger.

    Do you think this is funny, Angor?! Greya rubbed her temples when she saw the giant ginger cat showing up in her view.

    ¡°Cat Bus at your service, beautifydy.¡±

    Greya wondered what to tell the creature.

    But she noticed that a little girl with a pair of braided horns was looking around curiously inside the bus.

    Oh, it already has a passenger?

    ¡°Where is the next stop?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Next stop is the Tree Hotel.¡±

    ¡°Good. I¡¯m going there too.¡±

    Cat Bus nodded and opened its door, allowing Greya to take a seat across the girl.

    Greya looked at the girl and noticed that she looked very simr to Shan, just a bit shorter.

    Shan was an adult woman despite her young look, which could be easily told when one looked at her eyes. The little girl in front of Greya, however, looked as innocuous and naive as ordinary teenage girls.

    ¡°Man. Why would Angor put such an adorable cutie in his illusion? Does he perhaps... have strange tastes?¡± Greya gazed at the girl to check her.

    The girl did not respond to her inspective looks.

    As Cat Bus ran at full speed, the girl neglected Greya¡¯s presence and kept looking through the ¡°window¡±. She had to boost herself by standing on tiptoe and pulling on the window frame because of her inadequate body height.

    The wind that assaulted her face did not look very pleasant, but the girl kept calling happily toward the outside of the bus as if she was not bothered at all.

    Greya smoothed her hair, which was messed up a little by the wind, and looked at the mist outside. What was there to see?

    Her attempts to talk to the girl all received no response.

    ¡°She¡¯s like a phantom generated by an illusion...¡± Greya muttered.

    But on second thought, wasn¡¯t she a non-existent phantom in the girl¡¯s view?

    ¡°Maybe Angor gave the girl a story as well? But why is he showing me the story of a mortal?¡± Greya sensed no supernatural signatures from the girl. ¡°And where should I tell the bus to go when we arrive at the Tree Hotel? Ugh, never mind. I¡¯ll just pick somewhere random.¡±

    The Cat Bus finally left the mist-covered area.

    Meanwhile, the little girl was yelling louder and louder as if a kid was brought to an amusement park for the first time.

    Greya felt a bit annoyed at the noise but did not wish to waste time worrying about an illusionary kid, so she returned her attention to the moon above.

    There were in ground and farm fields along the path. Without mountains to obstruct her view, Greya could see pretty far using the moonlight.

    ¡°Is ¡®Tree Hotel¡¯ a mortal vige?¡± she wondered.

    She suddenly heard gentle melodiesing from a distance.

    She didn¡¯t recognize the music, but she found it to be quite pleasant, which sounded extremely soothing at night.

    With so many fairytale-style elements around, the journey reminded her of her childhood.

    Greya began to understand the purpose of Angor¡¯s illusion.

    As Cat Bus came to a halt, the little girl hopped out and ran off to another girl who was waiting for her.

    Without getting off the bus, Greya told it to keep going.

    Behind her, the two girls ran toward arge tree, hand in hand. There was a strange-looking monster floating above the tree and waiting for them.

    Greya saw everything andposed a story in her mind, which involved these characters.

    But for now, she wasn¡¯t going to prove her story for real.

    By showing her Witch¡¯s Town, Angor was probably telling her to ¡°respect her fear¡±, while the journey along the giant tree meant to remind her of her initial dreams.

    And she needed it. After struggling on the path of wizardry for so many years, she almost forgot about her adolescent ambitions.

    She decided to generally check through all the different sections in the illusion before exploring everything on free will.

    Next, Cat Bus traveled through the Mermaid Sea, which housed abundant nightmare energy beneath.

    Then it was Sky Ind and piles of broken metal ruins on it, which seemed to be holding more secrets.

    Greya did not tell Cat Bus to stop.

    Along her way, she saw many passengers with different looks and styles joining her. Some were cheerful like that little girl, while some of them were trembling in fear... They all had their unique stories waiting to be discovered.

    Thest stop of Cat Bus was ¡°Mysterious Mountain¡±¡ªa barren ridge with nothing growing on it.

    As she wondered what to do next, she stood up from her seat with a start when more wind traveled through the bus window.

    How... What was that?!

 Chapter 651 - Alchemistâ€™s Eye

    <h4>Chapter 651: Alchemist¡¯s Eye</h4>

    One aspect of the Nightmare Realm was that time felt frozen solid, while everything contained rich implications that suggested great stories and hidden plots.

    Greya felt the ambiance of the Nightmare Realming from the mountain ahead of her as well, but it was not as strong as what she went through in Witch¡¯s Town.

    She was nning to look at all the sections in the illusion before deciding which one to explore next. Just now, she thought about going to the Tree Hotel since that beast on the tree looked interesting enough.

    But she hadpletely forgotten about it when she saw this ¡°Mysterious Mountain¡±.

    Her heart was beating faster again.

    This time, it wasn¡¯t caused by Angor¡¯s illusions. She believed she just felt Mystery energy.

    She knew how this particr sense worked because Felicia¡¯s Butterfly Spirit was a Mystery item. In fact, Greya owned the item before she handed it to Felicia. She did so because Butterfly Spirit never disyed its true potential in her hands. Instead, the item suited Felicia, who fused the bloodline of a Nether Butterfly in her body.

    Still, Greya knew how to look out for signs that suggested Mystery items.

    It wasn¡¯t a big deal to sense such a thing elsewhere, but she was VERY surprised to sense it in Angor¡¯s illusion.

    Besides, it felt familiar to her.

    She saw many Mystery items owned by other wizards before¡ªshe even fought some of them.

    While it was true that the items possessed different properties, the ¡°mysterious and discordant¡± impression they gave was the same.

    For example, while fighting against Yorkshire in Sleepless City, Greya noticed Sunders¡¯ ¡°Cursing Puppet¡± as soon as he took it out. Even so, she only learned about the item¡¯s name from Angorter.

    While Butterfly Spirit appeared as something buoyant and hard to grasp, the Cursing Puppet would inject fear and horror in people¡¯s minds as soon as it showed up in public.

    Even so, the Mystery signature they gave out never changed.

    Wizards in Sleepless City believed that a new Mystery item was hidden somewhere because they felt the particr aura but could not recognize the exact nature of it.

    Now, Greya sensed something she knew.

    When bound by Fox¡¯s strings, Greya sensed two different types of Mystery energy.

    One of them came from the strings around her, which originated from Fox¡¯s harp. She never figured out where the other energy came from. However, she had spent enough time in her ¡°prison¡±, which allowed her to tell that the other energy felt almighty and all-inclusive as if she were facing a god who knew everything.

    She did not know how wizards from Origin World ranked their Mystery items, but she believed that whatever released that energy was better than Fox¡¯s harp.

    ¡°Wait...¡±

    After carefully sensing it for a bit more, Greya realized that the energy she felt right now was a lot weaker than the one in Sleepless City.

    Maybe it¡¯s an inferior item rted to the one in Sleepless City?

    Since Angor could ce the energy in here, Greya thought he had obtained the item, but why would he put the item in here and allow her to see it?

    Any wizard or apprentice alike would try to keep a Mystery item a secret should they ever get their hands on one. Angor, as someone who experienced Mystery energy before, should know how valuable such a thing was. Greya did not believe that Angor would show her such a treasure just to pay for her ¡°golden invitation¡± to her restaurant.

    Or maybe Angor learned how to rip the Mystery energy only and mimic it in an illusion? But how does that help?

    In Greya¡¯s view, this was very unlikely because Angor had to possess a Mystery item first. Besides, it wasn¡¯t easy to fullyprehend Mystery energy and recreate it elsewhere. It required master-level alchemy skills, and Angor was far from it.

    Nevertheless, she would have to go to the source of the Mystery energy to get her answers.

    With that in mind, she calmed down and began exploring the mountain.

    ...

    A week quickly psed.

    Greya spent all her time looking around Mysterious Mountain without taking any rest. She could sense the faint Mystery energying from somewhere, yet she never found the source.

    She knew the item she was looking for was somewhere around here. The Mystery energy couldn¡¯t possibly exist without a medium.

    There was one time she thought about forcefully breaking down the illusion to reveal what she was looking for. But her instinct sent her a warning that discouraged her. It told her that doing so would cause her to lose a great opportunity.

    Wizards, especially Prophets, tended to trust their instincts although they weren¡¯t always correct.

    The same went for Greya.

    This was why she decided to ¡°follow the rules¡±. Yet she did not wish to proceed without a lead as that would only waste her time. On careful consideration, she canceled and left the illusion.

    Surely Angor can tell me how to find the source since he made this thing?

    Thinking about this, Greya stood up and left her temporary hut.

    ...

    Angor had smoothlypleted several of his ns, which included giving Freud a better ce to live and sending his new alchemy creation to Dave so that Dave could decide how to advertise it.

    With these jobs done, Angor retreated to his training room so that he could study a new cantrip¡ªNarda¡¯s Vision, which was also called ¡°Alchemist¡¯s Eye¡±.

    It was used for identifying the materials and properties of an unknown item. A mandatory skill that every alchemist should learn.

    Originally, this cantrip fell behind a lot of Illusionist cantrips on Angor¡¯s to-do list because it was not so important. However, he changed his n after receiving the strange crystal from Spotty. Since he could not ask for help from others because it would be better for the crystal to remain a secret between him and Sunders, he had to study the level-3 cantrip and check the item by himself.

    At first, he thought Narda¡¯s Vision was an extremelyplex cantrip that required its users to train their eyes like how ¡°Truesight¡± did. Butter, he discovered that the main effect of Narda¡¯s Vision depended on calctions and magic forms rather than someone¡¯s eye.

    The cantrip mainly called for his knowledge base regarding alchemy items. When examining an unknown item, he had to base his tests on theories he currently knew.

    What Angor had learned about right now was all about low-level materials he used before, and he knew little about rarer or more costly ones.

    The difficulty in learning Narda¡¯s Vision solely depended on an alchemist¡¯s knowledge and insight. To those with enough proficiency in handling different materials, the cantrip was not so hard.

    A master alchemist even imed that someone who had seen through every single element in this world could well use Narda¡¯s Vision to observe the ultimate truth. Of course, no one had proved it yet. Even if someone did ¡°know everything¡±, they would probably not exin it to others.

 Chapter 652 - Iron Grannyâ€™s Past

    <h4>Chapter 652: Iron Granny¡¯s Past</h4>

    Angor did not reach the minimum requirement for learning Narda¡¯s Vision¡¯s yet, so he spent the next days inside The Tributary to learn relevant subjects rted to alchemy materials and applications.

    The book collection in his tablet had saved him numerous efforts because he did not need to search for books or receive lessons from other people using time and money. Even if with enough resources, one could not simply buy alchemy knowledge in this world easily.

    It was another peaceful day for Angor to read his hologram tablet in the basement of hisboratory when he suddenly heard Toby knocking on his door.

    He hid his tablet and was going to remind Toby not to bother him during his important studies, but a small piece of note in Toby¡¯s beak caught his attention.

    The note had random, iprehensible drawings on it. However, in Angor¡¯s view, they contained a message hidden behind nightmare energy.

    A finger-swipe was all he needed to dispel the energy, which obediently entered his right hand.

    In the next second, the drawings and symbols on the paper rearranged themselves until they became a brief phrase.

    [Come to me.]

    There was no name left on the note. However, Angor couldn¡¯t think of anyone apart from Sunders who would send him a message in this way. Maybe Sumesh, Sunders¡¯ first student who could manipte nightmare energy as well. However, Angor didn¡¯t believe that his senior ssmate who didn¡¯t know him at all would summon him like this.

    ¡°Did the professor give you this?¡± Angor asked while using a small ember to burn the note up.

    Toby shook his head and ¡°said¡± something using his wings.

    ¡°It was Iron Granny? Maybe she got it from the professor who asked to deliver it to me. Alright, we¡¯ll go meet with her first.¡±

    It was unlikely, but he still decided to ask Iron Granny about it first so that he didn¡¯t identally bother Sunders.

    ...

    Inside Iron Fortress, Iron Granny was drinking Morning Dew again.

    She saw Toby and beckoned to him, who quickly fluttered to her and waited beside a prepared teacup. Compared to the usual manner disyed by Toby, the bird looked more posed¡± around the old woman.

    ¡°Nice, ma¡¯am. He learned manners from you!¡± Angor joked while giving Toby a warning stare.

    Iron Granny shook her head. She never forced Toby to learn anything like that. The truth was, Toby knew that if he acted more politely, Iron Granny would give him more tea.

    ording to Iron Granny, it was Sunders who left the note.

    ¡°Did my professor return already?¡± Angor muttered to himself.

    ¡°He arrived this morning, looking rather tired. I think whatever happened in Sleepless City is stressing him out.¡±

    ¡°Is Sleepless City still controlled by the darkness?¡±

    Iron Granny narrowed her eyes a little. ¡°You should know better than me, no?¡±

    Angor let out a silly chuckle.

    ¡°It¡¯s not going away any time soon,¡± Iron Granny sighed and said, ¡°and I¡¯m afraid it will get worse.¡±

    ¡°But none of the wizards know how to solve the problem?¡±

    ¡°No, at least not now. They asked Brilliance ne for help, but they did not get anything from them. I won¡¯t be surprised to see the disaster taking residence forever until it bes a huge problem for every wizard in the south. Who knows?¡±

    The Iron Fortress had arrived at the entrance of The Tributary so that Angor could leave.

    ¡°Grow into a handsome adult, and you might be able to solve it for them,¡± Iron Granny suddenly said.

    ¡°Um, but how?¡± Angor was confused to hear that.

    ¡°Nothing is impossible in this world.¡± Iron Granny took another sip and stopped talking.

    When Angor was going to leave, Toby imed that he would stay at Iron Fortress and enjoy tea instead of going back to Phantom Ind.

    Angor didn¡¯t force Toby to go with him. He told Toby to behave and exited The Tributary on his own.

    For a moment, there was only the sound of boiling water in the Iron Fortress, but Iron Granny was making her original rose tea this time, not Morning Dew.

    Toby smelled something he didn¡¯t like and took a step back.

    ¡°Leave now if you have something to do. Any longer and you will not be able to leave at all,¡± Iron Granny said to Toby with a smile.

    Toby failed to understand what she meant, but he did have his own n¡ªhe wanted to see the fairy who stole his music box.

    Several days ago, Toby discovered the fairy and was going to confront it, but when Toby noticed that the fairy was now homeless after being chased out by its master, he decided to keep an eye on it instead.

    And since Iron Granny told him to leave, Toby decided toply. After bidding farewell to the old woman, Toby left The Tributary through the portal as well.

    It wasn¡¯t long before the Iron Fortress weed another guest.

    ¡°Hello, Iron Granny,¡± someone appeared in the house and greeted her in a polite tone.

    The new visitor was dressed in a glossy purple robe and was wearing deep-violet eye shadow and crimson lipstick, but these elements all fell short of attractiveness when theypared to the shiny brooch affixed on the woman¡¯s chest.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time, Greya,¡± said Iron Granny.

    ¡°I... never visited you again ever since my professor left.¡± Greya wasn¡¯t surprised at all when Iron Granny recognized her almost immediately. Even whenpared to her professor, Iron Granny was a senior in terms of both age and experience.

    ¡°It has been... almost 200 years, since ¡®Little Candy¡¯ went to look for Miss Starfall, right? Oh my... so stubborn. How could someone like Miss Starfall stop her mission just for a mere servant?¡±

    Iron Grannymented about this matter in a neutral tone as if she didn¡¯t care, but Greya knew from certain historical records of Candy House that Miss Starfall used to be Iron Granny¡¯s best partner. At that time, Greya¡¯s own professor, ¡°Madame Candy¡± Aliate, was still Starfall¡¯s servant.

    Since a certain point of time, Iron Granny and Miss Starfall parted ways and treated each other as total strangers. Nobody knew why.

    And Greya definitely wasn¡¯t going to ask about it. Whatever happened to Aliate, it wasn¡¯t nice for Greya to speak carelessly behind her back.

    Greya nced at the steaming teapot on the table. ¡°When did you start to enjoy tea, Granny?¡± As she remembered, tea was something Iron Granny really hated back then.

    ¡°People always change. So do their habits.¡±

    ¡°I... don¡¯t know much about tea, but I do make wonderful pastries to go with it. Do you like some, Granny?¡±

    ¡°Please, no. If I were to try something from the hands of a Gourmet, I¡¯m afraid I can no longer sit still in this isted ce,¡± Iron Granny said with a smile. ¡°You didn¡¯te here just to visit this pathetic old soul, did you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for Angor. I have some questions to ask him.¡±

    ¡°Bad timing.¡± Iron Granny closed her eyes. ¡°He left The Tributary half an hour ago.¡±

    ¡°He did? Can you tell me where he went, Granny?¡±

    ¡°Sunders arrived at Brute Cavern this morning, so... you guessed.¡±

    ¡°Mister Phantom hase back?¡± Greya narrowed her eyes. ¡°Thank you, Granny. I¡¯ll... pay you another visit next time.¡±

    ¡°Forget it. Don¡¯te.¡±

    Greya left the room without saying anything else.

    Iron Granny poured a cup of rose tea and drank.

    For some reason, the sweet-vored tea water that used to be her favorite tasted dull and stale this time.

    ...

    Angor found Sunders resting on a chair.

    The gentleman¡¯s face looked pale, which proved Iron Granny¡¯s words. Angor wondered what happened. Not many things in this world could wear down a truth-finder wizard in merely a month.

    Sunders¡¯ current condition reminded Angor of what he saw from the gentleman back at Floating Mech City.

    ¡°Sir,¡± Angor greeted him.

    Sunders spoke without opening his eyes, ¡°I have something to tell you. Do not get involved in anything rted to Sleepless City for the time being. I dealt with some loose ends and removed your traces in the matter so that no one woulde and bother you for it. However, you should stay alert nevertheless. Prophets like Anglo will keep your name in their minds, no matter what I told them.¡±

    Angor quickly thought about his reunion with Dave, during which Dave mentioned the rumors centered around Sleepless City, which did not involve his name at all.

    So it WAS my professor who did it...

    ¡°What¡¯s the situation now, sir? Did you get rid of the remaining puppet strings in the victims?¡±

    ¡°The situation... is not good. The darkness is growingrger and is earning more inteyer sections by the day. Anyone who wanders inside will have no hope of escaping. I¡¯m afraid the entire Evernight Kingdom will fall at this rate. As for the golden strings... I can remove them, but not all of them, because they spread too fast.¡±

    Sunders frowned and suddenly changed the topic, ¡°About that dog, I think it has left Sleepless City.¡±

    ¡°But where did it go?¡±

    ¡°I do not know. Back to the Nightmare Realm, perhaps. I can no longer sense its presence in Sleepless City.¡±

    Sunders sounded rather disappointed since his n of capturing the strange dog was no longer possible.

    ¡°Fox said that it was Yorkshire who took Spotty away from its owner and brought it to the wizarding world. Maybe this ¡®owner¡¯ took Spotty back?¡± Angor looked a little depressed as well. ¡°If Spotty is really a Mystery item, it must be one of the high-leveled ones. Too bad it won¡¯te with me...¡±

    ¡°Speaking of that dog, did you figure out what that crystal is?¡±

 Chapter 653 - Centipede Guild

    <h4>Chapter 653: Centipede Guild</h4>

    Angor shook his head in embarrassment. ¡°I¡¯ve been working to study Narda¡¯s Vision these days, but I need a lot of time to learn the preliminary subjects.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard about this cantrip as well since it is essential to all alchemists,¡± said Sunders. ¡°It sure asks for extensive knowledge gain. You¡¯re free toe to my book room should you need to.¡±

    Angor nodded. He knew his hologram had enough books stored to provide enough knowledge, but it would take time.

    The world was developing rapidly as new technologies such as steam trains and cargo ships were created. Countless new records and discoveries were made by wizards from different realms by the day.

    Angor¡¯s book collection, which he found in Nether City, was probably left there thousands of years ago or more. He never fully relied on the books he saved since it was very likely that most of the theories and intelligence they possessed were already reced in the course of history.

    Outdated knowledge was still valuable knowledge, but to insist on learning it without epting modern education would only hinder or even stop his progress. He had to keep an eye on both old and new wisdom.

    Sunders¡¯ book room might not have as many books as what he recorded in Nether City, but Sunders¡¯ books could be considered ¡°modern¡±, which was what Angor needed.

    ¡°Narda¡¯s Vision¡¯s is a level-3 cantrip. Even if you gained enough from books, you still need a long time to work out its model. There¡¯s no reason to make haste. Proceed at your own pace.¡±

    Sunders knew his student had been extremely efficient when learning new cantrips, but level-3 cantrips were no longer something that could be mastered overnight using one¡¯s talent and luck.

    ¡°I understand, sir.¡± Angor nodded.

    Yet in his mind, he would still like to grasp Narda¡¯s Vision as soon as possible because he needed to get stronger badly, especially when Sunders had told him about the disaster that was about to strike the southern wizarding world.

    ¡°Apart from these, I need to tell you something else.¡± Sunders opened his eyes with a somewhat painful expression and gave Angor a serious look. ¡°I¡¯m leaving the region and heading to Abyss ne soon. I do not know when I¡¯ll return. Before I do, I¡¯ll leave Phantom Ind in your hands.¡±

    Angor heard about this in Floating Mech City, but Sunders didn¡¯t mention ¡°Abyss ne¡± back then. Angor was a bit surprised to hear about his professor¡¯s destination.

    ¡°Mister Sumesh ising back soon, right? You can always ask him to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Flora has her own territory in Brute Cavern,¡± Sunders interrupted Angor, ¡°and so does Sumesh. Don¡¯t worry, you can ce your trust in Goode, who¡¯ll take care of most daily affairs that might concern Phantom Ind. I know you¡¯re nning to visit your home recently. When you do, tell Goode to close off the ind. He¡¯ll know what to do.¡±

    Sunders continued without giving Angor any chance to speak, ¡°These are all trivial matters. What I¡¯m about to tell you next...¡± He took out a ¡°crystal ball transmitter¡± and ced it in front of Angor. ¡°Look for yourself.¡±

    The crystal ball glowed and started to blur. It then showed an old figure inside like a monitor.

    ¡°Miss Maya?¡± Angor mumbled.

    The figure was exactly ¡°Star Measurer¡± Maya, who was standing on her observation tform with a grim look. There was someone else standing behind her, but Angor could only see an arm.

    Is that Dodoro? As someone who spent several months traveling together, Angor easily recognized Dodoro¡¯s features from the arm.

    Maya spoke in the image, ¡°I do not want to contact you without a good reason, yet I decided to help Dodoro this time because he cannot get into Phantom Ind.¡±

    Wait, Dodoro tried to enter Phantom Ind? Angor nced at Sunders.

    Sunders pointed at the crystal ball to tell Angor to keep watching.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care, nor do I wish to meddle with your business,¡± Maya continued speaking in a slow and distant voice. ¡°I spoke to you because Dodoro sensed something. Something about your student... Angor.

    ¡°There will be people. People who nned to harm Angor. Dodoro could not tell who exactly, but it should be someone who resents you or at least a man with past grudges against you. This is all I have to say. How you deal with this warning is for you to decide.¡±

    The image vanished.

    Before Angor could fullyprehend those words, Sunders asked, ¡°What¡¯s your opinion?¡±

    Angor took a moment to consider.

    ¡°Prophecy is always something uncertain. Since there¡¯s a prophecy that revealed a possible ill fate... I¡¯ll do my best to avoid it or get rid of it.¡±

    Sunders frowned before he began snickering.

    ¡°Now this is interesting. You heard Maya, it¡¯s probably one of MY enemies who wants to get to you. You¡¯re not ming me?¡±

    ¡°He must be weak since he chose toe after me rather than getting revenge on you, sir.¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°Speaking of my old enemies, they should all know that it¡¯s hopeless to confront me. However, I only remember wizards who might do such a thing, which means they are a lot stronger in terms of raw strengthpared to you. Do not let your guard down.

    ¡°Now I think about it... if I have any enemies who would go out of their way to attack an apprentice, I can only think about one particr organization, which is the Centipede Guild. It¡¯s an overstatement to call them a wizard organization because they¡¯re smaller than most wizard families. A group made of rogue wizards. And just like how they look, they only do shady and injudicious business.

    ¡°I destroyed them once, but I let two of their leaders escape. They¡¯ve gathered someone and be active again, and they¡¯re always iming to get back on me, which never happened,¡± Sunders scoffed. ¡°The two wizards I knew are level-1 wizards, not much of a threat. However, they are pretty good at running and hiding, even from Prophets. If they do wish to abuse you while I¡¯m away... be careful.

    ¡°If I guessed right, they will note and look for you personally. I¡¯ll send a false messageter that a group of wizards will raid their organization recently, which will scare them for good. And if they sent some lesserckeys after you, it shouldn¡¯t be hard for you to deal with them.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t the first time Angor heard about the Centipede Guild since many magazines would talk about them asionally, which were all about bad things. This guild functioned simrly tomon underground groups operated by viins rather than a wizard organization.

    Obviously, these people knew they were too weak to attack Sunders, so they chose to pick on Angor so that their grudge had somewhere to go.

    Angor felt more annoyed at the matter than scared. In fact, as Sunders¡¯ student, he had expected something like this to happen. He knew both Flora and Sumesh went through simr things, and he would not be an exception.

    His title of a promising alchemist discouraged a lot of people from plotting against him since it was more profitable to befriend or at least stay on peaceful terms with an alchemistpared to provoking one. But apparently, the Centipede Guild would not agree.

    Angor was d he learned about the warning beforehand. He might not change the prophecy, but this allowed him to make preparations.

    He probably didn¡¯t have what it took to defeat a wizard in a fight, but it wasn¡¯t difficult for him to hide from them.

    ¡°d you understand.¡± Sunders nodded and closed his eyes again.

    Angor thought his professor would like him to leave now, but he stopped moving when Sunders suddenly talked again.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to the Nightmare Realmter.¡±

    Angor turned back. ¡°May I ask where exactly, sir?¡±

    Sunders lifted a hand, and a wooden lock full of nightmare energy lingering on it appeared on his hand.

    Angor knew about the item¡ªSunders ¡°tricked¡± it from Irisa not long ago. ording to Irisa, she obtained the item along with Travel In Dreand, which was supposed toe from an ancient wizard who explored the Nightmare Realm.

    ¡°Are you going to check the rumored ¡®treasure vault¡¯, sir?¡±

    The scroll Travel In Dreand mentioned a mysterious shelter, which was said to contain lots of Mystery treasures all around it, such as a mirror that copied absolutely everything, a swing that reflected fate itself, a box that showed random content each time someone opened it...

    The wooden lock came from there as well.

    ¡°I need to see which section the shelter is located in the Nightmare Realm.¡± Sunders rubbed his temples. ¡°Hope it¡¯s not too close to the core areas.¡±

    Sunders saw Angor¡¯s excited smile and added, ¡°No, you¡¯re noting this time. I can¡¯t guarantee your safety when looking around an uncharted ce in the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    Sunders shook his head when he thought about their previous explorations. Even when traveling in ¡°charted¡± ces like Nether City or Witch¡¯s Town, something unexpected and dangerous still found their way to Angor. Of course he would not bring Angor to apletely unknown area.

 Chapter 654 - A Shadow? A Curse?

    <h4>Chapter 654: A Shadow? A Curse?</h4>

    Angor was disappointed that he missed a chance to discover more wonderful mysteries in the Nightmare Realm. However, he had no trouble epting Sunders¡¯ decision because he also knew that such mysteries were always apanied by deadly traps.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what I saw when I return,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°I¡¯ll stay at Phantom Ind tonight, sir, and borrow some of your books to learn about alchemy materials.¡±

    ¡°The library in my Gravity Garden also had several alchemy textbooks, I¡¯ll leave them¡ª¡±

    Sunders suddenly stopped talking as his body convulsed.

    Angor watched in confusion when he saw the gentleman open his eyes while breathing heavily, which looked like someone who just earned serious illness.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, professor?¡± Angor decided to ask. Was Sunders injured in Sleepless City?

    Sunders took a moment to calm his breath. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. An old condition I got a long time ago just came back.¡±

    Sunders had managed to regain hisposure, but his face went paler than before.

    ¡°I think you¡¯re too weak, sir.¡± Angor was getting worried. ¡°Please consider dying the exploration in the Nightmare Realm if it¡¯s not urgent.¡±

    ¡°I know my own condition, it shouldn¡¯t be your concern,¡± Sunders said. He added something so that he didn¡¯t sound too harsh, ¡°As I said, this is nothing new to me, and it won¡¯t affect me too much...¡±

    ¡°He¡± cannot afford to harm me after all. Sunders finished thest part of his phrase in his mind.

    Angor wondered what Sunders meant, but he did not ask since he knew Sunders probably wasn¡¯t going to exin further.

    Just now, when Sunders¡¯ condition briefly worsened, Angor believed he saw a faint shadow looming over the man¡¯s body.

    Angor could not recognize any details on the shadow. However, for a blink of a moment, he saw one of Sunders¡¯ eyes glowing in red. But it vanished soon. When Sunders recovered, the strange glowing, as well as the shadow above Sunders, all went away.

    Angor wondered if someone had ced a curse on his professor.

    But before he could say anything else, someone interrupted them by knocking on the door.

    ¡°Good afternoon, Master.¡± Goode was standing at the door. ¡°Miss Greya is currently waiting in the guest hall. She wishes to talk to Mister Padt.¡±

    Talk to Angor? Sunders nced at his student and noticed that Angor was expecting Greya toe since the boy didn¡¯t look surprised.

    ¡°I crafted a chest brooch containing an illusion for Lady Greya,¡± Angor exined, ¡°maybe she found something wrong with it.¡±

    ¡°You did?¡± Sunders looked toward the direction of the guest hall. ¡°I see it. You hid the illusion nodes pretty well. Now go and see her.¡± Sunders considered and stood up. ¡°On second thought, I¡¯m going to look at the item as well, and see how good your studies were.¡±

    Sunders usually let Angor figure out his own ways of learning illusions rather than giving him restrictive lessons, but before an Illusionist could manipte different types of illusions at free will, they still needed to follow certain rules and logic.

    Sunders decided to join Greya since he had time for it right now. Besides, he also had something to tell Greya.

    As they both headed toward the guest room, Angor was getting pretty nervous about hising ¡°test¡± because Sunders had not checked his illusions in quite a while.

    Until now, he either used a simple mist to fill up his illusion, which did not require any logic, orbining his talent and nightmare energy to disturb someone¡¯s emotions and senses so badly that logic did not matter. As for ¡°rational¡± illusions, which required all the elements inside to obey rules of nature... no. Angor basically never considered such things.

    He didn¡¯t even check whether the illusion in Greya¡¯s brooch followed any logic. This was why he didn¡¯t feel so confident when Sunders was going to examine the illusion.

    Greya was still inspecting her new gift when the two gentlemen arrived. ¡°Huh? I asked for Angor, not you.¡±

    Greyained until she suddenly noticed something on Sunders. She then sent Sunders a voice transmission.

    ¡°The condition of your soul manifestation is quickening? Did something in Sleepless City force you to lower the protection?¡±

    Sunders nced at Angor, who was fumbling his fingers due to stress, and replied with his own voice transmission.

    ¡°I was ambushed by the animals on my way back.¡±

    Greya showed a grim look. ¡°Did you kill the fox? You want that harp, right?¡±

    ¡°Yorkshire interferedter, and they all got away.¡± Sunders looked extremely frustrated since he failed to capture any of the monsters even when he used the strength of ¡°him¡±.

    ¡°Good. I¡¯ll find a chance to deal with that fox then. I wonder how a bunch of stupid monsters ambushed you?¡±

    ¡°Yorkshire has taken control of a group of wizards who are hiding among others in the Monsoon Sector, and no one noticed.¡±

    This was all he had to say for Greya to understand what happened.

    It was disastrous when your trusted ally stabbed you in the back during a fight. It was already impressive for Sunders to retaliate and even forced the enemies to escape in such a situation.

    ¡°That thing controlled some wizards without letting anyone know? Well, the situation in Sleepless City is a lot worse than I thought!¡± Greya chuckled. ¡°So when are you helping me look for my body? As soon as you do, I¡¯ll make a special dish to treat your condition right away.¡±

    Sunders considered and said, ¡°Mister Monkey has been urging me to join his mission in Abyss ne. I¡¯ll get back to you after I¡¯m done with it. Also, we won¡¯t be able to sneak our way under the nose of a legendary monster even if we work together. We need careful nning ahead. Since Sumesh ising back, I¡¯ll discuss it with him as well.¡±

    Greya had no choice but to agree because she also knew the difficulty of their job.

    ¡°That fox monster in Sleepless City wasn¡¯t hostile to Angor, right?¡± She suddenly nced at Angor. ¡°How about taking him with us?¡±

    Sunders shook his head. He did consider this matter once, but after the incident in Witch¡¯s Town, he no longer believed that Angor was safe from nightmare monsters.

    That witch inside the oil painting meant to kill Angor for real.

    ¡°An apprentice won¡¯t help us with anything,¡± Sunders replied, while still using voice transmission.

    Greya wasn¡¯t fully convinced since Angor had created miracles many times for others to see. But the boy was just too weak when it came to fighting. Maybe he could survive from danger better after bing a wizard, but now...

    Greya shook her head and did not push.

    When their private conversation ended, Sunders sat on a sofa together with Angor, looking rxed.

    ¡°Do you have something else to do here?¡± Greya frowned.

    When Sunders remained unresponsive, Angor decided to exin why his professor came.

    Greya made a duck face. ¡°Alright. But I should tell you that as a truth-finder wizard myself, I didn¡¯t find many noticeable ws in Angor¡¯s illusion. Is that good enough for you?¡±

    By those words, she meant to tell Sunders to leave her and Angor alone.

    Sunders didn¡¯t move. ¡°Of course I trust in your opinion, but you just made me more curious. Since the illusion is almost perfect, what do you want to ask Angor in private?¡±

    Greya sneered and crossed her legs, but she did not tell Sunders anything.

    Sunders didn¡¯t look concerned. ¡°You can¡¯t hide it from me if I want to find out. How about being frank? I¡¯m rather interested in the illusion Angor gave you.¡±

    Greya pondered and decided to speak up, but she was speaking to Angor this time.

    ¡°What is hidden on the ¡®Mysterious Mountain¡¯?¡±

    She didn¡¯t mention the Mystery energy she felt and was hoping that Angor could understand her hint, which was that she would like to hear the answer without telling Sunders too much.

    Angor was expecting Greya to have questions about the illusion, but he was a little surprised to know that Greya had failed to find the ¡°manifestation of Mystery¡± too.

    Greya saw Angor¡¯s frown. ¡°You can¡¯t say it?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not it, but... Pardon me, Lady Greya, I don¡¯t know what is hidden there either.¡± Angor shrugged as he gave Greya an apologetic look.

 Chapter 655 - Flaw

    <h4>Chapter 655: w</h4>

    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Greya grew doubtful. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it YOU who hid an item in the illusion?¡±

    Item? It took Angor several seconds to realize that Greya had mistaken the source of Mystery energy as an actual Mystery item.

    ¡°Uhh, Lady Greya, I only ced a ¡®sensation¡¯, there is no real thing.¡±

    ¡°Sensation? Sensation...¡± Greya repeated that word and slowly nodded. Earlier, she did have a theory that Angor might have done such a thing instead of showing her a Mystery item for real.

    But she still could not believe it.

    ¡°How did you do that? This is impossible for you unless you¡¯ve be a¡ª¡±

    Angor no longer knew how to answer Greya¡¯s questions for he could not tell her about Spotty.

    Sunders suddenly interrupted them by asking, ¡°Care to exin what this is all about?¡±

    Angor silently sighed in relief.

    Greya rolled her eyes. ¡°I guess I¡¯m not the only one with questions. Your student kept a lot of stuff from his teacher, eh?¡±

    She meant to be sarcastic, but it sounded more like jealousy.

    Sunders nced at Angor.

    Did he do something to annoy a wizard again? Impressive... to think that a truth-finder wizard like Greya would be so begrudging.

    Sunders decided that he¡¯d ask Angor about the detailster.

    But Greya saw through his mind. ¡°I know you¡¯re going to pester Angor in private again. Forget it. See for yourself.¡±

    She red at Angor and activated her brooch to expand the illusion, which covered all three of them.

    Angor and Greya immediately saw through the thick mist that covered their visions and appeared on a small path.

    The mist was an ¡°entry test¡±, which asked for the viewers of the illusion to remove their spirit defense first. Anyone who refused to do so would not be allowed to enter the illusion.

    Greya looked at the ¡°starting cave path¡± and raised an eyebrow. She thought the illusion would take her to the Mysterious Mountain since her progression took her there.

    Is this because we have more than one personing?

    ¡°See that?¡± She said to Angor, ¡°Your professor doesn¡¯t trust you. He won¡¯t open up his mind like me.¡±

    Greya did not exin how the illusion worked beforehand just so that she could embarrass Sunders like this. Of course, she never expected to damage the rtionship between these two gentlemen¡ªshe simply wished to find a chance to annoy Sunders.

    ¡°So, if that fool ever abandons you or gets into trouble and dies, you¡¯re always weed toe to me.¡± Greya put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder and showed an ¡°I got you!¡± expression.

    ¡°I thought this dark night is used for hiding logic ws, but I didn¡¯t find any amateur mistakes. Remarkable.¡±

    Sunders was somehow standing right behind them and was inspecting the surroundings curiously. ¡°If I die someday, I believe Angor would have already be someone more powerful than you. Besides, nothing kills me easily, as you already know.¡±

    You should forget about stealing Angor from me. Sunders said thest part using eyenguage.

    Greya looked away and rolled her eyes.

    Sunders joined Angor. ¡°What¡¯s the purpose of this illusion?¡±

    As he believed, every illusion existed for a reason, such as killing or trapping enemies, or in some scenarios, entertaining someone, which was the case for Angor¡¯s music boxes.

    However, Sunders had not discovered Angor¡¯s intention for making this one yet.

    There was no way Angor would put something pretty to look at in Greya¡¯s brooch. Telling from the ambiguous questions Greya just asked, Sunders knew that there was something important happening.

    ¡°Purpose?¡± Angor scratched his head. ¡°I followed Lady Greya¡¯s instructions, that¡¯s it.¡±

    He meant to say that the illusion was only following Greya¡¯s request. He, as an alchemist, was simply finishing the order of a customer.

    ¡°What did she ask you to do?¡±

    ¡°That the illusion should contain the ¡®sensation¡¯ of the Nightmare Realm, and¡ª¡±

    ¡°And creative,¡± Greya finished the answer for Angor. ¡°So far, Angor satisfied both perfectly. No offense, but even if we do not consider his alchemy skills, he might be able to make his illusions more ingenious than yours, Mister Phantom.¡±

    Again, Greya would like to frustrate Sunders¡¯ ego when she had the chance, by using Sunders¡¯ ¡°profession¡± as a deadly weapon.

    Sunders was checking the illusion without speaking. From here, he could not see where Angor¡¯s ¡°creativity¡± was, nor could he sense the ambiance of the Nightmare Realm.

    He looked up at the moon.

    The foundation of the illusion was quite fragile. It might confuse level-3 apprentices or weaker beings, but a wizard like him could break through it with a lift of a finger.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to do such a thing since Greya was obviously trying to ¡°enjoy¡± the illusion willingly.

    I¡¯ll just wait and see.

    Greya moved to the stone stump and poked at the bells to make them ring. ¡°Angor, did you design a different bus stop for each section?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Angor nodded.

    ¡°The one in Witch¡¯s Town... It took me a REALLY long time to find it.¡±

    Angor thought about his little trick and chuckled. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to make it too hard, Lady Greya. It¡¯s supposed to be a fun secret.¡±

    ¡°Your ¡®fun secret¡¯ isn¡¯t so fun to me when I wasted all that time.¡± Greya pretended to be angry, but she quickly gave up when she saw Angor being apologetic for real. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll just consider it a small diversion on my travel.¡±

    As they talked, Cat Bus came running at them.

    Sunders stared at the strange vehicle, which looked like the unrestrained invention of a child. ¡°Bus stop... So, this is the ¡®bus¡¯ you were talking about?¡±

    Angor was a little embarrassed now. ¡°Yes, sir. This is Cat Bus, who will help us get around in the illusion.¡±

    Greya was already stepping into the bus. ¡°I¡¯m going to the Mysterious Mountain. You two want to tag along?¡±

    Sunders shook his head. Judging from Greya¡¯s actions, this ¡°Mysterious Mountain¡± might be the final stop that held the biggest secret. Before going for it, Sunders would like to look around Angor¡¯s illusion for a bit more.

    Angor decided to stay with his professor. As a student, he certainly couldn¡¯t escape when his teacher was going to examine his ¡°homework¡±.

    Greya told Cat Bus to bring her away. ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting there. Don¡¯t take too long!¡±

    After Greya left, Sunders copied her earlier action and sounded the bells as well.

    Soon, another Cat Bus came to them.

    ¡°Cat Bus at your service. Where are you heading to?¡± The creature-vehicle looked at them using its eye-lights, which were a little bit too bright in the night.

    ¡°To Witch¡¯s Town,¡± said Sunders, after checking the map.

    ...

    Sunders didn¡¯t say anything on their way, which made Angor a little nervous.

    ¡°Professor, I, um, I didn¡¯t copy the exact Witch¡¯s Town to my illusion. Since you know, I didn¡¯t get to explore that ce for real, so most of the scenery you¡¯ll seeter were made-up.¡±

    Instead ofmenting on Angor¡¯s words, Sunders began telling Angor what he observed till now.

    As Greya said, there were no obvious ws in the illusion. However, Sunders noticed something else in the mountain woods.

    ¡°These woods look simr to what is growing in Fairy World. You copied from there, right?¡±

    Angor nodded. He did bring a small part of thendscape in Fairy World into the illusion. However, most of the elements here such as the tarred road and ¡°ordinary¡± bus signs were taken from films from Earth.

    ¡°Nice observation and memory skills. I see your travel in Fairy World did more help than harm to you. Using what you learned during your journey, you can construct better and more realistic illusions. Nature is always your best teacher.¡±

    Sunders was very content to see Angor¡¯s capability to learn. While it was true that master Illusionists were more free with their illusions, an apprentice like Angor had to base his illusions on solid logic.

    Upon sensing the rich ¡°nightmare ambiance¡± in Witch¡¯s Town, Sunders was intrigued to realize that his student had divided the illusion into different sections, just like how the Nightmare Realm worked.

    They traveled through the mist-covered town while Sunders carefully inspected it.

    He didn¡¯t show it, but deep inside, he was very pleased to see Angor recreated the ambiance of the Nightmare Realm almost perfectly in an illusion. Angor was probably the only individual in this world who could do so.

    Anyone, including other truth-finder wizards, would admire such an exquisite illusion should they have a chance to see it.

    After generally seeing through the entire town and experiencing the ¡°nightmare stories¡± like Greya, Sunders gave Angor his final remark. ¡°Your talent allows you to seize control of someone¡¯s emotions by using nightmare illusions. However, such a ¡®change of emotion¡¯ is based on your own experience. For example, the terror I saw earlier is based on your mental conditions and how youprehended what ¡®terror¡¯ is. The illusion will not work as intended if you always assume someone¡¯s vulnerability using your own.¡±

 Chapter 656 - Entertainment

    <h4>Chapter 656: Entertainment</h4>

    ¡°One other thing,¡± Sunders kept up, ¡°you ced so much nightmare energy in this part of the section just so that you can make people fear and even respect it, am I right?¡±

    Angor nodded rapidly.

    He defined a ¡°theme¡± for each section when creating the illusion, and the theme for Witch¡¯s Town was ¡°respecting your fear¡±, which Sunders just pointed out.

    ¡°Nice idea.¡± Sunders approved before giving his harsh opinions, ¡°However, YOUR fear will only work on mortals and some of the apprentices with weaker mentalities. Wizards or stronger apprentices can easily see through your trick. They might regard your work as something interesting, and that¡¯s about it. Your emotion maniption would have worked fine, if not for this easily-deciphered illusion. This is where you failed.¡±

    After going through the Witch¡¯s Town in Angor¡¯s illusion, Greya understood Angor¡¯s intention because she wanted to. Sunders meant to point out that she chose to follow the ¡°story¡± constructed in the illusion rather than being forced to.

    This meant Angor¡¯s illusion wouldn¡¯t work well on other people.

    Even if it was intended to enlighten Greya, it would work better if the elements in the illusion fully affected her, thus allowing her to gain heartfelt awareness.

    Angor looked down as he finally understood Sunders¡¯ judgment.

    The illusion of Witch¡¯s Town only appeared to be good, but it was far from achieving its original goal.

    ¡°There are two ways to mend this. One is to improve your mind-maniption capability as well as your own resistance to it, which means ¡®what appears to be fearful¡¯ in your view will eventually apply to others. The other method is to further perfect your illusions, in which case even if someone discovers ws in it, they won¡¯t be able to escape from it easily.¡±

    He then left Angor alone to think about those words and entered the lone house mentioned by Greya.

    As expected, the ¡°bus stop¡± was ced inside an oil painting hanging on the wall.

    While sitting in Cat Bus, Angor stared at his knees to rethink the lesson he just learned, and he failed to notice that Sunders had a slight grin on his face.

    Despite the lecture he gave Angor, Sunders was generally satisfied with the illusion.

    It was obvious that this illusion was not designed to harm people, but to satisfy Greya¡¯s ¡°order¡±. As long as the illusion met the requirements, some minor ws didn¡¯t matter too much.

    He came to the illusion to check ¡°how well Angor¡¯s studies turned out¡±. So far, Angor did a good job. Most of the logic shown by the illusion seemed intact, and the many interesting elements had shown Angor¡¯s brilliant imagination.

    Illusions needed great imagination to achieve potency. As long as no extra demands were concerned, Angor had amazingly finished the job. It was just that Sunders was not the type to praise people easily. He preferred nitpicking.

    ...

    Cat Bus allowed them to see more of Angor¡¯s illusions.

    There were different characters that represented important clues or stories in various sections. It was not so impressive as there were many books that used simr ways to tell their tales, yet Angor did a better jobpared tomon novelists by presenting the best part of the stories for others to see.

    If the illusion was a book, Sunders would believe that it was one of the collectible ones worth reading many times.

    Instead of telling stories, Angor allowed anyone who saw his illusion to be part of the stories and experience them on their own, following behind the characters they preferred.

    Sunders neither disapproved normended such a way of telling stories, but he was d his student made it possible.

    Anyone with time to kill or was resting between burdensome jobs would enjoy such a rxed way of ¡°reading¡±.

    As a former gentleman from a noble n, even if he had spent a long time on the path of truth, Sunders would asionally enjoy a storybook on his sunlight-blessed armchair. Any book was fine. Mortal novels, wizardry fictions... They were all about entertainment that kept his nerves from straining too hard.

    Sunders would admit that Angor¡¯s illusion was top-ss ¡°entertainment¡±, and this was probably why Greya asked the boy for the illusion.

    Next, Sunders began ncing over the other sections like how Greya did.

    The more he looked, the more surprised he was regarding Angor¡¯s potential in illusions.

    Angor might have ¡°cheated¡± his level by absorbing nightmare energy, yet the proficiency in illusions waspletely gained through hard effort. Even with enough effort, an apprentice Illusionist wouldn¡¯t learn to create such a refined illusion within three years.

    While traveling through different sections, Sunders took a brief stop at ¡°Monument Valley¡±.

    This area did not have the ordinary logic as the other sections. Instead, there were strangely-colored shapes and objects ced randomly around.

    When Sunders entered the area, he suddenly realized that this was an extremely interesting ce, not because Angor cked off.

    He was looking at a flickering shadow, which seemed to be connected with all the strange structures around him.

    Together with him, a character named ¡°Ida¡± also entered the valley.

    After some small tests, Sunders noticed that he had to move the shadow to manipte the valley and help Ida escape.

    ¡°So I¡¯m in charge of Ida¡¯s fate now?¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow and decided to y the little game.

    With each of his movements, the structures in the valley would drastically change their orientations. Following these changes, the strange girl, Ida, began climbing over them like traveling through a mountain.

    At first, Sunders didn¡¯t understand what he was supposed to do. From the shadow in front of him, he could see a giant gap on Ida¡¯s path, which would discourage any mortal from proceeding.

    He believed ¡°carrying Ida over the gap by himself¡± was definitely not the answer. It was a puzzle, and he needed to solve it.

    He turned around and saw Angor trying to hold back hisughter as if the boy was happy to see his professor getting stumped.

    Truth was, Angor was troubled by the puzzle just like this when he started ying the game on his tablet. He copied the game into the illusion because he found it to be interesting enough.

    It didn¡¯t take Sunders very long to figure out the answer¡ªthe broken path was, in fact, an optical illusion created by a unique isometric view. When viewed from another angle, it became whole, thus allowing Ida to walk through.

    The puzzle was all about seeing things from different perspectives.

    ¡°Now... this is interesting.¡±

    After solving the first puzzle, the next ones didn¡¯t seem so hard.

    Sunders never had to move. By using the shadow within his reach, he helped Ida reach the exit of the valley and leave.

    The valley suddenly disappeared and gave ce to a pink castle, from which Ida showed up.

    The shadow in front of Sunders also changed into a smaller castle. Apparently, another round of puzzles was waiting to be dealt with.

    Sunders didn¡¯t continue and left the Monument Valley with Angor. He did like the game, but he decided to visit the Mysterious Mountain because it was almost time for it.

    He wondered where Angor found so many weird yet awe-inspiring ideas.

    There was a monument ced at the entrance of Monument Valley, which had a line written on it:

    [Journey to forgiveness]

    So there¡¯s another story about that Ida too? Sunders thought.

    ...

    Angor was still giggling when Cat Bus took them away.

    Sunders gave him a poker face. ¡°The illusion of Monument Valley is more problematicpared to the rest. The colors and structures, none of them should exist inmon sense.¡±

    The gentleman spent several minutes pointing out the ¡°ws¡± until Angor began to wonder if it was a bad decision to ce the game here.

    However, Sunders suddenly changed his attitude. ¡°Once we¡¯re back, make another Monument Valley illusion so that I can get a better look of it, and hopefully give you some instructions ordingly.¡±

    Angor almost face-palmed himself.

 Chapter 657 - Mysterious Mountain

    <h4>Chapter 657: Mysterious Mountain</h4>

    You just want to keep ying that game, am I right? Angorined in his mind while looking at Sunders¡¯ straight face.

    ¡°Ahem, yes, professor. I¡¯ll specifically make another illusion based on Monument Valleyter so that you can... give me suggestions,¡± he replied with a simr poker face.

    Sunders smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s go to Greya. I want to see what you¡¯ve done that attracted her so much.¡±

    Since they were going to see Mysterious Mountain soon, Angor remained silent on Cat Bus without exining it beforehand.

    When they arrived, Greya was sitting on a stone bump on the mountainside with her eyes closed, while her expression would change now and then as if she was trying toprehend something.

    Sunders wondered what intrigued her when he suddenly felt the sensation brought by the mountain wind.

    His knitted eyebrows suggested that he was no longer calm. On hurried steps, he approached where Greya was sitting and also closed his eyes to sense the familiar mystical energy.

    If Angor had not already told them that the energy was abstract, Sunders would believe that there was a Mystery item hiding somewhere just like Greya did.

    Angor joined them and silently watched the two powerful wizards trying to grasp the nature of the energy. However, the energy was as elusive as ever without allowing any of them to catch it.

    ¡°You blended such Mystery sense into your illusion?¡± a voice spoke directly to Angor¡¯s mind. It was a Spirit Bond initiated by Sunders.

    Angor jumped a little upon hearing the sudden voice. This Mysterious Mountain was the most unstable ce among all the sections. It would easily crumble if anyone disturbed it by unleashing magic, especially when two ¡°visitors¡± were both truth-finder wizards.

    Thus, Angor was very surprised to see that the Spirit Bond did not damage the illusion at all.

    ¡°I patched some weak points in the illusion with my own nightmare energy,¡± Sunders saw his student¡¯s expression and exined.

    It sounded simple, but as the creator of the illusion, Angor knew his professor just disyed some serious skills by repairing a foreign illusion in a blink of an eye. This meant Angor¡¯s illusion was like a child¡¯s y to Sunders.

    ¡°This sensation appeared to be simr to the Mystery energy spread upon Sleepless City,¡± Sunders continued speaking through their ¡°connection¡±. ¡°Is it the Mystery sense you learned inside the dog?¡±

    Angor recovered from the shock and replied, ¡°Yes and no. I did remember some of the strange energy inside Spotty, but I neverprehended it. I just... recalled how it felt and copied the feeling here.¡±

    He can ¡°remember¡± the properties of Mystery energy by feeling it? Sunders silently eximed. This calls for extreme awareness. Perhaps this is also made possible by Angor¡¯s soul, or that strange scar on his soul?

    Sunders did not ask how Angor did so because he once seeded in doing a simr test. However, to achieve the same level disyed by Angor¡¯s illusion, he needed numerous time and calction.

    He didn¡¯t proceed with the test because cing the ¡°impression¡± of the Nightmare Realm into illusions wasn¡¯t helpful in battles. It would confuse enemies for a brief moment but that was about it.

    Angor¡¯s superior irvoyancey in his talent, which allowed him to clearly memorize environmental factors he went through before. It was unlikely for anyone else to copy such a trait.

    Sunders considered and believed that he could certainly try making Mystery energy showing up in his illusions if he meant it. However, he didn¡¯t know how much work that would take him. Probably a hundred years or more.

    He would never do such a thing because the gain did not equal to the potential gain.

    ¡°Where did the Mystery energye from? Or, why did you design the illusion like this?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°I wanted to use the illusion to better look at the energy and maybe understand what it means to me, sir.¡±

    ¡°So, you consider this a way to challenge the title of a Mystery Alchemist?¡± Sunders had no problem perceiving Angor¡¯s intention.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Well, Lady Greya asked for something ¡®new and creative in this world¡¯, and I just happened to remember this Mystery feeling in Spotty, so...¡±

    ¡°So you want to show it off to her?¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow.

    Angor blushed a little bit. While it was true that he meant to finish Greya¡¯s request, what Sunders pointed out was also correct in a sense.

    Sunders did not scold Angor, for it wasmon for teenagers to act so. ¡°So this is what Greya was asking about. You told her that you didn¡¯t know the source of the sensation. Why? Is this what became of your illusion as soon as you brought the Mystery energy here?¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t always the case. The truth is, it¡¯s umon for the source to stay so well hidden,¡± said Angor.

    Angor exined his previous experiments, including how different ¡°manifestations of Mystery¡± presented themselves.

    ¡°Manifestation of Mystery?¡± Sunders muttered. ¡°Interesting...¡±

    ording to Angor, the ¡°manifestation¡± of this illusion was hiding somewhere that they had yet to uncover.

    Greya had opened her eyes and looked their way.

    ¡°You know why I asked Angor that question now?¡± she said.

    Sunders grinned. ¡°I know why you looked so anxious. Because you¡¯re feeling jealous.¡±

    Jealous?! Greya¡¯s expression twisted a little due to rage. Well, of course I¡¯m jealous. You should be jealous of Angor¡¯s skills too!

    She slumped down soon. Sunders was right, and there was nothing she could do about it. Angor was officially Sunders¡¯ student. No one could change that.

    While a little defeated, Greya asked Angor about the details of the Mystery sensation she wanted so badly.

    At the same time, Sunders warned Angor through their Spirit Bond, ¡°I don¡¯t have to remind you what to tell and what not to tell.¡±

    By this, he meant that everything rted to the strange puppy should be kept confidential. As for the rest... Angor was free to decide.

    It turned out that Angor did not have to worry about how to answer because Greya also knew what questions were ¡°proper¡± when Sunders was looking.

    But her next question stumped Angor for good.

    ¡°If there isn¡¯t a Mystery item in the illusion, then what¡¯s the point of the ¡®sensation¡¯ without an item?¡±

    It should exist for a reason, just like how the ¡°game¡± in Monument Valley was designed as a time killer.

    Sunders also focused since he was curious as well.

    Angor wanted to tell Greya that she would know the answer when she found the manifestation, but in the end, he decided not to reveal the hint too openly. After looking through various different manifestations in his test, something told him that allowing Greya to figure out the solution on her own was the better choice.

    ¡°I... don¡¯t know. I still don¡¯t know much about this type of illusions. Maybe we¡¯ll find something once we get to the bottom of it?¡±

    Greya easily noticed that Angor was hiding something from her, but she couldn¡¯t push the matter when Sunders was nearby.

    Goddammit. Such a sharp and brilliant boy, ruined by this damn old half-aphasic crook!

    ¡°Fine! Your golden meal order has to wait until I find it then!¡±

    Greya gave up on questioning Angor since it was impossible as long as Sunders was still with them.

    After canceling the illusion, Greya stomped her way out of the guest room without looking back.

    ¡°Go to my study,¡± said Sunders, ¡°I also have something to ask about that ¡®sensation of Mystery¡¯.¡±

    ...

    Angor ced an object on Sunders¡¯ desk. It was a pendant made from pure silver, shaped like a crescent moon hidden behind a cloud.

    This was one of Angor¡¯s alchemy items when he was testing on different manifestations. He didn¡¯t give the item much refinement.

    ¡°This is a crescent ne, with the illusion of a snowfield inside. Like the Mysterious Mountain, I failed to find the manifestation in this one.¡±

 Chapter 658 - The Monument Loop

    <h4>Chapter 658: The Monument Loop</h4>

    Angor handed the ne to Sunders.

    Since he never discovered the source of Mystery energy to unleash it, the item still contained it inside, and he might as well let Sunders deal with it.

    Sunders activated the item, and upon seeing his study bing an empty snownd of pure whiteness, he immediately felt the faint Mystery energy lurking around him.

    ¡°Did you have a ¡®purpose¡¯ when making this illusion?¡± Sunders frowned.

    Purpose? Angor shook his head. ¡°No, I made random stuff to contain the sensation so that I can check them out.¡±

    ¡°So the illusion is meaningless apart from this?¡±

    Angor recalled the moment when he crafted the ne.

    ¡°The only thing I attempted was making the snow cold and empty. Other than that... no, there¡¯s nothing.¡±

    Sunders looked around the illusion while repeating ¡°cold and empty¡± under his breath.

    The area did feel empty enough, but it wasn¡¯t important.

    It was lifeless.

    It wasmon for such a ce to be void of life, but only on the outside. Typically, there would be other forms of life striving under the snow, such as hidden saplings, fishes swimming under the ice, or certain nts, which had developed cold-resistant natures.

    Yet there was none of that in Angor¡¯s illusion.

    Sunders could tell that the particr quietness wasn¡¯t caused by Angor¡¯s ck of purpose¡±. It was as if something intentionally made the illusion so deste.

    And this was probably what kept the ¡°manifestation¡± hidden.

    While Sunders moved around to search, Angor decided not to exin the other forms of manifestations he saw since the gentleman looked so focused. Instead, he left the snowfield illusion and returned to his bedroom to work on the ¡°Monument Valley only¡± illusion that Sunders requested.

    Since Sunders specifically asked for it, Angor would not want to disappoint him by making a wed item. He carefully worked on it from the very beginning, by giving it the best outer design and style he could think of.

    As for what an old-fashioned nobleman would like... At first, Angor considered making something traditional like walking canes or modest-looking decorative charms that could be worn on a gentleman¡¯s suit.

    But he was worried that unlike Greya, who loved anything that looked attractive to the eyes, Sunders probably preferred the item to be ¡°consistent¡± between both its looks and its content.

    For instance, if Angor made a gorgeous stick out of obsidian, which turned out to be a tool for ying a mini-game...

    That would be a joke.

    He shook his head and gave up ¡°giving Sunders something nobleman-like¡±. It was better if the item suited the illusion.

    As he remembered, the main character of the game, which was Ida, would reveal a strange-looking geometric object from her hat each time a stage was cleared. If not considering the obscure story the game was trying to tell, the game itself solely focused on ¡°geometry¡± and ¡°conflicting space¡±.

    And this was what Angor had in mind. He was going to make something just like that.

    He began thinking about images that looked strange enough, such as Penrose Stairs, Klein Bottle, Escher¡¯s Impossible Cube, Penrose Triangle...

    He excluded what seemed to be impossible to make, including Hering Illusion, migrating blind spots, or Devil¡¯s Tuning Fork. From avable choices, he decided upon the ¡°Mobius Strip¡±.

    This shape did a perfect job representing the concept of geometry, and it also looked like something taken from Monument Valley. It could give sharp minds a lot to think about when people looked at it.

    But the strip alone wasn¡¯t beautiful enough if one would carry it in their hands.

    After considering, Angor decided to encase it inside a transparent shell, thus making the whole item into a tabletop decoration.

    With the general idea set, he quickly began working on it.

    From choosing the correct materials to making the final product in his spell, it took him less than two hours.

    The Mobius Strip sat inside a diamond-shaped crystal casing and used the vertices as support. The simple and straightforward design meant to allow its viewers to easily recognize the mathematical beauty, while the diamond shell looked like a ¡°monument¡± that represented the game.

    Angor was rather satisfied with his creation. He also left his signature emblem on the base of it.

    As for its name, Angor thought about just using ¡°Mobius Strip¡± earlier. On second thought, however, it would be difficult to exin who Mobius was in this world, so he called it the¡±Monument Loop¡± instead.

    He didn¡¯t know how Sunders¡¯ exploration was going. With nothing to do, he continued to read books so that he could study Narda¡¯s Vision soon.

    Tick, tack...

    When the hanging clock suggested the advance of another hour, Angor heard Sunders¡¯ voice.

    ¡°Come.¡±

    The phrase sounded slowerpared to how the gentleman usually talked, as if Sunders was holding back something in his voice.

    Angor arrived at his professor¡¯s study and saw him quickly writing something using his quill, while the ¡°crescent ne¡± was hung on the demon falcon statue.

    ¡°Take a seat. I need a moment.¡± Sunders didn¡¯t look up from his paper.

    While Sunders did his paperwork, Angor inspected the falcon sculpture he made before. Using his current standards, it looked too crude to his liking.

    But it seemed Sunders liked it since the man did not remove it from his desk.

    Angor thought that he heard it from someone before, that Sunders particrly loved keeping demon falcons as familiar pets.

    So it was true.

    Should I make a new one for him? Angor thought to himself. If a wizard visits him and sees the poorly-made statue... that won¡¯t be very ¡°noble¡±.

    As he began thinking about the designs of his next gift for Sunders, the gentleman dropped his quill.

    And the first thing he said shocked Angor for good.

    ¡°Remember, do not unmindfully ce Mystery energy in your illusions from now on.¡±

    Angor chose to listen carefully since his professor looked rather serious about this.

    ¡°Once a ¡®manifestation¡¯ is found, it unleashes boundless intelligence that overwhelms you, am I right?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Angor nodded. He then took on a surprised look. ¡°You found the target in the snow illusion, sir?¡±

    Sunders picked up the ne and carried it to Angor using his spirit power.

    ¡°Look for yourself.¡±

    When the illusion was activated, Angor was looking at in and dull snow everywhere, without sensing the Mystery presence, which meant Sunders already ¡°spent¡± it.

    ¡°What did you find, professor? Is it like a random snowke?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Pay attention. See what has changed in the illusion.¡±

    Angorplied and slowly looked around him, but he didn¡¯t find what Sunders was implying. Everything looked the same apart from the absence of the Mystery sense.

    Wait... He frowned. It feels as if this ce is more ¡°alive¡± now...

    He wasn¡¯t sure of the answer and chose to tell Sunders what he presumed, but he still couldn¡¯t understand what this had to do with the manifestation.

    ¡°Of course they¡¯re rted,¡± said Sunders. ¡°What is missing now is exactly what you tried so hard to find.¡±

    Angor was taken aback by such an answer. I was looking for emptiness? How is that possible? Could manifestations of Mystery show up as abstract perceptions?

    ¡°It¡¯s not a perception, but a concept. The manifestation here is a concept called ¡®Wither¡¯.¡± Sunders lifted a hand, which began to unleash energy ripples into the area.

    Angor immediately felt the deathly ambiance that haunted this illusion before.

    Now that they had left the illusion, Sunders¡¯ energy was traveling toward a flower pot in the room, which had a sweet vani blossom growing in it.

    Under Angor¡¯s gaze, the flower turned pale yellow and shrank.

    ¡°This is...¡±

    ¡°This is ¡®Wither¡¯.¡± Sunders closed his eyes. ¡°Do you see why I told you to be careful with what you create? I learned this spell thanks to the manifestation I found.¡±

 Chapter 659 - Wither

    Chapter 659: Wither

    What Angor realized from Sunders¡¯ simple demonstration astounded him.

    People usually used abstract concepts to express certain perceptions that they could not see with eyes. One such example was ¡°cold¡±.

    Cold was a vague concept that could be sensed but not observed directly, yet people already created the concept of cold to express this particr frigid sensation.

    Angor knew from his experiments that the manifestation of Mystery could take on different solid forms like animals, people, random objects, or even natural elements like wind and snow. But he never thought it could be an unseen concept as well.

    ording to Sunders, the manifestation in the snowfield illusion was a concept named ¡°Wither¡±. Angor now understood why he failed to find it. It was because he never knew where to look.

    But how did Sunders ¡°trigger¡± this concept? He wondered. Wait... Don¡¯t tell me the professor just learned a new spell from it?

    ¡°Sir, about that energy you just used...¡± Angor pointed to the crescent ne, agape.

    ¡°I named it ¡®Wither¡¯ just a moment ago. It¡¯s only as powerful asmon level-2 cantrips. And yes, I received the knowledge from the manifestation.¡±

    Sunders was looking at Angor with both delight and worry.

    Previously, he believed this modest boy would be the most ¡°peaceful¡± one among all three students. However, the truth turned out to be the opposite¡ªthis adorable little gentleman would present him with fresh surprise, or sometimes, pure horror.

    It all started from when Angor suddenly discovered his talent in alchemy, after which he nearly summoned a ¡°queen¡± powerful enough to destroy the entire wizarding world during Twilight Auction. Then, the boy was believed to have helped a legendary wizard¡ªIsabelle¡ªto return to power. Not long after, different magazines began spreading rumors that he almost became a Mystery Alchemist.

    Today, Sunders just witnessed Angor ying around with the ¡°manifestations of Mystery¡±.

    It brought him more fear than delight.

    ¡°Good gracious...¡± Sunders moaned. It was Angor¡¯s own capability that allowed him to create the Mystery presence, but at the same time, such capability did not fit with Angor¡¯s strength. Angor was like a newborn child who was destined to possess a god-blessed power while thugs or all kinds of figures with evil intentions could im the child for their own use.

    ¡°The manifestation can help people learn new cantrips?¡± Angor frowned. He couldn¡¯t believe it yet.

    ¡°You should know of all people!¡± Sunders snapped, for he thought Angor knew what he was doing after all those tests.

    After learning that the manifestations could transfer boundless knowledge and enlightenment to people, Angor did consider such a possibility, that he could use such wisdom to learn spells. However, he wasn¡¯t expecting to see it happening for real.

    ¡°I-I never know, professor. Well, I kinda imagined it,¡± Angor stuttered.

    Sunders noticed that his student wasn¡¯t faking that look, which meant it was truly an ident.

    ¡°I guess luck favored you again without telling you about it.¡± Sunders shook his head and sighed. ¡°Never mind these. Can you make another illusion with a ¡®manifestation¡¯ inside right now?¡±

    ¡°I cannot do it out in the open, sir. It needs a medium, an item that contains it.¡±

    ¡°So you need both alchemy and illusion skills to make it happen...¡± Sunders muttered. ¡°This bodes ill, I must say. Due to your elevated personal value, you will suffer from greater risk from now on.¡±

    Angor remained silent as he understood what Sunders meant.

    Possessing great wealth was itself a crime in this world. As a ¡°possible¡± Mystery Alchemist who could make amazing illusions that helped people study new spells... Things would get out of hand if anyone heard about this.

    ¡°Apart from me and Greya, did you tell anyone else about your discovery?¡± asked Sunders. ¡°Or did you give any other such illusion items to anyone?¡±

    Angor shook his head. He once considered giving Dave such an item so that he could spread his ¡°trademark¡± better, but he decided not to because he didn¡¯t wish to use his ¡°best shot¡± to hit the market at the beginning. In the end, he only crafted a music box that surpassed ¡°Journey in Heavens¡± as well as a random illusion container designed as a means of entertainment. He had handed them to Dave.

    He was nning to slowly make his fame as an alchemist known before distributing better items, but Sunders just reminded him that he¡¯d better not do such a thing before he was strong enough to protect himself.

    ¡°Good.¡± Sunders looked calmer. ¡°But be on your guard. Even if you hide this matter from everyone, SOMEONE is going to notice your secret one day.¡±

    Angor nodded. It was true¡ªthere was no absolute safety and privacy in this world. There were always Prophets, who could attempt to read his secrets, or certain Mystery items used for detecting Mystery energy.

    Anything was possible in this world. The only thing that mattered was how far your imagination could take you.

    ¡°As far as I can see, there is no imminent danger for you. Do your best and train as fast as you can. Put all other matters aside.¡±

    ¡°What about the ¡®Twinning Wings¡¯ I gave Lady Greya?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll talk to herter. Greya is a woman who is always focused on practical and concrete matters. Since she entrusted Toby to you, she must know that it is best if you remain safe,¡± said Sunders. ¡°Keep my words in mind for I do not wish to see you end up as someone¡¯s imprisoned asset either. Now, tell me, if you need to base the illusion on an alchemy item, do you have any other such items avable? I¡¯m going to do a thorough data collection regarding these manifestations.¡±

    ¡°Not now, but it¡¯s not difficult to craft these items. I can make some now if I need to.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not difficult?¡±

    Angor nodded without a second thought.

    ¡°In case someone discovers this matter, do NOT tell them that.¡±

    Sunders considered and mentioned something else, ¡°Each time Greya uses her Artificial Life spell, she needs to wait 50 years before doing it again.¡±

    Angor tilted his head and quickly understood the hint.

    ¡°Do I need to get to the items right now, sir?¡±

    ¡°No... You can start when you have time.¡±

    While speaking, Sunders was trying very hard to suppress a certain emotion stirring in his mind. While he did warn Angor about staying safe and avoiding being captured, he knew his own desire was urging him to do the same thing¡ªthat he would imprison Angor inside Gravity Garden for eternity so that the boy could provide him with manifestations of Mystery day and night.

    Sunders demanded himself to stop thinking that way. Doing such a thing would ruin both Angor¡¯s future and his own.

    They had not discovered any potential drawbacks brought by the manifestations. Solely relying on them would equal to giving up the path of truth.

    Were the new spells learned in this way truly his own? He didn¡¯t know.

    When casting ¡°Wither¡±, Sunders did not feel that particr connection that suggested that he was the true owner of the spell. He was worried because of this.

    He could still ept it when the foreign knowledge helped him tackle the bottleneck when learning a new spell. However, when a spell suddenly popped up in his mind for no reason... any wizard with at least some ambition would raise doubt.

    For these reasons, Sunders discouraged himself from going down this unreliable path.

    Besides, his student trusted him until now. He did not wish to disappoint Angor by letting his primal desire loose.

    Just like how Greya put her trust in Angor, Sunders would like to trust the boy as well. Something told him that Angor was someone who could help him challenge the rank of legendary, or even higher. He did not want to exploit Angor¡¯s talent and ruin him.

    Angor took a moment to tell Sunders what he learned from his experiments, such as how much time the manifestations could persist after being found out. There wasn¡¯t much to say. As Sunders said, they needed ¡°proper¡± testster.

    When this was done, Angor used the brief chance to ask a question, ¡°How did you trigger the manifestation just now, sir?¡±

    For visible objects, Angor could simply catch them to activate them. However, how did someone catch an abstract concept?

    ¡°Spirit power. Our spirit power is also a conceptual presence that is able to connect with other simr concepts,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°I understand now. Since the ¡®conceptual¡¯ manifestation in the snowfield is ¡®wither¡¯, then what¡¯s hidden on Mysterious Mountain?¡±

 Chapter 660 - What Can Be Learned?

    Chapter 660: What Can Be Learned?

    Angor tried to remember how he designed the Mysterious Mountain.

    ¡°Is it another manifestation of ¡®Wither¡¯?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Sunders shook his head. ¡°When I was there, I didn¡¯t feel that deathly impression. The mountain is empty, but it is not ¡®dead¡¯.¡±

    Then what? Angor wondered. Is it ¡°barren¡± or ¡°waste¡± in this case?

    Sunders interrupted his thoughts. ¡°There¡¯s no point in making blind guesses. Sooner orter, Greya wille and tell you about it.¡±

    Angorplied but he had another question. ¡°So we can only learn spells out of ¡®conceptual¡¯ manifestations but not actual objects?¡±

    ¡°Your point?¡±

    ¡°I made several dozens of different illusions and discovered the manifestations they contained. I could feel the immeasurable wisdom flowing around me, which helped me see something. But it was pretty much impossible to get a new spell directly.¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°I need to analyze more of your illusions to give you an answer to that,¡± said Sunders, ¡°but I can tell you that I did not learn ¡®Wither¡¯ out of nothing. The manifestation helped me better digest what I already learned, and in this way, I sessfully created ¡®Wither¡¯. As for your case...¡±

    Angor already knew what Sunders was implying¡ªhe had not studied enough.

    However, Angor believed that when it came to alchemy knowledge, he should be the better one whenpared to his professor. So could he create a new alchemy spell?

    No, at least not yet. There might be other restrictions that prevented him from learning new spells.

    Speaking of ¡°restrictions¡±, Angor suddenly recalled the bizarre moment he spent inside Spotty, where he witnessed the birth and termination of miniature civilizations that were apanied by differentws of nature. He wondered if he could only learn new knowledge shown by the strange presence in Spotty since the ¡°sensation of Mystery¡± also came from there.

    This was only his presumption. He wished that he could learn a different kind of sensation from another Mystery item, which would definitely help him prove his theory.

    But this was quite difficult. For some reason, the Mystery presence inside Spotty allowed him to get close and observe. For any other Mystery items, approaching the core of their power could be dangerous, not to mention how hard it was to find a new Mystery item.

    If everything went well, when returning to the Old Earth, he would go and find Freud¡¯s ¡°Whelk of the Dreaming Coast¡±, which was supposed to be a Mystery item. By doing so, he might try learning a different type of Mystery sensation from it.

    He thought and decided not to tell Sunders about his n. He could always do it after proving his idea.

    Their discussion ended at dusk.

    ¡°Make sure you give me some kind of forewarning before bringing scary inventions next time so that I know what to expect,¡± Sunders sighed. ¡°You... You¡¯re more of a troublemaker than Flora.¡±

    Angor scratched his head. ¡°I... didn¡¯t know these illusions meant so much.¡±

    ¡°Just be careful. Now I¡¯m no longer worrying about the thugs from the Centipede Guild. Compared to those lowly thieves, I¡¯m more concerned about certain old wizards who usually stayed away from civilization, who might get attracted to you. As an alchemist, you can make something to protect yourself, no? Get to it.¡±

    Angor nodded. This was also his n. He couldn¡¯t leave Brute Cavern and travel through Devil¡¯s Water unprepared.

    ¡°Now go. You can take books from my collection if you need to.¡± Sunders waved Angor off.

    Angor stood up. He took a while to make a decision before he asked, ¡°Are you going to the Nightmare Realm right now, professor?¡±

    ¡°Not yet. I have something to attend to.¡±

    Angor thought about staying with Sunders for a bit longer so that he could see what his professor looked like when entering or leaving Nightmare Realm. But apparently, Sunders would like him to leave.

    Before going away, Angor ced Monument Loop on Sunders¡¯ desk.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Sunders¡¯ eyes widened a little when he saw the Monument Loop.

    ¡°This is Monument Valley, sir. There¡¯s no manifestation of Mystery though, it¡¯s just a simple illusion.¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°That was pretty fast. Alright, I¡¯ll thoroughly inspect it and tell you my opinions.¡±

    ¡°Thank you very much, professor,¡± Angor replied with a straight face and turned away.

    He saw Butler Goode and Hobbiton outside the study. Hobbiton was holding arge te at his chest level single-handedly. There were a pot and a small dish of pastries on the te, which looked pretty heavy. Angor noticed that Hobbiton¡¯s arm was trembling, which meant he had been staying still like this for some time.

    Seeing Angoring, Hobbiton showed a delighted look and began heading Angor¡¯s way. However, he walked too fast that he lost bnce and let go of the te he was carrying.

    Goode facepalmed. In the next second, he reappeared beside Hobbiton and gracefully caught the falling te, while Hobbiton fell face-first onto the floor.

    While Hobbiton tended to his sore nose with a miserable look, Goode politely bowed to Angor. ¡°Mister Padt, we¡¯re just bringing afternoon tea to your room. Or do you prefer having it in the guest room?¡±

    While speaking, Goode moved closer so that Angor could better look at the food and drink on the te.

    Afternoon tea? Angor removed the lid of the pot and immediately sensed the sweet smell of milk. Oh, milk tea!

    ¡°To my bedroom. Good timing, for I¡¯m feeling a bit hungry,¡± Angor said while maintaining that straight face he had been using.

    Hobbiton made a duck face and followed behind them obediently. ording to his grandfather, Mister Sunders had not decided whether to allow him to stay at Phantom Ind. However, he could try earning his chance from Angor.

    Sending Angor food and drink was one part of the grand n, but after what happened just now, Hobbiton was feeling too embarrassed to get close to Angor, so he kept his distance.

    ¡°Hobbiton prepared these?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°Yes. Hobbiton knows that you prefer milk product, Mister Padt, so he suggested making these.¡±

    As an experienced butler who helped Sunders deal with all kinds of visitors, Goode quickly noticed Angor¡¯s strange expression and changed the subject.

    ¡°You must have known Hobbiton¡¯s condition that left him with an immature body. With the mind of a child, he mainly chose what suited his own taste, naming, milk. I hope you enjoy the same vor as well, Mister Padt.¡±

    By this, Goode meant to say that Hobbiton made all the milk-rted food because of his underdevelopment of mind. Nobody would notice Angor¡¯s habit.

    Angor cleared his throat in embarrassment. He knew Goode was trying to help him, but the whole matter looked as if he were a spoiled rich kid bullying a house servant.

    ¡°I-I see. I¡¯ll dly ept Hobbiton¡¯s gift.¡±

    While walking past the guest hall, Angor saw Flora entering the mansion by the main door while mumbling curses with an unhappy look.

    ¡°He locked all the windows, so I have to waste time going the long way!¡±

    Flora saw Angor staring at her and raised an eyebrow when she smelled what was on the te. She thought about having some fun by making badments on Angor¡¯s childish taste, but ¡°Little Red¡± interrupted her by moving ahead first and giving Angor another rose.

    Angor greeted Flora politely, epted the flower, and thanked Little Red, all the while maintaining his best manners.

    Flora clenched her teeth. She could no longer use harsh words against Angor right now, which would only make her look like a wet nket.

    ¡°Don¡¯t eat too much sweet stuff. It¡¯s bad for your teeth!¡±

    That was the only thing she said. After this, Flora headed to Sunders¡¯ study without looking back.

    Behind Flora, Little Red smiled at Angor while waving a skeletal arm at him.

    Angor watched Flora go and wondered if his professor was waiting for her to explore the Nightmare Realm together.

    ¡°Ugh. Let¡¯s go.¡± He ced the rose on the te and went for his bedroom while Goode and Hobbiton followed.

 Chapter 661 - Ananda Disappeared

    Chapter 661: Ananda Disappeared

    Inside his study, Sunders picked up Angor¡¯s ¡°Monument Loop¡± and examined it.

    He soon found a mark engraved at the bottom of the item¡¯s base, which showed a lion trapped in thorny vines. Almost immediately, Sunders knew what this meant.

    ¡°Oh ho. The boy is steadily bing a professional.¡±

    Instead of testing it out right away, he ced it at one corner of his desk where the demon falcon statue was located. The two items of different qualities easily showed Angor¡¯s growth in skills.

    ¡°Keep going, Angor. You need it.¡± He smiled in content.

    The door to the study was knocked open, and Flora barged inside in rage. ¡°Damn it, Little Red! Why would you give Angor those roses every time you see him? You ruined my n!¡±

    ¡°Did Angor trouble you?¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°No. He¡¯s not the problem here.¡± Flora was ring at Sunders openly, so her meaning was obvious.

    ¡°I asked you to take the door so that you learn how to stick to the rules.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the point of rules?! I¡¯m a wizard, not a freaking mortal! If obeying rules makes me a truth-finder, then I¡¯m all yours!¡± Flora rolled her eyes and noticed a second item ced by the demon falcon sculpture. ¡°Oh, what is that? It looks funny. A... strip twisted in a weird way?¡± She moved closer to get a better look at the Monument Loop.

    ¡°This is ¡®Monument Loop¡¯, something that is more interesting on the inside.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s inside?¡± Flora took it in her hands and looked all over it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it for now. I called you here to tell you something important. I¡¯m entering the Nightmare Realm again.¡±

    Flora quickly turned serious upon hearing these words.

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    ...

    ¡°You looking for me?¡± Angor opened his door and saw Hobbiton stepping back and forth in front of his bedroom.

    He knew Hobbiton had been here since he returned to his room. Using his spirit feelers, he saw Hobbiton mumbling something under his breath while pacing right at his door anxiously.

    Upon seeing Angore out, Hobbiton looked both delighted and worried. ¡°Mi-Mister Padt, I have some-something to ask you.¡±

    Angor leaned on the door frame. ¡°What, you still want to hear about Peter Pan?¡±

    ¡°Peter Pan?¡± Hobbiton looked puzzled. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m curious about that as well, but I have something else in mind. Have you seen Ananda recently, Mister?¡±

    Ananda?

    The image of a sexy-bodied woman shed in Angor¡¯s mind. As he remembered, Ananda was the gang leader in Midnight Sovereign and the daughter of the guard captain in the city. Also, she was Hobbiton¡¯s best childhood friend.

    Previously, Hobbiton really resented Angor for taking him to Brute Cavern but without bringing Ananda along. Angor didn¡¯t mind the childish usation, though.

    ¡°Why do you ask? I don¡¯t know anything about her,¡± said Angor, ¡°cause I didn¡¯t go to Midnight Sovereign again. Is she missing or something? If that¡¯s the case, you might as well go and ask her family.¡±

    Hobbiton looked as if he was about to cry. ¡°When grandfather took me to Windmill Town to get provisions, we saw her father, Captain Neboa. He told us that Ananda has disappeared.¡±

    Windmill Town was a small town located near the mirror entrance. The entire town, as well as its airport, were under the administration of Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Suppose she¡¯s gone for real, why do you mention it to me?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Captain Neboa said that Ananda wished to challenge her chance after listening to your words, Mister. She¡¯s been away from her home for half a year!¡±

    My words? Angor frowned. Did I say anything special to her?

    ¡°What kind of ¡®chance¡¯ she¡¯s looking for?¡±

    ¡°Wizardry. She wants to be a wizard, Mister. You told her that she has a slim chance at it, right? Her father told me.¡±

    Angor frowned again. He knew about Ananda¡¯s ambition.

    But that woman had a spiritual power indicator of lower than 10, which prevented her from bing a talented apprentice. This was also the reason why Angor did not take her to Brute Cavern.

    Did I tell her something like that?

    Angor slowly recalled his ¡°shopping spree¡± in Twilight Well, during which he hired Ananda to help him carry stuff. When resting, Ananda asked whether she could be a wizard, and Angor revealed some information to her since he was in a good mood.

    However, he did so because a special magic array governing Twilight Well would erase the recent memories from all mortal visitors, if any of them got inside, which meant Ananda would forget about what she heard soon.

    Did she note it down or something?

    ¡°I told her that her spiritual power isn¡¯t strong enough. I told her one way to solve this problem, which is to get a vial of the Potion of Austere Night. Maybe she left the city so that she could look for it?¡±

    ¡°But there aren¡¯t many ces for a mortal to look for such potions. Do you know where she might visit?¡± Hobbiton didn¡¯t look reassured.

    Angor shook his head, and as Hobbiton looked at him in great disappointment, he handed an empty food te to Hobbiton.

    ¡°She¡¯s an adult with her own ideas and dreams. Your concerns won¡¯t change her mind.¡±

    With that, Angor closed the door.

    He walked onto the balcony and saw Hobbiton leaving the mansion while Butler Goode was shaking his head nearby.

    He didn¡¯t tell Hobbiton that running into obstacles also made people stronger. But then he decided not to say such a thing, since anything in this world was possible. Maybe by some miracle, Ananda¡¯s persistence would help her reach her goal.

    Even mortals might find wonderful destinies in the course of their lives. Nobody could tell their future.

    Angor looked aside and checked Sunders¡¯ study. From here, he could only see that the room was lit, but that was about it.

    Did the professor go for the Nightmare Realm yet?

    A single thundercloud suddenly moved into the vicinity of Phantom Ind. Soon, lightning and heavy rain came down upon the ind.

    Angor left the balcony, gazed at the blurry scenery across the window, and closed up the curtain.

    ...

    He stretched his arms when he felt the sky outside bright and peaceful again. He spent the whole night crafting five different illusion items with manifestations of Mystery inside, which were five demon falcon statues but with different postures.

    The clock on the wall told him that it was seven in the morning.

    He wondered if his professor had returned yet. To someone in the real world, a journey in the Nightmare Realm only took a very brief moment.

    He collected the statues and prepared to visit Sunders¡¯ study.

    While walking past the hallway on the second floor, he saw Goode leaving the kitchen.

    ¡°Good timing, Mister Padt, we prepared fresh milk imported from Windmill Town, butter wheat beard, and several fruits¡ª¡±

    Angor stopped him from reading the menu. ¡°ce my breakfast in the dining hall. I¡¯ll go thereter.¡±

    Goode nodded.

    ¡°And, Butler Goode, have you heard anything from the professor? I mean, something like, did he tell you what he wants to have this morning?¡±

    ¡°No. Master has not had any meal for some time. He only orders dishes during special asions.¡±

    ¡°Did he evere out of his room today?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Goode considered and added, ¡°but I believe Miss Flora left from the study yesterday morning.¡±

    Flora left? Angor feltforted all of a sudden since this meant Sunders also returned in one piece.

    After leaving Goode, Angor went for Sunders¡¯ study.

    He heard Sunders speaking to him in a tired voice before getting to the door, ¡°Something you need, Angor?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve finished the illusion items, sir.¡± Angor quickly took out his newly crafted items from his bracelet.

    It took a moment for Sunders to respond. ¡°I see.¡±

    An energy beam swept past Angor¡¯s position, taking all the statues away.

    ¡°Anything else? If not, go mind your own matter.¡±

    It seemed that Sunders did not wish to see him right now.

    Angor pondered and decided to try anyway. ¡°About the treasure vault you just visited¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll talk about it next time.¡±

    Angor nodded and left obediently.

    Inside the study, Sunders looked at the bloody floor as well as the blood dripping from his body and breathed a sigh of relief.

 Chapter 662 - Flower Fairy

    Chapter 662: Flower Fairy

    Sunders locked himself in the study for the next two days, during which Angor tried to talk to him but was rejected every time.

    Meanwhile, Flora would asionally enter the study. Each time she left, she moved so fast that Angor never had a chance to talk to her.

    Angor was worried that something bad might have happened to his professor in the Nightmare Realm, but he wasn¡¯t going to meddle too much when Sunders told him not to. Besides, he just told Hobbiton that ¡°everybody had his or her own business¡±.

    The Phantom Ind was troubled by rain several times recently. Goode would usuallye and ask Angor whether they should move the ind to somewhere better, but the sky would clear up before Angor could make the decision.

    Angor was now sitting on a chair near the Krakoks¡¯ room while reading Alchemy Material Collection: Shallowtomb ne Edition with the help of the sunlight. In order to acquire enough knowledge to study Narda¡¯s Vision, he had been fully focused on reading different alchemy books without having any sleep.

    He could feel his brain enriched with more knowledge by the day, and that it wouldn¡¯t be long before he reached the ¡°minimum requirement¡± for learning the spell. He knew he just needed several more days.

    He was so concentrated at his reading that he never noticed Hobbitoning to him several times with a hesitant expression. Hobbiton was probably going to ask about Ananda and Peter Pan again.

    For the first time in a while, Angor looked up from his book when he heard the sound of pping wings approaching.

    He had not seen Toby for a few days. While he was studying at Phantom Ind, Toby had been wandering elsewhere. Angor didn¡¯t try to look for Toby because he thought the bird did not want to run into Greya.

    ¡°What, you¡¯re not afraid of Lady Greya today?¡± Angor joked. ¡°Where¡¯s your panda suit? That hat though... made from flower petals? Nice.¡±

    Toby peeked left and right. Once he made sure Greya was not around, he revealed a relieved look.

    ¡°Lady Greya doesn¡¯t have time for you recently.¡± Angor chuckled at Toby¡¯s silly reaction. ¡°What are you up to? Any longer and I might have to ask Mister Tree Spirit to look for you.¡±

    Toby flew in front of Angor¡¯s face and said something using wingnguage.

    Angor frowned. ¡°You brought that little partner you mentioned here?!¡±

    Toby looked down. He felt a little ashamed.

    ¡°It¡¯s waiting outside the ind right now? Man, you didn¡¯t give me any time to prepare... Fine, I¡¯lle with you.¡±

    While walking through the forest that surrounded the mansion area, Toby exined what he had been doing these days.

    Apparently, Toby was going after his ¡°little partner¡± who betrayed him. During the previous Twilight Auction, a music box called ¡°Land on the Sky¡± stirred up the participants for good. The music box was originally Toby¡¯s, but Toby lent the item to his new friend, who then sold it to others.

    Angor¡¯s n of confronting Toby¡¯s new friend didn¡¯t go wellst time because the disaster in Midnight Sovereign upied him, which then threw him into a ne passageway and forced him to another ne, followed by a series of events.

    ording to Toby, this ¡°little partner¡± was a tiny, fairy-like creature with a pair of translucent wings, who smelled like flowers.

    Angor wondered why Toby would bring the ¡°betrayer¡± to Phantom Ind. In fact, Toby didn¡¯t look angry at all. Did enemies end up as best buddies?

    Later, Toby said that it wasn¡¯t his new friend who sold the music box. It was its master, who took it by force. Because of this, the fairy was left abandoned.

    Toby had been observing the fairy and decided to mend their rtionship yesterday. His new petal hat was a token of their regained friendship.

    Angor highly doubted it since it was very likely that Toby was being fooled again. He would like to see this fairy in person before making judgments.

    A momentter, they arrived at the edge of Phantom Ind. Toby looked around for a while andnded beside a pile of broken stones.

    Angor saw a small figure hiding behind a rock, shivering.

    He couldn¡¯t tell the creature¡¯s gender because it looked ambiguous, but he would admit that the fairy looked rather good. That tiny, gender-neutral face looked handsome and charming.

    Toby introduced it as the ¡°Moonlily Fairy¡±. It had not fully developed its intelligence, and neither could it speak. Without a master, it isted itself from everything and would probably hide in the woods forever had Toby not found it.

    Angor made sure the story was truthful before asking Toby, ¡°So, what are you going to do with it? Are you thinking about keeping it at Phantom Ind?¡±

    Toby waved his wings around, head lowered.

    ¡°You want ME to find a home for it?¡± Angor held his chin and considered.

    He would have rejected such a request right away if Toby¡¯s partner was a different creature. However, since he didn¡¯t think the little fairy could do him any harm, he decided to provide a little help.

    He read books about these creatures before, so he knew flower fairies were usually kind-natured unless they were tainted by evil energy upon birth, which was obviously not the case for this seemingly young one.

    It was probably true that someone else was responsible for taking Toby¡¯s music box away.

    ¡°I guess you can stay... but what are you going to do from now on?¡± Angor stood in front of the fairy and asked in a soft voice.

    It seemed the fairy could understand human speech just fine. However, Angor needed Toby¡¯s ¡°trantion¡± in order toprehend the fairy¡¯s weird signnguage.

    ¡°You know how to brew Moonlily Honey and Moonlily Perfume? But they aren¡¯t anything special...¡± Angor muttered.

    The fairy looked down in fear. It also knew that the human in front of it was the only hope.

    Angor took a moment to evaluate the situation, and after receiving another of Toby¡¯s pleading looks, he nodded. ¡°Fine. You don¡¯t take much room anyway. Follow me.¡±

    The three of them entered Phantom Ind together. The Moonlily Fairy floated alongside Toby using its petal-like wings.

    Along their way, Angor carefully thought about where to put the new guest.

    He could ask the Phantom Servants to take care of it, but he then considered it improper since the Phantom Servants were supposed to be Sunders¡¯ personal attendants. He couldn¡¯t ask such a thing without getting Sunders¡¯ approval.

    ording to Goode, Nano seemed unupied these days, so giving Nano a new job was another option. But then he was worried that Nano¡¯s bad temper might turn the fairy into an annoying imp instead.

    In the end, he made up his mind to entrust the fairy to the Krakoks. Surely these innocuous folks could amodate a new friend of the same size just fine.

    Besides, the Krakoks were once named ¡°Fairies in the Attic¡±. At least they had something inmon.

    With this in mind, Angor took Toby and the Moonlily Fairy to the flower room, which was a temporary residence for the Krakoks.

    After introducing the fairy to the Krakoks, who listened curiously, Angor summoned Papaya¡¯s grandmother and told her to teach the fairy how to read, as well as the basic social rules necessary in this world. The old Krakok did a perfect job educating Dodoro, so Angor had no trouble entrusting the task to her.

    Also, this wouldn¡¯t burden her too much since she usually didn¡¯t have any work to do.

    Angor watched the Krakoks weing the fairy as if epting a new family member. He then tapped Toby¡¯s head. ¡°All good now?¡±

    ¡°Tweet!¡± Toby hopped onto Angor¡¯s shoulder and kissed his cheek.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a generous one,¡± Angor mocked and left the flower room.

    However, he wasn¡¯t fullyfortable about leaving someone he didn¡¯t know well with the Krakoks. To be safe, he asked Goode to send a vacant Phantom Servant to watch over the Krakoks. While it was unlikely, Angor still told this servant to kill the fairy as soon as it was necessary.

    He also left an illusion around the flower house so that the fairy did not wander off.

    Toby saw everything and did not protest, for he knew that he would be med if the fairy caused harm to Phantom Ind.

    After getting everything in order, Angor said to Toby, ¡°Did you ask the fairy about its master? By ¡®abandoning¡¯, I assume that whoever chased it away did not remove the servant mark from the fairy so that they can summon it back. We need to get rid of the mark so that it won¡¯t give us any surprises.¡±

    Toby nodded and pped his wings a little angrily.

    ¡°A female apprentice? Well, this should be your problem, so try to solve it on your own. Just stay out of danger.¡±

    Angor wouldn¡¯t take more jobs for himself right now since he had enough to do. He believed that Toby was more than capable to deal with the matter.

 Chapter 663 - Five Sets of Data

    <h4>Chapter 663: Five Sets of Data</h4>

    The Month of Lingering Rain had given way to the Month of Wildfire.

    Finally, at the beginning of the month, Angor reached the bottom line for studying Narda¡¯s Vision after memorizing all kinds of material properties and reactions. Just as Sunders said, even if he had learned enough, this level-3 cantrip was not easy to grasp.

    A spell was a way to express magic while using the mana pool as its core, mana as its energy, and knowledge as its structure. It worked by levering and interfering with reality.

    Simply put, a spell consisted of three elements, mana pool, mana, and knowledge.

    The same went for Narda¡¯s Vision, in which case, ¡°knowledge¡± was the most important element of all three. After knowing the correct knowledge, the user also had to use certain calction processes to connect the knowledge points in order to figure out the nature of an item.

    The ¡°calction¡±, which was called Narda¡¯s Law, was the core algorithm of Narda¡¯s Vision.

    It was invented by a Mystery Alchemist in ancient times. Here, thew also referred to the cantrip model, which Angor had to construct in his mindspace.

    The cantrip was called ¡°Narda¡¯s Vision¡± or ¡°Alchemist¡¯s Eye¡± because the cantrip could only be channeled through one¡¯s eyes, unlike most other spells, even though the cantrip did not have eye-enhancing features.

    The books described the cantrip inplicated manners, but using certain concepts he learned from Earth civilization, Angor managed to simplify the nature of the cantrip as ¡°building a server in his mind¡±, which was used solely for carrying out Narda¡¯s Vision.

    When he recognized several basic properties of an item, this ¡°server¡± could help him list out all possible variations of them as well as what these properties might achieve whenbined together, and after ¡°filtering out¡± incorrect answers, the final result that suggested the true nature of the item would remain.

    Since there were countless types of materials and potential effects in this world, the ancient alchemist created this cantrip so that whoever wished to examine new items did not exhaust their brains.

    Angor¡¯s next task was to build the ¡°server¡±, naming, the cantrip model of Narda¡¯s Vision. As far as he could tell, this model was harder to constructpared to most level-3 cantrips. He had to start by cing the starting point in his mindspace and see whether the following lines he drew were absolutely correct. With enough luck, one might seed after several months of work. Otherwise, it might take several years if things didn¡¯t go very well.

    However, Angor didn¡¯t have to worry about building models since his hologram tablet always did a perfect job at it.

    The axes of the universe had divided his mindspace into several measurable sections. Using this as a reference, his tablet would help him work out all the coordinates for the model in no time.

    [Calcting: Model ¡°Narda¡¯s Vision¡±]

    [Estimated time: 41 hours, 42 minutes, 51 seconds]

    Angor saw the device working steadily and sighed in relief¡ªforty-two hours wasn¡¯t a very long time for figuring out a spell model at all.

    After leaving the tablet to work on its own, Angor kept on reading about more alchemy reactions and materials he didn¡¯t know.

    Using Narda¡¯s Vision to tell the properties of something was simr to ¡°identifying¡±. However, the cantrip would not guarantee a definite result. It only worked better as the user gained more knowledge. If an item involved something out of someone¡¯s expertise, then they wouldn¡¯t be able to use the cantrip to reach a reliable answer.

    In other words, sessfully learning Narda¡¯s Vision was not the end of it.

    All alchemists must never stop learning new things. As they knew more and more, their Narda¡¯s Vision would also grow to be more effective.

    ...

    When the countdown timer reached zero, the tablet disyed 27 variations of 612 sets of coordinates, which were nearly 20,000 coordinates in total. These were the optimal results worked out by the tablet, which would help Angor build the perfect ¡°server¡±, but he still had to see which variation suited him best.

    Ordinary alchemists would use a result immediately when they got one since it would take them long enough. However, since Angor could get so many results easily using his tablet, he nned to choose the best one.

    But even if he could use the coordinates, such models of a level-3 cantrip required a ton of mana toplete. Angor was devoting all his time to building models, but he found his progress to be terribly slow.

    His first attempt took him about ten minutes. It failed and exhausted most of his mana reserve.

    The second try went down the drain.

    The third, the fourth...

    He would immediately meditate to recover mana after each attempt. And after several days, he managed to build the first variation in his mindspace under five minutes.

    He took a very brief moment to admire the ¡°server¡± running in his mindspace.

    As long as the server was up, it consumed more of his mana by the second. He quickly looked around and wished to find an item to test the spell.

    He considered and took out Prelude to Rebirth from his bracelet.

    As he gazed at the revolver with glowing eyes, he saw digits and data emerging from it, which were either rearranged or removed by Narda¡¯s Vision. In the end, only five sets of data remained in his view.

    He memorized the data he saw and shut down the ¡°server¡± in his mind.

    Since the model of Narda¡¯s Vision was extremely hard to build, most alchemists would spend a spell slot to make the ¡°server¡± permanent in their mindspaces so that they didn¡¯t have to recreate the model every time they needed an item examined.

    Angor wasn¡¯t going to do such a thing. While it was true that preparing the model would always take him some time, he was confident that with the help of axes of the universe, he could get more proficient at it. Besides, this cantrip wasn¡¯t meant to be used in battles and emergencies anyway.

    The cantrip returned five results regarding the revolver, which all suggested the same crafting materials and magic array. However, the basic effects of the item disyed by the results were slightly different.

    The difference wasn¡¯t big. While the results all said that the item was used for killing undead creatures, they had varying opinions regarding the effectiveness of the weapon, such as how many souls it could attack each time.

    Negligible.

    However, none of the results could determine the ¡°special effect¡± of the weapon.

    Prelude to Rebirth could have turned out as a Mystery item if Isabelle did not take half of the Mystery spirit in the weapon away. And even so, the weapon still retained a special effect.

    Angor wanted to examine Prelude to Rebirth just so that he could see what this effect was. Therefore, he was disappointed to see that all five results were being ambiguous about this.

    ¡°Using unknown energy to inflict a contagious poison effect that worked solely against undead creatures.¡±

    ¡°Erase negative energy from undead creatures and make them pure again.¡±

    ¡°Reverse the dark energy inside undead creatures and allow them to gain intelligence.¡±

    Angor couldn¡¯t tell which one was right. Perhaps none of them was.

    The results were ¡°possible effects¡± gained based on what Angor had learned up to this point. It was obvious that he had not learned enough to distinguish the special effect of Prelude to Rebirth yet.

    However, his attempt wasn¡¯t a total failure. At least the basic effects told by the results were correct. While the special effect remained a secret, at least he knew there WAS a special effect in his revolver.

    If he would sell the revolver at an auction, the appraiser only had to say that the item ¡°can eliminate undead spirits in arge area and possesses another special property waiting to be uncovered¡±, then the buyers would get crazy about it.

    For now, Angor dly convinced himself that his very first try at Narda¡¯s Vision ended up as a sess. Almost.

 Chapter 664 - Identifying the Crystal

    <h4>Chapter 664: Identifying the Crystal</h4>

    It wasn¡¯t a perfect start, but it helped Angor get familiarized with how to use Narda¡¯s Vision pretty well.

    He was a little disappointed to know that the cantrip only told him inexact options rather than unique results like how he expected before. However, he had no problem with this since he also knew that it had something to do with his limited knowledge gain.

    He gave up doing a further examination on the ¡°white bullets¡± in the revolver since he¡¯d never get a true answer in this situation. He needed more tests before checking the bullets, meaning, using the revolver against the undead. To do this, he had to capture enough undead creatures and perhaps find a way to imprison them.

    The Church of the Deceased he crafted was a good choice for containing undead spirits even though he might have some trouble with catching them. The revolver was designed for killing undead, not ensnaring them.

    And he couldn¡¯t possibly brawl with an undead spirit without using the revolver.

    He rubbed his temples and frowned. He thought about making something non-lethal that could suppress undead creatures, but whether he could do it or not, it had to wait until after he finished studying Narda¡¯s Vision.

    He put away the revolver and began building a ¡°server¡± in his mindspace again.

    The second model came out quicker since he had experience with the first one. It still took him several minutes, but at least he seeded in one go.

    Instead of looking at somethingplicated, he decided to identify simpler items this time, such asmon objects with no supernatural properties.

    He noticed that the ¡°server¡± did not spend much mana when examining these items. He managed to check through a dozen items, and the cantrip model remained solid and steady.

    There was something else. Since there were no special properties to tell, Narda¡¯s Vision could only tell him about the base materials used in the items. However, when Angor believed that an item could be considered as a piece of art, the cantrip would give him art-rted evaluation as well.

    But this extra piece of information was also restricted by Angor¡¯s own expertise. If he wasn¡¯t capable enough to judge the artistic value of the item, then the cantrip wouldn¡¯t help him much.

    Since examiningmon things had given him enough trouble, Angor was getting worried that he¡¯d never be able to fully identify alchemy items.

    Thankfully, Narda¡¯s Vision worked fine on several of his alchemy creations by revealing the correct results right away.

    When he finished examining another alchemy item, which was a Tang Dao crafted by Dave, the cantrip model of Narda¡¯s Vision showed signs of breaking, by which time he had looked through eleven non-tiered alchemy items. This meant the ¡°server¡± he just used could identify over 30mon items plus 11 non-tiered alchemy ones in one go.

    He didn¡¯t know whether the result was good or not. After considering, he took out two alchemy notebooks from his bracelet¡ªone was from Prome, while the other was given by Mithra.

    He read them to see what the two alchemists had to say about studying Narda¡¯s Vision.

    It seemed Prome¡¯s first try allowed him to identify 17mon items, while Mithra managed to check 50mon ones, 7 non-tiered alchemy items, and 1 tiered alchemy item.

    Telling from these, his ¡°score¡± was better than Prome, but he fell behind Mithra by arge degree.

    Well, Mister Mithra is one of the best alchemists in Floating Mech City... His true talent was in to see from the very beginning.

    As he remembered, Prome was also an alchemist who affixed the model of Narda¡¯s Vision onto a spell slot, which meant Prome could keep checking more items as long as he did not exhaust his mana. If they were topete with each other to see how many items they could check at a time, Angor wasn¡¯t sure who would win.

    He spent more days reading books.

    He had turned his life into a simple routine during which he was either testing Narda¡¯s vision, meditating to recover lost mana, or reading. It might appear to be taxing and dull, yet he could almost feel his knowledge getting enriched rapidly.

    He finished creating all 27 variations of the model in his mindspace and discovered the one that took the least time for him to build.

    Currently, he had decreased the ¡°casting time¡± of Narda¡¯s Vision to 1.5 minutes. It was still slow, but the axes of the universe could let him cast the cantrip perfectly without making any mistakes, whereasmon alchemists tended to need several tries before the cantrip was out.

    Yet sessfully casting Narda¡¯s Vision didn¡¯t mean reading items correctly. After more tests he did during these days, Angor had acknowledged the fact that as long as the item he was checking contained something he wasn¡¯t familiar with or did not know at all, more ¡°results¡± with ambiguous information would show up. In these cases, he either had to check through the information and refer to more books to pick the right answer or give uppletely if there were too many uncertainties.

    He realized that apart from knowledge, Narda¡¯s Vision also called for perception and resolution. To alchemists, this cantrip was both a lifelong tool and a standard that measured their growth.

    ...

    It was ten in the morning. The bright sunlight in the Month of Wildfire shone through the tree leaves outside and cast a golden and uneven picture on Angor¡¯s desk.

    Angor was enjoying the sun while savoring a ss of fresh milk with a rxed expression. He usually didn¡¯t request specific meals from Goode, but the butler would still send him dessert and milk every day.

    While tasting the lingering sweetness on his tongue, he took out a diamond-shaped crystal from his bracelet¡ªthe strange crystal Spotty gave him. He believed he had learned enough to identify this object now.

    He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, removed random concerns, and began building the model of Narda¡¯s Vision in his mindspace.

    When he reopened his eyes, his irises were glittering with colorful luster. Soon, he saw symbols and digits showing up from the crystal in his hand.

    He frowned when he noticed a lot of question marks among the symbols, including those supposed to suggest the base materials that made up the item.

    He knew that these question marks represented ¡°unknown variables¡±, which led to uncertain results, or no result at all if there were too many of them.

    He could still tell something from uncertain results like how he did for Prelude to Rebirth, but no result meantplete failure. There was nothing to see until he mastered enough knowledge and tried again.

    He frowned and wondered what to expect when so many variables were revealed in his view.

    He felt a little faint when the final results showed up. The ¡°server¡± usually did not strain his brain much as most of the calctions relied on the model itself. In other words, checking on the strange crystal involved a terrifying amount of work that was enough to affect his brain.

    He waited a bit for his head to ¡°cool down¡± before checking on the results, which were already left in his memory.

    And he was pretty surprised to see that the examination seeded partially¡ªthere were six sets of results, which all looked drastically different.

    To make sure, he was going to disregard all uncertain elements of the results and only looked for what they had inmon because that would probably be the useful part.

    His pupils suddenly constricted.

    ¡°This crystal, it¡¯s a...!¡±

 Chapter 665 - Ethereal Prison

    <h4>Chapter 665: Ethereal Prison</h4>

    Goode was bringing Angor breakfast again.

    ¡°Butler Goode, did the professor say anything these days?¡±

    ¡°No, Master never left his study. Like before, there was only Miss Flora who would pay him brief visits.¡±

    After finishing his meal, Angor left the mansion and walked toward the edge of Phantom Ind.

    While on his way, he nced at Greya¡¯s hut and didn¡¯t see anything. Simr to Sunders, Greya had never shown up from her hut these days.

    He knew Greya was probably still working on the secret hidden inside Twinning Wings. Compared to this, Angor was more concerned about Sunders¡¯ condition.

    If Sunders suffered from some serious injury in the Nightmare Realm, there should be enough time for him to recover. Or did he lose his body as well just like Greya?

    Angor knew he wasn¡¯t someone who should worry about the wellbeing of a truth-finder wizard, but he just couldn¡¯t help it. Angor believed that he would have already ended up as someone¡¯s prey if he didn¡¯t have Sunders to keep him safe. Even if they did not look at the various alchemy achievements he did before, the incident in Sleepless City was enough reason for the onlooking wizards to seize him for their own gains.

    The only thing he could do right now was to pray for the better.

    He headed straight to The Tributary and began working on his next n.

    ...

    One dayter, he sessfully crafted a simple-looking hexahedron container that had a simr effect as the Church of the Deceased. But instead of keeping souls safe, this one was used for trapping souls inside.

    Angor named it the ¡°Ethereal Prison¡±.

    It had been almost a year since he created Prelude to Rebirth, and he still had not figured out the nature of those white bullets generated in the gun. He was disappointed when Narda¡¯s Vision also failed to provide a useful answer. The bullets were hard to identify probably because they were rted to Mystery, like Spotty¡¯s crystal.

    He wished to check every unknown item he had before leaving Brute Cavern. Since Narda¡¯s Vision didn¡¯t help him appraise the white bullets, he made the Ethereal Prison so that he could use undead souls to test the gun directly.

    Next, he went to the underground market to see whether any of the shops offered souls as test subjects. If he could find some by spending money, he wouldn¡¯t need to make another weapon used for suppressing the undead.

    And he was disappointed again.

    Undead souls were mostly unstable aggregations of negative energy, which were useless to people. Wizards had enough trouble wiping them out. They had no reason to keep them in shops to sell.

    In the end, Angor had to visit Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop again.

    He came here to ask how Dave handled his new merchandise, but to his surprise, Dave actually provided information regarding how to find undead.

    ¡°Do you remember Vice?¡± said Dave.

    Angor nodded. ¡°Yeah, I made the revolver ¡®Rebirth¡¯ for him, after which he let me use hisb. Does he sell the undead? But that gun doesn¡¯t help him to catch them.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how he did it but that man used something to keep monsters at bay. He¡¯s not selling any undead, but I heard from someone that he handed several undead souls to the resource center half a year ago. That was when I learned that our recourse center kept undead souls for some reason. If you can¡¯t find them in the market, try asking them up there.¡± Dave pointed upward where the resource distribution center was located.

    Angor thanked him.

    ¡°What do you need them for? Watch it, those things know some weird attacks that might surprise you in deadly ways.¡± Dave frowned.

    Angor also knew he had to be careful. It wasn¡¯t about getting hurt, for most attacks wielded by the undead beings had little effect on him. What he was worried about was that the white bullets might power up the undead souls, which would cause serious troubles.

    ¡°Oh right, about the two illusion items you asked me to sell.¡± Dave went back to the counter. ¡°I already handed one to an auction holder in Revtion Empire called the Remnant Auction, which is located at a wizard fair named Remnant Coast.¡±

    Remnant Coast? Angor quickly realized that he read about that name somewhere.

    ording to Dave, this wizard fair was rtively influential among wizards, which meant anything sold there would have more audiencespared to Twilight Auction.

    ¡°As for the other item, I¡¯m waiting until the Remnant Auction, which would be held in the Month of Looming Frost, ends before selling it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave this in your hands then. Don¡¯t worry if they don¡¯t sell well. They aren¡¯t anything important,¡± Angor said before leaving the shop.

    After evaluating his situation in the past few days, Angor had decided to stay low for the time being so that he would not attract too much unwanted attention. He would make further ns about his alchemy brand after seeing the performance of the initial products.

    ...

    An apprentice who was on a shift in the distribution hall disappointed Angor yet again.

    ¡°Sorry, all the undead souls we kept were taken away by Mister Ness about two months ago. We don¡¯t have a single one left.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°When are you going to restock?¡±

    ¡°Sir, you should know that these souls meant little to wizards or apprentices apart from when used in certain experiments, so they are not considered constantly necessary to us. You¡¯ll have to wait for someone to provide them.¡±

    ¡°Then... Can you send me a message when that happens?¡±

    ¡°Of course. I need to see your bone card first, sir.¡±

    Angor handed his bone card to the employee and noticed that she widened her eyes a little upon seeing his name, which meant she recognized him.

    ¡°It¡¯s done, sir. I¡¯ll make sure you¡¯re informed in time as soon as we receive replenishment.¡± The employee returned Angor¡¯s bone card with a smile.

    Angor nodded and left the resource center.

    After he did, those in the building immediately began to spread rumors that Sunders¡¯ student was looking for resources.

    ...

    Angor was going back to The Tributary again.

    Truth was, he wouldn¡¯t rely on the promise made by that employee too much. From what he saw until now, the resource center would not get any new souls any time soon.

    This left him with only one option, which was to look for new runes in his tablet that could trap the undead without killing them. If he managed to learn this rune, he would then go to the questing hall and look for a job that required him to hunt the undead.

    Before entering The Tributary, he heard the familiar sound of pping wingsing to him.

    Toby descended from the sky while wearing a beautiful overall skirt weaved from the petals of moonlilies.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Now I¡¯m not sure what Lady Greya had done to you. Are you a he-bird or not?¡±

    Toby tilted his head¡ªwhat do you mean? I can¡¯t hear you!

    ¡°Alright alright, I¡¯ll just assume that you have the spirit of a youngdy inside your head.¡± Angor lifted an arm to catch Toby. ¡°Now, tell me, why are you here instead of hanging out with your new friend?¡±

    Feeling jealous? Toby ¡°said¡±.

    Angor tossed Toby away and left without looking back.

    ¡°Tweet!¡±¡ªHey, wait a minute!

    Toby hastily waved his wings around.

    ¡°Huh? Are you saying... the professor has left his room?¡±

    Angor told his partner to keep an eye on Sunders¡¯ study and remind him if Sunders ever came out. It seemed that Sunders showed up just as he was away from Phantom Ind.

    Immediately, Angor took out his Gond and headed to Phantom Ind at full speed.

 Chapter 666 - Inheritable Power

    <h4>Chapter 666: Inheritable Power</h4>

    It had been almost a month. When Angor finally saw his professor again, the gentleman was enjoying the sunlight on an armchair near a window with his legs crossed.

    Sunders¡¯ clean and tidy suit didn¡¯t look much different from what he usually had. The same went for that pair of ck leather boots, white gloves withce trimmings, a traditional top-hat, and a short walking cane.

    But Angor noticed something wrong as he approached his professor.

    Sunders had his hat worn in an ufortably weird way that the brimpletely hid his eyes, and Angor could only see the man¡¯s nose bridge and what was below. And when Angor got close enough, he saw a single strand suspended beside Sunders¡¯ ear.

    He thought it was the chain on Sunders¡¯ monocle, but then he realized that the strand appeared to be too dark, and it wasn¡¯t metal.

    ¡°I¡¯m here, sir,¡± he said in a small voice.

    Sunder spoke without looking up or revealing his eyes, ¡°Sit down. I¡¯m going to check your illusion items, and while I¡¯m at it, you can tell me how you made them. I¡¯m not asking about your crafting progress, but your mindset and other conditions when making them. I need to see whether the different forms of manifestations have anything to do with these factors.¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Sunders spoke again without moving, ¡°You have something to say, no?¡±

    ¡°Um, yes.¡± Angor wanted to ask how Sunders had been doing these days, but he suddenly found it difficult to bring this up, so he changed his mind. ¡°I studied Narda¡¯s Vision, sir, and checked the crystal I received from Spotty.¡±

    Sunders gave Angor a surprised look.

    When he did, Angor suddenly grew too astounded to talk when he finally looked at his professor¡¯s eyes, as well as a terrible scar that connected the gentleman¡¯s forehead and cheek, while going through his right eye.

    Sunders was wearing a ck eye patch that covered his eye. The ck strand Angor saw earlier was, in fact, the string of the eye patch.

    ¡°Professor, your eye¡ª¡±

    Sunders casually removed his top hat and ced it on the desk, allowing Angor to better look at the jagged scar that was pulsing with ominous energy.

    ¡°A small cut that I got in the Nightmare Realm,¡± said Sunders as he ran a finger along the edge of the scar.

    From the simple words, Angor wondered what kind of savage fight Sunders went through.

    The scar was still bleeding slowly. As Sunders spoke, another drop of fresh blood was traveling down his cheek.

    ¡°The energy residue makes it hard to heal,¡± Sunders exined.

    Angor more or less understood why Sunders remained inside the study for a month. The scar suggested that Sunders was in a bad shape upon returning.

    ¡°What¡¯s inside the treasure vault, sir? Did you run into monsters?¡± Angor tried to ask.

    Sunders stayed silent for a while before speaking, ¡°I saw nothing.¡±

    ¡°Nothing? But your wound¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the biggest problem. I was hurt by ¡®nothing¡¯.¡± Sunders let out a bitter chuckle. ¡°At least now, I¡¯m sure that area is not an outer section. As for whether it belongs to the core... I don¡¯t know for now.¡±

    Sunders waved a hand to stop Angor from asking more. ¡°We shall speak of it next time. I already noted the coordinate. I¡¯ll return the wooden lock to Irisater, and you no longer have to worry about the Crimson Crown.¡±

    Angor nodded toply since there was no way for him to change Sunders¡¯ mind in this matter.

    ¡°Are you going to be okay? I mean, that wound...¡±

    ¡°The scar is healing, but very slowly. As for my eye... I told Flora to help me look for a new eye that I can use.¡±

    Sunders looked a little depressed. He would like to keep his hazel eyes because such color was the signature iris color of his family, but he didn¡¯t have a choice right now.

    ¡°Enough about me. As far as I know, Narda¡¯s Vision isn¡¯t something you can learn in such a short time. Rumor has it that themonly acknowledged number one alchemist, which is ¡®The Fool¡¯ Muse from Floating Mech City, also spent one month studying this cantrip. I see you¡¯re just as talented as him.¡± Sunders put on his hat again. ¡°So, what did you learn about the crystal?¡±

    Despite thepliment, Angor knew that he fell much behind master alchemists like Muse and Mithra. He could progress so fast all thanks to his axes of the universe and hologram tablet.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to tell his secret to anyone.

    ¡°I can only see uncertain results from this crystal. But judging from these, and added with my own theories, I think your conjecture is correct, sir.¡±

    ¡°My conjecture?¡±

    ¡°It contains inheritable soul-rted power.¡±

    As soon as he said those words, Angor could no longer hear the sound of insects and wind around the mansion¡ªSunders had taken him into the Gravity Garden.

    ¡°Be careful with such words.¡± Sunders looked rather serious. ¡°Anything you say outside can be monitored by the ¡®strings of the world¡¯ or the ¡®wheel of fortune¡¯. And are you absolutely sure?¡± Sunders took the crystal in his hand and looked, but he could see nothing other than faint energy pulses.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure about the ¡®inheritable¡¯ part because all the different results had this inmon.¡± Angor considered his words before continuing, ¡°As for the soul-rted power, I inferred it from what I saw in Sleepless City. One of the results also mentioned this.¡±

    Sunders knew that his student killed Hookdick, after which the strange dog absorbed Hookdick¡¯s soul sequence, which meant Angor¡¯s theory was sound.

    ¡°I see... But again, do not do anything reckless before learning the exact nature of the power.¡± Sunders returned the crystal to Angor.

    Even if they had not reached a solid conclusion yet, they both realized how powerful the puppy was since it could produce potent power-up items for others to exploit.

    Sunders was not the type to regret his decisions, but now, he was truly feeling regretful¡ªhe should have taken the spotty dog at all costs.

    ¡°Soul-rted power...¡± Sunders pondered. ¡°Whatever it is, Ness can tell us. Let¡¯s go and see this old friend of mine.¡±

    Without tarrying, Sunders took them out of the Gravity Garden. Meanwhile, Angor noticed that Sunders just used a small trace of nightmare energy to mask that scar. To outsiders, Sunders¡¯ face now looked as graceful as ever.

    On their way to the Valley of Souls, Angor tried using Narda¡¯s Vision on the five demon falcon statues so that he could see how the cantrip worked on illusion items with manifestations of Mystery inside.

    A momentter, he returned the items to Sunders with knitted eyebrows.

    ¡°How did it go?¡± Sunders asked while rxing at afortable spot on the Gond.

    ¡°I... I only saw one variable out of the calctions.¡±

    ¡°Then this ¡®variable¡¯ should be the unknown manifestation we¡¯re looking for?¡±

    Angor nodded slowly. ¡°It should be. But it was strange. For items with few variables, Narda¡¯s Vision can always give me the exact result describing what the item does. However, there¡¯s only one variable for each statue, and I got no such result.¡±

    ¡°So this single variable prevented your calction from reaching the correct result? Now that we know nothing about the illusion items, they might hold more value than we thought... or the opposite.¡±

    This meant the manifestations of Mystery were even more ¡°mysterious¡± than Spotty¡¯s crystal. For the crystal, they at least figured out a general result that suggested its properties. Yet they knew little about the manifestations, which meant anything was possible.

    I wonder if more experienced alchemists can tell me something... Angor thought to himself.

    He did not have much time to think about it because Ness¡¯ Valley of Souls was already in sight.

 Chapter 667 - Soul Link

    Chapter 667: Soul Link

    After alighting from Gond, Angor saw the same mountain woods and the cliff wall that was supposed to be the entrance toward Ness¡¯ residence.

    He was still a level-1 apprenticest time, so he couldn¡¯t understand the mechanism hidden on it. Now, however, he easily sensed the illusion energy that lingered on the wall.

    ¡°A sorcery array without any illusion nodes... But the energy flows are readable.¡± He carefully checked the inconspicuous lines and curves drawn on the wall.

    But Sunders stopped him by knuckling his head. ¡°Quit it. The initial array isn¡¯t that strong, but the traps following behind are beyond your imagination. You¡¯re looking for a sure death if you provoke them.¡±

    Wizards usually put powerful defenses around their territories. In case anyone sessfully barged in, they would rather destroy the territory than letting the intruder discover anything useful. Angor¡¯s curious action was too improper.

    Sunders tossed a small energy sphere onto the cliff, when the stone wall split up from the middle, revealing a narrow path.

    Heeding Sunders¡¯ warning, Angor proceeded as quietly as he could without doing anything unnecessary.

    They soon reached the basin-like area hidden inside the valley, which was constantly covered in thick mist. In reality, it wasn¡¯t an actual mist. It was a crowd of translucent souls with no clothing on.

    When Sunders and Angor visited herest time, these souls were immediately scared off by Sunders¡¯ mighty aura. This time, however, the soul energy released by Angor was enough to chase them away, which suggested Angor¡¯s soul was almost as powerful as a wizard.

    ¡°Greetings, Mister Phantom. My master is waiting right inside.¡± A woman in a maid dress wiggled closer and kissed Sunders¡¯ boots.

    ¡°Lead the way.¡± Sunders showed a disgusted look.

    They arrived at the wizard tower in the center of the basin where Ness lived. Angor noticed that the entire tower was made of Requiem Stones¡ªa longsting tiered magical material used forforting spirits.

    Angor could have ced Freud¡¯s soul inside a Requiem Stone without spending time on making Church of the Deceased or anything tooplicated. However, this material was extremely valuable since it was only produced in Anima ne. He once checked the entire underground market and did not find anyone selling it.

    Angor now understood how so many souls existed in peace in the valley. With a tower constructed purely out of Requiem Stones, these souls did not worry about ¡°dying¡± at all.

    Ness wasn¡¯t in hisb this time. Instead, the old man was waiting inside a room on the top level of the tower, which looked a little disrepair.

    There was no light source in the room. Only the faint light that traveled through a window helped Angor see his surroundings, but just barely.

    Ness was sitting on an extra-long couch, where the bad illumination added to his elderly look.

    ¡°What is it, pal? You came all the way here just to show off your nice little student to me?¡± Ness spoke in a gruff voice and went to light up an oilmp.

    ¡°What is there to show off?¡± Sunders sat down across to Ness, removed his gloves, and crossed his legs. The dim yellow light somewhat improved his sophisticated, gentlemanly look.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, you¡¯re so good at your thing, being a nobleman and all...¡±

    Ness nced at the boy standing behind Sunders who was obviously enjoying the prime stage of growth, both inside and outside.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re talking about Angor? There¡¯s no need to ¡®show off¡¯. Everything is in to see,¡± said Sunders.

    Ness scoffed, ¡°I guess you¡¯re bringing more trouble to me then? Each time you¡¯re here, you either piss me off or ask me to do freebor.¡± Ness leaned on his sofa and ordered a half-naked maid to cuddle him. ¡°Speak already. What do you want?¡±

    ¡°Angor just¡ª¡±

    Ness lifted a hand. ¡°Thest time you wanted me to examine that sequence inside his soul, you cost me the soul energy that I spent years working on. Just stop it. I don¡¯t want to hear another word about this little b*stard.¡±

    Sunders stopped talking. And when he did, Ness felt a lot happier as if he just won a war.

    ¡°Fine, let¡¯s not talk about Angor.¡± Sunders changed the subject. ¡°So, about your student.¡±

    ¡°My student? Saka?¡± Ness rolled his eyes. ¡°What is there to talk about? He¡¯s always working on getting his ¡®third star¡¯... Hey wait, is it like, Saka offended you in any way?¡±

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°Not him. It¡¯s about Hookdick.¡±

    Ness scowled. ¡°Ohe on, I see what you¡¯re trying to do. I don¡¯t know how Hookdick screwed up, but it¡¯s so easy to guess.¡± He then stared at Angor again. ¡°You won, right? Congrats!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t respond. While it was true that Ness promised not to interfere with the battle between two apprentices, Angor was still worried that this old wizard wouldn¡¯t always remain calm when his student was murdered.

    But now, it could be seen that Ness never cared much about Hookdick.

    ¡°I heard that Hookdick once went to ¡®Soul Soil¡¯?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°Yup. Does that have anything to do with you?¡±

    ¡°Maybe a little. Did he manage to learn any sequence while at it? Such as... a sequence rted to souls?¡±

    Angor was a bit surprised to see his professor asking the question so straightforwardly. Would Ness answer at all?

    It turned out that Ness wouldn¡¯t question Sunders¡¯ intention too much. Ness had no idea that something could transfer someone¡¯s sequence away, and he didn¡¯t raise any doubt.

    ¡°He did. But the power he collected was too slim.¡± Ness shook his head. ¡°Hookdick¡¯s really talented in soul-rted skills. It was impressive for him to grasp the sequence in that garden during ¡®downtime¡¯. He would havepletelyprehended the sequence of souls if he were to ever witness a ¡®soul garden¡¯ being created. Such a pity that his soul was already eliminated.¡±

    Being able to study sequence power from a ¡°developed¡± Sorcerer¡¯s Garden meant Hookdick¡¯s superior talent was likely to help the man reach wizard level easily, or even be a truth-finder... if he was not blinded by his vengeful ambition.

    ¡°What is the effect of the power he found?¡± Sunders kept asking.

    ¡°The soul sequence he learned?¡± Ness considered. ¡°It only appeared as an ordinary spell called Soul Link. Every Soul Maniptor needs to study this spell when reaching the wizard level. Guess Hookdick got it a little bit early.¡±

    Soul Link was a spell that opened up a theoretical tunnel between one¡¯s soul space and mindspace. This tunnel was mostly pointless since soul space and mindspace could not interact with each other. However, Soul Link was still considered mandatory to all Soul Maniptors. In fact, it was another imperative spell alongside Soul Furnace.

    This spell allowed its users to remain in connection with their mindspace, after ejecting their souls from their bodies.

    Typically, souls could not cast spells since they possessed neither mana nor a ce to construct spell models. This was where Soul Link worked by letting people channel magic in their soul form.

    However, this only allowed using magic possible. One could not meditate to recover mana or expand mana pool without returning to their body.

 Chapter 668 - Sakaâ€™s Demeanor

    Chapter 668: Saka¡¯s Demeanor

    There was another drawback to this spell.

    A wizard needed three steps to cast a spell: extracting enough mana from mana pool, using the mana to construct a spell model, and unleashing the spell.

    The first two steps were performed inside mindspace, while thest step required someone to make the spell happen by using their body as a medium so that the spell could enter the reality.

    However, using someone¡¯s soul to channel a spell equaled temporarily making their soul into a magic conductor, which would be prone to hazardous energy in the environment.

    Even with these problems, Soul Maniptors still regarded Soul Link as an important spell because it had an extra, irreceable merit that allowed wizards to transfer the essence of their presence into their souls before their bodies were killed.

    For this reason, many wizards were willing to study Soul Link as an ¡°addendum¡± to their skills even if it would take them lots of time to learn something out of their expertise.

    When someone lost their body, retaining the ¡°essence¡± could prevent their soul from bing a hostless wanderer. After finding a new body, they could always slowly attune the connection between their soul and the body until it was as good as the original.

    To put it simply, Soul Link gave wizards a chance to return to their top conditions after their bodies were killed. This was also why Soul Maniptors tended to live longer livespared to other wizards.

    ...

    Angor finally realized why Hookdick managed to keep his consciousness after being possessed by a parasite.

    ording to Ness, Soul Link was only a mon¡± spell since every Soul Maniptor would go for it. But still, it was a spell, not a cantrip, which meant it was only avable to wizards, except for extremely gifted apprentices like Hookdick.

    ¡°That¡¯s all I have to say.¡± Ness gave Sunders a curious look. ¡°What¡¯s this all about, pal? So you actually have some business other than bragging about your boy? Come on, tell me.¡±

    Sunders stood up and slowly put on his gloves.

    ¡°You go first and wait for me outside the tower, Angor. I need to tell Ness something.¡±

    Ness took a better position on his sofa and waited for Sunders¡¯ answer with a grin, whereas Angor obediently left the room while wondering what his professor was up to.

    ...

    ¡°Please wait a moment right here, mister.¡± A maid took Angor to the entrance of the tower and closed the door.

    Angor spent some time thinking about the spell he had just heard. Combining the results revealed by Alchemist¡¯s Eye and Sunders¡¯ theories, the strange crystal was very likely a tool used for inheriting a soul-rted skill. Could it be Soul Link?

    Angor felt a little excited as such a spell would undeniably boost his strength to a new level. He could now fight some of the strongest apprentices in his soul form by using the sequence of gravity. And if he would focus on running, he might even move faster than some wizards.

    He could not cast cantrips when in soul form. He got a feeling that he couldpete with wizards just fine if he mastered Soul Link.

    But this would have to wait until he could use that crystal.

    Thud, thud...

    He suddenly heard footstepsing from the tower, and they did not sound like Sunders¡¯.

    The door was pushed open, and from the shades inside the unlit ground floor, Angor saw a pair of chamois leather boots emerging, while another pair of bare feet floated alongside.

    ¡°It¡¯s been some time, my friend. Your name is getting brighter by the day,¡± the man in leather boots spoke as he fully showed up from the door. ¡°You¡¯re a lot stronger than me now, I must say.¡±

    Angor replied with a deadpan face, ¡°Mister ¡®Starsoul¡¯ Saka. What happened to you? You do not look as... cheerful, as before.¡±

    Saka grinned. ¡°When talking to a mightier one, of course I need to behave so that I don¡¯t get killed too easily, no?¡±

    Angor sneered but didn¡¯t say anything. He did hate Saka, but not to the extent as to attack Saka right at Ness¡¯ door.

    ¡°I was hoping for a merrier reunion after we departedst time, but it turned out to be more... depressing than I expected.¡± Saka moved into the open area of the valley. ¡°It¡¯s fine though. Seeing your growth, I¡¯m more determined to work harder.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s all you have to say?¡±

    ¡°Are you expecting something else?¡±

    Saka didn¡¯t turn back. He kept walking until his form vanished into the blurry distance.

    ¡°Damn. A man of nonsense,¡± Angorined, but he would admit that Saka was a lot better than Hookdick when it came to annoying people.

    ¡°Nonsense? What nonsense?¡± Sunders was somehow standing right next to him.

    ¡°Ah no, I just saw Saka, who mentioned something weird to me.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Sunders nodded casually and took Angor toward the exit of the valley. ¡°Compared to Hookdick, Ness valued Saka more. Also, Maya once imed that Saka¡¯s potential is exceptional, which meant he¡¯s very likely to be a wizard in the future. You two used to fight a lot, no?¡±

    ¡°We have some problems between us, yes, but we won¡¯t start a war yet.¡± Angor frowned. ¡°He wants my soul.¡±

    ¡°Your soul?¡± Sunders was a little surprised to hear it.

    Previously, he made ns to retrieve Angor¡¯s soul, should the boy suddenly die for some reason. However, he abolished the n after learning about the strange mark on Angor¡¯s soul.

    Angor was more ¡°useful¡± when alive.

    ¡°That man got a keen eye,¡± Sunders snickered.

    Annoyed, Angor took out his Gond and hopped on, and Sunders joined him.

    ¡°Is the crystal ¡®Soul Link¡¯, professor?¡± Angor asked this question when the Gond sailed in the sky.

    ¡°Yes, if it doesn¡¯t contain any other surprises.¡± Sunders nodded. ¡°As you heard, it¡¯s a must-have spell for Soul Maniptors, and a helpful tool for other wizards because it helps you live longer. You should know that I once spent 30 years on it. If the crystal does help you gain the spell... it would save you lots of time.¡±

    Of course, this was the optimal result. There was the possibility that the crystal only held the knowledge, while Angor still needed to study step by step. While such knowledge was valuable in this world, it wasn¡¯t difficult for wizards to find it.

    ¡°When we¡¯re back, you should try using the crystal inside Gravity Garden and see what it can do,¡± said Sunders.

    As the Gond approached the Tree of Eternity, Angor saw his transmitter receiving a new message and showed a strange look.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Sunders asked unintentionally.

    ¡°I went to the resource center to look for undead just now but they¡¯re out of stock. They told me that they got some new ones.¡±

    ¡°Undead? You want to test your weapon?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Before returning to the Old Earth, I want to fully figure out the properties of Prelude to Rebirth.¡±

    ¡°Maybe someone happened to hand in undead souls just now. Or... someone wants to talk to you and receives your help.¡±

    It was a reasonable theory since Angor was well-known as an alchemist now. Either way, he had to go see for himself.

    ...

    Angor headed to the resource center on his own, and the same receptionist weed him.

    ¡°You¡¯re in luck, Mister Padt! Someone provided freshly-captured undead to us just after you left.¡±

    Angor checked a screen, which showed the resource repositories, and saw the item ¡°undead¡± had ¡°two units¡± instead of zero.

    ¡°How much for these?¡±

    ¡°A hundred crystals for a unit. You can have all two if you wish.¡±

    ¡°Is the price always the same?¡±

    ¡°Yes. We usually buy them from others at 50 and sell them at 100.¡± The employee didn¡¯t hide their pricing policy.

    Since the price didn¡¯t change, Angor wondered if it was just pure luck and not because someone wanted to request his service.

    ¡°Can you tell me who provided the resource?¡± Angor decided to ask another question.

    The clerk looked a bit surprised but still answered him, ¡°It was Mister Saka who gave us two undead souls.¡±

 Chapter 669 - Sudden Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 669: Sudden Crisis</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor wouldn¡¯t care if he heard anyone else¡¯s name. But Saka...

    <i>Why? What does Saka want? Did he talk to me at Ness¡¯ ce and give me undead resources just to remind me of his name?</i>

    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell anyone else that I¡¯m looking for souls, did you?¡± Angor stared at the employee in front of him.

    Embarrassed, the clerk looked away. ¡°I-it¡¯s just, people will help you find them quickly if they know about this, right? So...¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything further to me her. This was a simple exchange of information. He just asked the employee about Saka, which was a simr thing.

    ¡°Mister Padt, did I mess up?¡± The woman grew a little worried.

    ¡°No. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± He handed in some crystals as payment. ¡°I¡¯m buying them both.¡±

    ...

    While leaving, he kept wondering what Saka¡¯s intention possibly was. Was that man trying to be nice? And those words earlier meant to show the white g?

    No... at least Angor didn¡¯t think Saka was admitting defeat back there.

    Saka always behaved in a strange way. It was also this man who told Angor about Hookdick¡¯s new look, which helped Angor detect Hookdick among the ¡°clowns¡± and finish the kill. Saka did not gain anything out of Hookdick¡¯s death.

    Angor simply gave up on figuring out what Saka wanted to do. For now, he¡¯d consider the actions as tokens of an alliance. As for how long they would remain friendly... it would depend on when Saka changed his mind by doing stupid things again.

    When Angor arrived at Phantom Ind, he was called to a stop by Goode before he could find Sunders.

    ¡°Mister Padt, Mister Rein is currently inside Master¡¯s study. I suggest you do not go there for now.¡±

    ¡°¡®Silencer¡¯ Mister Rein Mute?¡±

    Goode nodded to confirm.

    ¡°I see, thanks.¡±

    He considered and decided to wait in the guest hall. Surely Rein wasn¡¯t going to chat with Sunders for an entire day and night, right?

    The guest hall was close enough to Sunders¡¯ study for Angor to feel the aura of ¡°silence¡±. There were no spells or wards used nearby, yet he could not make any sound no matter how he tried.

    With nothing to do, he slumped down on a sofa and closed his eyes to take a nap, hoping that the deathly quietness would go away soon.

    It didn¡¯t take long for him to feel something changing.

    However, it wasn¡¯t caused by Rein¡¯s departure. Instead, another overwhelming power showed up from somewhere and covered up the entire mansion.

    Angor found the experience to be simr to when he witnessed the construction of Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden. At that time, the world¡¯s consciousness exerted inexorable might upon everyone even if it only showed a very brief appearance.

    He decided to go to the balcony.

    As soon as he opened the door, he saw the sky had almostpletely darkened because an enormous thundercloud was above, which was releasing swirling lightning bolts.

    Phantom Ind wasn¡¯t the only ce affected by the dark cloud. It even reached all the way to the Tree of Eternity, which was several dozens of kilometers away.

    Angor looked at the forest on Phantom Ind with a confused look.

    Each time he heard roaring thunder, another deadly lightning strike would reach the trees, or sometimes, an unlucky phantom beast among the trees. He even saw a Phantom Servant getting hit just now.

    The strikes weren¡¯t very fast in the views of supernatural beings, yet no one¡ªbe it man or beast¡ªcould avoid them. With the thundercloud above their heads, they were like terrified preys facing against the inevitable, which deprived all strength from their legs.

    Jon used to tell him that nature was the strongest force that no one could fight against. The current sight might not be what Jon was referring to, but it wasn¡¯t much different either¡ªthis was undoubtedly absolute power brought by the world¡¯s consciousness, and nothing could stand in its path.

    Angor couldn¡¯t understand why such force was aimed right at Phantom Ind, which was clear to tell because the center of the thundercloud was right above him.

    Was Sunders building a new Sorcerer¡¯s Garden? Or did something on Phantom Ind provoked the world¡¯s consciousness?

    He quickly thought about Rein Mute, who was also a powerful wizard likely to do such a thing.

    <i>Did Mister Rein reach legendary?</i>

    ...

    Just like Angor, the others in Brute Cavern were all panicking around.

    In fact, the mirror world of Brute Cavern had not witnessed such a disaster in a long time. This was way more serious and hostilepared to the tragedy caused by Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden.

    People were made more scared when they saw a powerful wizard in the organization, ¡°Rosa¡± Neon Yethaway, getting knocked away from Phantom Ind by a lightning bolt when she tried to check what was going on. If not for the timely help provided by Tree Spirit, Neon would have been badly wounded.

    The other apprentices feared what would be of them when they saw Yethaway injured so easily.

    Inside Tree Spirit Pce, Yethaway almost recovered under Tree Spirit¡¯s treatment. She nced at the half-naked soul she always hated and chose to express her gratitude anyway.

    Tree Spirit grinned. ¡°What, feeling bad after getting helped by an old pervert?¡±

    Yethaway red at him. As a Wood Elementalist, she always wondered why the great soul born inside the Tree of Eternity turned out to be a shameless man who loved streaking in public. However, she had to disy her manners since Tree Spirit just saved her life.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that. I truly appreciate your help, Mister Tree Spirit.¡±

    Then she walked onto a giant leaf outside and looked above her. ¡°Whatever is this?¡±

    Tree Spirit also left the pce and rested his hands behind his head. ¡°Hey, I know that. Come on, ask me!¡±

    Yethaway turned around and was immediately disgusted by Tree Spirit¡¯s overgrown underarm hair.

    ¡°If you may be so kind, Mister Tree Spirit.¡±

    Tree Spirit smiled as he sessfully annoyed his target, just as he nned.

    ¡°This is quite easy. Something pissed off the world¡¯s consciousness.¡±

    ¡°But what is it? A Sorcerer¡¯s Garden?¡±

    ¡°Who knows? I can¡¯t see through all the energy lurking around Phantom Ind, but there won¡¯t be too much damage done... Mister Rein is currently visiting Sunders, after all.¡±

    ...

    ¡°Mister Rein is<i> at</i> Phantom Ind right now?¡± someone at Rockwell Venue yelled in great surprise.

    Rockwell Venue was another floating ind beside the Tree of Eternity, which was full of ck thorns and bright-red roses. The wizard tower at the center, also covered by thorny vines, was the personal residence of ¡°Blood Witch¡± Flora.

    ¡°Yeah. Before visiting you, I saw Mister Rein entering Phantom Ind. I used my far-sight spell to see him going for Sunders¡¯ study, and that¡¯s when Sunders found out I was peeking and almost destroyed my eyes using his illusions.¡± The second speaker was wearing a long, rose-colored skirt and was enjoying some sweet tea prepared on a stone desk beside a stone bed.

    Flora was sitting on the other side of the bed, hugging her knees, while gazing at the sky outside her tower.

    ¡°Mister Rein wants something from my professor? And what is this power?¡± she muttered.

    ¡°Dunno. Mister Rein caused it, probably. Maybe he finally reached that level?¡± the woman in the rose dress replied.

    ¡°From the records I read before, the omen brought by reaching legendary is way more disastrous than this,¡± a young man spoke near a desk while writing something down. ¡°If Mister Rein truly seeded, he should know to do it outside the mirror world. The challenges given by the world¡¯s consciousness would easily destroy the entire Brute Cavern and no one can stop it.

    ¡°I believe Mister Rein very much wishes that Brute Cavern remains well and whole, thus my theory.¡± The young man finished his paper, took it to Flora, and bowed. ¡°I¡¯vepleted my work, professor.¡±

    Flora nced at the man without taking the paper. ¡°Remember your ce, Spivet. I epted you as my student just because <i>my professor</i> asked me to.¡±

    ¡°Little Imp¡± Gragg, or Spivet, chuckled.

    Flora waved him off. ¡°Now go. Don¡¯t be an eyesore.¡±

    The woman in rose dress suddenly called to him, ¡°Wait up.¡±

    ¡°What is it, Leona?¡± Flora frowned.

    Leona showed a casual smile. ¡°Interesting student you have there, Flora. He knows more than he should. But he¡¯s only a level-1 apprentice... or is he?¡±

    Flora did not exin Spivet¡¯s condition even though Leona was her ¡°bestie¡±. It would be better for such secrets to remain secrets.

    Leona spoke to Spivet without minding Flora¡¯s unresponsiveness, ¡°So you can tell this is not caused by someone reaching legendary level. Nice! Can you tell us some more, like, what is the root of that dark cloud that covered up half of Brute Cavern¡¯s sky?¡±

    Spivet shrugged.

    ¡°I think Angor might be the reason.¡±

 Chapter 670 - Fair Fate

    <h4>Chapter 670: Fair Fate</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Angor?¡± Flora frowned as she didn¡¯t expect to hear this name. ¡°Howe?¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± Spivet continued, ¡°I¡¯ve done my research. I know Angor nearly created a Mystery item before. Even if he¡¯s not a wizard yet, he fully knows how to make great treasures. Such a treasure is bound to cause omens and stuff.¡±

    By ¡°great treasure¡±, Spivet meant to say high-level alchemy items valuable to all wizards.

    Leona covered her mouth and giggled. ¡°Are you saying this is an alchemy omen?¡±

    Spivet nodded but didn¡¯t understand why Leona looked so cheerful.

    Leona flipped her fringe away from her eyes. ¡°You made all that speech, so I thought you¡¯re more cultured than you look. But it turns out, you know nothing.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± It was Flora. She also thought about whether this was Angor¡¯s doing since Angor once covered the sky under dark clouds as well.

    Leona grinned. ¡°Do you think I, as an alchemist, can¡¯t tell if something is an alchemy omen?¡±

    ¡°This is not?¡±

    ¡°Of course not! I¡¯ve seen many omens of different sizes when brewing perfumes. Well, I never saw omens caused by Mystery treasures before, but I don¡¯t have to. This has nothing to do with alchemy, I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    Leona turned to Spivet again and narrowed her eyes. ¡°Hey you, boy. Whoever you are, hide your ws and teeth better, because you don¡¯t have what it takes to challenge other people right now.¡±

    Spivet¡¯s face went a little pale, while Floraughed out.

    ¡°Thank you for the great wisdom, ma¡¯am. I¡¯ll be on my way,¡± Spivet said in the end, after letting out a deep breath.

    Leona was still mocking when Spivet was close enough to hear her. ¡°You don¡¯t even need your brain to tell that Angor got nothing to do with this.¡±

    Flora saw Spivet leavingpletely and put on a more serious expression. ¡°How do you know for sure? Just maybe, Angor is behind this.¡±

    ¡°Ohe on, not you too. Impossible. There¡¯s no way. End of the question.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no ¡®impossible¡¯ in this world. Angor did the impossible before, more than once.¡± Flora looked in a random direction while recalling something.

    Leona frowned. ¡°Oh, stop it. This is beginning to look like a joke.¡±

    Flora humphed. While part of her trusted Leona¡¯s words, she still would like to support her young ssmate. She didn¡¯t want to see outsiders badmouthing Angor¡ªshe was the only one rightful for this job.

    ...

    Meanwhile, ¡°Star Measurer¡± Maya was also gazing at the sky on an ind to the southeast of Rockwell Venue.

    ¡°People say that those who visit Luminous Ind uninvited will attract misfortune?¡± A man covered in a dark shade was talking at the other side of Maya¡¯s observation tform.

    The man didn¡¯t have a body. Instead, there were ck embers flickering at his position, which covered up everything.

    ¡°It is true. I ced something around my ind to prove that rumor,¡± Maya replied in her aged voice. ¡°But this will not trouble you, Mister Magus, since... you did not e¡¯ here.¡±

    ¡°Hee hee hee... Forgive me. I didn¡¯t mean to trick you, Maya.¡±

    The dark mes slowly dispersed, revealing the man¡¯s form as some simple lines and sketches as if a child tried to paint a portrait but gave up because it was too boring.

    Maya didn¡¯t look concerned, while the young man behind her showed a curious look.

    Maya nced at her student and looked at the ¡°human shape¡± again. ¡°I see you gained yet more proficiency at wielding the art of inscription, Mister Magus. But you should be careful not to alert the cult.¡±

    <i>Inscription?</i> Dodoro pinched his nose bridge as he remembered something from his memory.

    ¡°The cult? Oh, they already know about this. But they aren¡¯t going to do anything.¡±

    Maya smiled casually and changed the subject. ¡°What brings you here today?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to ask, do you?¡±

    ¡°In fact, I do not know,¡± Maya gave a quick answer.

    ¡°I see. You <i>do</i> know what I¡¯m here for.¡±

    Maya didn¡¯t answer.

    White Bear had been watching all along, and he grew really confused at the conversation. He nudged Dodoro and said something using eye contact: <i>Hey what are they talking about?</i>

    But Dodoro wasn¡¯t interested in the puzzle-like words¡ªhe looked away and showed a bored look.

    ¡°But aren¡¯t you interested in inscription? I thought you wanted to learn a new skill. What¡¯s going on with you?¡± White Bear said through voice transmission.

    Dodoro didn¡¯t know how to use voice transmission yet, so he could only give White Bear a cold eye¡ª<i>what does my interest have to do with you?</i>

    Maya knew her students were talking in private, but she didn¡¯t do anything. She kept her attention on Magus.

    ¡°I won¡¯t be struggling at the same level for so long if I know about ¡®that¡¯,¡± said Maya.

    Magus didn¡¯t seem convinced. ¡°What¡¯s going on up there means something to you, don¡¯t deny it. I just want to know the cause. It can¡¯t possiblye up without a reason.¡±

    When hearing this, Dodoro suddenly froze in ce as he sensed something.

    Then he looked toward Phantom Ind with an anxious look.

    Maya saw Dodoro¡¯s expression and silently sighed. <i>So this is truly rted to Angor...</i>

    Still, she was going to keep her theory a secret, both for her new student and for Angor. To her, befriending Angor brought her more profit than harming him.

    ¡°You¡¯re being too hasty, Shildeen.¡± Maya used Magus¡¯ true name this time. ¡°Just like when you tried to recruit ckjack. Do you think people can¡¯t understand your intention? They did. That¡¯s why nobody stopped you.¡±

    ¡°What are you implying?¡± Magus was getting impatient.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re desperately going after the path of truth, and that the omen might help with this. Nevertheless, you should stay put and wait for now. When it ends, the truth will naturally show itself to us. I can¡¯t tell you anything at this moment. When the world¡¯s consciousnesses, everything I see is covered behind absolute chaos.¡±

    Magus calmed down just a little. ¡°You... truly have no idea?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll say it again. If I know about ¡®that¡¯, I¡¯ll be well on my way toward the path of truth instead of wasting my time here.¡±

    ¡°Right, I¡¯m being reckless. I¡¯ll take some time to collect my thoughts.¡±

    With that, Magus¡¯ fake form slowly turned to ash and vanished in the wind.

    Those still on the tform spent a moment in silence.

    White Bear spoke up first, ¡°Hey, Dodoro, what did you mean by that look?¡±

    Dodoro didn¡¯t reply. He was still watching the direction where Phantom Ind was.

    Maya gently pulled White Bear¡¯s sleeve. ¡°Quiet now.¡±

    White Bear was taken aback a little and looked at Dodoro again in surprise.

    <i>Did this guy see stuff again? But he saw so many prophecies in such a short time! And why isn¡¯t he getting backfired?!</i>

    He felt rather defeated when a new student who just joined Maya surpassed his scores so easily.

    A whileter, Dodoro lowered his head.

    ¡°Weal? Or Woe?¡± asked Maya.

    Dodoro didn¡¯t answer.

    Maya pondered. ¡°Fair. I see...¡±

    ...

    The thundercloud was expanding, while the strange power affecting Brute Cavern wasn¡¯t ceasing any time soon.

    As time went by, Angor was feeling difficult to stand. The pressure had grown too much for him to bear.

    Another giant lightning bolt appeared from the cloud, and as Angor watched in horror, it traveled straight toward his position while he couldn¡¯t move an inch.

    For a brief moment, he wondered whether he should eject his soul to escape, but it seemed that he didn¡¯t have enough time to chant Spirit Mantra now.

    <i>Am I going to take that upfront?</i>

    <i>Can my body even withstand it?!</i>

    A pulling force suddenlynded on his body and dragged him back.

    Almost at the same time, the lightning struck the railings of the balcony, almost breaking the entire balcony apart.

    ¡°You can¡¯t stay put for too long, can you?¡± Sunders showed up from behind Angor, shaking his head.

    Together with him, an old wizard with gray trousers, a clean white shirt, and a finely-trimmed checkered vest emerged from the balcony door. His personal image was arranged so perfectly that Angor did not find a single stray string on his silver hair or his clothes.

    ¡°Professor!¡± Angor knew it was Sunders who just saved his life. Then he carefully bowed to the old wizard. ¡°Mister Rein.¡±

 Chapter 671 - Spell Creation

    <h4>Chapter 671: Spell Creation</h4>

    Rein gave Angor a cold glimpse when he recalled the recent rumors he heard.

    ¡°You are Angor?¡±

    Just like the man¡¯s power, Rein¡¯s voice was something that could force people to quiet down.

    Not knowing Rein¡¯s purpose did not prevent Angor from showing his manners. ¡°I am, sir.¡±

    Rein briefly inspected Angor up and down and said something to Sunders using eyenguage.

    You found a very nice student.

    Sunders returned a mild smile.

    I was lucky.

    Rein chuckled slightly, nodded to Angor, and moved to Sunders¡¯ side so that both of them were looking at the sky.

    ¡°That appears so familiar...¡± Rein didn¡¯t look very surprised at the looming disaster.

    Sunders narrowed his eyes and scanned around him. ¡°Indeed, but this is such a coincidence too.¡±

    ¡°Care to exin?¡± Rein fixed his attention on Sunders again. ¡°It has been many years since Greya created a new spell. Weren¡¯t you expecting her to do it again?¡±

    As a level-3 ¡°truth-finder¡± wizard, Rein fully knew what was going on¡ªsomeone was inventing a brand new spell, which attracted an omen. From what he knew, he easily reached the conclusion that Greya, who was currently residing at Phantom Ind, was behind this.

    It had been a long time since Greya made herself known as a truth-finder by creating her first original spell, which meant she was very likely to do it a second time sooner orter. Compared to this, Rein was a little annoyed about the fact that a wizard who didn¡¯t belong to Brute Cavern was causing this mess on his turf.

    It was several centuries ago when a wizard of Brute Cavern created a new spell. After all these years,bined with the fact that Greya was not a member of the organization, most people in Brute Cavern failed to realize what the omen meant.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s a coincidence. Greya had been traveling around different worlds for decades without seeding. As soon as she came to Phantom Ind, she made her new spell,¡± said Sunders.

    Rein chuckled. ¡°Heh, not good enough. Everything in this world can be exined as coincidences in this way.¡±

    He meant to say that Sunders¡¯ theory was not sound.

    Sunders didn¡¯t protest. He simply gazed at Greya¡¯s temporary hut, which was unleashing a huge amount of energy into the environment, and then nced at Angor.

    Angor was going over what he just heard with a dumbfounded look¡ªSunders and Rein did not make their conversation private, so he heard everything.

    This is caused by Lady Greya making a new spell? But... the professor got a point. Why now?

    ¡°I¡¯m curious though. What has she been doing at Phantom Ind these days?¡± Rein asked Sunders a question.

    Angor felt his heart skipping a beat.

    As far as he knew, Greya spent several days inside the illusion of Twinning Wings. Before leaving for Valley of Souls, he moved past the hut and felt familiar nightmare energy from there, which meant she was still going over the illusion.

    And there were Sunders, who just learned a new cantrip called ¡°Wither¡± from his illusions.

    Don-don¡¯t tell me Lady Greya did this because of my illusion? Or rather, the ¡°manifestation of Mystery¡± inside the illusion?

    The first thing that came to Angor¡¯s mind was how to avoid potential danger brought by this incident.

    If anyone learned that there was something that helped wizardsprehend new spells which could cause such arge-scale omen... then the whole wizarding world would probably fall into total chaos.

    One of the many challenges one needed toplete before being recognized as a truth-finder was ¡°creating a unique spell which was acknowledged by the world¡¯s consciousness¡±. In other words, by using manifestations of Mystery, tons of truth-finder wizards would pop up like it was nothing!

    What he didn¡¯t know was that while Greya did use the help of the manifestation to break through major obstacles for finishing the spell of ¡°Birth¡±, she did not fully rely on the manifestation. The enormous wisdom revealed by the manifestation was only a boost that helped her reach her goal, while most of the work and resources were prepared by Greya herself beforeing to Phantom Ind.

    But still, tools that possessed great value would always convince people to go after them at all costs, while rules, morals, and whatsoever did not matter. When there was enough profit, people would dly risk their lives.

    Supposed that Angor¡¯s manifestations of Mystery only had a negligible chance of allowing wizards to create new spells, in the views of wizards who happened to need a little extra help to achieve their goals, such a slim chance was something they would like to grasp no matter what.

    Thinking about this, Angor almost shivered in fear.

    Sunders suddenly pointed to his own face and spoke to Rein, ¡°You just heard how I lost my eye, no? I¡¯ve been busy finding a recement, so I do not know much about other matters. And no, I have no idea what Greya¡¯s been up to. Besides... I¡¯m not someone to peek into ady¡¯s locked room without getting her consent.¡±

    Rein¡¯s eyes twinkled. ¡°I see. Mister Phantom Master has given up all mortal passion and love... You¡¯re not interested in women.¡±

    Rein looked away from the lightning strikes and began to tease Sunders instead. ¡°Seriously now, you deserve an inheritor. I peeked into Samantha¡¯s diary once. It was her dream to be a dedicated wife. Your wife.¡±

    Samantha? Angor tilted his head a little. Did my professor have a lover before?

    ¡°I¡¯m NOT interested in broken ss, and I believe I said that before.¡± Sunders¡¯ expression turned into that of disgust. ¡°I don¡¯t need inheritors and force my will upon them, for I am going to attain immortality by myself.¡±

    Rein¡¯s neutral look slightly wavered a bit¡ªby those words, Sunders was indirectly using Rein¡¯s negligence.

    Rein shook his head. ¡°Right... I wasn¡¯t faithful enough as a father.¡±

    It seemed they would not talk about Sunders¡¯ lover at this rate. Both of them remained quiet for a moment.

    While Rein recalled the old days when he was together with his daughter, Sunders leaned on the wall and removed his gloves.

    The gentleman pretended that he was taking it easy, but Angor noticed that his professor was telling him something by using his good eye.

    Don¡¯t say anything to anyone.

    Angor nodded slowly.

    Of course Sunders also knew about the connection between Angor¡¯s illusions and Greya¡¯s sess. He meant to warn Angor to stay safe for now.

    A mighty wizard like Rein Mute could easily detectmonmunication spells, so delivering the message in this old-fashioned way was the better choice.

    The lightning bolts in the sky weren¡¯t slowing down one bit. Under their continuous assault, the forest on Phantom Ind was burning violently, while the phantom beasts tried their best to run for their lives.

    The fire was getting closer and closer to Sunders¡¯ mansion when he finally moved.

    Sunders closed his eyes and chanted something under his breath. At the same time, groups of green, strange-looking creatures emerged from the ground around the mansion.

    These creatures looked like glowing green balls of different sizes. Some were as little as human fists, while others were like small hills. Their ¡°skin¡± appeared glossy and smooth, while each one had a pair of ck, beady eyes.

    They reminded Angor of a monster called ¡°slime¡±, butpared to the puddles of filth described in stories, these ones looked rather cute.

    The green balls bounced into formation and made a circle around the mansion area. Any fire that reached them simply fizzed into white mist and vanished into the air. Also, the lightning strikesing down couldn¡¯t hurt these things either, which shocked Angor greatly.

    Are they monsters or a spell?

    Sunders chuckled at Angor¡¯s obvious curiosity. ¡°I asked you to manage Phantom Ind for some time, but you never bothered to learn what was around the ind? What you are seeing now is an amalgamated phantom beast called ¡®Pokoly¡¯. They are immune to energy-based attacks that are below the wizard level. There¡¯s a section beneath the ground specially designed to house these creatures.¡±

    Angor grew a little embarrassed¡ªhe could have asked Goode about the basicyout of Phantom Ind, but he never did.

    Rein heard their conversation and stopped recalling old memories. His expression turned in and unemotional again.

    ¡°Sunders, when you created your spell, ¡®Nightmare Substitute¡¯, the omen you caused was not so serious, am I right?¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°Yes. The area covered by the omen was smaller, and I never attracted the world¡¯s consciousness to me.¡±

    Rein grinned. ¡°That¡¯s Greya for you... Herst spell was quite a sight to behold, and here she is again. But if my memory serves me right, this omen is slightly weakerpared to herst one.¡±

    ¡°Greya earned an extremely high starting point as a truth-finder wizard by creating ¡®Artificial Life¡¯, which defied many rules of nature. It¡¯s almost impossible to surpass that feat.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. A higher start, a harder path forward,¡± Rein said as he gazed at Sunders. ¡°So, do you think Greya continued her way of creation or did she go after a new path?¡±

 Chapter 672 - he Challenge for a Truth-Finder

    <h4>Chapter 672: The Challenge for a Truth-Finder</h4>

    Truth-finders knew what it meant to ¡°create¡± and how difficult it was, which was one of the reasons why Greya did not make much progress after creating ¡°Artificial Life¡±. Rein Mute was wondering if Greya had been following the same path.

    ¡°Keep going for creation or change her way... Both are extremely challenging,¡± Sunders replied. ¡°But I¡¯d say it¡¯s easier to go for thetter.¡±

    ¡°So, you think Greya found a new path?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. We¡¯ll see once this settles down.¡±

    The world¡¯s consciousness always presented great challenges to those who sought out for truth and great rewards if they seeded. Wizards always wished to figure out how or why the world¡¯s consciousness would do such a thing, yet there was no solid conclusion.

    What they knew was that an ¡°omen¡± suggested that someone was about to triumph in the challenge, and the world¡¯s consciousness was delivering the reward.

    They would naturally know what Greya went after when the reward was seen in the end.

    ¡°No one could have believed that a mere gourmet wizard would make such achievements...¡± Rein exined as he recalled the great omen caused by Greya¡¯s first new spell.

    Back then, Greya constructed a new ne consisting of delicious meals. The seawater was wine, the floating clouds were honey, and the world itself was the most luxurious feast one could find.

    ¡°I heard. A wizard imed that he smelled the ¡®vor of heaven¡¯ when passing through Hazy Waters. A whiff of the wind was all it took to sate his hunger. And the miracle persisted for a hundred days.¡±

    Hazy Waters was where Greya¡¯s restaurant once stayed, during which her ¡°Artificial Life¡± spell turned her into a truth-finder. The wondrous omen she caused was quite an extraordinary story to be passed down.

    ¡°Even if Greya changed her direction, this omen is still potent enoughpared to most other omens I observed from other truth-finders.¡± Rein nced at Greya¡¯s hut, but he could not see into it due to the interference caused by the energy surge. ¡°People are expecting her to be the leader of all gourmet wizards. She totally has what it takes.¡±

    Rein suddenly gave Sunders a serious look. ¡°If you don¡¯t want Samantha, Greya might be another choice for you. We Brute Cavern do not have a single gourmet wizard yet, and we always had to give up apprentices talented in cooking. It¡¯s such a shame.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t seem bothered by the idea. ¡°This does not concern me. If you wish to open up a new department in the organization, Mister Rein, you can always do it yourself. You haven¡¯t enjoyed a decent ¡®partnership¡¯ with anyone in the past ten centuries, right? Good timing. Greya will stay at Phantom Ind for several more days.¡±

    Rein showed an embarrassed smile. ¡°I meant it. Greya looked a lot betterpared to before, am I right?¡±

    Sunders humphed but didn¡¯t answer.

    Meanwhile, Angor tried to hold back his smile as best as he could. He wondered what would happen if Greya heard about the absurd conversation. Probably nothing pleasant since she always made badments against Sunders behind the gentleman¡¯s back.

    To Angor, Rein Mute was a well-experienced and scary elder who dominated the entire Brute Cavern. But after what he saw just now, Rein Mute was slowly bing a passionate old man who loved matching couples in his view.

    When the thundercloud almost covered up the Tree of Eternity, the pressure affecting Brute Cavern finally changed.

    The nature of the invading power became different all of a sudden. Before, it was like someone who wished to threaten everyone with sheer willpower. But now, the power went right into everyone¡¯s body and mind to attack them.

    Angor was enjoying the small drama between Rein and Sunders, and he wasn¡¯t prepared for this. In an instant, the increased pressure forced him to go down on one knee.

    He felt horrible. It was as if his body was ripped open at several spots, where the power could flush his innards over and over.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one affected by the power¡ªalmost everyone under the dark clouds was troubled by the pressure. However, those on Phantom Ind were experiencing stronger interference for some reason, and it was mostly Angor who suffered the most.

    ¡°Keep it together. This is not exactly harmful to you,¡± Sundersforted his student in a small voice.

    Angor nodded using all his strength and held onto the railings nearby so that he would notpletely copse on the floor. Despite his effort, he still looked funny to onlookers.

    Rein smiled. ¡°You¡¯ve learned to act more gently, I must say.¡±

    Sunders only smiled back.

    If you know it is Angor who helped Greya discover a new spell, Rein Mute, you will know to treat him like your dearest child.

    As the power took on a different force, something also happened to Greya¡¯s hut.

    A blurry shadow emerged from the roof of the hut and ascended into the sky. It disregarded all the lightning bolts and embers raging around and kept moving upward as if it was challenging the will of the world¡¯s consciousness.

    ¡°That¡¯s... her soul. She¡¯s not bringing her body?¡± Rein wondered.

    The shadow was Greya¡¯s soul, which had her old look of an overweight woman, but not the image of a young girl she was currently using.

    ¡°She¡¯s using the body of an apprentice, which will easily break apart when facing against the world¡¯s consciousness,¡± said Sunders.

    Rein nodded. He was one of the few people who knew about Sunders¡¯ n in which the gentleman would help Greya find her true body. In order to let an ¡°outsider¡± remain in Brute Cavern, Sunders had to at least inform Rein about this matter.

    Greya¡¯s soul was moving back and forth against the thundercloud as if she was fighting something.

    Pain, confusion, hatred... She was showing different expressions during her ¡°battle¡± as she bore with the challenge that she had to go through. And she had to im the victory to finish her task for real.

    ¡°Do you think Greya can make it?¡± Rein asked.

    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be difficult for her since she went through a simr experience before.¡± Sunders grinned. ¡°Besides, I don¡¯t think the world¡¯s consciousness is obstructing her. You can see what is happening, right, Mister Rein?¡±

    Rein also smiled as he reced his cold temperament with more gentleness. ¡°The world¡¯s consciousness only obstructs ckers who do not deserve the truth. To dedicated fighters, however, this is a real test. A test that determines whether she is capable of proceeding on her path.¡±

    As wizards believed, the world¡¯s consciousness was not sagacious. It appeared more like a strictw enforcer who followed certain rules of this world and nothing else. It did not punish people who obtained strength by cheating, nor did it reward those who worked hard. It only presented an obstacle to someone who was about to reach the path of truth as if this were a standardized process.

    Greya, as a truth-finder wizard, had no problem surpassing the obstacle.

    As she stepped over the ¡°finishing line¡±, the thundercloud instantly dispersed, and the pressure on everyone was also lifted.

    However, not everything reverted to their original conditions. There were still mes burning all around Phantom Ind. The omen hadpletely destroyed all beautiful sceneries on the ind, which otherwise made the ce look like a nature reserve.

    Such destion was what Angor saw when he managed to stand up on his trembling legs.

    And he suddenly felt a little sad.

    Then, he noticed that Sunders and Rein weren¡¯t moving at all after the crisis was gone. They were still gazing at Greya¡¯s soul quietly as if waiting for something else to happen.

    Angor followed their example and also looked toward where Greya was. But before he could notice anything of interest, he saw groups of small dots showing up from all directions¡ªwizards in Brute Cavern, who came to check on Phantom Ind as soon as the initial omen went away.

    Despite all the damage, Phantom Ind was still fully protected. No one could get inside without receiving Sunders¡¯ approval, so they could only stay at a distance and look at the ind from afar, with the exception of a young, barefoot witch, who casually floated into the boundary of Phantom Ind while carrying a tiny, crimson umbre.

    ¡°Professor, Mister Rein.¡± She slowlynded beside Sunders and looked at Angor, who was still sweating all over. ¡°Ohe on, you wet yourself so badly just because of some small energy flows? Your body¡¯s too squishy. I just got my hands on a bottle of Nightfiend Bloodline. You can borrow it!¡±

    Angor felt too weak, but he still forced up a smile. ¡°Please don¡¯t make fun of me, Miss Flora.¡±

    ¡°Nightfiend Bloodline is good stuff,¡± said Rein, ¡°and she¡¯s right about how your physical form is way too fragile. epting the bloodline will fix most of your problems.¡±

    Flora was a bit surprised to hear Rein Mute¡¯sment. It was supposed to be a joke because she knew Angor should find a bloodline from a nightmare monster. Now that Rein picked up her topic... she wasn¡¯t sure what to say next.

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re probably correct, Mister Rein. But I think you already know that Angor is a Nightmare Form. It¡¯s best if he seeks a bloodline in the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    ¡°Right, but that won¡¯t be easy.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye on it when searching for Greya¡¯s body.¡±

    Angor was d that Sunders helped him avoid more of Rein¡¯s attention, but he was very shocked to hear Sunders¡¯ n.

    He¡¯s searching for Lady Greya¡¯s body? As in, by going to the Nightmare Realm? Well, she did mention that her body was lost in that ce. So this is why she¡¯s been staying at Phantom Ind?

 Chapter 673 - Bounty of Truth

    <h4>Chapter 673: Bounty of Truth</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    This made a lot of sense. Greya¡¯s body was lost in the Nightmare Realm, while the only person in the entire southern region capable of helping her was undeniably Sunders. Greya might not like Sunders¡¯ character, but she would at least behave well on the outside, especially when she needed his assistance.

    This was probably why Greya had been following behind Sunders instead of going back to Candy House or looking for her workers.

    Angor knew that Sunders already decided to help Greya since Sunders allowed Greya to stay. Sunders even went to Sleepless City to get her out of trouble.

    The question was, when would they depart for their quest?

    Flora suddenly spoke and interrupted Angor¡¯s train of thoughts.

    ¡°Professor, did you help Greya with anything when she¡¯s at Phantom Ind?¡± Flora just arrived at Phantom Ind but she more or less knew what happened after looking around.

    ¡°Why do you think so?¡± Sunders gave Flora a sharp look.

    Flora froze up and remained silent.

    ¡°Heh. Do you think Sunders knows how to help a master gourmet wizard learn a new spell?¡± Reinmented. ¡°You¡¯re thinking too much. And you believe Sunders will provide such valuable help to an outsider rather than helping his own students?¡±

    Flora looked down. ¡°I apologize. I wasn¡¯t in my right mind.¡±

    Flora hoped she could travel back in time and take back that question. She was being too impulsive after seeing how Greya, who was sharing a foreign body with a foreign soul, made such great achievements, while she almost attained no progress ever since she became a wizard.

    Sunders was fully aware of Flora¡¯s mental condition. Flora grew even more anxious after learning about Sumesh¡¯s sess, and her unstable mindset would further prevent her from seeking the truth.

    Next, Sunders checked Angor, who was lost in thought.

    Sunders once considered allowing Flora to attempt ¡°reading¡± a manifestation of Mystery, but after seeing Flora like this, he knew Flora would never get past the challenge brought by the world¡¯s consciousness even if she learned something new from a manifestation.

    Just as Rein Mute said, the final challenge meant to stop unworthy people from proceeding. And right now, Flora was ¡°unworthy¡±.

    Telling her about the manifestations would harm her rather than helping. Sunders made up his mind that he would remind Angorter, that they should not let Flora know about the manifestations.

    There were more and more wizards gathering around Phantom Ind now. Angor believed he saw several familiar faces among them.

    ¡°Let them watch. They shall see how pathetic they are when a true genius is right here,¡± Rein scoffed.

    The onlooking wizards were entangled in a heated discussion right now. They could not get past the barrier protecting the ind, but the barrier did not prevent them from seeing Greya¡¯s soul floating in midair. They more or less knew what was going on after they sensed Greya¡¯s power of a truth-finder, as well as the reaction of Rein and Sunders.

    Someone was forging a new spell.

    More importantly, the world¡¯s consciousness was here to watch it happen.

    By this, an ordinary wizard would soon be qualified to challenge the path of truth, while the spell they created would be remembered and praised by others in the future toe.

    In the course of history, each time someone made a new spell, his or her name would be left in books for everyone to admire.

    ¡°Goddammit! I hope that was me!¡± Someone failed to conceal his jealousy. ¡°Why a freaking gourmet?!¡±

    ¡°Greya created a new spell at Phantom Ind? I smell something fishy. Should I tell this to reporters?¡±

    ¡°No, you don¡¯t. This is so humiliating if people know that an outsider did this inside Brute Cavern while we can only watch!¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t hide it anyway¡ªthere are tons of wizards sent by other organizations who are watching us,¡± Baroque said with a scornful look. ¡°Let¡¯s just be frank. Maybe some of us can steal some fame by providing first-hand info about Greya¡¯s new spell.¡±

    ¡°Quick, capture it with your transmitters! Someone recorded the moment when she created a spell at Hazy Waters and the price went insane. I bet this one is worth a lot of profit too! Argh sh*t, if only we can get a good spot inside the ind... I wonder if Mister Phantom or Miss Flora already did.¡±

    While the wizards talked to each other, Tree Spirit was looking at the ind while resting on a giant leaf. ¡°Why would Greya go for such a grand chance now? And here? Did she really run into something interesting at Sunders¡¯ ce?¡±

    A woman who was constantly releasing the energy of life around her sneered. ¡°If Sunders has something so wonderful, then why is Flora falling behind everyone? Besides, Mister Su-Sumesh wouldn¡¯t have gone to farawaynds to look for his destiny.¡±

    When mentioning Sumesh¡¯s name, the woman looked to one side as if she was embarrassed about something.

    Tree Spirit narrowed his eyes and smiled.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Maya was also checking Phantom Ind from afar so that she could discover the connection between Greya¡¯s sess and Angor. She always believed in Dodoro¡¯s prophecy, especially when it had something to do with Angor.

    But to her disappointment, she never managed to find such connections. All her attempts to look into the future ended up at Greya herself, which did not concern Angor¡¯s involvement at all.

    Confused, she asked Dodoro, ¡°Do you know what¡¯s going on?¡±

    Dodoro didn¡¯t reply, and Maya knew she had to give up since this innocent yet stubborn young man wouldn¡¯t satisfy her curiosity at all should he decide so.

    ¡°Fine. Whether Angor is behind this, it has nothing to do with us. Extra help won¡¯t help Greya push through the final obstacle.¡±

    Maya entered her tower and decided to put the matter aside.

    ...

    Inside The Tributary, Iron Granny was enjoying her tea in her mobile fortress again while a strange-looking old man who had floating symbols around him sat at the other side of the table. The symbols kept changing into differentnguages or marks, while the man¡¯s body was flickering as if he was a soul about to disappear at any moment.

    ¡°This is Morning Dew, given by a young friend I came across. The taste is good!¡± Iron Granny said as she pushed a teacup to the old man.

    Curious, the old man took a sip and sensed the gentle energy contained in the tea water.

    ¡°Morning Dew... such a peculiar drink.¡±

    He put down his cup and took out a piece of paper out of thin air before he began writing something on it.

    The name ¡°Morning Dew¡± was left among the iprehensible characters.

    He suddenly stopped and looked in another direction.

    The Tributary was a pocket dimension inside Brute Cavern. It was independent of the outside apart from the portal that served as its entrance. Yet the old man had no problem seeing what was happening on Phantom Ind.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Iron Granny looked in the same way and eximed, ¡°Oh my, people really need to work harder. They let an outsider beat them to it.¡±

    The old man chuckled. ¡°Not exactly.¡±

    ¡°Care to share your thoughts, Elder of Books?¡± Iron Granny picked up her cup and drank.

    ¡°I don¡¯t mean to be stingy. Truth is, there¡¯s not much I can tell you.¡±

    ...

    Greya had been staying still in the air for a long time. People were beginning to wonder whether the subsequent omen would continue.

    Flora decided to ask Sunders.

    ¡°When she did her thing at Hazy Waters, the omen caused by ¡®Artificial Life¡¯ persisted for hundreds of days, and the sweet seawater and winds were so easy to notice, but why isn¡¯t anything happening now?¡±

    What Flora mentioned was the ¡°reward¡± given by the world¡¯s consciousness after Greya passed the challenge. Wizards in history usually regarded it as the ¡°bounty of truth¡±, while people in recent centuries preferred using ¡°omen of creation¡±. This was simr to the debate revolving around the ¡°channeling method¡± and the ¡°meditation method¡±, which referred to the same thing.

    ¡°Modern¡± wizards tended to use more straightforward names.

    ¡°The nature of the reward will determine how it will appear in our view, but no matter what shows up, it will benefit Greya, the creator of the new spell. While to us, the omen is simply something fun to look at.

    ¡°For Artificial Life, the world¡¯s consciousness let her witness the future of gourmets. When I created ¡®Nightmare Substitute¡¯, it allowed me to experience the memory of a powerful Nightmare in my mind while there was almost nothing to see from the outside.¡±

    Flora tilted her head. ¡°You mean... Greya might be experiencing something in her mind right now?¡±

    Sunders shrugged. ¡°We can¡¯t say yet. Nobody can. Just keep watching.¡±

    As if to prove his point, something on Greya suddenly changed.

 Chapter 674 - Life and Creation

    <h4>Chapter 674: Life and Creation</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    To be more precise, Greya¡¯s soul was changing.

    Puffs of mist were showing up from her soul, which slowly joined the clouds nearby. The area around her slowly became blurry... until different sceneries were seen.

    Green saplings thriving for life, colorful fowls chasing each other, ferocious beasts napping in peace, and giant whales falling and providing nutrients to new lives...

    Everything was short-lived and brief. Different sights showed up and vanished rapidly.

    ¡°This is it?¡± Flora muttered, ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like a big deal.¡±

    The strange sight appeared simr to elementary illusions. Flora knew she could easily create such illusions in the blink of an eye.

    Sunders had been watching the ¡°illusions¡± with a frown.

    His pupils suddenly constricted as he called out, ¡°Wait... those are not illusions.¡±

    Flora and Angor quickly checked again. Just as Sunders said, as long as something shown inside the ¡°illusions¡± did not fade away yet, they looked realistic enough. The nts were beaming with life, and the animals had such bright eyes that they didn¡¯t appear to be someone¡¯s imagination at all.

    As an apprentice illusionist, Angor quickly noticed the difference between what he saw and actual illusions.

    <i>The professor is right. There¡¯s no illusion. They¡¯re as good as real! But why would they disappear then? Something solid can¡¯t just vanish without leaving any traces behind!</i>

    ¡°Is-is this the ¡®reward¡¯ given by the world¡¯s consciousness?¡± Angor was not sure what he was looking at. ¡°It feels so strange.¡±

    1While different sceneries surrounded her, Greya also put on different expressions as if she was trying to read something difficult.

    ¡°So Greya IS receiving wisdom in her mind, while the weird sights in the outside world mean nothing to us,¡± said Flora.

    The wizards outside Phantom Ind reached a simr conclusion. There was no point in recording something they couldn¡¯t use.

    ¡°Nothing?¡± Rein scoffed after hearing Flora¡¯s words. ¡°It¡¯s far from that. Greya is such a resolute wizard... am I right, Sunders?¡±

    Sunders nodded without looking away from the omen. ¡°This tells us that Greya did not change her way. She kept going down the challenging path of ¡®creation¡¯ and persisted. She even seeded in the end... Such unyielding determination.¡±

    Sunders silently congratted Greya. In fact, he wasn¡¯t confident that he would make such a difficult choice if he were in Greya¡¯s shoes.

    Wizards who attempted the way of creation all knew how demanding it was. Nine out of ten wizards who pursued creation would buckle under the final challenge, while those who made it would probably find a new destination afterward. It was beyond impressive that a gourmet wizard resolved to such a path that was likely to waste most of her life.

    ¡°There¡¯s a reason why Greya is believed to be the most promising leader of all gourmet wizards.¡± Rein also gave Greya the look of approval. ¡°After this, it won¡¯t be long for her restaurant to regain its former glory, and we¡¯ll be seeing her enemies as well as the fools who took advantage of her absenceing and begging for mercy.¡±

    Once Greya¡¯s newly-gained strength was acknowledged, she no longer needed to look for her lost employees herself¡ªpeople would send them back.

    Strength meant everything in this world.

    ¡°But she still needs my professor¡¯s help to get her body back,¡± Flora mumbled.

    Rein didn¡¯t say anything about Flora¡¯s problematic speech, while Sunders only shook his head silently. Also, Sunders was wondering why Flora was acting so strangely. Was Sumesh¡¯s sess enough to bother her so much?

    Greya slowly opened her eyes in the sky. At the same time, the wondrous sight around her all came to an end.

    She looked down at Sunders¡¯ mansion, and after ignoring Rein, Sunders, and Flora, she rested her gaze upon Angor.

    Then she showed a gentle smile, or at least it was supposed to look friendly. However, Greya¡¯s soul was showing her true, original look of a giant and meaty woman with scary me-red lipstick. Her smile only caused Angor to flinch.

    Next, she looked around the tattered shape of Phantom Ind. She felt terrible since she asked for Sunders¡¯ help, and yet she destroyed the gentleman¡¯s home.

    After making another decision, she unleashed what remained of the ¡°reward¡± from her finger, which slowly sunk into the ind below.

    She was nning to use the gift bestowed by the world¡¯s consciousness all to herself. But she changed her mind.

    The energy removed scorched earth and burnt corpses and gave birth to new seedlings and more life.

    Wherever she pointed to, the ground turned green and the whelps of beasts hopped around. Broken stones were once again covered in moss. Trees that survived the crisis grew new branches...

    The wonderful sight astounded all observers. While it was true that Wood Elementalists knew how to make trees grow, what Greya did was different¡ªshe resuscitated trees and beasts alike while creating new lifeforms out of nothing.

    Galloping deer, shiny, silver-scale fish bouncing in the water, fantastic birds that filled the empty sky... These creatures weren¡¯t there just a second ago!

    Even if these were onlymon animals, they suggested that Greya had gained a brand new level at the way of creation.

    Rein watched Greya¡¯s amazing art and kept nodding in admiration.

    Sunders looked as amazed as Rein. ¡°It must be the world¡¯s consciousness that gave her such power.¡±

    ¡°No doubt,¡± said Rein, ¡°even legendaries cannot create a life with such ease. Greya must have gained unbelievable wisdom about ¡®creation¡¯ to wield such power.¡±

    Soon enough, Greya restored the broken ind to its former splendor, if not better, all by moving an arm around.

    Several wizards outside the ind sighed in relief, for they did not stop their transmitters from recording the brilliant sight. There were bound to be people who would pay dearly to buy their ¡°evidence¡±.

    Apart from profit hunters, there were also wizards who noticed another interesting detail¡ªwhy did Greya give Angor that smile? It looked as if she was grateful for something.

    Many people knew that Greya and Angor were friends in a sense, but that didn¡¯t exin why Greya was interested in Angor only whilepletely ignoring Rein Mute and Sunders.

    While most people did not think too much about this, there were some who kept this clue in mind, such as Maya, who was d to notice that Greya¡¯s achievement was rted to Angor after all.

    There was also ¡°Magus¡± Shildeen, who cast a curious nce at Angor as his eyes showed a signifying gleam.

    ...

    Greya felt rather tired after ¡°repairing¡± Phantom Ind. However, she had to fully spend the remaining energy given by the world¡¯s consciousness, or it would go to waste.

    About 40% of the energy remained after tending to the ind. After looking around to find a target to use the energy on, Greya fixed her attention on the flower house that housed the Krakoks.

    She then sent a voice transmission to Angor, ¡°Guess I¡¯ll give you a small gift, boy.¡±

    The other wizards could not notice her message from afar, but Rein did.

    Once again, Rein looked at Angor in great interest. He knew Greya told the Angor something, but he could not read it.

    However, Greya addressing Angor twice was enough to suggest that the boy held some kind of secret. Rein wasn¡¯t going to ask, as it would make him appear as an eavesdropper.

    To his surprise, Flora helped him by asking a question, ¡°Hey, Angor, what are you two talking about in that voice transmission?¡±

    ¡°As far as I know, the purpose of voice transmission is NOT for sharing. Be careful with what you ask, Flora,¡± Sunders scolded.

    Flora was taken aback as she didn¡¯t expect her professor to give her a serious warning. While It was true that peeking into someone¡¯s voice transmission was impolite, it was not a severe offense unless the transmission involved critical secrets or people of authority. She didn¡¯t believe Angor was such a case.

    But she had to give up since Sunders meant to stop her.

    Meanwhile, Rein Mute found it more and more worthwhile to keep an eye on Angor.

    <i>No...</i> Rein thought to himself while pretending that he was still watching Greya. <i>Sunders was never the type to guard his students so intently. Did Angor really y a part in Greya¡¯s achievement? She must have received some help. It is nearly impossible to create spells without her true body.</i>

    <i>But what could Angor possibly help her with?</i>

    He gave up thinking after a while¡ªhe still knew too little about Angor.

    But he would keep Angor¡¯s name in his mind from now on.

 Chapter 675 - Greyaâ€™s Choice

    <h4>Chapter 675: Greya¡¯s Choice</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When Greya pointed a finger at the flower house below her, a golden seedling broke the earth and grew into a towering tree almost instantly, filling the entire area with a pleasant aroma.

    Next, Greya intentionally sent a small breeze toward Sunders¡¯ mansion, allowing everyone on the balcony to smell it.

    ¡°This is...¡± Flora sniffed around her in confusion.

    While Sunders shook his head and chuckled.

    ¡°This is milk,¡± Rein frowned as he spoke, ¡°and it came from that tree. But what does Greya want to do?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s beyond me.¡± Sunders sounded rather cheerful for some reason. ¡°Perhaps another trick to show off her art of creation.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Well, makes sense. As a gourmet wizard, she created a tree that produces foodstuff...¡±

    While they talked, Angor was looking at the floor in great embarrassment.

    <i>THAT is Greya¡¯s gift to me? It¡¯s... wonderful!</i>

    He carefully took another sniff and almost drooled.

    After finishing her ¡°golden milk tree¡±, Greya descended from the sky and used a long fingernail to leave a small cut on the tree bark, where some bright yellow milk leaked from it.

    She licked at her finger and slowly went over the taste.

    <i>Hmm... this is pretty good, but there¡¯s no sweetness in it. I wonder if Angor will like it?</i>

    She considered and ¡°nted¡± a small patch of white flowers below the tree, which gave out enough sweet smell to go with the ¡°milk tree¡±.

    <i>Ah... that¡¯s better.</i>

    Greya felt the ¡°reward¡± she received almost spent after all the work she did, but she did not regret her decision. The extra energy given by the world¡¯s consciousness meant to allow her to peek into the future of ¡°Birth¡± in advance. As long as she worked harder from now on, she would be able to wield the amazing art by herself.

    She wanted to thank Angor by smiling at him again¡ªshe managed to tackle the major obstacle of her challenge because of this boy.

    Without the ¡°manifestation of Mystery¡±, she might need to spend a few more decades to find her chance. For this, Greya made up her mind that she would never forget about the timely assistance provided by Angor.

    However, she didn¡¯t get to look at Angor before Sunders moved and obstructed her view.

    Sunders narrowed his eyes at Greya.

    Greya wasn¡¯t sure what Sunders meant by this until she saw Rein Mute as well as many wizards around the ind still watching her.

    Angor knew how to help wizards create new spells and challenge the path of truth. If this secret got out, Sunders wouldn¡¯t be able to fully protect Angor even if he tried his best.

    Well, unless Sunders put Angor somewhere absolutely safe; in other words, to imprison Angor.

    This meantpletely denying Angor¡¯s future.

    In order not to rely on such an adverse method, they had to eliminate any potential danger before it could spread.

    Sunders¡¯ threatening look had told Greya that she and Sunders were the only ones who knew about Angor¡¯s ¡°manifestations¡±. Sunders meant to remind Greya of what she should do.

    Greya quickly shifted her look toward Rein Mute and pretended that she meant to speak to him.

    ¡°Mister Rein, as you can see, I¡¯m not in the right condition to greet you right now. Once I¡¯ve fully mastered what I gained today, I¡¯ll find the time and pay you a proper visit.¡±

    It was mostly true since Greya did need more time to digest her ¡°trophy¡±.

    Rein nodded and watched Greya leave without saying anything else.

    Slowly, Greya floated back into her hut with aplicated mindset. She then gazed at the Twinning Wings on her desk and sighed.

    She did not have much time thinking about Angor¡¯s matter after emerging victorious from her challenge. Now that she had more time to herself, she wasn¡¯t sure how to deal with her rtionship with Angor anymore.

    It was natural for Sunders to protect Angor as his teacher. However, Greya was not a member of Brute Cavern. Her own benefit was still the biggest factor she had to consider. She needed to decide how to approach Angor and Angor¡¯s secret from now on, in order to maximize her gain.

    Should she act a little more aggressively? Or keep it peaceful like how she did until now?

    After some struggle of mind, Greya decided to maintain the current footing for now. She had been on good terms with Angor, and Toby was the most important ¡°bond¡± that connected them. Using reckless plots would easily cause Angor to alienate her, and in worst scenarios, put Toby into a bad position.

    After receiving such great help from Angor,bined with the fact that she still needed Sunders¡¯ help, Greya didn¡¯t find it necessary to hesitate about this matter.

    She already put a lot of trust in Angor, and Angor had been diligently proving his value. There was no point in harming Angor right now.

    With this decided, Greya considered herself as Angor¡¯s ally and tried to think of ways to protect Angor better.

    First and foremost, nobody, including Greya¡¯s organization¡ªCandy House¡ªshould ever learn about Angor¡¯s secret ability.

    Also, there were bound to be wizards who noticed how shemunicated with Angor as soon as shepleted her challenge. She had to think of an excuse for this.

    Soon, a n was made.

    ¡°Telling lies will only bring more lies I have to cover up. Might as well be straightforward.¡±

    She knew what she should tell Rein Mute now, should they talk about the incident today.

    But she still had more questions.

    <i>What is that strange presence hidden inside Angor¡¯s illusion?</i>

    She could tell that the sense of Mystery was the key that helped her finallyplete the ¡°Birth¡± spell. Yet she didn¡¯t believe it could help wizards freely discover new spells without any restrictions or drawbacks.

    She had to find the time and talk to Angor and Sunders about this.

    With these future ns set, she immediately went into her soundproof chamber to carefully remember what she had learned from the challenge. It would be disastrous if any of the wisdom slipped from her mind.

    ...

    While Greya cultivated her mind quietly, the sky around Phantom Ind was getting even more crowded as more wizards and even apprentices were attracted here, who loudly talked about their own ideas.

    ¡°I saw Phantom Ind gettingpletely burned up, but it suddenly recovered. That was unbelievable!¡±

    ¡°Is Mister Phantom testing a new illusion?¡±

    ¡°That can¡¯t be. Why are so many wizards interested in an illusion? Miss Neon almost died back there if Mister Tree Spirit wasn¡¯t there to rescue her. There must be some big thing we don¡¯t know.¡±

    Nobody cared about the random guesses of these apprentices.

    They did not show it, but the wizards were also trying to figure out what exactly Greya did to cause such arge-scale omen and summon the world¡¯s consciousness.

    More importantly, why did Greya stay at Phantom Ind these days?

    Only a small number of wizards questioned Angor¡¯s involvement in the incident, and when nobody could offer useful opinions, this detail was soon neglected.

    Rein suddenly spoke to the wizards, ¡°Stop assuming things. I¡¯m the one who allowed Greya to stay. As for her new spell, don¡¯t think too much about it. It¡¯s her freedom to choose where to ept the challenge of truth. Maybe she saw something on Phantom Ind that inspired her.

    ¡°Also, she promised that she will tell me about her spell once she¡¯s done finishing up, so you all stop worrying. For now, I can tell you that her spell is rted to the way of creation.¡± Rein failed to hide the look of admiration while speaking, ¡°Greya is a true genius. Show some respect.¡±

    Rein¡¯s words solved most of the questions that were troubling the other wizards. They all agreed to wait for Greya¡¯s exnation.

    Seeing the crowds leaving, Rein also prepared to depart.

    ¡°I chose a good time to visit you, Sunders. I¡¯m very d I got to witness the whole miracle.¡±

    Sunders smiled but didn¡¯t reply.

    ¡°About what I told you earlier...¡± Rein continued, ¡°Think carefully. It¡¯s THE Abyss ne. You can never be too careful.¡±

    Sunders nodded. ¡°Danae will probably unite the other organizations using pretty words and make the move at the most critical moment. I don¡¯t expect her to have better ns than that.¡±

    ¡°d you know. Don¡¯t forget toe and talk to me before leaving for the Abyss.¡±

    Rein turned away.

    When walking past Angor¡¯s position, he showed a slight smile at Angor and flew away.

 Chapter 676 - Accepting the Crystal

    <h4>Chapter 676: epting the Crystal</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor watched the mighty wizard leave Phantom Ind with a confused expression.

    That smile looked a bit suggestive, as if Rein Mute was intentionally implying something, but what?

    ¡°How long are you going to stare?¡±

    Angor recovered from his thoughts when Sunders put a hand on his shoulder.

    ¡°Quit worrying about random things. Now move,e to my study.¡±

    Angor quickly followed behind Sunders¡¯ steps while looking around. It seemed that Flora had also left them when he was lost in thought.

    Sunders remained silent along their way and spoke until they reached the study, ¡°We shall talk about Greya inside the Gravity Gardenter. Meanwhile, you shall wait here as I need to do something first.¡±

    Sunders went to his desk and swiftly wrote something on a piece of paper. He used a nightmare illusion to ¡°encrypt¡± the message into strange symbols. He then aimed the note at a window before casting a spell to teleport it away.

    ¡°Are you still concerned about what Greya did?¡± Sunders looked at Angor again.

    Angor shook his head and exined Rein¡¯s strange smile that was directed at him.

    Sunders took a moment to consider.

    ¡°Wizards at that level will naturally base their judgments on possible gains and losses. He might have questions about you, but this is not important, as wizards always have endless questions. No matter what he thinks about you, you should not burden yourself since you can¡¯t change his mind.¡±

    Angor knew what Sunders meant, but he still felt terrible because that smile was like a stubborn mark left in his mind, which kept haunting him.

    Sunders lifted a hand and pointed at Angor¡¯s forehead.

    Angor felt a refreshing power slowly wrapping up his entire head, eliminating all the uneasiness bugging him.

    ¡°You should forget about Mister Rein. The message I sent earlier is for Greya. She¡¯ll know what to do.¡±

    ...

    Sunders took Angor into Gravity Garden.

    This was a small, independent world that could prevent most detection methods used by wizards. To make sure that Angor¡¯s secret stayed between them, Sunders would take Angor into the garden every time they needed to speak of the matter.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay now,¡± said Sunders, ¡°so what did Greya tell you by that voice transmission?¡±

    ¡°She said she wanted to give me a gift.¡±

    ¡°A gift? That golden tree that produces milk? Huh... I more or less guessed so, since you... ahem. But I don¡¯t think Greya gave you that tree for no reason. She¡¯s repaying you for something. And this ¡®something¡¯ is probably what helped her achieve her goal.¡±

    ¡°The manifestation,¡± they both agreed.

    Sunders took a seat and knuckled his desk. ¡°Greya has been spending most of her time inside your illusion. She can¡¯t possibly work on her new spell in there, which means she discovered the manifestation on Mysterious Mountain.¡±

    Angor asked a question he had been wondering for some time, ¡°Professor, did the manifestation really teach her a new spell?¡±

    ¡°Teach? That¡¯s nonsense. You don¡¯t get new spells so conveniently.¡±

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t because of the manifestation?¡± Angor suddenly felt relieved.

    ¡°Greya has been working on the path of creation for a long time. Your manifestation can¡¯t give her all she needs all of a sudden. For decades, she worked on her second new spell but never seeded. But this didn¡¯t mean she was treading in the same ce. Her sess today was mainly brought by all the time and effort she paid. As for the manifestation you gave her... it only yed a small part.¡±

    Angor breathed a sigh of relief.

    Sunders sneered. ¡°A small part, maybe. But sometimes, this ¡®small part¡¯ is more valuable than all the remaining factorsbined together. Don¡¯t let your guard down yet. Should any outsiders learn about your manifestation, you¡¯re never going to enjoy peace for the rest of your life.¡±

    Angor understood those words¡ªif his manifestation worked as the ¡°final push¡± for creating new spells, this would attract very dangerous attention to him.

    ¡°As for how exactly the manifestation helped Greya and how much she gained from it, we shall wait until Greya finishes up whatever she is doing and tells us,¡± said Sunders. ¡°This is vital, so I¡¯ll tell you again. Do NOT mention the manifestation of Mystery to anyone before you reach the level of a truth-finder wizard.¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Especially Flora. Make sure you keep this from her.¡±

    ¡°Er, I can¡¯t even tell Miss Flora about this?¡±

    ¡°If she knows about this convenient tool, then she will never focus on her own rightful path. The extra help will cause her to stray until she loses all hope of finding the path of truth. It does her more harm than good.¡±

    When Sunders ¡°learned¡± Wither from Angor¡¯s manifestation, he could feel that the knowledge of this cantrip came into his mind all of a sudden. There was no forewarning, and he did not need any work beforehand to know the cantrip

    The cantrip was not his own, it was alien. Learning cantrips or spells in this way greatly contradicted the way of truth.

    Sunders didn¡¯t wish to see Flora getting new spells without knowing what she was doing.

    ¡°I understand, sir,¡± Angor acknowledged with a serious look.

    ¡°Dear me...¡± Sunders frowned as he shook his head. ¡°These manifestations you <i>handily</i> made possible will only cause more problemster. While you can¡¯t see them now, they will slowly haunt you in many different ways.¡±

    Despite his words, Sunders was d that Angor was able to create these wonderful manifestations rather than worried. He was Angor¡¯s teacher, and what Angor contributed would also benefit him greatly.

    Also because he was Angor¡¯s teacher, he had to help Angor deal with all the ¡°mess¡± no matter how burdensome that might be.

    ¡°Essentially speaking, you¡¯re racing against time. All problems are solved if you can outrun the shady ws that are trying to reach you. And if you fail... you¡¯ll end up in a birdcage.¡±

    Angor knew Sunders was urging him to grow strong as fast as he could. As long as he had enough strength to protect himself, having his secrets being exposed wouldn¡¯t be too much of a big issue. Otherwise, someone would im him sooner orter.

    While he was always causing trouble by creating all sorts of surprises, he still knew what he should do and what not to do, unlike Flora, who tended to lose her cool a lot.

    Sunders was rather satisfied to see Angor¡¯s eyes showing great determination.

    ¡°That¡¯s about all. Let¡¯s talk about the crystal next,¡± Sunders said when he saw Angor looking at him again. ¡°What¡¯s your next n?¡±

    Angor took out the said crystal from his bracelet. ¡°I¡¯ll attempt to use it.¡±

    Sunders neither agreed or disapproved of Angor¡¯s decision. ¡°If the crystal does help you learn Soul Link... then yes, you should. We only need to see whether it directly transfers the power to you, which will save you numerous time, or only tells you how to learn the skill, which is... better than nothing. However, be very careful if the power inside the crystal turns out to be something else. But this is very unlikely.

    ¡°Alright, do it now if you would. I¡¯ll stay here and watch over you.¡±

    Angor nodded and readied the crystal in his hand.

    Just as Sunders said, if everything went in his favor, using the crystal would allow him to directly gain a skill that would otherwise take him decades to learn. Besides, as far as they could see, nothing too bad could happen.

    There was no reason to give up a great opportunity.

    ording to the results gained through Narda¡¯s Vision, Angor simply had to press the crystal against his forehead and connect his spirit to it...

 Chapter 677 - Permanent Spell Model

    <h4>Chapter 677: Permanent Spell Model</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The crystal suddenly melted into a beam of light, which sunk into Angor¡¯s forehead.

    At the same time, Angor closed his eyes as he felt boundless intelligence and soul energy entering his mind. The wisdom appeared as fascinating images that fully grasped Angor¡¯s attention.

    In Sunders¡¯ view, Angor had entered aa-like condition during which Angor¡¯s body was submerged inside the energy of an unknownw. He went to make sure that Angor was ¡°reading¡± the energy, which would probably take some time, and sat back down.

    Next, he ced the five demon falcon statues made by Angor onto his desk.

    For now, Sunders did not see any risk from Angor¡¯s attempt, so he decided to use the extra time to examine these statues.

    Checking Angor¡¯s statues already fell behind his original schedule since he needed time to mend his wounds. He knew these new statues had more ¡°manifestations of Mystery¡± inside, and he couldn¡¯t wait to see them as soon as possible. In fact, Sunders just realized that he had not suffered from such intolerable eagerness for some time, which only grew worse after he witnessed how Greya challenged a new spell with the help of Angor¡¯s manifestation.

    <i>I wonder... Can I find yet another spell or cantrip like ¡°Wither¡±? There should be rules or principles that govern such a process. What are they?</i>

    With his mind almost bloating with curiosity, Sunders began his test.

    While Angor was enjoying an unknown soul sequence on his end, the area around Sunders was slowly covered by mist.

    In absolute silence, time went by.

    Each time Sunders finished checking a statue, he would take some time to take notes before proceeding to the next one.

    After he left thest illusion, Sunders rested his head on a hand and fell into his own thoughts.

    This was what Angor saw when he opened his eyes¡ªSunders acting like ¡°The Thinker¡±.

    Without bothering his teacher, Angor closed his eyes again to go over the great legacy he just epted with a bright smile.

    The crystal presented no drawbacks to him. Instead, he gained the best possible result¡ªthe crystal contained all he needed to fully use Soul Link.

    This was not all. The crystal even created the spell model of Soul Link for him and then made it permanent. This meant Angor did not need time to study the spell starting from zero, which usually took other wizards decades.

    The permanent spell model brought by the crystal did not take up any spell slot, and it could constantly provide its full effect to Angor as long as the model did not break for some reason.

    As long as it existed in Angor¡¯s mindspace, the connection between his soul space and mindspace would persist. In other words, he could freely cast illusions and cantrips in his soul form.

    But he just found a problem.

    The model was not built using mana at all.

    Asmon sense, models for both cantrips and spells were constructed using one¡¯s mana, which was taken from their mana pool. However, Angor was sure that the new model in his mindspace was made by something he didn¡¯t recognize.

    He tried de-constructing the model, but it turned into faint particles that he could not sense. However, he could still order the particles to gather up and be the spell model again if he wished to.

    <i>Is this a different type of energy? Or is it energy at all?</i>

    ¡°I take it you found something nice?¡±

    Sunders saw Angor¡¯s big smile and came. It seemed the gentleman finished whatever he was thinking about.

    ¡°So the crystal is Soul Link alter all?¡± Sunders knew about this spell, so he easily noticed the energy signatureing from Angor. ¡°You epted the spell directly without the need to study it slowly?¡±

    ¡°Yes, professor. The crystal even left a permanent spell model for it in my mind. But... I think something¡¯s wrong with it.¡±

    Angor exined what he found about the strange model.

    ¡°The model is not made of mana? It should definitely happen since you don¡¯t have nearly enough mana to support the model of a real spell, even if it¡¯s only a level-1 spell.¡± Sunders chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. If my assumption is right, this was made possible by a certainw sequence.¡±

    ¡°Sequences can show up as small particles?¡±

    ¡°Just think. What¡¯s the first thing thates to your mind when you find a new power that popped up inside you without costing you anything? Aw sequence, just like your sequence of gravity. While your gravity sequence stayed inside you as gray fog, this new one turned out as the grains you sensed.¡±

    Angor still looked puzzled as if he wasn¡¯t sure whether the oue was favorable.

    ¡°Cut that out. You now have TWO powerful sequences, and you¡¯re not even a wizard yet. You should be grateful for that. Such a gift is extremely valuable to wizards or truth-finders alike. Don¡¯t tell this to anyone, or they will probably burn you alive using pure jealousy.¡±

    Angor chortled in a silly way.

    He quickly tried to test Soul Link by ejecting his soul. As expected, he could feel his body just fine after separating his soul from his body and moving far apart.

    His mindspace, his mana pool, and the ¡°vortex¡±, which was still absorbing primal mana from the air... He could sense everything.

    He tried to channel mana from afar and seeded without any trouble. The only problem was that he could not ¡°remote meditate¡±. This meant he could not recover mana without going back to his body.

    While still in soul form, he built the model for ¡°Create Water¡±, and a water sphere materialized above his hand.

    He did more tests and was d to know that all of his cantrips as well as Nightmare Domain all worked out well. He was confident that his strength just reached a whole other level since he could wield nightmare illusions, superior speed, and various cantrips at the same time.

    Something in his mind clicked in the wrong way, which caused him to say a phrase he soon regretted.

    ¡°Professor, let¡¯s test this out in a fight!¡±

    Sunders was surprised by the suggestion, but just a little.

    ¡°Of course.¡± The gentlemen tightened a button on his shirt and smiled.

    ...

    One minuteter, Sunders tossed Angor¡¯s tattered soul back into his body. Everything Angor had¡ªhis soul energy, gravity energy, and mana reserve¡ªwas almost depleted.

    ¡°Not bad.¡± Sunders put on his white gloves again and smoothed his sleeves. ¡°I¡¯m d you offered yourself as a punching bag after irritating me so many times today. Now I feel a lot better.¡±

    In contrast to Sunders¡¯ cheerful look, Angor sat up slowly and felt like crying.

    That was the worst decision he had ever made. His blind confidence backfired as Sunders yed him around the fingers like a toy.

    ¡°I meant it¡ªyou¡¯re pretty good atbat now. You know, even some wizards cannot stay well under my attacks for a full minute.¡±

    Thement sounded genuine enough, yet Angor didn¡¯t feel any better since he knew that Sunders never fought him for real. Sunders never used any magical attacks. All he did was punching and kicking physically. And it hurt like hell, physically.

    Angor got a feeling that his professor intentionally relied on fists and boots only so that he, the ¡°punching bag¡±, worked as intended for a minute. Otherwise, any of the gentleman¡¯s spells would destroy him in an instant.

    ¡°You don¡¯t believe me?¡± Sunders saw Angor still sulking and raised an eyebrow. ¡°Yes, I was going easy on you, but I didn¡¯t overestimate your strength. As long as you maximize the potential of your gravity power and nightmare illusions, you CAN damage wizards, if luck favors you.¡±

    Sunders meant to say that, if everything went well, Angor might hurt a wizard enough so that he could find a chance to escape. As for killing wizards... that was pretty much impossible. As history had proved so far, the decisive strength gap between wizards and apprentices could not be crossed.

 Chapter 678 - Project: Manifestation

    <h4>Chapter 678: Project: Manifestation</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    A green energy beam was gently caressing Angor¡¯s wounds.

    The level-1 spell used by Sunders¡ªResuscitation¡ªmended all damage left on Angor¡¯s body and soul almost instantly. However, he still needed time and more meditation to recover mana and soul energy.

    Angor still looked depressed, but he was in better shape now. A lot better.

    Without waiting for his student to enjoy the regained vigor, Sunders lectured him, ¡°While it is true that Soul Link will greatly improve your strength, try not to use cantrips in your soul form unless it¡¯s necessary.¡±

    Unleashing mana from one¡¯s soul would temporarily make it vulnerable to foreign or even hostile mana in the environment, which would in turn dangerously burden their soul. The intelligence in the crystal also told Angor as much.

    Angor acknowledged the suggestion with a nod.

    ¡°Since the crystal gave you enough knowledge, then there¡¯s not much I need to tell you. Just be very careful.¡± Sunders returned to his writing desk. ¡°Sigh... Thankfully, I¡¯m no longer in the right age to envy other people. What you just gained under an hour is an extremely effective means of escaping from danger, which took me nearly 30 years to fully learn.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t respond, but he wasining in his mind. <i>Then why did you almost beat me to a pulp back there?</i>

    On the outside, he maintained the modest look of a loyal student perfectly so that he wouldn¡¯t receive more beating.

    Sunders had been keeping his full attention on Angor¡¯s face, and he felt rather happy when he saw the boy trying very hard to stop those twitching eyebrows.

    He was so satisfied with the ¡°lesson¡± he gave Angor just now that he didn¡¯t feel so bad when thinking about the spotted puppy, which he failed to capture.

    ¡°We should forget about that dog for the moment. Sleepless City has turned into a real forbidden zone. Those who get inside can never get out again. That animal probably went back to the Nightmare Realm. Should we run into it again... we¡¯ll decide what to do then.¡±

    Angor nodded and stood up from where he was sitting.

    Compared to Sunders, he wouldn¡¯t want to capture Spotty by force since it helped him many times in Sleepless City. He got to save Nausica and escape in the end, all thanks to Spotty.

    And it was not like he could catch Spotty if he wanted since the creature could slip from Sunders easily.

    He stretched his sore limbs a little and noticed that the five demon falcon statues were ced on Sunders¡¯ desk. He was sure they weren¡¯t there when they just entered the Gravity Garden.

    ¡°Sir, did you find the manifestations in them already?¡± Angor pointed to the items with a curious look.

    ¡°I did, and I¡¯ve finished noting down the results of my examination. Here, you can take a look.¡±

    Angor epted a pile of papers from his professor.

    The first thing he saw was the title of a new subject: <i>How To Set Off Manifestations Of Mystery</i>

    Like always, Sunders arranged the content of his research in an orderly manner. He also left Angor¡¯s name on the paper as a ¡°coordinator¡±.

    The project contained an extensive range of discussions, such as Angor¡¯s theory regarding the factors that affected the duration of a triggered manifestation. Here, Sunders mathematically re-performed the calctions and even came up with several equations used for working out different durations.

    Next, Sunders recorded the different results he observed from Angor¡¯s illusions and inferred their connections with each other as well as how certain known theories could be used in this case.

    The report had taken all possible aspects into ount. Angor felt a bit ashamed to see that his professor created such grand andprehensive work just by looking at five illusions, whereas he only reached some minimal ideas after looking through dozens of them.

    Sunders left his current summary at the end of the report¡ª¡±Insufficient samples did not provide enough types of manifestations. No definite conclusion is presently avable.¡±

    ¡°You mentioned that the manifestations can appear as gas, animals, or natural elements. I saw none of these cases in your statues, so... we need more testster. And there¡¯s the ¡®theoretical concept¡¯, which we also need to look at.

    ¡°Build more illusion items if you have time. Tell Goode if you need materials. I can only find more useful information by seeing enough samples.¡±

    Angor considered. ¡°I think I¡¯m free these days, apart from the n to test my Prelude to Rebirth.¡±

    ¡°Then you should definitely get to it. I¡¯ll remain at Brute Cavern for about one month before departing for a mission, and I hope we can finish the project before then.¡±

    Sunders was lost in thought again when he pondered over hising task, which required him to go to the Abyss ne.

    ¡°What about Lady Greya?¡±

    Angor knew that Sunders needed to help Greya retrieve her body from the Nightmare Realm, and it seemed pretty urgent too. Was his professor going to enter the Nightmare Realm again when that giant scar had not healed yet?

    ording to Greya, her body was probably being watched by a legendary monster. Angor grew a bit anxious when thinking about this.

    ¡°Are you going to help Lady Greya this month, sir?¡±

    ¡°That... can wait until I return from Abyss ne, actually.¡±

    Angor felt a little bit relieved. ¡°Will Lady Greya follow you on your quest?¡±

    ¡°No, she won¡¯t. Because of Mister Monkey¡¯s grand n that might provoke a Grand Demon, wizards have enough trouble avoiding that ce, let alone going there.¡±

    Monkey invited many wizards to join him on his mission, such as Ness. When Ness ¡°wasted¡± a huge amount of his power on Angor, he did not me Angor too much because it was a good excuse to reject Monkey¡¯s request.

    Then there was Greya. As a master gourmet wizard, she was very likely to receive an invitation or even a dictatorial order from Monkey as well, if she were not missing in the Nightmare Realm. Greya did not stay with Felicia because of the same reason¡ªshe would like to avoid Monkey¡¯s attention.

    No one would go to the Abyss ne in such a situation, apart from certain wizards who would take any risk for profit.

    ¡°Um, is Lady Greya going back to Candy House then?¡± Angor would like to know why Greya followed Sunders all the way here if they would not go to the Nightmare Realm any time soon.

    ¡°She will use Brute Cavern as her temporary shelter since her condition is not fit for long travels. Here, Mister Rein will protect her. This shouldn¡¯t be your concern since Greya will not harm you in any way. However, you should avoid her nheless after what happened today, because people will keep their eyes on her.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡± Angor nodded and decided to keep talking about their research. ¡°Professor, you didn¡¯t learn any new spells from the five illusions, right? I didn¡¯t see anything like that on your paper.¡±

    Sunders showed a weird look. ¡°There was one cantrip. But...¡±

    Sunders put a hand on his desk, and as Angor watched in confusion, the desk suddenly grewrger.

    ¡°See for yourself. This is a level-2 cantrip, I¡¯ll call it... ¡®Erge¡¯ for the time being. As you can see, it makes things bigger. But it only works onmon objects without special properties. There are restrictions as to howrge an item can get, or how long the effect willst.¡±

    Sunders chuckled and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sure your manifestations show uspletely random wisdom. And you have to have enough knowledge first, or you won¡¯t learn anything at all.¡±

    Angor agreed. When experiencing the manifestations, he felt somewhat enlightened but could never tell what exactly he gained from them.

    Also, this had told them that readily studying spells from the manifestations was almost impossible since someone erudite like Sunders could only find cantrips from them that were almost useless.

    However, a well-prepared wizard might receive enough assistance to finally create a new spell on their own, as shown in Greya¡¯s case.

    ¡°Just like thest time, I can¡¯t make sure whether the cantrip really belongs to me, or if it was simply a prank,¡± said Sunders as he shook his head again. ¡°I still have a lot of questions about getting new cantrips. I¡¯ll perform further assessment when you bring me more samples.¡±

    Next, Angor took about half an hour to fully read Sunders¡¯ research papers, while Sunders patiently answered some of his queries.

 Chapter 679 - Milkberry Tree

    <h4>Chapter 679: Milkberry Tree</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When their discussion came to an end, Sunders brought Angor out of the Gravity Garden before they left the study together.

    While Angor was going to check on Toby, who was currently staying at Krakoks¡¯ flower house, Sunders also went along as he needed to talk to Goode about various matters after Phantom Ind went through that crisis, even though Greya repaired most of the damage.

    While still walking together along the hallway, Sunders saw his student still lost in thought and asked, ¡°You¡¯re nning to test your Prelude to Rebirth recently, is that right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I need to find out what those ¡®white bullets¡¯ are.¡±

    ¡°You already found some undead monsters to use your weapon on?¡±

    ¡°I bought two souls at the resource center, but... it was strange. It was Saka who provided them.¡±

    ¡°Saka, Ness¡¯ student?¡± Sunders snickered. Now that he thought about it, Angor had grudges against both of Ness¡¯ students for some reason.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what he wants.¡± Angor shrugged. ¡°When I was waiting for you outside Mister Ness¡¯ tower, Saka said something weird, and it made no sense to me.¡±

    Sunders wasn¡¯t too concerned about the problems between apprentices. ¡°He wishes to amend your rtionship, probably.¡±

    ¡°Maybe...¡± Angor had a simr conclusion, but he wasn¡¯t fully convinced. In his view, Saka wasn¡¯t someone who would bow down to enemies so easily.

    ¡°Make sure you¡¯re fully prepared prior to your test. No one can predict what will be of undead souls when they are affected by Mystery energy. Also, go to the resource center again and get a new transmitter. We reced themst year. The new transmitters can help you film something for several minutes. This is very helpful if you want to record what you observed in your test.¡±

    <i>New transmitter? </i>Angor acknowledged with a nod.

    Last time he heard, the ¡°crystal ball transmitter¡± had served Brute Cavern for a thousand years. He wondered what caused the sudden change.

    The new function sounded neat, but Angor wasn¡¯t too interested since his hologram tablet could always work perfectly when he used it to capture images. Besides, he already saw more advanced transmitters used in Floating Mech City that were capable of wless long-rangemunication as well as a number of misceneous properties. If added with moreprehensive functions, they would begin to look like the ¡°smartphones¡± that were used on Earth.

    Of course, Angor didn¡¯t show any of his ideas. ¡°Yes, sir, I¡¯ll head there immediately. Is it still a ¡®crystal ball¡¯?¡±

    ¡°What, you don¡¯t like that design?¡±

    ¡°Oh no, I¡¯m just curious.¡±

    Angor had no problem using a crystal ball, but he felt a bit weary since so many alchemists used the same shape for their items.

    ¡°Yes, the new transmitter onlyes in one type. Heh, this one was proposed by Leona, but it was Mister Rein who determined the final look. Perhaps that man is obsessed with crystal balls.¡±

    Angor listened quietly as he absolutely could not follow Sunders¡¯ joke, which was directed at Rein Mute.

    ¡°You¡¯re an alchemist as well. If you¡¯re not content with it, try making your own one. And make something interesting if you can. That ¡®Monument Loop¡¯ looks quite good in my view.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t even get to enjoy Sunders¡¯ words of praise before Sunders continued, ¡°It¡¯s a pity that the ingenious shape only contains a ything.¡±

    <i>Wasn¡¯t it YOU who asked for it?</i> Angor almost cried that out.

    Sunders saw Angor¡¯sining look and snickered again. ¡°Speaking of Leona, I once asked her to teach you alchemy. But as far as I can see... you¡¯re more professional than her right now when ites to Tooling. You can still go to her if you wish to learn Apothecary, however.¡±

    The gentleman took out a rose from his storage and handed it to Angor.

    ¡°This is the passport for Rosebed Ind. She is mostly known as a perfume maker, but her talent in Apothecary can¡¯t be denied.¡±

    Angor put away the rose, which seemed to be made of pure crystal, in his bracelet. He might need itter because studying Apothecary was also on his to-do list.

    Next, Sunders went to look for Goode to talk about how to handle ¡°New Phantom Ind¡±, while Angor left the mansion and walked toward the flower house beside the smallke.

    On his way, he heard somebody weeping and saw a group of men in ck robes gathered around a small hillock.

    They were all Phantom Servants. Even with their masks on, Angor could feel the somber mooding from them.

    It was Hobbiton who was crying while kneeling on the ground.

    Soon, Angor understood what had happened when he heard Hobbiton calling ¡°Number 41¡±. It seemed that Number 41 was killed by a lightning strike earlier, and his friends were here to see him off.

    Angor shook his head and turned away.

    Even though the other Phantom Servants were quiet, he could feel the overwhelming sadness that he had better avoid.

    ¡°Mister Padt,¡± another Phantom Servant who was also watching the memorial from afar spoke to him.

    ¡°You¡¯re... Number 233?¡± Angor had no problem recognizing the Phantom Servant he once talked to. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to join them?¡±

    ¡°No. It was only his body that died. His soul was retrieved by Butler Goode. I believe Butler Goode will give him a proper arrangement. Excuse me, Mister Padt. I have work to do.¡±

    Angor saw Number 233 leaving. He nced back at the group of servants for a moment before he headed to the flower house.

    He felt a little depressed when he thought about Jon, and his brother, Leon, who were only mortals incapable of leaving their souls behind upon death.

    Greya¡¯s golden tree came into his view. The giant tree had shielded the entire flower house under its crown while releasing a wonderful smell of high-quality milk.

    Angor suddenly wished to have a ¡°taste¡± of the tree, but he forced himself to give up on that idea.

    The crisis did nothing to the house, but he was still worried about the Krakoks and Toby.

    He was a little surprised to find out that the Krakoks looked tougher than they appeared to be. Instead of harming them, the pressure sent by the world¡¯s consciousness helped some of them remove taint and old injuries, which improved their physical conditions.

    Toby seemed to be in good shape too since he was staring at the milk tree through a window, drooling, while his little partner¡ªthe Moonlily Fairy¡ªlooked just as eager for a snack.

    The Krakoks were curious to know about the strange tree as well. Ever since Angor entered the flower house, he had been hearing someone gulping loudly now and then.

    Tobynded on Angor¡¯s shoulder and kissed his cheek immediately, with obvious intentions.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to respond to Toby¡¯s expectation because he had no idea whether the tree was safe or if the milk it produced was drinkable at all.

    After considering for a while, he took Toby out of the flower house while constructing the model of a cantrip in his mind.

    His eyes shone slightly as Narda¡¯s Vision helped him read various information regarding the tree. And he was d that he saw no unknown variables. The examination perfectly told him the name, properties, and effects of the golden tree.

    ¡°This is a Milkberry Tree, a tiered magic nt. We can use its trunk and bark for crafting, and its juice and fruits for cooking... Man, Lady Greya gave us quite a luxurious gift.¡±

    Narda¡¯s Vision also told him that the sap was beneficial to human bodies when consumed, including the bodies of mortals, who would then enjoy healthy lives and slightly extended lifespan. This meant he could consider transnting the tree to Padt Manor.

    1After making sure it was safe to consume anything found on the tree, Angor nodded to Toby and said, ¡°Go ahead, but don¡¯t damage it too much.¡±

    Toby instantly dashed to the Milkberry Tree, eyes twinkling.

    Angor walked back inside the flower house and spoke to the Moonlily Fairy, ¡°You can go out and gather some tree sap when you have time and share it with the Krakoks.¡±

    The fairy was still a little sheepish in Angor¡¯s presence. It nodded slightly behind Papaya¡¯s grandmother.

    Also, Angor noticed that the servant mark on the fairy was gone, which meant Toby had dealt with the fairy¡¯s former owner.

    The small creature hesitated for a bit and imed to offer its loyalty to Angor.

    Angor shook his head and denied. ¡°If you really want to be someone¡¯s follower, choose Toby.¡±

    He said this because the Moonlily Fairy had little use to him. He allowed the fairy to stay here all because of Toby, and it should also be Toby who would be the one to take care of it.

 Chapter 680 - Testing White Bullets

    <h4>Chapter 680: Testing White Bullets</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor carried a bucket of pale yellow milk back to his bedroom with a straight face, but on the inside, he was terribly eager to try out the new drink.

    This stuff was valuable, tiered material as well. He wondered what it would taste like.

    After making sure his door was fully locked, he canceled his poker face as teeming jubtion took control.

    While humming joyously, he downed a ss of Milkberry Tree sap in one go. The rich aftertaste quickly brought a bigger smile to his face.

    <i>Now that¡¯s top-ss! Too bad it isn¡¯t sweet.</i>

    While enjoying more of his milk, he took out a notebook from his bracelet, which contained his personal ns since he started studying wizardry.

    Using his uniquenguage¡ªHanzi¡ªhe quickly left a brand new n.

    He didn¡¯t say anything when Sunders told him to make his own transmitter. But in fact, he did have an idea about this after seeing many interestingmunication tools shown in the movies about Earth civilization. However, he needed time to arrange what he learned before getting to work for real.

    He still had many more urgent ns, such as traveling back home. For now, he would leave his new ideas in his notebook and get to themter.

    Next, he checked what was already written in his notes, which was all recorded using Hanzi.

    At first, he thought he could keep his secrets in this way. But during the purification garden challenge, he learned that there were cantrips such as Discern Letter and Discern Language in this world that could decrypt unknown characters.

    Simr to Narda¡¯s Vision, these cantrips all called for extensive knowledge and expertise, which most apprentices didn¡¯t have. But as long as someone sessfully learned them, they would be able to work out the true meaning hidden by various characters.

    It was basically impossible to keep things private by using Hanzi.

    He still insisted on keeping notes in this way. For one, he loved the clean and orderly looks of thisnguage. And besides, he didn¡¯t want to disappoint Jon by saying that hepletely dropped it.

    He soon reached for what he was looking for.

    [Testing the white bullets gathered inside Prelude to Rebirth]

    He left today¡¯s date below this line and put the notebook back in his bracelet.

    He might not be a schr like Sunders who knew how topose standardized research reports, but he was slowly getting there. Taking these notes was one thing he had to do.

    He finished another ss of milk, licked his lips clean, and went to speak to Goode, who would send a Phantom Servant to help him watch over theing test.

    A momentter, he saw a servant with a familiar masking to him.

    ¡°Number 233 at your service, Mister Padt,¡± the servant spoke in a clear voice as he went down on one knee.

    ¡°You again!¡± Angor smiled. Apart from Goode and Hobbiton, he was most ustomed to seeing this Phantom Servant who once helped him win several matches in Sky Tower. ¡°Let¡¯s go to theb area.¡±

    He meant to use the undergroundb under Sunders¡¯ mansion instead of the one in The Tributary. Undead souls were unpredictable test subjects. Should anything go wrong, he might need to ask Sunders or Greya for help.

    He would have asked for Sunders¡¯ consent to use the undergroundb, but since Sunders allowed him to take care of Phantom Ind for the time being, he no longer needed to inform Sunders of these trivial matters.

    Soon, they arrived at the enclosed area that was secured by top-level protections. Angor then briefly exined what he was going to do.

    ¡°Number 233, your job is to help me note down any changes on the undead, from the start to the end.¡±

    He wondered what happened to the undead soul outside Dark Castle, which was supposed to be the 13th daughter of a Goman King. His white bullet incited some ¡°changes¡± on her, but he didn¡¯t get to see to the end.

    ¡°Leave it to me, Mister Padt.¡± Number 233 nodded. ¡°This sounds a lot easier than my previous task.¡±

    ¡°Does it? You should know that if the undead bes hostile, you will be its first target.¡±

    ¡°Rest assured, I know how to handle them.¡± Number 233 shrugged.

    Angor suddenly grew curious after seeing the great confidence shown by the Phantom Servant. ¡°May I ask what your ¡®previous task¡¯ is?¡±

    ¡°My talent is shape-shifting. I can change my appearance and size at my will, so Butler Goode usually entrusted delivery or scouting missions to me.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor realized that he never bothered to learn how the Phantom Servants managed different works.

    He already determined the general workflow of the test, so they only had to start the job.

    The only thing Angor needed to do beforehand was to add an extra rune on theb walls so that the undead would not escape through them.

    The rune wasn¡¯t hard to draw. In fact, Angor could now draw most of the known runes without relying on extra help. His tablet was only necessary when he needed to drawplex magic arrays.

    Since he needed a little extra time to draw the rune, he asked Number 233 to take on his appearance and fetch a new transmitter from the resource center. He had to use this thing to record his test since he could not show his tablet to anyone.

    By the time Number 233 brought the ¡°crystal ball¡± back to theb, Angor had already finished drawing the rune, and an undead soul was already released into the testing area.

    It was a man¡¯s soul, and he was wearing broken garbs. His eyes werepletely white without irises, and there were pulsing blood veins around the corners of his eyes. This soul had everything to scare a helpless mortal for good.

    However, as someone who confronted countless undead souls in various shapes at Dark Castle, Angor only found this man to be a little frail, as if he were someone who didn¡¯t eat properly and was constantly in a bad health condition.

    <i>Maybe this man was always like this even when he was alive?</i>

    The soul was currently screaming madly, just like any other undead would. Angor only felt annoyed rather than scared by it.

    ¡°Hey, louder, pump some vigor in it! And you¡¯re so slow! You used to be a nerd or something? Don¡¯t bring your bad habits to your afterlife!¡±

    Number 233 saw Angor lecturing the undead man and wondered what his young master was thinking about.

    ¡°Oh good, you¡¯re back. Use that transmitter to record everything.¡±

    While talking, Angor took out his Prelude to Rebirth, which contained six glowing bullets in its cylinder.

    It wasn¡¯t easy to prepare these bullets. From what he observed before, he had to kill at least 2,000 undead souls to gather a bullet. He managed to fill up all six chambers because of the abundant ¡°soul reserve¡± around Dark Castle.

    Getting more bullets would prove to be rather difficult from now on. For this reason, he wished to make every bullet count.

    He hoped that his ¡°semi Mystery weapon¡± could surprise him by showing some kind of amazing effect. He pulled the trigger at the yelling soul without activating the magic array on the gun.

    Bam!

    Several white, glowing tentacle-like rays of light emerged from the gun¡¯s barrel, which soon converged into a single light beam and went for the soul like aet.

    As soon as the ¡°bullet¡± hit its mark, Angor stepped out of the enclosed testing area and sealed the door. Together with Number 233, they stepped onto the observation tform above the area and watched across the warded ss.

    The soul had copsed on the floor, but it did not vanish¡ªit kept tumbling and screaming.

    Meanwhile, Angor kept an eye on the energy signatures inside the testing area and mostly saw chaotic negative energy typically shown by undead creatures. It seemed that the white bullet caused the negative energy to grow. But soon, it began decreasing again.

    While observing the fluctuant energy readings, Angor cast Hand of Spell. Hebined it with his own hands to take two different notes at the same time.

    The undead man was writhing harder and harder now. His loud scream grew so intense that it could be heard across the enchanted ss walls.

 Chapter 681 - Half-Undead

    <h4>Chapter 681: Half-Undead</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    While howling frantically, the soul was bumping his head against the ss wall, which did nothing more than draining his own strength.

    The maniacal strugglested for about ten minutes before the soul quieted down. He theny still on the floor face-down as if he died for a second time.

    However, an undead soul was only considered eliminated once the negative energy inside it fully vanished, which was obviously not the case right now.

    Outside the ss chamber, Angor kept observing the energy reading in the environment while taking notes.

    He saw the negative energy inside the test subject destabilizing very fast. At the same time, a new type of energy was slowly showing up and was gradually taking over the soul¡¯s form.

    Angor was a bit confused to see two conflicting types of energy existing in harmony. This was also what he observed from the Goman King¡¯s daughter, whose face was divided into two halves after being shot by a white bullet.

    The strange sight reminded him of certain Buddhist statues he saw from documentary movies introducing religions on Earth, which also showed two different expressions on their faces as if a sage of kindness and a demon from the underworld possessed the same body.

    Last time, Angor didn¡¯t have a chance to examine what happened to the woman¡¯s soul because she escaped too fast. But now, he could fully observe what was going on with the man¡¯s soul.

    Inside this soul, the fickle undead energy and another stable power each upied one half of the soul, which seemed to be the same case shown by the Goman King¡¯s daughter.

    However, his ¡°change¡± was a lot slowerpared to the woman. As Angor recalled, the woman¡¯s soul outside Dark Castlepleted her ¡°energy separation¡± in a matter of minutes, while the man¡¯s soul was still lying on the floor unmoving.

    They waited for half an hour, and the man¡¯s soul was still motionless. It seemed the energy turbulence inside him already ended since it was no longer changing. However, the soul was probably too weak to move.

    ¡°Keep watching,¡± Angor said to Number 233 as he decided to get to another job. ¡°Find me in the alchemyb nearby if anything goes wrong.¡±

    There was an alchemyboratory at Phantom Ind as well. Sunders once spent many years studying alchemy when he was young, but he then realized the futility of it and abandoned his ambition. However, theb still remained. It was unused in the past century. There were only Phantom Servants who woulde asionally to clean up dust and dirt.

    Most of the equipment in theb was outdated or too decayed to be used, but Angor never nned to rely on these. He was trying to make more illusion items that did not require extra tools.

    In order to finish Sunders¡¯ task, which required him to make enough ¡°illusion samples¡± before Sunders left on a mission, Angor simply crafted a number of in-looking crystal balls but with different materials. ording to his previous tests, the appearance of items did not affect the manifestations inside them. He only had to take the base materials into ount, for these would affect how long the manifestations would persist in the end.

    While Angor focused on making his crystal balls, Number 233 diligently did his job by watching the undead soul carefully.

    It took Angor half a day to make three new crystal balls. To save time, he wasn¡¯t going to check the illusions.

    While working on the fourth item, he finally received a message from Number 233, that the undead was awake.

    Angor immediately dropped his work and went to theb again. He saw Number 233 still noting down the energy signatures in the area as well as what was going on inside the test subject.

    The man¡¯s soul was definitely awake, but he didn¡¯t look so different from before as he still had his face against the floor. The only thing he did was that he was arching his back higher.

    ¡°How long was he like this?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°About two minutes. But Mister Padt, please pay close attention to his energy.¡±

    Angor looked at 233¡¯s note and saw the soul¡¯s negative energy recovering greatly. However, it was still weakerpared to his condition before the bullet hit him.

    ¡°Undead energy almost down to half...¡± Angor held his chin. ¡°Is this caused by the second energy?¡±

    <i>So the bullet turned half of his negative energy into another form?</i>

    He left his theory on the research note.

    Meanwhile, the man¡¯s soul suddenly looked up.

    ¡°Mister Padt, there! Look at his face!¡± Number 233 urged.

    Angor checked the soul¡¯s divided face with a in look as he already expected something like this to happen.

    It was as if someone drew a boundary line at the center of the soul¡¯s head. While one side showed the same ghastly, fanged face of an undead monster, the other side looked like a middle-aged man with a calm temperament with hollow cheeks and pale skin. But the ¡°good side¡± of the man did not look so peaceful as that eye still showed unconcealed malevolence.

    ¡°Is he still an undead...?¡± Angor muttered and decided to talk to him. ¡°Who are you?¡±

    Usually, undead creatures would not respond to questions since they no longer possessed sanity, while ordinary souls could still make themselves understood by unleashing emotions, or in some cases, speak directly.

    The soul in question looked toward Angor¡¯s direction without responding. It could not see through the one-way ss.

    ¡°It tried to look for the speaker without showing hostility...¡± Angor considered while noting down more information. The man looked neither a fallen undead nor an ordinary soul. It was something in between.

    ¡°Hey, what are you looking for?¡± Angor asked again.

    Still no response. But the man¡¯s soul seemed more interested in the voice he heard.

    ¡°Mister Padt, I think he showed human emotion,¡± Number 233mented.

    Angor nodded to agree. Undead creatures would usually go after noises with their teeth and ws rather than looking at them curiously. Apparently, this one knew how to ¡°think¡±.

    The current question was whether this soul had regained his intelligence, or if he was just curious about everything like a newborn child.

    ¡°Subject disyed intelligence...¡± Angor kept working on his paper.

    The soul suddenly spoke.

    ¡°Where is my... banyan flower...¡±

    It was themonnguage used on thisnd without any particr ent.

    Angor frowned and wrote ¡°subject showed verbal abilities¡± on his note.

    ¡°An undead spoke? And what does that mean?¡± Number 233 seemed surprised.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean anything, perhaps. Maybe something left in his memory before he died.¡±

    The energy they currently saw inside the soul suggested that the man was still an undead being, but there was something else.

    ¡°An undead with some intelligence, or... is he slowly ¡®turning back¡¯?¡± Angor pondered.

    For now, he would refer to it as a ¡°half-undead¡± and wait until they could discover more clues.

    ¡°Keep watching, and try tomunicate with him to see whether he can understand or learn something from you,¡± Angor said to Number 233.

    He nced at the ¡°half-undead¡± again and saw the ¡°peaceful side¡± looking around in confusion as if trying to find an exit, while the other half was still writhing like a hungry monster.

    Angor then turned around and headed to the alchemy room. He now had an assumption regarding the true effect of Prelude to Rebirth, but he still needed to prove it. Correct or not, the effect didn¡¯t seem very useful to him, so he decided to continue working on his illusion items for now.

 Chapter 682 - Less Hiding, More Honesty

    <h4>Chapter 682: Less Hiding, More Honesty</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Three dayster, Angor suddenly heard Sunders¡¯ voice reaching his ears.

    ¡°Greya is here.¡±

    Immediately, he went to his professor¡¯s study. And as soon as he arrived, gentle energy engulfed him and teleported him into Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden, where the two wizards were chatting peacefully.

    Greya smiled gently when she saw Angoring. ¡°That was a big help, boy. I still needed to solve five major problems for my ¡®Birth¡¯ spell, and I thought they would take me some more decades, but your manifestation allowed me to finish them straight away!¡±

    <i>Birth?</i> Angor tilted his head.

    ¡°I already exined your inventions to Greya,¡± Sunders chuckled. ¡°¡®Birth¡¯ is the new spell she created on that day.¡±

    Angor recalled the amazing sight in which Greya ¡°overhauled¡± Phantom Ind and wanted to ask something. ¡°Is the spell used for creating new things out of nothing?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you want to know about it?¡± Greya didn¡¯t intend to hide too many secrets as she exined her spell dly. ¡°It may appear that way in your view, but there are... some intricate factors in this. The spell still needs to obey certain mass conversion rules in this world. But I guess legendary wizards or the world¡¯s consciousness can bring stuff out of thin air for real.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure how to understand those words, but he decided not to question. Of course truth-finder wizards wouldn¡¯t share the fundamentals of their knowledge.

    Greya noticed Angor¡¯s thoughts and grinned. ¡°I asked for an illusion item just because I was bored. But this is unexpected. I promised to cook you a golden VIP order if the item turned out to be good, right? Well, it¡¯s beyond good. You still get the same order, but I¡¯ll make it three.¡±

    She took out a golden invitation card with the number ¡°3¡± on it and handed it to Angor.

    ¡°You cane to me anytime for your meal.¡±

    Angor politely epted the card with both hands. He realized that he just earned a priceless opportunity, which might help him be a wizard directly if he knew how to use it.

    Sunders looked at Greya¡¯s generous offer and also smiled in content.

    When Greya offered a golden card to Angor in exchange for an illusion item, she was probably ¡°investing¡± in Angor¡¯s future rather than looking for Angor¡¯s service. But now, she had just realized that earning a manifestation from Angor by paying meals was an absolutely nice trade.

    To outsiders, Greya had earned great profit by buying the critical manifestation that helped her create a new spell just by cooking for someone. But the truth was, her ¡°golden offers¡± weren¡¯t so easy to make. She might even need to spend several years looking for the right materials.

    Three ¡°golden VIP meals¡± were more or less enough to repay Angor¡¯s favor. Besides, Greya meant to sincerely paypensation to Angor.

    ¡°Okay now. I called you here so that we all can agree upon what we should tell the public in the right situations.¡± Sunders gave Angor a serious look as he spoke, ¡°Your secret can NOT be exposed under any circumstances. Even if it is extremely difficult to create manifestations and that they provide negligible chances to truth-finders, wizards will not hesitate to seize you for their own gain, because capturing you would not cost them anything.

    ¡°That day, people all saw Greya showing her gratitude to you out in the public, and they will be concerned. We must determine an excuse should anyone question this matter. Especially you, Greya. You¡¯ll need to exin your action to someone sooner orter.¡±

    While listening, Angor noticed that Sunders was delivering a message in secret, that Greya still did not know he could bring out manifestations of Mystery with ease.

    ¡°I know that.¡± Greya nodded and blew a kiss at Angor. ¡°Rx. I won¡¯t harm him since he helped me sooo much. I already have a n for that.¡±

    ¡°What n?¡±

    ¡°Showing it frankly is better than hiding it all the time.¡± Greya took out the silver brooch and affixed it on her violet dress, which further added to her showy style.

    Sunders understood what she meant. ¡°A feasible idea, but how are you going to ¡®show¡¯ this?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m paying Mister Rein a visitter, and I¡¯ll proceed from there. I believe that man is VERY eager to hear my story and how I created my spell.¡± Greya giggled.

    ¡°Are you sure Mister Rein will trust your ¡®story¡¯?¡± Sunders raised an eyebrow.

    Instead of answering, Greya smiled at Angor again. ¡°See that? Your professor doesn¡¯t believe in your alchemy at all! Consider getting a new teacher, will you?¡±

    Angor listened with a puzzled look. <i>What is she talking about?</i>

    Sunders shook his head and exined, ¡°Greya meant to show your Twinning Wings to Mister Rein and put the ¡®me¡¯ on the illusion, which gave her inspiration.¡±

    ¡°Huh? But... without the manifestation, the illusion is only an illusion.¡±

    ¡°Only an illusion? Well, I don¡¯t think so.¡± Greya humphed. ¡°Come on, not you too. Did you learn <i>everything</i> from Sunders? Too much modesty will make you look cocky, you know.¡±

    ¡°I¡ª¡± Angor didn¡¯t know how to reply. He truly considered his illusion as somethingmon.

    ¡°Yeah, the manifestation is no more, but there¡¯s still the sense of Nightmare Realm! And those stories!¡± Greya said in an as-a-matter-of-fact way, ¡°Those are enough to shock the hell out of anyone who looks at your illusion for the first time. Mister Rein is not an exception!¡±

    Greya saw Angor still frowning and shook her head. ¡°Ugh, never mind. I¡¯ll just tell Mister Rein that I need the final push to finish my spell, and I found it in your illusion. It¡¯s the truth anyway. Inside the Nightmare Realm-like ce, I saw a vision, and then... poof! As long as Mister Rein buys it, people will know why I gave you that look. I was thanking you for giving me the illusion.

    ¡°They might want to check out your illusion too, but that¡¯s not important anymore. I found my inspiration by some miracles, and it cannot be copied even if they get their hands on your items. They¡¯ll just walk around your illusion and get all startled by the Nightmare Realm-rish feel; they aren¡¯t actually going to learn anything.¡±

    Angor knew this was true. He spent lots of time and effort when making the illusion in Twinning Wings, which included many interesting elements taken from Earth civilization. As Greya said, it wasn¡¯tmon at all.

    ¡°But... will Mister Rein ept that?¡±

    He meant to ask, would Mister Rein get fooled for real?

    ¡°No problem. You¡¯re the only one in this world who can add Nightmare Realm stuff in your illusions. Mister Rein knows that I lost my body in the Nightmare Realm. It¡¯s just natural that I learned something new. And suppose that he doesn¡¯t believe me, he can¡¯t find anything since your manifestation is already gone.¡±

    ¡°I agree. This will work,¡± Sunders added. ¡°It¡¯spletely imaginable that you earned unknown enlightenment after traveling through the Nightmare Realm twice. Mister Rein will not notice anything wrong as long as you don¡¯t let him see into your mind.¡±

    ¡°Oh chill. You know I¡¯m always good at making up stuff.¡± Greya¡¯s eyes gleamed.

    ¡°I wish you luck then.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll get to it right away.¡± Greya stood up from her seat. ¡°Better earlier thante. I¡¯ll distribute my ¡®story¡¯ so that fewer people spend their time worrying about our little Angor.¡±

    Sunders nodded but did not let Greya out of the Gravity Garden. Instead, he took out a glowing parchment roll. ¡°Check this.¡±

    Greya took the scroll and showed an annoyed look. ¡°Oh... Taro¡¯s Non-Disclosure Agreement?¡±

    This agreement was drafted by an apprentice named Taro in ancient times. After being revised many times over the years, it had be a more perfect agreement usually used for maintaining mutual benefit between wizards.

    It forbade Greya from revealing the secret regarding Angor¡¯s manifestations of Mystery. Otherwise, she would receive some serious punishment that she absolutely would not want.

    ¡°Are you threatening me?¡± Greya scowled.

    ¡°No. I¡¯m reminding you that we¡¯re now bound by the same problem,¡± Sunders replied casually.

    Greya scoffed and left her name on the parchment.

    She had no problem signing the agreement¡ªkeeping Angor¡¯s secret was always her intention. It was just that she felt displeased when Sunders openly forced her to do so.

    ¡°Thank you for your cooperation,¡± Sunders spoke in a in tone as if a nobleman were attending a social gathering he did not like.

    Greya ignored Sunders¡¯ ¡°manner¡± and put an arm around Angor. ¡°Hey, sweetie, since we¡¯re ¡®bound by the same problem¡¯, do remember to inform me if you make more of those manifestations. I¡¯ll give you a fine price for them.¡±

 Chapter 683 - Reinâ€™s Attitude

    <h4>Chapter 683: Rein¡¯s Attitude</h4>

    Inside Rein¡¯s wizard tower.

    ¡°I see.¡± Rein appeared to be satisfied after listening to Greya¡¯s ¡°story¡±, but his eyes were suggesting otherwise.

    He suspected that Angor might have yed a part in Greya¡¯s sessful challenge, but not... this.

    An alchemy item created by an apprentice helped a truth-finder wizard discover a new spell? Anyone in their sane mind would regard this as a terrible joke.

    In Rein¡¯s view, the various rumors and achievements revolving around Angor weren¡¯t worth his attention. Angor was an apprentice still too weak in terms of strength. Any ¡°sess¡± was brief and did not guarantee enough future value.

    Rein did not use lie-detection methods on Greya just to show respect to this truth-finder wizard. But he was feeling bothered because he thought Greya was lying. He would have used violence if Greya weren¡¯t here as his guest.

    Of course, Greya was sharp enough to notice Rein¡¯s true thoughts.

    She terribly wished that Angor was right here with her so that they could look at Rein¡¯s face together. It would give her another excuse to persuade Angor into joining Candy House because no one in Brute Cavern valued him enough.

    On the outside, Greya still maintained her ¡°oh, you hurt my feelings!¡± look. ¡°Mister Rein, do you disbelieve my words?¡±

    ¡°Of course not. I was simply... bewildered.¡±

    ¡°I have no reason to drag Mister Phantom¡¯s student into my lie.¡± Greya showed him a sad look and ced her brooch onto the desk. ¡°You may look for yourself, Mister Rein. Trust me, I was not overestimating the potential of Angor¡¯s illusion.¡±

    Rein remained silent and picked up the ornament.

    As a man born from a noble n, Rein quickly took a liking to the garish but masterful design of Twinning Wings. He could see that its creator possessed a decent sense of art.

    ¡°Angor made this?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The two different forms that are on it all referred to Toby. You know Toby, Mister Rein?¡±

    ¡°Your precious pet, everyone in Brute Cavern knows that.¡± Rein chuckled.

    ¡°He used to be my pet. But now... I¡¯m afraid Toby only wants to stay with Angor. Good for me though. I have high expectations regarding Angor¡¯s future. Toby can help me maintain our rtionship so my ¡®investment¡¯ on that boy pays off in the future.¡±

    Rein didn¡¯t question this matter because it was verymon in this world for wizards to go after true profit. Moral, friendship... Everything else came second.

    ¡°Good craftsmanship. He captured Toby¡¯s details very well... So you found inspiration in the illusion enough to help with your challenge of truth? I want to see it.¡± Rein was starting to believe Greya¡¯s exnation already since she was willing to show the brooch.

    Now he was really curious. Whatever did an apprentice provide Greya inside a mere illusion?

    He decided to enter it and see.

    ...

    At first, Greya apanied Rein in the illusion as a ¡°tour guide¡±. Later on, Rein preferred to be left alone and ran off on a Cat Bus, and Greya never found him again.

    With nothing to do, Greya left the illusion and walked onto the balcony of the tower to enjoy the scenery outside.

    Rein¡¯s wizard tower was built on top of the Tree of Eternity. The tower could be seen from anywhere in the mirror world. The vantage point also allowed Greya to see almost everywhere in Brute Cavern.

    However, she didn¡¯t get to enjoy anything before a giant leaf moved in front of her and conveniently blocked her view.

    ¡°Hey, you old pervert! I¡¯m not a spy or something. Can¡¯t I have a little look around?¡± Greya immediately knew who just bothered her since there was only one answer.

    A half-length statue showing Tree Spirit¡¯s body slowly emerged from the center of the giant leaf.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t be angry, Miss Barbie. I hope that you can take a good look at my leaf. Do you like it? It¡¯s so green!¡± Tree Spirit sounded as yful as ever.

    Greya rolled her eyes. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve no interest in looking at leaves! And what¡¯s with ¡®Miss Barbie¡¯? Aren¡¯t you going to call me ¡®Greya the Giant¡¯ again?¡±

    ¡°Because your current body deserves a better name.¡± Tree Spirit grinned.

    Greya took a moment to suppress her rage. ¡°Fine. I¡¯m your guest too. Not going to mind these trifles.¡±

    She shut the balcony door since there wasn¡¯t much she could do now.

    Tree Spirit also moved his leaf away. He didn¡¯t mean to annoy Greya¡ªas one of the guardians of Brute Cavern, it was his job to maintain basic safety in the organization even though it was very unlikely that Greya posed any threat.

    Greya left the door and saw Rein staring at her with a strange look.

    ¡°Did you finish looking through the illusion?¡± Greya realized she couldn¡¯t understand that look this time.

    ¡°Yes...¡± Rein waited for Greya to sit down and continued, ¡°What do you think of Tree Spirit? Frivolous as he might be, he has been ¡®single¡¯ for most of his life. He looks pretty good too. Maybe you should... you know what I mean?¡±

    Greya¡¯s lips twitched as she had no idea how to approach this ridiculous subject. People out there all believed that Rein Mute and Sunders were old-fashioned, strict-tempered wizards. But no! As far as Greya could see, Sunders was more like a prankster who hardly showed his true self, while Rein Mute was an annoying old man who loved to matchmake!

    ¡°Please, no such jokes, Mister Rein. There¡¯s not any chance between me and Tree Spirit. None. Zero. And I will not give up on my path of truth just to love a man.¡± Greya considered something before speaking, ¡°Just like how you have chosen your path, Mister Rein.¡±

    To Rein Mute, it was a ¡°taboo¡± for anyone to mention his past during which he abandoned his family in order to pursue strength. It was obvious that Greya intentionally spoke of this matter just to get back at him.

    Rein shook his head. Why is everyone studying Sunders¡¯ way?

    ¡°So, how was the illusion, Mister Rein?¡± Greya smiled brightly after seeing Rein¡¯s frustrated look.

    Rein inspected the silver brooch in his hand for a moment. He then nodded in approval. ¡°I can see how you were inspired now.¡±

    Greya experienced a close call in the Nightmare Realm and lost her body. Even though it was made up, it was very natural for her to grasp encouragement when she traveled through the deadly ce again.

    In fact, while inside Witch¡¯s Town in Angor¡¯s illusion, Rein almost found himself enlightened by an unknown sense, albeit just a little.

    Greya smiled. It seemed her ¡°excuse¡± went through just fine.

    ¡°What did I say? You Brute Cavern just earned an unpredictable young genius. Thank the heavens I found him soon enough and invested in him.¡±

    Rein chortled as he was fully convinced. The illusion in Twinning Wings fully showed him Angor¡¯s potential.

    Rein was not an alchemist, so he always doubted rumors that described Angor¡¯s alchemy skills. However, after witnessing the alchemy masterpiece personally, he began to understand why so many alchemists considered the boy a rising star.

    Well... Maybe I should allow more resources to Phantom Ind from now on. Rein thought to himself. If Brute Cavern gives birth to a true master alchemist, then people in this world will no longer refer to Brute Cavern as a bunch of headstrong brutes.

    When thinking about this, Rein couldn¡¯t help but admire the Twinning Wings between his fingers. He really enjoyed the illusion, especially that ¡°Monument Valley¡±. Now that he thought about it, it had been a long time since he got to entertain himself in such a rxed way.

    Angor did not expect that his ¡°mini-game¡± had intrigued two mighty wizards now. However, both Rein and Sunders only considered the game to be interesting and nothing more.

    As Rein looked around Twinning Wings more carefully, he discovered the hidden emblem behind the item.

    ¡°He used a rune to conceal it... What is this?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s Angor¡¯s signature. He said that he designed it based on his family emblem.¡±

    Alchemy signature? An apprentice? Rein was a little surprised to learn this. He was also a bit frustrated to realize that even an outsider knew a member of his organization better than him.

    ¡°I might as well keep this emblem in the records...¡±

 Chapter 684 - Public Opinion

    <h4>Chapter 684: Public Opinion</h4>

    Within a week, news about Greya¡¯s sess was known by everyone inside Brute Cavern.

    Many people took the films they captured to magazine offices. Without a doubt, Greya¡¯s deed would soon get acknowledged in the entire wizarding world.

    Thankfully, Greya presented her soul in front of the onlookers on that day, so people did not know she had lost her body.

    Apart from Greya, gossipers were also interested in the fact that Angor¡¯s illusion assisted Greya with her challenge. At first, most people regarded it as a mere joke, but they all changed their minds when Rein Mute spoke to the public and confirmed it.

    Somehow, Angor¡¯s ¡°alchemy trademark¡± began to show up on the official magazine published by Brute Cavern¡ªThe Mirror¡ªwhich was usually intended for wizards in the organization. People all realized that it had to be Rein who added Angor¡¯s information to the magazine, which further proved to them that the information regarding Angor¡¯s illusion was real.

    Since then, people were always wondering what kind of amazing illusion provided Greya with such great help. However, Greya always stayed at Phantom Ind, so no one could visit her, let alone borrowing her brooch.

    But there were exceptions.

    One day, someone saw Flora and Leona entering Phantom Ind together. Later, people went to Leona to ask whether she saw Angor¡¯s illusion, and Leona admitted without a second thought. She also imed that ¡°no wonder Greya gained so much inspiration from it¡±.

    Leona was the only acknowledged professional alchemist in Brute Cavern. Since she said so, those who still had doubts about Angor¡¯s alchemy skills were all convinced.

    Once again, Angor¡¯s alchemy potential was ced at the center of the spotlight.

    Butpared to thest time, when Angor¡¯s name was mainly used by apprentices as a fun subject over their meals, wizards were beginning to get interested in him as well.

    The authorities of Brute Cavern were d to know that a promising Tooling alchemist had joined their ranks. Also, since Angor was rtively ¡°neutral¡±, all wizards would like to draw Angor to their side or at least remain on peaceful terms with him.

    This was exactly what Rein wanted to see. It was extremely hard to find a talented alchemist these days, let alone someone likely to be a master at alchemy. They could not afford to let Angor sacrifice just because of the absurd rivalry among wizards.

    Sunders was also happy to see the oue turning out to be better than he had imagined. He knew it was Rein who manipted the public opinions, which meant that Rein would like to ensure Angor¡¯s safety in the organization.

    ...

    At Luminous Ind, Maya also considered the truthfulness of the rumor she heard.

    There was no previous example suggesting that truth-finders could find enlightenment from an illusion to create new spells. In fact, Angor¡¯s ¡°alchemy illusion¡± was almost a brand new concept ever to be discovered in this world. Few people knew illusion could exist inside items.

    She considered and sent a ¡°query¡± to the streams of fate so that she could find out whether Greya¡¯s achievement had anything to do with the rumored alchemy illusion.

    She would send these queries many times a day, and it was rare to receive answers from the streams of fate for real. But each time she did gain something, it would help her learn a lot about what was going on around this world.

    This was why Prophets didn¡¯t need to travel around much.

    Most information dealers around the wizarding world more or less received their ¡°stock¡± from Prophets since it was ratherborious to go after sources of information in this expansive world on their own.

    Maya was d that her luck worked out today¡ªshe received a hint from the streams of fate soon enough.

    ¡°I see... so it is true.¡± Maya looked a bit surprised as she was expecting the opposite.

    The streams of fate did not lie, and there was no way Greya could tamper with prophecy.

    Maya shook her head as she thought about Dodoro¡¯s prediction, which suggested the same answer.

    She closed her eyes and decided not to think about this matter anymore. Experienced wizards all knew for a fact that they needed more than a simple illusion to gain enlightenment.

    Neither Leona nor a powerful wizard like Rein Mute received a noticeable benefit from Angor¡¯s illusion, which meant there were many more aspects for a wizard to make use of it.

    ...

    As the breaking news about Greya and Angor came to prominence in Brute Cavern, a man at Graver¡¯s Cliff snapped the engraving pen in his hand in half.

    ¡°Magus¡± Shildeen was a famous wizard in Brute Cavern who was known as a merciless profit seeker who would do absolutely anything to achieve his goals, like a viper that was lurking in the shadows while drooling over its prey.

    Compared to ¡°Miniature Creator¡± Dumartin, who loved dissecting people¡¯s brains, Shildeen usually had the worse fame among people.

    ¡°Greya used some kind of alchemy illusion to win the challenge of truth?¡± he muttered under his breath.

    To Shildeen, his most urgent task right now was to step onto the path of truth. Yet he never seeded despite all the effort and time he contributed. After seeing what happened at Phantom Ind, he had a hunch that the apprentice named Angor might have something to do with this, so he nned to pay Angor a ¡°visit¡± after Sunders left Brute Cavern. However, thetest statement told him that his n was pointless because Angor¡¯s illusion only gave Greya minimal help and would not work in anyone else¡¯s hands.

    He knew there was no free lunch in this world, and that wizards had to rely on themselves to find the path of truth, but still, he somewhat hoped that he might suddenly find an opportunity that could ease his work.

    He thought he had finally found such a chance, but the recent disclosure just denied his hope.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, professor?¡± ckjack was working on an inscription nearby. He was a bit startled when seeing Shildeen¡¯s outburst.

    Shildeen cast a nce at ckjack¡¯s outfit, which was probably copied from Sunders¡¯ style, and showed a disgusted look.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Mind your own work.¡±

    With that, Shildeen stood up and flew off.

    He thought about visiting Rein and asking whether the ongoing news was Rein¡¯s doing, but on second thought, Rein probably wouldn¡¯t tell him anything useful.

    Shildeen didn¡¯t believe Rein¡¯s final statement. Something told him that the whole matter was moreplicated than what was revealed.

    With this in mind, he decided to go and talk to Maya again. Surely a Prophet like her was capable of revealing the final truth.

    An hourter, Shildeen flew away from Luminous Ind with a grim look. Maya told him the same conclusion, that Greya was ¡°inspired¡± in the illusion, while most of her sess was brought by her own effort.

    It was even confirmed by the ¡°streams of fate¡±.

    Shildeen wasn¡¯t a foolish man who would question the judgment told by the streams of fate.

    He returned to Graver¡¯s Cliff with a cold aura lingering around his form.

    ¡°Greya, inspiration, alchemy illusion? Heh. I¡¯m going to check what this ¡®alchemy illusion¡¯ truly is.¡±

    However, Phantom Ind did not allow outsiders, and he was not really Sunders¡¯ friend.

    ¡°What about asking Flora? No... I barely knew her.

    ¡°Or should I demand that boy to make me an alchemy illusion? But that little b*stard rarely steps away from Phantom Ind, and forcing him will only earn me a bunch of haters.¡±

    ckjack heard Shildeen¡¯s mumble and suddenly spoke up, ¡°Are you interested in that rumored alchemy illusion, professor?¡±

    Shildeen gave him an impatient stare. ¡°None of your fu*king business.¡±

    ckjack frowned. Ever since he came to Shildeen, he noticed that this man never took him as a real student, especially after he offered his art of inscription to pay for his tuition.

    ckjack more or less knew what was going on. However, he had no hope of changing his fate now¡ªhe was nothingpared to a mighty wizard like Shildeen.

    He lowered his head so that Shildeen did not see the gleam of hatred in his eyes.

    Of course, Shildeen was fully aware of ckjack¡¯s thoughts, but he just didn¡¯t care¡ªit was a waste of time to mind the grudge of an insect.

    ckjack decided to back away for now. Before leaving the room, he said, ¡°I received info that Angor will sell a new alchemy illusion item at Remnant Coast during the Month of Looming Frost.¡±

    He then closed the door and left Graver¡¯s Cliff.

    Shildeen held his chin and mulled over ckjack¡¯s hint.

    ¡°The auction at Remnant Coast? Well well...¡±

 Chapter 685 - Regained Intelligence

    <h4>Chapter 685: Regained Intelligence</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    As Greya enjoyed greater fame, more and more wizards had be concerned about her ¡°Birth¡± spell as well as how it was different from ¡°Artificial Life¡±. On the contrary, Angor was slowly fading away from the public view.

    Although there were still people who insisted on remembering his name.

    Angor had spent another week working on alchemy illusions at Phantom Ind. When Number 233 came to talk to him, he had filled the entireb room with crystal balls, which was about a hundred of them.

    ¡°Mister Padt, here¡¯s the initial report for your research.¡± Number 233 handed a pile of notes to Angor.

    From a brief nce, Angor saw that the soul that was hit by the ¡°white bullet¡± did not undergo any further changes on the outside and remained to be a ¡°half-undead¡±, but ording to Number 233, the half-undead was capable of thinking.

    ¡°He can follow up with conversations now. I assume that he kept some intelligence after death,¡± Number 233 exined, ¡°and he only needed one week topletely regain basicmunication skills.¡±

    ¡°So he has his own consciousness now?¡±

    ¡°Should be.¡± Number 233 nodded. ¡°However, it¡¯s not wise to speak to him right now. I think his mind is still dominated by the chaotic energy inside his form, and all of his actions tend to be... evil.¡±

    Simply put, the soul was still a typical undead wraith, just that he knew how to use his ¡°brain¡± now.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go see him.¡± Angor collected all the crystal balls in the room and headed to the testing ground.

    When Angor arrived, the half-undead quickly noticed a new presence, and he looked up at Angor¡¯s direction with a wicked smile.

    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Angor tried to ask a question.

    Between several maniacalughs, the half-undead managed to make out several words.

    ¡°Crush... kill... bwahahaha... give me my banyan flower... it¡¯s mine...¡±

    Number 233 whispered to Angor, ¡°He seems obsessed with this ¡®banyan flower¡¯. I checked in a book, it¡¯s a flower described in the legends of the Revtion Empire, which grants immortality to those who consume it. But it was only a mortal rumor. Several wizards in history confirmed that the flower is actually the ¡®Blue Pedestal¡¯.¡±

    Blue Pedestal was a low-tier magic nt mainly used for brewing a low-level potion called the Indigo Elixir, which improved its user¡¯s lifespan by 5 to 15 years. There was, however, a limit to how many times one could use this potion. Moreover, this potion would prevent people from using any other types of life-improving potions.

    This meant the rumor was only partially true¡ªBlue Pedestal granted people longer lives, but it was far from being immortal. Due to the limited effect, most wizards and apprentices would not use the potion.

    ¡°Why do you want the banyan flower?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°It¡¯s mine! Ziro... how dare he fool me... I¡¯m going to kill him!¡± the half-undead screamed.

    ¡°Ziro...¡± Angor considered the new name he just heard. ¡°So, Ziro killed you and took your banyan flower. You¡¯ve fallen to get revenge. Am I right?¡±

    ¡°Are you right...? I don¡¯t care! Give me my banyan flower... LET ME OUT OF HERE! I¡¯ll get Ziro! Tear him apart! Limb from limb!¡±

    It appeared that even though the half-undead regained some mental capabilities, it remembered very little about his past life.

    As Number 233 said, the negative energy inside the soul hadpletely maddened him. This soul was unable to reason rationally like ordinary souls.

    ¡°Let¡¯s begin with phase two.¡± Angor copied Number 233¡¯s notes onto his own notebook. From what he saw till now, the undead only turned from a ruthless monster into a somewhat ¡°level-headed¡± monster. Regardless, it was still a monster.

    Not much had changed.

    ¡°This is all my revolver can do? That¡¯s a lot weaker than the semi-Mystery item in Soul Genesis Garden... Or did I use it the wrong way?¡±

    He shook his head and opened the sealed door to the testing area.

    Immediately, the half-undead lunged at Angor, but it didn¡¯t get very far before a rune on the floor locked him down.

    Angor shook his head again and sighed in distress. So far, the white bullet was quite useless. He aimed his gun at the half-undead again and wanted to see if a second shot would do anything.

    Likest time, a et¡± consisted of several glowing tentacles sunk into the half-undead and caused it to copse.

    Angor stepped out of the testing area and asked Number 233 to keep watching.

    ...

    He received a new report two dayster.

    ording to Number 233, the ¡°stable¡± energy inside the soul kept growing, while the negative part decreased drastically. However, the energy shift seemed to be weakerpared to the first bullet. When the energy stabilized again, only about 1/4 negative energy was left in the soul, while the remaining part was upied by stable energy.

    In other words, the second bullet retained 50% of its effectivenesspared to the first one.

    When Angor came to the testing ground again, he saw the half-undead being quieter than before. When he moved closer, the soul did not attack him right away. Instead, the man only observed him carefully.

    But telling from the gleams of hatred in his eyes, the man could not be considered ¡°sane¡± yet.

    ¡°How should we proceed, Mister Padt?¡± Number 233 asked.

    Without much thought, Angor took aim and shot the half-undead for the third time.

    ¡°Keep it up. Make sure to keep a record of all the details.¡±

    ...

    After another two days, Angor checked the newest report he expected to see. Like before, the effect of the third bullet was further decreased by half. Currently, only 1/8 of negative energy was left inside the soul.

    Telling from this, he could not fully cleanse the negative energy no matter how many bullets he used. As long as there was negative energy still lingering, the soul could not be considered ¡°pure¡±.

    ¡°His mind is getting clearer than ever,¡± said Number 233, ¡°but he resents us just like before.¡±

    ¡°What do you think will happen if we keep doing this?¡±

    Number 233 was taken aback a little as he wasn¡¯t expecting such a question. Quickly, he thought about what he saw during the experiment over the past few days.

    ¡°Mister Padt. In my opinion, this individual will slowly be an undead with decent intelligence at this rate, who will still harm people but with deadlier tactics and ns. It will be dangerous to let him remain in this world.¡±

    Angor nodded. He almost reached the same conclusion.

    But he always had a suspicion in his mind. <i>Is Prelude to Rebirth only used to create these ¡°deadlier¡± creatures?</i>

    There were many different Mystery items in this world with strange properties, so it was not surprising to find such an effect.

    However... Prelude to Rebirth was a weapon used to eliminate the undead creatures. Why would it generate bullets that would provide the opposite result? Was it possible for the Mystery effect of an item to go against its creator¡¯s will?

    Perhaps such idents could happen. Yet Angor¡¯s instinct told him that this was not the case.

    He then tried to consider what this ¡°intelligent undead¡± meant to him, and he got a possible idea.

    He was going to begin the ¡°4th phase¡± of the experiment.

    He stepped in front of the half-undead and noticed that after being shot by three white bullets, the half-undead was beginning to look better and was wearing proper outerwear, which was a coffee-colored sweater vest. The man also had a checkered round cap as well as several silver ornaments affixed around his waist area.

    This man had to be a mortal since it referred to the Blue Pedestal as the ¡°banyan flower¡±. From his current getup, Angor assumed that he was a nobleman without much sense of style.

    The soul was sitting on a bench while staring at Angor with great enmity, but apart from the angry look, Angor also noticed another emotion, which was ¡°expectation¡±.

    ¡°Do you want something? This... perhaps?¡± Angor showed his revolver.

    For the first time, the half-undead asked a question, ¡°Who are you, and what do you want?¡±

    Angor slowly lifted his gun without answering that question.

    ¡°As you may have guessed, I¡¯ll use this on you again. But this time, I¡¯m going to kill you.¡±

    He activated ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡±. When he pulled the trigger, an invisible sound wave was unleashed from the barrel.

 Chapter 686 - Reverted Undead?

    <h4>Chapter 686: Reverted Undead?</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Like dropping a pebble into a pond, the attack disrupted the air in the area and caused everything to go blurry.

    When the half-undead saw the fan-shaped ripple covering all possible escape routes, he stumbled back in fear as he felt the deadly energy. While trembling in a corner, he begged for his life.

    From Angor¡¯s previous experience, undead souls would dive into the attack without a second thought since they could neither think nor did they know what ¡°fear¡± was.

    It seemed his white bullet did more than arousing intelligence.

    No one would believe him if he ever said that an undead actually tried to escape from danger. One reason why wizards would like to avoid anything rted to undead creatures was that these things were fearless and extremely difficult to wipe out. For anything that knew to back off from danger, wizards simply had to exert their pressure to get rid of them.

    However, knowing fear did not allow the half-undead to escape from his fate since Angor¡¯s attack almost covered up the entire testing ground.

    But despite Angor¡¯s words, he didn¡¯t mean to ¡°kill¡± the half-undead. The rune ¡°Prelude to Elimination¡± functioned by using a particr sound wave to disrupt negative energy, which was the mainponent of an undead being. The half-undead, however, had most of his form made up of stable energy, while the negative energy that was affected by Prelude to Elimination only took up a small part.

    Angor wished to find out what would happen after the remaining negative energy was removed from the soul. Would the soul get killed like an ordinary undead, or would it be a ¡°pure¡± soul?

    The half-undead screamed madly as the sound wave reached his form.

    Angor frowned when he noticed that the screaming soul survived longer than it should. As the attack eliminated all negative energy, the soul was damaged a little but was still rtivelyplete.

    A puff of ck smoke suddenly escaped from the soul¡¯s mouth and vanished into the air.

    ¡°This is incredible!¡± Number 233 called out, ¡°Mister Padt, his negative energy is dying!¡±

    ¡°What about the stable part?¡±

    ¡°It... is affected, just a little. But otherwise, it remained unchanged.¡± Number 233 checked his papers.

    ¡°Keep looking then.¡±

    That ck smoke was probably the remaining negative energy. Angor wondered if the soul would truly revert to being an ordinary soul.

    However, this was always considered to be impossible by schrs.

    As soon as the ck smokepletely disappeared, the soul copsed on the floor. Angor carefully waited to see if he had created a miracle.

    Slowly, the soul began to struggle, and he climbed back up.

    Angor knew that his theory almost went through as the soul¡¯s eyes no longer disyed unconcealed rancor.

    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡°Eyki Turner,¡± the soul responded with apletely dumbfounded look.

    Angor tried asking several more unimportant questions so that he could figure out whether the soul kept his memory.

    ¡°What was your job?

    ¡°Do you remember your friends? Your lover?¡±

    As their conversation continued, Eyki¡¯s eyes gained more rity, and his speech sounded more and more coherent. He even interrupted Angor¡¯s questions with one of his own¡ª¡±Who are you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m the one who pulled you out of your mess,¡± said Angor.

    Eyki didn¡¯t seem to understand those words.

    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Angor asked. He was almost certain that this ¡°Eyki¡± was no longer an undead soul.

    ¡°Better than ever. Those annoying whispers beside my ears are gone. And I don¡¯t feel all jittery. It¡¯s like I¡¯ve forgotten all my problems as an adult and returned to my childhood!¡±

    <i>Undead souls constantly hear strange noises around their ears?</i> Angor wondered and decided to ask, ¡°What exactly did those whispers tell you?¡±

    ¡°I... can¡¯t remember. There were all kinds of people, old, young, men, and women, talking into my ears. They were so irritating. But it¡¯s better now. I feel... free! And calm...¡±

    Angor suddenly saw Eyki starting to glow and float upward. At the same time, the soul closed his eyes as if he was enjoying the ascension.

    Angor widened his eyes and approached Eyki. ¡°Stop. Get back! Quick! You¡¯re going to disappear!¡±

    Eyki¡¯s form was now almost transparent and difficult to see. He opened his eyes and smiled at Angor. ¡°Thank you, my friend. I¡¯ll remember the hero who dragged me away from the darkness...¡±

    There was no way that an undead would speak in this way, which meant Eyki did ¡°recover¡±.

    ¡°I can feel that I¡¯m leaving this world. But... I¡¯m d. At least I¡¯m no longer trapped in that prison. Thanks¡ª¡±

    Hepletely vanished from Angor¡¯s view.

    Meanwhile, Angor showed a grim look and clenched his fists as he felt extremely dissatisfied with the final result.

    It was basically a giant failure. Did he spend so many white bullets just to look at a soul showing hisst glory?

    Number 233 entered the testing area with a hesitant look. ¡°Mister Padt, all the energy that is shown by the test subject has gone.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I can see that!¡± Angor felt his mood swing and quickly tried to calm himself. ¡°Ahem. Show me your report, if you would.¡±

    Number 233 didn¡¯t notice Angor¡¯s displeasure and showed his papers without a second thought.

    Angor moaned as he felt a big headache. He couldn¡¯t help feeling so upset since he just wasted three white bullets and two weeks just to find a result that was almost useless to him.

    To generate each white bullet, he had to kill 2,000 undead souls! Where to find so many souls to kill outside of Dark Castle?

    He kept reading the report while trying to hide his disturbed mood.

    ¡°So when he was glowing, the ¡®stable¡¯ energy began to break down really fast until he disappeared. But why?¡±

    <i>Are the white bullets intended to create a killing machine with intelligence? But what¡¯s the point of that?</i>

    It was still eptable if Prelude to Rebirth meant to revert undead souls. Also, it was not that surprising for a Mystery item to break amonly-acknowledged rule. In this case, the revolver caused an undead soul to turn back to its original state, which was believed to be impossible.

    However, Eyki only stayed in his ¡°pure form¡± for less than five minutes.

    Something told Angor that his experimentcked something critical, which he had overlooked.

    He stopped thinking about it since he could not find any answer right now. He might need to study more or find someone wise enough to tell him an answer.

    He then decided to speak to Sunders. Surely his teacher could provide good advice about this.

    Besides, he could use the chance to deliver his new crystal balls.

    With that in mind, he collected all data and recorded materials he obtained from the experiment and headed to Sunders¡¯ study.

    ...

    Sunders slightly widened his eyes after listening to Angor¡¯s exnation.

    Even if a ¡°purified soul¡± only remained in this world for five minutes, this subject was still worth further research because it denied an important theory formerly epted by all wizards.

    Wizards didn¡¯t usually talk about Mystery items and their effects because these were not easilyprehensible. However, Prelude to Rebirth was not a Mystery item, which meant it was still worthwhile to investigate.

    ¡°Let me see what you¡¯ve gotten so far.¡±

    With great curiosity, Sunders began reading Angor¡¯s research papers as well as the films recorded in the new transmitter.

 Chapter 687 - Six Bullets

    <h4>Chapter 687: Six Bullets</h4>

    Sunders thoroughly read through Angor¡¯s papers.

    ¡°I see you put a lot of work on it, but why did you only use a single test subject? Without a ¡®control group¡¯, it¡¯s too difficult to find any conclusive result.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have a choice, sir.¡± Angor showed a bitter smile. ¡°I need over two thousand killed souls to get one bullet, and I only have six bullets so far.¡±

    Sunders frowned¡ªif this was true, then doing the test on multiple souls was quite pointless since all they got was a ¡°reverted undead¡±.

    However, it wasn¡¯t strange to discover a ¡°pointless¡± Mystery effect in this world. Even a true Mystery item like ¡°Whelk of the Dreaming Coast¡± could have apletely useless effect, and Angor¡¯s revolver was only a semi-Mystery item.

    Sunders slowly flipped through Angor¡¯s report again. He suddenly noticed something when looking at the records that showed the energy change inside the undead soul.

    Next, he reyed the image recorded in Angor¡¯s transmitter.

    ¡°This is... deficient soul structure.¡±

    ¡°Deficient... huh?¡± Angor didn¡¯t understand what that meant.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about souls, but I heard Ness mentioning it when I went to Haunt World with him a hundred years ago,¡± Sunders exined as he went through his memory. ¡°You don¡¯t have to know what this ¡®soul structure¡¯ is. The point is, a soul must be rtively stable to exist in this world. Otherwise, it will dwindle away andpletely vanish.¡±

    ¡°So this ¡®stable structure¡¯ meant¡ª¡± Angor realized something.

    ¡°Stable soul energy, if my assumption stands.¡±

    ¡°I see. So Eyki ¡®died¡¯ because he didn¡¯t have enough stable energy?¡±

    ¡°Should be. ording to your research, about 80% of that soul was made of stable energy, which was far from enough for a soul to stay safe.¡±

    ¡°Then how much stable energy should he have for me to be able to use my Prelude to Elimination on him without killing him?¡±

    ¡°Ness told me before. He said that the stable energy proportion must exceed 98%.¡±

    Ny-eight? Angor quickly did some mental calctions to see how to achieve that energy amount.

    ¡°Using all six bullets...¡± He soon reached an answer. If every subsequent bullet cut the negative energy inside an undead soul to half, this was what he needed to make that happen.

    ¡°Right. The second purpose of your Prelude to Rebirth is using all the bullets it collected to save a fallen undead,¡± said Sunders, ¡°which is not that bad for a semi-Mystery item, as long as you can ept the great cost.¡±

    The cost of using this effect was indeed great since Angor needed to eliminate roughly 12,000 undead souls just to save one.

    ¡°It might not be that useful,¡± Sunders continued speaking, ¡°but at least youpletely invalidated a theorem used for a long time in this world. If you don¡¯t mind revealing the true effect of your weapon, you can try publishing an article on The Mirror, after which the other magazines will soon help you spread your knowledge. Of course, this is for you to decide.¡± It seemed that Sunders didn¡¯t n to take any credit from the work of his student.

    ¡°I¡¯ll... think about it. Even if I¡¯m to publish this, it will have to wait until I return from the Old Earth.¡± Angor didn¡¯t seem happy about his experiment since the effect he discovered was almost worthless to him.

    ¡°Can I do something useful with this effect?¡± Angor tried to send his imagination wild and soon got a new idea. ¡°Professor, are there any really powerful ancient wizards who ended up as fallen undead so that I can save their souls¡ª¡±

    ¡°So they¡¯ll be grateful and suddenly offer to teach you their legacy, which in turn helps you be a legendary wizard like them and conquer the world?¡± Sunders chuckled.

    Angor nodded with a bright smile.

    ¡°Wake up, it¡¯s not the time for sweet dreams yet. While wizards might be undead if they¡¯re unlucky enough, it¡¯s almost impossible for truth-finders to fall, let alone legendaries. With enough strength and knowledge, people will know what it means to be fallen souls, and they will make sure it doesn¡¯t happen upon their death.¡±

    ¡°Er, so I put so much work on my Prelude to Rebirth just topose an article for people to read?¡± Angor looked a bit defeated.

    ¡°This ¡®article¡¯ of yours willpletely deny an existing theory as well as a great many people who feel proud for establishing that theory, while your name will get known by wizards. Is that not enough?¡±

    Of course not! Angor yelled in his mind. I want an ¡°actual¡± profit!

    ¡°Who knows, maybe you¡¯ll need this effect one day. After you¡¯vepleted your thesis, there might be wizards who¡¯lle and request for your service, by which time you¡¯re free to ask for a price.¡±

    In Sunders¡¯ view, every item served a purpose in this world. Perhaps Angor¡¯s weapon would disy its true value one day.

    ¡°I¡¯m leaving Brute Cavern in a few days.¡± Sunders suddenly changed the subject. ¡°I¡¯ve reactivated the defenses around Phantom Ind fully, while you have full control of them. If you need to leave the ind as well, tell Goode to handle the rest.¡±

    When he heard this, Angor quickly took out the illusion items he just crafted.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Sunders watched in confusion as his student filled his study with a bunch of crystal balls.

    ¡°Alchemy illusions with manifestations of Mystery, sir.¡±

    ¡°I see, but why crystal balls?¡±

    Angor maintained a straight face. ¡°I didn¡¯t put much effort into their outer shapes, so I can make them faster. You prefer such a design, right, sir?¡±

    Did I ever tell him that? Sunders was left speechless.

    ¡°Oh, and,¡± Angor continued, ¡°I didn¡¯t leave my signature on them either, so you know, to save time.¡±

    Again, Sunders remained silent.

    Yeah, you don¡¯t want people to see your signatures on these poorly-made items. I get you.

    ¡°Ahem, Angor, while it is true that I don¡¯t know much about alchemy, I believe dedicated craftsmen like you should not stop seeking creativity.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t convinced. Surely all alchemists would need to do hasty jobs asionally?

    He made sure that he dumped thest ¡°crystal ball¡± from his bracelet as he said, ¡°I didn¡¯t have much time to check every illusion, but I¡¯m sure they almost contained every type of manifestation I can think of. I also used different materials, so the manifestationsst for different durations once triggered. Are these enough as samples, sir?¡±

    ¡°Mystery means unknown, something we cannotpletely understand. There is never such a thing as ¡®too many¡¯.¡± Sunders looked around his now cramped study. ¡°I¡¯m afraid these aren¡¯t enough for us topletelyprehend the manifestations, but I should be able to figure out more useful clues. I¡¯ll get to it soon and tell you the result before departure.¡±

    After receiving a brief lesson about Illusionist spells as well as how to choose a secondary subject, Angor stepped out of Sunders¡¯ room.

    While heading back to his bedroom, he saw Flora floating across the hallway and moving toward Sunders¡¯ study. She was not alone¡ªSpivet was following behind.

    While moving past each other, Flora briefly stopped and gave Angor a thoughtful look.

    Angor greeted her politely while feeling a bit anxious. He was a little worried that Flora might want to know how he helped Greya.

    Flora spoke up with a bright smile, ¡°Since you gave your ¡®alchemy illusion¡¯ to a guest, surely I can have one as well? I really want to check it out because your illusion¡ª¡±

    ¡°Flora,¡± a low, hoarse voice suddenly came to them. Flora froze up mid-speech.

    ¡°Professor, you¡¯re making me really curious here,¡± Flora said toward Sunders¡¯ study, from where the voice just came.

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, feel free to ask Angor to make you one. Of course, prepare your payment.¡±

    ¡°Of course, professor. Equivalent exchange, I know that.¡±

    ¡°You know, when Leona¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, the essence of Glutton Flower Lord? I didn¡¯t know that thing¡¯s so expensive, and Leona kinda tricked me!¡±

    Despite her words, it didn¡¯t seem Flora was ming Leona for not telling her the true value of the essence she extracted from Angor.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have anything to give you right now.¡± Flora looked at Angor again. ¡°I¡¯ll talk about it when I find a chance.¡±

    Angor slowly nodded.

    ¡°Oh, and,¡± Flora continued, ¡°I need to tell you something else too, but I¡¯m kinda in a hurry right now, so... maybeter!¡±

    Flora then floated away while Spivet followed behind her after showing Angor a cunning smile.

 Chapter 688 - Glamor

    <h4>Chapter 688: mor</h4>

    Inside his bedroom, Angor noted his own findings as well as the final conclusion provided by Sunders in his notebook.

    He wasn¡¯t going to publish an article about the effect of Prelude to Rebirth right now, but he would like to carefully record everything he learned so that they wouldn¡¯t slip from his mind in the long run.

    This marked the end of his experiment, which presented him with an ¡°eptable¡± result.

    Next, he took out Sunders¡¯ notebook that contained various subjects rted to the art of illusion.

    Sunders had urged him many times that he should determine a ¡°domain¡± to focus on, and he wished to learn a little of every domain before making his decision.

    He had already studied many skills that originated from different domains until now, such as Acoustic Illusion and Sorcery Array. ording to Sunders¡¯ notes, he had three remaining domains that he never looked at, Mirage, Truth Maniption, and Transformation.

    He wished to get to these subjects while Sunders was still here so that he would have a chance to receive pointers from Sunders.

    Since Sunders was going to depart in several days, he probably only had time to briefly look into one subject, which meant he needed to determine which one to go for right now.

    Mirage users knew how to manipte environmental elements, such as temperature and weather, thus creating powerful illusions that relied on nature. Also, the art of Mirage was one of the two Illusionist domains that could create ¡°world illusions¡±.

    Truth Maniption was an art that confused ¡°real¡± and ¡°fake¡± to trick victims.

    Meanwhile, users of the art of Transformation were masters of details and disguise, who had observed enough in this world to bring out any illusions at their will.

    Among these three domains, Mirage was known as the most difficult one, but this only applied to initial studies. An Illusionist with enough time could always study all three, provided that they were talented enough to do so.

    After careful consideration, Angor decided to choose Transformation as his current goal. The reason was quite simple¡ªTransformation was the only domain hepletely had no idea of right now, which meant he needed Sunders¡¯ lessons for it.

    As for the other two subjects... The legacy left by Erdus contained knowledge of Mirage, and Sumesh was a truth-finder wizard who majored in Truth Maniption, who would soon return to Brute Cavern, and hopefully, he could give Angor some help.

    This was why Angor would try to study Transformation while Sunders was still with him.

    The first thing he needed to do was to learn basic Transformation cantrips.

    The first cantrip he needed to know was ¡°mor¡±, a level-2 cantrip used for shifting one¡¯s appearance into that of another individual or animal.

    Angor could achieve simr results by using his basic cantripsbined with nightmare illusions, but he still had to study this cantrip as it was the foundation that supported the entire skill system of Transformation.

    Apart from taking on someone¡¯s appearance, mor had another important effect that concealed illusion nodes so that people could not easily see through the illusion.

    Moreover, most Transformation cantrips, including several spells, highly depended on hiding illusion nodes or sometimes making illusions without leaving illusion nodes behind.

    Angor found the cantrip to be very useful to him as it could further improve his safety when hiding from someone using Infinite Reticence because those who saw through his Infinite Reticence would end up looking at a disguised face.

    He spent the entire afternoon reading the essentials of mor. Someone suddenly knocked on his door at nightfall.

    ¡°Mister Padt, the student of Miss Flora wishes to see you. He¡¯s currently waiting for you in the guest room. Should I tell him to leave?¡± It was Butler Goode who was waiting at Angor¡¯s door.

    ¡°Spivet?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°What does he want?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Mister Padt. I saw Miss Flora leaving the mansion without him.¡±

    ¡°I see. Let me get changed first.¡±

    A whileter, Angor entered the guest room on the second floor and saw Spivet, who was using the body of a handsome young man, taking it easy on a sofa while enjoying a fruit prepared by Goode.

    From that smile and his rxed manners, Spivet seemed to be quite satisfied with his new body.

    Also, Spivet was already a level-1 apprentice now. In fact, he reached this level faster than Angor did.

    Angor entered the door and took a seat across to Spivet. ¡°You want to see me?¡±

    Spivet swallowed the unfinished fruit and gave Angor a casual nce. ¡°It¡¯s Flora who wants to tell you something. I¡¯m just her messenger.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°Are you really going to refer to your professor by calling her name like that?¡±

    ¡°Oh chill, no need to be so tensed up. Social rules are for the right asions, but she¡¯s not here right now. Just rx.¡±

    Angor did not protest. It seemed that Spivet had not fully learned how to behave as an apprentice in order not to anger a wizard.

    ¡°So, what did Miss Flora want to tell me?¡± Angor chose to get to the point rather than wasting his time arguing with Spivet.

    ¡°We can talk about thatter. Now, tell me, what¡¯s the deal with that ¡®alchemy illusion¡¯ that made so much fuss around here?¡±

    ¡°What does that have to do with you?¡±

    Spivet narrowed his eyes and leaned back with his arms spread on the back of the sofa. ¡°Is it that you don¡¯t want to tell me, or is there a moreplex reason?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t change his in expression. ¡°Is that what Miss Flora wants to know?¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s just me.¡± Spivet grinned.

    ¡°Then I have no reason to tell you. Or are you talking to me as the mighty wizard ¡®Gragg¡¯?¡±

    Spivet¡¯s smile instantly disappeared¡ªAngor was reminding him NOT to forget who he was right now.

    Spivet stared at Angor. Just as Angor thought this man was going to turn violent, Spivet suddenly revealed a charming smile.

    ¡°Come on, Angor, my dear. Can¡¯t you just satisfy this little wish of mine?¡±

    The way he said it immediately gave Angor goosebumps. Angor now understood why people, including those from Gragg¡¯s organization¡ªEdge of Night¡ªwould like to avoid mentioning Gragg¡¯s name and his title, the ¡°Little Imp¡±. This man was shameless! So shameless that it was a miracle that he became a wizard at all.

    When Angor didn¡¯t answer, Spivet continued ¡°pleading¡± with a pair of puppy eyes. ¡°Pleeease. I promise I won¡¯t tell anyone else.¡±

    Angor tried to roll his eyes but decided to stop. ¡°If you really want to know, go to the Remnant Auction at the Month of Looming Frost. I¡¯m going to sell an alchemy illusion item there.¡±

    Spivet was still using the ¡°adorable act¡±. ¡°We¡¯re both students of Phantom Master, well, in a way. Don¡¯t be a stranger! Alright, mate?¡±

    Angor responded to Spivet¡¯s attempts withplete silence.

    Spivet¡¯s lips twitched a little. ¡°Okay, now I¡¯m sure your illusion MUST have something special, and it isn¡¯t mentioned in the rumors.¡±

    Again, Angor watched Spivet quietly as if he was looking at an idiot chatting with himself.

    ¡°Fine, fine! Remnant Coast, right? As the buyer of your item, of course I cane and ask you questions about it, eh?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s talk after you really win the item,¡± said Angor.

    By which time you¡¯ll no longer find me in Brute Cavern, he thought.

    Spivet finally found it impossible to breach Angor¡¯s stubbornness and chose to talk about what he came for today.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing biggie. Flora meant to ask for your help, when you have time, that is.¡±

    ...

    After Spivet left, Angor remained on the sofa and thought about what he had just heard with a frustrated look. He was woken up from his thoughts when Goode brought a ss of liquid extracted from the Milkberry Tree.

    ¡°No, thanks... You can give it to Hobbiton,¡± said Angor as he walked toward the door.

    Goode was a little surprised as this was the first time he saw Angor reject milk. He then checked and noticed that Angor was leaving Phantom Ind instead of returning to his bedroom.

    ¡°Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Hey, Grandfather, what¡¯s wrong with Mister Padt?¡± Hobbiton was somehow standing right next to Goode.

    Goode knocked Hobbiton¡¯s head. ¡°How many times do I have to tell you? Don¡¯t call me that while we are on this ind!¡±

    Hobbiton made a duck face. ¡°I-okay, gran-Mister Goode. Is something wrong? You were talking about Mister Padt¡¯s name while no one¡¯s around.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Goode handed the ss to Hobbiton. ¡°You can have this. It¡¯s a gift from Mister Padt.¡±

 Chapter 689 - Avatar Puppet

    <h4>Chapter 689: Avatar Puppet</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop.

    There was no delivery or stockpile work today, and it was almost nighttime. The shop had no customers, so Dave left his post and went to his workbench. He nned to see if he could mix additional materials into a ¡°Tang Dao¡± in order to grant extra effects to the weapon.

    Compared to enchantment, the process of synthesis was a lot slower. However, synthesis had a way better chance of triggering the secondary effects of materials, and as long as one could find valuable materials, they could apply greater effects.

    Bit by bit, Dave melted the chunk of metal in his hand. He then weaved the liquid into a cluster of strings before carefully sending them into the me.

    He widened his eyes in excitement when the de took on a bright glimmer like the stars.

    ¡°I did it!¡±

    He lifted the weapon in his hand and sliced at a touchstone nearby.

    The shallow cut suggested that the de was only non-tiered, but this was not important¡ªDave was d that he discovered white frost around the cut, which meant the weapon now contained freezing power, just as he expected.

    ¡°Since I can give more properties to my creations, I can try making tiered items next!¡± Dave eximed happily.

    But his smile disappeared when the Tang Dao in his hand suddenly scattered into scraps and dropped to the floor while leaving several streams of cold air behind.

    Dave remained agape for a while and shook his head. ¡°Gosh. Again...¡±

    He crouched down to check what exactly was going on with the materials.

    ¡°Let me see...¡± He lowered his goggles over his eyes and changed the lens into a pair of magnifying sses. ¡°The patterns are intact... Could it be that the different materials conflicted with each other?¡±

    Another clear voice suddenly spoke from behind him, ¡°That¡¯s not the case. You applied too much freezing effect.¡±

    Dave jerked his head back and saw someone in a ck gentleman suit sitting on a guest seat while looking at the broken weapon curiously.

    ¡°Hey, Angor!¡± Dave looked happy to see his friending, but he soon showed an embarrassed look and nced at the scrap metal at his feet. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t mind this. It¡¯s just a small test, and it... you know, didn¡¯t go well.¡±

    Angor stared at the shards that were releasing more white fog into the room. ¡°Meteorite, Starlight Iron, and Frost Sand. When used together, they provided too much freezing element which surpassed everything offered by the major materials so the item won¡¯t hold together.¡±

    Dave scratched his head. ¡°You mean I should decrease the number of freezing materials I used?¡±

    ¡°You can, but that will make the freezing effect on the final product miserable or even leave it with no effect at all.¡±

    ¡°What should I do then? Change the major materials to something stronger? But everything I used was non-tieredmon stuff, they should fit well.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s easy. Keep your Thaw longer to fully concentrate the freezing power into the weapon. This will also make the initial structure tighter.¡±

    Dave was a bit surprised at the simple suggestion. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it.¡±

    Dave tried to recall his previous attempts. As Angor said, he had been forging Tang Dao by using normal approaches without considering his extra materials.

    ¡°I see, I neglected a small matter that ruined all my efforts...¡± He gave Angor a grateful look. ¡°And wait, how did you know my Thawsted too short? Did youe to the shop as soon as I started crafting? You should have at least made some noise so that I would know you¡¯re here.¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°No, I just came.¡±

    ¡°Then how¡ª¡±

    Dave suddenly checked Angor¡¯s blue eyes, as well as the energy residues that were lingering on them.

    ¡°You can use Narda¡¯s Vision?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    Dave rubbed his temples. ¡°That exins it. But how did you learn all the necessary knowledge so fast? I mean, I came to Brute Cavern several years before you did, and I didn¡¯t exactly ck off. And I only read like... 10% of the books I need. Am I a joke to you?!¡±

    Again, Dave felt like a loser whenparing himself to Angor.

    He swept up the junk on the floor. Since he was so used to being shocked by Angor¡¯s speed of learning, he could easily calm himself down. He then removed his goggles and took a seat across to Angor.

    ¡°You know you¡¯ve be the ¡®hot stuff¡¯ in the entire organization now, right? There were tons of apprentices who kepting here and asked for my help to get in touch with you. They were either looking for customized weapons, or their teachers sent them here looking for alchemy illusions. Well, I just told them that I didn¡¯t know how to contact you and that you¡¯re going to sell an alchemy illusion item at the Remnant Auction, so that¡¯s where they should go.¡±

    ¡°Ah, so my item isn¡¯t going to be neglected?¡± Angor held his chin. He thought no one would buy his boring item since Dave told him that the Remnant Auction was one of the ¡°top-ss¡± auctions among wizards.

    ¡°That won¡¯t happen,¡± said Dave. ¡°Instead, I think the final bid will be quite scary. THE Lady Greya spoke highly of it!¡±

    ¡°Just so you know, Lady Greya¡¯s new spell had little to do with my illusion,¡± Angor exined.

    ¡°Yeah, I know. But you¡¯re not gonna convince the apprentices who believe otherwise. Those idiots... I mean, if the rumor is true, then we can mass-produce truth finders using your illusions! And if that¡¯s the case, we won¡¯t be talking peacefully at this shop here. Someone or even powerful wizards from other organizations would havee to get you.¡±

    Angor smiled helplessly. While what Dave said was still correct, the same disaster would still happen should his secret get exposed.

    ¡°So, why are you here at Prome¡¯s shop at a time like this?¡± asked Dave. ¡°You can always send a message or something, and I¡¯ll go find you at Phantom Ind so that you won¡¯t run into trouble.¡±

    Angor showed his bracelet. ¡°Nah, few people can catch me if I use this. I came to ask something.¡±

    Dave tilted his head and waited for Angor to continue.

    ¡°Have you heard of ¡®avatar puppet¡¯?¡± Angor sounded a bit uncertain.

    Dave nodded. ¡°Yeah, those one-use alchemy puppets. I heard they¡¯re made from a special bio-alchemy approach that¡¯s based on live animals or humans. It sounded cruel, but people usually use criminals on death row for it, so... not a big deal. Is this why you came here?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I want to know if there¡¯s a ce in Brute Cavern that is specifically for this purpose? Where they gathered up these ¡®criminals¡¯ and made them into puppets?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what that is. The criminals all need to receive a special bloodline to be puppets. If you¡¯re asking if there¡¯s any ce to inject this bloodline,... no, not that I heard of.¡± Dave gave Angor a puzzled look. He was not sure what Angor wanted to do.

    COMMENT

    ¡°There¡¯s not?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Just think, why would wizards need a ¡®prison¡¯ to contain criminals? That¡¯s a waste of resources and space,¡± said Dave. He then saw Angor getting disappointed and decided to ask, ¡°Mind telling me why you¡¯re asking?¡±

    Angor hesitated for a bit before he said, ¡°I have a... friend, who might be locked up somewhere like that.¡±

    ¡°Your friend? A criminal?¡±

    ¡°Crime?¡± Angor thought about his ¡°friend¡± and chuckled. ¡°Maybe. He can¡¯t deny his birth, which was his crime.¡±

    ¡°Is he... an important friend?¡±

    ¡°He once helped me with something, and I already repaid him. However, I don¡¯t want to see him being made into a puppet, so I want to see if I can do something to get him out.¡±

    <i>A helper?</i> Dave considered and quickly recalled a name. ¡°You mean Balba?¡±

    ¡°You know him?¡±

    ¡°Not really. Sailum mentioned him to me when we talked. Balba saved you from an assassin, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah... that¡¯s him.¡±

    Angor knew about Balba¡¯s sad fate from the start, but he never cared about it too much since Balba was mostly a stranger to him.

    However, things became a littleplicated when Spivet delivered a message to him, that Flora wanted his help to ¡°puppet-fy¡± Balba.

    This was only a trifle to Spivet or Flora, yet Angor really didn¡¯t wish to be the ¡°executioner¡± who would determine Balba¡¯s fate with his own hands.

    COMMENT

    Balba was sentenced to this sad end because he was a half-blood between a human and an otherworldly brute. Whenever Angor thought about this, he couldn¡¯t help but worry about Jon, who was a hundred percent an ¡°otherworldly intruder¡±.

    It was fine to just know Balba¡¯s fate. However, he was going to be the one who would end Balba¡¯s life. He could not convince himself to do this, especially when Balba helped him once.

    He decided to pay Balba a visitter. He did not know what he should tell Balba yet. He figured he would speak to him first and see what they could do from there.

 Chapter 690 - Trifle Matter

    <h4>Chapter 690: Trifle Matter</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Two hours ago.

    While using the same rxed manner, Spivet mentioned Flora¡¯s request.

    ¡°It¡¯s simple. Flora found herself a student some time ago, right? That halfbreed? Flora has never allowed him to enter Rockwell Venue. Now that she has a ¡®proper¡¯ student, which is me, that halfbreed is getting a little worked up. Since he¡¯s a level-2 apprentice now, Flora decided to give him a one-use bloodline and make him into a puppet, and you should be the one to do the final touches.¡±

    ¡°Balba didn¡¯t stay put when he saw you bing Miss Flora¡¯s student? What did he do?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Balba? That halfbreed is called Balba?¡±

    ¡°Answer me first.¡±

    ¡°Well, what else can he do? He slipped into Rockwell Venue and wouldn¡¯t go away. He tried to annoy Flora into teaching him. B*stard doesn¡¯t know who he is. He deserves to die.¡± Spivet yawned as he lost interest. ¡°Like I said, a simple matter. Just do it when you have the time to spare. Flora said she¡¯ll pay you a hundred crystals for it. I can tell you it¡¯s the average price for making a puppet. She isn¡¯t tricking you or something. Now I need to sleep...¡±

    Spivet stood up and was ready to leave.

    ¡°Where can I find Balba?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°He¡¯s taken somewhere to receive that one-use bloodline. Someone will bring him to you in a few days. After that, it¡¯s your decision when to finish him up.¡±

    ...

    The only clue Angor knew right now was Balba was going to get a ¡°one-use bloodline¡± against his will. This bloodline was usually used to create avatar puppets. There were many types too, but they all had a simr result, which was to grant the ¡°puppet¡± a deadly power at the cost of the puppet¡¯s life force. For example, the most popr puppet bloodline used in Brute Cavern was called the ¡°Bomb Shroom Bloodline¡±, which had another name¡ª¡±The Time Bomb¡±.

    Fully activating this bloodline meant killing enemies as well as the puppet itself, which also exined why such bloodlines were ¡°one-use¡±.

    This was always the purpose of an avatar puppet, which was to protect its master by sacrificing itself.

    Balba would have no future if he received this bloodline. There were ways to cleanse a bloodline inside one¡¯s body, but it was unlikely for Balba to have the know-how.

    Angor came to Dave with the hope of knowing where the bloodline injection would happen.

    Dave wasn¡¯t sure what Angor was trying to do. He whispered, ¡°You... wish to stop it from happening and get him out of there?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... I¡¯m going to talk to him. I want to see if he really deserves that oue.¡±

    ¡°Well, some people might have more ¡®crimes¡¯ than you think. But yeah, you should go and see for yourself first. He did save your life.

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure Brute Cavern doesn¡¯t have a facility for this but... I know who you should go to. He¡¯s probably the one who will administer the bloodline.¡±

    ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°Dumartin Bayer.¡±

    ...

    The wind disturbed the smoothke surface as well as the reflection of a handsome young man.

    The young man waited for a bit, made his decision, and leaped into theke water.

    When he opened his eyes again, he was looking at a legged iron house. A smalldder was being dropped from its elevated entrance.

    He climbed to the door and heard an old woman¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Paying me a visit at night, Angor?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Good evening, Iron Granny.¡±

    The old woman asked Angor to take a seat and ordered the iron house to start moving.

    Angor nced at the window and took a moment to observe the changing scenery.

    ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m not heading to myb today. I need to find someone in The Tributary.¡±

    Screeeech!

    The Iron Fortress came to a sudden halt and caused clouds of dust to cover the window. Iron Granny quickly went to her flowerpots to get rid of the unwanted sand inside them.

    ¡°Who are you looking for?¡± She gave Angor a curious look.

    ¡°It¡¯s Mister Dumartin, ma¡¯am.¡±

    Iron Granny stopped her action.

    ¡°¡®Miniature Creator¡¯ Dumartin?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°I told you the rules around this ce, and that recklessly wandering into someone else¡¯s territory can easily get you killed, right? I¡¯ll tell you something else too. That man, Dumartin, has a bad name among people. Very bad name.¡±

    The truth was, it was more than ¡°bad¡±. Dumartin was known as a mad wizard who loved doing experiments on people¡¯s brains. Each time he put a quest in the questing hall, even if only asking for a temporary assistant, no one would ept or even ask about it.

    Rumor had it that any apprentice brave enough to go to his ce would end up with their brain removed.

    ¡°I know, ma¡¯am. But I need to talk to Mister Dumartin about something.¡±

    Iron Granny saw Angor¡¯s hesitant look and ordered the Iron Fortress to remain still. ¡°Rumors are always different from facts. But... it¡¯s not wrong to say that Dumartin is dangerous. May I know why you are going to see him?¡±

    Iron Granny was never someone who would question another person¡¯s business. She asked because she quite liked this peaceful and generous child. If Angor was troubled by something, she wished to at least provide him with some suggestions.

    Angor decided to talk since he absolutely couldn¡¯t discuss this matter with Sunders. He felt it easier to mention his anxiety to someone he didn¡¯t know well, and in this case, Iron Granny was a perfect choice.

    ¡°It¡¯s about someone I know. He¡¯s called Balba, a half-blood...¡±

    He slowly exined everything revolving around the sad fate of Balba and his particr identity. He did not mention anything about Jon.

    Iron Granny listened quietly. She even stopped drinking her tea so that she wouldn¡¯t interrupt Angor¡¯s story.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... I want to visit Balba, but what should I tell him? He¡¯s from another world, and it can¡¯t be helped...¡±

    ¡°He is from another world, so he might be a spy, and letting him live will bring trouble to the wizarding world?¡± Iron Grannymented.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t believe so. But this is like the basic rule in this world, and I can¡¯t go against it.¡±

    Iron Granny smiled. ¡°There are enemies from thousands of different nes drooling over our wizardry knowledge. We absolutely should be on our guard. However, this excessive means of security that has killed many innocent ones just to find a potential threat is something we copied from the Supreme Cult. And the Supreme Cult... is not always right. Of course, I¡¯m not saying the cult is wrong. People just have different views about this.

    ¡°As I heard, there are many ¡®spies¡¯ sent by other nes who meant to steal our knowledge. There is even a scandal saying that the official authorities within the Song of the Deep are actually otherworldly invaders.

    ¡°With enough time, spies will easily get their hands on what they want. However, the great fame and might of wizards usually relied on truth-finder wizards to propagate. Do you think spies can copy the arts wielded by truth-finders?¡± Iron Granny smiled at Angor as she said, ¡°You just saw Greya creating a new spell the other day. She was creating her own path of wizardry, which cannot be imitated. Besides, if someone from a foreign ne discovers the path of truth, then they will no longer worry about the boundary between worlds. Things said, no one has ever heard about otherworldly beings bing truth-finders yet.¡±

    Iron Granny didn¡¯t mention that the demons from the Abyss ne were about to invade the southern wizarding region soon. To them, the secrets of wizardry were not secrets at all¡ªthese demons were more powerful than most wizards right at the beginning.

    Iron Granny looked at Angor in the eyes. ¡°You¡¯re worrying about Balba because you are tasked to be his enemy, or in this case, a killer. You don¡¯t want to refuse the task and vite the rules of this world. This is where you¡¯re wrong¡ªyou will not oppose this world by refusing. It is only the Supreme Cult who will be unhappy about this. Since most people in this world don¡¯t like the Supreme Cult, what you¡¯re doing is not a serious problem.

    ¡°I believe Flora won¡¯t mind something so unimportant. Take this Balba man away to safety if you wish to. It¡¯s just an avatar puppet. As an alchemist, you have enough to create something of equal value and pay Flora aspensation.¡±

    Iron Granny picked up her teacup and started drinking again while giving Angor time to think it over.

    Angor felt his mind getting clearer already. He didn¡¯t really care about foreign spies or whatnot, but Iron Granny¡¯s words had fully solved his burden.

    It was so right¡ªFlora didn¡¯t care what happened to Balba at all. She even allowed Balba to leave Brute Cavern freely. Just as Iron Granny said, in the worst case, he could ¡°buy¡± Balba¡¯s freedom by giving Flora something of value, and that was about it.

    Also, he just realized that most wizards did not care about the otherworldly invaders that much. So could he tell Sunders about Jon?

    He quickly shook his head to deny that idea.

    Jon was different. As wizards agreed, there were only humanoid races in foreign nes but not humans. Jon was a great exception as he came from another world that was full of humans. This had to remain a secret.

 Chapter 691 - Dumartin

    <h4>Chapter 691: Dumartin</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    An experienced elder like Iron Granny approached problems in this world with apletely different perspective, and it helped Angor see something he normally could not see.

    ¡°That answered your biggest question, didn¡¯t it?¡± said Iron Granny. ¡°However, it¡¯s still not easy to reach Dumartin¡¯s ce even if you want to.¡±

    Angor heard from Dave that Dumartin constantly stayed in aboratory inside The Tributary, but he didn¡¯t know the exact location.

    ¡°But... I can¡¯t just wait for Balba to be delivered to me. After getting that bloodline, he¡¯s as good as dead.¡±

    ¡°Dumartin might be willing to talk to you since you¡¯re a promising alchemist as well as Sunders¡¯ student, but you can¡¯t get to hisb as it is because he always puts countless deadly traps there. The best approach is to send him a message and wait for him to invite you inside. Yet... that man tends to ignore his messages when he¡¯s doing his research, which might take an entire year.¡± Iron Granny held her chin. ¡°Let me see... Since I don¡¯t have any other guestsing right now, I can send you there.¡±

    Even if Dumartin did not wish to talk to Angor, he wouldn¡¯t do anything harsh when Iron Granny was around.

    However, Angor wasn¡¯t sure if he should ept the help.

    ¡°If you want to repay my favor, just find some time and visit me more in the future so that I won¡¯t get too bored. Or you can send Toby. I miss the little guy,¡± said Iron Granny as she sipped more tea.

    Angor thanked her and took out a Monument Loop from his bracelet.

    This was supposed to be Toby¡¯s new toy, but Angor never found a chance to give it to Toby because the bird had been spending most of his time hanging out with the Moonlily Fairy.

    Angor decided to give it to Iron Granny as a present.

    ¡°Oh, this...¡± Iron Granny widened her eyes a little when she saw the appealing shape.

    ¡°This is Monument Loop, a... small curio. I made it. Hope you like it, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°For me?¡± Iron Granny inspected the item in her hand. ¡°Perhaps this is the rumored ¡®alchemy illusion¡¯ that everyone has been talking about?¡±

    ¡°It is an alchemy illusion, but this one is for passing time. There¡¯s nothing special in it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, so you think I¡¯m a lonely granny in her house who needs these things to survive?¡± Iron Granny faked a stern face.

    Angor quickly waved his hands. ¡°That¡¯s not it. It¡¯s just a decoration, like a music box.¡±

    Iron Granny chuckled. ¡°I¡¯ll take it then. I must say, I¡¯m as curious as the rest of the people about the illusions that you produced.¡±

    Angor saw her putting the item away and sighed in relief. He knew Iron Granny wasn¡¯t ¡°scolding¡± him for real, but he still felt a bit stressful nevertheless.

    While the Iron Fortress headed to Dumartin¡¯sboratory under Iron Granny¡¯smand, she took the chance to ask several questions regarding Angor¡¯s Monument Loop.

    From Angor¡¯s exnations, she learned that the item contained a game called the Monument Valley. Also, it seemed that Sunders loved this game for some reason. Angor didn¡¯t mean to tell her about this¡ªhis tongue slipped.

    Compared to the game, Iron Granny was more interested in the ¡°loop¡± itself. The paradox-like design gave her a strange feeling that she might be able to create a new spell out of it.

    She didn¡¯t have time to explore the illusion because the Iron Fortress had already arrived at their destination¡ªan entrance between mountains that seemed to be covered behind a blood-red fog.

    ¡°We¡¯re here, Dumartin¡¯s etherealboratory,¡± Iron Granny said and took Angor out of the iron house.

    As soon as they stepped out of the door, Angor smelled the stink of blood in the air.

    The trees around them were already tainted in red. However, instead of withering in the polluted air, they were growing bigger than normal.

    Across the red fog, Angor managed to see the faint silhouettes of several buildings.

    ¡°Dumartin has an obsession with cutting things up. People said that he loves dissecting brains, right? That part is true. But instead of using human brains, he prefers doing research on animal brains or those extracted from otherworldly creatures. ¡®Human bodies aren¡¯t worth my attention¡¯ or so he said.¡±

    ¡°That sounds like...¡±

    ¡°Like something the Karabits would do, right?¡±

    Angor nodded. Asmonly known, Karabits were natural scientists who loved biological experiments.

    ¡°Dumartin is not a Karabit,¡± Iron Granny continued, ¡°he is a pure homo sapien, like you and me.¡±

    She stopped moving. She then lifted a hand and unleashed a light spot into the blood fog.

    The fog split and revealed a path. At the same time, a man¡¯s voice reached their ears.

    ¡°Come on in, Granny. Do forgive me, but I¡¯m in the middle of an important process, so I can¡¯t go there and wee you personally.¡±

    Iron Granny nodded to Angor. ¡°Let¡¯s go. The fog is the deadliest trap around here. Careful not to touch it.¡±

    Iron Granny stepped onto the path, and Angor quickly followed her. As they walked, the fog barrier slowly closed up behind them.

    The path wasn¡¯t long. However, the walk wasn¡¯t easy as Angor sensed a terrible sensation that was assaulting his skin. Also, he could hear creatures that were hidden behind the fog. He could also feel their hot breaths.

    When they reached what seemed to be Dumartin¡¯sb, the path behind hadpletely closed off. Once again, the red fog had covered up everything.

    Theb door wasn¡¯t locked. Iron Granny pushed it open and walked inside.

    The ¡°default¡± setup for the ground floor of an etherealboratory should be an empty hall without any research equipment. But here, Dumartin ced a lot of cultivation chambers all over the ce.

    A round desk and several simple bar stools were scattered in the middle of the hall, and on top of the desk was a steaming teapot. Apparently, Dumartin left them here for his guests.

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait for him,¡± Iron Granny said as she sat down on a stool.

    Angor, however, wasn¡¯t in the mood to enjoy tea. His attention was on an individual who was sealed inside a cultivation chamber nearby.

    COMMENT

    Inside the pale yellow nutrient liquid, a naked man rested peacefully as if he had just epted a painless death. The man had extraordinary muscles, which should have made him look amazing, if not for a good number of suture scars, which suggested that someone had ¡°opened him up¡± not long ago.

    ¡°Oh? Is that who you are looking for?¡± Iron Granny left her stool and joined Angor.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Angor nodded slightly. ¡°He is Balba.¡±

    Iron Granny¡¯s eyes glowed as she inspected Balba¡¯s form. ¡°I see... Yes, he has the blood of an alien species. But that soul... His soul is extremely pure, like untainted snow. How could someone like him be a spy?¡±

    ¡°You know he¡¯s not a spy, ma¡¯am?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m certain of it. Those who plot against the wizarding world usually use pure-blood humans as moles. A half-blood like this one is not fit to be apetent spy.¡±

    ¡°So... Balba is not a ¡®criminal¡¯.¡±

    Iron Granny looked away. ¡°The only crime for him is that he cannot choose how he was born. This is unavoidable, and it is not a severe offense. However... it is enough to be the reason that dragged him into his misery.¡±

    Angor sighed in his mind. <i>Unavoidable fates...</i>

    The world¡¯s consciousness of this world did not think or judge. It solely allowed things that provided benefit to this world while expelling those harmful to this world. This was also the exact belief of the Supreme Cult¡ªeven if they had to kill countless innocent people, they would consider it ¡°beneficial¡± if they could find a single ¡°true target¡± during their mad hunt, and those sacrificed were nothingpared to the general good.

    Angor grimaced as he looked at Balba¡¯s stitches. ¡°Am I toote?¡±

    ¡°Not really,¡± said Iron Granny, ¡°the bloodline of Bomb Shroom is already nted inside him. But his mind...¡± She checked Balba¡¯s brain, which was the only part free of stitches. ¡°His mind is still unharmed.¡±

    ¡°But... he won¡¯t get far with that dangerous bloodline in him.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m d he¡¯s alive though. That means this isn¡¯t the end yet.¡±

    They heard footsteps behind them.

    Angor turned around and saw a tall and slim shadow emerging from the depth of a hallway.

    ¡°Good evening, Granny,¡± the man bowed slightly to Iron Granny. His bright voice, as well as his refined posture, suggested that he was quite a man of good manners.

    ¡°Well, hello, Dumartin. Am I interrupting something?¡±

    Angor looked at Dumartin and realized that the actual image of this man was way different from his presumptions. As far as he could see, Dumartin was a schrly gentleman wearing a pair of gold-rimmed sses who probably loved knowledge rather than violence.

    But that impression didn¡¯tst long.

    After greeting Iron Granny, Dumartin nced at Angor and showed a hearty grin.

    ¡°Did you bring more fertilizer for me to get rid of, Granny?¡±

 Chapter 692 - Perspective and Freedom

    <h4>Chapter 692: Perspective and Freedom</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The ¡°fertilizer¡± revealed an embarrassed smile and bowed to Dumartin. ¡°Mister Dumartin, my name is An¡ª¡±

    Dumartin lifted a hand and interrupted Angor, ¡°I¡¯m not interested in your name, and I don¡¯t remember allowing you to speak.¡±

    A sharp de suddenly materialized in the air and aimed at Angor¡¯s neck, which caused his body to go stiff from fear.

    Dumartin did not order the de to attack Angor yet. The tensionsted for two minutes until Angor felt his calves going numb, and hisposure was breaking down really fast.

    Iron Granny frowned. When she put a hand on Angor¡¯s arm, Angor felt a stream of gentle energy chasing his fear away.

    He lost his bnce when the pressure was suddenly lifted. Since he leaned on the cultivation chamber behind him in time, he did not fall on the floor.

    ¡°Satisfied, Dumartin?¡± Iron Granny said casually. ¡°He suffered enough.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t take this the wrong way, Granny. Of course I¡¯m d to see you here. I was simply giving this ill-mannered apprentice a small punishment.¡± Dumartin waved a hand and dispelled the floating knife.

    Angor breathed heavily when he heard a voice transmission from Iron Granny.

    ¡°He¡¯s frustrated that we interrupted his work. And he cannot vent out that frustration on me, so you¡¯re his only target. Don¡¯t worry, he won¡¯t harm you. And we must admit that we came at a bad time.¡±

    Angor slowly nodded.

    Dumartin had no problem ¡°listening¡± to their low-levelmunication cantrip, but the man didn¡¯t say anything about it.

    Dumartin waited for Iron Granny to finish her message before he said, ¡°So, what brings you to my humble ce, Granny?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not me. HE has something to tell you.¡±

    Iron Granny pointed to Angor. She then sat down on a stool away from them while pretending that she was only here to watch.

    In Dumartin¡¯s view, it was obvious that Iron Granny escorted the apprentice here to support him. Dumartin meant topletely destroy Angor¡¯s confidence by that disy of might, but Iron Granny stopped him, which meant she wasn¡¯t here to ¡°watch only¡±.

    And that got Dumartin really curious. Iron Granny was a very special presence in the organization. She usually remained neutral no matter what happened among other wizards. Why would she suddenly decide to assist an apprentice?

    He remained silent and waited for Angor to calm his nerves.

    Angor took a brief moment to calm his breath before he said, ¡°Mister Dumartin, I came to retrieve Balba at Miss Flora¡¯s request.¡±

    ¡°Flora?¡± Dumartin frowned as he thought about that name. ¡°I see,<i> you</i> are that new student she found?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Angor Padt, Mister Dumartin. I¡¯m a student of Phantom Master.¡±

    Angor wasining in his mind at the same time. <i>Weren¡¯t you uninterested in who I am just a second ago?</i>

    ¡°Ho... so you¡¯re Angor.¡±

    Dumartin spent most of his time inside hisb, but he wasn¡¯tpletely ¡°shut-off¡± from the outside world. asionally, there were apprentices who would deliver test subjects and resources to him, as well as information. Of course he knew the rumors traveling around Brute Cavern recently.

    Simr to others, even though Angor was still a weak apprentice, Dumartin didn¡¯t want to get on the bad side of a ¡°possible¡± master alchemist. A researcher like him was very likely toe across situations when he would need an alchemist¡¯s help.

    Dumartin felt a bit regretful. He shouldn¡¯t have treated the boy so aggressively back there.

    ¡°Mister Dumartin? May I take Balba away?¡± Angor asked again.

    Dumartin wondered why Angor asked so. In a few days, he would brainwash Balba and deliver him to Flora as a cultivated puppet. But it was not the right time now.

    He considered and decided not to ask. Balba was just another worthless puppet¡ªFlora wouldn¡¯t care about the oue.

    ¡°Sure.¡± Dumartin remotely opened the lid of the cultivation chamber behind Angor.

    Balba opened his eyes.

    ¡°Get out. Someone¡¯s here to collect you.¡±

    Balba still looked dazed. Out of instinct, he slowly climbed out of the yellow liquid and stood on the floor while drops of glowing liquid fell from his body.

    ¡°Angor...?¡± Balba then slowly looked at Angor with unfocused eyes.

    Angor quickly took out a random robe from his bracelet and covered Balba up.

    ¡°We¡¯ll talkter,¡± he whispered.

    Next, Angor walked to Dumartin and bowed politely.

    ¡°Just so you know, one out of two criminals sent here will die during the bloodline injection,¡± Dumartin said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you want with him but... whatever.¡±

    Dumartin then took out a transmitter and handed it to Angor. ¡°Use this if you want to find me again. You don¡¯t have to bother Iron Granny. Now, I have an experiment to do, so I¡¯m afraid you have to leave on your own.¡±

    Dumartin¡¯s hurried steps suggested that it wasn¡¯t an excuse.

    Angor and Iron Granny were walking away from the fog-infested mountains when Iron Granny suddenly chuckled. ¡°That Dumartin boy... He was trying to do you a favor, but he did a poor job at it.¡±

    ¡°He... did?¡±

    ¡°Remember what he said in the end? If this Balba man you seek died for some reason, then it can be exined because it¡¯smon for puppet production to fail. Dumartin is a smart man. He knew something was not right when you asked to take Balba away ahead of schedule.¡±

    Angor still didn¡¯t understand why Dumartin would help him. Was it because of Sunders?

    ¡°No, Dumartin is not interested in Sunders. It was because of <i>you,</i>¡± Iron Granny continued. ¡°Wizards are all wise enough to realize what it means to befriend an alchemist. Well, maybe except for some really strange individuals. People might not like Dumartin¡¯s character, but he¡¯s clever enough to see your value.¡±

    Within several minutes, the Iron Fortress took them to the entrance of The Tributary.

    ¡°What will you do next?¡± Iron Granny asked before sending Angor to the portal. ¡°You¡¯re free to follow up on Dumartin¡¯s intention, which will save you some trouble.¡±

    COMMENT

    She meant to say that Angor could simply help Balba escape from Brute Cavern and tell others that Balba died at Dumartin¡¯sb, in which case he did not need topensate Flora at all.

    But Angor didn¡¯t wish to do so. It was so obvious that owing Dumartin was a bigger problem.

    ¡°Thank you for all the wise advice, Granny. I¡¯m going to be frank with Miss Flora and my professor about this matter. As for the rest, I¡¯ll let Balba decide for himself.¡±

    ...

    While walking away from The Tributary, Angor nced at Balba, who had been awfully quiet till now.

    ¡°Do you know what¡¯s going on?¡±

    Balba¡¯s eyes had regained their rity, but he looked extremely sad, which didn¡¯t sit well on his wild look.

    ¡°Thanks for getting me out...¡± he said as he lowered his head. ¡°You know, not long after I came to Brute Cavern, I saw a book in the Cloud Library. I read about the creed of the Supreme Cult. By that time, I already knew what would happen to me in the future. I¡¯ve been working very hard to change my fate. But... it turns out that I can do nothing. I am nothing.¡±

    ¡°What are you going to do from now on?¡±

    ¡°You went through a lot of trouble until this point, am I right? Just... take me to Miss Flora. I don¡¯t want to bother you any more than what has already happened.¡±

    ¡°There was no trouble in helping you. You saved my life before, remember?¡±

    One¡¯s avable choices highly depended on their strength and perception. Angor would not risk himself just to assist Balba if he were still the helpless apprentice from several years ago. But right now, he was capable of providing help while avoiding danger, and he was determined to aid Balba as long as it was within his power.

    ¡°I know it was you who gave me that channeling method book. We are already even on that one,¡± Balba said as he looked up at Flora¡¯s floating ind¡ªthe Rockwell Venue. ¡°I owe you too much... Take me to Miss Flora, please. Let¡¯s end this here.¡±

    ¡°At times, we just don¡¯t have many choices. But no matter what is going on, do not give up your life so easily. If you lose all hope, then fate will push you to your doom.¡± Angor tried to persuade Balba. ¡°You still have a chance to live on. Do you really wish to abandon it?¡±

    Balba¡¯s body twitched.

    ¡°I... want to live. More than everyone!¡±

    ¡°Follow me then. Grasp your own fate so that I can still get some payment off youter.¡± Angor took out his Gond and asked Balba to get on.

    <i>Grasp my fate... Is that even possible for me? </i>Balba clenched his fists. After giving Flora¡¯s ind a final, determined look, he jumped onto Angor¡¯s boat.

 Chapter 693 - Balbaâ€™s Decision

    <h4>Chapter 693: Balba¡¯s Decision</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Just as Iron Granny said, Balba¡¯s matter was never worth the concern. When Angor reported the matter to Sunders, the gentleman simply told him to ¡°deal with it on his own, as he saw fit¡±.

    In fact, there were many ¡°guests¡± who were currently residing at Phantom Ind, such as Nano the Fibber, and yet Sunders never cared. Since Iron Granny imed that Balba was very unlikely to be a spy from another ne, there was no reason for Sunders to worry about him.

    Simrly, Flora didn¡¯t seem interested in Angor¡¯s choice either. Instead, she was d that she got rid of the unwanted burden AND she received another promise from Angor. Double gain!

    Without any hesitation, Flora allowed Angor to take Balba away, on the condition that Angor had to give her an alchemy illusion item like the one he gave to Greya. Apparently, Flora would like to search for an opportunity in Angor¡¯s illusion so that she could be a truth-finder wizard as well.

    ¡°From today, this half-breed has absolutely nothing to do with me,¡± said Flora.

    This meant Balba was left with no professor like Dave, and he had to find everything on his own. Butpared to Balba, Dave was still lucky that he had alchemy talent, which was acknowledged by Prome. On the other hand, Balba was a Bloodline Art apprentice who had a ¡°suicidal bloodline¡± inside his body. He basically had nothing to rely on apart from his raw strength.

    In other words, Balba was hopeless. And for this, no wizard would ept him as a student.

    Two dayster, Angor handed another brooch to Flora. This one was not designed based on Toby. Instead, he made a blood-red rose to go with Flora¡¯s image.

    The inspiration came from all the roses he received from Little Red. He named this item ¡°ret Rosette¡±. Though it looked different from Twinning Wings, the alchemy illusion inside was almost the same, just without the manifestation of Mystery.

    Before this ¡°trade¡±, Angor never expected that he could buy Balba¡¯s freedom so easily. Once again, he was reminded of the fact that a person¡¯s life was nothing in a world dominated by wizards. Lives were chips on the table, which could be used for bargaining purposes.

    After returning from Flora¡¯s ind, Angor arrived at Apprentice Town and met with Balba.

    ¡°Okay, you¡¯re free now. What will you do now? Are you staying at Brute Cavern or going somewhere?¡±

    If he chose to stay, Balba would get to study wizardry, but he would not receive any help. He could probably find money from random quests and use the ie to rent books from Cloud Library.

    The Bomb Shroom Bloodline in his body was not meant to improve his abilities. On the contrary, it would prevent him from studying many useful bloodline cantrips. He might choose to return to the mortal world and spend the rest of his life as a level-2 apprentice. In Angor¡¯s view, this was the better choice since the Supreme Cult probably wouldn¡¯t bother to search for him among mortals.

    ¡°I¡¯m staying.¡±

    Balba¡¯s answer was quick.

    Angor wasn¡¯t surprised. He could see Balba¡¯s determination when this man risked his life just to receive Flora¡¯s teaching.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor wasn¡¯t going to judge Balba. Besides, Balba was always free to change his mindter.

    ¡°I know I don¡¯t have much to do in the organization now, but... I need to pay you back,¡± said Balba as he took out a scroll from his pocket.

    Angor epted the scroll and checked. It was a magical pact. It seemed that Balba was willing to be Angor¡¯s alchemy familiar and offer his absolute loyalty for the remainder of his life.

    Balba already left his name on the parchment.

    Angor returned the scroll to Balba, much to thetter¡¯s confusion. ¡°I don¡¯t need you to serve me.¡±

    Balba looked down in distress.

    ¡°You know, it might be slim, but you still have some hope if you work hard enough. To be someone¡¯s familiar means that you¡¯vepletely given up on your future. I know you want to repay me, but do you think you have anything I need as a level-2 apprentice?

    ¡°Keep moving. Brute Cavern is a nice ce full of surprises. Maybe you will find a great destiny one day.¡± Angor put a hand on Balba¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t abandon yourself yet. No one can predict your future for you. You gotta earn it.¡±

    After confusing Balba with several encouraging stories, which included Nausica¡¯s awe-inspiring journey, Angor left him.

    Balba probably believed that he would never achieve anything at this rate, so he could only pay Angor back using his entire life. However, Angor wouldn¡¯t ept that oue. He prevented Balba from bing someone¡¯s tool and preferred that it stayed that way.

    But the truth was, Angor didn¡¯t have much hope about Balba despite all the encouragement he said.

    ...

    Angor returned to Phantom Ind and began to study mor under Sunders¡¯ instruction. It took him about ten days to grasp the basics of this cantrip.

    Today, he was called to Sunders¡¯ study.

    ¡°I almost finished inspecting your new samples,¡± said Sunders as he handed a stack of papers to Angor. ¡°Find a time and read this by yourself. There aren¡¯t many new discoveries apart from what we already assumed. I¡¯m afraid we need yet more samples for further testing, but I don¡¯t have time for that anymore. I¡¯m leaving the remaining job to you.¡±

    ¡°Understood, sir. When exactly are you going to leave Brute Cavern?¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow, if all goes ording to n. Now listen...¡±

    While telling Angor some useful instructions, Sunders showed him several piles of books that contained knowledge on various cantrips of different Illusionist categories. Since Angor had not determined a domain to focus on yet, Sunders simply left all relevant books for Angor to checkter.

    Next, Sunders left a drop of his blood for Angor so that he could sense Angor¡¯s location as long as Angor carried the blood. At the same time, Angor could use the blood to request help in a pinch. Of course, under certain circumstances, Sunders might not be able to get to him in time.

    With these settled, Sunders went off to talk to Rein Mute about their recent mission, while Angor returned to his bedroom and copied all the books he received into his tablet.

    Next, he spent several hours reading through the newest research report.

    Just like Sunders said, there wasn¡¯t much to look at.

    Sunders recorded every manifestation he discovered in the illusions in detail, along with about 30 cantrips he ¡°learned¡±, including Wither and Erge.

    These strange cantrips involved random expertise and arts and were mostly useless. However, Sunders still listed out the ¡°rtively practical¡± ones and told Angor to keep an eye on them.

    Also, Sunders made a general conclusion that even though the cantrips appeared to be aimlessly generated, they still fell within a certain boundary established by naturalws, such as life and death, creation and termination, fake and real.

    And these happened to be what Angor witnessed inside Spotty.

    Angor once reached a simr theory since he ¡°studied¡± how to create these manifestations from Spotty as well. He carefully noted this down and put away the research report in his bracelet. Apart from all the cantrips that were unheard of in this world, this report was also a solid proof of his manifestations of Mystery. He could not let anyone else see it.

 Chapter 694 - Pre-Departure Preparations

    <h4>Chapter 694: Pre-Departure Preparations</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    The Month of Harvest silently coated everything under a lively green veil. When the first autumn wind blew over the fields, Sunders departed for the Abyss without knowing when he would return.

    After spending several more days at Phantom Ind, Angor told Goode to handle the ind for a while and prepared to head home.

    Since he was a supernatural capable of improving the condition of his family, he meant to bring as many gifts back as possible, such as tonics and medicines that would be effective on mortal bodies. This was why he had to pay a visit to the underground market first.

    However, he immediately felt that something was off the moment he arrived.

    As usual, there were many apprentices busily rushing around the market. However,pared to before, they seemed more cautious. Unfriendly, even.

    Monkey took more than 20 wizards away from the organization, which dangerously weakened the defenses of Brute Cavern. Thisbined with several more unsettling elements, such as Lady Mirror¡¯s absence and the crisis at Sleepless City, people found it impossible to remain calm.

    While it was true that wizards didn¡¯t usually enjoy peaceful lives, it was still rare for something to upset an entire organization like this.

    The tension was made worse when Maya imed that she was going to seal off Luminous Ind. This happened right after Sunders departed.

    While the authorities of Brute Cavern knew that Maya was taking her new student Dodoro to train at Brilliance ne,mon apprentices who couldn¡¯t receive reliable information all feared that the great Prophet saw something dangerousing and that she was barricading her home.

    Even though Rein Mute remained in the organization, the uncontroble dismay still spread among people.

    While trying not to get affected by the mental stress that filled the entire ce, Angor purchased a number of items that would be useful in the mortal world, such as magically enhanced seeds and dirt, low-level puppets that could be controlled by mortals, and so on.

    After stuffing his bracelet with enough resources that could help his family thrive, he came to Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop in search of health-improving materials so that he might try making some potions used for extending people¡¯s lifespans. And if he failed, he could always let his family eat the raw materials.

    But he was a little surprised to run into Balba in the shop.

    When he arrived, he saw Balba walking among the shelves alone while checking some files that appeared to be the shop¡¯s ounting report.

    ¡°Angor!¡± Balba seemed joyous to see Angor, but he soon changed his manners. ¡°Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°What are you doing here? Where is Dave?¡±

    Balba showed his papers to Angor. ¡°I¡¯m looking after the shop¡ª¡±

    He was interrupted when they felt the wooden floor shaking greatly, along with someone¡¯s painful scream.

    A momentter, a hatch behind the counter was lifted open, revealing Dave¡¯s dust-covered face.

    ¡°... so he can do his research in the basement,¡± Balba finished his phrase.

    ¡°Darn it, it blew up again! How difficult is it to make a simple weapon with a burning effect?¡± Dave climbed up while trying not to breath in the ck smokeing from behind him. He then saw Angor staring at him with a strange look.

    ¡°Oh hey, Angor! I mean, did you intentionally choose such timings so that you can see me break stuff?¡±

    ¡°That was the fifth explosion today,¡± Balbamented with an indifferent look. ¡°I don¡¯t believe this has anything to do with Mister Padt. Anyone who visits the shop today will see the same thing happening over and over.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m supposed to be your boss!¡± Dave protested. ¡°That¡¯s how you talk to me?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m telling the truth.¡± Balba looked away.

    Meanwhile, Angor was rather confused to see these two people somehow working together.

    ¡°Um, you hired Balba, Dave? Is Mister Prome okay with this?¡±

    Dave removed some dust from himself and asked Angor to take a seat. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m the one paying Balba.¡± Dave looked pretty proud. ¡°Thirty crystals a month. Bonus if the sales are good. That¡¯s like, way better than my ie when I came to the shop several years ago.¡±

    ¡°Is there a particr reason why you employed him?¡± Angor asked this one using voice transmission when Balba was off doing his ounting work again.

    Dave whispered to Angor since he could not use voice transmission yet, ¡°Because of you, duh. Well, I already had ns to get an extra helper. People are calling me ¡®Master Dave¡¯ now. A master needs his time to do his own work! And when I saw Balba looking for a job in the market, I talked to him.¡±

    ¡°Good choice.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°I can tell you that he¡¯s a good man. And pretty strong too. He¡¯ll do a good job fending off annoying people from the shop.¡±

    Dave scratched his head. ¡°I... don¡¯t usually have to worry about thugs since Hercules lives next door. I hired Balba for another reason.¡±

    ¡°Another reason?¡±

    Dave pointed to the door, where a pair of female apprentices were entering the shop.

    ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡±

    Instead of browsing for items, the girls wiggled their ways straight toward where Balba was working.

    ¡°Check that out. Balba helped me attract a lot of customers with that handsome look of his. Women, mostly. And they always ended up buying something,¡± Dave whispered.

    Angor nodded. He would agree that Balba¡¯s wild style was perfect for alluring certaindies with the right tastes.

    In the end, the twodies spent 50 crystals buying a Garlic Pitcher nt that Balba was tending to whilepletely ignoring Dave and Angor.

    ¡°That thing is used for repelling bugs. What do they need it for? Are they going to explore some jungle?¡±

    ¡°Oh,e on, of course they didn¡¯te to buy the nt.¡± Dave gave Angor a side-nce, but he didn¡¯t intend to exin. ¡°So, what are you looking for today?¡±

    Angor showed him a piece of note. ¡°Several materials.¡±

    Dave took a simple glimpse and gave the note to Balba, who then went off to the storage to fetch what Angor was looking for.

    ¡°Those are usually used in remedies. Are you brewing potions? For your family?¡± Dave was curious.

    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m heading home in a few days.¡±

    ¡°Geez. Nausica is gone, Sailum is nowhere to be found, and you are leaving too... Everyone I know in Brute Cavern is leaving. Can you tell me when I¡¯ll see you again?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯lle back as soon as I settle everything back home. And I need to take a detour around the Old Earth to figure out the element depletion problem.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re going to ept that quest? It has been in the questing hall for several centuries, or so I heard.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not expecting to seed since, you know, no one did in such a long time. No one else is going to the Old Earth anyway. Might as well give it a shot.¡±

    ¡°Solving the mystery sounds pretty much impossible, but I got a feeling that you can find something.¡± Dave grinned.

    ¡°What, did you suddenly discover your potential as a Prophet?¡± Angor chuckled.

    Balba carried a giant crate from the basement.

    After paying Dave for the materials, Angor prepared to leave the shop. When he looked at Balba again, he suddenly made a decision.

    He took out a small handbook and ced it on Dave¡¯s counter.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Dave checked the book and saw Angor¡¯s name as well as the book¡¯s title, <i>Elementary Cantrip (revised)</i>.

    ¡°Several basic cantrips. I discovered them by rearranging the elementbinations of existing cantrips. They¡¯re not from the library or my professor, so you¡¯re free to do whatever you wish. But they are not anything powerful, mind you. Consider it something to kill time.¡±

    Dave¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°Sailum told me that he learned a new cantrip from you before. ¡®Create Water¡¯, I think?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I wrote down several more cantrips in the book. Read them if you like. And if you run into Sailum and Nausicater, you can pass the book to them.¡±

    Balba seemed hesitant about epting Angor¡¯s gift, but Dave picked up the handbook before he could say anything.

    ¡°Thanks, man! I really need to learn some more cantrips cause I¡¯ve been spending too much time on alchemy.¡± Dave then pped Balba¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Say something, will you?¡±

    ¡°Thank-thank you,¡± Balba said in a small voice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it,¡± said Angor, ¡°I have no use for it anyway. Just don¡¯t lose it to random people.¡±

    Angor¡¯s tablet helped him discover countless ¡°altered cantrips¡±, after which he spent some time noting down the rtively useful ones. This handbook contained several cantrips simr to Create Water, so Angor had no problem sharing it.

    He didn¡¯t mean to be selfish. If he were to give his friends more powerful cantrips, they might attract too much attention, which meant that he would be causing them harm.

 Chapter 695 - Papayaâ€™s Resolution

    <h4>Chapter 695: Papaya¡¯s Resolution</h4>

    When Angor returned to Phantom Ind, he saw Papaya, Kudodo, and Lococo ready and waiting for him at the outer beach.

    ¡°That was impressive.¡± Angor smiled at them. He informed them about their n somewhere around 20 minutes ago, when he just left from Prome¡¯s, and the three Krakoks seemed prepared already.

    ¡°We will never disregard your order, Mister Angor,¡± said Papaya with an attentive expression.

    ¡°Come with me.¡± Angor moved ahead.

    He no longer needed Sunders¡¯ ¡°token¡± to enter the ind now. While walking through the forest, Angor took some time to examine the small ones behind him.

    Kudodo was wearing a wizard robe made from a tree leaf. He moved by leaping swiftly among the trees, and sometimes, Angor would lose track of him because Kudodo was too fast.

    Lococo was slowly floating in the air by using an ¡°umbre¡± that seemed to be a brown spotted mushroom. Every time she fell behind, she would kick a tree nearby to gain some speed.

    Papaya was the ¡°normal¡± one among them, who was simply running on legs, but she was quick too¡ªAngor noticed that he could not see her legs at all because they were moving too rapidly.

    It had not been long since they were sent to their professors, and they looked so different.

    Their temperaments changed greatly as well. Kudodo still looked a bit careless like before, but it was a disguise. When Angor looked more closely, he saw Kudodo¡¯s eyes prudently scanning around.

    Lococo looked just like the timid and lovely girl before, but at the same time, she looked more confident now.

    As for Papaya...

    Angor chose to reveal the secret hidden in their bloodline to Papaya because he believed Papaya was someone who could bear the responsibility of saving her people.

    He chose correctly.

    While the other two still needed some time to reach the apprentice level, Papaya was almost there.

    Papaya never showed any particr emotions until now. Yet Angor could almost feel the power called ¡°determination¡± all over her small body.

    Hopefully, he would witness the birth of another heroine like Nausica.

    When they arrived at the mansion, Angor signaled the Krakoks to stop.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t bring you here to visit your family. I have something important to tell you three.¡±

    They were standing not too far away from the flower house. Lococo was already eager to go there, while the other two patiently waited for Angor¡¯s words.

    ¡°I¡¯m returning home soon, meaning, I¡¯m going back to the Old Earth.¡±

    The Krakoks didn¡¯t understand what that meant to them.

    ¡°The mon¡¯ Krakoks aren¡¯t fit to remain in the wizarding world. This is why I¡¯m bringing them to the Old Earth as well, to the world of mortals.¡±

    Lococo almost jumped. ¡°But what about my mother, sir?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, why not keep everything as it is? They did pretty well on this ind till now,¡± Kudodo added.

    ¡°Just be quiet and listen!¡± Papaya scolded them.

    Angor looked at Kudodo and continued, ¡°This ce is lovely, you¡¯re right on that one. But don¡¯t forget that the ind belonged to my professor. He allowed me to ce your people here for the moment, but this didn¡¯t mean that they could stay here forever. If one day, the other Krakoks are chased away and left wandering without a home, do you think they can survive in the wizarding world? Remember how your ancestors were almost wiped out in history? There is no supernatural individual back at the Old Earth, thus my decision. They will be safe with my family.¡±

    Angor saw Kudodo lowering his head and looked at Lococo next. ¡°I brought you here so that we can talk about how to arrange your family. Once you be apprentices, you will have enough strength to give them a shelter in this world. I need to ask you a question today. Will you protect them on your own, or should I take them all to the Old Earth along with all the Krakoks?¡±

    ¡°I... want my parents with me.¡± Lococo¡¯s answer was quick.

    Kudodo looked rather indecisive. ¡°But... they won¡¯t see me or their friends too often if they stay here. They will feel lonely.¡±

    ¡°You can try spending more time with them, but mark my words, once you fully step onto the path of wizardry, you will always part ways with them in the long run. Mortals and supernaturals... They cannot stay together in this world.¡± Angor looked down a little as he thought about his brother and Jon.

    Those words got Kudodo and Lococo anxious.

    ¡°However, strength means everything in this world,¡± Angor continued. ¡°Having enough strength means that you can instantly travel great distances and visit your family at any time.¡±

    Kudodo¡¯s eyes twinkled. Yeah! My parents are not that old, I have time! If I can get to level-3 in several years like Mister Angor, I can take my parents anywhere!

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave my family in your hands then, sir! I¡¯ll talk to themter, that I¡¯ll go and visit them when I have studied enough,¡± said Kudodo.

    Lococo was still faltering. To her, her parents were the only ones who provided truefort, and she didn¡¯t wish to be left alone in this dangerous realm.

    ¡°I-I need to talk to my parents first, can I?¡± said Lococo.

    ¡°As you wish.¡±

    Lastly, Angor looked at Papaya. They all knew that Papaya¡¯s grandmother probably didn¡¯t have enough time to wait for Papaya¡¯s achievement.

    ¡°The journey will be too taxing for your grandmother. You can keep her at your side,¡± said Angor. He knew Papaya would not want to be separated from her only family.

    It would be so sad if Papaya stayed behind to study wizardry, only to attend her granny¡¯s funeral in a few years.

    Papaya¡¯s lips twitched, but she didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Let¡¯s all go see them first, then you can make your final decisions,¡± said Angor as he walked toward the flower house.

    However, he didn¡¯t enter the house. While the three Krakoks enjoyed their brief reunion, he leaned against the Milkberry Tree outside and sent his thoughts wild as he enjoyed the sweet air around him.

    The more he thought about theing journey, the more eager he felt about heading home as fast as possible. He couldn¡¯t help but feel all the sealed memories shing back into his mind.

    He suddenly smelled something else in the wind. It was perfume.

    A woman with a slim shape was slowly approaching his position.

    ¡°Lady Greya?¡± Angor said as he shook his head. ¡°No, this is an illusion. Wait... is it a gourmet mirage?¡±

    The ¡°Mirage Greya¡± stood in front of him and said, ¡°What? You¡¯re not the only one around here who can cast illusions.¡±

    Angor scratched his head. ¡°I thought gourmet mirages are random. So, you can control them?¡±

    ¡°You should read more books. So, you¡¯re leaving?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°Good timing then. I happen to be in the right mood to cook something today. I¡¯ll make you a farewell dinner. Oh, don¡¯t worry, this doesn¡¯t count as one of the ¡®golden offers¡¯ I promised. I¡¯m taking materials from Sunders¡¯ kitchen anyway. Don¡¯t miss it. And bring Toby with you.¡±

    Slowly, Greya¡¯s mirage vanished, after which Angor saw Papaya leaving the flower house by herself.

    Angor looked further into the house and saw the Krakoks bidding farewell to Kudodo and Lococo, while Papaya¡¯s grandmother was seeing Papaya off from the balcony of their ¡°apartment¡±.

    ¡°Your decision?¡± asked Angor.

    Papaya looked at the ground for a while. ¡°Mister Angor... may I know how... how much time does my granny have?¡±

    When taking the Krakoks away from their old home, Angor used some simple means of restoration on the old Krakok to help her live longer, but this wouldn¡¯t keep her alive for too long.

    ¡°Five or six years, if everything is peaceful. That¡¯s the best I can do.¡±

    Papaya almost broke down upon hearing this. She sobbed and tried her best to contain her sadness. ¡°Five... five years, sir. Please give me five years, and I will learn how to help my grandmother, then go to the Old Earth. I-I know you¡¯re on a simr mission, sir. I can do it too!¡±

    Papaya halted her crying and looked at Angor with great conviction. ¡°Please take my grandmother with the rest of our people, Mister Angor. This is the best.¡±

    Angor waited for Papaya to fully calm herself and gave her a smile of approval.

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    Witches tended to have more difficult lives in this cruel world. However, Angor realized that he had already sensed the qualities of an unyielding witch from the tiny creature in front of him.

 Chapter 696 - Moocher Meat

    <h4>Chapter 696: Moocher Meat</h4>

    Following Papaya, Lococo also decided to let her parents leave with the Krakok n. However, she was not doing very wellpared to Papaya. Lococo managed to agree to the decision somewhat unwillingly after her parents persuaded her.

    ¡°We will be a giant burden on her if we stay here. We¡¯ll travel with the rest. That¡¯s not a problem,¡± said Lococo¡¯s mother.

    Lococo¡¯s father nodded along. While living together, the Moonlily Fairy had told the Krakoks how dangerous this world was. Lococo¡¯s parents would leave just to grant their daughter more freedom, even if this wasn¡¯t Lococo¡¯s wish.

    Angor saw Lococo still sobbing and shook his head. This one was still like a babyish child, which... should be the case, considering Lococo¡¯s age. Someone like this definitely could not bear with the great responsibility of liberating their people.

    Next, the three Krakoks asked to spend the rest of the day so that they could enjoy homing since they probably wouldn¡¯t have any in a long time.

    Angor allowed them without a second thought.

    He then went away and snapped a branch of the Milkberry Tree and put it inside a flowerpot. He nned to see if he could transnt the amazing tree to Padt Manor so that Jon and the others could enjoy the magical sap produced by it.

    With this settled, he found Toby in the flower house and headed to Greya¡¯s hut.

    Greya prepared a pretty luxurious meal, probably because of Toby. While eating, Angor soon lost himself in the divine nourishment, and he hoped that he had an extra hand to help him fetch dishes faster.

    ¡°Gods... I wish I can cook too!¡± Angor couldn¡¯t help but exim between his bites. He always wanted to try out some of the recipes recorded in the hologram tablet. ¡°Maybe I can find some time and practiceter.¡±

    Toby heard his mumbles and almost puffed up his feathers. ¡°Tweet, tweeeet!¡± ¡ªNo, please no!

    Greya chuckled while listening to their ¡°conversation¡±. She still remembered when Angor showed her a piece of Mana Bread, which tasted like socks. Cooked socks.

    It was very expected that Toby felt so anxious when Angor wanted to cook food again. They spent quite some time surviving on Angor¡¯s Mana Bread, and Toby definitely wouldn¡¯t want to go through that again.

    ¡°Chill out. I mean literally cooking, not making magic food like those Mana Bread.¡± Angor put a finger on Toby¡¯s head. ¡°You know cooking? It¡¯s all about managing the fire, your frying pan, and done! Easy peasy.¡±

    Toby was still shaking his head madly as if he only expected disastering out of Angor¡¯s hands.

    Greya smiled and shook her head. She then took out a white ball-like substance from her storage, cut it in half, and handed them to Angor and Toby.

    ¡°This is called ¡®Moocher Meat¡¯. You can eat it if you don¡¯t have any other edible food,¡± said Greya.

    Curious, Angor poked at the soft texture with a finger. It felt greasy and creamy, like animal fat. However, it was resilient like silicone gel too. When he retracted his hand, the item reverted to being a smooth ball.

    ¡°We can eat this?¡± Angor tried sniffing it and only sensed a very faint sweetness.

    ¡°Yeah. A ¡®Moocher¡¯ is a strange life form that looks like a mixture of an animal and a nt. It grows violently upon receiving energy, and there is no limit to howrge it can get. You can cut it up or grind it to powder, and the remains would still grow as long as there is enough energy.¡±

    When Greya tossed a small stream of mana at the Moocher Meat in Angor¡¯s hand, the meat instantly gained some size under Angor¡¯s shocked gaze.

    ¡°Oops, I guess I just proved it. You can try eating some of it now so that it won¡¯t take too much space. As long as you don¡¯t swallow all of it in one go, you can use your mana to make it bigger.¡±

    Following Greya¡¯s advice, both Angor and Toby took a small bite.

    The meat tasted rather good. It was like something soft mixed with mashed vegetables and chicken, and it was a bit sugary as well. Angor then tried putting a slice of it inside Greya¡¯s tomato soup, and it went well!

    ¡°Nice!¡± Angor¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°This is like unlimited food!¡±

    ¡°As long as you don¡¯t exhaust your mana first. But it¡¯s not exactly unlimited. A Moocher has a lifespan, so is its meat. About... two hundred years or so. When approaching there, the meat will get more dried-up until it bes useless. Personally, I like ¡®middle-aged¡¯ Moocher Meat. The one I gave you is about fifteen years old, so it tastes softer.¡±

    ¡°So cutting it won¡¯t affect its ¡®lifespan¡¯, right?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°Even if there¡¯s a ¡®shelf life¡¯ for it, it¡¯s still a brilliant type of food!¡± Angor frowned. ¡°Howe I have never heard of such a thing before?¡±

    ¡°Oh, a Moocher is native at the bottom of a sea trench at the Otion ne, and I¡¯m probably the only Gourmet who went there before, so...¡±

    ¡°So... wizards don¡¯t know this thing exists at all?¡±

    ¡°Correct. This is only amon material if you don¡¯t consider its wild growth. It doesn¡¯t have special properties, and it doesn¡¯t even give you many nutrients. Try not to live off it if you have better things to eat.¡± Greya shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s basically useless to wizards or apprentices who know how to cook proper Mana Bread.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... but if I can craft an item that automatically collects energy from the environment, then this thing can sustain a lot of mortal refugees,¡± Angor mumbled. ¡°Can I share it with the others, Lady Greya?¡±

    ¡°Well, I meant to give it to you. You¡¯re free to do whatever you want with it.¡±

    Angor dly thanked her.

    The Moocher Meat was probably pointless to him as well, but he might leave it to his family so that they wouldn¡¯t starve should there be any war or natural disasters.

    Toby hopped onto Angor¡¯s shoulder and whispered something.

    If I can eat this, I will NOT try any of your courses. Never!

    ¡°Oh,e on! It¡¯s not like I¡¯d beg you to eat my stuff or something,¡± Angor protested.

    The meal ended, and Angor felt extremely refreshed from head to toe. As always, Greya¡¯s meal contained something magical that eliminated all stress and uneasiness from his body.

    Greya cleaned up all the tableware and sat down again. ¡°You chose the right time to leave the Fey Continent. There are evil plots in the making, all around the ce. However... Marginalized Ind won¡¯t bepletely safe either. Remember to stay cautious at all times and avoid getting dragged into the boringpetitions among wizards.¡±

    Greya said that with a really serious expression, which made Angor confused.

    ¡°Er, is something going to happen to the Old Earth? Can you tell me something, Lady Greya?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything. And that is the biggest problem.¡±

    ¡°I... excuse me?¡±

    ¡°Before Sunders left, he asked me to help you look into the situation around the Old Earth. I thought it was an easy task since, you know, there are no supernatural individuals over there, which means nothing serious can happen. Yet... when I started digging for information, I saw something weird.¡± Greya frowned. ¡°Even though it is called ¡®Marginalized¡¯, wizards still left their sources of info there. However, these sources were all cut off four years ago. No one has heard anything from that ce ever since.¡±

    ¡°Old Earth is in trouble?¡± Angor suddenly grew worried. Surely a single wizard was enough to wipe out an entire country if they wished so.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to get too concerned. As far as I know, ships that are traveling past the Old Earth are all going ording to their routes, and cargo ships were still leaving Vichy Harbor several months ago. I don¡¯t think anything happened to your mortal family. It is rare for wizards to specifically attack mortals.¡±

    Angor felt a bit relieved upon hearing this. Vichy Harbor was an important trading port in the Goldspink Empire. If the harbor was safe, so was the empire.

    ¡°Four years ago...¡± Angor considered. ¡°Is it a coincidence? I left the Old Earth around that time.¡±

    ¡°Maybe a wizard did go there and mess up all the informants, but why would a wizard go to the middle of nowhere?¡±

    Angor suddenly remembered a man with distinctive red hair.

    ¡°Thewis... Is it Mister Thewis?¡±

    Greya tilted her head. ¡°Right... I heard Thewis went there several years ago, and nobody has heard from him since. I think he went to capture Eureka, who stole the Crimson Crown. He still hasn¡¯t found Eureka after all this time?¡±

    Crimson Crown? Angor felt something clicking in his mind.

    Crimson Crown was a national treasure of the Goman Kingdom. It was said that the Goman King paid Thewis to go after the thief.

    But Angor was thinking about another name right now¡ª¡±Crimson Mask¡± Irisa.

    He saw it from somewhere before that Irisa was Thewis¡¯ sister. So why would Thewis¡¯ sister show up at Floating Mech City and ask him to make a ¡°fake¡± Crimson Crown?

    Something was not right. Definitely.

    Could it be that they wanted to have the crown to themselves and return the fake one to the Goman King?

    Angor shivered a little at that thought. Sunders warned him that he should not get involved in this matter as it was supposed to be the court war of the Goman Kingdom.

    Greya was still pondering over the situation. ¡°It makes sense. Thewis didn¡¯t catch Eureka, so he destroyed information channels to prevent her from contacting the Fey Continent. This is not your concern though. Just remember not to bother Thewis in any way. That man is very famous for his ill-temper.

    ¡°As long as you stay out of his sight, he won¡¯t have a reason to harm you. Of course, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll run into him at all.¡±

 Chapter 697 - White Bear Plush

    <h4>Chapter 697: White Bear Plush</h4>

    ¡°Your professor also mentioned that the Centipede Guild is onto you? Those thugs are known to use absolutely any dirty tricks to get what they want. Do be careful.¡±

    Greya suggested as she handed Toby a bag of Mana Flowers. ¡°If their leaders are so shameless as toe personally, use the full power of your Griffin Form and take Angor away.¡±

    Toby put the bag into his storage with a serious look.

    ¡°Lady Greya, aren¡¯t you going to let Toby stay with you?¡± asked Angor.

    Toby quickly started giving Angor pleading looks. No, please, don¡¯t!

    Greya saw it and giggled. ¡°Of course I want Toby by my side...¡±

    Toby trembled.

    ¡°... But on second thought, he grows stronger quicker if he goes with you. It¡¯s only several years, but he got the sequence of gravity and his Griffin Form, you know? Just take him. I don¡¯t want to burden Toby¡¯s future just because of my blind love.¡±

    Angor agreed. Even if not considering Toby¡¯s strength, he didn¡¯t wish to get separated from him.

    Greya was talking to Toby when she suddenly saw Angor showing a weird look.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±

    ¡°A... friend, just arrived at the ind. I need to see him.¡±

    When in charge of Phantom Ind, Angor was allowed to see every detail that was happening around the ind, such as a figure pacing back and forth at the edge of the ind right now.

    ¡°Go ahead then.¡± Greya nodded.

    As the ¡°manager¡± of the ind, Angor quickly traveled through the forest and reached the outer beach while everything moved out of his way.

    He saw his target and moved ahead with a smile. ¡°Fate has guided me here, Hobson.¡±

    Hobson saw Angoring and showed his signature coy smile. ¡°Fate has¡ª¡±

    He then realized that Angor already stole his line, so he scratched his ¡°bear ears¡± in embarrassment.

    However, instead of his original white bear costume, he was wearing a panda suit today.

    ¡°What happened to your clothes?¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°Thank goodness Toby is not here, or he¡¯ll kick you again.¡±

    ¡°White Bear¡± Hobson put a hand on his panda hood and said, ¡°It¡¯s the same one, but I dyed the eyes and limbs ck. And it looks good!¡±

    Angor decided not to talk about Hobson¡¯s new look. He went straight to the point. ¡°So, what are you doing here? Did your fate tell you to look for me again?¡±

    Hobson looked down. ¡°Trust me, it¡¯s true. Perhaps fate meant to let mee to you, my friend.¡±

    He put his short cane on the ground. When he released it, the item tilted toward Angor but without falling t.

    Angor didn¡¯tment on this one. He was suspecting if White Bear was using this fate stuff as an excuse just to befriend him. ¡°Okay, I see. Did fate tell you why?¡±

    ¡°This time, it¡¯s Dodoro who told me toe.¡±

    Angor was a bit surprised at the answer. ¡°Didn¡¯t he go to Starliege Temple with Miss Maya? And if he told you something, why did you mention fate and all that?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s... both fate and Dodoro.¡± White Bear sighed. ¡°I must say that Dodoro¡¯s potential is exceptional even though he came to Maya ten yearster than I did. I know fate always asks me to speak to you, and this is the proof,¡± he said as he pointed to his short cane, which was still pointing at Angor.

    ¡°As for Dodoro... he predicted something, which is rted to both you and me.¡±

    Usually, Angor wouldn¡¯t care about White Bear¡¯s cryptic nonsense. However, he decided to pay attention since Dodoro was involved in this, and he knew Dodoro¡¯s ¡°predictions¡± were rather urate.

    ¡°Dodoro doesn¡¯t really do prophecy, and even if he did, he won¡¯t reveal it... except that when the prophecy concerns you. He told me toe here at this moment, which means he saw something about you. Also, I felt it too, that fate wants me toe.¡±

    Angor felt a giant headache already. ¡°Just... tell me what Dodoro told you to do.¡±

    ¡°He asked me to give my ¡®most precious treasure¡¯ to you.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    White Bear looked at the sky and began unbuttoning his suit. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what that meant exactly, but I still came. Now I think about it, apart from my memories, my ¡®precious treasure¡¯ should be my... virginity.¡±

    Angor quickly took several steps back and prepared to activate the ind¡¯s barrier to knock this freak away the moment he saw it necessary.

    ¡°However, my virginity was already gone ten years ago, when my aunt took it from me. Then her daughter came and did it again...¡±

    Angor felt his head dizzy with the overwhelming fact he just heard. ¡°What the heck is going on with your family?¡±

    ¡°So... what is my most precious thing?¡± White Bear was almost singing now. ¡°I know it now. It¡¯s my bone card! It holds all of my savings! But Dodoro couldn¡¯t have told me to give you my savings since you probably aren¡¯t short of money. Which means... I¡¯m supposed to give you this.¡±

    White Bear removed his costume and looked at Angor¡¯s position with a bright smile, only to find that Angor was no longer in his view.

    There was only the forest, which served as the ind¡¯s first protection, sand, and cold wind.

    ¡°Leave it there if you want to give me something. I need to deal with another matter. Will pick it upter,¡± Angor¡¯s voice reached his ears.

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    I spent so much time practicing my ¡°final confession¡±! Why do my attempts always end up like this? Am I being too aggressive?

    He sighed again and looked at the inner lining of his suit, where a small charm was affixed. It was a miniature toy white bear, which grew a bit yellow due to the passage of time.

    White Bear looked at a square pendant that was hanging on the toy¡¯s neck and showed a sad smile.

    He made sure Angor wasn¡¯ting back before cing the toy bear on the sand along with a piece of note. Once he was done, he walked away.

    Angor showed up from among the trees once he saw that White Bear was gone.

    He never left the area¡ªhe simply hid in the forest, fearing that White Bear would show him something unsightly. But it seemed that he was worrying too much.

    He went onto the beach and picked up White Bear¡¯s ¡°gift¡±.

    The palm-sized toy looked poorly made¡ªeven its two eyes were made of differently colored and wrong-sized buttons. Yet somehow, Angor could feel that whoever made this toy put a lot of effort into it.

    It was like a parting gift given to a traveling child by his mother.

    There was a rectangr pendant weaved onto the toy¡¯s bow-tie. Angor flipped it open and saw a stamp-sized portrait inside. The portrait showed a smiling boy who was holding a white bear toy while a tall woman was holding his shoulders. She was also looking at the ¡°camera¡± as well, but the woman¡¯s face was all blurry.

    The boy should be Hobson. But... who¡¯s that behind her?

    Confused, Angor picked up White Bear¡¯s note.

    [This is my answer¡ªmy ¡°precious treasure¡±. I think. I¡¯ve been carrying the toy since childhood, and I never let go of it. I don¡¯t remember who gave it to me, but I... like it.

    [It¡¯s probably thedy in the picture who gifted it to me. But I don¡¯t know who she is. My family, maybe? But everyone in my family died 13 years ago.

    [I¡¯m not sure why Dodoro wanted you to have it, but there must be a reason. Like I said, fate also convinced me to do so. Otherwise, I really do not wish to part with it.

    [Please take good care of it.

    [Hobson Seeley]

    Angor could tell that the bear toy meant a lot to Hobson, which was also proved when Hobson kept ncing back when he was walking away from the beach. That white bear costume might have something to do with it too.

    He carefully put away the toy in his bracelet since it was Dodoro¡¯s intention.

    Also, he was thinking about someone else after looking at Hobson¡¯s pendant. He was thinking of Flowey, the lonesome soul of a little girl who lived under a dried-up well outside Dark Castle.

    Angor discovered a pendant inside Flowey¡¯s coffin, which came with a piece of silk that had the image of Flowey and her brother.

    Later, Flowey took the picture back and asked him to keep the pendant.

    He checked and noticed that although these two items used different materials and had different designs, the chains on them looked exactly the same.

    Don¡¯t tell me Flowey and Hobson are rted in some way?

 Chapter 698 - Takeoff

    <h4>Chapter 698: Takeoff</h4>

    Angor chose to go after White Bear and showed Flowey¡¯s pendant to him.

    However, White Bear imed that he didn¡¯t know who this girl was even after looking at Angor¡¯s illusion, which showed Flowey in detail.

    ¡°What about your fate?¡± asked Angor. ¡°Look more carefully. Is this fate telling you anything?¡±

    White Bear shook his head. ¡°This girl... might be rted to you, or me, or no one. But fate is not showing me anything at the moment, and I can¡¯t tell you the answer you seek.¡±

    ¡°Am I wrong then?¡± Angor frowned.

    But he wasn¡¯t going to go after this matter since White Bear already denied his involvement with Flowey.

    Angor returned to Phantom Ind and checked White Bear¡¯s pendant again. This time, he used Narda¡¯s Vision. However, no matter how he looked, it was only amon object.

    But why did Dodoro want me to have this? Or did White Bear give me the wrong item?

    He couldn¡¯t figure it out right now. Since Dodoro said so, he still kept the pendant safe, along with Flowey¡¯s heart-shaped one.

    ...

    Two dayster, Angor transferred all of his ¡°privilege¡± to Butler Goode and prepared to depart.

    He already ced all the Krakoks inside his bracelet. He was thinking about keeping Nano in there as well, but for some reason, Nano refused to go into the bracelet and demanded to enjoy the fresh air outside like an angry kid.

    Angor narrowed his eyes and agreed to let Nano remain outside. However, he silently made up his mind to give this guy a proper lessonter.

    Together with Nano, he stepped out of Sunders¡¯ mansion and saw Greya and Toby hanging out under a tree nearby. It seemed Toby was bidding farewell to his old master. Even though the bird was terrified of Greya¡¯s ¡°training¡±, he still felt a bit sad because theing journey would separate them for quite a while.

    Greya stroked Toby¡¯s feather with an affable look, which was rare for her, and walked to Angor.

    ¡°You leaving now?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    Greya looked at the young gentleman in front of her up and down. Angor was wearing a wine-red gentleman suit, which was perfectly ironed and trimmed. His top hat only revealed a small part of his bright blond hair.

    Combined with the particr vigor of a teenager, he looked peculiarly stylish.

    ¡°You are about to hit 18, right?¡± Greya suddenly asked.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure why she asked so, but he still nodded. ¡°Two months to go.¡±

    ¡°That skinny sprout in my restaurant has grown into a man now.¡± Greya smiled brightly. ¡°You look as graceful as young Sunders. No, wait, you¡¯re better than him. I can only imagine all the girls who are going toe after you like bees attracted to honey.¡±

    Angor maintained a straight face. He didn¡¯t know where Greya was getting to.

    ¡°Heh. That is exactly like your professor too. A wizard with strict nobleman disciplines... People are gonna hate it, but they won¡¯t tell you why.¡±

    Angor¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change.

    Greya rolled her eyes.

    ¡°Forget it. I thought about telling a story about the ¡®Time Thief¡¯, but it will be pointless if you can¡¯t understand my implications. Stubborn, just like Sunders.¡± Greya sighed helplessly. ¡°When we meet again, I¡¯m expecting to see you and Toby anew. Don¡¯t disappoint me.¡±

    Greya apanied Angor as they walked toward the outer beach area.

    Angor was nning to leave faster on his Gond, but since Greya meant to see him off, he decided not to.

    ¡°What is this ¡®Time Thief¡¯, Lady Greya?¡± Angor failed to hold back his curiosity.

    ¡°It¡¯s a popr story passed around the wizarding world. I¡¯m not in the mood to tell you anymore. Go and find the story on your own.¡± Greya felt a bit annoyed. She had set up the mood for a brilliant sendoff¡ªautumn wind, falling leaves, a story about time, and her expectations for the future... Using these, she hoped that she could persuade Angor into showing her more of those manifestations of Mystery.

    But Angor¡¯s poker face ruined it all.

    ¡°Oh right, I¡¯ve been wondering, what¡¯s with that glove? It has Sunders¡¯ n emblem on it.¡± Greya looked at Angor¡¯s right hand as well as the illusion energy lingering on it.

    ¡°Professor gave it to me and told me not to remove it. As for the reason...¡± Angor gave Greya a friendly smile and shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m afraid you have to ask him. I¡¯m not allowed to tell you.¡±

    They arrived at the edge of the ind. Angor swiftly took out his Gond, pulled Nano onto it, and disappeared into the sky.

    ¡°What have you been teaching him, Sunders?!¡± Greya spat and stuffed a bottle into Toby¡¯s w since the bird had yet to leave. ¡°Now go! Remember to kick Angor¡¯s buttock for me!¡±

    Toby nodded. He prepared his gravity power, called Greya to say good-bye, and vanished like an arrow.

    Greya stared at the two ck dots in the distance. ¡°Why is that kid always thinking that he¡¯s some weakmoner? Darn it. Perhaps the Time Thief really adores him.¡±

    ...

    Toby had joined Angor on the Gond, and as Greya asked, he ¡°kicked¡± Angor¡¯s cheek somewhat gently. Angor thought Toby was greeting him rather than carrying out someone¡¯s order.

    Instead of leaving Brute Cavern immediately, Angor traveled around a little to say adios to Iron Granny, Prome, and Dave.

    Next, he went to the Tree Spirit Pce, only to be told that Tree Spirit had yet to return from Rein Mute¡¯s tower, so he had to ask the workers in the pce to send his regards to Tree Spirit instead.

    He controlled his Gond to leave through the ¡°mirror entrance¡±. As expected, he did not sense Lady Mirror¡¯s presence.

    The boat rapidly gained altitude and emerged from the chasm. It then began flying above the Parmigi Hignds.

    He nned to fly to the HQ of Edge of Night and use a teleportation station there to go to the Goman Kingdom, from where he would then join the sea.

    The weather was great. It wasn¡¯t snowing at this point in time, which was rare at Parmigi Hignds. The sky was fair and the hignds enjoyed clear sky and white clouds. Using the sky as the sea, Gond covered great distances while leaving a trail of bubbles behind.

    Angor soon heard someone¡¯s teeth chattering.

    ¡°Mi-Mi-Mister Pa-Pa-Padt... It¡¯s so-so cold here...¡± Nano huddled in a corner and was shivering in his terrible style, which was a bright red sweaterbined with pale green cks.

    Angor rxed his head on an arm and grinned at Nano. ¡°Cold? Is it?¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡± Nano breathed several puffs of white air. His getup was fine in the mirror world, but the cold wind on Parmigi Hignds instantly breached the thin fabric.

    ¡°Just bear with it. I¡¯m such an affectionate master, you know? I can agree to any requirement you make.¡±

    Nano wasn¡¯t foolish. He knew Angor was doing this to frustrate him for not getting inside the bracelet as ordered.

    After spending much time inside the mirror world of Brute Cavern, Nano had forgotten about seasons, not to mention that the ¡°doorstep¡± of Brute Cavern was freezing ground.

    It didn¡¯t take long for Nano¡¯s lips to go blue, and his anchor mustache had caught frost on it.

    Nano felt his suffering going away as his whole body went numb. And when he feared that he¡¯d be the very first member of his n to be frozen to death, Angor finally did something.

    It was a simple Preserve Heat cantrip.

    Nano sneezed as he felt his life under his own control again.

    Angor put a ss of hot water on the desk. ¡°You sure you still want to stay outside?¡±

    Nano felt the coldness in his body being repelled by the water and decided not to give in yet. ¡°I think I¡¯m fine as it is!¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Just a reminder, Preserve Heatsts for one hour, and I don¡¯t feel like wasting more mana on you. If that¡¯s your choice...¡±

    Nano almost cried. ¡°I-I¡¯ll head inside.¡±

    Angor grinned as he transferred Nano into his bracelet so that the Krakoks had a newpany.

    Far away from him, a man way above his position had seen everything he just did.

 Chapter 699 - Sumeshâ€™s Return

    <h4>Chapter 699: Sumesh¡¯s Return</h4>

    Higher above themon travel routes of clouds, a man with a wiry body suddenly looked below him.

    He was wearing a fascinating wizard robe with bright-colored stitches and linings. His light blonde hair was tied behind his head using a simple green headband, and there was a small lock of fringe that went over his left eye.

    This man wasn¡¯t stylish, but he looked gentle like an academician. But when one looked more closely, one could see the unyielding ambition shown in his eyes.

    He was heading to where Brute Cavern was when he was attracted by a flying boat traveling beneath him.

    The clouds that separated their distance did nothing to obstruct his view¡ªhe was observing the delicate vehicle full of starry decorations clearly, which was silently sailing across the sky.

    He didn¡¯t know much about alchemy, but he still recognized that the boat was made frommon materials. However... The wless design was spectacr! Especially the use of Wavy ms, which allowed the boat to treat anywhere as the sea.

    He was always a man of great fashion, and he already took a liking to this brilliant alchemy item that was both fast and looked lovely.

    ¡°It has only been 50 years, and they started distributing new vehicles to their students? So they aren¡¯t using broomsticks anymore?¡±

    If so, he would like to get one as soon as possible.

    But something told him that the vehicle he saw was only an exception. Also, the owner of the vehicle seemed to be a level-3 apprentice... and a pretty young one too. Perhaps he was an elite student who received extra attention from the organization? And that boat was a reward?

    Either way, since the owner of the boat came from the organization, it shouldn¡¯t be hard to find another one.

    With this in mind, the man only wished to return to his organization faster.

    ¡°Oh, there¡¯s the chasm, and below that is the mirror entrance. How fares Lady Mirror, I wonder? Did she get a new body already? Did Mister Tree Spirit sessfully charm Yetheway? Is Flora still the unruly prankster like before? Did my professor discover more mysteries far and beyond?¡±

    More importantly... is my tea garden still in good hands?

    He brought some newly found tea seedlings in his space ring, and he was eager to get these nted.

    He continued flying toward Brute Cavern without minding the strange boat.

    He soon reached the mirror entrance. To his surprise, Lady Mirror did not show up to wee him.

    He then realized that Tree Spirit was not inside the Tree Spirit Pce. Even the workers in the pce failed to recognize him.

    ¡°Fifty years... and everyone has already forgotten about me?¡±

    He shook his head and headed to Phantom Ind. The most important task was, of course, to report his condition as well as what he learned during his journey to Sunders.

    He was surprised yet again when he saw the vegetation of Phantom Ind had changed greatly, and many phantom beasts were no longer here. He would have thought that he came to the wrong ind if not for the generalndscape of the ce, which remained the same.

    Hended inside the mansion and saw Butler Goode alreadying to him.

    ¡°Excuse me, sir, you are...¡±

    He removed his hood.

    ¡°Su-Mister Sumesh!¡± Goode lost hisposure for a moment and almost yelled out.

    ¡°It¡¯s been quite a while, Butler Goode.¡± Sumesh smiled as he looked around the mansion. ¡°The house didn¡¯t seem so different... but what did you do to the trees out there? Did the professor ask you to use the new decoration? Oh right, is the professor inside his study?¡±

    Goode shook his head. ¡°Master left the organization one week ago. He traveled to the Abyss ne in order to fulfill a request of Mister Monkey.¡±

    ¡°The Abyss?¡± Sumesh frowned. ¡°I guess a lot of fishy matters are going on. I wonder if the professor will be alright... but yes, we should not neglect Mister Monkey¡¯s invitation.¡±

    ¡°As for the reced trees,¡± Goode said, ¡°it¡¯s because of Miss Greya¡ª¡±

    ¡°Greya? Greya the Gourmet Wizard? She¡¯s here at Phantom Ind?¡±

    Goode exined Greya¡¯s ¡°challenge of truth¡±, but only what he saw with his own eyes. He didn¡¯t tell anything that could be considered as rumors or guesses. As for why Greya was here, Goode said that Sunders invited her.

    Sumesh reced his rxed expression with a more serious one.

    ¡°Sigh. Greya is believed to be the final hope of all Gourmets, and she deserves to be.¡±

    Sumesh spent 50 years to finally find the path of truth, while Greya already seeded twice on her way of creation.

    She was a true genius. No one would say otherwise.

    Since Sunders was absent, Sumesh decided to visit Greya before going to The Tributary. However, Goode stopped him.

    ¡°After seeing Mister Padt off, Miss Greya entered a seclusion session.¡±

    ¡°Seclusion? Can¡¯t be helped then. But who¡¯s this ¡®Mister Padt¡¯? Is he the new student professor found several years ago?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It was three years ago, to be precise. He left Brute Cavern today to travel back home. If he had known that you¡¯re returning today, Mister Sumesh, I believe he would stay and meet with you.¡±

    ¡°Judging from your words... you like him, don¡¯t you, Butler Goode?¡±

    ¡°Everyone likes him, Mister Sumesh. Mister Padt has a lovely nature.¡±

    ¡°Lovely? Now... this is interesting.¡± Sumesh raised an eyebrow. ¡°I see it then. He¡¯ll alwayse back one day, no? That¡¯s when we can see each other.¡±

    Sumesh bade farewell to Goode and headed to The Tributary.

    He nned to pay Flora a visit, but he felt as if he couldn¡¯t wait to see his precious tea garden.

    While on his way, he noticed that the whole organization didn¡¯t look as lively as before, and there were fewer people moving aroundpared to what he could remember.

    ¡°Did something bad happen? I think I may need to go and see Mister Reinter.¡±

    As soon as he entered The Tributary, the Iron Fortress was already parked in front of him.

    ¡°Nice to see you again, Granny.¡± Sumesh entered the metal house and greeted the old woman politely. ¡°Did you perhaps study prophecy? You saw meing so soon.¡±

    Sumesh took a seat and enjoyed the fragrance of hot tea with a rxed smile.

    ¡°Ah... how I miss your rose tea, Granny. It brings back the memories of the old days.¡±

    ¡°Congrattions, by the way.¡± Iron Granny gently ced a teacup in front of Sumesh.

    ¡°I was lucky.¡± Sumesh smiled so widely that his eyes grew narrower; it was in to see that he felt proud.

    ¡°The path of truth isn¡¯t worth going after if everyone can simply find it by luck.¡± Iron Granny carried a steaming teapot to their table. ¡°Help yourself if you like some rose tea. And no, I know nothing about prophecy. I¡¯m staying at the entrance because I just sent a young friend of mine away, and I didn¡¯t have time to go elsewhere yet.¡± She sipped some tea and grinned. ¡°I¡¯m d I did.¡±

    ¡°Young friend? An... apprentice?¡± Sumesh also poured a cup of rose tea and was enjoying the smell with a captivated look.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. A very interesting and promising apprentice.¡±

    ¡°You believe so, granny?¡±

    ¡°I do. I also believe that it won¡¯t be long before he surpasses you.¡±

    Sumesh widened his eyes a little as he had never heard Iron Granny spoke so highly of an apprentice like this before. She might not be a Prophet, but her words were always true. Almost.

    And this got Sumesh really curious.

    ¡°Did our organization find a genius with a special property? A Sage Morph?¡±

    Iron Granny shook her head. ¡°Special property? Perhaps you mean a Nightmare Form. Speaking of him, he¡¯s not a total stranger to you.¡±

    ¡°A Nightmare Form who¡¯s not a stranger? Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s that little junior whom I have yet to meet?¡±

    Iron Granny nodded while grinning.

    ¡°My word. He¡¯s so talented that even you endorsed him?¡±

    Earlier, Sumesh didn¡¯t find Angor¡¯s name to be so special when he heard it from Goode. But now, he really hoped that he would get to meet with this young man soon.

    He then decided to ask about Angor¡¯s information, and Iron Granny simply told him what she knew without holding back.

    ¡°I heard rumors that he once reached out to Mystery energy, so it was real? And an alchemy illusion that was approved by Greya and Mister Rein? Yes... that¡¯s something,¡± Sumesh eximed. ¡°I¡¯m d we Phantom Ind found a brilliant alchemist. This will benefit all of us in the long run.¡±

    Iron Granny removed the rose tea from the table and showed Sumesh a box of strange leaves that showed faint energy signatures.

    ¡°What¡¯s this, Granny? You found a new type of tea?¡±

    Iron Granny gave him a mysterious smile. ¡°Try it, and you¡¯ll see.¡±

 Chapter 700 - Another Fallen City

    <h4>Chapter 700: Another Fallen City</h4>

    Sumesh closed his eyes and took a moment to savor the tea.

    ¡°Bitter at first, mild sweetness that follows behind, which leads to the taste of nature. The refreshing energy contained within remained behind to mend my body! Please, tell me, Granny, what is the name of this tea?¡±

    ¡°This is Morning Dew. Angor gave it to me.¡±

    ¡°Morning Dew... such a brilliant name that fits its nature! This is one of the best tea I¡¯ve had in so many years.¡± Sumesh praised and suddenly frowned in confusion. ¡°Wait, Angor again? He gave you this?¡±

    Iron Granny nodded. ¡°Correct. This should have been a gift for you, or so he said. He asked me to appraise it first and see whether you like it.¡±

    ¡°Of course I like it!¡±

    ¡°Too bad you missed him. I¡¯m afraid you have to wait until he returns to get more of Morning Dew.¡±

    Sumesh looked a bit sad. As a ¡°tea addict¡±, he felt awful for not being able to enjoy his drink.

    ¡°Should I go after him? He didn¡¯t leave for too long.¡±

    ¡°Oh, stop it. Even though it has only been an hour since he left, his Gond isn¡¯t something that you can catch up with easily. I think he¡¯s well out of Parmigi Hignds at this moment.¡±

    ¡°Gond?¡±

    ¡°The name of his flying boat. Trust me, it looks like an excellent piece of art. Your professor tended to show off the amazing vehicle to others and earned a lot of envious enemies because of this. Then those wizards forced their students to study alchemy. And as we all expected, few seeded.¡±

    ¡°A flying boat?¡± Sumesh considered and created a small illusion above their table. ¡°This is ¡®Gond¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Oh ho, that¡¯s a very neat Truth Maniptor illusion!¡± Iron Granny praised before carefully checking it. ¡°That¡¯s the one. You ran into Angor?¡±

    ¡°I saw him on my way back. I thought it¡¯s a standard device given by the organization and that I can ask for an extra one. So it was Angor¡¯s?¡±

    ¡°Stop dreaming. Just look at the stubborn Rein Mute and his ¡®crystal ball transmitters¡¯. It will be such a miracle for him to suddenly decide to give our members new equipment.¡±

    Sumesh also remembered Rein¡¯s terrible taste and shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re right. I shouldn¡¯t expect that.¡±

    Wait... He suddenly remembered something important. So this Angor crafted a unique flying vehicle, which meant that the young man sitting on the boat was him.

    Goode said that the professor found him three years ago. Three years... a level-3 apprentice? An alchemist who nearly created a Mystery item??

    Sumesh now knew why Iron Granny adored Angor so much. It was like mixing several impossible achievements onto the same person.

    ¡°I need to see him.¡±

    ...

    Swiftly, the Gond prated clouds and mist.

    Angor was casually reading a storybook written by a wizard. He was interrupted when he heard Toby¡¯s voice from beneath the boat.

    He put the book on a desk and looked down from over the railing.

    Toby had been enjoying his cruise alongside the boat, but the bird was now calling toward the ground for some reason. A momentter, Toby returned to Angor¡¯s shoulder and whispered something.

    ¡°There¡¯s someone down there?¡± Angor read Toby¡¯s birdnguage and frowned.

    They were currently around the edge of Parmigi Hignds, which was some distance away from the Evernight Kingdom. No one woulde here except for supernatural beings who were traveling past the area.

    Following Toby¡¯s hint, he lowered the Gond¡¯s altitude and saw a group of mortals traveling into Parmigi Hignds while carrying a lot of packs and luggage.

    ¡°Why would mortals go there? Are they trying to trade with the local tribes?¡±

    He once heard about certain primitive tribes living at Parmige Hignds who would exchange resources with other civilizations nearby. He wasn¡¯t interested in this, so he decided to disregard the matter and kept flying to the Evernight Kingdom.

    However, he was beginning to see more and more people moving to the hignd area, fully packed and loaded. It was barely a hundred kilometers, and he had already seen ten huge crowds.

    Also, the asional women and kids who were left behind suggested that these people weren¡¯t traders.

    ¡°Is there a war somewhere? And people are fleeing from their homes?¡±

    He observed for a moment and made sure these were refugees.

    He already saw a moderate-sized city in the distance, which was covered under a ¡°ck dome¡±, while the dome was slowly expanding outward. The refugees were leaving the city and heading toward different directions. Those heading to Parmigi Hignds were only a part of them.

    Angor recognized the ck dome as the same one that covered the Sleepless City. But... this was not Sleepless City. It was still pretty far.

    He also saw supernatural individuals flying toward the ck dome and setting up defenses in the air.

    A middle-aged level-2 apprentice in a blue wizard robe suddenly approached him and showed the look of greed upon seeing his Gond. As soon as the man failed to ascertain Angor¡¯s true strength, he put up a more polite manner.

    ¡°Sir, please do not approach there. We expect ¡®parasites¡¯ to attack the surrounding area soon, and even wizards won¡¯t be able to resist them. If you wish to head north, I suggest you take another route.¡±

    ¡°When did that thing appear? Is there any sign or warning beforehand?¡± Angor frowned. Before leaving Brute Cavern, he had carefully researched his route, and there was no mention of a ck dome blocking his way.

    ¡°Sir, may I know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Call me Padt. I¡¯m from Brute Cavern.¡±

    ¡°I see, Mister Padt from Brute Cavern.¡± The apprentice silently eximed how arge-scale organization was so generous to their students. ¡°I¡¯m a member of the Edge of Night. You can call me Rando, Mister Padt.¡±

    Rando looked a bit worried as he exined, ¡°Surely you heard about the disaster that struck Sleepless City, Mister Padt? We thought the dome would remain there and expand slowly. However, the same thing appeared at this Snowrange Cityst night. My organization sent some manpower to this ce to keep visitors away so that they don¡¯t get possessed by the parasites.¡±

    ¡°Last night? So that¡¯s why Brute Cavern didn¡¯t receive any message. Are there a lot of these domes around the Evernight Kingdom?¡±

    Rando shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s only Sleepless City and Snowrange, as far as I know. But... no one knows what will happenter.¡±

    The ck dome at Sleepless City was growing slowly, which might take it a long time to reach the other ces. However, since a new one suddenly popped up somewherepletely unexpected... it was very likely that the Edge of Night would be its victim one day.

    The Edge of Night used to be happy to see its greatest rival¡ªSleepless City¡ªbeing chased away from their home, but it seemed that it would soon meet the same fate.

    ¡°What¡¯s the situation in the Edge of Night?¡±

    Rando didn¡¯t look pleased because Angor was almost pointing out that their organization would get attacked.

    Angor realized his mistake and quickly added, ¡°I¡¯m heading to the Edge of Night to use the teleportation station.¡±

    Rando looked a bit relieved. ¡°Edge of Night is fine, sir. But... people are on edge. It should be no problem if you¡¯re just passing through.¡±

    Rando told Angor how to choose a safer route and returned to his job.

    Angor was wondering why the Nightmare Realm wanted to set up so many ¡°outposts¡± in the wizarding world. But one thing was for sure, that these nightmare monsters were no longer acting stealthily.

    The ¡°outpost¡± in Pocratee was ced somewhere no one would ever visit. But this...

    Angor nced at the ck dome again before steering his Gond away.

    He did not run into any other obstacles along his way, except for one time when he saw a shiny parasite enclosed in a ¡°nightmare energy shell¡±, which was lingering not far from him.

    The parasite escaped the moment it sensed Angoring.

    The parasite had wondered somewhere thousands of kilometers away from Sleepless City, which meant these creatures were able to reach most parts of the Evernight Kingdom.

    Angor felt his heart sank¡ªperhaps most of the Evernight Kingdom had already fallen. And as its closest neighbor, Brute Cavern wouldn¡¯t remain so safe either.

    He shook his head to get rid of the unnecessary concerns. This wasn¡¯t something he should be worrying about, nor was it something he had control over.

 Chapter 701 - White Clam City

    <h4>Chapter 701: White m City</h4>

    Edge of Night constructed their teleport station on top of the Evernight Mountain instead of directly inside their headquarters.

    This mountain was a new transportation port set up by Edge of Night during recent years. To the public, they imed that the ce was meant for all friendly organizations to conveniently set up their temporary offices. However, most people believed that they simply did this to upset their biggest rival, the Sleepless City.

    This might seem a bit childish, but wizards didn¡¯t care as long as they could frustrate their opponent, even if just a little. Besides, the Evernight Mountain did a pretty good job of gathering traveling wizards until now.

    Angor arrived at the mountain and realized that it was rather crowded with passengers who sought to use the teleport station.

    Under the effect of Infinite Reticence, he carefully blended into the crowds.

    From the asional conversations he heard, he could tell that there were so many people here because of the new ¡°ck dome¡± that was looming not far away from here. Wizards and apprentices alike were smart enough to tell that Edge of Night was no longer a safe spot to stay. Even if there was only a slim possibility that Edge of Night would be affected by the crisis, people would choose safety over everything else.

    Angor got a feeling that should the nightmare monsters choose a new target to attack, Edge of Night would be the obvious choice since so many vulnerable people had gathered here.

    Soon, it was his turn to use the teleportation array. Following the instructions of an apprentice on duty, he stepped into the array drawn on the floor.

    Lucky for him, there were many wizards trying to leave Edge of Night as well. Angor easily found a wizard who was heading to the same destination as him¡ªthe White m City. As such, he could ask the wizard to ¡°escort¡± him.

    This wizard seemed to be the insociable kind who didn¡¯t like to speak with apprentices, but as long as Angor paid enough, he had no problem bringing an apprentice along.

    The wizard asked for a hundred crystals, which was quite a high price. However, it was still worthwhile as an apprentice always needed a wizard¡¯s help to stay alive during long-range teleportation. It was money for life.

    As soon as enough people had stepped onto the array, Angor felt his eyes blinded by a sh. Shortly thereafter, he felt a sense of weightlessness taking over.

    In the next second, he smelled seawater.

    The dim mountaintop settlement had been reced by bright sunlight and the sound of tides, which meant they were at White m City.

    While most of the apprentices were trying to recover from teleportation-induced nausea, several wizards were already leaving the area unaffected.

    The wizard who protected Angor raised his eyebrows when he noticed that, unlike the rest of the apprentices, Angor seemed fine from the teleportation.

    ¡°Huh... maybe this one is studying dimension-rted art?¡±

    Then he left without caring about Angor¡¯s condition. It wasn¡¯t worth the time.

    Simrly, Angor quickly left the moaning apprentices. He found somewhere more private and used mor. Slowly, his handsome look turned into amon square face that would not arouse any attention among crowds.

    He didn¡¯t believe that Centipede Guild woulde and bother him so soon, but he still acted cautiously by using both mor and Infinite Reticence to hide, just in case.

    White m City was a middle-sized coastal wizard fair inside the Goman Kingdom, which did not usually have many visitors. The city belonged to the Goman Kingdom in name only; it was actually controlled by Floating Mech City.

    It was located along the southernmost shore of Fey Continent and was a perfect spot for travelers and traders to enter the southern seas as well as the other continents across the water. The ¡°other continents¡± were mostly mortalnds, but they still possessed various valuable resources, and Floating Mech City regarded White m City as an important hub that transferred these resources.

    This was why the city was highly valued despite its moderate size.

    While casually walking around the streets, Angor found many souvenirs, which obviously originated from Hen Imperial¡ªan ind nation next to the Goldspink Empire. Three years ago when he left home, these two countries were still at war, and Padt Family was responsible for providing provisions to the front line.

    Even if Hen Imperial was the enemy of his home, he still felt a bit homesick when seeing their products in this foreignnd.

    Without tarrying too much outside, he quickly arrived at the office of Brute Cavern.

    There weren¡¯t many offices of other organizations here because the city didn¡¯t provide much profit to outsiders other than those from Floating Mech City. Still, a number of organizations left their members stationed here so that they could scout for talents.

    Floating Mech City only dominated the production of raw materials. They did not dominate human resources. They knew that being too imperious over everything would easily attract enmity.

    While it was true that Floating Mech City had what it took to rule every minor city, they wouldn¡¯t do this because they preferred to remain a resourceful trading partner with everyone. They had established friendly rtionships with a lot of wizard organizations. It would be troublesome if one of them suddenly decided to be hostile.

    Brute Cavern also had a department located in White m City. Soon, Angor saw the emblem that showed the Tree of Eternity on a round-domed building.

    He found no wizard inside. There were only several apprentices managing the building, among whom a white-bearded elder, who had just reached level-3, was the strongest one.

    Angor¡¯s arrival immediately attracted everyone¡¯s attention.

    As he wondered why people were staring at him so openly, the old man slowly walked toward him with the help of a walking cane.

    ¡°I¡¯m Boro. May I know your name, Mister?¡±

    ¡°Padt.¡± Angor bowed politely, following his nobleman manners.

    ¡°Mister Padt. What is it that you want, if I may?¡±

    A young man suddenly approached them and interrupted, ¡°Hey, old man, what¡¯s with all the mishmash? Just ask him which quest he¡¯s handing in and make our job quicker.¡±

    This young man had uneven eyebrows, and the right one had a strange angle that looked funny.

    He saw Angor looking at him and grinned. ¡°Call me Hami. But I prefer that people use my title ¡®Right-Eyed Devil¡¯. I got it approved at a Sky Tower!¡±

    Angor showed a hollow smile. ¡°What¡¯s this ¡®quest¡¯ you mentioned?¡±

    Hami and Boro exchanged a confused look. Hami then questioned, ¡°You... are not from the HQ?¡±

    As they exined, Angor learned why he received the strange treatment.

    Brute Cavern rarely sent any members to White m City. Each time they did send someone, they were either recruiters who would go and seek new talents across the sea or were appointed to rece someone in the office.

    Recruiters usually came in spring, when most sea routes were avable so that they could travel through more destinations. However, there were very few apprentices who were willing to take this job because it was so time-consuming and would always ruin their own training ns. This was why Angor was considered to be someone for the second job, meaning, he was sent here to work at the office.

    Workers here were usuallypensated well, but they couldn¡¯t receive proper training from a wizard all the way here, nor could they find enough resources to undergo other forms of training, so they were all eager to see a ¡°recement¡±.

    This was the reason why Angor instantly became the center of the spotlight.

    ¡°Hey you, you¡¯re from the HQ, right? And you¡¯ll work in the ce of one of us? Come here, let¡¯s talk. I¡¯ve had enough of this pointless post.¡± Hami was raising his right eyebrow so high that it almost sank into his hair.

    ¡°Quit it, Hami. You came way after I did! If someone¡¯s leaving, it should be me!¡± another apprentice protested.

    ¡°Oh, really? How about we duke it out, huh?¡± Hami stared at the opposer and raised a fist.

    ¡°But Mister Right-Eyed... Can you please give me the chance? I¡¯ve been a level-2 for years, and I don¡¯t even know many level-1 cantrips!¡± Someone started to fake crying.

    Hami spat on the floor.

    Angor found the sight to be quite funny and looked at the old man, Boro. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going topete with them?¡±

    ¡°I... do want to go back. But as you can see, I¡¯m approaching my limit now. And I¡¯ve already learned what I can from my teacher. The organization won¡¯t provide me with much. I might as well remain here and wait for destiny.¡±

    ¡°You can find destiny in this city?¡±

    ¡°This ce is very close to the Devil¡¯s Water, and many strong wizards would travel through. If I look hard enough, I might find their leftovers one day. Do you know Phantom Master, one of the most powerful fighters in our organization, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± said Angor.

    Not only that, we know each other reaaaally well, he thought.

    ¡°Last time, Phantom Master entered Devil¡¯s Water on a cloud whale and killed a giant squid monster on his way. He took the core of the monster and tossed the corpse in the sea. The corpse of a powerful monster! I heard that many people earned a great fortune from it. You see that? Sometimes you just pick up destiny like that.¡±

 Chapter 702 - An Old Sea Chart

    <h4>Chapter 702: An Old Sea Chart</h4>

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything. It seemed ¡°destiny¡± meantpletely different things in their view.

    To Angor, destiny meant finding the legacy left behind by a great wizard, the nest of a powerful monster, or a hidden treasure vault in an unknown dimension. It called for both luck and effort since one needed a lot of work to find them.

    But what Boro said was basically waiting for gold to drop on his head.

    Boro saw Angor was unresponsive and stroked his beard with a smile. ¡°My teacher is Mister Wace, by the way. From him, I learned the strict ways of an academician. I¡¯m too old topete with young ones.¡±

    In other words, he could do nothing other than ¡°picking up leftovers¡± now.

    As they talked, Hami had settled his business with the other apprentices as well. Willingly or not, they agreed to let Hami return to Brute Cavern first, who would convince more people to join the job, one way or another.

    Hami came back to Angor with a bright smile. ¡°It¡¯s settled. Now quick. I really want to go back.¡±

    Angor looked at Hami¡¯s expression and felt as if he shouldn¡¯t break down someone¡¯s hope so cruelly. However... it couldn¡¯t be helped now.

    ¡°You misunderstood me. I¡¯m not here for a job.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not?¡± Hami yelled. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re a recruiter?¡±

    ¡°Well, yes, I think.¡±

    ¡°Can-can I see your bone card then?¡± Hami wasn¡¯t convinced.

    Angorplied but without revealing his personal information. He only showed the others his epted quest, which was already printed on his card.

    Hami saw the recruitment quest and stomped away, cursing. The other apprentice also returned to their posts in great disappointment.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell us earlier? That will make us less sad!¡± Hami yelled back.

    Angor shrugged. ¡°You didn¡¯t give me a chance to speak.¡±

    ¡°You look pretty young... Why would you ept this quest? Suppose you have a lot of time on your hands, you don¡¯t know if you can find enough candidates for sure,¡± Boro asked. He was the only one who wasn¡¯t bothered.

    Hami interrupted again by speaking first, ¡°Do you even need to ask? Just look at his clothes! An academicism rich kid who doesn¡¯t have the guts to ept more challenging jobs, just like you!¡±

    Neither Boro nor Angor said anything. It was another worker in the office who snickered at Hami. ¡°Hey, Hami, so why did you agree toe to this shithole? An office worker isn¡¯t exactly a ¡®more challenging job¡¯.¡±

    Hami was getting furious. ¡°Because I was wounded, and I¡¯m not fit for any other quests, you fool! Nobody told me that I need to wait for a stupid recement to leave this ce! Unlike you lots, I¡¯m a true supporter of praxis, like Mister Sunders! Oh, forget it.¡± Hami jerked his head back and looked at Angor again. ¡°Now, tell me, why would a recruitere at such a time? Most waterways are frozen solid. You can¡¯t go anywhere.¡±

    ¡°If I remember right, the Devil¡¯s Water doesn¡¯t freeze easily, right?¡± replied Angor.

    ¡°You¡¯re heading to Devil¡¯s Water?!¡± Hami and Boro yelled at the same time.

    Angor nodded.

    Hami felt his face burning in embarrassment. He just said that Angor was ¡°a coward who only takes easy jobs¡±, and what Angor said proved the exact opposite¡ªtraveling across Devil¡¯s Water meant courage. Blind courage.

    ¡°Are you perhaps going somewhere around ckberry Waters or the Whalebone Sea?¡± Boro asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°But those routes will be frozen too, by the time you arrive. It¡¯s still too early for you to depart.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m heading to the Land of Revtion by flying above Devil¡¯s Water. I have a flying vehicle,¡± Angor exined. ¡°The only route I don¡¯t know well is this Devil¡¯s Water. I don¡¯t think I can get past it without a guide. This is why I came here. I want to ask if any ship is going to Devil¡¯s Water these days.¡±

    Boro and Hami found their suspicion answered. It was easy for the owner of a flying vehicle to bypass many dangers lurking around Devil¡¯s Water. Also, owning a flying vehicle already proved one¡¯s strength.

    ¡°I won¡¯t question your purpose of going there, Mister Padt,¡± said Boro, ¡°as for ships... I¡¯m afraid none of our ships are strong enough to sail there. I can only help you contact the White m Ocean Fare Association and see whether they have a ship going to the Land of Revtion recently.¡±

    ¡°White m Ocean Fare Association? Is it perhaps...¡±

    Boro nodded as he pointed upward. ¡°Yes. Those people. Don¡¯t worry, they always agree to bring some recruiters along. But it¡¯s rare for us because we Brute Cavern usually do not search for talents across Devil¡¯s Water.¡±

    ¡°Do you know about The Redbud?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°The Redbud? That¡¯s a ship operated by the association. So you know them? This ship travels along a distant course that usually took more than a year. But it¡¯s not at the port at the moment. I think it left half a year ago.¡±

    Angor nodded. He asked this question out of the blue. And he wasn¡¯t expecting that the recruiter ship he used several years ago belonged to the Floating City.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go and ask them now, sir. Hope you bring us a brilliant new generation.¡± Boro removed his wizard hat, bowed to Angor, and slowly headed upstairs.

    When Angor wondered why the old man needed to go to the second floor, Hami answered him, ¡°The transmitter used for talking to Floating Mech City is ced up there. They said that it must remain outdoors to receive a signal.¡±

    While waiting for Boro, Angor looked around the office curiously.

    The building wasn¡¯t big. He saw many thick books scattered on the desks and chairs, most of which were difficult reading materials rted to various arts.

    Most workers were currently reading something while taking notes, which made the whole ce look like a library full of eager students.

    Apart from the books, Angor was interested in a yellowed nautical chart hanging on the wall beside the staircase. Judging from what he knew, this chart had many problems such as an incorrect measuring scale, and it showed different areas in the wrong sizes. Only the general directions of locations were rtively fine.

    He saw the Land of Revtion, the Magus Corridor, and Valha Isle on the chart.

    But to his confusion, it excluded Old Earth. At where Old Earth was supposed to be, someone instead left a strange picture that looked both like a flower and a weird animal.

    It wasmon for someone to neglect Old Earth since many people never went there before. But why would someone draw a picture instead of leaving it nk?

    Boro already returned to the first floor and spoke beside his ears, which surprised him a little.

    ¡°This map was left here for God-know-how-long. Either from an apprentice, or a mortal. No one can remember. As you see, it doesn¡¯t have much value. We put it here for the sake of decoration. I believe someone found the map at a random corner in the storage.¡±

    ¡°The map is usable as long as you only check the directions of destinations,¡± Angor said as he pointed to several names. ¡°At least these are correct, telling from the books I read before. But there¡¯s something not right here...¡±

    ¡°Are you talking about the Marginalized Ind?¡± Boro used his cane to point at the strange picture.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Angor chose not to mention the different names of the ce. To non-natives, Old Earth was always called the Marginalized Ind.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know what this meant either. Perhaps it represents the shape of Marginalized Ind?¡± Boro held his chin. ¡°Or maybe the mapmaker did it out of boredom, since it won¡¯t affect the other parts of the map.¡±

    ¡°I see. I¡¯m nning to head there though.¡±

    ¡°To Marginalized Ind? That¡¯s pretty far, and I don¡¯t think you can find any talents there.¡± Boro shook his head but decided not to question Angor¡¯s purpose. ¡°I¡¯ve got an answer. They have a ship departing, but it¡¯s not going for the Land of Revtion. They¡¯re heading to Ferran Land next week.¡±

    Ferran Land? Angor checked the problematic sea chart again.

    On the chart, Ferran Land was right next to the Land of Revtion. But from what he remembered, these two ces were at least ten thousand kilometers apart.

    That might be a great distance in the view of mortals. But not to Gond.

    Angor nodded. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll go with them to Ferran Land. Then I¡¯ll go for the Land of Revtion from there.¡±

    Again, Boro went upstairs to confirm the new passenger, and he reached an agreement with the ship¡¯s holder soon.

    ¡°They said yes. However, they hope that you can protect the mortals on the ship while at it, who are the majority of the voyagers. Of course, you¡¯re free to abandon them should anything that threatens your lifees about.¡±

    ¡°Are there any other supernatural individuals with us?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But ording to conventions, they will have at least one powerful level-3 apprentice serving as a guard, or even wizards, if the ship must sail into Devil¡¯s Water in the wrong months.¡±

 Chapter 703 - Route and Schedule

    <h4>Chapter 703: Route and Schedule</h4>

    Three dayster.

    Hami was lost in thought while rxing on a leather chair. asionally, he would toss a small magical sphere onto a wall, which would bounce several times and change color, before returning to his hand.

    This was a simple alchemy toy to relieve fidgets. It was usually created by novice alchemists to test their skills.

    ¡°If you have time to doodle around, how about helping me check these resource application forms?¡± A fat-looking apprentice pointed at a pile of files he was working on. He was responsible for recording the resources they needed and reporting the result to Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Old Boro asked YOU to handle it, not me,¡± said Hami impatiently.

    ¡°You are part of the reason why I must do this sh*t! Look at what you requestedst time... a freaking music box? Boro earned a lotta scolding because of it. And I need to clean the mess afterward!¡±

    Hami raised an eyebrow. ¡°You peasants don¡¯t know fashion. That thing is like a must-have among exquisite wizards. You know, enjoy some music and illusion while drinking your wine... nice!¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a ¡®supporter of practices¡¯? When did you start to like this stuff?¡±

    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t go and look for fights all day. I do my best when I fight, and I rest as best as I can when I¡¯m not fighting.¡± Hami pretended as if he also had some serious noble standards.

    ¡°Just... stop haunting my ears with your nonsense. I need to concentrate here. Wait... Boro requested for the newest edition of The Mirror. Isn¡¯t that magazine meant for wizards only? Will they give us one?¡± The fat apprentice scratched his head.

    ¡°You should spend more time on this job then. Each year, The Mirror gives us a double issue we apprentices can read. It tells us about newly promoted wizards and somemonly-used cantrips we can learn, and sometimes, it would even have the new policies in the organization. I think they published one pretty early this year. I wonder if anything interesting is there... Hey, fatty, help me request for a Blood Shark Suit, will you?¡±

    ¡°No can do,¡± Boro suddenly spoke. He was just entering the building.

    ¡°Come on. I¡¯m so bored here. I wanna go to the sea and kill some monsters. Of course, I¡¯ll hand in all the parts to the HQ,¡± Hami protested.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have any allowance left,¡± said Boro as he lifted his long beard with one hand so that it didn¡¯t reach the stairs he was climbing.

    ¡°Just remove your magazine from the list then. We won¡¯t see any useful stuff on it anyway.¡±

    Boro shook his head. ¡°This year is different. I heard that the organization got a new wizard, ¡®Raging Thorns¡¯ Madelyne, the only survivor of the Sillian Family. Check her out so that you can recognize her when any of you return. Apart from her, I think we also found a new alchemist who upied several sections on The Mirror. Remember his face so that you know who to ask for help if you need any.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the point? It¡¯s not like we can meet with them anyway. Just give me a Blood Shark Suit!¡± Hami retorted.

    ¡°Fine, so these aren¡¯t important to you. What about something that concerns your lives?¡± Boro knocked on the floor with his cane to attract everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°You all heard about the thing happening at Sleepless City? The parasites are spotted around Parmigi Hignds recently, which means we Brute Cavern is very likely to get affected. The Mirror will exin the general situation, and we MUST read it.¡±

    No one said anything this time. Boro was true¡ªthis was about their safety.

    Boro then walked to the fat apprentice to check the application forms.

    ¡°Materials, utilities, books... looks fine. Now send it away.¡± Boro asked the apprentice to deliver the file through the transmitter upstairs, while he sat down and began working on a new route chart.

    It took him some time. He had not finished writing when the fat apprentice returned.

    Hami nced at Boro¡¯s paperwork and asked, ¡°What¡¯s that for, old man? Why are you interested in the sea routes around the Whalebone Sea?¡±

    Boro briefly stopped writing to get some ink. ¡°That mister on a recruiting mission, Padt. He has to travel across Devil¡¯s Water this year, which means he¡¯ll return around next year. He needs to know the schedule and routes of the returning ships so that he wouldn¡¯t travel alone and lose his way in Devil¡¯s Water.¡±

    ¡°Just tell him where the association set up their bases around thends, and he can look for them himself!¡± Hami still felt annoyed at the man who hurt his feelings.

    ¡°I¡¯m helping him as far as I can. That Mister Padt... He¡¯s not amon man,¡± said Boro as he returned to his desk.

    ¡°Of course he¡¯s notmon. He¡¯s an apprentice!¡±

    ¡°What I mean is, he does not look right. His speeches and manners did not fit with his age, and did you see him hiding his name on the bone card? Why?¡± Boro frowned. ¡°I can¡¯t tell. But this doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t help him. Even if he¡¯s just an apprentice, it doesn¡¯t hurt to know a new friend.¡±

    ¡°Why would you need a useless and dumb coward as your new friend??¡± Hami spat. ¡°Like I said, a spoiled rich man who joined the academicians. He won¡¯t give you anything in return.¡±

    Hami returned to his seat to y with his magic ball again.

    Boro sighed and continued writing down all possible vessels of the association Angor might use next year. He had not heard much definite information, so he had to spend the whole day noting down every possible choice.

    The faint light from an oilmp further added to the antiquated ambiance of the wooden building.

    While enjoying the refreshing sea breeze at night, which slipped inside the room through the window, Boro finally put down his pen.

    Boro checked the dark sky outside and decided not to bother Mister Padt at such a time. While it was rare for supernatural beings to sleep so early, he didn¡¯t want to take the risk.

    ¡°I¡¯ll give the chart to him tomorrow then.¡±

    ...

    ¡°There are two days before his ship leaves. Mister Padt never left his room in three days. What¡¯s he doing?¡± Boro mumbled.

    Then he looked at Hami, who grew so bored that he fell asleep under the sunlight. ¡°Hami, did you see what Mister Padt was up to when you sent him breakfast?¡±

    Hami yawned. ¡°You know what? The b*stard¡¯s making some clothes. When I got into his room, I saw him messing around with some threads and sewing temtes on the floor. Why is he doing women¡¯s work?¡±

    ¡°Quit it. Sewing is not exclusive to women. As a matter of fact, many famous weavers around the realm are gentlemen,¡± Boro scolded. ¡°So he¡¯s a weaver then? Did you get a good look at the materials? Are they tiered magical materials?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not blind, of course I checked. No, all cheap mortal stuff. Well, except for the thread, which looks pretty expensive. But it¡¯s still not enchanted.¡± Hami snickered. ¡°You think he¡¯s an alchemist? Don¡¯t make meugh. You don¡¯t find alchemists so easily. Especially in this remote ce.¡±

    Boro slowly nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right... Unlike Floating Mech City, our organization does not have many alchemists.¡±

    Boro decided to deliver the route chart to Angor at nightfall.

    When he returned, he was pondering over what he saw in Angor¡¯s room. Just as Hami said, that man was working on some average materials to make fabrics. But that tool on his desk...

    I think I saw it from somewhere before?

    He shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

    I already finished my job, and Mister Padt thanked me. This should be enough.

    ...

    Inside his room, Angor carefully put away the time chart he just received.

    Originally, he nned to ask around for the locations of settlements ran by supernatural individuals around the world so that he would not lose his way upon returning. Boro just saved him a lot of time.

    Telling from the details on the chart, he could see that Boro put some work into it.

    Angor understood that this old man was trying to grasp any chance he could find before reaching the limit of his life.

    And he didn¡¯t hate it. The truth was, he tended to detest sudden kindness that didn¡¯t have a cause. As for obvious equivalent exchange... it was eptable.

    Next, he returned to the work at hand. Since he was at someone¡¯s territory and it wasn¡¯t a good choice to practice illusions, he chose to get to another task on his to-do list, which was learning how to make clothing.

    He had this n a long time ago, and thanks to all kinds of incidents that upied him, he only found time recently.

    He noticed that weaving clothes was easier than he thought. As a Tooling Alchemist who knew the art of Enchantment, he would simply add extra effects to existing clothes to make basic alchemy pieces.

    But it was harder if he wished to create tiered clothing. For this, he had to put many factors into ount at the same time, such as using the right runes on the right arrays while applying everything onto the right material, without allowing anything to conflict with each other. For this reason, he could not use random materials to weave at his will.

    Compared to Synthesis, the products of Enchantment were highly restricted by the materials one could use. It was pretty difficult for Angor to create something with the effects he expected.

    For example, if he wished to get a silk robe that preserved heat, he would have to use a Preserve Heat Rune, which couldn¡¯t be added onto silk materials because the rune would easily ignite it.

    He had realized that enchanting clothes was rtively easy. But creating something with the correct effect, which both looked good and used the rightponents, was rather trying.

 Chapter 704 - Setting Sail

    <h4>Chapter 704: Setting Sail</h4>

    The sounds of seagulls and crashing tides rhymed beside Angor¡¯s ears as he slowly opened his eyes. The view outside the window reminded him of several years ago, when he would also gaze through a small window on The Redbud as he watched the unknown world.

    As he emptied his mind to enjoy the view, a gray seabird wearing panda costumended on the windowsill and called at him.

    ¡°Good morning, Toby.¡± Angor waved a hand casually, and following Toby¡¯s demand, he slowly climbed out of bed.

    A standing mirror nearby perfectly reflected his wiry, well-toned inverted triangr-shaped body. His messy hair after sleep did nothing to hide his personal charm.

    While getting washed and dressed, he heard someone knocking on his door.

    ¡°Mister Padt, Chief Officer Helen of The Limpet is here. She needs to know when you¡¯reing. The ship is bound to depart within an hour.¡±

    ¡°Will be there soon!¡± Angor replied.

    ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll tell her so.¡±

    Angor then found a tight-fitting gentleman suit and used mor to turn into the ¡°typical, absolutely not attractive middle-aged man¡±. He then left the room with Toby.

    He went downstairs and saw a uniformed woman with a somewhat wide waistline waiting for him, who then removed her hat and saluted.

    ¡°Mister Padt, this is Chief Officer Helen from The Limpet,¡± Boro exined.

    The woman walked to Angor and bowed slightly. ¡°It¡¯s a privilege to serve you, great wizard.¡±

    Mortals usually couldn¡¯t tell apprentices and wizards apart. Angor checked and noticed that the woman was a mortal about the age of 30. She looked pretty decent too, if one didn¡¯t mind her eyes, which looked a little stern.

    ¡°Sorry for keeping you waiting, Miss Helen.¡± Angor gave her a friendly smile.

    Helen¡¯s expression twitched a little as she wasn¡¯t expecting a ¡°great wizard¡± to treat her with courtesy. She had served many supernatural beings in her career, and most of the time, she only earned cold shoulders.

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t wait for long. Are you leaving right now, Mister Wizard?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Please lead the way.¡±

    They left the office building with Boro apanying them, who then smiled at Angor and asked Helen a question, ¡°Officer Helen, can you tell us who¡¯s protecting the ship this time?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Mister Roman, sir. I saw him on the deck just now.¡±

    ¡°Roman?¡± Boro moved closer to Angor and whispered, ¡°That¡¯s Roman Rofka, a man good at manipting water elements. The White m Sea Fare Association ims that they hired him as a guard, but Roman is in fact from there.¡±

    Boro pointed at the sky.

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°That man has been staying in this city for 20 years. At first, he would never go with any ships. But he changed his mindter, since he¡¯s approaching his limit, just like me. Don¡¯t take me wrong, Roman is a lot stronger than me. He¡¯s been apanying ships across Devil¡¯s Water in recent years, probably looking for a destiny to break through his level.¡±

    Compared to Roman¡¯s story, Angor was more interested in another matter. ¡°Is a level-3 apprentice enough to keep the ship safe at Devil¡¯s Water?¡±

    Boro looked at Helen, who answered this one, ¡°Sir, our ship is designed by a master engineer. We won¡¯t have a problem with bad weather and turbulent waters. We only need a great wizard to help us when we run into monsters.¡±

    Angor nodded. It was very rare for powerful monsters to show up because these creatures were wise enough to know that wizards would ruthlessly hunt them down, should any of them leave traces behind.

    As for weaker monsters... a powerful level-3 apprentice like Roman should have no problem dealing with them. Or at least chasing them away.

    Besides, since The Redbud had a nightmare stone used for concealing the ship, Angor believed that The Limpet probably had something simr.

    ¡°Is Roman the only one?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t find another wizard apart from him, sir,¡± said Helen.

    ¡°It¡¯s almost winter. No organization will send recruiters at such a time,¡± said Boro. ¡°Good for you though, as you will have nopetition when looking for talents.¡±

    Boro¡¯s attempt tofort Angor was quite pointless since there wouldn¡¯t be any petition¡± even if a hundred recruiters went to the samend.

    The world was so wide. Even an ¡°ind¡± like the Old Earth had a dozenrge-scale nations bordering each other. When Mara went there to recruit, he spent lots of time looking around the Goldspink Empire.

    Soon, they reached the harbor of the city.

    ¡°This is as far as I can go, Mister Padt. I wish you a safe travel.¡± Boro removed his hat and bowed to Angor. ¡°Hope you bring us new torchbearers that will inherit the summit of our glory.¡±

    Angor returned the courtesy and whispered to the old man, ¡°Thank you very much for your hospitality, Mister Boro. I left a small gift for you in my bedroom. Hope you like it.¡±

    He then turned away and left with Helen, while Boro was left confused.

    A gift? For me?

    The Limpet was already setting sail, allowing more rays of the morning sun to enter the harbor and brighten Boro¡¯s long beard.

    ...

    Boro returned to Brute Cavern¡¯s office and saw a number of crates scattered all over the main hall. The workers had ced their books elsewhere just to make room for the new ¡°shipments¡±.

    ¡°Hey, Boro, the HQ sent everything we requested!¡± the fat apprentice yelled to Boro happily.

    Each time they epted new materials from the headquarters, they would spend some time celebrating as if enjoying a festival, which was rare in this remote city far from home.

    ¡°They have no reason to disappoint us, as long as we don¡¯t ask for absurd items like some music box.¡± Boro chuckled.

    Hami cursed something under his breath, but he soon enjoyed himself by arranging the items.

    As the ¡°second-inmand¡± of the office, Hami was usually in charge of everything that Boro didn¡¯t interfere with, such as allocating prizes.

    Naturally, he demanded all the better items, which frustrated the others greatly. Yet no one could protest.

    It was when Hami almost put one-fourth of all the new items into his personal storage that Boro finally decided to stop him.

    Hami looked at a colorful whelk in his hand and showed a hesitant look. ¡°This is thest one, promise! I won¡¯t mind any of the remaining stuff.¡±

    The whelk was an Echo Conch usually used by Matter Handlers. But there was no Matter Handler here, so the item could be considered a ything at best.

    ¡°You said it! We¡¯ll have the rest of the stash, and you will NOT get your hands on anything again!¡± The others agreed to Hami¡¯s ¡°offer¡±.

    While most of the apprentices continued looking through the crates, some of them joined Boro to read The Mirror together. The crisis at the Evernight Kingdom had not reached Brute Cavern yet. They all wished to know how their organization was going to prepare against the matter.

    ¡°Stop epting visitors, forbid apprentices from leaving the city, decrease quests that involve fieldwork... Assigned workers apart from those working inside the Evernight Kingdom shall return to the HQ at once...¡±

    Everyone was shocked to see the message. Even Hami left his items and came to read the magazine more carefully.

    ¡°Did they just say that we will stay here longer?¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s why they sent us resources so generously! They meant to keep us here!¡±

    ¡°I knew it! I should never have epted this damn job!¡±

    Boro sighed. ¡°Perhaps the organization is protecting us from harm. Maybe the HQ isn¡¯t exactly safe right now.¡±

    ¡°But that Padt guy just came from there. Safe or not, we can ask him!¡±

    ¡°He already left,¡± said Boro. ¡°Maybe he went on a recruiting mission just to escape from the crisis... Oh right, Mister Padt said he left me something in his room.¡±

    Boro went upstairs and returned with a simple-looking silver cape in his hand.

    The item looked in from afar. But when looking more closely, people saw inconspicuous gray patterns, which looked like sea tides, weaved on the cape.

    ¡°What the heck is that, old man? Wait, I feel energy signatures,¡± an apprenticemented.

    Boro carefully removed a piece of note attached to the cape.

    The fat apprentice moved closer and began reading the note aloud, ¡°Mister Boro, this is called the ¡®Swimmer¡¯s Bless¡¯. It¡¯s used for hiding your presence from detection, and it can help you breathe underwater and stay safe from water pressure. Consider it a reward for giving me the detailed schedule chart. Hope you enjoy it.¡±

    His voice was trembling when he finished reading.

    ¡°This is like a Blood Shark Suit but way better!¡±

    Hami stared at the item with pleading eyes. ¡°Mister-Mister Boro, I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Quit it!¡± the fat apprentice interrupted. ¡°You will not take ANYTHING from now on, right?¡±

    ¡°But this is not from the HQ! It¡¯s an extra gift for Boro!¡±

    ¡°Ah, so you know it¡¯s not for you? Didn¡¯t you say that mister was a coward and that Boro was helping him to no avail? Changed your mind already?¡±

    Hami couldn¡¯t find the right words to retort this time, so he only tried his best to make himself feel better. ¡°But maybe this is a fake! I saw him working, and he was only using cheap materials!¡±

    Boro was checking the cape, and he suddenly pointed to the inner lining of the cape¡¯s hood.

    ¡°This emblem...¡±

    The others heard him and looked his way. They saw Boro pointing at an embroidered picture, which was a lion entangled by thorny vines. Also, the picture was pulsing with faint energy ripples.

    ¡°I think I just saw it from somewhere.¡±

    Everyone turned around to look at The Mirror magazine, which was left on a desk nearby.

    It showed exactly the same emblem on its cover.

 Chapter 705 - Roman

    <h4>Chapter 705: Roman</h4>

    The Limpet was an ocean-going cargo vessel characterized by many gs that showed a white limpet on them. Its size was simr to The Redbud, with seven levels in total and staffed with over 200 workers.

    While walking to his room, he saw many mortal sailors and handymen busily running around the ship.

    Before he could settle down and enjoy some peace in his room, someone knocked on his door.

    The visitor didn¡¯t speak. But the energy signature was enough to prove his identity.

    Without leaving the sunlight he was enjoying, Angor used his spirit power to remotely open his door and saw a middle-aged figure in a blue uniform.

    ¡°How may I call you, good sir?¡± The visitor entered the room and joined Angor on the balcony.

    ¡°Please, call me Padt, Mister Roman.¡± Angor smiled.

    Roman didn¡¯t question why Angor already knew his name.

    ¡°Mister Padt it is. I thought I was the only level-3 apprentice and that the journey might be a little... troublesome. But with you here, I believe I can experience fair security.¡±

    ¡°I reached level 3 just recently and have not started learning many level-3 cantrips. I¡¯m afraid I still have to rely on you, Mister Roman. Of course, I will not hesitate to provide assistance since the association generously granted me a lift.¡±

    Roman smiled in satisfaction. He came just to make sure his new guest would help him guard the ship when necessary.

    ¡°I¡¯ll not upy more of your time then, Mister Padt. Look for me upstairs should you have any questions,¡± Roman said as he turned to leave.

    ¡°A moment, Mister Roman. Can you tell me about that gem?¡±

    Angor still remembered the particr nightmare stone, which was embedded inside the figurehead of The Redbud. This was why he noticed a simr gem on The Limpet too.

    The figurehead of The Limpet was a silver statue of a mermaid with an angelic look. Her ears were a pair of fins while her hair strings were, strangely, snakes.

    She was holding a whelk-like object, which had a purple gem slotted onto it.

    Angor assumed that this was another nightmare stone. But he did not sense very obvious nightmare energy from it.

    ¡°That...¡± Roman narrowed his eyes at the question. ¡°That¡¯s a nightmare stone, Mister Padt. Activating it will conceal the ship inside a temporary illusion and confuse monsters, should anye to attack us.¡±

    Angor felt something was off but failed to tell what exactly.

    ¡°I see. So that¡¯s why I¡¯ve been having a... strange feeling. A nightmare stone is a very precious resource.¡± Angor pretended that he was amazed.

    After Roman left, Angor remained on the balcony for a while to inspect the figurehead statue before returning into his room.

    As The Limpet sailed away from Fey Continent, he began practicing weaving again. As for illusions, he couldn¡¯t work on any since Roman¡¯s room was just above, so he could only read Sunders¡¯ notebook to prepare forter.

    The Limpet entered Devil¡¯s Water three dayster, and the vessel began bumping like a roller coaster. Storms and hurricanes weremon sights in this dreadful area.

    There was one time when the ship was surrounded by a dozen towering waterspouts. One wrong move would cause the ship to bump into them, in which case nothing would prevent the force of nature to tear it apart.

    There were two people steering¡ªHelen and the ship¡¯s captain, Erwin, who disyed their superior sailing techniques that kept the ship safe. Each time the ship went off course after avoiding danger, these two master helmsmen would always bring the ship out of the chaotic fog or pursuing tides, and find the right route again.

    Angor was d that he didn¡¯t decide to travel across Devil¡¯s Water alone, or he would easily lose his way, no doubt.

    It took half a month for the ship to cover about one-fifth of the route inside Devil¡¯s Water. Apart from threatening wind and tidal waves, The Limpet also came across an extra danger that was usually deadly to mortals but was considered to be pleasant surprises to apprentices¡ªsea monsters.

    Until now, they ran into monster herds at least ten times, which were all single-handedly taken care of by Roman. When Angor offered help, Roman simply rejected his assistance with a polite smile.

    Apparently, having a helper fighting off the monsters meant dividing the loot in half.

    Today, the weather was rtively fair, which was rare in these parts. Not long after people had their breakfast, a sea monster appeared in their view, which disyed the same power level as a level-3 apprentice.

    It was a brutal-looking fish with spikes grown all over its body. When Roman saw the monster on the observation stand, he immediately jumped into the air while lifting a hand at Angor as a stop sign.

    ¡°Leave this one to me!¡±

    Angor had no choice but toply. He was a guest, and it was only right to listen to ¡°arrangements¡±.

    Roman and the fish monster lookedparable in terms of strength. The monster possessed decent physical defenses, while Roman was proficient in manipting water. Their battle dragged on for a while as neither of them won an upper hand.

    As more time went by, Roman was slowly having his stamina depleted, while the monster remained vigorous thanks to the ¡°home-court advantage¡±.

    Angor waited patiently for Roman to allow him to join the fight, which never happened.

    Angor didn¡¯t understand why this man was so obsessed with iming everything on his own. Didn¡¯t he mention ¡°fair security with an extra helper¡± when they talked to each other on the first day?

    Roman¡¯s current situation no longer looked so fine.

    Maybe just like Boro mentioned, that Roman was also trying to fight for a destiny before his lifespan ended?

    And since Roman decided so, Angor chose to observe quietly without doing anything.

    The giant fish suddenly lifted its tail and mmed at the deck of the ship.

    Roman no longer had enough mana to deflect this attack. At this rate, the monster was going to end the lives of a dozen mortals who failed to run far enough.

    Still, Roman didn¡¯t ask for help.

    Angor jumped off from the observation stand despite Roman¡¯s unresponsiveness. He couldn¡¯t stand idle anymore because Helen, the chief officer of the ship, was among the threatened people. Helen¡¯s death would undeniably affect the reliability of the journey.

    Besides, the ship wouldn¡¯t stay so well if the monsterpletely shattered its deck.

    Considering these, Angor decided to do something.

    To be safe, he created a number of ice walls in the air to dampen the tail strike.

    The remaining momentum of the tail still caused the ship to sink greatly, while several spikes from the tail prated the bodies of sailors nearby.

    Helen managed to stay safe behind a pole. But her hat was blown off somewhere, and her long ck hair shook free of her hairband and had blocked her eyes.

    ¡°Get in there and help the wounded, Naki!¡± she yelled at a sailor not far from her. ¡°Hey, Cap! We need to get out of the tides asap!¡±

    Erwin, who had been inside the captain¡¯s cabin, did a hard aport to tilt the ship away from the battlefield.

    Angor had finished preparing another cantrip. From his hand, a burning mark slowly grew bigger and hit the tail before the monster could pull it away.

    ¡°Field of Fire!¡±

    Crimson mes covered the entire tail and caused the air to smell unpleasant.

    Startled by the pain, the monster dived back into the water.

    Although the fire caused by the Field of Fire couldn¡¯t be extinguished by simple means. When traveling at the bottom of the Sea of Purification, Angor had learned how to keep his fire burning underwater, and longer.

    Roman saw the fish struggling below the surface of the water and showed an excited smile.

    ¡°Padt, you keep the ship safe. I¡¯ll go finish it off!¡±

    Angor grimaced upon hearing those words.

    It seemed Roman insisted on keeping the aplishment of killing the monster all to himself despite Angor¡¯s assistance. The ship, the passengers... everything else didn¡¯t matter.

    Angor wouldn¡¯t me Roman for it wasmon for a level-3 apprentice to be overeager for an opportunity. But he still felt displeased when this man disregarded the safety of the ship so openly.

    He scoffed and canceled his Field of Fire. He then gave Roman a cold stare.

    Roman was faltering when he realized that he was being too reckless.

    If Padt suddenly attacked me right now...

    Fearing that he would be vulnerable to Angor¡¯s attacks, Roman decided to save some strength.

 Chapter 706 - Helenâ€™s Question

    <h4>Chapter 706: Helen¡¯s Question</h4>

    When the sea monster was badly wounded by Roman¡¯s attacks and Angor¡¯s fire, as soon as it saw a chance between Roman¡¯s weakened attacks, it slipped away.

    Afraid that he would leave his back wide open for an attack, Roman watched the monster leave without doing anything.

    Angor saw everything and almostughed in disdain. Several more attacks and the monster would be done for. Yet Roman let it escape just because of the pointless concerns.

    By canceling his Field of Fire, Angor had already decided to give the trophy to Roman. But it seemed this man was overcautious.

    With the battle ended and the water pacified, Roman clenched his fists as he felt greatly annoyed about letting his prey flee.

    Then he turned around and gave Angor a thoughtful look.

    Angor leaned against a pole and returned a casual smile to Roman.

    ¡°Such a pity, Mister Roman. That should have been all yours.¡±

    ¡°Humph.¡±

    Roman wouldn¡¯t start arguing with Angor yet since neither of them breached a certain boundary.

    ¡°I¡¯ve just learned that a monster of that level is too much for me to handle alone. I¡¯ll be expecting further back-up from you, Mister Padt.¡±

    Without waiting for an answer, Roman dived into his room. He used so much strength that the floor in front of Angor had cracked up.

    ¡°Geez. The ship¡¯s guardian broke the ship before a monster did?¡± Angor shook his head and headed to his room as well.

    None of the sailors spoke anything after the incident. Even mortals were smart enough to see that Angor saved their lives. But as the employees of the White m Sea Fare Association, they HAD to support Roman, or at least, not oppose him.

    There was only Helen who whispered ¡°thank you¡± to Angor when Angor moved by.

    Angor chose to stay quiet. He didn¡¯t wish to get anyone into trouble.

    He closed his door as his pretended straight face turned into a big frown. After what happened just now, he decided to deal with Roman more carefully.

    This was somewhat simr to Hookdick¡¯s matter, which started as a small conflict and turned more serious as Hookdick treated their enmity small-mindedly until it became life-or-death strife.

    To Angor, the initial unfriendliness was something he could tolerate. But he feared that this Roman man would be excessivelypetitive overtime and start using tricks, just like Hookdick.

    He would stay put and observe for now. Roman was the true leader of the ship, while he was only a visitor. While it was true that it was easy to get rid of Roman and exin the incident to the mortals, Angor wouldn¡¯t do such a thing as it might anger Floating Mech City.

    Unless Roman did something to force him.

    Until that happened, he would sit tight and conserve strength.

    ...

    The fair weather persisted into the night, as The Limpet sailed between two starry curtains. Without disturbing elements, the ship enjoyed a brief respite.

    Instead of studying, Angor left his room and floated onto the deck to enjoy the sea breeze, hoping to remove all the unnecessary burdens in his mind.

    It had been half a month since he departed from White m City. Each time he realized that he was going home, he felt it unrealistic as if everything were a dream.

    There was nothing other than endless water and drifting clouds to see, and people could easily lose track of date and time until they forgot how many days had passed.

    Angor was once troubled by the delusion that this was not The Limpet, but The Redbud, where he was still the mortal boy heading to White Coral Floating Ind Academy.

    At the same time, the peaceful ambiance caused him to temporarily forget how dangerous these waters were supposed to be.

    But he still appreciated precious tranquility.

    He heard footsteps approaching his position and quickly ascertained that they came from a mortal.

    When he smelled the faint scent of perfume, he opened his eyes and saw Helen, who was standing about ten feet from him.

    It seemed the officerdy had changed her uniform into a white skirt for sleeping. Simr to Angor, she was gazing into the dark horizon along the guard rails.

    ¡°Thank you very much, sir, or I would have probably joined the others down there,¡± Helen said while looking at Angor¡¯s rxed smile.

    ¡°The ship won¡¯t go where it should with the chief officer dead.¡±

    ¡°Still, you saved my life, sir.¡± Helen suddenly changed her tone of a professional marine into that of a timid woman. ¡°I don¡¯t have anything to repay you. If it¡¯s fine, you can have... me.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s your wish, just get The Limpet to its destination safe and sound.¡±

    Helen put up a proper manner again. ¡°I understand, sir. It¡¯s my job to bring The Limpet to Ferran Land. I¡¯ll not fail it.¡±

    They spent a moment in silence while enjoying the stars and moonlight.

    ¡°Sir-sir, you should know that the other sailors are just as grateful as me for what you have done. They can¡¯t tell you because of... reasons.¡±

    Angor decided to change the subject since he didn¡¯t want to ruin the mood yet. ¡°So, Officer Helen, each time you join a voyage like this, it will take you more than a year, right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. The longest sail I can remember took me three years.¡±

    ¡°How much time have you spent on the sea? And how do you pass time while at it?¡±

    Helen was a bit surprised since she never saw ¡°mighty wizards¡± showing interest in the lives of mortals.

    What she didn¡¯t know was that supernatural individuals weren¡¯t so different from mortals when it came to bread and butter. For example, the Enchanting Theater in Midnight Sovereign was meant for both supernaturals and mortals to enjoy. Even an ancient being like Lady Mirror knew about the nasty operas.

    In Angor¡¯s view, apprentices were just likemon mortals, except that they were usually blinded by pride and prejudice.

    ¡°I was born on the sea and then sent to a school onnd. I think I had about 20 years of career experience on the waters. As for killing time, no. I don¡¯t kill time. It¡¯s the time that kills me.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need to find entertainment to upy myself once I¡¯ve realized this. I just, bear with it, then everything will pass.¡± Helen showed a sad look. ¡°The sea never changes. But peoplee and go, and sometimes, they got reced. May I ask a question, sir?¡±

    Angor nodded nonchntly.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t seem surprised to see a woman serving as the chief mate of such an important ship. May I know why?¡± Helen looked at Angor in the eyes.

    Angor thought Helen was going to ask how to be an apprentice, like how Ananda did. Now, this wasn¡¯t expected.

    ¡°Why do you ask? Why should I be surprised?¡±

    ¡°Because I¡¯m a woman?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Gender doesn¡¯t matter. I happen to know a seafarerdy whomanded fleets and conquered her nation, as a mortal. Being a woman does not mean you can¡¯t achieve great things.¡±

    ¡°Mi-Mister, are you perhaps talking about Lord Asbel of the ckberry Waters?¡±

    ¡°So you know her? Then why are you doubting yourself? You already have a bright example.¡±

    ¡°But they said that Lord Asbel was captured by the Nightwolves pirate n four years ago, that she became the 13th bride of their leader, who became the new dominator of ckberry.¡±

    ¡°Spreading false stories and enjoying the forged glory. People love this stuff so much. Your Lord Asbel is no longer amon mortal. She can¡¯t possibly be imprisoned by some pirates.¡±

    ¡°So the Nightwolves are lying... I used to consider Lord Asbel as my hero, someone I should learn from. But... I was not faithful enough. The rumors... I was swayed so easily.¡±

    Angor chuckled as he shook his head. He wasn¡¯t expecting Nausica¡¯s glory to be so widespread, and that her enemies enjoyed ndering her name after she left the mortal world.

    He then nced at the mermaid statue on the prow of the ship.

 Chapter 707 - Stolen Stone

    <h4>Chapter 707: Stolen Stone</h4>

    Angor already wished to check the figurehead statue on The Limpet. Today, he decided to look up close.

    Compared to the ¡°prayingdy¡± on The Redbud, the figurehead of The Limpet looked a bit garish. Evil, even.

    ¡°An alluring siren with snake hair... sounds like something preferred by pirates.¡±

    While he looked, Helen was still talking about Nausica with a yearning look. ¡°Is Lord Asbel currently at the Fey Continent, sir?¡±

    ¡°Maybe and maybe not. She said she had something to deal with. I won¡¯t be surprised if she already went to a random ce to hide,¡± Angor replied without looking away from the statue.

    ¡°Are you interested in Medusa, sir?¡±

    ¡°Medusa?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the name of the sea monster you¡¯re looking at. People say that she lives at Devil¡¯s Water and feeds on humans¡¯ brains. Those who look at her eyes will be turned to stone. Many ships ce Medusa¡¯s statue on their prow to scare off other monsters. Personally, I don¡¯t think this helps. The monsters wille nevertheless. No one can prove the existence of Medusa. Not even wizards from the association.¡±

    ¡°If that story earlier is true, then of course no one can live to tell the tale, should they see Medusa for real. And you¡¯re wrong, I¡¯m not interested in the statue.¡±

    Helen kept looking and noticed that Angor was gazing at the statue¡¯s hand, where a sea whelk with a purple gem was held.

    As soon as Angor came to the ship, he recognized weak nightmare energy signatures from the whelk, which suggested a nightmare stone. Later, Roman also told him so.

    However, something told him that the energy was further decreasing. When standing near the statue, he could barely feel it anymore.

    Either someone knew how to hide the energy from detection, which was unlikely on this ship, or the nightmare stone was depleted.

    Angor slowly closed his eyes and prepared a cantrip.

    When he opened his eyes again, he saw digits and symbols around the statue that were normally invisible to others. Gradually, all the data entered the ¡°server¡± in his mindspace.

    ¡°Are you looking at the nightmare stone, sir?¡± Helen asked when she saw Angor frowning.

    ¡°You know what this is?¡±

    ¡°Yes. They told us to activate this stone if any unconquerable monster shows up. But that doesn¡¯t happen often on the sea. As far as I know, the nightmare stone on The Limpet was only used once around ten years ago, when people saw a giant squid monstering.¡±

    ¡°So the stone has been left untouched ever since?¡±

    ¡°Should be.¡±

    Angor snickered. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it¡¯ll never work again anyway.¡±

    Helen tilted her head in confusion.

    ¡°Untouched, not quite. There must be someone who tampered with it recently.¡±

    ¡°But... I never saw someone doing such a thing.¡±

    ¡°Tell me, apart from me and Roman, are there any other supernatural people who came to The Limpet this month?¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so.¡± Helen shook her head.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nced at the nightmare stone again as well as the faint energy ripples that are almost extinguished by the wind. ¡°Get back to your room. We don¡¯t want our chief officer to catch a cold.¡±

    Then he left the prow of the ship first.

    Helen decided not to ask what those words meant since she wasn¡¯t supposed to, and so, she returned to her cabin as well.

    As Angor arrived at his room, he heard noises outside his window, which sounded like someone¡¯s clothes pping in the wind.

    He walked to the balcony and saw a man standing at where he and Helen were several minutes ago¡ªRoman.

    Roman looked at Angor with a grim expression, while Angor, using the image of a typical middle-aged traveler, waved a hand to say ¡°what¡¯s up¡±.

    Roman used his spirit to confirm that the nightmare stone was unharmed and showed a relieved look.

    They spent several more seconds exchanging stares before Roman said something using his lips and returned to his room on the top floor.

    Angor tried recreating Roman¡¯s ¡°lipnguage¡±.

    ¡°Mind your own business? Ha.¡±

    It seemed Roman was both suspicious and overcautious. Or in this case, he was being too mistrustful due to his own guilt.

    Just now, Angor¡¯s Narda¡¯s Vision cantrip told him that the gem on the statue was not a nightmare stone, but a ¡°deception stone¡±, a non-tiered material capable of holding basic illusions.

    It was valuelesspared to nightmare stones.

    ording to Helen¡¯s story, the nightmare stone was still fine ten years ago, while the lingering nightmare energy around the deception stone suggested that the real nightmare stone was removed within a month.

    Even though Helen said that there was only Roman who boarded the ship as a supernatural in this month, Angor couldn¡¯t be sure that it was Roman who stole the nightmare stone. It was still likely that someone they didn¡¯t know about sneaked onto the ship one night.

    But after seeing Roman¡¯s reaction just now...

    Angor was almost sure that Roman took the nightmare stone as the guard of the vessel.

    As a passenger, Angor didn¡¯t wish to reveal Roman¡¯s trick because it probably wouldn¡¯t help with anything in the middle of nowhere.

    But he wondered what Roman¡¯s purpose was. Or how this man was going to exin to his association once the matter was found out.

    A nightmare stone was valuable enough to attract attention from the Floating Mech City. What would happen if the city sent someone to go after the lost item?

    The future of The Limpet didn¡¯t seem so well.

    ...

    In the next few days, The Limpet came across some minor problems on the sea, but it was never in real danger thanks to Helen and Erwin.

    In fact, Angor was a little confused when he realized that the ship was free of monster attacks for so many days.

    While the weather seemed as violent as it should be, all the sea monsters usually lurking around Devil¡¯s Water were gone.

    ¡°Monster iing!!!¡± a sailor suddenly called loudly and interrupted his thoughts.

    Angor wasmunicating with Nano, who was making clothes again inside the space bracelet. Nano might be pretty terrible when it came to styling, but he was still a skilled weaver.

    Upon hearing the warning, Angor quickly ¡°disconnected¡± his spirit feelers and looked outside.

    On the horizon, a giant, serpent-like beast was rising and sinking repeatedly on the sea surface while approaching The Limpet quickly.

    He couldn¡¯t recognize the monster. But the energy signatures told him that the giant snake was another level-3 apprentice-like presence. A very powerful one.

    He simply waited on the balcony since Roman was looking for monster parts so eagerly.

    However, Roman never moved when the monster was only several hundred kilometers away.

    The mortal workers on the deck were getting more and more panicked.

    Officer Helen was also on the ship¡¯s deck, ordering her men to evacuate. From her position, she could see both Angor and Roman.

    She was mostly looking at Roman since she knew this man usually acted first when fending off monsters. But her heart sank when Roman only gave her an indifferent grin.

    She had no choice but to pray that Angor could do something.

    Angor was fully aware of the situation. But he would like to stay put before ascertaining Roman¡¯s attitude.

    Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s still hating me for attacking the fish monster without getting his consent?

    The sailors on the deck were already screaming as they watched the serpent opening its fanged maw just a short distance away.

    ¡°What¡¯s your n this time, Mister Roman?¡± Angor decided to ask.

    Roman spoke in a loud voice, which was heard by everyone, ¡°Thest monster left several nasty wounds on me. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m not in the condition to fight this one. Captain, please change course and avoid the monster.¡±

    As expected... Angor grimaced.

    Roman might fool mortals with that lie, but in Angor¡¯s view, Roman was in top condition.

    There was not a chance for the ship to escape from the serpent monster by changing directions. Did Roman decide topletely abandon the ship? Just because he got his hands on the nightmare stone?

    ¡°s, it is a little toote to evade now. But rest assured! I¡¯m not the only wizard on the ship, remember?¡±

    Roman gave Angor a side-nce and disyed a cunning smile.

 Chapter 708 - Rancor

    <h4>Chapter 708: Rancor</h4>

    Angor replied to Roman¡¯s arrogant look with a cold stare, ¡°If you say so, allow me to FULLY handle this.¡±

    Roman kept smiling as if he just won a fight. He didn¡¯t believe an ordinary level-3 apprentice could take on a stronger sea monster alone. As he observed in these days, this middle-aged man called ¡°Padt¡± didn¡¯t even have a proper bloodline infused. How could someone with such a squishy bodypete with a supernatural predator?

    He¡¯s going to kneel and beg for his life... Roman couldn¡¯t help smirking. And that¡¯s when I can take everything from him.

    ¡°Ahem.¡± Roman tried to fake a friendly and determined look on the outside. ¡°If you¡¯re in trouble, Mister Padt, I¡¯ll do my best to provide support from behind your back.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer. That man¡¯s malevolence was so obvious.

    ¡°Heh. No thanks, Mister Roman. It¡¯s just a petty vermin. Please tend to your wounds.¡±

    Roman¡¯s smile froze.

    ying stubborn, eh? Fine, if the snake kills him, it saves me a lot of effort.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be dly waiting for your victory then.¡± Roman crossed his arms and pretended that he was well out of this.

    The serpent already reached The Limpet, and there was no doubt that one single bite from it would prate the side of the ship.

    Escaping sailors, a pair of bloody and sharp fangs... Time seemed to be slowing down to allow a painter to capture the perfect timing to create a masterpiece.

    The story should have ended with The Limpet breaking down into drifting nks, while the mortals sank either into the water or the monster¡¯s belly. However, a loud and sharp bird call changed everything.

    Roman saw something of grayish color sweeping past his view. The serpent¡¯s body was suddenlyunched into the air as if a cannonball hit it from below.

    The same call was heard again, along with a gray sh of lightning, which pierced the monster¡¯s head before it could react.

    White and red brain fluid rained down and washed the deck.

    After losing its head, the serpent¡¯s body squirmed for several more seconds before it began to fall.

    That was less than two seconds. Two seconds, and the hunter became dead prey.

    Before the giant corpse could hit the ship, the gray lightning ran into it again and stopped its falling momentum.

    This was when Roman finally recognized the gray figure, which was a strange-looking seafowl wearing some kind of suit. As he gazed in great confusion, the bird slowly descended andnded on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    Meanwhile, the snake corpse alsonded slowly on the ship while covered by a cluster of gray fog.

    What-what was that? Roman felt his arms trembling. And what about my n? That filthy a-hole should die in front of me so that I can take his stuff! Something ruined it!

    Also within two seconds, Roman felt as if he turned from a smart conspirator into a clown who yed a part in the plot he was writing.

    While still trembling, he slowly looked at the strange bird again.

    He knew what it was since that Padt man took the animal onto the ship. But ording to his observations, the bird only showed insignificant energy signatures like those low-leveled messenger familiars.

    It wasmon for wizards to use animal-like familiars to help with minor chores. Roman thought the bird was only one of those creatures. However, if what he just saw was real, the bird maimed a powerful level-3 apprentice-level monster almost instantly, which meant... it was at wizard level, or very close to it.

    So that¡¯s why this Padt man didn¡¯t want any of the monsters I killed? He didn¡¯t need them!

    Roman noticed that when he stared at the bird, it also looked at him with a pair of red beady eyes that showed... Was that pride and disdain?

    Thankfully, his robe hid his clenching fists well. His only choice right now was to disy another friendly smile to Angor, but with apletely different mindset.

    ¡°If I had known that your partner is so strong, I won¡¯t be wasting everyone¡¯s time minding the monsters by myself.¡± Roman tried to strike a conversation, only to receive another cold sneer.

    Of course, Angor didn¡¯t n to chat with this scheming fool. He simply disregarded Roman¡¯s words and leaped onto the deck below.

    Behind him, Roman¡¯s expression turned dark as great hatred and jealousy burned brightly in his heart.

    I spent my whole life working so hard to reach my level. That pathetic cker achieved the same thing at such a young age! I need to fuc*king risk my life just to fight for a destiny to prolong my life of a supernatural, and that b*stard... all he needs to do is toss a chick around, and he can get everything!

    WHY?!

    Affected by his fanatical beliefs, his initial hatred against Angor slowly became uncontroble resentment.

    He clenched his teeth as he looked at Angor skillfully dividing the serpent corpse before handing the energy-rich meat chunks to the mortals around. Then he stomped back to his room and locked the door.

    Angor almost sensed the intense hostility directed at him.

    ¡°Sir-sir, can we really have these?¡± a sailor with a red bandanna asked him. Even as mortals, they knew how valuable the monster meat was.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Angor left most of the corpse to the sailors while only keeping a small part of it as an extra ration for the Krakoks. The meat didn¡¯t seem to be a very high-leveled material, and it would spoil pretty fast. Might as well fully utilizing its purpose; meaning, eating it.

    The sailors cheered. Some of them already started dreaming of bing talented apprentices just by eating the monster meat.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget to ask your chef to prepare some roasted snake for me. It¡¯s so hard to enjoy a proper meal on the ship,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Not a problem, sir! Guys? All hail meat and wine!!!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s do a party out on the deck! Everything tastes better after we escape from death!¡±

    Everyone agreed to the suggestion. It was difficult for these seafarers to find things to pass time, and today was a perfect chance for it.

    The horror brought by the attacking monster was almost forgotten. The entire ship was bathed in delight and the smell of a festival. Sailors and chefs brought their cooking stands and wine barrels onto the deck. Singing, munching, yelling, and arm wrestling... Even Toby failed to hold back the urge and joined the sailors. His terrible singing voice didn¡¯t sound so bad whenbined with the gruff tones all around the ce.

    Angor quite liked the happy sight. Although he wasn¡¯t going to get in there¡ªhe simply watched quietly.

    After a while, most sailorsy sprawled out on the deck when the alcohol kicked in, leaving only several more faithful ones attending to their jobs.

    Angor found Toby and was going to bring the drunk bird back to his cabin. But he saw Helen leaning against the entrance to the cabin area.

    ¡°Thank you for what you did, sir,¡± Helen greeted him as she flipped her ck hair away from her eyes.

    ¡°Again, your job is to take the ship to the right destination, and that¡¯s the best reward,¡± said Angor as he headed into his room.

    Helen suddenly lowered her voice into a whisper as she said, ¡°Please watch out for Mister Roman. The way he looked at you... It isn¡¯t right.¡±

    Angor gave her a reassuring smile and closed his door.

    Well, at least she¡¯s a woman with a sharp mind... which is pretty rare in this world now.

    The ship once again spent several days in peaceful weather. Angor was expecting Roman to do something to relieve his rage, but it never happened. The man shut himself in the room and never showed up.

    And this forced Angor to be more cautious.

    As most people were unaware, the Month of Looming Frost arrived.

 Chapter 709 - Outbreak in Fairy World

    <h4>Chapter 709: Outbreak in Fairy World</h4>

    Brute Cavern, Tree Spirit Pce.

    Rein Mute, a gentleman who was perfectly suited up, hade to meet with Tree Spirit, an ancient soul who never knew what ¡°proper clothing¡± was.

    They spent a moment inplete silence in the room before Tree Spirit finally moved by showing a small, glowing tree leaf.

    ¡°You have a message?¡± asked Rein.

    ¡°Yup. It¡¯s Filo, who¡¯s staying at the Edge of Night,¡± Tree Spirit said as he carefully read the strange symbols disyed on the leaf.

    ¡°Is it bad?¡±

    ¡°Very.¡± Tree Spirit put the leaf away with a grim look. ¡°Within one month, apart from the first dark dome at Sleepless City, which was constantly growing, three other new ones have been spotted around the Evernight Kingdom.¡±

    Three? Rein scowled.

    ¡°Two of them appeared at mortal territory, Snowrange and Rn Town. The third one is at the hintends of Pale Rime.¡±

    ¡°Pale Rime is... where the Scheerer Family lives? Their strength has declined greatly after the old Scheerer died.¡± Rein looked at the floor. ¡°I believe whoever is invading us is more interested in wizards. They ced domes on top of Snowrange and Rn Town as experimental attacks. Starting from Pale Rime, they¡¯ll probably start going after more wizard settlements.¡±

    Tree Spirit nodded. ¡°This is also what Filo presumed. The Evernight Kingdom is in an uproar. There are many wizard ns who imed to abandon their homes and evacuate.¡±

    ¡°What about the Edge of Night? Are they sticking to the Evernight Kingdom?¡±

    ¡°The Edge of Night is... not peaceful, at least. Their teleport station is overcrowded with people every day, including their own members who sought to escape. I can only imagine how Mister Edge is trying to decide what to do next.¡± Tree Spirit chuckled.

    ¡°Grecious is a weak-kneed failure. I¡¯m afraid we still need some time to wait for his choice. Our organization is not affected yet, but I¡¯ve received reports that suggested possessed victims entering Parmigi Hignds. We can¡¯t afford to let any of them slip inside the mirror world. We need to tell The Mirror to send a more serious warning in their next edition. What I told themst time was... imprecise.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think a dark dome can find its way into our mirror world. But you¡¯re right about looking out for parasites. Too bad Sunders has gone off to the Abyss ne... He¡¯s the only one who knew how to repel the parasites.¡± Tree Spirit shook his head. ¡°Or, I think his student Angor can help us too. But that boy is visiting his home right now.¡±

    ¡°Angor... can deal with the parasites?¡± Rein never heard of such a thing before.

    ¡°Last time when Midnight Sovereign was invaded by nightmare monsters and parasite swarms, Sunders HAD to ask for Angor¡¯s assistance to solve the crisis. What do you think?¡±

    Rein Mute never heard of Angor¡¯s involvement in this matter because Sunders intentionally blockaded the info to protect Angor.

    ¡°Good to know. I¡¯m going to talk to Angor again when he gets back,¡± Rein said as he thought about the smaller gentleman standing beside Sunders. ¡°Now that I think about it... His illusion has this ¡®Monument Valley¡¯ inside. I quite like it.¡±

    ¡°I heard people talking about his alchemy illusion all day. But I never thought you¡¯re one of them, Mister Rein.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m positive that it¡¯s potent enough to inspire Greya.¡± Rein thought about the nightmare energy he sensed.

    Tree Spirit held his chin. ¡°Someone from the market mentioned that Angor will sell an alchemy illusion at Remnant Coast. I think I¡¯m going to send a puppet there in my ce and buy the item, if the price doesn¡¯t go too crazy.¡±

    ¡°The auction held at Remnant Coast? Hmm...¡± Rein mumbled.

    ¡°As for parasites, the biggest problem right now is Lady Mirror. There¡¯s no doubt that she can keep the organization safe, if she¡¯s here with us. How about paying Elder of Books a visit?¡±

    ¡°That won¡¯t be easy. But it¡¯s worth a try. I heard that Elder of Books is visiting Iron Fortress more often these days. We can check The Tributary.¡±

    They both stood up and prepared to head to The Tributary right away.

    Tree Spirit suddenly halted his movement and took out another shining leaf.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me a fourth dome just showed up?¡± Rein frowned.

    ¡°Not Filo this time. It¡¯s Maya.¡± Tree Spirit took a moment to read the message before showing a strange expression.

    ¡°Maya? Didn¡¯t she go to Brilliance ne? What did she tell us?¡±

    ¡°... Something happened in Fairy World.¡±

    ...

    Shadow hired a group of geologists who knew well of thendscape in search of the hidden vige Angor carelessly revealed¡ªPocratee.

    He noticed that Angor was very interested in Akesolya, thend of the serpent. Telling from the conversation between Angor and the Krakok priest, Shadow was almost sure that Angor met with this ¡°serpent¡± before.

    Knowing this, it wasn¡¯t difficult to infer that Angor saw the serpent in Pocratee, the sanctuary of healers.

    Shadow returned to the ¡°Real World¡± to figure out how to enter Pocratee. Of course, he knew it was unlikely for him to confront a wizard-level monster who lived for over a thousand years, so he had prepared many means of escaping. To him, knowing how to find the monster was a valuable asset he could use to exchange for other great resources.

    The priest also mentioned the ¡°Staff of Immortality¡±. Perhaps there were other valuable treasures to be found in Pocratee.

    He had spent three months walking through the mountain woods, during which his workers uncovered useful clues such as broken climber ropes along cliffs, buried ruins or ancient wares at the bottom of rivers.

    However, these clues only suggested the nd of the serpent¡±, not Pocratee.

    He stood on the mountaintop while looking at his hired men diligently digging around the forest.

    ¡°Where the heck is it? I¡¯ve almost checked every part of these woods. Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s way underground? No... Angor isn¡¯t a weird guy who would start digging for no reason. He came to Fairy World alone and did not have anything to excavate anyway. There¡¯s something else I overlooked...¡±

    While considering his options, he nced at a smallke to the southwest of the mountain he was standing on.

    ¡°Water... Wait, I never examined it yet.¡±

    Immediately, he summoned his men to dive into the water.

    Soon, the workers returned and told him that there was a giant cave underwater and that ordinary people could not proceed without diving equipment.

    Instead of going into theke on his own, Shadow asked the Krakok brothers to send a message to Water Grasse to summon the ¡°supernatural meeting members¡±.

    Three dayster, several rogue apprentices jumped into theke under Shadow¡¯s control.

    An apprentice who proimed himself as the ¡°Magician¡± returned and told Shadow that there was a secret tunnel in theke.

    After knowing that it wasn¡¯t a long distance to reach for the next pocket of air, Shadow ordered Magician to bring several mortal swimmers to keep exploring, while he remained behind to casually wait for a result.

    However, instead of the good news he expected, he was weed by several madmen who somehow shook free of his puppet magic, and a swarm of colorful dragonflies.

    ...

    As Shadow drew the hidden dragonflies in Pocratee into the Fairy World, Angor was experiencing another catastrophe at Devil¡¯s Water, unaware of what had happened to his ¡°old friend¡±.

    A 30-meter-tall tidal wave was currently chasing after The Limpet.

    While trembling under the horror, all sailors were desperately controlling the ship to stay on its course, using a rope around their waist as the only protection.

    asionally, there were sailors who were tossed into the sky as their ropes broke, who were then saved by Angor¡¯s Hand of Spell.

    The Limpet was going for the safest route they could see while trying to outrun the tide behind. But the looming torrent was slowly catching up.

    Angor was no longer sure how the vessel would escape from the disaster. He nced at themand room and saw both Erwin and Helen issuingmands to the sailors loud and clear, even if they could barely stand upright.

    Erwin suddenly ordered his men to slow down.

    As Angor wondered why the captain would do something to send the ship into the deadly tsunami, the other sailors followed the order without a second thought.

    The wall-like wave finally lost its advancing momentum and mmed into the water, which was just behind The Limpet. The terrible force of it had sent the ship flying into the air.

    ¡°Now!¡± Erwin gave a signal using his hand.

    Angor widened his eyes as the ship released a powerful air stream from its rear and dashed into the distance like a deting balloon sent free, away from the biggest danger.

    He couldn¡¯t help but admire the mental fortitude shown by these professional sailors. Even some wizards wouldn¡¯t remain so calm when facing a life-threatening natural disaster.

    An hourter, the ship finally enjoyed calm waters and fair sky again.

    When Angor prepared to return to his room and continue his study, he saw Helen gazing in a direction with an anxious look.

 Chapter 710 - Helenâ€™s Warning

    <h4>Chapter 710: Helen¡¯s Warning</h4>

    ¡°What¡¯s up? The danger¡¯s gone, right?¡±

    Helen was a bit startled by Angor¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Sir-sir.¡± She tried to bow to show respect, but she then felt a gentle force stopping her. ¡°It¡¯s strange, sir. I mean, the sea is strange in these days.¡±

    ¡°Why? Isn¡¯t itmon for Devil¡¯s Water to be so hazardous?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not the weather...¡± Helen considered but didn¡¯t find the right words to exin. ¡°This may sound weird, but do you think the sea is being awfully quiet?¡±

    ¡°Quiet?¡± Angor listened to the blowing wind, shing tides, and the ominous bubbles that suggested hidden turbulence below their position. ¡°Can you borate?¡±

    Helen shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to say this but... this route, I¡¯ve taken it many times, and it used to be more ¡®lively¡¯. But now, it¡¯s dead.¡±

    Angor could only consider the obscure expression as Helen¡¯s instinct. But still, he failed to understand.

    Helen lowered her head and sighed. ¡°Perhaps I¡¯m being too edgy, sir.¡±

    She told the same thing to Erwin earlier, who only told her to get some rest. She knew neither Erwin nor Angor was ming her for speaking madness, but she still felt bad.

    She wanted to convince herself that it was only a false delusion that haunted her mind, but something else told her otherwise.

    ¡°Not quite,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°You-you believe me?¡± Helen looked up.

    ¡°Perhaps you¡¯re right. As an experienced sailor who spent so many years on a ship, your body has learned how to foretell danger. You just can¡¯t find a way to express it.¡±

    ¡°My body?¡± Helen looked away as she tried to sense something again.

    ¡°Maybe not exactly your body. My point is, you have developed something that reads environmental factors that people cannot normally see. And when something worth noticing is happening, you would feel it. If you have time, Officer Helen, please tell me what you can.¡±

    Helen looked at the sea again and sensed no imminent danger approaching. ¡°Alright, sir. Where should I start...¡±

    Angor suddenly nced at the top floor, from where he sensed someone¡¯s prying eyes.

    ¡°Let¡¯s talk in my room, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    Helen looked a little surprised, before she nodded, blushing.

    As soon as they entered the cabin, Angor deployed a spirit barrier around them.

    Just now, he sensed that Roman was listening in to their conversation, which was weird since Roman didn¡¯t seem like a man who cared about daily chitchat.

    Or was that man simply watching ME? he wondered.

    Angor wished to figure out what Roman was up to. And since Roman meant to eavesdrop, he could further provoke Roman¡¯s action by talking to Helen in private.

    As he expected, a spirit feeler soon came to his spirit barrier and probed around.

    As soon as Roman noticed the barrier, which suggested that his ¡°intrusion¡± was discovered, he canceled his spirit feeler.

    Angor made sure Roman¡¯s trickpletely stopped before speaking to Helen again.

    Helen, on the other hand, realized that what she was expecting did not happen. It seemed ¡°mister wizard¡± took her into his room just to talk.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Roman showed a grim look in his own room.

    He can¡¯t possibly discover that matter, can he? Neither Erwin nor Helen would mind what I did.

    But what does that Padt guy have to tell Helen in private? Wait... that woman was blushing, wasn¡¯t she?

    ¡°Heh. I see, a loser who¡¯s interested in a middle-aged fatso.¡±

    He walked to the window and gazed at the seawater with an evil grin.

    Salty wind entered his room and flipped a book on the desk open, causing a piece of paper stuck in the book to fall on the floor.

    The paper showed the general shape of Devil¡¯s Water, as well as a giant shadow lurking around it.

    ...

    In Angor¡¯s room, Helen slowly exined her psychological condition and changes.

    ¡°So you felt worried for no reason starting from half a month ago?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s nothing serious at first, but these days, it grew so strong that I can¡¯t sleep well anymore. There¡¯s this... boulder, tied to my heart, making it hard to breathe.¡±

    ¡°Did anything happen half a month ago, when this strange feeling started?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything special...¡±

    Helen exined her job and schedule, while Angor listened carefully so that he might discover anything worth noticing.

    ¡°Wait up. You asked Roman¡¯s opinion when choosing the route?¡±

    Helen nodded. ¡°There is more than one route that allows us to reach Ferran Land, and they are always changing in different months. We need to readjust our direction once in a while.¡±

    ¡°But why Roman? Can¡¯t you and Erwin do it?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°Mister Roman always tells us more urate information beforehand, such as unexpected ocean current or traces of monsters. We need his help to evade possible threats.¡±

    ¡°Do you need to ask Roman for suggestions every time you set sail?¡±

    ¡°No. Sometimes we have another wizard protecting the ship. But as long as Mister Romanes, we will discuss with him to choose the best course. Speaking of Mister Roman, this terrible feeling began just after he decided our next move. Is there something wrong with our route, sir?¡±

    ¡°Maybe...¡± Angor pondered. ¡°But I think HE is the bigger problem right now.¡±

    ¡°He-you mean, Mister Ro¡ª¡±

    Helen didn¡¯t believe that Roman would harm the ship since he was an employee of the White m Association, while The Limpet was the association¡¯s ship. Roman might be a bit bossy, but he had no reason to betray hispany.

    ¡°That can¡¯t be, sir. The incident between you and Mister Roman was one week ago when we had been traveling on this route for some time.¡±

    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m using Roman because of that argument we had?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s-it¡¯s not?¡± Helen thought this to be rude but still asked.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m indeed displeased with Roman¡¯s way, but I won¡¯t do anything against him as long as he does not directly attack me. There are many people like him in the wizarding world. I don¡¯t have time to worry about every one of them. I said Roman might have something to do with your ¡®warning¡¯ because of another possibility.¡±

    He was almost sure that Roman stole the nightmare stone on the ship, probably to sell it for big money and buy something valuable.

    However, Angor couldn¡¯t understand why Roman was so confident in his n.

    Sooner orter, someone from Floating Mech City would notice that the precious nightmare stone was missing. How would Roman exin to them then?

    In Angor¡¯s view, Roman was an extremely suspicious figure who knew how to set up thorough ns. If that man wished to cover up what happened to The Limpet,bined with Helen¡¯s warning...

 Chapter 711 - Leviathan

    <h4>Chapter 711: Leviathan</h4>

    A seasoned marine like Helen felt something was wrong with Roman¡¯s choice, while Roman needed to do something to camouge the stolen nightmare stone.

    Combining these two facts together, Angor slowly reached a possible and terrible idea.

    ¡°Sir, you mentioned ¡®another possibility¡¯ just now?¡± Helen asked.

    Angor decided to give her the answer, which shocked Helen into aplete daze.

    ¡°As I said,¡± Angor continued, ¡°he would like to pretend that the nightmare stone on The Limpet disappeared due to something he had no control over, so Floating Mech City won¡¯t me him. The easiest way to do this...¡±

    Is to eliminate this ship.

    He didn¡¯t say the final conclusion, but Helen was smart enough to tell.

    Helen spent some time to recollect her senses. ¡°I just remembered something... Four years ago, a ship called The Golden Road stumbled into the territory of a sea monster and never returned. There was only one survivor... Mister Roman.¡± Her voice began to tremble. ¡°Sir, is-is Mister Roman going to sabotage The Limpet?¡±

    Angor nced at the window and checked the sea outside, which seemed calm and tranquil at the moment.

    ¡°Helen, do you know about anything particrly dangerous on this route? How far is it from the monster territory you mentioned?¡±

    ¡°There is always danger everywhere around Devil¡¯s Water. As for the current course, our estimation suggested that it¡¯s rtively safe. There¡¯s a great distance from that monster, or any other monster¡¯s travel route.

    ¡°Usually, the biggest problem for this route is the weather. Our records said that the incident rate of all ships who took this way was below five percent. When Mister Roman told us to go here, both Erwin and I thought it to be a good choice.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... Which means a perfect ce for an ident.¡±

    ¡°What-what should we do, sir?¡±

    ¡°How long until you need to decide your direction again? Can we change the course now?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll arrive at Silver Palm Isle two dayster, where we¡¯ll choose the next course. I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s not possible to make a turn right now, nor can we go back. The current behind us will get too dangerous during the middle of the Month of Looming Frost.¡±

    ¡°Two days till the ind, I see.¡± Angor held his chin. ¡°Do you have the sea chart for this area?¡±

    ¡°I keep it on me at all times, sir,¡± Helen said as she took out a map and showed Angor where Silver Palm Isle was located.

    ¡°At least the weather seems fine in the following hours... Toby, follow this route and go to Silver Palm Ind, and return to me if you find anything special.¡±

    Toby looked away from the map, nodded to Angor, and disappeared in a gray sh. Even Angor failed to see how Toby left the cabin because the creature was too fast.

    Helen frowned. ¡°Can your partner make it, sir? We¡¯re still a hefty distance away from there.¡±

    ¡°Are we? Don¡¯t worry. Half an hour at most, and he¡¯ll be back.¡±

    Half an hour?! Helen widened her eyes and looked to the window, but without finding Toby¡¯s trace.

    Angor told Helen to take some rest in the room, while he returned to his table to continue working on the new designs of clothes and armor. Choosing thebinations of materials and runes while keeping the equipment graceful was an extremely brain-wearing process. Soon, he lost himself in his work.

    Curious, Helen took a glimpse at Angor¡¯s papers and grew very puzzled. Why is Mister Padt not worried at all when another great wizard nned to destroy the ship?

    The truth was, Angor wasn¡¯t concerned in the least because he was confident in escaping, should The Limpet sink.

    In Helen¡¯s view, Roman was willing to do any madness to reach the level of a wizard before his lifespan ran out. But of course, Roman¡¯s real n was moreplicated than what a mortal could imagine.

    No matter how perfect his plot was, the Floating Mech City would find out what happened to The Limpet one day. Yet this did not matter if Roman already used the resources he gained to be a wizard.

    There was no justice or fairness in the wizarding world. Strength meant everything.

    Of course, Roman knew this. On the outside, he was desperately fighting for a destiny to gain a level at great risk. While in fact, he knew the risk could be mitigated, as long as he seeded in his plot.

    ...

    They heard the sound of pping wings before Angor could finish another draft.

    Helen looked at the window and saw the seabird called ¡°Toby¡± returning.

    ¡°My word... That WAS less than 30 minutes.¡±

    Angor and Toby spent a moment ¡°talking¡±, which confused Helen for good.

    As Toby exined what he saw, Angor¡¯s expression turned grim as he quickly drew a picture on a spare paper.

    Helen moved closer and looked at Angor¡¯s drawing, which showed a small ind.

    ¡°This is the Silver Palm Isle, sir. Your picture showed the shape of the mountain perfectly.¡±

    Angor kept adding more sketches to the picture, which surrounded the small ind.

    As the whole picture was perfected, Helen was terrified to see that something ten times bigger than the ind was lurking nearby.

    This was not all. ording to the ¡°shadow¡± drawn by Angor, the giant presence had an even bigger body hidden underwater.

    Toby¡¯s description had told Angor that he had discovered a super-sized sea monster that looked no smaller than an adult cloud whale. It had a long neck covered with sharp spikes, while its ted skin above water level seemed like that of a crocodile. As for its body underwater... it was just too huge. A ¡°whale¡± was all Toby could think of.

    ¡°What-what is that? I mean, is The Limpet going to...¡± Helen stuttered.

    ¡°Toby said that this thing emerged from the water as soon as it heard noises. If The Limpet continues to travel ahead, we¡¯ll definitely bump into it. As for its name, I think I know,¡± Angor exined in a small voice. ¡°There¡¯s a wizard settlement in the Revtion Empire called the Remnant Coast. There, a group of wizards runs a magazine office who published two of the most famous magazines known by wizards: Fantastic Treasures and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Monsters and Where to Find Them. In a special issue of the monster one, I saw a page describing this very monster. It¡¯s called the Leviathan.¡±

    ¡°Leviathan, Leviathan...¡± Helen repeated that name in her mind so that she could temporarily forget fear.

    ¡°An adult Leviathan isparable in terms of strength against a truth-finder wizard. Judging from what Toby said, the one we¡¯re going to see is such an adult.¡±

    ¡°Is it going to destroy our ship?¡±

    ¡°It will. Leviathan is known to be a vicious killer.¡±

    ¡°We-we can try going around Silver Palm Isle and avoid it, can we?¡± Helen quickly worked her brain. ¡°Both sides of the ind are forbidden zones. Going into the Storm Swell during this time means absolute death, but we can try the other side, which is the Gearwheel Grave. Rumors say that ships might get dragged into the bottom of the sea by the spirits of dead machines, but we also have people who sessfully traveled through. At least we have a chance.¡±

    Angor checked Helen¡¯s sea chart and noticed that the Gearwheel Grave was pretty far from their mon route¡±.

    ¡°No. We¡¯ll go to Silver Palm Isle as is.¡±

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°Easy. A Leviathan is deadly, but it has a great weakness I happen to know of. I know how to distract it from the ship,¡± Angor said as his eyes gleamed. ¡°Roman told you to take this route, didn¡¯t he? Then we should let him see what it means to him.¡±

 Chapter 712 - Silver Palm Isle

    Chapter 712: Silver Palm Isle

    Helen gazed at Angor in shock.

    ¡°Sir, are you perhaps going to¡ª¡±

    Angor made a ¡°shh¡± gesture and grinned. ¡°You don¡¯t have to say it. As for Roman, he¡¯ll be fine as long as he sticks to his job. Or if he suddenly cks off and wanders off somewhere... it can¡¯t be helped if he runs into some minor trouble, right?¡±

    Although he wasn¡¯t going to exin what he meant in detail. With these said, he told Helen to return to her post.

    ¡°Just work and sleep as normal and pretend that our conversation never happened.¡±

    ¡°But is The Limpet going to be safe?¡±

    ¡°Calm down. I¡¯m on the ship, you know? Surely I don¡¯t want to sleep with the fishes.¡±

    ¡°I... understand, sir.¡± Helen took a deep breath and walked to the door as she put up her usual look of a professional nautical officer.

    ...

    Roman left a trick around Angor¡¯s room, so he immediately knew it when Helen left.

    Seeing the woman¡¯s usual expression, Roman felt a bit relieved.

    ¡°Oh, and she looks quite disappointed. How long was it, half an hour? I was right. That man is a small-dicked a-hole who happens to possess a powerful familiar.¡± He mistook the purpose of Helen¡¯s visit for relieving her middle-aged lust.

    Just to be safe, he kept monitoring Helen¡¯s movement and made sure that nothing special was going on, and that The Limpet was heading to Silver Palm Isle as nned before he fully rxed.

    ...

    Angor remained in his room and pondered over the situation quietly.

    Telling from the records he read before, a Leviathan usually dwelt somewhere thousands of meters below sea level and fed on giant squids, octopuses, or any monsters that looked close enough. It wouldn¡¯t show up on the surface unless a prey forced it to.

    So why would this one constantly remain at the surface?

    A Leviathan was known for its extremely tough body, which could easily deflect the attacks wielded by truth-finder wizards. But at the same time, the monster had extremely degraded spiritual power and intelligence.

    A ¡°stupid¡± monster should have no reason to leave its usual habitat unless something attracted it elsewhere.

    The Leviathan Toby saw stayed near the Silver Palm Isle but without attacking it, which was strange.

    Something on the ind attracted its attention? Angor thought.

    Perhaps Roman knew about something. Although there was no way Angor could visit him and ask such a question.

    ¡°Roman is looking for a destiny to level up...¡± Angor considered his options and shook his head. ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll stay put for now.¡±

    He thought about checking the monster out right now but decided not to. Putting its weakness aside, the terrifying strength gap was still there. One wrong move and he¡¯d throw his life away.

    Besides, Angor¡¯s most important task right now was heading home in one piece. The spell protecting Jon was going to run out soon. He couldn¡¯t afford to waste extra time.

    The Leviathan might be holding some kind of valuable secret, in which case wizards woulde after it. But Toby saw no human being around the area. Either there were wizards who stayed hidden, or they did not value the monster.

    Which meant there was no point for Angor to look for whatever was going on with the monster. To him, the best choice was to lure the monster away and let the ship pass.

    ...

    Two days quickly passed by, during which Helen never mentioned her concerns to anyone again. ording to schedule, The Limpet would arrive at Silver Palm Isle at noontime.

    Helen chose to put all hope on Angor while trying her best to remain calm on the outside.

    She still remembered how Angor said something that suggested Roman¡¯s misery. If she were to choose, she¡¯d dly see Roman dead if this meant ensuring the survival of everyone else.

    ¡°Something on your mind, Helen?¡±

    Helen woke up from her thoughts and saw Captain Erwin looking at her.

    She found her hat and put it on. ¡°Excuse me, I wasn¡¯t paying attention.¡±

    ¡°I meant to ask, are you still worried about those ¡®strange feelings¡¯? You can always ask for Mister Roman¡¯s opinions.¡±

    Helen quickly shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s fine now, sir. I think I¡¯m only homesick. Let¡¯s not bother Mister Roman for this.¡±

    ¡°But... you don¡¯t look fine to me.¡±

    ¡°I barely had any sleep these days.¡± Helen forced a smile.

    ¡°I understand. This route is more turbulent than usual recently. When we get to Ferran Land, take some days off.¡±

    Helen hesitated for a while and decided not to tell Erwin about the monster problem. Erwin was always faithful when working under Roman. It would create unnecessary trouble.

    Might as well wait for everything to settle down, by which it wouldn¡¯t be toote to reveal the truth to everyone. If they were still alive by then...

    ¡°You¡¯re not here to check my health, right, captain? Is there something you need?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m giving you a jobter. When we¡¯re at Silver Palm, take a team and replenish fresh water for us,¡± said Erwin.

    Helen was taken aback. How can we get to the ind with that Leviathan in the way?

    Erwin waved a hand in front of Helen¡¯s eyes. ¡°Hey, talk to me. What¡¯s gotten into you?¡±

    ¡°Oh! I was... deciding who should we send. You know, Chief Mosan died the other day, so... I get it, I¡¯ll take Naki with me.¡±

    Erwin showed a sad look when a fallenrade was mentioned. ¡°The Goddess of Ocean will protect us... and those who devoted their lives to our cause.¡±

    Helen saw Erwin leaving and climbed onto the observation tform.

    The weather was fine today. But the fog in the distance prevented her from seeing too far.

    The silhouette of Silver Palm Isle was already in view. Helen clenched her hands as she scouted around for the giant monster, but she failed to see any trace.

    Is it waiting for us below the surface?

    The sailors on the deck were cheering loudly for getting to step onto drynd again. Even if it was a no-man¡¯snd, it was worth celebrating.

    The joyful sight further burdened Helen¡¯s mind. Once again, she realized that mortals were too powerless against unknown threats, and they would die before knowing what imed them.

    She suddenly saw Roman leaving from his cabin. He was gazing at the dancing people below.

    She was almost sure that Roman was smiling, and that smile wasn¡¯t friendly. That man was like a victorious general gazing at defeated enemies who were going to get executed.

    Yeah... funny to you, right? Winning fortune at the cost of others¡¯ lives... Helen failed to contain the small hint of hatred in her eyes, which was seen by Roman.

    Before she could worry about what would be of her, Roman was looking in another direction, where a sluggish middle-aged man with messy hair walked into the sunlight while yawning at the sky.

    ¡°Good morning!¡± Angor leaned against the railing and greeted Roman.

    ¡°You woke up a little toote, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I stayed up toote yesterday,¡± Angor said as he nced at the ind in the distance. ¡°Oh, we reachednd? So that¡¯s why everyone¡¯s so happy. It¡¯s such a blessing to put your feet on solid ground after we¡¯ve spent so much time on a ship.¡±

    Roman scoffed. Bless? That will soon be your grave.

    Seeing the ind drew near, Roman looked more and more excited, and at the same time, a little afraid, for he fully knew what kind of terrible monster they were approaching.

    He put a hand against his pocket, felt the nightmare stone safely kept, and calmed down.

    ¡°Just a little further...¡±

 Chapter 713 - Own Grave

    <h4>Chapter 713: Own Grave</h4>

    Just a little further, as soon as that beast senses the ship, I¡¯ll ditch it and run! And the nightmare stone is all mine!

    Roman¡¯s expression twisted in delight as he saw his ¡°bright future¡± across a bloody curtain made from the sacrifice of the innocent.

    This was the second time he did something like this. Years ago, he used the same trick to lure the Golden Road cargo ship here and imed its nightmare stone, after which the inspectors from Floating Mech City never found him out.

    That one stone sold for 8,000 crystals. If he could sell another one even at a lower price, he would get enough money to buy a bottle of White Night Potion.

    The user of this potion had a chance of reaching the next level straight away. However, the potion also came with a side-effect that prevented its user from gaining any level in the future. But Roman didn¡¯t care, as he only needed to level up to extend his life. As long as he was alive, he could always find other means of improvement.

    This mighty Leviathan is more than enough to tear the bloody ship to shreds. I will not fail!

    As the others on the ship weed the Silver Palm Isle, Roman grasped the stolen nightmare stone, thrilled.

    ¡°A Leviathan is able to sense approaching enemies within ten kilometers. Just one kilo to go, and my work¡¯s done...¡± Roman muttered.

    The book he read exined the weakness of the monster in detail, but he still felt stressed for going so close to it.

    When most of the sailors cheered and danced to their songs, several more perceptive ones finally noticed something strange on the sea.

    ¡°Officer Helen, is the water around the isle darker than usual? Did you see anything up there?¡± A sailor carrying a scope called to Helen.

    Roman narrowed his eyes and also looked at the observation tform where Helen stood. He already prepared the model of a Silence Ward in his mindspace. As soon as he saw Helen giving the wrong answer, he would throw the cantrip at her.

    Helen managed to maintain her calm look, even though her legs were trembling badly. Thankfully, the wooden bars around the tform conveniently blocked them from people¡¯s views.

    Of course she saw the shadow of a monstrosity just ahead of them, as Angor predicted. At this moment, she had fully trusted Angor¡¯s words, and that Roman had led them into a death trap.

    She didn¡¯t know how to answer her men. Should she tell them that a monster was waiting ahead and that Mister Padt could help them?

    No. Apart from arousing panic, it would cause Roman to get suspicious.

    More importantly, Helen already saw Roman¡¯s cold gaze directed at her, and she recognized that look¡ªRoman was threatening her.

    The sailor called again, which attracted the attention of people nearby.

    Helen knew she couldn¡¯t stay silent here. But the more she tried to think of an answer, the more she felt her brain going nk.

    Azy voice suddenly came from below Roman¡¯s position:

    ¡°Dark? What dark? I don¡¯t see anything.¡±

    ¡°Mister Wizard, it¡¯s somewhere behind the ind,¡± the sailor with the scope exined. ¡°Look at the water, the shade ain¡¯t right.¡±

    ¡°Maybe you¡¯re seeing things. Perhaps it¡¯s just a shadow of the mountain on the ind, or a cloud,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°I... see. Pardon me, sir.¡± The sailor checked the cloudy weather and stood down.

    The sailors continued celebrating as Captain Erwin prepared tomand his men to disembark.

    Roman saw Angor¡¯s careless reaction, but he suddenly sensed something was off instead of feeling relieved.

    It¡¯s just right that mortals mistook the shadow for something else... but there¡¯s no way that Padt man didn¡¯t recognize what that shadow was. So he knew what would happen? But why isn¡¯t he stopping the ship?

    Wait, that Helen woman didn¡¯t seem right either.

    Roman thought about how Helen and Angor had a ¡°private talk¡± the other day.

    Did they exchange information and expose my secret that day? But why didn¡¯t they change course?

    Roman felt as if there was a loose end in his grand n, and it made him extremely anxious.

    ¡°Only several hundred meters to go. The monster wille shortly. There¡¯s nothing to worry about. They knew, so what? I can use my nightmare stone to escape, while they¡¯ll get killed.¡±

    Roman looked at the glowing stone in his hand and felt his anxiety gone.

    Angor suddenly spoke to everyone, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you all. Should we run into some monster I can¡¯t fight against, we have the... strange gem, to protect us!¡±

    Roman froze.

    He was sure those words were meant to the sailors below. But when he checked, he saw Angor smiling at him.

    Something in Roman¡¯s mind broke as hepletely lost his cool.

    He said ¡°strange gem¡±, but not the nightmare stone!

    ¡°What are you talking about?! What did you find out?!¡± he yelled.

    Angor feigned a confused look. ¡°What¡¯s the problem, Mister Roman? I don¡¯t get you.¡±

    Angor nced at the ind and noticed that they only had several seconds for the monster to detect them.

    Which means I have to add some more fuel to the fire.

    ¡°Don¡¯t fu*king give me that! You know something!¡± Roman yelled again.

    The loud ruckus drew everyone¡¯s attention, but none of the sailors was brave enough to directly look at the mighty wizards. They only listened quietly while looking elsewhere.

    ¡°But I really don¡¯t know what you¡¯re referring to, Mister Roman.¡± Angor smiled. ¡°Or are you perhaps talking about the nightmare stone, which you just stole?¡±

    Roman¡¯s pupils shrank as he stepped back. ¡°You!¡±

    Angor continued speaking in a louder voice, ¡°You used something cheap to rece the previous nightmare stone protecting the ship. You know, Mister Roman, but the ship is¡ª¡±

    ¡°You shut up!¡±

    ¡°¡ªthe ship is an alchemy miracle sturdy enough to sail across Devil¡¯s Water, which means it holds more value than what you took.¡± Angor finished without minding Roman¡¯s interruption.

    Angor didn¡¯t mention anything about the monster. By this, he meant to reveal the fact that Roman was nning to do a poor trade, which was to sacrifice The Limpet in exchange for a nightmare stone.

    The sailors gasped in horror, while Erwin gave Roman a surprised look. He wouldn¡¯t have taken those words so seriously if it were Helen who told them so. But there was no way the ¡°second wizard¡± lied to them like that.

    ¡°YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME!¡± Roman bellowed. ¡°You lucky, good-for-nothing b*stard! I have to grasp all chances to reach the wizard level. A damn ship means nothing!¡±

    Angor snickered and slowly grasped his right wrist using his left hand.

    ¡°You can all go to hell! Tremble before the absolute horror of a Leviathan and enjoy yourst breath!¡±

    Previously, Roman nned to wait until the ship fully ran into the monster before leaving. But since his trick was exposed earlier, he no longer had a reason to remain. He had to get away as fast as possible so that the strange seabird couldn¡¯t catch him.

    With this in mind, Roman left several maniacalughs. ¡°Farewell, losers. We won¡¯t see each other again!¡±

    He then activated the nightmare stone, which released abundant illusion energy that covered his form.

    Next, he leaped into the air using the levitation effect on his boots. Hidden in the illusion, he dashed straight ahead toward the Silver Palm Isle because that direction would get him out of Devil¡¯s Water quicker.

    But he didn¡¯t get to move too far before he noticed that the illusion around him was wavering.

    He was terrified to see the illusion energy from the nightmare stone leaving toward another direction. Following it, Roman saw Angor somehow absorbing the energy using his right hand, which looked strangely bigger than his left hand.

    Without Angor¡¯s glove, Roman also noticed some green symbols floating around the strange hand.

    Slowly but surely, Roman¡¯s body was fully exposed.

    At the same time, he heard the sound of disrupted current behind him, which was followed by a mighty aura that locked him in one ce.

    He didn¡¯t even have enough time to express his fear because everything changed so fast.

    While his expression remained to be an excited smile for sessfully carrying out his n, his eyes gave out his true emotion, which was despair.

    In thest second, he screamed at Angor madly, ¡°Fine! We¡¯re gonna die together, and we¡¯ll settle this in hell!!¡±

    Hearing those words, Angor waved a hand at Roman to say goodbye.

    Under Roman¡¯s frightened gaze, Angor ced his erged right hand against the ship¡¯s deck, and the ship slowly faded out from Roman¡¯s view.

    ¡°An illusion?!¡± Roman realized what just happened to The Limpet.

    Now, it was clear to him that Angor used his own plot against him.

    Angor provoked him in the end just to force him to leave The Limpet so that he was the only one who was going to face Leviathan.

    Everything still went ording to his n, just with the participants swapping ces.

    Roman used all his strength to turn his head, and he saw a single eyeball of Leviathan, which was much much bigger than his body.

    He couldn¡¯t even tell how the monster killed him. A crimson eye that showed nothing other than hunger and bloodthirst was all there was in thest moment of his existence.

 Chapter 714 - Moving Ahead

    <h4>Chapter 714: Moving Ahead</h4>

    Roman waspletely defenseless against Leviathan. A simple breath of smoke was all the monster needed to melt Roman¡¯s body and soul, which then entered the monster¡¯s nostrils.

    Upon seeing the terrifying sight, all sailors on the ship had their legs buckled as they sat down and sobbed in fear. Like a spreading disease, the dread soon took control of all people on The Limpet.

    ¡°Keep your voices down, or you¡¯re going to alert that thing.¡±

    Angor¡¯s words reminded the sailors that, with Roman dead, there was only one ¡°mighty wizard¡± left on the ship. Even if this one wasn¡¯t from the association, they couldn¡¯t afford to anger him, or the ship wouldn¡¯t end up well.

    While still trembling, people grasped their mouths to muffle their uncontroble moaning as best as they could.

    Leviathan¡¯s appearance caused uneven tides that affected The Limpet. The tides weren¡¯t as deadly as those during storms and hurricanes, but they were enough to make everything bumpy.

    Helen, who was still standing on the observation tform, tried her best to remain steady by holding onto the ropes nearby. But soon, her mortal limit gave out as she was thrown off.

    A translucent hand caught her before she fell into the ocean, and it ced her back on the ship¡¯s front deck.

    ¡°Thank-thank you for saving me, sir.¡± Helen looked at the man who just helped her. She was d that she didn¡¯t need to see her past life shing in her mind for too long.

    ¡°You¡¯ve thanked me for the third time, and I don¡¯t think I need to repeat my purpose again,¡± Angor replied casually.

    Helen calmed her breath and noticed that the floor was stable when it shouldn¡¯t be. She looked down and saw her feet covered inside a thinyer of ¡°gray fog¡±. No matter how the ship shook and rocked, it was like she was standing on solid ground.

    She felt jealous all of a sudden. So this is the power of a wizard...

    ¡°Sir, how should we proceed? Should we turn back? Leviathan¡¯s going to find us.¡±

    Helen¡¯s question attracted everyone¡¯s attention. They also would like to know Angor¡¯s suggestion.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need. I¡¯ve used an illusion to cover the ship, so we won¡¯t alert the monster as long as we don¡¯t bump into it. Keep the ship in ce for now.¡±

    While speaking, Angor kept his gaze on the giant shape several kilometers away.

    The magazine did a very good job of describing how hideous a Leviathan was, but there was still a limit as to how one could express the true terror of it using words and pictures.

    The Leviathan Angor was looking at was simr in size as a cloud whale. But unlike a cloud whale, which was usually gentle-natured, every feature on the Leviathan showed viciousness and cruelty.

    There was only a small part of the monster shown above the water, which already looked horrid enough.

    Scaled hide, serpent-like neck and a pair of glowing, predatory eyes, with mini storms and whirlwinds following each of its movement and breath...

    Even with the illusion protecting him, Angor felt his legs shivering.

    After making sure it devoured every trace of essence left by Roman, and that there was nothing else to eat in sight, the monster slowly moved toward the Silver Palm Isle and went down into the water.

    The sea settled down and regained its fake peace.

    No one could imagine the great menace lurking below had they not witnessed what came about just a minute ago.

    Angor let out a deep breath of relief and leaned against the railings, while the mortals with weaker mentality all copsed to enjoy the fact of being alive.

    Erwin slowly walked to Angor¡¯s position on his trembling legs to ask their next course of action.

    ¡°Move around the ind and keep some distance. It¡¯s fine to enter the monster¡¯s detection range, but make sure you don¡¯t directly approach it.¡±

    Erwin shivered again when he realized that they would still use the same route. ¡°Are-are you sure it¡¯s safe to do so, sir?¡±

    ¡°Trust me. The illusion will keep us safe. Like I said, we only have to make sure we don¡¯t get TOO close.¡±

    The truth was, Leviathan was a lot more ¡°stupid¡±pared to monsters of the same level. Otherwise, Angor was sure the ship wouldn¡¯t survive this day.

    Erwin faltered for a brief moment and decided to heed Angor¡¯s words. He didn¡¯t know much about Angor¡¯s character yet, which meant it was best for him to be obedient.

    ¡°Hold on, take this with you, Captain Erwin.¡± Before Erwin headed to hismand room, Angor took out a crystal ball.

    Erwin looked at the item, which had faint rays of light swimming on its surface.

    ¡°This is...?¡±

    Angor tapped the crystal ball with a finger, and the item glowed and began to rey the conversation between him and Roman.

    Starting from when Roman admitted that he stole the nightmare stone, to how he was devoured by Leviathan, the crystal ball recorded everything in detail.

    ¡°You¡¯ll need to exin Roman¡¯s death to your association sooner orter. You can show them this,¡± Angor exined.

    Erwin nodded and gratefully epted the crystal ball.

    While it was true that they were not responsible for Roman¡¯s peril, it was likely that the association needed to find SOMEONE to me. But with this evidence, they could prove that they were the victims.

    When Erwin and Helen headed to themand room together, Erwin asked his partner in a small voice, ¡°Tell me, what do you think of Mister Padt?¡±

    Helen looked down. ¡°I do not know. But I can tell you that he¡¯s not our enemy. He came to our ship because he can¡¯t travel to Ferran Land alone. We have amon goal right now, which is to get to the destination in one piece.¡±

    ¡°I know what you mean, but is it really fine for us to move ahead? We can always return and take another way...¡±

    ¡°Rest assured, Captain,¡± Helen said and smiled. ¡°I believe Mister Padt knows about the monster better than us, and he knows how to make the correct decision. He needs us to take him to Ferran.¡±

    Erwin sighed. ¡°Alright. We¡¯ll all entrust our lives to him then.¡±

    Upon arriving at themand center, Erwin began issuing orders to the terrified sailors, who managed to momentarily suppress their fear and start working, because they all knew their lives were still at stake.

    Erwin just told them to move to the east side of the Silver Palm Isle and leave from there. The area had gathering clouds, which suggested bad weather, but they didn¡¯t have any other choice right now.

    Under the cover of illusion, The Limpet quietly moved past the ind.

    When gazing at the giant shadow not far from their position, Erwin almost felt his heart halting. Thankfully, the ship moved away without provoking the monster, as Angor had predicted.

    It took half a day for the ship to enter the Dwarf¡¯s Brine and left the Leviathan well behind, and everyone on the ship finally escaped from their mental stress.

    The nightfall had arrived. After ordering the sailors to change shifts, Erwin left his post and headed to Helen¡¯s cabin.

    ¡°We¡¯re almost at the next waterway junction. Should we ask Mister Padt which route to take?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think Mister Padt knows well about Devil¡¯s Water. But you¡¯re right, that we should at least ask for his opinion...¡± Helen considered.

    ...

    ¡°You want ME to decide where to go?¡± Angor looked at the two captains who just came to him, confused.

    ¡°Yes, sir. Starting from Dwarf¡¯s Brine, we have a total of 13 charted tracks...¡±

    Angor raised a hand to stop Erwin from exining the routes thoroughly, which might take forever. ¡°No no, you two can talk about it. I checked Roman¡¯s room just now, and he took everything including his maps and flew away. And I don¡¯t have anything to help you determine directions right now.¡±

    Erwin and Helen exchanged a look.

    ¡°Let¡¯s follow the eastern boundary of Dwarf¡¯s Brine then, which takes us near the Gearwheel Grave. In our records, this path has a very low ident rate, but with one small problem.¡±

    ¡°What problem?¡±

    ¡°The fog.¡±

 Chapter 715 - Phantom Ships

    <h4>Chapter 715: Phantom Ships</h4>

    One dayter, Angor stood on the front of the deck and looked around, only to see nothing but fog and haze.

    Small problem, she said? We can hardly see a hundred meters away. Is it okay for the ship to advance like this?

    Helen answered him with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, sir. We use this route most of the time when traveling to Ferran Land. So far, there wasn¡¯t any danger. The fog does nothing more than obstructing our view.¡±

    Angor spread his spirit feelers and ascertained that the fog was only an ordinary condition made of suspending water droplets. And since an experienced sailor also reassured him, he returned to his cabin without minding it.

    Since Roman was dead, he could begin practicing illusions on the ship now.

    But he wasn¡¯t going to do that today. Instead, he took his personal notebook and recorded the monster incident carefully.

    On that day when they escaped from Leviathan¡¯s territory, Angor asked Toby to observe the ind from the sky, while he also used a sight-enhancing cantrip to look from afar.

    Neither of them discovered anything special on the ind.

    This had left a big question in Angor¡¯s mind. Why would a Leviathan stay around the ind in the first ce?

    He wrote several possible ideas in his notebook such as protecting treasures, following an unknown power, hunting, or giving birth. But he currently had nothing to prove any of them.

    He thought about practicing on a Truth Maniption cantrip next, but then, he changed his mind and began drawing something on paper.

    When Roman left the ship, the man used a pair of boots, which grew a pair of white wings to fly, and Angor found it to be interesting.

    ¡°Those shoes are his flying vehicle? That¡¯s creative.¡±

    Using something so small as a vehicle had many drawbackspared to using a ¡°proper vehicle¡±. But it would be convenient to use during battles, when bigger items would end up as burdens.

    Since Angor was studying weaving right now, he decided to try crafting a pair of shoes enchanted with Rune of Float. Or if he failed to make shoes, a coat or robe would do.

    He spent three days in his work, during which The Limpet sailed across the thick fog safe and sound. As Helen said, there was not much danger hidden in the fog. They did run into a level-2 apprentice-level sea monster once, which was easily taken care of by Toby.

    One night, Toby suddenlynded on Angor¡¯s draft paper and dragged him onto the balcony.

    ¡°What? Is there something you can¡¯t deal with?¡±

    Toby pointed a wing toward the northwest direction.

    Angor frowned when he noticed a faint shadow behind the grayish curtain of fog.

    The shadow looked like a ship that was at least ten times bigger than The Limpet. It was still some distance away.

    ¡°What the heck?¡± Angor frowned. He didn¡¯t remember Helen mentioning other ships that took this route recently. Besides, The Limpet was already arge-sized cargo ship that didn¡¯t have manypetitors in the harbor. The shadow appeared as if it was used by giants, not humans.

    It was made more strange when the gs on the ship were flying against the wind.

    Also, Angor heardpletely no noise from it.

    He looked at Helen, who was ordering a group of sailors to move several barrels around.

    ¡°Officer Helen, whose ship is that?¡±

    Helen turned around and was a little startled to see Angor, who somehow appeared right behind her.

    ¡°Oh, telling from its shape, it¡¯s another ship of While m Association. But what you see is not a real ship. It¡¯s a phantom.¡±

    ¡°Phantom?¡±

    ¡°The route we¡¯re currently on directly connects to Gearwheel Grave. I mentioned that area before, that ships tend to go missing a lot in there, right? That phantom is left behind by a missing ship, like a mirage of the past. We often saw these shadows when traveling through here. Shadows of ships from different times.

    ¡°I think this one is one of the missing ships in recent years. It¡¯s supposed to be an airship too, which is why it¡¯s so big.¡± Helen sighed. ¡°There were many people traveling on it back then. Maybe they were all dead.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡±

    Angor noticed that none of the sailors paid the shadow extra attention, which meant that these men were used to it.

    ¡°Devil¡¯s Water offers many strange sights apart from bad weather and monsters,¡± Helen continued, ¡°such as this. Most of them are deadly to travelers. The association exists to discover rtively safe travel routes.¡±

    Angor understood those words and nodded. Without guides who sacrificed their lives, people would never find any way to get past these parts.

    He was a bit interested in the ship phantom, which might be a special type of illusion, but he wasn¡¯t going to go after it. It would be disastrous if he lost his way in the fog.

    He stood on the deck and sensed the energy signature contained in the wind. At the same time, he felt something familiaring from the phantom.

    ¡°It feels like the mirage created by Erdus...¡± He muttered to himself, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s another really giant sea m around here?¡±

    He poked his head away from the railings and gazed at the water below.

    He couldn¡¯t see anything but darkness. But he did feel an unknown fear creeping in his mind.

    ording to Helen, their current position was still far from Gearwheel Grave. Something that brought its illusions so far suggested that it was very powerful.

    A momentter, when the giant phantom disappeared in the fog, Angor returned to his room while feeling a bit disappointed.

    Two dayster, Toby interrupted his work again by pulling him to the balcony.

    ¡°Another?¡± Angor looked at the faint shadow in the distance and sighed. He had somewhat lost interest in these ghost ships that he had no chance of examining, and he would like to focus on designing his ¡°flying boots¡±. He nned to discuss with Nano tonight and attempt itter. But since Toby told him to check out the shadow, he decided to take a moment of rest.

    This one looked simr in size as The Limpet.

    He wanted to tell Toby to leave him be for today and return to his work, but he frowned as he noticed something wrong.

    The shadow wasn¡¯t moving.

    Precisely speaking, since The Limpet was sailing at a steady pace, the shadow was following them, unlike thest one that remained still in the same spot.

    Angor felt a bit excited since he might have a chance to observe the shadow up close.

    He then heard a ruckus among the sailors on the deck, who were yelling at the shadow for some reason.

    Erwin spoke through his speaker, ¡°Stay on alert. A ship is approaching us.¡±

    ¡°Huh? It¡¯s not a phantom but a real ship?¡± Angor frowned.

    Still, an unknown ship meant potential danger. He removed his glove and unleashed arge-scale nightmare illusion that covered The Limpet up.

    No matter what the ship meant to them, staying safe was their number one priority.

    Slowly, The Limpet was close to the ship enough for everyone to look at it fully.

    ¡°That¡¯s... a ship from the Age of Gold,¡± Helen suddenly called out. ¡°That was three thousand years ago!¡±

 Chapter 716 - Missing Ships

    <h4>Chapter 716: Missing Ships</h4>

    It was a wooden ship, or what remained of a wooden ship.

    Angor didn¡¯t know much about the designs of ships, but he would agree with Helen that it did look pretty ancient.

    The figurehead of the ship was a half-sphere, which consisted of several peacock feather-likeponents that still had paint on it. If what Helen said was true, that the ship came from three thousand years ago, then this decorative shape must have looked quite beautiful.

    But other than that, the ship was just... broken. Old and battered.

    ¡°How could that thing stay afloat?¡±

    While wondering, he heard several sailors talking about the ship with trembling voices.

    ¡°A ghost ship?¡±

    He looked again and realized that the ship did look like those ghost ships mentioned in stories.

    As the sailors slowly lost their cool and started panicking, Angor frowned and jumped onto the deck below, which silenced everyone.

    He walked to Helen and asked, ¡°Do you know this ship?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. But I¡¯m sure only designers from the Age of Gold could make something like this one.¡±

    ¡°To be precise, it¡¯s an expedition ship from the Age of Gold,¡± Erwin said to Angor politely as he joined them.

    ording to Erwin, this ship was used by people from Ferran Land three thousand years ago, when thend was just obliterated by warfare and deprivation. To look for resources beyond the boundaries, people started building ships to explore overseas.

    Erwin inspected the wooden ship, which was still getting close. ¡°This is a typical three-masted brig. But... the structural keel of it haspletely cracked. Is it really a ghost ship?¡±

    ¡°I can check it out.¡±

    Helen and Erwin jumped upon hearing Angor¡¯s words. ¡°Sir, you must know that Devil¡¯s Water hides more hazards than people can imagine. Something that looks peaceful might be deadly on the inside!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t sense any energy signature from it...¡±

    ¡°If you must go, sir, you can use a scout puppet,¡± Helen said as she pointed to the storage. ¡°We have such a puppet stored there, but only a wizard can control it.¡±

    Angor already scanned the ¡°ghost ship¡± using his spirit feelers without finding anything special, thus his decision. But since Helen offered a useful tool, he decided to ept it.

    A scout puppet was a low-level alchemy item. Angor could also make one if he wished to.

    It looked like a sphere, and it could function as a ¡°remote eye¡± for its controller.

    It was pretty useful to apprentices who had yet to study the Wizard Eye cantrip. But the problem was, unlike Wizard Eye, a scout puppet couldn¡¯t leave its controller too far.

    Upon receiving Angor¡¯s energy, the sphere grew a pair of white wings and slowly flew toward the ghost ship.

    Using the puppet, Angor didn¡¯t find much on the ship apart from what he already saw with his spirit feelers.

    He controlled the puppet to jump into a giant hole in the ship¡¯s deck and moved into the lower cabins.

    There was a light source affixed on the puppet, so Angor could see the interiors just fine.

    Helen and Erwin, who carefully watched Angor¡¯s actions, saw Angor frowning, and they felt their hearts skipping a beat.

    Is there a monster or something hiding there?

    Helen used her eyes to tell the sailors to get into positions. As soon as they heard a warning, they would escape from here immediately.

    ¡°Weird. Why is the cabin area so wet?¡± said Angor.

    Helen released a sigh of relief. ¡°Sir, the ship has been lurking in this fog for God-know-how-long. It should be wet.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not so sure about that... Trust me, I can tell if the water is caused by fog or other elements. As far as I can see, this is seawater. Besides, the puppet has not entered the bottom level yet.¡±

    When Angor saw Helen and Erwin still puzzled, he snapped a finger and created a small illusion around him, which showed what he saw in the ghost ship.

    ¡°Such a fascinating spell... and you¡¯re right, sir!¡± Helen eximed. ¡°The cabin is submerged recently. Telling from the watermarks on the wall... was it suddenly pulled out of the water? But it can¡¯t be!¡±

    Angor also looked at the walls.

    ¡°I agree, Officer Helen. Was the ship underwater as it should be, and something dragged it out? I think everything is possible in Devil¡¯s Water. But let¡¯s suppose the ship was flooded recently, there should be dirt or other sediments in the water. However, I don¡¯t see any.¡±

    He ordered the puppet to keep some water so that he could check itter. He then moved on.

    Every cabin looked simr to each other, with the same traces of water in them. Apart from this, the rooms were rather tidy, which was strange.

    The rooms even had daily necessities in them as if people were living on the ship just several days ago. Yet Angor did not discover any human traces. Not even corpses or skeletons.

    The puppet finally reached the bottom level of the ship, where Angor saw a giant hole in the floor, across which he saw flowing seawater below.

    ¡°Why isn¡¯t the water entering the ship?¡± Helen frowned while looking at Angor¡¯s ¡°disy¡±. ¡°That thing¡¯s big enough to sink the entire vessel.¡±

    ¡°Look more closely,¡± said Angor as he moved the puppet closer to the hole.

    Helen and Erwinplied, and they then realized something before they rushed to the edge of The Limpet to observe the ¡°ghost ship¡± from the outside again.

    ¡°It¡¯s... not touching the water. It¡¯s floating!¡±

    ¡°Sir? Are you going to examine it more?¡± Erwin asked.

    The strange fact they just discovered only suggested mysteries that were likely dangerous.

    But Angor felt his curiosity prevent him from quitting.

    ¡°I¡¯ll check the captain¡¯s room.¡± He showed a determined look to Helen and Erwin. He had removed his glove and was using his right hand to sustain the nightmare illusion protecting The Limpet. However, he wasn¡¯t sure if this was enough to keep them safe should a real danger approach.

    He controlled the puppet to move upstairs, and as expected, the captain room was on the top level.

    A thickyer of dust weed his view when the puppet opened the door to the room.

    ¡°This means the room is dry,¡± said Helen.

    Erwin inspected Angor¡¯s illusion, which showed the interior of the captain¡¯s room.

    Rotten furniture, golden trinkets that looked undamaged...

    ¡°Yes, these originated from the Age of Gold as well.¡± Erwin pointed at the items and said, ¡°Also, this ship probably belonged to royalty.¡±

    The puppet reached a writing desk in the room. Beside the desky a single human skeleton, which was probably the only skeleton they could find.

    ¡°The ship¡¯s captain, I think?¡± said Helen. ¡°His clothes were torn, but they must have looked very fine before. But... where is his head?¡±

    As they could see, the skeleton didn¡¯t have a skull but was otherwise intact.

    Angor still found no danger on the strange ship and decided to spend some more time going over his next n.

    Helen suddenly called and interrupted his thoughts, ¡°Sir! The ship! It¡¯s disappearing!¡±

    Angor looked around and noticed that the bottom of the ¡°ghost ship¡± was slowly fading away, as if devoured by an invisible portal from below.

    The ¡°portal¡± had reached the deck level. Angor frowned and ordered the scout puppet to quickly snatch a leather book on the captain¡¯s desk, which was the only item of interest, then leave the ship from the room¡¯s window.

    When the puppet arrived The Limpet, the ghost ship hadpletely vanished. There was only empty fog again.

    They would have believed that everything was a dream if not for the book held by the puppet which proved otherwise.

    ¡°What-whatever just happened?¡± Helen stumbled.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... perhaps we just went too close to the entrance of another dimension?¡± Angor shook his head and looked at the book he salvaged.

 Chapter 717 - Lucasâ€™ Logbook

    <h4>Chapter 717: Lucas¡¯ Logbook</h4>

    A gigantic ray fish was casually swimming at the bottom of Devil¡¯s Water. There was a giant bubble on its back, inside which a delicate crystal penthouse was built, illumined by many glowing gems and corals.

    Inside the main hall, a handsome silver-haired man opened his eyes when he heard steady footsteps approaching. Across the transparent crystal wall, he saw a slim young figure heading to his position.

    The second man entered the hall and bowed politely. ¡°Mister Sliv.¡±

    Sliv gazed at the speaker¡¯s forehead, where a blue fish scale was fixed.

    ¡°Did you find Lucas, Jebra, hmm?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. It isn¡¯t easy to look for the traces left thousands of years ago by a mortal. I came today because those fleas I captured just told me everything they knew.¡±

    ¡°You mean the apprentices wandering around this area? Normally, I¡¯d just toss them into Devil¡¯s Water. But let¡¯s hear what they have to say, so ouring n isn¡¯t affected in any way, hmm.¡±

    Jebra nodded. ¡°I only did a brief interrogation. They came from Centipede Guild. And it seems they¡¯re not after the mysterious dimension.¡±

    ¡°Pests that deserve to die under our heels, heh.¡± Sliv spat. ¡°So what are they after, hmm?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s... Angor.¡± Jebra frowned slightly when mentioning this name.

    ¡°Angor? That rings a bell.¡± Sliv knuckled his crystal throne and searched his memory. ¡°I heard rumors... that an apprentice named Angor offended you badly. Is it the same Angor, hmm?¡±

    Jebra¡¯s lips twitched. He heard from people that ¡°Sorcerer of Big Fish¡± Sliv always spoke in a weird way and added ¡°hmm¡± at the end of every phrase even if it made no sense. But when speaking to Sliv personally, he realized that this was more irritating than expected.

    Of course, Jebra didn¡¯t reveal his true feeling on the outside.

    ¡°That¡¯s him. However, the rumors aren¡¯t quite right. He didn¡¯t ¡®offend¡¯ me.¡±

    ¡°Then why did everyone consider you two as enemies, hmm?¡± Sliv observed Jebra¡¯s expression and grinned. ¡°The story has reached into the depth of the sea, which means... you allowed this to happen, hmm? By doing so, you wish to hide something, hmm?¡±

    Jebra looked down as he remembered a certain woman with blue hair.

    ¡°That¡¯s not it, sir. There¡¯s something I don¡¯t feel like exining to the public, and I prefer that the false rumors stay that way.¡±

    Sliv stood up from his throne, causing his long silver hair to glitter as if there were stars hidden within.

    Even if Sliv didn¡¯t intentionally exert his aura, Jebra felt the overwhelming might keeping him in ce.

    ¡°You have something you don¡¯t want to tell me, hmm?¡± Sliv¡¯s tone now sounded like a demand.

    Jebra gulped but didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°No matter. Since your professor did not press you for an answer, there¡¯s no point for an outsider like me to mind your business, hmm?¡±

    Sliv walked around Jebra and picked up a picture from a table in the center of the hall.

    ¡°Again, to make sure nothing happens to our n, I should ask this: why are those pests from Centipede Guild after Angor? And why did Angore to Devil¡¯s Water, hmm?¡±

    ¡°Angor is the student of Phantom Master, sir.¡±

    Sliv suddenly beganughing. ¡°I heard that Sunders recruited a young genius, so that¡¯s him... Sunders almost wiped out the entire Centipede Guild at one time, so the losers meant to get revenge on his student because they¡¯re too weak to confront Sunders. This is very expected from these gutless morons, hmm.¡±

    ¡°As for why Angor is here, the guild learned clues that Angor was heading to his home, the Marginalized Ind. That¡¯s why Angor was on a ship and traveling across Devil¡¯s Water,¡± Jebra continued.

    ¡°Marginalized Ind? I see. So this Angor has nothing to do with the mysterious dimension either, hmm.¡±

    ¡°How should we deal with the apprentices we captured, sir?¡±

    ¡°As you said, Angor isn¡¯t your enemy, hmm? However... I do hate Sunders for many reasons, and I¡¯d like to see his little student suffer... But I can¡¯t do it myself, because that will unnecessarily anger many people, hmm. Since the Centipede Guild is hunting for Angor, you can set them free and watch the weaklings gnawing at each other. That will be fun, hmm.¡±

    ¡°But... won¡¯t that affect our n, sir?¡± Jebra frowned. ¡°Professor told us that the destiny hidden in these waters is crucial to the Song of the Deep. We can¡¯t afford to let some random trespassers ruin everything.¡±

    Sliv handed the picture he was looking at to Jebra. ¡°ording to a Prophet, the entrance to the mysterious dimension is guarded by this thing. Do you think the rogue apprentices can get past, hmm?¡±

    Jebra widened his eyes. ¡°Le-Leviathan? But why is it protecting the dimension?¡±

    ¡°Who knows? Nobody can understand Mystery energy and what it brings to this world. Throw those insects out of my sight and keep looking for Lucas. That¡¯s the most important task at hand, hmm.¡±

    Jebra nodded but still looked puzzled. ¡°Mister Sliv, why should we find this Lucas? What does he have to do with the mysterious dimension?¡±

    ¡°Well... even that Prophet can¡¯t give me a definite answer, of course I can¡¯t tell you, hmm.¡±

    ...

    Angor returned to his room and began looking at the leather book he found.

    By some tacit agreement, Helen and Erwin didn¡¯t question what the book was, and Angor was d that he didn¡¯t have to exin something that mortals weren¡¯t supposed to know.

    ¡°This thing¡¯s heavy...¡± Angor lifted the item in a hand and sensed its weight.

    A little excited, he flipped the book open to check the first page.

    The smell of rotten parchment tackled his nose.

    When he recognized the first line written on the page, he quickly felt disappointed.

    It was a logbook.

    Earlier, he was hoping to discover a great destiny from the ghost ship. But there was no way a logbook written by a mortal could provide anything like that.

    Still, Angor was curious to find out what became of the ship, so he kept reading.

    [A logbook written by the most faithful captain during the Age of Gold]

    Angor snickered. Who would title himself like that?

    [Day 1, Month of Blossom, Gold Age 1347. Weather: fair

    [The Feather Fan has undergone many years of maintenance and is finally ready to sail. After my departure, my deardies will have one less loyalpany to chat with during our noble gatherings. Will they miss me? But why am I not seeing a single friend to see me off? Humph! Died on their sickbeds, I reckon.]

    [Day 7, Month of Blossom, Gold Age 1347. Weather: storm to fair

    [There was rain just after we left the harbor, and it kept on for three days! All thanks to my ardent prayer, the God of Ocean once again blessed me with sunlight. He also told me that our ship will not be troubled by rainwater ever again!]

    [...]

    Angor didn¡¯t feel like reading on anymore.

    What the heck is this man talking about?

    It wasmon to see noblemen writing diaries using overstatements and pointless speeches. But this logbook still looked too strange. ¡°Praying to receive sunlight¡± was only one of the many bizarre problems.

    [I weep, longing for home. My tears dropped into the ocean and gave birth to a wonderful sea of flowers. The flying petals and fallen leaves came and soothed my aching heart.]

    Flowers? On the sea?

    As he read more, the ¡°logbook¡± was beginning to look like someone¡¯s poorly-written romance novel rather than the logs of the captain of a ship.

    [Day 16, Month of Resuscitation, Gold Age 1348. Weather: fair

    [Here be pirates! With my faithful knight sword in hand, I collected their heads as my bounty! One single swing was all I needed to end the life of their leader, who was cursing my name some miles away. That coward! And their treasures are all mine!]

    ¡°Using a knight sword to kill someone miles away? Tsk. This man should have be a novelist rather than a sailor.¡±

    [Day 16, Month of Looming Frost, Gold Age 1350. Weather: sunny

    [A ming dragon is wrestling with another monster on the sea. In the end... the dragon was killed!]

    ¡°Yeah right, ming dragon and the sea. Nicebination.¡±

    Thankfully, the diary only recorded ¡°major¡± events, so he didn¡¯t have to waste too much time reading insignificant trifles.

    [Day 6, Month of Looming Frost, Gold Age 1353. Weather: fog

    [It has been thirty days since the Feather Fan returned. Nobody, NOBODY believes the inspiring stories of Captain Lucas! Just because I can¡¯t show them the treasure I collected, they called me a liar! Farewell, world! I shall end my life here. That well over there will do the trick.]

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Angor put down the book and failed to understand the purpose of it.

    He hoped to find out why the Feather Fan appeared at Devil¡¯s Water, and how the captain was left alone in his room. But there was absolutely nothing helpful in the book.

    Also, it seemed the ship returned to Ferran Land in the end just fine. But how?

    ¡°The most faithful Captain Lucas? Seriously?¡±

    He put the book away and nned to forget everything he just read. But something told him to give it more thought.

    ¡°What if all the stories are real?¡±

 Chapter 718 - Flowers and Rumor

    <h4>Chapter 718: Flowers and Rumor</h4>

    After careful consideration, Angor came to the top level of the ship and entered Roman¡¯s room.

    He examined the room before when Roman was killed, and he found nothing other thanmon books used for passing time. It was obvious that Roman had taken away all valuables when escaping.

    He came here again because he remembered there was a book about Devil¡¯s Water left behind.

    Soon, he found what he was looking for on a ck wooden bookshelf, The Sea of Devils.

    The book didn¡¯t tell him who wrote it. But the back cover suggested that it was a public edition made by the White m Association.

    He spent half a day to fully read it, which containedprehensive intelligence regarding charted areas and routes in Devil¡¯s Water, as well as limited info for the remaining regions such as Gearwheel Grave and Sirensong Sea where ships tended to disappear for no reason.

    But the book didn¡¯t mention anything rted to what Lucas described.

    ¡°Is Lucas an actual liar then? But his ship did end up in Devil¡¯s Water, and it doesn¡¯t look natural...¡±

    With nothing to go by, he called Helen to him.

    ¡°Helen, during all the years you spent at Devil¡¯s Water, have you heard of a ce full of flowers?¡±

    ¡°Um? Do you mean a flowerbed grown on an ind, sir?¡±

    ¡°No, flowers on top of the sea.¡±

    ¡°Flowers on the sea...¡± Helen muttered. ¡°I don¡¯t think I know anything like that. However, Devil¡¯s Water has many more areas that we¡¯ve yet to explore. Perhaps there is such a wonderful sight somewhere I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Thank you, you can return to work.¡±

    After Helen left the room, Angor¡¯s lips twitched as he stared at the logbook.

    I must be mad, to think that the story was trustworthy...

    But instead of burning the book up, he still decided to keep it in his bracelet for now. Even if not to consider Lucas¡¯ stories, the ¡°ghost ship¡± had many strange elements worth inspecting, which meant the logbook might be useful in the future.

    Next, he took out his draft and continued to work on his ¡°flying boots¡±.

    ...

    After leaving Angor, Helen headed to the dining hall of the ship.

    It wasn¡¯t the right time for meals so there were only a few sailors with her. She took her share from the chef, found a random seat, and quickly dived in. Devil¡¯s Water could surprise them with unexpected danger at any second, so there was no time to enjoy meals. Getting the food into her stomach was enough.

    Two individuals¡ªErwin and his lieutenant¡ªsuddenly entered the hall and sat across from her.

    ¡°Haven¡¯t had yours yet, Cap¡¯t?¡± Helen asked as she swallowed herst bite. She was a bit confused since she saw Erwin heading here when she went to answer Angor¡¯s call, which meant Erwin should have done eating by now.

    ¡°I went to check our water storage. We don¡¯t have rain in this fog, and water is running low. Man... it wouldn¡¯t have been such a big issue if we can find water from Silver Palm.¡±

    The lieutenant chipped in, ¡°We always trusted Mister Roman, and he actually wanted us dead for his own gain? What a loser! It serves him so right to get eaten by a monster.¡±

    ¡°Quiet, Tulu!¡± Erwin scolded. ¡°Mister Roman might be ill-advised this time, but we can¡¯t deny the fact that he saved The Limpet from danger many times before.¡±

    Lieutenant Tulu was an 18-year-old young man with a keen sense when it came to predicting the weather. Erwin recruited him from a fishing vige.

    ¡°You¡¯re being way too faithful to him, captain.¡± Tulu made a duck face. ¡°I mean, everybody on the ship would agree with me, that we¡¯re still breathing all thanks to Mister Padt.¡±

    Helen interrupted their talk before Erwin could say anything further. ¡°He¡¯s right, captain. Roman guarded The Limpet because it was his job in the association. And when he disregarded his job, he almost got us all killed. We have proof of it. We should not deny his crime now.¡±

    Tulu threw his hands in the air and winked at Helen. ¡°Nice one, Officer Helen!¡±

    ¡°Oh, stop it. Kids these days...¡± Helenined.

    ¡°Alright alright, let¡¯s not argue about that anymore.¡± Erwin chuckled. ¡°Seriously now, we¡¯ll have a serious problem if we can¡¯t find water or rain soon.¡±

    ¡°Should we talk to Mister Padt?¡± said Tulu.

    ¡°Let¡¯s... try not to bother him unless necessary, he¡¯s not a member of the association after all. He¡¯s not obliged to assist us. Hey, Helen, Mister Padt just called you, so what was that about?¡±

    ¡°He asked me a very weird question and sent me off.¡±

    ¡°A question?¡± Tulu¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°About that ghost ship? Hey hey, tell me!¡±

    ¡°So you can show off your smartass-ness to your buddies?¡± Helen thought about Angor again, who was of a simr age as Tulu but always disyed apletely different character.

    ¡°Yeah, heh heh...¡± Tulu scratched his head. ¡°Chief Naki also wanted to know more. Well, we both do.¡±

    ¡°No, Mister Padt didn¡¯t mention the ghost ship, it¡¯s something else,¡± Helen said as she looked at Erwin. ¡°Cap¡¯t, have you heard of a ce on the sea that grows flowers? Like, flowers directly on the water?¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt asked you that? And... no, I don¡¯t think I have.¡±

    ¡°Neither have I.¡± Helen shrugged. ¡°Maybe something to do with other mighty wizards. It¡¯s just right that we don¡¯t know.¡±

    Helen waited for the others to finish their meals, collected their dishes, and walked toward themand room together.

    ¡°Tulu, something else on your mind?¡± Helen asked when she noticed that the boy was looking at the floor.

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking about that question earlier...¡±

    ¡°Which question? The flowers on the sea? Wait, don¡¯t tell me you know something?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Tulu shook his head. ¡°But there was this story passed around by the fishers in my vige...¡±

    ...

    Angor, who was believed to be a ¡°disciplined gentleman¡± by Helen, just finished a ss of milk and was fiddling with a quill out of boredom.

    When he heard someone knocking on his door, he quickly put away the ss of milk, dropped his quill, and pretended that he was working.

    Helen and Tulu entered the room.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Angor feigned a cold look.

    ¡°Apologize for the intrusion, Mister Padt. Just now, Tulu told me about a story about flowers. I don¡¯t know if it has something to do with what you asked, but I still brought him here, just in case.¡±

    Angor looked at the young man beside Helen who looked very nervous. ¡°You... knew about this flowerbed?¡±

    Tulu shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s only a rumor told by my grandmother. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s what you¡¯re looking for, sir.¡±

    Angor crossed his arms. ¡°Let¡¯s hear it.¡±

    ¡°Um, during my childhood, my granny often told me bedside stories before I slept. But she can¡¯t read well, and she didn¡¯t know many stories. One of them was called ¡®Nayah the Charmer¡¯.

    ¡°It¡¯s a pretty brief story. That there was this viscountess called Nayah, who came from the Age of Silver. She¡¯s beautiful, she¡¯s kind, and she had a perfect husband who loved her. But her twin sister set up a plot and ruined her face, then sold her to a ve ship. Then that evil sister took on her looks and enjoyed everything she had.

    ¡°From that day, Nayah the Charmer became Nayah the Stinky. One day, she couldn¡¯t bear the misfortune anymore and decided to give up her life. Standing on the prow of the ship, she told her sad story to the other ves. Her tears fell into the ocean and caused flowers to suddenly grow. Then she jumped into the water and disappeared, along with the flowers.¡±

 Chapter 719 - Nayah the Charmer

    <h4>Chapter 719: Nayah the Charmer</h4>

    After finishing his story, Tulu waited warily and wondered whether he amused or disappointed Angor.

    Helen was also getting anxious since Tulu¡¯s story was only an overused fairytale in her view. She took a peek at Angor and was terrified to notice that Angor remained silent with a very serious look as if he was very dissatisfied with their unproductive conversation.

    Ahhh no! I shouldn¡¯t have brought Tulu here and wasted Mister Padt¡¯s time!

    What she didn¡¯t know was, Angor was actually surprised to find out that Tulu¡¯s story went well with Lucas¡¯ description.

    Previously, he almost regarded the ¡°creating a flowerbed by crying into the ocean¡± as a joke. Yet when he heard something simr in Tulu¡¯s tale...

    He wondered if everything was in fact, real.

    There was another possibility, that the ¡°flowerbed on the sea¡± had always been a passed-down legend around Ferran, while Lucas simply copied the story in his logbook.

    Also, Tulu mentioned that the story originated from the Age of Gold.

    ¡°Sir, it¡¯s only a tale for kids, and we never know if it has anything to do with what you asked earlier. Please don¡¯t me Tulu.¡± Helen did a 90-degree bow.

    Angor used the Hand of Spell to stop her action.

    ¡°No need for that. In fact, it was good to hear it.¡± Angor spoke in a gentler tone, ¡°¡®Nayah the Charmer¡¯ was from the Age of Silver, you say? When exactly was it?¡±

    Tulu scratched his head. ¡°Sir... I¡¯m not good at history.¡±

    ¡°It was about 2,300 years ago, sir,¡± Helen quickly added.

    Wait... Angor frowned. Captain Erwin mentioned that the Age of Gold was about three thousand years ago from today...

    The Age of Silver came AFTER Age of Gold?

    ¡°How long did those periodsst?¡± he asked.

    ¡°The Age of Gold was 1,544 years. The Age of Silver... I think it was about 400 years or so, sir.¡±

    The flowerbed recorded in Lucas¡¯ logbook was the year of 1347 of the Age of Gold, while Nayah the Charmer came at least 200 yearster...

    Angor rubbed his temples as he felt confusion taking over his mind.

    ¡°Tulu, is this Nayah a real figure in the course of history?¡±

    Tulu shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know, sir. Well, my grandmother said she was a real person, but I always thought she faked it just to let me sleep better. But... I can¡¯t prove anything.¡±

    Angor looked at Helen. ¡°What about you? Have you heard about this Viscountess Nayah?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. I was born at Fey Continent so I don¡¯t know much about Ferran. But we can try asking the sailors who came from there, or Captain Erwin, who also came from Ferran Land.¡±

    ¡°Alright. You do it now, Helen.¡±

    Helen acknowledged Angor¡¯s order and left the room, leaving Tulu behind, who looked really uneasy now.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay, take a seat.¡± Angorforted Tulu. ¡°I only need to know more about that story of yours. So, apart from flowers and tears, is there anything else that¡¯s strange?¡±

    ¡°Strange things?¡± Tulu tilted his head. ¡°I... can¡¯t remember. It¡¯s been so many years since I heard the story from granny.¡±

    ¡°How about falling leaves?¡± Angor tried to mention some details in Lucas¡¯ description.

    ¡°Oh, yes! There were tree leaves or something. My granny said that the wind brought leaves from somewhere that joined the petals, and it was so beautiful. I used to imagine how that looked like.¡±

    Angor checked and ascertained that Tulu was telling the truth and not answering his question for the sake of it.

    This meant the story of ¡°Nayah the Charmer¡± and Lucas¡¯ log had one more factor inmon.

    This was looking less and less like mere coincidence.

    But how was Lucas rted to Nayah? They were several hundred years apart.

    Or was it that someone saw Lucas¡¯ book after he died and created Nayah¡¯s story?

    Helen returned with six sailors carefully following behind her.

    ¡°Sir, I found everyone who knew about Nayah¡¯s name,¡± said Helen.

    Angor nced at the nervous shipmates and decided to get straight to the point. ¡°One by one, tell me what you know about Nayah.¡±

    ...

    A momentter, he pondered over what he heard with a big frown.

    Five of the six sailors told the exact same story as Tulu, that a beautifuldy was mangled and enved, and ended her life in a flowerbed that suddenly appeared on the sea.

    The sixth sailor, however, told apletely different fantasy.

    His story was still about Nayah. But this time, Nayah was a murderousdy who envied everyone who possessed beautiful looks. She imprisoned men and women alike, cut their skins, and used their blood to bathe. Later, the viscount discovered her cruel endeavor, sentenced her to death, and discarded her body into the ocean.

    This sailor also exined that he was from a noble n from Ferran Land that owned records that contained various historical facts. ording to a reliable document, the incident of ¡°Nayah the Cruel¡± was recorded in year 133 of the Age of Silver.

    Something told Angor that both versions of the story might be true.

    The real ¡°Nayah the Charmer¡± was indeed chased away by her evil sister and diedter, while her sister became ¡°Nayah the Cruel¡±, who was brought to justice aftermitting her crimes.

    This theory was mostly made-up. Yet... it was very likely.

    ¡°Oh God. If only I know how to perform prophecy...¡± Angor shook his head and sighed.

    What he heard until now was still not enough to prove the reliability of Lucas¡¯ logbook. But he had enough reason to keep the book so that he might discover useful cluester. The book was found on a strange ghost ship that came and went for no apparent reason. This only suggested mysteries.

    Ferran Land was and of mortals, which meant safety was not much of an issue. He could always find the time and go after the traces left in Lucas¡¯ logs.

    Before asking everyone to leave, he asked onest question, ¡°Is there somewhere at Devil¡¯s Water that is always fair and free of rain?¡±

    This too, was mentioned in Lucas¡¯ story.

    ¡°I... am not sure. There are routes with rtively gentler weather, but I can¡¯t say if they¡¯re always like that,¡± replied Helen. ¡°I can check the records of the association when we arrive at Ferran, sir. They always keep a detailed weather report.¡±

    ¡°Please do, Officer Helen.¡±

 Chapter 720 - Self-Doubt

    <h4>Chapter 720: Self-Doubt</h4>

    It was the 16th day of the Month of Looming Frost. The auction held at Remnant Coast was about tomence.

    It was supposed to be a conventional monthly auction, which usually didn¡¯t have many participants. But for some reason, there were way more people than expected attending.

    Theron stood on the ceiling of the inverted pyramid-shaped auction building and observed the Remnant Coast from above.

    The weather was... terrible, considering how the whole ce was troubled by a sandstorm. But this was prettymon since Remnant Coast was located in the middle of a desert. Besides, the sandstorm wasn¡¯t a big problem for supernatural individuals.

    As the auctioneer, Theron had taken on the habit of observing participants before the auction started. He remained on the windy rooftop and gazed at the approaching crowds. However, he wasn¡¯t really interested in the apprentices. He meant to keep an eye out for theing wizards and prepare ordingly.

    He suddenly heard something roaring, which was followed by a wizard in a yellow robe, who was riding on a giant sand bear.

    ¡°¡®Sand Bear¡¯ Ryne from Moxa Wesnd... Let me see. He must havee for the Fortune Bear Cub, which will help him summon more powerful creatures. It seems there will be one less unsold item.¡±

    A faint smell of perfume suddenly prated the sandstorm and reached his nose. He looked in another direction and saw a witch covered inside a barrier made from rose petals flying toward the building.

    ¡°Huh? That¡¯s ¡®Rose Crown¡¯ Leona from Brute Cavern. But why? Does she want the ¡®Vine of Bitter Mandrake¡¯? But that thing¡¯s not a decent perfumeponent...¡± Theron shook his head and failed to figure out what Leona came for.

    Next was another charming witch in luxurious clothes who closely followed behind Leona. She was holding an adorablentern that helped her see better in the sandstorm.

    ¡°¡®Light Carrier¡¯ Lady Kate from Foreboding Forest... a recently acknowledged genius. Nice. We can check what she wants and promote some items to herter.¡±

    Kate did not show up in the public much since she became a wizard several years ago. For now, Theron had nothing to predict what she would buy.

    ¡°A ve, maybe? New wizards always need ves to do their chores.¡±

    In fact, Theron¡¯s great experience as an auctioneer already got him the right answer. At this very moment, Kate and Leona were discussing how to choose proper ves.

    Next, Theron observed several more wizards and almost deduced their purposes. However, he still failed to ascertain the intention of someone such as ¡°Mythril Innovator¡± Jel, from Tower of Hurricane. As far as Theron could remember, Jel was a master alchemist who studied the art of Tooling, while the auction this month didn¡¯t have anything rted to this subject.

    Still, it was not rare for a wizard to suddenly buy something irrelevant to their profession.

    In Theron¡¯s view, it was okay to have wizards with unknown motivesing to the auction. It was impossible to predict everyone¡¯s action after all.

    However, he was VERY confused to see the next visitor.

    ¡°Is that Mister Magus?? But ¡®Magus¡¯ Shildeen never attended auctions before, or so did the records say. That man always sent his avatars when buying something. He came personally this time?¡±

    Shildeen was not the end of the surprise yet.

    ¡°Whisperer of Underworld¡± Duncan, ¡°Raging Thorns¡± Madelyne, ¡°Miniature Creator¡± Dumartin... That was two ¡°nerdy¡± wizards who barely left the grounds of Brute Cavern plus a witch who just joined Brute Cavern not long ago.

    ¡°Why would these people attend the auction?¡± Theron felt his confidence as a ¡°professional predictor¡± crumbling. ¡°Did we just receive something that attracted everyone from Brute Cavern? Why didn¡¯t anyone tell me?¡±

    As he tried to get over the bewilderment, the sandstorm in the sky suddenly moved apart and gave way to another young man.

    This new visitor looked around the age of 25. He had a white suit, a green waistband, and several delicate-looking charms around his wrist. His pale yellow hair was bound behind his head by a green hairband, and only a thin fringe was left dangling over his left eye.

    He didn¡¯t look very outstanding, but he had a particrly friendly temperament, which was betrayed by the trace of unyielding ambition shown in his eyes.

    Theron failed to recognize this man until he saw all the other passing wizards showing respect. Then he suddenly remembered a piece of shocking news mentioned by people recently.

    ¡°That¡¯s Sumesh, Sunders¡¯ first student, a truth-finder... And he¡¯s from Brute Cavern as well. But howe? Is there something going on at Brute Cavern, and they need something from the auction to solve the problem?¡±

    Again, hepletely had no idea what Sumesh wanted from the auction, and it made him worried.

    Another man in a servitor suit suddenly climbed onto the roof and joined him.

    ¡°Mister Theron, we have ten minutes before themencement of the auction. Master Chalon asked you to prepare.¡±

    Chalon Yamesh, n master of Oasis Coast and the supreme leader of Remnant Coast as well as the auction.

    Theron nodded subconsciously. ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll be there right away.¡±

    He spent another minute on the rooftop, wondering what was going on thatpletely defied his predictions that used to be pretty urate before an auction started.

    The auction today was a minor, monthly round that didn¡¯t have anything too valuable. Whatever drew so many important figures here?

    Without having an answer, Theron went downstairs, frustrated.

    He came to the chamber of Master Chalon first, who was enjoying the service of three alluringdies.

    A bit embarrassed, Theron bowed politely. ¡°Master Chalon.¡±

    ¡°What do you want? Get down there, the auction is almost starting!¡± Chalon waved him off impatiently.

    ¡°But Master, I found some problems while observing the guests. I believe I should report to you.¡±

    ¡°Are you doing your ¡®tell their intent before the auction starts¡¯ again? You¡¯re wasting your time!¡±

    Even so, Chalon wouldn¡¯t scold his most loyal n member too harshly. ¡°Fine. Tell me, what problems?¡±

    ¡°I saw many strange individuals, and we have too many people from Brute Caverning. But as I remember, we aren¡¯t offering any important items today.¡±

    Unamused, Chalon put his hand on the breast area of one of thedies. ¡°Who knows? Maybe they had a social gathering somewhere around here and decided to drop by the auction for fun. Good for us. They¡¯ll bring more guests to us in the future.¡±

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°Stop it. They¡¯re all well-known wizards. Are you perhaps worried that they¡¯ll cause harm to us? I tell you, your ¡®prediction¡¯ is useless, and you should spend more time figuring out how to improve our gains. By the way, I checked the auction schedule earlier, and I want some adjustments.¡±

    ¡°Adjustments?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s this music box thing. Sell it during the first half. I¡¯ve seen it at other markets, and it¡¯s nothing too valuable. People will consider it a joke if we show them a toy around the end,¡± Chalon said as he tapped at the files on his desk, while his other hand wormed around ady¡¯s waist.

    ¡°Music box? Oh...¡± Theron remembered the item to be delivered by an apprentice. When he checked the item, he found the music and illusion to be quite amusing, and they seemed to be carrying a very strange power. As an experienced appraiser, his instincts told him that the music box was not a simple ything, so he decided to sell it during the second half of the auction.

    ¡°Master, I¡¯ve seen the said music box, and I think it¡¯s a rather good invention. You¡¯re right that it doesn¡¯t deserve to be a highlighted selection, but it has some masterful enchantment features that even our alchemists failed to recognize. Surely it won¡¯t be¡ª¡±

    Chalon lifted a hand and interrupted, ¡°Don¡¯t give me that. I saw the exact same thing half a year ago and bought it at 100 crystals. Now look at your schedule, starting bid 300 crystals? Nobody¡¯s going to buy it!¡±

    ¡°But Master, did you check the item yet?¡± Theron frowned.

    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m lying?!¡± Chalon lost patience. ¡°I DEMAND you to change the schedule and get rid of that junk earlier! Let¡¯s start with... 50! Well, it should have been lower if not for its alchemy designs.¡±

    Theron was the auctioneer but not the decision-maker, so he had no choice but to ept the order. ¡°Understood, sir. I¡¯ll swap it with the 37th lot.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s still toote. Sell it among the first five.¡±

    Theron¡¯s movement froze. Using his knowledge of an appraiser, he believed that the music box was far from being ¡°junk¡±. The first five items to be sold during the auction should be rtively valueless, non-tiered materials or potions. Yet the music box was way beyond that.

    ¡°Sir, are you sure you know what the music box is?¡±

    ¡°How about you get to work rather than questioning my decisions?!¡± Chalon bellowed.

    Theron quickly stepped out of the room. Chalon was not a liar, which meant he did check the music box before.

    ¡°But why are we having different opinions? Is my intuition faulty today?¡±

 Chapter 721 - Angry Dave

    <h4>Chapter 721: Angry Dave</h4>

    There were several minutes before the auction started, and Dave was thrilled to see so many apprentices from Brute Cavern sitting around him.

    They usually did not attend the auction held on the Remnant Coast because there were many better choices. It seemed they were all attracted by Angor¡¯s illusion item.

    Also, Dave hung out at the entrance for a while and saw many great wizards, including Sumesh, who hade. Apparently, they heard about Greya¡¯s ¡°challenge of truth¡±, which was facilitated by Angor¡¯s illusion, and they all wished to take a look at what Angor was selling this time.

    Angor promised to share 10% of the final ie with Dave. Of course Dave was d to see so many people who would soonpete for a higher price.

    The lights in the auction hall went out and interrupted his happy imagination.

    The main stage was then lit up, and Theron went under the light with a professional smile, wearing his off-white suit and a yellow bow-tie.

    ¡°Wee. Wee to the monthly auction sale of the Remnant Coast. My name is Theron, and I¡¯ll be your host today.¡±

    As an auctioneer who worked for the Remnant Coast for over a hundred years, Theron knew that none of the participants enjoyed formalities, so he started the auction right away.

    A disy stand emerged from the floor and revealed three red objects on it.

    ¡°The first lot for today is this: three Blood Cores extracted from three giants of different natures. They are the Dune Giant, Snow Giant, and Sea Giant. The starting price is 80 crystals. Make sure you raise at least 10 crystals for each call, and let¡¯s begin!¡±

    A Blood Core was amon alchemy material, which functioned simrly as minerals that contained certain energy. The three cores were non-tieredponents. However, the core of a Sea Giant was rtively costly in markets, which was probably why the starting price was so high.

    But it seemed not many guests needed them. An apprentice won the cores by offering 120 crystals in the end.

    ¡°Next is a wooden stave created by a synthesis alchemist. Apart from its good looks, it can slightly improve the effectiveness of spells that use wood elements. We shall begin from 130 crystals.¡±

    This item had even fewer potential userspared to the blood cores, and Theron was fully aware of it. After making three calls without receiving a single response, he dered the item unsold.

    The non-tiered stave was, of course, intended for apprentices. To apprentices, 130 crystals was an extremely high price. Paying such a price for a weak weapon that seemed easy to break was just not worth it.

    It took Theron some time to decide whether he should bring the 3rd item.

    Hepletely should, ording to Master Chalon¡¯s order. But his instinct of a seasoned auctioneer told him that the music box should not be treated so lightly.

    ¡°What¡¯s the problem, man? Keep the auction going!¡± a customer yelled impatiently.

    Theron nced at the third floor of the auction hall. He couldn¡¯t see through the unlit distance,, but he somehow felt Master Chalon¡¯s cold look.

    ¡°Get on with it!¡± Chalon¡¯s voice reached his ears.

    Theron sighed and ced a small box on the disy stand.

    On the first look, the item appeared to be a carefully-designed jewelry casket decorated with golden rose engravings and four ¡°legs¡± made of tinum.

    And there was nothing particr on it apart from its adorable look.

    Someone yelled to tell Theron to hurry up and exin.

    Dave suddenly stood up from his seat, and quickly sat down, after receiving the annoyed gazes from people around him.

    He saw the casket being Angor¡¯s illusion container, but he couldn¡¯t understand why the auction decided to ce such a tiered alchemy creation so early in the queue.

    Conventionally, auction holders put better items in the middle or around the end of the session, while those being disyed earlier were ¡°fillers¡± that did not hold much value. Unless the auction had nothing but decent items, in which case they would surprise everyone from the very start.

    So they think Angor¡¯s creation is useless? And that they¡¯d get rid of it as soon as possible?!

    Dave¡¯s cheeks grew red out of rage because the auction was going topletely ruin his promise to Angor at this rate. He also felt humiliated that whoever made this decision was greatly underestimating Angor¡¯s skill.

    He wished to stand up again and tell the auctioneer that he would take the item back right this moment.

    Yet... he dared not.

    Last time during the Twilight Auction, Angor was almost killed even if Sunders was there to watch over him. Dave was pretty sure he¡¯d have a quick death if he openly opposed the Remnant Coast.

    Helpless, the only thing he could do was to re at Theron with all the hatred he could muster.

    ¡°Hey, Mister Theron, what¡¯s that box? A gift coffer for a woman?¡±

    As more and more participants urged him, Theron calmed his mood and decided to continue. The music box was for sale anyway. He might receive some badments regarding his bad lot order, but it wasn¡¯t anything serious.

    ¡°Ahem! The third lot today is this, a music box. While listening to its music, you will be immersed inside a beautiful illusion at the same time and... well, have a good time. The starting bid is, er, 150 crystals. Each raise shall be 10 crystals or above. Start.¡±

    Master Chalon told him to make the starting price 50, which Theron didn¡¯t follow. ording to his appraisal, the base materials used in the music box already exceeded 70 or 80.

    Meanwhile, Dave clenched his teeth and muttered his curses under his breath.

    ¡°A music box with an illusion? Isn¡¯t that those popr toys going around all over the markets these days? So the Remnant Coast also sells one at their auction? It looks nice, but we can find many of them out there by paying the same price.¡±

    Several apprentices began to discuss aloud.

    Inside his private chamber on the third floor, Chalon threw a disappointed glimpse at the auction stage while not forgetting to enjoy thedies around him.

    ¡°What did I say? We should have never allowed such junk to show up. And why did Theron change my decision? Just... ugh!¡±

    In another chamber full of the smell of perfume, ¡°Rose Crown¡± Leona stared at the strange item together with herpanion, Kate from Foreboding Forest.

    Kate moved a hand in front of Leona¡¯s nose. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s the problem? Are you interested in that?¡±

    Leona shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s just... strange. I mean, it¡¯s definitely not a poor, mash-up piece made by an amateur. The overall and intact design alone should be worth more than 150 crystals.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a Mirage Box, right? I also saw those things before. The price is fine.¡±

    Leona was still looking at the auction stage in suspicion.

    Alchemy, illusion... Is that Angor¡¯s alchemy illusion container? But why is it so cheap?

    ¡°Darn it, the stage is protected, so I can¡¯t use Narda¡¯s Vision.¡± Leona shook her head and decided not to worry about this. It was very unlikely that the auction mistook Angor¡¯s item for a valueless toy.

    ...

    Sumesh was carefully observing the music box in his VIP room casually.

    ¡°That looks simr to the one in Iron Granny¡¯s house... but I think this one looks better?¡±

    ...

    Theron had spent a full minute on the stage in embarrassing silence.

    No one was making calls for the music box. In fact, he was questioning the reliability of his expertise now. How could he not know about a popr toy while everyone apart from him did?

    He even thought about buying the item himself. As far as he could see, paying 150 crystals for such a delicate ¡°toy¡± was not a bad idea.

    ¡°A hundred and sixty.¡± Someone raised a paddle before Theron removed the item.

    Theron looked at the bidder and frowned. He recognized the young man as the one who delivered the music box to them, an apprentice named Dave.

    But why would he buy it back like that? The item¡¯s going to return to his hands anyway.

    Truth was, Dave was doing this so that people at least saw a buyer for Angor¡¯s music box, which was better than having no one showing interest in it.

    ¡°We have an offer. One-sixty, going once.¡± Theron shook his head and continued his job.

    ¡°Someone actually wants that thing?¡± Chalon muttered.

    An assistant nearby exined what was going on.

    ¡°Huh? Oof, so the consignor wants it back? HA! Fine, we still get the profit. But remember to tell Theronter, that we should prevent these junks from taking up our space.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re so right, sir. Garbage like this will ruin our fame,¡± a woman serving Chalon ttered.

    ¡°You know me so well, Linda...¡± Chalon began worming his hands around the woman¡¯s breasts again.

    The auction hall suddenly got a lot noisier when more and more people started talking.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on down there?¡± Chalon frowned and asked his assistant.

    ¡°Sir, our guest from VIP room 7 offered 200 crystals for the music box, and the original consignor has been bidding against him. The current bid has reached 500.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Chalon jumped from his seat. ¡°Don¡¯t fuc*ing tell me we got a shill who bought a VIP ticket?¡±

    ¡°Sir-sir, the guest inside room 7 is ¡®Mythril Innovator¡¯ Jel from Tower of Hurricane.¡±

 Chapter 722 - Elevated Situation

    <h4>Chapter 722: Elevated Situation</h4>

    ¡°Jel? Why is HE interested in the stupid toy?¡± Chalon pushed thedy sitting on his legs away and walked to the window.

    He knew Jel was a master alchemist, which meant something was definitely not right.

    ¡°No, no... Was Theron actually right, that the music box is something special?¡± Chalon muttered as he got a bad feeling.

    The bid had reached 750, which was offered by Dave just now, who was trembling for some reason.

    The apprentices around him were looking at him in either disdain or suspicion. At the same time, they admired Dave¡¯s courage for going against a rich wizard who could enter a VIP room.

    An apprentice whispered to Dave, ¡°Hey you, I have one of those Mirage Boxes too. I¡¯ll pass it to you for only 300 crystals. What do you say?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t listen to him. You find this thing at about 200 crystals elsewhere. Just save your money.¡±

    Dave paid them no mind. Angor¡¯s music box was on apletely different levelpared with the cheap knockoffs people used to know.

    But... the others were right about how it was dangerous to enter thepetition like this.

    The situation grew more and more chaotic as the price reached 800.

    That price was insane for a ¡°toy music box¡±. Or rather, the price usually suggested ¡°better items¡± sold during monthly auctions, but not something around the opening speech.

    While the customers wondered who VIP 7 was, Theron slowly regained his confidence as a professional appraiser¡ªat least the price told him that he was not wrong. It was Master Chalon who misunderstood the value of the item.

    He wondered what Master Chalon looked like right now, when a ¡°junk that was worth no more than 50 crystals¡± just had its price multiplied.

    I don¡¯t think Master Chalon would do anything to Jel though. Jel was a famous alchemist after all.

    Speaking of him, why would Jel buy the music box? Did hee to Remnant Coast just to buy this thing?

    Without using Narda¡¯s Vision, Jel, using his great experience as an alchemist, had noticed that the music box being sold contained more than one tieredponent, which meant the item was a tiered alchemy creation.

    He came here today because he heard about a broken tome that he was interested in. However, getting an extra gift that might be a decent ything didn¡¯t hurt his n.

    He did not see any trace of synthesis on the music box, which meant it might be the product of enchantment or other minor alchemy subjects he didn¡¯t know. Winning the item would allow him to look into new knowledge.

    However, he wasn¡¯t so sure about this anymore when the apprentice on the first floor raised the price to 900.

    Jel was never short of money, but he wasn¡¯t someone who would waste money for no reason. The price already exceeded hisfort zone for buying a potential test subject. He was stillpeting just because he felt annoyed that a mere apprentice would oppose him.

    ¡°Nine hundred and ten.¡±

    Before Dave could add his increment, Jel interrupted him, ¡°That was myst raise. You can have it if you wish to keep going. Heh.¡±

    Those words definitely sounded like a threat.

    Dave faltered for a moment. He knew he had offended the VIP guest for good, but he didn¡¯t want to let Angor¡¯s creation go to someone at such a low price.

    Theron was counting down. As the host, he also wanted to get rid of the item faster. Each elevated price meant a heavy blow to Master Chalon¡¯s face. If Chalon grew too angry, the members of the auction might expect some misfortune.

    Dave decided to give up. He didn¡¯t want to get killed by a wizard yet.

    However, someone else stopped Theron from dropping his gavel.

    ¡°Tell me, young man, why do you want the item so much?¡±

    It was Leona, who just addressed Dave. Earlier, she wouldn¡¯t get too concerned about the strange music box. But Jel¡¯s intervention aroused her suspicion again.

    And since Leona couldn¡¯t question Jel¡¯s intention, she chose to speak to the apprentice who was challenging Jel.

    Dave hesitated and wondered if he should speak at all.

    ¡°I think I saw him earlier. He was the one who brought the music box here,¡± someone suddenly yelled to everyone.

    Instantly, Dave became the center of attention.

    ¡°So that was phony bidding then?¡± Jel scolded from his room. ¡°You... pulled such a dirty on me? Do you know who I am?¡±

    Dave¡¯s face went pale.

    This was the first time in his life that he felt so close to death. Even confronting Steel Hedgehogs in the Abyss with Hercules didn¡¯t feel so dreadful.

    Theron nced at Dave and slightly shook his head.

    He recognized that voice as Master Chalon¡¯s assistant.

    Revealing the seller of an item to the public was definitely against their policy. It seemed Chalon did that to divert all the attention to Dave so that people disregarded the auction¡¯s bad item arrangement.

    Of course, most people were smart enough to notice the fact. However, they had no reason to help Dave by pointing it out. Instead, they enjoyed joining the fray and restlessly used Dave.

    Dave felt his heart about to explode as he desperately searched for a way out of this.

    ¡°Yes! I¡¯m the seller. But I was not tricking the auction. I just want it back.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s pointless! Whatever you wanted, you caused trouble to the auction, and us!¡±

    ¡°But you all see what I did! I never backed down even when mister wizard was going for it because I really want the box back!¡± Dave decided to speak the truth since telling excuses would only raise more problems. ¡°I know I¡¯m not supposed to do such a thing, but I just can¡¯t give it up without putting up a fight.¡±

    Someone used truth-detection means and noticed that Dave was telling the truth.

    ¡°I can understand when someone regrets their decision. Well, I appreciate your courage,¡± another voice in Leona¡¯s room¡ªKate¡ªspoke up.

    ¡°Lady Kate is right, that this happens all the time. Can I know the reason? Or do you just not want Mister Jel to have the music box?¡± a wizard who obviously enjoyed fanning the mesmented.

    Dave quickly shook his head. ¡°No! I have nothing against Mister Jel. I want to get the music box because¡ª¡±

    ¡ª Because I don¡¯t want the auction to falsely treat Angor¡¯s creation as some kind of insignificant gimcrack.

    He didn¡¯t say thest part of his phrase because he saw Theron, who always showed a gentle and professional smile, just gave him a sharp gaze.

    Dave closed his mouth and stuttered, while Theron looked away in satisfaction.

    Yet not everyone was satisfied.

    ¡°What? Tell us already! So you don¡¯t hate Mister Jel or something, so... something about the auction house then?¡±

    Theron interrupted the argument with a cold look, ¡°Let¡¯s not waste everyone¡¯s time here. The consignor has signed our agreement for selling the item, and we shall see it to the end. I¡¯m afraid we must consider your bidding invalid, Mister Dave. We will resume the process starting from the first offer of Mister Jel, which is 200 crystals. If no one follows up, the music box shall go to Mister Jel.¡±

    Theron didn¡¯t give anyone a chance to protest.

    There was no universalw system in the wizarding world. Here, the auction would follow their own rules, which meant an item would go through the entire process that would determine who owned itter. The original seller had no right to take it back.

    Or Dave could try buying the item as a customer as long as his identity wasn¡¯t exposed, in which case the auction house would cast a blind eye about this.

    The other guests chose to listen to Theron¡¯s advice and hurry up so that they could see the auction going.

    ¡°Two hundred magic crystals, going once, going twice...¡± Theron called.

    Dave made up a quick decision as he suddenly called again, ¡°That¡¯s the alchemy illusion Angor asked me to sell!¡±

    Theron briefly stopped his action. What was that? Was he asking for mercy just now?

    However, he didn¡¯t have time to worry about Dave when the screen in front of him was instantly flooded with offers from people, ranging from 300 to 1,000.

    At the same time, a voice from a VIP room called out loudly, ¡°I¡¯ll take it! I give you two thousand!¡±

 Chapter 723 - Intense Competition

    <h4>Chapter 723: Intense Competition</h4>

    The suddenly refreshed price shocked all the onlookers who were unaware of what was going on, including Theron.

    It took Theron several seconds to remember to continue his job. ¡°Two thousand called by VIP 5. Anyone else?¡±

    While speaking, he was scanning through the price tags that filled the entire screen and wondering what exactly was happening.

    Wait, that apprentice mentioned a name, the creator of the music box? Who was it again?

    ¡°Is this really Angor¡¯s alchemy illusion?¡± Leona questioned from her room.

    In fact, Dave was as surprised as everyone right now. He never thought mentioning Angor¡¯s name would cause such an uproar in the auction hall. He should have done it earlier!

    ¡°Yes-yes. I¡¯m working at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop in Brute Cavern. The music box is Angor¡¯s alchemy illusion.¡±

    Theron silently repeated Angor¡¯s name.

    But who is that? A famous alchemist? I never heard of him before.

    Away from them, Chalon was asking the same question with a frustrated face.

    ¡°Who the fu*k is Angor? Is he like someone really good?¡±

    All his assistants remained quiet since none of them was an alchemist or anyone who knew much about alchemists.

    ¡°Then get out there and look for it! I want to know who that is within a minute!¡± Chalon almost screamed.

    Meanwhile, he took out a pure white music box from his space storage. This was the ¡°cheap toy¡± he mentioned to Theron, which cost him 100 crystals. He took a moment topare the two items and noticed that the one being sold looked a little better in terms of details, such as smoother outlines.

    ¡°They¡¯re not the same thing?¡±

    It could no longer be denied that he falsely determined the value of an item, but this wasn¡¯t the only problem¡ªChalon felt a more terrible sensation gnawing at the back of his mind, and he hoped that it wasn¡¯t real.

    ...

    The uninformed participants were trying to figure out what had be of the auction.

    Someone raised their questions out loud and told Theron to show them what the music box could do.

    Theron was also considering whether he should activate the music box so that he might find whatever he overlooked. But before he could do so, he received another question from VIP room 13.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need, Mister Theron. Can you just lift the item and let us look at it from different angles? I wish to look at the sides and its bottom.¡±

    The voice sounded rather cruel and frigid for some reason, which caused the visitors across the auction hall to shiver.

    Theron looked at the VIP floor. He didn¡¯t recognize the voice, but he knew who was using that room¡ª¡±Whisperer of Underworld¡± Duncan.

    People usually knew him as a very powerful wizard who knew how to travel to the underworld. Simr to ¡°Miniature Creator¡± Dumartin, Duncan always kept himself shut in thebs and didn¡¯t show up much.

    But wait! Theron realized something. Did Duncane for the music box too?? And Dumartin is also here. Don¡¯t tell me¡ª

    It was a ridiculous suspicion, but since a bunch of unlikely customers already showed up at the auction, anything was possible now.

    Theron nodded. ¡°Of course.¡±

    He used his spirit feelers to carry the music box into the air, and slowly rotated it in the spotlight.

    Before he could figure out what to look for, Duncan stopped him.

    ¡°Thank you. I offer three thousand.¡±

    There was more ruckus.

    People thought Duncan found something special on the music box, and they all tried to observe as carefully as they could.

    A wizard from the VIP floor suddenly asked, ¡°What is that energy signatureing from its base?¡±

    Theron set his gaze at the bottom of the item and found the concealed energy source. He just noticed that there was a second, weaker energy indication, which he didn¡¯t find when appraising the item.

    When he tried to inspect the second energy source using his spirit feelers, a picture suddenly emerged in his view, which was seen by everyone.

    It was a golden engraving showing a lion captured by spiky vines.

    ¡°An emblem? Is that someone¡¯s signature?¡± someone asked.

    ¡°Should be. Then it means the music box was made by a professional alchemist. That exins the price rise.¡±

    While the apprentices talked about the ¡°logo¡±, more experienced wizards were attracted by something else, which was the strange rune used for concealing the picture.

    This had told them that whoever crafted the item was not amon amateur.

    ¡°Thirty-five hundred. Mister Duncan, I don¡¯t believe a music box fits well with your death magic. How about giving it to me?¡±

    A witch spoke from the VIP room next to Duncan¡¯s.

    It was Madelyne.

    Again, Duncan filled the auction with his deep and terrifying voice.

    ¡°The underworld is a deste and forsaken ce. A music box will make my travel less lonesome. Four thousand.¡±

    This meant neither of them would quit easily, and there was no point arguing.

    For the next moment, the whole auction became thepetition between Duncan and Madelyne, who raised the bid to 6,600 without much of a thought.

    The music box was supposed to be the 3rd lot today and should ¡°be gotten rid of at around 50 crystals¡±, ording to Master Chalon. But the current price was already equal to what was expected from the highlighted items at the end of the auction.

    Master Chalon, I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ve made a terrible mistake this time... Theronined in his mind.

    The twopeting wizards slowed down their calls when the price exceeded 6,000. Madelyne only brought 10,000 ¡°cash¡± today, which was what she collected from her fallen n, while Duncan was a dedicated researcher who didn¡¯t spend much time doing profitable business, so he didn¡¯t have much savings either.

    As Duncan wondered whether he should go over 6,600, which was called by Madelyne just now, Dumartin suddenly surprised both of them by offering 7,000.

    The elevated raise immediately discouraged Duncan, while Madelyne decided to wait and see if anyone else was going to join.

    She got an answer soon. Also, it seemed there was more than one customer who didn¡¯t hesitate to enter the brawl.

    ¡°Rose Crown¡± Leona and ¡°Magus¡± Shildeen called their bids at the same time, and each time they called their next raise, it would be at least 500.

    Seeing her hope gone, Madelyne sighed andpletely gave up.

    Now, three wizards from the same organization were going all-out to fight over the music box.

    Theron watched the ongoing price war inplete silence. This was usually seen when the ¡°valuable¡± items were brought out at the end of the auction, but not so early.

    This had proved that the music box was NOT amon trinket and that all the visitors from Brute Cavern came because of it.

    Theron nced at VIP room 1, which was supposed to be Sumesh¡¯s room.

    He thought, Will that man be joining them?

    ...

    The price was almost at 10,000 crystals, and it made Chalon frustrated rather than d.

    No matter how much the item was sold for, the auction house would only receive amission fee of 10-15%. Compared to earning the profit, Chalon would rather avoid the great humiliation.

    His assistants all remained quiet so that they did not get involved in their master¡¯s rage.

    ¡°Someone tell me who that Angor guy is already!¡± Chalon demanded.

    ¡°Our people are still at it, sir. They have yet to get a definitive answer.¡±

    ¡°Stop wasting time asking random people and go find alchemists, you fool! He¡¯s got to be known by alchemists!¡±

    He took some time to calm down and suddenly thought about a cruel idea.

    ...

    The price had breached 10,000 within another two minutes. Dumartin had quit thepetition, leaving only Leona and Shildeen still yelling at each other.

    ¡°Hey, Leona?¡± Shildeen said in a sharp tone, ¡°You¡¯re good friend with Flora, I believe? You have many ways to find yourself an alchemy illusion. Must we do this at the auction?¡±

    Leona knew what Shildeen was referring to, and she wouldn¡¯t agree. Last time, she asked Flora to extract the essence of Glutton Flower Lord from Angor¡¯s body by paying a minimal price, after which she earned a great fortune from the perfume she made. She didn¡¯t regard the matter as a serious problem then, since Angor was a fresh level-1 apprentice. But she never expected the boy to grow up and be so popr in this world in only three years.

    As a selfish wizard herself, Leona didn¡¯t believe that Angor would forgive her for what she did easily. This was why she¡¯d rather buy the music box from the auction rather than asking Angor for one.

    While the two wizards were still stirring up the auction, the apprentices on the first floor didn¡¯t sit idle.

 Chapter 724 - Swaying Opinion

    <h4>Chapter 724: Swaying Opinion</h4>

    ¡°That thing¡¯s copying the Mirage Box, right? Some big-shot alchemist made a tant knockoff and sold it at the auction? Such disgrace!¡±

    ¡°Not really. I mean, it¡¯s fine as long as he made money from it. You know about Energy Stabilizers, right? Everyone copies them.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s different!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s different? It¡¯s just a freaking music box, why does it matter, copied or not? You¡¯re just jealous, right?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just saying that the music box isn¡¯t his idea!¡±

    Usually, people in the wizarding world did not care much about ¡°copyright issues¡±. A copycat alchemist might earn some negativements, but this would not prevent them from getting customers. As long as they got the skills to craft useful items, people still came to them.

    Simrly, not many people in the auction hall were persuaded by the distrust directed at Angor.

    Theron slightly shook his head on the auction stage. To him, it was so obvious that this was again Master Chalon¡¯s trick. Chalon had vited the convention of the auction house for the second time, and Theron didn¡¯t feel good about it.

    Master Chalon was going topletely displease this alchemist at this rate...

    Besides, doing so wouldn¡¯t help with anything. Even serious crimes could be forgotten over time in this world. After today, no one would remember a mere copied music box.

    However, what Chalon did would probably cause a personal grudge between a famous alchemist and the auction house. And it was not like Chalon¡¯s n worked well, since most apprentices didn¡¯t seem to believe the argument raised by the hired hater.

    But as a member of the auction house, Theron couldn¡¯t oppose Chalon¡¯s decision in the open. He decided to wait until the auction ended to talk to his boss about this.

    Much to his dismay, the auction might not end peacefully when the strongest wizard on the scene¡ªSumesh¡ªsuddenly decided to join the dispute.

    ¡°Remnant Auction actually tried to malign someone¡¯s name... I thought you¡¯re beyond that. Ha!¡±

    His words silenced everyone and caused Theron to sweat all of a sudden.

    It was very likely for someone to notice Chalon¡¯s gimmicks. Yet it was a whole different matter when a wizard like Sumesh pointed it out in the public.

    More importantly, Sumesh¡¯s words were aggressively directed at Remnant Auction.

    While silently cursing Chalon¡¯s foolish move, Theron desperately tried to think of a way to soothe the situation.

    Before he could say anything though, Chalon suddenly spoke from his room, ¡°You wronged me, Mister Sumesh. Why would we do such a thing? As you can see, we allowed the music box to enter the auction even if it might not be... genuine.¡±

    Sumesh sneered. ¡°I see. It was YOU who told your people to spread false words?¡±

    ¡°False? Not quite. Besides, the credibility of the item is questionable, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    A third voice suddenly chipped in on their conversation.

    ¡°Master Chalon, have you any proof that tells us if the music box is a spoof?¡±

    It was ¡°Sand Bear¡± Ryne from Moxa Wesnd who just spoke, and it surprised Chalon for good.

    ¡°Mister Ryne... do you wish to show your distrust against me as well?¡±

    Ryne shook his head. ¡°Of course not. I only wish to point out the fact. You mean to tell us that the music box copied the well-known Mirage Box, right? Let me say this, the Mirage Box is, in fact, the ¡®knockoff¡¯.¡±

    Again, everyone was surprised to hear about this, including Sumesh. Sumesh argued with Chalon just to protect the name of Phantom Ind and his young ¡°ssmate¡±. He wasn¡¯t expecting Ryne to support him.

    Ryne was usually known as a rtively trustworthy wizard in the south, and because of this, most people chose to carefully think about what they just heard.

    Theron slowly lost his cool on the auction stage. The situation would get out of hand if Chalon¡¯s plot of ndering someone¡¯s name backfired on them and caused the Remnant Auction to receive people¡¯s hostility.

    For now, he could only pray that what Ryne said was wrong and that the Mirage Box was a ¡°genuine¡± product.

    Ryne continued, ¡°It happens that I attended Twilight Auctionst year and saw a music box called the ¡®Land on the Sky¡¯. It showed me a fine illusion with astonishing elements, especially the floating ind at the end of it.

    ¡°That one was bought by ¡®ming Lotus¡¯ Lydia, who paid 8,100 crystals. Just so you know, it appeared way before Mirage Boxes hit the market. Also, I have a Mirage Box in my possession as well, and I¡¯m certain that the illusion in it is a LOT inferior to Land on the Sky.

    ¡°Moreover, Land on the Sky only offered one piece of music named ¡®City of Sky¡¯. Conveniently, the creator of Mirage Boxes also used this song. Now, what do you say?¡± Ryne looked at the third floor where Chalon¡¯s chamber was at.

    Chalon failed to respond as he waspletely stricken by embarrassment.

    If Ryne¡¯s story was true, then Chalon just wrongfully defamed and offended an alchemist while allowing everyone to see it.

    Sumeshughed and pped. ¡°Nice one. So you were helping the real copycat and smearing the name of the true inventor of the music box, Master Chalon? Oof. Awkward.¡±

    Again, Chalon didn¡¯t answer.

    ¡°Not exactly, Mister Sumesh,¡± said Ryne. ¡°As I said, I was simply pointing out the fact, that the Mirage Boxes were counterfeited. However, I never said that the music box we¡¯re seeing now is a ¡®real¡¯ one. Perhaps it¡¯s another duplicate, no?¡±

    Sumesh nodded. This was also true.

    Jel, who had been listening to their conversation quietly, suddenly spoke up.

    ¡°This should be simple. Show us the illusion and we¡¯ll see.¡±

    ¡°I agree.¡± Ryne looked at Theron.

    Since the wizards said so, the apprentices all mumbled their opinions, that they would like to see the effect of the music box as well.

    Shildeen, who offered the current highest price, preferred that the alchemy illusion remained a secret. However, he didn¡¯t say anything since the auction house was allowed to disy the item as they saw fit.

    Theron looked at Chalon¡¯s room hoping to see Chalon¡¯s decision.

    I can somewhat mend my mistake if the music box is a fake... Chalon thought to himself. Besides, I also want to know the difference between that thing and the Mirage Box.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    Upon receiving Chalon¡¯s consent, Theron opened the lid of the item and activated its mechanism.

    People suddenly heard a cheerful music piece reaching their eardrums, which grasped their attention.

    ¡°Is this piano? Nice...¡± An apprentice who didn¡¯t know music at all smiled while enjoying the charming melody.

    Meanwhile, people all saw the surroundings going blurry.

    The wizards present noticed how the illusion came into being, but they were still surprised to see the new scenery that looked as good as real.

    In fact, the illusion looked no worse than those wielded by master illusionists. This alone had told them that 150 crystals was absolutely an underestimation, and selling it at such a price was utterly mortifying to its creator.

    No wonder the consignor wanted to buy it back.

    The illusion had taken the audience into a forest, where they saw a youngdy talking to a blurry figure. They couldn¡¯t see the woman¡¯s face yet, but her joyful movementbined with the jubnt music suggested that the conversation must be quite happy and rxed.

    ¡°The illusion is almost wless!¡± someone eximed. ¡°The cotton candy clouds and random mish-mash inside my Mirage Box are like a child¡¯s workpared to this.¡±

    ¡°Mister Ryne is so right. Mirage Boxes are the cheap knockoffs. This is in to see.¡±

    Someone close to Ryne asked if the illusion they were looking at right now was rted to Land on the Sky.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know yet,¡± said Ryne. ¡°But I can tell you that the opening and what I¡¯ve seen until now is more brilliant than the Land on the Sky.¡±

    Sumesh grinned. What do you expect? Iron Granny said that Angor¡¯s illusion skills developed so quickly that it scared her. And there¡¯s his nightmare illusion skill... I¡¯d be surprised if his illusions are any less.

    While everyone enjoyed the story disyed by the illusion, wizards from Brute Cavern carefully diverted their attention to figure out whatever inside Angor¡¯s illusion could help Greya create a new spell as well as gaining Rein¡¯smendation.

    The music had entered a lively part as the young woman suddenly began dancing among the trees. While people were fully attracted by her moves, the scenery shifted again, until the forest turned into a narrow street.

    The woman had stopped dancing and was now talking to a hunched and blind old man.

    They couldn¡¯t hear any words being spoken, but the music somehow told them what was going on in the story, that the kinddy wished to help the old man in distress to regain his sight and see the beautiful world again.

    She traveled far and beyond to seek help. In the end, she came to the mysterious figure in the forest, a wizard.

    After listening to her pleading, the wizard cast a spell that allowed the old man to view various dazzling sights.

    As the music kept on, the audience also saw the scenery of mountains and waters shing past their views.

    Meanwhile, the onlooking wizards stood up from their seats when they noticed terrible disharmony hidden within the beautiful sights, which they couldn¡¯t tell.

    ¡°That¡¯s him, I¡¯m sure of it!¡± Ryne called out. ¡°This is made by the very same alchemist who created Land of the Sky. I feel it now... just like when I looked at the floating indst time. But this one is better. And... more enticing.¡±

 Chapter 725 - Genuine And Absolutely Remarkable Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 725: Genuine And Absolutely Remarkable Illusion</h4>

    Extending snowy mountains that reflected the sunlight, colliding waves knocking against abandoned fishing ships, colorful seagulls cruising above mermaids, an endless savanna under the boundless sky, and the blurred shadows of trees at the horizon...

    Apart from the amazing sights, the members of the audience also embraced a strange sensation tackling their minds.

    ¡°It¡¯s like a spell that stops time and allows you to read the stories buried in the past... Stories! So many of them! This thing¡¯s brilliant!¡± Kate stated loudly from her room. She just realized that the music box was the best among the best curios she ever witnessed, and she only hoped that she could take it home and enjoy it fully. But 5,000 crystals were all she got at the moment, and this was undoubtedly far from enough.

    ¡°Now I understand what Angor¡¯s illusion means. No wonder Greya found great inspiration from it!¡± Leona agreed along.

    ¡°Wait. Greya? She created her ¡®new spell¡¯ using such an illusion?¡± Kate widened her eyes.

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t exactly what happened. She still needed her past experience and effort, and the alchemy illusion gave her the final push.¡±

    Kate¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°The creator of the music, Angor... you know him?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I do.¡± Leona chuckled and shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s Mister Phantom¡¯s new student. A little guy with a terrifying future. I mean it.¡±

    ¡°Angor, huh?¡± Kate muttered that name while thinking about the ¡°signature emblem¡± she just saw on the bottom of the music box.

    Simr to her, most wizards from Brute Cavern had believed that such a ¡°story-rich¡± illusion was very likely to provide unknown insight to facilitate Greya¡¯s sess.

    ¡°I MUST have it!¡± Shildeen observed the illusion around him with a passionate look.

    Sumesh was equally surprised as the other wizards right now. But instead of coveting the music box, he was more astonished by the illusion skill shown by Angor.

    As an Illusionist from Phantom Ind, Sumesh had been to Nightmare Realm several times and learned how to wield nightmare illusions as well as his own piece of nightmare domain. However, he had yet to figure out how to blend the elements of Nightmare Realm in his illusions.

    Earlier, he almost believed that there was a miniature nightmare domain inside the music box, which sustained the environmental features that made the whole illusion appear like the Nightmare Realm. But after careful examination, he noticed that the nightmare energy wasn¡¯t real. It seemed Angor simply fooled people into believing that it was the Nightmare Realm.

    Still, Sumesh knew that this wasn¡¯t something he could achieve easily.

    Several wizards who knew about music suddenly noticed that the climax section of the music had ended, and they would probably hear the end of it soon.

    The blind old man in the illusion closed his eyes in great satisfaction. At the same time, the amazing sights he enjoyed also vanished from everyone¡¯s view.

    After several rounds of exmations, the viewers were a bit disappointed at the fact that they had to buy the music box to dive deeper into the wonderful illusion.

    Those who thought they brought enough money all sat straight to prepare for theingpetition, while others tried to persuade themselves into giving up.

    However, the music did not end as people expected, and the illusion was still going.

    With his final wish fulfilled, the old many down and passed away. Beside him, the dancing woman had stopped moving and was silently mourning her lost friend. While the music retained its cheerful theme, several altered notes allowed people to feel the sadness the story meant to tell.

    People spent a moment inplete silence as they went over the sudden change of mood.

    ¡°Such... masterful emotion control!¡± a wizard suddenly called, which ¡°woke up¡± all the onlookers.

    ¡°Right... I almostpletely fell for it!¡± Another wizard agreed.

    Listening to their conversation, the apprentices slowly widened their eyes in either bewilderment or fear. They were afraid that they might allow their minds to be controlled by the illusion should the wizards not warn them.

    Sumesh shook his head as he spoke his opinions, ¡°That was a perfect way of telling a story. The end of the story appeared as a Mind Maniption illusion... but no. Angor solely used the plot and music to influence our state of mind.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re quite right, Mister Sumesh,¡± Ryne replied. ¡°But I have to offer a slightly different point of view. As a music lover myself, I can say that the one we just heard was a masterpiece fully capable of impressing us. We became sad because we wanted to, it was not the creator who forced us to.¡±

    From their words, the others had understood that the emotion change in the end was made possible by the previous stories and the melody. The illusion wasn¡¯t intended to control them.

    It was a music box, not a weapon. Of course it should have a great music piece.

    People all calmed down to enjoy the ending of the story.

    They saw the young woman dancing again as the scenery returned to being the initial forest where the mysterious wizard stood. However, the figure of the wizard was no longer blurry.

    Apparently, the old man as well as what he went through was a shback.

    When thedy and the wizard finished their conversation, people were surprised again when they saw thedy turning into shiny bubbles and dissipated into the air.

    But why? Was that the price she had to pay in order to help the old man? Or was the illusion simply ending the story in such a fancy way to go with the music?

    As the music finally drew to an end, Theron closed the lid of the music box, leaving the viewers to take their own guesses.

    Theron remained quiet on the auction stage, and nobody urged him to proceed&mdash;they had yet to recover from the stunning journey.

    While also silently praising the ingenious piece of art, Theron cursed his boss in his mind.

    Mister Chalon... you never checked that terrible decision of yours in your brain, I take it? Just to blindly protect your non-existent ego, you perfectly offended the original owner of the treasure and gave people a good reason to me us!

    ¡°Again, I¡¯m sure that this one is made by the alchemist who presented Land on the Sky, and this is better than Land on the Sky,¡± said Ryne. ¡°Do any of you believe that the marvelous sights we saw in the illusion were copied?¡±

    People all muttered to agree with Ryne.

    ¡°I did not know who made Land on the Sky when I saw it at Twilight Auction. So he¡¯s called... Angor? I¡¯ll keep that name as well as his signature in mind. He¡¯s a great alchemist worth remembering.¡±

    The apprentices who still didn¡¯t know who exactly Angor was quickly raised their questions, and they soon got their answer.

    ¡°Mister Phantom¡¯s student? That exins the superb illusion!¡±

    Meanwhile, Chalon finally received the detailed profile of Angor, and he looked so pissed that the witches who usually served him all backed away in fear.

    ¡°A future master alchemist, acknowledged by many professionals? He almost created a Mystery treasure before?! You¡¯re telling me this shit NOW?!¡± Chalon roared and kicked the trembling worker who delivered the files in the face.

    He didn¡¯t need to see the info at all. As soon as he saw the illusion disyed by the music box, he knew his n had gone south.

    If he were informed of the truth in time, of course he would have never done the tricks that caused him nothing other than shame. To make everything worse, he openly upset a promising alchemist as the leader of their organization!

    His anger,bined with his narrow-minded nature, caused him topletely forget how Theron tried to help prevent the bad oue before the auction.

    ¡°Okay, okay... Thank heavens that Angor isn¡¯t here, and I still have a chance to make it right...¡± Chalon muttered as he walked to the door.

    ¡°Where are you going, Master?¡± a witch asked.

    ¡°Anywhere but here! What, you want to see me getting scolded in public?!¡± Chalon yelled and mmed the door shut.

    None of the participants saw what happened in Chalon¡¯s room, but nobody really cared.

    As most of the customers discussed Angor, Jel, who booked VIP room 7, was thinking about another question with a grim look.

    ¡°Angor? Angor... Sunders¡¯ new student? That small boy I saw at Barbie¡¯s Restaurant?¡±

    Really??

    As a famous alchemist, Jel was fully aware of the rumors that suggested a rising star in the industry of alchemy. But he never thought that ¡°Angor¡± was THE Angor he once talked to in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant. He didn¡¯t believe that the helpless mortal boy Sunders took away could make such achievements in merely three years.

    ¡°Now this is interesting...¡±

 Chapter 726 - Final Price

    <h4>Chapter 726: Final Price</h4>

    ¡°If I were the maker of such a music box then I wouldn¡¯t allow the auction house to throw it away at 150 crystals!¡±

    ¡°Nevertheless, we found its true value, didn¡¯t we? See, the bid¡¯s already above 10,000.¡±

    As people recovered from the amazing journey in the illusion, they started talking about the price again.

    In fact, new bids were already being called before Theron resumed the auction.

    ¡°Thirteen thousand,¡± Leona cried.

    ¡°Fourteen.¡± Shildeen followed up and gave Leona¡¯s room a hateful re.

    Leona sneered and wouldn¡¯t give up yet.

    ¡°Twenty thousand.¡± Sumesh suddenly joined them.

    That was a raise of 6,000 in one go. Everyone including Theron nced at Sumesh¡¯s room in shock. Never once did the monthly auctions go through such intense bidding during the first half.

    Dave, on the other hand, was d that he could at least earn 2,000 crystals from the sale this time. Previously, he thought Angor¡¯s new music box would sell for the same price as ¡°Land on the Sky¡±, which meant 8,100 crystals. Now, this was unexpected.

    ¡°Mister Sumesh... You and Angor are training under the same teacher. There are massive chances for you to obtain such an alchemy illusion. Must youpete with me?¡± Shildeen protested.

    Leona also mumbled her simr opinion.

    ¡°I will buy it when I like it. I can pay the price, so what¡¯s the problem?¡± said Sumesh.

    ¡°Are you trying to ruin my breakthrough?!¡± Shildeen yelled.

    And this confused the onlookers. What did a music box have to do with the breakthrough of a wizard?

    Shildeen wasn¡¯t going to exin. He simply kept calling new bids.

    ¡°Did his tongue slip, or did he say that on purpose?¡± Leona muttered.

    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re not going to keep up with them?¡± Kate asked her.

    ¡°Soon, what Shildeen meant or meant not to tell us will be known by everyone, by which I¡¯ll have no hope of winning. I¡¯ll just quit for now. Let¡¯s see if the final price goes beyond what I can afford.¡±

    ¡°How much can you afford?¡±

    ¡°A hundred thousand. If it exceeds that, I think I¡¯ll just... wait until Angor returns to Brute Cavern so that I can do something to mend our rtionship.¡±

    ¡°A hundred thousand for a music box? I don¡¯t think so. That¡¯s crazy even for rich wizards, just to buy something that MIGHT help them gain a level.¡±

    Leona shook her head. ¡°Those who are only one step away from the path of truth are willing to pay anything to gain the slightest opportunity. Besides, wizards who can get such money can always do it again.¡±

    Kate still didn¡¯t believe it would happen, but she was immediately convinced when someone called 100,000.

    ¡°That¡¯s... Did someone just raise the price from 30,000 to 100,000?¡±

    The apprentices who visited the auction out of boredom today could no longer believe what was happening. Throughout the entire history of Remnant Auction, the highest recorded price for ¡°opener items¡± was 200-300 magic crystals. And now, they were looking at something that was worth six digits, and it was still going up.

    As more people heard that Angor¡¯s alchemy illusion was a useful tool that helped with Greya¡¯s achievement, the price of the music box was rising madly without waiting for Theron¡¯s cries.

    Madelyne, Duncan, and Dumartin already gave up, while Leona withdrew soon after the price went above what she could pay.

    As for Sumesh... he merely joined the fracas for fun. He was confident that he could always ask Angor for such an itemter. And when the price reached 150,000, he simply pulled out.

    Shildeen continued until 140,000. But now, he didn¡¯t have a choice but to sulk over the defeat in his VIP room.

    He knew the true value of the music box would get exposed soon since there were so many people from Brute Cavern attending the auction. He said those words earlier just to reveal the fact and hurry up the price race, and hopefully, he could leave a good impression on Angor by doing so.

    Besides, there were always other ways to get the itemter.

    The current bid was called by Ryne from Moxa Wesnd, but not someone from Brute Cavern.

    He came to the auction to buy a monster cub he heard about. He wasn¡¯t interested in the music box a moment ago, but he soon changed his mind when he heard about Greya¡¯s challenge of truth.

    When he called 160,000 crystals, most of thepetitors had decided to drop out.

    Some of the wizards had enough money to keep going. They didn¡¯t because they were nning to directly request Angor for crafting serviceter. It was unlikely for an apprentice to ask for an insane price from a wizard.

    They could all see that the baseponents contained in the music box weren¡¯t so costly. They could probably pay Angor 100,000 for a music box, which would get him a profit of 90,000 or more. There was no point in wasting extra money now.

    Ryne thought he finally won the item since no one was following behind his bid. However, Theron received another call before he could raise his gavel.

    ¡°Two hundred thousand.¡± It was Jel from VIP room 7.

    Ryne sat back.

    It seemed Jel nned to obtain the music box from the beginning. He waited until people reached their limits before showing his trump card.

    When Theron dered the new owner of the music box, the other customers fell into a heated discussion while they nced at Jel and Dave. It was rare in this world for an apprentice to carry such a huge fortune&mdash;and people were getting restless.

    Dave soon woke up from his fantasies when he sensed the hostile looks from people. Now both the customers and the auction house had bad intentions against him. Before counting his coins, he had to worry about how to get away in one piece.

    Leona suddenly spoke from her room, ¡°You¡¯re the shop assistant working for Mister Prome, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Dave nodded subconsciously. He was in no condition to properly answer a question.

    ¡°I love that illusion as well as the music shown by Angor. I mean, it was so impressive that I could probably hum that song for the rest of today. Can you tell me what it is called?¡±

    Theron was preparing to bring out the fourth item. He stopped and looked at Dave.

    Not only Leona. Many arty wizards and apprentices would like to know the answer.

    Dave scratched his ears. ¡°Angor didn¡¯t tell me. He only said something like, the music was presented to that dancerdy.¡±

    While the wizarding world was mostly corrupted by malevolence, people still knew how to appreciate goodness and virtue, which were in to see from the dancing woman.

    ¡°Was that Angor¡¯s lover?¡± an apprentice took a guess.

    ¡°Possible. Hey, have you heard that he has a lover?¡±

    Dave quickly exined something else before the subject was led astray. ¡°I-I¡¯m not sure if the woman has anything to do with Angor, but he told me that her name is ¡®Elise¡¯.¡±

    ¡°A pianoposition made for Elise? I see,¡± said Leona.

    Theron was going to continue with the auction now. Of course, he knew that the remaining items would appear rather boring after the music box. But there was not much he could do right now. He had to do his job.

    ¡°Ahem. The fourth item sold today was delivered from&mdash;¡±

    He halted his speech when he saw almost half of the crowd leaving, while Sumesh was walking in front.

    Wait! Is EVERYONE from Brute Cavern going to quit?

    ...

    Soon, Chalon was informed that half of the customers had disappeared, whereas almost all the VIP guests had gone.

    He almost vomited blood due to the sudden rage. It was like Brute Cavern meant to embarrass him today!

    Still, the VIP rooms didn¡¯tpletely clear out. Leona and Kate remained behind.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to return together with Mister Sumesh?¡± Kate asked her partner in confusion.

    Leona nced at Dave¡¯s position. ¡°You see, I¡¯ve been looking for a chance to fix my rtionship with Angor. Now here it is.¡±

    ¡°Oh... you want to help that shop assistant and use him as a bridge to get to Angor?¡±

    ¡°Not really. I¡¯m rewarding him for telling me the name of that song.¡±

    As a canny witch, Leona knew that being too straightforward might instead further annoy Angor. She was going to use a milder approach.

    ¡°But he never told you the name of the song.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. What is important is that I have a good excuse to help himter. Besides, he seems smart enough. He¡¯ll understand what I want with him.¡±

 Chapter 727 - Dave And Leona

    <h4>Chapter 727: Dave And Leona</h4>

    The auction came to an end in a way that no one was expecting.

    The auction house paid Dave about 190,000 crystals without giving him any trouble, but this was not all Dave had to worry about. He had yet to go for the exit of the building when he already sensed the meaningful gazes around him. He currently had more money than many wizards could find in their careers. And as a frail apprentice, he was basically telling people toe and mug him just by showing up.

    Even other apprentices who weren¡¯t so good at fighting were itchy to join the fun. To them, picking up some leftovers meant earning more money they could get in several years.

    Dave did the only thing he could think of right now, which was to keep his Tang Dao enchanted with freezing power in his hand, in hope that it might scare off some people.

    But this wasn¡¯t going to work too well.

    Theron was currently standing on a higher floor gazing at Dave.

    ¡°Mister Theron, should we, you know?¡± An assistant in a red robe beside him made a neck-slitting gesture.

    Theron shook his head. ¡°No. From what he said, he¡¯s in a good rtionship with the rumored alchemist. Besides, wizards from Brute Cavern have surely noticed the situation. Did you not see Leona still in the building?¡±

    ¡°Sir, you mean Leona is going to protect that apprentice?¡±

    ¡°Right. She made it clear when she asked the apprentice a question earlier. This was why the other wizards of Brute Cavern all left. Now go. We must make ns to make our grand auction next year special so that we can repair the damage done to us today. I think it¡¯s time for us to bring out the good stuff.¡±

    Theron found Chalon in an unlit private room and noticed that the n master was trying very hard to stay calm right now, but the rage in Chalon¡¯s eyes was still clear to see.

    ¡°Master, what¡¯s done is done. Yet we still have chances to correct it,¡± said Theron.

    ¡°Do tell me then.¡±

    ¡°Next year, we can make our grand auction more outstanding. And we did not directly offend Angor today, so we can try showing him our goodwill in time. Moreover, we can consider these two things as one.¡±

    ¡°You mean we¡¯re selling Angor¡¯s creations during the grand auction?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°Where do we find his items?¡±

    ¡°Money and profit mean everything in this world. With enough profit, friends can be foes and vice versa. Sky Auction is one of the most weed auctions in the world because of several master alchemists who support it. And I believe Angor has the potential to be such a master.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right... do as you will.¡± Chalon nodded.

    Theron smiled in great confidence.

    They didn¡¯t know that Angor wouldn¡¯t being back to the Fey Continent any time soon, and whatever they were nning had to wait.

    ...

    On the first floor, Dave trod warily toward the door while bearing with the growing malice. There were already eager people who threatened him out loud.

    ¡°One thousand, and I¡¯ll leave you alone. Or else...¡±

    Such an amount was unlikely to draw too much attention, so the weaker apprentices only attempted to get their hands on some small money.

    Dave paid them no mind. He knew that these thugs were unlikely to attack him while they were still inside the auction building. But there was no way he could fend off so many attackers once he was away. He thought about hiring someone strong to escort him. However, there weren¡¯t many trustworthy individuals in this world, and unfortunately, he didn¡¯t see anyone who looked faithful around him.

    He also thought about asking one of the auction workers for help. To the auction, having one of their big customers robbed at their door would be rather disgracing.

    But he gave up that idea since he just ¡°disgraced¡± them greatly. And besides, he didn¡¯t really trust the auction house either.

    As he desperately searched for a way out, he suddenly smelled good perfume in the air.

    ¡°Hello there. You from Prome¡¯s, I assume?¡± a witch spoke to him with a bright smile.

    Dave saw ¡°Rose Crown¡± Leona and quickly put up his manners. He heard about her name on the very first day when he went to Prome¡¯s shop.

    ¡°Miss Leona! I-I-yes, I¡¯m working at Prome¡¯s Alchemy Shop.¡±

    Leona nodded and nced around them, causing several peeking apprentices to look away.

    ¡°You¡¯re in trouble, are you not?¡±

    Dave scratched his head and wondered if he should hire this famous witch from Brute Cavern as his guard.

    But... will someone like her help me at all?

    Leona spoke again before he could, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a favor since you were so generous as to tell me about that song. You¡¯ll need a wizard to use long-range teleportation anyway.¡±

    Dave widened his eyes in disbelief and nodded rapidly.

    He couldn¡¯t see into the VIP rooms during the auction. He just realized that Leona was the one who asked him the strange question.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then. I¡¯m going back to the organization as well,¡± Leona said as she turned away.

    Dave hurried to follow her.

    The coveting people around them exchanged several disappointed looks and all walked away. It was not likely for them to hijack someone under the protection of a wizard. And there was no point stalking someone who would soon head back to their HQ.

    Dave saw no one tailing him and sighed in relief. But at the same time, he was wondering if Leona offered help just because of the simple question he answered.

    As a subtle shop assistant, he soon realized that Leona was interested in Angor, not him. But he wasn¡¯t going to talk about it.

    They walked toward the teleportation array built in the middle of the desert. The wind was getting stronger for some reason, and sand had blocked their sight.

    Leona had a faint barrier around her which blocked all the sand, while Dave was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. He considered and quickly constructed a spell model in his mindspace. One minuteter, a thinyer of water emerged from his position, which helped him escape the raging sandstorm.

    Leona nced back at the bubble-like barrier, which captured drifting sand and left a trail of wet sand behind Dave. It looked like the Cleanse cantrip but slightly different.

    ¡°I never saw that before... Is that an improved version of Cleanse?¡±

    Dave was startled a bit when Leona suddenly spoke to him during their silent trip.

    ¡°Yes, Miss Leona, this one is called ¡®Cleaning Bubble¡¯, it¡¯s made by changing the element arrangements of Cleanse. But I wouldn¡¯t call it improved. You see, it¡¯s just a bubble that prevents dust and dirt. There¡¯s not much use.¡±

    ¡°Cleaning Bubble huh? That¡¯s a convenient name.¡± Leona raised an eyebrow. ¡°Cleanse is a conventional cantrip used by people for many centuries. You did a good job making something new out of it. It means you thoroughly understood the fundamentals of the cantrip.¡±

    Dave was surprised again since he expected sarcasm rather than praise when using such a ¡°useless¡± cantrip.

    He wished to exin something but hesitated.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have many apprentices who know how to alter cantrips these days,¡± said Leona. ¡°Impressive. Once you be a wizard, you¡¯ll know how important it is to get to the bottom of spells and cantrips, even if you only work on elementary ones.¡±

    ¡°Miss Leona, there¡¯s something you misunderstood. I wasn¡¯t the one who came up with the idea. Angor told me about this cantrip.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Angor? I see... Yeah, of course Mister Phantom would tell his student about such skills. But alchemy skills AND cantrip analysis? Oh my. This little monster would soon make a second Phantom Master in a few years.¡±

    Meanwhile, Leona appreciated the fact that Dave told her the truth instead of using the chance to earn a good impression from a wizard.

    She took a moment to inspect Dave more carefully and suddenly noticed the alchemy weapon Dave was holding.

    ¡°That¡¯s an interesting design. You made it?¡±

    Dave shook his head with a bitter smile. ¡°I did forge the weapon, but the design came from Angor.¡±

    ¡°Angor studied enchantment, right? But this weapon is the work of synthesis. You did all the follow-up designs by yourself, right?¡± As a professional alchemist, Leona quickly saw how the weapon came into being.

    ¡°Yes. I spent half a year making improvements.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell the details?¡±

    Dave was d toply since he just earned a chance to receive advice provided by a true alchemist. For as much as he could, he exined his ideas and process as well as how he overcame the obstacles while Leona listened quietly.

    Dave stopped talking when they arrived at the teleportation array. He told everything he could, and any longer, and he¡¯d start making up stories.

    ¡°I can see you¡¯re quite creative.¡± Leona was quite surprised to see the assistant of Prome¡¯s shop being so inventive.

    And Dave was overjoyed to hear Leona¡¯sment.

    ¡°You keep it up. Your ambition isn¡¯tpletely out of reach now,¡± said Leona. ¡°Say... if you have alchemy-rted questions, feel free to find me at Rosebed.¡±

 Chapter 728 - Three Routes

    <h4>Chapter 728: Three Routes</h4>

    Angor gazed at the clear blue sky through the window.

    ¡°Is this really Devil¡¯s Water? Well, Lucas¡¯ diary said something like the God of Ocean blessed him with evesting peaceful weather. Was he talking about here?¡±

    Normally, this was a crazy idea in these parts, but Angor was not so sure about it when The Limpet had enjoyed calm waters for an entire week after leaving the foggy area.

    Still, he didn¡¯t believe that this ce was ¡°peaceful¡±. They never ran into any sea monsters these days, which might not be a good thing.

    Without work to do, Tobyy sprawled out on the balcony enjoying the sunlight.

    Angor yawned and also walked under the light to get rid of the humidness in the room.

    ¡°Wherever this ce is, it¡¯s good to have the warm sun on the winter sea.¡±

    When he decided to return inside to keep up his crafting research, he suddenly noticed that the deck area below was awfully quiet today. Usually, there would be sailors yelling at each other. But now, he only saw one single sailor leaning against a pole mast with a pale face.

    He then thought about his works in the previous week, during which he never heard too much noise out there.

    ¡°Weird. The sun is strong. It¡¯s not like sailors need hibernation...¡±

    He looked at the lone sailor again and wondered if everyone else was like this.

    He spread his spirit feelers to check. It would be problematic if too many sailors on the ship fell ill.

    Hurried footsteps came to his door and interrupted his attempt.

    It was Helen. It had been a week since theyst talked. And Helen looked to be in no better conditionpared to the sailor outside. She looked a little skinny for some reason, and her lips were chapped and had blood scabs.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Officer Helen?¡± Angor took a seat and crossed his arms.

    Helen took several deep breaths.

    ¡°Mister Padt, we need your help.¡±

    ...

    A momentter, Angor watched as a group of cheering sailors carried two hundred water barrels away with a strange look.

    He thought some kind of disease was spreading on the ship, but it turned out that everyone was fine, except that they were low on water for quite a while. But this was quite expected since they failed to fetch water from Silver Palm Isle and that they never had any rains since they left the foggy zone.

    However, Angor was confused to see that Helen only asked for help when the water shortage had been troubling them for half a month.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t wish to bother you,¡± said Helen, embarrassed.

    ¡°Ugh. I told you that your job is to get the ship to Ferran Land safe and sound. If anything prevents that from happening,e and talk to me. If anyone died because of dehydration or some other problems, our n will be affected. I don¡¯t want to see that.¡±

    ¡°I understand, sir.¡± Helen nodded.

    ¡°So the water problem is solved. What about food?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, sir. We have dried vegetables, dried meat, and canned stuff fully stashed. And our fishers are doing a pretty good job.¡±

    Angor frowned. He was thinking about practicing his Mana Bread again using this chance, but it seemed there was no need.

    ¡°Er Mister Padt, there¡¯s another matter I need to talk to you, about which course we should choose next.¡±

    Angor quickly felt a headache upon hearing this question. He had zero nautical experience, so he¡¯d entrust such decisions to Helen and Erwin, but now, the two captains insisted on asking him every time.

    It was something like, ¡°the decision-making must involve a supernatural individual, ording to the regtions of the association¡±.

    ¡°Alright. Tell me the choices.¡± Angor sighed.

    Helen would tell him the pros and cons of each route afterward. He simply had to follow them.

    She took out her sea chart and pointed to a red cross on the map. ¡°At our current speed, we¡¯ll arrive here tomorrow morning, the Death Loop.¡±

    To shorten Helen¡¯s unnecessarilyplicated exnation, the Death Loop was an important waymark connected to only three avable routes, which was a lot fewerpared to the other road points.

    ¡°They are the Windless Sea, the Summerdew Ridge, and the Wintertide. They all have an incident rate of below 5%.

    ¡°The Windless Sea is also sometimes called the road of solitary. Our ship will go a lot slower since there is almost no wind current over there. The ship does have a powered-up boost system, but it will draw the attention ofrge sea monsters. Each time we use this route, we always do it slowly.¡±

    Hearing about the speed, Angor already crossed that choice off his mental list.

    ¡°The Wintertide, as the name suggests, is cold. There are few monster encounters, but we¡¯ll be running into floating ice blocks. We can definitely go there though. The Limpet is equipped with an icebreaker.

    ¡°As for the Summerdew Ridge...¡± Helen frowned. ¡°It used to be the best choice for us, but I suggest that we don¡¯t take this one this time.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Angor noticed that there were many small inds scattered around the said area, which meant it was good for sailing.

    ¡°The name ¡®Summerdew Ridge¡¯ was made because of a witch who lives in those parts. ording to Mister Roman, she was Summerdew. Ships from Floating Mech City need to inform her beforehand to sail across there. Those uninvited will be regarded as intruders and get attacked.

    ¡°It used to be Mister Roman who handled themunication, but you know, he can no longer do that. I heard that Miss Summerdew isn¡¯t the tolerant kind. She allowed our ships to go through her territory because the association once made a promise to her.¡±

    ¡°Summerdew?¡± Angor searched his memory and failed to recall anyone by that name. But he believed that the witch must be pretty strong since she lived at Devil¡¯s Water and had the association paying her visit.

    And yes, they should not enter her territory carelessly.

    ¡°What¡¯s your suggestion among the remaining two routes?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Windless Sea if you want to be absolutely safe. There are also inds there to help us replenish resources, but this will probably take us a month. Otherwise, we can use Wintertide. The weather there is way more dreadful. We always had a man or two frozen to death each time we went through there.¡±

    It was obvious that Helen preferred to take the safer route, but Angor would like to save time as much as he could right now.

    ¡°Go for Wintertide. As for the cold, I¡¯ll do something about it.¡±

    Worst case, I¡¯ll just draw a Preserve Heat rune on the ship, which will only take a day, he thought.

    Helen nodded. She knew Angor wasn¡¯t someone to make empty promises.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell the decision to Captain Erwin now.¡± Helen picked up her chart and prepared to leave.

    Angor nced at the map again and noticed another straight course in the middle of the mentioned three, but it was marked by a skull.

    ¡°What is this?¡± he asked.

    Helen looked and widened her eyes. ¡°Sir, this is an extremely hazardous area that even wizards from the association would not enter unprepared. Mister Roman once told us that this is called the Specter Basin, haunted by countless ghosts. Any ship that wanders inside will end up as a ghost ship and never to get out.¡±

    ¡°Specter Basin? I see...¡±

    Angor waited for Helen to fold the map before he asked the question he had been wondering today, ¡°Hey Helen, is this area always sunny like this every time you came?¡±

 Chapter 729 - Death Loop and Tornadoes

    <h4>Chapter 729: Death Loop and Tornadoes</h4>

    After sending Helen away, Angor took out Lucas¡¯ logbook and began reading again.

    ording to Helen, the route they were traveling across now used to have all kinds of bad weather. Perhaps they were in luck this time since none of these happened.

    ¡°Maybe I¡¯m worrying too much...¡±

    He rubbed his temples and closed the book, but then he saw the book¡¯s title again.

    [A logbook written by the most faithful captain during the Age of Gold]

    He wondered if this Lucas man described himself as ¡°faithful¡± because faith was something hecked. But supposed that Lucas was a big liar, it was still possible that the stories in the book were real, and Lucas desperately wanted people to believe him, so he used all sorts of embellishing words.

    Angor shook his head. He still didn¡¯t have enough clues to prove the reliability of what Lucas mentioned.

    He put the book away and began working on the draft of ¡°flying boots¡± again until the sunlight gave ce to tranquil nightfall as well as glittering seawater under the stars.

    He sat back and examined the pair of ck boots drawn on his paper, which was decorated with dark gold runes that gave it a mysterious theme.

    ¡°Never done shoemaking before... Guess I¡¯ll make something simple as a start.¡±

    From his bracelet, he took out a number of materials ording to his crafting n and started tanning the hides to be usedter.

    Someone outside yelled loudly and interrupted his work.

    He walked onto the balcony and was soon astonished by some brilliant light in his view.

    ¡°Tweet!¡± Toby joined him and was happily flying around him upon seeing the amazing sight.

    The sea was already bright upon reflecting the starlight. But now, it was made even more dazzling when several shining loops were emerging from under the surface. When looking from above, the sea almost looked like a dish full of sweet donuts and candy shards.

    From the asionalments from the sailors, Angor learned that he was looking at ¡°Death Loops¡±. The glowing rings were actually shown by a certain creature called the ¡°grim jellyfish¡±. The creature itself was frail and easy to kill, but those who made contact with it would receive a deadly poison that couldn¡¯t be cured by any known means.

    There were many grim jellyfish roaming around at this hour and showing off their bright colors. This was also how this area got its name, the Death Loop.

    Helen came to the deck area as well, but she was issuing more orders to the sailors rather than enjoying the sight. They would soon enter Wintertide, where everybody needed warm clothes to stay alive. Also, they had to check on the icebreaker at the bottom of the vessel and examine anything prone to freeze as fast as they could.

    The sailors moaned in disappointment and returned to their posts.

    Angor jumped from the balcony andnded beside Helen, which startled her a bit.

    ¡°Good evening, sir.¡± Helen saluted.

    ¡°We¡¯re not far from Wintertide, I take it?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The captain has slowed down the ship so that we have enough time to do thest check-through. We¡¯ll enter Wintertide in an hour.¡±

    Angor looked around and failed to notice any marks that suggested a change of route.

    ¡°Officer Helen, I¡¯ll go and draw something on the shipter, which will help the environmental temperature stay constant. In order not to damage the ship, I can only use a shallow engraving which will persist for about two weeks.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir! That¡¯s enough for the ship to make it out of Wintertide.¡±

    Angor nodded, took out a bottle of Gargoyle Blood Ink, and quickly got to work. He wasn¡¯t going to enclose the entire ship inside the effect of the rune. Sailors still needed unaffected spots to observe the weather.

    The rune wasn¡¯t difficult to draw, but it still took some time because there were a lot of ces to cover on the ship.

    He suddenly heard someone yelling again, and all the sailors around him started running. At the same time, The Limpet made a sharp turn and gained speed.

    He saw Helening on hurried steps who exined the situation.

    ¡°Sir, Tulu warned us that a terrible hurricane is approaching.¡±

    Tulu was a young man from a fishing vige who told Angor about Nayah the Charmer.

    ¡°You sure about it?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Tulu can predict weather changes rather urately.¡± Helen nodded. ¡°This is why Captain Erwin recruited him. Since then, almost all his predictions were correct.¡±

    Angor frowned. A hurricane meant the ship might be forced to change course and possibly stumble into somewhere dangerous.

    ¡°Sir-sir, can you...¡± Helen showed a pleading look.

    To Angor, it was possible to keep the ship steady using gravity power, but he might not keep it up for very long against the might of nature.

    ¡°How long until we reach Wintertide?¡±

    ¡°Half an hour if we go at full speed, sir.¡±

    ¡°How long do we have until the hurricane strikes?¡±

    It seemed he didn¡¯t need to wait for an answer this time. Both he and Helen looked to one side and saw a swaying tornadoing right at their position.

    Angor had seen such disasters that wreaked cities in certain movies, but this monstrosity was several times bigger.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t think we have much time left, sir,¡± said Helen.

    Angor quickly made a mental calction and realized that the tornado was going to affect The Limpet in about two minutes, which meant he had to keep the ship safe using gravity power for at least half an hour.

    This seemed to be impossible. There was no way his mana reserve had enough energy to fight against the rage of mother nature.

    ¡°Helen, how far are we from the other two routes?¡±

    ¡°We-we¡¯re heading straight toward Wintertide right now. It will take us two hours to change course and enter Summerdew. And five hours for the Windless Sea.¡±

    ¡°No way back then... Keep going for Wintertide, but I¡¯m not sure I can make it through this.¡± Angor looked at Toby. ¡°It¡¯s time to try our best.¡±

    ¡°Tweet!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s another way, which is to use that wind,¡± a man¡¯s voice suddenly spoke from behind them.

    Helen turned around and saw Erwining.

    ¡°Captain, you mean we are going to use THAT?¡± Helen pointed to the looming tornado.

    ¡°Right. While the hurricane will prevent us from going for Wintertide, we can follow that wind to go here.¡± He took out a map and put his finger on the Summerdew Ridge. ¡°Telling from the wind flows, we can get to Summerdew quicker than estimated.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s possible but...¡± Helen frowned. ¡°Is the wind going to keep pushing us there? You know that everything at Devil¡¯s Water tends to change and surprise us.¡±

    ¡°We can only hope that doesn¡¯t happen then.¡± Erwin shook his head and sighed.

    They both looked at Angor, hoping for the final decision.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know which choice is better,¡± said Angor, ¡°but I do know that there¡¯s a Summerdew who¡¯ll attack us, no?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s likely. However, we can try exining the situation to her, and she might let us go if she¡¯s in a fine mood. I¡¯ve heard uninvited ships including mortal ships that traveled through Summerdew Ridge unharmed,¡± said Erwin.

    Helen nodded. ¡°Ships only get attacked if they wander too far inside. We can remain around the edge of Summerdew Ridge and wait out the bad weather, then we can return to Death Loop and go for Wintertide.¡±

    ¡°Still, there are cases where people were killed as soon as they entered Summerdew¡¯s territory. Again, let¡¯s hope for the best.¡± Erwin added.

    Angor nced at the tornado, which just got a lot closer. In fact, he wasn¡¯t sure if he could protect the ship against that thing at all.

    ¡°Alright. We¡¯re heading to Summerdew Ridge.¡±

    Helen and Erwin immediately went to give orders, while Angor remained behind and gazed at theing twister.

    It wasn¡¯t a rare sight to run into such a thing at Devil¡¯s Water. But still, it was unlucky for them toe across the hazard at this critical moment.

 Chapter 730 - Centipede Guild

    Chapter 730: Centipede Guild

    Angor agreed to Erwin¡¯s suggestion because he trusted the experience provided by this professional mariner. Besides, he would also admit that Summerdew Ridge could provide the best chance of survival right now.

    He was never sure if he and Toby could fully protect The Limpet from the tornado. There were many unknown parts at Devil¡¯s Water deadly to powerful wizards. It would be troublesome if The Limpet was blown off into somewhere extremely dangerous.

    At least they were more familiar with Summerdew Ridge. And since The Limpet was a ¡°frequent guest¡±, the witch might let them pass.

    In the worst-case scenario, if Summerdew decided to destroy The Limpet, Angor could still escape with Toby and grab the captain and Helen with him. Even if Summerdew was a wizard, she might not keep up with the full speed produced by the sequence of gravity.

    After that, they would simply ride on Gond and head to Ferran Land faster, with Helen and Erwin to tell the directions.

    In fact, Angor would have already done this if he could make up his mind and abandon The Limpet along with all the sailors on it.

    ...

    The tornado had arrived.

    Angor returned to the balcony of his room and watched the unfolding cmity under the protection of gravity power.

    The sea was like a slumbering monster that suddenly woke up to feed on trespassing folks.

    The Limpet rose and fell among the tidal waves like a roller coaster, while the sailors were thrown up and mmed back onto the deck by their safety ropes helplessly. Angor couldn¡¯t hear their painful screams across the raging wind, but the invading tides mixed with blood was enough to tell him the brutality of the battle.

    He kept his attention on Erwin and Helen. As soon as The Limpet was a lost cause, he would take the two captains away.

    Yet no matter how terrifying the disaster was, Helen and Erwin retained their cool and skillfullymanded The Limpet to wrestle against the scourge. And so far, they were winning.

    There were several times when Angor believed the ship was hopeless. Then Erwin and Helen somehow turned the bulky vessel into an agile dancer who masterfully hopped on the tips of tides and remained above the crashing walls of water.

    ¡°Guess mortals can have such amazing talent too...¡± Angor muttered.

    The ship finally escaped from the worst turbulence and began heading straight toward their nned direction. Seeing this, the wounded sailors all cheered in delight.

    ¡°It¡¯s not over yet. There¡¯s still some distance until we get to Summerdew!¡± Helen called through the speakers on the ship.

    ¡°Victory will be ours!¡± the sailors called back.

    Angor smiled and retracted his spirit feelers from his bracelet. He had fully trusted that the high moralebined with the techniques of two captains was enough to get The Limpet out of the dreadful situation again.

    He headed back inside his cabin and was a little annoyed to see all his materials and items scattered on the floor and drenched in water.

    But before he could do anything to repair his room, he suddenly sensed a powerful energy waveing from behind him. At the same time, Toby bolted outside.

    He turned around and saw a dozen men wearing gray wizard robes floating above The Limpet. The energy he felt came from a thick energy beam that was aimed right at the ship.

    Toby halted in the air and released a barrier made from gravity energy, which deflected theing beam.

    Terrified, the attackers saw their own tricking back at them and quickly scattered about.

    ¡°Who-who are they?!¡± The sailors saw what just happened and began to panic.

    Angor grimaced. ¡°Ignore those people and mind the ship! I¡¯ll deal with them.¡±

    He left an energy waymark on the ship and leaped into the air.

    ¡°Toby. Use your Griffin Form.¡±

    His words were followed by a yellow sh, inside which Toby the bird instantly turnedrger and became a half-eagle beast.

    Angornded on top of Toby¡¯s back and went to confront the gray robes.

    ¡°Officer Helen, what should we do?¡± A sailor asked, ¡°Should we wait until Mister Wizardes back?¡±

    Helen gave Erwin a grim look, who didn¡¯t look pleased either. To them, having multiple incidents striking at the same time was most unpleasant.

    Helen tossed her wet captain cap to the floor and bound up her loose hair. ¡°We keep moving!¡±

    ¡°But what if we run into monsters?!¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt told us to move! And we¡¯ll trust him!¡±

    However, Helen wasn¡¯t so confident since she wasn¡¯t sure if Angor could fight against so many seemingly powerful people all by himself.

    But it wasn¡¯t something she should worry about right now. She forced herself to forget about Angor for the moment and told her men to keep steering the ship.

    ...

    Angor observed the group in front of him across the veil of night.

    He saw 13 people, all covered under hoods. They showed varying power levels ranging from level-2 apprentice to level-3.

    ¡°That guy is Sunders¡¯ student, right?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure... They told us about a teenager around 16 or 17, but he looks older than me.¡±

    ¡°He used some trick to change his look, dumb*ss! Look at his bird! Or whatever that is! That¡¯s Angor¡¯s familiar pet, no doubt about it.¡±

    ¡°Fu*king Song of the Deep. We shouldn¡¯t have to run so far and into this damn weather if not for those losers who stopped us.¡±

    They seemed like a group of random rogues. Angor could sense their tension, as well as their fear against Toby.

    ¡°Are we doing this, boss?¡± The apprentices all looked at a hunchback man in the middle of the group.

    ¡°So you¡¯re Angor?¡± Their ¡°boss¡± spoke in a raucous tone. ¡°Come with us if you cherish your life. We won¡¯t do anything too harsh to an alchemist like you. But if you resist... Heh heehee...¡±

    Angor nced behind him and made sure The Limpet wouldn¡¯t be involved in any possible attacks.

    ¡°The Centipede Guild disappoints me,¡± Angor said in a cold yet confident voice.

    He knew who these people were from the first look¡ªthose cheap fabrics used on their x robes only suggested poor, wandering apprentices who didn¡¯t belong to any proper organizations. And the Centipede Guild happened to be the perfect ce to house such people.

    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± ¡°Boss¡± didn¡¯t look pleased to hear Angor¡¯s response.

    ¡°I mean, your guild sent YOU lot to get me? Man, I feel offended.¡±

    Angor gave the surprised apprentices a big smile, and their surroundings suddenly changed.

    The wind was still blowing, but apart from that, a dense mist suddenly rose around them and blocked their sights.

    ¡°An illusion? But when? I didn¡¯t see him channeling magic!¡±

    ¡°Hurry up and find the illusion nodes, or we¡¯re in trouble!¡±

    ¡°Arrgh!¡± someone yelled in pain.

    ¡°What was that, Twelve?¡±

    ¡°He-he¡¯sing for me! He¡¯s right in front!¡±

    ¡°Boss¡± suddenly got a bad feeling as he called to his men, ¡°Don¡¯t move! This must be a trap.¡±

    He was toote. Several members unleashed their attacks at where ¡°Twelve¡± was pointing at, which caused another man to scream.

    And it was not Angor.

 Chapter 731 - Wrong Course

    <h4>Chapter 731: Wrong Course</h4>

    ¡°I-I think I hit the wrong guy!¡±

    ¡°Is it you, Eight? Eight! Answer me!¡±

    No response.

    The other guild members felt their confidence earlier breaking down really fast.

    ¡°What about you, Twelve? Are you hurt?¡±

    Again, no answer.

    ¡°Fool! Don¡¯t make a move before we destroy the illusion nodes!¡± ¡°Boss¡± demanded in a loud voice.

    ¡°Boss¡± was the strongest guild member sent by Centipede Guild, who was said to be an elite apprentice from a major organization. He was expelled for his misbehaviorter and became a rogue. Even so, both his talent and knowledge were way morepetentpared to the other people in the group.

    ¡°Who¡¯s there? Urgh!¡± someone grunted.

    ¡°Three?! What¡¯s the matter?¡±

    ¡°The b*stard is ambushing me. Don¡¯te, I can manage. Keep your guard up!¡± ¡°Three¡± replied in a trembling voice.

    The others couldn¡¯t do anything but to wait until the painful screams of ¡°Three¡± became weaker and then disappeared.

    That was the third one who was either killed or captured in the mist, and none of the guild members saw what got them.

    ¡°Dirty tricks...¡± ¡°Boss¡± grimaced. ¡°Defend yourselves and keep looking for illusion nodes. I¡¯ll do something if any of you see him again.¡±

    But the entire illusion area remained quiet for a long time. No one was attacked.

    ¡°Then I should use the chance to break the illusion faster...¡± ¡°Boss¡± clenched his fists. ¡°But what the heck is this? I can¡¯t see through it at all!¡±

    In his view, the mist illusion was one of the most basic cantrips studied by amateur illusionists. He could even feel the deadly wind outside still affecting the mist, but he couldn¡¯t find any waymarks or directions no matter how he tried.

    He moved around a little and realized that the wind also changed along with his movement, which only further confused him.

    ¡°Boss, that guy¡¯s on me!¡± ¡°Seven¡± called out.

    ¡°Boss¡± immediately rushed toward the source of the voice to rescue his man, but he failed to find Seven. In fact, he had never seen any of his members since they were engulfed by the mist.

    ¡°Goddammit. The illusion affects our sense of direction!¡± ¡°Boss¡± just noticed why their attacks went to the wrong targets.

    He felt his heart sink when he realized that their enemy hadn¡¯t made a move for real yet. The simple illusion was enough topletely trap them.

    He dered his following ns, but he received absolute silence.

    ¡°Don¡¯t fu*king tell me you¡¯re all dead?!¡±

    ¡°I got it! The illusion node! You all attack what I¡¯m pointing at so that we can get the hell out of the illusion!¡± someone suddenly yelled.

    ¡°Good job!¡±

    ¡°After you, boss!¡±

    ¡°Let the a*shole taste the might of our brothers!¡±

    ¡°Boss¡±¡®s face went pale upon hearing that order.

    That man¡¯s mimicking my voice!

    ¡°DON¡¯T LISTEN TO HIM!!¡± he called as loudly as could. He was already regretting his reckless decision of confronting Angor without being fully prepared. They should at least maintain their Spirit Bond beforehand!

    Once again, no one answered him. Soon, several energy explosions were heard in the illusion, followed by the shrieks of the guild members.

    ¡°Boss¡± finally knew why their target seemed so chill when facing them, but it was toote.

    A man suddenly emerged in his view.

    ¡°YOU!¡±

    Without a second thought, ¡°Boss¡± unleashed his strongest poison attack at Angor, who simply remained where he was and watched.

    ¡°Boss¡± saw this and immediately knew something was off again.

    When his poison fully covered Angor¡¯s form, he heard his men yelling in pain. As he feared, ¡°Angor¡± slowly melted away, leaving his twelve brothers behind.

    ¡°Crescent Barrage.¡±

    ¡°Boss¡± did not have a chance to look at who said those words when his body was overwhelmed by a swarm of wind des.

    He knew ¡°Crescent Barrage¡± was only a level-1 cantrip, which was enough to finish him off in this situation. It seemed their bigger number was pointless against an illusionist who could control their sense or even emotions.

    Angor had more than one way to thoroughly destroy them. This mist illusion was only one such method, which easily maimed all thirteen of them.

    ¡°This is impossible... I should¡¯ve never epted this job...¡±

    That was ¡°Boss¡±¡®s final thought before he cked out.

    Angor had canceled his illusion since the guild members had done killing each other without his help.

    While Toby used gravity power to keep the corpses in the air, Angor checked their bodies and was disappointed to find almost no useful resources. These thugsbined were more broke than him when he joined Brute Cavern as a freshman. He managed to find a one-use space capsule from their ¡°boss¡±, which didn¡¯t contain any valuables either.

    He then tossed the bodies into the sea. While it was possible that some of them woulde back as souls, Angor wasn¡¯t going to mind them. Devil¡¯s Water was never short of wandering ghosts anyway.

    He didn¡¯t deal the finishing blow to the ¡°boss¡± yet, who was unconscious due to serious blood loss. He did so because he needed someone to tell him about Centipede Guild.

    He was nning to capture more than one guild member earlier, but the poison attack used by the ¡°boss¡± was deadlier than he thought. He didn¡¯t have time to revive anyone.

    It was time for him to get back to The Limpet. Since he could see nothing other than violent seawater being blown into the sky, he closed his eyes to sense the energy waymark he left on the ship earlier.

    The bad weather greatly disrupted the ¡°signal¡±. In the end, he only sensed the general direction of the ship.

    ¡°Northwest... and a bit far.¡±

    He carried the ¡°boss¡± onto Toby¡¯s back and told Toby to head to the direction he sensed. In order not to identally dive straight into Summerdew¡¯s territory, he told Toby to maintain a moderate speed in the wind.

    Ten minutester, Toby ate a Mana Flower to keep up his Griffin Form.

    Angor could see the waters around them changing, which suggested a new route. But the hurricane was still blowing over them.

    After another five minutes, Angor gazed at the peculiarly dark water beneath them with a confused look.

    ¡°Is this Summerdew Ridge?¡±

    ording to Helen¡¯s map, Summerdew Ridge came with many scattered reefs and small inds, which he didn¡¯t see yet. Besides, The Limpet should remain at the outer edge of Summerdew Ridge instead of going inside.

    They sessfully outran the windy environment a momentter, but he didn¡¯t feel any better. Instead, another dreadful sensation made his hair stand as if there were blood-sucking worms crawling all over his skin.

    Now, it was obvious that this ce wasn¡¯t the Summerdew Ridge The Limpet used to sail across.

    ¡°Perhaps something bad happened and forced The Limpet to enter the wrong route?¡±

    His best choice right now was to turn back into safer areas. But on second thought, he decided to keep moving and look for The Limpet first. Without a guide, he didn¡¯t know how to travel to Farren Land anyway.

    The energy waymark soon helped him locate the ship.

    But it didn¡¯t look good. The Limpet was left ashore on a tiny ind about a kilometer in width. There were no buildings or mountains on it¡ªonly dark, thorny creeping nts that had grabbed The Limpet and pulled it onto drynd.

    At this moment, there were many pairs of glowing eyes hidden among the vines ring at the ship.

    Also, Angor felt something familiaring from the horrible gazes.

 Chapter 732 - Gunfire and Real Fire

    <h4>Chapter 732: Gunfire and Real Fire</h4>

    ¡°Cap-captain Helen, what now? These things won¡¯t let us go!¡± Naki said to Helen anxiously. ¡°I think they didn¡¯te for our lives yet because of the tidal waves. But we don¡¯t have long!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± Helen clenched her teeth. ¡°Just do what you can right now, get these nts off our ship! Burn them or cut them, use anything you can find!¡±

    They all knew that it was impossible for mortals to fight against supernatural monsters, but no one gave up hope yet.

    ¡°They got our tail mast!¡±

    Startled by those words, Helen turned around and felt the ship shaking madly. As she watched in horror, the rear pole mast of the ship tilted to one side and mmed into the sea.

    ¡°We¡¯re gone...¡± she muttered.

    They knew what this meant to the ship. Their only way of getting out of here was to repair the pole mast, which... wouldn¡¯t happen, when there was nothing other than deadly elements that surrounded them.

    Erwin stepped into the middle of the sailors and tried to raise morale.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind the other matters and focus on cleaning out the nts. We need to stall until Mister Padt gets to us!¡±

    The suggestion sessfully ignited new hope among all people. They knew the mighty wizard always had amazing ways to help them.

    However...

    Helen and Erwin exchanged an uncertain look. Will Mister Padt be fine against 13 other wizards? If he is, can he find us in time?

    As the captains, they had to prevent their men from going intoplete despair, but this wouldn¡¯t help themselves escape from the discouragement.

    Helen closed her eyes and took a deep breath. ¡°It will be fine... don¡¯t give up yet! When we¡¯re done with the nts, we shall repair the ship at sunrise!¡±

    ¡°Aye, captain!¡±

    Their work wasn¡¯t easy. The nts were very sturdy and were almost intelligent. The sailors could only try their best to chop them off while avoiding being grabbed themselves.

    While it was possible to kill the nts, the situation wasn¡¯t getting any better when more and more of them were showing up from the ind as if there was no end to them.

    The darkness of the night and the grim atmosphere ate into their spirit rapidly. The sailors still had their swords in hand, yet fatigue and powerlessness were slowly taking over.

    Even Helen and Erwin, the two most resolved sailors on The Limpet, were quickly losing hope and wondered if they could actually survive one of the deadliest parts ever recorded at Devil¡¯s Water.

    As if to answer their dismay, the creeping nts around the ship were getting even madder.

    A vine thicker than any suddenly rose from the ground and captured the observation tform, which was built below the tip of the mainmast.

    If the mainmast fell, it was enough to rip the whole ship apart!

    ¡°NO!!!¡± Helen screamed at the top of her lungs.

    However, the nt wasn¡¯t going to listen to her. Slowly but surely, the pole began to crack under the pressure.

    Snap!

    The shadow of the falling object had covered both Helen and Erwin, leaving no ce for them to run.

    ¡°Guess this is it...¡± Helen began recalling her past life in thest moment of her life, which was all about traveling on the sea. It seemed even her grave would be drifting in the water.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mister Padt. I failed my promise...¡± She closed her eyes and left a drop of tear.

    The whole world around her shook. Then everything quieted down.

    Am I dead?

    This was the first thing that came to her mind. But she felt it strange that there was no pain at all.

    She tried opening her eyes again and was blinded by a sh of light. When her eyes adjusted to it, she saw Erwin pointing antern right at her face.

    She then looked around and found herself still standing on the deck of the ship. As for the sailors... they looked lively enough.

    ¡°What-what¡¯s happening?¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt is here. He saved us...¡± Erwin almost sobbed. ¡°We¡¯re saved!¡±

    Helen looked up and saw a giant beast with a ming tail soaring in the air. Each time the creature pped its wings, it created embers that dropped onto the ind and scorched the nts but without harming The Limpet.

    ¡°Is that... Mister Padt¡¯s bird?¡± Helen believed she saw the strange gray bird growing into that monster when Angor left the ship to fight the bad guys.

    She looked more carefully and saw Angor, who had switched hiszy manners into elegance, as he unleashed more fire to burn the dark nts.

    She had lost count of how many times Angor saved them from peril, but she was sure she was never going to forget such a blessing.

    When the entire ground around The Limpet was free of creeper nts, Angor slowly descended.

    People heard a ¡°poof¡±, as if a balloon was deting, and they saw the fierce-looking monster suddenly be the adorable seabird again.

    Toby realized he wasn¡¯t wearing any clothes and panicked a little. Then he dived into Angor¡¯s pocket and returned outside while fully dressed in a cow costume¡ªAngor made this one for him recently to help him escape from dust and moisture.

    Angor thanked Toby and inspected The Limpet, which was badly damaged.

    ¡°Ugh. Guess a lot of things happened while I was away,¡± he said while walking to Helen, who was crying due to the sudden relief.

    ¡°Sir, we-we let you down...¡± Helen lowered her head probably because of guilt or some other emotions.

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything to her and turned to Erwin. ¡°This is not Summerdew Ridge, is it?¡±

    Erwin shook his head helplessly. ¡°The tornado changed halfway and pushed us here before we could get to Summerdew.¡±

    Helen and the other sailors all looked away.

    ¡°Where are we?¡± asked Angor.

    Erwin hesitated and mumbled something between ttering teeth.

    ¡°Specter Basin?¡± Angor looked into the depth of the ind and saw more glowing eyes returning their gazes at him. It seemed his fiery disy earlier did not scare them off.

    Sailor Naki suddenly called to them, ¡°Sir, the wind has stopped!¡±

    As soon as he said those words, a glowing white shadow rose from the ind and looked at The Limpet using its hollow eyes.

    Undead.

    There was more than one. Soon, swarms of pale souls rose from the dark ind, which appeared like gathering fireflies. While this might seem pretty when looking from a distance, those who were close could only bear with the ruinous breathsing from the freaks as well as the malice invading their minds.

    No one could make a sound at the terrible sight. Roman once told them that even wizards would avoid these merciless spirits who knew nothing other than violence and bloodshed.

    Helen felt faint since they just escaped from a death trap only to jump into another.

    Are we destined to die today?

    ¡°Oof. Looks like we found quite a fascinating ce today.¡±

    Helen quickly looked at Angor who just said those words. Somehow, she noticed that Angor seemed to be... excited?

    ¡°Sir, those are undead souls, or so I heard. What should we do?¡±

    Angor jumped onto the prow of the ship and grinned. ¡°Nice. It happens that I need souls as materials. Being undead is even better since I don¡¯t have to worry about how to deal with them.¡±

    He tossed the guild member he captured onto the deck. ¡°Toby, keep an eye on this guy. I¡¯ll handle those souls.¡±

    Without a second thought, he took out Prelude to Rebirth from his bracelet and took aim.

    Seeing their prey retaliating, the souls could not wait any longer and howled using their ear-piercing voices.

    Almost everyone on the ship lost bnce and fell.

    But Angor wasn¡¯t affected at all. He aimed true and took a shot at the undead group closest to his position.

    The air in front of him went blurry for a second. The targeted souls turned into blue smoke and vanished in the air before they could get close.

    Helen recovered from the daze and widened her eyes at what she saw.

    Didn¡¯t Mister Roman say even wizards don¡¯t have many good ways to fend off the undead? What did Mister Padt just do? Or, is Mister Padt actually a lot stronger than Roman?

    She suddenly remembered that Mister Roman used to call Angor a ¡°loser¡± at the beginning of the journey.

    Heh. Who¡¯s the real loser?

    The sailors cheered happily even though they were not the ones killing the monsters.

    Helen nced at Angor and was a little terrified to see him almost enjoying the fight. Also, Angor was no longer satisfied by shooting undead from afar. He had jumped off the ship and rushed into the undead swarm while holding his weapon. While eliminating the souls, he also used his spare hand to cast more fire to burn off the noxious nts.

    For the next moment, the whole area was lit up by his gunfire and actual fire.

 Chapter 733 - Hidden Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 733: Hidden Trouble</h4>

    There was another round of apuse from the sailors who weed their hero with their best passion, while the hero being weed¡ªAngor¡ªwas checking the cylinder of his revolver with a disappointed look.

    He killed over a thousand souls, which only gave him the faint shadow of a bullet. Telling from his previous experiences, he was still halfway to go until he could get an actual bullet.

    More importantly, one or two bullets were pointless. He had to use all six on a single soul to erase 98% of the negative energy on it.

    He felt greatly unsatisfied since there were far from enough souls on the ind for him to farm, despite the fact that the swarms earlier looked quite big.

    He looked again and could not find another soul remaining on the ind, nor were there any creeper nts left. At the same time, all the dreadful sensation had gone.

    He sighed and walked to Helen and Erwin while ignoring the yelling sailors.

    ¡°It¡¯s clear. Calm down and do what you can do to the ship. Bring any wounded men that you can¡¯t handle to me.¡±

    Helen was still dazed after the turmoil she went through. It was Erwin who answered him, ¡°Thank you for the great help, sir. I¡¯ll arrange repairs right away.¡±

    Angor nodded and nced at the dark waters behind them.

    ¡°What can you tell me about these parts?¡±

    ¡°Nothing, I¡¯m afraid. We never came here before. Rumors say that this ce is full of traps and ghost ships, and everything could be lethal to us.¡±

    Angor checked again and did not sense any imminent danger or hostile will around them.

    ¡°We should be fine for the moment. Tell me immediately should you see anything suspicious.¡±

    ¡°Understood!¡± The sailors allplied since this was about whether they could live on.

    Angor would also like to ask where they should go next, but seeing the ship so broken, he decided to let people do their work first. They weren¡¯t going anywhere without the ship anyway.

    He asked Tony to guard the ship and took the guild member back to his cabin, where he deployed a small nightmare illusion to block off their voice. No matter what became of the ship, he had to learn what he could about the Centipede Guild first.

    ...

    A momentter, Angor ended the guild man¡¯s life without bothering to ask his name.

    Using his highly developed nightmare illusion and emotion control skills, he forced the man to spit everything he could possibly get, including how the 13 brothers departed from Salem Highground.

    After Sunders killed most of their members, the Centipede Guild moved their base to Salem Highground, which sat in the middle of three nations. Due to its deprivedndscape, the area was usually free of the attention of anyone.

    There, the Centipede Guild built their headquarters in a secret underground cave. It was their former leader, the ¡°Fallen Centipede¡±, who told them about this spot. After Fallen Centipede was killed, ¡°Barren Centipede¡± took charge of the organization.

    Currently, there were two known leaders in the guild, ¡°Barren Centipede¡± Buffalo and ¡°Rotten Gnat¡± Robinson.

    ording to ¡°Boss¡±, they were both level-1 wizards. Sunders also mentioned their names to Angor before, but what Sunders said was that they were ¡°hardly level-1 wizards¡±.

    Nevertheless, such a level was enough for them to beat down apprentices with ease.

    Angor knew he had to run as fast as he could, should he encounter them for real. This was not so difficult with the help of the sequence of gravity.

    ¡°Boss¡± also told him that the guild leaders did note after him personally because another matter kept them upied, which might take some time. They decided to send the ¡°Brotherhood of Thirteen¡± instead, which didn¡¯t end up well since they terribly underestimated Angor¡¯s capabilities.

    Angor recalled that Sunders said something about keeping the guild busy for a while, which meant Sunders already did so.

    After finishing off the ¡°Boss¡±, he canceled his illusion and fell into his own thoughts while listening to the nging hammers outside.

    He should be safe for now since the two guild leaders were too busy to deal with him. As for the other guild rogues... He had no problem repelling them together with Toby¡¯s help, as long as he wasn¡¯t targeted by some other wizards.

    But there was a problem he was anxious to solve, which was how he was found out in the first ce.

    ¡°Boss¡± said that their brothers managed to find the sailing records of the White m Association, from which they discovered his trip on The Limpet.

    However, how did the Centipede Guild learn that he was heading home by taking a ship of the association? There were only a few people who knew his n, who were all inside Brute Cavern. And he didn¡¯t believe the guild could send spies into Brute Cavern.

    This meant the guild probably asked a Prophet for help.

    Also with the assistance of the Prophet, the guild would probably soon learn about the death of the thirteen brothers. Or in a worse case, the Prophet could directly reveal his current location to the guild.

    While Angor wasn¡¯t afraid of random guild membersing for him, he absolutely did not want the guild to approach his family.

    Both Sunders and Greya regarded the Centipede Guild as a corrupt and shameless group who would do ANYTHING to achieve their goals. Killing mortals for fun was definitely one of their options.

    For this, he made up his mind to look for a magic array in his tablet that he could use to prevent the Prophet from targeting him, or he wouldn¡¯t be able to go back to Old Earth at all. The existence of prophecy had upset him more than once now.

    There was another matter mentioned by ¡°Boss¡± that worried him.

    It seemed someone from the Song of the Deep showed up at Devil¡¯s Water, who captured the thirteen brothers but then released them for some reason.

    On the first look, the incident had nothing to do with Angor. But he noticed something interesting in ¡°Boss¡±¡®s description.

    When imprisoned, the brothers thought they were dead for sure. However, someone from the Song of the Deep asked them several questions such as why they came to Devil¡¯s Water, and let them go.

    While it was true that quite a lot of people disliked the Centipede Guild, they still wouldn¡¯t suddenly attack them for no reason. It was a strange case when the Song of the Deep captured these wanderers and interrogated them as if they were trying to protect a secret.

    As soon as the guild members said that they only came to capture or kill Angor, they were set free.

    Angor had a hunch that the Song of the Deep did so because they also wanted to see the guild members annoying him. He was also curious to find out why the Song of the Deep showed up at Devil¡¯s Water at such a moment.

    ording to Sunders, the high officials of the Song of the Deep were closely rted to invaders from other nes, which made them a primary target of the Supreme Cult.

    Are those people dealing with intruders again?

    Helen came to his door and interrupted his random guesses. ¡°Sir, we have two sailors who are badly injured. Can you help them?¡±

    Angor rubbed his temples and put those concerns to the back of his mind. For now, he had to think of a way to get out of Specter Basin first. Only THEN would he have the time to worry about Prophets and Song of the Deep.

    Following behind Helen, he arrived at a temporary shelter built not far from the ship.

    Casting Heal was all he needed to keep the said sailors stabilized. However, those men still needed several months on their beds to properly heal their broken bones and muscles. They were not likely to do anything on the ship before the journey ended.

    Since the most urgent problems were solved, Angor found Helen again to learn about their next course of action.

    Helen looked around with a grim look. After making sure no one could hear them, she whispered, ¡°To be frank, sir, it remains to be seen whether The Limpet can set out ever again.¡±

 Chapter 734 - Specter Basin

    <h4>Chapter 734: Specter Basin</h4>

    There was a particrly beautiful ind at Summerdew Ridge, which was entirely constructed into a flower garden.

    A charmingdy with violet hair and a pair of ck feather wings slowly descended among the fireflies inside the garden. When she touched the ground, her wings slowly melted and returned to being ordinary arms, while her sharp talons became human feet. She took a moment to bound up her hair, which was messed by the wind, before heading toward an ancient-looking castle in the middle of the garden.

    Another woman in the garden stopped her before she could reach her destination. This one was a beautiful, old-fashioneddy wearing a luxuriously decorated skirt. Her face looked absolutely stunning, except that there were many small scars scattered around her cheeks.

    ¡°The master is speaking to a guest, Swan. No one is allowed inside the castle right now. You can tell me if you have a message to deliver.¡±

    Swan went down on one knee and kissed thedy in front of her on the foot. ¡°Lady Paye, my Wizard Eye detected energy explosionsing from Death Loop. I checked and found traces of a battle over there.¡±

    ¡°Someone was fighting at Death Loop?¡±

    ¡°My inspection spell suggested that it was an illusionist fighting against another group. But it ended pretty fast. The grim jellyfish in the water are feeding on several corpses. I think they are rogue apprentices from the Centipede Guild.¡±

    ¡°Centipede Guild... why did they leave their sewers and show up here? Are they possibly after ¡®that¡¯ as well?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Swan shook her head. ¡°Apart from us, there¡¯s only someone in Song of the Deep who learned about the mysterious dimension. There is no way the Centipede Guild can get their hands on such information.¡±

    ¡°I see. So are they only hunting for the illusionist? Who is it?¡±

    ¡°The visions left by the grim jellyfish told me that he¡¯s the guardian of The Limpet.¡±

    ¡°Then he¡¯s not rted to our business either. The Floating Mech City told us about their sailing ns this year. That ship is supposed to arrive recently. Guess we¡¯ll leave them alone.¡±

    When Lady Paye was going to head back into the castle, Swan hesitated and decided to add something, ¡°It seems The Limpet is currently trapped inside Specter Basin. Should we send someone to get them out?¡±

    ¡°Specter Basin?¡± Lady Paye showed a disgusted look. ¡°So, when that tornado earlier invited a guest from the Valley of Hurricane, it also sent a ship into those god-forsaken parts? And no, leave them there. We¡¯re not those saint wannabes from the Orphanage. We only agreed to Floating Mech City that we¡¯ll stay out of each other¡¯s business. We¡¯re not obliged to help some mortals.¡±

    While Lady Paye left Swan¡¯s view, Swan nced back at the direction of Specter Basin.

    ¡°Even Master would not go anywhere near that ce... I wonder if ¡®she¡¯ can make it out?¡±

    ...

    ¡°Unable to sail?¡± Angor asked in shock.

    Helen exined in a small voice so that nobody heard them, ¡°While most of the damages are easy to manage, the two broken masts will take some time, especially the central mast. We need to find the right materials and do aplete overhaul. Improvised stuff cannot hold against the strong wind.¡±

    Angor nced at The Limpet, which was being pulled into the sea again by the sailors.

    They had salvaged the fallen poles and were slowly hammering iron tes onto them.

    ¡°This is not enough?¡± Angor pointed to the working repairmen.

    ¡°It is, if we¡¯re going into ordinary waters. But definitely not for Devil¡¯s Water. If we run into gales or storms using makeshift parts, they¡¯ll just snap again.¡± Helen looked down. ¡°Erwin and I have not told the others about this so that we don¡¯t break their spirit.¡±

    ¡°Do you have any ways to fully repair them now?¡±

    Helen shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±

    ¡°We CAN try setting sail as it is and pray for good weather. Otherwise... The Limpet will end up as a drifting nk in the middle of the sea,¡± said Erwin, as he left the workers and joined them.

    ¡°That¡¯s pretty much impossible around here,¡± Helen replied, deadpanned.

    Angor observed the broken mast on the ground and held his chin.

    ¡°There... There is another way,¡± Helen said somewhat uncertainly. ¡°We can try asking for help from Summerdew Ridge. There is a mortal town on one of the inds. Surely they have somewhere to repair ships?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s not,¡± Erwin denied. ¡°It¡¯s already a miracle if they do not kill us on sight.¡±

    Helen was thinking about a woman she rescued from the sea before when she was still working at ckberry Waters. It was almost 20 years ago, and that woman imed that she was a witch from Summerdew Ridge and that she was willing to return the favor in the future, should Helen run into any trouble.

    But after all this time, Helen wasn¡¯t sure if that witch still remembered this matter.

    As she wondered whether to reveal this, Angor suddenly said, ¡°I can handle the repairs.¡±

    Both Helen and Erwin gave him a surprised look.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to fix ships, but it shouldn¡¯t be hard to get the broken masts to their original state.¡±

    Without further ado, he floated to The Limpet, and under the astonished gazes of everyone, he used Thaw to apply some sturdy enchanted metal parts to the fractures. It only took him several minutes for the broken poles to look whole again.

    He thennded on the ground and brushed his hands. ¡°Tell your expert to take a look. Is it good enough?¡±

    Helen and Erwin exchanged a look before Erwin moved to the mast and inspected it in awe. He just realized that the mast looked even better than before. The new structure looked strong enough to withstand direct hits from tidal waves!

    Helen was equally excited when hearing Erwin¡¯s conclusion, but at the same time, she felt mixed emotions conflicting in her mind.

    The monster nts, undead spirits, a broken ship... Angor had prevented countless tragedies that were deadly to mortals under a few minutes.

    Previously, Helen regarded supernatural beings as arrogant and cocky people with limited magical powers. Yet what she saw from Angor waspletely different.

    In her view, Angor was strong, cultured, and gracious at the same time.

    And for the first time in her life, Helen wished that she could join the world of supernaturals and be someone so brilliant.

    When Angor went to discuss their following n with Erwin, Helen looked at the direction of Summerdew Ridge.

    ¡°Guess I have to talk to Swan when I have a chance... even if there is only the slightest hope, I¡¯m going to be a wizard like Mister Padt.¡±

    ...

    After recing the pole mast and moving the wounded into their cabins, Erwin gave his order to raise anchor and finally leave the terrible ind.

    It was about nine o¡¯clock in the morning, yet the Specter Basin was as dark as the night. The surface of the water below and the dark clouds above were like two imprable curtains that blocked all light.

    This reminded Angor of his days spent in Dark Castle, where the outside was usually so dim.

    They had decided to return to Death Loop and go for Wintertide from there. Even though the environment seemed harmless at this moment, they would not go any deeper inside Specter Basin, which was believed to be one of the worst routes at Devil¡¯s Water.

    However, the way back didn¡¯t remain peaceful. A giant vortex suddenly blocked their path.

    Immediately, Erwin told the helmsman to change direction. Such vortexes were even deadlierpared to storms and giant tides since falling into them was usually a guaranteed death.

    ¡°It¡¯s getting bigger too. Do a full turnabout so that we don¡¯t get dragged into it!¡±

    After Erwinmanded The Limpet to retreat toward the opposite direction, they soon saw the small ind that trapped them a moment ago.

    They sailed past the ind and were looking for a way to go around the dangerous area when another ind appeared in their view.

    The most obvious choice was to change direction again and avoid this ind, but the chaotic and violent energy signaturesing from the ind suddenly attracted Angor¡¯s attention.

 Chapter 735 - Odd Vortexes

    <h4>Chapter 735: Odd Vortexes</h4>

    From a distance, this new ind wasn¡¯t much different from the one that trapped them for an entire night. The same in ground, the same dark atmosphere, and the same creeper vines.

    The sailors weren¡¯t happy to see it since they almost died somewhere like this. It seemed that Erwin agreed with them since the captain was telling his men to speed up and get out of here ASAP.

    ¡°Wait.¡±

    Angor startled everyone by taking a great leap in the air and used two ¡°mini-tornadoes¡± to reach the ind.

    Since the protector of the ship decided so, the sailors had no choice but to halt the ship somewhere nearby.

    As soon as Angor arrived, the creeper nts smelled human flesh and woke up from their slumber, then they relentlessly mmed their fierce-looking arms at him.

    Angor simply moved ahead. At the same time, his Field of Fire cantrip surrounded him and burned all the nts close enough to ash.

    Following his disy of strength, the other presences hidden on the ind looked his way.

    Groups of glowing souls that looked particrly eye-catching under the dark sky slowly appeared and gave Angor their bloodthirsty gazes.

    ¡°As expected!¡± Angor grew visibly excited upon seeing the undead creatures that surrounded him.

    The experiment at Phantom Ind did not provide him a definite conclusion that exined the exact nature of Prelude to Rebirth. To do more tests, he needed a ton of undead souls to gather bullets. Unlike other people, he always hoped that he could run into as many such deadly souls as possible.

    Using the revolver, he wiped out all souls in sight quicker than reaping grains.

    When Erwin decided to move The Limpet ashore, there were barely any souls remaining behind. With the souls gone, the negative energy Angor felt from the ind earlier also vanished.

    Instead of returning to the ship, he took a small tour around the ind hoping to figure out why so many souls gathered here.

    It didn¡¯t take him very long since the ind was so small. Yet he found nothing other than reeking, uncultivable soil.

    He tried digging deeper and still failed to notice anything of interest. It was as if the souls popped up here for no reason.

    These souls should havee from dead people, and dead people meant corpses. But he didn¡¯t find one single corpse or skeleton.

    In the end, he epted the assumption that this was caused by the special environment of Specter Basin and told Erwin, who just anchored a moment ago, to keep moving.

    The ship ran into more inds, and Angor would stir up the undead souls and kill them. Meanwhile, Erwin simply kept the ship steady for a while until Angor came back.

    Clearing out five inds gave Angor one bullet plus a portion of another one. Combined with what he gathered before this journey, he still needed ¡°1.5 bullets¡± topletely fill the cylinder.

    ¡°There are too many hidden reefs ahead, we can¡¯t go that way,¡± Erwin said and discouraged Angor from going for more inds.

    Angor looked that way and decided toply. He could try searching for inds himself, but that would put him closer to the center of Specter Basin, which was a reckless thing to do. It was best for them to return to Death Loop before getting surprised by something.

    However, they didn¡¯t get to move very far when another vortex appeared in their path.

    ¡°Did wee across the earlier vortex again? It can¡¯t be. We used a different direction!¡± a sailor rified.

    Erwinmanded the ship to turn and go around the vortex again.

    And for the third time, a vortex showed directly ahead of them as if something was intentionally preventing them from going back to Death Loop.

    ¡°Is there like, an intelligent monster blocking our way?¡±

    ¡°Or, it¡¯s trying to force us deeper into Specter Basin.¡±

    ¡°Why is this ce so cold? I¡¯m using my garb intended for Wintertide, but it¡¯s still freezing!¡± A sailor crossed his arms. ¡°I-I got the feeling that we¡¯re gonna stay here forever.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s going to happen if we don¡¯t do something about the damn whirls.¡±

    Affected by the depressing aura looming over the entire ce, people were getting more pessimistic by the second.

    Again, Helen and Erwin had to ask for Angor¡¯s help so that their men did notpletely break down.

    Angor was also wondering why the vortexes were so deliberately preventing them from escaping.

    Is that somethingmon at Specter Basin? That no one gets out once they¡¯re in?

    ¡°Should we try to cross Specter Basin? That¡¯s our only choice if we can¡¯t go back...¡± Helen suggested with a worried look.

    ¡°No, unless we absolutely can¡¯t help it,¡± said Angor. ¡°We¡¯d better head back.¡±

    ¡°But the vortex...¡±

    ¡°Let me see...¡± Angor considered. ¡°You remain here for the moment, I¡¯ll check the water from below.¡±

    He had a feeling that the vortexes were indeed caused by a monster.

    Correct or not, he had to see for himself.

    ...

    Humans tended to fear the unknown and what they could not see.

    They wouldn¡¯t be surprised to see a giant blue whale swimming on the bright surface. But if they saw a shadow of the same size underwater, they might assume it as all sorts of horrific beings.

    The dark sea was a perfect ce for the human imagination to work its wonders. And most of the time, such imagination only led to terror.

    It was made worse when the water of the Specter Basin was almost pitch ck.

    The sailors on the ship would all avoid looking into the water, let alone jumping into it. And when Angor offered to explore beneath, he shocked everyone greatly.

    In the views of ordinary folks, Angor¡¯s suggestion meant a one-way ticket to hell.

    However, Angor himself wasn¡¯t bothered by the idea at all. He once spent a long time exploring the bottom of the Sea of Purification,pletely alone. This was nothing new to him.

    After asking Toby to watch the ship, he leaped out of the vessel without a second thought.

    The first thing he noticed was that the water was way saltier as well as fetidpared to ordinary seawater. He quickly activated his Purification Field so that he didn¡¯t identally digest any of the terrible liquid.

    Although he couldn¡¯t see very far, the chaotic current caused by the vortex convinced him that this area was far from peaceful.

    Swiftly, he cast Light to illuminate his surroundings.

    The first thing he saw was arge fish with stretching fangs. It looked so hideous that he felt his body jump out of instinct.

    After avoiding a straightforward tackle attack from the fish, he used another simple cantrip to turn the fish into an ice block. He learned this one by altering the ¡°Ice Wall¡± cantrip. It seemed it worked better than intended when in water.

    He looked around and didn¡¯t see a second predatoring for him. However, there were a lot of tiny, unknown creatures floating about.

    He pushed through the force of the disturbed current and moved closer to the vortex.

    Soon, a glowing dot that was directly under the vortex entered his view.

    He was almost sure that whatever was shining down there was the cause of the obstructions.

 Chapter 736 - Jellyfish?

    <h4>Chapter 736: Jellyfish?</h4>

    He stopped when he was about a hundred meters above the light source.

    He was looking at a flickering, umbre-like object that was releasing a swirling torrent from its center, which then went all the way toward the surface.

    ¡°So that¡¯s the culprit. But... whatever is that?¡±

    He already sensed dreadful powering from it without getting too close, and it wasn¡¯t friendly. In fact, he was almost sure the power was attempting to invade his body at this moment.

    He couldn¡¯t make sure whether that thing was alive. It could also be a very deadly monster.

    He decided to return to the ship for now instead of recklessly approaching the unknown presence.

    ¡°Sir, what is down there?¡± Erwin saw Angoring back and quickly asked.

    ¡°There is something... strange. But I don¡¯t know what it is yet.¡±

    Helen grew anxious when she saw Angor looking so serious for the first time. ¡°I¡¯m just d you¡¯re safe, sir. If there¡¯s danger, shall we leave and find another path?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°Whatever it is, I think it means to keep an eye on us. This meant constant trouble no matter where we go.¡±

    He knew he could leave this ce on his Gond. But they HAD to do something about that strange thing underwater if they wanted to get The Limpet out.

    ¡°Can we help you in any way?¡± asked Erwin.

    ¡°Ready the scout puppet. Let¡¯s ascertain what exactly it is first.¡±

    The sailors tossed the puppet into the water as Angor asked, after which he controlled it to move closer to the ¡°glowing umbre¡±.

    Meanwhile, he used an illusion to show everyone what he saw through the puppet. Perhaps a seasoned sailor could recognize the unknown monster.

    ¡°Do any of you know what this is?¡± Angor asked when the puppet sessfully detected the umbre.

    The sailors took a moment to wake up from their astonishment at seeing an amazing illusion. They then shook their heads.

    ¡°It looks soft and is pping... maybe it¡¯s a jellyfish?¡± A sailor took a guess.

    Helen nodded to agree. ¡°It sure looks like one. But can a jellyfish create whirlpools?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯spletely possible,¡± said Erwin, ¡°this is Devil¡¯s Water after all.¡±

    While the others discussed, Angor kept moving the puppet deeper until he suddenly saw the ¡°vision¡± of the puppet going blurry.

    ¡°Oof.¡±

    He gasped and quickly ¡°disconnected¡± from the puppet, causing the illusion to vanish as well.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sir?¡± Helen was startled a bit upon seeing Angor¡¯s grim look.

    ¡°Not sure. I think something stung my spirit power by going for the puppet. But I pulled back in time. Sorry, Captain Erwin. I don¡¯t think that puppet ising back.¡±

    ¡°We can always report such unavoidable loss to the association, sir.¡± Erwin shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that item is intended to get spent in such situations.¡±

    He ordered several sailors to carry arge iron chest to them, inside which a dozen more scout puppets were stuffed.

    ¡°We have not used the puppets for quite a while, and we have the allowance to apply for new ones each year. We have these saved up.¡±

    ¡°Woah. Talking about the wealth of Floating Mech City...¡± Angormented.

    Since he had the right tools now, he decided to explore underwater again. He still wished to find out what attacked the puppet just now.

    When the ¡°umbre¡± was in view again, a sailor suddenly spoke, ¡°Hey, is that thing bigger than before?¡±

    ¡°Really? Isn¡¯t that because Mister Padt moved the scout faster this time?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t hear their conversation because he was too focused on controlling the puppet and maintaining the disy illusion at the same time. In order not to overlook potential danger, he kept his best attention.

    The same feeling soon hit him again. He felt dazed for a brief second, after which his connection with the puppet was cut off.

    ¡°It... feels like some kind of frequency, and it affects my spirit power.¡±

    He had read about certain monsters who used strange abilities to disrupt the minds of their enemies. He wondered if this ¡°jellyfish-like thing¡± was one such monster.

    He decided to throw a third puppet in the water to prove his theory, but as soon as he did, a sailor called out, ¡°Wait, I can see it already.¡±

    ¡°I was right. It is getting bigger. I mean, it¡¯s getting closer to us!¡±

    Angor saw it too. He didn¡¯t have to move the puppet too much to see the glowing umbre this time. It surely was floating up.

    ¡°It grew tired of using traps and decided to attack us upfront?¡± he mumbled.

    Obviously, it wasn¡¯t wise to confront the monster when they didn¡¯t know anything about it yet.

    He quickly told Erwin to move the ship away, then he removed his right glove and applied an enhanced nightmare illusion around The Limpet to cover it up.

    As the ship gained more distance from the approaching monster, Angor used the scout puppet to observe it once again.

    And the situation didn¡¯t look good.

    That thing was only about 500 meters from reaching the surface now, which allowed Angor to have a better look at it. Yes, it was a jellyfish. An exceptionallyrge and strange-looking one.

    The creature itself wasn¡¯t glowing. There were countless shiny dots gathered around its form that made it bright.

    The puppet was too far for them to figure out what the tiny dots were. Even so, they still felt sudden goosebumps when the trypophobia in their instinct was triggered.

    By moving the puppet slightly closer, Angor finally managed to see the dots being undead souls captured on the jellyfish¡¯s skin, including their twisted expressions and their outstretched ws.

    The sight reminded him of what he saw in Dark Castle when people from the castle collected human blood and produced many suffering souls. Back then, he was disgusted by the barbaric deeds done by the castle. But what he saw on the jellyfish was different¡ªthis creature and all the souls crawling all over it made every nerve in his body ufortable.

    Soon, the sailors all saw what was going on in the illusion. Many of them couldn¡¯t take it anymore and started vomiting.

    Angor canceled his illusion and looked at Helen, who looked terrified but was trying her best to remain calm. ¡°Have you heard of this monster before?¡±

    ¡°No-no, sir.¡± Helen covered her mouth. ¡°Is that a sea monster at all?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reply since he wasn¡¯t sure about this. But he was sure that the undead tended to be extremely hostile against all other creatures, which was strange, since the jellyfish seemed to be co-existing with the souls pretty well.

    The undead did not possess any intelligence. The only thing they knew was to maim the living ones due to their primal instinct that was tainted by negative energy. There was no way they could learn aboutplicated rtionships such as mutualism.

    Or perhaps the jellyfish knows how to control them? he wondered.

    Again, he felt his spirit connection being disrupted before he lost the scout puppet.

    The puppet did not dive deeper into the water yet, which meant the jellyfish was the true culprit that bothered him.

    The creature was almost going to emerge on the surface. Meanwhile, everyone on The Limpet showed terrible symptoms such as nausea and trance. Someone even went out cold on the deck straight away.

    Apparently, the ¡°strange frequency¡± used by the creature was affecting the mortals on the ship.

    Angor didn¡¯t feel anything since his spirit was fortified. As long as he didn¡¯t extend a portion of his spirit power like how he did on the puppets, the strange frequency wouldn¡¯t get inside his mind.

    When most of the sailors fell, The Limpet slowed down to a halt.

    Following arge water ssh, the gigantic jellyfish rose from the surface and allowed Angor to look at it directly.

    At the same time, he felt a familiar sense from the creature.

 Chapter 737 - Special Undead

    <h4>Chapter 737: Special Undead</h4>

    Dark clouds gathered and made the day ck as night.

    In the dim ambiance, a glowing ¡°umbre¡± over a hundred meters in width slowly emerged from the water and remained afloat.

    Meanwhile, the souls attached to it gradually left their host and scattered about the area.

    The whole sight didn¡¯t look bad if people didn¡¯t look at the dotted jellyfish. When looking from afar, the floating souls perfectly illuminated the area like flyingnterns.

    But the sailors were not enjoying this at all when being so close to the monster. The disturbing frequencying from itbined with the swarms of souls only deepened their fear and despair.

    Angor and Toby were the only two individuals unaffected by the creepy scene right now. In fact, Toby was admiring the show with twinkling eyes.

    Next, he looked at Angor and waved his wings around. ¡°Tweet, tweet!¡±

    Angor was very confused to sense the ominous and violent energying from the giant jellyfish as the energy felt exactly the same as those observed from undead creatures.

    And due to its size, the jellyfish exhibited several times more negative energypared to other souls.

    ¡°Is that thing a soul as well?¡±

    While it was possible for monsters to remain behind as souls upon death, this was only likely when the monster was intelligent to a certain extent in its life.

    But as far as Angor knew, jellyfish was supposed to be a type of witless nkton unable to develop much wisdom.

    He looked again and was sure that the jellyfish gave him the same feeling as undead souls.

    ¡°I just need a little test then.¡±

    He took out Prelude to Rebirth and decided to see whether the creature could be killed by it.

    The monster sure looked strong, but since he did not feel suppressed too much, the jellyfish should not be a wizard-level monster, which meant he had a good chance of taking it on.

    It seemed the jellyfish ¡°shook off¡± the undead souls clung to its body to search for The Limpet, which was hidden by Angor¡¯s illusion. The illusion did a good job of keeping the ship out of view. Yet it wouldn¡¯t help the shippletely disappear from the sea. So many souls would detect it sooner orter, and Angor had to distract the souls before that happened.

    He tapped Toby¡¯s head and crouched down for a jump. ¡°Use your Griffin power again. Let¡¯s have a good talk with that guy.¡±

    Toby didn¡¯t answer.

    Puzzled, Angor looked aside and saw his partner giving him a pleading look for some reason as if Toby really wanted something.

    ¡°Wait, you want a jellyfish costume? And it needs to shine?¡±

    Toby nodded rapidly.

    ¡°Ohe on, it¡¯s not the time for that. Let¡¯s kill that thing first, then we¡¯ll have time to talk.¡±

    Toby looked away, disappointed.

    ¡°Fine! Help me get through this, and I¡¯ll make you a bubble skirt based on it, alright?¡± Angor almost squeezed the ridiculous offer between his teeth.

    With his wish promised, Toby happily leaped into the air and started to glow with fire.

    Angor nced back and noticed there were only two people who seemed able to hear his words. One was Helen, while the other was Tulu, the young man who told him about Nayah¡¯s story before. They probably had stronger spiritspared to the others on the ship.

    ¡°Tend to the ship, Helen, while I and Toby deal with the monster. I¡¯ll try luring it far from here. Look for a chance and go for Death Loop,¡± he ordered using Voice Transmission and hopped onto Toby¡¯s back.

    Helen felt as if she had returned to being the small girl suffering from seasickness when she joined the crew for the first time. Still, she endured the terrible dizziness and nodded to Angor.

    Toby¡¯s bright form instantly attracted all the wandering souls in the air. Like hungry wolves who smelled fresh meat, they rushed at Angor¡¯s position madly as one.

    Angor lifted his gun in a somewhat rxed way and took two rapid shots, which covered the entire area in front of him.

    Without putting up a fight, the souls caught in the range of the attack scattered as puffs of smoke.

    While keeping the souls away, Angor nced at the flying jellyfish and was disgusted again by its horrible presence.

    He thought the monster had released all the souls it carried. But no¡ªthere were still countless ones half-submerged on its skin with small parts of them exposed, such as a head or a foot. And this looked really, really unpleasant.

    ¡°Are you sure you want a suit based on THAT?¡± Angor teased Toby.

    The jellyfish had been floating about slowly without making any moves. When Angor almost eliminated half of the undead army, it finally did something.

    It began to release another strange frequency into the environment.

    The souls caught in the ¡°signal¡± halted their moves and slowly retreated, which astonished Angor again.

    These souls were the aggregations of negative energy and should not possess any self-consciousness at all. How did they know what ¡°retreating¡± meant?

    Or was the jellyfish forcing them?

    The wandering souls had once again gathered on the creature, which made its perilous might even graver.

    As Angor watched thest soul returning to its ¡°host¡±, the jellyfish began releasing yet another frequency.

    And this one was directly aimed at him.

    Unlike the ¡°broad signal¡± intended tomand the souls, this one was extremely fast. Angor found himself fully covered up by the unknown attack under a second.

    ¡°A spiritual attack?¡± The torrential energy invading his mind soon told him what was going on.

    It was pretty powerful too. He soon felt tearing pain wrecking his head from the inside. However, it was still bearable. Compared to the insufferable agony inflicted by the strange wall in the Nightmare Realm, this was nothing at all.

    Thanks to his heightened spiritual resistance, the attack unleashed by the jellyfish had little to no effect against him. There was only Toby who was howling in pain since he never went through resistance training before.

    Angor lifted his gun again and shot at the jellyfish. He nned to wipe out all the souls protecting the monster before fighting it.

    But to his surprise, the jellyfish released several ¡°puffs¡± in the air like a broken balloon and nicely dashed out of harm¡¯s way.

    Angor was sure it wasn¡¯t actual air, but small groups of souls being shaken off the jellyfish, which helped it gain speed.

    The monster wouldn¡¯t do such a thing if it wished to protect the souls, which meant it was trying to avoid the shots.

    Angor grew more and more confused as what he saw from the creature made no sense. The monster must be intelligent since it knew how to create traps to block ships, control undead souls, and avoid danger. For this reason, it couldn¡¯t be an undead creature itself.

    So why was it running away from the revolver¡¯s attack that only worked against the undead?

    ¡°An intelligent undead maybe? Is that possible?¡±

    If this was true, then a lot of textbooks in the wizarding world would need to get revised.

    For now, Angor still needed tond a sessful hit on the jellyfish to ascertain whether it was an undead creature or something else.

    The spiritual attack was quickly weakening because the monster was desperately trying to evade, which allowed Toby to recover.

    ¡°Use your gravity power and get close to it as fast as possible,¡± said Angor.

    Toby shook his head to clear his mind and acknowledged the order.

    By going all-out using his gravity-enhanced speed, Toby reappeared right beside the jellyfish as if he knew how to teleport.

    Angor lifted his gun and almost pressed the barrel at the monster.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see how you dodge this one.¡±

 Chapter 738 - Successful Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 738: Sessful Retreat</h4>

    The jellyfish felt the power of the gunshot and tried shedding its souls to block it. But no matter how many souls it released, they didn¡¯t stand a chance against the attack.

    The sacrificed souls still bought the jellyfish some time as it boosted itself higher, hoping to get out of the range of the shot.

    While its main body managed to steer clear, one of the hanging tentacles was caught in the effect of Prelude to Elimination.

    Angor could clearly feel the negative energy gathering on the tentacle being cleansed.

    The jellyfish immediately decided to abandon the affected tentacle to keep its main body safe. But it did so toote¡ªthe special sound wave created by Prelude to Elimination might not travel very fast in the air, but once it reached the negative energy on the jellyfish, it almost instantly spread to its entire body and began erasing the dark energy at great speed.

    ¡°So it IS an undead after all?¡± Angor frowned while watching the strange creature visibly shrinking.

    Prelude to Elimination was a specialized tool to kill undead creatures. In a matter of seconds, the giant jellyfish lost most of its mass.

    In thest moment of its existence, the monster released a thick spirit energy beam from the center of its ¡°umbre¡± toward the sky.

    Angor thought it was some kind ofst-resort attack and quickly asked Toby to move away. Because of this, he failed to notice another tiny jellyfish following the energy beam and disappeared above their position.

    He and Toby rushed until they were several kilometers away from the jellyfish before they looked back while preparing their defenses to fend off possible follow-up attacks.

    But nothing happened. The energy beam never went their way.

    They slowly returned and could no longer find the jellyfish, and the spirit energy was also gone.

    ¡°It¡¯s dead? Just like that?¡± Angor frowned.

    Killing the creature so easily did not help him figure out what it wanted to do. Was it trying to force The Limpet deeper inside Specter Basin? But what for? And why did it suddenly change its mind by showing up?

    He gave up thinking since the creature died without leaving any traces he could see.

    ¡°I wonder how many bullets I got from that...¡± he muttered while flipping the cylinder of his gun. He then widened his eyes when he saw all six rune-enchanted chambers giving out a mysterious glow.

    ¡°It¡¯s full?¡±

    But how? There¡¯s no way there are enough souls on that jellyfish. Or... did the jellyfish alone hold the same amount of energy as thousands of souls?

    ¡°Ugh. I¡¯ll just note it down and ask my professorter. Good. Now I can find a chance and do a second experiment using the bullets.¡±

    He put Prelude to Rebirth into his bracelet and was going to catch up with The Limpet.

    But another powerful energy signature suddenly stopped him.

    He took a moment to sense it and realized that it almost felt the same as what was disyed by the jellyfish earlier.

    Malevolent, hateful, and ill-boding.

    ¡°Did it actually escape?¡± He looked at the source of the energy, confused.

    The energy was so powerful that it even affected the weather in the distance. From his position, he saw dark clouds swirling in the sky while drawing up seawater. The sound of falling tides and thunder had created a majestic symphony of nature.

    Curious, he asked Toby to slowly approach the strange spot. He felt confident that Toby¡¯s speed could always get them out of danger in time.

    But a strange sensation hit his mind.

    He knew something was off, but he failed to put his fingers on it until Toby called him.

    ¡°Oh, right...¡± Heprehended Toby¡¯s intention and put a hand on his head. ¡°We just came from this way.¡±

    By heading to the source of the turbulence, they were in fact going to the original position of The Limpet.

    ¡°Geez. Somehow, I can¡¯t tell direction too well on the sea.¡±

    Previously, he was nning to go to the Land of Revtion and Old Earth by himself by using his Gond after The Limpet carried him to Ferran Land. But now, he began to worry that he might lose his way without a guide.

    ¡°Ahead of us should be one of the inds I cleaned out earlier¡ª¡±

    He suddenly stopped when he realized that he was pointing to the center of the energy source.

    ¡°But how did that happen? I killed all the souls there.¡±

    He told Toby to keep heading to the said ind and soon made sure that it was one of the inds they visited before.

    Currently, the ind was surrounded by roaring thunderclouds and asional lightning.

    As he looked, immeasurable souls rose from the sea and all gazed at the ind with their hollow eyes.

    Out of instinct, Angor used a nightmare illusion to cover up Toby so that they wouldn¡¯t get caught. Since the cylinder of his gun was full, he had no reason to confront these things anymore.

    The souls simply remained where they were quietly without looking away.

    Is there something hidden on the ind? Angor thought.

    While The Limpet moved past several simr inds including this one, Angor searched them and found nothing other than creeper nts and hostile souls.

    But the eager souls he was looking at suggested otherwise.

    The lightning strikes slowly stopped and gave ce to a malefic energy surge centered around the ind.

    Meanwhile, Angor finally saw something. At the center of the ind, a particrly giant crab over a hundred meters in width slowly climbed out of the ground. However, itsck of color suggested that it was a soul.

    The ¡°crab¡± floated into the air and waved its pincers to release a series of energy signals into the environment, which attracted all the other souls who rushed at it and clung to its body.

    The sight was exactly the same as what Angor saw from the jellyfish.

    The same thing was happening to several inds at Specter Basin, including those purged by Angor before. The difference was that they had different ¡°animal souls¡±, such as jellyfish, ms, starfish, or even seaweeds.

    Simrly, they baited wandering souls from the sea onto their forms and then disappeared into the water.

    Angor already left Specter Basin after looking at the strange crab thing. He sensed the energy waymark he left on The Limpet, which told him that the ship had safely retreated to Death Loop.

    ¡°Wee back, sir!¡± Helen was more than d to see Angor¡¯s return.

    The sailors still looked exhausted, but Angor¡¯s presencebined with the bright sunlight at Death Loop was enough to help them recover.

    ¡°Mister Padt, is that... thing, dead?¡± Erwin joined them on slow steps. It seemed the captain wasn¡¯t doing very well either.

    Angor nodded. ¡°It was already dead by the time you saw it. Guess I just killed it for a second time.¡±

    The others didn¡¯t fully understand what those words meant, but they were d to know that the jellyfish wouldn¡¯t be troubling them again.

    ¡°We¡¯ll stick to the original n. I¡¯ll solve the temperature problemter today,¡± he said to Helen and returned to his cabin without giving the sailors a chance to ask more questions.

 Chapter 739 - Island Spirits

    <h4>Chapter 739: Ind Spirits</h4>

    Angor thoroughly wrote down everything he encountered at Specter Basin in his notebook. In order not to miss any detail, he even blended a trace of nightmare illusion between the letters so that he could rewatch the eventter.

    He learned such a method from Sunders. It both helped him record information better and allowed him to encrypt something he did not wish others to see. It wasn¡¯tplex, but people without the knowledge of nightmare illusions still wouldn¡¯t be able to solve the trick easily.

    After he dropped his pen, he was still wondering what the crab monster and the giant jellyfish were.

    They looked so alike since they both knew how tomand undead souls. And the negative energy that they showed probably meant they were undead souls themselves.

    Yet nobody had ever heard of undead creatures disying such intelligence before. Was this another special element exclusive at Specter Basin?

    Also, was it a coincidence that the crab appeared at one of the inds he visited right after he killed the jellyfish? Was it always sleeping under the ind? But why didn¡¯t it show up when The Limpet approached there?

    And he still had no idea what the jellyfish wanted by stopping their ship from leaving.

    ¡°Ughhh. I¡¯ll just forget about these for now.¡±

    He knew he was being way too curious since the mysteries revolving around Specter Basin had been confusing truth-finder wizards for centuries. They probably were not something an apprentice like him was supposed to think about.

    Even so, it was verymon for wizards and apprentices to be curious about everything. ording to Helen, Summerdew lived at the center of Devil¡¯s Water just to observe Specter Basin better.

    For now, Angor could only write everything he saw in his notebook and wait until he was good enough to look into these matters.

    After putting away the book, he calmed his spirit and nned to keep preparing the hide used for his ¡°flying boots¡±.

    Toby jumped onto the desk and used his wings to motion the shape of a jellyfish.

    ¡°You still want it after you saw how horrible that thing looks?¡± Again, Angor failed toprehend Toby¡¯s bizarre taste.

    ¡°Tweet!¡± But you promised!

    Angor just realized that Toby seemed very eager to get this new suit for some reason. The bird never looked so impatient when requesting the previous costumes.

    ¡°What¡¯s so special about the jellyfish?¡± Angor shook his head and took out some silk and chiffon from his bracelet. While he started working on the design of the jellyfish skirt, Toby exined why he wanted it so much.

    ¡°Pfft. You like the glowing effect? But don¡¯t you feel awkward in it?¡±

    Despite hisint, Angor diligently finished the initial shape of a fantastic-looking bubble skirt on his paper.

    ¡°Forget it. As a ¡®he-bird¡¯, you already loved princess dresses and felt proud of it. I should have never asked.¡±

    Deep down, he hoped that Toby asked for the new skirt out of random inspiration and would not develop a new habit out of it. He really did not wish to keep making glowing dresses.

    The crafting process wasn¡¯t hard. To imitate the ¡°soft and ppy¡± effect of a jellyfish, he added a small rune onto the skirt, which constantly created a small breeze to help the skirt ¡°float¡±.

    Toby almost screamed to tell Angor to help him put on the skirt. Then the bird flew out of the room and made sure everyone on the ship saw his new getup before he returned to Angor¡¯s bracelet so that he could show off to the Moonlily Fairy as well.

    Angor examined the space inside his bracelet and saw the two tiny creatures¡ªone male and one gender-neutral¡ªhappily discussing the new skirt Toby received. Toby even removed it and tried it on the fairy to see whether it fitted.

    ¡°That¡¯s... even more embarrassing.¡± Angor face-palmed.

    He then moved his spirit feeler away from them and took out Lucas¡¯ logbook.

    While working on Toby¡¯s jellyfish skirt, he slowly remembered that he hade across this particr creature in many ces, such as the glowing jellyfish at Death Loop, the documentary movies in his tablet, as well as Lucas¡¯ diary.

    The stories left behind by Lucas didn¡¯t make much sense before, but now, he wondered if there was anything in there rted to the monstrous jellyfish he killed.

    Of course, he wouldn¡¯t believe that Lucas was ¡°the most faithful captain¡± yet. He regarded the stories as fantasy novels and kept reading.

    ¡°Ind Spirits...?¡± He frowned when reading about yet another strange name in the logbook.

    ording to Lucas, he once sailed into sunny waters where a small nation called the ¡°Spirit Land¡± was located. It consisted of multiple inds, and each ind had an ind spirit worshiped by everyone.

    Apart from a jellyfish spirit, there were also the crab spirit, the starfish spirit, the m spirit...

    The diary didn¡¯t exin what the spirits were exactly. It only described that they were huge and that the residents on the inds respected them greatly.

    A new idea just struck Angor¡¯s mind. Maybe the giant jellyfish soul and crab soul he saw were actually the ¡°ind spirits¡±, while the undead souls on their bodies were left behind by the deceased subjects of Spirit Land?

    But the gloomy creatures and writhing souls looked so different from the prosperous nation and happy poption described in the stories.

    However, there was a way to prove the story. Lucas mentioned that the ind spirit at the center of Spirit Land, where the capital was located, was a towering giant. If Angor could find this capital ind and see this giant... then everything could be exined.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to risk running into the depth of Specter Basin.

    Still, Lucas¡¯ logs were too strange to believe. Lucas¡¯ stories always differed from what Angor heard in particr ways. For example, Lucas imed that his tears created a patch of flowers on the sea. But Nayah¡¯s story told by Tulu suggested otherwise.

    Simrly, what Lucas said about thend spirits probably wouldn¡¯t reflect the truth.

    True or not, Angor was getting more and more interested in this man called Lucas. Perhaps he could look into this name once he arrived at Ferran and learn more.

    He put away the logbook and went onto the balcony to look toward Specter Basin, which they just left behind.

    He wasn¡¯t going to mind this dangerous ce for the moment, but he¡¯d kept his spirit of adventure and constantly be on the ready to explore more mysteries in this world.

    After enjoying the refreshing wind outside for a while, he was going to go inside and work on his flying boots again.

    But a strange feeling suddenly hit his mind as he looked at the sky.

    Nothing. There were only thick clouds above him.

    ¡°Huh... was someone watching me?¡±

 Chapter 740 - Night Skipper

    <h4>Chapter 740: Night Skipper</h4>

    Hovering on her ck feather wings, Swan watched The Limpet leaving her view and dived back into the clouds.

    ¡°Wintertide, I see... Good choice. Summerdew Ridge won¡¯t be so safe with our visitor there.¡±

    She let out a sigh of relief, but she was soon bothered by another question.

    While she was d to see Helen escaping from Specter Basin safe and well, she couldn¡¯t understand how it was possible.

    There was one time she apanied her master and went to Specter Basin to search for research materials. While carrying the corpses of several giants, she witnessed how horrific the ce was.

    Countless undead souls that came at her like an unending nightmare... She was sure she¡¯d have died there if she moved just a bit slower.

    Even her master suffered from some nasty wounds and would not go there ever since, which only deepened her fear against it.

    So how did a ship full of mortals make it out?

    While it was her job to patrol the Death Loop today, she also nned to move around the edge of Specter Basin and see whether she could assist Helen in any way. But it seemed The Limpet didn¡¯t need her help¡ªit even spent an entire night in there and survived.

    Sure, the sailors looked spent and glum, but this waspletely expected¡ªbeing inside the deathly energy that was the local product of Specter Basin was enough to make people ill.

    Other than that, everyone seemed fine and alive.

    ¡°Perhaps ¡®he¡¯ scared off the monsters so that The Limpet caught a chance to get past them? Wait... does the undead know what ¡®scare¡¯ is at all?¡±

    She suddenly heard the depressed sailors plucking up and cheering loudly, which drew her attention as she looked at the ship again.

    There, she saw a strange beastnd on the deck of the ship.

    Before she could figure out what this ¡°lion-eagle¡± thing was, it shrank smaller and jumped onto someone¡¯s hand, who was probably the protector of The Limpet.

    ¡°An alchemy puppet capable of shapeshifting...?¡± Swan took a guess when she assumed that the ship¡¯s protector was sent by the Floating Mech City. ¡°Are they so happy because their guardian returned to them? Is he the one who escorted the ship out of Specter Basin?¡±

    Beneath her, the middle-aged ¡°guardian¡± with azy look had returned to his room, preventing Swan from further observing him.

    As she recalled, the previous guardian of The Limpet was a wizard called Roman, who had almost reached the end of his lifespan. She assumed that Roman already died of old age and was reced.

    In the end, she chose to believe that the ship was safe because they were lucky to stumble into Specter Basin when the undead souls were in their dormancy.

    ¡°Guess I should ask Lady Payeter and learn about their cycles...¡± She thought and followed behind The Limpet while hiding inside the clouds.

    Death Loop was more turbulent than usual because of a certain visitor from the Valley of Hurricane. She thought about watching over The Limpet for the moment until it reached Wintertide.

    About an hourter, the ship sessfully reached several floating ciers, which meant it almost reached Wintertide.

    The ship¡¯s guardian suddenly left his room and entered Swan¡¯s view again.

    ¡°Out for fresh air?¡± she thought.

    However, for a brief second, she saw the man looking directly her way.

    Out of instinct, she moved further into the sky.

    <i>He saw me?</i>

    This was the first time she found herself detected by an apprentice while using her ¡°Shadow Swan Form¡±.

    <i>That man must have really sharp senses...</i> She gave him onest meaningful nce and left the area. <i>Was that an elite student sent by the floating city then?</i>

    Swiftly, she returned to Summerdew Ridge and talked to Lady Paye about her concerns.

    ¡°Undead tide?¡± Lady Paye put down the tea grinder she was using. ¡°Yes, they should be in dormancy around these days. However, I got a message from the master this morning, that an incident came about at Specter Basin. All three near-wizard level puppets she sent as scouts were destroyed by something, and the alert level of that ce has been raised to ¡®very high¡¯. I suggest that you do not approach there.¡±

    <i>High alert?</i> Swan frowned. <i>Then however did The Limpet make it out in one piece? All thanks to that illusionist?</i>

    Lady Paye suddenly looked up and red at her. ¡°Why are you interested in the undead tide? Did you perhaps go there despite our rules?¡±

    ¡°Of course not.¡± Swan shook her head quickly. ¡°I¡¯m just curious.¡±

    She thought about telling Lady Paye about The Limpet but then decided not to. Someone like Paye would definitely go and imprison everyone on the ship and interrogate them about what was going on at Specter Basin. And a wizard interrogating mortals would only end up with people losing their lives.

    <i>I¡¯ll just pretend that I didn¡¯t see The Limpet today...</i> Swan convinced herself.

    ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± Paye startled her by showing a sly smile.

    Swan trembled a bit and began sweating on her back.

    Lady Paye picked up her teacup, which was releasing a strange aroma, and took a sip.

    ¡°I¡¯m not interested in what¡¯s going on inside your head, but make sure you don¡¯t hide your new discoveries from the master.¡±

    Swan knelt on the floor and kissed Paye¡¯s toes.

    ¡°Of course, ma¡¯am. I will never tell lies or betray the master.¡±

    ¡°Humph. You missed an announcement while you¡¯re away, I guess I should tell you now. There¡¯s another important matter besides staying away from Specter Basin. People from Song of the Deep are onto something these days. They¡¯re looking for a man named Lucas. ording to a clue our master heard, this Lucas man has something to do with the mysterious dimension. Make sure you send someone and look into the matter.¡±

    ¡°Acknowledged. I¡¯ll do it right away.¡± Swan nodded.

    ¡°Also, that visitor will soon leave, after which people from the Goman Kingdom will learn about the information ande as well. Be absolutely sure that your men do not tell anyone about our visitor. Otherwise...¡± Paye put on her cup¡¯s lid and gave Swan another cold nce. ¡°The master is in need of extra test subjects in thebs.¡±

    ¡°I-I understand.¡± Swan flinched.

    When Swan left her room, Lady Paye nced at a portrait on her desk, which showed a man with bright red hair.

    ...

    Angor spent half a day applying Preserve Heat rune onto The Limpet and returned to his room to work on the flying boots.

    Two dayster, the pair of boots was finalized under his hands. He named it ¡°Night Skipper¡±.

    The boots didn¡¯t look very outstanding as far as their outer design was considered. They basically appeared as cheap, everyday ck boots sold in ordinary shops. But the flickering runes on them did give them an indescribably peculiar fashion.

    Apart from this, Angor was very satisfied with the final effect achieved on the boots.

    He intentionally restricted the item level just below mid-tier, which prevented an alchemy omen from urring.

    He didn¡¯t dare to create a mid-tier item right at Devil¡¯s Water since the omen might show up as something he couldn¡¯t manage.

    Of course, the effect avable to such a level was weakerpared to real mid-tier items. But he was d he was skilled enough to control the oue of his crafting attempts so precisely.

    At night, he tried flying around the ship using his new boots. As expected, they could not help him move very fast like how Gond did. Yet they offered greater stealth and mobility.

    Previously, he had to drag his body using the sequence of gravity or ask Toby¡¯s help if he wished to eject his soul. Now with the flying boots, he could fight enemies in midair with more options.

 Chapter 741 - Tulu

    <strong>Chapter 741: Tulu</strong>

    The Month of Freezing Earth had almost passed, suggesting the arrival of the coldest climate. Anyone who dared to enter Wintertide at such a time would find someone in their crew frozen solid.

    But with the help of Angor¡¯s rune, the sailors didn¡¯t even need their extra clothes.

    ¡°Wizards are awesome!¡± A sailor in a navy shirt talked to his patrolling partner. ¡°They can make winter so warm or the other way round, they can quench big floods and create water out of nothing to deal with drought... Like, is there anything they can¡¯t do?¡±

    ¡°So why didn¡¯t Mister Roman help us with anything when he was on the ship?¡±

    ¡°Oh... well...¡±

    Tulu, who had been fishing at the edge of the ship, joined their conversation. ¡°Most wizards are only interested in their own business and profit. It¡¯s already a blessing that they don¡¯t asionallye and attack us for fun. You want to ask for their help? In your dreams.¡±

    The sailors exchanged a puzzled look.

    ¡°But Mister Padt is so different.¡±

    Tulu grinned. ¡°We¡¯re so lucky that Mister Padt joined our ship. You don¡¯t find kind people like him very often.¡±

    They heard footsteps and saw Helening to them in her usual uniform.

    ¡°Wizards are human beings too,¡± she said. ¡°But most of the time, they don¡¯t regard us as equal humans. Mortals cane in different sses too, right? Guess Mister Padt is one of the ¡®better¡¯ ones among wizards.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be like him too if I ever be a wizard!¡± Tulu eximed.

    ¡°Stop dreaming,mb.¡± A sailorughed. ¡°If you got the skills for that, Mister Roman would have brought you back to the association.¡±

    ¡°Maybe I AM talented but he just didn¡¯t notice!¡± Tulu protested.

    Everyone on the ship knew for a fact that anyone capable of bing a wizard would be taken to Floating Mech City for training, while those left on the ship would bemon workers forever.

    But Helen had a different idea. The witch she met before told her that nothing in the wizarding world was absolute. There might be ways for mortals to earn supernatural power.

    Ever since Helen met with Angor and heard about the story of Nausica, she found her childhood dreamsing back. She knew it was unlikely, but she had decided to go and find Swan when she had a chance and see whether she could find her way into the wizarding world for real.

    ¡°Whatever you think, I¡¯ll be a good guy if I ever turn into someone powerful!¡± Tulu was still arguing with the sailors.

    Helen chuckled. ¡°We¡¯re talking about good and bad in the views of mortals. It would be different in the wizarding world though. Just stick to your true heart and you¡¯ll be fine.¡± She put a hand on Tulu¡¯s head. ¡°Now stop thinking about random stuff. Come with me. Mister Padt wants to see you.¡±

    ¡°Really?!¡± Tulu quickly hurled his fishing rod onto the deck, oblivious of the helpless creature already hooked on it. ¡°Let¡¯s go, quickly!¡±

    ...

    Angor had been enjoying the fresh air on his balcony and observing the discussion below.

    Tulu reminded him of his childhood, during which he was just as naive and short-sighted.

    ¡°Come in.¡± He heard the pair reaching his door and asked them toe inside.

    While Tulu shivered a little and tried to figure out where to put his hands, Helen bowed and left the room.

    ¡°Helen, you stay with us too,¡± Angor called her back.

    After Helenplied and took a spot behind Tulu, Angor prepared several items on his desk.

    ¡°You showed greater resistance against the energy released by the monster jellyfish, which means your spirit is better than normal. I¡¯m going to give you a test and see whether you have what it takes to be a wizard.¡±

    Tulu found his mind instantly filled by both joy and anxiety.

    While arguing with the sailors, he knew that he probably didn¡¯t have the talent since no one from the association paid him any attention before. But if Angor proved his inability right here... then he couldn¡¯t even have his dreams from now on.

    Even so, he wouldn¡¯t deny this chance. Since he was asked toe, there must be a good reason for it.

    While still trembling, he took a seat in front of the desk as Angor asked and looked at the objects Angor prepared¡ªa ss of water, an oilmp, an iron dagger, and a cactus pot found on the window.

    The Abelles¡¯ Eye could only tell if someone was talented. In order to generally tell the nature of the talent, Angor had to figure out what became of these items in Tulu¡¯s view.

    With everything done, Angor told the boy to put his hand on the Abelles¡¯ Eye.

    He received the item upon epting the recruitment quest in Brute Cavern. There were also several books with some simple channeling methods along with it.

    ¡°Watch carefully and tell me if anything is changing.¡±

    Tulu gulped and nced behind him, where Helen gave him a reassuring smile.

    He then took a deep breath to calm down before slowly pressing both his hands on the surface of the crystal ball-like object.

    There was a bright sh of red light.

    Helen widened her eyes in great shock, while Angor raised an eyebrow.

    Angor expected this to happen since what Tulu disyed during the jellyfish assault was pretty much extraordinary.

    He was right... Roman was just too blind to discover a fresh talent among the sailors. Angor shook his head.

    ¡°Sir, Tulu can be a wizard?¡± Helen asked with an envious look.

    ¡°He can. The Talent Sphere does not lie. As for what exactly he can do... it will need more testster.¡±

    Tulu shook his head to get out of the trance he was in. ¡°Um, sir, I don¡¯t think I saw anything special.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. You have the talent, and that¡¯s what¡¯s important right now.¡±

    ¡°Talent... I¡¯m talented?! To be a real wizard?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely.¡± Angor nodded.

    ¡°Awesome!¡± Tulu bounced up from his seat and gave Helen a big hug.

    Helen pushed him away. ¡°Chill. Don¡¯t lose yourself yet.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sorry, captain... I just can¡¯t help it. I have a chance to be a good wizard now!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not an easy thing to do,¡± Angormented. ¡°But you should remember your words nevertheless.¡±

    Tulu took a moment to fully calm down. ¡°Sir, can I study from you from now on?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer since he didn¡¯t know yet.

    Tulu was an employee of the White m Association, which belonged to Floating Mech City. He couldn¡¯t just poach their people like this when he just received an invitation to their research department.

    ¡°I... I can¡¯t, sir?¡± Tulu found his excitement quickly cooling off.

    Angor decided to tell them the truth for now.

    ¡°As I said, it¡¯s not my decision whether you can follow me.¡±

    ¡°Wait, sir...¡± Helen suddenly spoke up, ¡°Tulu is not with the association.¡±

 Chapter 742 - New Hope

    <h4>Chapter 742: New Hope</h4>

    Angor nced at Tulu again, who looked very surprised to hear what Helen said.

    ¡°Captain Erwin found Tulu from a small vige three years ago. He was only 15 back then. The association only epts people who are 18 or older. Tulu has been working on the ship as probation. During these years, it¡¯s Erwin who¡¯s been taking care of Tulu¡¯s expenses and payment. Well, he¡¯s 18 now, but the captain is nning to get to Ferran Land before getting Tulu registered. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s necessary anymore.¡±

    ¡°Hey wait, I¡¯ve been getting my sry from Captain Erwin?¡± Tulu widened his eyes.

    ¡°Yup.¡± Helen continued exining, ¡°I mean to say, Tulu is not an employee of White m, so you don¡¯t have to worry about getting into trouble by taking him away.¡±

    Angor knuckled at the desk. ¡°I see then...¡±

    Helen suddenly stepped on Tulu¡¯s boots, which caused the young man to yell in pain.

    <i>Call him teacher!</i> She told Tulu using her eyes.

    When Tulu finally realized what he should do and tried to show his manners, Angor released a small trace of nightmare energy to silence him.

    ¡°I¡¯m a recruiter from my organization, but I¡¯m not a teacher. I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to listen to the organization¡¯s arrangement once you reach there.¡±

    Tulu tried his best to speak but failed to make any sound.

    ¡°Um, sir, since you¡¯re so powerful, you can act as his teacher, right?¡± Helen helped by asking.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Powerful? No. I¡¯m nothingpared to all the real wizards out there. It¡¯s best for Tulu to find someone better than me.¡±

    Seeing Helen unconvinced, he continued, ¡°This isn¡¯t my idea, but the regtion of the organization. There are different talents in this world. For example, I¡¯m good at illusions, while Tulu may have to study something different. We should let the organization decide who¡¯s the best teacher.¡±

    Both Helen and Tulu calmed down upon realizing that they were being too impulsive. Finding a teacher who couldn¡¯t teach Tulu would only waste everybody¡¯s time.

    ¡°I¡¯ll decide how to transfer Tulu backter.¡± Angor lifted the silencing trick on Tulu. ¡°But I have to make absolutely sure. Do you really wish to follow me and join Brute Cavern? White m Association can bring you to Floating Mech City, which is another major wizard organization better than Brute Cavern in many aspects. Think carefully before making your final choice.¡±

    Tulu didn¡¯t reply because he just noticed that he knew nothing about these two names. The only thing he could refer to right now was that he liked Angor and he did not want to end up with someone like Roman.

    But he also knew that Roman did not represent the nature of Floating Mech City. Simrly, Brute Cavern definitely wasn¡¯t all full of good guys like Angor.

    ¡°You should take the test too.¡± Angor looked at Helen next. ¡°You seemed fine when the jellyfish was around.¡±

    Helen shook her head and revealed a bitter smile. ¡°I... took the test 20 years ago, sir. I¡¯m not talented.¡±

    ¡°Pity.¡± Angor was a bit disappointed by this. He believed that Helen¡¯s character and foresight suggested a brilliant witch.

    Helen suddenly made up her mind to ask another question. ¡°Sir, can someone without talent be er by any means?¡±

    ¡°You can, on condition that your spirit level isn¡¯t too far below the minimum requirement.¡±

    ¡°Can-can you tell me what my spirit level is, sir?¡±

    Angor saw her unyielding ambition and nodded. ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll test both you and Tulu. It may be a little painful though. Make sure you keep up till the end, or the result won¡¯t be correct.¡±

    ¡°I will, sir!¡±

    Angor took out the spirit meter and handed it to Helen.

    Helen took a brief nce and almost lost bnce as she felt dazed all of a sudden. She¡¯d have fallen on the floor if not for Tulu¡¯s help.

    ¡°The rune inside the meter will be more disorienting and difficult to look at as the number you¡¯re at increases. You should start from zero.¡±

    Helen waited to recover to her best condition and did as asked.

    She saw a golden line slowly and smoothly growing up from ¡°0¡±.

    Upon reaching ¡°3¡±, it split up into two and kept swirling like a DNA helix structure.

    Helen had her spirit power rapidly burnt away as her face grew pale. Her body shuddered as her brain strained to its limit.

    The final result was 9.3.

    She dropped the meter and copsed on the floor, drenched in sweat.

    ¡°Not bad. No wonder you stayed awake during the monster attack. Yes, you have a chance to be a talent.¡±

    A drop of tear ran along Helen¡¯s cheek.

    ¡°But you still need to find a great destiny that gives you the decisive boost,¡± Angor continued.

    ¡°I know, sir. I once helped a witch from drowning at Devil¡¯s Water. I¡¯ll find a chance to speak to her. Maybe she can help me in return.¡±

    Angor was pretty surprised to see the mortal woman actually knew what to do.

    ¡°Best of luck then. If I hear the rise of a new witch named Helen in the wizarding world, I¡¯ll make sure to pay you a visit.¡±

    Helen gave him a timid smile.

    Tulu had gotten over his concerns and said, ¡°Mister Padt, I will go with you and study at Brute Cavern.¡±

    Angor gazed at him and made sure that Tulu meant those words.

    ¡°Very well.¡±

    Since Tulu was mainly under the supervision of Erwin, they probably had to speak to Erwin about this matterter.

    While waiting for Helen to bring Erwin here, Angor gave Tulu another test and saw a spirit level of 13, which was... not very impressive.

    Erwin had no problem epting the oue and gave his best wishes to Tulu.

    ¡°It was your grandmother who asked me to take you to the sea. But it seems this is not your final ce yet.¡± Erwin allowed Tulu to decide his own way. ¡°To avoid unnecessary trouble, don¡¯t tell anyone about what happened today. Once we¡¯re back at Ferran Land, I¡¯ll tell others that you¡¯re tired of sailing and that you are going back to your vige to settle down.¡±

    It was obvious that by ¡°unnecessary trouble¡±, Erwin meant to find an excuse to exin the matter to Floating Mech City. Even if Tulu was a ¡°probationary employee¡±, handing him to another organization without asking for the city¡¯s opinion could be offensive.

    ¡°Well, you all can go and have your lunch.¡± Angor nced outside the window. ¡°Tulu,e here in the evening, and I¡¯ll tell you the basic stuff about the wizarding world.¡±

    ...

    Once in the hallway, Helen looked at Tulu¡¯s uncontroble smile and whispered to him, ¡°Conceal that look while on the ship, will you? Don¡¯t let your tongue slip and cause trouble to Mister Padt.¡±

    Tulu nodded but without removing that big smile. He just couldn¡¯t help it.

    Helen sighed. ¡°Think about Mister Roman. Maybe the wizarding world isn¡¯t that awesome as you think. Power always means corruption and violence. Learn from Mister Padt and grow up.¡±

 Chapter 743 - Empty Ballad

    <h4>Chapter 743: Empty Bad</h4>

    At night, Tulu went to Angor¡¯s room alone to learn about the basic knowledge for entering the world of wizards, such as how the three major arts worked and the levels of apprentices and wizards.

    When this was done, Angor took out a handbook and gave it to Tulu.

    ¡°This is Circr Cut Channeling, one of the easiest channeling methods given by Brute Cavern. Use this until you find something better. As I said, knowledge is always the most valuable asset in the wizarding world. You¡¯re not supposed to share the book with anyone unless allowed to.¡±

    Tulu happily epted the gift. During the years he worked on The Limpet, he more or less knew that wizards would never entrust knowledge to outsiders easily.

    Even at this moment, a small part of him told him that this was all a dream. He could have never imagined that he would be a talented one who could study wizardry overnight!

    One reason why Angor gave Tulu a channeling method book without a second thought was that he did not want to repeat Mara¡¯s mistake¡ªwhen Sunders took him away from the recruiter of White Coral Academy. Mara still had not given him a channeling method and made him a student of the academy for selfish reasons, and it gave Sunders a chance to intercept him.

    He fully knew that his task was to sessfully bring Tulu back to Brute Cavern. By giving Tulu a channeling method of the organization, he could at least prevent recruiters from other organizations seizing Tulu.

    ¡°Let me see... Every two weeks, I¡¯ll give you one hour during which you¡¯re free to ask questions regarding your studies. Now, you can go.¡±

    Tulu showed a hesitant look.

    In fact, Tulu had been carrying this look since he entered the room, and Angor saw it. But he wasn¡¯t going to ask why.

    It seemed Tulu couldn¡¯t hold back his idea and finally decided to speak frankly. ¡°Mister Padt, there-there¡¯s another matter I have to say.¡±

    Angor simply looked at him in silence.

    ¡°I said I didn¡¯t see any ¡®change¡¯ during the test earlier today, right? But that¡¯s not the case. I only found something wrong after leaving your room. It¡¯s the sky. It looks different from what I saw in the test.¡±

    ording to Tulu, he saw the sky being all gloomy as if it were going to rain during the test. But when he was asked to leave and went onto the ship¡¯s deck, the weather was sunny and clear without a single cloud in his view.

    ¡°Is that the change I¡¯m supposed to see, sir?¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± Angor replied while thinking about the possible talent this meant.

    There were way too many examples to consider if he only looked at ¡°clouds¡±. In <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection</i>, many ultists and Elementalists saw clouds changing colors or sizes or even getting frozen up when they touched an Abelles¡¯ Eye.

    As for anything else... Tulu mentioned rainclouds during the test, and it did rain in the afternoon. This suggested another possibility, that Tulu might be another Prophet like Dodoro.

    And Brute Cavern did need more prophet-in-training right now.

    ¡°Officer Helen told me that you know how to predict the weather, right? It was you who foretold the tornado at Death Loop?¡±

    Tulu tilted his head. ¡°It¡¯s not really ¡®predict¡¯. I just read the moisture and temperature, which somehow tell me how the climate is going to change. I used to spend days gazing at the sea back in my vige. I think that¡¯s how I learned to do it.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°You¡¯re perhaps talented in controlling the sea around you, just like Roman.¡±

    Tulu was d to hear something about the sea since this was his second home, but he wasn¡¯t so happy when Roman¡¯s name was mentioned.

    Angor could easily see that Tulu was sort of obsessed with ¡°being a good wizard¡±. The idea of bing a wizard like Roman upset him greatly.

    ¡°The characters of wizards are not defined by the skills they use. You will see kind ones who wield dark arts or merciless killers who are good at healing. Remember what Helen told you in the morning? The wizarding world is moreplicated than you thought. Even Roman might not be the selfish person you believe him to be. There are countless people studying the same art like him. You can¡¯t g them as one.¡±

    He ended his lecture here even though Tulu still looked a downer. It wasn¡¯t his job to teach right and wrong.

    After Tulu left, Angor took out his notebook, found the page he used to record the apprentices he recruited, and added Tulu¡¯s name after Dodoro, Papaya, Kudodo, and Lococo.

    He had found five talents already. Only one more to go to fulfill the minimum quota of his quest.

    Even so, he wasn¡¯t nning on bringing back six talents only. Years ago, Sunders brought 9 talents back to Brute Cavern, and he used a very extreme way of selecting talents. Angor thought he could travel around different ces while looking for more talents as long as he had the time for it. This would also increase his reward.

    ...

    Once again, The Limpet enjoyed calm waters for a few days.

    Tulu did a good job hiding his new career from the sailors. And to follow Erwin¡¯s n, he intentionally revealed his hope of returning home and get a wife whenever he had a chance in hope that when he did leave the crew, it would not cause suspicion.

    At night, Tulu stayed in his room to read <i>Circr Cut Channeling</i> and used his ¡°lesson time¡± as best as he could to receive advice from Angor that helped him meditate better.

    Even so, he never managed to enter a proper meditation session for real yet. Devil¡¯s Water was obviously not an ideal ce for it.

    With fewer jobs to do, Angor returned to his routine life, which was all about meditation and studying Truth Maniptor cantrips. asionally, he would read <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia</i> using his tablet.

    The book came with four volumes for alchemists of different levels. He wished to find some runes that could help him block detections performed by Prophets.

    It was very likely that the thugs sent by Centipede Guild located him because of the help provided by a Prophet. He had to find a way to prevent this from happening again so that he could keep people with bad intentions froming for him or his family.

    The ancient book left behind in the Nightmare Realm did not disappoint him. When his eyes started to ache after reading for too long, he managed to list out all the useful runes and magic arrays for this purpose.

    Most of them were recorded in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Masters</i>. Apparently, these were not something he could attempt right now, so he had to give up.

    There were seven magic arrays found in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced</i>. Six of them were too enigmatic for him to draw even if he burned all the magic crystals using his Energy Stabilizer, while thest one seemed... eptable. Almost.

    This one was called the ¡°Empty Bad¡±, which was used to block off prophecy spells that targeted him. But the array had to be and remain activated for this effect to work, during which it would consume magic crystals at a scary speed.

    Compared to one of the passive effects introduced in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Masters,</i> which even worked against legendary wizards, this one was just too weak.

    Even though the magic array ¡°Empty Bad¡± was made of 15 different runes.

    The most difficult magic array Angor tried previously consisted of 8 runes only. It was almost impossible for him to suddenly do something so hard.

    This also told him that items with such an anti-detection effect were very rare in this world.

    He once checked the descriptions of several tactical weapons used for annoying enemy Prophets, and he had forgotten how many digits he saw in their prices.

    In the following days, he devoted himself to learning Empty Bad full-time. However, his progress wasn¡¯t good.

 Chapter 744 - Reaching Ferran

    <h4>Chapter 744: Reaching Ferran</h4>

    When Angor saw the date indicator on his tablet entering a new year, The Limpet finally arrived at Grandgreen Range, which was the first ce to go for people from Ferran who would enter Devil¡¯s Water. But to The Limpet, this basically meant their final destination.

    ¡°That was five months, huh?¡± Angor listened to the joyful conversations of sailors and felt sad all of a sudden.

    In order not to let random concerns and old memories depress him, he forced himself to empty his mind.

    But Tulu¡¯s arrival disrupted his peace.

    ¡°Are you joining our feast, Mister Padt? Officer Helen asked me to invite you...¡± Tulu wasn¡¯t sure whether he was interrupting something.

    ¡°No.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll just cause all you people to get nervous again. I¡¯ll watch from here.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re almost at Ferran Land. We wish to sincerely thank you, sir.¡±

    Angor considered and decided toply.

    Fate had asked them to ovee all the obstacles together. Might as well celebrate their sessful journey at thest moment.

    As he expected, the sailors were grateful but weren¡¯t yelling and singing as loudly when he was present. To let these people fully enjoy the feast, he sipped some wine as a courtesy and moved to the edge of the ship.

    ¡°Thank you for everything you did for us, sir.¡±

    Angor looked around and saw Helen leaning against the railings in her casual wear.

    The whole sight looked like a great deja-vu to him¡ªwhen he boarded The Limpet, Helen thanked him in the exact same way.

    ¡°You brought the ship here as you¡¯re paid to do. And that¡¯s enough as a reward to me,¡± Angor replied like how he used to.

    Helen looked down. ¡°Mister Padt... If I ever go to the wizarding world, it is possible for me to... you know, catch up to you?¡±

    ¡°Why would you use me as your example?¡± Angor¡¯s deep-blue eyes reflected the starlight.

    ¡°Well, you and Mister Roman are the only two wizards I know rtively well. But since Mister Roman is¡ª¡±

    ¡°What about Asbel?¡± Angor pointed out Nausica¡¯s formal name with a smile. ¡°Sure, I won¡¯t mind if you wish to follow my steps, but for someone who wishes to be a true wizard, you should never set another individual as your goal. Instead, try constantly surpassing yourself and keep aiming higher.¡±

    Helen took a moment toprehend those words.

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    Angor gave her a t smile again. During these months, he could see that Helen developed some unusual ideas about him, which might also be the reason why the woman wanted to be a wizard all of a sudden. However, he did not want to restrict her or even lead her astray.

    It would be best to tell her how to determine her ambition more properly.

    And as he expected from her, Helen didn¡¯t struggle with her decisions for too long. A brief look of disappointment was all she showed before she became determined again.

    As ady who became the second-inmand of The Limpet, she knew how to be decisive.

    ¡°You looked rather confident in bing a wizard, which is impressive,¡± Angor teased Helen after making sure she fully got over her worry.

    Helen shrugged without speaking. Years ago, Swan offered to help her be a talent, but she couldn¡¯t make up her mind back then. Now she knew what to do.

    ¡°If you do be a talent someday, you cane to Brute Cavern and join Tulu.¡± Angor took out a piece of parchment from his bracelet and drew his alchemy signature on it. ¡°You know Boro from White m City, right? Show him this, and he¡¯ll help you find Brute Cavern.¡±

    Helen epted the note and nodded. She was pretty sure that she¡¯d go with Swan and join another organization, but it was always wise to keep another option.

    With their conversation ended, Helen returned to her men and enjoyed the food and wine again, while Angor listened to the sailors¡¯ chantey and couldn¡¯t help humming along.

    The feaststed until midnight and left a group of knocked-out sailors lying on the deck mumbling nonsense in their dreams. The whole ship fell quiet apart from those responsible for their night shifts.

    ...

    When the ship prated the veil of night and weed the next dawn, the watchman on the observation stand called to everyone.

    ¡°I see the Exodus Lighthouse!¡±

    Those who were suffering from confusional arousal instantly perked up upon hearing this, then they all looked toward the horizon.

    Angor walked onto his balcony and saw a tiny dot, which was supposed to be the lighthouse casting its light at The Limpet. The light beam was mostly dampened by the distance, but the sailors had no problem seeing it.

    From the cheering sailors, Angor learned that the Exodus Lighthouse marked the entrance to Devil¡¯s Water. Reaching it meant they had already reached the Exodus Channel.

    Once they moved past Exodus Ind, which was a supply depot for ships entering or leaving Devil¡¯s Water, they would finally be free of dangerous tides and deadly storms.

    ¡°Almost at the end, huh?¡± Again, Angor felt that the long journey was like a dream, a really fruitful one.

    When approaching the ind, they saw crowds gathered at the edge of the ind weing the arrival of The Limpet. Several overenthusiastic folks even tossed some food and fabric at them.

    ¡°I always love this indmunity!¡±

    ¡°Absolutely. Every time I see¡¯em, I know the trip is worth it.¡±

    ¡°WelI, I know none of their names, but man, I feel like a warrior returning from victory!¡±

    Angor was a little surprised to realize that the ind residents were cheering for The Limpet out of their own will. It seemed they regarded the ship as another brave warrior who conquered the devil.

    And he liked the simple yet sincere passion shown by these mortals. He knew he had to travel more to witness the diversity of people in this world instead of reading about them in books.

    Despite the adoration it received, The Limpet did not stop by the ind. Instead, it kept moving on.

    Exodus Ind belonged to Aureum, a small country at the southwest edge of Ferran Land.

    The Limpet only needed another day to reach Yothur Harbor of Aureum. Those who were born at Ferran Land simply could not wait to get home as fast as possible, while the others would like to enjoy the safety of solid ground again. Since the ship wasn¡¯t in need of extra supplies, there was no point stopping in the middle.

    The broad coastline of Ferran entered their view the next morning.

    The Limpet met no obstructions before getting admitted into the port. As soon as it did, groups of brokers watching the port quickly ran to their employers to report its arrival.

    Along with the sailors unloading the ship, Angor stepped down thedder with Helen, Erwin, and Tulu following him.

    ¡°Sir, I own a house in Yothur City. Please feel free to use it if you need lodging,¡± Erwin offered politely.

    Angor did n to stay at Ferran for a while, both to search for Lucas¡¯ information and to scout for talents. Since he also needed a lot of time working on Empty Bad, he chose to ept Erwin¡¯s invitation.

    ¡°I¡¯d appreciate it.¡±

    ¡°Oh please, we are the ones who are grateful. I should definitely do what I can after you helped us get back unscathed.¡±

    Erwin was going to show Angor the way to his house, but he stopped moving when he saw a man wearing the association¡¯s uniform standing not far from him.

    ¡°Oops... Excuse me, sir, that¡¯s the inspector of White m, probably here to check why Mister Roman had not contacted them. I need to find Helen and report the incident.¡± He then looked at Tulu. ¡°Take Mister Padt to my yard. When at the office, I¡¯ll remove your name from the roster as well.¡±

    Tulu nodded and took the lead.

    Angor glimpsed at the said inspector and noticed supernatural energy. But it was only a level-1 apprentice.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Angor followed behind Tulu, but he suddenly remembered something and turned back. ¡°Oh right... Captain Erwin, can you help me look into something?¡±

 Chapter 745 - Bismarck

    <h4>Chapter 745: Bismarck</h4>

    Erwin¡¯s home was located at the ¡°rich zone¡± of Yothur City where most of the biggest buildings and high-ss gathered.

    It was a 4-story apartment, and Erwin owned the top floor. The busy street below the building was called Marcel District. Both ends of the street had a statue of a crouching man with wings behind his back. Most people who entered the street would remove their hats and pay respect.

    ¡°The statue is Marcel. Rumors say that he¡¯s some herald of heaven who descended upon Aureum and civilized the initial tribes into the city you see now.¡± Tulu carried some hot water onto the balcony where Angor was inspecting the mortal city with a curious look.

    ¡°So you don¡¯t believe that rumor, I take it?¡±

    ¡°Who will? Don¡¯t mind those people bowing and kneeling to the statues. It¡¯s kind of a rule around here. The royal court of Aureum believes the story, then the nobles follow them. They made up family titles after Marcel and built his statues everywhere just to show their loyalty to their ruler. Next, traders andmon citizens who wish to join their rank also copied their ways.¡± Tulu rolled his eyes. ¡°Most of them never believed this sh*t. Seriously, maybe even the current king of Aureum pretended it.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about the others, but I¡¯m sure the king trusts the legend,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Er, why¡¯s that, sir?¡±

    ¡°I sense supernatural energying from the statues. Maybe a wizard ced them around the nation to gather the power of faith. And since the rulers allowed this wizard to spread the religion...¡±

    ¡°The power of faith? You-you can collect that?¡±

    ¡°Of course you can. There are demons from Abyss ne who absolutely love such a thing.¡±

    Tulu knew about demons since the basic knowledge told by Angor included foreign ne and their rtionships with the wizarding world.

    ¡°You mean... Marcel did some business with demons? So he wasn¡¯t a herald of heaven, but the Abyss?¡±

    ¡°Nah, we don¡¯t know yet. Judging from their conditions, the statues had been left in the city for centuries, and nothing bad happened here, right? Maybe it¡¯s only a curious wizard who built them.¡±

    Angor then entered the room and put the matter behind. Even if a demon from Abyss was plotting something in the city, it had nothing to do with him.

    The fourth floor of the apartment had a dozen rooms, all belonged to Erwin. Usually, he and Tulu lived here when they were off-work.

    Erwin arranged a rtively small room for Angor, but this one had two balconies that allowed Angor to look at Marcel District and a serene park on the other side.

    Although whatever Erwin would like to achieve didn¡¯t work out since Angor wasn¡¯t nning on spending much time enjoying the view. He was only briefly interested in the statues of Marcel upon his first arrival, after which he never used the balconies.

    The next day, he became aplete shut-in who did nothing other than studying Empty Bad in his room.

    During noontime on the third day, Erwin returned to the department with a depressed look and went to look for Angor.

    ¡°Mister Padt, I¡¯ve shown the ¡®proof¡¯ to the inspector, and he wants to meet you in person.¡±

    ¡°Meet me?¡±

    Angor would like to refuse and continue with his work, but on second thought, he decided to provide a little bit more help since the faithful captain did help him reach Ferran.

    ¡°Alright. Lead the way.¡±

    Erwin quickly arranged a carriage that would take them to the office department of the White m Association.

    ¡°Oh, sir, about that matter you asked to check... I still need more time to confirm the details,¡± Erwin whispered while on their way.

    ¡°Just do your best. Don¡¯t worry if you can¡¯t find anything.¡±

    Their vehicle arrived at the destination almost at nightfall since the office was pretty far from Erwin¡¯s ce.

    Angor was asked to go into a guest room where he met with the ¡°inspector¡± in private.

    However, it wasn¡¯t the uniformed man he saw at the port. Instead, he was weed by a bald and bulky guy named Bismarck.

    ¡°It¡¯s an honor to see you, Mister Padt.¡±

    They spent a brief moment exchanging formalities.

    ¡°I heard that you wield brilliant illusion skills, Mister Padt, and right now, I cannot ascertain whether the proof filmed in the crystal ball is an illusion, so we need you to help us confirm the evidence.¡±

    ¡°My help?¡± Angor was a bit annoyed since what Bismarck said sounded slightly offensive. ¡°What should I do exactly, Mister Bismarck?¡±

    ¡°The association sent an expert who¡¯s on his way. I hope Mister Padt can stay at Yothur City in the meantime. When he arrives, you can talk about this matter.¡± Bismarck looked more respectful when talking about their ¡°expert¡±.

    Both Bismarck and Angor were level-3 apprentices, so they maintained basic manners while talking to each other. By this, Angor assumed that this ¡°expert¡± might be a wizard.

    ¡°How long am I supposed to stay? Several days or months?¡± Angor looked at Bismarck in the eyes.

    ¡°He departed not long ago, but it won¡¯t take him too long to reach here since he didn¡¯t need to cross Devil¡¯s Water,¡± Bismarck replied without noticing Angor¡¯s impatience. ¡°About three months, I¡¯d say.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s no good. I have my own missions to do. I can¡¯t remain at Ferran for that long.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t make it hard for me, Mister Padt.¡± Bismarck suddenly changed his tone harsher. ¡°Or are you afraid to have your forged evidence found out?¡±

    ¡°Heh. Are you ying dumb on purpose or are you dumb for real?¡± Angor slowly released his power. ¡°Don¡¯t you have someone who can identify the reliability of the crystal ball? Yeah, maybe you can¡¯t. But there must be loads of wizards from Floating Mech City stationed at Ferran. What about them? You think I yed a childish trick on the evidence? Come on, I thought you can find a better excuse.¡±

    Bismarck grimaced. ¡°You¡¯re right, Mister Padt. I mean, we can use truth-detection spells for this purpose, but I¡¯m afraid you still have to wait for our expert to perform the spell.¡±

    ¡°I showed the evidence to Floating Mech City, and I¡¯m not afraid of anything you might do with it. Since none of us is the stupid one, I should ask this question more clearly, what are you keeping me here for?¡±

    Bismarck remained quiet.

    ¡°Heh. Not that it matters. Since you don¡¯t want to talk, I¡¯ll not waste any more time here. We both know whether the evidence is trustworthy or not.¡±

    Bismarck¡¯s expression turned cruel when he saw that Angor was about to leave the room. When he found a chance, he quickly lifted his hand and released two golden chains toward Angor¡¯s back.

    Angor already had a cantrip prepared in his mindspace. After an ice wall blocked Bismarck¡¯s chains, he instantly deployed a number of illusion nodes around him.

    Despite his level, Bismarck had been spending his time in peaceful ces, which made him an ¡°academism¡±. He was trapped in Angor¡¯s mist without putting up a fight.

    ¡°I was going to have a peaceful talk with you since you¡¯re with the Floating Mech City, but since you made the first move... don¡¯t me me for some legit self-defense.¡±

    Angor expressed his killing intent for Bismarck to hear, then he asked Toby to harass Bismarck without actually killing him. He still would like to know why someone from Floating Mech City wanted to keep him in the city.

    As for the evidence part, Angor never believed it. Even Bismarck seemed pretty embarrassed when making up that lie.

    While Toby left more and more wounds on Bismarck¡¯s flesh, Angor also used his nightmare energy to break down Bismarck¡¯s spirit defense.

    However, Bismarck¡¯s lips remained tight.

    It was until Angor used a powerful ¡°Nightmare Fear¡± cantrip, which finally caused Bismarck to lose the mental fight. But the man never mentioned any coherent information while in such a state.

    From the limited words, Angor managed to know that Bismarck wasn¡¯t helping the Centipede Guild. Other than this, there were only two names worth noticing¡ªRoman and Leviathan.

    Angor wasn¡¯t going to check what was so special about Roman since Roman was dead. And when there was nothing else to learn, he unleashed a simple but deadly attack at Bismarck¡¯s forehead.

    There might be all sorts of hidden facts and misunderstandings, but he had enough reason to kill Bismarck now.

    However, his attack was blocked by a sudden energy wave that came from Bismarck¡¯s body.

    ¡°Who dares to harm my student?!¡± A shadow appeared beside Bismarck and unleashed its wizard-level might at Angor.

    <i>A wizard left his spirit barrier on this b*stard?!</i> Angor cursed in his mind. <i>Even Sunders never gave me such protection!</i>

    No matter what he did next, the wizard must have seen him through the mark left on Bismarck. And Angor definitely did not want to provoke a vengeful wizard who would either hunt him down personally or send assassins without an end.

    As he wondered whether he should force his way through the protection and finish off Bismarck, the shadow suddenly spoke again in a smaller voice, ¡°This illusion is... weird. It feels familiar.¡±

 Chapter 746 - Mad Bear and Reunite

    <h4>Chapter 746: Mad Bear and Reunite</h4>

    Angor halted his movement upon hearing those words.

    <i>Did I hear that voice before?</i>

    The mist illusion would not obstruct his own view. Carefully, he inspected the floating shadow, which seemed to be arge man wearing a silver robe.

    ¡°Mister Sabot...?¡± He tried speaking when the shadow also looked at his face as if the mist weren¡¯t there.

    ¡°Who the heck are you?¡± Sabot checked the middle-aged man who deployed the mist in great confusion.

    Angor canceled his illusion and saw Bismarck already unconscious due to the torture and the spirit pressure unleashed by a wizard.

    ¡°I know this illusion. Who are you, and why do you know my name?¡± Sabot asked again.

    Angor simply removed his disguise and put on his usual young look.

    ¡°Angor?!¡± Sabot¡¯s furious look quickly changed into that of delight. ¡°What are you doing here? What happened between you and Bismarck?¡±

    Angor was also confused for good since he never expected that Bismarck¡¯s teacher was ¡°Mad Bear¡± Sabot. He knew Sabot was Mithra¡¯s student, which... didn¡¯t help with the situation. This basically meant he almost killed the student of Mithra¡¯s student, and it definitely was not a good way to repay Mithra¡¯s kindness.

    ¡°Bismarck is your student, Mister Sabot? I think we got a giant mistake here.¡± Angor considered and told Sabot the truth. Hopefully, Sabot would tell him why Bismarck forced him to stay.

    ¡°I see...¡± Sabot nodded. ¡°But my spirit mark is expiring soon. Keep him alive for now, and tell him to contact me using the beacon tower.¡±

    Sabot¡¯s projection flickered and went away.

    Angor sighed and used mor again to revert to ¡°middle-aged Angor¡±. Then he cast Create Water and moved a giant puddle over Bismarck¡¯s face.

    The coldness sessfully woke up Bismarck, who rubbed his head and looked at Angor with a terrified expression.

    ¡°Don¡¯t-don¡¯t kill me!¡± Bismarck stumbled back on his butt.

    Maybe the Nightmare Fear worked better than intended, Bismarck was now trembling badly at the corner of the wall like a startled hare.

    ¡°Your teacher is Mister Sabot?¡± Angor asked with a in look.

    Bismarck was spooked again. Then he reached for his ne where a cracked crystal pendant was affixed. Along with his movement, the crystal broke into several pieces and dropped on the floor.

    ¡°It... You triggered his spirit mark!¡± Bismarck screamed. ¡°He SAW you! He saw that you wanted to kill me, and he¡¯ll do something about it!¡±

    Since Angor didn¡¯t say anything, Bismarck found his courage somewhat returning and slowly stood up.

    ¡°If-if you let me go, I can tell my teacher to make it easy on you...¡±

    Angor gave him a cruel smile. ¡°Get to the beacon tower and talk to Mister Sabot.¡±

    ¡°What-but-what do you want?!¡±

    ¡°To put it simply, I know Mister Sabot pretty well. Since I can¡¯t get through you, I¡¯ll talk to him instead.¡±

    Bismarck didn¡¯t look convinced, but he still listened since he couldn¡¯t oppose Angor. On trembling steps, he took the lead and went to the ¡°beacon tower¡±, which was a round-roofed structure with all kinds of machines and a ¡°lightning rod¡± on top of it.

    After pushing several buttons, Bismarck unwillingly put three magic crystals into the energy chamber, which caused the lightning rod to release several energy pulses into the environment.

    A momentter, Sabot¡¯s face appeared on the screen in the middle of the console.

    ¡°Mister Sabot!¡± Angor bowed.

    ¡°Oh, no need for that. Let¡¯s continue where we left off, shall we?¡± Sabot nodded to Angor and then gave Bismarck a stern re.

    Bismarck carefully moved aside whileining in his mind, <i>This guy knows my professor for real?! And they looked like friends! But I¡¯m Mister Sabot¡¯s student!</i>

    Angor exined what happened to Roman and how he and Bismarck got into a fight.

    Sabot pondered over what he heard and gave Bismarck another angry look. ¡°Speak. What do you want with Angor? You attacked him?? Where did you find such guts?¡±

    <i>Angor?!</i> It took Bismarck a moment to realize that ¡°Angor¡± meant the man standing in front of him. <i>But why do I find that name familiar?</i>

    ¡°Are you deaf or what? Talk!¡± Sabot bellowed.

    Bismarck jumped. ¡°Sir-sir, this is Mister Mariyasah¡¯s decision, not mine.¡±

    ¡°Mariyasah?!¡± Sabot frowned. ¡°What does he want to do to Angor?¡±

    ¡°It-it appears that Mister Roman knows something about a Leviathan, and Mister Mariyasah also would like to learn about it,¡± Bismarck stuttered. ¡°When he saw the evidence, he believes Mister Padt here might also have acquired intelligence regarding a Leviathan¡¯s appearance, so he requested that I keep Mister Padt here and wait until hees to question Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Question Angor? Mariyasah?¡± Sabot spat. He knew that Angor now held the ess card to their research department, which was given by their city master, Muse. There weren¡¯t many people in the entire Floating Mech City who could take Angor in for questioning!

    ¡°Leviathan is powerful but does not hold much value to wizards,¡± said Sabot. ¡°Do you know why Mariyasah is interested in it?¡±

    Bismarck shook his head. ¡°No, sir. But I heard something funny while I was staying at Yothur City.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°It seems there are multiple groups of people who have shown interest in Leviathan, including those from major organizations. Also, the monster has been lurking around Silver Palm Isle instead of staying at its usual habitat. Maybe something fishy is going on over there.¡±

    Sabot was not the type to figure out ¡°fishy business¡±, so he stopped asking for further details and looked at Angor. ¡°Sorry, buddy, I¡¯ll make sure Bismarck gives you a proper apology. As for Mariyasah... I¡¯ll go talk to himter. You don¡¯t have to worry about it.¡±

    Angor had no problem epting the oue.

    ¡°As nned, I need to hurry back to my former teacher¡¯s side to cure his illness, Mister Sabot. I simply cannot remain here for three months.¡±

    Four years ago, Sabot was there in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, and he heard Angor exining Jon¡¯s condition. He knew it was almost time for Angor to fulfill his ¡°five-year promise¡±. Of course wasting three months for no reason was downright uneptable.

    After receiving more of Sabot¡¯s sharp res, Bismarck moved to Angor and bowed down. Also following Sabot¡¯s order, he gave Angor a space capsule that held all the money he earned during the recent years, which was about 200 magic crystals.

    ¡°d I¡¯m in good hands, Mister Sabot.¡± Angor epted the extra money without a second thought, much to Bismarck¡¯s dismay. ¡°As for Roman... he might be keeping some secrets from people, but I don¡¯t know anything about this. When he died, I checked his room and found nothing useful.¡±

    He then offered to allow Sabot to fully check him using a lie-detection spell. However, Sabot didn¡¯t find it necessary.

    ¡°Don¡¯t fret, I trust ya. I¡¯ll tell this to Mariyasah.¡±

    The incident came to an end with both Angor and Sabot satisfied with the result.

    When they cut off the connection with Sabot, Bismarck began sobbing andining about his misfortune during which he lost all his money AND got beaten up.

    And Angor was even more d to see this.

    After rejoining Erwin on the carriage, he thought about a question and decided to ask.

    ¡°Captain Erwin, where did Roman usually learn about the schedules and travel routes of the ships?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure... Someone from the association told him, I think?¡±

    ¡°Do you know someone called Mariyasah?¡±

    Erwin¡¯s pupils suddenly shrank. Then he moved closer to Angor and whispered, ¡°Mister Roman mentioned that name before. Mister Mariyasah is the supreme leader of the White m Seafare Association.¡±

 Chapter 747 - Searching For Clues

    <h4>Chapter 747: Searching For Clues</h4>

    Angor never nned to get involved in any matter rted to a Leviathan and get himself killed against the wizard-level monster, no matter how much fortune was waiting for him.

    After returning to Erwin¡¯s house, he forgot everything about Roman and the Leviathan and continued learning Empty Bad. With the help of his tablet, he sessfully mastered ten runes for building the magic array under a week, which left him five more to go.

    One day, Erwin came back from the association¡¯s office and came to him.

    ¡°Mister Padt, I¡¯ve collected all the files I can find. But this is not the headquarters where they keep EVERYTHING recorded. The oldest timestamp was 2,000 years ago,¡± Erwin said as he dropped arge bag as big as his body onto the floor.

    The files contained in the bag, which were the weather reports of all charted regions at Devil¡¯s Water, upied an entire side of the room. By checking these files, Angor wished to find the ¡°area with evesting sunlight¡±, as told by Lucas.

    It seemed the files only described what was reported by sailors during each journey. In order to ascertain the overall weather conditions of a region, Angor still needed to further arrange the info he found.

    And this was an extremely taxing job since the files included over 200,000 voyages during 2,000 years.

    Thankfully, he could use his tablet to quicken his work again by putting all the data into the device and let it figure out a general report in another manner.

    The result came out within several minutes, which summarized the weather patterns for each known sail route. Then he took several hours checking for anything rted to Lucas¡¯ story.

    ¡°So there¡¯s no such a ce that is always sunny. But...¡±

    He fixed his attention on a particr name¡ª¡±Nautilus Pond¡±. Thest bad weather recorded at Nautilus Pond was 1,800 years ago, after which... the ce remained free of rains and thick clouds.

    Fair weather for a thousand and eight hundred years!

    Of course, there were also asions where no ship was there to watch the weather. But since the report suggested that at least five or six ships used this route each month and none of them ran into bad weather in such a long timespan, then there was a great chance that Nautilus Pond stayed sunny for real.

    ¡°But Lucas was from the Age of Gold, which was 3,000 years ago...¡± Angor rubbed his forehead. ¡°It happened again.¡±

    The logbookposed by a ship¡¯s captain was supposed to record recent events, and in this case, Lucas had to write down what happened around him three thousand years ago.

    However, the ¡°ever-sunny waters¡± mentioned by Lucas was only possible starting from 1,800 years ago.

    Simrly, the flowerbed on the sea, in ordance with Nayah¡¯s story, happened during the Age of Silver, which was about 2,000 years ago.

    Then there were the ¡°ind spirits¡±, which showed up as giant undead spirits at Specter Basin instead. However, Angor had not confirmed that these were the same things yet.

    Angor had realized that Lucas¡¯ logbook was very questionable, but at the same time, truthful in a very strange way. It seemed everything Lucas said could be confirmed by some methods, but a lot of details were off.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me this Lucas is a talented Prophet too? He kept his prophecy in his book? But no... that can¡¯t be right.¡±

    He stepped out of his door after being confined in his room for a full week. He was heading to the library of Yothur City to check if there were books about Lucas.

    The library was built at the Academy District, which was not very far from Erwin¡¯s department. But his trip wasn¡¯t peaceful¡ªthe guard of the library denied his entrance because of his poor dressing style.

    ¡°Oh, Marcel, bless us! It¡¯s against our rules to let a panhandler enter our pce of knowledge!¡± The guard openly discriminated against Angor¡¯s getup even though he himself did not look much better.

    Angor nced at his clothes and realized that his zy and vulgar middle-age look¡± did look a little odd among the library patrons. Even so, he wasn¡¯t going to waste time arguing with a mortal. A simple and harmless nightmare illusion was all he needed to walk past the guard.

    The library had different sections, many of which required their visitors to possess passes to enter.

    But none of these meant anything to Angor as long as he used Infinite Reticence.

    He spent a day in the library and managed to find a lot of books about Nayah the Charmer, but not Lucas.

    A bit disappointed, he returned to Marcel District and saw someone at his door again. However, it was not Erwin. Instead, it was Helen this time.

    ¡°Never once did we arrive at our destination with a full crew on board. Captain Erwin always considers it his job to pay visits and pension money to the families of the deceased,¡± Helen exined. ¡°It¡¯s fewer, but we still had severalrades who died. There was one man who came from the Ivy City of Aureum. Captain Erwin took a carriage to that ce yesterday. Guess he¡¯s still on his way.¡±

    Angor did need a little help from Erwin right now. But since he was absent...

    ¡°Officer Helen, do you know Yothur City well?¡±

    Helen tucked some of her hair behind her ears. ¡°I guess. This is my second home, I¡¯d say.¡±

    ¡°Can you help me find someone who¡¯s good at history? Especially about the Age of Gold and Silver.¡±

    Without asking why, Helen got to the job right away.

    After she left, Tulu came and asked for some days off.

    ¡°Mister Padt, I want to check my vige. My grandma is no longer there, but I still have friends back home. I... don¡¯t know when I can evere back again, so I might need to pay them a visit when I have the chance.¡±

    ¡°Sure. Stay there for a while, if you like. That won¡¯t be a problem.¡±

    ¡°Uh, I can?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll probably travel to the other parts of Ferran Landter,¡± Angor exined, ¡°to find more talents. I¡¯ll get you when it¡¯s time to depart.¡±

    ¡°When will that happen, sir?¡±

    ¡°A month or two. You¡¯re free to stay at your vige or at Yothur City in the meantime.¡±

    Tulu was d that he got extra time to practice meditation for real. The bumpy ride always prevented him from trying out the first steps of Circr Cut Channeling properly.

    ¡°Understood, sir. I¡¯ll go back to the vige and wait for you there.¡±

    Since it wasn¡¯t easy to find extra talents, Angor gave Tulu two defensive scrolls as a ¡°parting gift¡± so that he didn¡¯t fail his quest by ident.

    He was now left alone in Erwin¡¯s house, and he quite enjoyed the peace.

    It took him two days toprehend the 11th rune of Empty Bad. During the afternoon on the 3rd day, Helen came to him again with a tired look. There was also a stylish-looking man wearing a gentleman¡¯s attire following behind her.

    ¡°Mister Padt, in Aureum, only nobilities are allowed to record history, so I have to ask for Neet for help.¡± Helen pointed at the gentleman, who stepped up and bowed to Angor.

    ¡°d to see you again, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°You... look familiar.¡± Angor looked at this man up and down.

    Neet scratched the back of his head. ¡°I was among the sailors who told you about Nayah the Charmer, sir.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I remember now. You¡¯re the guy who told a different story than everyone. It was Nayah the Cruel, right?¡±

    While Angor tried to get used to Neet¡¯s new style, Helen exined that Neet came from a hereditary noble n that originated from the Anrum Monarchy. His family enjoyed rtively great fame and wealth, but he preferred freedom and ran off to Yothur Academy with the excuse of studying abroad. Then he failed his lessons and ended up as a sailor on The Limpet instead.

    For some reason, Neetpletely discarded the characters of a nobleman and was attracted to the hardship of sailing.

    As a nobleman who lived a bizarre life himself, Angor quite admired Neet¡¯s lifestyle.

    ¡°Can I ask for some history lessons from you, Mister Neet?¡±

 Chapter 748 - Legends and Facts

    <h4>Chapter 748: Legends and Facts</h4>

    The busy and prosperous Yothur City had fallen asleep at night.

    The Sunken Street was an old and mostly abandoned route too close to the slum area, which had poor security and reputation. Few people woulde to this ce during the bright day, let alone in the middle of the night.

    A horse-pulled carriage with delicate decoration suddenly showed up here and broke the silence.

    Its arrival soon attracted many pairs of coveting eyes hidden in the dark corners, but they all looked away when they saw the emblem printed on the vehicle, which showed a coastal cape and a hovering moon. The emblem stood for the mayor of the city, which also signified the importance of the carriage.

    The driver was a young man wearing a glossy nobleman¡¯s robe. Upon sensing the evil wills directed at him, he simply humphed and kept driving.

    ¡°I apologize for this, Mister Padt,¡± Neet spoke to Angor inside the vehicle. ¡°I came from the Anrum Monarchy, the mother country of Aureum. But for some historical reasons, our titles are not recognized here, so I have to find Charles for help. Charles is a friend of mine when I was studying at the academy. He¡¯s second to none when ites to finding other nobles.¡±

    The young driver poked his head into the cabin. ¡°Leave it to me, sir wizard! Nobody in Yothur City can refuse us when we Manson Family want to talk to them.¡±

    It seemedmon citizens in Aureum weren¡¯t allowed to openly talk about history at all. This was why Angor had to seek help from the nobility.

    ¡°I¡¯m counting on you, young friend.¡± Angor nodded.

    The driver was the friend mentioned by Neet, Charles Manson. He was also the son of the mayor of Yothur City, which allowed him to do a lot of business Neet could not do.

    ¡°This will be my pleasure!¡± Charles grinned so wide his eyes turned into slits, while his cheek pimples almost gleamed against the candlelight. He then winked at Neet and returned to his job.

    The moon slowly moved directly above their heads. Charles suddenly called from the outside, ¡°We¡¯re here, sir!¡±

    Angor looked outside and found the vehicle parked inside a small yard with several unknown fruit trees and spider lily flowers nted around. Among the nts sat a double-storied stone house with a pointy rooftop.

    ¡°We¡¯re visiting a retired teacher who once worked for the royal court of Aureum, Viscount Gurman. He¡¯s an expert in history.¡± Charles stabled the horses and then knocked on the iron door of the house.

    Soon, a middle-ageddy wearing a maid outfit opened the door.

    ¡°You are...?¡±

    ¡°Is Professor Gurman inside?¡± Angor stepped up and asked. ¡°I wish to inquire about several questions.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s almost time for the master to rest. Pleasee back tomorrow.¡±

    Charles yelled out before Angor could say anything, ¡°Wait, we need to see Gurman now! He¡¯s on the second floor, right? I saw his lights still on!¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything about Charles¡¯ attitude. He was nning to fly to the second floor if they couldn¡¯t get through the door, but since Charles offered another option, he decided to wait and see what would happen next.

    The maid faltered when she saw Charles¡¯ aggressive way.

    Gurman used to work for the court but not anymore. The officials did allow him to spend his retirement at Yothur City, but offending a noble n would still cause a lot of trouble.

    Unable to decide, the maid nced at the second floor.

    Their quarrel attracted old Gurman, who lifted his curtain and looked below through his window.

    At first, he wondered if he had seen the yelling young man somewhere before. But soon, he was fully attracted by the middle-aged man standing behind Charles.

    ¡°Let the guests inside,¡± he ordered his maid.

    Without a second thought, the maid fully opened the iron door and stepped aside.

    Charles gave Neet a proud look, who chuckled in return. He then gave Angor another pleading look, hoping to earn amendation from this mighty wizard.

    But Angor didn¡¯t notice Charles¡¯ attempt because he was looking at Gurman right now.

    Angor believed that Gurman¡¯s expression didn¡¯t seem right just now. It was as if Gurman recognized something in him.

    But there was no way the image of a random middle-aged guy had anything recognizable.

    The maid took them to a table where they enjoyed the pleasant warmth provided by a lit firece. She then went away to prepare some tea.

    Gurman slowly walked down the stairs with a walking cane and a very thick robe typically used by elders who were afraid of cold temperatures.

    After he sat down on a sofa and asked his maid to leave, Angor also gave Neet and Charles a meaningful nce to ask for privacy.

    ¡°I¡¯m truly sorry for disturbing your rest at such an hour,¡± Angor said when all the others left the room.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. Do feel free to tell me what¡¯s on your mind, sir wizard,¡± Gurman said while showing the signature manners of a cultured schr.

    Angor raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°It¡¯s true that mortals and supernatural beings are countless degrees apart. As someone who spent a lot of time in the court, I came across supernatural powers for more than once. That prominent auraing off you... you came from another world, am I right?¡± Gurman¡¯s words were slow but somehow very persuasive.

    ¡°Prominent?¡± Angor was confused by that. ¡°Can you borate, Professor Gurman?¡±

    ¡°You... weren¡¯t ¡®there¡¯. Nobody will notice you if you walk among themon. But when your friends started acting out, you suddenly came into existence. It¡¯s a strange thing to say but I do believe my eyes.¡±

    Angor finally knew what happened.

    The passive effect of Infinite Reticence usually prevented people who weren¡¯t interacting with him from noticing him. But Charles gave him away and made him even more obvious in the views of others.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. I am a ¡®wizard¡¯.¡±

    Gurman recalled everything he knew about supernatural individuals who were all about selfishness and cruelty, so he tried to find the best words to use. ¡°I wonder what an old man like me can help you with, sir wizard? I¡¯ll tell you anything as long as I know the answer.¡±

    ¡°Professor Gurman, can you tell me about the story of ¡®Nayah the Charmer¡¯?¡± Angor decided to ask this one first before getting to Lucas.

    ¡°Nayah... Do you wish to know the legend passed down by folks, or the true fact that happened in the course of history?¡±

    ¡°Can I hear both, if I may?¡± Angor found a morefortable position on his sofa and put up a rxed manner.

    ¡°I¡¯ll start from the legend then. First, you should know that both stories happened at the Age of Silver, which was more than two thousand years ago...¡±

    The two versions told by Gurman were almost the same as what Angor heard before.

    The folk legend described Nayah the Charmer, who was trapped by her sister and threw herself into the sea, while the ¡°historical fact¡± was about Nayah the Cruel, who envied and killed anyone with better looks. This Nayah was punished by her husbandter, who tossed her corpse into the sea.

    ¡°Which one do you think is real, Professor Gurman?¡± asked Angor.

    He didn¡¯t mean this question because he thought a schr like Gurman would deny the legend and support the other without a second thought.

    But it wasn¡¯t the case.

    ¡°I cannot tell, sir wizard. They can be both correct, or both inurate.¡±

    ¡°It makes sense if both of them were forged... but can they be true at the same time?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s likely. Nayah the Charmer has given up her life to the sea, while her twin sister, Nayah the Cruel, impersonated her, which is the second part of the story.¡±

    Angor nodded¡ªthis was almost what he inferred back then.

    ¡°I also know about an unofficial part of the story,¡± Gurman continued. ¡°Nayah truly existed in history. Before she got married and became a viscountess, she was well known for her kind nature and generous deeds. However, after marrying the viscount, she suddenly changed into apletely different character.

    ¡°I... don¡¯t think people can change so drastically and in such a strange way, so I¡¯d believe that the moremon story is true, that her sister reced her.¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°The third story might be off, but it can help us prove the connection between the other two.¡±

    Gurman carefully searched his mind for any other clues about Nayah so that he could please the mighty wizard in front of him. But he was startled a bit when Angor suddenly changed the subject.

    ¡°Let¡¯s put Nayah¡¯s matter aside. Have you heard of Lucas, Professor Gurman?¡±

    ¡°Lucas? Again...¡±

 Chapter 749 - Liar

    <h4>Chapter 749: Liar</h4>

    ¡°Again?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°Did someone else ask this question earlier?¡±

    The window of the room was suddenly pushed slightly ajar by a strong wind, allowing chilliness to enter the room.

    Gurman reached out a skinny arm to pick up his teacup for some warmth, but he then realized his tea had gone cold.

    Angor lifted a hand and stimted the fire elements in the room, causing everything to go warmer again.

    ¡°Thank you, good sir.¡± Gurman¡¯s eyes gleamed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. Back to our topic, was there anyone else besides me who asked you about Lucas?¡±

    Gurman¡¯s expression changed several times.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. More than one individual, actually.¡±

    ¡°Is Lucas someone powerful? So many people want to know him.¡±

    ¡°Not quite.¡± Gurman¡¯s trembling voice recovered as he felt better. ¡°From what I know, I¡¯d say Lucas was only a liar who managed to win himself a rank among nobles.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s a liar?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Gurman nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve read many pieces of evidence that supported this, either from reliable records or unofficial history.¡±

    Previously, Angor would agree to this as well since this ¡°most faithful captain¡± had way too many issues. However, heter saw Lucas¡¯ stories being extremely strange rather than untruthful.

    ¡°Why would people want to know about a liar, if he really was one?¡± Angor showed a curious look.

    ¡°I... do not know, sir. I¡¯ve been wondering this question too. Lucas was from over three thousand years ago, and he wasn¡¯t anyone special.¡±

    ¡°Who exactly wanted to know about him?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the third group who came to me for this purpose, sir. The first one was a mysterious figure fully hidden in arge robe. Another noble in the city brought him to me. When I told him I don¡¯t know much, he asked me to look for more clues.¡±

    ¡°You agreed?¡±

    Gurman chuckled. ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve been having financial problems since I moved to Yothur City. The robed visitor offered a lot of coins.¡±

    ¡°I see. Did hee for the results yet?¡±

    ¡°No. He said he¡¯d visit me again after a month, which is... during these days.¡±

    ¡°What about the second group?¡±

    ¡°It was actually one woman. She had purple hair. And... I think she¡¯s a wizard like you, sir.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely. At the end of our conversation, I saw her bing a half-avian with ck wings and flew out of my window.¡±

    ¡°ck wings... perhaps a spell or a special bloodline?¡± Angor pondered.

    The point was, a wizard had shown interest in Lucas. And till now, Angor had not figured out what was so special about this man.

    ¡°Did you have more clues by the time she visited? And did you tell her that there was someone other than her asking for Lucas¡¯ information?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I handed what I found to her. As for the robed man, I told her about him as well. But she didn¡¯t seem interested. I think she expected it.¡±

    <i>This meant the first individual might be a wizard as well.</i> Angor thought. <i>So why are a bunch of wizards, or perhaps apprentices, obsessed with a mortal?</i>

    Since the ¡°ghost ship¡± where Lucas was in held no other noticeable items, Angor believed that these people were looking for the captain only.

    But why?

    ¡°Can I see the clues you found, Professor Gurman?¡±

    Gurman nodded and stood up on his walking stick. ¡°This way, sir.¡±

    On unstable steps, Gurman walked to his study where many books randomly scattered around, which released the smell of fine paper.

    The old man picked up a duster and went to a dust-covered wooden desk. ¡°Excuse me for the cluttered ce, sir. I didn¡¯t ask my servant to clean this room to prevent her from messing up the order of the books.¡±

    Angor nodded casually and looked at several bookshelves that contained the historical books collected from different countries around Ferran Land. It seemed Gurman was indeed an expert historian.

    ¡°Here.¡± Gurman handed a pile of papers to Angor. ¡°The woman I mentioned did not take this away. She said she could keep everything in her mind.¡±

    ¡°Can I read it now?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    Gurman called his maid who brought two cups of hot tea into the study, while Angor found a soft chair and began looking through the files.

    It seemed there wasn¡¯t much to find for someone so ancient. Most of the files described Lucas¡¯ rank and how the rank was defined in history. In other words, this part was pointless.

    As for records about Lucas himself... there were even fewer.

    In the Age of Gold, Lucas was a famous nobleman who lived in Lost Paradise City. He was known to be quite the swinger from his childhood, and it grew worse as he grew up. During adulthood and after inheriting his father¡¯s rank, he quickly spent the funds of his family until he had not a coin left, after which he ended up as a scammer.

    Also, his ¡°career¡± did not end at tricking women and rich traders. He even fooled his king into a dirty plot.

    And this was the end of the files.

    ¡°That looks like a typical self-indulgent guy who weed a deserved ending,¡± Angormented. ¡°Or wait, this didn¡¯t tell us how he died in the end. Do you know what happened to himter, Professor Gurman?¡±

    Gurman shook his head. ¡°The purple-haireddy asked this as well. And no, I do not know. Since he fooled the king, the most probable oue for him should be an execution. During the end of the Age of Gold, the entire country had be infested with corruption and power-induced greed. His rank and title would not save him from his crime.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what exactly he did to the king?¡±

    ¡°No... I only know that the king once sent him to the sea. Perhaps there¡¯s a connection between these two matters?¡±

    Angor nodded. He knew that Lucas¡¯ headless corpse suggested that he wasn¡¯t executed.

    ¡°This is all you found?¡±

    ¡°Yes. This is as much as I can collect regarding the Age of Gold. There might be more to look at, but I¡¯m afraid you have to find them in the Anrum Monarchy, sir.¡±

    ¡°Anrum Monarchy?¡± Angor knew this name because it was supposed to be Neet¡¯s home, but he wasn¡¯t sure what that ce had to do with history.

    ¡°Sir, the glorious stages you heard about, including the Age of Gold, the Age of Silver, andter, the Age of Bronze, all started not from Aureum, but the Anrum Monarchy, which is the controlling country of Aureum.¡±

    As a man from Aureum, Gurman was born to be a citizen of a dependent state. In fact, most people in Aureum disliked this unfair treatment. This was also why nobilities from the Anrum Monarchy like Neet didn¡¯t get to enjoy privileges here.

    But as a historian, Gurman fully admitted that the Anrum Monarchy was the most powerful country ever to appear at Ferran Land.

    ¡°After many wars and disasters, Anrum stayed strong as the dominator of the entire Ferran Land. Over 70% of all nations and states at Ferran are dependent, except for several tribes in the minds. During his time, Lucas was born into a minor noble n of Anrum. That¡¯s where you will find more about him, sir wizard.¡±

    Angor nodded again. He had been believing that Lucas was a citizen of Aureum. It seemed he was wrong.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll not take any more of your time then.¡± Angor put down the files. ¡°Simrly, I¡¯ll keep the clues memorized. And... Professor Gurman, can I ask a favor?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m all ears, sir.¡±

    ¡°Can you keep my visit a secret from the others? I mean, don¡¯t tell them I asked about Lucas today.¡± Angor looked at Gurman in the eyes.

    Gurman felt his mind muddled for a brief moment before he answered, ¡°I will, sir.¡±

    Angor looked at Gurman¡¯s forehead, where a small trace of nightmare energy was disappearing.

    ¡°Thank you very much.¡±

 Chapter 750 - Disappointing Result

    <h4>Chapter 750: Disappointing Result</h4>

    While on their way back, Angor was still trying to figure out the possible secrets hidden by Lucas. It wouldn¡¯t be mere coincidence that so many supernatural individuals were looking for his traces.

    Previously, Angor only wished to ask about Lucas to solve an insignificant suspicion bugging his mind, and whether he could learn a definite answer didn¡¯t matter. But after he saw other supernaturals involved in this matter... he felt his curiosity aroused.

    Since he had Lucas¡¯ logbook, he might as well check some of the ces mentioned in it.

    ¡°Lost Paradise City in the Anrum Monarchy...¡±

    ording to the logbook, Lucas fell into great despair because no one believed his stories. He then ended his own life at Lost Paradise City.

    But if that was the case, then there was no way Lucas¡¯ corpse would show up at Devil¡¯s Water along with his logbook.

    Angor wanted to check thest spot mentioned in the book. In the meantime, he also wanted to keep an eye on the other visitors mentioned by Gurman.

    The ¡°bird woman¡± probably would note again, but the first visitor who had yet to receive Gurman¡¯s files would probably show up soon.

    Charles suddenly coughed badly outside the carriage and interrupted his thoughts.

    Angor paid it no mind because the weather was pretty cold right now.

    Neet, who was sitting beside him, rubbed his nose and put up an anxious look.

    Then Charles coughed again, louder this time.

    When Neet saw Angor losing patience and was going to check what was going on, he sighed and moved closer to Angor.

    ¡°Sir, Charles wanted to... ask a small favor. I-I-I mean, it¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t want to help.¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow when he realized what these people were trying to do by all that coughing.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t so surprised because he already saw Charles and Neet doing a lot of eye contact before they went to Gurman¡¯s ce. Equivalent exchange was always rule number one. Since Charles helped him visit Gurman, he should at least listen to what Charles had to say.

    ¡°Um, Charles has always been interested in the world of wizards, but he has no way of going there by himself. Since you¡¯re with us, he wishes that you can give him a little bit of guidance...¡± Neet¡¯s voice grew smaller at the end of his phrase because he knew this was no ¡°small favor¡±.

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything. Again, he expected this to happen.

    His unresponsiveness deepened Neet¡¯s fear, who lowered his head almost to his legs.

    Outside the carriage, Charles squeezed his reins due to great stress.

    ¡°Hey, Neet,¡± Angor waited for a while before speaking, ¡°you¡¯ve spent many years on The Limpet, so you must know how difficult it is to get admitted into the wizarding world, right?¡±

    Neet whined.

    ¡°The foremost condition is talent. Without talent, you have no hope of studying wizardry. I can certainly give Charles a talent test to return the favor. And yes, if he has talent, I¡¯ll take him to the wizarding world.¡±

    ¡°For real?¡± Charles poked his head inside and beamed.

    ¡°On condition that you have the talent,¡± Angor emphasized.

    ¡°I understand, sir.¡± Charles took a deep breath. ¡°I¡¯ve read about this matter from some books before. If I¡¯m not talented, I¡¯ll admit my sad fate and inherit my father¡¯s thing.¡±

    ¡°But your father is the mayor of Yothur! You made it sound as if you don¡¯t want that awesome position,¡± Neetined.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather be set free than bantering with authorities all day.¡± Charles put on a serious look.

    Angor noticed that it wasn¡¯t pretended. It seemed Charles was determined in this.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s kind of my job to look for new talents.¡± Angor held his chin. ¡°Since we¡¯re going to do such a thing, you might as well help me bring more people who¡¯re interested in bing wizards. Come to me on Sunday, and I¡¯ll perform the test for all of you.¡±

    Charles¡¯ eyes gleamed in delight. ¡°I have amunity at my academy with a bunch of guys with this ambition. Can I bring them all?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Angor looked at Neet. ¡°This is true to you as well. You can find your friends and take them to¡ª¡±

    He halted his speech since he found it improper to bring strangers to Erwin¡¯s house without asking Erwin first.

    ¡°We can use my house,¡± Charles suggested.

    ¡°You mean the mayor¡¯s residence? We¡¯ll go there then.¡±

    This might cause the test to be unfair since only nobility could participate, but it didn¡¯t matter to Angor since it was usually more likely to discover talents among nobles and elites who enjoyed more resources.

    But still, powerful talents could show up asionally amongmon people.

    ¡°Is there a condition for who can take the test?¡± asked Charles.

    ¡°There¡¯s only one, that everyone should be below the age of 30. As long as this fits, you can bring anyone. The rich or the poor, your choice.¡±

    It was possible for people above 30 to discover their talents, but their matured minds could have a harder time studying meditation. Also, the age requirement was defined by Brute Cavern.

    Charles acknowledged this matter with a big smile as if he knew he would seed.

    However, he didn¡¯t get to keep his joyful mood when it was finally the day.

    On Sunday, the main hall of the mayor¡¯s mansion was crowded with elderly elites, while younger ones waited outside the door, looking at more and more people joining them from the entrance.

    The message of Angor¡¯s talent test was known by citizens throughout the city almost instantly, including those living in slum areas.

    Right now, there weremoners who upied a small corner of the mansion, while several people wearing rags wandered at the edge of the group, oblivious of theints and usations directed at them.

    Mayor Richard was pacing back and forth with a really anxious look. His son, Charles, was currently taking the test. If his son did return as a talented one, his family would undoubtedly receive greater fame and wealth.

    Richard kept ncing at a curtain, behind which was the room designated for the test.

    ¡°Oh goodness. Yothur City finally weed a mighty wizard? There was a wizard who was recruiting at an eastern coastal city ten years ago and my son missed it. I got to seize this chance,¡± ady wearing a beautiful wide-brimmed hat said to her partner.

    ¡°Why would Mister Wizard allow these scums inside though? I sure don¡¯t want to breathe the tainted air if not for my daughter!¡±

    ¡°Stop it! I saw Mister Wizard earlier. He¡¯s not exactly a nobleman, telling from his clothes. He won¡¯t like what you said.¡±

    Startled, thedy who discriminated againstmon civilians quickly used her fan to cover her powdered face.

    The curtain to the testing area was moved aside as Charles walked into the hall. Richard quickly went to his son. He didn¡¯t have to ask anything upon seeing Charles¡¯ pale look.

    ¡°Guess this is our fate then.¡± Richard sighed helplessly.

    Seeing Charles slumping down on a chair with great depression that didn¡¯t fit with his usual manners, the chatting people in the hall all quieted down.

    ¡°Even the mayor¡¯s son failed... Is the test very difficult?¡±

    ¡°Oh my... I wonder if my daughter will be okay.¡±

    More time psed as groups of people came and left in disappointment.

    From morning to dusk, Angor had tested on almost a thousand candidates and found not a single talented one.

    Everyone, including Angor, wasn¡¯t feeling very pleased with this. Angor was just reminded of the difficulty of discovering talents. Finding Tulu on The Limpet was some serious luck that could not be repeated.

    The mansion finally regained its peace as thest person left the testing room, after which Angor showed up and yawned. He basically wasted a day.

    <i>No wonder people all avoid taking this job...</i> he thought.

    He moved to the center of the hall and saw two noblewomen questioning the reliability of the test openly.

    ¡°Is this a scam? Howe that my brilliant son failed the test?¡±

    ¡°It must be! My daughter said she was chased out when she only poked at some crystal ball. What kind of test is that? I heard that all wizards loved knowledge, so I told her to read a lot of literature. So it was all useless? This test is unsanctioned, I say!¡±

    ¡°It isn¡¯t wise to be a bigmouth,dies,¡± he said as he tossed two nightmare energy beams at them.

    Thedies suddenly pointed at each other and began screaming.

    ¡°What-what¡¯s happening to your face?? Your mouth-don¡¯t eat me, ahhhhh!¡±

    The other bystanders quickly realized what was going on and decided not to test Angor¡¯s limit. When they saw Angor not doing anything else in particr, they found their excuses and left the mansion, except for thedies¡¯ husbands who approached Angor with the look of both pleading and fear.

    ¡°A true nobleman, or noblewoman in this case, does not forge lies or false usations without receiving punishment. This small punishment will go away after a month,¡± Angor said this and turned away.

    The mayor seemed to have something to tell him, but he didn¡¯t give the man a chance to talk. With a swift move, he triggered the flying effect on his boots and went into the sky.

    Toby came to him to deliver a message just now, that the man he was waiting for had arrived.

 Chapter 751 - Basket Witch

    <h4>Chapter 751: Basket Witch</h4>

    Angor perfectly blended in with the color of night and moved above Yothur City, and the asional golden runes shown on his boots did not give him away at all.

    Upon arriving at Sunken Street, he gazed at Gurman¡¯s small yetfy yard from above, as well as the warm light shining through the windows.

    The window on the second floor was left open, through which he saw a man in a ck robe reading some files in the candlelight. Those were the same files he read several days ago.

    This robed man must be the ¡°first guest¡± mentioned by Gurman. Also, Angor already felt magical powering from this person. But it seemed it was only an apprentice who had not been learning wizardry for much time.

    The guest put down the files and was now questioning Gurman with an irritated look, clearly not satisfied with the result.

    By reading their lips, Angor saw Gurman giving the robed man a simr exnation as what he heardst time, that more information about Lucas could only be found in the Anrum Monarchy.

    Next, the robed guest tossed a small pouch to Gurman and left.

    After asking Toby to keep track of him, Angor floated to Gurman¡¯s window.

    He saw the old man happily feeling the weight of the pouch before putting several dozen gold coins onto the desk.

    He knocked on the window ss, which startled Gurman a bit.

    Gurman nced at the window and suddenly felt his mind going nk for a brief moment.

    ¡°Was someone there? Oh wait... didn¡¯t I close the window a moment ago? It¡¯s so cold outside...¡±

    He mumbled as he slowly went to close it off. ¡°I think I just forgot something... Oh never mind. The age is getting to me...¡±

    Angor saw Gurman returning to his coins and pondered over what he just heard.

    He just asked a few questions from Gurman. As he expected, the robed man did not learn any extra info.

    When the robed man questioned whether anyone else was interested in Lucas¡¯ matter, Gurman told him about the purple-haired woman, after which he mumbled, ¡°That witch of a basket has poked her nose into the business¡±, and left.

    Although Gurman wasn¡¯t sure if he heard right. It might be something that sounded simr.

    Angor searched his memory and failed to recall anyone by the name ¡°witch of a basket¡±.

    ¡°Was he referring to that purple-haired woman?¡±

    Since the ck-robed man was still within reach right now, he decided to go after him for now.

    He took a moment to sense Toby¡¯s signal, which came from the northwest, and flew off.

    He soon found Toby in the air, who kept an eye on their target.

    Angor heard the sound of tides from his position and frowned. The area below him wasn¡¯tpletely strange to him¡ªit was Yothur Harbor, where he alighted from The Limpet. Actually, the ship was still anchored among a number of cargo ships right now.

    ¡°Is he trying to get to the Anrum Monarchy by ship?¡±

    Earlier, he thought about capturing the robed man and interrogating him for clues about Lucas since this man didn¡¯t seem strong at all. But in the end, he decided to wait and see when he saw his target looking left and right as if he was waiting for someone.

    The robed man paced around the harbor area for a while before heading to a dark corner hidden behind several trees. Even so, Angor had no problem seeing him from above.

    Following the edge of somerge containers, the figure walked onto a trestle bridge, which seemed to be a nice fishing spot. But instead of fishing, he lifted an arm and released some glowing glitters into the water below.

    Following some bubbles, a white dolphin emerged from the water and carried the robed man into the distance.

    ¡°He¡¯s a Summoner?¡± Angor held his chin. ¡°Or was that his familiar?¡±

    He could tell that the dolphin wasn¡¯t amon animal since it had some unusual energy signatures, but he couldn¡¯t ascertain its nature yet.

    At the very least, the robed man should belong to an organization or a group. It was unlikely for a rogue level-1 apprentice to acquire a familiar.

    <i>So is he after Lucas alone or is he working for his organization?</i>

    With this question in mind, Angor followed behind his target.

    After traveling on the water for about half an hour, they stopped at several hundred kilos away from the coastline, where there was nothing in view.

    As Angor wondered what to look at, he suddenly heard the sound of a foghorning from underwater.

    The smooth reflection of the moon was suddenly disrupted. Surprised, Angor watched as a giant blue whale appeared in his view.

    He only knew a few monsters around the wizarding world, but this horned whale happened to be something he was familiar with. He saw the creaturest year when he was attending the purification garden challenge. The whale belonged to Jebra, the student of ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza.

    An adult Horned Abyss Whale was a monster capable of manipting the very space around its body, which made it as valuable as a Cloud Whale.

    Angor was already regretting his decision. He should have dealt with the robed man back at the harbor. But now... the whale suggested the presence of a very powerful organization, and he¡¯d better not anger them.

    The robed man had hopped from the dolphin onto the back of the horned whale.

    Angor thought someone important would show up and address his target. But no. The robed man remained alone while chanting something under his breath.

    The whale waved its tail and slowly ascended into the air, which made it closer and closer to Angor¡¯s position.

    Startled, Angor quickly moved away and hid inside a cloud, fearing that he had been found out.

    ¡°Since you came all the way here, might as well stay for a while, will you?¡± a cruel voice said to him from behind.

    A water pir rose from the sea, which came right at him.

    Using his boots, Angor maneuvered in the air to evade the attack. In the meantime, Toby lunged at the robed man with his gravity power fully activated.

    The man went down without showing any resistance.

    Angor then saw Toby returning and gazed at the now motionless man with a frown.

    ¡°He¡¯s dead? That¡¯s it?¡±

    <i>But why isn¡¯t the whale doing anything?</i>

    He knew something was off and stayed cautious.

    The robed man slowly stood up with his head jerked to an inhuman angle. At the same time, Angor felt the air around him getting wet for some reason.

    Before he knew what was going on with the environment, the moisture formed a blue bubble that locked him inside.

    When he noticed that the bubble was too sturdy for him to break physically, he prepared a cantrip and unleashed mes around him to burn the bubble off.

    The fire did eat away the water slowly, but the bubble also drew more water from the sea and recovered. Angor never managed to get the opening big enough to escape.

    ¡°Just stop. There¡¯s no way you¡¯re defeating the endless water elements here,¡± the robed man said.

    Angor nced that way and saw the man¡¯s neck still broken, which looked pretty horrifying.

    ¡°You¡¯re not alive...¡± Angor frowned. ¡°An alchemy puppet?¡±

    ¡°Ho, you read a lot of books, I see. Are you with the basket witch? But I never heard that hag recruiting guys before.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s ¡®basket witch¡¯?¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re not her man, there¡¯s no point in keeping you then.¡±

    A different type of moisture began to fill up the bubble.

    The robed man saw Angor still using fire against his prison and snickered. ¡°Give up. You¡¯re not getting out of that.¡±

    ¡°Oh really?¡±

    Following the sound of an explosion, a giant ming beast showed up from Angor¡¯s position and burst the bubble open. Before the robed man could recover from his shock, the beast rushed at him with Angor on its back.

    ¡°An alchemy puppet is meaningless to me, but this whale¡¯s horn must be a nice material. Don¡¯t mind if I do.¡±

 Chapter 752 - Re-encounter with Jebra

    <h4>Chapter 752: Re-encounter with Jebra</h4>

    ¡°A ming griffin... You¡¯re Angor?!¡± the robed man yelled in shock, which also caused Angor to stop his movement.

    Taking the chance, the whale shrank to palm-size and moved to a white figure who just showed up on the water.

    Angor saw the man in a white hooded outfit and the ¡°fish scale tattoo¡± on the forehead. ¡°Jebra, so you¡¯re behind this?¡±

    Jebra lifted the ck-robed man by the cor and pressed a hand against his head. Soon, the body of the puppet shattered into dust and disappeared into the air.

    Jebra dusted his hands casually andforted the now smaller blue whale. ¡°I knew I saw that birdy from somewhere before... And what¡¯s going on with your face? Oh, I know. mor, is it?¡±

    Angor quietly prepared his magics without speaking.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be like that. Of course I¡¯m not stupid to harm the student of Mister Phantom. Just saying hello. Besides, we aren¡¯t enemies.¡± Jebra waved a hand and canceled all the aggressive water energy around the area.

    Angor¡¯s body went blurry and reverted to his original looks.

    ¡°What, not going to mind me being a stalker?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re going to Old Earth. We should have no... conflict of interest. But I¡¯m still curious about why you¡¯re following my puppet?¡±

    Angor inspected Jebra and found no trace of lying. ording to the member of Centipede Guild he captured, it was expected that people from Song of the Deep knew his destination.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor maintained his poker face. ¡°d those losers from Centipede Guild told me the truth.¡±

    By this, he meant to tell Jebra that the guild members, who were imprisoned and then released by Song of the Deep, had failed their mission.

    Personally, Jebra would also like to maintain good terms with a bright alchemist rather than offending him. For one, he might need the service of an alchemist one day. And secondly, he had a n regarding Shiliew¡¯s matter. This was why he wasn¡¯t going to use Angor of following him. Instead, Jebra offered to exin why they freed the guild members.

    ¡°While it was me who let them go, it wasn¡¯t my decision, but Mister Sliv¡¯s. You know him, right? Mister Sliv isn¡¯t exactly friendly to Mister Phantom, but he cannot get so low as to attack you personally, so he sent the guild members away to make it convenient.¡±

    Angor was somewhat d to see Jebra willing to have a friendly talk. He didn¡¯t believe he could fight against ¡°Child of Ocean¡± Jebra right here even if he fully used his sequence power.

    Since Jebra would like to make it peaceful, Angor would also avoid an unnecessary fight.

    But he wasn¡¯t going to admit defeat yet.

    ¡°I thought I could find someone from the Centipede Guild again so that I could wipe them out for good. Wasn¡¯t expecting it was you.¡± Angor found an excuse.

    Jebra didn¡¯tment on this one. Angor¡¯s intention didn¡¯t matter to him as long as it wasn¡¯t something about the ¡°mysterious dimension¡±.

    ¡°Well, since we¡¯re good, how about we return to Yothur and have a drink? I need to head there too,¡± said Jebra.

    ¡°We¡¯re good? Not yet. You know I¡¯m going to Old Earth, that¡¯s fine. But what are YOU doing here?¡±

    Jebra felt his suspicion growing stronger. ¡°I¡¯ll only tell you that you¡¯d better stay out of this business. My professor is heading to Devil¡¯s Water, and he¡¯ll not be so friendly. Sniff around more, and you¡¯ll get yourself killed.¡±

    Jebra saw Angor still wondering something and added, ¡°I also know that Mister Phantom is at Abyss ne right now, which means he won¡¯t have enough time to save you from trouble. Are you sure you¡¯re still in?¡±

    Angor noticed that Jebra might be willing to tell him the secret, but it might cause a lot of bad oues, and thus, he decided not to ask for now.

    Jebra sighed in his mind. Simrly, he didn¡¯t wish to fight Angor head-on.

    What he didn¡¯t know was that Angor had learned a lot from what he revealed already.

    Previously, Angor thought that only a bunch of apprentices were looking for the clues left behind by a dead mortal. However, Jebra just told him that ¡°Sorcerer of Big Fish¡± Sliv and ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza were also involved in this matter.

    Flunza was a veteran truth-finder no weaker than Sunders, if not stronger!

    <i>These famous wizards are interested in a mortal now?</i> Angor felt REALLY curious now.

    He then simply turned away and left without epting Jebra¡¯s offer for a drink.

    Jebra was fine with this. After he saw Angor leaving for real, he put a finger on his fish scale tattoo, which then released several pulses into the air.

    The pulses disappeared into the whale¡¯s horn like signals.

    ¡°He performed a talent test for a bunch of mortals at the mayor¡¯s mansion?¡± Jebra grinned. ¡°So he¡¯s heading home while on a recruiter quest... Typical. This means he has no idea about the secret dimension. But why do I have this strange feeling? Nah. I should forget it.¡±

    He shook his head and melted into the sea.

    ...

    Angor returned to Erwin¡¯s department and began leaving several new theories on his notebook.

    It was past midnight. He nced around and saw Toby huddled on his tiny bed while gazing at the moon without sleeping.

    Toby seemed sad for some reason, and Angor had a hunch that his partner felt sorry for exposing his position to Jebra.

    While under the effect of Infinite Reticence, even wizards would have a hard time locating Angor¡¯s presence. The most probable exnation for why Jebra found them so easily was that Jebra saw Toby through that alchemy puppet.

    Angor moved to Toby and smoothed his feathers. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I was too careless when I asked you to follow the robed guy. He¡¯s not an apprentice but Jebra¡¯s puppet. Who¡¯d have thought?¡±

    Toby tweeted in protest since Angor¡¯s inattentive gesture messed his feathers rather than helping.

    Toby was always too carefree to suffer from frustration for too long. When Angor promised to make several new suits for him, Toby instantly forgot what happened.

    After soothing Toby into sleep, Angor returned to his desk and checked the recent events. He just realized that Toby might be another reason that helped Centipede Guild locate him.

    He managed to solve all crises that came to him, but it could not go on like this. He had to think of something to hide Toby from detection as well.

 Chapter 753 - Swan and Helen

    <h4>Chapter 753: Swan and Helen</h4>

    As the first sunlight of the day reached the building of Yothur Library, the guards unlocked the giant bronze door and weed a group of early-bird students who couldn¡¯t wait to get inside.

    When most of the students had gone reading, a beautifully-crafted wooden carriage arrived at the library¡¯s door, as it always did at this hour.

    But whoever was inside the vehicle did note out.

    A fat guard of the library approached it and lifted the curtain with a ttering smile. ¡°You came a bit too early, Master Frey. She¡¯s not here yet.¡±

    The young man wearing a thick fur coat in the vehicle trembled and picked up a hand warmer. ¡°Get away, idiot! Do you want me dead in this cold?¡±

    Irritated, the guard released the curtain.

    ¡°Tell me when she arrives,¡± Frey called.

    ¡°Will do.¡±

    The guard rolled his eyes. Then he returned to his post and saw his partner snickering at him.

    ¡°What did I tell you? These rich guys are obedient like dogs when talking to nobles, but they turn upside-down when dealing with the likes of us. Guess all the sh*t they ate from their masters has to go somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Nah. Frey wasn¡¯t venting out on me. He¡¯s just hysterical.¡±

    ¡°And blind.¡±

    ¡°Tell me about it! He¡¯s like going after a middle-aged fatss, and he kepting here every day. You know what¡¯s weird? That woman won¡¯t ept Frey¡¯s attempt at all. What does she think she is, a princess or something?¡±

    ¡°Which side are you on anyway? You hate both of them?¡±

    ¡°Nonono, I¡¯m not taking sides. Since Frey came again, we¡¯ll just watch his funny bout. The ys in the theater are getting dull anyway. d we have a real-life drama right here.¡±

    The second guard took a moment to recall the mentioned woman who also visited the library very often recently.

    ¡°Well... Maybe she¡¯s a bit big, but she¡¯s not half bad. You saw how she moved? Must¡¯ve been a beauty in her early years.¡±

    ¡°h. Women. They all keep their best looks for a few years, then they be like spoiled cheese, still have their vor but you got to have real courage to taste them.¡±

    ¡°Hold up. Our main actress is here.¡± The second guard pulled on the fat man¡¯s clothes.

    The ¡°fat woman¡± they were expecting was now walking toward the entrance of the library, wearing a uniform with fur fringes.

    ¡°Hey, aren¡¯t you going to notify Frey?¡±

    ¡°Forget about that fool.¡± The fat guard turned away and went inside his guard box.

    ¡°Don¡¯t want to see his d*ck face, huh?¡± The second guard grinned. ¡°You have your rest. If Frey questions, I¡¯ll just say the chief took you away.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, buddy.¡±

    ...

    Helen arrived at the door and walked past the talking guards without minding them.

    She went onto the third floor and found the book she was yet to finish yesterday, <i>A Wondrous Shaman n.</i>

    Next, she picked up several more books and went to look for somewhere quiet to read them.

    But another book suddenly dropped from its shelf and attracted her.

    ¡°<i>Call of Wizards</i>... Wait, there¡¯s a book about wizards at this ce?¡±

    She checked and saw the book describing the basic knowledge about wizards and their world. As someone who often worked with wizards on the ship, she quickly ascertained that everything written in the book was correct.

    She had been visiting the library just to look for such books. But most of what she found were made-up storiesposed by people who had no idea about what true wizardry meant.

    Delighted, she took her new prize and headed to a private part of the library, without minding how the booknded at her feet at all.

    When she left, a purple-haired woman showed up from behind a bookshelf and looked at Helen with a bright smile.

    ...

    Helen soon lost herself in the amazing book that recordedprehensive intelligence regarding the levels of wizards and the arts they studied. And when something went too intricate, she could find extra lines of characters and notes below the paragraphs that helped her understand the knowledge better.

    ¡°Nice... knowledge is most precious to wizards? I always thought it was the spells. And alchemy... So it¡¯s extremely difficult to find talented alchemists? But isn¡¯t Mister Padt pretty good at it?¡±

    She heard someone¡¯s footsteps inappropriately close to her and nced that way with an annoyed look. She picked a spot where people wouldn¡¯t disrupt her without a good reason, which meant whoever just approached came on purpose.

    ¡°You again? What do you want?¡± She frowned when seeing the showy fur coat of a young man.

    While silently cursing the fat guard who failed his promise, Frey put up his best smile. ¡°Helen! It must be great fate that let us see each other again.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that.¡± Helen rolled her eyes and picked up her books. She was going to find somewhere else.

    This man from a rich family had been bugging her for a few days. She¡¯d have physically given him a lesson if not for the fact that the man¡¯s father was an important client who took care of the cargo of The Limpet.

    Frey followed behind Helen¡¯s steps. ¡°Since we met, we might as well stay together and enjoy the joy of books! When we¡¯re done, we¡¯ll hit the bar for a nice drink! There¡¯s a popr card game these days that simtes monster fights, you will like it! We can talk about the tricks!¡±

    Helen sighed. ¡°When are you going to leave me alone, Mister Frey? Didn¡¯t I make it clear that there¡¯s zero chance between us? Zero, you heard it. I mean, just look at you. I have both the size and the age to be your mom.¡±

    Frey widened his eyes. ¡°So uh, you actually love my father?¡±

    ¡°What are you¡ª¡± Helen clenched her fists but managed not to use them. ¡°No. Neither! I¡¯d keep my life to myself, thank you very much!¡±

    Frey looked a bit offended but insisted on following Helen everywhere, which further tested Helen¡¯s limit.

    While walking, Frey suddenly felt as if he ran into a solid wall face-first and fell on his butt.

    ¡°Can you hear people talking at all? She wishes to be alone,¡± a clear and charming voice spoke to Frey.

    Frey looked up and saw another woman somehow standing right in front of him, whopletely blocked his view. The sunlight from a window nearby made it hard for Frey to recognize the woman¡¯s looks. He only saw the purple color of her hair and nothing else.

    ¡°Who the heck are you?¡±

    The woman didn¡¯t speak. She kept her cold gaze at Frey, which soon caused Frey to tremble as if he were tossed into a prison made of ice for real.

    When he woke up from the terrible feeling, Frey realized that he was sitting on the floor all alone. Both Helen and the strange woman were gone.

    ¡°Holy moly! Did I run into a ghost in the morning??¡± He quickly dashed out of the building while still afraid of the chillness lingering in his mind.

    ...

    On the balcony at one side of the library building, Helen was speaking to the purple-haired woman in front of her in great joy.

    ¡°Miss Swan! So d to see you. But why are you here?¡±

    ¡°Just call me Swan, if you please.¡± Swan put a finger under Helen¡¯s chin. ¡°I came to see you, of course.¡±

    Helen stepped back while blushing. ¡°I mean, not the library. Do you need something in Yothur City, Miss Swan?¡±

    ¡°Oh. I¡¯m here on an errand for Summerdew. But I saw you and decided to stop by.¡±

    Helen was extremely d that she no longer had to wait to travel to Summerdew Ridge to pursue her new ambition.

    Swan smiled after hearing Helen¡¯s plea.

    ¡°Good. I was right for giving you that book.¡± She pointed at <i>Call of Wizards</i> held by Helen, and Helen quickly realized what just happened.

    ¡°Years ago, I said that I could help you be a new talent. My words still stand. Since you decided, you can follow me to Summerdew Ridge. I¡¯ll get you a vial of potion that helps increase your spiritual powerter.¡±

    Swan basically confirmed that Helen could be a talent without a problem, and this made Helen even more excited.

    ¡°I understand! But um, I need to say goodbye to the captain and my crew.¡±

    ¡°No worries, you have time for it. I¡¯ll stay at Ferran for a while. Let me see... We won¡¯t be leaving this month.¡±

    ¡°Miss Swan, are you perhaps recruiting talents at Ferran too?¡±

    Swan shook her head. ¡°I saw what happened at the mayor¡¯s house yesterday. No. Summerdew Ridge isn¡¯t recruiting right now. And when we do, we do not ept men.

    ¡°Speaking of recruiting... I happen to have a question to ask of you. The apprentice who was testing mortals at the mayor¡¯s mansion. He¡¯s the guardian of The Limpet, I take it? But I¡¯ve never seen him before. Who is it?¡±

 Chapter 754 - Helenâ€™s Ambition

    <h4>Chapter 754: Helen¡¯s Ambition</h4>

    ¡°Miss Swan, are you perhaps interested in Mister Padt?¡± Helen looked suspicious.

    Swan narrowed her eyes. Helen¡¯s reaction just gave her a strange and unpleasant idea.

    ¡°Was that question too strange?¡±

    ¡°Ahem. Just curious is all. You never cared much about who protected The Limpet before.¡±

    Swan¡¯s expression turned a bit harsh. ¡°Are you in love with that man?¡±

    Out of instinct, Helen tried to deny. But she saw Swan¡¯s stern look and decided to speak more truthfully.

    ¡°Mister Padt has... something on him, that attracts me.¡± She leaned on the railings of the balcony and watched the morning sun with a serene look. ¡°It¡¯s not love. Well, we¡¯ve stayed on the same ship for a while, but we don¡¯t talk much. He just has all those things that feel so different from someone like me. Wisdom, generosity, he¡¯s kind... I like it.¡±

    ¡°So you like him after all?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Helen shook her head. ¡°Or I¡¯m not sure anymore. But it won¡¯t matter.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re from different worlds, and we live at different levels. The things we can see and approach are so different.¡± Helen recalled the evening conversation she had with Angor and how much insight she gained from it. Swan observed Helen¡¯s expression with great curiosity.

    Swan didn¡¯t know how to read minds yet, but she could feel that Helen seemed rather unfetteredpared to before.

    ¡°What did he tell you? Did he reject your proposal?¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt is... wise, and perceptive. I think he knew what was going on inside my head that night. And no, I did not confess, and he did not reject me. He didn¡¯t say it directly, but he convinced me into following the path of a wizard. For a brighter future, for Lord Asbel, and for myself.¡±

    Swan was pretty surprised to see Helen acting like this. Previously, Helen looked content with her current lifestyle, and Swan did not force Helen intoing with her.

    <i>This ¡°Mister Padt¡± opened her up?</i>

    ¡°That night? What happened between you two? And who¡¯s Lord Asbel?¡± Swan felt her inquisitiveness piling up.

    Helen chuckled. ¡°Whatever you¡¯re thinking about wasn¡¯t the case, Miss Swan. We simply talked about the future. That was about it. As for Lord Asbel, she was a champion of the ckberry Waters and my childhood hero. But sheter disappeared from our view. Mister Padt told me that she went to the wizarding world. By the way, Lord Asbel is a huge grace of a woman.¡±

    <i>Woman?!</i> Swan didn¡¯t have her concerns exined. <i>You¡¯re following Asbel¡¯s steps but not mine?</i>

    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll just take it that you respect ¡®Mister Padt¡¯ very much. Since he helped you make your decision and ept my offer, he did a good job.¡±

    Swan didn¡¯t look happy when saying this.

    ¡°Miss Swan, you haven¡¯t told me why you asked about Mister Padt in the first ce.¡±

    ¡°Call me Swan. I¡¯ll not remind you again.¡± Swan rolled her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s nothing, really. Just a random thing to ask. Yesterday night, your Mister Padt fell into a fight with an elite apprentice out there.¡±

    ¡°Yesterday night? Elite apprentice?¡±

    ¡°Yup. That apprentice is titled ¡®Child of Ocean¡¯. Even true wizards will have a difficult time killing him at the sea.¡±

    Helen knew the difference between wizards and apprentices from her book, and she was very surprised to hear about this.

    ¡°Miss-I mean, is he stronger than you, Swan?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a level-3 apprentice, yet I¡¯m afraid the Child of Ocean can end my life with a finger if I¡¯m to fight him near water.¡±

    In fact, Swan saw Angor and Jebra talking to each other yesterday. And she still felt terrified of how Jebra noticed her presence with ease.

    ¡°Is-is Mister Padt alright?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s okay. In fact, he¡¯s totally unharmed, which is strange. Since there was deadly energy in the area, they must have attacked each other. But no, they parted ways peacefullyter. As far as I know about Jebra, he¡¯s not someone who would let his enemies go freely. There must be something wrong with Padt.¡±

    Helen sighed in relief. ¡°Maybe they ran into each other by ident and found out that there¡¯s no reason to fight? Or maybe they¡¯re friends?¡±

    ¡°Heh. Child of Ocean came from a very peculiar organization. If they¡¯re friends... then I¡¯d like to know who this Padt man really is. I¡¯m only going to ask something simple, there¡¯s no need to be all hush-hush. If you don¡¯t want to tell me, I¡¯ll just go and question your sailors.¡±

    Helen nodded. ¡°Alright. What do you want to know?¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s he from? What¡¯s his full name?¡±

    ¡°He said he came from ¡®Brute Cavern¡¯. As for his name... no, he never told us.¡±

    ¡°Brute Cavern is a major organization, that¡¯s for sure. But isn¡¯t White m operated by Floating Mech City? How did they let a member of Brute Cavern protect the ship?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a long story. It all started from when Mister Roman abandoned us...¡±

    Helen exined Roman¡¯s incident in detail without keeping anything from Swan. Everybody on The Limpet knew about this matter, so there was no point in keeping it a secret.

    Swan listened with a big frown. ¡°Leviathan... So Padt can use illusions, I see. But how could his illusions work against Leviathan? Well, that thing might be a bit slow, but it¡¯s still not something an amateur Illusionist can deal with. Gosh, I should have checked the footage. But it¡¯s kept by the association now...¡±

    Next, Helen exined the second part of their voyage including the strange ghost ship and the giant ¡°jellyfish¡±. However, Swan didn¡¯t mind these too much since it was prettymon to run into these things at Devil¡¯s Water.

    ¡°He knows alchemy too?¡± Swan was more interested in another clue she heard.

    ording to Helen, Padt repaired the ship using ¡°amazing alchemy skills¡± and then applied a rune named Preserve Heat on the ship to fend off the deadly cold.

    ¡°Brute Cavern, enchantment alchemy, illusionist...¡±

    All these clues suggested a certain name that everybody had been talking about recently.

    ¡°So he used something to disguise himself?¡± Swan recalled the looks of a middle-aged man she saw yesterday.

    ¡°Wait, Mister Padt used a fake look?¡± asked Helen.

    ¡°Helen, my friend, if what I¡¯m thinking is right, this ¡®Mister Padt¡¯ is younger than that hooligan who harassed you a moment ago.¡±

    Helen¡¯s mouth fell agape.

    ¡°For real?¡± She quickly took out a parchment roll from her pouch and spread it open. ¡°Mister Padt gave me this. Do you know what it is, Swan?¡±

    Swan examined the emblem drawn on the parchment and nodded.

    ¡°There¡¯s no doubt. ¡®Mister Padt¡¯ is actually Angor. His full name is Angor Padt.¡± Swan tossed a magazine to Helen. ¡°Check this out.¡±

    Helen immediately noticed the same emblem printed on the colorful cover of the magazine, along with the title of an article: <i>Master¡¯s Work at Remnant Auction?!</i>

    ¡°What¡¯s written in the magazine might be a little off. That guy¡¯s still far from being a master. But a small charm that sold for 200,000 crystals is enough to prove his skills,¡± Swan eximed. ¡°Now I know why Jebra let him leave. Anyone would, if they know Angor¡¯s alchemy potential. Rumors say that Angor and Jebra are enemies. Guess it¡¯s a lie.¡±

    Swan then realized that Helen wasn¡¯t showing any response as if the reality hit her too hard.

    ¡°If you must know, his real look is way better than what you saw. Even Bog tried to capture him once. If you do wish to get to him, feel free to try. Your age doesn¡¯t matter.¡±

    Instead of being depressed as Swan expected, Helen looked up from the magazine with a determined look.

    ¡°I knew Mister Padt is brilliant but... not SO brilliant! I think I need to work even harder to keep up with him.¡±

    Swan saw Helen¡¯s bright attitude and giggled.

    ¡°Well, guess I have to thank him for making you so aspiring.¡±

 Chapter 755 - Summerdew

    <h4>Chapter 755: Summerdew</h4>

    Marcel District.

    ¡°Angor lives here?¡± Swan looked at themon apartment building in front of her. ¡°Guy¡¯s not picky, I see.¡±

    ¡°Miss Swa¡ª¡±

    Helen saw Swan¡¯s re and quickly mended her words. ¡°Swan, I¡¯ll go upstairs and tell him about your visit. Wait for a bit.¡±

    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll be right here.¡±

    Swan didn¡¯t feel offended because it was just right to address a famous alchemist with respect. Even Lady Payne would do the same.

    A momentter, Helen returned with a disappointed look.

    ¡°What, he doesn¡¯t want to see me?¡± Swan raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Not that. I think Mister Padt has left. I found this note in his room...¡±

    [Unfortunately, I failed to find a single talent in Yothur City, so I have to take a look at the other cities. Best wishes. ¡ª Padt]

    The message didn¡¯t designate an addressee, but it was obviously left for Erwin and Helen.

    ¡°He¡¯s gone?¡± Swan shook her head. ¡°Guess recruitment jobs are a pain no matter which organization hees from. Gosh, a chance to meet with a future master alchemist... Damn it. It will be hard to find such an opportunity again.¡±

    While Swanined about the bad timing, Helen put away the note with a smile.

    <i>Such a free soul... I wonder if I can be like that in the future?</i>

    ...

    Instead of leaving the city right away, Angor first went to the association¡¯s office beside the harbor area.

    Bismarck saw Angoring and put a hand over his bald head with a frustrated expression.

    He had heard from his teacher about Angor¡¯s fame, including Angor¡¯s special privilege granted by Floating Mech City as well as how a simple music box was sold for 200,000 magic crystals at Remnant Coast.

    Such money was enough to allow amon apprentice to buy their way toward the level of a wizard! And the music box was only one of Angor¡¯s random toys!

    In Bismarck¡¯s view, Angor was like a walking crystal mine waiting to be exploited. But he wasn¡¯t sure if he should step up and offer friendship because of the incident the other day.

    He had to apologize to Angor since his teacher forced him to, but offering his sincere atonement at this moment would only make him look like a real coward.

    <i>To hell with my dignity! Money is more important!</i>

    ¡°How may I help you, Master Padt?¡± Bismarck skillfully prepared a seat and a cup of expensive tea he received from the officials of Aureum.

    While Angor gazed at this muscr man who had taken on apletely different character, he wasn¡¯t sure what to say about this.

    ¡°Oh right! I have some Mana Algae Powder here. Mix it in your tea, and it¡¯ll feel like heaven!¡± Bismarck took out a small bag of blue substance with a somewhat unwilling look.

    From the books he read before, Angor knew that this was extracted from a special type of algae found in a deep-sea trench. It worked by stimting one¡¯s body into releasing certain pheromones that amplified pleasure. It wasn¡¯t harmful but could be a bit addictive.

    ¡°No, thanks.¡± He pushed the bag away. ¡°I came to ask some questions.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you anything as long as I know it, mister!¡±

    Angor couldn¡¯t care less about Bismarck¡¯s change of manners, so he got straight to the point. ¡°Do you know someone called the ¡®basket witch¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Basket witch? No... Is she your enemy? Do you want me to deal with her, sir?¡±

    ¡°No, just curious. If you don¡¯t know... then I have no other business here.¡±

    Bismarck feared that his only chance of befriending Angor would slip away and quickly thought about an idea. ¡°One moment, Master Padt. We can always ask my teacher. Should I contact him right now?¡±

    ¡°You sure it¡¯s okay to bother Mister Sabot?¡±

    ¡°Not a problem! He always has little work to do. I guess he¡¯s killing time at the Tower of Infinity out of boredom right now.¡± Bismarck didn¡¯t hesitate when selling his professor out. Even if Sabot would me him, they were an ocean apart.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll pay the crystals for the transmission.¡±

    Bismarck thought and decided not to say ¡°I¡¯ll pay the bill¡±. It was pretty hard to earn magic crystals in thisnd of mortals. He would like to save up as much as he could.

    ¡°If-if you would be so kind.¡±

    A little embarrassed, Bismarck once again took Angor to the beacon tower.

    ...

    On the 355th level of Tower of Infinity, Sabot was currently wrestling against his enemy, a bulky man who had a simr outfit and body build as him.

    Or rather, the man looked exactly like him.

    Unlike the public Tower of Infinity intended for apprentice challengers, the tower he was in was the ¡°real¡± Tower of Infinity, which was only essible to wizards from Floating Mech City.

    It was constructed using a Mystery item possessed by the city called the ¡°Corridor of Infinity¡±. People estimated that the tower had 20,000 levels or more, but they only managed to reach the 2,000th level.

    It was said that when legendary wizards still roamed around the southern region, they reached somewhere around the 10,000th level.

    Rumor had it that the ultimate power at the end of Corridor of Infinity could get an apprentice straight to the level of ¡°revtion¡±. However, there were no longer legendary wizards in the south who could prove the existence of an even higher level.

    Sabot had been struggling at this level for a long time. Without using extra help, it was too difficult to fight against his own projection who mastered his bloodline power.

    But he felt pretty good today. He had countered the attacks of his projection using pure instinct several times. It was likely for him to actually kill the projection now.

    ¡°Just one more hit, and I¡¯ll get to the next level!¡± Sabot tried his best to concentrate.

    After some more collision of fists and flesh, Sabot emptied his mind and let his body take control, which caused his projection to slow down.

    ¡°Chance!¡±

    He was in a good position tond a deadly strike against the back of his projection and win the fight.

    But as he was gathering energy for the attack, his blue ear stud suddenly began to glow before a man¡¯s annoying voice was heard.

    ¡°Hey, teacher! Where are ya? Got time to spare?¡±

    Following the voice was the enchanted punch of his projection, which looked pretty much lethal.

    ¡°I-I surrender!¡± Sabot yelled out without a second thought. He knew that punch would leave him badly wounded if it hit.

    As he called, the projection stopped moving and scattered into glitters.

    ¡°BISMAAAARCK!!!¡±

    ...

    Angor looked at Bismarck yelling into the transmitter but without receiving any response.

    ¡°Is he like, bathing or doing something else he doesn¡¯t want us to see?¡± Bismarck frowned.

    <i>Are you seriously talking about your own teacher like that?</i> Angorined in his mind.

    The screen of the transmitter finally lit up, which showed Sabot who looked like he was in a REALLY bad mood.

    Seeing this, Angor quickly stepped out of the room and closed the door, before he heard the bellowing of the ¡°Mad Bear¡±. Even across the door and the great distance that separated him and Floating Mech City, he could feel Sabot¡¯s unyielding rage.

    A momentter, Bismarck opened the door with empty eyes.

    ¡°Come in. The teacher wants to talk to you.¡±

    Angor made sure Sabot looked better and went inside.

    ¡°I spoke to Mariyasah the other day. Well, he¡¯s still heading to Ferran for some reason, but he won¡¯t bother you, I think,¡± said Sabot.

    ¡°Sorry for troubling you, Mister Sabot.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. So you have something to ask?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°It¡¯s nothing important. Just... can you tell me about the basket witch?¡±

    Sabot frowned.

    ¡°Did you run into her?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. I heard about this name out of somewhere, and I¡¯m curious about who she is.¡±

    ¡°That woman. She¡¯s not the kind type. I suggest that you stay away from her.¡±

    ...

    A whileter, Angor left the office while pondering over what he just heard.

    The ¡°basket witch¡± was actually the owner of Summerdew Ridge, Summerdew. ording to Sabot, Summerdew was a truth-finder. As a Karabit, she loved biological research and performing body modifications. The name ¡°basket witch¡± came from the basket-like monster she was always riding, which seemed to be another of her inventions.

 Chapter 756 - Lost Paradise City

    <h4>Chapter 756: Lost Paradise City</h4>

    ¡°Another truth-finder after Lucas...¡±

    Again, Angor wondered why this particr name had drawn attention from wizards who usually stayed away from public view.

    He had been considering whether he should keep looking into this matter since the encounter with Jebra.

    He now knew three wizards who were searching for Lucas¡¯ information, two of whom were truth-finders. As an apprentice, he might fall into dangerous situations if he insisted on joining them.

    But... he couldn¡¯t kill his eagerness for knowledge. He just couldn¡¯t.

    After spending another night worrying about this matter, he decided to head to the Anrum Monarchy.

    Curiosity killed the cat, but it was also the biggest virtue that advanced human civilization.

    Still, Angor had determined a boundary for how far he would go into the matter. He would quit as soon as something that endangered his life came about.

    He was ¡°in the dark¡± after all. Neither Song of the Deep nor Summerdew knew he was involved. If he went to Anrum now, people would see him as a typical recruiter, which would not raise any suspicion.

    For now, he was only nning on visiting several spots mentioned in Lucas¡¯ logbook, especially thest one, where Lucasmitted suicide.

    Lucas¡¯ skeleton appeared inside the ¡°ghost ship¡± at Devil¡¯s Water, which contradicted his own story. Perhaps somebody took his dead body away after his death?

    Correct or not, Angor had to figure it out once he reached Anrum Monarchy.

    After following the main path out of Yothur City and away from sights, Angor took out his Gond and headed north.

    Two minutester, hended the ship at a small bridge along a river, where a man in a mink coat was huffing air into his hands to ease the chilliness.

    ¡°Kept you waiting, Neet,¡± Angor spoke to him.

    At Ferran, maps were considered confidential, so they were usually kept away frommon citizens. This was why Angor had to ask for Neet¡¯s guidance again. It happened that Neet had to return to Anrum to go home, so Angor took him along.

    Neet turned around and instantly noticed the brilliant floating ship. His mouth fell agape.

    While staying at The Limpet and working for the association, he had witnessed many supernatural individuals and the amazing powers they wielded. Yet this shiny vehicle still astonished him.

    As a man from a noble n who once fancied horses and ships alike, Neet never stopped admiring Gond once aboard. Even though it was freezing outside, he had removed his gloves just to feel the smooth hull of the vehicle.

    Even so, he did not shirk his duty of a guide in the meantime.

    ¡°We usually take the waters from Aureum to Anrum, or take a detour around Domingo State. But since we can fly, we¡¯ll just take a straight course and go across the minds.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯ll do then,¡± said Angor.

    Ferran Land wasn¡¯t far from Old Earth. To cross the ckberry Waters and Whalebone Sea, ordinary ships would probably need several more months. However, Gond could cover the distance under a month.

    There was one year to go until Angor¡¯s ¡°five-year promise¡± met its deadline. This was why Angor still had time to investigate Lucas.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t nning on going back AT the deadline. He would save time when he could.

    Gond took them to the mentioned minds pretty fast. The whole area was not much smaller than the entire Old Earth. However, there were no nations or states that imed these parts, except for several primitive tribes.

    ¡°You¡¯ll see cannibalism pretty often here,¡± Neet exined. ¡°And the tribes all have powerful shamans among them. That is why no one would invade the minds and seize the fertilends.¡±

    Angor knew from books that ¡°shamans¡± were a certain type of supernaturals as well, and they knew how to use strange abilities. These abilities usually came from brute creatures from other nes. By devoting faith to them, the shamans could channel a small part of their might.

    Also, shamans needed all sorts of materials to cast their abilities, such as human skulls.

    But since shamans were native to this world, and the abilities they used weren¡¯t that powerful, wizards usually didn¡¯te and bother them.

    Neet kept exining what he knew about the cultures around Ferran. Unlike the other sailors who only enjoyed alcohol when off work, Neet usually spent his time traveling around.

    And Angor quite liked listening to his stories.

    ¡°The tribes aren¡¯tpletely unlettered. Many of them maintained some rtionships with the outside world. Sometimes, they would even send traders to exchange resources with other nations... Hey wait, we¡¯re at the Beast Bone Mountain already!¡± Neet suddenly pointed to a tallndscape not far from them. ¡°The Tatam Tribe sits right to the south of that mountain, and it¡¯s not far from ire Town, the border town of Anrum. Man... we just left Yothur for a few hours! When I went to Yothur from Lost Paradise by horse, it took me a month!¡±

    Angor looked at Neet and suddenly recalled his old self, when he was also often bewildered by all the amazing things he witnessed.

    A long distance in a mortal¡¯s view was only a brief trip to supernatural beings.

    At dusk, they sessfully arrived at their destination, Lost Paradise City, which was the capital of Anrum Monarchy.

    Neet was still questioning the reality when walking off the boat. He was having breakfast together with Charles at the mayor¡¯s mansion, and he was home in another country in the evening!

    Lost Paradise City looked simr in size as Midnight Sovereign. As the sky grew dark, the whole city went brighter like some of the most beautiful cities Angor saw in Earth documentaries.

    ¡°Anrum owns severalrge Luminous Stone mines. Well, you see how well these lights performed,¡± Neet exined, after recovering from his trance.

    Following Neet, Angor entered the well-lit city while listening to Neet describing the local cultures as well as the importance of Luminous Stones.

    Apart from light sources, Angor also saw the colorful objects used for bridges, pets, or house decorations. He even saw arge rainbow-like structure that was built on top of a circus tent.

    ¡°Like the Marcel Statues, Luminous Stone is like the signature of Anrum,¡± said Neet. ¡°Shall we head to my house, sir? We can spend the night there.¡±

    Neet knew that Angor came to recruit. Even though he himself wasn¡¯t talented, he wished that Angor could test on his family members, or at least appreciate their hospitality.

    Angor was going to head to Widow¡¯s Street where Lucas¡¯ private house was supposed to be. Or at least where it used to be. But Lucas was a man from 3,000 years ago. Perhaps the street was no more.

    In order to dig deeper into history, Angor had to talk to nobles. And since Neet imed that his family originated from a traditional noble n from the Age of Gold...

    ¡°Sure, if it¡¯s fine.¡± Angor agreed to the offer.

 Chapter 757 - Moyahâ€™s Journal

    <h4>Chapter 757: Moyah¡¯s Journal</h4>

    Angor had finished testing thest distant rtive of Neet¡¯s n.

    And... nothing.

    Neet had witnessed how difficult it was to find qualified talents yesterday. Even so, it was still painful to see none of their members or servants stood out.

    After asking the servants to take the crying kids away, Neet looked at his father, Count Ross, and shook his head.

    Ross sighed helplessly before he spoke to Angor, ¡°We¡¯ll be on our way so that we don¡¯t trouble you anymore, Sir Wizard. As for your request, feel free to use our underground archive. We have all the historical files stored there.¡±

    Neet nodded and offered to guide Angor again. During childhood, he often sneaked into the archive for adventure. Of course, he only found thick books piled up instead of treasures. That was when Neet took a liking to reading. The story of Nayah the Cruel also came from one of the books in the basement.

    ¡°Satisfy all of Sir Wizard¡¯s requests as long as it¡¯s not something too difficult for you. You don¡¯t have to ask for my approval.¡± Count Ross put a hand on his son¡¯s shoulder and left the room with everyone else.

    Angor had put away all the tools used in the test and was now rxing against a pir.

    ¡°Shall we check the archive right now?¡± asked Neet.

    ¡°Alright. Lead the way.¡±

    ...

    The archive was brightly lit by many high-quality Luminous Stones.

    ¡°The gilded bookshelf near the desk have our family records, while the other parts are files we collected throughout history, including unofficial documents.¡±

    After exining everything he should, Neet asked a servant to prepare a dish of snacks and hot tea, before he left Angor alone.

    Angor dly removed his image of a stern wizard and slumped down on a soft chair. While enjoying the unknown sweets, he used Hand of Spell to check through the books and files.

    When he put the books away, a standing clock suggested that he had spent half a day reading.

    The collection was pretty good¡ªit included most intelligence from the Age of Gold till today, the Age of Bronze. And the conditions of the books meant that the Ross Family treasured them.

    But as message traveled around a lot slower in ancient years, histories about the Age of Gold only took a small part of the archive.

    Angor managed to find something about Lucas, and he believed that the book might be one of a kind.

    It wasn¡¯t a history book, but a hand-written journal left behind by one of the ancestors of the Ross Family.

    Neet wasn¡¯t lying when he said how his n had existed for more than 3,000 years. However, they only earned their hereditary rank during the Age of Bronze, while at the Age of Gold, their n was only a local trader family who owned big money.

    It seemed Ross Family and Lucas were once involved in a matter together, and this was when the mentioned book wasposed.

    In the year 1331, Age of Gold, when the Ross Family had been striving for over 100 years, they attempted and failed to acquire a noble title despite all the gold they had.

    At that time, one¡¯s pedigree was considered to be most important to be recognized as nobility, and the Ross Family did not inherit a decent pedigree.

    There, the family decided to slowly address this problem through a marriage alliance. And since major noble ns would not ept a bunch of rich traders into their ranks, they had to start from befriending poorer entities or even sending their female members closer to noblemen with bigger desires, in hope that they could hopefully ¡°collect¡± children with a good bloodline.

    Of course, the second choice was not optimal because this would only leave the family with several b*stards who would taint their names.

    However, the Ross Family was so obsessed at the time, and they actually did both.

    And it seemed Professor Gurman was right about how Lucas became a swingerter.

    By some coincidence, the Ross Family asked one of their daughters called Moyah to ¡°get in touch¡± with Lucas. The handwritten record Angor found was left by Moyah herself.

    Apart from some pointless forewords and bonding processes that weren¡¯t fun to read, Moyah also mentioned her opinion of Lucas, which was... not very good.

    Unfaithful, wasteful, liar. She mostly described Lucas in the same way as everybody else did. Even when Lucas and Moyah were engaged, this man still had several extra lovers in the city.

    Lucas had three children in the end, two of whom died young, while the third child¡ªMoyah¡¯s¡ªsurvived.

    Angor then checked the family tree of Ross Family and saw Moyah had two children near the top of the tree. While one of them had Lucas as the father, the other one was a result of intermarrying between Moyah and another n member.

    ¡°So... Lucas left his blood in the bloodline of the Ross Family?¡± Angor shook his head. What an unlikely ident.

    Moyah also mentioned her daily life with Lucas, which included the address of Lucas¡¯ house at Widow Street.

    In his years, Lucas¡¯ family owned several real estates at Widow Street, and Lucas also kept his lovers there.

    Since this was exactly what Lucas said in his logbook, then Moyah¡¯s record was probably true.

    At the end of the book, Moyah used Lucas again for using all sorts of lies to win her trust, and that was about everything.

    Angor put the book away and asked a servant to summon Neet.

    ¡°Rough night?¡± Angor saw Neet¡¯s panda eyes and asked.

    Neet rubbed his temples. ¡°Kids forced me to tell them sailor stories. I put them to sleepter, but I was too hyped to sleep myself.¡±

    This had reminded Angor of his own childhood. Each time Leon returned home after spending a full term at the academy, Angor would bug him for stories all night as well, before Viscount Padt would intervene.

    ¡°Nice family you got there.¡± Angor smiled.

    ¡°Oh, heh heh... I can run around the world all day just because my family is good by themselves, and that they¡¯re always waiting for me here.¡±

    ¡°Good for you.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯m going to take a tour around Lost Paradise City at night. Do you have a map of the city?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, the city map is not a secret. Just a moment, I¡¯ll get one now.¡± Neet left the archive while mumbling, ¡°Sightseeing at night? The ce sure looks shiny, but the shops will all be closed...¡±

    Later, Neet brought Angor a revised and detailed map, which showed information of almost everymon building in the city, and due to the city¡¯s size, the cramped street names and footnotes were pretty hard to read.

    This was not a problem for Angor. He located Widow Street soon after.

    ¡°The street¡¯s still here after three thousand years?¡± He wondered if this one was still the same ce mentioned by Lucas and Moyah. ¡°Hey, Neet, can you show me an older map? Like, a map used in the Age of Gold.¡±

    ¡°A city map during the Age of Gold? We... might find one at the academy¡¯s library. I can borrow it from them if necessary.¡±

    ¡°If you please.¡±

    ...

    While waiting for Neet to return, Angor took the chance to do his routine meditation.

    Neet returned to the mansion at night.

    ¡°I apologize, sir, but I was told that the map went missing several days ago.¡±

    ¡°Missing?¡±

    <i>Well, it might be someone from Song of the Deep or other people looking for Lucas who beat me to it... Nobody else is interested in an old map,</i> Angor thought.

    ¡°The guards said that they saw a flying guy escaping through the window that night,¡± Neet exined. ¡°But they aren¡¯t going to go after a flying man, obviously. Besides, the map isn¡¯t that important.¡±

    <i>Welp. My guess is probably true then.</i> Angor sighed in his mind. ¡°Can we find another ancient map somewhere else?¡±

    ...

    Again, Angor traveled across the sky stealthily in the night while looking at the shining city beneath.

    He was heading straight to the biggest and most luxurious-looking buildingplex in the middle of the city, where the royal authorities of Anrum stayed.

    <i>Infinite Reticence, on.</i>

    As his figure faded from in view, he followed the route mentioned by Neet and dived down.

    A momentter, he stepped out of the document chamber and entered the street outside.

    Using Neet¡¯s help, he sessfully discovered another old map in the royal residence. While at it, he took some time to search around and didn¡¯t find anything about Lucas.

    Since Lucas was known as a criminal who tantly scammed the king, there was no way that a noble family had his clues but the royalties did not. This probably meant someone else came earlier and took everything, again.

    Thankfully, whoever stole the records didn¡¯t know about Moyah¡¯s journal.

 Chapter 758 - The Tree of Blessing

    <h4>Chapter 758: The Tree of Blessing</h4>

    Widow Street wasn¡¯t far from the central court area. Instead of flying, Angor slowly blended into themon crowds and walked toward his destination casually.

    But before he could enter Widow Street for real, he suddenly felt a strange feeling directed right at him as if someone was watching him.

    He made a quick decision and turned into another direction, which would take him to the ¡°Dawn za¡± instead.

    Once inside the za area, he made sure the inquiring attention had disappeared before he slowly turned around to inspect the entrance to Widow Street. This was when he easily noticed two apprentices hiding on top of a house.

    He couldn¡¯t see their faces clearly from a distance, but he was sure those were apprentices because they kept casting some kind of detection cantrip at the pedestrians below. While the magic was invisible to mortals, other apprentices could notice it with ease.

    Apparently, they were here to monitor people who entered Widow Street.

    ¡°Guess they already found this ce...¡± Angor frowned.

    This waspletely expected since Lucas¡¯ family industry, which was located at Widow Street, was not a secret.

    However...

    Angor looked again and wondered how many supernatural individuals were already investigating that ce.

    He could try forcing his way inside under the effect of Infinite Reticence, but the effect wasn¡¯t powerful enough to hide him from full-scale detection methods.

    After considering his options, he headed to another spot.

    ording to Moyah¡¯s descriptions, Lucas had another standalone yard at Pompei Alley. The man bought this yard for one of his lovers who held his child. Fearing that his ¡°other lovers¡± might do something bad to her, Lucas found her a new residence.

    Also ording to Moyah, this child was given birth just fine but passed away at the age of three. However, Moyah wasn¡¯t sure of the cause of the tragic oue.

    Pompei Alley was in the eastern part of the city, which was pretty far from Widow Street. To be safe, Angor kept walking slowly so that he could get far away from the watchmen before taking to the air.

    He halted his steps when walking past the center of the za.

    He had been keeping an eye at Widow Street and didn¡¯t pay much attention to the other parts of the za. He just realized that there was a really tall tree nted not far from him, which looked at least ten meters in height.

    Or... it wasn¡¯t an actual tree, but a stone sculpture that looked like a tree. It was a stone sculpture entirely made out of one giant Luminous Stone.

    Being right beside it allowed Angor to fully witness its magnificence. He couldn¡¯t believe it was possible for mortal hands to craft such a thing at all. The stone tree had a great number of ritual bells hanging over it, which would give out pleasant clinking sounds whenever there was any wind.

    Apart from admiring the rare structure and the masterful design, there was another reason why Angor stopped to inspect it¡ªhe saw something familiar in a brief story found in Moyah¡¯s journal, which went like this:

    [Year 1347, Age of Gold, Month of Resuscitation

    [Prince Domingo is visiting the court. Lucas... you a*shole! He went off to flirt with Domingo¡¯s cousin! And she¡¯s a sightless ugly! Look at that fool! What did he say again? That he would take her to Undermour Lake and pray to the Tree of Blessing? So she can regain her sight? This is quite enough! Why would God send me to this disgraceful deadbeat?!]

    Angor didn¡¯t pay much attention to Moyah¡¯sint, which was prettymon in her journal. But looking at the tree sculpture reminded him of a certain clue.

    He didn¡¯t know what the za area looked like 3,000 years ago, but from the map he just found, he saw ¡°Undermour Lake¡± right next to Widow Street.

    ¡°So is this glowing Luminous Stone tree the ¡®Tree of Blessing¡¯?¡±

    He looked around and saw a small shop stand selling more chimes, and a group of youngdies was chattering loudly nearby.

    ¡°I heard that this tree works wonders! I hope Cleon falls in love with me this time!¡± ady eximed.

    ¡°Me? I hope that Master Volca visits Lost Paradise next month and does a concert.¡±

    ¡°I just wanna lose some weight...¡±

    They purchased several bronze chimes, attached their ¡°wish notes¡± onto them, and climbed adder prepared by the shop to hang their chimes on the stone tree.

    ¡°So that¡¯s what the bells are used for...¡± Angor inspected the tree again as well as the notes all over it.

    Using spirit feelers, he found most of the notes to be good wishes for wellbeing. asionally, there were more straightforward wishes or even bizarre ones such as someone hoping to gain a longer pecker, as shown on a golden bell near the top of the tree.

    When the talkingdies left, the shopkeeper somehow noticed him since he was standing pretty close to the shop.

    ¡°Gentleman, need a wishing bell?¡± The young salesman smiled. ¡°The Tree of Blessing is magical! People said that our queen once wished for a good husband, then our good king came!¡±

    He then pointed to the top of the tree where several golden bells were. ¡°See the topmost one? That¡¯s the queen¡¯s bell.¡±

    Angor checked and saw the ¡°wish for a husband¡±.

    ¡°How much for one?¡±

    ¡°Two gold pieces for a bronze, which will stay there for a month. Twenty for a silver one, stays for a year. As for golden ones... they cost 200 each. As long as our union stays in business, we¡¯ll keep your golden bell on there forever!¡±

    The price was... pretty insane. In mortalnds, one gold piece was enough to keep an ordinary citizen fed for an entire year. The service was obviously intended for rich people who had too much money to spare.

    Angor picked up a golden bell and checked as the shopkeeper eagerly exined the ¡°benefits¡± of buying one, such as how the shop would clean it every three days and keep it from dust and rain, and of course, a higher chance of making one¡¯s wishe true.

    Naturally, Angor believed none of these. He already checked. The Tree of Blessing had zero magic signature on it.

    But he didn¡¯te here to point out the fraud.

    ¡°Mister, so this tree belongs to your union?¡± he asked a question.

    ¡°That¡¯s right! Our leader asked Master Warsaw to make it happen! It¡¯s customized work.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s... beautiful, yes. May I ask when it was ced here?¡±

    The shopkeeper frowned. He checked Angor¡¯s poor dressing style and wondered if it was another unlikely customer.

    But before he asked his assistant to drive Angor away, a heavy pouch was suddenly dropped onto his counter.

    A pouch full of gold pieces.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take a golden bell,¡± said Angor.

    The shopkeeper instantly repaired his expression. Without minding where Angor had been keeping the extra-sized bag, he quickly took out a piece of high-quality notepaper and a quill, then handed them to Angor.

    ¡°Please write down your wish, dear guest! We¡¯ll find the perfect spot on the tree for youter. Trust me, your bell will not be troubled by rain or wind!¡± the man said while rubbing his hands happily.

    Before taking the quill, Angor returned to his previous question. ¡°You haven¡¯t told me the history of the tree. Or may I?¡±

    The shopkeep did not hesitate this time. ¡°It¡¯s somewhere around 600 years ago. Master Warsaw perished not long after the tree was finished.¡±

    Angor nodded with a in look.

    It happened again!

    Lucas spoke of the Tree of Blessing, yet the tree only appeared way after his time. Apart from this, the other details all corresponded.

    By this point, Angor had believed that Lucas¡¯ stories were somewhat credible. There was no way Lucas made up so many tales that reflected true events andndmarks so nicely.

    Perhaps Lucas held amazing secrets that people from the Age of Gold had no idea of, and that in recent times, someone finally noticed the true values of the secrets.

    ¡°Have you decided on your wish, good sir?¡± the shopkeeper urged.

    ¡°Oh, pardon me. I was... thinking about which wish to write. You know, I got many of them.¡±

    The shopkeeper gave Angor an ¡°I understand you¡± look and waited in patience. In his view, Angor was basically a richmb waiting to be fleeced.

    The ¡°richmb¡± took an extra moment in his thoughts before he left a line of words on the note.

    [I wish Mister Jon and my dear brother better health. May the fire in the lion¡¯s heart never die.]

 Chapter 759 - Wells

    <h4>Chapter 759: Wells</h4>

    Angor was heading to Pompei Alley while still thinking about the Tree of Blessing he just saw.

    From what he found so far, all of Lucas¡¯ stories and ims seemed simr to prophecies. Prophecies that came true in a very weird way.

    It wasn¡¯t surprising if Lucas was actually a talented Prophet or someone with a simr ability. There were many groups of people in this world born with special traits such as the Phantom Servants. The ¡°Void Shift¡± used by Hobbiton, which could be seen as a temporary invincibility effect, was quite handy.

    Ordinary humans could receive such gifts as well. One example was ¡°Dripping River the Sleeper¡±, who knew how to manipte the properties of water before bing an apprentice.

    As there were countless creatures in this world with supernatural abilities, wizards usually didn¡¯t pay much attention to them.

    So why would so many powerful wizards, including truth-finders, go after Lucas? Prophets weren¡¯t exactly rare in the wizarding world.

    Unless Lucas foretold something that concerned Song of the Deep and Summerdew Ridge, or...

    ¡°Or maybe his ability came from an item or even a Mystery treasure rather than himself?¡±

    Angor then shook his head and got rid of the idea. He realized he grew a bit too obsessed with finding Mystery items.

    Later, he reached Pompei Alley but without finding the residence of Lucas¡¯ lover. Although this was to be expected, since 3,000 years was more than enough to remove amon house from the city.

    He took a tour around the alley and failed to find any supernatural traces.

    Next, he headed to several more spots in the city mentioned by Lucas or Moyah. Unfortunately, they were either brushed clean by the passage of time or guarded by supernatural individuals already on the scene.

    In order not to draw hostile attention, Angor did not get too close to them.

    He returned to Neet¡¯s mansion and read Lucas¡¯ logbook again. It seemed he had visited every spot he could find in the city apart from one, which was where Lucas killed himself.

    [Day 6, Month of Looming Frost, Gold Age 1353. Weather: fog

    [It has been thirty days since the Feather Fan returned. Nobody, NOBODY believes the inspiring stories of Captain Lucas! Just because I can¡¯t show them the treasure I collected, they called me a liar! Farewell, world! I shall end my life here. That well over there will do the trick.]

    Lucas jumped into a well. But... there were too many wells in the city.

    Angor didn¡¯t believe he had to check every well because most of them were private. Lucas was unlikely to trespass into someone else¡¯s yard just tomit suicide.

    As for public wells around Lucas¡¯ residence...

    After marking several possible areas on the city map where Lucas might find his grave, Angor called Neet and showed the man a bottle of blue liquid that glowed with a faint light.

    ¡°This is Indigo Elixir, a special alchemy potion that increases someone¡¯s lifespan for up to 10 years,¡± Angor exined under Neet¡¯s eager gaze.

    Neet was nning on quitting his sailor job because his parents were approaching their limits. If only he could get his hands on this potion...

    The effect of ordinary Indigo Elixir should be 15 years, but as this thing also damaged one¡¯s potential, no apprentice would consume it. Angor bought this low-quality one just to use it on mortals.

    ¡°I need you to help me with a few things during my stay. When everything¡¯s done, I¡¯ll leave this potion here as your reward.¡±

    He was originally going to give Neet some watered-down Glowing Velvet potion instead. But since Neet had been acting pretty helpful and sincere these days, plus Angor quite liked this man¡¯s free character, he decided to bring out something better.

    After receiving more of Neet¡¯s gratitude, Angor showed him the map.

    ¡°Help me find out all the wells in these designated areas, and when they were built. I don¡¯t need extreme details. Telling me a general time point is fine.¡±

    Neet agreed without a second thought. ¡°New wells and fountains being built must be reported to the bar in charge of the district, then archived at the congregation¡¯s council. I have a friend working as a celebrant. He should be able to get us the records.¡±

    Church and monarchy coexisted in Anrum. It was usually the former who took care of trivial matters of the citizens.

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave it to you. But remember, stay low.¡±

    ...

    Heavy snow began to descend upon the city at midnight, hiding everything behind a white veil.

    The Lost Paradise City looked ever more dreamy with the extra decoration. It was as if the snow had changed an alluringdy thirsty for guests into a timid matron who preferred peace.

    There were fewer passersby on the streets, which allowed the light of the Luminous Stones to disy their brilliancy even better against the snow.

    A middle-aged man who had used the wrong clothing in this weather slowly trod past the buildings, until he stopped in front of an ordinary-looking warehouse.

    Knock, knock!

    After mumbling someints, an old man opened the door from the inside while puffing out some smoke.

    ¡°What is it?¡± he asked the visitor while trembling in the cold wind that came through the entrance.

    ¡°I heard that an experienced boatbuilder lives here. I wish to pay him a visit.¡±

    The old man looked at the figure in front of him up and down and only saw a cheap and wrinkled attire that suggested sluggishness.

    ¡°That¡¯ll be me and only me if ur looking for ship crafter.¡± He showed a doubtful look. ¡°You ain¡¯t a customer... You a pirate looting me house? Forget it. I may have a nice job before but I donated everythin¡¯. I¡¯ve not a cent left!¡±

    ¡°Donate? To whom? The betting house?¡± the visitor snickered.

    ¡°Well, it ain¡¯t no your business!¡±

    ¡°On the contrary, I¡¯m here to offer money.¡± The visitor showed a pouch filled with shiny coins inside.

    ¡°Ahh, you ARE a customer then! Now get inside!¡± The old man inhaled his pipe and showed a mouthful of yellowish teeth. ¡°What ur name, chum?¡±

    ¡°Mister Ohm, you can call me Padt,¡± Angor spoke casually while carefully inspecting the surroundings with spirit feelers.

    The warehouse, which was turned into a workhouse for building ships, had all kinds of cut lumber piled everywhere, and a broken ship was lifted above a narrow ditch.

    He found no supernaturals nearby and canceled his inspection.

    ¡°So, Mister Padt, you want a new ship or have one of yours fixed?¡± Ohm showed Angor to a seat beside a makeshift bonfire.

    ¡°Neither. I want to ask some questions.¡±

    ¡°Question?¡± Ohm frowned. ¡°Sorry to disappoint ya, but I know nothing about the business of the king and his doormats. But I can bber about the filthy hanky-panky in the gambling house all day, if you want to hear it, ha!¡±

    ¡°Not like that. Do you know a lot about old ships used in history, Mister Ohm?¡±

    ¡°Dat depends on the ship. I know one or two things about popr ones.¡±

    ¡°The Feather Fan. Have you heard of this name before?¡±

    ¡°Feather Fan? Feather Fan... Wait wait wait. I KNOW I saw it somewhere before.¡±

    Angor intentionally poked at the coin bag to use the alluring sound of money to help Ohm search his memory. Gradually, Ohm managed to remember some of the old stories his teacher used to tell him.

    ¡°You mean the ship used by Lucas some thousands of years ago, Mister Padt? The Feather Fan, aye that¡¯s the name.¡±

    Angor simply proceeded with more questions while he kept pushing the money bag to Ohm just at the right speed.

    ¡°Can you tell me what you know about it, Mister Ohm?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an expedition ship, a three-masted brig used everywhere in the Age of Gold...¡±

    Which meant the ¡°ghost ship¡± that showed up at Devil¡¯s Water was Lucas¡¯ ship.

    A momentter, by reading Angor¡¯s ¡°bag pushing¡±, Ohm noticed that Angor was more interested in the ship itself and its passengers, so he decided to talk more about these matters instead of introducing the specifications of the ship as a shipbuilder.

    As soon as Ohm finished talking about Lucas¡¯ ¡°great treachery to the king¡±, Angor gave the money bag a final push so that itnded on Ohm¡¯s spreading hands.

    ¡°It¡¯s yours. Have a good night.¡±

 Chapter 760 - The Great Treachery

    <h4>Chapter 760: The Great Treachery</h4>

    After using a simple nightmare illusion to erase Ohm¡¯s recent memory, Angor stepped out of the workshop.

    Without much to go by, he decided to look at Lucas¡¯ ship for more clues. And he was pretty surprised to actually receive useful information from Ohm.

    Ohm imed very firmly that Lucas was executed in the end, which contradicted Gurman¡¯s words, that Lucas ¡°should have been executed¡±.

    But neither of them knew that Lucas went back to his ship, which meant something went wrong when people were writing down history records.

    Another important fact was Lucas¡¯ ¡°evil plot¡±, about which both Gurman and the historical records mentioned but without going into any details.

    What exactly did Lucas do?

    As stated by Ohm, when Lucas¡¯ family declined to its worst state until he began to starve, he visited the king and offered to be a pioneer that discovered newnds by sailing across Devil¡¯s Water.

    Devil¡¯s Water was already marked as a forbidden zone by that time, and no one would enter recklessly. But going through there was the only choice for finding unchartednds and expanding territory.

    In fact, the king had been searching for brave sailors for this job but failed to find anyone, until Lucas came.

    Delighted, the king epted Lucas¡¯ offer without a problem and granted the man a huge amount of resources as well as The Feather Fan, which was constructed using the full support of the nation¡¯s vault.

    The ship set sail in the year 1347 during the Age of Gold, and it returned by the end of 1353. However, after six years, Lucas only came back to deliver a bunch of ¡°iprehensible hogwash¡± to his king.

    Ohm didn¡¯t know exactly what Lucas told people. The point was, none of the audience in the court believed a single word from him. Also, almost all sailors died during their voyage, and Lucas imed that everyone was killed by pirates. Yet he had no proof.

    Besides, why would the pirates spare his life?

    Due to Lucas¡¯ already bad fame andbined with severalmissioners who imed that they had seen Lucas cking off at random spots at Ferran, the king was convinced of the ¡°fact¡± that Lucas was a big liar who scammed from the nation¡¯s fund. After distributing the news and arresting Lucas, the king simply sentenced him to death in the most painful way.

    Such was the ¡°Treachery of Lucas¡±, an event that shocked everyone at that time.

    After listening to the story, Angor had believed that at least the first part of it might be true.

    Lucas couldn¡¯t possibly be executed at Ferran and then appeared at Devil¡¯s Water. And how did his logbooke into existence? In the book, Lucas said that he stayed at Ferran for over a month, during which everyone used him of being a liar. But the king probably would not see Lucase back and wait for a month to arrest him.

    As for what truly happened... there was nothing to refer to right now.

    It was very unlikely that anyone from Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge knew about Lucas¡¯ logbook, and Angor believed that he would be safe from prying eyes if he were to check the well.

    ...

    Devil¡¯s Water, Silver Palm Isle.

    Sliv was gazing into a bubble with a big frown. ¡°There aren¡¯t clues in Lost Paradise City? It can¡¯t be. Tuwalu confirmed that Lucas left something behind at his home. Look more carefully, Jebra, hmm.¡±

    Above Lost Paradise City, Jebra listened to the message sent by his whale and pinched his forehead.

    Tuwalu was a Prophet who studied an umon prophecy art called the ¡°Enigma Bell¡±, rather than the well-known major arts. In his career, Tuwalu¡¯s prophecy was almost always correct, which meant there was something in Lost Paradise City they overlooked.

    This was also proved by many agents sent by Summerdew Ridge, who were also wandering around the city. And since Summerdew Ridge also had a Prophet working for them...

    ¡°Damn those Prophets. Why can¡¯t they just tell us what to look for straight up?¡± Jebra scratched his hair with great impatience. Although it was only a mindlessint¡ªhe knew how prophecy worked in this world, and it wasn¡¯t the Prophets who should be med.

    Prophets suffered from a greater backfire when they attempted to reveal more important secrets. If they earned clues about the item they were looking for, only to have it snatched away by others, the Prophets would still sustain misery or even a lethal oue if the item proved to be something extremely vital. This was why no Prophet would carelessly look deeper into this matter. One wrong move and it would cost their lives.

    As Jebra fruitlessly used the air, his whale sent him another bubble, which contained Sliv¡¯s voice.

    ¡°I¡¯ve seen some of Lucas¡¯ files before, so let me give you two suggestions. One, start looking for his ship. And secondly, where exactly he died. I want to see the rtionship between Lucas and the ¡®mysterious dimension¡¯ as soon as possible. Every prophecy we received involved this man¡¯s name, and we must find out why, hmm.¡±

    Jebranded inside a small yard, where a dozen apprentices quickly saluted him. All of them had ¡°fish scale tattoos¡± somewhere on their bodies that showed their memberships in Song of the Deep.

    ¡°Since there¡¯s nothing to see at his house, call everyone back and split up into two teams. One shall look for the ship Lucas used before, while the other should check where his corpse went,¡± Jebra ordered.

    The members acknowledged the order and all left, leaving one short girl behind.

    The girl¡¯s eyes werepletely white without pupils, but this wouldn¡¯t prevent her from seeing the world using her spirit power.

    ¡°Anything else you need, Haku?¡±

    The girl named ¡°Haku¡± lowered her head and replied in a careful manner, ¡°Sir, I saw a wandering apprentice the other day, who was going into Widow Street but noticed our guards. I think that was why he left instead. He didn¡¯t see me because of my stealth talent.¡±

    ¡°Someone else sent by Summerdew, perhaps. Leave them... wait, ¡®he¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Right. It was a man.¡±

    Jebra frowned. The ¡°basket witch¡± did not allow men to join them.

    ¡°What does he look like?¡±

    Haku took out a hand-drawn portrait she already prepared.

    ¡°Him again?¡± Jebra mumbled, ¡°He didn¡¯t go to Widow Street for real? What was he doing then?¡±

    ¡°He stayed for a while at the za area nearby and bought a wishing bell from the shop. Here, I also noted down the wish he left behind.¡±

    Jebra checked Angor¡¯s ¡°message¡± and wasn¡¯t sure whether he should care about it.

    ¡°Who¡¯s ¡®Mister Jon¡¯ anyway? His mortal friend who fell ill?¡±

    ¡°I failed to constantly keep track of him, sir,¡± Haku continued, ¡°I only found out that he has been staying at Ross Mansion. Their servants told me that he spent a night performing the talent test. But I don¡¯t know his next moves since that point.¡±

    Jebra nodded. ¡°You can leave him be. He¡¯s not rted to this matter. He¡¯s a recruiter.¡±

    ¡°Sir, you mean he¡¯s scouting for talents for his organization?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    In Jebra¡¯s view, Angor saw the members of Song of the Deep and backed away because he had decided to stay out of whatever business was going on.

    And since Angor decided so, Jebra would also like to avoid provoking a gifted alchemist who was likely a very strong fighter as well. He wasn¡¯t sure whether the members he brought were enough to fight against that griffin monster AND Angor¡¯s illusions even if they went all-out.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Angor had no idea that his presence had been exposed to the agents of Song of the Deep. Thankfully, he wasn¡¯t regarded as a threat since he had not done anything noticeable.

    Angor was currently checking another map provided by Neet. As Angor requested, the map showed the locations of water wells in Lost Paradise City as well as their time of construction.

    Since severalke canals were excavated inside the city, there had been less need for wells in the city, which made their work a lot easier.

 Chapter 761 - Wells and Lies

    <h4>Chapter 761: Wells and Lies</h4>

    It was dusk before nightfall.

    Angor was sitting on a moose-pulled sleigh while reading his map, whereas Neet was diligently controlling their vehicle.

    They had entered the Tail Mouse Street where manymon residential buildings were located, which were releasing cooking heat from their chimneys to repel the snow. People on the street were mostly kids in thick clothes who were snowballing at each other while waiting for dinner.

    While traveling, Neet¡¯s sleigh became someone¡¯s target as it received several yful strikes.

    And unfortunately for Neet, a nicely-timed snowball hit him right in the face, turning a part of his cheek into a reddish color.

    The little devil whomitted the assault held his stomach andughed.

    Ordinary noblemen would have probably done something to punish the offender even if it was a child. However, Neet possessed apletely different character as a sailor. He learned to be more tolerant after all the hardships he went through.

    Instead, he was a little terrified that the kid might have offended Angor.

    But he was rather surprised to see Angorpletely unaffected by the snowball fight. Or rather, the flying objects all moved past Angor¡¯s position nicely without hitting him while denying thew of gravity.

    What was more, Angor would asionally capture several snowballs with a bright smile beforeunching them back at the naughty children. Even if their sleigh was moving pretty fast, each of Angor¡¯s attacks could find its target perfectly.

    The galloping sound of the moose was now apanied by muffled thuds when the kids hugged the snowy ground.

    Like a victorious general, Angor traveled through Tail Mouse Street and left a trail of defeated children behind his trail. When he was done, he even looked back and gave his ¡°enemies¡± a salute, much to Neet¡¯s bewilderment.

    While satisfied with the crying voices, Angor saw them arriving at a red cedar tree under which a public well was built. But as the city no longer needed wells to provide water resources, this well was sealed by arge boulder.

    ¡°That¡¯s the 26th one I¡¯m going to check today. Oh, please don¡¯t disappoint me...¡± Angor muttered while walking to the well with a serious look.

    Neet joined him after parking the sleigh, and he saw Angor¡¯s expression beingpletely different all of a sudden. He wasn¡¯t sure if human beings could change their attitude so fast.

    <i>Well, Officer Helen was so right... Mister Padt is different, even by wizard standards!</i>

    After checking the bottom of the well with his spirit feelers, Angor put a hand over his forehead as he felt greatly disappointed.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to take a better look down there. You wait here.¡±

    After using Hand of Spell to remove the boulder, Angor put a thin water barrier around himself as protection and jumped into the well.

    The well wasn¡¯t deep. And just as what he expected from the initial examination, there was nothing particr in view.

    Irritated, he levitated out of the well again while the warmer water left on his barrier released some vapor into the cold environment.

    Neet could see from Angor¡¯s look that the search yielded no result. Even so, he wasn¡¯t going to carelessly ask orfort Angor when he wasn¡¯t supposed to.

    ¡°Shall we continue, sir? I think there are four more wells at Widow Street we haven¡¯t looked at.¡±

    Angor took a moment to consider. ording to the records brought back by Neet, there were a total of 33 wells in the designated parts of the city that were more than 3,000 years old, plus 3 unknown ones. If nothing dyed them, they should be able to check all 36 wells in the city within a day.

    However, the remaining ten wells yet to be inspected were all located inside Lucas¡¯ old territory. While the well used by Lucas was very likely among these ones, Angor could not check them now because he saw supernatural individuals hidden in those parts. Heading into Lucas¡¯ ces right now might draw unwanted attention.

    ¡°Speaking of Widow Street, one of the wells belonged to a friend of mine. He¡¯s the son of the knightmander who¡¯s in charge of our westward expedition team, and he¡¯s a bar in the city,¡± Neet spoke while checking their map again.

    Angor¡¯s eyes gleamed as he got a new idea.

    ¡°Hey, Neet, my top mission foring to Lost Paradise is recruiting talented apprentices. Since you have a friend who¡¯s the son of a knight, I might as well check him.¡±

    Neet frowned. <i>Do knights pass better talents to their offspring? Never heard of that.</i>

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to ask such a question. He simply listened to Angor¡¯s suggestion and prepared their sleigh again.

    Angor closed his eyes and pretended that he was taking a brief rest. ¡°Tomorrow, help me spread a message that I¡¯m looking for new talents in the city. As for the ce... let¡¯s use your home.¡±

    Neet was more than d to hear this as this basically showed everyone that the Ross Family knew a wizard.

    ¡°I won¡¯t fail you, sir! But... the poption of Lost Paradise is over a million, and arge part of them are of eligible ages. I¡¯m afraid my home isn¡¯t big enough to test all of them. And... are you sure this won¡¯t be too burdensome to you, sir?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. Don¡¯t tell the message to just anyone. Let¡¯s see... We shall set a limit. Those who wish to take the test must pay 5 gold pieces as an entrance fee, and this would not be refunded no matter what the test result is.¡±

    Ordinary families might have a hard time gathering so much money. Of course, Angor wasn¡¯t going after profit by this decision since mortal money was pretty pointless to him. He meant to thin out the candidates by telling them that great destiny came with a great price.

    In the wizarding world, paying enough price and effort didn¡¯t necessarily guarantee sess. However, not paying anything at all pretty much meant getting nothing in return.

    In addition to the entrance fee, Angor also nned to draw a special rune, which would test the spirits of the visitors, at the door of Neet¡¯s house. The rune would put some pressure on their spirits while only allowing people who endured the pressure to enter the house. In other words, only people with rtively strong spirit power or those with enough willpower to make up for their weakness could enter the house and take the test.

    This way, the number of participants should be lowered to an eptable level.

    Neet listened to Angor¡¯s n and sighed in relief. For a moment, he was worried that his house would get wrecked by too many people trying to squeeze inside.

    While they talked, the moose sleigh had taken them to Widow Street. This was when Angor suddenly noticed that the apprentice guards he saw before were no longer here. Those people either got what they needed or determined that there was nothing to find.

    Personally, Angor inclined to the second possibility since all of Lucas¡¯ clues should have gone after 3,000 years.

    And since there was no danger of being found out, Angor told Neet to change their route so that they could start looking through the wells before heading to Lucas¡¯ friend.

    As for whether he should check Lucas¡¯ old houses...

    No. Anything worth picking up would have been taken away by Song of the Deep by now.

    They inspected three wells, which were allmon, shallow ones, without anything of interest hidden down below.

    Angor wished that the fourth well at Neet¡¯s friend¡¯s ce could finally provide something.

    But to his disappointment, this one was just as empty and boring as the other ones, and Neet¡¯s friend also turned out to be talentless.

    They continued going to the remaining marks shown on their map, which were all inside the territory owned by Lucas¡¯ family. Simrly, all the supernatural individuals watching them were gone. Also simrly, Angor failed to discover anything from the remaining wells.

    <i>Did Lucas wander into someone else¡¯s well for real, instead of using the more convenient ones?</i> Angor wondered while on their way back. <i>But that doesn¡¯t make sense.</i>

    <i>Or... is the ¡°jumping into a well¡± part one of his lies?</i>

    The other stories mentioned by Lucas such as the flowerbed on the sea and the Tree of Blessing all happened way after his time. Was it possible that Lucasmitted suicide ¡°way after his time¡± as well?

    Apart from the fantasy-like stories, Angor mostly considered the other descriptions in the logbook as truths. When not telling stories, Lucas also used a lot of words and phrases to record more boring stuff like his daily routine on the ship and his meals. There was no point telling lies about these matters.

    Until now, Angor regarded thest part of the logbook as another piece of true fact. This was why he had been searching all the wells to find what Lucas left in his ¡°grave¡±.

    But no. He left no stone unturned in the wells and found absolutely nothing. Not a bone chip.

    Did Lucas tell another ¡°fiction¡± at the end of his book then?

 Chapter 762 - Two Conditions

    <h4>Chapter 762: Two Conditions</h4>

    Angor spent a night weighing the situation and decided to give up on Lucas¡¯ secret.

    For one, he couldn¡¯t afford to waste too much time on this matter. And secondly, no matter how carefully he moved, the truth-finders would notice his involvement sooner orter, which meant great risk. Meanwhile, he didn¡¯t see any noticeable reward to go with the risk.

    It was like ying riddles with someone who was very good at mixing lies with truth, and he was getting tired of it.

    An obviously better choice was to return to his job and recruit apprentices before heading to his next destination as soon as possible.

    With this in mind, Angor tossed Lucas¡¯ book to a corner of his storage and continued working on Empty Bad while waiting for the test to begin.

    He came to the entrance of Ross Mansion in the early morning and saw Count Ross as well as his wife and children waiting there in their formal attires.

    He wasn¡¯t sure why these people were doing this. It was really cold outside, and the countess was using a ball gown that fully exposed her shoulders.

    He immediately received lots of respectful attention when showing up. Though he wasn¡¯t going to exchange formalities at the moment. After nodding to Count Ross to show minimal manners, he took out his drawing tools and began applying the ¡°spirit filter¡± at the door, which took him 20 minutes.

    Once the entire rune waspleted, it slowly melted into the ground.

    This rune was usually used as a supplementaryponent inrge-scale magic arrays, with the effect of adjusting spirit power output.

    The rune alone did not have any useful effect. Using the spirit pressure against mortals might cause them to feel dizzy for a few days, but that was about it.

    But in this case, it was enough to keep someone with low spirit levels away.

    After finishing the rune, Angor returned inside the mansion to wait for potential candidates.

    Neet saw him and followed up. But as soon as Neet stepped across the door, he felt as if someone kicked him in the forehead, which almost knocked him out.

    Angor applied a simple spirit barrier around Neet and dragged him inside using Hand of Spell.

    ¡°You better use the side door to get in. I ced a ¡®trap¡¯ at the front door,¡± Angor spoke while pointing to another door usually used by house servants.

    Neet rubbed his head. ¡°That was... horrible. I think I¡¯d have gone cold if not for your help, sir.¡±

    ¡°Those with decent spirit power can walk inside just fine,¡± Angor exined while walking further into the house. ¡°So what are you guys doing out there in the morning?¡±

    Neet shook his head and sighed. ¡°It¡¯s the king. He heard about your visit and sent a message that he¡¯d take the princesses and princes here. My father demanded that we weed them at the door. Man, any longer and I¡¯d freeze.¡±

    Despite hisint, Neet looked rather excited since it was a great honor for his family to address the king.

    They arrived at the main hall, which had been turned into arge testing room after Count Ross heard about this matter.

    ¡°Did your father allow you to leave your duty yet?¡± Angor found a nice sofa and rxed.

    ¡°He asked me to stay with you, sir.¡±

    Obviously, Count Ross ced his son at Angor¡¯s side so that they could further prove their ¡°bond¡± with a wizard to the king.

    Of course, Angor as a nobleman himself knew what Ross was trying to do here, but he wouldn¡¯t point it out. It was unlikely for him to visit Ferran Land ever again, so it was quite pointless for the Ross Family to befriend him. Though he wouldn¡¯t mind doing them a small favor by staying here for the visitors to see.

    A momentter, the first group of candidates arrived. Their getup suggested that they came from the royal court.

    After the king requested to meet up with Angor but was rejected, he sent his children into the mansion instead, most of whom were immediately driven out by Angor.

    Neet received Angor¡¯s voice transmission and exined to the confused king, ¡°Mister Padt requires that you take the main entrance. Those who failed the initial test will not proceed any further.¡±

    Several young princes quickly showed their offended looks. When one of the princes was going to curse Angor for being a disrespectful peasant, a seabird d in metal armor suddenly descended from the sky and mmed him onto the ground while exerting a powerful aura for everyone to see.

    The royalties, including the king, immediately felt their bodies turning stiff. They just realized that they were dealing with a deadly entity instead of amon citizen.

    The door to the main hall was pushed open from the inside, followed by the 13th prince who showed up from the door. He was the only one who entered the mansion through the front entrance earlier, and at the same time, the quietest one.

    The seabird lifted its aura and howled to the princes as a warning before it returned onto the eave of the house and stayed there like a statue.

    The prince who was kicked to the ground earlier had already fainted, which meant he had no chance of entering the test now.

    With a grim look, the king ordered his men to carry the disgraceful prince away and then looked at his 13th son, who was usually the most insignificant one among all of his children.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m not talented, father.¡± The young prince shook his head in sadness.

    The king sighed and spoke to his other children, ¡°Now go, do as Sir Wizard requested. No tricks now.¡±

    As the princes and princesses went for the entrance one after one, Neet nced at his father, who looked a bit embarrassed for what just happened. Apparently, it was Count Ross who showed people the ¡°back door¡±.

    Neet went to his father and whispered, ¡°You should know that Sir Wizard would notice that, Dad! We better not do something like that again.¡±

    Count Ross nodded with a big frown. He just wanted to show his goodwill to the king, but it seemed his effort had the opposite oue.

    A momentter, a house servant came to them and reported that all the other royal members were taken down by the ¡°spirit filter¡±.

    The king stumbled a little upon hearing the grief and managed to keep steady with the help of his wife.

    <i>Neet told me that the test involved checking one¡¯s willpower as well. Does this mean all of my children are weak-kneed cowards apart from one?!</i>

    ¡°We... shall return now.¡± The old king took a moment to ept reality. ¡°Mister Neet, pray convey my sincere apology to Sir Wizard. If he wishes anything done, do not hesitate to ask of me.¡±

    Neet quickly nodded as he wasn¡¯t expecting the king to be so modest. ¡°I-I will, Your Majesty.¡±

    After the king and hispany departed, the barricades along the street were also removed, thus allowing other nobilities and the girls and sons of rich families to approach Ross Mansion.

    There were too many people that Count Ross had to ask a team of his house knights to maintain order. The king also left several guards in the area to prevent potential chaos.

    Angor¡¯s two conditions sessfully discouraged more than 99% of the city¡¯s poption from going for the test. In fact, the testing hall was left unused most of the time. There were many long periods when Angor did not receive a single one who passed the spirit filter at all, during which he dly took some naps.

    The game continued until midnight, at which time Angor still had not added another name to his recruitment list.

    Neet announced that the test should continue tomorrow and sent the crowds away.

    In the sky, Jebra was looking at the dispersing crowd below while a girl wearing a tassel dress¡ªHaku¡ªapanied him.

    ¡°He¡¯s indeed recruiting apprentices.¡± Haku ¡°saw¡± what was happening using spirit feelers since she did not have eyesight.

    ¡°Just as I said.¡±

    Jebra came to check on Angor because a strange feeling had been bugging him these days. He already started wondering what Angor¡¯s intention was back at Yothur City.

    He knew Angor had nothing to do with what they were going after because the ¡°mysterious dimension¡± was about to open very soon, and Angor had no way of heading to the entrance at Devil¡¯s Water, which was protected by Leviathan, in time. Even if Angor did, he was far from influential enough to cause any change of events.

    Yet Jebra¡¯s instinct convinced him of ¡°visiting¡± Angor again. There was something in his mind that simply wouldn¡¯t settle down until he confirmed that Angor was truly recruiting people in the city without doing anything fishy.

 Chapter 763 - Omen on the Mountain

    <h4>Chapter 763: Omen on the Mountain</h4>

    Crowds of people came and went. The talent test took three days, and it came to an end when it was already noon on the fourth day.

    Haku, who had been keeping an eye on Ross Mansion, reported the result as well as another piece of information to Jebra.

    ¡°Zero?¡± Jebra raised an eyebrow. ¡°Pretty much expected. I mean, no one in this world wants this job no matter which organization or which part of the world theye from. He must be so brave when epting the work.¡±

    ¡°Do you know him, sir? I never heard of this man before.¡± Haku grew curious. As far as she knew, Jebra only treated a few people with a fair attitude, and the apprentice staying with Ross n wasn¡¯t one of them.

    ¡°He used something to hide his face. As for who he exactly is... you can go and look for yourself.¡±

    Haku sighed and conveyed her second message, ¡°A servant in the mansion told me that man left the house yesterday night. Intention unknown.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s gone?¡±

    ¡°Right. I¡¯ve been watching, and I failed to notice when he did.¡± Haku showed an irritated look for failing her job. ¡°Sir, is he perhaps...¡±

    ¡°Is he digging into Lucas¡¯ matter? I don¡¯t think so. But let¡¯s notpletely omit that possibility yet.¡±

    An energy surge from the distance suddenly interrupted their discussion and drew their attention.

    They looked and located the general source as Oak Mountain, andmark not far from Lost Paradise City.

    The energy signature was followed by gathering clouds thatpletely covered up the tip of the mountain. They might appear as ordinary rain clouds in the views of mortals, yet supernatural individuals could easily recognize the flowing power hidden within them.

    ¡°This is... an alchemy omen?¡± Haku eximed. ¡°But howe? Is my perception wrong?¡±

    Unlike her, Jebra was casually inspecting the sight with a smile. ¡°Okay, now I¡¯m sure that guy has nothing to do with Lucas. He went off to find a spot to make stuff.¡±

    ¡°You mean that apprentice is an alchemist, sir??¡±

    Jebra nodded.

    ¡°But an alchemy omen means something mid-tier or better. He¡¯s just a level-3 apprentice!¡± Haku suddenly remembered a rumor she heard before. ¡°Wait, is he¡ª¡±

    Haku looked at Jebra hoping to confirm her guess. However, Jebra wasn¡¯t paying attention to her. He had been looking at the omen carefully while trying to figure out the general effect of Angor¡¯s new item.

    ¡°Sir, is that Mister Phantom¡¯s student?¡± Haku asked again.

    ¡°He is. Though you don¡¯t have to call him like that. He has earned enough fame and glory now.¡±

    Haku suddenly realized she had missed a very good chance of befriending a famous alchemist these days.

    Jebra easily saw through her mind and snickered, ¡°If that¡¯s what you want, you still have time.¡±

    Asmonly known, an alchemist undergoing the challenge presented by an alchemy omen would be left defenseless. They needed to focus on the challenge toplete the item they were making.

    Haku had the choice of offering to watch over Angor and keep threats away. At the same time, people might not like outsiders to approach them uninvited, especially at such a critical moment.

    As Haku wondered whether she should go, Jebra simply summoned his miniature whale from his tattoo, which slowly grew bigger after receiving Jebra¡¯s order.

    An adult Horned Abyss Whale was asrge as a cloud whale. Although Jebra didn¡¯t need it to be that big this time. The whale stopped growing when it reached about five meters in length.

    He then hopped onto the creature¡¯s back and beckoned to Haku. ¡°Anyone would go and check such an obvious alchemy omen. Of course we should do the same.¡±

    Jebra pointed to the dark clouds, while Haku applied her magic power on her eyes and noticed a winged figure flying toward Oak Mountain ahead of them.

    ¡°It¡¯s Shadow Swan!¡± Haku pointed out the stranger¡¯s name.

    ¡°Let¡¯s move. Since Summerdew Ridge sent someone, we have no reason to stay behind.¡±

    Without waiting for Haku¡¯s answer, Jebra put a bubble around her and dragged her away by force.

    However, their whale was stopped before they could reach the center area of the omen. Simrly, ¡°Shadow Swan¡± Swan also stopped moving and was gazing at a giant monster covered in fire, which was gazing at them carefully.

    ¡°Helen must be referring to this thing when talking about ¡®Toby¡¯?¡± Swan held her chin and inspected the monster¡¯s crimson eyes.

    ¡°That¡¯s a me Griffin,¡± Jebra spoke to her while casually floating nearby. ¡°I see you also heard of it, Miss Swan. From where, I wonder?¡±

    ¡°Nothing is absolutely airtight.¡± Swan already expected Jebra toe, so she wasn¡¯t looking at him at all. ¡°You always find your answer one way or another.¡±

    Jebra shrugged at the ambiguous answer and set his gaze at the bright monsters in front of them.

    ¡°Welp. Angor¡¯s under good protection, so he got no use for us then.¡± Jebra recovered his whale andnded at the mountainside with Haku.

    Swan nced at the me Griffin again and trembled a little when sensing its deadly might.

    Putting those strange mes aside, she had no idea of what the gray energy orbs floating around the monster were. What she did know was that she had no hope of winning if she were to confront the creature alone.

    Copying Jebra¡¯s example, Swan returned to her human form and alsonded on the ground.

    The three of them patiently waited for the omen to end.

    Toby nced back at Angor¡¯s position and saw him still standing still like before, while a cape hidden among a number of shining runes remained adrift in front of him.

    Toby was getting more and more anxious as Angor had been staying in the omen challenge for half an hour. The previous challenges never took so long.

    ...

    Angor opened his eyes and found himself lying along the bank of a river.

    As he stood up, that river slowly vanished from his view, but he still felt his head bloated and heavy, after experiencing the life of a stranger.

    ...

    He never stopped finding the time to study Empty Bad these days. Even during the talent test, he would use the intervals to read his tablet.

    The magic array had taken him about half a year. Last night, he finally grew familiarized with thest rune, which meant he was ready to make the entire magic array happen.

    Empty Bad was a rather big magic array made of 15 runes in total. Angor could try his best to shrink its size down to one square meter. Combined with the fact that he would have to carry the magic array with him to let it work, he decided to enchant it onto a cape.

    The crafting process was fine. As soon as hended the finishing touch, the alchemy omen came and pulled him into a strange dimension.

    Such an omen was essentially a test that determined whether the creator of the item was capable of possessing it. Last time, the alchemy omen brought by ¡°Infinite Reticence¡± carried him to a destend, where he finished an isted journey andprehended the meaning of covertness and detachment.

    This time, he was expecting to go through a challenge that reflected the ¡°theme¡± of Empty Bad.

    As soon as he saw the river, the word ¡°Stream of Fate¡± instantly popped up in his mind.

    He had no proof, but an unknown instinct convinced him that he was looking at the Stream of Fate, which was the signature of one of the three major arts studied by Prophets. Empty Bad was meant to prevent prophecy, perhaps the challenge took him here to help him learn something.

    It was called a stream because one could see rolling tiles flowing toward a certain direction.

    But the ¡°tides¡± weren¡¯t made of water.

    Angor had no idea what he was supposed to do here, so he simply walked along the ¡°riverbank¡±, hoping to find something. Yet he didn¡¯t get to walk very far before sudden fatigue hit him hard and forced him to fall asleep.

    In his dream, he became someone else¡ªa weirdo who lived inside a clock tower.

 Chapter 764 - Wheel of Fortune

    <h4>Chapter 764: Wheel of Fortune</h4>

    ¡°Weirdo¡± might be an understatement. This man was maniacal, secluded, and paranoid at the same time.

    Due to his bad temper, he usually remained inside the clock tower and would often look down upon the pedestrians below and imagine different ways ofmitting mass-ughter.

    Angor found his spirit trapped inside such an individual.

    He could not control this man¡¯s actions, but he could sense what this person was thinking about, and it wasn¡¯t pleasant. Being inside this mad character felt like being imprisoned inside a poisonous swamp.

    Somehow, Angor knew that the strange man noticed a ¡°second presence¡± in his body. But again, the man always stayed silent.

    The unknown guidance once again told Angor how to get out. He could either ept the strange man¡¯s character and be one like him, or he could watch as a spectator until this man died.

    The first way was obviously faster and riskier. Angor was afraid that embracing the weirdo¡¯s terrible nature might affect his own mind even after he returned to reality. In the worst case, he mightpletely lose himself.

    For this reason, Angor chose the second way, which was to observe the freak quietly.

    He also tried to express himself whenever the stranger became possessed with mad ideas again. He wasn¡¯t hoping to correct this man¡¯s actions or anything like that¡ªhe simply wished to establish some sort ofmunication and hopefully cause changes. At least, he would like to talk.

    However, even though Angor could feel the stranger¡¯s attention, he never received any responses.

    Just like this, Angor spent five years inside the man¡¯s body.

    He knew that the concept of time was probably different in the omen challenge, but this didn¡¯t prevent him from seeing everything that happened to the stranger.

    Every midnight, the weirdo would climb to the top of the clock tower to adjust the giant clock. And each time, he would look at all the passersby below and think of new ways of maiming them.

    Meanwhile, Angor looked at everything happening with a neutral mind.

    He thought he would be trapped here for a few decades. But no. When five years had psed and on a snowy night, after the weirdo finished his job and without any forewarning, he jumped down from the tower and painted the ground beneath in red.

    And after giving the terrified onlookers onest look, he closed his eyes and drew thest breath.

    When Angor thought he could return atst, he suddenly heard the stranger¡¯s voice talking to him, ¡°You¡¯re a strange one...¡±

    At the end of his life, the ¡°freak¡± opened up and talked to Angor.

    Angor watched the snowfall and suddenly heard the roaring tides of fate again.

    Next, he came to.

    He gazed at the disappearing Stream of Fate and slowly savored the experience he went through.

    When he checked his surroundings again, he found himself floating in total darkness, and the only thing he could see was a giant clock ticking above his head.

    The clock was connected to a series ofrge gears that extended into the unknown.

    Once again, Angor believed he recognized the clock to be the Wheel of Fortune. This was another fortelling tool used by Prophets. By now, Angor began to wonder if the omen challenge of Empty Bad wanted him to go through three tasks that were all rted to prophecy.

    Someone suddenly giggled at him.

    Angor looked up and saw a shadowy figure sitting on top of the clock above him. He couldn¡¯t use any cantrip or fly, so he failed to get a better look.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Angor¡¯s voice echoed in the darkness.

    ¡°Heeheehee... It¡¯s such a pity that you chose to wait. Didn¡¯t you want toe out faster?¡±

    ¡°You were watching?¡±

    ¡°Bingo, my friend.¡± The shadow¡¯s voice sounded rather cheerful.

    ¡°I... don¡¯t want to change.¡±

    ¡°Oh ho... but aren¡¯t you always changing when traveling to different ces and meeting different people?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer this time. The shadow¡¯s debate didn¡¯t make sense.

    ¡°The ¡®you¡¯ today is not the ¡®you¡¯ from yesterday, am I right?¡± The shadow continued speaking whileughing somewhat madly, ¡°Of course, you never thought to be the ¡®current you¡¯ when you were young. Are you still yourself, as in, what you used to think you¡¯ll be? See, you changed.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s different. No matter who I be, I make my own choices instead of being forced to,¡± Angor replied while wondering if this was the second task presented by the Wheel of Fortune.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not the Wheel of Fortune asking you to choose. It¡¯s me.¡± The shadow saw through his mind.

    ¡°Choose what?¡±

    ¡°You already did. To change or to wait, you epted thetter.¡±

    ¡°So what does that have to do with us?¡±

    ¡°HA! Since you chose to ¡®wait¡¯, I¡¯ll take the other choice away!¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Angor just felt his head spinning with questions. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve already done my test, and I¡¯ll dly take your ¡®choice¡¯ away, even though it was a bit outdated now.¡±

    The shadow began to fade.

    ¡°Who are you? What¡¯s the meaning of these choices and whatnot?¡± Angor called.

    The shadow¡¯s voice was fading, but it still answered, ¡°My name is... lengthy. I prefer to be called Cassini. But people from the wizarding realm preferred to refer to me as the Time¡ª¡±

    The voice was iprehensible beyond this point. For now, Angor could only keep the name ¡°Cassini¡± in his mind.

    Following the disappearing shadow, the giant clock also melted into the dark.

    As the area grew brighter again, Angor thought he would be dealing with the third prophecy tool, which was the ¡°World String¡±.

    It didn¡¯t happen.

    The retreating darkness revealed a door in front of him, behind whichy his cloak, and it looked as if it was trying to shake free of the golden runes restraining it.

    He stepped through the door, and the unknown dimension behind him shattered to nothingness.

    The dark clouds in the area were already dissipating, while several rays of light were diving to his position and into the cape.

    Jebra, Haku, and Swan saw everything happening. At the same time, they felt someone¡¯s spirit power scanning through the area.

    ¡°The omen is gone,¡± said Haku.

    ¡°Yup. Telling from the size of the omen and the energy levels, it¡¯s probably a very potent mid-tier item,¡± Swanmented.

    Haku widened her eyes. ¡°The rumors aren¡¯t wrong... He IS slowly getting to the level of a master.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I wouldn¡¯t have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes.¡±

    The best alchemist in Song of the Deep could also create something of such a level by paying a lot of resources. Haku knew that if Angor joined Song of the Deep, he would immediately receive the best treatment from their organization.

    ¡°Brute Cavern sent such a brilliant alchemist on a recruit mission? Why would they do that?¡±

    Jebra hopped onto his whale again. ¡°Haku, time to go.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we going to greet that alchemist, sir?¡±

    ¡°You saw that spirit scan? He knew we¡¯re here, and that¡¯s enough.¡±

    ¡°Pfft. Do you think he has time for the likes of you just after finishing a new invention?¡± Swan jeered at Haku and flew off on her ck wings.

 Chapter 765 - Time Thief

    <h4>Chapter 765: Time Thief</h4>

    Angor easily noticed three people lurking around the mountainside. He thought he was expecting enemies who came after his item. But when Toby told him that the intruders left without causing any trouble, he knew what they came for.

    They were just here to leave an impression.

    As he observed, the girl with white eyes and ¡°fish scale tattoo¡± on her ear should be an apprentice of Song of the Deep, while the purple-haired woman who could turn her arms into wings...

    ¡°Summerdew Ridge?¡±

    Previously, he thought these two organizations were in cooperation since they came together. But telling from their conversation, that seemed not the case.

    He stopped thinking about this matter since those people were gone. After retrieving his new cape into his bracelet and summoning Toby back, he headed back to Ross Manor.

    Of course, he would like to check the effect of the cape as soon as possible. But the appearance of more than one onlookers convinced him to act more carefully. At the very least, he would not disy his new item out in the wild.

    Toby called at him to ask something.

    ¡°Why did it take so long?¡± Angor easily understood Toby. ¡°It was half an hour? Well, yeah, it¡¯s longer thanmon alchemy omens. But what you don¡¯t know is that the actual omen challenge took way longer than that.¡±

    Speaking of the challenge, Angor couldn¡¯t help but think of the strange shadow he was talking to. Was it a fake individual created by the unknown dimension just to test him? It waspletely possible since the Infinite Reticence challenge constructed a lively town with a ton of imaginary folks.

    But something didn¡¯t add up. The shadow mentioned that his name was lengthy and that he preferred to be called ¡°Cassini¡±. Would an imaginary person make up names for himself?

    And what did he mean by ¡°he took a choice away¡±? Were choices something that could be taken?

    Cassini also said something about ¡°the choice was outdated¡±. Could Cassini take someone¡¯s new or even future choices? Or was that shadow simply talking nonsense?

    Angor knew he didn¡¯t have to worry about the encounter with Cassini, on condition that Cassini was fabricated by the omen challenge.

    But since he could not make sure, he¡¯d keep this name in mind and ask about itter when he ran into wise wizards such as Master Mithra.

    ...

    There was a rose garden in Brute Cavern where the air smelled refreshing and pleasant.

    Dave was currently taking a test Leona gave him, which tested many of his skills such as alchemy knowledge, creativity, and even the capability of improvising and making simple items on the spot.

    Many of the problems were above his level. Fortunately, Leona gave him half a year to look for necessary clues and books, during which Dave managed to slowly but surely proceed with the tests.

    Reading books in the Cloud Library was not free. Dave had burned away several thousands of crystals in these months. Since the test would determine whether he could be Leona¡¯s student, he decided to ept the cost.

    He would thank Angor for having this chance in the first ce because selling Angor¡¯s music box helped him receive Leona¡¯s attention.

    He had almost finished all the tasks left by Leona. There was onest page left, which had one single paragraph that confused him for good.

    [Which route are you taking? Apothecary or Tooling? Provide a further answer if you can.]

    ¡°Perfume Making, duh! Or do you have a fish¡¯s brain too tiny to make out the better choice? Oh dear... Is my master inflicted with a wicked curse so she gave YOU a chance to be her student?¡±

    A rose with a mouth in the middle of it spoke in a dramatic tone.

    This bright rose grew in the center of the garden, which happened to be where Dave¡¯s stone desk was. Well-kept roses should look elegant and charming. However, this one looked the opposite when it kept talking in an extremely unpleasant way.

    ¡°Shut it, Jackson.¡± Dave narrowed his eyes and red at the talking rose.

    ¡°Oh COME ON! Even an idiot like you should know what my master is good at. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re still going with your Tooling sh*t! If you¡¯re not sincerely joining my master, then get your butt out of here! Your mere presence makes the morning dew on my petals salty!¡±

    Dave had been listening to Jackson¡¯s bber for a long time to fully understand the rose¡¯s character. During these months, Dave was either reading, tending to Prome¡¯s shop, or working in this rose garden. It seemed the lonely flower called Jackson finally found a target to vent out its collected sentiment. And between its nasty lines, Dave would asionally found true advice, such as right now.

    Jackson was suggesting that Dave studied Perfume Brewing.

    In fact, Dave had not determined which alchemy art he would study in the future. He had been concentrating on Tooling because of Master Prome. Yet Jackson was right about how Leona was an expert in making perfumes.

    Obviously, bing Leona¡¯s student meant Dave had to change his subject.

    But... Dave couldn¡¯t really make the decision of giving up what he had learned.

    It seemed Leona presented this question as thest task in the test, and it took Dave a lot of time to consider.

    The constant chatter of Jackson further annoyed him until he took out his weapon and mmed it on the desk just to scare off the bothersome flower. ¡°Shut up, I say!¡±

    Dave breathed heavily and noticed that he just used the Tang Dao he had been carrying.

    He received the initial design of the weapon from Angor, after which he made his own adjustments on it and created this sharpened, ice-cold de, which even earned Leona¡¯smendation.

    He then looked at the weapon with an emotional expression.

    He stayed this way for half an hour, until Jackson stabbed its thorny vine onto his hand and made him scream in pain.

    Each time this happened, Dave would usually spend a moment chasing after the talking rose in the garden. But this time, hepletely ignored the creature who just woke him up from his deep thoughts. Then he left his answer on the paper.

    [Tooling, synthesis]

    He knew he loved this subject ever since Prome guided him onto this path, and he believed ¡°love¡± was important for him to go further, instead of being forced to pick up something he was unfamiliar with.

    The ¡°propeller flying machine¡± he tested on Toby, the weapon he improved with the help of Angor... He had devoted lots of time and effort into his inventions because he loved his work. He was afraid that he¡¯d never stand out as an alchemist if he were to unwillingly ept a different job.

    Jackson saw his final answer and spoke in a moderate tone, which was rare, ¡°You sure about that? I¡¯ll tell you again, that my master is a professional perfume brewer.¡±

    Dave nodded. ¡°I made up my mind. Maybe I¡¯ll treat Perfume Brewing as a secondary subject, but I won¡¯t give up my main.¡±

    ¡°Secondary? Ha! Before it happens, the Time Thief wille and steal your other choice away.¡±

    ¡°Time Thief? Who the heck is that?¡± Dave frowned.

    ¡°That¡¯s... someone you will never see in your life. I mean, if you DO see him somehow, it means you¡¯re capable of bing a truth-finder.¡±

    ¡°So... Does any of these have anything to do with my decision?¡±

    Leona suddenly approached them from the side and interrupted them, ¡°What Jackson was telling you is that time waits for nobody. When you make a choice, you give up other ones and probably with no hope of finding them again.¡±

    ¡°Um, Miss Leona, you mean I can never study Apothecary from now on?¡±

    ¡°No no no. Let¡¯s just say that each of your decisions matters, and you should be careful with it.¡± Leona looked at Dave in the eyes. ¡°Are you sure Tooling is your choice?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    Leona gazed at Dave for a bit longer before showing him a kind smile.

    ¡°Good. You¡¯re my new student now. Here, my invitation poster,¡± she said as she took out an object from her storage, whichnded in Dave¡¯s hand, creating a golden arc in the sunlight.

 Chapter 766 - Extra Effect

    <h4>Chapter 766: Extra Effect</h4>

    ¡°Countless choices lead to countless roads, where one of them shall be the one true path toward the truth. I¡¯m visiting you either to help you discover the right one or to steal your rightful choice. Now, which is it? That¡¯s a question for you.¡±

    The shadowy figure who stood on the other side of the flow of time smiled brightly.

    This was when Sunders suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.

    Thend in front of him was scorched ck. The ruins of a good number of buildings proved the former glory of this ce, which was no more.

    This spot at the depth of Abyss ne was once a frontier city built by humans to repel demon invasions. But it was obliterated several thousands of years ago, and the city¡¯s residents all turned to skeletons chipped away by the passage of time.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Sunders?¡± An old man with white eyebrows andmon yet tidy clothes stepped out from a temporary magic hut.

    Sunders shook his head slightly. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Had a random dream. Kanter... we¡¯re not too deep inside yet, which means you can still back out. Those from Gravity Forest are already gone. You should have no reason to remain.¡±

    The old man was ¡°Eventide¡± Kanter, the current master of Lilith¡¯s n, and one of Sunders¡¯ few friends.

    ¡°Gravity Forest is the least of your problems.¡± Kanter shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s still Song of the Deep. Since Maya offered to send me a message, she must have predicted danger. It¡¯s strange though... I haven¡¯t seen anyone from Song of the Deep showing up.¡±

    ¡°Something kept them busy, perhaps.¡± Sunders sighed. ¡°Mister Monkey already nned to invite you to the mission. Since you came on your own, it¡¯ll be hard to escape from the duty now.¡±

    Despite his words, Sunders was grateful that Kanter came to help. While he wasn¡¯t afraid of Song of the Deep, he preferred not to fight against them all by himself. Kanter¡¯s presence was very reassuring.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Keely has grown into a strong girl who can manage the business of Lilith¡¯s n now.¡± Kanter showed a gentle look. ¡°I¡¯m only a simple and lonely old man who has no burden left behind. Who knows, if Mister Monkey makes it to the level of legendary, he might help me find a great destiny.¡±

    ¡°Mister Monkey is beyond brave, that much is sure,¡± said Sunders. ¡°To plot against the offspring of a Grand Demon... Even if he bes a legendary wizard, it remains to be seen whether he cane back alive.¡±

    Kanter frowned. Sessful or not, Monkey¡¯s mission would definitely infuriate a Grand Demon, by which time everyone who took part in the mission would receive the demon¡¯s anger.

    ¡°It already happened, let¡¯s just stay focused and be safe. So what kind of dream did you just have? Maya once told me that we can always find valuable clues from the dreams of wizards. You don¡¯t look well back there. Did you perhaps dream of a demon cmity?¡±

    Sunders considered and shook his head. ¡°The cmity is certain now. The southern region will be bathed in blood unless Mister Monkey changes his mind, which is very unlikely.¡±

    ¡°Not the cmity? What hit your mind then?¡± Kanter narrowed his eyes. ¡°That little student of yours?¡±

    ¡°Angor? What makes you think so?¡±

    ¡°I heard the news on my way here. That boy sold a music box recently and earned two hundred thousand crystals out of it. Heh, you should¡¯ve seen the looks on everyone. Keely has been saying that she¡¯s going to train harder in order not to get surpassed by Angor.¡± Kanter chuckled. ¡°Now I¡¯m curious. A music box sold for two hundred thousand? What kind of music box is that?¡±

    Sunders grinned. ¡°That must be one of his simple toys. Trust me, you have no idea of his true skills.¡±

    ¡°True skills?¡±

    Sunders thought about Angor¡¯s ¡°Manifestation of Mystery¡± and sighed again. ¡°If people learn about his thing, I¡¯m afraid the whole world will fall into disarray.¡±

    Kanter failed to understand the exnation.

    Sunders pulled a diamond-shaped item out from his ¡°ear stud storage¡± and handed it to Kanter. ¡°You want to know about his little inventions? Take this ¡®Monument Loop¡¯, a simr creation as the alchemy illusion he sold at Remnant Auction. I¡¯ll let you keep it for a few days since you¡¯ve been a goodpany.¡±

    Kanter inspected the item. ¡°The crafting¡¯s fine... yeah, I¡¯d call him a good alchemist well on his way toward a master.¡± He put it away before speaking to Sunders again, ¡°You haven¡¯t told me about your dream. Was it Angor or not?¡±

    ¡°No. I saw the Time Thief.¡±

    ¡°Time Thief?! What did he steal from you this time? An old choice? Or a future one?¡±

    ¡°An old one. And I¡¯ll let him have it. It probably isn¡¯t time for him to look at my future choices yet.¡±

    ¡°Right... He¡¯s only interested in choices that make you a truth-finder. But he got his mark on you. He¡¯lle again when you be a legendary, no doubt.¡±

    Sunders proceeded to describe the dream in which he encountered the Time Thief as a child. Kanter had heard this story many times by now, but each time he did, he couldn¡¯t help but feel jealous.

    ¡°Guess I shouldn¡¯t tell you about that?¡± Sunders looked at Kanter¡¯s somewhat sad expression.

    ¡°You just made me want to meet the Time Thief really bad. I mean, anyone would like that.¡±

    There was a saying in the wizarding world that anyone who saw the Time Thief was a potential truth-finder in the making. In other words, being visited by the Time Thief proved one¡¯s exceptional talent.

    The Time Thief did not force people to make choices before ¡°stealing¡± their leftovers. People all had themselves to me if they made the wrong choices and gave up the proper ones to Time Thief.

    Also, following the rule of equivalent exchange, the Time Thief was known to paypensation for stealing choices.

    ¡°The right way of finding the truth is different for everyone. If someone tells you that I¡¯m bound to reach the ultimate truth, they¡¯re lying,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°They say that everybody has a chance at it, but I don¡¯t believe so. In my view, most people already threw the right choices away without realizing it, at one point in their lives. And one of these discarded choices might be their only opportunity to reach the truth. Seriously, if I ever see Time Thiefing to me, I¡¯d just tell him to take whatever he likes and give me something in return.¡±

    Sunders smiled. Kanter just reminded him of the old days when they explored the world with the fearlessness of youth. Such an attitude caused them to idle away a great deal of time during which they missed great opportunities, either forced or willingly.

    ¡°Maya always says that the dreams of wizards are likely to foretell true facts,¡± said Kanter. ¡°Is there any reason why you would dream of the Time Thief at this moment?¡±

    ¡°No idea. Maybe he¡¯s onto some unlucky b*stard and decided to let me see it out of random.¡± Sunders turned away. ¡°Let¡¯s move. It¡¯s not easy to find good rest around here... Now I feel energetic enough to breach the next barricade and go further in.¡±

    ...

    The ¡°unlucky b*stard¡± was now hiding inside an unlit basement while gazing at his new cape in disbelief.

    ¡°What the heck?¡± Angor shook his head to clear his mind. ¡°Is Narda¡¯s Vision not working properly?¡±

    He closed his eyes to prepare the cantrip again before he checked the cape in his hand for a second time.

    In his view, countless digits and symbols emerged from the item and were epted by the ¡°server¡± in his mind space, as they should be.

    To his confusion though, he saw about 10% of all the information as uncertain.

    But he considered all possible variables when making the cape, and he was sure none of the materials had any properties he was unfamiliar with. So where did the uncertain factorse from?

    Again, Narda¡¯s Vision told him a strange result.

    The cape¡¯s main function was ¡°Empty Bad¡±. When left active, it disoriented Prophets who studied the three major prophecy arts and prevented them from ¡°peeking¡± at him. And just as described in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia</i>, the magic array consumed a huge amount of energy.

    There were many secondary effects on the cape made possible by variousponents such as sturdiness, resistance against fire and water, and self-cleaning.

    However, there was one extra result shown by Narda¡¯s Vision, which Angor didn¡¯t expect while designing the cape.

    [????: Fully prevents the detection attempt of a legendary individual or beyond, at the cost of inestimable energy. One time only.]

    Angor was d to have the extra surprise, which seemed pretty powerful, even though it would only work once.

    But he felt uneasy since he had absolutely no idea where this thing showed up from. He did use many tiered materials to craft the cape, but those were far from enough to resist the power of legendaries.

 Chapter 767 - Crimson Aegis

    <h4>Chapter 767: Crimson Aegis</h4>

    Angor thought about following the same steps and creating another cape to see whether the oue remained the same. But he gave up on this n since it was too difficult to find enough resources at mortalnds.

    The extra effect was beneficial, and this was more important right now.

    The cape had a simple ck designbined with pale golden markings that asionally faded from view as the cape moved. The inner lining of the cape was made from a special beast hide resistant against cold and dust. There was a single shoulder pad over the right shoulder, while a teardrop-shaped crystal was attached to it.

    The crystal was both an extra decoration and a simple space storage, which could be used to keep the cape when it wasn¡¯t in use. At the same time, the energy source was also ced inside the crystal.

    Angor was pretty satisfied with the general coloring of his new garment. The golden patterns and the red fur interlining went well with his noble style, and he could fasten it tighter to remain inconspicuous.

    However, the first designer of the cape, which was Nano, would get mad to see the final oue. During their initial discussion, Nano used really bright colors on the cape, such as purple, light green, as well as shiny embroideries. And Nano was probably the only individual in this world who would walk in public in such chaotic colors.

    Last but not least, he must see how well the Empty Bad magic array turned out.

    He took out a magic crystal and put it near the ¡°teardrop charm¡±, which quickly absorbed the crystal and began to glow with a golden light.

    Angor then put on the cape and activated Empty Bad, which received the energy provided by the teardrop object.

    He didn¡¯t see any visible effect. In fact, he couldn¡¯t tell whether the magic array was working at all if he had not seen the energy stored in the teardrop depleting rapidly. He knew he was now protected.

    He took a moment to observe the consumption rate and estimated that Empty Bad required a new magic crystal to remain in effect for three days. This didn¡¯t sound like much at first, but it was in fact rather expensive since he needed to keep the magic array on at all times to prevent Prophets from looking at him or his family. Since he couldn¡¯t predict when exactly a Prophet would ¡°scan¡± him, the magic crystals he spent on the cape would serve no purpose most of the time. Apprentices usually couldn¡¯t afford to waste money like this.

    Angor did save a lot of magic crystals to keep the cape working for now, but he still felt his heart bleeding for it.

    He studied Empty Bad just to keep himself and his family safe from peeking eyes, and that was what he would do. From this point and on, he would leave the magic array activated at all times. Thankfully, the effect could cover a small area around its position as well, so he didn¡¯t have to wear the cape twenty-four seven. He could leave the cape inside the ¡°teardrop storage¡± and carry the teardrop crystal with him. However, in this way, the covering effect would only protect him, and just barely.

    ¡°One less task to do...¡± He stretched his arms and took out his personal notebook to record his new crafting experience as well as several unsolved questions such as the unknown effect of the cape and Cassini.

    Also, he came up with a name for his cape¡ªThe Crimson Aegis.

    The cape had solved his most imminent concern. At least the Centipede Guild couldn¡¯t locate him as easily from now on.

    He had a night of much-needed good sleep and felt safer than ever. It was as if Crimson Aegis came to life and was guarding him against looming threats while also soothing his mind by chanting a gentle poem.

    He woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed from head to toe. He was d to notice that all the uneasiness and anxiety that had been bugging him during the past days were all gone. Now he somewhat understood why the magic array was named the ¡°Empty Bad¡±.

    The snowy weather continued.

    In the early morning, Angor took out his Gond and found a spot among several barren mountains several thousands of kilometers away from Lost Paradise City. He then took out his tools and materials to begin another crafting session.

    Another alchemy omen urred in midway, but he passed it without trouble since he already had the experience.

    When the omen fully ended, it revealed a single gray feather floating in front of him.

    This was the Dusky Feather, a mid-tiered alchemy item made for Toby.

    Angor made this one to grant a simr stealth effect to Toby since he saw more than once that people could use Toby to track him down.

    Dusky Feather was also enchanted with Infinite Reticence. With this, Toby could help him keep track of targets without being discovered.

    After blending the item with Toby¡¯s usual gray feathers around his neck, Angor noticed that he would slowly forget about Toby¡¯s presence if he wasn¡¯t paying attention, just as expected.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go back.¡± He summoned Toby, who was hopping around happily for getting a new toy, and left on his Gond again.

    He came to Lost Paradise City to look for Lucas¡¯ traces. But since he decided to quit this matter so as not to aggravate Jebra and the other investigating parties, and that there were no talents to be found here, he was going to head back to Yothur City, find Tulu, and continue their journey.

    Before leaving, he paid Ross Manor another visit. He had not given Neet the bottle of Indigo Elixir yet. He wasn¡¯t going to fail such a simple promise.

    Within several minutes, Gond took them to Oak Mountain. Angor put away his boat and moved toward Ross Mansion by using his flying boots.

    After arriving at the snow-covered mansion and scanning it using spirit feelers, he soon found Neet happily talking to a youngdy in the backyard.

    Then hended right behind Neet, which startled the poor sailor for good.

    ¡°Do you need something, sir?¡± Neet recovered from his shock and asked his partner to be polite in front of Angor.

    Angor remained silent for a moment to observe the blushing pair.

    ¡°Apologizes. It seems I interrupted something.¡±

    ¡°Ahem! No, sir, Sonata is just here to¡ª¡±

    Thedy named Sonata, who was wearing a in-looking dress, helped Neet by picking up the subject. ¡°Sir Wizard, I¡¯m a humble gardener working at Sherry Patio. I¡¯m only amon friend of Mister Neet, and I¡¯m d we are.¡±

    ¡°But Sonata, I truly¡ª¡± Neet disagreed.

    Sonata looked at the ground in sadness. Being a lowly servant meant she had no hope of epting the love of a noble member.

    Meanwhile, Angor instantly knew what was going on since this drama was toomon in storybooks.

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll not meddle with your love affairs. Neet, you can take this.¡±

    He tossed a bottle of blue liquid to Neet, who quickly epted it with a delighted look.

    ¡°Thank you very much, sir!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡± Angor looked at Sonata. ¡°Did you just say you worked for the Sherry Patio?¡±

    Sonata nodded.

    Angor frowned. He saw this name in Moyah¡¯s journal. It was a small garden full of a type of flowers called ¡°sherry blossoms¡±, and it was also where Moyah lived most of her life.

    He wondered if the ¡°Sherry Patio¡± mentioned by Sonata was the same ce.

    ¡°Where is this patio?¡±

    ¡°This ce right here is the Sherry Patio, sir,¡± said Neet.

    Angor looked around the small yard and saw patches of violet flowers striving against the snow.

    An old well covered by haystacks in the corner of the yard suddenly caught his attention.

    ¡°When did your family start to live here?¡± He looked at Neet and asked a question that just came to his mind.

    ¡°Um, while Anrum has been constantly affected by wars, they never reached Lost Paradise City. The king granted us our territory at Winterrange, a city pretty far from here. But the descendants of the Ross Family have been living at Lost Paradise since the Age of Gold.¡±

    ¡°You mean your family has existed in this city since three thousand years ago?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, sir.¡±

 Chapter 768 - Sherry Patio

    <h4>Chapter 768: Sherry Patio</h4>

    While it was brief, the love between Moyah and Lucas was fruitful¡ªthey had a child.

    If Lucas grew so sad in the end to the extent of killing himself, would he pay ast visit to Moyah, which meant the ¡°suicide well¡± he used was right here?

    Curious, Angor walked to the unused well while Neet and Sonata followed him.

    ¡°Was this one here three thousand years ago?¡± Angor spoke to Neet.

    ¡°I¡¯m... not sure, sir.¡±

    ¡°What are the haystacks used for?¡±

    It was Sonata who answered, ¡°The well ispletely dry. We built a small storage down there to keep vegetables. And we covered it up so that the space would stay clean.¡±

    ¡°I remember going down there to y when I was a kid,¡± said Neet. ¡°I was too little to climb back up on my own then, so I cried really loud until Miss Nevey found me and picked me up.¡±

    ¡°Ohh, you owe my mother a big favor then.¡± Sonata chuckled.

    While they talked, Angor already used his spirit to scan the well. As Sonata said, he sensed a man-made path at the bottom of it, which probably led to the ¡°vegetable storage¡±.

    He decided not to look into Lucas¡¯ secret in order not to offend Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge. But he didn¡¯t see anyone watching them around here, so he believed taking a brief look should be fine.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to check it. You two stay here.¡±

    He moved the haystack away and jumped down.

    ¡°Um, why would Sir Wizard do that?¡± Sonata asked her partner.

    Neet quickly made a ¡°shh¡± gesture. ¡°Remember, we didn¡¯t see or care what Sir Wizard is nning to do, and we definitely do NOT tell anyone else about his actions. Otherwise, the consequence will be really bad.¡±

    Neet already heard about how some of his servants told outsiders about Angor¡¯s moves. He made sure Sonata wouldn¡¯t do such a thing just in case.

    Angor left a small trace of his spirit power at the entrance of the well, so he heard their conversation.

    He grinned for Neet¡¯s smartness and walked ahead.

    The narrow and zigzagging path ahead of him wasn¡¯t long¡ªabout five or six meters at best. It was fully lit by using many Luminous Stones affixed on the wall.

    The well-kept path meant it was only constructed recently, since 3,000 years was more than enough to damage it by factors beyond human control, such as geological changes.

    He still proceeded to the storage even though he was almost sure the search would not yield any result.

    The storage wasn¡¯trge. While standing at the door, he could look at every corner of the room, which was full of greens and various reserved food.

    Even if Lucas left something here, it was probably carried away after such a long time.

    But something in Angor told him not to give up the chance so easily, which was probably thest chance to find clues about Lucas in this city.

    He used gravity power to levitate all the baskets and containers off the ground and looked at the floor.

    This was when his spirit power sensed some small doodle marks at the bottom of the wall directly in front of his position.

    He walked toward it and saw the location being covered in some kind of oil stains. Using Cleanse, he spent several minutes removing the smudge left here for god-knew-how-long, and he was shocked to see a line of characters hidden behind it.

    More importantly, he recognized the writing. Whoever wrote it didn¡¯t seem to be in good condition, but the general style looked exactly like the lines used in Lucas¡¯ logbook.

    He suddenly felt his extinguished inquisitivenessing back. He got a feeling that this spot was what all the people from other organizations were looking for.

    He calmed his mind and began reading the characters.

    ¡°By seeking with my soul...¡±

    That was everything. Angor searched his memory to look for simr phrases in Lucas¡¯ book or other books he might use, but without finding anything.

    ¡°Soul... Did Lucas literally mean finding something using his soul?¡±

    He considered and chanted Spirit Mantra to eject his soul from his body.

    And he immediately felt something different. The empty wall was full of drawings that were slightly glowing in his ¡°soul vision¡±.

    And he knew what these were. They were runes.

    Unlike the runes he studied, which were used for enchantment, these runes mostly belong to the arts wielded by Rune Warlocks.

    He couldn¡¯t ascertain the nature of the runes yet. But he could always find timeter and slowly work out the implications hidden behind every stroke and curve, before figuring out the whole picture.

    After spending another moment to fully memorize the runes, he returned to his normal state and left the storage.

    Before leaving, he also erased the letters left by Lucas. No matter what this clue was intended for, he wasn¡¯t going to let anyone else see it.

    Uponing out, he easily noticed that Neet was giving him suspicious looks, probably because he spent too much time down in the well.

    ¡°Something is better left unknown, or you¡¯ll end up in deep trouble,¡± he whispered to Neet and headed back to the mansion. ¡°Now follow me. I have something to tell you two.¡±

    Neet nced at Sonata and gulped. <i>Is-is Mister Padt going to eradicate me because I saw too much?</i>

    He was only half-true. Angor did need to make sure his actions remained a secret. Before today, whatever Neet told others didn¡¯t matter since the wells they had been to had nothing to do with Lucas and were all pointless. But since they finally saw the well that hid Lucas¡¯ traces... then it was high time for some hush-hush.

    However, Angor wasn¡¯t nning on ¡°eradicating¡± Neet. Neet had been pretty helpful to him till now, and Angor wouldn¡¯t be so cruel as to ughter the helpless sailor without a good reason.

    ¡°Are you scared?¡± Once inside the mansion, Angor spoke while looking at Neet trembling badly.

    Neet shook his head nervously.

    Angor looked down a little and saw Neet holding Sonata¡¯s hand due to great stress, and Sonata was blushing because of Neet¡¯s action.

    ¡°It¡¯s not very noble to take advantage of ady like that,¡± Angor joked.

    Sonata blushed harder and shook off Neet¡¯s hand in embarrassment, while Neet suddenly looked too sad to be scared.

    ¡°Calm down. It¡¯s just some minor matters. There¡¯s no danger involved.¡±

    Neet and Sonata looked at Angor and suddenly lost focus when several traces of nightmare energy entered their foreheads.

    Angor never cked off on his study while sailing on The Limpet. During his journey, he more or less grasped the basic knowledge of various illusionist arts. It was quite easy for him to use a simple Mind Maniptor cantrip to ¡°adjust¡± the memories of Neet and Sonata.

    While he only needed to fix several minutes of Sonata¡¯s memory, he needed to do a little bit more work on Neet because Neet had been apanying him when checking all the other wells.

    A momentter, he snapped his fingers and woke the couple up.

    Neet recovered from his trance and saw the bottle in his hand. He just remembered that Angor came to deliver the Indigo Elixir.

    ¡°Thank you for such a great gift, sir!¡±

    Angor smiled at him and looked at Sonata. ¡°I¡¯m leaving the city soon. Since you two looked pretty happy together, do you need me to... you know, speak to Count Ross about this matter?¡±

    Sonata blushed again, while Neet just realized that Angor offered to be a matchmaker. There was no doubt that a mighty wizard could help Sonata join the family!

    ¡°If-if you¡¯ll be so kind, sir!¡± Neet nodded rapidly.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll talk to your father before departure. Now off you go. I need some rest.¡±

    After sending the joyful couple off, Angor took out his paper and pen to work out the implication of the mysterious runes.

 Chapter 769 - Secret under the Well

    <h4>Chapter 769: Secret under the Well</h4>

    There was an ¡°alphabet system¡±, which all rune crafters needed to learn. As long as one fully mastered the different meanings of every pattern, they wouldn¡¯t have a problem discovering the true effect ofposite runes via ¡°reserve engineering¡±.

    However, even if Angor managed to figure out the general effect of the runes, he wasn¡¯t able to recreate them because one also needed to learn the exact process for how runes were drawn, such as the orders of strokes.

    For now, he was only going to work on the first task.

    It wasn¡¯t easy because the job required an eye for detail. There were also many different patterns that ovepped each other, in which case he had to refer to the ¡°contexts¡± that surrounded them and pick out the individual strokes one by one.

    ...

    A night had passed.

    It was still snowing outside. Angor dropped his pen and rubbed his sore arms while looking at the big pile of papers on his desk.

    After taking several minutes to fully clear his mind, he began the final calction.

    ¡°There were multiple intact runes, which meant the entire drawing is a working magic array, but I only recognized about 70% of the pieces I can find...

    ¡°This here is the main body of a Covenant Rune, this is one of the corners on a Stealth Rune, this is a small fraction of the Tunnel Rune that controls the angle of the tunnel... And this is thest one, the trigger part of a Blood Link Rune.¡±

    Bybining the results, he reached a rather shocking conclusion.

    ¡°Using the blood of a descendant to reach somewhere?¡±

    There were still parts of the magic array that he didn¡¯t perceive, but he was pretty sure the general effect of the magic array was to send someone to a ce since he saw many runes that suggested distance and dimension coordinates.

    ¡°The ¡®using soul to find stuff¡¯ must have been left by Lucas. So the ¡®descendant¡¯ should be Lucas¡¯ heirs?¡±

    Considering this, the magic array was used for transporting Lucas¡¯ heirs, or whoever got their hands on the blood of Lucas¡¯ offspring, to a secret spot.

    Angor didn¡¯t know where this secret spot was, but he was almost sure that people from Summerdew Ridge and Song of the Deep were looking for it.

    Suppose Lucas left the magic array under the well, how did he get back to his ship along with his logbook? Didn¡¯t hemit suicide?

    Or... was the magic array intended for taking him back to the ghost ship? Did he go there by himself?

    It wasn¡¯t difficult to find the answer¡ªhe just had to check the magic array again.

    When working on its result, he knew that the teleportation was two-way. He could always return if the other end of the tunnel was dangerous.

    Afterpletely burning his drafts up and scattering the ash to the winter wind, he went to Ross Mansion again.

    First, he was going to talk to Count Ross about the rtionship between his son and Sonata. Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to directly tell Ross to ept that rtion. Mentioning something like ¡°virtue and kindness over social ss¡± should be enough for Ross to understand the situation.

    The second job was to find Lucas¡¯ descendants. ording to Moyah, her child was the only one who survived among all of Lucas¡¯ children, and this child was one of the ancestors of the Ross Family.

    While talking to Count Ross, Angor used a small trick to get a vial of the gentleman¡¯s blood. He then headed to Sherry Patio. There was no one else here in the snow, which saved him the effort of keeping innocent onlookers away.

    He jumped into the dry well and reached the magic array, or where the magic array was supposed to be since he couldn¡¯t see it in his normal state. The ¡°Stealth Rune¡± used in the magic array made sure it was only visible to soul forms.

    He ejected his soul and quickly located the ¡°trigger¡± of the magic array, which appeared like an eyeball enclosed in a triangle, located at the upper-right corner of the array.

    A little excited, he applied the blood of Count Ross onto the spot.

    The red liquid was slowly absorbed by the wall, and the magic array began glowing brighter. The storage he was in slowly melted away and reced by starry darkness, while the shining magic array remained as the most dazzling star.

    The eyeball suddenly blinked, and a vortex appeared at the center of the magic array.

    But it was too small for him to go in.

    He returned to his body and noticed that he could still see the vortex just fine. He tried tossing a magic crystal in it and sessfully erged it just a little bit.

    ¡°Ugh. Need more energy, I see.¡±

    He kept ¡°feeding¡± the portal with more magic crystals, while the stars around the area also began to shine brighter.

    The portal was finally big enough for his size after he threw about 20 crystals in there.

    While still tossing more crystals to get the tunnel bigger just in case, he reached a spirit feeler inside and saw the exit just after a short distance.

    ¡°The tunnel feels like a ne passageway... It should be no problem to go inside since I only need to move only a little.¡±

    He took a deep breath and dived into the vortex. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t meet any obstacles in the brief tunnel.

    Upon reaching the exit, he immediately smelled something salty. And he knew this smell, it was seawater.

    The smell of corroded wood, the poor wooden footing, and the distant sound of tides all reminded him of his days on The Limpet.

    He took out a Luminous Stonemp and was both surprised and d to realize that his theory was correct.

    He was standing right inside the captain room of the ¡°ghost ship¡±, and the headless skeleton of Lucas was not far from him. Even the dusty desk had a square-shaped spot where Lucas¡¯ logbook used to be.

    On the squeaking floor, Angor walked to the window behind Lucas to see whether the ship was still in the strange mist at Devil¡¯s Water.

    Themp couldn¡¯t help him see very far, but the broken deck on the front of the ship looked exactly like what he saw several months ago.

    The window was too far from the ship¡¯s figurehead. Although the shadowy shape of a peacock¡¯s feather was enough to tell him that this ship was The Feather Fan.

    He didn¡¯t see any mist outside.

    While traveling through the misty area, the weather was always clear and even the moon was bright at night. But now, Angor sawpletely no light outside the window. It would be totally dark without hismp.

    The tides under the ship also sounded differentpared to ordinary sea tides. It was as if the seawater was moving slower, and it smelled worse.

    Before heading out to check the outside, he wanted to make sure he could return here at any moment. After looking around without seeing the magic array that sent him here, he ejected his soul.

    ... Without finding the magic array.

    He knew the magic array could send people both ways, so he didn¡¯t feel anxious yet. The entrance on this side might be somewhere else nearby, and he just had to look for it.

    When searching the ship using a scout puppet, he didn¡¯t have the time to check thoroughly. Now, he wanted to see if there was something he overlookedst time, such as the content inside Lucas¡¯ drawer.

    He walked to the desk where he found the logbook and pulled the drawer open.

    Apart from the smell of rotten wood, there was a piece of parchment inside the drawer, which seemed to be the same material used in the logbook.

 Chapter 770 - A Dead Island

    <h4>Chapter 770: A Dead Ind</h4>

    Angor frowned while reading the broken piece. It seemed this should be one of the pages in Lucas¡¯ logbook. For some reason, it was torn off.

    [Year 1353, Age of Gold, Month of Looming Frost, day 8

    [I¡¯m weing my death at the bottom of this well. But my treasures... the treasures I collectedy in wait for my child. Those shall be the final glory I granted you.]

    It was short. But the date on it was pretty important. It told Angor that Lucas wrote this entry on the second day after he ¡°suicided¡±, and this page was thest page of the logbook.

    ¡°Lucas said he waited for death under the well... so who took his bones here?¡±

    By saying ¡°hidden treasures¡±, Lucas probably meant to let his child go through the strange portal by using their blood.

    Were there treasures hidden on this ship?

    Until now, Angor had not figured out whether Lucas was ¡°loyal¡± or a downright liar. With nothing else to go by, he put away the journal page and was going to search whether there were treasures to be found.

    He turned around and stopped to look at the headless skeleton.

    There were the remains of broken fabric clung to the skeleton. A quick check didn¡¯t show anything of interest.

    ¡°This must be Lucas... but where¡¯s his head?¡±

    Angor shook his head in confusion and stepped out of the captain¡¯s room.

    First, he headed to the lower cabins, which were slightly drenched by water.

    Half of the Feather Fan was submerged underwater, which suggested why many rooms had watermarks in them during his initial search even though the ship was floating above the water level at that time.

    After checking more carefully, he was sure that this ship had always been here but somehow showed up in the mist for a brief moment, after which it once again returned here.

    <i>What is this ce then?</i>

    He stepped out of the cabin area and flew to the figurehead of the ship. Using the weak light of hismp, he managed to notice that there was a solid cliff behind the ship, apart from the dark water and more darkness ahead of his position.

    By moving around further, he realized that The Feather Fan was left abandoned at the edge of a small ind, and the cliff prevented anyone from venturing further into the ind by normal means.

    ¡°Did Lucas hide his treasure on this ind?¡±

    Instead of flying over the cliff, he used his spirit feelers to check the seawater first. He had been wondering why the water around here looked so stagnant as if it weren¡¯t the sea at all.

    As he expected, everything he sensed using his spirit feelers was ¡°dead¡±. The water was almostpletely still. No nts, no wildlife.

    He dared not leave the ind too far since he was bad at finding directions on the sea, if not to worry about potential danger waiting for him out there.

    Hended back on the ship and picked up Toby, who had been sleeping in his pocket, and told the bird to turn into a griffin.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to look around in my soul form. Watch my body in the meantime.¡±

    Toby looked around with his sleepy eyes and wondered why they showed up on the sea again overnight.

    After listening to Angor¡¯s exnation, especially the ¡°treasure¡± part, Toby immediately perked up and gave Angor a ¡°leave it to me¡± look.

    Angor chuckled and left his body, while Toby used gravity power to seal his body inside.

    First, he floated around The Feather Fan to look for the magic array, which should be his way back.

    Searching around the beach area yielded no result, so he dived into the water, and still found nothing other than several skeletons covered by dirt. There weren¡¯t anything on the skeletons that could be used to tell their identities. But telling from their locations, Angor was sure that these were sailors working on The Feather Fan.

    The only ce he had yet to check around the ship was the cliff. He didn¡¯t believe the exit of the magic array was too far from its entrance, if whoever designed the magic array decided to split them apart.

    When he failed to find anything along the cliff and wondered if his theory was wrong, he suddenly heard Toby calling out to him.

    Following the voice, he saw Toby had carried his body to a dead tree at the cliff wall. It seemed Toby found a cave entrance hidden behind the tree.

    Curious, Angor entered the cave, which didn¡¯t take him very long to reach the end.

    Toby looked pretty disappointed when looking at the emptiness. But unlike him, Angor finally felt relieved when looking at the glowing magic array drawn on the cave wall.

    Since he knew how to go back to the well, he returned to his body and prepared to explore the ind.

    Together with Toby, who also looked thirsty for adventure, he headed back to the entrance of the cave.

    But upon arriving, a faint shadow swept past his view.

    He quickly dashed outside and looked around, but without finding anything other than the dead tree, which appeared like a twisted soul in the darkness.

    ¡°Am I seeing things?¡± He shook his head and expanded his spirit power, but he still didn¡¯t notice anything wrong.

    Next, he flew to the top of the cliff and saw the other side of it as a gentle slope with more dead trees of strange shapes growing on it.

    Using hismp, he traveled down the slope and felt a bit scared by the crooked shadows that looked like monsters quietly watching him.

    He reached the bottom of the slope and kept gliding for a few kilometers, but without finding anything alive. In the end, he and Toby stopped at the edge of argeke.

    Because he saw human traces here.

    Not far from his position, there was a patch of burned dirt, beside which a simple cooking pot was ced on top of an improvised stone stove.

    The dust and rust marks on the pot suggested that it was left here several decades ago.

    This meant there were people who lived here, but since both the water and the ind itself were so ¡°dead¡± right now, Angor believed that whoever left these traces wasn¡¯t a native, but a poor soul who was trapped here.

    He then walked around theke, hoping to find other clues.

    As far as he could see, the ind was pretty worthless and uninteresting. The only thing that kept him here was the treasure mentioned by Lucas, which was probably why Song of the Deep and Summerdew Ridge were all going after Lucas.

    He wasn¡¯t nning on spending too much time treasure hunting. Since two truth-finders, ¡°God of Seas¡± and the ¡°Basket Witch¡± already came, they would arrive here sooner orter.

    Whether he could find the treasure or not, Angor decided to consider safety as his top priority¡ªhe had to leave before the truth-finders came and saw him.

    ¡°Tweeeeet!¡±

    Toby¡¯s call interrupted his thoughts. He looked that way and saw Toby hovering above theke water while holding another Luminous Stonemp in his beak.

    Angor immediately saw what Toby wanted to show him. At the center of theke, there was a tiny stick submerged in the water. While only a very short part of it was above water level, the shadow under the surface proved that it must be a pretty long stick.

    He took out a Luminous Stone and tossed it into the water, which slowly sank and revealed a gigantic shadow at the bottom of theke.

 Chapter 771 - Sunken Ship

    <h4>Chapter 771: Sunken Ship</h4>

    Inside the stinky water full of unknown floating substance, the Luminous Stone slowly reached the bottom and helped Angor see the nature of the shadow.

    ¡°It¡¯s a ship?¡± He knew so because he already saw the empty pole masts and the drifting remains of cloth hanging onto it.

    Sunken ships were not strange in this world, but the ship at the bottom of this istedke was.

    He already checked around theke and saw no canals that connected thekewater to the outside. Before considering how the ship was destroyed, he would like to know how it ended up here.

    Was it possible that a repairman brought the ship here for maintenance, then he realized that he couldn¡¯t move the ship back out and just abandoned it?

    No. That was so stupid.

    Theke was obviously not a good choice for repairing ships. And besides, it was too small for the extrarge vessel, which seemed to be a cargo ship.

    He jumped into the water under the effect of the Purification Field. After making sure there were no underwater tunnels for transporting the ship, he moved closer to check the ship itself.

    It was ced right in the middle of theke. When looking up close, the ship didn¡¯t appear as big as when looking from above the water.

    He knew it was for transporting heavy goods, but he couldn¡¯t ascertain which era it came from since he wasn¡¯t so good at nautical history as Helen and Erwin.

    He entered the cabin but did not find anything that could help him tell more information about the ship other than more debris.

    He then moved to the bottom area and saw the structural keel had snapped from the middle. By looking at the damage, he assumed that the keel was smashed open by arge force.

    The only thing that might unleash such strong power should be a giant sea monster. Yet there were no such things in thiske. Or rather, there weren¡¯t ANY creatures here.

    There were also no noticeable items in the ship apart from someone¡¯s broken bones. The cargo area as well as the captain¡¯s room werepletely empty.

    With nothing else to do, Angor returned to the surface.

    For now, the two biggest question marks regarding the ship was its origin and what destroyed it. Neither could be answered if he could not find an ¡°entrance¡± for the ship or monsters to reach thiske.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me it fell from the sky...?¡±

    An idea suddenly came to his mind.

    In his memory, there was another ship that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into the unknown, which was The Feather Fan. The same thing could happen again, no doubt.

    He looked up at the sky, which waspletely dark.

    Could it be that this whole area was another dimension that worked like a trap that randomly caught unlucky ships from Devil¡¯s Water and dropped them here?

    And if this ship fell from the sky, the suddenly t drop on the water surface was deadly enough to break it in half.

    Likely.

    He nced at the edge of theke where the cooking pot was. Perhaps somebody survived the fall and remained there.

    ¡°Then they still met the inevitable because of theck of food...¡±

    With this in mind, he searched around the ¡°campsite¡± hoping to find more corpses. Whoever swam away from the broken ship was in no condition to travel too far.

    As expected, Toby soon found two white skeletons and carried them back.

    One of them had a ne with an iron casket attached to it. Also, Angor remembered seeing this item before¡ªsome of the sailors working on The Limpet also had these nes.

    Simr to dog tags, these small caskets were used for keeping the sailors¡¯ death wills and identification. When sailing on the sea, they would never know when a sudden disaster would im their lives. If by some miracle, someone came and salvaged their bodies, then they could at least send theirst regards and personal valuables back to their homes.

    Even though the valuables would be looted by who discovered them most of the time. In these cases, the looters would consider the valuables as their payment for sending the bodies back. There was a rumor among sailors that those who ¡°took stuff and left¡± would suffer from great curses. Of course, it was only a rumor.

    Since the ship didn¡¯t contain anything interesting, he picked up the iron casket, hoping to finally find something useful in it.

    The container wasn¡¯t big¡ªabout 3 centimeters in length. And it was badly rusted.

    After opening the casket and waiting for the dust cloud to settle, he saw a cracked ruby ring and a piece of folded parchment inside.

    The ring was probably the ¡°payment¡± for whoever took the body to their family.

    The body¡¯s name was written on the front of the parchment. Gablin Frando, from the Red Maple Republic, a nation located at Magus Corridor.

    Compared to the neat characters that exined this man¡¯s identity and address, the remaining phrases below looked rather messy, probably because Gablin wasn¡¯t in any condition to write carefully when leaving hisst words.

    The description of the sailor mostly proved Angor¡¯s previous idea.

    The ship under theke was called The ck Lotus, which was a cargo carrier from Magus Corridor heading to Ferran. It identally ran into a strange mist while passing through Gearwheel Grave, and before everyone knew what was going on, the ship began to free-fall and ended up inside thatke. Gablin was lucky enough to stay alive, but he didn¡¯t have much time without food and fresh water.

    Also ording to Gablin, The ck Lotus appeared here 300 years ago, which wasn¡¯t too far in history. And secondly, Gablin left a strange question at the end of his message.

    ¡°Maybe my eyes are failing due to starvation... I think I saw a shadow. He looks just like the legendary Vile King.¡±

    ¡°Vile King? Legendary?¡± Angor mumbled. ¡°Did Gablin actually see another individual roaming around here?¡±

    It was possible. He just saw an unknown presence quickly escaping from his view, and he didn¡¯t think he was hallucinating.

    And it this was true, then this ¡°Vile King-like character¡± had lived here for several centuries.

    He would stay even more cautious from now on, knowing that a living threat might be lurking nearby.

    He returned Gablin¡¯s possessions since he wasn¡¯t nning on helping the poor sailor get back home. His travel schedule didn¡¯t involve going to Magus Corridor, whichy in the opposite direction of Land of Revtion.

    He decided to look around the ind for more, and hopefully, he would be able to discover Lucas¡¯ treasures. Knowing that there were truth-finder wizards trying to get here, he preferred not to waste any time.

    Together with Toby, they left theke area and reached the in ground on the other side of the ind. He couldn¡¯t see the sea yet, but the terrible smell in the wind suggested that the edge wasn¡¯t far.

    Darkness, dead trees, but no more human traces.

    He walked through a dead palm grove and was shocked to see more abandoned ships left at the coastal area in front of him.

    A lot of them.

    Expedition ships, icebreakers, cruisers, pirate ships... He could almost find every type of ship he could think of. But just like The Feather Fan, every single one of them was deserted.

    The coast wasn¡¯tpletely dark because some of the ships still had Luminous Stones on them. However, the weak and pale light only made the whole sight creepier.

    ¡°A graveyard for ships...¡± Angor muttered.

    Suppose this strange ce was a ¡°trap¡± that asionally pulled ships inside, why were The Feather Fan and The ck Lotus separated from the rest while all the remaining ships gathered at one spot?

    By traveling from The Feather Fan to here, Angor could almost see the entire ind on his way, yet he didn¡¯t find any ce to hide treasures. Was Lucas referring to this graveyard then?

 Chapter 772 - The Shipâ€™s Grave

    <h4>Chapter 772: The Ship¡¯s Grave</h4>

    Angor headed to the ships while wondering if Lucas was referring to these ships by saying ¡°treasure¡±. This was very likely since there were no other spots on this dead ind that could be used for keeping treasures.

    He moved closer and realized that there were way more ships than he expected, and they were all in different conditions. Some of them did not have obvious damage at all¡ªthey could set sail just fine if not for the fact that they were trapped in the cramped space.

    At first, he went to a stranded and somewhat broken ship called ¡°The Winter Hunter¡±, which could be seen since this name was painted on the side of it. It had a fierce-looking octopus as its figurehead.

    He walked on the ship¡¯s deck for a few steps and identally created a hole in the floor. He then floated around and failed to find anything on the ship. Not even dead bodies. It was as if the ship was just pulled out of assembly and had yet to experience its first journey.

    The next few ships nearby all looked simr. No bodies, no cargo. In fact, Angor could see some traces that suggested someone¡ªprobably the crews¡ªmoving the goods away for some reason.

    Although the exact destination of the goods remained to be found out.

    After searching around a dozen more ships to no avail, he managed to find some ¡°leftover¡± on a ship called The Hosen Blues. It was another logbook.

    The author didn¡¯t leave his name on the book, but from the entries, Angor could tell that this one was written by an amateur navigator who newly joined the crew.

    The logs described how The Hosen Blues came here in good detail.

    [It¡¯s the 2nd day of the Month of Repose, when Hosen Blues sessfully reached Gearwheel Grave. My mentor told our captain that it is too dangerous to travel across this ce at such a time, but that Baron Parva... that filthy fat a*s! He insisted on taking this path just to reunite with his girl sooner. Oh God blesses us... hope everything will be fine.]

    [Emergency! Our ship lost directions in this mist and arrived at... wherever this is! The sea is... is dead! There are so many ships around us! If what I¡¯m guessing is right, this must be the Ship¡¯s Grave, the rumored resting ce of all missing vessels. So this is where they have been!]

    [The Hosen Blues ispletely trapped. The captain told us to get off and look for a chance for survival. Maybe we can find a working ship at the edge of this mess and leave. Parva... that coward! He locked himself inside the storage and took our resources for himself!]

    [st it. There¡¯s no way out... This ce is haunted! We managed to find a small boat, but we couldn¡¯t prate the thick mist out there. It always pushes us back to our starting point. I think the mist surrounded this entire ind, leaving us nowhere else to go. I... want to go home so much. Mother... are you okay back home?]

    [Another deprived day.]

    [Our mates returned from the other side. The dead sea and dead ships aren¡¯t the only problems. The whole ind is dead... thend is dry, the nts are lifeless. There¡¯s no fresh water for us. We are doomed...]

    The navigator stopped for three days before writing the next log.

    [Finally, some good news¡ªBaron Parva is dead! Justice serves him right! But we have no idea who killed him. And why did he look so terrified at hisst moment?]

    [Life must continue. Thankfully, we still have lots of stuff stored on the ship. It seems our Water Soaker trees are growing just fine. They¡¯ll help us stay alive a little longer. Oh God, please take us out of here.]

    Again, no more entries until several days.

    [The crew is dying one by one. But how? We have food and drink! I wonder if my turn is next...]

    This was thest thing in the logbook. It seemed the owner of the book went through despair to hope, then was thrown back to despair again.

    The book was left at a random corner on the deck of The Roben Blues. Perhaps its owner lost it there. The dust collected on it told Angor that it had been several dozens of years since those people died off, and the cause of their death remained a mystery.

    He sighed and continued to search more ships. He managed to find skeletons scattered around some of them, and these skeletons were dressed in different styles that belonged to different ces and ages. Many of the corpses had iron nes left on them. By reading the messages as well as several more logbooks he discovered, Angor noticed that almost all the ships had one thing inmon, that they were sailing across Gearwheel Grave before showing up here. There were also ships from other routes such as the Storm Sea, the strange ces constantly covered by mist and other known ces, but they only took a very small part.

    Helen once mentioned Gearwheel Grave, during which she also said something about how ships tended to go missing without a reason. However, Gearwheel Grave was an eptable route because such idents were rtively rare ording to records.

    By chance, he discovered a sea chart of Devil¡¯s Water, which was held in the hand of a skeleton. The chart only showed the general area around Gearwheel Grave as well as several routes nearby, such as the Storm Sea and the ¡°Mist Zone¡±, which... all happened to be where these ships used to be beforeing here.

    Also, he noticed a familiar name at the center of the map, the Silver Palm Isle, where he saw the Leviathan several months ago.

    As far as he knew, the Leviathan showed up around Silver Palm Isle recently, while the oldest ship that disappeared at Gearwheel Grave was from thousands of years ago, so he didn¡¯t think there was a connection between the monster and the ¡°Ship¡¯s Grave¡±.

    But he had enough reasons to assume that there must be some secrets hidden on the isle. However, he wasn¡¯t going to think about it too much. Silver Palm Isle was pretty far. He might as well keep his attention on this mysterious ind first.

    While flying past the countless ships, he suddenly noticed a familiar shape among them. It was another cargo ship that looked very simr to The Limpet. Upon moving closer, he saw thebel of the White m Association printed on it.

    Since the ships from the White m Association all had apprentices or wizards protecting them, he wondered if that ¡°Vile King¡± was actually a wizard who was also trapped here.

    By using water-rted spells and Gourmet tricks like the Mana Bread, a wizard or apprentice could definitely survive longer. It was probably an apprentice since most wizards knew how to open up ne passageways and escape from foreign dimensions.

    Suppose that an apprentice was living here... then Lucas¡¯ treasures were probably taken away already.

    He entered the association¡¯s ship and went for the top floor where the cabin of the guardian was supposed to be. And he was shocked upon seeing what was inside the room.

    It was pretty clean,pared to all the other rooms he checked before. Truth was, the association usually granted certain assets to their ship protectors such as a room with auto-cleaning runes, so the tidiness waspletely expected.

    What surprised him most was the man sitting at the desk. Or it might be a man since he couldn¡¯t see through the hooded robe thatpletely covered the figure.

    He looked more carefully and didn¡¯t sense any trace of lifeing from the figure, so he used Hand of Spell to slowly lift the hood, which revealed another pale skeleton hidden beneath.

    If this skeleton was the ship¡¯s guardian... then his previous theory should be incorrect.

    He checked the robe and made sure it was made in Floating Mech City. The basic runes on the robe were still working after all these years.

    There were faint energy residues left on the bones. Added with a one-use space capsule found in the room, Angor was sure that this was an apprentice stationed on the ship.

    ording to Helen, those selected as guardians should at least know how to use basic survival skills, such as water and food production spells. So how did this apprentice die?

    Also, most supernatural individuals could leave their souls behind when their bodies were killed. But there wasn¡¯t a soul to be found around here.

    Something suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

 Chapter 773 - Earthquake

    <h4>Chapter 773:</h4>

    <h4>Earthquake</h4>

    A dashing man stood tall on top of a giant stingray while looking at the direction of Silver Palm Isle, which was a few hundreds of miles away from his position.

    By using the spell applied on his eyes, the distance did not prevent him from seeing every single detail ahead.

    ¡°Bleh. The Basket Witch sent a fool to try the Leviathan¡¯s limit right now?¡± He grinned. ¡°That thing¡¯s gotta still be there, since the door has not opened yet, hmm.¡±

    Beside the ind, the Leviathan suddenly looked at the sky and began releasing an invisible high-frequency energy wave into the area.

    A woman with a pair of bat wings, who was approaching, began to bleed from her ears before she lost concentration and fell into the sea.

    Seeing this, the Leviathan turned its gigantic form and moved toward where the woman was.

    Before the monster could reach its prey, a series of strange and ear-piercingughs echoed through the sky.

    The ¡°bat woman¡± opened her eyes and saw the looming maw of Leviathan. Panicked, she quickly flew out of the water and away from the monster¡¯s hunting range.

    The Leviathan¡¯s pupils turned into thin slits. At the same time, it exerted its pressure, which was almost as strong as that of a truth-finder, at the bat woman.

    The woman felt her form frozen and showed a look of despair. After trying her best to give a certain direction a pleading look, she melted into a cloud of bloody particles, which were devoured by Leviathan.

    The monster howled in satisfaction and returned to the ind.

    Somewhere farther away, a small girl sitting on top of a basket held her chin and giggled with a mad expression.

    A luxuriously-dresseddy beside her, who had several scars on her cheeks, covered her mouth using ace fan. ¡°Master, I don¡¯t think Leviathan would move away. While after its mark, its tail was still wrapped around the ind.¡±

    The girl who was addressed as the ¡°master¡± still held her chin carefully as if her head would fall off if she stopped doing so.

    ¡°But it¡¯s getting impatient! Heehee. Maybe that thing¡¯s wondering why it must remain here as well.¡±

    While speaking, the girl¡¯s eyeballs turned rapidly in her eye sockets, which looked rather terrifying.

    ¡°Am I right, Papy?¡±

    Papy, thedy with the wounded face, was the manager of Summerdew Ridge¡ªLady Payne.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, Master. Leviathan used to protect the ind well. But now...¡± Payne looked at the broken trees on the ind and snickered.

    ¡°It¡¯s stupid, but we better not fight it upfront,¡± said the girl. ¡°It won¡¯t be long before the mysterious dimension opens its entrance, so the Leviathan is getting all worked up.¡±

    ¡°We will be collecting our fruit in due time.¡± Lady Payne folded her fan and moved away by stepping on the water. ¡°Since there are still a few days, let¡¯s head back for now, Master.¡±

    The little girl freed a hand to pat the basket she was sitting on. ¡°Time to get home, Snuffle!¡±

    The insignificant object floating on the sea suddenly trembled. It then grew a mouth at the center of it and revealed a crimson tongue. ¡°Snuffle understood! Hang on tight, Master, the bus is a-running!¡±

    While the girlughed at their conversation, Lady Payne turned back and looked at where the ¡°bat woman¡± was eaten by the Leviathan. She then revealed a sad look.

    ¡°Oh right, Papy. What have you learned about Lucas so far?¡± asked the little girl.

    Lady Payne tapped her shoulder with her fan. ¡°ording to Swan, Lucas was amoner who was known as a liar who lied to his king and deceived the entire Anrum. Which... we already knew.¡±

    ¡°Commoner? That can¡¯t be, can it? Keep looking. There MUST be some rtions between Lucas and the dimension we¡¯re looking for.¡±

    ¡°Acknowledged. And... Swan sent a second message to us. It seems the new student of Mister Phantom is currently visiting Ferran Land on a recruit mission.¡±

    ¡°Oh. You mean that ¡®genius alchemist¡¯?¡±

    ...

    The man on a stingray chuckled as he watched the two women gone.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay to cancel your stealth now, Brigitte. Let¡¯s go back as well.¡±

    Upon receiving the order, the creature under him flopped into the sea and disappeared.

    ...

    Inside the ¡°Ship¡¯s Grave¡±, Angor was going to check the one-use space capsule he just found. But something stopped him before he could reach his spirit feelers inside.

    At first, the floor beneath his feet began to shake. Before he could see what was going on, he heard great noises that sounded like all the ships around were bumping into each other, including the one he was in.

    The furniture in the room was falling down, and the skeleton in front of him was about to scatter.

    Confused, he left the room and flew into the sky, only to see the entire area rocking like mad. Giant tides had appeared on the dead seawater, which was pushing against the ships, while some of the vessels in poorer conditions broke into nks.

    Angor wondered if a sea monster wasing up, but instead of seeing a monster, he sensed the space around him being disrupted greatly.

    ¡°Another ship fell into here?¡± He frowned. ¡°No... if this happens every once in a while, the other ships will all get broken.¡±

    He looked around and didn¡¯t see any space rupture he was expecting. Instead, the disturbance came from below him. The entire ind was shaking.

    ¡°An earthquake?¡± He watched in surprise as the ground split open and dry trees tumbled down.

    It didn¡¯tst very long, but it was enough to damage the ships badly. Over 80% of them either sank further or gained giant cracks.

    Angor was wondering something else too. During the earthquake, he heard another giant noise like a monster was screaming. He also sensed a certain emotion inside the noise, which was confusion.

    More importantly... he believed he heard a simr thing before. Yet he couldn¡¯t remember when or where he gained that impression.

    ¡°A monster caused the earthquake... But where is it? Outside there at the sea or is it underground?¡±

    But then, the noise sounded pretty far and distant as if the monster howled from another dimension.

    He returned to the ship he was in. Thankfully, the ship of the White m Association was sturdier, so it didn¡¯t suffer too much damage.

    He picked up several books scattered on the floor and was disappointed to see that they were all basic books rted to Devil¡¯s Water. Roman also had these books on The Limpet.

    Next, he used his spirit feelers to check the one-use space capsule. It contained some daily necessities and some random magical items.

    Also, the identification of the owner was inside.

    He didn¡¯t open the capsule since the contents might be too much for this small room, so he put it away and kept searching the room. After taking the only thing of interest, which were several pieces of parchment left by the owner, he left the ship behind and found an open ground on the ind to fully examine the space capsule.

    After popping the capsule open, he used several Hands of Spell to quickly check through the items while picking out any supernatural-rted stuff that he might use.

    The first thing he picked up was an identification card that seemed simr to the bone cards used in Brute Cavern. He couldn¡¯t read the confidential information hidden in the card since its owner was dead, but there were still other forms of information directly written on the card, which did not require security measures to reveal, such as the owner¡¯s name.

    ¡°He¡¯s... Huskar?¡±

    This name also appeared at the end of the notes he found, which further proved that this man named Huskar was the guardian of the association¡¯s ship.

    Huskar¡¯s logs described how their ship ended up here for no reason in a simr way as the other logbooks. However, the clean writing suggested that Huskar was in a better condition when leaving the message.

    [This ce isn¡¯t exactly beautiful, but I see no danger around. Might be a good chance for a long seclusion session.]

    This was thest entry. Instead of going into seclusion, Huskar was probably dead afterward.

    Again, the cause of death was unknown.

    Angor felt his mental pressure escting upon realizing that this ce wasn¡¯t safe at all.

    Next, he looked at the items left behind by Huskar.

    ¡°Glowing Velvet Potion, Potion of Decryption, Hormone Masker, Wincy¡¯s Witch Stew... They¡¯re all cheap, but they coulde in handyter.¡±

    He arranged the potions ording to categories and stored them into his bracelet.

 Chapter 774 - The Shadowy Killer

    <h4>Chapter 774: The Shadowy Killer</h4>

    Among all the potions, there was an ubeled bottle of dark green liquid that looked pretty valuable, or at least Angor¡¯s instinct told him so.

    The result gained by using Narda¡¯s Vision surprised him greatly.

    ¡°Waning Ward¡±, a special mid-tier potion with a straightforward effect¡ªextending one¡¯s lifespan by slowing down metabolism.

    This effect alone wasn¡¯t so special among mid-tier potions. However, Narda¡¯s Vision had shown Angor another piece of information worth noting.

    [Using the potion does not cause any decrease in personal potential. While in effect, the user¡¯s body will be weakened to an extreme extent simr to unfit mortals. The effect willst for as long as a hundred years and can be canceled at any time.]

    This was the most efficient life-improving potion he ever got his hands on. Since it didn¡¯t have any long-term side effects and did not prevent the use of other life-extending potions, this potion was extremely valuable to apprentices who had yet to reach wizard levels.

    He believed this potion would get him quite a fortune if he were to sell it at an auction.

    However, Huskar didn¡¯t mention using the potion in his notes probably because this man had enough time to reach the wizard level on his own, by which time he could create a ne passageway and escape without a problem.

    Huskar believed that he fully explored the ind, and then died to his own carelessness.

    ¡°Damn. He didn¡¯t say anything about what¡¯s hidden here either.¡±

    Telling from the unused healing potions and scrolls, Huskar died before he could resist.

    After putting away the items a little bit anxiously, Angor decided to keep looking around.

    He only took all supernatural-rted items with him without minding the other daily supplies since he had no need for them. But on second thought, he decided not to leave this stuff out in the open because people from Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge would get suspicious. Most wizards knew a spell called ¡°Remove Delirium¡±, which could be used to tell what happened around an item by using certain traces left behind.

    With this in mind, he found an empty one-use space capsule in his bracelet and ced all the random items inside it. And after carefully removing all possible clues he might have left behind, he finally left the area.

    He didn¡¯t go to the Ship¡¯s Grave again since anything worth checking on would be mostly destroyed by now. He simply moved along the coast in search of more human traces.

    There were many ships around here of different sizes, includingrge ones capable of holding thousands of passengers. Since he didn¡¯t find as many skeletons, there should be a lot of people who left the ships and went deeper into the ind, which meant clues.

    He asionally found junks left along the coast, but no human presence.

    Later, he reached the estuary of a small river where he found what seemed to be a campsite. Yet there were still no corpses left around, which meant whoever remained here didn¡¯t stay for very long.

    He proceeded along the river next. Human civilizations often ced their settlements near water sources. Supposed that there were settlements around here, following the river was the best way to find them, even though the water in the river didn¡¯t seem drinkable.

    While walking on the riverbank, he also kept his attention on a scout avatar he threw in the water. He found a whole box of them in the association¡¯s ship and decided to take them with him. Having an extra pair of eyes always made his search faster.

    While thend remained to be mostly empty, some bone pieces underwater told him he had chosen the correct direction.

    Finally, he reached the cliff area at one side of arge hill, where several simple wooden cottages were built.

    And more bones.

    The skeletons scattered around suggested that these people were fleeing from something before they died.

    Angor searched their ¡°iron caskets¡± and personal belongings. As he read what was left behind, he slowly put up a grim look.

    Most of the logs and messages were about sentimentalints typical for someone who lived through despair. But there was one thing inmon, which was mentioned by almost everyone.

    A ck shadow.

    It seemed this ¡°ck shadow¡± would periodicallye and maim people in an extremely fast and cruel way. The folks imed that they often felt something hot sshing all over them, before they saw someone nearby torn to pieces.

    Knowing that an unknown beast was constantly threatening their lives, many people broke down under the pressure and eithermitted suicide or became mad and started harming theirpanions.

    Combined with what he found in the Ship¡¯s Grave, Angor had a suspicion that Huskar was also killed by this ck shadow thing.

    And the battle probably ended pretty fast since Huskar didn¡¯t show any resistance.

    Again, after erasing his traces, Angor headed to an artificial cave in the cliff where several skeletons wearing armors were ced. These people were probably guards or someone strong in the group, so they were responsible for digging.

    He didn¡¯t find any written message on these corpses, but he was a little surprised to see their armor in almost perfect condition. Unlike the broken skeletons outside the cave, these armored ones didn¡¯t have any obvious damage at all.

    Could it be that the ¡°ck shadow¡± could use magical attacks as well?

    Inside a pile of broken lumber protected by a wooden fence, he discovered another skeleton as well as a notebook ced nearby.

    The texts didn¡¯t seem so differentpared to the other books, and the end of the description mentioned the ¡°ck shadow¡± again. Apparently, the owner of the book expressed what he saw while hiding behind the lumber pile.

    [He¡¯s there. He killed Taki and Molnar! What should I do?! His clothes! And that horned helmet, that peg leg... that¡¯s the legendary pirate, Vile King Torras. Oh God, I think he saw me...]

    That was the end of it.

    Angor was d to know the name of the ¡°Vile King¡±. It seemed mortals considered the Vile King a ¡°legendary pirate¡±, but he doubted that the ¡°legendary¡± here had anything to do with legendary wizards.

    The victim was a sailor from about 1,500 years ago, during the Age of Bronze. At that time, the young generation all devoted themselves to nautical affairs.

    Also at that time, the name of ¡°Vile King¡± was already well-known.

    Then there was Gablin from The ck Lotus. As a navigator from 300 years ago, Gablin also encountered the ¡°Vile King¡±.

    This meant the Vile King had lived through all these eras. It was likely that he was still alive.

    The current question was, why would this Vile King kill so many people, including an apprentice like Huskar. And more importantly...

    Where was he now?

 Chapter 775 - Torras

    <h4>Chapter 775: Torras</h4>

    The Silver Moose was quietly floating at one corner of the Ship¡¯s Grave. This ship belonged to the White m Seafare Association, and it was also the one formerly protected by Huskar.

    Angor was currently using Huskar¡¯s room on the 4th level to read a pile of thick books under the faint light provided by a Luminous Stonemp, and he already finished a good number of them.

    The whole area was quiet. Ufortably quiet. The sound of him turning pages was the only thing that could be heard right now.

    He came back to search for more clues about the ¡°Vile King¡±. Since this figure was a famous pirate known by sailors, there should be a lot of records that mentioned him.

    However, he just finished reading thest book on the ship that was about pirates during the Age of Bronze, and he didn¡¯t find the name of Vile King at all.

    ¡°Am I wrong?¡±

    He looked at another book on the desk that he had yet to read, which was titled <i>The Shining Age of Silver.</i>

    It was a biography of influential people from the Age of Silver, including infamous politicians andmon citizens who had their names remembered by history, but there were no pirates among them. Angor prepared this book just because there were no other clues to look at.

    Even though the Age of Silver onlysted for about 400 years, this book was pretty big in volume because there were a ton of great figures of different professions who won big fame.

    Among the celebrities, there were even criminals who brought great damage to the people around them. Whoever wrote the book tried to be fair when recreating the history.

    Most of the names mentioned were from Ferran, with a few ¡°foreigners¡± asionally.

    As Angor approached the end of the book and thought he would be left disappointed again, he suddenly found ¡°Torras the Vile King¡± between the lines. Below the name was an illustrated description that expressed the ¡°career¡± as well as the glory of Torras.

    ¡°¡®Vile King¡¯ Torras, origin unknown. He made his first debut in the year 211, Age of Silver, at Eastern Seas. During the entire era, Torras spread both his greatness and horror to every corner of the world we can think of.

    ¡°Using his ship, The Feral, he united everyone under hismand at the Eastern Seas, be them pirates or peaceful folks. After ughtering several members of royalty, several nations around the continents put his name on the top of their bounty lists.

    ¡°While being tracked down by soldiers and hunters, Torras didn¡¯t stop doing more horrible miracles to this world, including overthrowing the government of Valha Isle and further convincing people of his absolute might.

    ¡°Later, Torras made his way to the Devil¡¯s Water and made multiple sessful adventures inside the deadly ce, during which he granted us a great treasure of his time¡ªa detailed sea chart of Devil¡¯s Water. Even today, some of us praised him for being a conqueror of the devil.

    ¡°But in the year 223, Age of Silver, Torras suddenly disappeared from people¡¯s views and never showed up again. There are rumors saying that he has gone to the world of wizards. Even now, this legendary pirate would asionally watch thends and seas he once dominated...¡±

    After Angor finished thest phrase but before he could put the book down, he suddenly felt a cold wind that carried strong killing intent assaulting his face.

    He looked up and saw the door to the room¡¯s balcony being pushed open, thus allowing the stinky air outside to slip in.

    There was a ck shadow standing at the door.

    He couldn¡¯t see the shadow¡¯s face against the light of Luminous Stones outside, but that ox-horn helmet, a hooked peg leg and a pair of glowing red eyes were exactly what was described in the picture in the book he was holding.

    ¡°Torras?¡± He tried to ask while preparing his defensive cantrips and chanting Spirit Mantra at the same time.

    He knew this man had lived through over two thousand years and was strong enough to murder a level-3 apprentice in an instant, which meant he had to use anything he could think of.

    The shadow didn¡¯t respond¡ªhe kept gazing at him using the pair of eyes full of hatred.

    Without any forewarning, the shadow vanished, left a trail of red light, and reappeared right in front of Angor¡¯s desk while shing his sharp nails enchanted with deadly energy at his position.

    The desk was instantly shattered to pieces, along with the Luminous Stonemp, which scattered its broken content into the room and created a brief brilliance in the dim environment.

    The shadow noticed that he only hit the lingering shade of his mark, while the real target had escaped.

    He also saw strange gray energy left behind the area he hit. He couldn¡¯t recognize the energy, but he felt threatened.

    ¡°Ah, so this is how you lived so long?¡± Angor¡¯s voice came from right beside him.

    The shadow jerked around and let out an ear-piercing scream that could unsettle the souls of living creatures.

    Angor simply paced around the shadowpletely unaffected. Even the soul attack of a Soul Maniptor apprentice like Saka couldn¡¯t work on him. There was no way an undead soul who never went through any specific training could do better than that.

    ¡°I thought you were an old wizard who lived here, but it seems that I was wrong.¡±

    Angor sensed the signature energy of undead when the shadow attacked him. Unfortunately, the fallen soul no longer had the intelligence to respond to his taunt¡ªhe only kept rushing at him.

    ¡°Toby, go outside. The room¡¯s not good for a fight.¡±

    Since he knew the nature of the offender, Angor decided not to use his soul form for now. He only asked Toby to help him dodge attacks by pulling his body around using gravity power.

    Toby nodded and dragged him out of the narrow room. Instead of remaining on the deck of the ship, they kept moving away until theynded on the seashore area.

    Undead Torras soon followed them to the beach while constantly releasing his mad aura at them.

    To Angor¡¯s surprise, the soul of Torras somehow stopped attacking him as if the soul had sensed something wrong. Instead, Torras was keeping his distance while observing the situation carefully.

    Angor never encountered any undead souls who knew how to use tactics before. Well, except for the strange ¡°jellyfish¡± he fought against at Specter Basin. Although he still wasn¡¯t sure whether that thing was an undead.

    As far as he could see, Torras was mostly an undead soul right now. Maybe certain strange urrences helped Torras retain minimal sanity, but that wouldn¡¯t help this man act much differently than undead creatures.

    Gradually, Torras lost patience and lunged at Angor again.

    Angor sidestepped the attack and took out his Prelude to Elimination. He then shot at Torras.

    Torras immediately felt the deadly power unleashed by the weapon and tried to escape. Yet he didn¡¯t have enough time. Angor waited for him to get close just so he wouldn¡¯t miss the shot.

    However, Torras wasn¡¯t devoured by the attack as Angor expected. As he watched in great confusion, Torras¡¯ form disappeared before the attack could reach its mark.

    Almost at the same time, Angor turned around and saw Torras¡¯ w attacking at his face.

    Toby pulled him away just in the nick of time.

    He felt his heart bumping madly after surviving the attack. He knew his body was too fragile to withstand such a direct attack. He could have died back there.

    It seemed Torras could wield power as good as some of the best level-3 apprentices. Thankfully, the soul wasn¡¯t wise enough to know how to properly put such power to use, or Angor wouldn¡¯t be able to evade the attacks so easily.

    Angor failed to tell how Torras got away from his gunshot earlier. His instinct told him that Torras used some strange ability to directly teleport behind his back just now.

    But... could undead souls possess such abilities at all? If so, it would be pretty hard to use his revolver to kill Torras even though this soul didn¡¯t seem as strong as that strange jellyfish.

 Chapter 776 - Hidden Space?

    <h4>Chapter 776: Hidden Space?</h4>

    For many times, Torras managed to evade Angor¡¯s gunshots even though Angor tried his best to lure Torras closer by using himself as bait.

    Every time Torras sensed the power of Prelude to Elimination, he would simply vanish into thin air and reappear somewhere else in a blink of an eye.

    Angor tried to cover Torras¡¯ all possible escape routes and still failed to catch him.

    Later, he attempted to use the sequence of gravity to slow down Torras. But soon, Torras ¡°learned¡± how to teleport away from his gravity power as well.

    After some more fruitless attacks, Torras also realized that he couldn¡¯t defeat Angor easily and started backing away slowly, much to Angor¡¯s annoyance.

    Angor wasn¡¯t expecting that killing an undead would be so hard. If he let Torras escape, he would be the one at a disadvantage because Torras¡¯ strange ability was perfect for ambushing. He couldn¡¯t possibly stay highly cautious at every second.

    He also knew that he couldn¡¯t hit Torras because the frequency of Prelude to Elimination was too slow even though it had a wide coverage range. When the power spread farther, Torras had enough time to react and teleport away.

    Ordinary undead souls would simply run into the attack since they had no idea what it was. But against Torras, an undead soul that somehow learned how to evade danger, his gun no longer worked.

    In fact, Torras had learned that the revolver posed no threat and was now strengthening his attacks against Angor.

    For the first time ever, Angor realized why people all avoided fighting against undead enemies as much as they could. Since Torras could get away from his gun and his illusions alike, there was absolutely no way of getting rid of him at all.

    Looking at Torras¡¯ elusive moves, Angor felt his patience running thin.

    ¡°Prelude to Elimination is too slow, I see... Then I¡¯ll just use something quicker.¡±

    Again, he took a random shot at Torras and pretended that he left his weakness wide open.

    Torras saw a chance for an attack and went for it instead of running away.

    ¡°Of course you don¡¯t see why I used the same tactic twice.¡±

    Angor made a back-flip andnded behind Torras while taking aim. Since he didn¡¯t shoot yet, Torras didn¡¯t feel threatened by the power of Prelude to Elimination and did not teleport away.

    When Torras turned around to go for Angor again, he was weed by a white object that went for him at lightning speed.

    Angor chose to use a precious ¡°white bullet¡± this time. His previous tests showed him that the bullet traveled even faster than gravity energy. It had the best chance of catching Torras off guard.

    Also ording to his tests, a white bullet disrupted the energy bnce inside an undead soul, rendering it immobile for a while. It wouldn¡¯t be so hard to deal with a soul who couldn¡¯t move.

    He preferred to save these bullets as much as he could, but this was obviously a good chance to use one. He could always head to Specter Basinter and collect more bulletster.

    As he hoped, the white bullet sank into Torras¡¯ forehead before Torras could see what it was.

    The soul¡¯s eyes became brighter with red light for a brief moment before he copsed on the beach.

    Angor aimed his gun at Torras and prepared to use Prelude to Elimination to erase the soul once and for all.

    But one second thought...

    He already wasted a white bullet. He still needed to do more experiments to figure out the detailed effect of the bullets, which required him to use all six against one single soul.

    Wasn¡¯t Torras a perfect test subject?

    And unlike ordinary souls, the soul of Torras possessed strange properties. That wasn¡¯t easy to find.

    He already used a bullet on Torras. Killing Torras like this would be so wasteful.

    Telling from the books he read, Torras had been staying at this strange ce for at least two thousand years. If he could somehow get Torras to talk, there should be valuable clues to learn.

    He made up his mind. He was going to use all the remaining bullets on Torras.

    But before he could adjust his gun, Torras suddenly looked up from the ground, allowing him to witness an extremely bizarre face.

    It was as if someone just divided Torras¡¯ head from the middle. While one side still showed the twisted and fanged horror of an undead, the other side had taken on the look of aposed young man.

    ¡°Half-undead?!¡± Angor eximed in great surprise. ¡°So fast?¡±

    Without giving him any time to react, Torras once again teleported farther and dived into the darkness beyond, and Angor could only watch him leave helplessly.

    Back at Phantom Ind, it took one day for the undead soul to ¡°turn¡±, ording to Number 233¡¯s report. Angor changed his n within two seconds, and Torras already became a ¡°half-undead¡± and regained mobility.

    This had further proved that Torras was a special soul.

    Angor looked at Toby, who immediately understood what was going on and transformed into Griffin Form. The bright body of a ming griffin became a natural light source that illuminated the surroundings.

    However, even Toby¡¯s gravity-enhanced speed couldn¡¯t catch up with Torras¡¯ teleportation, which seemed to be costless to use.

    Again, Angor found his patience running low when he noticed that Torras obviously gained more intelligence since the soul knew how to rapidly change directions instead of running in a straight line. Each time Torras bolted in the opposite direction, Toby would have trouble keeping up because it wasn¡¯t easy to make big turns in the air while going at full speed.

    It was as if Torras had returned to being alive, and he was learning faster and faster.

    ¡°Slow down and maintain distance. Let¡¯s just keep him in view. The ind isn¡¯t big, he can¡¯t get too far,¡± Angorforted Toby, who nodded andplied.

    Angor had no trouble spending some extra time chasing after Torras. He didn¡¯t believe the soul could freely use his strange ability like that. There must be a restriction to it, such as energy cost.

    When Torras reached his limit, it would be the chance to finally catch him.

    It seemed Torras also saw through Angor¡¯s n. His ¡°undead face¡± was bing even madder, while his ¡°human face¡± showed great anxiety.

    Torras suddenly showed a determined look on his good side and began heading to the center of the ind.

    As they reached the central mountain area of the ind, Torras teleported again and never showed up.

    While chasing Torras, Angor could tell that Torras¡¯ ability could only take him somewhere within a hundred meters with each move.

    However, he failed to find Torras in his view.

    ¡°Maybe he moved inside a mountain?¡± Angor checked thendscape around him. ¡°Perhaps one of the mountains got more space inside?¡±

    It was also possible for undead souls to dive into the ground. But they would also need space for that, such as graves. There must be a hidden area around here that allowed Torras to go inside.

    And speaking of hidden area... perhaps that was also where Lucas kept his treasures?

    He found several high-quality Luminous Stones from his bracelet and handed them to Toby. ¡°Watch over the mountain range and tell me immediately when Torras shows up.¡±

    Toby canceled his Griffin Form and ced the bright stones around the area using gravity power, while Angor released a dozen scout avatars into the mountain area and began looking for an entrance or secret passage.

 Chapter 777 - A Sword in the Wheel

    <h4>Chapter 777: A Sword in the Wheel</h4>

    Three dayster, Angor returned to the sky and saw Tobying, who muttered something in disappointment.

    ¡°You never saw Torras? I see...¡±

    His scout puppets had almost covered the entire ind during their search. This meant Torras was indeed hiding in a secret spot they couldn¡¯t see.

    Angor looked at the moderate-sized mountains below and suddenly got an urge to dig them uppletely. But he decided not to on second thought. If he did something so radically, he would definitely leave a lot of traces behind that would help others track him downter.

    The search was notpletely in vain, however, as one of the puppets suddenly sent him a signal.

    By following the small river with lots of skeletons underwater, the puppet arrived at another mountain chain where it discovered a smallke area.

    There was a ship parked at the edge of theke.

    It wasn¡¯t a strange thing to find more ships since the ¡°Ship¡¯s Grave¡± wasn¡¯t far, but this clue might be worth investigating because the puppet saw a pirate ship.

    More importantly, the ship had the statue of a fierce-looking ox as its figurehead, and it had a pair of sharp, curved horns. ording to <i>The Shining Age of Silver</i>, Torras¡¯ ship was called ¡°The Feral¡±, while the signature of the ship was exactly the same ox figure.

    ¡°It¡¯s Torras¡¯ ship?¡±

    Angor ordered the remaining puppets to keep searching the area around them and headed to the pirate ship¡¯s location together with Toby.

    ...

    In an area veiled byplete darkness, Torras had toppled over on the ground and was mumbling nonsense as he felt chaotic memories and images haunting his mind.

    He suddenly opened his eyes and felt better as he sensed his enemies leaving.

    But his ¡°normal¡± side showed a worried look when he noticed where Angor and the strange beast were heading to.

    ¡°Go, go, go¡ª¡±

    Torras slowly stood up on trembling legs while muttering a single word repeatedly.

    An object abruptly began to shine with a golden light behind him, causing Torras to look that way.

    It was a human skull.

    For a brief moment, Torras¡¯ eyes showed human sanity. But soon, the negative energy inside him took over again and suppressed his mind.

    Without minding the glowing skull, he followed his primal instinct and walked away.

    ...

    Angor had reached the pirate ship. Theke he was looking at was smaller than the indke that trapped The ck Lotus. However, this one had a canal that connected to the outer sea.

    He took a moment to admire the great details shown by the ox figure. Those horns looked exactly the same as the ones on Torras¡¯ helmet.

    The scout avatar already searched the interior of the ship and did not detect Torras¡¯ presence. Angor activated his flying boots and headed straight to the rear of the ship. He just saw something interesting from the vision sent by the puppet.

    Below the towering rear mast was the ship¡¯s wheel protected by a thinyer of fine oil. The helm didn¡¯t look so different from ordinary wheels, but it had an object stuck in the middle of it.

    A long, knightly sword.

    It reminded him of the stories Jon used to tell him, which mentioned something like ¡°a sword in the stone¡±. Although this one seemed to be locked with the ship¡¯s steering wheel instead.

    [Day 16, Month of Resuscitation, Gold Age 1348. Weather: fair

    [Here be pirates! With my faithful knight sword in hand, I collected their heads as my bounty! One single swing was all I needed to end the life of their leader, who was cursing my name some kilometers away. That coward! And their treasures are all mine! To memorize my glory, I left my sword on the helm of their ship so everybody will see it and my name on it. As for the treasures... fine. I¡¯ll take them all to my secret vault!]

    Angor read this part of Lucas¡¯ log and showed a strange look.

    A sword in the wheel, treasures, pirates... All these keywords confused him greatly.

    He was standing right in front of the ¡°helm with a sword¡±, and he was indeed trying to find Lucas¡¯ treasures. Did Lucas tell a prophecy again just like how he ¡°predicted¡± the presence of the flowerbed, the Tree of Blessing, and ind spirits?

    Lucas lived during the Age of Gold, while Torras was from the Age of Silver, which meant several centuries apart. ¡°Prophecy¡± was the only exnation that put these two men together.

    And if Lucas ¡°predicted¡± having treasures, were the treasures supposed to be someone else¡¯s, like Torras?

    This way of thinking made a lot of sense, as already proved by Lucas¡¯ other stories. But why did Torras need treasures? This legendary pirate was beyond that at the end of his ¡°career¡±.

    There must be a reason why truth-finder wizards like ¡°God of Seas¡± and ¡°Basket Witch¡± were trying to get here. So were they after something else hidden on the ind?

    Toby suddenly called in the sky and drew his attention. He looked up and saw Toby flying around a red glowing spot above the ship.

    ¡°Finally... not going to hide anymore?¡± Angor floated to the same level and gazed at the divided face of Torras. Only one of Torras¡¯ eyes was glowing now.

    Instead of attacking Angor right away, Torras screamed madly like an angered animal as if he was trying to scare off his target without a fight.

    Angor didn¡¯t move an inch.

    ¡°Lea... ve... Leave...¡± Torras finally said somethingprehensible.

    Angor frowned. It seemed that Torras regained the ability to speak in these three days, but the negative energy of an undead soul was still in dominance.

    Torras¡¯ form was still stable at his current state. If for some reason, the amount of pure energy surpassed negative energy, Torras¡¯ soul would quickly lose bnce and scatter into energy particles that returned to earth. This could be prevented if something suddenly boosted Torras¡¯ pure energy above 98% in a short amount of time. But that wouldn¡¯t be easy.

    ¡°You want me to leave? Is this ship important to you?¡± Angor asked a question.

    ¡°Leave... I must... leave...¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow. It seemed he miprehended Torras¡¯ intention. ¡°Leaving¡± was probably Torras¡¯ obsession before this man died.

    Most undead souls had such obsessions. For example, when testing the white bullets at Phantom Ind, the test subject kept mentioning ¡°give my banyan flower back¡±. And after helping the soul recover some sanity, the soul also imed that possessing banyan flower was his strongest wish before he died.

    This meant Torras wanted to leave this ce really bad.

    It made sense though. The famous pirate who conquered the sea should definitely value his freedom. Being imprisoned in this filthy and lifeless ce was the worst punishment.

    As a pirate, Torras came here on a ship and would also leave on a ship. This was likely why he showed up in front of Angor, because he feared Angor was going to destroy his ship, his only way out.

    Unfortunately, the abundant negative energy inside Torras easily seizedmand and forced Torras to be violent again, leaving Angor with no chance of scrutinizing for more information.

    Angor evaded the attack and took out his gun.

    Upon seeing this, Torras immediately turned tail and dived into the distance.

    ¡°Darn it, not this again...¡± Angor shook his head and moaned.

    ...

    Somewhere thousands of kilometers away from Silver Palm Isle, a small, silver canoe was gliding across the water under the sun at an unbelievable speed.

    There were two passengers on the boat. At the front stood a small boy with a pair of pointy canine teeth and ck bat wings behind his back. He looked rather adorable if one didn¡¯t mind therge locks and shackles hanging on his limbs that connected him to a wooden pole at the back of the boat by several really thick chains.

    Beside the pole, a dark-skinned man wearing a tuxedo was lying on an armchair enjoying the sun. He had unbuttoned his suit just to get more sunlight on his muscled chest.

    The boy steering the ship carefully nced at the man and muttered all the curses he could think of under his breath.

    ¡°What are you doing, Darky?¡± the sunbathing man asked.

    Darky jumped a little and wondered if he just spoke those dirty words out loud when he was supposed to express them in his mind.

    ¡°Nothing, Master.¡± Darky feigned a ttering smile. ¡°I¡¯m just wondering why this part is so empty. No reefs, no beasts, not anything.¡±

    ¡°Empty? Not really. You have no idea how much danger lurked below us behind the peaceful facade.¡±

    Darky licked his fangs. ¡°I¡¯m just a lowly imp with a bad brain, Master. Sorry, but I don¡¯t know what that means.¡±

    ¡°Really? Now that you mentioned it, we SHOULD be careful about the threats out there,¡± the suited man said while slowly looking down.

    He saw Darky¡¯s pointy imp tail had sunk into the bottom of the boat and was submerged in water. Strangely, the tail went through the boat without causing any damage as if it was designed to pass through obstacles.

    ¡°Now speak, what did you find?¡± The man red at Darky, who looked pretty disappointed for exposing his small moves.

    Darky remained quiet for a while until he felt the lock around his neck tightening dangerously before he finally spoke, ¡°I saw a giant ray fish, Master. I think there¡¯s a pce building on its back.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that must be Brigitte. Huh... so Sliv is here.¡±

    As soon as he spoke those words, the mentioned ray fish slowly emerged from the surface of the water and quietly stayed afloat in their view.

    ¡°What are you doing here, Mariyasah?¡±

 Chapter 778 - The Lord of the Whorl

    <h4>Chapter 778: The Lord of the Whorl</h4>

    The speaker was a silver-haired young man who was standing on the head of the stingray, ¡°Sorcerer of Big Fish¡± Sliv.

    ¡°Why does it matter?¡± Mariyasah stood up from his chair and replied in azy tone, ¡°I¡¯m the boss of the White m Association. Am I not supposed to show up on the sea?¡±

    ¡°Mister ¡®God of Seas¡¯ is going to descend upon the area ahead, Mariyasah. I¡¯ll give you a piece of friendly advice. Do not annoy him in any way or you won¡¯t get away with those petty excuses, hmm.¡±

    Sliv was maintaining a serious attitude while speaking and never let his guard down even though Mariyasah was acting so carelessly.

    ¡°Demon Hunter¡± Mariyasah was one of the few true fighters from Floating Mech City, as well as a truth-finder.

    ¡°Now this is strange.¡± Mariyasah stretched his arms and revealed the glossy muscle chunks on his thorax. ¡°What¡¯s so special about what lies beyond?¡±

    Sliv didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Guess I was right. There¡¯s something fishy going on around the Leviathan.¡±

    Again, Silv remained silent, but his expression had turned even more cautious.

    ¡°At first, I didn¡¯t consider it as anything biggie,¡± Mariyasah continued. ¡°I just used my fortune-telling skills¡ªwhich I had been cking off on for some time¡ªto ask several questions. You know, I¡¯m not a Prophet, so this stuff often goes wrong. And the answers usually aren¡¯t reliable. But my oh my, how surprised I was to see the result as ¡®not detectable¡¯.¡±

    Sliv scowled.

    ¡°Now this is interesting. Apparently, SOMEBODY deployed an anti-prophecy barrier around Silver Palm Isle so that they can hide whatever is happening over there. Unfortunately, it was counterproductive.¡± Mariyasah finished his exnation and gave Sliv a more serious look. ¡°Now, can you tell me why are you here stopping people from going ahead?¡±

    Sliv snickered, ¡°It¡¯s obvious that we invested so many assets because there is profit to gain. You should take your time and guess what kind of profit there is, hmm?¡±

    Mariyasah shrugged. ¡°Whatever there is, you aren¡¯t going to tell me, are you? Well, no matter. Hey Darky, we shall keep moving and see with our own eyes.¡±

    Darky mumbled his acknowledgment in a small voice and started driving again while ignoring the giant creature blocking their way.

    ¡°Mariyasah... have you decided to oppose us Song of the Deep?¡± Sliv revealed a cold look out of rage. He even forgot his oral habit.

    ¡°You¡¯re wrong about that. It¡¯s YOU lot who are opposing the entire wizarding world.¡±

    After leaving these words, Mariyasah left for the direction of Silver Palm, and Sliv could only watch him go.

    Stingray Brigitte suddenly spat out two bubbles and drew Sliv¡¯s attention.

    People from Song of the Deep all knew how to deliver messages over long distances using such a way. Sliv popped open one of the bubbles and listened to the message while clenching his teeth furiously.

    He just realized why Mariyasah referred to their organization as the public enemy. ording to the message, the secret regarding Silver Palm Isle had been known by almost everyone. People had been spreading all kinds of rumors such as a new Mystery item was in the making, or a destiny that created more truth-finders was here.

    Usually, wizards wouldn¡¯t care about such random and unreliable gossip. Yet the situation was madeplicated when whoever created the rumors mentioned ¡°using prophecy to check beforehand¡±.

    Of course prophecy attempts wouldn¡¯t show any result because there was a prophecy-prevention ward ced around Silver Palm. But in this case, having no result meant telling people that something was definitely here.

    And of course, arge-scale ward like this suggested big fortune. This would undoubtedly draw a lot of greedy wizards to the ind.

    Sliv clenched his fists. He was sure it was Mariyasah who spread the message.

    ¡°Should I tell Mister ¡®God of Seas¡¯ to get here immediately? We don¡¯t have enough hands to block too many people...¡±

    He decided to check the second message before making the decision.

    As soon as he did, he put a hand on the head of the ray fish and ordered, ¡°Hurry, Brigitte, tell him that the door is opening soon!¡±

    The stingray pped itsrge fins while releasing a series of signals into the distance.

    After the message was sent, Sliv quickly asked the creature to head to Silver Palm as well.

    He managed to catch up with Mariyasah on his way. However, nothing happened between them except that Silv gave Mariyasah a really angry stare.

    Then Sliv asked his mount to move faster and left Mariyasah¡¯s boat behind.

    Mariyasah held his chin and asked Darky, ¡°What was that supposed to mean?¡±

    Darky licked his fangs. ¡°Master, a lowly imp like me can¡¯t read people¡¯s expressions.¡±

    Mariyasah gave Darky a mighty kick in the leg.

    ¡°Master, I think Sliv was expressing his fury to you.¡±

    ¡°And?¡±

    ¡°And? And... there might be something urgent. Sliv seemed to be in a hurry.¡±

    Mariyasah raised his foot again.

    ¡°Ma-master, that¡¯s everything I can tell, seriously!¡±

    While talking, Darky rapidly pped his bat wings either to show his loyalty or to prove his ipetent intelligence.

    Mariyasah put his foot down and decided not to waste time with this ¡°lowly imp¡± whose real intelligence level was unknown.

    ¡°This means I came just at the right time. Heh. Darky, faster.¡±

    ...

    Sliv arrived at Silver Palm Isle and immediately saw Basket Witch and Lady Payne, who directed their indifferent looks at him that felt rather scary. In fact, the presence of these two women was even more horrible than Mariyasah.

    ¡°Damn it. Enjoy your stupid superiority while you can!¡± Sliv muttered while telling the stingray to pick somewhere else.

    The Leviathan was still wandering around the ind without knowing what it was supposed to do.

    There was an unknown guidance that forced it here to guard a ¡°door¡±, but it had no idea what this meant or what was beyond the door. The only thing it did know was that it should obey the mysterious power that spoke to it.

    However, the mysterious power was slowly getting weaker with the passage of time, which allowed the Leviathan to realize that it was supposed to be the dominator of the sea, and not some confined guard dog.

    The initial awareness was like a seed that quickly gave birth to rage and the will to resist, by which time the Leviathan started attacking the door madly instead of protecting it.

    When Sliv found a good spot to observe the ind from afar, the entire ce had been ruined already.

    Yet Leviathan wasn¡¯t satisfied. After destroying the ind, it kept mming at the strange door, which wasn¡¯t visible to anyone else.

    The powerful attacks carried deadly energy disturbance that traveled outward.

    Several apprentices who managed to get here were instantly wiped out by the energy and fell into the sea. Even a powerful wizard like Sliv felt his body about to give in under the pressure, while Brigitte was trembling uncontrobly under his feet.

    While venting out its rage, the Leviathan¡¯s natural endowment gradually awakened hurricanes and tidal waves that wreaked more havoc on the sea.

    The violent power of the monster slowly disrupted the energy bnce in the area and created an energy storm. Since there was abundant primal mana at Devil¡¯s Water,bined with the Leviathan¡¯s moves that affected arge area on the sea, the energy storm it created had gained an unnatural size.

    Sliv was forced to back away farther from the ind, while Basket Witch and Mariyasah, who just arrived at the scene, were the only two individuals strong enough to keep steady in the storm.

    ¡°Ugh, such a mess.¡± Mariyasah looked at the rampaging monster ahead. ¡°Guess I won¡¯t need my grand entrance.¡±

    Following Mariyasah¡¯s order, Darky moved their boat to the north. The little imp wasn¡¯t affected by the energy storm thanks for Mariyasah¡¯s protection. And at the same time, Darky felt really good for getting to see people dying.

    ¡°May I ask why are we heading that way, Master?¡±

    Mariyasah pointed to the mad girl sitting on a basket-shaped monster. ¡°That woman right there is a worse psychopared to Isabe. And she¡¯s stronger than Isabe too. We should keep our distance.¡±

    Summerdew didn¡¯t pay any attention to Mariyasah¡¯s move. She was holding her chin while looking at the Leviathan with a cute smile as if she just found a new toy.

 Chapter 779 - Open the Door

    <h4>Chapter 779: Open the Door</h4>

    ¡°Master, my raven sensed multiple active energy signatures around the area. I¡¯m afraid there are many wizards who areing via ne passageways.¡±

    The speaker was a woman in a luxurious long dress and a ck pearled veil. Lady Payne.

    ¡°The more the merrier! Right, Snuffle?¡± Summerdew giggled at her basket monster. The monster named ¡°Snuffle¡± opened its fanged mouth and snored loudly to respond to the question of its master.

    Lady Payne covered her mouth with her fan and grinned.

    Morepetitors didn¡¯t matter now, as Summerdew Ridge had enough members hidden somewhere nearby. Even Song of the Deep, one of the top-ten wizard organizations in the south, knew what was good for them and backed away.

    As they chatted, the Leviathan¡¯s madness had reached the climax.

    The entire area had been covered by tornadoes and storms as well as visible space ruptures. Underwater continents had been brought out of their rightful ce and were hurled around the air. Flyingnd chunks and imprable thunderclouds had blocked all sunlight. Ceaseless lightning strikes would asionally provide their deadly light while searing lifeforms that were unfortunate enough to get caught.

    The whole sight wasn¡¯t much different from demon cmities that burned the world in history.

    Wizards who managed to stay steady inside the disaster zone soon felt a great will descending upon them. It was as if the will itself represented the might of the sea. The raging waters and enraged water elements somewhat calmed down to wee their true master.

    Mariyasah was observing the scene with a serious look, while little imp Darky had slumped on the boat with a pale look. Even though Mariyasah helped him block off hazardous disturbance, Darky still needed to bear with the deadly pressure.

    Simrly, Lady Payne also removed her casual attitude and was now anxiously checking on Summerdew.

    Unlike them, Summerdew was still holding her chin in a rxed way while watching the Leviathan with great curiosity. However, the tensed muscles on her legs suggested that she wasn¡¯t taking it easy for real.

    Leviathan also slowed down its actions upon sensing the might. As an unparalleled sea monster born tomand the sea, it was surprised to realize that the new presence somehow seized control of the sea and weakened its power.

    The only one who didn¡¯t feel too stressed out was ¡°Sorcerer of Big Fish¡± Sliv, who had retreated to a safe distance from the center of the catastrophe. He knew who had arrived. It was one of the two truth-finders of Song of the Deep, ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza, who was undeniably the strongest wizard in the organization. While it was true that Sliv and Flunza had different opinions regarding how to treat foreign invaders, they were still allies in this situation.

    Flunza was known as the most powerful wizard when it came to controlling water elements. There were probably no other wizards in the south who could im to defeat Flunza while battling on the sea.

    This was further proven when Flunza¡¯s mere arrival had soothed the fury of the ocean.

    ¡°Ah, Mister God of Seas is here. I wonder what will he do now?¡± Mariyasah moved his boat farther away. ¡°Why are both Song of the Deep and Summerdew Ridge so interested in this monster? What¡¯s hidden at Silver Palm?¡±

    Meanwhile, Lady Payne was asking the same question, ¡°Master, what is Mister God of Seas nning to do next?¡±

    Summerdew maintained that cute look of hers, but her randomly spinning eyeballspletely ruined her image.

    ¡°The door is opening... I guess?¡±

    Lady Payne raised an eyebrow. ¡°Mister God of Seas knows how to open it?¡±

    ¡°No no no. No one can sense the door¡¯s location apart from its designated guardian pet. Even legendary wizards won¡¯t find the door if they¡¯re here.¡±

    Lady Payne nodded. They knew where to go thanks to the effort of a Prophet who studied Wheel of Fortune. They learned the general location of the secret dimension before the anti-prophecy ward was set.

    ¡°Then... what is he trying to do?¡±

    ¡°No idea!¡± Summerdew tilted her head. ¡°He knows SOMETHING, that¡¯s for sure. Flunza is always the smart guy!¡±

    The girl-like witch suddenly put on a cruel look before she spoke to the strange monster beneath her, ¡°Hey Snuffle, since Flunza is here, we should get ready to drive!¡±

    ¡°Snuffle the Bus roger that! I will win the VIP parking lot for you, ma¡¯am!¡±

    ...

    A momentter, more groups of people showed up from ne passageways around the area and openly headed toward the direction of Silver Palm Isle, unlike Flunza, who had been staying hidden.

    Foreboding Forest, Valley of Hurricane, Utopi Academy, as well as major organizations such as Floating Mech City, Brute Cavern, and Chapel of Mystical Fife... Over a hundred wizards had found safe spots where the ongoing energy storm was weaker, and they were either whispering to each other or preparing their own ns.

    Also, there were almost no truth-finder wizards among them, because most truth-finders had been dragged into Monkey¡¯s grand n. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t hesitate to join thepetition.

    Lady Payne knew she brought enough force to go against the other people, but she still felt a little anxious since she wasn¡¯t expecting SO many people.

    Summerdew suddenly sent her a secret message. ¡°They want to know what¡¯s in there, right? Then send your raven and tell them that the secret dimension holds a tactical Mystery-level weapon inside.¡±

    Lady Payne looked surprised. ¡°But Master, are you sure we should? Knowing more information puts us at an advantage.¡±

    ¡°Do you think we have the advantage when Flunza is here? We can take more stuff if we... spoil the party, you know?¡±

    Lady Payne nodded in acknowledgment.

    Soon, the ¡°clue¡± regarding a brand-new tactical weapon was passed around to everyone and started another round of heated discussion like dropping water into a pot of hot oil.

    A weapon was regarded as ¡°tactical¡± only when it was powerful enough to cause decisive consequences at war and was costly to deploy.

    People had not established a standard for Mystery items yet, but they would all agree that ¡°tactical weapons¡± were an exception. As of now, there were only a few known tactical weapons around the wizarding world, all of which were treated as confidential assets by their organizations, such as the ¡°Corridor of Infinity¡± owned by Floating Mech City.

    Naturally, it was Song of the Deep who was most displeased to hear the rumor.

    Furious, Sliv clenched his hands and made a grim decision.

    During the ne fusion three years ago, he acted as the biggest viin and angered everyone. He attracted the grudge of the Supreme Cult while gaining absolutely nothing. He had to win the item for Song of the Deep this time.

    While the wizards yelled among themselves, something else happened at the ind in the center.

    In the middle of the energy storm, the Leviathan was getting very annoyed because someone else wasmanding the sea, while it, as the true lord of the ocean, could do nothing other than looking at a bunch of petty creatures invading its territory.

    However, the Leviathan¡¯s dull senses could not help it locate where the unknown threat came from. Without a target to vent out its aggravated anger, it could only keep attacking the strange door.

    But none of Leviathan¡¯s attempts worked¡ªthe door remained in its vision as solid as before.

    The sea suddenly began sending a strange sensation to the Leviathan as if it were speaking.

    ¡°You want the door gone. You want to kill it. But you cannot.

    ¡°Suppose you destroy the door, will it quench your anger? No.

    ¡°So how will you get rid of such anger? More destruction. You destroy everything. The door, and what¡¯s hidden behind the door... That will displease the unknown will who has been threatening you. He will feel pain.¡±

    The Leviathan felt greatly offended by the voice directly speaking to its mind, but... the words made sense! Annoying and hurting the unknown will sounded like a nice n.

    <i>But what exactly should I do?</i> The Leviathan questioned subconsciously.

    The strange voice saw through its mind and continued speaking, ¡°Pry it open, burn everything within to ash. That will help you feel better. A lot better.¡±

    <i>Pry the door?</i>

    ¡°Yes... ruin everything that¡¯s inside the door, and you¡¯ll be free.¡±

    In its maddened state, the Leviathan didn¡¯t give the mysterious voice much thought and simply epted it.

    Not protecting, not attacking. It would now attempt to open the door instead.

 Chapter 780 - An Eye behind the Door

    <h4>Chapter 780: An Eye behind the Door</h4>

    After turning into a ¡°half-undead¡±, Torras would asionally feel his mind clearer than ever, which allowed him to remember random pieces of his past life that didn¡¯t make much sense.

    He knew that he owned a ship named ¡°The Feral¡± and that his task was to get out of this dark realm by using this ship.

    When he saw Angor heading to his precious ship, he immediately went to stop him. But his instinct of avoiding the strange weapon defeated his urge of getting home. As soon as he saw the gun, his body was escaping before he knew it.

    Once again, they spent half a day ying chase.

    Angor managed to catch up with Torras many times because Toby¡¯s maximum speed was always faster. Yet he didn¡¯t have any effective means of capturing an undead soul who could teleport away.

    He felt his heart sink when Torras was heading to the familiar mountain range again.

    <i>Ughhh not this again!</i>

    Angor had made up his mind that if Torras hid inside the mountains, he would dig everything up and flip thend over if necessary. He no longer cared about leaving traces behind. With both Infinite Reticence and Crimson Aegis, he was confident that people couldn¡¯t track him so easily.

    Same as before, Torras saw his ¡°safe house¡± and showed a delighted look on his human side. He never considered the possibility that Angor would bust the mountains open just to catch him.

    Angor watched Torras going away but couldn¡¯t do anything. He was already looking around to find a good spot to start digging.

    But something stopped both of them.

    Before Torras could teleport again and hide, another earthquake urred. Unlike the brief earthquake, this one persisted for a long time and grew stronger to the extent of affecting the dimensional energy in the area.

    Angor was surprised by it before he quickly realized that disrupted dimension energy meant hindering Torras¡¯ teleportation ability.

    As he expected, Torras had stopped moving in the air and was now looking at him in fear.

    ¡°What can you do now, huh?!¡± Angor grinned and was going to unleash his concentrated grudge for wasting so much time chasing after a slippery target.

    If Torras couldn¡¯t teleport, he wouldn¡¯t even need Toby¡¯s help. His ¡°Night Skipper¡± boots were enough.

    Cornered, Torras had no other choice but to confront Angor head-on. But all of his straightforward attacks were easily avoided.

    Angor didn¡¯t use Prelude to Elimination yet because he wished to use his white bullets to ¡°purify¡± Torras and hopefully learn something useful about the ind. He only needed to wait for a perfect chance to shoot the bullets.

    In order not to miss any shot, he thought about trapping Torras inside his Church of the Deceased. But at the same time, he was also worried that if the earthquake suddenly stopped, Torras would be able to escape again.

    This meant he had to end the fight as fast as possible. He didn¡¯t have time to activate the trap now.

    Another ident disrupted his n yet again. It wasn¡¯t the earthquake or anything from the ind this time, but it was something from the sky.

    Along with the booming noise of shakingnds, the deafening howl of a monster was suddenly heard.

    It sounded a bit muffled as if the source of the noise was blocked by a wall. But the unruly rage contained in the noise still reached every corner of the small ind.

    Next, an unrivaled aura of something came down upon the ind.

    Both Angor and Torras stopped moving and trembled under the might.

    While Angor could still move slightly since he was used to being suppressed like this, Torras waspletely helpless¡ªthe soul had huddled into a ball at the corner of a mountain.

    Angor slowly lifted his head to look above.

    He already tried exploring the dark sky before. Just like the sea, he would run into a strange mist barrier if he flew too high, and he would find himself transported back to the starting point.

    By that time, he was sure that this ce was simr to a confined pocket dimension with no way out other than its designated exit¡ªthe teleportation array he found in a mountain cave.

    But he just got a different idea. The roaring seemed to be blocked by a door or something, and that might be another exit that would take him out.

    However...pared to the exit, he was more interested in the screaming monster.

    He heard something simr during the previous earthquake, when the ¡°unknown monster¡± also howled, albeit in a smaller voice. He almost couldn¡¯t hear it at all when the voice was further obstructed by something.

    But now... whatever was roaring put a lot of effort in it, and it wasn¡¯t stopping.

    More importantly, he knew this aura. He sensed the same presence when traveling past Silver Palm Isle on The Limpet. Roman even died because of it.

    Leviathan.

    The question was, why was he hearing the Leviathan¡¯s howl, which seemed to being from behind a wall. Could he reach Silver Palm by going through it?

    Or was this the same Leviathan at all?

    Angor¡¯s instinct told him that his theory was correct. The Leviathan that showed up at Silver Palm was a giant mystery by itself, after which he discovered more and more strange clues and puzzles that seemed to be connected to each other.

    Previously, he thought the Leviathan went to the ind to give birth or something. Now, however, he had a hunch that the monster was protecting this strange dimension.

    As for what was special about this ce... he had yet to figure it out. His only clue right now was the shivering soul beside him.

    Since Torras couldn¡¯t move, it wasn¡¯t so difficult to send several bullets into his body now.

    Upon receiving the second shot, the stable energy inside Torras quickly grew until Torras¡¯ form began to falter and blink.

    Without stopping, Angor unloaded all remaining bullets from his gun.

    Torrasy sprawling on the ground and was twitching badly while puffs of ck smoke were leaving his form.

    While enduring the looming aura, Angor took out his Church of the Deceased, created a separate area inside, and ced Torras in it.

    The earthquake, the howling, and the suppressive aura of a monster were all continuing and getting worse. Soon, Angor saw tidal waves, which were flushing ind and ttening everything in their path,ing from the dead sea.

    Thend buckled. The mountains toppled down.

    He no longer wished to go after Lucas¡¯ treasure. At this rate, the disaster was going to obliterate the entire ind along with the teleportation array inside the cliff cave.

    If the array was gone, his only way out was to go through the ¡°door¡± in the sky, which meant he had to get past the Leviathan¡¯s nose. In worse cases, there might be more entities waiting outside the door.

    He was sure the entrance under the well was well hidden from both Song of the Deep and Summerdew Ridge, while the ¡°door¡± at Silver Palm was probably known by a lot of people by now.

    He decided to leave through the magic array right now, just to be safe. There was no point in finding treasures if he couldn¡¯t survive.

    He injected more energy into his boots, which slowly dragged him toward the cliff area.

    While on his way, he suddenly felt the entire dimension going static for a brief moment, before everything became ¡°alive¡± again, as if the ce were an old machine that was newly powered up.

    A single ray of light came down from the sky.

    Finally, he saw a door-like entrance above him, which awakened the dead dimension by sending in light.

    It should be worth celebrating for getting to see light in this horrible ce, but Angor wasn¡¯t in the right condition for that.

    The light was soon obstructed by a giant eyeball that was peeking through the door. Vertical pupil, crimson iris... The single eye was directing its unconcealed hatred at the darknd below.

    The Leviathan was here.

 Chapter 781 - Treasure

    <h4>Chapter 781: Treasure</h4>

    Angor saw the creepy eyesight scanning through the ind and felt his hair stand.

    He had to do something immediately to conceal himself. Being noticed by the monster definitely meant trouble.

    He quickly canceled the effect of his boots andnded on the ground while deploying a simple nightmare illusion around him that camouged his body with the barren earth. At the same time, he activated Infinite Reticence to its maximum level.

    But he still didn¡¯t feel safe. Thend was almost washed t by the tidal waves earlier. It was too difficult to stay hidden if more light shined through the door. Even though Leviathan wasn¡¯t a sensitive monster, it would notice the illusion nodes hanging in midair sooner orter or detect the energy of an illusion in this otherwise deadnd.

    ¡°Must find a way out of here...¡± Angor forced his body to look around.

    The earthquake had ended after it overhauled the wholendscape. Earlier, Torras came to hide in the mountains nearby. However, there were no longer ces to hide here apart from a fissure not far from Angor¡¯s position.

    He wondered if that was where Torras used to stay before. Nevertheless, going into thend gap should be a better choice right now, as his illusion and Infinite Reticence would fail easily if the Leviathan somehow decided to keep looking his way.

    He immediately moved. It seemed the monster was still randomly checking different parts of the ind. He didn¡¯t know how much time his tricks wouldst.

    Bit by bit, he proceeded toward the fissure by crawling on all fours while avoiding debris left behind by the disaster earlier.

    Fortunately, he arrived at his mark before the Leviathan looked at the central area of the ind. Swiftly, hebat-rolled into the crack and left a scout avatar behind as a monitor.

    While falling, he also used Purification Field to avoid leaving any smells or bodily pheromone behind.

    After tumbling and bumping inplete darkness for a few seconds, he finally reached the bottom.

    The mighty aura of the Leviathan had reached all the way here, albeit weaker.

    Angor stood up and used the glowing effect of the Purification Field to inspect the area he was in.

    He saw an underground tunnel that was obviously built by human hands. There were support beams in his view, which remained steady even after the earthquake. And as far as he could see, the path was clear.

    A perfect spot for Torras to find shelter.

    After making sure there was no danger around, he diverted a small part of his spirit to connect to the scout puppet on the surface.

    The Leviathan was still looking around, but at the same time, Angor noticed that the monster was also doing something to the door. Apparently, the Leviathan was going to rip the door bigger using raw strength.

    Each time it unleashed an attack at the door, the dark dimension would shake greatly. This was probably what caused the earthquake.

    While observing the monster through the scout puppet, Angor also heard something else.

    When the Leviathan was no longer howling as furiously as before, it allowed Angor to perceive other noisesing from the door, such as the sound of sea tides and... a strange sequence created by seawater.

    He once heard a clue from Sunders that, apart from Sunders himself, there were a few individuals in this world who owned personal Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens. One example was ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza, from Song of the Deep.

    Flunza¡¯s garden was a mid to low-tier Sorcerer¡¯s Garden called the ¡°Aquatic Paradise¡±. By using it, Flunza sessfully learned the sequence of the sea.

    Angor grimaced when he realized that there were already wizards waiting outside the door, just as he expected.

    They had not entered the door yet probably because the Leviathan was there. But still, this meant there would be peopleing eventually, and he¡¯d better not remain here when that happened.

    He had to head to the teleportation array now!

    Yet he couldn¡¯t go out and go for the cliff area when the Leviathan was peeking.

    Thankfully, the scout puppet could help him wait for a chance when the Leviathan was looking elsewhere. The puppet was essentially an alchemy item that relied on a magic crystal inside to function without affecting the energy flows outside, which meant the Leviathan probably wouldn¡¯t notice it.

    While anxiously checking on the Leviathan¡¯s moves, Toby suddenly called beside his ear.

    He looked aside and saw Toby pointing a wing behind him, but he couldn¡¯t see anything across the darkness.

    ¡°Is something wrong over there?¡± Angor asked while not forgetting to watch the puppet.

    ¡°Tweet.¡±

    ¡°You saw something shing?¡±

    Toby nodded and asked whether he should check ahead.

    ¡°A golden sh... Torras used to hide here, so he might have ced his treasures. Or maybe it¡¯s Lucas¡¯ treasure?¡±

    <i>Or both, if what Lucas said in his diary was a ¡°prediction¡± again.</i>

    Angor reached his spirit feelers inside the Church of the Deceased to check whether Torras could tell him anything useful. Unfortunately, Torras was still an emotionless shell hiding at a corner of his prison.

    The good thing was, the soul of Torras wasn¡¯t breaking apart either.

    Angor decided to go and see for himself. Using the full speed made possible by gravity power, he could travel a few kilometers within seconds, so it wouldn¡¯t hurt even if the tunnel would take him far.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± He nodded to Toby and moved ahead. ¡°If there¡¯s any big secret in this dimension, we can find it there.¡±

    Simr to before, he kept his attention on the puppet outside while moving.

    The tunnel wasn¡¯t long. They soon arrived at a narrow room at the end of the path, where they saw a stone bed, a chair, and many random wooden objects that had rotten beyond recognition.

    A creepy human skull was ced at the edge of the bed.

    He looked around and didn¡¯t see anything that could ¡°shine with a golden light¡±. He released his spirit feelers to check and managed to find a hiddenpartment behind the bed.

    After putting a Luminous Stone inside the small cell, he was astonished to finally see the ¡°treasures¡± he had been looking for.

    Gold coins, treasure chests, decorative swords and arts enclosed in jeweled frames... Everything brilliantly amplified the light of the glowing stone and made the room brighter.

    Even though Angor had no use for mortal prizes, he still felt amazed and a bit excited to discover the rich stash.

    ¡°This must be Torras¡¯ pile.¡± He scanned through the items and sighed. ¡°But nothing useful to us...¡±

    <i>But Toby said something that shines. I see nothing here that can create light on its own. Maybe he mistook something in his vision?</i>

    Since there was nothing of interest here, Angor stood up and was going to head back. He was only a little interested in the artworks, which were obviously done by masters of their times. Even so, it wasn¡¯t the right time to collect them right now.

    ¡°Let¡¯s move.¡± Angor tapped Toby¡¯s head and turned away. ¡°Wait... Leviathan isn¡¯t at the door right now. Here¡¯s our chance. We¡¯ll make a run for it, Toby!¡±

    Without a second thought, Angor dashed into the tunnel.

    Toby was going to follow behind, but he suddenly sensed a golden lighting from behind him again.

    It was the skull on the bed.

    While humans might avoid such things that boded ill, Toby simply found the shining object to be rather pretty. After stuffing it into his Snowy Feather storage, Toby left the room and went after Angor.

 Chapter 782 - Close Call

    <h4>Chapter 782: Close Call</h4>

    Silver Palm Isle.

    As the Leviathan sessfully forced a small gap on the door, which was only visible to itself, the onlooking wizards all saw a door-shaped shade materializing beside the monster.

    To them, this meant that the rumor regarding a hidden dimension was true.

    While carefully gazing at the utched entrance, they also felt the deathly air that escaped from it.

    Neither Flunza nor Basket Witch did anything yet, for they knew the door was only in its initial state and wasn¡¯t truly opened yet. They would patiently wait for the right time to go in.

    However, not all wizards were as wise as them.

    A man who was overconfident in his form-shifting spell waved his wand, and his whole body shrank in size until he became a mosquito. He wished to slip past the Leviathan and enter the door when no one was there to stop him.

    He managed to arrive at the door. And this was when he realized that the shade of the door wasn¡¯t real. He couldn¡¯t touch it.

    Disappointed, he turned away to head back.

    But his reckless action had its consequence¡ªLeviathan knew he was there.

    Even though the Leviathan was usually regarded as a ¡°stupid¡± monster, as a predator, it still knew how to sniff out potential threats around it.

    It didn¡¯t do anything to the trespassing wizard because it didn¡¯t feel any dangering from the weak creature. But it DID know that there were people watching.

    And that strange voice that spoke to it... that must be one of the spectators, and a very powerful one, since they couldmand the sea at free will.

    Immediately, the Leviathan stayed highly alerted when it realized that there might be more of these powerful humans lurking nearby.

    At the same time, everyone easily noticed that the Leviathan was no longer prying the door as vigorously as before. Instead, the monster had slowed down its actions as if trying to remain stealth.

    It was obvious that the Leviathan¡¯s ¡°change of n¡± was caused by the careless wizard earlier, and everyone could see it. Even so, no one would step up and me that wizard. In fact, they watched him do his thing without interfering just because they wanted to see the result.

    ¡°No matter. As long as we can see the entrance, we don¡¯t need the Leviathan¡¯s help. The door will fall apart on its own soon.¡±

    The speaker was Flunza, who just came out of hiding and was now standing on top of Brigitte the stingray. Or rather, it wasn¡¯t Flunza¡¯s true body that showed up, but a human shape made out of water.

    Even so, the aura he released was enough to scare off ordinary wizards.

    ¡°Sir, you mean the door will break on its own... hmm?¡± Sliv appeared beside Flunza¡¯s avatar.

    ¡°Right. The door is destined to open itself in due time, while Leviathan only hastened it.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Sliv nodded. ¡°For us, the faster it opens, the better. We don¡¯t want too many uninvited wanderers to affect our n.¡±

    ¡°Heh. Wanderers, huh? Suppose they get inside the secret dimension, without prophecy to help them, they won¡¯t know what or where to look. And did you sense the stillness inside the door? Whatever lifeforms that lived there must be long gone, which meant that what we¡¯re looking for is still there. And only WE know its location.¡±

    ...

    Unknown to them, there was a ¡°wanderer¡± roaming inside the secret dimension right at this moment.

    Angor was still waiting for his chance to get away.

    Truth was, the door would have been fully opened by the Leviathan if the ¡°mosquito wizard¡± had not interrupted it. Thanks to the dy, Angor avoided the terrible fate of being discovered by all the wizards. However, he had no idea about what happened just now.

    As soon as he saw the Leviathan¡¯s eyeball leaving the door, he bolted out of the fissure together with Toby.

    He thought about using gravity power to reach the cliff cave in an instant, but the aura pressure on the surface made this impossible.

    Thankfully, the Leviathan¡¯s aura only suppressed lifeforms but notmon objects. Angor simply took out his Gond and boosted it to its full speed.

    He hadn¡¯t moved very far when he felt the door, as well as the space around it, shaking again.

    The Leviathan wasing back. He knew it.

    He couldn¡¯t possibly head back underground again, so he had no choice but to keep moving forward, while rapidly putting a lot of illusion nodes around Gond to cover the boat behind a thickyer of dark mist.

    ¡°You can¡¯t see me... you can¡¯t see me!¡±

    At first, the Leviathan failed to notice the puff of ck mist moving through the air since there were many dust clouds floating about after the earthquake.

    Yet it didn¡¯t take long for the monster to notice that something was off. The mist was escaping in a straight line instead of floating randomly, and there was energying from its location.

    The Leviathan didn¡¯t know what it was, but something told it that the dark area behind the door was the reason why it was bound here, and the only thing that might be ¡°alive¡± was probably the true culprit.

    It felt its rage quickly building up again despite all the onlookers around.

    It released a maddened bellow and concentrated its aura to a single point, then directed it at the flying mist.

    The mist began to lose altitude helplessly.

    Inside the mist illusion, Angor felt all of his body parts burning under the pressure. This felt even worsepared to Isabe¡¯s might.

    But he knew he made it to the exit.

    Gond wasn¡¯t falling because of Leviathan¡¯s stare¡ªhe intentionally controlled the boat to move lower just to fool the Leviathan that he was hurt so that the monster wouldn¡¯t follow up with more attacks.

    As soon as Gond reached the ground, he put it inside his bracelet.

    Thanks to his steering, hended right beside the cliff cave in which the teleportation array was at.

    The cliff was in a bad shape after the earthquake earlier. Lucky for him, the cave was fine apart from several fallen stones.

    He couldn¡¯t control his body properly now, so he had to rely on his Night Skipper boots, which almost dragged him toward the depth of the cave while sliding on the ground.

    He was more than d to see that the wall at the end of the cave was intact.

    ¡°Thank the gods!¡±

    He usually didn¡¯t believe in gods and fate, but he wouldn¡¯t be stingy with such words now. If things had gone wrong, he wouldn¡¯t have reached here.

    While still bearing the searing pain in his body, he chanted Spirit Mantra and ejected his soul.

    The magic array in front of him was glowing just fine.

    It seemed he didn¡¯t need the blood of Lucas¡¯ children to re-activate the two-way magic array. Slotting a magic crystal at the center of it was all he needed to get back to Sherry Patio.

    When the vortex-like portal came out spinning on the wall, he dived inside without hesitating.

    Meanwhile, the Leviathan sensed its target being carried away and disappearing in an unknown direction.

    Infuriated, it mmed its entire body at the door, causing the space around the dark ind to go irregr, which would prevent teleportations and ne passageways from working.

    But it was toote.

 Chapter 783 - Disappeared Target

    <h4>Chapter 783: Disappeared Target</h4>

    Flunza, who had been taking it easy and acting all collected on Brigitte¡¯s back, widened his eyes upon hearing the Leviathan¡¯s bellow.

    As a master of ¡°sequence of the sea¡±, Flunza naturally knew how to read the emotions of sea monsters. He knew the Leviathan was so pissed because something was wrong inside the door. And it was probably a creature or even a human being.

    Flunza just ¡°spoke¡± to the Leviathan in order to aggravate its rage so that it could break down the door faster. Whatever was inside the door had be the Leviathan¡¯s new target for venting out its rage.

    But howe? There should be nothing alive in there. The door had not fully materialized in reality. No one could possibly go inside.

    ¡°Maybe the mysterious dimension gave birth to a creature upon its creation... or a soul left behind?¡± Flunza pondered in his mind.

    No matter what was happening inside the door, Flunza no longer felt so confident as anything unexpected in the secret dimension would affect their n.

    The Leviathan suddenly roared toward the sky again.

    Apart from unyielding anguish, Flunza also detected ¡°disappointment¡± in its voice, which meant whoever the monster was going after had sessfully escaped.

    There was more in the monster¡¯s voice. It was directing its rage at a human.

    A human inside the secret dimension just slipped away from the Leviathan¡¯s gaze!

    As for who got inside the dimension... that was beyond him.

    ¡°Not this again... not this again! We missed a great opportunity during the ne fusion three years ago. Whoever you are, if you dare put your petty hands on OUR treasure, I WILL find you out!!!¡± Flunza fisted the seawater below out of rage, creating a giant tidal wave around his position.

    Flunza was not the only one who noticed something wrong. There were more wizards present who could read beastnguage. But unlike Flunza, they couldn¡¯t understand the details.

    Lady Payne folded her fan and spoke to Summerdew, ¡°Master, did the Leviathan just detect someone inside the door?¡±

    Summerdew was still holding her chin, but she wasn¡¯t feigning that cute look anymore.

    Lady Payne grew slightly anxious upon seeing the rare reaction of her boss. ¡°Master, could it be one of the wizards who somehow sneaked inside?¡±

    The space around Devil¡¯s Water was now utterly unsettled, thus allowing random space ruptures to pop up now and then. It was possible that, by some miracle, one of the ruptures conveniently led toward the secret dimension.

    ¡°No...¡± Summerdew slightly shook her head. ¡°The Leviathan has lost track of its prey, which means we¡¯re talking about a powerful wizard or someone weak who happens to know another entrance to that ce.¡±

    ¡°Which one is it, if I may?¡± Lady Payne frowned.

    ¡°This dimension existed on top of ¡®that item¡¯ and was not generated in usual ways, so no one can ascertain its coordinate and use a ce passageway to travel inside unless a legendary wizard is here. Do you think a legendary wizard needs to escape from a Leviathan?¡±

    ¡°That leaves us with only one exnation then.¡± Lady Payne grimaced. ¡°A wandering wizard or apprentice beat us to it and imed the prize?¡±

    ¡°Prize? Heeheehee! Firstly, they need to know there IS a prize. Then, they must have what it takes to protect it. I don¡¯t think a coward who ran for their mom is such a case.¡±

    Instead of feeling worried, Summerdew looked rather excited for some reason. ¡°Now get ready. If we failed to locate ¡®that item¡¯ter, send your bird and contact Ewan.¡±

    Lady Payne nodded and prepared her message.

    ¡°I think fate might have actually favored us, Master. If the item remains in in sight, even if we brought a lot of forces with us, it¡¯ll be difficult topete against Flunza. But if we can get Mister Ewan to help us... then I don¡¯t see a reason why we should fail.¡±

    ¡°Wanderer of Bnce¡± Ewan was one of the ¡°Eighteen Overseers¡± from Starliege Temple, a Prophet who was good at ¡°achieving absolute bnce¡±. Compared to the Prophet from Song of the Deep, Tuwalu, Ewan was several levels more powerful.

    Away from them, Mariyasah also noticed the unusual attitudes disyed by Flunza and Summerdew. Combined with what he just ¡°read¡± from the Leviathan¡¯s reactions...

    ¡°Did something bad happen? Like, a thief went inside the door and snatched the item away? What a waste of time... Wait, it was ME who spread the false message. If the secret dimension turned out to be a giant disappointment and people decided to get to the bottom of it, I¡¯ll be in trouble.¡±

    Mariyasah wasn¡¯t afraid of the wizards who might me himter, but he didn¡¯t want to bring any trouble back to Floating Mech City and displease Lawson.

    ¡°Sh*t. Hope things don¡¯t go that way.¡±

    Due to Angor¡¯s escape, the Leviathan was extremely annoyed for having its absolute authority challenged by a weakling. And it was slowly getting mad again.

    It was doing its best to tear at the door so that it could get inside the dark dimension and find where its target left.

    The sea, which had been soothed by Flunza¡¯s presence, began to run amok again.

    Boundless thunderclouds had summoned lightning strikes that connected with the dancing tides below, causing groups of wizards to show up from their hidings.

    The Leviathan paid no mind to them¡ªit was fully aware that these humans weren¡¯t strong enough to break through its scaled body.

    It wanted to catch that particr slippery human inside the door right now!

    After receiving enough damage, the door was finally torn into a giant hole, and it also left its ¡°interstage¡± and showed up in everyone¡¯s views.

    Fresh air, seawater... different elements in the environment began pouring into the door on their own.

    The small ind inside the door had weed another catastrophe that came down from the sky this time.

    As a deadly amount of water mmed into the ground below, the Leviathan also used the bigger entrance to dive inside.

    The other wizards looked at each other, before they activated their respective defensive tricks and followed behind the water current.

    Truth was, it wasn¡¯t the Leviathan who made it into the door first. It was Flunza, who blended himself into the seawater and was carried into the door at the first moment the door appeared in reality.

    The first thing he did was to fully spread his spirit feelers to every corner of the dimension. This wasn¡¯t a difficult task for a truth-finder like him.

    Yet... he got nothing.

    No energy signatures, no lifeforms, and no noticeable traces left by the unknown trespasser.

    His expression turned grim as he failed to detect the presence of the Mystery item as well. Just as he feared, somebody took it away.

    The falling sea hadpletely destroyed what remained of the small ind and washed everything clean. It was almost impossible to track down a person who was no longer here.

    However, he still had other solutions up his sleeve.

    Immediately, by using the flowing seawater as a tunnel, he sent a message to Sliv, who had been waiting outside, and told him to contact Tuwalu so that they could get an update of the current location of the item.

    While waiting for a reply, Flunza melted into seawater and followed closely behind the Leviathan. He wished to find out what attracted the Leviathan so much. Apparently, the Leviathan was anxiously going after something, which meant he could also find whatever had been in this ce by going together.

    He also had a hunch that there was a second entrance somewhere in the secret dimension that allowed the sneaky thief to go away. As long as he could find it, he could further track down this man either by prophecy or other means.

    Eventually, the Leviathan took him to the cliff wall, which had been submerged underwater.

    The Leviathan was too big to go inside the cave, so it started smashing the cliff, hoping to get to the exact location it sensed earlier.

    Meanwhile, Flunza easily noticed the small cave and dived inside.

    He managed to sense some faint residues left behind by dimensional energy that suggested teleportation. However, they were too weak for him to tell where it led to.

    He looked at the particrly smooth wall at the end of the cave and immediately knew what he should do.

    ¡°Ahh... It¡¯s a teleportation array only visible to souls. And I just have to put a magic crystal in it...¡±

    The magic array glowed for a brief moment before it suddenly turned to dust andpletely vanished.

    ¡°Curse it. The b*stard destroyed the other end of the array so soon. Must be someone good at runes.¡±

 Chapter 784 - Suspicion?

    <h4>Chapter 784: Suspicion?</h4>

    Two hourster, while most of the wizards were randomly looking around the secret dimension, Flunza showed up beside Sliv as his ¡°water avatar¡±.

    They spent a moment looking at the submerged ind in silence, before Sliv spoke up somewhat awkwardly, ¡°Sir, no one has found ¡®that item¡¯ yet.¡±

    He was so anxious that he once again forgot about adding ¡°hmm¡± at the end of his speech.

    ¡°That lucky little mugger must have taken it away...¡± said Flunza.

    Sliv nodded and looked down. He just reported the matter to their organization, and the authorities were already ming him for being a failure.

    ¡°What should we do, sir? I already requested help from Tuwalu. But as he said, it¡¯s too hard to predict the target without at least knowing its general location.¡±

    ¡°I see... We shall thin down our range then.¡± Flunza began exining his theories, ¡°Firstly, there were only a few minutes between when the thief left from a teleportation array and when the thief destroyed it. One needs great expertise in Runecraft to know how to eliminate the two ends of the magic array so swiftly, so we¡¯re looking for an experienced alchemist who knows enchantment.

    ¡°Next, they chose to run away from the Leviathan. This tells us that they¡¯re definitely not a truth-finder. Maybe a level-1 wizard, or below.¡±

    ¡°Below? You mean it could be an apprentice, sir?¡± Sliv asked in great surprise. He couldn¡¯t imagine how a mere apprentice was brave enough to steal something from so many powerful wizards, including some of the strongest ones known in the south, under their noses.

    ¡°This is unlikely, but we cannotpletely rule it out.¡±

    From what he just heard, Sliv immediately thought about an apprentice who met these conditions¡ªSunders¡¯ student.

    <i>But... Jebra just informed me that Angor was ¡°chilling out¡± at Farren and he wasn¡¯t doing anything special.</i>

    Flunza continued, ¡°This person knows about the secret dimension beforehand and sessfully found a way inside before all of us. They must have the full support of an efficientwork of informants, including Prophets.¡±

    Sliv quickly disregarded Angor¡¯s name. He knew Angor had been doing alchemy work at Lost Paradise City these days. There was no way for Angor to get such information andmence the right n in such a short time.

    ¡°Do you have something to say, Sliv?¡± Flunza noticed Sliv¡¯s strange look.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just... when you mentioned ¡®apprentice¡¯ and ¡®alchemist¡¯, sir, a name immediately came to my mind. I believe you know about him as well.¡±

    Flunza nodded. ¡°Angor... As long as what Jebra told us is true, Angor can¡¯t be the one. Sunders has left the southern region a long time ago, and I don¡¯t think that man will leave such a dangerous job to his student before he went to the Abyss. Without Sunders, Angor has no way of acquiring such valuable clues. Besides... the thief got away just before the door was opened to us. This is not a coincidence. They made careful ns for such precise thievery, and Angor isn¡¯t so resourceful.

    ¡°However... We should never neglect our true instinct, as my mentor used to tell me. Since you thought about Angor, we will not leave him out of our search yet. Let¡¯s see... Tell Jebra to keep an eye on him.¡±

    Sliv nodded and turned away to send the message. He knew Flunza wasn¡¯t suspecting Angor for real. The order was only meant to keep Jebra busy for the moment. By doing so, Flunza was trying to keep his student away from the organization so that others from Song of the Deep did not trouble Jebra after losing their prize.

    A momentter, Sliv received another message from Tuwalu.

    His pupils shrank after reading the message.

    At the same time, Lady Payne also obtained a simr message from Ewan.

    ¡°Ewan just got back to us, Master.¡± She said with a worried look, ¡°He tried using his ¡®bnce¡¯ to tell the approximate spot of the item, but the result is ¡®not detectable¡¯.¡±

    Summerdew¡¯s expression froze on her face.

    Usually, locating something¡¯s general location was an easy task for Ewan. So what just happened? The target knew how to prevent prophecy?

    There weren¡¯t many methods in this world that could do such a thing. Besides, Ewan was one of the strongest Prophets from Starliege Temple!

    ¡°The intruder must be well prepared for this!¡± Summerdew and Flunza reached the same conclusion.

    In his mind, Flunza hoped that whoever they were dealing with did not represent a major organization. They had to seize this item by any way possible because it was their best shot for getting rid of the otherworldly intruders in their ranks.

    ...

    After tumbling out of the magic array under the dry well, Angor spat out some blood he had been keeping in his mouth. He didn¡¯t dare to vomit blood while escaping. That would leave some serious traces for people to identify him.

    The aura pressure released by the Leviathan had left a lot of physical injuries outside and inside his body. Even so, he forced himself to immediately stand up and move to the wall where the magic array was drawn so that he could destroy it as fast as possible.

    Thankfully, he learned how to terminate the array while decrypting the runes. With the proper tools, he did a quick work at it.

    While bearing with great fatigue and nausea, he left a trap in the mechanism, which would cause the magic array to break down as soon as it was powered up.

    He lost consciousness upon finishing.

    Just one minuteter, the array on the wall shattered.

    ...

    He woke up and felt something warm huddled against his face. It seemed Toby had been sleeping right next to him.

    He moved a little and was surprised to realize that most of his injuries had healed. There were only a few more serious ones that might take more time, but other than that, he was totally fine.

    Using the light provided by a Luminous Stonemp nearby, he saw several empty bottles scattered at his feet.

    He was sure these weren¡¯t his potions. It was probably Toby who ¡°fed¡± him the healing potions prepared by Greya while he was out.

    Tears welled up in his eyes.

    Toby was in no better condition after being hurt by the Leviathan¡¯s power, and the bird still put his master¡¯s safety as his top priority.

    Once again, Angor silently thanked his great luck for having such an amiablepanion.

    After making sure Toby was doing well, Angor transported Toby into his bracelet and asked the Moonlily Fairy to look after him.

    Next, he took out his hologram tablet to confirm the time.

    He almost spent six days exploring the strange ind, and the date on the tablet suggested that it had been a week since he went to the ind, which meant he was unconscious for an entire day.

    He wondered what could have happened to the ind by now.

    Then he ejected his soul and checked the room¡¯s wall, only to see nothing drawn on it. This proved to him that someone tried to activate the array at the other side and caused it to break.

    While feeling delighted for sessfully avoiding his pursuers, he also knew that people were indeed going after him.

    He tried his best to remember his journey, and he was certain that he didn¡¯t leave any obvious traces behind.

    ¡°Well, whatever secret there was, I didn¡¯t find it. Those people should have no reason to get suspicious... I¡¯ll just keep it low for a few days and nothing will happen.¡±

 Chapter 785 - Jebraâ€™s Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 785: Jebra¡¯s Invitation</h4>

    The Ross Family had experienced an uneventful week if not to consider the new rtionship between Neet and a servant girl who used to work at Sherry Patio. People were all wondering why Count Ross didn¡¯t do anything about it. At this rate, the servant might actually have a chance to bond with Neet.

    What was more, this had encouraged many more youngdies who had yet to find theirpanions to start looking.

    There was another matter. The mysterious wizard visited the mansion again after a week when people thought he had left for real. But of course, no one questioned it.

    Angor was taking his time in the study of the mansion while reading a book he borrowed from the city library, <i>Dancing on Devil¡¯s Tides.</i> It was an adventure novel based on ¡°Vile King¡± Torras as well as inurate historical events and the author¡¯s imaginations. He found the book to be rather interesting because the stories were good.

    asionally, he could reach his spirit feelers into the Church of the Deceased and check on Torras to see whether this man lived up to his name as the fierce pirate described in the book.

    Torras still remained unconscious and helpless in the church, so... no. He sure didn¡¯t look that way.

    Today, Angor was reading another of Torras¡¯ stories where the legendary pirate was fighting off a pirate n who called themselves as ¡°Kins of Poseidon¡± in order to im leadership over the Eastern Seas. The author wasn¡¯t good at describing the grand battle, but he did a really good job recreating the glorious image of Torras.

    While reading, Angor slowly removed some ck smoke from Torras¡¯ prison. It had been three days since Torras received all of his bullets, and there were still loads of negative energy seeping out. In order not to affect Freud, who was basically Torras¡¯ neighbor, Angor had to periodically get rid of the gathered dark energy.

    When Torras¡¯ prison was cleared out, Angor suddenly saw him moving on the floor. The soul hadn¡¯t woken up yet, but his movement allowed Angor to observe his face.

    And what Angor saw surprised him.

    What was exposed on Torras¡¯ face looked like a healthy teenage boy who spent too much time indoors. It didn¡¯t sit well with the other parts of Torras at all.

    Angor found it impossible to keep reading his book anymore. He simply couldn¡¯t put what he just saw on Torras into the stories about a brutal and fearsome warrior. That would look ridiculous.

    After putting away the Church of the Deceased, he sighed and left the study.

    He took a moment to look into the mirror at the room¡¯s door. As the reflection of an insignificant middle-aged man turned to his usual nobleman look, he felt greatly distressed to see the unhealthy colors on his face caused by the internal traumas.

    Then he cast mor again and stepped out of Ross Mansion.

    He saw Neeting to the door while pulling a moose-pulled sleigh.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been keeping an eye on me, eh?¡± said Angor. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to enjoy the warmth indoors with Sonata?¡±

    Neet scratched his cheek in embarrassment and blushed in the cold. ¡°As long as you¡¯re staying in the city, sir, I¡¯m your personal driver.¡±

    Angor chose to ept Neet¡¯s offer instead of flying on his own. He would like to avoid spending mana while injured.

    ¡°So where are you heading to, sir?¡± Neet asked after seeing Angor climb onto the vehicle.

    Angor looked to one side. ¡°About that... she will tell you.¡±

    Confused, Neet also looked that way and was startled to see a woman in white dress slowly showing up in the snow. He was sure no one was there a second ago.

    ¡°Mister Padt, my master has been waiting for you at Blue Estate,¡± the woman said without opening her eyes.

    The other day, just after Angor returned to Ross Mansion, Haku came to him and imed that Jebra would like to see him.

    At that time, Angor rejected the invitation because of his bad condition. He excused himself by saying that he needed time to work on another alchemy creation and that he would meet with Jebrater.

    ¡°That¡¯s where we¡¯ll go,¡± he told Neet. ¡°Blue Estate.¡±

    Neet remained agape until Angor nudged him in the back.

    ¡°Oh, right! Blue Estate is just several blocks away.¡±

    When Neet picked up the reins and ordered the moose to start moving, Haku bowed to Angor politely and disappeared.

    Angor slowly removed his casual look and considered the brief encounter carefully. He knew Haku was here because that woman allowed him to. But now, he could no longer sense Haku¡¯s presence at all.

    He never saw such effective stealth abilities before. Obviously, this woman was an expert when it came to surveince or assassination.

    ¡°Ugh. Of course there are always amazing people out there...¡± He wasn¡¯t sure whether he would defeat her at all if they were to start a fight for some reason.

    While on their way, Neet focused on his driving with a serious look. He seemed lost in thought too, probably because he just saw another supernatural individual showing up at Lost Paradise City.

    The silencested until they arrived at Blue Estate.

    ¡°We¡¯re here, sir.¡±

    Angor hopped off the sleigh and looked at Neet. ¡°I know what you¡¯re worried about. You don¡¯t have to. People like us usually do not harm mortals without a reason.¡±

    Then he proceeded to the entrance of the deluxe-looking building in front of him, where he heard some noisesing from nearby. He looked that way and saw an elegant woman with purple hair smoking a long pipe at the door, who saw his arrival and approached him.

    He knew this woman came from Summerdew Ridge because she was there watching when he was crafting Crimson Aegis.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard so much about you, Mister Padt, and I¡¯m d I finally got to meet you in person. Shall we find some time and have a pleasant talk?¡± she said while cat-walking her way toward Angor.

    Instead of replying, Angor looked at the other side of the opened door where a handsome young man in blue attire was standing. He had a glowing fish scale at the center of his forehead that showed his identity.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me, Jebra. I¡¯m not going in there. Just being friendly with an old friend of mine,¡± said Swan.

    Jebra nced at the woman who intentionally dressed in a charming style and humphed.

    ¡°Old friend? I¡¯m afraid I never heard of you being Angor¡¯s acquaintance.¡±

    Swan did a hair-flip. ¡°We met at White Oak Mountain, didn¡¯t we?¡±

    Jebra snickered and walked to Angor without minding Swan. ¡°It¡¯s a pity that we didn¡¯t get to hang out at Yothur City. Now that we both have time... This way, if you would.¡±

    Angor nodded and followed Jebra inside the building, while Swan remained behind with an annoyed look.

    ¡°That¡¯s ¡®Shadow Swan¡¯ from Summerdew Ridge,¡± Jebra whispered after closing the door. ¡°Don¡¯t you ever believe the way she acted. People have yet to figure out her... sexual preference.¡±

    Angor would not carelessly discuss a stranger and decided to get to the point. ¡°I¡¯ve more alchemy report to work onter, so I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t have much time to talk. May I know why you invited me here?¡±

    Jebra quickly thought about the order he just received from Sliv.

    ¡°I heard that you¡¯ve been in seclusion these days. You were writing alchemy reports?¡±

    Angor quickly stayed more careful. It was obvious that Jebra was trying to ascertain his recent moves.

    What Jebra asked next further proved it for him.

    ¡°I¡¯m curious though. Where have you been for your seclusion? I sent Haku to contact you a week ago, but she only found you the day before yesterday.¡±

    Angor put on a poker face and dodged Jebra¡¯s question. ¡°I see. Maybe Haku is an exceptional spy, but she¡¯s not so good at finding people. Is this why you need me here?¡±

    ¡°No, of course not. There¡¯s something else...¡± Jebra headed deeper into the building. ¡°Let¡¯s talk over a drink.¡±

    Angor nodded and followed suit.

    They took their seats in a guest room and spent a moment in silence while they both thought about their own suspicions.

    From what Jebra just asked, Angor knew that Jebra was attempting to find out what he did during thest week. Yet he didn¡¯t understand why Jebra would do such a thing. He was sure he left nothing on the ind that could cause Song of the Deep to target him.

 Chapter 786 - Friendly Gift

    <h4>Chapter 786: Friendly Gift</h4>

    On the other hand, Jebra was wondering how he should proceed from here.

    Earlier, Sliv told him what happened to the secret dimension but without going into the details. Sliv did tell him to watch Angor¡¯s actions because ¡°Angor might be the one who stole the Mystery treasure¡±.

    While listening to the message, Jebra noticed that Sliv wasn¡¯t being serious about this. Deep down, they both knew that Angor couldn¡¯t possibly have done such a thing.

    Jebra immediately knew what Sliv was actually trying to convey. Since Sliv emphasized that it was Flunza¡¯s order, Jebra could see that his teacher was using the excuse to prevent him from going back to Song of the Deep.

    Nevertheless, he wasn¡¯t going to fail Flunza¡¯s request. This was the main reason why he asked Angor toe.

    Until now, Jebra did not notice anything wrong from Angor¡¯s responses.

    Simr to Sliv, he almost disregarded Angor from their ¡°suspect list¡±. After asking several simple questions that didn¡¯t sound too straightforward, he brought Angor to the guest room to talk about their next business.

    ¡°You wish to take up with me?¡± Angor asked while watching Jebra sipping wine with a rxed look.

    ¡°Yup, my professor gave this task to me. If what I guessed is right, you¡¯re going to leave this ce soon, which means I don¡¯t have time using all sorts of tricks to leave a good impression. Might as well make it in.¡±

    Jebra took out a blue one-use space capsule and ced it on the desk.

    ¡°This is everything I prepared for befriending you in the long run. Since I don¡¯t have time for that... I¡¯ll just give you everything and be done with it.¡±

    Angor almost rolled his eyes.

    <i>Jebra called me here just to deliver a gift?</i>

    <i>But shouldn¡¯t friendship be like something that¡¯s slowly developed over time? He made it as if he could buy it with money, and he looks confident! Well, guess this is the moremon case in the wizarding world.</i>

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to check what¡¯s in there?¡± Jebra said when Angor remained still.

    Angor pushed the capsule away. ¡°I appreciate your honesty, but I don¡¯t think I deserve such treatment. No offense, but personally, I don¡¯t think this is the right way of making friends.¡±

    ¡°Deepsong Gold.¡±

    ¡°Eh?¡±

    ¡°The capsule contains fifteen bars of Deepsong Gold,¡± exined Jebra.

    Angor stopped his action and gulped.

    Deepsong Gold was an extremely rare mid-tier alchemy material that one couldn¡¯t easily find from markets. It was exclusively produced by Song of the Deep, and they only provided it to trading partners they trusted.

    ¡°Plus 13 otherponents taken from our storage, and some minor magical materialsmonly used by wizards majoring in water element and sea maniption,¡± Jebra continued.

    Angor slowly pulled the capsule back.

    ¡°I¡¯ll dly ept this precious token of friendship. May it keep us united,¡± said Angor.

    He wouldn¡¯t have epted Jebra¡¯s offer if it were money or anything toomon, but he did need these precious crafting materials.

    As far as he could see now, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to consider Jebra as a new friend. Jebra was a well-known elite in this world who might provide him with valuable resources if they did well.

    The problem was, Keely might be displeased to see this happening, but she wasn¡¯t enough reason for Angor to change his mind.

    Angor stuffed the capsule into his bracelet with a big smile. ¡°From today, you cane to me for any crafting job or alchemy-rted business, and I¡¯ll provide help as long as I can.¡±

    Jebra nodded in contentment¡ªAngor¡¯s answer was exactly what he needed to finish his task.

    With this settled, Angor stood up and was going to leave. From Jebra¡¯s reaction, he knew that Song of the Deep had not discovered what he did at the secret dimension. But he feared that Jebra would keep asking about his ¡°seclusion¡±, which would ce him in an embarrassing situation. He didn¡¯t wish to keep lying when they were supposed to be friends.

    However, Jebra beat him to it by speaking first, ¡°Since we are on better terms now, may I ask something?¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°Is Shiliew doing well?¡±

    Angor looked at Jebra up and down. ¡°What, you¡¯re nning to get revenge on her?¡±

    Jebra looked at the floor. ¡°No. I just want to know her condition. Nothing more.¡±

    Angor made sure Jebra wasn¡¯t making up evil plots before he answered, ¡°I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s been doing when I left Brute Cavern. At least I didn¡¯t hear anything particr going on.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± Jebra nodded.

    Angor saw Jebra was almost d to hear about this and suddenly got a strange idea.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me this guy is a masochist or something, so he¡¯s expecting more beating?</i>

    That wouldn¡¯t end well. Each time Shiliew encountered Jebra, she would gain apletely different character made of pure madness.

    Angor walked to the door of the building and decided to ask something he had been wondering.

    ¡°Is it really worth it for you to pay so many assets just to gain my trust?¡±

    Jebra chuckled. ¡°Of course it is. Or do you have no idea how much glory you have earned in the south?¡±

    ¡°Glory?¡± Angor was puzzled. He didn¡¯t remember doing anything particr since the purification garden challenge. Well, maybe there was Greya¡¯s new spell, but she mostly relied on her own potential. His assistance had little to do with it.

    Jebra found himself a new ss of wine. ¡°Well, there was this auction three months ago...¡±

    ...

    It was already nightfall when Angor stepped out of Blue Estate. The heavy snow finally came to a stop after it covered the entire Lost Paradise City under a thick white carpet, thus allowing the colorful Luminous Stones around the city to look ever more enticing.

    Neet was waiting for him outside the building. The man¡¯s giant fur coat did a good job of keeping him warm. He also found arge nket for his moose.

    Again, the journey back to Ross Mansion was silent as Angor went over what he just heard from Jebra. Starting from the incident at Remnant Auction, Jebra told him a lot of interesting events that happened in the south recently.

    Angor was really surprised to learn the unusual price of his music box as well as how it was purchased by ¡°Mythril Innovator¡± Jel. This was the main reason why his name became popr again in the past few months.

    ¡°They sort of came up with a lot of monikers for you,¡± said Jebra while grinning. ¡°Such as ¡®the next stop to Mystery¡¯, ¡®the music box man¡¯, ¡®the weird lion¡¯... Hey, when are you gonna go out there and get a proper title? These sound so terrible.¡±

    To Angor, this wasn¡¯t much of a big issue as long as people didn¡¯t call him ¡°Baron Milk¡±. He¡¯d always get a proper nameter if he kept getting stronger and became a true wizard.

    Apart from these, there were other matters that concerned him greatly.

    One of them was the ¡°ck domes¡± all over the Evernight Kingdom. ording to Jebra, about 15% of all cities in the Evernight Kingdom had fallen, causing their residents to escape and seek shelter in nearby areas. This included wizard organizations and ns.

    No one had figured out an effective way to stop the domes from expanding.

    This wasn¡¯t too serious a problem to him since he once ventured inside a ck dome and even talked to the monsters that created them. Besides, the parasitesing from the domes couldn¡¯t affect him.

    What worried him most was a hazardous situation that struck the Fairy World recently.

    There had beenrge groups of monsters, along with more parasites, that showed up in all three sectors of Fairy World. Now, the entire Fairy World was in a simr situation as the Evernight Kingdom, and it was getting worse still.

    As soon as Angor heard about this matter, he immediately thought about Pocratee, the underground vige where a giant parasite nest was located.

    <i>Someone got inside Pocratee and let the monsters out?</i>

 Chapter 787 - More Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 787: More Crisis</h4>

    The ¡°dragonfly nest¡± in Pocratee had been there for over a thousand years. It looked peaceful enough since the monsters did nothing more than roaming around the vige.

    But suppose that someone actually provoked them...

    Jebra described the general situation of Fairy World as ¡°really bad but could still get worse¡±. Yet Angor knew there was even more to it. The biggest problem was the nightmare passage hidden in the vige.

    He wasn¡¯t sure whether something from the Nightmare Realm could enter Fairy World through that tunnel, but he WAS sure that all the strange monsters already living inside the tunnel meant big trouble if they came out.

    He still remembered that, when traveling with the rainbow dragonflies, they ran into a gigantic life form that seemed deadly enough AND highly intelligent. If the dragonflies suddenly decided to set it free...

    When he thought the southern region had enough trouble, Jebra told him yet another incident, which was caused by the greedy nature of men.

    In the past year, Angor kept hearing ¡°Abyss¡± being mentioned, but he didn¡¯t pay enough attention until Jebra told him what was going on over there.

    ¡°In Abyss ne, Mister Monkey is nning to get his hands on the offspring of a Grand Demon so that he can use its blood to transcend his limit and reach the level of legendary.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t know much about Abyss ne or demons, but he knew stealing a demon¡¯s offspring didn¡¯t sound like a good idea.

    Finally, he knew why Sunders kept urging him to work harder while indirectly mentioning an iing demon cmity.

    Whether Monkey¡¯s n could seed or not, his action would undoubtedly infuriate the Grand Demon. It would direct its madness at where Monkey came from¡ªthe southern wizarding region.

    In other words, Monkey ced everyone in the south in great danger for his own gain.

    Naturally, Angor felt greatly disturbed by Monkey¡¯s act. But on second thought... he would probably do the same if he were also presented with an opportunity of bing a legendary wizard.

    Most wizards in the south, including the supreme leader of Brute Cavern¡ª¡±Silencer¡± Rein Mute¡ªall supported Monkey¡¯s n because they also eagerly wanted to find new destinies that pushed their limits.

    There had not been a single legendary wizard in the south for over a thousand years.

    Should Monkey seed, he would reveal a brand new path to achieve glory for everyone else. In the views of wizards who would gain such a valuable chance,pletely destroying the peace was an eptable cost. As wizards, they knew how to hide from demon retaliation. And they knew that the world¡¯s consciousness would intervene eventually and prevent the world from actually being destroyed in due time.

    As for the lives of apprentices and mortals... Nobody cared.

    While on his way back to Ross Mansion, Angor looked around the shiny and prosperous city. He then sighed in distress.

    <i>This is all going to be ruins when the demonse... Well, unless the demon army ignored thisnd for some reason. But people shouldn¡¯t depend on such a slim chance.</i>

    He temporarily forgot about these worrying matters upon arriving at Ross Mansion because he saw the purple-haired woman from Summerdew Ridge again, and she was standing right outside the mansion¡¯s door.

    Neet also recognized her as another supernatural being since he saw her talking in front of Blue Estate. The poor man looked back at Angor hoping to learn what he should do.

    Angor simply asked Neet to go and park their vehicle. He then walked to the woman to talk.

    ¡°I¡¯m a total stranger to Summerdew Ridge, so... do you have anything you wish to tell me, ma¡¯am?¡±

    He fully knew that this woman was probably here to establish a social connection with him, just like Jebra. But he still asked this question out of courtesy.

    As expected, both Swan¡¯s response and the way she moved proved his idea.

    ¡°It¡¯s so hard for people like us to run into each other at thisnd. Don¡¯t be like that. You can call me Swan, by the way,¡± the woman said while moving closer to Angor until Angor could hear her breath.

    Angor smelled the scent of an unknown pheromone and activated his Purification Field without a second thought.

    Swan saw her initial tactic not working and took several steps back.

    ¡°As I saidst time, I¡¯ve heard a lot about the brilliant alchemy skills disyed by you, Mister Padt. I once attempted alchemy too. Biological research was what I learned at that time. As a fellow alchemist, I¡¯d really appreciate it if we can find a time and exchange some experience.¡±

    Swan leaned against the door frame nearby and smoked her pipe while not forgetting to wink at Angor.

    Angor already heard that the ¡°Basket Witch¡± was a Karabit who loved doing research on life forms. It was expected that her student also knew something simr.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t have time for it since I¡¯m leaving Lost Paradise City very soon. But I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll meet again and find another time.¡±

    Swan frowned. It seemed her second approach also failed.

    Seeing Swan not giving up, Angor quickly thought about an idea.

    ¡°Miss Swan, I heard your name from Helen before. Personally, I think Helen has what it takes to be a great witch. She¡¯s a strong-willed and determined woman. If you¡¯re to guide her into the wizarding world, I hope you can assist her wherever you can.¡±

    Then he turned around and went inside Ross Mansion, leaving Swan to ponder over what she just meant.

    ¡°Did he offer to ept my friendship if I treat Helen well? Hmm...¡±

    Swan¡¯s eyes twinkled in delight.

    ...

    After putting the brief encounter behind his mind, Angor returned to his room and took out his personal notebook. Since he knew for sure that a demon cmity was going to ur, he would start making ns about protecting his family and Jon.

    The most efficient way he could think of was, of course, to be a wizard before the disaster struck. A wizard should have enough strength and resources to shield his mortal family.

    But what if he failed to reach that level in time?

    ...

    It was the end of the Month of Resuscitation.

    A week had passed since he escaped from the strange ind. There were still some inner injuries on him caused by the Leviathan¡¯s concentrated pressure, and he constantly felt tired out.

    It was almost time to pick up Tulu and head elsewhere, so he decided to leave Lost Paradise.

    Without informing anyone, he took out his Gond and headed straight to Yothur City.

    Haku, who had been watching him near Ross Mansion, easily saw him leaving. She immediately went to Blue Estate and reported the matter to Jebra.

    ¡°Well, he stayed for long enough.¡± Jebra didn¡¯t seem too concerned. Even so, he still ryed the message to Sliv since he was tasked to keep an eye on Angor¡¯s movements.

    A momentter, Sliv responded by using a long-range transmission machine developed by Floating Mech City instead of using their unique ¡°message bubbles¡±.

    While feeling a bit annoyed for having to unnecessarily spend money, Jebra tossed two magic crystals into his device and established a connection with Sliv.

    ¡°Angor left the city? So why are you not following him, hmm?¡± Sliv spoke through the speakers.

    ¡°Mister Sliv, I¡¯ve met with Angor. I don¡¯t believe he¡¯s the thief you¡¯re looking for.¡±

    Sliv scowled upon hearing the word ¡°thief¡±.

    ¡°Why do you say so, hmm?¡±

    Jebra silently cursed Sliv for asking an unnecessary question but still maintained his polite look. ¡°I sensed no particr reactions during our conversation. Besides, as I saidst time, Angor created a powerful mid-tier alchemy item at White Oak Mountain just before the time of thievery. I believe you know how alchemists all treasured their creations dearly, sir. There¡¯s no way Angor had the time to finish his item and head to the secret dimension to conveniently steal the treasure in such a short time.¡±

    Asmonly known in this world, an alchemist needed months or even years prior to making a new item to set up careful ns. And after the item was sessfully crafted, they also needed time to evaluate and test it.

    They would then write down everything they learned from their work in great detail, which wouldter be their most precious knowledge either used for reviewing, teaching, or bartering with others. How could an alchemist skip such important work and go treasure hunting?

 Chapter 788 - Fishing Village

    <h4>Chapter 788: Fishing Vige</h4>

    Jebra was talking about typical alchemists in this world who created a series ofmon practices and unspoken rules.

    What he didn¡¯t know was that Angor never studied alchemy in the mon way¡±. While Angor might know about certain conventions among alchemists, he didn¡¯t have a reason to copy their examples. Till now, he mostly did alchemy works while following his own pace.

    He did leave alchemy reports after creating items. But in his papers, he usually left some simple questions and some brief ideas about how to improve his future works, unlike the other alchemists who would record each of their movements when crafting something and keep everything noted down.

    Of course, Jebra had no idea of Angor¡¯s habits, so he could only surmise Angor¡¯s working routine by referring to the other alchemists he knew.

    Sliv was fully aware of what Jebra was implying, but still, he insisted that Jebra should keep following behind Angor as if their previous conversation didn¡¯t happen.

    And this greatly confused Jebra.

    Previously, Jebra thought that his teacher was only asking him to stay away from Song of the Deep for the moment to avoid unexpected grudges. But couldn¡¯t he just run off somewhere? Why did he have to stay with Angor?

    He then brought this question up.

    Sliv wasn¡¯t Jebra¡¯s supervisor or anything, so they didn¡¯t usually talk much. But right now, Sliv decided to answer Jebra nicely since he really needed to rely on Flunza¡¯s help when most people in the organization were trying to alienate him for failing his task.

    ¡°Same as you, I never thought Angor can be the culprit. But since Mister Flunza didn¡¯t tell you to disregard the task, I think you should listen to him, hmm?¡±

    Jebra frowned. ¡°Where is my teacher now? I¡¯ll talk to him. If he wants me to keep away, I can just remain at Ferran for a bit longer.¡±

    Sliv shook his head. ¡°Mister Flunza has returned to the organization and is arguing with Donsei¡¯s men. He can¡¯t contact you right now. You do what he said and stay with Angor. You¡¯re supposed to gain Angor¡¯s trust, hmm?¡±

    ¡°But I already did,¡± Jebra said with a in expression.

    ¡°Oh? That¡¯s pretty fast. How did you manage it, hmm?¡±

    A little proudly, Jebra exined what happened between him and Angor.

    ¡°That¡¯s how you won his cooperation?¡± Sliv frowned and didn¡¯t give Jebra a chance to protest this time. ¡°Go after him, now.¡±

    When the connection was forcefully shut off, Jebra remained speechless with an irritated look.

    Haku slowly materialized beside him and spoke up, ¡°Shall we go and look for Mister Padt now, sir?¡±

    Jebra nodded. ¡°I will. Alone. You remain here and wait for Mister Sliv¡¯s further instructions.¡±

    With that, Jebra left Blue Estate on heavy steps.

    ...

    Angor had left the territory of Anrum and reached the centralnds of Farren.

    The boundary of Aureum was already in sight before nightfall.

    When heading to Marcel District, he didn¡¯t conceal his vehicle, so he caused a lot of mortals to start eximing prayers and words of worship at him. But for some reason, these people were all calling Marcel¡¯s name.

    Without minding them, he went straight to Erwin¡¯s house and saw the captain inside his home. After exchanging formalities, he asked Erwin if Tulu was here.

    ¡°I believe Tulu is still in the fishing vige where he was born, sir.¡±

    Angor then learned how to find this vige and left Yothur City on his Gond.

    Following Erwin¡¯s instruction, he arrived at a small and peaceful settlement along the coast. Under the starlight, he saw returning fishing boatsing back to the vige after a full day¡¯s work, while kids chased each other at the beach and waited for their dinner.

    He found an empty spot outside the vige andnded his boat.

    When he was casually walking to the vige, he suddenly saw a group of people running outside while yelling the name ¡°Kumur¡± using a strong ent.

    Also, they seemed to be women and elders of the vige, probably because able-bodied men were still away piloting their boats.

    The vigers only gave Angor several curious nces before they headed farther to look for ¡°Kumur¡±. Only an old man with a walking stick who had trouble moving too far was left behind at the entrance of the vige.

    ¡°Ho... who¡¯re ya, young one? Never saw you before.¡±

    ¡°A traveler, sir. I¡¯m here looking for someone,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°A traveler, you say. Hummm... whossit that you¡¯re lookin¡¯?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Tulu.¡±

    ¡°Tulu... must be the littled of Scott. His home¡¯s over there.¡± The old man pointed to a wooden cottage that sat behind several palm trees.

    Angor nced that way. ¡°He¡¯s... not home?¡±

    The old man also looked and saw the housepletely unlit. ¡°Right... I heard he went fishing together with Ralph in the morning. They¡¯ll be back soon.¡±

    The old man proceeded to talk about what he knew about Tulu and the other fishers in the vige without minding who Angor was, while Angor simply listened since he had nothing else to do.

    But they were soon interrupted when they heard someone screaming loudly at the beach.

    The old man looked at the source of the voice and put a hand over his head. ¡°Darnations. We¡¯re supposed to look for Kumur! And why is Harvey¡¯s kid yelling like that? Shoot. Did something bad happen to little Kumur?¡±

    Then he started panicking a little while mumbling prayers.

    From the old man¡¯s asional rambling, Angor managed to learn what happened to the vigers. It seemed that a group of kids got too excited while ying and suddenly fell into apetition in which they would see who could dive longer and bring back more shells. But at the end of their game, they found one of their members¡ªKumur¡ªmissing. That was when they all ran back to the vige and asked the adults for help.

    Almost half an hour had passed since Kumur disappeared in the water, which meant the mortal kid didn¡¯t have much hope.

    ¡°Tra-traveler, oh curse these legs of mine! Can you check them out and tell me if they took Kumur back?¡± the old man pleaded.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor nodded and moved toward the beach area.

    He wasn¡¯t being generous by doing so. Rather, he just sensed strange energy signaturesing from that way.

    When he arrived, he saw all the adults gazing in a particr direction on the sea in great surprise.

    Under the bright moon, they saw a child not far from them iling his arms in the water.

    ¡°He¡¯s alive... was he ying a prank then? He went too far and cannot swim back?¡± Angor tried to infer what happened by thinking like a naughty kid.

    But he wasn¡¯t interested in the kid. There was something behind the kid that attracted him.

    The moon looked rather big tonight, which brightly illuminated the surface of the sea, allowing everyone to see arge sea beast about ten meters long quietly lurking at a distance.

    The alligator-like beast with spikes growing all over its body was carefully gazing at the people waiting ashore, using a pair of crimson eyes that showed nothing more than hunger.

    <i>Great. Now a monster learned how to ¡°fish¡± people from their home.</i> Angor thought with a deadpan expression.

    Obviously, the monster didn¡¯t eat Kumur yet because it was waiting for bigger prey, naming, the kid¡¯s saviors.

    Naturally, the vigers were all looking at the terrifying monster in great fear without moving. There was only Kumur¡¯s mother who was begging everyone to no avail.

    It seemed the woman couldn¡¯t swim, and her husband had yet to return from fishing.

    She copsed on the ground in despair. She wished to give her child onest look, but she wasn¡¯t sure she should.

    ¡°Hey, ya¡¯ll look! A boat is going over there!¡± One of the vigers suddenly pointed to a light spot moving on the sea.

    Angor also looked that way and saw a small wooden boat approaching Kumur¡¯s position. He couldn¡¯t see who was using the boat because a ck curtain blocked his view.

    ¡°That¡¯s Ralph¡¯s boat!¡± Someone yelled.

    <i>Ralph?</i>

    Angor knew that name because the old man back at the vige just told him. Ralph was a viger who took Tulu away in the morning.

    On the boat, a dark-skinned figure flipped the curtain aside and entered Angor¡¯s view.

    It was Tulu, and he was looking at the struggling child with a worried look.

 Chapter 789 - Rescuing

    <h4>Chapter 789: Rescuing</h4>

    Personally, Angor wouldn¡¯t mind rescuing the drowning kid.

    The panicking vigers confirmed it for him, that Kumur went into the water all by himself just to spook the other kids. Kumur intentionally stayed in the water for longer. And when he decided to return, he could not.

    In Angor¡¯s view, letting the rowdy kid stay there and face the monster as a live bait seemed like a good lesson. This was why he did not move to intervene yet. He was confident that Toby could easily reach there and snatch Kumur back before the monster could do anything.

    Angor was nning to wait until thest second to get Kumur out so that the naughty kid would learn how to behave in his life. But... he wasn¡¯t expecting Tulu to interrupt his n.

    And he didn¡¯t like it.

    While it was true that there was no absolute righteousness or injustice in the wizarding world, Angor usually preferred to act as a wful¡± wizard, or white wizard, because of Jon¡¯s education.

    Still, he wouldn¡¯t approve Tulu¡¯s rash decision.

    The monster they were looking at was obviously not an ordinary beast that could be bested using human wisdom. Tulu, as a mortal, had zero chance of defeating a supernatural monster on that fragile fishing boat. By going there, Tulu was throwing his life away with no hope of achieving anything.

    Knowledge was crucial for wizards and apprentices alike. One needed time, and of course, being alive, to seek knowledge.

    Angor was disappointed to see Tulu being so negligent. It was fine to be either too kind or too selfish in the cruel wizarding world. But someone who couldn¡¯t recognize their limit was just hopeless¡ªthey¡¯d die before they knew it.

    Still not moving, Angor watched Tulu driving his boat to Kumur¡¯s position with an indifferent expression.

    It seemed Kumur wasn¡¯t the only one who needed a hard lesson today.

    As Tulu moved closer, the beast¡¯s eyes gleamed ominously as if it was ready to collect its new prize.

    The other bystanders all realized what the beast was trying to do here. Someone even warned Tulu aloud so that they had one less victim. But it was toote¡ªthe monster would catch up with the boat anyway.

    Meanwhile, Angor was slowly growing suspicious of another matter.

    He had been watching for some time, and it was so strange that Kumur was still on the surface of the water, while a typical suffocating child would quickly lose it and go silently already.

    In fact, Kumur looked rather energetic as if he weren¡¯t in trouble at all

    Angor didn¡¯t find it TOO strange since a child born in a fisher vige should definitely be a natural swimmer. However, something else further confused him.

    When Tulu¡¯s boat was only about ten meters away, Kumur saw someoneing and began paddling that way in a clumsy fashion. His head bobbed up and down while choking on water badly, and he looked about to die at any moment.

    ¡°Help-help me, Mister Tulu, sir!¡± Kumur called between his iplete breaths. ¡°Help...¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not old enough to be your ¡®sir¡¯ yet!¡± Tulu yelled while reaching a paddle to Kumur. ¡°Hang on! Quickly!¡±

    Kumur reached out an arm, only to sink further.

    ¡°I-me legs... I can¡¯t move me leg!¡±

    ¡°st it!¡± Tulu cursed. ¡°You looked just fine! Why now?¡±

    A man showed up from behind Tulu, which was probably Ralph. ¡°Tu-Tu-Tulu! That thing ising for us!¡±

    Tulu looked up and saw the monster somewhat casually swimming their way. It didn¡¯t even use any special ability probably because it knew its dinner couldn¡¯t escape.

    When Tulu had time to react, the monster was already closing its jaws at the small awning boat.

    Two water sshes were heard just before the boat was chomped in two halves¡ªTulu and Ralph managed to jump off in time.

    The monster spat out some wooden shards with an annoyed look and set its gaze upon its prey again.

    ¡°Move it! Get back onnd!¡± Tulu yelled while Ralph was already on the move out of survival instinct.

    Tulu was going to do the same. But when he heard Kumur desperately calling his name, he clenched his teeth and grabbed the kid with him.

    Thankfully, Kumur no longer had the strength to struggle now, or the extra burden would undoubtedly kill Tulu faster.

    But this didn¡¯t mean they could escape.

    Between Ralph and Tulu, the monster had chosen thetter since this one had an extra treat. Like before, it approached Tulu from behind at a slow pace, which still looked a lot faster than a human swimmer.

    When it opened its mouth at its target, Tulu quickly dived to one side and avoided the attack thanks to all the experience he learned from Devil¡¯s Water.

    After missing its mark for a second time, the monster finally decided to be a little bit more serious by creating a small torrent to block Tulu¡¯s path.

    By some miracle, Tulu once again got away from a deadly biting attack by diving into the water below.

    The moment he surfaced, he saw a water arrowing right at his forehead.

    He jerked his head aside at thest moment, but the attack still connected with the side of his face and ripped his skin open.

    Out of instinct, he put a hand on his injury before the smell of blood and terrible dizziness struck him.

    This was made worse when his leg suddenly went stiff¡ªthe previous moves hadpletely exhausted him.

    While he tried his best to stay afloat, the monster soon reached him.

    Now he finally had the time to regret his decision.

    <i>I shouldn¡¯t have returned home... I shouldn¡¯t have epted Ralph¡¯s stupid offer and gone fishing. I shouldn¡¯t have gone after Kumur!</i>

    So many wrong moves, and they finally contributed to his death.

    He closed his eyes and waited for his end. There was nothing he could do now.

    ¡°You did something futile, which should have been in to see. Don¡¯t do it again. I¡¯ll save you this time, and you should keep what happened today in your mind. I¡¯m expecting payback in the future.¡±

    Tulu opened his eyes and saw a flying figure confronting the seemingly invincible monster.

    He saw something shiny shing past his view before the monster was cut in two.

    ¡°I-I-I¡¯m saved?¡±

    Instead of celebrating his survival, he looked at the monster¡¯s corpse and suddenly felt disheartening hollowness assaulting his mind.

    Angor slowly looked back at him. ¡°Remember what I said.¡±

    Then he used Hand of Spell to carry Tulu back ashore.

    Ralph, who was halfway in the water, heard the cheers of people and realized what had just happened.

    ¡°Man... that must be the wizard Tulu told me about.¡±

    Unlike Tulu who just went through a terrible experience, Ralph quickly recovered from his fear and was going back to his people and hurrah with them.

    But when he stepped onto drynd, he saw people had stopped talking and were all looking at Tulu, who sat in the middle of the group while covering his left ear... or what was supposed to be his ear.

    Tulu no longer had a left ear. There were only bloody shreds that remained.

 Chapter 790 - Consequence

    <h4>Chapter 790: Consequence</h4>

    Thud, thud...

    Ralph saw Kumur¡¯s mother groveling at the wizard¡¯s feet, while the other vigers also went to express their thanks, leaving Tulu behind.

    This looked so sad.

    Tulu was silently keeping his wound pressed without doing anything else in particr. Yet Ralph felt as if Tulu carried a strange semnce that kept everyone away.

    There were still a few people staying with him, but they did nothing other than giving him sympathetic looks.

    After a long silence, two streams of red tears ran down Tulu¡¯s cheeks.

    Yet Tulu was stillpletely quiet, even when weeping.

    Ralph considered and decided to say something at least, ¡°Tulu, you need to patch up that cut, or it¡¯ll be nasty at this rate.¡±

    Tulu slowly looked up, but he did not respond.

    Ralph helped Tulu up and assisted him back to the vige.

    Several vigers came and offered to provide medicine, while most people, including Kumur¡¯s mother, were still praising Angor¡¯s name.

    ¡°Go and give your gratitude to Tulu. And don¡¯t forget to apologize too,¡± said Angor.

    Kumur¡¯s mother was surprised by it. She suddenly remembered Tulu¡¯s courageous act earlier and showed an awkward look.

    Then she picked her unconscious son and went to address Tulu.

    ¡°Is Kumur okay?¡±

    That was the first thing Tulu said since he got back ashore.

    The woman stroked Kumur¡¯s head, who was slowly waking up. ¡°He¡¯s doing well! Kumur, say something to your savior!¡±

    ¡°Tha-thank you, sir... Wahhhh...¡± The kid began to cry loudly.

    Again, Tulu remained speechless with a nk look.

    In his view, losing a body part was too much a cost to pay just to help a kid he didn¡¯t know well.

    And it all started from a sted prank...

    He wished to vent out his grievance by pping the little devil in the face as hard as he could. But he couldn¡¯t¡ªno one forced him to help Kumur. He made that judgment all by himself.

    In a sense, he was just like Kumur who foolishly threw himself into danger. Both of them would have been dead if Angor weren¡¯t here.

    When he looked at Kumur without speaking, the other vigers all assumed that he was furious with the child. No one did anything since everyone else would also like to give the troublemaker several punches and kicks.

    Kumur¡¯s mother kept pleading for forgiveness, which wasn¡¯t helpful to Tulu¡¯s condition whatsoever.

    As everyone believed that Tulu would treat Kumur with lifelong hatred, Tulu suddenly spoke in a weak voice, ¡°Don¡¯t call me ¡®sir¡¯. Not gonna remind you again. I¡¯m not that old...¡±

    This was enough to show his attitude.

    He then pushed Ralph away and knelt in front of Angor. ¡°Thank you for saving my life, Mister Padt.¡±

    His action caused everyone to look at Angor again, either in awe or fear. Now that the ruckus was over and they fully realized that a ¡°powerful wizard¡± was among them, they suddenly lost the courage to make any sound. Even Kumur¡¯s crying was forcefully muffled by his mother.

    ¡°No need for that.¡± Angor gave Tulu a cold look. ¡°I already told you about ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯ before. Don¡¯t make me wait too long.¡±

    Tulu slowly nodded with a pale look. He had been working under Roman for some time, and he fully knew that Angor could have watched him die as a bystander.

    ¡°Everything ends for you if you die. I hope the experience has shown you the value of life.¡±

    Angor then asked Ralph to take Tulu back and do something about that running hole on the head.

    Again, he didn¡¯t treat Tulu using magic yet because he hoped to let Tulu relive the painful memory.

    Losing an ear or even a limb was no big deal in the wizarding world because there were many ways to solve this problem, such as getting a transnt. Compared to this, being too naive and ignorant was more fatal.

    One by one, the vigers bowed to Angor to show respect and returned to their homes.

    Only Kumur and his mother were left behind in the end.

    Kumur was crying at the top of his lungs again as if he felt wronged for not getting any attention after so much suffering. Instead, everyone looked angry at him.

    Angor shook his head and released a small trace of nightmare energy at the kid¡¯s forehead, causing him to instantly go quiet.

    Kumur¡¯s mother widened her eyes in fear when she saw something blurry going for her child. Out of the instinct of a mother, she held Kumur closer to her chest.

    ¡°An endless nightmare as a punishment for the severe consequence he caused,¡± exined Angor in a cold voice. ¡°It will go away when he learns his mistake.¡±

    When Angor turned away and headed to the vige, Kumur¡¯s mother anxiously checked on her child but without finding anything wrong.

    ¡°Nightmare? Is Kumur going to have bad dreams at night?¡±

    Angor suddenly stopped moving and looked back again. ¡°I forgot to ask. When you were struggling right in front of that monster, how did you stay afloat instead of going down?¡±

    Kumur tilted his head as he failed to understand Angor.

    His mother, who was also wondering why her child had better stamina than trained adults, repeated the question in more detailed words.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know, sir.¡± The kid shook his head. ¡°I think there was something under my feet that kept me there. But-but I looked! I didn¡¯t see anything.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor pondered. <i>Something kept him in ce? Was it the monster? It went through so much effort just to attract more people to it?</i>

    He looked at the direction of the sea. The monster¡¯s corpse was nowhere to be seen. It had probably sunk somewhere and be food for other creatures.

    ...

    At the depth of the sea, Jebra held his chin and muttered, ¡°That was pretty close... Guess I shouldn¡¯t do such things too often and risk getting discovered.¡±

    ...

    At the entrance of the vige, Angor saw the talkative old man still there.

    ¡°Hoi there, traveler! Ah, so you¡¯re a wizard told in the legends! I heard the whole story. Kumur... that little brat! I¡¯ll think of a punishment fo¡¯ himter!¡±

    Again, Angor patiently listened to his rambling since Tulu might need some time to rest.

    A whileter, a stubbled man, who was supposed to be the old man¡¯s son, came to them and looked at Angor in fear.

    ¡°This traveler here is a kind soul,¡± said the old man as he put a hand on his son¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Make sure you show your hospitality, kid. You take it from here. I¡¯m checking out how Scott¡¯s son is doing.¡±

    The old man gave his son another meaningful look and headed back into the vige.

    Angor noticed their eye contact and easily understood what the old man was trying to do.

    The middle-aged man stammered something and exined that he was the mayor and that he would like to invite Angor to dinner.

    Angor simply epted the offer. He did need a proper meal right now. And since this was a fishermen¡¯s vige, they should have a lot of nice treats for Toby.

    While on their way, they saw all the houses tightly shut, and the upants would peek at them through their windows before looking away and pretending nothing happened.

    ¡°Ugh. Now I feel like some big viin,¡± Angorined.

    His original n was to quietly bring Tulu away as a passing traveler, but that wouldn¡¯t work now.

    Likewise, the dinner proceeded in a somewhat awkward manner.

    Butpared to this, Angor was more annoyed at the food, which was all about unspiced soup that tasted a little... fishy. Even so, Toby didn¡¯t seem to mind the boring dishes at all. The bird even asked Angor to take the Moonlily Fairy out so that they could enjoy the meal together.

    Of course, Angor rejected the bad idea since the fairy was mostly a veggie who fed on honey and greens. Eating fish didn¡¯t sound right.

 Chapter 791 - Awaken

    <h4>Chapter 791: Awaken</h4>

    When Toby finally stepped away from his tes with a round belly, the mayor¡¯s father came back to the house with a sad look.

    ¡°Dad, how¡¯s Kumur and Tulu?¡± the mayor quickly asked.

    ¡°Kumur¡¯s fine. Well, his mom hit a ton on his bum and half the vige can hear him screaming. Other than that, he¡¯s well and kickin¡¯. As for Scott¡¯sd... he¡¯ll live. But he can¡¯t hear anything from his left side now.¡±

    An old woman walked out of the kitchen. ¡°Ain¡¯t it better than dropping dead? At least he¡¯s not totally deaf.¡±

    Annoyed, her husband tapped the floor using his walking cane. ¡°Aye, I know you are sorta sick of thed¡¯s grandmother. But be nice to the boy, will ya?¡±

    As the old couple went outside the door to argue, the mayor gave Angor an apologetic look.

    Not interested, Angor stuffed Toby into his pocket and left a gold coin as payment for dinner.

    ¡°Thank you for your time, sir. I¡¯ll go and check on Tulu instead of upying your schedule.¡±

    Without listening to the mayor¡¯s following words that mostly meant to persuade him to stay, he stepped out of the house, located Tulu¡¯s signal at Tulu¡¯s home, and headed there.

    He wasn¡¯t surprised to learn that Tulu¡¯s hearing was damaged¡ªhe predicted such an oue as soon as he saw Tulu¡¯s wound. He hoped that this would be enough of a lesson for Tulu to grow up more and learn how to stay safe in this world.

    He knew that recruiters from various organizations tended to use certain methods to select capable talents, such as the ¡°Death Chamber Matches¡± used by Sunders. Most of such methods sounded cruel and unfair. Yet they were pretty efficient for telling the talents about the harsh reality awaiting them in the wizarding world.

    This was necessary for the talents to discard their moral standards as mortals and learn the ¡°proper¡± way.

    As far as Angor knew, all talents recruited by Sunders, meaning, the winners of the death matches, were doing well in the wizarding world right now except for Hookdick.

    Since Angor already recruited four Krakoks, he needed only to find two more to fulfill the minimum requirement of his task. This was why he didn¡¯t find it necessary to set up an ¡°entrance exam¡±.

    But when he saw Tulu¡¯s childish act, he knew he had to do something to mend Tulu¡¯s character, or Tulu would get picked clean by all sorts of shady figures in the wizarding world pretty fast.

    After the incident today, Tulu got to have learned how NOT to be a hero of justice as he saw fit, and this was the result Angor hoped to achieve.

    Since Angor still had to find one more talent, he made up his mind that he should be more careful when picking. Otherwise, he¡¯d just send another innocentmb into a pack of hungry wolves.

    He saw a group of vigers gathering at Tulu¡¯s door, who instantly moved away when he showed up.

    Tulu¡¯s house was a poor-looking cottage, which was only one room by itself.

    Angor pushed the door open and saw Tulu on his bed on the other side while Ralph was taking care of him.

    Simrly, Ralph grew scared upon seeing Angor¡¯s arrival. After greeting Angor in a trembling voice, the fisherman ran outside.

    Tulu sat up slowly and said hello. He could tell that Angor was unsatisfied with what he just did.

    After getting over his mental trauma, Tulu had time to carefully think over his actions. And as a sailor who used to work for wizards, he easily realized his great mistake.

    Angor had noticed Tulu¡¯s change of attitude. While it was impossible for a man topletely switch to a different nature overnight, he was d to see his ¡°lesson¡± went through. As for what kind of person Tulu would be after spending some time in the wizarding world... that wasn¡¯t something he had control over.

    When Tulu grew uneasy and wondered if he should speak up and apologize, he heard Angor speaking to him first.

    ¡°Get some sleep tonight. We¡¯ll leave tomorrow.¡±

    Angor remotely closed the house¡¯s door and closed his eyes in front of a lit stove in the room to wait for sunrise.

    Tulu took a moment to admire Angor¡¯s visage using the faltering firelight and suddenly felt envious.

    <i>Mister Padt must be a really cool dude in his ce... When will I be so strong?</i>

    ¡°Do you have something to say?¡± said Angor, without looking at Tulu.

    It took Tulu several seconds to realize that Angor just talked to him. ¡°Sir-sir, I was stupid. I thought that monster wasn¡¯t much of a threat since it looked smaller than most monsters we dealt with before. I was wrong.¡±

    ¡°And?¡±

    ¡°From now on, sir, I¡¯ll use my brain before letting my rawness get the better of me.¡±

    ¡°This doesn¡¯t mean you have to discard righteousnesspletely,¡± said Angor. ¡°Do something you can, or stay away from stuff beyond your strength. You need to learn how to tell them apart.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to affect Tulu¡¯s way of judgment too much since being able to think independently was important when studying wizardry.

    Tulu spent a long time digesting what he went through today. Eventually, his eyes showed true determination.

    However, clearing his mind didn¡¯t mean helping his physical condition.

    ¡°Um, sir, am I stuck with this wound forever?¡±

    ¡°No. You¡¯ll find interesting things in the wizarding world, by which time you¡¯re free to do whatever you want about your condition. You can either get a recement or p something better at another spot on your body. Anything you can think of, there¡¯ll be a way to make it happen.¡±

    Tulu sighed in great relief and slowly fell asleep while listening to the fire sparks.

    Angor opened his eyes and threw an illusion at Tulu to prevent Tulu from suddenly waking up.

    Next, he took out a miniature structure¡ªthe Church of the Deceased¡ªfrom his bracelet and ced it on the floor.

    While talking to Tulu, he had been keeping his attention on his bracelet, during which he made sure the Krakoks were doing well, and that nothing particr happened to the soul container.

    His next move would be leaving Ferran, crossing the ckberry Waters, and reaching the Land of Revtion in search of the ¡°Dream Whelk¡±. He needed to confirm its location with Freud before departure.

    People said that this Mystery item was mostly useless, but he really needed to get his hands on it and hoped that he could figure out how to craft such items.

    After a brief conversation with Freud, he noted down the general route and gave Freud some more ¡°illusionary books¡± to read since Freud had almost finished reading all the books he had.

    To better keep Freud from boredom, Angor even left another ¡°Monument Valley¡± illusion in Freud¡¯s room.

    Before he could retrieve Church of the Deceased back to his bracelet, however, he suddenly noticed that Torras was awake, after being unconscious for almost a week.

    ...

    ¡°Who am I?¡±

    Torras felt his mind filled byplete chaos that asionally showed him his past life.

    ¡°Right... I¡¯m Torras, the greatest honor of my family, the conqueror of the Eastern Seas... I am Vile King! But... where did Ie from? The Land of Revenant... yes, that¡¯s my home...

    ¡°What am I supposed to do now?¡±

    While asking the three questions of life, Torres found a lot of lost memoriesing back. He remembered all the ces he had been to and ces he nned to visit next. But the most imposing piece of memory among all was somewhere dark. Somewhere devoid of life and vigor.

    ¡°An ind... A filthy, stinky, and dead ind! Right... I need to get out of here. I can go anywhere as long as it¡¯s not here!¡±

 Chapter 792 - Questions

    <h4>Chapter 792: Questions</h4>

    In Torras¡¯ mind, the shing memories gradually approached their end until everything froze at one certain time point.

    He was sitting in a dark cave. His skinny, emaciated body had copsed on the ground. His body slowly bloated and decayed until there were only his bones left...

    ¡°I¡¯m Torras. I¡¯m... dead?¡± Torras realized something and widened his eyes.

    Strangely, more memories came back to him.

    The regret and ruefulness of dying a sorrowful death made him mad. Year after year, he roamed around the dark ind while hunting after everyone that somehow ended up there.

    Each time he was done with clearing out the ind, he would return to his grave and wait for more intruders.

    Until he met with this particr man who was a lot more powerful than him.

    ¡°I think he killed me... Wait, then what am I now?¡± Torras looked around in confusion. ¡°That gun... He had a strange gun that ended my ursed form. Or did he?¡±

    ¡°Can you hear me?¡±

    Torras suddenly heard someone¡¯s pleasant voice talking to him.

    <i>Wait. Pleasant? Why would I think that way?</i>

    Torras had been haunted by hatred, helplessness, and madness. Those were everything that he knew of.

    After living through thousands of years as a murderous wraith, Torras felt great that he got tomunicate with people instead of worsening his grudge using screams and ws. He felt as if there was a new light shining into his ckened spirit.

    He could no longer conceal his jubtion and began tough out loud.

    ¡°What¡¯s on your mind?¡± Angor asked while observing Torras¡¯ actions carefully. He noticed that Torras wasn¡¯tughing out of madness but true delight.

    ¡°I feel... happy! You have a sweet voice.¡± Torras smiled so big that his eyes grew squinty. He didn¡¯t care where the voice wasing from or who he was talking to. He was just d to feel his extinguished mentality being rekindled.

    ¡°Oh, thank you, I guess,¡± Angor replied while still looking at Torras¡¯ form.

    He already felt it strange that Torras¡¯ face behind that helmet mask looked so young and even appealing. He believed that, if Torras were to get a fake headpiece and dress up as ady, this man was very likely to fool a lot of enthusiastic stags with that charming smile.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t feel your bliss, which is such a big pity. Is it okay if I ask you several questions so that I can get a share of that happiness?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Ha. Of course I¡¯ll not turn down the owner of such a sweet voice. Go ahead.¡±

    Angor waited for a while until Torras was no longerughing too hard.

    ¡°Your name is Torras?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to ask who I am first?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have to. You¡¯re that wizard who killed me.¡±

    ¡°You think I killed you? Do you think you¡¯re dead now?¡±

    By these simple questions, Angor nned to find out whether Torras¡¯ memory was still consistent.

    ¡°I... don¡¯t know, actually. But I know you killed something. That was probably me... or was that not the ¡®real me¡¯?¡±

    ¡°You were pretty crazy back there.¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°You have ¡®vile¡¯ written in your name, and you pretty much lived up to it.¡±

    ¡°I see. You killed the Torras I hated. You killed the ¡®me¡¯ that I couldn¡¯t control. And you got rid of that part of me from my mind. As for my old name, ugh. I think an ireful government man gave me that moniker after I took his possessions. And somehow, everyone started calling me that. Although I don¡¯t dislike this name. ¡®Vile King¡¯ sits well with my style, you know?¡±

    Angor was d to see that Torras remembered both his past life and what happened when he was an undead.

    It seemed Sunders¡¯ theory was correct. By using all six ¡°white bullets¡± against an undead, it would revert to an ordinary, ¡°rational¡± soul.

    He quickly noted down the conclusion in his notebook while exining what Torras might need to know, ¡°People all have a slight chance of remaining behind as souls upon death. If they had strong regrets or obsessions at that time, they¡¯re very likely to be tainted by dark energy and resurrected as undead spirits.¡±

    Torras looked confused. ¡°So... you¡¯re saying I was an ¡®undead spirit¡¯, but now I¡¯m no longer one?¡±

    ¡°Correct. The bullets I used on you weren¡¯t intended to kill, but to cleanse you. Those are pretty costly, by the way. You¡¯re lucky that you met with me.¡±

    ¡°Ohh... that must be why I can feel human happiness again.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not safe yet, mind you. A clean soul can still be invaded by dark energy if you keep your old grudge locked up in your mind. Know that I no longer have more bullets to save you. Of course, you¡¯re free to be an undead again if you do choose so.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t mind whether Torras would be fallen again since it wouldn¡¯t affect his experiment. But at the very least, he would like to know more about that strange ind first.

    ¡°Oh no no no, I don¡¯t want that to happen again. It feels way better this way.¡± Torras shivered. ¡°Are we still at that damned ind, Mister Wizard?¡±

    ¡°No. I took you away.¡±

    Torras felt as if a burdensome weight were physically removed from his mind, setting him free.

    ¡°I escaped? For real?¡±

    Torras tried not to be overjoyed, but it was just impossible to conceal his true feelings when his greatest remorse had been purged.

    It took him a long time to calm down again, before he began to consider some other questions, such as his future ns, and of course, what Angor was going to do to him.

    He thought about ascertaining where he was right now. The narrow room he was in had nothing other than a colorful stained ss that looked like a church window.

    He moved to the window and looked through it, only to get terrified when he saw bright mes that covered up everything outside his room.

    ¡°Am-am I in hell?¡±

    Angor nced at the stove nearby and snickered.

    Simr to what he did to Freud, he ced an illusion inside Torras¡¯ chamber and put some furniture inside. He even created the illusion of a book, <i>Dancing on Devil¡¯s Tides</i>, for Torras to read, just for fun.

    After getting over his shock, Torras walked around his ¡°new room¡± and sat on the bed. ¡°I can¡¯t remember when I slept on a soft bedst time. This ce is nice. Just, the decoration might need some more polishing.¡±

    Angor rolled his eyes.

    He was finding it harder and harder to believe the stories in <i>Dancing on Devil¡¯s Tides</i>, which were all about a ferocious and wicked warlord instead of this seemingly refined man who knew about fashion and style.

    ¡°The room is yours now. Do whatever you like with it,¡± said Angor.

    Torras nodded and put on a more serious look. ¡°Mister Wizard, you spent valuable resources on me and took me out of that prison. You want something from me, right?¡±

    ¡°There are two things. One, as I said just now, I need to ask a few questions. And secondly... you¡¯re my test subject now. Of course I need to take you along.¡±

    While talking about ¡°test subject¡±, Angor was rather surprised to see that Torras didn¡¯t show any particr reactions.

    ¡°You¡¯re not afraid?¡±

    ¡°You just told me that those bullets were costly, mister. I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll change me back into an undead again. I¡¯m dead anyway. It¡¯s not like anything can be worse than that. Well, as long as you don¡¯t throw me back to that ind.¡± Torras shrugged.

    ¡°You¡¯ve epted your fate then?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have a choice, do I?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly. You still remember what you did at the ind, right? You even killed an apprentice from the White m Association. That man was an apprentice just like me.¡±

    Torras frowned and failed to remember the details. He knew he had been murdering people, but he couldn¡¯t keep their names and looks in his mind in his maddened state.

    ¡°Did I? Perhaps I did it when I could teleport around. And that apprentice must be really weak. But no, I can¡¯t do that again.¡±

    ¡°Wait. You can¡¯t teleport now? Isn¡¯t that like a natural ability you can use freely?¡±

 Chapter 793 - Fragments of Memory

    <h4>Chapter 793: Fragments of Memory</h4>

    ¡°Natural ability?¡± Torras shook his head. ¡°Is it even possible for a mortal like us to have such power?¡±

    ¡°Then can you tell me when you learned to do it when you were an undead?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°I... may need some time. What I can remember are all random and broken pieces...¡± Torras lowered his head and became silent.

    Angor could tell that Torras wasn¡¯t lying, which meant this man didn¡¯t know anything about that strange teleportation skill when alive. He could use it as an undead soul, but not anymore.

    Those moves were pretty deadly too. Torras even ambushed and killed an apprentice. Without his gun, Angor believed he would have a very difficult time when fighting against Torras as well.

    But could an undead soul left behind by a mortal learn something like that?

    He had read books that exined certain abilities typically gained by undead souls, such as using their scream or dark energy to harm living creatures. But no one had recorded dimensional abilities that allowed a soul to teleport around freely.

    Perhaps Torras, or his soul, had something special?

    Torras knew that he was nowpletely at the mercy of Angor with no hope of fighting back, so he decided to obey Angor¡¯s orders and tried his best to recall anything he could.

    Besides, he was also curious about his strange ability

    After searching his mind for a long time, Torras managed to notice a particr scenery among the memory fragments.

    ¡°I think I know when I first learned to do it,¡± said Torras while frowning.

    ¡°When is it? Did something special happen to you?¡±

    ¡°I... couldn¡¯t remember time and date in that state. But I think it¡¯s really, really long ago. Oh, right, can you tell me the current year, sir? How long has passed since the year of 223 in the Age of Silver?¡±

    ¡°That should be over two thousand years ago.¡±

    Torras looked down in sadness. ¡°I see. Then what I just saw must be over a thousand years ago. I was sleeping in a dark cave underground. Then I woke up because I smelled something unpleasant... I figured out that there were other people on the ind. I... I was mad. The only thing I could think of was ughter. Trust me, it wasn¡¯t in my nature, but I just couldn¡¯t control myself.

    ¡°I used to run all the way to those people. But after a certain point of time, I could teleport to my targets in a blink of an eye.¡±

    ¡°You mean you didn¡¯t learn it as soon as you became an undead?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°Correct. It was like something suddenly struck my mind one day, and it just happened.¡±

    For now, Angor didn¡¯t believe that Torras¡¯ soul was special because he didn¡¯t notice any unusual energy on Torras yet. The negative energy that was shown by ¡°undead Torras¡± felt the same as any other undead souls.

    Perhaps Torras obtained his special skill from elsewhere.

    As for what granted Torras his power... it was very likely to be the ¡°real treasure¡± being hunted down by both Song of the Deep and Summerdew Ridge.

    Before asking more about the unknown source of power, Angor decided to dig for other clues.

    ¡°How did you arrive at the small ind in the first ce?¡±

    ¡°I was a pirate, sir, I guess you already know. When I was 25, I overthrew the government controlling Valha Isle, and when searching their storage, I got my hands on some interesting books. That was when I learned about the existence of the wizarding world, and from there, I spent a lot of effort looking for this amazing ce.

    ¡°In the year of 222, Age of Silver, just when I hit 28, I followed a clue that led me to Fey Continent. But on my way, my ship was trapped inside some really thick mist. When it cleared up, I was already at the dead ind.¡±

    ¡°That must be Gearwheel Grave... Did your ship appear right inside the ¡®Ship¡¯s Grave¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh yes, thest area I knew was called ¡®Gearwheel Grave¡¯. As for the second ce you mentioned... I don¡¯t know. I was sure I saw no other ships when I just arrived at the ind.¡±

    Angor widened his eyes.

    ¡°You were alone?¡±

    ¡°Yup. It waspletely empty then. I knew more ships arrived after I died and became an undead, but I don¡¯t know where they came from.¡±

    Angor lifted a hand and ced a small illusion in Torras¡¯ room that showed an ancient-looking expedition ship with a fan-shaped figurehead. It was Lucas¡¯ ship, The Feather Fan.

    ¡°Check this. Are you sure this ship wasn¡¯t there when you just arrived?¡±

    Again, Torras tried his best to grasp everything from his chaotic recollection. He seemed to be at aplete loss at first, which was followed by the look of suspicion. This meant the ship did mean something to him.

    ¡°It looks so strange...¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Angor was a little bit excited for he almost felt that the true mystery hidden on the ind was in reach.

    ¡°Myst answer still stands, that my ship was the first one to arrive. As for this one...¡± Torras tilted his head. ¡°I think it showed up on the second day. I saw it right under a cliff wall when I was out exploring. I thought it was a ghost ship and was too scared to get inside myself, so I asked one of my men to check it out. He told me that he found nothing. Later, I went inside and looked for myself. Still didn¡¯t find anything.¡±

    ¡°But... there should be a corpse in the captain¡¯s room. Did you go there and see it?¡±

    ¡°About that...¡± Torras showed a hesitant look. ¡°I did see it, but it wasn¡¯t there at first.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°Since we were stuck, I sent my men to dig up a ce we could live in, while I kept searching around the ind for anything we could use. I went to that ghost ship again one day and saw a skeleton inside. But trust me, it wasn¡¯t there before. It just... sat there like he was still the captain, and it spooked me out.

    ¡°Then the head suddenly began to glow and scared the hell out of me. I used my sword and cut the skull off, and it stopped shining. I didn¡¯t know what got into my mind, but I took the skull with me. Back in my cave, I put it beside my bed and saw it as my trophy. Guess I couldn¡¯t forget the way of a pirate, heh.¡± Torras grew a little embarrassed and looked down.

    Angor just got himself a bigger question in his mind. <i>Lucas¡¯ head was taken away by Torras? Wait... wasn¡¯t there a skull on the bed when I and Toby went inside that secret stash?</i>

    For now, he could tell that Lucas and his ship did not enter the strange dimension at the same time.

    But howe? Could Lucas¡¯ skeleton move by itself?

    Since there was a teleportation array that led straight inside Lucas¡¯ ship under the dried well where Lucas killed himself, it was likely that someone else cameter and took Lucas¡¯ corpse through the portal.

    Angor didn¡¯t know whether this theory was correct. But right now, he was once again curious about another important matter, which was Lucas¡¯ ¡°fortune telling¡± ability.

    Everything in Lucas¡¯ stories, including the flowerbed, the Tree of Blessing, and the ¡°sword in the wheel¡±, all existed in the course of history, but with some details off the mark.

    ¡°Torras. The ship with an ox at the tip. That¡¯s your ship, right?¡±

    Torras nodded.

    ¡°Why was there a sword stuck inside the helm?¡±

 Chapter 794 - Glowing Skull

    <h4>Chapter 794: Glowing Skull</h4>

    ording to Torras, the story behind that sword was nothing too special. It all started when Torras¡¯ ship, The Feral, was sailing across Devil¡¯s Water. One day, before reaching Gearwheel Grave, the first officer of the ship gathered some people and started a riot.

    The reason for the betrayal was quite simple. Since Torras was hoping to be a wizard at Fey Continent, he took all the treasures and valuables he collected through his years with him. However, a part of the crew including the first officer would like to take their treasures back to their homes and enjoy the rest of their lives rather than taking a risky venture to somewhere unknown.

    A fight broke up, which ended with Torras emerging victorious.

    Torras cornered and killed his first officer at the rear of the ship. Then he took the officer¡¯s sword, stabbed it into the steering wheel, and imed that he¡¯d spare anyone who came back to him while killing those who would resist.

    The ship became peaceful again after some minor conflicts.

    Later, Torras left the sword there just to disy his authority to his people. And from there, it didn¡¯t take them very long to stumble into the dark dimension.

    ¡°You put it there... there was a secret room underground with a lot of valuables. Those were yours, right? You never gave them to anyone else?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Torras nodded.

    Angor scowled. It happened again! Lucas ¡°predicted¡± a story that urred in another way.

    What Lucas said in his logbook was that HE killed a group of pirates, seized a full shipload of treasures, and left his sword in the wheel.

    Everything was true except for one, that the ¡°main character¡± in the event wasn¡¯t Lucas, but Torras.

    The great coincidence looked exactly the same as when the flowerbed and Tree of Blessing were mentioned. These things truly existed, but whether Lucas experienced his stories himself was questionable.

    ¡°Were his stories Prophecy at all?¡± Angor rubbed his forehead and felt a big headache. He learned so many interesting clues that seemed to show him the final truth he was looking for, yet he stillcked something. A key that connected everything together.

    He decided to listen to more of Torras¡¯ stories and hopefully discover the logic that hooked up the clues.

    ¡°Let¡¯s move on. Tell me about how you lived on the ind while you were still alive. Make sure you don¡¯t overlook anything suspicious.¡±

    ¡°Alright, here goes...¡±

    Torras¡¯ sailors dug out some space underground and stayed there. At first, they were d that they found no dangerous animals or any threat on the ind. But this soon turned out to be a problem because they couldn¡¯t find anything to eat either.

    Theck of water was their first and most imminent trouble.

    It didn¡¯t take them long to exhaust thest drop of fresh water stored on their ship. They did find ake on the ind. However, they would vomit simply by smelling the sharp odor of that ck water from afar. No one would like to drink that stuff.

    After bearing with the deadly thirst for a while, people still surrendered and epted what they had. Thankfully, the water could keep them alive as long as they boiled it up and took some time to sift the filth away.

    The next crisis was illnesses caused by the dirty environment, such as stomachache and dysentery. Without many medical supplies, their only choice was to wait and endure. Yet the nasty water they lived on quickly worsened their conditions. Soon, they had the first group of casualties.

    After being trapped in the gloomy and lifeless world, people felt their wits slowly breaking down until they forgot how to properlymunicate with others.

    Then there was a food shortage.

    This matter wasn¡¯t so serious at first because the size of their crew was decreasing at a slow but terrifying speed. Their ship was intended to travel a long distance and go to Fey Continent, so they stocked up enough food for everyone to feed on for several years.

    Yet their food couldn¡¯tst forever.

    When everyone else had died either to diseases, depression, or starvation, Torras found himself as the lone survivor in his cave. There wasn¡¯t much food left for him. To conserve strength, he spent most of the days lying in bed.

    By that point, he was still determined to stay alive for as long as he could.

    But he couldn¡¯t create food out of thin air. After consuming thest grain he could scavenge, he spent several more days in despair while hoping for a savior toe, or at least a ship that brought more food.

    Still, his death was inevitable.

    Torras was almost crying when telling thest part of his story. In his years, he was both a powerful pirate and a professional survivalist who came back from various fatal situations. But his skills were of no use in that god-forsaken hellhole.

    ¡°Maybe this is my fate... When I killed too many people in my life, the hands of fate already decided to pull me to my doom like dragging a wired puppet. It¡¯s impossible to escape...¡± Torras covered his face.

    Meanwhile, Angor almost sensed something shing in his mind that was about to enlighten him and help him reach the conclusion of everything.

    He was sure he got the strange feeling when Torras mentioned ¡°fate¡±. This wasn¡¯t anything in particr because it wasmon for pessimistic victims to speak about fate and gods being unfair, yet... something told him that Torras wasn¡¯t such a simple case.

    ¡°Is there anything else worth noticing when you were struggling on the ind?¡± Angor wasn¡¯t giving up yet.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so...¡± Torras slowly rocked his head to and fro. ¡°Only that weird skeleton was out of ce, while everything else... wait. The skull. That skull!¡±

    ¡°Skull?¡± Angor remembered the previous story where Torras cut off Lucas¡¯ head. ¡°Are you talking about Lucas?¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s Lucas?¡±

    ¡°The name of that body you found in the ¡®ghost ship¡¯. You removed his head, remember?¡±

    ¡°Ahh, yes. So it was Lucas¡¯ skull. I hallucinated a lot during thest days of my life, and sometimes I couldn¡¯t tell fake from reality, or whether I was awake or dreaming. But one thing was certain... Lucas¡¯ skull would often sparkle beside my bed.¡±

    Angor quickly remembered that when he was hiding from Leviathan in the underground path, Toby mentioned seeing something shing in the cave.

    ¡°Was it a yellow light? Golden?¡±

    ¡°Yup. It was a golden light. Looked pretty.¡±

    <i>Damn. I left it behind...</i> Angorined in his mind. <i>It didn¡¯t look like anything special back then.</i>

    Toby, who had been enjoying a sweet sleep in Angor¡¯s pocket, stirred a bit.

    ¡°How do you make sure that you weren¡¯t seeing things when you were starving?¡± Angor asked. ¡°Maybe your eyes were failing and saw something that wasn¡¯t there?¡±

    ¡°Because I remembered the days when I just became an undead. That thing was still shining in my view.¡±

    ¡°Really? Was there something noticeable about that light? Did it have rhythm?¡±

    ¡°Not that I can think of. But I can tell you that it sometimes flickered, while sometimes it stayed bright for a while.¡±

    ¡°Did you feel anything wrong during the different conditions?¡±

    ¡°No... I used to stare at the shing light for a long time and didn¡¯t see anything beyond that. As for when the light became constant... huh?¡±

    Torras suddenly froze up as he recalled another scene hidden deep in his mind.

 Chapter 795 - Accomplished Wishes

    <h4>Chapter 795: Aplished Wishes</h4>

    When Torras just died but before he was tainted by negative energy, his soul floated away from his body and kept going until he moved through the ceiling above and reached outside.

    By that time, he had yet to realize that he had perished. He thought he suddenly obtained some kind of amazing ability that allowed him to fly freely, so he tried to move around the ind to look for a way out.

    But no¡ªno matter which direction he went, he would end up inside the imprable mist that always sent him back to square one.

    Defeated, he dived back inside his cave again.

    ¡°This is of no fuc*ing use... If you¡¯re gonna give me power, why not just allow me to teleport? So I can instantly get anywhere I want...¡±

    As soon as he said those words, he saw the strange skull on his bed glowing brightly, whichsted for several minutes.

    He didn¡¯t find it strange since this happened a lot. Feeling uninterested, he headed to his bed to rest and conserve energy even though he wasn¡¯t feeling hungry somehow.

    But someone else already upied his bed. It was a skinny and ill-looking man wearing a horned helmet.

    This was when Torras finally understood that he, or his former form, had passed away.

    He watched his own corpse for a long time until an unstoppable hatred manifested in his mind.

    He had always been a smart and cheerful man who didn¡¯t know how to give up no matter what kind of dilemma troubled him. He couldn¡¯t understand why this world would treat him like this.

    He couldn¡¯t take it anymore.

    From that point, his memory went all blurry and chaotic, which meant he was no longer himself.

    While Torras told his story, Angor also noticed the critical clue he was looking for¡ªthe glowing skull. It was Lucas¡¯ skull that could foretell future events in a strange manner.

    Then there was Torras, who said that he wished to acquire a new skill before the skull shone and granted his wish. Simrly, it didn¡¯t happen immediately. Torras spent several centuries as an ordinary undead soul before he suddenly received his new skill.

    Angor got an idea that what Lucas had been doing wasn¡¯t prophecy, but another type of special strength that worked like thew of karma. By affecting an unknown order in this world, Lucas somehow intervened with future events and changed their consequences.

    However, such feats required a long time to take effect. Judging from Lucas¡¯ stories and Torras¡¯ ¡°wish¡±, this power needed at least hundreds of years to show its result.

    As for why Lucas¡¯ predictions all fell onto someone else like Torras and ¡°Nayah the Charmer¡±, it was probably because Lucas¡¯ power had a lot of restrictions and could not show its effect on someone who couldn¡¯t live long enough to ept the effect. In this case, when Lucas¡¯ ¡°power¡± gathered enough strength but could not ur because Lucas was dead, it was instead forcefully fulfilled on somebody else.

    There was no doubt that an item that could be used to perform these ¡°future adjustments¡± was a Mystery treasure. And it was probably the skull mentioned by Torras.

    ¡°But why didn¡¯t I feel any Mystery power from it?¡± Angor pondered.

    After telling the story, Torras seemed to be lost in sadness for now, so Angor simply left the man alone and began reading Lucas¡¯ logbook again so that he could further interpret the general ¡°timeline¡± of Lucas¡¯ events.

    He soon found one of the stories at the end of the logbook, which was supposed to be what came after the battle between Lucas and the pirate group. Here, Lucas imed that he discovered a perfect spot to hide his treasures. He said it was a dark ce where nobody else could find.

    ¡°Yup, that must be the strange dimension. Lucas¡¯ special power created this ce in the future...¡±

    He kept looking for any information specifically rted to the strange ind.

    [A ming dragon is wrestling with another monster on the sea. In the end... the dragon was killed! But the other monster is on the brink of death too. Nice chance! I¡¯ll tame it and let it guard my treasure vault!]

    ¡°A monster that guarded the treasures... Leviathan?¡±

    He kept reading.

    [When people manage to find my legacy, they¡¯ll praise my name for the rest of the history! No... that can¡¯t be. But they¡¯ll keep my name in their minds for at least... three thousand years! Yes, that¡¯s good enough.]

    Again, this seemed like Lucas was blowing his own trumpet. But now that Angor knew about Lucas¡¯ secret, he grew interested in another small clue mentioned here, which was ¡°three thousand years¡±.

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t the secret dimension opened up by the Leviathan just after three thousand years, since he left those words?¡±

    Next, Lucas recorded more information about his ¡°treasure stash¡±, such as how he anchored The Feather Fan at the ind, and that he would stay at the ind for a long time.

    These became realityter as well. The Feather Fan did show up at the ind, and after Lucas died in the well, his body was taken to his ship by an unknown entity.

    Previously, Angor thought that another person visited the well and brought Lucas away. But it seemed not the case. Lucas¡¯ body moved elsewhere because of his special power.

    Angor closed the book and checked its cover again.

    ¡°The most faithful captain during the Age of Gold...¡±

    Perhaps Lucas was a liar during his time, and he clearly knew it. But what he didn¡¯t know was that he had given birth to an amazing Mystery item that caused a series of peculiar incidents hereafter.

    This item seemed to be naturally-urring rather than a man-made one since it was very unlikely that Lucas knew how to craft Mystery items. Again, Angor wondered how these ¡°natural¡± Mystery items came into existence in this world. They seemed so random.

    He couldn¡¯t prove any of his ideas yet, but he was almost sure that such a future-maniption tool truly existed. And just because of his confidence, he felt VERY depressed that he failed to take it with him when he had the chance.

    Maybe it had a terrible restriction and needed a really long time to ¡°charge up¡±, but it was still a Mystery item!

    ¡°Gosh. With it, I can just ¡®hope¡¯ that I turn into a legendary wizardter...¡±

    He knew he would probably die before that happened, so the blessing would go to someone else instead. But... that didn¡¯t matter now. He missed it. It probably was already taken by Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge.

    ¡°Damn it. It was just sitting there. And Toby even told me about it. I was blind... Well, fine. At least I got out of there.¡±

    He tried tofort himself that he could always find other Mystery items as long as he was alive, but something kept telling him that he was being an idiot.

    Torras got over his depression and suddenly spoke, ¡°Mister Wizard, was that thing used for making my wishe true?? I could teleport because I asked for it, right? Hey wait...¡± The man looked down again. ¡°I always hoped to escape from the ind too. Why didn¡¯t that happen?¡±

    ¡°Hm? But aren¡¯t you out now?¡±

    ¡°But I¡¯m dead. And I¡¯ve been making that wish since two thousand years ago!¡±

    ¡°No matter how long has passed, it still made your dreamse true, did it not?¡± said Angor.

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right... So, I also hoped that more ships woulde and bring me stuff, that someone coulde and save me. I wished I could live longer too. These all happened, huh?¡±

 Chapter 796 - Embarking

    <h4>Chapter 796: Embarking</h4>

    Angor suddenly remembered to take what Torras ¡°told¡± the skull before he died into ount. At first, those seemed to be the desperate yearnings of a dying man. But since Lucas¡¯ skull kept shing beside Torras, the item must have ¡°remembered¡± Torras¡¯ wishes.

    ¡°So... ships often went missing at Gearwheel Grave just because you asked for it to happen?¡± Angor muttered.

    People thought that it was a strange phenomenon typical in that part, but it was Torras who did it!

    Torras removed his helmet and scratched the back of his head. ¡°I dunno. Never wanted that for real.¡±

    Angor checked Torras¡¯ young look again carefully. Torras¡¯ ck hair was arranged in a pretty wild spiky style, but his immature face kinda ruined it.

    ¡°The skull granted everything you asked for. You could teleport at will, and you are now immortal as a soul...¡± Angor shook his head as he imagined what would happen if people knew that Torras was the culprit that dragged many ships into the ¡°Ship¡¯s Grave¡±.

    They would probably get so angry that they would seek out Torras¡¯ grave and spit on it.

    What Torras told Angor today had helped himprehend the mystery revolving around Lucas. It was all caused by Lucas¡¯ skull, which was a mystery item that suddenly showed up inside Lucas.

    Angor sighed again. Understanding the backstory wouldn¡¯t help him retrieve the item.

    A little bit irritated, he told Torras to read the book he prepared and learn something about the current world, before he stuffed the Church of the Deceased into his bracelet.

    Anyone would feel greatly disturbed if they missed a Mystery item that was well within reach, and Angor wasn¡¯t an exception. The annoyance was made worse when he just learned that the skull was a very powerful item that could control the future.

    He spent the night while being tortured by his regret.

    When Tulu woke up and saw Angor¡¯s grim look the next morning, he felt too scared to make any sound because he thought Angor was furious at him.

    ¡°Kumur¡¯s mother left some fish soup for you on the table. I give you half an hour to finish it and pack up. Then we¡¯ll leave,¡± Angor said in a cold tone.

    Tulu checked the steaming bowl and showed a hesitant look.

    Angor gave him another cold re. ¡°What, afraid that she¡¯ll poison you to death?¡±

    ¡°No no no.¡± Tulu waved his hands quickly. ¡°I just¡ª¡±

    ¡°Then get on with it. And remember to bring rations. I won¡¯t feed you on our way.¡± Angor humphed and stepped out of the house.

    Tulu looked at the mmed door with a confused look. <i>Why did Mister Padt change so much overnight?</i>

    Outside the door, Angor saw a big group of vigers waiting outside. When they saw him, they stepped back in fear.

    But when they saw that Angor wasn¡¯t doing anything particr to them, they moved back and nced into the yard curiously, where a couple¡ªKumur¡¯s parents¡ªas well as Kumur himself, were kneeling on the ground.

    The ck circles around their eyes suggested that they had a rough night.

    ¡°Sir Wizard, we¡¯re a failure as his family. Please punish us and forgive Kumur...¡±

    When Angor came, Kumur¡¯s mother hit her head on the dirt while weeping badly.

    Kumur¡¯s father was an elderly fisherman who was smoking a pipe on the ground but wasn¡¯t following the example of his wife.

    Little Kumur was terrified by what his parents were doing. The boy was crying, but at the same time, he was trying not to be too loud.

    Angor already saw such a sight using his spirit feelers earlier. The only difference was that the vigers would asionally mumble opinions about what they saw, but they all fell quiet when he was here.

    The reason for the drama was rather simple. Yesterday night, Kumur would dream of the ferocious beast eating him alive every time he closed his eyes. He cried all night without getting any sleep at all.

    That was when Kumur¡¯s mother realized what Angor meant by ¡°giving Kumur eternal nightmare as a punishment¡±. They came to Angor and pleaded for mercy in the early morning.

    Angor wasn¡¯t in a good mood right now after losing that Mystery item, and the disy just worsened his feelings. However, he still remained quiet without venting out his rage on the mortal couple just to be peaceful.

    From the crying woman, he learned that Kumur grew a little spoiled because his mother tended to coddle him too much, while Kumur¡¯s father spent most of his time on the sea and rarely spent much time with his family.

    All these factors contributed to Kumur¡¯s rowdy nature.

    This wasn¡¯t a serious problem since many families tended to have simr problems with their education. It was just that nobody thought Kumur would cause such a big disaster.

    Angor nced around at the vigers and noticed that all of these folks were in a simr condition because they couldn¡¯t send their children to proper schools. These people seemed kind in nature, but at the same time, they were too blind.

    But this couldn¡¯t be helped. The remote vige was their home.

    Kumur¡¯s mother spent the whole morning pleading without earning any response from Angor. Tulu finished his preparation for travel and stepped into everyone¡¯s view.

    Kumur¡¯s father had not witnessed the terrible oue caused by his son because he returned toote yesterday. When he saw half of Tulu¡¯s face was covered by bloody bandages, the old man finally lost it and burst into tears.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Tulu... I¡¯m fuc*ing sorry! Your grandmother asked me to keep an eye on you, but I... I¡¯m such a loser to her!¡±

    Tulu was a bit confused at what he saw until Ralph exined the situation to him.

    Kumur¡¯s mother saw it and thought that Tulu would help her persuade Angor.

    But it didn¡¯t happen.

    Tulu didn¡¯t pay them much attention and simply joined Angor. ¡°Shall we go now, Mister Padt?¡±

    Angor smirked. It seemed Tulu remembered his lesson.

    He then spoke to Kumur¡¯s family, ¡°Like I said, it will go away the moment he understands his mistake.¡±

    Without minding Kumur¡¯s mother, who was almost screaming in despair, Angor brought Tulu away. The vigers around the house quickly stepped aside to give way to them.

    At the entrance of the vige, they saw the mayor and his father waiting for them.

    ¡°You¡¯re taking Tulu with you, sir?¡± the old man asked.

    ¡°As a traveler, I need to look for all the beautiful things this world has to offer.¡± Angor smiled.

    The mayor looked at Tulu¡¯s bandage and the big package, which was bigger than Tulu himself. ¡°Maybe you should at least wait until you recover?¡±

    Tulu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m leaving to do something about my wound faster.¡±

    By this, Tulu meant to be a supernatural individual to heal his ear. However, the mayor thought that Tulu wanted to get away from this sickening ce as fast as possible.

    ¡°I see... Be well. And remember that your home is always waiting for you.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir.¡± Tulu nodded. ¡°Look after my grandmother, please.¡±

    ¡°Rest assured. I¡¯ll keep her resting ce tidied as much as I can.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Angor finished exchanging courtesy with the old man and walked away while Tulu bade farewell to the vigers, gave Ralph a friendly hug, and followed behind Angor.

    Tulu didn¡¯t know what awaited him ahead, but he felt excited to find out.

    When Angor and Tulu left toward the sky on Gond, a young man in a blue robe, who had been reading a cantrip book under the sea, stretched his arms and showed an impatient expression.

    ¡°Man... guess I¡¯ll follow them. It¡¯s my job anyway.¡±

    He shook his head and melted into a stream of bubbles that followed the currents.

 Chapter 797 - Rising Anxiety

    <h4>Chapter 797: Rising Anxiety</h4>

    Like everyone else who traveled on Gond for the first time, Tulu was extremely astonished to see the masterful vehicle that sailed across the sky. While admiring the starry decorations and the trail of bubbles left behind, he couldn¡¯t help but exim in awe, which helped him forget about his injury.

    Thissted for a while until he got slightly used to it. He finally had time to talk to Angor.

    ¡°Are we going to Fey Continent right now, Mister Padt?¡±

    Angor was leaning against the railing while pretending to be resting. He replied without opening his eyes, ¡°Not yet. I¡¯m recruiting more talents elsewhere. Our next stop is the Land of Revtion.¡±

    Tulu looked at the Exodus Channel ahead and frowned. ¡°But... Mister Padt? Aren¡¯t we going toward Devil¡¯s Water? I think Land of Revtion is in the opposite direction.¡±

    Angor opened his eyes this time. ¡°Devil¡¯s Water?¡±

    He looked toward where Tulu was pointing to and saw the Exodus Lighthouse, which suggested the supply depot they came across on The Limpet several months ago. He still remembered how the ind folks weed their ship with great enthusiasm when they got out of Devil¡¯s Water back then.

    ¡°But I was following the map...¡± He took out his sea chart and checked. Yet no matter how he looked, thendmark ahead told him that he had been going the wrong way.

    ¡°Ahem. I made a mistake...¡± Angor tried to hide his embarrassment. ¡°Where should we go?¡±

    ¡°That way, sir.¡± Tulu read the map and pointed in another direction.

    ¡°Let¡¯s do it then. I didn¡¯t have time to make careful ns when I was too busy with my work. Okay, you take the map and take control of Gond so that I have more spare time to resume my research.¡±

    Without allowing Tulu to say otherwise, Angor immediately instructed him how to steer Gond.

    While Tulu could not channel magic to power up the boat yet, he had no problem handling the directions.

    Tulu felt greatly excited for the new experience. And using his expertise as a sailor, they soon arrived at a brand new area¡ªthe ckberry Waters.

    This was supposed to be Nausica¡¯s old territory. It could be seen that Nausica loved her former glory because she even called herself the ¡°King of ckberry¡± when fighting in Sky Tower.

    When Tulu saw that Angor was casually enjoying the sea breeze instead of ¡°doing research¡±, he offered to introduce what he knew about these parts.

    Like most people, Tulu talked about Nausica¡¯s name with great respect. And when Angor grew interested in his attitude, he answered while blushing a little, ¡°It was Officer Helen who told me about Nausica. And man, her stories are awesome! A heroine that dominated the entire ckberry Waters! That¡¯s not much different from Torras the legendary pirate.¡±

    Angor saw Tulu¡¯s twinkling eyes and teased, ¡°Who knows, maybe you¡¯ll get to see both of them once you be an apprentice.¡±

    However, he wasn¡¯t going to exin what he meant by that. He felt his mood dropping again when mentioning Torras¡¯ name, so he simply closed his eyes and emptied his mind.

    ...

    While they enjoyed their travel peacefully, the southern wizarding world couldn¡¯t say the same as a looming turmoil had added a great burden to the minds of many wizards.

    It all started because of the grand exhibition at Devil¡¯s Water that did not have an equally grand ending.

    Many wizarding organizations sent their manpower there, only to find a ¡°dead dimension¡± with nothing of interest inside. However, these wizards dared not direct their frustration for wasting their time against Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge, since they weren¡¯t supposed to be there in the first ce. Song of the Deep and Summerdew Ridge even spent great resources to deploy an anti-prophecy ward with obvious intentions.

    But their grievance had to go somewhere. And here, they chose to put all me on where the rumors came from¡ªMariyasah.

    Mariyasah quickly became the target of many usations, but he didn¡¯t care much about them because such recriminations were pointless against a truth-finder wizard from Floating Mech City.

    As people expected, this matter would slowly get forgotten by people as time passed by.

    Yet things did not turn out this way.

    One day, a famous magazine named <i>Grove of Time</i> published an article that further escted the situation.

    <i>Grove of Time</i> was edited by the congress of the City of Truth and was usually regarded as a very authoritative material in the southern region. The City of Truth was a major wizarding organization that ruled over an entire appendage ne and was mightier than Brute Cavern and Floating Mech City, both in size and strength. In fact, Mister Monkey from Moonfrost Union was once a member of the City of Truth. And even today, he remained as an important guest member of the congress.

    For these reasons, people usually considered <i>Grove of Time</i> to be a reliable source of information, unlike the other magazines.

    <i>Grove of Time</i> released a new issue every ten years, and the time for a new volume was pretty close. Conventionally, it usually provided important messages or newly discovered technologies. For example, this time, it used several pages to describe Sumesh¡¯s achievement and another major column to talk about Greya¡¯s new spell, in which Angor¡¯s name was also mentioned.

    But those weren¡¯t important right now.

    People were more interested in an article that described a new method for blocking prophecy spells, which was exactly the one used at Devil¡¯s Water. Furthermore, the magazine openly pointed out a w in the anti-prophecy ward, much to the annoyance of Song of the Deep.

    [Using what is avable at hand, we sessfully breached the ward that protected Silver Palm Isle. ording to the energy signatures we recorded, there was indeed a Mystery item. By now, it is safe to say that the rumor regarding a tactical mystery weapon is truthful. Unfortunately, the item was already missing when the Leviathan fully opened the dimension entrance. We do not know exactly when the item was taken or where it went. Without a general direction to search, using a prophecy to locate the item will cost immeasurable resources, so no further investigation will be carried out for now.]

    The article was originally intended to introduce the prophecy-prevention technology. But people were all concerned about the other clue, that Mariyasah wasn¡¯t lying about the tactical weapon in the dark dimension.

    More importantly, <i>Grove of Time</i> imed that nobody seized the item during the hunt. Not even Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge. They made lots of preparations beforehand and were at an absolute advantage.

    This had left people wondering about where the item ended up. And since <i>Grove of Time</i> also agreed to call the item a ¡°tactical weapon¡±, everyone would also like to know what the item was used for.

    They expected to see a wizarding organization iming ownership of the item in due time, but no one did.

    And because of this, people suspected that it was a smaller organization or even an individual who got their hands on the item.

    No one spoke their minds out loud, but they all secretly prepared their own ns.

    ...

    Inside a temporary magic hut in Abyss ne, Sunders was also reading the newest edition of <i>Grove of Time</i> with a serious look while ¡°Eventide¡± Kanter sat at the other end of the room.

    Kanter nced through the window and snickered at the apprentices who were constructing barricades outside. He then looked back and saw Samantha, who had been sitting nearby and giving Sunders a suggestive stare.

    <i>This world is so unfair</i>... Kanterined in his mind and picked up the magazine when Sunders dropped it. ¡°Anything interesting in there? Why do you look so pissed?¡±

    Sunders raised an eyebrow. <i>Pissed? Me?</i>

    Kanter simply checked the page Sunders was reading.

    ¡°Tsk. You¡¯re curious about this tactical weapon as well?¡±

    ¡°Who wouldn¡¯t be? You don¡¯t find many things that have ¡®Mystery-level¡¯ and ¡®tactical¡¯ in their names at the same time. But... guess we¡¯ll forget about it. We can¡¯t do anything while in the Abyss.¡±

    ¡°Then are you pretending that cool look just to...¡± Kanter smiled while ncing at Samantha, causing the woman to leave the hut impatiently.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t I already say that I¡¯m not interested in broken ss?¡± Sunders frowned.

    Kanter thought about Samantha¡¯s glittering lipstick that looked like shattered ss and smiled.

    ¡°Alright alright. What was on your mind then? Seriously.¡±

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°Angor is supposed to be heading to Marginalized Ind right now... and he¡¯ll go past Devil¡¯s Water around this time. I hope he¡¯ll not get dragged into it.¡±

    ¡°Oh chill. Devil¡¯s Water is huge. How could an apprentice join those greedy bastards? He¡¯s an ¡®academism¡¯. He knows how to stay out of trouble.¡±

    Sunders smiled but didn¡¯t reply.

    As Angor¡¯s teacher, he fully knew that, despite that innocent look, the little devil was no less a troublemakerpared to Flora and Sumesh. The boy even thought about destroying the world once.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so...¡±

 Chapter 798 - The Traveling Restaurant of Rose

    <h4>Chapter 798: The Traveling Restaurant of Rose</h4>

    The floor shook as the jingling sound of bells was heard.

    Kanter looked outside and saw a gigantic white bear asrge as a snow mountain slowly emerging from the dark forest in the distance.

    There was a church building made of ice on top of the creature. As the bear moved, the bells hanging around the building clinked cheerfully.

    ¡°Here¡¯s Dokibell and another group of workers,¡± Kantermented.

    A piece of yellowish parchment floated down from the church and slowlynded on the windowsill of the magic hut.

    Kanter opened the window and picked it up. ¡°Let me see here... Which unlucky bastard sent their apprentices here to die? Oh, we got 36 people from Valley of Breeze, 17 high-level apprentices from Tree of Paradise, 7 weak ones from Forren Family. Huh... Looky here, Sunders. Brute Cavern also sent one apprentice. A level-3. Didn¡¯t you say that Brute Cavern is out of this?¡±

    Sunders was also surprised to hear about it. As nned, Brute Cavern should provide capablebat power, meaning, wizards. They didn¡¯t need to provide apprentices as cannon fodder.

    Sunders waved his walking cane to summon the parchment to him and read it.

    Bobota, level-3 apprentice, Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Bobota?¡± Sunders mumbled this name but without recognizing it. ¡°Is this someone¡¯s student? They overlooked the warning sent by Mister Rein?¡±

    The door to the hut was pushed open by Samantha, who spoke to them in a cold tone, ¡°The fresh ves are here. Go and get them to work, will you?¡±

    Sunders, Kanter, and Samantha were the only three wizards here who were responsible tomand the apprentices to build the new base. This shouldn¡¯t be their job, but it couldn¡¯t be helped as they didn¡¯t have too many wizards in the campaign.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Sunders stood up.

    Samantha raised an eyebrow. She meant to tell Kanter to do the work because the old man spoke unnecessary stuff to Sunders earlier, but things didn¡¯t go as she nned.

    When Sunders left the hut, Samantha stopped Kanter, who was about to take a walk outside as well. ¡°What¡¯s with Sunders?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s an apprentice from Brute Caverning. So...¡±

    Samantha looked at the roster on the desk and showed a disgusted look.

    ...

    Seeing Sundersing, the giant bear, Dokibell, lowered its body and allowed a group of apprentices to get off from its back.

    ¡°Mister Phantom, I¡¯ve delivered the newestborers. I¡¯ll be going now.¡±

    When Sunders nodded, Dokibell turned away and slowly moved into the forest while causing a small earthquake with each step.

    Sunders looked at the group of distressed apprentices in front of him and sighed. These were either elders or hopeless members of their organizations who were given up. Many of them had not learned basic cantrips such as Preserve Heat yet, and they were shivering badly in the cold wind.

    But there was an exception.

    A young man in a white hooded robe stood tall among all the other wobbly apprentices with a proud look. A crimson chain with runes sculpted on it was slowly worming all over his body as if it were alive.

    ¡°You, step out. What¡¯s your name?¡± asked Sunders.

    The young man was startled a bit before he bowed politely. ¡°I am Bobota, Mister Sunders.¡±

    ...

    Ferran Land wasn¡¯t very far from the Land of Revtion as only the ckberry Waters separated them. ckberry Waters was usually peaceful and calm without many monsters lurking around, so the two continents had establishedmunication and trading routes since a long time ago.

    In fact, Angor could see asional merchant ships moving below on his Gond.

    A particr ship with roses hanging all over it drew their attention. The cute design was quite a sight to behold on the boring sea.

    ¡°Mister Padt!¡± Tulu yelled out. ¡°That¡¯s a trader ship from Versailles Principality!¡±

    ¡°Is it something special?¡±

    Tulu saw Angor¡¯s rxed expression and felt relieved all of a sudden. He was d that Angor returned to being the friendly and carefree character he saw on The Limpet.

    ¡°They transport special goods made of roses. Food, mostly. But since these things spoil pretty fast, they usually empty their stock to the other ships theye across before reaching Ferran. The ship has another name to it, which is the ¡®traveling restaurant of roses¡¯. We can try buying their merchandise too, if you feel like it, sir.¡±

    Tulu had been eating the dried fish slices he took from the vige, which were far from appealing. When he saw a chance to get proper food, he almost drooled into the sea.

    Angor looked at the pink ship and recalled when he was traveling with Sailum and Nausica four years ago. He still remembered that Sailum used to be a timid boy who kept away from everyone. Sailum only began to warm up when Nausica revealed herself to be the former conqueror of ckberry Waters. Then, Sailum mentioned that Versailles Principality was his home.

    When Sailum felt depressed that he came from a small ce, Nausica quickly read his mind and imed that she loved that ce and its local products, thus allowing Sailum to feel confident again.

    And Angor always admired Nausica¡¯s flexible way when treating her friends.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and taste their roses then.¡± Angor smiled and told Tulu to head that way. He also wanted to find out how the ¡°rose cakes¡± tasted, since Nausica loved them so much.

    Delighted, Tulu followed the order while almost dribbling like a hungry animal.

    Their arrival caused a giant ruckus at the merchant ship. When the trembling workers learned that two ¡°mysterious wizards¡± would like to have some of their rose cakes, they immediately presented their best-quality stock to the table that looked too colorful to be proper food.

    Tulu happily devoured his share with teary eyes while not forgetting his backpack so that he could have more takeaway.

    As for Angor... he only took a small bite before giving up. The cake was TOO sweet, and it set his teeth on edge. He wondered why Nausica left those goodments when talking about this stuff. As far as he knew, Nausica loved salty taste more than sweet.

    Those words were probably meant to cheer up Sailum.

    After paying for the food, they ended their brief visit without further ado.

    While still smacking his lips, Tulu spoke up, ¡°Mister Padt, I heard one of the sailors mentioning that there are mermaids showing up at this route.¡±

    ¡°Mermaids?¡± Angor frowned. He wasn¡¯t paying much attention to the sailors when walking around the rose garden on the ship.

    ¡°They said a bunch of mermaids tried to seduce them with their voices. They¡¯d have already ended up at the bottom of the sea if they didn¡¯t buy their way through using the cakes.¡±

    ¡°Using voice to charm sailors... that sounds typical for mermaids. We¡¯re probably talking about some high-ranked ones too, since they chose cakes over human flesh.¡±

    ¡°Eh, mermaidse in different ranks, sir?¡±

    Angor proceeded to exin the knowledge that wasmon among apprentices. ¡°Just like humans, mermaids have social sses among them. There are the Figgs, who usually dwell around the Shampoo Coast. The ck Jail Mermaids at White Sand Sea. The Pruss Mermaids at Fantasia Canal... so on. They have different looks on their skin, scale color, size,nguage, and traditions. The figurehead of The Limpet is a Siren, right? They say that Sirens are close rtives to mermaids.

    ¡°While low-ss mermaids usually can¡¯t resist the temptation of human blood, better ones know how to control their desire.¡±

    As Angor talked, Tulu slowly painted a fantastic picture of mermaids in his mind.

    ¡°Awesome... I wonder what their songs sound like. Ehh... Mister Padt?¡± Tulu¡¯s ears suddenly twitched. ¡°Did you hear that?¡±

 Chapter 799 - Mermaid Children

    <h4>Chapter 799: Mermaid Children</h4>

    The strange sound wasn¡¯t noticeable at first until Gond moved further and allowed them to recognize the melodies that suggested a song.

    ¡°Ohh, this feels nice!¡± Tulu closed his eyes and began to hum along.

    In the beginning, Tulu was simply swaying his head with the changing tunes. But soon, his movement intensified until he slowly walked toward where the music came from.

    In order to go after the music, he dangerously peeked his head over the edge of the boat. And before he could overdo it and fall over, someone¡¯s loud snicker suddenly reached his good ear and ¡°fished¡± his spirit out of the bewitching music.

    In the next second, Tulu woke up as a bone-piercing chilliness invaded his body. This was when he saw half of his body already outside the protective barrier on the boat.

    He jumped back with a start and saw Angor grinning at him. It was obvious that Angor just alerted him with thatugh.

    Before Tulu could thank Angor for the timely help, he heard the strange music again and quickly covered his ears out of instinct.

    On the surface of the sea brightened by the color of dusk, a group of pink-colored mermaids was yfully swimming around while singing, without noticing a flying boat well above their heads.

    Tulu looked at the creatures, terrified.

    ¡°Mister Padt, I-I¡ª¡±

    ¡°A simple means of mind maniption,¡± Angor replied with an indifferent look. ¡°Since you just escaped, you will know how to do it again by yourself next time.¡±

    Tulu noticed that the music could still reach his brain despite his self-protection, so he simply lowered his hands.

    As Angor said, as long as he was aware and did not intentionally enjoy the music, he wouldn¡¯t get affected at all.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting to see them for real. Those seem like younglings,¡± Angormented while observing the mermaids below with an intrigued look. ¡°I was wrong. The merchant ship was safe because these young ones aren¡¯t at the age for hunting yet. Rather, they prefer sweets.¡±

    The mermaids with pink tails all resembled teenage boys and girls if one only looked at their upper bodies. Some of the female ones were still munching on some rose cakes they received from the traveling ship.

    ¡°They don¡¯t hunt? Then why did I¡ª¡± Tulu wasn¡¯t looking as scared when he learned that those were children.

    ¡°Simr to human societies, mermaids have their own education and training methods that are no less effective than ours. Naturally, their kids are under the protection of adults, and the adults are responsible for hunting. As for what just happened... the voice of a mermaid is naturally captivating to humans. This group of small fry doesn¡¯t have to actively use their ability to charm you when singing. Of course, their power is a lot weakerpared to their parents.¡±

    Angor lowered his voice into a whisper. ¡°Telling from the thin film covering their bodies, these are Rogge Mermaids.¡±

    While most mermaids had beautiful looks by human standards, the Rogges looked even better on average. Among all different mermaids, Angor was most interested in the Rogges because the transparent, silk-like substance that covered their bodies looked very simr to the scarves worn by celestial individuals mentioned in Jon¡¯s mythology stories.

    If a skilled artist were here, they would undoubtedly copy the divine scenery where these adorable creatures were swimming in the dusk and create another masterpiece for the whole world to admire.

    However...

    ¡°There must be adults watching over them.¡± Angor looked around carefully. ¡°These kids must be the high-ss among their ranks too, so there got to be a lot of guardians around.¡±

    As soon as he said those words, the peaceful seawater was suddenly unsettled by a giant tide.

    Instead of moving away, the mermaid kids dived into the big wave and began to happily pull off all kinds of surfing tricks.

    Angor widened his eyes slightly as he saw more mermaid children emerging from the water.

    They all had colorful tails and shiny ¡°scarves¡± that further added to their cute looks. Now, over thirty mermaids were ying around the tide as if they found their best toy.

    And thanks to the increased number, their song was amplified before it reached Gond again. While Angor waspletely unaffected, Tulu was easily hypnotized.

    When Angor saw Tulu moving to the edge of the boat again, he sighed in annoyance and deployed a spirit barrier around the boat. The barrier was intended for blocking off the mind-maniption effect but without physically stopping the music from going in.

    Tulu quickly noticed what happened to him and blushed. Angor wasn¡¯t going to me him since it was just right for a mortal to act so helplessly in the presence of supernatural creatures.

    ¡°Mister Padt, shall we speed up? I think your boat can leave this area within a minute if we go at full speed,¡± said Tulu.

    Angor considered for a while and agreed to the n. He did feel a bit interested in the mermaids, but it wasn¡¯t enough reason for him to halt their travel. He might find the time and work on a project regarding the mermaidster, but definitely not now.

    However, before Tulu could tend to the boat, Toby flew out of Angor¡¯s pocket and made a series of wing signs at Tulu in protest.

    Angor easily interpreted what his partner wanted. As a ¡°music lover¡±, Toby felt like spending some more time enjoying the wonderful performance. ording to Toby, it wasn¡¯t as wonderful as true music performed by human masters, but the bird still preferred to stay here for a while.

    Also, the enchanting power of the mermaids had zero effect on Toby. This was why Toby came out and stopped Tulu from driving the boat.

    Angor chose to agree. Their schedule wasn¡¯t tight. Taking a brief rest was eptable.

    He signaled Tulu to take it easy and strengthened the spirit barrier just in case.

    Since Gond was hidden among the clouds, the little mermaids minded their own games without noticing the observers at all.

    After listening to what Angor exined to him, Tulu was carefully looking at the joyful scene while being extremely cautious. He knew that anyone foolish enough to get carried away and approach the yful creatures would soon end up as a pile of bones.

    At this moment, Tulu couldn¡¯t find any courage to appreciate the lovely music at all. He knew it was supposed to be a deadly weapon and only wished to get away as fast as possible.

    Angor was fully aware of Tulu¡¯s mindset. Andpared to Tulu, he regarded the presence of mermaids more open-mindedly.

    In the views of humans, mermaids were wicked predators and their enemies. Of course, Angor didn¡¯t like them. But at the same time, he understood thews of nature. Mermaids hunted human seafarers for survival, and it was written in their nature. Angor would rather behave like a neutral observer in this case and avoid making trouble as long as the mermaids did not attack him first.

    Putting their cruelty aside, Angor would admit that the mermaids both looked and sounded marvelous. Unlike Tulu, who was fully concentrated on staying safe, Angor had what it took to admire the more pleasant elements shown by the mermaids.

    Using their premature voices that would doubtlessly grow more charming in the future, the young mermaids praised different entities during their surfing games. The setting sun, the benevolent sea, and everything that existed with them... To these young spirits, everything in this world was beautiful and fun, just like human babies who had yet to learn how to tell good from evil.

    And because of their innocent spirits, their songs were enthralling to all.

    A momentter, the unharmonious noise of more tides came from the water and interrupted the show.

    Angor looked below and saw a gigantic turtle as big as a cloud whale slowly rising to the surface, causing dangerous-looking tidal waves to travel in all directions even though it wasn¡¯t moving very fast.

    Strangely, the turtle had a big pile of colorful corals of different shapes ced on its shell.

    The mermaid children began to climb onto the turtle¡¯s body without showing the slightest hint of fear.

    At the same time, another distant melody was heard from the turtle.

 Chapter 800 - Beatific Revelation

    <h4>Chapter 800: Beatific Revtion</h4>

    Almost instantly, Angor took a liking to the new song.

    Before this moment, he thought that even though the music sung by mermaids was angelic enough, it was still within human limits. Good human singers could always achieve simr performances, just without the extra charming effect.

    But the song he was listening to right now waspletely beyond that limit.

    There was only an unapanied mermaid singing, yet her voice seemed to be breaching the limitations of what was possible for an individual as if she could control several instruments to sing for her at the same time.

    The sky was her stage, the tides were her drums, the winds were trombones... even the flows of water rhymed for her.

    Now THIS was definitely not possible for human performers.

    Even Angor failed to resist the magical power of the song and found himself overwhelmed by the tempting melodies.

    ...

    The color of dusk was already reced by starlight by the time he woke up from his trance.

    He looked at the source of the voice. At the center of the coral pile and on top of a throne made from colorful seashells and gemstones, a divine-looking mermaid wearing a crown was chanting her song with her eyes closed.

    Angor couldn¡¯t find the right words to describe her stunning visage, which didn¡¯t seem to be from this world at all.

    While she praised the stars, the sea, and everything the world had to offer, a team of majestic-looking mermen showed up from the water and came to her, either to join the harmony or stand guard around her like soldiers serving their queen.

    The whole sight almost reminded Angor of the terrible dramas and scenes of group sex he saw in Phantom of Festivity. But instead of the contemptible nature of paid actors, Angor only saw absolute loyalty from the mermen. Thisbined with the divinity shown by the singing mermaid made the whole vista appear as a holy and solemn ritual.

    Again, Angor felt his mind almost captured by the mermaid.

    He saw the stars in the sky and the water below paving ways to wee her. He saw the mermen swearing to give up their lives to protect her.

    Then he suddenly remembered a fictional story he heard before, which was the Goddess of the Sea. Of course, he didn¡¯t believe that he was looking at an actual goddess since the mermaid was probably only an important member of her n. But this didn¡¯t prevent him from taking interesting guesses.

    As he took more time to admire the fanciful parade, he felt astounding enlightenment filling his mind all of a sudden.

    Amazing ideas and visions came forth, which began to construct the tiny corner of a bigger picture, waiting for him to discover...

    ¡°A godly voice... but this is not enough!¡± Angor yelled out subconsciously as he flew away from Gond under the shocked gazes of Tulu and Toby. ¡°More... I need to see more! The clouds are in the way. I need to see the stars better!¡±

    As soon as he left those words, a breeze came out of nowhere and uncovered the clear sky, allowing the stars and the moon to join the performance.

    But Angor still felt the unknown sensation trapped in a corner of his brain. ¡°More! I need more drifts, I need more wind!¡±

    As Angor shouted like a mad artist, both Tulu and the creatures below looked at him in great confusion.

    ¡°A flying human. Is that a wizard?¡± a handsome-looking merman guard asked in a bit of fear.

    ¡°It must be. Should we get back and hide?¡±

    ¡°But the princess doesn¡¯t have many chances for such tours. We don¡¯t want to disappoint her.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying we¡¯d rather face the rage of a wizard?! You know we¡¯re hopeless against a mighty wizard who can easily burn the sea dry!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s ask Her Highness first.¡±

    All the mermen looked at their princess hoping for an instruction.

    However, the singing mermaid was still concentrating on her opera without noticing the ruckus around her. And it didn¡¯t seem that her song was ending any time soon.

    In fact, she felt a strong emotioning from the strange figure flying above her that told her to keep singing. She knew the man was a wizard and possibly a very powerful one. But instead of sensing hostility, she could tell that the wizard was mesmerized by her song just like any othermon humans.

    Hoping to leave a good impression, she chose to keep up her performance and present her best potential.

    And since their princess decided so, her guardians would stay with her.

    ¡°I need more, bigger tides! And stronger, faster wind!¡± Angor was now fully upied in his own passion as he slowly constructed an illusion.

    He was trying to recreate the beautiful scenery in his illusion while adding something of his own. He wanted to bring the mysterious awareness in his mind into reality, yet something told him that it wasn¡¯t possible to fully grasp the feeling in normal conditions, so he decided to ept the bewitching magic of the mermaid and embrace the madness, thus allowing himself to see the buried insight.

    He demanded that the mermaid kept singing.

    Furthermore, he would like to see billowing tidal waves and hurricanes in his picture that ripped everything apart so that he could pick up and rearrange the pieces into something he wanted.

    He could create such elements by using several powerful cantrips. But he couldn¡¯t¡ªhe knew doing so would wake himself up from the amazing stimtion.

    The mermaid princess felt what Angor wanted to do, but she was too powerless to help.

    Angor was yelling louder and more frantically as he felt the incentive opportunity slipping away.

    ...

    At the bottom of the sea, a floating bubble slowly thickened and materialized into a man¡¯s form.

    ¡°What¡¯s he doing? Tide and wind?¡± Jebra frowned as he felt astounded by Angor¡¯s bizarre disy.

    Using his talented power blessed by the sea, he knew that it was the princess of Rogge Mermaids taking a cruise up there. Even so, he didn¡¯t understand why Angor looked so excited about it.

    ¡°The girl looks good. But I prefer blue hair. Curly is better. Heh heh...¡±

    He heard Angor¡¯s unhinged yelling again.

    ¡°That girl¡¯s too young to make tidal waves happen. Let me see...¡± Jebra considered and took control of the water currents around him.

    A giant tide emerged on the surface of the sea, causing the air currents to go frenzied as well.

    Angor¡¯s eyes gleamed in delight as the unknown thrill was nourished just a little.

    ¡°Still not enough!¡±

    Jebra frowned again. ¡°What the heck? Does he know I¡¯m here? Is he... testing me?¡±

    Curious to find out Angor¡¯s n, Jebra decided to follow the intimation and generated even deadlier waves.

    ¡°More! I NEED MORE!!!¡± Angor screamed.

    As Jebra pumped more power into his tricks, the tidal waves grew so big that they almost covered the sky.

    While facing the looming disaster, the mermaid princess devotedly continued with her song. In contrast to the intensified hazard around her, her voice grew calm and serene, and it carried a fascinating power that soothed the minds of others as if she were driving a refuge ark in a world-ending apocalypse.

    Finally, Angor had fully grasped what he needed.

    ¡°There!¡±

    Countless visible illusion nodes came from Angor¡¯s position and burst outward like a dust explosion.

    ¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡± Jebra watched as Angor¡¯s form was fully covered behind an illusion.

    Then he suddenly felt a special energy signature, which he had encountered not long ago.

    ¡°He¡¯s doing alchemy again??!¡±

 Chapter 801 - Another Music Box

    <h4>Chapter 801: Another Music Box</h4>

    ¡°He¡¯s crafting something new? Now?¡± Jebra frowned over the situation. ¡°Was he yelling like a mad man because of some new inspiration?¡±

    Until now, Jebra had seen Angor as someone impassive and calm most of the time. The only reason he could think of for exining Angor¡¯s unusual behavior was that Angor entered some kind of special mental state as an alchemist.

    ¡°This is gonna look fun. I wonder what he¡¯s bringing out this time?¡± Jebra hunkered down and observed the surface, rxed.

    The mermaid princess gradually lowered her voice after singing for almost two hours because she felt tired out. And when she didn¡¯t see Angor ming her in any way, she dly stopped her performance fully.

    Meanwhile, the unsettled environment around them became peaceful again. The merman guardians all moved closer to their princess to protect her better.

    ¡°Your Highness, shall we tell the Umbra Shell to return below?¡± a dashing-looking guard wearing a ck pearl ear stud whispered to the mermaid singer.

    The princess frowned as she tried to make a decision. She didn¡¯t sense any enmity from the person above them yet, but she wasn¡¯t sure if he would allow them to leave.

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait a bit more.¡±

    Her guards followed her order without a second thought. However, they still summoned all the children back to the giant creature they were riding on just to be safe.

    For a moment, Jebra, Tulu, as well as all the sea dwellers, carefully watched the cloud of mist in the sky and waited for Angor to show up.

    But instead, the mist only turned thicker as it grew harder to see the surroundings when the moonlight was fading away.

    Compared to Tulu and the mermaids who were anxious to find out what was going on, Jebra was rtively collected because he was almost sure Angor was doing alchemy. He expected to see an alchemy omen soon, which might generally tell him what Angor was making.

    However, there was no omening. Instead, he heard gentle melodies once again.

    Jebra was never a man of music. In his view, even the lovely performance of the mermaid princess was something ¡°good to listen to¡± at best.

    Yet the music he was listening to right now somehow aroused a strange feeling in his mind.

    As the ¡°Child of Ocean¡±, he could feel that the sea around him was changing with the tunes. It was as if... the very sea itself were enjoying the music.

    Jebra felt his heartbeat quickening all of a sudden. He knew the music was affecting him in some way, but he couldn¡¯t understand why.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one. All the mermaids and mermen, who always considered the sea as their eternal home, were all gazing at the cloud of mist above them in a hypnotic state. To them, the music was far from perfect, and of course, inferior to what their princess could offer. But they were still amazed to see different views that showed a different ocean magically entering their sights.

    Tulu was the only one present who wasn¡¯t affected by the music too much because his condition didn¡¯t allow him to fully perceive sound. But still, he knew that the music was good. And since this one didn¡¯t sound like the tempting harmony performed by mermaids, which were used for drawing him to death, he felt safer.

    ¡°But where did ite from? Is Mister Padt like, ying an instrument over there?¡± Tulu wondered.

    He was partially correct¡ªit wasn¡¯t Angor, but a team of ¡°teacups¡± wielding their different instruments inside the mist.

    Currently, Angor was frantically manipting his cantrips and various melted materials between his hands with a pair of passionate, reddened eyes, while the ¡°teacup band¡± he summoned from his Nightmare Domain was apanying him.

    The music piece they were ying was a random one Angor instructed them out of boredom. But today, Angor decided to use this music as the main theme of his new music box.

    Earlier, he barely grasped the brief stimulus in his mind, and he¡¯d like to turn it into his creation before it slipped. With a quick decision, he started to craft a music box. For one, he was pretty good at making music boxes now. And when he saw the singing mermaid and her guards, he suddenly remembered that he still needed to present a music box to Lady Mirror, who requested an illusion that ¡°contained bare-bodied handsomes that did not appear too erotic¡±.

    Angor listened to Lady Mirror¡¯s suggestion and checked out the show ¡°Phantom of Festivity¡±. Yet the lowly disy intended to entertain lustful folks did not provide him with any useful idea at all.

    He postponed the request because Lady Mirror had been in seclusion and nobody knew where she went. For this, he was d that he had more time to prepare, so he didn¡¯t need to put Sunders in the illusion to improvise.

    But the sight of the singing mermaid and her loyal guards instantly stirred something in his mind. It was mainly his instinct of an alchemist that controlled his actions this time instead of Lady Mirror¡¯s order.

    Besides, he wasn¡¯t making a simple illusion. He wished to mix the tiny ¡°spark of mind¡± just now into the illusion. He didn¡¯t know how to exin the special notion using words. He only knew that it was a whim made possible by the mermaid¡¯s song as well as his special state of madness, that would probably ur only once in his life. This was why he got down to alchemy work immediately without worrying about time and ce. He HAD to do it right now.

    After quickly setting the frame of the music box, he began applying permanent illusion nodes onto the item while adding the most importantponent¡ªthe unknown fancy of mind¡ªinside the illusion.

    He closed his eyes and recreated the fantastic memory he kept a moment ago, and he allowed his primal instinct to take over his movements.

    Whilepletely focused on his task, he wasn¡¯t aware that the music he blended into his creation was traveling away while carrying a strange sequence to those who could hear it.

    ...

    It was early morning. Angor had not shown up from the mist yet, but his music had already halted since a long time ago.

    Jebra was still savoring the wonderful music he heard that seemed to alter the ambiance of the sea. He couldn¡¯t see what had exactly happened to the sea, but he knew something had changed as if a person with the same everyday getup just developed apletely different character.

    It was like... the sea suddenly became cheerful because it ¡°agreed with¡± the music.

    Jebra tried repeating the tones by himself to see what would happen, but he failed. He wondered if he needed a special way of performing or a particr instrument to cause the strange effect.

    After remaining silent for over three hours, Angor¡¯s music suddenly came again, and Jebra quickly discarded random thoughts and focused.

    His pupils shrank, and he saw his vision shifting.

    When he could see clearly again, he found himself somewhere different. It was a world troubled by unrelenting tidal waves and great storms. Jebra saw himself sitting on a simple boat that rocked back and forth between the looming tides like a sailor who carelessly stumbled into the wrong part of the sea at a bad time.

    Jebra was never afraid of tides and hurricanes that would normally drown ordinary people. However, he had forgotten who he was. For now, he was one such ¡°ordinary person¡± who was trying to reach safety across the thunderstorm.

    And it terrified him for good.

    While desperately steadying himself on the unreliable and confined boat, Jebra looked for a way home while every element around him was attempting to stop him.

    A sky-high tidal wave mmed down onto the boat and washed him away.

    His mind was immediately taken over by chaos and panic. The only thing he could feel was the salty and choking seawater that announced his death.

    There was music again.

    Jebra gave himself onest push on the surface and looked at the source of the music. He saw something glowing between the dancing tides. It appeared to be a person wearing a long dress, who was somehow standing on top of the sea...

    Then he sank.

    ...

    Jebra opened his eyes with a start.

    He took several minutes to calm down. He looked at the stone he was sitting on and was sure that it was just a bad dream. But...

    It felt too real to be a dream.

    He was the ¡°Child of Ocean¡± Jebra! What made him so afraid of the sea? And who was the shining person at the end?

    He didn¡¯t have time to worry about these questions because he noticed that the giant turtle on the surface was slowly looking his way. It was probably because his camouge failed when he was ¡°dreaming¡±. Fearing that Angor would notice him, he quickly turned into bubbles and blended into the water.

    ¡°Wait... My power. It¡¯s one step closer to the next phase!¡±

 Chapter 802 - Goddess of Sea

    <h4>Chapter 802: Goddess of Sea</h4>

    Jebra remained speechless for a while.

    He became a level-3 apprentice not long ago. Telling from themon practices disyed by other apprentices with simr potential, he expected to get stuck for two or three years before breaking his limit and reaching the next phase, or one year, if he was REALLY lucky.

    But he definitely wasn¡¯t expecting to make it happen so early. When casting his ¡°bubble camouge¡±, he paid extra attention to the mana flows in his body and was sure the increase in strength was real.

    He wasn¡¯t good enough to actually break the limit yet, but... he felt close enough. At this rate, he didn¡¯t need much meditation and training to be an intermediate level-3.

    After getting over the uncontroble joy that overwhelmed his mind, he began to seriously consider how this had happened.

    Half a day ago, when he was casting his camouge to stalk Angor, he was sure his mana level was still at the elementary phase of level-3. There was no way he gained such a giant boost out of nothing within 12 hours.

    He slowly looked up and checked the cloud of mist. That must be the reason.

    ¡°That dream... or was that an illusion? I wasn¡¯t myself back there. I was a helpless fisherman who died in a storm in a minute.

    ¡°Then there was that music... there¡¯s something about it.¡±

    He suddenly felt strange energy signatures that suggested strengthened water elements.

    Following the source of the power, he saw all the mermaids and mermen on the giant turtle had closed their eyes. They then woke up again one after another, and every one of them showed their own confused look.

    ¡°That-that was horrible... How was I spooked by a storm like that?¡± a merman muttered.

    <i>So they went through the same thing...</i> Jebra thought.

    The exceptional energy signature wasn¡¯t caused by the merman guards. It was the princess alone. As Jebra watched her slowly opening her eyes, he felt all the water elements in the area flustering again.

    Jebra knew that the mermaid could somewhat control water elements using her voice, but not as proficiently as this. She wasn¡¯t even singing just now¡ªshe awoke the elements around her just by moaning slightly.

    In order words, her water-based ability had been greatly powered up.

    This had further proved it for Jebra that the strange music was very special and potentially beneficial to them all.

    He looked at the mist cloud passionately and hoped to hear the music once more, which never happened.

    After another hour, the alchemy omen Jebra was looking forward to finally urred. Heavy moisture rose from the sea andpletely covered an area of a thousand square kilometers under imprable fog, which appeared even worse than the foggiest areas at Devil¡¯s Water.

    While the mermaids and mermen only considered it as another bad weather, Jebra easily noticed the particr energy in the water flows that suggested an alchemy omen.

    ¡°This might be an item rted to water...¡± Jebra pondered. ¡°Why is the omen sorge though? Is he crafting a high-tier item? But... isn¡¯t he making a music box?¡±

    Putting Angor¡¯s new creation aside, Jebra would really like to know how the strange music helped him and the mermaid princess gain new strength. A part of him wanted to go up there and seize Angor¡¯s music box immediately, because it might be where the music came from. Yet he couldn¡¯t. For one, he wasn¡¯t confident enough in taking the item from Angor¡¯s hands. And secondly, offending an extremely gifted alchemist like this didn¡¯t sound like a good idea.

    Jebra forced himself to give up on this terrible n. He just earned a good impression from Angor not long ago by paying resources. He couldn¡¯t ruin all of his effort so fast.

    Well, unless... he could im the item and end Angor¡¯s life right here.

    Again, he shook his head and gave up. Not mentioning Angor¡¯s skills, Jebra wasn¡¯t sure he could defeat that strange seabird flying around Angor¡¯s position. Even if he could use the advantage of his natural abilities to win the fight, the bird could easily get away using the sequence of gravity.

    No matter how he saw this matter, maintaining a good rtionship with Angor seemed to be the better bet.

    ¡°I can just find himter and ask for a music box. Heh,¡± Jebra concluded.

    However, he didn¡¯t wish to talk to Angor so straightforwardly because Angor would easily notice that he had been a stalker.

    ¡°It would be better if I learned about the music from elsewhere...¡± Jebra looked at the mermaid princess and grinned. ¡°That guy got his new idea from that mermaid. Knowing him, he¡¯d probably offer a token of gratitude to herter. If that¡¯s the case...¡±

    ...

    In the sky, Angor had already died many times in the alchemy omen. He wasn¡¯t expecting the omen challenge to be the same illusion he just created.

    He was now standing in a dark ce while facing two doors; one locked and one open.

    As soon as he saw these doors, he knew what he should do¡ªhe must step into the open one and ovee whatever was alive inside, then the locked door, which was supposed to be the final exit, would open up for him.

    There was a golden clock shaped like a sun floating above the doors, where its single arm was slowly turning in a circle.

    Angor got this feeling that if he allowed the timer to make a full turn withoutpleting the challenge, the strange dimension would disappear, deeming his new creation as a failure.

    As for whether he could leave the challenge in one piece in that case... he didn¡¯t know, and he didn¡¯t want to find out the result.

    Once again, he walked into the opened door and became the helpless fisherman on a boat who had to find the miracle in the storm and get home alive.

    As the maker of the illusion, Angor knew about everything the illusion wanted him to do. He had to find the goddess who was supposed to roam somewhere on the raging sea and end the story.

    But until now, the only ending he could reach was always death.

    The music box he crafted was, in fact, used forpleting the challenge. Yet just like Jebra, entering the illusion had erased most of Angor¡¯s memory. He knew his mission, but he had to start from zero and rely on himself.

    The challenge tested his will to survive, his courage without his supernatural powers, as well as the conviction to stay calm in a deadly situation. Of course, he also needed his luck in order to find his target without guidance.

    A momentter, he was thrown back to the door after he died again.

    He saw a strange light on the sea this time and went for it, but a bad move caused him to fall off his boat and embrace the darkness below the surface.

    Again and again, he sessfully approached the source of light but failed somewhere on his way.

    As the clock¡¯s arm was well beyond the midpoint, his patience quickly ran thin. Upon realizing this, he sat down and took some time to soothe his mind instead of fruitlessly running into the challenge with an agitated mindset.

    He entered the door when feeling better and managed to maneuver and find safer routes among the tidal waves this time. Yet there were soon obstacles that couldn¡¯t be bested by one¡¯s wit, which killed him again.

    ¡°Darn it. Must I depend on pure luck then?¡±

    There was no way a mortal fisherman could hold on in the deadly storm while looking for some goddess unless he was lucky enough to start somewhere really close to his goal, meaning, being extremely lucky.

    Angor was beginning to feel really depressed for digging his own grave. He shouldn¡¯t have added so many disastrous elements in his illusion, only to taste themter. And he should¡¯ve ced the goddess at a fixed spot rather than letting a turtle carry her around!

    But he also knew that he couldn¡¯t really control his actions in his ¡°mad state¡±. He had no choice.

 Chapter 803 - Omen Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 803: Omen Illusion</h4>

    Even though Angor was the one who made the general frame of the illusion, there were certain elements in it that he wasn¡¯t familiar with because they were taken into existence when he wasn¡¯t himself.

    The ¡°Goddess of Sea¡± was also such a case. He knew he created this figure in the illusion, yet it was his subconscious that filled in the details. At first, he nned to base the goddess upon the mermaid princess. This wasn¡¯t a perfect idea because the mermaid was not an actual goddess, but only a supernatural creature who could wield a fair amount of power. But since Angor didn¡¯t know what real goddesses looked like, he followed his original n.

    However, as soon as the special mental state took control, he no longer knew what kind of entity he was forging.

    While weaving the illusion, he fully entrusted the task to his ¡°subliminal self¡± without intervening in any way. Instinctively, he knew that he had to ¡°go with the flow¡±; otherwise, the oue would turn out as something way less satisfactory.

    Such a decision had ultimately caused him to be stuck in his own illusion without knowing where to look.

    Once again, he sat down in front of the door and listened to the ticking clock while trying his best not to get affected by it.

    He didn¡¯t really believe the challenge was all about luck. But then what?

    ¡°My task is simple. I just need to find that goddess on a small boat... but the one and only biggest problem is that I can¡¯t use any of my special moves to push through the storm.¡±

    Even fresh apprentices might have trouble staying alive in that kind of weather. How could a powerless mortal make it?

    ¡°The omen can¡¯t possibly throw me into an impossible challenge. There got to be a way. Upon entering the illusion, I¡¯ll forget everything about how to use my power, but other than that, I can still think clearly. This might be what I need...¡±

    When the golden clock told him that there was only half an hour to go, he stood up and walked into the door again, with apletely impervious and uncaring look.

    Uponnding on the small boat, he was confused by the surroundings just briefly, before he started facing everything with an unemotional mindset.

    ¡°My name... it doesn¡¯t matter. I need to get home. But... that¡¯s not right. There¡¯s something else I need to think of.¡±

    He quickly observed the dangerous environment and discarded all the questions that weren¡¯t helpful in this situation.

    ¡°I need to stay alive.¡±

    This was his foremost task, which came before everything else.

    When he removed all mental disruption and entered an absolutely analytical state of mind, pushing through the deadly storm didn¡¯t seem so hard anymore.

    Cascading water and floods took on the forms of data flows that entered his brain, allowing him to precisely calcte their iing movement. Like ying chess, he discovered many possible means of escaping between the walls of water while slowly expanding what he could predict.

    All the mind-boggling information and calctions that would usually rupture mortal brains were masterfully handled by Angor. He easily realized that the challenge meddled with his memory, and he was not amon fisherman. But again, this wasn¡¯t important right now. He had to find a way to safety.

    Using his ¡°mind overdrive¡±, he sessfully saw through the traps hidden behind seemingly harmless routes and controlled the boat to go toward a bigger wave that would open up more options for himter.

    Again and again, he dived straight into the torrents and made it back out.

    He almost survived for 20 minutes on the sea this time but without finding the ¡°goddess¡±. Compared to Angor, Jebra was way luckier since he got to notice the presence of the goddess soon after he entered the illusion, even though Jebra didn¡¯t manage to reach her in the end.

    Only five minutes remaining until the dimension would be terminated.

    Angor didn¡¯t know the time limit since he blocked all unnecessary concerns from his mind, but he still felt danger approaching out of instinct.

    ¡°I need to hurry...¡±

    The sudden sense of urgency caused him to go for more radical ways.

    After riding on several more high tides and getting thrown off, he finally saw a faint lighting from a distance.

    The source of the light was fully surrounded by unyielding torrent waves and vortices as if nature were intentionally telling him that it was a trap. He knew that even with his superior mental calctions, there was no way to physically get away from there if he was pulled inside.

    His sanity told him that he should avoid that spot, but another voice in the depth of his mind was urging him otherwise.

    He examined what he could see in his view but without finding the ¡°way back¡± he had been looking for.

    He was tiring out fast. If he couldn¡¯t reachnd in time, his skills wouldn¡¯t keep him alive for too long.

    ¡°Then there¡¯s only one ce I should go.¡±

    With that in mind, he immediately turned the boat and headed to the strange light.

    ¡°What... is that?¡±

    When he was close enough, he saw a glowing woman gazing into the distance with a cold and unsympathetic expression as if she were here to watch the lowly creatures suffer.

    He felt something familiar with the woman too, but before he had the time to worry about who she was, he felt his head being forced to turn and look away from the majestic being.

    He, as a mortal, wasn¡¯t allowed to directly look at her.

    As he tried to muster up more courage and wrestle against the unknown force, the reality around him shattered to nothingness.

    Next, he was standing in front of the doors again. At the same time, all his lost memories came flowing back into his mind.

    After recovering from the brief trance, he checked the clock above him, which had stopped moving at thest minute.

    The locked door was now open. It seemed hisst attempt seeded.

    Hisst resort was to make his ¡°mind overdrive¡± work inside the illusion. For his n to work, he had to endure the mental stress of mind overdrive and make sure his rational self chose to head for the strange light rather than running away from it.

    Luckily, he had won the gamble. At least his body and spirit level did not weaken in the illusion.

    Now that he had more time, he would like to consider other problems he met in the illusion, such as the ¡°Goddess of Sea¡±. Since his ¡°rational self¡± chose to know fear and look away from her, then she had to be a very special entity.

    He tried to recall her looks but failed to remember anything other thanplete detachment. Also, she looked almost... sacred.

    No matter who that woman was, she sure looked magnificent. And this was what Angor wanted to achieve by putting a goddess inside the illusion.

    The current question was, could he find the same being existing in his illusion if he used his music box normally after leaving the alchemy omen?

 Chapter 804 - Lament of Goddess

    <h4>Chapter 804: Lament of Goddess</h4>

    Angor wasn¡¯t confident in the final oue because the illusion presented by an alchemy omen tended to differ from what he originally made.

    For instance, he didn¡¯t hear any music during the challenge. And as far as he could remember, he ced the ¡°Goddess¡± on top of a giant turtle and used his nightmare illusions to create the shadows of many other mermaids and sea monsters topose a storyline for the illusion. But none of these showed up.

    Nevertheless, he should check his music box to find out its quality.

    Since the challenge appeared to be pretty difficult and even had a time limit, he wondered which tier his music box ended up at.

    Excited, he stepped out of the exit.

    ...

    Outside, Angor suddenly opened his eyes and saw his music box quietly floating in front of him. As he watched, the item absorbed the visible energy streams around it that were left behind by the alchemy omen.

    Slowly, the aura of the item grew so strong that Angor felt as if he were looking at the sea.

    It appeared the music box contained the will of the ocean.

    He had not used Narda¡¯s Vision to check the item yet, but he already knew that he just created something better than expected.

    As thest strand of energy fully entered the music box, the thick fog covering the area quickly shrank and condensed into a pale-blue droplet that hovered above the music box.

    Next, a distant cry ofment was heard from the item¡¯s position.

    The sound was not loud. But strangely, all men and beasts alike within hundreds of miles all heard it. Even the seaweed at the bottom of the sea slowly bowed down to appreciate the otherworldly voice, which seemed to be from unreachable deities.

    The mermaids and mermen below were all mumbling in a strangenguage, heads on the floor. They were praising the sea¡ªtheir creator, their mother.

    Further below, Jebra was forced out of his bubble camouge as soon as the strange moaning was heard. Never once did he feel so repulsed by the sea before, and he simply couldn¡¯t understand what was going on.

    Just like the mermaids, he looked at Angor¡¯s direction in fear.

    ...

    ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza managed to sense a tiny portion of the unusual energy from afar but without being able to ascertain its nature.

    He considered and dispatched a secret message sequence into an unknown dimension before he returned his attention to the piece of parchment on his table that had a line of odd characters written on it. This was another message he just received from Brilliance ne.

    [Location of Mystery item lies within the prophecy-prevention area. Pray excuse my incapability.]

    It was one of the ¡°Eighteen Overseers¡± of Starliege Temple, ¡°Innocence¡± Seurat, who sent the note.

    ¡°Even an Overseer failed to tell its whereabouts? It might be true that an organization has already imed it...¡± Flunza mumbled with a grim look and sighed before he burned the note and discarded the ashes into a space rift.

    ...

    At ckberry Waters, Angor was still wondering where the strange voice came from.

    The floating water drop was now slowly descending until it dropped onto the closed lid of the music box. But instead of causing a water ssh, the water fully covered the outer frame of the item under a hazy film and gave the shiny music box a more modest look.

    Meanwhile, the illusion around Angor began to crumble because of all the aggravated water elements in the area. Angor paid it no mind¡ªhe no longer needed the illusion anyway.

    When the area becamepletely clear, the floating music box gentlynded in Angor¡¯s hand.

    Instead of checking on the beautiful item right away, Angor held back his excitement and put it away in his bracelet. He had to deal with other matters first.

    First, he looked at his Gond, where Tulu was still staring his eyes out.

    ¡°Wait for me there.¡±

    Then he looked down at the giant turtle. On top of its back, the mermen and their princess were still chanting their praise with their heads lowered.

    Angor slowlynded on the turtle. The mermaid princess yed an important part in his earlier creation, and he decided to provide her with some reward. He did send a voice transmission to tell her to continue her song earlier, and the mermaid followed through and kept singing for almost the entire night.

    At the very least, Angor would obey the rule of equivalent exchange and paypensation.

    For a brief moment, he noticed an inconspicuous energy signatureing from under his position.

    <i>Is that a monster lurking about?</i>

    He considered and decided to put that concern aside for now because he already reached the mermen guards.

    As he came down, Toby also descended from the sky and stepped onto his shoulder. The bird looked a bit worn out after watching over him throughout the night. However, it seemed that Toby didn¡¯t wish to sleep yet since he was happily tweeting at the mermaid princess.

    ¡°Toby said you have a very lovely voice.¡±

    The mermaid heard Angor¡¯s friendly voice and lifted her head.

    Her guards realized that they had a stranger approaching and quickly put themselves in front of their princess. However, the mermaid simply pushed a way out of their formation and addressed Angor with a polite bow.

    ¡°Please ept my humble greeting, honorable wizard.¡±

    Her tone sounded a bit odd, probably because she wasn¡¯t used to speaking the universal tongue. However, this wasn¡¯t a problem when her pleasant voice was more than enough to make up for it.

    Before Angor could reply, Toby beat him to it and began twittering non-stop in front of the mermaid while dramatically waving his wings.

    Apparently, birdnguage wasn¡¯t among the mermaid¡¯s dictionary, so she only stared at Toby at aplete loss.

    Angor cleared his throat to interrupt Toby¡¯s speech. What Toby was saying was quite simple but embarrassing. Toby wanted the mermaid to join him so that he could listen to her songs all day, and he would provide fish snacks in return.

    Of course, Angor wasn¡¯t going to trante it.

    ¡°Ahem. He¡¯s... Toby. He loved your performance. He meant to offer his most sincerepliment just now.¡±

    Toby yelped in protest, only to get forcefully stuffed into Angor¡¯s pocket.

    ¡°Thank-thank you very much...¡± The mermaid blushed slightly.

    ¡°Are you a royalty of your people?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Yes. I am Valli, the princess of ckberry Rogges.¡±

    ¡°So, Princess Valli, your music helped me greatly during my task. Here, I¡¯ll satisfy one of your requests, as long as it¡¯s within my power. Please feel free to ask now.¡±

    In Angor¡¯s view, offering such a favor in exchange for that inspirational song sounded like a good deal.

    <i>Ahh... that stranger¡¯s voice spoke the truth!</i> Valli eximed in her mind. <i>Just like he said, Sir Wizard is granting me a wish! But... am I really supposed to make a request?</i>

    She listened to Angor¡¯s order and kept singing just to gain the friendship of a wizard, which would help her win a better position back at the capital of Rogges. She also knew about ¡°equivalent exchange¡±, which seemed to be amon convention among all wizards.

    But she wasn¡¯t sure how much she should ask as a ¡°payment¡± just for presenting a song, which she would do every day.

    A strange voice earlier told her to go with the ¡°deal¡± and ask for a reward frankly, in which case she might lose the chance for earning Angor¡¯s friendship.

    As she tried to make a decision, Jebra observed her reactions quietly from underwater.

    ¡°Sir Wizard... may I know the name of the music you yed earlier?¡±

    Jebra grinned in delight.

    ¡°That¡¯s your request?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    Valli nodded. ¡°I have never heard of such a style. It sounded so... soothing, like taking a bath in the embrace of mother ocean as a little child. I wish I could learn it. This shall be my request, Sir Wizard.¡±

    Angor nodded in acknowledgment. That sounded pretty reasonable¡ªall mermaids loved music more than anything else.

    ¡°It¡¯s called ¡®Aphrodite¡¯,¡± exined Angor. ¡°It¡¯s the name of a goddess born from the sea, as told in a story I read before.¡±

 Chapter 805 - Reaching a New Level

    <h4>Chapter 805: Reaching a New Level</h4>

    ¡°Aphrodite...¡± Valli repeated the name she heard with an astounded look as she recalled the beautiful dream she went through. She didn¡¯t know whether that was a dream, an illusion, or a whole other world created by an unknown divinity.

    Simrly, she was a frail mortal human who was searching for a miracle during a devastating storm, which was usually harmless to mermaids. For the first time in her life, she experienced the menace of mother ocean and even ¡°died¡± at the end of the story.

    However, she also caught a glimpse of a shining figure hidden behind the tides.

    ¡°Was that the goddess I was looking for...?¡±

    Behind Valli, her guards were also whispering to each other while exchanging their different adventures in the fantastic dream. Even though most of them were drowned to death without finding even a tiny fraction of the goddess, they agreed that she was there waiting for them and that they just had to try harder next time. If they had a ¡°next time¡±, that was.

    This was when Angor realized that the ¡°illusion challenge¡± wasn¡¯t exclusive to himself, but when he asked Toby about this matter, Toby imed that he never saw the illusion.

    ¡°Does it only affect humans and humanoids then?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°Oh great wizard, was that a simple dream or a realm built by the goddess that truly existed?¡± Valli suddenly asked.

    ¡°Why do you think so? Did you find anything in it?¡±

    ¡°Yes! Upon waking, I feel... closer to mother ocean. I think I can wield a tiny portion of her great power now.¡±

    Valli chanted something under her breath, and a blurry orb made of pure water element suddenly appeared beside her.

    Angor examined the orb and noticed that the power within was as potent as apprentices who studied Elemental Art.

    ¡°Oh dear. Guess I made something really nifty.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t very surprised to see Valli¡¯s improvement because he also felt the great power that suggested the will of the sea when crafting the music box. Even if he wasn¡¯t a mermaid or an Elementalist, he could feel his certain senses heightened that allowed him to detect the concealed signature beneath him earlier.

    If all of his suspicions were right, then that music box could enhance the strength of people with water-based potentials...

    Then yes. The music box was terrifyingly useful.

    Using it meant shortening training sessions and making it easier to study water-rted spells as a secondary art. This was rare even for high-tier alchemy items.

    What he didn¡¯t know was that his creation already helped Jebra gain a giant boost in strength. Any wizard who studied water-rted arts would crazily look for the music box, should they hear about it.

    ¡°Is-is it actually made by you, Sir Wizard?¡± asked Valli.

    Angor nodded. ¡°It didn¡¯t have anything to do with actual goddesses or anything like that. It¡¯s an illusion brought forward by a new alchemy piece.¡±

    Valli instantly became depressed when she learned that the sacred ce, which she believed to be a holy ground for all mermaids and mermen, was merely an illusion crafted by human hands.

    Angor saw Valli¡¯s sad look and chuckled. ¡°I don¡¯t know if true gods exist in this world, but I¡¯m a human being. There¡¯s no way the illusion I made is any kind of glorified ce you imagined.¡±

    Angor was never religious, or rather, all wizards and apprentices who were after the path of truth did not believe in made-up divine entities they could not see.

    He did not deny Valli¡¯s belief straightforwardly just to be nice.

    ¡°Any other questions? I¡¯ll be leaving if we¡¯re done,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Sir Wizard, may I see that illusion again? I really love that music and I wish to reprise it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m... afraid I can¡¯t show you the illusion.¡±

    Valli looked down in sadness.

    ¡°However, I CAN let you hear the music again.¡± Angor lifted his gloved right hand and tapped a finger in the air.

    Following his move, a group of ¡°teacups¡± with adorable decorations on them emerged from a small space tunnel. They would look like theponents from a tea set used by a little girl if one did not mind their stick-like limbs and all the different instruments they were carrying.

    ¡°The music you heard was yed by this little music band,¡± Angor exined while waking up the teacups that were somehow making snot bubbles in their sleep.

    As he used his right hand to inject nightmare energy into the teacups, they instantly perked up and began hopping around vigorously.

    Valli, as the only female adult present, immediately started to like the lovable creatures that were taken straight out of fairy tales.

    Meanwhile, she really wished that she could learn such amazing wizardry as well.

    ¡°So these cuties were performing together? I thought I heard an entire ensemble ying!¡±

    <i>Cuties? These things?</i> Angor deadpanned.

    Ever since he could use his right hand to replenish energy for his Nightmare Domain, these teacups had turned from fragile tableware into some real monsters that could perfectly block or reflect some of the most powerful level-2 cantrips.

    And he wouldn¡¯t call them ¡°cute¡±.

    ¡°Where are you, my queen? I wanna go back...¡±

    ¡°But we have Lord Shava with us!¡±

    ¡°All hail Lord Shava!!¡±

    The teacups were sending their childish ttery to Angor again. However, the mortal creatures couldn¡¯t hear them since they were using emotion signals tomunicate rather than speaking for real.

    After ordering them to focus, Angor told the ¡°band leader¡± of the teacups to start performing Aphrodite again.

    The beautiful music did not sound as impassioned as when it was apanied by the violent illusion, but it was no less enjoyable as the members of the audience felt as if they saw a goddess quietly watch the rising sun after the storm had settled down. The fury of the sea had given ce to untainted tranquility, and the music was telling the same story from a different perspective.

    Once again, all the listeners were fully enthralled by the luscious masterpiece.

    Angor discovered this song while searching through the music folder in his tablet out of boredom, and he knew he liked it the moment he heard through the first several seconds. To fully enjoy a ¡°live version¡±, heter instructed the teacup band to y it for him.

    While it was true that it was Valli who gave him inspiration, he found Aphrodite to be much more bing for the theme of his illusion. As it turned out, he made the right decision.

    When the music ended, Valli reopened her eyes and saw Angor no longer here. The strange boat above them wasn¡¯t in sight either.

    ¡°*Sigh* Let¡¯s head back...¡± She ordered her guards while feeling a bit disappointed.

    As the giant turtle dived into the water, Jebra slowly moved closer.

    ...

    While sitting on Gond, Angor was carefully checking the item he just created,pletely oblivious of Jebra¡¯s presence earlier.

    He named the music box the ¡°Ocean Tuner¡±. The main engraving on the music box was a divine-looking mermaid who was holding onto a conch shell as big as her body while listening to the echo inside by pressing an ear against it.

    Angor based the design on Valli and gave her a see-through silk dress made from ¡°Starlight Fabric¡±, a special material that radiated brighter in a darker environment.

    He already meant to give the initial design a magnificent look. But now, the ¡°water film¡± created by the strange water drop had granted the item another dazzling coat over its frame.

    Even Tulu couldn¡¯t hide his awe and was staring at the trinket with sparkling eyes.

    Angor had used Narda¡¯s Vision to identify the properties of the items and was more than satisfied by the result.

    ¡°A high-tier item... This is my very first high-tier work!¡±

 Chapter 806 - Ocean Tuner

    <h4>Chapter 806: Ocean Tuner</h4>

    To be precise, the music box just barely reached high-tier, but it still went above the standard line that separated it from items of lower ranks.

    Angor thought his alchemy works would only reach this level after he turned a wizard because asmonly believed by all alchemists, making a true high-tier item asked for many aspects not bypassable by using extra help, such as the maker¡¯s own power level and how many advanced alchemy spells they could use. Right now, Angor met none of these conditions.

    However, there were known exceptions that fell out of these limits. These exceptional creations had such strong effects from the very start that they were not limited by poor materials and ipetent techniques used by the alchemist.

    Commonly, alchemists needed to rely on high-level materials and skills to ensure a better oue because items created in such a way wouldn¡¯t turn out so badly even if they made some minor mistakes in the process.

    However, it waspletely possible to bring out high-tier items using cheaperponents. In fact, most Master Alchemists had several such ¡°trademark¡± inventions during their careers.

    Angor had created the same case by using inferior ingredients for ¡°Ocean Tuner¡±, which disyed a superior effect that deemed it as a high-tier tool.

    [Increasing water affinity during apprenticeship training. Providing substantial revtion to level-1 wizards who studied the power of the sea.]

    While ¡°increasing water affinity¡± sounded pretty straightforward, the second effect that granted ¡°revtion¡± made little sense to Angor since he was neither a wizard nor someone who studied sea-rted arts.

    ording to the analysis provided by Narda¡¯s Vision, an apprentice could spend time in the illusion to train on water-aspected cantrips faster. This was very helpful to all because all apprentices more or less needed to master several Elementalist cantrips no matter which subjects they were studying, and water-aspected cantrip was usually a good choice they couldn¡¯t avoid.

    Furthermore, the boon provided by Ocean Tuner would multiply if it was used by an organization to train arge group of apprentices to promptly gain capable human resources.

    For this reason, the music box would undeniably be a highlighted prize if it was sold at public auctions and might have its price elevated to at least seven digits when major organizationspeted for it.

    As for the second effect, when reading the result of Narda¡¯s Vision, Angor immediately noticed that the key point of it was not ¡°revtion¡± but ¡°wizards¡±.

    Unlike the first effect, the revtion part worked on wizards.

    These two effects together meant the music box was more than enough to be regarded as a high-tier alchemy creation.

    Of course, the tier of an item was not important if it did not suit its user in nature. For example, if Angor had to choose between Ocean Tuner and Crimson Aegis right now, he would choose thetter even though it was of a lower tier.

    Usually, only wizards were rich enough to afford high-tier items, and they usually preferred ones with general utility effects rather than attacking properties because they already knew a hefty amount of offensive spells as wizards. For this reason, the universal effect of Angor¡¯s music box would appeal to a lot of people.

    Putting these factors aside, being able to craft an actual high-tier item meant Angor was not far from bing a Master Alchemist, as everyone would agree. Any organization that heard about this matter would attempt to invite Angor and treat him as their most honored guest. Unquestionably, newspapers and magazines such as <i>Grove of Time</i> would use lots of pages to attract readers by distributing Angor¡¯s fame.

    Several decades ago, <i>Grove of Time</i> already did something simr by introducing a genius alchemist from Tower of Hurricane, ¡°Mythril Innovator¡± Jel. Although Angor knew he was not THAT skilled yet because he could not regrly produce high-tier items like a true master. Ocean Tuner was mostly a pleasant surprise when he grasped that tiny fragment of inspiration while listening to Valli¡¯s song, after which it was his intuitive impulse that finished the crafting.

    Or rather, Angor wasn¡¯t sure if he was the one making that decision at all. It was as if the will of the sea suddenly wanted to take control of him to bring a gift into this world.

    But he WAS sure that he had no hope of repeating the miracle again. Ocean Tuner was made avable bybining several elements he had no control over. For this, he would not consider the item to be a representation of his real skill.

    Still, he was d that he managed to blend a brand new type of power into his alchemy illusion, which was the power of the sea. He wondered if he could discover any other optionster to use in his alchemy illusions, apart from ¡°power of the sea¡± and ¡°manifestation of Mystery¡±.

    ...

    At the bottom of the sea, Jebra was looking at a white, ttened seashell that showed the picture of the end of Angor¡¯s alchemy process.

    Jebra recorded this picture upon hearing the strange moaning. He was hoping to hear it again in order to figure out the particr sensation brought by the amazing sound, yet it never happened again.

    Nheless, Jebra managed to capture something useful when Angor¡¯s illusion went away as the music box was finished. When Angor was putting the music box into his bracelet without further sustaining the illusion, Jebra used his tool to snap the moment just in time.

    The picture did not illustrate the appearance of the item very well, but Jebra didn¡¯t care. What was important was that he felt the power of the seaing from Angor¡¯s position at that time.

    As an expert of sea-rted arts, Jebra was sure that the music box was intended to be used for people like him. Or rather, it was meant for high-level wizards who studied the power of the sea.

    But since he didn¡¯t have any proof to ascertain the actual effect and level of Angor¡¯s music box, Jebra only kept the picture in his storage so that he could show it to his teacherter, when he returned to Song of the Deep.

    As he prepared to go after Angor¡¯s direction again, he suddenly felt another energy signature approaching. And he recognized this one.

    ¡°Uhm? Jebra?¡±

    ¡°Pro-professor?¡± Jebra was surprised to hear the voice of his teacher, ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza, from the energy.

    ¡°It¡¯s me. What are you doing here?¡±

    ¡°Oh, professor, I¡¯ve been watching Angor¡¯s actions as requested by you. Can I head back now? I can assure you that Angor was not the thief. As far as I¡¯ve seen until now, he spent most of his time at Ferran. He didn¡¯t have enough time to get away and retrieve something from the hidden dimension.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re after him right now?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    ¡°I... believe I sensed an unusual energy turbulenceing from this part of the sea. Did that have anything to do with you?¡±

    ¡°Energy? No, I didn¡¯t do anything. But I might know the reason for it.¡± Jebra grinned.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    Jebra exined what he observed from Angor in great detail.

    ¡°You kept a picture of him?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Flunza was maintaining a connection with Starliege Temple and waiting for a response. When he heard Jebra¡¯s report, he quickly sent another portion of his energy to ckberry Waters.

    A fuzzy human figure made of water appeared in front of Jebra.

    ¡°Show me.¡±

    Jebra was a little surprised to see his professor so interested in Angor¡¯s item as to send another water avatar all the way here. Even so, he wouldn¡¯t disobey Flunza¡¯s request. With quick moves, he took out the ¡°filming shell¡± and disyed what was recorded in it, including the conversation between Angor and the mermaid princess.

    Meanwhile, he kept his attention on Flunza¡¯s avatar and noticed that his professor narrowed his eyes when looking at Angor¡¯s music box.

    ¡°A true genius. He lives up to his name,¡± said Flunza, after carefully watching Jebra¡¯s clue for a long time. ¡°That ornament is a genuine high-tier alchemy creation. Combined with the ¡®particr feeling¡¯ you mentioned, I¡¯d say that it¡¯s something that represents a section of the sea¡¯s discipline. It¡¯s beyond valuable, more so to us sea maniptors. Mayhap it is even a tactical asset.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Jebra eximed out loud as he never saw his professor speaking so highly of Angor¡¯s items.

    A tactical alchemy item was enough to grant a weaker wizarding organization a solid position when negotiating with others!

    ¡°Sir, Angor has not moved very far yet. Should we... you know?¡±

 Chapter 807 - Improved Affinity

    <h4>Chapter 807: Improved Affinity</h4>

    Flunza saw the unconcealed hint of greed from Jebra¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Are you sure you can waste him without leaving loose ends? I can only provide limited help from afar, you mostly have to depend on yourself.¡±

    Jebra frowned and weighed the situation.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, sir.¡±

    ¡°Then trust me, you¡¯ll fail. From what I¡¯ve heard, both Angor and that bird of his have grasped the sequence of gravity. If he insists on escaping, I¡¯m afraid even wizards won¡¯t be able to catch him easily. Let¡¯s see... There¡¯s no point turning him into our enemy for the moment. You just proceed as how you have been doing until now, and while at it, try to obtain that item. Of course, if you see a chance to take it forcefully, don¡¯t hesitate to use it.¡±

    ¡°Um, I still have to follow him around, professor? As I said, he can¡¯t possibly be¡ª¡±

    ¡°The incident at Silver Palm Isle has note to an end yet,¡± Flunza interrupted Jebra¡¯s exnation. ¡°Emmagan has figured out our n to expel his foreign ne invaders from the organization, and he absolutely will prevent us from getting that Mystery item by all means. You¡¯ll be in great trouble if you return to Song of the Deep at such a moment.¡±

    Jebra nodded in acknowledgment. The spies back at Song of the Deep, who were led by Emmagan, always wanted him dead because of his great potential and likelihood of bing a truth-finder, by which time he and his professor would be a giant threat to them. If they saw a chance to eliminate such a threat in the making, they¡¯d do it.

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll just find somewhere safe and do my research, or travel to another ne. Why must I stick with Angor?¡± Jebra protested.

    ¡°Heh.¡± Flunza gave Jebra a side-nce. ¡°Let me see... you just earned a great leap in strength, which saved you two or three years of training effort. Are you sure sticking with Angor is such a bad choice?¡±

    Jebra stuttered but couldn¡¯t find the right words to deny this time. Flunza was right.

    ¡°Do you know where he¡¯s going next?¡± asked Flunza.

    ¡°He¡¯s on a recruiting mission, sir. If nothing goes wrong, he¡¯s heading to the Land of Revtion to look for more talents. Other than that, I think he¡¯ll ultimately visit his home, as told by the thugs of Centipede Guild.¡±

    ¡°I see... Jebra, if you do not wish to keep following him, you can stay at the Land of Revtion or hide in one of the mortal nations nearby. But make sure you stay near the sea. Emmagan will not go and track you down personally, but he¡¯s very likely to send someone after you.¡±

    Simr to Angor, Jebra could easily run away from any threats by diving into the seawater, so he should remain near coastal areas.

    Jebra was more than delighted to hear a second option. Even though he was d to receive the unexpected ¡°gift¡± from Angor¡¯s music box, he still preferred to live a free life than being a constant stalker.

    ¡°Understood. By the way, can you tell me what that item can do, professor?¡±

    Flunza shook his head. ¡°I do not know. Telling from what the mermaid said, the music box can help her improve her water-based abilities. But there was something else I sensed earlier hidden in the item. I believe that ¡®moan¡¯ you mentioned has something to do about it.

    ¡°If I¡¯m not mistaken, that voice was the manifestation of the will of the sea. Anything that contains such ¡®willpower¡¯ should be an extremely precious asset valuable to all. And just like I mentioned, that music box is very likely to be a tactical alchemy tool. iming it will undeniably benefit us greatly.¡±

    ¡°If I can¡¯t take it by violence, how do we negotiate with him? I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll just sell it to us normally. Besides, he¡¯ll know I¡¯ve been on his tail if I mention this matter upfront.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s quite easy. You cause a little trouble to him, then you¡¯ll find a chance in theing mess.¡±

    ¡°Uh, trouble?¡±

    ¡°His name became famous once again when another rumored music box was sold at an insane price at Remnant Auction. But the other incidents around the world are slowly taking over people¡¯s attention. Let¡¯s say, we shall do something to bring him back under the spotlight again.¡±

    ¡°You mean¡ª¡±

    ¡°Send that record to several magazine editors in the southern region. It won¡¯t be long before everyone knows about Angor¡¯s new alchemy creation, and they WILL talk to him about it. When that happens, he probably won¡¯t mind another visitor, naming, you.¡±

    ¡°But sir... aren¡¯t those people going to buy that music box ahead of us?¡±

    ¡°Not many people in this world can afford a high-tier item, and those who pay the money will not easily make the decision before learning the exact nature of the music box. They need time.¡±

    ¡°I see. But will Angor agree to sell it to us at all?¡±

    ¡°Everything has a price. We just need to offer something good enough to entice him. As I know, there aren¡¯t many sea maniptors in Brute Cavern, which meant the music box is of little use to him. I¡¯d say we have a good chance of persuading him.¡±

    With their n settled, Jebra immediately went toward Angor¡¯s direction again. As he agreed with Flunza, he had to let Angor know that he would like to buy the music box before Angor returned to Fey Continent so that he had fewerpetitors.

    Behind Jebra, a strange bubble that contained the ¡°evidence¡± he recorded earlier began moving toward another direction.

    ...

    Angor left the illusion created by Ocean Tuner at night.

    He spent two days re-experiencing the illusion for many times and kept dying inside, until just now, when hisst attempt, fortunately, dropped him somewhere close to the ¡°goddess¡± at the very beginning.

    And once again, he was greatly shocked by the beatitude and elegance radiating from her form.

    After leaving the illusion, he thought he¡¯d remember what he saw in the end for the rest of his life. However... when he tried to recall the face of the goddess, he felt his memory suddenly snapped to a stop.

    He still had the impression that the goddess was beyond beautiful, yet no matter how he tried, he couldn¡¯t remember her face as if something censored her face in his mind.

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s the same case as before, that I¡¯m not allowed to look upon her directly?¡± He left his theory in his notebook.

    Due to his strange mental state when crafting the music box, he still had many questions regarding the illusion waiting to be solved.

    A momentter, Tulu stumbled to the floor of the boat as he also left the illusion.

    When testing his music box, Angor intentionally expanded the area of effect to cover up Tulu as well, both to give him a taste of supernatural tricks as early education and to reward him for diligently driving the boat.

    However, Tulu didn¡¯t seem to enjoy it very well.

    ¡°I-I was dead again, sir.¡±

    ¡°As expected. You will get used to it,¡± Angor replied nonchntly.

    ¡°But I don¡¯t think my heart can take it!¡± Tulu protested. ¡°Mister Padt, can you make the illusion smaller so that it doesn¡¯t drag me in next time?¡±

    ¡°Trust me, you¡¯re going to regret itter.¡± Angor gave him a meaningful stare.

    ¡°No, I¡¯ll not!¡±

    Angor chuckled andplied.

    He then spent another two days to go over the illusion of the Ocean Tuner, all by himself. And by the evening of the second day, he finallyprehended the general effect of the illusion.

    As he wrote down several discoveries rted to water-based skill improvement, Tulu suddenly crept closer with a cunning smile.

    ¡°Hey, Mister Padt, can I go with you into the illusion next time?¡±

    ¡°Changed your mind so soon?¡±

    Tulu scratched his head in embarrassment and raised a hand. He then took a moment to painfully gather strength, before some faint vapor came swirling around his fingers.

    ¡°I think I know how to control water now, Mister Padt.¡± Tulu smiled brightly. ¡°It must be that illusion that helped me, right?¡±

    Angor slowly nodded, amazed.

    He totally wasn¡¯t expecting Tulu, who had only partially studied a channeling method and had yet to be considered a fresh apprentice, to learn about wielding the water element so early.

    ¡°So people with the right talent may receive the boost even faster...¡± Angor left another entry in his notebook.

    As for Tulu, he was truly upset about what he said in all seriousness two days ago.

    ¡°I¡¯m done with the initial experiment. I¡¯m not going to activate the illusion any time soon,¡± Angor said as he put the Ocean Tuner into his bracelet, much to Tulu¡¯s disappointment.

    Of course, he didn¡¯t do this just to annoy Tulu. He did need to do something else next, which was to see how fast he could study water-based cantrips after experiencing the illusion for so many times.

 Chapter 808 - Land of Revelation

    <h4>Chapter 808: Land of Revtion</h4>

    Water Barrier was a level-2 cantrip that constructed a defensive force field made from rearranged water elements.

    Angor had been studying this skill, which was usually considered as one of the worst among all defensive cantrips. Putting itsbat value aside, this cantrip had a special trait that made it very useful for resisting high underwater pressure.

    During the second phase of the purification garden challenge when people were thrown into the Sea of Purification, most of them could move around in the water because of this cantrip.

    By that time, Angor was instead using the built-in Purification Field on his hat. Fortunately, his hat wasn¡¯t broken by any incident or he¡¯d immediately get squashed by the deadly strength of nature.

    After getting out of the garden challenge, he had been using some of his free time to read about the Water Barrier.

    However, another matter put a stop to his study schedule. When he received a foreign hand and the bloodline of a nightmare projection in Witch¡¯s Town, his physical build was improved by arge degree that he no longer had to worry about diving underwater.

    This was why he gave up on learning Water Barrierter.

    Now that he had another reason to study a water-based cantrip, he found it necessary to pick up Water Barrier, about which he already gained some proficiency.

    Combined with the boost given by Ocean Tuner, he sessfully grasped how to unleash a Water Barrier within two weeks. He still needed more time to learn how to shorten his cast time and make the cantrip helpful in battle, but as far as he spected till now, Ocean Tuner had already helped him study the cantrip way faster than normal.

    Also, he just found another interesting discovery. It seemed the illusion of Ocean Tuner granted permanent affinity boost only for the first visit, while all subsequent visits would only further improve water affinity for a short period of time.

    This meant the user must often go inside the illusion, meaning, getting drowned, if they wished to constantly train their water-based cantrips at a faster pace.

    Although this restriction waspletely expected. An item that could boost someone¡¯s training efficiency without an upper limit was no longer a high-tier tool, but a Mystery-level treasure.

    With the second part of his test done, Angor stored the music box in his bracelet in satisfaction. This item was meant as a gift for Lady Mirror. There was a group of half-naked dashing mermen huddled around the goddess, just to satisfy Lady Mirror¡¯s ¡°inviting but not too explicit¡± request.

    Angor mostly created the images of these mermen based on the ¡°gentleman portraits¡± he received from Lady Mirror. Of course, he wasn¡¯t brave enough to use the actual looks of these powerful wizards, so he made some small adjustments on them.

    Since Ocean Tuner could help him with his training before reaching the wizard level, he thought about waiting until his next level-up before giving the music box to Lady Mirror. Last time he heard, Lady Mirror had gone into seclusion with no intention of showing up too soon. He probably had a lot of time before meeting her again.

    As for the second effect of the music box, which was to ¡°grant revtion to sea maniptor wizards¡±...

    He only knew about two of such people. One was Roman from the White m Seafare Association, who died at Silver Palm Isle, while the other one was Jebra, whose whereabouts was unknown.

    In order words, he had nothing to test on the second effect right now.

    Out of random, he looked up and saw Tulu still controlling the boat while gazing at a direction. Also, Tulu was muttering something under his breath, such as he sensed raining from that way, so they¡¯d better steer away from it.

    ¡°Mister Padt, do you need something?¡± Tulu looked back and saw Angor staring at him.

    Tulu had removed his bandages and revealed the giant scar over where his left ear was supposed to be. Such a sight had somewhat turned his handsome young look into that of fierceness.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I just got a feeling that, with that weather prediction skill of yours and how you learned to weave water element so quickly, you¡¯re probably talented to be a sea maniptor,¡± Angor said while holding his chin.

    Tulu used to disdain sea maniptors because Roman was one such man, but after spending time with Angor and learning more about the wizarding world, such prejudice had left his mind.

    ¡°Are they like someone powerful, sir?¡± Tulu didn¡¯t know why Angor mentioned such a thing.

    Angor showed a devious grin. ¡°I was thinking, if you¡¯re to be a sea maniptor, that illusion would definitely be helpful to your improvement. And to think that you don¡¯t want it...¡±

    Tulu made a duck face when he realized that Angor was simply making fun of him.

    Seeing Tulu¡¯s sad look, Angor smiled in contentment and took out some Moocher Meat along with a ss of honey produced by Moonlily Fairy.

    Tulu saw the delicious food and nced at his package of rose cakes, which were close to spoge, and took a small bite. Comparing his boring food with Angor¡¯s wonderful-looking snacks only made him feel worse.

    Angor felt fulfilled enough and decided to talk about more serious matters. ¡°How long until we reach the Land of Revtion at this speed?¡±

    Naturally, Tulu wasn¡¯t going to express his annoyance in the open. ¡°If nothing stops us, we¡¯ll get there tomorrow morning, Mister Padt.¡±

    This was almost as Angor predicted.

    They departed from Ferran around the end of the Month of Resuscitation and spent about one month flying on the sea. At this rate, he had enough time to wander around the Land of Revtion for fun and still had ample time to get to Old Earth.

    Although... he didn¡¯t have a reason to waste time like that. As he nned, he was only going to retrieve the Dream Whelk from the Land of Revtion and immediately head to Old Earth. As for recruiting talents... After what he went through during the talent tests at Ferran, he had decided to fully entrust this task to his luck.

    He only needed one more talent to fulfill the quota of his recruitment quest. In the worst case, he could simply use the bottle of Potion of Austere Night on his brother as long as Leon¡¯s starting spirit level wasn¡¯t too poor.

    Angor then took out a piece of bright-green fabric from his bracelet. He made it into a simple headscarf and tossed it to Tulu.

    ¡°Hide that scar so that you don¡¯t attract too much attention to me.¡±

    Tulu gazed at the bizarre-colored scarf in his hand with a doubtful look. <i>Isn¡¯t this stuff going to get us more attention instead?</i>

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m not going to walk on the street with you anyway,¡± Angor added.

    <i>Then what¡¯s the point of this??</i> Tulu roared in his mind.

    Tulu still kept the scarf since he knew this was indeed meant to protect him. He knew a lot of mortals who would get extremely judgmental or over-talkative when they saw some small birthmarks on people. His terrible scar would undoubtedly attract unnecessary trouble.

    But that color...

    Using his instinct of a sailor, Tulu moved Gond closer to the surface of the water and dived into the sea.

    A momentter, he captured a strange-looking fish, removed its bulging organ, and sprayed some ink-like liquid onto his scarf before putting it on.

    Angor saw everything and sighed. <i>Aw. I like the previous color better...</i>

    ...

    The beacon of a lighthouse in the distance prated the impervious veil of night.

    ¡°We¡¯re not far now, Mister Padt!¡± Tulu looked at the source of light and eximed in delight.

    Even though he didn¡¯t show it, Angor was just as excited about getting to obtain his very first Mystery item soon.

    As the first ray of sunlight came from the horizon of the sea, they reached a woody coast where nobody else was around.

    ¡°Where exactly are we going, sir?¡± Tulu asked as he hovered Gond above the trees.

    ¡°Central Empire.¡±

    Angor told Tulu their destination and expected Tulu to act as the driver again, but Tulu only stared back at him with a confused look.

    ¡°You¡¯re not familiar with thendscape of the Land of Revtion, are you?¡±

    ¡°Ehh, I only once traveled to Versailles Principality together with The Limpet, sir. I don¡¯t recognize this ce. At least this is nowhere near Versailles.¡±

    Angor observed the surroundings, most of which were uncultivated wilderness.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just move ahead. We¡¯ll know where to go if we reach civilization.¡±

    While Tulu followed his order to head ind, Angor leaned on the railing of the boat to recall what Freud told him before.

    ording to Freud, ¡°Whelk of the Dreaming Coast¡± was hidden back at his home, the Central Empire, whichmanded 19 other principalities around the Land of Revtion.

    And since this was Freud¡¯s home...

    Angor reached his spirit feelers into his Church of the Deceased in order to talk to Freud, but he changed his mind when he noticed that Freud was busily writing something at his desk.

 Chapter 809 - Illusions and Dreams

    <h4>Chapter 809: Illusions and Dreams</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When Angor saw Freud so focused on paperwork, instead of interrupting Freud, he took some time to look around the room, which had been neatly taken care of. The room didn¡¯t have any randomly ced objects around. It seemed even when Freud was ¡°dead¡±, he still strictly followed his previous disciplines.

    There was a pile of books beside Freud¡¯s pillow, most of which weremon novels Angor copied from his tablet, such as <i>Adventure of a Swordswoman, Sins of Lilies,</i> and <i>Beast¡¯s Mask</i>. These stories all had a simryout where the protagonist was resurrected into the body of another man, woman, or even an animal. When Angor noticed that Freud preferred this genre, he ced more of such books in Freud¡¯s ¡°illusion room¡±.

    Telling from the cement of those books, Freud still loved to read them.

    Angor picked up a random one named <i>Ambitious Goddess</i> and saw many reader¡¯sments left by Freud between the pages. Most of thements showed Freud¡¯s disapproval of the story, such as how he would live his new life in another way if he were to be the protagonist in the book.

    While Angor was fully attracted by some of the interestingments, Freud heard the sound of book pages being turned and looked back.

    ¡°Mister Padt?¡± He knew what was going on when he saw one of the books floating above his bed.

    Again, Angor didn¡¯t mind being discovered by Freud so easily, which had happened many times. By now, he was certain that Freud was truly an elite apprentice from the Tower of Hurricane because this man had really sharp senses. The only problem was that Freud over-trusted his teammate during the purification garden challenge, which ultimately cost his life.

    ¡°I have something to ask. But since you¡¯re busy...¡± Angor lowered the book to its original position.

    Freud dropped his pen. ¡°It¡¯s fine, Mister Padt. What do you need?¡±

    Angor exined his intention, which was mostly about asking for directions around the Land of Revtion.

    ¡°I¡¯m... afraid that I know little other than the Central Empire.¡± Freud showed an apologetic smile. ¡°I didn¡¯t go to the other neen principalities that often.¡±

    ¡°I see. Too bad.¡±

    Freud quickly spoke again before Angor could retract his spirit. ¡°One moment, Mister Padt. I just drafted a new research project, would you mind taking a look if you have the time for it?¡±

    Freud stood aside to show Angor the papers behind him.

    Angor checked the title of the draft and raised an eyebrow.

    <i>Possible Ways for Combining Illusions With Dream Whelk (3rd revision)</i>

    He already knew that Freud had been working on such a project. He would admit that he was curious to find out what Freud meant to do. However, he never actually asked about it because he knew Freud was waiting for him to take the initiative and gain an upper hand.

    He wouldn¡¯t mind if Freud had some secret ns in the making, but it was a different matter if Freud involved HIM in these ns.

    Each time he checked Freud¡¯s room, the man would intentionally put the project paper at the most perceptible spot. And each time, Angor would purposely ignore it.

    Apparently, Freud finally lost his patience and decided to take a step down.

    Angor dly epted the offer and used a spirit feeler to pick up the papers.

    Without minding the manifold details, which upied most of the volume, he went straight to the conclusion section.

    And... he was confused by it.

    A research project usually had a specific target to be researched into, along with sound theories and proofs to support the author¡¯s opinions. However, <i>Possible Ways for Combining Illusions With Dream Whelk</i> had none of these. It appeared more like a collection of Freud¡¯s imaginations rather than a research outline.

    Basically, Freud ¡°assumed¡± that he could create wonderful oues if hebined the use of illusions with the Dream Whelk.

    Currently, the true effect of Whelk of the Dreaming Coast was ¡°pulling non-lifeform objects into a dream¡±, which was considered to be the most useless effect possible for a Mystery item. On the contrary, Freud almost described the item as something even superior to a tactical weapon in his paper.

    For example, Freud believed that he could use the whelk to pull Angor¡¯s alchemy material into a dream weaved by nightmare illusions, in which case Angor could use this dream to practice alchemy using valuableponents without consuming them for real.

    This sounded pretty helpful because practical experience was always critical in an alchemist¡¯s career, and being too poor to afford good materials would greatly hinder their improvement. Making such ¡°alchemy dreams¡±e true equaled to providing education and training to alchemists with minimal expense. Without the fear of botching their work and losing precious materials, alchemists who studied Synthesis might even control the exact oue of their creations with enough practice.

    Freud made up many conjectures that were meant to use dreams to achieve wonderful things that weren¡¯t usually doable in reality. He believed he could even live inside such an ¡°illusion dream¡±.

    But as he also pointed out in the end, he had no idea of how tobine dreams with illusions as of now. He meant to provide his ideas for Angor to read, and if Angor considered it to be worthwhile to look further into this project, Angor could take it from here.

    After reading the papers, Angor did feel interested because what Freud said reminded him of the ¡°virtual reality implements¡± that he saw in his hologram tablet. It was just that Freud¡¯s imaginations were wilder because he didn¡¯t consider technical obstacles that were unlikely to be solved.

    More importantly, dream and illusion werepletely different concepts. How to fuse them together in the first ce?

    Personally, Angor admired Freud¡¯s inventiveness but wouldn¡¯t hold much hope about it.

    Still, he wouldn¡¯t directly deny Freud¡¯s ambition yet because he had yet to get his hands on the Dream Whelk and see its effect for real. Perhaps Freud based his project on a certain special trait of the item.

    ¡°Nice idea, but we have many problems here¡ª¡±

    Before Angor could offer his own debate, Tulu suddenly called out to him aloud, ¡°I found people, Mister Padt!¡±

    Angor quickly shortened the speech he prepared into a brief phrase. ¡°It¡¯s good to be creative, but I do not believe you can mix dreams with illusions. Here, read this and see if it helps you.¡±

    He ced another ¡°illusion book¡± on Freud¡¯s desk and quickly left.

    A little confused, Freud checked the cover of the book called <i>Lucid Dream</i>.

    ...

    The Land of Revtion had always been an outstanding ce among all mortalnds around Devil¡¯s Water. Since a very long time ago, it had been enjoying peaceful development without getting troubled by a single war, unlike the Old Earth and many other ces where different nations were always fighting each other.

    Even Ferran, where Anrum Monarchy seemed to be in dominance, had many potential enemies carefully waiting to take it down and seize power the moment they saw a chance.

    Being peaceful meant being rich, while prosperous trading would in turn give birth to plentiful cultural creations and relics.

    Just now, Angor had reached a small settlement called ¡°Freighting Town¡±, which was located pretty close to the capital city of the Central Empire.

    Also, this was where Freud was born.

    The ce looked tiny from above. But after reaching it bynd, Angor noticed that the small ce had everything a town might need, such as more than 20 tradingpanies that included representatives established by the other principalities. A branch built by Versailles Principality was also among them.

    Each building had a unique design that did not ruin the general consistency of the town¡¯s style. There were also a good number of fountain zas for social gatherings, where Angor saw many street performers happily showing their talent.

    The whole ce felt so lively. In fact, Angor found this small town to be more enjoyable than some of the biggest cities in other ces he visited before.

    ¡°I might as well take Mister Jon on a trip to this ce after curing his illness...¡± he thought.

    Due to his condition, Jon had not stepped out of Padt Manor for many years. Angor knew that, apart from gardening, his old teacher absolutely loved history and culture.

    ¡°We¡¯re at Dison Alley, good sir,¡± the young boy leading their way turned around and spoke.

 Chapter 810 - Nightmare Orphanage

    <h4>Chapter 810: Nightmare Orphanage</h4>

    Freud said that his old home was located at the depth of Dison Alley.

    Angor took a peek and noticed that the path ahead looked rather deste despite its tidy look.

    He then took out a gold coin and gave it to the young guide.

    When they stepped into the town, this young man immediately recognized them as travelers and offered his service, and Angor decided to hire him rather than asking for Freud¡¯s help.

    The boy seemed toe from a poverty-stricken family too, so Angor also meant to offer a token of kindness.

    The small guide was more than happy to receive the hefty coin. Instead of leaving right away, he considered and offered another piece of advice, ¡°Sir, everyone living at Dison Alley has moved away. If you¡¯re looking for people, you should check out the civil service.¡±

    ¡°Moved away?¡± Angor was going inside the alley already, but he suddenly stopped moving. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s um...¡±

    The guide looked between Angor and the piece of gold coin that was enough to keep him fed for an entire year.

    ¡°The mayor forbids people from talking about it. But, but I guess I can tell you, generous sir.¡±

    He then checked around and made sure no one was looking.

    ¡°I-I only know a little, which I heard from several drunk patrons at the pub. Oh, my name is Piney, by the way. I work at Surfing Pub at night, part-time.¡±

    Piney proceeded to exin what he heard about Dison Alley.

    There was an abandoned orphanage at the end of the alleyway where no one would visit. The mayor involved that part into a town expansion construction n and intended tomence the projectter. But due to some ¡°financial problems¡±, the project was never started, and the orphanage was left unattended for over ten years.

    Nothing particr happened to the ce until two years ago, when a team of inspectors went there to examine the condition of the building.

    ¡°It¡¯s haunted?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    Piney nodded slowly. ¡°Trust me, sir. I never saw it myself but many customers including the city inspectors were talking about it. They saw the ghosts of kids or something. And that some members of their team never came back out. Later, the residents around that part started hearing children crying at night, so they all ran away. The alley was left there deserted ever since. Even hobos and beggars wouldn¡¯t go in there.¡±

    ¡°Huh...¡± Angor stroked his chin as he just remembered that Freud was also referring to an orphanage when speaking of his ¡°old home¡±. Piney was probably talking about the same ce.

    ¡°Is that all you can tell me?¡± Angor saw Piney still waiting for his response patiently and returned the courtesy.

    ¡°That was everything I know, sir.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your time. It¡¯s nice to hear such a story for a change.¡± Angor smiled gently. He rubbed Piney¡¯s broken newsboy cap and turned away.

    ¡°Um, you-you¡¯re going in there, sir? Aren¡¯t you afraid?¡± Piney asked in surprise while fruitlessly tending to his hairstyle.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m afraid of a lot of things, but ghost surely isn¡¯t one of them.¡± Angor¡¯s voice reached Piney¡¯s ears even though he had already disappeared into the path.

    Piney spent a minute looking at where Angor and Tulu went, doffed his cap, and headed away.

    ¡°Wait... There¡¯s something else I forgot to tell him!¡±

    Several months ago, the Central Empire sent a team of royal knights to check the orphanage house in order to deal with the unsettling rumors. However, theyter retreated from the town without solving anything.

    ¡°Guess it doesn¡¯t matter to a traveler. That mister¡¯s not going to actually enter the orphanage... right?¡±

    ...

    Angor was currently staring at a rusty iron fence gate. There was an iron sign hanging on the fence wall nearby, which was fluttering in the wind because most of its nails had fallen off.

    Angor wiped some dust off it and revealed a line of gray characters:

    ***are Orphanage.

    He couldn¡¯t make out the full name because whatever was written at the leftmost side had rusted away.

    ording to Freud, he used to live here during his childhood even though he wasn¡¯t an orphan. It was because his father ran this ce.

    ¡°Do you need something from here, Mister Padt?¡± Tulu was peeking into the fence gate with a curious look, but he could see nothing other than growing weeds and dust-covered bricks.

    Several untended trees were growing wildly to the extent of blocking most sunlight from the structure, causing the whole ce to look eerily creepy even though it was daytime. There were several yground implements such as rocking horses and slides, all fully covered under thick dirt and filth. The house¡¯s wall looked extremely unrepaired and had green moss growing on it.

    ¡°Yeah, I need to find something,¡± Angor replied without considering this to be a secret. As a ¡°pointless¡± Mystery item, Dream Whelk was only sold for ten thousand magic crystals at Sky Auction several years ago. He didn¡¯t believe anyone woulde and mug him for it.

    After all, if there were any muggers, they would be more interested in his alchemy skills.

    Tulu knew he wasn¡¯t supposed to ask too much about Angor¡¯s business, so he chose to mention something less important. ¡°That name... what was this ce called before? Welfare Orphanage? Or is it ¡®Aftercare¡¯? Wait, that doesn¡¯t sound right...¡±

    Angor pushed the unlocked gate open while answering Tulu¡¯s question. ¡°Your first answer was actually correct. This ce was supposed to be the ¡®Welfare Orphanage¡¯,¡± he said while recalling Freud¡¯s description. ¡°It was the manager who came up with this name before it was abandoned. But... those lived here all preferred to call it the ¡®Nightmare Orphanage¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Nightmare? That¡¯s... Did they like, hate this ce or something?¡± Tulu flinched.

    ¡°Yeah. In fact, many people died here. This is how this world always is. You find the worst evil hidden beneath bright masks that appear to be innocent on the outside.¡±

    Compared to Tulu, Angor heard more secrets about this ce, and he knew the whole matter was moreplicated than it appeared to be.

    As they walked deeper inside and under the shade cast by the trees, Tulu shivered when he felt a sudden chilliness.

    ¡°Mi-Mister Padt, do you think there are ghosts here, like that kid told us?¡±

    Angor closed his eyes. ¡°There... are entities that radiated energy, but I don¡¯t find them to be hostile. Perhaps there are wandering souls inside the building. Normal souls.¡±

    ¡°d-d to hear it...¡± Tulu sighed in relief.

    ¡°Normal souls don¡¯t necessarily mean good ones,¡± Angor added. ¡°Even if they are not undead, they can always do bad things for various reasons. Maybe the missing inspectors Piney mentioned were killed by them.¡±

    Tulu started trembling again and suddenly released a faint water barrier around his body.

    ¡°That water isn¡¯t going to help you with anything. Are you trying to look scary?¡± Angor nced at Tulu¡¯s trick.

    Tulu nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll tell them that I¡¯m no powerless mortal they can mess with! If anyone¡¯s watching us, that is.¡±

    Angor chuckled. Putting the useless trick aside, he could see that Tulu¡¯s water-based potential was improving VERY rapidly. And Tulu wasn¡¯t even an apprentice yet.

    They stopped in front of the three-story building, which also reflected the general architecture fashion of the town, just with a way more ominous look.

    Tulu saw Angor already entering the main entrance and could only follow behind.

    The inside of the building was unsurprisingly dark. In order not to bump into things, Tulu took out a Luminous Stone as a light source, which slightly illuminated the area with a faint green light, causing the environment to look even more unpleasant.

    ¡°Where-where-where are we going now, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°The basement.¡±

    Following Freud¡¯s instructions, Angor walked behind the stairs and opened a door to the storage closet, causing a small cloud of dust.

    ¡°But that¡¯s not the way to the basement, is it?¡± Tulu moved his light closer and looked into the jumbled room.

    Angor looked at the narrow space with a frown without speaking.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sir?¡±

    ¡°Someone has been here. Recently. There was too little dust for a ce neglected for several years. Now look behind you.¡±

    Tuluplied and found himself staring right at a pair of glowing green eyes. Terrified, he stumbled several steps back, lost his bnce, and fell on his butt.

    Angor rolled his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s just a toy. You really need to do something about that jumpiness if you want to stay alive in the wizarding world.¡±

    Tulu looked again and saw that he was only looking at a doll figure with a red dress sitting on top of a pile of garbage. It was just that, that emotionless smile looked hideous in the green light.

    ¡°*Gulp* I¡¯ll be more careful from now on, sir.¡±

    Without minding Tulu¡¯s words, Angor pointed at the toy. ¡°There are unusual prints on that thing. Someone touched ittely and wiped some dust off.¡±

    He then moved to carry the toy away and uncovered a broken wallmp hidden behind.

    Click!

    When Angor pulled themp into another position, the floor beside Tulu suddenly slid open and revealed an entrance.

    ¡°That¡¯s the way to the basement, I guess,¡± Angor muttered.

    He knew this entrance because Freud told him, but from what he just saw, someone else had gone into the basement very recently.

    <i>Did theye and take the Dream Whelk already?</i> Angor thought.

 Chapter 811 - A Boyâ€™s Soul

    <h4>Chapter 811: A Boy¡¯s Soul</h4>

    As Tulu wondered if he should keep following Angor and go down into the hatch, a sudden cold gust came from the main entrance and hit his back, convincing him of the safer choice.

    ¡°At-at least Mister Padt can protect me if anything bad happens...¡±

    The stairway down wasn¡¯t as dusty as the other parts of the building, but it didn¡¯t feel any better because there was this strong medicine smell in the air.

    Thud, thud...

    Tulu couldn¡¯t see the end of the stairs with his weak light. As he walked for longer, he grew more stressed until he felt like walking straight down into hell.

    ¡°What¡¯s that smell, Mister Padt?¡± Tulu looked at Angor¡¯s back and decided to say something.

    ¡°Oh. Because¡ª¡±

    Angor looked back at Tulu but suddenly stopped moving.

    ¡°What-what is it, sir?¡±

    Angor smiled for some reason. ¡°Because the sickbay is down there.¡±

    Tulu frowned as he thought Angor was joking. <i>Sickbay underground? Orphanage?</i>

    Another momentter, Tulu began trembling again as he crossed his arms. ¡°Why is it so cold here? The wind outside can¡¯t get this far...¡±

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just a draught that slipped in.¡±

    <i>Draught in the basement?</i> Again, Tulu wondered if Angor was simply pulling his leg, but he was feeling too cold toin right now.

    <i>Why does this sickbay feel like a fridge?</i>

    Another chilly air current assaulted the back of his neck. At the same time, Tulu believed that he just heard someone giggling.

    <i>Wait... that guide told us how everyone around here moved away because they heard children¡¯s voices at night. Could it be...</i>

    ¡°Are-are-are we going to run into a ghost, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Nah, we won¡¯t. Look behind you.¡±

    Tulu didn¡¯t understand what ¡°looking back¡± had to do with not running into ghosts, but he stillplied subconsciously.

    Once again, he was terribly shocked to see a pair of eyes. Or rather, those didn¡¯t look like eyes since what was inside those sockets werepletely ck.

    Tulu felt like screaming but failed to do so as the cold air froze something in his throat. Since he couldn¡¯t step back in the narrow space, he could only press his back against the wall nearby and took several quick, panicked gasps.

    ¡°Mi-Mi-Mister Padt, there-there-that-¡±

    ¡°Amon, everyday soul you can find everywhere in the wizarding world. That scared you?¡± Angor replied in a t tone.

    Tulu looked the other way and saw Angor had already reached the end of the stairway and was now looking at a sealed door.

    <i>This thing¡¯smon?!</i> Tulu slowly looked back at the owner of those ck eyeballs.

    Now that he took a more careful look, he noticed that he was looking at a small boy about the age of seven or eight, who had a dull expression and a dull, ragged shirt. He couldn¡¯t see any particr emotions from those hollow eyes.

    The boy¡¯s body was transparent.

    Tulu quickly remembered what he learned about undead spirits before. He made sure that the soul of the small boy in front of him wasn¡¯t showing any of the wicked violence that meant trouble.

    ¡°But... he¡¯s still scary as hell.¡±

    ¡°I see. Will you feel better if I tell you that kid has been following right behind you since you entered the secret entrance?¡± said Angor.

    ¡°So that¡¯s why I always felt something wrong on my back? Wait, you knew it all along, Mister Padt?¡±

    Angor grinned in satisfaction as his ¡°prank¡± went through. Of course he saw the stalking soul the moment it showed up. This one barely had any soul energy, and it could do nothing to harm a healthy young man like Tulu as long as Tulu stayed careful enough.

    Again, Angor waited until thest moment to reveal the presence of their little tail just to make fun of Tulu.

    ¡°Now, who are you, and what do you want from us?¡± Angor turned around and gazed at the floating child.

    The kid bared his teeth. ¡°Roooar! Arrgh!¡±

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°Yarrrr!¡± The child raised his hands and did a wing gesture.

    ¡°Okay. You are looking cute rather than scary like that.¡± Angor understood the situation and revealed a wicked grin. ¡°Let me tell you how to scare people properly.¡±

    A gust of ck smoke suddenly covered up Angor¡¯s form, and his eyes began glowing with a red light.

    ¡°Haw haw haw haw...¡± Several inhumanughs were heard from his position.

    A circle of dark violet fire began burning brightly under Angor, which startled both Tulu and the small soul for good.

    Next, a ming, fanged skull floated away from where Angor¡¯s head was supposed to be and rushed at the child.

    The child never thought that he would be the one being terrified instead and could only shiver in ce helplessly.

    A momentter, he somewhat recovered from his fear and wanted to run away, only to be blocked by a mist barrier behind him that always sent him back to in front of Angor no matter how many times he tried.

    ¡°Can you tell me what you want now?¡± Angor asked again.

    Still shuddering, the child slowly looked back while his empty eyes somehow showed the hint of true fear. He had believed that he was dealing with some kind of devil even though Angor had returned to his original looks.

    ¡°Don¡¯t keep the devil waiting, or he¡¯lle and eat you at night,¡± Angor mocked.

    ¡°You can¡¯t go in there. There¡¯s-there¡¯s-¡± the kid answered with a whisper, which sounded both creepy and childish.

    Angor looked back at the locked door again. ¡°There¡¯s a girl¡¯s soul inside. And she smells... ugh. Bloody. She killed many people, didn¡¯t she? Yet she¡¯s not an undead. Impressive.

    ¡°Are you here to stop us from reaching her?¡±

    The child didn¡¯t understand how Angor saw through the door, but he still replied, ¡°She¡¯s Sunny. She... bes mad when she wakes up, and she will kill anyone alive in sight. She¡¯s much, much stronger than me! Leave at once if you don¡¯t want to die in there.¡±

    The child didn¡¯t seem so confident in his words because he just saw Angor being a ¡°devil¡±. He was no longer sure who he should be worrying about.

    ¡°You¡¯re actually trying to save people¡¯s lives? But weren¡¯t you killed by someone? If I¡¯m not mistaken, the manager of this orphanage murdered you. Don¡¯t you hate humans?¡±

    The boy nodded and once again looked terrified when he recalled the man who killed him. ¡°Yes. It was Director Dison. But that has nothing to do with other people, right?¡±

    Angor gave him a meaningful look. ¡°You know what, I¡¯m d you can think more clearly than many adults who¡¯re still alive.¡±

    He then turned around and reached a spirit feeler out to pick the door¡¯s lock.

    Ka-click!

    ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± The child showed a worried look on his pale face. ¡°Sunny has not done any more killing in a few months, but I know she¡¯s still there.¡±

    Angor pushed the door open and was immediately weed by a sharper smell of disinfectant, along with more cold air.

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s inside. But I don¡¯t think she can do anything to us right now,¡± said Angor as he cast Light and tossed a bright orb into the room ahead.

    Tulu looked further into the room and widened his eyes.

    Not far from the entrance, there was a little girl wearing a red skirt trapped in the middle of a magic array drawn by some blood-red substance. It appeared to be real blood.

    She seemed to be of a simr age as the boy outside. Moreover, she was staring right at them with an eerie grin, which immediately reminded Tulu of the dress-up toy he saw a moment ago.

    ¡°She can¡¯t get out from there, so... we should be safe,¡± Angor said as he approached the edge of the magic array.

    ¡°What¡¯s-what¡¯s happening to Sunny?¡± It seemed the boy also cared for her. They were probably friends.

    Angor crouched down and examined the drawing on the floor.

    ¡°Wait... this is not a proper magic array. This blood contained a special type of energy that restrained her.

    ¡°Butpared to the strange blood, I¡¯d like to know who did this to her.¡±

 Chapter 812 - A Lingering Soul

    <h4>Chapter 812: A Lingering Soul</h4>

    Again, Angor looked at the girl herself and noticed that she wasn¡¯t surprised to see intrudersing at all.

    ¡°Sunny, is it? Who locked you up, and when did it happen?¡± Angor looked her in the eyes.

    Sunny sneered but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Angor looked at the boy beside him, who was anxious to help Sunny but couldn¡¯t get inside the area of the blood markings.

    ¡°You said that Sunny hadn¡¯t left here for several months. Which means...¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± The boy nodded. ¡°She was fine half a year ago.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t see how this urred?¡±

    ¡°No. Sunny won¡¯t allow me to get close to this ce...¡± The boy lowered his head.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor turned back to address Sunny. ¡°You¡¯re both kids. Why do you look a lot more murderous? Such strong killing intent, and so close to blood... and you endured for half a year without turning into an undead spirit. Howe? Is something perhaps... preventing you from going down that way?¡±

    Same as before, the girl only gave Angor a hateful re.

    ¡°She¡¯s not like this when she¡¯s asleep. Sunny is so kind and gentle...¡± The boy spoke up anxiously. ¡°But each time she wakes up, she¡¯s like really pissed off.¡±

    ¡°Alda, you fool! Shut up!¡± Sunny screamed.

    Alda the boy flinched and took some steps back.

    Tulu, who had been chattering his teeth in the cold but was otherwise quiet till now, suddenly poked Angor¡¯s in the side.

    ¡°Mi-Mister Padt... Look-look, why are there so many¡ª¡±

    Tulu was looking at a water tank ced on one side of the room.

    In the weak light, they saw the frozen corpse of a child inside the tank.

    Still trembling, Tulu moved his Luminous Stone closer and realized that the face of the corpse looked very simr to the timid boy who had been talking to Sunny. The only problem was that the corpse in the tank had many nasty scars on his body, and he had a leg missing.

    Next, Tulu looked lower and saw a tag attached to the tank.

    ¡°Alda, age: 8. Date of death: Gold Revtion 3389...¡± Tulu read the tag aloud.

    ¡°Gold Revtion¡± was the current era name used by the Central Empire. From this, they could tell that Alda died 32 years ago. Combining his age, Alda had been existing in this world for about 40 years, which made him ¡°older¡± than both Tulu and Angor.

    ¡°This... is you?¡± Tulu looked at Alda.

    ¡°Yes-yes...¡± Alda looked a bit hesitant but still admitted.

    ¡°What happened to you?¡± Tulu asked while checking more water tanks in the room. Simrly, each one had a small corpse stored inside.

    ¡°Because Director Dison killed them and ced their bodies here as souvenirs,¡± Angor answered this one in Alda¡¯s ce.

    He wasn¡¯t surprised to see such a sight because Freud already told him about it, but this didn¡¯t mean he could remainpletely calm when looking at so many innocent dead children.

    ¡°Director Dison was the one who ran this ce, right? Why would he do such a thing?¡± Tulu was slowly getting enraged as well.

    ¡°Because the loser was too big a coward to use his twisted motive against adults,¡± Angor replied as he remembered what he heard from Freud before.

    Freud, or Freud Dison, was born in this orphanage, and ¡°Director Dison¡± was Freud¡¯s father.

    Old Dison used to be an orphan who was tortured by others a lot during his childhood, which ultimately left him with a permanent disability in his left leg. In his most miserable time, a couple took him in and raised him up. After many years, Dison established a sessful career and opened up this Welfare Orphanage in order to ¡°provide warm shelter to homeless children¡±, as he announced to the public.

    However, what he truly did to the kids in the orphanage was torture and heartless massacre.

    To get back what he lost during his early years, he repeated his suffering onto the helpless orphans. In his case, hardship and misfortune did not give birth to a strong man. On the contrary, they created a mortal demon who sought to pass his wretched karma onto other people.

    Thankfully, the vicious deed soon ended as Freud did not inherit the ideal of his father. At least Angor didn¡¯t notice Freud to be anyone like Old Dison during their interactions. And it was not like he cared¡ªFreud was dead, he couldn¡¯t stay behind and collect helpless children anyway.

    When faced with peril, someone chose to endure and forget, some chose to revenge, while those too weak to do either would be the criminal, spread their menace upon others, and see innocent people suffer to ease their own pain.

    Humanity was unpredictable. It always was.

    Even though Angor didn¡¯t tell Tulu the story, Tulu managed to guess a thing or two from what he already saw, and he was beginning to feel a bit sorry for the sad fate of Alda and Sunny.

    Again, Sunny simply spat at Tulu¡¯s sympathy.

    Tulu moved away from the water tanks and joined Angor. ¡°What should we do now, Mister Padt? Aren¡¯t you looking for something here?¡±

    Angor walked around Sunny¡¯s prison and saw arge workbench behind her. ording to Freud, the Dream Whelk was stored inside there.

    But since someone else had been here, he was well-prepared to return empty-handed.

    Following Freud¡¯s instruction, he triggered something on the workbench and split it into two.

    Seeing his movement, Sunny seemed to recall something and scowled furiously.

    ¡°Yup. It¡¯s been taken.¡± Angor sighed in great disappointment. Then he saw Sunny¡¯s strange expression and looked at her again. ¡°You saw who took it, right? Tell me.¡±

    ¡°In your dreams!¡±

    Angor quietly observed Sunny¡¯s hateful attitude as if he could see through her mind.

    ¡°Tell me and I¡¯ll get you out of this blood thing.¡±

    Sunny looked away in disdain. It seemed she wasn¡¯t going to cooperate easily.

    ¡°After being killed by Dison, you returned as a soul and would get revenge on other humans. That¡¯s why you killed the inspectors. Being so bloodthirsty meant you¡¯ll easily attract negative energy until you be a mindless undead. But you didn¡¯t. I wonder why?¡± Angor kept speaking without minding Sunny¡¯s reactions. ¡°There¡¯s a reason. An object, or a will, that kept your sanity strong. For this, you do not wish to be fallen.

    ¡°Alda mentioned that you¡¯re a sweet little girl when you¡¯re ¡®asleep¡¯, but you turn into a merciless killer after waking up. Let me guess, your dream is what kept you clear-minded. You know you can always return to your dream and find peace. Am I right?¡±

    ¡°SHUT UP! I tell you to SHUT YOUR DAMNED¡ª¡± Sunny shrieked at the top of her voice as she used her soul energy to tackle the blood prison.

    ¡°Keep using your soul like that and you¡¯re going to lose it for real.¡± Angor spared a stream of gentle soul energy to forcefully soothe Sunny¡¯s rage. ¡°The item in the workbench has a particr effect of pulling you into sweet dreams. But someone came and took it from you half a year ago. Ever since then, you have been struggling in this prison. You can¡¯t get out, and you can¡¯t have those dreams again. Any ordinary soul so desperate would have given in to the dark energy around them and end up as an undead already. Yet you haven¡¯t... because something has been keeping you fine. Something that gives you hope.¡± Angor smiled.

    ¡°You know that item isn¡¯t going toe back, so you can¡¯t possibly depend on more nice dreams. There¡¯s something else, or someone. There was a man who made these dreams for you, is it not?¡±

    Sunny remained silent this time, for she just remembered a figure¡ªa young man who constantly had a pair of dark circles around his eyes, who was the only one beside Alda that gave her care and love during her shortened life.

    ¡°Still not willing to talk?¡± Angor continued. ¡°You think I¡¯m with the guy who took your treasure and locked you up?¡±

    No response.

    Angor just used a small word trick to find out whether it was the same person who built the blood prison AND retrieved the Dream Whelk. It seemed he just got an answer.

    ¡°Will you believe me if I tell you that I¡¯m not on their team?¡±

    Again, no reply.

    ¡°Fine. You¡¯re not going to listen to me anyway. How about letting the man always on your mind talk to you instead?¡±

    Sunny was briefly surprised by this before she scoffed in disbelief.

    Angor freed Freud from his Church of the Deceased. By now, he was almost sure that Sunny knew Freud.

    By some coincidence, Freud appeared right behind Tulu. When Angor, Sunny, and Alda all looked at the extra man in the room, Tulu was still wondering why everybody was giving him strange looks.

    Tulu suddenly felt something freezing touching his back before he heard an unemotional voice that chilled him to the bones.

    ¡°Move it, mortal. You¡¯re in my way.¡±

 Chapter 813 - Amended Agreement

    <h4>Chapter 813: Amended Agreement</h4>

    After being spooked by unexpected ghosts and whatnots for many times, Tulu thought he was brave enough to hold his pants against such a thing now.

    He was wrong.

    As soon as an ice-cold hand went on his shoulder, he felt his heart halting for a moment. And before he could turn around to look at who patted his shoulder, his eyes rolled up.

    ¡°Oops...¡± Angor watched as Tulu fainted on the floor and wondered if he should use an entrance test, like the ¡°death chamber matches¡±, to recruit. And if such a method was too dangerous... how about a spooky house challenge?

    Of course, he didn¡¯t let Freud out just to scare Tulu again. Besides, Freud¡¯s soul looked just like when he was alive. Perhaps Tulu had always been on edge since they came to the orphanage, and Freud¡¯s ¡°greeting¡± was thest straw.

    Freud was also getting embarrassed to see such a thing. He did not float straight through Tulu¡¯s body just to be considerate, but it seemed he still caused a simr consequence.

    ¡°Well, Mister Padt?¡± Freud shrugged.

    Angor used Hand of Spell to carry Tulu onto a table nearby. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Consider this another of his apprenticeship lessons.¡±

    Freud would like to ask who Tulu was since he never saw him before, but before he could, a small figure rushed to him and hugged his leg.

    ¡°Mister Dison!¡± Alda cried at the top of his lungs even though he couldn¡¯t produce tears as a soul. ¡°You finally came back to us!¡±

    Freud gently put a hand on Alda¡¯s head. He then shook his head.

    Angor looked at Sunny and saw the girl as excited as Alda.

    ¡°Alda, Sunny... I¡¯m back.¡± Freud said something after a long silence.

    Sunny immediately broke down, and her original stubbornness was nowhere to be found.

    Freud wished to move closer andfort Sunny as well, but he stopped moving at the edge of the blood array and looked at it with knitted eyebrows.

    Compared to ordinary souls, Freud had gathered powerful soul energy to be considered strong. Even so, he knew that he should not touch whatever wasing from the strange blood.

    ¡°What is this thing, Mister Padt?¡± Freud showed a doubtful look as he wondered if it were Angor who ced it here.

    ¡°No idea.¡± Angor shrugged. ¡°I called you here hoping that you can tell me something.¡±

    Freud suddenly got a bad feeling about the whole matter, which was soon confirmed when Angor exined what had happened just now.

    ¡°As imed in our agreement, I¡¯ll set you free as soon as we achieve your end of the deal, which... did not happen,¡± said Angor.

    Freud lowered his head to consider something. ¡°Hold on, Mister Padt, we might still find a solution for this.¡±

    He then looked at the center of the blood markings where Sunny was trapped. ¡°Tell me, Sunny, who did this to you and took the box away?¡±

    ¡°Mister Dison, I-I can¡¯t sense your body. Are you perhaps...?¡± Instead of answering the question, Sunny just realized something and was looking at Freud in disbelief.

    ¡°Aye. I¡¯m dead. Guess we¡¯re of the same kind now.¡±

    ¡°But... but what about your dream?¡± Sunny red at Angor again. ¡°Did YOU kill Mister Dison??¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t reply. Instead, he sent a powerful aura to Sunny¡¯s way, which immediately pressed her onto the floor.

    This was when Sunny realized that this seemingly harmless man was way deadlier than any of the intruders who came earlier.

    ¡°Rightful suspicions and false usations are different. Be careful with what you say,¡± said Angor casually.

    Freud wished to intervene, but he decided not to when he noticed that Angor¡¯s power was a LOT strongerpared to when they were at the purification garden.

    Angor simply canceled his power and told Freud to talk to Sunny since he never intended to ¡°kill¡± Sunny¡¯s soul.

    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t Mister Padt. On the contrary, he¡¯s my savior.¡± Freud briefly exined his situation to Alda and Sunny. ¡°We can talk more about it if we have time in the future. Now back to my question, who locked you here, Sunny?¡±

    Sunny took several heavy breaths to recover from Angor¡¯s pressurized aura. ¡°I don¡¯t know their names. They were all like, wearing really thick armor. It was a man with golden armor who drew this thing on the floor.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t see their faces?¡±

    ¡°No...¡± Sunny shook her head. ¡°They all had helmets.¡±

    ¡°Did you see anything worth noticing on their armors?¡± Freud continued.

    ¡°They were shiny. And there¡¯s a mark of something, a ring made of tree leaves, I think? And there¡¯s this thing inside the ring...¡±

    ¡°A silver-colored bird with really long legs?¡± Freud finished Sunny¡¯s description for her.

    ¡°Yes! I saw a tall bird in that mark!¡±

    By now, Angor knew that Freud recognized those people, which meant they did have a chance of getting the Dream Whelk back.

    ¡°Mister Padt,¡± Freud said as he turned away from Sunny, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s the order of the royal knights.¡±

    ¡°Royal knights? Are they mortals or supernaturals?¡±

    ¡°The knights themselves are mortals who serve the Central Empire as the most loyal guardians. But... there might be other forces in the Central Empire that involve several apprentices. The so-called ¡®court wizards¡¯, as I heardst time. They use this name to disy their superiority to other mortal countries.¡±

    ¡°A mortal emperor has business with supernatural apprentices? Just like the Goman King...¡±

    ¡°This is different.¡± Freud shook his head. ¡°The Goman Kingdom has enough strength that makes it equally powerful as some of the wizard organizations. But here, the Central Empire can only hire lesser, hopeless apprentices who can do nothing elsewhere.¡±

    ¡°I see. It¡¯s still impressive for a mortal empire though. We can count how many of them can pull off such a rtionship with one hand. Or two.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s actually a bit moreplicated.¡± Freud showed a strange look. ¡°Those court wizards are all apprentices from the Tower of Hurricane. In other words, the Tower of Hurricane sent a bunch of apprentices to watch over the Central Empire. By the way, there was a real wizard from the Tower of Hurricane who once belonged to ¡®court wizards¡¯. But he¡¯s already dead.¡±

    ¡°Tower of Hurricane...¡± Angor repeated that name. ¡°You came from that ce, right?¡±

    Freud nodded. ¡°Now that you mentioned it, I joined the Tower of Hurricane only after someone among the court wizards discovered my talent. Damn. If what I guessed is right, the b*stards received a message from the Tower of Hurricane that I¡¯m dead, so they came to my old home to search for valuables. That¡¯s how the Dream Whelk got stolen.¡±

    ¡°Which means this is hopeless for us. We can try going after random supernaturals but definitely not people from the Tower of Hurricane. I¡¯d assume they already handed the item to their HQ.¡±

    ¡°No, Mister Padt. I guess you already know that it¡¯s always difficult to ascertain the true effect of a Mystery item. Before this happens, the whelk is only... a whelk. They took it probably because they saw it as some kind of special material. I¡¯d have overlooked its true effect as well if I didn¡¯t identally trigger the item with my dream-reading ability. As far as I know, there¡¯s no one from the court wizards who knows how to read dreams. On a side note, I never told anyone from the Tower of Hurricane about the Dream Whelk.¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°You mean they kept the whelk at the Central Empire?¡±

    ¡°Very likely.¡±

    Freud gave Angor a meaningful look with obvious intentions¡ªhe wished that Angor would go to the capital and take the whelk back.

    Angor chuckled. ¡°As I remembered, you mentioned that you kept the whelk at ¡®somewhere absolutely secure¡¯, and our agreement didn¡¯t involve me taking it from others by force.¡±

    Freud showed an embarrassed look. ¡°But the court wizards are only a bunch of weaklings, and there¡¯s no way they can stop you, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Of course I can do that. But again, that isn¡¯t exactly what we agreed upon. You promised that I would receive the item without unnecessary trouble.¡±

    ¡°I...¡± Freud considered. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I never went through any soul training while I was alive. If I¡¯m to get it back for you, I might have some problems dealing with them if I run into level-2 apprentices...¡±

    Angor would not give up either since he still wanted to obtain the Dream Whelk.

    ¡°This is easy. Let¡¯s amend our agreement.¡±

 Chapter 814 - A Small Game

    <h4>Chapter 814: A Small Game</h4>

    When Freud was looking, Angor took out their magical pact and applied an addendum to it.

    Their agreement mentioned a special use that either of them could add more requests to the deal ordingly, should any unexpected ¡°force majeure event¡± impede a sessful fulfillment. While drafting the covenant, both Angor and Freud swore in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness, and now was the time to put this special use to use.

    ¡°If I¡¯m to use extrabor to retrieve the item, then you¡¯ll automatically owe me a favor. In the future, I can ask you to fulfill this favor on condition that I do not endanger your personal safety, your freedom, or ask for anything beyond your power.¡±

    Freud pondered and had no problem agreeing since the request seemed easy enough. He knew he was of little use in Angor¡¯s view, which meant the ¡°favor¡± wouldn¡¯t be anything too hard.

    After settling their new agreement, Angor moved to one side of the room to give Freud some time to talk with Sunny and Alda.

    He had no idea what to ask from Freud yet. He made the extra condition just because he could, plus that he didn¡¯t feel pleased when Freud¡¯s promise didn¡¯t go as nned.

    As of now, Freud could neither help him fight or work for him as his assistant because they didn¡¯t fully trust each other.

    In the end, Angor shook his head to get rid of this concern. He¡¯d like to get the Dream Whelk first before tending to other matters.

    Freud soon finished talking about his old days with Alda and Sunny, and Tulu also came to.

    Taking the chance when Tulu was too confused to get scared again, Freud said his apology and briefly introduced himself.

    ¡°A talent, you say?¡± Freud looked at the materialized water elements that surrounded Tulu and silently admired Tulu¡¯s great potential.

    Meanwhile, Tulu was feeling VERY anxious that Angor would be disappointed with him. Simr things had happened so many times before, and each time Angor would lecture him on his cowardice. But this time, he cked out without even seeing Freud¡¯s face.

    Tulu gathered some courage and whispered, ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡±.

    Angor maintained a poker face as he spoke, ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. One needs time to train their mind. Nothing¡¯s wrong about that.¡±

    Tulu thought he had been forgiven. However, what Angor said next immediately depressed him even further.

    ¡°I need to leave and deal with some other business with Freud. Meanwhile, you wait for me in this orphanage.¡± Angor grinned at Tulu. ¡°Of course, you¡¯re free to leave if you can¡¯t take it. On condition that you can find a way out, that is.¡±

    Tulu shivered. ¡°Sir-sir, what-what do you mean by ¡®I can¡¯t take it¡¯? There¡¯s something else in here?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll know soon enough. You have enough food, right? And you can create water with your new ability. Just try not to die.¡±

    <i>Try what??!</i> Tulu felt his heart growing colder.

    As Tulu stumbled away to look for a phantom he couldn¡¯t see, Freud joined Angor with a smile. ¡°I think you like him, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Of course I do. I¡¯m expecting him to be a future backbone for Brute Cavern. Are you done with the kids, by the way? We are leaving.¡±

    Freud nodded. ¡°Of course. But Mister Padt, you see, Sunny is...¡± He nced at the ¡°blood prison¡± with a hesitant look.

    Meanwhile, Tulu also looked at Angor with a simr expression but with apletely different intention. As someone who was going to spend more time in the orphanage, he sure wished that the little murderer stayed trapped rather than roaming freely.

    Angor ignored Tulu and nodded to Freud. ¡°Sure.¡±

    He then moved to Sunny, who was not as hostile to him as before. ¡°I¡¯ll set you freeter. But I also need you to y a small game with that big lubber over there. What do you say?¡±

    ¡°Big lubber?¡± Sunny tilted her head.

    Angor pointed to Tulu, who was still trembling like a frightened kitten at the corner of the room.

    ¡°What game?¡± Sunny knew she couldn¡¯t oppose Angor now. And besides, she believed Angor and Freud were friends.

    ¡°Let me see...¡± Angor stroked his chin. ¡°You two shall y ¡®Dead by Daylight: The Nightmare Orphanage¡¯.¡±

    As Angor exined the ¡°rules¡± of the game, Tulu was giving Freud pleading looks, for he thought Freud could help him deal with Sunny.

    ¡°Chill it. Sunny¡¯s not going to kill you,¡± said Freud.

    And this only made Tulu more frightened.

    Tulu then looked at his only hope¡ªAlda¡ªand hid behind the boy¡¯s back.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, mister!¡± Aldaforted. ¡°Sunny¡¯s very nice. If anything bad happens, you cane to my home.¡±

    ¡°Your-your home?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. This building is supposed to be Sunny¡¯s turf, while mine is the yground in the backyard. Sunny won¡¯t go there.¡±

    ¡°The yground is your home? You sleep there?¡±

    Alda didn¡¯t seem to mind Tulu¡¯s sympathetic look. ¡°It¡¯s a pretty good ce. I can ride the horsies, the slides, and talk to the kitties! There used to be a lot of people traveling outside the fence, but not anymore.¡±

    <i>Ouch. This kid¡¯s impressive. He was murdered by someone, then he spent such a long time in total loneliness and has not fallen yet...</i> Tulu thought.

    Away from them, Angor had easily broken the key nodes of the blood array and freed Sunny. Also, he kept a small trace of the blood and used Narda¡¯s Vision to identify it.

    While the cantrip was still ¡°calcting¡± the result in his mind, he went to Tulu and said, ¡°I¡¯ve told Sunny. From now on, she would act as a good old killer and hunt you down, while you do your best to stay alive. As Alda said, the yground is your ¡®safe zone¡¯. Sunny will not go there.¡±

    Tulu quickly perked up as he nned to stay at Alda¡¯s yground until Angor came back.

    Angor gave Tulu a devilish smile. ¡°Each day, the yground only opens up to you during the six hours before dawn. You can¡¯t enter that area at the remaining times.¡±

    While exining, Angor began deploying illusion nodes in the area, turning the entire orphanage into a giant illusion that showed a theme park with a somber atmosphere.

    Next, Angor put a hand on Tulu¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I left some tools and ¡®Easter eggs¡¯ in the illusion that mighte in handy. Stay strong, my friend.¡±

    He then left the ce with Freud, leaving Tulu to stare at him helplessly.

    A momentter, Tulu looked back only to see Sunny giving him a really bloodthirsty smile.

    ¡°Ten minutes before the game begins, mister. Be prepared...¡±

    ...

    Freud left the grounds of the orphanage while ncing back asionally.

    In his view, the building was now hidden behind a thick mist, and he could hear the childish giggles of many childrening from it. He was sure that anyone unfortunate to wander inside that ce would end up in a ghost-haunted nightmare instead of the usual orphanage.

    Also, as he observed, some of the ¡°Easter eggs¡± left by Angor weren¡¯t helpful. Instead, they were deadly traps.

    ¡°Are you sure about this, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°No biggie. As you said, Sunny will not actually go for his life.¡± Angor shrugged.

    The illusion was both a ¡°lesson¡± for Tulu as well as a test to show whether such games could be used in ce of other recruitment tests such as Sunders¡¯ deathmatches.

    Freud didn¡¯t ask further. He knew Angor meant to train Tulu¡¯s mentality, which was essential for Tulu to stay at the wizarding world.

    But that game...

    Freud shook his head and sighed. He wasn¡¯t sure if he could endure that kind of mental stress if he were in Tulu¡¯s boots.

    Angor summoned Gond. He then called Freud over and began heading to the capital city of the Central Empire, Saint Sem.

    Like everyone else who saw the amazing vehicle for the first time, Freud expressed his utmost appreciation about the ingenious design, and when he saw no response from Angor, he changed the subject.

    ¡°Mister Padt, as I said in my theories, you can create a ¡®dream world¡¯ using the Dream Whelk together with an illusion like that one, which we can use as a longsting testing ground for new recruits, like games they can join and quit at any time.¡±

    As he listened, Angor wondered if he identally gave Freud any fictions from Earth that were about ¡°virtual reality games¡±. But as far as he could remember, he only ced simple ¡°crossover novels¡± and traditional literature in Freud¡¯s room. There wasn¡¯t anything that could have told Freud about these ideas that highly resembled a certain technology from Earth.

    ¡°VR games... tsk. This is getting advanced pretty fast.¡±

    ¡°Pardon me, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Again, I think your idea sounds fascinating. But it all relies upon whether we can actuallybine illusions and the effect of Dream Whelk, which is... unlikely, I¡¯m afraid. Above all, we have to get the whelk back first.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right...¡± Freud sat back and gazed at the flourishing Saint Sem City in the distance. ¡°I know the whelk is still there. I can feel it.¡±

 Chapter 815 - Saint Sem

    <h4>Chapter 815: Saint Sem</h4>

    Gond arrived at Saint Sem City at midnight.

    The whole ce almost shared the same aesthetic style as Freighting Town, just on a whole other level. Instead of water fountains and zas, arge river ran across the middle of the city, where bards chanted their bads on their boats under the stars. And thanks to the overall culture of the city, these performers seemed rather natural, when they would appear somewhat embarrassing if they were at ¡°less aesthetic¡± ces.

    Every single pedestrian was enjoying the serene setting of the city. Even shopkeepers and patrols on night shift were dressed in decorated uniforms, which seemed to be taken straight out of stage dramas.

    Compared to others, Angor and Freud instead became the odd sight in the city.

    While Freud was still fine since he had the general getup of local royalties, Angor¡¯s unkempt middle-aged image would probably earn him a boot out of the city because he looked more like a homeless beggar.

    ¡°Why do you use such a look, Mister Padt?¡± Freud was sure that all the passersby would truly adore Angor¡¯s usual appearance if Angor decided to show it.

    ¡°To avoid trouble. Do you think I care about what others think of me?¡±

    Freud decided not to ask what Angor meant by ¡°trouble¡± and simply followed Angor toward the royal pce in silence.

    Songs on the riverbanks, music from pubs, artists who recreated stars and beauties on their sheets...

    ¡°Now I kinda know why apprentices would like to spend their time here,¡± Angormented.

    If not to consider his supernatural powers and duties, Angor would admit that he loved this ce. Artfulness had no bounds in this world. Even wizards who highly despised mortals still appreciated mortal artists no matter where they originated from.

    ¡°Saint Sem is also named the ¡®Brightest Pearl of Civilization¡¯.¡± Freud introduced his home country a little proudly. ¡°Rumor has it that the legendary ¡®Magic Painter¡¯ used to live here.¡±

    ¡°Really? The great wizard who can connect his paintings with the very reality?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡± Freud nodded. ¡°But as I said, rumors.¡±

    ¡°Rumors need at least SOME evidence to exist. Did this Magic Painter leave something interesting at the Central Empire? Like his drawings?¡±

    ¡°Dunno about that. I heard the rumor from Neya when I was studying at the Tower of Hurricane.¡± Freud looked into the distance. ¡°About a hundred years ago, Neya was the princess of Silverheron n. Then she became a student of White Witch. Despite all the care she received from her teacher, she never made it past her limit and stayed as an apprentice. She then returned to the Central Empire to spend the rest of her life. If I¡¯m not mistaken, she¡¯s among the court wizards.¡±

    Angor suddenly remembered something he heard a long time ago.

    <i>Silverheron n...</i>

    When he was heading to Fey Continent together with Mara, there was a showy-looking nobleman on the ship from Silverheron called Dove Silverheron. Dove waster murdered by his former servant, Easley. That was when Easley was revealed to be the first recruit who became an apprentice among everyone, who also had an extremely high spiritual power level that allowed him to study ¡°Optic Confusion¡± ahead of time and used it against Dove.

    Lady Merlin, one of the guardians stationed on The Redbud, dly epted Easley to her organization, and nobody cared about the death of Dove.

    As far as what Angor heard back then, Easley killed Dove for some old grudge.

    ¡°Do you know Easley?¡±

    ¡°Easley?¡± Freud held his chin. ¡°I think... that was a genius apprentice who came to the Tower of Hurricane some years ago. He received attention from many wizards. You know him too, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Not really. We were on the same recruiter ship when I was still a mortal.¡±

    Freud shook his head. He was just reminded of the fact that Angor was a mortal just three years ago, while he, as someone who had trained on wizardry for almost twenty years, hadpletely no hope of besting Angor in a fight.

    <i>Damn. Lady Merlin is only a level-3 apprentice. I¡¯m afraid Angor has way surpassed everyone on that ship. Why must people be so different?</i>

    ¡°Could Neya be the one who looted the orphanage?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°It¡¯s... possible. If she¡¯s still alive and in charge of the court wizards, she can definitely do such a thing.¡± Freud frowned. ¡°This means we¡¯re going against a level-3 apprentice at the top of her condition. Are you sure about this, Mister Padt? We can always find another option...¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not necessary.¡± Angor would not waste any more time. As long as he wasn¡¯t fighting a real wizard, he could just let Toby handle everything.

    Freud nodded without speaking further.

    Upon arriving at the pce, without going stealthily, Angor floated straight into the pce grounds and took out a small vial with a drop of blood inside.

    The blood was taken from the ¡°blood prison¡± around Sunny. ording to Narda¡¯s Vision, the blood came from a tree-like humanoid creature and contained rich energy of life, which was highly effective when used against lingering souls. Also, it seemed whoever used this blood injected extraponent in it, which was intended to turn Sunny into an undead faster.

    Now Angor could use this blood to track down who built the blood prison.

    He uncapped the vial and freed a stream of energy from it.

    ¡°Hey, Toby, can you follow the smell and find its owner?¡± Angor tapped his partner, who had been spacing out on his shoulder.

    Toby rolled his eyes and pped Angor¡¯s cheek.

    Angor chuckled and rubbed the small bruise on his face. Of course he didn¡¯t seriously ask for Toby¡¯s help¡ªhe just wanted to pass the time with some small jokes.

    As long as the owner of the blood was inside the pce, they woulde and investigate the source of the smell. Angor simply needed to wait here and capture his target.

    While waiting, Angor found an armchair in the yard below and casually munched on some Moocher Meat as a snack.

    Ten minutester, Angor looked up at the empty sky.

    ¡°Come out already. You never learned how to conceal your aura, did you?¡±

    No response.

    ¡°Sigh.¡±

    He knuckled the desk nearby and released a series of energy ripples into the environment. It was a quick Acoustic Illusion.

    Everyone within the range of the effect instantly felt their ears ringing badly.

    A brief momentter, several dozen armored guards showed up around the yard, and a figure wearing a particrly shiny golden armor was looking right at the small vial beside Angor.

    ...

    An hour ago.

    After Angor left the orphanage, Jebra followed his scent here and realized that Angor had gone elsewhere together with a soul he didn¡¯t recognize. But instead of continuing to follow Angor, Jebra decided to investigate the small building because he saw Angor spend a lot of time there.

    ¡°He used an illusion to cover it up? What for? Did he find someone¡¯s soul here and took them away?¡±

    He decided to go inside and look for himself.

    It wasn¡¯t difficult to find a way inside the illusion, but before Jebra could enter, he heard strange voices that seemed to consist of theughter of children and adults as well as... animals?

    ¡°Let me see what you¡¯ve got here...¡± Jebra grinned and stepped into the mist-infested area ahead.

    The first thing he sensed inside the illusion was another creepy giggle right next to him. He even felt someone¡¯s breath right beside his ear.

    But when he took several steps away to check, he didn¡¯t find anyone.

    Then he heard strange noises again, which came from a tree nearby.

    A white face with stretched fangs emerged from the crown of the tree, and before Jebra could do anything, it rushed at him.

    Jebra didn¡¯t prepare any means of defense and could only see the monstrous face dive straight across him.

    When he had time to react, the strange face had vanished, and he didn¡¯t feel anything actually wrong with him.

    When he heard rustling noises behind him, he quickly turned back and unleashed a cantrip he had been preparing, turning a shadowy figure who was moving to stab him in the back into a puddle.

    ¡°It¡¯s an illusion again... weird. I almost can¡¯t tell before I actually hit it. Did he learn such amazing art from Mister Phantom? But why is he doing this? Did he want to build a ghost house here to scare off mortals?¡±

    He considered and applied a stealth effect to his body before he floated into the sky to observe the orphanage from above.

    There, he saw something very interesting.

 Chapter 816 - Mystery Energy

    <h4>Chapter 816: Mystery Energy</h4>

    The entire illusion was of a grim color while almost every part of it was covered behind a thick, gray mist. Even the sunlight that managed to shine inside was helpless against the darkness.

    However, the area was notpletely unlit. In Jebra¡¯s view, there were a number of light sources such as Luminous Stonemps, flying fireflies, or... floating wraiths who were holding candles.

    In fact, there was one ghastly-looking soul of a woman hovering not far from Jebra¡¯s position, who had a crimsonmp in one hand and a giant scythe in the other that seemed sharp enough to cut through solid stone.

    Jebra observed more carefully and noticed energy signatures that suggested another illusioning from the soul.

    ¡°What is this ce used for? Are these things just meant to stop people froming?¡±

    As he wondered what was going on, he saw a man wearing a headscarf rushing away from the door of a broken building, and the door was shining with an ominous red light.

    ¡°Five minutes! Just five more minutes and I¡¯ll be fine!¡± the man yelled loudly.

    ¡°Gee hee hee...¡± A little girl wearing a crimson overall dress slowly floated out of the building. She had a putty knife in her hand that smelled like blood.

    The man running away jumped in horror and began dashing even faster. Although the outside wasn¡¯t any more peaceful as several bulky figures withrge butchery knives were all heading his way.

    Panicked, the man ran into a bush, only to find another small, crawling girl with too many limbs to be considered a proper human.

    ¡°Are-are-aren¡¯t you supposed to be a body in the basement?!¡±

    Instead of answering him, the ¡°spider girl¡± bared several razor-sharp fangs at him.

    It seemed he just ¡°activated¡± another stalker after the girl in red.

    ¡°AHHHH¨Chelp me Mister Padt! Alda!!!¡±

    Jebra narrowed his eyes while watching. He recognized the escaping man as a new talent found by Angor. Tulu was his name. This man had been traveling with Angor since they left Ferran.

    ¡°But why would Angor go away and leave his new recruit in this illusion? Is this like some sort of test? Wait... that red girl. She¡¯s not an illusion!¡±

    Jebra noticed that the girl in red was an actual soul who held almost the same level of energy as level-1 apprentices, which meant Tulu didn¡¯t have much hope of survival.

    However, Tulu had been staying alive until now by running through many secret tunnels and hiding spots conveniently scattered about the orphanage.

    After some more hide-and-seek, Tulu sessfully evaded the ¡°spider girl¡± by using her blind spots.

    But it appeared that the simple tactic did not work against the girl in red, who simply flew in midair and easily discovered where Tulu was hiding.

    ¡°No need to run. Gee hee hee... Don¡¯t worry, dear. I won¡¯t kill you too fast. I¡¯ll just scrape your skin bit by bit, and use all the blood to water my favorite tree...¡±

    Tulu saw the girling and bolted toward the yground area.

    ¡°YOU CAN¡¯T KILL ME! Mister Padt won¡¯t allow it! I¡¯ll-I¡¯ll make it out alive, I will!¡±

    ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± The girl spoke in her sweet yet creepy voice, ¡°Mister Padt told me not to kill you ¡®too easily¡¯. Let me see... you¡¯ll not die too easily if I remove your legs and let you bleed for a little while, right?¡±

    Tulu kept running madly while leaving a trail of tears behind him.

    Jebra shook his head. ¡°That girl¡¯s not seriously trying to kill him or she¡¯ll not talk like that. That man¡¯s stupid anyway. He¡¯s not going to find anywhere to hide at that yground.¡±

    But he was soon proved wrong as when Tulu copsed at the said yground, the girl stopped going after him.

    Another soul of a small boy jumped out of the rocky horse he was using and stepped in front of Tulu. ¡°Time¡¯s up, Sunny! Let¡¯s take a rest. You can¡¯te in here.¡±

    ¡°*Sob* Thank you, thank you, Alda...¡± Tulu mumbled with a running nose.

    Sunny showed a maddened smile as she rushed forward again. ¡°I¡¯m not going to follow some stupid rules!¡±

    The mist around the yground suddenly grew thicker and bounced her away.

    ¡°Damn it!¡± Sunny stomped her feet in frustration. ¡°I suggest youe to me like a good kid! The other monsters won¡¯t be so kind to you...¡±

    She spat and headed back to the building.

    Jebra had watched enough to ascertain what was happening in the illusion. He was nning to capture that girl and ask about Angor¡¯s intention, but it seemed there was no need.

    The entire illusion was a training ground for Tulu. Angor even left a ¡°safe zone¡± for him.

    ¡°And since the girl in red was an ¡®actual¡¯ killer, Angor must have reached some agreement with her. Man... building such a ce just to test a recruit. Angor¡¯s probably the only man in this world who would do such a thing.¡±

    Jebra would admit that the ¡°exam¡± looked pretty well-organized. The monsters and escape routes were very effective to train someone¡¯s wit and courage, as well as the will to stay alive, which was rather important in the wizarding world. Even if someone with poor talent passed the test, they would have enough wisdom and guts to ept proper educationter. This was a perfect method for selecting capable talents among mortals.

    And besides, as long as the illusion didn¡¯t mean to kill the candidates for real, it could also protect new recruitspared to the more brutal entrance exams such as ¡°death chambers¡±.

    ¡°Maybe I should tell my teacherter and use this as a new means of recruiting for Song of the Deep...¡± Jebra thought to himself.

    Putting the illusion aside, Jebra was still wondering what this orphanage had to do with Angor.

    He decided to wait and see. If Tulu was here, then Angor would return soon orter.

    As for why Angor left for Saint Sem, Jebra had assumed that he went to recruit talents again. And since that didn¡¯t sound like anything fun to watch, Jebra would stay here and see Tulu struggle for his life.

    But before he could go into the orphanage building and see what secret it could offer, his ¡°fish scale tattoo¡± suddenly began to glow.

    He pressed a finger on his forehead and summoned a creature from the scale. He thought it was his whale partner asking toe out to get rid of boredom, but he was VERY surprised to see that it was another blue fish showing up instead.

    He received this small fish from Flunza earlier. The only purpose of it was to detect Mystery energy.

    ¡°There¡¯s a Mystery item around here?¡±

    Jebra instantly forgot about the orphanage and followed the source of the signal, which took him out of the illusion range.

    After telling him the general direction of the energy signature, the blue fish shrank in size until it disappearedpletely. ording to Flunza, this fish was used for detecting Mystery energy when the item was actively used. And when this happened, the one-use fish would vanish.

    Jebra looked that way with a big frown.

    <i>Saint Sem? There is Mystery energying from Saint Sem City?</i>

    He knew that the Tower of Hurricane deployed a group of apprentices over there, which meant the presence of a Mystery item would have already been noticed by the Tower of Hurricane.

    ¡°So the item wasn¡¯t here before? Someone took it there or created one recently? Wait up...

    ¡°Isn¡¯t Angor heading there right now?¡±

 Chapter 817 - A â€œUselessâ€ Treasure

    <h4>Chapter 817: A ¡°Useless¡± Treasure</h4>

    <i>Wait... was it really Angor who took the item from Silver Palm? I have been providing the wrong clue to others?</i>

    Jebra didn¡¯t find this to be possible before. For one, Angor did stay at Ferran during the activation of the dimension entrance. ording to Haku, Angor was doing an ¡°alchemy seclusion¡± at that time.

    ¡°But... the item went missing as soon as he disappeared from our view. Why? Could it be that he had been waiting to leave Ferran Land to test out the item?¡±

    His suspicion grew heavier until he found it VERY necessary to check on Angor more carefully.

    With this in mind, he immediately summoned his abyss whale to send a message to his teacher. But when he failed to reach Flunza for some reason, he told his whale to talk to Sliv instead. To be precise, he sent the message to Sliv¡¯s mount, Brigitte, who was supposed to be still watching over Devil¡¯s Water for the moment.

    Since he didn¡¯t confirm his suspicion yet, he only asked Sliv to get in touch with Flunza and find help from a Prophet to directly check whether Angor possessed that Mystery item.

    Soon, Sliv got back to him by using a long-rangemunication tool invented by Floating Mech City that was capable of establishing ¡°real-time¡± conversations.

    Jebra quickly slotted two magic crystals in his device and epted the call.

    ¡°Mister Sliv, everything I told you was uncertain because there are many of Angor¡¯s actions I can¡¯t exin yet. This is why we need a Prophet to help us examine the details,¡± Jebra spoke into the transmitter politely.

    Sliv held his chin.

    ¡°No need for that now. Since you sensed Mystery energy from his position, I¡¯d say it¡¯s definitely him we should go after. You shall go and stall him right now. I¡¯ll also use a ne passageway to head there.¡±

    Jebra nodded. He wasn¡¯t sure he could catch up with Angor¡¯s speed, but there should be no problem with Sliv¡¯s help.

    ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll go to Saint Sem right away.¡±

    ¡°And remember to keep your abyss whale outside. I need it to locate your position.¡±

    Jebra nodded and summoned his whale in its full size which was enough to cover up most of the sky above Freighting Town. Luckily, there weren¡¯t many people to look at it at midnight.

    While Jebra was heading toward Angor¡¯s position, Sliv quickly summoned a ne passageway and dived inside. He was nning to retrieve the Mystery item first before reporting the matter to Song of the Deep so that he could earn more credit, and hopefully, amend some of his mistakes for losing the item.

    What they didn¡¯t know was that their action had helped Angor avoid more suspicion because a Prophet who got ¡°blocked¡± by Crimson Aegis would only further confirm Angor¡¯s ¡°crime¡±.

    Sliv still needed some time in his ne passageway travel, but Jebra arrived at Saint Sem City earlier, which was not very far from Freighting Town.

    Unlike Freighting Town, the capital city with over a million poption was just as lively as when it was day, as most of the cultured folks preferred finding their ¡°artistic inspiration¡± in the middle of the night.

    Jebra¡¯s giant whale soon became the center of attention. Almost immediately, the invasion of the monster was known by the entire city, and everyone had stopped in their tracks to look upon the terrifying presence that would bring an end to their nation.

    Some of the citizens hadpletely forgotten about their gentle visage of civilized artists and were screaming madly like scared little girls.

    Inside a brightly-lit chamber in the royal pce, Angor was casually inspecting a whelk at his seat while two more people¡ªFreud and Neya¡ªwere sitting at the other side of the room, chatting and exchanging their stories.

    But unlike Freud, Neya would asionally cast several uncertain nces at Angor as well as the item he was holding.

    The whelk appeared as an ordinary ck whelk one would find on a beach. However, this one was made prettier by several bright yellow spots and a crescent-shaped mark that looked like stars and the moon in the dark sky.

    The particr look of the whelk was the reason why Neya took it from the ¡°confiscated items¡± found by her knights.

    She never thought that it was a Mystery item. Even though the Dream Whelk was regarded as a rather useless item, it still sold for 10,000 crystals at Sky Auction several years ago. To Neya, the money was something she¡¯d never earn normally in her entire life.

    When the rightful owner of the whelk showed up in the pce along with a famous alchemist, the court wizards tried to resist with the help of a hundred guards who were mostly supernatural humanoids. But against Angor¡¯s illusion, they instantly became helpless victims ready to be maimed.

    Since neither reason nor strength favored her, Neya had no choice but to step into the open and hand the Dream Whelk to Angor while unwillingly offering her words of ttery to leave a good impression.

    Of course, she felt greatly annoyed upon learning that she just lost a Mystery item. However, she still found the oue to be eptable. News regarding Angor¡¯s achievement already reached the Land of Revtion. To Neya, offering the whelk to such a genius to gain his trust was a good deal.

    Besides, she couldn¡¯t use the whelk anyway.

    Meanwhile, Angor had been using different types of energy on the whelk to see which one could activate the item. ording to Freud, the whelk had to receive ¡°energy of dreams¡± to show its true effect. But Freud could no longer do such a thing as a dead soul, and there was no way Angor could study how to control ¡°dream energy¡± any time soon, so Angor had to use what he could and hope for a result.

    He had tested through ordinary elemental energy, illusions, and even ¡°gourmet energy¡± produced by a piece of Mana Bread, which all ended up as a disappointment.

    As he believed the item would stay useless in his hand for a long time, he was more than d to see a reaction when he applied nightmare energy onto the whelk.

    Putting the connection between Dream Whelk and nightmare energy aside, he would like to try out what the whelk could do, and more importantly, witness its Mystery properties up close so that he might learn something.

    ¡°It only works on dead objects, right?¡± Angor asked Freud. The whelk was pulsing with special energy ripples that suggested the presence of a Mystery treasure.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Freud nodded. ¡°Any object as long as it isn¡¯t considered to be a life form. The dream effect does not work on humans, but it CAN help you sleep better, somehow.¡±

    Angor looked around the room and set his gaze on the round table in front of him.

    ¡°Let me try this...¡± He muttered as he moved the whelk closer to the table.

    Following Freud¡¯s instructions, he sensed Mystery energypletely covering up the table, before it vanished, leaving no noticeable results behind.

    ¡°Did I seed?¡± He gazed at the table which was... still a table.

    ¡°Yes, you did.¡±

    ¡°Do I have to, like, start dreaming and check if anything¡¯s going on? Will the table show up in my dream?¡±

    Freud shook his head. ¡°You can¡¯t see it like that.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°A dream belongs to a special realm that we do not know how to reach yet,¡± Freud exined what he learned during his apprenticeship as the ¡°dream reader¡±. ¡°Ordinary dreams are made of fragments of your memory, and they are not consistent enough for us to investigate. asionally, peoplee up with ¡®consistent¡¯ dreams when they sleep. Yet... no one had ever seeded in entering the realm of dreams freely. There¡¯s so much we still don¡¯t know about dreams.¡±

 Chapter 818 - Questioned

    <h4>Chapter 818: Questioned</h4>

    It seemed Freud still had more to say, but he didn¡¯t. Either because he didn¡¯t wish to reveal too many secrets in front of Neya, or that he wasn¡¯t confident enough in his expertise yet.

    ¡°So um, I sent the table into a dream but with no way to tell what this means to us?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°Correct.¡± Freud nodded.

    Both Angor and Neya went agape.

    When Neya read about the Dream Whelk from magazines, she thought the item possessed some kind of true value but was rtively weakerpared to ¡°real¡± Mystery items.

    But no! This was ACTUALLY useless!

    Even though she didn¡¯t show it before, she was still reluctant to hand over the item to Angor. But now, she felt a lot better.

    The three of them spent a brief moment in the room in awkward silence.

    Angor shook his head and looked at Freud again. ¡°People sleep and wake up as needed. So when is this table going to... you know, wake up?¡±

    ¡°Unlike organisms, a table does not have reasons to wake up by itself. And it does not ¡®know¡¯ it¡¯s sleeping.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying it will never wake up?¡±

    ¡°You can forcefully wake it by destroying it, either in its dream or here in reality. Otherwise, yes, the table will spend the rest of its ¡®life¡¯ in the dream.¡±

    ¡°Destroying it in its dream? How¡¯s that possible?¡± Angor threw his hands in the air. ¡°And how do you know about this, Freud? Have you ever entered the dream of an object?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only a theory I came up with some time ago. But it¡¯s highly likely because... well, I had data to back it up.¡± Again, Freud didn¡¯t exin fully because someone else was around.

    Angor nodded and decided to discuss this matter with Freudter when they were in private.

    ¡°I see, nothing we can do for now.¡± Angor looked at Neya. ¡°Sorry, ma¡¯am, for putting your table into sleep.¡±

    <i>Are you serious about that apology?!</i> Neya deadpanned. Then her lips twitched as she replied, ¡°Uh, it¡¯s fine.¡±

    ¡°Sorry for the intrusion today. We¡¯ll be leaving.¡± Angor stood up.

    A knight in golden armor suddenly barged into the room.

    ¡°Lady Neya, there¡¯s a giant whale flying right above us!!¡±

    ording to Neya, this man was the knightmander of the Silverheron Royal Knights. He was a special humanoid creature who had the blood of a Bitterberry nt in his body. He had been Neya¡¯s loyal follower back at Fey Continent.

    Also, they used the Bitterberry blood to imprison Sunny in the orphanage.

    ¡°Flying whale?¡± Neya stood up, eyes widened. ¡°Is it someone¡¯s cloud whale?¡±

    ¡°The city is in an uproar, and all the royalties in the pce had gone hidden in the underground passages.¡± The knight went down on one knee. ¡°What should we do?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t bring any potential enemies here...¡± Neya mumbled. ¡°I have some old grudges, but those people aren¡¯t going to go all the way here just to kill me. Ugh, let¡¯s just go out and see who it is.¡±

    Without minding Angor, Neya rushed out of the room together with her knight.

    Angor was just as surprised to hear about the appearance of a cloud whale. He did hear a ruckusing from the outside, but he never thought it was something caused by a supernatural monster. As far as he knew, cloud whales were intelligent and peaceful creatures that wouldn¡¯t harm humans without a good reason.

    Still, he chose to go after them and check the situation.

    After climbing a staircase, he arrived at a rooftop tform at the 4th floor of the pce, where Neya was watching the sky with an astonished look.

    Angor also looked up and frowned.

    He recognized that horned whale, as well as the young man in a blue robe standing on top of the animal.

    ¡°¡®Child of Ocean¡¯ Jebra??¡± Neya said in great surprise. Since she never offended Jebra in any way before, the showy arrival told her that Jebra probably came looking for trouble.

    ¡°Get me up there.¡±

    A thick, ck vine suddenly shot up from the back of her knight and reached all the way into the sky. The strange sight reminded Angor of another story he heard from Jon before, which was ¡°Jack and the Beanstalk¡±.

    Neya swiftly climbed up the nt by hopping between the giant leaves, until she reached high enough to talk to Jebra.

    ¡°Mister Jebra, do you have business with the Silverheron n?¡± she asked with a in expression. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s necessary to openly disy your whale to an entire mortal city, or is there a reason behind this matter that I should know?¡±

    Jebra¡¯s action was already offensive, but Neya had to suppress her rage because she knew she couldn¡¯t oppose Jebra.

    Yet she felt it rather hard to stay calm when Jebra only gave her a side-nce.

    ¡°You¡¯re the student of White Witch?¡± asked Jebra.

    ¡°You¡¯re correct. My name is Neya.¡±

    ¡°Neya, huh? Doesn¡¯t matter. I didn¡¯te for you.¡±

    Jebra slowly looked down and saw Angoring to him using a pair of strange boots with several glowing runes.

    ¡°Hello, Jebra.¡± Angor noticed Jebra¡¯s grim expression and also put on a more serious attitude. ¡°You looking for me?¡±

    Jebra grinned. ¡°I thought you were recruiting talents at Ferran. But... It seems I was wrong. You have other interesting ns, huh?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°You know well what I meant.¡± Jebra¡¯s smile vanished. ¡°It was always your n to go to Ferran Land at that moment. You already knew about Lucas, right? There¡¯s a secret passage in Lost Paradise City that took you to the secret dimension. You went there before the main entrance was activated, am I right?¡±

    Angor remained silent. Each of Jebra¡¯s assumptions was true.

    <i>I underestimated the capability of a major organization... They found my tracks. But how? What did I overlook?</i>

    He would like to figure out how much Jebra had found out about him so that he could deal with subsequent questions ordingly.

    Ferran... Secret dimension... He quickly searched through his memories to see if he left any loose ends behind.

    <i>Could it be Doctor Gurman? Did someone find my nightmare energy on him? Or did I drop something on those abandoned ships? But no... the ind was utterly ruined by the time I left, along with the ships. They couldn¡¯t possibly find traces like that.</i>

    <i>Did they find the dried well at Sherry Patio? But I made sure I erased everything!</i>

    He failed to find anything that might contribute to his exposure. Well, maybe Gurman was a potential risk. Yet he didn¡¯t believe that Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge would go talk to Gurman after they got what they needed from the mortal historian.

    He maintained his poker face and tried. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t understand you. I was recruiting at Ferran Land, and that was everything I did. Maybe I also did some alchemy work, but you were there to see it.¡±

    ¡°Not confessing yet, huh?¡± Jebra humphed. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯ve covered up the entire ce with my water. You aren¡¯t getting anywhere with your gravity moves!¡±

    Angor looked around and saw a giant water dome around the royal pce. He already felt stagnant water elements around his body hindering his movement.

    But it seemed Jebra had not figured out that it was more important to restrict Angor¡¯s soul energy, especially when Angor could use Soul Link to unleash all of his abilities after ejecting his soul.

    ¡°I¡¯ll not ept your false usation. I do not think I did anything to upset Song of the Deep before, and the lot of you still want to press this nonsense on me. I see, are you trying to disturb my teacher by doing so, just like the Centipede Guild?¡±

    Angor said this out loud not to Jebra, but to Neya and any other witnesses who might be watching them, if there was any.

    He then silently chanted the Spirit Mantra in his mind.

    Jebra had stopped talking to weigh the situation. He didn¡¯t know why Angor suddenly mentioned Sunders like that, but he did know he had to consider Sunders¡¯ possible reactions if he was to attack Angor.

    Jebra then lowered his voice and said, ¡°Hand over the Mystery item you stole, Mister Padt, and I¡¯ll tell my teacher to let you go. Then we¡¯ll consider this as something that has never happened.¡±

 Chapter 819 - Lie Detection

    <h4>Chapter 819: Lie Detection</h4>

    Angor was halfway through his Spirit Mantra, but he suddenly stopped.

    <i>I stole a Mystery item?!</i>

    He did possess one Mystery item, which was the Dream Whelk he just obtained an hour ago. He wondered if Jebra was referring to Lucas¡¯ skull, but as far as he remembered, he never got his hands on that thing.

    ¡°What Mystery item? What are you talking about?¡± He frowned and gave Jebra a suspicious look.

    <i>Goddammit. You won¡¯t put up that act for too long.</i> Jebra cursed in his mind before he said, ¡°The Mystery item in that secret dimension. You took it, didn¡¯t you?!¡±

    Now Angor was finally sure that Jebra used all these bold moves to keep him here just because of the dark dimension. He did go there and explore but... he never ¡°stole¡± anything from there. Well, except for Torras¡¯ soul.

    Back at Lost Paradise City, Jebra even gave him a lot of precious resources just to be friendly. The only reason Angor could think of that might exin Jebra¡¯s change of attitude, was that Jebra believed he was the one who took Lucas¡¯ skull.

    <i>Blimey. Perhaps someone else came and swiped it, and they put the me on me instead. But again, however did they find me?</i>

    Nevertheless, Angor would never admit that he had been to the secret dimension before.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about that. Never heard of any Mystery item I could steal from you. We¡¯re supposed to be allies, so I¡¯ll give you a chance to use a truth-detection spell or something simr on me. I¡¯ll not resist. But once you ask a question and find out I¡¯m not guilty, I¡¯ll be on my way. Don¡¯t stop me then.¡±

    Angor already used some of the materials he received from Jebra when crafting Ocean Tuner. He meant to use this chance to even the favor.

    And his offer got Jebra really confused.

    Jebra noticed that Angor meant to get inspected by a truth-detection spell for real, which meant... Did he really get the wrong guy?

    He then tried to observe Angor more carefully, but no matter how he did, he only saw the same cold look.

    ¡°What are you waiting for? Changed your mind?¡± Seeing Jebra¡¯s slow response, Angor was quite sure that Jebra wasn¡¯t certain of his actions at all. In other words, there was no solid proof. Jebra had been asking him spected questions to scare him into making a confession.

    ¡°Since you aren¡¯t taking the chance, I¡¯ll just leave. I¡¯m not taking my offer back though¡ªconsider your materials repaid. I don¡¯t owe you anything from now on.¡±

    Jebra was getting more and more doubtful. It was true that they had been going after Angor out of guesstimate. They had nothing to press a charge against Angor yet.

    As Jebra wondered if he should insist and keep Angor with him, another man¡¯s powerful aura suddenly descended from the sky.

    ¡°Very well. I¡¯ll be the one who¡¯ll use a spell to examine you.¡±

    The distant voiceing from behind Jebra was followed by a giant space rupture, from where a flying stingray emerged. On top of the creature was a dashing-looking young man with long, silver hair, who was giving Angor a cold gaze.

    Seeing a wizard here, Angor showed a grim look and immediately made several escape ns.

    Even with his enhanced strength, the aura pressure of a wizard would still greatly slow down anything he did. He just needed a small chance to get away from their sight. As long as he had such a chance, his Crimson Aegis would keep him safe from pursuers.

    He decided to y it safe while looking for a good timing to make a run for it.

    ¡°Mister Wizard,¡± he said as he bowed politely, ¡°of course, I can ept your spell and answer a question. ONE question, as I agreed to Jebra.¡±

    ¡°One, you say?¡± Angor¡¯s serious look reminded Sliv of another man he always hated. ¡°Humph. That¡¯s not for you to decide.¡±

    ¡°Please, go ahead.¡± Angor simply maintained his calm expression.

    Sliv swiftly deployed a Detect Truth spell around Angor¡¯s position before he spoke, ¡°Did you take the Mystery item from the secret dimension guarded by Leviathan? Do you have that item on you?¡±

    ¡°That seems to be two separate questions, but it¡¯s fine, I can answer them both.¡±

    Angor gave Sliv a determined look without showing any fear.

    ¡°No.¡±

    Jebra looked at Sliv, and from Sliv¡¯s annoyed look, he could tell that Angor was speaking the truth.

    Angor didn¡¯t take the item from that dimension, and he didn¡¯t have it. The Detect Truth spell was working properly. Angor couldn¡¯t possibly bypass it without them noticing.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe it! Someone must be controlling you. You have something that disrupts my spell, don¡¯t you? You sneaked to the filthy ind, huh?! ANSWER ME!¡± Sliv¡¯s face twisted as he didn¡¯t wish to ept the fact.

    ¡°I¡¯ve answered what I should.¡± Angor offered to answer one question only just so that he wouldn¡¯t identally spill anything that would give him out. And it seemed this was very necessary.

    Now, he just needed to remain steadfast and be a little stubborn so that Sliv and Jebra wouldn¡¯t question why he only replied to one single question.

    Still under the stress of the aura, he clenched his teeth and put on a hateful look as if he felt very offended.

    He didn¡¯t know if his act would work on Sliv. At least he could see that Jebra and Neya already trusted his words.

    Truth was, Sliv never doubted the result of his spell. He didn¡¯t let Angor go yet because the whole matter felt simr to when he was being yed around Sunders¡¯ fingers helplessly, and he absolutely hated this.

    Sliv wasn¡¯t saying or doing anything for the moment¡ªhe just kept his powerful aura pressed on Angor due to his rage.

    The situation wasn¡¯t so bad for Angor yet. His ¡°projection bloodline¡± strengthened his body in many aspects, including his resistance against such pressure. After getting away from the aura pressure of a mighty sea monster like the Leviathan, Sliv¡¯s aura of an average wizard was totally tolerable to him.

    Still, Angor would like to ¡°y his part¡± to its fullest. He even feigned some blood in his mouth and pretended that he would faint at any moment.

    Sliv saw Angor¡¯s ¡°terrible condition¡± and suddenly wanted to use this chance to get rid of Angor once and for all.

    When Angor saw Sliv¡¯s killing intent, he ¡°painfully¡± took out a red bead from his bracelet.

    There was an obvious interruption in Sliv¡¯s aura because he already recognized the terrifying power in the bead that he always resented.

    It was Sunders¡¯ blood.

    ¡°You would do this to me just to annoy my professor? I thought a real wizard from a major organization wouldn¡¯t be so shameless,¡± Angor yelled madly. ¡°You¡¯re not so different from the Centipede Guild after all!¡±

    Sliv was still staring at the bead without minding Angor¡¯s curses. The blood bead meant Sunders REALLY cared about Angor¡¯s safety.

    But on second thought, this should definitely be the case. Any individual or organization who knew Angor¡¯s alchemy skills would protect him to the best of their ability.

    While it was true that Sunders couldn¡¯t get here any time soon, he could always use this bead to tell what happened to Angor.

    If Sliv was to attack Angor like this... he would undeniably enrage not only Sunders but also the entire Brute Cavern as well.

 Chapter 820 - Worsened Relationship

    <h4>Chapter 820: Worsened Rtionship</h4>

    Song of the Deep and Brute Cavern were already on bad terms. Even so, Sliv didn¡¯t wish to be the one who worsened the problem because this would give Emmagan¡¯s group a new reason to alienate him in the organization.

    When that happened, even Flunza wouldn¡¯t be able to cover him up.

    Attacking Angor only worked to solve his personal grudge but would leave him with a ton of troubles to deal withter.

    Sliv had decided to give in. Yet he couldn¡¯t do it openly or his mighty figure of a wizard would be ruined.

    Jebra, as a bystander, saw both Sliv¡¯s concern and Angor¡¯s intention to escape, made a quick decision and stepped up.

    ¡°Angor, so you don¡¯t have the Mystery item. Then how do you exin the Mystery energy I detected from this ce earlier?¡±

    Taking the chance, Sliv canceled his aura and moved away, pretending that he was allowing Angor to speak more properly.

    This was exactly the escaping chance Angor was waiting for, but instead of doing so, he stopped to think about Jebra¡¯s abrupt question.

    ¡°You... came all the way here to put these groundless usations on me just because of that energy you felt?¡±

    Jebra looked away in embarrassment.

    ¡°Right.¡± Angor snickered. ¡°I was testing out a Mystery item. I just found it.¡±

    ¡°You... did?!¡± Jebra wasn¡¯t using a truth detection spell but he was sure that wasn¡¯t a lie. ¡°Are you serious?¡±

    ¡°By now, I¡¯d say you don¡¯t need a truth detention spell to tell whether I¡¯m lying. Do you?¡± Angor scoffed.

    Jebra felt himself already persuaded that they had truly been wronging Angor.

    But... he didn¡¯t believe Angor could just pick up a Mystery item out of the blue.

    ¡°You acquired another Mystery item, huh? How about letting us have a look?¡± asked Sliv, as his eyes twinkled ominously.

    ¡°Have a look? Heh. You¡¯re nning to do more than just looking, right? Say, if I refuse, you¡¯ll kill me and take it, then spread false rumors that you are doing justice by beating up a thief?¡±

    While Jebra was getting even more embarrassed at those words, Sliv only silently prepared his moves. In Sliv¡¯s view,pared to dignity and respect, acquiring a Mystery item to earn forgiveness from his organization was more important.

    At the same time, Angor was carefully observing Sliv¡¯s reactions while using his fake persona of a disobedient apprentice. He could see that Sliv had decided to rob him. Sliv hadn¡¯t done it already probably because he wanted to ascertain the nature of the Mystery item first do it didn¡¯t get in his way.

    ¡°Sure, I can give it to you.¡± Angor pretended that he was seriously considering a trade. ¡°Not for free, of course. I went through lots of trouble to get it, as you can expect from a Mystery item. Here, I¡¯ll pass it to you for... 100,000 magic crystals.¡±

    That was a very good price for buying a Mystery item.

    Sliv was now reconsidering his options. Spending the money seemed to be a good choice because he could both obtain the Mystery item AND avoidpletely getting on Angor¡¯s bad side.

    But there was a problem. The offer was way too cheap.

    This,bined with Angor¡¯s attitude, greatly confused both Jebra and Sliv. There was no one in this world who was willing to part with a Mystery item this easily. Besides, Angor was an alchemist. He knew better than anyone what such an item meant.

    Sliv happened to know about a certain ¡°useless Mystery item¡±, which was only worth 10,000 crystals at an auction. As long as Angor wasn¡¯t referring to that particr one...

    ¡°Fine. But I have to see it first,¡± said Sliv, ¡°I can sure buy it from you if it¡¯s something of use.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s no problem.¡± Angor quickly took out the Dream Whelk from his bracelet. ¡°I just got it from Neya like an hour ago. Do you have to throw a Detect Truth at her too?¡±

    Jebra turned around to look at the woman who had been pretending that she didn¡¯t exist.

    Neya nodded as rapidly as she could.

    Sliv then looked back and found the item to be rather familiar. ¡°Mister Sliv... I think I saw this thing before.¡±

    Sliv, however, instantly recognized the whelk to be something that wasn¡¯t worth his time.

    ¡°*Sigh* That¡¯s ¡®Whelk of the Dreaming Coast¡¯, a Mystery item that got sold for 10,000 magic crystals at Sky Auction 30 years ago. It broke the bottom price ever recorded for any Mystery items in history.¡±

    ¡°I remember it now...¡± Sliv widened his eyes. ¡°The most useless Mystery item ever discovered, they say.¡±

    ¡°As I said, 100,000 crystals, and it¡¯s yours.¡± Angor waved the whelk in his hand.

    By now, both Jebra and Sliv had realized that the whole matter was a giant, pointless mistake that got them nothing other than Angor¡¯s grievance. And what Jebra offered to Angor at Lost Paradise City had gone down the drain.

    <i>Of course I¡¯ll not buy that stuff even if you cut the price to 10,000...</i> Sliv thought to himself before he gave Jebra an angry re.

    ¡°I have no use for it, so I¡¯ll pass. You talk to Jebra. He was the one who located the energy after all, maybe he¡¯ll need it.¡±

    Without waiting for any response, Sliv opened up a ne passageway and hopped in.

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me again unless you¡¯re absolutely sure of what you¡¯re doing, or you¡¯ll have a bad time even if Flunza¡¯s your teacher.¡± Sliv¡¯s voice came from the passage before it vanished.

    Angor let out a sigh of relief. Now that Sliv was gone, he had nothing to be afraid of.

    Now Jebra felt REALLY bad because Sliv just threatened him, and he could not show his bad mood because he still needed to be ¡°friendly¡± with Angor.

    He still had another task given by Flunza, which was to acquire Angor¡¯s new alchemy creation. However, what happened just now more or less ruined their fragile rtionship, and he had lost the advantage of requesting for the music box as a ¡°VIP customer¡±.

    ¡°You need this thing?¡± Angor twiddled the whelk again.

    ¡°No no no.¡± Jebra quickly shook his head. He didn¡¯t have that kind of money on him.

    Angor scoffed again and put the whelk away. Then he summoned Gond, called Freud to him, and prepared to depart, without minding Jebra at all.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry for this.¡± Jebra made another difficult decision. ¡°It was my misjudgment.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t respond.

    Jebra showed a painful expression as he summoned a white space capsule from his ¡°scale tattoo¡±. ¡°Some more material for your trouble. Consider itpensation for wasting your time. Please.¡±

    ¡°I did say that we are even from this point and on. But... I¡¯ll take it. I was hurt by Mister Sliv¡¯s power, so you know, medical expense.¡±

    Angor drove his boat away. ¡°I don¡¯t mind you following me thest few days. However, you better quit it from now on.¡±

    Jebra remained behind and wondered whether he could finish his teacher¡¯s task at all. He just upset Angor greatly AND exposed his stalking n.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Angor silently thought over the dispute.

    What annoyed him most was that Jebra had been watching him closely and he never noticed.

    He did feel strange energy signaturesing from the sea since he left Ferran Land but never gave it much thought. It seemed he should have been more careful.

    As for why Jebra did such a thing, Angor was almost sure it had something to do with Lucas¡¯ skull.

    He took nothing and left nothing in the secret dimension, and people from Song of the Deep still went after him. This had menacingly told him that he could never be too careful when dealing with wizards who were hunting their prey.

    Most wizards usually acted all arrogant and cocky, yet they could be mercilessly observant and unrelenting at the same time. As soon as they smelled something they were interested in, they would NEVER let go.

 Chapter 821 - Freudâ€™s Future

    <h4>Chapter 821: Freud¡¯s Future</h4>

    Angor still felt bad for what just happened to him, but the oue wasn¡¯t too bad¡ªat least he could forget about repaying Jebra¡¯s ¡°token of friendship¡± from now on.

    Moreover, the incident helped him cleanse his name because Sliv just proved his guiltlessness with that Detect Truth spell.

    ¡°Are you alright, Mister Padt?¡± Freud asked when he saw Angor deep in thoughts. ¡°You were hurt by Mister Sliv¡¯s power, no? I saw you vomiting blood...¡±

    He never knew that Angor was pretending it.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Do you know about Sliv?¡±

    ¡°Sort of.¡± Freud nodded. ¡°I heard a lot about him back at the Tower of Hurricane. He¡¯s ¡®Sorcerer of Big Fish¡¯ Sliv, a master of Summoning and Sea Maniption. The fish under his feet is one of his summoned creatures. It¡¯s named ¡®Brigitte¡¯.¡±

    ¡°¡®Sorcerer of Big Fish¡¯...¡± Angor carefully kept that name in his mind.

    Freud thought and decided not to ask what happened between Angor and Sliv. The answer probably did not concern a dead man like him.

    Swiftly, Gond took them back to Freighting Town. When they arrived back at the orphanage, Angor used his spirit to sense the illusion and found Tulu sprawl-sleeping at Alda¡¯s yground with a terrified expression, probably having a bad dream. The small soul of Alda was sitting on a rocking horse nearby while curiously observing the illusion around him.

    Angor stepped into the illusion and suddenly stopped moving when he noticed that an illusion monster he deployed around one of the entrances was no longer there.

    The whole illusion around the orphanage was well and intact, apart from several illusion nodes that created a ¡°flying face¡± ghost, which had been destroyed.

    It should be at least a level-2 apprentice who could break his illusion nodes, which meant Alda, Sunny, and Tulu couldn¡¯t have done it.

    ¡°Jebra...¡±

    Angor felt his mood worsening when he once again thought about his shady stalker. Now that he would act more carefully, he decided to keep his spirit feelers activated so that he could detect anything hiding around him in time.

    He was now certain that Jebra was following him to look for clues about Lucas¡¯ skull. He was also wondering what happened to the skull. When he was escaping from the dark ind, both the Leviathan and ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza were watching over the ce. Who was so brave as to steal the skull under their noses?

    Other than being curious, Angor had decided topletely stay out of this matter since it had nothing to do with him. He did wish to find out which lucky guy had inherited the great treasure, but he wouldn¡¯t go after it anymore.

    He heard footstepsing from the orphanage building and saw Sunny, still in her bright red skirt and holding that sharp putty knife, floating toward Freud.

    ¡°Mister Dison!¡±

    Freud put a hand on her head and smiled gently.

    Angor sighed and would like to return to the matter at hand. ¡°You have ample time for get-togetherter. For now, follow me, Freud.¡±

    Without minding Tulu and Sunny, Angor deployed his Nightmare Domain and pulled Freud inside.

    Sunny was a bit annoyed when Angor took Freud from her, but she had no choice but to go away because she had no hope of opposing Angor.

    Inside Angor¡¯s Nightmare Domain of an elegant castle, Angor and Freud took their seats and looked at each other, while the other nightmare creatures, including the musician teacups, toy soldiers and a rainbow dragonfly, had their fun in various ways, either away from Angor or on Angor¡¯s head.

    At first, Freud thought this was another of Angor¡¯s illusions. But then he found it hard to believe that all these lively and frisky creatures could be the result of an illusion.

    ¡°Is-is this ce real or...¡± Freud failed to hold back his question.

    ¡°It¡¯s both real and fake.¡±

    Freud didn¡¯t understand the odd answer but didn¡¯t question further. He only thought that Angor didn¡¯t want to tell him.

    The truth was, even Angor wasn¡¯t sure whether he could consider the Nightmare Realm or the projected monsters to be real.

    ¡°Where we are is not important, let¡¯s talk about you.¡± Angor sat upright and looked at Freud in the eyes. ¡°I have to leave the Land of Revtion soon. Before doing so, I need to settle something with you. Back in the purification garden, I promised to set you free as soon as I got the Dream Whelk. It¡¯s time to fulfill those words.

    ¡°You¡¯re free to go.¡±

    Freud showed a puzzled look as he no longer knew what he should do. He had lost all purposes of life when he died. Resting in Angor¡¯s ¡°illusion room¡± while reading the fiction books had helped him forget about his condition somewhat. By writing research papers for the Dream Whelk, he was trying to find a new goal for his life, or afterlife. But he had yet to determine a future goal for real.

    Now that Angor granted him freedom, he was at a loss of what to do.

    ¡°You don¡¯t look happy about it?¡±

    Freud showed a painful smile and exined his concern.

    ¡°Your future?¡± Angor knuckled a table nearby. ¡°I¡¯ve seen some of your papers and saw you¡¯re interested in taking over someone¡¯s body. That seems to be a good direction. With a new body, you can either begin your life anew or continue with what you were doing before.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s too hard to find such a body that is 100% in tune with my soul. Not to mention that I need to take someone talented to pick up wizardry. It¡¯s already unlikely to find new talents these days, so you see...¡± Freud shook his head and chuckled.

    ¡°Unlikely, but not impossible, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ll probably spend the rest of my afterlife traveling everywhere while looking for such a body. And I need to constantly spend time recovering soul energy while at it so that I don¡¯t vanish too soon. I wonder if I can seed before I perish again.¡±

    Unlike Greya, who was already a powerful truth-finder wizard, an average apprentice like Freud would have a very hard time taking over someone¡¯s vessel.

    ¡°Mister Padt... can I stay with you?¡± Freud suddenly asked.

    ¡°You know you won¡¯t be ¡®free¡¯ in that case, no?¡±

    ¡°I meant to finish my ¡®Dream Whelk Project¡¯ for real, Mister Padt. I¡¯d like to keep at it. Something tells me that I can achieve greatness if I go down this path.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s your ambition for the future?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I got the feeling that I¡¯m supposed to do it.¡±

    Angor gave Freud a meaningful gaze. ¡°Do you really think it¡¯s possible tobine dreams with illusions?¡±

    Freud wanted to say yes but did not, because he didn¡¯t have proof.

    ¡°As I said before, your theory is fascinating but unlikely. Compared to this, have you read the book I gave you earlier?¡±

    Angor was referring to <i>Lucid Dream</i>. A lucid dream meant a dream during which the dreamer was aware that they were dreaming and could somewhat control the dream to a certain extent. When Freud mentioned performing alchemy practice in dreams without consuming alchemy materials, Angor immediately thought about ¡°lucid dreams¡±, which would help with his alchemy attempts greatly should they make this happen.

    But again, he didn¡¯t see any means of mixing his illusions with the Dream Whelk at the moment. By giving Freud <i>Lucid Dream</i>, he hoped that Freud could find new inspirations from the book ande up with something new.

    ¡°A lucid dream isn¡¯t hard to achieve for wizards who study dream-rted arts, Mister Padt. I... once attempted working on a lucid dream using the Dream Whelk. But no, it didn¡¯t go well.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s too random. When I put an item to ¡®sleep¡¯ and manage to enter the same lucid dream as it, I can never find where to find the item in the dream.¡±

    ¡°Then why do you think dreams can work with my illusions?¡±

    ¡°Because you¡¯re the creator of an illusion, Mister Padt. You can control everything in an illusion, and if you can figure out how to do the same when hypnotizing an item, you¡¯ll be able to set up what is going to happen in the dream. Such dreams will be more useful than many of the known Mystery items out there!¡±

    Angor shrugged. ¡°This is all pointless unless we can find where to start.¡±

    ¡°Not exactly, Mister Padt. I just thought about an idea we could use.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°I once said that you can only use ¡®dream energy¡¯ to activate the Dream Whelk. But... you just used something I didn¡¯t recognize to make it happen in Neya¡¯s room. I didn¡¯t ask about it when Neya was looking, but now, can you tell me what you used back there?¡±

 Chapter 822 - Followerâ€™s Oath

    <h4>Chapter 822: Follower¡¯s Oath</h4>

    Angor had been wondering about this problem as well.

    Back in the royal pce, he tried using nightmare energy out of random and never expected it to work. Simrly, he was surprised and would like to ask Freud how this came to happen, but he decided to wait forter and discuss it in private.

    ¡°Mister Padt, was that your illusion energy?¡± asked Freud.

    ¡°You can say so.¡± Angor nodded. Nightmare illusions were a special type of illusions after all.

    ¡°Was it the same illusion energy you used for building my room?¡±

    Angor nodded again¡ªhe did use nightmare illusions to make the books and various furniture in Freud¡¯s room ¡°real¡±.

    ¡°Then I¡¯m already seeing where to start the next course of my research!¡± Freud smiled. ¡°Since you can activate the Dream Whelk, we¡¯ll be able to proceed from here and find out more. We just have to summarize our obstacles and solve them one by one.¡±

    As Freud sent his imaginations wild, Angor cleared his throat to pull him back to reality.

    Freud jumped a little and gave Angor a passionate gaze. ¡°Please let me follow you, Mister Padt! This is my thing! I must finish the Dream Whelk Project!¡±

    Angor took some time to consider.

    It was a pleasant surprise for him that he was able to use the Dream Whelk. With this precondition... Yes, Freud¡¯s project could be helpful.

    However, if Freud were to proceed with the project, the man would have to know more about nightmare illusions, and revealing the secrets of nightmare illusions to outsiders was strictly forbidden by Sunders.

    Freud saw Angor remain quiet and felt his passion quickly turn cold. He thought Angor would agree right away because the potential benefit brought by the research was great. But... it seemed Angor had other factors to consider.

    After a long silence, Angor asked an irrelevant question instead of answering Freud.

    ¡°Have you heard of ¡®Follower¡¯s Oath¡¯, Freud?¡±

    Freud¡¯s expression instantly turned grim.

    ¡°Do-do we have to resolve to use that, Mister Padt?¡± he asked in a trembling voice. ¡°If we seed, the project will be quite a remarkable sight to the entire world, and it will only bring you unimaginable profit.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s just say... there¡¯s something I can¡¯t tell anyone unless they are absolutely loyal to me.¡±

    Freud sat back in silence.

    The ¡°Follower¡¯s Oath¡±, created by a faithful servant who once devoted his life to his master, was a highly restrictive covenant that denied all freedom of the one who swore to it. Once they did, the promisor¡¯s body, soul, and spirit would all belong to their master, unconditionally.

    The oath was considered extremely advantageous to its ¡°contract owner¡±. The only condition the owner had to ept was not to kill their follower ¡°at will¡±, which meant the follower wasn¡¯t so safe because the oath would not protect them on many asions.

    Naturally, the oath was usually used when someone fully submitted to their enemy after losing a fight.

    This was why Freud was terrified when Angor mentioned such a thing.

    ¡°There¡¯s an important point of fact for exining how I triggered the Dream Whelk. I can¡¯t tell you about it under any circumstances unless you ept the oath,¡± said Angor. ¡°Of course, I won¡¯t force you. You¡¯re free to give up.¡±

    Freud spent a long moment struggling with a decision, and he chose to reject it.

    Angor nodded in acknowledgment. In the views of supernatural beings, swearing to such a thing was worse than beingpletely eliminated from this world. No one would willingly do it unless something beyond their control forced them to.

    ¡°If that¡¯s your decision, we won¡¯t be cooperating on this. But still, I must do something else.¡±

    Again, Freud grew very afraid, for he thought Angor was going to use violence after all.

    ¡°Calm down. I just need you to make an easier promise in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness, that you will NOT tell or share your research project with anyone else under any conditions, either intentionally or subconsciously.¡±

    This was to ensure Angor¡¯s safety. If by some miracle, Freud¡¯s project was achieved, the Dream Whelk would immediately be more valuable than most tactical alchemy implements or even better. If the project was exposed to other people, they would definitelye and try to seize the fruit. Angor would like to leave nothing uncared-for, especially after the encounter with Jebra earlier.

    Freud quickly understood Angor¡¯s intention and nodded. ¡°Of course.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t cancel his Nightmare Domain after Freud made the promise because he still had more questions about the Dream Whelk. At Neya¡¯s room, they didn¡¯t get to talk about the item in detail. Angor would like to know everything he could now.

    Without holding back, Freud exined all he knew about the whelk as well as what he learned about dreams during his apprenticeship.

    Angor was d that Freud lived up to his title, which was the ¡°Dream Reader¡±. With Freud¡¯s help, he quickly got a hold of all the knowledge he might need when using the Dream Whelk.

    When Freud had finished exining thest part of the item as well as his old research, Angor removed his Nightmare Domain and noticed it was already a new dawn outside.

    Sunny, who had been watching from the orphanage, rushed out of the house and gave Freud a big hug.

    ¡°Do you wish to continue your work while staying here?¡± asked Angor.

    Freud put Sunny down and showed the look of hesitation.

    ¡°Sigh... I think I will, until I find my new purpose.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not worried that Neya would bring people and look for trouble again? They know you are here.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that will happen. They had no use for me anyway.¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Best of luck then. Hope you realize your dream, dream reader.¡±

    Angor walked away to find Tulu.

    ¡°Mister Padt!¡± Freud called. ¡°I still owe you an additional debt when we changed our old deal yesterday, right? What do you need me to do?¡±

    Angor stopped in his tracks. He dide up with something just now.

    ¡°When listening to your studies, I see you¡¯re very good at dream-rted arts. Can you teach me a cantrip that allows me to enter someone¡¯s dream?¡±

    Freud tilted his head. ¡°You need this because you¡¯re also going to work on the project on your own, right?¡±

    Angor snickered. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m curious about it. But since you won¡¯t do the Follower¡¯s Oath, I¡¯m afraid we must do it in separate ways.¡±

    ¡°I¡ª¡± Freud really wished he could work with Angor, but he did not want to be aplete ve.

    ¡°Is this request too hard? It¡¯s fine if you can¡¯t do it.¡±

    ¡°No no no, I can tell you about it, Mister Padt. Can I return to that room? I¡¯ll leave what you need to know on papers.¡±

    Angor nodded and transferred Freud into the Church of the Deceased.

    It took Freud about half an hour topose several notes regarding how to study ¡°Dream Walk¡±, a level-2 cantrip.

    After making sure the tutorial looked good, Angor sent Freud away and ced Tulu, who was still sleeping, onto his Gond.

    ¡°Wait, Mister Padt! Can you keep the illusion here?¡± Freud saw Angor going to remove the ¡°haunted house¡± illusion from the orphanage and suddenly called out.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°I want this ce to, you know, be peaceful, and surely I don¡¯t want Sunny to wander around killing people again. With the illusion, no one wille and bother us three.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°I can let you take control of everything in this illusion, but you won¡¯t be able to modify or analyze it in any way. Hope you understand.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Thank you, Mister Padt. You named Sunny¡¯s game as ¡®Dead by Daylight¡¯, right? Can I let others inside to y it?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say you don¡¯t want to be bothered?¡±

    ¡°But it looks so fun. If I can return to life somehow, I can use this game as a source of ie. You know, there are always people who love spending money just to look for excitement.¡±

    ¡°Compared to treating it as merely an adventure game, I¡¯d suggest that you use this illusion as a training ground for new recruits. Maybe you can earn money better that way.¡±

    When Angor stepped onto his boat to leave, Freud made another difficult decision.

    ¡°Hey, Mister Padt... If you truly aplish the project, can you pay me a visit again?¡±

    ¡°What for?¡±

    ¡°I will swear to Follower¡¯s Oath by then.¡±

 Chapter 823 - Homesickness and Anxiety

    <h4>Chapter 823: Homesickness and Anxiety</h4>

    Jebra had turned into a puddle of water and was swiftly traveling to the sea through a river.

    When he arrived at the estuary, a human-shaped figure made of water element suddenly blocked his way.

    ¡°Professor!¡± Jebra quickly canceled his cantrip and addressed his teacher.

    Flunza¡¯s voice came from the water avatar, ¡°I¡¯ve heard about everything from Sliv.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir. I messed up...¡± Jebra lowered his head.

    ¡°Not your fault. No one could have predicted the Dream Whelk showing up here. While you did make more than one mistake, as long as you didn¡¯t fight Angor for real, then you still have chances to mend your rtions.¡±

    ¡°Do I go after him again, sir? I think he knows I¡¯ve been following him. He told me to leave him alone.¡±

    Flunza asked a question instead, ¡°Did you mention anything about buying that water affinity enhancement item?¡±

    ¡°No. We almost started a fight back there, and Angor was wary of me. I didn¡¯t bring that matter up.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± Flunza tapped his temple. ¡°Say, do you want to keep up with this job?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not. Mister Sliv¡¯s Detect Truth spell just confirmed it for us that Angor¡¯s not involved with the missing Mystery item. But... if you still need me to get that music box...¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s give up since you don¡¯t want to. In such a case, letting Angor see you again too soon will just disunite us further.¡±

    ¡°So we won¡¯t go after that music box?¡±

    ¡°We will. As I said, I have the feeling the alchemy creation is vital to our organization. With it, those following us will quickly surpass the other members, by which time we will gain enough force to oppose Emmagan¡¯s group.¡±

    ¡°But... how do we do it if Angor¡¯s so suspicious of us?¡±

    ¡°Remember, everything in the wizarding world has a solution as long as you offer enough cost. Even the most distrustful enemies can sit down and have a nice talk if there¡¯s enough profit at hand. Besides, Angor is far from being our enemy yet.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll use more ¡®bait¡¯ to earn his trust then?¡±

    Flunza nodded with a grin. ¡°Mori has returned to us. During her travel, she discovered an abandonedboratory left by Spivet the deceiving wizard and salvaged an item that can help Illusionists.¡±

    Jebra quickly understood where this was going.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think this was necessary since you and Angor were going swimmingly.¡± Flunza continued, ¡°But now... we can use this item to bargain with him. It¡¯s fine. We have no Illusionist among our rank anyway.¡±

    ¡°When do I approach Angor again?¡±

    ¡°At least not any time soon. At his age, Angor needed time to fully get over the annoyance we caused him. Let me see... you shall remain at the Land of Revtion for now. Send some people to watch over the ports operated by the White m Association. When Angor finishes his home visit and is going back to Fey Continent, he¡¯ll certainly show up on one of their ships.¡±

    Jebra felt d that he finally got to spend some time of his own.

    ¡°I have a bit more time before I remove this avatar. Do you have something else to tell me, such as the problems you encountered during your training?¡± asked Flunza.

    ¡°No, sir. But I saw something interesting in Freighting Town...¡±

    ...

    Gond traveled above the Whalebone Sea smoothly when Tulu slowly came to with a ¡°where am I and who am I?¡± expression. But before he could figure out these questions, Angor asked him to take over the job as a driver.

    Meanwhile, Angor rested on a chair while thinking about what just happened between him and Freud.

    At first, Freud wasn¡¯t willing to ept the Follower¡¯s Oath and work on the ¡°Dream Whelk Project¡± together with him. Then Freud offered otherwise once Angor made enough progress at the project.

    This didn¡¯t make sense.

    To Angor, having Freud on board or not didn¡¯t make much difference because he would always be the one who actually handled the whelk and used his illusions and skills to experiment on different theories, while Freud could only offer suggestions.

    Even so, he didn¡¯t mind fulfilling Freud¡¯s wish since Freud was the one who initiated the project after all.

    During the following days, Angor simply took it easy by spacing out during the day while studying Dream Walk at night by using Tulu as a practice target. Of course, he never forgot about spreading his spirit feelers into the sea to check if he had any unwanted followers.

    He found none. It seemed that Jebra listened to his warning.

    He no longer had to worry about the Centipede Guild or curious Prophets while under the protection effect of Crimson Aegis, which meant he no longer needed to keep using mor to maintain his middle-aged image. However, he found his fake look to go well with the days on Gond, during which he mostly cked off by either sea-gazing or napping. He knew it was unlikely, but Sunders would scold him for good if the gentleman saw his current condition.

    When they were still together at Phantom Ind, Angor noticed from Sunders¡¯ inspective looks that Sunders always paid attention to his conduct even though the man never mentioned anything about it.

    For some reason, Angor found it to be moreforting if he spent his ¡°easy days¡± behind his camouge.

    Simr days repeated until almost a month had passed.

    The Whalebone Sea was thest part of their travel before reaching Old Earth. ording to Tulu¡¯s estimations, they only needed a few more days before reaching their destination, or even faster.

    Whenever Angor thought about seeing his family soon, he couldn¡¯t help but get anxious, or even a little afraid.

    He had only been away for four years, but during these four years, he encountered and learned too many things about wizardry and had his life endangered many times, all the while constantly worrying about his five-year promise to Jon. To him, these years appeared to be way longer than they should be.

    All the memories he sealed in his mind wereing back in a burst along with uncontroble excitement. He couldn¡¯t wait to see Jon, his brother, Head Maid Mana, and everyone else back at Padt Manor, as well as all the townsfolk at Grue Town.

    Gond was fast. Yet nothing was fast enough in his eyes now.

    Finally, in the middle of the Month of Blossom, they saw the coastal border of Old Earth.

    It was the Month of Freezing Earth when he left home. He still had eight months before his promise expired.

    They still needed some time before reaching Old Earth for real. While Angor anxiously waited for the distance to shorten, he suddenly frowned when he felt an obvious decrease in elements around him.

    The otherwise active elements soon turned stale and stagnant. He could still use them, but only if he spent much more extra mana. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t feel anything wrong when channeling his mana. Tricks that didn¡¯t involve calling the elements in the environment still worked fine, such as illusions.

    He never realized such a problem as a mortal before. Now that he was an apprentice capable of sensing and using elements, he could almost see that the element condition around Old Earth was different than anywhere else.

    No wonder no wizards woulde to this ce, especially Elementalists.

    When leaving Brute Cavern, apart from the recruitment quest, Angor also picked up another quest that asked him to investigate the particrck of elements at Old Earth, which had been left neglected for decades. Since the quest didn¡¯t have an ¡°admission fee¡± nor did it incur any penalty for failure, he just epted it to give it a shot.

    But what he just felt told him that the quest was way harder than he thought. The number of elements in the air had no particr spread pattern and was scarce no matter where he looked, which meant he couldn¡¯t follow the elements to find where they disappeared to.

    To find the cause, he might have to spend several years searching every nook and cranny around the entire Old Earth, which still didn¡¯t guarantee a sure result.

    This was probably why nobody hade up with any useful clues for this quest even though many organizations were looking for helpers for it.

    Thinking about this, Angor instantly decided to forget about this quest. He had to get home as soon as possible.

    Theynded their boat along a beach area where they saw no people or other boats.

    Copying what they did first when getting to the Land of Revtion, they headed straight ind so that they could find someone to ask for directions.

    When they flew over a small mountain, Tulu slowed down Gond and pointed to somewhere ahead of them. ¡°Mister Padt, I see smoke. Maybe someone¡¯s there.¡±

 Chapter 824 - Destroyed Village and Lady in Distress

    <h4>Chapter 824: Destroyed Vige and Lady in Distress</h4>

    The warm sunlight of spring would have helped them enjoy the day in a pleasant mood... yet what they were looking at contributed oppositely.

    At first, they thought it was cooking smokeing from a chimney or a campfire, which meant they found a settlement.

    They did arrive at a small vige, which was built just outside the forest. However, there were no inhabitants. Or what should have been the inhabitants were now lifeless corpses impaled on stakes outside every burnt house.

    There were mainly male vigers who were put on the stakes after having all their limbs cut off, while naked women were randomly scattered on the ground, chests and stomachs ripped open. The kids in the vige weren¡¯t spared either. They were in the same terrible condition as their seniors.

    At first, Tulu was furious to see the entire vige ughtered clean. But then he started getting terrified when looking at thest expressions on the vigers¡¯ faces.

    Hatred. Hatred that wasn¡¯t humanly possible to express by someone alive.

    Tulu saw many corpses during his career as a sailor, such as headless bodies left behind by a sea beast, chunks of soldier chopped up by his enemies, or an unfortunate mortal man who ended up as a monster feed for a wizard.

    But this... This was worse than everything he had seen yet.

    Tulu was now standing in front of another ruined house that only had its frames left after the fire, where a deceased young man was gazing into the sky with a pair of dull, widened eyes. A white line on the side of his cheek told that he was weeping at his death, which of course, did not save him.

    Tulu took several heavy breaths and closed the man¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°May your afterlife be not so cruel to you...¡± Tulu prayed in a small voice.

    ¡°Humanity... isplicated,¡± Angor spoke behind Tulu, ¡°as it can create both the most beautiful civilizations and wisdom and the darkest evil that terrifies the bravest man. Humans always believe that they are the best evolution and are beyond everything else in this world. But no. On the wrong asions, they can be more bloodthirsty than the most vicious animal.¡±

    ¡°Do you know who did this, Mister Padt?¡± Tulu failed to contain his rage.

    ¡°No. Anything that can help us should have been removed by the fire.¡±

    Tulu remained quiet for a while.

    ¡°Can I use some time to bury them? They should have a proper ce to rest...¡±

    ¡°They don¡¯t need to ¡®rest¡¯, but go ahead.¡±

    In Angor¡¯s view, these dead mortals were just bodies that didn¡¯t concern them. However, he decided to allow Tulu to tend to the corpses anyway.

    As a recruiter, he could instruct Tulu on how to recognize danger and threats in the wizarding world, but he didn¡¯t wish to interfere with Tulu¡¯s moral alignment too much. Tulu was free to be either a ¡°white wizard¡± or ¡°ck wizard¡±. Perhaps Tulu would live to regret his naive acts of goodnesster. Nevertheless, Angor wouldn¡¯t unnecessarily be his etiquette instructor.

    Besides, Angor also found it necessary to prepare his psyche before heading home. He needed some extra time for this.

    The vige wasn¡¯t big and didn¡¯t have many residents. Using a simple shovel Angor crafted under a minute, Tulu spent a moment digging a giant crater in the center of the vige.

    It was already dusk when Tulu refilled the mass grave.

    Tulu then put a white flower he found beside the grave and offered a silent prayer.

    When the cold wind of nightfall carried the flower away, he returned to Angor and apologized in a small voice, ¡°I¡¯m sorry I wasted your time, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. But you should remember this and judge your action once you officially enter the wizarding world.¡± Angor summoned Gond as he said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. We still have time before bedtime. Hopefully, we can find people for guidance today.¡±

    Tulu was obviously in a bad mood when controlling the Gond. After another long silence, he suddenly asked a question, ¡°Can wizards do something so cruel to an entire mortal vige, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Yes, they can.¡±

    <i>In worse ways than what you can imagine,</i> Angor thought before he continued, ¡°Wizards are humans as well, and human nature is fickle and unpredictable. People from different ces and social ranks might behave differently, but deep down, they aren¡¯t so different. It¡¯s just that, someone knows how to control or hide their intentions better.

    ¡°However, as mortals are valueless to wizards whatsoever, wizards usually don¡¯t waste their time harming mortals. This has been somewhat an unspoken convention. Besides, wizards also need to refill their manpower by recruiting from mortals.

    ¡°Even so... mortals have never stopped fighting each other, even if their wars are pointless. This is just how this world is.¡±

    Angor then turned away to watch the mountains and trees of Old Earth with the look of yearning.

    Unfortunately, they never found anyone alive along their way when the moon was already high above their heads.

    ¡°Guess we took a wrong turn or two.¡± Angor yawned. They followed a small path leading away from the vige and expected to arrive at a town or city. But the pathter disappeared into another forest, so they had to pick a random direction. From there, they had flown for over a thousand kilometers without running into any people.

    ¡°Should we head back to that vige? That shouldn¡¯t take very long if we go at full speed,¡± asked Tulu.

    ¡°You decide.¡±

    Tulu considered and did so. He remembered seeing more than one road around the vige.

    But a sudden sh of orange light below them stopped his driving.

    ¡°I think that¡¯s firelight... Someone¡¯s in the forest at this hour?¡± Tulu frowned. ¡°A hunter, maybe?¡±

    He moved Gond lower to the source of the light.

    They did see someone. Not a hunter, but a youngdy who was trembling in front of a campfire because she had nothing to wear other than some dried skin of a beast.

    She saw the ¡°flying boat¡± approaching her and was quickly astonished by its beautiful design.

    Tulu hopped off Gond swiftly and walked to her. ¡°Don¡¯t be rmed. We are-um, travelers. We don¡¯t know this ce well, so I hope you can tell us the directions.¡±

    The woman showed a cautious look and reached for a dagger on the ground while holding something to her stomach using the other hand.

    ¡°Wait wait wait, I¡¯ll not get any closer, alright?¡± Tulu sighed. ¡°Can you tell me where I am? How do I reach the nearest town?¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t believe you! Go away. If you want to find people, go that way...¡± thedy said while pointing to the southeast.

    ¡°That way to town, okay. Can you tell me, um, which province or country we¡¯re currently in?¡±

    Thedy only held her possession closer to her body and red at Tulu.

    As Tulu wondered whether he should use violence on her to get an answer, Angor called to him, ¡°Get back, Tulu.¡±

    Tulu jumped a little and quickly ascended onto Gond by climbing a tree.

    From above, Angor looked at the wary woman, who returned her own brave gaze at him.

    Angor chuckled. He found a ck object from his bracelet and tossed it out of the boat.

    The woman was terrified for she thought Angor was attacking her, but she failed to run away when she felt a strange force keeping her in ce, and she could only watch as the object was upon her face.

    But instead of receiving a hit on the head, she saw the object spreading bigger and covered up her body.

    She felt warmth.

    By the moment the strange power vanished from her, the flying boat was already gone.

    ...

    ¡°Why did you help her like that, Mister Padt?¡± asked Tulu.

    ¡°I¡¯m a gentleman after all. Shouldn¡¯t a gentleman help a freezingdy in distress?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I-I see... Does Mister Padt have a liking for her type?¡± Tulu muttered thest part in a small voice.

    Angor scoffed. ¡°My gosh. Didn¡¯t you see she¡¯s pregnant? Telling from the size, it won¡¯t be long before birth. Do you want to see her giving birth in this middle of nowhere without proper clothing? That¡¯s the least I can do.¡±

    ¡°Pregnant?!¡± Tulu just realized that the woman wasn¡¯t holding a bag. It was her baby bump.

    Then her action could be exined. It was very natural for a pregnant woman to be suspicious of strangers, let alone strangers on a flying boat.

    ¡°But... why would someone like her be in the forest, in the middle of the night?¡±

    Angor was also wondering about this question. He recognized her ent to be from the Goldspink Empire, and she was probably nobility, telling from the condition of her well-kept skin and the piercings on her earlobes.

    But he wasn¡¯t going to find out why a noblewoman ended up here. Not his business.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just head to the way she told us. Maybe we can find something there.¡±

    Angor had been carefully observing the brief conversation between Tulu and the strange woman, and he did notice that the woman looked strangely furious when giving Tulu the pointer.

    It was unlikely that she hated Tulu THAT much, which meant... she was trying to guide them to her enemies of some sort.

    But this didn¡¯t matter¡ªthey needed to find people anyway. Anyone would do.

 Chapter 825 - Fallen Lands

    <h4>Chapter 825: Fallen Lands</h4>

    Following the direction told by the woman, they traveled for several dozen more kilometers until they saw a campsite at the edge of argeke.

    Neighing horses,ughing marauders, and crying women.

    ¡°Mister Padt... That woman meant to guide us to these people, right?¡± Tulu looked at the bandits and a number of cages in which more people were trembling in the night wind because they didn¡¯t have any clothing.

    ¡°You just noticed?¡± Angor didn¡¯t seem concerned.

    ¡°A*shole.¡± Tulu spat. ¡°If we were mortal travelers, we would have fallen into her trap. You shouldn¡¯t have given the prick anything to wear and just let her freeze to death.¡±

    ¡°Pfft. We went to her on Gond. Do you really think she took us formon mortals? I don¡¯t see a problem with her action. We were looking for people, and she showed us people.¡±

    ¡°Yeah but... She¡¯s using us. That doesn¡¯t feel right. Don¡¯t you feel angry at her, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°What? Do you want to turn back and give her a lesson?¡± Angor maintained his in look. ¡°I¡¯ll not stop you if that¡¯s your wish.¡±

    Tulu remembered the woman¡¯s looks and didn¡¯t believe he¡¯d actually hit a pregnant woman no matter what reason he had.

    ¡°Say,¡± Angor continued, ¡°let¡¯s suppose that the woman is a VERY big viin, like Nayah¡¯s evil sister. Will you change your mind and punish her?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... What about you, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Whatever my choice is, I¡¯m free to treat her however I like because she has no hope of fighting back. But you¡¯re different. You¡¯re still a mortal without any useful power. If she meant to harm you, she might seed.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, that she¡¯s such a criminal who wants me dead for her own gain, then I¡¯ll kill her, Mister Padt.¡± Tulu showed a determined look.

    Angor chuckled and didn¡¯t say any opinion about Tulu¡¯s final answer.

    They heard someone screaming below and looked that way, only to see one of the gangsters dragging a captured woman away while stroking his crotch.

    What was going to happen next was in to see.

    The woman had been struggling in vain, which only contributed to the thug¡¯s violence.

    A child about five years old shook free of his shackles and began kicking the harasser with his tiny legs.

    ¡°Get away from my mom, you f*ck!!!¡±

    The kid was kicked away several times but insisted on protecting his mother. The horny thug lost patience and aimed his machete at the boy¡¯s neck.

    ¡°NO¡ª¡±

    The woman covered her eyes, while the thug¡¯spanions dly watched the bout for fun.

    All the other prisoners closed their eyes as they didn¡¯t wish to witness the cruel sight. Yet they couldn¡¯t fully avoid the sound of the murder. They expected to hear the boy¡¯sst breath, but something else unexpected happened.

    They looked again and saw the crying child still there, unharmed. Instead, the attacking bandit had frozen up in ce, and his neck was bleeding badly from a giant cut.

    The bandit wanted to turn his head to check who hurt him, but his action caused his head to fall off his body. This was followed by a giant blood sshing from his headless corpse.

    The body then copsed, allowing everyone to see another figure they didn¡¯t recognize¡ªa dark-skinned young man with a strange-looking headscarf, who was holding a long, bloodied de.

    It was Tulu, who just jumped off Gond to rescue the child.

    Tulu was a bit surprised to see that the weapon was sharper than he expected, but he didn¡¯t have time to think about it too much when the other bandits were already surrounding him up.

    Tulu felt a bit afraid since he was at an obvious disadvantage, but the glimmering weapon in his hand somewhat gave him confidence.

    A fight broke out.

    Angor remained on Gond to watch Tulu skillfully fending off a dozen offenders. Tulu could fight so well probably because he learned much aboutbat after dealing with all kinds of sea beasts during his career.

    Tulu was using a ¡°Tang Dao¡± he just borrowed from Angor. It wasn¡¯t a tiered weapon, but it was still a lot deadlier than most weapons forged by mortal cksmiths.

    At first, Tulu was holding back because the other bandits didn¡¯t directlymit any crime against him yet. He wished to avoid unnecessary deaths.

    But when he realized that his naivety only earned him several gashes on his body, he decided to go all-out.

    The fight soon settled down with no surprises because Tulu¡¯s superior reflexes could mostly help him waste an enemy with every swing.

    After killing thest bandit he could see, he looked at all the bodies on the ground, took several deep breaths, and walked back to the kid in danger.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay now.¡± He put a hand on the child¡¯s head.

    The kid¡¯s mother quickly dragged her son away and stared at Tulu warily.

    Tulu then looked around and saw all the prisoners giving him uncertain nces, and he suddenly felt at a loss.

    Angor jumped down from Gond and pointed to the corpses while asking, ¡°Who are these people, and who are you?¡±

    None of the adults made a sound. It was the kid Tulu saved who replied by yelling loudly, ¡°They¡¯re the bad guys while we¡¯re the innocent ones!¡±

    His mother quickly covered his mouth.

    Tulu grimaced and stabbed his de into the ground. ¡°I just saved your freaking lives, you ungrateful mammals! If you aren¡¯t going to answer such simple questions, then I don¡¯t have any reason to let you live!¡±

    Hearing Tulu¡¯s warning, a young woman in one of the cages spoke up with a serious expression, ¡°Please excuse us, good sirs. They... are soldiers from Hen. We came from a vige nearby.¡±

    ¡°Soldiers? You¡¯re vigers?¡± Tulu checked the dead bodies that were dressed more like hijackers or vers.

    ¡°Yes. The Hen Imperial came and upied Inkhorn Province, after which they started clearing out all settlements. They already ughtered everyone from several viges nearby. But they also kept prisoners on their way.¡±

    <i>ughter...</i> Tulu immediately thought about the ruined vige he saw earlier.

    ¡°Do you know why they kept you alive instead of killing you too?¡± asked Tulu.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure, sir. Maybe they¡¯re nning to sell us for gold...¡± The woman looked down.

    ¡°Really?¡± Angor looked at her. ¡°Vigers, huh?¡±

    The woman jerked her head back up upon hearing Angor¡¯s voice.

    Tulu was just as surprised to hear Angor suddenly speaking in apletely different ent he never heard before.

    ¡°You¡¯re from Goldspink?!¡± the woman eximed in shock.

    ¡°Just like you.¡± Angor grinned.

    Angor just used a more gentle and distinctive tone for speaking, which was popr among noble members of the Goldspink Empire. Such an ent was usually favored by women because it sounded emotionally attractive, while men... not so much, as such a voice would make them less manly.

    Knowing Angor¡¯s origin, the woman and the other prisoners all rxed.

    ¡°We dide from a vige, sir. I¡¯m Rinya, and these people are my subjects. We are currently inside Sumai Colony. My family owns it. Or... we used to.¡±

    ¡°Hen Imperial upied the entire Inkhorn Province, you say? Did Hen win the war against Goldspink?¡± asked Angor.

    Rinya gave Angor another careful look.

    ¡°Notpletely, but Hen has advanced a lot. They already took Inkhorn and Moondrop along with many provinces along the coast.¡±

    Angor suddenly felt his heart drop. Grue Town was under the administration of Yamei Province, which was also a coastal state.

    Also, Yamei was not very far from the front line of the war. His family was responsible for providing provision to the vanguard camps.

    ¡°Is Yamei still fine?¡± he quickly asked.

    ¡°Well,st time I heard, Yamei is protected by the Morn Family and has yet to suffer any real damage yet. But... I don¡¯t know how long they canst.¡±

    Angor felt reassured because this meant his home was safe. However, Rinya¡¯s information might be outdated. The situation of war could always change rapidly.

    ¡°Can you tell me how to reach Yamei Province from here?¡±

 Chapter 826

    <h4>Chapter 826: Shannon</h4>

    ¡°Only the coachmen know well about the routes, sir. But... they¡¯re all killed by Hen¡¯s soldiers. I¡¯m afraid none of us can help you,¡± Rinya said sadly.

    Tulu was confused by her words. Back at the Land of Revtion, they asked a random farmer¡¯s help to reach Saint Sem City. But here, Rinya seemed to be someone from the upper ss, yet she didn¡¯t know how to travel around?

    ¡°Seriously? None of you know how to go to Yamei?¡± Tulu looked around the cages, and the prisoners all avoided his look.

    ¡°Most of them are peasants who never left Sumai Colony in their lives, sir,¡± Rinya exined. ¡°Please don¡¯t me them. It can¡¯t be helped.¡±

    ¡°Then what¡¯s the nearest city?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Go over that mountain and follow the river behind, you¡¯ll reach Kuroza City. But if I¡¯m not mistaken, it¡¯s already taken by Hen.¡±

    ¡°Mister Padt, do we head that way?¡± Tulu looked at Angor.

    Angor nodded to agree. No matter who was controlling the city, they just needed to find people and receive more guidance.

    Tulu moved around the campsite to unlock all the cages. All the prisoners gathered up behind Rinya, probably because they did consider Rinya as their leader.

    ¡°What will you do from now on?¡± Tulu asked out of curiosity. If Hen¡¯s soldiers were everywhere, these people were in constant danger no matter where they went.

    ¡°There should be an underground sanctuary at Sumai Colony,¡± said Rinya. ¡°My family always keeps a team of guards to keep it running. I¡¯ll bring my people there to seek safety.¡±

    Tulu nodded. He did feel bad when these people gave him cold shoulders, but they were innocent civilians after all.

    Angor pulled Gond closer and asked Tulu to get on.

    Rinya widened her eyes when looking at the fantastic boat. ¡°Are-are you a rumored wizard, sir?¡±

    Angor nodded, not intending to hide this fact. ¡°You heard about wizards before?¡±

    ording to Jon¡¯s studies, the entire Goldspink Empire didn¡¯t have any historian or schr who was curious enough to look at what was beyond Old Earth, and there weren¡¯t any reliable records about wizards.

    ¡°I do!¡± Rinya nodded in excitement. ¡°I heard it from Miss Shannon.¡±

    ¡°Shannon... THE Shannon n?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    Grue Town was a remote ce in Goldspink, but Angor at least knew the name of the royal n who was ruling the empire.

    ¡°Yes! I was referring to Miss Tavier Shannon, the 7th princess. Can-can you help her, Sir Wizard? Three days ago, we helped her escape from here so that she wouldn¡¯t die with us. She¡¯s out there in the forest right now, I wonder how she¡¯s doing...¡±

    Tulu stepped up and said, ¡°Are you perhaps talking about a pregnant woman who wears something made from beast skin?¡±

    Rinya showed a surprised look. ¡°You¡¯ve seen her?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s that way. You can go and find her on your own if you wish.¡± Tulu pointed the way. He hated Shannon for leading them to danger, but he still preferred seeing her unborn child safe.

    When Tulu climbed onto Gond and was about to depart, Rinya called to stop him.

    ¡°Miss Shannon used to be a student of Goldspink Royal Academy. She¡¯s really good at geography, art, and tactics. She knows how to get to Yamei!¡±

    ¡°What are you implying?¡± Angor gave Rinya a stern stare.

    Rinya knelt on the ground and pleaded, ¡°Please take Miss Shannon away, good sir! You can send her awayter if you wish, as long as she¡¯s out of conflict zones. You can take her to Yamei. She mentioned that she once went there to watch Master Megeve¡¯s concert at Waterford. She can show you the way.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be worried about your own life for now?¡±

    ¡°Miss Shannon is the princess, sir, but Hen doesn¡¯t know this yet. If they discover her and use her against Goldspink...¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor nodded.

    Rinya thanked Angor repeatedly and put her head against the floor.

    When she looked up again, the flying boat was already outside her view.

    ...

    ¡°Do we have to take her with us, Mister Padt?¡± Tulu was obviously bothered by it.

    ¡°Let¡¯s do it for now. She¡¯s... special.¡±

    Angor made this decision mainly because Rinya mentioned ¡°Megeve¡¯s concert¡±. Before leaving Old Earth with Mara, it was Angor¡¯s biggest wish to watch the concert together with his brother. Master Megeve was always his childhood idol. The name really brought back old memories.

    ¡°Special? She¡¯s just the princess of a mortal nation, big deal...¡± Tulu muttered.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget you¡¯re still a mortal as well.¡± Angor chuckled.

    ¡°But I¡¯m well on my way to the road of wizardry!¡±

    Tulu pretended that he was confident about his words, but his trembling hand on his Tang Dao proved his anxiety.

    ¡°You know, my father used to speak highly of the rulers of Goldspink, saying that they always came up with splendid policies to benefit our people. As his son, I grew up to like the royalties as well.¡± Angor decided to find an excuse tofort Tulu.

    Although Tulu didn¡¯t seem convinced.

    Angor sighed in frustration. ¡°I always thought Hen didn¡¯t have what it takes to achieve a thorough invasion, and Goldspink will chase them back sooner orter. But now... I don¡¯t know what happened to the war.¡±

    They soon arrived at the simple campfire, where Shannon was nibbling on a piece of fruit. With Angor¡¯s coat, she wasn¡¯t trembling in the cold and could now show the etiquette of a royal member with her careful moves.

    ¡°What a princess you are. Even out here, you still keep your manners!¡± Tulu¡¯s voice reached her ears.

    The woman looked at Tulu cautiously but without showing her knife this time.

    ¡°Guess what, your nice little n worked out. I ¡®helped¡¯ you kill all the Hen soldiers and rescued the vigers,¡± Tulu spoke while observing Shannon¡¯s expressions. The woman was both d to hear that her people were safe and a little nervous about getting her trick revealed.

    ¡°I admit it. That¡¯s my intention all along. And I¡¯m sorry. Did youe back to execute me or something?¡± Shannon dropped her half-eaten meal. ¡°By fooling a mighty wizard, I know there¡¯s no other way than death. I deserve it. But I¡¯m begging you to wait for a few days before killing me. My child... He¡¯s innocent.¡±

    ¡°Nah, we won¡¯t kill you.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°We just need you to lead the way. Properly.¡±

    ...

    A momentter, Gond got an extra passenger in its small cabin. Angor put Shannon in there so that she wouldn¡¯t have to suffer from the cold wind in the sky.

    With Shannon on board, they could now travel at Gond¡¯s top speed instead of looking for people randomly.

    It seemed Shannon wasn¡¯t much of a talker. Since she came onto the boat, she never said any extra words other than what was necessary to tell the next direction.

    Tulu frowned. ¡°Why do we have to find a princess to tell where to go? I mean, it¡¯s fine if the peasants are clueless, but thatndlorddy didn¡¯t know anything either. Back at the Land of Revtion, everyone knows where they¡¯re going.¡±

    ¡°This ismon in Goldspink, wheremon civilians are usually forbidden from possessing maps. To find ways to travel around, you either ask experienced carriage handlers or nobility who are authorized to view the maps.¡±

    ¡°But why would they do such a thing?¡±

    ¡°Because Goldspink is, let¡¯s say, behind the times. In fact, every nation at Old Earth is simr. Since you¡¯re from Ferran, I cane up with a good example. Consider Old Earth to be a ce from the Age of Gold.¡±

    When traveling at Ferran, Angor saw machinery and simple technologies that originated from the Fey Continent.

    But here at Old Earth, even clocks were luxuries.

    Even paper was a rare sight at Old Earth because the old-fashioned noble ns still insisted on using expensive parchment scrolls to record knowledge, which in turn resulted in poor education among civilians.

    Angor¡¯s father once mentioned that the Shannon n always nned to implement the use of modern paper, but the n was put to a halt when the other ns turned it down, saying that ¡°old parchment held all of their ancestors¡¯ wisdom and they¡¯d like to keep using it in the future¡±.

    Previously, Angor wouldn¡¯t mind which type of medium to read because he¡¯d dly ept either as long as the contents were fine. Butter, he preferred reading modernized paper books since they always looked tidier and easier to keep.

    ¡°Are you from the Goldspink Empire, Mister Wizard?¡± Shannon suddenly asked a question from the cabin.

    ¡°Mm-hmm.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re definitely not amoner. May I ask which n you came from? The Morns?¡±

    The Morn Family was the first name that came to her mind when she thought about Yamei Province. Also, she heard rumors that the Morn Family had a powerful wizard among their rank, which was the reason why nobody ever showed any disrespect against them.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not a Morn, but I did work with them once,¡± Angor said as he recalled his days with Mara, n, and Aleen.

 Chapter 827 - Gloomy Aura

    <h4>Chapter 827: Gloomy Aura</h4>

    Angor and Tulu sessfully reached Yamei Province the next morning. As for Shannon, Angor earlier dropped her at Minous, which was the biggest city of Yamei¡¯s neighboring province, because Shannon was suffering from some serious airsickness and couldn¡¯t stay with them in her condition.

    Gond entered the vicinity of Waterford at dawn.

    Waterford was the closest city to Grue Town and was only a mid-tier city in Yamei. Angor always believed this ce to be huge since he didn¡¯t travel to many ces during his childhood. After all the adventures in these years, however, he could see that Waterford was only slightly bigger than Freighting Town while being a lot duller inparison to Freighting Town because the entire city was of a dim, ck theme where every building was made out of bricks produced in the same, clich¨¦d style.

    In a sense, Waterford looked a lot tidier and coordinated, but this could also be seen as too stereotypical.

    ¡°Look, Mister Padt.¡± Tulu pointed somewhere.

    Angor was already observing the city, which he always considered to be a fun ce before, so he knew what Tulu meant to show him.

    The city gate.

    There was a crowd of battered people waiting outside the sealed city gate. And when the sunlight of dawn slowly moved to shine upon the city, the city guards opened the gate to let everyone inside.

    ¡°Refugees?¡± Tulu frowned.

    ¡°Yeah. The bitter result of war,¡± Angor replied while using his spirit feelers to eavesdrop on the talking guards from afar.

    It seemed most citizens who lost their homes against Hen were journeying to nearby provinces, while Yamei, being one of the cities close to the front line, became an obvious choice for the evacuees. Many people chose here also because they knew the Morn Family was protecting Waterford.

    Telling from all these skinny and starving victims, it was in to see that the war had strained Goldspink badly.

    Earlier, Angor asked Shannon some questions, hoping to figure out how Hen had gained so much advantage, but Shannon was just as confused as him. Three months ago, when Shannon traveled to Sumai Colony to visit a friend, she heard that Hen Imperial was still struggling to keep up with the forefront soldiers of Goldspink. Yet in a matter of a few days, terrible news came and told everyone that several provinces along the coastal borderline had been upied by enemies. And before Shannon could return home, the Inkhorn Province had fallen under Hen¡¯s control.

    ¡°She said the war between Goldspink and Hen hadsted for seven years and the scale never tipped much to either side. What happened all of a sudden?¡± Tulu wondered.

    ¡°Yeah, something¡¯s definitely not right. But this is not our business for now. We¡¯ll go back to Grue Town first.¡±

    Seeing the suffering civilians only made Angor want to go home as fast as possible. Grue Town was a small ce with only a few honest folks. If too many refugees found their way there, it would mean serious trouble.

    ¡°Hope the situation isn¡¯t that bad yet...¡± Angor muttered.

    Soon, after flying past several mountains, they saw stretching grasnd and the small town located at its edge.

    But instead of feeling the rejoice for being home atst, Angor was suddenly struck by a terrible awareness.

    ¡°Stop.¡±

    Tulu quickly slowed down Gond until they were hovering inside a piece of cloud.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, sir?¡±

    ¡°The town... it doesn¡¯t feel right.¡±

    Tulu tried and failed to notice anything wrong because they were still some distance away. The town was already small as it was.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not something you can see...¡± said Angor.

    Using the trained eyes of an apprentice, Angor somewhat noticed the gloomy air that had covered up Grue Town as if there were pollution. But he could not tell what exactly he was looking at.

    Even though he was anxious to ascertain the safety of his home, he still chose to act more carefully bynding among the woods at the foot of a mountain so that they could go to the town on foot.

    Angor sharpened his senses as best as he could while approaching Grue Town so that he could see the danger in time. While Tulu, who had no idea what was going on, was simply admiring the sight of nature with great curiosity.

    After moving out of the woods, they could see a watchtower at the edge of the town. However, they were still too far to see if any guard was on watch.

    There were patches of cultivated farming fields near their position, but no one was working in them. However, they could see that people had been taking care of the crops and removing weeds.

    After another five minutes of walking, Angor noticed an armored watchman standing on top of the tower and silently sighed in great relief.

    Since a guard was doing his job, Grue Town was at least in order.

    Angor had been fearing that Grue Town might have met with the same fate as the burned vige. Luckily, this wasn¡¯t the case.

    But he didn¡¯t fully calm down yet. Not before seeing his family in the flesh.

    The town guard easily spotted the two travelers and kept his suspicious gaze on them, especially on Tulu, who had half his head covered behind that scarf.

    ¡°Who are you? What¡¯s your business here?¡± the guard asked in a rtively friendly tune when he noticed that Angor and Tulu were not escaping refugees.

    Angor stepped up to reply so that Tulu wouldn¡¯t raise more suspicions in his foreign ent. ¡°I¡¯m from Conera, mister. I¡¯m visiting a friend who¡¯s living in Grue Town.¡±

    Conera was the biggest city of Yamei.

    The guard showed a rxed look when he heard Angor¡¯s typical nobleman entmon in Goldspink.

    Angor wasn¡¯t exactly wearing beautiful clothes that befitted a nobleman, but the guard only took him for a former upper ss who was in a poor condition because of some troubles.

    ¡°Who¡¯s the friend you¡¯re visiting, sir? I¡¯m the guard on duty today, Jordan. Do you need me to show you the way?¡±

    <i>Jordan...</i> Angor searched his memory and recognized Jordan to be the son of the sheriff. When Angor was still in town, he heard that Jordan was always away attending a school somewhere, so he never met this man before.

    ¡°I¡¯m visiting Viscount Padt, Mister Jordan. We¡¯ve been good friends for years.¡± Angor showed a humble smile. ¡°I need to discuss an important matter with him.¡±

    Jordan¡¯s rxed expression suddenly froze up.

    Angor felt his heart sink. ¡°Is there a problem? Is the viscount currently away?¡±

    Jordan looked around warily and lowered his voice into a whisper. ¡°If you¡¯re looking for Viscount Padt, I highly suggest that you turn away and leave, good sir.¡±

    ¡°But why?¡± Angor tried not to show his anxiety on his face. ¡°Did something happen to him?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe he¡¯s fine.¡±

    Angor saw Jordan unwilling to talk about this matter and changed the subject by asking, ¡°If there¡¯s something you can¡¯t tell me, can you take me to Mister George? When I visited five years ago, it was he who addressed me.¡±

    As Angor recalled, people in Grue Town usually called their sheriff ¡°Old Knight George¡±.

    Upon hearing his father¡¯s name, Jordan wondered whether he should tell Angor that Padt Manor had been closed off and would ept no visitors.

    ¡°This way, please. I¡¯ll take you to Old George.¡±

    On their way, Angor saw many familiar townsfolk who greeted Jordan in a friendly manner. However, he wasn¡¯t in the mood to feel the scent of home yet because he knew something was wrong with his family.

    <i>And that gloomy aura... did ite directly from Padt Manor, if I¡¯m not mistaken?</i>

    Jordan took them to a traditional-looking log house and opened the door.

    ¡°Yo, son. Why are yer wonderin¡¯ around instead of keeping yer post? Who¡¯s those two?¡±

    ¡°Dad, they are¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish talking, the middle-aged man in the room gave him a painful whack on the head.

    ¡°Call me Sheriff when working, yer little moron! How many times do I needa tell you?!¡±

    Jordan rubbed where he was hit with a sad look. ¡°Mister-Mister Sheriff.¡±

    George nodded and looked at Angor and Tulu. ¡°Who are these?¡±

    ¡°This man here is looking for the viscount, Sheriff, saying that he¡¯s a friend of Viscount Padt. I think he was your guest five years ago, or so he said. Was he?¡±

    George looked at Angor up and down. He unsheathed Jordan¡¯s sword and pointed it at Angor.

    ¡°Never saw you before. Who are ya? Whaddaya want here??!¡±

    Jordan watched his father¡¯s aggressive response and didn¡¯t know what had happened.

    Angor gave the sheriff a careful look. He then turned around to close the room¡¯s door.

    ¡°Mister George. It¡¯s been pretty long.¡±

 Chapter 828 - Sealed Off

    <h4>Chapter 828: Sealed Off</h4>

    Surprised, George gazed at the middle-aged man in front of him who didn¡¯t seem much younger than him.

    ¡°Who yer callin¡¯ a mister? I don¡¯t remember anyone yer age who¡¯d pay me a visit at these times!¡± George moved his sword closer to Angor.

    ¡°d to see you as spirited as before, Mister George,¡± said Angor.

    George¡¯s expression changed greatly when he heard Angor talking in apletely different voice that belonged to a growing teenager rather than azy-looking middle-aged man with an unkempt look.

    More importantly, he recognized this voice. Several years ago, a certain shortie who loved to buy milk used to speak to him in the same way.

    ¡°Who... da heck?¡± George frowned.

    Angor grinned as his body suddenly gained several hard cracks like a broken mirror, before the fragments moved around and reassembled into someone with apletely different look.

    George, Jordan, and Tulu all widened their eyes when they saw a young gentleman with an elegant ck suit and a simr-colored cape with red inner linings standing in the room in ce of themon-looking traveler they saw a moment ago.

    In great contrast with his clothes, Angor¡¯s white skin really stood out in the poorly-illuminated room.

    He removed his top hat and lowered it to his chest. ¡°Nice to see you again, Mister George.¡±

    When George saw Angor¡¯s azure eyes, he gasped loudly and dropped the sword to the wooden floor due to too much excitement.

    ¡°An-An-Angor!¡±

    The old man wished to rush to Angor and give him a big hug, but he stopped midway as such a gesture didn¡¯t seem right in his office and in front of his son.

    ¡°How do you fare in these years?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Never mind old me! You grew bigger! And you look marvelous!¡± Again, George inspected Angor from head to toe, but with a big smile this time. ¡°Are yer not supposed to be studying in the capital? Why you nevere back in all these years? And wait, what happened to you just now? Did yer learn some magic tricks or something?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see. So my brother told everyone that I¡¯m away studying?¡±

    ¡°Aye, he said you went to the Goldspink Royal Academy.¡±

    Angor put his hat back on. ¡°I... did go out there for education, but not at Old Earth. I traveled to another continent. The ¡®magic trick¡¯ is one of the things I learned on my way.¡±

    He cast mor again and changed his appearance into a typical middle-aged loafer.

    ¡°This is...¡±

    ¡°Something that deceives your eyes.¡±

    ¡°Ah, ah I see...¡± George wasn¡¯t sure what that was about and only nodded with a nk look. ¡°Yer taller but skinnier. Not eating properly, I reckon? Quickly, inside! I wasted a wild boar in the woods yesterday. I¡¯ll cook you a nice dish. Com¡¯on!¡±

    ¡°I never doubted your cooking, Mister George. But the food can wait. I really need to get home. Mister Jordan was acting a bit strangely when I asked about my home. What happened?¡±

    George was moving a pot around, but he stopped in his tracks, which further added to Angor¡¯s uneasiness.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sir? Is my brother in trouble?¡±

    George shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. Leon should be fine.¡±

    ¡°Should?¡±

    ¡°Just...e. I¡¯ll tell you what I know over a drink,¡± George said as he moved into another room further inside.

    ¡°Dad-I mean, Mister Sheriff. He¡¯s the young master of the Padt Family?!¡± Jordan quickly moved to follow his father.

    ¡°Return to yer job, dumb*ss! Get out! Move it!¡± George bellowed.

    ¡°I-yes, sir.¡±

    George watched his son leave and went to get some sses, while Angor took a seat in the middle of the room while asionally ncing at where his home was.

    Tulu finally recovered from his shock and had time to ask a question. ¡°Mister Padt, was that your real look?¡±

    Angor only gave him a cold, silent re.

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t mean offence, sir. Just, I never thought you looked so dapper.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s freakin¡¯ adorable when he¡¯s a kid!¡± George returned to them with two sses of milk tea. He always knew that Angor loved milk but didn¡¯t want to show it in front of others.

    Tulu simply epted the drink and went quiet as he pretended that he didn¡¯t exist. He felt Angor was bothered for real just now.

    ¡°Please, tell me the situation in Padt Manor, Mister George,¡± said Angor. When he sat down to look at that direction earlier, he could feel that the gloomy aura was getting thicker. What was worse was that he even felt an unknown presence that looked back at him from behind the aura.

    It wasn¡¯t anything hostile, or at least he didn¡¯t feel that way yet. But it was already a serious problem when someone who had supernatural powers was right inside Padt Manor.

    ¡°Sigh...¡± George looked at the floor. ¡°Where do I start... The thing is, we don¡¯t know what happened there for certain, because Padt Manor was sealed off three years ago, in the Month of Resuscitation.¡±

    ¡°Sealed off? No one has entered ore out of there ever since?¡±

    ¡°They say it¡¯s sealed, but they only forbid outsiders from going in, while those workin¡¯ or livin¡¯ there may still travel in and out. Do you know Edgard?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, Edgard is an old hunter who lives in the south of the town, right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the man. Years ago, that unruly son of his heard ¡¯bout the ban and yed a truth or dare that he¡¯d sneak into the manor. We tried to stop him, but he just didn¡¯t listen. He jumped over the fence of the manor one night.¡± George showed a grim look. ¡°The next morning, we found his body lying in the dirt next to the manor.

    ¡°Poor Edgard... I never thought the old man could cry like that. Edgard left the town to live in another province, never to be heard again. From that day, ain¡¯t nobody ever got the guts to break the rules again.¡±

    ¡°My brother will never kill our neighbors like that...¡± Angor fell into deep thoughts. He wondered if the forceful deed had anything to do with the strange aura he saw.

    ¡°We all know Leon is not that kind of man, but it already happened.¡± George shook his head again.

    ¡°You said those at Padt Manor can go in and out. Did you ask them what¡¯s happening inside?¡±

    ¡°We did. But they won¡¯t say a word to us.¡±

    Angor grimaced. He knew every servant and worker at Padt Manor. They might have different personalities, but none of them would treat the other residents in Grue Town with such unfriendliness.

    ¡°Are you sure they¡¯re still the usual servants you know before? Do they appear to be any different than before?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? They are the same people, ¡®lest they also learned that magic trick of yours. They don¡¯te out shopping as often as before, but everything else is the same. The only problem is that, as soon as someone mentions Padt Manor, they all be hush-hush and won¡¯t talk to us. Since nothing¡¯s wrong with them or us otherwise, people just stopped asking them.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure? They don¡¯t look ill or something?¡±

    ¡°Dead sure.¡±

    ¡°What about my brother? Did he show up in town?¡±

    ¡°Yes. But not much. Hees out like, once in several months, to check if the town¡¯s in order or if anyone got any serious troubles. You see, it¡¯s all thanks to Viscount Padt that Grue Town¡¯s peaceful.¡±

    ¡°Nothing is wrong with my brother, either?¡±

    George frowned. ¡°Not that I can think of. If there¡¯s something, I¡¯d say he looks he more strict than before. But that¡¯s what happens when he bes the Viscount. He can¡¯t act like a child anymore.¡±

    ¡°He never had any visitors from other cities?¡±

    ¡°He did, but he won¡¯t see them. Several visitors told the servants to send their regards or ask for an appointment, and you can guess, none of them got to meet with him. That¡¯s why Jordan meant to send you away.¡±

    Angor was d that his family didn¡¯t seem to be in any danger, but most of his questions still remained.

    Why would Padt Manor go into istion? More importantly, who was there releasing that aura?

    George said that it all began three years ago at the Month of Resuscitation, which was just after Angor boarded The Redbud and traveled away.

    <i>Something happened to Padt Manor as soon as I left?</i>

    ¡°You¡¯re not worried that Grue Town¡¯s in trouble?¡± he asked George.

    George showed the look of hesitation and moaned. ¡°¡®course everyone¡¯s worried. But there¡¯s nothing we can do. Nobody talks about the Padt Family anymore, and they just do their own business. At least the viscount didn¡¯t give us any irrational tax we have to pay. People are happy with their lives.¡±

    Angor took another moment to consider and stood up.

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave this guy here for the moment, Mister George,¡± Angor pointed to Tulu and said, ¡°I¡¯m going to the manor to check on everything.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Surely I¡¯m not an ¡®outsider¡¯ to my family, right?¡±

    George sat back and nodded. He just forgot that he was talking to the young master of Padt Family, who was also Leon¡¯s younger brother. The manor had absolutely no reason to deny Angor¡¯s entrance.

    When Angor left, George looked at Tulu, who had been staring at the floor as if there were something very interesting down there.

    ¡°You call him ¡®Mister Padt¡¯, aye, young man? Are yer friends or somethin¡¯? What¡¯s that... ¡®magic trick¡¯? Where¡¯s he been to?¡±

    Tulu showed a bitter smile since he could answer none of those questions.

    ¡°These are secrets. Without Mister Padt giving me the nod, I can¡¯t tell you.¡±

    George noticed Tulu¡¯s serious look and decided not to push.

    But this didn¡¯t mean Tulu couldn¡¯t talk about other matters.

    ¡°Mister Padt looked pretty young back there. I wonder how old is he?¡±

    George scratched his ear as he tried to remember Angor¡¯s age. ¡°When the boy left Grue Town, he was only fourteen or so. I guess he just reached eighteen.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s eighteen?!¡± Tulu¡¯s mouth dropped open. <i>We¡¯re so close in age? I never know!</i>

 Chapter 829 - The Watcher

    <h4>Chapter 829: The Watcher</h4>

    Angor was currently standing at the entrance of Padt Manor, smelling the flowers of a cherry tree on the other side of the fence.

    He didn¡¯t get to enjoy the scent of his home for very long because he sensed someone watching him.

    He looked up and saw a pair of glimmering eyes hidden behind the flowers of the tree.

    With a simple flicker of mind, he created a small gust of wind and unleashed it at the cherry tree.

    A chunky-looking owl hopped into his view and escaped further into the manor using a pair of small wings that didn¡¯t seem enough to support its weight.

    ¡°Was that bird wearing a monocle?¡±

    What he feared hade true. Since neithermon owls nor monster owls would wear sses, the owl he saw was probably someone¡¯s familiar.

    There was an apprentice or wizard in Padt Manor.

    He couldn¡¯t help but assume the worst, that whoever had been staying here already discovered Jon¡¯s mysteries.

    ¡°Shut off my home like that... I¡¯m going to find you no matter what.¡±

    Without waiting any longer, he opened the fence gate and walked inside.

    Just beyond the gate was a patch of wheat field where a servant was working. The servant thought someone returned from the markets and was going to help carry the goods. But when he saw it was a stranger, he quickly made a ¡°shoo¡± sign.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Old George? He let a wanderer slip!¡± The servant checked the cherry tree nearby anxiously and showed a rxed look when he didn¡¯t find the owl watching him. ¡°Quickly, go back, young friend. Leave before the Watcher sees you!¡±

    ¡°You... don¡¯t know who I am?¡± Angor checked the servant and failed to recognize this man.

    The servant wanted to push Angor out of the gate, but Angor moved aside to avoid him.

    ¡°Who¡¯s this ¡®Watcher¡¯? Is it an owl?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°You saw it?!¡± The servant showed a terrified look. ¡°There-there¡¯s no saving you now, I¡¯m afraid. Goddammit. What is George doing?!¡±

    He then gave Angor a sympathetic look and returned to his work.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Viscount Padt?¡± Angor asked another question.

    ¡°You know the viscount? Sigh, that won¡¯t help now. Even the viscount can¡¯t get you out of trouble. You broke the rules...¡± the servant muttered and stepped further away.

    Angor didn¡¯t wish to waste time on this uninformative farmer and walked ahead.

    He suddenly heard a sharp bird call and saw the escaping owl gazing at him from above.

    ¡°Who¡¯s controlling you?¡± Angor saw the owl¡¯s eyes and could immediately tell that the creature was not an alchemy pet. It was someone¡¯s summoned familiar.

    The owl didn¡¯t respond. Instead, it puffed up its feathers as its monocled eye shined brightly. A fireball was suddenly unleashed from the strange ornament, and it was aiming at Angor¡¯s position.

    A giant hand materialized in the sky and pped the attack away before it could get to its target.

    ¡°Using elemental attacks at Old Earth? You¡¯re either too confident or stupid,¡± Angor said as he controlled his Hand of Spell to capture the owl.

    The owl tried to get away again by flying higher, but it was suddenly stopped by a suppressing aura.

    Another small, gray-feathered bird was right above its position, gazing at it with a pair of crimson eyes that showed a glint of mockery.

    Angor¡¯s Hand of Spell reached the owl and pulled it down to the ground before it could run.

    He listened to the owl¡¯s panicked yelp and showed a cruel look. ¡°I know you can understand human speech. Tell me where you came from and who your master is. Or I¡¯ll just kill you and go find out the answers myself.¡±

    The farming servant from earlier heard the ruckus and thought the ¡°Watcher¡± came and disposed of the young visitor. But when he didn¡¯t hear anyone screaming in a long time, he took a peek and was terrified to see that the visitor was somehow holding the powerful Watcher in his hand.

    He didn¡¯t see Angor ¡°holding¡± the owl. It was as if the bird was shackled by something in the air he couldn¡¯t see.

    The servant knew the situation was definitely not something he could meddle with, so he lowered his stance to hide in the wheat field better.

    ¡°It¡¯s repeating ¡®death to the intruder¡¯ and nothing else?¡± Angor looked at Toby, who was working as his trantor. ¡°I have no other choice then.¡±

    He used a Nightmare Fear to put the owl intoplete disarray before he walked toward the manor building. Despite his words earlier, he didn¡¯t n to kill the owl for real yet. At least not now.

    The castle-like manor was well in his view when he moved past the cultivated fields. Apart from the strange aura in the air, which was still troubling his sensations, nothing changed much in the ce.

    There was another level of protective fence outside the castle building. Angor walked to it and saw more servants moving back and forth, including someone he recognized, such as Auri, who used to take care of his daily necessaries.

    It seemed Auri was going to tend to the tea garden at this hour. Since the tea garden was somewhere near the farming area, she needed to walk through the inner gate protecting the castle. This was when she saw someone standing there.

    She didn¡¯t recognize Angor¡¯s taller image at first, but as she moved closer, her old memories quickly came back.

    For a moment, she remained silent and wasn¡¯t sure whether she should call that name, as if doing so would wake her up from the sweet dream she was witnessing.

    ¡°Are you...¡± After waiting for a long time, she finally decided to say something.

    ¡°How are you, Auri?¡± Angor showed a big smile to her. ¡°Why is your face still swollen?¡±

    Auri teared up upon hearing the familiar speech she used to hear a lot four years ago. ¡°How many times do I have to tell you this, young master? I just have round cheeks. This is not swelling!¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t look much different to me.¡± Angor shrugged.

    More servants heard their conversation and looked their way as they all showed simr excitement when they saw who hade.

    The gathering crowd soon attracted another figure, Head Maid Mana, who also approached Angor while covering her mouth in disbelief.

    Mana wished to present her warm greeting to Angor as well, but before she could do so, she saw two birds above them¡ªa small gray bird and a fat owl caught in the first bird¡¯s talons.

    ¡°Quickly, go and summon the viscount here. Tell him Master Angor has returned!¡± Mana ordered one of the bystanders before she stepped up. ¡°Master An¡ª¡±

    Angor pushed her away forcefully.

    As soon as he did, the other servants nearby screamed in horror when they heard the sharp sound of something shing past the air.

    Auri quickly went to Mana and helped her up. There was a small crater right beside Mana¡¯s feet as if something just dug a hole in the ground.

    ¡°Chief Mana! I-I think Master Angor is fighting the Watcher,¡± Auri exined in a trembling voice.

    The owl, which had been hypnotized by Angor¡¯s cantrip, somehow woke up with apletely different look than before. Its feathers were now shiny and golden, and they grew sharper like knives.

    Angor avoided several feather attacks by sidestepping.

    The owl suddenly unleashed arger swarm of golden feathers at Angor, which sessfully found their mark this time. But instead of leaving some bloody marks on Angor¡¯s body, the feathers slowly fell to the ground as Angor¡¯s ¡°body¡± vanished from view.

    ¡°You just took control of the creature, right? Who are you?¡±

    The owl heard Angor¡¯s voiceing from directly behind it and quickly jerked its head 180-degree. When it saw Angor floating right next to it, it spat a stream of fire at Angor.

    Again, the attack only hit an illusion.

    The owl repeated several more fruitless attacks and slowly grew irritated, which caused it to chase after Angor¡¯s illusions more madly.

    Meanwhile, Angor quietly left the dangerous area and moved to Mana¡¯s side.

    ¡°What-what¡¯s going on with the Watcher, Master Angor?¡± Mana saw Angoring to her and asked.

    ¡°Just a small trick. Who¡¯s that thing? Are my brother and my teacher alright?¡±

    ¡°Your brother¡¯s fine. I already asked someone to get him. As for Mister Jon... I don¡¯t know. I never saw him again ever since you put him in an ice coffin. As for the Watcher, I can¡¯t tell you either. Please ask Viscount Leon when hees. He can exin better than any of us.¡±

    The rampaging owl suddenly stopped moving as someone¡¯s cold voice was heard from its position.

    ¡°Illusions, huh? Who are you?¡±

    Angor quickly looked at the creature again and noticed that the owl could now see through the illusions he deployed.

 Chapter 830 - The Bloodied Stabber

    <h4>Chapter 830: The Bloodied Stabber</h4>

    ¡°Who are you?¡±

    It appeared to be a simple question in the views of other people, but to Angor, the voice was apanied by a powerful aura that kept him in ce.

    The power felt like a sharp de that cut through time and distance. It had only one intention, which was to pierce his brain. It felt different than any of the other ones he ever encountered before.

    ¡°A Bloodline wizard...¡± Angor muttered under his breath as cold sweat came off his forehead.

    There was no way that an apprentice could exert this kind of aura that put so much pressure on him. He was dealing with a wizard who studied Bloodline Art.

    <i>But why would such a wizard show up at Padt Manor?</i>

    ¡°Who sent you here?¡± the owl ¡°asked¡± again.

    Angor lost bnce and stumbled back, and Mana quickly went to assist him.

    ¡°That should be my question.¡± Angor returned his gaze at the owl.

    ¡°You¡¯re in no ce to question someone who¡¯s many levels stronger. If you won¡¯t answer me, then I¡¯ll just end the displeasure by removing you from existence.¡±

    Countless golden feathers appeared around the owl and took aim at Angor¡¯s vital points.

    Angor found it almost impossible to move under the aura pressure.

    His lips moved as if trying to say something, but before the owl could figure out his speech, Angor¡¯s body suddenly vanished.

    ¡°That¡¯s... the sequence power of a naturalw?¡± The strange voice sounded surprised.

    A figure wearing a ck cape suddenly appeared behind the owl.

    What Angor ¡°said¡± just now was Spirit Mantra. He knew the aura pressure only meant to suppress his body. When in his soul form, he no longer felt any restriction.

    After telling Toby to carry his body away, Angor prepared a gravity attack and mmed it at the owl as hard as he could.

    It seemed the owl itself wasn¡¯t anything too powerful. The gravity shock easily bashed it into the dirt below.

    ¡°Interesting...¡± The strange voice came again despite Angor¡¯s sessful move. ¡°An apprentice who can use gravity to his advantage. You came from Gravity Forest?¡±

    Angor suddenly felt another aura emerging right behind his back. Startled, he maximized his gravity power and dashed away.

    There was now a woman with an attractive body shape floating at his original position, who was obviously the source of the powerful pressure.

    The woman raised a hand as the injured owl slowlynded on it with a sad look. Next, the owl ¡°handed¡± a pile of broken shards to the woman using its wings.

    ¡°You broke Brulee¡¯s monocle ss?¡± The woman rubbed the owl¡¯s head as sheforted it, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll tell Red to bring you another one from Fey Continent. As for your enemy... I¡¯ll kill him in a moment.¡±

    The owl nodded in contentment.

    The woman slowly looked at Angor again. ¡°An elite apprentice sent by Gravity Forest, I assume? Great talent at such a young age. Pity, you¡¯re going to die today.¡±

    She then lifted a slim finger and pointed at Angor.

    Apart from the overwhelming aura, Angor also saw a blood-red beaming at him this time. However, the beam wasn¡¯t faster than his reflexes yet. Another small gravity boost was all he needed to get out of the way.

    The beamnded on a mountain in the distance and ttened the entire tip of it.

    ¡°My aura doesn¡¯t work on you?¡± The woman narrowed her eyes. ¡°Oh... I see. A soul. You know how to cast Soul Coupling? And that soul looks so solid. Are you a Soul Maniptor apprentice?¡± She didn¡¯t wait for Angor¡¯s answer and kept speaking, ¡°No matter. I¡¯ll just destroy your body then. Now, where are you hiding?¡±

    She cast a detection spell around her and smiled. ¡°Got you.¡±

    She unleashed another red beam at the crown of a tree, where Toby had been keeping Angor¡¯s body safe.

    She thought she had Angor this time, which didn¡¯t happen.

    ¡°Gravity power? Again?¡± The woman looked at the pile of ash, which was originally the tree she was aiming at. She didn¡¯t see Angor¡¯s body there. Instead, she sensed simr gravity powering from that position.

    Following the trail of the power, she looked around and saw Angor no longer being in soul form. Also, there was an insignificant-looking bird hovering beside Angor.

    ¡°A bird can use the sequence of gravity?¡± The woman stopped her attacks to carefully inspect Angor again. She believed that the gray bird was Angor¡¯s familiar. But she never heard of such an oddbination before.

    By now, she no longer believed that she was dealing with someone from Gravity Forest. The low-leveled Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Gravity Forest could probably transfer the sequence of gravity to an apprentice or two, but not to such a level.

    <i>Did someone build another Gravity Garden while I was away?</i> she thought.

    ¡°You¡¯re not with Gravity Forest. Who are you exactly?¡±

    Angor already made ns to escape. He didn¡¯t do so yet because he just sensed something strange in the woman.

    She wasn¡¯t using her spirit power at all.

    By using one¡¯s spirit power, they could easily notice Angor¡¯s condition ande up with effective attacks ordingly. But this woman only figured out that Angor ejected his soul after failing her attack.

    Angor took a guess that the woman couldn¡¯t unleash the full power of a wizard to slow him down for some reason, so he was confident that he could get away from danger in time.

    ¡°Still not willing to talk?¡± The woman¡¯s expression grew dangerously threatening. ¡°Let¡¯s try something else then.¡±

    ¡°Professor Eureka! No!¡± A man¡¯s voice called from afar, along with the sound of a galloping horse.

    The woman lowered her hand and looked that way, while Angor trembled a little upon hearing the familiar voice of his brother.

    Leon, wearing his full knight armor, arrived at the scene, removed his helmet, and went down on one knee. ¡°Lady Eureka, please, don¡¯t do this.¡±

    Angor sighed in great relief. The second reason he didn¡¯t escape from the fight yet was that there were people he wanted to protect, such as Leon.

    ¡°I ordered you to keep observing the ice coffin, Leon. What are you doing out here?¡± Eureka scolded.

    ¡°I¡¯ll ept any punishment I deserve for breaking your order, Lady Eureka. But please let him go!¡± Leon gave Angor a passionate look but held back his urge to talk to Angor in front of Eureka.

    ¡°You know him?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s Angor, my young brother. I told you about him before.¡±

    ¡°Angor? I see... He went to the White Coral Floating Ind Academy, no?¡±

    Leon nodded, much to Eureka¡¯s confusion.

    Last time she heard, the White Coral Floating Ind Academy wasn¡¯t much better a cepared to Gravity Forest. How did they teach someone the sequence of gravity, who could also summon a bird with the same type of ability?

    ording to Leon, Angor left the Old Earth four years ago. But as far as Eureka could see, the apprentice in front of her had reached the middle phase of level-3. A mid-tier organization had no hope of promoting an apprentice so fast even if they used all funds and resources they had.

    ¡°You¡¯re Leon¡¯s brother, Angor?¡± Eureka looked at Angor in the eyes.

    ¡°Yes, I am, ¡®Bloodied Stabber¡¯ Miss Eureka.¡±

    Eureka didn¡¯t seem surprised when Angor mentioned her title.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you go and study at the White Coral Academy?¡±

    ¡°No, ma¡¯am. I came from Brute Cavern.¡±

 Chapter 831 - Red-Haired Kins

    <h4>Chapter 831: Red-Haired Kins</h4>

    A giant shadow swept past the bright sky above Devil¡¯s Water.

    It was Swan, who was traveling swiftly using a pair of feather wings that were originally her arms.

    ¡°Miss Swan? Can-can we do this in another way? You can hold me with a rope or something,¡± Helen spoke while sitting on top of Swan¡¯s back, blushing.

    ¡°What, it¡¯s notfy up there? And call me Swan. Don¡¯t let me remind you again.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s nice. Just...¡±

    <i>This is too embarrassing!</i> Helen thought.

    ¡°Quiet now. We have arrived.¡±

    Helen looked below and saw they were flying above a colorful ind full of flowers and simple structures that blended in with nature quite well.

    During her years working on The Limpet, she never went too far inside Summerdew Ridge to see such a sight.

    ¡°Here we are, Summerdew Ridge.¡± Swan slowly descended and gently dropped Helen at the edge of the ind where a small port was built. ¡°I¡¯ll take you to Lady Payne for a talent test in a while. Remember, be polite and obedient to everyone you see on the ind, especially Lady Payne and Miss Summerdew.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡± Helen nodded.

    They soon saw a group of people approaching them, led by a tall woman in an elegant ck dress. She looked rather fierce because her cheeks were full of scars.

    Swan quickly went down on one knee while telling Helen to do the same. ¡°Good afternoon, Lady Payne.¡±

    Payne nced at both of them and nodded. ¡°This is the talent you mentioned?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°I see you like her. You gave her the bottle of Potion of Austere Night you received from Master, didn¡¯t you?¡± Lady Payne¡¯s nose twitched when she sensed the smell of magic potioning from Helen.

    ¡°Helen once saved me. I¡¯m repaying the kindness.¡±

    Payne then turned away and headed to somewhere else at the port while the group of apprentices she brought all followed behind her.

    Swan showed a confused look and dragged an apprentice to her. ¡°What¡¯s going on today? Why is Lady Payne out here?¡±

    ¡°I think the ind is expecting someone important in a moment. Lady Payne asked us all toe and present a good wee.¡±

    ¡°Someone important? Who is it?¡±

    ¡°Dunno. But I heard that it should be a guest from the Valley of Hurricane.¡±

    Swan frowned. There should currently be someone from that ce visiting the ind. Why was there another guest?

    She suddenly felt a gust of wind beside her and quickly saw one additional person who just showed up next to Lady Payne. It seemed the ¡°first guest¡± she just thought about also came.

    Next, everybody saw a small dot in the sky approaching them. It was probably the second guest they were expecting.

    ¡°How time changes people...¡± Lady Payne spoke to the flying woman who justnded in front of her. ¡°You look way more hard-working than before.¡±

    ¡°Lady Payne.¡± The red-haired woman spoke from behind her strange mask, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t say the same. You look exactly the same as a hundred years ago.¡±

    ¡°Heh heh.¡± Payne covered her mouth using a hand fan. ¡°Did you not see this horrible face of mine? I used to look more charming than this, Irisa.¡±

    ¡°I never judge someone by their looks.¡±

    ¡°Tsk. That mask... Are you still acting like a man?¡±

    ¡°Being a man or woman makes no difference to me.¡± Irisa didn¡¯t seem interested in this subject. ¡°Besides, I think you have more than one way to mend those injuries and find your old glory within a day, Lady Payne.¡±

    Payne wanted to offer Irisa a room to stay in, but Irisa rejected it.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need. I have other matters to tend toter. I¡¯m only here to tell something to Red. I¡¯ll be on my way soon.¡±

    Payne looked between Irisa and the other guest on the ind, which was a red-haired man with an unfriendly look.

    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll leave you to your own business.¡±

    Payne then took everyone away so that only Irisa and ¡°Red¡± remained behind.

    ¡°Come with me,¡± the man said as he dragged Irisa into a narrow pocket dimension.

    Irisa didn¡¯t seem bothered when she was inside the strange space full of chaotic elements. She simply found a chair from somewhere and rxed on it by crossing her legs, allowing her white thighs to get fully exposed.

    The man showed an impatient look. ¡°Have you forgotten all the manners you learned before, Irisa? A woman should behave like a woman.¡±

    Irisa rolled her eyes even though no one could see her doing so. ¡°I thought you¡¯d get more open-minded after living with Eureka for some time. Why are you still so stubborn?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not living with Eureka. We¡¯re temporarily working on the same goal, and that is all.¡±

    ¡°And you think I¡¯ll buy it?¡± Irisa scoffed. ¡°You aren¡¯t supposed to adjust your necktie and look around randomly when telling a lie.¡±

    ¡°Say what you will. Whether you believe me or not makes no difference.¡±

    ¡°Actually, I believe part of your rtionship. You like her, but she didn¡¯t know it, right? Don¡¯t deny it. This is why you asked me to help you throw all those fake crowns here and there.¡± Irisa chuckled. ¡°Just think, if people know that THE famous Thewis betrayed Goman King and sided with someone he was tasked to kill, the magazines will create so many stories out of you that they won¡¯t worry about not finding enough materials for their readers until the next year.¡±

    The red-haired man was Thewis, a wizard from the Valley of Hurricane, and Irisa¡¯s older brother.

    The matter Thewis was dealing with was moreplicated than what Irisa surmised. Although he wasn¡¯t going to exin as doing so wouldn¡¯t help with anything.

    ¡°What¡¯s Goman King¡¯s situation right now?¡± asked Thewis.

    Irisa put up a serious look as she exined, ¡°He isn¡¯t doing anything in particr yet. But as you might have guessed, having the Crimson Crown missing has caused countless troubles in the southern wizarding region. I think Goman King is suspicious of you now. He already sent another wizard to the Marginalized Ind. I suggest you take caution.¡±

    Thewis took a moment to think over what he just heard.

    ¡°Who did he send?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that.¡± Irisa shrugged before she moved closer to whisper into Thewis¡¯ ear. ¡°But I know another clue you may need.¡±

    ¡°What clue?¡±

    ¡°I learned this one by ident. It seems the Crimson Crown is enchanted with a magic array called ¡®Bloodline Retrack¡¯. It allows the original owner of the crown to use his blood he left on the crown to tell its location no matter where it is taken to. That¡¯s probably why Goman King can find where Eureka is every time.

    ¡°However, this magic array has a great risk to use, that when the item is damaged or destroyed, the owner of the bloodline will suffer from a powerful backfire. Judging from Goman King¡¯s character, I¡¯d say that he did not use his own bloodline on the crown.¡±

    ¡°What does this mean to us?¡± Thewis frowned.

    ¡°Maybe we cane up with a nice n to divert his attention...¡± Irisa revealed two items in her hands, a Crimson Crown replica and a vial of blood.

    Thewis took the items and checked with a surprised look. ¡°This... is the best duplicate I¡¯ve ever seen. But why are you showing me this?¡±

    ¡°As I said, you want me to pass fake crowns around random people to confuse Goman King, but this is useless because he can always use that magic array to tell where the real crown is.¡±

    ¡°Your point?¡±

    ¡°Now listen, the crown you¡¯re holding is different than the other ones we had before. It has the same ¡®Bloodline Retrack¡¯ effect on it. The bottle I gave you contains the bloodline of a royal member I found in the Goman Kingdom. If Goman King truly used the bloodline of someone close to him to locate the crown, then we might use this to fool him.¡± Irisa suddenly showed a disappointed look. ¡°When I got this crown, I thought about applying a Mystery property to it so that it would look exactly like the real deal. But then I found it impossible to do such a thing.¡±

    Thewis quickly made up a n in his mind.

    ¡°Are you absolutely sure about the magic array you described?¡±

    ¡°I am. The alchemist who helped me isn¡¯t a master yet, but when ites to enchantment alchemy, I can say he¡¯s already better than many masters.¡±

    ¡°Since we now know the secret on the crown, can we do something to erase it?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh goddammit. I forgot to ask!¡±

    Thewis gave Irisa a ¡°really?¡± look and sighed. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll keep these and try something out with them once I get back to the Old Earth. In the meantime, you should return to that alchemist and ask him about that question. Now that I think about it, you rarely spoke so highly of people before. Which alchemist are we talking about?¡±

 Chapter 832 - Family Banquet

    <h4>Chapter 832: Family Banquet</h4>

    ¡°Angor?¡± Thewis repeated the name he just heard with a strange expression.

    ¡°What, you heard about him before?¡± Irisa grew curious. ¡°Yeah, you definitely should. When I left from Fey Continent, everyone was still talking about a high-tier item he just made.¡±

    ¡°He can make high-tier alchemy items?¡±

    ¡°Yes, unless the rumors are wrong. But I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the case because people even got a piece of footage to prove it. I was too busy to check it out though.¡± Irisa shook her head in disappointment. ¡°It¡¯s not easy to find a detailed footage record showing the birth of a high-tier item. I really need to ask for it when I get back.

    ¡°Angor¡¯s such an honest little boy, you know? I did ask him to try his best, but I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d recreate the crown down to everyst detail and went through all the effort to bring back the magic array on it as well.¡±

    She thought about Angor¡¯s irritated look when handing in the crown and couldn¡¯t help smiling.

    Thewis held his chin. ¡°I heard his name recently, when I left the Marginalized Indst time.¡±

    ¡°Someone from the Marginalized Ind knows about Angor?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I found myself a student there. He¡¯s called Leon Padt. He told me about Angor.¡±

    ¡°Leon Padt? Oh, you said something about himst time we talked. A diligent mortal who raised his spirit level above the minimum requirement for an apprentice solely by doing physical training?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s him. Before I came to Summerdew Ridge, he asked my help to look for Angor¡¯s whereabouts.¡±

    ¡°Leon Padt. Wait... Padt? Angor Padt?! They¡¯re family?¡± Irisa eximed in great surprise.

    ¡°This exins why Leon wanted to hear from Angor.¡± Thewis nodded. ¡°But something is off. Leon said Angor was supposed to be training in White Coral Floating Ind Academy. But didn¡¯t you say that Angor is an apprentice of Brute Cavern? And there¡¯s another problem. Leon imed that his brother left the Marginalized Ind four years ago. If we take his travels into consideration, then Angor only had three years to study wizardry. Someone like that can create high-tier alchemy inventions?¡±

    ¡°Anything is possible when God-blessed talent and destinynd on the same person. Not to mention Angor has an excellent teacher.¡± Irisa shrugged again. ¡°Putting his extreme talent aside, I believe he¡¯s very likely to be a true Master Alchemist in the near future. Heh... Angor¡¯s brother is now your student, right? Then we just earned a good chance to approach him. It will be more convenient from now on to ask for his alchemy service.¡±

    Thewis wasn¡¯t sure about this because he had not seen Angor in person yet, and he did not know if Angor was someone who cared about his mortal family.

    But Thewis would keep Angor¡¯s name in mind nevertheless.

    Next, they talked about other businesses happening around the wizarding world, such as the invasion in Abyss ne and the monster disaster in Fairy World.

    Soon, it was nightfall.

    Irisa stood up. ¡°I¡¯m going. A bunch of madmen in Floating Mech City have their eyes on our shop. I can¡¯t leave the old man tending to the shop alone for too long. Crap, I wouldn¡¯t havee all the way here if not to deliver you the fake crown.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for your help.¡± Thewis stroked Irisa¡¯s hair gently and felt his childhood memoriesing back.

    Irisa shook his hand off. ¡°Leave your lovey-lovey stuff to Eureka. I don¡¯t need it.¡±

    ¡°Madmen... Did Goman King send more people to you?¡±

    ¡°No. Goman King hasn¡¯t got the guts to disturb Floating Mech City. I¡¯m talking about some fanatics who believe in the Astute King.¡±

    They left the private dimension, and Irisa prepared to depart.

    ¡°One more thing,¡± Irisa spoke up before leaving, ¡°why are you at Summerdew Ridge in the first ce? Do you perhaps... have a fondness for someone like Basket Witch?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m helping her with something, and nothing more. But whatever she was doing didn¡¯t go well. If nothing bothers meter, I¡¯ll leave this ce very soon.¡±

    ¡°What was she doing? Silver Palm Isle?¡±

    Thewis remained quiet.

    Irisa then gave him an ¡°I got what you mean¡± look and flew away.

    ...

    Grue Town, Padt Manor.

    The entire manor was basked in a joyous mood as the servants celebrated the return of their young master. Many of them, such as Head Maid Mana, had watched Angor grow up since his birth.

    Even though they already had time to talk during the day, Mana still couldn¡¯t help weeping with excitement during their family banquet at night.

    Leon surely didn¡¯t want to interrupt the happy moment, but he had no choice but to ask all the servants to leave because he needed to speak with Angor in private.

    They both had too many things to talk about, yet when it was finally time, they found it difficult to find a topic to start for some reason.

    It was Leon who initiated a conversation after a long, awkward silence. ¡°How have you been all these years?¡±

    Angor recalled his troubled life as an apprentice and felt as if everything were a dream.

    ¡°All is well.¡±

    ¡°Right... Mana just told me that you beat the sh*t out of the Watcher and sparred with Miss Eureka without getting hurt at all. You definitely didn¡¯t idle your time away.¡± Leon looked rather jealous of Angor¡¯s achievement. As the master of his family and the one to protect Angor¡¯s home, he never left Grue Town.

    ¡°I will never waste any time. Mister Jon is waiting for me.¡± Angor gave his brother a bright smile as he admired Leon¡¯s manly features, which had developed in the past years.

    Leon saw Angor¡¯s passionate expression and looked away.

    ¡°Brother, how¡¯s my teacher doing? I¡¯ve always wanted to ask.¡± Angor didn¡¯t feel reassured about Jon¡¯s condition yet, but because Eureka had been in his home for some time, he just couldn¡¯t find a chance to ask earlier today.

    ¡°Man... you spoke of him the moment you returned to us instead of caring for your good-o¡¯ brother? I see. Jon¡¯s more important to you.¡± Leon pretended that Angor hurt his feelings.

    Angor sighed. ¡°Come on. I can see with my eyes that you¡¯ve been good and healthy. Can you tell me about Jon now?¡±

    ¡°How about you share some of your stories first? I¡¯m curious to know. Didn¡¯t you go to an academy? What¡¯s this ¡®Brute Cavern¡¯ ce?¡± Leon picked up a wine ss and hid his face behind it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do this, brother. I¡¯m not leaving home any time soon, so we have ample time to talk about meter. I need to know what¡¯s happening to Jon, right now. Is-is he dead?¡± Angor failed to contain his anxiety this time as his voice trembled.

    Leon downed his ss of liquor with a grim look.

    ¡°Today¡¯s supposed to be merry, so I¡¯m nning to mention this to youter.¡± Leon shook his head. ¡°But since you asked... Jon is alive. But he¡¯s not doing well.¡±

    Angor quickly stood up from his seat. ¡°As long as he¡¯s breathing, I can help him! I already ascertained his illness. I can save him.¡±

    ¡°Sit down. No need to make haste yet. Do you know that he came from another world and that the ¡®consciousness¡¯ of our world wanted him gone?¡±

    ¡°Mister Jon never kept his origin a secret, brother. We both know it.¡±

    ¡°I always thought he was lying, and that the ce called ¡®Earth¡¯ was made-up. But it was all real.¡±

    ¡°Miss Eureka told you this?¡±

    Leon nodded.

    ¡°Sheriff George told me that Padt Manor was sealed off three years ago. Was that when Miss Eureka came? And did she... stay here because of Jon?¡±

    Leon saw Angor getting aggressive against Eureka and couldn¡¯t help getting worried. ¡°At first, Miss Eureka came because she found our Morning Dew. But when she found out about Jon, she wanted to do some research¡ª¡±

    ¡°Research? Yeah, right. Heh. What did she find out?¡±

    ¡°Nothing. Despite her intention, she has note up with any result regarding Jon yet. The truth is, she said she had another reason that mainly kept her here, and Jon wasn¡¯t important to her. But she didn¡¯t tell me what she truly wanted yet.¡±

    ¡°Likely story.¡± Angor disagreed. He knew what it meant in this world to find a human who came from an unknown world. There was no wizard who would let such a discovery slip.

    ¡°Trust me, Angor. Miss Eureka didn¡¯t do anything to harm Jon. At least I never saw her doing so. On the contrary, it is partially Miss Eureka¡¯s aid that kept Jon alive.¡±

 Chapter 833 - Ice Chamber

    <h4>Chapter 833: Ice Chamber</h4>

    ¡°Jon was only half step away from death when he was ced in the ice coffin. The spell slowed down the corruption but did not stop it. Miss Eureka has been using something to sustain his life. But if you open the coffin now, Jon will die immediately.¡±

    ¡°Who knows? Perhaps even without her help, Jon can still make it until Ie back,¡± Angor disagreed.

    ¡°Sigh, perhaps. Yet we can¡¯t make sure. What happened has happened, let¡¯s not focus on something that doesn¡¯t help us. You said that you know how to cure Jon¡¯s condition, didn¡¯t you? Let¡¯s go to him once we finish the meal.¡±

    Even though the house servants prepared a full table of luxurious dishes, Angor and Leon had their food somewhat awkwardly.

    ¡°What does Miss Eureka say about Jon?¡± Angor broke the silence first. He didn¡¯t like Eureka, but he would like to know what a wizard had to say about Jon¡¯s condition.

    ¡°Both Miss Eureka and my teacher were very curious when they discovered Jon, as if they found a hidden gem in the sand. But their passion for research cooled off a whileter. I guess this is because all the time they spent did not grant them any useful results.

    ¡°As time went by, Jon¡¯s lingering health made it impossible for them to conduct their research. My teacher once mentioned looking for a way to prolong Jon¡¯s life, but he didn¡¯t seed.

    ¡°These days, neither of them would go to Jon. Miss Eureka only asked me to keep an eye on some data. Nothing else.¡±

    What Leon said just told Angor that Leon didn¡¯t know Jon¡¯s true value in this world, which meant Leon based his opinions solely on what he saw from Eureka. And since Eureka did notmit any bad deeds in these years, Leon sided with her.

    ¡°What did Miss Eureka say exactly about Jon¡¯s health?¡±

    ¡°Not good. ¡®Almost hopeless¡¯, as she said. She tried her best, but all she could do was to stall Jon¡¯s fall just a little bit.¡±

    Angor nodded with a grim look. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t believe Leon¡¯s words. In his view, Eureka did offer her assistance. This much was true.

    After all, a test subject was better alive than dead.

    But... if a wizard like her failed topletely rescue Jon, then was that ¡°Inscription Card¡± going to work?

    Angor decided to put this matter forter so that he could see Jon with his own eyes before making further ns.

    ¡°Who¡¯s your professor, by the way?¡± Angor gave his brother a suspicious look. ¡°You mentioned two people, right?¡±

    ¡°Oh... I tend to call him as teacher. He has never epted this, but neither did he forbid me from calling him like that. He taught me a training drill, so I just consider him as my teacher from that day onward. I don¡¯t know his real name, but I think Miss Eureka usually calls him ¡®Red¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Red?¡±

    ¡°Guess it¡¯s a nickname. He has red hair. Looks very bright in the sunlight. You¡¯ll notice him from far away the moment you see him.¡±

    The description reminded Angor of Red-Haired Thewis. In fact, when he was making Ocean Tuner several months ago, the ¡°hot-looking mermen¡± he ced in the illusion were based on the handsome pictures he received from Lady Mirror, and one of the men was Thewis.

    Of course, he did not directly copy Thewis¡¯ image in the illusion. He made many tunes and tweaks and gave the ¡°Merman Thewis¡± different hair color and facial features. But those who knew Thewis well would still find traces of resemnce if they were to see the illusion up close.

    Now that he thought about it, Greya mentioned Thewis being at the Old Earth before.

    Angor knuckled the dining table, and the tapping sound he created weaved the illusion of a red-haired man.

    ck, golden-striped overcoat, brown boots, and a cruel expression... These were what he remembered of Red-Haired Thewis from when he saw this man four years ago when boarding The Redbud.

    ¡°Is this man your teacher?¡±

    Leon was dumbstruck when he saw the life-like image. He thought his teacher suddenly came back until Angor exined what was going on.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s him. You know him, Angor? And back at the gate, I saw you mentioning Miss Eureka¡¯s title. You know her as well?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer as he was surprised by his sessful guess. There was not one, but two wizards at Padt Manor! What was more, it seemed Eureka and Thewis were working together.

    As Angor remembered, Lady Mirror, Greya, and Sunders all told him that Thewis traveled to the Marginalized Ind to hunt Eureka down because Eureka stole the Crimson Crown from Goman King.

    But the truth turned out reversed!

    When he thought about the crown, he immediately recalled another name, which was ¡°Crimson Mask¡± Irisa, who asked him to craft a fake crown. He already decided to forget about this deal because Sunders warned him not to get involved in it. Yet he couldn¡¯t help but get worried that Irisa was also Eureka¡¯s helper.

    He knew something big was going on, which revolved around the Crimson Crown, and he kept hearing about this matter despite his effort.

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t know them. I heard their names from other people.¡± Angor quickly tried to skim himself off these people. Only God knew whether Eureka was listening in.

    Leon didn¡¯t seem convinced and asked several more questions, hoping to learn more about his ¡°teacher¡±, but Angor simply insisted that he knew nothing about Thewis, which was almost the truth.

    ¡°What kind of training did he give you?¡± Angor asked as he tried to divert the subject. ¡°And why would he teach you stuff in the first ce?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s ¡®blood cultivation¡¯ that strengthens my body. My teacher also said that it could increase my spirit level. I... pleaded with him that I wanted to grow stronger, and he eventually agreed.¡± Leon flinched when he thought about the terrible experience when undergoing the blood cultivation. It was an extremely painful method during which he felt as if his body were being smashed to bits before being put back together again.

    ording to Thewis, sessfully enduring the pain would help him train his mental resistance. Otherwise, only death awaited.

    Fortunately, Leon made it through alive. However, he did not mention the brutality of the training since it would only unsettle Angor.

    ¡°Your spirit level increased?¡± Angor was more interested in this part. ¡°You¡¯re a talent now?¡±

    ¡°Yup!¡± Leon looked proud. ¡°My teacher didn¡¯t give me a spirit level test again, but he seemed satisfied.¡±

    Angor wished to take out his Talent Sphere to check on Leon, but he then decided not to. It seemed Thewis did consider Leon as his student. It was not proper for him to interfere with Leon¡¯s study right now.

    Previously, Angor nned to use the Potion of Austere Night to boost Leon¡¯s spirit level above 8 so that he could take Jon to Brute Cavern as a new recruit. But... he came a bit toote.

    After finishing their meal while talking about other insignificant stories, Leon took Angor to the ¡°Ice Chamber¡± located in the backyard of the manor, where Jon¡¯s body was kept.

    ¡°Did you tell Miss Eureka anything about Jon¡¯s home, Earth?¡± Angor asked a question on their way.

    ¡°No. She never asked, and I didn¡¯t bring that up.¡±

    They soon arrived at a narrow entrance, and Angor quickly recognized the familiar ce he used to explore.

    ¡°Of course you know where this is, right?¡± Leon chuckled. ¡°When you were little, Jon used to tell you that it¡¯s a ghost cave to scare you. Man, I still remember when you first set your foot here on trembling legs.¡±

    This was originally an icy cer built by Jon, to preserve certain products such as iced milk. Jon told Angor many ghost stories so that the little kid wouldn¡¯t always slip inside for extra snacks.

    It was when Angor reached the age of 13 did he learn the ¡°secret¡± of the storage, by which time Jon¡¯s body was already failing.

    And now, the cer had been modified into a bigger ce to keep Jon¡¯s ¡°coffin¡±.

    Angor was a bit surprised when he saw the door of the chamber left open. Someone was already inside ahead of them.

    Eureka.

 Chapter 834 - Jonâ€™s Condition

    <h4>Chapter 834: Jon¡¯s Condition</h4>

    Eureka¡¯s long, ck skirt gave her a solemn look in the chamber full of icy, misty air. She was quietly looking at the transparent coffin in front of her.

    ¡°Miss Eureka.¡± Both Angor and Leon bowed their heads.

    <i>Didn¡¯t Leon just say that Eureka hasn¡¯t beening here in a long time?</i> Angor wondered without showing his suspicion.

    <i>Or is she expecting me?</i>

    ¡°Come in,¡± Eureka said without looking back.

    Angor decided to ignore his other concerns for the moment and fully focused on the ice coffin in the room.

    Even though he expected to see Jon in a bad condition, he was still shocked by what he witnessed. Leon wasn¡¯t lying at all when speaking of Jon¡¯s ¡°hopelessness¡±.

    Jon already looked skinny four years ago. But now... his outer husk did not look like human skin at all. It was almost useless to make Jon appear any less skeleton-like.

    Anyone who saw the coffin right now would probably agree that it was someone¡¯s corpse inside.

    There was a tube connected to Jon¡¯s heart, where the other end of it ended at a filtering sk that contained twoyers of separated liquid. The bottom of the sk had ck fluid, which took up about 80% of the container, and there was some green fluid on top of it.

    ¡°This is ¡®Vitalizer¡¯,¡± said Eureka. ¡°When the green liquid you see fully turns into its ck counterpart, which is tainted Vitalizer, the man in the ice coffin will have hisst bit of life wither away, with no way of saving him.¡±

    ¡°Xien¡¯s Vitalizer?¡± Angor looked at her.

    ¡°Huh... you know about this too?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a very precious material that contains the primal energy of the Xien ne.¡±

    ¡°I see you¡¯ve read your books.¡± Eureka gave Angor a thoughtful nce. ¡°As you see, the Vitalizer is what helped this man cling to this world.¡±

    There was no way Leon could find any Vitalizer liquid, so it must be Eureka who provided it. It was obvious that Eureka meant to tell Angor that Jon stayed alive all thanks to her help.

    Angor silently scoffed in his mind.

    ¡°The proper way of using Vitalizer is ¡®Triple-Knitted Culturing¡¯. We use this method to produce the Vitalizer solution with the proper density in order to minimize its side-effect. But you used such a radical way because there is a giant hole in Mister Jon¡¯s heart.¡±

    Angor easily saw that Eureka was misleading an important fact by implying that cutting Jon¡¯s heart open was necessary, which was not the case.

    Eureka didn¡¯t seem troubled at all when her n was found out. ¡°Since you know Triple-Knitted Culturing, this means you¡¯re not aplete amateur when ites to alchemy?¡±

    ¡°To save Jon¡¯s life, of course I need all the knowledge I can find,¡± Angor replied as he moved ahead to scan Jon with his spirit power.

    Eureka didn¡¯t stop him from doing so. While Angor worked, she would asionally ask random questions to specte Angor¡¯s information. However, Angor simply dodged all the inquiries while perfectly maintaining his manners.

    Eureka slowly lost patience as she put on a colder look. ¡°You know I¡¯m the ¡®Bloodied Stabber¡¯, which means you know what I¡¯m doing at the Marginalized Ind as well.¡±

    Angor was already regretting his reckless words earlier today, but he could not undo it now.

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°Then you should also know that I won¡¯t mind having an extra hunter after me, after being wanted by Goman King for so many years. And no, even THE Mister Phantom won¡¯t make a difference.¡±

    This was a threat, both Angor and Leon could see it.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t press on and finish you off today because I know this is your home. And that I don¡¯t want to offend Sunders without a good reason. But if you keep acting like an arrogant little snob, then I¡¯ll just get rid of you. No one will me me for that.¡±

    ¡°Miss Eureka, I wasn¡¯t in the right mind when seeing my teacher in such a state. Hope you can forgive me.¡± Angor decided to take a step down since he couldn¡¯t oppose Eureka for real.

    ¡°Leon told me that you and Jon always stuck together when you were young. Is this true?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°Jon was my mentor of life before I left to study wizardry.¡±

    ¡°Do you know where he¡¯s from?¡±

    ¡°The ¡®Earth¡¯. Jon once told me that he came from a fantastic ce called Earth, a foreign ne with amazing machinery technologies.¡±

    Even though Leon imed that he never told Eureka about Earth, a wizard like Eureka always had other workarounds to learn what she wanted. Angor believed that Eureka already knew about Earth by now, so he¡¯d be careful not to annoy her by telling lies.

    Besides, Leon never asked Jon too many questions about Earth before, which meant Eureka only found out minimal information about Earth.

    There were countless foreign nes out there¡ªEureka would probably see Jon as a traveler from an uncharted ne and nothing else.

    ¡°Machines... I¡¯ve heard about simr ces, such as the Grand ne, famous for their machine puppets.¡± Eureka pretended that she was finding random things to talk about. ¡°Is this Earth ce the same?¡±

    ¡°Compared to the Grand ne, I¡¯d say the Earth resembles the nation of Evory. ording to Jon, there are trains made from metal, buildings that could reach the clouds, cities built upon concrete and steel... It has most elements you can find at Evory.¡±

    Eureka carefully observed Angor¡¯s expression and found no trace of lying. What Angor said also went well with what she read from Leon¡¯s mind.

    Of course, Angor wouldn¡¯t mention more ¡°advanced¡± knowledge he learned about the Earth such as the parallel universe, physical constants, and important scientific discoveries he read before. He didn¡¯t believe Eureka had a chance to find such information.

    While they talked, Angor had finished examining Jon. Not surprisingly, Jon was in a VERY dangerous situation, most of which was caused by the corruption brought by the world¡¯s consciousness. The consciousness had left manyplications in Jon¡¯s body that seriously damaged his vitals. Even without the corruption, Jon wouldn¡¯t have very long to live.

    ¡°Is there something I can do now, Miss Eureka?¡± Angor felt his mind overwhelmed by despair.

    Eureka was d to see Angor being ¡°obedient¡±, so she answered this one without a problem. ¡°Both his body and his spirit are at their limits. His condition has been somehow ced into a delicate bnce by the corruption and the effect of the Vitalizer. Even the smallest disturbance will break the bnce and kill him immediately. I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s beyond us now.¡±

    ¡°How long does he have if we leave him like this, Miss Eureka?¡±

    ¡°Half a year, at most, on condition that we keep this ice coffin intact.¡±

    Angor took a deep breath and took out a small card from his bracelet. ¡°Will this help him?¡±

    Eureka widened her eyes just a little. ¡°This is Inscription... Where did you find such a thing when it¡¯s strictly forbidden by the Supreme Cult? No, wait, this is not ordinary Inscription.¡± Eureka scanned Angor¡¯s card using her spirit feeler. ¡°It¡¯s Abyssal Inscription, created by the Vulgar Sage?

    ¡°It¡¯s a weaker copy that only reduces the corruption effect by half. This can give Jon about 20 more years in normal circumstances, but as of now... 2 years, I¡¯d say, and we must know how to keep the bnced state I mentioned. I don¡¯t see how you can apply this card to him without breaking that bnce, as it will add a different source of power onto his body.¡±

    ¡°Can we make this work if we increase the effect of the Vitalizer at the same time?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s... one¡¯s way to do it. But very difficult. One other problem is that the Vitalizer is very costly. I got this sk of it by paying all the money I could find before leaving Fey Continent. And even if you have the money, you won¡¯t find anyone selling it easily.¡±

    Angor took out a bottle of green liquid from his bracelet. ¡°I have more here.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what?¡± Eureka stared at the bottle with an uncertain look.

    <i>Did something happen at Fey Continent that made the Vitalizer so cheap? Apprentices can afford it now? I spent 10,000 crystals when buying mine!</i>

    She checked again and ascertained that what Angor provided was pure, genuine Vitalizer, and she suddenly grew a lot more curious about Angor himself.

    ¡°Where did you find this?¡±

    ¡°I purchased it from someone.¡±

    ¡°You can afford something so expensive?¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    Eureka knew Angor wasn¡¯t mocking her, but she still felt bad when Angor spoke of the precious liquid like talking about everyday goods.

    ¡°Are you sure you want to use this just to give Jon another two years to live?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have a choice, do I?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯ll still die after two years, you know. And when that happens, even Vitalizer won¡¯t help.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll think of something in the meantime. I WILL get him back.¡±

    Angor felt great hopelessness discouraging his actions, but he had notpletely discarded all hope yet. He could not.

 Chapter 835 - Procedure

    <h4>Chapter 835: Procedure</h4>

    After Eureka left the ice room, Leon went to Angor with a totally confused look as he had no idea what the ¡°Vitalizer¡± and Angor¡¯s ¡°Inscription card¡± were. Eureka allowed him to take care of Jon¡¯s coffin in the past years, but she never told him anything else.

    Even so, Leon wasn¡¯t going to ask something he couldn¡¯t understand.

    ¡°Angor, you have something to revive Jon?¡±

    ¡°No. It can only prolong his life for some time. I need to find other methods to save him for real.¡±

    ¡°Do you have a clue yet?¡±

    ¡°No...¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°But I¡¯m sure there is something. Wizards always have countless amazing tricks for various purposes.¡±

    ¡°Best of luck then.¡± Leon put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°I¡¯ll stay here in the next few days to work on how to achieve the Triple-Knitted method on Jon. I was tasked to recruit new talents before I came here, and there is such a talent currently staying at George¡¯s. Go to him and find him lodging. You can either bring him back to the manor or find an inn in the town.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it in a minute.¡± Leon nodded.

    When left alone, Angor took out his draft papers and began inspecting Jon¡¯s overall condition using his spirit power again. There was a ton of data he needed to record in order to figure out how to properly use Vitalizer liquid and the Inscription card to maintain Jon¡¯s bnced state.

    ording to Eureka, if he were to use the card on Jon and provoke the corruption into tainting Jon faster, he would have to know how to improve Jon¡¯s vitality as well as the amount of Vitalizer to be used.

    Calcting the liquid amount wasn¡¯t hard since he had his tablet for help. As for mending Jon¡¯s body... this was quite troublesome when Jon was already in his worst shape. Angor had to use harmless methods to slowly tend to Jon¡¯s every organ while keeping up with the speed of corruption.

    As Angor fully focused on the immeasurableputation, Eureka had retreated to a wooden stilt house at the southeast of the manor. The house was built along the slope of a small hill, supported by several sturdy stilts that perfectly kept most the structure suspended in midair.

    It was Jon who designed this house himself. After he was sent to the ice room, however, Eureka chose to use this ce as her temporary lodging.

    ¡°Leon¡¯s little brother, huh?¡± She looked toward the direction of the ice room while smiling. ¡°Isn¡¯t he an interesting boy. Right, Brulee?¡±

    An owlnded on the windowsill nearby and folded its wings.

    ¡°He saw me through back there. He knows I¡¯m not going to catch up with his speed when he can use gravity power, so he tried my limits on purpose.¡± Eureka stroked the owl¡¯s plume gently. ¡°And that familiar of his... You¡¯re both birds, Brulee. Why do you look so weakpared to that one?¡±

    The owl hooted loudly to protest.

    ¡°Alright, alright! You¡¯re different.¡±

    The owl kept ¡°speaking¡± while pointing its short wing at one of its eyes.

    ¡°Your eyess? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll get to it.¡±

    Previously, Eureka was going to ask Thewis to bring another monocle for the owl, but she changed her mind when she noticed Angor¡¯s wealth.

    ¡°He has a space storage in that bracelet. Ordinary apprentices can¡¯t afford something like that.¡±

    She heard footsteps and saw Leoning to her.

    ¡°You have something to say so soon?¡± She didn¡¯t seem surprised by Leon¡¯s visit.

    ¡°Miss Eureka.¡± Leon bowed down. ¡°Can you tell me what you and Angor were talking about? What¡¯s so special about Jon?¡±

    Leon knew there was something very important he had been missing out. From what he saw before, Eureka wasn¡¯t interested in Jon at all, and she never visited the ice room in many years.

    Eureka flipped a strand of hair behind her ear. ¡°You¡¯ll naturally know once you go to the world of wizards. But I guess it doesn¡¯t hurt to tell you now. First, you should know about the origin of humans...¡±

    Leon listened to Eureka¡¯s exnation as his eyes went wider and wider.

    He thought Jon was only a traveling wanderer who was forced away from home, but ording to Eureka, Jon was a human exception who would break down many existing knowledge systems and conventions in this world!

    Leon finally realized why Angor looked so ¡°obsessed¡± during dinner. He would do the same if he had known that someone so important fell into the hands of other powerful wizards.

    ¡°Miss Eureka, could Jon be the child of someone who traveled to another world, and when he came back, he¡¯s considered an ¡®intruder¡¯ of our world?¡±

    ¡°No. Human bloodline is always recognized here, no matter how far they or their ancestors go. Jon doesn¡¯t belong to this world, I¡¯m sure of it. He¡¯s a human who originated from somewhere unknown.

    ¡°Now leave, if that¡¯s all you have to ask.¡± Eureka stretched her arms. ¡°I need a good rest after that fight.¡±

    Leon considered and asked one final question, ¡°What¡¯s your stance regarding Jon, ma¡¯am?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re asking because you want to tell Angor about itter?¡±

    Leon admitted by staying silent.

    ¡°No matter. I can tell you. But Angor probably won¡¯t believe my answer. While it¡¯s true that I want to try out many experiments on Jon, I currently have too many important matters to handle. Besides, Jon isn¡¯t very valuable to me because he¡¯s going to die soon. However... I can¡¯t say the same about Red.¡±

    She was referring to Red-Haired Thewis, Leon¡¯s teacher, or at least Leon saw Thewis as his teacher.

    ¡°But... my professor doesn¡¯t check out Jon that often like you.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean he¡¯s not curious. And trust me, Thewis won¡¯t mind whether he¡¯s working on someone alive or dead.¡±

    Leon then left the stilt house in a grim mood. He just realized that Angor¡¯s biggest rival wasn¡¯t Eureka. It was his teacher.

    ...

    One weekter, Angor stepped out of the ice room and went to Jon¡¯s old house in which he spent most of his teenage years.

    Only the memories remained. Nothing was the same anymore.

    He arrived and saw Eureka being all sleepy for some reason, which further confirmed his previous spection, that Eureka¡¯s spirit was not in the right state. Wizards usually didn¡¯t need to sleep at all.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to say it.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± Eureka rubbed her eyes while gazing at Angor with azy look.

    ¡°I have all the data we need,¡± Angor said as he handed a pile of papers to Eureka.

    ¡°You... what?¡± Eureka wondered if she had slept through an entire month instead of a few days.

    Telling from how fast apprentices usually do their studies, Eureka expected Angor to give her an initial result in two months or so, or maybe quicker. But a week?

    Naturally, she knew nothing about Angor¡¯s superior arithmetic capacity made possible by his ¡°mind overdrive¡±, then enhanced by the hologram tablet.

    The forms and digits were extremelyplicated. However, Eureka only needed a bit of mental tryout to know that everything was sound.

    ¡°Who are you, really?¡± She gave Angor an inquiring stare. ¡°Are you Leon¡¯s brother for real?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s one and only.¡±

    ¡°Then why is Leon so dumbpared to you? Did everything he ate grow on his muscles?¡±

    Angor tried to keep his poker face.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Eureka returned the papers to Angor. ¡°I know you want to hurry. I¡¯ll help you keep the bnce during the procedure. I prefer that Jon stays alive as well.¡±

    Angor simply turned away and headed to the ice room first without saying another word.

    As Eureka mentioned, he had to treat Jon as fast as possible. Every second wasted away would potentially weaken the oue of their attempt, until even ¡°granting Jon two more years¡± would be questionable.

    Inside the ice room, Angor fully calmed his mind as he prepared to take the utmost caution when handling Jon¡¯s body. He had to change the quantity of Vitalizer, heal Jon¡¯s body, and apply the Inscription card at the same time, while Eureka was in charge of repairing the ¡°bnce¡± if Angor¡¯s moves briefly disrupted it while changing the elements.

    ¡°I¡¯m starting.¡± Angor took another deep breath.

    He summoned two Hands of Spell to deal with the Vitalizer sk and the card, which didn¡¯t require too much management. Meanwhile, he took out several bottles from his bracelet that contained special potions for nurturing Jon.

    Even though Eureka knew about these potions because she just read about them in Angor¡¯s papers, she was still amazed to see Angor actually bringing them out.

    These things added together were not any cheaper than a full sk of Vitalizer. Once again, she wondered how Angor earned his ie.

 Chapter 836 - The State of the Town

    <h4>Chapter 836: The State of the Town</h4>

    A whileter, Eureka scanned Jon¡¯s coffin and nodded in satisfaction. ¡°The corruption has slowed down. He has enough strength to endure several months without experiencing any further damages. But after that... the corruption will continue until it kills him in about two years.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re sessful. At a great price.¡± Eureka nced at all the bottles scattered on the floor and flinched. ¡°How much did these cost you? Twenty thousand crystals? Well, d you dragged him away from death¡¯s door just a bit.¡±

    Eureka truly meant her words¡ªshe could find more about Jon¡¯s secrets this way.

    Although Angor was no way near satisfied. Beforeing back to the Old Earth, he thought he could at least make Jonst for 20 years or so. If so, he would have enough time to find a thorough cure. Yet... the remaining time was cut down to ten percent.

    ¡°You look so sad. Wasn¡¯t nning to spend so much money, eh?¡± said Eureka.

    ¡°I bought these potions to help my teacher. There¡¯s nothing to be sad about. Miss Eureka, we... can¡¯t wake him up from the coffin, can we?¡±

    ¡°You want to talk to him?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°You can. But this will, of course, allow the corruption to work faster. Without the ice coffin, he only has about two weeks. Didn¡¯t you say that you will find a way to cure him?¡± Eureka crossed her arms and gave Angor an ¡°I dare you to try¡± look.

    ¡°I meant it, and I will.¡± Angor was encouraging himself rather than answering Eureka¡¯s question.

    ¡°I¡¯ll wait for your sess then.¡± Eureka walked away.

    Angor spoke again before Eureka fully left from the entrance.

    ¡°Whatever happens to Jon, he must be free.¡±

    ¡°Free? Pfft. The moment he set foot in this world, a pair of invisible and unbreakable shackles already locked him in ce. The world¡¯s consciousness will judge, then determine his end. Or a wizard might find him first and deal with him. Which do you prefer?

    ¡°Even someone like us can¡¯t find true freedom, much less a mortal.¡±

    When Eureka¡¯s distant voice could no longer be heard, Angor remained behind, left in his own thoughts.

    He partially agreed with what Eureka said. In fact, even Angor himself wasn¡¯t sure whether he was helping or denying Jon¡¯s freedom by keeping him alive in a coffin.

    However, he wasn¡¯t going to worry about this problem too much. His only wish right now was to revive Jon. All other disagreements or moral disputes had to wait.

    He spent the rest of the day in the ice room until he made sure he¡¯d never forget the tarnished form of his dear teacher.

    ...

    The sun was bright today, and the entire vicinity of the manor smelled like fresh flowers.

    Angor made ns to shut himself in a seclusion period to look for solutions. Before doing so, he had to have a talk with Tulu first. He was a recruiter of Brute Cavern, and he didn¡¯t wish to leave Tulu hanging in Grue Town should the seclusion take him too long.

    At the manor¡¯s gate, he saw Auri running to him with a big smile while carrying a food basket.

    ¡°Head Maid Mana made some milk crunchies for you, young master!¡± Auri looked at Angor¡¯s gentlemanly look and blushed. She was fully aware that she was only a house servant, but she couldn¡¯t help it.

    ¡°I picked up some different tastes while I was away, but I still like these. Tell her that I said thanks.¡± Angor epted the basket while trying not to dig in right here.

    He stored the basket in his bracelet and kept heading away. Auri quickly caught up with him.

    ¡°Anything else you need?¡± Angor gave her a curious look.

    ¡°But, sir, I used to be your personal servant. What are you doing these days? Please tell me if I can help you!¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh, there¡¯s no need. I¡¯m already used to being alone¡ª¡±

    Auri¡¯s eyes almost watered up.

    ¡°Sigh... Alright. I do have a favor to ask.¡± Angor made sure the maid wasn¡¯t sobbing. ¡°I need you to summon Mana and my brother to the main hallter. I have something to tell them.¡±

    Auri happily hopped away to do her errand.

    Angor wasn¡¯t lying, he did need to introduce someone to his family¡ªthe Krakoks.

    While on his way back outside, he saw all the servants working in the fields or gardens giving him polite salutations, and he also returned the gestures.

    The farmer who tried to chase Angor away the other day sighed in great relief. He was d that the young master of the family was so kind and tolerant like how others used to tell him.

    Angor moved to the fence gate of the manor. He nced at the owl that was pretending to be sleeping on a tree and walked outside.

    On his way to the sheriff¡¯s hut, many people in town also greeted him nicely. Grue Town was a small ce, and most of its inhabitants remembered him from his childhood.

    ¡°Did you finish your study, Mister Padt?¡± An old, smoking schr called out to Angor while sitting under the shade of a tree.

    ¡°Mister Parsel! Did Mister Dim teach you to use a hookah?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the other way round, boy. Dim learned this from me. That peasant from a remote vige wouldn¡¯t have heard about this wonderful creation of humanity if not for me telling him. And he smokes way more often!¡±

    ¡°Often my a*s, you old fart. You¡¯re just too broke to buy more leaves, aren¡¯t ya?¡± another bulky man said while walking out of a house nearby.

    Dim was Parsel¡¯s neighbor, and the only cksmith in town. Dim used to work for Padt Manor, but Angor¡¯s father allowed Dim to get an early retirement when the man found a wife.

    Dim and Parsel had been neighbors and friends for decades. Outsiders wouldn¡¯t see them as friends because these two tended to talk to each other by swearing, which was their usual means ofmunication.

    ¡°The viscount can¡¯t wait to see you back, my friend!¡± Dim greeted Angor while forcefully taking Parsel¡¯s smoking instrument. ¡°Don¡¯t do this sh*t in front of Mister Padt, aye? Aren¡¯t you some big-a*s bookworm from a famous institute? Know your manners.¡±

    ¡°Cough... What do you know about manners? You always kept this thing in your hand when talking to Mister Padt several years ago!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m worried about you, you fool! Go find a doctor and have your throat checked, will ya??¡±

    Parsel wanted to get his hookah back but failed to do so since Dim was both younger and stronger.

    ¡°Damn you. I know you want to give up smoking for whatever reason, but don¡¯t force this on me!¡±

    Angor watched them arguing without interfering in any way. As he remembered, cksmith Dim used to be the big smoker. He wondered what happened in these four years that reversed the situation.

    ¡°Huh? Nothing big happened to the town,¡± Dim said, after hearing Angor¡¯s question. ¡°Only those refugee f*ckers. They always sneak into town and take our stuff when no one¡¯s looking. Heck, one day, I saw an asshole pulling Parsel¡¯s cattle away. When we found them, they already set up a fire and enjoyed their meat. Curses... Even if George can lock up some of them in prison, it won¡¯t help us. Those b*stards are desperate, you know? They have nothing left.¡±

    Parsel moaned, ¡°That animal was my friend! And they ate him...¡±

    ¡°They have nothing left...¡± Angor muttered.

    ¡°Yup. And we can¡¯t just go out there and kill people randomly, so this only left us with one option, which is to constantly keep an eye out for them. But their number is increasing, I tell ya.¡± Dim spat out a smoke ring. ¡°When is this freaking war going to end? If this keeps on, the entire Yamei won¡¯t be so safe to us.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s right.¡± Parsel agreed along. ¡°I sure don¡¯t want to be one of them one day, I need some smoke every day to calm my mind¡ªhey, Dim! Why are you smoking MY pipe? Give it here!¡±

    Parsel and Dim began to wrestle with each other again.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Angor gave them a determined look. ¡°Grue Town will be safe even if the entire Goldspink falls.¡±

    Parsel and Dim had no idea why Angor could say such a thing, but they somehow felt reassured when looking at Angor¡¯s sincere attitude.

    They watched Angor go away. Parsel stopped going for his hookah and said to his neighbor, ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I feel better all of a sudden.¡±

    ¡°Same here.¡± Dim nodded. ¡°Seeing young Padt back, I have the feeling that Grue Town is in good hands. I mean, an extra pair of good hands.¡±

    ¡°Do you think Padt Manor will lift their bars and return to their usual?¡±

 Chapter 837 - Refugees

    <h4>Chapter 837: Refugees</h4>

    Angor arrived at George¡¯s office and found the sheriff busily writing on something, while his son, Jordan, was looking at him with an anxious look.

    ¡°Just a moment, Angor!¡± George looked up from his desk and quickly returned to his paper.

    Two minutester, George slid the paper inside an envelope, waxed it, then gave it to Jordan. ¡°Find the fastest horse. Send this letter to Sheriff Byrne in Waterford.¡±

    Jordan nodded. He saluted Angor while leaving through the door and disappearing into the stable.

    ¡°Mister George? Did something happen?¡± Angor noticed the sheriff was not in a good mood.

    ¡°Sigh... Them government dimwits in Waterford can¡¯t take in more refugees, so they want to send¡¯em to smaller ces. Grue Town included. It¡¯s not that we¡¯re not helping. We have people who send food and clothes to their camps every day. But some of those a*sholes don¡¯t know when to get fulfilled. They alwayse into town and steal from people. Then they tell their families to do the same. How can we let these thugs in our ranks?

    ¡°Besides, we don¡¯t have any spare houses for them in Grue Town. All Waterford¡¯s doing is using their tongue to issue an order, and they¡¯ve no idea how difficult it is for us. That letter I sent is to argue with them.¡±

    Angor was not someone to take care of such business, so he didn¡¯t offer any advice. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to my brotherter and see if he cane up with an idea.¡±

    ¡°Yar, we¡¯d better let the viscount decide. This is about the whole town. So Angor, did something bad happen in your home? When you went there the other day, I heard freakin¡¯ explosions.¡±

    Angor thought about the ¡°fight¡± between him and Eureka and realized George was referring to the destroyed mountain.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Look, I¡¯m in one piece.¡±

    ¡°d you are.¡± George stroked his beard and showed a curious expression. ¡°What¡¯s going on at the manor? Why¡¯s everybody silent and never talks about it?¡±

    Seeing Angor not responding soon, he quickly added, ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me if there¡¯s trouble. Nothing bad happened to the town anyway. Yet.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not too serious a problem. Just, we have an important guest who doesn¡¯t like being bothered bymon folks.¡±

    George gave Angor an ¡°I know what that means¡± look and changed the subject by asking what Angor was doing today.

    ¡°Looking for Tulu? The man¡¯s in the next room.¡± George took out another envelope from his drawer that contained several silver coins. It seemed Head Maid Mana came the other day and left the money topensate for Tulu¡¯s lodging at George¡¯s ce.

    ¡°Oh, you can keep the money or return it to Mana if you wish,¡± said Angor as he headed to Tulu¡¯s room. The room was originally Jordan¡¯s, but it had Tulu as an extra guest recently.

    When Angor entered the room, he saw Tulu napping on the fur carpet on the floor.

    The sound of the door woke Tulu up, and he slowly looked around with sleepy eyes until he recognized Angor¡¯s ¡°original look¡±. Then he jumped up with a start and quickly went to greet Angor.

    Angor exined that he had to stay at Grue Town for probably a very long time and asked whether Tulu wished to stay with the sheriff or live in Padt Manor.

    Tulu decided to choose thetter, as the sheriff always got lots of visitors, especially when so many refugees were around. All these would make it hard for him to train on his meditation.

    While on their way back to the manor, Angor told Tulu not to approach the stilt house or Eureka, and that Mana would take care of his daily needs.

    The owl watching over the manor¡¯s entrance, that would usually attack any intruders on sight, didn¡¯t make a sound when it saw Angor bringing Tulu inside. It could almost see through Angor¡¯s chest pocket inside which Toby was giving it a threatening stare.

    Of course, Angor also told Tulu not to provoke the owl in any way.

    After taking Tulu to Mana, Angor headed to the main hall of the manor castle, where Leon and Auri were waiting for him.

    Leon gave him a brother¡¯s hug before asking, ¡°Where¡¯s Mana? I told her to wait for you at the door.¡±

    ¡°I sent her on her way to arrange a room for Tulu, who¡¯s going to live here for the time being.¡±

    It should have been Leon who went to pick up Tulu, but he didn¡¯t do so because he wasn¡¯t sure whether Eureka was okay with this.

    ¡°Is this alright?¡±

    ¡°Not a problem. I¡¯ve already told Miss Eureka.¡±

    They found a seat as Angor first told Leon about the sheriff¡¯s concerns.

    Leon rubbed his temples. ¡°They¡¯re stealing under broad daylight now?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Old Parsel told me his farm animal got stolen and roasted.¡±

    ¡°I used to hear people yelling at each other, but I didn¡¯t think things would escte so quickly.¡± Leon considered. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go and talk to Georgeter.¡±

    ¡°What are you going to do with the refugees?¡± Angor was worried that making this decision was a very taxing job for his brother. There were too many factors to be considered.

    ¡°I... already have some ideas I need to tell George first. And we need to see the attitude of Waterford.¡± Leon then gave Angor a curious look. ¡°What will you do if you¡¯re in my shoes, dear brother?¡±

    Angor answered without giving it much thought, ¡°This is too easy in the views of supernatural beings. We build a new town to amodate them. Or we can solve the problem by unplugging its source, meaning, we get rid of the entire Hen Imperial. That will remove the refugees fast enough.

    ¡°If we must stick to normal means, then I¡¯d suggest using some quick moves to assassinate the more outstanding troublemakers among the refugees so that the rest of them will know to obey us.¡±

    Leon gave Angor a thoughtful look. ¡°You changed. This is something you¡¯d never say before.¡±

    ¡°This is ¡®adaptation¡¯, brother.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a good thing though. I used to get worried that you¡¯ll bump into all sorts of unfair troubles because you¡¯re too kind. Now I can see I didn¡¯t have to.¡± Leon stretched his arms. ¡°I¡¯m thinking about simr things actually. They say that the refugees have nothing to lose, right? Then we shall see if they are ready to give up everything for real.¡±

    A momentter, Head Maid Mana also joined them in the room, as Angor requested.

    ¡°I need to tell you something since you¡¯re both here,¡± said Angor, which caused Mana and Leon to fully focus on him.

    They waited for Angor to continue, but instead of speaking, Angor waved a hand in the air. A tiny figure suddenly appeared on the table in front of them.

    The figure looked like an ordinary housewife who was slightly overweight; only that she was as big as an adult¡¯s palm.

    ¡°Uh, sir, what is¡ª¡± The small woman looked at Angor, confused.

    ¡°If nothing else happens, this will be your new home, Kumomo.¡±

    Kumomo was Kudodo¡¯s mother and the third Krakok who offered her loyalty to Angor back in the Soul Genesis Garden, after Papaya and Kudodo.

    Also, Kumomo used to be in charge of scheduling workers back in her vige. With Papaya away, Angor asked her to take care of their Krakok n as the secondary leader.

    Kumomo looked rather excited when looking at the spacious human room, which was huge for her. Even if she had enough food and a house in Angor¡¯s bracelet, she still preferred more freedom.

    ¡°What is-I mean, who is she, Angor?¡± Leon pointed to the small Krakok with a finger, while Head Maid Mana was too shocked to say anything.

    While mortals at the Fey Continent were used to seeing all kinds of humanoid creatures, people at the Old Earth couldn¡¯t say the same, especially those at a remote town.

    ¡°She¡¯s like a fairy in the tales!¡± Auri¡¯s eyes twinkled in both excitement and delight.

    ¡°You¡¯re actually right about that.¡± Angor chuckled. ¡°They have another name for them, which is the ¡®Fairies in the Attics¡¯.¡±

 Chapter 838 - Music and Wine

    <h4>Chapter 838: Music and Wine</h4>

    ¡°At a ce very far away lives a special n of creatures that love staying in people¡¯s attics. They are the Krakoks. Although people there also called them tiny folks or fairies in the attics.¡±

    When Angor exined, Kumomo saluted everyone somewhat awkwardly.

    ¡°She¡¯s Kumomo, the current manager of her n of 76 more individuals. For some special reasons, I promised to take them to a new home and away from the dangerous wizarding world. This is why I¡¯m here today.¡±

    ¡°There are more of them?¡± said Leon.

    Angor simply summoned the ¡°skyscraper¡± from his bracelet, causing all the working or ying Krakoks to freeze up in their actions.

    While moving the building, Angor also removed the mist barrier he ced around the Krakoks, thus allowing them to see the main hall as well as three other humans currently gazing at them.

    The Krakoks didn¡¯t panic too much once they saw Angor with them. They soon calmed down and began looking around the room curiously.

    ¡°May I ask where are we, Mister Padt?¡± an old Krakok woman asked while stepping away from a standalone cottage built beside the skyscraper.

    ¡°Hello, ma¡¯am. This is Padt Manor, about which I once mentioned to you,¡± said Angor.

    Hearing his words, the Krakoks visibly grew excited when they realized they were finally at their new homnd.

    Without anyone taking the lead, they began celebrating in their own ways. A young Krakok began ying their traditional instrument under a tree, while more Krakoks joined him in a dance party. They were followed by more singers who started a perfect chorus from their apartment, who soon took everyone into their jolly music festival. Even some of the farm animals began squealing with the rhythm.

    ¡°Shh...¡± Angor moved a finger over his lips to quiet them.

    The joyful ambiance remained even though all the Krakoks stopped singing.

    Meanwhile, Auri, Mana, and Leon all wondered why Angor interrupted the pleasant show.

    ¡°Don¡¯t count your chicken yet. I¡¯m responsible for taking you here but not epting you.¡± Angor pointed to Leon, and all the Krakoks looked at that way. ¡°He¡¯s my elder brother and the owner of the ce we¡¯re currently in. Call him Viscount Padt. He¡¯ll be the one to make the final decision.¡±

    Leon wanted to say yes immediately when looking at those pairs of pleading eyes, but he suddenly received a private voice transmission from Angor that told him to wait.

    ¡°Can we, Mister Viscount?¡± Kumomo asked, and all the Krakoks stepped up to look at Leon. They felt uneasy when seeing Leon spending so much time making the judgment.

    Auri and Mana also wondered what Leon was worried about. They quite enjoyed the brief performance of the lively creatures earlier. Besides, the 77 Krakoks added together wouldn¡¯t take up much space at all.

    Auri wished to provide her opinion, but she was quickly dragged back by Head Maid Mana.

    ¡°Krakoks are hard-working and natural crafters. They can provide many ingenious trinkets. People who have them in their homes will quickly find their lives turning merrier. There¡¯s a saying in Fairy World that the Krakoks have this magic that creates happiness.¡±

    Angor¡¯s exnation only made Leon want to take the Krakoks in sooner.

    Leon then looked between Angor and Kumomo. He cleared his throat. ¡°Can you work on improving people¡¯s homes?¡±

    ¡°We certainly can, if you task us with such a job, mister,¡± said Kumomo.

    ¡°I¡¯ll make you official residents of Grue Town. Just like the others, you must ept the responsibility thates with your privilege, such as paying taxes and rents for yournd. Of course, you can pay us by working for Padt Manor and trading your handicrafts. What do you say?¡±

    The Krakoks agreed without a problem since Leon wasn¡¯t treating them as ves.

    ¡°We ept.¡± Kumomo nodded, after consulting with her people.

    After Leon made the final decision to admit the Krakoks, their music and dances started again, and Auri and Mana dly watched their ceremony.

    Later, some of the Krakoks even hopped onto Leon¡¯s shoulder and began chanting an aria to praise their new humanpanions.

    This was when Angor¡¯s family realized that the tiny creatures were faster and more flexible than they thought. In fact, they could barely see the Krakoks moving when these tiny figures started running at their best speed, so they didn¡¯t have to worry about identally stepping on them at all.

    As the entire hall was basked in the jubnt spirit of the Krakoks, they suddenly sensed a pleasant smell reaching their noses. They then saw the Moonlily Fairy, who was only a little bigger than the Krakoks, slowly flying out of the cottage of Papaya¡¯s grandmother while holding a small bottle in its hands.

    The Krakoks didn¡¯t stop their performance. Rather, they grew even more excited for some reason.

    Once again, Auri, Mana, and Leon were greatly surprised to see yet another amazing creature taken straight out of children¡¯s fantasies.

    ¡°This is the Moonlily Fairy, a supernatural life form born from a flower. But it¡¯s not intelligent enough to speak yet,¡± exined Angor.

    Toby hopped off Angor¡¯s shoulder and joined the fairy happily.

    ¡°As you see, they are good friends. That bottle is an amazing treasure. Auri, can you get someone to carry us some water?¡±

    Auri seemed a bit disappointed because she had to leave the ¡°party¡±, but she stillplied while carrying two Krakoks on her shoulder away.

    Soon, the other servants in the manor also witnessed the tiny creatures as Auri introduced the new residents of Grue Town to them.

    She then found several servants to bring arge water tank to the main hall.

    There were more servants who were curious to see the dancing Krakoks, but none of them entered the main hall without permission. They only stayed at the door to listen to the cheerful musicing from inside.

    The music was not all. They all smelled the fragrance of good wine at the door.

    Those inside the room watched in amazement as the Moonlily Fairy poured the yellow content of her bottle into the water tank, which slowly turned all the water into the same, bright color.

    Then there was the mild smell of alcohol sided with the sweetness of morning blossoms.

    ¡°One drop of wine brewed by the fairy can create a full tank of it. It contains a lot of nutrients too. You can all try someter.¡±

    Everybody widened their eyes upon hearing the unbelievable, especially Leon, who considered good wine as the most important invention in his life. It wasn¡¯t easy to find high-quality wine, so he usually usedmon moonshine to sate his thirst. Of course he was overjoyed to have the fairy at home.

    Leon¡¯s passionate gaze somewhat scared the Moonlily Fairy, who quickly hid behind Toby.

    ¡°Oh right, brother, the fairy is gender-neutral. Are you nning to have a romantic date with our tiny friend?¡± Angor joked.

    ¡°Not funny, Angor!¡± Leon gave him a side-nce. ¡°Never mind. Let¡¯s get some drinking done!¡±

    Leon simply couldn¡¯t wait and rushed straight to the water tank, but before he could pick up thedle, Angor used a Hand of Spell to carry the tank away.

    ¡°Wine must be apanied by good food.¡± Angor looked around the room. ¡°Let me see... It¡¯s almost time for dinner. We¡¯ll hold a wee feast in the garden and introduce our new members to everyone. I also prepared some more surprises for all of you. Just you wait!¡±

    Auri, Mana, and the Krakoks readily epted the n, while Leon watched Angor stow the delicious wine away with a sad face.

 Chapter 839 - Nanoâ€™s Product

    <h4>Chapter 839: Nano¡¯s Product</h4>

    ¡°Auri, you stay here and instruct them what they need to know, such as theyout of the Old Earth and our rules at Padt Manor.¡±

    Angor, Leon, and Mana then left the main hall and saw many servants trying to peek inside.

    ¡°Now that we epted them, we need to determine where to keep them,¡± Angor said when they were far away from other servants.

    ¡°We have unused rooms on the third or fourth floor,¡± said Mana. ¡°I can clean them upter.¡±

    ¡°The Krakoks are members of Grue Town, but not our n. Should we keep them with us?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your opinion?¡± asked Leon.

    ¡°As I said, they are natural builders and crafters. We need only find them a piece ofnd somewhere, and they¡¯ll start up a new home in no time. Before it happens, they can stay inside their apartment.¡±

    Angor was thinking about Papaya¡¯s old home in the Soul Genesis Garden, the Seedling Vige. The entire ce was centered around the trunk of a giant Cranbul Tree, and using ¡°wooden elevators¡±, they managed to achieve multiple levels.

    Leon agreed with Angor without a problem. They surely couldn¡¯t lock the residents of Grue Town in their manor at all times.

    In the end, Leon found a patch of grasnd beside the tea garden as a temporary territory for the Krakoks. There was arge camellia tree that would keep the Krakoks free from wind, while the fertile earth and a small trench nearby would help them with farming.

    After showing the area to Kumomo and sending several servants to remove garbage and weeds, Leon went to sit in the mottled shadow of the tree, while Angor leaned against the tree trunk.

    While enjoying the warm spring wind, Angor felt as if he returned to his early years again.

    ¡°Remember when we yed tag before?¡± Leon gave the tree an impassioned look. ¡°You couldn¡¯t climb trees then, so I¡¯d just sit up there and watch you run in circles. If I remembered right, you even cried once.¡±

    ¡°That was because you were throwing acorns at me.¡± Angor was a bit annoyed when his embarrassing history was brought up.

    ¡°I did?¡± Leon smiled and showed a pair of dimples that somewhat ruined his hard-boiled image.

    ¡°Never mind that. What¡¯s your n for the future? I guess your spirit level went past ten already. Will you go to the Valley of Hurricane with Mister Thewis?¡±

    ¡°Not sure. He didn¡¯t say that I¡¯m his real student yet.¡± Leon shrugged. ¡°I think I¡¯ll stay here. There are so many things and people who need me.¡±

    ¡°I thought you always dreamed of traveling around this world?¡±

    ¡°Not now. Not yet.¡±

    Leon leaned back and fell on the grass on his back while looking at the sky with a calm smile. Even so, his unyielding thirst for freedom was still clear to be seen.

    Head Maid Mana had finished her work and took all 77 Krakoks to Angor. Angor then told her to go and arrange relevant matters with the Krakoks herself.

    ¡°You have more things to say?¡± Leon noticed that his brother was asking for privacy.

    ¡°There is one thing. Apart from the Krakoks, I brought back one extra.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s also a crafter, in a sense. But there¡¯s a problem. He has a very bad taste for art, and he tends to act up a lot. But he¡¯ll help us greatly if we only look at his skills.¡±

    ¡°You mean this man¡¯s going to live with us too?¡± Leon sat up.

    Angor nodded and summoned a small figure beside his legs.

    Before Leon could see who it was, he heard the man¡¯s voice first.

    ¡°How dare you take the building away and leave me alone?! It was so damn boring! You promised you¡¯d take me to a rich ce, but you locked me in that empty bracelet of yours!¡±

    Leon looked around in confusion before he looked down and saw a small man dragging on Angor¡¯s pants.

    ¡°Why is he so short?¡±

    ¡°Who are you calling short?! I¡¯m the honorable prince of Fibbers! I¡¯m going to f*cking kill you for that!¡±

    Nano rushed at Leon aggressively, but he was easily pushed away by Leon, single-handedly.

    ¡°But Mister Viscount is telling the truth. You ARE short,¡± a strange voice said from on top of the tree.

    Leon looked up and saw a tiny Krakok girl in a yellow skirt swinging on a leaf.

    ¡°Watch what you¡¯re saying, Latata! No one¡¯s gonna marry a big mouth like you!¡± Nano screamed while stomping the ground in rage. ¡°I¡¯m seven times bigger than you!¡±

    ¡°But we¡¯re in the right size to be fairies, while you look like a dwarf to humans!¡± Latata didn¡¯t hold back, and she kept adding more fuel to the fire.

    Angor ignored the argument and said to Leon, ¡°This is what they always do. Thank goodness I can¡¯t hear them when they are in the bracelet, or I¡¯d never find time to sleep.¡±

    Compared to the yelling guests, Leon was more interested in another matter he just heard. ¡°Are you referring to that bracelet on your wrist?¡±

    Leon once heard about ¡°space storage items¡± from Thewis. He knew these were extremely valuable tools that even wizards could not afford easily.

    He was already curious about how Angor could keep food and even creatures in a secret mobile stash. However, he didn¡¯t know whether it was okay to ask.

    ¡°Yeah, a storage bracelet.¡± Angor considered and used a voice transmission to talk to Leon. ¡°I made it myself. When you learned how to control your spirit power, I¡¯ll get you one as well.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure about¡ª¡±

    ¡°I made more than one. Toby also has his own storage. These things are not hard to make at all.¡±

    <i>What? But my teacher said the opposite, that these items are rare!</i> Leon wasn¡¯t sure which one he should believe.

    Next, Angor pointed to Nano as he said, ¡°This short one here is called Nano¡ª¡±

    ¡°Stop calling me short, you a*s! I¡¯m the prince of all Fibbers!¡± Nano protested before he turned around to shout at Latata again.

    ¡°He¡¯s a Fibber, a humanoid race born with a great talent for art and creativity, especially tailoring.¡±

    ¡°Did he tailor that green hat, red suit, and pink undershirt on his own?¡± asked Leon in a doubtful manner.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°The colors are off, but everything else is fine. Nano is a good crafter as long as you don¡¯t mind his painting.¡±

    ¡°I-I see...¡±

    ¡°Hey, Mister Viscount!¡± Latata called while sitting on a tree branch. ¡°Nano gave us a lot of stuff to wear, including my dress! He¡¯s pretty nice, just a little color blind.¡±

    Latata did a pirouette and let everyone look at her golden, striped skirt better.

    Leon nodded. He would admit that the design appeared rather good, if not luxurious.

    Nano was stillining aloud, ¡°Who¡¯s color blind, huh?! My color is THE BEST! That thing on you is supposed to be a masterpiece, but you cut it into a simple, yellow piece of sh*t! You ruined it!¡±

    Angor sighed helplessly. ¡°There he goes again. He has some...nguage management problems, but he¡¯s not half bad.¡±

    Leon let out a dishonest chuckle.

    ¡°He wasn¡¯t lying. He was the prince of his people, but he then went through some trouble and ended up with me. I did promise to grant him a peaceful life. So here I am.¡±

    ¡°Is there a reason you agreed to such a thing? And do you mean we need to like, treat him like a real prince?¡±

    ¡°No. He knows how to earn his own meals.¡± Angor dragged Nano over and introduced Leon to him. ¡°I did say you won¡¯t get your life for free. From now on, Viscount Padt here will assess your products and grant you rewards ordingly. If you want to be rich, work harder.¡±

    Nano gave Leon an unfriendly stare¡ªhe was still mad about how Leon called him short. But since Leon would be the one who determined his wealth, he chose to stay quiet.

    Nano then closed his eyes and lifted a hand. Several strands appeared from the middle of his palm.

    Leon watched in shock as Nano skillfully weaved the raw threads into a piece of luster silk. It was a warm spring day, yet Leon could almost feel chilly air radiating off the glossy material.

    ¡°Fibbers can produce silk like this,¡± Angor exined. ¡°The silk doesn¡¯t have any magical properties yet, but a piece of such a size will still earn you at least two magic crystals, or three if you sell it to a wizard. As for selling it to mortals...¡± Angor stroked his chin. ¡°Several thousand gold coins perhaps...¡±

 Chapter 840 - A Gift From the Moon

    <h4>Chapter 840: A Gift From the Moon</h4>

    ¡°Thousands of gold coins??¡± Leon stared at Nano¡¯s creation, bewildered.

    The total annual expense summed up for the entire Padt Manor was only about 200 gold coins. In other words, Nano provided enough funds to keep Padt Manor running for years within a minute!

    Leon now wondered why Nano was following Angor instead of earning a good living by himself.

    This was because Nano was supposed to be Angor¡¯s ve, only that it was part of their agreement that Angor wouldn¡¯t treat Nano as a ve for real.

    Leon was already fully convinced of Nano¡¯s potential and was about to order Mana to find another independent room. But before he could do so, he suddenly heard Latata calling loudly.

    ¡°Wait-no! Argh! It¡¯s toote!¡±

    Leon looked back and saw Nano¡¯s fabric was now a bright green hue. Both Angor and Latata were looking at it with frustrated expressions.

    The silk was even glowing slightly in the shadow of the tree. Leon found it impossible to imagine how anyone would wear such a color and go outdoors.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Leon widened his eyes. The supreme quality of the textile instantly turned unting and ridiculous with that new look.

    ¡°While making silk, Nano can also dye it into something he desires.¡± Angor sighed in disappointment. ¡°Remember to take it from him before it happens.¡±

    Leon nodded in acknowledgment, while Nano seemed annoyed for receiving the badment, and he would like to prove his worth as soon as possible.

    ¡°Since I¡¯ll be working for you, Mister Viscount, I¡¯ll make you something new to wear!¡± Nano waved the green silk under Leon¡¯s nose. ¡°But this is not enough to make clothes for you. How about I make a hat?¡±

    ¡°No. No, thanks,¡± Leon deadpanned[1].

    Leon then said to Mana, ¡°Take it and hang it over antern. That¡¯ll make a lovely light source.¡±

    ¡°Lantern?! You¡¯re disgracing my hard work!¡± Nano began pummeling Leon¡¯s legs, which didn¡¯t have much effect.

    Mana went to take the silk with a smile. ¡°Good idea, Mister Viscount. This is perfect as an extra decoration for the house. I love it!¡±

    Nano instantly put up a proud look and began throwing friendly nces at Mana.

    ¡°Now go,¡± said Leon, ¡°let this guy pick a room he likes.¡±

    Nano followed behind Mana obediently and stepped away.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope he doesn¡¯t turn the entire Padt Manor into a circus.¡± Leon gave Angor a serious look.

    ¡°That¡¯s unlikely. He can only make a piece of silk once a week. Remember the schedule and intervene in time, then everything will be fine.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! We can help you keep an eye on him too, Mister Viscount. This is how I got my dress before it was ruined!¡± Latata added. Many more Krakok girls showed up around them, and all of them agreed as well.

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave it to you then. Make sure you tell your new job to Mana and Kumomo.¡± Leon didn¡¯t wish to constantly receive Nano¡¯s grudge, so he decided to let the Krakoks handle Nano since these little guys seemed pretty good at it.

    ¡°You¡¯re in good hands!¡± Latata did a hands-on-hips with a proud look.

    ¡°Mister Viscount,¡± Kumomo spoke while walking to them, ¡°we have no problem settling down here. It¡¯s so nice.¡±

    ¡°Feel free to do so then. You¡¯re under the protection of Padt Manor as long as we still live here,¡± answered Leon. ¡°Talk to Mana if you need something.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your great kindness.¡±

    Kumomo then turned to Angor before leaving. ¡°Mister Angor, we are nning to build more houses based on the ¡®skyscraper¡¯ you gave us. Is this okay?¡±

    ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll look forward to it.¡±

    ...

    As nned, the servants set up a giant campfire outside the manor castle, where people enjoyed their dances and music in the moonlight.

    Everyone was delighted to see the adorable guests joining them, more so when they heard that they¡¯d be long-term neighbors.

    The servants in the manor weren¡¯t surprised too much because they already caught wind of the matter during the day. However, Sheriff George and cksmith Dim were almost terrified when they saw the Krakoks with their own eyes.

    The sheriff was invited because the Krakoks would be residents of Grue Town. As for Dim, as an old friend of Padt Manor, he asked to pay the Krakoks a visit when he heard that a group of great builders just came.

    What he was thinking when he heard about ¡°Krakoks¡± was a bunch of muscr workers like him, not these tiny people described in children¡¯s stories.

    Almost all the Krakoks were lively andmunicative performers, who responded to questions and inquiries without holding anything back.

    During their feast, people of Padt Manor, as well as the sheriff and Dim, all noticed that the Krakoks were very peace-loving and sociable individuals, so they delightedly epted them as their new friends.

    Tulu, using his loud voice as a sailor, began singing his favorite chantey while a group of young Krakok dancers hopped on his shoulders.

    The warm firelight did a perfect job warding off the cold wind of the night, thus allowing all people on the scene to enjoy the festival to their hearts¡¯ content.

    But just as the feast reached its climax, the voices of people suddenly quieted down until they becamepletely silent.

    Confused, Angor looked behind and saw Eureka in her striped red dress. She was approaching them from the darkness.

    If the servants had not known her deadly strength of a wizard, Eureka¡¯s charming look would have made a good addition to their party. As for the Krakoks, they stopped talking because they were quite stunned by Eureka¡¯s angelic image.

    There was only Old George who wasn¡¯t affected by her charm probably because Eureka wasn¡¯t his type. Surprised by the sudden quietness, he asked Angor who they were looking at.

    ¡°An important guest¡± was everything Angor told him.

    Hearing this, George quickly lowered his stance and pretended he wasn¡¯t there. Angor just told him before dinner that he was allowed into the manor because of this ¡°important guest¡±. He wasn¡¯t going to cause any trouble since everyone including Angor was acting so carefully.

    ¡°Miss Eureka,¡± Leon quickly stood up and addressed her. ¡°Do you need anything?¡±

    Eureka looked around the campsite and fixed her gaze on the Moonlily Fairy.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me, have your fun. I came because I smelled something sweet. My oh my... a Moonlily Fairy fledgling? This is quite a surprise.¡±

    She took a ss of wine and flew onto a tree to enjoy her drink while reminiscing about her memories.

    Despite her words, no one would actually ¡°continue with their fun¡± when she was still watching.

    ¡°Sigh...¡± Eureka saw the embarrassing quietness and downed her wine. ¡°I¡¯d better leave then.¡±

    The liquor with the sweetness of flowers reminded her of her childhood. At that time, she loved staying in a garden full of moonlilies. Back at that time, she used to have a partner who would y with her.

    ¡°Hobson...¡±

    Eureka felt her eyes getting sour and prepared to return to her room.

    Angor suddenly stood up and attracted everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°I mentioned bringing a surprise before the party, and it¡¯s almost time for it.¡±

    He moved closer to the fire and asked the others to back away a little.

    His action caused everyone to pay attention while temporarily forgetting Eureka¡¯s presence.

    Eureka also stopped moving and looked back, wondering what Angor was up to.

    ¡°It¡¯s a gift for everyone.¡± Angor smiled in the bright firelight. ¡°A gift from the moon.¡±

    Nobody understood what he meant by that.

    Angor summoned a crescent-shaped bottle, which contained some clear liquid inside, in his hand.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get some more wine!¡±

    The bottle in his hand suddenly vanished, leaving its content as a puddle that floated in midair.

    Next, within seconds, the puddle expanded dramatically until it became ake-sized pond above their heads that glittered under the moon.

    [1] ¡°wearing a green hat¡± equals ¡°getting cheated by a lover¡± in Chinese ng

 Chapter 841 - Rain and Bless

    <h4>Chapter 841: Rain and Bless</h4>

    Bright moonlight shone through the water and cast wavy shadows on the ground. For a moment, everyone remained quiet as they appreciated the dreamlike experience.

    A sudden gust of wind came and disrupted the water just a bit.

    ¡°Did you all smell that?¡± Leon¡¯s nose twitched.

    It was an indescribable sweetness that reached everyone¡¯s nostrils. As soon as people caught the whiff, they all felt more serene than ever as if all burdens and worrisome concerns were lifted from their minds.

    Angor lifted a finger and unleashed a beam of light at the puddle, shattering it into countless fragments as if he just broke a mirror.

    Next, the tiny shards that still carried the glint of the moon dispersed into all directions and beyond the boundary of Padt Manor, covering the entire Grue Town under their brilliance.

    Like ethereal raindrops, the shards fell through ceilings and walls before theynded on the bodies of the townsfolk.

    Parsel was sitting beside a small patch of sunflower field and having his cheap alcohol. Ever since his cow was stolen, he would asionally spend sleepless nights together with his drink and smoke, which did not help him get over his frustration at all. Since the moon was so clear and bright today, he decided to sit in his yard and moon-gaze.

    He thought he was hallucinating when he saw the sky raining glitters. But no matter how he rubbed his eyes and shook his head, the beautiful spots were still there, descending like waltzing fireflies.

    Some of themnded in Parsel¡¯s yard, and he quickly sensed the pleasant fragrance that tingled his nose.

    He watched in horror as another ¡°raindrop¡± reached his skin and somehow sank into his flesh. But soon, he felt rising vigor abruptly growing inside him, causing him to change his mind and wee more of the amazing shards to join him.

    After several seconds of ¡°bathing¡±, Parsel stood up from his chair and realized that the stiffness and old pain in his legs were gone.

    He still looked the same on the outside, yet he felt as if he grew several years younger.

    ¡°Is-is the goddess of the moon grantin¡¯ her blessin¡¯ to us?¡±

    Next to his house, a young woman suddenly rushed out of Dim¡¯s home and gave him a surprised look. She was Dim¡¯s daughter, who shared a very simr look to her father.

    ¡°Mister Parsel! My-it¡¯s my mother. Her hand has healed!¡±

    ¡°Wut??¡±

    Parsel knew that Dim¡¯s wife had her hand crippled while picking mushrooms in the mountains several days ago. The doctors said that she at least needed a few months without doing any manualbor.

    ¡°I was right!¡± Parsel gasped loudly. ¡°It IS the goddess. She saved your dear mother!¡±

    Dim¡¯s daughter gazed at the sparkling sky in great shock.

    More and more people in town had witnessed the fantastic sight outside, and they all reached simr spections as old Parsel.

    The ¡°raindrops¡± worked wonders on everyone and mended most of their bad physical conditions and diseases. Furthermore, people also grew a whole lot more optimistic all of a sudden.

    Naturally, the raindrops did not leave Padt Manor out of their benediction.

    Several shiny fragments reached all the way to Jon¡¯s ice coffin underground, improving Jon¡¯s condition just a little.

    People around the campsite all closed their eyes to fully enjoy the magnificent sensation as their bodies were nourished. Simr to the townsfolk out there, they also found both their mental and physical traumas to be no more.

    Even Auri, who was usually in rtively good health, was yelling in delight as she showed Mana how her pimples just disappeared.

    The deathly silence caused by Eureka a while ago was once again reced by the warmth of people¡¯s enthusiasm.

    Eureka was no longer leaving. Instead, she was giving Angor a very curious look from afar. Unlike mortals, she knew that Angor was referring to a special potion when mentioning ¡°a gift from the moon¡±.

    The potion was only a low-tier merchandise, but it was usually considered to be a pretty useful one among all simr potions. It would often cost several hundreds of magic crystals at shops.

    The main effect was to cure people¡¯s fatigue. The potion was said to be created by a wizard who wished to keep his partners on their top condition during a tiresome war. With this, they could fight better even if the battlested too long.

    If used on mortals, the potion could also slightly improve their physical fitness.

    Such handy effects and the absence of unwanted side-effects meant such a potion was always in high demand.

    ¡°He just used that on a bunch of mortals?¡± Eureka couldn¡¯t help wondering what Angor was nning to achieve.

    Among all the people, Leon and Tulu received more than just nourishment.

    After Thewis¡¯ training, Leon¡¯s body had grown strong enough to be considered a capable talent. Yet Leon had not started training on apprenticeship abilities yet. The potion¡¯s effect just cleansed all of his anxiety and old injuries, allowing him to be an apprentice immediately if he would make up his mind to go for it.

    As for Tulu, he simply felt the unstoppable urge to perfect his channeling method using this valuable chance. He already left the campsite to find somewhere quiet.

    ¡°The surprise does not end here,¡± Angor said as he walked onto the top of a small, grassy bump and drew everyone¡¯s attention again.

    This spot full of dandelions used to be his favorite ce to take naps. During summers, he woulde here more often to watch the flying bristles.

    Whereas the other people were mainly curious about what he was nning, Eureka was wondering if Angor was going to burn money away again.

    She thought she would look at more potions or maybe interesting alchemy items. She wasn¡¯t expecting it at all when Angor took out a golden sapling from his bracelet instead.

    As soon as the sapling was seen, everyone caught the nice scent of delicious milk from the air. Even those who usually didn¡¯t like milk couldn¡¯t help smacking their lips.

    ¡°What¡¯s that thing?¡± Eureka gazed at the nt in shock. She clearly felt supernatural energying off it, but she failed to recognize it.

    Eureka used to be a wandering wizard who earned most of her ie by searching for magical nts from different nes, then selling them. She wasn¡¯t an alchemist, but she was quite experienced in identifying nts.

    But this golden tree... She had never seen it before.

    This told her that Angor wasn¡¯t messing around. She felt fascinated now.

    Angor had nted the sapling under him, along with many different seeds.

    Next, he took out a bottle of green liquid with golden and silver shimmers hidden inside.

    Eureka quickly recognized the liquid as another potion called the ¡°Heart of Growth¡±, used for hastening the growth speed of nts.

    When Angor applied the potion, the small sapling visibly grew bigger until it reached about three meters in height.

    Angor was rather unsatisfied with the result. However, there was nothing he could do since Heart of Growth could only work this far.

    Compared to the tree, which was still in its initial stage, the seeds of all kinds of flowers all shot up from the dirt rapidly.

    All the blossoms reached their full blooms within seconds and stayed that way without dwindling. At the same time, they also began releasing their marvelous scent that smelled like candies into the environment.

    While the mortals celebrated in great joy, Eureka rubbed her temples with a frown. ¡°I can¡¯t tell what those flowers are either... Does Angor know an expert who grows a lot of magic nts?¡±

    Auri became the first one who couldn¡¯t hold back her longing for sweets and asked Angor, ¡°What are these, sir?¡±

 Chapter 842 - Tasty Tree

    <h4>Chapter 842: Tasty Tree</h4>

    Eureka quickly paid attention so that she could hear the answer.

    But it was Latata who spoke first while standing on Auri¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°It¡¯s the Milkberry Tree. I love its color, that¡¯s why I made a yellow dress too. You can make a small cut on it and collect its syrup. Trust me, you won¡¯t regret the taste!

    ¡°When the tree fully grows, it gives you fruits that you can either eat raw or bake into milk cakes. They all taste like food from heaven! The most important thing is, the products you find from the tree helps with your body growth, especially for women. Your skin will get way better!¡±

    Auri¡¯s eyes were literally twinkling brightly when she heard those words.

    ¡°The flowers under the tree are spices to be used with the Milkberry Tree,¡± Latata continued. ¡°You get different vors by picking different colors. See that brown one? That¡¯s called a coco flower. You can make milk with a really, really rich taste out of it! Oh no, I can¡¯t take it. I want some right now!¡±

    Leon and Mana exchanged a meaningful nce with each other and grinned. They could see that Angor¡¯s love for milk never died away.

    <i>Crap. I didn¡¯t invent this thing!</i> Angor saw them andined in his mind. <i>I took it all the way home just to let you guys have it!</i>

    ¡°Is Latata speaking the truth, sir?¡± Auri gulped loudly.

    ¡°Yes, but not yet. We must give it some time for it to reach its full capacity,¡± said Angor. ¡°But you can still get a small bucket of syrup every day.¡±

    Auri put on a disappointed look. If there was too little syrup to satisfy everyone in the manor, she would need to wait forever for her turn.

    But what Angor said next both surprised and ddened her.

    ¡°How about we give what¡¯s avable today to all of our female friends?¡±

    All maids immediately cheered for their fortune, while the others were a bit disappointed but had no problem epting the decision.

    Angor then asked the Moonlily Fairy to take care of the tree as well as the flower patch, including the distribution of the tree¡¯s prizes.

    Since they didn¡¯t know how to choose the ¡°spices¡± yet, those who got their drinks today could only select randomly.

    Without a doubt, Auri chose ¡°Coco Milk¡±, which was Latata¡¯s rmendation.

    The Moonlily Fairy had mixed the golden syrup from the tree and the ckish-brown extraction of a Coco Flower, before handing the ss to Auri.

    The appearance of the now dark-colored drink wasn¡¯t so good. Auri was having trouble making her mind because the drink in her hand reminded her of animal excrement.

    ¡°Go ahead! Try it!¡± Latata urged her.

    Since many people around her including Mana had finished their shares and were now praising out loud, Auri quickly gathered her courage and downed her milk in one go.

    ¡°What a... blissful taste!¡±

    She almost found the world around her changing. It felt like bathing in a hot spring of milk while picking up floating candies and licking all the luscious syrup off them...

    She never knew in her life that she could feel so blessed by drinking something.

    Auri then woke up from her trance with an empty ss in her hand.

    ¡°How was it? How was it??¡± Latata couldn¡¯t wait to hear Auri¡¯s opinion.

    ¡°Hoo-wee! Incredible!¡±

    ¡°Told you! There are even betterbinations you can find. You should definitely try themter.¡±

    ¡°Really? Tell me, tell me!¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Latata looked really proud as she exined, ¡°There¡¯s this ¡®brown sugar bud¡¯. If you put it in-hey, what¡¯s the matter?¡±

    Latata stopped talking when she saw Auri showing a strange expression. Following Auri¡¯s look, Latata looked away and noticed a woman in a ck striped dressing to the tree and asking for a ss of drink from the Moonlily Fairy.

    Everyone on the scene was all looking at the woman either in respect or wariness.

    Latata couldn¡¯t hold back her curiosity and decided to ask Auri by whispering to her. The odd sight had happened more than once now.

    ¡°She-she¡¯s a very, very important guest to us. Please, don¡¯t make her angry.¡± Auri trembled a bit.

    ¡°A guest?¡± Latata didn¡¯t fully understand what was going on.

    Eureka had received a ss of raw milk without any additions and drank it.

    Then she picked a random flower and tasted it in her mouth.

    ¡°These are all tiered magic nts, but they are not potion materials. Are they for cooking?¡± Eureka muttered before speaking to Angor, ¡°I must say, this is beyond me. Where did you find them? Did Moonfrost Union conquer a new ne?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s created by Lady Greya,¡± Angor replied as carefully as he could.

    ¡°¡®Warrior Barbie¡¯ Greya? The truth-finder Gourmet?? Right... This exins everything. And wait a minute... you know Greya?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s an acquaintance of my professor.¡±

    Eureka wasn¡¯t fully convinced by this exnation because being Sunders¡¯ student didn¡¯t mean Angor could take Greya¡¯s new creation to the mortal world freely. But she didn¡¯t ask further.

    ¡°Heh. You aren¡¯t just an ordinary apprentice, that much is certain.¡± Eureka turned away and disappeared into the darkness of night. ¡°Thanks for the treat. I¡¯m impressed.¡±

    With Eureka no longer here, people around the campsite once again grew indulged in their celebration.

    The partysted all the way to midnight. By then, most people had fully spent their strength and fallen asleep on the grass. Even Leon, who was quite the capable drinker, began dream-talking with a silly smile.

    Angor never liked alcohol, and he usually avoided using this kind of stuff that would harm his mind, which was vital for a pursuer of knowledge. After asking Head Maid Mana to carry Leon back to the manor, he headed to the ice room.

    Using several Luminous Stones he ced around the room, he took a moment to look at Jon¡¯s hollow form and let out a deep breath.

    Jon used to love these evening parties when his body was fine, which didn¡¯tst very long.

    Jon imed that he was a professional botanist back on Earth. Angor wondered how Jon would react upon seeing the Milkberry Tree. Would he get thrilled to see all the ¡°fairies¡± described in fantasies? Would he want to travel far and beyond to see all the magical things this world had to offer?

    Knowing his teacher, Angor believed Jon would definitely say yes to these questions.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to help you see everything. I¡¯ll make it happen!¡±

    Before leaving the ice room, he suddenly remembered another matter. He prepared a lot of gifts for Jon beforeing back to the Old Earth, most of which were pointless in Jon¡¯s current condition, except for one.

    He moved back to the ice coffin and took out a round object from his bracelet.

    It looked like a ball but with small holes and hollows all over its surface as if it were damaged by vermin.

    The object was, in fact, a worm nest, and the holes were not damages, but small tunnels for the ¡°inhabitant¡± to move around.

    It was the Soft Larva nest. Angor received it from ¡°Eventide¡± Kanter as a friendly gift, along with severalrva eggs.

    A Soft Larva was a very precious magical worm that didn¡¯t hold much value to someone like Angor in its initial state, but this would change greatly if therva could somehow transform into a Mutation Larva. A Mutation Larva could help people cast a special spell called ¡°Transform¡± easily. However, they had not discovered any new Mutation Larvae in this world in a long time.

    Angor kept the worm nest in his bracelet hoping that some miracle would happen. He never relied on it too much since he always trusted honest effort over pure luck.

    He didn¡¯t need therva eggs today though. There was something else in the nest he needed to take out.

    The Dream Weaver ant.

 Chapter 843 - Weaving Dreams

    <h4>Chapter 843: Weaving Dreams</h4>

    This insect was believed to be extinct a thousand years ago. As its name suggested, it could create dreams.

    Jon once told Angor an old story about empty dreams before, which reminded him of the amazing trait of the ant. This was why Angor purchased it in Floating Mech City just to give it to Jon.

    The ant came with its own nest that looked like a small pyramid. But as soon as Angor ced it inside his bracelet, the ant ditched its home and moved into the Soft Larva nest instead. Angor had not figured out why the ant did so, but he didn¡¯t worry about it too much.

    When carrying the nest, he also smelled the stink of blooding from it. It was Akeso¡¯s blood, which he stored inside a container after removing Dodoro from a coffin. The blood of a wizard-level monster was a very potentponent for drawing runes, so he kept it in safety.

    It seemed the Dream Weaver would asionally wake up, retrieve a small block of the blood, and carry it back to its new home. While being inside Angor¡¯s bracelet for about a year, it had consumed a good amount of blood so that its body carried the same smell.

    Angor reached a spirit feeler inside the nest to look for the naughty creature. However, what came into his detection first was a small white worm that wasn¡¯t moving.

    ¡°A Soft Larva hatched? But it¡¯s dead...¡±

    The worm¡¯s body had shrunk badly. There were two tiny pincer holes on it that suggested the Dream Weaver was the culprit.

    ¡°The ant came here to murder therva? Guess I should take it somewhere else.¡±

    He kept reaching his spirit feeler further inside until he saw the ant still sleeping on top of a small lump of condensed blood. There were also several Soft Larva eggs buried in the blood.

    ¡°Maybe the ant knows that the blood could help thervae grow faster, so it did all these for quicker meals?¡±

    This was a surprise. At least he learned how to hatch the eggs better now.

    Without minding the eggs, Angor used his spirit power to carry the ant outside.

    The insect started panicking when someone woke it up. Angor needed only to send a stream of gentle energy to soothe the ant, which wasn¡¯t a very intelligent monster.

    After buying the ant, Angor found a book that exined the nature of a Dream Weaver. Apparently, a Dream Weaver mostly depended on mutualism. By providing good dreams to someone, it expected food in return. In ancient times, humans and Dream Weavers used to be such partners.

    ¡°I provided all the blood you were feeding on for a year. Now it¡¯s time for payback.¡± Angor sent his emotion to the ant.

    The pair of ¡°antennas¡± on the creature¡¯s head moved back and forth, and Angor sessfully read its response that appeared somewhat like an acknowledgment.

    Angor then looked at the ice coffin in the room. The next question was whether the ant could survive the cold.

    He tried cing the ant on the coffin and saw the insect crawling around casually. Telling from its simple emotion signals, he could tell that the ant knew nothing other than finding more food and a ce to sleep.

    He ced the ¡°original home¡± of the ant beside Jon¡¯s head and ordered, ¡°You get a drop of blood each week, and your only job is to let him dream.¡±

    He gently tapped one of the ant¡¯s antennae, the white one. ording to relevant knowledge, this was what he needed to do to instruct the ant to create sweet dreams for its target.

    The ant remained still for a moment before it moved onto Jon¡¯s head and used the same antenna to rub Jon¡¯s forehead.

    ¡°That¡¯s how it works?¡± Angor watched curiously.

    The movement of the Dream Weaver appeared rather simple, but Angor somehow felt as if the creature were performing a very serious ritual by putting Jon under its protection.

    About five minutester, the ant moved back to its nest and began showing that ¡°I need food¡± emotion again.

    After receiving a drop of blood from Angor¡¯s bracelet, it then carried it back to its ¡°pyramid nest¡± and fell asleep.

    The ant didn¡¯t seem to have any problem with the cold. Still, Angor applied a Preserve Heat rune on its nest just in case.

    With everything done, Angor looked at Jon again.

    He wasn¡¯t sure about this, but he believed the corners of Jon¡¯s lips turned upward into a smile.

    <i>I wonder what he¡¯s dreaming about... His home? Or his future journeys in this world? He was separated from his family 20 years ago. He must miss them very much. Are Mister Jon¡¯s wife and daughter as kind as him?</i>

    <i>Wait a minute.</i>

    He just remembered that he obtained a cantrip from Freud not long ago called ¡°Dream Walk¡±. He could use this to look into Jon¡¯s dream!

    He quickly made up his mind to study and master the cantrip as soon as he could, even if it might be difficult to do so because such an art waspletely out of his profession.

    He now believed that buying the Dream Weaver was one of the best choices he ever made, even though Sunders imed that it wasn¡¯t worthwhile to trade the mechanism of an Energy Stabilizer for it.

    ...

    He left a scout puppet above Jon¡¯s coffin so that he could see any abnormalities should they happen.

    The campfire in front of the manor was still burning brightly by the time he returned, but there weren¡¯t many people awake to see it.

    Most of the Krakoks had retreated back into their small skyscraper, which was ced beside the tea garden. Kumomo asked several of their members to build a rain shed above their apartment and fields so that their miniature structures wouldn¡¯t be ruined by bad weather.

    Toby and the Moonlily Fairy were sitting on a branch of the Milkberry Tree while ¡°talking¡± to each other in a way that no one else could understand. asionally, they would give several careful nces to an owl, which was standing on another tree nearby, drooling over the smell of milk.

    Angor chuckled and decided to leave them be. The owl couldn¡¯t harm Toby anyway. He would let Toby and the fairy decide whether they¡¯d allow the owl some snacks.

    The entire manor had gone quiet except for several singing crickets. The ce didn¡¯t change too much in the past years, and Angor was d to see it.

    <i>It would be even more perfect if Eureka weren¡¯t here...</i> he thought.

    With such hope in mind, Angor returned to the manor castle.

    He saw Auri snoring loudly on the floor outside his room and shook his head with a smile. It seemed even in her drunk state, Auri insisted on being his personal maid.

    After carrying Auri to a bed in the neighboring room, Angor went into his own bedroom. He didn¡¯te here to sleep though. He nned to start looking for a way to help Jon as soon as possible.

    Before doing so, however, he took out the Soft Larva nest first.

 Chapter 844 - Housing Refugees

    <h4>Chapter 844: Housing Refugees</h4>

    The deadrva was still inside the nest. It seemed this one did not transmute into a Mutation Larva.

    Angor tried poking it and realized that the body had been sucked dry. Only the skin remained.

    Since he now knew that Akeso¡¯s blood could help with the growth ofrva eggs, he thought about doing some experiment on this and see what would happen.

    He ced the nest on his desk, applied some blood to a pile of eggs, and readied a notepad nearby. To prevent surprises in case anyrvae came wandering about, he also put an illusion around the nest.

    He suddenly looked through his window, only to see litmps outside and the shadows of trees in the distance.

    He went to open the window and invited some cold air into his room.

    He did so because he felt someone¡¯s inquiring attention directed at him, but he failed to locate where it came from.

    ¡°There¡¯s only one person here who can do so without letting me notice her...¡±

    He didn¡¯t know what Eureka wanted from him. He just felt uneasy about it. Even if he wasn¡¯t doing anything he would like to hide, being monitored by someone was always unpleasant.

    He considered and closed the window before he channeled some nightmare energy that slowly covered up his room.

    ...

    Eureka was gazing at the night sky on the balcony of the ¡°stilt house¡±. As soon as Angor was aware of her, she closed her eyes.

    ¡°That¡¯s some sharp senses... just a bit weaker than a wizard, but close.¡± Eureka grinned. ¡°Hey, Red, a mortal who studied wizardry for just a few years achieved such a level. He has the sequence of gravity, space storage, and maybe more secrets we don¡¯t know of. Aren¡¯t you curious?¡±

    There was no one around her, but as soon as she finished her phrase, arge rosebud on the balcony slowly went into bloom and revealed a red-haired puppet head in its center.

    ¡°Kill him and interrogate his soul, or restrain him and use hypnosis spells,¡± the puppet said in a cruel voice.

    Eureka shook her head. ¡°He¡¯s Phantom Master¡¯s student. And he¡¯s a member of Brute Cavern.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t do it? Then you should leave the job to me. Wait until I return.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s Leon¡¯s kin. Do you really want to see Leon lose his dear brother?¡±

    ¡°Leon must learn to give up mortal emotions if he were to set foot in the wizarding world.¡±

    Eureka sighed. ¡°Every wizard has their own path. You shouldn¡¯t force your way upon your student and limit his potential. Besides, you have a sister, no?¡±

    The puppet didn¡¯t reply this time.

    Eureka yawned and looked at Angor¡¯s direction again. ¡°He cast an odd illusion that I can¡¯t see through in my current state. Well, he studies from Phantom Master, so this is not surprising.¡±

    She waved a hand and closed up the rose.

    ...

    Inside his nightmare domain, Angor found afortable spot and started reading his hologram tablet for all the books he recorded in either the Nightmare Realm or Sunders¡¯ collection room.

    Two years. He had to find out how topletely save Jon¡¯s life within two years.

    He had totally forgotten the passage of time while he was reading. Two weekster, Leon suddenly came to him.

    ¡°Look at your face. You should at least spend some time outdoors. How about I take you out on a huntter?¡± Leon appeared very energetic and vigorous in his knight armor, which was in great contrast with Angor¡¯s pale look.

    Angor did feel a little tired after reading for so long. However, he still refused the offer. ¡°I don¡¯t have much time. I need to stay focused.¡±

    ¡°Sigh... What if you can¡¯t find anything at all?¡±

    ¡°If I can¡¯t in half a year, I¡¯ll go out there and seek help from other wizards.¡±

    This was always his n. Jon¡¯s existence was already known by outsiders, so letting more people get involved wouldn¡¯t bother too much. He could always talk to Sunders, or Greya, if Sunders was away. There was no doubt that Master Mithra would help as well.

    However, Angor would like to depend on himself unless it was absolutely necessary to ask for assistance.

    ¡°We will all eventually die someday¡ª¡± Leon tried tofort Angor, but he was interrupted immediately.

    ¡°No. Me, or you, will be immortal as soon as we step onto the path of truth.¡± Angor didn¡¯t give his brother a chance to say otherwise. ¡°You didn¡¯te to invite me to hunt, right? Is there something you need?¡±

    ¡°... Yes. During thest two weeks, we captured 33 refugees lurking around Grue Town, 15 of which had criminal records. Both ording to our n and ourws, I¡¯ll execute three of the worst offenders tomorrow and send the rest of them back to the refugee camps in Yamei after giving them some good caning. I hope you cane with me and watch it.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have time for it. I¡¯m wondering though, is it fine to set them free like that?¡±

    ¡°Most of the refugees are innocent people who lost their homes to the war. I¡¯ll give them food for their journey. Or if they agree to enter Grue Town as good citizens, I¡¯ll give them work andnds for rent.¡±

    ¡°Did Waterford respond to ourint? Why do they insist on sending so many refugees to our town?¡±

    ¡°When sending the letter, Jordan saw the suburbs of Waterford overflowing with them. Guess it can¡¯t be helped.¡±

    Angor held his chin. ¡°Can Grue Town take in more people if they keeping?¡±

    ¡°Yes, for now, as we still have some unusednd and houses left. But food might be a problem. One more thing, more refugees meant more troublemakers among them,¡± Leon moaned in frustration.

    ¡°You can go and talk to the Moonlily Fairy about food shortage. It knows how to quicken the growth of crops. Just make sure you don¡¯t rely on it because this will result in morezy and greedy freeloaders.¡±

    ¡°Guess I don¡¯t have many choices, huh?¡±

    ¡°You do.¡± Angor shrugged. ¡°I can help you put an illusion around Grue Town, and no one would be able to get in. Out of sight, out of mind.¡±

    ¡°Is there more I can do on my own though?¡±

    ¡°As the lord of this town, you can force ourw upon them and make sure everyone follows our rules, down to every word and use, or face trouble. The war might end one day, but rules must always be rules.¡±

    Leon still looked hesitant.

    ¡°Sigh.¡± Angor put down his pen and put a hand on Leon¡¯s shoulder. ¡°No matter what you choose, I¡¯ll support your decision, brother.¡±

    ¡°Heh... I¡¯ll try my best.¡±

    Grue Town would always remain in the same ce, while different people traveled in and out. If the townspeople kept epting every single wanderer with all their kindness, they would suffer from grim consequences sooner orter.

    ...

    Leon went to George¡¯s office.

    ¡°Sheriff, I¡¯ve made a n. Instead of giving them farm work...¡± he exined his idea.

    ¡°You want to enve them?!¡± George yelled in shock.

    ¡°It¡¯s notpletely very. They still get paid. However, they need to pay five times more than what they received from us. As soon as they pay their debt, we¡¯ll acknowledge them as our legal civilians.¡±

    George frowned. ¡°I¡¯m afraid the case has be a whole lot moreplicated just now. The refugees probably won¡¯t stay with us even if we treat them with fairness.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°I received a message in the morning. General Morn was killed in action at the Northern Oil Field.¡±

    The Northern Oil Field was on the northern coast of Yamei Province. Many refugees fled to Yamei because this ce was protected by the Morn Family.

    But if an important general was defeated...

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to keep the news from you.¡± George showed a worrying look. ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for Miss Mana toe. Mister Viscount, should we... tell our people to evacuate?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Leon shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s proceed with what I just said.¡±

    ¡°But if Yamei Province fell into enemy hands¡ª¡±

    ¡°It will not. This, I can promise.¡±

    George suddenly remembered the ¡°moonlight rain¡± created by Angor half a month ago and felt a lot more reassured.

 Chapter 845 - Slow Progress

    <h4>Chapter 845: Slow Progress</h4>

    Two weeks had shed by.

    Angor finished reading his tablet near the end of the Month of Offering. He had gone through everything that might provide him an answer to the cause, and the remaining books were all low-level cantrip tutorials or worthless magazines.

    He leaned back on his chair and moaned in frustration.

    <i>Is there nothing I can do? Should I speak to Professor Sunders after all? But... he probably hasn¡¯t returned from the Abyss ne yet.</i>

    <i>Or should I find Greya?</i>

    He had two purposes foring to the wizarding world, one of which was to prevent Jon¡¯s fated death. Now he felt hopeless and powerless.

    Auri was knocking on his door again, which she had been doing often during thest few days. This ¡°personal maid¡± of Angor didn¡¯t quite understand what Angor meant by ¡°seclusion¡± and insisted on checking on Angor and bringing him a food cart now and then. In her view, human beings couldn¡¯t live without food and water for too long.

    Auri thought she was going to get sent away again, but Angor suddenly called to her using a tired voice, ¡°Come inside.¡±

    The maid perked up and quickly pulled her cart into the room. She then saw Angor slumped at his desk with a weary look.

    ¡°Are you alright, sir?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Angor saw Auri¡¯s look of disbelief and added, ¡°Really.¡±

    Auri wanted to get rid of the awkward silence but failed to figure out what to say since she had no idea what Angor had been doing, so she could only repeat some good-old caring words such as ¡°take care of your health¡±.

    Angor simply listened while watching Auri readying several dishes of snacks.

    ¡°Did anything interesting happen while I wasn¡¯t looking?¡±

    This was why Angor allowed Auri toe today. He wished to learn what happened to the refugees after Leon made a n about them. However, he didn¡¯t directly ask such a question, so Auri could only answer as she saw fit.

    Most of what she described was about the Krakoks. With the help of the house servants, they had established the basic frames of a cozy little vige. The servants of Padt Manor offered to help them build, but they were rejected by Kumomo, who didn¡¯t wish to trouble them too much. However, Auriter heard the true reason from Latata¡ªthe Krakoks just didn¡¯t want to use the ¡°poor and disagreeable roosts¡± made by mortal hands.

    ¡°Oh, Mayor Latata asked me to deliver a message to you. They haven¡¯te up with a name for their new home, and they hope you can present them one the next time you visit,¡± said Auri.

    Next was about Toby and Moonlily Fairy. For some reason, these two creatures who didn¡¯t seem like proper partners at all would often head into the mountains recently.

    Then there was Nano the Fibber. ording to Latata, she and her ¡°sisters¡± managed to save three pieces of silk from Nano before Nano could dye them, which of course, infuriated Nano for good. The Fibber had not shown up in public in two days.

    What Auri said was mostly about the manor. She didn¡¯t know much about what happened around the town.

    ¡°Do you know what Leon¡¯s been up to?¡±

    ¡°Mister Viscount would spend most of the day away from us. I think he¡¯s working on something at the refugee camp, together with Mister George.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the situation at the camp?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡± Auri was never someone to care too much about what was beyond the manor.

    However, she still provided a piece of interesting info.

    ¡°When I went to the cksmith the other day, he told me there were fewer refugeesing to town, and those who dide would all leave shortly after.¡±

    <i>So Leon already started restricting them?</i> Angor pondered.

    After hearing everything Auri could say and having his meal, Angor sent the maid on her way and re-deployed his nightmare domain in the room.

    He then sat back in front of his desk and took out the Church of the Deceased.

    First, he looked at Torras, who was chilling out on his bed while reading a book¡ª*Dancing on Devil¡¯s Tides¡ª*in hispartment. It was an adventure storybook based on ¡°Vile King¡± Torras, who was believed to be a legendary pirate from 2,000 years ago. Angor also read the book before, by which time he quite liked the heroic character in it.

    However, he chose to forget everything he saw in the book as soon as he saw Torras¡¯ young look that almost appeared as a teenager.

    ¡°I killed the legendary pirate ¡®Red Beard¡¯? Did I?! Maybe I did, but I forgot. Red Beard was so good though. This means I¡¯m better than him!¡± Torras muttered out loudly while reading.

    Angor rolled his eyes.

    ording to <i>The Shining Age of Silver,</i> the pirate called Red Beard was only a child of five or six when Torras was at the climax of his notoriety. These two had no chance of confronting each other. In addition, <i>Dancing on Devil¡¯s Tides</i> was a fiction, not a historical record. It was totally eptable if the author tried to make the stories more fun by slightly altering the facts.

    He didn¡¯t want to look at Torras¡¯ boasting. He quickly moved his attention to another room in the church after briefly noting down the soul condition of Torras.

    The neighboring room used to be Freud¡¯s temporary residence. It was left empty after Freud remained at Ferran, but Angor still kept the room¡¯s illusion here.

    Freud left many written records, including the tutorial of ¡°Dream Walk¡±.

    Angor had been spending some time each day studying this cantrip. However, he didn¡¯t make much progress yet because this one waspletely out of his field of expertise, and he had to focus on reading the tablet.

    But since he found nothing from the tablet, he nned to concentrate on learning the cantrip next. It would both help him look into Jon¡¯s dream and handle the Dream Whelk more properly.

    Most of the study required him to be asleep, which helped him make up for his lost vigor for the past few weeks.

    After another week, he finally stepped out of his room for the first time in the month.

    Each time he went sleeping, he tried to make a ¡°lucid dream¡± happen so that he could observe or even control the dream better. Yet he never seeded.

    He decided to take a day off and go outdoors. At this rate, working too hard wouldn¡¯t help with anything, if not counterproductive.

    It was already evening. He released his spirit power and saw Auri and Mana cleaning the main hall of the manor, while Latata and several of her partners were chatting nearby.

    Angot felt content, seeing how the Krakoks were doing well with the servants. At least he fulfilled his promise to the Grand Priest.

    Without bothering them, he walked to the Milkberry Tree.

    Toby immediately left his fairy partner and gave Angor a kiss on the cheek. It wasn¡¯t wrong to say that Toby had considered Angor his family now. He meant to show his longing affection after being away from Angor for a month.

    When Angor and Toby were done greeting each other, the Moonlily Fairy joined them while carrying a ss bigger than its body.

    It was another ss of milk from the tree blended with candy syrup, and it was emitting a strong but lovely sweetness into the air.

    Angor was slightly surprised to see the fairy¡¯s gift. As he remembered, this creature used to be extremely timid and would hide behind Toby upon seeing anyone. It seemed that after spending some time in Padt Manor, this creature had changed.

    He had no problem enjoying the drink.

    A voice called from behind him when he was only halfway through the milk.

    ¡°Hey, Angor!¡±

    Angor froze up and noticed Leon approaching him from the main gate.

    Leon saw Angor¡¯s lips still full of white liquid and tried not to smile too openly.

    ¡°Did youe out here in the dark for a sip?¡±

    Angor wiped his mouth and feigned an inattentive expression. ¡°The fairy just gave me this. It isn¡¯t polite to reject it, right?¡±

    Leon maintained a straight face as if asking ¡°you serious?¡±.

    ¡°Ahem. It¡¯ste.¡± Angor looked away in embarrassment. ¡°Busy with the refugees?¡±

 Chapter 846 - Royal Army

    <h4>Chapter 846: Royal Army</h4>

    Angor¡¯s act was so bad, but Leon decided not to reveal it.

    ¡°Yeah, more or less. It happens that I need to speak to you in private. You came out at the right time.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°You told me you can put an illusion that stops people from entering Grue Town, no?¡± Leon gave Angor a serious look. ¡°I think we¡¯ll need that now.¡±

    Angor made sure his brother wasn¡¯t telling a joke. He then wondered what made Leon change his mind.

    Leon looked around warily. He made sure no one was around before he exined, ¡°General Morn was defeated at the north border. Yamei isn¡¯t safe now.¡±

    ¡°General Morn?¡± Angor frowned and suddenly remembered someone with a full beard. ¡°You mean n and Aleen¡¯s father?¡±

    ¡°Yup, Eton Morn is dead. His troop was the main force that kept Yamei safe, and without their leader, the soldiers would break down fast. Also, by the time Jordan told me this message, I¡¯d say the loss was half a month ago, which means...¡±

    Leon looked a little sad about this. Since Mara¡¯s visit, the Morn Family had always treated the Padt Family as an ally.

    Angor considered and asked, ¡°You asked because you think Yamei will fall?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid this is already happening.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    They both went to George¡¯s office, which was still lit in the middle of the night.

    It was only over a month, yet Angor could see that the old sheriff looked a lot more beatenpared to thest time.

    Without wasting any time exchanging courtesy, Angor went to a sand table that showed theyout of Grue Town along with the surrounding terrains. The first thing he needed to know was the general size of the illusion.

    The sand table was made by George himself, who did a good job keeping it up to date. Currently, there were a number of tiny wooden houses at the northwest corner of the map that represented the refugee camp. It seemed George put the mark here just recently.

    There were also several more houses under construction inside the town.

    ¡°These are for refugees who agreed to ept the covenant and join us.¡± George shrugged as he exined, ¡°But there aren¡¯t many. When the bad newses, most of ¡¯em will immediately flee from here, I¡¯d say.¡±

    Angor nced at Leon. The ¡°covenant¡± probably meant the very contract Leon mentioned.

    ¡°Point out how much space I should enclose in, brother.¡±

    Leon nodded and slowly drew a boundary around the map.

    ¡°What¡¯s that now?¡± George watched in confusion. ¡°At least tell the sheriff of the n, will ya?¡±

    Leon offered to exin.

    George didn¡¯t say anything about it, but his son, Jordan, asked first, ¡°Illusion? What illusion?¡±

    During the ¡°moonlight rain¡±, Jordan was still on his way to deliver a letter. Unlike the other people in the town, he had no idea that Padt Manor now held a special type of power.

    ¡°I can conjure illusions using special cantrips...¡± Angor took the chance to exin some basic knowledge about wizards, which shocked both Jordan and George for good.

    ¡°But I¡¯m only an apprentice. I can¡¯t do any of the almighty and deadly magic you might be thinking about. Some simple means of camouge is no problem though.¡±

    George nodded in acknowledgment. An illusion that hid the town from war sounded very helpful.

    ¡°But can¡¯t you use that power to defeat Hen, sir?¡± said Jordan. ¡°That solves all the problems.¡±

    George opened his mouth but didn¡¯t find the right words to say. Leon also stopped his movement upon hearing the straightforward question.

    ¡°While it¡¯s fine to save some of our people, I cannot directly change the result of a war. This is against the rules of wizards.¡±

    Jordan was going to protest, but his father quickly dragged him back. Helping Grue Town was already a giant favor. George knew that it was not their ce to ask Angor to confront another country. What if the oue turned out to be bad?

    Soon, Leon showed Angor the area he designated, which was mostly where the people in Grue Town lived or worked. The forests and mountains that were too far from the town were left out.

    ¡°Once the illusion is in ce, no outsiders will be able toe inside. Though you can still leave as you wish, you¡¯d better don¡¯t do that in such a situation.¡± Angor checked the sand table carefully and looked at Leon. ¡°Is there anyone who¡¯s yet to return, or does somebody need to fetch their family from other ces?¡±

    ¡°Everyone is in town, except for Edgard.¡±

    Edgard was a man who had his son killed by the ¡°watcher owl¡±. Since that day, Edgard left the town to live somewhere else.

    Angor knew this man well. During his younger years, this old hunter used to provide all kinds of meat and good-quality animal skin to his family.

    ¡°He made his decision, so we¡¯ll leave him be. He¡¯s good at archery, so he¡¯ll not have a problem finding ie.¡± Angor stepped to the door. ¡°I¡¯ll ce the illusion in a minute. Gather everyone up tomorrow and tell them not to leave the town during the war.¡±

    ...

    ¡°Wizards don¡¯t intervene with mortals at all?¡± Leon asked a question while on their way outside.

    ¡°They do. In fact, many of them do. But most of the time, they do it for finding humanbor or other profits they can see. Wizards of higher levels usually refrain from doing this. But all in all, this is only an unspoken convention, not an actual rule in thewbook. No one forces others to obey it.

    ¡°Do you want me to stop this war?¡± Angor gave Leon a serious look.

    ¡°No. It¡¯s just that, if Yamei¡¯s fully invaded, Grue Town will be isted from the other parts even if it¡¯s kept safe. I don¡¯t like the sound of that.¡±

    Angor nodded. Leon was the lord of Grue Town after all.

    Creating the illusion wasn¡¯t difficult. Upon returning to Padt Manor, Angor returned to his studies, during which both the town and Padt Manor spent some time in peace.

    One weekter, delivery men and traders had spread the message about the death of General Morn to every town and vige. Half of the people living at the refugee camp outside Grue Town vanished within a single day, followed by more deserters in the next few days.

    Another weekter, the majority of Yamei Province stayed safe despite people¡¯s pessimistic predictions. After being on the defense for so long, the Goldspink Empire suddenly deployed several armies to Yamei. ording to another message brought back by Jordan, it was the Shannon n whomanded these men.

    The arrival of the nation¡¯s supreme leader helped all the depressed soldiers regain their confidence and slowly take back the upper hand.

    Angor wasn¡¯t too concerned about the unpredictable situation of the war. But one day, something else happened that drew his attention.

    A member of the Shannon n, who was said to be the leader of the newly arrived military, suddenly showed up at Grue Town.

    ...

    The illusion set by Angor would often get triggered by wandering refugees these days. Each time, the refugees would find them disoriented and teleported back to the outside. After multiple failed attempts, they simply headed to other parts of Yamei and forgot about Grue Town.

    Today, however, a single person managed to step through the illusion and enter the town.

    It was Jordan who discovered the lone intruder. His job was a lot easier with Angor¡¯s illusion protecting the town, so Jordan mostly cked off on his work by spacing out and going over old memories. It was when someone intentionally made their horse neighing loudly under the watchtower did Jordan finally realize he got a visitor.

    He bounced up and quickly looked below. He then saw a woman in bright, golden armor looking back at him on a well-kept white stallion.

    ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°Tavier Shannon, good sir. I¡¯m here to see Viscount Padt. Will you help me request an audience?¡±

 Chapter 847 - Broken Sword

    <h4>Chapter 847: Broken Sword</h4>

    Mana stepped out of the guest room and lowered the door curtain, preventing the other servants from peeking inside.

    Although this would not stop curious folks from asking her questions.

    Most people in Padt Manor had heard that someone named ¡°Tavier Shannon¡± was visiting. They didn¡¯t know who that was, but they all recognized ¡°Shannon¡±, a family name that suggested who was currently ruling the Goldspink Empire.

    Considering the Shannon n just sent an army to Yamei...

    Mana wasn¡¯t going to answer any of the servants. She simply did her job by standing at the door while asking everyone to leave.

    ...

    Those inside the guest room were currently bearing a subtle atmosphere.

    Angor was sitting on a sofa while looking at several parts of a broken knightly sword. The handle of the weapon was decorated with expensive-looking gemstones, and the general design looked no less than that of the works of Krakoks.

    He would say that this was definitely from the hands of a master cksmith. It would even make a fine collection in the wizarding world, on condition that the weapon was in its best condition, which wasn¡¯t the case anymore.

    Apparently, the sword belonged to the seventh princess of the Shannon n, Tavier Shannon. Despite being a weapon made by a mortal, it somehow helped Tavier get through the illusion outside Grue Town, which confused Angor for good.

    Due to the size of Grue Town, Angor only used a low-level illusion that did not require too many magic crystals to keep running. The weakest cantrips could easily break through it. But as long as no one possessed such power, the illusion would ward offmon mortals perfectly.

    Tavier managed toe inside because her sword carried a tiny trace of the fire element. The element usually stayed dormant in the sword. It became active when Tavier stepped into the illusion and revealed a path for her. However, it seemed the body of the sword wasn¡¯t sturdy enough to sustain the burning element. As soon as the weapon finished its job, it shattered into pieces.

    Angor just used Narda¡¯s Vision to check it, hoping to find out why the item could contain magical elements inside, which was usually impossible. But no matter how he tried, the result was ¡°amon, broken sword¡±. There was no element left in it, probably because it was fully spent when breaking through the illusion.

    There should be tricks or secrets on the weapon that made the element property possible. But Narda¡¯s Vision suggested otherwise. The weapon was made of ordinary metal that did not hold any supernatural effects. It might have a masterful style, but it was still worthless in the views of alchemists.

    While Angor inspected the sword, Tavier and Leon were speaking to each other. Telling from the way Tavier talked, she tried to be as polite and modest as possible despite her position in the empire, probably because she came to ask for a favor.

    ¡°As I said, Viscount Padt, I¡¯m here hoping to meet with the mighty wizard.¡± Tavier had removed her helmet that covered her young yet determined look. Combined with her knight armor, she looked quite the leader.

    Leon carefully nced at Angor and saw his brother still looking at the broken weapon. Without Angor giving him any opinion, Leon wasn¡¯t sure how to handle the matter.

    This was why Tavier¡¯s words had been answered byplete silence.

    Without getting any response, Tavier put up a worried look. ¡°The empire is on the brink of peril. We need the wizard to save us!¡±

    Again, Leon didn¡¯t say anything. Even though he didn¡¯t want to see his country fall, he still preferred not to push his young brother into a war. It was also likely that Tavier was talking about Eureka, in which case Leon had all the more reason NOT to help her.

    ¡°He¡¯s called Angor, am I right? I met with him two months ago, when he helped me greatly. Please, let me see him so that I can thank him properly,¡± Tavier pleaded and showed Leon a white fur coat. ¡°I received this in the middle of a freezing night.¡±

    Leon looked between the coat and Angor doubtfully.

    <i>So this woman saw Angor before, and Angor was sitting next to me. Then why doesn¡¯t she talk to Angor directly?</i>

    Angor, who had been staying out of their discussion, decided to speak up. ¡°Are you here asking me to fight Hen Imperial?¡±

    Tavier looked at the second man in the room, whom she didn¡¯t recognize. She didn¡¯t question Angor¡¯s presence yet because Leon allowed it. Now she wasn¡¯t sure why someone who looked younger than her suddenly spoke nonsense.

    Seeing his brother equally confused, Angor sighed and channeled his mana. The air around him became blurry like ripples before he suddenly turned into a middle-aged man with an untidy look.

    ¡°You are-Mister Wizard!¡± Tavier was shocked for good but soon realized who she was looking at.

    Angor nced at Tavier¡¯s body. ¡°You just gave birth one month or two ago, I believe? Is it okay for you to go on bumpy rides alone?¡±

    Tavier blushed. ¡°I... had my child just on the second day after you dropped me off. Two months are enough to get me to my top condition, sir. Now, will you please¡ª¡±

    ¡°How did you know I am here?¡± Angor interrupted her.

    ¡°When I arrived at the capital, I told our brief encounter to my father. He heard from the Morn Family that a new talent was found at Padt Manor. You were heading to Yamei back then, sir, so I took a guess that you are that talent.

    ¡°As soon as I arrived at Yamei, some refugees told me that Grue Town was haunted by magic. Putting two and two together, I knew it was you who did it.¡±

    Angor nodded. Of course the Morn Family would share such important information with the royalties.

    ¡°If you are asking me to help you chase Hen away, you should leave. I¡¯ll not do it,¡± said Angor.

    Tavier thought she still had hope since Angor had been talking to her in a friendly manner. She wasn¡¯t expecting such a quick denial.

    ¡°But the empire is about to be doomed! If Yamei Province is taken over by Hen, we¡¯llpletely lose ess to the sea, and we can only wait for Hen to slowly devour us bit by bit!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that to do with me? An empire will always be reced in the course of history. How long itsts or who takes the throne does not concern me.¡±

    Tavier was almost crying now. ¡°But you saw all the suffering and dying civilians, mister. People died because of Hen. Innocent people! They shouldn¡¯t be enduring the bitter result of a war like this! I know war means casualties, but it¡¯s different this time. I wouldn¡¯t beining if the empire has corrupted to its root and we are vulnerable to revolts and invasions. But Goldspink has been growing fairly. We¡¯re strong, and our people are faithful. The nobility might have asional problems but nothing we can¡¯t handle...¡±

    Leon nodded while listening. Tavier spoke the truth.

    Angor would also agree. His father used to speak highly of the authorities of the empire as well. In fact, this was why Angor offered Tavier a ride.

    ¡°We¡¯ll humbly ept our defeat if the enemies are strong and superior. But trust me, this war is far from fair. Each victory imed by Hen had supernatural individuals manipting the schemes from behind,¡± Tavier exined with a slightly angry look.

    ¡°Supernatural individuals... Are you talking about wizards?¡± Leon asked in surprise.

    ¡°Yes, Viscount Padt. Do you know how General Morn was killed?¡± Tavier didn¡¯t wait for an answer and continued, ¡°He wasn¡¯t defeated by Hen¡¯s soldiers as people believed. He died in his home, at Santal Harbor.¡±

    Santal Harbor was a fortified military settlement at Northern Oil Field and where General Morn had been staying.

    ¡°His entire family of 17 members were all murdered and had their hearts ripped away in one night. Eton Morn was among them. He died together with every singlest of his lineage. His entire family tree was wiped out. The Morn n at the capital sent their army to Yamei because they were furious about the terrible incident.

    ¡°They have three wizards out there who are all General Eton¡¯s family. We need to find the culprit and give them an answer before they return. But as mortals, it¡¯s quite impossible for us to catch this killer who¡¯s very likely another wizard. This is why I need your help, sir.¡±

    Angor listened carefully and was sure that Tavier wasn¡¯t telling lies. The ¡°three wizards¡± she mentioned probably meant Mara, n, and Aleen.

    ¡°How do you know the killer is likely a wizard?¡±

 Chapter 848 - Heart Gorger

    <h4>Chapter 848: Heart Gorger</h4>

    Tavier stared at the floor as she said, ¡°He sent a monster to our pce before.¡±

    ¡°Monster?¡± Angor frowned.

    ¡°It was a giant, human-like... thing. About three to four meters tall, I think. A long muzzle like an alligator. It has sharp teeth, gray skin, and bulging blood vessels. It doesn¡¯t have a nose, but it has five tiny holes on its face. And one single,rge eye.¡±

    Angor considered something and created a miniature image of a monster in front of him by using an illusion.

    ¡°This one?¡±

    Tavier almost jumped from her sofa when Angor exined that it was only a harmless illusion.

    ¡°It¡¯s close. But the monster I saw looked a lot darkerpared to this,¡± Tavier said while pointing to the small illusion curiously.

    Angor nodded and asked her to keep going.

    ¡°Well, it came and started attacking everyone in sight using that pair of deadly ws. It took people¡¯s hearts and ate them. That night... we lost a tenth of our guards within a single night.¡±

    Angor was almost sure of his theory by now.

    ¡°It¡¯s a ¡®Gomito¡¯, or in simpler words, a Heart Gorger.¡± Angor tapped his temple. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t exist in this world under normal circumstances, but people can summon them using special means. It¡¯s not very intelligent, nor is it good-looking, about which you already witnessed. Wizards don¡¯t usually use such a useless creature unless they have very special tastes, or... it is a rogue wizard who didn¡¯t learn more useful arts.¡±

    ¡°Rogue wizard? Is he powerful?¡± Leon quickly asked.

    ¡°Of course not, or the entire empire would be dead by now. Take Miss Eureka for example. If she truly wished to harm Goldspink, she needed only a week at most to eliminate every city and town. If she only went after the emperor, it would only take her a few minutes.¡±

    Tavier shivered.

    ¡°Since Miss Shannon said that the Heart Gorger was of darker color, we¡¯re probably talking about a rather aged specimen near its limit. Speaking of wizards who might summon such a weak monster... It might be that we are not dealing with a wizard at all. A level-1 or level-2 apprentice, at best. He¡¯s very likely to be a wandering apprentice who doesn¡¯t belong to any organization because he¡¯s so openly interfering with a war among mortals.¡±

    Angor described the monster as useless and weak, but a monster like this was still enough to wipe out groups of mortals with ease.

    Common des and spears would have a very difficult time prating the creature¡¯s hardened skin. Telling from how it could easily assassinate General Morn inside a well-protected military harbor, there was no one else in Goldspink who could fight it off.

    Angor was now curious about a certain matter. ¡°A Heart Gorger doesn¡¯t stop killing once it goes all-out. I didn¡¯t hear anything about the Shannon n suffering from great loss yet, which means you chased it away after it got some of your guards. How?¡±

    Tavier remained silent for a while before she spoke, ¡°We have a treasure stored at the pce. It protected us from the monster.¡±

    Leon raised an eyebrow. ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you use it against Hen?¡±

    ¡°It... has several restrictions, and it can only be used by people who have Shannon blood. Each time it¡¯s activated, we must offer someone¡¯s life as a sacrifice. To deal with the Heart Gorger, we lost our third brother. Our n is already short of hands at this rate. We cannot afford to use the treasure unless absolutely necessary. Besides, I think the summoner of the monster can bring more of his minions to wear us down. We won¡¯t defeat him at all even if the entire n was wiped out.

    ¡°Mister Wizard.¡± Tavier suddenly went down on one knee. ¡°Save our empire, save our home. I beg of you.¡±

    Instead of answering her, Angor was taking his time to think about the strange treasure he just heard.

    It sounded so strange. The terrible cost of using the treasure seemed to be something rted to bloodlines. However, putting such a restriction on the item meant the creator of it wished to prolong the existence of their family and allow their blood to be passed down. Why would they kill the users?

    Tavier didn¡¯t have any reason to lie about it, which meant the treasure did exist. Then who gave such a problematic tool to the Shannon n?

    Angor looked at Tavier again and asked another question, ¡°You haven¡¯t told me why the monster attacked. You didn¡¯t know the monster¡¯s name before I told you. How did you know it was summoned by a supernatural?¡±

    ¡°Right... did you see the culprit before?¡± Leon added.

    Tavier hesitated for a bit and decided to tell the truth anyway. ¡°Before the monster came, my father received a letter, which was sent by the summoner. He required us to hand over our treasure, and my father simply discarded the letter in fire. Since that day, the Hen Imperial suddenly began taking over more of our territories, and we would asionally hear aboutmanders and leaders being killed by a monster. I¡¯m certain that the summoner sided with Hen in order to get what he wants. He isn¡¯t strong enough to invade Goldspink on his own.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t interested in the monster or its master at all. Compared to these...

    ¡°He asked you to give him a treasure. The same one you used to repel the Heart Gorger?¡±

    ¡°Not the scroll... I mean, he was asking for another item.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t pay much attention to Shannon¡¯s strange wording and kept asking what exactly the unknown apprentice wanted.

    Shannon looked uncertain again. ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be a secret, sir. I... can tell you, if you agree to help us.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything about it, but Leon was getting impatient pretty fast.

    ¡°You are bargaining with us now?¡± Leon stood up from his sofa.

    Tavier looked up and suddenly began to tremble badly. When looking at Leon¡¯s towering figure, she felt as if she were being stared down by a fierce beast.

    Angor was also looking at his brother curiously because he also sensed the solid pressure emitting from Leon¡¯s form. In fact, Leon now appeared way more menacing than Nausica, from before Nausica joined Brute Cavern.

    <i>I wonder what kind of ¡°training¡± he went through...</i> Angor wondered.

    Tavier replied in a trembling voice, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to press you, Mister Viscount. My father thought it improper to ask for a wizard¡¯s help empty-handed, so he allowed me to use our treasure as a bargaining chip.¡±

    Leon wanted to give the woman more pressure, but Angor stopped him.

    ¡°Let me take a guess then,¡± said Angor as he pointed to the broken sword on the table. ¡°That secret treasure has something to do with this?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Tavier nodded.

    Angor held his chin as if trying to make a decision.

    His action confused Leon. While discussing the refugee problems, Leon could see that Angor wasn¡¯t interested in the war and what the Goldspink Empire would be at all. As Angor¡¯s brother, Leon knew that Angor wasn¡¯t someone to change his mind so easily.

    Was there something special about this broken sword?

    Unable to contain his desire to know, Leon asked the question using a whisper.

    ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s something about that sword that concerned me,¡± answered Angor.

    Tavier anxiously waited for Angor¡¯s final answer with a pleading look. Having a wizard on their side would determine the oue of the war, no doubt. As long as Angor helped them get rid of the monster, Tavier was confident that they could chase Hen away in a fair fight.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll offer assistance, on one condition.¡±

    ...

    Two hourster, Angor began heading to Moonwater City on his Gond. ording to Tavier, the major force of Hen Imperial had gathered on the sea not far from the city, which meant they were going to attack soon.

    Telling from the previous battles, the Heart Gorger woulde ahead and kill all higher-ups in charge of the city before the soldiers of Hen fullymenced their assault when the city¡¯s defense was in disarray. This was how Hen won most of the fights until now.

    ¡°As you asked, we¡¯ll handle the rest of the battle on our own,¡± Tavier said to Angor respectfully.

    Angor nodded in acknowledgment. As they agreed, his job was to get rid of the apprentice helping Hen. He didn¡¯t want to waste time killing mortals for nothing, even if they were the enemies of Goldspink.

    Also, he promised that he¡¯d finish the job within two days.

 Chapter 849 - Stalactite Water

    <h4>Chapter 849: Stctite Water</h4>

    ¡°Without that apprentice, I¡¯m sure Goldspink has what it takes to win the war. And if not, we¡¯ll just ept our defeat like real fighters.¡±

    When hearing her words, Angor quite admired this princess who threw herself to the front line soon after bearing a child. Even so, he didn¡¯t agree to help because of this. He promised to deal with the unknown apprentice in exchange for something he was interested in, which was Tavier¡¯s sword.

    How did the mortal weapon contain fire elements on it? As an alchemist, Angor would like to find the answer.

    Normally, it was extremely difficult to gather magical elements at the Old Earth, where such elements were slow and stagnant. He wondered if, by finding the secret held by the strange sword, he could also learn something about what caused the particrck of elements on thisnd.

    For this reason, he was fully willing to spend two days away from Padt Manor.

    ¡°Now that I offered my help.¡± He looked at Tavier, who was almost jumping in delight. ¡°Will you tell me the second treasure you mentioned?¡±

    Tavier looked worried. She feared that Angor was tricking her into spilling the information before changing his mind and leaving.

    ¡°I have more than one way to find out, and you won¡¯t even notice,¡± Angor added. ¡°But I didn¡¯t do so. Since I¡¯m negotiating with you, I meant to stick to my part of the job.¡±

    Tavier nodded. In her view, it was so easy for wizards to read people¡¯s minds.

    She then exined what helped her sword contain magical elements briefly. There wasn¡¯t much she could say because even the owner of the treasure didn¡¯t know much about it.

    ¡°Stctite water?¡± Angor was rather surprised to hear the ¡°treasure¡±. Previously, he thought the Shannon n had something that stole all the elements in the environment. But ording to Tavier, it was a strange stctite hanging on the ceiling of the pce basement that granted her sword the special property.

    Every 30 years, the object dropped a single drop of liquid. An item that received this liquid would be added with magical elements. The authorities always put weapons under the stctite since the elements worked well with arms forbat. Each time such a chance came, they would find the best weapon they could get for this purpose.

    ¡°So... the liquid is used for giving weapons fire elements?¡± asked Angor.

    Tavier nodded, then shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s not necessarily fire. We have a te in our treasure vault with water element lingering on it. Amazingly, the te gets filled with water on its own no matter how dry it is.¡±

    She then described more items passed down by her family during the past centuries, including a dagger that easily cut through steel, a de that froze anything it hit, a wand that arose mini sandstorms when wielded...

    The n gave these weapons nice-looking names such as the ¡°Bay of Heaven¡± and ¡°Gaze of the Winter Goddess¡±. Tavier¡¯s sword had a simr name too¡ªMhill¡¯s Fury. It was named after a legendary deity worshiped by certain people in the Old Earth.

    Angor wasn¡¯t interested in these awkward names. He just wanted to know what kind of stctite produced different elements so conveniently.

    For now, he assumed that the ¡°stctite liquid¡± was a type of stable aggregate that contained arge amount of elements inside, which was why it could grant the elements to other objects.

    Yet he couldn¡¯t understand why opposite elements, such as fire and water, could exist in the same thing without causing magical reactions. As an alchemist, he knew it was impossible to blend conflicting elements onto the same item.

    Unless... the said stctite was a Mystery item?

    If this was the case, the stctite would show its Mystery power when powering up other items, by which time wizards could easily detect the energy and find it. It wouldn¡¯t be staying with the Shannon n for such a long time.

    Angor decided to finish his job first before going to the capital to check the strange treasure himself.

    ...

    The Moonwater City was arge coastal city that had the biggest harbor in the Goldspink Empire¡ªVichy Harbor. Several years ago, Angor boarded The Redbud from here. He was not a stranger to this ce.

    It was dusk when they arrived. They jumped off Gond and headed to a military camp located outside the city.

    Everyone who saw Tavier saluted her politely. However, Angor could see that all the soldiers looked rather glum.

    Apart from showing Tavier the respect she deserved, the soldiers would also give her sympathetic nces for some reason.

    asionally, there were people who wished to speak to Tavier, but they would then walk away instead.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for letting you see our people in such a bad shape,¡± said Tavier when they arrived at arge tent, which seemed to be themand center.

    ¡°With such terrible morale, I doubt they can defeat Hen invaders even if I remove the apprentice from the fight,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°They are acting like this because of the Heart Gorger, sir. Without that monster, my men will return to their best condition in no time.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope so.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t nning to go and look for the apprentice at all. Since the enemy always sent the Heart Gorger to attack people inmand, Tavier, as the leader of the newly arrived army, as well as the princess of Goldspink, she would definitely be the most obvious target.

    There were probably spies watching over the camp right now. As long as Angor and Tavier walked through the main door in the open, the monster woulde sooner orter.

    This was the reason why the other soldiers in the camp were looking at Tavier like that¡ªthey thought their princess was as good as dead now.

    ¡°If nothing goes wrong, the monster will attack me tonight.¡± Tavier found afortable chair in the tent and sat down.

    Angor moved to the window to look outside. There was only one man in golden armor guarding the tent, while everyone else had left.

    ¡°I told them to stay away,¡± said Tavier, ¡°so they don¡¯t die as cannon fodderter. The man you¡¯re looking at is General Aaron from the Morn Family. He asked to apany me to Yamei and won¡¯t leave until he gets revenge for his kins.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s either overconfident or downright stupid,¡± Angor scoffed.

    There were only several hours until midnight. Instead of waiting idly, Angor chose to go over Freud¡¯s notes and continue studying Dream Walk using only his memory.

    He opened his eyes when the moon was high.

    The entire camp was now quiet and still except for wavering candle lights. By using his spirit feelers, Angor noticed that most of the soldiers were still awake while looking at their tent warily, hoping that the monster wouldn¡¯t attack tonight.

    ¡°By the way, the apprentice wrote a letter to you asking for your treasure. Where did he learn about it in the first ce?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s our fault.¡± Tavier sighed in distress. ¡°We always keep the presence of the treasure as our top secret. After getting that letter, father believed we had a spy or betrayer among us. After some investigation, we noticed that the third consort was missing. We found remains of burnt letters in her room. Letters from Hen Imperial.

    ¡°That was when we discovered that she¡¯s from Hen. She was being too friendly to my brother probably because she wanted to get her hands on our confidential information. Somehow, she found the stctite and sent the info to Hen, which in turn drew the apprentice to us.¡±

    Tavier suddenly began to sob. ¡°After carelessly revealing the secret, my brother wanted to amend his crime by offering himself as a tribute. That was how we fended off the Heart Gorger from the pce.¡±

    Angor saw Tavier almost crying and decided not to ask about their secret weapon that used people¡¯s lives to work.

    He might as well go and take a look at the capital.

 Chapter 850 - Instant Kill

    <h4>Chapter 850: Instant Kill</h4>

    Just now, Angor felt magical energying from the coastal area not far from the camp.

    It probably meant the apprentice had summoned his monster.

    ¡°Is-is iting, sir?¡± Tavier was a little scared when she saw Angor suddenly standing up.

    ¡°Very likely.¡± Angor walked outside and saw General Aaron with a hostile look. He was blocking his way using a broadsword.

    ¡°Lower your weapon, Aaron! Do not offend our honorable guest!¡± Tavier quickly came out and ordered.

    <i>Honorable guest?</i> Aaron looked at Angor and failed to recognize him. <i>Why does the princess respect this man so?</i>

    Before Aaron could do or say anything, Angor summoned a gray bird dressed in an animal costume.

    ¡°Watch these people and don¡¯t let anyone die. I¡¯ll go and check the outside.¡±

    Toby nodded and flew to a tree nearby.

    ¡°You remain here. He¡¯ll protect you,¡± said Angor. He then jumped into the air, and as Tavier and Aaron watched in surprise, he disappeared into the dark sky using a pair of glowing boots.

    ¡°Your Highness, that¡¯s¡ª¡± Aaron¡¯s mouth dropped agape.

    ¡°To fight a wizard, we need someone equally powerful. d I found one.¡±

    Aaron felt reassured that they had such a strong helper. But he soon began worrying again when he thought that only a tiny bird was guarding the camp now.

    Tavier also looked at the tree where Toby was standing. She wasn¡¯t so sure about it either.

    Someone suddenly screamed at the entrance of the camp.

    They looked that way and saw a giant shadow descending from the sky, causing thend to tremble as itnded on the ground.

    Both Aaron and Tavier immediately drew their weapons and prepared for a fight.

    ¡°Graaaw!¡±

    Those who heard the monster¡¯s howl quickly found their remaining will to resist extinguished.

    ws and teeth weren¡¯t the monster¡¯s only weapons¡ªit knew how to use its threatening bellow to render the soldiers of Goldspink defenseless.

    Both Aaron and Tavier managed to resist the fear in their minds somewhat. While Aaron had his revengeful obsession to help, Tavier couldn¡¯t afford to show her weakness when all the soldiers were looking.

    After mustering enough courage, they readied their swords and faced the approaching Heart Gorger with great determination.

    The creature looked between Tavier and Aaron using its single eye. It then reached a w to pierce Tavier¡¯s chest.

    Tavier dodged the attack with a quickbat roll and used her sword to sh at the monster¡¯s thigh.

    ng!

    The de snapped into two, leaving not a scratch on the monster.

    Taking the chance, Aaron leaped from a pole nearby and stabbed his weapon at the monster¡¯s eye, hoping to get where it was vulnerable.

    Yet it seemed the monster¡¯s eyelid was as sturdy as the other parts of its body. After preventing Aaron¡¯s attack by simply closing its eye, the Heart Gorger swiped him away like pping a mosquito.

    After tumbling in the air for some distance, Aaron crashed into a tree as he coughed up blood. The impact was so strong that the tree trunk was broken from the middle, forcing a small bird to fly away.

    Aaron looked up from the ground and saw Toby casually hovering in the air while sipping some yellow juice from a small ss.

    ¡°It just stood there and watched?!¡± Aaron felt thest bit of his hope gone.

    Away from them, Tavier avoided several more w attacks and was visibly getting exhausted. She didn¡¯t show it, but having a baby had weakened her strength greatly.

    Aaron quickly climbed back up and tried to distract the monster.

    There were several soldiers in the area who were observing the fight from afar. And when they saw the towering creature going after Tavier again when she couldn¡¯t move, they either covered their eyes or looked away.

    Tavier saw her past life shing in her view and was ready to wee her end.

    She suddenly felt an unknown force seizing control of her body and tossing her away.

    ¡°Aw... God... this seriously hurts!¡± Shended right beside Aaron¡¯s feet and moaned in pain.

    She then realized that the camp had gone strangely quiet. Neither the monster nor the onlooking soldiers were making any sound.

    She pushed herself up and widened her eyes when she saw the Heart Gorger missing a chunk of flesh around where its heart was supposed to be, while the monster was currently gazing at its wound in surprise.

    It fell down, which was followed by a loud crash.

    Everything happened so fast without giving anyone time to celebrate or express their astonishment. Just a second ago, they thought their princess would leave them. And now, nobody could believe what they just saw.

    It was Aaron who moved first by pointing at the sky with a trembling finger.

    Tavier looked up, only to see a bloody heart dropping from the sky. Above it, the strange bird in a funny-looking suit was still enjoying its remaining drink with an innocent look.

    Toby didn¡¯t have a single drop of blood on his body, and none of the mortals present saw what it did. However, everyone knew that Toby was the one who killed the Heart Gorger. This was the only exnation they could think of.

    ¡°This is the unimaginable power of a wizard...¡± Tavier muttered to herself. ¡°Such an insignificant yet deadlypanion.¡±

    Several secondster, the entire camp boomed with the voices of celebrating soldiers, who all rushed out from their hiding ces to express their suppressed emotions.

    Tavier saw her men returning to life and pointed her sword to the sky as she dered, ¡°The beast is no more. Hen has lost its spearhead. It¡¯s time for us to even the score!¡±

    She then lowered her sword and pointed at where the Hen troops were gathering.

    ¡°Death to Hen!¡±

    Everyone raised their fists to answer her call.

    Aaron, on the other hand, walked to the Heart Gorger and stabbed his sword at its open eye.

    ¡°Thank you, little friend,¡± he said as he nced at Toby.

    ...

    A whileter, Angor returned to the camp and saw all the soldiers acting cheerfully for some reason.

    It wasn¡¯t difficult to figure out why.

    He didn¡¯te back alone. In one of his hands, he was dragging a small child with dirty clothes by the cor. He used so much force that the child kept yelling painfully because it was getting hard to breathe.

    Upon arriving at the military tent, Angor dropped the kid onto the ground, who instantly jumped up and began running away.

    Angor summoned a Hand of Spell, which quickly caught up with the running kid and knocked him out.

    ¡°What is¡ª¡± Tavier saw everything and quickly joined Angor.

    Instead of answering her, Angor looked around the tent and saw both Aaron and Toby inside. Aaron and Tavier had blood stains on their bodies, but they seemed fine.

    Aaron moved to them and gave Angor a knightly salute. ¡°Thank you for your timely help, good sir! From today, I, Aaron Morn, will be at your disposal at all times. Please feel free to ask if you need anything done!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an agreement between me and Miss Tavier, simple as that.¡± Angor didn¡¯t seem interested.

    Aaron wanted to say something, but Tavier stopped him. ¡°Leave us, General Aaron. Set up ns and tactics with your men immediately so that we can hit Hen fast and hard when they¡¯re not expecting it. We MUST win the next fight!¡±

 Chapter 851 - Underground Vault

    <h4>Chapter 851: Underground Vault</h4>

    Tavier quickly asked after Aaron left the tent, ¡°Sir, what about the monster¡¯s owner? Will he attack us again?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡±

    As Angor expected, the apprentice was a Summoner with an extremely old and evil look who wasn¡¯t very far from his age limit. A rogue level-2 apprentice.

    At first, Angor only nned to drag this apprentice away from the war without killing him. But as they talked, he noticed that the strange apprentice looked extremely fearful for some reason and would not look at him. Due to suspicion, Angor used a nightmare illusion to manipte the apprentice into revealing his identity¡ª¡±Ghoul Whisperer¡± from the Centipede Guild.

    Two years ago, every member of the Centipede Guild received Angor¡¯s portrait, which was why Ghoul Whisperer recognized Angor the moment they saw each other. Ghoul Whisperer was certain that he had no hope of defeating Angor in a fight, so he decided to y elusive and find a chance to get the message back to his guild.

    Although Angor never gave him a chance.

    ¡°He¡¯s gone? Nice!¡± Tavier almost jumped in joy. Without their biggest helper, Hen¡¯s ground forces wouldn¡¯t be so strong.

    ¡°I checked. That apprentice attacked Goldspink for personal reasons, and there are no other supernatural individuals at Hen. I¡¯ve done my part, so...¡±

    ¡°Sir-sir, I need to join my soldiers in the fight outside Moonwater City soon. Can we wait until this is finished?¡± Tavier tried.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have time for it. Either you take me to the pce now, or I¡¯ll go there myself.¡±

    The two options didn¡¯t sound much different, but Tavier chose to apany Angor because she wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if Angor ran into someone careless at the capital.

    After asking her second-inmand to handle the battle ns, she prepared to leave the camp with Angor.

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave this kid here.¡± Angor pointed to the unconscious child on the floor. ¡°Make sure he doesn¡¯t escape. I¡¯lle back to pick him upter.¡±

    ¡°You will return here? Can you bring me back as well?¡±

    Angor nodded. Doing so wouldn¡¯t hurt.

    Tavier grew reassured again. She witnessed the speed of Gond for more than once now. If they finished their visit to the capital soon enough, she still had time for the fight at Moonwater City.

    To make sure her soldiers stayed at their top condition, she, as themander, had to stay with them.

    After briefly telling her n to General Aaron, she immediately joined Angor on Gond and headed into the distance.

    The delicate boat looked ever more dazzling when apanied by the bright moon and stars in the sky. Like a lovely ark from a fairytale, it quietly glided past thend, showing its existence to human civilizations.

    For a moment, Tavier forgot everything that had been haunting her mind recently and fully enjoyed the beautiful view.

    ¡°If nothing goes wrong, I¡¯ll take you back to the camp tomorrow. To fight Hen, I suggest you rest up both your mind and body,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Sir... do you hope that Goldspink wins the war?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter to me. However, Grue Town will probably have less trouble if Goldspink repels the enemies instead of letting them in.¡±

    ¡°When everything ends, I¡¯ll tell my father to send more resources to Grue Town and grant Viscount Padt a higher title,¡± Tavier offered sincerely.

    ¡°Simrly, I don¡¯t want my family to have unnecessary trouble.¡±

    It took Tavier a while to understand what that meant.

    ¡°Will do.¡±

    She then tried to get some sleep as Angor told her, but she failed to do so because too many exhrating incidents happened today.

    She sat up instead and looked at Angor again.

    As one of the princesses, she saw many handsome patricians in her life. But still, she couldn¡¯t help but admire Angor¡¯s perfect bodily features. That humble yet alluring face of a gentleman would undoubtedly cause most women to fall in love in an instant. Had she not be someone¡¯s mother already, Tavier knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to resist Angor¡¯s charm.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± Angor¡¯s voice came.

    ¡°Oh, ahem... It¡¯s nothing, sir. Just thinking about random affairs.¡± Tavier looked away. ¡°By the way, who¡¯s the kid you brought back with you?¡±

    ¡°A Hen.¡± Angor leaned against the railing and looked at the horizon.

    He found this child following Ghoul Whisperer closely. When Ghoul Whisperer exined his identity as a guild member, he also mentioned that he adopted the child as a sessor.

    This meant the child was probably a talent. Since Angor still needed one more talent to finish his recruiter task and that he couldn¡¯t invite Leon to Brute Cavern, he thought about taking the child with him.

    They arrived at the capital of the Goldspink Empire¡ªSembia¡ªat about 4 in the morning.

    The city at night looked dark and silent, which waspletely differentpared to the capital of Anrum Monarchy.

    The arrival of Gond alerted the pce guards, who immediately rushed to the boat and surrounded it.

    Tavier removed her helmet as she stepped off the boat first.

    ¡°It¡¯s Princess Tavier. Return to your posts!¡± the guard captain called out before he quickly approached Tavier and went down on one knee.

    ¡°Take me to my father, Captain Micha. I have an important matter to report,¡± Tavier ordered in a serious tone.

    Micha quickly nodded and led the way. Even though the emperor was in repose, no one should dy the princess¡¯ order since it was probably something about the war.

    Angor alsonded on the ground and put Gond into his bracelet, which greatly shocked the onlooking guards. However, no one raised their questions in public. It was until Angor and Tavier both headed to the emperor¡¯s chamber that the guards found a chance to whisper to each other.

    ...

    This area looked more like an underground cavern rather than a basement. There were many stctites hanging from the ceiling, which meant people built a storage inside the cavern that had been existing for a long time.

    The emperor was a hulking middle-aged man named Lochet. The man¡¯s messy brown hair was hastily pressed under a shiny crown that made him look quite funny.

    ¡°Mister Wizard, ahead is our treasure vault, where you¡¯ll also find the precious stctite we talked about,¡± said Lochet, as he politely showed Angor the way.

    Tavier was also peeking inside the vault curiously. Usually, only her father and his closest guards were allowed inside.

    Angor used his spirit feelers to check and noticed that ¡°treasure vault¡± didn¡¯t have many artificial constructions. Most of the cave walls and other terrains were kept as was.

    While walking further inside, he kept his attention on the other hanging stctites and was disappointed when he found no traces of energy from them.

    The special stctite was supposed to be behind a heavy door. Yet he didn¡¯t sense any energying from there either.

    There were two guards d in ck armor standing in front of the door, who lowered their heads in respect upon seeing their emperor whilepletely ignoring Princess Tavier.

    Lochet moved ahead to unlock the door, while the guards slowly pushed it open. Telling from how the floor was shaking, that thick gate was probably over a ton.

    A gust of cold and moist air rushed out of the inner vault chamber. It looked just like another cave, but with an extra man-made stone tform ced in the middle, directly below a single stctite.

    There was a strange-looking chain hammer ced on the tform. ording to Lochet, the other treasures of the pce were stored in other dry areas, while this room was solely used to receive the stctite liquid.

 Chapter 852 - Paper and Pictures

    <h4>Chapter 852: Paper and Pictures</h4>

    Lochet told Angor that the chain hammer was forged by a master cksmith and would be used during the next ¡°element enhancement¡±.

    Angor nced at the useless weapon and focused on the stctite above. It didn¡¯t look much different than the rest of the stctites in the cave.

    Without sensing anything special, Angor floated toward the ceiling until he could see and touch the pointy structure up close, but he did not find anything either.

    ¡°Are you sure the special liquid is produced from here?¡± He gave Lochet a doubtful look.

    ¡°Sir Wizard, I was here when Tavier¡¯s ¡®Mhill¡¯s Fury¡¯ was born. I saw it with my eyes.¡±

    Lochet offered to describe what happened on that day in detail. Before it was enchanted, Tavier¡¯s sword was an ordinary knightly sword with a good design. By following the instructions left by the previous emperor, Lochet ced the sword on the tform and waited for half a month until the ¡°change¡± came.

    That day in the evening, Lochet suddenly felt hot air in the chamber and saw a single drop of glowing red liquid moving down the stctite. As soon as he came up with a new name for the sword, the liquid left the stctite andnded on the sword below, causing the weapon to radiate in red as well, until everything died down.

    Lochet¡¯s exnation wasn¡¯t very helpful since he mainly focused on unnecessary stuff such as how he created lots of amazing names like ¡°Dragon¡¯s Heart¡± or ¡°Firestorm¡±. But Angor could still see that Lochet wasn¡¯t lying. The stctite did hold some kind of secret.

    The problem was that he had not seen such a secret yet. Even Narda¡¯s Vision couldn¡¯t provide an answer.

    Since the ¡°element liquid¡± suddenly appeared on the stctite without any forewarning, Angor believed there must be an opening or a tunnel that allowed the liquid toe out.

    After careful observation, he did find such a thing at the tip of it, which was a tiny hole smaller than the tip of a needle. He didn¡¯t see it earlier because all the stctites were far from smooth and had many hollows and dents on them.

    He reached a spirit feeler inside the hole and noticed that the inside of the tunnel was way longer than he thought. The spirit feeler was now long enough to leave the chamber and reach somewhere afar.

    He kept going in excitement. Reaching the end of this hidden tunnel meant he could find the final secret.

    <i>Is there an elemental concentration? Or a Mystery item?</i> He kept taking guesses and could no longer hold back his curiosity.

    Finally, his spirit feeler came to a stop.

    There were no treasure nor element chunks like he surmised. Instead, he saw a door.

    Precisely speaking, it was the picture of a door drawn on a piece of paper.

    Along with it, there were many strange creatures painted on the paper as well, such as fairies with butterfly wings, rats with electric arcs shing on their bodies, turtles with fish tails... Also, they all appeared as elemental forms.

    Whoever drew the picture perfectly recreated their liveliness and made them look as good as real.

    Angor then tried extending his spirit feeler further so that he could check the painted door. As soon as he did so, the creatures suddenly became alive.

    Lightning, fireballs, and ice arrows... All of the pictures instantly unleashed various attacks at Angor¡¯s spirit feeler, and Angor suddenly felt his vision going dark.

    Toby saw Angor stumbling in the air and quickly used gravity power to steady his momentum. Falling from there wouldn¡¯t hurt much, but it wouldn¡¯t look pretty in front of Lochet.

    Angor shook his head to clear his mind before he looked around with a painful expression. The attacks he received weren¡¯t very powerful, but they still hurt badly as his spirit was defenseless at that moment.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sir?¡± Lochet and Tavier noticed Angor¡¯s strange condition.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I haven¡¯t slept in many days and the fatigue just got me.¡±

    After resting for a while, Angor reached his spirit feeler into the hole again, more carefully this time. It seemed the drawings on the paper wouldn¡¯t bother him as long as he kept a certain distance from them.

    Without any other means to check the strange paper, he stepped to another spot of the cave and looked at the ceiling, where the mysterious paper should be located behind the ceiling wall.

    He wondered if he should forcefully break the ceiling to reveal it.

    He then tried to reach his spirit feeler directly from here without using that hidden tunnel. But as soon as the feeler touched the stone above, it was erased by a powerful force, which caused Angor to crouch down in pain. He felt as if he took a direct hit on his soul from a sharp dagger.

    He spent an entire hour recovering this time, and he felt his spirit weaker than ever.

    Perhaps someone ced a deadly restriction around the paper, which could only be approached via that small passage. As for using force to break the wall... it definitely wasn¡¯t a good idea.

    He might need to endure the attacks delivered by the sketched monsters to get past the door. However, he highly doubted that his spirit was strong enough for it.

    Unless... he could somehow shrink in size and dive into the tunnel himself.

    The only way he could think of for this purpose was by using the Transform cantrip. And since that cantrip was usually regarded as something moreplex than spells...

    No. It seemed he wasn¡¯t going to learn the secret any time soon.

    He felt itchy to know who left such a strange thing in the Goldspink Empire. Did it drain all the active elements from the Old Earth? No one would believe that elemental forms could be born here. Yet Angor knew that those elemental attacks were deadly real.

    He didn¡¯t want to give up yet and began asking for more information from Lochet. Since the Shannon n existed in Goldspink for many generations, they were bound to know something.

    In order not to annoy Angor, Lochet told what he learned from his ancestors. However, he would often stray off the main subject by mentioning irrelevant things such as the beautifuldies he liked and how his n kept lots of remarkable weapons thanks to their great effort.

    Lochet seemed to be the type who loved gossip and rumors a lot. While talking, he revealed many secrets rted to his ancestors that were probably private.

    Angor still listened to all the useless nonsense because he didn¡¯t want to miss any key information Lochet might mention.

    And... he gradually began to regard Lochet in apletely different way.

    While talking about the love affairs between his n members, Lochet never stopped grinning in a despicable way that he didn¡¯t look like an emperor at all. Rather, he appeared more like a filthy stalker who loved peeping at bathing women.

    Even Princess Tavier was getting embarrassed. Without moving too much or showing any particr expressions, she would asionally guide her father back on track by stepping on his foot.

    When Angor wondered whether the emperor¡¯s toes were snapped by Tavier¡¯s iron boots, he finally heard a piece of interesting clue.

    ¡°There was another strange figure who came to us before. I think he was a supernatural like you, sir.¡±

 Chapter 853 - A Familiar Map

    <h4>Chapter 853: A Familiar Map</h4>

    Intrigued, Angor quickly asked who Lochet was talking about.

    ording to Lochet, the arrival of the strange man was mostly unknown because the Shannon n only orally passed the rumor around without leaving any written records behind. However, he was sure it was at least a thousand years ago.

    Now, nobody could tell for sure whether it was a supernatural individual. However, this was very likely because the visitor left a treasure in the pce that had been kept in safety until today¡ªthe particr weapon that always cost someone¡¯s life.

    When the Heart Gorger attacked the pce several months ago, people of the Shannon n used this treasure to chase it away.

    ¡°Can I look at it?¡± asked Angor.

    Lochet nodded without a second thought. For one, Angor was already invited to look at the deepest secrets of the pce, so showing him more didn¡¯t matter. Besides, the treasure could only be activated by someone who possessed the bloodline of Shannon.

    Lochet turned away and asked one of his guards to fetch something from another vault chamber.

    Angor was rather confused to see the said guard carrying a pipe-like object back, until Lochet showed him that it contained a scroll inside.

    Using the keen eye of an alchemist, he quickly discerned that the scroll was made of the hide of a special monster, which was a popr material for its superior element tolerance and conductivity.

    He widened his eyes slightly when Lochet spread the scroll open.

    It showed several elemental forms that appeared simr to the creatures drawn on the small piece of paper he saw earlier. He even found an identical one¡ªa tiny dragon that could spit fire at him. This meant the paper hidden in the small tunnel was also left by this strange figure.

    As the content of the scroll was fully exposed, Angor noticed that the picture wasn¡¯t about creatures or doors, but a map.

    More importantly, he recognized it. He saw something simr back at White m City, which was an old map used as a decoration in the forward office of Brute Cavern. Starting from the southeast coast of Fey Continent, that map demonstrated a series of well-known ces such as Ferran Land, Land of Revtion, Magus Corridor, and Valha Isle.

    However, both that old map and the current one had something Angor didn¡¯t recognize drawn at where the Old Earth was supposed to be.

    He read many other maps or geographical books before, either at home or at Fey Continent. He was sure the continent called ¡°Old Earth¡± wasn¡¯t this flower-shaped thing.

    When he discovered the strange map at White m City, a manager working for Brute Cavern¡ªBoro¡ªtold him that the chart had the wrong details probably because it was too ancient. Angor epted the exnation and didn¡¯t give it much thought.

    Now he believed this second map with the same ¡°mistakes¡± might be drafted by the same man.

    He looked at Lochet¡¯s map more closely and saw it divided into several sections by dotted lines, and each section had a different creature in it, such as a winged fairy, a sleeping turtle... It was as if the mapmaker granted these creatures their own territories.

    He suddenly had a wild guess that the map might be showing him a parallel world or something simr, while that door he couldn¡¯t reach could take him there.

    ¡°Sir, we must offer all of a man¡¯s blood each time we trigger this scroll. If we do so, we can summon forth a powerful beast that will help us defeat our enemies.¡±

    Last time, it was Lochet¡¯s third son who sacrificed himself and summoned a small rat that could unleash deadly lightning bolts to burn the Heart Gorger.

    Both Lochet and Tavier looked down in sadness when the tragedy was brought up.

    Angor checked the map again, using a pair of glowing eyes this time.

    Surprisingly, Narda¡¯s Vision showed him an answer in no time. As the ¡°server¡± in his mind finished the calctions it needed, he saw symbols and digits rising from the map, most of which were apanied by question marks.

    The uracy of Narda¡¯s Vision depended on how much knowledge the user had. In Angor¡¯s case, identifying something not rted to alchemy would not work so well. The question marks represented something he didn¡¯t know yet, and too many of them would make the result unreliable.

    Now that almost 80% of the data were question marks, he probably wouldn¡¯t get anything at all.

    But as the cantrip came to an end, a giant flow of valid data suddenly rose from the map and dived into his mind while eliminating the unsolved puzzles.

    He didn¡¯t know what was going on at all. The instruction of Narda¡¯s Vision never mentioned such a case.

    He didn¡¯t worry about it too much because a perceptible result was already in his view.

    [Item name: Map of Torrent ne (simplified)

    [Creator: Mirafall Van

    [Showing the general distribution of typical lifeforms in Torrent ne

    [Additional effect: Consuming a set amount of energy to simte the biological structures of a creature. Triggered via the bloodline of royal members of the Shannon n

    [Note: If you see this, know that I¡¯m not good at drawing maps. Don¡¯t rely too much on it!]

    Angor was left speechless because he just found so many surprises from the information, and the biggest one being the name¡ªMirafall Van.

    Almost everyone in the southern wizarding region knew this name, along with an acimed title, the ¡°Magic Painter¡±. ¡°Magic Painter¡± Mirafall was a wizard who could connect the real world with paintings. He created several venerated creations, such as the painting ¡°Cmity of All¡±, which was still used in so many magazines and educational books.

    Rumors had it that Mirafall left the southern region several thousand years ago and never came back. Nowadays, every single painting left by Mirafall was regarded as a priceless collection even if it was only an ordinary picture without any special effect.

    Thinking about this, Angor suddenly felt an urge to take this map with him.

    Although the greed slowly died down when he looked at the ¡°activated by the Shannon n only¡± part. Apparently, Mirafall gave this item to the Shannons. Angor didn¡¯t know why, but he did know that he wasn¡¯t supposed to go against the decision of such a great wizard.

    Besides, he could always go back to White m City and retrieve the other one, which didn¡¯t seem to hold any special intentions.

    The ¡°Torrent ne¡± didn¡¯t ring any bell to him at all. It was probably another ne inhabited by elemental creatures, which wasn¡¯t important right now.

    He then looked at thest line again.

    ¡°If you see this, know that I¡¯m not good at drawing maps.¡±

    Narda¡¯s Vision didn¡¯t usually reveal thement of an item¡¯s crafter. Angor had a hunch that Mirafall intentionally did something on the map to allow people to identify it easier. Perhaps he knew someone like Angor would see this map one day and try to find its secret, so he even left a friendly reminder.

    ¡°Ugh. I guess famous wizards all have their weird fancies?¡± Angorined in his mind.

 Chapter 854 - Torrent Plane

    <h4>Chapter 854: Torrent ne</h4>

    Angor slowly created a story in his mind to exin what happened here. A long time ago, Mirafall came to the Goldspink Empire and found an entrance to the Torrent ne. He drew something on a piece of paper to block the ne from the mortal world. He then left a map of the ne as a gift for the Shannon n.

    Of course, Angor had no proof yet. Though he mostly believed his theory.

    If there was an entrance to another world full of elemental creatures, it might have something to do with the element depletion around the Old Earth, because such creatures had to consume elements to survive.

    Lochet and Tavier were still mourning their lost kin. Angor wondered whether he should tell them that it was not necessary to kill someone to use the scroll because ording to Mirafall, the map only drew ¡°a set amount of energy¡±. They could always find the blood from multiple members.

    Besides, the blood was only a key. To provide enough energy for the item, using magic crystals should be enough.

    Unfortunately, the Shannon n never knew how to use the map properly, so they kept spending their life energy in a very inefficient way.

    Angor considered and decided not to tell the truth. The map remained here as a rarely-used secret due to its ¡°huge cost¡±, as believed by the Shannon n. If they learned the workaround, they might start relying on it by plundering their people for resources.

    Furthermore, other supernatural individuals would easily learn about the map as well as the existence of Torrent ne, thus bringing hazard and conflict upon the Old Earth.

    He silently handed the map back to Lochet.

    ¡°Did you find something interesting on it, sir?¡± the emperor asked.

    ¡°Nothing.¡±

    ¡°I... see. Can you please tell us who gave this scroll to us? Is he a powerful wizard?¡±

    ¡°Not only that. He¡¯s a VERY influential man in the wizarding world. I suggest you keep it safe at all times and don¡¯t tell anybody, or bad things would find you and your people.¡±

    While speaking, Angor used nightmare energy to hypnotize and convince Lochet and Tavier that revealing the map to outsiders would ruin the entire empire, so they were not to use it unless absolutely necessary.

    He also ¡°told¡± them to keep the stctite a secret as well. He would like to explore the Torrent ne all by himself first before letting anyone else know about it.

    This was on condition that he could learn how to cast Transform in time, which was a rather difficult task. Telling from relevant records, one probably needed several decades to study all the necessary subjects.

    ¡°Sigh... Guess I should check on the Soft Larva eggster.¡±

    The probability of getting a Mutation Larva out of the eggs was pretty slim, but it was better than none.

    And if everything failed, he could always tell the secret to his professorter. If Sunders found something useful from Torrent ne, he as Sunders¡¯ student wouldn¡¯t be left out from the good stuff.

    With everything done, Lochet invited him to breakfast, during which Tavier used the precious chance to discuss theing battle with the advisers in the pce.

    After finishing his meal, Angor stepped onto an observation tower of the pce to briefly enjoy the clear weather and the beautiful view of the thriving capital.

    Soon, Tavier came to him in her shiny battle armor, which was maintained to its top condition.

    ¡°Ready?¡±

    Tavier felt a trace of warmth inside upon hearing Angor¡¯s gentle voice.

    ¡°Thank you for everything, sir.¡± Tavier knew that Angor epted their breakfast invitation just to give her more time to prepare.

    ¡°Don¡¯t lose Moonwater City to the enemies. I like its view. Besides, I don¡¯t want Grue Town to get dragged into the war.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, sir, you can always join¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s out of the question,¡± Angor said as he asked Tavier to hop on his Gond.

    The weather remained fair. It took them three hours to reach Moonwater City again. They went to the military camp at about 1 in the afternoon.

    The soldiers in the camp were all on guard. No one said anything particr to wee Tavier¡¯s arrival, but they all looked a lot more confidentpared to yesterday.

    Tavier saw Aaron standing in front of themander¡¯s tent with an anxious expression and quickly asked, ¡°Did something bad happen to our n?¡±

    ¡°No-no, everything is ready. We¡¯re fully prepared to engage Hen...¡± Aaron answered while ncing at Angor warily.

    ¡°Then why¡¯s that look?¡± asked Tavier.

    ¡°The kid I asked you to watch over got away?¡± Angor chipped in.

    Aaron nodded and quickly knelt on the ground. ¡°It was my fault, sir, to let that bra¡ªI mean, child¡ªto slip from my sight. I¡¯ll ept any punishment!¡±

    The general offered his sword using both hands.

    ¡°Just tell me what happened.¡± Angor didn¡¯t move.

    ording to Aaron, he ordered a squad of ten soldiers to guard the child. When the child woke up, he never stopped screaming for food or taking a poop. And since it was Angor who left him here, the soldiers had no choice but to agree to everything.

    They removed the restraints on the child since they couldn¡¯t possibly help with his defecation. The kid found a chance and released a swarm of strange bugs from his pants, which easily knocked out all the guards, thus letting him escape from the camp.

    Even now, the guards were still unconscious in the sickbay.

    Aaron seemed extremely frustrated by this incident¡ªhe just asked to serve Angor not long ago, and he messed up his first job already.

    A soldier suddenly came to them while yelling, ¡°General Aaron, Chika is not going to make it!¡±

    Aaron exined when both Angor and Tavier wanted an answer, ¡°Chika is the leader of the squad I mentioned.¡±

    On hurried steps, they all went to the injured soldier. Angor nned to at least solve this problem because it was partially his fault.

    Inside the sickbay, he saw all ten soldiers lying in their beds while their faces were of a sickly blue-ish tinge. Chika was drawing hisst breaths, and the other nine didn¡¯t look much better either.

    ¡°That kid did THIS?!¡± Tavier asked in horror.

    ¡°Yes, mdy,¡± a surgeon in the room exined, ¡°I think it¡¯s a certain poisonous insect, but I cannot ascertain its nature. We¡¯ve been staggering the symptoms by giving them hemostasis, but... they don¡¯t have very long, as you see.¡±

    ¡°That ursed¡ª¡±

    Tavier held back her words because Angor was still here.

    ¡°I apologize. I didn¡¯t expect that kid to be so hostile.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll do something.¡±

    A simple ¡°Neutralize¡± cantrip was all he needed to remove all the poison from the victims, but these men might need some time to wake up because they had been receiving the wrong treatment.

    He collected some blue-grayish liquid he extracted from the soldiers inside a vial and used Narda¡¯s Vision to check.

    It was a potent toxin produced by something called the ¡°White-Legged Sea Spider¡±. Without proper antidotes or useful spells, it would kill within three days.

    In other words, mortals afflicted by such a poison were as good as dead.

    It seemed the kid never intended to show mercy¡ªhe meant to murder these people for real.

    Aaron was relieved to see his men safe, but he quickly grew worried again since he was the one who let the culprit escape.

    ¡°Just forget it. Can¡¯t be helped,¡± Angorforted Aaron.

    The child was only a possible talent who might or might not be an apprentice. Since he didn¡¯t wish to join the path of wizardry by normal means, Angor would not force him to.

    Angor wouldn¡¯t usually judge people by their nature, but he was still displeased to see the child acting so dangerously.

    ¡°Should he appear again, you¡¯re free to deal with him however you want. I won¡¯t care.¡±

    Since everything was finished, Angor simply bid farewell to Tavier and left on his Gond without waiting for a response.

    It was almost nightfall when he returned to Padt Manor.

    The brief leave had allowed him to learn a very precious piece of clue, that the ¡°Magic Painter¡± once visited Goldspink Empire and left a special item behind.

    This would doubtlessly cause quite an uproar at the Old Earth, should anyone at Fey Continent hear about it.

 Chapter 855 - A Lonely Egg

    <h4>Chapter 855: A Lonely Egg</h4>

    Angor reached the manor and saw Leon also returning on a horse.

    ¡°You done with Princess Shannon already?¡± Leon hopped off his stallion and gave his brother a happy look.

    Angor nodded and inspected Leon up and down. The wet clothes and sweat on Leon¡¯s forehead meant that he had been working out.

    ¡°Well, can¡¯t wait to use my favorite bow again,¡± Leon saw Angor¡¯s look and exined. ¡°No luck though. Those exiles scared everything away. So what¡¯s the situation¡ª¡±

    Leon stopped talking when he saw someoneing. It was Auri, who was running their way. It seemed the maid came to invite them to dinner as soon as she saw Angor home.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s talk over the food,¡± Leon said while dragging Angor inside the manor.

    Angor didn¡¯t resist. He didn¡¯t need to eat, but he didn¡¯t have a reason to disappoint Leon or Toby, who was having a rumbling tummy.

    When sitting at the dining table, Leon couldn¡¯t wait to learn what had happened to Moonwater City.

    Instead of talking, Angor used an illusion to fully demonstrate the situation he saw in the military camp, including the fight between Toby and the Heart Gorger, like ying an action movie.

    Leon, as well as Auri and Mana, watched the disy in awe, and they werepletely immersed by the exciting story they saw.

    The ¡°movie¡± ended when Toby killed the Heart Gorger and saved Princess Tavier from death, who then encouraged all her soldiers.

    As a rtively emotional woman, Auri was almost sobbing after enjoying the inspiring sight, which was better than any books or illustrations she ever read.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about wars, but those men seem capable of winning their next fight for sure!¡± Mana imed.

    As someone born in the Goldspink Empire, they naturally hoped that their mothend would triumph over the challenge. They also heard that the Hens ¡°cheated¡± their victories until now, and they weren¡¯t happy about it.

    ¡°Where have you been?¡± Leon frowned while looking at thest moment shown in the illusion. ¡°Toby was dealing with the monster, that¡¯s fine. But what about you?¡±

    ¡°I went to look for the summoner. A pretty weak apprentice. Killed him in a minute. Trust me, it wasn¡¯t fun to watch.¡±

    Leon gave him another suspicious look.

    Angor was telling the truth. He did finish off his target with one single move. It was just that he didn¡¯t wish to mention the bothering matters of the Centipede Guild.

    Next, he used another illusion to show his visit to the capital city, and Auri and Mana both admired the flourishing city in amazement.

    Of course, he omitted everything rted to the underground vault. The Torrent ne had to remain a secret, especially when Eureka was here.

    Leon was eager to see how the battle at Moonwater City proceeded, but since he obviously couldn¡¯t go there for real, Angor helped by simting the terrains around the city using an illusion so that Leon could do a military drill as a game.

    By the end of the dinner, Leon imed that Tavier¡¯s troops would win unless something else unexpected came and weakened their morale again.

    ...

    News of victory came after several days, which was soon known by most people in the empire. By repelling Hen soldiers from Moonwater City, Tavier sessfullyforted both civilians and refugees who spent thest few months in fear.

    As everyone in the empire celebrated their win and praised Tavier¡¯s name, the one who actually promoted the victory¡ªAngor¡ªwas quietly looking at his Soft Larva nest in his bedroom.

    He never paid much attention to this gift he received from Kanter, but since he needed to use Transform to enter the ¡°magical door¡± created by Mirafall, he had to rely on this thing now.

    Since the Dream Weaver ant was no longer here, Angor generously gave the nest lots of Akeso¡¯s blood. The eggs visibly grew more ¡°lively¡± in the previous month. In fact, on the day when Angor returned home, there was already a Soft Larva that made it out of its egg and was wriggling around in the nest.

    Since it was still amon Soft Larva, Angor did nothing more than giving it necessary food and water.

    As he observed, more of the eggs were beginning to show signs of spawning.

    There was one particr egg that drew his attention. Compared to the other eggs that happily absorbed Akeso¡¯s blood to grow, this one always stayed dormant even though it remained in a perfect condition.

    After several more days of inspection, he noticed that the egg was drawing nutrients at a rather low speed.

    He tried to iste the egg in another spot and gave it more blood. That was when he realized that its energy absorption rate was far from slow. It was, in fact, quicker than any of the other eggs.

    Yet this only happened when it was left alone. In such a condition, this exceptional egg couldpletely drain arge amount of Akeso¡¯s blood, which would otherwise take a dozen eggs several days to drink.

    ¡°Highly active when separated... Does it know how to spare more food for its kind, or...¡±

    If the egg was intelligent, it either was too generous or too aloof to ¡°dine¡± with its kins.

    Nevertheless, it was now worthwhile to focus on this one egg and find out what happened next.

    Angor did not ck off on other tasks while watching over the nest. While going over the remaining books that might provide a cure, he would also find time to study Dream Walk.

    For now, he hadpletely no idea about how to deal with the corruption in Jon¡¯s body, so he could only note down Jon¡¯s vital signatures and tried to find simr cases.

    As for Dream Walk, he was progressing, albeit extremely slowly. Telling from his current pace, he expected to spend at least two years to fully grasp this cantrip.

    Tomon apprentices, using two years to learn something out of their ¡°profession¡± was eptable. Yet it was not in Angor¡¯s view, because Jon only had two more years to live if he didn¡¯t do something to help.

    He suddenly remembered that he might be able to use the Dream Whelk to help with his study, and so, he took it out from his bracelet.

    ording to Freud, the whelk could only be triggered by using ¡°dream energy¡±. But when testing the item, Angor managed to find a second key to it, which was his nightmare energy. He guessed that this was because dreams and nightmares were closely rted.

    He couldn¡¯t study Dream Walk very well because he had not figured out how to actively induce a lucid dream on himself. But... What about using nightmare energy for this purpose?

    With the new idea in mind, he sent a ray of nightmare energy into the whelk to activate it.

    And he instantly regretted doing such a thing when the whelk began emitting Mystery energy into the room.

    The window of his room was shattered by something, which was followed by a woman¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Hey, what do we have here?¡±

 Chapter 856 - Dream Walk

    <h4>Chapter 856: Dream Walk</h4>

    Angor felt all the hair on his neck stood up and slowly turned around.

    There she was, Eureka, looking at him with an intrigued smile.

    Angor silently moaned in his mind. Last time he took out the whelk, it was ¡°Sorcerer of Big Fish¡± Sliv who came and almost attacked him.

    And now Eureka.

    He wondered if this item was cursed in his hand or something.

    Of course, he was fully aware that the root of the problem was hisck of strength. If he were to be a wizard, using Mystery items in the open would no longer attract curious wizards. At least not so easily.

    ¡°Is there something you need at such an hour, Miss Eureka?¡± Angor tried to sound both respectful and antagonistic.

    Eureka didn¡¯t mind his attitude and directly looked at the ck whelk on Angor¡¯s desk. ¡°Wait a minute. I think I saw that from somewhere before?¡±

    ¡°What you¡¯re thinking is correct, ma¡¯am.¡± Angor picked up the whelk to let Eureka have a better look at it. ¡°I can sell it to you for 20,000 magic crystals if you are interested.¡±

    ¡°I see. It¡¯s the ¡®Whelk of the Dreaming Coast¡¯, huh?¡±

    ¡°The one and only.¡±

    Eureka¡¯s lips twitched as she turned to leave. ¡°Don¡¯t let me see that junk again.¡±

    Angor saw her disappearing into the dark and snickered.

    ¡°Junk, you say?¡±

    If Freud¡¯s hypothesis were true, the whelk would probably tower above all known Mystery items when it came to value and versatility, while those who regarded it as ¡°junk¡± before could only curse their own thoughtlessness.

    Even though nothing bad happened, Angor was still unhappy that Eureka was constantly monitoring him.

    He cleaned up the broken ss and sat back in front of his reading desk. For now, his only choice was to be modest and endure all the unfair treatment.

    He unleashed his nightmare domain to continue studying Dream Walk, and this time, he was using his own nightmare energy.

    ...

    After Angor¡¯s tablet showed him the result of a spell model afterputing for half a month, he decided to try building the model in his mindspace for the first time.

    There were several requirements for someone to study a cantrip, including fully understanding all the necessary knowledge beforehand and spending lots of time and trial and errors to find the perfect spell model that fitted with their mindspace.

    Angor was doing something a little bit different this time. After experimenting on the Dream Whelk using his nightmare energy, he made sure that the nightmare energy could rece dream energy in many cases. This had granted him a huge advantage. By applying nightmare energy to his mind and body, he could ¡°pretend¡± that he was talented in manipting dream energy, thus making it easier to construct the model of Dream Walk, simr to how other talents were born to effortlessly learn certain arts.

    The tablet already reached a result that suited his axes of the universe rather well. He only had to get to it.

    In the worst case, he might suffer from magic backfire, which was manageable since he had lots of potions and medicine for repairing damaged mindspace. The backfire caused by a failed level-2 cantrip would put him in bed for several months at best.

    He certainly couldn¡¯t spend two years learning the cantrip by normal means. If his attempt failed, he would make up his mind and give up for now.

    He was not so confident when building the frame of the cantrip model since he was far from being a professional dream reader like Freud. He proceeded this way just to see whether he could bypass the restriction by using nightmare energy.

    Knowledge was not mandatory when it came to learning low-level cantrips. For example, the summoner he killed¡ªGhoul Whisperer¡ªdidn¡¯t seem to be anyone who loved reading. That man was talented in summoning, and it allowed him to summon a Heart Gorger with ease.

    Of course, there were no such shortcuts for more advanced cantrips and spells.

    He had finished building the first section of the cantrip model, which went smoothly without crumbling.

    Excited, he continued to work on the second part, the third... until the thirty-sixth. The model didn¡¯t require too much effort to sustain, and his mana reserve was more than sufficient.

    Besides, using nightmare energy to build cantrip models wasn¡¯t something new to him.

    By adding the finishing touch, he sessfully readied the model of Dream Walk, or in this case, ¡°Nightmare Walk¡±, in his mind space.

    By using his hologram tablet and his nightmare energy as tools, along with his determination to take a dangerous risk, he made the achievement at an unbelievable speed.

    This cantrip was only a weak one among all the cantrips he learned so far, but he never felt so nervous and gratified for his sess before.

    He checked the wless cantrip in his mindspace with a hearty smile, then moved to a tiny bed on his desk, where Toby was sleeping.

    Casting the cantrip on Toby did not leave any visible effect or wake the bird up. But in Angor¡¯s view, he saw a ck passage extending all the way into Toby¡¯s form. It was the ¡°Dream Bridge¡±, ording to Freud¡¯s description.

    Meanwhile, Angor felt an extra ¡°sensor¡± growing on his forehead, which felt quite simr to how spirit feelers worked. He simply needed to reach this sensor inside the Dream Passage to see Toby¡¯s dream.

    Just like his soul soil and mindspace, the ¡°dream sensor¡± didn¡¯t appear to be anything that physically existed in reality. Even so, he could freely control it at his free will.

    Upon reaching the sensor ahead, the ¡°Dream Passage¡± grew wider in his view until his point of view approached a glowing exit like leaving through the entrance of a cave.

    He expected to see food or something simr in Toby¡¯s dream. He wasn¡¯t prepared to end up swimming in a sea of smelly salted fish AS Toby.

    He couldn¡¯t escape from the horrible experience since he no longer had control of his ¡°body¡±. The gray wings on the sides suggested that he had clung onto Toby like a bug, just like how Freud exined. In this state, he would travel together with the owner of the dream and see everything, but without being able tomunicate or interfere with the dream in any way.

    ¡°Guess this is not surprising.¡± He looked at all the bird feed around him again.

    He prepared to leave since there was nothing else to look at here, but before he could, he suddenly felt the world around him trembling.

    A giant appeared in front of Toby. And before Angor could see who it was, he heard the towering figure speaking in a familiar voice, ¡°Toooooby...¡±

    Toby happily moved ahead andnded on the giant¡¯s shoulder, which allowed Angor to recognize the thick strands of blond hair on the giant¡¯s head.

    It was him. Well, it was ¡°Angor¡± in Toby¡¯s dream world.

    While Toby lovingly nudged ¡°Angor¡±¡®s face, the real Angor silently left the dream and canceled his cantrip.

    It wasn¡¯t pleasant to look at himself from such a viewpoint. In fact, if he had time for it, he could clearly count how many facial pores there were on his skin from the said viewpoint.

 Chapter 857 - Jonâ€™s Dream

    <h4>Chapter 857: Jon¡¯s Dream</h4>

    After calming down from the excitement of seeing someone¡¯s dream for the first time, Angor wondered why nightmare energy could be used as a substitute for dream energy. In fact, he already felt that the Nightmare Realm and dreams might be rted. However, Sunders never mentioned such a thing in <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Realm</i>.

    On a cold night, one¡¯s best choice was to keep their windows shut and enjoy a nice sleep under a warm nket.

    But of course, Angor wasn¡¯t going to sleep yet. Looking at Toby¡¯s dream was far from done. He nned to try the new cantrip several more times before going into Jon¡¯s dream.

    First, he opened his door and stepped in front of the neighboring room where Auri was sleeping.

    Using his sharp senses, he could hear the maid breathing peacefully in her slumber.

    Before he could cast Dream Walk, however, he suddenly heard Auri moaning in a small voice.

    ¡°Oh heh heh... no, you don¡¯t... hmm hm hm...¡±

    Angor silently canceled his cast. It wouldn¡¯t be very gentleman-like of him if he were to peek into something that might be awkward for ady.

    He walked further down the hallway until he stopped in front of another door with a strange expression.

    He was looking at an odd metal door that didn¡¯t seem to belong to Padt Manor, or anywhere in Goldspink, for that matter. The heavy door had a number of engravings of different creatures on it, such as a tri-eyed giant, arge turtle with a snake-like tail, a demon covered in mes... The creatures were of different styles, but they all looked pretty fierce and bada*s.

    Above all the creatures, there was the shadow of another individual towering over them. It wasn¡¯t difficult to tell that this shadow with an anchor mustache was Nano.

    It was Nano¡¯s room. Obviously, he designed this door himself.

    Angor didn¡¯t know what Nano had been up to in these months, but he could more or less guess what happened when looking at such a bothersome decoration.

    He shook his head and used his spirit feeler to pick the lock.

    This room used to be a spare one prepared for guests. It seemed Nano did not revamp it too much apart from adding that door as well as several glowing curtains in the room.

    Right now, Nano was snoring loudly on hisrge bed in a sprawling style.

    Angor quickly built the spell model for Dream Walk in his mindspace, which took him about one minute, and reached the ¡°dream sensor¡± in Nano¡¯s mind.

    He saw Padt Manor, where Nano was chasing after Latata while cursing loudly.

    Latata had a piece of undyed silk in her hand. She was running to Mana¡¯s room while calling, ¡°Miss Mana! I rescued another!¡±

    ¡°GIVE IT BACK HERE!¡± Nano screamed at the top of his lungs.

    Angor quickly left the dream since what was going on was pretty in to see. He looked at Nano in reality again and noticed that Nano was showing a silly smile.

    ¡°He¡¯s enjoying it...¡± Angor¡¯s lips twitched.

    He then spent most of the night checking people¡¯s dreams in the manor, including sweet ones and nightmares. It seemed all the Krakoks were enjoying their pleasurable dreams where they were either building or admiring their new home. Angor was d to see the tiny folks having such collective and innocent minds.

    Compared to the Krakoks, humans tended to dream about odd stuff rted to insignificant matters they went through during the day.

    Angor learned quite a lot of experience during the tests.

    Firstly, Dream Walk didn¡¯t work on just anyone. There were people who were sound asleep without having any dreams, in which case Angor could not induce a ¡°dream passage¡± from them. ording to Freud¡¯s instruction, there were ways to actively cause such people to dream such as cing certain magical nts near their beds. Angor¡¯s Dream Weaver ant was also an applicable approach.

    Also, most dreams could appear as random fragments of thoughts that couldn¡¯t be clearly observed or perceived. Using Dream Walk on these dreams were quite pointless because one also needed certain methods to ¡°connect¡± the pieces in order to tell useful information. Of course, that wasn¡¯t something Angor could do yet.

    There was another matter that bothered him. Each time he traveled through a ¡°dream passage¡± before entering dreams, he would always see the same view of an empty wilderness first, which seemed to be a general ¡°dream world¡± that contained different smaller dream worlds of people.

    Unfortunately, there was not much Freud could tell him since Freud himself was still learning about this ce that existed between reality and imagination.

    Since the trials went smoothly tonight, he decided to find time to check on Jon¡¯s dream next. It didn¡¯t have to be during the night.

    ...

    It waste spring. The sky grew bright early in the morning.

    While having breakfast, Angor mentioned what he didst night to Toby, and Toby had no problem telling Angor all the fish he ¡°ate¡±. The bird even used his ¡°wing signs¡± to tell Angor which type of salted fish was his favorite.

    ¡°Is that so? Should we send a servant to the town to get some more?¡± Leon approached their table, yawning.

    ¡°Tweet!¡±¡ª<i>Yes, please!</i>

    Leon simply told Mana to handle the job and took a seat beside Angor.

    ¡°I asked our tailor to make you something new to wear,¡± Leon said to Toby, ¡°I think that fairy is adding perfume to it now. Remember to get itter.¡±

    Toby ditched his breakfast and rushed away immediately.

    ¡°Well, we shouldn¡¯t coddle him like that,¡± said Angor even though he was more than happy to see his partner getting along well with his family.

    ¡°Why are you having breakfast anyway, Angor? You don¡¯t need to, right?¡±

    ¡°A bit tired with my studies. I need a little rest-up, that¡¯s all. How¡¯s the war going? Are the refugees settled?¡±

    ¡°Everything calmed down since the victory at Moonwater. General Aaron is now in charge of Yamei in the ce of Eton. I heard that Princess Shannon went to Inkhorn Province to get rid of invaders there, but I don¡¯t know how she¡¯s doing.

    ¡°As for refugees, at least we don¡¯t have to worry ¡¯bout them with your illusion here. Those who¡¯re willing to work for us all started their lives anew. Most of them look good.¡±

    Leon then gave Angor a curious look. ¡°What about you? Is your... study going well?¡±

    When Angor remained silent, Leon knew he should change the subject.

    After talking about some trifles and finishing their meals, Angor took a brief tour around the manor. He made sure those he checked on yesterday were in good condition before heading to the ice chamber.

    Jon looked fine in the ice coffin. At the very least, his condition didn¡¯t worsen.

    Telling from that slight smile, Jon had been enjoying the dreams made by the Dream Weaver.

    Angor took a deep breath. He fully calmed his spirit down and slowly applied Dream Walk onto Jon.

    <i>Ah... there it is, the dream passage. I did it!</i>

    He nced at the ant sleeping beside Jon¡¯s head again and couldn¡¯t help admiring the best decision he ever made. Paying the ¡°trade secret¡± of an Energy Stabilizing waspletely worth it.

    While trying not to let his excitement affect his spell, he slowly reached a dream sensor to Jon.

    Once again, an emptynd came into his view first.

    But upon a careful look, the ce was not so empty this time. He believed he saw several small dots drifting about in the great distance.

    ¡°Are those... some of the creatures living in the dream world?¡±

    He shook his head and kept moving forward. He just couldn¡¯t wait to find out what kind of nice dream Jon was having.

    Was it Earth, or the good old days at Padt Manor?

    While feeling a bit nervous, he dived into a glowing entrance ahead.

 Chapter 858 - Solid Memory

    <h4>Chapter 858: Solid Memory</h4>

    ¡°You¡¯re back early, Jon! Muey hasn¡¯t returned from school yet,¡± an old man greeted his visitor while sitting inside a bright room enclosed in ss walls.

    ¡°I earned vacation for finishing my research ahead of schedule. Can¡¯t wait to see my family,¡± the visitor spoke in a charming man¡¯s voice.

    Angor was currently ¡°attached¡± to the second man. He felt great emotions and excitement overwhelming his mind upon hearing the familiar ent andnguage.

    He was with Jon.

    Upon entering the dream, Angor found the owner of the dream walking down an empty street, both sides of which had beautiful maple trees nted. The bright red leaves falling off them suggested that it was autumn.

    But there was only unending darkness beyond the trees. The lone street was the only thing that existed.

    He couldn¡¯t see Jon¡¯s face or tell whether it was Jon at all at first, or whether the strange street was from Earth or some other ces. This was until the silent pedestrian arrived at a small sshouse at the end of the street.

    As soon as the old man inside the house started talking, the empty area around the house started expanding until arge buildingplex came into view. Angor was now sure that this was Earth.

    Angor found Jon¡¯s voice to be both familiar and strange since they had been apart for many years, and that this ¡°Jon¡± in the dream seemed a lot younger.

    After greeting the old man, Jon left the sshouse and headed to the structures farther behind. As he walked, the street behind him slowly crumbled and was covered by approaching darkness, until the sshouse and the old man also disappeared.

    ¡°The dream is notplete...¡± Angor frowned.

    Usually, a dreamer could only ¡°remember¡± bits of their memory such as specific details that either defined the dream as a good one or a nightmare. But as a rule of the dream world, insignificant parts that were ¡°left out¡± by the dreamer, such as the dream¡¯s brightness and negligible objects would be automaticallypleted and shown in the dream.

    But in certain cases, these ¡°unimportant parts¡± would be leftpletely empty, which would, in turn, cause the dream to appear as a chaotic mishmash.

    Freud mentioned three possible causes for this to happen. One, the dream was devoured by ¡°native monsters¡± of the dream world. This was very unlikely because these creatures would not go aftermon and ¡°private¡± dreams. This was also an unspoken rule of the dream world.

    Dream Maniptors could achieve something simr either by controlling their own dreams or someone else¡¯s. However, people who knew this art were scarce, simr to Gourmets. If a Dream Maniptor were here to meddle with Jon¡¯s dream, Eureka would have already noticed.

    As for thest possibility... This would happen if the dreamer suffered from brain damage and could no longere up with dreams properly. This usually meant the mental injury had reached a very dangerous state.

    Thinking about this, Angor¡¯s mood instantly dropped even though he was feeling joyful at hearing Jon¡¯s voice a second ago.

    Although this wouldn¡¯t affect the ¡°Jon¡± in the dream in any way.

    Jon was entering the vi area while asionally greeting clusters of random shades on his way. Each time he did, the shades would slowly gain forms and be someone living in the area, who returned their friendly regards happily.

    ¡°Look who¡¯s back in the house! The best botanist in the field!¡±

    ¡°You tter me, Miss Shen. I¡¯m just an assistant researcher right now,¡± Jon replied somewhat bashfully, which was new in Angor¡¯s view.

    ¡°Shawn¡¯s been waiting for you for two weeks! You¡¯re not going to disappear after a phone call overnight like how you didst time, right?¡±

    ¡°No, I won¡¯t. They promised to let me rest up for a month at least. I might even take Havier to the institute next time.¡±

    ¡°Good to hear!¡±

    Once again, Jon kept moving forward, leaving the vi buildings to be devoured by the dark curtain behind.

    It seemed Jon clearly remembered where his neighbors and friends lived around his home, telling from how he always stopped to talk to somebody at urate locations.

    And of course, Jon looked really happy to be home.

    Compared to Jon, Angor was feeling rather sad when looking at everything. Jon spent 20 years at Padt Manor, during which he never told Angor anything about his friends from Earth.

    Angor used to y pranks to help Jon recover from low spirits when he was little. But now, he wasn¡¯t sure it was a good thing to do when witnessing the true reason for Jon¡¯s sadness.

    The more he watched young Jon heartily talking to all the friendly folks who existed in another universe, the more heartbroken he grew when thinking how Jon was grievously separated from them.

    Finally, Jon walked past thest friendly neighbor and arrived home.

    Angor was a little surprised to see a stilt house built in Jon¡¯s garden, where such ces were usually reserved for fountains or private swimming pools.

    The house made from sturdy bamboo looked almost identical to the one in Padt Manor.

    On the balcony on the second floor, a woman wearing a sun hat was sound asleep in an armchair.

    Instead of going inside, Jon stood in front of the house and watched the sleepingdy in silence.

    Angor couldn¡¯t see Jon¡¯s expression from his position. But he knew Jon loved the woman. That was very likely Jon¡¯s wife.

    Angor could almost feel the great happiness radiating from Jon¡¯s body.

    When Jon was still healthy at Padt Manor, there used to be servants or maids who showed their interests in him. ording to Leon, even Head Maid Mana seemed to love Jon¡¯spany.

    Of course, Jon did nothing in response to the gestures of affection other than maintaining his best manners.

    There was one time when Angor asked Jon whether he was nning to get a new family and pass his knowledge onto his own child.

    Jon answered him using an ancient poem at that time. Angor couldn¡¯t remember the phrases, but he was sure he was greatly inspired then.

    Even across the unreachable boundaries between worlds, Jon stayed faithful to his wife and never strayed.

    Angor did not even know the names of Jon¡¯s wife and daughter. But the longing love he felt from Jon never changed, and he was feeling it again.

    Jon remained still for a long time until the falling maple leaves had covered up his boots.

    A gust of wind suddenly came and blew the leaves away, and the woman¡¯s hat was also carried away andnded in Jon¡¯s hand.

    She yawned and looked around in confusion. She then looked below and saw Jon gazing at her.

    ¡°You¡¯re back!¡± She happily waved both arms. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you wake me up?¡±

    ¡°I nned to, when this thing came and interrupted me,¡± Jon spoke while waving the sun hat.

    Angor noticed that the woman shared simr body features as Jon, probably because they were born in the same homnd. She was far from being an alluring beauty, but her humble and tender look went well with Jon.

    When Jon and the woman shared the blissful moment, Angor also noticed a tiny trace of a different emotioning from Jon.

    Sadness.

    He thought his senses were off, which was soon proved otherwise when a drop of tear moved along Jon¡¯s cheek.

    Surprised, Angor watched the teardropnd on Jon¡¯s boot.

    It could be exined if Jon was crying out of joy for reuniting with his love, but that sorrowfulness didn¡¯t fit in this context.

    ¡°Does Jon perhaps... know that this is a dream?¡±

 Chapter 859 - Lucid Dream

    <h4>Chapter 859: Lucid Dream</h4>

    If Jon knew what was going on, it meant he was having a ¡°lucid dream¡±.

    In most cases, dreamers could control such dreams to a certain extent such as turning themselves into supermen.

    But for now, Angor didn¡¯t see any traces of such maniption yet. Actively changing the course of a dream would easily cause it to be unreasonable, illogical, and more obvious thanmon dreams. And of course, the drastic changes all tended to be in the dreamer¡¯s favor.

    Jon had spent a long time talking to his neighbors and watching his wife, while everything he interacted with was fluent. This dream was almost a perfect recreation of Jon¡¯s old memories, which was a rare case for lucid dreamers.

    A small girl with a double-bun hairstyle, pink princess skirt, and arge school backpack rushed into Angor¡¯s view and crashed into Jon¡¯s legs.

    Angor looked more closely and saw the girl resembled the woman above in many ways.

    The girl was running too fast, so the ident knocked her to the ground. She looked about to cry, like any other kids who painfully fell on their butts.

    ¡°Hey, Muey,¡± Jon called her name.

    The girl looked up and perked up in a second. ¡°Daddy¡¯s back!¡±

    She jumped back up and hugged Jon¡¯s legs without minding all the dirt and wrinkles on her clothes.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do that again, alright?¡± Jon put a hand on her head. ¡°Thank goodness I¡¯m not amp pole.¡±

    The woman in the stilt house also came to them with a bright smile, and the three of them went into the house together.

    Inside the cozy house, Jon spent a peaceful moment exchanging lovers¡¯ talks with his wife while their daughter napped quietly in Jon¡¯s arms.

    Angor also enjoyed the serene sight that seemed to be the best dream possible for Jon.

    By listening to their conversation, Angor learned that Jon¡¯s wife was Shan Harvey, while their daughter¡¯s name was Shan Muey.

    Harvey was a full-time housewife who fully devoted herself to looking after their home. Muey was now second-year at her primary school, which was only a street away from their house, so Muey usually headed there by herself.

    The blissful family moment continued on for a long time.

    ¡°Our recent subject is done,¡± Jon said during dinner, ¡°I can remain home for a month from now on.¡±

    Both Harvey and Muey seemed d to hear this. Apparently, they didn¡¯t get to unite much due to Jon¡¯s profession.

    However, what Jon said next troubled everyone.

    ¡°As I told youst time, theing project is supposed to be a teamwork between different nations. To watch over the test subjects provided by China, I need to join thebs in New York.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going abroad next time?¡± Harvey dropped her chopsticks.

    Jon¡¯s current workce was still within their city, which meant it was convenient for them to see each other as long as Jon found a few days to rest. But if they were to get separated across the ocean...

    ¡°It¡¯s written in the n. The project is too important to give up now. It will probably take me several years. I asked the HQ whether I could take you with me.¡±

    ¡°What did they tell you?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s approved.¡± Jon nodded.

    Harvey didn¡¯t seem happy about having to move to the USA all of a sudden because there were so many problems to settle, such as loss of friends, financial concerns, and the education of Muey.

    Jon patiently waited for Harvey¡¯s decision while looking at her passionately as if he were trying to imprint her looks into his mind while he still had time.

    Angor was now certain that this was a lucid dream. The great sadness in Jon¡¯s eyes only belonged to someone who was away from his family for decades, not mere months.

    Seeing his wife still weighing her choices, Jon decided to persuade her. ¡°Please,e with me. Apart from staying together, I... would like to introduce you to my favorite student as well.¡±

    Harvey made up her mind and agreed, at which point, the dream suddenly shattered to fragments that swirled around Jon¡¯s body.

    The mirror-like shards showed Angor lots of different and amazing sights, which seemed to be more of Jon¡¯s memories, such as metal cars flying in the sky,rge traffic tunnels built under the ocean, more family moments with Harvey and Muey, academic conferences joined by professionals in doctor uniforms... All these fragments had Jon as the main narrator, who slowly turned from a young assistant to an experienced senior scientist.

    Angor found himself floating in a brand new environment after thest fragment went away. It was aboratory room fully enclosed by metal walls. He looked around and quickly felt dazed when seeing all sorts of hi-tech equipment and screens showing something he couldn¡¯t recognize.

    He saw many documentary movies rted to such things before, but he never saw the inside of such a leading-edgeb so up close.

    Jon was sitting in front of a ss container while writing on something. There was a strange nt inside the container. The nt was receiving some kind of spraying from an irrigation device nearby.

    Another researcher in a white robe suddenly appeared next to Jon. ¡°Your team is up next, Jon. Wait, where are the rest of you?¡±

    ¡°They went to another department on call. Mass deaths have been recorded for ¡®Specimen P¡¯.¡± Jon sighed. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m on my own today.¡±

    ¡°I see. Take ¡®Specimen R¡¯ with you then. Number 7 to 13. Thirty minutes will do. The Alien Eye has remained inactive these days, so we don¡¯t need to prolong the observations.¡±

    Jon watched his co-worker leave the room and remained still for a moment.

    Angor had no idea what was going on until he saw Jon take out five ss incubators, one of which contained something he recognized.

    It was the Morning Dew.

    Angor heard about the incident that brought Jon to the Old Earth. It was when Jon experienced an unexpected disaster caused by the Alien Eye while working on Morning Dew.

    When an unknown force dragged Jon to a foreign world, he carried both the Alien Eye and Morning Dew with him.

    But...

    ¡°The Dream Weaver¡¯s supposed to give Jon a sweet dream. Why is Jon dreaming about the day of the disaster?¡±

    This was the biggest nightmare in Jon¡¯s life!

    As Angor looked in confusion, Jon was beginning to tremble badly as if he was afraid of something.

    ¡°Jon knows what¡¯s going to happen...¡±

    Angor was hoping that this was a lucid dream because it could make it easier for him to directly talk to Jon, should he sessfully learn subsequent arts.

    The door of theb room was suddenly pushed open, and another researcher went inside.

    ¡°We confirmed, Jon. The decay is caused by the Alien Eye¡ªwhat¡¯s going on? Not feeling well?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Maybe I caught a coldst night.¡± Jon hid his true condition.

    ¡°Should I handle the job this time?¡± The researcher moved to take Jon¡¯s containers, but Jon quickly rejected the offer.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Tell our men to concentrate on their end. I¡¯ll handle our schedule.¡±

    Jon¡¯s strange attitude had further confirmed it for Angor that Jon was purposely proceeding with the dream in a certain way. This didn¡¯t seem like the work of the Dream Weaver. Rather, it was probably Jon himself who set up the ¡°plot¡±.

    But why would he do such a thing?

 Chapter 860 - A Changed Dream

    <h4>Chapter 860: A Changed Dream</h4>

    Jon chose to follow this path in his dream even though he knew it was the beginning of his misery?

    Or was he trying to make a change at thest moment?

    Angor chose to keep observing. Next, he saw Jon carrying the nt incubators and walking past several heavily-guarded checkpoints before reaching arge research hall.

    ¡°Doctor Jon. Please change to your hazard suit.¡± A hologram figure suddenly appeared next to the entrance.

    Jon followed through the required procedures without saying a word like any dedicated researcher would. Although this only added to Angor¡¯s suspicion.

    ¡°Is he nning to go over the terrible experience again? Or...¡±

    Jon slowly walked through the final checkpoint and headed to a thick ss box located at the center of the hall. The Alien Eye was right inside the box. The same artifact that Angor had been keeping closely.

    Jon readied several devices. He then asked the other researchers to activate a radiation emitter and ced the incubators near the Alien Eye one by one.

    Angor also noticed that Jon no longer looked fearful upon arriving here as if he was determined to witness the disaster for a second time.

    While handling thest test subject, which was the Morning Dew, Jon¡¯s action halted very briefly. But Angor still saw it.

    This had told him that Jon wasn¡¯t as confident about this as he appeared to be.

    When the Morning Dew was in ce, Jon showed a thumbs-up to a researcher nearby, who activated the radiation device again, which was aimed at the Alien Eye.

    Everything seemed normal. Jon smoothly recorded what he observed from the Morning Dew.

    Angor felt relieved all of a sudden. He believed that Jon removed the adversity from the dream and would go down a more peaceful path.

    But at the same time, he was sad. Without the Alien Eye incident, Jon would nevere to the wizarding world and be his teacher.

    He thought the dream would finally reach a good ending and that he would have no problem epting it. Earth was Jon¡¯s true home and where his family had always been, after all.

    At the end of the research, Jon waited until the radiation came to a stop and retrieved the Morning Dew. It was the only nt among all five that didn¡¯t suffer from obvious damage.

    The deactivated emitter suddenly lit up again as it began releasing heavy radiation into the hall. Usually, this wouldn¡¯t cause too much trouble since the radiation only had a limited effect on the Alien Eye, and most of it would slowly die down in the room.

    However, the case became unexpectedlyplicated when the Alien Eye began glowing brightly as it absorbed more radiation than ever.

    In the next second, the space around Jon wavered and crumbled. A swirling ck hole appeared right above where Jon was sitting.

    Jon didn¡¯t seem surprised at all. He simply turned around to look at the researcher who was handling the emitter¡¯s switch, who looked as astonished as everyone else upon seeing the abnormality.

    This man was surprised because he never intended to cause such a giant hazard. He re-activated the emitter at the wrong time because he only nned to murder Jon.

    Angor suddenly heard Jon mumbling in a small voice, ¡°My friend, should I me you for this or not? You opened up a brand world to me...¡±

    There was no resentment contained in Jon¡¯s emotion. Only regret and... disappointment.

    Angor didn¡¯t remember Jon mentioning anything about being set up. And instead of killing Jon, the murderer caused something unpredictable by sending Jon to another world.

    After falling intoplete darkness, two glowing figures showed up beside Jon and held his hands.

    Harvey and Muey.

    It seemed Jon chose to alter his dream after all.

    ¡°Where are we going, Dad?¡± Muey¡¯s innocent voice echoed in the dark, while Harvey gently leaned on Jon¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Did you enjoy your stay in America? I once mentioned taking you to my student, didn¡¯t I? We¡¯re heading to him now.¡± Jon smiled at his daughter.

    ¡°Who is he, Dad?¡±

    Jon looked up as he said, ¡°A yful little imp he is... I should tell you, don¡¯t get fooled by his good looks. He¡¯s one hell of a troublemaker, but don¡¯t be mean to him either. He¡¯ll be your best friend as long as you know how to get along.

    ¡°Just like you two, he¡¯s as good as my family now. Be nice to each other, okay?¡±

    Once again, the dream shattered and reformed into another sight. They were now standing in the stilt house again. Not the one at Jon¡¯s home, but the house at Padt Manor.

    When they heard someone knocking on the room¡¯s door, Jon looked toward the door with a gentle smile.

    ¡°Can Ie in, Teacher? I¡¯ll take it as a yes if you don¡¯t say anything!¡±

    The door was pushed open, revealing the head of a young boy behind.

    ¡°Here, meet Angor, my favorite little student,¡± Jon said in a small voice, which soon turned into a whisper.

    ¡°If only this is all real...¡±

    ...

    Angor left the dream and took several deep breaths, hoping to get rid of the pain in his eyes.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    Angor jerked his head around and saw Eureka standing right next to him, who was examining the pyramid-shaped ant nest in her hand.

    ¡°A Dream Weaver... We don¡¯t find these things often.¡± She briefly peeked into the nest and tossed it back into the coffin. ¡°You were inside Jon¡¯s dream, weren¡¯t you? What did you see?¡±

    Angor slowly stood up and bowed to her.

    Of course he didn¡¯t wish to answer that question, but he couldn¡¯t oppose her either.

    ¡°I met with Jon again, which was always my dream. I almost cried out of joy.¡±

    ¡°You almost cried, huh?¡± Eureka showed a look of disbelief. ¡°Such an impressive bond.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the truth, ma¡¯am. Won¡¯t you feel thrilled if you are to reunite with your long-lost family?¡±

    Eureka¡¯s expression turned darker as Angor¡¯s words reminded her of something she didn¡¯t want to think about.

    ¡°Humph. Come with me, I have something to say.¡±

    Without a choice, Angor obediently followed her out of the ice chamber.

    While at the entrance, he gave Jon¡¯s ice coffin another determined look. Never once did he feel so ready to achieve something ever since he lost his parents.

    He wanted to save Jon, as he always nned to. But he had found another purpose now. He wanted to see Jon¡¯s home universe. The brand new world with unlimited marvels.

    He put a hand on his chest and felt his pendant, where the Alien Eye was safely kept.

    ...

    Eureka always knew about the Dream Weaver brought by Angor. She never gave it much thought because the insect had no use other than giving Jon a good dream.

    But she had never expected that Angor would actually study Dream Walk and enter Jon¡¯s dream.

    She wasn¡¯t interested in the dream of a mortal, but she was VERY interested in finding out Angor¡¯s secrets now.

    Soon, they arrived at Jon¡¯s old stilt house where Eureka was staying temporarily.

 Chapter 861 - Shino Trench

    <h4>Chapter 861: Shino Trench</h4>

    The blue sky and the clear seawater had joined together in the distance, making it difficult to tell where the horizon was.

    A flying boat swept past the sky, adding another trail of adorable ripples above the water.

    On the boat, Angor was currently ring at a fat owl that had been standing on the prow of the boat while guiding their direction.

    The owl pointed a wing somewhere while yelling at Angor, ¡°That way, you moron! Look at me! Are you blind?!¡±

    Angor looked away and changed their course while considering whether he should learn how to roast the bird for dinner.

    ¡°You can¡¯t even read maps! Thank goodness the master sent ME to watch over you, or you¡¯ll never get to Lloyds by yourself!¡± the owl imed proudly, thinking that it was tasked with an important job.

    Angor didn¡¯t protest¡ªhe was bad at navigating on the sea, that much was true.

    But he still didn¡¯t like Brulee¡¯s attitude.

    ¡°We are not at the Old Earth nor Padt Manor. No one will know if I kill you right here. Cut the unnecessary shit.¡±

    Brulee the Owl saw Angor¡¯s cruel look and shrank in fear.

    ¡°But you broke my sses... and, and I let it pass. Why are you so mean to me?¡± it muttered in a small voice.

    Brulee was Eureka¡¯s familiar, and the ¡°Watcher¡± guarding the entrance of Padt Manor.

    They were heading to a city called Lloyds, which was supposed to be located at the bottom of the sea, around the border between Whalebone Sea and ckberry Waters. The city was not for humans, but mermen and mermaids.

    ...

    One day ago, Eureka took Angor to her temporary residence.

    ¡°I need you to go to Lloyds and fetch something for me.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have time for that,¡± Angor replied without thinking.

    ¡°I¡¯m not asking. You will do it.¡±

    Angor had no idea what this ce was. And of course, he didn¡¯t want to leave Padt Manor and Jon so fast.

    However, Eureka didn¡¯t care about any of his concerns. She walked to the window and snapped her finger, and Brulee the Owl soon came into the house.

    ¡°Brulee will go with you and lead the way. There are lots of things to carry, so we have to use your bracelet.¡± Eureka gave Angor¡¯s wrist a curious look. She wondered how an apprentice got his hands on such a valuable item, but she decided not to ask. For now.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you go there on your own, if I may?¡±

    Eureka only gave him a meaningful smile.

    Angor just realized that Eureka was a wanted criminal. That was a bad question.

    But this didn¡¯t mean Angor would ept her bossing him around.

    Eureka noticed Angor¡¯s unwillingness and considered what she could use to force Angor¡¯s actions.

    ¡°I helped you maintain Jon¡¯s vital bnce and did not ask for a reward yet. Equivalent exchange, remember?¡±

    ¡°I was the one who finished the calctions,¡± Angor protested.

    ¡°Without me, Jon would be long dead before you came back.¡±

    This was probably true, but Angor still wasn¡¯t happy to hear it from Eureka¡¯s mouth. Saving Jon should always be Eureka¡¯s n because she would like to keep her ¡°research subject¡± alive. She simply found it to be an extra excuse for negotiation.

    Seeing Angor frustrated, Eureka proceeded with her ¡°carrot and stick¡± tactic by saying, ¡°Lloyds is around the Whalebone Sea, which is not so far from here. That flying boat of yours will take you there and back in less than two weeks. Or a few days, if you use your sequence of gravity. You don¡¯t want to leave Jon, right? I¡¯ll keep him safe.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t look persuaded.

    ¡°During his future treatment when you need my help, I¡¯ll consider, as long as I can.¡±

    Again, Eureka promised such a thing just because she also preferred Jon to be alive.

    Angor could clearly see this, but there was nothing much he could do about it. Keeping the fragile bnce between Jon¡¯s vitals and the corruption was something beyond his strength¡ªhe had to rely on Eureka¡¯s help.

    ¡°Fine. What is this ce? And what do you need me to get?¡±

    ...

    Angor traveled past the Whalebone Seast time while heading back to the Old Earth. Now here he was again, looking for a hidden city that only appeared in legends and tales.

    Most routes were open and in business in the warm weather. On Gond, Angor would asionally see many cargo ships moving about. He had no intention of interacting with the mortal ships. However, some of the mortals caught glimpses of the amazing vehicle in the sky and began telling rumors about a shining boat gliding beneath the moon and stars.

    While having nothing to do, Angor took some time to go over what he saw in Jon¡¯s dream.

    Jon never clearly expressed his attitude about the wizarding world before. But now, Angor could see that Jon both liked this world and missed his old home and family greatly.

    It seemed Jon adored Angor very much, and he was always curious to seek out all the amazing secrets in the wizarding world as a scientist. This was why Angor felt sorrow and longing for home in Jon¡¯s dream, but no regret.

    Angor now hoped that one day, he could take Jon with him and search for a way to return to Earth. It sounded unlikely, but there must be a way since Jon could survive the great travel.

    He now considered ¡°following Jon¡¯s path¡± as another goal of life, besides finding the path of truth.

    Anyone in this world wouldugh at him if he were to speak of looking beyond the very universe. But the truth was, he was notpletely clueless. He had the Alien Eye.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going to look into the artifact carelessly before reaching the level of a wizard. ording to Jon¡¯s stories, he could tell that the scientists back on Earth suffered greatly during the Montauk Project AND the loss of the Alien Eye. He had to be fully prepared before starting such a dangerous project.

    For now, he had to focus on more urgent matters, such as preventing Jon¡¯s death.

    Entering Jon¡¯s dream was one of the primary goals he could think of. Next, he wished to speak to Jon in the dream, which required him to study the next cantrip, Dream Reading.

    The trip to Lloyds would take him pretty close to the Land of Revtion. He nned to pay Freud a visit and learn something about the new cantrip. Freud was titled as the ¡°Dream Reader¡±. That man must have been rather good at it.

    Upon making this decision, Angor poked Toby as he asked, ¡°Use your griffin power.¡±

    Toby was a bit confused upon hearing the sudden order but stillplied. As his body grewrger and was covered in mes, Brulee jumped away with a start and trembled behind its wings.

    Angor hopped onto Toby¡¯s back and retrieved his Gond.

    ¡°Hop on. Time to make haste.¡±

    Still shivering, Brulee found a spot in Toby¡¯s mane and held on so that it wouldn¡¯t get shook off.

    Toby released a gray aura and disappeared in the next second.

    They covered the remaining distance using Toby¡¯s help, and when Toby¡¯s griffin power ran out, they would take some rest by using Gond again. asionally, Angor would also use his own gravity power to speed up.

    The journey, which should take them two weeks, only cost two days in the end, and they soon arrived at their nextndmark¡ªthe Shino Trench.

    The sequence of gravity was what made Angor confident in escaping from Eureka¡¯s attacks, should they ever start an all-out brawl. Unfortunately, neither he nor Toby could keep using this power for too long, otherwise, the trip would take even less time.

 Chapter 862 - Mermaid Shell

    <h4>Chapter 862: Mermaid Shell</h4>

    The Shino Trench was only an insignificant one among all trenches scattered about the Whalebone Sea. Mermaids built a city here because of the rich resources in the area as well as a special spiral shell valuable to their development.

    Angor only heard about this city for the first time since none of the maps he saw before mentioned it. In fact, he traveled via this path when leaving the Land of Revtionst time, by which time he had no idea that there was an underwater paradise right below him.

    ¡°Let¡¯s dive. Master told me that a team of Ashen Traders will arrive at Lloyds these days,¡± Brulee told Angor.

    Without wasting any time, Angor went into the water at once. Then he returned outside again when he saw the owl wasn¡¯t following him.

    ¡°I can¡¯t swim.¡± Brulee gave him a sad look.

    Angor used his Purification Field to cover the owl up before heading below once again.

    At first, the bird looked around curiously at the various creatures and colorful sights. But soon, it became too dark to see anything, and Brulee pleaded with Angor so that it could get a light source.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t owls supposed to see better in the dark?¡± Angor gave Brulee a funny look.

    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t see in COMPLETE darkness, thank you very much! And I¡¯m not amon owl! I need my sses to see in darker ces, but you broke it!¡±

    ¡°Miss Eureka asked you toe with me because you know this ce as well as the one who¡¯s going to give us the goods, right?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been to Lloyds twice, once with my master and once with Mister Red. They both used ne passageways to directly get to the city.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯reining that I¡¯m too weak to use a ne passageway?¡±

    ¡°No-no! I mean, it¡¯s fine, taking a tour in the water. But you know, birds aren¡¯t fit for swimming.¡±

    Toby suddenly dashed out of the Purification Field, cruised around, and returned inside with a proud look while shaking several water drops onto Brulee.

    ¡°Yup, there are exceptions.¡± Brulee looked away.

    Angor agreed to create some light since he needed it to see his way, but instead of using a cantrip, he asked Toby to carry a Luminous Stonemp.

    Toby looked pleased with his new job and was about to show off to Brulee again, but Angor stopped him.

    After diving for several dozen kilometers, they saw an abyss-like trench on the seabed.

    ¡°That¡¯s where Lloyds is?¡± Angor would like to know the exact direction he had to go. After exploring the great trench in the Sea of Purification, he knew that wandering aimlessly would take a ton of time.

    ¡°Just go where it¡¯s wider. Their workers will often gather shells all around the ce. We might run into them on our way.¡±

    Angor nodded and headed into the giant fissure. Even though the Shino Trench was smaller than the one he saw before, he still felt tiny and a bit helpless when facing such a giant jaw of mother nature.

    Themp couldn¡¯t help them see very far now. Brulee was getting a bit terrified of the looming darkness. While listening to the sound of deadly current and water pressure outside the barrier, it couldn¡¯t help but think what would be of it if the protection failed.

    When they suddenly heard a faint melody reaching their ears, Brulee froze up like a statue.

    ¡°Is-is-is it a ghost?¡±

    Angor sensed the alluring aura carried by the song and shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s a mermaid. You¡¯re right, we don¡¯t have to move too far to find them.¡±

    Following the voice and using Toby¡¯s gravity power to help, they soon found their target.

    It was a young mermaid scavenging for shells along the trench walls. She saw Toby¡¯smp and ignored it because she believed it was an angler fish. Then she grew terrified when noticing that it was something bigger that was approaching her.

    But she soon calmed down when she saw that it was only a human plus two birds. Her seniors had been telling her that the human flesh tasted good, so she couldn¡¯t help but lick her lips upon seeing ¡°delicious snack¡±ing. She wasn¡¯t strong enough to ensnare sailors from traveling ships yet. But since a human came willingly...

    Her tiny brain was not enough to figure out why a human would show up here in the first ce.

    Before she could start hunting, Angor¡¯s Hand of Spell grasped her in ce.

    The mermaid bared her sharp teeth at Angor, trying to look as dangerous as she could be.

    ¡°I think she just saw you as food.¡± Brulee gave the mermaid a sympathetic look.

    Angor disyed his aura, which easily forced the mermaid to submit.

    ¡°Take me to Lloyds.¡±

    The mermaid responded by saying some iprehensible phrases with a confused look.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t learned the Discern Language yet. Can you trante?¡± Angor looked at the owl.

    ¡°Are you expecting a bird to speak fish?!¡±

    ¡°Sigh... Why did youe with me again?¡±

    There was no way Angor had the time to search aimlessly, so he thought about another idea. By lifting a hand, he sent a trace of nightmare energy through the mermaid¡¯s forehead.

    The mermaid¡¯s eyes widened in fear as if she saw the greatest enemy in her life. She started struggling in Angor¡¯s restriction.

    Angor canceled his Hand of Spell to release her so that he could casually follow behind the escaping mermaid.

    That nightmare illusion was meant to scare the mermaid while blocking a small part of her memories. Out of instinct, she would try to reach the safest spot, and in this case, it would be her home.

    Angor didn¡¯t need much effort to keep up with the mermaid, so he had time to chat with Brulee and find out more about the city they were visiting.

    A gray object suddenly fell out from a backpack of the mermaid ahead, and Angor quickly caught it in his hand.

    ¡°Oh! Can I have it? I do need a bite right now!¡± Brulee saw the shell and showed a delighted look.

    Angor checked the shell in his hand and grinned.

    ¡°Since when did Mermaid Shells get treated asmon treats?¡±

    ¡°Oops, heh heh. You know what this is, Mister Padt?¡±

    They both knew the true value of a Mermaid Shell, which meant Brulee wasn¡¯t getting this one.

    But to its surprise, Angor tossed the shell to it without a second thought.

    ¡°Uhh, Mister Padt? Do you not know what this thing does?¡±

    ¡°Of course I do.¡±

    Mermaid Shell was a particr cooking material that helped soothe one¡¯s mind and spirit. Back at Phantom Ind, Greya produced a serving of ¡°Mermaid Shell Soup¡± that helped Angor gain a little bit extra spiritual power level without leaving any side effects.

    Although this was only made possible by Greya¡¯s skills, along with many other costly materials. Besides, one could only enjoy the benefit once.

    One such shell could probably sell for a few hundred magic crystals at Fey Continent, but Angor had no use for it since his random products could get him way more money than that.

    Brulee, however, couldn¡¯t understand why Angor was being so generous.

    ¡°You know it¡¯s good stuff and still gave it to me? I see! You want to be friendly so that I¡¯ll say nice things about you to my master?¡± The owl puffed up its breast feathers. ¡°I¡¯m the most faithful familiar, and I¡¯ll not selfishly indulge you! Unless you help me with something else...¡±

    Angor simply stopped the bird from talking. ¡°Shut it, or I¡¯ll throw you into the water.¡±

    Brulee saw Angor meant those words and quickly slumped down.

    <i>Come on. Is he really giving it to me for free then?</i>

 Chapter 863 - Lloyds

    <h4>Chapter 863: Lloyds</h4>

    Mermaid Shells usually stayed hidden deep in sand or dirt, and when somebody took the time to dig them up, they¡¯d be long gone. Only mermaids could harvest them by using their songs to attract them to the surface. This was how the shells got their name.

    Due to their price, a Mermaid Shell could earn its finder enough expense for several years. For this reason, mermaids and mermen living in Lloyds would search for them whenever they had time.

    Angor was curious to find out what kind of horrible sight the little mermaid just saw, to the point that she even discarded her precious shell.

    He tried retrieving a tiny trace of nightmare energy from the mermaid so that he could catch a glimpse of the illusion. This was usually impossible for themon Fear cantrip, but Angor¡¯s enhanced ¡°Nightmare Fear¡± was a different case.

    Removing a part of the illusion could easily alert the victim and allow them to tell that it was an illusion, but the young mermaid probably wouldn¡¯t notice anything.

    Angor grasped the nightmare energy in his hand and closed his eyes to feel what was within.

    ¡°This is a... shrimp?¡±

    Inside the image, he saw the mermaid being chased by a giant and ferocious shrimp with a pair of sharp pincers.

    ¡°Mermaids are afraid of shrimps?!¡±

    Although this one didn¡¯t look like any ordinary shrimp. Perhaps it was some kind of sea-dwelling monster.

    They reached a zigzagging underground tunnel, in which the mermaid spent several moments running around before Angor finally saw light ahead.

    After telling Toby to hide themp and conceal their auras, they approached the light source carefully.

    What they saw turned out to be a small vige, but not Lloyds. There were roughly 20 small houses built out of colorful coral formations, as well as stone ones. The entrances of these buildings were all located on the ceilings simr to the Duon houses Angor came across in the Sea of Purification. Though this was not surprising since mermaids and Duons were supposed to be rted.

    The young mermaid rushed to the entrance of the vige and cried her story to a pair of merman guards with tridents in their hands. Her panicking voice attracted a lot of residents from the vige, who all took up their arms and went to fend off the ¡°monster shrimp¡±, which never showed up.

    When one of the guards took out a whelk-like item and pressed it against his forehead, Angor saw a series of water ripples being released from that position.

    ¡°A detection trick?¡± He watched curiously. The ripples had reached him but without causing any effects yet.

    Without finding anything, the guard gave the small mermaid a stern re and pushed her away, and the onlooking vigers also scolded her.

    The little mermaid tried her best to exin, including showing everyone how she lost a precious Mermaid Shell to escape, but no one listened.

    ¡°A, that¡¯s so sad... ¡± Brulee clicked its tongue.

    ¡°How about you return her shell then?¡±

    Brulee quickly stuffed the shell into its beak.

    Angor snickered and looked at the vige again. By finding this ce, it shouldn¡¯t be difficult to find Lloyds.

    ¡°Should I find another mermaid as our guide...?¡±

    The ground nearby suddenly began to shake as if there was an earthquakeing.

    As soon as Angor noticed the abnormality, he heard the vigers in the distance screaming loudly.

    Next, around a dozen eel-like creatures with electric arcs along their bodies rushed out of the ground and began wreaking havoc in the vige. Several mermaids who were directly hit by the attacks fell dead on the floor instantly, bodies seared ck.

    The rest of them hastily dived into their respective houses, which seemed sturdy enough to block the eels as well as their power.

    However, the little mermaid was left alone in the open. It appeared that she wasn¡¯t from this vige. She tried to seek shelter in a house nearby, but she was knocked back out by the house¡¯s owner, who mercilessly shut the door.

    Seeing all the vigers giving her the same attitude, the mermaid bit her lips and began swimming away from the vige while being chased by several eels.

    This was exactly what the vigers wanted. By leaving her to her own fate, they would force her to bring the predators away from this ce.

    The mermaid was too focused on escaping that she never noticed why none the eels caught up with her yet, when they should move a lot faster.

    The truth was, the eels behind her were illusions created by Angor. As for the real ones... Angor cut them up within seconds and gave some of the best meat to Toby and Brulee.

    The mermaid was swimming through severalplex-looking tunnels that were obviously manmade, or in this case, mermaid-made. Without her guidance, Angor knew he could get lost pretty easily.

    After traveling for another hour, the mermaid finally left the tunnel through a dark exit. Angor saw more blurry light spots in the distance.

    It was a giant underwater city this time.

    He was still pretty far away from the city, which made all the light appear fuzzy, but this only made the whole sight fanciful like a dream.

    Back in the purification garden, he already saw the Duon City in the water as a masterpiece of a brilliant civilization. Yet this even bigger city was on a whole different level.

    ¡°We¡¯re here!¡± Brulee seemed rather excited. ¡°See that barrier at the center of the city? There¡¯s a water-free section inside, and where we¡¯re supposed to go and find the Ashen Traders.¡±

    The city was too big for Angor to find the other end of it. Apart from ordinary buildings on the seabed, he also saw a number of glowing coral structures floating above the main city, where mermaids and even giant whales were moving to and fro.

    While admiring the amazing design that seemed to be from the most imaginative child, Angor slowly approached the city and saw the little mermaid exining her terrible experience to the guards again. And simr tost time, she was shooed away.

    Desperate, the mermaid paced around the city gate, when she suddenly saw something glittering in the sand beneath her.

    ¡°A magic crystal?¡± She picked it up and suddenly felt a lot happier.

    ...

    ¡°Why did you give her that for?¡± Brulee asked while going into the city with Angor.

    ¡°Payment.¡±

    In Angor¡¯s view, the mermaid was hostile against him because of the natural instinct of a predator, but she was not evil. Since she somewhat ¡°helped¡± him by taking him to Lloyds, he would obey the rule of equivalent exchange and pay for the favor.

    In order not to attract any attention, he activated Infinite Reticence and moved along the city streets. He met with no trouble and arrived at the waterproof barrier.

    He thought the barrier was like the ones used by Duons, which meant he could simply walk through it. To his disappointment, the barrier felt rather solid like the surface of a balloon.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that strong, but don¡¯t break it, I tell you,¡± Brulee warned. ¡°There are lots of supernatural people inside, including wizards. They won¡¯t be happy if you get them wet. You want to take the door.¡± Brulee pointed to the street nearby that ended at a small tunnel in the barrier.

    However, upon arriving at the tunnel entrance, Angor noticed that they needed a ¡°pass¡± to get in. Eureka never mentioned such a thing.

 Chapter 864 - Tower and Shadow

    <h4>Chapter 864: Tower and Shadow</h4>

    Angor¡¯s Infinite Reticence would help him get inside in no time if the entrance were only protected by some guards. But as he just saw, there was another patch of special barrier blocking the entrance. Each time someone walked through, the barrier would flicker briefly.

    ¡°Putting that aside... they sent supernaturals to guard the door?¡± Angor pointed to a pair of merman guards behind the barrier.

    ¡°This section was built by supernaturals from the Fey Continent,¡± said Brulee. ¡°You know how Mermaid Shells sell for a lot of money, right? Many wizard ns and organizations have settlements here so that they could get those shells at the lowest price. You can consider this ce as a smaller Wizard Fair.¡±

    This made sense¡ªWizard Fairs usually hired supernaturals as sentries.

    But this meant Angor wasn¡¯t going to be able to sneak inside by normal means.

    ¡°So... your nice master knew this would happen and still sent me here?¡±

    Brulee didn¡¯t seem concerned. ¡°She always used a ne passageway to get inside. We don¡¯t need a pass.¡±

    ¡°Guessed as much.¡±

    While ignoring Brulee¡¯s rambling, Angor kept observing the checkpoint to think of a way inside.

    Forcing his way in might sound like a bad idea, but it was actually doable. With his sequence of gravity, the guards probably wouldn¡¯t catch him.

    But before he could make the decision, a team of mermen led by an extremely fat one with a ck tail suddenly attracted his attention.

    This particr merman had a pair of funny-looking catfish beards that moved along with the water current. Due to his size, his eyes appeared as slits. Also, he was wearing all sorts of shiny charms on his body, probably to show off his wealth.

    Angor grew interested in this merman because he saw a pass in the merman¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Just in the nick of time.¡±

    ...

    A whileter, Angor entered the water-free section using the pass he just got while disguised as the fat merman using mor cantrip.

    As for the merman... he was having a nice dream inside a beautiful illusion and was not going toe out any time soon.

    Angor never nned to stay in Lloyds for too long. He just needed to get Eureka¡¯s items ande back out, then he would return the pass to its rightful owner.

    The ¡°harem illusion¡± was a payment for the fat merman. Inside the illusion, there were lots of top-ss mermaid beauties made possible by nightmare energy, and they would undoubtedly satisfy their ¡°customer¡± both body and mind.

    Such a sweet experience in exchange for borrowing the pass for a few hours sounded like a fair trade.

    The water-free section looked more like an ordinary settlement made by humans. Without the asional sea elements such as corals and shellmps, one could easily mistake here as amon city.

    The residents in the section, as Brulee said, came in a great variety including races native or non-native in the sea. Also, all mermen and mermaids living here seemed to be from higher social sses, probably because they were better at controlling their hunger and not eating humans on sight.

    Angor found a concealed spot. He changed his disguise to that of an ordinary human traveler and came back out. He kept his Infinite Reticence activated just in case.

    ¡°Where are the traders you mentioned?¡±

    ¡°Find the Gully Sector,¡± said Brulee.

    ¡°Gully Sector?¡±

    The owl pointed to arge tower built at the center of the water-free area, which was the most noticeablendmark. ¡°You¡¯ll find it in the shadow of the Tower of Peace.¡±

    The Tower of Peace was a signature structure built by the Rogge Mermaids, as a sign of peace among mermaids and other races. Although this was an unlikely ambition when ¡°peace¡± was so hard to achieve even among friends and allies of the same race.

    Visitors, especially humans, would often express their disbelief about it.

    Ironically, the ¡°Gully Sector¡± was the biggest and the most chaotic trading zone in the entire Lloyds. Here, everyone trusted in strength and dominance over everything else. Rules did not keep people in check. It was fear and corruption.

    For this, those living inside the water-free zone had another name for the Tower of Peace, which was the ¡°Tower of Crimes¡±. It used a pretty name to hide the filthy facts underneath.

    Angor felt the change of atmosphere as soon as he stepped into the Gully Sector. In fact, there was an ongoing robbery not far from him right now. The victim was an apprentice, probably level-1, who was hastily running away from the area while holding a fish-skin pouch in one hand.

    Before he could make it to the outside, a muscr man in a green vest came down from above and kicked him back.

    ¡°Pay up if you wanna leave the Tower of Crimes. You know the drill.¡± The man cracked his knuckles.

    ¡°Here-here...¡± The apprentice had no choice but to offer his bag.

    ¡°Good.¡± The bandit checked the content of the bag but without leaving. ¡°This is not enough to buy your freedom.¡±

    Angor heard someone screaming and saw the apprentice¡¯s head being tossed away from the dark alley while his body was discarded into a dust bin.

    The killer saw several people looking his way and shrugged. ¡°Well, he paid something, so I <i>partially</i> let him go. Nothing¡¯s wrong ¡¯bout that, eh?¡±

    People continued their business without minding the dead apprentice or the merciless criminal. There were a few people looking, who had been enjoying the sight fromfortable spots, as if they were watching a show.

    Angor nced at the bright Tower of Peace and understood why everyone disapproved of the ideal.

    Light and dark always existed along with one another, and people could find a bnce in the ¡°gray zone¡± between them. But there was no such zone in Lloyds¡ªonce you stepped over the boundary separating the two parts, everything turned upside-down.

    The killer who disposed of the corpse came too close to where Angor was standing and suddenly noticed Angor.

    ¡°What the-is this guy always here? Huh... he¡¯s weak. Another level-1.¡± He inspected Angor head to toe. ¡°Not carrying anything... Is he someone¡¯s student who wants to take a tour?¡±

    Angor cast an indifferent nce at the man and headed further into the Gully Sector and toward the trading zone.

    The thug¡¯s eyes twinkled in delight. ¡°He¡¯s off buying stuff? I may find a bigger fish if I follow him...¡±

    The man thought he was whispering to himself, but Angor¡¯s heightened senses easily registered his voice.

    ¡°Bigger fish? My word. Who¡¯s the fish anyway?¡± Brulee, who had been looking at Angor from the sky, shook its head.

    On their way to the trading area, the bandit failed to notice how everyone else didn¡¯t see Angor¡¯s presence at all. Instead, his odd movement of a stalker drew a lot of attention from people.

    Angor stopped moving inside another dark alleyway and looked above. This was where the Ashen Traders stayed, ording to Brulee.

    Behind Angor, the bandit also moved into the alley without a second thought. Although he was getting a bit suspicious because he heard about a particr trader group recently settling down in the area ahead, and these traders offered lots of interesting goods at ridiculously high prices.

    ¡°Is that bloke going to buy things from here? Lucky me. This will be a big haul!¡±

    But on second thought, those who could afford items from the Ashen Traders couldn¡¯t be helpless apprentices who he could easily rob.

    The bandit considered his options and still decided to follow Angor. He was a level-2 apprentice who almost reached the next level. He was confident that he could deal withplications.

    Angor waited for a while. He made sure the bandit wasing after him and kept walking deeper inside the alley.

    The end of the narrow way was upied by a number of broken buildings, where a group of people in ck robes were watching over several iron cages.

 Chapter 865 - Miss Seeley

    <h4>Chapter 865: Miss Seeley</h4>

    These shady-looking people were resting at different spots such as out in the open or under some roofs that had yet to copse. But every one of them had an iron cage nearby.

    The cages were all covered under ck curtains, so Angor could not see what was inside. Although he more or less had an idea.

    The robed people looked his way when he arrived, then turned away to mind their own business. They thought Angor was only another customer who came to check their merchandise. In fact, there were currently several buyers who were looking through the cages.

    One of the robed sellers, a man who had been sitting in the center of the settlement, suddenly removed his hood and revealed a face that did not look like a human.

    Angor could not tell this man¡¯s age because his face was full of hardened scales like that of lizards, as well as a right eye with a slit pupil like a snake.

    He was Rossum, the deputymander of their trader group. Those who saw him for the first time tended to mistake him for a humanoid. But the truth was, Rossum was a human who received body transnts of certain creatures from other nes. He had many more of such foreign body parts all around his body. Only his brain and his heart were still his own.

    This was amon sight in the wizarding world. People already realized that humans were far from being the strongest species among denizens from different nes. For example, demons from the Abyss ne were usually born at wizard level, and they could easily surpass the most powerful wizards upon reaching adulthood. Getting foreign organ transnts had be a universally-epted means of improvement.

    This could be very costly to do, however. For example, Rossum¡¯s enhancement cost him more than 6,000 magic crystals initially, and in the future, it would be likely more than that price should he go for further maintenance. Though this was rather worthwhile since he needed such power to be the second-inmand.

    ¡°What¡¯s up, Rossum?¡± A slim-bodied man who had been leaning against a gilded cage spoke to Rossum, ¡°What do we have¡ªoh! What a stealthy customer. He has something to hide his form, I reckon? That face though... We can earn big money if we sell him to Puppet Master.¡±

    ¡°Puppet Master¡± Bog¡¯s obsession with blond hair and blue eyes was almost known around the whole world, and Angor¡¯s style fitted perfectly.

    The Ashen Traders used to assist Bog in finding ¡°proper ves¡± as well.

    Rossum gave Angor a careful look and replied, ¡°Captain Beals, I should tell you that Bog did try to capture this man before, and he failed, miserably. Are you sure you¡¯d give it a try?¡±

    Beals raised an eyebrow and waited for further exnation.

    ¡°Before we came to Lloyds, everybody was talking about a footage that showed us a person making an alchemy treasure. That rings a bell?¡±

    Beals nodded. He never watched the said footage, but he did hear about it quite a lot. Almost every alchemist at Fey Continent was crazy about it.

    ¡°Do you mean he got something to do with that image?¡±

    ¡°Not only that, but if I remember right, he¡¯s the ¡®leading actor¡¯ of it.¡±

    ¡°Really now? It¡¯s our lucky day.¡±

    Beals was now giving Angor a passionate look. If Rossum was right, they needed only to build a friendly rtionship with Angor, and hopefully, they could import several simple alchemy items to sell, which would benefit their entire trading team greatly.

    Even the cheapest items from the hands of a future master were still top-notch.

    While Rossum and Beals talked about their ns, Angor¡¯s attention was attracted by the bulky thug behind him again, who had given up his stealth tactic and had approached Angor in the open.

    Those who didn¡¯t know what was going on might mistake him as Angor¡¯s bodyguard, while those who recognized this infamous bandit around here already sentenced Angor to death in their minds.

    ¡°Hope you¡¯re smarter than that a*s I killed. I might let you live if I feel like it...¡±

    Angor nced back with a smile and kept heading to the traders ahead.

    The bandit found Angor¡¯s reaction to be a little weird, but he quickly ignored his concerns. He was confident in his strength after mugging all sorts of people without breaking a sweat.

    ¡°Wee, dear friend. I¡¯m the deputy chief of Ashen Traders, Rossum. May I know what you are looking for?¡± Rossum addressed Angor with a bright smile without wearing his hood.

    The other shoppers all looked this way in confusion. As regr customers of this ce, they knew how these particr traders usually behaved. ¡°Friendly service¡± was never written in their job description. The sellers, especially the two leaders, always left their guests to pick goods by themselves and didn¡¯t care about whether their merchandise was sold at all.

    Even some of the team members were wondering why their secondary chief was acting so amiable.

    Instead of answering Rossum, Angor looked above him, where an owl suddenly descended and perched on top of a broken wall nearby.

    ¡°I¡¯m not buying, Mister Rossum.¡± Angor reached out a hand, and Brulee quickly took out a small card from under its feathers and gave it to him. ¡°I was asked to receive something from you.¡±

    Rossum looked at the card and Brulee. He then put up an even more polite manner.

    ¡°You came in Miss Seeley¡¯s stead?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Brulee eximed proudly before Angor could say anything. ¡°We¡¯re talking about my master, Lady Seeley!¡±

    ¡°Her goods are personally guarded by our chief. Pleasee with me.¡± Rossum lowered his head and moved to lead the way.

    <i>Miss Seeley?</i> Angor thought he heard this name from somewhere before, but he didn¡¯t have time to think about it right now.

    The stalking bandit, however, couldn¡¯t really keep up with Angor. He clearly felt that Rossum was at least a level-3 apprentice, who was probably stronger than he appeared to be with all those body enhancements. He wondered whether he should insist on getting his prey.

    Angor halted his steps briefly and nced at the bandit again.

    The bandit felt dizzy all of a sudden, and his body was going after Angor before he noticed it.

    When he could think clearly again, he was already standing at the center of the settlement, where Rossum, Angor, and Beals were talking not far from him.

    His legs almost gave in as he just realized that he messed with someone he shouldn¡¯t. The unknown force prevented him from escaping when he had a chance, and it was toote to do it now.

    He KNEW he was in big trouble when looking at Beals, who just imed to be the leader of Ashen Traders.

    As a Bloodline user, the bandit could easily recognize the unparalleled Bloodline power emitting from Beals¡¯ body. To make it worse, Beals was talking to his ¡°fish¡± in a friendly way, if not exceptionally respectfully.

    The other onlooking buyers all noticed the same thing. They didn¡¯t know Angor, but they knew who this trembling thug was.

    ¡°I¡¯d say the Shark Hunter poked his nose at something he couldn¡¯t handle,¡± one of the customers whispered.

    The bandit, who was usually called the ¡°Shark Hunter¡± in these parts, heard those words and felt his heart drop.

 Chapter 866 - Potion Shortage

    <h4>Chapter 866: Potion Shortage</h4>

    For the first time in his life, Shark Hunter felt as if he were a helpless puppy thrown into the middle of a pack of hungry wolves.

    Since Beals and Rossum were still looking at him while treating another customer, Shark Hunter could tell that these two men might have mistaken him as Angor¡¯s friend or bodyguard.

    Of course, he would like to avoid being exposed right now, so he tried his best to pretend that he was actually Angor¡¯spany while hoping that Angor wouldn¡¯t ruin his n too fast.

    Meanwhile, Angor and Beals were enjoying a nice and friendly conversation. Angor was wondering why Beals was being so warmhearted. But still, he would return the courtesy for now since Beals looked sincere.

    ¡°I¡¯ve ced Miss Seeley¡¯s items inside one-use storage capsules. Do you wish to confirm them?¡± Beals offered three space capsules to Angor after exchanging enough formalities.

    Angor inspected the capsules and recognized them as standard models designed by Floating Mech City. The space in each such capsule equaled that of a small cottage.

    <i>Three of them?</i> He then wondered, <i>Whatever did Eureka buy from here?</i>

    ¡°I need to check the goods first!¡± Brulee spoke.

    ¡°You know what to look for, right?¡± Angor gave the owl a suspicious look.

    ¡°Of course I do! The master ordered me to make sure myself!¡±

    Angor nodded and left the owl to its job. He was also wondering what he would be carrying.

    ¡°This way, if you would.¡± Beals pointed to an intact stone house nearby, which was a rare sight among the ruins. There were severalrge beasts for transporting goods leashed beside the house.

    Apparently, Beals asked Angor and Brulee to look at the potentially valuable goods somewhere private so that they would not attract coveting attention.

    When walking past one of the cages, the ck cover was partially lifted by a gust of wind, allowing Angor to see a tender human hand beyond the iron bars.

    He expected as much¡ªhe saw the same ve cages back at Twilight Auction. It seemed these Ashen Traders were another group of vers.

    very wasmon in the wizarding world where the strong were not bound by any rules. And since there were always people in need of ves, there would be people selling them. Since ¡°ver¡± didn¡¯t sound very noble, these dealers would usually give themselves better names like tradingpanies or such.

    Behind them, Shark Hunter was still trying to find a chance to slip away until Rossum gave him a ¡°why aren¡¯t you following your master?¡± look.

    Shark Hunter had no choice but to keep moving. However, he did not enter the stone house together with Angor. Instead, he acted as a loyal servant by waiting outside the door.

    One of the traders moved to Rossum and whispered, ¡°I think that¡¯s ¡®Shark Hunter¡¯, a notorious robber wandering around Gully Sector. Guess he¡¯s here to do his filthy business again, but it didn¡¯t go as he nned.¡±

    Rossum grinned. ¡°I know. But since our dear guest has an interesting n in mind, we¡¯ll help him put up the show. Shark Hunter, huh? He¡¯s pretty good, getting into his character so fast.¡±

    ¡°Uhh, chief? Who¡¯s that customer anyway? No offense, but both you and Mister Beals looked so...¡±

    ¡°Over courteous? It¡¯s quite simple, this is all worth it. Let me put it this way. This man holds more value than everyst man currently living in Lloydsbined, including that wizard who¡¯s currently sitting on the city¡¯s throne.

    ¡°Getting him onto our customer list means endless profit for us,¡± Rossum emphasized. ¡°Go and tell everyone that we are to show our best manners to this mister. Anyone who causes trouble will get thrown into a cage as a ve!¡±

    ¡°Understood, sir!¡±

    ¡°Wait, one more thing. Tell me, how was my act? Am I good?¡±

    ...

    Angor was leaning against the wall while looking at all the materials that took up most of the space.

    Eureka asked him to carry crafting materials, most of which were magical nts found from foreign nes. Many of these were used for brewing healing potions that mended one¡¯s mental injuries.

    Since Eureka seemed unable to fully use her aura power during a fight, then she was likely going to use the potions on herself.

    This was bad news. Angor could escape from Eureka only because she couldn¡¯t use her aura pressure of a wizard.

    Even though their rtionship seemed peaceful enough for now, Angor wasn¡¯t sure how long this wouldst. He couldn¡¯t sit and watch Eureka returning to her top condition. At least not too soon.

    <i>Is there something I can do to hinder the potion¡¯s effect, or even better,pletely nullify it?</i>

    Brulee was getting pretty pissed off while checking through the items. ¡°Hey, Mister Beals, this is all you got?!¡± The owl pointed a wing to a pile of bottles while yelling, ¡°These are all low-tier junks. You can¡¯t give us one single mid-tier potion?¡±

    Beals nced at Angor first and noticed that Angor didn¡¯t seem interested in Brulee¡¯s reaction.

    ¡°You were there when Miss Seeley reached an agreement with us, no? As I said, potions are bing scarce when many organizations have entered alert and are preparing for conflict. Unlike public auctions, we did our best to get our hands on what is avable. Miss Seeley did tell us that we can give her raw materials if we can¡¯t find enough potions.¡±

    Beals looked at Angor again and felt relieved when he noticed Angor appeared to be d to hear these words.

    ¡°Potions! We need good POTIONS!¡± Brulee hopped in ce, furious. ¡°My master told you to use enough materials topensate for insufficient potions, not the other way round!¡±

    This meant the traders did not provide enough materials either. The low-tier potions were of little use to Eureka.

    But just as Beals said, they tried their best.

    ¡°We finished our end of the deal. As for what is missing, we paid.¡± Beals pointed to a small pile of magic crystals. ¡°Yelling at me won¡¯t help us find what you need. I¡¯m afraid Miss Seeley has to go and ask other wizard organizations.¡±

    Brulee didn¡¯t respond this time. For one, Eureka definitely couldn¡¯t go out there and shop for stuff in public. They might ask ¡°Red Hair¡± Thewis for help, but Eureka didn¡¯t wish to owe Thewis too many favors either.

    The Ashen Traders did not break their promise since they found what they could by using Eureka¡¯s payment. However, getting too many raw materials and brewing everything herself was not Eureka¡¯s intention.

    Yet Brulee couldn¡¯t terminate the trade without Eureka¡¯s consent.

    ¡°Miss Eureka agreed to ept raw materials, which means she knows how to produce potions, right?¡± Angor asked.

    ¡°My master can¡¯t do alchemy. She has a helper, but he¡¯s not home right now.¡±

    ¡°You mean... Leon¡¯s teacher?¡±

    ¡°Yup. He¡¯s not a professional alchemist though. He might fail a lot when making the most basic potions, and my master needs some potent ones...¡± Brulee sighed in distress.

    Angor was more than happy to know about this. It seemed he didn¡¯t have to do anything in particr to prevent Eureka¡¯s recovery.

    The truth was, he was partially responsible for causing the potion shortage around the wizarding world by bringing nightmare monsters into this world. However, he had not realized it yet.

    ¡°So what are you going to do now?¡± He waited for Brulee¡¯s decision.

    Whether to ept the materials or not didn¡¯t make much difference to him. But of course, he wished that the trade was fully canceled. Without the materials, Eureka would have zero chance of getting her potions.

    Brulee looked at the piles of materials, then at Beals, who was inconspicuously disying a terrifying aura into the room.

    ¡°Fine-fine. We¡¯ll take these.¡± Brulee nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll just exin everything to herter. She-she will forgive me. Right?¡±

 Chapter 867 - Demeter

    <h4>Chapter 867: Demeter</h4>

    Earlier, Beals found it funny that Brulee was worrying about not getting enough potions when a ¡°future master alchemist¡± was standing right next to them. But now, he was sure that Angor and Eureka at least weren¡¯t friends.

    <i>Should I take the chance to gain his trust?</i>

    He considered and decided not to be so hasty right now. He had not figured out the true rtionship between Angor and Eureka yet. Acting too straightforwardly could make Angor suspicious.

    Since Brulee agreed to take the materials, Angor quickly organized them up and stashed them into his bracelet without a word.

    After waiting for Angor to finish, Beals nced at the room¡¯s door and whispered, ¡°What¡¯s your n about that man, sir? We can deal with him for you. Consider it an extra service.¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll not trouble you for such a trifle, sir.¡±

    Beals nodded and left the room.

    Shark Hunter saw Angoring out and kept up his ¡°bodyguard performance¡± while trying not to look into anyone¡¯s eyes.

    When walking away from the settlement, Beals pointed to the cages nearby as he introduced his ves. ¡°We brought several excellent helpers with us. How about taking one home, my friend?¡±

    Angor looked at a particrly shiny cage where he saw a human hand earlier.

    ¡°Good eye, sir.¡± Beals saw Angor¡¯s look and grinned. ¡°That one right there is the most precious ve we found. Care to take a look?¡±

    Those words surprised all remaining shoppers nearby. They asked to check the golden cage earlier but Beals never agreed.

    This was not fair!

    Still, the customers carefully moved closer, hoping to see what kind of ve Beals was talking about. They might not be able to afford it, but they all would like to satisfy their curiosity.

    ¡°I¡¯m delivering goods for Miss Eureka. I¡¯m not buying.¡± Angor turned away.

    ¡°It¡¯ll just take you a minute, mister. Who knows, maybe you¡¯ll change your mind,¡± Beals insisted.

    Even one of the onlookers could no longer stay silent, and the onlooker said to Angor in the open, ¡°Come on, we all want to see what¡¯s in there. A little help, alright?¡±

    Beals saw Angor returning and dly removed the ck cloth from the cage.

    The buyers, as well as several members from the trading team, all gasped in astonishment.

    Angor was pretty surprised as well. By looking at the smooth skin of a hand, he thought the cage had a humandy or a humanoid female that looked simr to ady.

    He was wrong.

    There was a feathered woman inside, who was ntified below her waist. Her upper part had clean, white skin full of snow-white feathers grown into different beautiful patterns and lengths. Her face did not have any feathers but looked exceptionally charming by human standards. There was just one problem¡ªher eyeballs werepletely white without irises, which made her look a bit creepy.

    What should be below her waist had been reced by an unrooted tree stump of some sort. At first nce, she seemed like someone who was trapped inside a tree trying to get out. Although the truth was quite the opposite¡ªit was the woman who partially turned into a tree.

    Her upper body could still function normally. But in the views of wizards, she was now a nt. An amazing species of nt.

    People even had a specific name for this type of ntified feather-woman, ¡°Goddess of Spring¡± Demeter.

    The Goddess of Spring was a figure told in legends, who facilitated harvest and agriculture, presiding over grains and the fertility of the earth. In reality, winged folks who chose to be a Demeter could achieve simr feats by granting protection over a piece ofnd. The longer they lived, therger the area they could protect.

    Back at Twilight Auction, Angor saw a Parmigi Winged Folk who offered herself as a ve to be sold. Later, he found a relevant book that described a more ancient Demeter who fused herself with a magical tree, after which her power of nourishment covered an area as big as the entire Ferran Land.

    The Demeter in this cage still looked young. Telling from the ¡°rings¡± on her stump, she had been in this condition for about 10 years. Probably because her roots were removed, she couldn¡¯t receive any energy from nature.

    As Angor watched, a single drop of tear moved along the Demeter¡¯s cheek until itnded inside a small bottle ced under her.

    A Demeter¡¯s tear was also a valuableponent used by alchemists to hasten the growth of nts.

    ¡°A wild Demeter we captured at Moranbah Hignd. What do you think?¡± Beals fixed his gaze at Angor without minding the other discussing guests.

    As nned, their team should transport the Demeter to Sky Auction. But since Angor was here, Beals had no problem selling her earlier.

    A rich shopper nearby tried to offer a price but was silenced by Beals¡¯ cold stare.

    Shark Hunter was also gazing at the Demeter while not hiding his greed. Apart from helping with agriculture, a Demeter also worked as a bncer that improved primal mana within its protected zone, which was a priceless gift for every wizard.

    People could not openly trade Demeters in public because this meant taking Winged Folks as ves. They could still find wild ones who weren¡¯t administered by their tribe, although with great difficulty.

    Shark Hunter simply couldn¡¯t remove his new ambition from his mind now. Getting this Demeter meant he didn¡¯t have to risk hijacking people in the Gully Sector for at least several centuries.

    He then looked at Angor again. Until now, Beals was only interested in speaking to Angor, and this had terrified Shark Hunter for good because he feared that he would not get away alive today.

    Meanwhile, Angor was inspecting the Demeter in great interest.

    Sunders once mentioned getting a Demeter at Phantom Ind. However, the n never worked out because Brute Cavern and the Parmigi Winged Folks were supposed to be allies, so the Phantom Servants had been maintaining the environment on the ind by normal means, such as using magic arrays and feces collected from the phantom beasts.

    Obtaining a Demeter would free up lots of manpower.

    Angor would admit that he was truly considering a purchase right now.

    Asmonly known, a Demeter was one of the best tools for assisting the training of supernatural beings, especially freshmen like Leon. The power of life provided by a Demeter might also improve Jon¡¯s health in the long run.

    ¡°Did the beauty catch your mind?¡± Beals smiled.

    ¡°Mister Beals... I must say this is a difficult choice to make.¡±

    ¡°You ARE interested, I see. I can give you a fair price. Consider it a small token of friendship, shall we?¡±

    Beals moved his lips and sent a private Voice Transmission to Angor, much to the dismay of everyone else. Although they didn¡¯t have a choice since Beals never intended to sell them the Demeter.

    Apart from coveting the valuable Demeter, they all began to suspect Angor¡¯s true identity as well.

    Beals¡¯ price was 10,000 magic crystals, which was pretty cheap for a wild Demeter that was worth at least five to ten times more if sold at public auctions.

    Angor looked at the weeping Demeter again and nodded to Beals.

    ¡°Deal.¡±

    ¡°Nice.¡± Beals pointed to the stone house they used earlier. ¡°To be safe, I¡¯m afraid we have to go there again.¡±

    After Beals and Angor entered the house, the other customers started another round of loud discussion. Everyone would like to know who Angor was and how he paid enough money for what was probably the most expensive item offered by Ashen Traders.

    Meanwhile, Rossum carefully looked around the settlement and saw several shady figures leaving the scene while using their transmitters to contact someone.

    ¡°Heh.¡± Rossum found his assistant and issued an order, ¡°Find some men and do as I say...¡±

 Chapter 868 - Shrimp Attack

    <h4>Chapter 868: Shrimp Attack</h4>

    A momentter, Angor had concluded his trade with Beals.

    Beals offered to escort Angor back to where he came from since the Demeter couldn¡¯t go intomon space storages, which meant Angor had to carry her in the open.

    He was not very surprised when Angor simply stuffed the cage into a space bracelet. It wasn¡¯t hard for a professional alchemist to make a special storage capable of sustaining life forms anyway.

    As Angor came back out from the stone house empty-handed, the other guests all looked at him from head to toe before setting their gazes on his wrist.

    Angor didn¡¯t care much about all the coveting looks he received from people. By setting his foot in the Gully Sector, he expected no less.

    To pretend that he and Beals were now cooperating, Angor politely thanked Beals for his hospitality before leaving.

    ¡°We¡¯ll leave Lloyds in a few days, but we¡¯ll keep someone here as our contact,¡± Beals said as he handed Angor a gray card. ¡°Should you need consumables, craftingponents, ves, information, or just a helping hand, you cane to Lloyds again and show this card to our employee. And remember, we¡¯ll offer a great discount, just for you.¡±

    Angor took the card, thanked Beals again, and asked Brulee to leave.

    As their ¡°bodyguard¡±, Shark Hunter quickly trod behind them.

    Meanwhile, many customers also hastily took their leaves. Beals clearly knew what they were nning, but he wasn¡¯t going to do anything about it, for he knew that these random offenders had no hope of defeating Angor in a fight. Besides, Rossum already had a back-up n.

    As groups of people left the settlement, a cloud of gray smoke suddenly appeared beside Beals and materialized into Rossum.

    Beals nced at Rossum and noticed a faint smell of blood.

    ¡°That was necessary, I guess?¡± Beals leaned against a wall nearby and lit a cigarette.

    ¡°They won¡¯t listen, so I gave them a little warning.¡± Rossum looked around. ¡°What did you do to gain his trust, chief?¡±

    Beals spread his hands. ¡°Nothing in particr.¡±

    ¡°What? As I said, earning his cooperation will benefit us in the long run! Do you not trust me?¡±

    ¡°Of course I trust you. Let¡¯s just be patient. Being too obvious about it will only make him suspicious of us.¡±

    During their conversation, Beals could see that Angor was wary of his attitude. They had to find another chance in the future, and hopefully, it was when Angor came to request their help.

    ¡°I¡¯ll stay here and wait for him then,¡± Rossum offered.

    ¡°As you wish.¡±

    ...

    Angor had reached the exit of the Gully Sector with aplicated mindset.

    Behind him, there was only Shark Hunter who was still following him with a confused look. No one else hade to bother him yet.

    He saw more than a dozen people looking at him with killing intent back at the trader camp, so he didn¡¯t understand why they had not attacked him yet. Or were they waiting until they were outside Lloyds?

    Unlikely. It was easier to escape in the dark sea.

    Angor didn¡¯t give it much thought¡ªhe simply had to deal with the stalkers when they showed up. For now, he had to do something about Shark Hunter first.

    Shark Hunter was still trying to ept the fact that he had turned from a ferocious bandit into a lowly servant within hours. He was startled when he suddenly noticed that Angor was smirking at him with a meaningful look.

    ¡°Ehh, sir, sorry I was acting really weird today...¡± He quickly tried to make up an excuse.

    Angor patiently waited for him to finish.

    Shark Hunter hade up with several ns, most of which involved killing Angor. But when he considered how Beals respected Angor so much, he knew he shouldn¡¯t be too reckless like he always was.

    Speaking of how to get away from the situation without using violence...

    ¡°It-it was art, sir. I was working on a performance art, and I saw you as a perfect acting partner!¡± Shark Hunter said something he¡¯d never believe himself.

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded.

    Shark Hunter thought his lie went through. He was going to excuse himself when Angor suddenly shot a trace of energy at his forehead.

    His eyes rolled up.

    Angor always nned to end Shark Hunter¡¯s life because this bandit meant to kill him for real at first.

    As he tried to weave a deadly illusion to mentally kill Shark Hunter¡¯s consciousness, the speaker devices around the Tower of Peace, which had been broadcasting mermaid songs into the city, suddenly made an urgent announcement.

    ¡°About a thousand ammonite shrimps have shown up outside the west city gate. We call upon avable supernatural beings to fend them off. Helpers will be dulypensated.¡±

    The phrase was repeated three times without persuading any pedestrians as if everyone was used to hearing such events.

    From one of the gossipers, Angor learned that it was the princess of Rogge Mermaids who just spoke. This was quite amon thing to happen in Lloyds. People used to answer her summon just fine, but when they only received insignificant rewards for their trouble, such as pearls and shed skins produced by mermaids, they gradually learned to ignore the calls.

    People even looked quite happy about the incident. It seemed these ¡°ammonite shrimps¡± were natural enemies of mermaids. A swarm of over one thousand of them would definitely cause great casualties to the city.

    Someone began moving to the said location just to watch the fun.

    Angor found the speaker¡¯s voice to be rather familiar. As he remembered, the mermaid he encountered at ckberry Waters¡ªValli¡ªwas also a princess. While making his Ocean Tune, Valli¡¯s song helped greatly by giving him lots of inspiration.

    <i>Was it really her just now?</i>

    He shook his head and decided to stay out of this. He wasn¡¯t going to defend the city by himself anyway.

    Although this didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t indirectly provide some help.

    He nced at Shark Hunter and adjusted the illusion he was making.

    ...

    The shrimp attack today was the worst one during thest decade. As most mermaids and mermen living at Lloyds thought they¡¯d meet their doom, a powerful supernatural suddenly showed up to assist them by keeping a thousand ammonite shrimps at bay all by himself.

    When the disaster drew to an end, the residents in the city thought to offer their most sincere gratitude, only to find that their hero was gone.

    Meanwhile, Angor arrived at the concealed corner in the city, where a fat ¡°catfish merman¡± was still enjoying hisdy dream.

    Angor returned the borrowed passport to the merman and dropped him onto the main street, together with his bodyguards, who were all sleeping.

    Next, he looked at another man behind him, who was the big hero who just saved the city from peril.

    By using a nightmare illusion to trick Shark Hunter into believing that he was a loyal guard of the city, Angor helped Princess Valli to keep the monsters away.

    Since Shark Hunter¡¯s job was done, Angor nned to kill this man with another illusion once and for all.

    But since Shark Hunter gantly protected so many innocent people, Angor decided to use a sweet illusion as his ¡°parting gift¡±. Dying in the embrace of sexy girls sounded pleasant enough.

 Chapter 869 - New Business in the Orphanage

    <h4>Chapter 869: New Business in the Orphanage</h4>

    Brulee stayed awfully quiet since they left Lloyds. It only spoke to Angor when they almost reached the surface.

    ¡°My master met someone who was selling a wild Demeter 60 years ago. She tried everything she could but still couldn¡¯t find enough money. I think it was someone from the congress of City of Truth who bought it in the end. So... however did you afford that Demeter?

    ¡°The chief of Ashen Traders seemed fond of you. Heck, that guy wasn¡¯t so polite when talking to my master. What¡¯s going on?¡±

    Angor was too focused on watching out for danger, so he only gave Brulee a simple answer. ¡°I happen to have so many magic crystals on me. As for your second question, frankly speaking, I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Brulee would like to figure out how an apprentice had ¡°so many magic crystals¡±, but it didn¡¯t do so since Angor wouldn¡¯t tell his secret to someone¡¯s familiar pet.

    They almost left the water without encountering anyone that blocked their path, which confused Angor for good.

    Although he was d that he didn¡¯t have to waste time dealing with more stalkers.

    The surface of the water was bathed by the bright orange light of dusk.

    ¡°If we move without stopping, we can get back to the Old Earth by tomorrow night or the next morning,¡± said Brulee as it observed the sun.

    ¡°That can wait. I have something to do at the Land of Revtion.¡±

    Brulee thought to protest, but it had no choice but to follow behind Angor since it didn¡¯t have near enough stamina to fly all the way back home by itself.

    From their current position, it would take a few days to reach the Land of Revtion on Gond. Or even faster if they relied on Toby¡¯s help, which was what Angor nned to do.

    While bad at navigating on the sea, Angor had no problem finding his way around thend. Soon, he found the direction of Freighting Town and headed that way.

    ¡°What are you doing here? You want to betray my master and alert Goman King of her condition?¡± Brulee had been asking this question for a while.

    ¡°I was never Miss Eureka¡¯s ally, how should I betray her?¡± Angor decided to at least exin something so that Brulee wouldn¡¯t keep bothering him. ¡°I¡¯m not going to Goman King. Both Jon and my brother are under her watch. Besides, do you think I need the bounty money?¡±

    ¡°Then what¡¯s your business here?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for someone. Or rather, someone¡¯s soul.¡±

    ...

    Freighting Town didn¡¯t seem much differentpared to hisst visit. It was quiet, cozy, and full of artful performers.

    There was something new though. When going for Dison Alley, Angor saw a group of royal guards stationed there who kept anyone from entering. But these guards were all mortals who could do nothing to stop a supernatural.

    After walking past the guards, Angor heard sharp screaminging from the direction of the orphanage, along with monster shrieks and... creepy giggling.

    Brulee puffed up its feathers and widened its round eyes.

    By using a spirit feeler, Angor saw his ¡°Dead by Daylight¡± illusion functioning just fine. A group of around 20 mortals was running away from Sunny¡¯s haunted building while trying to reach their safe zone¡ªAlda¡¯s yground.

    But it seemed it was not yet time for the safe zone to open yet, so the outside was no less dangerous with all kinds of monsters lurking about.

    The mortals were all screaming due to either stress or fear, until insanity was about to take over.

    ¡°It looks pretty good. Freud turned this ce into a theme park in a few months?¡±

    He wondered whether the suffering mortals were talents ormon rich people who were looking for fun in the wrong ce.

    The illusion was originally meant for keeping intruders away. Angor, however, had no problem walking inside since he was the creator of the illusion. He simply walked inside without hiding his presence.

    Freud was currently inside the basement of the orphanage while discussing the potential of the new recruits with Neya. He suddenly stood up from his seat with a frown.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Neya was a bit startled by his reaction.

    ¡°I sensed a strangering inside. I¡¯ll check it out.¡±

    The talents in the illusion were, in fact, new recruits brought from the Tower of Hurricane. It was Neya who made the suggestion to her organization, that they should test their talents here. This meant she would be responsible if an enemy came and harmed the recruits.

    Freud took a moment to check the ¡°intruder¡±¡®s aura and sat down. ¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s just Mister Padt.¡±

    In a few seconds, Angor arrived at their room and saw Freud¡¯s look of excitement, as well as Neya, who obviously would like to butter him up but didn¡¯t know how.

    ¡°Mister Padt! Did you perhaps¡ª¡± Freud couldn¡¯t wait to know Angor¡¯s decision regarding their cooperation.

    Angor shook his head, much to Freud¡¯s disappointment.

    ¡°I came to ask something.¡± Angor nced at Neya and told Freud to go outside while also asking Brulee to give him privacy.

    The owlplied without a problem since Angor¡¯s ¡°excuse¡± for not betraying Eureka sounded fine enough.

    While listening to the terrified cries of people outside, Angor and Freud climbed to the roof of the building.

    They took a moment to observe the talents below, who were forced to show the true sides of their personalities in the dire situation created by Sunny.

    Naturally, most of them fully sumbed to their inner devil and discarded thest bit of goodness, just to gain a tiny advantage over their teammates when escaping.

    Angor wasn¡¯t interested in this, however, since he witnessed the floor of humanity for many times now. Compared to the recruits, he was more interested in Sunny, who was still wearing her bright red skirt and that giant scythe.

    ¡°She¡¯s bing quite the professional killer. At least she looks more into her job than when she was hunting Tulu.¡±

    Last time, Sunny was still a wraith who could easily give in to her rage and obsession. After spending time with Freud, she had learned how to control her emotions without looking any less threatening.

    ¡°She¡¯s a bit stubborn, but we get along well since I know how to go with her personality,¡± said Freud.

    ¡°You¡¯re the only one capable of such. Someone else who tries to ¡®go with her¡¯ will only end up dead. Are these people the new talents you found?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re the first group of recruits to try out this illusion test, sent by the Tower of Hurricane.¡± Freud pointed to several ghosts in the sky who had filming items in their ws. ¡°They¡¯ll use the records to win more customers in the future. Better, if more of the recruits turned out to be good.¡±

    ¡°Good idea, knowing their true nature before giving them training. I came today to learn another cantrip from you, which is ¡®Dream Reading¡¯. Of course, I¡¯ll pay for the knowledge.¡±

    Freud looked rather surprised. ¡°I... can give the cantrip for free. You helped me so much, Mister Padt, and I don¡¯t think I pay you back enough.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to consider our previous trades. If we settled them, then they¡¯re done; who paid more or who lost more doesn¡¯t matter.¡±

    ¡°I see. Can I ask some questions before we begin? Of course, you can say no if there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t want to tell.¡±

    ¡°Is that your price? Sure.¡± Angor nodded.

    ¡°Do you wish to study Dream Reading for yourself? Did you perhaps...prehend Dream Walk already?¡±

 Chapter 870 - Freudâ€™s Suggestion

    <h4>Chapter 870: Freud¡¯s Suggestion</h4>

    Freud took a long time to ept the truth after Angor exined that he only spent two months learning Dream Walk while also minding other matters.

    As a talented Dream Maniptor, Freud took half a year at it. And as far as Freud knew, Angor was an Illusionist, not a Dream Maniptor.

    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re an Illusionist, Mister Padt? Maybe you have a secondary talent we don¡¯t know yet?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not talented in Dream Maniption, that I can assure you.¡±

    Angor knew his rapid learning was made possible by a lot of factors, but not his talent. Although he didn¡¯t want to exin any of them.

    ¡°I¡¯m not even sure whether it¡¯s a blessing or not to live in the same era as you. Oh wait, I¡¯m already dead. Ahem. So um, which type of Dream Reading do you want to learn?¡±

    Angor tilted his head.

    ¡°Dream Reading is not a single cantrip. Ites in different levels. If you be so good at it, then it can be considered as a spell. Taking your alchemy cantrip ¡®Thaw¡¯ as an example. Throughout your studies, it will turn into advanced tricks such as Smelt and Disintegrate. With the same effect but different in potency. Dream Reading is the same. To further divide its effectiveness, it has a total of four levels, ¡®Hearken¡¯, ¡®Conduct¡¯, ¡®Command¡¯, and ¡®Interfere¡¯.

    ¡°The most basic one, ¡®Hearken¡¯, is a level-2 cantrip that allows you tomunicate with the dreamer, or even chat normally, if it was a lucid dream you¡¯re in. ¡®Conduct¡¯ is level-3, which you use to force the dreamer to answer your specific questions. I was at this level when I was alive, by the way.

    ¡°¡®Command¡¯ is also a level-3 cantrip. Instead ofnguage, you force the dreamer to behave specifically.

    ¡°As for ¡®Interfere¡¯, it¡¯s a genuine spell only avable to wizards.¡±

    Freud didn¡¯t exin the exact effect of ¡°Interfere¡±, but the name already suggested enough.

    Angor would like to study Dream Reading just to speak to Jon. He didn¡¯t need to force Jon to do anything.

    ¡°I need the basic one, Hearken.¡±

    Freud considered and said, ¡°Reading someone¡¯s dream isn¡¯t exactly safe because they¡¯d be in control of the dream you¡¯re in unless you know how to overpower them. By using Dream Reading, you¡¯ll allow your target to notice your presence and act ordingly. For example, they can cut off your dream bridge and render you vulnerable in that dream. It¡¯s not lethal if you met with dangers in someone¡¯s dream, but it will still damage your spirit greatly.

    ¡°If you only achieve the level of ¡®Hearken¡¯, you won¡¯t be able to defend yourself. Even your best friend may mistake you for an intruding monster and try to hurt you.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯ll not. I¡¯m nning to enter a lucid dream.¡±

    Unlikemon lucid dreamers who thought to achieve everything they couldn¡¯t do in real life, Jon remained peaceful and reasonable in his dream. There was no sadness or grudge forying in a sickbed for years on end. There was only a tiny bit of regret.

    Angor was quite sure that Jon wouldn¡¯t hurt him.

    ¡°Onest question,¡± Freud asked. ¡°Why do you need Dream Reading in the first ce?¡±

    In Freud¡¯s view, studying this art meant Angor would like to gain something out of people¡¯s dreams, such as secrets and knowledge. But as far as he saw until now, Angor was nning to read the harmless dream of a close friend. Why didn¡¯t they simply talk to each other?

    Angor didn¡¯t answer this one.

    Freud scratched his head. ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t have to tell me.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not a big secret or something. This... friend, of mine, is in poor health. I¡¯m still trying to find a way to cure him. Since I can¡¯t talk to him when he¡¯s in aa, I have to rely on reading his dream.¡±

    ¡°But... people suffering from aa won¡¯t show you any dreams. At least notprehensible ones.¡±

    ¡°I have a Dream Weaver ant.¡±

    ¡°That sounds doable.¡± Freud suddenly looked sad for some reason. ¡°I once tried to get one as well but never seeded. If your friend has a bodily illness, why don¡¯t you consider getting him a body transnt?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t. He¡¯s a mortal.¡±

    Seeing Freud curious again, Angor decided to exin something about Jon¡¯s condition, just without mentioning anything about Jon¡¯s origin.

    Perhaps it was because he finally had someone to listen to his concerns without Eureka listening in, Angor told Freud a lot of information, including how he had been maintaining Jon¡¯s vital bnce.

    As for the corruption brought by the world¡¯s consciousness, he described it as an unknown curse that even wizards couldn¡¯t deal with easily.

    ¡°Two years isn¡¯t very long.¡± Angor sighed at the end of his story. ¡°I still have no clue for his cure yet. What a failure I am.¡±

    ¡°Come on. If you¡¯re a failure, I should never have shown my face in this world. Neya told me a lot about you, being famous and all around the Fey Continent. If nothing goes wrong, your face would be printed on the front cover of <i>Grove of Time</i> magazine when the next editiones out. An apprentice alchemist who made a high-tier alchemy item. I can¡¯t believe it!¡±

    Angor heard about this particr magazine published by the City of Truth. It was usually regarded as a rather reliable reading material that only provided names and subjects worth discussing.

    He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if someone back at the Fey Continent was spreading his name again. But he was wondering how Freud heard about his Ocean Tuner out here. When crafting the item, he saw no onlookers around.

    ¡°I might have an idea to deal with your friend¡¯s illness, if he¡¯s willing to give up his mortal body,¡± Freud suddenly offered.

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only a theory. As you said, even true wizards can¡¯t help you, right? Don¡¯t expect much.¡±

    ¡°Just tell me.¡±

    ¡°So, his body is failing rapidly beyond repair, and even if you manage to stop the curse, he as a mortal won¡¯t have very long to live, am I right?¡±

    It was true. Using the Inscription Card would somewhat revert Jon¡¯s life expectancy, but it couldn¡¯t prolong it. Whether Angor could find a cure or not, Jon was still restricted by his mortal physique.

    ¡°Giving up his body... Do you mean to keep his soul behind?¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t. It¡¯s too difficult to sustain mortal souls. Telling from his iplete dream, I can tell his spirit level is below 3. If he dies, his consciousness will just shatter into particles.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not it. Do you remember my research subject, Mister Padt? Dreams might be dested and boring in the long run, but we can create dreams as good as reality if we canbine them with the Dream Whelk.¡±

    Angor widened his eyes a bit. Freud¡¯s words just reminded him of some of the fictions he read before, where people could throw away their lives to live inside virtual realities.

    If they could use the Dream Whelk to pull different objects into a dream and let Jon live there...

    Freud saw Angor getting interested and quickly added, ¡°I once mentioned magical creatures native to the dream realm. Do you know that, by certain means, they can travel to reality as well?¡±

 Chapter 871 - Updated Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 871: Updated Illusion</h4>

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about the others, but with your illusion, Mister Padt, I¡¯m sure you can make the perfect dream world unlike any. As I mentioned before, doing free alchemy practices is only the beginning of it. You can achieve anything.¡± Freud excitedly described the amazing dream world he had in mind.

    Angor, however, didn¡¯t believe Freud¡¯s ¡°Utopia¡± was possible. No matter how good it turned out, it was still a dream. However, it would be a worthy attempt.

    Freud suggested that they could keep Jon¡¯s memories and personality intact after his body died. But without any solid proof, Angor remained skeptical.

    When Freud was done with his questions, he went into his ¡°old room¡± in Angor¡¯s Church of the Deceased and began leaving notes on Dream Reading.

    Meanwhile, Angor checked the ¡°safe yground¡± where the new recruits were resting. As he specified before, the safe zone was avable from 0:00 to 6:00 on each day.

    Without minding the participants, Alda was taking it easy on a rocking horse while humming a child¡¯s luby.

    While listening to his adorable voice, the worn-out recruits slowly fell asleep.

    Sunny moved to the edge of the yground and spoke to Alda, ¡°Don¡¯t be so nice to them. I want to listen to their screams. This is boring.¡±

    ¡°Come on, they need some rest to yell louder during the day, right?¡± Alda replied innocuously. ¡°You don¡¯t want them to break down and surrender. That¡¯s no fun.¡±

    ¡°Aw, you have a point! Well, I can¡¯t do anything now anyway.¡± Sunny stared at one of the participants dressed in an expensive-looking skirt. ¡°I¡¯ll focus on that woman next time. Even if I can¡¯t kill her, I¡¯ll make sure to scare her to death.¡±

    With a satisfied smile, Sunny went back into the orphanage so that she could earn Freud¡¯s reward.

    On top of the building, Angor saw the door behind him opened by someone, and Sunny, Neya, and Brulee showed up.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Mister Dison?¡± Sunny looked a bit fearful in front of Angor but still kept her impolite attitude.

    ¡°Mister Padt, the girl insisted on talking to you, I can¡¯t say no to her,¡± Neya apologized.

    As the creator of the illusion, Angor knew everything that happened just now, such as how Neya did try to stop Sunny from bothering him. Although Neya didn¡¯t do a very good job because she still told Sunny where Freud was.

    Brulee was together with Neya because the bird had been trying to pry information out of her so that it could learn more about Angor¡¯s secrets. Of course, Neya didn¡¯t reveal anything useful.

    ¡°Freud is helping me with a favor,¡± said Angor.

    Sunny was clearly not satisfied with the answer, although she did nothing more than walking away since she couldn¡¯t force Angor to talk.

    Neya looked a bit disappointed. She was hoping to find out what Angor wanted from Freud.

    She then thought to leave Angor alone, but Angor suddenly stopped her.

    ¡°One moment,¡± Angor said while pointing to the training ground below, ¡°Freud told me that these people were new talents from the Tower of Hurricane?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡± Neya nodded. ¡°It was me who asked for permission, that I¡¯m to test them here before sending them back to the Fey Continent. Do you need something from them?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a certain... troublemaker, among the group.¡± Angor pointed at the woman in luxurious clothes, who was supposed to be Sunny¡¯s ¡°next target¡±. ¡°She knows about this illusion, doesn¡¯t she?¡±

    While talking to Freud, Angor also kept some attention on what was going on around the illusion, including why Sunny was so furious about this particr woman.

    In fact, this woman was having fun in the game instead of feeling afraid, and she never stopped taunting Sunny.

    ¡°You can¡¯t kill me anyway! This is all fake. What¡¯s the big deal?¡±

    She was basically asking for a ticket to death if Sunny were still the violent wraith from a few months ago, which was no longer the case.

    ¡°I¡¯ve asked Freud to take charge of the illusion, so I shouldn¡¯t interfere too much. But as a recruiter, you really shouldn¡¯t tell her the secret of the illusion beforehand. You¡¯re disrespecting Sunny¡¯s effort, and mine.¡±

    Neya nced at the said woman and grew awkward. ¡°It¡¯s my fault. She¡¯s Princess Metz from the Silverheron n. She used to be a good child back home. When I saw how terrified she was in here, I kind of told her that this is an illusion. I never thought she¡¯d behave like this.¡±

    ¡°Talking about people born in the same family. You¡¯re all the same, cocky and arrogant, just like Dove Silverheron.¡±

    Four years ago, Angor met with Dove as a fresh recruit on the Redbud, where Dove was killed by his own servant.

    Neya thought Dove used to offend Angor and quickly looked down.

    After telling Neya about this matter, Angor sent her away without doing anything. The training was not his job anyway.

    Still, he felt just a little annoyed when he saw a rich snob treating his illusion as a joke. Since he had nothing to do while waiting for Freud¡¯s work, he nned to adjust the illusion for a bit.

    Without changing any of the main elements, he was going to add something extra, which was a small trick to better control people¡¯s emotions and memories.

    Soon, the ¡°Dead by Daylight¡± illusion entered a brand new chapter under his control.

    Firstly, anyone who entered the illusion would have their recent memory blocked from their minds. This was to prevent people from knowing the nature of the illusion in advance.

    Secondly, he added something that amplified people¡¯s emotions. Now, even the tiniest fear could turn into uncontroble horror.

    Lastly, he fully hid the ¡°Easter eggs¡±, which were intended to assist the participants, behind mechanisms that could only be activated when the recruits passed certain moral tests.

    With everything done, Angor looked at the sleeping people and grinned in satisfaction.

    ¡°Have fun.¡±

    Freud left the Church of the Deceased and instantly noticed the illusion being different.

    ¡°My goodness. If you keep improving the illusion in this way, Mister Padt, I can imagine more organizations nearby will send their recruits here as the first entrance test. And I¡¯ll get awfully busier.¡±

    He was more than d about this since more recruits meant more ie.

    ¡°I¡¯ve left the notes in that room. Check them out when you have time.¡±

    Angor reached a spirit feeler inside the small church and noticed another pile of papers beside the said note.

    <i>Does Illusions Work Well With Dream Whelk? (4th revision)</i>

    It seemed Freud never forgot his ambition.

    ¡°All good.¡± Angor nodded with a smile. ¡°As for your research subject, I¡¯ll be sure to give it a try. No matter what the oue is, I¡¯m grateful for your suggestion.¡±

    ¡°Heh heh... Should you seed, Mister Padt, don¡¯t forget to give me a spot in that dream world. Also, my previous promise still stands. I¡¯ll swear under Follower¡¯s Oath and be your follower.¡±

    Without tarrying, Angor said his goodbye and prepared to return to the Old Earth with Brulee.

    Even though he was forced to travel away at first, he was quite happy with what he gained along the trip, such as the Demeter and clues about Eureka¡¯s injured spirit. Not to mention another possible solution to treat Jon.

    What Freud suggested might sound like an odd thing to do, but it was still doable, if there was no other workaround.

    ¡°Wait a second... I think I forgot something?¡±

 Chapter 872 - Back to the Manor

    <h4>Chapter 872: Back to the Manor</h4>

    Two dayster when Angor had reached the Old Earth, he suddenly recalled Freud mentioning his Ocean Tuner but forgot to ask how Freud heard about it.

    Even so, letting his new creation known by others wasn¡¯t exactly a bad thing. Maybe it was one of the mermaids who got the message out.

    He put this matter behind his mind and went to Yamei Province.

    He saw many refugees along the way, who appeared a lot more peacefulpared to before. Apparently, Tavier¡¯s victory at Moonwater City greatly soothed all troubled minds around the Goldspink Empire. If they could win a fight, they could win the war.

    Brulee, however, stayed in a low spirit probably because it feared that Eureka would me it for not bringing back enough potions. Though this was hardly Brulee¡¯s fault. It was Eureka herself who agreed to ept raw materials.

    Angor tried to cheer Brulee up since he was in a good mood. ¡°Miss Eureka will forgive you if you tell her the truth. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    Brulee rolled its eyes. ¡°How about you give me a little help?¡±

    ¡°Help? What can I do?¡±

    Brulee grew excited when Angor did not say no immediately. ¡°You got a Demeter! Just give it to my master and tell her that the Ashen Traders used the Demeter as herpensation!¡±

    Angor gave Brulee a nk stare.

    ¡°I thought you¡¯re a smarter bird than that. I mean, all the materials she bought added together were still cheaper than the Demeter, so no, I¡¯ll not do such a thing.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡± Brulee lifted its wings to protest.

    ¡°No buts. I spent my own money to get the Demeter. Why would I give her to someone else?¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you trying to get friendly with my master? I¡¯ll help you with it if you agree!¡±

    ¡°This is a big misunderstanding. I never nned to be Miss Eureka¡¯s friend. Just stop. I can¡¯t oppose your master, but I¡¯m more than capable of dealing with you.¡±

    Now he felt bad. He should¡¯ve never consideredforting the stupid owl.

    As soon as they arrived at Padt Manor, Angor went to the stilt house and dumped all the items in front of Eureka.

    At first, Eureka was rather delightful when Angor returned so fast. But slowly, her smile turned into a frown, and eventually, she gave Brulee an angry re.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Eureka spoke in a in voice that seemed to contain her great rage.

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t do anything! It was that Beals...¡± Brulee exined their previous trade with the Ashen Traders while trembling badly.

    To Angor¡¯s surprise, apart from exining the facts, Brulee mentioned lots of irrelevant matters to divert Eureka¡¯s attention, such as how the valuable Demeter was presented to Angor and how the Ashen Traders acted strangely cooperative in front of him.

    Angor couldn¡¯t help cursing the owl deep in his mind. Eureka would hear about the Demeter sooner orter, but it was a whole different matter when Brulee set him up like this.

    ¡°You bought yourself a Demeter?¡± Unfortunately, Eureka was sessfully swayed from the main subject.

    Angor threw Brulee a fierce look before he nodded politely. ¡°Yes. Leon is about to enter an apprenticeship soon. A Demeter can improve the primal mana in the area and will help him meditate better.¡±

    Eureka fully knew the merits of having a Demeter. She used to look for one but without earning enough money for it.

    Now that she was constantly on the run with the Goman King constantly chasing her, she no longer wanted a Demeter as badly.

    Compared to the Demeter...

    ¡°Brulee told me that the ¡®Whale Hunter¡¯ was rather fond of you. Care to tell me why?¡±

    ¡°Whale Hunter?¡± Angor was ready to be forced to show the Demeter to Eureka, but Eureka asked him something he didn¡¯t know.

    ¡°The leader of Ashen Traders, Beals, is also called the ¡®Whale Hunter¡¯. A crafty bastard who¡¯s pretty good at going after opportunities.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s fond of me? I don¡¯t know. I only heard about this name for the first time.¡± Angor nced at Brulee, who had been ying dead next to Eureka. ¡°Ask Brulee if you don¡¯t believe me.¡±

    Eureka did so and made sure Angor wasn¡¯t hiding anything.

    ¡°A Demeter is far from cheap. How did you afford it?¡±

    ¡°I can do alchemy.¡±

    ...

    A momentter, Angor left Eureka¡¯s ce with aplicated mindset.

    Eureka didn¡¯t believe him at all when he said he could earn money by selling alchemy items. Then he exined that he once joined Sunders and hunted down a wizard-level monster, and he sold the monster parts for big money.

    Eureka took his words this time.

    Both of the excuses were true. The magical vine he brought back from Witch¡¯s Town earned him about 60,000 magic crystals in the end, which was enough to pay for the Demeter.

    Eureka didn¡¯t ask to look at the Demeter and simply let him go. They¡¯d be spending more time at Padt Manor, so she had more chances for itter.

    Angor nned to ¡°nt¡± the Demeter at Padt Manor as soon as he could so that he didn¡¯t have to lock the weeping creature in his bracelet for too long. But he decided to wait until tomorrow so that he could discuss it with Leon first.

    It was midnight right now. After being away from Padt Manor for four days, he grew a little worried about Jon¡¯s condition, so he quickly went to the ice room to check.

    Jon looked fine. It seemed the Vitalizer could stabilize him at least for now. With the help of the Dream Weaver, Jon didn¡¯t look as painful in his sleep as before.

    Angor used Dream Walk again to look at Jon¡¯s dream.

    It seemed Jon had taken his family to Padt Manor and settled down to enjoy a peaceful life, about which Angor was d to see.

    There was one problem though. Inside the current dream, Jon deliberately married his daughter, Muey, to Angor.

    And it definitely didn¡¯t look proper since both Muey and Angor were children in Jon¡¯s memory.

    A little embarrassed, Angor canceled his cantrip and left the dream. At least Jon was having fun. At this rate, Freud¡¯s new idea might be worth trying.

    After giving the Dream Weaver another drop of Akeso¡¯s blood, he stepped out of the ice room.

    His next task was to go back to his bedroom and check the small illusionpartment he left here.

    It was still intact, which meant no one came to his room while he was away.

    With a flicker of mind, he lifted the illusion and revealed the Soft Larva nest hidden inside. It seemed severalrva eggs had sessfully hatched in these days. But to his disappointment, they were allmon Soft Larvae that didn¡¯t have much value.

    As for the ¡°odd one¡± he separated from the others...

    It was still an egg. He left lots of Akeso¡¯s blood for it before leaving, and the egg had consumed it all, which was pretty impressive.

    ¡°Is it bigger than before? I should keep tabs on it from now on...¡±

    A night had passed.

    In the early morning, Leon heard about Angor¡¯s return from Auri and immediately came to his room, mainly to make sure that Angor wasn¡¯t in any trouble.

    As he nned, Angor was going to tell his brother about the Demeter.

 Chapter 873 - Initial Experiment

    <h4>Chapter 873: Initial Experiment</h4>

    As soon as Leon learned the true value of a Demeter, he refused to leave her at Padt Manor right away.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way we have what it takes to keep it. Maybe it¡¯s okay when you or Miss Eureka is here, but she, you, and I will always leave one day, by which time the Demeter will bring the family quite the risk.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll temporarily put her here then.¡± Angor considered and said, ¡°Later, I might take her away or use an illusion to hide it. I¡¯ll decide what to do then.¡±

    In the end, Angor made up his mind to nt the Demeter here. Not in the soil, but on top of a small piece of ¡°cloud dirt¡± he handily crafted, which was the sameponent used for sustaining the floating inds in Brute Cavern. In this way, he didn¡¯t have to sever the Demeter¡¯s roots when removing her.

    Bybining the cloud dirt and a proper amount of earth he found outside Grue Town, he sessfully created a tiny floating ind to keep the Demeter above the manor while also leaving a simple illusion to conceal her from people¡¯s views.

    The Demeter had been silently weeping ever since Angor saw her. But as soon as Angor ced her into fresh soil, a delightful smile that perfectly fitted her stunning look came upon her face.

    Even her feathers that looked a bit dim and unkempt before slowly grew clean and brighter, further adding to her image of the ¡°Goddess of Spring¡±.

    Both Angor and Leon watched the Demeter disying her splendor in awe, which was still not the end of it.

    In the next second, new sprouts shot out around the Demeter and began to emanate the aura of life into the environment. The aura wasn¡¯t very strong, but it still covered up the entire Padt Manor.

    Within a matter of seconds, the Milkberry Tree visibly gained extra size, while the flowers around it also took on more vivid sheens.

    The miniature nts in the Krakok settlement also gave birth to new branches and blossoms rapidly, turning the newly-built Krakok home even more lovely.

    Leon took several deep and pleasant breaths as he felt the very air in his lungs almost invigorating.

    ¡°She¡¯s still recovering. When she reaches her full size, the power will reach every corner of Grue Town, including the farnds in the suburbs, by which time you¡¯ll never have to worry about food shortage,¡± Angor said to Leon, who was still dumbfounded.

    ¡°She¡¯s not fully grown yet?? Man, I wish I could keep her here, but...¡±

    Leon shook his head while descending from the floating ind by using Angor¡¯s Gond.

    ¡°I know the wizarding world is amazing, but this is the first time I¡¯ve ever seen something like this. Now I can¡¯t wait to go there and find out more.¡±

    ...

    That night, the servants in the manor held a feast with the Krakoks to celebrate the wonderful blessing they gained today. Even though they couldn¡¯t see the Demeter, they knew it was probably Angor who made it happen.

    Angor, however, didn¡¯t join the thrill. As the others sang and danced to their hearts¡¯ content, he silently left the manor and traveled away from Grue Town.

    He was going to Waterford, the city he used to love the most when he was young.

    The Waterford today was a lot quieter and more peacefulpared to what he could remember of it. At least he could no longer see starving homeless people wandering around the city.

    The main city district was still bright with many shops open for night business. However, this wasn¡¯t his destination¡ªhe was heading to the western area where the biggest prison in Waterford was located.

    The ¡°ck Sands¡± prison was home to many criminals, most of whom were waiting on death row. Angor nned to use these people as test subjects and try out ¡°reality dreams¡±.

    Without other known ways to rescue Jon, he at least needed something to prevent Jon from vanishing from this world. Keeping Jon¡¯s consciousness in a dream was still better than letting him diepletely.

    Everything Freud suggested until now was hypothetical. Now, Angor was going to do hands-on experiments.

    First and foremost, he had to make sure whether he could maintain someone¡¯s full memory and personality in a dream after that person was killed.

    It wouldn¡¯t make much difference, but he still preferred doing such tests on these viins rather than hurting innocent mortals he caught off the street.

    Would deep sleep and light sleep affect the results? Would the dream be cut off immediately when someone died?

    This was about Jon¡¯s future. He would like to be absolutely certain of the oue.

    He reached the bottom-most level of the prison. He then deployed a simple ¡°mist illusion¡± as his temporary testing ground and immediately began.

    The first prisoner he found was having a typical nightmare where this man was being chased by a group of bloody females of different ages, who madly wanted to get their revenge on him.

    ¡°A rapist, huh? Well, this sucks...¡±

    He still didn¡¯t know how to kill someone while ¡°dream walking¡± yet, so he found some help by controlling another prisoner in the area as his killer.

    Unfortunately, the first test ended up as a failure. When the ¡°test subject¡± was chopped to death, he briefly woke up and caused the dream to shatter.

    ¡°So I can¡¯t let them feel it?¡±

    He found a second target and used some nightmare energy to block this man¡¯s sense of pain.

    It seemed to be a sess at first when the prisoner was left in his dream for a while without realizing that his body had perished.

    However, without the support of an active mind, the dream bridge quickly crumbled, which meant Angor could no longer enter the dream again nor could he find out whether the dream was still happening.

    There might be ways to find a dream without locating its dream bridge, which... clearly wasn¡¯t something he could learn right now.

    He took some time to go over more prisoners while noting down everything he needed to know, such as how well memories were kept in different types of dreams.

    While at it, he identally discovered several ¡°innocent¡± prisoners who were actually framed by someone. Instead of killing them, he made some adjustments to the roster to point out the wrongful usations.

    The entire prison was in an uproar by the time he finished his work. However, he wasn¡¯t going to care about what happened next.

    He was quite satisfied with what he learned at one night. Regrettably, there wasn¡¯t one single subject who had a lucid dream, so he didn¡¯t learn any useful things about it.

    Could lucid dreamers retain theirplete consciousness after bodily death? Since Jon was having a lucid dream, Angor had to know the answer to this question.

    If even a tiny part of Jon¡¯s awareness or personality was damaged or lost, Jon would no longer be the same man as before.

 Chapter 874 - Sleep Training

    <h4>Chapter 874: Sleep Training</h4>

    It was too hard to find a lucid dreamer.

    Anyone could encounter a lucid dream by chance, which was usually a rather tiny chance that might or might not happen in their lives. Rather than blindly looking for such a case, Angor decided to actively grant lucid dreams to someone.

    With the right approach, one could ¡°manually¡± cause lucid dreams regardless of the physical or mental conditions of the dreamer. Freud also mentioned certain cantrips for this purpose, which were avable for Dream Maniptors. But for now, Angor wasn¡¯t going to travel all the way to the Land of Revtion and study a new cantrip he wasn¡¯t familiar with.

    There were many books about psychology stored in his tablet that introduced ways of inducing lucid dreams. He found what he needed in no time.

    Next, he would need more ¡°guinea pigs¡±. And since going to Waterford for a second time wasn¡¯t a good idea, he headed to Moonwater City this time.

    Princess Tavier had gone to Inkhorn Province to lead another battle after chasing Hen soldiers away from Moonwater City. Now, it was General Aaron who was inmand.

    When he saw Angor arriving, Aaron quickly put up his best manners, both to show respect to a powerful supernatural and to dere his loyalty.

    Hearing Angor¡¯s request, Aaron had no problem providing criminals waiting to be executed without asking why.

    Within an hour, several military men pulled a cart of ragged felons to an area designated by Angor.

    ¡°Your death is inevitable. But I can provide gold to your friends or family if you help me with something.¡± Angor revealed his intention to the captives straightforwardly.

    The prisoners immediately grew restless and wanted to resist. Angor didn¡¯t have to do anything¡ªthe guards nearby were enough to deal with them.

    Angor waited for everyone to ept his proposal¡ªwith no other choice¡ªand handed a piece of note to each of them containing the ¡°lucid dream training method¡± he copied. The method wasn¡¯t exactly difficult as it only involved four apparent stepspulsion, delineation, indication, and discrimination.

    Compulsion referred to the strong will of ¡°wanting¡± a dream. The more someone forced themselves to focus on a certain matter before falling asleep, the more likely they¡¯d be having a dream based on it.

    After shaping the dream with enough desired details, they could indicate their subconsciousness to raise suspicions about the dream, and then hopefully, they would be able to tell whether it was a dream.

    Ultimately, when the dreamer could realize that they were having a dream, then it would be a lucid dream.

    When one could be fully aware of the lucid dream, they¡¯d be able to achieve anything in it as they wished.

    Angor wasn¡¯t expecting any of the criminals to keep this up. He only needed them to lucid dream for at least a brief second, which was enough for him to conduct his research.

    The criminals had no idea what the strange ¡°sleep training¡± meant to them. No one asked since they wouldn¡¯t be getting any answer. They still did as Angor asked, just to grant their friends some extra cash, which was the least they could do in their lives.

    In the next few days, Angor stayed at Moonwater City while observing the prisoners every night. When he had time to spare, he would use it to study ¡°Dream Reading¡±¡ªthe second Dream Maniptor art he received from Freud.

    Once again, he nned to use his tablet and nightmare energy to force his way through, instead of learning it normally.

    ording to the device, he would need to wait for half a month to get the optimal cantrip model this time.

    ...

    Every night, Angor would check through the dreams of the prisoners and ask Aaron to remove anyone who cked off too often. Here, ¡°removing¡± probably meant early execution. Although he couldn¡¯t care less about it.

    A week quickly psed.

    He would asionally head back to Padt Manor to check on his family, and he was d to see the Demeter working her wonders by fully benefiting everyone with her power of life. Even several old farmers who spent most of their days in the fields were looking rather energetic.

    Such power was almost negligible in the views of wizards since it could do nothing more than letting them feel slightly refreshed. However, the effect was quite palpable on mortals.

    Eureka was also getting better when bathed in the Demeter¡¯s aura. It seemed such power could somewhat heal her spirit injury.

    One day, Eureka called Angor over, hoping to learn what he had been up to.

    Angor exined that he was performing research on human bodies but without mentioning the details.

    Instead of digging further into this matter, Eureka tried to ask whether Angor had any other useful potions in possession. She asked so because she saw Angor taking out many valuable potions when treating Jon. Apparently, without enough potions to heal her spirit, she nned to try her luck on Angor.

    Angor didn¡¯t hide anything as he showed Eureka what he prepared for Jon, all of which were mild ones since Jon was in no condition to take anything too strong.

    In the end, Eureka bought several servings of ¡°Chicato Witch¡¯s Stew¡± from Angor, which were a type of weak spirit remedy. It was far from what she needed, but it was still better than nothing.

    ¡°Gosh. I hope Redes back sooner...¡± Disappointed, Eureka stared at the materials Brulee brought back and muttered to herself.

    ...

    When Angor¡¯s tablet almost worked out the cantrip model of ¡°Dream Reading¡±, a prisoner sessfully entered a lucid dream.

    Angor was there to watch the dream from start to end, which was all about the dreamer¡¯s strongest obsession¡ªto gain revenge for his dead father.

    This might sound like the story of a loyal son at first. But the truth was, the prisoner¡¯s father was just another murderous killer who deserved a sure death, while his son, who inherited his cruel nature, maimed lots of people in his wake, including his own wife, for selfish gain. In thest few days of his life, this prisoner regretted his terrible deeds just a little. He worked hard to earn Angor¡¯s gold so that he could at least leave some money for his son, who was his only family remaining.

    That night, Angor ended this man¡¯s life after fully blocking his senses of pain. Before the dream bridge was severed due to theck of a breathing body, Angor managed to see him still hunting for his prey, before having to evacuate.

    <i>Will he live on in the Dream Realm?</i> he thought. <i>I need to see more of them.</i>

    The next day, Angor asked a soldier to deliver ten gold pieces to the criminal¡¯s son, as he promised.

    ording to the soldier¡¯s report, the recipient was a 15-year-old teenager who was badly addicted to gambling. One single night was all he needed to lose his new fortune to the casino when he could have used the money to reach adulthood while still having extra.

    Again, Angor did not care. This was to be expected from the son of a serial killer. There might be stories of children of good virtue who didn¡¯t follow the dreadful paths of their parents, but this would hardly happen in reality, when education and family were so decisively important in shaping someone¡¯s character.

    ...

    Once again, Angor jumped to sess by building the model of ¡°Dream Reading¡± in his mind without knowing any of the prerequisites, which was usually a risky thing to do. This was only possible when Dream Maniptor arts were rted to Nightmare arts in many aspects.

    There was another w in doing so. Angor had to spend extra time casting these cantrips because he needed more time to prepare nightmare energy beforehand. However, this wasn¡¯t a serious problem since Dream Maniptor arts weren¡¯t used for battles.

    He wasn¡¯t going to use Dream Reading on any of the prisoners, who were very likely to attack him in their dreams. Even Leon might do dangerous things to him during a random and possibly chaotic dream. For now, Jon¡¯s lucid dream was the only sure shot he could try the new cantrip on.

    Naturally, he couldn¡¯t wait to get back to Padt Manor and hopefully speak to Jon immediately. But he managed to hold back his impulse and stay behind when he saw more of the prisoners showing signs of lucid dreams. Getting more data for his research was also important right now.

 Chapter 875 - Talking

    <h4>Chapter 875: Talking</h4>

    As the soldiers left their beds to answer the morning call, Angor returned to his room after a full night¡¯s work. There were five subjects who had lucid dreams yesterday night, who ¡°continued on¡± after death, much to Angor¡¯s delight.

    But despite his good progression, he still had one big question about reading dreams.

    Until now, he had used Dream Walk for over 200 times. No matter which dream he was looking, he always passed through the same wilderness before entering the dream.

    It didn¡¯t affect his cantrip in any way, but he still would like to know what that ce was.

    ording to Freud, there was only the ¡°dream bridge¡± that acted as a medium for a Dream Maniptor to go inside a dream. There should be nothing else in between.

    Could this be something unique that only he could see? But what caused it?

    Taking shortcuts while building the cantrip model couldn¡¯t be the reason since many apprentices tended to improvise in simr ways when studying level-0 cantrips.

    Could it be something rted to his nightmare energy?

    He added this theory in his notebook, along with all the research results he gained, so that he could look at itter.

    He did hear about some interesting rtions between the Nightmare Realm and the ¡°Dream Realm¡± before. Rumors had it that wizards from ancient times used to call the Nightmare Realm the Dream Realm. But at that time, this ¡°Dream Realm¡± was used to refer to another special ce, not the Dream World today, which was supposed to contain people¡¯s dreams.

    The ¡°projections¡± in the Nightmare Realm sounded rather simr to all the unreal existences in dreams, which might also be a clue.

    However, projections from the Nightmare Realm might ¡°give birth to the truth¡±, while shades and shadows in dreams could not.

    ¡°Could that ce be something I identally created by mixing dreams and nightmare energy? I hope I can explore it one day...¡±

    He tried to do so before, but he had yet to seed.

    ...

    On this day, two prisoners sessfully entered their lucid dreams.

    After Angor murdered them in their sleep, both of them vanished far away in their dreams until Angor couldn¡¯t catch up with them.

    He acquired valuable results from a total of 19 targets in three days. The dreamers were of different personalities, genders, and backgrounds, but their results appeared to be simr.

    Angor was now certain that lucid dreamers would have their consciousness lingering in their dreams after death. But for now, he could not ascertain how long they couldst because the dream bridges would vanish quickly, preventing him from tracing the dreamers ever again.

    There were only ten prisoners remaining. It would be best if these people could fully grasp the way of lucid dreaming and had full control of their dreams so that they might do stuff just like when they were awake. However, this wasn¡¯t something Angor could force into happening.

    Since there was nothing to do during the day, he told Aaron¡¯s soldiers to take good care of the captives and went back to Padt Manor.

    It had been a week since he sessfully learned Dream Reading. As soon as he arrived at Grue Town, he dived straight into Jon¡¯s ice room.

    To his surprise, he bumped into Leon.

    It seemed Leon was still responsible for noting down various information regarding Jon¡¯s conditions, which required him toe to the ice room at least once a week.

    As Leon exined, it wasn¡¯t Eureka who asked him to do so, but his ¡°teacher¡±.

    This had told Angor that,pared to Eureka, Red-Haired Thewis was actually more interested in Jon.

    ¡°Miss Eureka mentioned something about your ¡®research¡¯ at Moonwater City?¡± Leon finished his notes and looked at Angor.

    Angor nodded. Even so, he had enough reason not to tell Leon what exactly he was doing.

    ¡°I still don¡¯t like this old man, but I hope you¡¯ll get him back to us nevertheless.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best, brother. And thank you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to your things then.¡± Leon put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We don¡¯t get to spend much time together. Don¡¯t forget toe to dinner.¡±

    Angor watched Leon leave and looked back at the ice coffin, where Jon was still smiling slightly.

    Seeing this made him somewhat happy.

    After staying in the ice room for a while to calm his mind, he carefully cast Dream Walk and revealed Jon¡¯s dream bridge. In the meantime, he also prepared the model of Dream Reading in his mindspace.

    Once the second cantrip was cast, he felt something new growing on his ¡°dream sensor¡±. This extra part looked nothing like a mouth or any tool formunication, but something told him that he could speak through it.

    While holding back his excitement, he stepped onto the dream bridge.

    Not surprisingly, the familiar wilderness came into his view again, which was very brief.

    He swiftly moved past the dream bridge and entered Jon¡¯s dream.

    The first thing he heard was childish giggling of a small boy and a girl, both of whom sounded rather happy.

    Before today, he made many guesses about what made Jon smile in his sleep.

    But still... he wasn¡¯t expecting to see THIS.

    A young boy in the prime of his growth stage was ying chase with a tender-looking girl in the shadows of trees.

    ¡°Get me if you can, Muey!¡± The boy ran behind another big tree and poked his head out.

    ¡°Call me big sis! No, wait. You should call me ¡®Your Highness¡¯, Angor. I¡¯m older than you!¡±

    Speechless, Angor watched his younger self and Jon¡¯s daughter having a lovely time in the garden.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t Mister Jon proceeding a little too fast?¡±

    Last time he was here, Jon was still introducing ¡°Angor¡± to his daughter. But now, the children already looked like young lovers who had their future marriage determined by their family.

    Away from the kids, Jon was strolling in the sunlight together with his wife.

    ¡°They¡¯re the best fit!¡± Harvey covered her mouth and giggled. ¡°What did I say, you let the children develop their bonds earlier.¡±

    Jon showed a stern look. ¡°Humph! I don¡¯t agree with this yet. If that boy dares do something funny to my daughter, I¡¯ll spank him until Old Padt can¡¯t recognize his own son!¡±

    <i>What¡¯s that supposed to mean?!</i> Angor couldn¡¯t help but protest in his mind.

    Across the gentle breezes of spring, he saw the two kids now running in circles around a tree trunk, while Jon and his wife watched the childish fun with their own smiles.

    Angor simply felt the awkwardness getting unbearable, which was made worse when the children were stillughing non-stop as if the dream hade to a halt.

    ¡°Oh,e on! Even the most clich¨¦ television dramas won¡¯t use these acts anymore!¡±

    As he yelled out aloud, the whole dream froze up all of a sudden, leaving Jon as the only element who was capable of moving.

    Jon always knew that this was all a dream, and that voice he just heard shouldn¡¯t exist.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± Jon questioned in a small voice while trying to discover the intruder in his dream. As the dream¡¯s creator, he could definitely do such a thing.

    Angor sighed in great relief when he saw Jon asking him toe out instead of using harsher means right away. As he expected, Jon remained to be aposed schr and knew how to control his actions, unlike those prisoners who wouldn¡¯t have a second thought when using their fake freedom however they liked.

    ¡°Hey, Teacher. It¡¯s me.¡±

 Chapter 876 - Jonâ€™s Questions

    <h4>Chapter 876: Jon¡¯s Questions</h4>

    ¡°It¡¯s me, Angor.¡±

    Jon frowned upon hearing Angor¡¯s voice. ¡°Weird. I can meet with unknown factors in my dream too? Can I not fully control a lucid dream?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I may be an ¡®unknown factor¡¯, but I didn¡¯t show up randomly, you know. I made this happen,¡± Angor said with a chuckle.

    Jon stroked his stubble. ¡°Are you saying... you¡¯re the REAL Angor, who somehow entered my dream?¡±

    ¡°Precisely.¡±

    ¡°How could I believe you? Maybe you¡¯re just my imagination?¡±

    ¡°Try to feel it, Mister Jon. You¡¯ll believe my existence by then.¡±

    It was definitely a bad idea to expose oneself when invading someone¡¯s dream, but in this case, Angor fully trusted Jon.

    As the ¡°highmander¡± of the dream, Jon easily sensed a tiny foreign signaling from not far away.

    The signal did not belong to the current dream. Just as Angor said, he came from the outside.

    ¡°I see, it¡¯s surely an interpting element...¡± Jon muttered. ¡°How do you prove that you¡¯re THE Angor, my young student?¡±

    ¡°Well, how do you like me to prove myself?¡±

    Jon smiled upon hearing Angor¡¯s response.

    As Angor watched in confusion, the dream suddenly melted into blurry fragments, until they showed up somewherepletely different¡ªa ssroom.

    Jon moved to the ckboard as he said, ¡°I used to teach my sses here. I¡¯ll give you some simple tests. Work out these quizzes, and I¡¯ll believe you.¡±

    Instead of using the ckboard, Jon summoned a hologram screen out of thin air and disyed a number of questions on it.

    [Q1: Take 1,000 people and make them stand in a circle. Kill number one, then kill the third man starting from his position. Repeat. Who will be thest one standing?]

    [Q2: Work out the rank of the following matrix...]

    ...

    [Q10: Rectify the hologram below using the Five Seidel Aberrations, then resolve the final password using Vigen¨¨re Cipher ording to the spectral alignment...]

    Dumbfounded, Angor stared at the questions while feeling a mild daze. He simted the reunion with Jon in his mind beforeing here many times, yet he had never thought that he would be taking a test like this.

    <i>This is what you give me after we¡¯ve been apart for so long?! Mind-boggling quizzes and an early wife?</i>

    While trying his best not to roar out hisints, Angor found a seat and began his ¡°exam¡±.

    It was rather easy to figure out the answers since his mental capacity had been improved by many levels when studying wizardry.

    With a bright smile, Jon watched as Angor wrote down the final answer and sighed.

    ¡°It¡¯s really you, Angor.¡±

    ¡°Why would it be otherwise?¡±

    ¡°I never thought I¡¯d be seeing you again like this. Is it the power of wizards? I thought you¡¯re way smarter though. You can do thest question and be done with it without minding the other nine.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°Do you still remember the 10th question?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s the one I needed to finish in the end, in order to get the password of that tablet. It was the 100th question back then.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it. You just need to show me the answer, and I¡¯ll admit you right away. Buuut... I see you never cked off on your studies. You worked fast!¡±

    Jon spent a few minutes being a talkative teacher while repeating phrases like ¡°diligence is the key to sess¡± until Angor found it necessary to stop him.

    ¡°Wait wait wait. Aren¡¯t you going to ask why I am here?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that... Aren¡¯t you here to inform me of my condition? I¡¯m terminal, aren¡¯t I?¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer.

    ¡°Don¡¯t stress yourself out. I knew this would happen. It¡¯s the ¡®world¡¯s consciousness¡¯ we¡¯re talking about. I¡¯ve no way of fighting back. Not a chance. I¡¯ve been thinking in my dreams. Since you¡¯re talking to me like this instead of waking me up, the answer is clear. I can no longer wake up, am I right?¡±

    Jon continued with a calm expression, ¡°It¡¯s fine. As I said in my letter, I¡¯ve lived a fruitful life. Two worlds, two universes, two civilizations... I¡¯ve left my traces in both. What is there to regret?¡±

    Angor could feel that Jon meant those words, and this made him really sad.

    ¡°It¡¯s notpletely hopeless yet. I¡¯m still trying. I¡¯ll make it happen...¡±

    Determined as he tried to be, Angor still sounded a little uncertain.

    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear.¡± Jon smiled gently. ¡°I¡¯d be lying if I say I don¡¯t want to see more of this wonderful world. Just don¡¯t burden yourself too much, alright? You¡¯ve inherited most things I can give you. I¡¯d be just as happy if you¡¯re there to enjoy this world in my stead.¡±

    Jon then changed the subject before it sounded too sentimental. ¡°Right, I suddenly had these lucid dreams because of you, is it not? Before this happened, I was feeling lost in some dark ce and couldn¡¯t even think clearly.¡±

    ¡°I used a magical ant called the ¡®Dream Weaver¡¯ to give you good dreams. Though I didn¡¯t expect it to give you lucid dreams for real.¡±

    ¡°An ant that weaves dreams? That sounds a lot like the old story I told you before.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why I bought it when I saw the ant in Floating Mech City. The ant is said to have been extinct for a century. I did a good job of finding it!¡± Angor imed proudly.

    ¡°Floating Mech City, you say?¡±

    This name alone helped Jon draw the wonderful image of a flying city in his mind. As a seasoned schr, Jon couldn¡¯t wait to hear all kinds of amazing stories Angor could offer, which would be the best gift he could receive before his end.

    But of course, he also hoped to live on and witness everything by himself.

    Angor had no problem granting that wish by spending some time describing his journeys in great detail so that Jon could control his dream to create different objects and sights to go with Angor¡¯s words.

    But with his weakened mental state, Jon couldn¡¯t fully illustrate everything he heard.

    As Angor reached the part where he saw the giant cloud whale flying above The Redbud, Jon excitedly looked up at the imaginary creature he just ¡°painted¡±. ¡°It sounds so simr to the legendary ¡®Kun¡¯ in Eastern mythology! But how does something so big sustain itself, when both worlds have simr oxygen density?¡±

    Angor stopped his stories despite Jon¡¯s eager look.

    ¡°We¡¯ll have more timeter, let¡¯s stop for today. Let me catch some good meals and some sleep, okay?¡±

    Even if this was a dream, it still relied on Jon¡¯s brain functions. Talking aboutplicated things for too long might be harmful to Jon. This was why Angor made such a decision just in case.

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Jon nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t tell the time, but you¡¯ve spent a lot of time in here. I need some time of my own to grasp what I heard anyway.¡±

    ¡°Um, Jon? I think you didn¡¯t look, how I put it, too happy, when seeing me. Didn¡¯t you used to tell me that reuniting with dear friends is one of the merriest things in one¡¯s life?¡±

    Jon rubbed his forehead. ¡°You know, since I know how to control my lucid dream, I¡¯ve gone through every piece of memory rted to you, starting from when you were a toddler. And man, what a naughty little b*stard you were. Happy? I feel like pumping more lessons into your head instead.¡±

    ¡°But that wasn¡¯t me! Well, it was me, but¡ª¡±

    A little bit annoyed, Angor left Jon¡¯s dream and suddenly remembered how Jon matched him with Muey.

    ¡°Even as a kid, I¡¯d never chase after a girl like that!¡±

 Chapter 877 - Initial Conclusion

    <h4>Chapter 877: Initial Conclusion</h4>

    Since then, Angor would find some time and visit Jon every day.

    After each visit, Jon also needed some time to digest what he heard from Angor, especially all the amazing powers wielded by wizards.

    After spending another two weeks in Padt Manor, which was probably the happiest time Angor ever had since he came home, his mental peace was suddenly tested again when he noticed that the Vitalizer¡¯s effect was slowly decreasing. A few months at most, and Jon¡¯s body would continue to decline at an rming rate.

    Today, Angor was going to tell his adventure in the Fairy World.

    ¡°The Fairy Worldes in three yers¡¯¡ªthe surface world, the midworld, and the otherworld. They exist parallel to each other...¡±

    This was the first time for Jon to hear about appendage nes. As someone who always believed that his homeworld was the one and only, Jon needed quite some time toprehend Angor¡¯s exnation.

    While waiting for Jon to recover from his thoughts, Angor decided to talk about their treatment. They both tried to avoid this subject these days. Yet they also knew that this couldn¡¯t be postponed forever.

    Again, Jon listened to Angor¡¯s words with an unruffled smile.

    ¡°You know, when I left that letter to you, I thought it would be myst chance to speak to you. Now we¡¯re here, sharing yet more moments together. There¡¯s not much I can ask for, really.¡±

    Jon waved a hand and summoned the shadows of several individuals in the dream. Angor¡¯s father, Angor, Leon... and atst, Harvey and Muey.

    ¡°Everyone I encountered was helpful and kind. While helping me with my hardships, they also left me with precious memories.¡± Jon then looked at his family. ¡°Not everything has a perfect ending, but... such is life, no? Look, I¡¯m not worried about dying in one bit. There¡¯s no reason for you to get so stressed about it.¡±

    Angor looked down at the desk. ¡°As I said, your case is notpletely lost. But apart from great challenges, finding a cure also involves a big secret that will unsettle the entire wizarding world.¡±

    As Jon listened in confusion, Angor slowly exined the origin of humans.

    ¡°As wizards have determined since ancient times, pure-blooded humans should only exist in the wizarding world. They can travel to other nes and worlds, but they will NOT find other humans native to those foreign worlds. But you, Jon, your existence is a giant exception that busted the protocol.¡±

    Exposing Jon¡¯s condition to the public meant many of the existing books and knowledge systems had to be revised. This would change a big part of human history, and perhaps cause a giant impact on many principles in the future.

    Next, Angor told Jon about the two unwanted visitors at Padt Manor, Eureka and Red-Haired Thewis.

    ¡°Having Eureka here isn¡¯t a big issue. She¡¯s too busy hiding from her enemies to mind anything else. But Thewis... that man¡¯s greatly interested in you.¡±

    ¡°I think I know where this is going.¡±

    ¡°Yes. Since you¡¯re already exposed, I might take you to Brute Cavern and ask someone in the organization to help you. If I can¡¯t find a solution earlier, that is. But in this case, I¡¯m afraid you will...¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be locked up as someone¡¯s guinea pig?¡± Jon frowned.

    ¡°Yes. As I said, a human born in another world is a priceless research material.¡±

    Jon sighed. ¡°Of course I want to keep breathing. But losing my freedom... I just don¡¯t know.¡±

    A moment of silence.

    ¡°There¡¯s another way.¡±

    ...

    Angor took out his Gond and headed to Moonwater City again.

    The second way he mentioned to Jon was to be a permanent resident of the Dream Realm, which he had been trying to figure out how.

    They had a better chance of healing Jon with the help of Brute Cavern. But in this case, it¡¯d be difficult for them to talk to each other ever again. In the worst case, a wizard might even use Jon to locate Earth, which was definitely bad news.

    Handing Jon to Sunders was still eptable since Sunders probably wasn¡¯t going to treat Jon too badly. Yet it was still unclear when Sunders would return from the Abyss ne.

    As for giving Jon to other wizards... No. Just no.

    This was why Angor would like to achieve the second approach, if he had to choose between these two.

    In order to safely keep Jon in the Dream Realm, he had to gain control of his own territory. One way to do it was by using the Dream Whelk to create a ¡°reality dream¡± as mentioned by Freud.

    But no matter which method he relied on, Angor would need time either to train or finish his experiments. And time wasn¡¯t exactly sufficient right now.

    Though unwilling, he had to bid farewell to Jon and focus on his research.

    ...

    The glowing Moonwater City appeared like an appealing painting in the drizzling night, but Angor wasn¡¯t in the mood to enjoy the view right now. As soon as he arrived, he immediately dived into the dreams of the remaining prisoners.

    There were four men who sessfully entered lucid dreams tonight. As they relished whatever fantasies they imagined, Angor silently but surely slit their necks.

    Later, one of the six surviving criminals showed signs of a ¡°true lucid dream¡±, as in, he was fully able to control everything in that dream while keeping all of his awareness and memories, just like Jon.

    Delighted, Angor executed this one and announced the end of the first stage of his experiment. He now collected enough clues and proofs that backed up his initial theories.

    Firstly, those who died while having a lucid dream were very likely to linger in the Dream Realm.

    Secondly, death would cause the lucid dream to enter a ¡°stationary¡± state, and the dreamer could no longer modify it in any way, as shown by thest test subject, who was forced to stop painting his desired world mid-way when Angor killed him.

    These two points had taken Angor to a possible conclusion¡ªa dream was created by someone¡¯s brain. Subconsciously, in most cases. And these dreams were like smaller worlds that randomly floated in a ce called the ¡°Dream Realm¡±.

    When the dreamer was alive, their dream would remain independent. As soon as their brain stopped functioning, this dream would also shake free of their control and adhere to some other rules and principles in the Dream Realm.

    As for whether this assumption was correct... Angor might need to find a Dream Maniptor wizard to ask about itter.

    The experiment wasn¡¯t aplete sess yet since he was unable to trace the dreams of dead dreamers and tell whether they truly ¡°lived on¡±. But for now, he had no idea how to address this issue.

    ¡°Hold on a minute...¡±

    The Dream Whelk could pull ¡°non-lifeform objects¡± into dreams. Could it pull the dead prisoners into dreams, since corpses weren¡¯t alive?

 Chapter 878 - Deserted Dream

    <h4>Chapter 878: Deserted Dream</h4>

    Now that Angor thought about it, he got his hands on the Dream Whelk but never used the item much, because each time he did, he would attract someone¡¯s attention, meaning, wizards who were drawn to the whelk¡¯s Mystery aura.

    Since he just got a new idea about how to use the whelk, he nned to get to it immediately.

    As a precaution, he took the dead body of the prisoner who managed the ¡°true lucid dream¡± earlier and headed all the way into the far wilderness away from Moonwater City, before taking out the Dream Whelk.

    After making sure he couldn¡¯t sense anyone in his detection range, he injected a trace of nightmare energy into the whelk and aimed it at the corpse.

    He was more than d to see the body ¡°responding¡± by sending another energy ray back at the whelk.

    ¡°Got it!¡±

    He quickly channeled Dream Walk and saw a dream bridge floating above the corpse.

    He didn¡¯t know what to expect from the dream of a dead body, so he asked Toby to guard him before moving toward the dream bridge.

    And he immediately knew something was off.

    The strange wilderness, which woulde into his view every time he went for people¡¯s dreams, did not show up. He intentionally remained at the dream bridge for a while, but he did not see the empty wilderness.

    ¡°Am I wrong? It has nothing to do with my nightmare energy... It only appears when the target is alive?¡±

    He then decided to move on while trying to recall what kind of dream this prisoner was having before death. As he remembered, this man was standing on top of arge mountain while ¡°painting¡± a new world at his free will. There were the Sun, flourishing trees, and running water... until Angor killed him before he could create any human partners.

    That mountain was a pretty impressivendmark. Angor believed he could easily find the prisoner if he headed there.

    He could not. The whole dream was different from what he saw earlier.

    The sky was gray and dim. Only several patches of weeds were growing on an empty, colorless wastnd.

    Upon entering the dream, Angor ended up on top of a lone corpse lying in the open.

    It took him a moment to realize that this wasn¡¯t the prisoner¡¯s dream, but the ¡°empty wilderness¡± he expected earlier.

    There was nothing around to look at, and since he was fixed to the corpse and couldn¡¯t move around, he had no choice but to quit.

    ¡°So I can¡¯t re-enter his dream by using his dead body? His physical form must have been cut off from his dream upon death. But... whatever is that ce?¡±

    In his previous Dream Walking attempts, he could always see the wilderness but without stepping in it since he couldn¡¯t freely wander off the dream bridge. Was it the Dream Whelk that allowed him to go there?

    He decided to try something new.

    He found a random rock from the ground and used the Dream Whelk to ¡°hypnotize¡± it. Then he ¡°Dream Walked¡± into the rock¡¯s dream.

    He couldn¡¯t see anything. While being together with the rock, there were thick grasses around thatpletely blocked his view.

    He tried again by using a bigger stone this time.

    As he thought, the stone had appeared at the same wastnd. It seemed the Dream Whelk did take him there.

    He left the dream again and took out the Church of the Deceased from his bracelet so that he could check Freud¡¯s research notes regarding this subject.

    In an article called <i>Bits and Pieces of the Dream Whelk</i>, Freud recorded many details he knew about the item, including its usage, its supposed effects, either proved ones or theoretical ones, as well as many unknown potentials Freud predicted from it.

    Angor finished the notes with a confused look.

    During Freud¡¯s career, he carefully noted down everything he saw when using the Dream Whelk. He had been to different ces like caves, mountains, volcanoes, and floatingnds in the sky. There was one time when Freud entered a ¡°strange wilderness¡± too, but that one looked a lot livelierpared to the one Angor just saw.

    ¡°Maybe I did too few tests and identally bumped into the same ce?¡±

    He spent the rest of the night trying out different objects he could find to see their dreams.

    It was always the same wilderness, which was not mentioned in any of Freud¡¯s references.

    ¡°The whelk disys different results in our hands? Is it because I¡¯m using nightmare energy to activate it?¡±

    He now had a hunch that the lifeless wastnd he always saw might be an ¡°appendage world¡± that existed alongside the Dream Realm, like how different nes had appendage nes. His nightmare energy was most likely the cause.

    And if his nightmare energy actually created that strange world, maybe he could control and shape it as he liked, which was exactly what Freud wanted to achieve.

    ¡°Ugh. Guess I really need to talk to Freud again.¡±

    Since it would take him a few days to get to the Land of Revtion, he nned to head back to Padt Manor and exin his schedule to Leon and Jon.

    Under the shimmering moon, he looked at his Gond and suddenly stopped moving, as something struck his mind.

    In <i>Bits and Pieces of the Dream Whelk</i>, Freud did mention pulling vehicle items into dreams, in which case the vehicle could move just fine.

    ¡°Can I go around and see more of that empty ce if I use my Gond in the dream?¡±

    However, he had to pull his Gond into a dream while it was powered up. Otherwise, it would remain as an immobile object like everything else.

    ...

    After Angor promised Toby extra dried fish in their next meal, the bird agreed to be Angor¡¯s temporary driver.

    ¡°Move the boat however you like, as long as you don¡¯t bump into things.¡±

    Gond ran on the energy of magic crystals, so Toby needed only to take the wheel. As soon as Toby learned how to drive the boat properly, Angor activated the Dream Whelk and used it on Gond.

    Freud was right. Gond was moving in the dream. However, it could only keep heading in a certain direction without turning.

    Angor didn¡¯t mind, however, as this was enough to help him see more of the wilderness.

    About an hourter, Gond ran out of power and crashed into the ground, and that was when Angor was kicked out of the dream.

    One hour wasn¡¯t much. With that speed, Gond could probably travel across the entire Goldspink Empire and reach the neighboring country.

    Yet Angor didn¡¯t see anything worth noticing in the dream. The same wastnd persisted from start to end. Everywhere was t without rises and falls. Apart from the random grass and low bushes that all looked the same, the whole ce was deathly deste.

 Chapter 879 - Dream Enkindle

    <h4>Chapter 879: Dream Enkindle</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Two dayster, Angor had arrived at Freighting Town and was now exining the boundless wilnd to Freud, who grew more and more awestruck as he listened.

    Each time Angor needed to mention his nightmare power, he would simply make up another word such as special illusions so that he didn¡¯t reveal his secret.

    ¡°Mister Padt. So you used your ¡®special illusion¡¯ to trigger the Dream Whelk. By this, you can enter the same area consistently? Then this ce is very likely to be the result ofbining a dream and your illusion.¡± Freud¡¯s eyes glimmered. ¡°This means my ambition is not an empty fantasy. But... I still know nothing about this illusion of yours, so I can¡¯t provide anything on my end. How did such power work together with the Dream Realm?¡±

    Angor shrugged. ¡°As I said before, it¡¯s a unique art I received from my professor, so I can¡¯t share it with anyone. Unless you swear to me using Follower¡¯s Oath.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Freud didn¡¯t wish to make such a decisive decision yet because he hadn¡¯t known the true value of Angor¡¯s ¡°special power¡±. It would be sad if he agreed to take the oath only to gain nothing.

    ¡°Give me more time to consider it, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Sure. Since the empty wilderness proved that your research is valid, what should I do next?¡±

    ¡°Check that ce thoroughly and get as much information as you can. More importantly, you must figure out what makes it different frommon dreams.¡±

    ¡°How do you know it¡¯s different frommon dreams?¡±

    ¡°Because you¡¯re the only one who can see it, by using your unique power. You must look, study it, and control it!¡±

    ...

    Instead of heading back home right away, Angor found an empty house in Freighting Town and settled down so that he could talk to Freud anytime. He already told his family that he¡¯d be staying away for a while.

    In the next few days, he explored the ¡°deserted dream¡± as much as he could. Freud would help him control the Gond in reality, while he would use the ¡°Dream Gond¡± to travel around the wilderness.

    After spending over 30 hours and crashing his Gond for more than 20 times, he finally found a different sight in the wastnd.

    Or rather, the environment around him was still the same, just with an extra object¡ªa lovely-looking table.

    Angor left the dream and used an illusion to show Freud what the strange table looked like.

    ¡°That seems to be... the table we saw in Neya¡¯s room?¡± Freud stroked his chin.

    When Angor tried to use the Dream Whelk for the first time after he received it from Neya, he did so in Neya¡¯s private chamber. In fact, Neya¡¯s table was the very first object he used the Dream Whelk on.

    ording to Freud, an object that was pulled into a dream would stay there forever, unless somebody intentionally broke it. This meant the table should definitely be there.

    Angor felt a bit disappointed because the hard-earned discovery was something quite useless. Freud, however, was d to say for certain that everything Angor ¡°hypnotized¡± would end up in the same ce, which meant they were one step closer to achieve their final goal, which was to create a designated ce in the Dream Realm that they could freely manipte.

    Even though the empty wastnd was huge, it was still better finding things from there than searching the entire Dream Realm.

    ¡°Do you think it¡¯s the whelk or your special power that made this ce into existence, Mister Padt?¡± asked Freud. ¡°Personally, I¡¯d believe thetter because the whelk never showed such properties in my hand. Let¡¯s try something. Can you send people into the wastnd by using your illusion power, but without relying on the whelk?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I can.¡± Angor frowned. ¡°I¡¯ve been using Dream Walk on people, and I never caused anything to show up there, or enter there myself.¡±

    ¡°You were seeing their dreams as an observer then. Did you ever try to forcefully pull someone into a dream? There are four basic cantrips an apprentice Dream Maniptor should learn, and ¡®Dream Enkindle¡¯ was for this very purpose.¡±

    ¡°Dream Enkindle. Is that like, hypnotizing people?¡±

    ¡°They have something inmon, but Dream Enkindle is mainly used for carrying your target into a dream, and putting them to sleep is only a side-effect. Also, dreams created by this cantrip are always lucid dreams. If you need your special power to cast Dream Maniptor cantrips, you can see whether your Dream Enkindle will always drag people into that wilderness. If so, it will prove our earlier point, that your special ability is the root of everything.¡±

    Angor would like to ept that advice and study the new cantrip, but he felt bad because it would take him another few weeks.

    Freud scowled upon hearing Angor¡¯sint. ¡°It was a disaster when I stepped onto this path when even the simplest task might cost me years on end. You think several weeks is too long?!¡±

    Of course, Angor wasn¡¯t going to exin that he had certain cheating tools. But even if he could work way faster thanmon apprentices, it was never fast enough when Jon¡¯s life was on the line.

    Since learning Dream Enkindle was necessary for their subject, Angor entrusted theputation task to his tablet, while he kept examining the dream wastnd.

    ...

    One day, Freud said that he sensed visitors heading into the orphanage and excused himself.

    Without Freud to help him drive Gond, Angor tried to pull something else into the dream wastnd¡ªthe apartment building he was living in. It was the biggest object he attempted to ¡°hypnotize¡± since he obtained the Dream Whelk.

    It turned out to be an easy job since he simply had to keep unleashing the whelk¡¯s power until the house was fully covered in it.

    When this was done, he immediately cast Dream Walk to check the building from inside its dream.

    He expected nothing other than finding the same building showing up at the wastnd, which wasn¡¯t anything worth celebrating.

    But to his surprise, he noticed something quite different this time. It wasn¡¯t something in his view. It was a certain feeling carried by the wind.

    While standing on top of the building and looking around, he sensed the ambiance of the Nightmare Realm.

    Or rather, the ambiance felt a lot weakerpared to the real Nightmare Realm. It appeared simr to the atmosphere in his Nightmare Domain.

    This shouldn¡¯t happen. ording to Sunders, a Nightmare Domain was the transition between the Nightmare Realm and reality. How could there be a Nightmare Domain inside the Dream Realm?

    The idea of discovering an unknown Nightmare Domain terrified him, because thest time he did, he almost invited that ¡°stitch-faced woman¡± into the wizarding world, who disyed strength beyond legendary wizards just by sitting there.

    If this ¡°dream wastnd¡± was another Nightmare Domain or was very close to a Nightmare Domain, it meant the Nightmare Realm was not far away. Angor was no longer sure whether he should keep exploring it.

    ¡°To hell with it. I¡¯m not going to give up the only thing within reach that I can use to help Jon. If it¡¯s really a Nightmare Domain, I¡¯ll just sever it and make it my own.¡±

    After forcing himself to forget about the distress, he left the building behind and stepped out of the dream wastnd.

    He certainly couldn¡¯t tell his new discovery to Freud. He might need to talk to Sunders, but then, he couldn¡¯t just go back to the Fey Continent and check whether Sunders had returned.

    ¡°Wait... I think White m Association has those long-range transmitters that they can use to contact Floating Mech City. Can I find one at the Land of Revtion?¡±

    He decided to ask Freud about this matterter.

 Chapter 880 - Miya

    <h4>Chapter 880: Miya</h4>

    Angor went to the abandoned orphanage and saw the ¡°Dead by Daylight¡± illusion running.

    ¡°They got more recruits?¡±

    This was soon proved when he heard someone shrieking loudly from the main building. Upon closer look, he saw a team of ten people running around inside a bloodstained room while yelling at each other.

    It wasn¡¯t time for the game to start yet. None of the illusionary monsters were moving, and Sunny was being a nice little girl together with Freud. It seemed the recruits were scaring themselves.

    A woman with gray hair, who had been talking to Freud in the basement, frowned upon hearing the noises.

    ¡°Such a bunch of cowards. Sorry I have to let you see them, Mister Freud.¡±

    Freud looked a bit flustered even though the woman was being very polite to him. ¡°They¡¯re still mortals, so this is to be expected. A few days and they¡¯ll do much better, I believe. See that ck-haired young man? He¡¯s pretty good already.¡±

    ¡°I found him in a dungeon by ident. I think he¡¯s the victim of a grieving civil war, who saw his whole family murdered by crafty politicians, so he developed a strong mind at a young age. Buuut he¡¯s not THAT good yet. Just look at his trembling legs.¡±

    ¡°No matter where they came from or what they went through before, they all need time to adapt to the wizarding world,¡± said Freud. ¡°The question is whether they can get used to the merciless ways in time.¡±

    Freud put a hand on Sunny¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re up, girl. Remember the rules.¡±

    A little unwillingly, Sunny hopped off from Freud¡¯s legs and headed outside while pulling a giant scythe behind her.

    ¡°I hope I didn¡¯t trouble you too much, Mister Freud,¡± the gray-haired woman apologized.

    ¡°No, no. It¡¯s fine¡ªwait, excuse me.¡± Freud suddenly looked up. ¡°Someone else ising. I¡¯d better check it out.¡±

    The woman didn¡¯t seem to mind Freud¡¯s sudden leave and began sipping a ss of deep-blue wine.

    ¡°Ho... <i>He</i> came to Freighting Town again?¡±

    ...

    ¡°Mister Padt! Did you make new progress at the research?¡± Freud saw Angoring and asked eagerly. In his view, Angor wouldn¡¯t show up here otherwise.

    ¡°No. I need to ask you about something. Where can I find a transmitter that can reach the Fey Continent?¡±

    ¡°Um? I... am not sure. I¡¯ve always been at Freighting Town and didn¡¯t travel around the Land of Revtion much. By the way, Miss Miya just came. Maybe you can ask her.¡±

    ¡°Miss Miya?¡± Angor looked at the orphanage building. ¡°She¡¯s in charge of the recruits?¡±

    ¡°Yup. She¡¯s an elite apprentice from Song of the Deep, who¡¯s said to be at a simr level as Jebra.¡± Freud suddenly recalled how Angor almost started a fight with Song of the Deep the other day. ¡°Oh... sorry. I can help you ask her, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    ¡°Nah. I¡¯ll talk to her myself,¡± said Angor.

    Deliberately avoiding Song of the Deep might cause people to see him as a coward. Angor would like to avoid that.

    A momentter, Angor went to the basement room and took a seat across from Miya.

    Miya neither showed any hostility nor did she mention anything about Jebra or Song of the Deep. She simply answered Angor¡¯s question without much of a thought.

    ¡°Floating Mech City built many beacon towers for long-rangemunication around the world. But as far as I remember, there¡¯s none at the Land of Revtion.¡±

    ¡°How about the White m Company? They always need to get in touch with the Floating City, right? They have a station at Ferran. Can I find another one around here?¡±

    ¡°They ced a beacon tower at Ferran mainly to monitor some tribesmen wandering around the central areas at Ferran. Rumors said that they have been dealing with invaders from foreign nes.¡± Miya held her chin and gave Angor an alluring wink. ¡°Don¡¯t hesitate to ask if you want to know certain stuff, Mister Padt. I¡¯ll tell you free of charge.¡±

    Just like Jebra, Miya also had a ¡°fish scale¡± at the center of her forehead. This one was of bright red color, which looked quite beautiful on her.

    Angor took a moment to arrange his words.

    ¡°Can you tell me the situation at the Abyss ne?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know much about that ce. At least there isn¡¯t any big news. But I did hear that Mister Phantom has ughtered countless abyssal creatures at the front line. He¡¯s the ¡®killing machine¡¯, after all.¡±

    This had told Angor that Sunders wasn¡¯t nning on going back to Brute Cavern yet, which meant he couldn¡¯t consult Sunders for advice any time soon, nor could he take Jon to Brute Cavern and ask for Sunders¡¯ help.

    Seeing Angor unresponsive, Miya decided to ask a question of her own. ¡°You crafted a high-tier alchemy item, right, Mister Padt? Are you nning to sell it, by any chance?¡±

    ¡°No. At least not yet.¡± Angor looked at Miya in the eyes.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s a shame.¡±

    Miya didn¡¯t push on. And when she did not reveal too much of her thoughts, Angor found it hard to tell her intention.

    Next, Miya told Angor several popr subjects people had been talking about at the Fey Continent, including how the ¡°footage¡± showing Angor¡¯s alchemy work was widely distributed among people.

    This confused Angor greatly. He didn¡¯t believe any of those mermaids and merman could film his alchemy process and send it to the Fey Continent. The only exnation was that there was a hidden apprentice or wizard nearby, who saw his actions.

    Combining how he was constantly stalked by Jebra at that time, the name of the culprit was quite obvious.

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s from Jebra.¡± Miya pointed this out before Angor could say it. ¡°I didn¡¯t know why he did such a thing at first. But as the rumors about your items traveled around, I slowly got an idea. Jebra didn¡¯t want to admit that he was following you, which means he couldn¡¯te to you and ask to buy that item upfront. However, if he uses the evidence to get everyone interested, he can then talk to you without being too conspicuous.

    ¡°Buuuut things didn¡¯t go as he nned. You know what I mean, right?¡±

    Miya meant to mention how Jebra and Sliv forced Angor to hand over the ¡°Mystery treasure¡±

    and ruined their rtionship by doing so. They basically threw all of Jebra¡¯s effort down the drain.

    ¡°So... are you telling me that I shouldn¡¯t me Jebra too hard? He asked you to talk to me?¡± Angor was still not sure about Miya¡¯s attitude.

    ¡°No no. I never thought I¡¯d run into you here. This is all unnned.¡± Miya grinned. ¡°I¡¯m telling you that Jebra REALLY wants that item. If you would sell it to him, you might as well raise the price as much as you can.¡±

    ...

    While still confused, Angor left the orphanage area. He had zero clues of Miya¡¯s motive. However, no matter what Miya meant to achieve, he wasn¡¯t going to be friendly with Jebra again.

    Three dayster, Miya took the talents away from Freighting Town. Before leaving, she paid Angor another visit and offered her opinion regarding the ¡°Dead by Daylight¡± illusion. She believed that illusion was very helpful in fortifying the minds of apprentices, and that she would like to seek more cooperation with him in the future.

    Angor told her to speak to Freud instead since he had allowed Freud to manage the illusion.

    Later, Angor heard that Freud did reach an agreement with Miya. It seemed Miya would bring more talents to the illusion and pay Freud magic crystals for using it.

    The price was pretty low, but it was still a considerable ie for Freud, who didn¡¯t have many ways of making money right now.

    Angor took several more days in the dream of the apartment house, and day by day, he could feel the nightmare ambiance getting stronger. This meant the ¡°dream wastnd¡± was indeed a special Nightmare Domain.

    His hologram tablet suddenly beeped. The device had determined the cantrip model of Dream Enkindle.

 Chapter 881 - Enlarged Vision

    <h4>Chapter 881: Erged Vision</h4>

    Skipping all the necessary studies and training before learning a cantrip was risky, but Angor made it happen again by relying on his nightmare energy to facilitate Dream Enkindle.

    Freud offered himself as Angor¡¯s first test subject. ¡°Please. I almost forgot what dreams feel like since I can no longer use any of my old skills as a soul.¡±

    ¡°I can drag people¡¯s souls into dreams too?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°Yes. Dream Enkindle is used for connecting minds with the Dream Realm. The state of the target does not matter. You can use this cantrip against monsters or elemental creatures, as long as they are capable of dreaming.¡±

    Angor agreed to the n. He believed Freud, who used to be a Dream Maniptor, must be very professional at exploring the Dream Realm.

    He closed his eyes and focused.

    Two minutes had passed, and the cantrip model was still iplete.

    Freud was not sure why it took Angor so long. Telling from his past experience, even beginners could finish the cantrip faster than this.

    After another full minute, Angor opened his eyes again as he unleashed Dream Enkindle at Freud by using his nightmare energy.

    It was Freud¡¯s turn to shut his eyes this time. Probably because he had not enjoyed the sense of sleep in a long time, Freud easily fell into a deep slumber.

    Meanwhile, Angor took a seat nearby and began enjoying a cup of Milkberry Tree juice he found in his bracelet. He wasn¡¯t going to enter Freud¡¯s dream and risk getting attacked since he couldn¡¯t make sure that Freud would remain friendly. Before Freud took the Follower¡¯s Oath, Angor would remain careful.

    Freud just said that the dream caused by Dream Enkindle was a lucid dream. In this case, it was easy for Freud to look for an ¡°intruder¡± and harm them.

    Several hours had passed before Freud woke up in great excitement, which he couldn¡¯t hide. And telling from his look, Angor knew the result was desirable.

    ¡°I arrived at the ¡®dream wastnd¡¯ for real! The same ce you told me about. It¡¯s official. The Dream Whelk has nothing to do with it. Your ¡®special illusion¡¯ made this possible!¡±

    Angor was equally excited to know this because he just opened up a brand new subject regarding his nightmare power.

    Upon receiving <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i> from Sunders, he was also tasked to provide his own discoveries as a price for using the book. Finding the connection between nightmare energy and dreams sounded like a good choice.

    ¡°Since I was forced by your cantrip, I could not control the ce like other lucid dreams. It¡¯s fine though, we¡¯ll just take adventures and explore it! We can start by making a camp, and perhaps build a city!¡±

    Angor, however, wasn¡¯t sure about Freud¡¯s ambitions. As far as he could tell, objects he pulled into the dream wastnd tended to appear at random spots. If this kept happening, then there was no way he could achieve his desired jobs, such as doing alchemy experiments.

    It would be disastrous if he brought Jon here only to send Jon somewhere he couldn¡¯t find.

    Sadly, sessfully learning Dream Enkindle did not help him get any closer to a solution for rescuing Jon. It would be best if he knew how tomand the dream wastnd at his free will. But figuring out a way might take some time.

    He asked Toby to watch over him and cast Dream Enkindle on himself.

    After going through a little bit of drowsiness, he re-opened his eyes and found himself standing in the endless wilderness again.

    He checked his body and realized that his possessions, including his clothes, which was enchanted with a Preserve Heat effect, was now ¡°fake¡±. The cold wind blowing over the wastnd reached his skin as if he weren¡¯t wearing anything.

    Simrly, he could no longer reach inside his mindspace and channel cantrips. In other words, he was as helpless as a mortal in this ce.

    It seemed the dream wastnd wasn¡¯t dangerous since there weren¡¯t any monsters or any forms of creatures around here. Yet without any of his wizardry abilities, he didn¡¯t know where to start gaining control of this realm.

    He stroked his chin while lost in thoughts. This was when he saw something shinying from his hand.

    It appeared that the glove Sunders gave him had lost its enchantment as well, thus allowing his abnormal right hand to be fully exposed. He could clearly see its extra size along with those green sigils floating about.

    The sigils were still releasing more nightmare energy into the environment like how they had been doing all along. ording to Sunders, they could use this property to replenish nightmare energy in the same way as to how people used nightmare stones.

    As he wondered why his right hand did not ¡°mortalize¡±, he suddenly felt his shoulder bones getting itchy.

    Each time this happened, something about the Nightmare Realm would show up soon. He wondered if he should get out as fast as possible.

    ¡°No. I need to learn the secrets of the dream wastnd sooner orter, for both Jon and myself. This could be a good chance.¡±

    He waited for a while and did not see any threatsing as he expected. Instead, he got a strange feeling, that he was slowly being connected to the wild nightmare energy wandering around him.

    He then tried to take control of the nightmare energy and was thrilled to find out that he could now send his vision farther away and observe the wastnd in a bird¡¯s eye view. While stayingpletely still, he was capable of using the energy in this realm as his ¡°monitor¡±.

    He was still a little clumsy when shifting his view, but it was a lot faster than using the ¡°Dream Gond¡±, which he couldn¡¯t control.

    Unfortunately, his ¡°detention range¡± was restricted by how much nightmare energy existed in the wastnd. However, he could tell that the energy was slowly getting stronger and wider, which meant he might be able to reach every part of the wastnd in the future.

    With this new gift, he no longer had to worry about having trouble exploring the dream wastnd.

    It was a shame that he could only ¡°see¡± but not interact with anything he found in this way. He could try finding things of interest than traveling there. Yet this would take a lot of time since he couldn¡¯t fly.

    After getting familiarized with his new tool, he tried searching for the source of the nightmare energy. As he sensed, apart from his right hand, there was something else to the southeast of his current position that was pumping more nightmare energy into the area.

    As his vision moved farther, he identally discovered the ¡°apartment¡± he brought into the dream wastnd a few days ago. All the furniture and decorations in the building were still intact. At least giving Jon a ce to live seemed quite possible as of now...

    To make sure this was a safe thing to do, he had to make sure there was no hidden danger. Checking out the source of the nightmare energy was the first step.

 Chapter 882 - Nightmare Barrier

    <h4>Chapter 882: Nightmare Barrier</h4>

    Angor felt the nightmare energy growing richer and richer until he finally saw something that was usually invisible to ordinary people¡ªa ne barrier that was about to break by all the nightmare energy leaking through it.

    The barrier meant there was a tunnel that connected with the Nightmare Realm. He knew this because he saw the same thing happening back at Twilight Auction.

    This ¡°dream wastnd¡± should be a special zone that existed between the Nightmare Realm and the Dream Realm. If he could somehow sever the connection like how Sunders did before, he could turn the dream wastnd into another Nightmare Domain.

    He felt his heart racing faster as he recalled all the powerful monsters that escaped through such a barrierst time, such as Froggy, Fox, and the rainbow dragonflies. These monsters didn¡¯t do him harm because they saw him as ¡°Shava¡±. But this didn¡¯t mean he should allow more of them to roam around the Fey Continent freely and bring terror and disasters, which was already happening.

    Sunders mentioned that there were a ton of deadly monsters in the Nightmare Realm that could murder legendary wizards with ease. If any of them noticed this tunnel and came...

    Angor simply couldn¡¯t imagine what would happen next.

    ¡°But how do I deal with this barrier? I can¡¯t just abandon everything I¡¯ve worked on... If something came through the barrier, it would be arriving at the Dream Realm, but not the reality. Since I can bring things in here using nightmare energy, I can probably do the opposite, and I definitely won¡¯t do such a thing. And I¡¯m the only one who can use nightmare energy to enter dreams...¡±

    He calmed down as he believed that the tunnel might not affect the wizarding world after all.

    He carefully controlled his vision to approach the barrier so that he could see whether there were monster armies waiting at the other side like thest time. If so, he would immediately call off his research and never toe here again.

    He failed to see or sense anything. The area beyond the barrier waspletely ck.

    ¡°This whole ce is empty and useless. Maybe they didn¡¯t want toe.¡±

    Since there were no monsters watching the entrance nearby, he would have enough time to destroy the tunnel and make this ce into an independent nightmare domain. Or even better, if he could take full control of it.

    He moved his vision away from the barrier to check the other ces nearby, just to make sure that nothing had slipped through before he came.

    As soon as he looked away, a pair of crimson, glowing eyes appeared behind the barrier and stared at his back.

    ...

    Angor woke up and saw Toby greeting him with a kiss.

    ¡°Tweet ta tweet!¡±¡ª<i>That Freud guy went away for a while and took somebody here. He¡¯s waiting for you outside.</i>

    ¡°Freud brought another visitor?¡±

    Confused, Angor left the room and saw Freud doing some notes in the living room, while another unconscious man in prisoner rags and heavy shacklesy nearby.

    ¡°You came out!¡± Freud saw himing and quickly asked, ¡°Did you use Dream Enkindle to check the wastnd too? What did you find?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a littleplicated.¡± Angor shook his head and decided to divert the subject. ¡°Who¡¯s this guy?¡±

    ¡°A prisoner I took from the dungeon under Freighting Town. Since you know how to use Dream Enkindle now, I thought you need a test subject and see whether killing the dreamer will affect the result.¡±

    Angor did n to do such an experiment, but now was not the time for it.

    ¡°No. Before I remove a certain threat from the dream wastnd, I can¡¯t allow any individual to go inside.¡±

    ¡°Wait. So I can¡¯t go there either?¡± Freud frowned.

    ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡±

    ¡°But why? A threat? Did you run into powerful monsters native to the Dream Realm?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that. I just know that the dream wastnd is too dangerous.¡±

    ¡°How so? Isn¡¯t that ce a small fraction of the Dream Realm? I¡¯ve been to a lot of simr ces before. You discovered something special?¡±

    ¡°In fact, yes. But I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t tell you.¡±

    Freud took a moment to struggle with a decision.

    ¡°What if... I take the Follower¡¯s Oath?¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s what you will do, I can tell you what I just found. But I still won¡¯t allow you to enter the wastnd again before dealing with the risk.¡±

    ¡°But I¡¯m not afraid of danger!¡± Freud grew obviously disturbed. ¡°I can die in the Dream Realm for the sake of knowledge. It will not trouble you in any way, Mister Padt.¡±

    ¡°Just no. By ¡®danger¡¯, I¡¯m referring to something no less treacherous than the demon invasion. I absolutely can¡¯t take any chances.¡±

    ¡°I know you¡¯re telling the truth. But something worse than the demon invasion? Inside the Dream Realm?!¡±

    For a moment, Freud thought Angor was baiting him to ept the Follower¡¯s Oath. But on second thought, he didn¡¯t believe Angor needed to do such a thing.

    He very much wished to know the new secret, yet he just couldn¡¯t make up his mind to be Angor¡¯s servant.

    ¡°Just be patient. As soon as I settle the problem, we can resume and work together again.¡±

    Angor went back into his private room without minding Freud¡¯s attitude. He urgently needed to find out how to secure a nightmare domain.

    He took out <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i> and browsed it carefully. The book contained relevant knowledge, but he didn¡¯t pay attention before because he never thought he¡¯d be dealing with a new nightmare domain so soon.

    [epting a nightmare domain is extremely risky even for skilled wizards.]

    Sunders mentioned this before, that when taking control of a Nightmare Domain, there would be bewitching illusions that reflected one¡¯s biggest wishes and desires. If Angor allowed himself to get allured, he¡¯d never wake up again.

    However, the ¡°bewitching illusions¡± never happened to Angor. Later, Sunders assumed that this was because Angor¡¯s Nightmare Form was ratherpetent.

    Putting the risk aside, Angor had another concern.

    After he obtained the nightmare domain that looked like a castle hall, Sunders warned him that he should not ept a second domain before reaching the level of a wizard.

    ording to the book, this was because the owner of the nightmare domains had to sustain them by providing enough nightmare energy, either by spending nightmare stones or going to the Nightmare Realm.

    However, when Sunders made this warning, Angor had not grown his ¡°battery hand¡± yet. Now he wondered if he could satisfy the restriction.

    Otherwise, he could simply buy some nightmare stones as an energy reserve. He had enough money to afford them.

 Chapter 883 - Black Requiem

    <h4>Chapter 883: ck Requiem</h4>

    After exining several precautions and potential danger, Sunders provided an initial tutorial on how to cut off a nightmare domain from a nightmare tunnel.

    ¡°Let me see... First, I should know an Acoustic Illusion spell, the ¡®ck Requiem¡¯. Wait, what?¡±

    Spells were for wizards only, and they had to spend several years at least to finish all necessary studies. Until today, there were no known tricks or cheats for learning spells faster.

    This was bad news. Even if Angor somehow achieved the level of a wizard in time, Jon would be long gone by the time he learned the spell.

    This was a dead end.

    ¡°Perhaps I can ask for help. If Sunders is not here, I can talk to Sumesh...¡±

    He wasn¡¯t sure whether he should drag someone he never met before into this matter. And besides, if entering the dream wastnd would always render someone powerless, could they cast the required spell to break the tunnel at all?

    He kept reading. Maybe there was more than one way.

    ¡°ck Requiem is mandatory if one wishes to separate a nightmare domain from the Nightmare Realm. On top of this, the user must prepare enough ingredients...¡±

    The materials were listed below. Apart from several types of rtivelymon ones, there was a mainponent called the ¡°zoning crystal¡±. When working on Angor¡¯s current nightmare domain, Sunders used a lot of fragments that looked like broken ss. Those were zoning crystals.

    [The crystals are used for determining the urate coordinates of the nightmare domain, as well as building a new ne barrier that encloses the domain. The amount of crystal shards required varies depending on the size of the tunnel to be destroyed.]

    Things said, Angor should ready at least 50 crystal shards no matter how small the tunnel was.

    Zoning crystals were known to be extremely valuable. Telling from his past experience, Angor remembered that each piece would cost him about 2,000 magic crystals. But as the book exined, the price was mainly caused by theck of alchemists with good skills who were capable of producing the crystals. The raw material for crafting a zoning crystal was a type of mid-tier mineral called the ¡°void ore¡±, which was not that expensive.

    Sunders¡¯ book also described the basic process for making zoning crystals. Angor was d to notice that he could definitely do it himself and save all the money.

    As for other sideponents such as ck dense stones, ne corrosion fragments, and greyspace microbes... These were all used for making personal space storage containers. Angor happened to have a lot of them stashed.

    ¡°When the zoning crystals are in ce, leave several drops of¡ªhuh?¡±

    ording to the instruction, the zoning crystals had to work together with ¡°diluent extracted from Fragments of Eternity¡±. And this made Angor want to give up this n.

    Fragment of Eternity was a rare element scarcely found in this world. Each time any fragment showed up, there would be huge groups of wizards going after it.

    Such fragments were generated during the initial stage of a ne fusion, from random space ruptures that raged around the area of the ongoing fusion. Wizards had another name for a ne fusion, which was the ¡°Garden Aquarius¡±, because Fragments of Eternity also happened to be the core material for building Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens, which were tactical assets that every organization would go after at all costs.

    While shocked by the difficulty of his n, Angor suddenly remembered something else.

    When Sunders helped him secure his current nightmare domain, Sunders asked for a payment to cover all the materials consumed in the process. The price was 150,000 magic crystals.

    But 150,000 wasn¡¯t nearly enough to buy Fragments of Eternity!

    ¡°Or was the professor being generous, so he provided the fragments for free?¡±

    No way. No one in this world was rich enough to be ¡°generous¡± when it came to those things.

    He calmed down and kept reading. He then noticed that the situation wasn¡¯t as hopeless as he thought. The ¡°fragment diluent¡± was created by adding a tiny portion of a Fragment of Eternity with other materials. One fragment was usually big enough to produce several hundred units of diluent liquid.

    Sometimes, smaller wizard organizations might get their hands on a small or perhaps impure Fragment of Eternity by ident. Since such a fragment was too hard to sell or being useful, they made it into fragment diluent, which could be used for other purposes.

    A bottle of diluent might cost anywhere between 4,000 crystals to 10,000, depending on its density. Now, this sounded a lot more affordable.

    With this problem solved, he had to figure out how to study ck Requiem.

    He knew nothing about this spell yet, so he decided to read on and at least find out its effects before making his decision.

    Tick, tick...

    When a hanging clock nearby told him that he had spent half an hour reading, he finally put the book down with a big frown.

    Instead of describing the spell in detail, Sunders used his past experiences when he dealt with nightmare domains as examples and showed why this spell was a must.

    It was an Acoustic Illusion spell that generated certain sound frequencies that activated the hidden properties of nightmare energy. By using the spell, the caster could expand, shrink, or even erase nightmare energy.

    Angor had to use this spell to send nightmare energy into specified materials during the start of the job. He could then create an area free of nightmare energy to protect the zoning crystals. Since there were no other ways to physically control the movement of nightmare energy, he needed ck Requiem to guarantee sess.

    However, Angor currently had another idea in his mind, which might help him bypass it.

    His ¡°Shava¡¯s right hand¡± had those green marks constantly floating around it, which were also capable of manipting nightmare energy freely. There was one time when Sunders took him to the nightmare tunnel inside Pocratee, when they did several tests and discovered three ¡°functions¡± on Angor¡¯s new hand.

    Firstly, illusions channeled through this hand would carry nightmare energy and grow more potent.

    Next, the green sigils could constantly generate nightmare energy like a nightmare stone.

    Thest property, and what Angor was thinking about right now, was that the hand could absorb nightmare energy from the surroundings rapidly. Sunders could not figure out where the energy went, but he did make sure that it didn¡¯t stay inside Angor.

    The purpose of ck Requiem was to create an area devoid of any nightmare energy. So, what if he used his right hand to absorb all nightmare energy from the environment?

    As he saw earlier, his right hand did not lose its special effect in the dream wastnd. If he could tackle thest challenge in this way without the need to study ck Requiem, he would have everything he needed to secure another nightmare domain.

    Taking materials into the dream wastnd and finding them there might be a problem. But he already had an idea on how to solve it. It seemed objects he pulled into the dream wastnd using the Dream Whelk would remain at where they first appeared. He could simply ce the materials together with his Gond and pull them all into the wastnd together, while he would enter the wastnd repeatedly until he ¡°spawned¡± somewhere close to the Gond.

    Hopefully, the Gond could also help him reach the nightmare tunnel faster.

    Thankfully, since the ¡°Dream Gond¡± always crashed to pieces by the end of each test, he could freely summon it into the wastnd again instead of looking for it.

    As for where to find the rest of the materials...

 Chapter 884 - A Second Visit to Lloyds

    <h4>Chapter 884: A Second Visit to Lloyds</h4>

    Knowing the correct route this time, Angor dived into Shino Trench and soon found the glowing underwater city ahead.

    Lloyds was a very impressive creation indeed, but he didn¡¯t expect that he¡¯de here again so soon.

    After getting inside the water-free zone without trouble, he arrived at the Tower of Peace and took out a small card.

    There was a line of characters chiseled on the card using a special method¡ª¡±Ashen¡±.

    Just a while ago, he thought he¡¯d never use this card for real.

    He shook his head and walked into the shadow cast by the giant tower, where the Gully Sector was located.

    Like usual, this ce was the gathering of human filth. However, this was none of his concern right now. He only had to get to the ruins where the Ashen Traders stayedst time.

    Using Infinite Reticence, he arrived at his target without a problem.

    The ruins didn¡¯t look much different from thest time since it was just ruins. Only that all the ve cages, browsing customers, and the robed traders were no longer here.

    With the card in hand, Angor walked around the area but without finding anyone.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t Beals mention that someone will stay behind as a contact? Yeah... How could I trust a ve dealer?¡±

    It didn¡¯t matter. This ce wasn¡¯t very far from the Land of Revtion anyway.

    As for the materials he still needed, he might need to bring Tulu back to the Fey Continent and look around there.

    He needed to leave through a narrow alleyway to get out. Before he could do so, however, he saw a light spot at the other end of the path slowly moving closer to him.

    There was the sound of footsteps.

    The approaching light turned out to be an ember of a lit smoking pipe, while the owner of it wasing to Angor.

    Lizard scales and a snake¡¯s eye.

    ¡°Greetings, Mister Rossum.¡± Angor quickly recognized the man who addressed him in the trader campst time.

    ¡°It¡¯s you...¡±

    Rossum was rather excited to see Angor but tried not to show it. He promised that he¡¯d stay here and wait for Angor¡¯s visit in the next ten years. By this, he was ready to waste his time without getting anything in return.

    But Angor actually came after only several months!

    Angor nodded to Rossum politely and showed the invitation card.

    ¡°Wee, dear guest.¡± Rossum took it dly. ¡°Do you need to... purchase materials, perhaps?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I need them really soon, so I thought about asking for your help. If you can¡¯t help, I¡¯ll have to go back to the Fey Continent myself.¡±

    ¡°Of course I can help!¡± Rossum quickly agreed so that Angor did not back out.

    Unfortunately, his eager response got Angor suspicious.

    ¡°Ahem. I mean, our team can surely help you find materials as long as they¡¯re something we can buy from the markets.¡±

    ¡°Including the cures?¡± Angor raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Trust me, we tried our best when finishing Miss Seeley¡¯s order.¡± Rossum shrugged. ¡°But I have to admit we did not use certain desperate means when helping her. For you, however, we¡¯ll consider.¡±

    ¡°I already found your attitude to be... strangely friendly. Did you know who I am?¡±

    Rossum admitted without a second thought, ¡°No one in the south would neglect the name of Master Angor these days. As a matter of fact, I have several newest magazines in my hand that specifically introduced you using big volumes of words.¡±

    Angor had not been back to the Fey Continent in some time, but he knew something about his fame was happening again when many people showed him signs of it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me a master. There¡¯s no way I can work like a master yet. Just use Angor.¡±

    <i>The beginning of our friendship!</i> Rossum beamed before he asked, ¡°So which materials are you looking for, Angor? I¡¯ll inform the chief immediately.¡± Rossum quickly followed up his chance.

    ¡°You can contact Mister Beals right now?¡±

    ¡°Yes. We have our own means ofmunication.¡±

    ¡°So... Can you hear from the other parts of the world? Such as the Fey Continent?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Do you need to know something? I can provide information for free if it¡¯s everyday news or something like that.¡±

    ¡°What about information about the Abyss?¡±

    ¡°That... depends. It will be free if you simply need to know about that ce. However, for anything more important, such as Mister Monkey¡¯s grand n, I must ask a price for it.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you know that too?¡± Angor was a little surprised. ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I need. I just wish to learn about my professor¡¯s condition.¡±

    ¡°Mister Phantom? I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know the newest intelligence on the front line. Though I can tell you that Mister Sunders has been <i>overwhelmingly</i> outstanding.¡±

    Angor sighed. At least he knew he couldn¡¯t go to his professor for now.

    ¡°There¡¯s something I recently heard about Mister Sunders.¡± Rossum rubbed his chin. ¡°A few days ago, Mister Mask traveled to Abyss ne in search of Mister Sunders.¡±

    He was referring to ¡°The Masked Man¡± Sumesh.

    Angor was rather depressed to hear about this. He had to rely on Sumesh if he failed to secure the new nightmare domain by himself. It seemed his chance had slipped away.

    As for Flora, Sunders once mentioned that her nightmare domain was a special case and was actually controlled by ¡°Little Red¡±. She couldn¡¯t provide much help.

    ¡°It¡¯s just myself then...¡±

    Rossum then invited Angor into the ¡°private stone house¡± they usedst time to confirm their goods. It seemed Rossum ced more furniture and turned it into a small living room.

    Angor knew why Rossum stayed here alone just to wait for him, but he chose not to point it out.

    ¡°Here.¡± Angor handed Rossum a piece of note that showed what he was searching for. To be safe, he asked extra portions for each type.

    To make zoning crystals, he needed to purchase arge number of void ores, which was still costly in bulks.

    Rossum was a bit disappointed when he saw Angor¡¯s list did not have any rare materials. He thought he could at least show Angor the aptitude of their trading association, but that wouldn¡¯t be necessary when they could find everything on the list by spending money.

    ¡°There¡¯s not a problem.¡± Rossum looked up from the note. ¡°I think we have enough of these ready to be delivered from our storage.¡±

    ¡°How long do I need to wait for them?¡±

    Rossum noticed Angor¡¯s impatient look. ¡°If you want it faster, I can tell Beals toe immediately through a ne passageway.¡±

    ¡°Would that be too much of a hassle for him?¡±

    Angor heard it before that creating such passageways was pretty trying. It required arge amount of mana along with many necessary materials as casting mediums. Wizards wouldn¡¯t use this method to travel around unless they were REALLY in a hurry.

    ¡°No. He said that he was looking forward to cooperation, right? He¡¯d dly do it if it¡¯s your request.¡±

    Angor was now fully sure that Rossum was trying to seek association with him just like what Jebra wanted to do. Only that Rossum wasn¡¯t making it too obvious.

    He wouldn¡¯t mind. Getting to know wizards who sold good stuff was pretty helpful to him.

    ¡°Much appreciated.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll cover the expense for the ne passagewayter.¡±

    Rossum got the message to Beals in no time, who agreed to bring Angor¡¯s goods as soon as he could. He would still need to take some time to collect them.

    Angor decided to spend several days at Lloyds while waiting. In the meantime, Rossum tried to be as friendly and close to Angor as he could, and Angor did not resist his attempts.

    Slowly, they began to appear as real friends. At least on the surface.

    Angor spent four days fully enjoying every different sight the beautiful city had to offer, and he tried through many nice dishes he would probably never find on the surface.

    Even so, he wasn¡¯t actually enjoying anything when Jon¡¯s matter was constantly haunting his mind.

    On the evening of the fourth day, Beals finally arrived at Lloyds with everything Angor requested. Probably because Rossum already finished most of the job, Beals simply handed Angor everything without speaking much. Though he did tell Angor to find him again in case of simr situations.

    Apart from the goods, Beals also provide a green, apple-like fruit to Angor.

    As an alchemist, Angor quickly noticed the fruit as a special ingredient used in a spirit remedy. Obviously, Beals gave him the extra gift because of Eureka.

    Angor also knew that Beals meant to give him something to gain an advantage over Eureka. But this was never his n because Eureka had been rather helpful when treating Jon.

    Compared to her, Angor would like to make sure these ve dealers did not hear about Jon¡¯s existence.

    After paying Beals for the materials, which was about 50,000 magic crystals, Angor said goodbye and quickly left the city behind.

 Chapter 885 - Pink Imps

    <h4>Chapter 885: Pink Imps</h4>

    The Abyss.

    When speaking of the Abyss ne, most people would think of it as a dark ce full of evil and danger. But the truth was, there were many pleasant spots in this ne that looked no less beautiful than the best tourist spots at the Fey Continent. Such as a small valley surrounded by mountains and a wide river.

    Thanks to the fresh and clear water resource, this lovely and lush spot had attracted many creatures into gathering here, including sapient ones. They were a type of tailed bipedal covered in pink body scales. People from the wizarding world usually called them the ¡°Pink Imps¡±. Although such a name was mainly because they originated from the Abyss. If one traced their bloodline carefully, they would find that these creatures had nothing to do with real imps. In fact, they would easily be the prey of imps if they wandered too far from their peaceful home.

    This alley was rather far from the core regions of Abyss, so one couldn¡¯t find many imps. However, there were still other threats for the ¡°Pink Imps¡±, such as human visitors.

    Right now, there were two people floating above the valley, inspecting the area below.

    One of them was a dashing-looking gentleman wearing white gloves, a well-kept suit, and an expensive-looking walking cane.

    The other one was a bit younger, who had a red, gold-trimmed wizard robe. His constant smile sort of gave him a friendly look.

    The younger individual spoke to hispanion with an awkward smile, ¡°Come on, Professor. Mister Kanter just offered some nice phantom tea. You dragged me away before I could pick up my mug!¡±

    Phantom tea was a special species of tea leaves native to the Abyss ne. It was mildly addictive, but it was still favored by tea lovers.

    The suited gentleman nced at him. ¡°Stay at the camp and Samantha will kidnap you and take you to Moonfrost. Dura is there as well.¡±

    ¡°Dura? ¡®The Grafter¡¯ Dura? Why would she be here?¡±

    This name always meant something bad whenever people heard it. Dura was known to be a terrible criminal who never stopped begrudging people for their good looks. Whenever she believed that someone¡¯s body part or facial feature attracted her, she would destroy it and then ¡°help¡± the victim by attaching a recement she found from another random creature.

    Dura was a level-2 truth-finder just like Sunders, although just a bit weaker in terms ofbat strength. Many wizards feared her because this woman could be very reckless and mad when pursuing her goal. Those who became her targets couldn¡¯t lower their guard for one second, or they would soon find something on their bodies gone overnight.

    It was worth mentioning that Dura did not necessarily rece what she took with corresponding organs. There was one time when a charming witch had her entire nose taken off, after which Dura pped a bear¡¯s baculum on her face.

    The young man trembled a little when he realized that he was dangerously close to Dura a while ago. He just became a truth-finder and couldn¡¯t hope to best Dura in a fight yet.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. I don¡¯t think you look good enough to attract her. Your hair though... Perhaps she would like to give you some snake hairs and make you into a male medusa.¡±

    ¡°Professor? I must say your speech sounds a lot harsherpared to when we were still together some decades ago. Now I see why Samantha¡¯s so pissed off when she¡¯s around you.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re interested in Samantha now, Sumesh?¡±

    ¡°No no, of course not.¡± Sumesh quickly denied.

    <i>But Iron Granny told me that Sunders grew a gentler temper during thest few years. Why can¡¯t I see it?</i> he thought.

    Sunders looked at the pink imps again. ¡°Back to the matter at hand. Let¡¯s deal with these things. You want to know why Dura came? She wants their tails.¡±

    The creatures¡¯ hairless tails looked a bit curly and resembled that of farm pigs. Also, every pink imp had a heart-shaped bulge at the tip of its tail they used to store their energy.

    ¡°They¡¯re stronger than they look. Don¡¯t be careless.¡± Sunders crossed his arms, which obviously meant that he wouldn¡¯t do the work himself.

    Sumesh shook his head but did not protest. He knew Sunders was testing him. Unfortunately, it was a bit untimely because his nightmare domain got a problem right now.

    He still went after the pink imps when he thought he didn¡¯t need his nightmare domain to kill these things.

    He was wrong.

    Several wizard-level pink imps managed to escape from the battlefield when most of their members were killed. It was Sunders who finished the job thoroughly by pulling them back.

    Sumesh let out a sigh of distress and returned to his professor.

    Sunders frowned at him. ¡°I can see your Truth Maniption illusion is way beyond what I can teach you before. But why didn¡¯t you use your nightmare domain? That would contain your enemies better.¡±

    With a sad look, Sumesh exined his condition.

    ¡°Use your nightmare domain to affect the physical world? Project objects into reality?¡± Sunders¡¯ eyebrows knitted tighter. ¡°We have yet to figure out how to do such a thing from the Nightmare Realm. What makes you think it¡¯s possible by using a nightmare domain?¡±

    ¡°Heh heh... Sorry, sir. I was... not thinking clearly back then. When my attempt failed, I identally ripped a tear in my nightmare domain, and it¡¯s now too unstable to use. This is why I came to the Abyss, in hope that maybe I can get a piece of advice from you.¡±

    ¡°The only way I know of how to mend that problem is to absorb a new piece of nightmare domain and use the new power to fix your old one.¡±

    Sumesh looked down. ¡°As soon as I became a truth-finder, I referred to <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i> and headed to the Otion ne, to look for the nightmare domain you mentioned in the book. I sessfully absorbed that one. I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t take a third one any time soon.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s quite a big problem.¡± Sunders held his chin. ¡°Let me see. I did have another theory before but could never try it out because my nightmare domain doesn¡¯t get broken easily. Now this will be a good chance for me to pick it up. But we¡¯ll have to wait until we head back. For now, you should avoid using your domain.¡±

    Sunders transferred all the pink imps into his Gravity Garden before leaving the valley area to go back to the camp.

    On their way back, they took some time discussing how to treat Sumesh¡¯s problem, before the topic was slowly diverted to someone else.

    ¡°Iron Granny told me that your new student is a Nightmare Form. Is that true?¡± asked Sumesh.

    ¡°Not only that, but he¡¯s a very superior one, if I¡¯m not mistaken. He fused with a nightmare domain as an apprentice, which I never thought to be possible before.¡±

    ... <i>The most important thing is, he summoned that nightmare domain himself,</i> Sunders thought.

    ¡°A Nightmare Form... and an Illusionist. What a blessed bloke,¡± Sumesh uttered. ¡°I just got my hands on an image of Angor. Everyone¡¯s been talking about him recently.¡±

    ¡°Image? What did he do this time?¡± Sunders frowned again. ¡°I thought he¡¯s going back home?¡±

    ¡°Here, take a look.¡± Sumesh took out a crystal ball.

    At first, Sunders was rather d to see that Angor added a high-tier alchemy item onto the collection list of Phantom Ind. Even though Angor might lose or give the item to someone elseter, he could always make more.

    However...

    ¡°Who was filming him? Telling from the perspective, somebody was looking at Angor from under the seawater, and whoever this was tried to be sneaky about it.

    ¡°Go and check out what the Centipede Guild is up to these days. And don¡¯t forget to learn what you can find about Angor¡¯s recent moves.¡±

    Sumesh would like to point out that he wasn¡¯t an errand runner, but he decided not to when he saw Sunders¡¯ serious look.

    Iron Granny mentioned more than once that Sunders really treasured Angor, and Sumesh finally saw it with his own eyes. Even though he had not met with Angor personally yet, Sumesh knew he had to be as friendly and cooperative as he could should he have a chance to talk to this skilled alchemist AND perhaps Sunders¡¯ most precious student.

    ¡°You need anything else?¡± Sunders asked when he saw Sumesh looking at him.

    Sumesh pointed at his crystal ball, which was still in Sunders¡¯ hands.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take it. Maybe I can figure out who was Angor¡¯s stalker.¡±

    Sumesh¡¯s lips twitched. He believed that Sunders was nning on showing it off to Kanter back at the camp.

    When they parted ways, Sunders put the crystal ball away and closed his eyes to sense the blood sphere he gave Angor.

    Nothing special. It meant Angor was very likely to be safe.

 Chapter 886 - Severing the Tunnel

    <h4>Chapter 886: Severing the Tunnel</h4>

    Angor had carried his new material cache back to Freighting Town.

    Producing zoning crystals would take time. Each piece was used for recording and determining a single space coordinate, while one could use multiple pieces together to generate a space barrier that separated two nes.

    Crafting each piece was as trying as making a low-tier alchemy item.

    Angor took several days examining the hemi-passage in the ¡°dream wastnd¡± and determined that he needed 120 pieces to fully seal it.

    Even though the crystals didn¡¯t involve any synthesis or enchantment work, it still took him a month to finish them.

    Summer had silently arrived.

    Angor spent an entire month in full seclusion, during which Freud visited him many times but was always chased away by Toby.

    At the end of the seclusion, Freud came again to learn about the general condition of the dream wastnd. When he noticed that Angor wasn¡¯t going to send him away again, he suddenly decided to swear to Follower¡¯s Oath.

    Apart from the eagerness to continue their research, Freud believed that he wouldn¡¯t suffer too badly if he chose someone like Angor to be his ¡°boss¡±.

    To his surprise, however, Angor rejected his offer.

    ¡°That can wait. I need to solve the threat I mentioned earlier. Once this is done, I¡¯ll move you into the dream wastnd and let you see it again, before you make your final decision. If I fail, it means it¡¯s too dangerous to go there. In this case, I¡¯ll never use the Dream Whelk ever again.¡±

    Angor took a brief rest to recover some stamina and left the town. To make sure nothing bothered him while he dealt with the unknown nightmare domain, he needed to find somewhere private.

    The Land of Revtion had many unupied wilnds, which was what Angor was looking for. After selecting a proper ce, he deployed an illusion to keep random animals away, asked Toby to guard him, and got down to real business.

    First, he took out Gond and ced a lot of materials including the zoning crystals on it.

    Then he activated the Dream Whelk and pulled the fully-loaded boat into the dream wastnd.

    Nobody could see anything different if they looked at Gond or the objects on it from the outside. Only someone who couldprehend the energy signaturesing from the Dream Whelk could tell that the boat had been transferred to a different realm in another form.

    Angor retrieved the Dream Whelk back into his bracelet and cast Dream Enkindle on himself.

    He was disappointed when he noticed that he appeared somewhere with no nightmare energy. Without the energy, he couldn¡¯t send his vision away to scout what was beyond him.

    When he prepared to quit and use Dream Enkindle again, a question suddenly struck his mind.

    What if Gond also spawned somewhere void of nightmare energy? This was very likely because the nightmare energy from the tunnel had not spread too far from its source yet.

    If he wished to monitor Gond from far away by using his ¡°nightmare vision¡±, he had to wait until the nightmare realm reached it.

    He left the dream wastnd and used Dream Walk on Gond this time while hoping that Gond didn¡¯t fall too far off from the nightmare tunnel.

    In Gond¡¯s dream, he sessfully sensed nightmare energy around him, albeit very weak.

    He used Dream Enkindle to randomly appear in the dream wastnd again. He then used his wide vision to search for Gond.

    It took him half an hour to locate the boat sitting somewhere far to his south. The distance didn¡¯t look like something that could be covered by feet at all.

    As he nned, he kept leaving and entering the dream wastnd by using Dream Enkindle repeatedly.

    A week quickly passed as he searched for a desirable starting point.

    It was definitely impossible tond directly on top of Gond because the dream wastnd was so big. He only hoped that he could show up somewhere close enough to it so that he could walk there within another few weeks. As a level-3 apprentice, he could spend several weeks sleeping without dealing with his bodily needs. But he had better not overdo his limit.

    Three dayster, he finally arrived at a spot that appeared to be favorable. He was standing about 500 kilometers away from the boat. By running non-stop, he would get there soon enough.

    Thankfully, it appeared that he couldn¡¯t feel tired in a dream.

    Previously, when he entered Gond¡¯s dream, he was always an attachment on the boat that was forced to move along with it. Now he was d to see the boat as real as in reality. Even the ¡°water wave effect¡± was perfectly copied.

    ¡°This is amazing...¡± he eximed while putting a hand on his favorite vehicle. If the boat retained its full functions here, then Freud¡¯s ¡°free alchemy training¡± was also possible. By putting valuable or dangerous alchemy materials to sleep, he could use them in alchemy drills here without actually consuming them.

    But then... he had to gain full control of this ce first.

    He calmed his mind, climbed onto Gond, and saw all the materials he prepared, including all the zoning crystal pieces, several weapons, and magic scrolls, as well as a wizard robe with a simple defensive enchantment.

    The boat was fully charged before it was put to sleep. He only had to get moving.

    He was quite far from the hemi-passage. Maybe several years, if he were to head there on foot. With Gond, however, the distance was manageable.

    About a day and a halfter, he arrived near the source of all nightmare energy and saw the hemi-passage still there, as well as the holey ne barrier over it.

    The barrier didn¡¯t look different from before, which meant no monsters squeezed through it yet.

    Now that he actually came to the tunnel instead of using his ¡°nightmare vision¡± to look from afar, he could feel more clearly that the nightmare energy was so dense that it made the whole ce feel like the Nightmare Realm.

    He wondered where the tunnel would take him if he entered it. Would he show up at one of the outer regions of the Nightmare Realm, or the very core?

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t going tomit suicide by trying that out.

    After parking Gond, he took the bag of zoning crystals, took a deep breath, and walked ahead. ording to <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>, there were only three steps for cutting off a nightmare domain from its nightmare tunnel, and there were many points of caution.

    Firstly, Angor needed to calcte the exact spots for cing the zoning crystals, which were rted to the size and shape of the tunnel. A skillful wizard like Sunders would finish the job within an hour, while he might spend a week or two on it.

    He didn¡¯t need to do it now, though. Half a month ago, he already memorized everything he needed when observing the tunnel, and he had the results ready.

    The second step was to deploy the zoning crystals.

    Thest stage was to use ck Requiem to guide arge amount of nightmare energy into the crystals before creating an areapletely free of nightmare energy around the crystals so that they wouldn¡¯t get tainted by any extra energy.

    He took the crystals he prepared to the tunnel and was ready to install them.

 Chapter 887 - Infected Arm

    <h4>Chapter 887: Infected Arm</h4>

    As soon as he was too close to the tunnel, the concentrated nightmare energy around him abruptly became aggressively active, which then rushed into his right hand.

    Angor was rather surprised by this because he just made sure his right hand was ¡°switched off¡±. Somehow, the hand decided to absorb nightmare energy on its own.

    Like always, he couldn¡¯t tell where all the surging energy disappeared to. But unlike the previous cases during which drawing nightmare energy didn¡¯t leave any noticeable effect on him, he began to feel faint and drowsy as if he was slowly falling asleep inside a dream.

    As more and more nightmare energy went inside his right hand, those glowing sigils also grew in number until arge swarm of them danced around his hand like bees protecting their hive.

    As they moved, they slowly painted a shining ring in the air, which floated away and reached the ne barrier ahead.

    The ring fixed itself onto the barrier, ripping arge hole on it.

    Angor was still trying his best to stay ¡°awake¡±. He felt his mind slowing down while the lucid dream around him was fading away.

    A strange figure suddenly appeared at the hoop-shaped tear on the ne barrier.

    Angor mustered up thest bit of his consciousness and saw the figure¡¯s long, blond hair and a single, crimson eye that showed nothing other than cold impassiveness.

    ¡°You... you are...¡±

    Everything in his view turned dark before it was reced by something he didn¡¯t recognize.

    Stars.

    He was now floating inside an unlit space, from where he could see blinking starlight in the great distance.

    Immediately ahead of his position was a rectangr mirror-like water film that reflected the stars.

    Out of instinct, he reached out a hand to touch the ¡°mirror¡±.

    There was someone disyed in the mirror, but it was not his own reflection. Apart from the impressive blond hair and crimson eye, Angor couldn¡¯t tell anything from the strange individual. Not even their gender.

    Copying his movement, the one in the mirror also reached a hand back.

    Two hands pressed together at the surface of the mirror, causing a circle of ripples to travel outward.

    A little bewildered, Angor kept moving his arm until his hand sank into the mirror and grasped the other hand.

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor looked straight ahead. ¡°Are you Shava?¡±

    Back at Witch¡¯s Town, Sunders mentioned that there was an unknown individual with blond hair trying to ¡°fuse¡± their right hand onto Angor¡¯s arm. Just like what was happening right now.

    Slowly, the stranger stepped out of the mirror and stood quietly in front of Angor.

    Instead of being fearful, Angor felt strangely calm for some reason, just like when he went through Maya¡¯s prophecy test. Something told him that the person he was encountering could not hurt him.

    ¡°Tell me. Are you Shava?¡± Angor tried again. ¡°Or... Are you me? Are you my projection, from the Nightmare Realm?¡±

    Encroaching nightmare energy suddenly began to enclose him, as everything grew obscured again. He couldn¡¯t see the stranger clearly, nor could he think clearly. He was forcefully pulled into a dream he had no control over.

    At thest second of his wake, he saw the person moving their lips. Yet he could no longer hear the answer. He felt his mind being stirred up by an unknown force until all logic and sanity were taken away.

    The dream repeated.

    Once again, he silently floated at the dark space, gazing at the mirror as well as the reflection of an unknown one.

    Before he knew it, his right hand was already inside the mirror.

    In his confused mental state, he remembered Sunders¡¯ words, that a stranger in Witch¡¯s Town reced his right hand.

    He tried pulling his hand back out but failed. His movement only caused the surface of the mirror to shake.

    He could only reach further in, but not the other way. In fact, he felt as if the space inside the mirror was prettyrge and even weing.

    More of his arm was now inside the mirror, until his face was almost upon the surface, causing him to look at the blond reflection up close.

    A sudden warning struck his mind.

    <i>I must stop!</i>

    The awareness cleared up his mind just a little, allowing him to control his actions more properly.

    Yet before he could get a good look around the area as well as at the reflection in front of him, the dark space began to crumble, until nothing was left in his view.

    Next, he felt his troubled brain returning to its good condition.

    The surroundings grew brighter, albeit just a little.

    Looking at the gray and dim sky and the rich nightmare energy still flowing all around, he knew he was back to the dream wastnd.

    He quickly got onto his feet and checked the area.

    The tunnel was still there, not far from him. There was no blond intruder or stars. Everything looked the same as before.

    <i>Or... wait. Did my right hand grow bigger than before?</i>

    He pressed two hands together and realized his right hand now surpassed his left one by a full middle finger.

    ¡°When I reached further inside that mirror, did I allow the nightmare projection to put more stuff on my body?!¡±

    While a little panicked, he removed his robe and saw the green sigils had climbed along his right wrist and upied his elbow. Precisely speaking, the part of his arm he reached inside the mirror was now fully covered by the sigils.

    ¡°It¡¯s my arm this time... but I¡¯m in a dream. Will this affect my physical body in reality?¡±

    Since he was inside the Nightmare Realm when he ¡°grew¡± arger handst time, he knew he was very likely affected again.

    He thought about leaving the dream and checking on his body in reality right away. But when he saw the zoning crystals he prepared and the tunnel nearby still releasing more nightmare energy into the dream wastnd, he decided to calm down for now.

    Using his ¡°nightmare vision¡±, he saw no other intruders in the area. Whoever he just saw or whether that truly happened, he was here alone right now.

    He couldn¡¯t leave the nightmare tunnel unattended. For now, he made up his mind to finish his work and sever the tunnel first.

    Some further tests told him that he could still use his right hand to absorb nightmare energy. If fact, this skill just grew a lot stronger. Both the speed and the precision at which he drew nightmare energy were improved. He could now fully determine how much energy he took or distribute it at different parts as he wished.

    Although he didn¡¯t feel any happier for gaining the new skill. He just grew more foreign parts on his body. If this kept happening, there would always be a time when most of his body was reced, by which time he would hardly be himself.

    Sunders did tell him to ept the bloodline of a nightmare projection, but he was not sure if this was the right way to do that.

    He rocked his head and forced himself to forget all the concerns. For now, he had to secure this piece of nightmare domain first.

 Chapter 888 - Undertaking Another Nightmare Domain

    <h4>Chapter 888: Undertaking Another Nightmare Domain</h4>

    Angor took the zoning crystals he prepared to the tunnel. Before getting to work, he couldn¡¯t help but peek inside the nightmare tunnel with his extended vision.

    Nothing. It was all dark.

    ¡°Maybe he¡¯s gone?¡± He tried tofort himself.

    It should be good news to him. Yet for some reason, he felt disappointed.

    Following the space coordinates he worked out the other day, he ced down the zoning crystals one by one while trying his best to concentrate.

    With the help of Gond, he soon finished distributing the crystals, some of which had to be suspended in midair.

    Any monster or anything that showed up untimely from the tunnel could easily ruin his effort by disrupting the crystals. Fortunately, the tunnel did not attract any monsters from the Nightmare Realm.

    He checked the shiny objects that surrounded the tunnel-like stars. Once he made sure every piece was in its rightful ce, he lifted his right hand.

    As the green sigils grew restless, a giant wave of nightmare energy gathered upon his right hand like a tornado.

    Following the instructions in <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>, Angor concentrated the energy into several small spots and shot them toward the zoning crystals.

    Upon receiving the energy, the crystals began shining even brighter and illuminated the entire nightmare tunnel with their light.

    ¡°Now!¡± Angor moved his arm and pointed his hand in another direction.

    All nightmare energy was immediately pulled into the green sigils, leaving his immediate vicinity empty.

    ¡°This is my chance. Please tell me I don¡¯t need to study ck Requiem for real...¡±

    One by one, the zoning crystals began releasing transparent threads that slowly connected with each other.

    The process was not slow, yet Angor felt as if every second were an eternity.

    To his great relief, it went smoothly. More pieces of crystals were now bound by the threads of each other, which was exactly what was described by the instruction.

    This meant he sessfully made his n happen by using his right hand in ce of ck Requiem.

    Like a newly-weaved spider web, countless threads came into being and began spreading from the crystals until they covered up the entire nightmare tunnel.

    It was time for the final step. The threads would form into a new ne barrier andpletely separate the nightmare domain from the nightmare tunnel.

    This wasn¡¯t Angor¡¯s job as he simply had to watch it happen. But in the meantime, he had to be prepared. Once the dream wastnd finally became an independent nightmare domain, he had to step up and im it under his control before the domain drifted off and joined something else. In this case, if Angor failed to grasp it in time, the nightmare domain would slowly move toward the Dream Realm and be lost in it.

    ...

    The separation process took over half an hour, which was a lot longer than thest time.

    Anyone who came and bothered him right now couldpletely nullify everything he did up until this point. Thankfully, it did not happen.

    As soon as the connection was removed, Angor felt the dream wastnd changing greatly. Everything went fake and ethereal as if the dream had be a more ordinary dream, where the dreamer could not fully grasp what was happening in it.

    No doubt that the dream wastnd would join the Dream Realm and be anothermon drifting dream at this rate.

    Angor sure would like to prevent that. Although it wasn¡¯t time for him to act yet.

    After being removed from the dream wastnd, the nightmare tunnel became a ck hole that helplessly floated in ce.

    Anyone who entered the tunnel right now would end up somewhere between the Dream Realm and the Nightmare Realm.

    Like before, Angor couldn¡¯t see anything inside the dark tunnel. However, he believed he heard something from it. It sounded like a strong wind blowing over the entrance of a hollow cave or the low-pitched growling of an animal.

    He simply stood in front of the tunnel and waited.

    The zoning crystals floating around the tunnel suddenly burst into fragments one after the other before attaching onto the edge of the ck hole and began to close it off.

    Seeing this, Angor kept his best guard up.

    ording to <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>, when the crystal shards were filling up the nightmare tunnel, the ¡°main body¡± of the nightmare domain would soon show up.

    As he counted 30 seconds in his mind, a glowing sphere suddenly rushed out of the ck hole.

    That should be the main body he was expecting. For a short period of time, the sphere would randomly float around the dream wastnd in its current shape. And when it disappeared, it meant the dream wastnd had fully merged with the Dream Realm.

    As soon as Angor saw iting, he leaped into the air and grasped the sphere without a second thought. With a swift move, he pressed the sphere onto his chest.

    The book mentioned many risks for undertaking a nightmare domain, although Angor had enough reason not to worry about them too much.

    When epting his nightmare domain of a castle hall, the ¡°bewitching illusions that might take him into an eternal slumber¡± never came. Sunders said that this might be an advantage brought by his Nightmare Form.

    Angor expected to go through the same experience again by absorbing a new nightmare domain without meeting any trouble. And even if this wasn¡¯t the case, he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to ept the challenge for the sake of Jon.

    The first thing he felt after ¡°consuming¡± the sphere was unbearable itchiness around his shoulder bone. And it made him dizzy.

    ¡°Oh God... just like thest time.¡±

    When Sunders helped him ept the ¡°castle¡± nightmare domain, the itchiness was the only thing he suffered from before everything settled down. He thought he just had to endure a bit longer to achieve his mission.

    But it didn¡¯t go as he expected. Unlike thest time when he was put to sleep, he felt his mind clearer than ever.

    He could tell that the sphere was roaming inside a strange ce in his body. Like his mindspace and soul space, he couldn¡¯t tell exactly where it was. But it existed.

    The sphere was not the only thing he could feel. At the same time, he saw his old nightmare domain being in the same ce.

    The dream wastnd was bigger both in size and power. Telling from the examples provided by <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>, the smaller domain would fuse itself into the new, bigger domain, thus allowing Angor to control a stronger and more potent nightmare domain in the end.

    But this did not ur. The two different presences floated along each other peacefully.

    Confused, Angor inspected the two different nightmare domains carefully.

    ¡°The ¡®castle hall¡¯ was originally an inteyer between the Nightmare Domain and the wizarding world, while the dream wastnd is between the Dream Realm and the Nightmare Realm...¡±

    Perhaps these two nightmare domains were ofpletely different natures, and that they could not mix with each other.

    As Angor feared that he would ultimately fail, he fully woke up from his trance and saw the glowing sphere emerging from his chest and was about to wander off again.

    Desperate, he quickly used his right hand to capture it.

 Chapter 889 - Reading the Sigils

    <h4>Chapter 889: Reading the Sigils</h4>

    The instant he reached the sphere with his erged hand, the green sigils grew more frisky and swirled like newborn saplings in spring.

    At the same time, they unleashed plentiful nightmare energy into the sphere.

    When bathed under the energy, the escaping sphere suddenly became ¡°tame¡± and remained still, whereas the dream around Angor stopped fading away and was now growing stable and solid as before.

    As Angor watched in bewilderment, the green sigils began replicating themselves and slowly left his hand to wrap the sphere up like ropes.

    He then tried dragging the sphere back to him like pulling asso, and he seeded without a problem. It seemed he could still control the sigils as he wanted.

    He suddenly had a strange feeling upon getting his hand on the sphere that told him why the sphere refused to fuse with him earlier.

    The glowing sphere was the embodiment of the nightmare domain he was working on, which originally relied on the Nightmare Realm to exist. When the nightmare tunnel was cut off, he had to find a new ¡°footing¡± for the nightmare domain so that it did not randomly escape to somewhere else. At this rate, if he failed to situate the new nightmare domain properly, it was likely going to stray to an unknown spot in the Dream Realm and vanish.

    However, the green sigils around his right hand now acted as a pseudo nightmare tunnel by constantly sending nightmare energy into the surrounding area, thus convincing the sphere to stay. And when the embodiment of the nightmare domain was stabilized, the dream wastnd also stopped dissolving.

    Angor always believed he had to ept the nightmare domain using his own body, but not like this.

    With the help of the sigils, he sessfully affixed the sphere to his body. Yet he could tell that the sphere was still controlled by the sigils, not him.

    Frustrated, he pulled the sphere out again.

    He currently had no idea what these green things were. Sunders¡¯ research did not reach any useful results regarding this matter yet, while he always tried to avoid looking at them because each time he did, he felt as if a pair of creepy, crimson eyes were staring back at him from another dimension.

    He had a hunch now. Those eyes might belong to Shava, the blond stranger he just saw.

    For this reason, he would like to avoid using the sigils as they might get him involved in something terrible.

    But now he had no choice. He needed the sigils to capture the domain sphere.

    ¡°What happened to your right hand might not be a bad thing. On the contrary, it could be a great destiny.¡± Sunders¡¯ voice echoed in his mind.

    Back at Phantom ind, Sunders once showed Angor a mantis scythe he transnted as well as mentioning many more foreign body parts on his flesh.

    ¡°This is both for strength and research. When I¡¯m done with this arm, I can always remove it and get a human one. You can do the same. When you¡¯ve performed enough research and are satisfied, you can chop it off and grow a new hand. Remember, wizards are capable of the unimaginable.¡±

    Angor took a deep breath to contain the uneasiness swelling in his mind.

    He was reminded many times that wizards were destined to go after mysteries and learn about them instead of running away. Staying inside hisfort zone might keep him safe for the moment, but he would always have to face challengester, and he had to be prepared for them.

    Determined, he gazed at the green sigils on his hand.

    The hallucination of those crimson eyes appeared again, but instead of getting terrified, he grew curious.

    He wished to know more about the sigils. As the ¡°owner¡± of them, he was naturally at an advantage. Hopefully, he could learn their secrets when Sunders could not.

    It took a long time. When his physical body outside sent him a warning that he needed to wake up soon, he finally found an initial result regarding the strange sigils.

    Rather than learning something, he felt as if the sigils acknowledged him as their master and granted him the knowledge.

    He saw a strange shape.

    At first, it appeared simr to a spell model. But on a closer look, he noticed that the ¡°model¡± was iplete. It looked like building blocks piled up by a child, who then removed a critical piece from it.

    Strangely, the shape stayed intact without breaking apart.

    While showing him the model, the sigils also sent him a brief message, which was ¡°contain¡±.

    He tried telling the sigils to activate this ¡°contain¡± effect, and he was d to see that the sigils responded by rapidly absorbing nightmare energy again.

    ¡°So this is how my right hand drew the energy? But where did the energy go?¡±

    Following the ¡°contain¡± function, he kept going.

    It took him several days this time to reach the next result, which was a second model that seemed to be rted to the first one.

    He triedbining the two models he found into one, but he was disappointed to notice that something was still amiss.

    Like thest time, an unknown awareness told him that the second model was ¡°tunnel¡±. After going through ¡°contain¡±, all the absorbed nightmare energy reached this ¡°tunnel¡±.

    Going down this path, he found a subsequent third model, which was ¡°door¡±.

    To his disappointment, he could sense this door, but he could not control it. Although he didn¡¯t need to examine the door further to infer that it might be an entrance to the Nightmare Realm and where the nightmare energy went after the green sigils took it.

    As for why the door refused to heed hismand, he believed he either needed to grow in strength or receive more ¡°privilege¡± from Shava.

    The three models he discoveredbined together still looked like the tip of an iceberg. He wondered what the whole picture would look like.

    He returned his attention to his right hand and chose another sigil, which always remained at the center of his palm.

    Again, he discovered an iplete model that suggested ¡°release¡±. This time, however, he almost immediately saw the second and the third models following behind it, which were ¡°tunnel¡± and ¡°door¡±, simr to what was signified by the first sigil.

    Just like thest time, he was stumped at the door, which refused to move no matter how he tried.

    It was clear that the two sigils and the significations they held all indicated the ¡°functions¡± of his right hand, which was to absorb and release nightmare energy.

    Since he could check these functions by reading the sigils, he decided to look at the domain sphere and see what the rope-like sigils that entrapped the sphere meant.

 Chapter 890 - View of the Beholder

    <h4>Chapter 890: View of the Beholder</h4>

    ¡°Maybe I can figure out how tomand the domain sphere in this way.¡±

    With this idea in mind, he quickly looked at the lengthened sigils around the sphere.

    With the previous experience, decrypting the sigil was a lot faster this time. Within an hour, he sessfully made out the implication of the first iplete model, which was ¡°bind¡±.

    As the name implied, it was used for binding energy forms. This was what he used earlier to restrict nightmare energy and send them to activate the zoning crystals.

    He wondered if he could use this model to bind other forms of energy. He decided to do some tests about this when he returned to reality.

    The next model he reached, however, puzzled him for good.

    ¡°Bind¡± made a lot of sense because the sigils around the domain sphere obviously meant to trap the sphere in ce.

    But the second model was ¡°dissolve¡±, which didn¡¯t sit well in this context.

    He attempted to activate the ¡°dissolve¡± effect to see what would happen, and he immediately regretted it.

    The locked domain sphere visibly shrank in size as shiny shards fell off from it and dissipated into the environment.

    Meanwhile, he received ¡°feedback¡± from the effect. It seemed the ¡°dissolve¡± function removed some power from the domain sphere and returned it to the dream wastnd.

    He stopped the effect as soon as he saw the sphere losing its mass. Yet it still lost a portion of the domain power it contained. Thankfully, the power did not scatter randomly into the Dream Realm. It joined the dream wastnd, which meant he could find it againter.

    After making sure the ¡°dissolve¡± effect was switched off, he proceeded to check the next model. Something told him that this would be the final answer he was searching for.

    Simr to before, the third model was also an imperfect one that could attach to the previous two.

    It was ¡°fusion¡±.

    By ¡°dissolving¡± power and then ¡°fusing¡± it elsewhere, the sigil would help him transfer the ownership of the domain sphere onto himself, by which time he would gain full control over the dream wastnd.

    More importantly, the ¡°fusion¡± model answered his call just fine instead of remaining still.

    Excited, he kept looking further to find whether there was a fourth model connected to them.

    However, he was a little disappointed when he was brought to the fourth and even the fifth model, which were ¡°tunnel¡± and ¡°door¡± again.

    He couldn¡¯t activate the door or look beyond to check the next model, which was no longer a surprise.

    ¡°So... this sigil fixes the domain sphere here and consumes its power while also connecting it to a nightmare tunnel?¡±

    Every sigil he checked until now ended up at an unmoving door that was likely to be connected to the Nightmare Realm. Perhaps all the sigils followed certain rules defined by the Nightmare Realm.

    He got a feeling that he had to fully ept everything Shava wanted to give him, in order to fullyprehend the sigils.

    Though this definitely sounded like a bad idea.

    ...

    After resting his mind for a while, he reactivated the ¡°dissolve¡± effect and tried to ept the domain sphere.

    Since the sphere was the embodiment of this piece of nightmare domain as well as the dream wastnd itself, he had to seed to be the true owner of this ce.

    As soon as he saw the sphere dropping fragments, he immediately canceled ¡°dissolve¡± and went for ¡°fusion¡± to embrace whatever was scraped off.

    It was a bad move.

    Telling from the overwhelming power, which should be a portion of the domain sphere, he realized that the dream wastnd was HUGE. It was several times bigger than the nightmare inteyer that contained Sleepless City, and it wasrger than any of the existing nightmare domains Sunders described in <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>. His ¡°castle hall¡± domain was tinypared to this one.

    He felt his head bulging with pain when only several particles of the sphere entered his body. But giving up now meant he had to discard what came off the domain sphere to the dream wastnd, again. He had to hold on.

    At the end of the searing outpour, he felt that he managed to grasp aplete ¡°privilege¡± under hismand.

    ¡°Ack. Thank goodness I didn¡¯t swallow the domain sphere by normal means...¡±

    He didn¡¯t have any time to examine what he just received before his consciousness slipped away.

    Absorbing part of the domain drained him greatly. If someone were here to look at his body in reality, they would see Angor bleeding from his nostrils, while his skin gained an unhealthy sheen.

    As Angor¡¯s bodyguard, Toby had spent a month in boredom, during which he tried to kill time by any means he could think of, including dropping everything in his Snowy Feather storage onto the ground and picking them back up.

    Dried fish, animal suits, several tiny beds and nkets, and a strange skull he took from the dark ind, which had stopped glowing for some reason.

    Toby was quite shocked when he suddenly smelled blooding from Angor¡¯s position. Without minding the items, he quickly dived back into the illusion.

    ...

    Angor was having a dream. But he wasn¡¯t sure whether it was a dream at all.

    He found his vision shifting to a different ce after he gained the new power. He felt his sight expanding far and wide until he could observe the entire dream wastnd as well as the unknown darkness beyond its boundary.

    There, he saw something hideous.

    The wastnd didn¡¯t appear as big when he could watch it in a bird¡¯s-eye view. However, beyond the wastnd and inside the dark distance, a gigantic creature more immense than thend itself was silently gazing at the wastnd using its golden, slit-pupil eyes. In fact, that eyeball alone already looked more sizable than the dream wastnd.

    Angor didn¡¯t know what that was, but he could somewhat tell that the unknown creature was trying to reach the dream wastnd. It didn¡¯t do so yet because there was another figure with blond hair standing in its way.

    The blond individual looked not much different from amon human. No bigger than a scrap of dust, ifpared to the towering monster ahead. Yet there he stood, quietly but surely blocking the monster¡¯s advance.

    Angor finally understood why the dream wastnd was so empty and without any other intruders when a nightmare inteyer was supposed to attract all sorts of monsters from the Nightmare Realm. This was all because someone was protecting it.

    Right now, he could see the blond figure speaking to the monster as if they were negotiating. Although he couldn¡¯t make out any sound.

    Slowly, the monster closed its golden eyes and backed away, until it fully disappeared into the unending darkness beyond.

    Next, the floating stranger turned around and looked at the dream wastnd, silent as he always was.

 Chapter 891 - Dream Gate

    <h4>Chapter 891: Dream Gate</h4>

    Angor woke up and found himself lying still at the dream wastnd.

    It took him a few seconds to get rid of the dizziness in his head before he began to remember everything he just saw.

    ¡°This world... Did that monster leave? Will ite back?¡±

    He looked up at the gray sky, but he couldn¡¯t see anything beyond the dim color. He wondered if the blond figure was looking at him right now. If so, it was probably like an almighty god staring down an ant.

    ¡°I think I need to gain more strength to be in that spot so that I canmand this world fully, but...¡±

    He shook his head. He wasn¡¯t even a wizard now. That ambition was too far from his level.

    He decided to focus on what he had right now, such as the unknown power he just extracted from the domain sphere.

    The knowledge of the power was already lingering in his head. Soon enough, he read something from it, which was the ¡°Dream Gate¡±. It appeared that this was a minor ability rted to spatial dimension control. But apparently, thews in the dream wastnd were an inferior version of the real spatial dimensionws. In the Dream Realm, dreamers could freely use their fake power to shape the space around them however they liked. But ultimately, the results were only their imagination.

    Simrly, Angor could wield such power in the dream wastnd as he wished.

    From a quick look, he noticed that ¡°Dream Gate¡± allowed him to designate the starting points of foreign objects that were pulled into the dream wastnd. For example, if he cast Dream Enkindle on Freud by normal means, then Freud would randomly get dropped somewhere they couldn¡¯t foretell. With Dream Gate, however, Angor could ce Freud to a specific ce in the wastnd, such as directly inviting Freud into the apartment house he copied into the dream wastnd before.

    He wondered if he couldbine this ability with the use of Dream Whelk. If so, he would be able to summonrge numbers of different items and materials into the dream wastnd, thus achieving ¡°costless alchemy practice¡± for real.

    And in this case, this otherwise useless ability would immediately be beyond valuable.

    He would like to leave the dream wastnd and get to testing immediately. But he still had one more task to do.

    He picked up the domain sphere in his hand again, which just lost two of its powers. The sphere did not appear too different from its original size, which meant there were many more powers ready to be harvested.

    He could not take the sphere outside, or the dream wastnd would quickly lose its bnce and merge into the Dream Realm. For now, he had to find a spot to keep it.

    Since he was likely going to let more people inside the dream wastnd, leaving the sphere on the ground probably wasn¡¯t a safe thing to do. He considered and levitated high into the sky and used the ¡°snare sigils¡± to fix the sphere there.

    This was a temporary solution. When he had timeter, he would make a secure container for the sphere.

    With everything settled, he left the dream wastnd to return to reality.

    ...

    He would like to get to more work right away as soon as he ¡°woke up¡±. Sadly, he misvalued his condition.

    Consuming the power of ¡°Dream Gate¡± took arge amount of energy from his body. Without timely supplementation, this had left his body in a weakened state.

    This wasn¡¯t too much of a problem because he could slowly return to normal by resting and proper meals. Compared to this, however, his right hand was the bigger issue.

    Upon waking up and before he could see what was around him, he felt a sharp paining from his right hand, which soon began to spread to the other parts of his body.

    He couldn¡¯t see into his body using Wizard Eye or simr tricks yet, but he could tell that something was breaking and reforming in there.

    He didn¡¯t know how long it took or how many muscles were torn. When he had the strength to look, he saw his right arm was now abnormally longer than his left one.

    And just like thest time when he initially grew a bigger right hand, he felt once again that a strange bloodline was being pumped into his body.

    Must be the projected bloodline, as mentioned by Sunders.

    The agony was unimaginable, yet he didn¡¯t have what it took to sound his pain anymore. He simplyy on the dirt,pletely motionless, while ck blood seeped out from every pore on his skin and gathered into a pool beneath him.

    Toby had been watching this happening and was too terrified to do anything. He knew something was VERY wrong when Angor¡¯s strange conditionsted for a long time without any signs of ending.

    Angor had opened his eyes to look at the sky, but his eyes were of an abnormal red color that looked quite creepy.

    Toby could not ask for anyone¡¯s help nor carelessly move Angor around, so he thought about the only thing he could do, which was taking out several potions from Snowy Feather. Both Angor and Greya used to give Toby healing potions for future use. For now, Toby had no idea which one was the right choice, so he just picked a weak one that had a little negative effect, then spread it on Angor¡¯s body.

    The healing liquid came in time and prevented Angor¡¯s physical form from getting fully exhausted.

    The pain was still there, but Angor was d to find his senses returning, and the total numbness was gone.

    With a trembling finger, he pointed to several potion bottles that might help with his case, and Toby quickly read his hint and carried the potions his way.

    He spent a moment drawing painful breaths on the ground, while Toby waited beside him warily.

    He knew he was recovering, but losing and replenishing energy too rapidly still had its bad consequence.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine... Let me rest.¡±

    That was the only thing he managed to tell Toby before he fell asleep again. And this time, there was no dream.

    A week had passed before he woke up again.

    He felt his mind clear enough and tried sitting up, only to find that he couldn¡¯t move at all.

    It was still fine if he needed more time to regain stamina, but it was not when the whole area smelled really bad.

    He turned his neck to look aside and saw the dirt around himpletely ckened by the blood and filth he let out earlier. This was made worse when it was the summit of summer. Under the temperature, the fermented stench was elevated by several folds, attracting flies and worms to his position.

    Toby was busy removing the pests from his body using gravity power, but the bird could do nothing to get rid of the odor.

    Angor sighed helplessly. Using what strength he could gather, he summoned a ck top hat from his bracelet.

    The hat with the mark of a smiley face was a gift he received from Devildare. It had a built-in level-3 cantrip, Purification Field, enchanted on it.

    The effect did quick work repelling everything unwanted from him until the air returned being fresh.

    Delighted, Toby quickly hopped onto Angor¡¯s shoulder and nudged him.

    ¡°No worries, partner.¡± Angor smiled back. ¡°Those potions worked wonders. Otherwise, I could have died back there.¡±

    He knew his body. Without the healing boost, he could have lost his life for real.

    He got into this situation because he was too focused on getting the domain sphere but without minding the new ¡°body part¡± he just gained, which required his full attention. He already went through a simr case before when Sunders was watching, but it slipped from his mind.

    ¡°Damn it. I can¡¯t be so short-sighted again.¡±

 Chapter 892 - Using the Gate

    <h4>Chapter 892: Using the Gate</h4>

    ¡°Woah, it¡¯s the end of the month already?¡±

    He had spent nearly 90 days inside the dream wastnd. Combining this with all the time it took him for visiting Freud and buying stuff at Lloyds, he had been staying at the Land of Revtion for more than three months.

    He couldn¡¯t help but wonder how Leon and Jon were doing.

    ¡°I¡¯ll head back as soon as I learn how to use this gate thing.¡± He made up his mind. With the nightmare tunnel sealed, the dream wastnd should be safe for visitors. He only had to figure out how to contain a dead person¡¯s consciousness next.

    Of course, he had to also make sure Jon was willing to live on as a resident in the dream wastnd.

    ...

    Three dayster.

    His physical condition had not fully recovered yet, and the color of his facial skin was far from healthy. But he was good enough to join fights now, if not better than before after gaining new strength.

    His ¡°lengthened right arm¡± had improved the properties of his projected bloodline, which in turn granted him an even more endurable body. Even though he still couldn¡¯t discover any special abilities that came with the bloodline, his raw strength, reflexes, and metabolism all reached new levels and were still growing.

    While d about the new gain, he also put a new task into his schedule, which was finding out the potential side effects and risks of the projected bloodline. There would always be a time when these problems emerge. He had to get to know them before it happened.

    Just like how he treated the green sigils, he no longer felt fearful of the foreign strength. Since he had it, he would do his best to study and hopefullymand it.

    Nevertheless, he would remain constantly cautious when dealing with this matter.

    During his first test regarding Dream Gate, he used Dream Whelk to send arge boulder in his view into the dream wastnd. At the same time, he received a warning in his mind, which seemed to be sent by the new ability. It told him that a foreign object had invaded the dream wastnd.

    After the warning, he saw a mini map in his mind that showed thendscape of the wastnd, and he could use the map to point out where to send the boulder.

    He suspected that he could do more than this with the map. Although he didn¡¯t have time to do more research because the ¡°alert¡± was getting really urgent.

    [Foreign object arriving in 4 seconds]

    [Foreign object arriving in 3...]

    Something told him that the boulder would end up somewhere random if he didn¡¯t make a choice in time. He did so, and he then used Dream Enkindle to enter the dream wastnd himself, while positioning his starting point as close to the boulder as possible.

    ¡°Ah! There it is. If I can keep doing this, I might as well build a whole city I copied from Earth, just for Jon.¡±

    Apart from objects, he might also invite more people here so that Jon wouldn¡¯t get lonely.

    Just thinking about the little new world he was going to create made him excited.

    Freud¡¯s assumption was quite true. Combining the Dream Whelk with the dream wastnd brought by his nightmare power, he could make wonderful things happen.

    He found more items from his bracelet and tried taking them into the dream wastnd, and he seeded without a problem.

    It seemed the ¡°warning¡± woulde each time he put an item in the dream wastnd. This was probably meant to be helpful for monitoring the items, but it could get a bit bothersome if he kept hearing it.

    Fortunately, he noticed that he could preemptively set a safe zone on the map and tell the Dream Gate to ignore everything that was sent that way.

    There was a problem though. Despite its name, the Dream Gate couldn¡¯t stop objects from reaching the dream wastnd. As soon as he used the Dream Whelk on an item, it would appear at the designated spot within five seconds regardless, or somewhere else, if he did not determine a destination.

    This wouldn¡¯t be a problem for now since he was the only one who could send something into the dream wastnd by casting Dream Enkindle using nightmare energy. Yet he might run into exceptions in the future. What if a truth-finder Dream Maniptor learned about his dream wastnd and found a way to get in?

    Perhaps the domain sphere contained more powers rted to security measures. He would like to work on this if he had a chance.

    Toby was also invited into his test, but the bird wasn¡¯t interested in the empty ce at all.

    Since this part of the experiment was concluded, he settled everything and was about to leave.

    He still needed time to learn how to guarantee the survival of Jon¡¯s consciousness, should Jon¡¯s body die. If he could, he would immediately take Jon away with him.

    Before heading back to the Old Earth, he went to Freighting Town first. As he promised, he would allow Freud to check the dream wastnd after removing the nightmare tunnel, and he would also grant Freud a ce to live in there. Freud yed an important part in the research as well as providing a new theory for rescuing Jon. Angor wasn¡¯t going to go back on his words.

    When halfway to Freighting Town, he stopped moving as he was attracted by a city in the distance that released a golden glimmer.

    He recognized the city as the ¡°Golden Wood City¡±, from a map of the Land of Revtion he read before. It was a border city of the Central Empire, and it got its name because of a special type of tree nted all around the city. At this time every year, these nts would shine brightly in the sunlight.

    It wasn¡¯t the tree but two particrly beautiful buildings that drew his attention. Using the artful tastes of a nobleman, he could tell that whoever designed them must be a real master in the field.

    One of the buildings was arge, round-domed cathedral with luxurious carvings and decorations. The contrasting yet amazingly coordinated colors meant the creator truly put their heart into their work.

    The other one was a pub house of some sort, which was established in the middle of the thick trunk of a tree. The builder of it retained most of the natural elements. Although it must be pretty difficult to situate a treehouse so stably.

    Previously, Angor would probably take some minutes to admire the lovely structures before departing. Now, however...

    ...

    A momentter, two identical buildings appeared in the dream wastnd under Angor¡¯s effort, including all the decor and furniture within them.

    Since it was mainly Jon who gave him early education when he was young, he believed Jon would also love these buildings.

    If Jon could no longer exist in reality, at least Angor would like to show Jon lots of artful sights in the dream wastnd.

    Along his way, he pulled several more architectures he came across using the Dream Whelk, until the ¡°safe zone¡± he determined was filled with more than 20 new houses. The journey back already took way longer than he thought, so he decided not to enter the dream wastnd to check his work right now.

    Finally, Freighting Town came into his view before nightfall.

 Chapter 893 - Arcane Arsenal

    <h4>Chapter 893: Arcane Arsenal</h4>

    ¡°I can?!¡± Freud looked quite excited after Angor had been neglecting him for almost two months.

    ¡°Yes. I erased the danger I mentioned.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Do you want to enter now?¡±

    ¡°Of course!¡±

    Ten minutester, Freud woke up from the dream wastnd with a strange expression.

    ¡°Hey, Mister Padt? Why do I find those houses... familiar? That¡¯s the same cathedral from Golden Wood City, and the dolphin sculptures and the suspended rose garden are from Freighting Town. Did you use the Dream Whelk to bring all of them to the dream wastnd?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Angor nodded proudly.

    ¡°You can send things wherever you want now, Mister Padt? Wait, you put me right next to the buildings too, didn¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. We¡¯re one step closer to your ¡®limitless alchemy practice¡¯ theory. Not yet though, as our wizardry power willpletely disappear when we¡¯re inside. Even if we get the materials, we can¡¯t really do alchemy with them.¡±

    <i>Buuut I might open up more possibilities if I can take more power from that sphere</i>, Angor thought.

    ¡°Do we need to be close for you to summon me there? I mean, suppose I stay in Freighting Town but you¡¯re far away in anothernd, can I enter the dream wastnd then? If so, can wemunicate there without physically meeting each other in reality?¡±

    Angor also thought about this probability before. If he could achieve such a feat, then he could use it as a long-range messaging trick that was both more convenient and secure than the othermunication tools used today.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t tested this yet. For it to work, the second man must know how to enter the dream wastnd without my help.¡±

    This was unlikely for now because he didn¡¯t know anyone else who could use nightmare energy.

    ¡°Maybe I can make an alchemy item for this purpose? Hmm...¡±

    ¡°That will be quite a big invention that¡¯s going to shock the hell out of all wizards!¡± Freud eximed.

    Angor smiled politely but didn¡¯t reveal his other thoughts. As far as he could see, the dream wastnd still existed in the Dream Realm, which meant anyone who could dream had a chance of finding it. He just needed to figure out how.

    ¡°Mister Padt... I told you that I¡¯ll swear under Follower¡¯s Oath and be your follower when the project looks good enough. It¡¯s time to fulfill my words.¡± Freud suddenly showed a determined look.

    For one, Freud was willing to put his trust on Angor now. Besides, he had realized how much potential and value the dream wastnd held. He wouldn¡¯t let someone who knew its secrets roam freely around if he were in Angor¡¯s boots.

    Angor epted his decision without a problem. The dream wastnd was now safe enough for Freud to stay.

    ¡°Before that, however, I must tell you something.¡± Freud gave Angor a serious look.

    ¡°Um? What is it?¡±

    ¡°Well... I need to say it now ¡¯cause I probably can¡¯t do it after epting the oath. Mister Padt, I know you¡¯re an educated and refined man, but when ites to city nning, I¡¯d suggest that you should, well, refer to proper books beforehand.¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow and used Dream Enkindle to enter the dream wastnd himself.

    Sadly, Freud spoke the truth even though he didn¡¯t say it too straightforwardly. Each of the buildings andndmarks summoned into the dream wastnd would be a masterpiece by themselves if ced alone. But Angor basically made a disaster by piling them next to each other.

    He took a moment to check his terrible work and suddenly thought about Nano.

    ¡°Oh, hell no. I can¡¯t be like him.¡±

    He silently left the dream wastnd while keeping a straight face.

    ¡°Follower¡¯s Oath, right? What are you waiting for?¡±

    Freud found it to be a bad idea that he just said something to frustrate the man he was going to work for.

    While a little uneasy, he chanted the oath in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness.

    Angor saw Freud¡¯s soul flickering as he felt a strange connection being established between them. He was now able to freely look at Freud¡¯s thoughts and order him around like using a loyal ve.

    The Follower¡¯s Oath was more powerful than most simr ve contracts. The moment Freud even thought about betraying Angor, his soul would get snuffed out right away.

    ¡°My master.¡± Freud lowered his head.

    ¡°Don¡¯t. I¡¯m not actually treating you as a ve. Just, we can work on our project better in this way.¡±

    ¡°Oh, um, sir, what¡¯s our next n?¡±

    ¡°Let me see.¡± Angor held his chin. ¡°Go in there and remove the buildings. All of them.¡±

    <i>I can¡¯t show that stuff to people. Especially Jon!</i>

    ¡°But sir, why don¡¯t we rearrange them instead? We can keep the buildings while making adjustments to make them look better, such as applying different paints and relocating them.¡±

    Angor believed it would be faster if he found another spot in the dream wastnd and started anew by dragging more buildings inside. But when looking at Freud¡¯s enthusiastic look, he decided to ept the suggestion.

    After leaving Freud to his work, Angor tried to think of ways to invite others into the dream wastnd without casting Dream Enkindle up close.

    Freud did not do all the work all by himself. He somehow persuaded Alda and Sunny to provide childbor.

    At first, Freud wanted them to be Angor¡¯s followers as well, but Angor rejected the offer. He was going to put different people into the dream wastndter anyway. There was no point forcing everyone to devote their absolute loyalty.

    He simply had to make sure the secret didn¡¯t get revealed too soon. After iming more ¡°privilege¡± from the domain sphere, he wouldn¡¯t need to worry about curious stalkers.

    Besides, he already nned to add the new project into <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i>, by which time Sunders would help him keep the dream wastnd safe.

    ...

    Angor spent a few more days reading relevant books in order to find out how to ¡°log in¡± to the dream wastnd remotely.

    The most obvious approach he could think of was enchanting his Dream Enkindle cantrip onto an item and allowing a guest to use it. But he had not learned how to permanently fix cantrips to items yet. Unlikemon enchantment, this art was only known by a selected few alchemists in this world, and he didn¡¯t know where to find them.

    Later, he found another solution in <i>Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced</i>, which was a magic array called ¡°Arcane Arsenal¡±, with the purpose of storing a single cantrip or spell within.

    The cantrip that kept using this method did notst forever. The duration depended on the level of the item¡¯s material, the level of the cantrip, and how frequently it was used. For example, a level-3 cantrip might have many charges before the power was exhausted, whereas a spell could only be used once or run out on itself if the charge was not used in time.

    This was a lot harder and costly to usepared to built-in spells, but it was the only thing Angor could find for now.

 Chapter 894 - Dream Launcher

    <h4>Chapter 894: Dream Launcher</h4>

    Even though Arcane Arsenal was considered a magic array, it was quite simple to draw because it only contained three runes¡ªPerpetual, Unity, and Mana Cache. What was more, Angor already knew how to draw the first one.

    It took him two days to n and pre-process the necessary materials, then another day to craft the uncher¡± itself.

    At first, he was nning to make a helmet piece that he saw from some of the sci-fi fictions. Later on, he changed his mind and designed a pair of sses instead because he could conserve a lot of materials in this way.

    It could be even simpler. The final oue was a in-looking monocle that many essory stores would sell.

    As for its name, the ¡°Dream Wastnd Launcher¡± sounded good enough.

    Narda¡¯s Vision suggested that the item fell into the rank of low-tier items, just below the standard of mid-tier.

    The effect of the magic array came out just fine. Using the energy stored inside the magic array, it could unleash Dream Enkindle against its user. It had a total of 979 charges when fully powered.

    Angor triggered the magic array and entered the dream wastnd without trouble.

    It seemed Freud did an amazing job overhauling the buildings using different materials and dyes he collected recently. As a former nobleman from the Central Empire, Freud deftly recreated the style of his home city onto these otherwise disagreeing structures, after the original nner made a huge mess out of them.

    While admiring the brilliant ce, Angor heard Sunny¡¯s singing voiceing from a mushroom-domed house nearby. Compared to when she was haunting the orphanage, she sounded less creepy and more lovely now.

    Following her start, Alda also joined the chorus by presenting a traditional children¡¯s rhyme popr in the Central Empire. The little boy wasn¡¯t so good at singing as Sunny, but he sounded just as pure and innocuous.

    ¡°You¡¯ve grown a lot better at this, Sunny!¡± Freud apuded in the house. ¡°And Alda? Try to pick something lower next time. You sounded like a duck quacking in the morning.¡±

    Sunny giggled at thepliment while Alda protested. Nevertheless, the three of them were enjoying their moment.

    It somewhat reminded Angor of his childhood, when he would also have such fun with Leon and the servants in the house.

    When Angor moved to knock on the door, Freud answered him immediately since there wasn¡¯t anyone else who would visit them in the dream wastnd.

    ¡°Sir!¡± Freud saluted, while Sunny and Alda looked their way curiously.

    Inside the dream wastnd, the souls of Alda and Sunny almost appeared as real human beings. Angor was sure that, if anyone else who couldn¡¯t use their spells came here and saw the children, they wouldn¡¯t tell that Alda and Sunny were departed souls.

    He patted Alda¡¯s head when he saw the little boy giving him an adorable look he couldn¡¯t reject. As for Sunny, he chose to keep his distance just to be polite and considerate.

    ¡°Nice decoration around here.¡± He praised Freud¡¯s work before saying, ¡°I found a solution for bringing people here from afar.¡±

    He exined how to use the ¡°dreamuncher¡± to Freud.

    ¡°There are restrictions, but nothing we can¡¯t handle. We¡¯ll rely on this thing for now until I find something better. By the way, I made this one for you. You may stay at Freighting Town and enter the dream wastnd as you like. I need to go home and check on my teacher.¡±

    ¡°But I can always go with you, sir.¡±

    ¡°No, you stay here. Sunny and Alda need you, right? We also need to see if theuncher still works when I travel far. If you can use it when I¡¯m all the way at the Old Earth, we can say that our distance doesn¡¯t matter.¡±

    Freud nodded. If what Angor expected was true, they didn¡¯t need to travel together to talk to each other.

    ¡°You can also bring others here as you see fit. However, they must ept a non-disclosure agreement so that they don¡¯t go and babble our research to everyone.¡±

    ¡°Can I use thisuncher to see if I can keep the consciousness of the dead in the dream wastnd?¡±

    ¡°By all means. Just make sure you don¡¯t exhaust the charges too fast.¡±

    After giving Freud the monocle and telling him how to properly use it, Angor bid farewell and left on his Gond.

    At the edge of Freighting Town, he saw Neya heading to the abandoned orphanage with another group of new recruits.

    ¡°Welp. Freud¡¯s going to get busy again.¡±

    The other reason he told Freud to stay was that they had to keep the ¡°testing ground¡± running since Freud already agreed to several wizard organizations regarding this facility.

    Again, Angor and Toby took turns to use gravity power to speed up the boat. It only took them two days to reach the coast of the Old Earth.

    It appeared the war between Goldspink and Hen was settling down. He saw way fewer refugees on his way back.

    The first thing he noticed upon arriving at Padt Manor was the extremely mind-soothing air in the area. It was the middle of summer right now, yet the territory of the manor did not have that moist and boiling sense at all. The breezy environment was full of the mild energy of life that would undoubtedly sor anyone who was fortunate enough to live here.

    When approaching the manor castle, he saw the Demeter growing just fine on top of the piece of cloud dirt he ced in the sky. The creature had turned into a flourishing tree that reached its branches into all directions.

    Eureka was casually reading a book while sitting beside the Demeter. It seemed she quite enjoyed the Demeter¡¯s healing aura even though it wasn¡¯t enough to actually heal her spirit injury.

    ¡°You¡¯re back?¡± Eureka looked up and saw the Gond approaching. She had seen this lovely vehicle many times, yet she couldn¡¯t help but appreciate the pretty style of it each time she saw it again.

    Angor nodded and hopped onto the floating ind while putting the boat into his bracelet.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with your hand?¡± Eureka noticed that Angor¡¯s right hand was hidden behind a simple illusion.

    ¡°I ran into some trouble. Don¡¯t want Leon to see it.¡±

    ¡°Alright. So, did you find a way to save Jon¡¯s life yet?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°It seems I can¡¯t prevent his death after all.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t a lie. Jon was probably going to ¡°die¡± regardless, but Angor wasn¡¯t nning on telling Eureka what happened next.

    After making sure the Demeter was in good condition, Angor said goodbye and headed to the ice room.

    Eureka saw him leaving with an inquisitive look.

    ¡°I think he¡¯s lying to us, Master.¡± Brulee the Owl poked its head out of a cluster of tree leaves.

    ¡°No. He¡¯s telling the truth. Just not all of it.¡± Eureka stretched her arms and put down her book. ¡°No matter. I¡¯m hoping he can keep Jon with us for longer.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know what he¡¯s been up to in these months. He could have sold us out to our enemies.¡±

    ¡°No, he won¡¯t. At least not when Jon and Leon are still here.¡±

 Chapter 895 - Enlarged Larva Egg

    <h4>Chapter 895: Erged Larva Egg</h4>

    Toby ran off to hang out with the Moonlily Fairy, leaving Angor alone in the ice room.

    Jon did not appear too different from before. His vitality seemed bnced enough, and that slight smile around his lips never stopped.

    ¡°Sighhh...¡± Angor shook his head.

    He thought about telling Jon the dream wastnd, but he changed his mind. He would like to make sure he could actually keep Jon¡¯s consciousness first. He couldn¡¯t get Jon¡¯s hope up and then fail the experiment in the end. Jon probably wouldn¡¯t me him, but it would still haunt his conscience for a long time.

    He simply remained in the ice room and silently looked at Jon¡¯s sleeping form.

    For now, he would not enter Jon¡¯s dream and disappoint him.

    A whileter, he left some Akeso¡¯s blood for the Dream Weaver to eat, before he stepped out of the room.

    Auri, who was dressed in a summer maid uniform, was waiting for him outside the door with an expectant look.

    ¡°Sir...¡± Auri looked sad for some reason.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Where¡¯s my brother?¡± Angor wasn¡¯t surprised to see Auri because he already sensed hering. He kept heading outside while Auri followed closely behind.

    ¡°The viscount is out for training. Um, sir, can you please, I mean, take me with you when you leave home next time? I¡¯m supposed to be your personal maid. My job is to take care of your living.¡±

    Angor suddenly stopped moving, causing Auri to bump into his back.

    The maid rubbed her nose with an even sadder look.

    Auri looked ahead and noticed Angor was now giving her an earnest look. She quickly looked down, blushing.

    ¡°Auri, look at Miss Eureka. Does she need anyone serving her by her side?¡± said Angor.

    ¡°But I¡¯m just¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wizards spend most of their prolonged lifespan being alone. Of course, they sometimes need servants and assistants. However, wizards are selfish and egoistic souls. When they want a servant, they would like someone absolutely loyal, someone without a free will is even better. These servants will help the wizards do all kinds of dirty things, including murdering people.

    ¡°Trifles in daily lives like eating and sleeping are the least of our concerns. Most of the time, we can take care of such matters with only a small trick.¡± Angor put a hand on Auri¡¯s head and released a stream of gentle magic, removing some sweat and dirt from Auri¡¯s body.

    Auri was almost crying now.

    ¡°I don¡¯t mean that you can¡¯t be helpful,¡± Angor continued. ¡°You¡¯re the only one in the entire manor who can cook meals as good as Jon¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll prepare some fried rice for you right away, sir!¡±

    Angor nodded and saw her leaving on hurried steps as if she were escaping from something.

    He could tell that Auri wished more than being his maid, but since he wasn¡¯t nning on spending time on love affairs yet, his only choice was to reject her.

    Many wizards in this world tended to indulge their mortal lovers temporarily, only to ditch them behind when they continued to go after their distant ambitions, leaving their admirers in eternal sorrow.

    Back at Floating Mech City, Angor heard a rumor that the city master, ¡°Neo Beast¡± Lawson, had a mortal wife who came from Evory. Mntha was their child. Butter, Lawson took Mntha away to Floating Mech City, leaving his wife at Evory and never visiting her again.

    In Angor¡¯s view, rejecting Auri¡¯s goodwill would undeniably hurt her feelings, but this was still better than keeping her hanging until something else forced her to give up after many years. Auri was always his friend during his childhood, and he would like to see her enjoying a peaceful life of a mortal, instead of blindly following a supernatural and perhaps weing a bitter end.

    While heading back to the manor castle, he suddenly heard Eureka¡¯s voiceing from afar.

    ¡°That was rude. You dumped a youngdy and used my name in your excuse?¡±

    ¡°I apologize if I offended you, Miss Eureka.¡± Angor looked at the sky, where he hid the mini floating ind behind an illusion.

    ¡°That¡¯s not necessary. But do you HAVE to let her down so straightforwardly?¡±

    ¡°May I know your opinion, Miss Eureka? How do I respond to her better?¡±

    ¡°Tsk. He¡¯s just like Mister Phantom Master, if the rumors are correct,¡± Eureka mumbled in a small voice that Angor couldn¡¯t hear. ¡°Teacher and student, huh?¡±

    ¡°Nah. If it¡¯s Mister Sunders, then no woman would be brave enough to step up and confess,¡± Bruleemented.

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Eureka nodded. ¡°I saw Sunders once. He¡¯s the kind of man you want to stay really far from. Unlike Angor...¡±

    Angor stood there for a while, and when he didn¡¯t hear anything else from Eureka, he continued to head back to his room.

    He expected Eureka to keep an eye on him while he checked out Jon. He wasn¡¯t happy about it, yet he couldn¡¯t do anything about it either.

    Thankfully, Eureka had no idea of any of the secrets he wished to keep from people. Even if Eureka¡¯s spirit was fine, she wouldn¡¯t be able to discover the dream wastnd.

    The first thing Angor did upon returning to his bedroom was checking the Soft Larva nest. The illusion around the nest was fine, which meant Eureka did note to bother it while he was away.

    When he reached a spirit feeler into the nest, he noticed that apart from dead eggs and the particr one he kept away from the others, all of the eggs had already hatched. Currently, arge swarm of Soft Larvae was worming slowly, and they looked quite creepy.

    He wasn¡¯t interested in themonrvae, however. After making sure there wasn¡¯t any trouble with them, he looked at the separatedpartment in the nest.

    Thest time he was here, he left a small bowl of Akeso¡¯s blood for the egg, which waspletely dry.

    The egg had grown bigger. It now looked almost thrice as big asmonrva eggs. Also, it had put on a pale yellow color, which made it appear like a golden bean of some sort.

    ¡°Is that really a Soft Larva?¡± He never read anything about Soft Larva eggs that looked like this before.

    Although the book collection in his tablet wasn¡¯t exactly all-inclusive as to offer enough material about these worms. For now, he could only keep the particr egg fed and see what happened in the future.

    Again, he left enough blood for the egg to ¡°drink¡± and left the nest alone.

    Next, he was going to enter the dream wastnd and see if he could talk to Freud. Perhaps Freud knew something about Soft Larva.

    His starting point upon arriving at the wastnd was still among the buildingplex. He saw Freud standing at the entrance of the cathedral while holding a priest robe, who also saw him and almost dropped the clothes out of surprise.

    ¡°Sir, you came! Are you still¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m back at the Old Earth,¡± said Angor. ¡°It seems our physical locations don¡¯t matter. We cane here from anywhere.¡±

    ¡°I knew it! This ce remained fine and intact even after you left. I don¡¯t think your distance is limitless though. I wonder how far you can get before this ce begins to lose it. Will it be fine if you go to another ne?¡±

    ¡°We might need to be careful about it. It¡¯s already good enough if I can stille to you anytime when I¡¯m all the way back at the Fey Continent.¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡± Freud held his chin and paced back and forth. ¡°Then there are lots of things we can do with this essibility. I need to start a new project about this...¡±

    ¡°When you have time. I have something to ask. Do you know¡ª¡±

    Angor stopped talking when he heard strange noisesing from a small house nearby. It sounded like metal pieces grazing each other.

    Using his ¡°nightmare vision¡±, he looked inside the house and saw an aged woman with white hair and a kind look who was sharpening a metal stick against a grinding wheel.

    ¡°You invited her here?¡± he asked Freud while pointing to the said house. In this ¡°safe zone¡± he determined, the Dream Gate would not alert him when foreign entities were taken inside.

    ¡°Yes, sir. That¡¯s Ta, the chief clothier working for the Silverheron n. She retired and lived a reclusive life in Freighting Town.¡±

    ¡°But what¡¯s she doing here?¡±

    ¡°I mean to use her as a test subject, to see if I can keep her consciousness from vanishing when she dies.¡±

    ¡°You can find some criminals from the prison for that purpose.¡± Angor frowned. As far as he could see, the old woman was an innocent citizen.

    ¡°That used to be my n, sir. But if I do that, I¡¯m not sure I can regte them when I can¡¯t use any wizardry power. You told me that your teacher is a terminal patient, right? Ta was in a simr condition.¡±

 Chapter 896 - Leonâ€™s Training

    <h4>Chapter 896: Leon¡¯s Training</h4>

    Angor didn¡¯t believe that Freud would be afraid of mortal criminals even if without special powers. The second part of Freud¡¯s excuse was probably the truth, that he wanted to find someone with serious illness for the test.

    But on second thought, Angor believed that Freud made the right choice. The dream wastnd was still in its initial state, and Sunny and Alda were helpless children in this ce. It would be better to not invite viins to join them.

    ¡°Is Ta... dead?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Yes, sir. She was already drawing herst breaths when I found her. I asked her whether she wished to live on in another form and away from the Land of Revtion. She agreed.¡±

    ¡°Good choice. Be careful though, there might be other supernaturals in Freight Town who noticed what you did. Jebra and Miya both visited the town not long ago.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± Freud nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be as cautious as I can.¡±

    Angor took a moment observing Ta, who was always grinding that metal stick in her hand.

    ¡°What¡¯s she doing?¡±

    ¡°I think she¡¯s trying to make a needle, sir.¡±

    ¡°Needle?¡±

    Freud looked a little embarrassed. ¡°The other day, I promised Sunny that I would get her a new dress as a prize for her songs. But I didn¡¯t find any from the buildings.¡± He showed Angor the priest robe he was carrying. ¡°Then I asked Ta if she could help me redo this robe into a girl¡¯s dress. We can¡¯t find any tools though, so she¡¯s just going to make a sewing needle out of a pestle she found. She¡¯s been doing that for over ten hours. Thank goodness we can¡¯t really feel tired in here.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Angor looked at himself and saw the same clothes he was wearing in Padt Manor. It seemed they couldn¡¯t make new clothes appear like controlling a real dream.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go and find some tailoring tools and send them to that mushroom house. Keep an eye out for them.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir!¡±

    ¡°Ta is here, which means our first test is a sess?¡± Angor pondered. ¡°One isn¡¯t good enough though. While you search for more people, I¡¯ll also do the same from my end. Just make sure don¡¯t bring any weirdos.¡±

    ¡°Leave it to me.¡±

    Next, Angor asked whether Freud knew what happened to the strangerva egg.

    ¡°It gets bigger and a different color? Umm...¡± Freud looked a bit surprised.

    ¡°Any clue what¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°No... I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know any more than you do. I heard it from someone that Soft Larvae are highly systematized creatures and tend to divide their members into different sses. Maybe the one you talked about is a very important one.¡±

    Angor knew about this as well. He also knew that thervae always had different jobs and a supreme leader like how ants did. The ¡°Mutation Larva¡± he was expecting was only one of the many roles among the creatures. He was hoping that the special egg was a Mutation Larva, which usually held the best value.

    Angor spent a moment discussing with Freud about whether they should use the Dream Whelk to get more supplies into the dream wastnd. At this rate, there would soon be more people living here.

    ¡°Compared to providingmodities ready to be used, I¡¯d suggest that you bring raw materials and let them produce what they need on their own,¡± Freud suggested. ¡°Ta used to wander aimlessly until I gave her a job, and she looks happy about it. Most mortals can¡¯t control their desires and will only be useless ckers if we provide them a plentiful life. We need to build a society.¡±

    ...

    Angor woke up from the dream wastnd and soon heard a knock on the door.

    Auri was standing outside his room while pulling a food cart behind. The red skin around her eyes proved that she had yet to get over her frustration.

    ¡°Your-your fried rice, sir.¡±

    ¡°Get in. We can eat together here. It¡¯s time for your meal too.¡±

    ¡°No, I can¡¯t!¡± Auri shook her hands. ¡°I¡¯m a maid in the manor. I can¡¯t disobey the rules...¡±

    Her voice grew lower until Angor almost couldn¡¯t hear her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll-I¡¯ll get back to my work, sir. Chief Mana just told me to check the tea garden.¡±

    Angor watched her go and shook his head with a helpless smile. He simply wanted to cheer Auri up by that invitation, but the poor girl took it in the wrong way.

    Toby returned to him to enjoy the meal together. Even though Auri¡¯s cooking was really good, the bird preferred the side dishespared to the oily rice.

    After the meal, Angor headed to Nano¡¯s room. When talking about finding sewing tools, that was where he had the best chance.

    The first sight he saw in the room was Nano and Latata yelling at each other loudly. When he arrived, Latata and Nano quickly saw him as a new target for venting out theirints.

    It took Angor some time to figure out what was going on. Apparently, Latata was here to retrieve Nano¡¯s silk for the 23rd time, but Nano refused to hand it over. Nano had been providing all the silk to the Krakoks, and he didn¡¯t have enough to make his own curtain and nkets.

    Latata insisted on taking all of Nano¡¯s silk because it was her job in the manor. They had been shouting at each other for a long time, which obviously did not contribute to a solution.

    ¡°Ahem!¡± Angor tried to draw their attention. ¡°Nano, you don¡¯t want the Krakoks to ruin your product, right? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll take it.¡±

    He picked up the soft and delicate material from the desk and left, while Latata and Nano exchanged an uncertain look.

    ...

    Angor left the manor. He took out Gond and was going to pay Waterford a visit. He believed he could find the proper tools he promised there.

    He was pretty used to the scenery along the way and watching it made him feel rxed.

    Unknown to him, when he was enjoying the view, someone was looking at him from afar.

    There was an impressive waterfall formation below Angor¡¯s position roaring the sound of nature. Anyone within a few hundred meters of it wouldn¡¯t hear anything other than shing water.

    A naked man was crouching on top of a rock at the bottom of one of the falls, breathing painfully.

    An ordinary man in that position would have had his skin torn apart by the heavy water current by now. But this man still looked fine as there were only some bruises on his body.

    By some coincidence, he saw Angor gliding above his position.

    ¡°Woah, that¡¯s Angor¡¯s boat. Angor is back?¡±

    Leon was currently undergoing an extremely tough training method intended to strengthen his body. By putting his physical limits to test, his spirit power would be improved until he was good enough to be a talent.

    Before he seeded, he had to keep up the training whenever he had time for it.

    He had been doing this for many years. He never told Angor about it because he didn¡¯t want his brother to get worried.

    Leon was pretty used to the drill now. However, seeing Angor caused him to break his concentration briefly and lose his bnce.

    The overwhelming flood easily knocked him off the rock and sent him into the water pond below.

 Chapter 897 - Daruk

    <h4>Chapter 897: Daruk</h4>

    After the victory at Moonwater City, Princess Tavier sessfully repelled Hen forces from several more provinces,pletely putting Goldspink on the winning side.

    The leaders of these provinces all believed that a total triumph was soon, so they instead set their eyes on another problem at hand¡ªthe refugees.

    Following Conera¡¯s example, Waterford also began to encourage refugees to make a living by themselves. During work time, they were free to work in the city as long as they carried the required permissions. At night, they would be arranged at the refugee camps outside the city.

    Such a life wasn¡¯t really enjoyable. But at least the refugees were d that they had a proper way to survive.

    Daruk was one of the many hapless homeless trying to earn a living, but apart from himself, he also had to take care of his grandfather.

    Folks escaping from the war hardly had time to tend to their elderly members. Those too old to travel were either left behind or stayed behind in the war zones willingly so that they did not put too much burden on their families. This was why one couldn¡¯t usually find old men in the camps.

    Daruk¡¯s grandfather was an exception. As an ill-bodied figure way beyond his 70s, this man managed to leave his enemy-controlled hometown and moved for a thousand kilometers until he came to Waterford, all thanks to Daruk¡¯s help.

    Luckily, this pair survived the most toilsome of their times. Daruk had a job in the city that provided just enough ie for both of them to eat, and things could have turned for the better at this rate.

    Until a great misfortune struck.

    The old man contracted a strange disease that caused countless red blisters all over his body. Pus fluid constantly seeped out from these blisters while inflicting unspeakable pain.

    Daruk tightened his working schedule as much as he could so that he could gather enough money for a doctor. When he had the money, however, he couldn¡¯t find one who was willing to answer an outcall in the refugee camp, so he had to carry his grandfather into the city.

    The gate guards denied their entrance because the old man¡¯s condition looked rather hideous.

    ¡°This is not contagious! Look, I¡¯ve been looking after him closely for a while, and I¡¯m fine!¡± Daruk pleaded.

    The other refugees who knew them also tried to help.

    Yet the guards had to insist because this was their captain¡¯s decision.

    Daruk was now kneeling on the ground begging for mercy. His grandfather was the only family he had in this world. He couldn¡¯t bear the thought of losing him.

    Troubled by extreme grief, a stream of blood ran down along Daruk¡¯s chin.

    Seeing this, the onlooking refugees shook their heads and left. They couldn¡¯t really oppose the city guards. It was time for work.

    This was what Angor saw when he arrived at the city, that a young man was coughing blood next to a sick old man.

    When Angor showed his family emblem, the guard captain himself quickly stepped up to address him with the best manners.

    From one of the guards, Daruk learned that the blond man in front of him who didn¡¯t look much older than himself was a well-respected nobleman.

    He clenched his teeth, made a difficult decision, and grabbed Angor¡¯s trousers.

    Angor silently listened as Daruk exined his condition. Meanwhile, the guards rushed to arrest Daruk so that they didn¡¯t trouble an important noble.

    ¡°Let him go,¡± Angor told the guards to back away. ¡°He¡¯s right. It¡¯s not infectious.¡±

    The guards looked between Angor and their captain, not sure what to do.

    ¡°Alright, if Lord Padt said so.¡± The captain joined them. ¡°However, you must put something on him to cover him up. If a citizen gets scared and asks us to send him away, we must listen.¡±

    Daruk was already expecting a heavy beating for bothering a noble member as a refugee. Seeing a turn in the event, he immediately groveled at Angor¡¯s feet and put his coat over his grandfather.

    ¡°He¡¯s the one who needs a doctor right now...¡± Angor saw Daruk excitedly entering the city and shook his head.

    ...

    Inside the city, Angor randomly strolled along the streets while using the Dream Whelk on stores he might use in the dream wastnd. After listening to Freud¡¯s ¡°suggestion¡±, he had given up on selecting beautiful buildings only. He¡¯d simply pick what he needed and let Freud do the redecoration.

    After finding enough tool stores for Freud, he stopped in front of arge, blue building made out of wavy brick walls that looked like sea tides.

    The Ocean Theater used to be his favorite ce because his childhood idol¡ªMaster Megeve, a nation-level musician¡ªwould often put up concerts here. The theater was probably the most unique and eye-catching structure in the entire Waterford. Bying here, Angor nned to bring it into the dream wastnd just to fulfill his adolescent dreams, even though this building was quite pointless to his research.

    Before he could take out the Dream Whelk again, a young man who was sitting at the entrance of the theater caught his attention.

    It was Daruk.

    Without his coat, Daruk had his chest fully exposed in the air.

    Meanwhile, his grandfather was sitting not far from him, weeping.

    Daruk had been staring into the flowerbed nearby absent-mindedly when he suddenly heard footsteps approaching.

    ¡°So-sorry, sir, we¡¯ll leave right away¡ªHuh, my lord!¡± He thought a city guard was here to chase him away. He wasn¡¯t expecting to see Angor again.

    ¡°Guess the doctor told you an unfavorable result?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°No. He said my grandpa is fine...¡± Daruk¡¯s voice trembled as he never thought a nobleman would care about the likes of him.

    ¡°I know. I meant to ask YOUR condition.¡± Angor nced at Daruk¡¯s grandfather again.

    Using his spirit power, he could easily tell that the old one waspletely fine on the inside. The skin illness should be easy to remove. The bloating blisters were probably caused by unhygienic living conditions and the old man¡¯s anxietybined together. Everything would return to normal as long as the old man did not scare himself to death.

    Compared to him, Daruk seemed to be in worse condition. Angor had noticed that Daruk¡¯s bodily vitals were slowly but surely declining, simr to Jon¡¯s case. It was unlikely that the world¡¯s consciousness was harming Daruk for no reason, so this was probably caused by some kind of serious sickness.

    Daruk showed a helpless smile. ¡°The doctor had given me a death sentence, my lord. It¡¯s some incurable pathogen that¡¯s going to kill me within a week.¡±

    ¡°Are you a doctor, my lord?¡± The old man nearby looked at Angor with teary eyes. ¡°You must be. You saw my child¡¯s ailment, right? Can you help him? I-I¡¯ll pay everything, even my life, as long as you can save Daruk!¡±

    ¡°No. I¡¯m not a doctor. But I have a way to prolong your life. However, you¡¯ll be unable to return to the Old Earth ever again. What do you say?¡±

    Truth was, Angor already decided to make Daruk another of his test subjects when he saw Daruk¡¯s condition.

    ¡°But if I leave, what about my grandfather?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about me. I can take care of myself!¡± The old man imed, but it didn¡¯t look very convincing when he kept scratching his scarred body.

 Chapter 898 - The Return of Red

    <h4>Chapter 898: The Return of Red</h4>

    In the end, Angor put both Daruk and his grandfather into the dream wastnd.

    This wasn¡¯t his n. The old man¡¯s body was still fine despite his outside look. If nothing else troubled him, Daruk¡¯s grandfather could well live for another 10 or even 20 years.

    To Angor¡¯s surprise, however, when the old one saw his grandson unable to make a decision,bined with the fact that the illness greatly affected his mind, Daruk¡¯s grandfather reached a reckless conclusion, that his grandson would do better if he were no longer here.

    Before Daruk could react, he rushed into a stone wall nearby, head-first.

    Cracked skull and fast hemorrhage took the old man¡¯s life almost in an instant.

    Angor cast Dream Enkindle in time and pulled the old man¡¯s consciousness into the dream wastnd, which was enough reason for Daruk to ept his new home as well.

    After disposing of two corpses, he spent several minutes ¡°wrapping up¡± Ocean Theater inside the Dream Whelk¡¯s aura and left the city.

    ...

    A cargo ship was slowly pulled into the harbor of Moonwater City, while groups of traders all rushed to it, hoping to get their hands on the best stock.

    The earliest alighting passengers appeared rather weird, such as someone fully covered in a thick ck robe despite the hot summer weather, someone with dry, slim arms that looked almost like tree branches, or a beautiful woman who had two deadly-looking vipers hissing on her shoulder.

    There was a behatted young man among them who didn¡¯t look as odd as the others, if one did not mind his oversized body and his extremely small eyes caused by too much fat on his face.

    Following the fat man, another young man with attractive red hair stepped down thedders. This one also looked ¡°normal¡±, but for some reason, his arrival caused all the other earlier travelers to back away either in fear or respect.

    ¡°It¡¯s an honor to have you by my side, Mister Red Hair.¡± The hatted man smiled brightly. ¡°I felt so safe.¡±

    ¡°Red Hair¡± nced at the back of the fat man¡¯s hand, where a pale yellow ¡°fish scale¡± was glimmering in the sunlight.

    ¡°Now this is rare. Song of the Deep is recruiting at the Old Earth?¡±

    Not interested, Red Hair left the harbor and headed away by himself.

    ¡°Huh...¡± The fat man kept his smile as he watched his partner leaving. ¡°Thewis left from the ind of Basket Witch and came to the Marginalized Ind? Is there something interesting happening here? Wait, no. The Basket Witch woulde personally if that¡¯s the case. So what¡¯s Thewis doing exactly?¡±

    While mumbling, the fat man leaped into the water, much to the surprise of the bystanders.

    ¡°Red-Haired Thewis¡±, also Leon¡¯s teacher, headed straight in the direction of Grue Town after leaving Moonwater City.

    He suddenly stopped flying as he showed a stressful look before his form faded away and disappeared.

    ...

    Angor just left Waterford and was going to use his Gond to get back to Grue Town, when a figure abruptly showed up not far from him and startled him for good by unleashing an overwhelming Bloodline aura at him.

    He almost lost his bnce and knelt on the ground.

    The aura went away after a few seconds. Angor looked up and saw the ¡°culprit¡± was a red-haired man wearing a stylish ck trench coat with golden linings.

    And he recognized him.

    Several years ago, he saw this man before boarding The Redbud with Mara. Later, Lady Mirror showed him the portraits of handsome men she collected, which also included this figure.

    In fact, Angor just used this man as a model when creating the illusions of sexy mermen to be used in Ocean Tuner.

    Feeling a bit of guilt, his heart raced faster.

    ¡°Mister Thewis.¡± Angor lowered his head and greeted the man politely. He knew from Leon that Thewis was going back to Padt Manor, just not so soon.

    He also knew that Thewis was very interested in Jon, which might be big trouble right now.

    ¡°You know my name?¡± Thewis noticed Angor¡¯s changing expressions.

    Just now, Thewis changed his n and deployed a ne passageway to go to Waterford immediately because he sensed Mystery energy.

    In his view, such energy could only be caused by Eureka, who stole a Mystery item from Goman King. Openly showing the Mystery item meant Eureka could be in trouble. This was why Thewis used a ne passageway, even though it cost him something precious he had been saving on his journey.

    As soon as he finished his teleport, he released his aura to suppress whoever might be fighting Eureka, only to see that Eureka was not here. Instead, he saw Angor, a particr apprentice he had been hearing from people including his sister.

    Since Angor was also the brother of Leon, Thewis simply canceled his power and decided to talk. Irisa just told him that Angor was a potential Master Alchemist. Using Leon as a connection, Thewis would like to gain Angor¡¯s friendship if he could manage.

    In fact, Thewis already nned to do this even without Irisa¡¯s suggestion. He still had the ¡°fake Crimson Crown¡± stored in his personal space, which was also made by Angor. It looked almost as real as the original crown.

    But Thewis grew confused when he noticed Angor being scared of something.

    ¡°Ahem.¡± Angor cleared his throat. ¡°Four years ago, when I was heading to the Fey Continent as a new recruit, I saw you from afar at Vichy Harbor, sir.¡±

    ¡°Four years ago?¡± Thewis searched his memory and did remember seeing an old man together with three kids going for The Redbud. One of them looked exactly like Angor. ¡°I see. Four years is enough to bring amon mortal to the attention of many wizards? Impressive.¡±

    ¡°You know me, sir?¡±

    ¡°Heh. Let¡¯s say, I just can¡¯t escape from people who keep talking about your name. An uing Mystery Alchemist. The Floating City made sure to let everyone in the south hear about it.¡±

    ¡°Uing Mystery Alchemist?¡±

    ¡°Why, since you don¡¯t show up in front of people often, Floating Mech City had to use your best creation you ever made to represent your skill. If you want to change that, how about making a real Mystery item?¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯s not possible!¡±

    Truth was, Thewis was exaggerating the situation. Angor had many different names being passed around, such as ¡°the Music Box Man¡±, ¡°the Thorny Lion-Thing¡±, ¡°Baron Milk¡±, etc, and the ¡°Uing Mystery Alchemist¡± was only one of them.

    ¡°I noticed Mystery power around here just now, so I thought you were actually going to be a Mystery Alchemist. I was wrong, it seems.¡±

    Angor knew what those words meant. Every wizard who noticed his Dream Whelk woulde and check it out, whether he liked it or not.

    Without a better choice, he took the whelk out of his bracelet and showed it to Thewis.

    ¡°I was trying this out earlier, sir. You may have a look.¡±

 Chapter 899 - Lovers?

    <h4>Chapter 899: Lovers?</h4>

    Gond smoothly cruised past the clear sky, while Angor and Thewis sat facing each other in awkward silence.

    Thewis looked awfully displeased when he found out that the Mystery energy he felt earlier came from the Dream Whelk. Although Angor wasn¡¯t going to ask why. When he learned that they were both heading to Grue Town, he offered Thewis a ¡°ride¡± with him.

    Unlike Eureka, Thewis in his top condition could easily prevent Angor from escaping. This was why Angor decided to y it safe.

    As for what to do next...

    In Angor¡¯s view, Thewis¡¯ arrival would definitely cause a change in his n. Both Eureka and Leon had told him that Thewis was curious about Jon¡¯s nature.

    He had to think of a way to keep both Jon and himself safe.

    His previous n was to fully prepare his dream wastnd before putting Jon in there. Now that Thewis already returned, he made up his mind that he¡¯d take Jon immediately, regardless of Jon¡¯s opinion or whether Jon¡¯s body could be cured.

    Meanwhile, Thewis kept an eye on Angor while also feeling terrible because he just wasted precious materials to use a ne passageway, only to find the most useless Mystery item known in this world.

    It was pretty reasonable that Angor, an ¡°Uing Mystery Alchemist¡±, showed interest in this item. But the whelk was mostly pointless to anyone else.

    Thewis would have beaten the whelk¡¯s owner to death if it were amon apprentice. Yet he couldn¡¯t do so since he already decided to befriend Angor, a promising alchemist who was likely to provide him with great profit in the future.

    Or, he could reason with Angor and hopefully get a ¡°refund¡± for his loss. However, he was far from justifiable because spending the precious materials on a ne passageway was entirely his own decision. Angor was not responsible at all.

    And when Thewis could neither exert violence nor justify himself using words, his only choice was to bear with the frustration in silence.

    Just like this, the journey continued somewhat peacefully with the two passengers on the boat having different mindsets.

    Later, it was Thewis who decided to say something. He would suck it up and forget about the sad deal. For now, he nned to ascertain Angor¡¯s attitude toward him, and perhaps figure out why Angor had been giving him that odd look.

    ¡°This flying boat is... lovely.¡±

    Thewis meant those words. As soon as he saw the artful decorations on the vehicle, he couldn¡¯t help but imagine what it would look like if the boat sailed under the moon and stars at night.

    ¡°Back at Silver Palm Isle, I saw some wizards from Brute Cavern who used different vehicles. Did you make this boat yourself?¡±

    Angor nodded without a second thought. It was obvious that Thewis did investigation before and knew he was an alchemist.

    ¡°You went to Silver Palm Isle, Mister Thewis?¡± Angor was quite surprised to hear this being mentioned.

    ¡°You know that ce too?¡± Thewis narrowed his eyes at Angor.

    ¡°When traveling on a ship of the White m Company, I passed through Devil¡¯s Water and saw Silver Palm along the way. We didn¡¯t get close though, because a Leviathan was there. Later, I heard that some sort of terrible incident happened there. Jebra told me.¡±

    ¡°Something did happen. Let¡¯s say... A fool found a great treasure and tried to take it all by himself, only to lose everything in the end.¡± Thewis grinned. ¡°Jebra, you say? The student of ¡®God of Seas¡¯? You know each other?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve met several times, but no, we¡¯re not friends. Should I say, the encounters weren¡¯t pleasant.¡±

    Thewis suddenly remembered the fat man from Song of the Deep. He was still wondering why Song of the Deep sent someone across the four seas. Could it have something to do with Angor?

    He then put this matter behind his mind and mentioned Leon, and Angor would also like to know Thewis¡¯ opinion regarding Leon.

    As Thewis exined Leon¡¯s situation, Angor was d to see that Thewis actually prized Leon¡¯s potential.

    ¡°Did you give Leon his talent test yet, Mister Thewis?¡± By this, Angor wanted to know whether Thewis was going to ept Leon as a student for real.

    ¡°A basic one only, which confirmed for me that Leon is talented in Bloodline Art. For more detailed tests, I have to wait until I find the proper tools.

    ¡°Leon is pretty good, I¡¯d say. Butpared to him, YOU are several levels better.¡± Thewis suddenly changed the focus back to Angor. ¡°You left the Marginalized Ind as a mortal just less than five years ago, am I right? And you gained such amazing progress in both alchemy and other training.¡± He gave Angor a meaningful and somewhat serious look. ¡°You are not far from bing a wizard.¡±

    Thewis was right. Angor could feel that he would soon reach the peak of his current level. He didn¡¯t know why, but his strength was growing unnaturally as the wounds he received the other day healed, even though he didn¡¯t do any particr training these days.

    It was as if his newly-gained ¡°projection bloodline¡± was boosting his level whether he liked it or not.

    His previous schedule suggested that he¡¯d reach the peak of level-3 in three years or so. But right now, he feared that he¡¯d jump to that stage as soon as the projection bloodline in his body showed its full capability, which was probably soon.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been blessed by a brilliant destiny, sir. As for bing a wizard... I¡¯m not sure. I have hardly finished the necessary studies.¡±

    ¡°A destiny only aids you when you can afford enough effort and resolution to go with it. Like alchemy materials. No matter how effective and valuable they are, you always need to work with them on your own, no? Speaking of alchemy, I also heard rumors that you made a high-tier creation that astounded the entire wizarding world...¡±

    Angor knew where this was going. Though he still hoped he was wrong.

    ¡°May I have a look at it?¡± Thewis finished.

    Angor looked down...

    When making Ocean Tuner, he thought the illusion was only for Lady Mirror and not anyone else, so he copied the looks of handsome wizards provided by Lady Mirror without much of a thought.

    Now he wasn¡¯t sure whether he should show Thewis the illusion.

    He looked at the floor, sweating, while trying to think of an excuse.

    The truth was, Thewis wasn¡¯t asking to check Ocean Tuner for real. He was only looking for chances to praise Angor¡¯s alchemy skills.

    But Angor¡¯s strange reaction got him suspicious.

    The sound of horse hooves and someone yelling suddenly interrupted their thoughts as they both looked below.

    They had arrived at Grue Town. The sound was caused by a team of knights in silver armor riding out of Padt Manor. Even Head Maid Mana was with them.

    ¡°What the... Why are our house knights leaving like that?¡± Angor noticed Mana¡¯s worried look and suddenly had a bad feeling.

    A red shadow suddenly emerged from the distance and was heading their way. In a matter of seconds, Eureka floated to Gond and gave Thewis a delightful look, while Thewis also returned the affection by smiling at her.

    Angor suddenly felt that he shouldn¡¯t be here.

    Beforeing to the Old Earth, Angor heard it from others that Thewis was supposed to be hunting Eureka down. Later, he learned from Leon that Thewis and Eureka might be engaged in some kind of secret agreement, so they worked together.

    But... Telling from their current looks, they were ACTUALLY engaged?

    All the gossip magazines would get crazy over this should they hear about it!

    Eureka and Thewis spent a full minute tending to their lover¡¯s needs before they noticed Angor looking, who quickly turned away and pretended he didn¡¯t exist.

 Chapter 900 - Spatebog Spider

    <h4>Chapter 900: Spatebog Spider</h4>

    It was an unspoken statute in the wizarding world, that knowing something you weren¡¯t supposed to know could be a fatal mistake.

    Unfortunately, even though Angor tried his best to pretend that he wasn¡¯t interested in the love affairs between Thewis and Eureka, they wouldn¡¯t let him go so easily.

    ¡°Why are you together?¡± Eureka looked between Angor and Thewis curiously.

    ¡°I saw him on my way back so... Might as well tag along?¡± Thewis was still using that tender smile, much to Angor¡¯s surprise.

    As far as he heard, Thewis was a merciless hunter who would finish off his targets without a word!

    Eureka was also feeling surprised for a different reason. Previously, when she spoke to Thewis using a special transmission, Thewis told her that he woulde back and find out all of Angor¡¯s secrets. By force, if necessary.

    Eureka nned to warn Thewis to be fully prepared before attacking Angor since Sunders might be watching. She wasn¡¯t expecting to see Angor and Thewis traveling together on Gond and even remained rtively friendly to each other. In Eureka¡¯s view, Thewis was never someone who would treat an apprentice peacefully without a good reason.

    When she talked to Thewis¡¯ avatar the other day, Thewis was still unaware of who Angor was. Could it be that Thewis got to know Angor only recently?

    She couldn¡¯t bear with so many questions lingering in her mind and simply asked Thewis upfront, ¡°Do you know Angor all along?¡±

    ¡°Why, it¡¯s strange if anyone <i>doesn¡¯t</i> know him. An uing Mystery Alchemist!¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Eureka looked between Angor and Thewis with apletely dumbfounded look.

    Before Thewis could exin further, however, Angor heard Auri calling his name from below and looked that way.

    When he lowered Gond to the ground, the maid hurriedly came to him while lifting her maid dress so that she didn¡¯t trip.

    When Auri noticed that Eureka and Thewis were also here, she jumped in fear and quickly went down on both knees.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°I saw our knights and Mana leaving Grue Town. Something urgent?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the viscount! Viscount Leon is missing!¡±

    ording to Auri, Leon would often head to the Kozan Waterfalls to train alone. Since he told everyone that it was nothing dangerous and that he would always return before lunchtime, the servants in the manor usually didn¡¯t ask what exactly he was doing out there.

    But today, Leon had note back when it was almost time for supper.

    It was no big deal if Leon would stay longer outside and skip a meal, but things grewplicated when one of Leon¡¯s personal guards saw Leon¡¯s armor, clothes, and possessions left unattended near the waterfall, while Leon himself was nowhere to be seen.

    The waterfalls were pretty huge and could be dangerous ifmon people got close to them. When the guard failed to find Leon in his view, he quickly came back and informed Head Maid Mana.

    ¡°Leon trains at Kozan Waterfalls?¡± Angor knew about that ce since his childhood. The only impression he could remember was that the entire ce was marvelous and terrifyingly ear-deafening.

    When Jon could still travel around, he also imed that the Kozan Waterfalls were as breathtaking as thergest waterfalls back in his homnd.

    ¡°The training method I instructed him is called ¡®iron will¡¯,¡± said Thewis. ¡°To put it simply, he puts his physical limits to extreme tests in order to improve his spirit power, and he must keep that up until he¡¯s qualified to be a talent, or the improvement will revert. I didn¡¯t ask him to use the waterfall, though. He chose the ce by himself.¡±

    Angor grimaced upon hearing the true nature of Leon¡¯s training. If he had known that Leon gained a spiritual level of 10 by suffering so much, he would have given Leon the Potion of Austere Night and spared Leon all the torment.

    This didn¡¯t matter now. He had to make sure his brother was safe.

    When he started up Gond to head to the Kozan Waterfalls, Thewis stopped him.

    ¡°I¡¯ll find him. He¡¯s my student after all.¡±

    Thewis expanded his powerful spirit in the direction of the waterfalls and saw the scenery several kilometers away in an instant.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see him. Let¡¯s go and check that ce out.¡±

    Upon arriving at the training site, Thewis cast ¡°Remove Delirium¡± to trace back what happened around this spot recently.

    He then moved to a t rock directly under one of the falls and pointed to it.

    ¡°There. I saw blood.¡± He looked at the top of the waterfall. ¡°Leon was sitting here. Something came and distracted him, so he was knocked off by the water. The blood mighte from a scratch when he fell. I¡¯d say he went into theke pond below.

    ¡°It was... about 7 hours ago. If nothing else carried his body away, we would find him soon by walking along theke. Or his body, if luck did not favor him.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t protest. It wasmon logic.

    For now, he would not consider what could have be of Leon. Everything had to wait until Leon was found.

    He released all the scout puppets he kept in his bracelet into the water to help him look.

    Two hours had passed, but none of the puppets showed him anything useful other than sharp and deadly-looking stones on theke bed.

    He suddenly wanted to me himself. It had been over half a year since he returned to Padt Manor, and the only thing he cared about was Jon. He never tried to learn what kind of ¡°training¡± his brother had been going through.

    He never thought such a misfortune would strike Leon so soon, when he could have prevented it.

    By some miracle, one of the puppets finally sent him a clue at midnight before his grieving thoughts could burden him too much.

    Leon left traces inside a swamp area where nobody would usually approach. From the vision sent by the puppet, Angor saw his brother being restrained by a green cocoon-like object while many sharp thorns trapped him in ce.

    Countless bleeding wounds on Leon¡¯s body were enough to suggest that he was in great danger.

    Thankfully, Leon was breathing. Just barely.

    Angor immediately activated his gravity power and arrived at Leon in a blink of an eye.

    The first thing that greeted him was an unbearable stench in the air.

    He looked around and saw the corpses of unknown beasts scattered all around the ce, including rotten ones.

    This spot was at least two hundred meters from the edge of theke. Leon probably had no reason to move all the way here, which meant some kind of creature dragged him here as food.

    After making sure he didn¡¯t sense the culprit nearby, Angor quickly floated to Leon¡¯s side.

    When moving closer, he realized that Leon¡¯s condition was worse than it appeared to be. Many of Leon¡¯s bones were broken, which in turncerated several organs in Leon¡¯s body.

    It was strange that Leon didn¡¯t appear to be in pain. Instead, Leon was smiling slightly.

    After trying and failing to wake up Leon, Angor moved to cut the thorns off so that he could treat all the bleeding first.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you.¡± Thewis¡¯ voice suddenly came from behind his position. ¡°Touching the thorns will immediately trigger the poison left by the spate spider. It¡¯s almost impossible to cure him if the poison spreads all over his body.¡±

    Angor looked back and saw both Thewis and Eureka nearby. Whereas Thewis was also looking at Leon, Eureka was off somewhere while checking the giant cocoon with the look of disgust.

    ¡°Thorns that trigger spider poison?¡±

    He wasn¡¯t an Apothecary or anyone good at poison-rted knowledge, but he did once hear the name of the spider Thewis just mentioned.

    The Spatebog Spider.

 Chapter 901 - Finding Antidote

    <h4>Chapter 901: Finding Antidote</h4>

    Spatebog Spiders were a type of monsters that held rtively high value in the wizarding world even thoughmon level-2 apprentices were enough to kill them. Bug users particrly loved them because the poison of a Spatebog Spider was exceptionally stubborn and difficult to discover. Meanwhile, other wizards often go after them because they could use the chance to find a special magical nt along the way, which was the Enchanting Thorn.

    The secretion developed by Enchanting Thorn was a potent catalyst used for bringing out the effects of artificial pheromones.

    When wizards made pheromones to arouse spiritual pleasure, they usually used three types ofmon catalysts in this world¡ªMana Algae Powder, Phantom Tea, and Enchanting Thorn Liquid. These three types of naturally-urring catalysts were known to have minimal side effectspared to other ones. For this reason, Enchanting Thorns were always prized by alchemists andmon wizards alike.

    Among the three aforementioned catalysts, Enchanting Thorns were the hardest to find, after the poption of Spatebog Spiders declined greatly.

    ¡°Never thought we¡¯d find one here...¡± Eureka muttered. ¡°These things were almost extinct at the Fey Continent when I was still there. It¡¯s basically a crawling pile of magic crystals if we sell it to the right buyer.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll capture it for you if you like it,¡± said Thewis.

    ¡°Ughh, no thanks. I¡¯d wee the money though.¡±

    While they talked, Angor was still pondering over what he heard from Thewis.

    If Thewis spoke the truth, then the spider had nted a ¡°time bomb¡± inside Leon that would instantly end a mortal¡¯s life if it was detonated. For now, the Enchanting Thorn stalled the effect of the poison so that the spider could ¡°preserve¡± its food for longer.

    He could not carelessly break Leon out of the prison as it would kill Leon for sure. His foremost task was to deal with the poison inside Leon.

    ¡°Don¡¯t cast Neutralize if that¡¯s what you¡¯re thinking,¡± Thewis warned. ¡°If you fail to cleanse everyst bit of the poison, you¡¯ll only quicken Leon¡¯s death.¡±

    Angor lowered his hand and waited for Thewis¡¯ opinions.

    ¡°Such poison is sought after by many people just because it¡¯s extremely hard to treat. You must find a way to fully remove it from Leon in one short attempt.¡±

    ¡°But how?¡± Angor frowned. He wasn¡¯t exactly a healer.

    ¡°A specialized antidote is your best shot.¡± Thewis considered. ¡°It¡¯s not expensive, but it¡¯s hard to find someone to brew it for you because you don¡¯t find people inflicted by Spatebog Spider poison often. Wizards don¡¯t have such an antidote ready since the spiders pose no threat to them.¡±

    ¡°An antidote...¡± Angor repeated the name while mumbling.

    ¡°Tsk. The Enchanting Thorn won¡¯t suppress the poison for too long. Two days, maybe,¡± Eurekamented before looking at Thewis. ¡°Maybe you can use a ne passageway to head to the Fey Continent and find someone who sells the potion we need?¡±

    She asked because she knew that Thewis treasured Leon¡¯s potential. Although she was still not sure whether Thewis was willing to spend valuable assets just to save Leon.

    However, she forgot to consider Angor¡¯s involvement in this matter. To Thewis, it was quite a good trade to pay some materials to win Angor¡¯s trust.

    When Eureka saw Thewis considering her suggestion for real, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if she underestimated Leon¡¯s value.

    ¡°If necessary, I¡¯ll go to Floating Mech City and help you look for a cure,¡± Thewis suddenly said to Angor.

    This further astonished Eureka. As far as she knew, Thewis was not a polite wizard who would offer an apprentice help so nicely.

    <i>What¡¯s going on between these two?</i> she wondered. She was sure Thewis didn¡¯t even know Angor a few months ago.

    And she felt rather annoyed when Angor was showing more and more mysteries. Expensive potions, a personal storage item, a convenient flying boat, the Demeter...

    She thought she could simply ask Thewis about it since Thewis seemed well-informed about Angor¡¯s secrets, but Angor interrupted her by speaking to Thewis first.

    ¡°Thank you, Mister Thewis, but not now. If it¡¯s only an antidote we need, I can try making it.¡±

    Without waiting for a response, Angor took out a green-covered handbook and started reading.

    <i>He can what?</i> Eureka asked that question by staring at Thewis.

    ¡°That would be better.¡± Thewis nodded with a somewhat disappointed look.

    Thewis knew for a fact that Angor studied Tooling as a main alchemy subject, but he wasn¡¯t expecting that Angor could make potions as well.

    <i>Welp. Guess I can¡¯t buy his favor by saving Leon this time.</i>

    Meanwhile, Eureka felt her mind bloating with questions after her inquiring look was ignored.

    <i>Angor can make potions? And Thewis knew it?</i>

    She suddenly caught a glimpse at the book Angor was reading.

    ¡°Mithra...? But¡ª¡±

    Thewis also noticed Mithra¡¯s signature. ¡°So Angor is acquainted with ¡®Elixir of Miracle¡¯ Master Mithra. Nice. I can ask for his opinions the next time when I do alchemy.¡±

    Angor was too focused on his reading to hear Thewis¡¯ words, but Eureka still heard him.

    <i>Thewis would ¡°ask for Angor¡¯s opinion¡±?! What¡¯s¡ª</i>

    ¡°Do you mean that Angor¡¯s actually better at alchemy than you?¡± Eureka finally got her voice transmission out.

    ¡°Um? I thought you knew.¡± Thewis gave her a confused look. ¡°He told me that he¡¯s been staying at Padt Manor for half a year. Have you not seen what he could do? I can only tell you that he¡¯s terrifyingly talented in Tooling. I don¡¯t know about his Apothecary skills, though.¡±

    He nced at Angor¡¯s handbook again.

    ¡°Rumor has it that he almost created a Mystery item at one point, but he was intercepted by Lady Isabelle from Dark Castle, so he failed to attain the title of Mystery Alchemist in the end. Sigh... Yes, I thought it was a terrible joke at first, like everyone else did. But most professional alchemists sounded their approvals, and Lady Isabelle never showed up to deny it. It¡¯s probably true.

    ¡°An ¡®Uing Mystery Alchemist¡¯ is what people have been calling him these days. They may be green with envy or have other stances about Angor, but they won¡¯t deny his aplishment now.¡±

 Chapter 902 - Brewing Antidote

    <h4>Chapter 902: Brewing Antidote</h4>

    Eureka was still trying to get over what she heard from Thewis just now, that Angor was an ¡°uing Mystery Alchemist¡±.

    She never took it seriously when Thewis mentioned such a thing before. Now that she saw Thewis himself being serious about it...

    <i>Angor? Creating Mystery treasures out of the blue? Say what?!</i>

    At most times, a Mystery treasure was something the whole wizarding world would get crazy about. Countless wizards would die fighting over one.

    Well, perhaps Angor was still ¡°uing¡±, but that was already inestimable profit!

    ¡°There¡¯s more,¡± Thewis continued exining using a private voice transmission, ¡°he has morebels, such as the ¡®Thorny Lion¡¯ and ¡®the Music Box Man¡¯, due to the famous creations he showed us. That one music box he sold at Remnant Auction ended up at... Was it 200,000 crystals? It broke the price record for low-tier alchemy items ever sold. Even today, people are still talking about it, especially wizards who love music. They¡¯re trying to find Angor and ask him the name of the music piece. I heard that Brute Cavern has been displeased because they received sh*tloads of letters intended for Angor.¡±

    Eureka gulped. <i>A freaking music box got him 200,000 crystals? I can hardly gather 10,000 even if I sell everything I have!</i>

    She now fully understood how Angor could find so many valuable potions and a personal storage space¡ªof course he had enough money to buy them!

    Brulee mentioned how ¡°Whale Hunter¡± Beals from Ashen Traders showed exceptional respect when talking to Angor. It meant Beals knew Angor¡¯s true identity from the beginning.

    ¡°There¡¯s another matter that¡¯s been upsetting the wizarding world these days. Somebody managed to capture the moment when Angor was making a high-tier item, using a filming technique.¡± Thewis sighed. ¡°An apprentice who can produce high-tier assets, you know what that means? Professional alchemists all believe that he¡¯ll definitely be a true Master Alchemist in the future. The only question is when.

    ¡°It¡¯s a pity that the newest edition of <i>Grove of Time</i> is already out, or they¡¯d surely put Angor¡¯s name in it. We can wait 10 years when the next releasees out and read about Angor. Well, unless he dies for some reason before that happens.¡±

    Eureka was shocked speechless.

    Like most people, she used to read each printing of Grove of Time with utmost care because this magazine wasmonly believed to be the most trustworthy reading material in the south. All the new knowledge and research discoveries provided by it deserved people¡¯s attention.

    <i>And Angor¡¯s going to leave his record in it?!</i>

    She nced at Angor with a strange expression.

    Angor had been staying in Padt Manor for a while. Eureka more or less kept an eye on his actions but without noticing anything strange. Of course, Angor never mentioned his alchemy skills.

    ¡°He intentionally kept it from me, didn¡¯t he?¡± Eureka clenched her teeth.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Thewis frowned.

    A little furiously, Eureka exined what happened during these months, including how she asked Angor to fetch potion materials from Lloyds.

    ¡°He¡¯s so good at alchemy, yet he watched me suffer without the potions I need! He found it funny, huh?!¡±

    ¡°Well, perhaps he wanted to keep low. But let¡¯s think clearly here, even if he says he can make potions, why would he help you?¡±

    ¡°He dare defy my order?¡±

    Thewis chuckled. ¡°Yeah, you can force him to. Suppose you get him to brew something for you against his will. Will you drink that stuff?¡±

    Eureka grew silent again. Thewis spoke truly. Unlike other alchemy items, potions might contain unwanted tricks harder to discover. If Angor put a trap in the potion...

    ¡°Just don¡¯t.¡± Thewis showed a serious look. ¡°In a sense, Angor¡¯s more important a figure than both of us in the wizarding world right now. Just think. With that kind of value he holds, both Sunders and Brute Cavern might have left safety measures on him.¡±

    ¡°But you should be the impulsive one here. You¡¯re being nice to Angor and Leon just to win him on your side, right?¡±

    Thewis nodded, then shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s not all. By earning his friendship, I want to help you as well.¡±

    ¡°Help me?¡±

    ¡°The Crimson Crown. Angor made another replica of the crown for us. Trust me, it looks just like the real crown.¡±

    ...

    While Thewis and Eureka talked to each other, Angor was carefully reading through the alchemy handbook he received from Mithra.

    As he remembered, the Master Apothecary mentioned how to brew an antidote to remove the spider poison. He knew he could do it because Mithra instructed him on how to make several types of basic potions back in Floating Mech City.

    The study didn¡¯t go very smoothly at first, but he did a lot of practiceter. When traveling on The Limpet, he had fully grasped how to make simple antidotes.

    The one for treating Spatebog Spider poison just required several more steps. He had most of the materials ready to be used in his bracelet.

    He couldn¡¯t start the work yet because he still needed one more majorponent, which was the fresh poison extracted from a Spatebog Spider.

    Naturally, he had to find this spider to get its poison. Since he couldn¡¯t sense it with his spirit power, he decided to release the scout puppets again to help him search.

    It didn¡¯t take too much time. The creature was found ¡°walking¡± on theke water downstream like a strider despite its ox-sized body. It was currently pulling its newly-found prey back to the nest using a strand of pale green spider silk.

    Since Thewis seemed interested in the spider, Angor chose to use an illusion to trick it into letting out the poison on its own instead of killing it.

    Without minding what Thewis and Eureka would do next, he found a random spot and started making the potion immediately.

    Brewing low-tier potions was all about precisely controlling the volume of materials and temperature, which wasn¡¯t much different from Tooling techniques. This was why many Tooling or Apothecary alchemists tended to study the other subject rtively well at the beginning.

    The brewing technique Angor learned from Mithra belonged to the ¡°Reformer¡± School. He was not experienced enough to get reformative yet, but strictly following the rules and steps wasn¡¯t difficult for him.

    Even though the process was rather boring to watch, Thewis, who was interested in Apothecary, still found it worthy to observe all the fine arts disyed by Angor, which originally came from Master Mithra.

    The potion was a sess. Yet Angor wasn¡¯t sure this was enough to bring Leon back. As a mortal, Leon would have a very difficult time enduring the strong effect of the potion.

    ¡°Just do it,¡± Thewis saw through Angor¡¯s mind and said, ¡°Leon is tougher than you thought since he can reach the minimum spirit requirement by using physical training only. The antidote is still a low-tier potion. He has no reason to lose against it.¡±

    Angor nodded. He just wanted to be as careful as possible when treating the only family he had in this world.

    After using Narda¡¯s Vision to make sure that the potion was fine, he used a special cantrip to directly inject the liquid into Leon¡¯s body.

    The first sign shown by Leon was violent convulsion, followed by bulging blood vessels and reddened skin.

    ¡°Ah... ah... Arrrrgh!¡±

    The great pain had woken him up from the sweet dream caused by the hypnotic effect of the thorns.

    Angor could help Leon ease the pain by pulling him into the dream wastnd. However, this wouldn¡¯t work so well when Leon would be forcibly woken up by the pain sooner orter.

    Unless Angor could extract another ¡°rule¡± from the domain sphere that allowed him to forcefully keep a resident inside the dream wastnd...

    For now, he could only watch Leon struggling in agony while praying for the best.

 Chapter 903 - Strange Attitude

    <h4>Chapter 903: Strange Attitude</h4>

    The effect of the antidote tormented Leon for ten minutes, during which his skin bled terribly until the ground underneath was covered in red.

    When thest bit of the poison was repelled, Angor quickly cast Heal to treat Leon. However, the basic healing cantrip could only cure superficial wounds. It was Thewis who helped mend Leon¡¯s broken bones and inner organs.

    When the treatment ended, Leon¡¯s head jerked to one side as he fell unconscious again.

    ¡°He needs at least a week to grow back all the blood he lost.¡± Thewis used his spirit to check Leon¡¯s condition. ¡°Oh wait, his spirit gained another level?¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Angor also looked at his brother.

    ¡°Perhaps he pushed his ¡®iron will¡¯ to its limit while enduring the antidote. I must say he¡¯s the most steadfast mortal I¡¯ve ever seen.¡±

    ¡°My brother¡¯s spiritual power level is 11 now?¡±

    ¡°Correct. The ¡®iron will¡¯ technique is designed to help mortals raise their spirit level. Three points are the upper limit. Not many trainees can achieve that limit, but Leon managed.¡±

    ¡°A coin always has two sides, I guess,¡± Eureka chipped in. ¡°It¡¯s beyond difficult for a mortal or anyone to improve their spirit. The incident isn¡¯t all about bad things for Leon.¡±

    Still, Angor hoped that such things did not happen if possible.

    ...

    It was three in the morning when Angor carried Leon back to the manor. The house knights as well as Mana had returned, who was now looking at Leon¡¯s weak form with a worried look.

    ¡°Nothing too serious. ording to the doctor, he simply needs more rest. A few days and he¡¯ll be as lively as before,¡± Angorforted.

    Mana was almost weeping. ¡°I was so scared when I heard that Viscount Leon went missing near the waterfalls. It was as if¡ª¡±

    Mana stopped speaking as they both realized where this was going.

    Sixteen years ago, when Padt Manor was striving through the coldest winter they had in a while, a beautifuldy named Hypatia lost her footing during her travel and fell into the pond below the waterfall. She was rescued by someer, but being drenched in the freezing water had left a nasty condition in her body. After struggling on a sickbed for two weeks, Hypatia grievously bade farewell to this world.

    She was the wife of Old Viscount Padt and the mother of Angor and Leon.

    This was why Mana summoned all the knights in the manor to desperately look for Leon as soon as she heard about the incident. She feared that the tragedy would repeat itself.

    ¡°Everything will be fine now...¡± Angor muttered to himself.

    He then asked Mana to take care of Leon and left the room. He had another important task right now, which was to ascertain Thewis¡¯ intention.

    The main manor hall was brightly lit withmps and candles, and both Thewis and Eureka were taking it easy on a soft sofa. No one was speaking, yet the convenient silence almost seemed coordinated.

    Eureka usually didn¡¯te here as she didn¡¯t want to get bothered by the working servants. Most of the time, she would either rest in Jon¡¯s stilt house or beside the Demeter.

    Angor knew that Eureka was here waiting for him. So was Thewis.

    As he expected, Thewis saw himing and pointed to a seat nearby.

    ¡°Well well well, Angor, good at keeping your little secrets, which is not surprising, eh? Half a year has passed, yet Ipletely have no idea of your amazing alchemy aplishment.¡± Eureka showed an annoyed look.

    Angor was expecting this to happen. Although he was a bit surprised to notice that Eureka wasn¡¯t actually angry at him. Rather, she said those words in a joking way.

    ¡°I did not keep it a secret. I never had time to do alchemy in front of you because I needed to tend to Jon,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Sounds legit. Yeah, Jon is more important to you.¡± Eureka¡¯s tone turned sharper. ¡°Since I now know that you can do alchemy...¡±

    Angor thought Eureka was going to ask him to brew potions for her, which did not happen.

    ¡°You broke Brulee¡¯s ss. You should take responsibility and make it right then.¡±

    Angor raised an eyebrow and tried to recall the fight between him and Brulee when he first returned to Padt Manor. The owl did wear a monocle back then.

    He considered and nodded. Making a monocle didn¡¯t sound too hard.

    Thewis asked, ¡°Seeley told me that you found a Dream Weaver for Jon?¡±

    ¡°So I can grant Mister Jon a pleasant dream, sir.¡± Angor nodded. <i>Here ites...</i>

    ¡°Using Jon¡¯s dream as a bridge to speak to him. That¡¯s quite creative of you.¡±

    ¡°I always wanted to talk to him again, and since I happen to know how to use simple Dream Maniptor cantrips, I came up with this n.¡± Angor tried to divert the focus of their discussion. ¡°Jon¡¯s body is still weakening by the day, while I have nothing to help. May I know if you have a way to cure him, Mister Thewis?¡±

    ¡°I looked. I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t do better than keeping him alive for the moment with that Vitalizer, which you already did. Why don¡¯t you ask Master Mithra for help? Since you have his handbook, you must know each other, no?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not really friends yet. I prefer keeping Jon¡¯s existence from others unless I must do otherwise. Please understand, Mister Thewis.¡±

    ¡°That, I agree with you. But I must say you have a better chance of finding a solution from others,pared to doing everything all by yourself.¡±

    Angor frowned. ording to Eureka, Thewis probably wanted to keep Jon to himself as well. But it didn¡¯t seem to be the case right now.

    ¡°Feel free to ask me if you need my helpter.¡± Thewis ended the subject here, much to Angor¡¯s confusion. ¡°I have another matter to discuss with you. But we shall talk somewhere else.¡±

    Thewis stood up and put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    Angor felt an overwhelming power blocking his senses all of a sudden. When he could see clearly again, he found himself floating in the middle of an eerily dark and narrow space, while the boundaries signified by a chaotic energy barrier were not far from him.

    ¡°This is the Banishment Realm. You¡¯ll have to get used to it as he can only create such a tiny safe zone,¡± Eureka said from behind him and yfully rested a slim hand on his shoulder.

    ¡°Banishment?¡± Angor failed to recognize such a name. Although he wasn¡¯t going to ask because Eureka probably wouldn¡¯t exin.

    He patiently waited for Thewis to speak first.

    He noticed that Thewis¡¯ expression was getting dangerously darker upon arriving here. He was getting worried that Thewis had decided to murder him in this private ce where nobody could see.

    Thewis moved to him, grabbed Eureka¡¯s arm, and pulled her away into a hug, which somewhat exined why he had that pissed look.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Eureka protested and rubbed her arm. ¡°It hurts. You looking for a fight?¡±

    ¡°Easy there.¡± Thewis¡¯ grim look quickly turned into that of a smile. ¡°You look prettier by my side.¡±

    <i>Seriously now?</i> Angor almost rolled his eyes.

    ¡°Ahem.¡± Thewis looked at Angor. ¡°Like I said, I have something to ask of you.¡±

    ¡°What is it, sir?¡±

    Thewis reached into his storage space and found a luxurious-looking crown that gave out a red glimmer.

    Angor scowled upon seeing the item.

    ¡°You know what this is?¡± asked Thewis.

    Of course Angor recognized it. He crafted it himself.

    ¡°A fake Crimson Crown,¡± Thewis continued without waiting for Angor¡¯s answer. ¡°Irisa told me that you made this one.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right...¡±

    Not only that, he even went out of his way to recreate the entire magic array engraved on the crown, when he didn¡¯t need to.

 Chapter 904 - Thewisâ€™ Question

    <h4>Chapter 904: Thewis¡¯ Question</h4>

    Since Angor was aware that Irisa was Thewis¡¯ sister, he wasn¡¯t surprised to see Thewis possessing the fake crown at all.

    But still, he felt terrible when thinking about Irisa¡¯s alchemy request for him again. It was such an embarrassing record in his career.

    ¡°Good. Irisa wasn¡¯t joking,¡± Thewis said.

    ¡°That¡¯s the fully enchanted copy you mentioned earlier?¡± Eureka moved closer to check the crown.

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    ¡°Riiiight... It looks really good, I¡¯d give it that. But are you sure the magic array is also the same?¡±

    ¡°You should ask <i>him</i>.¡± Thewis pointed to Angor.

    Angor considered his words.

    ¡°If the picture shown by Miss Irisa was correct, then yes, the magic array is ¡®Bloodline Retrack¡¯. I recreated it as much as I could.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll just have topare it with the real one.¡± Thewis nced at Eureka and told her to take out the real Crimson Crown.

    Eureka handed the crown she stole to Angor without a second thought, but Angor wasn¡¯t sure he should touch it. He already had a hunch that Eureka had this thing with her, but he never nned to ask or get involved with it, because both Sunders and Greya warned that he should avoid Eureka¡¯s business.

    ¡°Well?¡± Thewis raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Mister Thewis, may I know first, why am I here? When I handed the fake one to Miss Irisa, I made it clear that I will not participate in any subsequent matters, and she agreed. Thus no matter what¡¯s going on with these two crowns, I¡¯ll not be responsible.¡±

    Thewis gave him a meaningful look. ¡°I know what you¡¯re worried about. Just chill, I¡¯m not dragging you into anythingplicated. By putting you here, I only want to ask you a question.¡±

    ¡°Which is...?¡±

    Thewis took the real crown from Eureka. He was briefly stunned by the mysterious sheen of the item before he quickly looked away.

    ¡°Before the question, I must make sure that the magic array on Crimson Crown is ¡®Bloodline Retrack¡¯. Are you certain of it?¡±

    Angor nced at the item, which was undeniably more graceful than the replica he crafted.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Pretty much expected...¡± Thewis pondered. ¡°Since we are sure of it now, can we do something to erase the bloodline connection?¡±

    The magic array allowed the original owner of the crown to sense its exact location no matter how far it was taken. This was why Eureka had to be constantly on the run to evade Goman King¡¯s men.

    Since Angor was here, Thewis would like his help to remove this mechanic.

    ¡°No?¡± Thewis grew disappointed when Angor did not respond for a long time.

    ¡°Have you heard of the Astute King, sir?¡±

    ¡°Naturally.¡± Thewis nodded. ¡°An infamous Grand Demon dwelling in the Abyss. What has he got to do with us?¡±

    ¡°If you know the Astute King, you must also know the Libation of Blood he introduced, right?¡±

    Libation of Blood was a special means of sacrifice. An item that went through such libation could be fully attuned with someone¡¯s bloodline, which allowed the item¡¯s user to better unleash the item¡¯s potential while preventing others from using it. ¡°Libation of Blood¡± was considered to be a stronger version of a magic pact.

    However, epting Libation of Blood also meant that the user offered their name at the mercy of the Astute King. The demon wouldn¡¯t care about random believers who borrowed such power, but it would get a lot more dangerous if the said user gained more fame and strength as to draw the Astute King¡¯s attention.

    ¡°I know.¡± Thesis nodded.

    ¡°Bloodline Retrack has a simr effect as Libation of Blood.¡± Angor continued, ¡°Once an item is bound by it, the connection cannot be lifted unless the adherent is killed.¡±

    Thewis frowned. Angor just denied a perfect n he just came up with.

    But he still had a workaround. Earlier, he and Irisa concluded that it was unlikely for someone as crafty and careful as Goman King to use his own blood to establish the connection, because allowing the crown to be destroyed would inflict a terrible backfire effect on the owner of the bloodline.

    This was why fewer and fewer people would use Blood Retrack to keep their possessions, and such a technique was almost forgotten in this world.

    If the Crimson Crown was bound to someone other than Goman King, they might find this person and kill him, which should be a lot easier than dealing with Goman King himself.

    ¡°Can we switch the ownership of the crown if we dispose of the owner of the blood?¡± Thewis quickly asked.

    ¡°The magic array has a failsafe mechanic protecting it, sir. If the previous owner is dead, the array will blow up on its own. A pretty strong one, mind you. Even though the crown is a Mystery item, I¡¯m not sure it can remain intact in the explosion.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t have to kill the owner, right?¡± Eureka suggested. ¡°We find him, take him away, and make him into a mindless puppet or something, while we still keep the crown. Isn¡¯t that the same?¡±

    Delighted, Thewis looked at Angor in the eyes. ¡°Can we use this magic array to find our target?¡±

    ...

    A momentter, Angor stepped out of the manor hall with a grim look.

    Even though Thewis imed that he wasn¡¯t nning on dragging Angor into the crown¡¯s business, Angor knew he would still get into some trouble by answering Thewis¡¯ questions.

    Thankfully, he still had the choice of staying away from the matter from now on.

    He nned to visit Jon again today, but he changed his mindter on. Too many bad things had screwed up his mental peace. He didn¡¯t wish Jon to see him like this.

    Frustrated, he returned to his bedroom, cast Dream Enkindle on himself, and entered the dream wastnd.

    He heard children yelling up ahead. In the za area not far from him, a group of kids, including Alda, was forcing Daruk into ying a hide-and-seek game called something like ¡°the scarecrow and the crows¡±. Meanwhile, Sunny was quietly sitting on top of the ¡°treehouse pub¡± while looking at the noisy children with a disdainful look.

    There were adults standing around the za talking to each other while checking the environment curiously.

    A young man with a brave look saw Angor¡¯s arrival and asked, ¡°You another neer, I guess?¡±

    ¡°Neer?¡±

    The young man pointed to Daruk, who was now acting as a ¡°scarecrow¡± by standingpletely still. ¡°See that? I told him to keep away from the naughty little imps, but he didn¡¯t listen. Now there he is.¡± He continued without minding Angor¡¯s response while pretending that he was ¡°experienced¡±, ¡°Name¡¯s Labor. That running brat with a red scarf over there is my little brother, Lador. We both got some kind of gue that¡¯s going to kill us for sure. But Mister Dison brought us here and saved us. God bless him!

    ¡°What about you? What mess did you escape from?¡±

    Instead of speaking, Angor looked in another direction, from where Freud was quickly running to him, while those who saw Freud all bowed their heads politely.

    Labor also jumped down from the balcony he was sitting on and saluted Freud.

    Freud told the others to be on their ways and turned to Angor. ¡°Sir! You came.¡±

    Astonished, Labor watched as Freud and the ¡°neer¡± walked away.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re such an idiot, you know that?¡± Sunny somehow appeared right next to Labor and was sneering.

    Labor wasn¡¯t going to get serious with a little girl who looked a lot smaller than him.

    ¡°You know that guy?¡±

    ¡°Keep your eyes peeled, alright? That¡¯s the true owner of this new world we¡¯re in. He¡¯s everyone¡¯s master.¡±

    Even though Sunny didn¡¯t quite like Angor, she still knew that Angor saved her from the sad fate of turning into an undead wraith AND found Freud a new home. She was willing to exin Angor¡¯s good side to others, as long as Angor wasn¡¯t here to hear her.

    ¡°The-the master of our world...¡± Labor muttered, dumbfounded.

 Chapter 905 - Foundation

    <h4>Chapter 905: Foundation</h4>

    Freud and Angor had arrived at the Skyward Tower, a five-storyndmark structure Angor found at the Land of Revtion. It was the current tallest building Angor ¡°summoned¡± into the dream wastnd.

    ¡°You work fast. A moment away and we got so many new faces.¡±

    ¡°All for our research.¡± Freud grinned. ¡°Besides, I like it when it¡¯s not so empty.¡±

    Angor nodded and agreed to Freud¡¯s n. He also would like Jon to be with more people.

    They entered the tower ahead and saw three women wearing the same uniform busily doing some paperwork at their desks.

    ¡°I found them on their brink of death,¡± said Freud. ¡°They were in the same condition as Labor, where they suffered from that deadly gue. They used to be secretaries and are good at management work, so I asked them to keep an eye on all the new and old folks while arranging supplies and manpower.¡±

    Using ¡°nightmare vision¡±, Angor noticed a sheet with Daruk¡¯s name on it on top of the paper pile. The file showed some basic information about Daruk, which didn¡¯t contain anything worth noticing. It seemed Daruk was amonborer without any particr expertise.

    Compared to him, Daruk¡¯s grandfather possessed an interesting skill¡ªwood carving.

    ¡°We allowed them ces to live and sleep, and we told them to pay for the rent by honest work,¡± Freud exined. ¡°So they don¡¯t getzy and be a burden to the group.¡±

    Angor nodded in consent and went to check several more files. Apparently, Freud did thorough investigations on every ¡°test subject¡± who joined themunity while also observing the condition andpleteness of their consciousness.

    They heard nking noisesing from the entrance and saw a group of people carrying several giant crates past the door.

    ¡°Oh, they¡¯re responsible for searching for and ssifying valuables, books, and other resources we can use. They¡¯re tasked to check through the buildings you brought here on a daily basis.¡±

    ¡°Good job.¡± Angor gave Freud the look of approval. ¡°You got the whole ce in good shape so fast.¡±

    ¡°Heh. I was prepared for such a job when drafting my initial research objectives. I never thought this woulde true though.¡±

    ¡°Good thinking. But I can¡¯t let you manage these mortals for too long, that would be such a waste to your potential.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... This is why I want to build aplete society and let them take care of themselves. We don¡¯t know how long their consciousness can survive here. I still need to find more capable hands to ease the job.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re free to deal with the mortals however you like. Just don¡¯t neglect our original task.¡±

    As they talked, they moved to the balcony on the top floor, which allowed them to gaze upon the wholemunity. Apart from the Skyward Tower, there were another two eye-catching structures¡ªthe golden-colored cathedral and the Ocean Theater, which were located at the far ends of the settlement.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have enough people yet, but we can well consider this ce a brand new city now. Have youe up with a name for it, Mister Padt?¡± Freud looked at the well-established colony below with a proud look.

    ¡°That man named Labor said something about a new world. I never thought of it in this way before, but now I feel as if I¡¯m actually creating a small world of my own.¡±

    Angor then shook his head. That was ridiculous¡ªthis was the dream wastnd with a bunch of people¡¯s minds who could never appear in reality. Nothing here was real. The mini-worlds within Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens were more genuinepared to here.

    Although the dream wastnd had other advantages, such as facilitating long-rangemunication.

    ¡°Foundation. We¡¯ll call the city the ¡®Foundation¡¯ from now on.¡±

    This was the foundation and the beginning of one of his great ambitions. With a sure footing, he could readily continue pursuing his dreams.

    ¡°The foundation of our dream...¡± Freud muttered.

    ...

    Soon, the new name of their city was passed to every resident.

    Most people summoned here did not have a clue what awaited them in the future, or whether their ¡°new lives¡± were real at all. Knowing the name of their new home had slightly settled their uneasy minds.

    ¡°I¡¯m Daruk from Foundation City. This sounds good!¡± Daruk shook off several kids from his legs and read the notice board.

    Even though he and his grandfather weren¡¯t openly treated as ves, the citizens from Waterford still despised them. He would never have dreamed of owning a house and bing a true citizen like this.

    ¡°Sort yourself out, ya big oaf!¡± Labor nudged him. ¡°Learn to be proud. I don¡¯t want my brother to see your silly look.¡±

    Daruk let out a silly chuckle. He knew Labor meant well. It was also Labor who weed him when he first came.

    Meanwhile, Labor was wondering something on his own. Since he came to the city, he asked people several times about where this ce was. Yet nobody told him. But today, as soon as the ¡°master of this world¡± showed up, the official name of the city was determined.

    ¡°Foundation... Well, at least everyone likes it!¡±

    ...

    From today, criminals or respected heroes alike would all discard their past and begin anew in the Foundation City no matter where they came from before.

    After naming the city, Angor spent a moment discussing the current result of their project with Freud. All in all, the citizens were meant to help them ascertain the effectiveness of their ¡°consciousness preserve technique¡±. Angor needed to make sure he could ce Jon in dream wastnd in the long run.

    ¡°I¡¯m still working on a thorough result. At least nothing bad happened for now. As far as I can see, they are now ¡®living¡¯ in the dream,¡± answered Freud.

    ¡°Yeah... But this is still not enough.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t find it safe to determine Jon as a permanent citizen of Foundation yet, but he was nning to let Jon have a glimpse of the city beforehand, which should be no problem.

    After bidding farewell to Freud, he woke up from the dream wastnd and quickly used Dream Enkindle again.

    This time, hended at another spot far away from the Foundation City. The only thing in view was his Gond sitting in the wild.

    He jumped onto the boat and began climbing until he reached the true embodiment of this nightmare domain¡ªthe glowing domain sphere.

    Since his body had recovered enough, he wanted to try absorbing more power from the sphere. The ¡°Dream Gate¡± was obviously not the best one he could get. He urgently needed something that allowed him to better secure his dream wastnd.

    However, as he touched the sphere and felt its radiating power, he got a feeling that he was not up for it. An unknown instinct was warning him that he was not in his top condition. Forcefully taking another power would only waste it, or worse, it might damage his spirit.

    He could feel that he was approaching the climax of his current level. Perhaps that was when he would finally be ready to ept the new power.

    ¡°Just a few days...¡±

    With nothing more to do in the dream wastnd, he hid the sphere back in the sky and left.

 Chapter 906 - Declining Memories

    <h4>Chapter 906: Declining Memories</h4>

    In the early morning, Auri pushed a food cart to Angor¡¯s room and saw Angor buried among piles of papers. The floor was also full of discarded notes.

    When Angor did not respond to her arrival, Auri crouched down to clean the floor up.

    While at it, she randomly nced at theplex shapes and symbols she couldn¡¯t recognize. Strangely, she found it harder and harder to look away as if the iprehensible contents had be alive and were now persuading her into following their guidance.

    She saw a ck door opening up in her view. The only thing she had to do was to reach for it¡ª

    Zap!

    Auri woke up from her trance with a start and saw Angor standing right in front of her. The sunlight at dawn had added a dazzling outline to Angor¡¯s form.

    ¡°You alright, Auri?¡±

    Auri shook her head to clear her thoughts. The paper she was staring at was torn into two halves.

    ¡°I... pardon me, sir. I was just¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s dangerous formon ones to look at these magical forms. You could have lost your sanity.¡±

    Auri quickly stood up while trembling slightly.

    Angor waved an arm to cast Cleanse. In a matter of seconds, the scattered papers flew to their rightful positions on Angor¡¯s desk as if they just gained wings.

    Auri spent a moment looking at the amazing sight before she realized what she came here for.

    ¡°Sir, I brought you Milkberry tree juice and coco flowers, along with pancakes and sausage prepared by Miss Mana. Also some mushroom soup, dessert, and fried rice. I-I cooked it,¡± Auri exined while bringing the food inside.

    Angor didn¡¯t feel the need to eat, though he didn¡¯t reject Auri¡¯s offer.

    ¡°Is my brother awake yet?¡± he asked while taking a sip of the soup.

    ¡°He did, but only briefly. Once Miss Mana fed him some soup, he fell asleep again. The doctor said he¡¯ll be alright very soon!¡±

    ¡°Nice. I¡¯ll not bother him for now then.¡± Angor quickly finished his breakfast. ¡°What you did earlier must have hurt your mind slightly. Go and have some rest today.¡±

    ¡°T-thank you, sir.¡±

    After seeing Auri off, Angor sat back at his table and looked at his new design, which he spent an entire nighting up with, after denying countless others.

    It was a lock.

    He made the lock to contain the domain sphere. Even though there was currently nothing in the dream wastnd that might threaten the sphere, he would like to find a better security measure just in case.

    The lock would not disappear from reality when he used the Dream Whelk to summon it to the dream wastnd, which meant he could use the item in two ces simultaneously.

    He had another urgent matter at hand, which was being constantly monitored by two wizards living at Padt Manor. He could use his nightmare domain to block off detection, but doing so would cost a lot of energy, so he wanted to design an item for this purpose.

    Also, it was always a huge problem when his Dream Whelk would draw curious wizards to him. He would like to use the lock to cover up the whelk¡¯s signal as well.

    He did find magic arrays for hiding Mystery energy, but even the simplest of them involved more than 20 runes and would determine the final product as a high-tier alchemy creation. He neither had the skills nor the resources to make such a valuable asset.

    In the end, he chose to use ¡°Silent Detainment¡±, an easier magic array consisting of five runes. This one was aprehensive magic array used for both defense and stealth. It could not fully keep Mystery energy from spreading, but bybining other cantrips, he could limit the detection range within a hundred meters so that wizards farther away couldn¡¯t notice.

    He did not work on the magic array right away because he still needed time to study the runes first. For now, he had other tasks to tend to.

    After cing the design draft in his bracelet, he prepared to head to Jon¡¯s ice room.

    The sound of pping wings suddenly drew his attention. He looked at his window and saw Brulee standing there, looking at him with itsrge round eyes.

    ¡°Owls are supposed to sleep during the day, no?¡±

    ¡°I told you I¡¯m not amon owl! I can do without sleep!¡± The owl suddenly remembered something and lowered its voice. ¡°I never thought you¡¯re such a brilliant alchemist.¡±

    ¡°And?¡± Angor found a ck vest with silver linings from his wardrobe and put it on.

    ¡°My master told me that you agreed to make a new monocle for me?¡± the bird said.

    ¡°I did. Find meter and tell me how it should look like.¡±

    Brulee¡¯s eyes narrowed into a big and somewhat creepy smile. It quickly returned to Eureka since it had no idea how to design charms.

    ...

    Angor came to the ice room and entered Jon¡¯s dream.

    In the lucid dream, Jon easily sensed Angor¡¯s arrival.

    ¡°You¡¯re here.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m here.¡± Angor did not forget their old joke.

    ¡°I lost count how many seasons I¡¯ve gone through. How many months passed out there? Or is it a year already?¡±

    ¡°Three and a half months.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡± Jon sighed.

    Jon was free to control the flow of time in his lucid dream. He had gradually forgotten the true concept of time.

    Angor looked around and saw them sitting in the middle of a guest hall. The one they used to use in Padt Manor. Telling from the colorful dishes on the table, Jon was enjoying a nice meal earlier.

    ¡°You guessed. They don¡¯t taste like much as long as I¡¯m aware that this is all a dream. Honestly, it gets worse when I know I can cook good food using my own hands.¡±

    ¡°Then why are you still eating?¡±

    ¡°I thought I¡¯d give you a proper wee, duh.¡± Jon pointed to the space behind Angor. ¡°Look there.¡±

    Confused, Angor turned around and saw two figures sitting at another table nearby¡ªa muscr young man and a beautifuldy who had a constant smile.

    ¡°That¡¯s... my father?¡±

    ¡°Yup. Old Padt might be a big-bellied gentleman in your memory, but he looked a lot more handsome when he was young.¡± Jon chuckled. ¡°Leon perfectly inherited his best looks. While you... you look more like your mother.¡±

    Thedy waved a hand at Angor and said, ¡°Sorry I could not see you grow up, Angor. But I love you nheless.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t know what to say. The beginning of his memory about his own mother was all about paintings and portraits, which all showed the woman¡¯s elegant yet distant visage. This was the first time he saw such a warm smile from his mother.

    He knew this was an illusion weaved by Jon, but he felt swelling excitement triggering his tears regardless.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m slowly losing my memories... And I can no longer remember your mother fully. Her love for you always stayed true, however. I did not make her speak like that. Those were the exact words she told me to pass onto you before she left us,¡± said Jon.

    The dream suddenly flickered.

    ¡°What¡ª¡± Angor looked at the blurry scenery in shock. He knew Jon¡¯s brain was not in its best condition, but Jon would not easily ¡°mess up¡± important sights in the dream like this.

    Jon shook his head in sadness. ¡°It¡¯s happening more and more often. I can¡¯t carelessly createplicated dreams now.¡±

    Angor had been wondering why Jon¡¯s wife and daughter weren¡¯t apanying them. Was this because of Jon¡¯s worsening condition as well?

    ¡°I¡¯m forgetting stuff. And I fear that I¡¯ll forget about you one day. But as I said before, getting to spend some nice time with you ispletely worth it. Heh, I should be long dead.¡±

    <i>Jon is losing it both outside and inside</i>, Angor pondered. <i>But if I separate his consciousness and take him to the dream wastnd now...</i>

    He already nned to allow Jon to get familiarized with the Foundation City ahead of time. Seeing Jon¡¯s current condition, he decided to exin his main n.

 Chapter 907 - Jonâ€™s First Visit

    <h4>Chapter 907: Jon¡¯s First Visit</h4>

    epting his fate didn¡¯t mean Jon would stop looking for survival. After hearing about the dream wastnd from Angor, he epted the arrangement right away.

    ¡°Safekeeping people¡¯s spirits... Sounds amazing. We determine someone as ¡®someone¡¯ based on their unique memory and the way they think. It seemed this wastnd you mentioned perfectly guaranteed both.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve seen many books that introduced differences between souls and consciousness, Jon. Once you head there, you can see whether something on you has changed.¡±

    ¡°Now I can¡¯t wait to see this new world of yours! It¡¯s been so long since I talked to others.¡±

    Once they were done talking, Angor left Jon¡¯s dream and looked at the ice coffin with an uncertain look.

    He knew Jon didn¡¯t have much time left. Yet their ¡°dream project¡± had not reached a solid conclusion that they could protect people¡¯s consciousness permanently.

    He calmed his mind and put his ¡°Dream Gate¡± on full alert. He then began channeling Dream Enkindle. No matter what was going to happen, he would still have to proceed.

    Slowly, the cantrip weaved by nightmare energy covered Jon¡¯s form from within.

    Angor kept an eye on Jon¡¯s vitals.

    Soon, his ¡°Dream Gate Monitor¡± sent him a warning.

    [Foreign object detected in dream wastnd!]

    The ¡°mini-map¡± emerged inside his mind, above which a small human shadow floated. He was free to determine where to ce Jon.

    He selected the Foundation City, and after making sure the figure was dropped into the city urately, he checked Jon¡¯s body again.

    Thankfully, nothing was off.

    Since Jon was now safe in the Foundation City, the Dream Weaver could go off duty as well. Angor ced the ant back in his bracelet and left the ice room.

    A brief spirit scan suggested that Leon was still resting, so he returned to his bedroom to continue his study.

    He did not carelessly use Dream Enkindle on himself and join Jon because he feared that Thewis and Eureka mighte and bother him if he kept ¡°falling asleep¡± right next to Jon. It was unlikely that outsiders could detect his dream wastnd, but one should never underestimate the resourcefulness of wizards.

    Besides, it was better for Jon to see the city by himself first.

    After having lunch, Angor set a simple ward in his room and entered the dream wastnd from there.

    The city was not that big yet. Using nightmare vision, he easily found Jon sightseeing along the streets while Sunny and Alda apanied him. Telling from the way they talked and how Jon wouldugh out asionally, Jon was having a pretty good time.

    ¡°Sir!¡± Freud quickly found Angor on top of the Skyward Tower.

    ¡°You asked the kids to show Jon around the city?¡±

    ¡°I... was going to do it myself, but then I don¡¯t want to cause trouble because everyone in the city knows who I am.¡±

    ¡°Nice. I¡¯d like Jon to blend in with the folks slowly. But make sure you keep him safe at all times. One more thing, it¡¯s fine if you let others help with the research, but you MUST keep Jon¡¯s condition up to date on your own. Inform me immediately when you see something wrong.¡±

    Angor asked this because he wasn¡¯t sure if he could constantly watch over Jon, especially when he had many other jobs to do in reality.

    ¡°Acknowledged.¡± Freud was fully aware that the whole purpose of their research project was for rescuing Jon.

    ¡°Return to your post then,¡± Angor said and headed to Jon¡¯s position.

    ...

    In Jon¡¯s view, every single building in the dream wastnd was unique and eye-catching. There was just too much to take.

    Once he arrived at the Foundation City, he was immediately drawn to the vibrant and convenientyouts. Before he could remember to check the condition of his consciousness, he was already strolling among the avenues.

    He didn¡¯t know much about how cities in this world looked like because he barely left Grue Town ever since he came to the wizarding world. But this wouldn¡¯t prevent him from admiring the new ce.

    ¡°This is the Glittering Cathedral. People usually gather here because the Treehouse Pub is just nearby.¡± Alda diligently did his job as a tour guide.

    ¡°What¡¯s there to see about a freaking cathedral? Hey, Gramps Jon, let¡¯s have a drink over at the pub!¡± Sunny hopped around in her new dress.

    <i>Gramps?!</i> Jon pinched his nose bridge and closed his eyes.

    He was only past his 40s. It was just that the terrible condition gave him the look of a dying old man.

    He was free to change how he looked in his lucid dream. But here, he was stuck in his old vessel. And he had beenining about it for a while.

    Still, he forced up a smile to the kids on the outside.

    He liked Alda and Sunny, who reminded him of Angor and his daughter. There was no point in arguing for a better way to call him, so he simply epted it.

    ¡°We have alcohol in this city? I mean, real alcohol?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Of course you find booze at the pub. What else?¡± A young man walked past them and heard their conversation. ¡°Who¡¯s this old guy, Sunny?¡±

    ¡°Watch your lousy mouth! This is our gramps!¡± Sunny raised a fist.

    ¡°Yes... Hello, gramps.¡± The young man stumbled back.

    Jon shook his head. He didn¡¯t know whether he should be d or not.

    ¡°He¡¯s Labor. And he has a brother, Lador, who¡¯s also one of my best friends!¡± exined Alda.

    Sunny knuckled Alda¡¯s head. ¡°You just met with Lador yesterday! Be careful with who you call friends!¡±

    ¡°Aw.¡±

    ¡°Get lost,¡± Sunny yelled at Labor. ¡°I¡¯m gonna have more fun with Gramps Jon in the city. Leave us alone.¡±

    Labor didn¡¯t move. He always wondered why Sunny had something that both terrified and attracted him.

    ¡°Beat it already!¡± Sunny yelled again.

    ¡°Alright, alright!¡± Labor quickly stepped away.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind them, gramps. They don¡¯t know what this ce means.¡± Sunny watched Labor leaving with an annoyed look. ¡°I don¡¯t know if the drinks taste real, but people told me that they tasted real. Let¡¯s go and see.¡±

    Jon would like to try some strong drink since he had not had any in a while, but then, he wasn¡¯t sure whether it was a good idea to let the kids enter the pub house.

    ¡°Let¡¯s not. I want to see more of the city with my head clear.¡±

    Sunny kicked the ground in frustration. Freud never allowed her to approach the pub before, so she thought she just found a nice excuse.

    They continued their tour elsewhere, and Alda enthusiastically introduced every ce they came across until they arrived at arge, blue building.

    ¡°This is the Ocean Theater. Want to take a look, Gramps Jon?¡±

    Jon gazed at the familiar building without answering. He saw this ce before when visiting doctors in Waterford. He never thought he had the chance of seeing it again.

    ¡°Let¡¯s.¡± He nodded and walked ahead.

    The theater was empty apart from the scavenger team sent by Freud, who didn¡¯t mind their arrival since this ce wasn¡¯t off-limits.

    ¡°Come on, it¡¯s no fun looking at empty chairs. Let¡¯s hit the pub!¡± Sunny suggested again.

    Before anyone could respond, they suddenly heard piano musicing from the stage. Peaceful, pacifying music that reminded them of the quiet fields in summer.

    Whoever was ying was behind the curtain at the back of the stage, so they couldn¡¯t see them.

    ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡± Sunny wondered.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know this song, but it sounds so nice!¡± Alda added.

    ¡°One Summer¡¯s Day...¡±

    Alda and Sunny looked at Jon, surprised.

    ¡°The song is ¡®One Summer¡¯s Day¡¯. Gosh, I thought the kid¡¯s never going to practice it for real,¡± Jon said while walking to the stage with a hearty smile.

 Chapter 908 - The Next Step

    <h4>Chapter 908: The Next Step</h4>

    Jon did not lift the stage curtain to look behind. Instead, he quietly listened to the music while pping along with the rhythm.

    Both the pianist and Jon had realized who was behind the curtain by now, but they chose not to interrupt the peaceful moment.

    Alda also came onto the stage and tried to peek through the curtain, but he was knuckled by Sunny again.

    The music reminded Jon of his days about a decade ago, when he often offered to instruct instrumental skills to Angor. However, Angor was far from talented in music at that time to sessfully learn anything.

    Even though Angor couldn¡¯t y well, he used to ask Jon to y One Summer¡¯s Day because he loved this particrly cheerful song.

    The summer¡¯s breeze in their imagination came to an end as thest note of the music ended.

    Seeing Jon¡¯s consent, Alda and Sunny moved to pull the curtain aside together.

    There, they saw a grand piano, as well as the blond gentleman sitting in front of it. His elegant and slim hands were still resting on the keys while maintaining the strict posture of a musician.

    He turned his head to look at the three onlookers using a pair of deep-blue eyes, which also brought another smile to Jon¡¯s face.

    ¡°Angor...¡±

    For many times, Jon imagined what Angor would look like in the future in his lucid dream. Yet everything he came up with fell short of Angor¡¯s real image.

    Of course, he was more than d to see the waist-level child turning into such a fashionable nobleman.

    ¡°Mister Jon.¡± Angor stood up, put a hand over his chest, and bowed.

    Jon nodded but did not respond. There was too much excitement to bear. It was the sound of people leaving through the exit that reminded him that he and Angor were left alone in the theater.

    ¡°I told Sunny and Alda to wait outside,¡± Angor exined.

    Jon moved ahead and wanted to rub Angor¡¯s hair like how he used to. But then he noticed that Angor had grown much taller for that. In the end, he only put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Now, that¡¯s almost how Old Padt looked in the early years. Your eyes still resemble your mother though, as I said. How much have you grown? One point eight? I know both you and Leon have what it takes to look bigger. Although that one gained a lot more muscles than you, I¡¯d say.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m skinnier, yeah. But not exactly weaker.¡± Angor showed a face-splitting grin. ¡°I¡¯ll find a chance and show you.¡±

    ¡°Just don¡¯t. You¡¯re a wizard already. No bullying.¡±

    ¡°Nah, never wanted to bully my brother. Leon¡¯s going to join the wizarding world too, you know, and he¡¯d probably be a very strong Bloodline User.¡± Angor¡¯s voice lowered into a whisper. ¡°Might as well try him out now, or I¡¯ll never defeat him again in closebat.¡±

    ¡°Heh heh. Just no. And don¡¯t drag Leon to this ce unless necessary. You both have jobs to do out there, right? I know there¡¯s a wizard watching us in the manor.¡±

    What he didn¡¯t know was that Leon¡¯s teacher also came back, which made it TWO wizards.

    ¡°I know.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°How was my y? Better than before, must be.¡±

    ¡°Definitely, but not perfect yet. Man, I wish I could demonstrate some skills if my hands can still move as I tell them.¡±

    ¡°Um, Jon? You can try something. Like, jumping.¡±

    Jon didn¡¯t understand what that meant, but he stillplied.

    His body moved andnded way steadier than he anticipated.

    ¡°You still have the same look as the real you, but you don¡¯t have the disease anymore. Just like the other citizens, you¡¯re healthy here.¡±

    Jon considered. He sat on the piano bench and rested a pair of wrinkled hands of an old man on the keys.

    Masterful melodies echoed in the theater.

    Sunny, who had been feeling bored outside the entrance, suddenly looked back.

    ¡°That¡¯s One Summer¡¯s Day again. But... better. It does sound like something you¡¯d hear in the summer!¡± Aldamented.

    ¡°We have a master pianist in the city?¡± Labor suddenly showed up. ¡°Who is it? I gotta watch him y more often!¡±

    ¡°You again?¡± Sunny red.

    Labor scratched his head. ¡°The city¡¯s not big! I just... wandered nearby. Is that perhaps the old¡ªI mean, Gramps Jon performing?¡±

    ¡°Humph. Take your guesses.¡±

    ...

    Angor spent several more hours with Jon, talking about the basic situation in the dream wastnd and more stories in the wizarding world, before he woke up.

    Jon should be fine with Freud looking after him. The city was developing at a good pace, and Jon would have no problem adapting to it.

    ¡°He¡¯s looking good in the dream wastnd... Guess it¡¯s time to do something about his body next,¡± Angor pondered while sitting at his desk.

    Bing a permanent resident in the dream wastnd was a desperate solution. He still would like to prevent Jon¡¯s ¡°bodily death¡± if possible. But right now, he had no clue how to remove Jon¡¯s corruption yet. Even Thewis and Eureka couldn¡¯t do anything about it. He wondered if he should find help from elsewhere as Thewis suggested. Surely someone like Master Mithra was insightful enough to provide a good idea.

    Putting Thewis¡¯ intention aside, Angor would admit that this might be necessary. Jon¡¯s consciousness was almost safe now. Exposing him to other wizards didn¡¯t sound like too much a problem right now. It would be a plus if his body could be cured.

    Besides, the secret would get out sooner orter since Thewis and Eureka already knew about Jon¡¯s presence. Surely the two wizards would share the message to someone else they trusted, and slowly, more people would know about it.

    Before making the final decision, he still had to learn about Jon¡¯s attitude first. Perhaps Jon had other opinions to say after being invited to the Foundation City.

    For now, Angor would allow Jon some time to get used to the new life.

    It was three in the afternoon. Time for his routine meditation.

    ...

    Three hourster, he opened his eyes and sensed another huge improvement to his mana pool.

    As his projected bloodline was enhanced, the efficiency of his meditation sessions had skyrocketed. He knew he would reach his next bottleneck really soon. But not so fast. He felt the final stage of level-3 was just within two to three days.

    Again, he was worried that improving so fast without solid groundwork would leave him vulnerable, even though he didn¡¯t feel anything like that yet.

    The good news was, he could try taking another ¡°dream rule¡± from the domain sphere soon.

    ¡°Just have to continue this path...¡±

    He sighed and opened his door, where Auri was waiting for him with a piece of parchment in her hand.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±

    ¡°Viscount Leon woke up, sir. Miss Mana asked me to inform you.¡± The maid handed the parchment over. ¡°This is from, um, Brulee. I¡¯m supposed to show you this when you are done with your training.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll check Leon in a minute.¡±

    On his way, Angor briefly checked the parchment, which showed a simple sketch of a monocle.

    <i>Must have been drawn by Eureka.</i>

    There was a line of text beneath the picture

    [Brulee¡¯s original monocle was enchanted with Eagle Eye and Energy Detection.]

    This meant he had to craft a monocle with two simr effects on it. It didn¡¯t sound too difficult.

    By the time he arrived at Leon¡¯s room, he more or less finished the final design in his mind.

    The door to Leon¡¯s room was left open. However, instead of Leon, the first thing that came into Angor¡¯s view was something bright red.

    Angor stepped through the door and saw a two-headed hound standing on the windowsill while looking down at Leon.

 Chapter 909 - Soby

    <h4>Chapter 909: Soby</h4>

    Angor¡¯s body turned into a flurry of shadows before he reappeared in front of Leon¡¯s bed in the next instant. He then gazed at the strange creature cautiously.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± He would like to talk to the hound before making other moves, if possible. It was unlikely that a wandering monster could get past two wizards and enter Padt Manor, so this thing might be rted to one of them.

    On closer look, he saw the fur on the creature¡¯s body blowing as if there were a strong wind, even though he didn¡¯t feel any. The eyes on one of its heads were covered by a sleep blinder, while the other one was giggling at him after hearing his question.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Angor. That¡¯s Soby, my teacher¡¯s familiar,¡± Leon said from behind him.

    Angor nodded. He expected as much.

    ¡°Soby¡± nodded to Angor slightly and spoke to Leon in a rather unpleasant voice.

    ¡°Remember what I said. I¡¯m leaving.¡±

    The hound hopped away from the window and disappeared into the distance like a stream of fire.

    Angor made sure the creature was gone before turning around to look at Leon.

    Leon¡¯s face still had that unhealthy hue, and most of his body was wrapped in bandages. However, he seemed happy for some reason. It was just that he couldn¡¯t smile too much, or it would cause him more pain.

    ¡°Something good happened?¡± Angor summoned a chair and sat down.

    ¡°Yup. Soby was here to tell me to stop my training, cause I¡¯m at the limit. It¡¯s time for me to start my meditation.¡±

    ¡°Did it give you a channeling method as well?¡±

    ¡°Not yet. It asked me to talk to my teacher once I can get off my bed. Mister Thewis will test my talent orientation before deciding which channeling method is better. Finally, my days havee! Hah-aw aw aww...¡±

    Leon quickly stopped hisughter and showed his extreme delight using eyes only.

    ¡°So Mister Thewis is officially epting you as his student, I see.¡±

    As another unspoken practice among wizards, giving Leon the talent test meant Thewis had admitted Leon. Leon looked so cheerful probably because he also knew this.

    ¡°As long as Soby wasn¡¯t pulling my leg. But God, this hurts¡ª¡±

    Leon strained something and caused a patch of red on his bandage.

    Angor changed the subject so that Leon would not get hurt out of excitement again. ¡°Here¡¯s something to keep you safe better.¡± He took out several scrolls from his bracelet. ¡°Two Energy Barrier scrolls, a Shadow Mask, four Energy sts. I have more, but those don¡¯t work well at the Old Earth, so you¡¯ll have to make do with these.¡±

    ¡°Thanks a lot.¡± Leon didn¡¯t reject the offer. ¡°Soby also told me that it was you who got rid of some spider poison from me.¡±

    ¡°d I did. It was just an unfortunate ident. That was some harsh training you were doing.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t going toin because he knew Leon kept it a secret so that he would have one less burden. Besides, the training had concluded.

    ¡°You did fine on your own before. What happened that day all of a sudden?¡±

    Leonughed it off¡ªhe couldn¡¯t possibly tell Angor that he was distracted by Angor¡¯s boat. That would embarrass both of them.

    ¡°Well, whatever.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°Just make sure you have some... safety measures at hand the next time you do something so dangerous. At least have a servant to watch over you so¡ª¡±

    He stopped talking as he noticed Leon wasn¡¯t paying attention.

    He didn¡¯t want to be a bbermouth and affect Leon¡¯s decisions too much, but he still decided to give Leon a better toolter. They were brothers after all.

    After some random talks, Leon was slowly falling asleep again before nightfall, so Angor said his goodbye and headed back to his bedroom.

    In the hallway, he heard someone yelling outside and saw a dark-skinned man shouting at a tree in the yard.

    After several ¡°HA¡±s and ¡°AH¡±s, the man unleashed a cloud of vapor from his hand, which did nothing more than remove some dust from the tree¡¯s leaves.

    Seeing his result, the man slumped his shoulders in defeat and walked away.

    Angor raised an eyebrow when he noticed Tulu¡¯s exceptional talent.

    He had been focused on Jon recently, so he mostly neglected what was going on with Tulu. What Tulu just did might appear as something insignificant, but it was quite impressive when the Old Earth was poor in elements. If Tulu put that effort elsewhere, the useless vapor might turn into stronger attacks, such as water arrows.

    Tulu had not cked off on his meditation, that much was in. Being able to cast cantrips before officially bing an apprentice meant Tulu was very likely to receive a golden poster from a wizard.

    Angor rubbed his temples as he wondered if he should send Tulu to Brute Cavern earlier. Keeping Tulu here was a giant waste of both Tulu¡¯s talent and time.

    In fact, Angor had ns to return to Brute Cavern briefly so that he could mention Jon¡¯s matter as well as the dream wastnd to Sunders. Even if Sunders were in the Abyss ne, there was bound to be someone in the organization that could contact him.

    However... it would take lots of time to travel to Brute Cavern across the sea... unless he had faster means of transportation, such as a ne passageway.

    But before all that, he would like to know if Jon wanted to be ¡°studied¡± by other wizards first.

    Back in his room, he put the concerns behind his mind and found some materials from his bracelet. It would be best if he finished Brulee¡¯s monocle first so that the bird and Eureka would not urge himter on.

    He spread Eureka¡¯s draft on his desk. Just as he was prepared to begin, he suddenly felt someone¡¯s spirit power descending upon his room.

    It was clear that Eureka or Thewis wanted to take a peek at his work. Well, it was not really a ¡°peek¡± since whoever sent the spirit made it obvious.

    Still, he expanded his nightmare domain to block off the detection. The monocle was no secret to anyone. He just didn¡¯t like it when someone uninvited watched him doing alchemy.

    In the sky and beside the Demeter, Eureka and Thewis exchanged a disappointed look.

    ¡°What a bummer. That illusion though... It¡¯s definitely Mister Phantom¡¯s teaching.¡±

    Since they couldn¡¯t observe Angor working, Thewis decided to inspect the strange illusion instead.

    Naturally, he failed to learn anything from it until Angor canceled it.

    At the same time, Brulee eagerly flew into Angor¡¯s room.

    A momentter, the owl returned to Eureka with its new charm over one of its eyes.

    ¡°That only took him one night. Enchantment alchemy, I guess,¡± said Thewis.

    Eureka took the monocle and examined it. It seemed this one was even better than the broken one.

    ¡°Low-tier. Angor has some serious Tooling skills.¡± Thewis also took a moment to inspect it. ¡°Oops, it seems he¡¯s not happy with this job.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Eureka.

    Thewis pointed to the item. ¡°He didn¡¯t leave his ¡®signature¡¯ on it. Meaning, he didn¡¯t want to show anyone that this is from his hands.¡±

    ¡°That must be why he asked me for a new design instead ofing up with one. Heh.¡±

    ¡°Such a pity.¡± Thewis handed the item back to Brulee. ¡°With his emblem, this item will sell for a lot more money.¡±

    Brulee hooted to protest.

    ¡°Chill. I¡¯m not actually going to sell it. It¡¯s a fact.¡±

    The owl wasn¡¯t going to worry about some emblem. It only wanted the effects of the monocle, as well as the good look.

    ¡°Whatever he thinks of us, it¡¯s fine as long as we¡¯re not enemies,¡± said Eureka. ¡°Profit makes people cooperate.¡±

 Chapter 910 - â€œGatekeeperâ€

    <h4>Chapter 910: ¡°Gatekeeper¡±</h4>

    Three dayster.

    Angor made significant progress in studying ¡°Silent Detainment¡±. Currently, he was still not familiar with thest rune he needed to draw. He could have done it using the tablet¡¯s help, but he would like to finish the rune without relying on the device.

    Before he could get to the final phase of his study, however, another urgent matter interrupted him.

    He felt his mana pool bloated.

    In fact, he never saw his mana pool so ¡°full¡± before. It was so obvious that he had reached the final bottleneck of his apprenticeship. To further improve his mana pool, he had to be a wizard.

    ¡°The final limit...¡±

    He now felt a terrible sensation all over his body as if he were trapped in a muddy swamp, unable to move. He almost had severalrge shackles tying up his body and soul. He just couldn¡¯t see them.

    He had heard from others many times that breaching the barrier between two major levels would be troublesome, and that the one before the level of a wizard was the biggest one he would meet in his life.

    Due to his many ¡°tricks and cheats¡±, he did not meet with such obstacles when turning level-2 and level-3. Now he felt moreden than ever.

    He had to endure the weighty feeling and fully prepare himself before attempting to tackle the limit. ording to Sunders, doing so too early and carelessly would only lower his chance of sess while causing injuries to his mindspace.

    Of course he didn¡¯t have what it took to take the challenge right now.

    He stood up from his seat somewhat sluggishly and nned to work on the domain sphere again. Since he might get hurt like how he did thest time, he was going to do it outside Padt Manor.

    He took Toby with him.

    He determined a spot at the edge of Yamei Province to execute his n. The nearest human settlement, which was Moonwater City, was thousands of kilometers away.

    He cast Dream Enkindle and entered the dream wastnd without a problem.

    Soon, he found the domain sphere and caught it in one hand.

    Next, he took a deep breath and began ¡°reading¡± the green sigils swirling on the surface of the sphere.

    The first iplete model¡ªBind¡ªsoon appeared in his mind, which was what kept the domain sphere in ce.

    Following this one, he reached Dissolve, which was used for extracting power from the sphere, while thest one, Fusion, would transfer the power to himself.

    He clenched his teeth and activated ¡°Dissolve¡±.

    The green sigils moved around the sphere quicker than before, causing shiny glitters to fall off the object.

    Then, he triggered ¡°Fusion¡±, and the scattering glitters rushed into his head like a stream of water.

    The first thing he felt was a giant headache.

    Once again, he saw his vision broadening as if he were the creator of this small world, who was free to look at his creation from far away.

    He saw the edge of the dream wastnd, beyond which wasplete darkness. By prating the darkness, one would probably reach the Dream Realm.

    That towering monster was gone. Angor wondered if the blond stranger persuaded it into leaving.

    At least he saw no danger in his view.

    The fusion soon ended, by which time he was rather d to find out that he did a lot better than thest time. He was still left panting on the ground, unable to move, while bearing with the searing pain stinging the center of his brain. Yet there was no bleeding or loss of consciousness this time.

    ...

    Inside the Foundation City, all the citizens briefly stopped moving as they suddenly felt the world around them gaining more rity.

    ¡°Why-why am I feeling so warm in my heart all of a sudden? As if I saw my dear mother...¡±

    Someone almost cried.

    ¡°Same! I feel... safe.¡±

    ¡°It came from outside the city, I think?¡± A man looked at the city gate, but no one could leave because they were strictly forbidden from going outside.

    Meanwhile, Freud also felt the strange aura from the top of Skyward Tower.

    ¡°That appears much like the sequence of aw. But different... This one is almost illusionary. Is Mister Padt epting a new domain power?¡±

    Freud knew about the domain sphere because Angor exined it to him once. With Follower¡¯s Oath, Angor had no problem revealing such secrets.

    A uniformed woman approached him and interrupted his thoughts, ¡°Mister Dison, Alda delivered a message.¡±

    Freud took a cramped scrap and saw several poorly-written letters on it.

    [HELP]

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him.¡± He tossed the paper on the ground. ¡°Ignore this stuff if he sends it again.¡±

    ¡°Acknowledge, sir.¡± The woman stepped back to her post.

    Freud looked at the Ocean Theater in the distance. He couldn¡¯t see through the walls, but he more or less knew what was going on in there.

    Jon was probably giving Alda piano lessons again.

    In Freud¡¯s view, it was a win-win if little Alda got to learn a new skill and provide Jon with morepany at the same time.

    It seemed Sunny was over there as well, but she was better suited to be a singer.

    ...

    Angor spent over ten hours on the ground before he could feel his legs.

    He made sure his mind was working properly before checking the new power he just gained.

    ¡°Hope I can find my magic powers back in the dream wastnd,¡± he muttered to himself. ¡°If so, I can finally get to alchemy practice as Freud suggested.¡±

    Currently, he was amon mortal in the dream wastnd just like Freud, Jon, and everyone else. However, he didn¡¯t need to worry about safety problems because he could still use his green sigils tomand nightmare energy.

    As soon as he found his full power back, he would like to do alchemy practices that he couldn¡¯t do elsewhere in the dream wastnd.

    ¡°Gatekeeper?¡± He frowned as he read the power¡¯s name from his mind. This sounded simr to thest one¡ªDream Gate.

    ¡°I can use this power to govern who can enter the dream wastnd. Wait...¡±

    This one could not help him achieve his ¡°costless alchemy practice¡±, but it was a very important power nevertheless. Previously, the Dream Gate only told him people and items that were going to arrive at the dream wastnd, and he could not stop them. Now, however, he was free to keep something out. He could even forcefully remove something from the dream wastnd that already existed there.

    He finally had an active defense mode!

 Chapter 911 - Candidate

    <h4>Chapter 911: Candidate</h4>

    The dream wastnd in its initial stage was vulnerable against infiltration if anyone who knew dream-rted arts caught wind of it. The ¡°Gatekeeper¡± power was without a doubt a much-needed protection.

    And just like Dream Gate, Gatekeeper also came with other interesting features. For example, Angor could ask the Gatekeeper to allow people affected by his nightmare power to enter only. In this case, those who didn¡¯t meet this condition could not get in unless they found the edge of the wastnd and broke inside by using raw strength.

    Simrly, he could ¡°define¡± many more criteria for entry, such as women only, souls only, or nts only...

    There were exceptions. After some trials, he noticed that items summoned into the dream wastnd by the Dream Whelk could bypass Gatekeeper. He could still determine theirnding locations, but he could not prevent them from getting in once the whelk worked.

    It was probably another trait made possible by a Mystery item.

    After doing enough tests, he set the ¡°default rule¡± of Gatekeeper as ¡°people invited by his nightmare energy only¡±. In other words, neers should only have two ways to reach the dream wastnd from now on, either via his ¡°Nightmare Dream Enkindle¡± or using Freud¡¯s uncher¡±.

    When he prepared to return to reality, he suddenly sensed something elseing from the newly gained power.

    It seemed Gatekeeper was resonating with an unknown source of energy in the distance.

    He summoned the ¡°mini-map¡± in his mind and slowly followed the direction of the signal until he saw where the Foundation City was at.

    He saw a flickering dot among the many buildings in the city, which had been reacting to his Gatekeeper through a weak connection.

    He soon found an answer from Gatekeeper that told him what was happening¡ªthere was someone in the Foundation City who had attuned to the power as well.

    This was simr to a case where someone sessfully received the sequence power from a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. However, the powers taken from the domain sphere could not exist elsewhere, which made them not so valuable as actual sequence powers such as the sequence of gravity.

    ¡°Did someone else receive Gatekeeper as well? Wait, no...¡±

    Angor shook his head as he sensed the nature of the signal.

    ¡°So I can decide whether I grant this power to them.¡±

    It appeared whoever was in the center of the signal was ¡°talented¡± in epting Gatekeeper, but it was up to Angor how much they could take.

    Before he decided whether to share Gatekeeper with this lucky citizen, he wished to find out who it was first.

    He woke up from the dream wastnd and felt an obviousck of strength. The aftereffect of absorbing the new domain power had notpletely gone yet.

    He felt strange bitterness lingering on his lips. When looking at Toby and an empty potion vial nearby, he quickly understood what was going on.

    ¡°d I got you, partner, or I¡¯ll spend several more nights out in the wild.¡± He caught Toby in his hand and brushed Toby, until the birdined of having his feathers messed up.

    ¡°I¡¯ll check the Foundation City again before I head back¡ªhey, wait! You shoulde with me. I recently invited a nice friend of mine to the city, I¡¯ll introduce you to each other.¡±

    After learning that the Foundation City was inside the dream wastnd, Toby quickly lost interest. Thest time Toby went there, the ce looked extremely boring and deste.

    ¡°Tweet!¡±¡ª<i>You need me to watch from the outside when you¡¯re out anyway!</i>

    ¡°Yeah... You¡¯re right. If some wandering wizard somehow caught me in my sleep...¡±

    He nodded to Toby and used Dream Enkindle on himself again. He had lots of chances in the future to show Toby to Jon.

    Once hended inside the city, the signal he felt earlier shone even more brightly in the ¡°mini-map¡± in his mind.

    He activated nightmare vision and soon located who he was looking for¡ªa charming-looking woman about the age of 30, who was applying makeup to some wrinkles around the corners of her eyes.

    The woman wore an extremely bright and eye-catching skirt full of equally lustrous embroideries of roses and grass. It was unlikely that anyone in the Foundation City could make such a skirt, which meant she brought it here from reality before her ¡°death¡±.

    ¡°She was dressed like that when dying?¡±

    Angor did not recognize her, and neither could he foretell the woman¡¯s character. After careful thought, he decided not to give her the power of Gatekeeper.

    Anyone with Gatekeeper or even an inferior version of it might inflict a great impact on how the dream wastnd worked. It would be fine if Freud or Jon received the privilege, but he would definitely not give it to someone he didn¡¯t know.

    When he thought about checking Jon out, he suddenly heard citizens around him whispering the same thing, that they all felt a strange power surgeing from somewhere outside the city.

    ¡°They all felt it, but only that woman was able to actually receive the power?¡±

    He decided to go to the Skyward Tower to talk to Freud. Hopefully, Freud could help him prove his assumption.

    ¡°d you¡¯re here, sir!¡± Freud smiled as soon as he arrived. ¡°That almost appeared like the sequence of a naturalw. Did you sessfully incorporate it?¡±

    Angor exined how he found the power of Gatekeeper as well as how someone in the city could also borrow the power.

    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear! Our city will be safer from now on.¡± Freud smirked. ¡°I think I know that woman. She used to be a famous viscountess from a small nation near the Central Empire. After she lost her husband, she somehow immigrated to the Central Empire and earned a position in the upper ss using her exceptional techniques. But sheter dug her own grave because of it. During a feast, she attempted to allure a young guest, who happened to be the fianc¨¦ of a princess from the Silverheron n. Furious, the princess sent her a ss of poisoned wine and ordered her to end her own life.

    ¡°I found her when she just got in her best dress and was about to drink the wine. Luckily, I used the uncher¡¯ on her in time before the poison could im her. By the way, she¡¯s one of the candidates I picked who are going to manage the city in my stead.¡±

 Chapter 912 - A Change to the Dream Wasteland

    <h4>Chapter 912: A Change to the Dream Wastnd</h4>

    ording to Freud, the woman was a master ofmunication and social n execution, which was proved when she turned from an insignificant local noblewoman into a well-respected guest in the royal court of the Central Empire.

    Still, Angor wasn¡¯t going to grant her the power of Gatekeeper. There was too much at stake.

    However, Angor did not intervene in Freud¡¯s candidate selection. Freud did need someone to help manage the city, and he had what it took to find the right people for it.

    ¡°Is this like a unique power system exclusive in the dream wastnd? Then there must be more to discover...¡± Freud tapped his forehead and considered it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s of too much use. Maybe it¡¯s amon thing to happen in the Dream Realm, just like dreamers freely shaping and controlling their own dreams. Well, if I find a chance to pass the power to you, I¡¯ll let you do more experiments on it. Our ¡®infinite alchemy¡¯ must wait, though. I still can¡¯t cast spells yet.¡±

    Simr tost time, he knew he had to gain more strength before epting the next domain power. And in his current case, he probably had to wait until he hit the level of a wizard.

    And even at that point, the new power he took from the sphere might not help him achieve costless alchemy. It was too random.

    By this point, he was beginning to wonder if it was necessary to take all of the domain sphere¡¯s powers at all. Even if the dream wastnd was fictitious, it was not so different from the real world as far as the rest of the citizens were concerned. The domain sphere had lost three of its powers, but it almost did not shrink in size. Only gods knew how many more were waiting to be harvested.

    If Angor had to gain enough growth in strength to ept a new power, he feared that he would never fully absorb the domain sphere even after reaching the level of legendary.

    Perhaps it was necessary to implement ¡°devolution¡± in the Foundation City like how ordinary human nations and states worked. Even so, he wouldn¡¯t carelessly do such a thing before getting his hands on the most supreme privilege that allowed him to control and restrict all the other privileges he passed to others. It would be a huge disaster if a citizen could use their new power against him.

    Since he had no idea how to select which power to take from the domain sphere yet, all must wait.

    ¡°Did you notice anything different than before recently?¡± he asked Freud.

    ¡°Different? Did you bring more buildings or other stuff into the city, sir?¡±

    ¡°No, I haven¡¯t used the Dream Whelk in a while. I mean, did something happen to this world? Like a new power or neww governing the whole ce?¡±

    ¡°Are you referring to the first domain power you failed to catch?¡±

    Angor nodded. When using the domain sphere for the first time, he let a domain power slip and disappear into the dream wastnd. He still wondered what it was.

    ¡°I see nothing significant, but... there IS something that might be rted to the case.¡±

    ¡°Tell me.¡±

    ¡°Sir, well... um, did you ever try relieving yourself?¡±

    ¡°What are you getting at?¡±

    ¡°Ahem, I mean, do you need to use the toilet once you¡¯re inside the dream wastnd?¡±

    Angor slowly shook his head.

    ¡°Neither do I, Alda, and Sunny. However, the other citizens, who are dead in reality, can satisfy their physical needs, such as eating, sleeping, and, well, dumping.¡±

    ¡°You mean, those who live here as their consciousness retained their metabolism system. They actually need to eat and unload?¡±

    ¡°I think so. The first of the citizens did not have such needs before, so it might be rted to the lost domain power you mentioned.¡±

    ¡°I see. Keep observing then.¡±

    ¡°Should I bring more people who¡¯re alive?¡± Freud suggested. ¡°Mister Jon is the only exception right now. Maybe we can broaden our research with a different type of test subjects.¡±

    ¡°No. We keep everything as is until I gain more control of this ce.¡±

    After Freud left him alone, Angor began considering another question.

    The purpose of the dream wastnd, as well as all the residents in it, was to help with their research project and amodate Jon. But what next? Supposed their project concluded, what was going to happen to the city?

    He probably would keep the city and its inhabitants as usual so that Jon wouldn¡¯t feel lonely and isted.

    However, the mortals were unlikely to help him with his ¡°infinite alchemy¡±. If he did need helpter, should he invite other supernaturals to join him?

    ...

    He descended to the first floor of Skyward Tower and saw the scavenging team again. They were carrying several barrels of sweet-scented wine to the storage.

    ¡°It reminds me of homemade rum made out of our best rye!¡± A passerby smacked his lips.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just hope the boss gets generous and gives us some of itter. I know how to brew wine, but I can¡¯t find the tools in the city.¡±

    When ¡°copying¡± buildings using the Dream Whelk, Angor brought a lot of food and water along with them, but he did not expect this to be necessary. Yet telling from the conversation he just heard...

    ¡°So I need to give them food and water supply? Hmm...¡±

    It didn¡¯t seem to be an urgent matter right now, but it would be sooner orter.

    While thinking about random problems to solve, he walked to the Ocean Theater, from where he sensed Jon.

    He entered the building and saw Alda sitting in front of the piano with a sad face. Jon was pulling on Alda¡¯s fingers. Beside them, Sunny was humming a small melody on top of a performer stand while smirking at Alda.

    Alda¡¯s edgy look reminded him of his younger days. Jon also used to force piano lessons on him even though he was not really an instrumentalist by nature.

    ¡°Look! It¡¯s Mister Padt!¡± Alda saw himing and almost cried.

    When Jon also looked to the entrance, Alda saw a chance and ran for the back door.

    ¡°It¡¯s almost three hours.¡± Jon checked the clock. ¡°Let¡¯s rest for today. Sunny, make sure you bring Alda with you next time.¡±

    ¡°THERE IS NO NEXT TIME!¡± Alda screamed in the distance.

    ¡°Look at that. Such a sweet kid, tormented into such bad shape,¡± Angor teased while joining Jon on the stage.

    ¡°He looks sweeter when crying, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    Angor stopped moving briefly.

    <i>Did you teach me piano just so I look ¡°sweeter¡±?!</i>

    He didn¡¯t ask that out. He didn¡¯t wish to find out the answer.

    ¡°So how¡¯s life in the Foundation City, Jon?¡±

    ¡°Not bad. At least the world¡¯s consciousness can¡¯t get me here. It¡¯s as if I just found a new life. Wizardry is amazing. I could have never imagined it possible to make such a dream world into existence.¡±

    ¡°d to hear it. And Jon... Do you mind if I ask someone else to help treat your body?¡±

 Chapter 913 - Jonâ€™s Concern

    <h4>Chapter 913: Jon¡¯s Concern</h4>

    Keeping Jon¡¯s consciousness inside the dream wastnd permanently seemed highly possible right now. With this settled, they had to decide how to treat Jon¡¯s body next.

    Since Angor still had no viable approaches to cure Jon¡¯s condition, he could only talk to Sunders, the only wizard he trusted.

    Jon took a long moment thinking about Angor¡¯s suggestion.

    ¡°There¡¯s a certain religious belief back on Earth, that your body is only a vessel, while what is within you is more important. I¡¯m not into religions, but I might agree with this. As long as I¡¯m here, in another form, and someone like you still remembers my name, then I have no problem throwing my old vessel away.

    ¡°But Angor... You told me that wizards can be ¡®mad scientists¡¯ when they feel like it. Will they use my body to do terrible things? Such as invading my home?¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t consider thispletely impossible, but the chance is very, very scant. Suppose the strongest wizard in this world found your body, the best he can do is to tell that you¡¯re a human from Earth, but he won¡¯t find out how to get there. Even if he somehow learns the exact location of Earth, he will not travel through different universes to aim for it. Someone who can perform such space travels will not be interested in a random world out there anyway.

    ¡°Besides, there isn¡¯t anyone who¡¯s capable of such a thing as far as I know.¡± Angor briefly exined the levels of wizards. ¡°Thest ¡®legendary wizard¡¯ disappeared from the southern region over a thousand years ago. Legendary is the current best level people have witnessed, and even those wizards cannot travel through time and space at their free wills.

    ¡°There are rumors that suggested the existence of even stronger wizards. These rumors might describe them as the most unimaginable miracles, yet they did not say anything about them exploring another universe. In my view, your concern isn¡¯t necessary.¡±

    <i>Your presence is no longer a secret anyway,</i> Angor thought.

    Jon sighed. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right. I just... don¡¯t want to end up as someone who brings doom to Earth, even if there¡¯s only the slightest chance of it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll get better until I can protect you and everything you care for,¡± said Angor. <i>I just hope I have enough time for it...</i>

    Just a few months ago, Jon still remembered Angor as a small and yful milk-lover who would oftene up with childish mischiefs. He found it hard to believe that this trustworthy gentleman in front of him used to be that same kid.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Jon nodded. ¡°I¡¯d be lying if I tell you I don¡¯t want to live a normal life. Just... Don¡¯t burden yourself too much, alright? I¡¯m fine with staying in this city. Don¡¯t let me drag you down.¡±

    ¡°Ha. You know, I¡¯m still thinking about taking you home someday. I mean YOUR home.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s nice to hope for. Wait...¡± Jon¡¯s smile suddenly froze. ¡°You still have the Alien Eye on you! Unlike my body, that thing has gotta be useful for finding a course to Earth. Make sure you don¡¯t lose it!¡±

    Angor gave Jon a determined nod.

    The truth was, many people including Sunders had noticed this artifact till now. Strangely, none of them said anything about it. They all saw it as a worthless decoration.

    Well, maybe Toby was an exception. There was one time when Toby saw the Alien Eye shining and floating on its own. It happened during his first trip to the Fey Continent. When staying on Sunders¡¯ cloud whale, the item suddenly shone brightly at night and brightened his tent, and Angor had no idea of it in his sleep.

    Although he wasn¡¯t worried about Toby at all. Judging from Toby¡¯s character, the bird probably had already forgotten about this matter. Besides, there were many alchemy items that gave out light. An easy excuse would deal with any suspicion.

    Angor only hoped that no wizard like Sunders would suddenly get interested in the Alien Eye.

    For now, he didn¡¯t have any good means of hiding the item. It couldn¡¯t go inside his bracelet for some reason. It could still be put inside a personal dimension such as a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. But it was not like he had one of those.

    He had been keeping it in his pendant ne and did not meet any trouble because of it yet. The only thing worth noticing was the strange incident in the tent when it glowed, and Nausica saw it too.

    He kept this in mind and nned to check the itemter so that the same thing didn¡¯t happen again out of the blue and perhaps ruin something in the process.

    ¡°Are you sure we can trust that professor of yours?¡± asked Jon. He still didn¡¯t know much about Sunders.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about other wizards, but Mister Sunders is fine.¡±

    Putting emotional factors aside, Angor believed that Sunders at least wouldn¡¯t harm him because they had manymon interests. Nightmare Form, projection bloodline, and alchemy... If Sunders would like to gain the most out of these things, he would make sure Angor was well and alive.

    ¡°Do as you wish then. This city is pretty good. Don¡¯t worry too much about me.¡±

    ¡°Sure, Jon. Tell Sunny and Alda if you need anything, and they¡¯ll convey the message to Freud.¡±

    Angor woke up and felt his head still throbbing a little. Drawing the power of Gatekeeper had impacted both his body and spirit, he still needed some time to fully recover.

    When Gond returned to Padt Manor, everyone saw his ill look and grew worried.

    When the message got out, Auri and Mana quickly came to him and talked about preparing a healthy meal tonight. Even Leon climbed off the sickbed and paid him a brotherly visit.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Pulled too many all-nighters and needed some rest, that¡¯s all.¡± Angor used the same excuse each time someone asked.

    Following the servants, Eureka soon heard about Angor¡¯s recent condition as well.

    She had not paid much attention to Angor because she and Thewis were working on making spirit remedies. It was Brulee who sent the news.

    ¡°He looks weaker than before. Dunno what¡¯s gotten into him,¡± Brulee exined while resting on the Demeter¡¯s branch. The owl had somewhat taken a liking to Angor after Angor gave it the Mermaid¡¯s Shell and the new monocle. When people in the manor talked about Angor¡¯s problem, Brulee also showed concerns.

    ¡°Angor¡¯s not feeling well?¡± Eureka looked at the manor castle and saw through the walls.

    Angor stepped onto his balcony when he felt Eureka¡¯s inquiring sight.

    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s not happy.¡± Eureka chuckled and canceled her far-sight spell.

    ¡°Is he alright, Master?¡± asked Brulee.

    ¡°He¡¯s good. Obstructed by his bottleneck, nothing serious.¡± Eureka sighed. ¡°He reached the peak of a level-3 apprentice so soon? Impressive. Or should I say, this is a bit frightening.¡±

    A shadow materialized in front of her. It was Thewis, who just returned from his personal dimension.

    Thewis had a bottle of green liquid held in one hand. Telling from his facial skin and neglected stubble, he had been having a taxing time.

    ¡°Sess?¡± Eureka quickly joined him.

    ¡°Only one bottle, out of seven servings of materials. Sigh... Such waste and deficiency. If only we can ask Angor to... Forget it. What are you talking about just now? Who¡¯s peaked?¡±

    ¡°Guess who?¡± Eureka pointed toward Angor¡¯s room and exined what she just heard.

    Thewis briefly checked Angor¡¯s condition as well without raising Angor¡¯s suspicion.

    ¡°Yeah... He topped out his level already. The hindrance is so obvious on him, which means he didn¡¯t go through such things before. So his entire apprenticeship was smooth and trouble-free? I never heard of such cases before.

    ¡°Does he have secret training techniques? Or perhaps the channeling method he learned befitted his talent perfectly?¡±

 Chapter 914 - Geometric Lock

    <h4>Chapter 914: Geometric Lock</h4>

    ¡°Speaking of Brute Cavern, their best channeling method aimed for apprentices is the ¡®Montaus¡¯ Octahedrite Channeling¡¯, which guarantees a basepatibility of 13. Is that what Angor¡¯s using? No... He¡¯s just too fast. Did he grow super affiliated with Montaus that thepatibility went beyond 20? Hmm...¡±

    Thewis mumbled his guesses but without figuring out any usable conclusions.

    ¡°How he trains do not concern us.¡± Eureka pulled Thewis¡¯ attention back. ¡°I¡¯m the one who needs help here. Will your potion work or not?¡±

    Thewis lifted the bottle in his hand. ¡°Partially, I¡¯m afraid. Considering how you got your wound, we can only pray that this thing cures you as much as possible.¡±

    The potion made by Thewis was called the ¡°Rhythmless Cadence¡±, a productbining the techniques of both the Reformer School and other schools that preferred ancient skills. It was a low-tier potion, but it was still rtively difficult to brew.

    It was not for drinking. To apply its effect, they had to perform a certain ¡°cadence¡± to channel its power out.

    Without further ado, Thewis began tapping his fingers on the bottle using a special pattern. As he moved, ethereal symbols left the bottle like migrating birds and dived into Eureka¡¯s forehead.

    Each time she absorbed a symbol, Eureka felt her fatigued spirit soothed. However, the pleasure onlysted for a very short moment.

    From this point and on, the magical symbols would reach the depth of her mind and mend her injury slowly. In Eureka¡¯s case, there was arge rip in the center of her mindspace, which was the spirit wound she had been suffering.

    The floating symbols all reached the tear and dived straight into it, causing it to shrink just a little bit.

    That was all Eureka felt. She wasn¡¯t sure if the effect was noticeable at all.

    ¡°How was it?¡± Thewis finished his channeling and quickly asked.

    ¡°Almost negligible.¡± Eureka shook her head. ¡°Perhaps more of it willpletely seal the wound up. Just... We need lots of it.¡±

    ¡°Sigh... The potion involves several scarceponents. With what I have and my skills, I can only make five more bottles, at best. Rhythmless Cadence is the best potion I can make for treating a wounded spirit. If it doesn¡¯t work, then I don¡¯t have anything else to help.¡±

    Eureka showed a sad smile. ¡°I¡¯ll just bear with it for a little longer then. It¡¯s fine. Thanks to Angor¡¯s Demeter, it doesn¡¯t hurt as badly as before.¡±

    Thewis nced at the tree-creature beside them.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll talk to Angor again.¡±

    ...

    Angor began continuing his next project with no idea of what Eureka and Thewis were up to.

    He only had to study one more rune to sessfully draw the Silent Detainment magic array. He decided to finish the job right now.

    It took him two days to fully grasp the necessary procedure. ording to his pre-assessment, an item enchanted with Silent Detainment would be a mid-tier item, which meant he would cause an alchemy omen. Even though alchemy omens did not usually drag innocent observers other than the alchemist into the ¡°omen challenge¡±, he still decided to finish the work away from Padt Manor.

    Again, he took Toby with him and found an empty spot in the wilderness.

    The crafting was fast and sessful, but the omen took him more time than he expected.

    The challenge presented by his new tool, the ¡°Geometric Lock¡±, sent him in front of a giant magic cube. Each ¡°sticker¡± on the cube had a simple puzzle on it that he needed to solve, and each time he solved one, the cube would rotate once depending on the position of the sticker, and his goal was to solve the entire cube.

    It wasn¡¯t a hard thing to do when he could use ¡°mind overdrive¡±, but the 4¡Á4 cube still took him an entire night.

    When thest position was in ce, he was teleported back into reality. Above him, an energy cloud that contained immeasurable data and intelligence slowly dissipated.

    Before he could get a better look at his Geometric Lock, however, a low-pitched and serious voice warned him.

    ¡°Get away from there immediately. Your alchemy omen could be seen far and wide. The recruiters from several organizations are heading your way, including a man from Song of the Deep.¡±

    It was Thewis¡¯ voice.

    ¡°There are recruiters at the Old Earth?¡± Angor frowned. It was possible for nearby organizations to send their men here fast in this season, but why would anyone recruit apprentices here? And what was the deal with Song of the Deep?

    Angor didn¡¯t think Thewis was tricking him. There was no point.

    And he certainly didn¡¯t want to bump into Song of the Deep or any strange wizard for that matter, so he quickly stuffed Geometric Lock in his bracelet, told Toby to go into Griffin Mode, and disappeared in the next second.

    After he was gone, Thewis showed up at his original position.

    ¡°A mid-tier product within 24 hours. That¡¯s almost as fast as some of the best alchemists.¡±

    Thewis knew what Angor was doing because the alchemy omen was pretty obvious, and he wasn¡¯t surprised at all.

    Still, he was impressed by Angor¡¯s skills.

    He looked to his west and then south, from where he sensed someone rapidly approaching. He could tell their identities as well¡ªrecruiters who sailed on the same ship with him a while ago.

    With a simple spell, Thewis removed all traces and hormones Angor possibly left behind. It was unlikely that the recruiters could find Angor by using these things, but Thewis would like to make sure Angor stayed hidden, as it meant protecting Eureka as well.

    With everything done, he blended into the shadows and vanished.

    ...

    A momentter, three individuals arrived at the scene at the same time and gave each other several uninterested nces.

    ¡°You all saw that alchemy omen, I guess?¡± This one was a woman in a dark-blue wizard robe and riding on a broomstick. She had a pair of red-scaled vipers resting around her neck.

    ¡°Can¡¯t miss it,¡± a man fully covered in a ck robe replied in a gruff voice. The only thing that could be seen on the outside was his skinny hands that almost looked like tree branches. In fact, there were green leaves hidden under his sleeves.

    ¡°He¡¯s gone! What a disappointment. I thought I finally got to meet a professional alchemist.¡± The viper-woman¡¯s eyes glimmered with craftiness.

    The third recruiter was a fat young man wearing a felt hat, who was together with Thewis when leaving their ship.

    Instead of joining the conversation, he took out a golden scroll and unleashed its power into the area.

    ¡°Absolutely nothing. Whoever was doing alchemy here was a rather cautious man.¡± He scratched the ¡°fish scale¡± on the back on his hand. <i>An alchemist at the Marginalized Ind... That should be the target.</i>

    ¡°Ahem. ¡®Twin Adder¡¯ Feyling of Tower of Hurricane, ¡®Stiff Scion¡¯ Henry of Gravity Forest. How fare you, my friends?¡± The fat man bowed. ¡°Would you mind if I ask a small question?¡±

    Henry and Feyling kept their guard up without speaking. As fellow passengers, they knew each other¡¯s business.

    This man from Song of the Deep called himself ¡°King¡±. The organization alone was enough reason for both Henry and Feyling to stay away from him. Not to mention that King was a very powerful man.

    ¡°A simple question, really.¡± King¡¯s big smile caused his eyes to almost disappear. ¡°I thought you two only remained at Vichy Harbor for a day and were going to leave with the ship. But no, you remained behind. Are you perhaps recruiting? But as I remembered, Gravity Forest and Tower of Hurricane do not find new apprentices at the Marginalized Ind.¡±

    ¡°Heh. Our recruitment routes always involve this ce. It¡¯s just that we usually exclude it from our ns. Compared to us, Song of the Deep should have no business here whatsoever. What are <i>you</i> doing here?¡± Feyling questioned back.

    ¡°I have nothing to say to you.¡± Henry simply turned away and was going to leave.

    ¡°Not so fast.¡± King reappeared in front of Henry and blocked his path.

    Out of instinct, Henry lifted both hands and unleashed a cluster of sharp vines at King.

    ¡°Don¡¯t me me then.¡± King snickered when he saw the nts going to trap him. ¡°You attacked me first...¡±

 Chapter 915 - A Letter

    <h4>Chapter 915: A Letter</h4>

    Angor and Tobynded among the mountain range outside Grue Town and easily saw Thewis waiting for them because that red hair was so eye-catching.

    ¡°Thank you very much for your help, Mister Thewis.¡± Angor bowed.

    ¡°I suggest you take your alchemy omens to the sea so that you draw fewer people who want to get their hands on a skilled alchemist. At least stay very far away from Padt Manor. You know this much, right?¡±

    Angor nodded obediently. He didn¡¯t leave Yamei Province because he wouldn¡¯t mind Thewis and Eureka noticing his alchemy omen. It was just that he wasn¡¯t expecting to see more people from other organizations to show up at the Old Earth.

    The Old Earth was not big. If any other wizards saw him, they were likely to discover Padt Manor as well. Angor was truly grateful that Thewis warned him in time.

    ¡°Well, sir, this ce has not seen any recruiter for ages. Thest one was Mister Mara, who came to visit his home along the way. What¡¯s going on all of a sudden?¡±

    Thewis frowned. ¡°I have no idea. It must be something we don¡¯t know. We shouldn¡¯t get concerned though.¡±

    Thewis began walking down the mountain slope instead of flying. Seeing this, Angor quickly followed behind him for it was obvious that Thewis had something else to say.

    ¡°That omen disyed different types of energy, one of them being something about ¡®stealth¡¯. You crafted something for hiding stuff?¡± Thewis asked while pretending that he was striking up random conversations.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, sir. I need it to conceal the Dream Whelk¡¯s signal.¡±

    Thewis suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. By hiding the whelk, Angor was clearly trying to keep curious wizards who saw the Mystery energy away. This meant Thewis was also on Angor¡¯s ¡°cklist¡±.

    Butpared to this, Thewis was more surprised at the fact that Angor spent all the time and resources making a mid-tier alchemy item, just to hide a useless Dream Whelk. This had proved to him that Angor was even more adept at creating different items than he expected.

    ¡°How did you reach such a level so fast? You train faster than any other apprentices I know of, while at the same time polishing your alchemy skills to the extent of exceeding those who spent centuries at it!¡±

    Thewis immediately regretted asking such a straightforward question. But since he did, he still grew curious as to what Angor would say.

    ¡°It¡¯s all about luck.¡± Angor used his good-old excuse.

    Of course Thewis wasn¡¯t satisfied. Though he wasn¡¯t going to push.

    ¡°Luck, huh? Guess a really generous Prophet cast a very powerful spell such as Bless on you?¡±

    It was a joke. But when Angor heard about ¡°Bless¡±, he thought as if something clicked in his mind.

    ¡°I want to negotiate a trade with you,¡± Thewis said, interrupting Angor¡¯s thoughts.

    ¡°Trade, sir?¡±

    ¡°You help me make potions, in return, I¡¯ll agree to one of your requests.¡±

    ¡°Potions for healing spirit injuries?¡± Angor knew Eureka was in need of these potions, but for some reason, the woman never asked him for help. He was a bit confused to see Thewis mentioning this matter instead.

    ¡°Correct.¡± Thewis nodded.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m not up for the job.¡±

    ¡°Why? You think earning my favor is not worth it?¡± Thewis narrowed his eyes and showed a rather dangerous expression.

    ¡°That¡¯s not it. I¡¯ll certainly consider it if it¡¯s a Tooling request. But for Apothecary, there¡¯s not much I can do. I only learned the recipes for two to three types of potions, and the simple antidote is one of them.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you¡ª¡±

    ¡°You saw what I did when I was brewing Leon¡¯s antidote, sir. I needed to thoroughly consult Master Mithra¡¯s handbook. He did grant me lessons regarding Apothecary, but spirit cure isn¡¯t included in what I learned so far.¡±

    It was a fact. Thewis didn¡¯t need lie-detection spells to tell that Angor was being honest.

    <i>So he never learned how?</i> Thewis carefully considered. <i>He has Mithra to teach him though, THE Mithra. Surely it won¡¯t take him long to study a new recipe?</i>

    <i>No... He¡¯s fully focused on helping his teacher right now, and he can¡¯t find extra time for it.</i>

    They had arrived at the main road at the foot of the mountain, where a refugee camp was built. But there weren¡¯t many people living there right now.

    ¡°I suggest yer turn back if you¡¯re nning to head to Grue Town. It¡¯s haunted!¡± An old refugee wearing rags spoke to Angor and Thewis from far away.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not!¡± A younger man showed up from a tent nearby. ¡°We saw a team of knights leaving the town just the other day. Maybe a deity or something used amazing magic to cover it up, like in the stories!¡±

    ¡°Deity my a*s. If there are deities and whatnot watchin¡¯ over us, I should be enjoying a cup of hot tea at home, rather than pullin¡¯ my old legs in this sh*thole! Who knows, maybe it¡¯s some wicked witch who turned the entire town into a graveyard and fed on human flesh.¡±

    ¡°Quit it, old man.¡± The young man lifted a bird he just caught. ¡°Fresh meat. You can have some tonight.¡±

    He tore one of the bird¡¯s legs off, causing a small tube-like object to fall on the ground with a sharp ¡°click¡±.

    ¡°Wait, what do you have there? A carrier pigeon?¡± The old refugee picked the tube up. ¡°Where did you get this bird?¡±

    ¡°Just outside the town. It can¡¯t get inside, so I thought I could shoot it down with my bow. I got lucky with it.¡±

    When the young man began exaggerating his bowmanship, Angor approached the speakers and checked the letter tube. It seemed his illusion barrier discouraged more than human visitors.

    He wasn¡¯t interested in someone¡¯s letter. Even so, he wouldn¡¯t mind passing it to its destination since he was partially responsible for the dead pigeon.

    A momentter, Thewis saw Angoring back and grinned. ¡°You would stick to ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯ with mortals too?¡±

    He said this because Angor paid a silver coin to get the letter.

    ¡°Rules are better if they apply to more ces instead of fewer, no?¡±

    ¡°Heh. If you say so.¡±

    While continuing to the town, Angor uncapped the tube and dropped its content out.

    It was indeed a letter. But Angor was surprised to see his own name written as the recipient. He didn¡¯t remember anyone at the Old Earth who would send him letters in this old-fashioned way.

    ¡°The sender is... Aaron Morn?¡±

    As he remembered, General Aaron parted ways with Princess Tavier after the victory at Moonwater City. While Tavier went to deal with enemies at other parts, Aaron stayed at Moonwater as the guardmander.

    He also helped Angor greatly when Angor needed criminals tomence his dream experiment.

    While wondering what Aaron could possibly want from him, he quickly finished the short letter.

    It seemed Aaron meant to inform him that the ¡°god-forsaken brat¡± they capturedst time hade back, who then asked to talk to him.

    When helping Princess Tavier remove a great threat from the war, which was a rogue apprentice from the Centipede Guild who could summon Heart Gorgers, Angor also found a child, who was supposed to be the ¡°reserve member¡± for the guild. Previously, Angor thought about taking the kid with him as a new recruit for Brute Cavern since the child had not studied anything from the summoner apprentice yet.

    Butter, the kid put the entire army under an uproar by inflicting deadly poison on several soldiers, who would definitely die should Angor didn¡¯t help them in time. After hurting the soldiers, the kid escaped from Aaron¡¯s camp.

    Angor decided to forget about this matter since he was no longer interested in bringing such a little demon with him. And as long as people were aware, the poison wasn¡¯t much of a threat.

    ¡°He came back? After all these months?¡±

 Chapter 916 - New Theory

    <h4>Chapter 916: New Theory</h4>

    ¡°He¡¯s back and asks to see me?¡± Angor stowed the letter with a strange look.

    He did tell Aaron¡¯s soldiers to punish the kid however they liked should they find him again. But it seemed that Aaron treated the kid more kindly since the man actually sent this letter.

    The date on the letter suggested that it was sent two weeks ago. Angor wondered whether he should check this matter out.

    Meanwhile, Thewis was patiently waiting for Angor to finish.

    ¡°So what are you going to do with Jon? He doesn¡¯t have much longer, if what I¡¯m guessing is right.¡±

    Angor thought about his conversation with Jon the other day.

    ¡°... I think I must find more help from the others.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Thewis didn¡¯t question the details. ¡°Again, feel free to tell me if you need a hand. If you do drag another wizard here, I¡¯ll appreciate it if you tell me in advance.¡±

    Angor saw Thewis leaving for the Demeter¡¯s floating ind and decided to ask something.

    ¡°May I have a moment of your time, Mister Thewis?¡±

    Thewis turned back and waited.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you want to, you know, do your own experiments on Jon?¡±

    ¡°Naturally, a test subject who¡¯s alive is better than one who¡¯s dead. But it can¡¯t be helped if I have nothing to keep him alive. If you do find someone who can, I hope you will share whatever you discovered from Jon with me. I won¡¯t me you if you don¡¯t.¡±

    Thewis turned away and floated higher. ¡°Besides, that mortal is not as interesting as <i>you</i>.¡±

    Angor silently watched Thewis disappear before letting out a deep sigh of relief.

    He had been worried that Thewis would do terrible things to Jon upon returning to Padt Manor. But for now, this wasn¡¯t going to happen.

    Thewis was Leon¡¯s teacher. Going hostile with him was definitely a bad idea.

    ...

    Angor returned to his bedroom and took out the Geometric Lock eagerly.

    The overall appearance of the item resembled a symmetric crystal carved into a snowke. Everything shown by Narda¡¯s Vision was as expected¡ªthe item had no surprises this time.

    That strange figure named Cassini didn¡¯t show up in the alchemy omen like thest time when he was making Crimson Aegis. And the omen challenge didn¡¯t involve any strange choices.

    The truth was, he preferred that his creations turned out to be what he had in his mind instead of gaining a super-strong trait, like how Crimson Aegis did. Equivalent exchange was rule number one in the wizarding world. Everything had a cost, even if he didn¡¯t ask for it.

    The Geometric Lock perfectly reflected his design, being a mid-tier item with defense and energy-camouge effects. Upon activating it, he could determine how much area to cover, with an upper limit of a 10-meter radius around him.

    After receiving a magic crystal as the energy source, the lock shone brightly and released strands of fanciful-looking threads thatpletely wrapped Angor¡¯s room within.

    Now, the room was safe frommon detection means and attacking cantrips.

    The effect in his room soon rmed the two wizards on the small floating ind.

    Eureka tried several different inspection spells, which were all blocked by the strange strings around Angor¡¯s position. She could forcefully see through using more powerful spells, but that would alert Angor as well.

    ¡°That¡¯s the result of the alchemy omen?¡±

    ¡°Should be.¡± Thewis also nced that way. ¡°He said something about hiding his possessions.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s meant to annoy <i>us,</i> is it not?¡± Eureka frowned. ¡°And wait... I can¡¯t sense his location either. It hides people as well? He intentionally made his aura so obvious earlier just so we can test the new effect for him. Who does he think he is, huh?!¡±

    <i>Wasn¡¯t it you who kept monitoring him without his permission?</i> Thewisined in his mind.

    Angor could not hear Eureka¡¯s outburst from his room. He was currently doing several more necessary tests on the item, to figure out the limit of the protective effects.

    Soon, he reached thest step, which was to use the Dream Whelk to pull it into the dream wastnd. Apart from using the item over there, he also wanted to see whether the lock could hide the whelk¡¯s energy as well.

    The instruction in the book suggested that Silent Detainment could limit the detectable range down to a hundred meters. But he would like to learn the exact number. It was likely that the oue could be slightly different.

    He sent his spirit power farther to look at the whelk from afar.

    The signal drastically grew weaker beyond 80 meters, and when he reached 200 meters, the Mystery energy was almost unnoticeable.

    During his test, Eureka failed to sense the Mystery energy. It was Thewis who cast another glimpse toward his room, but the man did not do anything.

    Angor entered the dream wastnd and nned to hide the domain sphere under the lock¡¯s effect as soon as possible.

    He always hoped that he could choose which ¡°rule¡± to extract from the sphere so that he could get his hands on the more important ones earlier, though he didn¡¯t know how. Each time he attempted to absorb a new rule, he would get a random one.

    Upon reaching the sphere, he suddenly recalled Thewis¡¯ ¡°joke¡± earlier, that he received a powerful spell from a Prophet called Bless.

    Could he use such a spell to find the exact domain power he needed, or at least narrow down the search range?

    He read about it before. Bless was a rather rare spell exclusive to Prophets. He was more or less hopeless to study it.

    But he had money! Why not buy a scroll for casting Bless? Even a single-use one was fine.

    A scroll with such a powerful spell on it would probably cost over a million. However, he would not spend it for real if he took it to the dream wastnd and used it there. As long as he had the Dream Whelk, he could activate the scroll however he liked, repeatedly.

    A million crystals for an infinite Bless scroll in the dream wastnd. That didn¡¯t sound too bad.

    He quickly locked up the domain sphere and returned to reality, then he left his new idea in his personal notebook, together with the other discoveries rted to the dream wastnd.

    He couldn¡¯t help but smile at the brilliant n he just came up with.

    This wouldn¡¯t be easy though. He had not heard about anyone who could enchant Bless onto scrolls. There were several such scrolls left behind by ancient wizards, which were all treasured and heavily guarded by their owners. He would have a hard time finding one.

    With all work done, he nned to go to the Foundation City again and tell Freud his new theory.

 Chapter 917 - Heylanâ€™s Collapse

    <h4>Chapter 917: Hen¡¯s Copse</h4>

    Suijusher, when interpreted using an archaic tongue of Hen Imperial, meant ¡°great tides that visited the empty winter¡±.

    The localnguage of Hen was slowly forgotten when the universal tongue began spreading among major continents. As of today, few people alive could still use it. However, a selected few cities and inds in Hen still kept their old names, and they were still using their old dialect.

    Suijusher, a city built upon one of the small inds offshore, was one of them.

    Due to the mouthful of a name, many people preferred to call it the Winter Tide City. This city housed arge harbor named the Ranbo Wharf, which used to be a booming trading hub for merchants from far and wide. But since the Imperial started their war against the Goldspink Empire, the militaries took it for naval purposes.

    Losing the financial advantage was a great blow to the city, but the people all bore with it when thinking about how much more profit they could gain by iming Goldspinknds.

    Their forces did proceed swimmingly at first. However, before the Hens could celebrate theirurel, the situation of the war suddenly turned worse and against them, until they were ced on the losing side.

    The leaders would never surrender now because they had dived too deep into the mess already. They had to push forward, both to regain their lost resources spent in the battles and to give their people a good answer.

    The campaign waged on.

    Soldiers needed money. Lots of them. When the royal rulers exhausted their storage, they set their eyes on farmers and citizens.

    Added with heavier taxation than ever, the Winter Tide City had stumbled into a cold age for real. Faced with bad news from both inside and outside the country, people in the city were getting rather restless. Followed by more refugees came elevated crime rates and conflicts. Now, even best friends would not fully trust each other.

    ...

    Two children in poor clothes stood in front of a bakery shop with sad looks. The shopkeeper, an overweight, middle-ageddy with a stern look, gazed at them.

    One of the small refugees, Chaira, pleaded, ¡°Please, Ma¡¯am, we haven¡¯t been eating in a while, and my sister feels very ill...¡±

    ¡°Get a mirror!¡± The woman was obviously not in a good mood. ¡°You look in better shape than my daughter. Want to leech off my shop with your lies? Get lost. I have rent to pay!¡±

    Chaira showed a dangerous look and kept gazing across the shop¡¯s windows in hunger.

    ¡°We ain¡¯t lying! Someone hurt my sister, I need to take care of her, but we really need some food. Please...¡± Chaira sobbed.

    The shopkeeper released a hound she kept in the shop and chased the two beggars away. Her stern expression softened after the young intruders were gone.

    The truth was, she wouldn¡¯t mind helping kids in need in normal times. But neither her shop nor the city was in the right ce to get generous right now.

    ¡°Gods help us...¡± She walked back into the shop and found a piece of bread. ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t disregard my dear Nini.¡±

    ...

    Chaira and hispanion, Aarni, managed to shake off the dog after running all the way to the harbor.

    Furious, Chaira spat into the ocean and cursed.

    Aarni was already the weaker one. After the escape, the hunger got to him and caused him to copse.

    ¡°You alright, Brother?¡± Chaira quickly helped Aarni up. ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine... So no bread for us. I¡¯ll just find some fish down there.¡±

    Aarni shook his head madly. The first rule announced by the army after the harbor was turned into a military facility was that no citizens should set sail, either with a boat or not. Anyone found guilty would be executed on the spot.

    Hungry as he was, Aarni didn¡¯t wish his brother to take the risk. But as a mute, he could do nothing other than iling his arms and moaning.

    Aarni didn¡¯t have a tongue¡ªhe lost it in an ident.

    Chaira, however, only felt his rage growing when seeing his brother trying so hard to speak. Not to mention that their sister, Guina, was waiting for their return with nasty wounds.

    ¡°Damn that Vonman b*stard. He¡¯s the reason you and Guina were captured by that witch! And she, she¡ª¡± Two streams of tears ran down along Chaira¡¯s dirt-covered cheeks.

    ¡°Mmmmf! Hmmmf!¡± Aarni kept mumbling.

    ¡°You think Vonman is good, after all that he did to you?!¡±

    Chaira couldn¡¯t understand what Vonman did to his family. They were in their pickle because of Vonman!

    ¡°Ugh forget about him. The coward¡¯s noting back anyway!¡±

    Aarni cried silently, which further boosted Chaira¡¯s inner rage. But the only thing he could do to vent it out was to yell loudly at the sky like a defeated dog.

    A little girl in a princess skirt, who was enjoying the view on the shore, was attracted by Chaira¡¯s voice and looked his way.

    Chaira also saw her. He reced his expression with a more hateful one.

    He looked left and right. He made sure no one else was looking before rushing to the girl and knocking her into the water with a mighty kick.

    ¡°Now that feels better...¡±

    Aarni gazed at him with a terrified look.

    ¡°Heh. That little bi*ch is the daughter of the filthy bread maker who attacked us earlier. Serves her right!¡± Chaira spat.

    Aarni watched the drowning girl below slowly losing her strength but couldn¡¯t do anything.

    A momentter, they both headed to the suburbs of Winter Tide City in grim silence.

    Aarni never talked to Chaira again; he knew his brother was mad right now.

    Chaira didn¡¯t feel any sense of guilt after what he did. Vonman killed people, Guina killed people, why couldn¡¯t he follow their example?

    With a downed mood, they arrived at their home; a simple shelter improvised out of junk and branches.

    Apart from a broken bed, an unlit campfire, and a torn baby cot, there was a strong smell of blood that invaded their noses.

    Someone spoke from inside the cot in a sharp voice, ¡°Who¡¯s it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just us, Guina.¡±

    ¡°*Slurp* You... You didn¡¯t find anything today, I guess?¡±

    ¡°Those in the city see us like bugs! No one will give us anything. The bread seller at Ranbo Harbor even sent her beast after us.¡± Chaira suddenly began tough. ¡°It¡¯s not all about bad things, though. I threw her daughter overboard! Suppose she made it to the surface, the soldiers are gonna gut her for swimming where she shouldn¡¯t!¡±

    ¡°Daughter of the baker. You talking about Nini?¡±

    ¡°What, you know her?¡± Chaira panicked. The only thing these wanderers could rely upon was the limited friendship of their kind. It would be bad if he killed Guina¡¯s friend.

    ¡°Nini used to be my friend. *Slurp*¡± Guina sighed while causing more of her strange noise. ¡°No matter. I don¡¯t need more friends other than you.¡±

    ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m not empty-handed though. I found some bush berries just now. It ain¡¯t tasty, but I can make a drink out of it. Just wait.¡±

    ¡°*Slurp* Umhmm...¡±

    While Chaira went off to fetch a pot, Aarni approached the baby cot and looked inside in sadness.

    There was a small girl about the age of eight lying there, but without any of her limbs. Her shoulder joints and the bottom of her torso were fully wrapped in bloody bandages, which caused the bad smell in the shelter.

    These weren¡¯t only Guina¡¯s injuries. Most of her lips were stitched up by messy threads, and she could only open her mouth very slightly.

    On top of her right shoulder was a small ragdoll with a mouth that could move like that of a ventriloquist dummy. The doll used to be Guina¡¯s favorite toy and what helped her study ventriloquism. Thanks to such a skill, she was able to talk to her family just fine.

    ¡°Don¡¯t look like that, Aarni. *Slurp* Save your tears for after I¡¯m dead, alright?¡± Guina spoke again with her unpleasant tone.

    ¡°Hmmm...¡± Aarni nodded sadly.

    ¡°Serious now, don¡¯t be like that. You promised that you¡¯ll let me teach you puppet talk. Let¡¯s make that happen when I still have time.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll always have time.¡± Chaira joined them with a bowl of green liquid. ¡°We¡¯ll survive this together.¡±

    ¡°Kekekek... I know my body, so I doubt it. But I¡¯ll try. Just... I hope to see Vonman again.¡±

    Chaira grimaced. ¡°Did he put his spiders into your heads or something?! HE ruined us!¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t.¡± Guina helped Aarni exin. ¡°He¡¯s a victim just like us.¡±

    ¡°Well, that a*shole sure looks too alive and kicking to be a victim!¡± Chaira snapped. ¡°Give up. He won¡¯t be back, no matter what you think.¡±

    ¡°Fine... But I¡¯ll wee him if he does show up.¡± Guina closed her eyes and lost herself in her memories.

    As they bore with more stressful silence, they suddenly heard a lot of footsteps closing in.

 Chapter 918 - Demise

    <h4>Chapter 918: Demise</h4>

    ¡°If you¡¯re looking for several little stinky mutants, they should be right here,¡± a refugee in rags said obediently to a city guard in armor walking next to him.

    The middle-aged baker woman was following behind the guard with a depressed look.

    The guard mmed the door of the shelter open and scanned the room quickly, but without seeing anything.

    ¡°Not a soul. Well?¡± He then looked at their guide with a pair of sharp eyes.

    ¡°But... But I just saw them going in there!¡± The refugee also looked inside and sweated.

    ¡°Taking me for a fool?¡± The guard grew impatient.

    The refugee quickly knelt down. ¡°They were here a minute ago, honest! Oh, wait! A wicked woman used to live here before. I think she dug a cer somewhere nearby. That¡¯s where they¡¯re hiding!¡±

    ¡°A woman?¡± The guard approached the cer entrance at the back of the shelter.

    ¡°Yeah! She¡¯s big, stingy, and always speaks terrible things.¡± The guide nced at the fat baker behind and quickly changed his words. ¡°Ahem. Anyway, those who knew her all hated her. She disappeared a month ago. After that, two little brats¡ªI mean three, took her ce. But one of them also leftter. I think the kids are onto some no good. Maybe they murdered the woman and took her home.¡±

    The baker chipped in while clenching her teeth, ¡°The monsters! They killed my Nini!¡±

    ¡°A stingy woman, you say?¡± The guard didn¡¯t mind the baker¡¯s outburst. ¡°Did she do anything bad to you refugees? And what did you lot do to her?¡±

    This guard had always been loyal to the city¡¯s cause and was not easily swayed by one-sided indictment. In his view, if a refugee considered a citizen to be ¡°evil and stingy¡±, then the citizen probably didn¡¯t do anything.

    The refugee guideughed it off and didn¡¯t protest.

    ¡°What¡¯s this... smell?¡± The guard frowned when approaching a door leading below. ¡°Guess part of your words were true.¡±

    He pushed the door slightly ajar but couldn¡¯t go any further. There were shadows moving at the other side, and they were probably those who were barring the entrance.

    ¡°Foolish.¡± The guard unsheathed his sword and took the door down in one swing.

    Inside the cer, two kids¡ªone taller and one shorter¡ªlooked at him in trembling forms.

    ¡°That¡¯s the little sh*t!¡± The baker woman cried, ¡°A sailor told me they murdered my child, my poor Nini...¡±

    The guard went further inside and saw a half-rotten corpse beside the stairs, which still had maggots crawling all over it.

    ¡°That must be the woman I talked about!¡± the refugee yelled from behind. ¡°So she died down here.¡±

    The guard checked the body and realized what the refugee imed was probably true, that the owner of the shelter died as soon as these children moved in.

    Then he nced at the crying baker.

    ¡°What a cruel world, giving birth to such young criminals...¡±

    There was nowhere to hide in the cer, leaving Chaira and Aarni cornered to a wall, while the baby cot holding Guina was behind them.

    ¡°Did you kill this woman?¡± the guard asked while walking to them.

    No response.

    ¡°Did you just push an innocent girl into the sea?¡±

    Again, silence.

    ¡°No matter. A passing marine saw what you did. As a sergeant working for the city, I shall arrest you. You¡¯ll be fine if we find proof that cleanses your guilt. But if you resist...¡± He lifted his sharp weapon, causing the children to shiver badly.

    Aarni suddenly pushed his brother away. He walked to the guard and pointed to himself while moaning madly.

    The guard noticed Aarni¡¯sck of tongue and widened his eyes. The refugee outside did tell him there was a mute kid living here, but he didn¡¯t expect that it was the result of another brutal crime.

    Chaira quickly dragged Aarni back and stepped ahead. ¡°It has nothing to do with him. I pushed that girl. Her mother¡ª¡± He red at the baker at the door. ¡°She insulted us and released her filthy dog upon us. I did it out of defense!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because you wouldn¡¯t get away from my shop¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see about that,¡± the guard interrupted them. ¡°Come with me. All of you.¡±

    ¡°Fine! Just take me.¡± Chaira surrendered.

    ¡°We must see to the other victim as well. I¡¯m taking ALL of you. Don¡¯t make me repeat this.¡±

    ¡°We didn¡¯t kill that woman!¡± Chaira scowled.

    ¡°We¡¯ll find out at the court.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t take both me and Aarni away! Who¡¯s going to take care of my sister?!¡±

    ¡°Sister?¡± The guard turned back and looked at the cot in the corner.

    ¡°Huh? They have a sister?¡± The refugee also wondered.

    ¡°My word! She¡ªwho did this?¡± The guard lost his calm for a moment while looking into the cot. He was tasked to resent crimes and evil, and this unfortunate girl was more than enough to raise his rm.

    Someone left the girl here to suffer for the rest of her life!

    The refugee guide also went to check the cot out of curiosity, leaving the baker woman standing alone at the cer¡¯s door.

    When no one was looking, she slowly took out a butter knife from her apron.

    <i>I don¡¯t care what reason they have. I¡¯m getting revenge for my daughter! Chaira, is it? I¡¯m killing this murderer so that this world has one less future thug to worry about. I¡¯ll take his brother down too if I have a chance!</i>

    While everyone was focused on the cot either out of caution or surprise, the baker carefully approached them from their back.

    As soon as she sank her weapon into Chaira¡¯s stomach, the guard was alerted and kicked her away.

    ¡°Heh heh... You¡¯ll not die alone, Nini. Mama helped you...¡± The woman gasped on the floor.

    ¡°You¡ª¡± The guard couldn¡¯t believe that there was another murder so soon under his watch.

    ¡°Chai... ra... Chaira!¡± Aarni somehow made out several coherent words as he knelt beside his bleeding brother.

    ¡°*Slurp* What¡¯s going on out there?¡± Guina also stopped ying dead and quickly stirred in her cot. ¡°Chaira? Answer me!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m... fine...¡± Chaira tried tofort Guina while coughing blood.

    ¡°You don¡¯t sound fine!¡± Guina was almost crying. ¡°Sir, tell me Chaira¡¯s safe!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s¡ª¡± The guard looked at Chaira¡¯s dting pupils and found it difficult to make up a lie.

    The baker womanughed madly over the children¡¯s sorrow.

    Aarni felt the arm of his brother gone cold and ced his head on the floor.

    Out of the corner of one eye, Aarni saw a bloody knife nearby, which was dropped by the baker.

    Then he looked at Chaira, who was no longer breathing.

    <i>I¡¯m sorry, Guina. I¡¯m sorry, Vonman... I¡¯m so pathetic. Farewell.</i>

    He picked up the knife and stabbed it into his own chest.

    As he felt the numbing pain coursing through his body, he suddenly heard a familiar voice calling his name.

    ¡°Aarni?¡±

    Aarni saw another shadow showing up at the door, who wasing to him.

    <i>Vonman... Brother. So d I get to see you again...</i>

    Aarni¡¯s final smile was fixed on his dying body.

 Chapter 919 - Loved Ones, Hated Ones

    <h4>Chapter 919: Loved Ones, Hated Ones</h4>

    It was Vonman who just came back home, as Aarni and Guina hoped.

    But he was toote¡ªthe first thing he saw in the cer was the corpses of his best partner and his dear brother.

    Struck by heart-wrenching surprise, he rushed to Aarni and gazed at the two motionless bodies in disbelief.

    Guina could not see what was happening outside her cot, but she still felt the disheartening air getting to her.

    ¡°What¡¯s... What¡¯s going on out there? Chaira? Aarni! Talk to me... Is that you, Vonman? It must be your voice. You finally came back to us. Quickly, tell me what Chaira and Aarni are doing. Why did they leave? No...¡±

    Guina had an inkling of the situation, but she refused to believe it.

    Vonman stayed silent.

    ¡°They... They¡¯re too tired, so they fell asleep, am I right?¡± asked Guina.

    ¡°Yeah. They look so exhausted.¡±

    ¡°Let them rest then.¡± Guina was doing her best not to cry. ¡°I want to join them too. But I can¡¯t...¡±

    For a moment, only the sound of people breathing could be heard in the cer.

    The city guard knew he had to proceed with his job, yet he somehow couldn¡¯t decide his next course of action.

    ¡°You¡ª¡± He collected his thoughts, so his voice sounded more serious. ¡°Who are you? And who¡¯s yourpanion?¡±

    Hearing his words, everyone looked toward the door, where yet another visitor was standing¡ªa young man wearing a well-kept nobleman¡¯s attire.

    Even though it was against the light, those in the cer still saw the man¡¯s cleanposure that made everyone else¡¯s existence appear to be humble in contrast.

    It was the kind of nobleman who shouldn¡¯t show up in this impoverished ce.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± the guard asked again while inspecting the unknown guest up and down. ¡°That¡¯s not Hen design, is it? I think it¡¯s...¡±

    <i>Goldspink?</i>

    He gulped and quickly removed that thought from his mind. A noble from Goldspink couldn¡¯t possiblye to Winter Tide City, which was pretty far from the borders.

    Before the guard could question further, Vonman suddenly remembered something and rushed to the door. He then pressed his head on the floor.

    ¡°You-you gotta do something, sir! I know you can help them. Please!¡± Vonman

    groveled while pointing to the corpses.

    <i>Is that a doctor?</i> The guard shook his head. <i>Doesn¡¯t matter. These two are already dead.</i>

    ¡°Their consciousnesses have dissipated with thest bit of their souls. They¡¯re gone.¡±

    Again, the guard thought he recognized that ent, but he just couldn¡¯t make sure.

    ¡°There must be a way! Ghoul Whisperer once said something about bringing the dead back to life!¡± Vonman tried.

    ¡°Resurrecting the dead is a forbidden art. Even if they were toe back now, they would no longer be their true selves.¡±

    With hisst hope snuffed out, Vonman stumbled back into the cer and repeated the names of his friends in despair.

    ¡°Who... Who did this?!¡± He jerked his head up and scanned everyone in the room. He then released several white-legged spiders from his hand. ¡°You with the sword! You killed them?!¡±

    Instead of answering, the guard simply looked to the stairs, where an adult refugee and a mad-looking woman were loafing.

    ¡°YOU TWO DID THIS TO MY FAMILY?¡±

    No response.

    Vonman lowered his head and began chuckling in an ominous way. ¡°So be it. I¡¯m gonna kill you all then!¡±

    More spiders left Vonman¡¯s body and filled the floor beneath him. Even the experienced guard shivered upon the creepy sight.

    ¡°*Slurp* Get me up, Vonman... I want to see Aarni and Chaira,¡± Guina suddenly spoke from her cot.

    ¡°Let¡¯s not disturb their sleep, Guina.¡± Vonman turned to look at her.

    ¡°Just help me. I¡¯ll tell you what happened.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... Fine.¡±

    Vonman moved to the cot and carried Guina¡¯s broken body in his arms for everyone to see.

    Guina spent a moment looking at the two bodies below her.

    ¡°Sweet dreams, you two...¡±

    ¡°Tell me what¡¯s going on here, Guina!¡± Vonman begged.

    With teary eyes, Guina slowly exined what she knew about today, while the others listened quietly.

    Angor frowned. If what the disabled girl said was correct, then the sad oue was the result of a series of unfortunate events, added with coincidence.

    When Angor received Aaron¡¯s letter a day ago, he decided to pay Vonman a visit. Even though he didn¡¯t like the kid¡¯s cruel nature, he would like to add another name onto his recruit list.

    Jon had agreed to get inspected by Sunders, which meant Angor would return to Brute Cavern as soon as he had time. It happened that Angor still needed one more recruit to finish his quest.

    Upon arriving at Aaron¡¯s camp, Angor learned that the kid, Vonman, hoped to save someone called Guina. Angor refused to get involved in random businesses at first, but he changed his mind when Vonman mentioned that Guina might be another talent. Apparently, when Ghoul Whisperer took Vonman away, Guina was sent to another apprentice called ¡°Kuza¡±.

    When Angor disposed of Ghoul Whisperer, Vonman escaped back to Hen and found Guina tormented into the current shape by Kuza. Guina wasn¡¯t the only victim of Kuza¡¯s cruel deeds¡ªthe woman somehow found Aarniter and removed the boy¡¯s tongue.

    Even though Guina¡¯s wounds were patched up, she didn¡¯t seem fine enough to live very long. This was why Vonman made a difficult decision and went to seek Angor¡¯s help.

    And when Angor came to Hen in hope of bringing two new talents to his organization, he saw such a sad episode.

    ...

    While listening to Guina¡¯s exnation, Vonman slowly nced at everyone in the room. ¡°A murderer, a conspirator, and a self-acimed doer of justice? You forced my friends to death... You¡¯reing with them. Everyst one of you!¡±

    ¡°Heh heh... Ha ha ha HA!¡± The baker suddenly began tough.

    ¡°What¡¯s so funny, ya fat bi*ch?¡±

    The baker looked at Guina and said, ¡°I remember you. You and Nini used to y together. And she woulde back and tell me how good a friend you are.¡± Her expression changed from kindness to that of hatred. ¡°Nini... Oh, my sweet girl. She was so kind. She didn¡¯t mind hanging out with you, a homeless refugee. You were friends! Do you even feel any sorry that one of your OTHER friends killed my Nini?!¡±

    Vonman held Guina closer to his body and red at the baker. ¡°I should have killed her a long time ago and taken her bread. What a silly girl. And that silliness saved her, cause I don¡¯t want to hurt someone so stupid! She offered her food to us, so I let her go. Sorry? No. Filling our stomachs is always more important.¡±

    The baker wasughing again. ¡°Demons! My daughter is just a tool to you. I should have expected it!¡±

    ¡°I-I just want to live...¡± Guina muttered.

    The baker looked at the dead bodies. ¡°Ha! I¡¯ve no regrets whatsoever! I¡¯ming after you, Nini.¡±

    She ran into the wall, head first.

    Together with the rotting corpse beside the stairs, the cer now had four dead people inside.

    Angor shook his head slightly. He didn¡¯t feel like judging who was right or who was wrong right now. These people all had different standings, which led to bad results.

    The boy Aarni might be the only one who was truly innocent in the matter, which was no longer important.

    As Guina said, they were trying to survive.

    And when such basic needs were endangered, people could easily throw away their morals and kindness.

    People who strove at the very bottom of the world did not have the luxury of pursuing greater goods or mental virtue. Friends were temporary warmth in one¡¯s life. Most of the time, they still had to travel their own paths alone.

    And for the unfortunate, their paths were endlessly troubled by the dark and frigid winter, never to see the sunrise again. Earning tomorrow¡¯s breakfast was enough to exhaust all they had.

 Chapter 920 - Guina

    <h4>Chapter 920: Guina</h4>

    Vonman did notmit any more crime after seeing the baker dead. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t want to. It was because his poisonous spiders wouldn¡¯t do any good against the armored guard. And with the guard watching, the other survivor in the room¡ªa refugee who took the guard here¡ªwould probably be safe.

    Seeing Angor¡¯s indifferent attitude, Vonman decided not to ask for help.

    The guard calmed his disturbed mind and broke the silence. ¡°I now see clearly the change of events among you, and I understand your reasons. But as aw enforcer of the city, I must see to the end of the incident. Please keep your sentiment to yourselves ande with me to the court.¡±

    He then looked at Guina and sighed. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ll ask the authorities to send sor fund so that you can buy enough food. Or I... can take you to my home, if that¡¯s fine with you.¡±

    Clearly, the guard had decided to go out of his way.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need your filthy courtesy!¡± Vonman kept Guina closer to his chest and shouted, ¡°Get out of here, all of you!¡±

    ¡°No. I have rules to keep.¡± The guard moved ahead, causing Vonman to back away.

    Angor spoke from the door, ¡°Officer, the kids are safe with me from now on, rest assured.¡±

    The guard was still wondering who Angor was, but he chose to trust that expensive getup, which suggested that Angor was a genuine royalty.

    It would be best if a royal member could take the poor children in. However, he, as a ¡°police¡± of Winter Tide City, still had his discipline.

    ¡°From where do you hail, if I may?¡± The guard saluted Angor. ¡°I appreciate your kind decision, but I¡¯m afraid I must show them to the judicatory first.¡±

    ¡°Where I came does not matter. Everything has settled, and both the result and the reason are clear, are they not? Those who needed to answer to thew are gone,¡± Angor answered politely.

    ¡°But... What you saw wasn¡¯t the only matter, sir. We need to get to the root of the other deceased as well.¡± The guard pointed to the rotting body of an unknown woman not far.

    ¡°Oh, that was my doing,¡± Vonman replied in a mocking manner. ¡°A month ago, she saw Guina and dropped her to the ground, so I ended her life with a simple poison. A quick one, mind you. Heh. So what, my good sir? Want to execute me for justice? Come on, do it.¡±

    Both the guard and Angor frowned at the offensive endeavor.

    ¡°I¡¯m d you confessed. As I said, I¡¯ll take you to the city.¡± The guard grabbed Vonman¡¯s arm forcefully.

    Angor shook his head and snapped his fingers.

    Two streams of peculiar energy reached the guard and the onlooking refugee. The streams then sank into their heads.

    ¡°Leave, and forget everything you saw,¡± Angor ordered.

    With nk expressions, two people obediently headed to the door.

    Sending Vonman to be tried wasn¡¯t a big deal, but Angor would like to save as much time as he could.

    Seeing the intruders leaving, Vonman showed a cruel look. He took the guard¡¯s sword and aimed the weapon at the guard¡¯s heart.

    Pong!

    Vonman was sent flying in the opposite direction until he crashed into a wall with a painful yelp.

    Losing Vonman¡¯s protection, Guina also fell. But before she reached the floor, a pair of translucent hands caught her.

    In pain, Vonman looked up and saw his target leaving unharmed, while the weapon floated back into the sheath. He couldn¡¯t see what just knocked him away, but he knew it was Angor who did it.

    ¡°Why?!¡± He red at Angor. ¡°Why did you let him go? You¡¯re a Goldspink citizen, he¡¯s your enemy! Don¡¯t you want to see your enemy killed?!¡±

    ¡°He did not cause the tragedy today. Without him, your friends will still get to the same fate sooner orter. You¡¯re just blindly venting out your rage on whoever you can find. Goldspink and Hen are fighting, yes. But you¡¯ll learn to disregard such mortal matters.¡±

    Angor cast Cleanse to remove all the blood and odor from the cer. He found a desk and took a seat.

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you some time to collect your thoughts. When you¡¯re done, we shall get to the real business.¡±

    Vonman struggled to get up and took Guina in his arms again.

    ¡°Can I have a moment with Guina first?¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    Vonman carried Guina outside the cer and began speaking in a whisper. Although such an effort was meaningless to Angor.

    After mourning their lost friends, Guina and Vonman began discussing a more serious matter, which was mainly about Angor.

    After hearing the general situation from Vonman, Guina began to provide her own ideas regarding Angor, while Angor listened curiously.

    ¡°He stayed there and watched the baker die, but he moved to stop you. I think he¡¯s more of a wful¡¯ man...¡± Guina exined. It seemed she had been observing the situation carefully. ¡°From what I saw, he¡¯s reliable,pared to Ghoul Whisperer and Kuza. You should be fine going with him.¡±

    When mentioning ¡°Kuza¡±, Guina¡¯s tone turned slightly harsh.

    Angor chuckled. Guina had to know that she could be heard, so she said that on purpose. The girl was still easy to read but would undeniably grow into a guileful witch if she had the chance.

    About half an hourter, Vonman returned inside and sat at the other side of the desk, while Guina remained quiet.

    Angor found it fascinating that such young children could have gone through terrible times that would easily cripple the strongest adults. Vonman already exined Guina¡¯s condition to him before, yet seeing Guina up close still shocked him.

    Guina seemed to be a sweet girl if not to consider her lost or damaged body parts. What was more, the will to live burned bright in her eyes.

    The kids might have developed their dark sides, but this was quite necessary in this cruel world they were in.

    ¡°We agreed. We-we¡¯ll follow you if this gives us a better chance to live,¡± Vonman said without looking at Angor¡¯s eyes. ¡°And sir, Guina, she¡ª¡±

    ¡°I can keep her alive.¡± Angor looked at the limbless girl. ¡°It¡¯s fine. As long as you stick to your training, you¡¯ll find ways to grow a new body or get a transnt.¡±

    Guina didn¡¯t speak, but her glimmering eyes gave out her excitement.

    ¡°She can be fully healed?! I mean, having her entire body restored?¡± Vonman beamed.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Nice! We¡¯ll both be your students, Mister!¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m a recruiter, not a teacher. If you sessfully prove yourselves, my organization will take care of the other arrangements for you.¡±

    Vonman and Guina exchanged a determined look and nodded to each other.

    ¡°Don¡¯t celebrate yet. You¡¯ll be faced with a difficult trial before the organization could fully ept you.¡±

    ¡°Trial?¡±

    Angor briefly exined what new recruits were going to go through by using Sunders¡¯ ¡°deathmatch¡± as an example.

    Both Vonman and Guina were surprised when hearing the brutality and slim survival chance of the test. However, they didn¡¯t show any sign of fear, much to Angor¡¯s contentment.

    ¡°I cannot show you the trial today. But it wille soon. Be prepared, and good luck.¡±

 Chapter 921 - Special Talent

    <h4>Chapter 921: Special Talent</h4>

    Angor said that just to look serious, in fact, he had no idea what kind of test to give the kids yet. He just didn¡¯t want to tell anyone that he urgently needed one more new recruit to finish his task.

    Since this was decided, he nned to get to it eventually.

    In Vonman and Guina¡¯s case, they had some problems with their manners and the way they treated other people. Angor didn¡¯t intend to teach them how to behave, but he had to at least make sure the children didn¡¯t offend someone in the wizarding world as soon as they got there and got killed by it. Especially Vonman, who appeared to be rather imperious.

    He coulde up with a proper test quickly enough, but he wouldn¡¯t do it now. Before proceeding further, he had to ascertain the nature of their talent first.

    ¡°There¡¯s an initial test you need to take first...¡± Angor exined while preparing the cer ordingly, by cing a dish, a ss of water, and a lit candle on a table. Also, he dug an opening in the ceiling to let some sunlight in.

    ¡°This is the Talent Sphere, also known as the Abelles¡¯ Eye.¡± He then ced the object on the table as well. ¡°It will tell you the <i>general</i> orientation of your talent. You¡¯ll get a better and more urate test when you get to the organization.¡±

    He briefly said the instructions.

    ¡°Keep your eyes peeled and don¡¯t let anything slip from your view.¡±

    Vonman stepped up first with a stressful look. ¡°Um, sir? If I can¡¯t see anything, does it mean I can¡¯t be a wizard at all?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly. You¡¯ll overlook it if it¡¯s too unnoticeable. But we can still tell if the sphere lights up.¡±

    Vonman wished to learn some examples of the ¡°changes¡± he was expecting, but Angor didn¡¯t answer. <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection</i> had published more than hundreds of volumes now, and there were just too many to remember.

    Vonman exhaled a long breath, rubbed his eyes, and put his hand on the sphere.

    Red light pulsed in the cer. At the same time, Vonman¡¯s eyes lost focus.

    ¡°Yup, he got it,¡± Angor said to Guina while waiting. ¡°You can¡¯t see it, but Vonman¡¯s currently looking for the ¡®change¡¯ in a unique view.¡±

    Soon enough, Vonman put his hand down and began scanning around the room with an uncertain look.

    ¡°What did you see?¡± asked Angor.

    Vonman failed to find anything since the test already ended. He somehow looked disappointed.

    ¡°I... There were creatures. Weird ones. That gap in the wall over there, there¡¯s a transparent, soft goo-like thingy crawling out. The dust of the floor gathered into a ball or something, with eyes. There were... worms, hovering in midair. And I think there was a picture of a cat on the ceiling, but it blinked at me!

    ¡°Everything was so colorful. But none of them should belong to this world.¡±

    Angor held his chin. ¡°That could be rted to Summoning. That must be why Ghoul Whisperer took you with him.¡±

    Vonman still wanted to know more, but Angor didn¡¯t satisfy him.

    ¡°You¡¯re next.¡± Angor turned to Guina. ¡°You can use your head to touch the sphere.¡±

    Guina asked Vonman to carry her to the table with a determined look.

    On his way, Vonman identally knocked Guina¡¯s doll to the ground and quickly picked it up.

    Angor noticed that the toy was a simple cloth doll with a big head. There were ck threads sewn on its face in different shapes that represented its eyes and mouth.

    The same threads used for stitching Guina¡¯s mouth.

    When put together, Guina¡¯s form resembled the doll in a strange way, just without her limbs.

    The Talent Sphere glowed in bright red as soon as she reached it, securing another name on Angor¡¯s list.

    ¡°Mister Wizard, I saw my doll dancing on its own, like controlled by strings I can¡¯t see.¡± Guina opened her eyes.

    ¡°That... sounds like puppet users alright.¡±

    Like ¡°Puppet Master¡± Bog.

    ¡°I think my body was also shining, sir,¡± Guina added.

    ¡°Are you sure?!¡± Angor widened his eyes.

    Guina was slightly startled by Angor¡¯s reaction. ¡°*Slurp* Yes. But I can¡¯t see my whole body in that position, I can only see my tummy.¡±

    Guina was wearing what seemed to be a piece of broken tablecloth improvised into a simple vest. There was a giant hole over her stomach from where her exposed skin could be seen.

    ¡°There were strange markings on my body. But... I can¡¯t remember any of them. My head emptied when I woke up...¡± The girl looked down in defeat.

    Angor quickly searched his mind for valid examples that might correspond with Guina¡¯s case. The puppet part should be correct for now. But the ¡°glowing body¡± and ¡°marks on skin¡± should suggest something else.

    This was rare evidence even when <i>Abelles¡¯ Annual Talent Collection</i> had recorded countless cases. Most of the time, this meant someone with a special bodily property; the kind that would convince any organization to offer ten times as much reward to the recruiter who found the talent.

    ¡°What does that mean to Guina, sir?¡± Vonman couldn¡¯t hold back his curiosity.

    ¡°For now, I can only tell you that you possess special power. This can be both good and bad for you. But again, you need to get back to the organization for an borated evaluation.¡±

    Angor retrieved the Talent Sphere back into his bracelet and stood up. ¡°You both have talents. Possibly good ones. But you all still have to work hard to achieve your potential. In the beginning, you¡¯re no different from any other new recruits.

    ¡°I give you one hour to pack up your things. Then we¡¯ll be on our way.¡±

    ...

    Guina and Vonman didn¡¯t have anything in the shelter to take. They knew the wizard in front of them was simply giving them time to finish up another matter, which was to say theirst farewell to Chaira and Aarni.

    The talent test kept them upied for a while. Now they quickly found their sadness returning when looking at the two bodies in the cer again.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been best friends for three years. I-I didn¡¯t think fate would separate us so soon...¡± Vonman knelt down and sobbed.

    These kids were not real rtives, but they had established a bond stronger than any after taking care of each other in the harsh world.

    They all had their childish dreams and ambitions, which all met with an early end.

    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have trusted that Ghoul Whisperer guy. I shouldn¡¯t have given you to that ugly witch!¡± Vonman pped his head.

    ¡°*Slurp* It¡¯s not your fault...¡± Guinaforted him. ¡°We were born in this situation. We never had a choice. But things are different from now on. I¡¯ll control my own fate...¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Vonman tried to stop his crying. ¡°Still some time left. What should we do now? Bury them in the cer?¡±

    Guina frowned and considered something.

    ¡°I want to take them with us.¡±

 Chapter 922 - Skins

    <h4>Chapter 922: Skins</h4>

    Angor watched the kidsing on bloody steps with a strange look.

    Both Vonman and Guina had bloodstains on their bodies. Even now, Vonman¡¯s big backpack was dripping more blood onto the ground.

    ¡°What¡¯s¡ª¡±

    Angor saw the kids¡¯ determined look and decided not toin.

    ¡°... Five more minutes. Get yourselves washed. And do something about... those.¡±

    Vonman nodded and went to the river nearby.

    After some cleaning, Vonman unbuttoned his pack and revealed its content¡ªwhole skins removed from Chaira and Aarni¡¯s bodies.

    Angor silently watched Vonman rinsing the human skins carefully.

    Everything took a turn for the worse when Guina made that suggestion. The kids wanted to keep their dead partners with them, and since they didn¡¯t have a good way to carry corpses, they skinned Chaira and Aarni instead.

    It was Guina who came up with the idea.

    ¡°*Slurp* I¡¯ll make them into dolls, so they can be with us forever...¡±

    Those words should only exist in a thriller movie. Yet Guina didn¡¯t look bothered at all when she said that.

    <i>Ugh. And I thought Vonman was the bigger trouble,</i> Angor thought to himself. <i>Maybe all puppet users love to do that?</i>

    ¡°Okay, we¡¯ll get a move on.¡± Angor saw the children finishing their work. But he suddenly remembered something. ¡°Actually, I have another thing to do before leaving. Now tell me, where is this ¡®Kuza¡¯ you¡¯ve been talking about?¡±

    ...

    There was a castle located in the forest some distance away from Winter Tide City. The structure was not big, but it had everything that befitted a haunted manor. Broken walls, messy brambles with purple thorns...

    ¡°This is Kuza¡¯s ce?¡± Angor floated closer and carefully checked the building.

    Vonman nodded while sitting on Gond.

    Vonman described Kuza as an old and evil woman who knew many ways of torturing people. This woman was the culprit who took Aarni¡¯s tongue and Guina¡¯s arms and legs.

    Angor didn¡¯t know who she was, but he was sure this woman had some sort of connection with Ghoul Whisperer because it was Ghoul Whisperer who sent Guina to Kuza.

    Angor wanted to pay Kuza a visit because he didn¡¯t want to leave anyone from the Centipede Guild wandering around the Old Earth.

    A quick spirit scan told him the entire ce was empty apart from dust and debris. Whoever lived here had abandoned it.

    He found a set of small footprints on the carpet at the front entrance.

    ¡°Those are mine,¡± Vonman said from the boat.

    ¡°You came here before?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, when I escaped from Moonwater City, I tried to talk to Kuza and tell her what happened to Ghoul Whisperer.¡± Vonman lowered his head in embarrassment. ¡°Guina was with her, so I¡¯ll have toe anyway.

    ¡°But I didn¡¯t find her. There was only Guina sunk inside some green water, and her limbs were already gone. Then she told me Aarni was here too. He lost his tongue. I rescued them and escaped.¡±

    Angor sent his spirit below the floor and found a basement with several incubation pods and discarded human body parts.

    The ce looked like ab for transnting bloodline or organs, which wasn¡¯t a rare thing in the wizarding world. But most of the tools were mortal standards. The parts seemed to be taken from mortals as well.

    Just like Ghoul Whisperer, Kuza probably was also a rogue apprentice who didn¡¯t have ess to proper resources.

    Angor heard noisesing from behind and saw Vonman and Guina curiously inspecting a stinated human head. Telling from their whispers, it was a civil official from Winter Tide City.

    Angor wasn¡¯t interested in who the victim was, but he was getting very concerned about how these kids could be so fearless.

    ¡°Can you find what you lost in this room?¡± Angor asked the girl.

    ¡°No...¡± Guina shook her head in Vonman¡¯s arms. ¡°Kuza fed them to the wolf.¡±

    ¡°You saw her do that?!¡±

    ¡°*Slurp* Yes, sir. That animal must be her pet or something.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t believe the young girl could do well when seeing her own flesh eaten by a beast. The incident must have left mental trauma.

    This exined Guina¡¯s strange and somewhat creepy character.

    There was no point staying since Kuza wasn¡¯t here. After finding some clues that might tell him who Kuza was, Angor left the castle.

    Kuza wasn¡¯t a member of the guild. She came from a small wizard n, which meant Angor had no reason to go after her.

    ¡°*Slurp* I¡¯lle back and find her someday...¡± Guina snickered creepily.

    ...

    When arriving at Padt Manor, Angor ced Vonman and Guina in an independent house away from the manor castle, just in case. People would get unsettled if they saw Guina. Worse, if the human skins were somehow exposed in public sight.

    It would be Head Maid Mana who delivered food for the children.

    Tulu was also informed of the new arrivals since they would be schoolmates of the same year.

    With these settled, Angor went to talk to Thewis.

    ¡°You¡¯re leaving?¡± Thewis stood up from his seat and gave Angor an inquiring look.

    ¡°Yes. I really need to get back to Brute Cavern and look for a way to heal Jon.¡±

    ¡°Who are you going to ask exactly?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it after getting there and handling the new recruits over.¡±

    Eureka looked their way as if she wanted to say something, but she looked away again when seeing Thewis shaking his head to her.

    ¡°Alright, I hope you can keep Jon alive as well.¡± Thewis nodded. ¡°He¡¯s an irreceable specimen after all. I have something to tell you before you leave. Listen carefully.¡±

    Angor nodded and waited for Thewis to continue, as politely as he could.

    ¡°First and foremost, do not tell anyone about me or Eureka. I don¡¯t think you have a reason to do that though.¡±

    Angor nodded again. Even if Thewis weren¡¯t Leon¡¯s teacher, he would not unnecessarily sell these ¡°fugitives¡± out¡ªhe didn¡¯t get paid for it anyway.

    ¡°Secondly, I want your help with buying potions. Look for something we can use when you¡¯re back at the Fey Continent.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try, but no promises. You know the wizarding world is kinda in an uproar, sir.¡±

    ¡°Finally, do you have an answer to my other request yet?¡±

    When they discussed the Crimson Crown in Thewis¡¯ ¡°private dimension¡±, Thewis tried to find ways to remove the Bloodline Retrack magic array from the crown so that Goman King couldn¡¯t keep tracking them down. However, doing so could damage or even destroy the crown, as Angor exined.

    Thewis thought of another n, which was to use the magic array to find the other end of the connection.

    Angor did not rify whether this was possible back then. He said he needed some time to think about it. Apparently, Thewis would like to get the answer before Angor left.

    ¡°There is a way to extract info from the bloodline used in constructing the magic array,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°We can get the bloodline used on the crown?¡± Thewis smirked. If they could get their hands on someone¡¯s full bloodline, apart from remotely tracking the owner of it, they might even kill the target by using a deadly curse.

    ¡°I said <i>info</i> of the bloodline. Not the bloodline itself, Mister Thewis.¡±

    ¡°I see. Can we use the info to locate who we¡¯re looking for then?¡±

 Chapter 923 - Deciphering Bloodline

    <h4>Chapter 923: Deciphering Bloodline</h4>

    ¡°No assurance. But the info can help you thin down your search range, and with your skill, you¡¯ll have no problem finding the correct person, Mister Thewis.¡±

    The info contained in one¡¯s bloodline was always unique. It was difficult to read the entire ¡°password¡± from the crown because the magic array was made a long time ago, but Thewis could still improve his chances by asking a Prophet or rely on other help.

    ¡°That¡¯s the best you can do?¡± asked Thewis.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m afraid.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough, we¡¯ll use what we have. How do you get the clues though?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that hard. I just need some time to rework the magic array and find its root.¡±

    In fact, Angor already did such a thing before, in order to ascertain the effect of the magic array. But now, he had to do it again, albeit with a different purpose.

    Still, this would take some time since the magic array was ratherplex.

    ¡°How long do you need exactly?¡± asked Thewis.

    ¡°About half a month?¡±

    This wasn¡¯t very long. Wizards usually spent years on end to do their research.

    Thewis and Eureka took a while arguing whether they should temporarily leave the Crimson Crown in Angor¡¯s care.

    Angor was thinking about going back to Brute Cavern first before dealing with his new job. But Thewis soon dragged him into the ¡°Banishment Realm¡± without giving him a choice.

    ¡°Stay here so that the Mystery energy of the crown did not get noticed,¡± said Thewis.

    Angor wanted to use his Geometric Lock to cover the crown instead, but he then decided to ept Thewis¡¯ arrangement. He wasn¡¯t sure the Geometric Lock could block off Bloodline Retract from Goman King.

    Also, he found it to be a good chance to get his hands on a new Mystery item. Perhaps he could learn something out of it.

    ¡°I¡¯ll not dy you for too long. As soon as you get it done, I¡¯ll use a ne passageway to send you to the Fey Continent right away.¡± Thewis handed the real Crimson Crown to Angor and summoned his familiar, the two-headed canine named ¡°Soby¡±. ¡°Tell Soby if you need to talk to me. It can get you out of the pocket dimension as well.¡±

    With everything agreed upon, Thewis and Eureka left Angor alone in the narrow dimension, while Soby the hound rested on a chair nearby.

    The beast still had the same look as Angor saw thest time¡ªbright red fur and a sleep blinder, which made it appear as if one of the heads was always napping.

    ¡°Hey, Soby?¡± Angor tried.

    The ¡°non-sleeping¡± head of the familiar gave Angor a silent re with a pair of deep emerald eyes.

    <i>Well, this one sure looks a LOT cooler than that chatterbox owl,</i> Angor thought. He then requested, ¡°Please tell Mister Thewis to inform my brother about my situation so that Leon doesn¡¯t freak out when I disappear for half a month.¡±

    To Angor¡¯s surprise, Soby replied in Thewis¡¯ voice, ¡°Sure.¡±

    ¡°One more thing, sir, can you tell me Leon¡¯s talent orientation?¡±

    Thewis mentioned something about giving Leon a full talent test after Leon recovered. The test should already be done by now.

    ¡°He¡¯s a Bloodline User.¡±

    ...

    While waiting for Angor¡¯s result, Thewis remained near the Demeter and thought about his next n.

    ¡°What Angor came up with may not get us a direct hit, but it¡¯s the only way we have to find the owner of the bloodline,¡± Thewis said to Eureka, who had been looking at the direction of the Fey Continued absent-mindedly.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Eureka replied, seemingly not interested.

    ¡°We¡¯ll need a Prophet to get us a definite answer though. Now that¡¯s our next problem.¡± Thewis frowned as he tried to think where to find such a helper.

    Eureka suddenly showed a disgusted expression upon hearing those words.

    <i>That little b*stard...</i>

    ...

    Without wasting any time, Angor prepared several piles of spare draft paper and began his calctions.

    It was a taxing thing to do, but he felt okay as long as he could examine the Crimson Crown up close. Although he wouldn¡¯t do anything other than simple observations because he had no idea what the crown¡¯s effect was. Going too deep might get him into trouble.

    Just as he estimated, he came up with the final form after two weeks.

    Before he told Soby to summon Thewis, he looked at the crown and suddenly got an idea he would like to try.

    What would happen if he used the Dream Whelk on the crown? Would he get a ¡°copy¡± of the crown in the dream wastnd?

    This would open up a lot of interesting possibilities. He might pull lots of different Mystery items to the Foundation City and do whatever he wanted with them.

    But instead ofmencing his theory in secret, he decided to ask for Thewis¡¯ consent first. This way, Thewis would not me him if his n was found out.

    Thewis already knew about the Dream Whelk and didn¡¯t seem interested in the item. He probably wouldn¡¯t mind Angor doing a harmless test with it.

    As Angor expected, Thewis agreed without much of a thought. But to make sure nothing went wrong, Thewis and Eureka would bothe and watch Angor¡¯s experiment.

    ¡°Gracious me. A true Mystery treasure with such a useless purpose.¡± Eureka shook her head when seeing Angor cing the two Mystery items together.

    ¡°You mentioned that you studied Dream Maniptor arts before. Just to use the whelk?¡± asked Thewis.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, sir.¡±

    Angor quickly activated the whelk so that Thewis wouldn¡¯t keep asking questions and notice he was lying.

    Slowly, the Dream Whelk sent its energy, which covered the Crimson Crown. However, the energy did not reach the crown. It stayed outside as if there was a protective barrier to stop all foreign intrusion.

    ¡°I failed.¡± Angor took the whelk back with a disappointed look. ¡°It cannot pull other Mystery items into dreams.¡±

    ¡°I expected as much. Just think, if you can freely send Mystery items to whoever lives inside the Dream Realm, how powerful could they get?¡± Eureka sneered.

    ¡°Everything in the Dream Realm is fake to us. They wouldn¡¯te into reality and do anything to us no matter what they can do in their dreams,¡± Thewismented.

    Angor would like to disagree, but he didn¡¯t say anything in the end. After witnessing the gigantic monster towering over the dream wastnd, he no longer believed that the Dream Realm waspletely separated from reality.

    ¡°I¡¯ve burnt everything I wrote.¡± Angor handed thest result to Thewis. ¡°This is thest copy. Rest assured that there¡¯s no way I can remember any of that stuff in my head.¡±

    He meant to make it clear that he would not get involved in anything further rted to the crown.

    ¡°Good.¡± Thewis took the paper and nodded.

    ¡°Can I leave now, sir? I haven¡¯t paid Jon any visit in a long time.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± Thewis freed Angor from the small dimension. ¡°Talk to me when you want to head to the Fey Continent. I¡¯ll give you a lift.¡±

    Previously, Angor nned to ask the Ashen Traders for a faster way of travel, but now, he was d that Thewis helped him save some cash.

    While heading back to his room, he carefully thought over the brief experiment he just did. While it was true that the Dream Whelk was unable to get the Crimson Crown inside the dream wastnd, Angor did notice another interesting detail.

 Chapter 924 - Tips and Notes for Beginner Apprentices

    <h4>Chapter 924: Tips and Notes for Beginner Apprentices</h4>

    He felt something off with the crown. Or rather, it was the Mystery energy emitted from the crown that seemed out of ce.

    He couldn¡¯t tell what exactly was wrong. For now, he only knew that the crown felt differentpared to the Dream Whelk. The Mystery energy on the crown wasn¡¯t natural.

    He thought and decided not to tell Thewis about it. There was no point. Eureka had held the crown for a long time, which meant she should know everything about the item.

    As of now, Angor still had zero clues about the crown¡¯s true effect. What was it used for?

    ¡°Ugh, I should forget about all these.¡±

    Neither the crown nor Goman King had anything to do with him after all. He didn¡¯t wish to add more burden to his already stressful life.

    He spent an entire nightposing a book at his desk. Using a simple cantrip for speeding up writing efficiency, he finished a moderate-sized tutorial book by early morning¡ª<i>Tips and Notes for Beginner Apprentices.</i> Angor had this n in mind as soon as he learned that Leon would be studying Bloodline Art.

    Most wizards who epted apprentices would not give them much direct training. After learning about some simple and perhaps abstract knowledge, these students would rely on themselves to find what they needed.

    Thewis, who was busy protecting Eureka and the Crimson Crown, was unlikely to do a thorough job as a teacher. And Leon wouldn¡¯t be leaving Padt Manor any time soon. To help Leon find a proper training method in time, Angor prepared the tutorial as soon as he could.

    Apart from his personal experience as an apprentice, Angor also recorded a lot of basic know-how helpful to different subjects, including Alchemy and Runecraft. If somehow Leon could study these, Angor would happily teach him.

    To make sure there wasn¡¯t anything he got incorrectly or overlooked, he would like to ask someone else to check the book.

    After covering his room under the effect of Geometric Lock, he took the book into the dream wastnd and found Freud on the top floor of Skyward Tower.

    There was a woman wearing a uniform skirt discussing city affairs with Freud. She obviously wasn¡¯t happy about Angor¡¯s untimely arrival, but she was stopped by Freud before she could offer her protest.

    ¡°Wee back, sir!¡± Freud joined Angor with a big smile.

    ¡°Even busier than before, I guess?¡± Angor looked at Freud¡¯s desk where lots of files were waiting to be dealt with.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I already found several citizens to administrate the city for me. These are various ns and changes they came up with to make the city better. I¡¯ll read them and pick someone as the mayor. After that, I¡¯ll be free!¡±

    Freud told the uniformed woman to leave the room using eye contact.

    She looked like the professional type who knew how to read the situation. Without a word, she bowed to Angor and excused herself.

    ¡°Is that...¡±

    Angor recognized her. That was the woman who could ept the power of ¡°Gatekeeper¡±.

    ¡°That¡¯s Monroe, sir. When you mentioned that she could potentially ept a ¡®rule¡¯, I paid some close attention to her, and it was worth it. She¡¯s a born leader.¡± Freud shook his head. ¡°Many people noticed the dream wastnd being different than before, but they usually kept their true thoughts from me. The ns and construction designs they gave me might work well in other ces, but they don¡¯t suit our case. Monroe, however, has a clear insight of the city and can tell me some really neat suggestions. If I must pick the mayor right now, I¡¯d give the job to her.¡±

    Curious, Angor picked up Monroe¡¯s papers and checked. Meanwhile, he asked Freud to check <i>Tips and Notes for Beginner Apprentices</i> for ws.

    It seemed Freud was taking his time, so Angor picked up several more urban ns and read.

    Freud was right. Monroe saw things clearer than the other candidates even though some of her ideas weren¡¯t realistic.

    Throughout history, rulers appreciated having smart attendants, but not too smart.

    The rest of the candidates Freud selected were the ¡°just right¡± type, who knew what to say and what not to say. Everything they came up with was sound. Not particrly productive, but they were bnced.

    Monroe, however, bluntly rified her opinions for as much as she could. She knew this world was for the dead, and that the citizens were pioneers who would build their paradise for the afterlife.

    In the real world, having a member in the league speaking so straightforwardly might annoy the higher-ups. But here, Angor preferred that the citizens showed their resourcefulness to the best extent to benefit the city. It was not like these mortals could overthrow him after all.

    ording to Freud, Monroe used to be an experienced patron who dealt with countless social asions and royal gatherings. She naturally knew how to behave properly when serving someone more powerful.

    Yet she still chose to be frank.

    Some of her proposals really tickled Angor¡¯s fancy. For example, Monroe imed that the city must have a history or story behind it¡ªeither real or made-up¡ªso that people had something to believe in.

    She also said that people needed books and education, about which everyone would agree.

    Telling from Freud¡¯s attitude, Monroe would be elected as the mayor as long as nothing else went wrong.

    Personally, Angor hoped that the Foundation City could turn into a lovely ce so that Jon could enjoy a better life too.

    ¡°What do you think? They did fine, right?¡± Freud put down Angor¡¯s tutorial book.

    ¡°Yeah. Good job too. Monroe is a good one.¡±

    Freud nodded and began offering several opinions regarding Angor¡¯s book. As someone who spent a lot more time in the wizarding world than Angor, Freud offered lots of valuable advice, including some wisdom on how to train Bloodline Users, because he used to work with Bloodline Art apprentices back at Tower of Hurricane.

    With Freud¡¯s help, Angor¡¯s ¡°<i>Tips and Notes for Beginner Apprentices (2nd revision)</i>¡± came out.

    ¡°This should be more than sufficient for a level-1 or level-2 apprentice. Man, if I had something like this before, I could have reached my level way faster,¡± Freud eximed.

    ¡°Good. I¡¯ll give this to Leon and go back to the Fey Continent.¡±

    ¡°Um, Mister Padt? Can youe to the Land of Revtion on your way?¡± Freud suddenly asked.

    ¡°What for?¡±

    Freud looked a bit embarrassed. ¡°Thatuncher only had less than 10 charges left. Now I can¡¯t leave the dream wastnd unless necessary. Otherwise, I won¡¯t be able to return if the item is fully spent.¡±

    As Angor remembered, the fully-chargeduncher could be used 979 times. It seemed Freud almost used it up after taking so many citizens here.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor agreed. ¡°It just happens that I need to pay Lloyds a visit along the way.¡±

 Chapter 925 - Toby and Party

    <h4>Chapter 925: Toby and Party</h4>

    After editing Leon¡¯s new book, Angor thought about learning more about the dream wastnd. While he was busy with other tasks in reality, Freud had spent a long time here.

    ¡°How¡¯s the project? Any new discoveries?¡±

    ¡°None, since yourst visit.¡± Freud looked frustrated. ¡°Many of my new theories required long-term observation, while the city is only at the beginning stage. Man, I wish I had something to elerate the speed of time like in normal dreams.¡±

    However, in Angor¡¯s view, the dream wastnd probably didn¡¯t have such a power because this was only a minor and ¡°fake¡± world that relied on the Dream Realm.

    ¡°If you¡¯re expecting me to receive a time-rted power from the domain sphere, just don¡¯t. We should have enough time to keep the city running, so take it slowly. By the way, I also have something to add to the case.¡±

    Angor exined how he failed to summon the Crimson Crown to the dream wastnd, as well as the possibility of using a spell called ¡°Bless¡± to select which domain power to receive next time.

    Freud seemed very interested in the new findings and quickly got to more paperwork, while Angor left the tower to let Freud concentrate.

    He sensed Jon speaking to two citizens in schr uniforms. Monroe was also with them.

    The subject they were discussing appeared to be ¡°sustainable development¡±. Jon was the lecturer.

    Compared to the schrs, who only listened carefully, Monroe would asionally provide her own opinions and visions based on what she had seen from the city.

    It happened that Jon was the most insightful man in the city apart from Angor and Freud, so Monroe came to the right person if she wanted to learn.

    ¡°She had some luck...¡± Angor muttered. ¡°She can potentially inherit a domain power, she earned Freud¡¯s approval, and she found Jon. Thedy got a very promising future in the city.¡±

    Angor did not bother Jon because teaching students was one of Jon¡¯s favorite things to do. Jon already had two young students studying music from him, which were Alda and Sunny.

    As for the kids, they were hanging out at the ¡°treehouse pub¡±. Not drinking, but ying around a tree swing, together with a group of more kids around the same age.

    It was normal for the children to have fun like this, but Angor was surprised to see Sunny with them. He never thought the girl was the type who would do what kids usually did.

    Perhaps spending some time in the peaceful city changed her nature.

    ¡°But isn¡¯t ¡®Dead by Daylight¡¯ still in business?¡± Angor wondered. ¡°What if Sunny forgets how to scare people? Speaking of the orphanage, maybe I should take Vonman and Guina there.¡±

    In the end, he decided not to. Vonman and Guina had seen their fair share of horror at their early age. The illusion wouldn¡¯t work very well.

    He retracted his spirit feelers as his body faded away.

    ...

    Leon almost hopped in joy when he received <i>Tips and Notes for Beginner Apprentices</i> from Angor. He had just begun to meditate, but he still had no idea how to fully calm his mind. And when he couldn¡¯t find the courage to ask Thewis for help, Angor delivered such timely help.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what I can do without you!¡± Leon gazed at Angor with a worshiper¡¯s look. ¡°Let me see. Meditation, meditation... The peace of body, and the peace of mind...¡±

    Angor saw Leon fully focused on the book and left the room. Just like him, Leon eagerly wanted to join the rank of supernaturals and see the amazing world out there.

    However, the life of a supernatural being might not be what one would expect from storybooks. Studies, researches... Each time somebody began a major task, they needed months or sometimes decades to get it done.

    When the initial excitement of bing an apprentice went away, one would bear with endless loneliness.

    Of course, Angor did not tell Leon this or mention it in the book. It was best for Leon to slowly get used to it.

    He kept some attention on Leon and saw Leon taking out another book from the drawer before getting to meditation training.

    Angor didn¡¯t see the title of the book, but he more or less knew what it was. It must have been the channeling method given by Thewis.

    Angor did not mention any channeling method in his tutorial book because Sunders strictly forbade him from telling anyone about Singrity Dispersive Meditation. The other channeling methods he knew were onlymon and easy ones widely used by various organizations, and the one Thewis offered was probably better.

    He might find a decent channeling method and give it to Leonter.

    With everything done here, Angor prepared to head to the Land of Revtion and find Freud.

    He went to the Milkberry Tree to take Toby with him, but he failed to find the bird. A spirit scan told him that Toby was staying at the new vige built by the Krakoks.

    He found Toby together with Moonlily Fairy and a group of young Krakok girls having a party in the vige.

    His arrival caused the Krakoks to quiet down out of respect. In order not to stop their fun, he quickly summoned Toby and left the manor.

    ¡°What are you doing with a bunch of girls anyway?¡± Angor asked along their way.

    Toby protested by pointing to the pink lolita skirt he was wearing.

    Angor had no problem reading Toby¡¯s birdnguage. And it was embarrassing.

    It seemed Toby didn¡¯t care who he was ying with. He was only showing off his new dress, which was another gift from the Moonlily Fairy. Toby was still annoyed because Angor interrupted his fashion show.

    ¡°Ugh. Don¡¯t you turn into a second Hookdick,¡± Angorined. ¡°What¡¯s everyone doing at the party? You were having fun.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t interested in the girl¡¯s talk. He just wanted to divert Toby¡¯s attention.

    Using ¡°wingnguage¡±, Toby exined that the Krakoks were talking about Vonman and Guina.

    When Angor isted Vonman and Guina in a separate house, those who heard about this matter only grew more curious. And since the Krakoks were not forbidden from going there like the other servants, they saw Guina¡¯s condition and brought quite a terrifying story to their friends.

 Chapter 926 - Buying Info

    <h4>Chapter 926: Buying Info</h4>

    There was more story to Vonman and Guina. But this time, it involved another name¡ªTulu.

    To let them get familiarized with each other, Angor exined Vonman and Guina¡¯s situation to Tulu, after which Tulu paid the children a visit.

    They almost started a fight.

    It was Latata who saw the conflict. Latata did not know the reason for the quarrel, but she heard Tulu yelling something when leaving, ¡°I do not beat little kids, so I¡¯ll leave you alone for now. But don¡¯t try me again!¡±

    Angor had a hunch why this happened. Tulu was a typical hot-headed young man who insisted on his way of justice, which could be seen from how he recklessly confronted a monster he couldn¡¯t defeat just to save someone else. At that time, Angor stayed behind and watched everything happen so that Tulu could learn something out of the incident. In the end, Tulu survived but lost an ear.

    Vonman and Guina, however, were theplete opposite. These kids had learned to ughter innocent people just to earn a meal, while they only kept their good side to their few friends.

    Lawful and chaotic. There was no way that Tulu could do well with Vonman and Guina.

    In fact, the human skins were still being dried in the yard. It was a miracle that Tulu was willing to talk to the children in the first ce.

    It seemed that establishing a friendly rtionship between them was impossible for now. It was already worth celebrating if they didn¡¯t end up asplete enemies.

    Having rivals in the organization was amon thing to happen. Should their hostility grow so intense that they couldn¡¯t forget each other, they just had to fight it out and see who made it out alive, like how Hookdick and Angor did.

    Just like other parties fordies, the Krakok girls also mentioned lots of interesting rumors and scandals that involved almost everyone in Grue Town. Leon, Angor... Even Eureka became the topic of these fearless little gossipers.

    Compared to Angor and Thewis who rarely showed up in public, Eureka asionally took tours around the manor and allowed the curious Krakoks to look at her.

    Most of what the Krakoks brought was unreliable hearsay. For instance, someone imed that she saw Eureka¡¯s eyes became red one day and gave her a very creepy look.

    Of course, no one actually believed the baseless story when there were even worse ones, such as how Leon secretly kept a lover hidden in his bedroom.

    Angor asked Toby about the Krakok party just to pass time during their travel. He managed to learn something useful out of it.

    ¡°So these guys often gather together like that?¡±

    ¡°Tweet tweet!¡±¡ª<i>Yes. Once a week. They kinda made it a tradition.</i>

    Angor also heard about famous witches who often attended tea parties or perfume banquets, during which they exchanged secrets or valuable information. Sometimes, these asions were better chances for learning useful clues than paying professional informants.

    ¡°Maybe I can invite apprentices and wizards to the dream wastnd and use this to my advantage?¡± Angor thought about another idea.

    Although this wouldn¡¯t happen any time soon. Not until he found a way to prevent the ¡°guests¡± from harming the Foundation City.

    ...

    It took Gond a day to sail past Whalebone Sea and arrive at ckberry Waters. Angor was now pretty familiar with this route, so he didn¡¯t need a map to get here. However, he still needed some time to locate Lloyds.

    Apart from recharging the ¡°dreamuncher¡± for Freud, he had another matter to ask from the Ashen Traders.

    Rossum, the second-inmand of the trader team, was already waiting at the usual spot, who saw Angoring with a delighted smile.

    Instead of talking at the ruin site, Rossum passionately invited Angor to a pub house with the obvious intention of gaining more of Angor¡¯s trust.

    Angor epted the offer without a problem. He also knew why Rossum was taking all the time just to wait for him, and he wouldn¡¯t mind cooperating with these vers as it might prove to be useful in the future.

    After finishing their meals, Rossum ordered a private and protected room in the pub and led Angor inside.

    Before Angor revealed his intention, Rossum took out a green fruit and ced it on the desk in front of them with a ¡°you know what I mean¡± look.

    Angor recognized the fruit because he saw it before. It was ¡°Alligator¡¯s Bane¡±, one of theponents for making spirit potions. Apparently, Rossum offered it as a tool to negotiate with Eureka.

    ¡°You¡¯re in need of this, I believe?¡± Rossum still had that ¡°everything¡¯s under my control¡± expression.

    Angor chuckled and pushed the fruit back. ¡°No, sir. I¡¯m not buying materials this time. I came to procure some information.¡±

    ¡°Information?¡± Rossum looked disappointed. He wouldn¡¯t mind annoying Eureka to get on Angor¡¯s good side. He wondered if Angor already decided to remain peaceful with Eureka.

    ¡°I¡¯ll pay ordingly, of course,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°I¡¯ll grant you what you need for free as long as it¡¯s nothing important.¡± Rossum tried his generosity tactic again.

    ¡°Thank you, but let¡¯s stick to ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯, shall we? As for my question, did something happen around Devil¡¯s Water in the Month of Soothing Wind four years ago?¡±

    ¡°Four years ago, Devil¡¯s Water...¡± Rossum quickly went over his memories and reached something. ¡°There are usually too many things to remember in those parts. But four years ago, there was a spectacr incident that drew a lot of attention.¡±

    Four years ago, Angor was traveling to the Fey Continent on Sunders¡¯ cloud whale. At one night, the Alien Eye glowed brightly during his sleep, which was seen by Nausica. Angor would like to know what happened there so that he could avoid letting other wizards see such a thing, should the Alien Eye suddenly go crazy again.

    ¡°Can I hear about it?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a secret. Many organizations sent their men. If you want to know the details, I suggest that you ask Miss Flora, or Mister Sunders, because he gained the most out of that matter.

    ¡°That was when Mister Sunders gained enough resources to build a personal Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, an artifact treasured by all wizards in this world.¡±

    ¡°The Gravity Garden came from that?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°The incident was originally caused by a wizard from Gravity Forest, ¡®Dryad¡¯ Boko.¡±

    Rossum exined the ne fusion initiated by Boko in detail, including how Sunders got there first and piged almost all the Fragments of Eternity Boko collected, and how Sliv openly offended all wizards on the scene.

    ¡°In the end, Mister Sunders escaped from Sliv¡¯s trap, after which the ne fusion suddenly came to a halt and failed.¡± Rossum finished his story.

    Since there was nothing to gain from a failed ne fusion, Sunders was considered the ¡°winner¡± by iming arge number of Fragments of Eternity generated during the first stage of the fusion. Someone even dered that they nned to sabotage Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Gardenter, which never happened.

    When people couldn¡¯t figure out why the ne fusion was interrupted, they put their attention on something else, such as the severe grudge Sunders received from Gravity Forest. For one, Sunders took the Fragments of Eternity from Boko, a member of Gravity Forest. And secondly, Gravity Forest was badly in need of a new Gravity Garden. It was still fine if Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Garden turned out to be of another type. Yet what happened in the end was truly an insult to Gravity Forest.

    ¡°Consider it extra service,¡± Rossum added another piece of information. ¡°When Mister Sunders went to the Abyss ne on a mission, Gravity Forest sent people after him as well. What they wanted to do is in to see.¡±

 Chapter 927 - Three Questions

    <h4>Chapter 927: Three Questions</h4>

    What Sunders achieved during the ne fusion was quite an exciting story to behold. While listening to it, Angor also tried to figure out whether it had anything to do with his Alien Eye.

    As he remembered, Sunders and Flora left the cloud whale to do something elsewhere. But as soon as the Alien Eye ¡°lit up¡±, Sunders and Flora returned on the same night.

    Rossum exined that Sunders was simply running away from Sliv and a bunch of foreign invaders. After he did, the ne fusion came to a stop, and all the wizards who were waiting to seize resources from the fusion could only watch.

    Also, Rossum mentioned that this was the first failed ne fusion ever recorded.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me the Alien Eye actually ceased the ne fusion, or it might even draw something from the fusion?!</i> Angor thought. ¡°Ahem, Mister Rossum, was there anything else rted to it?¡±

    Rossum exined several minor clues such as missing ships and sea monsters spotted near the ne fusion. But they probably didn¡¯t have anything to do with the Alien Eye¡ªthese things happened at Devil¡¯s Water all the time.

    Angor still could not make sure whether the artifact was the true reason that prevented the ne fusion, but he decided to stay away from any from now on, just in case.

    Today¡¯s visit was fruitful. Now he had one more clue for better protecting the Alien Eye AND to help with his future research, if he ever wanted to examine the artifact more closely.

    ¡°Thank you very much for your help.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°How much do I owe you?¡±

    ¡°Frankly speaking, it¡¯s as good as free. For one, Mister Phantom will have no problem telling you everything. And if he does not, you can find an article in <i>Grove of Time</i>. If you insist on paying me... Here, you can buy something else, then we¡¯ll settle the price altogether.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Angor considered and asked, ¡°Let me see, do you have a magic scroll that can temporarily improve someone¡¯s luck?¡±

    Rossum frowned. ¡°Luck? There are many types, either rted to the art of Prophecy or other domains. Which one are you looking for?¡±

    For example, there was a famous spell called ¡°Lucky Choice¡±. Depending on their situation, this spell could help someone select the better option from two. Despite its name, the spell relied upon logic analysis and had little to do with prophecy or luck.

    ¡°I need something that generally increases my luck, not letting me see choices,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°That will be difficult. Scrolls with simr effects are very rare in this world because no known scroll writers can create or replicate them. No, our team doesn¡¯t have any for sale.¡±

    Angor nodded. He expected as much.

    ¡°Can you help me find someone who might sell it then?¡±

    ¡°That we can do.¡± Rossum nodded in return. ¡°Is it urgent? And how do we contact you if we do find one?¡±

    ¡°Not really. Look for it when you have time. I¡¯ll make sure to tell you if I want to give up. As for getting in touch...¡±

    Angor told Rossum where to find Freud.

    The scroll was vital to the development of the dream wastnd, so Angor wanted to look as much as he could.

    Rossum dly agreed to the trade. Providing service to Angor meant the Ashen Traders could keep cooperating with this talented alchemist. What was more, they just obtained a way to exchange messages with Angor, which meant even more potential profit in the days toe.

    ¡°I think I should remind you, Mister Padt. Such scrolls are usually one-use only, and the effect expires within several seconds. You may or may not find what you need in such a short time. I don¡¯t think such a tool is helpful to alchemy applications at all.¡±

    ¡°Thank you kindly.¡± Angor grinned. ¡°I¡¯m aware. I¡¯ll only use it when absolutely necessary.¡±

    Rossum believed that Angor needed more luck to do an important alchemy task, which was not the case. However, Angor wasn¡¯t going to exin this one.

    ¡°Good.¡± Rossum chuckled. ¡°Now you asked two things from me, neither of which was valuable information. Do you have other requests? If not, I¡¯m afraid I must charge you one crystal for the sake of it.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything. He truly didn¡¯t have other things to ask.

    ¡°I guess that¡¯s it?¡± Rossum raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I¡¯ll ask about my professor then, just for the sake of it. What¡¯s the situation in the Abyss?¡±

    Rossum chuckled. ¡°I recently heard that Mister Sumesh just left from there. As for Mister Phantom, he¡¯s still staying at the Abyss ne. I can¡¯t tell you what he¡¯s doing, though.¡±

    Angor nodded and ended the conversation here. It seemed he still needed to find a way to contact Sunderster.

    ¡°Since that¡¯s not really anything important either, I¡¯ll ask for one magic crystal. Or we can simply round it down into... zero. There¡¯s no need to pay, really.¡±

    Angor still found a crystal for Rossum. Unnecessarily owing people favors was a lot worse than losing money.

    Before he handed the crystal over, however, he suddenly remembered another matter.

    When making Crimson Aegis, he met with a strange shadow in the omen challenge that gave him two choices. After he made the choice, the shadow ¡°took¡± the other one away.

    He still wondered if that was an illusion created by the omen, or if it was someone who truly existed in reality.

    The Crimson Aegis came with an extra effect he wasn¡¯t expecting. Could that be rted to the strange man he talked to?

    ¡°I want to know about, well, a person.¡±

    ¡°Looking for people? That¡¯s our profession. If he¡¯s not strong or someone important, we can even lock him up and deliver him to you in a cage.¡± Rossum looked proud of his job.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know whether he¡¯s strong or not, but I don¡¯t think he¡¯s someone you can capture easily. Have you heard of the name ¡®Cassini¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Cassini?¡± Rossum took a while to think it over, but he couldn¡¯t remember anyone by that name.

    ¡°This might not be his real name. Maybe Cassini is only his moniker or a small part of his full name.¡±

    ¡°Anything else you can tell me? How does he look? Which kind of art does he use?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, don¡¯t know anything beyond that.¡± Angor shrugged.

    Angor did not mention the strange question asked by Cassini as it might expose his Crimson Aegis.

    ¡°Wait up. I¡¯ll talk to Chief Beals. Maybe he knows something.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡± Angor quickly shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s not important. Let¡¯s not bother Mister Beals. Here, your payment.¡±

    Angor left a magic crystal, paid their bill, and left the room.

    ¡°Well, well, well... This is a fruitful day alright.¡± Rossum fiddled the magic crystal in his hand. ¡°Lady Luck favored me today. Or is it the ¡®Time Thief¡¯? Heh. Hey, Beals, you there?¡±

    ¡°Angor came to you?¡± Beals answered through their transmission. ¡°He finally wanted to do something about Eureka?¡±

    ¡°No, he came to ask questions. The ne fusion four years ago. No idea why he wanted to hear it. Then he¡¯s looking for a luck-improving magic scroll, which means we need several men for the job.¡±

    ¡°I did know several geezers who possessed these things before, but I don¡¯t think any of them are willing to part with them,¡± said Beals. ¡°There¡¯s someone at Moxa Wesnd I can talk to. I¡¯m pretty close right now, so I¡¯ll try my luck there.¡±

    ¡°Good to hear. I¡¯ll just remain at Lloyds and wait for your good news.¡±

    Beals nodded and prepared to shut down their link. This secret art used by the Ashen Traders was an efficient means for long-rangemunication, but it costrge amounts of energy to maintain.

    ¡°Oh, he asked for someone else in the end. I can¡¯t answer that one, but he didn¡¯t seem concerned about it.¡± Rossum suddenly recalled thest part of the conversation with Angor.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Beals did not cancel their talk.

    ¡°Cassini. That rings a bell?¡±

 Chapter 928 - Vifet

    <h4>Chapter 928: Vifet</h4>

    The sky was dark with a heavy sandstorm that engulfed the entire desert. Among the sand dunes, a team of camel traders pushed through the deadly barrier or nature on slow steps.

    Even with their gear, it was too hard to see the path ahead. But as experienced merchants who crossed the same path every year, they could still find their way with the help of the rings tied to their animals.

    When the sandstorm died down just a little, a man taking the lead yelled loudly behind him, ¡°Keep your guards up, folks! That ahead is the most dangerous part of the route. Stick close to each other and don¡¯t lose your way!¡±

    This ce was known as the ¡°sands of no return¡± just because of the quicksand clusters in the way. Anyone who took the wrong step would sink into the hot grave to hell with no hope ofing back out. Not even veteran adventurers.

    But as everyone moved as warily as they could, one of the members in the group, a tall figure wearing a ck robe, left the formation and headed into the deadly zone alone.

    ¡°Are you looking for doom? Get back here!¡± the leader anxiously called out.

    That straying man was not one of their team but a lone traveler they met halfway.

    ¡°Thank you for your kindness, sir, but my long journey has ended.¡± The robed man kept moving away. ¡°Now, I will find my old friend and have a nice drink with him.¡±

    The distance and the sandstorm should be enough to muddle his voice. Yet strangely enough, those words were heard by everyone loud and clear.

    ¡°Old friend? There are only dried corpses buried all around this damned ce!¡± a trader protested.

    The caravan leader suddenly recalled something and stopped his men from helping the weirdo.

    ¡°When I was younger, my old man used to tell me a story, that there¡¯s a secret paradise in the depth of this desert, which was made by powerful wizards. A woman who could fly saved him from the sands, he said.¡±

    He didn¡¯t believe the story before, but seeing the strange traveler walking on top of the soft traps of sand smoothly, he changed his mind. That man didn¡¯t even leave any footprints behind as if he were a ghost.

    ...

    The robed man kept walking for half an hour until he arrived at the center of the desert, which was fully surrounded by quicksand puddles.

    For some reason, the raging sand gales did not reach here as if this were the eye of a storm.

    Nothing here looked out of the ordinary except for a lone stone pir that stuck out of the empty terrain. The pir had an eagle¡¯s head engraved on its tip, below which was a number of totem-like symbols.

    The scenery around the pir went blurry and changed when the robed figure approached. In a matter of seconds, the pir split into two, then four... until over a hundred pirs came into being and surrounded the traveler within.

    Two eyes suddenly emerged on two pirs closest to him and spoke, ¡°Taomuey¡¯s Quiz, Sunguine¡¯s Conjecture, or Maze Corridor. Choose one. Pass the challenge, and you¡¯ll be granted entrance into the treasure vault.¡±

    The traveler removed his hood and revealed his face in the sunlight¡ªa middle-aged man with a clearly-trimmed beard and a sharp facial outline. There was the tattoo of an hourss on one side of his neck, which suggested the Ashen Traders.

    ¡°Hello, Zimbo,¡± ¡°Whale Hunter¡± Beals spoke in a cheerful voice, ¡°I¡¯m paying Old Vifet a visit. It¡¯s been a long time since we talked over a ss of wine.¡±

    The eyes on the pirs gained more colors and vividness as if they just became alive.

    ¡°Beals! Good timing. I have this infinite loop thing I¡¯ve been working on. A little help, please?¡±

    Beals shook his head and sighed. Zimbo the Guardian Totem was the gatekeeper of Moxa Wesnd. This stone spirit was usually friendly to all, but with only one problem¡ªit loved math quizzes way too much. Each time someone wished to enter or leave from the gate, Zimbo would pester them with questions. And if the traveler was clever enough, they might even receive a nice reward from Zimbo.

    Rumor had it that a mortal from a thousand years ago earned a bottle of spirit-improving potion from Zimbo for solving one of the problems and became an apprentice.

    ¡°Fine. Show me.¡± Beals knew Zimbo wouldn¡¯t let him go easily.

    Beals wasn¡¯t exactly a schr, but he had his good share of study as a wizard. He didn¡¯t reach an answer to the quiz in the end, though he did provide some interesting opinions to help Zimbo work it out.

    ¡°Welp, you tried. Off you go then.¡±

    The pirs began to vanish until only the original one was left behind.

    An entrance to a staircase appeared in the middle of the thick pir.

    ¡°I told Vifet you¡¯reing. He¡¯ll send a servant to fetch you,¡± Zimbo said and returned to being silent.

    Beals walked onto the stairs and saw a giant sand rat waiting for him. Following the creature, they soon found Vifet in a guest room.

    To Beals¡¯ surprise, he and Vifet weren¡¯t the only ones present. A flickering human shadow was also on a seat at the opposite side of the table.

    ¡°Thirty years, or was it, Beals? What makes you remember me all of a sudden?¡±

    Vifet was a short, hunched old man with a magnificent white beard. The wrinkles on his loosened skin almost covered his small eyes.

    ¡°Selling your ves again? I¡¯m not interested inmon ves, mind you.¡±

    ¡°Nah, we didn¡¯t find many decent ves recently. We did get our hands on a wild Demeter the other day, but we sold it to someone.¡±

    Beals gave Vifet a friendly hug and found a seat while carefully ncing at the other guest in the room.

    ¡°I meant it when I said I¡¯m looking for a get-together. You have time, right?¡±

    ¡°A Demeter, you say?¡± Vifet looked disappointed. ¡°I could use one of those in my sand maze. You should have told me so that I couldpete with the other buyer!¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think you can win in a fairpetition anyway.¡± Beals shrugged. ¡°Besides, the decision brought our team more benefit.¡±

    ¡°Oh ho, you found a nice customer you can scam for more money?¡± Vifet smirked.

    ¡°Mind that I can¡¯t tell you who that is. We have rules, you know.¡±

    Vifet nodded. This was why he loved working with Beals in the first ce.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Vifet sat down. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you¡¯re here to say hello. Just tell me what you want.¡±

    Beals nced at the shadow, who made no attempt to leave, and remained quiet.

    What he was going to ask in Angor¡¯s ce was not a big secret, but as a professional trader, he would like to avoid letting his business being overheard by others.

    ¡°No worries.¡± Vifet smiled. ¡°If you¡¯re talking to me, then you probably won¡¯t speak of anything important. Buuuut I can send you somewhere private if necessary.¡±

    Beals considered and decided to make it in right here. But he still used Voice Transmission, just in case. ¡°Will you sell that lucky scroll of yours, by any chance?¡±

    Vifet made an ¡°X¡± with his arms. ¡°No. Nonono. That¡¯s my dearest treasure. I¡¯m not giving it up.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m asking for a customer of mine. You can simply show me a price, and I¡¯ll deliver the message. Any price is fine.¡±

    ¡°A price? Sure. I¡¯ll hand the scroll over in exchange for a Fragment of Eternity.¡±

    ¡°I... see.¡± Beals silently scoffed. A single Fragment of Eternity was worth several more times than Vifet¡¯s scroll.

    ¡°Truth be told, I don¡¯t want to sell even if someone does give me a fragment,¡± Vifet continued. ¡°One fragment is useless anyway, I need to look for more myself.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± Beals nodded. ¡°It¡¯s fine as long as I have something to report.¡±

    Beals did not leave right away after the job was done¡ªhe did wish to spend some time with his old friend.

    Vifet was an old wizard who had been in the wizarding world for 800 years. Sometimes, he could reveal other wisdom that greatly benefited them.

    Vifet found his best-preserved wine and readied it on the table, after which they began talking about various events that happened in the wizarding world, as well as their future ns and ambitions.

    Beals believed that the day would be more perfect if that strange shadow weren¡¯t here to listen to them from start to end. Each time he inconspicuously tried to figure out who that was by asking Vifet questions, Vifet just diverted his attention. Eventually, Beals gave up and decided topletely ignore the weirdpany.

    ¡°I¡¯m no longer sure what the Fey Continent is going to look like at this rate.¡± Vifet shook his head in frustration when they talked about the general situation in the southern region. ¡°I can¡¯t say whether Mister Monkey did the right thing, but the demon invasion cannot be stopped now, that¡¯s for sure. And there¡¯s the unusual darkness in the Evernight Kingdom. If monsters are hiding in there, they would strike nearby organizations even earlier than the demons, by which time Moxa would not be so safe...¡±

    Moxa Wesnd and the Evernight Kingdom weren¡¯t so far apart from each other. There was only the border of the Lavish Division serving as the only barrier between them.

    ¡°What the heck¡¯s going over there?¡± asked Beals. He only heard that the Sleepless City was ¡°in great trouble¡± right now and that more organizations were fleeing from the Evernight Kingdom. But he never learned the cause of the disaster.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much. But you can ask Mister Phantom if you really need to know. He¡¯s the only wizard who went to the center of the dark area and came back out.¡±

    ¡°He did?!¡±

    ¡°Not only that, but he also took his student with him and saved several members of Brute Cavern along their way. If the magazines are telling the truth, that is.¡±

    ¡°Mister Sunders and his student? Hmm...¡±

    ¡°You should have heard about that particr young man who got the entire alchemy world crazy several times. What¡¯s his name again... Angor?¡±

 Chapter 929 - Celestial Thinker

    <h4>Chapter 929: Celestial Thinker</h4>

    ¡°Since Angor went to the core of the fiasco together with Sunders, he might know some unique secrets yet to be revealed,¡± said Vifet as he showed an annoyed look. ¡°But that little fellow always stays hidden. When the whole Remnant Auction went crazy over his new music box, he never showed up personally. No idea where he is right now. If I find a chance to talk to him, I¡¯d make sure to ask a lot of questions. Besides, I¡¯m hoping to meet with such a young genius and see what he looks like.¡±

    Beals listened to Vifet carefully.

    <i>But I know how to find him! If I get some first-hand clues about the Evernight Kingdom from him and then sell the information to others...</i>

    <i>But how do I get him to tell me?</i>

    ¡°Cassini. Wait, he wants to know this Cassini person. Maybe I can find the answer and trade with him?¡± he muttered.

    Vifet didn¡¯t pay attention to Beals¡¯ mumbling. It was the strange shadow, who had been all quiet until now, suddenly twitched and attracted their attention.

    ¡°... Repeat the name you just said,¡± the shadow demanded in a deep and distant voice.

    ¡°Name? You mean Angor?¡± Vifet looked a bit fearful for some reason.

    The shadow stared at Beals.

    Beals also noticed the staggering aura radiating from the shadow and felt his mind being slowly affected. He wondered if the strange guest was actually someone powerful.

    But he didn¡¯t remember anyone like this living in Moxa Wesnd.

    Without getting Beals¡¯ response, the shadow repeated the question again.

    Beals would like to stay silent, but when he saw Vifet keep winking at him in a suggestive way, he chose toply. ¡°Do you mean Cassini?¡±

    The shadow took a long moment to ponder over that name.

    ¡°I wonder how many eras have passed since I heard that name thest time...¡±

    <i>Who the heck is Cassini?</i> Both Vifet and Beals wondered.

    The shadow suddenly shed off a thin film of barrier and exposed his true body¡ªa man with white skin and a tidy look.

    Beals didn¡¯t recognize him, but he saw something on the stranger that greatly shocked him¡ªa robe pulsing with arcane energy.

    ¡°That¡¯s-that¡¯s the ¡®Robe of Eternal Night¡¯!¡± Beals pointed to the man¡¯s body with a trembling finger.

    On the first look, the robe waspletely ck. But it wasn¡¯t a simple ck color; it was as if the robe itself were a ck hole that absorbed all light. Apart from this, the attire also came with golden decorations like stars shining at night.

    Robe of Eternal Night, one of the most famous top-ss alchemy items known to the public. It was supposedly a man from Starliege Temple, Gauss, who currently owned the robe.

    Next, Beals looked up and saw a simr-colored circlet on the man¡¯s head. The circlet had an hourss and gears engraved on it.

    ¡°The Diadem of Time?!¡±

    This was another famous treasure possessed by Starliege Temple, and it was also another precious alchemy creation known by almost everyone in the south.

    Seeing these two items had confirmed for Beals that he was looking at none other than Gauss himself, one of the ¡°Binary Stars¡± from Starliege Temple.

    It wasmonly acknowledged that ¡°Celestial Thinker¡± Gauss and ¡°Unfading Globe¡± Lupanya were the strongest wizards in the entire Brilliance ne. Both of them were truth-finder wizards.

    ¡°Mister Gauss!¡± Beals quickly stood up and bowed to the great wizard he would never surpass.

    ¡°¡®Whale Hunter¡¯ Beals, is it? I heard about you. Here, I have a question to ask.¡± Gauss¡¯ voice contained a peculiar rhyme that made him magically persuasive.

    ¡°Of course, Mister Gauss! Please go ahead.¡± Beals was more than d to know that he was recognized by such a famous figure.

    ¡°Say, where did you learn about... Cassini?¡±

    When mentioning this name, Gauss lost his calm temperament for a brief instant as if he both feared and envied Cassini.

    Beals wanted to answer right away, but the discipline of a trader suddenly shed in his mind.

    ¡°It was one of my customers who asked me to investigate. Please understand that I cannot betray him.¡± Beals anxiously lowered his head.

    ¡°Heh. Sure. I have other ways to know the answer from you, of which you are aware, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    As one of the ¡°Eighteen Overseers¡± from Starliege Temple, Gauss was a skilled Prophet who knew how to directly read information from other people. In fact, he already prepared his spell as soon as he heard Cassini¡¯s name. He would dly disregard all manners and matters if it meant knowing Cassini¡¯s whereabouts.

    Beals felt an invading spell scanning his mind.

    <i>Sorry, Mister Padt, I do want to protect your privacy, but this is no longer under my control.</i>

    When the spell was done, Gauss looked in another direction. ¡°Now let me see, who are you? And what did you do to earn <i>his</i> attention?¡±

    In an instant, Gauss sent his keen awareness across great distances.

    ...

    Angor, who was staying at Freighting Town, suddenly had a strange feeling and felt his hair stand.

    At the same time, the droplet-shaped crystal affixed on his shoulder, which was a specialized space container used for keeping Crimson Aegis, suddenly began to glow.

    But everything ended before he could check what was going on.

    ¡°What was that? Someone talking behind my back?¡±

    ...

    Gauss suddenly felt an energy blockage in his body and began gasping painfully.

    ¡°What happened there, pal?!¡± Vifet asked. He had known Gauss for a long time, so he knew Gauss just failed a spell. But as far as he remembered, Gauss rarely made such mistakes ever since bing a truth-finder.

    Gauss did not respond. After calming his breaths, he put on a serious look and retried his spell.

    Soon, a second prophecy spell was unleashed, more powerfully this time.

    A drop of blood escaped from Gauss¡¯ lips.

    ¡°It failed again?!¡± Vifet couldn¡¯t believe what he was looking at.

    Beals also watched in astonishment. He didn¡¯t know much about prophecy, but he at least knew that a truth-finder Prophet shouldn¡¯t act like this.

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Gauss nodded to Vifet. ¡°I wasn¡¯t careful enough.¡±

    ¡°But your spell is enough to check level-2 truth-finders.¡± Vifet frowned. ¡°How in the world¡ª¡±

    ¡°I do not know. I reached a blood-red dead end in my view, then the spell just... got canceled. It¡¯s not a backfire. There¡¯s simply something that stopped me. Maybe the target cannot be monitored by the Wheel of Time right now? Or maybe they¡¯re inside an anti-prophecy area. I also heard about alchemy equipment that blocks off prophecy, but such items are extremely costly and rare.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t be monitored by the Wheel of Time? Is that possible?¡± Vifet wondered.

    ¡°Yes, if the target of the spell is currently somewhere where time itself is disrupted. For example, the Nightmare Realm.¡±

    Gauss and Vifet looked at Beals again. If prophecy didn¡¯t work, they might as well ask a direct question.

    Beals shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I really can¡¯t. To traders like us, good credit is more important than our lives. If I break the rules here, I¡¯ll deny the future of my entire team.¡±

    Gauss considered and decided not to force Beals for now.

    ¡°Well, I understand that, but can you at least tell us how this customer of yours prevented prophecy spells?¡± asked Vifet.

    <i>He¡¯s a genius alchemist! Of course he can make something for this purpose,</i> Beals thought.

    Yet he couldn¡¯t reveal this fact either as it might expose Angor¡¯s identity.

    Vifet and Gauss exchanged a disappointed look. The guest room grew embarrassingly quiet.

    Beals stood up and prepared to leave since staying would only cause more trouble.

    Before he headed to the door, he heard Vifet speaking to Gauss, ¡°Who¡¯s this Cassini anyway?¡±

    Beals slowed down so that he might conveniently learn more about this matter.

    ¡°It was Lupanya who mentioned this name before. He said that Cassini ¡®stole his choices¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Stealing choices?? Could it be¡ª¡±

    Both Beals and Vifet were reminded of another name¡ªthe Time Thief.

 Chapter 930 - Deityâ€™s Thrall

    <h4>Chapter 930: Deity¡¯s Thrall</h4>

    Beals left Vifet¡¯s ce with a confused look.

    The story of the Time Thief was one of the most famous legends in the wizarding world, passed down since ancient times. Of course Beals knew about the Time Thief. Though he only heard about ¡°Cassini¡± for the first time in his life.

    ording to the story, the Time Thief was known to steal ¡°choices¡± from people like a scavenger traveling through the river of time. Each time someone made a choice, the Time Thief woulde and take the remaining one away.

    It was said that there were certain ways to backtrack in time and correct someone¡¯s incorrect decisions made before. However, the Time Thief would usuallye and make sure this did not happen. He would alwayspletely erase the other path.

    Nobody could tell how the Time Thief chose his targets. But they did know that the Time Thief tended to abide by certain rules. For example, someone who lost a choice would getpensated in an unpredictable way. Unpredictable, but always helpful in the long run.

    Secondly, the Time Thief did not select his targets randomly. Those who interacted with the Time Thief before all met with greater chances of bing truth-finders in their wizarding career. In other words, someone who was yet to be a truth-finder was very likely to reach that level if visited by the Time Thief.

    This was why lots of people regarded such visits from the Time Thief as a blessing.

    However, this wasn¡¯t always a good thing to happen because the Time Thief could steal the ¡°correct choices¡± as well, should one fail to grasp them. If a man entered a delicate situation where he barely let a great fortune slip but was still possible to fix it, the Time Thief would make sure the failure stayed that way.

    However, those who achieved enough to actually hate the Time Thief already went beyondmon levels and joined the rank of legendary, and only people who had earned enough experience on the path of truth could realize what the Time Thief did to them.

    The southern wizarding region had not seen any new legendary wizards in a long time. Now,mon wizards and apprentices alike only wished that they earned the Time Thief¡¯s blessing someday.

    ¡°Cassini the Time Thief...¡± Beals removed some sweat from his hands.

    Telling from Gauss¡¯ reaction, Beals knew that Angor probably once saw Cassini, or he might even be ¡°blessed¡± by Cassini.

    An apprentice favored by THE Time Thief. What that signified was obvious.

    Beals was already well-informed as a professional ve dealer, yet he knew less than a hundred people in history who were visited by the Time Thief.

    ¡°Goddammit. Mister Padt spoke to the Timer Thief for real? I need to find out no matter what.¡±

    A part of him believed that Angor did receive the blessing¡ªthis would perfectly exin how Angor was improving so rapidly.

    Still, he would like to find Angor and ask, even if this might not be proper.

    ...

    Inside Vifet¡¯s underground chamber, the two wizards were still recovering from the big surprise.

    ¡°You can keep the Time Thief¡¯s name in mind, but remember, don¡¯t reveal it to anyone,¡± Gauss warned.

    Vifet nodded. The clue was so precious that he might even use it to find the Time Thief or those who met with the Time Thief.

    ¡°Pity, Beals is stubborn when ites to protecting his team,¡± Vifetined. ¡°Maybe the customer he mentioned did not directly encounter Cassini either.¡±

    ¡°No...¡± Gauss shook his head. ¡°Anyone who caught the slightest wind of Cassini¡¯s name will surely hold certain connections with the Time Thief.¡±

    ¡°But it doesn¡¯t matter now. Beals won¡¯t tell us, and it¡¯s not like we can change his mind.¡±

    Gauss suddenly showed a cunning smirk. ¡°Not really.¡±

    He tapped a finger on the desk, and under Vifet¡¯s surprised look, a shining sphere with a human mouth on it emerged from the wooden surface.

    The ¡°mouth¡± licked its lips using a slim tongue like that of a reptile before it spoke, ¡°Gauss! Ya b*stard. Who are you gonna peek at this time, huh?! I won¡¯t help you if it¡¯s not a lovelydy, I tell you!¡±

    Embarrassed, Gauss cleared his throat and exined, ¡°Pardon me, I just obtained this Deity¡¯s Thrall. Never had time to teach it manners yet.¡±

    ¡°I... I see.¡± Vifet stared.

    This strange creature, despite its name, had nothing to do with real deities. It was a tool used by a minor prophecy sect called the Wordless Deity.

    It was usually known that Prophets of this sect tended to be untalkative. Though strangely, the Deity Thralls they created were all quite the bbermouths.

    ¡°You¡¯ll like the smell, I assure you,¡± Gauss said to the ball.

    He waved a hand and guided an invisible air current to the thrall, which came from Beals¡¯ seat.

    Wizards all knew how to conceal and remove their traces. But there was no absoluteness. Gauss¡¯ Deity Thrall was a specialized life form used for detecting the tiniest trails when other trackers couldn¡¯t.

    Gauss delivered the ¡°smell¡± to the desk. ¡°Here, bodily hormones left by a sweet woman. Have a taste.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t fool me just ¡¯cause I don¡¯t have eyes!¡± the ball protested. ¡°I can get angry, you know! You and your freaking pranks! Thest time you gave me sh*t and told me it was from a girl in Pleasure House...¡±

    Vifet looked away and pretended he heard none of it.

    Gauss saw Vifet¡¯s reaction and grew even more awkward. ¡°Ahem. Beals is our only clue right now, so... I must use what I can.¡±

    Next, Gauss and the Deity Thrall began talking in a strangenguage Vifet couldn¡¯t understand. It seemed the thrall was furious when it found out what Gauss gave it, but Gauss somehow persuaded it into helping nheless.

    A momentter, Gauss put the ball away.

    ¡°Did you get it?¡± Vifet was curious to find out.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t get a name, but I got a direction, by presenting possible choices and asking for a most probable one. What I can tell for now is that Beals¡¯ ¡®customer¡¯ possesses an alchemy tool that blocked my spell. Also ording to Beals¡¯ implication, that customer crafted the tool by himself.¡±

    This had greatly thinned down the range of possible answers. Even among all alchemists, the number of people who knew how to counter prophecy was slim.

    Also, they were looking for someone who recently traded with Ashen Traders.

    ...

    Naturally, Angor had no idea that more wizards just got his name onto their bounty list.

    He was still busy with an alchemy process in Freighting Town. He came here after leaving Lloyds so that he could help Freud recharge the ¡°dreamuncher¡±.

    He did not need to make anything new, but he had another problem right now, which was the capacity of theuncher. Theuncher could be used 979 times when fully powered, which seemed sufficient at first, but it would quickly get depleted if Freud kept inviting more people to the dream wastnd while going in and out himself.

    As for the quickest solution... Giving Freud several moreunchers would do.

    Angor did some experiments and noticed that using better materials would not increase the capacity very significantly, while doing the opposite could easily degrade theuncher, so he had to stick to the old recipe.

    He made six of them in the end. The final usage limits of the products turned out to be slightly different from each other due to uncontroble factors. Together, theseunchers would provide about 5,500 chances to enter the dream wastnd. This should be enough to support Freud until his next visit unless Freud mistakenly overused them.

    Next, he spent another day summoning more construction materials to the Foundation City, to fulfill several new city expansion ns. While at it, he also made sure that Freud knew Rossum¡¯s name so that Rossum wouldn¡¯t get stood up if he was toe over.

 Chapter 931 - Torras the Sheriff

    <h4>Chapter 931: Torras the Sheriff</h4>

    As Angor was ready to depart, he saw Alda returning to reality with a terrified look.

    ¡°Mister Dison, you gottae! There¡¯s an ident!¡±

    Angor stopped to listen to Alda¡¯s further exnation.

    ording to Alda, two residents in the Foundation City, who used to be rivals when alive, met with each other and started a fight, resulting in one of them being ¡°killed¡±. As in, the man¡¯s consciousness was entirely eliminated.

    Freud did relevant tests before. If the consciousness of someone still alive was forcefully pulled into the dream wastnd, killing the consciousness would instead wake them up, leaving no noticeable aftereffect apart from some bad memories. However, those who could only survive as their consciousness would die for real.

    To prevent this, Freud already appointed guards in the city, but it seemed this would not fully stop crimes.

    The incident did not end here. After killing his target, the criminal tried to escape from the city, murdering several more citizens in the process.

    ¡°Where is he?¡± Freud scowled.

    ¡°He¡¯s still on the run. He breached the gate and ran into the wilderness outside!¡± Alda cried.

    ¡°I see.¡±

    Freud looked rather pissed because he just lost several precious test subjects. What was more, Angor was here to watch the incident, which was mainly caused by his carelessness.

    ¡°I¡¯ll deal with him right now, Mister Padt.¡± Freud quickly took out a new dreamuncher.

    ¡°Hold on, take these with you.¡± Angor took out some items he prepared, most of which were simple alchemy items he crafted for practice. ¡°I¡¯ll drop them to our designated location. Pick them up there.¡±

    Freud nodded, put on the dreamuncher, and disappeared from the room.

    This had reminded Angor of an urgent problem, which was how to maintain peace in the city.

    Even cities withplete security measures may notpletely discourage ouws and corruption, let alone a newly-built one. Angor wasn¡¯t worried about Jon¡¯s safety because he already gave Jon lots of defensive items to use. They weren¡¯t anything valuable but were enough to block mortal weapons.

    Though he still needed to do something to remove such a threat from the city so that it wouldn¡¯t affect their project.

    A momentter, Freud returned to reality with a grim look.

    ¡°I disposed of him, sir. But it was... difficult. That man used to be a trained royal guard from somewhere. I could win thanks to the scrolls you delivered.¡±

    Freud was an apprentice, but he lost most of his power when existing in the dream wastnd as a soul.

    ¡°I apologize, sir. I¡¯ll be careful when picking more subjects next time. I won¡¯t let mortals who know how to fight inside. ¡±

    ¡°Good to know.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Establishing aprehensivew system is the top priority next.¡±

    ¡°I know, Mister Padt. The weapons you gave me will be perfect for scaring off potentialwbreakers.¡±

    ¡°It will be a great waste if you use alchemy items against mortals.¡± Angor held his chin. ¡°I¡¯ve got an idea. Give me a moment, I¡¯ll introduce a new guest.¡±

    ...

    Ten minutester, Angor went to Skyward Tower together with another man wearing an ox-horn helmet.

    Therge helmet covered most of the man¡¯s face, but what was exposed¡ªhis jaw and smooth white skin¡ªsuggested that he was rtively young.

    His simple chest armor did not cover his abdomen, and an obvious six-pack could be seen. Below were a traditional-looking leather culotte and a hairy, muscr leg. He didn¡¯t have a left leg. Instead, it was reced by a metal prosthesis with a sharp hook on its tip.

    ¡°Aha! This ce looks neat-o. I like it!¡± the man eximed loudly. ¡°Is this my new kingdom?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re only the sheriff,¡± Angor deadpanned.

    ¡°Well, a sheriff will always scout his city and look over his subjects. That¡¯s not much different from being a king!¡±

    Angor shook his head and chose to ignore Torras¡¯ strange attitude. Ever since Torras read <i>Dancing on Devil¡¯s Tides</i>, this man actually thought of himself as the heroic pirate described in the story.

    Angor kept Torras inside his Church of the Deceased so that he could see the subsequent effect caused by Prelude to Rebirth. Since locking Torras up in a narrow room for too long might unnecessarily cause trouble, Angor decided to send Torras to the Foundation City.

    Torras might be a weirdo, but he wasn¡¯t bad. And as an actual pirate during his career, Torras should be capable of fending off mortal offenders.

    ¡°As aw keeper, first, you should¡ª¡±

    Torras impatiently interrupted Freud. ¡°Shut up. Stop bad guys, right? That¡¯s what I do! You know what they used to call me? The tyrant that ruled over the entire Eastern Sea. It was me who killed that legendary viin, Red Beard!¡±

    ¡°Red Beard was only 10 years old when you died as a veteran pirate,¡± Angormented.

    ¡°You¡¯re lying! He was 30! Or something like that. The book said so!¡± Torras looked proud of his story.

    ¡°That book was a fiction. It was made-up.¡±

    ¡°Not entirely! It¡¯s based on actual facts in history!¡±

    Angor looked at Torras¡¯ determined look and decided not to argue.

    ¡°Just... do your job. And change that look. You don¡¯t want the citizens to see you like this.¡±

    Torras couldn¡¯t wait to see the civilization and jumped off from the top floor of Skyward Tower immediately, which terrified Freud for good.

    They saw Torras skillfully descending by slowing his momentum using his ¡°hook leg¡± against the tower wall until hended on the ground nice and sound with a stylish backflip.

    Torras winked at Freud and headed into the city ahead joyfully.

    Angor chuckled. ¡°At least the storybook told some truths. For example, this guy was always overconfident, and he got the skills for it.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure this is okay, Mister Padt?¡± Freud didn¡¯t look convinced. For now, he only knew that Torras was a soul left behind by a pirate from thousands of years ago.

    ¡°We had a magic covenant, so he won¡¯t harm the city, that¡¯s for sure. He¡¯s an odd man, but you can trust his strength. He didmand a big pirate fleet before. Keeping people in check won¡¯t be hard for him.¡±

    ¡°How much does he know about the dream wastnd?¡±

    ¡°None. I only told him that this is a foreign dimension. You saw what he¡¯s like. Not really a man who knows how to keep secrets, right?¡±

    Freud nodded. He now knew how to deal with the new ¡°sheriff¡±.

    With this matter settled, Angor returned to reality, took out Gond, and left the Land of Revtion.

    Unfortunately, Rossum from Ashen Traders happened to be heading to the Land of Revtion to look for him, but he failed to catch him on the way.

    ...

    Angor was thinking about another question he just realized from today¡¯s event.

    People who were killed in reality could go to the dream wastnd and ¡°live¡± there. So what happened to the consciousness if it was ¡°killed¡± in the dream? Would it go somewhere else?

    Souls and energy could not disappear into thin air. In the real world, if a soul was obliterated, it would turn into energy particles that nurtured the environment around it. Could dead consciousness blend into the dream wastnd in a simr way? Was it possible to find a domain power that resurrected it?

    ...

    It took him three days to arrive at Padt Manor.

    Jon¡¯s body did not show any signs of further decline yet, but it might happen any time now. There was no time to lose.

    After settling several matters in the manor, Angor was ready to head back to the Fey Continent.

 Chapter 932 - Sobyâ€™s Suggestion

    <h4>Chapter 932: Soby¡¯s Suggestion</h4>

    Before making his long trip, he still had something else to attend to at Padt Manor first.

    He took some time to note down everything about Jon¡¯s condition that he might useter, then he prepared several items he no longer needed but useful to Leon.

    Next, he went to a corner of his bedroom, where the Soft Larva nest was hidden inside a small illusion.

    The individual egg did not hatch yet, but it had grown quite big. Thankfully, the nest itself was bigger on the inside, which was simr to space storage containers, so there was plenty of room.

    However, the egg would soon need to be transferred to arger area in the nest. And when it was already bigger than the passages intended formonrvae to move around, doing so could damage the interior of the nest.

    Angor referred to his previous notes and realized that the current ¡°room¡± would get busted by the growing egg in at most a month.

    He ced the nest in his space bracelet and left the room.

    Inside his bracelet, the Dream Weaver ant sensed something and quickly crawled to therva nest. At the same time, the bigger Soft Larva egg twitched a little.

    ...

    Angor went to Leon¡¯s room and saw Soby napping outside Leon¡¯s door.

    ¡°Leon is meditating. I won¡¯t go in there if I were you,¡± Soby said to him.

    Angor nodded and decided to wait.

    Taking the chance, he tried striking up random conversations with Thewis¡¯ pet but without much sess. The hound wasn¡¯t much of a willing talker, just like Thewis himself.

    Angor still managed to learn something. For example, it was his book, <i>Tips and Notes for Beginner Apprentices</i>, that finally helped Leon to enter a meditation state when Leon used to have no clue of doing so.

    ¡°The book. It¡¯s nicely done.¡± Soby nced at Angor using its ¡°normal¡± head.

    ¡°You read it?¡±

    ¡°No. It was my master who said so.¡±

    When giving Leon the handbook, Angor already expected Thewis to check it out. It was just right for a teacher to make sure his student was studying from proper sources after all.

    ¡°It¡¯s an honor. Really,¡± Angor replied without meaning those words.

    ¡°The master will not mention the book to outsiders, no need to worry there. But do you think it¡¯s fine to give Leon the book so early? This could be bad for him.¡±

    ¡°Bad?¡±

    ¡°If Leon does not learn from challenges and hardship at the beginning of his apprenticeship, he¡¯ll not know how to think independently. Or worse, he¡¯ll begin to rely on you. And when he can no longer get your help, he¡¯ll stop improving.¡±

    Soby was right, and Angor knew it. Wizards and apprentices spent most of their lives being alone. Being dependent would greatly hinder one¡¯s steps.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a serious problem right now,¡± Soby continued. ¡°The knowledge you showed him is only the basics. It does not have much to help a Bloodline Art trainee either. I meant to tell you that, even as his brother, you should not tly grant him assistance and resources.¡±

    Soby looked at the box Angor was holding, which contained more tools for Leon.

    Angor shook his head and searched the box to remove something that might be too helpful to Leon¡¯s case.

    ¡°You are leaving?¡± Soby asked while they both waited for Leon toe out.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    There was more silence.

    ¡°Can I ask why you are wearing a blinder?¡±

    ¡°I have two opposite attributes within me. I am ¡®peace¡¯, while the other head you see is ¡®devastation¡¯. The time it gazes upon this world will be when it unleashes its power of destruction.¡±

    Angor always found Soby¡¯s emerald eyes to be good to look at. He wondered if the other head looked exactly the same. But it seemed he wouldn¡¯t get the answer for now.

    About an hourter, they heard noises that suggested Leon had ¡°woken up¡±. Angor waited for a bit more so that Leon could fully finish up, before pushing the door open.

    Leon was d to see his brothering, but he quickly grew disappointed when he learned Angor¡¯s n.

    ¡°You¡¯re going already?¡±

    As someone who had yet to see more of the wizarding world, Leon still believed that Fey Continent was so far away that it would take Angor years to travel there and back, which was no longer the case.

    ¡°I must find a cure for Jon as quickly as I can. I¡¯ll be back when I get it.¡±

    ¡°That old fart...¡± Leon clenched his teeth as he felt extremely annoyed that Jon kept upying his brother. Though he also knew that he was in no ce to force Angor¡¯s choices.

    ¡°By the way, Jon asked to see you. I¡¯ll take you there when we get the time,¡± said Angor.

    Leon failed to understand what that meant, but he didn¡¯t get to ask when Angor kept on talking.

    ¡°I¡¯ll leave these in your care. You can find out how to use them in the handbook.¡± Angor handed the item box over.

    Leon examined the items one by one. There were potions and magic scrolls, most of which were for treatingmon injuries and escaping in a pinch. He also found a silver pocket watch among the items, much to his surprise.

    ¡°Do you mean to tell me to cherish time?¡± Leon picked it up and curiously looked at the strange symbols which should have been time-indicating numbers.

    ¡°It¡¯s not just a watch. It¡¯s a special transmitter I made for you.¡± Angor pointed to a button on the side of the item. ¡°If you want to talk to me, turn the hour hand to my birth year, the minute hand to my birth month, and the second hand to my birth day. But you can only activate it once, and after that, the energy would be fully exhausted.¡±

    Angor grasped Leon¡¯s hand and wrote a message on his palm¡ª<i>Don¡¯t mention this thing to anyone. Not even your teacher.</i>

    He did so without using his Geometric Lock just so Thewis didn¡¯t notice.

    The watch-shaped transmitter was, in fact, a dreamuncher with only one charge. He made it so that the item could not freely be used by other people who might do harm to the dream wastnd.

    It was a good thing that Leon did not yet know what it meant to be able to produce long-rangemunication tools for convenient use.

    ...

    A momentter, Angor summoned Tulu, Vonman, and Guina. After that, he floated to the small floating ind to inform Thewis of his departure.

    Thewis was already aware of it, probably because Soby told him so.

    ¡°Come with me. I have something to say.¡± Thewis called Angor to a private spot.

 Chapter 933 - Yaley Principality

    <h4>Chapter 933: Yaley Principality</h4>

    Arge, raging river reached all the way to the setting sun while leaving a foggy trail of vapor behind. The water tides were so intense that anyone standing nearby would not see the opposite bank of it.

    ¡°This is a river?¡± Tulu uttered. He saw many storms and monsters as a former sailor, but he had never seen a river that was so continually deadly. They had been moving along the water for quite some time, but the torrent never ended.

    Tulu was naturally sensitive to water elements, so he immediately noticed the increase in elements upon stepping out of Thewis¡¯ ne passageway. The elements were exceptionally uncontroble and vicious near the river they were looking at.

    Even Vonman and Guina were slightly shivering when hearing the roar of nature.

    ¡°This is the Shanube River that connects Yaley Principality and Parmigi Hignd. It¡¯s a small distributary that branched off from the Parmigi ciers,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°A small distributary? Then how big is the main stream?¡±

    They suddenly saw something shining across the misty gloom above them. In the distance, there was a giant floating ind slowly moving among clouds. They couldn¡¯t tell the exact size of it, but the forests and cities built on top of it were enough to signify its immensity.

    What surprised them most was a group of winged figures patrolling alongside the ind. The light they saw earlier was reflected from several strange-looking chariots that looked like light bulbs in the sky.

    Whereas Vonman and Guina were too astounded to speak, Tulu, who was somewhat used to seeing such things, asked a question, ¡°Mister Padt, those people, they¡¯re like¡ª¡±

    He meant to ask why the flying figures looked simr to the Demeter in Padt Manor, which also had a pair of white wings.

    ¡°They¡¯re rted in certain ways but not much. The Demeter you saw is closely rted to other winged folk ns, but not this one.¡±

    Angor knew about a group of winged people that called themselves Parmigi Winged Folks, and they lived not far from Brute Cavern. And because of this reason, wizards in Brute Cavern agreed not to trade Demeters. At least not in the open.

    Although he was wondering why they showed up here. They were still within the boundary of Yaley Principality, which was some distance away from Parmigi Hignds.

    ¡°Someone¡¯sing to us...¡± Tulu pointed to the sky where several winged men were moving toward the ground like fallingets.

    Soon, three winged men hovered in front of Angor, shedding some velvet-like down around them that gave them quite a marvelous look.

    The one with a square face and a stern expression and was probably their leader spoke, ¡°We detected dimensional disruption and came to check. You are...?¡±

    He nced at the three mortals behind Angor.

    ¡°A wizard used a ne passageway to send us here,¡± exined Angor.

    The winged people looked at each other.

    ¡°I see. I thought it was¡ªnever mind.¡±

    When they moved to return to their formation, a female member in the rank spoke to Angor using an almost melodious voice, ¡°You carry the scent of nature on you. A Demeter?¡±

    The other male members looked back at Angor and frowned.

    The speaker was a blonddy wearing a soft white robe. Added with her wings, she looked a lot like an angel told in mythology stories.

    Tulu, Vonman, and Guina all had been looking at her with a look of admiration.

    ¡°Gabriel...?¡±

    Hearing Angor, the other two winged men quickly moved in and shielded Gabriel behind them.

    ¡°You know me?¡± Gabriel asked in the same, beautiful voice that would undoubtedly charm anyone without mental fortification.

    ¡°I was lucky to see your grand presentation during Twilight Auction.¡±

    Angor remembered her being one of the ¡°ves¡± being sold at the auction. It was Gabriel herself who offered to be there. However, no one bought her because her price was rather unusual.

    ¡°There was a Demeter from where I just came. But rest assured that it has nothing to do with your n.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Gabriel gave Angor an inquiring look.

    ¡°Miss Gabriel, we should return since there¡¯s no anomaly here,¡± her guard reminded her.

    <i>Anomaly?</i> Angor suddenly got a bad feeling.

    ¡°Hold on.¡± Gabriel slowlynded on the ground and approached Angor¡¯s position.

    Under everyone¡¯s shocked look, she suddenly went down on both knees and put her head in front of Angor¡¯s feet.

    ¡°Miss Gabriel?!¡± Her guards couldn¡¯t believe what they just saw.

    Gabriel ignored them and spoke to Angor with a pleading look, ¡°Will you take me as your ve?¡±

    Tulu¡¯s legs almost gave in when seeing the woman¡¯s alluring aura. Just when he believed that no men in their sane minds could reject such an offer, he heard Angor¡¯s quick and firm answer.

    ¡°No.¡±

    While Gabriel¡¯s face turned somber, the guards behind her red at Angor in rage.

    ¡°Why, if I may?¡± Gabriel insisted.

    ¡°¡®Lord of Night¡¯ Moodick, is it?¡± Angor mentioned another name.

    ¡°You¡¯ll be capable of the task before long.¡±

    ¡°I will <i>not</i> do it.¡±

    Gabriel stood up and removed some dirt from her clothes. ¡°I apologize if that looked too abrupt. Safe travels.¡±

    She headed back into the sky with her confused guards.

    Angor shook his head in frustration. He just wanted to ask what ¡°anomaly¡± they referred to when the woman interrupted him.

    ¡°Mi-Mister Padt! Why did she... and why did you... ¡± Tulu fumbled with his words.

    ¡°Come on, Tulu. You should know by now that gifts and prizes are all apanied by risk in this world. She¡¯s pretty, yeah. But what if she asks you to kill a truth-finder in the next second? That¡¯s what she wanted.¡±

    Gabriel already mentioned that during Twilight Auction, and none of the participating wizards made a sound.

    ¡°She has such a dangerous business? I would never know...¡± Tulu scratched his head.

    ¡°Done enjoying the view? Let¡¯s move.¡± Angor took out Gond and asked everyone to get on.

    As the boat steadily moved in the direction of the Parmigi Hignds, Guina suddenly asked in Vonman¡¯s arms, ¡°Mister Padt? Why did that... Gabriel, talk to you like that? She said something about ¡®you¡¯re capable¡¯. What does that mean?¡±

    ...

    Meanwhile, Gabriel¡¯s partners were also curious about the same question.

    ¡°That young one?¡± Gabriel looked below after a guard asked her who Angor was. ¡°A growing little star... who¡¯s going to get even brighter than the sun if more time is given. Angor. Surely you heard about this name before?¡±

    ...

    After silencing Guina¡¯s curiosity by some dishonest answers, Angor fell into his own thoughts.

    It was Thewis who directly sent them to Yaley Principality using a ne passageway so that they did not have to cross the sea. But there was a problem¡ªThewis meant to open up the exit of the passage at Parmigi Hignds, but failed to do so after several tries, so he had to transport Angor¡¯s group to somewhere farther instead.

    An anomaly, winged folks moving their ind away, and an unstable ne passageway. Angor got a feeling that something happened at Fey Continent that caused these.

 Chapter 934 - 4: Nelson

    <h4>Chapter 934: Nelson</h4>

    Gond smoothly proceeded while following the flow of the Shanube River.

    Vonman poked his head out to look below when he thought he heard something howling. He wasn¡¯t sure if his ears were working properly when the sound of the river almost deafened him.

    He almost fell off the boat when he saw a giant head just below Gond when Gond should be flying some hundred meters above the ground. It was a giant that was walking on the riverbank while causing more noises into the already noisy area.

    ¡°By gods... What is that?!¡±

    Angor also looked over the edge of Gond.

    They were looking at a ¡°Hignd Goliath¡±, a native inhabitant at Parmigi Hignds. They were known for their long life span and near-human level intelligence. Though they tended to take it easy inside their territory instead of moving around or causing harm.

    It was definitely notmon for one of them to show up here.

    ¡°Tulu, slow down and proceed carefully,¡± Angor called.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sir?¡± Tulu was in charge of steering the boat. He quickly decreased the energy output.

    ¡°Something¡¯s not right around here. Just be careful.¡±

    Vonman and Guina were already nervous when they set foot in the wizarding world for real. Hearing Angor¡¯s words, they grew even more stressful.

    The giant noticed Gond flying past its head. But it didn¡¯t pay the vehicle much attention before resuming its travel. It seemed the giant was trying to make it across Shanube River by swimming.

    When its form was fully hidden behind the vapor curtain, the recruits on Gond all sighed in relief.

    ¡°These giants don¡¯t usually cause idents to humans not because they¡¯re nice, but because they¡¯re toozy to do anything. Stay away should you run into one in the future,¡± Angor exined.

    They heard yet more strange noise, but it came from above them rather than from the ground this time.

    They saw several odd machines flying past them. These things had different metal parts mixed together, but generally, they all resembled human shapes.

    Angor knew them too. They were mechanical puppets, a type ofmon merchandise found in Floating Mech City. But they were usually crafted by alchemists who were good at Tooling. Angor didn¡¯t remember any such alchemist around Brute Cavern. It was strange that a wizard who didn¡¯t know alchemy would buy so many mechanical puppets.

    As he wondered what was going on, an overwhelming aura descended upon Gond, along with someone¡¯s gruff voice.

    ¡°Neat vehicle you got there. I¡¯m taking it!¡±

    The recruits were instantly pressed against the floor by the force. Angor managed to maintain his posture, but he did feel terrible on the inside.

    The level of the aura felt simr to Eureka¡¯s, which couldn¡¯t fully suppress his movement. And if he could move, he could escape.

    However, Angor was confident in running away by himself only. He couldn¡¯t take the other three with him.

    He poked Toby, who read his mind and immediately went into Griffin Mode, then fully prepared the power of gravity.

    ¡°Sequence of gravity?!¡± The stranger¡¯s voice raised a pitch.

    ¡°For escaping. Note that you can¡¯t stop me, sir.¡± Angor made this clear before he put on a more polite stance. ¡°This is not very far from Brute Cavern. Do you have to use violence here?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re from Brute Cavern?¡± A man poked his head from behind one of the puppets.

    He had a pair of thick goggles and an alchemy robe full of greasy taints, all of which suggested that he was a typical alchemist who spent most of his time in ab.

    ¡°That¡¯s correct. I¡¯m Mister Phantom¡¯s student, returning to the organization as requested.¡±

    ¡°Mister Phantom, huh?¡± The stranger removed his goggles, checked Angor¡¯s look, andnded on Gond with a backflip.

    Angor didn¡¯t stop the man since it was hopeless to do so. But he did tell Toby to fully prepare a gravity boost so that they could get away the moment it was necessary.

    While carrying the smell of burns and catalysts, the alchemist took out a magazine and beganparing Angor¡¯s face with a picture on it.

    ¡°You¡¯re the ¡®music box man¡¯, Angor?¡±

    ¡°... My name is Angor, sir. Someone made that moniker up. It has nothing to do with who I really am.¡±

    ¡°It IS you! I saw that record of you making an item on the sea, but I never learned where to find you. Now I finally got a chance to talk to you!¡±

    ¡°May I know your name, Mister...?¡±

    ¡°Nah.¡± The man waved an arm. ¡°Call me Nelson, if you would. You¡¯re the better alchemist here. Don¡¯t deny it.¡±

    Angor waited for Nelson to continue.

    ¡°Such... masterful work!¡± Nelson looked around Gond with twinkling eyes. ¡°You made this yourself?¡±

    ¡°Can you remove your aura, sir? Or you¡¯re going to seriously hurt my guests.¡± Angor pointed to Guina, who had begun to bleed from her wounds. ¡°If she¡¯s dead, I¡¯ll fail my recruitment quota. That would be sad.¡±

    Nelson muttered ¡°weaklings¡± under his breath and did so.

    ¡°Vonman, take Guina inside. Tulu, keep the boat moving at the original speed.¡±

    Angor took a seat and looked at Nelson, who also sat down on the opposite side.

    ¡°I heard there were tons of wizards who recently went to Brute Cavern to find you. So you were off on a recruit mission?¡± Nelson shook his head. ¡°This is nuts. Why would Mister Rein appoint <i>you</i> as the recruiter? Such misuse of true talent!¡±

    Nelson seemed to be the talkative type. As he criticized the corruption and inefficiency ofrge-scale organizations, he also revealed some personal information for Angor to hear.

    ¡°Do you need something from me, sir?¡± Angor found a chance to chip in so that Nelson didn¡¯t keep talking for hours and on. ¡°As for this boat, yes, it is one of my products.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s freaking beautiful! You brought out the hidden property of Wavy ms? Nice. They weren¡¯t lying when saying that the ¡®thorny lion alchemist¡¯ got skills!¡±

    That title sounded a little better than ¡°music box man¡±, but Angor still preferred not to hear it. He just hoped that Nelson did not mention ¡°Baron Milk¡± next.

    ¡°I¡¯m d to hear your approval, Mister Nelson. You haven¡¯t told me why you¡¯re here?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I just thought I coulde and take the boat away by force. But since it¡¯s you, never mind that.¡±

    ¡°... Thanks?¡±

    ¡°No need to thank me! I¡¯m a Tooling alchemist too. We can exchange notes and study from each other!¡±

    Angor saw Nelson¡¯s puppets had surrounded Gond and sighed. Apparently, Nelson wouldn¡¯t let him go easily.

    The puppets wouldn¡¯t prevent him from leaving, but he didn¡¯t want to give up the others. He considered and decided toply. Nelson imed that he was an alchemist trainee studying in Floating Mech City and majored in machine alchemy. He should have some valuable knowledge to share.

    ¡°I can¡¯t get luckier than this! I haven¡¯t left myb in years, and when I did, I met you!¡±

    Angor was still wary at the beginning of their discussion, but as Nelson began to bring up more constructive issues, he changed his mind.

    As someone who couldn¡¯t tolerate mistakes, Angor slowly grew more excited during their debate, especially when Nelson had other opinions regarding his field of expertise.

    Slowly, their alchemy meeting turned into a heated battle of words.

 Chapter 935 - More Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 935: More Crisis</h4>

    When watching Angor and Nelson¡¯s intense discussion, the three recruits feared that it would soon turn into violence. But they changed their minds when Angor slowly took the upper hand, whereas Nelson grew quieter and quieter until he obediently listened to Angor¡¯s lectures with a content smile.

    The recruits, especially Guina, who had developed a premature personality in the slums, were getting extremely curious about Angor¡¯s true identity. Guina once heard about the differences and gaps between wizards and apprentices. Now she couldn¡¯t understand why this Nelson man was acting so humbly in front of Angor.

    <i>That Gabriel too. Is Mister Padt not amon apprentice, but someone really influential in the wizarding world?</i> she wondered.

    Guina peeked through the cabin curtain and suddenly found Angor¡¯s dazzling form to be a lot more tempting.

    ...

    As their discussion proceeded further, Angor slowly forgot about using polite words and went all-out by yelling his opinions into Nelson¡¯s face. And Nelson as a dedicated alchemist wasn¡¯t bothered by it at all.

    Nelson had been training in Floating Mech City for decades. Nelson easily noticed that, even though Angor was fundamentally inexperienced, he knew lots of extensive expertise and insights normal alchemists didn¡¯t have ess to, and Nelson would pay anything to learn them.

    Their wrangling kept on for a full day and probably would continue if something did note up and stop them.

    As Angor passionately introduced a propeller technique he saw from Earth civilization, a series of heavy bumping noises drew their attention.

    There were two more hignd goliaths showing up from the horizon. They were causing the ground to tremble each time they took a step.

    ¡°Those things again?¡± Angor frowned while looking that way. ¡°What¡¯s gotten into thesezy bums?¡±

    Nelson suddenly pped his own head. ¡°Sh*t. What time is it?¡±

    ¡°You have an appointment?¡±

    ¡°A BIG one!! I gotta go, NOW!¡± Nelson jumped to the edge of Gond. ¡°Wait, maybe you shoulde with me so that we have more time to cogitate!¡±

    ¡°No, thanks. I really need to head back to Brute Cavern.¡±

    ¡°Tsk. Fine. I¡¯ll visit you again once I¡¯m done with my business!¡±

    Nelson hurried back to his transport puppet. That anxious look on him was real.

    ¡°A moment, Nelson.¡± Angor wanted to ask the question when he had the chance. ¡°What¡¯s going on at Parmigi Hignds? I saw these giants and winged folks moving away, which should not happen.¡±

    Nelson looked at Angor up and down. ¡°Well, you¡¯ve been away for quite a while, haven¡¯t you?¡±

    ...

    Angor was d that the first person he ran into at Fey Continent was more of an ¡°academism¡± alchemist rather than someone who loved using force.

    Nelson was a typical schr, telling from how he almost forgot an important task while doing academic interviews.

    The encounter was fruitful. At the very least, Angor learned of the ¡°anomaly¡± troubling Parmigi Hignds. Besides, Nelson offered some interesting alchemy theories as well.

    Apparently, there was a foreign ne about to crash into the wizarding world and fuse into it. In other words, a ne fusion was iing. The connection point happened to be somewhere at Parmigi Hignds, as predicted by wizards.

    ording to Nelson, professionals had determined that the fusion would happen sooner orter. It was probably a big one because the space around Parmigi Hignds was already getting unstable when the foreign ne had not shown itself yet.

    Also, the affected area was several times bigger than the one that covered the ne fusion at Devil¡¯s Water.

    A ne fusion was a double-edged sword as it might bring lots of valuable resources while greatly draining energy from the ¡°mother ne¡±.

    Now, every clue suggested that theing ne was a veryrge one, which meant even more resources and greater risk.

    ¡°This is a problematic thing to happen at such a time. If the world¡¯s consciousness spent too much energy mending the damage caused by the ne fusion, the demon army from Abyss ne will have an easier time invading the south,¡± said Nelson.

    The demon invasion was a great threat in the long run. Apart from this, wizards were also faced with another imminent issue.

    Wizards divided the process of ne fusion into three phases ording to how much profit they could seize from them. During the third phase, the ¡°Time of Plunder¡±, wizards were able to travel through a stable tunnel established during the fusion and take valuables from the other smaller ne that joined the wizarding world.

    But there was a problem. If theing ne was asrge as the wizarding world itself, then nobody could know which one would be the victim.

    The wizarding world was one of the biggest known nes, so ¡°losing¡± a ne fusion was unlikely. Even so, the fusion could still start arge-scale disaster at Parmigi Hignds. This was why nearby inhabitants were evacuating.

    ¡°The early signs are showing up. You¡¯ll see space ruptures around here, so be careful on your way back,¡± Nelson reminded Angor before leaving.

    Angor looked ahead. They would soon arrive at Parmigi Hignds. There were small dots moving about in the sky, probably more people and other creatures leaving.

    ¡°A double-edged sword, a chance to seek resources...¡± Angor sighed. ¡°Is it really a good time to return?¡±

    Random wizards could do whatever they wanted in the other ne and leave with their trophies. But Brute Cavern couldn¡¯t move itself away. The organization would definitely suffer some loss in the incident unless the leaders decided to move the HQ to another ce.

    And there was the dark dome towering above the Evernight Kingdom, which wouldn¡¯t end any time soon...

    Above all these, Angor had one more major concern. Thest ne fusion at Devil¡¯s Water caused his Alien Eye to go haywire. What if the same thing happened again?

    ¡°I can¡¯t stay here for too long...¡±

    ¡°Do we keep going, Mister Padt?¡± asked Tulu. He understood none of Nelson¡¯s words, but he did notice that they weren¡¯t expecting peace.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go for now.¡± Angor nodded to Tulu and looked at the cabin on the back of the boat. ¡°Vonman, is Guina alright?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve stopped the bleeding, sir. She should be fine now.¡±

    ¡°Good to know. We shall¡ª¡±

    Crash!

    Inside the cabin, Vonman suddenly felt Gond swaying badly. Then he heard Tulu¡¯s panicked voice.

    ¡°Ye gods! Whatever is that?!¡±

    Vonman moved the curtain away to look outside, only to see a gigantic horned demon covered in mes about to smash Gond using its sharp w.

    Before they had time to yell, they felt their footing gone as gravity took over.

    Then everything went ck.

    ...

    Angor casually leaned against the railing and spoke to Tulu, ¡°Slow down a bit. We¡¯ll head into the hignd area after Vonman wakes up.¡±

    Tulu nodded and cast a curious nce at the cabin, inside which Vonman and Guina had just copsed.

    Tulu didn¡¯t have much idea about wizardry yet, but he more or less knew that it was Angor who knocked out the kids. He thought it proper to ignore this matter until Vonman and Guina began sweating all over. Vonman was even muttering words as if he were pleading.

    ¡°Uh, Mister Padt? What are they¡ª¡±

    ¡°A small test before they join the organization for real.¡± Angor gave Tulu a side-nce. ¡°What, you want to try another test too?¡±

    ¡°No, no, no... please.¡± Tulu absolutely didn¡¯t want to go through ¡°Sunny¡¯s Hunt¡± again.

    It was a joke¡ªAngor wasn¡¯t nning on giving Tulu another test as this was no longer necessary. For one, Tulu was already a level-1 apprentice. And besides, the special test he gave Vonman and Guina was intended for <i>them</i> only.

 Chapter 936 - Tests

    <h4>Chapter 936: Tests</h4>

    Vonman woke up before his sister.

    ¡°What... Am I dead? Was that a dream? Or...¡±

    He saw Guina still unconscious in his arms with a painful look, and he wanted to wake her. But Angor¡¯s voice came and stopped him.

    ¡°She has yet to finish her test. If you interrupt her now, she¡¯ll fail it.¡±

    ¡°Test?¡± Vonman gazed at Angor, who was sitting not far. ¡°That monster, our boat got destroyed, we fell! We died! Those were only tests? You serious?!¡±

    Angor simply gave Vonman a cold look.

    Vonman quickly lowered his head and apologized in a small voice. He forgot who he was dealing with.

    ¡°I told you before that you¡¯ll be expecting a test, didn¡¯t I? And you¡¯re totally unprepared?¡±

    Vonman didn¡¯t respond. He had nothing to oppose Angor anyway.

    ...

    Gond almost reached the boundary of Parmigi Hignds. Angor now clearly felt the agitated energy flowing in the air.

    ¡°Mister Padt? Shall we wait here?¡± asked Tulu.

    Angor nced at the cabin and saw Guina still not moving.

    ¡°Let¡¯s remain here for a while.¡±

    Gond hovered still for an entire day.

    As Vonman wondered whether he should feed Guina some water, Guina finally opened her eyes. And unlike Vonman, she remained calm.

    ¡°*Slurp* So this is the ¡®test¡¯ you gave us, Mister Padt?¡±

    ¡°Impressive.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°When did you notice?¡±

    ¡°Soon after I found out that... I wasn¡¯t myself.¡±

    Angor created an illusionary world where Vonman and Guina were the only two survivors after a demon strike, and they had to help each other to live on.

    He meant to find out if these two kids could make it to the end of the test. There were monsters in the illusion that could harm them and cause pain. But as long as they stayed determined, they wouldn¡¯t die for real in the illusion.

    Vonman protected Guina just fine, but he was still killed by a monster and was ejected from the test. In other words, he thought he couldn¡¯t make it.

    What Angor used was a very basic Mind Maniptor cantrip that could not injure the targets for real. When Vonman ¡°woke up¡±, he felt nothing more than brief nkness and a mild headache.

    Vonman did die halfway, but Angor would consider him worthy. At least Vonman was a loyal brother who shielded Guina till thest second.

    As for Guina... Angor found it hard to evaluate her. The girl knew it was an illusion from the beginning, which meant her reactions in the test were useless in telling her score.

    She was talented, this much was for sure. Should she know how to wield wizardry, she could have breached Angor¡¯s illusion and ended the test earlier.

    Also, it was obvious that by saying ¡°I wasn¡¯t myself¡±, Guina easily discovered the major w of Angor¡¯s cantrip.

    ¡°It¡¯s done. Start up the boat,¡± Angor ordered Tulu without openly telling them the result of the test.

    Once they were inside the boundary of Parmigi Hignds, the abnormal atmosphere grew so intense that even the recruits sensed something was wrong.

    Herds of beasts were migrating to safer zones. It was likely that the world¡¯s consciousness already sent a warning to nature.

    Compared to the animals, there were lots of people flying deeper into the hignds looking for an opportunity to loot.

    As Nelson mentioned, there were asionally space ruptures emerging out of thin air, which released chaotic energy that would kill unwary passersby. Thankfully, it was easy to evade them.

    ¡°*Slurp* Is this the world of wizards? Everything is so strange and... deadly,¡± Guina said in Vonman¡¯s arms.

    Tulu was thinking about the same thing. He rarely left his ship to go ind. And he wasn¡¯t expecting that their journey was full of traps just like Devil¡¯s Water.

    ¡°Yes, this is where you¡¯ll spend most of your life from now on,¡± exined Angor. ¡°A world full of bloodshed and menace, or fake peace that hides even more threats underneath.¡±

    ...

    The message of Angor being sighted at Parmigi Hignds traveled faster than Gond.

    Angor ran into lots of supernatural travelers on their way, most of whom tried to offer an alliance. He earned many ¡°friends¡±. Though how many of them were honest remained a question.

    Nobody did anything too harsh since this ce was the front door of Brute Cavern. If a treasured apprentice were attacked here, the whole organization woulde in the next second.

    It took Gond two days to reach the giantnd fissure that was the entrance of Brute Cavern. There, Angor saw someone in white floating above the chasm who looked rather creepy in the white environment.

    Angornded Gond on the cliff and went to the old wizard with white hair. ¡°Mister Wace! Is something the matter?¡±

    It was Wace, one of the few ¡°academism¡± wizards in Brute Cavern. Angor didn¡¯t know this man much because he never had many chances to talk to him. Moreover, Sunders sometimes intentionally prevented Angor from meeting Wace for personal reasons.

    Wace checked Angor from head to toe using a pair of gleaming eyes. ¡°My word. You¡¯re at the peak of level-3?¡±

    Angor nodded politely.

    ¡°You¡¯re the best apprentice Brute Cavern epted in thest century.¡± Wace shook his head. ¡°Such a shame. Consider ditching Sunders and joining me, will you?¡±

    Angor let out a silly chuckle.

    ¡°No? Fair enough. Find me if Sunders dies out there. Surely you can do that?¡±

    ¡°Um, Mister Wace? Is my professor in danger?¡±

    A woman with red hair appeared nearby and spoke to them, ¡°Don¡¯t take him seriously, Angor. Each time Mister Phantom is on a job away from the organization, this old man will just curse him day and night.¡±

    ¡°Fiery Charm, Ma¡¯am.¡± Angor bowed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that. Someday, I¡¯ll have to ask for your help. Just don¡¯t be stingy, okay?¡± The woman looked at Angor¡¯s boat. ¡°Huh? Only three? Well, that¡¯s Sunders¡¯ student for you.¡±

    Angor blushed. ¡°It¡¯s-it¡¯s actually seven. But four of them already got registered in the office.¡±

    ¡°Seven, eh? How many did Sunders bringst time? Nine?¡± Fiery Charm spat.

    ¡°You should take the job and see if you can do better,¡± said Wace.

    ¡°Nah. I¡¯m just here to see if any new recruit fits me. I see none.¡±

    Fiery Charm dived into the darkness below.

    ¡°Sigh...¡± Wace shook his head again. ¡°I¡¯m here to give them a more detailed talent test. Guess you know this will happen, right? Let¡¯s get to it.¡±

 Chapter 937 - Alignment Test

    <h4>Chapter 937: Alignment Test</h4>

    The recruits grew nervous again when they heard that the old wizard was going to test them. They thought Angor had already done the job, which allowed them to enter Brute Cavern. Now they were worried that they might get rejected if they failed theing test.

    Especially Vonman and Guina, who had yet to figure out what kind of magic they could use.

    Angor was surprised to know this as well. ¡°Mister Wace, Dodoro and the other recruits I sent earlier did not go through such an extra examination, right?¡±

    ¡°They did. It was also me who tested them. But I¡¯m only responsible for ascertaining their characteristics. It¡¯s up to Tree Spirit who¡¯ll determine their talent orientation.

    ¡°You and your schoolmates all took the test before you entered Brute Cavern, you just didn¡¯t see it. There are no good or bad results. I¡¯m simply noting down your alignments so that the other wizards have something to refer to when picking their students.¡±

    The recruits saw Wace looking at them and all felt frigid energy scanning their bodies as if they were taking a cold shower.

    Whereas Tulu and Vonman shivered in fear, Guina managed to remain calm.

    Guina was used to being called a monster by other people. Now she found it strange that nobody in the wizarding world gave her any extra glimpse when seeing her broken body. And she felt strangely safe. For the first time, she believed that the wizarding world might be better than her home.

    ¡°As their guide, what do you think of these people?¡± Wace asked as he finished his inspection.

    The question got the recruits curious as well. They had spent some time with Angor and would like to know Angor¡¯s opinions about them.

    Angor took a while to arrange his words. He then looked at Tulu first.

    ¡°Tulu, a typical ¡®good guy¡¯ who respectsws and justice and does not hesitate when seeing people in need of help. The same quirk tends to get him into trouble. He lost his left ear because of it¡ªhe went to fight against a monster he had no hope to defeat just to help a mortal friend.¡±

    Tulu looked at the ground.

    ¡°Vonman, a self-centered, frivolous man who haspletely no idea of rules and principles. He sometimes shows loyalty to those he cares for. But most of the time, he puts his personal gain above everything.¡±

    Vonman frowned. He knew it was all true, but it was still unpleasant to hear.

    Angor took some more time to think of how to describe Guina.

    ¡°Guina is... neutral. Her character resembles Vonman in many ways because they grew up together. She thinks deeper despite her age, and she¡¯s very good at reading people¡¯s minds. Not many things will scare or interest her too much. But... this might not be a good thing in the wizarding world.¡±

    Wace nodded with a smile. He was quite satisfied with Angor¡¯s thoroughment that didn¡¯t involve any personal feelings.

    ¡°You think highly of Guina. But you prefer having Tulu¡¯spany if you have to choose, am I right?¡±

    Angor nodded, much to Tulu¡¯s delight.

    However, Wace suddenly put on a stern look as he continued, ¡°If you were to ask me, Tulu is the worst among them, if you don¡¯t consider their talents.¡±

    Angor nodded again¡ªhe was fully aware of it. Tulu¡¯s straightforward temper would get him easily killed in the wizarding world.

    ¡°I¡¯ve sent the results to Tree Spirit Pce.¡± Wace put a hand on the ground and summoned a human figure made out of dirt. ¡°This will take you to the pce.¡±

    The dirt puppet made a ¡°follow me¡± gesture and jumped into the chasm ahead.

    The recruits watched in awe but without moving.

    When they didn¡¯t get any help from Angor, Guina broke the silence by saying, ¡°*Slurp* Let¡¯s go, Vonman.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Throw me down there if you want to stay. We¡¯re finally here, and I won¡¯t throw away my opportunity.¡±

    Vonman nodded, took a deep breath, and jumped.

    Seeing the kids¡¯ decision, Tulu quickly followed up.

    As the recruits vanished into the darkness, Angor looked at Wace again. ording to protocols, he should be the one to take the group to Tree Spirit. It was obvious that Wace wanted him to stay.

    Wace grinned. ¡°Now take a guess. Which one of them earned my A-plus?¡±

    ¡°But you said the mental test did not have good or bad ratings, right?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°That may be true, but they will do differently when oveing their weaknesses. Without considering their talents, which one is the most likely apprentice, in your opinion?¡±

    ¡°Well... Guina?¡±

    ¡°Guina is the most problematic among all three because her character does not fit her age at all. However, she¡¯ll easily dominate other apprentices should she conquer her problem. But for now, she¡¯s not the most promising recruit.¡±

    ¡°Do you favor Vonman, sir?¡±

    Wace nodded. ¡°Personally, yes. But let¡¯s not mind my opinions now. It¡¯s their effort and luck that will shape their futures, like in your case.¡±

    Wace suddenly put the focus on Angor. ¡°When I was inspecting your mentality with a bunch of other wizards, I only found you to be... average. But now, you¡¯re one of the most excellent apprentices from your year, if not the best one in several years.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t know how to respond and simply stayed quiet.

    ¡°Heh. I¡¯ll just wait for something to kill Sunders so that I can take you over. Try to slow down a bit so that you don¡¯t be a wizard too soon. I¡¯m not allowed to take a wizard as my student.¡±

    Wace walked to the edge of the cliff. ¡°Find a time and pay Old Rein a visit. He wants to talk to you.¡±

    Angor saw Wace leaving and still could not understand the point of their conversation. Did Wace only want him to <i>not</i> reach the wizard level too fast?

    It was a good suggestion though. Angor also knew that he improved too quickly without having many of the necessary lessons other apprentices had to learn. It seemed that Wace wished to remind him of this problem in an indirect way since Wace wasn¡¯t his teacher.

    ¡°Is that... Master Padt?!¡± A witch came and hopped off her broomstick. ¡°Wonderful timing, Master Padt. My name is¡ª¡±

    Angor quickly excused himself and left.

    He thought he wouldn¡¯t get bothered by too many people inside Brute Cavern. And he was wrong¡ªas soon as he set foot inside the mirror world, groups of people heard about his arrival and scrambled to him, either to ask for knowledge, for alchemy service, or sometimes, for a romantic rtionship.

    Angor grew impatient and told Toby to use Griffin Mode to keep people away. Then they used the sequence of gravity to escape so that no one could catch them.

    As he approached Phantom Ind, he suddenly heard a cheerful voice speaking right next to his ears.

    ¡°At this rate, you¡¯ll be the hottest choice for unwedded witches in the entire Brute Cavern, my boy.¡±

 Chapter 938 - The Value of Ocean Tuner

    <h4>Chapter 938: The Value of Ocean Tuner</h4>

    ¡°Tree Spirit, sir!¡± Angor turned around with a helpless look. ¡°Note that I certainly do not want to be in that position.¡±

    As he expected, Tree Spirit still had that half-naked look.

    ¡°Why not? Do you know who¡¯s the current champion on the ¡®husband candidate list¡¯?¡±

    For some reason, Angor immediately thought about Sunders.

    ¡°Your professor? You¡¯re so easy to read.¡± Tree Spirit smirked. ¡°Well, Sunders did charm a lot of powerful witches, but he¡¯s not enough to get <i>all</i> women under his pants. Still... he got his name on the list. Was it number 20? A young man recently beat everyone and came on top. Guess who?¡±

    Angor tried not to roll his eyes.

    ¡°Easy, right? It¡¯s Sumesh!¡± Tree Spirit hopped in delight as if that were a very big secret to share. ¡°Once you earn a position on the husband list, Phantom Ind will have <i>three</i> dear gentleman stars!¡±

    Angor thought to keep moving since Tree Spirit did not tell him to stop. But as he almost reached Phantom Ind, Tree Spirit called him, ¡°Aw, I almost forgot why I came here. Come. Follow me.¡±

    Angor nced at the protective barrier of the ind almost within reach and cursed in his mind.

    A momentter, he came to the giant tree leaf where Tree Spirit usually took naps. Well, the great spirit was currently doing it by bathing his entire body in the sunlight while only using a single leaf to cover his private spot.

    Tulu, Vonman, and Guina were waiting nearby with confusion clearly written in their eyes.

    Angor came by flying using his enchanted boots, which attracted Tree Spirit¡¯s attention.

    ¡°You made these?¡± the spirit asked.

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Nice.¡± Tree Spirit checked Angor¡¯s body and fixed his sight on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°It has only been several months, and you made quite a lot of interesting toys.¡±

    Angor simply waited.

    ¡°By calling you here, I have a question to ask.¡± Tree Spirit beckoned to Tulu, who stepped up with a nervous look. ¡°Do you know what he¡¯s talented in?¡±

    ¡°During the Talent Sphere test, Tulu saw strange weather on the sea. Combined with the fact that he¡¯s naturally sensitive to weather changes, I suspect that he¡¯s born to wield elements. An Elementalist whomands the sea, probably. Is there a problem, sir?¡±

    ¡°What you said is correct. Your prediction is almost urate.¡± Tree Spirit nodded. ¡°However, this man is way too adaptive to water elements. Unnaturally so. Do you know what caused this?¡±

    When further examining the iing recruits, Tree Spirit had to record their traits in detail to let wizards make better decisions. In Tulu¡¯s case, everything was normal except for one thing¡ªTulu was so in tune with water elements in the environment that he didn¡¯t even need cantrips to control them. Tulu had not studied a single cantrip model yet, and he already knew how to gather vapor around his body.

    Tree Spirit summoned Angor because he needed to know whether Tulu used some kind of special potion so that the result of the final test could stay reliable.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a potion,¡± Angor exined. ¡°When I was making an item and was challenged by an alchemy omen, Tulu was there to see it. He also joined me when I was testing the effect of the item.¡±

    Angor carefully described what happened around his Ocean Tuner.

    ¡°Are you saying his affinity boost isn¡¯t temporary but is permanently improved?!¡±

    ¡°It should be, sir.¡±

    Tree Spirit¡¯s joyful look was briefly reced by astonishment.

    ¡°You¡¯ve created quite a powerful item, my boy. There¡¯s a popr footage that everyone has been talking about. It showed some kind of alchemy process. Was it you making this Ocean Tuner thing?¡±

    ¡°If it was recorded somewhere on the sea, then yes.¡±

    ¡°By the spirit! Brute Cavern does not have many high-tier alchemy assets since it was established. And you just added another one to the list... Can I take a look at it?¡±

    Angor frowned when hearing the request. The illusion inside Ocean Tuner was intended for Lady Mirror and contained something improper to look at.

    He stillplied since he couldn¡¯t just straightforwardly reject Tree Spirit. He took out the item while hoping that Tree Spirit wasn¡¯t going to find the ¡°Goddess¡± in the illusion.

    The charming design of the engraved mermaid soon grasped everyone¡¯s attention. Angor had used a piece of starry silk on the mermaid that slowly flicked in the breeze, which made the entire statue appear animate.

    ¡°You know what, I totally agree when they said you¡¯re hitting the level of a master,¡± Tree Spirit eximed in awe.

    Tulu looked fine since he saw Ocean Tuner many times. Even so, this did not prevent him from admiring the treasure every time he saw it again.

    As for Vonman and Guina... they just couldn¡¯t get their eyes off the splendid art piece.

    After hearing the effect of the illusion, Tree Spirit looked at the recruits and wanted them to back away.

    ¡°You can let them stay, sir.¡± Angor stopped him. ¡°If they¡¯re lucky enough to gain something out of it, so be it.¡±

    Guina and Vonman quickly thanked Angor. They didn¡¯t know what they were expecting, but it did sound like something nice.

    ¡°The illusion will give you different starting points,¡± Angor said as he went to trigger the illusion. ¡°Good luck.¡±

    The sky above them suddenly grew dark as the bright environment was reced by storms.

    ...

    A minuteter, Angor woke up from the illusion after he was ¡°killed¡±. He felt a bit frustrated when he noticed that he was the first one who failed. Though it couldn¡¯t be helped when the illusion sent him directly next to a giant whirlpool that swallowed his boat almost instantly.

    The illusion would strip all of his magic powers. He was as good as dead when the boat was lost.

    Vonman was the next one toe to, after another two minutes.

    Angor nodded casually and pretended that he did not enter the illusion at all. Although this was not necessary when Vonman could do nothing more than gasping painfully, after going over the pain of getting drowned.

    Tulu and Guina all returnedter.

    Tulu quietly closed his eyes to remember what he saw in the illusion, which he had experienced many times.

    Guina seemed not bothered at all. On the contrary, she looked happy, being able to take such an exciting adventure with her original, healthy body, which was made possible by the illusion.

    It took Tree Spirit almost half an hour to open his eyes in the end.

    ¡°Dang it. I saw her dress before I drew myst breath. Only if that boat couldst longer...¡±

    Angor sighed in relief. This meant Tree Spirit didn¡¯t get to see those handsome mermaids.

    ¡°Yes, there¡¯s a strange power that helps apprentices learn how to control water elements.¡± Tree Spirit nced at Vonman and Guina. ¡°You can¡¯t feel it right now, but you¡¯ll see the difference once you study relevant arts in the future.¡±

    He then looked at Tulu, who had created a thin water film around his body.

    ¡°This one hit the jackpot. What he gained from the illusion is substantial.¡±

    As Angor exined, Ocean Tuner could help apprentices develop water affinity. Wizards might not find it useful, but those who studied sea-manipting arts could discover unknown enlightenment that helped with their study.

    Previously, Tree Spirit believed that Ocean Tuner was useful but was still average among high-tier alchemy tools. But he changed his mind, after going into the illusion himself.

    The illusion of Ocean Tuner was an area-of-effect. It could improverge groups of apprentices at the same time, which was enough reason for it to be considered a tactical utility.

    In the views of certain organizations that focused on sea-controlling techniques, Ocean Tuner was an irreceable engine of unlimited potential. They might even trade their Sorcerer¡¯s Gardens just to get their hands on this item.

    Angor produced a tool of advancement that many organizations would do everything in their power to procure!

    <i>That exins why the footage caused so many farces...</i> Tree Spirit thought to himself. <i>People will get crazier if they ever find out what they can do with Ocean Tuner. Man... This world is crazy already. Angor is crazy.</i>

    <i>The most important thing is, Angor belongs to us!</i>

 Chapter 939 - Reinâ€™s Opinion

    <h4>Chapter 939: Rein¡¯s Opinion</h4>

    Tulu returned to his senses and found no one with him apart from Tree Spirit, who was casually sunbathing.

    He was still too fascinated by the great adventure he went through to think of anything else.

    Tap, tap...

    The vapor around his body condensed into water drops and drenched his forehead, pulling him out of his thoughts.

    <i>Where-where is everyone?</i>

    ¡°Ah, here you are,¡± Tree Spirit spoke to him using his usual, carefree tone.

    Tulu stood up with a start and bowed politely. He already heard from others that the ancient spirit in front of him was one of the strongest existences in Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Sir! I-I don¡¯t know what¡¯s gotten into me. I just¡ª¡±

    ¡°Easy there. You were drawn into Angor¡¯s illusion and probably gained some nice enlightenment that kept you there. Would you tell me what exactly you saw?¡±

    <i>Enlightenment?</i> Tulu tried to recall what happened back there. He was swallowed into the sea, yet he didn¡¯t feel any pain or suffocation. He felt... rxed. The water wasforting. It was as if he could forget all troubles and mishaps as long as he was there.

    Embraced by gentle bubbles and schools of curious fish, he slowly sank deeper, until he became one with the sea.

    Until he returned to reality.

    ¡°What did I see?¡±

    He found it difficult to tell. At first, there was nothing to say apart from darkness and water. But as he savored the experience carefully, he did feel everything to be almost enriching. He did more than drifting in the water¡ªhe could feel where exactly the water currents went, he could easily tell how to use the water to ease his movement, and he could evenmand the tides.

    Yet he didn¡¯t know how to put these into words.

    ¡°There was wisdoming into my head, sir. But I can¡¯t remember them! Or I can, just... I don¡¯t know what to say.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because you don¡¯t have the necessary knowledge to wield the power of the sea yet.¡± Tree Spirit chuckled. ¡°When you finally reach that level, however, you¡¯ll find how much you gained today. And it will blow your mind.

    ¡°You are so lucky to get recruited by Angor.¡±

    Tulu lowered his head. He was always grateful that Angor took him.

    ¡°Leave, since you have nothing else to do here. An apprentice outside will tell you how to find lodging in Brute Cavern.¡± Tree Spirit took out a bone card and handed it to Tulu. ¡°This is your identification in the organization. I¡¯ve printed your ¡®profession¡¯ on it.¡±

    Tulu nodded and went to the exit with a confused look, not sure what he would be expecting next.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let Angor down, my friend!¡± Tree Spirit called.

    ¡°I will not.¡± Tulu looked at the sky with great determination. ¡°The world of wizardry. Here I am.¡±

    ...

    The bright sun cast its golden benevolence upon the giant leaf of the Tree of Eternity.

    Content with his rest, Tree Spirit stretched his arms and looked aside.

    There was a puddle of water gathered at one spot. Tulu left it there.

    ¡°Wait a second...¡± Tree Spirit pondered over something. ¡°At least I should inform Rein of Angor¡¯s Ocean Tuner.¡±

    A momentter, Tree Spirit¡¯s voice echoed inside Rein¡¯s room.

    ¡°Done stalking Yethaway? I¡¯m surprised you have time to talk to me.¡± Rein epted Tree Spirit¡¯s ¡°connection¡±.

    ¡°Stalking? I¡¯d never!¡± Tree Spirit seemed bothered by Rein¡¯s joke.

    ¡°Well, you know what you have been doing. So, Angor is back, right? Did he bring us any decent students?¡±

    ¡°... It was a small group. But they got the qualities. Two ultists, a puppet user with a special body trait.¡±

    ¡°Body trait? Is it good or bad?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a ¡®Crimson Demon¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Tsk. Now that¡¯s rare. This means her weakness is obvious.¡±

    People with the ¡°Crimson Demon¡± trait could use their blood to curse their enemies or temporarily improve their strength by going into a frenzied state. However, such curses could be reflected by powerful defensive spells. And when they went rampaging, they would not be able to tell friends from foe.

    ¡°She could share her power with her puppets and power them up to a terrifying level. If everything goes well, she can be a very dependable fighter for our organization,¡± Tree Spiritmented. ¡°And there¡¯s this Sea Maniptor guy...¡±

    ¡°A Sea Maniptor?¡± Rein frowned. ¡°He won¡¯t do well at our ce.¡±

    Different organizations all had different focuses. For example, Starliege Temple was the best ce for Prophets, while Candy House was the main choice for talented Gourmets. As for Sea Maniptors, they would do better if they joined Song of the Deep.

    Brute Cavern only had one Sea Maniptor since it was founded, who had left in pursuit of opportunities a century ago. There was no one in the organization right now who could teach Sea Maniptor arts.

    ¡°You¡¯re wrong about that,¡± said Tree Spirit, ¡°this little guy is one of the luckiest freshmen I¡¯ve seen in these years, if we don¡¯t consider Angor. He knows how to wield basic elements when he has not started studying any cantrips yet.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Care to tell me the details?¡±

    ¡°This is why I want to talk to you.¡± Tree Spirit put on a more serious attitude. ¡°Do you know the alchemy footage that got every alchemist all worked up some time ago?¡±

    ¡°You mean the one showing Angor¡¯s work?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The item he made is called the ¡®Ocean Tuner¡¯...¡±

    Rein¡¯s eyes went wider and wider as he listened to Tree Spirit¡¯s description.

    If what Tree Spirit imed was true, then Ocean Tuner was probably one of the best utilities Sea Maniptors could find. Even Rein Mute himself did not possess something so precious.

    ¡°Dear me. How did Sunders find Angor?¡± Rein couldn¡¯t conceal his jealousy. ¡°I¡¯d have gone out there to recruit if I knew such a little jewel was waiting to be discovered.¡±

    They were certain that Angor found some kind of alchemy inheritance. But such a prize could only <i>teach</i> him how to do alchemy. Angor reached this level mainly because of his devotion and effort.

    ¡°Well, he¡¯s one of us, and that¡¯s what matters,¡± said Tree Spirit.

    Rein nodded to agree. ¡°I already made ns to observe him further and decide whether we should grant him a special rank in the organization. But I¡¯ve seen enough.

    ¡°Ocean Tuner... A brilliant treasure. Why does it have to be for Sea Maniptors though? We could use it if it helps Bloodline Art users or other types of Elementalists.¡± Rein shook his head. ¡°Should we tell Angor to make another one for us?¡±

    ¡°I would say no. You saw the footage, right? The sea was resonating with him, and I doubt such a wonder could happen all the time. Even master alchemists could not freely show us creations beyond their skill level. Are you sure Angor can repeat the miracle?¡±

    ¡°You mean he¡¯s not going to do his tricks again any time soon?¡±

    ¡°We both know it.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡± Rein sighed. ¡°Leona is not really a professional alchemist. Now we Brute Cavern finally got one. Guess we can¡¯t ask for more. Other alchemists out there all agreed that Angor would reach the level of a master in due time. We¡¯ll just get better items from him when that happens.¡±

 Chapter 940 - Reinâ€™s Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 940: Rein¡¯s Invitation</h4>

    Phantom Ind was well in sight in the foggy weather.

    Before Angor could enter the ind from where he had been away for almost a year, a carrier pigeon suddenly flew to him and blocked his path.

    After leaving Tree Spirit Pce, he ran into a lot more people who either wanted his service or delivered messages for other wizards. He did not ept any of the invitations. Simrly, he nned to disregard the pigeon as well.

    But he changed his mind when he noticed the envelope. Unlike the random notes sent by other wizards, this one showed a golden glimmer in the light.

    On closer look, he saw the wax seal on the letter showing Rein Mute¡¯s signature.

    He surely did not want to disappoint the supreme leader of Brute Cavern without a reason, so he took the letter in his hand, after which the bird turned into a flock of feathers with a ¡°poof¡±.

    A particrly shiny feathernded on the wax seal and melted it.

    Angor already knew that Rein Mute was another typical, old-fashioned gentleman who loved such kinds of formalities. Rein Mute and Sunders resembled each other in many ways.

    He slowly went across the barrier around Phantom Ind while unfolding the letter, bringing out a pleasant aroma that suggested the great quality of the writing material. The paper must have cost a lot. Rein Mute was probably the only one in the organization who would send letters to him in this way.

    The content of the letter was simple¡ªRein would like Angor to visit his wizard tower and talk over a cup of drink.

    The invitation did not determine the time of the meeting. Instead, Rein left it nk.

    When Angor saw the golden feather earlier had turned into a small quill, he understood what Rein meant by it.

    He considered and used the quill to leave a date on the letter.

    [New Southern Era 7377, Month of Late Fall, 7th]

    It was tomorrow.

    As soon as he finished, the quill transformed into the same pigeon with another poof, which hovered in front of him.

    Angor returned the folded letter back into the envelope and allowed the bird to carry it away.

    He didn¡¯t know what Rein wanted with him, but he did find it a good opportunity to talk with Rein because he might be able to find Sunders in this way.

    Back in Tree Spirit Pce, Tree Spirit only mentioned that Sunders was still in the Abyss and would not get back any time soon. And when Tree Spirit failed to tell him a way to contact Sunders, Angor immediately thought about Rein Mute.

    Fortunately, it seemed Rein would also like to see him, which saved him a lot of effort.

    ...

    ¡°Wee back, Mister Padt,¡± Goode greeted Angor at the entrance of Sunders¡¯ mansion.

    ¡°Hello, Goode.¡±

    Toby jumped out of Angor¡¯s pocket and looked at Greya¡¯s hut. He couldn¡¯t wait to see his old master again after all this time.

    ¡°Lady Greya is not present,¡± Goode said and stopped Toby from heading there.

    ¡°Um? But isn¡¯t Lady Greya waiting for my professor?¡±

    Goode exined what happened during these months while they went to the mansion.

    ording to Goode, Sumesh returned to Brute Cavern on the same day when Angor left. Then, Greya imed that she would spend some time alone in seclusion. Later, she came out of the hut and left Brute Cavern to do something, and she had yet toe back.

    Angor had been considering Greya as a second option if he couldn¡¯t find Jon¡¯s cure from Sunders. He was a bit disappointed to learn that Greya was not here.

    ¡°What¡¯s your next n in Brute Cavern, Mister Padt?¡± asked Goode.

    ¡°Well, I have something to attend to elsewhere, so I can¡¯t stay for too long. Do you know how I can get in touch with the professor?¡±

    Goode shook his head. ¡°The master did not give us a means ofmunication.¡±

    Angor nodded in frustration and returned to his room.

    He thought about paying Flora a visitter. And if Flora didn¡¯t know how to talk to Sunders either, he would have to rely on Rein Mute.

    When taking a brief respite on his bed, he saw Toby still feeling down because they didn¡¯t get to see Greya.

    ¡°Hey, Toby, should we check out the dream wastnd together?¡±

    Toby shook his head¡ªhe knew the ce didn¡¯t have many things worth his time.

    ¡°Not anymore, it got a lot livelier than before,¡± said Angor. ¡°Guess what, you can pick a spot in the city, and I¡¯ll build you a house so that you can invite your friends or even Lady Greya there.¡±

    Seeing Toby perk up, Angor dly sent both of them into the Foundation City.

    The citizens all gazed at Toby curiously because there weren¡¯t any birds in their city. Toby didn¡¯t look happy when everyone was looking at him like watching a zoo animal.

    ¡°Oops... Toby, you can check out the city yourself and tell me which ce you like,¡± said Angor.

    Toby nodded and swiftly disappeared into the sky.

    Angor had no problem leaving Toby roaming in the city since none of the mortals were fast enough to catch him. Besides, Toby was alive. ¡°Dying¡± in the dream wastnd wouldn¡¯t cause any bad consequences.

    He was wondering whether he should check on Jon when Freud found him first.

    ¡°Someone told me a man with a bird just arrived, and I knew it was you, sir!¡± Freud grinned. ¡°Are you back at Fey Continent?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°I just went back to Brute Cavern.¡±

    ¡°So the ¡®connection¡¯ still works when we¡¯re so far apart. Guess the distance isn¡¯t a problem for us. I wonder if we can still meet like this if you go to another ne. If so, this will be the most efficient means ofmunication wizards ever found!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try it out when I do get a chance to travel that far. How¡¯s Jon doing, Freud?¡±

    ¡°Mister Jon is fine as far as I can see. Nothing special happened these days.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± Angor nodded. At least the corruption brought by the world¡¯s consciousness couldn¡¯t reach here. Yet.

    Using his nightmare vision, he saw Jon working on something inside Ocean Theater, together with Monroe and a group of city officials. He considered and decided not to bother them for now. Jon seemed to be enjoying his work.

    ¡°Oh, right,¡± Freud suddenly spoke again. ¡°When you left Freighting Town, a man named Rossum came. He wanted to see you.¡±

 Chapter 941 - Letters and Replies

    <h4>Chapter 941: Letters and Replies</h4>

    ¡°Rossum came?!¡±

    It was only about a week since Angor visited Rossum. Seemed the Ashen Traders already found clues about where to find a ¡°scroll of luck¡±.

    ¡°What did he say?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°He told me a name...¡± Freud recalled. ¡°But I don¡¯t think it was of any help, though.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Well, he said he had a friend who¡¯s selling the scroll you¡¯re seeking. But you can¡¯t get it by paying magic crystals. The seller wishes to exchange it for something else.¡±

    Exchanging properties wasmon among wizards, so this wasn¡¯t a problem. But Angor got a bad feeling when seeing Freud¡¯s doubtful look.

    ¡°Did the seller ask for something too expensive?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s more than that, Mister Padt. His offer was absurd.¡±

    ¡°What did he want?¡±

    ¡°A Fragment of Eternity, sir. We all know such things are more important than a scroll of luck. I mean, the scroll can only give you a short-lived boost, like for one or two seconds. But with enough Fragments of Eternity, you can build a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden! That guy must be stupid, thinking you¡¯d agree.¡±

    What Freud said was mostly true. Though Angor was a different case since the scroll could work unlimitedly inside the dream wastnd.

    Still, he was not going to do the trade because it was even harder to find a Fragment of Eternity than searching for a scroll of luck. An impure fragment could be made into roughly a hundred units of fragment diluent, each of which was worth thousands of crystals. As for a pure fragment... Its true price could easily go beyondmon sense if it was taken to a public auction.

    ¡°They only asked for a Fragment of Eternity and nothing else?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what Rossum said,¡± Freud scoffed.

    ¡°That can¡¯t be helped then. This isn¡¯t something I can buy even if I¡¯m the richest guy in the wizarding world.¡±

    ¡°I told Rossum that we won¡¯t ept it. He¡¯ll keep looking for other ways,¡± said Freud. ¡°Isn¡¯t he a professional trader or something? He should know it was stupid.¡±

    ¡°No need to worry. It¡¯s not like I need the scroll soon.¡±

    ¡°I just don¡¯t understand. Fragments of Eternity are only generated by a ne fusion, right? It¡¯s already difficult to bump into one, let alone collect those stuff while avoiding all the danger and rivals.¡±

    Angor suddenly thought about theing ne fusion at Parmigi Hignds. From what he heard, the fusion was likely to be arge-scale one, which meant more Fragments of Eternity to be found.

    But... He already decided to stay away from it to protect his Alien Eye. It would be a huge problem if any wizard saw the artifact ing alive¡± during the fusion.

    Besides, he couldn¡¯t just take all the Fragments of Eternity when all the wizards were watching anyway.

    He might try asking around right after the ne fusion if anyone was willing to sell a fragment.

    ¡°By the way, sir, Rossum brought another message for you,¡± said Freud. ¡°Their leader wants to see you. He said you were asking for a name, and they learned some clues about it.¡±

    <i>Must be Cassini,</i> Angor thought. ¡°What did you tell him?¡±

    ¡°The truth, sir. I said you already left and won¡¯te back too soon. He gave me a tool for contacting him and told me to use it as soon as I found you.¡±

    ¡°Then tell him I¡¯m currently at Fey Continent. He¡¯lle and find me if it¡¯s urgent.¡±

    ¡°Got it, sir.¡±

    Angor saw Jon still focused on civil work and decided to discuss the city and their ¡°dream project¡± with Freud.

    Torras did a good job bringing the city back onto the right track after the crime unsettled all the citizens. By force, of course.

    Freud was already careful when picking new citizens. But even the most adamant ones could have trouble adapting to the ways of the Foundation City. Now, having a good mayor andw keepers was very helpful.

    ¡°Torras is good. The only problem is that he loves showing off way too much. And we can¡¯t tell him to stop.¡± Freud rubbed his forehead.

    A uniformed woman suddenly came running to them.

    ¡°Mister Dison-*huff* The-the sheriff. He¡¯s chasing after a bird. People areining that he damaged a lot of buildings. What should we do?!¡±

    <i>Torras is after a bird?</i> Freud nced at Angor and already knew what was going on.

    Angor was using his nightmare vision to scan the city. He saw Torras and Toby randomly dashing among the buildings in a somewhat yful way. Apparently, Torras remembered who Toby was and only wanted to have a speed contest.

    Toby appeared to be happy to have a ¡°ymate¡± in the city as well, much to Angor¡¯s delight.

    It wasn¡¯t a dangerous situation since these two weren¡¯t hurting anyone. As for the broken roofs and walls caused by Torras... They could be fixedter.

    ¡°Leave them for now. I¡¯m going back to do something in Brute Cavern. As for Toby, he¡¯ll leave on his own when he¡¯s done ying.¡±

    Angor returned to reality and started his routine meditation. He was currently stuck at level-3, so he didn¡¯t need much time to expand his mana pool. For now, he only needed to maintain his mana reserve.

    A whileter, he ¡°woke up¡± and prepared to visit Flora¡¯s floating ind, Rockwell Venue. If Flora could give him a way to talk to Sunders, he wouldn¡¯t need to owe Rein Mute a favor.

    When walking down the stairs, he saw Goode standing in the main hall while holding a pile of letters.

    ¡°Mister Goode?¡±

    ¡°Ah, Mister Padt, good timing. I just received several invitation letters intended for you, all sent by other wizards. I was wondering whether I should bother you.¡±

    Angor checked, and as he expected, more alchemy requests.

    As Goode said, the letters were from wizards in the organization. But he recognized none of them.

    He considered and used a cantrip to rapidly draft some simple replies. Wizards or not, he was not going to go after these extra jobs one by one, or he would never find time to do anything else in theing year.

    One of the letters even asked him to craft a high-tier item, which was pretty much impossible for him.

    Of course, he denied the wizards as politely as possible, by using his apprenticeship training as an excuse. People would understand if he needed a lot of time to tackle the wizard level and could not find extra time to do alchemy.

    After handing the replies to Goode, he left the mansion and headed away from Phantom Ind.

 Chapter 942 - Old Friends

    <h4>Chapter 942: Old Friends</h4>

    To be safe, he activated Infinite Reticence and left the ind from the back.

    On his way, he saw the ¡°sky bridge¡± outside full of apprentices waiting outside the barrier. Their intentions were in to see.

    It looked like he wasn¡¯t going to use that bridge any time soon.

    Among the apprentices, a man wearing a panda suit suddenly looked at the sky with a thoughtful expression.

    He lifted a short cane in his hand and chanted a few words. He then tried to bnce the cane on the bridge and let go of his hand.

    A small breeze easily knocked it over.

    ¡°Fate has told me that I can¡¯t find Angor today. Guess I¡¯ll wait for the next time.¡±

    ...

    Unaware of what others were doing, Angor quickly flew past the Tree of Eternity and arrived at another floating ind with a dark theme.

    This ind was fully covered behind screens of thorns and roses as bright as fresh blood. At the center of it stood a strangely-designed wizard tower, which wasn¡¯t any brighter than the environment it was in.

    This was Rockwell Venue, the personal territory of ¡°Blood Witch¡± Flora.

    As Angor wondered how he could tell Flora to let him inside, he heard rustling noisesing from the nts. He then saw a familiar figure walking into the open.

    It was a young man with a polite but dishonest smile.

    ¡°Hello, Spivet.¡±

    Spivet used to be a famous wizard from Edge of Night. After he lost his body and powers, Sunders forced him to study under Flora¡¯s care.

    ¡°I was wondering why the professor asked me to wee someone. Now I see why.¡± Spivet looked at Angor, not sure how to regard the most brilliant apprentice in the organization.

    He easily reached level-2 in his new body thanks to all the knowledge and training techniques he remembered, and he felt proud of it. But during his stay, he heard all sorts of impressive achievements done by Angor and suddenly found himself to be the one left behind.

    While feeling jealous of Angor¡¯s fortune, Spivet was also d that he was a member of Phantom Ind, which granted him a better chance of asking for Angor¡¯s alchemy service.

    ¡°Follow me. The professor is waiting.¡± Spivet put on his signature smile. As a wizard, he knew how to hide his true thoughts.

    As they talked about random subjects on their way, Angor was a little surprised to notice that Spivet had learned to be a humble student in only a year, and it didn¡¯t seem to be pretended.

    Sunders once mentioned that Spivet should have no trouble returning to his former glory if he knew how to adapt to his new situation. He was clearly heading that way.

    They soon came to the tower with gothic-style designs and more roses. After traveling across a dark hallway, they arrived at arge and bright room that Flora used to see her guests.

    Flora was taking it easy on a sofa while observing several blood spheres floating around her. asionally, she would push one of the spheres into another one while noting down what she saw in the merging process.

    ¡°Miss Flora.¡± Angor bowed to her and said ¡°hello¡± to Little Red using lipnguage.

    Once again, the skeleton smiled at him and presented him with a beautiful rose.

    Angor epted the strange gift and saw Flora looking at him. She was wearing a ck veil that hid her face, but Angor still felt inquisitiveness directed at him.

    ¡°Just one more step to the level of wizard, eh?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°You should be the fastest trainee ever recorded in Brute Cavern, that¡¯s for sure. I assume you¡¯re ready to challenge your limit. What¡¯s your current n?¡±

    ¡°Um, I haven¡¯t started yet.¡±

    ¡°Did you fix your first spell slot yet?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Flora held her chin. ¡°Well, this is to be expected since you need a lot of time for alchemy and all. Just remember, take your time and do it steadily. Do your unfinished studies first. Go for thest push when you¡¯re absolutely sure and well-prepared.¡±

    Angor nodded again¡ªmany people had reminded him of this.

    ¡°So, what do you want from me?¡±

    Angor exined his request.

    ¡°The professor is still at the Abyss ne.¡± Flora shook her head. ¡°You¡¯ll have to head there yourself if you want to talk to him. What do you need though? If it¡¯s for your training, I can help.¡±

    Angor did consider telling Jon¡¯s matter to Flora, but only when he didn¡¯t have any other choices. He highly doubted that Flora could give him any useful suggestions when Thewis and Eureka could not.

    He also thought about talking to Sumesh. Unfortunately, Goode just told him that Sumesh was not present right now.

    ¡°If you really want to talk to the professor, go and check out the questing hall,¡± Flora continued. ¡°Maybe you¡¯ll find a quest or a team that will take you there.¡±

    ...

    A momentter, Angor headed to the questing hall as Flora advised.

    He did find a relevant quest, which was the ¡°Front Line Construction¡±. However, as the description said, the job was not for apprentices. Also, the quest would send him to a random camp, which meant he might not run into Sunders in this way.

    ¡°Guess I have to talk to Mister Rein after all.¡±

    He stepped out of the questing hall and looked afar, where the tall buildings in Apprentice Town 8 could be seen.

    The familiar sight reminded him of his old friends.

    He decided to check out the town and see whether any of his friends were there. Especially Sailum, whom he had not seen in ages.

    The gathered dust in Nausica¡¯s yard suggested that she had not used her rented house for a long time.

    Angor considered and went to the underground market so that he could talk to Dave.

    However, he didn¡¯t find Dave in Prome¡¯s shop. It was Balba who addressed him.

    Seeing his arrival, Balba happily closed up the shop and dragged him to Bartterfly Pub for a meal, during which Balba exined that Dave was no longer working for Prome because he got a proper teacher, which was ¡°Rose Crown¡± Leona.

    After sending Dave away, Prome asked Balba to manage the shop as a paid employee.

    ¡°You¡¯ll be staying in Brute Cavern for a long time, I guess?¡± asked Angor. What happened in Dumartin¡¯sb almost ruined Balba¡¯s Bloodline potential. He wondered what Balba would do from now on.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Balba nodded. ¡°I might still have a chance in the organization.¡±

    Balba didn¡¯t know much about Nausica and Sailum, much to Angor¡¯s disappointment. He, however, mentioned that Dave had a letter from Nausica. However, Angor had to talk to Dave to know what Nausica sent.

 Chapter 943 - Reinâ€™s Tower

    <h4>Chapter 943: Rein¡¯s Tower</h4>

    Rein¡¯s Tower was built on the tip of the Tree of Eternity, which was visible to all inside Brute Cavern, no matter where they lived. Those who came to Brute Cavern for the first time would quickly consider thendmark as a sign of direction, as well as a symbol of might, after they learned who owned the tower.

    Angor too, could not help but get nervous upon approaching this ce. He wondered if the inside of the structure was also made gorgeous and orderly like Sunders¡¯ mansion.

    He suddenly saw a flock of pigeonsing into his view. At first, he thought they weremon wildlife that did not hold much interest. But then he noticed that these birds were following a strange route in the air as one as if they could find where the primal mana in the environment was rich.

    He slowed down his movement as the strange sight reminded him of something familiar.

    ...

    Inside the wizard tower, Rein Mute opened his eyes and looked in Angor¡¯s direction.

    ¡°As expected. He found the course of mana so soon.¡±

    ...

    Angor was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard noisesing from the tower.

    The main door of the tower opened up on itself when he wasn¡¯t looking.

    He quickly disregarded his earlier fancy and headed to the entrance so that he did not keep the supreme leader of Brute Cavern waiting.

    The solemn and nearly depressive aura inside the structure immediately forced him to quiet down and move as carefully as he could. After almost tiptoeing through a short hallway, he came to arge space, which was as big as a small park, where a clear fountain was reflecting sunlight that shone through the ss window above.

    A strange-looking statue stood in the middle of the still water. Angor could not see its face because it was strangely covered in shadow, even though there was no obstacle nearby.

    The statue was apanied by several spheres, each of which had a human mouth with me-red lips. Angor spent a moment to look at the shing designs in awe. The statue itself seemed tranquil and even dignified, yet those ¡°mouth spheres¡± appeared as if they were constantly entangled in a spar of words.

    The strangest thing was, he felt someone¡¯s strange attention directed at him when he gazed at the statue. It felt almost like a Prophet looking at the depth of his soul.

    The droplet-like crystal on his right shoulder suddenly glowed. As his Crimson Aegis exerted its power, Angor soon found the inquisitive awareness repelled and gone.

    He quickly looked away from the statue. The response of Crimson Aegis just told him that somebody did try to scan him. It would be best if he stayed away.

    ¡°This is the ¡®Wordless Deity¡¯, a special embodiment of belief studied by certain Prophets.¡±

    Out of instinct, Angor wanted to question who just sent that voice directly into his head. However, he realized he couldn¡¯t make any sound at all.

    ¡°You cannot speak where the Wordless Deity is watching. Keep climbing. I¡¯m waiting for you at the topmost floor.¡±

    Squeak!

    Angor saw a door nearby opening up.

    It was clearly Rein Mute who just talked to him. Without tarring, Angor walked through the door and stepped onto a staircase leading upward.

    He came to a guard rail at the end of the stairs, from where he could gaze upon the fountain from above. When he did, however, he failed to find any water in the fountain. Instead, he saw images being reflected in the fountain as if the water had turned into a magical screen.

    He saw himself in the images. It was his younger self, who was rapidly growing up as the images changed.

    But the ¡°screen¡± did not keep on for too long. As soon as ¡°young Angor¡± reached teenagehood, a sh of red light swept past the fountain before the sight was reced by calm water.

    He had a hunch that his Crimson Aegis just protected his ¡°privacy¡± again. The fountain and statue must be something used for checking someone¡¯s secrets, and he just escaped from the effect.

    ¡°Come in. I can answer your questions.¡± The distant voice came again.

    Angor turned around and saw another opened door behind him. Inside, Rein Mute was quietly sitting in front of arge crystal ball.

    Upon entering Rein¡¯s room, Angor saw several shelves around that had many more crystal balls ced on them. Each one had his distorted image shown inside, and it made him ufortable.

    He heard it before that Rein Mute was somewhat obsessed with crystal balls. Seemed the rumor was quite true.

    He suddenly remembered that Lady Mirror once told him to deliver a message to Rein Mute, that Brute Cavern should redesign their transmitters so that they didn¡¯t use ¡°crystal balls¡± for more than ten centuries. Though Angor absolutely wouldn¡¯t bring that up right now. As an alchemist, he knew people would feel offended if others disapproved of their ¡°custom¡±.

    ¡°Come.¡± Rein Mute pointed to a seat gracefully. His moves were brief and precise, just like his kempt style.

    Angor hurried there and sat down on the opposite side of Rein¡¯s table. Therge crystal ball between them almost blocked his view.

    ¡°You were interested in that statue, right? Anything you want to know about it?¡± asked Rein.

    Angor opened his mouth and realized that he could no longer feel the silencing power. He then slowly looked up at the great wizard in front of him. Right now, Rein Mute appeared as an ordinary old man in his view. But his instinct told him never to let his guard down because that in look hid an unparalleled might behind.

    He took some deep breaths to calm the surging anxiety in his mind.

    ¡°Mister Rein. What-what are those pictures shown in the fountain?¡±

    Rein Mute showed him aforting smile. ¡°It was a result given by the Wordless Deity. I was using its power to check how much more potential you held. But... It seems that you have something that stopped my trick.¡±

    He set his gaze upon Angor¡¯s right shoulder, where a glowing crystal was attached to Angor¡¯s shoulder pad.

    ¡°An alchemy tool that prevents detection?¡±

    Angor nodded. Crimson Aegis was designed to stop Prophets. Though it wasn¡¯t wrong to say it countered detection.

    Rein nodded and did not keep talking about Angor¡¯s protection.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t really have to do that since most of the wizarding world already acknowledged your aptitude. Today, I only wish to meet with you up close and see what kind of young man got every alchemist upset in such a short time. Rx, we¡¯ll only have a friendly talk and nothing else.¡±

    <i>A friendly talk?</i> Angor didn¡¯t believe someone like Rein Mute had the time for a ¡°friendly talk¡± with an apprentice. But he didn¡¯t have an option here.

    Besides, he did have something to ask of Rein.

    ¡°I saw you looking at the pigeons outside my tower. What did you find?¡±

    Angor was a bit surprised by such a question because he thought Rein would request for his alchemy work as everyone else did.

    When he couldn¡¯t figure out what Rein wanted from him, he simply tried to answer as cautiously as he could.

    ¡°I think they were traveling in a specific way. There¡¯s a path in the sky. I can¡¯t tell what it is, but I recognized a pattern.¡±

    He didn¡¯t get to watch the birds till the end because Rein¡¯s invitation interrupted him. Now that he had time to think it over, he believed he almost grasped the mystery that had been bugging him.

 Chapter 944 - Reinâ€™s Stance

    <h4>Chapter 944: Rein¡¯s Stance</h4>

    Angor did not watch the pigeons from start to end. But he still recognized something signified by their flying route.

    ¡°umtion... That was a small part of a magic rune, tranted as ¡®umtion¡¯. Is there a magic array around the tower?¡±

    Rein grinned. ¡°I knew that Magic Siphon cannot escape the keen eyes of a promising alchemist.¡±

    ¡°Magic Siphon? Is that the name of the array?¡± Angor went through his memory but did not recall anything by that name. At least he didn¡¯t know such a magic array used for enchantment.

    ¡°Precisely. We maintain a high density of primal mana in the mirror world using several tools, and Magic Siphon is one of them. This array absorbs primal mana from the outside, then transfers it into the mirror world. Those aren¡¯t pigeons, by the way. They are phantoms created by the magic array.¡±

    Angor once heard about certain arts that operated magic arrays in different ways. The use of phantoms belonged to a rather ancient one, which was mostly discontinued today. In modern times, if a magic array required extra help to sustain its core functions, alchemists would use magic-powered puppets instead, which were a lot easier and more affordable.

    ¡°I see, so that¡¯s why the primal mana felt so rich.¡±

    Rein lifted an arm, pointed to a window, and caught a ¡°pigeon¡± that just flew into the room.

    He then handed the bird to Angor, much to Angor¡¯s confusion.

    ¡°You can take this.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t know how to respond to the sudden offer.

    ¡°Erm, what¡ª¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t want it? Here in Brute Cavern, we give every wizard one of these. Consider it an extension node of Magic Siphon.¡±

    In other words, a wizard could use this ¡°phantom¡± to draw more primal mana into their territory. This was probably how Phantom Ind enjoyed more primal mana as well.

    Angor was almost sure that Rein Mute was offering him resources in exchange for future help. Even so, he didn¡¯t have a reason to reject the gift right now.

    ¡°Thank you for your generosity, sir.¡±

    Rein nodded and ordered the phantom to go to Angor.

    The pigeon-shaped creature took a while circling around Angor to remember his signatures. It flew away not long after that.

    By ¡°giving¡± Angor a phantom, Rein did not mean that the phantom would stay with Angor all the time. It would wait until Angor earned a permanent residence in the organization before stretching the effect of Magic Siphon there.

    Next, they chatted over several more matters in a more rxed way, during which Rein offered to exin some confidential clues in the organization, either intentionally or not.

    For example, Rein told Angor that the Sorcerer¡¯s Garden in Brute Cavern was called the ¡°Thousand Spirit Garden¡±. Also, Baroque, the man who used Parasite Queen to set Angor up in one of the Sky Tower matches, was not a member of Brute Cavern. Baroque came and tried to enter the Thousand Spirit Garden, but he never seeded.

    Such information should only be known by the higher-ups in the organization, so Angor was wondering why Rein was telling him this.

    Because of his alchemy skills, probably.

    Though Rein only shared secrets that did not concern Angor¡¯s safety. As for ¡°shadier¡± matters like how certain wizards sided with different factions that constantly fought with each other, it would be better if Angor didn¡¯t know.

    After all, Angor was an alchemist. If any wizards wanted to negotiate business with him, they woulde in peace.

    ¡°You know, Sunders spoke of your name a lot before he departed for his mission.¡±

    Angor quickly pricked up his ears.

    ¡°He mentioned you have been working on a research subject regarding the rtion between undead souls andmon souls. How did it go so far? You can ask <i>The Mirror</i> to publish your work, if applicable.¡±

    <i>The Mirror</i> was the official magazine issued by Brute Cavern, which had wizards as its targeted audience. Rein didn¡¯t actually believe Angor¡¯s article was worth being put up there, but he could use this chance to tell everyone in Brute Cavern that Angor was now recognized by the organization.

    Sunders also suggested before that Angor should let his research be known to the public. However, Angor did not take it seriously because he was eager to head home by then.

    Now that Rein Mute brought this up... He could do it. When sailing back to the Old Earth, he was fortunate enough to ¡°farm¡± for white bullets at Specter Basin and used the bullets to turn Torras back to normal. He always kept an eye on Torras, who did not show any sign of being ¡°fallen¡± again, which meant undead souls could be reverted, which denied the prevalent conclusion that suggested otherwise.

    Angor didn¡¯t mind announcing his result. However, he had to find a new test subject for this purpose instead of using Torras, because someone might find out that he had been to Silver Palm Isle by investigating Torras.

    ¡°Sir, please understand that I didn¡¯t fully finish my work yet. I can surely write an essay, but it¡¯ll have to wait.¡±

    ¡°Take your time.¡± Rein maintained that friendly smile. ¡°Studies all need patience. Should youe up with more academic theories in the future, feel free to talk to me. I¡¯m one of the editors working for <i>The Mirror</i> after all.¡±

    Next, Rein mentioned Angor¡¯s Ocean Tuner and spoke highly of its valuable effect. Thankfully, Rein did not ask to see the illusion. He only suggested that Angor could provide training courses to other apprentices using the item and make some money out of it.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve done talking. It¡¯s your turn. Isn¡¯t there anything you would like to know?¡±

    Angor quickly nodded. He had been too nervous to ask questions from one of the mightiest wizards in the south, but he wasn¡¯t going to let this opportunity slip.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Rein chuckled. ¡°Anything. I can even help you convince a girl if that¡¯s what you wish.¡±

    Angor shivered slightly. He knew this old wizard loved matchmaking because he saw Rein trying to bring Sunders and Samantha together. Even so, he wasn¡¯t expecting to be the old wizard¡¯s next victim.

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll focus on my training, Mister Rein. Do you know how I can talk to my professor right now? I have something important to discuss with him.¡±

    ¡°Sunders?¡± Rein frowned. ¡°It won¡¯t be easy because that man¡¯s currently fighting at the front line of the Abyss ne. What do you want to ask? Perhaps I can help you with it.¡±

    ¡°About Nightmare Forms and Nightmare Domain, sir.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s... not my expertise.¡± Rein stroked his chin. ¡°If you really need Sunders, let me see...¡±

 Chapter 945 - Voyage to the Abyss

    <h4>Chapter 945: Voyage to the Abyss</h4>

    Angor was on his way back to Phantom Ind.

    Rein Mute did mention a way to speak to Sunders, which was asking for someone¡¯s help to deliver a message. Roughly a weekter, a wizard in Brute Cavern would collect materials to be transported to the Abyss and head there with the Moonfrost Union. That was when Angor could ask for the courier¡¯s assistance.

    Also, the wizard happened to be someone Angor already knew¡ª¡±Raging Thorns¡± Madelyne.

    She used to be a wizard from the Goman Kingdom, but sheter came to Brute Cavern after a certain incident forced her away from her home.

    She was Papaya¡¯s teacher.

    It shouldn¡¯t be hard to ask a wizard to carry messages as long as Angor paid a good price for it. After all, the job would only take them several extra seconds.

    However, Angor couldn¡¯t tell a third person about Jon or the dream wastnd, so he had to expect Sunders to ¡°call back¡±.

    Now, the question was whether Sunders could respond in time. Jon couldn¡¯t wait forever.

    Angor was not certain if this was a good choice, so he asked Rein Mute whether there were other ways.

    ¡°This is the safest approach¡± was Rein¡¯s answer.

    ¡°Sir, well... Is it possible for me to apany Miss Madelyne and travel to the Abyss?¡±

    Rein was quite shocked by Angor¡¯s suggestion. ¡°People are having enough trouble staying away from that ce. Why take the risk? Do you have urgent matters to talk to Sunders?¡±

    ¡°Very urgent, sir.¡±

    Naturally, Rein did not want to see such an important ¡°human resource¡± dive into great danger. It was only a matter of time before Monkey fully stirred up the enmity against demons, by which point the entire Abyss ne would be bathed in the blood of both humans and the other inhabitants. An apprentice like Angor would die before he saw what got him.

    But... It was written in the creed of Brute Cavern that they would not babysit their apprentices in constant safety.

    ¡°... You can.¡± Rein nodded after some careful thoughts. ¡°But you MUST return as soon as you can. Don¡¯t tarry there for any second beyond necessary.¡±

    By this, Angor was left with two choices. He could either ask Madelyne to send a simple message to Sunders and wait for Sunders to get back to him, or he could go to the Abyss and thene back together with Madelyne.

    As he tried to weigh his options, he suddenly heard a group of people riding on broomsticks traveling past his position. They were focused on their conversation and did not notice Angor through his Infinite Reticence.

    ¡°Master Thran is amazing! Look at how he refined an entire bucket of tainted blood within hours!¡±

    ¡°And his runes! I don¡¯t know what they do, but I know I should never get close to that kind of power.¡±

    ¡°That must be why the leaders weren¡¯t worried about the disrupted space outside at all. We got Master Thran to help us.¡±

    Angor watched as the apprentices headed to a teleportation station outside and realized they were probably delivering resources to ¡°Master Thran¡±, who was currently working on something at Parmigi Hignds.

    Rein Mute mentioned this name earlier. Thran was a famous rune crafter from the Valley of Breeze. When the space around Brute Cavern was constantly threatened by space ruptures, added with the fact that Lady Mirror, the ¡°gatekeeper¡± of Brute Cavern, had gone into seclusion, people inside Brute Cavern were getting more anxious by the day.

    Just a few days ago, the leaders of the organization sessfully invited Master Thran here to build space-sustaining magic arrays around Brute Cavern. As people believed, this was enough to protect the mirror world from harm.

    When speaking of Thran¡¯s name, Rein also made another suggestion to Angor. ¡°If you wish to learn more extending knowledge of runecraft, I can ask Master Thran to take you as his assistant.¡±

    Angor rejected the offer. It sounded pretty nice, but not now. He didn¡¯t have the time.

    He wasn¡¯t going to care about Master Thran. But taking this chance, he learned when the ne fusion would go into action.

    ording to Rein, it should be somewhere after two weeks.

    Rein thought Angor would like to get involved in the ne fusion and seize some resources out of it, so he inconspicuously advised Angor to quit.

    Of course, Angor never nned to do such a thing. By knowing Rein¡¯s answer, he meant to find out when he should leave Brute Cavern so that he didn¡¯t risk letting his Alien Eye get exposed to others.

    Also, he didn¡¯t know how far he should go in order to get the Alien Eyepletely out of the effect range of the ne fusion. And since he had a chance to travel to another ne...

    Now he thought about it, there were many things he could do in the Abyss ne. Apart from talking to Sunders, he could also evade the ne fusion and find some time to see whether he could go into the dream wastnd from there.

    However, it was a dangerous thing to do. Even if Madelyne promised to escort him, he mighte across unknown threats.

    It took him three days to make the final decision, which was to join Madelyne. He believed he wasn¡¯tpletely helpless during such a journey. If Madelyne and Moonfrost Union all failed to protect him, at least he had many means of escape.

    ording to records, the transport team of Moonfrost Union had traveled to and back from the Abyss ne several times this year, without running into any unsolvable situation. Besides, Madelyne wasn¡¯t going to stay there. After the goods were delivered, she would leave immediately.

    With this in mind, Angor quickly drafted a letter and asked Goode to deliver it to Madelyne.

    One dayter, he received Madelyne¡¯s approval. He then happily headed to Madelyne¡¯s residence for a visit. But to his disappointment, Madelyne was not present¡ªit was Papaya who addressed him, saying that Madelyne had left for another brief task.

    Angor simply spent some time talking with Papaya about the Krakoks and how her grandmother was doing. Meanwhile, he managed to learn something about Madelyne¡¯s character.

    ...

    In the meantime, Rein was meeting with another guest in his wizard tower.

    ¡°I see. Angor would go to the Abyss?¡± Rein gave Madelyne a curious look. ¡°I won¡¯t force his decisions. Just... Keep him safe, alright? Brute Cavern probably won¡¯t receive a second genius like him any time soon.¡±

    Madelyne was always a smart woman. She knew she should inform Rein of this matter as soon as she received Angor¡¯s letter, especially when Rein just made it clear that the organization had their eyes on Angor¡¯s potential.

    ¡°I will, as long as it does not threaten my personal safety.¡± Madelyne nodded.

    ¡°Move as fast as you can then. Even if Mister Monkey did not incite so many enemies upon us, the Abyss ne has never been a touring spot.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± Madelyne nodded.

    Rein suddenly showed a cunning smirk. ¡°Do note that I¡¯m aware of why you offered to go with the transport team...¡±

    ...

    Angor was busy arranging his items in the space bracelet while purchasing what hecked from the resource center. Since he wasn¡¯t sure whether he could visit the dream wastnd in theing days, he made sure the Foundation City was fully supplied as well.

    There were only a few days until Moonfrost Union woulde. When the more important tasks were all attended to, Angor decided to pay Dave a visit.

 Chapter 946 - Rosebed

    <h4>Chapter 946: Rosebed</h4>

    There was a high mountain far away from the Tree of Eternity.

    On his Gond, Angor looked below at the mountain tip that pierced through the clouds and smelled the scent of roses.

    This was Rosebed, which was Leona¡¯s territory. Angor had never been here before, but he heard it from Sunders many times that should he have questions and problems regarding his alchemy studies, this was where he shoulde.

    Instead ofnding inside Rosebed from the sky, he dropped his boat at the bottom of the mountain, where a mountain path that connected with Rosebed could be seen, and proceeded on foot.

    The clouds that covered the sky around Rosebed were, in fact, poison traps ced by Leona to fend off ill-mannered visitors. The path on the side of the mountain would take some time to travel across, but it was the proper way to go.

    Angor arrived at a thorn screen midway, across which he could see the silhouettes of buildings behind.

    Those who didn¡¯t know who they were dealing with would either fly past the blockade and risk touching the poison clouds above, or cutting through the thorns, which would undoubtedly anger the owner of Rosebed.

    There was another approach, which was to ¡°bribe¡± a particr rose to get in. Rumor had it that the thorns and nts around Rosebed were allmanded by a talking rose. Anyone who knew how to please this creature could easily earn a ticket inside.

    This wasn¡¯t Angor¡¯s n though since he had yet another means of entrance.

    He took out a crystal-clear ornament that was shaped like a rose from his bracelet.

    Sensing the item, the thorns in front of him moved aside and revealed a way.

    While Angor carefully continued, he heard a high-pitched voice mumbling somewhere in frustration, ¡°Curse it all! I thought he was another rich kid waiting to be ripped off!¡±

    The crystal rose was a token Angor received from Sunders, which would get him into Leona¡¯s home.

    Angor ignored the annoying voice and kept walking forward. The rich fragrance of roses was getting stronger, and it wasn¡¯t bad¡ªhe felt as if the smell had turned into soothing energy that coursed through his veins.

    Click!

    As soon as he reached the iron fence that surrounded Leona¡¯s garden, the fence door opened on itself. A young man wearing a pair ofrge goggles and a pockmarked face was waiting inside.

    ¡°Angor! How¡¯s it¡ª¡±

    Before Dave could say anything else, a moving rose shot out of the ground and rushed to Angor.

    ¡°Angor?! You¡¯re <i>that</i> Angor?¡± The rose spoke using a mouth-like part at the center of it. ¡°Aww! So you¡¯re more than a ¡®rich kid¡¯! I could have¡ªhow the fu*ck did you find that token?!¡±

    Angor frowned. <i>So this is the gatekeeper of Rosebed?</i>

    ¡°Well, okay, you have my master¡¯s token. But don¡¯t you know the rules? You¡¯re supposed to show your manners to a guardian like me when you visit a new ce! I don¡¯t need too much, just gimme some crystals¡ª¡±

    Dave quickly came and dragged the talking rose aside by pulling on its branch.

    ¡°Ignore this guy. And don¡¯t pay anything even if you¡¯re not invited. Crop it up if you want. By the way, fire doesn¡¯t work. It¡¯s best if you freeze up its root¡ª¡±

    ¡°DAVE!¡± the rose screamed. ¡°How dare you treat your senior like that! I¡¯ll tell my master to boot you out of Rosebed!¡±

    ¡°Shut it, Jackson!¡± Dave gave the creature a warning look and channeled a stream of cold air in his hand.

    The rose quickly slipped back into the garden while not forgetting to ce the worst curse it could think of on Dave.

    With the rose dealt with, Dave turned around and greeted Angor with a friendly smile.

    ¡°It has been only two years, and you look a whole lot different.¡± Angor checked Dave from head to toe. ¡°Was that ¡®Freeze Trick¡¯?¡±

    Freeze Trick was a level-0 cantrip Angor ¡°invented¡± by altering existing cantrips with his tablet. It was basically useless apart from causing some cold air. Dave probably studied it by reading the cantrip book he received from Angor.

    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Dave scratched the back of his head. ¡°I¡¯m d I have something to keep that lousy b*stard away, or he would talk me to death sooner orter.¡±

    ording to Dave, Jackson the Rose was Leona¡¯s pet, and it loved nothing other than magic crystals and constant bickering. Dave would suffer from being annoyed by it every time he studied in the garden.

    Dave was grateful that Angor¡¯s book provided a simple means of keeping Jackson at bay. Without this, Dave would have to waste some time studying a proper cantrip just for this purpose.

    ¡°Shoot. Where are my manners...¡± Dave just realized they were still talking at the fence door. ¡°Do you want to see my professor? I¡¯ll call her right now.¡±

    ¡°Wait, no. I¡¯m looking for you,¡± said Angor.

    Dave took Angor to a table at the center of the rose garden with an apologetic smile. ¡°I knew you¡¯re back in Brute Cavern, but... Never found a chance to see you. My professor kinda demanded me to focus on studying Solidify these days.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Congrattions. Miss Leona is a very good teacher.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right!¡± Dave jumped from his seat and took out a one-use space capsule, alongside a music box. He then handed them to Angor. ¡°This is the final ie I collected from Remnant Auction, after selling your music box. As for your other music box... I didn¡¯t sell it yet, so we might keep the rarity of it and keep the price high. I nned to deliver it to another auction in a few months. But since you¡¯re back, you can handle it on your own.¡±

    Angor returned the music box to Dave. ¡°I¡¯ll leave this in your hands. I¡¯m going to leave Brute Cavern in a few days anyway.¡±

    ¡°Again? What are you doing this time?¡±

    Angor shook his head and didn¡¯t answer. Telling Dave that he was going to the Abyss ne would only worry Dave.

    He picked up the capsule and checked its content. ¡°A hundred and ny thousand magic crystals... You haven¡¯t taken your share?¡±

    Back at Lloyds, Angor heard from Rossum that his music box was sold at 200,000 crystals, and Remnant Auction would take 10,000 as amission fee.

    ¡°I-I already got so much by selling it.¡± Dave shook his head. ¡°It was all because of you that I got to study from Miss Leona. I¡¯ll not take more from you.¡±

    Dave exined his journey to Remnant Auction, including how Leona helped him escape from jealous thugs after he collected the sales money.

    ¡°Damn. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Angor looked down. If what he heard was true, then Dave almost fell into great danger back then.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Everything turned out good! Well, more than good!¡±

    Angor broke the capsule and collected 20,000 crystals from the content. ¡°I promised that you can earn a percentage, and it should stay that way.¡±

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°The great destiny you found fully belongs to your own effort, and it should not concern our agreement.¡±

    Dave nodded and epted the crystals.

    The ground beneath suddenly shook. Jackson emerged from the ground and snaked its way toward the crystal pile on the table.

    ¡°Stop it, or I¡¯ll make you into an ice sculpture!¡± Dave warned. ¡°Angor, get your crystals to safety, quick!¡±

    ¡°The garden is my turf, and everything in it belongs to ME!!!¡± Jackson screamed.

    Countless vines enclosed the area and began picking at the magic crystals.

    ¡°Now you¡¯ve done it!¡± Dave quickly cast ¡°Freeze Trick¡± at Jackson.

    Jackson simply endured the cold air since it wasn¡¯t lethal at all. It might lose a branch or two, but this was nothingpared to all the money it could collect.

    Dave grew desperate and tried to tear the veins down using his hands, which wasn¡¯t very helpful.

    In a matter of seconds, half of the crystals were gone.

    Angor, who had been watching the farce quietly, slowly put a hand on one of the veins trying to pull more crystals underground.

    Jackson suddenly froze in midair. It then started to quiver badly.

 Chapter 947 - Nausicaâ€™s Letter

    <h4>Chapter 947: Nausica¡¯s Letter</h4>

    ¡°Crystals! So, so many crystals! ALL MINE! I¡¯m rich! Wah-hahaha!

    ¡°No! No one shall take my crystals, or I¡¯ll feed you to my flowerbed!

    ¡°You can¡¯t find my secret vault down there! No one can!¡±

    While mumbling, Jackson kept wiggling to and fro and returning all the magic crystals it just stole back onto Dave¡¯s table.

    Next, itmanded its vines to collect a pile of pebbles, before it happily carried them back underground.

    Angor casually checked the crystals. He made sure not a single one was missing before putting them into his bracelet.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on with this guy?¡± Dave gazed at Jackson¡¯s silly moves in surprise.

    ¡°Simple. It is having a nice dream.¡±

    ¡°An illusion?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    What Angor used on Jackson was an easy nightmare illusion that convinced the creature of a different reality, in which it sessfully took all the money. The illusion wasn¡¯t harmful, as long as Jackson could ept the bitter truth without suffering any mental trauma once it ¡°woke up¡±. Angor did not use a deadlier punishment just because this was Leona¡¯s home.

    <i>But how is he so good at both alchemy and illusions?</i> Dave looked between Angor and Jackson but still could not detect any trace of the illusion. He wouldn¡¯t have known if Angor did not tell him.

    ¡°Goddamn it. I thought I¡¯m improving fast under Miss Leona¡¯s care, but I¡¯m nothing when you¡¯re around.¡±

    ¡°Well, this is only the most basic illusion application¡ª¡± Angor tried tofort Dave, but he realized those words had made it worse.

    ¡°Yeah, right. I can¡¯t even recognize a <i>basic</i> illusion. I should never try topare myself to a master like you.¡±

    A female¡¯s voice suddenly joined them.

    ¡°He¡¯s right. It is indeed one of the easiest illusions.¡±

    A new, pleasant smell that surpassed all the flower scents reached their noses, causing Dave to blush badly.

    Angor was not affected by the smell too much, though he felt it strange that he recognized it. It was the essence of Glutton Flower Lord.

    This had told him who he was expecting.

    Leona had a youngdy¡¯s look, which was further improved by her lovely pink hair and a long skirt decorated with rosebuds. The way she moved among the flowers made her look like a fairy in the stories.

    ¡°Miss Leona!¡± Angor stood up and bowed politely.

    ¡°Pro-professor.¡± Dave also greeted her, somewhat embarrassedly.

    Angor nced at Dave¡¯s bashful look. As he remembered, the essence of Glutton Flower Lord could calm one¡¯s mind and spirit. Why would Dave look so pumped up instead?

    Leona nodded back and went to Jackson. ¡°A level-1 Mind Maniption cantrip, but added with another peculiar magic. Sunders¡¯ specialty, I guess?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Nice. You made the cantrip as potent as level-2 cantrips. Dave was right to be surprised. Being able to cast this one instantly meant you got quite the skills.¡±

    As she spoke, Leona dispelled the illusion from Jackson.

    Jackson came to its senses with a start and quickly looked at the junk it was holding.

    ¡°WHAT DA F*CK DID YOU¡ª¡±

    ¡°One more word, and I¡¯ll rece you with something quieter.¡± Leona grabbed Jackson¡¯s stem and warned, causing the flower to hide in the dirt like an ostrich.

    Leona turned around and tossed a crystal-clear bottle to Angor. ¡°It was my bad, letting you see Jackson¡¯s rudeness. Here, something for your trouble.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need, Miss Leona. It was all a joke¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just listen.¡± Leona stopped Angor. ¡°You¡¯re joining Madelyne on a big journey, am I right? Then this thing will help you a lot over there. Consider it an extra payment for the essence I got from youst time.¡±

    Angor carefully checked the item. It was a ss bottle with a very fascinating design¡ªan oval main body with diamond-like surface treatment, a triangr base, and a crown-shaped bottle cap, also with more decorative diamonds.

    It contained some dark-violet liquid that filled about half of the bottle¡¯s volume. The other half was full of fog-like vapor that glowed slightly. The item did look like a perfume container, but it wouldn¡¯t be wrong to consider it a tabletop ornament that added to a room¡¯s fanciness.

    ¡°This is Nether Balm, a special perfume made from a flower native to the Abyss ne, and a perfect demon repellent. Having it on you is always better than not,¡± exined Leona.

    Angor immediately knew what Leona just did. Leona was a professional ¡°perfumer¡± in the organization, which meant her tool would be really helpful.

    ¡°Thank you very much!¡± Angor decided to ept the gift.

    ¡°Be careful out there. I¡¯ll not ask you to return that token, so you cane here again if you need to learn about potions or perfumes. Why, I would wee a nice alchemy discussion with you.¡±

    Angor nodded again. That must have been what Leona truly wanted.

    Satisfied, Leona walked away. But then she remembered something and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the name of the song in that music box Dave sold?¡±

    ...

    Dave waited for his professor to leave before he whispered to Angor, ¡°A lot of people have been trying to guess an answer. I never thought the name was so short though.¡±

    Angor shrugged. ¡°I think I mentioned it once, that theposer made this song for his friend, Elise.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re going somewhere with Miss Madelyne? For what? My professor gave you that perfume, don¡¯t tell me¡ª¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. I need to talk to my professor.¡±

    ¡°But you know the Abyss is¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m in a big hurry. Besides, going into danger is like our bread and butter, no?¡±

    The ¡°danger¡± in the Abyss ne and in the wizarding world were clearly different things. However, Dave knew he should not argue with Angor.

    ¡°Just... stay safe, you hear?¡± Dave seemed to have more things to tell Angor during their reunion, but he didn¡¯t bring them up in the somber mood.

    Angor then tried to strike up more conversations about Dave¡¯s alchemy studies to brighten up the mood. They did study different subjects, but some of the alchemy experience was beneficial to them both.

    ¡°Nausica sent a letter, right?¡± asked Angor, when they warmed back up a little.

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s for you, but she sent it to Prome¡¯s because she knew you were not in Brute Cavern at that time.¡±

    Dave took out an oilpaper envelope and handed it to Angor.

    The addressee of the envelope was clearly written as Dave, but the greeting phrase of the letter suggested that Nausica wanted to talk to all of her friends.

    Angor had been worried about Nausica because she wasn¡¯t leaving Brute Cavern for training, but for absorbing a special bloodline called the Nidhogg Bloodline. Injecting bloodlines was already a risky task, let alone using the bloodline of a demon.

    Nausica did mention that she gained enough help from books and Spivet, though this wouldn¡¯t improve her chances much because such experience couldn¡¯t be copied from others.

    By leaving Brute Cavern and her friends, she probably meant that she would nevere back if she messed up.

    What she said in the letter, however, wasforting enough. She imed that she already seeded in the first step. Though she still needed some time out in the fields to get used to her new power.

    ¡°You¡¯re all gonna get amazed by what happened to me when you see me again!¡± she said at the end of her message.

    ¡°Well, those Nidhogg things look like humans but a lot bigger.¡± Dave frowned. ¡°Will she get really big too?¡±

    ¡°Bigger means stronger, so why not?¡±

    Angor nced at his right hand, which also grew abnormally ¡°bigger¡±. It wouldn¡¯t look pretty if he didn¡¯t have Sunders¡¯ glove to keep it hidden.

 Chapter 948 - Generous Gifts

    <h4>Chapter 948: Generous Gifts</h4>

    Angor left Rosebed to head back to Tree Spirit Garden, where the resource center was located. There, he received the reward forpleting the recruitment quest. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was better than none.

    Next, he entered The Tributary to pay Iron Granny a visit.

    Brute Cavern was arge ce with many powerful wizards, but there weren¡¯t many people who earned Angor¡¯s true respect. Iron Granny was one of those that Angor respected.

    The old woman¡¯s home didn¡¯t look any different than before. A small, cozy living room, hot tea that smelled like flowers, and more flower pots.

    She didn¡¯t look surprised by Angor¡¯s visit at all. After showing Angor to a seat, she prepared her tea and was ready for some pleasant chat.

    ¡°Rein told me you¡¯re going to the Abyss ne.¡±

    ¡°I have my reasons, ma¡¯am. It can¡¯t be dyed.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not stopping you. Though you should be ready for the consequences of your decisions. That ce is several times bloodier than the worst part of the wizarding world. This is not an overstatement. Thanks to Mister Monkey, there are now demons wandering around the outermost areas. Stay cautious at all times even if you¡¯re only going to the safer zones.¡±

    ¡°I will.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll just stay here and pray for your good health then. By the way... Sumesh spoke highly of your Morning Dew. You should prepare more for him because he¡¯s sure to ask you for your tea if you see him.¡±

    ¡°I have it here.¡± Angor took out another teabox from his bracelet. ¡°For you, granny. I made sure I¡¯m well stocked back home.¡±

    Iron Granny epted the gift with a smile and immediately went to her stove. ¡°I¡¯m d Phantom Ind finally has a sociable young man like you. I have known Sumesh for several decades, yet he never brought me presents. Not once.¡±

    She went to pour a fresh cup of steaming Morning Dew, removed some water from the edge of the cup, and dripped a water drop on Angor¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Consider this a return gift of mine.¡±

    <i>A gift? A drop of water?</i> Angor looked at the liquid in confusion.

    Strangely, the water did not flow down his skin like real water. Instead, it shrank into a perfect sphere and remained bnced.

    Curious, Angor sent his spirit power to check, and he was startled by the overwhelming yetforting energy contained within the object.

    He didn¡¯t know what this thing was, but the energy was used for healing, that was for sure.

    ¡°Using it equals casting Resuscitation on you. As long as you¡¯re notpletely gone, it will bring you to your top condition,¡± exined Iron Granny. ¡°Of course, only one chance.¡±

    Angor widened his eyes in shock. Many people had told him that Iron Granny was a ¡°veteran¡± member in Brute Cavern, which meant she must be really strong. But it was still amazing to see her storing the power of a level-1 spell into a water drop so easily.

    Today was fruitful. Angor only nned brief stopovers at Leona and Iron Granny¡¯s ces. He never thought he would receive so many awesome presents.

    ¡°Gods. The professor said something about how the whole organization will be generous once I join the higher rank. Guess it¡¯s already happening?¡± Angor mumbled on his way out.

    With nothing else to do, he thought about flying back to Phantom Ind on his Gond.

    But he changed his mind by entering a sky bus instead. He had not used the public transportation in the organization in a while, so he would like to spend the rest of the day rxing.

    However, he quickly regretted his decision as several apprentices also joined him on the bus. At first, they talked about their recent studies and new cantrips. Even if there were loads of ws and mistakes, it wasn¡¯t Angor¡¯s concern. But things grew slightly worse when these people became sarcastic and began verbally attacking each other either openly or scrupulously, until the bus was as noisy and chaotic as a wet market full of merchants yelling for customers.

    The whole sight didn¡¯t look very different from a pointless debate among boring teenagers trying to work out who was boss.

    Supernatural or not, human nature did not change easily.

    After bearing with the annoying chatter for ten minutes, Angor quickly got off when the bus had arrived at Falling Cloud Stop.

    The ¡°sky bridge¡± that led to Phantom Ind was just to the north. Though that was not where Angor was going. He moved to the south, where a giant floating ind was just across a short path.

    The Cloud Library was that way.

    He didn¡¯t go there out of random. It was because Nausica¡¯s letter reminded him of another friend, Sailum, whom he had not seen for over a year. Nausica once said something about how Elder of Books in Cloud Library might know where Sailum went.

    It was Elder of Books who told Sailum to go for ¡°Sage Morph¡±, which ultimately resulted in Sailum buying the Azure Bloodline while disregarding all the danger and risk it might bring. By visiting the library, Angor was going to try his luck. Asmonly known, Elder of Books simply wouldn¡¯t ept visitors normally.

    The library was divided into 8,329 sections by using teleport arrays and space-extension runes. Instead of searching aimlessly, Angor directly headed to ¡°Section 7925¡±, where he found Elder of Booksst time. If he failed, he would simply pick some random books to read to kill time.

    He once thought about using his Dream Whelk to ¡°copy¡± all the books into the dream wastnd. But he realized this was quite impossible because there were powerful security measures protecting the books. None of his items could prevent them.

    He might find an excuse such as he was ¡°trying out the useless Mystery item for fun¡±, but it wasn¡¯t a good idea¡ªpeople would get suspicious nevertheless.

    He walked through several more sections without finding his target, so he decided to quit.

    ...

    There was a ¡°mushroom house¡± at the end of Weald Street, where Freud, Sunny, and Alda usually lived.

    Today, however, they had a guest with them.

    When the fruit brew on the stove was fully cooked and was sending a nice smell into the room, Alda and Sunny reached for the pot eagerly.

    ¡°Manners, you two! Didn¡¯t I tell you to behave when Mister Padt is watching?¡± Freud scolded them before giving Angor an apologetic look. ¡°Sorry, sir. You know, these two can only smell food in the dream wastnd, so they can be a little hoggish.¡±

    Angor nodded. Compared to Alda and Sunny¡¯s behavior, he was more surprised by the fact that the dream wastnd could allow the deceased to taste meals.

    But for now, he would let Freud handle all the relevant research.

    ¡°When are you leaving for the Abyss, sir?¡± asked Freud.

    ¡°In two days. That¡¯s when the escort team of Moonfrost Union will arrive.¡±

    ¡°I see... I wonder whether he can make it.¡±

    ¡°Um? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I talked to Rossum yesterday, who said the leader of Ashen Traders, Beals, will travel to Brute Cavern to look for you, sir. Can he get there before your departure?¡±

    Angor frowned. Whatever did Beals want?

    If they found clues about Cassini, they could ask Freud to pass the message, which was also what Angor told them to do. What made Beals want to go over all the trouble?

 Chapter 949 - Two Refugees

    <h4>Chapter 949: Two Refugees</h4>

    The rulers of the Lavish Division came up with this name based on their sweet dream for the future. However, since three-quarters of the nation was covered in hot sands, building a vish home¡± could be difficult.

    At the northeast border of the Lavish Division sat one of the many small oasis towns. Right now, the merciless sun was casting its scorching blight upon the ce. At this hottest hour in a day, no one had the courage to remain outdoors for more than necessary, except for a group of refugees who didn¡¯t really have a better choice.

    Just beyond the border was the Evernight Kingdom. With the dark territory threatening everyone over there, multiple cities had been abandoned, causing millions of people to go on their homeless journeys elsewhere. Within months, the entire Evernight Kingdom went into anarchy.

    Those who lived near the center of the kingdom were the most unfortunate ones since they usually had no means of long travel, whereas people living beside the border could still seek shelter from their neighbors.

    Arthur and Merlin had always been friends since their childhood. They weren¡¯t rtives, yet they depended on each other¡¯spany more than real brothers.

    As refugees, they had been striving in this small town for about a month.

    Two hours ago, they just lost their ie after being chased away by their employer, because Merlin carelessly broke a wine barrel.

    Merlin was sightless. By working at the pub, they mostly earned their meals and a roof to sleep under but no extra cash. Of course, Merlin could not pay for the spoiled wine.

    Arthur grew too excited when defending his friend and also lost his job. Right now, the two of them were trying to escape the sun by sitting under a tree, which wasn¡¯t very helpful. If they didn¡¯t find somewhere to stay inside, they would either be roasted alive or turn into iced corpses at midnight.

    ¡°I... I¡¯m sorry, my friend. It¡¯s all because of me,¡± Merlin mumbled in despair.

    ¡°Easy, partner. We¡¯re just living at the wrong time.¡± Arthur put a hand on Merlin¡¯s shoulder and smacked his dry lips.

    ¡°Maybe we shouldn¡¯t have left home. No one knows what those darkness are. Maybe it isn¡¯t too bad. Can it get any worse than this?¡±

    ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right. At least we can rest in peace beside our family if something kills us there. But now...¡±

    Arthur nced above, where a hungry vulture was patiently looking at them.

    The temperature was slowly but surely chipping away their senses.

    In fact, a smallke was not far from their position. However, the barbed fences and town guards stationed nearby were there to stop any thirsty refugees from approaching.

    Authur found his vision getting blurry, and hallucinations were taking over.

    ¡°d I have you by my side, partner...¡± Arthur spoke weakly.

    Merlin no longer had the strength to talk. Using his remaining vigor, he showed Arthur a bitter smile.

    The air grew colder all of a sudden, as several waterdropsnded on their heads and inside their gasping mouths, slightly waking their declining spirits.

    ¡°Is this-is this the afterlife? It¡¯s so cold... But why am I still blind if I¡¯m in hell?¡± said Merlin.

    Arthur painfully lifted his head from the ground. ¡°We¡¯re not dead yet. The sky... I think it¡¯s raining¡ª¡±

    Arthur stopped talking as he found no clouds up there. Instead, he saw arge object that shone like a diamond.

    ¡°What in the world...¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s happening, Arthur?¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know. There¡¯s no cloud or rain. That¡¯s a¡ªis that an iceberg? It¡¯s flying. I must be mad.¡±

    Arthur was looking at a gigantic ice block with white wings. Each time those wings moved, they scattered glittering shards down to the ground that further decreased the temperature.

    ¡°A monster... And there are people there. Lots of people, sitting on that thing.¡±

    ¡°Who are them?¡± Merlin also ¡°looked¡± that way.

    ¡°I can¡¯t see clearly. They are all wearing white. And their robes have the same... totem? I think it¡¯s a moon.¡±

    The changing sight startled the vulture perched on the tree, which flew away and approached the flying ice above.

    It didn¡¯t get to move too far before its body was frozen solid, which then crashed back down.

    The giant ice moved swiftly and disappeared at the horizon within seconds. But strangely, the climate in the town kept getting chillier until it was enough to hurt those who didn¡¯t wear enough clothes.

    ¡°I think I know them...¡± said Merlin. ¡°They must be wizards, as told in the legends.¡±

    ¡°Wizards?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re an evil group of people who couldmand amazing power that surpasses everything. They know how to move the mountains, drain the great sea, and change the verynd.¡±

    Arthur looked at where the ice disappeared with gleaming eyes.

    ¡°That sounds awesome! No one can harm us if I can be a wizard! Do you know how to be one?¡±

    Merlin shook his head. ¡°We should think about how to get our next meal first. We can do nothing if we starve to death.¡±

    ¡°Ha! That might be a problem a minute ago, but not anymore!¡±

    Arthur went to pick up the frozen vulture from the ground. ¡°Someone from the trading caravan told me that we can sell an organ in this bird for a gold coin. That will keep us going for a while.¡±

    He couldn¡¯t stop smiling as their doom suddenly took a turn for the better.

    ¡°By the way, Merlin, where did you hear about these wizards when I never did?¡±

    Merlin looked down.

    ¡°I met with one.¡±

    ¡°You did?! Hey, tell me, what does he look like? Can we find him again?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s... an old man, with eyes. Many, many eyes, all over his body.¡±

    ¡°An old man with many eyes? Man, that¡¯s creepy. Wait, how did you know what he looked like, since, you know...¡±

    Merlin chuckled and put a finger against his eyelid. ¡°You always wanted to know what blinded me five years ago, right?¡±

    Five years ago, Merlin suddenly vanished for half a month. When he returned, his eyes were missing. He had never told anyone what happened.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes. That old wizard took them. I still remember that painful day. He got my left eye first and put it on his forehead. Then my right one... I can¡¯t see where this one went. But he told me he put it onto his chest.¡±

    ¡°Enough... Enough, Merlin. It already happened. I¡¯m sorry, I shouldn¡¯t have asked.¡±

    ¡°No matter. As you just said, it happened. We can¡¯t change it.¡±

    Arthur clenched his fists. ¡°If only I were strong enough to protect you...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Fate has put us here, and we are too weak to deny it,¡± Merlinforted his friend.

    When Arthur wanted to further protest, a woman¡¯s voice suddenly joined them.

    ¡°This youngd is right. You can¡¯t change your fate.¡±

    Arthur looked around and saw a woman standing not far away from them, who just talked to them. Everything on the woman suggested great wealth and divine personal charm. The strange thing was, she had a thick fur coat on her.

    She was apanied by a young man about 15 or 16, who was wearing an eye-catching checkered cap and with pale white skin.

    ¡°Who-who are you?¡± Arthur took a step back.

    The woman flipped her hair. ¡°Don¡¯t mind me. I¡¯m just a servant hanging out with my master.¡±

    She winked at the young man beside her.

    ¡°Change back, will you?¡± The young man looked displeased.

    ¡°That won¡¯t be good. Didn¡¯t you say you like me better this way?¡±

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t!¡±

    The woman took a smoking pipe out of thin air and inhaled. ¡°This is hers, right?¡±

    ¡°Turn back now, or I¡¯ll throw you into the firece!¡±

    Seeing her master getting angry for real, the woman spun in a circle and shifted into another look¡ªa handsome gentleman wearing the same fur coat.

    ¡°Are-are you wizards?¡± Arthur just realized what Merlin told him was happening right in front of his eyes.

    ¡°Oh, no.¡± The gentleman shook his head. ¡°My master is an apprentice, while I... I¡¯m his shadow.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean fate?¡± asked Arthur. ¡°Are you saying Merlin is fated to have his eyes taken?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s quite simple. Your friend is a ¡®talent¡¯, while his hidden power lies within his eyes. Unfortunately, a wizard noticed and took them away.¡±

 Chapter 950 - The Dark Codex

    <h4>Chapter 950: The Dark Codex</h4>

    Arthur just understood why Merlin said all wizards were evil creatures. He slowly shielded Merlin behind him, since the two strangers he was looking at were probably ¡°wizards¡± as well.

    ¡°... What do you want? Are you with those guys on the flying iceberg?¡±

    ¡°Flying iceberg? Well, you can call it that way. Note that we have nothing to do with it. That¡¯s a vehicle used by Moonfrost Union,¡± the ¡°master¡± answered them. ¡°My name is Pustin, by the way. And this is Codex. We overheard your conversation, so we came to check. We meant no harm.

    ¡°And Codex? We should get going. There¡¯s still some distance until we can reach Parmigi Hignds. Hopefully, we can get back to the organization before the end of this year.¡±

    ¡°Master, try to work hard and unlock more properties for me, by which time I can simply carry you there. It¡¯s faster.¡±

    ¡°By which time I can well afford a flying vehicle that is obviously better than sitting on you.¡± Pustin red at Codex before the two of them headed toward the northeast, where the flying ice disappeared to.

    ¡°Those guys are just passing by?¡± Arthur watched them leaving with a confused look. He remembered something and called out, ¡°Hey! Are you going into the Evernight Kingdom?¡±

    Codex turned around and nodded.

    ¡°But they said that there are dark monsters all over the ce, and some kind of mad virus spreading!¡±

    Pustin also looked back. ¡°Thanks for the reminder. We won¡¯t be staying there for too long.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    Arthur had something else to tell, but he found it difficult to speak up all of a sudden.

    It was Merlin who helped by speaking, ¡°Can we be wizards too? Can you teach us?¡±

    Arthur gave his friend a shocked look. <i>You want to join them?! But it was a wizard who hurt you!</i>

    ¡°You are hoping to be a wizard too, aren¡¯t you?¡± Merlin saw through Arthur¡¯s thoughts.

    ¡°I¡ª¡±

    ¡°The old wizard took my eyes and used them, which meant I can do the same if I be a wizard. If it means regaining my sight, I¡¯ll try it, even if wizards are evil,¡± said Merlin.

    Pustin and Codex stepped back to them.

    ¡°We don¡¯t define wizards as good or evil easily. But it¡¯spletely correct to say that all wizards are greedy when they see a profit. A wizard ripped your eyes away, does it make him evil? Not really. An ¡®evil¡¯ wizard will not let you live after what he did. What he did was seeking profit. You had the profit he needed, so he took it.¡±

    Merlin grew silent after listening to Codex¡¯s words.

    ¡°Less nonsense, if you would,¡± Pustin protested. ¡°You won¡¯t think in this way if you¡¯re the victim.¡±

    ¡°Come on. I¡¯m a book, and a book is meant to tell nonsense, yeah?¡±

    Pustin shook his head and spoke to Merlin, ¡°He¡¯s right about one thing, that all wizards are eagerly after profit. So am I. You want to be wizards? Of course I can help you. But be ready to pay the price.¡±

    ¡°Price?¡± Arthur quickly stepped up. ¡°Anything. I¡¯ll cover Merlin¡¯s if I can, just tell us what we have to do.¡±

    ¡°Such lovely friendship...¡± Codex smirked. ¡°They remind me of your old friend, Master.¡±

    When Merlin and Arthur almost started a fight over who should make the sacrifice, Pustin quickly stopped them by saying, ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant. I only need you two to agree to one condition.¡±

    Arthur and Merlin both turned his way.

    ¡°When the timees, I need you to put a new ¡®code¡¯ into my Dark Codex.¡±

    ¡°Um, what is¡ª¡±

    Pustin reached out a hand, and the gentleman beside him melted into a thick-covered book andnded on it.

    ¡°This is the Dark Codex.¡±

    Arthur wasn¡¯t too surprised to see this since he already saw this strange man speaking in a woman¡¯s body a moment ago. He curiously checked the cover, but he failed to recognize a single word on it, except for the author¡¯s name, which was written in the universalnguage.

    [Sailum Pustin]

    ...

    Knock, knock!

    Goode opened Angor¡¯s door. ¡°Mister Padt, Miss Madelyne is here.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be there right away.¡±

    Today was when Angor was going to head to the Abyss ne. He had done all the necessary preparations, except for one.

    He looked at the miniature bed on his nightstand, inside which Toby was napping in his panda costume. The suit was so nicely done that it worked well as pajamas too.

    ¡°Hey, time to go.¡± Angor nudged the bird awake. ¡°You can always stay here, you know. The Abyss doesn¡¯t sound fun anyway.¡±

    Toby red at him¡ª<i>You¡¯re not getting rid of me this easily.</i>

    ¡°Heh. Thanks, partner.¡±

    When it was finally time for action, Angor realized that he wasn¡¯t actually mentally prepared for theing mission. As he heard, the Abyss ne hid way more danger than the wizarding world, such as Grand Demons. Even the weakest Grand Demon could defeat a legendary wizard when the time was right. Not to mention that the southern wizarding world didn¡¯t have any legendary wizard in a long time, while many Grand Demons were still well-known in the Abyss.

    Angor couldn¡¯t help but feel something sowing fear into his heart when thinking about what he might run into.

    At least he wasn¡¯t alone. With Toby by his side, he felt greatlyforted.

    He took a deep breath and stepped out of the door.

    ¡°Mister Padt, are you sure...¡±

    Goode still had his mask on, but his anxiety was clear.

    ¡°No problem. I¡¯m just going to visit my professor and get back immediately. Is there something you need to tell him? I can pass the message for you.¡±

    ¡°... No.¡± As the butler of Phantom Ind, Goode was used to being away from Sunders. Besides, Sunders was only absent for less than two years, which wasn¡¯t that long.

    ...

    Angor came to the guest hall and saw ¡°Raging Thorn¡± Madelyne being a quiet gentlewoman despite the way she was referred to.

    Even when talking, the witch appeared humble and friendly, unlike typical cocky wizards.

    <i>She came from a wizard n. That must be what made her so different,</i> Angor thought.

    It seemed Madelyne had a lot of questions to ask of Angor, though she didn¡¯t bring them up right now since they had ample time in the next few days.

    ¡°I just learned that the escort team of Moonfrost Union has arrived at the border of the Evernight Kingdom. They¡¯ll be here soon enough.¡±

    ¡°Evernight Kingdom?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°I heard that the passage they usually used is in another direction.¡±

    ¡°Before they carry all the resources to the Abyss, they¡¯re responsible for distributing what they found in the Abyss to other organizations first. They need to follow a specific route ording to their agreement. This is why many organizations agreed to assist in the first ce. Telling from their current position, I guess that they had just done unloading something at Moxa Wesnd.¡±

    ¡°I see...¡±

    The name ¡°Moxa Wesnd¡± reminded Angor of Hermes and Loki. He wondered how these two were doing after the Purification Garden challenge.

    ¡°Let¡¯s move. We can talk on our way.¡± Madelyne stood up. ¡°A friend told me that you have a lovely flying boat. Mind giving us a ride? That would save us some strength.¡±

    Angor nodded andplied.

    ¡°Ha. No wonder why so many women sent you letters to ask you to make stuff for them.¡± Madelyne couldn¡¯t help but admire the dazzling vehicle as everyone else who saw it for the first time did.

    As Gond left the territory of Phantom Ind, a man walking on the sky bridge below, who was wearing a panda suit, suddenly looked up.

    ¡°Weird. The guidance of fate is off again?¡±

 Chapter 951 - Frozen Wing

    <h4>Chapter 951: Frozen Wing</h4>

    Angor and Madelyne emerged from the great chasm and saw Moonfrost Union already here. They were now exchanging supplies with Brute Cavern.

    ¡°It won¡¯t take long. Let¡¯s hurry and get to their Frozen Wing,¡± Madelyne said as she led Angor to arge flying vehicle, which looked like a giant ice block with white wings on its sides.

    They were still some distance away from it, yet Angor already felt the chilly aura that easily reached his skin.

    As they approached, Angor noticed that the vehicle came with several levels. The bottom level had groups ofmonborers trembling in thick clothes, while apprentices who seemed to be of higher standings took the middle level. ording to Madelyne, these apprentices were all from different organizations or wizard ns who were tasked with various jobs in the Abyss.

    There were also quests in Brute Cavern that asked their members to go to the Abyss, but no one would take them.

    ¡°Most organizations wouldn¡¯t encourage their apprentices to go there,¡± said Madelyne. ¡°But this won¡¯t prevent hot-headed people who value money more than their lives. Also, there are particr apprentices who seek chances from dire situations, and the Abyss ne is a perfect ce for them.¡±

    Sessfully surviving from lethal threats was helpful in one¡¯s training. But not always. To break through one¡¯s level limit, for example, called for enough aptitude and knowledge gain. Blindly throwing oneself into danger would do more harm than good.

    The topmost level of the vehicle was arge and t area with only a small number of people. Wizards, mostly.

    Angor thought he was supposed to join the middle level, but Madelyne stopped him.

    ¡°You¡¯re not with them. Come with me.¡±

    Madelyne took Angor directly onto the top floor. His appearance did not draw any attention from the wizards. Rather, it was Madelyne who received several curious nces.

    People only knew that Madelyne originated from an ancient wizard family of the Goman Kingdom. She stayed low-profile and away from public sight ever since she joined Brute Cavern. Since there wasn¡¯t much to talk about her, nobody said anything about her arrival.

    While waiting for the transport team to depart, Madelyne took Angor to somewhere private and began introducing the wizards for him.

    ¡°See that woman with too few clothes on? Remember, every time you see someone like this, they eithere from Shangri-La or the Reverse Paradise. She¡¯s Beatrice, by the way. A Shadow Maniptor.¡±

    Meanwhile, Angor tried taking careful peeks at all the people around. The powerful wizards easily saw his moves, though no one minded him.

    Angor was not the only apprentice at this level. In fact, there were many other apprentices and servants of the same level who were as curious as him.

    He recognized none of the wizards except for a few people who often showed up in magazines, so he quickly lost interest.

    When he tried to look away, he identally met eyes with someone not far from him. It was a hunched, old wizard with terribly wrinkled skin and white beard. This man¡¯s age and gravity surely did a number on his body, but those glittering eyes showing great wisdom were as clear as that of a vigorous young man.

    Seeing Angor¡¯s look, the old man showed a friendly smile and seemed to be lost in thoughts.

    ¡°The witch with amp is Lady Kate. She¡¯s a newly-promoted genius from Foreboding Forest and Leona¡¯s friend...¡± Madelyne was still doing her exnation, but she stopped talking when she saw Angor looking at somewhere else. ¡°That¡¯s... Do you know him?¡±

    ¡°No, ma¡¯am.¡± Angor shook his head.

    ¡°He¡¯s ¡®Radiant Twilight¡¯ Vifet from Moxa Wesnd. That man has some good fame among lots of wizards, which earned him friends and resources everywhere. People said that he¡¯s even acquainted with important wizards from other wizarding regions.¡±

    ¡°Other regions?¡±

    Apart from the ¡°southern wizarding region¡±, Angor also knew that there were the Eastern Borderline, the Northern Province, and the Western Continent. These parts were not connected by seas ornds, and it was extremely difficult to travel among them.

    ¡°So Mister Vifet has been to those ces before?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that.¡± Madelyne shook her head. ¡°Rumor has it that he left the southern region 600 years ago and came back 300 yearster. As for where he went... Nobody knows.¡±

    Angor nced at Vifet again and noticed the old wizard had closed his eyes to rest.

    Madelyne soon finished introducing those whose names she knew, who only made up a small part of the team. The rest of the people were mostly members of the Moonfrost Union, and she knew little about them.

    When Madelyne wanted to change their subject and learn more about Angor, they suddenly heard noisesing from below.

    They were standing near the edge of the t area, so Angor only needed to lean over slightly to see what was going on down below.

    There, at the bottom level, a man had copsed on the floor with a giant rupture tearing his entire abdomen open. A crimson flower that looked like a beast¡¯s maw shot out from the wound and swallowed another helpless onlooker nearby in one go.

    The workers were currently unloading crates of resources for inspection. The ruckus had put a stop to their work.

    ¡°Something went wrong and caused one of those people to contract an Abyss Man-Eater in his body,¡± said Madelyne. ¡°It¡¯s a growing seedling that needs fresh meat to get bigger. Guess it just found enough.

    ¡°I took a peek at the cargo list back there. That¡¯s supposed to be Leona¡¯s order. Too bad, she¡¯s going to be disappointed.¡±

    Angor looked that way again and saw Leona talking to the inspectors with an angry look, while several members of Moonfrost were apologizing.

    ¡°But... the flower grew up just fine, right?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°These flowers do differently in different climates and conditions. If a seedling sprouts out of the body of a mortal, it will be useless in the future. I heard that Leona spent huge money to buy the bodies of wizard-level monsters just to nurture her flowers. No wonder she looks so pissed off.¡±

    The incident was settled when the escort team burned the man-eater flower and paid Leona a bag of crystals.

    It was probably amon thing to happen around here, but Angor was d that he could use the chance to observe these otherworldly materials up close. From what was exposed, he recognized several special alchemyponents native to the outer areas of the Abyss ne. Of course, there were also unknown items thatpletely confused him, including the Abyss Man-Eater, which probably came from deeper areas.

    The Abyss ne was usually a forbidden zone for all wizards. Even if Monkey¡¯s campaign forced people to go in there and set up a ¡°front line¡±, it was only based at the 3rd level of the Abyss, which was still considered one of the outer areas.

    The farthest record done by the expedition team of Moonfrost Union ended at the 4th level. No one ever attempted to go any further than that.

    About half an hourter, the material carriers finished up all their work, and the Frozen Wing was slowly starting up.

    ¡°About time,¡± said Madelyne.

    Angor looked below and saw a group of wizards and apprentices looking at the vehicle from afar with concerned looks. They were probably here to see their friends off.

    This was a journey to the Abyss. If something went wrong, there would be no return ticket.

    ...

    The Frozen Wing slowly and steadily traveled above Parmigi Hignds. It could move faster. But the controllers would be more careful because running into a space rupture would be disastrous.

    ¡°Oh, dear. I miss your Gond already,¡± Madelyne said in a joking manner.

    Of course, Gond would do better at evading space ruptures thanks to its handy size. However, Angor could still see that the Frozen Wing was several levels better than his boat. Apart from its capacity, there were lots of runes and devices that emitted dimensional energy around the ¡°ice block¡±, obviously intended for long-range ne travels.

    He was sure Frozen Wing was better protected and could do better against danger, while his Gond could only escape in case something bad happened.

    Madelyne would like to ask Angor¡¯s opinion regarding the giant vehicle, but she changed her mind when she saw Angor lost in thought.

    <i>Oh my, he already recognized the alchemy techniques used on Frozen Wing? Impressive.</i>

    The truth was, this wasn¡¯t the case. Angor was simply thinking about a familiar face he saw among the onlooking apprentices when Frozen Wing left Brute Cavern.

    It was ¡°White Bear¡± Hobson.

 Chapter 952 - Seeley

    <h4>Chapter 952: Seeley</h4>

    Among the wizards and apprentices who were bidding farewell to Frozen Wing, Angor saw several faces he knew, such as Balba and Dave. Butpared to them, Hobson¡¯s ¡°panda suit¡± really stood out.

    Hobson was frantically waving his short cane above his head to draw Angor¡¯s attention. And when he did, he kept repeating something using his lips since Angor couldn¡¯t hear his voice across the distance.

    <i>The toy! The toy!</i>

    Angor saw it and took out Hobson¡¯s ¡°bear ragdoll¡± from his bracelet.

    ¡°Oh, what is that?¡± Madelyne also saw it and asked.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s just amon toy for a kid. My friend gave it to me. He said it¡¯s really dear to him.¡±

    ¡°A memento of his, perhaps?¡±

    Angor nced at the pendant on the bear¡¯s neck and nodded. ¡°Must be. It kept him apanied for a long time.¡±

    Madelyne looked away and sighed. ¡°I used to have something like this when I was still a mortal. But I lost it in an ident. Oh, how I cried back then... But I almost forgot about it after all this time.¡±

    In the prolonged lives of wizards, the passage of time was enough to erase everything. Even the most cherished memories, given several centuries, would be covered under the curtain of age.

    Angor looked at the toy in his hand again and wondered what Hobson wanted to tell him. Did Honson only mean to remind him of the toy?

    As Angor remembered, it was Dodoro who asked Hobson to send this thing. But this action had not been of any use yet.

    No matter how Angor checked, the toy was only a hand-made curio with nothing special in it.

    He removed the pendant on the toy and flipped its lid open, revealing a small photo in it that showed a small boy and a woman with an obscured face.

    The boy must be Hobson. As for the woman... Hobson imed he didn¡¯t know who she was.

    Angor still had Hobson¡¯s note, which came with the toy. The note said that when Dodoro told Hobson to give Angor the ¡°most precious treasure¡±, Hobson presented this bear toy.

    Angor always trusted Dodoro¡¯s ¡°prophecy¡±. Dodoro didn¡¯t do this often, and even when he did, he did not easily tell it to others. But as long as the prophecy involved Angor, it was likely something very useful.

    ¡°Whatever did Dodoro see...?¡±

    Angor shook his head and decided not to think about it for now. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t time.

    When he folded the note and was going to put the pendant back, he nced at the bottom of the note, where Hobson left his signature.

    [Hobson Seeley]

    ¡°Seeley?¡±

    Angor usually referred to Hobson by name or simply called him ¡°White Bear¡±. Now that he saw Hobson¡¯s family name, he felt as if he saw it from somewhere before.

    He quickly went through his memories, until he remembered his first visit to Lloyds, when he went there to retrieve Eureka¡¯s goods from Rossum. Back then, Rossum referred to Eureka as ¡°Miss Seeley¡±.

    ¡°Wait. Are Hobson and Eureka perhaps...¡±

    A prophet apprentice with an odd character in Brute Cavern and a fugitive witch who was temporarily living in Padt Manor. Angor would never have put these two together.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s on your mind? Is this ¡®friend¡¯ of yours your girlfriend?¡± Madelyne joked.

    ¡°No, he¡¯s only... amon friend. By the way, Miss Madelyne, may I ask a question?¡±

    ¡°Sure, as long as it¡¯s not personal.¡±

    ¡°Have you heard of someone called the ¡®Bloodied Stabber¡¯?¡±

    Madelyne frowned. ¡°Yes. But what for?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just... I recently came across something that might involve her.¡±

    ¡°If this is true, I suggest that you stay the hell away from it. Bloodied Stabber badly pissed off Goman King and escaped with lots of shady secrets the Goman Kingdom would like to hide. Knowing something alone can get you into trouble. You can trust me. I came from the Goman Kingdom after all.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... I¡¯ll be careful.¡±

    ¡°Good. So what do you want to know about her? Note that I can¡¯t tell you anything about the treasure she stole. I don¡¯t know a thing about it anyway.¡±

    Madelyne believed that Angor, as an alchemist, simply wanted to know the Mystery treasure Eureka took from Goman King.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that. Do you know Eureka¡¯s full name?¡±

    ¡°Her full name?¡± Madelyne shook her head. ¡°No... But I did hear that she broke into Goman King¡¯s treasure vault because Goman King murdered her family. If you really want to know, you can check the execution roster of the Goman Kingdom. Though it won¡¯t be easy because Goman King tends to kill lots of people every year.¡±

    Angor then tried to remember what happened when he met with Hobson the first time.

    Hobson imed that he was born in the Goman Kingdom. After going through several miserable years and a taxing journey that took him 13 years, he came to Brute Cavern.

    By ¡°miserable years¡±, could Hobson mean to say that his family was wiped out by Goman King, which happened to be what caused Eureka¡¯s betrayal?

    Such clich¨¦.

    Angor wasn¡¯t going to prove the theory he just came up with. It sounded fun, but it had nothing to do with him whatsoever.

    ¡°So Hobson gave me the toy just to remind me that he¡¯s rted to Eureka? Hmm...¡±

    The floor below him suddenly shook greatly, interrupting his thoughts.

    A space rupture, which appeared like a dark slice in midair, suddenly popped up just behind the right wing of Frozen Wing.

    The security on the vehicle immediately saw it and sped up the vehicle to get away.

    As soon as the space rupture came into existence, the space around it shattered as if someone punched a mirror. As a giant ¡°spider web¡± spread beyond the ruptured point, a huge pulling force emerged from it and began drawing whatever stayed too close.

    The anomaly did notst very long when another overwhelming power descended and restricted the area of the disaster within a small area. It was the world¡¯s consciousness of the wizarding world attempting to ¡°repair¡± damages caused by theing ne fusion.

    ¡°Thank the gods that we didn¡¯t run straight into it,¡± a guard on the vehicle eximed in fear. Even powerful wizards wouldn¡¯t do very well if they fell into that thing.

    However, people didn¡¯t get to celebrate their peace for too long when they heard that another space rupture appeared right in their way. It was very likely for Frozen Wing to bump into it at this rate because the vehicle was moving at full speed when evading the previous one.

    The personnel of the Moonfrost Union quickly scrambled to their posts. As they estimated, they had about ten seconds to slow down Frozen Wing, which should be enough.

    Angor thought he could let the professionals handle the situation. But he suddenly felt a pulling force that dragged him into the air. It was Madelyne, who just carried him off the vehicle by dragging his shoulder.

    ¡°The vehicle should be able to get away from that, but we should be careful just in case.¡± Madelyne pointed ahead, where Frozen Wing was leaving with some of its passengers absent. It seemed many wizards just did the same by staying away from the vehicle.

    Angor briefly observed the speed of the vehicle and quickly concluded that it would fully stop before reaching the space rupture.

    But as he watched, the space rupture ahead suddenly began to gain more size, until it became a ck hole several timesrger than the previous one.

    This time, Frozen Wing couldn¡¯t escape from it.

 Chapter 953 - Witch of Wasteland

    <h4>Chapter 953: Witch of Wastnd</h4>

    Everyone believed that Frozen Wing would get torn apart by the space distortion in no time, together with all the workers and resources stored inside. Although telling from the looks of the wizards, they were more concerned about thetter.

    The pilots of Frozen Wing had given up steering the vehicle. Instead, they all went to activate a device on the vehicle, which seemed to be a dimensional energy generator.

    This device was usually used for opening up and sustaining a teleportation tunnel, but this could only be done where the space was stable. If it was used in a disrupted area, something unwanted woulde up, such as a new space rupture, which just appeared on top of Frozen Wing.

    The new rupture soon began reaching out to the other two, causing the entire area between them to copse. Several loose objects on Frozen Wing were immediately thrown into the broken space and were ground to powder.

    ¡°Are they trying to die faster?¡± an apprentice asked his teacher.

    ¡°Patience. Keep watching.¡±

    Angor only looked away for a brief second, and when he looked back, he saw Frozen Wing had already left its original spot and was now flying at the safe distance far away.

    ¡°What...¡±

    <i>Did it just teleport itself?</i>

    ¡°It¡¯s done. Let¡¯s go back.¡± Madelyne took the lead and headed where Frozen Wing was waiting.

    Angor quickly followed behind her, while not forgetting to nce back at the dimensional trap.

    The third space rupture had connected with the two other ones, creating an exceptionally giant ck hole full of chaotic energy raging around it.

    When Angor and Madelyne reached Frozen Wing, the vehicle had been parked on the ground somewhere about a hundred kilometers from the ruptures, powered off.

    Upon approaching the vehicle, Angor sensed two types of conflicting energy that somehow existed on Frozen Wing together.

    ¡°Using a new space rupture to generate a powerful repelling force...¡± Madelyne mumbled. ¡°So <i>she</i> is here as well?¡±

    ¡°Repelling force?¡±

    Angor just realized that the energy he just felt appeared very simr to the gravity force. This must have been what helped Frozen Wing escape.

    ¡°It¡¯s a particr technique that makes use of dimensional energy,¡± exined Madelyne. ¡°I¡¯ve seen many people who can do it. But when you need someone who can use the stray energy from a space rupture so precisely, you can only be talking to one individual.¡±

    Angor did not need to ask who that was because an outstanding woman just came into his view. Here, ¡°outstanding¡± had nothing to do with her looks. Rather, the moment she showed up, the special energy that lingered around Frozen Wing all rushed into her as if she were the center of a vortex. It was difficult <i>not</i> to look at her.

    She wasn¡¯t very beautiful, but she carried a particr charm that made her attractive in the eyes of others. She had clean, white hair that appeared almost translucent in the sunlight. Butpared to the cold color of her hair, her eyes were bright orange like a burning me that showed her zealous spirit.

    Also, all wizards present, including Madelyne, visibly grew nervous when this witch appeared.

    ¡°A vitalponent of Frozen Wing requires maintenance. We¡¯ll continue once the repair is done.¡±

    The witch did not speak, yet her voice was somehow heard by everyone.

    After leaving her message, she turned away and headed into her room.

    The wizards waited for a while before one of them found it safe enough to speak.

    ¡°We¡¯re stopping... Guess taking the vehicle out of that mess wasn¡¯t easy, even for a mighty one like her.¡±

    ¡°Tell me about it. Anyone else in that ce would have enough trouble getting out alive, let alone protecting such arge vehicle,¡± another wizardmented.

    Meanwhile, Angor tried to remember whether he had seen this witch somewhere before. Someone who was well-respected by so many wizards shouldn¡¯t be hard to recognize.

    Speaking of unparalleled wizards from Moonfrost Union, he quickly thought about two names¡ªSamantha, who recently visited Brute Cavern, and Sennefer, who was believed to be the strongest Bloodline User among all witches.

    Angor heard about ¡°Witch of Wastnd¡± Sennefer before, during the auction held in Floating Mech City. Though he never saw her in person. It only took Sennefer about 200 years to be a level-2 truth-finder, which made her a close rival of Sunders, if people wished topare their potential.

    Also, Sennefer was Nausica¡¯s idol. Every time Nausica mentioned her dreams and how she wanted to improve, she would bring up Sennefer¡¯s name. She once exined to Angor that Sennefer had ¡°the look of pure ice, paired with me-colored eyes¡±.

    Madelyne also confirmed this for Angor by speaking with a grim look, ¡°Last time I heard, Sennefer was still staying at the Xien ne. I would never have thought that she¡¯s summoned to the Abyss as well. This means Mister Monkey is about to make the final move...¡±

    While Angor was d that a level-2 truth-finder was here to keep the escort team safe, he also grew worried about the true situation in the Abyss. Whatever that required Sennefer¡¯s help must be rather serious.

    Madelyne saw Angor still looking at Sennefer¡¯s room and thought Angor needed more exnation. ¡°Ahem. Sennefer is a Bloodline User, if you haven¡¯t known. She found her path of truth by developing several types of opposing powers, like fire and ice, gravity and repulsion... And she can use them at the same time. Someone said that her way of truth is ¡®paradox¡¯ itself. But no matter who¡¯s right, she¡¯s a capable and deadly warrior.

    ¡°Let me put it in this way. She can force Frozen Wing to a full stop single-handedly when the vehicle is running at full speed. She didn¡¯t do it because that would break it apart, obviously.¡±

    Simrly, the other wizards were all talking about Sennefer as well as what she might do in the Abyss ne. No one was giving Madelyne any attention, and Madelyne seemed to be enjoying the solitude.

    ¡°You know, I was at Remnant Auction, and I triedpeting for your music box.¡± Madelyne changed the subject to Angor again. ¡°Too bad, I didn¡¯t have a chance. I heard a story that the music box even helped Greya with making her new spell. Is that true?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s highly unlikely.¡± Angor tried to muddle it through.

    Madelyne knew there was more to it, but she didn¡¯t ask further since Angor probably wouldn¡¯t tell her anyway.

    ¡°That illusion was spectacr, that¡¯s for sure. The rich stories you put into it could have demonstrated true knowledge, if people knew where to look.¡±

    Madelyne could have used force, but just like other wizards in Brute Cavern, she found it more proper to approach Angor peacefully.

    Next, Madelyne tried talking about simple matters in order to warm up to Angor bit by bit.

    But she was soon stopped when an old wizard joined them. It was Vifet, the ¡°the man with many friends worldwide¡±, as said by Madelyne.

    Angor thought Vifet was here to negotiate something with Madelyne, so he wanted to move away. But he saw Vifet looking directly at him.

    ¡°You must be that ¡®music box alchemist¡¯ Angor, aren¡¯t you?¡±

 Chapter 954 - Vifetâ€™s â€œOfferâ€

    <h4>Chapter 954: Vifet¡¯s ¡°Offer¡±</h4>

    <i>What¡¯s the deal with this ¡°music box alchemist¡±?</i>

    Angor tried to hide his displeasure because he was looking at a famous wizard. ¡°I¡¯m Angor, mister. No offense, but those interesting titles you heard were all made up by irresponsible people.¡±

    ¡°But you kinda like making new music boxes, right?¡± Madelyne giggled. ¡°Tree Spirit told me that the high-tier tool that got so many people curious is also a music box. It¡¯s just right for people to call you like that.¡±

    Angor¡¯s lips twitched. He pointed to his pocket, where Toby was sound asleep. ¡°He likes music, so I chose music boxes to practice when I started as a new alchemist and slowly got used to it. I¡¯m capable of making other types of items.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Madelyne then looked at Vifet, wondering what Vifet wanted to do.

    Vifet smiled. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure it was you when I saw youe onto Frozen Wing. Now I am.¡±

    Even though Angor¡¯s deeds earned him lots of attention, these could be slowly forgotten in the wizarding world when there were many other matters to be focused on.

    The most recent news about Angor only used his picture that was taken two years ago, during which Angor had gained a big boost in body height, making it harder for people to recognize him using the magazines they read.

    Besides, no one would have expected that Angor would get sent to the Abyss ne.

    Vifet had been attempting to figure out whether the young apprentice with Madelyne was Angor. When he saw Madelyne mentioning ¡°alchemy¡± and ¡°music box¡±, he was finally certain of it.

    He knew it was impolite to barge into their conversation like this, but when he thought about how Gauss mentioned that Angor knew what was haunting the Evernight Kingdom and that the disaster might make its way to Moxa Wesnd, he really wished to learn more about it.

    ¡°Do you need something, Mister Vifet?¡± asked Angor.

    Vifet kept his gentle smile of an old man as he spoke, ¡°Nothing important. I just want to look at the rumored little genius up close. What was Mister Rein thinking? I would never make such a decision and put you to waste.¡±

    ¡°It has nothing to do with Mister Rein. It¡¯s me who wants to go to the Abyss.¡±

    ¡°I heard that Sumesh just went there and is still wandering around the entrance. Then here you are. Is Mister Phantom nning something big?¡±

    Madelyne narrowed her eyes. ¡°Curious about Mister Phantom now, Vifet?¡±

    ¡°Heh heh. Just a bit interested, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°Mister Vifet, I¡¯m going to my professor for advice because I need to tackle my major limit really soon. I just returned to Fey Continent recently, so I do not know much about what¡¯s going on here,¡± said Angor.

    Vifet saw Angor¡¯s cautious look and sighed. Even without being violent, he had many ways to get Angor to talk. But none of his methods would work if Madelyne was watching.

    He considered and decided to use another approach.

    ¡°I¡¯d like to offer a trade.¡±

    ¡°Trade?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°If it¡¯s alchemy work, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t ept it. I need to fully concentrate on my breakthrough.¡±

    ¡°Ipletely understand. While I do have alchemy requests on my mind, that can wait. Here, I only want to procure a piece of information from you.¡±

    Madelyne paid attention as she was curious about why a resourceful wizard like Vifet would ask an apprentice for information.

    ¡°What is it, sir?¡±

    Vifet stroked his beard. ¡°The incident in the Evernight Kingdom.¡±

    The ¡°dark domes¡± that upied several cities in the Evernight Kingdom were slowly expanding to other areas, and Moxa Wesnd, as the neighbor of the kingdom, would soon get affected. For this reason, it was reasonable that Vifet asked such a question.

    Sunders already did lots of work to convince wizards that Angor had little to do with the dark domes, but this wouldn¡¯t easily persuade everyone. For example, ¡°Plucker of Strings¡± Anglo from White Coral Floating Ind Academy had been openly showing his concerns about Angor¡¯s involvement in this matter. Not to mention there were many more ¡°stubborn¡± people who wouldn¡¯t give up their suspicions regarding Angor after they heard so many rumors about him.

    When Angor was still trying to make up excuses, Madelyne spoke to Vifet first, ¡°He¡¯s just a lucky apprentice who happened to be there under Sunders¡¯ protection. If you want to know the truth, how about you ask Mister Sunders? After all, we¡¯re all heading to the Abyss.¡±

    Vifet simply kept his neutral smile. ¡°Of course I¡¯ll consult Mister Sunders when I¡¯m there. But now, I¡¯d like to hear Angor¡¯s opinion as well.¡±

    He then gave Angor an inquiring gaze. ¡°A friend informed me that it was <i>you</i> who created that energy storm at the center of Sleepless City, which was powerful enough to dispel the dark dome if Sunders did not put a stop to it. Also, ¡®Whipping Witch¡¯ Rak¡¯sel saw you stepping out of the supposed forbidden area alone, but you walked back inside when you saw her.¡±

    Angor slightly shook his head. He knew someone would question him like this sooner orter, and he should be expecting more of them at this rate.

    He made up his mind and looked at Vifet in the eyes, and Vifet returned the same look.

    Vifet wasn¡¯t lying when he said he would ask Sunders about what truly happened in Sleepless City, but he wouldn¡¯t depend on it. Compared to talking to Sunders, it was easier to tell whether Angor was speaking truthfully even without using truth-detection spells.

    Under Vifet¡¯s hopeful look, Angor said his answer clearly, word by word, ¡°I will reject your offer, sir.¡±

    Vifet¡¯s smile froze, while Madelyne beganughing.

    ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be a ¡®trade¡¯, right? Too bad. Angor doesn¡¯t want to do it.¡± Madelyne found it funny that Angor straightforwardly said no to Vifet. She thought Angor would at least be roundabout about it.

    Vifet¡¯s expression grew dark. This was the second time someone rejected his request within this month. Beals was a powerful wizard, so he couldn¡¯t reallyin, but how could an <i>apprentice</i> treat him, a renowned wizard, like this?

    When he wanted to resolve to harsher means, somebody suddenly yelled loudly and drew everyone¡¯s attention, ¡°You all look! Something¡¯sing!¡±

    People looked that way and saw a small dot in the sky, which was getting bigger and bigger as it drew closer quickly.

    It was a man covered under a ck robe, who was directly heading Angor¡¯s way, thus preventing Vifet from giving Angor a small punishment he had been preparing.

    ¡°Oi! There you are, Angor. I made it in time!¡± The figurended on Frozen Wing and hurried to Angor¡¯s side. ¡°Ad in Brute Cavern said you just left with Frozen Wing, so I thought I lost you for good. Why is it stopped? Never mind. d it did.¡±

    While on his way, the speaker and Vifet nced at each other and both took a step back.

    ¡°Vifet?¡±

    ¡°Beals?¡±

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s <i>my</i> question!¡±

    Vifet looked between Angor and the leader of Ashen Traders, and he felt something clicking in his mind.

 Chapter 955 - Dodging Suspicion

    <h4>Chapter 955: Dodging Suspicion</h4>

    When speaking to Gauss, Vifet heard a clue from Gauss¡¯ thrall, that the ¡°important customer¡± mentioned by Beals was very likely an alchemist.

    Right now, an alchemist was right in front of Vifet, which was Angor.

    Furthermore, Beals just said that he was here looking for Angor.

    Vifet kept looking between Beals and Angor carefully while trying his best to hide his curiosity.

    <i>Now the question is, what does Beals want with Angor?</i> Vifet pondered.

    Meanwhile, Beals was also wondering how he bumped into Vifet of all people. Did Vifet find out that Angor encountered Cassini before?

    ¡°Ahem.¡± Beals quickly tried to think of some excuses to ascertain Vifet¡¯s intention. ¡°This is a pleasurable surprise, Vifet. Do you and Angor know each other?¡±

    Vifet smiled without speaking so that he could make sure Beals did not guess anything.

    However, to his surprise and great annoyance, Madelyne spoke for him and ruined his n.

    ¡°Mister Vifet would like to know what¡¯s going on at the Evernight Kingdom. Though Angor refused to answer.¡±

    <i>So Vifet doesn¡¯t know the rtion between Angor and Cassini?</i> thought Beals. He immediately fabricated his next phrase while pretending that he felt equally disappointed.

    ¡°That¡¯s too bad. I was nning to buy the same information from Angor. But since Angor said so, I¡¯m afraid I have nothing else to do here.¡±

    ¡°Um, sir, was Mister Rossum referring to <i>this</i> when he said he wanted to trade something with me?¡± asked Angor.

    Beals nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m truly sorry, sir.¡± Angor also put up his show. ¡°You have to go to my professor for this. He <i>demanded</i> that I never reveal relevant secrets to anyone. At my level, most stuff I saw in Sleepless City might not be real, as he said.¡±

    ¡°I totally understood!¡±

    Learning about the ¡°dark domes¡± was indeed one of Beal¡¯s jobs, but it was not the most important one. Bying here, he was going to ask Angor where ¡°Cassini¡± appeared. But he obviously wouldn¡¯t do it when Vifet was around.

    Vifet gave Beals a doubtful nce. ¡°That¡¯s not <i>all</i> you have to do today, eh?¡±

    Beals knew Vifet was suspecting whether Angor was the alchemist who received ¡°Cassini¡¯s blessing¡±. As a neutral trader, Beals wouldn¡¯t get too concerned about what Vifet would do to Angor. But for now, he¡¯d save Angor the trouble since he was still trying to earn Angor¡¯s trust. Even without considering the blessing of Cassini, Angor¡¯s alchemy skills would benefit the Ashen Traders greatly.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, I did have another matter to inform Angor.¡± Beals shrugged. ¡°But that¡¯s no longer necessary since you¡¯re here, Vifet.¡±

    Vifet beamed in delight. <i>Is he admitting it? Angor saw Cassini after all?</i>

    Beals continued, ¡°I didn¡¯t know you and Vifet are acquainted, Angor, which means the other clue I brought is pointless.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t get it, sir.¡±

    ¡°You haven¡¯t known?¡± Beals widened his eyes in ¡°surprise¡±. ¡°The seller who has a luck scroll is Vifet.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Vifet was the one who was truly surprised now.

    Angor looked at him. ¡°Sir, Mister Beals told me that he found a seller. I never thought it was you though.¡±

    ¡°Yup!¡± Beals followed up. ¡°This old guy asked for a fragment of eternity, so I¡¯m not sure you¡¯ll reach an agreement.¡±

    ¡°A fragment of eternity, for a luck-enhancing scroll?¡± Madelyne spat. ¡°That¡¯s not an honest price, I must say.¡±

    Vifetughed his embarrassment off. <i>Wait what?? So Beals isn¡¯t talking about Cassini?</i>

    He tried asking in another way, ¡°Angor, my boy. Do you perhaps know how to craft alchemy tools that prevent prophecy?¡±

    ¡°As I said, sir, I do not have time to do alchemy in the near future.¡±

    ¡°So you do know the techniques?¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure where Vifet was getting at, though he thought proper to muddle through it because such items were supposed to be quite precious in the wizarding world.

    ¡°I¡¯ve read about anti-prophecy enchantment before. But I have yet to get to actual practice. Maybe I can seed with enough time? I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Vifet shook his head. ¡°If you do seed, make sure to talk to me. I can trade the scroll for such a useful item as well.¡±

    ¡°You do know that a tool that counters prophecy is several times more costly than your pitiful scroll, right?¡± Madelyne embarrassed Vifet yet again.

    ¡°Heh. The scroll I kept is no longer producible in this world. The effect is brief, yes. But in the right situation, it will help you turn the table. You do not determine its ¡®cost¡¯ so mindlessly. Angor, my offer stands until I somehow lose the scroll. I¡¯ll be waiting.¡±

    Vifet chose to step away since both Angor and Madelyne were clearly wary of him right now. They would spend some more time when traveling to the Abyss ne. There were many more chances to talk to Angor.

    As for Cassini...

    Vifet decided to contact Gausster and ask Gauss to do prophecy specifically against Angor. They would know the answer if the spell failed again.

    Angor suddenly heard someone¡¯s voice talking directly in his mind. It was Beals, who was using an original spell to send an encrypted message.

    It seemed Beals invented it by improving Voice Transmission, and he could determine which customer could hear him by using the ¡°invitation cards¡±. This was one of the reasons why the Ashen Traders were trusted by their customers.

    Angor ced his card against his ears to read Beals¡¯ message.

    ¡°This is not the right ce to talk. Follow me.¡±

    Beals was confident that not many people in this world could eavesdrop on them. But he still would like to stay away from several powerful wizards who were showing their mighty auras, especially the one who was staying in a room at the top of the vehicle.

    Angor looked at Madelyne. ¡°I need some time with Chief Beals, ma¡¯am. Will be back soon.¡±

    Madelyne looked at the guards in the distance, who were still repairing something.

    ¡°You go ahead.¡±

    Vifet saw Beals and Angor flying away from Frozen Wing and decided to stay put for now.

    <i>I¡¯ll just talk to Gauss in a moment...</i>

    ...

    After Angor left, Madelyne immediately sensed something different around her.

    She and Angor were mostly neglected by the other wizards since they came to Frozen Wing. But Vifet and Beals easily brought them lots of attention.

    Also, everyone heard their conversation because they weren¡¯t using anything to cover their voices.

    ¡°Greetings, Miss Madelyne!¡± A wizard approached her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear what happened to the Sillian Family. So you joined Brute Cavern? By the way, was that apprentice ¡®Thorn Lion¡¯ Angor?¡±

    Madelyne did not need to dismiss the uninvited wizard because more people were alreadying.

    ¡°Oh, my dear Madelyne! I can¡¯t believe I get to meet you here!¡± a man spoke in an exaggerated tone. ¡°Mister Rein sent Angor to the Abyss? Dear gods. He should have joined us instead, the Great Beacon Performing Academy!¡±

    Madelyne rolled her eyes. <i>What for? So that Angor would be an actor or something?</i>

 Chapter 956 - Cassini

    <h4>Chapter 956: Cassini</h4>

    The sun had sunken beneath the horizon, allowing lovely stars to take ce.

    Well away from Frozen Wing, Beals found somewhere among the clouds and told Angor to stop.

    ¡°Alright, this should be far enough. Everything I heard about the Abyss suggested shady conspiracy, Angor. If you¡¯re going, do not get too deep.¡±

    Angor nodded. He appreciated it that Beals would not get judgmental about his business.

    ¡°Two things. Apart from looking for clues about the Evernight Kingdom, I want to talk about that particr name you told Rossum.¡± Beals looked rather serious.

    ¡°Is it Cassini?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°Who is it, sir?¡± Angor did not ask this one back at Frozen Wing because he knew Beals was trying to hide it from Vifet.

    ¡°Can I ask a question first?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    ¡°Where did you find this name?¡±

    Since Beals was asking so, Angor was almost sure that ¡°Cassini¡± was someone who existed in the wizarding world, but not an illusion fabricated by the omen challenge. And if someone could barge into an alchemy omen freely... They must be someone with amazing powers.

    He heard about certain demons who could bestow their power upon alchemy items, such as the Crown Clown. Could Cassini be another individual who collected the power of ¡°belief¡± from people?

    A Grand Demon could easily bath the entire southern wizarding world under blood and make people suffer for a thousand years. If Cassini was such a demon... What could he do?

    ¡°You can¡¯t say it?¡± Beals saw Angor¡¯s unnatural silence.

    ¡°I heard this name from someone.¡±

    By ¡°someone¡±, Angor was talking about none other than Cassini himself. And it wasn¡¯t a lie.

    Beals gave Angor a thoughtful look. As an experienced trader and negotiator, he was aware of what Angor was pulling off. But there was no need to point it out right now.

    Angor basically admitted that he obtained Cassini¡¯s ¡°blessing¡±. Knowing this, Beals suddenly grew excited, for he was more or less talking to a future truth-finder right at this moment.

    At the same time, he felt jealous.

    At this rate, Angor was almost sure to be a truth-finder as long as nothing unexpected imed his life. And if Cassini was a little more generous about his blessing, Angor might even achieve the level of legend.

    The ¡°effectiveness¡± of Cassini¡¯s blessing was already proved by Monkey, who imed that he once met with Cassini. Today, Monkey was undeniably the strongest wizard in the southern region.

    Beals had maximized his potential and resources, yet he still had zero clues for finding the path of truth. Naturally, he was jealous when he saw such a young apprentice gaining the decisive destiny for free.

    But unlikemon wizards who would easily go insane out of enviousness, Beals only grew ever more determined to secure Angor¡¯s cooperation at all costs.

    ¡°Ahem. It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Beals looked away. ¡°But remember, do not tell this name to anyone else. Cassini... This very name means a definite and auspicious future AND a troubled fate. He is the Time Thief.¡±

    ...

    Beals summoned a flying whale as his mount and disappeared into the darkness, leaving Angor to think about the story of the Time Thief alone.

    Angor once heard about ¡°Time Thief¡± from Greya when leaving Phantom Ind to return home. But Greya didn¡¯t finish her exnation for some reason.

    Beals was a little surprised to see that Angor didn¡¯t know who Time Thief was, so he offered to introduce this particr figure in great detail.

    While listening to Beals, Angor was certain that the strange shadow that talked to him in the omen challenge of Crimson Aegis, was exactly Time Thief. Back then, he had no idea what Time Thief meant by ¡°taking his unwanted choice away¡±. Now he understood what was going on.

    He made a choice during the omen challenge and earned a favor from Time Thief, who then added an unexpected trait onto Crimson Aegis as a reward.

    ¡°I can be a truth-finder since I saw him? Is Time Thief a truth-finder? But why would he steal people¡¯s choices then?¡±

    ording to Beals, Time Thief was probably several levels higher than legendary wizards, which meant it was impossible for someone like Angor to infer his intentions.

    Still, Angor learned something useful today, that he carried yet another dangerous secret that could either benefit him greatly in the future or send him to someone¡¯sb cage if it was discovered too soon.

    ¡°Damn it. Another burden to take care of...¡± Angor rubbed his temples and headed back to Frozen Wing.

    While exining Time Thief, Beals also mentioned several wizards who encountered Time Thief before, such as Monkey from Moonfrost Union and many famous figures, most of whom Angor had heard about.

    Also, Sunders was one of them.

    Beals was only certain of a dozen people who received Time Thief¡¯s blessing, while there might be many more. Though one thing was for sure, that Angor was the weakest and the most vulnerable ¡°lucky guy¡± among all.

    ¡°I should¡¯ve talked to my professor before talking to Beals...¡±

    Thankfully, Beals appeared to be peaceful for the moment. What worried Angor was another matter Beals told him, that Vifet and Gauss might have caught wind of the secret.

    ¡°Vifet shares friendly rtionships with lots of wizards out there, but we never know one¡¯s true nature until they reveal it to us,¡± warned Beals. ¡°As for Gauss, you should be safe from him when you have an anti-prophecy gadget.¡±

    ...

    Angor returned to Frozen Wing only to see many people gazing at him.

    Madelyne had been surrounded by several passionate wizards as well, despite the unsociable temperament she always carried on her.

    While a bit confused, Angor carefully joined Madelyne and instantly became the new target of Madelyne¡¯s new friends.

    ¡°You must be Angor!¡±

    ¡°Mister Phantom truly found a brilliant student.¡±

    ¡°Gods bless us. The Great Beacon Performing Academy will always keep its door open...¡±

    What was going on was in to see¡ªhis fame had attracted all these people. Without the protection of Brute Cavern, he would be expecting more aggressive trouble from now on.

 Chapter 957 - Alchemy Workshop

    <h4>Chapter 957: Alchemy Workshop</h4>

    Fame could be good or bad, depending on the situation. In Angor¡¯s case, getting recognized by these wizards was definitely bad. After rejecting several alchemy requests, he could clearly feel more people throwing him unpleasant nces.

    Besides, he was far from talking to every wizard who wasing his way.

    Thankfully, he was notpletely helpless. When Madelyne saw him troubled by too many people, she built a temporary magic hut and invited Angor inside.

    ¡°Don¡¯t rx yet,¡± Madelyne saw Angor¡¯s relieved look and spoke, ¡°they won¡¯t exploit you openly because we¡¯re still traveling under the protection of Moonfrost, and most of the wizards tend to keep up their clean images in front of others. But you¡¯ll always have to act on your ownter. That¡¯s when you have to be really careful.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think any of them will use violence against you and anger Brute Cavern. But they have other means to force you to make stuff for them. Keep a watchful eye.¡±

    Angor nodded. He just ran into someone like that the other day, which was Nelson. At first, it was Nelson who forced him into a ¡°friendly alchemy discussion¡±. Though heter found it worthwhile to spend all that time because he did learn something from Nelson as well.

    These wizards around him, though, might not be so peaceful. If they came to ask for alchemy items, they would only want the results.

    ¡°Sigh... Should I really continue like this? Being left alone is so much better.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll do better when you reach the level of a wizard, by which time most people would not be able to bend your will as they liked. I mean, even truth-finders will have trouble catching you if you use your sequence of gravity to run away. Getting targeted by the top guys might still be a problem. But if that happens, I¡¯d say you just listen to them and help however you can. They won¡¯t be stingy when paying you back.¡±

    ¡°I know, ma¡¯am. I really should have stayed more modest at my current state.¡±

    ¡°This is a problem because you¡¯re too squishy to bear with the great skills you possess.¡± Madelyne sighed as she spoke, ¡°An apprentice who can create tools that help truth-finders. This is unheard of. Of course people will get attracted to you.¡±

    ...

    Madelyne¡¯s hut wasn¡¯tpletely free from asional visitors who kepting inside to talk to Angor.

    There was an odd wizard from the Great Beacon Performing Academy who insisted on using his strange shows and poetry to persuade Angor into joining him, and he wouldn¡¯t leave when both Angor and Madelyne had clearly lost their patience.

    This was until another wizard in a white uniform robe came inside. His robe had the mark of a crescent moon covered in ice, which meant he was a member of the Moonfrost Union.

    ¡°Maher, guard captain. A moment of your time, please.¡± The wizard briefly introduced himself before fixing his sight on Angor. ¡°I was informed that the ¡®music box alchemist¡¯ is with us. Can I ask a favor?¡±

    ¡°How may I be of help, sir?¡±

    Captain Maher was probably the second mostmanding wizard on Frozen Wing, next to Sennefer. Naturally, Angor didn¡¯t wish to offend this man.

    ¡°The starboard wing beam of the vehicle has snapped. Currently, an alchemist of Moonfrost is repairing it pronto, but he alone won¡¯t finish it fast enough. Can I ask you to assist him so that we don¡¯t fall behind schedule?¡±

    Angor frowned. ¡°I major in Enchantment, sir. I don¡¯t see any runes used on the vehicle, which means I can¡¯t do much to help.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a problem. Frozen Wing is sustained using a special bio-alchemy technique, and it has little to do with either Enchantment or Synthesis. We only need you to melt down several basicponents and bend them into shape.¡±

    ¡°Bio-alchemy¡± usually referred to performing alchemy based on live specimens and was mastered by the Karabits such as ¡°Basket Witch¡± from Summerdew Ridge.

    Angor nced at Madelyne, who shrugged at him and told him to make his own decision.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Angor nodded. ¡°Please take me there.¡±

    For one, Angor hoped to use this chance to learn about this brand new subject he never looked into. Besides, this was a perfect excuse for leaving that bothersome ¡°actor¡± as well as those wizards still waiting outside the hut.

    ...

    Maher led Angor downstairs until they arrived at an independent chamber at the bottom level, inside which several piles of materials and alchemy tools were scattered about.

    As soon as they came, Maher left before Angor could ask anything.

    The room was divided into two parts. To the left, Angor saw some discarded parts that seemed to be taken off different beasts, along with an operating table. And the right side of the room had some alchemy utilities that he was familiar with.

    Angor wasn¡¯t sure what he was supposed to do here, so he simply began to walk around the room randomly to check out the objects. Apart from several alchemy puppets that were the typical products of bio-alchemy, he also found some really strange sights, such as a single, giant eyeball with tentacles, a pair of human hands dancing inside a ss container, a lizard-like creature with crystals growing on its back, and a woman with a serpent¡¯s tail recing her legs, who hissed at him when he went close.

    There were also many more creatures or parts of creatures he couldn¡¯t recognize at all. Though, the one thing they had inmon was that everything looked hostile. If their restraints or prisons were to be removed, Angor was sure that these things would lunge at him in the next second.

    This wasn¡¯t a problem right now, however, since the creatures only had really weak energy signatures.

    He made a full tour around the room without finding anyone, so he headed back to the door to see whether anyone wasing from outside.

    He suddenly heard someone coughing inside the room and looked back.

    A door materialized out of thin air and revealed a fat man crawling out of the door while trying not to breathe in the ck smokeing from behind him. His size made the job rather difficult. With some effort, he managed to squeeze through the door with a ¡°plop¡±.

    Using the brief chance, Angor peeked into the door and saw an alchemyboratory beyond it. However, he didn¡¯t get to look closely before the fat man mmed it shut with an angry kick, after which the door vanished on itself.

    ¡°It failed again! And I have to start over. Oh, please don¡¯t make me do this... Hey wait, I smell someone.¡±

    He bounced up from the floor and saw Angor across the smokescreen.

    ¡°Are you the ¡®assistant¡¯ Maher brought me?¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°You can put it that way, sir. The captain asked me to help with shaping materials.¡±

    ¡°Nice. A genuine alchemist, atst! So I don¡¯t have to exhaust myself to death! I mean, the beam has a big crack in the middle, and the entire right wing is fractured. Miss Sennefer wants me to finish up everything by tomorrow morning. How is that even possible? Right? Right??¡±

    Angor remained quiet. He couldn¡¯t possibly disagree with Sennefer as a guest on the vehicle.

    ¡°Sorry, sir, I don¡¯t know much about bio-alchemy. So what do I need to do?¡±

    ¡°Just a sec, let me grab the blueprints... Follow them, pick what you need, and make some models. It¡¯s simple. Do you know how to cast Disintegrate and Solidify?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Brilliant. The only problem is time, and we need a lot of it.¡±

    The fat man summoned another door, which looked different from the previous one, then walked inside.

    Angor took another peek and noticed that it was anotherb room.

    Soon, the fat alchemist returned with a box of materials and several sheets. ¡°These will keep you upied until morning. Get to it.¡±

    He saw Angor still looking through the floating door and raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°What, curious about that alchemy workshop?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a workshop?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. This is for Tooling, while the previous one is for bio-alchemy. Both are my personal workshops, by the way,¡± the man answered proudly.

    ¡°Alchemy Workshop¡± was in fact a level-1 spell that created a piece of portable, personal space simr to a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden. The space created this way was better than a dimensional storage because it could remain stable in case of idents such as alchemy explosions. Angor never used his bracelet storage to do alchemy because he could damage it if something went wrong.

    One needed a ton of materials to determine such a ¡°workshop¡± when casting the spell for the first time, so not many people could afford it. The fat alchemist had enough reasons to be proud because he owned two workshops already.

    ¡°You look pretty young to be an apprentice alchemist. Give it a few years, and you¡¯ll afford your own workshop!¡± The fat man put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder and returned to his workspace. ¡°Get to work now. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll get paid.¡±

 Chapter 958 - Joint Effort

    <h4>Chapter 958: Joint Effort</h4>

    The fat alchemist closed his door too fast, so Angor did not have the chance to ask who he was.

    ¡°Guess he won¡¯t tell me anything about bio-alchemy now.¡± Angor shrugged. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. At least no one¡¯s bothering me here.¡±

    He picked up the blueprints and took a seat nearby. The instructions were easy enough, so he could start melting right away.

    ...

    The fat alchemist stepped into his workshop and suddenly remembered that he forgot to remind Angor of details such as step orders and how to determine the correct volumes of materials, so he quickly came back out.

    The first thing he saw was a bright firelight that illuminated the dark chamber.

    ¡°He¡¯s onto it already? Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s just messing everything up!¡±

    What they needed were basicponents, but using wed ones would still threaten the integrity of the vehicle, so he would like to correct Angor¡¯s moves when he had the chance.

    But after watching Angor¡¯s work for several seconds, he noticed that everything was actually performed correctly, and faster than he expected.

    ¡°Huh... Maher found a pretty dependable guy,¡± he muttered as he walked back into his workshop. ¡°No amateurs can figure out what¡¯s not written on the blueprint so soon. I gotta ask Maher who this guy really ister. Maybe he can help me with theing project...¡±

    What he didn¡¯t know was, Angor was not working at his top speed at the beginning. After getting ahold of the basic ideas, Angor began streamlining the rest of theponents at an amazing rate.

    ...

    Angor finished up everything ten hours earlier than what the fat man estimated.

    When it was still not past midnight yet, the union alchemist heard Angor¡¯s call. He thought Angor needed help and quickly dropped his half-done work.

    Thus, he was very confused to see Angor giving him a confident smile.

    ¡°It¡¯s done.¡± Angor pointed to what he prepared. ¡°Is there anything else I need to do?¡±

    ¡°Wait, what, how?!¡± The fat man gazed at the finely-shaped parts arranged on a table nearby. Theponents still exuded some heat, which meant they were just finished.

    <i>But that was just three hours!</i> He nced at a clock nearby. <i>Well, I can probably do the same if I concentrate really hard. How did he¡ªor is he tricking me by using some defective cheap sh*t?</i>

    He quickly cast Narda¡¯s Vision to inspect theponents. No matter how he looked, everything was qualified. As a matter of fact, they were perfectly done.

    He then looked at Angor again but failed to recognize anything other than Angor¡¯s good look.

    <i>Darn it. Are apprentice alchemists so good these days?</i>

    ¡°Alright. You¡¯re from Floating Mech City, right?¡±

    ¡°Eh? No, sir.¡±

    ¡°Then you must be studying from a master alchemist from the Floating City?¡±

    ¡°Nope.¡±

    ¡°Then who the heck are you?¡±

    Maher suddenly came in and interrupted their conversation, ¡°Is something the matter, Mister Brofen? Are you and Mister Padt... quarreling?¡±

    While Angor was d that he finally learned the name of the alchemist he was talking to, Brofen grew confused again when he heard the guard captain refer to the young apprentice as a ¡°mister¡±.

    And he just couldn¡¯t understand how this was happening.

    <i>The guard captain of Frozen Wing honors an apprentice? Speaking of apprentices, we just picked up some people and resources from Brute Cavern. Don¡¯t tell me¡ª</i>

    Brofen suddenly gave Angor a passionate look.

    ¡°You¡¯re ¡®Baron Milk¡¯?¡±

    Angor couldn¡¯t help but yell desperately in his mind, <i>How could people outside Brute Cavern know that moniker when those inside the organization won¡¯t use it these days?!</i>

    There weren¡¯t many people who knew he was ¡°Baron Milk¡±. Apart from Sunders, who was unlikely to mention the embarrassing title to others, there were also Baroque and Mntha who were aware of this matter.

    Last time he heard, Baroque never left Brute Cavern, so that man couldn¡¯t have announced his title around the wizarding world, which left Mntha as the most probable ¡°culprit¡±.

    ¡°Mister Brofen, isn¡¯t Mister Padt usually called the ¡®music box alchemist¡¯?¡± Maher suddenly spoke.

    <i>Well, that¡¯s not a pretty name either!</i> Angor frowned.

    Brofen smiled big once he made sure who he was dealing with. ¡°I like Baron Milk better. It goes well with mine, the ¡®Servant of Sugar¡¯! Come on, milk and sugar are like best buddies!¡±

    Angor decided to stop the nonsense. ¡°Please, neither is my true title. I never announced a title anyway.¡±

    ¡°Ahem, you two can discuss itter.¡± Maher looked in a hurry for something. ¡°Brofen, Miss Sennefer just sent a message, that the energy supporting the ne tunnel will receive an unfavorable change a dayter. We must get Frozen Wing moving under four hours so that we don¡¯t risk traveling through the tunnel at the wrong time point.¡±

    ¡°Four hours? That¡¯s bullshit!¡± Brofen yelled in protest. ¡°It¡¯s already difficult enough to make it happen by sunrise!¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t be helped. Using the tunnel at the wrong time will only further damage the vehicle. We must get there on time.¡±

    ¡°But I can¡¯t¡ªwait.¡± Brofen looked at Angor. ¡°I... I mean <i>we</i> might get it done in time, if Baron Milk can support me fully.¡±

    ¡°Mister Brofen, can you please use my name?¡± Angor deadpanned.

    ¡°Okay, okay, Mister Padt. What do you say?¡±

    Angor had no idea what was going on with the ne tunnel, but it did sound like something that concerned his safety, so he decided toply.

    Brofen sighed in great relief and went to activate an alchemy puppet at the corner of the room.

    When the puppet received Brofen¡¯s power, its t face suddenly changed and resembled Brofen.

    ¡°This guy will arrange your tasks. Four hours... We can¡¯t lose any second now.¡±

    Brofen quickly returned to his workshop, while the ¡°puppet Brofen¡± began showing Angor more alchemy ns.

    Maher saw Angor processing the materials with proficiency and left the room with a smile of satisfaction.

    Brofen had given all Tooling work to Angor, while he handled everything rted to bio-alchemy. Their perfect teamwork did more than double their efficiency.

    Another hourter, when it was about 1 in the morning, they had gotten all things necessary up and ready.

    Next, it was up to Brofen to apply everything onto the vehicle.

 Chapter 959 - Bio-Alchemy

    <h4>Chapter 959: Bio-Alchemy</h4>

    There was nothing Angor could do from this point since all the remaining work relied upon Brofen¡¯s bio-alchemy skills. However, when he wanted to excuse himself, Brofen stopped him.

    ¡°The repair should be easy. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to make anything new. You can stay and watch if you like.¡±

    Delighted, Angor agreed without a second thought.

    Brofen summoned his first b door¡±, which was his bio-alchemy workshop, and invited Angor inside.

    Angor was immediately attracted by all the strange lifeforms in theb. Compared to those ¡°failures¡± outside, the products inside Brofen¡¯s workshop were clearly cultivated and moreplete.

    For example, he saw another ¡°eyeball with tentacles¡± here. But this one was at least two meters wider than the one outside. When he moved closer, he noticed clusters of smaller eyeballs growing on the tentacles all looking at him.

    The goosebumps.

    ¡°This is a Vile Demon I created, called Neyavolde,¡± Brofen exined with a proud smile. ¡°Vile Demons are native in the Loft ne. They¡¯re long extinct though. I made this clone based on another monster.¡±

    He pointed to the other disys as he spoke, ¡°If you see anything that interests you, you can ask meter, and I¡¯ll tell you how I enriched my collection.¡±

    ¡°Thank you kindly, sir.¡±

    Brofen usually did not wee outsiders into his personal space. However, Angor was a different case¡ªBrofen felt extremely good when showing off his creations to such a famous alchemist.

    ¡°I need to make some organic antennae for the vehicle.¡± Brofen went to an operating table. ¡°It¡¯s one of the basic bio-alchemy creations. You can take a look.¡±

    He carried everything they prepared and began mixing them up with several unrecognizable live organs.

    As he said, the repair work was a lot simplerpared to making something new, so he wouldn¡¯t mind allowing Angor to observe. Besides, he didn¡¯t believe Angor would actually gain anything by watching.

    In order not to disrupt Brofen¡¯s work, Angor could only use his eyes to look. At the same time, he slowly went over what he had read about bio-alchemy before.

    Like apothecary, bio-alchemy also came in different schools, such as the Sentos School mastered by the Karabits, who used something called ¡°prime cells¡± to alter lifeforms as was or transnt something onto them.

    Brofen probably studied the Aurogue School for he just mentioned ¡°organic antenna¡±. Alchemists from this school were usually better atpound and material modification.

    After adding many items Angor couldn¡¯t recognize into the ¡°organic antenna¡±, Brofen sessfully caused it to growrger and gain new ¡°branches¡± like a thriving tree.

    When the ¡°antenna¡± was big enough, Brofen tossed it onto the floor, much to Angor¡¯s surprise.

    It then sank into the floor beneath and went to join the damaged wing of the vehicle automatically as if it had intelligence.

    There was something else that troubled Angor, which was Brofen himself. As Brofen fully focused on his crafting, his energy signatures declined rapidly, along with his size. As Angor watched in shock, the once fat alchemist gradually ¡°shrank¡± into the shape of a moderate-sized young man with a decent look.

    It seemed Brofen didn¡¯t mind what happened to his body¡ªhe simply continued his job without looking up.

    His new look might easily tickle the hearts of young maidens seeking a lover... as long as they didn¡¯t get scared away by the wriggling, bloody leftovers Brofen was dissecting.

    It took Brofen about half an hour to finish thest ¡°antenna¡±, which also joined the vehicle on its own.

    ¡°Nice. We made it.¡± Brofen nced at an hourss and shook some sweat off his head. He then quickly sent a private message to Maher, who had been waiting outside.

    ¡°The repair is done. Restarting the vehicle!¡± Maher announced to everyone.

    Brofen felt the Frozen Wing gaining speed and smiled at Angor. ¡°I must say we seeded all thanks to you.¡±

    He did not ask what Angor learned from his work. As he believed, it was pretty much impossible for Angor to understand a thing.

    ¡°As a passenger, I do hope we can continue as soon as we can,¡± said Angor.

    ¡°Welp, that leaves me nothing else to do for a while. Shall I show you more of my masterpieces?¡±

    Angor nodded. It was better if he stayed with Brofen rather than going back and getting annoyed by the other wizards.

    Brofen was quite excited when introducing all the different ¡°creatures¡± he made before, and even more so, when he received several goodments from Angor. In return, he asionally offered to exin some small tricks he learned during his career, much to Angor¡¯s delight.

    Knowing what was going on, Angor began ttering Brofen whenever he could to gain more knowledge.

    This was until they came in front of a separate room in Brofen¡¯s workshop.

    ¡°Oh, oops, let¡¯s not go that way. I keep my unfinished stuff inside.¡±

    Angor peeked through the gap of the door and saw several really thick tentacles attached to a huge body. And whatever was in there, was alive.

    ¡°Getting a bit peckish here... Let¡¯s hit the pub.¡± Brofen turned around and took Angor outside.

    Angor did feel a bit unsatisfied with his tour, though he was in no ce to go against Brofen¡¯s decision, so he obediently followed.

    Brofen took Angor through several narrow paths across the Frozen Wing, during which they ran into several guards from Moonfrost Union, who all showed their regards to Brofen.

    In the end, they came to a colorful door which had ¡°Moonfrost Pub (outlet 007)¡± written on it.

    ¡°Every Frozen Wing has such a pub,¡± Brofen whispered to Angor, ¡°because Miss Sennefer loves alcohol. Not any alcohol, mind you. She only prefers the ¡®Bentley Firzen¡¯ served in these pubs.

    ¡°Me, though... If you were to ask me, I¡¯d pick the ordinary ck rum. That Firzen stuff is way too strong.¡±

    Brofen went ahead and entered through the door.

    ...

    A momentter, Angor pinched his nose bridge as he watched Brofen endlessly eliminating sses of rum and tes of roasted monster meat as if this man¡¯s stomach belonged to another dimension.

    Angor thought Brofen was using food as an excuse so that they could chat somewhere else. Wizards had many ways to keep their bodies ¡°fed¡±, and consuming food was one of the most inefficient ways. Well, except for food cooked by Gourmets.

    But Brofen¡¯s hungry look didn¡¯t appear to be pretended. Or, this man wasn¡¯t hungry. He just enjoyed eating.

    As Brofen chewed and swallowed quicker than the most ferocious beast in the world, his ¡°better look¡± slowly returned to his original, fat image.

    By the time he looked exactly like his previous self, he imed that he was only half done. Meanwhile, Angor had hardly finished a single serving of meat yet.

    Angor put his fork down¡ªwatching Brofen had somewhat ruined his appetite.

    A woman¡¯s voice was suddenly heard nearby.

    ¡°There he goes again. He¡¯s a nice gentleman when he¡¯s working. But once he¡¯s done... You just saw what happened. There used to be witches in the union who tried going after this guy. Guess what became of them?¡±

    Angor was slightly startled by the voice. As he remembered, there was only a mortal chef and several puppet waiters inside the pub.

    He looked at the source of the voice and saw a white-haired, orange-eyed woman gracefully sipping a ss of wine. That was ¡°Witch of Wastnd¡± Sennefer. Angor saw her yesterday.

    He just learned from Brofen that Sennefer loveding to the pub, but he wasn¡¯t expecting to bump into her for real.

    As he struggled toe up with something to answer the great witch, Brofen spoke to Sennefer first with an annoyed look, ¡°You¡¯re one to talk! Just look in front of you!¡±

    Angor looked toward Sennefer¡¯s table and saw arge pile of more than thirty emptied wine bottles. The signature of space-expansion runes suggested these bottles could hold more liquid than they looked.

    <i>Guess these two aren¡¯t much different when ites to food and drink?</i> Angor thought.

 Chapter 960 - Star Reading

    <h4>Chapter 960: Star Reading</h4>

    ¡°At least I keep my good looks when I drink,¡± said Sennefer.

    ¡°So what? Our bodies are only containers anyway. I can get a new one any time!¡± Brofen retorted.

    Angor silently watched these two people arguing. By the time they finished, they more or less satisfied their stomachs.

    ¡°Alright. Angor, let¡¯s head back to myb.¡± Brofen stood up. ¡°I¡¯ll keep showing you around.¡±

    Sennefer stopped them. ¡°Are you still onto that project of yours?¡±

    Brofen looked embarrassed for some reason. ¡°Y-yes.¡±

    ¡°Heh. Careful then. Those lunatics are always watching over the Baikal River. If they find out what you are doing...¡±

    Sennefer also headed to the door. She briefly stopped when walking past Angor.

    ¡°I heard. You¡¯re the reason why Brofen finished the maintenance so soon.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a mutual benefit, Miss Sennefer.¡± Angor lowered his head.

    ¡°Ha. Flora used to tell me how modest you are. Way too modest.¡± Sennefer smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll remember this. Should you need something from me,e and find me at the top of the vehicle.¡±

    Brofen watched her leaving and rubbed his forehead.

    ¡°What a bummer, running into her at such an hour. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    ...

    A dazzling temple silently floated among stars, with its evesting brilliance constantly surpassing all light around it.

    This was the Starliege Temple, the holy ground for all ambitious Prophets around the wizarding world, as well as one of the best ces to exchange and announce information.

    The temple came with more than thirty secondary chambers connected to each other, eighteen of which were guarded by their owners¡ªthe ¡°Eighteen Overseers¡±. While the chamber on the topmost floor, a ce bathed in unending starlight, was the personal observatory of ¡°Unfading Globe¡± Lupanya.

    Right at this moment, a hunched old woman was slowly walking to the observatory with another young man in tow.

    ¡°Like always, use your eyes more than your words. How much you canprehend is all up to you,¡± the woman said to herpanion in a weak voice.

    The young man nodded with determination, but then looked in another direction with a frown, as if there was something he was concerned about.

    The old woman saw it and silently prepared a spell in her mindspace to look into the Stream of Fate.

    Strangely, she found nothing. The spell only returned with blurry screens that made no sense to her.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± She decided to ask.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re greatly favored by fate, which allows you to see what normal Prophets can¡¯t see. However, it might not always be useful. Do not burden yourself with everything you found. Sometimes, it¡¯s better to forget it. Besides, if you keep abusing the favor of fate, it will harm you someday.¡±

    The young man thought about the strange visions that haunted his view¡ªdarkness, fire, blood, a chained demon, and a mad,ughing man.

    ¡°... I understand, ma¡¯am.¡±

    They had arrived at the entrance of the observatory.

    ¡°Go. The stars have aligned. Today, they will reveal more than what you expect from them.¡±

    The other side of the door was not a room, but a dark ce full of blinking stars that came and vanished asionally.

    After walking across what seemed to be a small piece of the universe, they came to the main hall of the observatory.

    Around a spiral gxy, six Overseers waited with their eyes closed. Behind them, several dozen more people were also silently meditating.

    The old woman and the young man picked a vacant spot and sat down.

    Such an asion when the stars perfectly aligned only happened once in half a year. On this day, all Overseers and Prophets studying at Starliege Temple would gather and watch the stars together.

    Not everyone here knew how to read the stars. However, they wouldn¡¯t mind joining everyone because they would always learn some very important clues in this way.

    When the ¡°gxy¡± in the center began to glow brighter, one of the Overseers opened his eyes. ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡±

    ¡°Only six of them came?¡± one of the wizards farther away whispered to his partner.

    Asmonly known, the ¡°Eighteen Overseers¡± of Starliege Temple did not necessarily stay here at all times. Nobody remembered when all of them came to read the stars togetherst time.

    The entire hall went brighter and brighter as more zing stars popped into existence and resonated with one another. Those who didn¡¯t know what was going on would only find the sight to be beautiful. Prophets, however, were able to recognize the ¡°star map¡± around them, which was made possible by a Mystery Item called the Oracle¡¯s Star.

    All Prophets in training, including wizards and lucky apprentices, werepletely focused as they tried to tell what the star map was signifying. However, most of them were bound to return empty-handed because they did not have enough strength to understand anything at all.

    The Oracle¡¯s Star was a tactical Mystery Item treasured by the Starliege Temple. However, it was usually safe from coveting hands because not many people in this world could use it. Apart from the Overseers and a few Prophets who majored in star reading, the rest of the people would only find this item to be quite pointless.

    The young man saw pictures, obscured by heavy mist screens.

    He felt as if the stars could help him remove the mist and look at what was behind. But due to his ipetent level, he only had one chance at it.

    The star map suddenly started to flicker, forcing most of the observing people to quit.

    When there were only the six Overseers at the center of the hall who were still ¡°reading¡±, the young man opened his eyes as wide as he could and gazed at the star map without blinking.

    Bit by bit, the power of the stars removed the obstacle from his vision and allowed him to catch a brief glimpse of an image...

    In the next second, he felt both his eyes and his chest burning in pain. After coughing up some blood, he copsed, energy exhausted.

    One by one, the Overseers ¡°woke up¡±, by which time the star map also slowly vanished.

    Thest individual who opened his eyes was Lupanya, the supreme leader of Starliege Temple. He was immediately rmed by the smell of blood in the hall.

    He turned back and saw an old woman applying healing spells at a young apprentice beside her.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Maya?¡± an Overseer next to Lupanya¡ªa middle-aged schr with a serious look, ¡°Innocence¡± Seurat¡ªspoke.

    Maya answered carefully, ¡°I apologize, Mister Seurat. It seems my student went too far and suffered backfire.¡±

    Seurat was going to scold Mara for tainting the room, but he changed his mind when he remembered who Mara truly was.

    ¡°... Keep him out next time, if he doesn¡¯t learn how to obey the rules.¡±

    Maya didn¡¯t protest¡ªthe incident was indeed partially her fault.

    ¡°Backfire?¡± Lupanya suddenly spoke and surprised both of them. ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±

 Chapter 961 - Visions

    <h4>Chapter 961: Visions</h4>

    ¡°What do you mean, Lupanya?¡± asked Seurat.

    ¡°What Mister Lupanya is saying is that, the apprentice did see a vision, but he¡¯s too weak to sustain the ¡®connection¡¯.¡± The speaker was a cocky-looking young man not far from them.

    ¡°But that¡¯s impossible!¡±

    ¡°Nothing is impossible. The mysteries of stars call for fortuitous incentives. Perhaps that young apprentice happened to grasp a tiny inspiration. Hey, Seurat? People say that those who cannot understand art will only see true artists as idiots. It makes sense, don¡¯t you think so?¡±

    Seurat closed the book he was carrying with a ¡°bam¡±. ¡°Are you perhaps mocking me, Ivan?¡±

    ¡°No, of course not,¡± Ivan spoke as he gave Seurat an insulting smirk that suggested otherwise.

    The other Prophets present looked at each other and weren¡¯t sure how to deal with the sudden conflict. Weren¡¯t they supposed to talk about the wounded apprentice?

    Lupanya intervened by saying, ¡°Backfire or not, let¡¯s ask him and find out, shall we?¡±

    Since the leader of Starliege Temple said so, Ivan and Seurat both decided to take a step back and look at the said apprentice again.

    The apprentice looked better after receiving Maya¡¯s treatment. He had his eyes open, though he wasn¡¯t specifically looking at anything as if he was still lost in hallucinations.

    Maya slightly shook her head and nudged the apprentice using her walking cane.

    The young man returned to senses with a start and immediately met eyes with Lupanya, who was gazing at him with a pair of clear and vigorous eyes unlike that of an old man.

    The apprentice felt stunned briefly. He thought he just saw stars glimmering in the wizard¡¯s irises.

    ¡°What is your name?¡± Lupanya spoke gently.

    It took the young apprentice several seconds to realize that the wizard was talking to him.

    ¡°Dodoro. I¡¯m Dodoro.¡±

    ¡°Dodoro? That¡¯s a curious name...¡± Lupanya¡¯s eyes twinkled. ¡°I cannot see your past. It¡¯s hidden behind something I can¡¯t prate. Do you know why?¡±

    The other wizards all grew confused. What could possibly block the sight of Lupanya?

    Several Prophets also tried using their respective arts to check Dodoro. And just as Lupanya said, they failed to see anything.

    Ivan was speaking to Seurat using the same, mocking manner, ¡°Can you read him, Seurat? If not, is it not too reckless of you to judge him so soon?¡±

    Seurat red back but didn¡¯t say anything, for his spell also ended up in a failure just now.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Dodoro shook his head at the question.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t know his past?¡± a wizard questioned.

    Maya stood up. ¡°He lost his memory. Dodoro only learned how to speak and the way of our world in recent years.¡±

    ¡°That might not be a bad thing. Sometimes, even I would hope that I can erase certain memories I kept in my mind.¡± Lupanya gazed at Dodoro again. ¡°What did you just see before you were hurt?¡±

    Everyone looked at Dodoro and waited for his answer.

    Dodoro¡¯s pupils constricted as he recalled the image he encountered.

    He saw a ¡°vision¡± before entering the observatory, which showed zing fire, blood, a demon in chains, and a young man wearing whiteughing madly beside the demon.

    By that time, he understood none of what these meant. However, the star map just helped him see a simr vision. The fire, blood, and the individuals all appeared again, but with an extra presence right behind the man in white. It was a faint and huge shadow that exerted boundless horror. When Dodoro looked at it, the monstrosity unleashed even more aura of dread that invaded his mind, across time and dimensions.

    Dodoro couldn¡¯t recognize what that was, but the silhouette of it clearly showed a pair of spiky, membrane wings, long horns, and a gigantic weapon covered in mes.

    However, the demon-like shadow wasn¡¯t what scared Dodoro most. Inside the new image, he saw another individual floating at the opposite side of the man in white. This second figure had a series of green, cobweb-like marks growing on his back and spreading. Those green marks were the ¡°decisive blow¡± that forced Dodoro to quit his vision.

    ¡°So you did see something?¡± Lupanya¡¯s calm yetmanding voice pulled Dodoro out of his trance.

    Dodoro didn¡¯t reply, but his look was enough of an answer.

    Ivan whistled. ¡°It seems Mister Lupanya is right. This young man gained knowledge from the star map, despite <i>someone¡¯s</i> careless remark.¡±

    Seurat ignored Ivan and gazed at Dodoro. ¡°What did you see? Speak.¡±

    Dodoro remained quiet.

    ¡°Heh. An apprentice ys stubborn?¡±

    When Seurat wanted to use a spell to force Dodoro to spill, Lupanya stopped him. ¡°Not everything we see from the stars is proper toe under the light. Surely you know that, Seurat?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. But what could an apprentice possibly see that cannot be spoken?¡± Seurat protested.

    He still decided to quit. It was a convention among Prophets that they should not bend the way of how prophecy was yed using external force. Sometimes, a small disruption could cause bigger consequences.

    ¡°Let¡¯s conclude today¡¯s observation now and be on our way,¡± said Lupanya.

    Those words got everyone¡¯s attention. For most people, the final conclusion was why they came here in the first ce. By ¡°concluding¡± what they each saw, they would exchange information and hopefully use valuable clues to gain an advantage, should any of them actually reveal something vital.

    For instance, a Prophet once predicted that people would find an unusual cave somewhere remote. Later, an organization sent a team to investigate and sessfully discovered an oldb room left behind by an ancient wizard.

    There was another time when a Prophet foresaw violence and bloodshed at the Shallowtomb ne. Soon after, a war broke out there among groups of wizards who fought over a bottle of demon blood, which ended up with countless deaths.

    ¡°Who shall go first?¡± Lupanya looked around the room.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Seurat closed his book as he stepped up. ¡°I saw the Parmigi Hignds from the star map. I believe everyone here knows about theing ne fusion? It will bring us a great destiny, which will be imed by... someone. Other than that, I also tried to see where the entrance to the other ne will show up...¡±

    Everyone pricked up their ears. Being able to travel to the other ne ahead of everyone meant seizing more resources and loot.

    ¡°... But I did not find it. Maybe the entrance will not open up at Parmigi Hignds.¡±

    Several wizards moaned in frustration.

    Maya was the most disappointed among all because Brute Cavern could im most out of the ne fusion if the entrance was near.

    As for the other detail Seurat mentioned, which was a ¡°great destiny¡± and that someone could ultimately take it, nobody asked.

    ¡°As expected, not helpful at all,¡± Ivan mocked again.

    ¡°Humph. Let¡¯s see what you have to say then.¡± Seurat nced that way.

    ¡°Rest assured, what I will provide to everyone is at least better than that.¡± Ivan nodded to Lupanya. ¡°I tried to find something that¡¯s been bothering me for a while. It¡¯s about the missing Mystery Item we failed to get at Silver Palm Isle.¡±

    ¡°Wanderer of Bnce¡± Ivan was one of the Eighteen Overseers of Starliege Temple. These Overseers usually stayed peaceful. But recently, Ivan and Seurat suddenly began to oppose each other in many ways, and people believed that it was originally caused by this missing item.

    It was Ivan who helped Summerdew locate the Mystery item, while Seurat went to help ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza. Even if no one got the item in the end, Ivan and Seurat became rivals after the incident.

    What Ivan said greatly surprised Seurat. They had both tried to locate the item again many times but never seeded, because the item was hidden inside an anti-prophecy effect.

    While shocked, Seurat also wondered why Ivan would offer such a valuable clue instead of hiding it.

    It had been over half a year since the item disappeared, but no wizard or organization imed ownership of it. People were itchy to know where such a ¡°tactical weapon-like¡± asset ended up at.

 Chapter 962 - Exchanging Information

    <h4>Chapter 962: Exchanging Information</h4>

    Ivan put up a serious expression as he exined, ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to see if the stars can guide me to an answer, yet the previous two attempts did not work out. This time, however, I finally learned something useful.¡±

    The truth was, his constant effort did get him a result. But no matter how he tried to interpret, it was not enough to get him anywhere, so he decided to let everyone know and see whether their joint effort would do better.

    ¡°The clue is not very clear. For now, I can say that the item is not currently held by human hands.¡±

    ¡°What? Did a sea monster snatch it away then?¡± a wizard eximed.

    ¡°That¡¯s impossible. A man took it!¡± Seurat raised his voice. He knew this because Flunza told him what happened in the ¡°dark dimension¡±.

    When the item vanished, Leviathan grew furious for some reason. Both Flunza and several wizards good at reading the emotions of monsters were aware that Leviathan was angry at a particr human.

    Someone entered the dark dimension ahead of everyone and took the treasure away.

    Later, Flunza even discovered a teleportation tunnel in the dark dimension. But he failed to locate the other end of it because the tunnel was soon sabotaged by whoever just escaped through it.

    It was unlikely for a monster to know how to precisely destroy the runes used in the tunnel so fast. It must be a human they were looking for.

    Ivan heard Seurat¡¯s remark and chuckled. ¡°How do you know if it¡¯s not a monster who knows how to shapeshift? I know where you learned your clues. As we all know, Leviathan is strong but far from clever. Perhaps it mistook a monster for a human.¡±

    ¡°It makes sense. But why can¡¯t anyone find the item using prophecy again?¡± a wizardmented.

    A monster might have identally destroyed a teleportation tunnel. But it would be a joke to say that a monster knew how to block off prophecy spells.

    Ivan shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s no longer something I can exin. I told you what I saw. Who knows, maybe the star map tricked me.¡±

    Lupanya spoke, ¡°Or maybe someone did take the item, but he gave it to a non-human, such as a familiar.¡±

    ¡°I agree.¡± Ivan nodded.

    ¡°Then we can do better if we ascertain the nature of this creature first, by which time we can thin down our search range,¡± said Seurat.

    Everyone looked at Ivan again, hoping for further answers.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I did not see what it looks like,¡± Ivan continued. ¡°However, I felt... emotions. Dark, negative emotions. Greed, madness, drenching malevolence.¡±

    ¡°Greed and madness?¡± a wizard offered. ¡°Certain Summoners know how to summon creatures with such characteristics.¡±

    More people voiced their opinions, none of which helped them reach a conclusive decision.

    ¡°Let¡¯s stop mindlessly taking guesses.¡± Lupanya lifted a hand to stop everyone. ¡°For now, we shall keep the ¡®anti-prophecy¡¯ as a key point and proceed from there. Who¡¯s next?¡±

    The information offered by Seurat and Ivan wouldn¡¯t have any imminent benefit to anyone, so people chose to disregard it for now and look forward to the remaining participants.

    Lupanya looked at several wizards and set his sight on a man with a pair of goat horns and a chained shackle on his feet.

    ¡°Do you have anything to tell, Schker?¡±

    The horned man opened his eyes and scanned everyone with a pair of eyes that showed excessive greed and lust. Anyone who received his attention would shudder uncontrobly.

    Schker was also one of the Eighteen Overseers, and he was named ¡°The Hanged Derelict¡±.

    ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± Schker spread his hands. ¡°You don¡¯t want to hear what I found out.¡±

    Left with no choice, Lupanya looked at the remaining two Overseers who were yet to speak.

    One of them was Gauss, who was not paying attention to what was going on as if he was thinking about other matters.

    When Lupanya wanted to get his attention, thest Overseer, a figure covered in a gray and broken robe, spoke first, ¡°Let me.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead, Azathoth.¡±

    Lupanya was slightly surprised because this man usually did not make any sound in front of others.

    ¡°The Beyond¡± Azathoth was the most mysterious one among all Overseers. No one knew where he came from.

    Azathoth looked up, allowing others to see his skinny jaw.

    ¡°Two things, one good and one bad,¡± he said in a sharp and unpleasant tone like someone with a broken throat. ¡°The good one is, I sense a new item being made. One that couldpletely change how the wizarding world runs.¡±

    <i>An item that changes the world?</i> Everyone gazed at Azathoth with a look of doubt.

    Lupanya added something that supported Azathoth¡¯s im. ¡°He speaks truly, because I felt it as well. I did not see anything specific, however.¡±

    Those words got everyone curious. Could it be that a master alchemist made a new discovery? But even such masters couldn¡¯t ¡°change the world¡± so easily.

    They all wondered if they could learn more about the item to gain an advantage, or even better, get their hands on the item.

    ¡°Herees the bad news,¡± Azathoth continued. ¡°The crisis is worsening further. It won¡¯t be long before it¡¯s fully upon us all.¡±

    With that, Azathoth lowered his head and returned to be all quiet.

    This simple clue caused the biggest disturbance in the room today. Speaking of ¡°crisis¡±, the first thing people would think about would be the demon invasion. Azathoth was telling them that Mister Monkey would soonmence the final step of his n.

    Wizards were expecting such a thing to happen sooner orter. Still, they felt greatly unsettled when they realized that the crisis was finally here.

    The room grew quiet as people tried to bear the depressing thoughts.

    ¡°Let¡¯s keep going.¡± Lupanya looked at Gauss, who still looked a bit absent-minded.

    ¡°What I saw resembled Azathoth¡¯s prediction. There¡¯s no need to repeat it.¡±

    That had left Lupanya as thest Overseer to provide his insight. And everybody was looking forward to this because it was usually Lupanya who contributed the most on these asions.

    ¡°Listen. I registered an even worse omen. Worse than the demons and the parasites...¡±

    ...

    The star reading day drew to an end. It was quite fruitful, yet people didn¡¯t feel like celebrating their gain since most of what they heard was so grieving.

    Mara took Dodoro back to their temporary residence. Ever since Dodoro suffered from the bacsh, he remained unnaturally distracted, and it made Maya worried.

    ¡°What is it that you saw?¡±

    Again, Dodoro did not answer.

    Maya sighed in disappointment. She knew that Dodoro possessed an exceptional talent that allowed him to see more mysteries than people could imagine. But at the same time, doing so would incur a greater cost.

    She had been suspecting if Dodoro¡¯s ck of a past¡± was also a price he paid for receiving such power. Dodoro might even be from a particr lineage that was believed to be extinct long ago.

    ...

    Lupanya and Gauss remained behind in the observatory.

    ¡°Cassini?¡± Lupanya frowned, upon hearing Gauss¡¯ idea. ¡°Another one has been marked by the Time Thief?¡±

    Gauss exined what he learned at Moxa Wesnd, as well as what Vifet told him earlier.

    ¡°You think Angor is the new target of Time Thief?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m almost sure of it. I once tried using prophecy on him, and it failed. He has an anti-prophecy alchemy tool.¡±

    ¡°An apprentice made something to prevent prophecy. An apprentice who earned Time Thief¡¯s blessing...¡± Lupanya narrowed his eyes. ¡°Remarkable. As a matter of fact, I knew his name for a long time. Not because of his alchemy achievements, mind you. It was Anglo who told me that this Angor might know what truly happened under those dark domes.¡±

 Chapter 963 - Baikal Sea

    <h4>Chapter 963: Baikal Sea</h4>

    Pools of fire surged out of ground fissures. Corroding energy ate away his vigor and flesh. As Angor¡¯s skin was baked and turned to cracked crust, he saw arge, yelling shadow spreading more embers into the surroundings...

    An embernded right in front of him, sending numbing pain through his bones.

    He opened his eyes and saw someone¡¯srge and greasy face only inches away, looking at him with great anxiety.

    Next, he felt the scorching pain and bolted up from where he was lying with a start, causing several metal tools to fall on the floor.

    This was when he realized that he had been ced on top of an operating table, while the heat came from a burning fire directly under the table.

    Brofen¡¯s glowing fingers told him who made that fire.

    Angor immediately stepped away and gave Brofen a cautious stare, whereas Brofen poorly pretended that he had nothing to do with the suggestive setup by ncing everywhere but Angor¡¯s direction.

    ¡°What did you do?¡±

    ¡°Eh? What do you mean? Didn¡¯t do anything.¡±

    ¡°So... Why was I sleeping on your operating table?¡±

    ¡°Well, you suddenly fell asleep. I gotta put you somewhere, right? And the table is the only ce better than the floor!¡±

    Angor looked beneath the table again. Brofen had removed the fire, but several glowing embers still remained.

    ¡°The table¡¯s made of cold steel. I did it so you feel morefortable!¡±

    ¡°You think I¡¯d believe that?¡±

    ¡°Just look for yourself! Your clothes, your body, nothing is hurt, right?¡±

    Brofen was speaking the truth¡ªhe had not done anything to Angor <i>yet</i>. Though this was because Angor woke up earlier than he expected.

    Angor did a little self-examination and indeed did not see anything wrong with him. However, he wasn¡¯t going to fully trust Brofen. Perhaps Brofen ced something on him that he couldn¡¯t see.

    No matter what happened, he did not like the strange treatment he received.

    He tried to remember what put him into this situation. After their meal, Brofen took him back to the alchemy workshops to keep introducing all the products. And like before, Angor used a lot of timely tteries so that Brofen would sometimes tell him useful tricks.

    In the end, they came in front of the separate room, which was supposed to keep Brofen¡¯s ¡°unfinished creation¡±. Angor did not get to enter it thest time. But he did see something inside through the gap, which was arge shadow he couldn¡¯t recognize and dancing tentacles.

    Simr to the first time, Brofen stopped their tour by saying that it wasn¡¯t a proper time to look at what was inside. And since Angor was a guest, he decided to obey Brofen and leave the matter be.

    But as they moved away, they heard noisesing from inside that room.

    Thest thing Angor remembered was that Brofen looked panicked for some reason. Then he lost consciousness as he listened to the somewhat pleasant sound that appeared like someone ying with a flute.

    He had a dream. There was fire everywhere, closing in. Until he was finally burned and woke up.

    Brofen saw Angor¡¯s suspicious look and kept exining, ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything. Seriously. It¡¯s a big misunderstanding. Besides, we were both down. I woke up just several minutes earlier than you.¡±

    An operating table, fire, and alchemy tools ready to be used nearby. Angor found it too difficult to believe that this was a ¡°misunderstanding¡±.

    Still, there was nothing he could do against a wizard.

    ¡°I see. Thank you for your time, Mister Brofen. I¡¯m leaving now.¡± Angor considered and decided not to question why he suddenly fell asleep. For now, the first thing he wanted to do was to get the heck away from this dreadful ce.

    Brofen looked hesitant. ¡°But what about our alchemy consultation?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll do it when we both have time for itter, sir.¡±

    Brofen sighed. He felt extremely defeated because he just lost a great opportunity to study from Angor when he truly did nothing wrong.

    He tried to think of more excuses to see whether he could amend the situation. But a loud, head-throbbing boomy noise suddenly reached their ears and briefly confused them.

    ¡°Sh*t!!!¡± Brofenunched his fat body away and dashed to the secret room.

    At the same time, Angor heard a familiar flute sounding from there again.

    He instantly turned tail and ran toward the exit of the workshop.

    In order to get away from whatever was inside that room and be free from Brofen¡¯s unknown plots, he had to move as far as possible. Thankfully, Brofen neither shut the workshop door nor came to stop him from running, thus allowing him to sessfully move through the exit.

    He felt great dizziness invading his mind, which was probably caused by the flute sound he just heard.

    After forcing himself to stay awake by biting his tongue, he kept going for the passage outside.

    The reverberant sound from earlier grew louder and louder as he came to the open area until it was almost deafening. But he was d that this loud sound somehow repelled the effect of the flute sound behind and allowed him to think more clearly.

    As he tried to climb to the higher levels of the Frozen Wing, he realized that the noise outside sounded simr to arge metal bell being stricken.

    Also, the sound contained a purifying aura that removed all taint and evil from the environment. When he heard the fifth strike, the lightheadedness he received in Brofen¡¯s workshop waspletely gone.

    He reached the middle level of the Frozen Wing by the time the bell sound stoppeding, after it was rung for 13 times in total.

    He was nning to get back to the top level, but something distracted him when he looked outside the guard rail of the stairs.

    He saw the Frozen Wing floating above an ind instead of traveling in the designated direction. They were no longer flying above thend¡ªthere was water everywhere, while the ind below was the only footing. The familiar smell of salt suggested that he was looking at seawater.

    ¡°What is¡ª¡±

    ¡°This is the Baikal Sea.¡±

    Angor turned around and saw Madelyne somehow standing right behind him.

    ¡°Miss Madelyne!¡±

    ¡°I saw you running around the vehicle like mad as if someone¡¯s chasing you. What happened?¡±

    Madelyne looked displeased. She promised Rein Mute that she would keep Angor safe, so she wouldn¡¯t appreciate having someone on the vehicle actually harming Angor.

    Angor briefly exined what happened inside Brofen¡¯s ce.

    ¡°... He¡¯s not lying,¡± Madelyne said as she inspected Angor. ¡°I don¡¯t see any energy residue on you. But if what you said is true, then he was nning to do stuff to your body. Heh. Those who study bio-alchemy are either mad, or are on their way to madness. Anyway, it¡¯s wise for you to stay away from Brofen from now on.¡±

    Angor nodded. Wizards could change their minds within seconds. He wouldn¡¯t see iting at all if a seemingly nice wizard suddenly wanted him dead.

    The same went for Madelyne. For now, she was escorting him. But Angor was sure that this woman wouldn¡¯t think twice if there was enough profit that convinced her to sell him out.

    They looked up and saw several wizards leaving the Frozen Wing and flying away.

    ¡°The ind you see is the Frontier Ind that separated two nes. The vehicle will proceed with its inter-ne travel in a moment. But for now, we should head away with the others,¡± Madelyne exined as she jumped away from the stairs.

    Following Madelyne¡¯s lead, Angornded at the beach area at the edge of the ind. As soon as he touched the ground, he felt someone¡¯s intensive attention scanning every pocket and corner of his body. However, the strange feeling didn¡¯tst very long before it disappeared.

    Angor looked left and right and tried to find whoever was tantly viting his privacy.

    ¡°Stop it,¡± said Madelyne. ¡°It¡¯s the Supreme Cult using their Eye of Judgment.¡±

 Chapter 964 - Frontier Island

    <h4>Chapter 964: Frontier Ind</h4>

    ¡°The Eye of... Judgment?¡±

    Angor failed to find anything in sight and looked back at Madelyne, only to see that Madelyne looked a little pissed off. It wasn¡¯t Madelyne only. Everyone waiting on the ind seemed displeased.

    It seemed the Eye of Judgment was here to thoroughly examine every passenger on the Frozen Wing, except for Sennefer.

    ¡°The entrance to the Sin World is located at the bottom of an underwater volcano.¡± Madelyne nced in one direction. ¡°The Sin World is basically the headquarters of the Supreme Cult. That¡¯s why we¡¯ll run into lots of cultists here.

    ¡°As you already know, the cult¡¯s main priority is to cleanse the wizarding world of creatures from other nes. Of course they¡¯ll keep the Frontier Ind heavily guarded so that people don¡¯t smuggle otherworldly ves or something like that through here. The Eye of Judgment is the primary tool for detecting hidden foreign invaders.¡±

    Madelyne looked at Angor again. ¡°I heard someone saying that Mister Monkey asked your professor to go to the Abyss because the Eye of Judgment can¡¯t see inside a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden.¡±

    Angor nodded as he remembered Sunders mentioning something about ¡°smuggling¡±. Earlier, he heard another rumor from Dave that no wizards from other organizations tried to sabotage Sunders¡¯ Sorcerer¡¯s Garden because Mister Monkey strictly forbade them from doing so. This meant Sunders had agreed to assist Monkey for many different reasons.

    ¡°The Eye of Judgment is not the only security measure,¡± an old man spoke as he approached them. ¡°The bell sound you heard was also a trick of the cult, called the ¡®Knell of the Exorcist¡¯.¡±

    It was Vifet, who was slowlying to Madelyne with the help of a walking cane and arge sand rat.

    ¡°Greetings, sir.¡± Angor showed his manners and took a step back carefully.

    Beals already told him that Vifet was aware of the fact that he had ¡°Time Thief¡¯s Blessing¡±, which usually attracted lots of attention from curious people. As an apprentice, he had to avoid falling under the mercy of someone who would like to study the blessing.

    Vifet saw Angor¡¯s wary look but did not do anything in particr. ¡°The knell has no effect on us. But on the other hand, it¡¯s a deadly weapon against creatures that originated from other nes. Thirteen strikes are usually enough to eliminate weaker beings once and for all.¡±

    Angor suddenly recalled what he just went through in Brofen¡¯sb. As he remembered, Brofen looked quite desperate when the knell sound was heard, by which time the unknown creature in the secret room made some moves and forced Brofen to tend to it.

    Was that an otherworldly creature in that room?

    He was distracted from his thoughts when he saw a group of people wearing silver armorpletely surrounding one of the waiting wizards.

    Beside the group, another middle-aged wizard in a priest robe was chanting something under his breath while his ear stud glowed slightly.

    Vifet answered Angor¡¯s unspoken question, ¡°An unlucky b*stard is carrying an otherworldly thing on him. Heh.¡±

    Angor gave the old wizard a cautious glimpse but didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Can I ask why you look so... skeptical, in front of me?¡± Vifet frowned.

    Angor revealed a fake smile. ¡°That¡¯s not the case, sir. I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°Beals told you something, didn¡¯t he?¡± Vifet moved closer to Angor as his eyes glimmered. ¡°Is it about Cassi¡ª¡±

    Madelyne moved between them. ¡°Let¡¯s go and check the Wizard Fair at Frontier Ind, Angor. The cult has their power over everyone around here, but we can sometimes find good stuff from the Abyss if we¡¯re lucky.¡±

    She gave Vifet a warning look and turned away, while Angor quickly followed.

    Vifet smirked. Just now, he received instructions from Gauss. He did not have to get a direct answer from Angor.

    ...

    Angor and Madelyne had yet to leave the waiting area when they suddenly sensed a shock waveing from not far.

    ¡°Get out of there!¡±

    Madelyne grasped Angor¡¯s cor and leaped into the sky.

    Thend beneath them cracked up and sank. Several apprentices who couldn¡¯t move fast enough were left bleeding on the ground.

    Angor took several deep breaths to calm down.

    That attack came from a wizard, no doubt.

    He looked toward the source of the shock wave and saw the wizard who was being inspected by the armored cultists earlier confronting the priest.

    Madelyne exined, ¡°The one in a ck priest uniform is a ck Bishop from the Supreme Cult. The Eye of Judgment must have found foreign traces in someone¡¯s storage, so the cult is here to check it. Obviously, their negotiation did not end peacefully.¡±

    Angor nodded in acknowledgment. Should anyone ask to check the content of his bracelet, he would resist too.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll be settled soon,¡± Madelyne added.

    As Angor watched, the ck Bishop suppressed the suspected wizard almost instantly and forced him to open his personal storage.

    Next, the bishop dragged out a trembling, palm-sized fairy from the storage, squeezed it to bloody bits, and flew away,ughing.

    ¡°The cult only allows truth-finders to act as bishops. Ordinary wizards have no chance against them.¡± Madelyne looked at the victim of the conflict and shook her head. ¡°That guy must be new. Only a fool will test the authority of the Supreme Cult like that.¡±

    Angor also looked that way. But he was watching the bloody remains on the ground rather than the wounded wizard.

    The horrible sight reminded him of Jon.

    If the cult found out about Jon... No. They didn¡¯t need to. The sound of the knell was enough to destroy Jon, body and soul.

    As Angor tried to recover from his depressing ideas, he saw himself casting a second shadow on the ground as if another light source just popped up behind him.

    He turned back and realized it was the Frozen Wing that had been glowing unnaturally. Also, the light appeared to be the same as what happened to the bishop¡¯s ear stud, when a foreign creature was detected.

    The bishop stopped moving and turned to look at the vehicle in the distance.

    ¡°Ha! I¡¯m going to find your guilt this time, Moonfrost Union...¡± The bishop immediately moved toward the Frozen Wing at full speed.

    ...

    ¡°Huff, huff...¡± Brofen swept several drops of sweat off his head and spoke to a figure standing in front of his secret room. ¡°Thanks for helping, honestly. Or that thing will go rampaging in my workshop for sure. F*ck it. I was too careless and was hypnotized, so I forgot to check the time. I didn¡¯t know we arrived at Frontier Ind already.¡±

    ¡°Careless?¡± The second figure humphed. ¡°What I heard is that you were distracted because you had some dirty ns for Angor.¡±

    Brofen chuckled embarrassingly. ¡°Eh? What do you mean, dirty ns? We¡¯re both dudes.¡±

    ¡°If you say so.¡± Sennefer turned around and walked to the operating table, where some of Angor¡¯s bodily hormones were left.

    ¡°Oh,e on. I didn¡¯t do anything to him yet!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s gotten into your head, making you do stupid things to him so openly?¡± Sennefer scolded. ¡°I already warned you. Should he get even a tiny scratch under your watch, both Mister Rein and Sunders wille and demand your head delivered to them in a bag.¡±

    Brofen threw his hands up and moaned, ¡°I did nothing. Nothing! Well, I saw his right hand covered in an illusion or something, so I used True Sight to look through. Then I saw that hand bigger than the other one for some freaking reason. And there was some green stuff all over it. It disyed some amazing properties. As soon as I looked away, I would forget about ever seeing it, so I want to like, you know, cut off a bit of it and do some experiment. I never wanted to hurt him!¡±

    Brofen exined what interested him in detail because he hoped to get Sennefer¡¯s curiosity up as well, so he had more reasons to ¡°cut a small bit from Angor¡¯s hand¡±.

    To his great disappointment, Sennefer wasn¡¯t interested in the ¡°green stuff¡± whatsoever.

    ¡°If you learn how to switch that thirst for other people¡¯s secrets onto somewhere else, like finding the path of truth, you¡¯d have be a truth-finder already,¡± Sennefer scoffed.

    As she believed, everyone¡¯s path of truth was unique and should be explored independently. Whatever Brofen was talking about might be Angor¡¯s exclusive business and should not concern others.

    When Brofen wanted to retort further, the power of the Eye of Judgment made a full scan across the Frozen Wing.

    A bright light came from the secret room.

    Brofen immediately knew what just happened, and he didn¡¯t know how to cover up. They were staying right beside the HQ of the Supreme Cult. There was no way he could keep the cultists away by force.

    He gave Sennefer a pleading look, who answered his expectation withplete disinterest.

    ¡°Well, I told you the crazies will be here, and you won¡¯t listen. Now it is toote.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll be careful next time!¡± Brofen almost cried. ¡°If there is a next time...¡±

    ¡°Sigh... D*ckhead. Just this once!¡±

 Chapter 965 - Gape of the Abyss

    <h4>Chapter 965: Gape of the Abyss</h4>

    The ck Bishop brought a dozen cult devotees and stomped their way across the Frozen Wing, only to return empty-handed. They never thought Sennefer was here. And with her, they could not take their time and search the vehicle thoroughly.

    They might both be truth-finders, but Sennefer was already one of the strongest wizards in the southern region these days, while the ck Bishop couldn¡¯t go up against her yet.

    ¡°Sennefer won the round for now, but the Supreme Cult will have their dominance in the long run.¡± Madelyne sighed. ¡°Today¡¯s incident will only cause the cult to pay more attention to the Moonfrost Union from now on. Something like keeping every nook and cranny monitored in the name of the world¡¯s consciousness... Pah!

    ¡°Let¡¯s head to the market. Stock up whatever you need when you still have the chance because you¡¯ll not find supplies so easily once you¡¯re in the Abyss.¡±

    While moving toward the center area of the ind with Madelyne, Angor nced back at the giant ¡°ice block¡± quietly resting in the sunlight.

    He wondered, <i>Did they find something in Brofen¡¯s workshop?</i>

    He hoped he could reach the same level as Sennefer soon, because when that happened, he would be free from whatever unwanted treatment that was thrown his way.

    ...

    The wizard fair located at the Frontier Ind was named the ¡°Gape of the Abyss¡±. Despite being called a ¡°wizard fair¡±, it looked rather abandoned. There were only a few temporary buildings made out of spells, which were ready to be torn down at any moment.

    Madelyne exined as they were on their way, ¡°This ce used to be way better than this. Better than most wizard fairs you know about. Because lots of wizards used to go through here and enter the Abyss ne in search of treasures and fortune, or creatures to be used as ves.¡±

    She showed a yearning look as she remembered her old days at her n, when she also went to the Abyss to look for a good bloodline.

    ¡°With such a... peculiar situation going on, there aren¡¯t too many people brave enough to set foot in the Abyss. When there are not enough people, these markets won¡¯t do very well either.¡±

    Madelyne took Angor to walk around the marketce, without actually buying many things. They were already done with shopping in Brute Cavern prior to departure. Besides, the prices of the goods here were far from reasonable.

    In an item shop, Madelyne procured a ck hooded overall dress with luminous green marks sewn on it. In Angor¡¯s view, it would look better when used on the gpole of a tribe than being worn on someone¡¯s body.

    ¡°The green stuff is made of the blood of a certain demon,¡± Madelyne exined. ¡°It works simrly to the perfume you got from Leona¡ªto keep demons away.¡±

    She put on her new dress without much of a thought.

    Angor looked at her again and found the new getup to be viciously charming. She now looked almost like a demondy straight out of the Abyss herself.

    They heard someone¡¯s emotionless voice echoing across the sky.

    ¡°The inter-ne tunnel is about to open. Those nning to head to the Abyss shall go to the Hollow immediately.¡±

    In the next second, almost everyone in their view, including several shopkeepers, shot up into the sky and flew toward a high cliff at the other side of the ind.

    ¡°They¡¯re all going to travel to the Abyss?¡± Angor frowned when he saw the witch who sold Madelyne¡¯s new dress also joining the others.

    ¡°No.¡± Madelyne shook her head and lowered her voice. ¡°They¡¯re going to send people off.¡±

    Without exining her words, Madelyne took Angor and went after the trails of the precedents, until they came to an artificial tform built on top of the cliff.

    Angor looked around and saw all the passengers of the Frozen Wing already here, except for the cheap workers upying the bottom level of the vehicle.

    There were also groups of people floating above the tform. ording to Madelyne, these people were here to ¡°see their friends off¡±. Although the grim silence and asional sobs made the scene appear more like a funeral rather than a farewell meeting.

    Arge, round-shaped figure suddenly slid into Angor¡¯s view. It was Brofen.

    Before the fat alchemist could speak, Madelyne stepped in front of Angor and blocked him. ¡°What do you want?¡±

    Brofen gave Madelyne an innocuous smile. ¡°Just a few words with dear Angor. I failed to give him a good time because of... something.¡±

    Then he moved aside and looked at Angor. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have left so fast back there. I didn¡¯t get a chance to exin!¡±

    ¡°I apologize, Mister Brofen. But I didn¡¯t want to be put to sleep again so <i>someone</i> can take advantage and ¡®heat me up¡¯.¡±

    ¡°You took me wrong!¡± Brofen kept faking his honest look. ¡°I know better than to hurt you of all people on the Frozen Wing. Not to mention you are a big hero to us!¡±

    Madelyne lost patience. ¡°Get to the point. Are you here to say sorry or to pay Angor what¡¯s due? Do it or leave.¡±

    Madelyne was confident that her Bloodline Art could keep Brofen at bay if there was a need for violence. However, she would respect the professional alchemist of the union, as long as he didn¡¯t step over the line first.

    ¡°Pay for what?¡± Brofen shrugged. ¡°I didn¡¯t actually do anything wrong, you know?¡±

    Madelyne scoffed. ¡°Do note that you¡¯re not the only one with dirty tricks. So, you¡¯re not sorry. Then why are you here?¡±

    ¡°I-I have this, experiment, ongoing. I want Angor to help me a little bit.¡±

    Madelyne looked at Angor.

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Sorry, sir. Proceeding to my next level is more crucial than anything right now. I can¡¯t get distracted.¡±

    It was an excuse. Angor wouldn¡¯t get anywhere near Brofen¡¯s workshop again even if he had time.

    With nothing else to say, Brofen stepped away in disappointment.

    A momentter, they saw Sennefering to them. Shended on the edge of the tform, looked at everyone, and fixed her gaze upon a group of apprentices at the outermost of the crowd.

    ¡°The Abyss ne is not a ce for childish ambitions and dreams, that I can tell you. This is thest chance. If anyone wants to quit, do it now.¡±

    The apprentices looked at each other warily, but no one moved. They came here because they willingly epted tasks that sent them here. And it might be the biggest chance in their lives to earn a bright future.

    ¡°If so, we¡¯ll proceed.¡±

    Sennefer turned around and tapped the air in front of her with a slim finger, creating a faint image in everyone¡¯s view.

    At first, the image looked like a simple illusion weaved by an amateur Illusionist that kept flickering. But slowly, it grew clearer and clearer, until it became the figure of a graceful woman with long, straight hair.

    She was dressed in what seemed to be a nun¡¯s habit from medieval times. Her face was, however, all blurry.

    ¡°Good afternoon, Fortuna,¡± Sennefer greeted her.

    The woman¡¯s shadow slightly bowed. ¡°Wee, Miss Sennefer.¡±

    Even her tone and manners resembled that of an educateddy from old times.

    ¡°Fortuna, what¡¯s the situation at Cinder Rock?¡±

    ¡°Not looking good, I¡¯m afraid. The Scythe Wielder, together with three troops,bining the Butchers, the Venom Stabbers, and the me Bearers, haveunched three separate attacks.¡±

    ¡°How did the Scythe Wielder discover Cinder Rock?¡±

    ¡°They captured an apprentice of Gravity Forest. We did not hear any clues from the apprentice ever since, though it¡¯s safe to assume that this apprentice gave out the location to the demons.¡±

    Sennefer frowned as she nced at a group of people wearing dark green robes.

    A wizard from Gravity Forest, who just heard Fortuna¡¯s words, looked away.

    ¡°We should have never brought these troublemakers with us...¡± Sennefer turned back to speak to Fortuna again. ¡°How long can we hold the enemies off from Cinder Rock?¡±

    Fortune told a worrying answer with a calm expression. ¡°Half a day, at best.¡±

    ¡°I see... Light up the coordinates, I¡¯ll open the inter-ne tunnel.¡±

    ¡°As you wish.¡± Fortuna vanished from everyone¡¯s view.

    Sennefer turned around to speak to everyone waiting. ¡°You heard her. A battle awaits at Cinder Rock. Try to stay alive.¡±

    Some of the apprentices flinched. They now had second opinions about their ns.

 Chapter 966 - Into the Abyss

    <h4>Chapter 966: Into the Abyss</h4>

    As Sennefer spoke, Angor quickly went over what he read about the Abyss ne before.

    He remembered ¡°Cinder Rock¡± as a frontier city established by wizards. The city was located on top of a single, gigantic rock at the center of a messy rock formation, and it was usually safe from invasion because it was hard to detect.

    When Dave and Hercules went to the Abyss in search of materials, they took their residence at Cinder Rock as well. Later, Dave introduced his experience to Angor. He imed that the ¡°awesomeness of the architectural miracle cannot be pictured by human speech¡±.

    And those words got Angor really curious.

    But it seemed that this wasn¡¯t a good time to go sightseeing because the city was in big trouble.

    Madelyne saw Angor¡¯s worried look and said, ¡°The Scythe Wielder is a half-breed weaker than low-leveled demons. Don¡¯t scare yourself yet. But at this rate, there will be more and more demons going after the city. We¡¯ll not keep Cinder Rock safe forever.¡±

    ¡°But there are many more settlements other than that ce, right?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Every major establishment in the Abyss took us thousands of years to build and maintain. We simply cannot give up any of them unless absolutely necessary.¡± Madelyne sighed. ¡°Besides, they¡¯re all far apart from one another. Transporting people and resources across great distances can be risky.¡±

    Some of the regretting apprentices looked eager to quit now. But they just couldn¡¯t, because certain people in the sky were here to make sure that they were ¡°off¡±.

    While most people remained awfully quiet upon hearing the sad fate of the great city, some people were now giving the members of Gravity Forest¡ªa wizard and a dozen apprentices¡ªhostile res. If what Fortuna said was true, it was indeed a member of Gravity Forest who led the demons to Cinder Rock.

    However, people were also aware that they were very likely to be in the same ce as the unlucky apprentice, should anything go wrong over there.

    ¡°May I know who Fortuna is?¡± Angor asked in a small voice.

    ¡°She¡¯s the one who¡¯ll guide us to our destination. As for her true identity... I don¡¯t know. Maybe this is another secret kept by the Moonfrost Union.¡±

    As the afternoon sun escaped behind clouds and caused the area to darken, Sennefer finally finished the spell she had been working on.

    ¡°The coordinate is set.¡±

    Following her words, a great power that seemed to be from another dimension descended upon the cliff. It chased away the sun and clouds, reversed the weather, and summoned a deadly lightning storm upon the area.

    Within a matter of minutes, the once rxing afternoon time became the center of a natural disaster. For a brief moment, Angor thought he was tossed back to the Devil¡¯s Water.

    Sennefer lifted an object in her hand and threw it into the center of the gathering power.

    Pong!

    A ck, swirling vortex materialized in front of the tform.

    Against the rampaging air current that came with the dark entrance, several apprentices with unstable footing were blown into the sky.

    Sennefer¡¯s clear voice reached everyone¡¯s ears in the disturbance.

    ¡°The tunnel is on. All of you, get ready to jump!¡±

    A group of guards of Moonfrost Union started chanting something in unison. After another few seconds, they brought up a glowing barrier, which floated ahead and covered the vortex.

    ¡°Go!¡±

    Maher, the captain of the guards, went first and dived into the vortex. On his way, a small part of the shining barrier clung to his body and protected him from the harmful dimensional energy in the vortex.

    Following his lead, more people jumped off the tform and flew straight into the entrance with different looks. While some of them looked as determined as ever, some were clearly not happy with their choices.

    Everyone knew that the Abyss was a horrendous trap that might even prevent powerful wizards from ever returning.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Madelyne looked at Angor. ¡°Don¡¯t stress yourself. We should be safer than you thought.¡±

    She winked and disappeared into the tunnel.

    Angor wondered if Madelyne wasforting him with a lie, but he wasn¡¯t about to change his mind now.

    He took a deep breath and activated his flying boots.

    He suddenly remembered a popr phrase he read on the hologram tablet.

    <i>If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.</i>

    ¡°Whatever you are, I¡¯m going to take a look. And I¡¯m sure ain¡¯t going to stay there.¡±

    ...

    He did not know how long had passed.

    Angor felt gravity taking over again. Also, the scent of rain was reced by the hot smell of sulfur. The air wasn¡¯t pleasant to breathe anymore. It was too hot, and a bit smoggy.

    ¡°Is this the Abyss?¡±

    The first impression he gained was that this ce looked a lot like those fictional post-apocalyptic worlds in the movies.

    There was no sun above him. The sky waspletely covered behind a thickyer of haze. There were pirs of smoke all around him, sending more pollution into the environment.

    The ground beneath was hot to the touch.

    He reached out a hand and caught a small cluster of burning ash in his palm, which was blown to nothingness in the next second.

    The temperature alone was enough to instantly kill an untrained mortal if any of them came here for some reason. Not to mention the murderous intent that filled up every corner.

    ¡°Yup, we¡¯re officially inside the Abyss ne,¡± Madelyne spoke from behind Angor. ¡°Note that the Abyss is <i>huge</i>. There are different sights beyond what you can see, like great forests and fields of snow.

    ¡°But one thing will never change.¡± Madelyne looked up at the sky. ¡°No matter where you go, you¡¯ll be living under that imprable curtain of smoke. You will not be able to distinguish day and night, because it will eternally look dark for the most part. Without using sight-enhancing tricks, you will not see very far. No sun, no blue sky, no hope.

    ¡°Buuut I¡¯m only speaking from my limited experience. I¡¯ve never been to the deeper levels. Maybe it looks brighter there? I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Angor looked down and collected his thoughts. There was no immediate danger yet, though something was already urging him to leave as soon as possible.

    ¡°You doing good?¡± asked Madelyne.

    ¡°I think my body got sluggish... And I can¡¯t draw in the primal mana around me at all because it¡¯s so out of control. Other than these, I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°This is expected. The sluggish part is because we¡¯re foreign invaders to the ¡®world¡¯s consciousness¡¯ here, or in this case, the ¡®abyss¡¯ consciousness¡¯. Wizards will soon get used to the deterrent. You, however, must take extra care when spending your mana, because you¡¯ll need several times longer than usual to get it back through meditation.¡±

    Such interference with mana was a bigger problem for Elementalists and ultists. Bloodline users like Madelyne, however, could do better because their bodies were already sturdier than usual. Moreover, there were passive Bloodline traits that did not need to consume mana.

    However, Angor did not have such a gift for now because his ¡°projection bloodline¡± had yet to present him with any usable powers.

    ¡°d you¡¯re fine. Now, follow me.¡± Madelyne looked ahead, where a group of people had gathered up.

    There were two women waiting at the center of the group, Sennefer and Fortuna.

 Chapter 967 - Flame Bearer

    <h4>Chapter 967: me Bearer</h4>

    Before joining everyone, Angor scanned his bracelet and found Toby sitting beside the Soft Larva nest while curiously peeking inside it.

    He kept Toby inside the bracelet while going through the inter-ne tunnel just to be safe. Now that they were ¡°safely¡± in the Abyss ne, he decided to let Toby out to get some fresh air, even though the air around here wasn¡¯t exactly fresh.

    As soon as Toby was freed, he excitedly did a spinning maneuver in the sky, thennded on Angor¡¯s stretched-out arm with a happy look.

    ¡°Oh my. Our little friend likes it here, I take it?¡± Madelyne seemed fond of Toby¡¯s adorable look.

    ¡°Do you like this ce?¡± Angor asked.

    Toby nodded madly as he pped his wings non-stop.

    ¡°It feels like home...?¡± Angor read Toby¡¯s emotion but failed to understand why the bird would think this way.

    Toby could barely contain his eagerness and quickly flew off.

    ¡°Did your partnere from the Abyss?¡± asked Madelyne.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so...¡±

    Greya said that Toby was born from the torn emotions of a legendary monster, though she never told Angor where this monster was from.

    <i>Was it a monster from the Abyss then?</i> Angor wondered.

    This was very likely because any legendary monster existing in the wizarding world would have gone into the hands of others instead of being taken by a Gourmet.

    Of course, Angor wasn¡¯t nning on telling anyone about his ideas. No matter what Toby¡¯s ¡°ancestor¡± was, it should be long dead. Toby was Toby.

    ...

    They arrived at the main group and saw Sennefer talking to Fortuna with an unpleasant look.

    Angor noticed that Fortuna was no longer an image. Her graceful charm was now clearer to see when she truly stood there. Like in her image, she was an elegant church sister of a very young age. But for some reason, her eyes werepletely covered behind bandage wraps that slightly ruined her overall character.

    From the asional whispers of others, Angor learned that several people went missing in the inter-ne tunnel. Sennefer was currently consulting Fortuna about this matter.

    ¡°Both the guidance barrier and the energy readings are fine, which means they didn¡¯t perish in the tunnel. It could be that they mistook the coordinate and were sent to other locations,¡± exined Fortuna.

    Though someone who lost their way in the Abyss without a team to rely upon was as good as dead.

    Sennefer didn¡¯t look happy when their team already lost some members at the beginning of their Abyss expedition.

    ¡°We will pray that they find a settlement in time.¡± Sennefer shook her head. ¡°Let¡¯s go to Cinder Rock. Once we¡¯re there, we will split up into teams and handle the necessary tasks ording to the situation.¡±

    Fortuna bowed to Sennefer and slowly walked away.

    Angor thought they¡¯d be following Fortuna on foot, which might take them months to get to Cinder Rock. Though he soon noticed that he was wrong. Fortuna was simply looking for spots where the dimensional energy was more stable so that she could open a door of teleportation.

    Following her lead, people went inside the floating door one by one, after which they arrived at somewhere a lot more gloomy. The earth beneath their feet was dry and deprived, while dark fog blocked their view in every direction. Added with the fact that the Abyss ne did not have sunlight, it was difficult to see beyond a few meters.

    Arge fireball suddenly appeared in the distance and quickly grewrger as it approached the group. The rampaging energy contained inside the attack suggested that it was not to be underestimated.

    Thankfully, the fireball wasn¡¯t fast. Those who were close to itsnding point had enough time to stay clear.

    From where the fireball came, they heard someone rambling in an eerie voice.

    Madelyne stepped up as she said, ¡°A corpse belongs to the grave. I¡¯ll send it back.¡±

    She created a spiky whip from the center of her palm and used it to pull a short figure from the fog into the middle of their group. It was a skeleton wearing broken rags and a short cane that was burning on its tip.

    Angor checked and noticed that the fire appeared to be the same one that made up the fireball.

    ¡°Is it a monster native in the Abyss?¡±

    ¡°This is a me Bearer. These creatures used to be peaceful residents in the Abyss, but a certain type of corruption power imed them,¡± Madelyne exined as she used her whip to ground the captured skeleton to pieces.

    Next, she crouched down, picked up the skeleton¡¯s weapon, and removed a ming orb attached to its end.

    ¡°Nope. The energy is too chaotic to be of any use.¡± She tossed the orb to Angor. ¡°You can have it and do whatever you want with it.¡±

    None of the wizards seemed to care about Madelyne¡¯s action. Though some of the apprentices were clearly jealous of Angor¡¯s new loot¡ªthat orb could at least sell for hundreds of crystals in the right hands, and that was big money to most apprentices.

    Using Narda¡¯s Vision, Angor saw the orb as a fire-based crafting material that could either be used in alchemy products or as a simple explosive weapon.

    ¡°A broken me Bearer¡¯s Orb is useless unless you gather more and fuse them into an intact one,¡± said Madelyne. ¡°No one knows how to do such a thing, however. You might have some luck asking a me Bearer Lord, suppose you can defeat one. Though I highly doubt they¡¯ll talk to you.¡±

    In other words, the broken orb was pointless to most people.

    The appearance of the monster wasn¡¯t much of a threat. But this had told them that Cinder Rock was indeed in danger.

    Maher moved to the front of the group and spoke to everyone, ¡°We¡¯re sure to run into more monsters from this point onward. Be very careful. I shall take my team and head up there first to remove wizard-level monsters.¡±

    <i>Up there?</i> Angor frowned. <i>Are we supposed to fly?</i>

    He watched the union guards leaving the ground one by one, after which Sennefer asked everyone to follow up while keeping some distance.

    Meanwhile, some apprentices who couldn¡¯t fly began moving ahead and deeper into the fog instead.

    A gust of wind came and cleared up their vision, allowing them to see many rock pirs that reached all the way into the sky.

    Angor narrowed his eyes and saw countless more pirs beyond his field of vision. Though it wasn¡¯t long before the fog returned and hid everything again.

    ¡°This is the Great Rock Formation,¡± Madelyne exined with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t get surprised yet¡ªyou need to keep your appetite until you witness Cinder Rock. That¡¯s when you¡¯ll drop your jaw.¡±

    While following Madelyne¡¯s track, Angor looked down and saw the walking apprentices now climbing along the surface of the rock pir ahead using their own tricks. In fact, they were not any slower than those who could fly.

    Angor fully activated his flying boots and sped up. It seemed everyone was well prepared beforeing to this ce. He didn¡¯t want to fall behind.

    He kept climbing for half a minute but still did not see the top of the rock pir.

    On his way, he would asionally bump into weak monsters that couldn¡¯t even harm apprentices. The guards ahead probably left them here intentionally so that the apprentices behind had something to do.

    Angor also tried to test his skills by going after a monster. But he never found a chance because each time a monster came into view, several frenzied apprentices wound instantly overwhelm it and slice it up.

    Even some of the slightly stronger targets were no match forrge groups of greedy hunters.

    With no other choice, Angor remained behind and stayed out of everyone¡¯s way.

 Chapter 968 - Cinder Rock

    <h4>Chapter 968: Cinder Rock</h4>

    Angor could have moved faster than the apprentices because everyone else seemed too enthusiastic about monster hunting. However, he still maintained a moderate speed so that he would not lose his way in the fog.

    He suddenly caught a whiff of blood in the air and heard Madelyne calling out to him somewhat anxiously.

    ¡°Stop. The Scythe Wielder sent its avatars down here!¡±

    Out of instinct, Angor obeyed her order and turned back.

    He was startled by a fat human figure floating right behind him, who was quicklying to him while wielding two oversized butcher knives.

    ¡°Gyahahaha! I just need a little bit more to finish my human meat hamburger. You¡¯ll do nicely!¡± the figure screamed as he showed a bloody, face-splitting grin.

    Angor was briefly confused when he heard the voice kept changing into that of people he knew, such as Sunders, Nausica, and Greya. Then he quickly realized that this monster might be able to mimic people¡¯s voices. It wasn¡¯t Madelyne who warned him just now, but this monster trying to lure him into a trap.

    The monster looked like a very fat man for the most part. It carried a giant fry pan on its back, and it had a pair ofrge, fan-like ears currently pping up and down, helping the monster stay afloat.

    The sharp knives it held were only inches away from Angor¡¯s face.

    Desperate, Angor used Mind Overdrive to predict the course of the weapons, and sessfully backed away to a safe distance.

    Madelyne just told him that it was difficult to recover mana in the Abyss, so he should avoid spending any beyond what was necessary.

    Apparently, the other apprentices didn¡¯t share the same concern, telling from how they had been going all-out after every monster they could see.

    In order not to get dangerously exhausted, Angor quickly worked his brain to think of ways to get away from the hungry monster without using mana.

    He did have a few useful tricks up his sleeve. But before he could carry out any of them, Toby moved.

    Toby had already prepared a big move against the annoying ¡°fat man¡±. As soon as he saw Angor moving away, he turned into a gray sh of lightning and cut off the monster¡¯srge ears in a blink of an eye.

    Losing its support, the monster fell, screaming in panic.

    Angor saw Toby returning with a proud look and shook his head in frustration. ¡°Welp, all my own ns were for nothing, I guess. I¡¯m d you saved me all the effort though.¡±

    He didn¡¯t n to go after the falling monster. It would probably end up as a bloody and useless pile on the ground anyway.

    They continued flying up, and soon, Angor saw light across the dark fog.

    He finally made it out of the foggy area. And when he saw what was waiting above, he almost lost his bnce due to sheer amazement.

    There was a building. A building that could not be exined using simple words.

    The tip of the stone pir was reced by a gigantic city. Or maybe it was only the center of a city. There were many more structures constructed on the stone pirs nearby, which were all connected by giant suspension bridges that formed a trafficwork in the sky.

    But on a second look, Angor thought it improper to call it a ¡°city¡±, because the entire ce appeared like a single building dimensionally divided into parts and rooms.

    It looked more like a huge castle or church of an insane size.

    Even the Floating Mech City did not impress him as such when he went there for the first time.

    And he only grew more and more excited when thinking about how the miraculous establishment was built in the dangerous Abyss and had been protecting its inhabitants for thousands of years.

    The building was glowing slightly, making it appear as a beacon in the dark sky. The sacred sight reminded Angor of all the holyndmarks he saw in the documentaries. He felt as if he were visiting a pce in heaven.

    The problem was, such a monument of hope was clearly not in its full glory right now, because it had been tainted by darkness and blood.

    Swarms of flying monsters hadpletely surrounded the building within, while guards watching the walls were constantly trying to fend them off. asionally, a monster would sessfullynd a strike upon the magnificent walls and roofs, causing splinters of stones and bricks toe off and sink below.

    The tragic sight made Angor feel sad all of a sudden. And he wasn¡¯t the only one¡ªseveral more apprentices had emerged from the fog and were all looking at the suffering building with grief clearly written in their expressions.

    ¡°The great Cinder Rock stood tall and bright for thousands of years... yet it cannot keep the eternal darkness away forever. Now is finally time for it to expire,¡± an apprentice eximed in sadness.

    Angor saw Madelyne and slowly moved that way.

    Further ahead of them, Maher and his team were confronting a group of Abyssal monsters, who also had a bigger, humanoid figure acting as their leader.

    ¡°That¡¯s the Scythe Wielder. Did it scare you yet?¡± Madelyne saw Angoring and exined. ¡°As I saidst time, it¡¯s a half-blood demon, meaning, the b*stard of a demon and a non-demon creature. Note that I¡¯m not being offensive here. Native demons in the Abyss all treat such individuals in the same way.¡±

    Angor could feel that the ¡°half-demon¡± was as strong as a wizard. He wondered what genuine demons would look like.

    The standoff did notst very long because the arrival of the Moonfrost Union had added a decisive strength to the defense force of Cinder Rock. Since it was unlikely for humans and demons to negotiate, they stumbled into a fight immediately.

    The battle ended as fast as it started. Within seconds, Sennefer used her absolute power to annihte the Scythe Wielder from afar before it had time to react. And without their leader, the other monsters became easy prey.

    Simr to before, the union guards would sometimes leave weaker monsters to the apprentices to deal with. And since there were lots of monsters this time, Angor managed to try his hands against several unlucky creatures.

    The ¡°clean-up work¡± took them about six hours, during which Angor dly learned a lot about how to fight against lesser demons properly. And now, he knew how to keep a good pace with the others without using up his mana.

    Madelyne saw Angor¡¯s kills and smirked. ¡°I thought you¡¯re one of those academism people. But I was wrong. You¡¯re Mister Phantom¡¯s student after all.¡±

    Angor took a moment to examine himself, and he was happy to know that he kept his mana reserve above 60%.

    He only spent mana casting illusions when he was surrounded by too many monsters. Other than that, he mostly used his alchemy weapons as a means of attack. As an alchemist who couldn¡¯t actively use Bloodline powers, having several handy alchemy weapons prepared was the most obvious choice. These all relied on magic crystals to be powered up, and he had not worried about not having enough magic crystals in a long time.

    ¡°If that was apetition, you¡¯d have been one of the toppetitors,¡± Madelynemented. ¡°Are you still looking for a Bloodline? You¡¯ll have a good chance of taking it from an Abyssal monster. If you don¡¯t know how, I can help you. As for payment, I¡¯ll ask for one of your music boxes. What do you say?¡±

    Angor politely rejected the offer. The truth was, he already had a bloodline. However, he couldn¡¯t tell anyone.

    When the sky was mostly free from monsters, people looked at the damaged building in grim silence.

    ¡°Let¡¯s move.¡± Madelyne beckoned to Angor. ¡°The Moonfrost Union will stay here for at least a month to arrange their affairs. Cinder Rock might be safe for now, but I don¡¯t think it will ever regain its greatness.¡±

    The encounter had ended at theplete victory of the humans. Yet nobody felt like celebrating.

 Chapter 969 - Disconnected

    <h4>Chapter 969: Disconnected</h4>

    The most recent fight kept on for three days and mercilessly did its toll on Cinder Rock. Many structures in view werepletely torn down, and some of the sky bridges had snapped apart.

    Even so, Angor couldn¡¯t stop admiring the grand building when walking in it.

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait for Sennefer at Overwatch Street,¡± said Madelyne.

    Overwatch Street used to be a ce for rxation with many food stalls and pubs. But right now, it was mostly abandoned.

    ¡°There were thousands of Butchers here, taking our food and drink away,¡± a wounded apprentice spoke to Madelyne while resting on a stump. ¡°The walls of the houses are like paper when faced against their knives.¡±

    ¡°Butchers...¡± Angor frowned upon hearing this name. ¡°Are they those fat creatures who use their ears to fly around?¡±

    Madelyne nodded. ¡°A typical monster dwelling in the Abyss. Don¡¯t let their appearance fool you, for they have nothing to do with humans. They¡¯re usually good at cooking and brewing, so many demons keep them as their personal chef.¡±

    Angor thought about the giant frypan being carried by the Butcher that attacked him earlier.

    ¡°Well, we¡¯re not going to find a ce to rest at this rate.¡± Madelyne looked disappointed. ¡°Let¡¯s use my magic hut again.¡±

    She found somewhere t and skillfully brought out a temporary two-room house made of magic.

    ¡°Rest while you can. Sennefer wille and summon us soon.¡±

    Angor nodded and entered one of the rooms to meditate. Doing meditation was difficult here, but it was better than sitting still. Everyone who stayed in the Abyss ne must know how to fully use their avable time to prepare for the next battle, which might keep them busy for months on end.

    Luckily, Angor did not use up too much of his mana. Several hours were enough for him to fully recover.

    He opened his eyes and saw Toby just returning to him with a very satisfied look.

    ¡°What, found yourself a wife out there?¡±

    Toby rolled his eyes and dropped a pile of messy objects on the floor.

    ¡°Huh? You went to scavenge around all the corpses?¡±

    Toby nodded. Even though most people tried to make use of their prey as much as they could, they could notpletely check through every corpse for resources. A good number of dead monsters were left at the bottom of the stone pir.

    Angor never cared too much about looting the monsters because theseckeys didn¡¯t seem like anything worth searching anyway. As for better monsters who might be holding something of value... The wizards made sure they were rinsed clean.

    ¡°Did you find anything good? I¡¯ll trade you some dried fish.¡± Angor grinned.

    Toby red at Angor¡ª<i>You still owe me a lot of snacks, remember?</i>

    ¡°Fine. Once we¡¯re out of here, I¡¯ll help you sell all the odds and maybe give you your very own money bank.¡±

    Toby almost fainted with excitement¡ªif he could gather money, he could buy as much fish as he liked!

    When Toby went off to fantasize about his fishful life ahead, Angor moved to check another important matter.

    Could he reach the dream wastnd from here?

    He always wanted to do the test but did not have time for it until now.

    A bit excited, he cast Dream Enkindle on himself.

    He immediately knew something was wrong when he felt great drowsiness taking over instead of grasping the dreand powers he acquired before. Also, the ¡°map¡± of the dream wastnd did not show up in his mind.

    He fell asleep and was haunted by a bad dream.

    He was still inside Cinder Rock. But the great structure had been fully burned to the ground by attacking demons, while there was not a single humanrade in sight.

    A giant ck hole appeared in the sky, from where burning meteorites rained down and destroyed what remained in the establishment.

    High towers buckled, the ground cracked. A giant statue lost its head, which fell in front of Angor and stared at him with its hollow eyes.

    Cinder Rock was no more.

    Angor woke up from the nightmare in which he observed the final scenes of the great settlement.

    ¡°Weird...¡±

    The dream reminded him of something Freud told him before, which was a ¡°precognitive dream¡±. Could it be that he saw what would be of Cinder Rock in due time?

    ¡°Gods. I should forget it. The important thing is, I can¡¯t enter the dream wastnd. So, is the ¡®connection¡¯ only avable in the wizarding world?¡±

    He somewhat expected such an oue, which was eptable. Otherwise, the dream wastnd would be seen as a terrifyingly useful tool that allowed people in the Abyss and in the wizarding world to freely talk to each other. Should anyone hear about this, the guards of Moonfrost Union would probablye and unconditionally arrest him.

    ¡°But if I use the Dream Whelk on an item here, where will it go?¡±

    He considered and decided not to do such a test for now. While it was true that the whelk was useless in the view of others, he did not want too many people to see it. It would be so sad if a wizard actually wanted to ¡°buy¡± it from him.

    He would wait until he reunited with Sunders.

    Next, he took out the Church Of The Deceased to check on Torras. Since the ¡°connection¡± to the dream wastnd was cut off, he suspected that Torras was forcefully pulled out of the dream wastnd as well.

    As expected, he saw Torras casually reading a book on a bed without the ox-horn helmet on. Torras¡¯ face of a delicate teenager truly did not go well with his muscles and hairy chest.

    Angor wasn¡¯t being stealthy when sending his spirit inside the small church, so Torras easily noticed himing. ¡°Oi, Mister Padt. Can yer at least knock first the next time you visit? I don¡¯t want people to see my face. Seriously.¡±

    ¡°When did you leave the Foundation City?¡± asked Angor.

    Torras looked displeased. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to leave. The other day, ad who calls himself the ¡®Grand Knight¡¯ or something wanted a duel, so I wanted to teach him a lesson. Then I found myself back into my old room for some reason.

    ¡°Goddammit. Now he¡¯s going to run all around the city and tell people what a big coward I am. The nerves! Mister Padt, you gotta send me back so that I can right the wrong!¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Forget it. You¡¯re not returning any time soon.¡±

    ¡°Say whaaat? But I¡¯m the sheriff! The city can¡¯t live without me! At least let me settle that fight and leave a good name for myself, will you?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, but the server¡¯s down right now.¡±

    Angor ignored Torras¡¯ protests and dropped another pile of books on the man¡¯s bed. He did hope that Torras read more books and stopped believing in the fictional story told in <i>Dancing on Devil¡¯s Tides</i>. The new books were all about famous pirates and seafarers from old times, either genuine or made-up. Maybe Torras could learn something from them.

    After making sure Torras¡¯ soul did not suffer any damage, Angor put the small church away and noted his new findings in his notebook.

    At least being unexpectedly repelled from the dream wastnd wasn¡¯t harmful, which was good to know.

 Chapter 970 - Embark

    <h4>Chapter 970: Embark</h4>

    As soon as Angor put away his notebook and was going to make some more objectives for his ¡°dream project¡±, he heard Sennefer¡¯s voice speaking from above.

    ¡°The escort team of Moonfrost Union shall assemble at the central guard station immediately.¡±

    Angor opened the door of his room and saw Madelyne already waiting outside.

    ¡°The union must have decided what to do with Cinder Rock. Let¡¯s hear them out.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the possible n?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°What do you think? They either send all the men and resources back to the wizarding world, or to another establishment. But neither should concern us. Our job lies at the front line further ahead. Of course, more danger awaits over there, so be prepared.¡±

    ...

    As Madelyne predicted, Sennefer called everyone over to rify individual tasks in detail.

    As nned, they would leave Cinder Rock and move to the ¡°Gray Lamination Zone¡± three dayster.

    With that, Sennefer dismissed them. She did not mention what they would do with Cinder Rock or those still protecting it.

    ...

    The central guard station was one of the tallest structures in the middle of Cinder Rock. The brief meeting was held on a higher floor. From a window nearby, they could leave by flying down.

    Together with Madelyne, Angor moved to the window, looked down at the great streets below and suddenly came to halt.

    ¡°I had this dream...¡±

    Madelyne didn¡¯t look bothered by the interruption and patiently waited for him to continue.

    ¡°Here. I was right here.¡±

    Slowly, Angor exined how he watched groups of demons and falling meteors that utterly destroyed the city.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know... Is it a prediction or something?¡± Angor looked at the floor.

    Madelyne shrugged. ¡°I can¡¯t say for sure. It¡¯s likely that you had such a dream because you¡¯re worrying too much. Though I¡¯m not a professional when ites to dreaming, so don¡¯t take my words to the heart.

    ¡°Precognition or not, we¡¯re only two insignificant passersby. Don¡¯t let it drag you down.¡±

    On their way back, Angor excused himself by saying that he would like to see more of the city.

    ¡°You go ahead.¡± Madelyne nodded. ¡°If by some coincidence, this ce will get wracked to ruins, this will be yourst chance to enjoy the views.¡±

    ...

    Slowly, Angor walked down different roads and blocks, only to see that most people thought to abandon the magnificent settlement as a whole. He felt as if he was witnessing a great turn in wizarding history. Everything would eventuallye to an end, while it was up to historians to make sure it was not forgotten.

    Right now, he was looking at the end of this city of human glory.

    ...

    Several hourster, he returned to the magic hut. His cautious arrival had alerted Madelyne, who had been quietly reading a book beside a window.

    ¡°I¡¯m back, ma¡¯am.¡± Angor bowed politely.

    ¡°By the spirits... I recognized neither your new look nor your aura back there. I thought we had a thief in the house.¡±

    Angor removed his mor effect. ¡°I¡¯m afraid this is necessary. I just saw more wizards who wished to talk to me.¡±

    ¡°I know how you feel, you can trust me on this one. I was also visited by a bunch of annoyances, especially that Meyer guy from something something performing academy. He¡¯s killing me with his rambling.¡±

    Angor grew a bit embarrassed¡ªhe brought all this trouble.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. No harm done.¡± Madelyne shrugged it off. ¡°So, what do you think of Cinder Rock?¡±

    ¡°This is only my first visit so... I still don¡¯t know much about it. Though I do feel sad about theing fate. If I¡¯m to write my own traveling diary in the future, I¡¯d be sure to include Cinder Rock in it.¡±

    ¡°Ho... Then I¡¯m absolutely going to read it.¡± Madelyne grinned.

    Angor let out an embarrassing chuckle. Even if he was going to do such a thing, it would have to wait until he became a wizard and enjoyed a lengthened life.

    ...

    During the three days before departure, Angor found some time to explore the stone formation beneath Cinder Rock.

    The Abyss was an energy-rich realm that gave birth to lots of exotic materials. When searching, Angor managed to collect a hefty amount. He could see that many of theseponents could be used to rece or improvemonly-known materials in the wizarding world. However, they were too unstable due to the vtile energy they contained.

    When identifying his discoveries, Angor moved as carefully as he could but still caused several small-scale explosions, one of which punched a giant hole in Madelyne¡¯s magic hut. From that point onward, Madelyne demanded that he did alchemy work far away from her.

    He really hoped that he could own a personal alchemy workshop in which he could do whatever he saw fit.

    Three days quickly passed, putting a halt to Angor¡¯s never-ending research.

    He did not find much about the abyssal materials he collected, though he did learn why he didn¡¯t find anything about them in his alchemy books¡ªany alchemist in their sane mind would not resolve to use these stuff when they had safer choices.

    He recovered lots of new materials, yet only about a fifth of them was usable, on condition that they were handled with utmost care. An alchemist with shaky hands would surely turn them into more bombs.

    ¡°You can try looking for magical nts too, which are usually easier to use,¡± Madelyne spoke when she saw Angor¡¯s dusty clothes. ¡°But you won¡¯t find any near settlements because they¡¯d be cleaned out by other gatherers.¡±

    Angor sighed. It seemed that it was always difficult topete for resources no matter where he went.

    ¡°At least you found some use for the junks, which is already impressive. If you¡¯re short of money, consider this to be a new profession. People will need your service,¡± Madelynemented.

    <i>I¡¯d make way more money if I spend all this time on genuine alchemy work,</i> Angor thought.

    ...

    On the fourth night after they came to the Abyss ne, they bid farewell to Cinder Rock. This was when Angor finally learned how the Moonfrost Union would assist.

    They left half of their team behind, who would escort all the workers and remaining guards of Cinder Rock to ¡°Undying Street¡±, which was another human settlement about 50,000 kilometers from here.

    At first, Angor thought the distance could be easily covered by using teleportation. But Madelyne told him that wizards usually wouldn¡¯t teleport in the Abyss because the dimension was too unstable. Here, people couldn¡¯t even fly freely because the sky had more danger than the ground.

    Fortuna could teleport the team to Cinder Rock because there was a well-used dimensional connection between the Stone Formation and the burningnd at the start of their expedition. She could not send people around as she wished.

    After getting out of Cinder Rock, the Moonfrost Union took out a smaller Frozen Wing as a means of transportation. It did not have enough room for everyone, so only those who couldn¡¯t fly would ride on it.

    Angor simply took out his Gond and invited Madelyne on board.

    He turned back to look at the glowing city in the distance, which appeared almost like a dying saint guarding his inhabitants using thest bit of his strength.

    Without a doubt, it would lose its final brilliance as everyone evacuated and left it to crumble on its own.

    Angor silently offered his respect to the structural marvel, hoping to ease the grief gnawing at his mind.

    ...

    Before long, Angor¡¯s boat, which had been flying alongside the Frozen Wing, became the center of people¡¯s attention. Both its lovely design and its outstanding speed greatly intrigued everyone, including those watching on the Frozen Wing and those who were using other flying vehicles, which clearly looked inferior.

    After learning that Gond was Angor¡¯s work, several wizards who distrusted Angor¡¯s fame all changed their minds.

    ¡°I think you just earned yet another new title, which is the ¡®vehicle master¡¯,¡± Madelyne told a joke when she looked at all the curious folks.

    None of the travelers actually approached Angor to ask questions, because they knew they were fully exposed to the danger of the Abyss right now and could not afford to get carried away.

    They would talk to Angor when they were somewhere safe again.

 Chapter 971 - Baphomet

    <h4>Chapter 971: Baphomet</h4>

    The team slowed down after moving out of the Rock Formation because the area beyond this point was no longer protected by the guards of Cinder Rock.

    After going across a short distance full of energy disruptions, they arrived at the next zone¡ªRange of the Sacrificed. This ce was all about barren and empty mountains tainted by exceedingly high negative energy.

    Angor did not have to ask where all the ominous energy came from, because he already saw several altars in view that had piles of bones ced on them that were releasing more dark energy into the air.

    When the team moved above the altars, the bones, or the ¡°sacrificed¡±, suddenly became animated. They used their hollow eye sockets to gaze at the travelers in the sky while trying to reach higher with their weapons. However, only a few skeletons with bows and arrows could actually hurl their attacks high enough, which posed no threat to anyone.

    ¡°The altars were built by the natives of the Abyss. Those who swore their lives to the demons will sometimes sacrifice their own kind like this. What you saw is far from the end of the victims.¡±

    Madelyne¡¯s words were soon proved as people saw swarms of skeletons waiting in line, even though there were fewer and fewer altars further ahead.

    Following their trail, the skeleton army below ¡°lit up¡± one after another and began mindlessly marching toward where the Frozen Wing went.

    It took the team about two hours to fully move past the gloomy mountain range. However, leaving the skeletons behind did not help them forget the pressure left in their minds, for they had no idea how much more danger lurked in their path.

    Seven hours after they departed from Cinder Rock, they encountered their first enemy, which was a flock ofrge, skeletal birds. The giant herd almost covered the entire sky in front of them, denying what little light they could enjoy in the Abyss. These creatures were both fast and reckless. The team had no choice but to confront them.

    Even the most simple cantrip unleashed by an apprentice could knock a good number of the birds off the sky. But losing theirrades did not slow down their suicidal attacks one bit. As endless waves of them joined the battle from all directions, people had both their stamina and their mental endurance tested.

    The fight dragged on.

    An hourter, the sky finally cleared up when over a hundred thousand corpses were piled up on the ground, including the bodies of three unfortunate apprentices.

    Even though the battle was won, watching the creepy creatures raining down from the sky for an entire hour would undeniably haunt everyone¡¯s mind in the foreseeable future.

    ¡°Anything that can be solved is no problem at all,¡± Madelyne lectured Angor. ¡°It¡¯s only time to get worried if you¡¯re stopped by something impossible to deal with.¡±

    ¡°Is there anything that even wizards can¡¯t straighten out?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Definitely. For example¡ª¡±

    Sennefer¡¯s amplified voice suddenly came and interrupted Madelyne, ¡°Everyone, stop.¡±

    Someone in the team panicked upon hearing these words, because Sennefer did not sound calm when issuing that order.

    ¡°Darn it.¡± Madelyne put up a serious look. ¡°Guess I don¡¯t need to exin. You¡¯ll see such a problem soon.¡±

    They had arrived at another mountain range. But this time, it was not empty. There were many grand, ancient-looking buildings scattered along the sides of the mountains.

    ¡°This is a secondary Demon Monastery,¡± Madelyne spoke to Angor in a small voice. ¡°The HQ of the monastery is located at level 3. They built many smaller ones in the outer levels. They¡¯re used by natives or other weaker residents in the Abyss to pay tribute to demons. But most of the time, you won¡¯t find actual demons watching them.¡±

    The team picked this route because it was saferpared to the other choices. As everyone believed, a subsidiary Demon Monastery would have a few half-demon devotees guarding it, at best.

    However, the strong aura of a true demon emanating from the area ahead told them otherwise.

    As soon as Madelyne stopped talking, they saw a bulky figure emerging from the buildings.

    ck, spiky wings. A long, whip-like tail. A pair of goat horns.

    ¡°It¡¯s a Baphomet.¡± Madelyne grimaced. ¡°It¡¯s a mid-level demon who could easilypete with truth-finders. Miss Sennefer should be able to keep it away from us. But... if a Baphomet is here, I suspect that an even stronger demon is just waiting somewhere nearby. When ites, we¡¯ll get killed for sure.¡±

    Sennefer was hastily sending another order now. ¡°I¡¯ll buy you some time. You all get past the monastery as fast as possible, then we shall rendezvous at the Frozen Ruins!¡±

    Nobody had time to provide other opinions, because the demon was alreadying to their position whileughing in an ear-piercing voice.

    ck ripples left its mouth and began spreading around the demon¡¯s form. This was a concentrated energy of corruption. Anyone who touched it would have no hope of survival.

    Sennefer unleashed a colorful energy beam from one hand and dispelled some of the approaching energy.

    Seeing this, the demon lifted its careless attitude and cautiously inspected Sennefer¡¯s strength.

    Without giving her target time to prepare, Sennefer covered her body with a thick energy shell and rushed to the Baphomet.

    The suppressive aura around everyone disappeared when the demon was distracted, thus allowing them to act again.

    ¡°MOVE!¡± Maher dashed away first and reminded everyone to follow.

    The Baphomet tried to keep its prey, but it failed to do so when Sennefer was there to keep it busy.

    As soon as Maher gave the word, Angor maximized Gond¡¯s output. At the same time, he told Toby to prepare and use ¡°Griffin Mode¡± to escape the second something went wrong.

    The disturbance caused by the two mightybatants caught up with the team even though they had moved several kilometers away from the battlefield.

    No one would argue that, without Sennefer, the entire team would have been wiped out by now.

    The escape was not exactly safe because there were other enemies lurking inside the monastery. However, nothing stopped them from proceeding when they had over 20 wizards in the team, who were enough to deal withmon half-demons.

    They reached their next target in half an hour, which was the Frozen Ruins.

    There was an empty underground cave here that served as a temporary camping site. The team never nned to remain here. But for now, they had to stop moving and wait for Sennefer.

    It was Maher who did the exining this time. ¡°The union originally had ns to build another establishment here because there were no enemies in this area. Butter, we found another form of danger, which was way more invulnerable than monsters and demons.¡±

    As he spoke, they had been at Frozen Ruins for a while without hearing a sound.

    There were even several small bushes growing beside the entrance of the cave. The peace and greens somewhatforted people¡¯s unsettled minds.

    ¡°The safe area is just inside. Follow closely.¡± Maher entered the hidden entrance first.

    After walking on a path that led them deeper into the ground for about five minutes, they came to the main cave and saw several unlit campfires, probably used by other travelers seeking shelter.

    ¡°We¡¯ll stay here for the moment and wait for Miss Sennefer.¡± Maher told people to settle down. ¡°Remember, no one will go outside alone and without a good reason.¡±

    Maher went off with several union guards, who would discuss their next ns around a fire.

    Angor and Madelyne also found somewhere private and sat down.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a good sign to see a Baphomet at level 1,¡± Madelyne muttered with a frown. ¡°These things used to lurk in level 3 only. What brought it here, I wonder?¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t paying attention. Even sinceing to the Abyss ne, the terrible feeling of dread kept lingering in his mind and wouldn¡¯t go away. Even sailing across the Devil¡¯s Water at the worst weather did not stress him out so badly.

    He knew he could endure the pressure for a while, but he also knew that someone would lose it sooner orter. In fact, a few apprentices in the team were already showing signs of stress-induced madness.

    The hopelessness and depressing tension would probably keep up for a long time.

 Chapter 972 - Frozen Ruins

    <h4>Chapter 972: Frozen Ruins</h4>

    The cave was quiet except for asional crackles produced by the bonfires. Wavering light sources all around the ce cast people¡¯s dancing shadows along the walls that looked eerily funny.

    Everyone was using such a precious chance to meditate, hoping to top up their mana reserve.

    As more and more people were done with resting, they started whispering to each other to kill the boredom.

    ¡°Is Miss Sennefer going to kill that Baphomet?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m positive she will. A Baphomet is nothing against a truth-finder like her.¡±

    ¡°But she has note back yet. How many hours was it?¡±

    It was mostly apprentices talking. In order to prevent them from scaring themselves to death, Maher stepped in and spoke, ¡°Baphomets are different. The one we saw disyed the same level of power as a level-1 truth-finder. But here in the Abyss, it has a natural advantage that might keep Miss Sennefer upied for quite a while.

    ¡°It¡¯s difficult to fully kill a Baphomet, so Miss Sennefer is probably thinking of ways to escape right now. Running away shouldn¡¯t be hard for her.¡±

    Those words somewhat soothed the anxious apprentices.

    Angor now fully understood why wizards in the Abyss did not usually moverge groups of people or resources between settlements and bases. If the evacuees of Cinder Rock bumped into a Baphomet but without someone like Sennefer to protect them, they would be damned for certain.

    When the cave was fully upied by depressive silence again, a union guard watching the entrance suddenly drew everyone¡¯s attention by casting a spell. He created a full body armor using pure magic and peeked behind a corner. He then shook his head and canceled his spell.

    ¡°Cage, what¡¯s the problem?¡± Maher asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, captain. I thought I heard somethinging from outside, but I didn¡¯t see anything with my spirit feeler. Must be the wind.¡±

    Like thest straw, the false rm sessfully broke the mental threshold of several apprentices, who started either cursing or crying.

    Unlike wizards who had more ways of escaping, these apprentices feared badly that they would lose their lives in the next second. Maher¡¯sforting words were no longer enough to keep them sated.

    Like a spreading disease, the great agitation soon reached Angor and affected his cool as well.

    ¡°You will hurt yourself if you keep hiding your dark thoughts to yourself. How about letting it out a bit? I won¡¯t mind.¡± Madelyne saw Angor¡¯s sick look and thought to provide some suggestions.

    ¡°Ma¡¯am, knowing how to control one¡¯s emotions is the basic of Mind Maniption art. Don¡¯t worry about me, I have my ways to vent out my ire, which do not include yelling and screaming, by the way.¡±

    ¡°Care to tell me a little more?¡±

    ¡°Well, I can sleep, find people to talk, read a difficult book, or listen to rxing music.¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t find any musicians here though. Oh wait, I almost forgot. You¡¯re the ¡®music box alchemist¡¯.¡± Madelyne smirked. ¡°What, are you going to take out one of your boxes?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that yet. Besides, I don¡¯t think everyone will appreciate that.¡± Angor nced at the cave and saw several hysterical apprentices. ying music right now might have the opposite effect.

    ¡°Alright, no music for us. You mentioned talking, right?¡± Madelyne kept her smile. ¡°You can always tell me what¡¯s troubling you.¡±

    ¡°There is indeed something on my mind... Captain Maher said something about another danger besides demons. What is it?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that.¡± Madelyne shrugged. ¡°I used toe here a lot when I was still an apprentice, but I never saw anything. By that time, a new establishment was already nned. Butter, something put it to a stop. As for what happened, I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to ask Moonfrost Union.¡±

    Of course Angor wasn¡¯t going to bother the union guards for this matter. It was not like he had to know the answer.

    He decided to change the subject. ¡°nts can grow around here. But I didn¡¯t see any man-made structures whening to the cave. This ce is called the ¡®Frozen Ruins¡¯, right? Where are the ruins?¡±

    ¡°No idea either. As I said, I¡¯ve been here before but did not see anything in particr except for this cave.¡±

    ¡°Did they just call this cave the Frozen Ruins then? That¡¯s strange.¡±

    ¡°I heard it from a half-demon before, that the name came from an ancient era when the inhabitants of Abyss considered this ce as their holy ground. That era is called the Age of Ancient Frost. It was about... a hundred millenniums ago.¡±

    ¡°I see... So there used to be ruins, or the ruins are still here, but people just can¡¯t find it. By the way, we can speak to half-demons?¡±

    ¡°Most demons are smart enough to talk, on condition that they deem you worthy of their time. But you should remember that <i>all</i> demons consider humans as prey or food. There was not a single record that proved a demon acting friendly toward human beings. Half-demons, however, are sometimes peaceful enough to coexist with us. As a matter of fact, the Undying Street is built with the help of half-demons.

    ¡°This may be because half-demons are bullied by both demons and other creatures in the Abyss, so some of them decided to side with humans instead. Still, only a small number of them did, so don¡¯t lower your guard when dealing with them.¡±

    They spent several more hours talking about the general situation in the Abyss ne, then something else happened at the entrance.

    The guards of Moonfrost Union assembled at the entrance and went on full alert, only to see a figure with white hair and me-orange eyes approaching, much to their relief.

    Sennefer finally came back. And she did not look so well.

    ¡°Miss Sennefer, are you alright?¡± Maher was clearly worried now.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. I just need some time to get back my lost mana.¡±

    ¡°How did you deal with the Baphomet?¡±

    Sennefer scowled. ¡°The environmental advantage of the Abyss almost granted it enough power to defeat me. Almost. I could not kill it, so I ran. In order not to lure it to the team, I had to go the long way.¡±

    ¡°The long way? But there¡¯s only¡ª¡±

    Sennefer nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. I went to the Frozen Valley.¡±

    Several wizards who were listening to their conversation knitted their brows. It was now a convention among wizards that no one should go there these days because of two things¡ªan ill-tempered Abyss Dragon and a deadly curse that would find its way to anyone foolish enough to get close.

    Nobody knew why the valley was cursed. But they did know that it was almost impossible to lift the curse, should anyone identally contract it.

    ¡°Did you perhaps...¡± Maher checked Sennefer¡¯s form up and down.

    Sennefer exposed her right shoulder, allowing everyone to see a strange mark printed on her white skin. The mark almost looked like a beautiful tattoo, if one did not consider the extremely vicious energy leaking from it.

    Sennefer tightened her robe again. ¡°Before I can do something about this thing, I will not be able to use my ice arts.¡±

    The listening wizards grew restless.

    The biggest part of Sennefer¡¯s powery within her ¡°conflicting powers¡±, such as unleashing fire and ice against her enemies at the same time. With one element sealed, she would be greatly weakened. It would be disastrous if the team met with another Baphomet or a demon of a simr level.

    Soon, thefort brought by Sennefer¡¯s return was reced by distress.

    ¡°There are ways to get rid of the curse, right?¡± Angor asked Madelyne.

    ¡°There are. You either find the Abyss Dragon who created this curse, or ask someone of the same level to cure it, which means a level-3 truth-finder. But right now, the only level-3 truth-finder we know of, who¡¯s in the Abyss ne, is Mister Monkey.

    ¡°Since neither approach is likely, we¡¯ll have to proceed as is and hope for a safe trip. If that Baphomet finds us again... we¡¯re doomed.¡±

 Chapter 973 - Missing Apprentice

    <h4>Chapter 973: Missing Apprentice</h4>

    Once again, the entire team had to settle down and wait for Sennefer to replenish her mana.

    For a long while, no one made a sound.

    All wizards, including several very capable fighters in the team, looked discouraged. They might be prominent at where they came from, but here in the Abyss, enemies with surpassing strength were everywhere.

    Apart from being depressed, another reason why people weren¡¯t talking was that they didn¡¯t want to bother Sennefer¡¯s rest.

    Yet the peace did notst long enough before someone broke it. It was an apprentice who suddenly began yelling in the middle of the crowd, ¡°Stop... STOP IT! Get away from me!¡±

    It was a man poorly dressed in a worn-out uniform robe. He was currently shouting more madness while covering his ears. His voice was so rowdy in the cave that everyone was looking that way.

    Maher stomped his way and lifted him off the ground by his cor. ¡°Quiet, now.¡±

    It took the apprentice several seconds to realize what just happened to him, only to receive the pointy end of Maher¡¯s threatening aura and almost wet his pants.

    ¡°You can put him down, Maher,¡± Sennefer spoke from behind them.

    ¡°Miss Sennefer, I apologize. Did this man interrupt your meditation?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m almost done. Let¡¯s clean everything up and get a move on.¡±

    Sennefer nced at the apprentice Maher dropped on the floor, who was still trembling while mumbling the same thing.

    ¡°Stop... Stop it, please...¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter with you?¡± Sennefer frowned.

    The apprentice kept shivering and didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°What¡¯s gotten into this guy?¡± Maher questioned the other onlooking apprentices, clearly displeased.

    The addressed apprentices looked at each other anxiously before a man wearing a simr uniform raised a hand. ¡°Sir-sir, I think Gucia went insane due to too much stress.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s insane?¡±

    Slowly, the second apprentice exined that the copsed apprentice, Gucia, came from Foreboding Forest. It was not Gucia¡¯s intent toe here¡ªhe was ckmailed and was forced to ept a quest that sent him to the Abyss.

    Gucia was always a timid person who tended to keep his feelings to himself. It seemed a few days in the Abyss were enough to destroy his wit.

    ¡°Well, Gucia asked me whether I heard some noise, I said no. And he won¡¯t tell me whatever¡¯s going on. He kept repeating that something was whispering into his ear and telling him to go elsewhere. And that somebody¡¯s waiting for him...¡±

    Sennefer and Maher exchanged a cautious look.

    ¡°I see.¡± Sennefer nodded. ¡°You... keep your partner safe. Don¡¯t let him out of your sight.¡±

    ¡°I-I will! I¡¯ll make sure he doesn¡¯t bother people again, Miss Sennefer.¡±

    Sennefer slightly shook her head and turned to speak to the team.

    ¡°We¡¯re not far from the Gray Lamination Zone now. Let¡¯s try hitting there within ten hours.¡±

    Following the lead of the guards, everyone stepped out of the cave entrance one by one.

    Angor stayed behind the group and kept some attention on Gucia. Like most people, he thought the apprentice was suffering amon mental condition. But Madelyne provided a different opinion.

    ¡°Sennefer and Maher were hiding something in their words. That Gucia man got more than a fart in the brain.¡±

    In fact, there were many wizards still giving Gucia suspicious nces because they knew something else was going on.

    Angor tried checking Gucia as well. This man was currently finishing up the clean-up work with hispanions, while the middle-aged apprentice who always stayed with him tagged along.

    At first, everything appeared normal, and Gucia looked better.

    Then suddenly, Gucia disappeared from Angor¡¯s view.

    Angor widened his eyes as he watched the other apprentice still forting¡± Gucia without realizing what happened nearby.

    The onlooking wizards including Madelyne all appeared to be surprised, which meant they did not know any better.

    ¡°Tsk. When Sennefer mentioned ¡®keeping him in sight¡¯, I knew something was off.¡± Madelyne held her chin. ¡°Sennefer knew this would happen. Now the question is, is this the ¡®other danger¡¯ that haunted the Frozen Ruins? In case you¡¯re wondering, I checked. There¡¯s no dimensional energy signature or any energy signature for that matter. That apprentice just vanished. Poof. Gone.¡±

    Gucia¡¯s partner finally noticed that something was wrong after the whole team had left the cave.

    ¡°Miss Sennefer! Gucia is¡ª¡±

    Sennefer nodded to show acknowledgment, but she did not say anything else about this matter.

    ¡°Should I check the cave and see where he¡¯s hiding?¡±

    ¡°No. You won¡¯t find him,¡± Sennefer said in an as-a-matter-of-fact way. ¡°Somebody was waiting for him, as he said, no? Maybe he decided to follow the call.¡±

    Her words got people even more stressed. It was no small matter if people could suddenly be lost for no reason.

    ¡°So this is why people can¡¯t build a base at Frozen Ruins...?¡± Angor muttered.

    ¡°Not only that.¡±

    Angor heard the voice and saw Brofening to him with a big smile.

    ¡°So, apart from being kidnapped by the air, there are even more problems hidden at Frozen Ruins?¡± asked Madelyne.

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°Care to enlighten us?¡±

    ¡°Sure, sure.¡± Brofen grinned. ¡°Can I get a lift? I¡¯ll tell you on the way.¡±

    ...

    A momentter, Angor¡¯s Gond steadily traveled alongside the Frozen Wing, but with a third passenger on it¡ªa short-legged, round-bodied alchemist.

    At first, Angor thought to reject the request. But Madelyne reassured him by saying, ¡°Let hime. He can¡¯t do stupid things when I¡¯m watching.¡±

    Unwilling, Angorplied.

    Naturally, Brofen¡¯s first reaction upon climbing onto the boat was to get to the bottom of everything he could reach.

    ¡°A soft curtain instead of a door... nice.

    ¡°These bubblese from the hidden property of Wavy ms, I think? Lucky you.

    ¡°Oh! That¡¯s made from a meteorite core!¡±

    Brofen always wanted to have a closer look at Gond. However, he was only allowed to do so just now. Unfortunately, he wasn¡¯t good at enchantment. No matter how hard he looked, he could not fully copy Gond¡¯s design.

    ¡°Looked enough? Time to talk.¡± Madelyne took a seat beside Angor and left a ce on the other side of the table for Brofen, who would feel morefortable if he used two chairs.

    ¡°You want to know what¡¯s so dangerous about Frozen Ruins, eh? You just saw one of the many reasons. Yes, I¡¯m referring to what happened to Gucia.¡± Brofen looked fearful all of a sudden. ¡°Someone from the Moonfrost Union noticed the problem in thest century when they were trying to build a city here. You guessed it, someone in the team disappeared without leaving any trace. And just like Gucia, they mentioned ¡®being summoned¡¯.

    ¡°Nobody cared about it because they only lost one or two people in a few months. But things changed when ¡®Walker of Delict¡¯ became the next victim.¡±

    Madelyne looked surprised now. ¡°¡®Walk of Delict¡¯ Pio?!¡±

    ¡°Right. Pio went missing in the same manner.¡±

    ¡°Pio was a rising star in his time. My word... So that¡¯s how he vanished from people¡¯s view.¡±

    ¡°Pio¡¯s incident finally alerted the union. They carefully checked all records and noticed that something around Frozen Ruins took over a thousand people away since this ce was discovered, including several wizards. Later, more and more people voted against the city construction n, until it was canceled.

    ¡°Pio was a truth-finder. His disappearance caused a big racket among people. Even Mister Monkey came to check what was going on.¡±

 Chapter 974 - Transition Gate

    <h4>Chapter 974: Transition Gate</h4>

    ¡°Did he find out anything?¡± asked Madelyne.

    Brofen shrugged. ¡°Nope. The only thing Mister Monkey said is that we can¡¯t settle down at Frozen Ruins. We may pass, but not stay for too long. I don¡¯t know, maybe he did find a problem. He just didn¡¯t want to tell us.¡±

    Madelyne frowned. ¡°This is why you mentioned there¡¯s more danger? Nothing you told us is helpful though.¡±

    ¡°Actually, I already mentioned another important point. You should have noticed if you heard what Gucia¡¯s friend told us.¡±

    Angor spoke up, ¡°Do you mean the strange hallucination Gucia heard during his... insanity?¡±

    Gucia eximed that he heard a voice that was calling him. Such detail should be an important clue. Yet Sennefer did not mention or question this matter at all, which meant it was likely that the Moonfrost Union knew what truly happened to Gucia.

    Brofen nodded. ¡°Yup. The union refers to such a condition as ¡®being marked by the unknown¡¯. We did relevant research before, and we had a conclusion. Anyone who has such a ¡®mark¡¯ cannot escape the fate of going missing. And before this happens, they will hear a voice calling out to them.

    ¡°Later, we managed to dig out more details from the victims when they were still with us. Apparently, they saw a man covered under a ck robe made from raven feathers. Then we heard it from the natives that they probably saw Crondo, the ¡®Herald of the Bottomless Abyss¡¯. Or the God of Death, as believed by certain religions in the Abyss.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know where the ¡®bottom¡¯ of the Abyss is. For now, we can only assume that it refers to deeper levels where nobody has set foot in. This Crondo figure is very likely working for a Grand Demon who rules over death.¡±

    Brofen took out a bottle of ck rum and gulped.

    Madelyne held her chin. ¡°Are you saying Frozen Ruins has connections with a Grand Demon?¡±

    ¡°Who knows?¡± Brofen spread his hands. ¡°One thing is for sure, that this ce isn¡¯t safe to stay. Well, even Mister Monkey told us so, which means we¡¯d better listen to him.¡±

    ¡°So there are indeed ruins hidden somewhere?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Maybe, or maybe not.¡± Brofen gave Angor a curious nce. ¡°Either way, I suggest that you stay away. Knowing something you¡¯re not supposed to know can get you into trouble, son.¡±

    The Moonfrost Union kept what they found out about the Frozen Ruins confidential just because they didn¡¯t want too many curious wizards toe this way. While it was true that curiosity was crucial when studying wizardry, carelessly poking one¡¯s nose in the secrets of the Abyss could easily get them killed.

    No matter how insignificant a matter appeared at first, it would be dangerouslyplicated when a Grand Demon was involved.

    The three of them silently reached a tacit agreement that they should change the subject.

    Though this wouldn¡¯t stop Angor from keeping the new knowledge he heard in mind. At the same time, he truly admired the brave predecessors who sessfully founded all the establishments for mankind to lounge in such a dangerous realm.

    Next, Madelyne and Brofen talked over random affairs that greatly intrigued Angor. Though their conversation did notst very long because they soon lost interest in talking when the team fully left the territory of Frozen Ruins.

    Frozen Ruins was free from monsters thanks to the unknown threat protecting it. Now, they would be expecting trouble.

    Madelyne suddenly asked a straightforward question, ¡°There¡¯s a Baphomet showing up at level 1. Is the Moonfrost Union starting their big move?¡±

    Brofen looked away. ¡°I¡¯m a researcher. I know little about other businesses.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, right. Humph.¡±

    ¡°Come on, what the union is doing doesn¡¯t concern you, right? You didn¡¯te to the Abyss to work with us anyway.¡±

    The journey continued on with everyone¡¯s spirit badly tensed up. Thankfully, they did not run into anything on their way to the Gray Lamination Zone, apart from several low-level wandering monsters that were easily wiped out by apprentices.

    ¡°Now this makes more sense.¡± Brofen looked relieved. ¡°We¡¯re taking a route we¡¯ve been using for many centuries. That Baphomet must be a terrible mistake. Is it because Sennefer is with us? We have someone too strong among us, so this world seeks to bnce it out by sending a powerful demon upon us? Then Sennefer got weakened, which nullified the adverse karma as well? Hmm...¡±

    Angor chose to ignore Brofen¡¯s illogical rambling when he had another question in mind.

    <i>What is this ¡°Gray Lamination Zone¡±?</i>

    From what he had read about the Abyss, he knew that human explorers usually stayed within the first three levels, also called the ¡°outer levels¡±, wheremon abyssal monsters and other native creatures dwelt.

    The front line they were heading to was a temporary settlement just outside level 4. As the books exined, one of the methods for traveling between different levels was to use a Gray Lamination Zone. But they never mentioned what exactly would happen.

    The first thing Angor felt upon arriving was that the energy in the air was terrifyingly active, which would easily facilitate the urrence of space ruptures. But for some reason, the space around them remained stable as if everything was held under control.

    The boosted energy had other visible effects. For example, the nts growing beneath looked vibrant than those around Frozen Ruins. They wouldn¡¯t be here if the area was constantly troubled by space ruptures.

    ¡°This looks like a nice ce for wizards who study dimension-rted arts...¡± Angor muttered.

    Madelyne heard him and exined, ¡°Not quite. You only saw the rich dimensional energy all around, but you didn¡¯t know that the energy is being regrized by the Transition Gatemon wizards will not be able to use it. High-level wizards can try to forcefully bend the rules, but they¡¯ll risk damaging the gate by doing so.¡±

    Angor scratched the back of his head. ¡°Is this ¡®Transition Gate¡¯ going to send us to level 2?¡±

    ¡°No. We¡¯re directly jumping to level 3. Each level of the Abyss is arge expanse no smaller than the southern wizarding region, and there are many ways to travel between levels. The gate we¡¯re using this time is meant to get us to level 3, for convenience.¡±

    Madelyne pointed to a high mountain ahead of them. ¡°You¡¯ll see the gate once we move past there.¡±

    Angor already felt a dominating aura getting more and more intense as the team moved. It appeared very simr to the world¡¯s consciousness.

    There, on the other side of the mountain, a ¡°gate¡± quietly floated in ce.

    Angor thought ¡°Transition Gate¡± was a metaphorical name used to describe the function of a tunnel. He wasn¡¯t expecting to see an <i>actual</i> gate¡ªit was a giant door about dozens of meters high, quietly fixed among clusters of clouds in the middle of a valley.

    The ck and glossy surface of it had many strange markings carved on it, such as half-demons carrying weapons and torches, hunting gargoyles and colossal dragons.

    Above everything and at the tip of the door was a single, gigantic eyeball quietly gazing down.

    ¡°This, is the Transition Gate.¡± Madelyne failed to hide her amazement. She had been here many times, and each time she did, she would feel astounded by the sheer magnitude of the structure.

    Angor though, after getting over the initial shock, just found more questions filling up his head.

    ¡°Who built this thing? Why did its aura appear so much like the world¡¯s consciousness? Did the ¡®abyss¡¯ consciousness¡¯ put it here?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know what this door originally meant,¡± answered Madelyne. ¡°Researchers found out that it was a Grand Demon from ancient times who created it. That eye above us is a unique symbol representing this demon.¡±

    ¡°Precisely,¡± Brofen added. ¡°Note that there are many Transition Gates scattered all about the outer levels. However, they all have this mark.¡±

    ¡°Are-are we going to alert this Grand Demon then?¡± Angor grew worried.

    ¡°That won¡¯t happen. The demon we mentioned has be past tense in history.¡±

 Chapter 975 - Winter Palace

    <h4>Chapter 975: Winter Pce</h4>

    A thousand years ago, a legendary wizardpletely tore down a Transition Door but without receiving any response from the Grand Demon who built the door. Since then, other wizards believed that it might be dead, or at least it would note back to bother people anymore.

    Each Transition Door kept a fraction of the Grand Demon¡¯s might, but such residue had no effect on anything.

    ¡°All guards shall assist me in opening the door. Everyone else, stay behind and wait,¡± Sennefer dered.

    By those words, she meant to literally push the door open. Only a group of people with enough strength could seed.

    Wizards believed that the Grand Demon built the doors to protect creatures in outer levels so that the weak ones could not carelessly wander into deeper levels and get ughtered.

    Sennefer used to open the door by herself. But in her weakened state, she had to ask several guards to help her.

    As the door slowly but surely opened ajar, Angor curiously peeked through the gap to see what was waiting beyond it. To his disappointment, he only saw a foggy wall.

    He always thought that people needed to jump down somedders or a pit to descend to the next level. Now he was no longer sure about it. Perhaps the different levels of the Abyss ne were parallel dimensions connected by portals.

    ¡°Saw something wrong?¡± Madelyne saw Angor¡¯s confused look.

    ¡°Erm, is the Abyss like the Fairy World, with many different dimensions existing on top of one another?¡±

    ¡°Not quite. The Midworld and the Otherworld of the Fairy World are restricted by the outermost Real World. But here in the Abyss, different levels are independent of each other. You can see them as different nes, which is not wrong. When the Abyss ne came into being, an unknown rule of this world aligned these levels in a certain way. But other than that, they do not affect each other.

    ¡°What I said might not be correct though. Heck, even the most dedicated researchers can not definitely exin how the Abyss works.¡±

    As they spoke, the Transition Door opened wide enough for the team to go through. But as soon as the guards canceled their support, the door began closing up slowly.

    ¡°Get in the queue and enter the door as fast as you can. Leave no one behind!¡±

    Hearing Sennefer¡¯s order, all wizards and apprentices hurried that way and dived into the fog.

    Angor also put his questions away and steered his Gond toward the door.

    They spent half a minute moving across the imprable fog before they saw light again.

    It was a snowfield. Apart from endless whiteness that stretched toward all directions and chilly wind that hurt their nostrils, there was nothing else in sight.

    ¡°Are we at level 3 now?¡± Angor focused and felt the primal mana around him getting more violent than ever. It would be extremely hard to meditate here.

    The general environment didn¡¯t feel much different than before. The sky was gloomy, and the wind was depressingly ominous.

    Without stopping, the team kept moving forward, with the union guards paving the path for everyone.

    After flying for another hour, they reached a lone shelter in the middle of the snow, which was an abandoned church-like structure called the Winter Pce of Nilehelm. It looked like a gathering ce of religion, though the statues of vicious monsters and gargoyles sitting on the roof suggested that whoever was being worshiped here wasn¡¯t the kind type.

    At least the inside of the building was free from cold air, which wasforting.

    ¡°The Winter Pce of Nilehelm is an important transportation hub of the union. From here, we¡¯ll split up and go different ways depending on what we came to the Abyss for.¡±

    ¡°The team is disbanding then?¡± Angor frowned.

    Madelyne nodded with a serious look. ¡°I don¡¯t have to mention that fewer people meant less protection, right? Didn¡¯t Leona give you some Nether Balm perfume? Once we start moving, you can use it.¡±

    When most people found ces to rest in the pce, Sennefer took several guards and left through the door.

    Maher gathered the remaining guards as he exined to everyone, ¡°Miss Sennefer is off to contact phantom beasts who¡¯ll carry us to our respective destinations. The supply we¡¯re carrying should be delivered to eight outposts at the front line, including the Twin Guard Tower at the Machine Gate, Port Kodo at the Spiral Water, the Escarpment Shelter at the depth of the Ruination Cave, the Overwatch Base at the edge of the Prominent Forest...¡±

    Maher began assigning subsequent jobs to apprentices ording to the quests they epted. As for wizards, they either had their own ns or were following other orders given by their organizations, so Maher did not need to mind them.

    With everything nned, people quieted down again to wait for their new transportation.

    Meanwhile, Angor learned about these outposts with the help of Madelyne and Brofen.

    These outposts were all built close to the entrances to deeper levels. The one Angor was heading to was the ¡°Overwatch Base¡±, which was one of the most dangerous one, ording to Brofen, because a demon castle was just beyond the entrance the outpost was watching.

    In other words, if a demon from the castle wished toe to level 3, the first ce they needed to get past was the Overwatch Base.

    ¡°The base is heavily guarded by many truth-finders, including Mister Phantom and Mister Eventide,¡± said Brofen.¡±If all goes to n, that¡¯s where Sennefer will go as well, so you don¡¯t have to worry about demons.¡±

    ¡°Sennefer is heading to the Overwatch Base?¡± asked Madelyne. ¡°Isn¡¯t she going to find Mister Monkey and remove the curse on her?¡±

    ¡°*Sigh* Of course she wants to do that. However, Mister Monkey is staying at the deeper levels right now and does not stay at a fixed spot for too long. If he doesn¡¯t contact us, we¡¯ll not be able to find him at all.¡±

    ¡°Man. I thought he would always stay at the HQ of Moonfrost. So what¡¯s going to happen to Sennefer?¡±

    ¡°The only way I can see is her waiting to get back to the wizarding world so that she can find someone else for help. But that won¡¯t happen any time soon because we need to wait for the ¡®downtime¡¯ to pass before we can use the ne tunnel again.¡±

    They suddenly heard a sharp noiseing from the outside that sounded like a de cutting through the air, which was followed by the loud call of an eagle.

    Brofen looked that way. ¡°As expected. Garrosh is the first to arrive.¡±

    Maher stood up and announced, ¡°Garrosh is here. Those who are going to the Escarpment Shelter shall leave right now.¡±

    Following the departing group, Angor also came outside and saw the phantom beast named ¡°Garrosh¡±.

    It was an... eagle. A reallyrge one. By standing there, it easily towered above the Winter Pce and prevented drifting snow from reaching the building.

    There was a fortified house built on its t back. One of the union guards who left with Sennefer earlier was up there urging people to climb on.

    About fifty apprentices and six wizards boarded the creature, after which Garrosh spread its gigantic wings and took to the air before Angor could get a full view of its magnificence.

    The ground suddenly began to quake. In the distance, a red, horned scorpion evenrger than Garrosh was rapidly crawling toward the pce.

    ¡°That¡¯s Latann,¡± said Brofen. ¡°It will take us to the Twin Guard Tower.¡±

    One by one, several enormous phantom beasts came and each carried a group away.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to leave with them?¡± Madelyne saw Brofen looking at another leaving phantom beast, which had Maher on its back.

    Brofen grinned. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you that I¡¯m going to the Overwatch Base as well?¡±

    ¡°What for? You¡¯re like, an important researcher in the union, not a fighter.¡±

    ¡°Take a guess.¡±

    Madelyne suddenly put on an angry look. ¡°Don¡¯t you tell me¡ª¡±

    ¡°Woah, easy there. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to bother you anyway.¡±

    ¡°Humph. Let¡¯s hope so.¡±

 Chapter 976 - Dokibell

    <h4>Chapter 976: Dokibell</h4>

    Angor had no idea why Madelyne was so hostile against Brofen, though he wasn¡¯t going to ask. Right now, he had his attention on another figure who was standing around the entrance of the Winter Pce.

    It was Vifet.

    <i>Is Vifet heading to this Overwatch Base too?</i> Angor thought.

    The snow was getting heavier, slowly preventing people from seeing clearly.

    A sh of rainbow suddenly lit up in the distance, which appeared rather obvious in the gloomy weather.

    Following the strange sight, people heard loud galloping noisesing near.

    Angor widened his eyes as he watched yet another phantom beast entering his view. This one appeared to be a moose. A moose that was even bigger than Latann the Scorpion. The most strange thing about this creature was its antlers¡ªthere seemed to be a colorful mist that covered them. Inside the mist, there was a faint image of a city.

    ¡°It¡¯s the biggest phantom beast kept by the Moonfrost Union, Kaxomi,¡± exined Brofen.

    ¡°We-we¡¯re going to ride it?¡± Angor stared at the huge creature inplete shock.

    From the ¡°rainbow mist¡±, a union guard emerged, who called out to everyone, ¡°People who are bound to Skyward Ind,e with me into the Mirage City.¡±

    Groups of people flew toward the moose¡¯s antlers as one. As far as Angor could see, this was the biggest party to be conveyed away today.

    Again, Brofen offered to exin. ¡°Skyward Ind is currently the safest travel route in level 3. That¡¯s also where Moonfrost put their operation homebase.¡±

    ¡°Which means you should be going with the moose,¡± Madelyne impertinentlymented.

    Brofen ignored her. ¡°This leaves Dokibell as thest one. Again. Welp, that guy¡¯s always slow.¡±

    ¡°Is Dokibell the one who¡¯ll take us to the Overwatch Base?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Yup. Let¡¯s just say that Dokibell is the strongest one when ites to pummeling demons. The problem is, it loves to ck off. When other phantom beasts need a day to travel through a distance, Dokibell will take several days. Lucky for us, Miss Sennefer should be able to persuade it into going faster.¡±

    Most apprentices had left with Kaxomi, which was to be expected since Skyward Ind was the safest establishment among all.

    After the giant moose disappeared behind the curtain of snow, the Winter Pce only had a few people waiting, including about a dozen apprentices and three wizards¡ªBrofen, Madelyne, and Vifet.

    Angor saw Vifeting to them again with the help of arge sand rat.

    It was understandable if Vifet would like somepany since there were only three wizards left. Though Angor wasn¡¯t very happy about this because Brofen and Vifet both happened to be someone he would like to avoid.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think you¡¯re going to the Overwatch Base too, Vifet,¡± said Brofen.

    ¡°My goal lies within the deeper levels. I can go there from any outpost.¡±

    ¡°Why Overwatch Base then? Any other one is better than that ce. You¡¯ll have to get close to the demon castle at this rate. Surely you know that?¡±

    ¡°I have my reasons.¡± Vifet nced at Angor.

    Angor looked back at Vifet warily.

    ¡°... This boy¡¯s teacher, Mister Phantom, is over there. Since Angor refused to tell me what happened to the Evernight Kingdom, I have to pay Mister Phantom a visit. Those dark domes will soon reach Moxa Wesnd. I can¡¯t stay idle now.¡±

    ¡°The Evernight Kingdom, huh?¡± Brofen looked between Vifet and Angor suspiciously. He wasn¡¯t convinced by Vifet¡¯s excuse, but he had no reason to expose his concerns now.

    As a matter of fact, each one of them, including Sennefer, had private reasons for going to the Overwatch Base. They wouldn¡¯t get into other people¡¯s ways as long as they didn¡¯t bother each other.

    They waited for two hours after Kaxomi departed. When the snow died down a little bit, the ground beneath them shook, suggesting another approaching phantom beast.

    ¡°That should be Dokibell.¡± Brofen was quite familiar with the footsteps.

    A shadow emerged from the horizon, which was apanied by the chime sound of bells.

    Next, Angor heard a gruff voice reaching his ears.

    ¡°I¡¯m going, I¡¯m going. Stop pushing me...¡±

    ¡°Pump some more strength into your legs then!¡± It was Sennefer¡¯s angered voice this time. ¡°Just listen to your bell, and you¡¯ll see how slow you are!¡±

    The sound of the bell suddenly grew intense as if a hurricane were blowing over.

    ¡°I told you to <i>move</i> faster, not puffing into the bell like an idiot!¡± Sennefer yelled.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you tell me to watch the sound of the bell?!¡±

    The shadow finally showed its true form upon getting close enough. It was a giant white bear, as big as a snow mountain.

    On its arched back, there was a chapel-like building with a pointy roof. That bell Angor heard earlier was fixed at the tip of the chapel, which was tinkling as the bear moved.

    Sennefer was standing at the entrance of the chapel while mercilessly scolding the bear.

    ¡°Here... huff... the Winter Pce of Nilehelm...¡± The white beary sprawled, knocking a flood of snow into the sky. ¡°Finally, let me rest a bit...¡±

    ¡°Not yet!¡± Sennefer called toward the pce. ¡°Everyone still waiting is going to the Overwatch Base, I take it? Good. Come here and let¡¯s head out!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s move.¡± Brofen beckoned to Angor. ¡°If we allow Dokibell to fall asleep, we¡¯ll have to spend a few days in this damned snow for it to wake up.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t have time to get a good look at the bear when Madelyne simply dragged him to the chapel and joined everyone.

    ¡°Should I see you close your eyes for one second, I¡¯ll stick a me spear into your an*s!¡± Sennefer threatened Dokibell by preparing her mes.

    The bear struggled to get back up. It then slowly walked away on sluggish steps.

    ¡°Get a move on! If I don¡¯t see the Prominent Forest in two days, I¡¯ll make sure you know what it feels like to get burned and frozen at the same time.¡±

    Dokibell whined in sadness. If any other wizard were in charge, it was free to take it as slow as it pleased. But it definitely couldn¡¯t defy Sennefer.

    To make it worse, Sennefer was going to the most dangerous destination.

    Dokibell felt like crying now.

    Meanwhile, Angor applied some of Leona¡¯s perfume onto his body, as Madelyne instructed.

    Despite its name, the perfume did not have any smell. Or rather, it could not be detected by human senses. However, this wasn¡¯t a strange thing, because there were many different alchemy productions that disyed their effects through various elements humans couldn¡¯t easily see. For example, some of themonly-known pheromone perfumes used by witches were meant to attract men¡¯s hearts by bewitching their spirits. Simrly, Leona¡¯s Nether Balm perfume was meant to keep demons away by tempering with some of their senses.

    After using the perfume, Angor walked into the chapel.

    There weren¡¯t many people with him, so the inside of the building looked rather vacant. Even so, the great tension in the air did not decrease in the least.

    Sennefer was standing in the middle of the chapel hall with a group of people standing around her.

    ¡°As always, we¡¯ll leave the snowfield and move around the Veiled Coast. ording to Dokibell, something might have happened there recently. It told me that there was not a single monster lurking nearby.¡±

    ¡°How? Did someone go there and clean them up?¡± Brofen asked.

    ¡°Dokibell didn¡¯t find traces of a battle, which means the monsters left on their own. If this was not caused by their natural habit or immigration needs, I¡¯d say that a more powerful monster came and scared them away. Anyway, we should assume the worst and be prepared.¡±

    Madelyne spoke up, ¡°Can we use another route?¡±

    ¡°We have three other choices. One, the Geiger Ruins, which will take us two more weeks to travel. We don¡¯t know what can happen if we take that long.

    ¡°The second choice is that we do not walk around the coast, but sail across the Veiled Sea, which is... not going to happen, for obvious reasons.

    ¡°As for thest choice, we can use another subsidiary Demon Monastery as a shortcut...¡±

 Chapter 977 - Snow Enchantress

    <h4>Chapter 977: Snow Enchantress</h4>

    Taking Geiger Ruins meant longer travel and more uncertainty, whereas Veiled Coast was at least safe when Dokibell passed by.

    ¡°By the way, when exactly did Dokibell visit the Veiled Coast?¡± asked Brofen.

    ¡°Two weeks ago,¡± Sennefer deadpanned.

    ¡°...¡±

    The Overwatch Base was indeed pretty far from the Winter Pce of Nilehelm. It would usually take over a year for human travelers to cover the distance if they went on foot.

    But for a phantom beast as big as Dokibell, a week was enough even if it took it easy on the way.

    This meant Dokibell spent at least half the time cking off.

    Brofen shook his head. ¡°Two weeks... Whoever went there should be gone by now. I don¡¯t think a powerful monster or some demon would suddenly go to the Veiled Coast and see it as home.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s probably a demon living in level 3,¡± Vifet added. ¡°By going to the Veiled Coast, it should be heading to the Demon Monastery at the other side of the Veiled Sea.¡±

    Everyone agreed that they would follow the original course, that they would travel to the Veiled Coast, then to the Overwatch Base.

    Brofen offered an item he kept, which could temporarily boost Dokibell¡¯s strength, in case they did encounter a deadly demon. When the bear went all-out, it could run faster than truth-finder wizards, which meant a demon was unlikely to keep up.

    Even though the n was determined, the journey wasn¡¯t exactly going at full speed because Dokibell always believed that ¡°rest is king¡±.

    Still, the creature wouldn¡¯t fully stop and hinder their progress when Sennefer was there to whip it into motion.

    The journey across the snowfield was peaceful enough until the end. They had to move across a narrow valley between two cliffs to get out of the cold zone. This was when they ran into the first threat since they left the Winter Pce¡ªa monster enchantress constantly covered in an icy aura, standing in the middle of their way.

    Her face couldn¡¯t be seen in the gloomy distance. However, her white, messy hair rampaging in the wind somewhat reminded people of Sennefer.

    ¡°What¡¯s the n?¡± Dokibell talked to the team using its gruff voice. ¡°That thing looks wicked. Maybe we should pick somewhere safe and wait until she goes away?¡±

    ¡°Keep going.¡± Sennefer ordered. ¡°Kill her if she gets in the way.¡±

    ¡°But... you see, she¡¯s not doing anything to us yet.¡±

    ¡°<i>Yet</i>. So what? You think that thing¡¯s friendly? Just go.¡±

    Dokibell didn¡¯t respond this time. As a phantom beast with superior senses, it already felt the concentrated will of hatred radiating from the target, which was usually the case for most monsters living in the Abyss ne.

    This was simr to the Supreme Cult, which was devoted to wiping out all creatures from other nes. Most creatures in the Abyss also considered it their responsibility to repel invaders.

    ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll go that way.¡± Dokibell was still trying to bargain with Sennefer. ¡°But you¡¯ll help me deal with that thing, kay?¡±

    Sennefer clenched her teeth as she ran out of patience. ¡°One more unnecessary word and I¡¯ll make you go swimming in the Veiled Sea!¡±

    Dokibell shuddered and picked up speed.

    It nned to ram into the monster to kill her with its body weight. As the bear went faster, the bell on the top of the chapel rang louder and louder, recing Dokibell¡¯s casual aura with a more aggressive one.

    Angor tried to inspect the snow enchantress when he still had time for it. The monster¡¯s lower body was fully hidden inside a small whirl of snow and ice, while what was above her waist looked like an ordinary woman. A very evil-looking woman.

    While charging, Dokibell unleashed several icicles and hurled them toward the monster.

    ¡°Yiiiaaarw!¡±

    The ice attack sank inside her body and didn¡¯t leave any effect.

    Dokibell was close enough now. It bounced into the sky and came down upon the enchantress, w raised, hoping to shatter herpletely.

    This attack looked sessful at first when the monster¡¯s body was vaporized. But soon, it reappeared inside a puff of white air.

    ¡°Yee he hee ha haaaw!¡±

    Along with the monster¡¯s maniacalughter, the snow suddenly grew heavier and heavier, until it was hard for people to see their own feet.

    Angor was attempting to assess the situation right now. But he didn¡¯t have much time to think when a freezing aura full of killing intent suddenly popped up behind him.

    Several apprentices close to him all watched the snow enchantress aiming an attack at Angor¡¯s back with a cruel look.

    Angor became the obvious target probably because he inconveniently stayed at the edge of the team. Besides, he sure looked like the easiest prey. The snow enchantress knew that she couldn¡¯t easily defeat the wizards or Dokibell, so she picked the apprentice she could effortlessly reach.

    Thanks to the snowstorm and her natural talent, even Sennefer failed to detect her approach.

    ¡°Watch it!¡± Madelyne hurried to Angor¡¯s side. But she wasn¡¯t fast enough¡ªthe monster¡¯s sharp nail was only a few inches away from Angor¡¯s heart.

    Everyone flinched as they expected to see blood. But what they had in mind didn¡¯t happen. As soon as the monster¡¯s w reached Angor¡¯s spot, Angor¡¯s body teleported to the other side of the chapel.

    What weed the monster¡¯s attack was a wall of me instead. The me attack was too weakpared to the monster¡¯s icy power. With a simple w swipe, she extinguished it.

    ¡°Wait, how did he pull that off?¡± Brofen wondered.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if he could escape in time if he were in that position. Maybe he could use his Bloodline power to dampen the attack, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to run that far when the monster surprised him like that.

    In fact, Angor escaped so fast that nobody except Sennefer saw how he moved. And even Sennefer couldn¡¯t tell what exactly Angor used to get out of there.

    ¡°Soul ejection, sequence of gravity, a fire-based cantrip, and then return to his body?¡±

    It was no longer a secret that Angor could eject his soul and wield gravity power. These privacies were exposed as early as when he became famous for his music boxes.

    But being able to cast cantrips without a body was on another level. It wasn¡¯t difficult for wizards who studied Soul Link. Yet an apprentice, who only had ess to cantrips, sessfully mastered Soul Link, a Soul Maniptor spell? This was unheard of.

    Sennefer was sure that she did not see Angor taking out any alchemy items, which meant the trick solely relied upon Angor¡¯s own strength.

    ¡°Or is there another way to cast elementalist cantrips when in his soul form? Hmm...¡±

    Since the monster went close enough, Madelyne had sessfully captured her using a burning whip. Imprisoned by the full might of a wizard, the monster was burned to nothingness within seconds, for sure this time.

    While still a little confused, Madelyne headed Angor¡¯s way and was going to question what truly happened back there. But she changed her mind when she saw the others all looking this way curiously.

    ¡°... You¡¯re not hurt, Angor?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, ma¡¯am. Thank you.¡±

    Madelyne nodded and stopped talking, much to the disappointment of others. But nobody would actually push for an answer right now.

    ¡°See that? You don¡¯t need me,¡± said Dokibell.

    ¡°Using an ice attack against a snow enchantress. Hitting an elemental body with a w?¡± Sennefer scoffed. ¡°If only your brain looked as big as your head...¡±

    ¡°Come oooon. This is my first time seeing an elemental monster.¡±

    The same went for Angor as well. He would never realize that the monster was an elemental body if not for the conversation he heard.

    Speaking of elemental monsters, he suddenly remembered the strange map he saw in the underground treasure vault of the Shannon Pce.

 Chapter 978 - Veiled Coast

    <h4>Chapter 978: Veiled Coast</h4>

    ¡°Are elemental creatures rare?¡± Angor asked, after hearing the argument between Dokibell and Sennefer.

    Madelyne answered him, ¡°Not really. You can find plenty of them in the wizarding world because wizards can create them out of certain familiars, given enough time. However, it¡¯s not easy to find naturally-urring ones. This calls for strictly coordinated environmental factors.¡±

    Angor nodded¡ªthis was also what he learned from books. Though he was hoping to know something else.

    ¡°Is there a ce, or a ne, that only has elemental creatures as its inhabitants?¡±

    ¡°What? Not that I heard of. There probably is such a wonderful ce hidden at the far edge of the wizarding world where people have yet to explore.¡± Madelyne chuckled. ¡°If we do find it, it will soon get overwhelmed by wizards from all over the world. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    ¡°Why? Is that... good?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s just say, wizards and elemental creatures have a peculiar connection between them...¡±

    Slowly, Madelyne exined what it meant to ¡°own¡± an elemental creature.

    First and foremost, having an elemental creature to help could greatly improve one¡¯s studies of elemental arts. Most wizards, no matter which art they focused on, should at least learn a few useful elemental spells. And an elemental creature could save them a lot of effort.

    Secondly, wizards could use an elemental creature as a medium to cast powerful elemental spells. Doing so would consume a fraction of the creature¡¯s energy, but it would gradually recover, as long as the wizard did not exhaust the creature in one go.

    Also, an elemental creature could be a deadly weapon if trained properly.

    ¡°This is also something you should consider once you be a wizard. And if you can somehow capture an existing elemental monster living in the wild, you will not need to waste all that time cultivating one yourself. But note that ¡®artificial¡¯ ones and wild ones each have their pros and cons...¡±

    An elemental creature that received long-time care since its birth was, of course, more loyal to its master. On the other hand, it was harder to bend the will of a wild one. Not to mention that it was already difficult to find an elemental ve that went well with one¡¯s skill tree.

    ¡°Now you¡¯ve heard it. If people ever learned that there¡¯s a ce where you can run into elemental creatures everywhere, they¡¯d scramble there without a second thought.¡±

    Angor just remembered that he saw Bog¡¯s fire sprites, which were probably Bog¡¯s personal elemental ves. And he just had another question in mind.

    ¡°Erm, Miss Madelyne? Since it¡¯s so hard to find these things from nature, why did you kill that snow enchantress instead of keeping it?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because you don¡¯t easily tame a monster who lives under the effect of all the chaotic energy in the Abyss throughout its life. Did you feel the fierce aura of malignance from that thing? It¡¯s better if we get rid of it sooner.¡± Madelyne nced at Angor. ¡°So you¡¯re interested in elemental monsters? That¡¯s a bit too early for you, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Just curious is all. That was the first one I ever saw.¡±

    ¡°Well, they¡¯re pretty rare, but you can still find them with enough effort. The next time I run into one, I¡¯ll lock it up and bring it to you so that you can take a good look.¡±

    ¡°Uh, no, there¡¯s no need. But thanks, ma¡¯am.¡±

    Angor asked these questions because what happened just now reminded him of the Torrent ne. He never intended to hunt for elemental monsters.

    Dokibell resumed its travel while grumbling annoyingly, whereas the team had retreated inside the chapel to rest.

    Angor was a little frustrated that he just found another secret he had to keep. If what Madelyne said was true, then the Torrent ne was a hidden treasure vault full of valuables in the views of wizards. Should anyone hear about this, he was sure to get bothered by all manners of visitors who sought to go there.

    The only thing he knew about this Torrent ne was that a strange map he found at Shannon Pce mentioned it. For now, he was not so sure about the credibility of the map yet. Perhaps he would check out the ce first before deciding whether he should fully share the information with other people.

    ...

    Two hourster, Dokibell walked away from the mountain zone and reached a body of water.

    That was the Veiled Sea, arge body of brine constantly haunted by an eerily menacing aura that told people not to get too close.

    Legend had it that a Grand Demon from the deeper levels perished here. Later, Mister Monkey came and deemed the story as baseless. Even so, he did warn people that there were deadly monsters lurking beneath, including ones that equaled legendary wizards.

    Thankfully, most of these monsters would not climb out of the water to hunt for food from thend. Even if they did, they could not use their full strength when away from their natural habitat.

    In other words, travelers should be safe to pass as long as they steered away from water.

    Angor nced at the broken cliffs and empty stones at the edge of the sea and wondered how ¡°safe¡± their journey ahead truly was.

    ¡°We should be running into coastal monsters by now, yet we found not a single one of them.¡± Vifet scouted the surroundings with a serious look. Theck of monsters was an ill omen rather than a good sign.

    ¡°We¡¯ll keep moving. Everyone, stay on alert.¡± Sennefer ordered, before speaking to Brofen, ¡°Ready that potion of yours. Use it on Dokibell as soon as you see trouble.¡±

    The bear moved slightly faster, probably because it felt unusual danger lurking nearby as well. To avoid attracting potential enemies, Dokibell also tried its best to walk as silently as it could.

    Seeing this, the apprentices in the chapel all grew stressed again.

    Dokibell was running almost twice as fast. But it wasn¡¯tforting enough, because they would spend at least half a day in the coastal area.

    Slowly, the apprentices grew jumpy, until they became badly paranoid. Even the slightest sound of wind could scare them for good.

    ¡°What¡¯s that bumping sound? Oh, it¡¯s someone¡¯s heart...¡±

    ¡°You just heard your own heartbeat, didn¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Why-why did the wind stop? This ce is dead!¡±

    ¡°Because I closed the window!¡±

    When more and more people began to spread terror among themselves, even those with sturdier minds were getting affected.

    Brofen glimpsed at the trembling apprentices, then looked at Angor, who looked much, much better.

    ¡°Damn it. How old is Angor again? A freaking teenager¡¯s more daring than these adults. No wonder these fools had toe here and gamble for a destiny.¡±

    ¡°Hey, did you hear that?¡±

    Brofen got tired of all the rambling and was going to scold whoever just said that, only to see that it was Sennefer who sent that rm.

    It was unlikely for Sennefer to tell jokes in such a situation. Besides, she looked rather serious.

    Vifet tapped his cane on the floor and unleashed a circle of ripples around him, while his sand rat¡¯s ears suddenly grew bigger and helped him listen to the environment.

    ¡°Indeed... There is something.¡±

    However, Vifet couldn¡¯t tell what exactly was that noise, as it sounded both like low-pitched mumbling and breeze blowing over.

    ¡°Wait. I heard a bird.¡± Brofen frowned.

    Vifet gave him a side-nce. ¡°Ahem. That¡¯s Angor¡¯s familiar.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    Brofen looked that way and saw Angor ¡°talking¡± to a gray seabird.

    Angor finished his conversation and spoke to everyone, ¡°Toby just told me that someone¡¯s singing out there.¡±

    ¡°Singing??¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Not a song, but some kind of humming.¡±

    ¡°I agree.¡± Sennefer nodded. ¡°It doesn¡¯t contain any magic signature though.¡±

    ¡°Either way, it means something¡¯s nearby,¡± said Brofen. ¡°Do we find it or avoid it?¡±

    The sound was getting louder as Dokibell moved, which meant whoever was ¡°humming¡± was right in their way.

    Vifet shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid evading is not possible anymore. Our unknown friend has found us.¡±

 Chapter 979 - A Pub in the Graveyard

    <h4>Chapter 979: A Pub in the Graveyard</h4>

    No one could make out whoever was making that noise wanted.

    Dokibell decided to slow down its steps and tread more carefully.

    Meanwhile, Angor found the humming voice to be quite enjoyable, if he temporarily forgot the depressing air haunting the chapel.

    He felt... attracted to it.

    Even though he couldn¡¯t y music, he received lots of education for nobles that instructed him how to evaluate one. He could tell that the melodies hid a whiff of sadness even though it didn¡¯t mean to sound that way.

    ¡°Deep regard and hidden sorrow... Is someone recollecting a lost friend?¡±

    When Angor was still relishing the aria, Dokibell had arrived in front of a strange stone tablet.

    ¡°Hey, this wasn¡¯t here thest time I came.¡±

    Everybody took a look. They wouldn¡¯t have seen the broken stone as a ¡°tablet¡± at all if not for the monumental inscription on it.

    Angor couldn¡¯t understand the strangenguage. But he did sense more sadness overwhelming his mind when looking at it.

    ¡°It¡¯s Abyssal¡ªthe nativenguage used in the Abyss ne,¡± Madelyne exined in a small voice.

    Till now, wizards had discovered three strains of dialects in the outer levels of Abyss¡ªDemonic, Ancient Demonic, and Abyssal. As their names suggested, Demonic and Ancient Demonic were both used by demons. Though thetter one was also a powerful tool that only certain demons carrying ancient powers could use.

    The Abyssal, on the other hand, was a more ¡°general¡±nguage simr to the universal tongue used in the wizarding world. Most residents in the Abyss, including demons, could use it.

    ¡°Here lie the loyal warriors of the Undying Brigade,¡± Madelyne read the words aloud.

    Brofen frowned. ¡°Are you guys thinking about the same Undying Brigade as I?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not so sure,¡± said Vifet. ¡°Rumor has it that these folks were on a mission far away and never returned. Is this their grave?¡±

    Angor carefully listened to the wizards discussing and managed to learn what he could.

    The survivors of Cinder Rock were heading to Undying Street, a settlement established by the joint effort between humans, half-demons, and a small number of other native inhabitants of the Abyss. The name ¡°Undying Street¡± was used to pay respect to the Undying Brigade.

    But why did Dokibell im that the tablet wasn¡¯t here a while ago? Did someone recently put it here?

    ¡°Should we find another route and walk around this part?¡± asked Brofen.

    ¡°There isn¡¯t another route around here.¡± Sennefer shook her head. ¡°We¡¯ll just go ahead. The Undying Brigade is made of half-demons. Whoever¡¯s mourning them shouldn¡¯t be anyone too strong. Besides... The brigade greatly helped us when we built the Undying Street. If possible, we shall bring their remains back.¡±

    Dokibell kept moving forward as Sennefer ordered, but as silently as it could, for they wouldn¡¯t want to disturb the resting souls and anger who set the grave.

    The area suddenly grew dark without any forewarning, as if someone turned off the lights.

    Sennefer quickly stepped out of the chapel and gazed at the ck sky.

    While it was true that the Abyss was constantly murky, it was still rare for it to bepletely unlit like a moonless night.

    ¡°Curse it. I¡¯m afraid we stumbled into an alien dimension...¡±

    This much was obvious. The violent primal mana in the environment had quieted down, which shouldn¡¯t happen if they were still around the Veiled Coast.

    Following another order, Dokibell tried moving back. But no matter how far it went, they could not escape from the darkness.

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, we¡¯ll keep moving forward,¡± said Sennefer. ¡°Toward the source of the sound.¡±

    The area might have changed greatly, but the humming sound persisted. In fact, it just grew clearer.

    Dokibell spent a minute moving to the direction of the sound, and people saw a lot of gravestones and stone coffins scattered along the path.

    ¡°Now this looks more like a graveyard...¡± Brofenmented.

    ¡°Anyhow, we have to check what awaits us.¡±

    The symbols and texts on the gravestones had further confirmed it for them, that the Undying Brigade indeed rested here. Though they all agreed that they shouldn¡¯t touch the graves for now.

    A momentter, Dokibell stopped in front of a house and waited for further instructions.

    A lighted house in the middle of a graveyard wasn¡¯t a strange sight because it was probably where the grave keeper lived.

    However, it wasn¡¯t just an ordinary cottage. It was a pub house.

    It didn¡¯t have a sign, but the bar-style salon door and the bright designs already nailed it. Not to mention that the word ¡°Bar¡± was written on its roof, using Abyssal.

    Across the entrance, people saw several bar stools ced in front of a counter. Someone was mixing alcohol there. However, they could only see a pair of pale white hands with red fingernails.

    The humming sound came from right inside.

    Everyone fell into silence as they wondered why such a ce existed. Was it meant to serve drinks to ghosts?

    ¡°A trap, huh?¡± Sennefer jumped off from Dokibell and walked to the bar without a second thought.

    But she stopped in her track as she heard something nearby that sounded like stones grinding against each other.

    Not far from her position, a stone coffin had its lid moved aside by an armored hand, after which a human-shaped figure covered in full armor sat up from it. The armor seemed badly worn out, and the greatsword on his back was snapped.

    Sennefer, as well as those waiting on Dokibell, prepared to engage the enemy. But instead of attacking them, the armored man ignored them and walked into the pub, leaving a trail of footprints under his iron boots.

    As soon as the figure entered the house, the humming sound halted briefly as if the bartender was greeting the guest.

    ¡°A tavern for <i>actual</i> ghosts?¡± Angor stared at the strange sight agape.

    ¡°Humph. Foolish tricks.¡± Sennefer went ahead again.

    She failed to enter the bar, however, as a light barrier suddenly appeared at the entrance and bounced her away. It seemed the protection didn¡¯t mean to injure. She easily regained bnce and steadied herself.

    Furious, Sennefer ignited one of her fists and punched at the barrier.

    Her attack was perfectly reflected back her way. Thankfully, she did not use her full strength, or she might have been wounded for sure this time.

    Whatever just happened, it was clear that the owner of the pub did not intend to wee Sennefer.

    Sennefer looked a bit fearful right now because she clearly felt a terrifying auraing from the house. It felt as strong as Mister Monkey, which meant she would have no hope against it even if without her curse.

    She didn¡¯t know whether there was a mighty presence inside the bar right now, or that it was just the strange barrier. However, she did know that it was foolish of her to use violence so recklessly.

    ¡°... I apologize for my rude behaviors. I was too desperate to get something nice to drink. Please forgive me.¡±

    She didn¡¯t hear any response. However, the humming sound had stopped.

    ¡°May I have the honor of bing your guest?¡± Sennefer continued.

 Chapter 980 - Undying Brigade

    <h4>Chapter 980: Undying Brigade</h4>

    ¡°Humans?¡±

    Those outside the pub found the strange voice to be creepily enchanting. It was like a charming subus gently luring them to her embrace of death.

    Also, the respondent spoke to them using the universal tongue, whereas Sennefer apologized using Abyssal just now.

    Could it be a human inside the pub?

    ¡°We¡¯re human travelers.¡± Sennefer also switched to the universal tongue. ¡°We know the Undying Brigade too. They used to be our allies.¡±

    The others all realized that Sennefer was trying to be humble, which meant the situation was out of their control.

    Apparently, they had stumbled into the territory of someone stronger than Sennefer, and it was not a good sign.

    Madelyne used Voice Transmission to send Angor a message. ¡°I¡¯ll force open a ne passageway if it¡¯s necessary. Remember to keep up.¡±

    Angor nodded with a grim look.

    It was a bad idea to use ne passageways where the dimensional energy was fickle. It seemed Madelyne was assuming the worst already.

    The speaker in the pub heard Sennefer¡¯s ¡°introduction¡± and giggled in such an alluring way that most male creatures would surrender their bodies on the spot.

    ¡°It has been a thousand years since thest Grave Knight passed away. Since when did the Undying Brigade have human allies?¡±

    The voice spoke those words using the perfect universal tongue and in apletely unassuming way. Sennefer found it difficult to tell any useful clues from it.

    ¡°The family members of Grave Knights did not join them in their mission. Instead, they stayed in the outer levels, waiting for their return. They had given birth to new ns and settlements in all these years, while we are currently cooperating with them.¡±

    Sennefer assumed that the unknown speaker was friendly with the Undying Brigade and wished to achieve peace by using such an excuse.

    ¡°I see...¡± The in voice came again. ¡°You¡¯re allied with the descendants of the Undying Brigade. Sure. So why are you here?¡±

    ¡°We want to take the remains of the warriors back and tell our allies that they¡¯re now resting in peace.¡±

    ¡°Resting in peace, huh? How about you talk with ¡®them¡¯ right here?¡±

    The peaceful air in the graveyard suddenly began to stir.

    Dokibell sniffed around. ¡°Something is moving under us.¡±

    ¡°Skeletons. A lot of them.¡± Brofen looked around them with a grim look. ¡°They¡¯reing out.¡±

    The dark ground of the graveyard slowly turned white as a giant swarm of skeletons crawled out of their resting ces. This was not the end of it¡ªfollowing the skeletons, groups of armored knights emerged from their coffins and stared at the intruders using their glowing red eyes.

    ¡°They must be the elite fighters of the brigade¡ªthe Grave Knights,¡± expressed Brofen, a little panicked.

    ¡°I know that much! If you have time to speak the obvious, think of something to keep them away!¡± Madelyne stated.

    The first thing the resurrected warriors remembered to do was to gaze at the human intruders with clear killing intent.

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?¡± asked Sennefer, using a louder voice.

    ¡°You want to take them with you, no? Surely you must ask for their permission first?¡±

    The voice in the pub began humming again. But instead of the great sadness, people sensed hostility this time.

    The melody echoed across the graveyard, amplifying the dark energy of the undead soldiers by several folds.

    ...

    ¡°Humph. Too bad that I happen to hate humans,¡± a woman said from behind the bar counter, after finishing her ¡°song¡±.

    ¡°Did you draw them to the necropolis just to kill them?¡± The speaker was the armored knight who entered the pub earlier, who was enjoying a ss of bright yellow liquid.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t draw them. They found their way in themselves. Well, the energy of the necropolis is already leaking. I thought someone from the Demon Monastery would find us first, not human vagabonds.¡±

    ¡°... They weren¡¯t lying though. My children did side with the humans.¡±

    ¡°So what? Half-demons shouldn¡¯t care about what happened to their kin.¡±

    ...

    A fight was about to break out.

    Armies of skeletons were rushing to Sennefer and Dokibell with their weapons raised.

    ¡°These things aren¡¯t strong, but there are too many!¡± Madelyne quickly ascertained their disadvantage. ¡°Did the woman in the pub summon them? We won¡¯t be able to protect all the apprentices at this rate.¡±

    Brofen stepped up. ¡°I shall keep the chapel safe. If there¡¯s any need, I¡¯ll send everyone into my alchemy workshop.¡±

    Madelyne and Vifet nodded to Brofen and took positions to fend off the attacking skeletons on their own.

    ¡°Save your strength! The biggest enemy isn¡¯t here yet!¡± Sennefer ordered.

    These walking skeletons could not do anything to harm wizards. But on the other hand, four wizards couldn¡¯t kill the skeletons fast enough either because these creatures could alwayse back up.

    At first, Sennefer, Vifet, and Madelyne only tried to keep the enemies away by using minimal effort. asionally, there would be skeletons that slipped past them, who would then get pped away by Dokibell. But when they saw that Angor had trapped arge number of skeletons inside an illusion, they all decided to follow Angor¡¯s lead and herd more enemies that way.

    However, there was a limit to how many of them Angor could contain in his illusion. He had to constantly repair the illusion as the skeletons tried to shake free, and he couldn¡¯t keep this up forever.

    The knights suddenly moved, causing their ¡°minions¡± to obediently back away.

    These knights used to be wizard-level half-demons in their former lives. After a quick assessment, the wizards reached the conclusion that they couldn¡¯t afford to use their full effort against 15 wizard-level enemies and leave their backs open to further assaults.

    ¡°Retreat and find a way out of here!¡± Sennefer yelled. Since whoever was in the pub didn¡¯t give her any chance for negotiation, they had no reason to stay.

    They backtracked by following the original path while repelling all the pursuing skeletons, only to find that the edge of the graveyard was now blocked by the same light barrier they saw earlier at the pub.

    All of their effort to break through it ended in vain. And each time someone tried a stronger attack, they would be hurting themselves.

    A bit disheartened, Sennefer realized that the mighty aura she sensed from the pub must being from the woman who talked to her. And that woman didn¡¯t intend to let them leave alive.

    ¡°What now?¡± Madelyne also realized what was going on. ¡°Is it time for a ne passageway?¡±

    This was ast-ditch move. A ne passageway in the Abyss ne was very likely to send its travelers to unexpected danger. Even wizards wouldn¡¯t be sure to survive what was waiting on the other side.

    ¡°An extremely powerful presence wants us dead... But why didn¡¯t shee out and kill us herself? Is she toying with us?¡±

    People nced back at the approaching enemies and failed to think of any other way out.

    ¡°This leaves us no choice.¡± Sennefer sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait.¡±

    It was Angor who just interrupted them.

    The wizards didn¡¯t look pleased when an apprentice bothered them in such a dire situation. However, when thinking about Angor¡¯s particr prestige, they chose to be patient for now.

 Chapter 981 - A Way Out?

    <h4>Chapter 981: A Way Out?</h4>

    Angor would like to say something just because he knew how dangerous they currently were. If for some reason, their ne passageway failed or carried them into the center of monsters, the apprentices would all die faster than everyone else.

    He had a new idea in mind.

    When he met Toby for the first time and received a ¡°golden VIP card¡± from Toby, he ordered a serving of Greya¡¯s special dish, which was the Section Ephemera. He had yet to put it to use.

    As one of Greya¡¯s new inventions, this special ¡°living food¡± allowed them to open up a two-way passage between two ces or even different nes, on condition that the user knew the exact coordinate of their destination. And unlike a hastily-made ne passageway with an unknown exit, a two-way passageway with ¡°preset coordinates¡± was not affected by turbulent dimensional energy.

    Angor had no idea of how to fix the destination of the tunnel as an apprentice, so the Section Ephemera was pointless in his hand. But the wizards in the team should be able to do it.

    This was why he decided to offer the precious item¡ªhis own life was at risk.

    However, as he reached his spirit power into his bracelet and was going to take it out, he suddenly found a strange thing.

    He saw an object in there that was glowing unnaturally in red.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Madelyne noticed Angor¡¯s strange look.

    Sennefer also urged by saying, ¡°Speak already if you have something important to tell! We¡¯re in a hurry!¡±

    Angor considered and took out the glowing object instead, which immediately attracted everyone¡¯s attention with its intense aura of a truth-finder.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡ª¡± Sennefer¡¯s pupils constricted in shock. ¡°Sunders¡¯ blood?!¡±

    Angor nodded. ¡°My professor gave it to me. But this is the first time I saw it bing active.¡±

    Sennefer gave Angor¡¯s a serious stare and tried to inspect the red sphere.

    ¡°Sunders is... attempting to locate you. Usually, Sunders is known as a cold-blooded wizard who doesn¡¯t care about what happened to his students whatsoever. Guess this has changed.¡±

    Sunders was currently staying at level 3, which meant it was easier for him to find Angor. But if what Sennefer imed was true, that the strange pub was protected by someone way more powerful, then Sunders wouldn¡¯t make a difference to the situation bying.

    Upon hearing Angor¡¯s concern, Madelyne shook her head and exined, ¡°Mister Phantom might not help us defeat the enemies, but he¡¯s sure to provide a chance of escaping. If he knows where we are and stays outside this alien dimension, we can try to join our strength and create a short-range passageway while avoiding the risks of using a one-way ne passageway.¡±

    ¡°Then we shall wait and see.¡± Sennefer grew calm upon seeing a new hole. ¡°I believe that man can reach us in time.¡±

    ¡°Phew. That¡¯s a pleasant surprise.¡± Brofen gave Angor a curious nce. None of the wizards would have believed that it was an apprentice that provided a better solution.

    The sound of heavy footsteps suggested that the Grave Knights were closing in fast.

    ¡°Let¡¯s keep them off for as long as we can,¡± Madelyne spoke as she summoned vicious-looking nts around Dokibell, creating a green barrier.

    Vifet nodded. ¡°These undead can¡¯t do anything to us as long as that woman doesn¡¯te out.¡±

    Now the question was, would she stay behind and watch?

    To make sure, they kept their original formation by asking Brofen to watch over the chapel along with all the apprentices inside. If the woman suddenly decided to attack them directly, they would gamble their lives by diving into a ne passageway.

    The other wizards would remain outside and deal with the lesser enemies.

    Meanwhile, Angor held the blood sphere in his hand and warily waited.

    The battle continued on. asionally, a wizard who spent too much mana woulde back and swap positions with Brofen. The most important job right now was to stall, so they did not concentrate on killing enemies.

    When Madelyne¡¯s nts sessfully dragged another Grave Knight into the ground, the pub door was pushed open, causing everyone to jump out of alert.

    At the same time, Brofen prepared a pile of materials for building a ne passageway.

    People were relieved to see that it was the armored knight who just came out of the house, but not the woman they were worrying about.

    Compared to the other ones, this one looked a lot more ¡°chill¡± for some reason. He wasn¡¯t holding his weapon, and his eyes weren¡¯t glowing.

    Slowly, he moved to the center of the battlefield.

    The wizards didn¡¯t mind him at first. But they changed their mind when they saw all the other skeletons and Grave Knights giving way as if they were weing theirmander.

    Instead of leading his men into another assault, the knight stopped moving and spoke loudly using the universal tongue, ¡°It was our choice to travel far and die far. Unlike humans, we do not think it necessary to return home as corpses. To be buried along the path of our great mission is our honor.¡±

    This was the second person in these parts that talked normally, even though hisnguage didn¡¯t sound well-practiced.

    Those words clearly meant to deny Sennefer¡¯s excuse of ¡°retrieving the remains of the brigade¡±.

    Sennefer retorted, ¡°My decision was reckless, yes. But is it enough to cause us such hostility?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong. I have nothing against you.¡± The knight reached a hand behind and grasped the greatsword on his back. ¡°Unfortunately, <i>she</i> hates humans dearly. I¡¯m afraid I must abide by her decision and invite all of you to an eternal rest here at the necropolis, together with us.¡±

    He raised the sword over his head and shed in front of him, instantly unleashing the power of a truth-finder, when he just appeared harmless a second ago.

    It was possible for Sennefer to evade the attack, but she couldn¡¯t since this would expose Dokibell and the ¡°passengers¡± to danger.

    She covered her body in mes and used herself as a shield. She was sturdy enough to endure it thanks to her Bloodline enhancement.

    However, the strange knight did not intend to let her catch any breath. What was worse, his power level was increasing. As Sennefer deflected a flurry of sword attacks, the next ones grew deadlier until they almost equaled the might of a level-2 truth-finder.

    Losing her bnce, Sennefer was finally blown away.

    Madelyne and Vifet watched anxiously. There was nothing they could do to help a truth-finder right now.

    Sennefer climbed out of a pile of rubbles with a cruel look.

    Her body grew bigger. A pair of membranous wings spread out behind her back. Her forehead became hollowed and gave birth to another eye. Her arms disappeared and were reced by two sharp scythes.

    She flew into the air and gazed at the knight in her new form. For a brief moment, those watching the fight couldn¡¯t tell which one was the ¡°viin¡±.

    On top of Dokibell, Angor finally heard something from Sunders¡¯ sphere after such a long wait.

    ¡°Angor? Can you hear me?¡±

    Angor suddenly found himself brimming with excitement when hearing the simple question.

    ¡°Yes, professor.¡±

    ¡°... How did you end up in the Abyss?¡±

 Chapter 982 - Phantom Advent

    <h4>Chapter 982: Phantom Advent</h4>

    Angor could almost feel Sunders¡¯ anger hidden in the calm voice.

    In fact, Sunders had all the reasons to get angry. The Abyss was in a delicate state when everyone was trying their best to stay alive and avoid problems. When Angor showed up here at such a moment, he was only looking for trouble.

    Just the other day, Sunders received Sumesh¡¯s untimely visit and chased him away, which was fine because Sumesh at least knew how to protect himself in the Abyss. But Angor was a way bigger problem.

    Angor knew his professor was pissed off for real and quickly changed the subject. ¡°Ahem, I do have something to tell you, sir, but that can wait. We¡¯re in a pickle right now.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll let Mister Brofen do the exnation.¡±

    ¡°Brofen??!¡±

    <i>¡°Servant of Sugar¡± Brofen, an odd alchemist who always wanted to resurrect a vile demon? Why is Angor staying with him?</i>

    As Sunders wondered how much more headache-inducing annoyance his student had in stock, he heard another man¡¯s voice from the connection.

    ¡°It¡¯s me, Brofen, an alchemist working for the supply team of Moonfrost Union. Greetings, Mister Phantom.¡±

    Brofen slowly exined the situation, while Sunders listened with a cold look.

    ¡°You¡¯re currently in a ce called the ¡®necropolis¡¯?¡±

    ¡°A Grave Knight told us so. Just now, Miss Sennefer suggested that we set two coordinates from our respective positions so that we can use a stable passageway to get out¡ª¡±

    ¡°Tell me about this ¡®pub house¡¯. What does it look like?¡±

    ¡°Huh? It¡¯s a wooden building with a typical swinging door. The word ¡®Bar¡¯ is written on top of it using Abyssal. So, about our n¡ª¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the name of the barkeeper?¡±

    Angor saw Brofen getting impatient and decided to answer this one himself. ¡°Sir, we heard a woman talking to us, but we didn¡¯t see her face. She really hates humans though.¡±

    Sunders did not respond.

    ¡°Um, should we follow Miss Sennefer¡¯s suggestion¡ª¡±

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t worry about that. Watch yourself. I¡¯ll be there right away.¡±

    The sphere dimmed as Sunders canceled their connection.

    Brofen pinched his nose bridge. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±

    Angor shrugged. Nothing he could do now.

    Madelyne and Vifet had returned to the chapel. With Sennefer and the undead knight fighting, the other enemies had retreated farther away. Staying there would only drag Sennefer down.

    They all heard the conversation and would like to know what Sunders said right away.

    ¡°What¡¯s with the sad look?¡± Madelyne nced at Brofen. ¡°Did Mister Phantom get trapped as well?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not it. Just... Ugh.¡±

    Frustrated, Brofen repeated Sunders¡¯ words.

    Madelyne was very confused now. She never saw Sunders acting so strangely before.

    ¡°Mister Phantom wishes to know about that woman? Does he know who she is?¡± asked Vifet.

    Everyone including Angor was thinking about the same thing. It seemed as if Sunders recognized this graveyard.

    But none of the wizards present ever heard about this ¡°necropolis¡± before.

    The battle outside continued as Sennefer unleashed her full Bloodline power. The curse on her greatly reduced her strength. However, her superior Bloodline Art still allowed her to challenge a level-2 truth-finder just fine.

    The problem was, she could not keep this up for too long. Being inside this alien dimension had doubled her mana consumption, whereas her foe seemedpletely fine. She couldn¡¯t afford to prolong the fight.

    She was gaining more and more wounds and bruises on her body as time passed. Her limit was near.

    She found a chance and threw a hasty nce at Brofen to ask what happened to Sunders using eye contact.

    Brofen showed her an embarrassed smile.

    ¡°Curse it all. It was foolish of us to put our hope on someone else!¡±

    She changed her tactic and began avoiding confronting the knight head-on while inconspicuously telling Brofen to prepare a ne passageway.

    Brofen sighed andplied. This was seemingly the only way.

    But he stopped his action when he received another order from Sennefer.

    ¡°Release Kr?!¡± Brofen shook his head madly. ¡°No. That will be a disaster!¡±

    ¡°Just do it! If we get out of here alive, I¡¯ll ask Mister Monkey to give you another vile tentacle. All will vanish for naught if we all die!¡±

    Brofen took a deep breath and summoned his alchemy workshop. But before he could enter, a ray of bright light suddenly came from the sky and brightened the dark graveyard.

    Everyone including Brofen stopped moving and looked above.

    A rupture had appeared in the unlit sky, across which people could see the original gloomy sky of the Abyss ne.

    As they all wondered what was happening, a figure emerged from the rupture andnded on top of a gravestone.

    ¡°Evesting nighttime... So this is the rumored necropolis.¡±

    Old-fashioned ck gentleman suit, white shirt, polished boots, a delicate short cane, and a ck cape with red inner linings. The visitor¡¯s face was hidden under the wide brim of his top hat. But everything else on him had told people that, ¡°Phantom Master¡±, the killer machine, hade.

    ¡°He came inside when he could have brought us out to safety? My oh my...¡± Brofen moaned.

    Angor was also wondering about this problem. However, he did feel d to see his professor.

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Sennefer questioned Sunders when she saw the rupture in the sky closing up. ¡°Did Angor not tell you what we¡¯re dealing with?¡±

    Sunders removed his hat and allowed everyone to see his short green hair and a well-kept face of a middle-aged noble. He nced at the entrance of the chapel on Dokibell and saw Angor there. He then spoke to Sennefer.

    ¡°I just heard the existence of the legendary necropolis. Of course I won¡¯t let such a chance slip.¡±

    Step by step, he walked among the gravestones and approached the pub house in the distance with an almost exciting look.

    A broken greatsword suddenly materialized in front of him, followed by the armored knight who kept Sennefer upied just now.

    ¡°My boss means to eliminate all humans who set foot in this realm. You¡¯re not an exception.¡±

    The sword began to glow ominously.

    ¡°Watch out!¡± Sennefer yelled out. ¡°That thing can cut through the very dimension!¡±

    With a simple move, Sunders used his cane to parry the giant de several timesrger and undeniably heavier.

    To everyone¡¯s great surprise, he seeded as if he were fencing off a tree stick wielded by a child.

    He then gently tapped the cane against the ground, sending an invisible shockwave around him, causing arge group of the onlooking skeletons to sink under the dirt.

    ¡°They say that those inside the necropolis always obey their rules. For one, the ¡®witch of resurrection¡¯ does <i>not</i> reject any honest customer,¡± Sunders spoke as he walked to the pub door. ¡°Am I right, Miss Blaika?¡±

 Chapter 983 - Balalaika

    <h4>Chapter 983: Blaika</h4>

    The woman in the pub answered Sunders¡¯ question, much to Sennefer¡¯s surprise, ¡°Rules? We do. Though it remains to be seen whether you are an <i>honest</i> customer.¡±

    Her alluring voice caused Sunders to space out for a moment. But he recovered soon enough. He raised a hand, rubbed his thumb and index finger, and released a puff of glittering sand into the air, which was carried away by a sudden gust of wind.

    The ¡°shiny dust¡± was blown to a far cliff where people couldn¡¯t see. There, a woman with a fine body curve appeared and caught Sunders¡¯ ¡°gift¡± in her hand.

    ¡°Nice quality. Taken from the Scorched Forest from level 6? Heh. He¡¯s a brave one.¡±

    She stepped to the edge of the cliff and scattered the sand below, into an endless ocean.

    The calm water responded to her with calm tides.

    Seeing this, the woman began humming her song with a gentle look. It was a song of endless remembrance.

    ¡°Here ites again...¡± Madelyne frowned as the sound traveled to the graveyard. ¡°She¡¯s no longer in the pub?¡±

    ¡°Compared to that, I want to know what Mister Phantom meant. What¡¯s with this ¡®customer¡¯ thing?¡± Vifet questioned with an inquisitive look.

    ¡°He came here on his own will. He¡¯s looking for something,¡± Brofen added. ¡°If he¡¯s only here to rescue Angor, he could have done it from the outside.¡±

    People were all busy wondering what this ce meant to Sunders, so they weren¡¯t paying attention to the woman¡¯s song.

    The skeleton army and the Grave Knights were her only audience, who quietly enjoyed her performance before they slowly returned to their resting ces.

    The entire graveyard returned to be a silent ground again when the song ended. There were only broken gravestones and random craters that signified an intense battle.

    When there was only the reverberation of her voice echoing in the graveyard, she cast onest nce at the calm ocean and disappeared.

    ¡°The trade is on. Get inside,¡± she said from inside the pub house this time. The apathetic hostility in her voice was reced by imperceptible sadness.

    Sunders removed his hat and bowed slightly before entering through the entrance. The light barrier did not appear.

    Sennefer hesitated and tried moving into the building as well, only to see the barriering back.

    ¡°Humph!¡± Furious, she returned to Dokibell.

    ¡°Trade?¡± Brofen questioned. ¡°What trade? Is Mister Phantom buying stuff?¡±

    ¡°He paid with that dust, or whatever that is,¡± Sennefermented. She was right behind Sunders when Sunders offered his ¡°price¡±. ¡°Just wait for him toe back out and we¡¯ll know the answer.¡±

    For now, they could see nothing other than the dim yellow lighting from the windows.

    Sennefer tried to meditate and recover her mana, but the faint smell of good wine prevented her.

    About ten minutester, Sunders reappeared at the door, walked outside, and put on his top hat.

    ¡°Thank you for your kind hospitality.¡± Sunders bowed toward the door again.

    People heard the sound of another set of footsteps approaching the entrance and quickly looked that way.

    A pair of red, polished high-heels entered their view, followed by white, slim legs. Then a hand with silky skin and red fingernails slowly pushed the door open.

    When people finally saw the woman for real, they realized that she didn¡¯t look as breathtaking as they expected from her beautiful voice.

    She had long, curly hairbed into perfect waves. A single beauty spot was right beside her slightly unbnced lips. However, hermon look did not give people the boring impression they should be feeling. Instead, they feel captivated.

    Her strange charm was fully enchanted by the other details on her, such as her fine body, her unintended yet suggestive moves, and a long-handled smoking pipe that amplified her appeal of maturity.

    It was a different kind of beauty.

    ¡°I once heard that Blaika is more fascinating a being than the most seasoned subus. I see it was not a lie,¡± Sunders spoke softly.

    Blaika smiled brightly. ¡°I appreciate yourmendation. However, note that I do not take beautiful words as payment. Should youe again, remember to bring what¡¯s due.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°What are you two trading?¡± Sennefer suddenly chipped in. Telling from her hasty voice, she had yet to get rid of her frustration.

    Sunders looked at Sennefer but did not answer.

    Blaika inhaled from her pipe and released a cloud of white smoke in front of her. ¡°We have rules, if you don¡¯t know already. We don¡¯t share the privacy of our customers to those not involved in our agreement. Of course, you may choose to be another customer and buy the information you need, in which case I¡¯ll not refuse.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re trading information?¡± Sennefer insisted. ¡°What do I need to pay you?¡±

    ¡°Sand of Resurrection.¡±

    Sennefer frowned. She never heard of such a thing before.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t have it, let me see if you have something else of interest.¡± Blaika seemed more friendly to the team, probably because she just spent some time with a human.

    ¡°Such as?¡±

    Instead of answering, Blaika scanned everyone as her eyes glowed, which allowed her to look at every single object the team was carrying, including those protected by personal storage containers.

    ¡°What have you done??¡± Sennefer didn¡¯t look pleased.

    ¡°Pfft. You want to know what I¡¯m interested in, no? I saw... two particr items on you. Too bad they don¡¯t belong to you, telling from the magic marks.¡±

    Sennefer widened her eyes because what Blaika said was true. She carried two items entrusted by Mister Monkey, and this was supposed to be a secret.

    Disappointed, Blaika looked away, only to get attracted by another individual behind Sennefer¡ªAngor.

    She raised a hand and pointed Angor¡¯s way. ¡°You. You have something fun. Do you want to trade with me?¡±

    Angor instantly became the center of everyone¡¯s attention.

    Sunders was the one who looked surprised now. ¡°This boy has something you need?¡±

    ¡°Correct. More than one, actually.¡±

    <i>Howe?</i> Sennefer was also astonished now. <i>It¡¯s natural that Mister Monkey¡¯s possessions are of great value. So is Angor holding something equally important??!</i>

    ¡°May I know what you¡¯re referring too?¡± asked Sunders, not so friendly this time.

    ¡°Of course. His hand... I mean, the right one.¡±

    People all gazed at Angor¡¯s right hand and carefully checked. When they fully focused, they managed to see through the illusion and find out that this hand was slightlyrger than the other one. They also saw the green symbols floating around it.

    They had no idea what all these meant. But since Blaika said that it was worth noticing, then the strange sight must be holding a great mystery.

    Sennefer just remembered that Brofen once attempted to look into Angor¡¯s hand but failed to do so.

    Brofen, on the other hand, was greatly frustrated that he would never find a chance to check Angor as long as Sunders was here.

    Sunders took a closer look at Angor and saw Angor¡¯s entire right wrist tainted by nightmare energy. Whatever had gotten into Angor¡¯s body grew worse, since thest time they were together.

    ¡°Angor ran into the blond stranger again? Is that why he must talk to me at the time like this?¡± Sunders mumbled.

    Blaika suddenly spoke again, ¡°Other than his interesting hand, there¡¯s something around his chest...¡±

 Chapter 984 - The Longest Night

    <h4>Chapter 984: The Longest Night</h4>

    <i>My chest?</i> Angor grew a little panicked when he thought Blaika was talking about the Alien Eye.

    <i>Not even Mister Rein and the professor mentioned it. Could Blaika see it?</i>

    Blaika continued, ¡°It looks so familiar. Was it born in the Abyss?¡±

    <i>Huh? Didn¡¯t the Alien Eyee from outer space?</i>

    When Angor tried to think of an excuse to get out of the situation, he noticed that people were staring at his pocket, not his neck.

    Toby had poked his little head out and was curiously looking around.

    ¡°You mean Toby came from the Abyss?¡± asked Sunders.

    Blaika moved her fringe out of her eyes. ¡°The cutie is Toby? I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s from the Abyss, but I sense something familiar in his body. It¡¯s almost like... an old friend.¡±

    She looked at Angor in the eyes. ¡°What do you say? Give me your right hand and your little friend, and I shall fulfill one of your wishes. Any wish. Even if you want to be a wizard right away, I can help you.¡±

    Again, everyone gazed intensely at Angor, especially the apprentices hiding in the chapel, who couldn¡¯t hide their jealousy from their looks at all. Most of them had spent their lifetimes trying to reach the level of a wizard. They couldn¡¯t believe that Angor earned the chance so conveniently.

    Everyone, including the wizards, patiently waited for Angor¡¯s answer.

    Meanwhile, Angor felt greatly relieved that the woman was talking about Toby, not his pendant.

    Subconsciously, he ran a finger along Toby¡¯s head.

    ¡°Tweet...¡±

    That almost sounded sad.

    ¡°Oh, no worries. I¡¯m not anyone to decide your fate.¡±

    Angor would never use Toby to trade. Besides, he didn¡¯t believe that it was proper to have someone granting him a level instead of fighting for it on his own.

    Equivalent exchange was always rule number one. If someone found ¡°free lunch¡± in this world, it was sure to be a trap.

    As for his right hand... Even though Sunders once told him that he could remove it and get a new one if he didn¡¯t want it, he never actually tried such an approach. Moreover, his right hand was crucial when it came to controlling the dream wastnd. He couldn¡¯t lose it yet.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I can neither give up Toby nor give you my hand.¡±

    Blaika raised an eyebrow as she was expecting a different answer. But she wasn¡¯t going to force Angor.

    ¡°Fine. If you change your mind, I¡¯ll be waiting right here, the necropolis.¡±

    Again, she hummed her small melody and returned to the pub.

    With Blaika gone, Angor remained as the center of the spotlight. Any apprentice would agree to the offer without a second thought even if it meant surrendering their souls to demons.

    Sennefer gave Angor another thoughtful nce and looked away.

    Madelyne put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder, hoping tofort him. As an outsider, she wasn¡¯t going to speak her opinions when Sunders didn¡¯t say anything yet.

    Brofen stared at Angor for a moment longer. Whether he was interested in Angor or his hand couldn¡¯t be told.

    Vifet sighed and moved away on his walking cane.

    Thud!

    Angor was startled a little by his professor, who justnded in front of him. He wanted to say something, but Sunders¡¯ stern look convinced him to shut up.

    Sunders spoke to Sennefer, ¡°Prepare to leave. The trade is done. She has opened the exit for us.¡±

    ¡°Whatever is this ¡®trade¡¯?¡±

    ¡°I bought a piece of interesting information. As she said, if you wish to know more, feel free to trade with her on your own.¡±

    Sennefer had more questions. She wanted to know what ¡°Sand of Resurrection¡± was, what was a necropolis, and who was that woman. But she didn¡¯t ask. For one, she doubted Sunders would tell her anything. And it wasn¡¯t the time for it.

    ¡°Where should we go?¡±

    ¡°Keep moving forward. Across the night, awaits the light.¡±

    ¡°Across the night?¡±

    Sennefer didn¡¯t understand what that meant, but she saw Sunders pointing to a direction and decided to follow.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get out of here.¡±

    She was answered byplete silence.

    ¡°Dokibell? Time to go.¡±

    ¡°Zzzzzz...¡±

    When no one was looking, Dokibell had sprawled out and fallen asleep.

    Sennefer raised a fist covered in intense mes and bulging blood vessels.

    ¡°Rx, rx!¡± Brofen quickly rushed to her side and dragged her back. ¡°That¡¯s going to kill Dokibell for sure. Let me handle it.¡±

    Brofen created a spiritual stake using magic and reached it inside Dokibell¡¯s head.

    Startled by the great paining from the inside, Dokibell bounced up from the ground, sweating.

    After hearing more of Sennefer¡¯s mouthful, Dokibell obediently followed Sunders¡¯ direction with teary eyes.

    On their way, the graveyard remained quiet and tranquil. Blaika was ying another piece of music by using a strange-looking string instrument. Simrly, it sounded calm and cheerful at first, but extremely sorrowful when savored afterward.

    The light barrier that stopped themst them had disappeared. They sessfully moved out of the graveyard and saw an endless ocean at the edge of the path ahead.

    As Dokibell walked, theplete darkness in the sky slowly turned bright gray as if someone was mixing water with ink.

    ¡°Um, the Abyss doesn¡¯t have days and nights, right?¡±

    Sunders heard Angor¡¯s question and looked that way. It had been a year since they metst time. Angor didn¡¯t look much different, but his eyes were beginning to show the ambitious spirit of an adult.

    ¡°Of course the Abyss has time shifts. If you go to deeper levels, you¡¯ll see it¡¯s just like the wizarding world. As for the ¡®night¡¯ you¡¯re seeing now, it does not belong to ¡®the present¡¯. That ocean isn¡¯t a ¡®current¡¯ ocean either.¡±

    Sunders looked into the great distance as if he could see much more than what was in view.

    Angor sighed in relief. He thought his professor would scold him dearly instead of talking to him like normal.

    ¡°Sir, do you mean the night and the water around us are fake?¡±

    People around them all pricked up their ears to listen. They had been wondering where they were for a long time.

    Sunders shook his head. ¡°Fake? No. It¡¯s just they do not belong to the prevailing time. This realm... it is locked inside the longest night before Ragnar?k, along with those who were there to witness the event.¡±

    ¡°Ragnar?k¡± was an ancient tragedy that involved the deaths of many Grand Demons, ording to the few historical records that mentioned it. Nobody these days could tell what exactly happened, but one thing people cared about was that they could find great treasures and destinies from the remains and ruins left behind.

    ¡°Mister Phantom, are you saying Blaika came from before Ragnar?k?¡± Brofen thought he just realized something important.

    Sunders gave him an unamused glimpse. ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Then who the heck is she?¡± asked Sennefer. She still looked pissed off for receiving Blaika¡¯s ill treatment.

    ¡°You can see her as an informant of some sort. By visiting her, you may purchase secrets and clues only avable to the most shadowy figures, or special merchandise. As for why she¡¯s running a pub house here, she is trying to resurrect a sleeping soul.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why she needs ¡®Sand of Resurrection¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°Okay... What¡¯s she to do with the Undying Brigade? She sells stuff, so why did she attack us? And what changed her mind?¡±

 Chapter 985 - Overwatch Base

    <h4>Chapter 985: Overwatch Base</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Sunders did not have to disappoint Sennefer by not speaking, because something else just kept their attention.

    The evesting night was no more.

    When Dokibell stepped away from the graveyard, the darkness around began slowly dissipating. Now they could no longer see the necropolis all of a sudden. When they looked again, they had returned to the Veiled Coast without realizing it.

    ¡°We¡¯re back?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re back!¡±

    Several apprentices cheered in delight, for they just escaped from a nightmare.

    ¡°Don¡¯t rest on yoururels yet... You never know if something deadlier is waiting for you out here,¡± said Sunders. ¡°I heard that all monsters have disappeared from the Veiled Coast? I¡¯m positive it¡¯s not caused by the necropolis. A demon from the deeper levels must havee and gone to the Demon Monastery.

    ¡°Unlucky for us, that demon must have heard about the necropolis and woulde here sooner orter. Be prepared.¡±

    Not long after Sunders said those words, a group of strangely-shaped monsters rose into the sky in front of them.

    These monsters,manded by a Frost Troll almost as big as Dokibell, kept the team upied for two hours using its raw strength, which was almost of the same level as Sennefer but without her curse.

    When it realized it could not easily defeat Sunders or get past him and kill the others, it chose to retreat so that it could check out the necropolis in time.

    The battle drew to an eptable end, but with some minor casualties¡ªthree apprentices lost their limbs, and the wizards more or less gained some wounds.

    This was worse as a resultpared to the fight in the graveyard.

    ¡°That Grave Knight did not use his full strength, by the way.¡± Sunders nced at Sennefer. ¡°He chose to contain his power to even yours. Also, he could have easily killed the other members on the ride, but he didn¡¯t.¡±

    The knight who fought Sennefer was the highmander of the Undying Brigade. He knew Sennefer was indeed an ally of his descendants, so he never nned to go all-out and wipe out the human visitors.

    Though he at least had to show Blaika his loyalty by giving Sennefer some trouble.

    He took the bodies of his fallenrades to the necropolis so that they could be truly ¡°undying¡± by helping Blaika protect the necropolis as her guards. His original n was to stall for long enough, until Blaika ordered him to chase the humans away instead of going for their lives.

    However, Sunders¡¯ arrival changed everything.

    ¡°You want to know why Blaika changed her mind? That¡¯s because she¡¯s a trader. A trader values profit more than anything. You, however, did not appear as someone who was there to negotiate a trade. Besides, she does resent humans very much. That¡¯s why she¡¯s not so friendly to you.¡±

    Blaika did not break her ¡°rules¡± because she did not attack the team personally. Otherwise, Sennefer would have gone into the graves along with everyone else before Sunders came. Sunders did a small favor to the team by iming that he was a member of them, thus gaining Blaika¡¯s trust.

    ...

    Half a dayter, they sessfully left the coastal area.

    They would asionally bump into monsters or even demons. But none of them posed any threat to them with Sunders¡¯ assistance.

    After another two days, they arrived at the Shrieking Expanse, across which they could see the edge of the Prominent Forest in the far distance.

    During their trip, Sunders offered to tell everyone what he was willing to share about the necropolis and Blaika.

    For instance, ¡°Witch of Resurrection¡± Blaika used to be a resident of the Abyss ne. A great destiny granted her enough strength to fight against Grand Demons.

    As a result of several incidents, she came to the necropolis in search of a way to revive a soul.

    This particr soul meant a lot to her, so she could not leave the necropolis and look for the necessaryponent¡ªSand of Resurrection¡ªelsewhere. This was why she built a pub house and invited traders all around the realm to do deals with her.

    She established a set of rules in her territory, one of which was that she would not harm any visitors. However, a human exploited her rulester and caused her some serious trouble, so she began to hold a grudge against humans. epting the Undying Brigade was also one way to solve this problem.

    ...

    Arge group of apprentices was busy building fortifications at the edge of the Overwatch Base. One after another, walls, towers, and bunkers rose from the ground with the help of magic. Anyone who didn¡¯t know how to magically create buildings would not believe that the giant establishment was put into such a fine state under only half a year. And this was far from the end of it.

    ¡°Sighhh...¡± A fat apprentice nced at a piece of strange shade at the entrance of the base and unwillingly returned to his work.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up?¡± Another worker nearby, a small kid with his hair bound into a single braid, came to him.

    ¡°That.¡± The fat one pointed to the shadowed spot.

    ¡°That¡¯s Mister Eventide, right? Awesome. He knows we¡¯re gonna ck off when he¡¯s not looking, so he doesn¡¯t let us see him, so we don¡¯t know when to ck off!¡±

    ¡°My goodness. You should find a doctor and have your brain checked.¡± The fat man nced around them and saw many people currently ¡°cking off¡±. ¡°Your eyes too.¡±

    The kid gave him an ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡± look.

    ¡°Geez. Hey, Bobota, you talk to him. I can¡¯t afford to test my patience speaking to this little fool.¡±

    Another white-robed apprentice nearby, Bobota, yfully poked the kid¡¯s head and spoke, ¡°You see, when Mister Eventide is watching, it means we should rest as much as we can because he does not care whether we¡¯re working at all.¡±

    The kid widened his eyes. ¡°What¡¯s he doing then?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s... ying some kind of game, I think.¡± The fat apprentice scratched his head. ¡°A dude mentioned it.¡±

    ¡°A game?¡±

    ¡°I dunno. The other day, Mister Eventide had some trouble beating it, so he asked for Bobota¡¯s help.¡±

    Bobota nodded. ¡°Right. The game is set inside an illusion, called ¡®Monument Valley¡¯.¡±

    ¡°A game in an illusion? Monument Valley?¡±

    Bobota looked at the shadow. ¡°A very interesting game indeed.¡±

    ¡°Come on, tell us. What¡¯s gotten Mister Eventide so focused?¡±

    ¡°You see, there¡¯s this character in it called Ida¡ª¡±

    Bobota suddenly stopped talking and pointed to the forest area.

    ¡°Hold on. We have guests.¡±

    They saw a giant, white bear approaching their position. The creature was so big that it easily towered above the trees.

    Everyone recognized the bear because they all came to the Overwatch Base by riding on it.

    ¡°That¡¯s Dokibell!¡±

    The news of getting more poor workers in the base instantly reached everyone. This was good news for them because more people meant less work daily.

    All apprentices dropped their work or woke up from their naps, and they rushed to the bear to offer their ¡°warmest wee¡±.

    ¡°Let¡¯s join them.¡± The fat apprentice beckoned to his partners. ¡°If we can get a new job and be their instructors, we won¡¯t have to y with stones and bricks all day.¡±

    The instructor of new workers was responsible to teach them how to live and behave in the base. There might be asional troublemakers that made their job harder, but it was still better than building from dawn to dusk.

    Bobota didn¡¯t want to go because he didn¡¯t want to meet with the Moonfrost Union. However, his fat partner didn¡¯t give him any chance to pull out. He simply dragged both him and the kid away by using inescapable strength.

    The ruckus also dragged Kanter out of his game.

    ¡°Quiet down already! Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m studyin¡¯?¡±

    Kanter managed to ¡°borrow¡± Sunders¡¯ Monument Loop when Sunders was absent. He thought he could finish the game in time, but he just got stuck for more times than he expected.

    ¡°I tried to be considerate and let you take your unnecessary breathers. This is how you repay me, huh?!¡±

    Furious, he canceled the illusion and decided to give the ungrateful apprentices some serious scolding. And maybe give Bobota some teacher¡¯s advice while at it.

 Chapter 986 - Kanterâ€™s Request

    <h4>Chapter 986: Kanter¡¯s Request</h4>

    To Kanter, Dokibell¡¯s routine arrivals usually meant nothing. But this time, he was <i>very</i> surprised to see who was riding on the bear¡¯s back.

    Seeing Sennefer was still fine since she should totally be here. But why would Sunders stay with her?

    Confused, Kanter looked further ahead and saw Sunders speaking to an apprentice.

    ¡°Wait, apprentice?¡±

    Kanter didn¡¯t remember seeing Sunders talking to apprentices in such a peaceful way, except for when he was together with that particr young man he couldn¡¯t stop showing off to other people.

    Kanter failed to hold back his curiosity and triggered his Bloodline power to enhance his eyesight.

    His tant move easily alerted Sunders.

    When Sunders looked at Kanter, Angor also followed his lead and checked what was going on down there.

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s Mister Kanter. Wait, what¡¯s that in his hand? Isn¡¯t that¡ª¡±

    ¡°The Monument Loop,¡± Sunders deadpanned.

    Angor instantly realized what was going on. He knew his professor must have taken the ¡°toy¡± to others and showed it off to people.

    ¡°No, that isn¡¯t worth my time.¡± Sunders read Angor¡¯s mind. ¡°I left in a hurry when I detected my blood sphere and didn¡¯t lock my room, giving Kanter a chance to slip inside.¡±

    ¡°I see, sir.¡± Angor clearly didn¡¯t mean those words.

    Sunders humphed, embarrassed.

    ¡°There¡¯s some extra content to Monument Valley. Maybe we won¡¯t need them...¡± Angor mumbled in a loud voice to let Sunders hear him.

    ¡°Ahem. Show me, so that I can evaluate your illusion studies again. But remember, use your precious time on something more... productive, if you can.¡±

    ¡°Of course, sir.¡± Angor faked an honest smile.

    Meanwhile, Kanter was really shocked to see Angor showing up here. He couldn¡¯t understand how Mister Rein would allow such an important resource of Brute Cavern to dive straight into danger.

    ¡°Wait a second... ording to Sunders, it was Angor who made this Monument Loop thing. I can ask for another one from the boy so that I don¡¯t have to beg it from Sunders¡¯ stingy hands! Nice. And I can tell Angor to rece Ida with my dear Keely. That would be better!¡±

    Several apprentices showed up around him and interrupted his fantasies.

    He saw Bobota among theing group too. He had been assisting Bobota asionally because Bobota was a talented apprentice of Brute Cavern. Besides, Bobota helped him greatly when solving the puzzles of Monument Valley.

    ¡°You want to get chosen as their trainer, I take it?¡±

    The fat apprentice beside Bobota quickly nodded. ¡°Yes, sir. I promise I can get them into shape as fast as possible!¡±

    ¡°Fast, huh?¡± Kanter smiled. ¡°Just before the deadline?¡±

    ¡°Heh heh... No, sir. But it can¡¯t be helped if, you know, the new arrivals are too dumb to learn.¡±

    ¡°Humph. I know what you¡¯re thinking. And it¡¯s fine, giving you a few days to rest.¡±

    ¡°Thank you very much, Mister Kanter!¡±

    When Kanter proceeded to assign them new jobs, Bobota was looking at a bright-haired woman on top of Dokibell with an anxious expression.

    ¡°Witch of Wastnd¡± Sennefer.

    ¡°If Sennefer is here, then that guy wille soon after... That will be my chance.¡±

    Bobota grasped the crimson chain he carried on his body with a cruel look.

    ¡°Oi, you alright, Bobota?¡± His fat partner nudged him. ¡°Mister Kanter just gave us the roster. We¡¯re going to brief the new workers in a minute.¡±

    Bobota woke up from his thoughts and saw the apprentices on Dokibell flying down.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll be there right away.¡± Bobota sighed. He didn¡¯t want to draw any attention right now, which meant he had to ept the arrangement and go with the flow, even though he didn¡¯t want this new job.

    ¡°Only sixteen?¡± The fat apprenticeined while reading the file he just obtained, ¡°I wish they could bring us more.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because we¡¯re talking about the Overwatch Base.¡± Bobota went to Dokibell to inspect the new apprentices.

    Soon, the three of them gathered up all sixteen new workers and were going to take them to check out the other parts of the base.

    The child with braided hair suddenly stopped moving and pointed to Dokibell again. ¡°Hey, there¡¯s another apprentice up there. Isn¡¯t he going toe with us?¡±

    Bobota looked that way and widened his eyes in shock.

    ¡°Angor came as well??¡±

    ¡°You know him, Bobota?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. He¡¯s Mister Phantom¡¯s student. He probably is not with the new guys. Let¡¯s leave him be.¡±

    He turned away and headed to the base first.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you get in my way...¡± Bobota cursed when no one was looking.

    ...

    Angor, on the other hand, did not notice that one of his former customers was here. He was embarrassingly waiting for Sunders and Kanter, who were arguing over the Monument Loop.

    ¡°You shamelessly stole it from my room, and now you want Angor to make you a new one? Really?¡± Sunders pointed at Kanter¡¯s nose.

    ¡°That¡¯s two different matters!¡±

    ¡°Either way, this is not happening. I will not agree.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not asking <i>you</i>!¡± Kanter red at Sunders, before throwing Angor an amiable smile. ¡°Angor, my friend, while Keely did not mention your name much, I know she likes you. Come on. Help this old man out and I¡¯ll help you leave her some good impression in return.¡±

    Angor frowned. <i>What¡¯s this to do with Keely all of a sudden?</i>

    Since Kanter was Sunders¡¯ good friend, Angor did not want to reject the request directly and appear rude. He could only look at his professor, hoping for suggestions.

    ¡°I said no. You have an urgent project to work on recently; you don¡¯t have time to do random business with others,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°Erm, urgent project, sir?¡± <i>What project??</i>

    ¡°You told me yourself, no? You need to show me your illusion studies.¡±

    ¡°I¡ªI see. Ahem.¡± Angor gave Kanter an apologetic look. ¡°Mister Kanter, I came to the Abyss because I have something very important to discuss with my professor. I¡¯m about to challenge the wizard level soon. I¡¯m afraid everything else must wait.¡±

    ¡°Hold it, you¡¯re about to hit the wizard level?¡± Kanter showed a look of disbelief.

    <i>Didn¡¯t he just reach level-3st time we met? What the heck did he do??</i>

    Kanter found it impossible to persuade Angor now. As an elderly wizard, it would be way too shameless for him to hinder Angor¡¯s progress just because he wanted a ything.

    ¡°Hey, hey... Sunders? Can I borrow this Monument Loop for a little longer? I¡¯m about to reach the end. I can¡¯t sleep well again if I don¡¯t finish it.¡±

    Sunders scoffed, ¡°You¡¯ve been ying it for a full year, and you still haven¡¯t done it?¡±

    ¡°But I didn¡¯t actually get to keep it for a year! You just won¡¯t give it to me, as if it¡¯s some kind of cherished heirloom.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Take it and be on your way, I still have other business to do.¡± Sunders took Angor and walked away. ¡°You only have two weeks, by the way. After that, give it back whether you like it or not.¡±

 Chapter 987 - One Trouble After Another

    <h4>Chapter 987: One Trouble After Another</h4>

    Sennefer stayed behind and looked at the giant base ahead, wandering whether she shoulde here at all.

    Then she looked at Madelyne and Brofen, who were walking together.

    She knew that these two people came to find the same person, but with different intentions. Although she was not going to mind their business.

    ¡°Well, maybe I should tell Sunders to leave Madelyne be. They came from the same organization after all.¡± Sennefer muttered, before speaking to Brofen, ¡°Brofen,e with me and speak to Samantha first. Your n can wait.¡±

    Next, she turned to Madelyne. ¡°I won¡¯t stop you from whatever you¡¯re doing. But try not to cause too big a problem at the Overwatch Base. You should know how hard it is to keep everything peaceful.¡±

    Madelyne shed a scornful smile. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it the Moonfrost Union who started this shit in the Abyss?¡±

    ¡°Maybe. What can you do about it? Even Mister Rein of Brute Cavern is waiting for Mister Monkey to return.¡±

    Monkey was challenging the level of legendary bying to the Abyss. If he seeded, other powerful wizards like Rein Mute would soon follow suit, regardless of what kind of disaster their actions might cause.

    Madelyne spat and flew toward the base without minding Sennefer.

    Sennefer looked at thest wizard remaining, which was Vifet.

    The old man was thinking about something on his own with a sly smile.

    ¡°Vifet, you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hold it. I¡¯m not a troublemaker, mind you. Rest assured, I¡¯ll not dawdle in the base for too long. I¡¯m going into the deeper levels.¡±

    ¡°... Then you should be very careful. You know how the Abyss is like right now.¡±

    They left in different directions, after which Dokibell also strolled back into the forest to catch some much-needed beauty sleep, after so many days of walking.

    ...

    Following Sunders¡¯ lead, Angor moved through theplex passages inside the base.

    Most of the structure was built out of solid concrete and steel beams, which made the whole building appear like something taken out of modern movies. Though Angor wasn¡¯t in the mood to admire the architecture right now, because the dangerous aura on Sunders was returning.

    A momentter, they entered a study much like those used by Sunders.

    Angor saw his professor sitting down and looking at him with a pair of scrutinizing eyes that could almost reach the depth of his soul.

    ¡°Before everything, tell me, what happened to your right hand?¡±

    ¡°When studying uh, a new subject, I met with... ¡®him¡¯, again.¡±

    He didn¡¯t need to exin who ¡°him¡± was.

    ¡°A new subject, huh?¡±

    Sunders rubbed his left temple as he felt a headache again, which was no longer surprising when dealing with Angor. Judging from how many horrifying secrets Angor had brought him until now, such as making Mystery items and ¡°manifestation of Mystery¡±, he was well prepared to hear another stupefying awe.

    ¡°Hold up. Just... hold up. Let¡¯s see. The incident at Devil¡¯s Water that got the whole wizarding world pumped up. Don¡¯t tell me you caused it.¡± Sunders thought about the biggest event he could remember recently.

    ¡°Devil¡¯s Water? Which one are you referring to, sir?¡±

    <i>He¡¯s involved in more than one trouble?!</i> Sunders¡¯ inner self yelled madly.

    ¡°Ahem. Do you know the treasure hunt at Silver Palm Isle? Somebody said that a slippery thief of some sort stole the Mystery item everyone was looking for. Are you that thief, perchance?¡±

    ¡°No! If I have something so dangerous on me, do you believe I can make it back to the Fey Continent, hitch a ride with the Moonfrost Union, ande to you in one piece?¡±

    ¡°Alright. Point taken.¡±

    ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza was there to watch it happen. Sunders didn¡¯t believe Angor had what it took to escape under Flunza¡¯s nose even though Angor had been quite talented in hide-and-seek. Besides, nobody had discovered any trace of the ¡°thief¡± as of now. An apprentice couldn¡¯t stay hidden from the entire world like that.

    Sunders calmed his mind, only to get choked by what Angor had to say next.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t take the item. But-but I, um, identally stumbled into that dark dimension before everyone did...¡±

    ¡°Yooooou¡ª¡±

    <i>I should¡¯ve never trusted this little devil!</i>

    Sunders suddenly remembered the first time they met in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, when Angor appeared like a humble, kind child that fitted the image of a great academician.

    <i>Academician my boot! This monster¡¯s several times worse than Sumesh and Florabined!</i>

    Now he thought about it, he never felt so frequently angered before, until Angor showed up.

    He took several deep breaths and persuaded himself not to quit and leave Angor to whatever mischief that awaited.

    ¡°... Now, tell me, was that how you bumped into the blond stranger and caused your right hand to further grow?¡±

    Under Sunders¡¯ anticipating look, Angor slowly shook his head.

    Crack!

    The armchair Sunders was using became arm-less because of the gentleman¡¯s uncontrolled grasp.

    <i>Okay, okay... Sneaking into the dark dimension wasn¡¯t satisfying enough. I should have known.</i>

    Sunders decided not to ask what else Angor prepared for him so that he wouldn¡¯t get a heart attack too soon. He wished to solve problems one at a time.

    ¡°What exactly did you do at Silver Palm?¡±

    ¡°Trust me, sir, the treasure has nothing to do with me¡ª¡±

    Angor was startled into silence when the view around him suddenly changed. They were still in a study, but a different one. And he recognized this outdoor study¡ªit was Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden.

    Sunders¡¯ personal room in the Overwatch Base was already warded. But he wasn¡¯t sure whether it was enough to prevent powerful prophets from listening in, so he brought Angor here.

    ¡°Go on.¡± Sunders found another seat.

    ¡°As I said, it was an ident. It all started from a strange ship I found at Devil¡¯s Water...¡±

    In detail, Angor exined his voyage back to the Old Earth, along with everything he came across along the way, especially the strange logbook and the ¡°predictions¡± left behind by Lucas.

    By following the predictions, he came to the strange teleportation array under a dried-up well and ended up at the dark dimension.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t forget the Undead Reversal Project you told me to keep up, sir. In the secret dimension, I captured Torras and sessfully brought him back. Unfortunately, he lost that handy teleport ability upon regaining his sanity. I don¡¯t know... Maybe this is to be expected when you cleanse the undead?¡±

    Sunders did not say anything.

    ¡°Torras is the only thing I took from that ce, sir. Honest. I have no idea where that ¡®Mystery item¡¯ went.¡±

    Sunders was d that he saw Angor was being truthful.

    ording to Angor, the teleportation array was hidden at mortalnd for thousands of years without any form of protection. Somehow, Angor discovered it when no one else did.

    ¡°Was it pure luck, or the work of the Mystery treasure? And Angor, don¡¯t you even mention this to anyone else. I don¡¯t need to remind you of it, right?¡±

    Sunders found it to be a great pity that Angor failed to retrieve such a powerful item that might even manipte the future. But again, Angor would have no chance of taking it away if he did find it.

    ¡°Do you have this Torras person with you?¡±

    Angor nodded and released Torras from the Church of the Deceased.

    Torras panicked a little when seeing the sudden change of environment. But when he saw Angor nearby, he sighed in relief.

    ¡°Mister Padt! Please! Send me back to Foundation City! I need to finish up business with that a*shole. He ruined my name!!!¡±

 Chapter 988 - â€œTriflesâ€

    <h4>Chapter 988: ¡°Trifles¡±</h4>

    ¡°It¡¯s not like you have a good name among people before,¡± said Angor. ¡°The next time you go there, remove your helmet and let people look at your face. That will free you from random haters, I¡¯m sure.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°Because sworn knights do not use violence against helpless women and children.¡±

    When Torras would like to question what those words meant, he was interrupted by Sunders¡¯ cold voice from behind.

    ¡°This is the soul you found from the dark dimension?¡±

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°A decent one indeed. Pure, concentrated soul energy. No signs of proper training, but he surpassesmon level-2 apprentices already... Any Soul Maniptor would want such a servant.¡±

    ¡°He used to be a deadly undead. I used my revolver to turn him back. Here, professor,¡± Angor said as he handed over his research papers regarding Torras¡¯ condition.

    Sunders didn¡¯t need to read the papers because he already knew how Angor¡¯s gun worked. He asked to see Torras because Torras was supposedly the first person who used the rumored Mystery item. While it was true that Lucas sessfully made some wonderful predictions, he was hardly the ¡°user¡± of his own skull. It was Torras who got his hands on the skullter and triggered its power.

    Sunders asked Torras several questions about the item, hoping to learn something useful.

    Angor saw Sunders¡¯ serious attitude and wondered if his professor was aiming to find the item as well.

    Sunders nodded. ¡°The others have no clue where to look, whereas we know something they do not. That¡¯s a big advantage. When Maya returns from the Brilliance ne, I¡¯ll take you back to Brute Cavern and talk to her, by which time we can give it a try.¡±

    The skull was said to be a tactical-level weapon that held unlimited value. Sunders would never deny the fact that he also wished to get it. It might take hundreds of years for the ¡°predictions¡± toe true, but this was not a problem for wizards who have prolonged lives.

    ¡°What does Torras mean, he needs to find someone in Foundation City?¡±

    ¡°Oh. That¡¯s the ¡®new project¡¯ I meant to tell you, sir.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s how you got your right hand to be further affected, I take it?¡±

    Angor nodded. The dream wastnd did involve the blond stranger.

    <i>Foundation City...</i> Sunders pondered. <i>Don¡¯t tell me Angor entered the Nightmare Realm all by himself, found a ce called ¡°Foundation City¡±, and ran into the shady individual, which was probably Shava?</i>

    ¡°One question then. Which matter do you think is more problematic right now? The missing treasure or this new project of yours?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Well, the missing treasure, probably. After all, the whole world is looking for it.¡±

    Angor thought Sunders meant to ask whether his dream wastnd would affect the wizarding world in any way. For now, he did not foresee any immediate consequence caused by it.

    ¡°Why do you need toe all the way to the Abyss?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°I... It¡¯s about my previous teacher, sir. He needs help.¡±

    Sunders raised an eyebrow. He once promised to Angor that he would provide assistance for this matter.

    ¡°You want me to help him?¡±

    Whether it was saving or killing people for revenge was a trifle in the views of wizards. Sunders truly hoped that Angor only dealt with these insignificant things from now on so that he wouldn¡¯t receive any heart conditions due to too much shock.

    Again, he was both disappointed and startled by what Angor said next.

    ¡°I still want to cure his illness, sir. But note that Jon¡¯s a little different...¡±

    <i>Different??</i> Sunders got a bad feeling as his eyelids twitched.

    ¡°You see, he came from another world.¡±

    <i>Wait for it... I can take it. I¡¯m ready.</i> Sunders pinched his nose bridge.

    ¡°We heard Mister Mara speaking in Barbie¡¯s Restaurant, that Jon is a pure-blooded human, right? It was true. Jon is a human. A human from another world.¡±

    If this was revealed to the public, they would be upsetting both the Supreme Cult and a whole bunch of wizards who always believed that humans were only native in the wizarding world.

    Sunders felt his breaths bing rapid again.

    He should have known. Talking to Angor was like riding a roller coaster that reached all the way to heaven but without a brake.

    And people had been believing that he found a very <i>modest</i> student...

    ¡°Do you know what will happen if another soul hears about this?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I think.¡±

    ¡°Wizards who value practical experiences like me will be fine with it. But academism wizards who see their books as their absolute gods and Karabits who are all crazy about biological research will have you <i>devastated</i> when trying to get their hands on that teacher of yours! And even I can¡¯t shield you from them. Do NOT tell it to anyone, for any reason you may have!¡±

    ¡°But... A wizard, I mean, two of them, already knew.¡±

    Sunders threw his hands in the air. Again, he wanted to simply get out of here and leave the young man in front of him to fate.

    Slowly, Angor exined what happened at his home, using illusions, including the stances of Thewis and Eureka, and Jon¡¯s current state.

    ¡°How in the world did you get Goman King¡¯s national treasure into the mess...¡± Sunders facepalmed.

    Though this was almost nothingpared to what Angor had been stirring up.

    ¡°... I cannot tell you whether I can revive Jon for sure without seeing him first. But I¡¯ll try.¡±

    Sunders would do his best, both because Jon was Angor¡¯s dear teacher and that Jon was a precious ¡°specimen¡±.

    ¡°If what you said is all true, Thewis and Eureka are busy enough keeping themselves away from trouble. But that will change sooner orter. I¡¯ll find time and talk to them.¡±

    Angor released a long breath of relief. Getting Sunders to cure Jon¡¯s condition was his most important task foring to the Abyss. It seemed he was not disappointed.

    Next, Angor wanted to tell Sunders more about the dream wastnd. But Sunders stopped him.

    ¡°Hold on. Someone¡¯s looking for me.¡±

    Sunders took them out of the Gravity Garden, asked Angor to wait in his room, and left.

    It was Kanter outside, who brought a message for Sunders.

    ¡°Sennefer asked to see you. It seemed the Demon Castle next door is unnaturally increasing its defenses.¡±

    Sunders frowned. ¡°Did our target decide to pass through here?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell. But it¡¯s an important sign. As we feared, the Overwatch Base might be the true ¡®front line¡¯ of theing war.¡±

    The ¡°target¡± they mentioned referred to the descendant of a certain Grand Demon. ording to a piece of prophecy, this ¡°target¡± would recently travel past level 3, and Monkey¡¯s n was to capture it.

    However, there were many tunnels at level 3 used for traveling to other levels. This was why wizards have established eight forward operation bases all over level 3.

    As they believed, the Demon Castle couldn¡¯t have shown signs of big activities without a reason. If the demons were tightening their defense, they were probably weing an important figure. Of course, the ¡°target¡± was such an important figure.

    Sunders silently cursed the untimely event.

    ¡°Samantha already went to level 4 on a scouting mission. Sennefer meant to gather up the best fighters in the base,¡± said Kanter.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be there right away.¡± Sunders nodded. ¡°By the way, where is Dura right now?¡±

 Chapter 989 - Smell of Dreams

    <h4>Chapter 989: Smell of Dreams</h4>

    ¡°Dura?¡± Kanter raised an eyebrow. ¡°What, you want to help Madelyne and deal with her?¡±

    Everyone knew why Madelyne came when they saw her name on the list. It was Dura who ughtered her n, which was a rather famous tragedy in the wizarding world.

    Madelyne was the only survivor of the incident. When she chose toe to the Abyss and find Dura, what she wanted was in to see.

    ¡°Hey, listen. At this rate, Madelyne might see the futility of her impossible n and quit. But if you join them, you¡¯ll only worsen the problem.¡±

    Dura was stronger than Madelyne in terms of strength. She had been a truth-finder for quite a while. Even Kanter wasn¡¯t sure he could defeat Dura in a fight. This was why Kanter wanted to prevent Sunders from assisting Madelyne, so Madelyne would give up on herself.

    ¡°I will not join their fight for real,¡± said Sunders. ¡°However, Madelyne is a member of Brute Cavern. I should at least make sure she gets back alive.¡±

    Apart from this, Sunders also needed to make sure Dura did not bump into Angor.

    Bing a level-2 truth-finder did not help Dura develop a prudent state of mind at all. She would envy absolutely anyone who had something she wanted, be it mortals, wizards, or even demons. People even believed that she was using her mad character as a disguise so that she could kill people however she liked, using her desire as an excuse.

    Sunders surely didn¡¯t want to see Angor have one of his body parts taken away by ¡°The Grafter¡± Dura, only to receive a random part of an animal as a recement.

    ¡°I see. That¡¯s fine,¡± said Kanter. ¡°As for Dura¡¯s whereabouts... At least she¡¯s not in the base right now. I think she went to deeper levels looking for demons to kill.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Let¡¯s go talk to Sennefer.¡±

    ...

    An hourter, Sunders left the conference room with a serious look.

    Sennefer did not make it clear, but she was almost sure that their major target was going to show up at the Demon Castle. Moreover, the demons expanded their patrol range all the way to the other side of the Prominent Forest, bringing arge number of demons of different levels dangerously close to the Overwatch Base. Apart from keeping an eye on the castle, Samantha also went to rescue a group of wizards who got caught by the demons.

    ¡°Guess we hit the jackpot.¡± Kanter shook his head. ¡°Of all eight front line bases, the demons chose here.¡±

    Sunders frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t think this is certain. There¡¯s still the possibility that our target will choose another route.¡±

    ¡°Care to tell me why?¡±

    The clue Sunders bought from Blaika told him that their target was the sneaky type who wouldn¡¯t make a big fuss when they showed up. He doubted that the ruckus at the Demon Castle had anything to do with their prey. Though he wasn¡¯t going to tell this to anyone. It was only an assumption anyway.

    They were about to part ways when Kanter suddenly looked at a certain direction with a strange look.

    ¡°What is it?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°Something¡¯s not right...¡±

    Sunders followed Kanter¡¯s line of sight and noticed Kanter was looking toward where his temporary residence was.

    There was nothing in particr in sight, except for some decorative nts nearby whose leaves were slightly twitching.

    A small breeze was blowing over.

    ...

    A while ago.

    Angor was left with nothing to do in Sunders¡¯ room, so he decided to walk around just a little and see how this part of the base looked like.

    He did not find a single soul nearby, which was expected, since almost all apprentices were busy building barricades outside, while wizards all had their personal territories. As one of the strongest wizards in the base, a big area around Sunders¡¯ room was gged as private, so no one could get close.

    Since he had sufficient space and time, Angor suddenly wanted to test something.

    He couldn¡¯t reach the dream wastnd from the Abyss, but he had yet to find out whether the Dream Whelk still worked. If he used the whelk to pull items into ¡°sleep¡±, where would they go? The dream wastnd, or somewhere he didn¡¯t know?

    ording to Freud, items that were put to sleep this way should randomly enter the Dream Realm, where the general dreams of both people and objects appeared. But as far as Angor remembered, everything he tested with the whelk all showed up at the dream wastnd instead.

    He had a hunch that the dream wastnd came into existence thanks to a number of elementsbined together, including the whelk, his nightmare energy, and perhaps some luck. It was an exception, sandwiched between the Dream Realm and the Nightmare Realm.

    Now that he was unable to sense the dream wastnd in the Abyss ne, he found this to be a perfect chance to test another matter.

    Everything was ideal right now. For one, no one would carelessly wander into Sunders¡¯ turf. Also, he had the Geometric Lock to cover up the Mystery energy of the whelk. And if something went wrong and allowed the signature to be detected, nobody would care because Sunders also possessed Mystery items.

    He looked around and chose his test subject, which was arge bookshelf in Sunders¡¯ room.

    After expanding the protective effect of the Geometric Lock, he activated the Dream Whelk and put the bookshelf to sleep.

    He thought he was careful enough with his actions. Unfortunately, Kanter easily sensed the abnormal energy signature from afar.

    Kanter was not the only one alerted. In the deepest part of the Abyss, a powerful presence also felt the signature and opened its eyes.

    ¡°The smell of dreams... But it is hidden by another peculiar energy. Fine. The Dream Realm has nothing to do with the Abyss.¡±

    The area around returned to beplete darkness as the presence closed its glowing eyes.

    ...

    Angor¡¯s next step was to cast Dream Enkindle. But he was interrupted by a series of footstepsing from outside the door. Startled, he quickly took out his notebook and pretended that he was studying.

    Sunders and Kanter entered the room and immediately felt something wrong in the air.

    Angor looked up from his ¡°study¡± with an innocuous look. ¡°Professor, you¡¯re back! And good afternoon, Mister Kanter.¡±

    Sunders checked Angor¡¯s harmless look, looked around his room again, and felt something in his mind snap.

    <i>I was only away for an hour... Don¡¯t tell me this kid caused more trouble.</i>

    ¡°What did you just do?¡±

    Angor shook his head. ¡°Nothing, sir. I¡¯m finishing up a research report I have been working on.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t look convinced.

    Meanwhile, Kanter walked around the room curiously. He trusted his instinct and believed there was something in the room he overlooked.

    His eyes began to glow as he cast a level-1 spell, Remove Delirium. Using small traces and insignificant details, he recreated recent scenes that took ce around him.

    ¡°Weird. Is that Mystery energy? But how?¡±

    Sunders gazed at Angor.

    Angor felt the mental pressure and quickly admitted, ¡°I was testing a Mystery item a moment ago.¡±

    He showed the Dream Whelk to the wizards.

    Kanter didn¡¯t seem to mind the item because it was just right for Angor to use the whelk to study Mystery energy as someone who ¡°almost created a Mystery item before¡±. Since the Dream Whelk was universally believed to be useless, it was perfect for Angor, because no one woulde and take it by force.

    Kanter put a hand on Angor¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Keep this up. If one day, you sessfully figured out how to craft Mystery items, I can even consider entrusting Keely to you.¡±

    Angor¡¯s eyebrows twitched. <i>Whatever was that about?</i>

    Kanter walked away. ¡°I¡¯ll not take any more of your time, Sunders. I¡¯m in charge of watching the apprentices today.¡±

    Sunders waited for Kanter to leave the room before he smirked at Angor.

    ¡°Now spill it. What <i>were</i> you doing? Forget about using the stupid whelk to cover up your lie. That won¡¯t work with me.¡±

 Chapter 990 - Dream Wasteland

    <h4>Chapter 990: Dream Wastnd</h4>

    Angor¡¯s excuse wasn¡¯t a very good one because he had no reason to suddenly take out a Mystery item and risk upsetting a wizard at a time like this. Besides, he had ample time to do his ¡°research¡± elsewhere. Doing so in the Abyss ne was not a good choice.

    In Sunders¡¯ view, Angor was hiding something. Again.

    ¡°I was indeed using the whelk, sir. I want to know where an item affected by the whelk will go.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? It will go into a dream. Where else?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m still trying to find out, sir. But... My work was interrupted.¡±

    ¡°Huh...¡± Sunders looked at Angor up and down. ¡°What are the possible results you can think of?¡±

    ¡°I can only answer that after I¡¯m done with the test. May I have a few minutes?¡±

    Sunders nodded. He also would like to know what kind of curious subject Angor came up with.

    He watched as Angor began to release a strange energy ripple into the room while preparing a cantrip.

    <i>A minute has passed...</i> Sunders thought. <i>He¡¯s using a cantrip he just learned?</i>

    As Sunders tried to guess which cantrip Angor was working on, he saw Angor¡¯s body being covered in a bubble made of nightmare energy, before Angor fell sound asleep.

    ¡°A Dream Maniptor cantrip? That¡¯s rare. I hope he truly understood the cantrip model instead of risking a backfire by forcing it... But what exactly is he trying to do here?¡±

    Sunders thought Angor was attempting to find the ¡°sleeping item¡± by going to the Dream Realm. Usually, this was impossible because the Dream Realm was boundless and would continue to grow as new dreams and new thoughts were added to it. Without a way to urately locate the item to be found, Angor was basically trying to find a needle from a thousand haystacks randomly hidden at the bottom of the sea.

    In fact, the Dream Whelk was considered to be useless just because people couldn¡¯t use it to find ¡°sleeping items¡± in their dreams.

    A momentter, Angor woke up and began mumbling something with a thoughtful look.

    ¡°Did you seed?¡± asked Sunders.

    ¡°No, sir.¡±

    ¡°Phew.¡± Sunders crossed his legs. ¡°So your ¡®research¡¯ did not reach a favorable result after all.¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡± Angor hesitated. ¡°I failed to find it, but I think I could tell where it¡¯s hidden...¡±

    ¡°What?!¡±

    ...

    Sunders was taken to a dark, empty realm. There was nothing in view. The sky was dim, and thend was barren and boundless.

    It wasn¡¯t a strange sight in the Abyss because most ces looked so boring. However, Sunders could tell that this was not the Abyss ne. He could not use magic or any of his supernatural abilities. Apart from his trained muscles, he was as helpless as a mortal.

    While trying to calm his agitated heartbeats, he looked further and managed to see an object in the gloomy distance.

    A bookshelf.

    When he couldn¡¯t even find a piece of stone in this bare and deserted ce, looking at a bookshelf was indeed an odd experience.

    Also, he recognized the bookshelf as the same one in his room.

    Slowly, he walked to it and took out a book with a ck cover. The book was titled ¡°Practical Applications of Illusion Prisms¡±. He wrote this one.

    The content of the book, the quality of the ink used, the expensive papers... Everything told him that it was exactly the same book he kept on the shelf.

    ¡°Is this the Dream Realm? The Dream Whelk put the bookshelf here?¡±

    It was Angor who used Dream Enkindle to bring him to this ce. Entering the Dream Realm was no big deal because most wizards knew how to do it. But it was a whole different matter if someone was able to summon items from the reality into the Dream Realm and find their ¡°dreaming counterparts¡± with ease.

    Sunders turned back at the sound of footsteps. Angor just used Dream Enkindle on himself again and came as well.

    <i>He can find not only items, but people as well?</i> Sunders took a deep breath at the shocking realization.

    ¡°Can you freely search for what you want to look for in the Dream Realm, without any restrictions?¡± Sunders decided to ask.

    Angor stopped moving upon hearing the question as he was just confused by another thing. It seemed his previous assumption, that the Dream Whelk could be used to open up special territories like the dream wastnd, was correct, because he was now standing in a ce simr to the dream wastnd.

    More importantly, the special ¡°privileges¡± he gained in the dream wastnd, including Dream Gate and Gatekeeper, just became active. He was now free to control thending points of items or people he sent to sleep.

    This new piece of wastnd, or ¡°dream wastnd 2¡±, was slightly different from the previous one. He couldn¡¯t feel any nightmare energy, and he couldn¡¯t use his ¡°nightmare vision¡± to freely check every corner of this ce as he wanted.

    His Dream Gate ability told him that ¡°dream wastnd 2¡± was almost asrge as the old dream wastnd. However, they were not connected, which meant he couldn¡¯t go to Foundation City from here.

    Now the question was, what was the rtionship between the two wastnds? Since he retained his special privileges, was the new wastnd an independent extension of the other one? Could they get fused together?

    Seeing Angor unresponsive, Sunders repeated his question.

    Angor recovered from his thoughts and sighed. ¡°In fact, this is not the Dream Realm.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s... not?¡±

    Angor sat on the ground and slowly exined everything he knew about the dream wastnd.

    ¡°This was also how my right hand was further affected by those green stuff. At first, I did this to help Jon...¡±

    As Sunders heard what Angor had to say, he found his heart beating faster than what wasfortable. This was the biggest surpriseing from Angor today. Sunders somewhat expected Angor to save the best forst.

    The incident revolving around Lucas¡¯ skull only affected a small number of people, meaning, wizards who were looking for the item.

    As for Jon, his particr existence meant a lot to academism wizards and Karabits, but nothing more.

    The dream wastnd, however, was enough to change how the wizarding world worked. Or rather, it was no longer limited to the wizarding world, because Angor just created another one in the Abyss.

    Sunders almost felt his brain stop working due to the overwhelming discoveries Angor provided. Also, he couldn¡¯t believe that Angor could be so fearless as to deal with a possible nightmare domain without anyone¡¯s help, which resulted in more ¡°projection bloodline¡± being pumped into Angor¡¯s body.

    And to think Angor could control the dream wastnd at his free will using his right hand...

    Sunders wasn¡¯t sure if he was brave enough to im such arge nightmare domain if he ever found one. And Angor just hot-headedly went for it like it was nothing!

    This was not even the first time Angor did some dangerous business. During Twilight Auction, Angor almost summoned a deadly nightmare monster¡ªthe ¡°Queen¡±¡ªinto the wizarding world. His guts knew no bounds!

    Sunders clenched his teeth. ¡°Don¡¯t tell this to anyone!¡±

    He had said this for the third time today.

    ¡°I-I know.¡± Angor gulped when he saw Sunders¡¯ face almost twisting in rage.

    Sunders spent several minutes to grow calm and began asking Angor more about the dream wastnd. While he was still frustrated at Angor¡¯s unruly nature, he would admit that the dream wastnd was an unparalleled treasure if used properly.

    Angor never nned to keep this from Sunders, so he dly told what he could. Though he didn¡¯t get to speak for much time as something suddenly stopped him.

    His ¡°Gatekeeper¡± sent him a warning. Someone was trying to get inside by force.

 Chapter 991 - Destroyer

    <h4>Chapter 991: Destroyer</h4>

    By using ¡°Gatekeeper¡±, Angor changed his point of view so that he could look at the entire territory from above.

    He saw thend floating quietly in a dark and endless space. Further ahead, a single gigantic and glittering eyeball, which seemed to be hiding a small universe in it, was giving the piece ofnd a cold gaze.

    It reminded Angor of the previous dream wastnd. He used to see a gigantic creature coveting his newly-imed territory back then. But a stranger with blond hair¡ªShava, as he suspected¡ªhelped him chase the monster away for some reason, thus allowing Foundation City to be built.

    This time, however, he did not see anyone who could assist him.

    Beyond the boundary of the wastnd wasplete darkness, in which the glowing eyeball was the only thing visible. Angor wondered if this thing had a body hidden farther away. If so, that body must be asrge as the wastnd itself.

    He saw the eyeball releasing rays of light that were attempting to reach the wastnd by poking at a faint barrier protecting thend. The barrier was the work of his ¡°Gatekeeper¡±. Though he wasn¡¯t sure it was enough to stop such a terrifying intruder.

    For now, the barrier managed to block off all the tentacle-like energy rays, which didn¡¯t look easy. Angor was sure that the unknown monster could breach the barrier pretty easily if it used more direct means.

    As if to answer his question, a ck hand slowly pressed against the barrier.

    It looked like a human hand, but was insanely big, as it almost covered up the entire barrier.

    Almost instantly, Angor felt Gatekeeper breaking down.

    ¡°This is bad...¡± Angor immediately canceled his ability and opened his eyes.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Sunders frowned upon seeing his strange reaction.

    Sunders was waiting for Angor¡¯s further exnations regarding the dream wastnd. But all of a sudden, Angor stopped moving as if his soul wandered off.

    ¡°Professor, a terrible monster is attacking this ce. We need to wake up, now!¡±

    Crack!

    The sky above them shattered like ss. From the rupture, countless rays of light reached in, after which a golden eye appeared right outside the opening to peek inside.

    As soon as it did, Angor and Sunders¡¯ bodies vanished.

    After waking up from the ¡°dream wastnd 2¡±, Angor kept an eye on Gatekeeper so that he could still tell what was happening there.

    But the ¡°connection¡± didn¡¯tst very long. Like peeling an onion, the unknown monster destroyed the barrier bit by bit, after which Angor¡¯s ¡°monitor¡± waspletely shut off.

    Angor moaned in frustration. He already made ns to exploit his new territory and get some use out of it. He didn¡¯t see thising.

    Sunders gave him a questioning look.

    ¡°It¡¯s gone.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°My Gatekeeper is turned off. I think the new dream wastnd is no more.¡±

    Sunders shivered a little when he thought about the horrific eyeball he just saw. Every nerve in his body told him that it was hopeless to resist. It was like meeting with the gods as a mortal. He had not gone through such an experience in centuries.

    ¡°You told me that your previous territory was attacked by something simr, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, just after I removed the nightmare tunnel and secured it. But ¡®he¡¯ did something to persuade the monster into leaving. I¡¯m not sure whether the two attackers are the same one though. I can¡¯t see their entire body at all.¡±

    Angor wondered what these things were. Perhaps they were native monsters from the Dream Realm, and they were supposed to be so big?

    Freud once told him that, even though it was difficult to find creatures in the Dream Realm, it was still possible. As just like monsters people made up in their dreams, creatures living in the Dream Realm tended to be deadly.

    But since these things were rare, why would theye and bother his dream wastnd every time he built one? This didn¡¯t seem coincidental.

    ¡°Perhaps they¡¯re like the Supreme Cult,¡± said Sunders, after hearing Angor¡¯s suspicion. ¡°A ¡®dream wastnd¡¯ is a foreign, unexpected existence that falls out of their control, so they wille and eliminate it. Like different nes, the Dream Realm could have its own ¡®consciousness¡¯ that seeks to repel invaders.¡±

    ¡°Is it dangerous to stay in a dream wastnd then?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell yet. In my opinion, your previous turf should be safe for now since someone powerful was there to help you. But this might notst forever. This leaves you with our good old problem; if you get strong enough to fend off either people or monsters with bad intentions, you¡¯ll no longer have to worry about these matters.

    ¡°You know how the Supreme Cult is annoying? Yet they will never bother Monkey or Rein Mute because they cannot. Having enough strength will help you solve most problems in the world. Remember that.¡±

    Sunders sincerely hoped that Angor could reach that kind of level so that he wouldn¡¯t get hurt by possessing so many interesting secrets like manifestations of Mystery and dream wastnds. Angor didn¡¯t need to be the strongest wizard in the world. Bing a truth-finder was enough to keep nine out of ten scheming troublemakers away.

    Now, however... Angor was the biggest ¡°troublemaker¡± who tended to cause too many problems that could attract much unwanted attention from people should anything go wrong. And Sunders had to constantly clean up his mess.

    ¡°You should leave it be since it is already lost. Do not do such experiments again while you¡¯re here. It¡¯s a promising project, but the first thing you should do is to improve the safety of these privatends.¡±

    Sunders palmed his forehead. ¡°Get to it as soon as you return to the wizarding world. Such a useful tool will be acknowledged by treasure hunters who have the help of prophets. You don¡¯t have much time.¡±

    ¡°But even if they know about these ces, they can¡¯t get inside without using ¡®Nightmare Enkindle¡¯. Besides, my Gatekeeper can prevent them froming in.¡±

    ¡°That may be true. But what if they target <i>you</i>, not the dream wastnd?¡±

    Angor frowned.

    He wanted to exin that his Crimson Aegis could block off prophecy spells. But on second thought, it was not so reliable. He had no way of protecting the others in Foundation City from being detected by prophecy. The city was constantly growing. If someday, a prophet found a citizen, then they would figure out who built the city sooner orter.

    At least Crimson Aegis could prevent prophets from locating him directly. Using the avable time, he had to im the powers contained in the dream sphere and gain full control of the dream wastnd.

    Besides, he was not alone in this world. Apart from Sunders to protect him, Brute Cavern wouldn¡¯t want random prophets to peek their noses inside and annoy one of their members.

    Sunders continued, ¡°The Dream Whelk is no longer a ¡®useless item¡¯, I¡¯m afraid. Keep it safe. And... Please, hold yourself down and don¡¯t make any more surprises.¡±

    For now, Sunders would not ask Angor to hand over the whelk even though he discovered the true value of it. The whelk would disy its full potential in Angor¡¯s hand. And above everything, Angor was the biggest treasure he could hope for.

    By keeping Angor as his student, Sunders would be the first one to enjoy whatever profit Angor came up with. Harming Angor would be counterproductive.

    Besides, even if Sunders did not see problems as an egoist, he was beginning to like Angor.

 Chapter 992 - New Mission

    <h4>Chapter 992: New Mission</h4>

    Even though the new dream wastnd did notst for very long, it was enough for Sunders to fully foresee its value.

    While still annoyed at Angor¡¯s scary gifts, Sunders mustered his patience and began noting down some key points in his notebook.

    After hearing everything Angor had to say, Sunders also provided his suggestions for improving the dream wastnd in return.

    Apart from building cities, using ¡°privilege¡± to control the territory and unlimited alchemy, Sunders realized something way more important that could be achieved by a dream wastnd, which was creating a brand new world withprehensive structures and biosystems. And just like the wizarding world, the dream wastnd had its own set of rules, which could be freely passed on to its inhabitants.

    Building aplete world wouldn¡¯t happen any time soon. But Sunders knew he had to keep an eye on such a possibility in the long run, which would yield astonishing fruits in due time.

    As for unlimited alchemy... Both organizations that were trying to train alchemists and alchemists who had to spendrge amounts of materials daily would get crazy about the idea.

    Alchemy was one of the most costly subjects one could think of. If an organization could send their students into the dream wastnd and practice alchemy without actually consuming materials, they could maximize their chances of owning a team of full-fledged alchemists in no time. This alone equaled some of the most useful Mystery items known today.

    And to think that unlimited alchemy was far from being the only advantage provided by the dream wastnd...

    For example, if the ¡°consciousness¡± of deceased individuals could instead live on in the dream wastnd, it was not so different from immortality.

    Countless people in this world were either attempting to achieve immortality or die trying!

    ¡°This little freak...¡± Sunders was no longer sure whether he should be d or upset about finding Angor. ¡°Just in case, do you have any other surprises cached behind your back?¡±

    ¡°Hm? What do you mean, sir?¡±

    ¡°I mean, do you have anything else you have to tell me?¡±

    ¡°Oh...¡± Angor considered and reached into his storage. ¡°You need me to add my own discovery into <i>The Mystery of Nightmare Domain</i> within 50 years, right? Will this do?¡±

    Sunders epted a research report from Angor¡¯s hands.

    <i>Nightmare Energy and Dream Maniptor Arts</i>

    The title alone had told him enough.

    Sunders took a while to read the papers. As he expected, Angor had recorded how he had been altering Dream Maniptor cantrips by using nightmare energy to cast them, instead of using conventional mana.

    ¡°This is fine.¡± Sunders nodded. ¡°But we can both see that you haven¡¯t done enough.¡±

    Angor agreed. The new subject was still in its initial stage. Even so, 50 years was more than enough to finish it.

    After returning the papers to Angor, Sunders asked in a somewhat careful manner, ¡°Anything else?¡±

    Angor indeed had another piece of information to share with his professor, which was about the Torrent ne. But he changed his mind when he saw Sunders¡¯ expression clearly telling him to shut up.

    ¡°... Not for now, sir.¡±

    <i>Not for now??</i> Sunders knew it was not the case, but he decided not to ask. He badly needed a break.

    They spent a moment in silence, during which Sunders double-checked the notes about the dream wastnd.

    ¡°Sir... Can Jon¡¯s illness be cured?¡±

    Sunders looked up from his table and saw Angor staring into the dark sky outside with a sad look.

    ¡°When my job here is done, I¡¯ll go and check him.¡±

    In fact, Sunders would like to take Angor out of the Abyss ne as fast as possible. But with the situation getting more intense by the day, he couldn¡¯t afford to abandon his post now.

    ¡°Stay here for a few days and use your time to work on the second part of the Monument Loop. I want to see how your illusion will turn out.¡±

    Angor¡¯s sorrowful expression turned nk.

    ...

    It had been only a few hours since thest meeting when Sennefer summoned everyone into the conference room again, to discuss how they would rescue the wizards who were held as prisoners by demon patrols in level 4.

    Samantha just sent a message that she managed to get them out and were trying to return. But a group of demons was in hot pursuit, including two particrly powerful ones. Samantha was about to reach the entrance to level 3. But she needed reinforcement who would help her stop the enemies in Prominent Forest.

    Naturally, it had to be the strongest fighter the base had to offer.

    Hearing Sennefer¡¯s words, everyone looked at Sunders. Speaking of the strongest one currently in the base, people would think of Sunders first. Besides, illusions were perfect for keeping enemies behind.

    Sunders chose to ept the task.

    At the end of the conference, Sunders was thest one to leave the meeting room. He saw Kanter waiting for him.

    ¡°I saw Sennefer talking privately with you back there. Did she give you another secret mission or something?¡±

    ¡°No. She was only asking where to find Sand of Resurrection.¡±

    ¡°... Sennefer wants to trade with Blaika?¡± Kanter already heard about what happened at the necropolis.

    ¡°Yes. About that curse on her body, I believe.¡±

    ¡°Or maybe she wants to know more about our target.¡±

    ¡°Either way, we should leave her to her business. It¡¯s not like she can get her hands on the Sand of Resurrection just because she wants to. Enough of her. Kanter, keep an eye on Angor when I¡¯m away, will you?¡±

    ¡°Angor? He¡¯ll be fine as long as he remains in the base, no?¡±

    The truth was, Sunders was not telling Kanter to keep Angor safe. But he could not just tell Kanter that Angor tended to cause ¡°scary mischief¡± either.

    ¡°Just... Watch over him and get him out of trouble if he finds any.¡±

    ¡°Sure, sure.¡±

    ...

    Sunders departed from Overwatch Base by noon.

    He already told Angor to keep working on the Monument Loop and hoped to see the ¡°extra content¡± by his return. He mainly wished to keep Angor focused on something harmless in the meantime.

    Angor obediently got to his job. As soon as Sunders left, he found the necessary materials from his storage and began crafting.

    While at it, he identally knocked the ant nest over and caused it to tumble onto the floor. Several drops of Akeso¡¯s blood were thrown out of the nest in the process.

    But strangely, the Dream Weaver ant was nowhere to be seen.

    Angor made a full scan over the nest without finding the ant inside and suddenly realized something bad.

    This was not the first time for the ant to wander off. Previously, the creature tended to settle down inside the Soft Larva nest instead. And it didn¡¯t go there in peace¡ªafter feeding the Soft Larva eggs with Akeso¡¯s blood and letting them hatch, the ant would then mercilessly kill thervae for food.

    ¡°Not again...¡±

    Angor quickly searched for the Soft Larva nest. He didn¡¯t really care aboutmonrvae or their eggs, but he would like to protect that particrly big egg, which might be way more valuable.

    He found the nest, ced it on Sunders¡¯ desk, and reached a spirit feeler inside to look at what was going on.

 Chapter 993 - Larva Queen

    <h4>Chapter 993: Larva Queen</h4>

    The nest had turned into a mass grave full of deadrvae. The Dream Weaver had sessfully infiltrated the nest, no doubt.

    Angor looked further inside and was puzzled to see that the nest had been cleanly divided into two parts from the middle, with the ant upying one side while the remainingrvae stayed in the other.

    At first sight, it looked like a battlefield for the creatures. But what was actually going on wasn¡¯t really a battle. Instead, swarms of defenselessrvae surrendered themselves to the ant to feed it, just to stop it from advancing.

    And such a suicidal tactic worked well so far. As long as the ant had a full stomach, it would retreat somewhere quiet and take naps, before it woke up to ¡°hunt¡± again.

    Angor thought that thervae would soon exhaust their members at this rate. But to his confusion, he saw the rva territory¡± still full of them. There were way more wriggling worms in his view than the eggs he used to keep.

    These things couldn¡¯t just pop into existence out of thin air. Angor suspected that the particr big egg had something to do about this.

    He reached his spirit feeler all the way to the ¡°big room¡± he prepared for that egg and realized that it sessfully hatched without him knowing. However, the product of the egg was not a Soft Larva. It wasn¡¯t even close. He was looking at a lump of soft, moving substance that seemed to be the mixture of green goo and slime.

    This ¡°slime¡±, which was at least twenty timesrger than amon Soft Larvae, had taken up more than half of the room¡¯s space.

    As Angor wondered why such a monstrosity ended up in the worm nest, he suddenly noticed that, from the bottom of the slime, countless newbornrvae were rushing out to join the ¡°front line¡± of their battle.

    ¡°It¡¯s giving birth to more worms? And without eggs? Wait...¡±

    Across the translucent slime, he saw clusters ofrva eggs slowlying into existence, which then slowly turned into livingrvae, all of which happened inside the slime¡¯s body.

    Apart from new soldiers, a small number of thervae headed to the pile of Akeso¡¯s blood prepared by Angor, then carried small blocks of it back for the ¡°slime¡± to consume.

    ¡°My word...¡± Angor watched the creatures working in awe. ¡°Is this perhaps the mother of allrvae?¡±

    By keeping the nest, he was hoping that one of the Soft Larvae could mutate into a Mutation Larva, which was a lot more valuable thanmon Soft Larva. But... It was even better if he could find a ¡°Queen Larva¡± instead. With such a queen, he¡¯d have an unlimited supply of Soft Larvae, which meant more chances to gain mutated specimens out of them.

    Even if he somehow couldn¡¯t find a single mutatedrva, selling themonrvae in big numbers still meant a stable ie!

    He didn¡¯t see any specialrvae being born into the nest in this way yet. But he could wait. As long as the ¡°queen¡± could give him one of them, he would be expecting more.

    Thinking about how the ugly stuff could well be a money-making machine, Angor suddenly found the slime to be a lot more adorable.

    He quickly captured the Dream Weaver and forced it back into its previous home so that he wouldn¡¯t unnecessarily lose too manyrvae.

    He just realized that he never knew how Soft Larva eggs came into being or what their ¡°queen¡± looked like. For now, he would consider the strange slime to be their queen. But he would also remember to look into it when he found a chance.

    He put the nest back into his storage and left Sunders¡¯ room.

    The nest was a gift from Kanter. Since Kanter was in the base, Angor wanted to ask him whether he knew what the slime truly was.

    It was snowing badly outside. Within a short amount of time, thend around the base was covered under a thick curtain of white. It was getting harder and harder to see very far. Though Angor would admit that it was pleasant to see a brighter environment in the Abyss for a change, thanks to the reflective snowfield that made everything look shinier.

    Out of the corner of one eye, he saw a sudden red glimmering from the top of a guard tower nearby.

    It was gone by the time he looked that way.

    He shook his head and ignored the matter. Whether it was someone who just looked at him or if it was only him seeing things, it had nothing to do with him. There were wizards and apprentices wandering about all the time.

    After he left, a white-robed man moved to open ground from behind the tower with a grim look while fiddling a glowing red chain he carried on his shoulder.

    ...

    Angor had barely moved out of Sunders¡¯ personal territory when he saw Kantering down at him from the sky. The old wizard¡¯s pointy, triangr hat had been fully covered by snow. Combined with his white brows, they gave him quite a funny look.

    ¡°Good afternoon, sir.¡± Angor bowed.

    ¡°I thought Sunders is the only one who can remember the time in this sunless ce. But I guess we just got another. Heading to somewhere?¡±

    ¡°I have a question to ask. Didn¡¯t think I¡¯d find you so quickly.¡±

    Kanter came as soon as Angor left Sunders¡¯ room because he left a Wizard Eye nearby. To keep an eye on Angor, as requested by Sunders.

    ¡°You want to talk to me? Fine. Let¡¯s use Sunders¡¯ room instead of standing in this snow, shall we? And where did that nice smelle from? Sunders used incense in his room?¡±

    Angor nodded. He did see Sunders lighting up several sticks. Sunders mentioned that the smell of it could help people calm their spirits. But Angor did not feel anything particr.

    ¡°Lunar Incense is good stuff. When did he get so generous?¡± Kanter headed toward Sunders¡¯ ce first.

    While on his way, he nced at the guard tower that attracted Angor¡¯s attention a moment ago. Using his Wizard Eye, he clearly saw the person who just stood there. However, he wasn¡¯t going to care because that was a member of Brute Cavern.

    After entering the room, Kanter shook off some snow from his robe and quickly sat down beside an incense pot.

    He sniffed. ¡°Ahhh... Nice.¡±

    The soothing effect of Lunar Incense was weak and slowing. But for people who constantly suffered high mental pressure such as people who were working in the Overwatch Base, it was extremely good to have.

    The truth was, Kanter would like to use such a great chance and continue ying the Monument Loop, if Angor did not mention talking to him.

    ¡°So, what do you need?¡± Kanter took it easy on Sunders¡¯ chair and nced at Angor.

    ¡°Mister Kanter, do you still remember the Soft Larva eggs you gave me?¡±

    Kanter was a bit embarrassed to hear this. Back in the Floating Mech City, he wanted to show his goodwill to Angor but did not have anything too valuable on him, so he used the eggs he found by ident as a gift. These eggs were usually useless and difficult to breed. He wondered if Angor wanted to know how to hatch them properly.

    He quickly thought about an excuse he could use to dodge the question since he knew little about these things.

    ¡°Do Soft Larvae have a queen, sir? If so, what does it look like?¡±

    ¡°A queen?¡± Kanter wasn¡¯t expecting that. ¡°What are you thinking about all of a sudden?¡±

    Angor took out therva nest and showed it to Kanter. ¡°They spawned. And... There¡¯s this very strange individual among them. I want to know if it¡¯s their queen.¡±

    Kanter was frozen with shock.

 Chapter 994 - Heart of the Swarm

    <h4>Chapter 994: Heart of the Swarm</h4>

    <i>Isn¡¯t the nest supposed to be useless?? How did Angor find so many healthy eggs and even a queen?</i>

    When thinking about how he might have lost a great treasure, Kanter felt his heart aching with regret.

    ¡°But that¡¯s impossible. Mutation Larvae went extinct because their queen died off way before them. You can¡¯t just... bump into one all of a sudden!¡±

    ¡°But... I saw it giving birth to new eggs.¡±

    Kanter¡¯s eyebrows twitched. ¡°That can¡¯t be. You must have mistaken something else for a queenrva.¡±

    ¡°You gave me this nest, sir. Are you sure it only contained Soft Larva eggs?¡±

    Kanter slowly looked into the nest. A small part of him wanted to believe that Angor was talking nonsense. But he wouldn¡¯t hope for it.

    The piles of deadrvae around the entrance of the nest were enough to tell him that the nest was not the ¡°random, useless item¡± he used to believe.

    Before handing it to Angor, he only saw a few eggs inside. But now, he was looking at dozens of dry corpses lined up. The only way to exin this was that something was spawning new eggs.

    When he looked deeper inside and saw the ¡°slime¡±, he finally had a reason to scold himself for being so blind.

    That was indeed the queen of Soft Larvae. It perfectly corresponded with what he saw from relevant books.

    ¡°Is that not a queenrva, but something foreign?¡± Angor asked again, which badly worsened Kanter¡¯s inner trauma.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡ªwell¡ªI mean¡ªyes! It <i>is</i> a queen.¡±

    ¡°For real??¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah...¡± Kanter took a deep breath so that he would not lose his wise image of an elder. ¡°You¡¯ve done a good job taking care of them.¡±

    Kanter watched Angor joyfully checking the nest and couldn¡¯t stopining in his mind.

    <i>Well, I would never give it to anyone if I had known¡ªbut wait, I couldn¡¯t be so careless as to overlook a queen¡¯s egg back there. I checked more than once! Even the other wizards told me that these eggs were hopeless. The only thing worth mentioning is the nest itself. They said it¡¯s full of enriching energy that might help the eggs grow faster.</i>

    <i>But that alone couldn¡¯t change one of the eggs into a queen, could it?</i>

    Kanter shook his head and took the nest to look again.

    ¡°Why are so many of them dying though? Are they threatened by some kind of predator?¡±

    Angor scratched his head. ¡°I also have a Dream Weaver inside my storage. That thing kinda loves invading therva nest.¡±

    ¡°Dream Weavers eat Soft Larva? That¡¯s new.¡±

    Kanter kept looking and discovered another clue in the nest, which was a block of hardened blood.

    ¡°Such energy... That came from a wizard-level monster. At least.¡±

    ¡°Yes. Both the ant and thervae can drink it as food. In fact, the ant even helped the eggs grow by providing more blood to them, so it could find morervae to kill.¡±

    ¡°A Dream Weaver learned how to breed eggs??¡±

    Kanter knew that certain monster blood was good for feeding critters, including Soft Larva. But he never seeded when using such a method on the eggs he had, which also proved it for him that these eggs didn¡¯t have much potential.

    ¡°What¡¯s different in Angor¡¯s case? The ant? Or the blood?¡±

    Kanter asked for a drop of Akeso¡¯s blood from Angor and put it in his mouth.

    He immediately felt a powerful aura invading his nerves and quickly put up his inner defense to get it out.

    The aura contained overwhelming vitality energy that would undeniably help someone who consumed it grow stronger. But Kanter couldn¡¯t let it ¡°inside¡± because it also came with a foreign will that might harm him.

    This was one of the most energy-rich monster blood he saw in his life, if not the best one. It was enough to grant someone immortality if they knew how to remove the harmful element from it.

    No wonder therva eggs developed so vigorously.

    There was something else in the blood. Kanter thought he just recognized a small trace of smell from it. He knew that smell when he was studying in a medical school.

    ¡°What kind of monster is it?¡± he asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I think it¡¯s a snake or something that looks simr?¡±

    Kanter easily saw that Angor was hiding the truth. But he wouldn¡¯t force Angor to spill. There was no point.

    ¡°It¡¯s a perfect source of energy that can even rejuvenate someone on the brink of death.¡± Kanter sighed. ¡°Too bad we can¡¯t use it as is.¡±

    <i>Of course it is.</i> Angor thought. <i>It kept Dodoro young and alive for a thousand years!</i>

    <i>Hold a minute. Could we use the blood to help Jon? I need to ask the professorter.</i>

    ¡°The energy alone cannot evolve amonrva into a queen.¡± Kanter nced at the pile of worm corpses. ¡°This means the Dream Weaver yed a role in it.¡±

    ¡°The ant helped create a queen? How?¡±

    ¡°From the books I read before, a Soft Larva Queen does not dumprge numbers of eggs freely as this will exhaust it too fast. It did so probably because an ¡®enemy¡¯ is near. Using its spawns to create a wall of defense is the only tactic it could think of...¡±

    Angor nodded. It could be exined if a dangerous element stimted therva colony to undergo some sort of mutation, which in turn caused one of their members to turn into a queen. This queen knew that it would be ant food if it hatched too early, so it stayed dormant and consumed as much monster blood as it could to gain strength.

    In the end, the queen sessfully maintained a ¡°bnce¡± in order to stay alive, but at a cost.

    Using the energy provided by Akeso¡¯s blood, it could unlimitedly create new members to throw into the pan.

    Knowing these, Kanter didn¡¯t feel so bad for losing the nest. Even if he kept it in his hands, he didn¡¯t have the necessary materials to achieve such a miracle.

    ¡°Heh. There was a rumored legendary Summoner who called himself ¡®Heart of the Swarm¡¯. I never believed such ad existed because bugs can¡¯t possibly have hearts. But now I understand. Worms certainly can have a mastermind that gives themmands. A heart.¡±

    Kanter knew for a long time that Angor had unparalleled potential. He never doubted his eyes. But at this moment, he was beginning to envy Angor¡¯s fortune as well.

    ¡°Ahem, Angor? You know, the Phantom Ind is always in a good rtionship with my Lilith¡¯s n. Both Sumesh and Flora used to pay us visits. This leaves you the only one we have yet to wee. Once the fracas here is done, how about spending some time with us? You can use the chance to bond with Keely. She¡¯ll like it.¡±

    Angor slightly shook his head. He more or less knew why Kanter would bring up Keely¡¯s name every time they talked. But he wasn¡¯t going to mind.

    ¡°Sure, when I have the chance. And Mister Kanter? Can a Soft Larva Queeny different types of eggs, like the eggs of Mutation Larva?¡±

 Chapter 995 - Pilgrim of Misfortune

    <h4>Chapter 995: Pilgrim of Misfortune</h4>

    ¡°I can¡¯t tell you, this is not my profession.¡± Kanter stroked his beard. ¡°Though I can give you a suggestion. How about continuing what you have been doing, meaning, using the Dream Weaver to control thervae?¡±

    Kanter meant to say that therva queen was rapidly creatingrge numbers of eggs because of the ant. Perhaps Angor could change the behavior of the ant so that the queen started another ¡°colony control tactic¡±.

    ¡°For example, you can tell the ant to eat fewerrvae so that the queen feels less threatened and can have more time for other business, such as making new types ofrvae to deal with the ant. This way, you will see different types of eggs you expected, such as ¡®soldiers¡¯. Suppose the Soft Larva colony worked simrly as an ant colony, then they will certainly have different members for different roles.¡±

    ¡°I see... Yes. Amunity under life-threatening danger will undergo desperate development impossible in peaceful times.¡±

    Angor now had a new ¡°job¡± for the ant. He would tell the creature to attack therva nest once in a few days. Hopefully, the queenrva would respond to this ordingly.

    ¡°Welp. Selling thervae is already a considerate source of ie. Guess you found another great destiny out of me.¡±

    Kanter shook his head and took out the Monument Loop to y, while Angor immediately began arranging the ¡°coordinated invasion¡±.

    When Angor made enough preparations to ensure that the ant did what he wanted, it was already midnight. Though this couldn¡¯t be seen by looking outside the window because the area was always dark.

    Kanter left the ¡°Monument Valley¡± illusion and saw Angor setting up a series of alchemy applications around therva nest to achieve ¡°automated production¡±. Again, he was much amazed by Angor¡¯s creativity.

    ¡°Angor? I want to ask something. If you do get your hands on some Mutation Larvae, can you keep one of them for Keely?¡±

    It was extremely hard to study the Transform spell by normal means, so Kanter wanted to help Keely save time.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Angor agreed without a problem. After all, it was Kanter who gave him therva nest.

    Kanter nodded and left Sunders¡¯ room. He had some questions about the Monument Valley he wanted to ask of Angor. But seeing Angor so focused on working, he decided to wait for the next time.

    Besides, Bobota was also pretty good at the game.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t Bobota nearby?¡± Kanter pondered. ¡°I saw him standing on that tower. I¡¯ll just ask him for some pointers.¡±

    ...

    A group of wizards was waiting on top of a small hill, in the middle of Prominent Forest. From the vantage point, they could see something glowing up ahead. That was where the tunnel that connected level 3 and level 4 awaited.

    These wizards, who were recently rescued by Samantha, were waiting for a chance to reach the tunnel. They weren¡¯t moving yet because they knew two powerful demons woulde and intercept them.

    Two other wizards were waiting beside the tunnel. One of them was Samantha, who had been staying afloat in the sky by standing on a glittering icicle. Below her, Sunders was quietly leaning against a dead tree, lost in thoughts.

    Sunders was supposed to help the escaping wizards deal with the pursuing demons. But since the demons weren¡¯t showing up yet, Samantha decided to join him and stop the demons together, so everyone could make it through the tunnel safely.

    Carefully, Samantha nced at Sunders with a thoughtful frown.

    Sunders was still thinking about the dream wastnd and did not see her action.

    The truth was, he never took the ¡°powerful demons¡± seriously. Compared to the demons, he believed that Angor¡¯s new discovery was more important to him. Even Monkey¡¯s mission wouldn¡¯t persuade him into giving up Angor¡¯s amazing gifts, if he had to choose.

    The first thing he wanted to do right now was finding a way of removing the threats from the dream wastnd.

    He and Angor both agreed that each time the Dream Whelk was activated via nightmare energy in a new ce, it would create a piece of ¡°pseudo dream realm¡± that should not exist. Soon, the collective consciousness of the original world or some other known presence would send deadly monsters to eliminate the newly-generatednd.

    If they could somehow fend off the monsters and keep the new territories safe, could they build a lot of different ¡°dream wastnds¡± based on different nes and then use them to achieve freemunication no matter how far the ¡°wastnders¡± were apart? If so, they would make foreign expeditions several times easier.

    As for how to deal with the seemingly invincible monsters... Sunders had been thinking about this since he left the base.

    ¡°We can bring wizards there and use arge-scale spell to banish the monsters... But it remains to be found out how to regain our magic there.¡± He rubbed his forehead.

    ¡°You look anxious. Worried about the demons?¡± Samantha¡¯s charming yet distant voice came.

    Sunders gave her an unfriendly look but tried not to look too obvious.

    ¡°I¡¯m more worried about this whole mess. When will it end, I wonder?¡±

    ¡°Soon. I can feel it.¡±

    Their conversation was interrupted when the space around the tunnel was suddenly torn up like paper.

    ¡°The enemy is here!¡± Samantha immediately readied a spell she had been preparing.

    But she didn¡¯t see any targeting from the rupture. Instead, an overwhelming aura invaded her senses first, followed by a cloud of gray smog.

    Sunders called to her, ¡°Get back! That¡¯s not the demon we¡¯re expecting!¡±

    Samantha nodded and shed away, until they were several kilometers away from the tunnel.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Samantha questioned. ¡°That¡¯s certainly not the energy of a demon.¡±

    Sunders kept observing the rupture without responding.

    He saw several trees within the smog quickly withering. Then thend beneath them turned dull yellow and dry.

    ¡°It¡¯s drawing life source?¡± Samantha eximed.

    ¡°Not quite...¡±

    They saw a pair ofrge hands reaching out of the rupture, which then forced the small openingrge like prying a door.

    A giant body covered under dirty, tattered fabrics squeezed through while pumping more deadly smog into the environment from its skin.

    ¡°That¡¯s a Pilgrim of Misfortune.¡± Samantha¡¯s pupils shrank smaller in surprise.

    A Pilgrim of Misfortune wasn¡¯t necessarily powerful, but it was usually feared by more people because no matter where it went, it would leave a trail of endless misery and despair in its wake. And those who got too close to it would have their entire lives haunted by inescapable misfortune.

    It was like a curse that no one could lift, except for certain powerful wizards who studied how to manipte luck. Unfortunately, Fortune Maniption was a popr subject in the western continent, not the southern wizarding region.

    In other words, trying to confront a Pilgrim of Misfortune was a very, very bad idea.

    Thankfully, these monsters weren¡¯t usually hostile. It wouldn¡¯t attack people unless provoked first.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just hope it doesn¡¯t go anywhere near the Overwatch Base, or we¡¯re all toasted.¡±

    The monsters slowly looked around, and Sunders and Samantha quickly looked away.

    To their relief, it quietly moved toward the north.

    ¡°Is it going to the Veiled Coast?¡± Samantha wondered.

    ¡°At least we learned something. If a Pilgrim of Misfortune passed through, the demons we¡¯re waiting for won¡¯te. This includes our main guest. It will use another tunnel.¡±

 Chapter 996 - Moonfrost Periodical

    <h4>Chapter 996: Moonfrost Periodical</h4>

    The appearance of a Pilgrim of Misfortune set the entire Overwatch Base into an uproar.

    After sending the wizards back, Samantha immediately headed away to alert Skyward Ind. Meanwhile, Sennefer dispatched a team to keep an eye on where the monster went and prevent careless wizards from taking the same path.

    Samantha¡¯s presumption was correct. The Pilgrim of Misfortune indeed traveled to the Veiled Coast and then disappeared into the Veiled Sea.

    ...

    Angor looked at all the people running around the base through a window. Due to the recent change of event, the lively base had turned a lot more gloomy.

    ¡°Whatever is this thing?¡± Angor muttered. He had been fully concentrated on his studies, but the ruckus outside drew him out.

    ¡°It¡¯s a monster everyone would try to get away from. Let¡¯s say, even the lord of the abyss can not escape from its curse.¡±

    Angor turned around upon hearing the familiar voice of his professor and saw Sunders¡¯ body materializing behind him.

    ¡°You¡¯re back, professor!¡±

    ¡°I am.¡± Sunders shook some snow off his boots and gave Angor a curious glimpse. ¡°ording to Kanter, you didn¡¯t ¡®stay put¡¯ these days, did you?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything!¡± Angor faked his good old innocuous look.

    ¡°Heh. If you say so.¡±

    Sunders already heard from Kanter, about the Soft Larva Queen. It might appear as big news in the view of Kanter, but not so much for Sunders, when there were way bigger surprisesing from Angor, such as the dream wastnd.

    ¡°I think Ness once salvaged something from an abandonedb left behind by this ¡®Heart of the Swarm¡¯ wizard. I¡¯ll ask him about the worms when I have time for it.¡±

    ¡°Thank you very much, sir!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t put your hopes up. Maybe Ness won¡¯t tell us anything. Did you finish your, ahem, homework?¡±

    Angor looked down. He didn¡¯t find any time for it yet because therva nest kept his full attention.

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t think you¡¯ll return so soon.¡±

    ¡°You can do itter then. Once Samantha returns from Skyward Ind, the Overwatch Base should settle down a little since some of the tasks are no longer necessary. That¡¯s when I¡¯ll take you back to the wizarding world.¡±

    ¡°We can go back?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Neither friends nor foes woulde here now that a Pilgrim of Misfortune has shown up. This means Monkey¡¯s target will appear at one of the other operation bases. Many people here will be asked to swap to new posts.¡±

    ¡°Is this pilgrim thing so strong that no one can get near it?¡±

    ¡°The curse of misfortune it brings is irresistible. You can also contract the curse by walking on the trail it passed through. This is also why everyone in the base looked glum. They knew that this ce is likely to be abandoned.¡±

    The apprentices all stopped working when they heard that they would probably travel to another base soon. This wasn¡¯t exactly good news because making long travels in the Abyss wasn¡¯t safe.

    Some of the wizards didn¡¯t feel pleasant either. For example, Vifet was nning to use the tunnel to reach level 4. Now he could no longer do it.

    Simrly, Sennefer was frustrated since she just lost her chance of looking for the Sand of Resurrection from deeper levels.

    Madelyne, however, seemed to be the only one in the base who was actually happy about the consequence. Her enemy, Dura, was hunting in the deeper levels right now. She would like to see Dura get the curse bying back using the tainted tunnel. In the current situation, nobody could go and inform Dura of the danger.

    ...

    Angor spent a few days with his professor, during which they further talked about the dream wastnd or Angor¡¯s study.

    Samantha came back from Skyward Ind, bearing an order from the authorities, that those in the Overwatch Base would remain as they were until the extra defenses at the Demon Castle were lifted. If nothing else went wrong in the process, they would retreat to Port Kodo.

    Everybody knew that they were asked to stay just in case their target somehow showed up at the tainted tunnel, even if the chance was very slim.

    Instead of tightening their spirits, people in the Overwatch Base all chose to rx, because the base might be the safest one at this rate¡ªno demons would invade it and risk facing the curse.

    On the second day after Samantha¡¯s return, every wizard in the base received a secret issue of <i>Moonfrost Periodical</i>. This was a member-only magazine only avable to those working in the union. Though it was now a convention that wizards who were working at the front line of the Abyss were also allowed to look at them, no matter which organization they came from.

    Sunders was halfway through the magazine he just got when he suddenly summoned Angor into his room with a serious look.

    Angor, carrying a ss of golden liquid he just prepared, was badly startled by the event. He was going to enjoy some Milkberry Tree sap in the Gravity Garden peacefully when he was dragged out by Sunders.

    The point was, he couldn¡¯t let anyone see his habit!

    ¡°Ahem. I just need some juice, sir. All the study got me a dry throat,¡± he said as he scrambled to get the ss of milk into his storage.

    Sunders looked up from the magazine, and his serious expression was reced by a faint smile after seeing Angor¡¯s silly look.

    Seeing his professor almostughing at him, Angor wondered if Sunders intentionally embarrassed him like this.

    ¡°Well, let me show you something.¡± Sunders showed the page he was reading. ¡°They found traces of Lucas¡¯ Skull.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Angor quickly checked the title of the article.

    [Star Reading Reveals Us the Missing Treasure]

    In fact, Angor had been wondering where the treasure went after he escaped from the secret dimension. He knew there were lots of truth-finder wizards watching, including ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza. A thief couldn¡¯t possibly sneak away with the treasure under their noses.

    More importantly, the whole thing almost got him killed because Sliv suspected him.

    He kept on reading. ording to the magazine, a stargazer named Ivan discovered the clue from the stars.

    ¡°It¡¯s not held by a human?¡± Angor frowned. ¡°Did that Leviathan take it away? No... That many wizards would have killed it in this case.¡±

    ¡°They say that whoever stole the item might have entrusted the item to a familiar or an enved monster,¡± said Sunders. ¡°Also, this person possesses a rare alchemy tool that blocks off prophecy detection.¡±

    Those words got Angor worried because he happened to have something like that.

    <i>A familiar has it? Wait, don¡¯t tell me... Toby?!</i>

    <i>Toby did have time to snatch the skull when I wasn¡¯t looking. And my Crimson Aegis can protect him as well when he was with me.</i>

    Angor looked around to search for Toby but without finding him.

    When the area around the base became safer because of the tainted tunnel, and since Toby seemed to like the environment in the Abyss, Angor allowed the bird to take it easy on his own.

    ¡°What are you looking for?¡± Sunders saw Angor¡¯s strange reaction.

    Angor decided to tell Sunders his suspicion. ¡°I¡¯m thinking, could it be Toby who took it away?¡±

    Sunders chuckled. ¡°That can¡¯t be. Keep reading.¡±

 Chapter 997 - Prophecy and Visitor

    <h4>Chapter 997: Prophecy and Visitor</h4>

    Angor turned to the next page and continued reading.

    ¡°Wanderer of Bnce¡± Ivan imed that the current holder of the missing item could be a monster ¡°almost drenched in an intense impulsion of greed and madness, sided with unpleasant wetness¡±.

    ¡°Something evil that is wet. Did a sea monster take the item after all?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°It¡¯s too early to take guesses. But you should keep such a clue in mind.¡± Sunders stroked his chin. ¡°At least what Ivan told us ruled you out of suspicion. Once Maya gets back to Brute Cavern, we can take Torras to her and find out more about the skull.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... I really want to know who took the item now. By the way, what is this ¡®stargaze¡¯ thing?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a ritual held in Starliege Temple. When the timees, able Prophets will gather there to discover useful clues and secrets told by the stars, then they will predict iing events in the future. It¡¯s a big event in the southern region, mind you. This is one of the reasons why most Prophets all went to the Brilliance ne to study.¡±

    ¡°A meeting of Prophets? Did theye up with anything else?¡±

    ¡°Keep looking. There¡¯s more.¡±

    Angor simply took the magazine and picked a seat to read. He checked the previous pages first and saw a picture that showed Parmigi Hignds.

    ¡°Is it about the ne fusion?¡±

    The first prophecy told by the magazine was shorter. It was indeed rted to the ne fusion everyone was expecting, but there was little to say. Apart from ¡°a great destiny¡±, which was to be expected from every ne fusion, the Prophets only said that the entrance to the foreign ne was unlikely to appear at Parmigi Hignds.

    ¡°It¡¯s bad news for Brute Cavern,¡± said Sunders. ¡°If the entrance is near, we¡¯ll have the advantage of exploring the foreign ne ahead of everyone. Too bad now.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t very interested in this matter as he was busy enough staying away from it.

    The third piece of prophecy was provided by ¡°The Beyond¡± Azathoth. Azathoth said two things, one bad and one good.

    The bad news was ¡°the looming shadow above shall continue expanding, until it fully blocks off all light from us¡±.

    The Moonfrost Union wrote a long article trying to decipher these words and reached such a conclusion that Azathoth was referring to the demon invasion. Whereas most wizards were more or less horrified to hear about this, the union was actually d because if a demon invasion was in full swing, it meant their ¡°mission¡± must have seeded.

    Angor once saw an illusion made by Sunders that showed what became of the southern region when demons descended upon thend. Now he felt extremely unpleasant when the union described theing crisis as if talking about a festival.

    ¡°They will let the entire world suffer just to assist one individual to be a legendary wizard...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all about your perspective,¡± Sundersmented. ¡°Naturally, both humans or other creatures in the south would like to prevent the disaster. But for the Moonfrost Union, this is all worth it. If Monkey seeds, he will grant the union unthinkable reward. As for the demons, the world¡¯s consciousness will eventually deal with them. Again, profit means everything. Such is how wizards do.¡±

    Angor shook his head and looked at the good news.

    ¡°A great creation that might change the wizarding world is in the making? But he didn¡¯t say anything else.¡±

    ¡°We know it¡¯s true because Lupanyater proved that im. And I might have just gained an idea about what it is. The dream wastnd, perhaps.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡±

    Sunders maintained a nk expression. ¡°As I said, the dream wastnd holds an unlimited potential that will have far-reaching impacts on the wizarding world. Such an existence couldn¡¯t escape from prophecy for too long. They did not reach any more conclusions about it yet because the dream wastnd is only at its initial state.¡±

    Angor frowned, clearly worried.

    ¡°Don¡¯t stress yourself yet. Suppose they are indeed talking about the dream wastnd, they aren¡¯t going to find you any time soon.¡±

    Which meant this would happen in due time.

    ¡°Uhh, sir, is it okay if¡ªyou know. You don¡¯t seem bothered by it at all.¡±

    ¡°The dream wastnd should get noticed by Prophets sooner orter, so this is not a surprise. However, the prophecy was only done by the best Prophets during their yearly ¡®Stargaze¡¯ event and without revealing many details. This tells us that the secret is well-hidden. It will take years for them to know what they¡¯re trying to find, then more years toe if they want to find <i>you</i>. I believe you have ample time to make preparations. Meaning, getting stronger.¡±

    Angor sighed in relief.

    ¡°You should look at thest message. Compared to the other ones, thest one is more closely rted to you and me.¡±

    Confused, Angor turned to the next page.

    Unsurprisingly, thest piece of prophecy was told by none other than ¡°Unfading Globe¡± Lupanya, the leader of Starliege Temple. Lupanya only said a brief phrase, but the union spent several pages exining it.

    [Compared to the demon invasion, the cmity currently haunting the Evernight Kingdom and the Fairy World will cause us more harm than ever.]

    Angor just realized that the ¡°cmity¡± Lupanya was talking about was probably caused by the nightmare monsters, Fox and Froggy. And HE let those monsters out.

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re somewhat responsible for the incident.¡± Sunders saw Angor almost feeling guilty. ¡°But it¡¯s not as serious a problem as you think. The ¡®dragonfly nest¡¯ in Pocratee tells us that someone from the Nightmare Realm set up ns for invading the wizarding world a long ago. Recently, people discovered more of these nests in the Woonona Dominion, the Dungeon Ind, and the Simsung Regime. The parasites will show up one way or another. Your actions have little to do with them.

    ¡°For now, you shouldn¡¯t think too much about the nightmare monsters as they probably won¡¯t do much harm to you. Your biggest concern right now is the demon assault.¡±

    ...

    Revealing the prophecy found during the stargaze day was an important part of the magazine, but it was not the only thing it had to offer. Apart from these, the magazine also included some interesting rumors and how the front line bases in the Abyss ne were doing.

    It even described what recently happened at the Demon Castle nearby when this matter was only observed several days ago.

    Sunders suddenly looked at the room¡¯s window, which served as a clear boundary between the cozy room and the snowy weather outside.

    A hunched figure appeared outside, who was walking straight toward Sunders¡¯ room. Ahead of the figure, a rather fat sand rat was happily bouncing about. For some reason, this creature, which was naturally born in hot climates, didn¡¯t seem to mind the freezing temperature.

    The door of Sunders¡¯ room opened itself when the visitor came close.

    The sound of footsteps brought Angor out of his focus.

 Chapter 998 - Standards

    <h4>Chapter 998: Standards</h4>

    ¡°Mister Phantom.¡± The visitor steadied his walking cane and slightly bowed to Sunders.

    Sunders frowned upon seeing the unexpected guest. ¡°Something you need, Vifet?¡±

    Vifet nced at Angor, saw the issue of <i>Moonfrost Periodical</i>, and shed a concealed grin.

    ¡°I wish to consult you on something, Mister Phantom.¡±

    Angor stood up and excused himself. He knew that Vifet was probably here to ask about the Evernight Kingdom and the parasites. He had better stay out of the conversation.

    Sunders waited for Angor to leave the room and summoned a chair for Vifet to sit on.

    ¡°Go on. What do you want to know?¡±

    ¡°I believe Angor knew why I¡¯m here, but it seems he didn¡¯t intend to exin.¡± Vifet shook his head and put a hand on his rat. ¡°I was being too harsh on him back at the Frozen Wing. I understand if he wants some distance away from me.¡±

    Sunders could easily see that the old wizard was putting up a show. Though he didn¡¯t point it out. He also wanted to know what happened between Angor and Vifet.

    Vifet slowly looked down. ¡°Forgive me. But I couldn¡¯t possibly stay calm and collected when I heard about Cassini¡¯s name.¡±

    Vifet carefully observed Sunders¡¯ expression. To his disappointment, Sunders conveniently hid his eyes by looking at the desk.

    However, there was something worth noticing. Sunders had been subconsciously knuckling on the surface of the desk, but he stopped his movement upon hearing ¡°Cassini¡±.

    ¡°Let¡¯s drop these insignificant things.¡± Sunders looked up. ¡°You want to ask me questions, no? Get on with it.¡±

    ...

    Meanwhile, Angor, who had been reading the magazine on a sofa outside Sunders¡¯ study, suddenly felt a chill on his back.

    ¡°Oof. Did the snow get inside?¡± He put down the magazine and walked to the window.

    The gloomy sky was fully covered behind a raging snowstorm now, which made the base even darker.

    Angor got a bad feeling deep in his mind. He quickly tried to think of what might have gone wrong.

    <i>Is it Toby? I haven¡¯t seen him for over a day now. But Toby has the Dusky Feather and gravity power to help him escape from danger...</i>

    Just to be sure, Angor wanted to go outside and look for his partner. But before he could leave, Sunders and Vifet joined him in the living room.

    ¡°Thanks for your time, Mister Phantom. I learned a lot today,¡± Vifet said as he walked to the exit, until he saw Angor there. ¡°And Angor, my promise earlier still stands.¡±

    ¡°Um, promise?¡±

    ¡°The scroll you¡¯re looking for.¡±

    Vifet nodded to both Sunders and Angor before disappearing into the storm.

    Sunders crossed his arms as he asked, ¡°What, nning to go out there and y with snow?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. I just had this feeling. I was afraid that something might have happened to Toby...¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡±

    Angor was a bit terrified to see that his professor almost looked angry again.

    ¡°Humph. Yes, there¡¯s something. Not about Toby, but <i>you</i>. Nowe inside. I have more questions to ask.¡±

    Angor obeyed and used Vifet¡¯s seat.

    ¡°Tell me what¡¯s going on between you and Vifet.¡±

    Angor just realized that he had yet another important matter to tell Sunders, but hepletely forgot it.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing, sir.¡±

    ¡°Nothing, eh? Have you perhaps heard about ¡®Cassini¡¯?¡± Sunders gave his desk two hard knocks to put some stress on Angor. ¡°Don¡¯t you tell me you actually met with Cassini, or did you?¡±

    Angor slowly but surely nodded.

    Sunders almost cursed out loudly. This had told him that Angor had been ¡°marked¡± by Cassini, the Time Thief.

    While apprentices and ignorant wizards usually saw this as a blessing, seasoned wizards like Sunders knew for a fact that this was a bad sign. If someone was marked by the Time Thief, they would be seeing him every time they made a life-changing choice in the future, while the Time Thief would always ¡°steal¡± the discarded choice for his own use.

    This would keep on until the Time Thief made sure that his target would certainly fail to be a truth-finder.

    Those who saw it as a gift all believed so because the Time Thief usually paid great rewards for taking away people¡¯s choices. But in the views of truth-finders, Cassini was a downright criminal, because he would subtly influence people¡¯s decisions as he saw fit.

    The Elder of Books from Brute Cavern once left ament about the Time Thief.

    ¡°How can we tell if the choice stolen by the Time Thief is right or wrong? By making choices, we create unlimited opportunities that will affect our lives in different ways. Right or wrong, they are our own decisions. However, by gaining benefit from the Time Thief, your future choices will slowly get led astray. As we all know, each person should independently choose his or her path without relying on anybody. But the Time Thief ruins you by telling you what to do, using his own standards. If you fell into his trap and went after his rewards, you will eventually reach a point where you no longer know which way to follow, with no turning back.¡±

    Sunders couldn¡¯t tell this to Angor yet because this would cause Angor to actually think about how to deal with the Time Thief. He had to let Angor choose his own way, or it would make the Time Thief¡¯s job easier.

    Sunders tried to quench his anger as he could almost hear the Time Thiefughing at them.

    ¡°... I¡¯ll only say one thing about Cassini. Keep in mind that Cassini is not an almighty figure you should obey. He¡¯s called a ¡®thief¡¯ and not a saint for a good reason.¡±

    Angor clearly felt that his professor was being <i>very</i> patient with him. These words had to mean a lot.

    Sunders took a deep breath. ¡°Now tell me, however did you find him?¡±

    Without holding anything back, Angor exined how he made Crimson Aegis as well as what this item could do.

    ¡°The alchemy omen trapped you within the body of a madman for decades, and you refused to be one with him?¡±

    Angor¡¯s alchemy omen reminded Sunders of something. When he ran into the Time Thief, he was making an important choice that would determine him as either a ¡°white wizard¡± or a ck one. He chose ¡°ck wizard¡± then.

    ¡°He¡¯s still using the same trick,¡± Sunders scoffed. ¡°Forcing you to choose a side... This Crimson Aegis is pretty helpful in your case, especially when the dream wastnd is at risk of being found out. Keep the effect on for as long as you can. By the way, you made the Crimson Aegis half a year ago, right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s correct, sir.¡±

    Sunders just remembered that, about half a year ago, he had a dream about the Time Thief. It was as if the Time Thief wanted to show him a new unfortunate prey.

    But he would never have thought that Angor was the ¡°unfortunate prey¡±.

    Coincidence did make wonders in this world.

    At least Angor did not have to worry about the Time Thief before bing a truth-finder. Moreover, if he could smartly confront the Time Thief from now on, he might even gain something useful.

 Chapter 999 - Ancient Demon

    <h4>Chapter 999: Ancient Demon</h4>

    Angor was d that Sunders did not scold him further or ask more about ¡°Cassini¡±.

    ¡°Professor, did Mister Vifete to ask about the situation in the Evernight Kingdom?¡±

    ¡°Right, since you didn¡¯t tell him, which is the right thing to do because you may identally spill something you aren¡¯t supposed to tell, or he can trick you into speaking.¡±

    ¡°What did you tell him? He seemed satisfied.¡±

    ¡°He wanted to know two points. The first is whether the parasites will spread to Moxa Wesnd. The second is what truly brought the dark domes and parasites.¡±

    Sunders¡¯ answers were simple; the affected areas would increase, fast. And it was caused by the Nightmare Realm. He would let Vifet imagine the rest of the details.

    He told Vifet about the Nightmare Realm because people would find the cause sooner orter since so many ¡°dragonfly nests¡± were popping up elsewhere. Wizards might not be able to travel to the Nightmare Realm using these unsecured tunnels, but Prophets would know who made them anyway.

    Besides, Lupanya predicted ¡°a cmity worse than the demon invasion¡±, and the Nightmare Realm perfectly fitted this description.

    Compared to the Abyss ne, which was a ce full of unexpected danger that would im the lives of the unwary, the Nightmare Realm was more like an inescapable nightmare. Slowly, it would haunt those who were trapped in it until they were lost to the void.

    Today, the Nightmare Realm wasmonly believed to be the deadliest ce people ever discovered.

    Of course Vifet knew that there was more to be heard from Sunders. But unlike talking to Angor, he couldn¡¯t force Sunders¡¯ decision.

    Angor sighed. He wondered when he would reach Sunders¡¯ level so that he could also say no to wizards like that.

    Since the Overwatch Base was temporarily peaceful, Angor wanted to finish the second part of the Monument Loop before Sunders urged him to. But Sunders didn¡¯t let him leave.

    ¡°Since you¡¯ve about to tackle your limit before the wizard level, you must think about how to arrange your first spell slot now. I mentioned this back at Phantom Ind, didn¡¯t I? Have you made a decision?¡±

    Back then, Sunders did not press Angor into a decision because he wanted Angor to take it slow and hopefully create an original spell to use. But this no longer seemed a correct choice when the southern wizarding region would get overrun by demons soon.

    ¡°... Not yet, sir. But I have an idea of where to start.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an extremely important task for someone about to reach the wizard level. Choose a spell that helps you most. Either an illusion spell or an alchemy spell will do. Don¡¯t postpone it too much.¡±

    Angor excused himself and went into a separate room prepared by Sunders to think about what he just heard.

    To maximize his future potential, inventing a new spell was definitely the best choice. But it was clearly not an easy thing to do, which had been proved by many wizards, including Greya.

    ¡°Maybe I should try using a manifestation of mystery?¡±

    ...

    A small figure stumbled out of the inter-level tunnel in the middle of Prominent Forest and copsed on the ground, breathing painfully.

    She looked back at the space rupture above her in fear.

    She was pretty used to traveling between different levels these days, but she never ran into such life-threatening danger before.

    This tunnel was well-used by all kinds of wizards. It was usually safe and stable. Even if it was asionally troubled by an unexpected dimensional energy torrent, it wasn¡¯t any big problem because the tunnel was rather short. A quick dash was enough for travelers to pass through.

    However, just now, an energy torrent unlike any almost pulled her away from the usual tunnel route and into the void beyond. She would have disappeared if she did not take out her secret tool in time.

    ¡°My Kunar Skin... Gone!!!¡± she cursed between her breaths.

    About a century ago, she discovered a humanoid creature in the Loft ne who looked very simr to a typical human gentleman. As a self-centered, greed-infested egoist who couldn¡¯t stand looking at someone prettier than her, she skinned the handsome creature and put the skin of a toad monster on his body in return.

    He died a few dayster because his mortal body couldn¡¯t endure such cruel torment. That was when she learned that the creature she killed was thest survivor of an extremely valuable n, the Kunars.

    In other words, her action finally sent the Kunars into total extinction.

    Later, she learned that the skin of a Kunar held special properties used for stabilizing dimension energy. If processed properly, it could protect travelers who used unstable ne passageways. By possessing such a treasure, she could sessfully use hastily-built ne passageways to move around when other people could not.

    But she never thought she had to rely on the treasure when going through a conventional level tunnel that took her to level 3. During the busiest time, people used this thing every day.

    She, a level-2 truth-finder, was nothing when faced with that strange energy torrent. Like an uprooted tree, she could have been easily thrown off course and vanished into the endless void beyond the tunnel.

    She had to use her Kunar¡¯s Skin again to make sure she reached the end of the tunnel in one piece. But even with the extra protection, she almost lost her life when moving through the short distance, which usually took others one or two seconds to traverse.

    When she was only an inch away from the exit, the energy torrent grew in multitudes and grounded the skin to powder.

    By casting a dangerous spell, she boosted her body across the gap and sessfully made it to the Prominent Forest.

    Compared to the great pain and fatigue caused by the spell, she was more upset about losing the valuable skin. She had not felt so defeated in hundreds of years.

    If the torrent were caused by a wizard, she would make sure the culprit was obliterated by her own hands. Yet she knew that it was impossible for humans or monsters to create such a deadly incident just to annoy her.

    With nowhere to vent out her rage, she screamed into the sky.

    Her mad voice echoed in the forest for several seconds.

    ¡°Okay, okay... The Overwatch Base is near. I¡¯ll just pick some apprentices and do a liiiittle help with their body design. No one can stop me from having some fun of my own...¡±

    She quickly made ns for torturing people to her heart¡¯s content. She would change their genders, cut up their skins, and stick several ball sacks onto their faces. Then she would inject some demon blood into their bodies and see them suffer.

    The ground beneath her suddenly began to quake and interrupted her happy thoughts.

    ¡°What the heck? An earthquake?¡±

    She saw the bouncing debris and falling tree leaves almost mocking her and quickly felt her rage returning.

    She waited for the earthquake to end. But it only grew stronger and stronger, until the ground in front of her split up.

    A deadly aura came out of the fissure, sending a chill down her spine.

    The area grew brighter as several puddles of burningva shot out of the fissure, igniting the trees nearby. This was followed by a giant hand, also covered in flowingva, which reached out of the crack and tried to climb out.

    The burning hand reminded her of a legend she heard before. People said that the Prominent Forest concealed an ancient demon beneath, Manjimania, who had been slumbering in the embrace ofva for thousands of years. Records said that Manjimania was a Demon Lord who waster thrown off its throne. Since it stayed dormant without bothering anyone, wizards simply left it there without waking it up.

    The demon had poked its mountain-sized head out of the earth.

    ¡°Who... dareth disturb my rest?¡±

 Chapter 1000 - Dura

    <h4>Chapter 1000: Dura</h4>

    The demon¡¯s enchanted voice broke her spirit defense like a sharp needle.

    She couldn¡¯t remember when she felt so terrifiedst time. But this was the second time today.

    She didn¡¯t know whether the giant creature in front of her was the rumored Manjimania, but she knew that unparalleled aura wasn¡¯t fake. She felt her legs giving in when she was still some distance away from the monstrosity.

    Fzzzt¡ª

    Drops ofva erased trees and snow as the demon slowly turned its head around to look at the small-bodied woman. Following its movement, more burning bubbles slowly emerged from the crack like fireworks.

    ¡°Human... HUMANS... Must all die...¡±

    The woman felt pissed off because she was usually the murderer, not the one to be murdered. But she wasn¡¯t going toin right now. She knew she had zero chance of defeating this demon in a fight.

    In fact, she wasn¡¯t even sure whether her body still followed her will.

    To make it worse, the forbidden spell she used to escape from the tunnel almost spent all of her mana. She had to run.

    Without a second thought, she used the trees to jump away.

    The demon was clearly angered by her action. It jumped out of the fissure with a mighty leap, further breaking the ground into a giant crater.

    The woman looked back and saw a burning body almost 50 meters high standing behind her. The demon¡¯s form was fully covered in obsidian tes and chunks ofva, while a zing cape hung behind its back, sending intense mes into the environment which had stopped the snow.

    She couldn¡¯t see its face due to all the vapor and smoke. But she did see a pair of skeletal wings slowly spreading open behind the creature.

    ¡°Don¡¯t f*cking tell me that thing can fly!¡±

    Countless fireballs came down upon her and imprisoned her within a ming cage.

    She immediately bit her tongue to temporarily forget her exhausted condition so that she could muster up enough mana to cast another ability.

    ¡°Void Shift!¡±

    Her body turned transparent as she sessfully moved out of the fire prison.

    She felt tunnel vision as her body and mind were badly burdened for overusing mana. When she could see clearly again, the demon had somehow teleported right in front of her despite itsrge body.

    Her face turned pale in fear. She was now certain that she was looking at Manjimania, the legendary demon lord.

    ¡°Bothersome human pest... Prepare to face your end.¡±

    A red, mushroom cloud blossomed in the middle of Prominent Forest, coating thend in boilingva pools.

    ...

    What happened in the forest nearby quickly alerted those in the Overwatch Base. Everyone including Angor all moved out of their rooms to look at a certain direction, from where an ill aura was relentlessly haunting their minds.

    They couldn¡¯t see anything yet because the snowstorm around the base had not died down in the slightest.

    Sunders quietlynded beside Angor¡¯s position while using one hand to hold his top hat in ce.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening, professor?¡± Angor nced around and saw many apprentices and wizards looking in the same way.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know yet.¡± Sunders frowned as he sensed the rampaging fire elements. ¡°Maybe a powerful enemy just showed up.¡±

    ¡°A powerful enemy... Could it be the demon descendant Mister Monkey is waiting for?¡±

    ¡°No. Even Grand Demons do not disy such violent energy signatures that affect our minds from afar. Could it be...¡±

    Sunders had been suspecting that the legendary demon lord came to attack them. This was definitely bad news because it would take a level-3 truth-finder to fend off a demon lord, and the Overwatch Base didn¡¯t have any.

    The question was, every demon lord owned their territory at deeper levels. They usually had no businessing to level 3 or above.

    ¡°What is it? Did you see it?¡± Kanter suddenly popped up beside them. He came in a hurry without putting on his wizard hat, causing his silver hair to sway madly in the wind.

    Sunders shook his head.

    Soon after Kanter¡¯s arrival, two other individuals appeared to join them¡ªa woman wearing see-through fabrics, Samantha, and another woman with white hair and bright orange eyes, Sennefer.

    This meant all truth-finders in the base had gathered up. Seeing this, Angor wondered if he should leave as soon as he could.

    He thought these wizards were here looking for his professor. But instead, both Sennefer and Samantha had their attention on Kanter.

    ¡°Mister Eventide, can you help us scan the Prominent Forest and see what¡¯s going on?¡± asked Sennefer.

    Kanter hesitated. ¡°My Eventide Blood can¡¯t work well in the Abyss when we can see neither the sun nor the moon. I¡¯m afraid¡ª¡±

    The sky turned bright as day when a giant explosion sted the forest t, leaving a mushroom cloud behind. This was followed by a heatwave that instantly vaporized all snow.

    The truth-finders could feel the power of that explosion. None of them could survive it if they were in the center of it.

    Sennefer yelled at Kanter as she took out an oval-shaped stone from her storage, ¡°The base will get burned down in no time if that thing hits us. Use your power right now. I¡¯ll give you the necessary material!¡±

    The stone was called Solid Starlight, a high-tier material worth at least a few thousand magic crystals. Kanter wasn¡¯t being stingy when he said he couldn¡¯t use his power¡ªit dide with a great cost.

    Kanter took the stone from Sennefer, squeezed it into pieces, closed his eyes, and pressed the glowing shards against his forehead.

    Angor saw Kanter¡¯s body glittering brightly as if he were looking at a clear, starry sky at midnight.

    ¡°... The forest and arge area around it have been incinerated into a magma zone. The culprit is a... demon. Same level as a level-2 truth-finder, or worse.¡± Kanter opened his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s chasing after someone.¡±

    ¡°Who is it??¡±

    ¡°Dura.¡±

    Everyone realized that if Dura showed up at the Prominent Forest, she must have contracted the curse of Pilgrim of Misfortune, which probably was the reason why she provoked the deadly demon.

    By carrying the curse, she didn¡¯t have to do anything specifically to attract trouble. Even if she just stood still, she would see meteorites popping up in the sky anding down at her head.

    Kanter added with a rather grim look, ¡°It¡¯s clear that Dura cannot defend herself against the demon. She¡¯s... attempting to lure it to us.¡±

 Chapter 1001 - Interception

    Chapter 1001: Interception

    Kanter only told everyone that Dura was drawing the demon to their base. But he didn¡¯t mention Dura¡¯s extremely wicked look, or how she was cursing loudly that she would use the base as cannon fodder so she could escape.

    ¡°These gutless apprentices should feel proud that they at least have some use, helping a mighty wizard like me live!¡±

    It was clear that Dura intentionally headed to the Overwatch Base with the demon in pursuit. Though she had no idea about the deadly curse on her. As long as the curse was not removed, the demon would keep chasing her till thest second. How many unfortunate people she dragged with her to death didn¡¯t matter.

    ¡°Whatever she¡¯s nning, we must stop her!¡± Sennefer clenched her teeth in rage.

    Kanter shook his head. ¡°But we can¡¯t deny her from the base either. On the outside, we¡¯re a team. More importantly, we can¡¯t tell her about the curse. Knowing her character, she will try to stick with us and ruin everyone¡¯s life.¡±

    ¡°For now, we have to keep her away no matter what. You all with me?¡±

    Sunders and Kanter nodded. They couldn¡¯t defeat the demon, but they knew how to run away.

    Samantha looked aside. ¡°How, though? Suppose we somehow get the demon away from her, her misfortune won¡¯t end like that.¡±

    Today, people had not figured out how to effectively banish the curse inflicted by a Pilgrim of Misfortune without the help of an expert only exclusive in the Western Continent. They might wait for the curse to go away eventually, on condition that the victim could live that long.

    Nevertheless, their first job was to prevent Dura from reaching the base.

    ¡°Sweet talks, lies, use anything you can think of!¡± Sennefer looked at the source of the disaster, where the sound of more explosions wasing nearer.

    The wizards all flew away, with Sennefer taking the lead, leaving Angor behind.

    Angor looked at the glowing red sky in the distance and moaned.

    He had not spent much time in the Abyss yet, and he already encountered life-threatening incidents more than once. A single demon could burn the entire Overwatch Base to the ground. Now he wondered what would happen if too many Grand Demons made their way to the wizarding world.

    ...

    Dura scowled in frustration after she just wasted another important tool to get away from Manjimania¡¯s explosion attack.

    As soon as she saw the demon gathering energy for a big attack, she took out her ¡°Doll of Substitution¡± to instantly teleport away. The item sessfully got her out of the explosion, but only to send her into another deadly trap¡ªthe Bomb Woods.

    Her destination was called the Bomb Woods because it only had one type of particr bomb tree growing, which would blow up on itself the moment it sensed energy sources nearby.

    Wizards could pass through these woods just fine as long as they stayed careful not to make any sudden moves. But if something went wrong and set up a chain explosion, they would at least earn some nasty bruises.

    These bomb trees couldn¡¯t hurt a level-2 truth-finder like Dura. But there was another problem, that the explosions were enough to attract Manjimania to her.

    The energy of her doll easily detonated the trees upon her arrival. Before Dura could do anything, her position was lit up.

    Manjimania, who just lost its target, immediately looked Dura¡¯s way.

    ¡°Fuc*k it. Why here of all ces?!¡± Dura screamed.

    With no other choices, she quickly bolted away toward the direction of the Overwatch Base. She nned to let everyone in the base face the demon so that she did not have to confront it alone. As for what would be of the apprentices and the important structure, that was the least of her concerns.

    Thanks to the Doll of Substitution, she gained a considerable distance from Manjimania, so she had time to escape. Even so, the demon was slowly but surely catching up, no matter how fast she moved.

    ¡°How the fu*k did something sorge move like that?? And why does it hate me so much??¡±

    When Manjimania was close enough, the demon raised a giant fist covered in mes and punched at Dura¡¯s back. At the same time, a barrage of fire arrows appeared from its cape and aimed at all of Dura¡¯s possible escape routes.

    ¡°CURSE YOU!!!¡±

    Dura tried her best to dodge the fist and move her vital points out of the arrows¡¯ way.

    She was ready to leave some punctures on her legs and arms. But in thest second before the arrows reached her, a belt made out of gravity power pulled her away.

    Dura recovered from her shock and saw four people floating around her.

    She expected to see Samantha, Sunders, and Kantering to her ¡°rescue¡±. But she didn¡¯t think she would see Sennefer too, who just used that gravity spell.

    As she wondered what took Sennefer to the Overwatch Base, she felt a Spirit Bond reaching into her mind. She heard Sennefer asking in a hurried voice, ¡°Where did that thinge from? It¡¯s almost as strong as a demon lord. We can¡¯t let it take any step ahead!¡±

    ¡°Finding trouble you can¡¯t solve and bringing it to everyone? Humph,¡± Samantha scoffed. ¡°I never expected anything better from you, Dura.¡±

    Dura retorted, ¡°What will you hypocrite do if you¡¯re in my shoes, huh?!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not stupid enough to let that monster see me!¡±

    Sennefer stopped their argument. ¡°Enough! Whatever did you do, Dura, and what is it?!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t f*cking know! I came back from level 4, then this guy¡¯s waiting to kill me. The inter-level tunnel kinda gave me a good beating back there but that can¡¯t be the reason, eh?!¡±

    People knew what went wrong with Dura¡¯s journey, but they couldn¡¯t tell her yet.

    ¡°It can¡¯t possibly go after you without a reason,¡± said Samantha. ¡°Let me guess. You stole something from it?¡±

    ¡°No! I just¡ª¡±

    Dura closed her mouth. She couldn¡¯t tell people that it was because her loud scream woke up the demon from sleep and angered it badly.

    She changed the subject. ¡°I might know what it is. It¡¯s Manjimania, a former demon lord. But it was kicked off from its dominance.¡±

    A demon lord no longer being a lord meant it had its strength degraded by at least a full level. And if amon demon lord lost a level, it would be simr to a powerful level-2 truth-finder, which meant Sunders¡¯ level.

    However, a demon and a wizard of the same level weren¡¯t necessarily equal in strength. Sunders could not cause thatrge-scale explosion without extra help. It was in to see that the demon in front of them was still at its top condition, meaning, it could unleash that kind of attack many more times.

    To make everything worse, being a former demon lord meant Manjimania could be a cunning strategist, not a random brute. Average tactics would not work.

    Not to mention that the demon could find an unlimited source of energy in the Abyss...

    Combining these, their most obvious choice was to evade Manjimania. They could NOT fight it.

    ¡°We have what it takes to stall.¡± Sunders¡¯ calm voice appeared in the Spirit Bond. ¡°Shall we?¡±

    Sennefer grimaced. ¡°As I said, do whatever we can to keep it from reaching the base.¡±

    Samantha rolled her eyes. ¡°Heh. While I don¡¯t want to clean up Dura¡¯s mess, this is no longer her own problem. Let¡¯s do our best. The best oue, Manjimania feels threatened by our joint effort and retreats. But if it insists on killing us, we¡¯ll lure it away from the base.

    ¡°We keep this up and drain its strength for as much as we can. Once we¡¯re far enough, we¡¯ll turn tail and make a run for it.¡±

 Chapter 1002 - Unending Misfortune

    <h4>Chapter 1002: Unending Misfortune</h4>

    Samantha¡¯s suggestion sounded too simple to be reliable, but people still listened to her since Manjimania was almost upon them.

    Dura felt something was off about the n. In her view, the demon would eventually target the strongest wizard in the group, which was definitely not her, so epting the strategy should be fine.

    Seeing Dura indecisive, Samantha yelled at her, ¡°What¡¯s your problem?? We¡¯re going to draw it away from our base AND help you get rid of it. Or do you actually want to see the base destroyed, huh?!¡±

    ¡°Fine. We each try our best to weaken it. Whoever bes itsst target should be the guy who¡¯ll take it farther.¡± Dura nced at everyone with a hostile look. ¡°By ¡®our best¡¯, I expect you all to use everything you have. Don¡¯t hide your sh*ts back...¡±

    By this, she wanted one of the others to draw Manjimania¡¯s enmity so that she could escape.

    Samantha spat, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that. Unlike a certain, selfish bastard, we want to keep the base safe. Alright, let¡¯s move. Keep it busy. Kill it if anyone sees a chance!¡±

    Samantha¡¯s body melted away as many shiny mirrors suddenly appeared around the group, causing the scenery to grow chaos as they bent and warped light.

    ¡°Mirror Labyrinth¡± was Samantha¡¯s original spell that she invented when she became a truth-finder. The omen she caused turned the entire sky above Moonfrost Union to a giant mirror thatsted three days and nights.

    Seeing Samantha using her biggest move at the beginning, Dura sighed in relief.

    After several of its attacks were reflected back its way, Manjimania howled in fury and set its attention on Samantha, who just materialized outside the mirror formation.

    Kanter closed his eyes as he activated his Bloodline power. His body turned into an ethereal shadow, which lunged at the demon to fight it up close.

    Several of their powerful attacks connected with the demon¡¯s body, causing it to shriek in pain.

    Sunders didn¡¯t stay idle in the meantime. After unleashing several phantoms to join Kanter, he summoned a herd of horned Nightmares to charge at the demon from different directions.

    Dura almost felt bad when she saw everyone trying their best to fight their enemy. But then she realized it was not the case. At least Sennefer wasn¡¯t wholeheartedly contributing even though her spells looked rather colorful.

    Dura spoke in their Spirit Bond, ¡°Ha. The famous ¡®Witch of Wastnd¡¯ stays behind while Mister Kanter wrestles with the demon upfront. Fame does not reflect one¡¯s true character, I must say.¡±

    Sennefer didn¡¯t speak. It was Samantha who countered Dura by saying, ¡°If we are to find a coward among our rank, we will be talking about <i>you</i>, Dura. Just look at what you¡¯re doing!¡±

    Dura threw a rather powerful energy beam at Manjimania while ncing at Sennefer using a mocking look.

    Kanter exined, ¡°To protect the escort team, Sennefer identally acquired the curse in the Evesting cier.¡±

    He meant to let Dura know that Sennefer wasn¡¯t holding back to be selfish. Sennefer was another powerful truth-finder like Sunders, but the curse had lowered her level.

    Dura looked away.

    Their teamwork sessfully kept Manjimania under pressure for a while. When thend about a hundred kilometers in width became a sea of brightva, the demon finally slowed down. But its attacks remained as deadly as before, if not stronger.

    The range of the battlefield was approaching the Overwatch Base at an rming rate. Right now, several wizards from the base already appeared at the edge of the scene, observing.

    ¡°We can¡¯t keep up like this!¡± Samantha panted. ¡°The base is just in reach. My mana is half spent!¡±

    ¡°Same here,¡± said Kanter, after healing a giant bleeding wound on his shoulder. ¡°My Eventide Bloodline is almost exhausted. We¡¯re not strong enough to kill a former demon lord.¡±

    ¡°Time to change our tactic.¡± Sennefer moved away from the battle to catch some breaths.

    ¡°I crippled a wing and a leg, so it can¡¯t move as fast as before,¡± said Sunders. ¡°Since we can¡¯t kill it, we¡¯ll get it away from the base.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Samantha nodded. ¡°When we see the next chance, we¡¯ll all teleport away and see which one of us gets selected as the main target. That person will be the bait. No objections, right?¡±

    Samantha said those words while looking at Dura.

    Dura sneered. She already made up her mind to follow the n through. As Sunders said, the demon couldn¡¯t catch up with her full speed at this rate. Besides, she believed that she was safe now. The others clearly inflicted more damage to the demon.

    She then nced at Sunders. After knowing that Sunders lived up to his name as one of the strongest wizards in the southern wizarding region, she couldn¡¯t help but feel her mind bloating with jealousy.

    ¡°Agreed!¡± Dura nodded. <i>Ha! Being too good will only drag you down now, my friend.</i>

    ¡°Wait for it...¡±

    Samantha saw Manjimania entering cooldown after the previous attack.

    ¡°Now! We can¡¯t maintain the Spirit Bond while scattered apart. Good luck!¡±

    At the same time, each one of them used their teleportation tricks to get away.

    Dura chose to go for the southeast. She looked back and saw everyone leaving the battlefield as fast as they could so that Manjimania wouldn¡¯t pick the closest victim.

    Copying their moves, Dura concealed her aura and dashed away.

    ...

    ¡°A*SHOLE! WHY ME?!¡± Ten minutester, Dura desperately swore at the top of her lungs. ¡°Did they cheat?? But they can¡¯t possibly reach an agreement and tell the demon toe at me so conveniently!¡±

    She could no longer send the demon to the Overwatch Base because turning back would only allow her to be caught. Besides, she agreed to the n herself. If she went back on her words and ruined the base, Sennefer would send the entire Moonfrost Union upon her.

    Her only choice was to keep running. Thankfully, the demon did look a bit spent right now.

    ...

    The others had reunited at the Overwatch Base. They were all looking at Dura¡¯s direction, wondering how long she couldst.

    ¡°She chose to go in the same way as the Pilgrim of Misfortune. How... unfortunate for her.¡± Kanter tried to sound sympathetic, but he failed to hide the hint of mockery in his voice.

    ¡°She¡¯s going to the Shrieking Expanse, eh?¡± Samantha snickered. ¡°Let¡¯s take a bet. She¡¯ll then go to the Veiled Coast, and maybe dive straight into the Veiled Sea, head-first.¡±

    They all agreed that, if Dura kept getting tainted by the curse in this way, she was certain to die sooner orter. Being a level-2 truth-finder wouldn¡¯t help her at all.

    ¡°Whatever. The Overwatch Base is safe. That¡¯s what matters.¡± Sennefer sighed.

    ¡°Excuse me, but I really need some meditation done.¡± Samantha walked away. ¡°That fight drained me out.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... I need to tend to my wounds as well.¡±

    They did use their best attacks against Manjimania just now, with the hope of dealing the killing blow, which would be for the best. Sacrificing Dura was only the second option.

    Lucky for them, Dura fell for it. And thanks to their full effort, Dura did not know this was all nned.

 Chapter 1003 - Early Retreat

    Chapter 1003: Early Retreat

    With Sennefer and Samantha gone, Sunders and Kanter remained behind to look at the Prominent Forest. Or what remained of it, since almost all trees had turned to drifting cinder and ash that would slowly kill their few surviving members.

    They probably had to revise their map soon.

    Several snow clouds away from the battlefield were returning. But the snow all turned into small twisters upon reaching the heated area below that reflected the bright light of fire and magma. The whole scene almost looked beautiful in the Abyss.

    ¡°Who¡¯d have thought such a fearsome opponent is just nearby?¡± Kanter muttered. ¡°A fallen demon lord. You don¡¯t see them often.¡±

    Sunders didn¡¯t respond. He was still looking in the direction of the Shrieking Expanse with knitted brows.

    ¡°Something over there?¡± asked Kanter.

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking... Will she return?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. But that won¡¯t be a problem since we¡¯re going to evacuate from this ce soon. Dura can do whatever she wants. Besides, I don¡¯t think she can make it back at all.¡±

    Sunders shook his head. He wasn¡¯t referring to Dura, but Madelyne.

    When escaping from the demon, Sunders noticed that Madelyne was hiding nearby. When Dura took the demon away, Madelyne dived into the ground to stalk her.

    Since Dura was the culprit who killed Madelyne¡¯s family, there was only one thing Madelyne wanted to do.

    Sunders did not stop her or mention this matter to the others. In usual times, he would try to stop Madelyne because Dura was several levels stronger. But now... Madelyne might have a chance.

    Still, Dura was a truth finder. She could have more deadly secrets or tools in stock.

    Sunders shook his head and decided to disregard this matter. Madelyne made her own choice, and she should be ready for the consequence of it.

    Sunders returned to his private section and saw Angor still looking at the aftermath of the battle on top of the room. A small pile of snow had gathered on his blond head, giving him a funny look.

    ¡°What¡¯s on your mind?¡± Sunders spoke as he joined Angor.

    ¡°Man. Is this what a demon can do? It was just a few minutes, and it erased thend...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a very special demon,¡± Sunders exined what happened during the battle and who Dura was.

    ¡°The curse of misfortune? Wow.¡± Angor widened his eyes.

    ¡°ording to all the expedition records kept by Moonfrost, a Pilgrim of Misfortune brings endless disasters wherever it goes. There is no way to escape the curse.¡±

    ¡°Then, Miss Dura¡ª¡±

    ¡°We can only expect the worst.¡±

    ...

    The heavy snow kept on for three days and nights without any signs of stopping.

    Away from the Overwatch Base, the giant magma pool had been fully covered inside a white barrier of vapor. This could have been a nice touring spot if not for the sharp smell of sulfur.

    As soon as people recovered from the shock of the disaster and resumed their daily routines, they received a new order, that they should prepare their luggage and head to Port Kodo tomorrow.

    ¡°Is the Demon Castle no longer a threat?¡± asked Angor, after hearing the message.

    ¡°The red alert is still there,¡± said Sunders. ¡°But Sennefer decided to retreat ahead of schedule, after what Manjimania did at our doorstep.¡±

    The demon was unlikely to show up here with the lingering curse blocking the inter-level tunnel. Moreover, if Dura somehow returned to the base, they had to make sure she didn¡¯t murder anyone who stayed behind.

    ¡°You should prepare as well. I shall use the chance to get you back to the wizarding world.¡±

    Angor nodded. This was already nned. He no longer had a reason to stay.

    He stepped out of Sunders¡¯ territory to look for Toby. But after sending several signals and waiting for ten minutes, he still did not find any sign of the bird in the snowstorm.

    His joyful mood for getting to go home immediately died down.

    He allowed Toby to freely roam around the base because Sunders imed that it should be safe. Now he wasn¡¯t so sure.

    ¡°Is he in trouble, or did he go too far?¡±

    Three days ago, just after Manjimania was drawn away by Dura, Angor told Toby to stay away from the Prominent Forest and the Shrieking Expanse. Other than that, Toby was free to go wherever he wanted.

    Then he was too focused on his studies to mind Toby.

    He tried to calm himself down. Toby was pretty strong by himself, and he had gravity power and the Dusky Feather to keep him safe. These were enough to get him out of most trouble.

    Angor jumped down from the roof and headed to the outer guard tower.

    Even though most of the apprentices in the base were neglecting their jobs, the guards standing on the towers had to stay constantly focused. They almost mistook Toby for an intruder the other day. It was Kanter who did the exnation.

    Angor leaped between several towers and asked for Toby¡¯s whereabouts to no avail, until someone staying at the north-most tower finally told him something useful. It was not a guard, but a fat, wandering apprentice who was taking it easy and enjoying the view.

    ¡°A small gray bird? Let me think. We saw it yesterday when we were fishing for Silver Stripes.¡±

    A Silver Stripe was a popr cooking material that was believed to improve men¡¯s sexuality.

    ¡°Yeah, Rat?¡± The fat apprentice nudged his partner, a small boy with a rattail hairstyle, who was blushing after drinking too much alcohol.

    ¡°*Hic* I¡¯m not sure ¡¯cause it was dark. But Bobota must have seen it. The guy¡¯s been staring at the sky. Are you Mister Padt, by the way?¡±

    ¡°You know me?¡± asked Angor.

    ¡°Yeah. Bobota told us that you¡¯re Mister Phantom¡¯s student.¡± The small boy looked at Angor in respect.

    Bobota... Angor searched his memories until he thought about a particr man in a white robe. Are we talking about the same man?

    The fat apprentice took Angor to the other side of the watchman tform, where they saw another man drinking.

    Angor frowned when he saw the familiar crimson chain hanging on this man¡¯s shoulder. He made it.

    ¡°Oi, Bobota!¡± the fat apprentice called. ¡°We all saw there was a strange bird yesterday, right?¡±

    Bobota took another sip and looked directly at Angor. He raised his ss and toasted.

    ¡°We met again, my friend.¡±

    Angor didn¡¯t answer.

    ¡°Too bad. Did you forget me already?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Angor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m just surprised to see you here.¡±

    Usually, Angor would exchange some friendly courtesies with one of his customers. But he was not in the mood to do that now.

    ¡°Mister Bobota, I just heard it from your partner¡ª¡± Angor nced at the fat man beside him.

    ¡°Name¡¯s Dusky, sir.¡±

    ¡°¡ªthat you encountered a sea bird yesterday, who happens to be my friend.¡± Angor used an illusion to show Toby¡¯s image. ¡°May I know where he went?¡±

    Bobota inspected the illusion with a thoughtful look.

    ¡°Give me a second... It was in the afternoon. We were hanging around the Shaded Dunes.¡±

 Chapter 1004 - haded Dunes

    Chapter 1004: Shaded Dunes

    This ce was usually upied by several dirt dunes. But the recent snowstorm gave them a bright white cover.

    Angor knew this spot as well because he once saw it from the guard tower when he was bored. Though there was not much to look at.

    He came following Bobota¡¯s clue. ording to Bobota, there was a small river stream hidden among the dunes. Since it was rtively safe from monsters because the guards in the Overwatch Base could keep an eye on here, apprentices would asionallye and search for Silver Stripes for money.

    Bobota and his friends were here yesterday afternoon when they saw Toby flying by.

    ¡°The bird tried to break the ice to fish. But it got bored and flew off,¡± said Bobota. ¡°I didn¡¯t see where it headed because, you know, it was snowing.¡±

    Dusky also proved Bobota¡¯s speech.

    Angor found it too difficult to search for Toby¡¯s traces because everything was covered under thick snow.

    He went to the ¡°fishing spot¡± mentioned by Bobota and would start from there.

    The surface of the river was frozen solid right now. Telling from the abandoned baskets nearby, a lot of people would visit this ce.

    He managed to find where Toby pecked at the ice right under two trees that entangled each other with their messy tree vines. He then tried to pick the small hole open and reached flowing water, from where he saw a swarm of fish gathering.

    While checking the ice, he saw a ck object frozen within the ice, just beside the fishing hole.

    He dug it out and ran a finger on it, then put the finger in his mouth.

    It was salty.

    ¡°Dried fish prepared by Miss Mana...¡±

    He used some heat to thaw the object and realized it was a gnawed fish tail. It was Toby¡¯s snack.

    At least Bobota told him the truth.

    He left the river, found a high spot on top of a dune, and released a number of scout puppets into the area. If he couldn¡¯t find Toby this way, he had to ask Sunders for help.

    Swiftly, the convenient-sized puppets helped him look into corners and small caves he couldn¡¯t ess himself.

    But he found nothing.

    His expression turned grim when he saw the snow getting even worse. He wondered if Toby felt toofortable in the Abyss and stumbled into dangerous zones.

    When he nned to head back to the base, one of the puppets finally sent him an image that showed two figures. There were two apprentices, one man and a woman, running down from a dirt dune while shuddering in the cold. Telling from their frozen hair and blue-ish lips, they were having a pretty bad time out here.

    ¡°Weird... The union gave every apprentice a robe that keeps them from extreme temperatures, right?¡±

    Angor looked at the image more closely and realized that the robes must be broken. They were full of bloodstains and tears, probably caused by a recent battle.

    Also, the apprentices were looking back as if they were expecting something chasing them.

    ¡°Where did theye from though?¡±

    The scout puppets had made a full scan over the area without finding anything. Then these two people popped up in the middle of the area.

    ¡°Is there a hidden passage?¡±

    Angor activated his flying boots and immediately headed to the running apprentices.

    Seeing his arrival, the male apprentice quickly moved in front of his partner warily.

    Angor removed his hood. ¡°I just came from the base. You¡¯re in trouble, right?¡±

    The apprentices lowered their guard upon seeing Angor¡¯s somewhat young face.

    Angor took out a red orb from his storage and showed it to the apprentices. It was a me Bearer Orb he collected from Cinder Rock. This thing didn¡¯t have much use, but it was good for keeping someone¡¯s hands warm as long as the user didn¡¯t carelessly detonate it.

    ¡°You can have this. But I need to ask some questions first.¡±

    The apprentices exchanged a happy look using eye contact. They were badly in need of a heat source right now after exhausting their mana. It would be so sad if they were frozen to death so close to the base instead of dying in the hands of demons.

    Besides, a me Bearer Orb was usually worth a few dozens of magic crystals. When thinking about how they could survive and get some extra money, they agreed to Angor¡¯s proposal without a second thought.

    ...

    Angor dly handed the orb over after he learned what he needed.

    It was the woman who tried to take it. But she lost her bnce on her way, causing the orb to fall into the man¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Oh, careful with your footing.¡± The man looked at her with a worried look and held her arm. ¡°I¡¯ll hold onto the orb for now. You just stick close.¡±

    The woman wanted to say something, but the man stopped her by talking to Angor first, ¡°Much appreciated, kind sir. We¡¯ll be heading back to the base.¡±

    Angor saw them leaving and shook his head.

    He saw the male apprentice using a trick to trip his partner, probably to take the orb and perhaps use the chance to gain some bodily advantage.

    This guy even offered to sell the orbter and share the money with her 50-50. Though Angor highly doubted it, after seeing the great hunger and greed hidden in the man¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°They seemed like close partners just a moment ago...¡±

    Angor sighed and moved away.

    He just learned a secret from the apprentices. It was nothing important, but for some reason, few people knew it.

    It seemed there was a hidden entrance in the middle of a dead tree at the bottom of one of the dunes. The entrance would take him to the Shaded Cave underground.

    Once in a while, people would see white shadows floating about the Shaded Dunes while crying like babies. Apprentices believed that the shadows were actually clusters of hot vapor that escaped from the underground cave, while the sound was caused by a certain fish living in the undergroundkes.

    Also, the undergroundke was a stable source of Silver Stripe shrimps. This was likely why those who knew about the secret entrance did not usually share it with the others.

    Those two apprentices from earlier also came to hunt. However, they were attacked by a swarm of flying fish that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. These monsters weren¡¯t strong, but there were too many of them. The apprentices soon had their mana exhausted and had to retreat.

    The message was not anything important at first sight, but Angor knew for a fact that this might be his chance to find Toby.

    Not to mention that the woman said something about hearing a bird¡¯s call while escaping.

 Chapter 1005 - The Depth

    <h4>Chapter 1005: The Depth</h4>

    Knowing its location, it was easy for Angor to find the entrance covered behind a screen of tree vines. The spot stayed well-hidden thanks to the heavy snow. But now, there was a giant rupture on the screen, which was probably caused by the escaping apprentices.

    He crouched lower and walked inside the tree trunk.

    After passing through a narrow path, he reached the rumored underground cave full of the smell of sulfur and puffs of steam escaping through the fissures along the cave walls, which indeed looked like floating ghosts.

    Other than these, there was nothing particr in sight.

    He saw many more routes and forks ahead and was not sure which one to enter, so he remained around the entrance to look for the traces left behind by the apprentices.

    Following the footprints, he moved across the heated area and came inside a side passage where the air smelled rather salty, and a bit stinky.

    With the help of a luminous stone, he saw more bloodstains all around him.

    By the end of the passage, he heard the sound of flowing water and saw a ¡°flying fish¡± ahead, which was probably the culprit who attacked those two apprentices. This creature had a long, slim body covered in glossy scales. It used a pair ofrge fins growing on the sides to stay afloat. Someone who looked at it from afar would easily mistake it for a whip instead of a fish.

    Angor had his Infinite Reticence on, so the monster did not see himing at first. But as soon as he moved closer, the fish stopped moving and suddenly released a screen of vapor around its body. When the vapor reached Angor¡¯s position, the fish¡¯s eyes glowed in red. It then spat a sharp water arrow at Angor.

    One of the biggest problems of Infinite Reticence was that, once Angor¡¯s presence was detected, he wouldn¡¯t be able to hide again.

    Angor was expecting the monster to use some kind of ability to stay alert, but he didn¡¯t think it was so effective. He quickly side-stepped the iing arrow, took out a white sword from his bracelet, and shed at the fish.

    The sword attack failed to connect with the fish¡¯s slippery body. Though Angor wasn¡¯t nning to kill the fish this way. His sword was aimed right at the vapor screen.

    The weapon was enchanted with a powerful freezing effect. As soon as it reached its mark, it rapidly turned the water lingering in the air into an ice wall that engulfed the flying fish inside.

    Thud! The fishnded on the ground as an ice sculpture.

    With another swing of the sword, Angor mmed the now helpless monster into pieces.

    He kept walking and ran into a school of flying fish that might mean serious trouble to ordinary apprentices, but not to him, when he had all kinds of alchemy weapons to use.

    After wiping out a good number of the not-so-intelligent creatures, he stepped out of the passage and entered another big section of the cave, where he found the underground river.

    Listening to the sound of dripping water in this peaceful ce would have helped him rx, if not for the giant swarm of flying fish gazing at him in hunger, after they sensed the light of his luminous stone.

    In the next second, the monsters rushed at him like a tidal wave while unleashing more water arrows or simply tackled him using their spear-like bodies.

    He didn¡¯t feel threatened in the slightest as these things were way weakerpared to the flying fish he encountered in the Purification Garden. Using his good old strategy, he used a simple illusion to confuse the monsters before using a small trick to start a fight among them.

    Their number fell rapidly.

    When Angor feltfortable to join the fight, he used his ice sword to clean up the battlefield. Under twenty minutes, not a single flying fish remained alive.

    He moved to the edge of the river and looked into the water. Among groups of ordinary fish, he saw glittering shrimps swimming about. Lots of them.

    He immediately recognized these shrimps as Silver Stripes, valuable cooking material sought by both Gourmets and gentlemen who wished tost longer during bedwork. From a quick nce, he saw enough shrimps that would get him at least thousands of magic crystals.

    The shrimps themselves were defenseless. Using Hand of Spell, he easily rounded them up.

    ¡°This is where the Abyss is fun, I guess. I can pick up money from the floor that will otherwise take others years to earn...¡±

    No wonder such a deadly ce was never short of eager adventurers.

    He stuffed the shrimps into a random bottle and put it away in his bracelet. He had no use for them, but he could share them with Sunders and Kanterter.

    He kept walking upstreams. ording to the female apprentice, that was where she heard Toby¡¯s call.

    He was bothered by more flying fish on his way. When he was beginning to wonder whether Toby would use such a dangerous route at all, he finally found another clue.

    It wasn¡¯t Toby, but the corpse of a strange monster. It looked like a giant hermit crab with an equallyrge anemone growing on its shell. From the adult-sized crab, Angor sensed the particr energy signature left behind by the sequence of gravity, so it had to be Toby who killed the crab.

    Toby was probably looking for a better fishing spot when he discovered this nice ¡°restaurant¡± and forgot to return in time. This also exined why Toby didn¡¯t sense Angor¡¯s recall signals¡ªthe signals couldn¡¯t reach underground.

    Thinking about this, Angor sighed in relief. As far as he could see, all the flying fish and big crabs were no match against Toby.

    Though he still headed deeper inside the cave on faster steps just in case.

    After passing through what seemed to be a maze of passages, he came to yet another wide area. Here, he felt something was off. It was as if the air was getting thinner. He found it hard to breathe, and he sensed an unknown burden blocking his throat.

    The salty smell in the air was reced by the stink of blood, sided with a particr odor exclusive to certain reptilian creatures. More importantly, he recognized the smell. It was almost the same as the scent in Akeso¡¯s home.

    ¡°There¡¯s a snake monster here?¡±

    His theory was soon proved when he saw twisting traces on the floor caused by a crawling snake. And telling from the size of the trails, it was no ordinary snake.

    Toby¡¯s faint voice in the distance suddenly drew him out of his thoughts.

 Chapter 1006 - Gigantic Snake

    <h4>Chapter 1006: Gigantic Snake</h4>

    ¡°Tweeeet...¡±

    The sound was almost inaudible, but Angor still managed to hear it, and he knew it was Toby¡¯s voice.

    The strange thing was, he failed to understand the call when he was usually able to tell what Toby was saying. It was as if Toby was mumbling nonsense in a dream.

    Also, the voice sounded rather weak. Weak, and even miserable.

    Angor felt his heart beating faster.

    He quickly followed the direction of Toby¡¯s voice while bearing with the intensifying stench in the air. He could almost feel the evil will of something crawling on his skin. If a deadly monster was here waiting for him, it wasn¡¯t far.

    ¡°Tweet...¡± Toby called again.

    Angor kept moving while readying every safety measure he could think of.

    Ssssss¡ª

    He had been wondering why he had not run into a single snake in the cave when there were so many crawling trails and reptile feces all over the ce. That was until now¡ªthe path ahead was overrun by countless snakes of different colors and sizes, whopletely blocked the route like a wriggling wall of flesh.

    All the snakes jerked their heads and looked at Angor as one. Their sharp, hissing noise echoed between the cave walls, causing Angor to shudder uncontrobly.

    Slowly, the snakes closest to Angor arched their bodies higher, clearly to warn Angor not to disturb their territory.

    These things did look creepy, but the energy signatures shown from their bodies did not feel much different from that of those flying fish. A mortal could easily kill one or two if they knew how to handle a de. This meant Angor had no reason to back off.

    He simply moved forward while using the save mist illusion, only to find that the old trick did not work well against the snakes because these beasts relied upon their other senses rather than their eyes. It seemed the snakes could freely sense his body heat, his smell, or the vibration of his movement. It was too difficult to create an illusion that blocked all these elements.

    If so...

    ¡°Field of Fire!¡±

    A giant wall of me enveloped the snake swarm.

    At the same time, Angor unleashed a Nightmare Fear cantrip to amplify their sense of terror, forcing the snakes to run for their lives.

    Most of the creatures tried diving into the river nearby. But this wouldn¡¯t help them escape from the magic fire that could keep burning underwater.

    Without minding the dying snakes, Angor ran forward to keep looking for Toby.

    Blinding fire and the smell of roasted snakes weren¡¯t anything pleasant, though Angor was d that they helped him escape from the wet stink for at least a while.

    A stone wall marked the end of the path.

    Angor was sure Toby¡¯s voice came from this way. He checked the surroundings and looked at the water stream, which seemed to continue into the wall.

    He activated the Purification Field and jumped into the dark water without a second thought.

    After pushing against the water flow for a few meters, he emerged from the water and entered another cave. This one looked pretty empty and boring at first. But his instinct told him otherwise.

    The strange mental pressure was still there. He temporarily forgot about it when dealing with the snakes, but now that he had time to assess the situation again, he realized that the evil intent around him remained as strong, if not worse than before.

    He did not feel physically hurt. But the pressure was slowly affecting his peace of mind.

    As carefully as he could, he moved along the wall until he saw a pile of colorful snakes huddled together not far from him.

    Since they weren¡¯t blocking his way this time, he concealed his breaths and body heat, then moved around them.

    He saw more ¡°snake piles¡± on his way and felt the evil aura gnawing at his heart harder and harder. But he knew he had to keep moving because Toby was so near.

    The path ended at the edge of a cliff. When he reached the dead end, he finally found Toby up ahead, on the opposite cliff over a dark chasm.

    Toby did not look very well. Using the light provided by several luminous stones in the cave, Angor noticed several snakes aggressively hissing at Toby, whereas Toby had his eyes half-closed as if he really wanted to sleep.

    A flickering gray barrier was preventing the snakes from biting Toby, which was probably the work of gravity energy. But the energy was clearly on the brink of exhaustion.

    Angor immediately jumped into the air to rescue Toby. However, he stopped moving when he sensed danger waiting below.

    Quietly, hended back on the ground and waited.

    He widened his eyes as the rustling noise from under the chasm revealed a giant snake almost equal in size as Akeso. The creature was crawling along the cliff wall where Toby was ced, with most of its body still hidden in the dark. Even so, Angor was sure of its immensity just by looking at its triangr head that suggested its viciousness.

    He couldn¡¯t ascertain the power level of the snake. But his instinct was telling him to avoid it at all costs. This thing was the source of the unease that had been bugging him.

    It was probably the natural aura of a monster. When Angor was so close to the snake, he felt every nerve and sinew in his body urging him to run.

    ¡°I¡ªI should go back and find my professor¡ª¡±

    That wasn¡¯t his decision. His fear forced him toe up with the idea.

    His inner sanity told him that choosing to retreat now meant giving up Toby¡¯s life. There was no time to lose.

    He chased his impulse away and tried his best to calm down.

    The snake wasn¡¯t openly expanding its aura yet. But it was safe to assume that it would do so immediately after seeing an enemy.

    To prepare for the worst, Angor assumed that the snake was at the wizard level. It wasn¡¯t hard to escape from the pressure of a wizard-level monster with the help of the sequence of gravity. But he only had one shot at this. He must use his full speed to reach Toby and escape before the snake knew what happened.

    Now the question was, would the snake¡¯s passive aura slow him down? That thing was pretty close to Toby¡¯s position. Maybe it had some kind of defense mechanism to trouble intruders who went near.

    That would exin why Toby did not escape by himself. The snake must have ways to stop its prey from running.

    Nevertheless, he had to get Toby out one way or another. It might be a bit risky, but he did have a n.

 Chapter 1007 - Faster

    <h4>Chapter 1007: Faster</h4>

    Considering the burdened feeling still lingering in his mind, Angor believed that the snake monster was naturally capable of controlling emotions. If so, he might know how to deal with the problem.

    ¡°Toby¡¯s in danger. Can¡¯t back out now.¡±

    Slowly, he prepared a cantrip but without casting it. Thanks to Infinite Reticence, the snake had not noticed him yet. He wanted to move at the exact correct moment to make his attempt count.

    The snake casually crawled along the wall and scouted around. It then wrapped its body around a stone pir. As soon as Angor saw the snake¡¯s head hidden behind the pir, he chanted Spirit Mantra, ejected his soul, and dashed at the opposite cliff at full speed.

    The snake immediately detected something approaching. When it wasn¡¯t sure what sort of enemy wasing, it carefully looked back from its position while increasing the aura pressure it released.

    Again, Angor felt something heavy pressed against his chest, stopping his breath. Meanwhile, he felt his head dizzy with overwhelming despair and sadness.

    He was d to know that he took a correct guess, that the aura around the snake was indeed meant to mentally catch prey off guard.

    He quickly activated Soul Link, a spell permanently printed in his soul, and unleashed the cantrip he channeled while still in his body. The cantrip was a basic illusion intended to cover things up. In this case, he used it to hide himself.

    ¡°You¡¯re not the only one who knows emotion control.¡±

    By using his special nightmare energy to ¡°overwrite¡± his own emotions, he sessfully reached Toby¡¯s position without being bothered by the snake¡¯s aura.

    As someone who perfectly knew how to wield the sequence of gravity, he simply reached a hand through Toby¡¯s gray barrier, caught the bird, and ran away without looking back.

    Everything was done within a few seconds. When the snake realized that the unnatural foodstuff it captured had disappeared, Angor had already reached the other cliff and was getting farther.

    ¡°Ssssah!¡±

    The depressing aura turned into pure energy of rage and began reaching every corner of the cave. As Angor expected, it was the aura of a wizard-level monster.

    By taking Toby in one hand and his unconscious body in the other, Angor headed to the original route from which he came as fast as he could. The aura needed time to expand. As long as he moved fast enough, he could outrun it.

    With this in mind, he maximized his gravity power and dived straight into the river.

    It took him several seconds to move past the short distance underwater. As soon as he came back out, the water was frozen solid.

    Following the loud sound of an explosion, the snake tackled through the stone wall and came at him.

    The snake wasn¡¯t expecting the seemingly pathetic human to run as fast as a wizard. When it realized that it was slowly falling behind, it opened its giant mouth and shot out a tornado of freezing air at Angor¡¯s back.

    Angor felt the deadly attack but kept moving without looking back. He was confident that, if he was faster than the snake¡¯s natural aura effect, he could evade any other kind of assault.

    The exit was almost in reach. He only had to move through a narrow path that was guarded by the flying fish earlier.

    He reached the path only to notice that the floor was unexpectedly empty.

    A giant crab appeared at the end of the path, which was likely the culprit who ate all the dead fish for dinner. The creature looked exactly the same as the ¡°hermit crab¡± Toby killed. Though this one was a lot bigger, and alive.

    Behind its thick orange shell, an equally big anemone was casually swaying its tentacle-like body parts around.

    Angor was terrified to sense more wizard-level energying from the feasting crab. The crab¡¯s body fully blocked off the end of the path, so he couldn¡¯t run that way. To make it worse, the creature was suspiciously looking his way right now.

    Angor immediately turned and dived into the underground river again. This part was not affected by the snake¡¯s freezing attack yet.

    He followed the water current and kept moving. Hopefully, he could find another way out.

    Fearing that he could bump into another monster inplete darkness, he cast a Light cantrip through the Soul Link.

    The light source revealed a giant shadow right below his position. It looked like a humanoid creature with really thick arms and legs. And strangely, it was quietly floating in the water as if it was dead.

    ¡°A troll... Here? Hope it doesn¡¯t wake up¡ª¡±

    He saw the troll¡¯s football-sized eyes opening up and sending yet another suppressive aura his way by gazing at him.

    ¡°Sh*t. Me and my big mouth!¡±

    He desperately picked another direction and bolted. Following him, the troll unleashed several whirlpools and went after him.

    ¡°Faster... Faster!¡± Angor kept pumping more of his soul energy into the gravity force.

    He saw more waterborne monsters on his way, all hostile. Though none of them could catch up with him.

    The turbulent water behind his back told him that the troll did not give up yet, which meant he had more reasons NOT to slow down.

    He felt his confidence failing after moving in circles in the dark water for quite a while. In order not topletely lose his way, he dared not get too far from his diving point. However, he could not keep this up forever when more and more monsters were joining the race.

    Besides, he couldn¡¯t stay out of his body for too long.

    As he wondered how to get out of the situation, the troll suddenly appeared out of nowhere and punched at him from afar. A deadly water beam came from its fist and was aimed at him like a swimming serpent.

    Angor barely evaded the attack in thest second. The horror of almost losing his life instantly convinced him to run farther as much as he could, which was definitely better than staying around the same spot.

    Again, he moved along the water flow at top speed, no longer worrying about forgetting the way. Getting lost was better than being caught by the monsters anyway.

    Another of the troll¡¯s attacks hit a wall nearby, and Angor saw bubbles of air appearing from the crack.

    By some miracle, the new exit flushed Angor straight into the first cave full of steam, from where he could see the ¡°tree trunk entrance¡±.

    He finally managed to get to the surface, though he was not away from danger yet. As soon as he took his first chilly yet refreshing breath outside, the ground beneath shook madly and copsed, causing the cave entrance to get buried under snow and debris.

    A giant head of the snake effortlessly punched a hole through the ground and reached outside as well.

 Chapter 1008 - Unexpected Monsters

    <h4>Chapter 1008: Unexpected Monsters</h4>

    ¡°Why so persistent?!¡± Angor cursed and tried to fly higher. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me Toby stole its eggs or something!¡±

    He took a quick glimpse at Toby, who was sound asleep in his pocket, together with his unconscious body. Toby fell into this state as soon as he sensed safety.

    Angor scanned Toby¡¯s body while escaping and did not find any external wounds. Perhaps Toby was too tired to wake up.

    He then looked back and saw the giant snake still in hot pursuit. He didn¡¯t feel too threatened since he was no longer in the confined caves. Surely the snake couldn¡¯t suddenly move faster than before by flying?

    Unsurprisingly, the snake levitated itself by covering its long body in a white fog. Then it dashed to where Angor disappeared like an arrow.

    Behind the flying snake, the ¡°troll swimmer¡± and the ¡°hermit crab¡± also emerged from the ground and began chasing him.

    ¡°Why the heck do they hate me so much?!¡± Angorined without slowing down.

    Thankfully, the Overwatch Base was not far from the Shaded Dunes. Even with the snow, the guards of the Moonfrost Union easily saw theing enemies and all headed this way.

    A single individual headed to Angor¡¯s position faster than all others while confusing all the guards he left behind.

    In the next second, Angor heard Sunders calling out to him.

    ¡°Was it two hours, or three? What are you up to this time?¡±

    Angor smiled when he saw the familiar gentleman suit.

    ¡°Professor! Thank the spirits. I¡¯m saved!¡±

    ...

    Sunders was drafting an initial research project regarding the dream wastnd when the loud noise of monsters interrupted him. He looked up from his work only to see Angor leading three powerful monsters to the base.

    ¡°The little fool¡¯s at it again?!¡±

    ...

    Sunders¡¯ arrival fully reassured Angor.

    The gentleman looked at Angor¡¯s soul, then checked Angor¡¯s body. Telling from the pale face, he could tell that Angor had been neglecting the body for quite some time.

    ¡°Mind yourself. I¡¯ll deal with those things.¡±

    ¡°Thank you very much¡ª¡±

    ¡°Remember, the next time you¡¯re looking to die, do it somewhere far away so I don¡¯t see you.¡±

    ¡°... Oh.¡±

    Angor returned to his body and was briefly stunned by fatigue. When he could see clearly again, he saw his professor already engaging the snake.

    The guards of the Moonfrost Union also came. Though they only looked at Sunders fighting the snake with the look of disappointment rather than joining the battle.

    Compared to random demons, the wizard-level monster held resources and riches all over its body. Anyone who imed its corpse could easily add six digits to their ount even if they did not take the time to carefully assort the body parts. But since Sunders was the first one to fight the monster, the others couldn¡¯t recklessly participate in the fun without getting Sunders¡¯ consent.

    Their frustration came to a halt when they saw another two monsters entering their view. These two appeared to be slightly weaker than the flying snake, but they meant a lot of money as well.

    ¡°You brought ALL these things with you??¡± Sunders questioned Angor while fending off the snake.

    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t bring them! I just kinda, passed through, and they began chasing me for no reason.¡±

    Neither Sunders nor the guards looked convinced.

    While Sunders was giving Angor the cold eye, the guards were actually impressed by what Angor had done. It was no easy task for an apprentice to bait three wizard-level monsters while staying alive.

    More importantly, Angor looked perfectly fine. There wasn¡¯t a single scratch on his body.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s Mister Phantom¡¯s student for you,¡± a guard muttered.

    The captain of the guards moved ahead of everyone and called, ¡°Mister Phantom, and uh, Mister Padt. Will you let us handle the other two monsters?¡±

    Both Angor and Sunders agreed. While Angor was only d that the guards would help him get rid of the nuisance, Sunders was not in the mood to fight off three monsters at the same time.

    Seeing their decision, all the guards rushed to theing monsters like hungry wolves attracted to meat.

    It took Sunders about half an hour to sessfully finish off the snake.

    Away from him, about a dozen wizards of the Moonfrost Union were still struggling with the hermit crab and the troll. Meanwhile, more wizards came from the base and joined the fray with the hope of getting a share of the loot.

    Angor casually observed the battle. It was not easy to find so many wizards hunting monsters together.

    As expected, it would take multiple wizards to take on a monster of the same level. When the two monsters still looked fine, several careless wizards were more or less hurt. This was the reason why the guard team had to allow other wizards to help at the cost of decreasing their reward.

    Sunders was obviously the biggest winner by killing the snake all by himself. After retrieving the snake corpse into the Gravity Garden, he floated to Angor and asked in a cold tone, ¡°Let¡¯s head back. You will tell me what you just did.¡±

    More people were directing their attention to Angor when they learned that it was he who attracted the wizard-level monsters. Or in other words, three moving piles of money. But now, they could only look at Sunders escorting Angor back to the base.

    Even though the Abyss was full of wizard-level monsters, wizards didn¡¯t have enough resources to effectively track them down. Sunders was not the only one who wished to figure out Angor¡¯s business out there.

    ...

    ¡°Speak. What happened in the past few hours?¡± Sunders sat down in his study and gave Angor a nk stare.

    A bit embarrassed, Angor pointed to his pocket where Toby was sleeping peacefully.

    ¡°It was nothing, really. I was just looking for him...¡±

    He carefully exined what he went through.

    Sunders found it strange that Angor somehow ran into so many monsters in the Shaded Cave. The ce was thoroughly explored by people before, who did not report the presence of wizard-level monsters. Also, many apprentices had been fishing for shrimps there without a problem.

    This could be the result of the ¡°unlucky curse¡± left behind by the Pilgrim of Misfortune. Though Sunders highly doubted that his student was carrying the curse. The snake monster could have easily killed a good number of guards using its mind-maniption aura. Angor would be long dead if the curse was affecting him.

    Perhaps Angor was just... generally unlucky.

    ¡°They might being from the underground river, from other entrances we don¡¯t know. However, wizard-level monsters tend to have their fixed territories and do not usually wander off too far. There could be a reason that forced them to change habitats.¡±

 Chapter 1009 - Leaving the Base

    <h4>Chapter 1009: Leaving the Base</h4>

    Sunders did not further investigate the caves because they would be leaving the Overwatch Base tomorrow. He trusted Angor¡¯s words and believed that Angor was indeed not causing trouble intentionally.

    Later, he took Angor into the Gravity Garden and found the giant corpse of the monster snake. Even though it was Sunders who killed it, he meant to allow Angor to take a body part or two as a constion prize.

    Angor pointed to a giant cut under which a pool of blood gathered. ¡°Is this blood useful in any manner?¡±

    ¡°It contains a portion of the monster¡¯s energy, but I highly doubted it can provide you with much use. Maybe you can make some enchanted ink out of it, that¡¯s about it.¡±

    Angor shook his head in disappointment. This meant he couldn¡¯t use the blood to feed Soft Larvae.

    In the end, he randomly picked a patch of scaled snake skin and picked off arge fang brimming with freezing energy. Sunders suggested that he could make armor and a weapon out of them.

    Next, Angor told Sunders about Akeso¡¯s blood. ording to Kanter, the vitalizing energy inside the blood meant it could be one of the best healing items in the world, as long as they knew how to mitigate the side-effects that might be lethal if one directly consumed the blood. He brought this matter up so that Sunders could tell him whether Jon could use it to recover.

    ¡°... I can¡¯t tell you without seeing Jon in person. However, from what you have told me, giving him a healing effect might be counterproductive. In this case, the blood of a wizard-level monster could kill him fast.¡±

    When they were done with talking, Angor nned to head away and check on Toby¡¯s condition. Before leaving Sunders¡¯ study, he took out a water bottle from his bracelet and ced it on a desk nearby.

    ¡°This is for you, sir.¡±

    Without waiting for Sunders¡¯ response, he left through the door.

    Sunders grinned while taking the bottle. ¡°Good. He knows how to send gifts to his elder now? Wait a minute...¡±

    His smile disappeared upon seeing three silver-colored shrimps shuddering in the confined container.

    ¡°Why would he¡ª¡±

    ...

    Angor suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.

    ¡°The professor won¡¯t hate the present, right? Silver Stripes are supposed to help gentlemen with that kind of business.¡±

    He returned to his room and ced Toby onto a miniature bed. He didn¡¯t have time to do a thorough examination for Toby when escaping. Now he wanted to get to it.

    Again, he found nothing worth his attention. It appeared Toby was just too exhausted.

    As for what exactly happened in the depth of the Shaded Cave, he had to wait for Toby to wake up and ask.

    ...

    The next morning, the loud sound of a summoning horn echoed across the curtain of snow and wind, forcing all the apprentices to step out of their rooms with the look of anxiety. Most of them had been taking it easy in the base. Now that they were asked to join another journey, they weren¡¯t sure what to expect.

    ¡°Time to go,¡± Sunders spoke through Angor¡¯s door.

    Angor saw Toby still sleeping. He had no choice but to take Toby in his pocket as was.

    Sensing the familiar warmth in Angor¡¯s pocket, Toby moaned and found a morefortable posture.

    Together with all the otherining apprentices, they followed the sound of the horn and bade farewell to the small apartment in which they spent a few days.

    Angor thought they were going to ride Dokibell again, which did not happen. It was Samantha who found a small-sized Frozen Wing and asked everyone to get on. Not everyone had to use the vehicle because it was not big enough. In the end, the Frozen Wing took the union guards and apprentices, while wizards from other organizations would use their own means of transportation.

    Without being asked, Angor took out Gond and invited Sunders on board.

    Kanter saw the boat and also joined them, which Angor dly agreed.

    Since it was still not the time for departure, Angor looked around the gathering group to look for Madelyne. Madelyne helped him greatly on their way here, so he wanted to take her on Gond as well.

    But he failed to find her.

    For some reason, Sunders red at him and refused to answer his concern. It was Kanter who exined with a smile, ¡°Madelyne left by herself, ahead of us.¡±

    From Kanter, Angor learned the grudge between Madelyne and Dura, as well as how the appearance of a Pilgrim of Misfortune actually granted Madelyne an opportunity to deal with Dura.

    Then he took out another shrimp bottle and handed it to Kanter as a thank-you gift. Kanter had been rather considerate during his stay, so it was only right to return the courtesy.

    Kanter checked the content of the bottle with an embarrassed look. ¡°This¡ªahem! I don¡¯t think I need this, my boy.¡±

    Sundersmented from nearby, ¡°Good choice. I think this is <i>indeed</i> a better gift for Kanter.¡±

    Hearing Sunders¡¯ almost sarcastic way of speaking, Angor wondered if giving people Silver Stripes was actually a bad idea. That would exin why his professor looked so glum sincest night.

    Though he didn¡¯t know how to exin his intention without knowing what exactly was going on.

    He had a hunch that the wizards were displeased because epting the ¡°aphrodisiac shrimp¡± meant admitting their disability. Yet it was toote to take back his decision now.

    The awkwardnesssted until the union announced the start of their journey. Slowly, the Frozen Wing levitated from the ground and began floating away from the sturdy fortification that kept everyone safe from harm for a long time.

    Seeing yet another majestic creation to be left abandoned, Angor suddenly felt sad. Though such things were expected in the Abyss ne.

    Their next destination was ¡°Port Kodo¡±, which was built along a ce called Spiral Water. From their current position, they needed to head west and move along the Lightless Mountain. Usually, following the river at the Shaded Dunes could take them there faster. But they couldn¡¯t use that route this time because scouts reported seeing more demons than usual gathering downstream.

    Nevertheless, the choice of routes had little to do with Sunders and Angor because they weren¡¯t going to Port Kodo. As nned, they would leave the group midway and pick a course that would take them back to Brute Cavern.

    The Frozen Wing was slightly overmanned and couldn¡¯t go at full speed. The guards estimated that they needed half a day to move out of the Prominent Forest and enter the mountain range.

    The trip was unsurprisingly rough. Groups of monsters kept bothering them in the forest. They even encountered a team of demon priests from a nearby Demon Monastery who managed to put a deadly curse on some of the apprentices, many of whom met a painful death.

    It was almost the next morning when they finally saw the elevatedndscape of Lightless Mountain up ahead.

    ¡°And this is supposed to be the safer path...¡± Kanter moaned.

    ¡°There is no ¡®safer path¡¯ in the Abyss,¡± said Sunders, ¡°especially at a time like this.¡±

    Angor wasn¡¯t paying attention to the conversation because he was anxious about another matter right now. It wasn¡¯t the monster attacks, but Toby.

    Toby was still sleeping, which meant the bird had been like this for over 48 hours. Angor didn¡¯t believe Toby needed so much sleep due tomon fatigue.

    When the demon priests came earlier, one of them saw a chance when both Sunders and Kanter were busy and aimed a sharp w right at Angor¡¯s chest pocket where Toby was sleeping. Angor managed to evade the attack by ejecting his soul and dragging his body away using gravity power.

    He decided to wake Toby up so that they could work together in preventing getting caught off guard again. However, Toby wouldn¡¯t respond no matter how he tried.

 Chapter 1010 - Tobyâ€™s Dream

    <h4>Chapter 1010: Toby¡¯s Dream</h4>

    There could be more reasons that caused Toby¡¯s condition. Maybe the giant snake did something bad to Toby, or maybe Toby did something bad to himself.

    Angor had been wondering why the giant snake did not attack Toby directly while the other smaller ones did. Surely the ¡°snake king¡± could easily prate Toby¡¯s gravity barrier if it wanted to.

    So what was it waiting for?

    The snake couldn¡¯t be neglecting Toby since it furiously came after Angor when he took Toby away. There was something off.

    After trying and failing toe up with any idea, he had to ask for Sunders¡¯ opinion.

    Sunders dropped his act of unpleasantry and scanned Toby¡¯s body by sending a warm energy beam that way.

    ¡°All physical conditions are fine. No abnormality in brain readings. I don¡¯t see any problem. He¡¯s only sleeping.¡±

    Kanter heard their conversation and came. ¡°He¡¯s right. Maybe your bird really needs more sleep.¡±

    Angor nodded but didn¡¯t feel his concern solved.

    This was not the first time for Toby to sleep more than he should. Previously, Toby spent several months in aa to confront the ¡°will of wrath¡±. ording to Greya, the monster parts she used for making Toby contained five different emotions, wrath, love, hatred, grief, and sadness. Toby had to defeat these foreign emotions during his growth.

    Last time, by defeating the will of wrath, Toby sessfully unlocked the power of Fury Griffin. Toby could not get any direct help when fighting against the emotions. He either conquered them, or lost his soul and became a puppet of the emotions should he fail.

    Angor wondered if Toby was battling with another emotion right now. But as he remembered, Greya did tell him that it would take Toby several more years to begin the second mental battle, after he fully mastered how to control the power of wrath. It was still too early now.

    Angor looked down as he considered his options.

    Sunders knew what was going on when he heard Angor¡¯s mumbling. He happened to know how Toby was created. Then he quickly thought about the emotion-control ability used by the monster snake. It was quite possible for Toby to encounter an emotional conflict earlier than expected if the snake¡¯s power did its trick on Toby in specific ways.

    ¡°If you must, you can try entering his dream and check what¡¯s going on,¡± said Sunders. ¡°But you can only <i>look</i>. Don¡¯t interfere with it.¡±

    Angor nodded¡ªhe just thought about the same thing.

    As long as he remained as an observer, the dreamer wouldn¡¯t be able to detect him. Intentionally disying his arrival in someone¡¯s dream could be risky because the dreamer might unexpectedly change or damage the integrity of the dream in harmful ways. Even a close friend might not know what they were doing to their visitor when dreaming.

    This wouldn¡¯t be a problem if Angor could learn the advanced levels of Dream Maniption arts. If he ever learned how to forcefullymand a dream, the original dreamer would be at his mercy instead.

    With Sunders helping him looking after his body, he cast Dream Walk and reached an ¡°antenna¡± toward Toby¡¯s head.

    Kanter raised an eyebrow when he saw Angor suddenly nodding off.

    ¡°The boy has learned a Dream Maniptor cantrip?¡±

    ¡°Dreams and illusions can greatly amplify each other when used properly. Perhaps he cane up with many interesting ideas in this way.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you mean Angor¡¯s going to create new spells bybining dreams and illusions?¡± Kanter then lowered his voice into a whisper. ¡°So you are nning ¡®that¡¯ after all? You would let him forge spells as an apprentice?¡±

    This wasn¡¯t Sunders¡¯ intention. Going for Dream Maniption arts was an extremely difficult choice. He could see that the few Dream Maniption cantrips Angor learned were all hastily done since Angor needed a long time to cast them.

    In Sunders¡¯ view, Angor should use an existing spell on his first spell slot and be a wizard as soon as he could before the demon invasion and the nightmare monsters made their full assault in the wizarding world.

    Though he wasn¡¯t going to exin his thoughts to Kanter.

    Kanter would like to know more about Angor¡¯s study schedule as it might be helpful to Keely. But he was interrupted when he sensed hostile energying from the sky ahead.

    ¡°Here theye again...¡±

    As soon as they reached the Lightless Mountain, a team of demons and gargoyles covered in bright mes emerged from the woods below and blocked their path.

    ...

    Angor traveled across the ¡°dream bridge¡± and sessfully entered Toby¡¯s dream.

    He was expecting to see an unfolding cmity or something simr when Toby was fighting off an emotion. But he saw nothing like that. In fact, the dream lookedpletely normal.

    The background of the dream was set on an ind where a beautiful vi was built. The bright sunlight shone from the sky and went across several colorful bubbles hovering in the air, creating a formation of rainbows. In the distance, the peaceful sea was gently showering the edge of the ind with lovely tides.

    The dream appeared to be a perfect fantasnd for a young girl, even though Toby was not exactly a ¡°girl¡±.

    Angor didn¡¯t notice anything wrong at first. Like always, his ¡°Dream Walk¡± cantrip ced him on top of Toby, who was casually roaming around the vi.

    The vi looked very simr to theyout of Padt Manor. Following Toby, Angor even saw several familiar faces, such as Head Housemaid Mana, who just sent Toby a food te.

    When Tobynded beside the te and dug in, Angor noticed that he was looking at several slices of crab meat.

    Bam!

    Toby kicked to te onto the floor and angrily chased Mana away.

    Angor could tell from Toby¡¯s voice that Toby really hated Mana for some reason.

    <i>But... Howe? Toby always loved Mana and the snacks she prepared back at Padt Manor.</i>

    Toby flew into the sky to y with the bubbles when he saw Auri showing up from below.

    ¡°Caaaaw!¡± ¡ª<i>You look awful! Get lost!</i>

    Startled, Auri ran out of Angor¡¯s sight.

    Something was definitely off with Toby.

    Angor saw the Milkberry Tree among the farm fields, where Toby¡¯s good friend¡ªthe Moonlily Fairy¡ªwas peacefully enjoying a ss of milk. He saw the fairy waving and inviting Toby for a drink and wondered how Toby would react this time.

    Toby¡¯s first action was tond on the branch and peck at a te of food beside the fairy without making any sound, which was pretty much normal.

    Then Angor noticed something wrong again. The te had small cuts of sea anemone ced in it, which was not Toby¡¯s usual diet.

    ¡°Crab and anemone meat... Does it have something to do with the monsters I ran into earlier?¡±

    His thoughts were interrupted when Toby suddenly moved again.

    After finishing the anemone, Toby lunged at the Moonlily Fairy and began aggressively tearing its clothes off.

 Chapter 1011 - Signs of Aggression

    <h4>Chapter 1011: Signs of Aggression</h4>

    Both Angor and the fairy were terrified to see Toby¡¯s action.

    <i>But you two can¡¯t have kids!</i> Angor screamed in his mind.

    The Moonlily Fairy was physically gender-null. No matter how the fairy produced offspring, it wasn¡¯t possible for Toby to get through.

    But despite what Angor expected to happen, Toby soon tossed the fairy away and looked at the adorable bubble skirt dropped on the ground.

    ¡°Tweet. Arrr!¡± ¡ª<i>Go find something else. The skirt doesn¡¯t fit you!</i>

    Angor knew that Toby actually liked that skirt because the bird had been ncing that way a lot. Though he just couldn¡¯t understand why Toby would treat the fairy like that. Toby might be a bit unruly sometimes, but he simply wouldn¡¯t humiliate his friends so badly.

    Angor kept observing Toby¡¯s dream and saw more of Toby¡¯s unusual behaviors. For example, Toby found Leon, who was practicing swords at the beach, and offered to help Leon with training, but then beat Leon ck and blue.

    Next, Toby went to the tea garden and destroyed the small settlement of the Krakoks, saying that he wouldn¡¯t allow them to build stuff without his permission.

    The violence of Toby did not result in anyone dead yet, but it was still too much. It was as if Toby changedpletely.

    Angor frowned when he realized where Toby was heading next¡ªthe ice room where Jon was kept.

    Just like in reality, Jon was quietly resting in the ice coffin.

    Angor thought Toby would do something bad to Jon, which did not happen. Toby only left some childish dirtynguage against Jon¡¯s face and left.

    That got Angor really confused. Toby and Jon barely knew each other. What reason did Toby have to hate Jon as well?

    When Toby did some more bad business and seemed to be enjoying his actions, Angor¡¯s voice suddenly came from behind him.

    ¡°Hey, Toby.¡±

    As if to reflect Toby¡¯s brightened mood, the environment around the vi grew more colorful than before.

    As Toby turned back upon hearing the voice, Angor also saw himself. Or rather, he saw his ¡°other self¡± existing in Toby¡¯s dream.

    The ¡°Dream Angor¡± was currently looking at Toby from the second floor of the vi building with a smile. As soon as he appeared, Toby quickly went that way.

    Angor was worried that Toby would do terrible things to ¡°Angor¡±, which once again did not ur. Toby was now happily showing his affection to ¡°Angor¡± like usual.

    ¡°Angor¡± and Toby spent some time talking to each other, where most of their conversation was about Toby¡¯sints. It seemed Toby was unhappy with basically everyone in the vi. He used how Mana, Auri, and Leon had been treating him unfairly as if he were the victim of the bullying.

    However, Toby never mentioned Jon¡¯s name, probably because Jon was unable of ¡°harassment¡± when sleeping in the ice coffin, so it wasn¡¯t a good idea to speak lies.

    Without waiting for Toby to finish, ¡°Angor¡± entered his bedroom to mind his research.

    Toby looked down in sadness.

    A whileter, Toby found a chance when ¡°Angor¡± was absent and smashed up the alchemy tools. When ¡°Angor¡± came back to the scene, Toby imed that it was Auri who did the damage.

    ¡°Angor¡± believed everything and went to condemn Auri, and Toby listened to their words while hopping in delight.

    Angor just realized what might be going on in the ridiculous dream. Toby was probably venting out the frustration he gained in daily life. Toby¡¯s unhappiness was real, just that, it was amplified several times in the dream.

    Everything could be exined now. He did neglect Toby pretty often when doing his studies. And it was reasonable if Toby believed that the others in Padt Manor were upying him too much.

    As for the Moonlily Fairy, it was likely that Toby felt envious when the beautiful skirt looked too good on it.

    Angor silently woke up from the seemingly lovely yet creepy dream.

    ¡°Wee back.¡± Sunders saw him returning.

    Angor nodded and looked around their position, only to see that the team was still wandering at the edge of the Lightless Mountain. He knew he spent quite some time in that dream. So why wasn¡¯t the group moving?

    He was then attracted by the noise of quarrelinging from the Frozen Wing. He looked that way and saw several apprentices anxiously talking to the union guards.

    Also, he recognized the fat man called Dusky and his little partner with a rattail hairstyle.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±

    Sunders nced at him. ¡°A battle came about while you were sleeping. Several men died in two hours. I think they¡¯re figuring out whether they should try to rescue a missing apprentice.¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s why we¡¯re still here...¡±

    Kanter seemed rather irritated about the recent trouble and kept mumbling what just happened to them.

    Apparently, they were attacked by several me Gargoyles plus a powerful demon who could produce more gargoyles out of thin air. Kanter felt pissed off because he was responsible for killing the demon AND several other remaining monsters targeting Gond. He even got wounded while at it.

    Angor felt sorry because he was obviously a burden in the fight.

    ¡°No, the fight will break out regardless of whether you¡¯re here with us,¡± said Sunders. ¡°So, what did you find in Toby¡¯s dream?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet. But I may have an idea.¡±

    The chaotic dream was fine if it were a human dream. As creatures withplex emotions and mindsets, anything could happen in their dreams, and these dreams did not necessarily signify the mental conditions of the dreamers.

    For example, Angor tended to have slight grudges against Jon even if he respected Jon greatly most of the time. asionally, he would have a dream where he did bad things to Jon, which was fine, because he would forget about it overnight.

    But Toby was different. Angor had checked Toby¡¯s dreams more than once. Every time, he would see simple events like how Toby was swimming in a pool full of delicious snacks, then asking for head-rubs from the Angor in the dream. Unlike humans, Toby was just too simple. If Toby liked something, he would show it in his dream, and vice versa.

    If Toby ever created aplex dream in which he had to use careful plots, ns, and lies to hurt other people, then there must be something wrong.

    Sunders pondered over Angor¡¯s opinion. ¡°I¡¯m afraid the mind-maniption power of the snake somehow erged Toby¡¯s dark thoughts that weren¡¯t real problems before. Now, however, Toby is experiencing bad results by dreaming about them.¡±

    This might not be a problem for ordinary humans because they could use such a chance to discover their true thoughts. However, this could seriously damage Toby if the ¡°dangerous emotions¡± hidden in his body were triggered.

    ¡°The dream is rtively peaceful, so what we¡¯re worried about hasn¡¯t happened yet. Though we can say that it won¡¯t be far. There are four remaining mental challenges, am I right? Love, hatred, grief, and sadness. The strong obsession and envy you mentioned could be the result of ¡®grief¡¯.¡±

    Angor looked down. Bad news kepting, and he would soon be unable to take them.

    ¡°Don¡¯t stress yourself out. I believe we still have time.¡± Sunders put a hand on his shoulder.

    ¡°Yeah...¡±

    Angor suddenly remembered several details in the dream he still could not exin, such as why the vi was built on an isted ind and why the ce was full of bubbles. These weren¡¯t problems because it might be what Toby thought of Padt Manor, that it was a lovely and safe ce in which he could find peace.

    Though there was one other thing that had been bugging Angor.

    ¡°Professor, I saw the anemone crab in Toby¡¯s dream. It showed up on Toby¡¯s te as food. What does that mean?¡±

 Chapter 1012 - Orlovâ€™s Tentacled Crab

    <h4>Chapter 1012: Orlov¡¯s Tentacled Crab</h4>

    The ¡°hermit crab carrying a sea anemone¡± was academically called the ¡°Orlov¡¯s Tentacled Crab¡±. In truth, that wasn¡¯t an anemone on its back, but a particr parasitic creature that highly depended on the crab to survive.

    ¡°You may not know it, but that crab was, in fact, the most valuable prey among the three monsters,¡± exined Sunders. ¡°It¡¯s a very, very precious material used by Gourmets. The name was announced by a Gourmet called Orlov, who discovered its value.¡±

    That exined why Toby was eating the monster. When Angor found the smaller crab corpse in the Shaded Cave, he also saw bite marks that suggested Toby did consume it.

    ¡°So Toby brought it into his dream because it¡¯s good to eat?¡±

    ...

    Meanwhile, a glowing tentacle emerged from the dark water zone where Angor ran into the troll yesterday.

    Closely behind the tentacle, a gigantic crab with a bright red shell slowly showed its form. It was a full-size Orlov¡¯s Tentacled Crab. This one was even bigger than the one killed by the union yesterday.

    The creature was traveling through the underground river stream. And it was not alone¡ªa swarm of crabs of different sizes was following behind it closely, using their colorful tentacles to decorate the otherwise unlit route like a parade.

    If someone was to go the opposite way of their immigration route, they would be arriving at the source of the underground river¡ªa wide ocean with equally dark water.

    At the edge of the ocean and above the surface, there was a high cliff on which a lone monument was set.

    [Here lie the loyal warriors of Undying Brigade]

    This was the Veiled Coast, a usual travel route for wizards heading to the Overwatch Base, who would all make sure that they stayed well away from the deadly water below.

    Legends said that a Demon Lord once perished here and sank into the bottom of the Veiled Sea, while the infamous dealer, Blaika, remained here to wait for the demon¡¯s soul to return.

    The Veiled Sea had many more interesting rumors and treasure clues, though no human or demon was ever brave enough to explore it. There wasn¡¯t even any Demon Monastery built in this area, which was enough to signify that even the ¡°locals¡± would like to keep away.

    At the dark bottom of the sea, a humanoid figure covered in a gray, broken robe quietly knelt in front of a vortex in great respect as if it was paying tribute to a god to whom it devoted its body and soul.

    It was the Pilgrim of Misfortune who sent the Overwatch Base into an uproar the other day. This terrible creature who always unintentionally brought death and misery motionlessly waited here like a statue, while several Orlov¡¯s Tentacled Crabs swam above its head.

    ...

    The debate about the missing apprentice didn¡¯tst long before the union decided to keep moving. Perhaps the apprentice died to a demon when nobody was looking. No matter what happened, the team would not stop and waste time just to look for an apprentice.

    Kanter hopped off Gond when Sunders chased him away.

    ¡°Come on! I was helping you protect the boat, is this how you treat me?!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m taking Angor back to the wizarding world. We¡¯ll see each other in a few days at Port Koko,¡± said Sunders.

    ¡°What? Now? Will the union open their portal for you?¡±

    ¡°There will be a way.¡±

    Kanter cast onest nce at Angor and floated away. He never expected Sunders to go against Monkey¡¯s will and abandon his post like this.

    He thought, <i>Angor is indeed important to him...</i>

    Sunders saw Kanter¡¯s suspicious look and sent a Voice Transmission. ¡°You got me wrong. I¡¯m going back to see whether I can find a prize from the ne fusion.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... The magazine mentioned a giant destiny waiting to be exploited. I see.¡±

    But considering the estimated time of the ne fusion, going back to the wizarding world at such a moment might be toote. Though Sunders could still find the entrance and enter the foreign ne to look for leftovers.

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®there¡¯s a way¡¯ though?¡± Kanter questioned. ¡°The union can¡¯t just give you an exception and let you go through their portal without getting anything in return.¡±

    Sunders smirked but did not answer.

    Kanter shook his head and spoke to Angor, ¡°Don¡¯t forget my words, my boy. If you really got your hands on some Mutation Larvae, save one for my Keely!¡±

    ¡°Of course, Mister Kanter.¡± Angor nodded.

    Next, Sunders switched his ¡°channel¡± to Sennefer. ¡°I¡¯ll be absent for some days.¡±

    Sennefer didn¡¯t ask for his reason. She only told Sunders to return as soon as he could.

    With these settled, Gond left the group and headed in another direction.

    Samantha saw Sunders leaving and glimpsed at Sennefer. ¡°He told you something, didn¡¯t he? What is it?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯ll mind some business elsewhere.¡±

    ¡°Where is he going?¡±

    ¡°No idea. Something to do with his student, perhaps, since he took the boy with him.¡±

    Samantha humphed in annoyance. She and Sennefer were bothmanders of the Overwatch Base, and she felt bad when Sunders told Sennefer an excuse but not her.

    Brofen came to them by levitating his fat body. His tired look and panda eyes meant he wasn¡¯t doing well these days.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think the rest of this route has any danger. I¡¯ll stay in my workshop and continue my research.¡±

    Brofen was mainly frustrated about losing Dura, when he was supposed to get her out of trouble. Now that Dura was gone, he had to rely on himself to do his work.

    ¡°Not yet.¡± Sennefer shook her head. ¡°Our old experiences no longer apply, as you can see. We have all the reason to believe that there are more enemies waiting for us ahead. It will be bad if we encounter another Grand Demon without Sunders to help us. Your research can wait.¡±

    Brofen sighed. He knew he couldn¡¯t see everyone else fight if he shut himself in hisb.

    ¡°Alright, I guess.¡±

    Strangely, the rest of the trip was indeed free of trouble as Brofen said. It was even more peaceful than expected because they didn¡¯t run into a single monster when there should be several along this way.

    It was as if... Sunders¡¯ departure also took their misfortune away.

    ...

    Compared to the union, the journey of Sunders and Angor was far from harmonious. Thankfully, Sunders was good enough to fend off all the enemies.

    After killing another demon as powerful as typical level-2 wizards, they entered a small cave to catch a breath. Even someone dependable like Sunders still needed time to recover.

    Angor wondered how many more enemies would be troubling the union when he and Sunders ran into so many obstacles by walking on foot. They chose to proceed this way so that fewer enemies could see them. But it didn¡¯t help at all.

    ¡°Is something happening at the Lightless Mountain?¡±

    On Angor¡¯s hand, Toby rolled over and exposed his belly.

    Angor shook his head and gently fingered Toby¡¯s feathers.

    Sunders suddenly opened his eyes as he stopped his meditation.

    ¡°This is not right...¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sir?¡±

    ¡°The Lightless Mountain was never so crowded with demons. There must be a cause that brought them here.¡±

    Just like how they weren¡¯t aware of the demon lord sleeping under the Prominent Forest, they might be overlooking another root of trouble right now.

    ¡°Nevertheless, we should pick up our pace.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... And professor, how far until we can get to the inter-ne portal?¡±

 Chapter 1013 - Windsay Valley

    <h4>Chapter 1013: Windsay Valley</h4>

    Sunders nced at Angor, grinning. ¡°Who said anything about an inter-ne portal?¡±

    ¡°Eh? We¡¯re not using that portal to go back?¡±

    Angor thought they were going to return to the wizarding world in the same manner. Before leaving the Overwatch Base, he even asked a union guard where the nearest inter-ne portal was located. ording to the guard, they needed to use a tunnel in the depth of the Lightless Mountain to reach level 2 first.

    ¡°No, we¡¯re not.¡± Sunders shook his head in denial.

    ¡°Then... why are weing here?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a particr area around the Lightless Mountain where the dimensional properties in the environment are stable. That¡¯s what we need to teleport back to the wizarding world.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re reaching the wizarding world directly??¡±

    As far as Angor knew, only the Moonfrost Union was capable of transporting people and resources between his home ne and Abyss ne because they controlled the necessary portals. With Monkey¡¯s great mission upying so many wizards and critical travel routes, the union was unlikely to allow an individual or two to use the portal.

    Angor suddenly realized what Sunders might be nning. They both received ¡°Section Ephemera¡± from Greya¡¯s restaurant several years ago. That thing could surely help them open up a tunnel to the wizarding world.

    Sunders nodded when hearing Angor¡¯s guess. ¡°That¡¯s correct. Of course I¡¯m not begging the union to do me the privilege, so using the Section Ephemera is our best shot. I believe the ne fusion at Parmigi Hignds is approaching its end. By spending the Section Ephemera, I¡¯ll get back what I lost from elsewhere.¡±

    Sunders never nned to get involved in the ne fusion if not for Angor¡¯s matter. Even so, he would be d to use such a chance to give it a try. While the foreign ne might already be swept clean by wizards who explored it earlier, he could certainly try to dig further.

    Angor, on the other hand, suddenly got a bad feeling upon hearing Sunders¡¯ merry n. When he returned to Brute Cavern from the Old Earth, he immediately set out for the Abyss to look for Sunders <i>and</i> to avoid the ne fusion. He was worried that, if Sunders took him back to Parmigi Hignds so early and approached the area affected by the ne fusion, his Alien Eye might ¡°go off¡± again.

    Unlike Jon¡¯s condition, he never intended to reveal the secret of the Alien Eye to anyone, not even Sunders. Jon told him that, if the artifact could take someone from the Earth to the wizarding world, it could probably do the opposite. They couldn¡¯t afford to let a wizard detect the presence of the Earth and plunder it for resources like how they usually treated the new nes they discovered.

    Jon once made it clear that he would rather die in this foreignnd than endangering his home. For the sake of Jon, Angor would make sure the Alien Eye stayed well-hidden no matter what.

    However, if what Sunders said was true, the ne fusion did not fullye to a conclusion yet. If the Alien Eye was taken there now...

    ¡°No more tarrying, we should go.¡± Sunders stood up. ¡°We¡¯re not far from the stable section I said. If we move quickly, we¡¯ll get there within two hours.¡±

    ¡°Sir-sir. Can we rest a bit longer since, you know, the outside looks pretty safe right now?¡±

    ¡°Looking safe is the biggest problem for us.¡± Sunders put on his white gloves without stopping.

    The dark and quiet sky outside the cave somewhat made him anxious. Whening here, the road was full of monsters who did not give them any second to rx. Something was definitely not right.

    Angor found it too difficult to make up excuses and sighed. Helpless, he extinguished their campfire, put Toby into his pocket, and stepped out of the cave behind Sunders.

    ¡°This is the calm before the storm, I¡¯m afraid,¡± said Sunders. ¡°Learn to get out of yourfort zone once in a while, especially here.¡±

    Angor obediently followed Sunders but without paying much attention to Sunders¡¯ lectures because he had too many concerns troubling his mind, such as how to convince Sunders to depart after the ne fusion fully ended.

    Sunders suddenly interrupted him, ¡°I said there will be a storm, no? Here it is.¡±

    Angor quickly looked up and saw a group of winged demons closing in.

    These weren¡¯t grand demons, but they were still pretty strong among their rank. They could defeat careless wizards if they meant business. A full team of them should be enough to keep a truth-finder busy for a while.

    Thinking about this, Angor was actually d that they now had a reason to remain behind. For the first time since he came to the Abyss ne, he hoped that they would encounter monsters. Even better, if the monsters were just at the right level to stall Sunders without actually hurting them.

    ¡°Professor, I have my Infinite Reticence on!¡±

    He meant to tell Sunders to ignore him and go deal with the demons.

    To his surprise, Sunders shushed him and sent him a Spirit Bond. ¡°Quiet, they haven¡¯t seen us yet. Stay behind that rock and don¡¯t move.¡±

    <i>But he always sent every enemy to the hereafter by force! Why would he change his way now??</i> Angor couldn¡¯t believe what he was looking at.

    Sunders saw his suspicious look. ¡°As I said, some sort of great danger is haunting the Lightless Mountain, but we just can¡¯t see it. We must get out of here as fast as we can manage.¡±

    Angor moaned. It seemed he was going to be disappointed.

    He certainly couldn¡¯t mess up by luring the demons to their position. He had no choice but to wait patiently until the ¡°storm¡± passed.

    About ten minutester, the demons left their view, after which Sunders quickly ran in their designated direction at full speed.

    Later, Angor realized that those winged demons were far from being the ¡°storm¡± at all. They saw way more powerful enemies such as mid-level demons and even a few grand demons who were at the same level as Sunders. If they were to confront these creatures, Sunders wouldn¡¯t have time to protect him all.

    Angor silently cursed himself for being so naive.

    So many enemies would be difficult for Sunders to handle even if he got an equally strong partner or two. Evading was indeed their best choice.

    Now it was clear that Sunders¡¯ prediction was right, that an unknown threat was hidden at the Lightless Mountain.

    In the end, it took them half a day to travel across the route and reach the ¡°dimensionally stabilized¡± area¡ªthe Windsay Valley. Despite being called a valley, the area was actually pretty wide. It was as if somebody excavated a piece of tnd in the middle of the mountains.

    The area looked rather beautiful too. There were all sorts of fruit trees and water canals. It would make a perfect spot for building a settlement.

    ¡°The Windsay Valley is often used by wizards as a teleportation hub,¡± Sunders exined as he took Angor to the northern edge of the area, where a hidden entrance to the underground was found. ¡°When Samantha had to teleport to Skyward Ind, she used this spot as well. You rarely find monsters here, so people can use this ce to rest up if necessary.¡±

    The entrance took them to a wet, underground cave full of traces of human constructions, probably done by people who nned to camp. Nobody actually built a settlement here because there were too many powerful enemies native to level 3 that were always wandering around the nearby areas.

    ¡°The entrance we used is the only way out. There are no other passages ahead of us, meaning, nothing will surprise us here. We shall use the Section Ephemera right here.¡±

    Angor nodded. He couldn¡¯t alter Sunders¡¯ decision now. He only hoped that Sunders did not take them straight to the Parmigi Hignds.

    ¡°Sir, the dimension around the Parmigi Hignds must be disturbed at this moment, maybe we should set the destination somewhere farther, like the Yaley Principality?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need. No matter how big an area the ne fusion covers, Brute Cavern will be sure to secure the territory of the organization. We¡¯ll head to Windmill Town.¡±

    Windmill Town was the closest human settlement around Brute Cavern. Telling from the map, it belonged to the Darkivil Empire. However, it was in fact administered by Brute Cavern.

    ¡°Al-alright.¡± Angor desperately tried toe up with excuses that exined the Alien Eye, if the artifact did disy unusual properties when they got back.

 Chapter 1014 - Racing Against Time

    Chapter 1014: Racing Against Time

    Sunders swiftly created the inter-ne tunnel before Angor could think of any good idea.

    Defeated, he copied Sunders¡¯ example and jumped into the tunnel, head-lowered¡ªonly to almost get himself killed.

    Not long after he took a few steps into the tunnel did he see Sunders¡¯ expression getting awfully horrid.

    With a forceful pull, Sunders grasped his cor and dragged him back.

    Angor lost his bnce and tumbled in the zero-gravity tunnel. When he managed to steady his body and look clearly, he saw the space in front of him... gone.

    Like a mirror, the gloomy space just ahead of them shattered into small pieces and disappeared, leaving a giant, chaotic dimensional vortex blocking their way.

    Angor looked back only to see that every direction was now upied by vortexes that exerted either repelling or pulling force everywhere. One wrong move would cause them to fall into the deadly forces and get torn apart.

    Sunders spoke without moving his head, ¡°We must go back. Now.¡±

    Step by step, Sunders carefully calcted their next safest move and squeezed through the dimensional traps weaved by the dancing vortexes. They had to move fast. If the vortexes connected with each other and became one giant aggregation of gravity, they would no longer have a chance to get out.

    Angor felt his mind going nk as he tiptoed along the path of doom where he could almost see the hands from hell trying to grasp his ankles and drag him to his grave.

    By each passing second, their already narrow path would get slightly chipped away, further exposing them to destruction.

    In order not to end up as a lost soul wandering in this forsaken dimension for eternity, Angor made sure he copied every of Sunders¡¯ moves down to every inch.

    In a matter of seconds, Sunders¡¯ shoulders were drenched by sweat when his mind was strained too much.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Sunders¡¯ voice still sounded in and even impassive despite his condition.

    Angor nodded.

    ¡°Good. Assist me.¡±

    Sunders found it impossible to do the path-finding and keep off the harassment of the gravity energy around them at the same time. He didn¡¯t have enough stamina for the job.

    ¡°Use your sequence of gravity to shield us when I do the calction. Do you best if you want to live.¡±

    Angor agreed without a second thought. If something distracted Sunders and messed up their course, they would both die for sure.

    He chanted Spirit Mantra, ejected his soul, and immediately engulfed their position with a barrier made out of gravity energy. It was the same trick used by Toby earlier to fend off the snakes. However, the biting snakes were nothingpared to the force of the dimensional vortexes. Almost instantly, Angor felt dizzy as his soul energy was being rapidly drained.

    Sunders fully concentrated on his mental work, which allowed them to move just a little faster. But the situation didn¡¯t look safe yet. Angor felt as if he were a helpless kite in the middle of a great storm, with only one single string keeping him in ce. When the gravity barrier exhausted his soul energy, which would probably be soon, he would be a lost cause.

    The terrible condition on his soul was slowly reflected by his body, which began to bleed through the eyes and the ears.

    Even so, Angor dared not lower his guard.

    The sequence of gravity was a wonderful power, but he, as an apprentice, didn¡¯t have what it took to maintain such arge output for long. He knew he could keep on for ten seconds, or twenty, at best. Yet the entrance through which they came was still some distance away.

    The terrible sense of death was never so close to him.

    ¡°Five, four... I¡ªI can¡¯t¡ª¡±

    Before Angor lost hope and sentenced himself to death, Sunders finally called out to him.

    ¡°Move, now!¡±

    Sunders picked up his speed, grabbed Angor¡¯s arm, and dashed toward the exit, even though Angor couldn¡¯t really tell what was going on around him.

    The vortexes were finally drawn to each other and caused a huge explosion that totally annihted the temporary dimension into nothingness.

    Sunders managed to drag Angor¡¯s bloodied form out of the tunnel at thest moment, just as the power of the explosion almost reached their backs.

    The entrance, which was made possible by the Section Ephemera, showed a blinding sh of light as if to curse its prey. But no matter how dangerous the explosion was, it could not escape through the tunnel and reach the outside because the ¡°consciousness¡± of the Abyss wouldn¡¯t allow it.

    Like an extinguished candle, the entrance shrank smaller and fizzed out of existence.

    The cave returned to be peaceful and quiet. An outsider who came here at this moment wouldn¡¯t find anything wrong apart from the mixed smell of sweat and blood.

    While Angor was still struggling on the ground like a stranded fish, Sunders had erased everyst trace of the distress they suffered and was ready to attend an evening bouquet using that perfect gentlemanly look.

    But not everything could be repaired. At least Sunders still look slightly exhausted after the ordeal.

    ¡°Good job, indeed.¡± The gentleman¡¯s low voice sounded almost alluring when he was tired.

    Angor flipped himself over and chuckled. This was pretty much the only reaction he could use after escaping death.

    When he feltforted enough to think of other matters, he found his head overwhelmed by both joy and confusion.

    They spent a while in silence since neither of them felt like moving.

    A momentter, Angor believed he was good enough to get out of his ¡°dead fish mode¡± and slowly sat up.

    ¡°Whatever was that, professor? Did the inter-ne tunnel fail?¡±

    Sunders nced at him. ¡°Before we talk, you should wash up first.¡±

    Angor checked his body and wrinkled his nose as a strong odor hit him.

    ¡°Oops...¡± He quickly cast Cleanse and showered his body from head to toe.

    ¡°And your hair.¡±

    Using more water, Angor repaired his greasy hair that looked like a bird¡¯s nest.

    ¡°Ahem. Sir, did that happen because the dimension around here is actually bad?¡±

    ¡°No, the dimension around the Windsay Valley is fine. Something went wrong with the tunnel. But I can¡¯t tell the nature of the problem. I never encountered such a thing before. We may try againter and see whether that was purely an ident.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re doing that again??¡± Angor found this idea to be terrible. He now had two reasons not to return to the wizarding world so fast.

    Sunders simply said yes. Both he and Greya agreed before that using Section Ephemera for inter-ne travel shouldn¡¯t be so dangerous. Personally, he would believe that the same thing wouldn¡¯t ur for a second time.

    ¡°Now that I think about it, we¡¯ve been unluckily running into more problems than expected ever since we left the Overwatch Base. Let¡¯s rest for the day. Get yourself to top condition, and we¡¯ll make more ns tomorrow.¡±

 Chapter 1015 - No Return

    <h4>Chapter 1015: No Return</h4>

    At least this one night passed without meeting any unwanted mishap.

    While d, Angor also found the strange anxiety haunting his mind again.

    ¡°I¡¯m worrying too much...¡± He shook his head. ¡°All wizards see this spot as a safehouse. They can¡¯t be <i>all</i> wrong.¡±

    The dead oilmp meant they had spent 12 hours resting, which was enough for them to recover most of their spent mana.

    ¡°Let¡¯s try again.¡±

    Angor thought he had to provide his Section Ephemera this time, which was not necessary because Sunders seemed to have more of them prepared. It was Greya who provided several servings of Section Ephemera so that Sunders could escape back to the wizarding world in case something went wrong. She still needed Sunders¡¯ help, after all.

    Even though Sunders considered yesterday¡¯s incident as an unlucky coincidence, he wasn¡¯t going to fully repeat the steps. He nned to alter several elements for their teleportation attempt, such as using another underground cave at the other side of the Windsay Valley. Then, instead of heading to Windmill Town, Sunders set their target at the Yaley Principality, as Angor suggested yesterday. From there, they would be able to conveniently enter Parmigi Hignds before reaching Brute Cavern.

    This meant both ends of the tunnel were moved far apart from their original respective spots. As Sunders believed, this should be enough to eliminate whatever ¡°unfortunate ident¡± that might bother them.

    ¡°Be careful, let¡¯s go.¡± Sunders nodded to Angor, and a ck, swirling portal once again emerged in front of them.

    Angor gazed into the seemingly imprable surface of the entrance and felt his heart racing faster.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Sunders asked when he saw his student trembling badly.

    ¡°This is not right... I can feel it.¡±

    Sunders noticed Angor¡¯s pale face and didn¡¯t think that look was pretended.

    As a veteran wizard, Sunders hade across many asions where his sudden instinct saved him from trouble. He knew he shouldn¡¯t neglect Angor¡¯s ¡°warning¡± as it might be conveying an important sign. It was very likely that Angor sensed a simr crisis. In other words, going into the portal right now was unwise.

    ¡°Fine. You stay here while I check ahead first. I¡¯lle back and get you if the tunnel is safe.¡±

    Sunders was sure that he did not sense anything wronging from the portal, so he didn¡¯t want to give up yet. Without waiting for Angor to speak different opinions, he leaped into the portal and disappeared.

    Angor slowly took several steps back when his nerves urged him to keep away from the portal. However, his action did not help him escape from the dreadful sense crawling all over his skin. It was as if this whole ce was frightening him.

    Yet he couldn¡¯t leave the Windsay Valley. He had to wait for Sunders. And besides, he wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere alone if he aimlessly wandered about in the Abyss.

    His only choice was to stare at the dark portal while bearing with the overwhelming pressure in his mind.

    Time seemed to be slowing down as he warily waited for Sunders¡¯ return, which did not happen after a disturbingly long period had expired.

    Angor trusted that his professor would be able to make a two-way tour inside the tunnel by now if the gentleman seriously meant it.

    ¡°Is he in danger? Maybe the length of the tunnel changed because we used a different starting point. Or maybe time works differently there...¡±

    He muttered all kinds of excuses tofort himself. But nothing could calm him down when Sunders was absent for over half an hour.

    This almost convinced him of the worst yet most probable conclusion, that Sunders was indeed in trouble.

    <i>What should I do?</i>

    <i>Should I keep waiting, or... get in there and look for him?</i>

    He chose the former option after some serious mental struggling. He was pretty sure he wouldn¡¯t be able to survive the dimensional disaster all by himself. Getting himself killed wasn¡¯t helping at all.

    Sunders was an exceptionally powerful wizard who could take care of himself in way deadlier situations. Angor would believe his professor for now.

    While determined to be a ¡°good kid¡± and hold his patience, Angor spent half a day alone in the cave.

    The portal quietly and harmlessly floated there without showing any signs in particr. Though Angor did not find the distressing sense gone.

    When he felt his eyes aching after looking at the portal for too long, he finally saw something different. Just like yesterday, the portal grew brighter and forced him to shield his eyes.

    ¡°Is-is that tunnel going to crumble again? But the professor is still in there!¡±

    Before he could decide his next course of action, a sharp light beam escaped from the portal like an arrow, aimed at his heart.

    He did not have nearly enough time to react properly.

    When the ¡°light arrow¡± was about to pierce his chest, it sank into a glowing orb that suddenly floated in front of Angor¡¯s neck.

    He looked down and saw his pendant rising into his view.

    ...

    Fey Continent, Parmigi Hignds.

    ¡°Wizard¡± was always a rare, sought-after resource who could provide their organization apetitive edge in all kinds of matters. Most organizations needed only two or three wizards to support their affairs.

    At this moment, thousands of wizards from different organizations all over the region had gathered at Parmigi Hignds, looking at the ¡°reflection¡± of another world above their heads.

    The upside-down world inside the reflection was a huge desert full of broken stones and debris, among which people could asionally find traces of human structures with exotic styles.

    This was not a simple mirage. It was a real, existing world almost within reach. Everyone knew it. They were looking at the foreign ne being fused into the wizarding world.

    Typically, a ne fusion was divided into three stages, all of which provided wizards with immeasurable rewards and resources if they knew how to take them.

    The second stage¡ªPath of Infinity¡ªwas usually believed to be the most dangerous and rewarding stage because wizards were able to detect the coordinates of many different nes that allowed them to explore these new ces for even more resources. However, only legendary wizards or above could actually step onto the ¡°Path of Infinity¡± and not die.

    Since the southern wizarding region had not weed a single legendary wizard in a long time, wizards who were going after ne fusions were mainly targeting the first and the third stage of them, which were ¡°Garden Aquarius¡± and ¡°Time of Plunder¡±.

    During Garden Aquarius, Fragments of Eternity would be ejected from the center of the ne fusion. Those who held enough fragments could use them to build a Sorcerer¡¯s Garden, an important tool that granted them many advantages.

    When the tunnel between two worlds was sessfully generated, there would be a short period of time during which the tunnel remained visible for everyone to ess. This was the Time of Plunder, when all wizards were free to enter the other ne and loot it to their hearts¡¯ content.

    The appearance of the ¡°reflection¡± above meant the Time of Plunder was near.

    The first stage of the ne fusion produced a good number of Fragments of Eternity, most of which were imed by some of the elite wizards, such as ¡°The Silencer¡± and ¡°God of Seas¡±.

    Bying here, most wizards were mainly waiting for the third stage to begin since the previous two were pointless to them.

 Chapter 1016 - DÃ©jÃ  Vu

    <h4>Chapter 1016: D¨¦j¨¤ Vu</h4>

    A wizard with ck hair and a close-fitting garment spoke with a serious look, ¡°There won¡¯t be much to find from a piece of desert, I¡¯m afraid.¡±

    ¡°Not quite.¡± The respondent was an old woman wearing a showy golden robe. She had a pair of crimson ear studs that looked like two drops of blood. ¡°So many people came to ¡®plunder¡¯ for a reason. Besides, this is the biggest ne fusion we¡¯ve witnessed in thousands of years. The first two stages took an entire week to finish... We can only wonder how enormous the other world truly is.¡±

    Several wizards yelled in awe when they saw arge sandworm inside the reflection, who gave them a scornful re and dived back into the sand.

    ¡°That thing¡¯s huge!¡±

    ¡°A wizard-level monster. It must be.¡±

    ¡°How strong is it? Can we tame it?¡±

    ¡°I want to know if its skin and blood are of any use!¡±

    The old woman nced at the ck-haired man she talked to. ¡°See that? The only question is whether you look carefully enough. The prolonged ne fusion meant that the foreign ne is a stable world with well-establishedws and systems. This means we will find valuables from it.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that worm lives alone. Maybe we¡¯re expecting a group of them who can stir up deadly sandstorms. Just look at the terrible weather.¡±

    ¡°A group of wizard-level monsters. You know what this means to us, right, Saipan?¡±

    ¡°But Lady Danae, we can¡¯t hunt down multiple wizard-level monsters fast enough. Somebody will find us and try to take a bite off our prey.¡±

    Saipan nced in another direction. Among another group of wizards, a charming, barefoot woman was smirking at him under her adorable red parasol.

    She blew Saipan a kiss and winked.

    ¡°That filthy b*tch!¡± Saipan spat furiously. ¡°We failed to get a single Fragment of Eternity because of them, meddlesome Flora and Rein Mute. Now she¡¯s happy, huh?!¡±

    Danae grimaced. ¡°Phantom Ind is now our enemy. We¡¯re too close to Brute Cavern right now. We should have expected them to bother us.¡±

    Danae¡¯s organization, Gravity Forest, just recently offended Sunders in the Abyss. Of course Brute Cavern was not happy about it.

    ¡°Then we just watch them sh*t on our heads?!¡± Saipan¡¯s pale face turned red in rage.

    Danae looked away. ¡°Yes. We bide.¡±

    ¡°Damn them all! It was Sunders and Flora who took all of our fragments from Boko and made their own garden which should be ours! They know no shame!¡±

    The wizarding world was never a ce where shame and justice worked. Strength meant everything.

    Danae stopped Saipan from further protesting. ¡°Remember, Brute Cavern is not our target. Our real enemy is still in the Abyss.¡±

    Gravity Forest never intended to go hostile against Brute Cavern in the first ce because they would get nothing out of it. What they were nning was to seize Sunders¡¯ Gravity Garden. Gravity Forest had a weaker Gravity Garden that urgently needed ¡°supplement¡± right now.

    Saipan looked unconvinced. ¡°But we failedst time. Do we have to go to the Abyss again?¡±

    Danae nced at ¡°God of Seas¡± Flunza and where Song of the Deep was stationed.

    ¡°You forgot? We have another trick up our sleeves. Emmagan.¡±

    Saipan grew quiet upon hearing this name.

    Emmagan was a member of Song of the Deep and a very capable fighter. Butpared to his strength, people were more concerned about his origin.

    Rumors had it that Emmagan was a ¡°vessel¡± who belonged to a deadly individual from a foreign ne. For this reason, the Supreme Cult was constantly monitoring Emmagan¡¯s moves. Though the cult never managed to actually do anything because Emmagan was always well-protected by Song of the Deep.

    The truth was, the Supreme Cult was already suspicious of Song of the Deep for many reasons. By now, Song of the Deep had shown many shady connections with foreign invaders.

    ¡°We-we are cooperating with Emmagan?¡± Saipan wasn¡¯t sure whether this was a good idea.

    Danae slightly shook her head. ¡°Dealing with the devil to gain strength has always been amon practice in this world. Wizards go after profit. If a devil gives us enough profit, we¡¯ll ept it.¡±

    Saipan closed his eyes.

    ¡°Once the tunnel bes avable, we enter the other ne and immediately leave the mob,¡± said Danae, ¡°especially away from Brute Cavern.¡±

    ¡°Noted.¡± Saipan nodded.

    ¡°Heh. Prophets told us that the final location of the tunnel will not remain at Parmigi Hignds. That¡¯s when we¡¯ll see Brute Cavern cry over their misfortune.¡±

    If the Parmigi Hignds served as an entrance to the foreign ne, in the long run, Brute Cavern would be able to use the advantage to exploit the new territory however they liked. Rein Mute even considered migrating the HQ of Brute Cavern¡ªthe mirror world¡ªinto the foreign ne if the Parmigi Hignds was endangered by parasites.

    Of course Gravity Forest was delighted to see their rival losing such a great opportunity.

    ¡°Speaking of Prophets, ¡®Innocence¡¯ Seurat mentioned that a great destiny here will be imed by a certain individual. But we don¡¯t see that happening yet. Will someone find some kind of big treasure in the foreign ne and take it away when no one¡¯s looking?¡± asked Saipan.

    Most wizards had heard about Seurat¡¯s im. Apart from waiting for the ¡°Time of Plunder¡±, they were also thinking about how to seize the ¡°great destiny¡± should they find it.

    The mirage in the sky was growing clearer by the second, while all the wizards prepared their various tricks in order to move faster and get the upper hand during the feast.

    Following several eager people who flew higher to get closer to the reflection, the other organizations, including Brute Cavern and Song of the Deep, told their men to move as well.

    Lady Danae alsomanded her members, ¡°Prepare yourselves. The ne fusion is ending soon.¡±

    Everyone held their breaths and waited for the decisive moment.

    One minute. Two. Ten...

    Several wizards lost patience andnded back on the ground.

    The finale of the ne fusion did not ur, which also prevented the Time of Plunder from happening.

    More importantly, the reflection in the sky was getting blurry for some reason.

    Danae and Saipan exchanged a surprised look as they both remembered seeing something simr several years ago. When they were looking at the ne fusion at Devil¡¯s Water, the fusion also halted in the same manner.

    Ka-boom!

    The stressful wizards were startled by a thunderous explosion that appeared out of nowhere.

    ¡°Huh? Thunder? But it¡¯s not raining¡ª¡±

    The clear sky was almost instantly covered behind rain clouds.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?!¡±

    A ne fusion was not exactly a rare urrence in the wizarding world. Every wizard who lived long enough tended to see several of them during their career.

    Yet nobody could understand the strange sight they were looking at. A ne fusion would usually summon the power of the world¡¯s consciousness that would cause harmful disasters during the early stages, but not unusual rainwater.

    Was the ne fusion going to fail again, just like several years ago? But why? Was the southern wizarding region unable to incorporate more appendage nes?

    Plop, plop...

    Several drops of rain were soon followed by a terrible downpour.

 Chapter 1017 - Dimensional Paradox

    <h4>Chapter 1017: Dimensional Paradox</h4>

    The rainstorm wiped the sky clear better than the most effective cleanser.

    Either confused or horrified, the wizards watched the reflection of the desert dissolved.

    ¡°It vanished!¡±

    ¡°But where is the Time of Plunder?!¡±

    ¡°Sorry, but I never saw a ne fusion before. Does that mean it concluded?¡±

    ¡°No, fool! It was interrupted!¡±

    ¡°Again?!¡±

    The heavy rain persisted as if the world¡¯s consciousness were crying over its meaningless effort in dealing with the ne fusion, only to give the final fruit to somebody else.

    Of course, nobody could care less about what the world¡¯s consciousness was doing. They only wanted their cash delivered.

    ¡°Did Seurat lie to us? Where is this f*cking ¡®great destiny¡¯??¡±

    One after one, frustrated people found where the team sent by Starliege Temple waited and went to question them.

    ¡°But... Our Overseers never fail their prophecy. Not once.¡± A Prophet tried to rationalize the situation.

    ¡°Then who¡¯s gonna exin this shit?!¡±

    Seeing more and more wizards about to lose control, several Prophets simply sat down and began reading the origin of the problem they were met with.

    The only thing they managed to see was that the world¡¯s consciousness was ¡°unpleasant¡± because it lost a lot of power. The rain was the sign of it.

    As for the culprit who upset both the consciousness and all the eager wizards by terminating the ne fusion, the Prophets couldn¡¯t find a clue.

    This was far from enough to convince the onlookers. Or rather, they didn¡¯t care about the cause of the bummer at all. They came all the way here hoping to earn a hefty profit. Now, they only wanted a target to direct their frustration on.

    While most of the people argued, the two strongest wizards attending the event, Flunza and Rein Mute, looked at each other.

    ¡°What¡¯s your opinion about this?¡± ¡°God of Seas¡± asked first.

    Rein shook his head. ¡°Beats me. But at least Seurat was right about one thing, that the final entrance to the foreign ne will not remain at the Parmigi Hignds. Heh. There is no entrance at all.¡±

    Compared to others, wizards from Brute Cavern didn¡¯t look too disappointed because they already got their hands on a lot of Fragments of Eternity.

    They had been having a few bad days because wizards from other ces would keep mocking them either inly or behind their backs since Brute Cavern ¡°regrettably¡± lost control of the new territory.

    Now, however, nobody was the winner.

    Neither Flunza nor Rein was bothered by the loss of opportunity. At their level, the random resources they could find from the Time of Plunder were nothingpared to their own progress and growth in strength.

    Even so, this didn¡¯t mean that they weren¡¯t curious about what truly happened just now. Was this a coincidence? Would future ne fusionse to an early halt in the same way?

    Rein received a private Voice Transmission and decided to tell it to Flunza. ¡°An old friend notified me that he detected an abnormal depletion in dimensional energy. In one second or two, the dimensional energy around the area of the ne fusion waspletely drained. That could be the cause of the incident.¡±

    ¡°An old friend of yours? Is it ¡®Void Walker¡¯ Issus?¡±

    Flunza looked around but didn¡¯t find his target. Though he clearly sensed Issus¡¯ presence nearby. Issus was a truth-finder ultist who studied dimension-rted arts. Rumor said that he once acquired the legacy of Barzel, the Great Twisted Wizard.

    There weren¡¯t many wizards in this world who could impress Flunza with their skills. Issus was definitely one such person.

    ¡°So, what introduced the energy depletion?¡± asked Flunza.

    ¡°His initial estimation suggested an alien force...¡±

    Flunze frowned.

    An ¡°alien force¡± meant that it was likely an individual who sessfully snatched the oue of the ne fusion under the nose of the world¡¯s consciousness. This wouldn¡¯t be possible unless they were talking about a legendary being or someone above.

    Suppose a legendary wizard or monster was behind this, then everything could be exined. Seurat¡¯s prediction was right, that there was indeed a great destiny waiting to be taken. It fell into the hands of the unknown presence they couldn¡¯t see.

    Of course, not even powerful Prophets could detect this individual, who probably had something to counter prophecy or even wound careless Prophets who targeted them.

    Both Flunza and Rein looked away. A legendary being was no longer something they could handle.

    The rain did not show any sign of stopping. Wriggling snakes of lightning mercilessly struck the earth below as if the world¡¯s consciousness didn¡¯t find its fury quenched. But the world¡¯s consciousness didn¡¯t actually have emotions or intelligence, only rules. By using its remaining power, it meant to repair space ruptures that still lingered in the area, while the lightning strikes were only tools.

    Meanwhile, people all stood in the rain in saddening silence as their mood was affected by the tantrum of nature.

    The Parmigi Hignds regained its peace as thest space rupture was patched up. However, the clearing weather could not erase the frenzy troubling the crowd. Many of them traveled across continents and oceans and camped here for weeks, only to be told that they gotpletely nothing. No Fragment of Eternity, no Time of Plunder. They simply couldn¡¯t ept it.

    ...

    Meanwhile, several lightning bolts that couldn¡¯t find anything to work on at the Parmigi Hignds made their way to the border of the area and entered the territory of the Yaley Principality.

    A bolt moved lower until the altitude was moderate enough for trees to grow. Here, it discovered a dimensional portal in the middle of a forest and moved to seal it up.

    ...

    Sunders was trying to make a decision inside the tunnel.

    He thought he was skilled enough to ovee whatever danger Angor predicted, so he chose to enter the tunnel alone, only to lose his direction in the middle of it. He felt an unknown force obscuring his senses. No matter where he went, he would keep moving in circles.

    Usually, every wizard should know how to tell directions in an inter-ne tunnel because long-range teleportation was a must-have skill.

    As soon as the tunnel was built, Sunders remembered the coordinates of the destination so that he could go straight to it.

    Now, he still felt the goal just nearby, yet he couldn¡¯t reach it.

    While it was rare, such a ¡°dimensional paradox¡± could ur asionally. When it happened, certain elements in the dimensional tunnel would be mucked up. In Sunders¡¯ case, his perception of ¡°length¡± was screwed. In his view, what seemed to be a short distance was in fact erged by countless multitudes.

    He could neither retreat nor advance.

    He had been attempting to think of a solution, without any sess. The exit of the tunnel was just in view, but it was hidden behind a mirror he couldn¡¯t pass through. Each time he went that way, he would get sent back to square one.

    He might try to outrun thews of this dimension or use brute force to punch through the dimension, both of which were only doable if he were a legendary wizard. Yet even the current strongest wizard in the southern region, Monkey, was not at that kind of level.

    ¡°Thest tunnel crumbled on itself, and today, I ran into a paradox... Maybe one out of a million inter-ne tunnels would be like this, but I encountered two of them in a row. Did I identally contract the curse of misfortune back in the Abyss?¡±

    Sunders did not have time to take guesses because something else came to bother him.

 Chapter 1018 - Repeated Accident

    <h4>Chapter 1018: Repeated ident</h4>

    For some reason, the ¡°prison¡± made by the paradox was getting weaker.

    Sunders immediately tried to go for the exit again. Previously, doing so would be futile when he couldn¡¯t gain any distance toward the target as if he were chasing a star by running on the ground.

    Now, however, he could see the glowing spot ahead of him getting slightly bigger.

    ¡°The restriction of the paradox is weakening... But why?¡±

    He stopped moving and focused on his surroundings. The paradox couldn¡¯t go away without a reason. He wished to find out the cause of it.

    As soon as the reflection above Parmigi Hignds vanished from everyone¡¯s view, Sunders sensed a gleam of energy traveling past him.

    It came and went very quickly. Sunders was sure he would have missed if he lost focus for even a millisecond.

    It was brief, yet terrifying. The seemingly harmless energy easily dissolved the dimensional paradox without leaving any trace behind.

    It was so hard to perceive. Even a tiny ember would be more eye-catching than the escaping power.

    During the split of a second, Sunders felt as though he was looking at an almighty creature existing in a different dimension. The true strength of the creature was way beyond anything he had known.

    He felt excited when he realized that he might have discovered his future path.

    In ancient times, truth-finders were considered to be the weaker ones among all wizards. On top of them, there were the legendaries, and finally, the revtions.

    Many wizards, including Sunders, today had been thinking, if a truth-finder was all about finding the path of truth and prevailing on this path, then what should they do afterward?

    They more or less knew that ¡°manipting thews of this world¡± marked the qualification of a legendary wizard. Modern wizards had not discovered strengths and arts above that kind of power. Naturally, they did not know what ¡°revtion wizards¡± were capable of.

    At this moment, Sunders believed he sessfully caught a glimpse of the divine power he always dreamed of. The exceeding power was expressed in a way that nobody ever thought of. Of course, wizards were unable toprehend such power without seeing it first.

    It was peaceful, cid. Yet it contained unimaginable might within.

    Dazed by both surprise and joy, Sunders floated still in the dark tunnel. The dimensional paradox around him was no more, yet he could not persuade himself into leaving yet.

    ¡°I witnessed an unknown level of power many millennia earlier than my aptitude. Is it good or bad?¡±

    He didn¡¯t know.

    ¡°Knowing¡± the existence of such unparalleled strength was pernicious because the knowledge could easily blind its victims by convincing them of the impossible, thus leading them astray. But Sunders was different. His resolve never faltered since he became a wizard. He meant to reach the ultimate end of truth. Ostensibly nice offerings he encountered on his way, such as Cassini¡¯s Blessing, would not drag him down.

    Rather, he felt d that asting question in his mind was solved.

    ¡°Heh heh... Gar-hahaha!¡±

    While it was rare for him to get out his stern character, he dly used his private chance to discharge his swelling jubnce byughing like a madman.

    As his mental letup did its wonder to his spirit, his eyes glimmered ever more brightly with the me of ambition.

    ...

    Sunders wasn¡¯t nning to figure out where the energy came from or where it went because it was clearly not something he could handle. Perhaps a super-being casually yed a trick, and he happened to witness a fraction of its power.

    After stowing the newly-found inspiration in the depth of his memory, he began to ess the problem at hand.

    ¡°At least it helped me break out of the dimensional paradox. By gods... I don¡¯t know whether I¡¯m in luck today or the opposite.¡±

    He suddenly saw the exit in front of him flickering. When he wasn¡¯t paying attention, the exit of the tunnel had been wrapped up by several lightning snakes as if they were attempting to consume their prey.

    ¡°That¡¯s the power of the world¡¯s consciousness!¡± Sunders quickly realized what was going on.

    The ne fusion at Parmigi Hignds must have ended, while the world¡¯s consciousness was ¡°finishing up¡± by repairing damaged space. Unfortunately, the inter-ne tunnel created by the Section Ephemera was regarded as another space rupture.

    Soon, the tunnel began destabilizing at a rapid speed. As Sunders watched warily, the sides of the tunnel broke apart, exposing him to the dangerous discordance beyond the void.

    His previous n was to return to the Windsay Valley and take Angor with him since the tunnel looked safe. Now, however, he no longer had time for that job. If he turned back now, he was sure to die with the vanishing tunnel, never to return to the wizarding world again.

    His only choice was to push forward and through the exit before itpletely closed off. He could always use another Section Ephemera to pick Angor upter.

    With this decision, he flew forward as fast as he could while cursing his misfortune under his breath again.

    As soon as he appeared at the border of the Parmigi Hignds, the tunnel behind his back died out.

    Fearing that opening up another tunnel too soon could lead him to a simr disaster, he decided to head back to Brute Cavern and perhaps ask for Rein¡¯s assistance.

    ¡°The Windsay Valley should be safe. Hope the boy doesn¡¯t run off again.¡±

    ...

    Meanwhile, Angor was faithfully obeying his professor¡¯s order by waiting in the underground cave. Though the cave now appeared like a different ce because it was brightened up by countless light spots hovering in the air like fireflies in summer.

    The problem was, Angor had no idea where they came from all of a sudden.

    A moment ago, instead of seeing his professor reappearing at the entrance of the portal, he was instead weed by a peculiar beam of light. As soon as the beam reached him, the pendant he always kept close, or rather, the Alien Eye kept inside the pendant, became ¡°alive¡± after staying dormant for all these years.

    Under his surprised gaze, the ¡°zed sphere¡± defied gravity and floated in front of his eyes.

    Next, small shards of light escaped from the pendant and scattered around his position while coating the area within an ancient aura.

    The light spotsbined with the light beam were quite a beautiful sight to behold, if he weren¡¯t constantly bugged by the ominous feeling as well as the absence of his professor.

    As carefully as he could, he reached out his spirit feeler to scan the ¡°fireflies¡±. To his confusion, his ¡°sensors¡± did not send any results back. It was as if the spots weren¡¯t there, and he was hallucinating.

    He suddenly remembered that, when traveling with Sunders as a fresh recruit several years ago, something simr happened in his tent when he was sleeping. It was Nausica and Toby who told him what they saw. ording to them, the Alien Eye ¡°ate¡± lots of light spots like a vacuum cleaner, before it stopped moving and became a dead object again.

    However, the previous urrence was likely caused by the ne fusion at Devil¡¯s Water. Right now, he didn¡¯t see anything like that around the Windsay Valley.

    <i>Wait a second¡ª</i>

    The portal was supposed to connect him to Parmigi Hignds.

    <i>The effect of the ne fusion reached all the way here?? But if that¡¯s the case...</i>

    As he remembered, the previous ne fusion at Devil¡¯s Water ended up as a failure. He wondered if the Alien Eye would mess up this one again.

    The ¡°fireflies¡± around him did not remain peaceful for too long. A whileter, they gathered into a silver stripe and began heading to a spot as one.

    They were diving into the Alien Eye.

 Chapter 1019 - Spiritual Travel

    <h4>Chapter 1019: Spiritual Travel</h4>

    Like a miniature milky way, the dazzling stripe moved closer for Angor to witness its magnificence.

    He constantly had his spirit expanded. But just like before, he could not sense the stars and glitters as if they didn¡¯t exist. At least not in the same dimension where he stayed.

    The strange energy must have affected the current realm in some way since it could be perceived by eyesight. Though he currently had no way of looking into the structures of the Alien Eye, so he had to stay put and wait.

    The Alien Eye must have detected the ne fusion across the inter-ne tunnel. Knowing this, Angor was d that he did not actually return to the wizarding world too early and let everyone see the artifact.

    Also, it seemed that the Alien Eye was actively draining a certain type of energy from the ne fusion even if it was pretty far still. Perhaps the artifact desperately needed this for some reason.

    ¡°But what is it trying to do? It took Jon to this world. Does this mean it can send Jon back to his home or another world when it collects enough energy?¡±

    He never felt so worried about holding onto such a wonderful and potentially dangerous item before. But he¡¯d also admit that he would like to visit Jon¡¯s home when he had a chance.

    ording to Jon, the Alien Eye showed up on Earth out of the blue, so it probably didn¡¯t mean to bring people there. Angor just realized that he would have to study the Alien Eye sooner orter in order to control it so that he didn¡¯t identally throw Jon into an even further ce.

    He feared that the Alien Eye might ¡°start up¡± on itself once it gathered enough energy, so he wondered whether he should take it away from the portal right now.

    He didn¡¯t have to do that because the ¡°silver stripe¡± was already vanishing after the connection was maintained for about two minutes. Slowly, the Alien Eye stopped glowing and quieted down.

    ¡°Thank goodness I¡¯m not going to crossover into another world like in those novels. Wait, what is¡ª¡±

    The Alien Eye suddenly began to pulse with a faint light that added an eerie theme to the dark cave.

    ¡°Is it slowly taking in the energy it absorbed? Or... is it sending a message?¡±

    The legendary explorer, Feinwerder, mentioned many bizarre creatures in his book, one of which was a monster firefly who used its ¡°signals¡± tomunicate with its partners. Later, Feinwerder discovered that the fireflies possessed enough intelligence to invent aprehensivenguage system no lessplicated than human speech. Instead of verbally speaking, they used their ¡°light¡± to talk.

    The problem was, even if the Alien Eye was talking, it was unlikely for Angor to understand a thing.

    He shook his head and was going to put the pendant back to its original spot when the ground suddenly shook.

    It was clearly not an ordinary earthquake because he just heard the deafening roar of some kind of monstering from the distance. To make it worse, the source of the sound came right from the center of the Windsay Valley.

    ¡°But isn¡¯t this ce supposed to be safe??¡±

    Out of instinct, he looked around for a way out, only to remember that the cave he was staying in only had one exit. Going that way would undoubtedly expose himself to the monster waiting outside.

    Or perhaps¡ª

    He nced at the inter-ne portal, only to notice that it was gone.

    <i>Did the portal fail again? But the professor is still there!</i>

    Threatened by two problems at once, he desperately worked his brain to think of an idea.

    He reached out a hand to cover the restless Alien Eye so that the pulsing light didn¡¯t keep annoying him. But as soon as he touched the object, the light intensified until it became blindingly bright as if he were holding onto a bomb about to explode.

    He didn¡¯t have time to do anything because he had lost control of his body. Precisely speaking, he could no longer feel his body.

    Terrified, he found his spirit floating away from the cave, through the ceiling, and in an unknown direction. At the same time, he felt his thoughts slowing down. The anxiety of getting separated from his professor, the sense of crisis when threatened by a monster... everything was gone. He couldn¡¯t even tell how long he had been drifting.

    This was until he reached a glowing barrier that stopped his advance. The barrier was radiating energy, which looked to be the same thing absorbed by the Alien Eye.

    The energy slowly covered up his wandering consciousness and pulled him through the barrier like squeezing through a jelly wall. In the next second, he felt an exploding surge of knowledge diving into his head. He was woken up from the suspended state, and he felt even more thirsty for the unknown wisdom presented to him.

    Like a piece of nk paper taken by an artist, he wanted to read and embrace everything around him.

    He still had his old memories. He was Angor, but slightly different.

    He should be getting either excited or terrified when unexpectedly taken to this unknown ce, yet he was incapable of any of these. He couldn¡¯t find any of his emotions working as though this particr function was not taken along when his spirit was stripped from his body.

    He felt calm. Exceptionally calm. He did not, or could not, care about the peculiar situation he was in. He even felt this unknown ce to be somewhat familiar, that he should havee here a long time ago.

    He was unable to physically sense anything. Other than this, he was fine. He could reach his mind space, his soul, and his spirit. But unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t actually channel mana out of his mind space and unleash cantrips.

    Following either an unknown guidance or his own will, he moved forward. Something told him that the strange energy that took him here was waiting for him.

    He wasn¡¯t walking or flying. Instead, his spirit pushed forward as he wanted it to. Wherever he wanted to be, he was there.

    Slowly but surely, he came in front of a chunk of glowing energy. Well, he couldn¡¯t see it. But he knew it was there.

    Without asking any questions or wondering why he was here in the first ce, he patiently waited beside the energy source. Perhaps the energy wanted something from him, or perhaps it invited him here for no reason at all. Again, it didn¡¯t matter.

    People had known many mighty presences that tended to do either good or terrible things without meaning them. Angor was here to find out what awaited him.

 Chapter 1020 - Door and Model

    <h4>Chapter 1020: Door and Model</h4>

    As he watched, the energy chunk was changing its mass. From a piece of random, shapeless lump, it was slowly creating something out of itself.

    Still in his mindless state, Angor silently waited for it to finish. By now, he had enough reasons to believe that the Alien Eye had its own consciousness or even intelligence. Whatever it was, he would patiently wait for it to unfold.

    He quite enjoyed such an unmindful and incurious state as it helped him think clearer than ever. If he were to work right now, he would be capable of truly focusing while erasing all unnecessary thoughts from his head.

    For example, when he sensed the strange energy giving birth to a small fraction of arger shape, he immediately foretold that it was the frame of a door.

    The energy wanted him to see it.

    ¡°Am I supposed to study this ¡®door¡¯? Should I open it?¡±

    Even in his serene psyche, he still knew he should not carelessly do such a thing and run into whatever danger hidden behind the door.

    ¡°Should I leave then?¡±

    As soon as he thought about this option, the energy chunk suddenly exploded, before the scattering shreds of it gathered into a small dot. It appeared to be the same ¡°light spot¡± that was being absorbed by the Alien Eye earlier.

    ¡°Did that happen because I wanted to leave? Hmm...¡±

    Though not everything was the same with the light spot. Angor just realized that he could feel its presence now.

    The spot soon vanished from his senses. At the same time, he felt it reappearing inside his mind space.

    Once again, the spot expanded and began to construct that ¡°door¡± again. But this time, he could no longer choose to ignore it.

    Usually, he would get frustrated when something uninvited slipped its way inside his head like that. But without his emotions, he simply waited for the ¡°door¡± to finish up. It was not like he could chase the intruder out of his mind space anyway.

    He could tell that the construction of the strange door was rather slow. Or rather, the speed depended on how fast he could understand the implications shown by the door. Each time a new strand of energy was added to it, he would sense a new tidal wave of intelligence forcefully fusing into his memory. However, none of the knowledge was helpful because he had no idea how to use it. It was like copying someone else¡¯s homework. He could read, but not learn.

    Like watching a child ying with building blocks, he had to tell the shape, the function of each block, and which part it would y in theing building.

    The energy was showing him a very difficult yetprehensible art while making sure that it was within his capability.

    ¡°It reads my memory and knows my limit?¡±

    This was fine. He would dly ept the lesson.

    This ce felt simr to the Nightmare Realm. Here, he couldn¡¯t tell time, nor could he feel hunger. If he stopped moving, the world around him would also stop with him.

    Each time he sessfullyprehended an ¡°energy strand¡±, he would add one to his mental counter. Now, he had reached over one thousand.

    Telling from theplexity of the knowledge, he knew he must have spent a few years already. Thankfully, he did not know what ¡°boredom¡± was right now.

    After reading countless indications, he noticed that all of them were rted to ¡°dimension¡± in one way or another. As an alchemist, he had read about items designed to stabilize dimensional tunnels or with other simr functions. He also knew that certain ultists in the wizarding world could wield dimension-rted spells, though he never encountered anyone like that.

    He thought the lessons would be pointless because it was not his field of expertise. But then, everything was designed in a way that he could slowly assimte it using what he had learned before.

    When the ¡°door¡± was halfway done, it stopped growing and quietly floated in his mind space.

    He didn¡¯t find this to be a bother at all. Whatever the strange energy was building, it was symmetrical. Building one half was enough as a lesson.

    He knew he had to finish the rest of the work.

    He couldn¡¯t wield the strange energy to build the door. But he knew he could use other types of energy for the job, such as conventional mana in his mind space.

    Getting to the job for real was unsurprisingly hard. He took a long time to simte the first ¡°energy strand¡± and held it suspended without weaving it onto the door.

    He more or less knew that the strange door was in fact the model of a cantrip. But unlike ordinary spell models, this one did not need a constant supply of mana to exist.

    However, something told him that a wrong construction step would ruin it and deny him a precious chance of studying a very powerful cantrip. This was why he wanted to make every move count.

 Chapter 1021 - Permanent Spell

    <h4>Chapter 1021: Permanent Spell</h4>

    The strange energy shown by the ¡°door¡± could not be detected by normal means, yet it was truly affecting the physical realm.

    Angor had spent a long time in the strange dimension he was taken to, but he still couldn¡¯t tell the exact nature of the energy. Though he did know that he should not put the opportunity to waste.

    There was a second reason why he wished to keep the spell model in his mind space longer. Usually, once the model of a spell or cantrip was sessfully made, it was either spent when the spell or cantrip was cast or disappeared on itself when the caster did not support it. It could not be kept in one¡¯s mind space.

    But there was an exception. A ¡°spell slot¡± was used for permanently printing a model onto one¡¯s spirit.

    Most of the time, opening up spell slots was only possible for wizards, but it could also be done by certain apprentices who studied potent channeling methods. In Angor¡¯s case, he was strong enough to excavate his first spell slot now. Though he had yet to decide which spell or cantrip to fix on it.

    Originally, his professor wanted him to forge his own spell for this purpose so he could challenge the ¡°path of truth¡± earlier as an apprentice. However, as the southern wizarding region would no longer remain safe, it was probably better to make some haste.

    Angor¡¯s previous n was to wait until he returned to the wizarding world and try using his ¡°manifestation of Mystery¡± to look for inspiration. Or if he failed, he could just print a handy illusion cantrip on the spell slot.

    Now, he had a new n.

    This ¡°door model¡± looked quite special, and it conveniently existed in his mind space for him to look at. He could finish this half-built model and make it permanent.

    Right now, he didn¡¯t really care whether the model was his original creation. As long as the cantrip was something he could use, he would dly ept it.

    As far as he could see, the unknown cantrip was nothing toomon.

    The current problem was how to perfectly follow the example and build thest part of the model.

    In his ¡°empty¡± state, he did not know what anxiety or regret was. He would not feel sad about losing the model. But before that happened, he would like to make sure he made it through.

    He felt as if he had spent years in this unknown dimension, during which he simted the construction steps in his mind countless times. If he still couldn¡¯t make it, he would not me anyone.

    As carefully as he could, he carried a strand of his mana to the door. By referring to the axes of the universe, he calcted the correct spot to be fixed and pushed the mana to it.

    Finishing the first step left him with a strange feeling that came from the depth of his mind. It was as if somebody just struck a soothing bell inside him. While congratting his sess, it also reminded him that using the wrong type of energy might have decreased the effect of the model.

    This couldn¡¯t be helped because mana was the only energy he couldmand right now. Like cooking soup without enough material, he had to make do by adding water to it.

    The subsequent work was very difficult because the ¡°door model¡± required dimension-aspected energy, while his mana was more used to casting illusions.

    He thought he would have a hard time pulling off the ¡°lesson¡±, which was not the case when he realized that simting dimensional properties with mana was not that hard. Without minding the reason for it, he wanted to strike the hot iron and continue.

    Only to notice that his mana pool was almost empty. Somehow, adding two strands of mana to the ¡°door model¡± had almost exhausted his mana.

    He could remember over a thousand steps for finishing the model. Suppose he worked nonstop by cycling through building and meditation, he needed at least a month topletely finish it.

    It meant this cantrip could only work through a spell slot. It would be stupid if anyone would cast it normally by preparing a full month while also using a steady supply of mana to maintain the iplete model.

    He wondered if a wizard who studied dimensional arts could do it faster.

    Though none of these mattered right now. He didn¡¯t feel bothered by the passage of time in this dimension. There was no time limit.

    Ready to take more time to study, he slowed down his thoughts and began to meditate.

    He didn¡¯t get to do it for very long when he suddenly felt a pulling force dragging him away. The next thing he knew was that he was repelled from the strange dimension. At the same time, he felt his usual emotions flowing back into his mind.

    ¡°Shit. It kicks me out if my mana is depleted?¡±

    He regained control of his body and almost fell face-first on the ground due to the unstable footing, and the terrible howling of a monster was still echoing beside his ears.

    With his ¡°emotion system¡± working again, especially something called ¡°fear¡±, he slowly grew terrified when he remembered the threat of an approaching monster just before he was sent to the strange dimension. There was no way out. Sunders wasn¡¯t here to help him.

    He was standing at the same spot while holding the Alien Eye in his hand. He did not feel thirsty or fatigued. Just like he presumed, the time, in reality, did not pse much when he was ¡°away¡±.

    Although how much time he spent or not spent was the least of his concern right now. He had to do something about theing monster. He had no idea what it was or why it was here.

    Since he couldn¡¯t leave through the entrance, the only thing he could think of was maximizing the effect of Infinite Reticence and held his breath.

    ¡ª Only to be reminded of the saddening fact that he had almost no mana left to activate the effect.

    Without mana, his backup n, which was digging a tunnel through the floor, was also denied.

    As if to further upset his already edgy mind, the loud footsteps of the monster were graduallying his way.

 Chapter 1022 - Abyssal Wind Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 1022: Abyssal Wind Dragon</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Does¡ªdoes it know I¡¯m here??¡±

    Telling from how the ground was still shaking, whatever wasing was <i>huge</i>. In fact, the mere footsteps of the monster were slowly breaking the underground cave apart. There was debrising off the ceiling, and the walls were cracking up.

    ¡°What to do... What to do, goddammit!¡±

    Without mana, he had no hope of fending off even a weak monster. Although mana would not help him anyway since the monster¡¯s auraing from the outside suggested something even stronger than that giant snake the other day.

    He just realized that this was the most unfortunate day he had since he came to the Abyss ne. He was naturally at a disadvantage against native monsters, the prison-like terrain was not helping, no one could assist him, and he couldn¡¯t even help himself. The situation couldn¡¯t get any worse than this.

    He forced himself to forget the looming fear and checked through every tool and trick he could use.

    The conclusion was, he had nothing that guaranteed an escape. Maybe the ¡°door model¡± could help him teleport away if it proved to be a powerful spell. But right now, he didn¡¯t have nearly enough time to finish it.

    ¡°Gravity... Maybe I¡¯ll use my sequence of gravity to get away. That doesn¡¯t require mana.¡±

    The quaking had stopped. Though it only meant more trouble because the monster had probably reached the cave entrance and was deciding what to do next.

    Angor could almost feel the monster¡¯s hungry gaze directed at him. Each time he tried to move, the monster would exert its mighty aura to suppress him, forcing him to stay put.

    The aura pressure grew intensified until he went down on one knee and coughed up blood. He knew the monster was toying with him. If it wanted him dead, it could have easily done it.

    He was facing something that might be stronger than Sunders. His sequence of gravity would not help him now.

    Crack!

    A giant fallen boulder smashed into the floor, followed by a ray of faint light that shone through a tear in the ceiling.

    Angor slowly looked up. He would at least see what killed him.

    He saw nothing through the hole because more debris and dust was blocking the way. While breaking the ceiling, the remaining force of the monster¡¯s attack left a small tornado outside that further wreaked havoc through the cave. Within minutes, the cave turned into a roofless crater fully exposed to the outside, while he defenselessly knelt in the middle of it.

    He didn¡¯t remain unscathed in the disaster. In order to dodge all the fallen stones and sharp wind, he had to eject his soul and drag his body around, which was his trump card.

    The monster must have seen it. He had lost hisst element of surprise.

    The dust slowly settled, allowing Angor to see clearly again.

    He didn¡¯t really have to search for the monster because a giant w covered in thick scales was already in his view.

    Over the edge of the cave, the head of a ferocious-looking monster rose.

    He once saw a painting that illustrated the demon cmity several centuries ago. The painting perfectly recreated the fearful looks on people when a gigantic troll tore through theirst wall of defense and gazed at them in hunger.

    The sight presented in front of Angor somewhat reminded him of the same thing. Though the monster closing in was not a hungry troll, but something way worse.

    It was an Abyssal Dragon.

    Angor couldn¡¯t have mistaken such a deadly monster for anything else. The alligator-like snout, sharp scales covered in sharp spikes... He had seen these features that described the legendary monster from a book beforeing to the Abyss. Using more words than necessary, the book imed that nobody should ever attempt to confront such a monster under any circumstances.

    Grand Demons could still be bested when the time favored people. But an Abyssal Dragon was invincible, invulnerable, and insuperable by any known means possible.

    Judging from the visible wind elements that appeared as small tornadoes around the dragon¡¯s form, this one was probably an Abyssal Wind Dragon.

    When resting yesterday, Sunders mentioned a rumor about the Windsay Valley. This spot got its name due to the overactive wind elements everywhere. If anyone would listen carefully, they would hear endless whispers of the wind as if a windmanding god were speaking.

    ¡°Such rich elements but no naturally-born monsters,¡± Sundersmented, in a joking manner. ¡°Maybe a superior monster was already here, who took all the elements to itself. We just don¡¯t know it.¡±

    Sunders would have never known that he was speaking the truth then. There was more than a ¡°superior monster¡±. The Abyssal Wind Dragon could easily roam through several levels in the Abyss without meeting any resistance. It was the king of the monsters.

    Angor found himself out of hope. There was no way out. No options at all.

    A teenage Abyssal Dragon could easily keep a truth-finder wizard bothered for a while. As for an adult one, it should be at least a level-3 truth-finder or likely a legendary already.

    No matter which level it was, Angor was pretty much sure he was dead today.

    The creature was currently staring at him with a pair of crimson eyes painted withplete malevolence. Though Angor never intended to reason with the monster anyway. He already discarded ¡°survival¡± from his mental checklist. And when he epted his inescapable doom, he felt something else growing in his mind.

    It was despair-driven madness.

    Just like when his life was threatened during the Twilight Auction, he thought about pushing the button of destruction and gamble for a chance. Perhaps bringing more nightmare monsters into the mess could miraculously help him somewhat. He didn¡¯t care if the new disaster would further disturb the already chaotic situation in the Abyss. And if he still had to die, it was fine.

    However, as soon as he reached for the ¡°strange scar¡± on his soul, the dragon spread itsrge wings and unleashed a flurry of wind des at him. Maybe the creature didn¡¯t mean to use a deadly attack at all. But Angor could feel that those des were enough to tear him apart.

    When death was near, he felt calm all of a sudden. He had entered a serene state of mind that allowed him to quietly enjoy the shbacks of his life. He was free to watch his past experience unfold again, before embracing thest moment.

    Death didn¡¯te.

    When he looked in front of him with an unruffled look, he saw the wind des hovering in the air instead ofing for his life. Time was moving as it should be. There was no miracle that saved him. It was the dragon who halted the attack for some reason.

    Confused, Angor looked up again and recognized the same, sharp malice from the dragon¡¯s eyes. Though he also noticed a different kind of emotion, which was bewilderment.

    The creature opened its maw to speak. But instead of hearing its voice, Angor felt a spiritual connection forcefully entering his head.

    ¡°... Why dost thou carry its scent?¡±

    Following the distant and dominant sound, Angor felt his consciousness muddled as something attempted to reveal his memories.

    But soon, a sudden rush of sharp pain behind his back snapped him out.

    ¡°Such... extraordinary power.¡± The voice echoed again in his head.

    Angor sensed a strong force of the odorous wind pushing against his face. He saw the giant dragon head moving closer.

    He was captured by a gentle breeze, which slowlybed over his body, before it picked up Toby from his pocket.

 Chapter 1023 - Cause of Misfortune

    <h4>Chapter 1023: Cause of Misfortune</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor could sense the hot breaths released from the dragon¡¯s head.

    The monster had already canceled its aura. But this didn¡¯t help Angor feel any better as he felt his entire body going numb in fear. He watched Toby being dragged away from him but could not do anything.

    ¡°Leave¡ªleave him be!¡±

    Squeezing these few words through his chattering teeth almost drained all his remaining stamina.

    The dragon only lifted Toby closer to inspect him, without minding Angor¡¯s protest. Apart from violent hunger and confusion, those crimson eyes were beginning to show something else¡ªeagerness, remembrance, and unconcealed disgust.

    ¡°The little thing carrieth its scent... but is not ¡®it¡¯, nor its infant. It dost contain its emotions within its form... A life weaved by human hands, I wonder?¡±

    Angor could actually understand these cryptic words. He had heard it from Greya that Toby was ¡°cooked¡± out of the remaining body parts of a powerful monster that contained the monster¡¯s emotions.

    If this unknown monster originated from the Abyss ne, it would exin why Toby enjoyed roaming around this ce so much and even imed that it felt like home.

    The dragon must have recognized something in Toby, which was probably the legendary monster from which Toby was born.

    ¡°No... This little one is the child of nature. Its birth was not forged or manipted by foreign force... Or was it?¡± the dragon muttered as it shook itsrge head. ¡°Fine. That old abomination loved leaving tricks and traps behind. I shall not meddle with any of its ursed pvers.¡±

    The gentle wind power around Toby disappeared, releasing him from control.

    Seeing this, Angor gathered his strength to take a step forward and caught Toby in his hand.

    ¡°Pathetic human, have you no idea what this little one is?¡± the dragon asked a question while giving Angor a curious look.

    ¡°*Gasp* He¡¯s Toby...¡±

    ¡°So, ¡®Toby¡¯ is its name for the present? How... unamusing. Do you know its true name, human?¡±

    ¡°He is Toby. I don¡¯t know or care otherwise.¡±

    The dragon didn¡¯t seem to mind Angor¡¯s attitude. ¡°Do you n to keep it with you, human?¡±

    Angor said his answer by shielding Toby closer, in both hands.

    ¡°Ha.¡± The dragon raised its head higher and gazed into an unknown direction.

    Angor could no longer feel the dangerous killing intent haunting him. The creature still looked displeased. Mad, even. But thankfully, such enmity was not directed at him.

    The dragon¡¯s powerful gaze prated great distances and obstacles until it saw a human figure motionlessly waiting at the bottom of a dead sea.

    ¡°*Snort* Just so. I was awoken by ¡®that¡¯. Not a surprise. Not at all...¡±

    It turned its head around to look at Angor again.

    ¡°Human, you will keep holding onto this little one?¡±

    Hearing the same question twice, Angor slowly nodded.

    ¡°Will you change your mind if... Say, if I tell you that, what you¡¯re carrying in your hand right now, is the root that drew an unpleasant drove of demons to the Lightless Mountain?¡±

    <i>Toby attracted all those demons to us??</i> Angor didn¡¯t look convinced.<i> Toby? How?</i>

    ¡°You are clueless of the curse inflicted by a Pilgrim of Misfortune?¡±

    <i>Toby has the curse?? </i>

    Angor believed these words because the dragon probably didn¡¯t have a reason to tell such a lie. This exined everything that bothered him and Sunders since the beginning of their journey. The unexpected monsters in the Shaded Cave, the endless demon assaults after they departed from the Overwatch Base, and the inter-ne tunnel failed twice in session.

    ¡°I shall ask again, ignorant worm. Knowing the curse, do you still wish to keep this one with you?¡±

    Angor felt themanding force of the dragon relentlessly booming in his head and held Toby even closer out of instinct. He would not give Toby up for any reason. They were partners who saved each other¡¯s lives multiple times. It would take more than a deadly curse to separate them.

    ¡°Then I shall wish you good luck, even though your ¡®luck¡¯ will only haunt you as rotten misery from this momentous point...¡±

    The dragon gave Angor onest thoughtful look and flew away.

    As a dominating monster in the Abyss ne, the dragon found it unnecessary to kill an insignificant human for no apparent reason. The curse on Toby might have drawn it to Angor, but once it discovered the cause of the unpleasant appeal, it would not see its own actions being controlled by the curse.

    Lucky for Angor, the curse on Toby somehow lured a monster way too powerful for the curse to fully control. Suppose it was Manjimania who found him today, he would not be so ¡°lucky¡±.

    The Abyssal Dragon, on the other hand, couldn¡¯t care less about Angor¡¯s survival. Though it did choose to spare Angor¡¯s life after it saw Angor cherishing the ¡°little one¡± so much.

    ¡°That old abomination could have left a pawn in this world for a good reason... It will be for the best if I stay away.¡±

    ...

    Meanwhile, Angor was greatly relieved when he didn¡¯t have to unleash the hidden danger inside him.

    He more or less knew why the dragon came and left like that, since the curse of a Pilgrim of Misfortune was definitely potent enough to attract it here.

    Nevertheless, he didn¡¯t die, and that mattered.

    ¡°Just...¡±

    He looked at Toby, who was still sleeping peacefully in his pocket as if nothing had happened.

    He wouldn¡¯t try figuring out how Toby gained the curse because finding the cause wouldn¡¯t help with anything now. He must think of a way to keep both of them safe.

    Remaining in the Abyss was absolutely a bad choice. A random half-demon should be enough to catch him off guard and kill him for good. Since that dragon came, he would soon expect more monstersing his way.

    And unlike the dragon, demons probably wouldn¡¯t worry about why they wanted him dead so much.

    ¡°How to stay alive?¡±

    No one could answer him. Sunders was unlikely to return when the tunnel was gone. Toby didn¡¯t seem to be waking up any time soon. He only had himself.

    Well, unless...

    ¡°Great dragon. Is there a way to lift the curse from Toby?¡± he called loudly toward the dragon¡¯s back, before it fully disappeared from his view.

    Of course he didn¡¯t want to get the terrible creature¡¯s attention again if he had other choices, which he did not have.

    Staying here alone as a helpless apprentice was sure death. He wanted to take the only other chance that might change his situation, even though it looked extremely risky.

    Hearing his voice, the dragon slowly turned its head back. ¡°You wouldst ask me questions, human? Your bravery ismendable.¡±

 Chapter 1024 - Gaze From Another World

    <h4>Chapter 1024: Gaze From Another World</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When the dragon¡¯s staggering voice was filled with mockery, it only meant more trouble for Angor who simply cked out briefly.

    The unconscious state didn¡¯tst long, but it was painful enough for Angor to remember for the rest of his life.

    He opened his eyes and saw the dragon still looking at him from afar.

    ¡°Your spirit is as weak as an insect. Your strength... so paltry that you do not deserve to live in this realm. You wish to help the little one remove the curse? ¡¯tis a terrible joke.¡±

    Angor silently sat there without responding.

    ¡°Humph...¡±

    The dragon breathed out a small tornado that enclosed Angor within.

    It used precise controls to make sure that the deadly wind did not kill Angor, but only leave some scars on his body. But it felt something off when Angor did not move an inch against the harassment.

    Angor remained motionless with his head lowered, so the dragon could not see his face.

    ¡°Acting tough, or... has his mind buckled under pressure?¡±

    Several green strands suddenly emerged from behind Angor¡¯s back and began climbing the air like a spider web. Within seconds, they covered a big area above Angor¡¯s head.

    Meanwhile, Angor¡¯s body went pale as if the strands were blood-sucking nts that fed off his flesh.

    While watching this happen, the dragon thought that the human below was pulling off a small trick to intimidate it. But it was surprised to realize that a certain emotion was stirring in its mind, after it had spent centuries without feeling so threatened.

    It was fear. Overwhelming fear that stupefied its body. It was the same, staggering fear shown by the tiny human just a moment ago.

    The dragon was not the true ruler of the Abyss. asionally, it would run into foes powerful enough to endanger its life, such as a Grand Demon it encountered in the deeper levels. The conflict left it with a serious wound from which it had to spend a few centuries to recover.

    In fact, it would still be sleeping if the curse on Toby didn¡¯t wake it up.

    It could not understand why a mere human had something that terrified it so much.

    The dragon carefully inspected the ¡°green marks¡± floating around Angor¡¯s body. They were growing so fast that they almost reached where it was hovering.

    Then everything stopped.

    The dragon thought that the marks were here to attack it, which did not happen. It seemed that the marks were searching for a spot in the sky where the dimensional properties were stable. As soon as they reached where they wanted to be, they began releasing more energy into the environment, which slowly altered the space.

    ¡°They are attempting to open up an inter-ne tunnel... Here?¡± the dragon wondered.

    Instead of stopping the green marks in action, the dragon looked below to check Angor again.

    ¡°What are these? What manner of secret does this human hold?¡±

    It suddenly noticed that Angor was notpletely unmoving. He was mumbling something under his breaths, ¡°No... No...¡±

    Next, a strange voice that sounded nothing like Angor suddenly came about.

    ¡°Did you summon me?¡±

    This foreign voice did note from Angor¡¯s position. It sounded distant as if the speaker was talking from a faraway dimension. And just like powerful Grand Demons in the Abyss, this one sounded as authoritative and imposing.

    Before the dragon could check more carefully, it suddenly felt its vision blinded by encroaching darkness. It then saw a pair of eyes slowly opening up in the dark. It was a pair of eyespletely void of any emotions or sentiment. Yet the aura being released from the eyes was nevertheless menacing, like the gods staring down upon insignificant creatures, ready to freely control the way they lived or died.

    The dragon searched its memory and recalled thest time when it felt so vulnerable against something stronger. That was when it was still working alongside Eldius, a Grand Demon sitting on the high throne of the Abyss ne. Although those times had long passed.

    After giving the dragon an amused nce, the eyes closed up.

    The unusual darkness dissipated, allowing the dragon to see where it was staying a moment ago, including the mumbling human sitting in the crater.

    This time, it dared not look at the green marks again. Something told it that a deadly presence no less than the ancient Grand Demon was watching this ce.

    It wanted to leave as fast as possible before the inter-ne tunnel was built, which would summon whatever horror waiting toe.

    ¡°No... I¡¯m not calling you. Get away! GET AWAY!!!¡± Angor almost screamed at the top of his lungs.

    This got the dragon even more confused. It wondered if Angor was talking to the unknown presence it just saw.

    But how?

    Digging deeper into such a secret was clearly risky. Yet the dragon couldn¡¯t help but wonder why the seemingly defenseless human was able tomunicate with a powerful foreign will across different dimensions.

    Plop.

    Several drops of bright-red blood dripped off from Angor¡¯s body, followed by arge ssh of blood that painted the ground beneath Angor in red.

    The wriggling green marks in the sky shrank until they retreated back to Angor¡¯s body. Though they did notpletely disappear. Under the dragon¡¯s wary gaze, they silently pulsed in rhythm behind Angor¡¯s back as if waiting for another chance to get out.

    Angor¡¯s body swayed to and fro and finally copsed.

    The dragon looked that way and found Angor¡¯s body to be in no better condition than a dead man. His vigor was fully spent, and he had lost too much blood.

    It faltered with a decision. Usually, it wouldn¡¯t care about the life or death of a human. But when it thought about the terrifying image projected from those green marks...

    The dragon¡¯s form was suddenly covered by a thick fog, from which a human figure stepped out.

    ...

    Angor opened his eyes, only to see unending darkness.

    He felt his body aching all over. It reminded him of his old days when he would run along the mountainsides for fun all day, only to get paralyzed on his bed the next morning.

    A sh of yellow light drew his attention. He looked aside and saw a burning campfire somehow ced just nearby, which brightened his body.

    He saw a man resting near the fire, eyes closed.

    <i>Where am I? Who is that?</i>

    Thest thing he could remember was that he tried asking the Abyssal Dragon¡¯s help in cleansing the curse of misfortune from Toby. That was when his back grew painfully itchy until he could think of nothing else.

    He did try to summon nightmare monsters by copying what he did during the Twilight Auction, but he didn¡¯t believe he had a chance because the dragon¡¯s tornado attack interrupted him.

    Somehow, the familiar itchy sense was triggered on his back, when he also heard a voice asking, ¡°Did you summon me?¡±

    Next, he felt the ¡°green marks¡± growing madly, which dangerously drained his soul energy. Even though he desperately denied the question, the marks did not stop.

    It was not until he used thest bit of his strength to say ¡°no¡± that the strange voice finally went away. By that time, his soul was already on the brink of dissipation.

    His mind went nk from that point.

 Chapter 1025 - Fafnir

    <h4>Chapter 1025: Fafnir</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor knew he probably went out cold back there. Since he woke up just fine, somebody must have saved him. But who was it? And where did that dragon go?

    ¡°Who-who are you?¡± He tried asking the stranger while sitting up, only to find that his voice sounded nothing like his usual self. He sounded like a 50-year-old chronic smoker. His throat hurt by making the slightest sound.

    The figure sitting at the fire slowly opened her eyes, which surprised Angor when he saw her look.

    At first, Angor thought it was a man with dark skin and short, clean-cut hair. But with the help of firelight, he noticed that it was a slim-bodied woman. She looked quite tall, maybe above two meters. Her glossy, tan skin was slightly shimmering against the light. The woman wasn¡¯t wearing any clothes apart from several blueish ck scales covering her private parts. And Angor found those scales to be familiar.

    She had odd eyes, one red and one blue, which further added to her wild character. At least that pair of sharp horns on her forehead told Angor that she wasn¡¯t human.

    <i>A demon??</i> Angor wondered, before he decided to ask her again, ¡°Who are you, if I may?¡±

    The woman threw him a cold nce. ¡°Typical foolishness for your kind, human. You have no idea what you are dealing with.¡±

    She didn¡¯t open her mouth. It was her spiritual aura that just spoke to Angor. The aura appeared as a ferocious-looking dragon head hovering behind her.

    ¡°You¡¯re that¡ªdragon??¡±

    ¡°You may refer to me as Fafnir, human.¡±

    ¡°Miss¡ªI mean, Lord Fafnir. Did you save my life?¡±

    ¡°What reason do I have to assist a worthless human? None.¡±

    Angor scratched his head. The pain induced by the movement reminded him of all the blooding off his body. He thought he was dead for sure, but somehow, the bloodloss did not kill him. Or rather, he didn¡¯t see any bloodstains on his body.

    Toby was still sleeping, as he had been earlier. Angor couldn¡¯t think of anyone else other than the mighty creature in front of him who mighte to the rescue.

    But... The woman was giving him the frowning look of pure disgust as if someone stepped on a cockroach barefooted. Would she actually save him?

    ¡°Lord Fafnir, may I¡ª¡±

    Angor had many questions, such as how he ended up here, why the dragon was talking to him in human form, and how to get rid of Toby¡¯s curse. But before he could ask any of those, the sharp itchiness on his back returned.

    He lost control of his body and began convulsing on the floor like a terminal patient suffering seizures.

    Desperate, he reached out a hand to scratch, only to make the terrible feeling worse.

    He was not a stranger to the sudden itchiness. But it never happened so intensely before as topletely render him immobile.

    ¡°Put your hand away right now.¡± Fafnir¡¯smanding voice once again echoed in his head, causing him to obey the order.

    The itchiness subsided enough in a few minutes for Angor to move again. He saw Fafnir¡¯s eyes reflecting the bright orange light from the campfire, as well as a small hint of green.

    <i>Wait, green?</i>

    Angor quickly spread his spirit to check his body.

    His robe had a giant tear at the right shoulder, from where a green tentacle reached out and was swaying left and right above his head. The ¡°tentacle¡± cast an unpleasant green light over his head that gave him a very funny look, as if he were wearing a new hat designed by Nano.

    He knew what this was. This thing was trying to connect with the distant voice he heard earlier. His instinct told him that ¡°inviting¡± the strange voice meant true disaster. Before he fainted, he tried his best to remove this tentacle thing.

    He wondered if he failed in the end.

    ¡°Get that back inside, human,¡± Fafnir spoke to him in that same, cruel voice. ¡°It is attempting to find a proper spot to create an inter-ne portal. You shouldn¡¯t allow that.¡±

    ¡°How do I do that?¡±

    As a reply, he was met with Fafnir¡¯s tornado, which mmed him into a ck wall that he couldn¡¯t see.

    ¡°Do not raise your voice in front of me before you deal with that thing, human.¡±

    Without a choice, Angor remained silent and tried.

    A long time was spent without any sess.

    Meanwhile, Fafnir kept her close attention to Angor¡¯s actions while trying not to show it. She dared not go closer to the green mark.

    <i>What in the world is that? And what¡¯s on his right hand?</i>

    She knew that the green tentacle was only a fraction of a great power she couldn¡¯t see yet. Since the root of it was lodged inside Angor¡¯s body, she thought Angor was hiding something more further within.

    After countless trials and errors, Angor finally managed tomand the tentacle to shrink lower. Yet he couldn¡¯t make it fully disappear yet. The tentacle now clung to his skin like a green tattoo, much simr to some of the bizarre bodily decorations favored by odd wizards.

    He had to constantly put pressure in his effort, or the tentacle would bounce back out again. If it grew freely, it would rapidly consume what remained of his soul energy, and he couldn¡¯t allow that.

    He felt terrible when he was added with such a distracting burden, yet he couldn¡¯t do anything about it.

    Seeing the tentacle no longer growing, he carefully approached the fire and sat down, whereas Fafnir stared at him using her different-colored eyes.

    While Angor expected the powerful creature to ask him what the green thing was about, it was not Fafnir¡¯s n because she still felt threatened by the unknown might she saw earlier. As an ancient dragon, Fafnir knew more than anyone else that curiosity killed more than the cat. In fact, being too curious was the reason for her recent injury that kept her locked in sleep for centuries.

    The might shown by Angor¡¯s green mark appeared no less than that of an ancient Grand Demon. She could not and should not question its nature.

    ¡°Lord-Lord Fafnir, as you requested, I got it under control. May I ask a few questions now?¡± Angor tried to give the dragon-woman a pleading look, not sure if this would work.

    ¡°What an annoyance you are, human.¡±

    ¡°My name is Angor.¡±

    ¡°You expect me to use your pathetic name now, human?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not what I mean...¡±

    Despite her unfriendly words, Fafnir¡¯s expression turned more peaceful, which gave Angor enough courage to speak up.

    ¡°Can I know how to get rid of this curse from Toby?¡±

 Chapter 1026 - Worlds and Phases

    <h4>Chapter 1026: Worlds and Phases</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    ¡°Why should I tell you?¡±

    Angor noticed that Fafnir¡¯s tone didn¡¯t sound as aloof as before, which meant he might have a chance.

    ¡°Lord Fafnir, please tell me what I should give in return, should I wish to find the answer.¡±

    The woman seemed satisfied with the offer.

    ¡°Fine. I shall ask you to do a job.¡±

    That got Angor really worried. If someone like Fafnir needed help with a ¡°job¡±, he highly doubted he was up for it.

    ¡°Humph. I shall bring you to a certain ce, while what you have to do is ry a message.¡±

    ¡°A message?¡± Angor frowned. <i>If she needs me to pass the message instead of doing it herself, the recipient could be something that even the great dragon feared or despised...</i>

    <i>Either way, it¡¯s going to be dangerous.</i>

    Angor found it impolite to ask the content of the message, so he decided to do it in another way. ¡°Will the job be risky?¡±

    ¡°Doing anything in this world is risky. When you travel, you run into demons. When you rest, demonse to you. You might even identally digest great misfortune when eating. Do you think you are not at risk when sitting in front of me?¡±

    Angor just realized that the woman could have killed him a thousand times over if she meant it. It was not the time to bargain.

    ¡°I¡ªI¡¯ll do it. What do I need to tell, and to whom?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not threatening you, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re thinking. To relieve the curse from the little one, you have to meet with Eldius.¡±

    <i>Eldius?</i> Angor wondered if that was who Fafnir wanted to talk to.

    ¡°There are many individuals who can lift the curse for you, such as the Pilgrim himself or a Grand Demon with exceeding powers. However, are you capable of convincing them to help you?¡±

    Angor shook his head. Even the dragon in front of him couldn¡¯t do these.

    ¡°This left you with only a few choices, while the simplest one is finding a sanctuary and waiting out the curse.¡±

    Of course there was no ¡°sanctuary¡± in the Abyss ne. And with the curse, he couldn¡¯t travel back to the wizarding world.

    ¡°It is usually impossible for humans to cleanse the curse dealt by a Pilgrim of Misfortune, but I happen to know a special group of humans capable of such a feat. They are the Conductors of Tribtion, who lived at the other edge of the ¡®Phase¡¯.¡± Fafnir¡¯s half-shut her eyes as she recollected her old memories.

    ¡°Conductors of Tribtion...¡± Angor quickly recalled a book written by Feinwerder that contained relevant knowledge.

    [At the Western Continent, a special n of wizards inherited the legacy of ancient wizards who couldmand the power of misfortune upon their foes. Those who do not have the divine protection cast by capable Prophets will have no means of defending themselves from the terrifying arts wielded by Conductors of Tribtion, which will haunt them for the rest of their lives.]

    Even though the wizarding world was generally divided into four parts, there were no known ways of traveling between them except for using specialized long-range teleportation tunnels. People said that these regions were separated by countless nes and small extensions of the void. It was beyond difficult for wizards from the southern region to travel to the west.

    ¡°But... There are Conductors of Tribtion at the other side of the phase? What is a phase?¡± Angor wondered.

    ¡°I should have never expected a human from the Barrens to know better.¡±

    Fafnir offered to exin the new wisdom, much to Angor¡¯s delight.

    Apart from being geographically divided into different areas, both the wizarding world and the Abyss were also subdivided into ¡°phases¡± using a different set of rules. For example, both of these two nes had ¡°The Barrens¡± as one of the major phases.

    The southern wizarding region belonged to The Barrens. Wizards who traveled to the Abyss from the south would also end up at The Barrens in the Abyss.

    As for the Conductors of Tribtion, they usually hung out at another phase called ¡°The Land of Greed¡±. This meant that the Western Continent probably belonged to this phase. Also, the Eastern Borderline and the Northern Province of the wizarding world also fell within different phases.

    Angor just realized that he had never heard of any of this before. Either all the wizards including Sunders did not want to tell him, or they had no idea of it at all.

    ¡°Is it difficult to travel to another phase?¡± Angor asked eagerly. As he remembered, the tunnels for reaching the other regions were no longer essible. It would be nice if wizards could use the Abyss ne for this purpose.

    Fafnir didn¡¯t seem to care why Angor looked so excited. ¡°Difficult? No. All you have to do is step through a Phase Gate. However, even the smallest Phase Gate should be guarded by a Demon Lord. Are you sure you wish to try your luck?¡±

    Angor silently quenched his ambition. A Demon Lord meant something even the strongest wizard in the south couldn¡¯t carelessly provoke.

    Fafnir continued, ¡°You can¡¯t find a Conductor of Tribtion, which means you have only one choice left. You must find Eldius.¡±

    She sounded rather emotional when mentioning this name.

    ¡°We used to be of the same kind. Even friends, at one point. Due to some... insignificant matters, we were separated for a long time and did not meet with each other again. Eldius is a master of curses. He even contracted the same curse of misfortune before. That¡¯s your best chance.¡±

    Angor realized that, by the ¡°same kind¡±, Fafnir was probably talking about another Abyssal Dragon. He surely didn¡¯t want to go there unprepared and get killed by a simple dragon whiff if this second dragon was hostile, which was very likely.

 Chapter 1027 - The Everlasting Glacier

    <h4>Chapter 1027: The Evesting cier</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    When Fafnir mentioned ¡°insignificant matters¡±, she could actually be talking about something way more serious. Otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t need Angor to help her deliver a message.

    Of course, Angor couldn¡¯t point this out.

    ¡°Who is Eldius?¡±

    ¡°His name is not for your feeble kind to speak of lightly, human!¡± Fafnir bellowed as she used another tornado to send Angor into the air.

    Thankfully, there was no subsequent attack, so Angor managed to steady himself by using his flying boots.

    ¡°I apologize, Lord Fafnir. I meant to say the Great Eldius.¡±

    ¡°... He has been staying at the Evesting cier.¡±

    Angor just realized that he heard about this ce before. When evading a Baphomet Demon, Sennefer escaped into the Evesting cier and contracted a powerful curse that greatly weakened her strength.

    Later, Madelyne exined that the curse was created by an ancient Abyssal Dragon who had lived there for thousands of years. Even Monkey respected the creature when he visited it.

    ¡°But¡ªbut those who go there will all receive a curse¡ª¡± Angor stuttered.

    ¡°That curse only constraints the strong. While you... It will not make much of a difference on you. Besides, Eldius will help you cure it, if you impress him enough.¡±

    <i>Impress Eldius??</i> Angor shivered. <i>So, I have to pass the message, that is fine. But whether Eldius will agree to help Toby is another matter!</i>

    He thought Fafnir was going to convince Eldius if he agreed to the job. But telling from Fafnir¡¯s attitude, she probably expected him to deal with Eldius all by himself.

    How would a ¡°feeble, pathetic, and worthless human¡±, as how Fafnir had been calling him, impress an Abyssal Dragon feared by the most powerful wizard??

    Fafnir easily saw through his mind and pointed to Toby. ¡°Eldius used to be a friend of... that. Maybe he¡¯ll listen to your plea. Why, do you think, would I talk to you peacefully in the first ce?¡±

    That didn¡¯t help Angor feel any better. He knew that Fafnir could have mistaken Toby as the descendant of another ancient monster, which was not the case. Toby was created out of the body parts of that monster, who was long dead. If Eldius discovered that Toby was born out of the death of his friend, things could get pretty much out of control.

    Again, Angor couldn¡¯t tell this to Fafnir because Fafnir¡¯s misjudgment might be the reason why he was still alive.

    ¡°The Evesting cier is at level 1. With the curse haunting us, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t reach there at all.¡± Angor tried denying the job as politely as he could.

    ¡°I shall send you there. The only thing for you to do is tell the message.¡±

    <i>Crap. </i>

    Angor found himself unluckily pinched between two deadly oues. He could either disappoint Fafnir and get killed for it, or muster up his courage and meet with Eldius, which... would also leave him dead.

    <i>Man... is this also a result of the curse of misfortune? I can¡¯t seem to get a break...</i>

    It was not like he could choose now.

    ¡°*Sigh* What do I need to tell the Great Eldius?¡±

    Fafnir didn¡¯t give him a straight answer this time. ¡°You¡¯ll see when the timees.¡±

    Just like this, they reached an agreement that they would depart 12 hourster, meaning, at noon tomorrow.

    Angor would like to know more about Eldius while waiting, though Fafnir didn¡¯t give him a chance, who left the crater soon after their conversation ended.

    And Angor couldn¡¯t carelessly wander about with Toby¡¯s curse still here. Maybe the Windsay Valley wasn¡¯t so safe anymore, but going outside was definitely riskier.

    ...

    The campfire was the only warmth andfort in the gloomy environment. While waiting beside the fire, Angor desperately tried to think of ways to survive theing encounter with Eldius.

    In the end, he was still clueless. His only choice was to proceed and see how everything turned out.

    The fire reminded him of Sunders¡¯ room. Just several days ago, he was still safe with his professor.

    <i>How things have changed...</i>

    When thinking about how Sunders was dragged into his mess, he felt even worse. He wondered if the gentleman had made it out of the disappearing inter-ne tunnel.

    He took out a red, crystal-like sphere from his bracelet and felt its warmth. If this ¡°blood sphere¡± left by Sunders didn¡¯t show any particr signs, then Sunders was probably doing well. Or so he hoped.

    If Sunders was alive, he would probablye back to Windsay Valleyter.

    With this in mind, Angor decided to leave some traces for his professor.

    ¡°I... went to... the Evesting cier...¡± He wrote a message on a stone wall that remained intact after the previous disaster.

    There was no need to leave his name. Some nightmare energy should be enough for Sunders to know what was going on.

    As for when Sunders would actually find the message or whether that would happen at all... Angor would not worry about it right now.

    He returned to the fire and sent his concentration into his mind space. Soon, he found the half-finished model of a door, which he had been neglecting when talking to Fafnir.

    ¡°I can keep it... so the time I spent in the strange ce is real.¡±

    Next, he looked at his pendant and saw the Alien Eye once again dormant like amon object. Though he would never regard it as amon object ever again.

    He had yet to figure out what this ¡°door model¡± could do. But at least the special energy didn¡¯t seem like anything useless. He wouldplete and study this spell. That much was for sure.

    Going through the ¡°spiritual journey¡± again was probably impossible because the Alien Eye needed a ne fusion to be activated. ne fusions were not something he could ask for. Besides, he couldn¡¯t just keep going near ne fusions and messing them up. Supposed the world¡¯s consciousness wasn¡¯t going to ¡°me¡± him, Prophets would detect his involvement regarding all the failed fusions sooner orter.

    With his mana pool depleted, he could not work on the door model either, so he closed his eyes to meditate.

    ...

    He managed to refill about half of his mana reserve in ten hours.

    Fafnir showed up at the edge of the crater, still in her human form, while carrying the giant leg of a freshly-butchered monster on her shoulder.

    Shended beside the fire and ced the monster leg over it. After slumbering for so long, she wanted to satisfy her appetite as soon as possible. It wasn¡¯t easy to find prey that fit her taste.

 Chapter 1028 - Spreading Misfortune

    <h4>Chapter 1028: Spreading Misfortune</h4>

    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions

    Angor stopped meditating when seeing Fafnir¡¯s return, only to see her looking at the wall where he left a message earlier.

    Usually, only those from Phantom Ind should be able to decrypt the message. Though the trick was pointless against someone as powerful as Fafnir, who could read what was hidden behind the nightmare energy with ease. This was why Angor did not write anything beyond what was necessary. He knew Fafnir would see it.

    Fafnir didn¡¯t say anything about the message other than letting out a cold sneer.

    The monster leg was now thoroughly cooked while the fat in it was giving out fizzing sounds appealingly.

    Angor didn¡¯t know that kind of monster meat it was, though he felt his mouth watering up badly when looking at Fafnir munching on it to her heart¡¯s content.

    He quickly looked away. Asking food from an Abyssal Dragon was a bad idea. But he could no longer forget the good smell of the delicious material.

    He wondered what kind of divine cuisine he could see if Greya were here.

    In order not to appear too embarrassing, he tried distracting himself by thinking about other matters, such as what kind of monster Fafnir just killed.

    Speaking of food, Fafnir just told him that everything in the Abyss was dangerous. He might ¡°digest misfortune by eating¡±.

    There was something fishy about that phrase, and he just noticed.

    Just like Fafnir mentioned, he ran into a lot of demons during his stay in the Abyss. As for eating, he had been surviving on Milkberry Tree sap and moocher meat he stored in the bracelet.

    <i>Unless she¡¯s referring to Toby?</i>

    Toby did eat a lot of ¡°native food¡± sinceing here, including those tentacled crabs in the Shaded Cave.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me a crab had the curse, then Toby ate it??</i>

    A bit startled by the idea, Angor waited for Fafnir to finish the roasted leg before asking the question.

    Fafnir seemed content with her filled stomach and answered him without a second thought, ¡°That is correct. The Pilgrim of Misfortune is staying at the bottom of the Veiled Sea. Nearby monsters, including some crabs, are all contaminated by the curse.¡±

    ¡°That must be how Toby got the curse then. Damn it...¡±

    <i>This thing is like a highly-contagious disease! And people can¡¯t easily detect it!</i>

    To make it worse, these Orlov¡¯s Tentacled Crabs were a valuable cooking material used by Gourmets, ording to Sunders. If they were served on food tes...

    That one crab killed by the union guards the other day would probably end up as food and be delivered to other bases established around the Abyss ne. It would be disastrous if the curse silently spread among people without them knowing it.

    Angor couldn¡¯t imagine what would happen at this rate. He now fully understood why the Pilgrim of Misfortune was feared by both powerful wizards and demons alike.

    He saw a lot of wizards hunting the attacking crab back at the Overwatch Base. If so many people held the root of the curse...

    Thinking about this, he quickly went to the message on the wall to add something new.

    This time, he did not use nightmare energy to conceal it. He hoped that a wizard would see it and warn the other wizards as fast as possible.

    He didn¡¯t care about the fates of other wizards. But at the very least, he would like to help Kanter and Madelyne avoid the curse.

    ¡°The hypocritical nature of humans is never pleasant to look at,¡± Fafnirmented after seeing his action.

    Angor didn¡¯t say anything. He did what he could.

    ¡°Time to go.¡±

    Without any forewarning, Fafnir¡¯s body grew bigger until she resumed the giant and ferocious form of an Abyssal Dragon.

    After lifting Angor up by catching his cor with a w, she dived into the gloomy sky, leaving some glowing embers and a shining stone wall behind.

    ...

    Sunders arrived at Rein¡¯s wizard tower and saw Rein already waiting.

    Like always, Rein¡¯s room was full of crystal balls of different sizes. Right now, Rein was waiting in front of arger one affixed to the floor.

    Instead of epting Rein¡¯s invitation and taking a seat right away, Sunders gazed at a wet corner and carefully listened to the lingering sounds of water tides.

    ¡°Mister ¡®God of Seas¡¯ recently visited?¡±

    That wasn¡¯t a question. Sunders was sure of it.

    And since Rein left the traces here instead of cleaning them up, it meant Rein <i>wanted</i> him to see it.

    ¡°The ne fusion nearby failed in thest phase. People are restless. Flunza sent an avatar to discuss with me,¡± said Rein. ¡°He mentioned your name today, by the way.¡±

    ¡°My name?¡± Sunders didn¡¯t look amused. ¡°He thinks I¡¯m responsible for the failed fusion?¡±

    ¡°Rumors only, since you know, you returned at the exact wrong time. Though only apprentices will take these rumors seriously.¡±

    ¡°You would care about what apprentices say?¡± Sunders chuckled.

    If Rein mentioned this matter, these ¡°rumors¡± must have been spread to lots of people. And they were not entirely wrong, since both failed ne fusions had Sunders teleporting nearby.

    Wizards should know that he had no way of controlling the oue of ne fusions. Though this wouldn¡¯t prevent them from seeing him as a bringer of bad luck.

    Sunders would notin because he would probably do the same, if he weren¡¯t the one being med.

    ¡°Enough of rumors and whatnot.¡± Rein continued, ¡°Take a guess. Why did Flunza talk about you?¡±

    ¡°Is it because of Angor, by any chance?¡±

 Chapter 1029: Section 1030: Return to the Abyss

    Chapter 1029: Section 1030: Return to the Abyss

    Rhein nodded.

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s Angel,¡± Rhein said, ¡°He wants to purchase the Song of the Deep Sea from Angel.¡±

    Sanders frowned; he had originally thought that Florenza sought out Angel because he had discovered some clues about the ¡°Lucas¡¯s Skull,¡± not because of the Song of the Deep Sea.

    Rhein continued, ¡°Florenza¡¯s n is to use Constant Fragments as a trade, with an estimated number of around three drops.¡±

    The value of Constant Fragments went without saying, and Sanders was somewhat surprised and doubtful that the Song of the Deep Sea could be worth so much.

    He had heard about the Song of the Deep Sea from Angel before while in the Abyss, but Angel seemed unwilling to discuss it further, merely mentioning it in passing.

    After all, the Song of the Deep Sea was Angel¡¯s first high-order work, and Sanders had taken a keen interest in it. He had wanted to see the specific effects of the Song of the Deep Sea for himself but, each time he approached Angel to try it, Angel would find excuses to put it off. Although Sanders suspected there might be something fishy about it, after all, it was Angel¡¯s own Alchemy work, and as a Mentor, he respected Angel¡¯s choice, so he did not pursue the matter further.

    Now, hearing from Rhein, was the Song of the Deep Sea really so highly valued?

    ¡°Florenza received a total of fifteen drops of Constant Fragments from this Song of the Deep Sea expedition, and he obtained ten for himself. He mentioned using three drops of Constant Fragments for the trade, but I suspect, setting aside their own usage for upgrading the Witchcraft Garden, his bottom line might be willing to step back a bit.¡±

    That is to say, four drops!

    Four drops of Constant Fragments could almost be enough to create a low-level Witchcraft Garden!

    The value of the Song of the Deep Sea somewhat surpassed Sanders¡¯s imagination.

    However, for Sanders, more than the overt value of the Song of the Deep Sea, he was actually more interested to know what Angel had previously concealed deliberately.

    After Rhein finished speaking, he looked towards Sanders, who was expressionless.

    Sanders looked very calm, and Rhein couldn¡¯t help but feel admiration. Just before, when Florenza mentioned this negotiation, he had shown a look of surprise, yet Sanders was so unppable. It seemed he had long deduced the value of the Song of the Deep Sea.

    Rhein, however, didn¡¯t know that Sanders¡¯s understanding of the Song of the Deep Sea was in fact much less than his own. The reason he could remain so calm was that Angel was good at causing a stir, and the shocks he had brought to Sanders before were all too many. Take the Wilderness of Dreams, for example¡ªits potential was said to be boundless, already challenging to measure by mere value.

    So, upon hearing about the Song of the Deep Sea, aside from silently criticising Angel¡¯s capacity for causing trouble, Sanders was rather indifferent.

    ¡°What¡¯s your opinion?¡± asked Rhein.

    ¡°That¡¯s Angel¡¯s concoction; it has nothing to do with me. My opinion is not important,¡± Sanders paused and then added, ¡°Moreover, Angel¡¯s current situation remains unknown. I think it¡¯s better to go to the Abyss first and bring him back before discussing anything else.¡±

    Sanders hade for the matter concerning Angel.

    When he returned to the Barbarian Cave a few days ago, he immediately shared with Rhein about the instability of the cross-world passage. Rhein told Sanders not to be anxious, as due to the integration of nes, his friend, the ¡®Voidwalker¡¯ Esos, happened to be nearby.

    As a rare Space Series True Knowledge Wizard, Esos should have some insight into the situation.

    Previously, after Rhein had sought Esos¡¯s counsel, he then called Sanders over.

    Rhein: ¡°Since Angel is in Wind Whisper Valley, he should be presumably safe for now.¡±

    But Sanders didn¡¯t see it that way: ¡°With the Twilight Mountains experiencing widespread anomalies, I felt very unsafe there before I entered the cross-world passage. To avoid any idents, it would be better to return promptly and take Angel away.¡±

    Sanders paused before directly addressing the main issue: ¡°With the cross-world passage experiencing problems so frequently, is there a reason for it?¡±

    Remembering the words from Esos before, Rhein said, ¡°From here to the Abyss, the spatial energy is currently not very stable, but it should not reach the point of creating time-spacebyrinths. Your experience is very likely to be a special case.¡±

    Indeed, a situation like a time-spacebyrinth was an exceptionally rare exception. Even Rhein himself might not be able to escape smoothly if caught in it, so Sanders¡¯s luck wasn¡¯t bad.

    ¡°Problems happening twice in a row with the cross-world passage, are they truly exceptions?¡± Sanders said with a frown.

    ¡°Esos¡¯s exact words are that it was an exception,¡± Rhein replied, ¡°Although there was an energy tide situation on the road to the Abyss not long ago, the tide has mostly subsided, and it wouldn¡¯t have affected the cross-world passage you created separately. At the moment, there are no other anomalies in between, so your experience should be considered as a special situation.¡±

    Sanders trusted the words of Esos, but he still felt it absurd that two consecutive failures were deemed special cases. He had a vague feeling that there were more secrets hidden beneath the surface, the signs of which had not yet emerged.

    ¡°Did he specify the ce of departure?¡±

    ¡°If you are going to the Abyss in the next couple of days, the area near Fragrant Lake in the Republic of Yali is the best choice, as the spatial energy there is not as unstable as the Pamiji teau.¡± In fact, Esos¡¯s original words were that it would be fine even to open it on the Pamiji teau, although the area was somewhat unstable in spatial energy due to the failed fusion of nes. However, this instability was rtive; even if it¡¯s not stable, it would still be more stable than the Wind Whisper Valley of the Abyss.

    So whether it¡¯s the Pamiji teau or the Fragrant Lake, opening a cross-world passage to the Abyss meant entering a less stable area from a highly stable one. Overall, there was no significant difference.

    ¡°I understand,¡± said Sanders, who had memorized the location and was ready to leave.

    He had mayfly fragments with him, so going back and forth should be enough. Only this time, to bring Angel back, the consumption of mayfly fragments was indeed too much. Just the thought made Sanders¡¯s heart ache.

    ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll apany you for the trip,¡± Rhein also stood up as he followed Sanders.

    Sanders looked at him with suspicion.

    Rhein shrugged his shoulders, ¡°This old bag of bones has been stiff for too long. It¡¯s time for some activity in the Abyss. Besides, I value Angel highly. I¡¯ve already given him the Illusory Spirits of the Demon Absorbing Path. If something were to happen to him, that would have been in vain.¡±

    Rhein knew that once Sanders picked up Angel from the Abyss, he would probably return immediately, so his departure this time would not be for long. Besides, he hadn¡¯t been out for a while, and with so many troublesome matters in recent days, including the failure of ne fusion that caused members of all the Witcher Organizations to bother him, he found the perfect excuse to hide for a couple of days. If time permitted, he also wanted to visit Sky Ind to see¡­ Samantha.

    Thinking of Samantha, Rhein¡¯s expression carried a hint of mncholy.

    Sanders almost guessed Rhein¡¯s thoughts as soon as he saw his furrowed brows.

    ¡°There may not be a chance to go to Sky Ind, and I don¡¯t think Samantha wants to see you,¡± Sanders said.

    Rhein pushed away the fleeting sadness and muttered, ¡°With you around, even if she is not fond of me, she wille out to see you.¡±

    Sanders: ¡°¡­¡± It was the familiar taste indeed.

    Sanders and Rhein quietly left the Barbarian Cave.

    Since the Aria Duchy was not far, they nned to fly directly there. Along the way, Rhein looked at Sanders¡¯s tightly closed lips and furrowed brows and teased, ¡°You look even worse than when Mirror Lady tried to use Heaven¡¯s Gaze to sneak a peek at you bathing.¡±

    Sanders ignored the yful tone in Rhein¡¯s words: ¡°I always feel uneasy.¡±

    ¡°Uneasy?¡±

    ¡°Looking back carefully, ever since we left the Watchguard Fortress, I¡¯ve felt as if there¡¯s a hidden thread in the depths, manipting everything. Logically speaking, the Twilight Mountains shouldn¡¯t have so many Demons. There must be something wrong,¡± Sanders always felt that he might have missed some clue.

    ¡°We¡¯ll know once we get there.¡±

    Soon, they arrived at the tranquil and beautiful Fragrant Lake.

    Opening the cross-world portal and connecting with the Abyss, every step was without issues. However, Sanders could not choose the thirdyer of the Abyss, and could only set the coordinates to the outermost surface.

    It seemed that Esos¡¯s words hade to pass; this time Sanders opened the cross-world portal normally, without any idents.

    They smoothly smuggled themselves from the Wizards¡¯ Realm into the Abyss.

    As soon as Rhein exited the cross-world portal, he was immediately filled with nostalgia: ¡°I probably haven¡¯t been to the Abyss for nearly a millennium. This scenery is really reminiscent.¡±

    Scenery? From the azure blue sky of the Wizards¡¯ Realm, it turned into a murky sky of Dust. The surroundings were barren mountains and wild ridges, and the air was filled with a stern smell of blood. What scenery was there to speak of?

    Sanders had no energy to critique Rhein¡¯s aesthetics.

    He surveyed the environment around them and quickly located the direction of the crossyer gate.

    ¡°A crossyer gate is thousands of miles to the southwest, which leads directly to the thirdyer,¡± Sanders chose the location that was a direct route through the Twilight Mountains.

    If they took this route, it was impossible to go to Sky Ind.

    Although Rhein felt some regret in his heart, it was of little consequence. Considering the long-term future of the Barbarian Cave, Angel¡¯s safety was indeed the top priority.

    A distance of a thousand miles was not considered far for them. Before long, they arrived at the crossyer gate.

    After reaching the Twilight Mountains of the Abyss¡¯ thirdyer, Sanders immediately became vignt.

    However, what puzzled Sanders was that he and Rhein traveled tens of thousands of miles from the southern part of the Twilight Mountains to the north, without encountering a single ambush.

    This was entirely different from the situation before.

    When the personnel from the Watchguard Fortress had withdrawn, they encountered enemy attacks almost every hundred miles. How could it be so smooth now?

    ¡°It looks like you were worried for nothing,¡± Rhein said.

    ¡°I hope so,¡± Sanders¡¯s expression remained somewhat tense. Although the Twilight Mountains were calm now, the strange feeling in his heart had not dissipated.

    Why, when he retraced his steps today, was the cross-world portal without issues, and the Twilight Mountains showed no signs of danger?

    A sh of insight passed through Sanders¡¯s mind, but before he could grasp it, it vanished.

    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived at the Wind Whisper Valley,¡± Rhein¡¯s voice came over at that moment.

    Following Rhein¡¯s gaze, Sanders looked ahead. The mountain range was continuous, and in the central valley surrounded by the mountains on all sides was the Wind Whisper Valley.

    ¡°It¡¯s also very quiet here, with no presence of Demons,¡± Rhein sensed the surroundings.

    Sanders, however, looked down from a high vantage point towards a corner of the Wind Whisper Valley, and his expression suddenly changed when he saw the sunken pit: ¡°Something¡¯s not right, there¡¯s a problem!¡±

 Chapter 1030: Section 1031: The Ice-Bound Dragon Scales

    Chapter 1030: Section 1031: The Ice-Bound Dragon Scales

    The original underground cavern, suddenly had its cover lifted.

    This caused Sanders to feel a strong unease, and he quickly entered the deep pit to investigate the area nearby.

    Rhein, on the other hand, flew around Wind Whisper Valley for a while before finallynding in the deep pit.

    At that time, Sanders was standing in a corner with a deeply furrowed brow.

    ¡°I circled around Wind Whisper Valley and didn¡¯t find any humans.¡± Rhein said as he walked over to an extinguished fire pit in the middle of the deep pit.

    He touched the ashes in the fire pit, and his fingertip shone brightly.

    ¡°Thest of the embers must have gone out a day ago.¡± Rhein frowned, ¡°Does that mean there were people here a day ago?¡±

    Rhein muttered to himself for quite some time, and realizing he wasn¡¯t getting a response from Sanders, he walked over with a puzzled look.

    But he saw Sanders touching a patch of ground covered in Dust.

    This area was part of the rock strata, and the ground was all rock face, but what was strange was that in a section that was originally te-gray, there was a spread of ck that was like asphalt. Upon closer smell, there was even a scent of blood emanating from it.

    Rhein recognized at a nce that this was a pool of bloodstains.

    Judging by the coverage of the bloodstains, the quantity that had spilled out was not small.

    ¡°Whose bloodstains?¡± Rhein saw Sanders¡¯ brows tightly knit together and realized, ¡°Angel¡¯s?¡±

    ¡°Hmm.¡± Sanders nodded, ¡°Something definitely happened here after I left; Angel might have encountered danger.¡±

    ¡°Dead?¡±

    Sanders hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t sense the location of my essence blood; it seems to have been shielded by some sort of powerful energy Domain Field. However, I can feel that my essence blood is currently intact.¡±

    However, his essence blood being intact didn¡¯t necessarily corrte with Angel being safe.

    Moreover, the fact that the essence blood was in a powerful energy Domain Field suggested something odd.

    ¡°These bloodstains were left two days ago, but the previous fire pit went out a day ago. This means that someone was here yesterday.¡± Rhein¡¯s eyes seemed to be coated with ayer of rity as he used the Technique of Dispelling Delusion to trace back history to understand the current situation, ¡°There are indeed traces of Angel, but they¡¯re very faint, as if an invisible wind has blown all the remaining information away.¡±

    This ¡°wind¡± from the past in the Technique of Dispelling Delusion was definitely not normal.

    It was as if a certain creature had intentionally erased its own information.

    ¡°What¡¯s strange though, is that apart from the bloodstains, there are no other signs of destruction.¡± Rhein mumbled. If it wasn¡¯t external damage, could it be that Angel¡¯s bleeding was internal?

    While Rhein was whispering to himself, Sanders found a leg bone that had been gnawed down to a bleached white.

    Upon assessment, the bone came from a Magical Creature known as ¡®Dow Jones Magecraft.¡¯ It looked like a porcupine, but the spines on the back of a porcupine present no threat to Wizards. However, the spines from the back of this Dow Jones Magecraft could turn into Tibial Maggots upon impact and burrow into the flesh, causing widespread damage. Its attack power was frightening and it was considered a Wizard Level creature.

    ¡°The leg meat of the Dow Jones Magecraft is a high-end ingredient, can be turned into a delicacy.¡± Rhein approached, a hint of regret shing in his eyes, ¡°Directly roasting it to eat is a bit wasteful.¡±

    Sanders dropped the bone, having investigated it and found that it too was enveloped in a light breeze, with all remaining traces disappearing.

    However, piecing together the information now known, it could be basically asserted that not long ago, not only Angel but also another entity with the power to hunt the Dow Jones Magecraft was in this deep pit. This entity was definitely not weak.

    There was no sign of Angel¡¯s corpse here, so perhaps Angel hadn¡¯t died. But based on the bloodstains found earlier, things didn¡¯t seem to be going well for Angel.

    Perhaps it was that entity skilled in ¡°wind¡± who had taken Angel away.

    They continued to search for other traces in the deep pit when suddenly, Rhein noticed a faint presence of Nightmare Illusion Breath on a certain stone wall.

    ¡°Over here, there seems to be some information left by Angel!¡±

    When Sanders arrived, Rhein¡¯s brow was deeply furrowed.

    It was rare for Rhein to frown, which made Sanders curious. When he saw the information remaining on the stone wall, he suddenly understood.

    Let¡¯s not talk about the text that was concealed and shaped by the Nightmare Illusion Breath for now,

    What was recorded below on the stone wall was how Toby became afflicted with cmity. It also warned that among the teams heading to Sky Ind, f of the Frostmoon Hunt¡¯s Tentacle Crab might also likely be infected with cmity.

    If this information was true, then this was no small matter.

    They were all too aware that once infected by the curse of the Pilgrim of Misfortune, Sky Ind could be destroyed. Even a True Knowledge Wizard couldn¡¯t withstand the terrible cmity.

    Dong La was a case in point.

    Sanders looking at the information left by Angel, now finally understood why he had been feeling that something was off, and the sh of Enlightenment that hade and gone; they all pointed to one fact: The positive variables were copsing dramatically.

    Whether it was encountering a massive Demon attack or the continuous failure of opening interdimensional portals, it was all mischief caused by misfortune!

    ¡°The underground river of Shadow Cave, I never expected it actually connects to a dead and silent sea.¡± Sanders remarked.

    ¡°This matter is important, whether it¡¯s true or not, it must bemunicated to Sky Ind at the earliest opportunity.¡± Rhein said.

    Sanders nodded in agreement; he would naturally convey this matter to Sky Ind afterward, but his primary concern at present was still Angel¡¯s situation.

    The text concealed by the Nightmare Illusion revealed its true meaning: Angel had gone to Ice Valley.

    The only ce in the Abyss referred to as ¡°Ice Valley¡± was the notorious Unmelting Ice Valley.

    Given Angel¡¯s current condition, he absolutely couldn¡¯t have gone to Unmelting Ice Valley of his own volition. He must have been coerced.

    However, what¡¯s more intriguing is that the entity coercing Angel allowed him to leave these clues; there is something worth pondering here.

    Moreover, concerning the matter of Toby contracting the cmity, Angel definitely must have heard it from elsewhere, probably from the very being who coerced him.

    Not only could that entity sense the cmity, but it also identified its source, showing that its power was tremendously strong; otherwise, it would have been affected by the cmity and made a move against Angel.

    No matter what trickery lies underneath, even if the information ¡°heading to Ice Valley¡± is a trap, Sanders must make a trip there.

    However, before going to Ice Valley, they need to send news of the cmity to Sky Ind.

    ¡­

    Angel was now standing outside a mountain range.

    Fafnir, having suppressed her aura, had taken human form and was leaning against the trunk of a tree, appearing to doze off. In reality, she was squinting towards the depths of the mountain range, where the outline of snowy mountains could faintly be seen.

    ¡°Lady Fafnir, it seems we¡¯re still some distance away from the Ice Valley¡­¡± Angel hesitated for a moment before turning back and saying.

    ¡°Within a thousand miles around the Ice Valley, there will be no powerful Magical Creatures.

    Although Fafnir exined this, Angel nced at Toby, who was sleeping like a log, and realized that taking Toby¡ªwho was tainted by the cmity¡ªinto the valley would be difficult, no matter how safe it was imed to be.

    Seeing Angel still hesitant, Fafnir huffed coldly, and a tornado suddenly sprouted from beneath Angel¡¯s feet.

    With a cry of distress, Angel was swept up into the air and thrown in a parab,nding a kilometer away.

    Climbing out from a rotting pile of leaves, Angel knew he had no choice left.

    He was still close to the outer edge of the mountains, and all of his movements were under Fafnir¡¯s surveince. If he made any sudden moves, Fafnir would likely continue to torment him.

    Anyway, this was the outermostyer, and any Magical Creatures likely wouldn¡¯t be very strong.

    With that thought in mind, Angel set out alone on the road to Ice Valley.

    As he delved deeper, Angel also pondered something. Fafnir could have easily flown him right to the outskirts of Ice Valley, but she hadn¡¯t done so. Instead, she dropped him off a thousand miles away and made him go to the valley by himself. Did this mean she was afraid to face Odess?

    But when Fafnir was leaning against the tree trunk earlier, her gaze had constantly been fixed in the direction of Ice Valley, showingplex and nostalgia-filled eyes. It was clear she also longed for Ice Valley.

    Not unwilling, but afraid to go?

    Was there a story behind this?

    While lost in thought, Angel took out a transparent block of ice from his pocket.

    The ice block was restrained by a powerful force and could almost be called a Crystal Stone, impervious to physical melting. Inside the ice block, a glowing white dragon scale was encased, its light sparkling through the angles of the ice, casting brilliant, translucent reflections.

    This encased dragon scale was given to him by Fafnir.

    Angel originally thought that by delivering a message for Fafnir, she would tell him what to say. However, she did not. Instead, Fafnir just left him this dragon scale with the words, ¡°He will understand what I wish to say when he sees this scale.¡±

    Previously, next to Fafnir, Angel hesitated to examine it. Now upon closer inspection, there was something odd about this dragon scale.

    Fafnir was an Abyssal Wind Dragon, whose true scales were of a dark green hue, not this pure, white jade.

    Moreover, on his way, Angel had inquired about Odess some information. It is said that Odess was an Abyssal me Dragon.

    It was unlikely that the scale of a me Dragon could be so easily encased in ice.

    Besides, Angel didn¡¯t feel any trace of me within this white scale, so the encased dragon scale couldn¡¯t possibly belong to Odess.

    Then whose could it be?

    Just as Angel was sinking into his own thoughts, the ground suddenly caved in. Looking down, he realized that the depression was actually a gaping maw lined with sharp teeth!

    Startled, Angel swiftly activated Night Flight, soaring into the air.

    As Angel ascended, the giant mouth emerged from the depression.

    A carnivorous nt? Angel observed. It stretched like a vine, the vast maw following spiral upward, aiming directly at him, much like Jack¡¯s Magic Bean.

    Rooted to the underbelly of the earth, the nt couldn¡¯t possibly fly. Angel wasn¡¯t too frightened by this. However, just as this thought emerged, a raspy roar sounded in his ears.

    Turning around, he saw dark clouds swelling in the distance.

    Upon closer inspection, the clouds were not truly clouds but a mass of densely packed Bone Crows¡­

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 1031 - 1029: Section 1030: Return to the Abyss

    Chapter 1029: Section 1030: Return to the Abyss

    Rhein nodded.

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s Angel,¡± Rhein said, ¡°He wants to purchase the Song of the Deep Sea from Angel.¡±

    Sanders frowned; he had originally thought that Florenza sought out Angel because he had discovered some clues about the ¡°Lucas¡¯s Skull,¡± not because of the Song of the Deep Sea.

    Rhein continued, ¡°Florenza¡¯s n is to use Constant Fragments as a trade, with an estimated number of around three drops.¡±

    The value of Constant Fragments went without saying, and Sanders was somewhat surprised and doubtful that the Song of the Deep Sea could be worth so much.

    He had heard about the Song of the Deep Sea from Angel before while in the Abyss, but Angel seemed unwilling to discuss it further, merely mentioning it in passing.

    After all, the Song of the Deep Sea was Angel¡¯s first high-order work, and Sanders had taken a keen interest in it. He had wanted to see the specific effects of the Song of the Deep Sea for himself but, each time he approached Angel to try it, Angel would find excuses to put it off. Although Sanders suspected there might be something fishy about it, after all, it was Angel¡¯s own Alchemy work, and as a Mentor, he respected Angel¡¯s choice, so he did not pursue the matter further.

    Now, hearing from Rhein, was the Song of the Deep Sea really so highly valued?

    ¡°Florenza received a total of fifteen drops of Constant Fragments from this Song of the Deep Sea expedition, and he obtained ten for himself. He mentioned using three drops of Constant Fragments for the trade, but I suspect, setting aside their own usage for upgrading the Witchcraft Garden, his bottom line might be willing to step back a bit.¡±

    That is to say, four drops!

    Four drops of Constant Fragments could almost be enough to create a low-level Witchcraft Garden!

    The value of the Song of the Deep Sea somewhat surpassed Sanders¡¯s imagination.

    However, for Sanders, more than the overt value of the Song of the Deep Sea, he was actually more interested to know what Angel had previously concealed deliberately.

    After Rhein finished speaking, he looked towards Sanders, who was expressionless.

    Sanders looked very calm, and Rhein couldn¡¯t help but feel admiration. Just before, when Florenza mentioned this negotiation, he had shown a look of surprise, yet Sanders was so unppable. It seemed he had long deduced the value of the Song of the Deep Sea.

    Rhein, however, didn¡¯t know that Sanders¡¯s understanding of the Song of the Deep Sea was in fact much less than his own. The reason he could remain so calm was that Angel was good at causing a stir, and the shocks he had brought to Sanders before were all too many. Take the Wilderness of Dreams, for example¡ªits potential was said to be boundless, already challenging to measure by mere value.

    So, upon hearing about the Song of the Deep Sea, aside from silently criticising Angel¡¯s capacity for causing trouble, Sanders was rather indifferent.

    ¡°What¡¯s your opinion?¡± asked Rhein.

    ¡°That¡¯s Angel¡¯s concoction; it has nothing to do with me. My opinion is not important,¡± Sanders paused and then added, ¡°Moreover, Angel¡¯s current situation remains unknown. I think it¡¯s better to go to the Abyss first and bring him back before discussing anything else.¡±

    Sanders hade for the matter concerning Angel.

    When he returned to the Barbarian Cave a few days ago, he immediately shared with Rhein about the instability of the cross-world passage. Rhein told Sanders not to be anxious, as due to the integration of nes, his friend, the ¡®Voidwalker¡¯ Esos, happened to be nearby.

    As a rare Space Series True Knowledge Wizard, Esos should have some insight into the situation.

    Previously, after Rhein had sought Esos¡¯s counsel, he then called Sanders over.

    Rhein: ¡°Since Angel is in Wind Whisper Valley, he should be presumably safe for now.¡±

    But Sanders didn¡¯t see it that way: ¡°With the Twilight Mountains experiencing widespread anomalies, I felt very unsafe there before I entered the cross-world passage. To avoid any idents, it would be better to return promptly and take Angel away.¡±

    Sanders paused before directly addressing the main issue: ¡°With the cross-world passage experiencing problems so frequently, is there a reason for it?¡±

    Remembering the words from Esos before, Rhein said, ¡°From here to the Abyss, the spatial energy is currently not very stable, but it should not reach the point of creating time-spacebyrinths. Your experience is very likely to be a special case.¡±

    Indeed, a situation like a time-spacebyrinth was an exceptionally rare exception. Even Rhein himself might not be able to escape smoothly if caught in it, so Sanders¡¯s luck wasn¡¯t bad.

    ¡°Problems happening twice in a row with the cross-world passage, are they truly exceptions?¡± Sanders said with a frown.

    ¡°Esos¡¯s exact words are that it was an exception,¡± Rhein replied, ¡°Although there was an energy tide situation on the road to the Abyss not long ago, the tide has mostly subsided, and it wouldn¡¯t have affected the cross-world passage you created separately. At the moment, there are no other anomalies in between, so your experience should be considered as a special situation.¡±

    Sanders trusted the words of Esos, but he still felt it absurd that two consecutive failures were deemed special cases. He had a vague feeling that there were more secrets hidden beneath the surface, the signs of which had not yet emerged.

    ¡°Did he specify the ce of departure?¡±

    ¡°If you are going to the Abyss in the next couple of days, the area near Fragrant Lake in the Republic of Yali is the best choice, as the spatial energy there is not as unstable as the Pamiji teau.¡± In fact, Esos¡¯s original words were that it would be fine even to open it on the Pamiji teau, although the area was somewhat unstable in spatial energy due to the failed fusion of nes. However, this instability was rtive; even if it¡¯s not stable, it would still be more stable than the Wind Whisper Valley of the Abyss.

    So whether it¡¯s the Pamiji teau or the Fragrant Lake, opening a cross-world passage to the Abyss meant entering a less stable area from a highly stable one. Overall, there was no significant difference.

    ¡°I understand,¡± said Sanders, who had memorized the location and was ready to leave.

    He had mayfly fragments with him, so going back and forth should be enough. Only this time, to bring Angel back, the consumption of mayfly fragments was indeed too much. Just the thought made Sanders¡¯s heart ache.

    ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll apany you for the trip,¡± Rhein also stood up as he followed Sanders.

    Sanders looked at him with suspicion.

    Rhein shrugged his shoulders, ¡°This old bag of bones has been stiff for too long. It¡¯s time for some activity in the Abyss. Besides, I value Angel highly. I¡¯ve already given him the Illusory Spirits of the Demon Absorbing Path. If something were to happen to him, that would have been in vain.¡±

    Rhein knew that once Sanders picked up Angel from the Abyss, he would probably return immediately, so his departure this time would not be for long. Besides, he hadn¡¯t been out for a while, and with so many troublesome matters in recent days, including the failure of ne fusion that caused members of all the Witcher Organizations to bother him, he found the perfect excuse to hide for a couple of days. If time permitted, he also wanted to visit Sky Ind to see¡­ Samantha.

    Thinking of Samantha, Rhein¡¯s expression carried a hint of mncholy.

    Sanders almost guessed Rhein¡¯s thoughts as soon as he saw his furrowed brows.

    ¡°There may not be a chance to go to Sky Ind, and I don¡¯t think Samantha wants to see you,¡± Sanders said.

    Rhein pushed away the fleeting sadness and muttered, ¡°With you around, even if she is not fond of me, she wille out to see you.¡±

    Sanders: ¡°¡­¡± It was the familiar taste indeed.

    Sanders and Rhein quietly left the Barbarian Cave.

    Since the Aria Duchy was not far, they nned to fly directly there. Along the way, Rhein looked at Sanders¡¯s tightly closed lips and furrowed brows and teased, ¡°You look even worse than when Mirror Lady tried to use Heaven¡¯s Gaze to sneak a peek at you bathing.¡±

    Sanders ignored the yful tone in Rhein¡¯s words: ¡°I always feel uneasy.¡±

    ¡°Uneasy?¡±

    ¡°Looking back carefully, ever since we left the Watchguard Fortress, I¡¯ve felt as if there¡¯s a hidden thread in the depths, manipting everything. Logically speaking, the Twilight Mountains shouldn¡¯t have so many Demons. There must be something wrong,¡± Sanders always felt that he might have missed some clue.

    ¡°We¡¯ll know once we get there.¡±

    Soon, they arrived at the tranquil and beautiful Fragrant Lake.

    Opening the cross-world portal and connecting with the Abyss, every step was without issues. However, Sanders could not choose the thirdyer of the Abyss, and could only set the coordinates to the outermost surface.

    It seemed that Esos¡¯s words hade to pass; this time Sanders opened the cross-world portal normally, without any idents.

    They smoothly smuggled themselves from the Wizards¡¯ Realm into the Abyss.

    As soon as Rhein exited the cross-world portal, he was immediately filled with nostalgia: ¡°I probably haven¡¯t been to the Abyss for nearly a millennium. This scenery is really reminiscent.¡±

    Scenery? From the azure blue sky of the Wizards¡¯ Realm, it turned into a murky sky of Dust. The surroundings were barren mountains and wild ridges, and the air was filled with a stern smell of blood. What scenery was there to speak of?

    Sanders had no energy to critique Rhein¡¯s aesthetics.

    He surveyed the environment around them and quickly located the direction of the crossyer gate.

    ¡°A crossyer gate is thousands of miles to the southwest, which leads directly to the thirdyer,¡± Sanders chose the location that was a direct route through the Twilight Mountains.

    If they took this route, it was impossible to go to Sky Ind.

    Although Rhein felt some regret in his heart, it was of little consequence. Considering the long-term future of the Barbarian Cave, Angel¡¯s safety was indeed the top priority.

    A distance of a thousand miles was not considered far for them. Before long, they arrived at the crossyer gate.

    After reaching the Twilight Mountains of the Abyss¡¯ thirdyer, Sanders immediately became vignt.

    However, what puzzled Sanders was that he and Rhein traveled tens of thousands of miles from the southern part of the Twilight Mountains to the north, without encountering a single ambush.

    This was entirely different from the situation before.

    When the personnel from the Watchguard Fortress had withdrawn, they encountered enemy attacks almost every hundred miles. How could it be so smooth now?

    ¡°It looks like you were worried for nothing,¡± Rhein said.

    ¡°I hope so,¡± Sanders¡¯s expression remained somewhat tense. Although the Twilight Mountains were calm now, the strange feeling in his heart had not dissipated.

    Why, when he retraced his steps today, was the cross-world portal without issues, and the Twilight Mountains showed no signs of danger?

    A sh of insight passed through Sanders¡¯s mind, but before he could grasp it, it vanished.

    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived at the Wind Whisper Valley,¡± Rhein¡¯s voice came over at that moment.

    Following Rhein¡¯s gaze, Sanders looked ahead. The mountain range was continuous, and in the central valley surrounded by the mountains on all sides was the Wind Whisper Valley.

    ¡°It¡¯s also very quiet here, with no presence of Demons,¡± Rhein sensed the surroundings.

    Sanders, however, looked down from a high vantage point towards a corner of the Wind Whisper Valley, and his expression suddenly changed when he saw the sunken pit: ¡°Something¡¯s not right, there¡¯s a problem!¡±

 Chapter 1032 - 1030: Section 1031: The Ice-Bound Dragon Scales

    Chapter 1030: Section 1031: The Ice-Bound Dragon Scales

    The original underground cavern, suddenly had its cover lifted.

    This caused Sanders to feel a strong unease, and he quickly entered the deep pit to investigate the area nearby.

    Rhein, on the other hand, flew around Wind Whisper Valley for a while before finallynding in the deep pit.

    At that time, Sanders was standing in a corner with a deeply furrowed brow.

    ¡°I circled around Wind Whisper Valley and didn¡¯t find any humans.¡± Rhein said as he walked over to an extinguished fire pit in the middle of the deep pit.

    He touched the ashes in the fire pit, and his fingertip shone brightly.

    ¡°Thest of the embers must have gone out a day ago.¡± Rhein frowned, ¡°Does that mean there were people here a day ago?¡±

    Rhein muttered to himself for quite some time, and realizing he wasn¡¯t getting a response from Sanders, he walked over with a puzzled look.

    But he saw Sanders touching a patch of ground covered in Dust.

    This area was part of the rock strata, and the ground was all rock face, but what was strange was that in a section that was originally te-gray, there was a spread of ck that was like asphalt. Upon closer smell, there was even a scent of blood emanating from it.

    Rhein recognized at a nce that this was a pool of bloodstains.

    Judging by the coverage of the bloodstains, the quantity that had spilled out was not small.

    ¡°Whose bloodstains?¡± Rhein saw Sanders¡¯ brows tightly knit together and realized, ¡°Angel¡¯s?¡±

    ¡°Hmm.¡± Sanders nodded, ¡°Something definitely happened here after I left; Angel might have encountered danger.¡±

    ¡°Dead?¡±

    Sanders hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t sense the location of my essence blood; it seems to have been shielded by some sort of powerful energy Domain Field. However, I can feel that my essence blood is currently intact.¡±

    However, his essence blood being intact didn¡¯t necessarily corrte with Angel being safe.

    Moreover, the fact that the essence blood was in a powerful energy Domain Field suggested something odd.

    ¡°These bloodstains were left two days ago, but the previous fire pit went out a day ago. This means that someone was here yesterday.¡± Rhein¡¯s eyes seemed to be coated with ayer of rity as he used the Technique of Dispelling Delusion to trace back history to understand the current situation, ¡°There are indeed traces of Angel, but they¡¯re very faint, as if an invisible wind has blown all the remaining information away.¡±

    This ¡°wind¡± from the past in the Technique of Dispelling Delusion was definitely not normal.

    It was as if a certain creature had intentionally erased its own information.

    ¡°What¡¯s strange though, is that apart from the bloodstains, there are no other signs of destruction.¡± Rhein mumbled. If it wasn¡¯t external damage, could it be that Angel¡¯s bleeding was internal?

    While Rhein was whispering to himself, Sanders found a leg bone that had been gnawed down to a bleached white.

    Upon assessment, the bone came from a Magical Creature known as ¡®Dow Jones Magecraft.¡¯ It looked like a porcupine, but the spines on the back of a porcupine present no threat to Wizards. However, the spines from the back of this Dow Jones Magecraft could turn into Tibial Maggots upon impact and burrow into the flesh, causing widespread damage. Its attack power was frightening and it was considered a Wizard Level creature.

    ¡°The leg meat of the Dow Jones Magecraft is a high-end ingredient, can be turned into a delicacy.¡± Rhein approached, a hint of regret shing in his eyes, ¡°Directly roasting it to eat is a bit wasteful.¡±

    Sanders dropped the bone, having investigated it and found that it too was enveloped in a light breeze, with all remaining traces disappearing.

    However, piecing together the information now known, it could be basically asserted that not long ago, not only Angel but also another entity with the power to hunt the Dow Jones Magecraft was in this deep pit. This entity was definitely not weak.

    There was no sign of Angel¡¯s corpse here, so perhaps Angel hadn¡¯t died. But based on the bloodstains found earlier, things didn¡¯t seem to be going well for Angel.

    Perhaps it was that entity skilled in ¡°wind¡± who had taken Angel away.

    They continued to search for other traces in the deep pit when suddenly, Rhein noticed a faint presence of Nightmare Illusion Breath on a certain stone wall.

    ¡°Over here, there seems to be some information left by Angel!¡±

    When Sanders arrived, Rhein¡¯s brow was deeply furrowed.

    It was rare for Rhein to frown, which made Sanders curious. When he saw the information remaining on the stone wall, he suddenly understood.

    Let¡¯s not talk about the text that was concealed and shaped by the Nightmare Illusion Breath for now,

    What was recorded below on the stone wall was how Toby became afflicted with cmity. It also warned that among the teams heading to Sky Ind, f of the Frostmoon Hunt¡¯s Tentacle Crab might also likely be infected with cmity.

    If this information was true, then this was no small matter.

    They were all too aware that once infected by the curse of the Pilgrim of Misfortune, Sky Ind could be destroyed. Even a True Knowledge Wizard couldn¡¯t withstand the terrible cmity.

    Dong La was a case in point.

    Sanders looking at the information left by Angel, now finally understood why he had been feeling that something was off, and the sh of Enlightenment that hade and gone; they all pointed to one fact: The positive variables were copsing dramatically.

    Whether it was encountering a massive Demon attack or the continuous failure of opening interdimensional portals, it was all mischief caused by misfortune!

    ¡°The underground river of Shadow Cave, I never expected it actually connects to a dead and silent sea.¡± Sanders remarked.

    ¡°This matter is important, whether it¡¯s true or not, it must bemunicated to Sky Ind at the earliest opportunity.¡± Rhein said.

    Sanders nodded in agreement; he would naturally convey this matter to Sky Ind afterward, but his primary concern at present was still Angel¡¯s situation.

    The text concealed by the Nightmare Illusion revealed its true meaning: Angel had gone to Ice Valley.

    The only ce in the Abyss referred to as ¡°Ice Valley¡± was the notorious Unmelting Ice Valley.

    Given Angel¡¯s current condition, he absolutely couldn¡¯t have gone to Unmelting Ice Valley of his own volition. He must have been coerced.

    However, what¡¯s more intriguing is that the entity coercing Angel allowed him to leave these clues; there is something worth pondering here.

    Moreover, concerning the matter of Toby contracting the cmity, Angel definitely must have heard it from elsewhere, probably from the very being who coerced him.

    Not only could that entity sense the cmity, but it also identified its source, showing that its power was tremendously strong; otherwise, it would have been affected by the cmity and made a move against Angel.

    No matter what trickery lies underneath, even if the information ¡°heading to Ice Valley¡± is a trap, Sanders must make a trip there.

    However, before going to Ice Valley, they need to send news of the cmity to Sky Ind.

    ¡­

    Angel was now standing outside a mountain range.

    Fafnir, having suppressed her aura, had taken human form and was leaning against the trunk of a tree, appearing to doze off. In reality, she was squinting towards the depths of the mountain range, where the outline of snowy mountains could faintly be seen.

    ¡°Lady Fafnir, it seems we¡¯re still some distance away from the Ice Valley¡­¡± Angel hesitated for a moment before turning back and saying.

    ¡°Within a thousand miles around the Ice Valley, there will be no powerful Magical Creatures.

    Although Fafnir exined this, Angel nced at Toby, who was sleeping like a log, and realized that taking Toby¡ªwho was tainted by the cmity¡ªinto the valley would be difficult, no matter how safe it was imed to be.

    Seeing Angel still hesitant, Fafnir huffed coldly, and a tornado suddenly sprouted from beneath Angel¡¯s feet.

    With a cry of distress, Angel was swept up into the air and thrown in a parab,nding a kilometer away.

    Climbing out from a rotting pile of leaves, Angel knew he had no choice left.

    He was still close to the outer edge of the mountains, and all of his movements were under Fafnir¡¯s surveince. If he made any sudden moves, Fafnir would likely continue to torment him.

    Anyway, this was the outermostyer, and any Magical Creatures likely wouldn¡¯t be very strong.

    With that thought in mind, Angel set out alone on the road to Ice Valley.

    As he delved deeper, Angel also pondered something. Fafnir could have easily flown him right to the outskirts of Ice Valley, but she hadn¡¯t done so. Instead, she dropped him off a thousand miles away and made him go to the valley by himself. Did this mean she was afraid to face Odess?

    But when Fafnir was leaning against the tree trunk earlier, her gaze had constantly been fixed in the direction of Ice Valley, showingplex and nostalgia-filled eyes. It was clear she also longed for Ice Valley.

    Not unwilling, but afraid to go?

    Was there a story behind this?

    While lost in thought, Angel took out a transparent block of ice from his pocket.

    The ice block was restrained by a powerful force and could almost be called a Crystal Stone, impervious to physical melting. Inside the ice block, a glowing white dragon scale was encased, its light sparkling through the angles of the ice, casting brilliant, translucent reflections.

    This encased dragon scale was given to him by Fafnir.

    Angel originally thought that by delivering a message for Fafnir, she would tell him what to say. However, she did not. Instead, Fafnir just left him this dragon scale with the words, ¡°He will understand what I wish to say when he sees this scale.¡±

    Previously, next to Fafnir, Angel hesitated to examine it. Now upon closer inspection, there was something odd about this dragon scale.

    Fafnir was an Abyssal Wind Dragon, whose true scales were of a dark green hue, not this pure, white jade.

    Moreover, on his way, Angel had inquired about Odess some information. It is said that Odess was an Abyssal me Dragon.

    It was unlikely that the scale of a me Dragon could be so easily encased in ice.

    Besides, Angel didn¡¯t feel any trace of me within this white scale, so the encased dragon scale couldn¡¯t possibly belong to Odess.

    Then whose could it be?

    Just as Angel was sinking into his own thoughts, the ground suddenly caved in. Looking down, he realized that the depression was actually a gaping maw lined with sharp teeth!

    Startled, Angel swiftly activated Night Flight, soaring into the air.

    As Angel ascended, the giant mouth emerged from the depression.

    A carnivorous nt? Angel observed. It stretched like a vine, the vast maw following spiral upward, aiming directly at him, much like Jack¡¯s Magic Bean.

    Rooted to the underbelly of the earth, the nt couldn¡¯t possibly fly. Angel wasn¡¯t too frightened by this. However, just as this thought emerged, a raspy roar sounded in his ears.

    Turning around, he saw dark clouds swelling in the distance.

    Upon closer inspection, the clouds were not truly clouds but a mass of densely packed Bone Crows¡­

 Chapter 1033 - 1031: Section 1032: Abyssal Flame Dragon

    Chapter 1031: Section 1032: Abyssal me Dragon

    Bone Crow, a strange magical creature with an exoskeleton. Wrapped tightly by its exoskeleton, it resembles a dead skeletal bird, hence its name, Bone Crow.

    Single Bone Crows are not very strong, and Angel could handle them with ease. But now, facing a swarm of Bone Crows like a cloud of darkness, he estimated that if he plunged into it, he wouldn¡¯tst a moment before dissolving into white bones.

    At this moment, ¡°swooshing¡± noises came from below once again. Looking down, he saw those carnivorous nts he had encountered before now burrowed out from underground, transforming into towering Jack¡¯s Magic Beans. Though they added a ssh of green to the barrennd, they also added a touch of otherworldly terror.

    Now, these carnivorous nts growing from the ground were swinging their vines that dangled from leaves, flickering green like venomous snakes, attacking Angel.

    More and more carnivorous nts were emerging from the ground, and above, Bone Crows dived towards him.

    So much for safety. Where were the assurances of no powerful Magical Creatures?!

    Although individually, the carnivorous nts and Bone Crows were not considered very powerful creatures, if their numbers reached a certain level, the quantitative change would cause a qualitative one, giving even an Official Wizard a headache.

    Angel sighed, turning his head to look back towards the mountain range¡¯s entrance.

    It wasn¡¯t far from the entrance. Fafnir should be able to see themotion here. Would shee to his rescue?

    Angel¡¯s hopes shattered as the Bone Crows closed within a few miles. It seemed that Fafnir had no intention of intervening. With danger from above and below, Angel¡¯s only choice was¡­ to run!

    He could say that the one thing he was grateful for was that these creatures were not strong enough to exert any suppressing force on him.

    Without any suppression, he could rely on his speed to escape to safety.

    Angel thought this, and he acted upon it.

    However, he overlooked one thing. Although there were only carnivorous nts and Bone Crows to deal with for now, he was still only on the outskirts of the mountains! As he began to race towards the location of Ice Valley, it was like lighting a fuse in a nest of Magical Creatures, with danger spreading in a chain reaction, growing increasingly terrifying by the moment.

    Roars were incessant, and the number of Magical Creatures following him were too many to count.

    The Bone Crows had almost been submerged in the horde of creatures.

    Angel thought things were bad enough, yet there was always a harsh reminder that things could get worse.

    When he was only dozens of miles from Ice Valley, a terrifying oppressive force rose from below!

    A fearsome Magical Creature exuding a cold aura and a metallic luster, with barbed bat wings, burst out from a cavern in the cliffside.

    It had a lion-like head, sheep horns on its forehead, and a long beard hanging from its chin. Its upper body resembled a muscr human, while its legs were like those of a wolf, and its entire body radiated a gleaming metallic sheen.

    Judging by its unrestrained oppressive force, this was definitely a creature of Wizard Level or above.

    And Angel recognized its form all too well.

    ¡ª Dark Gold Gargoyle!

    Previously, Angel¡¯s biggest impression of the Dark Gold Gargoyle was that its tongue coated blood was incredibly valuable, as a single drop could turn into a bottle of Blood Ink, a hotmodity at auctions.

    Now, with the living Dark Gold Gargoyle before him, Angel couldn¡¯t muster any thoughts of resistance. His only thought was to run!

    If he could outrun the speed at which the oppressive force spread, he would be winning!

    But this time, Angel had finally hit a dead end. Not long after he panickedly fled, another flock of Bone Crows appeared before his eyes.

    They stretched across the sky, and no matter which direction he moved forward, he would run into them.

    But chasing him relentlessly from behind was the Dark Gold Gargoyle.

    Caught between threats from the front and the back, Angel had only one thought, ¡°Am I really going to fall here?¡±

    Just a moment¡¯s hesitation, and Angel felt the oppressive force crash over him from behind, apanied by a terrifying roar.

    Angel managed to nce back only to see the Dark Gold Gargoyle opening its huge mouth lined with sharp fangs, spewing forth a dark light like a purple star curtain, heading straight for Angel¡¯s face.

    Trapped by the oppressive force, he could barely move.

    Angel thought this was surely where he would meet his end, but, to his surprise, the expected attack did not hit him.

    From the chunk of ice containing a white dragon scale in his arms, milky white glows emerged, enveloping Angel inyer afteryer.

    It was like a transparent spherical shield wall, on which a distinct ¡°snowke¡± pattern could be clearly seen.

    The attack of the Dark Gold Gargoyle hit the shield wall and was deflected at a ny-degree angle. The purple star curtain was reflected onto the ground, kicking up dust and creating a gigantic pit on the spot.

    ¡°This is¡­¡± Angel looked at the spherical shield wall around him, his eyes flickering with surprise and doubt. The shield was so strong that it reflected the Dark Gold Gargoyle¡¯s attack without any ripples. This indicated how solid the shield wall was.

    Moreover, Angel noticed that while inside the shield wall, he could faintly sense the drifting aura of frost, which made him even more pensive.

    ¡°Perhaps, this frozen white dragon scalees from an Abyssal Frost Dragon?¡±

    This thought only circled in Angel¡¯s mind for a moment, he didn¡¯t dwell on it, for escaping from here was of greater importance now.

    Taking advantage of the dark gold Gargoyle¡¯s momentary daze, Angel twirled and dashed into the ¡°Bone Crow ck cloud.¡± Now with the spherical shield wall for defense, he was not worried about the Bone Crows¡¯ attack, and he simply barged through!

    The way was extremely smooth, smoother than Angel could have imagined.

    Neither the Bone Crows nor the dark gold Gargoyle made a move to stop him; as he rushed into the flock of Bone Crows, he actually gave them a fright. Scattering like mice who had seen a cat, they abandoned their previously strict formations and fled in all directions.

    Angel nced over his shoulder with his peripheral vision and saw that not only the Bone Crows but also the dark gold Gargoyle that had been pursuing him retreated as if they had seen a natural predator. Then, under Angel¡¯s watchful eye, it fled back to its own cliffside cave and disappeared from sight.

    In less than two minutes, the entire sky, once filled with the pursuing army, was devoid of them, leaving only a baffled Angel, still hovering in mid-air.

    Angel looked down at the ice-sealed dragon scale in his hand. Surely a passive shield wall shouldn¡¯t be terrifying enough to scare them this much? He guessed to himself, could it be the aura of this dragon scale that had shaken those cowards?

    So Fafnir had left this trump card for him? No wonder she hadn¡¯t been worried about him before.

    Angel murmured to himself in his heart, then turned around, preparing to head for Ice Valley.

    But as Angel turned his head, his heartbeat suddenly skipped a beat.

    ¡ªStartled.

    A gigantic dragon, with terrifying red mes erupting all over its body, abruptly appeared not far behind Angel, emitting no aura, and even its mes bore no heat.

    Mist swirled around its fierce dragon head, its cold vertical pupils silently observing Angel.

    To be precise, it was eyeing the ice-sealed dragon scale in Angel¡¯s hand.

    For a moment, there were no words between them.

    This silent gazested only a few seconds, yet to Angel, it felt as if thousands of years had passed. Swallowing hard, Angel was almost certain that the Abyssal me Dragon before him must be Odess.

    In Fafnir¡¯s words, it was a kin of hers, and a predecessor she respected.

    But in the Wizards¡¯ Realm, the Abyssal Dragon of Ice Valley was known as a creature with an unpredictable temper and a chaotic allegiance.

    Angel could feel that Odess was looking at the ice-sealed dragon scale in his hand with an emotional gaze, one that carried reminiscence, solemnity, and a deep sense of longing that seemed too thick to dissolve.

    The fact that so much information could be conveyed through its vertical pupils indicated that Odess¡¯s level of concern for this white dragon scale was beyond imagination.

    Whose dragon scale could this white one possibly be?

    After an unknown length of time, when Odess¡¯s mes had evaporated the high atmosphere into a foggy haze, a grand and dignified spiritual will descended upon Angel¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Why do you possess the scale of Binaqionse?¡±

    ¡°Esteemed Lord Odess, I am not aware of to whom this dragon scale belongs. It was Fafnir who asked me to bring it to You,¡± Angel replied respectfully.

    ¡°Fafnir.¡± Odess suddenly snorted coldly, with what seemed like a sh of concealed anger in the sanguine vertical pupils.

    Seeing this, Angel suddenly began to feel uneasy. Could it be that Fafnir didn¡¯te herself because she bore some grudge against Odess?

    Odess exhaled a me from its nostrils, enveloping itself and Angelpletely.

    Within these mes, perhaps due to the protection of the ice-sealed dragon scale, Angel did not feel any heat. Encased in mes like meteors from the heavens, they shot towards the Unmelting Ice Valley at an unimaginable speed.

    In a daze, Angel saw the surrounding mes slowly fade away.

    He found himself within a pce made of crystal ice, reflecting some of the style of the Demon Monastery, except it was built of eternal ice that would never melt. Itcked the gloomy and sanguine style of a demon¡¯s abode, possessing instead a bold and magical feel.

    The pce was huge, but almost without any decoration inside.

    The sole decoration was a vibrant mural directly in front of him.

    Angel couldn¡¯t make out the contents of the mural clearly because Odess¡¯s massive body was blocking the view in front of the painting.

    It was peculiar that Odess, being an Abyssal me Dragon, appearedpletely at ease in this eternal ice pce, with its mes not melting any of the surrounding ice.

    Odess gazed deeply at the mural for quite a while before turning its terrifying head towards Angel:

    ¡°Hand over Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale to Me.¡±

    Without fully understanding Odess¡¯s temperament, Angel dared not show any disobedience or negligence and hurriedly but carefully handed over the dragon scale to Odess.

    Angel¡¯s respectful treatment of the dragon scale seemed to please Odess. The subtle pressure he had felt on him before had slightly eased.

    From this detail, one could tell that Odess might share a deep connection with the ¡°Binaqionse¡± he mentioned.

    Perhaps even a partnership.

 Chapter 1034 - 1032: Section 1033: Great Hall Murals

    Chapter 1032: Section 1033: Great Hall Murals

    Upon receiving the dragon scale, Odess¡¯s entire body uncontrobly shuddered.

    Angel could vaguely see that the mes enveloping Odess dimmed slightly.

    He was certain that the white dragon scale must havee from an Abyssal Frost Dragon. Frost Dragons are natural adversaries of Fire Dragons, so holding this scale must have caused some damage to Odess himself.

    Yet, when it epted the dragon scale, there wasn¡¯t the slightest hesitation, and furthermore, it relished it as if it were a sweet treat.

    While Odess was meticulously examining the dragon scale, Angel finally got a good look at the vivid mural on the hall¡¯s front wall.

    The entire Crystal Ice Hall was almost entirely blue and white with transparency, the only exception being that mural, which was vivid in a way that didn¡¯t seem toe from an Abyssal creature.

    The mural depicted an Abyssal Dragon white as jade.

    Having seen the true form of Fafnir before, and with Odess now before him, whether it be a Wind Dragon or a Fire Dragon, both had a fierce and terrifying appearance, but the Abyssal Dragon in the mural, white and clear as crystal, sparkling and translucent, made even the grotesque double horns of other Abyssal Dragons seem irresistibly beautiful on its figure.

    In the mural, the Abyssal Dragon¡¯s scales were also lustrously white like jade, exactly matching the dragon scale that had been encased in ice.

    Could it be that this was the Abyssal Frost Dragon called Binaqionse?

    Considering Odess had been gazing at the mural with such affection, perhaps it truly was the case.

    Angel continued to observe the mural, and from a stylistic point of view, this Abyssal Dragon¡¯s likeness was rendered in the mainstream realistic style, possibly beautified by the subjectivity of the artist, but, at least, it looked quite lifelike.

    But the background of the mural¡ª

    The Abyssal Dragon spanned both day and night; the daylight was like golden sands, the night¡¯s fireflies were like gathering stars.

    The transformation of day and night carried an expressionist¡¯s color. Particrly the depiction of the night sky was like a vortex directly assaulting the visual senses, involuntarily immersing the viewer in a hallucinatory experience.

    Thebination of multiple styles didn¡¯t sh at all. Created freely and effortlessly, it was as if the painter had ink spots in his heart, simply waiting for the brush to spread them out.

    The painting wasn¡¯t very borate, and the handling of colors in many areas was quite basic, but the painter¡¯s emotions deeply condensed within the artwork. In a painting, although appearance is important, the inner thread is the soul of the piece. This painting may not have had top-tier technique, but at least it possessed a soul.

    However, what Angel ced more importance on was something conveyed beyond the mural, ¡°This mural clearly doesn¡¯t belong to the Abyssal style. Some of the techniques seem to be thosemonly used by human painters.¡±

    ¡ªAs a member of traditional nobility, Angel¡¯s ability to appraise artworks was quite a bit higher than his skill in painting.

    After discovering human techniques within the painting, Angel grew suspicious, perhaps this mural wasn¡¯t made by an Abyssal Dragon? But that wasn¡¯t quite right either, it would be quite difficult for a human to paint such intense emotions for an ¡°Abyssal Dragon,¡± especially since the mural¡¯s emotions were strong andplex, even containing a subtle sense of love.

    It couldn¡¯t possibly be that a human had be a Dragon Knight, could it?

    Even if that were true, an Abyssal Dragon¡¯s aesthetics would definitely vary greatly from a human¡¯s.

    Considering Odess¡¯s affectionate gaze at the mural earlier, Angel thought perhaps Odess was the one who painted it, and maybe it had learnt some human techniques from a human tutor?

    As Angel¡¯s thoughts were whirling, Odess suddenly exhaled a breath of dragon fire.

    The terrifying inferno fluttered in the air.

    Angel was startled, thinking that he was no longer of use in Odess¡¯s eyes and that it was preparing to burn him alive¡­ but the mes did not attack Angel; instead, they slowly converged into a small me.

    Under Odess¡¯s control, the me gradually changed from fiery red, slowly fading, turning from red to purple, until it became a faint ice blue color.

    The temperature around plummeted, this fire was not a burning hot me but an ice me capable of freezing everything.

    This ice me floated in the air for a while, seemingly absorbing the surrounding frosty breath which deepened its ghostly me and then slowly merged into the ice block containing the previous dragon scale.

    Under the erosion of the ice me, the ice block gradually changed its form, turning to liquid and dripping onto the floor bit by bit, leaving only the jade-like dragon scale, glowing faintly in front of Odess.

    Having absorbed the ice me, the dragon scale¡¯s brilliance became even more captivating.

    Previously, part of the frosty breath within the dragon scale had transformed into an ¡°Ice Dragon Shield.¡± This was a powerful presence from the Gargoyle of Duskgold, which had stimted the dragon scale to emerge.

    Now, through this ice me, the consumed frosty breath within the dragon scale was replenished.

    Although Angel didn¡¯t understand the purpose of Odess¡¯s actions, he saw a mighty me Dragon so carefully controlling its breath into an ice mepletely contrary to its own element, just to replenish the spent breath within the scale.

    From this, one could truly see Odess¡¯s cherishing of this dragon scale, or rather, its care for Binaqionse.

    Perhaps, as he had spected earlier, Odess and Binaqionse were a pair of mates; otherwise, Angel could not imagine another reason for Odess¡¯s such treasuring. Moreover, the profound love in the mural didn¡¯t seem like kinship.

    Angel was not curious about Odess¡¯s love, he was just a little puzzled, wondering why Fafnir would have Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scales.

    His unrestrained thoughts led him to instantly conjure up a tragic love saga involving three Abyssal Dragons.

    On the other hand, after Odess reimed the Frostbite aura of its scales, it started to perform some mysterious actions in the pce that baffled Angel, beckoning frost, opening the Earth Cavern, drawing forth streaks of light¡­, etc.

    It did all this without any regard for Angel.

    Or rather, it seemed topletely ignore Angel¡¯s presence. In its eyes, Angel was no different from the bricks and tiles of the Crystal Ice Hall.

    Being ignored at least suggested that his safety seemed assured, but if he continued being ignored, what would be of the problem he wanted to solve?

    Angel carefully observed Odess¡¯s movements, looking for an opportunity to ask about Toby.

    However, Odess waspletely immersed in its own world and left no opening for Angel to interject.

    Eventually, Angel thought about foregoing an opportunity and asking directly, but before he could muster the resolve, Odess was enveloped in mes and vanished from the grand hall.

    Angel was left alone in the silent pce hall.

    Angel: ¡°¡­¡± Itpletely ignored me.

    When Odess had heard the name ¡°Fafnir,¡± a sh of anger crossed its eyes, and at the time, Angel thought he might be turned into coteral damage. Yet Odess did nothing and didn¡¯tmunicate with him, making Angel somewhat at a loss now.

    What should he do now ¡ª leave, or stay here?

    After hesitating for a moment, Angel went to the side of the Crystal Ice Pce where there was an open window offering a view of the exterior.

    It was only when Angel looked out the window that he realized he was situated in an Ice Valley.

    The howling icy winds outside nearly obscured all views.

    This pce made of crystal ice sat in the middle of a cliffside.

    ¡°Could this be¡­ the Unmelting Ice Valley?¡± As Angel looked out at the shadowy scenery and the incessant biting wind, he felt a surreal sensation.

    It was said that entering the Ice Valley would bring about a curse, but Angel carefully checked himself and seemed to be free of any affliction.

    He tried forming the ¡°Ice Wall¡± trick in his Mind Space with ease, even faster than usual due to the Frostbite aura filling the pce.

    Could it be because Odess brought him into the Ice Valley he was immune to the curse?

    As Angel pondered, suddenly a dark shadow appeared at the base of the Ice Valley. Amid the wild icy gales, Angel couldn¡¯t discern the details of the shadow, but it seemed veryrge.

    ¡°Could it be Odess?¡±

    Angel tentatively extended a Spirit Tentacle to get a clearer sense.

    But the moment the Spirit Tentacle stretched out of the window, Angel felt a strange power infiltrating from the tip and barreling towards his Spirit Sea with relentless force.

    Startled, Angel decisively severed the Spirit Tentacle.

    With the breaking of the Spirit Tentacle, Angel¡¯s head felt as if it was about to explode from the pain. Stumbling, he felt himself lean against a hard wall and fell into unconsciousness.

    This ckoutsted an indeterminate amount of time for Angel.

    When he came to, his brain still issued intermittent stabs of pain. His Mind Space seemed unaffected, but his Spirit Sea was in disarray.

    He considered extending his Spirit Tentacle again, but that was impossible for the time being.

    Despite the ongoing pain, Angel was somewhat relieved; he now realized that the strange power that had invaded his Spirit Tentacle was likely the chaotic curse that dwelled within the Ice Valley.

    Angel surmised that the Crystal Ice Hall was unaffected by the curse, but stepping outside would immediately provoke the curse¡¯s onught.

    Although relieved he hadn¡¯t sumbed to the curse, he still didn¡¯t know what to do next.

    Angel looked around and found himself seated at the base of a column. He was still in the pce hall, which was as silent as ever, without a soul in sight.

    He sighed. Uncertain of what to do, a burst of light suddenly flickered in front of a mural not far away.

    When Angel turned toward the light, a man seemingly bathed in mes stepped out from within it.

 Chapter 1035 - 1033: Section 1034 Odeclass

    Chapter 1033: Section 1034 Odess

    The man¡¯s hair was like zing red silk, as if mes were dancing upon it.

    His robe was ck, but edged with a bright, red pattern that was utterly without order, reminiscent of the roiling magma beneath the dark earth.

    Every part of him proimed his ¡°fire-willed¡± nature, including the aura he exuded that confirmed his identity¡ªOdess!

    Odess¡¯s human form, despite the intense me of his hair and robes, had a face that was cold and calm, entirely devoid of fiery temperament.

    Hisplexion was pale, his expression indifferent.

    Like Fafnir, his eyes were heterochromatic¡ªone as vivid red as mes, the other the icy blue of Frostbite.

    Odess¡¯s aura should have been one of wild mes, but Angel always managed to catch an unintentional whiff of frost from him.

    Could it be that like Sinafa, he wasn¡¯t just of fire attribute, but also concealed a contrasting attribute of frost?

    Another puzzling fact was that Odess, a me Dragon, didn¡¯t dwell nearva volcanoes but instead resided in the perennially unmelting Ice Valley¡ªwhy was that?

    Was it because he harbored a hidden frost familiar, or was it¡­ because of her?

    Angel¡¯s gaze turned to the wall painting of the white jade-like Frost Dragon.

    Odess was also looking at the wall painting, sitting in a crystal chair below it, silently gazing at Binaqionse with an indelible longing in his eyes.

    The current Odess did not resemble a powerful Abyssal Dragon but rather seemed like a devout worshipper gazing at a deity in a church.

    Angel began to move, cautiously approaching Odess.

    To change the deadlock, he needed a variable first. Odess ignored Angel¡¯s presencepletely with his cold demeanor; if the mountain wouldn¡¯te to him, he would go to the mountain.

    Angel¡¯s steps were slow, and as he neared Odess, he pondered the information about him.

    ording to Fafnir¡¯s description, Odess was as warm as mes. But judging by what he saw at the moment, Fafnir¡¯s information must have been outdated. Although there were faint mes surrounding him, not one was emitting heat.

    In the Wizards¡¯ Realm, Odess was known as the capricious Lord of the Ice Valley.

    To say he was capricious did not mean Odess was particrly brutal. It was evident from the fact that Sinafa, to evade the Demon¡¯s pursuit, had surprisingly sought refuge in Ice Valley.

    If Odess truly were bloodthirsty and cruel, he would never have allowed Sinafa to trespass on his territory.

    From this, Odess didn¡¯t seem to be bloodthirsty. He was considered capricious due to the curse of the Ice Valley; although he didn¡¯t actively kill, anyone who entered the valley would be cursed, and to be cursed in the Abyss was essentially no different from death.

    Fafnir¡¯s information was outdated, but that of the Wizards¡¯ Realm might not be urate either.

    In Angel¡¯s view, Odess did not appear warm as Fafnir had described, nor was he as temperamentally vtile as the outside world rumored. His expression was arrogant and indifferent, carrying a sense of transcendence that scorned everything. Only items rted to Binaqionse could evoke a response from him.

    Angel approached closer to Odess, now only ten meters away.

    In the rows of seating blocks, they were only separated by the central aisle of the great hall.

    Angel deliberately emphasized a step, but Odess still did not cast his gaze upon him.

    Not until Angel ¡°coughed¡± did Odess begrudgingly spare a few seconds of his gaze for Angel.

    ¡°You may leave,¡± the mentalmunication from Odess carried the same coldness as his physical presence.

    As Odess finished speaking, a thunderous boom echoed from behind¡ªthe main door of the hall burst open, and a strong wind gushed in.

    A faint firelight emerged around Angel.

    This firelight could ward off the curse of the Ice Valley, a reward from Odess for Angel¡¯s previous careful treatment of Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale. However, he would not express this gratitude aloud.

    Although Angel was uncertain about the firelight surrounding him, it didn¡¯t prevent him from understanding the situation at hand.

    Clearly, Odess was ¡°seeing him off.¡±

    Yet his mission was notplete, and how to remove the misfortune from Toby remained an enigma.

    Seeing Odess about topse back into a statue-like state, Angel didn¡¯t dare waste a moment. He dispensed with pleasantries and modesty, and went straight to the point,ying out his purpose all at once.

    His forthrightness surprised Odess enough to spare him more attention, focusing on the human he had previously disregarded.

    Upon first seeing Angel, Odess had noticed the aura of cmity around him, but didn¡¯t care to mention it, nor had he an interest to inquire further.

    Now that Angel had brought up the issue, tying it to the seabird in his arms, Odess paid additional attention to it.

    This attention allowed Odess to sense a faintly familiar aura on Toby.

    Is this ¡°its¡± aura?

    Odess¡¯s mind, for a rare moment, fluctuated with something other than thoughts of Binaqionse, as the lingering scent on Toby pulled his memories back to a thousand years ago.

    Thest time he met the old fellow was outside a phase gate in the Abyssal Depth of Gluttony Faces, a thousand years past.

    ording to the old fellow¡¯s intentions, he nned to attempt breaking through the taboo, and then he left the Gluttony Faces, his destination unknown.

    Afterwards, Odess never heard of it again and assumed it had perished on the path of the forbidden venture. Throughout the lengthy passage of time, Odess, upon reflecting upon this old friend, would asionally feel a poignant sentiment.

    Now, sensing that familiar aura on Toby, Odess couldn¡¯t help but reveal a look of surprise¡ªhis eyebrows raised by a mere 1 millimeter.

    However, Odess possessed a far keener insight than Fafnir.

    Fafnir still thought Toby was part of the old fellow¡¯s schemes, but with one nce, Odess detected the subtlety: despite the old fellow¡¯s aura, this seabird was cleaner than a nk te, devoid of the old fellow¡¯s mark.

    Even the pheromones werepletely different from the old fellow¡¯s.

    Moreover¡­ Odess nced at the pinkce pajamas Toby was wearing.

    Even if the old fellow was scheming and seeking a pawn, he would not choose a bird with such peculiar aesthetics.

    Since Toby was likely not part of the old fellow¡¯s machinations, where could it havee from?

    Odess was not unfamiliar with human Wizards; he had even cohabited the Ice Valley for a few years with a human who went by the name ¡°Feng,¡± and this crystalline pce was Feng¡¯s handiwork. Later, with Feng¡¯s help, he painted that mural he had been longingly contemting.

    For this reason, he and ¡°Feng¡± made an agreement: as long as humans did not provoke him, he would not initiate harm against them.

    During his time with Feng, Odess also came to understand the Wizard¡¯s system. He knew among the three major structures of Wizards there was one called Bloodline side, capable of hosting the bloodlines of other creatures within themselves, seizing their abilities, and integrating them.

    Perhaps this bird had assimted a part of the old fellow¡¯s Bloodline?

    However, with such a dense aura, it seemed a lot of the Bloodline was fused in. But then, why was its strength so weak if so much was integrated? Was it sealed?

    Odess¡¯s thoughts spun through numerous cycles, yet his expression remained unchanged.

    These memories, at most, allowed him fleeting nostalgia, but they hardly stirred his emotions.

    ¡­

    After Angel finished exining his intentions in one breath, he anxiously watched Odess.

    What kind of character was Odess? There was no consensus on that yet.

    Would his plea stir antagonism from the other party? This, too, was a source of unease for Angel.

    Odess paid no heed to Angel¡¯s fluctuating emotions. However, seeing some connection between the bird and the old fellow, he spoke indifferently.

    ¡°If you can bring back aplete Fire Transmission Stone, I can lift the curse from it.¡±

    He seemed to speak these words nonchntly, but behind this brief statementy a multitude of thoughtful considerations. Odess, having resided in the Ice Valley for many years, could scarcely replenish his me energy, which instead was reced by a cold that turned into ice me¡ªharmful to him, even though with his current physical form the damage was negligible. However, the cumtive toll taken during his extended stay in the Ice Valley hadpounded to a level that could potentially injure his strength.

    And since the Cmity Curse was of an extremely high level, he wouldn¡¯t be able to lift it unless his strength was restored to its peak.

    There were many ways for him to regain his strength, such as leaving the Ice Valley to spend a few years in a volcano, where the inner chill would naturally dissipate. But with Binaqionse still in deep slumber there, he could not afford to stray even for a moment.

    Thus, he chose to tell Angel of another method.

    There were numerous other methods as well, like bringing some fire-rted secret treasures that might restore his strength. But he didn¡¯t believe that with such items alone, he could be persuaded to lift the Cmity.

    ¡°Feng¡± had once told him of a default rule among Wizards known as equivalent exchange. What you receive, you must pay for in kind. Naturally, this Law of equivalent exchange is judged by the ¡°more powerful party.¡± For example, trading a copper coin for an orange is an equivalent exchange, but this is amercial norm within an economic society. In the Wizards¡¯ Realm, however, there¡¯s a supply-demand rtionship and a hierarchical increment Law.

    The demanding party is naturally weaker than the supplying one. The more powerful dictate the terms of the equivalent exchange.

    For the powerful, trading a copper coin for an orange isn¡¯t fair. What they perceive as fair is exchanging a copper coin for an entire orchard full of oranges.

    Once Odess learned of this exchange Law, he felt it aligned well with his interests. If Angel could present something sopelling that it even moved him, Odess wouldn¡¯t mind taking the time to free Toby from the Cmity.

    The Fire Transmission Stone, a legendary Demon artifact, was of significant use to him.

    It could not only restore his strength but also provide an immeasurable enhancement.

    That¡¯s why he made this offer. Although, he didn¡¯t really expect this human, barely stronger than an infant, to procure the Fire Transmission Stone.

    As for theyers of thought behind his offer, he was too indifferent to exin, nor did he find any need to do so.

 Chapter 1036 - 1034: Section 1035: Flame Mark

    Chapter 1034: Section 1035: me Mark

    ¡°`

    Fire Transmission Stone?!

    Angel hesitated for a moment before taking out several spheres that radiated a crimson luminescence from his bracelet.

    As he took out these spheres, the temperature in the air slowly rose. The frigid air interwove with the fiery red light emanating from the spheres, creating a space where the visuals seemed distorted.

    Odess nced at them and then looked away.

    These are shattered fragments of the Fire Transmission Stone. Creatures under themand of the Fire Transmission Demons all have something simr. Called fragments, but in reality, they are vastly different from theplete Fire Transmission Stone.

    Even tens of thousands of fragments of the Fire Transmission Stone are no match for a singleplete stone.

    Odess didn¡¯t speak, but the disdain in his eyes was undisguised. Angel knew that the fragments of the Fire Transmission Stone were definitely inferior to theplete ones. He had taken them out only to inquire about one thing.

    ¡°Honorable Lord Odess, I have heard that the Fire Transmission Stone is synthesized from such fragments.¡±

    Odess was silent for a moment, then nodded.

    ¡°I am an Alchemist, and I can attempt to fuse these fragments of the Fire Transmission Stone. However, I do not know the method of synthesis¡­¡±

    These fragments of the Fire Transmission Stone had been obtained from a Fire Transmission Bone Witch outside the Ashenrock Giantstone. At that time, Madeline had told him the fragments weren¡¯t very useful, but aplete Fire Transmission Stone was exceedingly rare.

    However, the method for synthesizing the Fire Transmission Stone, legend had it, was known only to the Fire Transmission Demons.

    A Fire Transmission Demon was at least at the True Knowledge Level. If you were powerful, killing it was simple, but to obtain the method of synthesizing the Fire Transmission Stone from it was near impossible.

    The method for synthesizing the Fire Transmission Stone was the greatest secret guarded by the Fire Transmission Demon.

    Angel certainly couldn¡¯t face a Fire Transmission Demon, and even if someone else could help him kill one, obtaining the synthesis method was out of the question. Thus, he could only inquire about it from Odess.

    Since Odess needed the Fire Transmission Stone, perhaps he had the method of synthesis?

    Yet, Odess¡¯s reply was short and decisive: ¡°No.¡±

    Angel¡¯s expression turned somewhat dim. Without the synthesis method, the task was almost impossible toplete.

    The coveted synthesis method guarded by the Fire Transmission Demon, no Wizard had obtained for years¡­ Perhaps some had, but at least Angel had not heard of it.

    Angel didn¡¯t believe he had the luck to obtain it. Moreover, with Toby by his side, he couldn¡¯t even begin to hope for any good fortune.

    Odess¡¯s task was almost impossible toplete, and the Yerfa Wizard was in another ne. Was Toby¡¯s misfortune only to be fading with time?

    Furthermore, even if time could erode it, they would need a ce of safety, but where in the Abyss could one find such a ce?

    While Angel was disheartened, Odess was actually entertaining another thought.

    Angel had said a phrase before¡ªI am an Alchemist.

    It was this phrase that reminded Odess of something ¡°Feng¡± had once mentioned. Alchemists were a rare presence in the entire Wizards¡¯ Realm. If indeed someone could synthesize a Fire Transmission Stone, it would likely only be an Alchemist.

    If Angel had not spoken these words, Odess might have already sent him away from Ice Valley, but after dering his profession, Odess, who initially had little faith that Angel could bring back a Fire Transmission Stone, now harbored a sliver of hope.

    It was this flicker of hope that spurred him to reveal new information.

    ¡°Although I do not know the method to synthesize the Fire Transmission Stone, I do know where one might find it.¡±

    ¡­

    Angel left Ice Valley.

    As he faced the raging snowstorm and stepped out of Ice Valley, the lingering mes on his body formed a me-shaped mark that attached itself to his left earlobe.

    From a distance, it looked like a me-shaped earring.

    This me Mark, given by Odess, served only two purposes: to avoid the chaotic curse of Ice Valley and to indicate that Angel was temporarily aligned with Odess¡¯s faction.

    Previously, when Angel had left the Ice Crystal Pce, he had been eroded by the external curse. The me Mark then turned into a circle of firelight around him, blocking the chaotic curse of Ice Valley.

    It can be said that until the me Mark vanished, Angel could move freely in and out of Ice Valley without interference from the curse.

    As for the second function of the me Mark, it was also the key as to whether Angel could obtain the method of synthesizing the Fire Transmission Stone this time.

    With the me Mark on him, it indicated not only his alignment with Odess¡¯s faction but also temporarily suppressed his human aura.

    In the wild, if other Demons discovered him, at least they would not attack him because of his identity.

    Of course, some Demons cared little for such affiliations and were naturally bloodthirsty. Against such Demons, the me Mark would be of no use. However, at least the Demons associated with Odess¡¯s faction would no longer harm him.

    This time, Angel¡¯s target was an underground Demon City called Lassudral.

    ording to Odess, there was a Half-Blood Demon there who was once rted to an old friend of his. This Half-Blood Demon, aside from having half the bloodline of the indigenous Abyss peoples, had the other half of its bloodline from a Fire Transmission Demon.

    Odess had a friend named ¡°Feng¡± who had mentioned a past connection with this Half-Blood Demon and had said that it received aplete inheritance from a Fire Transmission Demon. With that in mind, it should also possess the method for synthesizing the Fire Transmission Stone.

    ¡°`

    Angel¡¯s task was to go to Lassudral to find the Half-Blood Demon and figure out how to procure the synthesis method for the Fire Transmission Stone.

    To infiltrate Demon City, the me Mark on his body was indispensable.

    After leaving Ice Valley, it took Angel less than half an hour to leave the mountains.

    He didn¡¯t see Fafnir at the entrance to the mountains and thought she had left. However, as he was determining his next move, Fafnir suddenly descended from the sky.

    Fafnir was still in human form, her sensual, darkplexion glossy and slick.

    ¡°You¡¯re actually not dead?¡± were Fafnir¡¯s first words upon seeing Angel.

    Angel: ¡°¡­¡± What could he say? It seemed that Fafnir had always harbored the attitude that she might be killed by Odess.

    ¡°Could it be his personality has changed?¡± Fafnir murmured to herself, her gaze continuing to assess Angel, skepticism in her eyes, until it finally settled on his left earlobe.

    That me Mark made Fafnir¡¯s expressionpse into a momentary daze.

    Fafnir stared dumbly at the me Mark, as if through the flickering me phantom on Angel¡¯s earlobe, she could see the massive and terrifying dragon body.

    The fixated look in Fafnir¡¯s eyes sent a chill down Angel¡¯s spine.

    Her gaze was almost identical to the way Odess had looked at the painting of Binaqionse!

    Could it be that his previous guess was right? Had a melodramatic romance unfolded between the three dragons, Fafnir, Odess, and Binaqionse?

    While his thoughts were swirling, Fafnir let out a soft sigh.

    She had intended to ask about the me Mark but restrained herself, merely saying, ¡°Did Odess remove the cmity from your little bird?¡±

    Angel: ¡°¡­¡± What does she mean ¡®my little bird¡¯? It¡¯s Toby! And after Toby transformed into a Gryphon, he has be quiterge!

    Despite internally grumbling, Angel¡¯s demeanor remained highly respectful.

    He took Toby out from his bracelet, and Toby was still in a deep slumber, albeit now encased within an ice ball.

    This ice ball was the work of Odess, and how he, a me Dragon, managed to craft it was beyond Angel.

    ording to Odess, this ice ball could temporarily suppress Toby¡¯s bad luck.

    However, the time to suppress the misfortune was limited, roughly about two hundred hours.

    Tranted into days, that amounted to roughly seven to eight days.

    Therefore, Angel didn¡¯t have much time; he needed to procure the synthesis method for the Fire Transmission Stone within this brief period and return from Lassudral to Ice Valley.

    Angel, holding the ice ball with Toby inside, briefly recounted his experiences after arriving in Ice Valley.

    Truth be told, the experience was brief. Odess¡¯s words to him didn¡¯t amount to more than ten sentences in total, with most of them revolving around the Half-Blood Demon from Lassudral.

    So, he finished recounting rather quickly.

    After listening, Fafnir¡¯s expression was peculiar. Indeed, Odess¡¯s words seemed to match his personality, yet she couldn¡¯tprehend many of his choices.

    Firstly, he actually didn¡¯t kill this human?

    Secondly, he gave this frail human a glimmer of hope by offering the Fire Transmission Stone in exchange for lifting the cmity.

    She was well aware of the significance of the Fire Transmission Stone to Odess. She had even heard Binaqionse say that Odess imed he would befriend whoever brought him aplete Fire Transmission Stone.

    It could be said that the Fire Transmission Stone was of immense importance to Odess.

    And yet he had entrusted this task to this human? And furthermore, he had granted this human the me Mark and even helped suppress the bird¡¯s cmity.

    All of this seemed to indicate an attitude: Odess believed that Angel might actually be able to obtain the Fire Transmission Stone.

    But on what grounds did Odess hold such a belief? This was but a contemptible human, what merits did he have?

    She asked repeatedly about the details, and Angel did not hide anything, disclosing everything.

    Fafnir could tell Angel wasn¡¯t lying, but it was precisely because everything was so logical that she felt even more perplexed.

    Since she couldn¡¯t figure it out, she decided to set it aside for the time being and instead asked about something else.

    ¡°After he received that piece of Frost Dragon Scale, did he ask anything about me?¡± asked Fafnir. Although her expression was calm, the slight contraction of her pupils indicated her inner turmoil wasn¡¯t as serene as it seemed.

    Angel shook his head: ¡°Lord Odess didn¡¯t say anything.¡±

    In fact, there was a reaction. When Angel mentioned Fafnir, Odess¡¯s eyes shed with a clear sign of anger.

    However, such things were better left unsaid.

 Chapter 1037 - 1035: Section 1036 Sky Island

    Chapter 1035: Section 1036 Sky Ind

    This was an ocean tinged with grey amidst blue.

    Since ancient times, this ocean had been filled with vortices. Ocean currents brought hurricanes, and water tornadoes charged straight into the sky. Mist, gales, and gloom made the sea area resemble the apocalypse.

    Not only were there vortices in the ocean, but asionally a few serpentoid shadows could be seen tumbling on the surface, bringing with them a strong stench of fish.

    At this moment, above the ocean.

    Rhein sat in a flying vehicle, muttering softly, ¡°Now that the Dark Ocean Maelstrom is under Naga control, it seems the likelihood of this ce bing a battlefield has greatly diminished.¡±

    After Rhein finished speaking, he turned to look at Sanders, but Sanders did not respond.

    Sanders was sitting with his eyes closed, his breathing long and rhythmic.

    It was not until a long whileter that Sanders opened his eyes, emitting wave after wave of wondrous energy.

    ¡°Dream magic?¡± Rhein looked at Sanders with a hint of suspicion, ¡°Have you been closing your eyes and feigning sleep all this time toprehend the power of dreams?¡±

    Sanders replied indifferently, ¡°I simply do not wish toy my eyes upon this flying vehicle. Since my eyes are closed, I might as well take the opportunity to grasp the power of dreams.¡±

    Sanders cast a disdainful nce below. The flying vehicle they were riding was called the ¡®Rainbow Eye¡¯.

    The name might not seem out of the ordinary, but its shape was actually that of a massive crystal ball.

    A crystal ball would be tolerable, but it was called the ¡°Rainbow Eye¡± because at the center of the crystal ball shone a nebulous seven-colored light. As the crystal ball glided across the sky, these lights traced a rainbow-like tail across the horizon, appearing dreamy and illusory.

    Truth be told, the Rainbow Eye wasn¡¯t really inappropriate. Moreover, it was quite fast and even came with a rainbow force field. However, the Rainbow Eye clearly seemed more suited for witches; the two of them, both men, looked quite out of ce sitting on it.

    This made Sanders long for Angel¡¯s gond. Although the gond also appeared ethereal, it mirrored the Eternal Starry Night, whichpared to the colorful splendor of the Rainbow Eye, was much more elegant.

    ¡°I invested in the Rainbow Eye from a tinum Wizard intending to give it to Samantha, but she did not ept it, and I had to reluctantly let it collect dust in my ring,¡± Rhein said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have brought it out if it weren¡¯t for the difficulty in replenishing magic power in the Abyss.¡±

    ¡°Was it really that painful for you?¡± Sanders scoffed. He suspected that Rhein was probably ted to stash it away since Samantha did not want it. After all, Rhein was hopelessly obsessed with crystal balls.

    Rhein smiled slyly, ¡°That¡¯s not important. We¡¯re only using it here for a bit, and no one¡¯s seen it, right?¡±

    ¡°Someone saw it back at Kodo Port.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re flying high enough that no one can make out who we are,¡± Rhein paused, ¡°Besides, the wizards of Kodo Port have almost all moved to the Aspiring Sky Ind. Those who stayed are apprentices, and their vision couldn¡¯t prate the rainbow force field.¡±

    Sanders: ¡°¡­¡± If it weren¡¯t for the urgent situation, he would not have wanted to board the Rainbow Eye at all.

    Speaking of which, they had just left Kodo Port, one of the eight frontline bases of the Abyss. Sanders had wanted to see if Sinafa, Kanter, and others had stayed at Kodo Port. They were supposed to move there after leaving Watchguard Fortress.

    However, it turned out that only a portion of apprentices were left at Kodo Port. The other wizards, whether it was Sinafa, Samantha, or Kanter, had all headed to the Aspiring Sky Ind.

    After all, as Rhein had said earlier, the Dark Ocean Maelstrom was now under the control of the Naga demons, and that offsprang of a Demon God definitely would not pass through here. The Naga demons were servants to another Demon God; even among Demon Gods, there was a concept of dominion.

    Since the offsprang of the Demon God that Monty His Excellency intended to hunt wouldn¡¯t take this route, there was no need to remain at Kodo Port, so they all turned towards the Aspiring Sky Ind.

    Both Sanders and Rhein could only detour to the Aspiring Sky Ind from Kodo Port.

    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about these trivial matters. Tell me, do you have a new research topic?¡± Rhein turned his head, looking at Sanders with curiosity. At his level, he was probably only more curious about the pursuit of knowledge. But now, the research topics of the vast majority of wizards were so straightforward that he could infer seven or eight parts of them at a nce, hardly sparking any inspiration.

    Therefore, he took no interest in ordinary wizards¡¯ topics, but he was very curious about the topics chosen by top wizards like Sanders.

    ¡°What topic?¡± Sanders looked at Rhein with some skepticism.

    Rhein said with a beaming smile, ¡°Dreams.¡±

    He didn¡¯t believe that Sanders would perceive the power of dreams for no reason. There must be something fishy going on.

    From what little Rhein understood, Dreams and Illusions seemed to share some simrities. Perhaps Sanders had discovered something and intended tobine the two to propose a new topic?

    Sanders shook his head with a smile, ¡°No, that¡¯s not it. I perceive the power of dreams simply because I want to learn a few dream-based tricks.¡±

    ¡°Is it really that simple?¡±

    Sanders pondered for a moment, ¡°Speaking of topics, I do have one about Dreams and Illusions. However, this topic wasn¡¯t my idea, it was Angel¡¯s.¡±

    Rhein could sense, when Sanders mentioned Angel, there was a clear sense of pride in his voice.

    ¡°So it¡¯s Angel¡­ Well, that¡¯s quite alright. Combining dreams and illusions could potentially lead to some great ideas.¡± Although Rhein said this, his interest had noticeably waned. He was optimistic about Angel¡¯s potential, but Angel had not yet reached a certain level¡ªthe research proposed would definitely be limited by perspective.

    Since it was Angel¡¯s research topic, it probably wouldn¡¯t be of much help to Rhein. And Sanders¡¯ interest in learning dream-rted tricks was likely to provide practical teaching, to mentor Angel, right?

    With that thought, Rhein zipped his mouth.

    Sanders could see the change in Rhein¡¯s expression and understood why Rhein would react that way. He shook his head inwardly; if Rhein knew that Angel was working on the Wilderness of Dreams, which could change the entire fabric of the Wizards¡¯ Realm, he probably wouldn¡¯t be socking in interest, would he?

    However, Sanders did not intend to reveal the matters concerning the Wilderness of Dreams just yet, but as Angel was his Apprentice, he couldn¡¯t help but defend him:

    ¡°His research topic may one day surprise you all.¡±

    Rhein shrugged his shoulders, remaining nomittal, ¡°Well then, I shall wait and see.¡±

    After flying for several hours, they had left the territory of the Dark Ocean Maelstrom and were getting closer to Sky Ind.

    But as time passed, Sanders¡¯s expression slowly became more serious.

    Rhein knew that Sanders was worried about Angel¡¯s situation.

    ¡°Since Angel left a message saying he was going to Ice Valley, his safety is temporarily assured. Moreover, the Abyssal Dragon of Ice Valley is rarely rumored to kill humans,¡± Rhein paused for a moment, the only real uncertainty now is who could have taken Angel away?

    The fact that they allowed Angel to leave behind a message indicates that they don¡¯t care if Angel reveals his whereabouts, could it be the presence of someone with great confidence in their own strength?

    ¡°We¡¯ll be reaching Sky Ind soon, once the message is ryed, we¡¯ll divert to Ice Valley.¡±

    Not long after his words fell, they saw a vast expanse of ind water.

    The area covered by the water was extremely wide, surrounded by verdant forests and lush vegetation; such rich natural resources were quite rare in the entire Abyss.

    It wasn¡¯t long after they flew along the water that they came upon a Spectacle.

    Arge expanse of waterfall clusters appeared before their eyes.

    The waterfall groups were vast and the water rushed fiercely; the cascading falls shattered like snow, looking magnificent and grand. Such scenery was indeed an eye-opener formon folk, but for Wizards, it was quite normal.

    However, what made it a Spectacle was that these waterfalls were flowing upside down.

    As if defying gravity, the water at one moment reversed its course, flowing directly from the ground up into the sky, above which was a massive floating ind.

    This was Sky Ind!

    Everything around seemed calm and Rhein breathed a sigh of relief, ¡°It seems like the f¡¯s Tentacle Crab hasn¡¯t been eaten yet, misfortune has not spread.¡±

    However, just as they were nearing Sky Ind, the expressions on both of their faces changed abruptly.

    A vast and terrifying aura was slowly rising from within Sky Ind.

    At the same time, in a corner of Sky Ind, a door opened out of nowhere, and a corpulent man suddenly hurried out, sending a message to the people in the central hall of Sky Ind as he ran.

    In the central hall, Sinafa frowned.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Samantha looked at her with confusion.

    Sinafa hesitated for a moment, ¡°Brufen just got in touch with me saying that the ancient Evil God from the Lofte World he¡¯s trying to revive has shown some movement. Its emotional threshold is rapidly decreasing and is about to switch from a stable state to a terrified one.¡±

    As Sinafa spoke, everyone in the central hall had a moment of dazedness in their eyes.

    A sense of evil from deep within the heart was slowly spreading from not far away.

    ¡­

    Angel, at this moment, was running swiftly towards the portal betweenyers.

    Although Odess had left a me Mark on him, which could to some extent prevent needless ughter by Demons, it didn¡¯t mean all Demons would spare him.

    To avoid drawing the attention of Demons too ostentatiously, he had not taken a Gond but activated Night Flight, speeding through the low-altitude dense forests where he had cover.

    At the same time, Angel had used a Transmutation spell to turn the color of his eyes to pure ck.

    Both the irises and the whites of his eyes were now utterly dark; a trait characteristic of the Abyss native inhabitants.

    Although Demons might not be particrly fond of these Abyss indigenous people, their appearance was at least more ptable than that of humans.

    Angel¡¯s feet flickered with faint light as hended on the edge of a cliff.

    Not far ahead was the portal betweenyers, the very same one that Angel had passed through when he first came to the Abyss with the Frost Moon Squad.

    Angel could faintly see the giant threshold in the canyon.

    However, Angel did not choose to go through but turned to nce back over his shoulder.

    He saw a voluptuous woman with short ck hair, casually following him.

    ¡°Honored Lord Fafnir, do you also n to apany me to Lassudral?¡±

 Chapter 1038 - 1036: Section 1037: Return to the Land of Rest

    Chapter 1036: Section 1037: Return to the Land of Rest

    Angel¡¯s response was a cold nce from Fafnir.

    At the same time, an unwarranted gust of wind chafed his cheeks.

    Angel sighed inwardly, he wasn¡¯t saying that Fafnir couldn¡¯t follow him, in fact, he very much hoped she would apany him, given that Fafnir¡¯sbat power was evident. With Fafnir¡¯s menacing strength,mon riffraff wouldn¡¯t dare to provoke them.

    Yet, Fafnir seemed to have no intention of apanying him, merely following at a distance. Even if Angel encountered danger, she would only watch coldly from afar.

    Angel was somewhat baffled by what Fafnir truly meant.

    Did she want to see how an ant struggled to survive in the Abyss? Or perhaps, was she nning to write a ¡°Human Observation Diary¡±?

    No matter how much he grumbled inwardly, he received no answers. Angel could only shake his head and continue to walk forward, if Fafnir was going to follow, then let her follow. After all, she wasn¡¯t about to kill him now, was she?

    As Angel flew toward the gate that led acrossyers, Fafnir hesitated for a moment but eventually followed.

    Fafnir followed Angel solely because she wanted to know why Odess had assigned such a task to a human Apprentice and even given him the me Mark.

    Moreover, Fafnir was acutely aware that if she wanted to meet Odess, he certainly wouldn¡¯t want to see her. But if Angel couldplete Odess¡¯s task and earn his friendship, then might that encourage Odess to meet with her?

    It was with such a hope that Fafnir decided to follow and see what would happen.

    After all, she had nothing else pressing at the moment.

    Amidst the misty canyons, Angel stood before a massive gate about twenty meters tall.

    The elusive, dark gate emerging through the clouds bore a mysterious and majestic presence that overwhelmed him.

    This was his second visit to this gate betweenyers. Looking at the portal adorned with carvings of various magical creatures, Angel still felt astonished, especially when he nced over the patterns of the Abyssal Dragon and sneakily looked back at Fafnir. Although the color was different, the form was extremely simr to Fafnir¡¯s true body.

    Fafnir, on the other hand, appeared indifferent, her gaze lingering only on the single eye enshrouded in ck mist at the top of the gate.

    Through this eye, she seemed to see a Demon God from ancient times, lifting its massive head and silently meeting her gaze.

    ¡°Another old geezer who refuses to die,¡± Fafnir cursed inwardly.

    Angel prepared to cross the threshold of the gate, but he found he had overestimated himself¡­ He couldn¡¯t push the door open.

    The gate betweenyers had a particr mechanism: in order to open it, one had to possess the strength required to survive behind it. The other side of this door led to the third level of the Abyss, and with Angel¡¯s strength, venturing there was akin to seeking death, hence he naturally couldn¡¯t open the gate.

    After a few embarrassing minutes standing in front of the tightly closed door, Angel dejectedly walked towards Fafnir.

    Fafnir snorted coldly. In fact, there was another way to the third level of the Abyss that didn¡¯t have a strength-testing gate. The path she had previously taken with Angel to Ice Valley was that very route.

    What she hadn¡¯t expected was that Angel, intending to go to the third level, would choose this gate betweenyers.

    That was his just deserts.

    ¡°Respected Lady Fafnir, I wonder if you could help a lowly human with a small favor?¡± Angel asked with a sheepish smile, approaching Fafnir¡¯s side.

    Fafnir simply stared at Angel steadily, her eyes filled with deep mockery.

    For a moment, they said nothing to each other.

    Just when Angel thought Fafnir wouldn¡¯t help and that he¡¯d have to find another route, Fafnir suddenly stepped forward, stretched out her hand in front of the gate, and gently pushed.

    The tightly closed gate was instantly flung open.

    ¡°Human, save your disgusting expression. I am not aiding you; I am going to the third level as well,¡± Fafnir turned back, and said coldly to a grateful Angel.

    Fafnir¡¯s sharp tongue was not new; ever since meeting her, her sense of superiority had never left the clouds. So Angel didn¡¯t mind the disgust in her tone, letting her be scornful as he offered his thanks.

    After expressing his gratitude, Angel quickly dashed through the gate before it could close again.

    Behind the doory a vast snowy in on the third level of the Abyss.

    Angel remembered the route Sinafa had takenst time, flying towards the direction of Neya¡¯s Winter Pce. Without ident, Fafnir followed close behind.

    As he passed Neya¡¯s Winter Pce, he didn¡¯t enter but chose a direction and continued flying forward.

    He was bound for the Silent Coast.

    The task given to him by Odess was to obtain the Fire Transmission Stone and, moreover, he had been pointed down a specific path to seek out a certain Half-Blood Demon in Demon City Lassudral.

    Although it seemed like that was the only avable route for now, it didn¡¯t mean he had to stick to it.

    He nned to head to the Land of Repose to find Baltica.

    He remembered that Baltica was a trade merchant; perhaps there might be something to gain from her.

    Fafnir, trailing behind Angel, initially contemted which route Angel would choose to take to Demon City, but as Angel made progress on his journey, her brow slowly furrowed.

    The route chosen made Fafnir also feel puzzled, as it leads towards the direction of the Silent Sea of Death.

    What was he doing going to the Silent Sea of Death? Could it be, he nned to ask the Pilgrim of Misfortune to help his bird lift the cmity?

    Fafnir was baffled until Angel stopped in front of a stone tablet, then her confusion began to slowly dissipate.

    There was an inscription on the stone tablet: Undead Legion, Land of Repose.

    When Angel saw this tablet, he became somewhat apprehensive. Although he knew Baltica was a merchant, he was also aware of how much Baltica detested humans.

    He did not know if he could safely leave after entering the Land of Repose.

    Moreover, without the Soul-Resurrection Sand, he did not know if Baltica would be willing to trade with him.

    He could only try.

    Angel took a deep breath and stepped over the stone tablet.

    In an instant, day turned to night. The dull daylight of the outside world scattered like the wind, turning into a pitch-dark and silent night.

    Once again meeting the night, the changes in Angel¡¯s heart werepletely opposite to thest time.

    Sanders once said, the sea here is not the sea of today; the night here also is not the night of now. They have both been suspended in time, frozen on the eve before the gods fell.

    Looking up into the sky, there was neither stars nor clouds.

    Though it was merely amon night, because it was the longest night of the old world, it carried the heaviness of history.

    A series of footsteps came from beside him, it was Fafnir.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to seek out this conniving merchant,¡± Fafnir¡¯s scoffing voice rose next to Angel¡¯s ear, ¡°I advise you to leave; what she wants is not something you can afford.¡±

    Angel: ¡°I just want to give it a try.¡±

    Having entered the Land of Repose, Angel naturally had no intention of retreating. Whether it was sessful or not, he wanted to try.

    Angel walked towards a nearby graveyard, which was still eerily quiet, with asional wisps of phosphorescence drifting by.

    Although it seemed deste, Angel knew that beneath thisnd, many bones of the Undead Legiony in slumber.

    He walked lightly, as if through this method, he didn¡¯t want to disturb the dormant skeletons.

    As he turned along a quiet path, Angel saw a small bar that opened deep in the graveyard. The solitary light, the asionally wind-lifted fabric surrounding it, and the delicate silhouette of a woman in the bar.

    Almost identical to the scene before, except that this time, there were two figures at the entrance to the bar.

    Only when Angel approached did he realize that one of the figures at the door was a Tomb Knight and the other was a person wearing a bow tie and a form-fitting suit.

    To call him ¡°person¡± was merely Angel¡¯s first impression. When he saw the twirling pattern and fierce horns on the man¡¯s forehead, he knew he had been mistaken; he was not a human, but a Half-Blood Demon.

    Yet his attire made it hard for Angel to believe that this was how a Half-Blood Demon would dress.

    It was more befitting of a butler managing an entire nobility estate.

    ¡°Stian, the store owner does not want to see you. Please leave,¡± the Tomb Knight¡¯s droning voice came from inside his helmet.

    The Half-Blood Demon, addressed as Stian, first nced at Angel with his eyes, his gaze lingering momentarily on the me Mark on Angel¡¯s earlobe and Angel¡¯s pitch-ck eyes, then turned to look at the Tomb Knight.

    He shed an elegant smile: ¡°Knight, my surname is Stian Trofehr, and Stian is merely the least significant part of my surname. You may address me by my full name, or simply Trofehr will also do. Moreover, I simply wish to persuade the charming Lady Baltica with my sincerity.¡±

    A scornfulugh came from the Tomb Knight¡¯s visor: ¡°Stian is the surname given to you by your mother, Trofehr is the ignoble title bestowed by the Sheep Demon, and yet you dismiss your mother¡¯s tribal name with contempt. You truly are a disgusting hybrid.¡±

    Stian maintained his delicate and elegant smile without any change in expression due to the Tomb Knight¡¯s insults. The curve of his lips, the frequency of his blinking, even the control of his facial muscles, seemed as though they had been precisely calcted.

    ¡°While it¡¯s true that I am a mix of the Neya Tribe and Demon,¡± Stian implied, ¡°if I recall correctly, isn¡¯t the Undead Legion alsoprised of Half-Blood Demons?¡± In other words, we are the same, you and I. By calling me a hybrid, you are hardly any different.

    The Tomb Knight scoffed coldly: ¡°At least, I won¡¯t be a pawn of Demons.¡±

    After finishing his statement, the Tomb Knight no longer paid attention to Stian. This troublesome fellow, chased away time and again only to return, clearly set on lingering here, hoping Lady Baltica would agree to see him.

    Moreover, what Stian hoped for from Baltica, was not for his own cause, but on behalf of the Sheep Demon who had granted him the ignoble title ¡°Trofehr.¡±

    The Sheep Demon, too afraid toe himself, sent Stian in his ce.

    As for the Neya Tribe, they had old ties with Baltica. Even if she was reluctant to trade with Stian, the connection with the Neya Tribe stopped her from forcibly sending him away.

    The Tomb Knight ignored Stian, letting him stand elegantly at the bar¡¯s door like a doorman.

    He then turned his head to look at Angel.

    Even though Angel had deliberately altered his eye traits, the Tomb Knight still recognized his face. If it had been someone else, they would likely have been driven out by now, but Angel¡­ demanded a different consideration.

 Chapter 1039 - 1037: Section 1038 Three Ornaments

    Chapter 1037: Section 1038 Three Ornaments

    Angel had two things that Baltica coveted.

    One was his right hand, and the other was Toby.

    However, Angel had chosen not to engage in an exchange with Baltica at first, but the Graveyard Knight remembered very clearly that Baltica had once said that should Angel wish to trade in the future, he could find her in the Land of Repose.

    Now seeing him reappear, the Graveyard Knight naturally assumed Angel hade to conduct trade with Baltica.

    As it were, he was a guest.

    ¡°I would like to make a trade, may I?¡± Angel asked, speaking in Abyss Language so haltingly that it resembled a baby learning to speak.

    No sooner had the question been asked, and without waiting for the Graveyard Knight to reply, Standean, who was standing on the other side of the bar¡¯s entrance, suddenly erupted inughter, ¡°Kid, this isn¡¯t a bar in Demon City, if you want to drink milk, you¡¯d better look somewhere else.¡±

    Angel, of course, heard Standean¡¯s mockery. However, because hismand of Abyss Language was quite limited, even though he heard him, he didn¡¯t understand the specifics of what was said; thus, Angel didn¡¯t spare Standean a single nce.

    Angel¡¯s attitude resulted in a cold snort from Standean¡¯s nostrils. But in an effort to maintain his face¡¯s perfectly elegant expression, Standean refrained from saying more. Also, the mark on Angel¡¯s ear looked vaguely familiar to him and carried a subtle sense of threat; he felt as though he had seen it somewhere before.

    In the next second, however, the perfect expression on Standean¡¯s face suddenly froze.

    Unlike before, the Graveyard Knight did not stop this linguistically odd young man but nodded instead, stepping aside deliberately, even extending a hand to gesture, ¡°This way, please.¡±

    The Graveyard Knight¡¯s action finally caused Standean to abandon the expression he had so long maintained as he said coldly, ¡°What do you mean, Knight sir? Why should this milk-nosed child be allowed inside? To trade? With what he has?!¡±

    The change in Standean¡¯s expression was duly noted by Angel.

    Angel had not understood the earlier mockery by Standean, catching only a vague sense of the word ¡°milk.¡± Now he caught the term ¡°milky scent,¡± which led him to secretly wonder if this fellow could read minds, seeing his preferences perhaps? But he looked rather angry; was it because Angel was going in and he was stopped?

    While Angel was pondering, the Graveyard Knight let out a derisive sneer, ¡°Standean, you would do well to close your mouth. And do you really think I¡¯m the one who decides which guests to choose?¡±

    Before Standean could reply, a tantalizing voice that seemed capable of stirring the soul suddenly emanated from the curtains of the bar, ensnaring all present for a moment in stunned silence.

    By the time Standean collected himself, he realized that Baltica, who had never spoken a word in the bar before, had actually taken the initiative to speak?

    And it seemed she was saying,

    ¡ª¡±Come in.¡±

    The subject of this statement was, of course, not him, and with a bit of thought, Standean frowned as he turned his gaze to Angel.

    How could this insignificant fellow actually manage to trade with Baltica? What made him worthy? Surveying Angel from top to bottom, Standean¡¯s eyes were brimming with burning envy.

    Angel could feel the prickling scrutiny from behind, but soon he paid it no more heed, as he had already stepped into the bar.

    After Angel¡¯s entrance, Standean¡¯s face grew so grim that it seemed it might drip with darkness.

    He felt like a joke standing at the entrance of the bar.

    He couldn¡¯t believe that Angel had anything to offer that would interest Baltica in a trade. If not even he could manage it, then how could someone whose strength was barely distinguishable from that of an ant?

    While Standean¡¯s jealousy was aze and his mind in turmoil, a sudden light ¡°Ah!¡± was heard in the cemetery.

    Both Standean and the Graveyard Knight turned to look, only to see a tall woman with short hair, unknown as to when she arrived, now seated on a nearby tombstone.

    She was wearing very alluring attire, her skin dark, and perched upon two shapely, long legs, she sat upon the tombstone not far off.

    Who was she? And how had she entered without a trace of life?

    The hand of the Graveyard Knight slowly covered the long sword at his waist, preparing for battle against this unknown visitor.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect that wretched human to actually go inside.¡± The neer was, of course, Fafnir, whose thoughts were full ofplexity. She had also heard of the Resurrection Witch¡¯s matters and was not unfamiliar with the rules of the Land of Repose. Baltica herself detested humans, and Angel¡¯s disguise should have been obvious to her; yet, under these circumstances, Baltica had still allowed Angel into the bar, which was utterly perplexing.

    It was just like when Odess had given that task to Angel without any reason.

    Fafnir remembered being silently stared at across the boundaries of time and space in Wind Whisper Valley and suddenly, her lips curled into a smile. The secrets of this human seemed indeed manifold¡­

    On the other side, the instant Angel swept aside the curtain to enter, every sound from the outside world froze at that moment.

    It was as if he carried a soundproof barrier with him, isting the bar¡¯s interior from the outside world into two separate realms.

    The inside of the bar was just as cramped as it appeared from outside, save for the bar itself, with only a few scattered tables leaning forlornly against the wooden walls.

    ¡°You¡¯vee after all.¡± A voice that resounded with extreme grace, coupled with a light chuckle, reached Angel¡¯s ears.

    ¡ªThis was the universalnguage of humans.

    Angel shifted his gaze to the bar.

    A woman in a bright red dress, with her wavy hair inrge curls, had a long-stemmed pipe entwined with smoke lying across her palm. She leaned on the back of the bar, one leg crossed over the other.

    She didn¡¯t wear any shoes; her pale, delicate feet were small and exquisite, with round, supple toes painted the same vermilion hue as her nails.

    She was not exactly beautiful, with narrow upturned eyes and slightly thick lips that bore a crimson mole at one corner.

    But the longer one looked, the more charming she appeared.

    Angel bowed respectfully and said softly, ¡°Good evening, the enchanting Miss Baltica.¡±

    ¡­

    Angel sat on a stool in front of the bar, with a high-stemmed ss ced before him. The ss contained a ret liquid that emanated a sweet, sickly fruit aroma.

    Sitting across the bar was Baltica.

    She propped her cheek against the back of her hand gracefully, her entrancing tresses falling over her lips.

    ¡°Do you really n to trade these few trinkets with me?¡± Baltica looked down, her gaze falling on three peculiar items disyed on the bar in front of her.

    A standing crystal harp, a diamond-shaped monument inscribed with strange loops, and a ring depicting a serpent biting its own tail.

    ¡°On what basis do you think I would be willing to trade?¡± Baltica arched an eyebrow, puffing on her long-stemmed pipe. With the smoke whirling around her, it was impossible to tell her mood.

    To be honest, Baltica didn¡¯t see anything particrly special about the three items before her.

    As a merchant, she was known for her keen eye. She had once recognized at a nce two valuable items on Sinafa, which speaks volumes.

    And these three items, while indeedmendable in appearance, particrly the strange loops on the diamond-shaped monument that seemed to hold a bizarre charm, at most, theyprised some peculiar nodes of energy. But these were notpelling enough for her to take a special interest; she didn¡¯t believe that these items possessed any magic power that could move her.

    So, although a faint smile still lingered on her lips, she was actually getting a bit impatient inside.

    Angel: ¡°Miss Baltica, why don¡¯t you give them a try?¡±

    ¡°Give it a try?¡± Baltica casually picked up the crystal harp on the left, her slender fingers caressing it. ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll give you a chance. I hope it won¡¯t disappoint me.¡±

    She activated the first crystal harp, and instantly, her world changed; a melody she had never heard before echoed in her ears¡­

    While Baltica was experimenting, Angel¡¯s eyes also rested on the three items.

    These three items, or rather two items and one essory, were actually part of Angel¡¯s collection of works from when he practiced alchemical illusions. They weren¡¯t his most extraordinary pieces but were among the most distinctive.

    The first crystal harp was essentially a music box disguised as an actual harp, infused with alchemical illusion.

    However, within this music box, unlike before, he didn¡¯t stingily leave just one piece of music, but ratherbined several nocturnes that shared simr charm yet varied in styles.

    Lyrical, lingering, sorrowful, mncholic.

    Baltica held the crystal harp for nearly two hours, never once leaving the illusion during that time.

    Only when the illusion was nearly over did Baltica set the crystal harp aside, her lips slightly turning up in a smile, without saying much.

    The music box within the crystal harp was indeed nice; the music was very interesting and matched the nights of this frozen old world perfectly.

    Moreover, Baltica herself enjoyed music greatly, evident from her constantly humming songs thest time ¡ª this was also why Angel decided to bring out the music box.

    She liked this music box a lot, but since she had finished listening to the music, it was already etched in her memory.

    Therefore, for her, the allure of the crystal harp had somewhat diminished.

    Baltica felt like she had gained an advantage, and the impatience that once filled her heart had now vanished.

    The music in the box, though she had memorized it, she had to admit that the apanying illusion was well worth exploring. So, when her gaze drifted to the second monument-shaped item, anticipation couldn¡¯t help but fill her heart.

    As she picked up the second item, Angel aptly added, ¡°This is the Monument of the Strange Loop. I hope Miss Baltica likes it.¡±

    Baltica activated the second item, and as her world transformed once more, a hint of fascination appeared in her eyes.

    The Monument of the Strange Loop was, of course, a reference to the little game that had addicted the likes of Sanders and Kanter ¡ª Monument Valley.

    The protagonist of Monument Valley, like Baltica, was female, which naturally made the immersion stronger for her than for Sanders, Kanter, and the others.

    This time, Baltica immersed herself in the illusion for even longer, nearly four and a half hours, and reluctantly exited. The time was too short, and ying from a mortal¡¯s first-person view in the illusion meant that a lot of its ingenious designs took time to unravel. Thus, Baltica felt regretful ¡ª she hadn¡¯t managed to y through the Monument of the Strange Loop to its ending.

 Chapter 1040 - 1038: Section 1039: Ukrainian and Polish

    Chapter 1038: Section 1039: Ukrainian and Polish

    Baltica set down the Monument of the Strange Loop and remained expressionless, yet inside her, she was far from as calm as she appeared.

    It had to be said, this second Monument of the Strange Loop was quite remarkable.

    Due to certain rules and restrictions, Baltica could not leave the Land of Repose, and over the centuries, aside from her slumbers, most of her time was rather dull.

    This Monument of the Strange Loop just happened to hit her weak spot; it was very intriguing and couldpletely alleviate the loneliness of her prolonged stay in the night.

    Baltica cast a sidelong nce at Angel, her heart filled with some suspicion.

    At first, she thought that having remembered the music box meant she had benefited, but now, havinge to her senses, was it set up on purpose by this fellow in response to her interests?

    She liked music, and the first thing he ced on top was music. After giving her a taste of sweetness, and satisfying her spiritually, he brought out the Monument of the Strange Loop to enrich her life.

    Moreover, it was apparent that both the music box and the Monument of the Strange Loop, despite their ingenuity, were not particrly valuable items.

    Any way she looked at it, it seemed like a deliberate arrangement, trying to win a chance to bargain with her using these clever trinkets.

    However, Baltica did not inquire about it; the targeted giving by Angel was actually not displeasing to her. At least, from her heart, she felt that Angel was carefully preparing. Compared to that half-blood demon outside who tried to gain advantage through shamelessness, wanting to reap without sowing, she personally was very willing to ept someone trying to win with thoughtfulness.

    She shifted her gaze to the third item, a ring depicting a serpent biting its own tail.

    The first two items had already piqued her interest. Following Angel¡¯s logic of risking little to gain much, this ring probably wasn¡¯t some treasured trinket, either.

    From a straightforward impression, all three ornaments did not seem too valuable, but the effect, as it turned out, was quite good. Therefore, Baltica felt a faint anticipation toward the third ring.

    She wanted to see what other surprises Angel had prepared.

    ¡°This ring is called Ouroboros. It symbolizes eternity and immortality through the serpent biting its own tail,¡± Angel exined softly.

    Indeed, the symbol of a serpent biting its tail often appears in Earth¡¯s culture, but in fact, it is not umon in the Wizards¡¯ Realm. Moreover, its imagery is closely rted to Alchemy.

    The serpent bites its own tail, creating a symbol in the minds of ancient alchemists of self-consumption, transforming oneself into a cyclical process. This feedback process is also a symbol of immortality and represents the concepts of cycles, eternity, and Samsara in Alchemy.

    The ring appeared to be a delicate representation of the Ouroboros, but in fact¡­ Angel designed it as an Ouroboros simply because he did not want to waste time thinking about the shape. If ced in the Wizards¡¯ Realm, it was likely that alchemists would criticize him forcking any sense of alchemical aesthetics.

    ¡°Heh,¡± Baltica chuckled softly, not making anyment on Angel¡¯s exnation and proceeded to activate the ring.

    While Baltica was testing the Ouroboros, Angel was quite nervous. The first two ornaments were indeed just clever trinkets that even if they were made known, they would not attract much attention.

    But this third item, the Ouroboros, was different.

    It was the Alchemical Illusion that Sanders had once strictly ordered him not to divulge, as it contained¡ªmysterious artifacts!

    Sanders worried that if the Wizards¡¯ Realm discovered the ¡°enlightening¡± effect of these mysterious artifacts, Angel would not be able to live in peace.

    When Greya had createdws, mysterious artifacts had yed a part in aiding her, although the main reason was still that Greya¡¯s umtion had been sufficient.

    Sanders himself had used mysterious artifacts too and had created several interesting tricks as a result.

    This spoke to the powerful ¡°enlightening¡± effect of the mysterious artifacts.

    Especially for those wizards with a richer umtion of knowledge, broader experience, and deeper insights¡ªthe impact of these mysterious artifacts was even stronger.

    Therefore, Sanders instructed Angel not to disclose such Alchemical Illusions until he reached a level of power where he had ¡°a certain degree of influence¡± within the Wizards¡¯ Realm.

    Now, the very reason he offered it to Baltica was because he genuinely did not know what else could move her.

    He thought that since Baltica was not of the Wizards¡¯ Realm, trading the Ouroboros with her was harmless. He hadn¡¯t said that these three alchemical ornaments came from his own hand, and if Baltica inquired, he could deflect by iming they were made by someone else and came into his possession by chance.

    There was another point; Sanders had once said that before the entity slumbering in the depths of that sea awoke, Baltica would not leave the Land of Repose.

    As long as she did not leave the Land of Repose, the matter regarding the mysterious artifacts, even if it did reach the Wizards¡¯ Realm, could be a distant issue. By then, perhaps his power would have reached that of an Official Wizard, strong enough to handle the consequences brought by the mysterious artifacts.

    Angel¡¯s thoughts were spinning rapidly, but suddenly, he heard a stir from Baltica across from him.

    He saw that Baltica had already exited the Alchemical Illusion and had ced the ring back on the table.

    ¡°`

    Of the three alchemy ornaments, this was the one that took Baltica the least amount of time, probably not even five minutes.

    Her expression was very calm, and Angel could not discern any clues from her demeanor.

    Could it be that she did not like the Ouroboros? Or perhaps, non-wizard extraordinary beings had no feelings for mystical artifacts?

    Angel¡¯s brows were tightly furrowed, and in those brief seconds, he had already begun to wonder if Baltica didn¡¯t take a liking to the Ouroboros, did he have anything else to trade with her?

    If nothing else worked, he still had the Ocean Rhythm. After all, he could not cut off his right hand, nor could he hand over Toby.

    While Angel was having various thoughts, what he did not know was that Baltica inside was already experiencing tremendous upheavals.

    For Baltica, the first two ornaments were intriguing items to alleviate her boredom, and she liked them very much, even thinking that if the third one could also please her, she wouldn¡¯t mind giving Angel a chance to trade.

    But who would have known, what she thought would be another simrly intriguing curio turned out to be a thunderous revtion.

    The Ouroboros was not on the same level as the first two items! If the crystal harp and the Monument of the Strange Loop were like little demons, then the Ouroboros was on the level of a Demon God.

    The Ouroboros brought Baltica an immense shock; she had lived for many years, and she had experienced countless times the edge of life and death, developing an almost prescient ¡°sense of foreboding.¡±

    When she activated the Ouroboros and perceived an odd concept within it, Baltica had a thought: if she fully grasped this odd concept, it would be of tremendous help to her! Even, it could take her a step further!

    Having stayed in the Land of Repose for so long, her powers had improved extremely slowly, but this strange concept could take her to the next level, and that astonished her.

    She had actually already decided to make this deal with Angel; the reason she kept a calm facade was actually to gain more benefits from this trade¡ª

    ¡°These three trinkets are quite interesting, full of cunning, it seems you came specifically for me.¡± Baltica said with a smile, her wordsced with a yfulint, and coupled with her extremely beautiful voice, it also made Angel¡¯s heart waver.

    Angel now understood why Sanders once said, Baltica was a more charming existence than a Subus. Her every move was elegant, her looks conveying allure, and her voice, coy and flirtatious, showcased her unique charm in every aspect.

    ¡°Music soothes my defenses, games relieve my boredom, and this¡­¡± Baltica picked up the serpent-biting-tail ring, shaking it between her fingers: ¡°this piques my curiosity to explore.¡±

    ¡°Each one is very targeted, making me quite fond of them.¡±

    Angel finally regained his senses from that beautiful voice. When Baltica said they were targeted, it wasn¡¯t really wrong. He had already nned what to do on his way to the Land of Repose, though targeting specifically wasn¡¯t his intention, as all three ornaments were previously crafted by him.

    If he had indeed targeted her, Angel would certainly have crafted a new one rted to the Land of Repose or Baltica ¨C an Alchemical Illusion.

    ¡°I am very honored that Miss Baltica likes them,¡± Angel responded softly, pausing before adding, ¡°Then, may I know if Miss Baltica is willing to make this trade with me?¡±

    ¡°I indeed like these three little ornaments, but they are just trinkets, after all¡­¡± Baltica paused here, while conjuring a captivating smile and gently exhaling a puff of smoke.

    Her actions were simply an attempt to downgrade the value of the Ouroboros to the same level as the previous two. Then she could demand her next request: she would agree to the exchange only if she got all three together.

    However, Angel hadn¡¯t anticipated Baltica¡¯s tactful moves. He was just pondering inwardly, wondering if mystical artifacts like these couldn¡¯t win the favor of other extraordinary beings?

    He struggled internally, wondering if he should switch to the Ocean Rhythm?

    The Ocean Rhythm was a high-ranking creation praised by both the Tree Spirit and Lord Rhein. It could even be ranked among the top of its kind, and for trading, Baltica should be satisfied with it.

    Thinking this, Angel reached out to collect the three ornaments, the first one he grabbed was the Ouroboros.

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then I can only¡­¡±

    Angel was about to take the Ouroboros back, when Baltica suddenly grabbed it, clenching it in her palm.

    With her brows tightly knit, Baltica thought, does this young man even know how to trade? I haven¡¯t even started to negotiate the price, and he¡¯s already ready to back out?

    And he reached for the Ouroboros first.

    Baltica already saw the Ouroboros as her own, how could she possibly let Angel take it back. Even if Angel now relented and said he would not trade, she would force the trade to bepleted, if necessary.

    With this in mind, Baltica decided not to y games anymore and said directly, ¡°Okay, the deal is on!¡±

    Baltica didn¡¯t care about Angel¡¯s expression and provocatively slid the Ouroboros onto her little finger.

    Seeing how eager Baltica was, Angel could then understand Baltica¡¯s intention.

 Chapter 1041: Section 1042: UFO Little Demon

    Chapter 1041: Section 1042: UFO Little Demon

    Ni Ming Lake, situated next to the Twilight Mountains, bordered on the right by Kayami Forest.

    Geographically speaking, Ni Ming Lake was unremarkable, but curiously, it attracted nearly half of the demons from the thirdyer of the Abyss and was even listed as a forbidden area by the Wizard.

    For within the legendary Demon City¡ªLassudral¡ªwas located on the small ind at the heart of Ni Ming Lake.

    To be precise, Lassudral¡¯s location wasn¡¯t on the ind itself; the ind merely provided the spatial coordinates for entry. Lassudral truly resided within a piece of unknown Void.

    At that moment, the waters of Ni Ming Lake were rippled.

    A shadow with blue skin elegantly advanced through theke like a swimming fish until it finally arrived at Lake Heart Ind.

    Besides its light blue skin, it resembled humans in form, but itcked ears. In their ce were two downward-curving, arc-shaped horns¡ªindicating that it was, in fact, a Half-Blood Demon.

    Ppa, was its name. In Demon Language, it stood for a nameless weed¡ªinsignificant and humble, yet with vigorous vitality.

    In the entire thirdyer of the Abyss, Ppa belonged to the most humble category, regardless of whether judged by power or bloodline¡ªit was at the bottom.

    After all, its bloodline consisted of half Indigenous People, and the other half¡­ a small, phantom Demon.

    The small, phantom Demon was a kind with a very low floor but a very high ceiling.

    Having a low floor was widely epted; many small, phantom Demons would remain at the lowest rung of demon society throughout their lives, with some Half-Blood Demons naturally more powerful than small, phantom Demons from birth. This indicated clearly how weak a small, phantom Demon was.

    As for having a high ceiling, that was a title small, phantom Demons had coined for themselves, unrecognized by any other demon. A story circted among the small, phantom Demons that, in the ancient cold era, one of them had risen to be a Demon Lord not weaker than a Demon God.

    It was because of this story that the small, phantom Demons believed they had a high potential.

    But the veracity of this story was hard to examine, given that the ancient cold era urred over a hundred thousand years ago. Aside from their own kind, no one else had even heard it.

    Ppa was a Half-Blood Demon with a clear sense of self-awareness. Although it knew the story, it, unlike its forebears, did not believe it to be true. Ppa thought it was very likely that an ancestor of the small, phantom Demons had concocted the tale out of pride.

    For apart from that mighty ¡°ancestor¡± in the story, the strongest among the recorded small, phantom Demons to date was only a fortunate predecessor who had barely managed to climb to the bottom rung of Intermediate Rank Demons.

    If they were to speak of a high ceiling, why had only one Intermediate Rank Demon emerged?

    After facing reality, Ppa had long stopped dreaming of bing more powerful. It felt that simply living a good life was enough and being with its parents without separation would be best.

    However, even this small wish was shattered.

    Its parents were killed by humans just a year earlier.

    Upon receiving this news, Ppa was stunned for half a year. Unlike other demon races, small, phantom Demons, often mocked and scorned, tended to live solitarily. Even when they took Indigenous People of the Abyss as mates, they did not abandon them.

    Its parents had loved each other and raised it with care.

    For safety, they even moved far away from the demon race¡¯s hearnd to a very remote ce and avoided humans from a distance whenever they saw them.

    Yet, despite living so cautiously, they could not escape tragedy.

    Ppa hated the humans who had killed its parents. It wanted to seek revenge on the humans but was powerless to do so. As a feeble Half-Blood Demon, it was equivalent to a Wizard Apprentice among humans, and humans possessed all sorts of wondrous weapons and artifacts; it couldn¡¯t defeat anyone.

    It was at that time that Ppa began to understand the importance of personal strength.

    It started to think about improving itself, but the information in its bloodline offered no shortcuts to rapid self-improvement. The only way was to temper itself, but even true small, phantom Demons couldn¡¯t rise through such hardship, let alone Ppa with only half a demon bloodline.

    After several months of fruitless experimentation, Ppa, harboring hatred for humans and a strong desire to enhance its own power, came to Lassudral.

    Rumor had it that Lassudral had everything you could wish for.

    This was Ppa¡¯s third month in Lassudral. During this period, it dedicated almost all of its energy to earning Demon Gold Coins in Lassudral. Only when tired would it leave Lassudral to rest at the bottom of the surrounding Ni Ming Lake, where the gentle waters soothed and quietly restored its strength.

    Now, after its rest, Ppa stepped onto Lake Heart Ind once more.

    Its gaze was resolute; for the sake of its goals, it could not cken. Even though¡­ within its heart, it harbored doubts¡ªcould it really be stronger, could it really avenge its parents?

    Lake Heart Ind was notrge, devoid of any grass, with only a few uneven mounds of earth.

    Ppa manipted the water to fashion itself a set ofke-green clothes. Such dressing was actually rare among demons, but some powerful demons had their own fashion, and the middle and low-tier demons started to imitate them, sparking a trend. However, they only dressed this way within Demon City, as if by wearing clothes that represented civilization, they could restrain their uncivilized barbarism.

    Ppa¡¯s choice of clothing was not a nod to fashion but purely taught by its mother.

    Once dressed, Ppa approached a small mound not far away.

    As it walked, ripples like those on the water¡¯s surface suddenly appeared before it, and the very next second, it passed through these ripples, entering an endless Void.

    In the darkness of the Voidy a floating ind city.

    At the highest point of the city, atop a terrifying tower, was a radiant orb. Its light illuminated the entire city, making it a city that never slept!

    This is the great, never-fallen Demon City of the Void¡ªLassudral!

    As soon as Ppa entered, he was at the edge of the ind.

    Looking down from the edge of the ind, one could see a dark vortex in the void below, around which numerous strangely shaped demons flew to and fro.

    Lassudral was not just a demon city, but also a hub leading to the inneryers of the Abyss.

    The dark vortex below was connected to the inneryers of the Abyss.

    At that moment, a demon that had burst from the vortex below steadilynded on the floating ind, right near Ppa.

    This was a demon over three meters tall, with ferocious bone wings sprouting from its back.

    After itnded, it discovered Ppa, who was cowering behind arge rock not far away. A glint of cruelty shed in its bloodthirsty eyes, and amidst Ppa¡¯s terrified expression, it flicked its finger.

    A dim ck light shot straight towards Ppa.

    Before he could react, therge rock in front of him exploded into fragments, and he was sent flying into the air by the force, only to crash down harshly on the ground, his body in utter disarray.

    The Bone Wing Demonughed a few times; Ppa¡¯s wretched state seemed to please it. It did not strike again but left behind the word ¡°riffraff¡± before flying into Lassudral.

    Ppa trembled all over, his eyes filled with anger, sorrow, and self-doubt.

    In thewless Demon City, as long as one didn¡¯t disrupt the overt order, no one would say a thing even if the Bone Wing Demon had killed him.

    Ppa licked his wounds in solitude; after a long time, he slowly got up and limped into Lassudral.

    His mother had once told him that to be strong, one must endure setbacks, a necessary process of growth.

    Although he knew these were justforting phrases, what else could he do now besides convincing himself?

    ¡­

    The structure of Lassudral was quite different from the cities of the indigenous people. Here, even the shortest building door was over three meters high. With doors so tall, the buildings themselves were massive, as if one had entered a city of giants.

    Despite therge buildings, most of the demons walking on the streets were roughly the same size as Ppa. These huge doors were not really meant for them but for creatures like the earlier Bone Wing Demon or other high-ranking great demons.

    Oftentimes, one could gauge the clientele of a shop simply by the size of its doors.

    Take, for example, the giant fortress visible from miles away here. It was actually a shop, but its scale was such that even giants could be amodated¡ªbelonging to the highest tier of shops.

    Or, for instance, to Ppa¡¯s right.

    Hidden among the trees, there was a small, low wooden hut. Ignoring its position on the very outskirts of Lassudral, just its two-meter-tall door showed that its clientele was probably on the lower end.

    Truthfully, even Ppa felt that a two-meter door was too short; he just needed to stand on tiptoes to bump his head.

    Moreover, the eaves of the cabin appeared low, making it seem like it would be so cramped inside that breathing would be difficult.

    Had there not been a shop sign above the door, Ppa wouldn¡¯t have believed it was a store.

    ¡°Eh?¡± Suddenly, confusion flickered in Ppa¡¯s eyes, ¡°When was this little wooden hut set up here? When I left the day before yesterday, this spot seemed to be an empty lot.¡±

    Could it have been established in thest two days?

    Ppa looked at the shop¡¯s sign with suspicion, which was written in a terrible font in Demon Language.

    Illusion.

    It didn¡¯t sound like a respectable shop at all.

    Ppa continued walking and arrived at the ce where he usually worked, a Hunting Museum owned by a Half-Blood Demon.

    The door was four meters high, considered a normal size among the shops of Lassudral.

    His job was actually very simple: to clean the prey that the owner hunted.

    Ppa could work here partly because the Eerie Water he released had the effect of ¡°preserving freshness and enhancing taste,¡± but mostly because of the owner¡¯s pity.

    Speaking of which, the owner seemed to possess a powerful fire Demon Bloodline. When Ppa first saw the owner, he was somewhat afraid due to the natural elemental counter.

    Who would have thought that he would be able to continue living in Lassudral, thanks to the seemingly fierce but kind-hearted owner?

    ¡°You¡¯re here? Today¡¯s prey has been ced in the storage behind the Exhibition Room. After cleaning, remember to disy them,¡± said arge, fiery-haired man with an imposing set of abs and a fierce face.

    He was the owner of the Hunting Museum, Night.

 Chapter 1042: Section 1043 Enchanted Cabin

    Chapter 1042: Section 1043 Enchanted Cabin

    In fact, the museum owner¡¯s name is very long. Ppa once heard the owner mention it, but for some reason, rather than that name which represents the achievements of forebears, it prefers to be called ¡°Night.¡±

    After assigning today¡¯s tasks, the owner left.

    The Hunting Museum rarely had visitors, and even if the owner was away for a long time, it wouldn¡¯t affect anything¡ªthere was hardly any business to speak of.

    With no customers, Ppa found it odd how the owner made a living. He hadn¡¯t been in Lassudral long, so perhaps the owner had other means of livelihood?

    Following the owner¡¯s instructions, Ppa passed through the vast main hall to the Exhibition Room.

    The Exhibition Room disyed various hunting specimens, but these were mostly empty shells. They looked lifelike, but beyond skin and skeleton, they were hollow inside.

    Ppa walked past the specimens to the rear of the Exhibition Room where there was a tall wall.

    The upper half of the wall featured a painting. The lower half had a door.

    Behind the door was where Ppa worked every day.

    Upon entering, Ppa began to clean the day¡¯s catch from the owner¡¯s hunt, two me Leopards. As usual, he removed the flesh and entrails of the me Leopards, moisturized them briefly with ¡°UFO Water¡± to keep them fresh for a long time.

    Then, Ppa began to clean the fur and piece together the skeletons.

    While cleaning the fur, Ppa inspected it carefully from top to bottom. The beautiful fiery pattern had not a single mark.

    Although the me Leopard wasn¡¯t a particrly formidable Magical Creature, one that even Ppa could hunt, preserving theplete fur during the hunt was extremely difficult.

    It was rumored that the owner was weak, which could be seen from the creatures it hunted.

    But Ppa always had a vague sense that the owner must be very strong. In the three months he had been there, although Ppa had not cleaned any more formidable Magical Creatures, every creature hunted by the owner showed no signs of injury. They were all perfect, like the me Leopards, as if merely asleep.

    Given the detail to which the owner attended, Ppa didn¡¯t believe that someone who pursued perfection would be weak.

    Perhaps the owner also hunted Intermediate Rank Magical Creatures, but simply didn¡¯t need Ppa to clean them?

    After cleaning the two me Leopards, Ppa ced their specimens in the Exhibition Room; his work for the day was done.

    Generally, Ppa would seize the time after work to cultivate his body. Although the cultivation method in his bloodline inheritance might not be effective, without another method, he had to make do for the time being.

    However, today Ppa didn¡¯t return to his cultivation but instead observed the painting in the Exhibition Room.

    He didn¡¯t find anything particrly special about the painting, but he noticed that the owner often stood there admiring it. Keeping an eye out, perhaps the painting held a secret. Ppa decided to investigate it carefully today.

    Ppa stood under the painting for over half an hour with no discovery.

    To Ppa¡¯s aesthetic judgment, the painting was iprehensible.

    The overall background was ck¡­ or rather, a color so deep blue that it was nearly ck. Amidst this profound backdrop, there were streaks of dancing mes,rge and small, forming a line and splitting the painting into an upper and lower half.

    ¡°What could this painting possibly mean?¡± Ppa wondered silently to himself.

    After watching for nearly half an hour, Ppa¡¯s eyes turned red from the effort, but he found no mystery in the painting. Instead, he noticed a detail he had never seen before: faint grey lettering near the bottom right corner that was almost blending into the ck background.

    These markings appeared to be the signature of the painter, but the text was unreadable to him, not written in Demon Language.

    The script, winding like tadpoles, seemed somewhat like¡­ human writing.

    It was not until muchter that Ppa learned that it indeed was human writing, recording the name of the painting as well as the artist.

    ¡ª ¡°Night,¡± artist: Feng.

    Ppa hadn¡¯t deciphered the meaning of the painting, but to his surprise, he found that the owner had returned.

    Not only had the owner returned, but a ck beast¡¯s leg was slung over its shoulder. The leg alone was asrge as a me Leopard, clearly indicating its true size was not small!

    ¡°Oh, you haven¡¯t started your cultivation today?¡± Night turned to Ppa.

    Ppa curiously eyed the beast¡¯s leg, still burning with ck mes, feeling it looked familiar, ¡°Cultivating all the time hasn¡¯t been effective, so I thought about going out to find some suitable things for my cultivation.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Night said, notmenting further. It took out two gleaming Gold Coins from a small pouch at its waist and tossed them to Ppa, ¡°I¡¯ll pay you this month¡¯s sry in advance, hoping you find what¡¯s right for you.¡±

    Gratitude shed in Ppa¡¯s eyes. With these two Demon Gold Coins, he had a total of ten Demon Gold Coins, a considerable sum for him. To put it in perspective, his parents¡¯ inheritance had been just two Demon Gold Coins.

    ¡°Thank you, owner,¡± Ppa said gratefully. Seeing Night walk straight to the cabin behind the Exhibition Room, he guessed it was going to clean the beast¡¯s leg and quickly offered, ¡°Owner, if it¡¯s cleaning, let me do it.¡±

    Night, however, shook its head, ¡°No need. Despite only one leg remaining, its mes are unquenchable. They are contrary to your element, and you¡¯d get hurt dealing with it.¡±

    After Night had spoken, he entered the cleaning room directly and closed the main door behind him.

    Ppa then reflected on the ¡°undying me¡± in his mind before leaving the Hunting Museum. He walked for a long time, when suddenly a spark of inspiration seemed to sh through his mind: the undying ck me, and those hind legs like those of a horse.

    It made him think of a kind of Magical Creature.

    Dark Gold Nightmare!

    Could it be that it was the hind leg of a Dark Gold Nightmare?

    The more Ppa thought about it, the more he felt he was correct, although he was quite far away earlier, he could indeed sense an almost imperceptible formidable pressure emanating from the ck beast¡¯s leg.

    If it really was a Dark Gold Nightmare, could it be that this prey was hunted by the museum¡¯s owner?

    Ppa suddenly became excited; a Dark Gold Nightmare wasparable to an Intermediate Rank Demon, and some of the more powerful Dark Gold Nightmares could even bepared with great Demons. Such a powerful creature, if it could be hunted by the owner¡­ wouldn¡¯t that mean that his earlier spection was not wrong and that the owner¡¯s strength was indeed very powerful, it¡¯s just that he didn¡¯t show it usually?

    If the owner is so powerful, can he ask the owner to teach him how to increase his strength?

    Ppa sadly shook his head, even if the owner was powerful, he was of the me attribute, which waspletely contrary to him; it was impossible for him to have anything to teach him.

    He should just keep exploring Lassudral and see if any of the shops here had something that could help him.

    After walking around for most of the day, Ppa felt he was still too naive.

    The purchasing power of ten Demon Gold Coins was not bad, but if he wanted to buy something that could increase his strength, whether it was cultivation methods or special treasures, it would not be likely.

    These were not only urgently needed by Ppa but also desired by any other Demon or Half-Blood Demon.

    Therefore, their prices were very expensive, starting at at least fifty Demon Gold Coins each.

    It seemed that if he wanted to have the ability to take his revenge, he would have to wait a few more years.

    Ppa, with a heavy heart, prepared to return to the Hunting Museum. At least in Lassudral, the owner was very kind to him, and if he was willing to work hard, it shouldn¡¯t take too long to save up fifty Demon Gold Coins.

    On his way back to the Hunting Museum, Ppa caught a glimpse of a small hut out of the corner of his eye.

    Turning back, he realized that he had reached the outskirts of Lassudral again, and the mysterious hut called ¡°»ÃÃÔ¡± was just in the woods not far away.

    Ppa shook his head, nning to continue walking.

    But just then, he noticed that beneath the sign named ¡°»ÃÃÔ,¡± there was actually a line of characters.

    What was most important was that he was not unfamiliar with these characters; they even brought a strange sense of nostalgia.

    Abyss Language! To see the Abyss Language here?!

    The Abyss Language is the unified writtennguage of the Indigenous People of the various Abyss settlements, and his mother was an Indigenous Person from the Notting Tribe. Since his childhood, Ppa had not only learned the Demon Language from his father¡¯s side but was also very familiar with the Abyss Language taught by his mother.

    Therefore, when he saw the Abyss Language among the array of Demon and even ancient Demonnguages¡¯ signs in Lassudral, an intense feeling of closeness immediately welled up within him.

    Following this sense of closeness, Ppa unconsciously walked toward the ¡°»ÃÃÔ¡± hut.

    Through the green-shaded path, though it was just separated by a few trees, Ppa felt the air here was incrediblyfortable. It somewhat relieved the oppressive feeling he had had since arriving in Lassudral.

    Light from the undying light source filtered through the canopy, casting mottled shadows on the stone path.

    When Ppa arrived at the door of the hut, he looked up and examined the sign carefully.

    Besides the word ¡°»ÃÃÔ¡± on the sign, there was a line of text written in Abyss Language: ¡°Feel the rhythm of the ocean.¡±

    As a Water System Half-Blood Demon, Ppa naturally understood that the ocean did have its unique rhythm, but what use was feeling its rhythm, and why was it rted to ¡°»ÃÃÔ¡±?

    Moreover, how does one feel the rhythm of the ocean?

    A scene emerged in Ppa¡¯s mind: a demon with wings on its back scooped up a bucket of sea water, poured it into a bathtub, and then, smiling, pointed at the tub, as if to indicate that just by soaking in the tub, one would feel the rhythm of the ocean.

    Ppa shook his head, discarding the imagined scene, thinking that he would find out the actual situation once he went inside.

    It had to be said; this wooden door was really too low. Had he not been slightly interested in the Abyss Language on the sign, Ppa would definitely not have stepped inside.

    Before entering the hut, Ppa had thought that the person who would write in Abyss Language on the sign was probably a Half-Blood Demon. Moreover, one that acknowledged their Indigenous People¡¯s bloodline.

    However, after Ppa stepped into the hut, he found out that he waspletely wrong.

    It was not some Half-Blood Demon who acknowledged their Indigenous roots, but an actual Indigenous Person themselves!

 Chapter 1043: Section 1044: The Aggrieved Pulapa

    Chapter 1043: Section 1044: The Aggrieved Ppa

    Inside the wooden hut, it was exactly as Ppa had imagined: cramped and confined.

    Moreover, the entire hut contained nothing but a round table in the middle and several stools.

    Sitting opposite at the round table was a race Ppa had never thought to see in Lassudral ¨C an Abyssal native.

    That frail shell, a figure thin as a sheet of paper, and those pitch-ck eyes without the distinction of whites and pupils.

    All unmistakably indicated that the man before him belonged to the Abyssal natives.

    How could an Abyssal native brazenly appear in Lassudral?! Ppa couldn¡¯t believe his own eyes.

    Although Lassudral had never forbidden the arrival of the indigenous people, simrly, it had never forbidden humans froming. But would humans dare toe?

    By the same token, for an indigenous person toe here was like a tendermb walking into a pack of wolves.

    ¡°You¡­ you are an indigenous person?¡± Ppa asked, trembling as he pointed at the young man across the round table.

    The young man smiled and nodded, then gestured towards a stool and said, ¡°Have a seat. Today is the grand opening of my shop, and you are my first customer. I can give you a discount, you know.¡±

    The young man seemedpletely oblivious to Ppa¡¯s shock and kept on introducing the specialties of his shop.

    Unfortunately, the Abyss Language he spoke was so awkward, on the same level as the graffiti-like Abyss script outside, that Ppa had almost failed to understand what he was saying.

    Ppa couldn¡¯t help but interrupt and said, ¡°Why would an indigenous persone to Lassudral to open a shop? Aren¡¯t you afraid of trouble?¡±

    The gaze of the young man across from him paused. ¡°What trouble are you referring to? That one?¡±

    The young man pointed outside the window behind him. Ppa stretched his head to look and saw several half-blood demons lying in the woods, all covered in scars, including a small demon. They all were motionless, seemingly unconscious?

    How could this be possible? These demons had all been dealt with?

    Ppa shuddered, looking at the young shopkeeper across the round table with a bit more respect. The small demon was no ordinary creature, not a trivial UFO demon. If this shopkeeper could take it down, he could take down a hundred like Ppa.

    Having such formidable power, no wonder he dared to venture alone into Lassudral and even opened an inexplicable shop.

    At this moment, the young shopkeeper just shrugged his shoulders and said, ¡°I think you may have misunderstood. I couldn¡¯t deal with those troubles.¡±

    No sooner had he spoken than a sneer came from outside the window behind him. ¡°Not one of them put up a decent fight, didn¡¯t even get to warm up, such a letdown,¡± said the voice outside.

    Ppa immediately looked out and saw a tall woman with dark skin, dressed in an incredibly hot outfit, casually tossing a small demon into the forest, then strolling up to the window and leaning on the windowsill to look inside.

    Scanning with her fierce and chilling red and green eyes, Ppa felt as if it were being targetted by a powerful predator starting from the base of its tail, the chill crawling up its spine to the top of its head.

    Ppa froze, the only thought in its mind being a single word, ¡°So strong!¡±

    Merely a nce and it felt its scalp tingle. Such strength suggested that the woman was at least of Intermediate Rank Demon or higher ¡ª unquestionably an opponent not to be provoked! No wonder those small and half-blood demons stood no chance!

    ¡°Hey, is this little one also here to cause trouble?¡± The dark-skinned woman asked, pointing a finger at Ppa.

    Before the young shopkeeper could reply, Ppa quickly waved its hands, ¡°Not at all, I¡¯m just an ordinary customer.¡±

    At that moment, a glint appeared in the young shopkeeper¡¯s eyes as he spoke softly, ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like a troublemaker, but he entered the shop and didn¡¯t buy anything¡ªit¡¯s still somewhat suspicious.¡±

    Ppa, not waiting for the dark-skinned woman to react, quickly shouted, ¡°Shopkeeper, I¡¯m here to spend money! The reason I haven¡¯t bought anything is that you said a lot just now and it was too vague¡ªI didn¡¯t understand. Could you exin it again?¡±

    The young man smiled cheerily and said, ¡°Our service here lets you experience the rhythms of the ocean.¡±

    ¡°Just that one?¡± Ppa listened clearly this time, yet it asked uncertainly, ¡°But didn¡¯t I also hear something else just now?¡±

    ¡°You heard wrong, it¡¯s just this one.¡±

    ¡°Alright then, could you borate on what this experience is specifically about? And how much does it cost?¡±

    Ppa asked just as the dark-skinned woman perched at the window finally stopped staring and settled for a somersault onto the sill, relishing the fresh breeze of the woods, closing her eyes as if to rest.

    ¡°Experiencing the rhythm of the ocean is exactly what it sounds like. As for the price, well, since it¡¯s the grand opening, I¡¯ll give you a discount, just 100 Demon Gold Coins,¡± the young man said with the air of doing Ppa a great favor.

    Ppa dug at its ear,pletely incredulous at the price it had heard.

    ¡°Could you repeat that, shopkeeper? What¡¯s the price?¡±

    ¡°100 Demon Gold Coins,¡± said the young man before muttering under his breath, ¡°Did I set it too cheap?¡±

    Ppa was thunderstruck, blurting out its inner thought, ¡°100 Demon Gold Coins? Are you robbing me?¡±

    ¡°Robbery? Hmm?¡± The youth¡¯s voice suddenly dropped, and his gaze shifted toward Ppa with a hint of darkness.

    At the same time, the dark-skinned woman sitting on the windowsill suddenly opened her eyes, throwing a cold nce at Ppa that sent a chill down his spine.

    Save me, store owner, they¡¯re not really running a shop, they¡¯re outright bullying and robbing, forcing a sale on me!

    The woman¡¯s look clearly said: Dare not to buy, and you¡¯ll end up like the others outside.

    Ppa gulped, feeling incredibly wronged at the moment. Originally, upon seeing the sign written in Abyssnguage, it had felt a sense of kinship. After entering the store and seeing an Indigenous People shopkeeper, it felt surprised but also very touched; after all, its mother was an Indigenous People, and though it didn¡¯t know which tribe the young shopkeeper belonged to, it felt inexplicably close to him.

    But this Indigenous People turned out to be a white-on-the-outside, ck-on-the-inside greedy creature, and this ¡°bewitching¡± little shop was a ck-hearted shop through and through!

    Beneath the shopkeeper¡¯s raised eyebrows and the woman¡¯s threatening gaze, Ppa, feeling bullied¡­ burst into tears.

    Since the death of his parents, this was the first time he felt so aggrieved that the tears welled up in his eyes and blue teardrops fell.

    As soon as a teardrop touched the ground, it turned into a little crystal blue bead.

    ¡°That is the essence of the Water System of a Half-Blood Demon, which can keep meat products fresh,¡± a cold female voice dered.

    The young shopkeeper was momentarily dazed, and somehow produced a te, cing it in front of Ppa with an air that seemed to say, weep all you like, but don¡¯t waste it.

    Ppa¡¯s chest tightened, and he found it hard to cry anymore.

    It was only then that the young shopkeeper asked, ¡°Why are you crying?¡±

    Perhaps feeling embarrassed, Ppa voiced his grievance, ¡°Your prices are too high, I simply can¡¯t afford it.¡±

    ¡°Are the prices I set very high?¡± The young shopkeeper questioned, looking at the woman behind him with a puzzled expression.

    The woman, eyes closed again, coldly said, ¡°It finds it expensive simply because it¡¯s poor. Also, don¡¯t bother me with this kind of thing in the future.¡±

    Ppa,beled as ¡°poor,¡± felt aggrieved but also came to ept it. He pulled out his small purse and overturned it on the table¡ª

    ng, ng, ng, a few scattered Demon Gold Coins tumbled onto the round table.

    ¡°This is all I have,¡± he said, as he took two of the most worn Gold Coins from his ears, ¡°These two were left to me by my parents, so I have at most ten Gold Coins.¡±

    Ppa had resigned himself to the likelihood that he wouldn¡¯t leave here without being skinned today.

    After all, it was as if he¡¯d worked in vain for the past few months. But, in the face of overwhelming power, especially that dark-skinned woman whose re alone seemed capable of killing him, losing some Demon Gold Coins, in the end, was really quite lucky.

    ¡°Well, it seems you really are poor,¡± the young shopkeeper remarked after a pause, tapping his fingers on the tabletop, as if pondering something. After a while, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s do this, considering you¡¯re the first customer since I opened, I¡¯ll give you a first customer discount. How about eight Demon Gold Coins?¡±

    What could Ppa say? The other party was asking for eight Demon Gold Coins, probably because he had mentioned those were his parents¡¯ keepsakes, prompting a mercy from the shopkeeper¡­ Huh? The shopkeeper actually hadpassion? So, if he kept up the act a bit more, could he leave without buying anything?

    With this thought, Ppa decided to give it a try.

    ¡°Actually, I earn money to seek revenge for my parents, but I¡¯m too weak, and the training methods for a Half-Blood Demon aren¡¯t great, so I thought to work hard and save money to buy¡­¡± Ppa made his experience sound as pitiable as possible.

    However, he noticed that the young man across from him seemed unmoved, still smiling.

    Isn¡¯t my story pitiful enough?

    ¡°So you¡¯re earning money to improve your strength in the hopes of avenging your parents?¡± the youth said thoughtfully: ¡°That¡¯s perfect, you¡¯re of the Water System. Experiencing the ocean¡¯s rhythm would be beneficial to your strength.¡±

    Whilst speaking, the young shopkeeper collected the eight Demon Gold Coins from the table, purposely leaving the two ¡°keepsakes¡± there.

    ¡°How about it? When do you want to start your experiential journey?¡±

    There was a moment of stiffness in Ppa¡¯s expression, it seemed the shopkeeper¡¯spassion had run out¡­ which made sense. Even Indigenous People, after having lived in the Abyss for a while, would understand how cunning Demons could be. They always took advantage of any gap they found, just as he had done before. Since arriving in Lassudral, he had slowly been changing, bing less like himself.

    Ppa sighed, knowing he had no choice but to soldier on.

    Eight Gold Coins were not too many, just a few months¡¯ earnings. From another perspective, spending just eight Demon Gold Coins to save his skin in front of an Intermediate Rank Demon was already quite a bargain.

    He¡¯d y the sucker this time and see how luxurious this ¡°experiential journey¡± that dared to cost one hundred Demon Gold Coins even after a discount truly was.

    As for the shopkeeper¡¯s promise to enhance his strength, Ppa took it as a joke.

 Chapter 1044: Section 1045: Grand Opening

    Chapter 1044: Section 1045: Grand Opening

    ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡±

    After saying those words, Ppa found that everything in front of him had changed, and he had be a defenseless human,pletely devoid of any means to fight back.

    Despite the change in circumstances, Ppa felt no confusion, for the threat he now faced was far more urgent than the bewilderment over his own identity!

    At this moment, he was on an isted boat, surrounded by the raging sea during a storm. With each gust of the tempest, huge waves would rise, and he had to navigate the frail craft in search of a lifeline amidst the furious waves.

    The sky was shrouded with dark clouds, and lightning serpents shuttled through the thunder.

    The fierce wind howled, and the waves that struck him caused intense pain. Ppa hadpletely forgotten that he was a descendant of a minor water-system demon; all he sought now was survival in the stormy sea¡­

    While Ppa was experiencing the illusion of the ocean¡¯s rhythm, in the narrow ¡°Mystic¡± cabin, the young shopkeeper was tilting his head, looking at the woman on the windowsill.

    ¡°This little floating demon seeks revenge against humans, and yet you still help it?¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t animosity between demons and humans quite normal?¡±

    ¡°Hmph, have you forgotten who you are? Do you really think you¡¯re one of the indigenous people of the Abyss? Despicable human!¡±

    The young man squinted and shrugged his shoulders, ¡°I have never forgotten my identity, but I don¡¯t have the luxury to be picky right now. Just like Lady Baltica from the Land of Repose, she despises humans, but she doesn¡¯t mind doing business with them either.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m the same. If it were somewhere else, I might choose, but here in Lassudral, can I be choosy? All demons here loathe humans, and if I don¡¯t ept them, then it¡¯s almost impossible for me to earn enough Demon Gold Coins within five days.¡±

    As he spoke, he pulled an ice sphere out of his bracelet.

    Encased in the center of the ice ball was a grey sea bird.

    ¡°To wake Toby up, I¡¯m willing topromise as long the core principles aren¡¯t threatened.¡±

    The young shopkeeper was Angel, who hade a long way to Lassudral to look for the materials to synthesize the Fire Transmission Stone, while the dark-skinned woman was the Abyssal Wind Dragon, Fafnir.

    ¡°Hmph, I am responsible for protecting you during this time, but don¡¯t forget your promise,¡± Fafnir huffed coldly.

    ¡°I won¡¯t forget. If I do manage to make the Fire Transmission Stone, I shall report your contributions in full to Lord Odess.¡± Angel paused, ¡°Surely, once Lord Odess is informed, he will understand your predicaments.¡±

    Fafnir exhaled through her nostrils in a huff and did not speak further, continuing to feign sleep against the windowsill.

    Angel let out a silent sigh of relief in his heart.

    Truthfully, if it hadn¡¯t been for Fafnir¡¯s help, his shop couldn¡¯t have continued operating.

    As he was previously worried about in the Land of Repose, upon arriving in Lassudral, his first challenge was the issue of money-making.

    He had found the half-blood demon called Night that Odess had told him to look for. ording to Night, to buy those three special materials and arge amount of Fire Transmission Stone shards, he would need several thousand, perhaps tens of thousands, of Demon Gold Coins.

    With his alchemy skills, earning that many Demon Gold Coins was not difficult, but the challengey in doing so in a short amount of time. After much deliberation, Angel decided to use the Ocean Rhythm and its special effects to make money.

    Having a method to earn money was one thing, but to run a shop in Lassudral, he needed a strong deterrent as well.

    He was just an apprentice who hadn¡¯t even be a wizard yet, and anyone in Lassudral could easily overpower him, so he thought of coborating with Fafnir. Fafnir¡¯s greatest desire was to meet with Odess, so Angel used this as leverage to sign a short-term protection agreement with her.

    With the two hardest problems solved, Angel thought he could rest easy.

    However, he had forgotten one thing: even fine wine needs no bush, and Ocean¡¯s Rhythm, not famous even within the Wizards¡¯ Realm, would be even less known in the slowly developing and information-scarce demon world.

    From opening the shop in the morning until now, six hours had passed, and all who had entered his shop were troublemakers.

    To this point, he had not sold a single item.

    As Angel was growing increasingly anxious, this half-blood demon called Ppa walked in.

    ¡­

    While Ppa was experiencing the Ocean Rhythm, Angel was holding his first earnings¡ªeight Demon Gold Coins¡ªand examining them.

    Admittedly, when Angel first heard from Baltica that Demon City used ¡°gold coins¡± as a currency, he was stunned; in his understanding, it was usually only the Mortal Kingdoms that used a gold standard to facilitate and stabilize the economy.

    For instance, the currency issued by the Goldfinch Empire, the ce of Angel¡¯s birth, was in gold coins. The use of gold coins as currency facilitates trade across different continents, even in the Mortal Kingdoms of the Flourish Continent, due to the gold standard.

    The intrinsic value of the metal does not change based on the patterns on the surface of the coin. What affects its value is the content of the metal.

    In the Transcendent worlds, they either use virtual coins like in Hante, or energy coins. Hence, when he heard that Demon City traded with gold coins, he was surprised, thinking could the demon world actually be based on a gold standard economic system?

    But when he actually got his hands on a Demon Gold Coin, he realized his mistake.

    At first nce, Demon Gold Coins seemed not much different from the gold coins of the mortal world, being simr in size and shape, but upon closer inspection, Angel noticed something distinctive.

    Each side of the gold coin bore a pattern, with a crown on one side. At the tip of each point of the crown was a spherical ball, decorated with intricate lines; had it not been colorless, it would have looked very much like a jester¡¯s ball.

    On the obverse was a mark that Angel was very familiar with!

    When he saw the reverse side, he already began to have his suspicions, but upon seeing the obverse mark, Angel finally understood why Demon Gold Coins were in cirction in Demon City.

    Because, this mark was the true name seal of the ¡°Crown Clown¡±.

    ¡°Crown Clown¡±, as the supreme Demon God at the very top of the Abyssal pyramid, followed the philosophy of pursuing bnce in all things. Therefore, gold coins engraved with its true name mark would naturally best embody the so-called fairness.

    Now he understood why the currency of Demon City dared to use Demon Gold Coins ¨C there was such a towering figure backing them.

    After examining the coins, Angel carefully stowed away the few Demon Gold Coins¡ªthough not many, they were after all the first earnings he had made.

    After securing the coins, Angel¡¯s gaze returned to his sole customer, Ppa.

    This Ppa had persisted for quite a long time, almost ten minutes, and still had not emerged from the Ocean Rhythm.

    Generally speaking, most who enter the Ocean Rhythm for the first time are eliminated within three minutes. Angel, due to his poor luck, didn¡¯t evenst a minute.

    The fact that Ppa could hold out until now showed its proficiency with the rhythm of the sea, truly befitting a Half-Blood Demon of the Water System.

    Five minutester, Ppa still hadn¡¯t left the Illusionary Realm, and suspicion began to grow in Angel¡¯s eyes¡ªcould it be that it would persist until it met the Sea Goddess?

    Two minutester, a thick mist began to emanate from around Ppa¡¯s body.

    And with the naked eye, one could see the mist growing denser at a visible rate.

    Upon seeing this, Angel¡¯s expression turned nk for a moment. He could now be sure that even if Ppa hadn¡¯t climbed onto the Turtle Shell where the Sea Goddess resided, it had certainly seen her!

    This rapid improvement in Water System affinity was unprecedented.

    Angel was now also certain of one thing: the Ocean Rhythm was not only effective for wizards but also worked on Water System demons. Moreover, the effect was even more powerful than on ordinary wizards!

    Even Fafnir, who had been pretending to sleep on the windowsill, couldn¡¯t help but open his eyes.

    ¡°Why is it so damp? Eh, what¡¯s happening to it¡­ Its strength is actually increasing?¡± Fafnir looked at the blue-skinned Half-Blood Demon with some surprise and skepticism. Before, she was clearly aware of how weak Ppa was¡ªit couldn¡¯t even beat those despicable humans, but in a short period, Ppa¡¯s strength had soared dramatically?!

    It was as if it had broken through some barrier, or rather, Ppa had been at a bottleneck, and once broken through, its enhancement was explosive.

    A minuteter, Ppa finally emerged from the Illusionary Realm of the Ocean Rhythm.

    ¡°O exalted deity, please let me serve you¡­¡± Ppa muttered strange words as its eyes slowly opened.

    Upon opening its eyes, it saw the young shop owner smiling warmly at him across the way, ¡°I¡¯m certainly not a deity. It seems you had a great harvest this time¡­ How is it, did this journey of experience not disappoint you?¡±

    Ppa was about to nod and say something when it suddenly felt a burgeoning force inside, growing explosively.

    It hesitated for a moment, as if realizing something, its expression revealed ecstatic joy, and it immediately closed its eyes to feel that magnificent power.

    As Ppa quietly contemted, the mist around its body became even more condensed, to the point that droplets began to fall.

    Like before, these droplets turned into crystal blue beads upon hitting the ground.

    Without waiting for a reminder from Fafnir, Angel began to actively collect these condensed blue beads. These beads could keep meat fresh for a long time while also enhancing its vor, and were a favorite amongst Gourmet Sorcerers.

    ¡°It works so well on demons, enhancing them so much¡­¡± Angel muttered to himself, ¡°I¡¯m at too much of a loss with this deal. I¡¯ve nurtured a little demon that is hostile to humans. Let¡¯s consider these ethereal water beads aspensation.¡±

    As Angel was muttering, a water-blue glow flickered inside Ppa¡¯s body and shot straight into the sky.

    The entire eastern part of Lassudral could see the celestial river-like blue light projection in the sky.

    The sight of this to demons clearly meant something: a Water System demon had made a breakthrough. Yet gauging by the range of the blue light projection, it had only reached the level of a minor demon.

    As a result, many demons simply sneered andughed it off.

    But there were also some particrly curious demons who, following the radiance in the sky, cast their gaze toward the location of the ¡®Enchanted¡¯ cabin¡­

    While outside disturbances arose, Angel at this moment was looking at the Half-Blood Demon opposite him with eyes filled with envy.

    Not long ago, this Half-Blood Demon was at most at a peak Apprentice¡¯s level, and now it had broken through to the Official Wizard Level.

    ¡°Is the Ocean Rhythm really that powerful? Isn¡¯t it just about improving Water System affinity?¡± Angel was full of doubts. He had experimented with the Ocean Rhythm countless times but had never thought it could directly enhance strength.

    ¡°This Half-Blood Demon was already at a critical point of breakthrough. The weak Bloodline of the Abyssal imp hindered it, making it difficult to advance any further. Your Ocean Rhythm, though it only enhances Water System affinity, gave the suppressed power within it an outlet for release. It¡¯s only natural there would be such a significant improvement,¡± Fafnir exined, looking towards the Ocean Rhythm artifact in Angel¡¯s hands. Although she knew it could enhance Water System affinity, she hadn¡¯t anticipated such a big stir, advancing a Half-Blood Demon directly to its parent¡¯s level.

    It seems the Ocean Rhythm artifact isn¡¯t as simple as she had imagined.

    Fafnir took a deep look at Angel, this seemingly frail being amongst humans, who indeed had many secrets.

    To bring out an item even Baltica, that swindler, was willing to trade for, and now to present something that greatly attracted Water System demons, was telling.

 Chapter 1045: Section 1046: The Grand Money-Making Plan

    Chapter 1045: Section 1046: The Grand Money-Making n

    Angel looked through the open shop door and noticed that there were more demons peeking at this side from the woods outside. Most of them were Half-Blood Demons, and there was also a handful of strangely-shaped little demons.

    At first, Angel didn¡¯t understand what had happened until he stuck his head out the door to take a look outside.

    He then saw the celestial river phenomenon caused by Ppa¡¯s breakthrough, emitting a faint blue glow above, winding and circling, attracting countless gazes.

    ¡°With such amotion, my shop might have caught the attention of some big demons just as it opens.¡± Angel rubbed his chin, thinking about how Toby had admonished him to keep a low profile, yet it seemed that he had failed on the very first day.

    ¡°You think big demons have that much spare time?¡± Fafnir, after hearing Angel¡¯s whisper, couldn¡¯t help but reply sarcastically, ¡°Countless little demons are born every day; no one will care about your insignificant shop.¡±

    After finishing with the sarcasm, Fafnir still added, ¡°Even if a big demon doese, I will not be afraid.¡±

    Angel had gotten used to Fafnir¡¯s sharp tongue. He wasn¡¯t nning to stay in Lassudral for too long; once he earned enough money, he would choose to leave. Therefore, a temporary wooden hut would suffice; he was only making do for a few days after all.

    Although there were demons peering into the ¡°Mystic¡± hut from the woods outside the door, not a single one came in.

    All of the demons were watching secretly.

    It wasn¡¯t until Ppa walked out the door with a puzzled look on his face, that this caused somemotion.

    So, that breakthrough phenomenon just now was caused by Ppa?!

    Ppa was also quite well-known in the area, famous for being weak. But now, that weak Ppa had just broken through! Although Ppa¡¯s strength was at mostparable to an average phantom-like little demon even after the breakthrough, it was still a sign of improvement!

    What exactly happened inside that ¡°Mystic¡± store?

    Thus, some demons directly stopped Ppa to inquire.

    At this moment, Ppa was also a bit bewildered. It had thought for sure that it was going to be nted today, and under the scamming of that couple, it could only pay money to ward off disaster. Who would have thought that it actually achieved a breakthrough?

    Moreover, Ppa felt that its affinity for water had improved to such a terrifying degree that it might even be stronger than its parents¡¯!

    Even when faced with the demon now holding its cor and interrogating it¡­ Cherno Tan, it no longer felt as fearful as before.

    Cherno Tan was a Quicksand Demon, likewise a little demon. Their attributes naturally countered each other, and Ppa had suffered from Cherno Tan¡¯s bullying, but now, Ppa felt that the currently aggressive Cherno Tan didn¡¯t seem all that impressive?

    ¡°I¡¯m talking to you, didn¡¯t you hear?¡± Cherno Tan, holding Ppa by the cor, said viciously, ¡°What¡¯s up with that store?¡±

    Ppa quietly looked at Cherno Tan and gave a response that it had never dared previously.

    In front of Cherno Tan, it transformed into a watery state.

    As water, Ppa had no solid form and instantly escaped Cherno Tan¡¯s clutches. However, this action incited Cherno Tan¡¯s rage, causing its solid body to explode furiously, transforming into a five-meter-tall sand giant.

    Facing off against each other, Ppa looked much weaker in terms of presence; however, unlike in the past, Ppa didn¡¯t beg for mercy or retreat, instead saying, ¡°If you want to know, go look for yourself ¡ª don¡¯t block my way.¡±

    To others, these words might seem straightforward, but for Cherno Tan who often used Ppa as a punching bag, this was a tant provocation!

    It roared in anger and with a sweep of its sandy form, struck viciously at Ppa.

    At this moment, inside the hut, Angel, somewhat excited, leaned by the window to peek outside, ¡°I wonder who will win between them? Ppa seems to be at a disadvantage in terms of attributes.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a matter of mutual restraint; it depends on who¡¯s stronger,¡± Fafnir interjected, ¡°But no matter who wins between them, the ones who suffer will certainly not be them.¡±

    ¡°Then who will it be?¡± Angel wondered, but then he noticed that Fafnir, who had been on the sill behind him, suddenly vanished, and at the same time, there came a thunderous boom right in front of the hut.

    Angel turned his head and saw dust flying outside the door and water droplets scattering everywhere, while the vanished Fafnir had appeared at the center of this collision of energies.

    Before Fafnir, a whirlwind arose, blowing both Ppa and Cherno Tan high up into the sky.

    Fafnir turned his head, showing his side profile to Angel; that perfect curvature was stunning against the backlight.

    ¡°Now do you understand who will suffer?¡±

    Angel silently nodded.

    Following Ppa¡¯s ascension, both demons outside had be Wizard Level existences; if a battle ensued, it would surely affect the ¡°Mystic¡± shop. The Quicksand Demon had intentionally moved the battlefield towards the wooden hut, which naturally infuriated Fafnir and resulted in this oue.

    Although it seemed that the suffering ones were those two demons, without Fafnir, it would have definitely been his little shop in distress.

    Therefore, he didn¡¯t have the slightest sympathy for those two barely breathing demons outside.

    Fafnir then coldly snorted at the crowd of onlooking demons outside the wooden hut, ¡°Whoever dares to make trouble here will end up just like them!¡±

    The indicated Cherno Tan looked at Fafnir with full fear, while on the other side, Ppa showed a flush of shame on its face, because it felt that due to the surge in strength, it could defeat Cherno Tan now, yet it had not considered at all how its impetuosity could have brought consequences for the ¡°Mystic¡± hut.

    If it hadn¡¯t been for the intervention of that dark-skinned woman, that small cabin in the forest might have been shattered to pieces.

    Feeling guilty for bringing misfortune to the person who had just shown him kindness, Ppa turned to look at the cabin, wanting to apologize to the young shopkeeper, but he found that the shopkeeper had already returned inside.

    After lying on the ground and resting for quite a while, Ppa finally regained his senses. Chenota had left, and only a few half-blood demons who were onlookers remained.

    He hesitated for a moment, then walked towards the cabin.

    But as he approached, he noticed a new wooden board standing at the entrance of the cabin with several rules written on it.

    At the very top, the first one read, ¡°Fighting near this shop is prohibited; vitors bear the consequences.¡±

    Beyond that rule, among the others, Ppa also saw one that read, ¡°This shop will not serve the same customer twice. The experience is only once, so cherish it.¡±

    Ppa intended to apologize to the shopkeeper, but before he could step into the cabin, he felt as if there was a breeze swirling around him.

    He knew it was a warning. If he took another step, the oue would be unpredictable.

    Ppa had no choice but to leave. After his breakthrough, he should have been very happy, but the previous events left him somewhat downhearted. With these mixed feelings, he looked back three times with each step he took, leaving the range of the ¡°Illusory¡± cabin.

    ¡°If you feel remorseful, you can express it to the shopkeeper in another way,¡± a deep voice suddenly reached Ppa¡¯s ears.

    He looked up.

    Without knowing when, Night, draped in a ck cloak, had appeared in front of him.

    ¡­

    On the first day of opening, Angel only earned eight Gold Coins.

    He was now very anxious, as he was still a long way from gathering the materials he needed. Toby¡¯s Frostsphere could onlyst another six days at most.

    If his daily earnings continued like this, it would be extremely difficult for him to gather ten thousand Demon Gold Coins within six days.

    Angel contemted whether he should change his strategy.

    What¡¯s the fastest way to make money if he doesn¡¯t stick to the straight path?

    ¡°Maybe I should coerce Lord Fafnir into robbing?¡± Angel seriously considered the feasibility of this n. The fastest way to make money, after all, was through murder and robbery.

    However, while he was quite willing to consider this option, Fafnir would probably not agree to it. Although Fafnir acted as if he was second only to Odess, the strongest in Demon City, in reality, ording to what Baltica told him, Fafnir¡¯s strength was currently around True Knowledge Level Three and not yet at his peak.

    Lassudral, as an intersection between the superficial and deeperyers of the Abyss, appeared calm on the surface but was far from simple on the inside.

    It was said that there were stable portals here allowing the major powers of the deeper levels of the Abyss to arrive with ease. Even the Abyssal Lords might personally visit.

    Therefore, it was impossible for Fafnir to challenge the authority of Lassudral for Angel¡¯s sake. And Angel¡¯s own strength was not sufficient to support his ambitions either.

    But if he didn¡¯t take shortcuts, how could he quickly gather enough money?

    Angel felt incredibly anxious. If he had enough time, he would even consider making money through Alchemy, even though it might expose his identity.

    As Angel struggled with his thoughts, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from the entrance of the shop.

    ¡°Wee¡­¡± Angel instinctively lit up with a smile, but when he saw the visitor, he stopped short, ¡°It turns out to be Night.¡±

    The visitor was d in a ck cloak trimmed with fire fur, revealing solid abdominal muscles underneath, as he wore no clothes inside. His face appeared fierce, partially due to one side bearing bright, burning Patterns; they were scorching his skin. If the patterns were to disappear, one could see that he was actually quite handsome.

    The visitor was indeed Night, the curator of the Hunting Museum and also the Half-Blood Demon with Fire Transmission Demon Bloodline that Odess had instructed Angel to find in Demon City.

    As it happened, after arriving in Lassudral, Night was the first one Angel found.

    When he exined his purpose, Night replied bluntly, ¡°I have the method for synthesizing the Fire Transmission Stone, but due to bloodline restrictions, I cannot tell you.¡±

    After getting this answer, Angel was not surprised. Baltica had said before that the method for synthesizing the Fire Transmission Stone was tightly concealed by the Fire Transmission Demons; even if you killed them, you could not learn it. Moreover, because of the prohibitions tied to their Bloodline, even under soul interrogation, you couldn¡¯t get the information you sought.

    So, Angel was grateful that he had gone to see Baltica beforehand and acquired the parchment of uncertain origin.

    After Angel mentioned having the synthesis method, Night was somewhat surprised, but when he learned Angel had traded for it with Baltica, he did not ask any further questions.

    It seemed that Baltica held a very special status in the Abyss.

    Later, when Angel learned that Night could use Hellfire and was also willing to help him, he finally put his mind at ease and devoted all his energy to the grand n of making money.

 Chapter 1046: Section 1047 Night

    Chapter 1046: Section 1047 Night

    ¡°`

    ¡°Night House Master, why have youe over?¡± Angel looked at Night, curiously asking.

    This morning, when Angel had set up the ¡®Illusion¡¯ cabin, Night had note, but now he had.

    ¡°I havee to thank you and apologize,¡± Night¡¯s voice was low and steady, without a hint of impatience. It was hard to imagine that it possessed the bloodline of a Fire Transmission Demon,

    Thank? Apologize? Angel looked at Night with confusion, as these were twopletely different concepts.

    ¡°The Ppa that came here for the experience trip before, is actually an employee of my Hunting Museum. It was able to improve so quickly thanks to your help, for which I need to thank you. As for the previous incident, its ignorance led to a fight with the Quicksand Demon at the entrance of the shop, almost affecting the business inside, so I apologize for Ppa,¡± Night said casually, but his thank you and apology sounded sincere and not perfunctory at all.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect Ppa to be an employee of the Hunting Museum.¡± Angel waved his hand indifferently: ¡°It¡¯s fine, it was still the first customer of my shop, which also holds great significance for me.¡±

    After a pause, Angel sized up Night: ¡°Aside from this matter, you must have other things as well, right?¡±

    Night nodded, pulling out a burning ck bone from his cloak and handing it to Angel.

    Angel looked at the still-burning ck bone with surprise in his eyes: ¡°Is this¡­ the Immortal Burning Bone?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I was lucky enough to encounter a Dark Gold Nightmare while hunting in the wilderness. So, you won¡¯t need to gather pieces of the Immortal Burning Bone anymore.¡±

    Night spoke as if it was a trivial matter, yet Angel wondered if it was really just ¡°luck.¡± Could it be that Night had gone hunting specifically for it?

    Considering Night had specificallye to apologize for his employee¡­ Angel had originally thought Night to be a fierce Half-Blood Demon, but now, even with his ferocious appearance, it appeared that his heart was not that bad.

    What Angel felt inside was one thing, but his outward expression was filled with joy. Whether Night had gone hunting on purpose or merely encountered it by chance didn¡¯t matter¡ªit was Angel who benefited.

    An Immortal Burning Bone was worth at least two thousand Demon Gold Coins, and having it meant he had saved a great deal of money.

    After receiving the Immortal Burning Bone, Angel kept expressing his gratitude.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for thanks. Since you were introduced by Lord Odess, I naturally want to give substantial support,¡± Night said lightly: ¡°If you encounter any difficulties, you cane to the Hunting Museum to find me.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of difficulties, my biggest trouble right now is how to make money,¡± Angel sighed: ¡°I¡¯ve been open for a day and only made eight Gold Coins, which were even from your employee. To gather enough money for materials feels insurmountably difficult.¡±

    Aftermenting, Angel stared at Night: ¡°I wonder if you could give me some advice on how to earn money more quickly?¡±

    Night didn¡¯t give advice about any ¡°money-making¡± schemes but instead asked, ¡°I heard from Ppa that experiencing the Ocean¡¯s Rhythm can greatly enhance affinity with the Water System?¡±

    ¡°Increasing affinity with the Water System is true, but the extent of improvement depends on individual talent and umtion.¡±

    ¡°Then you don¡¯t need to look for another way, just keep running your shop. Don¡¯t worry, once the effectiveness is confirmed, more people wille here,¡± Night said with certainty, but Angel was still puzzled.

    ¡°It won¡¯t take long, and you¡¯ll understand,¡± Night left these words behind and then turned to walk out of the cabin, quickly disappearing into the dense forest outside.

    Angel looked at the Immortal Burning Bone in his hand and let out a light sigh: ¡°Since Night said so, I¡¯ll continue to run the shop then. With this Immortal Burning Bone, I¡¯ll consider it as having made 2008 Demon Gold Coins today.¡±

    As Angel was muttering to himself, Fafnir, who had been feigning sleep on the high tform behind the cabin, happened to hear thest part. She let out a coldugh, mocking, ¡°You count this Immortal Burning Bone as earnings, but what have you done for Night in return? In your Wizards¡¯ Realm, don¡¯t you all care about equivalent exchange?¡±

    Fafnir¡¯s words made Angel a bit embarrassed.

    It was also strange, after seeing Night, Fafnir¡¯s demeanor was still aloof, but it clearly carried a hint of caution. From her attitude, Night¡¯s strength must not be underestimated.

    A Night that made even Fafnir feel wary and guarded, giving support to Angel without expecting anything in return, was it really just because of a word from Odess?

    Angel remembered that Odess had said before that he had never met Night, and his knowledge of Night was because he was an old acquaintance of a friend named ¡°Feng.¡±

    Odess had never seen Night, yet he had taken him at his word based on that single sentence, which Angel himself found quite strange.

    In this world, apart from rtives, no one gives without reason, and Night giving him the Immortal Burning Bone so simply did not follow the principle of equivalent exchange.

    There might be something fishy about this¡ªwas it because of ¡°Feng¡±?

    Angel decided that the next time he saw Night, it would be best to rify this matter. Regarding the Immortal Burning Bone Night had gifted, he would also find a way to reciprocate.

    ¡­

    Canaan was a Half-Blood Demon.

    For a Half-Blood Demon, surviving in Lassudral is very difficult, even though Canaan had been here for nearly ten years, he would still be bullied by other demons.

    Like now.

    A Serpent Tail Demon wielding a trident had pinned him against the alley wall, his blood pouring out continuously.

    ¡°`

    ¡°If you dare show your face before me again, next time I will kill you,¡± the Serpent Tail Demon said with a fierce look, echoing the same old line.

    Then, right in front of Canaan, it cruelly chopped off the newly grown dorsal fin, satisfied and left.

    Canaany on the ground for a while before silently getting up.

    The Serpent Tail Demon from before, who possessed the Naga bloodline, had only a dilute bloodline, so it was just a lower demon. It kept harassing Canaan simply because, aside from the indigenous people¡¯s bloodline, the other half of Canaan¡¯s blood came from a pure Ocean Demon.

    A strong demon thatmanded the oceans and had authority over thousands of sea creatures.

    Ocean Demons were born as Intermediate Rank Demons and might even be Greater Demons upon reaching adulthood.

    However, no matter how powerful a demon¡¯s bloodline, once mixed, it would be dragged down by the weaker indigenous blood. Just like Canaan, who had never been able to beat even a lower demon.

    Saying things like ¡°appearing in front of it, offending its sight¡± were just excuses to take away its dorsal fin because it was the organ cultivated by its Ocean Demon bloodline, where the bloodline concentration was the highest and thus the most valuable.

    ¡°The dorsal fin has been taken again, and it will probably take two months to grow back,¡± Canaan calcted in his mind, ¡°If I still can¡¯t beat it by then, I guess the dorsal fin will be cut off again.¡±

    But with the dorsal fin removed, its strength would be halved, and during the two-month recovery period, it wouldn¡¯t be able to regain much strength, so it definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to beat the Serpent Tail Demon next time.

    It was like a tragic cycle that, once started, always ended with its own defeat.

    ¡°Mom, what should I do?¡± Canaan curled up at the end of the alley, hugging his legs, tears streaming down.

    It was unclear how long had passed when Canaan saw a blue, shimmering Milky Way drift across the narrow sky of the alley. A look of envy shed in his eyes, ¡°Did a Water System demon advance?¡±

    If only I could advance as well.

    Canaan dumbly watched the celestial river float across the sky, its flowing light illuminating the dark depths of the deste alley, as if it were also shining into his dim heart.

    As the celestial river vanished, Canaan licked his wounds at the end of the alley, then slowly got up, ready to leave.

    That was when he suddenly heard amotioning from next door.

    ¡°It was me who advanced earlier¡­ really, I¡¯m telling the truth¡­ you can try it if you don¡¯t believe me¡­ it¡¯s very beneficial for Water System affinity¡­¡±

    Canaan paused for a moment, recognizing the voice of the Demon speaking. More precisely, a Half-Blood Demon.

    ¡ªPpa.

    Canaan knew Ppa, but Ppa didn¡¯t know Canaan.

    Canaan knew Ppa because he was quite well-known in Lassudral for his weakness. Other Demons looked down on Ppa, but Canaan felt differently; he was somewhat envious of Ppa.

    Ppa, like him, lived at the bottom of Lassudral society. But Ppa had it better than him because he had nothing of value on him. Therefore, the Demons only mocked him and rarelyid a hand on him, it would just be a waste of energy.

    Canaan, on the other hand, was different. He was weak too, but because of his Ocean Demon bloodline, whenever fins grew on his body, other demons coveted them.

    In such circumstances, although Canaan was much stronger than Ppa in the past, he still envied Ppa. At least Ppa could give his all for his goals, while Canaan would be beaten back to his original form by other Demons as soon as he took a step forward.

    ¡°What¡¯s Ppa talking about? He¡¯s saying, it was him that advanced?¡± Canaan had previously just recognized Ppa¡¯s voice, but hadn¡¯t paid attention to what he had said. Now listening intently, he heard an answer that surprised and puzzled him.

    The glowing celestial river from before, was it caused by Ppa¡¯s advancement?

    For some reason, upon hearing this news, Canaan felt as if part of his heart had crumbled away like a peeling wall, suddenly hollow. As if losing its pirs, his sky suddenly grew even grayer.

    Ppa had made a big step toward his goal, while Canaan was still marking time, and had even fallen countless steps backward.

    ¡°What is my goal, indeed?¡± Canaan muttered to himself.

    Canaan slowly unearthed memories that had been buried for many years.

    When he had suffered discrimination, and not hesitated to leave his loving mother behind toe to Lassudral, it seemed he had set a goal for himself.

    ¡°To be strong, so strong¡­ that all those who discriminated against me wouldn¡¯t dare provoke me¡­ And also, I want to harshly teach my father, whom I¡¯ve never met, a lesson. He ruined my mother¡¯s life¡­¡±

    Canaan whispered softly, ¡°So my ultimate goal is to be stronger. But, can I really be stronger now?¡±

    Next door, Ppa¡¯s voice came through again¡ª

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened, but my Water System affinity has improved a lot¡­¡±

    ¡°That shop is in the woods near the southern suburbs¡­ It¡¯s called ¡®Fantasy.''¡±

 Chapter 1047: Section 1048: The Experience Trip

    Chapter 1047: Section 1048: The Experience Trip

    When Canaan stumbled upon the Misty Cabin, he found out that he wasn¡¯t the first to arrive.

    In the cramped little cabin, Canaan saw three half-blood demons of the Water System and a fierce-looking Three-Headed Crocodile.

    Canaan thought that since he had arrivedte, he would probably be farther back in line, but just as he entered, he heard a pleasant voice say, ¡°This beautifuldy, are you also here to join the experience tour?¡±

    Canaan nodded subconsciously, then turned his gaze to the opposite side, figuring that the speaker must be the owner, though he didn¡¯t know which race the owner would belong to¡­ Huh?

    Canaan scrutinized the young man opposite him, who was smiling brilliantly. He wasn¡¯t seeing things, was he? Those ink-ck pupils, they signified the characteristics of the Abyss natives.

    Eh?! The owner is an Abyss native?

    While Canaan was still shocked by this fact, the owner on the other side was already smiling and said, ¡°That¡¯s perfect, with you we have just the minimum group size of five people. By the way, we require payment before the experience, and as one of the first six guests, I¡¯ll only charge you two hundred Demon Gold Coins.¡±

    Canaan was still surprised by the owner¡¯s racial identity, right up until the owner held out his hand in front of him, then he realized the other party was asking for money.

    Upon learning that it would cost two hundred Demon Gold Coins, the shock Canaan felt about the owner¡¯s identity shifted to confusion about the price.

    Two hundred Demon Gold Coins was no small sum; Canaan had lived in Lassudral for nearly a decade and had saved only slightly over three hundred coins. Now he was expected to part with two-thirds of it, which made him hesitate.

    After a long while, Canaan noticed that the other demons didn¡¯t seem to object to the price. Was he the only one who found it too expensive? He looked up, surveyed the other demons, and noticed they appeared quite calm, except for the Three-Headed Crocodile, which kept staring out the window. Was it his imagination, or did it seem like the Three-Headed Crocodile was trembling?

    ¡°What do you think? If you don¡¯t participate this time, you¡¯ll miss out on this benefit, and the next time you want to experience it, you¡¯ll have to pay the full price of three hundred Demon Gold Coins.¡±

    The shop owner¡¯s words still left Canaan hesitating.

    At that moment, the sound of footsteps came from outside again.

    ¡°Another guest has arrived. If you don¡¯t make up your mind now, then you¡¯ll miss out on this opportunity,¡± the shop owner¡¯s voice lingered in Canan¡¯s ears.

    Canaan looked at the other half-blood demons beside him, then turned to nce at a small demon that was walking into the shop. In that moment, he recalled the image of being humiliated by the Serpent Tail Demon and reminisced about the heavenly river bathed in a gentle blue glow above the sky.

    ¡°Okay!¡± Canaan decided to take a gamble. He reached into the natural pouch in his arm and drew out two bags.

    The bags clinked with the sound of metal as they hit the table.

    Canaan still wanted to try. If even Ppa had its day of breakthrough, why couldn¡¯t he? What he carried within him wasn¡¯t the bloodline of a meek little imp, but that of a sea demon!

    ¡°All right, as my shop¡¯s sixth guest, you¡¯ll enjoy the discounted price of two hundred Demon Gold Coins,¡± the shop owner said, smiling as he took the two bags filled with Demon Gold Coins, then turned to look at the new small demon that hade in.

    This was a floating little demon covered in green spikes, known as the Spiky Imp.

    ¡°Sir, wee. Are you also here to join the experience tour? Just in time, with you, weplete the minimum group of six¡­ Our charge is three hundred Demon Gold Coins,¡± said the shop owner.

    It seemed that the shop owner kept his word; the price for the newly-arrived Spiky Imp immediately returned to the original three hundred Demon Gold Coins, which offered some constion to Canaan and the other demons who had already paid.

    However, the new Spiky Imp was not convinced; he had heard at the door that the previous group was charged two hundred Demon Gold Coins¡ªso why had the price increased for him?

    Most importantly, the individual in front of him was just an Indigenous Person, and yet he dared to be so brazen with him.

    The Spiky Imp¡¯s anger rose, with no consideration that there were other demons in the shop besides himself, like thepliant Three-Headed Crocodile standing right there.

    As the Spiky Imp projected a sense of superiority and began to mock the shop owner on all fronts, its fate was already sealed.

    In the pitying look from the Three-Headed Crocodile, the Spiky Imp was grabbed by a dark-skinned woman and thrown out of the window.

    Before, because of therge size of the Three-Headed Crocodile, the view outside the window was blocked, but now Canaan could clearly see¡­ the outside was aplete mess, littered with corpses.

    At this point, the Three-Headed Crocodile turned its head and whispered to the half-blood demon beside it, ¡°I almost made a move earlier, too. Luckily, I nced outside the window first.¡±

    Canaan now understood why the other clients around him hadn¡¯t raised any objections¡ªit wasn¡¯t tranquility they showed, but rather fear that kept them silent, right?

    ¡°Since there are no new guests, it¡¯s just the five of you, then. Get ready, your experience tour is about to begin. I hope you¡¯re satisfied with the trip,¡± the shop owner said. Afterwards, he murmured under his breath, ¡°Five seems a bit of a loss, maybe I should gather ten next time before starting?¡±

    In a daze, Canaan felt as if he had arrived in a ce where every cell in his body leapt for joy¡ªthe sea.

    However, this ocean was different from those he had seen before; it was an ocean where a storm was brewing.

    ¡­

    Angel rubbed his somewhat dizzy head. The Poison Stinger Demon¡¯s body was full of toxins. Even when speaking, they would unconsciously release a faint poisonous mist. Although it was not deadly, as a human, he still felt a bit ufortable.

    Seizing the moment when the first batch of patrons began to experience the rhythm of the ocean, Angel took out a bottle of antidote. He didn¡¯t drink it, just sniffing it was enough to ease the dizziness a little.

    ¡°As expected of the frail humans, can¡¯t even handle this bit of poison,¡± Fafnir¡¯s mockery, unsurprisingly, followed shortly after.

    Angel didn¡¯t argue. Among the many intelligent species of the Pan-Dimensional ne, humans indeed were considered frail, and the Wizard acknowledged this. For this reason, many wizards would rece parts of themselves. Sometimes, although wizards looked human on the surface, their true forms, once restored, were probably more frightening than some of the characters in horror games on Earth.

    Speaking of transnts, Angel¡¯s gaze shifted unconsciously to the Three-Headed Crocodile that was immersed in the rhythm of the ocean.

    Speaking of which, one of the hottest bloodlines in the Abyss was that of the Three-Headed Crocodile. Legend had it that, although the Three-Headed Crocodile was a minor demon, its bloodline seemed to be connected to the elite amongst the greater demons¡ªCerberus. Indeed, while there was a significant difference in the strength of their bloodlines, there seemed to be some truth to the connection. Those who transnted the Three-Headed Crocodile bloodline before attempting a Cerberus transnt experienced a significantly higher sess rate in both organpatibility and bloodline assimtion.

    Due to its poprity, the Three-Headed Crocodile bloodline was hunted nearly to extinction by humans, leading some wizards to wonder if it had already been wiped out. But unexpectedly, he encountered one in Lassudral.

    ¡°I heard that the Three-Headed Crocodile is nearly hunted to death by humans. What, are you nning to take it out while it¡¯s off guard?¡± Fafnir¡¯s voice came, a hint of excitement in his tone at the mention of fighting and killing.

    Angel shook his head. Although the Three-Headed Crocodile was indeed valuable, he had plenty of ways to earn Magic Crystals; there was no need to hang the sign of a dreaded pub on the very first day of operation.

    ¡°I was just thinking, what should I do if all the patrons whoe to the store are of this size, or evenrger?¡± Angel wore a look of concern. He previously thought a smaller store wouldn¡¯t matter much, since he wouldn¡¯t stay for long, but now, with the number of patrons increasing and demonsing in all shapes and sizes, how would he amodate arger one?

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried about your customer base anymore?¡± Fafnir remembered that not long ago, this human was considering how to develop new revenue streams.

    ¡°Customers wille, and as you said, they¡¯ll increase over time.¡±

    Angel now had full confidence as he had learned that Ppa was promoting their Misty Cabin outside. The fragrance of wine will not spread far if the alley is deep, but what if someone actively spreads its scent?

    Angel couldn¡¯t promote it before because his identity would be easily exposed, and Fafnir was not the kind to do such things, so all he could do was wait for customers to take the bait.

    Now that Ppa was promoting for him, it had truly brought in clientele. Once these patrons experienced the journey, they naturally understood its value for money.

    As the number of customers increased, even without promotion, as long as there was another being who caused phenomena like Ppa, it would surely attract curious demons. By then, the source of customers would naturally be resolved.

    Even if there wasn¡¯t a phenomenon like Ppa¡¯s, as long as the demons that went through the experience journey underwent some transformation and were noticed by other demons, they would trace it back to the Misty Cabin.

    Therefore, Angel believed the customer base issue should be trending in a positive direction.

    Whether it could reach sufficient Demon Gold Coins in a short time, that was hard to say. Hence, he¡¯d set the exorbitant price of three hundred Demon Gold Coins.

    After all, he had established a rule at the entrance: ¡°This establishment will not entertain the same patron twice. The experience journey is a one-time event, cherish it.¡±

    So, in this one-time experience, Angel needed to fleece as much as possible, which naturally meant setting a higher price.

    In order to fleece more wool, Angel decided that once this batch of patrons finished their experience journey, he would enclose the backyard. If there were anyrge patrons, they could simply have their sky-covering, earth-covering experience there. However, for the sake of privacy, it would be better to set up an Illusionary Realm.

    While Angel was pondering, one of the Half-Blood Demons slowly opened its eyes.

    Upon waking up, there was a moment of confusion as it seemed unable to distinguish between reality and illusion.

    It wasn¡¯t until the Half-Blood Demon felt the surging Water Elemental Energy within its body that it jolted awake with an expression of ecstatic joy.

    It had been upset about being ¡°extorted¡± two hundred Demon Gold Coins, but it hadn¡¯t expected such an immense gain! Not to mention the increased affinity with the Water System; what felt most wondrous to it was a sort of enlightenment that was hard to articte fully.

    This enlightenment couldn¡¯t be clearly defined in the moment, but the demon could feel that it would bring earth-shattering changes to its control over its own energy in the future.

    It was even struggling to contain its emotions, and when it looked at the Indigenous owner who had previously made its teeth itch with hatred, it now felt a few degrees of gratitude.

    ¡°Quiet,¡± Angel gestured for it to remain silent, then whispered, ¡°You can choose to leave now or stay here until they¡¯re done and leave together.¡±

    The demon nced at the other demons around it who were still experiencing with their eyes closed, and decided to stay for the moment to observe. Its own improvement was significant, and it wanted to see what kind of improvements the other demons would have.

 Chapter 1048: Section 1049: The Vision of Canaan

    Chapter 1048: Section 1049: The Vision of Canaan

    In the next minute, the other two half-blood demons sessively awakened.

    Each of their enhancements was not as obvious as Ppa¡¯s and hard to discern from their appearance, but the undisguised joy in their eyes made it clear that this experiential trip was definitely fruitful.

    Now, only Canaan and the Three-Headed Crocodile remained in the Ocean Rhythm Illusionary Realm.

    Angel thought it could either be a matter of umting experience over time or just that the demons¡¯ innate talents were so high that they could endure the Illusionary Realm much longer than humans.

    Not to mention the previously awakened Ppa, just the few half-blood demons that had woken up had mostly persisted around three minutes, far surpassing the human average.

    Actually, the Ocean Rhythm, from a certain point of view, was a survival game. In the end everyone would die, it was just a matter of who couldst the longest.

    From this perspective, humans¡¯ resilience was indeed far inferior to demons¡¯.

    Even if the Ocean Rhythm Illusionary Realm would selectively erase memories, the innate instinct engraved in their bones made them refuse to give up and use every possible means to survive.

    In this respect,paring demons to humans made it clear who was superior and who was inferior.

    As time ticked by, and another minute passed, a faint mist began to seep from the Three-Headed Crocodile¡¯s body.

    This scene caught the other demons by surprise.

    Their enhancements were still at a stage only they were conscious of, but the enhancement of the Three-Headed Crocodile was visible to the naked eye. Moreover, the mist increasingly thickened, and its huge body radiated a shimmering light.

    ¡°Could it be that the Three-Headed Crocodile is also about to enhance?¡± the other demons looked at one another, their eyes filled with indescribable shock.

    An enhancement for Ppa was bearable¨Ceven if it truly advanced to the level of a lesser demon, its strength would be mediocre. However, the Three-Headed Crocodile was different; it was a demon naturally powerful despite being stuck at the rank of a lesser demon, and it was so much stronger than these half-bloods.

    If the Three-Headed Crocodile did enhance, it might even be a major piece of news throughout Lassudral!

    Angel watched the Three-Headed Crocodile with eager eyes; if this big fellow truly conjured a miracle, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about customers anymore!

    However, regretfully, even though the blue light on the Three-Headed Crocodile¡¯s body kept shing, it did not reach the point of forming a Milky Way. It merely caused the Misty Cabin to be bathed in fluctuating blue light, and in the vague transparency, it truly had a sense of ¡®illusion.¡¯

    The Three-Headed Crocodile opened its bell-like eyes, its revival speed much faster than the previous half-blood demons.

    It could feel the earth-shattering change within its body, an unprecedented exhration from birth until now, which made it want to roar out loud.

    But before it could roar, it caught the shop owner¡¯s cold gaze and heard amand, ¡°Shut up!¡±

    If it had been any other time, the Three-Headed Crocodile might have gotten angry, an indigenous person daring to speak to it this way. But at this moment, looking at the owner¡¯s frail frame, it felt iparably imposing¡­

    There were indeed miraculous beings among the indigenous people!

    The Three-Headed Crocodile restrained its joy andmunicated silently with the other three awakened half-blood demons using spiritual power. Normally, it would not deign to interact with half-blood demons, but the joy in its heart made it lower its standards, sharing the insights from this experiential trip with them.

    Once their quiet exchanges were close to ending, all eyes were on Canaan.

    It had been almost seven minutes, and this female half-blood demon still hadn¡¯te around?

    They now knew that their experiential trips were all the same, struggling to survive in that violent sea. They themselves had held on for so long, feeling they were at their limits, and this little one was still persisting?

    For a moment, the way they looked at Canaan changed. They were well aware of the ferocity of that sea, and enduring this long was testament to Canaan¡¯s willpower.

    Moreover, they had just pooled their insights and it seemed that the longer onested in that violent sea, the greater the rewards.

    Canaan had persisted for so long, how terrifying would her gains be?

    A minuteter, Canaan gave them an answer.

    A gigantic Phantom Shadow emerged from within her, initially sitting cross-legged just like Canaan. But as mysterious changes unfolded within Canaan, the Phantom Shadow kept growing¡­ and growing¡­

    In just ten seconds, it had be a colossal Phantom Shadow over twenty meters tall.

    While it might not be muchpared to Lassudral¡¯s buildings, all the nearby demons took notice of the suddenly appearing Phantom Shadow.

    This Phantom Shadow looked like a slumbering¡­ Sea Demon!

    Since when had a Sea Demone to Lassudral? While the other demons were puzzled, the closed eyes of the Phantom Shadow suddenly opened.

    Synchronously, Canaan in the Misty Cabin also opened her eyes.

    The moment she opened her eyes, she felt the pulsating water energy within her body, and at the same time, Canaan realized her dorsal fin, pectoral fins, and even her tail fin had all grown out.

    The repressed energy in her body seemed to have doubled, and it was still proliferating ceaselessly.

    The exhration of growing stronger made Canaan roar out loud.

    This time, Angel did not stop Canaan¡¯s actions because he noticed that as Canaan roared, the Phantom Shadow standing behind him rose as well, making the same movements as Canaan.

    Moreover, the roar of the Phantom Shadow nketed the majority of the nearby areas. Almost all the demons around heard the Phantom Shadow¡¯s excited roar.

    The roar seemed to carry the surge of the ocean¡¯s waves, and in the terrifying tidal waves, there appeared to be a giant sea demon, lifting the trident of the Sea God, issuing amand to all Water System creatures!

    At this moment, outside a building akin to an amniotic sac, Ppa was fervently persuading others to try the Misty Cabin¡¯s Ocean Rhythm. Upon hearing that roar, it stopped in its tracks, turning towards the direction of the Phantom Shadow.

    After a moment, surprise shed in Ppa¡¯s eyes, ¡°Look, another unique phenomenon! The Misty Cabin has wrought a new miracle! Listen to me; experiencing the rhythm of the ocean once will greatly enhance your powers!¡±

    The few Half-Blood Demons who had previously shown little interest in what Ppa was saying, now, with the suppressive joy in that roar, could not help but feel doubtful¡ªcould what Ppa said be true?

    At the entrance of the Hunting Museum, Rin also lifted her head.

    As a Fire System demon, Rin should have loathed the sensation of ocean waves in the air, but at that moment, she did not show any signs of disgust. Instead, she slightly curved her lips into a smile, looking towards the distant dense forest where the Misty Cabin was located.

    It wasn¡¯t just Ppa and Rin; at this moment, all the demons who heard the roar from the sky¡¯s Phantom Shadow halted their steps and began to explore the source of the Phantom Shadow.

    When they discovered that the phenomenon was againing from the Misty Cabin, a message that had been actively spread by Ppa and already dismissed by them, now came back into their thoughts.

    ¡°What ¡®Magic Power¡¯ does the ¡®Misty¡¯ Cabin possess to consecutively yield such breakthrough phenomena?¡±

    With Ppa, it might have been a fluke, but this time it looks like it might be an offspring of a sea demon?

    Unaware of the outside world¡¯s discussions, Angel¡¯s feelings at this time were somewhatplex. He had been thinking that if another unique phenomenon urred, the Misty Cabin would certainly get noticed and naturally attract more customers.

    But when the results of the first batch of customers were so good, even beyond his expectations, his mood became both joyful andplicated.

    The talents of the demons were truly frightening. So far, Angel had only allowed six demons to join the experience journey, and yet, unique phenomena had emerged one after another. It¡¯s difficult to imagine what it might look like if more demons joined.

    Although Angel had previously told Fafnir that he was just doing business and did not care whether demons and humans were hostile towards each other, looking at all these powerfully talented demons, Angel still felt a pang of regret, as if he were nurturing potential enemies.

    He hoped that one day he wouldn¡¯t encounter these demons on the battlefield.

    After sending away this batch of customers, Angel had intended to rest for a bit. Given the current trend, it should not take long for a new batch of customers to arrive.

    However, just then, Angel heard some movements behind him.

    Turning around, he saw the Half-Blood Demon that had caused a hugemotion earlier and produced a massive Phantom Shadow, seemingly having returned after a departure.

    Angel remembered that it had mentioned its name¡ªit was Canaan.

    Angel smiled and pointed to a sign on one side, ¡°Our shop does not serve repeat customers, only once per customer.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not here for a repeat experience,¡± Canaan lowered its head, ¡°I just want to ask the owner a question.¡±

    Suddenly Canaan lifted its head, eyes filled with suspicion, ¡°Are you really an Indigenous Person?¡±

    Canaan¡¯s words sent a chill through Angel¡¯s heart¡ªhad his Disguise Technique been seen through?

    ¡°Why would you say something like that all of a sudden?¡± Angel replied, still smiling, but his gaze swiftly nced at Fafnir who was nearby.

    Canaan seemed to notice Angel¡¯s gaze and quickly said, ¡°I¡¯m just puzzled¡­ because the way you speak Abyss Language is very peculiar, it doesn¡¯t sound like an Indigenous Person¡¯s ent.¡±

    ¡°Is there a uniform standard for ents in Abyss Language?¡± Angel raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I used to live in a mixed settlement, nearly inhabited by tribes of Indigenous People from the barrennds, so I¡¯ve heard many ents. The owner¡¯s ent doesn¡¯t seem to match those of the tribes, but rather it resembles¡­ a human who¡¯s used to speaking themon tongue, applying the pronunciation rules of themon tongue to Abyss Language.¡±

    Canaan delivered thest sentence in themon tongue.

    After finishing, Canaan looked at Angel with an inquisitive gaze.

    Angel remained expressionless, yet inwardly he felt a sense of poignancy; it wasn¡¯t the Disguise Technique that gave him away, but the ent.

    However, even if uncovered by Canaan, Angel could not possibly admit to it, simply snorting coldly, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. Just because you haven¡¯t heard it, doesn¡¯t mean it doesn¡¯t exist. Moreover, what does it have to do with you?¡±

    As Angel spoke, Canaan also noticed that the dark-skinned woman was looking at it with a profound gaze, and a sense of danger began to slowly climb up its spine.

    Quickly, Canaan said, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean anything by it, I just wanted to say that after those few Half-Blood Demons left, they also started to doubt the owner¡¯s identity¡­ It¡¯s not about the ent, but in Lassudral there¡¯s a custom that Demon Language is the formalnguage, and Abyss Language is seldom used.¡±

    Angel was bing a bit impatient, ¡°What exactly are you trying to say with all this?¡±

    ¡°I mean, if the owner doesn¡¯t mind, I can help the owner receive the customers.¡±

 Chapter 1049: Section 1050 Hua Que

    Chapter 1049: Section 1050 Hua Que

    Standing tall within the Void was Lassudral, a marvel to behold.

    At this moment, in a wild forest on the southern outskirts of Lassudral, a Purgatory me ve who had just crossed Niming Lake was viewing the distant hazy glow of the buildings with astonishment.

    ¡°Is this Lassudral? The never-falling city that never sleeps,¡± he murmured softly, ¡°It even rivals the Sky Mechanical City. Is it because it is supported by the Unparalleled Great Demon God?¡±

    Strangely enough, although he was a Purgatory me ve, he was muttering in themonnguage of humans.

    ¡°Hua Que, what are you muttering about?¡± A thunderous buzzing voice came from another Purgatory me ve in front holding a giant red axe.

    ¡°Nothing much, just marveling at how majestic Lassudral is,¡± shifting from themon human tongue, his lips seemingly tainted with fiery red magma gently parted, and the cryptic murmurs of Demon Language spilled from Hua Que¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°Typical of an uncultured mongrel, Lassudral is actually quite average among the many Demon Cities in the Barren Face,¡± the axe-wielding me ve said with a look of disdain.

    Barren Face? What is that? Hua Que was somewhat puzzled in his heart, but he did not voice his question. Instead, he said with a ttering tone, ¡°It appears that Master Kaido has been to many Demon Cities?¡±

    The axe-wielding Purgatory me ve was indeed Kaido. He raised his ferocious head high, breathing out a trail of fire from his nostrils: ¡°Of course, I used to follow Lord Negal! I¡¯ve even glimpsed the resting ce of the lord in Mosambique from afar, now that is a true marvel.¡±

    Kaido was proudly talking about his past experiences, but to Hua Que, this narrative was extremely dull. This was because a lot of Kaido¡¯s talk consisted of ¡°I¡¯ve seen from afar,¡± ¡°I have heard,¡± ¡°It is said¡±¡­ The Demon Cities he had actually been to probably numbered just two or three, and Lassudral was thergest he had experienced.

    Seeing that Kaido seemed to be getting carried away, Hua Que suddenly said, ¡°Master Kaido, the Mosambique you mentioned just now sounds like a very grand Demon City, what is it like?¡±

    Kaido was stunned. As a ve back then, he had only glimpsed it from a distance, his vision obscured by purgatorial mes, and had no idea what it looked like.

    However, Kaido didn¡¯t want to admit his ignorance in front of his newly acquired minion.

    After hemming and hawing for a while, he finally said, ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s veryrge and majestic¡­ You who don¡¯t even know your lineage, a little mongrel, will never go in your lifetime, so why ask so many questions?¡±

    Being called a mongrel, Hua Que felt a moment of sadness. Kaido caught this, thinking he had found a breakthrough point. This little mongrel even dared to ask questions to inconvenience Master Kaido, and excitedly spoke more addictively.

    ¡°Without lineage, without a crest, a male me ve even adopting a Subus¡¯ name? Hua Que? What kind of name is that, it¡¯s a disgrace to our Purgatory me ve race!¡± Kaido¡¯s huge nostrils blew out white mist, leering at the ¡°dejected¡± Hua Que: ¡°Also, as a male me ve, our choice weapons should be giant axes or hammers, yet you choose to use chains like a female¡­ Who do you n to bind? Yourself?¡±

    When Kaido was almost done ranting, they had already reached the outskirts of Lassudral.

    Not far away, some demonic figures started to appear, and Kaido conveniently closed his mouth. As for their ce in the hierarchy, the Purgatory me ves ranked even below Half-Blood Demons, often being nothing more than demonic house ves. Moreover, they weren¡¯t in roles like butlers or personal attendants, but rather expendable cannon fodder.

    Although they might look ferocious, their true strength was very low. In the Abyss, all demons looked down on me ves.

    But Purgatory me ves had their advantages, demons wouldn¡¯t bother to strike at them at will.

    For demons, Purgatory me ves were far better than so-called Half-Blood Demons; after all, from the very root, the lineage of Purgatory me ves was to serve demons. But Half-Blood Demons, with their mixed lineage, often turned out to be rebellious.

    Suddenly, Kaido fell silent. His previously exaggerated movements became cautious upon entering Lassudral, and this disy of submission made Hua Que snicker inwardly.

    This was Hua Que¡¯s first time in Lassudral and his first sight of the demonic marketce.

    His curiosity piqued, he turned his head to look around at the city, which was unlike anything he had imagined. Now taking it all in, he knew that it might not be long before he could no longer see it.

    However, he was currently on the edge of the suburban outskirts of Lassudral, where even the buildings that did exist could not be considered refined; for example, there was a simple cabin hidden within the dense forest to his right¡ª

    ¡°Misty Cabin? With a name like that, what kind of business is done in this cabin?¡± Hua Que wondered to himself.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± Kaido, following Hua Que¡¯s gaze, noticed the small cabin in the forest. Upon seeing the size of the cabin, Kaido scoffed, ¡°Such a tiny building, plus that door, it¡¯s even shorter than I am tall, I bet that shop will never attract any business in its lifetime.¡±

    As soon as Kaido finished speaking, the door of the cabin was pushed open, and a blue-skinned Half-Blood Demon walked out from inside. It had a satisfied smile on its face, as if it hade across something delightful.

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely not a customer!¡± Kaido asserted: ¡°Probably just a staff member of that shop.¡±

    Then, a second Half-Blood Demon came out.

    ¡°This one¡­This one must also be an employee, certainly.¡±

    The third, the fourth¡­until the tenth Half-Blood Demon came out, Kaido¡¯s eyes had bulged in disbelief. How could such a small shop have any visitors? Weren¡¯t all Half-Blood Demons in Lassudral arrogant? With such a low door, they would definitely refuse to step inside, right?

    ¡°Aren¡¯t these Half-Blood Demons customers?¡± Hua Que blinked, feigning curiosity.

    Kaido had wanted to blurt out ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± but ended up choking the words back. If it were just one or two half-blood demons, it might have been fine to stir things up, but with so manying out of that shop, he found it impossible to incite any trouble.

    Still, Kaido couldn¡¯t help himself and said, ¡°Last time I came, I didn¡¯t even see this cabin. It was probably just a few half-blood demons gathering in there, not making any significant impact.¡±

    After Kaido¡¯s words fell, an ice-blue demon walked out of that cabin.

    Even though it was a lesser demon, it was also a standout among them,pletely different from the weak half-blood demons that hade out before.

    ¡°This¡­ this is just an exception.¡± Kaido¡¯s face turned red as he struggled to speak.

    At that moment, the ground suddenly shook a few times, and behind the small wooden hut, which had been empty, ripples appeared in the yard. A giant demon, made entirely of ice crystals, stepped out from the ripples.

    ¡°Is that ripple an Illusion Technique used for concealment? That¡¯s a Cold Winter Giant Demon!¡± Hua Que couldn¡¯t help but cry out in surprise. A Cold Winter Giant Demon was nearly at the intermediate rank of demons, and it had a kinship with Cold Winter Demons, which were among the top of the intermediate demons!

    The appearance of the Cold Winter Giant Demon in this remote shop left Kaidopletely in disbelief.

    Kaido shook as he pointed in the direction of the cabin, seemingly wanting to say something more¡­

    But by then, even Hua Que had started to feel a little sorry for him. ¡°Lord Kaido, you might as well stop talking,¡± it said.

    Kaido¡¯s mouth seemed cursed by a Word Spirit, as whatever he said turned out to be the opposite.

    Hua Que shook its head and dragged the steaming, angry Kaido towards the depths of Lassudral.

    As they were leaving, Hua Que suddenly felt as if someone was watching him.

    He turned around but found nothing. However, on the rooftop of the nearby Misty Cabin, a dark-skinned woman was yawning and stretchingzily.

    Was it his imagination?

    ¡­

    Fafnir stretchednguidly, having rested on the rooftop for half the day. She then remembered an unusual piece of information she had picked up when she woke up earlier.

    Fafnir looked down and thought for a moment, recalling a figure in her mind.

    It was a Purgatory me ve she had seen not long ago, with a slightly slender build, faint mes burning on its body, and a crimson chain that looked like a Fire Serpent, slowly moving across it.

    At first nce, there seemed to be nothing wrong with this Purgatory me ve.

    But Fafnir raised an eyebrow; she had detected clear signs of disguise on this me ve, and its soul was undeniably that of a lowly human.

    ¡°Has a humane to Lassudral?¡± Angel was at this moment on the second-floor loft of the cabin, where a window connected directly to the rooftop of the cabin.

    Fafnir was half-lying on the roof, right next to the loft¡¯s skylight: ¡°That¡¯s right, and you seem not at all surprised.¡±

    ¡°There are plenty of humans around, anyway, it has nothing to do with me.¡± Angel shrugged. He had heard during his time at Watchguard Fortress that wizards would sneak into the inneryers of Demon City to gather intelligence, so the presence of humans here, although unusual, was not uneptable.

    There were more pressing matters he was concerned with than these trivial issues.

    Like earning money. Or, for instance,pleting the model of the half-door in the Mind Space.

    A chime of wind bells sounded from the courtyard below.

    ¡°It seems a new group of guests has arrived,¡± Angel said as he pulled out the Ocean¡¯s Rhythm and spoke to Fafnir, ¡°I¡¯m going to head down now.¡±

    As he came down from the second floor, Angel saw Canaan, speaking fluently in Demon Language to a new group of guests, deftly exining while drawing circles in mid-air with his fingertips and wrapping up faint water vapor to strike the wind chimes outside.

    The sound of the wind chimes was the signal Canaan had sent him.

    Now, Canaan was not dressed as shabbily as the day before; instead, he had conjured up a magical water dress with the Mimicry of the Water System, for beauty and to demonstrate his affinity with the Water System to the guests.

    Canaan spoke rapidly, and Angel, who only half-understood the Demon Language, caught only thest sentence clearly.

    ¡ª¡ª¡±The shop owner has arrived, and your experiential journey is about to begin.¡±

 Chapter 1050: Section 1051: Young Flame Demon

    Chapter 1050: Section 1051: Young me Demon

    For the shopkeeper, a seemingly fragile indigenous person, the experience seekers all gauged him with covert nces. Even if there was some disdain in their hearts, it never showed on their faces, because just an hour ago, one of the previous batch of experience seekers who had scoffed at the indigenous shopkeeper ended up having their experience revoked and was beaten out of shape by a violent, hefty woman.

    Even now, there was still a faint smell of blood wafting outside the yard.

    Therefore, when Angel arrived, not a single demon acted excessively, silently waiting for the journey of experience to begin.

    After their journey of experience had concluded, looking at Angel, the indigenous shopkeeper of the Misty Cabin, there was no more scorn to be seen in their eyes, only shock.

    Although this batch had not caused any anomalies, they could feel the surging water system power in their bodies and were very clear about the advantage they had gained.

    Merely three hundred Demon Gold Coins for such significant enhancement, it was such a steal!

    After sending this batch of customers away, Angel was content as he counted the earnings: ¡°Another three thousand Demon Gold Coins.¡±

    The previous batch of customers had already brought a revenue of three thousand Demon Gold Coins, and now he had earned that much again. All in all, he had made six thousand Demon Gold Coins today. If he added the harvest from yesterday, he currently had seven thousand and eight Demon Gold Coins on him.

    The ten thousand mark was less than three thousand coins away.

    He could have deducted the material cost for the undying burning bones, but he felt it wasn¡¯t right to take advantage of the night innkeeper for nothing, and since the speed of filling his own pockets was so swift currently, Angel decided to calcte the cost of the materials for the undying burning bones and repay Night.

    As Angel was doing the ounting, there was another stir outside the door.

    Thanks to the introduction of the two batches of demons that had left earlier, new customers had arrived at the Misty Cabin.

    Angel turned back to Canaan and said, ¡°This time, wait until we have thirty customers before calling me.¡±

    ¡°Thirty customers? Isn¡¯t that a bit too many¡­ Can you handle that, shopkeeper?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not a matter of whether I can or cannot, but whether you can manage thirty customers at the same time.¡±

    Canaan was momentarily dazed, then nodded firmly. After its breakthrough the day before, its strength had soared, and from a human standard, it was at the pinnacle of a first-level wizard. In Lassudral, while it wouldn¡¯t swagger around, it was no longer a small fry either.

    With the looming presence of Lord Fafnir too, let alone thirty customers, even if fifty customers came at once, it was confident.

    Seeing Canaan nodding, Angel was also very satisfied inside. With Canaan handling the situation, it saved him a lot of trouble. And to be honest, if it were up to him, he would probably be flustered facing ten customers at once. But Canaan had been operating in Lassudral for ten years and was very familiar with the habits of the demons and half-blood demons, and even with many customers, it could manage everything neatly.

    It could be said that the six thousand Demon Gold Coins earned in a short time owed much to Canaan¡¯s effort.

    Angel considered that when it was time to leave, he might give Canaan a generous severance pay.

    Angel leisurely returned to the loft; with Canaan handling things below, he was able to snatch a few fragmented moments to repair the half of the door in the Mind Space.

    Moreover, the more he repaired that half of the door, the more fascinating it became.

    The wonder wasn¡¯t about what Angel already knew, but the unknown other half. He had an inkling before that the strange energy might bring him a big surprise, and now he was quite certain of it.

    As he was constructing the remaining half of the door, asionally a strange energy would flow from the other half, and simultaneously, Angel¡¯s perspective would undergo a mysterious change.

    In this altered perspective, Angel always felt that the world he saw seemed to have an additionalyer of deeper information.

    The difference was like that between ants and humans; although these two species live in the same world, the world they see is not the same.

    As Angel felt that strange energy, it was quite simr; he seemed to transcend the limits of human eyesight, seeing more subtle details.

    For example, vor, pheromones. These previously intangible concepts now seemed to be clear in his vision.

    This was a new perspective, or rather, a new domain.

    Angel valued this experience highly, believing it would bring him endless benefits in the future. Moreover, he was eager to see his first witchcraft slote into existence, which is why he was so proactive and even used any waiting time to work on it, just toplete the door sooner.

    Angel quietly continued building the door until, about four hourster, the wind chimes in the yard released a clear sound, calling him down.

    No sooner had he descended the stairs than Angel smelled a strong scent of blood. ncing to the side, it seemed there were several gigantic shadows in the yard. On one demon¡¯s belly that resembled a small hillock, Fafnir sat with the posture of a victor, showing a bloodthirsty smile.

    ¡°Those demons were foolish,¡± Angel said after descending, and Canaan came to him, whispering in Abyss Language, ¡°They thought that surely the shopkeeper could not have created an Illusionary Realm with the rhythm of the ocean, and must rely on some treasure. They wanted to seize it but were all suppressed by Lord Fafnir.¡±

    Canaan¡¯s words gave Angel food for thought.

    Opening this shop was just too ostentatious. If he had only fiddled with the Ocean Rhythm asionally, other demons probably wouldn¡¯t have targeted him so easily. But not only did he produce two anomalies in a short time, but he also released the Ocean Rhythm in batches of ten, and now even thirty at a time. Even though Angel never showed the true form of it when releasing the Ocean Rhythm, it always stirred spection.

    After all, every time he released it the energy fluctuations in his body were minimal.

    Moreover, suchrge batch and wide-ranging boosts were also the reason why those demons couldn¡¯t wait to make their move.

    Ten in a batch earned him three thousand Demon Gold Coins. If it were thirty in a batch, he could make a whopping nine thousand Demon Gold Coins. Such a speed of making money was enough to make anyone green with envy.

    So, this situation was also within Angel¡¯s expectations.

    Canaan voiced his concerns, ¡°Shopkeeper, what should we do next?¡±

    In Canaan¡¯s mind, even if Fafnir¡¯s strength was enough to suppress them, the money they were making was in in sight for all demons to see. Those who were jealous or harbored different thoughts were surely more than one. They would definitely face constant harassment, and Lord Fafnir surely couldn¡¯t protect them all the time.

    However, Angel didn¡¯t care much about it. His personality itself did not favor mboyance; the only reason he was making money so high-profile this time was due to the urgency of time.

    Anyway, he couldn¡¯t keep the shop open for many days. Maybe he could slip away as soon as the shop closed today, and not care about the outside world anymore.

    ¡°No worries, it won¡¯t cause a big stir,¡± Angel reassured briefly before returning to the main topic, ¡°Is this batch of thirtyplete?¡±

    Canaan nodded, ¡°Yes, but¡­¡±

    ¡°But what?¡±

    Canaan felt helpless, ¡°This time, it¡¯s not only water system demons but there¡¯s also a fire system demon.¡± He continued, ¡°I made it very clear to it that the enhancement effect is better for water system demons and useless for fire system, but it wouldn¡¯t listen and insisted on participating. And it has already paid the Demon Gold Coins.¡±

    Angel turned around and instantly found that point of bright me in the damp mist.

    Literally bright me.

    It wasn¡¯trge in size, resembling a little dumpling, burning with raging mes. With big, round eyes, if it weren¡¯t for a long ck tail and the tiny fire sword in its hand, at first nce, it seemed like an Elemental Sprite of the Fire Element.

    This little fire dumpling was very active, hopping around the yard, particrly fond of teasing female demons with dense water vapor. After each tease, it would mischievously swing its fire sword andugh heartily in midair, shaking its tail.

    It appeared to be a naughty brat.

    ¡°Is it really a demon? Not a fire elemental?¡± Angel asked in a low voice.

    Canaan replied, ¡°It is a young Fire Demon. It might look like a fire elemental now because it¡¯s still in its juvenile stage. When it begins its transformation, it will evolve from a small demon into a powerful Patterned Fire Demon, and there have even been Patterned Lords in the deeperyers of the Abyss¡­¡±

    As Canaan spoke, his expression grew a bit peculiar, ¡°It¡¯s quite strange. Young Fire Demons are Demon Nobles from the deepyers of the Abyss and usually reside even deeper within the Bottomless Abyss. It¡¯s rare for them to appear on the surface, so how did it end up in Lassudral?¡±

    ¡°Juvenile stage?¡± Angel ignored thetter part of Canaan¡¯s words, looking towards the Young Fire Demon, and immediately tagged it as a ¡°brat¡± in his mind.

    And that brat was still incessantly teasing the water system big sisters.

    Many water system demons, even if they were stronger than the Young Fire Demon, considering its ¡°Demon Noble¡± status, only dared to express their anger with res, not daring to actually strike out.

    Watching from afar the group of water system demons who dared to be angry but didn¡¯t dare to speak, Angel couldn¡¯t help but sigh inwardly: Even the notorious and vicious demons among humans also had their own hierarchy. Although demonsck what we call morality, setting aside this, they also have their own social structure.

    ¡°Shopkeeper, what should we do now?¡± Canaan asked.

    Watching the Young Fire Demon still flirting around, Angel enunciated, ¡°Kick, it, out.¡±

    Angel wanted to kick the Young Fire Demon out, not because it was too naughty, but because the transcendent system of demons differed from the witches¡¯ system. For instance, a fire system wizard might also be proficient in the water system; hence they could still enhance their water affinity in the Ocean Rhythm.

    But it was different for demons. A Fire Demon was basically fixed in its attributes and couldn¡¯t wield other elemental powers. Especially not the water system power, which ispletely at odds with its own.

    Even if the Young Fire Demon were pulled into the Ocean Rhythm, it would gain nothing.

    There was even a great likelihood of injury due to the Ocean Rhythm¡¯s guiding power.

    For a ¡°big-name¡± Demon Noble, it¡¯s self-evident whether being kicked out would have more severe consequences than suffering serious injuries in the shop.

    Even though it made no difference to Angel, considering Canaan would still be in Lassudral, to avoid bringing her trouble, it was better to kick it out.

 Chapter 1051: Section 1052 Hunting Museum

    Chapter 1051: Section 1052 Hunting Museum

    The eviction process was utterly farcical.

    It all began with Canaan politely asking the young fire demon to leave. However, the fire demon wouldn¡¯t listen and instead mischievously yed a game of ¡°you can¡¯t catch me¡± around the yard.

    Just when the young fire demon turned its head and stuck out its tongue to mock Canaan again, Fafnir took action.

    She descended with formidable presence, and under the terrified gaze of the young fire demon, Fafnir grabbed its long, ck tail and flung it as if throwing a javelin.

    Swinging in a circle, exerting force, and then a throw.

    A fiery red ball wasunched in a parabolic trajectory andnded outside the shop. As the young fire demon tumbled and bounced around disoriented, a bag containing three hundred Demon Gold Coins also conveniently fell beside it.

    Angel thought that with Fafnir¡¯s intimidation, the young fire demon would not dare to return.

    However, he had underestimated the demon¡¯s persistence.

    After sending off this batch of visitors, Angel¡¯s private stash finally exceeded ten thousand Demon Gold Coins, with assets close to sixteen thousand.

    Canaan had already started preparing to receive the next batch of customers, but at this time, Angel told it to call it a day.

    And aspensation, he paid Canaan ten Demon Gold Coins.

    Though Canaan found it strange¡ªit had only attended to three groups of customers and the day was still young¡ªwhy close the shop already? But in the end, it was just a little clerk and did not interfere with the shop owner¡¯s decision.

    Moreover, Canaan really wanted to get revenge on the Serpent Tail Demon that had humiliated it the day before, so after epting the generouspensation, it prepared to bid farewell to Angel.

    However, just as Canaan was about to leave, opening the door to the shop, it saw a fireball squatting under the door frame.

    This fireball was the very young fire demon that Fafnir had thrown out earlier.

    At that moment, the young fire demon¡¯s previously round eyes had turned into upside-down triangles, filled with rage in its fiery pupils.

    Canaan looked back at the shop owner, uncertain of how to handle the situation, when Angel came over and said with a squint, ¡°Off you go, I¡¯ll handle this.¡±

    Canaan unconsciously took a few steps forward, curious to see how Angel would deal with the young fire demon, but then heard a ¡°bang¡ª¡± as the door was abruptly closed.

    Canaan and the young fire demon were both locked outside.

    Canaan: ¡°¡­¡± Is this what you call handling it?

    Disheveled in the wind, Canaan watched as the young fire demon, thrown out and treated like a mmed door, pulled out a fire sword from its mouth, ready to sh at the wooden door.

    Canaan hesitated about whether to stop it, but before it could decide, Fafnir appeared in front of the young fire demon. Just like before, the young fire demon was swung out, with terror in its eyes.

    By the looks of the arc, this time it was flung even farther than thest.

    After confirming there was no need for its help at the Misty Cabin, Canaan left the area. It hadn¡¯t been long after Canaan reached the main road that it saw the young fire demon, dimmer sparks than before, angrily making its way toward the Misty Cabin.

    Canaan thought it saw moisture filling the eyes of the young fire demon, but was it an illusion? How could a fire system demon possibly cry?

    Canaan shook its head and decided not to pay attention to the young fire demon anymore. With the formidable Fafnir holding down the fort, there was no need for concern.

    Meanwhile, Angel was ted after counting the day¡¯s ie. Just yesterday he was considering whether to change his money-making strategy, but today he¡¯d exceeded his goals and saved a lot of time¡ªhe couldn¡¯t be happier.

    Managing to achieve his target with such ease was thanks not only to the exceptional effects of the Marine Rhythm but also owed a lot to Ppa¡¯s enthusiastic promotion. Angel thought thatter, when he went to the Hunting Museum, he could give Ppa some reward.

    That¡¯s right, his n now was to head to the Hunting Museum.

    First to hand over the Undying me Bone¡¯s money to the Night Manager, and secondly, as an indigenous person, it was nearly impossible for him to purchase supplies in Lassudral on his own; he needed the Night Manager to buy them on his behalf.

    So no matter what, a visit to the Hunting Museum was necessary.

    When Angel came down from the attic, he could hear someone pounding on the door outside, echoing like a drum. Fafnir was dozing at the round table and only raised her eyebrows when Angel came downstairs.

    The one knocking outside was none other than the young fire demon. It seemed furious, making noise around the wooden house, but it didn¡¯t dare to be too reckless. With Fafnir nearby, it feared being thrown out again.

    Angel informed Fafnir of his subsequent itinerary. Fafnir waved her hand, indifferent to what Angel had nned.

    With the young fire demon at the front entrance, it was obviously inconvenient for Angel to leave that way. The backyard was shielded by an Illusion Technique. Opening Boundless Solitude, Angel sneaked out from the back.

    When leaving the woods, Angel eyed the young Fire Demon from a distance.

    Having been swung around twice, it now stood at the doorway looking as if it wanted to rage but didn¡¯t dare to, a picture of pitiful grievance utterly bereft of its prior mischievousness.

    With a shake of his head and a smile, Angel withdrew his gaze.

    Despite the demons all around, the Hunting Museum was not far, and after days of encountering various demons, Angel gradually came to understand some aspects of their ecology. Unveiling the terror of demons had, in fact, made him less fearful.

    After all, he was bold enough to employ a Half-Blood Demon as a shop assistant.

    In addition to this, he now possessed the me Mark and the dragon scales from Binaqionse, which to some extent provided him with safety. And since the Hunting Museum and the Misty Cabin were nearby, he dared to venture out alone.

    On his way, Angel didn¡¯t attract the attention of any demons and arrived at the Hunting Museum without issue.

    The Hunting Museum was immense, almost rivaling his replicated Marine Theater in Originheart City, but the Marine Theater after all was a human master¡¯s architectural miracle, more intricate and delicate in appearance.

    Of course, such intricacy and delicacy appealed to Angel because it matched his aesthetic, which didn¡¯t mean the Hunting Museumcked its own charm.

    The distinctiveness of demon architecturey in its bizarre style. The Hunting Museum was no different; had he not known it was a shop that sold hunting materials, Angel might have mistaken it for the dreadful church of some evil cult.

    Angel pushed open the heavy door; only the silver candbra near the entrance were lit, casting a dim glow across two meters. Beyond that was pitch darkness, like an other-dimensional space shrouded in ck mist.

    The floor, checkered in ck and white, echoed his hollow footsteps, giving off a hair-raising rhythm as he walked.

    After about a dozen steps, Angel stopped as he heard heavy footstepsing from ahead.

    From the darkness, a point of light flickered to life.

    Fiery hair and the ferocious me patterns on the face emerged from the dark.

    ¡°Mr. Night.¡±

    ¡°Come inside and talk,¡± responded Night, nodding at Angel before turning and signaling for him to follow.

    With Night¡¯s stride, the candles of the Hunting Museum lit up one by one. Once dark and foreboding, the museum now looked bright and spacious. The echoing footsteps of the two men filled the vast space, and the reverberation, like a fuzzy edge to their steps, inexplicably left Angel with a feeling of solitude.

    Night led Angel through to the reception room. As they passed the Exhibition Room, Angel nced inside unintentionally.

    The first nce at the various horrifying monster specimens startled him, but at the second, he was drawn to a huge painting at the back of the room.

    Against a ck backdrop, a ribbon of me cut across it.

    It was as though fierce burning mes had scorched a hole through the dark night.

    The painting was simple, but Angel felt it conveyed an undercurrent of struggling discontent and defiance beneath its calm surface as if piercing straight through the painting.

    Angel was still somewhat in a daze when he arrived at the reception room. For some reason, when he looked up and saw Night sitting across from him, the painting came to his mind unconsciously.

    ¡°You seem a bit distracted?¡± a deep, husky voice reached Angel¡¯s ears.

    ¡°I was looking at that painting in the Exhibition Hall earlier¡ªit seemed very¡­¡± Angel thought of many words to describe it but felt none were quite right, so he concluded, ¡°¡­distinctive.¡±

    ¡°Distinctive? I thought you¡¯d find it dull, considering how simplistic the imagery is.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call it simple. The messages it conveyed to me areplex: calm, tumultuous, struggling, repressed, and unyielding.¡± Angel paused. ¡°To be honest, I feel as if looking at that painting is like seeing Mr. Night.¡±

    If others had heard this conclusion, they might haveughed out loud, but Night seemed pensive for a moment, as if reminded of many years ago when his old friend had said the same thing with a smile: ¡°Guess what I¡¯ve painted?¡± Without waiting for an answer, the friend dered, ¡°I¡¯ve painted you.¡±

    As Night looked at Angel across from him, a smile suddenly yed at his lips, and in a voice that was almost a mutter, he said, ¡°Indeed, the perspective of humans,pared to that of demons, seems to be more interesting.¡±

    Angel was startled; Night was muttering to himself, but Angel still heard the content.

    The perspective of humans? So, did Night realize he was a human?

    After the moment of realization, Angel felt it was to be expected. Of course, Fafnir had appeared quite wary and guarded when he first met Night, which suggested that Night¡¯s power was by no means insignificant. That Night could see through his true form wasn¡¯t surprising.

    However, the fact that Angel was now protected by the me Mark and yet Night could still see he was human made him somewhat suspicious. Could it be that Night was stronger than Odess?

    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about the painting now. Have youe to me because you¡¯ve earned enough Demon Gold Coins?¡± Night shifted the topic and refrained from continuing the previous one, instead asking about the reason for Angel¡¯s visit.

    Though Night did not constantly monitor the Misty Cabin, given the Hunting Museum was quite close to it, he couldn¡¯t help noticing several demons exuding unusual Water Elemental Energy passing by the museum¡¯s entrance. Piecing the clues together, he could roughly estimate that Angel had made quite a sum that day.

 Chapter 1052: Section 1053: Night in the Painting

    Chapter 1052: Section 1053: Night in the Painting

    Angel exined the purpose of his visit, and Night was not too surprised that Angel returned the undying ming bones¡¯ coin to him.

    After epting the Demon Gold Coins returned by Angel, Night nodded, ¡°I can help you contact the seller right now. If you¡¯re not in a hurry, you can wait for me here.¡±

    Having said that, Night stood up, preparing to leave.

    Just before Night¡¯s figure disappeared, Angel suddenly asked, ¡°Museum master Night, why do you trust me so much?¡±

    Night turned around, looking at Angel.

    Angel continued speaking on his own, ¡°Since I met you the day before yesterday, it seems that you have never doubted anything I said. If it were me meeting a stranger who brought a message, even with Odess¡¯s mark, I would have confirmed it repeatedly. But Master Night, why are you so certain that what I say is true?¡±

    Night was silent for a moment, then said softly, ¡°Not to mention the me Mark on your earlobes, just Fafnir being by your side is enough to prove that you are not lying. Of course, that¡¯s not the reason I¡¯m helping you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m helping you simply because you are a human.¡±

    ¡°A human?¡± Angel was taken aback; he had not expected such an answer.

    ¡°It¡¯s not just because you are a human, but because you are the first human who hase to me in the name of Feng,¡± Night finished, then added faintly, ¡°If you want to know anything else, you can go to the Exhibition Hall and look at that painting.¡±

    After leaving these words behind, Night¡¯s body slowly faded into the darkness and finally disappeared from view.

    After hesitating for a moment, Angel left the reception hall and headed towards the Exhibition Hall.

    Come to think of it, not only was he curious about who ¡°Feng¡± was, but so was Fafnir.

    When Fafnir first learned that Odess had entrusted him with this task, he too had questioned why. After Angel had told him the truth, Fafnir analyzed and concluded that many of the facts were consistent with Odess¡¯s actions, but there was one variable that Fafnir had not anticipated: Feng.

    Originally, after arriving in Lassudral, Fafnir had intended to ask Night about Feng¡¯s identity. But after meeting Night, Fafnir was too wary of him to bring up the question.

    After going around in circles, Angel, in fact, hade closer to the answer regarding Feng¡¯s identity.

    Angel returned to the Exhibition Hall, ignoring the specimens of rare hunting trophies; he went straight to the front of the painting.

    Upon closer inspection, that sense of restlessness suppressed under the quiet night felt even heavier.

    As he looked at it, Angel began to understand why he was always reminded of the museum master Night whenever he saw this painting.

    The endless ck scenery was the silent night. The burning fire in the center was the agitation piercing through the night. Serenity and restlessness, though diametrically opposed, were arranged together in this painting. Just like the impression Night gave to Angel: even though he was a descendant of the Fire Transmission Demon and should be turbulent, intense, and evil, Night indeed possessed these traits, like the twisted burning mes in his hair and the me patterns on his face; but aside from these overt characteristics, Night gave Angel a sense of profound silence and tranquility, as orderly and calm as the vast expanse of night.

    Angel observed the painting for a long time; perhaps the painting was indeed filled with various expressive emotions, but he found no clue about ¡°Feng,¡± which Night had hinted at before.

    After an unknown period, Angel finally noticed a subtle hint in the lower right corner.

    He saw a line of faintly colored letters, almost blending with the surrounding darkness.

    To his surprise, the line was written in humanmonnguage.

    Name: ¡°Night,¡± Artist: Feng.

    Angel carefully examined the character ¡°Feng,¡± and a familiar memory suddenly flooded his mind.

    In the Wizards¡¯ Realm, there was a very famous painting that was regrly published in the Frostmoon Alliance¡¯s journal ¡°Chronicles of the Abyssal ne,¡± titled ¡°Apocalypse Catastrophe¡±! It depicted the disaster scene of the world turning upside down and the apocalypse induced by the Demon God¡¯s descent in the Southern Domain from the Abyssal ne ten thousand years ago.

    And the author of this painting was none other than the legendary ¡°Magic Painter¡± Mirafel Feng!

    Not long ago, Angel had seen ¡°Chronicles of the Abyssal ne¡± in Sanders¡¯s study, and the handwriting of ¡°Feng¡± there was identical to the ¡°Feng¡± on this painting!

    In fact, when Angel had seen the Tide World Map at the Shannon Royal Family, it too was painted by this Magic Painter Wizard. Although Feng had not signed it, the style of the handwriting was also identical to the one before him.

    Could it be that this work was truly painted by that legendary Magic Painter Wizard?

    If we assume this Feng is that Feng, and Feng is acquainted with both Odess and Night, then the painting in Odess¡¯s pce back then, could it not also have been guided by Feng?

    After being lost in thought for a moment, Angel looked again at the name Feng had given to the painting: ¡°Night¡±.

    This ¡°Night¡± could perhaps refer to the night of wildfires, the burning night, the restless night depicted in the painting; but it could also be referring to Night, the master of the Hunting Museum.

    Apart from the shock, Angel felt a small sense of pride in his heart. It seemed he shared a connection with the legendary Magic Painter Wizard.

    Behind him came the familiar sound of heavy footsteps. Soon, the owner of the footsteps stood by Angel¡¯s side; it was Night, who had left not long before.

    ¡°It looks like you¡¯ve recognized Feng¡¯s identity?¡±

    ¡°The Magic Painter Wizard is also a well-known figure in the Wizards¡¯ Realm.¡±

    Night tilted his head, ¡°Then you should know that there¡¯s another feature in Feng¡¯s paintings.¡±

    The next second, Angel felt his wrist being grasped. In his daze, he found himself getting closer and closer to the painting, and finally, he crashed headfirst into it.

    When Angel came back to his senses, he realized he was already under a sky dark as ink.

    In this dense darkness, Angel faintly saw ovepping mountains where, at their convergence, there seemed to be some manmade structures. However, those buildings were now aze with roaring mes.

    The mes burned fiercely, identical to those he had seen in the painting before. It was not only consuming the buildings but also burning a hole in the night sky.

    ¡°Is this inside the painting?¡± Angel muttered to himself in a low voice.

    ording to the records, the Magic Painter Wizard¡¯s brush could connect the nar and three-dimensional worlds and even reached the realm of legends through it.

    If it was truly the work of the Magic Painter Wizard, entering the painting would also seem natural, wouldn¡¯t it?

    He had actually entered paintings more than once. Back in the Nightmare Realm, he had been dragged into a painting that remained in Witch Town to this day. Moreover, Sanders had asserted that perhaps that painting was also a work of mystery.

    The feeling of entering this painting was somewhat different from that time in the Nightmare Realm.

    Here, Angel couldn¡¯t move. It was more like he was observing this space in the painting from God¡¯s View.

    Under the night sky, the fire kept burning and, faintly, he seemed to hear someone screaming in agony.

    The great fire burned for who knows how long, igniting forests and rivers, and even reached the front of Angel. In those mes, Angel saw some scenes: a painter whose face couldn¡¯t be seen was painting in front of a demon engulfed in mes. As the painting formed, the fires on the demon slowly extinguished, eventually bing¡­

    Night!

    The surrounding darkness faded at that moment, day and night reversed, and the mes died down. Angel discovered he hade out of the painting and was back in the Exhibition Hall, with Night quietly standing by his side. It seemed as if everything that had happened before was an illusion.

    ¡°I was born from that great fire,¡± Night said abruptly, ¡°The mes burned everything, including the mountains, the earth, the swath of night, and also my matriarchal side.¡±

    ¡°The Fire Transmission Demon is called so because it inherited the will of the mes and is always passing the fire, even at the moment of my infant birth.¡± Night started to smile, ¡°But fortunately, I met Feng, who used this ¡®Night¡¯ to lock away the fire in me.¡±

    This painting bound Night¡¯s mes and also his emotions. Perhaps, for the Fire Transmission Demon, this was absurd. A proud fire demon needs the freedom to burn, to pass on the fire; how can it be bound?

    Yet, being bound, Night didn¡¯t act recklessly out of emotional impulse. It became calmer and more resilient, so it could focus on what it wanted to do. As a result, its power grew at an unimaginably rapid pace.

    In just a few hundred years, Night had reached the power level only one step shy of a Demon Lord.

    Tranted into thenguage of the Wizards¡¯ Realm, Night¡¯s current level isparable to that of Lord Monty.

    You must know, it is a Half-Blood Demon, naturally weaker than the Pureblood Demons. Yet while many Pureblood Demons could not break through their ss ceilings, it did. Therefore, Feng¡¯s painting ys a significant role.

    ¡°Actually, the mes in this painting can be increased. Whenever I can¡¯t suppress the emotions in my heart, a new me will appear in the painting, until the night is consumed by the great fire,¡± Night spoke indifferently, ¡°So, when you said this painting is me, you weren¡¯t wrong.¡±

    ¡°Remember you asked why I trust you and want to help you?¡± Night looked at the painting, ¡°Because Feng once told me that the night in the painting, before a certain time point, cannot be allowed topletely turn into a sea of mes, so I never thought of breaking free of the Constraint.¡±

    ¡°And the time point Feng mentioned was.¡±

    ¡°When a human seeks me out in his name, that¡¯s when I can no longer be bound by this night.¡±

    Angel looked at Night with a hint of surprise and pointed at himself: ¡°Are you saying¡­ me?¡±

    Night nodded. Although it didn¡¯t see anything wrong with the Constraint of ¡®Night¡¯, this painting not only gave it the capital for rapid growth but also bound thest step it needed to break through.

    So, one day, it wouldpletely turn this night into mes.

 Chapter 1053: Section 1054: The Wordless Script

    Chapter 1053: Section 1054: The Wordless Script

    Angel was just as bewildered. Why was it him?

    Why had he be the key factor in a crucial decision that would obviously alter someone else¡¯s trajectory?

    Had Feng seen it through Divination? Or was it simply that in the wilderness of time, he hadn¡¯t arrived too early or toote, but just in time?

    Angel shared his confusion with Night.

    Night¡¯s answer, however, made him even more perplexed, ¡°Anyone could havee looking for me, or perhaps it could only have been you.¡±

    To Night, who came looking wasn¡¯t significant, the timing was. Maybe Feng had truly foreseen this meeting with this human, or maybe Feng had merely set a limitation for him, but no matter what, Night needed to know only one thing: the time hade. All other details were just prerequisites for this conclusion, important at the moment but dispensable thereafter.

    However, if Night were to address Angel¡¯s doubts, it personally leaned towards the theory that ¡°it was all predestined.¡± In other words, Feng might have foreseen the current situation through some method.

    Because the timing was too coincidental, just as Night¡¯s power had hit the most critical step, a step further and it would reach the Demon Lord rank, and it had also justpleted the final step of self-control. Now, the only thing hindering its progress, besides energy constraints, was¡­ this painting.

    The energy constraints were solvable, but this painting, if Angel hadn¡¯te looking, might never have obscured the night within it.

    Such coincidental timing, such a serendipitous encounter, naturally made Night inclined to believe that Angel was destined to seek it out.

    Seeing Angel still confused, Night spoke indifferently, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter who you are, nor do you need to take responsibility for my future. For when Feng gave me this painting, it was already destined that the pale fire would overturn the night within. This oue was preordained; you¡¯re just caught up in the moment.¡±

    A flicker of doubt passed through Angel¡¯s eyes. Perhaps he was indeed just caught in the moment, but was it really that simple? Was there no deeper meaning behind Feng¡¯s choice to make him the one to change Night¡¯s circumstances?

    Angel didn¡¯t know, but it seemed that was all there was to it for now.

    Angel looked at the painting, ¡°Then¡­ when will Night make this darkness disappear?¡±

    ¡°Night never disappears. Even if obscured by great mes, it still exists.¡±

    Night¡¯s response seemed to carry a double meaning. However, what Angel really wanted to know was what Night would do after the nocturne in the painting was reced by mes, whether Night¡¯s next actions would also be within Feng¡¯s foresight, and whether Angel would continue to y a new role in it.

    To his confusion, Night simply chuckled, ¡°How fate will y out is never clear after just one foretelling. If you confine your thoughts within Feng¡¯s foresight, you¡¯ll always be within the script. Even if the y isn¡¯t as Feng envisioned.¡±

    Night¡¯s words reminded Angel of a jest he once read about Divination: true prophecy is not written with a pen but fashioned with scissors into an unwritten script.

    Perhaps Feng¡¯s foresight was just a whimsical thought, cutting out an unwritten script. Even Feng may not be clear about what the script holds.

    But, a script is still a script. No matter how it concludes, it can¡¯t escape the framework of the y.

    So, if Angel keeps his thoughts within Feng¡¯s script, any choice he makes in the future will be deemed a foresight, and he¡¯ll remain trapped within the script.

    But fate is ever capricious, not prescriptive.

    Thinking this, Angel nodded thoughtfully.

    ¡°Let¡¯s talk about the materials,¡± Night said, bringing the topic away from Feng and back to business, capturing Angel¡¯s attention again.

    ¡°The Earth Vein Firestone required for crafting the Fire Transmission Stone originally only needed to be sedimentary for a millennium, but you¡¯ve provided ample Demon Gold Coins, so I¡¯ve chosen for you a piece that¡¯s been sedimentary for ten thousand years.¡± Night paused, then continued, ¡°I¡¯ve also gathered all the materials for the White Ash Fire Solvent. Give me a day, and I will have it concocted with Hell Pale Fire.¡±

    The White Ash Fire Solvent had to be concocted with Hell Pale Fire, and only Night could aplish this.

    Night produced the Earth Vein Firestone and other assorted materials, and Angel collected them one by one. Aside from the White Ash Fire Solvent, he noticed there was another primary material, the shard of the Fire Transmission Stone, which Night hadn¡¯t presented yet.

    ¡°The shard of the Fire Transmission Stone is required in great quantity and isn¡¯t avable just yet. Wait for two or three days, and it should arrive.¡±

    Two or three days? Angel calcted quickly. If he returned to Ice Valley immediately after the goods arrived, he should have enough time, so he nodded to Night, ¡°Then I¡¯ll trouble you, Night.¡±

    ¡°No need for courtesy.¡± Night replied ndly, ¡°I¡¯m going to concoct the White Ash Fire Solvent. Tomorrow at this time, you cane and get it.¡±

    With those words, Night turned and vanished into the darkness.

    Angel turned back to nce at the painting hanging on the wall, looking at the mes suppressed by the darkness, seemingly glimpsing thatnd of fire transmission.

    Recalling Night¡¯s serene figure, he suddenly became curious about what Night would be after the darknesspletely disappeared. Without suppression and constraint, would Night be like the Fire Transmission Demon, monstrous and ferocious, transforming into an endless sea of fire and sweeping across the Scorched Earth?

    He shook his head with a smile, casting away the cumbersome thoughts, and Angel turned to leave.

    After leaving the Hunting Museum, Angel walked toward the Misty Cabin while pondering his next n. He had originally thought he would only need to stay in Lassudral for another day, but due to a shortage of Fire Transmission Stone fragments, he would now have to stay for three more days.

    Since that was the case, he decided to keep the Misty Cabin open.

    Demons had absolutely no interaction with humans, so the supplies and prices in Demon City didn¡¯t fluctuate with human demand. Furthermore, Demon City had many unique materials; Angel nned to take this opportunity to earn more Demon Gold Coins and stockpile some.

    After all, it was difficult to tell whether there would be another chance to visit Demon City in the future.

    Moreover, even if he did enter Demon Cityter on, he probably wouldn¡¯t have the same timely and favorable conditions that allowed him to purchase precious demon resources with the connections of the Night Householder.

    Soon, Angel arrived in the forest where the Misty Cabin was located.

    The fresh air, coupled with the dappled tree shadows, made Angel feel quitefortable. Before, after arriving at the Abyss, his impression of the Abyss was only twofold: hopelessness and endless oppression.

    Having such a leisurely moment in the stifling Abyss was indeed quite rare.

    However, this pleasant time didn¡¯tst long. When Angel got to the door of the Misty Cabin, he found himself being watched¡­ no, stared down by a demon.

    The fireball, with its red eyes, red at Angel fiercely.

    In those bloodshot eyes, Angel faintly saw a hint of grievance.

    Angel sighed; he hadn¡¯t expected this young fire demon to be so persistent. He had spent a good half of the day at the Hunting Museum, and upon his return, this little one was still guarding the door.

    It had caught him off guard.

    With Fafnir in the cabin suppressing it, the young fire demon didn¡¯t dare toy hands on him; it just red at him with those eyes.

    Without saying a word, yet filled with deep perseverance.

    Angel¡¯s head tingled under the stare, and the young fire demon was blocking his path, so in the end, he sighed and said, ¡°Sigh, what exactly do you want? I didn¡¯t let you experience the ¡®Rhythm of the Ocean¡¯ for your own good; you¡¯re a fire system demon. If you experienced the essence of the water system, you would end up hurting yourself.¡±

    The young fire demon was also surprised that Angel spoke to it. It had caused amotion outside for half a day, and the dark-skinned woman inside either threw it out orpletely ignored it, which left it feeling very stifled and aggrieved.

    It also didn¡¯t understand why it was so persistent ining here; it just felt very unwilling, as no one had ever treated it this way before.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care, I want to experience it!¡± Perhaps because of a rebellious attitude, even though the young fire demon realized what the indigenous person in front of it might be saying was true, it didn¡¯t want to lose face.

    The young fire demon spoke in Abyss Language, which was much more standard than Angel¡¯s, but perhaps because it was so young, its tone always had a childish milkiness to it.

    Just a brat that bes restless without its milk. Angelmented silently in his heart.

    ¡°If you really want to experience it that much, you can. But don¡¯t me me for not warning you if you get seriously hurt,¡± Angel paused then added, ¡°Our shop is already closed today;e back tomorrow if you want to experience it.¡±

    The softening of Angel¡¯s tone made the young fire demon¡¯s furious stare falter a little, and it asked with a dubious expression, ¡°Are you serious?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯te and swing at me again?¡±

    ¡°As long as you don¡¯t disturb the other customers, I won¡¯te swinging at you.¡±

    Having obtained the assurance, the young fire demon then sulkily put on an expression of sky-high haughtiness and said, ¡°Hmph, then I¡¯lle back tomorrow. If you dare go back on your word then, I will set you on fire.¡±

    After saying that, the young fire demon changed its previous demeanor and floated leisurely out of the forest, its ck tail swinging fiercely, as if it were a little puppy rewarded with milk.

    Angel shook his head and opened the door to enter the cabin, but just then, he felt a hot gaze on his back.

    He turned around, puzzled, to see that in the distance, the young fire demon had hopped over to the edge of the forest, and beside it was a figure wrapped in a red robe. The young fire demon was impatiently talking to the red-robed person, and the gaze that Angel had felt wasing from that red-robed person looking his way.

    The hood of the red-robed person was up, so their features were obscured, but Angel could feel that even while talking to the young fire demon, their eyes were sizing him up. Moreover, that gaze was filled withplex emotions: puzzlement, malice, skepticism, and wariness.

    Is it the young fire demon¡¯s servant? Angel wondered. Judging by the way they interacted, it did seem as though there was a servant¡¯s demeanor.

    Not long ago in the Land of Rest, Angel had encountered Stientrofehr, who was a servant to a certain Sheep Demon. It was normal for a young fire demon from the inneryers of the Abyss, a member of the demon nobility, to have servants.

    Angel ignored the gaze; anyway, he wouldn¡¯t be staying here much longer.

 Chapter 1054: Section 1055 Aoluxiya

    Chapter 1054: Section 1055 Aoluxiya

    The Young Fire Demon felt quite aggrieved at this moment. It had barely emerged victorious in resistance, persuading the owner of that store to change his mind, only to have its joy cut short by the wicked butler¡¯s interjection.

    ¡°Young Master Greerwu, that store is not simple at all, and if it¡¯s not necessary, you better not go there again.¡± The butler Tandin, dressed in a red robe, expressed his opinion elegantly using the undting tones of the ancient Demon Language.

    ¡°Why not?¡± Greerwu, the Young Fire Demon, hadn¡¯t switched back from Abyss Language, and replied subconsciously in it, but upon realizing his impropriety, he hastily corrected himself in the ancient Demon Language, ¡°I¡¯m going anyway.¡±

    Tandin, the butler, with a calm face, disdainfully said, ¡°As a noble of the demons, young Master Greerwu, how can you resort to using the inferior Abyss Language?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s none of your business! Anyway, I¡¯m going tomorrow!¡± Greerwu retorted discontentedly, ¡°Besides, what¡¯s so unusual about that store¡ªit¡¯s just some powerful woman, but she wouldn¡¯t dare to kill me anyway.¡±

    The butler Tandin said indifferently, ¡°ording to my observations, that woman is very likely an adult Abyssal Dragon, whose power is not inferior to that of the Master. Furthermore, there is a peculiar aura on that indigenous person, especially¡­ the mark on his earlobe, which is a crest of a powerful me creature.¡±

    The presence of such a powerful force behind a store was definitely questionable. As a butler, it was his duty to eliminate any threats looming near Greerwu.

    ¡°I don¡¯t sense any malice; I¡¯ve decided to go tomorrow anyway.¡± After Greerwu spoke, noticing that the butler¡¯s face was growing increasingly darker, he remembered the mission that brought him to Lassudral, and said in a tone not even he believed, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, nothing will happen.¡±

    ¡°By the time something happens, it¡¯ll be toote.¡± The butler Tandin frowned and, while feeling anxious and unable to persuade Greerwu, pondered if there were other ways to convince him. Suddenly, as if struck by an idea, his eyes lit up¡ªhe might not be able to do it, but that person¡¯s words surely could.

    ¡°Let¡¯s set this aside for now. We¡¯ve been here for a day and have yet to find our target. Let¡¯s go back and contact Lord Aoluxiya to report the situation here,¡± the butler Tandin said.

    At the mention of Aoluxiya, Greerwu stiffened. If there was anyone he feared more than his own father, it was Aoluxiya. Although they were all of a simr age, not only was Aoluxiya¡¯s strength terrifyingly profound, but his schemes also outstripped Greerwu¡¯s by far. In front of Aoluxiya, Greerwu felt like a worthless little coal briquette.

    Despite Aoluxiya¡¯s fondness and even indulgence towards him, Greerwu was still very afraid of him.

    For this reason, when Aoluxiya decided to send a vanguard to investigate Lassudral and search for the Primeval me, Greerwu actively chose toe along with the butler Tandin.

    ¡°Butler Tandin, can we discuss something?¡± The previously obstinate Greerwu suddenly changed his expression, wagging his little tail while smiling ingratiatingly at the butler Tandin.

    ¡°Please speak, young Master Greerwu.¡± Although Tandin already knew what Greerwu was about to say, he still maintained a professional listening posture and respectfully asked.

    ¡°When you contact Lord Aoluxiyater, you mustn¡¯t bring up anything about me, okay?¡±

    The butler Tandin smiled, just about to answer when he abruptly turned towards a not-toorge building.

    Staring at the structure, his expression was one of puzzlement.

    ¡°Butler Tandin, what are you looking at?¡± Greerwu also looked toward the building. ¡°The Hunting Museum? Is there something wrong with that ce?¡±

    Tandin hesitated, ¡°Earlier, I faintly sensed a familiar aura from within the museum, like a hint of the Water System¡¯s power? It seems to have a trace of the Primeval me¡¯s scent. However, it is too subdued and too diluted to be the overwhelming presence of the Primeval me¡­¡±

    ¡°I can sense the Primeval me, and I definitely haven¡¯t felt its presence in this tiny Hunting Museum. You must be mistaken.¡± Greerwu knew the purpose of his trip, so the moment Tandin mentioned the Primeval me, he seriously attuned himself, but to no avail.

    ¡°Perhaps I was indeed mistaken. But young Master Greerwu, if you think this Hunting Museum is small, the Misty Cabin we saw earlier is less than one-thirtieth the size of this one,¡± Tandin said.

    Greerwu replied nonchntly, ¡°I never said the Misty Cabin was big. So what if it¡¯s small? What I care about is not its size, it¡¯s¡ªit¡¯s¡­¡±

    As he spoke thest line, Greerwu¡¯s voice gradually weakened, evidently not wanting Tandin to hear. When Tandin looked over, Greerwu quickly changed the topic, ¡°About the matter I was discussing with you just now, you haven¡¯t answered yet. You can¡¯t tell Lord Aoluxiya about my activities!¡±

    Butler Tandin: ¡°Even if I don¡¯t tell, given Lord Aoluxiya¡¯s attitude towards you, they will ask.¡±

    ¡°If they ask, just say I haven¡¯t done anything.¡±

    The butler Tandin nodded and then maintained a smiling yet silent demeanor. Lying in front of Aoluxiya would certainly be detected, and when the time came for him to ¡°bepelled¡± to tell the truth, no me could fall on him.

    After a while, in a hall where the gloomy fires burned, Greerwu¡¯s whiny voice could be heard: ¡°Tandin, you lied¡ª¡±

    With Greerwu¡¯s call, Tandin the butler chuckled and said, ¡°I did not deceive the young master, it was Lord Aoluxiya who discovered it himself.¡±

    As Tandin¡¯s voice fell, a third sound emerged in the empty hall.

    The source of the sound was an ice-blue ghostly me. Even though it was me, this ghostly me emitted a coldness that made Greerwu somewhat afraid.

    ¡°Greerwu, why do you insist on visiting that seemingly extraordinary shop?¡± The voice was gentle and elegant, yet inexplicably carried an air of authority and solemnity.

    Greerwu pursed his lips, red at Tandin the butler, and then slowly addressed the ice-blue ghostly me, ¡°Lord Aoluxiya, actually, I initially just went there for fun, because there were many water system demon big sisters there. But then, I noticed that after experiencing the sea rhythm, the energy inside those demon big sisters greatly enhanced. I even heard that yesterday, there were two instances of breakthrough phenomena, one of which involved an ocean demon.¡±

    Greerwu spoke of things even Tandin the butler did not know. Tandin had been out searching for the Primeval me and had not kept track of where Greerwu had gone. Onlyter, when he found Greerwu, did he discover that the shop was out of the ordinary. As for the experiences offered by the shop, he truly did not know what they entailed.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been in the juvenile stage for many years now with no signs of transformation,¡± Greerwu said, with a hint of grievance, ¡°At that time, I thought that the sea rhythm might also be effective for me, so I wanted to give it a try. But I kept getting thrown out by that dark-skinned, violent woman. Later, I don¡¯t know if it was out of defiance or something else, but I kept wanting to go back¡­¡±

    In front of the daunting Aoluxiya, Greerwu shared all his experiences, including his inner thoughts.

    After listening to Greerwu¡¯s exnation, the ice-blue ghostly me fell silent for a moment before continuing in a steady frequency, ¡°I see. However, my dear Greerwu, since the shop owner has already said that experiencing the sea rhythm might severely injure you, it¡¯s probably better if you do not go.¡±

    ¡°But I¡¯ve already promised, and if I don¡¯t go¡­¡± wouldn¡¯t I be looked down upon by that indigenous person?

    Aoluxiya¡¯s gentle voice came with an irrefutable tone, ¡°Your mission now is to sense the location of the Primeval me. Only by finding it can you open that passage. Currently, I¡¯ve received word that some humans have their eyes on me, so I can¡¯t stay on the surface for too long. I can only rely on you now.¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡± The juvenile fire demon Greerwu said, looking down, clearly unhappy.

    ¡°That shop you¡¯re talking about, once I go to Lassudral, I will check it out for you. If it¡¯s truly useful to you, I will let you know, and then it won¡¯t be toote for you to go,¡± Aoluxiya said.

    After Aoluxiya finished speaking, the first to react was not Greerwu but Tandin the butler, who had maintained a spectator¡¯s attitude.

    In a tone of urgency, it said, ¡°Lord Aoluxiya, how could you visit that kind of shop?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I am just curious as to why messengers from Fafnir and Odess would appear there. After all, I still owe Binaqionse a favor,¡± Aoluxiya said, and after these words, Tandin looked at the ice-blue ghostly me but ultimately did not say anything further.

    After the conversation ended, the ice-blue ghostly me slowly vanished. In the empty hall, only Greerwu and Tandin remained.

    Greerwu felt somewhat gloomy. Although Aoluxiya had notpletely shut off his path, he was certain to be looked down upon by that indigenous person; he might even be mocked and ridiculed by that dark-skinned, violent woman. Thinking of this, Greerwu felt a stifling sensation in his heart, his expression showing evident distress.

    Tandin did not want to provoke Greerwu, especially since it had previously discreetly encouraged Lord Aoluxiya to inquire about Greerwu¡¯s matters. It could only gently soothe Greerwu by saying, ¡°Lord Aoluxiya will not break his promise. Once the Primeval me is found, he will cross the boundaries ande¡­ As long as we find it quickly enough, Lord Aoluxiya cane earlier, and once tested, wouldn¡¯t the young master be able to go to the Misty Cabin sooner?¡±

    Greerwu was taken aback for a moment; Tandin the butler¡¯s words seemed to make some sense. If he could find the Primeval me in the next couple of days, wouldn¡¯t that mean Aoluxiya coulde straight away? Then, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about being looked down upon by that indigenous shop owner!

    With this thought, Greerwu¡¯s motivation to find the Primeval me swelled enormously, his eyes gleaming with intense brilliance.

    ¡­

    Meanwhile, in the attic of the Misty Cabin.

    Perhaps freed from the pressure of gathering materials, Angel was now beginning to ponder other issues beyond mere survival.

    Such as the situation with Sanders; the construction of the door; and¡­ the Eye of the Sky.

    Thest disturbance of the Eye of the Sky had been roughly guessed by Angel, probably caused by an interdimensional passage connecting to the Pamiji teau that affected the nar fusion. Then, the specks of light travelled through the interdimensional passage, activating the Eye of the Sky.

    Angel could now confirm that the activation of the Eye of the Sky was due to the strange energy produced during nar fusion.

    However, what he was more curious about now was the wondrous world he had been taken to after the Eye of the Sky wasst opened.

 Chapter 1055: Section 1056: Unspeakable Breath

    Chapter 1055: Section 1056: Unspeakable Breath

    Several clear characteristics emerged after entering that bizarre world.

    He did not enter as a physical entity, but as a luminous consciousness. Moreover, this consciousness only had memory, experience, ways of thinking, and logical thought, without the emotional module.

    In other words, in that strange world, he maintained an extreme rationality.

    This extreme rational thinking even surpassed the super-calctive state that Angel had initiated himself.

    In the super-calctive state, although Angel¡¯s ability to process data and information reached unprecedented levels, he did notpletely exclude emotions, and he would be restricted by considerations when thinking about problems.

    But in that bizarre world, Angel would have no such concerns. For instance, before entering the strange world, the outside world was threatened by magical creatures, but once he entered, he wouldpletely disregard this.

    Furthermore, Angel did not know until he returned to the outside world that time in the bizarre world was static in rtion to the Wizards¡¯ Realm. He studied the construction of ¡°gates¡± in the strange world for a long time; if the flow rate of thought werepared to time, perhaps three or even four years had passed.

    If so much time had passed, not to mention Jon would have already been gone, even Angel¡¯s own physical body in the outside world, without the supply of food and water, would probably have turned into white bones. Yet in that strange world, Angel did not care about this either.

    Although this extreme rationality greatly enhanced his learning ability in the strange world, it also caused him some fear, as if he had be a cold segment of data.

    Apart from the consciousness spark, the exclusion of emotions, and the stillness of time, another characteristic of that strange world was that although he could not perceive his physical body or the real Material Realm, he could sense the Mind Space, the Land of the Soul, and the Spirit Sea.

    The Mind Space, the Land of the Soul, the Spirit Sea, and so on¡­ these existences are thought by wizards to be rted to themselves, but not actually part of the Material Realm, and instead reside at a higher ne of existence.

    Of course, this is just conjecture, not a definitive conclusion. For Angel, it meant that ces like the Mind Space were illusorynds belonging to another dimension, or rather, the projections of personal will in other dimensions.

    Thinking this, Angel¡¯s gaze once again fell upon the Eye Beyond the Sky.

    He had an inkling that, despite the Eye Beyond the Sky appearing to be an unpolished ss Bead, perhaps that was just its manifestation in this Material Realm, and its true form might be vast and boundless in another dimension.

    For example, after Angel entered that bizarre world, he was guided by an indistinct perception to a special energy core, which emitted the same aura as the Eye Beyond the Sky. Perhaps, that energy core was but an aspect of the Eye Beyond the Sky.

    As time quietly slipped by, Angel examined the Eye Beyond the Sky, looking for a way to activate it. Unfortunately, the Eye Beyond the Sky was nowpletely inert, unresponsive to any energy, perhaps only reactivatable through absorption of the energy from a ne fusion.

    ¡°Foolish human, I saw you looking at this ne before my rest. What, is this ne important to you?¡± A snort came from not far away.

    Angel looked up to see Fafnir¡¯s face at the window of the attic.

    Fafnir had been sleeping on the roof, and the attic window opened onto it.

    Angel lowered his brows and in a nostalgic tone, whispered softly, ¡°This was given to me by the person closest to me. It holds great significance to me.¡±

    Fafnir pursed her lips, thinking it might be something like a parental heirloom. Initially curious, she now lost interest.

    Fafnir no longer mentioned the ne but said seriously, ¡°You promised that young fire demon to let it experience the ocean¡¯s rhythm.¡±

    Angel nodded as it was a matter done in Fafnir¡¯s presence; why was she bringing it up again all of a sudden?

    After a moment of silence, Fafnir said, ¡°Earlier, I saw the serving fire demon by that young fire demon, and it carried an unspeakable aura.¡±

    Serving fire demon? Angel recalled seeing a red-robed figure by the young fire demon that seemed to be in a master-servant rtionship. Could it be the serving fire demon?

    Fafnir nodded, confirming Angel¡¯s guess.

    ¡°An unspeakable aura, you mean¡­¡± Angel asked in confusion.

    For an instant, Fafnir looked dazed. When she first saw that serving fire demon, she felt a strange aura surrounding it¡­ Now that she thought about it, the young fire demon also had it, though faint.

    Fafnir had not paid attention initially, until shey resting on the roof. She had only meant to close her eyes, but ended up falling asleep. In her sleep, she dreamt of when, as a young dragon, her father took her to the inneryers for a demon celebration. At that event, she first witnessed the greatest beings of the Abyss!

    When she awoke, recalling the terrifying, gigantic silhouette from her dream, Fafnir suddenly remembered the aura on that serving fire demon.

    ¡°Demon God.¡± Fafnir said, ¡°That serving fire demon is tinged with a trace of the Demon God¡¯s aura; it might not be the Demon God itself, but it is a descendant, and since the aura hasn¡¯t dissipated, it suggests they have recently been in contact with something rted to the Demon God.¡±

    In Angel¡¯s shocked expression, Fafnir continued, ¡°Anyway, anything that can carry the Demon God¡¯s aura is not to be taken lightly. Try not to host that young fire demon. Even if you do, it¡¯s best not to let it get hurt.¡±

    After giving a solemn warning to Angel, Fafnir left with a heavy heart. However, Angel¡¯s shock had not yet subsided.

    Demon God¡¯s aura? A descendant of the Demon God?

    Swallowing dryly, Angel suddenly thought of something, ¡°It can¡¯t be such a coincidence, can it?¡±

    He had already learned from Sanders that the Frostmoon Alliance had been setting up in the Abyss for so long for a purpose. Wasn¡¯t it all to hunt down the offspring of a Demon God, so that Monty could break through the final barrier and advance to the rank of Legend!

    Previously, at Watchguard Fortress, Angel learned that the Critical Forest was likely the ce where the offspring of the Demon God would appear, which worried him greatly. He had onlye to the Abyss to ask Sanders to solve Jon¡¯s problem and did not want any additionalplications. Later, the arrival of the Pilgrim of Misfortune ended the possibility of the Demon God¡¯s offspring appearing, and only then did Angel begin to rx a little.

    Yet before long, he came to Lassudral on a mission and unexpectedly encountered a demon with the aura of a Demon God.

    Could it be¡­ that the legendary offspring of the Demon God was nning toe from Lassudral to the surfaceyer of the Abyss?

    ¡°It can¡¯t be this coincidental,¡± Angel muttered to himself as if trying to hypnotize himself.

    At this moment, a crisp ¡°ting-a-ling¡± sound suddenly came through the wind.

    It was the sound of wind chimes, the ones Angel had hung outside the yard before.

    Angel walked absentmindedly down from the attic, opened the back door, and found that it was Canaan who had rung the wind chimes.

    Canaan was now leaning against a big tree, and although only the side of his face was visible, his expression carried a strange sense of satisfaction.

    His hair was no longer tied up as before, butpletely let down. With the wind blowing, his water-blue long hair fluttered and danced in the air. Together with the blue horn on his forehead, and theke-like sparkling eyes, he looked quite striking and beautiful against the backlight.

    The changes in Canaan were not just limited to letting his hair down. His formerly in and light dress had somehow stained with specks of deep red.

    Like fallen camellia flowers in the snow, strikingly vibrant and somewhat harsh on the eyes.

    The sound of Angeling downstairs made Canaan turn his head. Angel also saw the other half of Canaan¡¯s face¡­ smeared with vivid red blood.

    Now, Angel understood what the red dots on Canaan¡¯s dress were; they were likely bloodstains too.

    Canaan, with a blood-covered face, began tough joyfully, almost hysterically. After a long while, he stopped and said to Angel:

    ¡°Shopkeeper, I have returned. Also, thank you¡ª¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s there to thank.¡± Angel walked into the yard and began to recreate an Illusionary Realm, ¡°Now that you¡¯re back, let¡¯s open the shop.¡±

    Canaan hummed in agreement, then said, ¡°Shopkeeper, aren¡¯t you curious why I¡¯m thanking you?¡±

    Angel stopped, ¡°You have your reasons to thank, why should I inquire? Clean yourself up and get ready to receive today¡¯s guests.¡±

    Canaan had wanted to say that he had taken his revenge, finally crushing the Serpent Tail Demon that had humiliated him under his feet, all thanks to the rhythms of the ocean. He was grateful for the new life Angel brought him. However, Angel¡¯s nonchnt reply left him slightly taken aback, and though he had much on his mind, he swallowed his words in the end.

    ¡°Alright.¡± Canaan gave a charming smile, as if sweeping away all the dust and stains from the past.

    As a blue light flickered, the bloodstains on Canaan¡¯s body vanished instantly, and he was restored to his fresh and clean appearance. Then, he prepared to return to the shop.

    At this point, Angel suddenly called out to him.

    ¡°Canaan, has anything big happened in Lassudral recently?¡±

    Canaan, puzzled, replied, ¡°A big event? What do you mean, shopkeeper?¡±

    ¡°Like the arrival of a significant figure, or rumors of Demon City beginning martialw?¡± Angel asked.

    Canaan thought for a moment and shook his head, ¡°I haven¡¯t heard anything of the sort.¡±

    Angel nodded, signaling Canaan to attend to his own matters while he turned back to the attic.

    The answer Canaan gave, to be honest, eased Angel slightly. Since Lassudral had no reaction, it also meant that his previous guess might have been wrong; the suspected offspring of the Demon God might note in the short term, or perhaps he was scaring himself and there was no such thing as the Demon God¡¯s offspring at all.

    Either way, his stay in Lassudral was to be not more than three days; once he left in three days, even if the Demon God¡¯s offspring dide, it would no longer concern him.

    With this thought, Angel¡¯s originally apprehensive mood rxed a bit.

    However, there was still an urgent matter that needed Angel¡¯s attention.

    Regarding the juvenile Fire Demon.

    Fafnir had told him to treat the juvenile Fire Demon with caution, so he had to take it seriously.

 Chapter 1056: Section 1057: Disorder of the Evil God

    Chapter 1056: Section 1057: Disorder of the Evil God

    Since Angel had promised the young fire demon that he would let it experience the rhythm of the sea today, he naturally couldn¡¯t break his word. He had to think of a way to satisfy the young fire demon without actually letting it get hurt.

    After considering for a moment, he realized that the young fire demon had never actually experienced the rhythm of the ocean. He couldpletely use a different Illusionary Realm to¡­

    With a general direction in mind, Angel began to contemte which Illusionary Realm to use to deal with the young fire demon.

    As time passed, the wind chimes in the yard chimed more than once.

    Angel also went downstairs from time to time to initiate the rhythm of the sea for the guests. However, what puzzled him was that during this process, the young fire demon never showed up.

    This made Angel breathe a sigh of relief, but also raised some doubts. Given that bratty kid¡¯s trouble-making energy, it shouldn¡¯t have given up so easily, right? Could it be that the fire demon general had persuaded it to stay away? If that was the case, he would be very thankful.

    In just half a day, Angel had received five groups of guests, each group consisting of thirty people. This meant that his ie alone had exceeded forty-five thousand Demon Gold Coins.

    This was an unimaginable sum, even for Canaan who had mixed in Demon City for ten years; it was the first time he had seen such a huge amount of money.

    Among these five groups of guests, a Half-Blood Demon and two small demons caused some phenomena to ur. This led to an increase in attention towards the Misty Cabin, and both the trend and poprity continued to surge.

    Because this revenue was apparent to everyone, including the guests, the number of people eyeing them also increased.

    Although they were already very showy, if they continued to operate today, with each group bringing in nine thousand Demon Gold Coins, it may not just be a matter of being watched. Jealous demons might start to act rashly, preparing to make their move without concern.

    Therefore, Angel decisively chose to close the shop. After all, he had already earned enough, and Demon Gold Coins that couldn¡¯t be spent were a waste. Moreover, Angel was also worried about the young fire demon suddenly showing up again, so closing the shop early would give him an excuse to refuse if needed.

    However, even though Angel had closed the shop, the ensuing waves it brought were still not over.

    ¡­

    In the thirdyer of the Abyss, above the Upside-Down Falls,y Sky Ind.

    The once prosperous Sky Ind was now reduced to ruins and a sea of fire. Crumbled walls, rising smoke, withered limbs, and bodies lying amidst the sparks, plunging into eternal silence.

    A braided child missing an arm knelt on the ground, tears silently streaming down.

    In front of himy the body of an Apprentice: short and plump, and even in theplete absence of life, his face still bore an honest and simple expression.

    If Angel were here, he would recognize at a nce that the braided child and the short plump apprentice were the two apprentices who used to hang around with Popota; they were the ones who had told Angel about the Mystic Vortex Silver Ring and Toby.

    The braided child¡¯s head slowly drooped, resting on the plump apprentice¡¯s belly, tears flowing silently.

    In the Abyss, where despair was ever-present, only Darcy and Popota were there to support and care for him, preventing him from sinking. But now, everything was over.

    Popota had mysteriously disappeared on the way to the Watchguard Fortress. In the Twilight Mountains, infested with demons, the chances of Popota surviving were close to zero.

    Now, Darcy too had been killed by that terrifying Evil God, and the braided child felt despair and boundless loneliness for the first time.

    He was not alone in his plight, for in this inexplicable battle, many more than just the plump apprentice had died. Even Official Wizards had fallen to the Evil God¡¯s assault.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± asked a white-browed little old man wearing a triangr wizard¡¯s hat, the current master of the House of Lilith, Kanter of the Night.

    Sanders looked away from the braided child and shook his head, ¡°Nothing much, just feeling some emotion looking at Sky Ind¡¯s devastation. I arrived one step toote.¡±

    Kanter also noticed the corpses among the ruins. He sighed, ¡°s, there are soul sorcerers collecting souls now. Let¡¯s see if they get a chance to trace their origins back.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect that even without entering Watchguard Fortress, we¡¯d be yed,¡± Kanter couldn¡¯t help but swear under his breath. ¡°It¡¯s all Brufen¡¯s fault, that glutton. If he could have just controlled his cravings a bit longer, he wouldn¡¯t have rushed to steam the f Tentacle Crabs he caught as soon as he returned to Sky Ind.¡±

    Kanter had already learned from Sanders that the f Tentacle Crab might have been tainted with misfortune. Brufen ate it, and problems arose on the spot.

    ¡°It¡¯s not just Brufen,¡± Sanders shook his head. ¡°In this battle, more than one Official Wizard died, so there could be many who ate the f Tentacle Crabs¡­ but who could¡¯ve expected Brufen to secretly want to revive a powerful Evil God, leading to him bing the source of disaster.¡±

    Kanter knew that everyone, including Brufen, had their innocence, but he was just too angry.

    It was bad enough that Brufen was the source of the cmity, but in the end, the guy even survived, and who knows what he fiddled with, but he ended up as skinny as a rail. He had shed all his fat and even dispelled the Cmity Curse from his body.

    The trouble he¡¯d caused was now his own problem, yet he was living the most carefree life. Kanter felt an itching in his teeth just thinking about it; he himself had sustained severe injuries in this chaos caused by the Evil God.

    Kanter was about to voice anotherint when a cold breeze suddenly swept through the sky.

    Apanied by the cold wind, snowkes began to flutter down from the heavens.

    These delicate snowkes danced gracefully in the wind, twirling around beforending among the remnants of war-torn ruins and upon the mncholic apprentices.

    The heavy snowfall cleansed the bloodstains on the ground, extinguished the smoke of yesterday¡¯s battles, and healed all the injuries that the living apprentices had suffered.

    Clearly, this was no ordinary snowfall.

    At that moment, two distinctly separate diamond-shaped snowkesnded on Sanders and Kanter, dissolving into water and vanishing. At the same time, they received a message in their ears.

    ¡°Did you get it too? Lord Monty has asked us toe over,¡± Kanter said.

    Sanders nodded, the Traceless Snow enveloping the entire Sky Ind had healing properties, purified thend, and also conveyed messages. Such nuanced maniption of snow was something probably only Lord Monty, known as ¡°Endless Frost Cold,¡± could achieve.

    One might consider it either good or bad luck, but although Sky Ind had suffered great damage, the timely arrival of Sanders and Rhein Mute had stabilized the situation. However, the resurrected Evil God was too powerful, and there were too many afflicted by the Cmity Curse; there was no immediate way topletely eradicate it.

    Then, out of nowhere, Lord Monty, who had been out of contact, suddenly returned to the main base of Frostmoon¡ªSky Ind.

    With Lord Monty¡¯s return, he and Rhein Mute eventually coborated to subdue the Evil God once again, not long ago. Many had perished this time, but at least the situation hadn¡¯t deteriorated to a crippling extent.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go take a look; it seems we¡¯re going to discuss the reconstruction n for Sky Ind,¡± Kanter sighed. ¡°The apprentice casualty rate is too severe this time; we¡¯ll probably need to get involved in the rebuilding efforts.¡±

    As they made their way to the central hall, Kanter was suddenly reminded of something, ¡°By the way, when you came to Sky Ind this time, why did Lord Rhein apany you?¡±

    Barbarian Cave isn¡¯t like the House of Lilith, where Kanter could leave freely because there were only two people in the House of Lilith, himself and Qi Li. But for arge Witcher Organization like Barbarian Cave, if the leader left, there would be many concerns to address, such as the threat of hostile organizations or internal power struggles.

    Furthermore, Barbarian Cave was currently going through troubled times.

    The Fusion of Two Realms should have just ended, and it was still a chaotic period, not to mention the changes of Eternal Night that also urred near Barbarian Cave. Why would Rhein Mutee to the Abyss during this time?

    Sanders shook his head helplessly in response to Kanter¡¯s question. The development of the situation had also been beyond his expectations. Initially, Rhein Mute had simplye to ¡®take a break¡¯ and avoid some troubles. If possible, he wanted to secretly check on his daughter¡¯s well-being and then return to Barbarian Cave with Angel. But unexpectedly, Angel¡¯s whereabouts remained unknown, and Sky Ind had undergone a crisis.

    Rhein didn¡¯t need his concern; he had the fragment of the Mayfly which allowed him to slip away undetected at any time.

    However, Sanders was greatly troubled by Angel¡¯s current state.

    His n was to search for Angel in Ice Valley as soon as things here were settled. But the events at Sky Ind had dyed him by three days.

    What was most important to Sanders was the fact that he had been continuously sensing the essence of blood, even though Angel¡¯s blood essence was strongly influenced by some powerful force, making it hard to detect.

    Just recently, for the first time, Sanders sensed the essence of blood.

    Although he couldn¡¯t pinpoint the location of the essence, he could feel that it was very close to him.

    This closeness was rtive only to the realm. But Sanders felt that the essence might no longer be in the firstyer of the Abyss, but rather, it might have returned to the thirdyer.

    This left Sanders rather distressed. What exactly was happening with Angel? Did he truly possess the essence of blood? If he did, why had he returned to the thirdyer?

    Or was it possible that Angel had been taken back to Wind Whisper Valley by that supremely powerful being?

    Because of these uncertainties, Sanders nned to discuss the situation with Rhein.

    As for the ¡°reconstruction n for Sky Ind¡± that Kanter mentioned, Sanders had no intention of participating.

    When they arrived at the central hall of Sky Ind, they found that it wasn¡¯t just the two of them; all of the surviving wizards on Sky Ind had gathered there.

    The central hall, now in ruins, was filled with wizards sitting or standing, some on higher ground, some in depressions. Although they appeared scattered, there wasn¡¯t a single sound from anyone present; the atmosphere was heavy with sorrow due to the recent chaos caused by the Evil God.

    Sanders and Kanter found a space within the crowd and looked towards the center of the hall.

    Lord Monty stood solemnly on the tattered red carpet, with a listlessly bored Rhein Mute beside him.

 Chapter 1057: Section 1058: The Time Has Come

    Chapter 1057: Section 1058: The Time Has Come

    The ruinsy in decay, only a fewrge candlesticks still burning with embers. Sparks rose into the air, entangled with the heavy snow.

    Standing on the high walls of ruins, leaning among the remnants of broken walls, coiled within the dirt-stained pits, each Wizard remained in a long, silent vigil amidst the rubble. Recall the prosperity of Sky Ind not long ago, the bustling scene of peers, and then behold the present destion; even the coldest of Wizards would feel a hint of emotion.

    The wind lifted the hems of their clothes, and snownded on the brims of their hats.

    In this moment, there was an inexplicable sense of time worn thin.

    It was unknown who began, but the haunting melody of the Requiem rose with the smoke and mournful wind, reaching every corner of Sky Ind.

    As the melody came to an end, the Wizards in the ruins slowly recovered from the sorrowful tune. Monty, who stood at the heart of the ruins, spoke his first words at this time.

    ¡°I am very sorry,¡± uttered Monty, d in a Frost Gown adorned with crescent moon imprints on both the front and the back. His face was masked by a silver visage that melded seamlessly with the Frostmoon silver crown atop his head, ornate and magnificent.

    ¡°This unforeseen catastrophe was an oversight of Frostmoon. Once these matters are concluded, I willpensate ording to the terms previously agreed upon with everyone.¡± Monty paused, his gaze shifting towards Sanders in the dim shadows, then turned to look at Mute Rhein beside him: ¡°This time, we owe much to the both of you. Without your assistance, Sky Ind might havepletely fallen.¡±

    Sanders had a cold expression and nodded in acknowledgment. Rhein Mute smiled faintly, his gaze involuntarily ncing toward the side of the ruins. Through a wall of colored ze, he could vaguely discern the figure of a woman.

    Rhein Mute: ¡°It was merely coincidental.¡±

    ¡°I will honor our previous arrangement. Should I achieve a breakthrough, I will share the details of my advancement with Mr. Rhein,¡± dered Monty, his words brightening the cid features of Rhein Mute.

    After this brief introduction, the crowd expected Monty toy out ns for the reconstruction of Sky Ind. However, to their surprise, he took an unexpected turn.

    ¡°My haste in returning was not solely due to the distress signal from Sinafa; I also received a piece of news¡­¡±

    Demon God descendants areing to the surface soon?!

    As Monty¡¯s words settled, every Wizard present furrowed their brows. Monty¡¯s intention was clear; he had spent so much time in the Abyss to capture news of the Demon God descendants, and now that he finally had a concrete answer, it was only natural that he nned to take action against them.

    Though everyone knew such a day woulde, the reality of its arrival broughtplexity to their hearts.

    Expressions varied as the Wizards began to murmur amongst themselves. Monty did not continue speaking but instead waited for the noise to subside naturally. He knew well that despite any objections, these people would eventually agree to his course of action.

    The reason he had managed to garner the strong support from the majority of Witcher Organizations in the Southern Domain was because he had entered into a Tarot confidentiality agreement with the most sought-after figures in the Wizards¡¯ Realm, including more than a dozen luminaries like Rhein Mute. Should he actually surpass the limitations of Legend status, he would record all his insights, energy transmutations, consciousness perceptions, and data onto a scroll and share them with the signatories.

    This world was inherently a Darwinian struggle¡ªthe top echelon had already given their tacit approval, reaching a consensus was only a matter of time.

    Indeed, after a short while, the hustle and bustle gradually subsided, and the focus of every Wizard once again gathered on Monty.

    ¡°Since we¡¯ve already signed the agreement, we will naturally abide by it. However, hunting the descendants of the Demon God is a defiance of the heavens. Even if sessful, the aftershocks will continue and could bring grave disasters to the Wizards¡¯ Realm. Mr. Monty or the Frostmoon Alliance, do you have any appropriate measures to address this?¡± The question came from a middle-aged Wizard with a hooked nose, his sullen eyes and the cross emblem on his robe identifying him as a wandering Wizard.

    Wandering Wizards were free from organizational constraints and enjoyed freedom, but without the protection of a Witcher Organization, their risk would increase significantly should the shadow of the Demon God descend upon the Southern Domain.

    The wandering Wizard had asked this question out of concern for his own safety, yet the other Wizards present inwardly agreed with the query. They might be protected by their organizations and their lives secured, but the Southern Domain was, after all, their home. Many times, it wasn¡¯t just about immediate security. A single thread pulled could affect the whole body; even if they could survive the cmity of the Demon God, the subsequent repercussions would be significant.

    It¡¯s like an ecosystem¡ªone problem could harm the entire system. Simrly, market prices can be affected by climate and taxes, let alone a major disaster.

    In response to the wandering Wizard¡¯s question, Monty replied calmly: ¡°I have already receivedmunication from Lapuye. Even though the shadow of the Demon God hangs high, ever since the horror of the Demon God wreaked havoc in the Southern Domain a millennium ago, the world¡¯s will imposed certain constraints on such external invaders. Should a Demon God descend upon the Southern Domain, turning continents upside down and reversing rivers, it won¡¯t be simple. Moreover, Lapuye also mentioned that the catastrophe of a Demon God might not truly befall the Southern Domain.¡±

    Monty¡¯s final words caused all the Wizards present to be momentarily stunned. How could hunting a descendant of a Demon God not provoke its wrath? But judging by Monty¡¯s demeanor, he didn¡¯t seem to be lying.

    Besides, Lapuye was the ¡°Immortal Coronastar,¡± the true leader of the Crown Star Church.

    His words shouldn¡¯t be wrong, should they?

    Could it be that the cmity of the Demon God really won¡¯te?

    While the crowd buzzed with discussions, Monty¡¯s eyelids drooped slightly. It was true Lapuye had said that a Demon God might not descend, but it didn¡¯t mean there would be no trouble at all. At least Lapuye¡¯s concerns had not diminished in the slightest, and were even more than Monty had anticipated. However, Monty couldn¡¯t possibly reveal this now.

    After all, his goal was directed towards bing a Legend, and he was prepared to temporarily cast aside any other concerns.

    However, Monty did notpletely disregard the Southern Domain, at least he had prepared some contingencies, such as the Mysterious Object from the Song of the Deep Sea.

    At this moment, Sinafa also stepped forward to detail the interference andpensation measures Frostmoon would take if a disaster truly descended, which gradually calmed the wizards present.

    Monty then began to assign tasks. The reconstruction of Sky Ind was temporarily shelved, and the most pressing matter had be the Hunt n!

    Monty¡¯s arrangements in the Abyss had been in ce for many years, and the original n was already near perfection. Now, only thest adjustments needed to be made ording to where the offspring of the Demon God emerged from.

    ¡°Lord Monty, after all this time, we still do not know from which front the offspring of the Demon God wille. Is it from Mechanus Gate, or from the Cavern of Malevolence?¡±

    This question was also the focus of everyone¡¯s attention. Fuyi asked, and all eyes once again converged on Monty.

    Monty spoke softly, ¡°Neither, it¡¯s Demon City¡ª¡±

    ¡°Lassudral.¡±

    ¡­

    In the shadowy crevices of the ruins, Sanders listened expressionlessly to Monty¡¯s hunt n.

    In the previous discussions, Sanders had not expressed any opinions. He knew his personal will could not change the general trend, and he simply waited in silence for the meeting to end.

    To him, Monty¡¯s Legend n was indeed enticing, but Sanders was very aware that Angel¡¯s Wilderness of Dreams held even more potential, and it was potential that could be seen with the naked eye. As for Monty, whether he could break through in the end remained a question mark.

    Monty wanted to use the Bloodline of the offspring of the Demon God to achieve a breakthrough, based on an ancient Wizard¡¯s scroll that recorded a simr case. But whether the experimental data in that scroll was outdated was hard to say.

    At least for now, Sanders had no interest in pursuing such unconventional methods.

    As soon as the meeting ended, Sanders immediately went to Rhein¡¯s side. However, Rhein¡¯s gaze was fixed on Samantha, who approached gracefully through the snow.

    In Rhein¡¯s eyes, Samantha was as stunning as a Frost Princess.

    But in Sanders¡¯ eyes, Samantha was like a shattered piece of ss, the kind that could not be put back together.

    When Samantha approached, she cast a disdainful sidelong nce at Rhein and curled her lips in a mocking smile. She seemed about to say something scathing but upon seeing Sanders, she swallowed her venomous words and just scoffed, turning to head toward Lord Monty¡¯s location.

    Rhein sighed helplessly.

    After wallowing in self-pity for a while, Rhein turned and said, ¡°You see, Samantha was about to curse at me just now, but she held back, which means she wants to maintain adylike image in front of you. Are you sure you don¡¯t want to consider her? Maybe if you were to get together, Samantha might return to Barbarian Cave.¡±

    Faced with Rhein¡¯s matchmaking intentions, Sanders¡¯ response was decisive and cold: ¡°No.¡±

    Seeing that Rhein wanted to continue, Sanders cut him off bluntly, ¡°What should we do about Angel¡¯s situation now?¡±

    At the mention of Angel, Rhein¡¯s expression also grew more serious. After all, it was he who had personally brought Angel into the inner circle, and he valued Angel¡¯s potential greatly.

    Sanders revealed that he had sensed the location of the vital blood essence and that it seemed to be on the third level of the Abyss: ¡°If Angel is still safe for now, then it¡¯s possible he¡¯s no longer in Ice Valley. But even if we know he¡¯s on the third level of the Abyss, precisely where he is, remains unanswered.¡±

    Whether to search for clues in Ice Valley or for Angel¡¯s trail on the third level was a difficult choice for Sanders.

    Rhein pondered for a moment, ¡°The current situation is indeed hard to say, but, there are ways to approach it.¡±

    After a while, Rhein led Sanders to a corner of Sky Ind.

    Originally, this was an open space, close to the Inverted Waterfall, and not long ago, it was a popr viewing spot on Sky Ind. However, at this moment, a considerable number of tombstones stood there.

    Most of those who had perished in the Evil God¡¯s turmoil were buried here.

    In this newly established cemetery, a hunched old man with a cane was slowly walking amidst the tombstones, facing the snowstorm¡­

 Chapter 1058: Section 1059 Fate Guidance

    Chapter 1058: Section 1059 Fate Guidance

    The old man walked along, touching the freshly piled gravestones with his ancient cane. As the cane probed, faint phantom shadows began to emerge from beneath the soil.

    Sanders was familiar with the actions of this old man.

    ¡ª¡ªSpirit Summoning, using a staff to awaken the slumbering souls.

    Does this mean that the old man is a soul spellcaster?

    Rhein approached the stooped figure, who seemed to be an old friend. They stood in front of a newly erected grave, discussing something. After a while, Rhein led the stooped elder toward Sanders.

    ¡°Belus was an old acquaintance of mine,¡± Rhein said with a touch of nostalgia, sighing, ¡°It¡¯s been a millennium since we¡¯ve met, and I¡¯ve had no word of him. I hadn¡¯t expected to encounter him here, before heading into the Abyss.¡±

    The stooped old man, who was Belus, bowed slightly to Sanders and said, ¡°Illusion Demon, Your Excellency.¡±

    An old acquaintance of Rhein¡¯s from a thousand years ago, his prowess now was even less than thetering Sanders¡¯s, appearing to be merely a Second Level Wizard without having trodden the path to True Knowledge. Even though his age might far surpass Sanders¡¯s, he still addressed Sanders respectfully as ¡°Your Excellency.¡±

    Sanders nodded to Belus, then looked at Rhein with some confusion. He wondered why Rhein suddenly brought him to meet a soul spellcaster.

    Rhein¡¯s mouth moved slightly, and Sanders sensed a message wrapped in an energy circle in his ear. The energy circle wasn¡¯t dispelled until Sanders had received the message fully.

    This was Rhein¡¯s method of transmitting messages, one that, for now, no wizard could intercept or decipher.

    In an instant, Sanders had read through all the information Rhein transmitted. Rhein had shared all of Belus¡¯s details with Sanders, rifying Rhein¡¯s intentions.

    Belus might seem only a soul spellcaster, but in truth, he was a wizard with a double talent in magic. Not only did he possess a talent in the Soul Sect, but he also had an even rarer talent from the Prophecy Sect.

    ording to the information from Rhein, Belus¡¯s rise and fall were both due to his dual talents. His initial advancement was rapid because of his dual talents, and prophecy allowed him to acquire vast resources preemptively, swiftly bing a Transcendent Wizard.

    However, due to these same talents, his path was constrained. Filled with confidence, Belus sought to advance both talents concurrently to True Knowledge, and the result was an unambiguous failure. His indecision led to wasted years thereafter.

    Rhein had advised Belus to focus on one path first and consider Fusionter, but Belus didn¡¯t listen. Going around in circles, the once prodigy was surpassed by generations of sessors.

    It wasn¡¯t until the past two hundred years that Belus, realizing the difficulty of progressing in both sects simultaneously, joined the Frostmoon Alliance as a ¡°Soul Walker,¡± dropping his former moniker of ¡°Soul Prophet,¡± and dedicating all his efforts to the Soul Sect, in hopes of attaining True Knowledge.

    After reading Belus¡¯s information, Sanders felt a sigh escape him, and his mind couldn¡¯t help but think of Angel.

    Angel, too, was a wizard with talents from both the Illusion Series and another sect, simr to Belus. ording to the Tree Spirit, his dual talents also pertained to the mysterious side. However, Angel¡¯s dual talents were partially concealed: the Illusion Series was externally visible, but the nature of his inner talent remained undiscovered since the Tree Spirit was unable at the time to delve deep into Angel¡¯s Spirit Sea.

    Sanders was aware of the difficulties in cultivating dual talents, so he deliberately kept Angel¡¯s secret.

    Initially, he thought to reveal it to Angel after he became an Official Wizard. Now, seeing Belus¡¯s situation, Sanders mused whether he should wait until Angel reached True Knowledge before telling him.

    Of course, Sanders was just pondering; once Angel became an Official Wizard, the functions of the Spirit Sea would be immediately evident. Perhaps Angel might realize his dual talents on his own, without Sanders needing to inform him.

    With a sigh, regardless of the oue, Sanders hoped Angel wouldn¡¯t follow in Belus¡¯s footsteps.

    Just as Sanders had digested the news about Belus, he approached, ¡°Prophet Rhein has already shared your request with me, and what follows may require some cooperation on your part.¡±

    Sanders knew that Belus was probably nning to use Divination to locate him, and with a wry smile, he said, ¡°My student has an item that shields against Prophecy. I¡¯m afraid, Mr. Belus, that it won¡¯t be possible to capture his traces through Divination.¡±

    Initially, Sanders had instructed Angel never to remove the Blood Night Shelter, and now, because of it, they couldn¡¯t use Divination to track his whereabouts.

    Belus and Rhein both looked surprised at Sanders¡¯s words.

    Seeing the skepticism and disbelief on Belus¡¯s face, Sanders continued, ¡°Previously, even ¡®The Phantom Shadow¡¯ Gauss couldn¡¯t prate Angel¡¯s Prophecy shield and suffered for it.¡±

    Gauss was one of the eighteen Observers at the Crown Star Church, a Prophet Wizard at the pinnacle in the Southern Domain, and even he couldn¡¯t break through Angel¡¯s Prophecy-shielding item. It was even less likely for Belus to manage it.

    Belus looked doubtfully at Rhein, who seemed outwardly calm but was inwardly surprised as well.

    Rhein could tell Sanders was not lying¡ªthe Prophecy-shielding item capable of evading Gauss was no trifling matter. He waspletely unaware of this development! Moreover, Rhein was curious why Gauss, who usually resided at the Crown Star Church, would try to peer at Angel through Divination.

    Rhein gave Sanders a probing look, sensing some secret matters that Sanders hadn¡¯t mentioned to him.

    Of course, Rhein couldn¡¯t inquire about it in front of Belus and instead, sidestepping Sanders, asked Belus directly, ¡°If Prophecy shielding is in y, are there alternative methods at our disposal?¡±

    With Rhein posing the question, Belus naturally understood his intent.

    Belus was silent for a moment.¡±We can predict without Angel as the focal point. How about using Illusion Demon Your Excellency as the basis for the prophecy? Your choices will serve as the will for this prediction.¡±

    Belus was evidently about to make a ¡°Fate¡¯s Decision.¡±

    Sanders asked in confusion, ¡°My choice? Do you mean to say, choosing between the good fortunes offered by ¡®Ask the Bell¡¯?¡±

    The so-called choice of good fortunes refers to the good fortune technique of the Prophet Wizard faith under the ¡®Ask the Bell¡¯ sect. It¡¯s about choosing a preferred option out of two conflicting choices where ¡®Ask the Bell¡¯ will offer you one to your liking.

    It seems like a blessing for the indecisive, but in reality, it does not involve prophecy; it¡¯s merely a rmendation feedback that aligns with your personal information after big data processing.

    Sanders naturally understood this; if he solely relied on the good fortune technique, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily mean ¡°good fortune.¡±

    However, Belus shook his head, ¡°The sect I follow is one of the three mainstreams, the River of Fate sect. My decision is not about good fortune techniques but about Fate Guidance.¡±

    Fate Guidance?! A sh of surprise crossed Sanders¡¯s eyes. Although he knew very little about Divination, he had heard of the renowned Fate Guidance spell technique.

    This was about intervening in future events directly within the River of Fate, a high-level spell technique of the Prophet Wizards.

    In the Prophet Wizard discipline, there¡¯s a saying: It¡¯s simple to see the future, difficult to speak of it, and even harder to intervene in it.

    Those capable of using Fate Guidance were essentially figures at the level of Observers from the Crown Star Church.

    It wasn¡¯t until then that Sanders¡¯s gaze upon Belus became filled with a newfound solemnity, realizing just how gifted Belus was in the field of prophecy through his ability to cast Fate Guidance.

    ¡°Then I shall trouble you, sir,¡± Sanders said with gravity.

    Belus nodded and closed his eyes, constructing the spell technique model associated with Fate Guidance within his mind. An obscure and ancient aura surrounded him, and behind his hunched figure, phantom shadows appeared, seemingly those of his younger self. Time appeared to interchange endlessly around Belus.

    After an unknown period, Belus suddenly moved. He thrust the walking stick he held with a fierce swing, murmuring praises to the River of Fate, and eventually, the walking stick stood firmly before Sanders.

    In an instant, Sanders felt as though he stood on the banks of the River of Fate, the roaring sound of the tumultuous river by his ear, each syble brimming with endless significance.

    ¡°Illusion Demon Lord, you may now voice your doubts in your heart, and fate shall guide you towards the rtively correct direction.¡±

    Before Sanders¡¯s eyes, the vision changed once again, the River of Fate morphed into a diverging path.

    To the left, a signpost; to the right, another signpost, with Belus¡¯s walking stick standing in between.

    Sanders silently recited his dilemma, and as his thoughts took form, an inscription appeared on the left signpost: ¡°Abyss Level One,¡± while on the right, the blurry signpost also revealed an inscription: ¡°Abyss Level Three.¡±

    When the signposts revealed their inscriptions, the walking stick in the center began to tremble incessantly as if the waves of the River of Fate were washing over it.

    After a long time, the walking stick shifted and, following a bit of shaking, it settled on the ground, pointing to the right side of the diverging path.

    At the same time, the signpost on the right dispersed like smoke, turning into a faint stream that merged into Sanders¡¯s brow, a torrent of information racing into him.

    Once Sanders had processed all the information, he looked up, intending to thank Belus.

    However, when he looked up, he found that Belus was no longer before him.

    Standing at his side, Rhein said indifferently, ¡°He¡¯s already moved on to the next graveyard. You needn¡¯t mind, as I¡¯ve already conveyed our thanks to him on your behalf.¡±

    After Rhein finished speaking, he added, ¡°So, do you know what to do next?¡±

    Sanders nodded; Fate Guidance had prompted him to remain on the Third Level of the Abyss, and everything would unfold naturally. However, as to how things would unfold, Sanders still had to wait and see, hoping for some turn of events.

    Having received an affirmative answer, Rhein nodded and, without asking what guidance fate had offered Sanders, he inquired about another matter, ¡°Speaking of which, you said earlier that Gauss had once attempted to spy on Angel, is that true?¡±

    ¡­

    Meanwhile, Lassudral remained as tranquil as ever, though no one knew that a hidden storm was about to sweep through it.

    Near the southern outskirts of Lassudral, on its streets, the Primeval me Demon Greerwu and its Fire Essence Demon butler Tandin stood in front of a Hunting Museum.

    Following Aoluxiya¡¯s orders, they were searching Lassudral for the Primeval me¡¯s location; however, what puzzled them was that despite having scoured Lassudral entirely, Greerwu had not detected any trace of the Primeval me.

    When they were at an impasse, Tandin recalled that not long ago, he had faintly sensed the scent of the Primeval me in this Hunting Museum.

    Although Greerwu immediately dismissed the possibility, with no other options, they ultimately returned to this Hunting Museum, which, to them, wasn¡¯t particrlyrge.

 Chapter 1059: Section 1060: Primeval Flame

    Chapter 1059: Section 1060: Primeval me

    ¡°Last time I was here, I sensed the fleeting presence of the Primeval me, and I wasn¡¯t sure if it was just an illusion, Master Greerwu, shall we go in and have a look?¡±

    Greerwu hesitated for a moment but then nodded. Previously, he had felt nothing special here, but now upon returning to the Hunting Museum, there was an inexplicable feeling¡­ Greerwu felt as if his mes were more lively than before, as if they were eagerly anticipating something.

    With this strange feeling, Greerwu and Tandin stepped into the Hunting Museum.

    They crossed the cold, ck and white checkered floor, where candlelight flickered weak and dim. Greerwu even felt a chill breeze that made the mes on his body flicker like dying embers about to extinguish.

    Tandin frowned, the atmosphere of the Hunting Museum was too deste and chilling, not at all like an environment that would nurture the Primeval me.

    It was Tandin who had suggesteding here, but at this moment, he couldn¡¯t help but ask himself: Is there really a Primeval me here?

    On the contrary, it was Greerwu, who had initially been adamant that there was no trace of Primeval me here, yet now his round eyes had turned into inverted triangles due to his furrowed brows, repeatedly muttering, ¡°This ce is very strange.¡±

    He had a kind of premonition that this might be the ce where Aoluxiya was searching for the Primeval me.

    Yet, as a descendant of the Pattern tribe, Greerwu strangely couldn¡¯t sense the presence of the Primeval me at all, as if his inner premonition was nothing more than a joke.

    ¡°Is anyone there?¡± Tandin called into the empty hall, receiving only his echo in response, with no one to answer.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go check the inner court.¡± Greerwu listened intently and faintly heard whispersing from the direction of the inner court.

    The further they walked, the more distinct the murmuring sound became, as if countless people were whispering in his ear, like crazed shouts, desperate whispers, and malevolent curses.

    Greerwu shuddered all over, suddenly feeling reluctant to move forward.

    ¡°Master, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Tandin looked over, puzzled. It was Greerwu who had suggested moving forward, so why had he stopped now?

    ¡°Don¡¯t you hear it?¡± Greerwu was shaking like a sieve, unable to stop trembling. The falling embers hissed as they touched the ground, producing a brief burst of smoke before beingpletely extinguished. ¡°Those voices, can¡¯t you hear them?¡±

    ¡°What voices?¡± Tandin said solemnly, ¡°Master, I haven¡¯t heard any sound. If you feel something is off, perhaps we should withdraw for now?¡±

    Greerwu shook his head but said nothing, continuing to tremble as he moved forward, though his steps were much smaller.

    If Angel were here, he would probably remark in surprise that this mischievous child could actually be scared too.

    Seeing that his young master had no intention of retreating, Tandin hesitated for a moment but still followed.

    All the way, Greerwu was troubled by whispers that were pitiful, despairing, or mad. Before every step, he felt as though a terrifying Nightmare with a ferocious smile might appear in front of him, yet everything remained calm when they arrived at the Exhibition Hall of the inner court.

    Standing at the entrance of the Exhibition Hall, Tandin asked, ¡°Master Greerwu, are you alright?¡±

    Greerwu gazed into the pitch-ck doorway of the Exhibition Hall. He could sense that the whispers lingering around his ears were emanating from within.

    ¡°We¡¯re going in.¡± Greerwu ignored the concern in Butler Tandin¡¯s eyes and walked into the Exhibition Hall on his own.

    The Hunted Specimens in the Exhibition Hall naturally didn¡¯t scare a fledgling demon of fire.

    While Butler Tandin was scanning the Exhibition Hall for anything out of ce, Greerwu approached a painting alone. nting his tail firmly on the ground, he tried hard to push his body upwards, until he could see the burning me in the painting at eye level.

    Greerwu looked at the me and felt an odd familiarity.

    After confirming there was no danger within the Exhibition Hall, Tandin joined Greerwu¡¯s side. As he arrived next to Greerwu, he unexpectedly saw a mist clouding Greerwu¡¯s eyes, who was staring unwaveringly at the painting on the wall.

    Tandin saw nothing special about the painting.

    He observed carefully; the painting was rather ordinary, its only distinction was the me amidst the dark background, which was painted with great realism.

    ¡°Master, there¡¯s a door beside us, should we have a look?¡±

    Greerwu didn¡¯t respond to Tandin, instead pointing at the me in the painting, ¡°The whispers areing from the me¡­¡±

    The emotion was saddening, as if the me was burying some special sentiment.

    Tandin looked at that me, still hearing no sound, nor sensing anything unusual. Hesitating, he extended his dark hand, with embers at the tips, and touched the me in the painting.

    Hiss¡ª

    Smoke arose, and Tandin swiftly withdrew his fingers.

    As a fire attendant demon, Tandin felt a burning pain when his fingers touched the painting? A fire demon scorched by fire would be the joke of any other demon if they heard it.

    Yet the fact remained.

    As Tandin wondered what was happening, Greerwu suddenly eximed, ¡°The painting changed!¡±

    Tandin looked up and saw that the me in the center of the painting, set against the dark backdrop, began to multiply. In a brief moment, the central mepletely covered the darkness; originally, the darkness upied more than eighty percent of the painting, but now the me seemed to challenge it for supremacy.

    ¡°Why has the me in the painting suddenly multiplied?¡±

    While Tandin was still puzzled, Greerwu suddenly spoke with an excited tone, ¡°I feel it, the presence of Primeval me, right within this painting!¡±

    Greerwu¡¯s words stunned Tandin. The Primeval me they had been searching for was in the painting?

    As Tandin wondered what exactly was going on with the painting, another change urred; in the center of the painting, where the mes burned brightest, a ripple suddenly formed.

    As the ripple appeared, the mes on Greerwu¡¯s body seemed to resonate with some frequency, and a series of images drilled into Greerwu¡¯s mind.

    All these images were of mes or, rather, of mes under the night sky within the painting. However, they were not simply mes. The mes enveloped various objects being scorched: indigenous people who had just given birth, lying in bed panting; Half-Blood Demons with dog-like lower limbs; creatures domesticated by the Indigenous People; tree demons from the Abyss; and Magical Creatures drawn by the fire¡­

    All these beings were being scorched by the mes, letting out pitiful screams apanied by sorrowful melodies.

    Suddenly, Greerwu realized that the whispers it had been constantly hearing were perhaps the lingering echoes of these creatures that were burned to death.

    At this moment, when Greerwu looked at the painting on the wall, it no longer felt that it merely depicted darkness and mes.

    Hidden within this painting was much more information, only buried beneath the night sky and destroyed by the mes.

    The ripples continued to expand upon the canvas, like a stone cast into a cidke, creating circles of ripples. When the ripplespletely diffused across the entire painting, a tall figure slowly emerged from the mes at the center of the image.

    Upon seeing the figure, Tandin immediately pulled Greerwu behind him, watching the opposite side with a wary face¡ª

    The Half-Blood Demon who leisurely stepped out from the painting.

    Its fiery hair zed, the patterns on its face fierce and twisted, but its expression was cool and calm.

    Although it was only a Half-Blood Demon, Tandin inexplicably felt fear. A Pureblood Demon like itself, actually feeling fear towards a mixed-breed? This was simply unbelievable.

    While Tandin was on guard, the Half-Blood Demon opposite them finally appeared to set its gaze upon them.

    ¡°I thought it would be him who came,¡± the Half-Blood Demon said, eyebrows drooping, murmuring in a voice near delirium, ¡°Turns out it¡¯s just a couple of pawns.¡±

    Tandin, ¡°ording to you, you knew we woulde? Who are you?¡±

    As Tandin asked, the young Fire Demon Greerwu suddenly popped out from the other side, itsrge eyes intently staring at the Half-Blood Demon across from it, and after a while, it said, ¡°The aura of the Primeval me is on its body, but¡­ it seems it hasn¡¯t fully awakened yet.¡±

    Greerwu¡¯s words made Tandin freeze. The Primeval me was born on a Half-Blood Demon? Such a situation had never urred in history.

    ¡°How is that possible?¡± Tandin muttered, ¡°Why would the Primeval me appear on a Half-Blood Demon?¡±

    On the other hand, the young Fire Demon wasn¡¯t caught up in the distinction between Half-Blood and Pureblood, but was eager toplete its mission and took the initiative to speak to the Half-Blood Demon that emerged from the painting, ¡°My name is Greerwu, I¡¯ve been sent by Lord Aoluxiya to find the Primeval me.¡±

    The Half-Blood Demon, looking down from an elevated position, said indifferently to the fireball in midair, ¡°I am the curator here, Yan.¡±

    ¡­

    While the young Fire Demon was meeting with Yan, Angel at this moment was immersed in Mind Space, constructing a model of a door.

    Finally, when a new Pattern was sessfully added to the model, Angel breathed a sigh of relief.

    At the same time, the wind chime in the courtyard suddenly rang out.

    Angel stretchedzily, nced at Toby¡¯s condition inside the bracelet, then used his spiritual power to sense the nest of the Pliant Worm, ensuring that the Dreamweaver Ant and Pliant Worm were still maintaining a bnce of power; only then did hee down from the attic.

    As soon as he descended the stairs, he saw Canaan in the courtyard, covering arge heap of Magical Creature remains with a water membrane.

    Seeing Angele downstairs, Canaan turned his head and said in a puzzled tone, ¡°Boss, I¡¯ve bought these remains of Magical Creatures as you instructed, but¡­ what are they good for? They don¡¯t even taste nice.¡±

    Angel replied with a smile, ¡°They might be useless to you, but they are very useful to me.¡±

    Previously, Angel had been thinking that while staying here for the next few days, he should earn some Demon Gold Coins and acquire a batch of materials unique to the Abyss.

    He had asked Canaan if it had a channel for buying special materials, and Canaan¡¯s answer was negative, so Angel was counting on the curator Yan to help him purchase them.

    However, to his surprise, when he was entertaining a new group of clients this morning, a Blood-eyed Naga who came from the Dark Ocean Maelstrom didn¡¯t pay with Demon Gold Coins, but offered the carcass of a sea Magical Creature aspensation for the debt.

    At the time, Canaan looked disgusted, muttering that this thing couldn¡¯t be sold off.

    But when Angel saw it, he immediately nodded in agreement to the transaction without hesitation.

    Because Angel discovered that thergely hollowed-out carcass of the sea Magical Creature was actually that of a Wizard Level creature!

    Even though the most useful parts had been taken by the Blood-eyed Naga, the remaining bones, blood, and skin membrane were all left behind.

    To the thick-skinned and hardy Demons, these were not worth much and would not sell for a high price.

    But to a Wizard, these things were of considerable value!

 Chapter 1060: Section 1061: Pannas Succubus

    Chapter 1060: Section 1061: Pannas Subus

    Skeletons could be refined into weapons, blood could be turned into blood ink, and membranes could also be woven into armor. Although the most precious specialty materials were absent, even just these carcass remnants were very decent materials. A single material, if taken to the auction, could fetch a handsome price, and all Angel had paid was a very small number of Demon Gold Coins.

    Even though Canaan put on a ¡°you¡¯ve lost out¡± face, Angel did his own calctions, and aside from the exceptionally special Abyss materials that were difficult to procure in the Wizards¡¯ Realm, purchasing the remains of Wizard Level Magical Creatures with Demon Gold Coins might just maximize his profits.

    Canaan couldn¡¯t buy the special Abyss materials, but he could easily obtain these carcasses of Magical Creatures that were of little use to Demons.

    In the yard, Angel counted the piled-up Magical Creature carcasses, totaling twenty-three, yet Canaan had spent less than six thousand Demon Gold Coins.

    Canaan originally felt that he had overspent the Demon Gold Coins, but seeing the shop owner¡¯s delighted expression, he couldn¡¯t be bothered to fret anymore about the issue of ¡°profit or loss.¡± After all, the shop owner was spending his own money to buy what he fancied, which hindered no one else.

    ¡°Is there still stock outside? Can we continue to buy?¡± As Angel counted these precious materials, he couldn¡¯t help but greedily inquire of Canaan.

    ¡°Demons rarely hunt such high-level Magical Creatures, first because there aren¡¯t many high-level Magical Creatures and they¡¯re difficult to encounter, and second because hunting high-level Magical Creatures without a special need is a loss. So, that¡¯s all there is to buy,¡± Canaan remarked with a sigh, having almost traveled throughout the whole of Lassudral to purchase these twenty-three Magical Creature carcasses.

    Hearing this, Angel, although somewhat disappointed, was also very content.

    After all, the carcasses of Magical Creatures piled up before him, if taken to an auction, would definitely be worth more than ten million Magic Crystals.

    Wizard Level Magical Creatures were very rare, and to obtain so many carcasses at once could probably only be done in Demon City.

    ¡°Although you can¡¯t buy carcasses outside anymore, some Demons might still have some in their private hoards,¡± Canaan muttered to the side, which left Angel contemtive.

    After clearing the carcasses in the yard and removing the worthless parts, Angel sorted and packed the remaining materials into his bracelet.

    Items such as bones, hide, and tendons that were rtively easy to preserve could be directly ced into the bracelet after processing. However, blood and some organs did not have suitable containers for Angel to store them in.

    Fortunately, at that moment, Angel thought of something.

    He took out a tear-drop-shaped pale blue crystal from his bracelet. This item¡¯s scientific name was ¡®Essence Aggregate of Ghostly Water,¡¯ moremonly known as Ppa¡¯s Tears.

    Previously when a Demon with a minor Ghostly Shadows bloodline came to their shop, for reasons unknown, turned scared and cried, and the resulting tears turned into these crystals.

    ording to Fafnir, Ghostly Water had the function of ¡®preserving freshness and enhancing taste,¡¯ and the Essence Aggregate of Ghostly Water was even more potent. At that time, Angel, adhering to a spirit of non-wastefulness, collected all these blue crystals.

    Originally, he had intended to trade them for something should he meet a Gourmet Sorcerer in the future, but he didn¡¯t expect them to prove useful so soon.

    A single Essence Aggregate of Ghostly Water could be diluted into a small pond¡¯s worth of Ghostly Water.

    Angel used only about half of a blue crystal to preserve the remaining blood and organs, and the results were even more outstanding than he had imagined.

    Happy with the condition of these materials, Angel packed them into his bracelet and then cheerfully ran to the front door, adding a new rule below the wooden board thatid out the shop¡¯s regtions.

    ¡°If you cannot pay with Demon Gold Coins, high-level Magical Creature carcasses can be used for trade.¡±

    This was a strategy Angel thought of based on Canaan¡¯s earlier statement, that there was no stock left in outside shops, but Demons might still have some. To him, Demon Gold Coins had little purchasing power in the outer world, but the bodies of Wizard Level Magical Creatures, even if only skeletons remained, were immensely valuable.

    Consider the three Magical Creatures that Angel had lured out of the Shadow Cave before, and why there were so many Wizards at Watchguard Fortress hunting them, if not to scrape together some benefits for themselves.

    But now, Angel didn¡¯t need to lift a finger, and could obtain the materials these Wizards were eagerly after with only a meager amount of Demon Gold Coins!

    He was beginning to understand why Wizards liked to roam the Otherworld, especially high-energy worlds. The price difference¡ªdeadly poison to them, honey to me¡ªwas maddening. No wonder those involved in time and space arbitrage were so numerous.

    After adding the new rule, Canaan, who was standing by, curiously asked, ¡°Shopkeeper, when are we going to reopen?¡±

    Having entertained two groups of customers in the morning, Angel closed the shop door under the pretense of needing rest. Canaan was also sent out to buy materials, and it had been nearly three hours of rest. Canaan was curious whether they would reopen for the day.

    ¡°We¡¯ll reopen soon!¡± Angel said seriously, pointing at the new rule to Canaan, ¡°When customerseter, you must remember to tell them this rule. We prioritize these carcasses, understand?¡±

    Canaan was momentarily confused but nodded anyway, ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you won¡¯t be at a loss,¡± Angel casually took out a small bag containing fifty Demon Gold Coins from his bracelet and tossed it to Canaan, ¡°This is for running errands for me.¡±

    Canaan weighed the bag in his hand, and his delicate brows curved into crescents; the amount wasparable to his sry for an entire quarter. Indeed, deciding to work here was a very correct decision!

    Angel gestured for Canaan to tidy up the yard so they could open the shop. He himself returned to the attic, using the time Canaan lured customers to continue studying the parchment that detailed the method for crafting the Fire Transmission Stone.

    After all, once he obtained the shard of the Fire Transmission Stone, he guessed he would have to prepare for the creation of the actual stone.

    Previously, Angel tried to cut corners and secretly asked the Night Innkeeper if it could create the stone on his behalf. However, Night¡¯s response was, ¡°I have never created a Fire Transmission Stone.¡±

    Though Night knew how to create a Fire Transmission Stone, it had no need to do so and wasn¡¯t interested either.

    Combining this with the information recorded on the parchment, even Fire Transmission Demons had a low sess rate in creating the Fire Transmission Stone. Angel decided it would be better to create it himself. At least the method expressed through Alchemy on the parchment removed the impurities, which greatly increased the chances of sess.

    Angel studied for barely half an hour when the wind chimes in the courtyard began to emit a crisp sound.

    ¡°Why so soon?¡± Angel muttered to himself as he stood up and walked down from the attic.

    When he reached the first floor, the first thing he saw was not Canaan but a female demon seated at the round table with her head bowed.

    This female demon was practically naked, and along her smooth back ran something that resembled both a bone and a pipeline, curving all the way up to the crown of her head. This coiled ¡°pipeline¡± had wound up the demon¡¯s pale pink hair into a very unique hairstyle.

    Angel looked around; there was only this one demon in the shop, and there were just a few scattered customers in the yard¡ªhardly full by any measure.

    ¡°What is Canaan up to, wasn¡¯t our agreement to call me when there are thirty?¡± Confused, Angel headed towards the courtyard.

    But just halfway there, a sultry voice that cut to the bone said, ¡°I¡¯m a bit curious, as a messenger of Odess, a bearer of the will of mes, why have you started dealing with a Water System demon?¡±

    Angel stopped in his tracks, not because the voice called to him, but because he felt a hot, moist breeze suddenly on the back of his neck, as if someone was pressed up against him, breathing on his skin.

    Bringing a cold, fragrant scent, a smooth, slender hand slowly climbed up from his shoulder, while another, like a boneless snake, snaked around from the other side of his waist.

    With a strand of pink hair falling over his shoulder, Angel knew that the one clinging to him from behind was undoubtedly the same female demon he¡¯d seen earlier.

    Angel instinctively tried to struggle, but this only made the other party hug him tighter.

    ¡°What a beautiful body, I like it very much,¡± a warm breath with a strange aroma whispered into Angel¡¯s ear.

    Even though Angel felt no stirring of emotion, his cheeks began to heat up.

    The female demon behind him chuckled softly, stretching out her tongue as if she wanted to lick Angel¡¯s earlobe. At that moment, Angel couldn¡¯t move at all.

    However, just as her soft tongue was about to touch Angel¡¯s earlobe, which bore the me Mark, a cold snort suddenly sounded.

    Apanying the cold snort, andced with concealed rage, was Fafnir¡¯s voice: ¡°The mark of Odess is not to be tainted by a lowly subus like you!¡±

    As soon as the words were spoken, Angel felt himself staggering and being grabbed and thrown out.

    After spinning around for a moment, Angel steadied himself and found that he hadnded on the stairs of the courtyard. Inside the cottage, Fafnir, who had appeared suddenly, was looking with an indifferent gaze at the female demon opposite him.

    It was then that Angel got a clear look at the face of the demon who had been familiarizing herself with him earlier.

    If the charm and poise of Baltica, in the Land of Rest, radiated from within, the allure of this pink-haired female demon was more striking on the surface.

    To be honest, her features did not fit within Angel¡¯s aesthetic preferences, and this female demon had a split in the center of her forehead. It was like a mouth, lined with sharp teeth and a tongue as supple as a snake that asionally flicked out. Thisbination of facial features with the lip-like split in her forehead wasn¡¯t discordant at all and carried a certain exotic allure.

    Just like the holographic tablet images Angel had seen, the ethnicities of Earth¡¯s Asians and Caucasians possessed two different styles of appearance. Even though Angel, due to Jon¡¯s influence, might have a skewed sense of beauty, he could still differentiate between the beauty and ugliness of various human races.

    This female demon was the same. Despite different aesthetic standards, Angel could tell that her features were considered extremely beautiful among Abyssal Demons, nothing like Baltica¡¯s less remarkable appearance.

    ¡°A subus?¡± Angel recalled Fafnir seemed to refer to her as such.

    Angel wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with subi. He had almost been forcibly injected with subus blood by Nis for some gender studies research.

    Afterward, Angel learned from various sources that many Witches were fond of fusing with subus bloodlines. What puzzled Angel, however, was that the subus entry he had seen in the bestiary described them as voluptuous and rouged, with curvaceous figures and a sensual, ck-reddish subus tail.

    But this ¡°subus¡± seemed different: her physique was unremarkable and could not evenpare to Fafnir¡¯s human form. Shecked any tail and was also missing the characteristic spiral horns and cloven hooves of a subus.

    ¡°Is this really a subus?¡±

    ¡°Shhh.¡± As Angel whispered to himself, Canaan suddenly appeared beside him, making a shushing gesture, ¡°Be quiet, owner. That¡¯s the Water System Pannas subus. She¡¯s connected with several powerful demons in Lassudral, so you¡¯d better not speak ill of her behind her back.¡±

 Chapter 1061: Section 1062: Spitting Out Skeletons

    Chapter 1061: Section 1062: Spitting Out Skeletons

    The Pannas Charm Demon is the embodiment of jealousy, greed, and desire.

    In a society where order prevails, such a symbol of immorality might be a typical victim tied to a stake and burned by mes. However, in the world of demons, the improprieties of the Pannas Charm Demon instead be part of its alluring charm.

    The more wicked it is, the more vor it has. This is not only the aesthetic of demons; even among some of the virtue-praising humans, such underlying cravings are suppressed.

    ¡°Involved with several major demons?¡± Angel looked at Canaan with a look of surprise and suspicion. One should know that major demons are at least of the Second Level True Knowledge Wizard or above, and even in Demon City, they definitely upy a core level.

    Canaan nodded with an expression that carried a trace of fear: ¡°I rang the wind chime just now because it came¡­¡±

    Other demons, even ordinary Intermediate Rank demons, Canaan could maintainposure under the confidence given by Fafnir. But this Pannas Charm Demon named ¡°Nya,¡± was just too unique in Lassudral. Although it was only of Intermediate Rank, the markings of major demons on it were not just one or two. Any disrespect towards Nya could almost immediately be noticed by the eyes of the major demons behind it.

    After hearing Canaan¡¯s introduction of Nya, Angel rubbed his temples with some trouble.

    Having a shop in Lassudral, what he least wanted to encounter was such a scenario. He would have been content with just making some money from ordinary demons. As for those with a major backing, he was not interested. Just like the previous juvenile Fire Demon, which was also a big hassle.

    But since things hade to this, a solution was necessary.

    Angel said to Canaan, ¡°You go and pacify the other guests first. I¡¯ll think of a solution for this.¡±

    Canaan wanted to say that the other guests didn¡¯t need pacifying at all¡ªjust one look at those demons in the courtyard, with their expressions of relishing the drama towards the house, was enough to tell. But Canaan also knew that this situation was indeed not one it could intervene in as a Half-Blood Demon; nodding its head, it retreated to the side.

    Angel too was paying attention to themotion inside the shop, while also thinking of a solution.

    Inside the shop at this moment¡ª

    Although Nya¡¯s expression still carried a smile, her eyes no longer reflected the previous frivolity. The dark-skinned woman across from her gave her a strong sense of oppression.

    If ranked by demon hierarchy, this woman who called her ¡°vile¡± was definitely at the level of a major demon, and even among major demons, she was one of the top contenders.

    She had heard before that there was something fishy about this mesmerizing little shop: an Abyssal Indigenous Person daring to open a shop here must have a strong backer. Could it be this woman?

    Nya¡¯s eyes twinkled, and her tongue made a quick circle around her lips.

    ¡°I just wanted to experience the captivating vor of Odess,¡± Nya¡¯s eyes shimmered, ¡°Why, are you angry?¡±

    Fafnir snorted coldly: ¡°Despicable Subus, stop discussing Odess in that nauseating tone of yours, or I¡¯ll kill you on the spot.¡±

    Fafnir¡¯s words came with an epassing ck wind.

    In Nya¡¯s perception, an immense and majestic shadow seemed to loom behind the woman in front of her, with great howls emanating from within it. Amidst the swirling smoke and dust, a pair of eyes matching the woman¡¯s green and red bizarre pupils appeared on the shadow¡¯s head.

    Nya, frightened by this terrifying aura, took a few steps back.

    This was an entity nearly reaching a lord¡¯s level of power¡ªa monster!

    Initially, Nya had hoped to intimidate the other party using her trump card, along with the reputation of those major demons. Now, she realized it was like a joke.

    Even if all those major demons joined forces, they probably wouldn¡¯t be able to touch the woman before her!

    As Fafnir watched Nya, almost retreating to the wall, a hint of disdain shed across her eyes. She was about to voice her mockery when Angel entered from outside.

    Instantly, both Fafnir and Nya turned their gaze towards Angel.

    Angel appearedposed, but only he knew that he was marching in on sheer bravado.

    He could tell that Fafnir¡¯s expression was a prelude to her ¡°opening her venomous tongue mode.¡± If the venomous verbal battery opened fire and Nya retorted, it could lead to unpredictable consequences. Even if Nya didn¡¯t retort but just resisted with her gaze, Fafnir would likely find various excuses to discipline Nya.

    On the other hand, Angel could also see that Nya was not one to back down easily, especially in front of a woman who was stronger in both power and stature. Jealousy could cloud the mind of a Pannas Charm Demon who likely wouldn¡¯t calm down easily.

    If a conflict indeed erupted, it would be Angel who would find it most difficult to resolve the situation.

    Thus, he chose to enter at this point in time.

    Firstly, Fafnir had already vented some anger, which could be considered a relief. Her rationality was prevailing, and the situation was in her favor, so she likely wouldn¡¯t be too dissatisfied with his entrance.

    On the other hand, although Nya might feel aggrieved, she should by now have realized the gap in power and acknowledged that confronting it would be unwise. Angel¡¯s entry could actually serve as a stepping-down tform for her.

    After Angel entered, Canaan in the courtyard bore an impressed expression. Canaan didn¡¯t contemte the future shifts in circumstances; it simply thought that the shop owner could walk right into the center of a tense face-off with such nonchnce, signalling incredible courage!

    Canaan always knew that the tavern owner¡¯s strength wasn¡¯t high¡ªfar fromparing with his own, even Ppa of the Hunting Museum was stronger. But Canaan was very clear that even if he was stronger than the tavern owner, he would definitely not dare to step into that frozen atmosphere under these circumstances.

    Not just Canaan, in the eyes of all the demons in the yard, Angel¡¯s image had be much more glorious than before.

    Angel had earned a round of admiration, but at this moment his heart was far from as calm as he appeared on the outside, he suppressed the urge to turn around and run. First, he bowed to Fafnir.

    Approaching Fafnir, he used the Spell of Whispering, ¡°Noble Lord Fafnir, our time here is also limited, so why bother getting angry with it¡­¡±

    Angel muttered a few words, and then repeatedly emphasized that they would soon return to Ice Valley. Once they got back, he would definitely make it known how Lord Fafnir defended the honor of Odess.

    Fafnir naturally understood Angel¡¯s intentions¡ªit was really up to her whether to take action against the Subus or not.

    Seeing Angel so ttering, even knowing that Odess might not react much to Angel¡¯s words, having something was better than nothing. In the end, Fafnir nodded, snorted coldly at Nya, and sat on the window sill, indicating her attitude.

    Having dealt with Fafnir, Angel breathed a sigh of relief with a smile and walked up to Nya, ¡°Even if flirting with the tavern owner, you can¡¯t get a discount. If you want to participate in the experience tour, you need to pay in advance.¡±

    As he said this, Angel stealthily nced at Fafnir behind him, making sure it had no reaction, before turning back to Nya.

    Nya was still in a daze, as if she had not yet grasped the situation.

    Angel narrowed his eyes. He didn¡¯t want to make things moreplicated, but he wasn¡¯t afraid ofplications either. If Nya kept on, he would definitely not stop Fafnir again. After all, even if things went awry, once he found the night and got the remaining pieces of the Fire Transmission Stone, he could make a clean getaway.

    It took a while before Nya slowly came to her senses. As a Subus who had been sessful in mingling among several great demons, with a quick turn of thought, she understood Angel¡¯s purpose.

    She put away her previously embarrassed smile, and her eyes looking at Angel carried more sparkle and admiration, ¡°Alright.¡±

    After receiving Nya¡¯s reply, Angel finally let out a breath of relief and turned to look at Canaan, who was full of admiration, ¡°Canaan, go and collect the money outside; we won¡¯t wait for everyone this time. Once you¡¯re ready, I¡¯ll start the experience tour.¡±

    After speaking, Angel looked at Nya again, ¡°Three hundred Demon Gold Coins, or alternatively, you can use the corpse of a high-ranking Magical Creature as payment.¡±

    Nya flicked her pink hair, extended her slender fingers to tap Angel¡¯s chest, and then with a seductive smile, she sat back down at the round table, ¡°What if I use myself to pay the bill?¡±

    As she spoke, the mouth on her forehead opened, and a tongue resembling a snake licked Angel¡¯s face.

    The provocative atmosphere was stuffed back by the mouth on her forehead filled with sharp teeth. Angel suppressed his disgust, took a step back and said, ¡°Sorry, but the shop does not ept alternative forms of payment.¡±

    Nya: ¡°What a pity.¡±

    Angel: ¡°¡­¡± He did not feel it was a pity at all.

    ¡°Since you¡¯re collecting Magical Creature corpses, it so happens that a few days ago, Yadasai gave me a Magical Creature corpse; it tasted not bad, but I got tired of it after eating half. I can give it to you if you want.¡±

    As she spoke, the huge maw on her forehead began to swell and opened wider and wider, bing several timesrger than Nya¡¯s head.

    It looked even more terrifying than the aliens Angel had seen on the Holographic Tablet.

    With the opening of the massive mouth, bone by bone was spat out,nding in the yard, some with flesh and drool still clinging to them. The frothy saliva even carried a hint of Nya¡¯s cool water fragrance.

    But the scene was so disgusting that the fragrance made Angel feel nauseated.

    After the bones were spat out, a rtively intact skin was also flung from the maw into the yard.

    The courtyard appeared as though a small mountain of bones had been erected.

    The gigantic mouth belched contentedly, then slowly shrank until it returned to its previous size.

    Originally Angel had found this Pannas Subus quite exotic, but now all he felt was fierceness and terror.

    Recalling what Canaan said about Nya¡¯s rtions with several great demons, Angel¡¯s aesthetic views on demons were being wholly revised.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what kind of Magical Creature this is, Yadasai called it a little fly from the Void, what do you think?¡± Nya looked at Angel.

    Angel took a deep breath, his expression showing disdain as he looked at the fragrant pile of bones.

    ¡°Wait a moment, I need to appraise it.¡±

    Suppressing his feeling of nausea, Angel quietly built up the Eye of Nalda in his Mind Space.

 Chapter 1062: Section 1063: Void Demon Simos

    Chapter 1062: Section 1063: Void Demon Simos

    When Angel looked at the saliva-covered mound of bones through the Eye of Nalda, he was utterly dumbfounded on the spot.

    The information ¡°Server¡± fed back to him nearly made him doubt his own eyes!

    He walked solemnly step by step toward the direction of the door, his expression showing no sign of abnormality, but his heart had already been tossed into tumultuous waves.

    ¡ª¡ª¡¯Void Demon¡¯ Simos!

    That pile of bones was actually that of the creature known as the Simos, a Void Demon!

    Simos were not veryrge in size and roamed the endless Void, a rare magical creature. If converted to the ssifications of the Wizards¡¯ Realm, they were at least of True Knowledge Level. Although in the Void, True Knowledge Level magical creatures were not considered very high, this was still the first True Knowledge Level creature remains Angel had ever received! This meant that all of these materials were of True Knowledge Level!

    At the major auctions in the Wizards¡¯ Realm, materials of True Knowledge Level were worth beyond the heavens!

    And Simos, as a magical creature with ¡°Space¡± attributes, most treasured their bones and skin. Their bones could be used as Demonic Materials for the Space Series, invaluable, and their skin, even without processing it, could be used as a tool to ward off chaotic Spatial Energy when worn directly.

    Now, the most precious materials from Simos wereid out right in front of Angel, how could his heart not be agitated?

    He walked straight to the pile of skeletons in the courtyard, the cold scent tainted with Pannas Charm Demon saliva made Angel slightly dizzy, a heat rushing to his face.

    However, the nausea he had felt before hadpletely disappeared.

    He wished he could immediately collect these bones, still smudged with blood and flesh, if it weren¡¯t for the demons watching around and Nya waiting for his appraisal, he might have really done so.

    Angel walked around the remains of the Simos, suppressing his excitement, and conducted a pretentious appraisal. In the midst of it, he couldn¡¯t resist picking up a bone.

    Without minding the frothy saliva on it, Angel carefully felt the energy in the bone. Even though Simos¡¯s body had perished, the astonishing Spatial Energy still lingered upon it.

    For some reason, Angel felt a strange sense of familiarity with the Spatial Energy in the bone. Perhaps it was the enchanting effect of the Pannas Charm Demon saliva or maybe the excitement was so overwhelming that it caused an illusion?

    Angel didn¡¯t pay attention to the momentary oddity but instead examined the bone repeatedly with undisguised fondness.

    Seeing that Angel had no intention of stopping, Canaan stepped forward and said, ¡°Shopkeeper, the aura left by this magical creature¡¯s remains is terrifying; it should be more powerful than those I bought before.¡±

    Canaan¡¯s implication was clear, he was reminding him that the value should be okay.

    Only then did Angel lift his head to find that all the demons in the courtyard were staring at him. Inside the shop, not to mention Nya¡¯s reaction, but Angel could sense Fafnir¡¯s icy gaze, sizing him up as if with a knife.

    After all, Fafnir and Nya had been in a confrontational state earlier, and now his apparent favoritism took Fafnir somewhat by surprise.

    Angel hurriedly put down the bone he was holding and, daring not to release any overt tricks, didn¡¯t even dare to use the Cleansing Spell. He simply wiped his hands with his clothes and returned to the shop.

    ¡°I wonder, could this little fly perhaps serve as the fee for this experiential trip?¡± Nya¡¯s head rested on her hand, carrying a frail and coy demeanor.

    Angel coughed twice and nodded, ¡°Of course, that¡¯s no problem.¡±

    ¡°It seems you really like this little fly,¡± Nya teased with a series of coquettishughs, fluttering her seductive eyes, ¡°Actually, I have some other magical creatures¡¯ bones that haven¡¯t been fully digested at home, if you like them, why note back with meter?¡±

    The clearly suggestive invitation made Angel¡¯s heart flutter.

    Only Angel¡¯s excitement was not about the hint, but the undigested bones that Nya mentioned.

    Perhaps among these bones, there exists something akin to Simos. After all, the Demon Kings that are Nya¡¯s consorts number not a few, and given the strength of those Demon Kings, how could they afford to please Nya with anything less than the finest?

    Though Angel was greatly tempted, in the end, he rejected Nya. Setting aside the fact that he would probably have been yed if he had gone, what mattered most was that his presence would certainly attract the attention of other Demon Kings. No matter how great the temptation, Angel still shook his head.

    ¡°No need. If the guest doesn¡¯t mind, we can start the experience journey right now,¡± Angel quickly steered the conversation back on track, not wanting to extend the small talk and riskplications. If they chatted on and Nya suddenly changed her mind, then he would be at a major loss.

    Nya paused, reminded that her main purpose foring here was to investigate this experience journey. She originally wanted to tease this quite interesting Indigenous Person a bit more, but a little time wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Nya nodded in agreement.

    Angel nced at the courtyard again, and Canaan also gave Angel a ¡°no problem¡± gesture, indicating that the demons in the yard were ready as well.

    Angel smiled, ¡°Please let down your guard and don¡¯t resist¡­ The experience journey of the marine rhythm starts now.¡±

    As Angel¡¯s voice faded, a peculiar rhythm enveloped the demons. This rhythm, carrying a gentle Water System aura, made all the demons unconsciously rx their defenses, and they were led by these gentle waves into a strange and wondrous oceanic Illusionary Realm¡­

    Once he confirmed that all the demons, including Nya, had entered the marine rhythm, Angel could no longer hold back, and he ran into the courtyard with a smile on his face.

    Gazing at the remains of the Magical Creatures on the ground with sparkling eyes, he unhesitatingly started collecting the bones.

    ¡°Ignorant and lowly humans, just these tiny mosquitoes make you so happy?¡± Fafnir¡¯s sneering voice came from behind.

    Angel, the subject of the derision, wasn¡¯t the least bit concerned about Fafnir¡¯s sharp tongue and was even leisurely making a mental retort. Nya called Simos a little fly, and Fafnir immediately followed suit, deeming it a tiny mosquito.

    ¡°As a lowly human, I hope for as many of these mosquito skeletons as possible,¡± Angel¡¯s smiling eyes curled into crescents.

    Fafnir snorted coldly a few times and muttered about hisck of worldliness, but his eyes shimmered with contemtion.

    On the other side, Canaan, who was pretending to be non-existent in the courtyard, automatically ignored the term ¡°humans¡± in their conversation. Although internally he had recognized the shop owner¡¯s human identity, in Lassudral, humans absolutely could not exist, so the owner could only be an Indigenous Person.

    ¡°Owner, would you like me to cleanse it with water?¡± Canaan remembered the sh of disgust in Angel¡¯s eyes when he first saw the bones on the ground.

    ¡°No need,¡± Angel, by now, waspletely unconcerned about the saliva of the Pannas Charm Demon on the surface of the bones, casting aside his subjective consciousness. In fact, the saliva of the Pannas Charm Demon was also one of the rare materials.

    Water System Subi are very rare, and at least, Angel had seen no mention of them in the Wizards¡¯ Realm. And this saliva, with a chilly and unique fragrance ording to the analysis of the Eye of Nalda, could be refined into a special fragrance.

    In Witches¡¯ circles, the rarer or more limited an item is, the more valuable it bes.

    Just imagine, if Witches knew that this fragrance was distilled from the body of a rare Water System Subus, its value could be spected to rise to unimaginable levels.

    Moreover, even if the fragrance weren¡¯t created, simplybining it with some materials to make an aphrodisiac elixir would not be a problem. Angel, without a second thought to its sensual aspects, studied it in a very academic manner.

    Because many materials actually require the use of an aphrodisiac elixir to obtain desired results.

    Take for instance the rut secretions of the ck Aroma Deer, which are released only during their rutting periods, a time that happens once every few years. Wizards cannot wait for the ck Aroma Deer to rut, hence the need for aphrodisiac elixirs.

    Angel quickly processed the mountain of skeletons. In almost no more than two minutes, he had not only separated the saliva and the remaining flesh on the bones of the Pannas Charm Demon but also sorted the bones ording to their energy hierarchy and stuffed them all into his bracelet.

    Thinking of the vast amount of precious Demonic Materials in his bracelet, Angel felt immense satisfaction.

    While Angel was delighting in his spoils, something changed with Nya, who was sitting inside the shop. A deep blue radiance suddenly burst forth from her!

 Chapter 1063: Section 1064 Yadasai

    Chapter 1063: Section 1064 Yadasai

    Previously, several supernatural events had urred in Angel¡¯s store, including Ppa and Canaan¡¯s breakthrough events, but none were like Pannas¡¯s.

    On Pannas¡¯s body, a charming and profound azure glow was not only radiating outward, but she herself was also undergoing a transmutation.

    In fact, if you didn¡¯t look at the mouth on her forehead, her form almost exactly resembled that of humans, albeit scantily d. But now, it was as though she had shed her human guise and donned ayer of strange new armor.

    Her skin bore streaks of blue pattern, and the previously exposed parts were now automatically covered with dazzling, reflective scales. The change in skin tone was just the beginning, her body size was also expanding at an astonishing rate.

    In just a few seconds, she had swelled to the limits of the cabin.

    Amidst Angel¡¯s dismayed expression, the cabin¡¯s ceiling exploded with a ¡°bang.¡±

    Countless fragments flew outward, and thanks to Canaan¡¯s maniption of a water membrane, the splintering wood was stopped from disturbing the guests who were still experiencing the rhythm of the ocean in the yard.

    Pannas¡¯s transformation was not yet over; her body continued to swell, and the attic could no longer hold up. It waspletely blown off by her hair, which was flying around like dancing snakes.

    From a petite stature to a giant-like size in less than a minute.

    Angel turned his head expressionlessly toward Canaan, ¡°Is this Pannas the Subus¡¯s true form?¡±

    Canaan was also a bit dazed at this time. Having worked here for over three days, it was the first time he had encountered such a huge supernatural change that even the shop was destroyed.

    It took him a while to respond, and then he shook his head at Angel, ¡°I remember that Pannas the Subus¡¯s true form isn¡¯t like this¡­ Just like other subi, she¡¯s very petite.¡±

    The Subus itself is not a demon that relies on physical strength inbat; its spiritual power and charm ability are the skills on which it relies for survival.

    So, even if we¡¯re talking about biological evolutionary choices, Pannas the Subus shouldn¡¯t have be this massive, should she?

    If it¡¯s not her true form, then what could it be?

    Angel watched Pannas¡¯s transformation, which had seemed exotic, but now had nothing to do with beauty.

    The swelling of her head stretched her facial features, making them look fierce and terrifying. The mouth on her forehead was no longer the small cherry mouth it had been before; it hadpletely let go, splitting wide open like a blooming man-eating flower.

    Behind her, numerous spider-leg-like tentacles emerged and unfurled, shining with scales in the light, giving the illusion that she had grown countless glowing tails.

    Angel sighed. He had thought Pannas spitting out Simos¡¯s bones was alien enough, but now it was even more terrifying.

    ¡°This form looks like¡­¡± Fafnir on the other side suddenly furrowed his brow.

    As Angel was waiting for the rest of Fafnir¡¯s sentence, from the broken roof, a shadow enveloped in an endless terror streaked across the sky.

    The dark figure had flown from the inner city of Lassudral and now hovered in the high sky.

    ¡°That¡¯s Lord Yadasai!¡± Eximed Canaan as he stepped back in fear.

    Angel had heard the name Yadasai from Pannas before, but he didn¡¯t know who it specifically referred to. However, he was unable to inquire further from Canaan as he found himself unable to move due to the oppressive atmosphere.

    This felt like a pressure, but it was apanied by a deep-seated panic and fear arising from deep within.

    Angel¡¯s face instantly paled, and he broke out in a cold sweat.

    ¡°Useless creature,¡± a cold sneer reached Angel¡¯s ear, unmistakably from Fafnir, the only one who would mock him at such a time.

    Although Fafnir was venomous, following his sneer, Angel felt an additionalyer around him as though a space crafted from a gentle breeze shielded him, and under this barrier of wind, the terrifying aura from outside could no longer affect him.

    Angel showed gratitude toward Fafnir, who merely snorted coldly and turned his head, eyeing the figure in the sky with a guarded look.

    Angel also cautiously nced at the sky where the terrifying figure was suspended. Due to the backlight, he couldn¡¯t see the figure¡¯s face clearly, but the horrifying bone wings that could shroud the sky were firmly etched in his mind.

    No longer affected by the exterior, Angel finally had a moment to ask Canaan about the identity of the neer.

    Canaan¡¯splexion was not much better than Angel¡¯s, and in a trembling voice, he replied, ¡°A great demon, Lord Yadasai is a great demon!¡±

    Although Angel had some guesses, he was still stunned for a few seconds upon hearing this answer.

    Remembering what Pannas had said, that the demon Simos from the Void was food provided by Yadasai, it was possible that Yadasai was one of the great demons associated with Pannas?

    Angel heard some rustling noises behind him and turned to see that the demons who had been immersed in their experiences in the yard had awoken. However, they now dared not linger and were fleeing in all directions.

    In a matter of moments, only Angel and hispanions remained within several miles of the Misty Cabin.

    However, even though there were no creatures nearby, it didn¡¯t mean that the ce had lost attention. Quite the contrary, more demons were casting their gaze from the distant borders of their realm onto this small suburban woods.

    Although Yadasai had arrived, it didn¡¯t descend, merely watching Angel¡¯s transmutation quietly and ncing sideways at Fafnir, ready to defend itself.

    As for Angel and Canaan, Yadasai didn¡¯t even give them a nce.

    Two more minutes passed, and Angel¡¯s transmutation finally came to a halt; with augh like a tinkling of silver bells, Angel finally opened his eyes.

    The first thing he did upon opening his eyes was to gaze fascinatedly at his own perfect form, a series of delighted giggles revealing the joy in his heart.

    I thought I¡¯d have to wait much longer for this day, but to think it hase today.¡± Angel¡¯s eyes shone with narcissism as he mused for quite some time.

    Afterughing boisterously several times, Angel suddenly turned his gaze toward Angel.

    He bent his head and his neck stretched out like a snake, eventually moving from high above, slowly down to face Angel. Angel wanted to get even closer, but because of Fafnir¡¯s gentle wind barrier, he had to stop a meter away.

    ¡°The previous experience tour made me very happy,¡± Angel said with a tongue circling his lip¡ªah, the tongue inside the mouth below his nose¡ªand then exhaled a faint, cool, fragrant breath: ¡°However, that Ocean Goddess seemed quite ufortable to look at but the handsome men around her are very much to my taste.¡±

    Angel¡¯s mouth twitched. He had almost forgotten, his original purpose in crafting the Ocean Rhythm was for Lady Mirror, and among those depicted around the Ocean Goddess were numerous handsome men, many of whom were big shots from the Wizards¡¯ Realm.

    If one day Angel found himself up against a human wizard and realized their face was one of those ¡®fruit men¡¯ he had seen in the Ocean Rhythm¡­ Angel suddenly felt a chill running up his spine.

    ¡°Making our customers happy is indeed the shop¡¯s purpose,¡± Angel said expressionlessly. ¡°However, I hope that next time you won¡¯t flip the roof of the shop again, as it causes me trouble.¡±

    Angel was caught off guard by Angel¡¯s concern about a dpidated little cabin at this time and couldn¡¯t help but giggle: ¡°What to do, I¡¯m finding myself liking you more and more.¡±

    ¡°Even so, thepensation for damaging the shop cannot be discounted,¡± Angel replied earnestly.

    As Angel and Angel talked, ripples suddenly spread overhead.

    ¡°Angel,¡± came a throaty voice with an echo effect, from the backlit silhouette high above¡ªYadasai.

    Angel, who had been giggling, now frowned and looked up into the sky.

    ¡°Ah, Yadasai,¡± Angel¡¯s expression was significantly more restrained than before.

    ¡°As a precious bloodline of an Ancient Demon, speaking in Abyss Language is to cheapen oneself,¡± Yadasai said as it gradually descended from the sky, hovering in mid-air.

    ¡°I speak Demon Language because others have to understand what I¡¯m saying.¡±

    Yadasai¡¯s gaze swept over Angel, who initially appeared disdainful, but when it noticed the me Mark on Angel¡¯s earlobe, its brows furrowed.

    ¡°The me Mark of Odess.¡± Yadasai then looked at Fafnir: ¡°Abyssal Wind Dragon, Miss Fafnir.¡±

    ¡°It seems this store is indeed quite interesting.¡±

    Angel¡¯s body slowly shrank back to its previous form. ¡°How can a store that allowed me to awaken in such a short time not be interesting? I should also thank you. If it weren¡¯t for you sending me to investigate this shop¡¯s reality, how could I have had the chance to awaken?¡±

    What¡¯s more important, the Magical Creature that Angel used to pay was also a gift from Yadasai. Although there had been some unpleasantness with Fafnir, overall, Angel hade out ahead.

    ¡°An awakening, so it was an Abyssal Awakening after all,¡± Fafnir suddenly said after Angel finished speaking. She had been suspecting as much, and now that Angel had admitted it herself, it solved some of her doubts.

    However, knowing that Angel¡¯s previous form was due to an Abyssal Awakening, Fafnir¡¯s feelings were even moreplex.

    She nced at Angel, who was still oblivious, and sighed silently: Does he even realize the monster he¡¯s created?

    Angel was indeed in a bewildered state because, after the arrival of Yadasai, they all started speaking Ancient Demon Language, which he couldn¡¯t understand at all. He asionally felt their eyes on him, bringing a shiver down his spine.

    Angel had thought to ask Canaan, but Canaan was so frightened that he had run behind a tree in the courtyard. Even his pale blue robe sticking out from behind the tree was trembling, showing how terrified he was.

    Angel had also considered hiding for a while, but this was Lassudral, and the other party was a great demon. Hiding anywhere wouldn¡¯t be safe with his abilities. It might be safer to stay here with Fafnir around.

    But that safety was only rtive.

    All at once, the once again diminutive form of Angel pointed at Angel, and then said something to Yadasai in Ancient Demon Language that Angel couldn¡¯t understand at all.

    Yadasai turned its head to look at Angel.

    Yadasai¡¯s face was covered by a ck bone armor, obscuring its features, but somehow Angel felt a threat emanating from behind that dark visage.

    The next second, Yadasai suddenly raised its hand, and a beam of ck light shot straight at Angel¡¯s face.

 Chapter 1064: Section 1065 Abyssal Awakening

    Chapter 1064: Section 1065 Abyssal Awakening

    ¡°`

    This sudden attack caught Angelpletely off guard. By the time he reacted, the attack had already reached his face, and everything before him had turned dark.

    Angel¡¯s body hadn¡¯t even had the chance to respond, with only his pupils contracting slightly.

    In this critical moment, the gentle breeze barrier surrounding Angel suddenly seemed to be infused with new life. The breeze ceased, a hurricane arrived, and the dark light, upon reaching Angel¡¯s face, was as if a shell had hit a thickyer of rubber; it could bend, but it could not advance any further.

    ¡°On my own turf, you dare to attack an emissary of Odess,¡± Fafnir¡¯s cold voice suddenly echoed in his ears.

    Only then did Angel feel that everything around him had resumed moving, his heartbeat returned to normal, the quietness in his ears was reced once again by a cacophony of sounds, and his somewhat blurry vision also became much clearer.

    He raised his head and looked towards Fafnir, not far away.

    Although he did not know what had happened before, nor what Fafnir was talking about, Angel understood that the previous attack must have been blocked by Fafnir for him.

    Angel wanted to express his gratitude, but the tension in the air was so drawn, there simply was no opportunity for him to speak.

    At that moment, Yadasai, who had retracted his bony wings and was d in ck bone armor, said something else, and Fafnir¡¯s momentum instantly rose. His asymmetrical green-red eyes sparked a faint glow, his oily ck skin began to show slow-forming scales patterned like those of a dragon, and gradually behind Fafnir, a terrifying dragon-shaped phantom shadow began to appear¡­ It was unmistakably his Wind Dragon form!

    The atmosphere seemed to have reached its freezing point.

    Angel¡¯s mind was frantically attempting to decipher what he should do now. However, before he coulde up with an idea, a dark wind appeared beneath his feet.

    Angel was startled for a moment, then he was swept up by the dark wind, flying in a parab through the air.

    Angel managed to regain his bnce with great effort and was about to manipte the Night Crossing to escape the dark wind when it dissipated on its own.

    Simultaneously, Angel crashed down in front of a massive building.

    Angel saw the familiar sign: the Hunting Museum!

    By then, Angel could guess that the dark wind was probably also Fafnir¡¯s doing. If he had stayed at the scene, Fafnir would have to be distracted protecting him and would not be able to fight freely.

    Rtively speaking, the safest ce in the entirety of Lassudral was the Hunting Museum. At least with the Night Master there, Angel¡¯s safety should be without concern.

    Angel stood at the entrance of the Hunting Museum, looking in the direction of the southern suburban woods, where he could only see vague shadows and the energy interweaving almost in a vortex pattern in the high sky.

    Indeed, the fight had already broken out there.

    Although Angel was somewhat worried, he knew that returning would likely be a death sentence. Since Fafnir had sent him to the Hunting Museum, and he had nowhere else to go at the moment, he simply turned and walked into the Hunting Museum.

    Speaking of which, Angel had also nned to ask the Night Master about the remaining Fire Transmission Stone shards to see if they had arrived; as soon as he got his hands on them, he could leave Lassudral.

    After entering the Hunting Museum, he was engulfed in the deste silence, as if all the chaos of the outside world had vanished.

    Passing through the cold hall, Angel did not see the Night Master.

    Only when he arrived at the Exhibition Hall did he see the figure of Night standing in front of Feng¡¯s painting, silently staring at the mes in the painting, lost in thought.

    Angel did not get too close, just stood at a distance behind Night.

    While waiting for Night to snap back to reality, Angel also began to examine the painting that shared the master¡¯s name. When Angel¡¯s gaze rested on the painting, his pupils contracted slightly.

    Night had once said that when the mes in the paintingpletely consumed the night, the constraints bound to it would finally disappear.

    At this moment, the proportion between the mes and the night in the painting had beenpletely reversed. Previously, the painting¡¯s mes were but a mere line, with the majority being the dense night. But now, the night had been pushed to a corner, only remaining two tenths of the painting, while the rest was engulfed in roaring mes.

    Looking at this vastly changed scene, Angel¡¯s eyes became distant.

    Was Night about to take that step?

    For Night, it was the path of bing a lord. If it had been in the Wizards¡¯ Realm, this step would be what wizards like Monty, Rhein, and even Florenza longed for and pursued.

    Previously, when Angel heard the Night Master talk about it, he treated it just like a story, without a real sense of involvement. But now, witnessing the painting¡¯s gradual transmutation, he began to vaguely sense that he was about to witness the birth of a transcendent being.

    During his reverie, Night, who had been silently observing the painting, finally made a move.

    Night turned around to look at Angel and softly said, ¡°You¡¯re here.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m here,¡± Angel replied subconsciously.

    Night nodded. Only then did Angel step forward to stand beside the Night Master in front of the painting. Perhaps it was an illusion, but as Angel approached, he seemed to feel an intense heat. As if the fire within the painting were real, about to break through the two-dimensional world and spread into reality.

    ¡°Night Master, the night in the painting is almost gone.¡±

    ¡°I have said that the night always exists and will never fade away.¡±

    Angel: ¡°Then when will the great firepletely cover this night?¡±

    ¡°`

    ¡°Just a bit shy of the right heat,¡± Night spoke softly, ¡°but it won¡¯t take much longer.¡±

    As for what that final bit of heat was, Night didn¡¯t say; instead, he turned to ask Angel about his purpose foring.

    ¡°I was thrown here by Lord Fafnir¡­¡± Angel roughly recounted what had happened in the store earlier, sighing with misfortune, ¡°¡­I came here also to inquire whether the pieces of the Fire Transmission Stone have been collected?¡±

    ¡°The pieces of the Fire Transmission Stone will still need one more day, however, I have already forged the White Ash Fire Solvent with the ghostly mes of hell,¡± Night said as he tossed a bottle to Angel.

    This was a very delicate red sparrow-beaked bottle, adorned with strange totems, nothing like the style of the Abyss.

    The body of the bottle was slightly warm, and with a gentle shake, one could hear the sound of liquid sloshing inside, apanied by the crackling sound of mes burning.

    Angel uncorked the bottle and looked inside, only to be surprised. In spite of the bottle¡¯s small size, the space within seemed to have been expanded in some way; the tiny bottle contained nearly a vat¡¯s worth of White Ash Fire Solvent, its magma-like bright red hue bringing an intense wave of high temperature.

    ¡°Since it¡¯s rare for me to forge, I made a bit extra. These fire solvents, I¡¯ve heard from Feng, can endow abyssal chaotic dark energy attributes to the items alchemists craft with them,¡± Night mentioned.

    Angel, filled with gratitude and emotion, quickly stowed the bottle within his bracelet. This was a valuable item, no less worth than Simos¡¯s bones, and since, for the time being, only the Fire Transmission Demon could possess ghostly mes of hell, this meant it was almost a unique presence among humans.

    After cing the bottle into his bracelet, Angel then fervently thanked Night.

    Night couldn¡¯t help but give a wry smile, though he didn¡¯t make anyment about it; after all, forging the White Ash Fire Solvent had not taken much effort, and Angel had paid for the materials himself.

    ¡°I wonder how things are back at the store,¡± Angel said after putting away the fire solvent, remembering the other matter since Fafnir had saved him earlier, ¡°Proprietor, may I stay here a bit longer?¡±

    ¡°You may,¡± Night nodded, then added, ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about Fafnir. In Lassudral, few could harm her. And there are none who could detain her.¡±

    Hearing this from Night, Angel felt much reassured.

    However, thinking back on what had happened earlier, Angel found the whole situation baffling. He didn¡¯t understand why Yadasai suddenly attacked him¡ªthere should be no side effects from Nya¡¯s transformation, right? Nya clearly benefited from it, so Yadasai had no reason to be grateful to him, but to go as far as to try and kill him?

    Angel shook his head; his main confusion was because they were speaking the ancient Demon Language, which he didn¡¯t understand at all. He would have to wait until he saw Canaan to ask what exactly had happened. He remembered Nya pointing at him before Yadasai immediately attacked him.

    It couldn¡¯t be from jealousy, could it? Angel rubbed his temples, utterly puzzled.

    At that moment, Night¡¯s gaze, which rarely left his painting, shifted towards the point in the forest south of town where energy was converging.

    After a long moment, Night withdrew his gaze, pondered for a while, and then looked at Angel with an odd expression, ¡°The Pannas Subus, she awakened in your store?¡±

    ¡°Awakening? What awakening?¡±

    Night stretched out a finger and pointed into the air, and suddenly, Phantom Shadow of Nya¡¯s erged form appeared out of thin air.

    Only then did Angel nod and say, ¡°If this is what Proprietor Night refers to as awakening, then indeed it is.¡±

    Night stared intently at Angel and suddenly seemed to understand why Angel¡¯s earnings came so quickly. Although Abyssal Awakening required one¡¯s own will to take the lead, it was like a fire that spreads across a prairie. Without the source of the fire, it would never ignite. And Angel¡¯s experience trip was that source.

    It was no wonder then that so many demons were tirelessly trekking there, drawn by the ocean rhythm that awakened the Pannas Subus.

    Angel, puzzled by Night¡¯s strange look, couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What does Proprietor mean by awakening?¡±

    ¡°Awakening is the moment when Demonic Power breaks through limits, reaching a level of evolutionary leap in life,¡± he exined.

    With Night¡¯s initial exnation, Angel was stunned. Such a leap in life scale was like the difference between a Gargoyle and a Dark Gold Gargoyle; although both were Gargoyles, their strengths were worlds apart.

    As Night continued, Angel¡¯s expression grew more and more grave.

    Awakening, also called Abyssal Awakening.

    It is an awakened state induced by the power of the Abyss. Once awakened, not only does it signify a leap in life scale that Angel had previously understood, it also signifies¡­the release of Constraints.

    Why do Half-Blood Demons rarely reach high magic levels? Why is it so difficult for demons to transcend their hierarchy, with small demons remaining so despite centuries of cultivation?

    All these are due to innate constraints of their bloodline.

    Compared to humans, demons are born strong and have long lifespans, but they suffer from a disadvantage: difficulty in breaking free from their innate bloodline constraints.

    These constraints mean that although their strength is formidable, once they reach their limit, further improvement is tough. Whereas humans may face so-called grand barriers, they too have various methods of breaking through. Demons, however, do not; it is rare for millions of demons to see one break their upper limits.

    But nothing is absolute. Demons truly wishing to break beyond their limits do have some methods avable.

    The most difficult yet effective of these methods is awakening.

    Once awakened, the upper limit will be raised indefinitely.

    This means that without the constraints of a bloodline limit, Nya¡¯s future is no longer contained within the bounds of an Intermediate Rank demon, and she might even aim for a lordship!

 Chapter 1065: Section 1066: Subsequent Waves

    Chapter 1065: Section 1066: Subsequent Waves

    What does it mean to be a Demon Lord? At least, currently in the Wizards¡¯ Realm of the Southern Domain, no Wizard can measure up to a Demon Lord.

    Moreover, among the Demon Lords, the powerful ones can even bepared to Demon Gods. It can be said that this is the ultimate goal that all Demons strive towards.

    Now that Leia has awakened, even though she is still far from bing a Demon Lord, the spark has been nted; once the timees, it can set the whole field aze!

    The Abyssal Awakening is not just that; after all Demons awaken, they have different states of Abyssal Awakening. And these awakened states, driven by their own desires, grant different Awakening Abilities. Although Leia¡¯s Awakening Abilities are still unknown, her strong and immense physique alone suggests that her physical strength is probably beyond imagination.

    As a Subus, irrespective of the branch, their primary strength lies in influencing opponents with spiritual power, and their biggest weakness is their frailty in physical form. But now, with Leia¡¯s physical shorings remedied, her future ispletely unfettered by the need to subordinate herself to any great Demon.

    After hearing about the effects of the Abyssal Awakening, Angel suddenly understood why Yadasai had suddenly attacked him before.

    The power of awakening was so astonishing and its subsequent effects could extend indefinitely. With Angel holding such a crucial key, if it couldn¡¯t be harnessed for his own use, then it must be eliminated first!

    When Yadasai attacked him, it was probably to capture rather than kill him.

    Angel suddenly felt a headacheing on; Leia¡¯s awakening is probably already known to half of Lassudral. If it gets confirmed that Leia¡¯s awakening is rted to the Misty Cabin, it¡¯s unlikely that he will have any peace.

    It¡¯s like Greya¡¯s creation of magic: if someone realizes the crucial role yed by the mysterious object, he might find himself the target of many.

    The only sce is that he won¡¯t be staying in Lassudral for much longer.

    There¡¯s only one day left.

    Once he¡¯s obtained the fragment of the Fire Transmission Stone, no matter how big the waves or how many the disturbances here, they will all be irrelevant to him.

    Angel¡¯s expression changed constantly like a color palette, all of which Night observed in its entirety. Reaching its level, it could easily restrain its desires and curiosity, much like when it first met Angel and sensed his identity with Fafnir. A human paired with an Abyssal Dragon¡ªan oddbination that would invoke curiosity in anyone¡ªyet Night just listened to Angel¡¯s purpose and then disregarded other trivial matters.

    Even though its curiosity about the outside world had waned to such a degree, after witnessing what had just urred, Night became somewhat curious about Angel¡¯s background and the secrets of that ocean rhythm.

    If not for the pressing matter of the Painting Within the mes, Night from the past might have followed its desires to unravel the reasons behind it.

    ¡°The matter of the awakened needs time to ferment and evolve. You don¡¯t need to worry too much. Besides, with Fafnir by your side, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems,¡± said Night, before setting aside its own curiosity about Angel¡¯s secrets and heading towards the outer hall¡ª

    Earlier, when Fafnir left Angel at the doorstep of the Hunting Museum, many Demons witnessed the scene. Now it needed to deal with these minions.

    Angel remained in the Exhibition Hall, but his thoughts kept drifting.

    Images shed through his mind, starting with Fafnir¡¯s situation and the ripples caused by the Misty Cabin, incessantly continuing, interspersed with worries about Sanders, curiosity about Jon¡¯s current situation, and thoughts of friends and family¡­

    This state of mental turmoilsted for quite a while.

    Not until the footsteps echoed again in the Exhibition Hall did Angel snap back to reality.

    The footsteps belonged to Ppa, a creature with light blue skin, who was carrying a prey carcass several times bigger than its body, entering from the outer hall. It hade to clean today¡¯s catch in the partition behind the Exhibition Hall but unexpectedly saw a familiar figure.

    ¡°Shop¡­ shopkeeper?¡± Ppa gazed at Angel incredulously: ¡°You were in the Hunting Museum?!¡±

    Angel looked at the confused Ppa: ¡°What do you mean ¡®I was in the Hunting Museum¡¯? Could it be that someone else is looking for me?¡±

    Ppa nodded vigorously: ¡°When I came today, I saw Canaan rushing back and forth on the road, saying it was looking for you and asked if I had seen you. I didn¡¯t expect to find you here in the Hunting Museum!¡±

    ¡°Apart from Canaan looking for me, did anyone elsee looking for me?¡± It was normal for Canaan to be looking for him. Angel was more concerned about whether there were other Demons looking for him and to what extent the aftermath of the awakening had fermented.

    Ppa shook its head: ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Then, what did you notice about the Misty Cabin when you came over?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t pay much attention on my way here. I nced over from a distance, and nothing seemed amiss,¡± said Ppa confusedly: ¡°Shopkeeper, did something happen?¡±

    Suddenly Ppa had an epiphany: ¡°Were there Demons causing trouble?¡±

    Ppa muttered to itself, looking down: ¡°That¡¯s right, the effects of the experience journey are so good, it makes sense we¡¯d attract the attention of those wicked Demons.¡±

    Angel: ¡°¡­¡± Wicked Demons? Have you forgotten you¡¯re a Demon too?

    Ppa muttered to himself for quite a while before he lifted his head, ¡°Owner, if there¡¯s anything I can help with, please be sure to tell me. If it weren¡¯t for you, I reckon I wouldn¡¯t even be able to beat an ordinary Half-Blood Demon now.¡±

    Although he was still at the lower end among the lesser demons, he was much stronger than before, and it was all thanks to the person in front of him.

    Seeing Ppa¡¯s genuine gratitude, Angel sighed in his heart. If Ppa knew that he was the human it most hated, would they be at swords¡¯ points by now?

    ¡°Speaking of which, I do have a favor to need your help with,¡± Angel pondered for a while, and under Ppa¡¯s solemn expression, he took out several pouches from his pocket and handed them over.

    ¡°Take a hundred Demon Gold Coins from here as amission, and use the rest to find the owner of the night, and say let him help me buy some materials¡­¡±

    The hundred Demon Gold Coins were said to be amission, but in reality, Angel had intended to give them to Ppa all along. The business of the Misty Cabin was very poor before, and it was thanks to Ppa¡¯s promotion that they had subsequent sess.

    After Ppa took the pouches, he left the Exhibition Hall in a daze.

    After Ppa had left, Angel fell into thought. Ppa had only recentlye to Lassudral from the outer world¡¯s Niming Lake, so it was understandable if he didn¡¯t know about the previous Awakeners. However, from what he said, the Misty Cabin seemed to be very calm at the moment. Could it be that the fight had already stopped? And how was Fafnir faring now?

    As if by coincidence, just as Angel thought of Fafnir, a familiar cold snort reached his ears in a timely manner.

    ¡°You cane back now, I have something to tell you.¡±

    This voice, to Angel¡¯s ears, should being from Fafnir. However, given the current special circumstances, he wondered if there were any demons mimicking Fafnir¡¯s voice to trick him into leaving the Hunting Museum. After all, with the owner of the night watching over, other minor demons dared not enter, and thus could only resort to such trickery.

    Angel¡¯s concerns weren¡¯t without reason, only he overlooked one point¡ªhow many demons would dare to send a message directly into the Hunting Museum? And besides, this ce was only a few hundred meters from the Misty Cabin, what demon would dare to imitate her voice in front of Fafnir.

    As Angel hesitated,

    ¡°Despicable human, is your courage as small as the tip of a needle?¡± apanied by footsteps, Fafnir appeared in the Hunting Museum with a scowl on her face.

    Seeing Fafnir in person came, Angel¡¯s expression was somewhat embarrassed¡ªit seems his previous thoughts werepletely overwrought.

    ¡°Follow me back!¡± With a cold snort from Fafnir, Angel immediately followed.

    As they left the Exhibition Hall, Fafnir nced back at the painting on the wall, her eyes carrying a hint of wariness.

    On the way back, no idents urred, and they returned to the rundown Misty Cabin.

    Judging from the situation at the scene, after Angel was sent to the Hunting Museum, there shouldn¡¯t have been a fierce struggle, at least the ¡°remains¡± of the wooden cabin were almost the same as when he left.

    Not long after Angel returned, Canaan also ran back with a look of rm on his face.

    ¡°Owner, are you alright? That¡¯s great!¡±

    Angel nodded at Canaan and then took out several Demon Gold Coins from his bracelet and tossed them to Canaan: ¡°Help me refurbish the store, no need for alterations, just make it the same as before.¡±

    After Angel finished speaking, without waiting for Canaan¡¯s reaction, he walked around him and went to the backyard, where Fafnir was currently sitting on the trunk of arge tree, the patchy light and shadow making her face shine extraordinarily bright.

    ¡°Honorable Lady Fafnir, are you alright?¡± Angel asked, immediately feeling like he was stating the obvious; Fafnir didn¡¯t seem troubled at all.

    As expected, Fafnir sneered, ¡°Do you think a lowly Subus and a bunch of skeletons can harm me?¡±

    ¡°Then, mydy, could you tell me what happened before?¡± Angel asked cautiously.

    Fafnir was silent for a moment: ¡°Do you know about Abyssal Awakening?¡±

    Angel nodded, ¡°The owner of the night just told me about Abyssal Awakening.¡±

    ¡°Since you know, you should understand the magnitude of the ripple that was caused just now,¡± Fafnir said with a grave expression, ¡°Yadasai attacked you for this very reason.¡±

    Based on Fafnir¡¯s statement, Angel basically confirmed that it was almost the same as he had thought before. The only difference was that while Canaan had suggested taking Angel away, Yadasai had intended to kill Angel outright at that moment.

    After Fafnir sent Angel away, both sides engaged in an energy struggle. In the end, Fafnir came out victorious. Although she managed to drive away both Yadasai and Canaan, the subsequent impact couldn¡¯t be erased¡ªnearly half of Lassudral¡¯s attention was fixated on here at that time, even now demons asionally cast their greedy gaze here.

    Although Fafnir wasn¡¯t afraid of these demons, she had to take precautions against the potential impacts they could bring.

 Chapter 1066: Section 1067 Compensation Goods

    Chapter 1066: Section 1067 Compensation Goods

    ¡°Have you gotten your hands on those materials you had the night gather for you?¡± Fafnir asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve gotten everything else, just the remaining Fire Transmission Stone fragments. The night innkeeper said it would take another day.¡±

    Fafnir frowned and muttered, ¡°If it¡¯s only one day, there shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡±

    Demons did harbour suspicion towards each other, and it would take some time for the awakener incident to ferment. Moreover, after the buffering period, there would be a reaction period. A day should be manageable to wait.

    ¡°Then we will wait another day,¡± Fafnir nodded in agreement.

    Since they needed to wait one more day, Fafnir brought up how they should spend the following day.

    Angel thought about it. He was well aware that many demons had their eyes on this ce, watching every moment. It was inconvenient to do anything. Furthermore, if he changed his usual habits during this day, it might lead other demons to elerate the fermentation time of the awakener incident.

    After considering, he finally decided to continue his n of opening for business once the cabin was repaired.

    Continuing business would let the demons observing him covertly be at ease, signaling that things were still going as usual. This could actually allow them to rx their vignce and watch the Misty Cabin¡¯s situation more closely.

    If he acted too out of the ordinary, being all closed up and cautious, it would instead make the demons feel that he was guilty of something.

    Better to create an intentional diversion, letting the demons spend their time pondering over their uncertainties.

    Fafnir had no objections to Angel¡¯s decision. She fully trusted her own strength. After all, it was just onest day, and she was confident in facing any challenge that mighte her way.

    With their n set, Fafnir continued to rest against the tree trunk while Angel returned to the front yard.

    Canaan worked at a remarkable speed. Its main body stood motionless at the front door, but it controlled several illusions of water arms, cutting trees and repairing the cabin at the same time. Canaan even found time to greet Angel upon his arrival.

    Angel nodded in response, then casually shifted a tree stump to sit on, lounging as he waited for Canaan to finish repairing the cabin.

    During this process, Angel noticed Canaan asionally ncing his way, furrowing its brows, hesitating at its steps.

    ¡°If you have a question, just ask,¡± Angel said.

    ¡°Master, I just wanted to know, was the situation with the Pannas Charm Demon the other day¡­ was it¡­¡± Canaan hesitated for a long time before voicing the doubt that had been lingering in its mind, ¡°Was it awakening?¡±

    As Canaan posed the question, Angel unexpectedly felt a chill run down his spine. The surroundings seemed calm, with no signs of disturbance, but he noticed that Fafnir, who was lying on the tree trunk feigning sleep, suddenly opened her eyes and nced over with a cold gaze.

    Fafnir¡¯s reaction confirmed Angel¡¯s suspicion was correct.

    Previously, when he spoke with Fafnir, she had somehow made it so that other demons couldn¡¯t sense their conversation. But now, that shielding mechanism had clearly disappeared. When Canaan asked that question, countless demons must have turned their attention to him.

    Even though the watching demons didn¡¯t stir, show any sign of life, or emit any energy fluctuations, the disconcerting feeling of being watched and targeted still allowed Angel to sense something was amiss.

    Angel was aware that countless demons were observing him, waiting for his response.

    He frowned, looking as if he had been through this too many times. Rubbing the temples that felt slightly swollen, Angel said helplessly, ¡°Awakening? You¡¯re asking me, how should I know?¡±

    ¡°I am not a demon, how would I know what awakening feels like, or what state it is?¡± Angel said, then waved his hand, signaling for Canaan to go back to work.

    ¡°Hurry up and get back to work. Once the cabin is repaired, we need to continue with the business. Today, we only earned a bit of Demon Gold Coins before someone wrecked the ce, andter we have to take on more clients; otherwise, we will be at a loss.¡±

    Angel¡¯s grumbling left Canaan stunned, unsure why the owner had suddenly changed. In the past few days, the owner had only been opening for half a day and charged 9,000 Demon Gold Coins per service, far from being ¡®at a loss.¡¯

    Canaan was confused, but since what the owner said didn¡¯t seem incorrect, so it nodded and returned to its post to continue the repairs.

    Only after Canaan had left did Angel¡¯s sensation of being watched slowly subside.

    He let out a quiet sigh of relief. In that moment just now, Angel felt like an actor on a stage performing before countless viewers, putting on an impressive act.

    It might not be impressive, possibly it was a poor performance, but it didn¡¯t matter.

    In the end, he had revealed all the information he needed to: He didn¡¯t know what awakening was, but his shop would continue to operate, and they coulde and investigate themselves.

    This was the attitude he was making clear.

    Canaan repaired quickly, and after Angel had only rested for a short while, the Misty Cabin was already fixed up, even the sign that had been smashed was rewritten by Canaan.

    However, this time Canaan¡¯s demonic script looked much nicer than Angel¡¯s handwriting.

    The word ¡°Misty,¡± subtly visible through the watercolor, really did have a mesmerizing effect.

    ¡°Master, it¡¯s done,¡± Canaan said.

    Angel murmured to himself: How could it be so quick?

    But he nodded to Canaan, offering praise, ¡°Very well, tidy up the shop a bit, then prepare to open.¡±

    After speaking, Angel walked into the shop with a calm demeanor and returned to the attic on the second floor. Canaan had also re-carved the previously destroyed tables, chairs, beds, and cabs.

    The air was still tinged with a faint mist, as well as the distinct pine scent of new wood.

    Angel sat back down in his chair and did nothing; his mind waspletely empty, simply waiting in the dark, quiet attic for the minutes to tick away.

    After reopening the shop, Angel thought he would immediately face a rush of customers, yet there was none.

    Not a single customer came through the door even after an hour had passed since opening.

    ¡°Could it be that the demons watching in the shadows aren¡¯t sending any scouts to check things out?¡± Angel wondered. However, after thinking about it, he felt it was actually for the best. It was even better with no oneing, as he was just biding his time until he could walk away when the time came.

    And so, an hour went by, then two¡­ time slowly slipped by.

    It wasn¡¯t until it was nearly night, when the light from the towers of Lassudral dimmed, that he finally weed his first customers.

    However, these customers were not there for the experiential journey.

    They were three skinny demons with porcin-white bodies, heads like mushroom caps, and four pairs of veins-bulging wings.

    ording to Canaan, these were called ¡°little gargoyles,¡± named for their resemnce to gargoyles, though they had no actual rtion to them.

    The little gargoyles, typically the house ves of greater demons.

    When the three little gargoyles flew toward the shop from a distance in the sky, they were carrying a leather bag, which they ced in the courtyard uponnding, then exined their purpose.

    ¡°This is thepensation sent by our master.¡±

    At first, Angel didn¡¯t react, but then he remembered telling Simos thatpensation for damaging the shop was necessary. This was thepensation Simos had sent.

    After delivering thepensation, the little gargoyles promptly flew away.

    Curious, Angel untied the leather bag. As the taut bag was opened, a head still dripping with fresh blood rolled out.

    It appeared to be the head of some magical creature, like that of a bull but without horns. Its skin also looked somewhat familiar.

    As Angel was pondering, a treated piece of parchment appeared out of nowhere like a falling feather, gently drifting into his hands.

    The parchment carried the familiar cool scent of charm, leaving no doubt that it was left by Simos.

    ¡°I don¡¯t fancy the head of a ¡®little fly,¡¯ so consider it a part of yourpensation.¡±

    A ¡®little fly¡¯? Angel seemed to think of something, constructing the ¡°server¡± of the Eye of Nalda in his mind. With the server up and running, the head, which still looked ¡°fresh,¡± became a conglomerate of countless pieces of information in Angel¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°A Void demon!¡± A wild joy shed in Angel¡¯s eyes, ¡°It is indeed Simos¡¯s head!¡±

    He had only received bones and skin from Simos before and actually wondered why, if Simos just ate the flesh, the skull should also have been there. But at that time, although Angel had doubts, he felt too awkward to ask outright.

    Unexpectedly, Simos had sent over the head. Simos¡¯s skull, the hardest part of its body, could be said to be the prime material for making either armor or weapons.

    The eyes of Simos were also essential for many space-rted items.

    Unable to resist, Angel sent his spirit tentacle probing into the skull¡­ The brain was there, too¡ªan ingredient for concocting top-notch potions, and he¡¯d heard that some advanced spell techniques of Space Mages required the brain of Simos as a casting material.

    Perhaps for Simos, this was the most insignificant thing, especially since it was a gift from Yadasai. But for Angel, it was probably the most precious item he¡¯d acquired sinceing to Lassudral.

    This was aplete head of a True Knowledge Level magical creature!

    Moreover, this creature was from the very special category of Space Series creatures!

    Angel pulled out the aggregative matter of water of the specter, diluted it with more water, and submerged Simos¡¯s head in it.

    Afterpleting these preparations, he carefully stored it inside his bracelet.

    He gestured to Canaan to continue greeting visitors, and Angel, with a face full of joy, returned to the attic. Once back in the attic, he couldn¡¯t help taking out Simos¡¯s head to examine it repeatedly, his face filled with satisfaction.

    Is that thing really worth your excitement? You truly are a clueless human,¡± came the voice of Fafnir from the skylight. After a sarcastic remark, its tone changed, ¡°There are visitors at the door, by the way. And a few of the demons out there have this disgusting smell on them.¡±

 Chapter 1067: Section 1068: Morheim

    Chapter 1067: Section 1068: Morheim

    Although Fafnir did not specify, Angel understood that the disgusting smell she referred to must be those demons lurking in the shadows.

    ¡°It¡¯s bearable, they only showed up after nearly three hours,¡± Angel¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly, but he made no move.

    The rustling sounds from downstairs indicated that the guests had entered, yet Angel remained deep in thought, unperturbed.

    It was not until the crisp sound of wind chimes traveled from the courtyard to the attic that Angel leisurely descended the stairs.

    As soon as he appeared, he immediately felt several intense gazes sweep over him. While discussing ounting issues with Canaan outside the courtyard, Angel¡¯s peripheral vision also nced towards the direction from which these stares hade.

    He did not have aprehensive understanding of demons, and many of their appearances were quite bizarre, so he could not immediately recognize which demons were present. However, judging by their aura, not one of them was below Intermediate Rank.

    Nevertheless, not all werepletely unfamiliar; there were exceptions.

    Among them was a demon that Angel recognized at first nce, and a name immediately came to mind.

    It was a skinny white-skinned demon, small in staturepared to other demons, without wings, and it had a verymon pig tail. Such a seemingly frail demon was avoided by all others, sitting alone under the shade of a tree in the courtyard, looking quitefortable.

    ¡°Morheim,¡± Angel whispered the name in his mind.

    This name, within the Frostmoon Alliance¡­ or rather, throughout the entire Wizards¡¯ Realm, was one that could strike fear into the hearts of many.

    It became famous because Morheim once fought a legendary and protracted battle against Monty, the undisputedly strongest wizard of the Southern Domain¡ªa battle that was well-documented.

    In that battle, Monty emerged victorious, with Morheim fleeing as the oue.

    The fact that Morheim could fight Monty for several days and still escape even in defeat speaks volumes of Morheim¡¯s power.

    The reason Angel recognized Morheim at first sight was that its appearance had already been published by Frostmoon¡¯s magazines, and when Morheim fled, it had paid the price of its left eye.

    This did not mean Morheim lost its left eye; if it were a mere loss, Morheim had a thousand ways to restore it. Its left eye was missing because it had been thoroughly sealed by Monty.

    Angel could clearly see that the six-pointed star pattern was right at where Morheim¡¯s left eye should be, with tadpole-like patterns moving on it, typical of a magical seal.

    ¡°Shopkeeper, shopkeeper?¡± Canaan called several times before waking Angel from his reverie.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    Canaan waved a pouch: ¡°The payment has been collected, all in Demon Gold Coins.¡±

    Coming to realization, Angel nodded: ¡°Understood, then let¡¯s begin the magical experience tour.¡±

    Angel took a deep breath, forcibly shifting his thoughts, and with a calm expression told everyone, ¡°The magical experience tour will now begin. Please rx your guard, do not resist¡­ Lastly, I hope everyone cherishes this opportunity. The journey is only once and will not be repeated.¡±

    When the rhythm of the ocean covered the demons, some entered the Illusionary Realm directly, while others checked for safety before entering, like those that Fafnir described as being ¡°full of the disgusting smell.¡±

    Angel noticed that Morheim, when covered by the ocean¡¯s rhythm, went into the rhythm without any resistance, but its sealed left eye remained open, its eyeball moving chaotically.

    Even, its left eye nced at Angel.

    It was as if its left eye had developed a separate consciousness from Morheim itself.

    Angel turned away, no longer looking at Morheim, and walked over to Fafnir. Just by entering Fafnir¡¯s vicinity, he felt a breeze that swept away the filth from his body, and the watching eyes from afar or the shadows also disappeared at that moment.

    ¡°You seem quite interested in that pig demon,¡± Fafnir opened her eyes and looked towards Morheim, her gaze coincidentally meeting its wildly moving left eye. However, unlike the eye contact with Angel, Morheim¡¯s left eye panicked for a moment upon meeting Fafnir¡¯s gaze, whirling around before hastily shutting its eyelid, pretending as if nothing had happened.

    So it really is a pig demon, huh?

    What kind of demon Morheim was had always been a matter of spection among the human wizards, with no consensus reached. The widely epted answer was: a pig demon. However, Morheim differed markedly from other pig demons, such as having white skin, no antlers, and a slender body.

    Unexpectedly, Fafnir confirmed that Morheim was indeed a pig demon.

    ¡°Morheim, it¡¯s quite famous among humans,¡± Angel paused, ¡°Its left eye is a mark left by humans.¡±

    ¡°Oh, is that so?¡± Fafnir too was surprised, having not paid particr attention to that pig demon before, treating it just like any regr guest. She had not expected Angel to be most concerned not about those who spied on him, but this inconspicuous pig demon.

    Fafnir looked closely at Morheim, her lips curving with a hint of interest: ¡°Indeed, it is somewhat interesting.¡±

    Angel also turned back, noticing that Morheim¡¯s left eye had opened again, staring intently at Canaan.

    For some reason, Canaan showed a wry expression, then shook his head at Morheim¡¯s left eye and walked away.

    This batch of magical experience tours ended quickly, without any anomalies.

    But Angel discovered that those demons¡¯ expressions all showed a hint of strangeness, as if they had thought of something and each left the shop on their own.

    ¡°I thought there was going to be another fight,¡± Angel muttered to himself. So many demons just left without a sound?

    Fafnir snorted coldly, looking supremely arrogant, as if to say: With me here, who dares to make a move?!

    After all the customers had departed, Angel summoned Canaan and asked what had happened between it and Morheim.

    ¡°That customer, ah,¡± Canaan suddenlyughed: ¡°It was quite interesting. Its left pupil could change like ink, continuously transforming into words¡ªusing the Demon Language.¡±

    ¡°What was it transforming into?¡± Angel asked.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t look closely, but it seemed to be saying something about digging something out¡­¡±

    Fafnir interrupted at this moment: ¡°The row of Demon Language it wrote was: ¡®Gouge out the eyes.''¡±

    Canaan then realized as well: ¡°Right, it seemed to be asking me to help gouge its left eye out. It clearly appeared to have embarked on a journey of experience. I don¡¯t know why, but its left eye could still convey meaning. Quite amusing.¡±

    Gouge out the eyes? Angel felt puzzled. It seemed its left eye really had developed a consciousness of its own?

    ¡­

    Meanwhile, outside in the world beyond the Twilight Mountains, a vast shadow flew across the sky.

    It was like a nket of dark clouds pressing down on the Twilight Mountains, casting them in a gloomy pallor.

    If one looked closely, they would realize this shadow was not a cloud at all, but a gigantic floating ice tform, wrapped in a dull, grey mist. This tform hosted nearly a hundred figures.

    Among them, the figure in the forefront wore a pure, translucent Frost Gown. On both the front and back of the wide garment were crescent moon patterns. His face was obscured by a silver mask, which was part of the Frostmoon silver crown he wore, intricate and magnificent.

    He was Monty, the leader of the Frostmoon Alliance, and also the man at the pinnacle of the Wizards¡¯ Realm of the Southern Domain.

    Sinafa stood by Monty¡¯s side at the moment, her curse having been lifted by his lordship these past two days. A body of conflicting energies made her resemble both an unapproachable cier and a fierce me under the scorching sun.

    Sinafa watched as the Twilight Mountains drew closer, their undting lines plunging into the dark horizon, while beyond that endless mountain range was their destination.

    ¡°Lord Monty, what is the current situation in Lassudral?¡± Sinafa asked.

    Monty was silent for a moment, his gaze prating the silver mask as if he could see the vastness in the distance.

    After a while, Monty spoke: ¡°The target has not yet arrived.¡±

    Sinafa calcted that if the target had not yet arrived, they should still have enough time.

    ¡°However, it¡¯s odd that though the target has not arrived, the atmosphere in Lassudral has already begun to feel strange,¡± Monty said with confusion, the information he received suggesting something unusual about the situation in Lassudral.

    Monty¡¯s words drew the sideways nces of nearby wizards, including Samantha, Kanter, and Sanders. Everyone turned to look at Monty.

    ¡°The eye I left in Lassudral is currently in the eye of the storm,¡± Monty said, scrutinizing the iing information: ¡°Energy tumult, Abyssal Awakening¡­ and a mysterious shop deep in rumor.¡±

    The information Monty received was fragmented, and even after his analysis, it was still unclear.

    Energy tumult, somewhat understandable.

    Abyssal Awakening, many wizards might be unaware of it, but Monty had spent years in the inneryers, even entering Demon City incognito, so he was not unfamiliar with the concept of Abyssal Awakening.

    Monty briefly exined the meaning of Abyssal Awakening to the wizards.

    ¡°Does this mean that once the Abyss awakens, the path to lordship will be clear? Isn¡¯t that equivalent to our Legendary tier?¡± one wizard eximed in surprise.

    ¡°Not exactly,¡± Monty said. ¡°Abyssal Awakening gives demons the ability to break through their limits, simply meaning they have the potential to be lords. What happens in the future is still uncertain.¡±

    ¡°So, it¡¯s simr to the mark of the Thief of Time? And it¡¯s not even as strong as the Thief of Time¡¯s mark.¡± The mark of the Thief of Time implied that one had the potential to pursue the truth¡ªa concept, or an ideal sought by wizards. In the eternal depths, in the unyielding clouds.

    The potential of truth was clearly far more powerful than the mere potential of bing a lord, as bestowed by the mark of the Thief of Time.

    Speaking of the Thief of Time¡¯s mark, suddenly a wizard said: ¡°I remember that both Illusion Demon and Lord Monty have been marked by the Thief of Time?¡±

    The gazes of those present immediately locked onto Sanders and Monty.

    However, Sanders remained expressionless, unreactive. But the brows hidden behind Monty¡¯s mask deeply furrowed.

 Chapter 1068: Section 1069 Montyâ€™s Obsession

    Chapter 1068: Section 1069 Monty¡¯s Obsession

    ¡°`

    While everyone was still engaged in a boisterous discussion, Monty¡¯s peculiarity went unnoticed by most due to the cover of his mask.

    Only Sanders shot Monty a disdainful nce.

    Although Sanders appeared aloof from the vortex of conversation, he was, in fact, observing the movements of everyone, especially Lord Monty.

    Others may not be privy to the inside story, but as someone marked by the Thief of Time just like Monty, Sanders had a good understanding of some of Monty¡¯s thoughts.

    Indeed, the vast majority of those marked as ¡°seeds¡± by the Thief of Time initially shared the same stance towards him.

    Sanders was unwilling to be constrained by the Thief of Time and even held a loathing for him.

    Initially, Monty felt the same way.

    As a natural-born genius with lofty goals, truth was their sought-after shore; why would they allow the Thief of Time to steal their choices away? Even if it was a choice they would not have used.

    But when did Monty start to change his train of thought?

    Was it when he had exhausted the resources of the Frostmoon Alliance without being able to further advance? When he glimpsed the higher ranks of the world but found them out of reach? Or was it when during a particr cultivation session, he made that expedient choice and saw the Thief of Time shing a satisfied grin, never to appear again?

    Yes, Monty had not seen the Thief of Time again since that cultivation session.

    That time, the Thief of Time took another choice away but also gave him amplepensation, allowing hisbat strength to directly reach the pinnacle of the Southern Domain. Yet from that moment, he seemed unable to progress any further, and he never saw the Thief of Time again, despite making many life-changing decisions intentionally; the Thief of Time never reappeared.

    He knew that the Thief of Time hadpletely given up on him.

    Once the Thief of Time abandoned his ¡°seed,¡± there were only two reasons: either the seed itselfcked ambition, or the seed¡¯s ¡°true choice¡± had been stolen from him.

    Monty knew he was thetter.

    From that day on, Monty no longer detested the Thief of Time and instead was eager to meet him once more, but to no avail.

    Hence, the reason why he decided to breakthrough Legend using the method of Blood Soul Sacrifice from the Demon God¡¯s descendant was precisely because he hadn¡¯t seen the Thief of Time in so long.

    It was only when there was no hope on the path ahead that he chose to take an unorthodox approach.

    Therefore, his emotions were particrlyplex upon hearing about the Thief of Time now.

    Sanders could infer Monty¡¯s psychological changes, but he actually sneered at Monty¡¯s morbid mentality.

    Monty never considered that his original choice might not have been wrong. The Thief of Time¡¯s absence could just be leading him to make mistakes.

    After all, the Thief of Time is an utter bastard.

    He ims to fairly take the choices you abandon, but in reality, he¡¯s always psychologically manipting you, guiding you to make the decisions he wants.

    That¡¯s why Sanders was so outraged upon learning that Angel had been marked by the Thief of Time.

    However, it seems Lord Monty has fallenpletely into obsession, and even if you told him that his choices weren¡¯t wrong, but it was the bastard Thief of Time who was wrong, he probably wouldn¡¯t listen.

    Obsession and inner demons have always been the roadblocks on the path to Legend.

    Sanders lowered his brows, his gaze growing dark. As the voices around him grew louder in their discussion about the Thief of Time, he finally spoke up, ¡°The matter of the Thief of Time, whether good or bad, is unpredictable. The more you specte, the more you drive yourself mad. Besides, is now the time to talk about such irrelevant things?¡±

    Sanders raised his head: ¡°Lord Monty, the information you mentioned earlier, aside from the unstable energy and Abyssal Awakening, also mentioned a mysterious shop. What does that mean?¡±

    Sanders¡¯s words sessfully shifted the focus of the wizards present.

    Indeed, the Thief of Time was too remote for them, at most being a topic of casual conversation. The more pressing matter at hand was the situation in Lassudral, given that their lives were now tied to the hip with the entire Frostmoon.

    ¡°The mysterious shop, could it be that of Baltica in the Land of Rest?¡± Sinafa mused quietly.

    After a moment of distraction, Monty finally regained his thoughts. He gave Sanders a long, deep look, sensing the hidden message in Sanders¡¯s words, but it was already toote.

    Then Monty shook his head at Sinafa: ¡°The Resurrection Witch¡¯s shop is not considered mysterious in the world of Demons.¡±

    ¡°The mysterious shop I¡¯m talking about, I don¡¯t know the exact details either. It seems to be a new shop that suddenly opened in Lassudral in the past two days. In a short time, this shop has stirred up a storm and caught the attention of countless great Demons.¡±

    Monty¡¯s words drew sideways nces and discussions from the wizards.

    ¡°There¡¯s such a shop in Demon City? Mysterious shop, indeed it sounds very mysterious.¡±

    ¡°Could it be the work of some Mysterious Object?¡±

    ¡°Does this mysterious shop have any connection with what Lord Monty mentioned earlier, the Abyssal Awakening?¡±

    The group began to discuss the shop, but without any means to get more information about Lassudral, all their discussions and spectionscked a factual basis.

    In the end, everyone¡¯s gaze once again converged on Monty.

    Monty himself didn¡¯t have much information either, as his ¡°eye¡± in Lassudral was none other than Morheim, or to be precise, Morheim¡¯s left eye.

    ¡°`

    ¡°`

    An intermediate-rank demon from Morheim, how could it possibly fight against Monty for so long? It was simply Montyying out his ns.

    The left eye of Morheim, which was Monty¡¯s hidden chess piece, would only show itself when Morheim¡¯s main body was dormant or had lost consciousness. However, Morheim had no intention to rest, for the information he had was still too scarce.

    But that wasn¡¯t to say there was none at all.

    ¡°There¡¯s another piece of information.¡± Monty hesitated for a moment, ¡°That mysterious shop rumored to be deep within, its name is called¡ª¡¯Dreamy Fantasy¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Dreamy Fantasy?¡± Everyone pondered the message, without any clues, it left thempletely baffled.

    When Sanders heard this name, for some reason, his heartbeat erratically skipped.

    ¡­

    On the other side, Angel¡¯s heartbeat also suddenly quickened.

    He rubbed his eyes and once again looked up towards the slowly fading fiery red figure on the distant street.

    ¡°Yes, this sensation, it¡¯s so familiar¡­¡± Angel murmured softly.

    He was currently on the roof of the ¡®Dreamy Fantasy¡¯ shop, and not far away, tall tree branches stretched over, shading a bit of coolness, casting mottled tree shadows on his face.

    Fafnir rested against the trunk of arge tree nearby.

    Angel chose this spot, in part because he coveted aura around Fafnir; within this Wind Domain, no major demon¡¯s gaze could prate here.

    Originally, Angel was pondering here, but suddenly, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a fiery red figure in the distant street, that vanished in a sh, but Angel felt a familiar fluctuation.

    ¡°It must be the chain I crafted¡­¡± Angel said, puzzled, ¡°But, didn¡¯t I give that chain to Popota? And Popota performed a Blood Soul Sacrifice, it shouldn¡¯t appear in someone else¡¯s hands.¡±

    The fiery red figure seemed to have the shape of a demon, not a human. Could it really be his misperception?

    Angel massaged his temples, his face full of confusion. If he thought carefully about it, even if it truly were Popota, he should not be showing up in Lassudral at this time.

    ¡°It must be my misperception.¡± With this thought, Angely back down on the rooftop, basking in the coolness of the tree leaves, feigning sleep just like Fafnir.

    Time passed, and after roughly half an hour, Canaan¡¯s voice suddenly reached Angel¡¯s ears from the yard below.

    ¡°Shopkeeper, I found it outside! It¡¯s the same pig demon person from before!¡±

    Angel opened his slightly blurry eyes, looking down with a confused expression, only to see Canaan standing at the entrance to the yard, pointing at the lean white demon lying on the ground beside her.

    Upon closer inspection, it was Morheim who had joined the customer experience at the shop before.

    ¡°How did it end up lying there?¡± Angel asked, puzzled.

    Canaan shook her head, ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened. It fell from the sky, straight down here. It seems to have lost consciousness. Shopkeeper, what do we do now?¡±

    Angel furrowed his brow. He was about to leave Lassudral and didn¡¯t want to get involved with the demons here anymore. Especially since Morheim was a powerful demon who had contended with Lord Monty for a while.

    However, it didn¡¯t seem right to leave Morheimying at the door of his own shop.

    Angel thought for a moment, ¡°Move it to the side, just so it doesn¡¯t block the customers. How it stays unconscious is no concern of ours.¡±

    Canaan nodded, In fact, for these unconscious demons, the locals of Lassudral typically would strip them clean and then see if they can sell them for money. But this pig demon person, with an unknown reason for unconsciousness and formidable strength, robbing it could easily backfire.

    So what Angel said about ignoring it, Canaan agreed with.

    She conjured two illusionary arms of water and lifted Morheim, cing him under arge tree at the edge of the forest.

    After Canaan had ced him properly, she was about to return. But at that moment, in the unconscious Morheim, his left eye¡¯s pupil began to show strange urrences.

    The ck pupil turned into a series of characters.

    Since there were no customers at the moment, Canaan didn¡¯t rush back, standing by the side, she took in all the characters at a nce.

    ¡°Scoop out your eye? That¡¯s not going to work.¡± Canaan shrugged her shoulders, ¡°I mean, does your left eye have a different consciousness from the main body?¡±

    The left eye did not respond to Canaan, but instead continued to form new characters.

    This time, the characters weren¡¯t telling Canaan to scoop them out, but asked: ¡°What¡¯s with your shop?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you experience it yourself? Oh, right, it wasn¡¯t you, it was your main body that experienced it.¡± Canaan broke into augh, it seemed this left eye indeed had separate consciousness from the pig demon person¡¯s main body. Could it be some sort of parasite? Or maybe, a consciousness that formed on its own?

    Regardless, Canaan found it rather interesting.

    ¡°What does your shop sell?¡± The characters changed again.

    Canaan replied, ¡°It¡¯s a customer experience trip, yup. What do you experience? The rhythm of water, the cadence of the ocean. Well, you¡¯re only an eye; you can¡¯t experience it anyway, so why ask so many questions?¡±

    The characters still transformed, but at that moment, the sound of footsteps came from the distant woods, apparently another customer had arrived. Canaan waved her hand, ¡°There¡¯s a customer, I¡¯m leaving now.¡±

    ¡°`

 Chapter 1069: Section 1070: The Dark Void

    Chapter 1069: Section 1070: The Dark Void

    The skies over the Twilight Mountains glowed as enormous icebergs continued their slow drift.

    After the wizards entered the Twilight Mountains, the expressions on each of their faces gradually became more solemn, knowing that they were not far from Lassudral andbat could erupt at any moment.

    Sanders was now at the very front of the iceberg, where nearly all the high-endbat power was gathered, including Monty.

    ¡°Sanders,¡± Kanter, who had originally been standing on the other side, had now stealthily made his way over, ¡°I was on the leeward side, and it¡¯s so windy it¡¯s made my nose turn red. Your side is much better.¡±

    Kanter¡¯s nose was bright red, and his already somewhat t bridge looked even more conspicuous, resembling the tipsy old man from the fairy tales.

    ¡°You could activate your protection,¡± Sanders suggested.

    ¡°Activating protection consumes too much energy,¡± Kantermented with a mournful expression. ¡°Aside from the most basic mental barrier, I¡¯ve withdrawn all my physical defenses. I never should have chosen that side. It would be so embarrassing if I caught a cold.¡±

    Truthfully, maintaining physical defenses didn¡¯t consume that much energy; Kanter had brought it all on himself.

    Sanders didn¡¯t bother toment on Kanter¡¯s absurdities, but simply responded with a smile.

    After seeking refuge by Sanders¡¯ side, Kanter rested for a moment before asking in a low voice, ¡°By the way, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you, where is Rhein? Why didn¡¯t hee with us?¡±

    ¡°Lord Rhein has his own decisions to make, and I have no right to question them,¡± Sanders replied. However, he was actually quite unclear about the real situation himself.

    Belus, the dual-lineage wizard with the Prophecy and Soul Talents that Rhein had encountered on Sky Ind.

    Rhein had been away from the Barbarian Cave for several days, and now that the situation there was tense, the absence of his leadership might lead to chaos. Therefore, Rhein sought out Belus for a Prophecy.

    What conclusions were drawn, Sanders did not know, as Rhein had hastily left the Abyss.

    ¡°If Lord Rhein were here, this operation might be safer,¡± Kanter remarked with a sigh. ¡°After all, what we are about to face is Lassudral, the Demon City that never falls in the Void.¡±

    In Lassudral, there would surely be many great demons stationed, and it would be anything but easy to take away the offspring of the Demon God from a demon city guarded by such powerful demons.

    As Kanter thought about the potential scenarios they might encounter, he couldn¡¯t help feeling a sense of dread.

    The journey passed in silence. As the iceberg floated into the midsection of the Twilight Mountains, Sinafa¡¯s voice suddenly entered everyone¡¯s ears, ¡°Get ready, once we pass the midsection¡¯s snowy mountains, we¡¯ll delve into the Void!¡±

    For demons, their entry into Lassudral was through the small inds of Lake Niming.

    But as they were on a hunt for the Demon God¡¯s offspring, they could not tantly approach Lake Niming; instead, they chose to enter the Void from a remote border and then locate Lassudral through a space-time beacon.

    Soon, they passed the midsection snow mountain.

    Wizards including Sinafa and Samantha, the Frost Moon Wizards, channeled their power together, creating a vortex in the space directly in front of them. Behind the vortexy pitch darkness ¨C the inner Void of the Abyssal world, where, with proper beacons, one could even connect to the deeperyers.

    Although the Void was filled with darkness, it did not mean there were no creatures within.

    Many magical creatures liked to dwell in the Void, such as the ¡®Void Demon¡¯ Simos. Some demons also often wandered in the inner Void and even¡­ in the deepest Void of the Abyss, many Demon Gods slept. Their power was so immense that careless actions could disrupt the Laws, and only the Void could contain their forms.

    When the iceberg entered the Void, it meant there was no turning back in their quest.

    From then on, there was only victory or defeat.

    After entering the Void, Kanter¡¯s initially anxious mood gradually calmed. For others, the Void represented darkness, istion, and the unknown.

    But for Kanter, who possessed the Bloodline of Night, his power had actually been diminished a lot by the absence of day and night in the thirdyer of the Abyss. However, in the pitch-dark Void, his powers were greatly enhanced. With his strength restored, some of the troubled thoughts in Kanter¡¯s mind naturally dissipated.

    ¡°Eh?¡± As Kanter¡¯s heart settled, he naturally started to pay attention to Sanders beside him and noticed that Sanders¡¯s expression had suddenly changed drastically, his brows furrowed tightly.

    It took a while before Sanders came out of his confused state.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± asked Kanter curiously, as he seldom saw such a look on Sanders¡¯ face, being an old friend for many years.

    Sanders was silent for a moment, as if organizing his thoughts, and after a while, he said, ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but upon entering the Void, I felt a strange sensation. Yet when I try to capture it, it disappears.¡±

    Kanter frowned, ¡°Could it be some kind of premonition?¡±

    Sanders shook his head, intending to continue exploring the strange feeling, but at that moment, Monty at the forefront had begun locating the position of Lassudral.

    Monty¡¯s method of locating still involved using the eye he had left on Morheim.

    Quickly, Monty sensed the position of Lassudral, and at the same time, he received new information through Morheim¡¯s left eye while setting the coordinates.

    ¡°New information?¡± As this message spread, all the wizards turned to look at Monty.

    Sanders also put away any unrted thoughts. After all, the rion call for battle was about to sound, and the more they knew about the adversary, the better off they would be.

    ¡°The winds of Lassudral are still controlled by that mysterious shop mentioned in the rumors,¡± Monty organized the newly obtained information and spoke slowly, ¡°That shop, known as ¡®Illusion,¡¯ offers a peculiar experience.¡±

    ¡°And this experience,¡± Monty continued, ¡°is rted to the Abyssal Awakening that recently shocked the demon world of Lassudral.¡±

    As Monty spoke, the expressions of those present turned sour.

    A mysterious shop that can induce an Abyssal Awakening of demons?! Doesn¡¯t this mean that more Demon Lords could be born in the future?

    Demons and humans are natural enemies, and if more lords are born, wouldn¡¯t it be even more difficult for them to establish a foothold in the Abyss in the future?

    ¡°What exactly is this shop¡¯s experience about? Do we have a chance, during our trip to Lassudral, to eradicate it as well?¡± Sinafa also expressed her concern.

    ¡°Eradicating it is difficult. ording to the information received, even the great demons dare not make a rash move against that shop. Our best course of action in Lassudral is to raid our targets with the utmost speed. It¡¯s best not to provoke such an enigmatic power.¡±

    Monty¡¯s goal was the offspring of the Demon God; provoking a strong enemy at this time was unwise.

    After a pause, Monty added, ¡°As for what experience the shop offers, it is said to be that of feeling the rhythm of the water and the ocean¡¯s cadence. But the specifics are unknown.¡±

    The rhythm of water, the ocean¡¯s cadence? The Wizards were baffled, not understanding what that was.

    Only Sanders suddenly furrowed his brow.

    ¡°The ocean¡¯s cadence?¡± Sanders murmured, a figure unwittingly appearing in his mind.

    Monty¡¯s narration ended as the ice floe silently progressed through the dark Void.

    ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± Kanter asked. More than an hour had passed since Monty finished speaking, but Sanders remained with a furrowed brow in silence, ¡°Are you still pondering that strange sensation from before?¡±

    Sanders shook his head, ¡°No, I¡¯m thinking about that ocean¡¯s cadence.¡±

    ¡°Ocean cadence?¡± It took Kanter a while to recall that this seemed to be what Monty mentioned as the experience offered by that shop. ¡°Is there anything strange about it?¡±

    ¡°Do you remember Angel¡¯s first high-order creation?¡± Sanders asked instead of answering.

    ¡°I remember, wasn¡¯t it said to be crafted in the Devil¡¯s Sea? It shocked the entire Southern Alchemy Realm.¡± Kanter looked at Sanders with suspicion, ¡°Does this have anything to do with the ocean¡¯s cadence?¡±

    Sanders shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s a connection, but Angel¡¯s high-order creation is named ¡®Ocean Cadence.''¡±

    Kanter expressed in astonishment, ¡°Could it just be a coincidence?¡±

    Sanders fell silent; even he did not know why Angel suddenly came to mind. Usually, the same name wouldn¡¯t mean much, it¡¯s just a way of speaking.

    It¡¯s just that Belus¡¯s Prophecy told Sanders that Angel was in the thirdyer of the Abyss, which made him more cautious.

    ¡°It should be a coincidence,¡± Sanders affirmed, but the doubts in his heart were not entirely dispelled.

    He now regretted not experiencing Angel¡¯s ¡®Ocean Cadence¡¯ when he had the chance; perhaps now he might have further insight.

    Mainly because, when Angel first mentioned ¡®Ocean Cadence,¡¯ he seemed unwilling to discuss it in detail, brushing over the topic. Even when Sanders broached the subject, Angel evaded and obfuscated.

    Having never seen nor experienced the ¡®Ocean Cadence,¡¯ thus Sanders could not confirm whether the shop Monty mentioned had anything to do with Angel.

    ¡­

    In the depths of the Void, a ce endless space-time away from Lassudral.

    This was an eternal darkness, where nothing could be seen, nor any sound heard, as if it were the legendarynd of obliteration.

    Suddenly, a gateway of light was opened.

    A slender figure, fluttering the massive wings on his back, flew into the chaotic void.

    ¡°Lord of the meless, your faithful servant calls for your awakening,¡± echoed a melodious whisper.

    In the pitch-ck world, a huge eye slowly opened, emitting a faint, greenish luminescence resembling ghostly mes that slowly burned in the darkness.

    No one could have imagined that in what appeared to be apletely barren darkness, there existed such an immense being; judging by the size of the eye, its actual form was likely unimaginable.

    ¡°Gl, I know what you wish to say,¡± conveyed a ripple-like message, seemingly able to spread to the farthest corners of infinity.

    The figure kneeling on the ground lowered its head toward the grand presence in the darkness, ¡°I await your directive.¡±

    ¡°Aoluxiya¡¯s target is Asgard; in the end, it will still reach that ce, to find its own path.¡±

 Chapter 1070: Section 1071: Void Tower

    Chapter 1070: Section 1071: Void Tower

    Angel was currently upied with two things.

    First, hey on the roof, gazing at the mottled shadows of the trees, feeling the rhythm of the breeze around him.

    The Wind Domain Field inherent to Fafnir, originally meant to shield from the gaze of external demons, enshrouded Angel as well to prevent him from being seen through by demons. But on the roof, due to ack of anything better to do, he began to sense the whispers of the nearby breeze.

    With this perception, Angel noticed the subtleties of the surrounding wind elements.

    Or rather, the finesse of Fafnir¡¯s control over the wind.

    It was like strands ofpliant thread, swinging gently as though in a gentle breeze or light rain, seemingly harmless, but in fact, every ce was epassed, forming a curtain of wind with the breeze serving as the thread. Yet should any anomaly appear in the vicinity, Angel believed that these gentle threads would instantly turn into steel wire des, and that the gentle breeze would transform into a fierce wind bearing des.

    This control over the wind made Angel unconsciously immerse himself in its intricacies, desiring to delve deeper into the mysteries of the wind.

    Angel¡¯s probing was certainly within Fafnir¡¯s perception. Had it been someone else, Fafnir might have immediately reduced the intruder to bones. But since Angel was indeed the emissary appointed by Odess, Fafnir frowned but permitted him to proceed. After all, with Angel¡¯s strength, he wouldn¡¯tprehend much anyway.

    Indeed, like a Domain, a Domain Field is part of the world that True Knowledge Wizards wille into contact withter on. Within the Wind Domain Field, Angel couldn¡¯t uncover any mysteries. However, that didn¡¯t mean he gained nothing. His ¡°journey through the wind¡± was probably an honor no other wizard in the Wizards¡¯ Realm had experienced. Even if some had, it would likely have been on a battlefield, where the Domain Field of the wind they faced was certainly not a gentle breeze.

    Therefore, in this unique journey, Angel¡¯s experiences were quite miraculous. Although his understanding of the wind remained superficial, he grasped some elements of the Wind Sequence.

    The Wind Sequence, simr to the Rhythm of Water, is a tidal and cyclical expression of an element.

    Grasping the Wind Sequence actually meant deepening one¡¯s affinity with the wind. This would be of great help when learning and casting wind arts in the future.

    Of course, Angel didn¡¯t truly grasp the Wind Sequence but had developed an insight into some of its elements, a form of sentiment. If he spent some time reflecting on it, he might integrate it into his system.

    This was an unexpected gain.

    Beyond the insights from sensing the Wind Domain Field, Angel was engaged in another activity.

    Now, every move he made could potentially be observed by other demons. Under such circumstances, constructing a Gate Model or learning new knowledge like before was not easy.

    Since studying was not an option, he found something else to do, such as diverting part of his attention into his bracelet to monitor the situation within the Pliant Worm nest.

    Previously, the Pliant Worm queen, due to theck of rest and needing to quickly hatch ordinary Pliant Worms to engage in conflict with the Dreamweaver Ants¡ªor more urately, to one-sidedly feed the Dreamweaver Ants to avoid being devoured herself¡ªdidn¡¯t have the time to rest.

    Later, after epting Kanter¡¯s suggestion, Angel adjusted the frequency of the battles between the two sides.

    This change brought about a new development in the asymmetricbat.

    The Dreamweaver Ants were forced to cease fighting for several days after a certain period. This allowed the Pliant Worm queen to not be under such intense pressure, and she began thinking about how to break the deadlock.

    How could she avoid being exclusively ughtered by the Dreamweaver Ants? Relying only on ordinary Pliant Worms was clearly insufficient, as they were mere borers¡± with no fighting capability. To turn the tide, it was necessary to have a military caste.

    Thus the queen began to concoct various strategic changes.

    A few days earlier, Angel had discovered that the queen hadid one egg with a whitish-red hue and three with a metallic sheen.

    This was clearly different from the eggs of ordinary Pliant Worms and likely the result of the queen¡¯s strategic changes, possibly a new military caste among the Pliant Worms.

    Over the past few days, whenever he had the chance, Angel would pay attention to any changes in these four special eggs.

    Just a few minutes ago, Angel felt one of the eggs with a metallic sheen begin to move.

    Therefore, Angel¡¯s focus also turned to what was happening inside it.

    After shaking for a while, the egg with a bronze hue began to crack at the top, signaling that new life was about to emerge.

    In that moment, Angel¡¯s anticipation reached its peak.

    He naturally hoped that the ¡°new military caste¡± hatched from this egg would be the Transforming Soft-bodied Insect, but when a pale yellow worm emerged, a hint of disappointment crossed Angel¡¯s eyes.

    Though this Pliant Worm wasrger than the others and had a copper sheen, it was not the Transforming Soft-bodied Insect that Angel had been eagerly anticipating.

    This was a Copper-armored Pliant Worm, a military caste among the Pliant Worms responsible for defense.

    Upon reflection of the queen¡¯s current situation, constantly threatened by the Dreamweaver Ants, her immediate production of Copper-armored Pliant Worms also made sense.

    Although it was not the Transforming Soft-bodied Insect Angel had been hoping for, the Copper-armored Pliant Worm was still quite a rare magical bug, and its exuviae were excellent defensive materials. At least the Axo blood he had fed it wasn¡¯t too much of a loss.

    After its emergence, the Copper-armored Pliant Worm began to defend the area around the queen. Angel did not continue to observe any further; the other special eggs showed no signs of hatching, so he had to put that aside for the time being.

    No longer distractions by Pliant Worms, Angel concentrated on sensing the Wind Domain Field.

    Time quietly passed by.

    After an unknown span, an anomaly suddenly urred at the highest point of Lassudral, at the center of the Void Tower.

    The reason Lassudral was known as the city that never slept was the dazzling orb of light at the top of the Void Tower, which illuminated the entire city incessantly.

    However, the luminous orb at the top of the Void Tower began to dim slowly.

    On a normal day, this orb would appear slightly dimmer at night to differentiate between day and night. But even when slightly dim, its light was still incredibly bright, merely the difference between early summer and midsummer.

    But now it was different; the orb was dimming at a pace visible to the naked eye. In just two short minutes, Lassudral shifted from the bright daylight to pitch-ck night.

    The orb at the top of the Void Tower didn¡¯t go outpletely; rather, it shone like fluorite with a faint white glow.

    From Angel¡¯s perspective, it looked like a full moon.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on? How did it turn from day to night?¡± Angel stood up, looking puzzledly at the distant Void Tower.

    It wasn¡¯t just Angel who was confused; the majority of demons in Lassudral shared this bewilderment.

    A vast number of demons flew into the sky, eyes trained on the Void Tower.

    Canaan, who radiated aquamarine glimmers like water, also flew up from the courtyard and settled on the roof.

    ¡°Do you know what¡¯s happening?¡± Angel asked Canaan.

    Canaan shook his head: ¡°I¡¯ve been in Lassudral for almost ten years, this is the first time I¡¯ve seen the light source of the Void Tower go out, and I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happened.¡±

    Angel also posed the question to Fafnir, who didn¡¯t even lift her eyes to look, indifferent to the change from day to night. Moreover,pared to the bright daylight, she actually preferred the night.

    ¡°Could it be that the orb of the Void Tower has run out of energy?¡±

    Canaan shook his head: ¡°The Void Tower is the hub of Lassudral if there were no energy there, Lassudral would copse as well.¡±

    Hearing Canaan¡¯s words left Angel somewhat surprised. It was the first time he heard that the Void Tower was the hub of Lassudral. Frankly, he only knew the name of the Void Tower but never inquired about its purpose. Because Angel never imagined that one day, he would set foot inside the inner city of Lassudral.

    ¡°The Void Tower is the hub of Lassudral? Its function is to provide energy?¡± Angel asked, curious.

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not very clear on it, but I¡¯ve heard from other half-blood demons that the Void Tower was set up by a Demon God in ancient times. It can absorb energy drifting in the Void, thus maintaining Lassudral from never falling and its eternal light.¡± Canaan paused, then continued, ¡°Besides, there are some secrets within the Void Tower that are not known to ordinary beings, it seems to have the characteristic akin to a gate betweenyers. But I¡¯ve only heard about it; I have never truly been there. Aside from great demons, others are obliged to stop at the threshold.¡±

    Angel nodded, not delving deeper into the true function of the Void Tower. At the moment, he was more curious about what exactly was going on with the day-night transition.

    In the end, however, Angel didn¡¯t get an answer.

    The night continued without reversal, and the demons returned to their own territories, starting to adapt to the life after the day-night changes.

    ¡°Actually, the night is not too bad, it¡¯s rare to see such a scene,¡± Canaan said, looking at the distant Lassudral. The once grand and brilliant buildings were now hidden by the darkness of night, leaving only the twinkling lights that at a distance resembled a starry sky, possessing a different kind of beauty.

    ¡°Our shop is quite dark too, we need to set up some lights.¡± Canaan suddenly seemed inexplicably excited, jumped down from the roof, gathered a bunch of sparkling things from nowhere, and began decorating the narrow wooden hut.

    Angelughed softly but did not stop Canaan¡¯s actions.

    He stared into the distance at the lights, somewhat transfixed.

    Meanwhile, at the balcony of the Hunting Museum, Night opened the door and stepped out, its face¡¯s me pattern had subtly faded a great deal. With the brash and fierce pattern less apparent, its handsome features gradually revealed themselves.

    Night looked up in the direction of the Void Tower, and a startling brilliance suddenly flickered in his calm eyes.

    ¡°It has finallye.¡±

    Inside the Void Tower, in a spacious circr hall, several demons of varying appearances were gathering together.

    If Angel had been there, he would recognize Yadasai, who had previously attacked him, among these demons.

    All of the demons present were the great demons who resided in Lassudral.

    The usually imperious great demons now wore solemn expressions.

    In the midst of them, a me flickered, suspended in mid-air.

    The me itself was ordinary, but what was not was the faint green mark that sporadically emerged within it.

    This was the mark of the Lord of the meless.

 Chapter 1071: Section 1072 Blocked Passage

    Chapter 1071: Section 1072 Blocked Passage

    Outside the Void Tower, in a deep alley shrouded by night.

    A Purgatory me ve, its body engulfed in mes, was caressing the shimmering crimson chains in its hands.

    It looked towards the towering fortress-like Void Tower with a glint of excitement in its eyes.

    ¡°The time hase. Yee-hahaha¡ªThe fire of Baiyuan will burn into the endless future,¡± the Purgatory me veughed uproariously, its face covered. Between its fingers peeked eyes brimming with madness.

    The chains in its hand suddenly burst into strange mes that appeared to exist both in reality and in the void.

    Soon, the mes dove into the chains, and the figure of the Purgatory me ve gradually merged into the surrounding darkness.

    ¡­

    Angel had read some legends and rumors. Thebel of the Abyssal Dragon race always included being powerful, evil, andzy, and, at the same time, the Abyssal Dragon race was widely known for a particr fondness for shiny objects.

    However, legends are, after all, just legends. Angel turned to look at Fafnir, who was feigning sleep. Strong indeed, andzy as well, but as for liking shiny things, that had been a misrepresentation.

    On the contrary, it was Canaan that seemed to have a peculiar obsession with things that gleamed and twinkled.

    Angel lowered his gaze and looked down from the eaves.

    After the reversal of day and night in Lassudral, Canaan disyed a characterpletely different from before. Humming a contented tune, it hopped and bounced on its feet like a butterfly fluttering through flowers, leisurely weaving around the Misty Cabin.

    Every few steps, Canaan would take out gems that radiated a water-blue gleam and arrange them around the area.

    In just a few short minutes, the Misty Cabin was enveloped in a blue luminescence. From a distance, it looked like the serene Crystal Pce beneath the sea. The light flowed dazzlingly, like a dream, like an illusion.

    After Canaan finished arranging the gems, it gave Angel a smug look.

    Angel spoke in a low voice, ¡°This arrangement does connect with the name ¡®Misty¡¯. However¡­ the Misty Cabin may not be open for much longer. Setting it up like this feels somewhat wasteful.¡±

    ¡°Not open for much longer?¡± Canaan looked puzzled, ¡°Why? Is it because of those big demons causing trouble?¡±

    Angel didn¡¯t know how to exin to Canaan; he couldn¡¯t just say that he never nned to keep it open for long. Plus, Canaan¡¯s dedication over the past few days had not gone unnoticed by Angel, and suddenly shutting down seemed rather cruel.

    ¡°Or is it because of the proprietor¡¯s identity?¡± Although it wasn¡¯t said explicitly, Canaan was well aware that the proprietor was actually human. If that was the reason, Canaan could understand.

    ¡°My identity is not an issue.¡± Even though Canaan was aware, Angel couldn¡¯t acknowledge it. He still insisted on his stance, ¡°The reason it will not be open for long is that the time hase.¡±

    The time hase? Canaan didn¡¯t understand what Angel meant.

    ¡°There are chances that are encountered and missed, and journeys have beginnings and ends. Between them is when the timees,¡± Angel said something he himself didn¡¯t quite understand, and ended the conversation with an air of profundity.

    In any case, he had said what he needed to. Even if he left without a wordter, there was already a prelude to it.

    However, what Angel did not know was, even though Canaan did not understand the meaning of his words, it remembered them. Later on, when demons inquired about the whereabouts of the Misty Cabin, Canaan ryed these words.

    Sometimes, the more mysterious something is, the more it is pursued.

    The Misty Cabin, a name that stood tall in the realm of rumors, with proven cases of permitting demons to experience an Abyssal Awakening, had vanished at the peak of its fame as abruptly as a ceasing piano concert, leaving behind endless room for imagination.

    Moreover, with Canaan¡¯s ambiguous words, many lower-ranking demons imagined the Misty Cabin to be a ce of legend.

    In a world wheremunication is restricted, rumors always go to one of two extremes: they either get worse or they are embellished. And the tales of the Misty Cabin, due to the ¡°precedent of Abyssal Awakening,¡± ¡°a multitude of testimonials,¡± and also because of ¡°affordable prices,¡± were constantly beautified within demon rumors.

    And in the future of the demon realm, they continued to ferment for an extended period.

    This was something Angel had not anticipated.

    But that is a story for another time. For now, Canaan remained in the yard, pondering the meaning behind Angel¡¯s words. Although it did not understand, it could see the proprietor¡¯s determination to leave.

    While Canaan was slightly dejected, it had earned more during this time than in the past ten yearsbined, and with its strength greatly enhanced, leaving the Misty Cabin wouldn¡¯t mean a loss for it.

    It was just that there might no longer be a chance to repay the proprietor¡¯s kindness.

    As Canaan began to feel a tinge of sorrow, a nging of footsteps suddenly approached from outside the yard.

    In present-day Lassudral with its inverted day and night, all demons were adapting and searching for the source of this change, and it had been some time since thest visitor hade to the Misty Cabin.

    In such circumstances, Canaan became curious about who would visit at this time.

    It opened the shop door and walked out, and the moment it stepped outside, it felt a burning gaze fixed on it. Canaan turned his head to look and saw the Demon Person Morheim, whom he had moved outside earlier, still unconscious, yet the intense gaze wasing from Morheim¡¯s left eye which was not under Morheim¡¯s control.

    The left eye was bright and seemed to be beckoning Canaan over.

    But Canaan had no time to pay attention to it now, for his gaze was fixed on the dark forest path from where the footsteps hade, winding from the end of the narrow path.

    Soon, ake-green figure appeared before Canaan and, panting heavily, dropped arge bag on the ground.

    ¡°Ppa?¡± By the light of the shimmer stones mounted on the Misty Cabin¡¯s doorway, Canaan recognized the figure before him, it was indeed Ppa from the Hunting Museum.

    Canaan hade to the Misty Cabin initially because of Ppa.

    ¡°What brings you here?¡± Canaan asked, puzzled. He remembered quite clearly that Ppa should have already experienced the sea rhythm once, and ording to the rules, he was not allowed to experience it a second time.

    Ppa pointed to the bag on the ground and said, ¡°This is what the proprietor of the night asked me to bring to the shop owner.¡±

    The proprietor of the night? Was it the mysterious proprietor of the Hunting Museum? While Canaan was still puzzled, Angel jumped down from the rooftop,nding beside Canaan.

    ¡°I asked Ppa to run this errand for me,¡± Angel exined to Canaan, then his attention turned to the bag on the ground.

    The bag wasrge, filled with boxes and pouches of various sizes, mostly containing special materials from the Abyss.

    These were what Angel had Ppa arrange for the night proprietor to purchase for him. Now, they had been delivered.

    The more Angel checked, the happier he became. The special materials included Demon nts, ores, flesh, blood meals¡­ many of which were extremely rare or even nonexistent in the Wizards¡¯ Realm. There were also some items that looked like finished products with strange designs, the effects and uses of which Angel did not yet know and would require some time to experiment with.

    Above all else, what thrilled Angel the most was that nearly two thousand shards of the Fire Transmission Stone were also packed in a spatial bag!

    Contented, Angel stowed the mountain-like resources into his bracelet, knowing that his business in Lassudral was nowplete.

    All was ready, and he only needed to return to Ice Valley to refine the Fire Transmission Stone to lift Toby¡¯s curse!

    The very thought made Angel suddenly excited.

    Although his days in Lassudral had not been as dreadful as he had imagined, the thought of being surrounded by terrifying demons that could take his life at any moment still made Angel¡¯s heart flutter.

    He was already eager to leave.

    However, his joyful smile had barely curled his lips when Ppa added, ¡°Oh, the night proprietor also asked me to pass on a message to you.¡±

    Angel looked at Ppa, waiting for him to continue.

    ¡°The night proprietor says you¡¯d better not leave the vicinity of the Misty Cabin these next few days, and don¡¯t leave Lord Fafnir¡¯s side,¡± Ppa¡¯s words caused Fafnir, resting in the tree, to raise an eyebrow and look over.

    ¡°Why? I¡¯m already preparing to leave Lassudral,¡± Angel said, baffled.

    ¡°You¡¯re leaving Lassudral?¡± Ppa was stunned for a moment before saying, ¡°Don¡¯t you know, all the passages leading out have been sealed?¡±

    ¡°Sealed?!¡±

    Through Ppa¡¯s narrative, Angel learned the reason why the light from the Void Tower had suddenly dimmed.

    The brightening of the light meant the road from Lassudral to Lake Niming was open, and once the light dimmed, it signified that the passage had been cut off.

    The reason the light from the Void Tower had dimmed and day turned into night was that the leading demon of Lassudral had issued a joint emergency decree!

    All of Lassudral was now under martialw, and only when the emergency was over would the light from the Void Tower shine again. In other words, if the darkness persisted, Angel could only be trapped in Lassudral.

    Upon receiving this news, Angel¡¯s eyes immediately dimmed, and the smile that had begun to form dropped.

    ¡°Why would they seal it off? How long will the sealst?¡± Angel calcted. There were at most two days left until the ice puck unsealing; once it came undone, the misfortune that clung to Toby would emerge again.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Ppa admitted, knowing nothing of it. He had only just received the news himself and had nned to rest at the bottom of Lake Niming after delivering these supplies to Angel. Now, with the sudden deration of martialw, he couldn¡¯t leave either.

    Angel fell silent for a moment before asking, ¡°Is there any other way to leave Lassudral?¡±

    Canaan and Ppa both looked at Angel with a mixture of astonishment and suspicion, not understanding why he was so insistent on leaving right now.

    ¡°Even if it¡¯s martialw, it shouldn¡¯tst too long. If you want to leave, why the rush? Can¡¯t you wait a while?¡± Canaan inquired.

    ¡°The time hase, I must leave,¡± Angel replied, unable to offer an exnation, and then turned to look at Fafnir to see if he could find a solution from him.

 Chapter 1072: Section 1073: Night of Flames

    Chapter 1072: Section 1073: Night of mes

    ording to Angel¡¯s thinking, with Fafnir¡¯s strength, she should be able to open a Spatial Passage and leave this Void.

    However, the answer that Fafnir gave Angel was still negative.

    ¡°Although tearing open a Space Rift is not difficult, I cannot guarantee where a rift opened here would lead to.¡± Fafnir shrugged her shoulders, she was a Wind Dragon, not a Void Dragon. Her understanding of space was limited to the surface.

    Although Lassudral had a passage to the third level of the Abyss, Lake Niming, it did not mean that this ce was really close to Niming Lake, it was just that the two ces were connected by temporal-spatial markers. Therefore, where a Void rift torn by Fafnir would lead to was unclear to anyone.

    ¡°Is there any way to leave Lassudral then?¡±

    ¡°There is.¡± Fafnir stretched out her hand and pointed to the ground below: ¡°Below Lassudral, the Void connects to the inneryers. Going to the inneryers, and then shifting through other passages to the outeryer, is also possible.¡±

    Angel¡¯s eyes lit up, thinking this could be a method too. Although the inneryer was more dangerous than the outeryer, with Fafnir present, they should also be able to make it through.

    However, when he learned about the time needed to go to the inneryer and then return to the outeryer through other passages, Angel fell silent.

    At least two weeks, and the journey must be smooth all the way.

    Two weeks was toote for everything. Moreover, with the power of Toby¡¯s bad luck, it was questionable whether they could even make it out of the inneryers of the Abyss.

    Angel¡¯s face was disheartened, why would the banishment ur at this time?

    Could it be that Toby¡¯s misfortune had already broken through the ice seal?

    Angel returned to the entrance of the shop, and when Ppa saw Angel¡¯s disconste expression, she asked with some concern, ¡°Shopkeeper, are you alright?¡±

    Angel: ¡°I¡¯m fine for now, but if I don¡¯t leave Lassudral soon, I will be in trouble.¡±

    ¡°Is it that serious?¡± Ppa muttered quietly, ¡°I heard from the Night Manager before that this martialw should notst too long.¡±

    Angel also remembered what Ppa had said, that the Night Manager had asked him to stay near the Misty Cabin in the next few days.

    Does that mean that this martialw would onlyst two days?

    ¡°Night Manager¡­¡± Angel suddenly remembered something, he raised his head to look at Ppa: ¡°Help me go back and ask the Night Manager if there is any way to leave Lassudral as soon as possible. Also, how long will this martialwst?¡±

    Seeing the serious look on Angel¡¯s face, Ppa understood that this might indeed be very important to Angel.

    Ppa nodded: ¡°Alright.¡±

    Ppa turned and left, while Angel leaned against the shop doorway, pondering over solutions.

    Actually, Odess hadn¡¯t really set a time limit for Angel, but the reason Angel was so eager to leave was because of the curse on Toby which waited for no one.

    If they truly couldn¡¯t leave, then he would have to find a way to extend the dissipation of the misfortune curse on Toby.

    In the vast Lassudral, was there a demon with such ability?

    Angel didn¡¯t even hope to lift the misfortune curse, he just needed to dy it for a bit longer. After all, he still had tens of thousands of Demon Gold Coins on him, these things were useless in the Wizards¡¯ Realm anyway, so even if he spent them all, Angel wouldn¡¯t mind.

    Rustling sounds reached his ears, and Angel raised his head to see Canaan walking out of a small grove on one side.

    ¡°The left eye of Morheim, it¡¯s really a bit strange.¡± As Canaan approached, he whispered into Angel¡¯s ear: ¡°It kept staring at me, so I went to have a look, and then it started asking me about why it got dark. I didn¡¯t tell it, but it seemed to know everything and directly asked me if Lassudral was under martialw?¡±

    ¡°Has it been asking you about things all along?¡±

    Canaan nodded: ¡°I always feel something is not right. It seemspletely contrary to Morheim¡¯??s consciousness, just like you said before, as if it was parasitized by another creature.¡±

    Angel raised his head to look at Morheim in the distance.

    Speaking of coincidences, when Angel looked over, Morheim¡¯s left eye was also looking their way.

    Its ck pupil had turned into a fog of darkness, and within its pupil, a few characters were arranged one by one.

    It was Demon Language, and unfortunately, Angel didn¡¯t understand the meaning.

    ¡°It, is, it, here, yet?¡± Canaan read out each word, and after finishing, looked baffled: ¡°Who has arrived? Who is it referring to?¡±

    Angel shook his head, he also didn¡¯t know what was wrong with this eye, ¡°Forget it, you¡¯d better not bother with it anymore, getting close to a powerful demon that has been parasitized by another creature is a very dangerous thing.¡±

    Angel shifted his gaze, and just then, sounds from the forest path indicated Ppa¡¯s return.

    Ppa brought a message from the Night Manager, ¡°The manager said, the moment of dawn will soon arrive.¡±

    ¡°Just this sentence? What about the methods to leave this ce I asked you to inquire about?¡± Angel asked with a furrowed brow.

    Ppa: ¡°Just this sentence, I asked, but the manager didn¡¯t say anything else.¡±

    Angel fell into contemtion, since the Night Manager had only brought this single sentence, there must also be his reasons.

    ¡ªThe moment of dawn will soon arrive.

    The so-called dawn refers to the first light piercing through the darkness. The arrival of dawn obviously signifies that light is about toe.

    Did the innkeeper mean that the light source of the Void Tower will brighten up soon?

    Even if Angel had guessed this answer, he still didn¡¯t let his guard down. The ¡°soon¡± mentioned by the Demon is a vague term. Ten minutes and ten days both belong to the ¡°soon¡± category for a demon, so who knows whether the Demon was referring to the former or thetter?

    After thinking for a moment, Angel said to Ppa, ¡°Do me another favor¡ª¡±

    ¡­

    When Angel returned to the rooftop, he asked the figure feigning sleep on the trunk, ¡°Lord Fafnir, might there be a demon in Lassudral that could deal with the misfortune curse?¡±

    Fafnir opened his eyes, ¡°There are some demons that are skilled in curses, but whether we can encounter one here is hard to say.¡±

    Angel sighed, his only hope was that Ppa would find a demon that could counter the misfortune curse.

    He had taken Ppa aside earlier precisely to ask Ppa to help him inquire about this matter.

    If he could find a demon that could temporarily shield the curse, then the predicament he was facing could be easily solved.

    While Angel silently hoped that Ppa would seed, an anomaly once again appeared throughout Lassudral¡ªmystical patterns of fire appeared in the deep night.

    It was as if a kind of ethereal me was burning the night itself.

    The moment the anomaly appeared, the sky over Lassudral filled with demons searching for the source of the phenomenon. However, they flew around aimlessly like headless flies, and in the end, they still couldn¡¯t locate the origin of the anomaly.

    Meanwhile, Angel, watching this ¡°me-scorched night,¡± was stunned.

    The phenomenon before his eyes bore an astonishing resemnce to the painting of ¡°Night¡± in the Hunting Museum. It was as if the world in the painting ovepped with the real one.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Angel couldn¡¯t help but look in the direction of the Hunting Museum, ¡°Could it be that the mes in the painting havepletely obscured the night? Does the innkeeper intend to shed his shackles tonight and take that final step?¡±

    At the same time, in one corner of Lassudral, within a hall burning with ghostly fire, a ball of fire and a fire-wielding demon draped in a red robe stood respectfully before a clump of ice-blue ghostly me.

    The ice-blue ghostly me slowly expanded, eventually reaching a height of two to three meters.

    As the mes began to take on a hint of green, a dark shadow suddenly appeared in the center of the ghostly me.

    Click¡ª

    A silvery boot stepped out of the ghostly mes onto the smooth floor, making a crisp sound. Soon, the owner of the boots also emerged from the ghostly mes.

    As it fully appeared, the ice-blue ghostly mes gradually dissipated, eventually turning into a blue light that settled into the visitor¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Lord Aoluxiya,¡± as the neer stood firm, the fireball and the fire-wielding demon both bowed their heads.

    The figure known as Aoluxiya was still radiating the glow of mes, obscuring its face.

    Aoluxiya nodded without immediately responding to them, instead walking toward the side door of the hall. As Aoluxiya pushed open the side door, he immediately saw the pitch-ck night outside and¡­ the burning patterns of fire in the sky.

    Gazing intently for a while, Aoluxiya¡¯s lips curled into a slight arc.

    ¡°The Primeval me has finally appeared.¡±

    The fire-wielding demon Tandin, who had followed Aoluxiya, respectfully said, ¡°Lord Aoluxiya, the Primeval me has emerged from the owner of a Hunting Museum. Shall we go now?¡±

    Aoluxiya looked at the sky where the patterns of fire flickered intermittently and said indifferently, ¡°There¡¯s no rush, not yet the time. Currently, the Primeval me is still in its gestation phase, let¡¯s wait a while longer.¡±

    Since Aoluxiya said so, they naturally had no objections.

    After a while, Aoluxiya turned to look at the fireball, ¡°Greerwu, you seem unhappy?¡±

    The fireball was none other than the young fire demon Greerwu, who turned its head and mumbled unclearly, ¡°No.¡±

    Aoluxiya looked at the somewhat awkward Greerwu and smiled, ¡°Since there¡¯s still some time before the Primeval me emerges, shall I go take a look at that store you¡¯ve been talking about?¡±

    Greerwu immediately turned its head, itsckluster eyes going wide, ¡°Really?¡±

    Aoluxiya nodded.

    Greerwu burst into a smile, and the mes that were somewhat listless before now began to swell.

    The fire-wielding demon Tandin, however, expressed concern, ¡°Lord Aoluxiya, you havee alone this time, we best not add furtherplications¡­¡±

    Aoluxiya replied, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I am just very curious why Fafnir and the emissary of Odess woulde to open a store in Lassudral.¡±

    As he spoke, pieces of frost white dragon scales appeared out of nothing in front of Aoluxiya. Aoluxiya, looking at the scales, said softly, ¡°Moreover, Binaqionse owes me a favor. I also want to know how Binaqionse is doing now.¡±

    After speaking, Aoluxiya stretched out his hand and folded the dragon scale back into his palm.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, I want to see what magic that shop has that made Greerwu remember it so vividly.¡±

 Chapter 1073: Section 1074 Descendent of the Gods

    Chapter 1073: Section 1074 Descendent of the Gods

    ¡°It¡¯s here!¡±

    This voice shook the Void, and all the Wizards, whether in meditation or doing other things, paused at this moment, turning their attention to Monty.

    ¡°It has arrived at Lassudral,¡± Monty emphasized again, ¡°The eye I left in Lassudral has sensed its presence.¡±

    Everyone knew who ¡°it¡± Monty referred to.

    ¡ª¡ªThe Demon God offspring, which was their target this time.

    Above the floating ice, the emotions of every Wizard changed, bing even more cautious and tense than before.

    Although they knew that the journey had begun the moment they stepped into the Void, everything remained an unknown as long as the Demon God offspring had not yet appeared.

    But now that the Demon God offspring had arrived in Lassudral, it meant there was no turning back. Whether in victory or defeat, they would stand in opposition to the Demon God.

    ¡°Lord Monty, I have always been curious, why would the Demon God offspringe to the surface?¡± asked a Wizard.

    Generally speaking, powerful entities from the Abyss seldom came to the surface without a special reason. The surface had weaker Abyssal power, and the inneryers provided greater enhancements for Demons, just as Wizards prefer not to leave the Flourish Continent.

    Even Intermediate Rank Demons rarely ventured to the surface, so why would the Demon God offspringe?

    About this, Monty also only knew roughly. When he had previously traveled in the inneryers of the Abyss, he had heard a rumor that the Demon God offspring was searching for something, and that something was said to be on the surface.

    Later, Monty also sought rification from the Crown Star Church.

    However, for the Prophet Wizard to cross nes and explore the world lines of the Abyss was already quite difficult. Moreover, what Monty wanted to investigate was the offspring lying in the shadow of the Demon God.

    The only confirmation he eventually received was that the Demon God offspring woulde to the surface.

    ¡°I have sought many secretive messages, and it is said that the Demon God offspring came to the surface in search of something. But what exactly it is, I do not know. However, Lapuye once prophesied that whatever the Demon God offspring is looking for will not affect our actions,¡± Monty said.

    At this point, Monty suddenly stopped, his brows deeply furrowed.

    ¡°Lord Monty, what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°The skies above Lassudral are cloaked with lines of fire, as if the entire sky has ignited,¡± Monty said, ¡°What is this situation? Is it a phenomenon that appeared because of its arrival?¡±

    ¡°Eh, the eye I left in Lassudral, I see it!¡± Monty eximed with a hint of suspicion, ¡°That Demon God offspring, has it gone to that mysterious little shop?!¡±

    ¡­

    The Misty Cabin weed a new visitor.

    The neer was one of the rare humanoid Demons. Towering in stature, it was two heads taller than Angel, and even while seated, it conveyed an oppressive presence.

    It was dressed in armor intertwining silver and blue, the design intricate, adorned with strange, shimmering inscriptions that drew Angel¡¯s frequent nces.

    Although humanoid, its body beneath the armor was a uniform brilliant white, like the highest quality fine porcin, not only smoothly contoured but also brimming with elegance and grace.

    Angel did not know whether this porcin-like appearance was its actual skin color or just a shell, for its face too was of the same pure white hue, appearing almost unreal.

    It¡¯s worth mentioning that its eyes were shaped like smiling crescents, like a sliver of a moon. Beneath its right eye was a light blue diamond-shaped mark. This mark somewhat resembled a clown¡¯s teardrop, but on it, there was not a trace of humor, instead, it carried a sense of mystery.

    Canaan had mentioned going to the Central District to investigate the cause of the martialw and had temporarily left. Angel had thought that no one woulde to the shop now, but unexpectedly a visitor had arrived, prompting Angel to steel himself and approach.

    ¡°Guest, if you¡¯re here for the experience trip, you will have to wait for a moment,¡± Angel said, his gaze involuntarily drawn to the inscriptions on the armor, sensing a certain familiarity with them.

    The other party said nothing but carefully scrutinized Angel.

    After a moment, a light chuckle sounded.

    Angel noticed that even as the otherughed, its lips did not move¡­ which meant the porcin-likeyer on its face was not real skin but a mask?

    ¡°You seem quite interested in these patterns?¡± a gentle voice reached Angel¡¯s ears.

    Angel, surprised, looked up at the Demon across from him. This Demon¡¯s voice was exceptionally mild, like a gentle breeze blowing across the center of ake. Yet this mildness was not merely tender; it concealed a sharpness, or perhaps a sense of authority, like an invisible string that slowly bound your limbs with its words,pelling one to inadvertently follow its utterance.

    Additionally, it spoke in the Abyss Language.

    Angel was well aware of pureblood Demons¡¯ disdain for the Abyss Language and had prepared himself for not understanding Demon Language, yet the stranger seemed indifferent to thenguage barrier.

    ¡°It¡¯s just that they are quite rare, and I am a bit curious,¡± Angel replied.

    ¡°Rare, is it?¡± a deep, chuckling voice came from beneath the porcin white mask, ¡°Yet haven¡¯t humans always been studying Abyssal Inscription Studies? Even the cruel schrs highly praise your pioneering spirit.¡±

    Angel¡¯s pupils instantly constricted as he abruptly raised his head to look at the white demon across from him.

    The patterns on its armor were Abyssal Inscriptions, which indeed surprised Angel, but what surprised him even more was that the other party had vaguely pointed out his own identity.

    During Angel¡¯s time in Lassudral, besides the innkeeper, no demon had discovered that he was human, not even the great demon Yadasai had any inkling.

    Yet this white demon had discovered his identity?!

    Was it because Odess¡¯s me Mark had failed? Or was it that its rank was so high that it could prate the level of Odess?

    Angel suppressed the shock in his heart and said with an expressionless face, ¡°Guest, I don¡¯t quite understand what you¡¯re saying. So this is Abyssal Inscription, it has indeed been insightful for me.¡±

    The white demon smiled slightly, its head tilted up a bit.

    From those crescent moon-like squinted eyes, Angel seemed to discern a mocking amusement.

    ¡°I¡¯m very curious, what is a human doing daring to open a shop in Demon City? What is this for?¡±

    The voice of the white demon was still as gentle as before, but Angel no longer felt the warm and gentle sensation; instead, it was as if he had fallen into an icy abyss. It was as though he were trapped inside a bottle, with a gigantic white demon peering into the bottle through the mouth, a mysterious smile rippling on its face.

    The sinister smile kept shing before Angel¡¯s eyes, and a feeling of fear grew from within, causing his body to shake uncontrobly.

    Just when Angel felt he was about to plummet into the Abyssal Depth, a pair of hands suddenly rested on his shoulders.

    A breeze, almost imperceptible, swept over Angel¡¯s trembling body, blowing away the shivers brought on by fear. It slowly and gently coaxed his anxious and distracted mind back into ce.

    ¡°I, too, am curious, why would a Descendent of the Gods disguise themselves as a demon in this shop? What is the reason for this?¡± A cold voice came from beside him.

    Fafnir had somehowe to Angel¡¯s side at an unknown time; her hands were on Angel¡¯s shoulders, and her sharp blue and red eyes were fixed on the white demon across from them.

    Angel, aftering back to his senses, recalled Fafnir¡¯s words.

    The other party was not the white demon he had thought but a Descendent of the Gods?

    ¡°Descendent of the Gods¡­¡± Angel swallowed hard, a chilling fact worming its way into his mind: Could it be that this was the offspring of the Demon God?

    The ¡®Descendent of the Gods¡¯ stood up, and with a slight nod towards Fafnir, said, ¡°My name is Aoluxiya.¡±

    ¡°Aoluxiya?¡± Fafnir murmured the name, then suddenly seemed to remember something, a look of disgust shing in her eyes, ¡°So it¡¯s the offspring of the Lord of the meless; no wonder there¡¯s a distasteful aura about you.¡±

    Aoluxiya did not seem to mind Fafnir¡¯s ridicule and lightlyughed, ¡°I prefer to be called Aoluxiya rather than the offspring of the Lord of the meless. I¡¯ve heard much about Miss Fafnir for a long time; when I was younger, Binaqionse often mentioned a lot about you¡­¡±

    While they were conversing, outside the Misty Cabin, in the woods.

    The young me Demon, Greerwu, was staring intently at the door of the Misty Cabin, seemingly envisioning a scene where Lord Aoluxiya walked out and told it: Go on your journey of experience with confidence; it will be your rite of passage into adulthood.

    Greerwu had maintained the state of a young me Demon for many years, and what it longed for most was to mature.

    ¡°Butler Tandin, why hasn¡¯t Lord Aoluxiyae out yet?¡±

    Standing next to Greerwu, Tandin replied helplessly, ¡°Young Master Greerwu, it has been less than two minutes since the Lord went in.¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡±

    ¡°Young Master, even if the Lord were to participate in the journey of experience, it wouldn¡¯t end so soon. Moreover, the Lord needs to check whether the journey of experience is safe.¡±

    ¡°Just yesterday, a Subus awakened because of the journey of experience; it must be fine,¡± Greerwu paused, eyes shining, ¡°If I also awaken, will I be a me Mark Demon?¡±

    ¡°me Mark Demon is only your mature state, young master, and the awakened form is different for every demon.¡±

    Although Greerwu knew that awakening and maturing did not necessarily corrte, its desire for mature form was so intense that it piled all possible scenarios onto its own expectations.

    ¡°Even so, there¡¯s still a chance of maturing, right?¡± Greerwu hoped so earnestly.

    Because the door of the Misty Cabin had not opened yet, Greerwu¡¯s gaze began drifting from side to side until it suddenly noticed a pig Demon Person under a tree nearby.

    Oddly enough, the pig Demon Person seemed to be in a faint, but its left eye was wide open, fixed in shock towards the direction of the Misty Cabin.

    With suspicion, Greerwu quietly moved towards the pig Demon Person.

 Chapter 1074: Section 1075 Methods of Continuation

    Chapter 1074: Section 1075 Methods of Continuation

    When Aoluxiya mentioned Binaqionse in her speech, Fafnir¡¯s expression changed instantly.

    Afterward, the conversation between her and Aoluxiya switched from Abyss Language to ancient Demon Language.

    Clearly, Fafnir did not want Angel to know what they were discussing.

    Sitting in the middle, Angel could not understand, but from their expressions, it was evident that Fafnir¡¯s face showed resentment and reminiscence, while Aoluxiya had a hint of subtle sorrow.

    Indeed, the exchange between the Abyssal Wind Dragon and the descendant of the Demon God gave Angel some time to collect his thoughts.

    Although the aura of the descendant of the Demon God was dazzling, Angel did not covet the Bloodline; moreover, as the conversation between Aoluxiya and Fafnir became more tranquil, it was unlikely they woulde to blows. Therefore, he should be safe under Fafnir¡¯s protection.

    In such circumstances, Angel finally regained control over his emotions.

    Their conversation eventually ended with Aoluxiya¡¯smentation, the content of which Angel did not know.

    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about the past, Aoluxiya, but you haven¡¯t answered me¡ªwhat are you really doing here? Is it just to scare this human?¡± Fafnir returned to speaking in Abyss Language, her eyes probing.

    Aoluxiya¡¯s pale and slender hands crossed, and her mask¡¯s squinted eyes nced at Angel: ¡°I originally came here for two reasons. The first one is to find out about Binaqionse¡¯s recent situation, after all, she is my benefactor. The second reason is that I have a very beloved junior who is quite fascinated by the experience tour of this shop, making me curious about what this experience tour is, so I came.¡±

    A beloved junior? Angel immediately thought of a mischievous child.

    ¡°Are you referring to that young fire demon?¡± Fafnir asked, clearly thinking along the same lines as Angel.

    ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡± Aoluxiya nced at the window, where Greerwu¡¯s me-engulfed figure was clearly visible in the dark forest outside.

    ¡°The experience tour in the shop is none of my business. He¡¯s the one who came up with it.¡± Fafnir pointed toward Angel.

    Angel timely said, ¡°Respected Lady Aoluxiya, the experience tour is but a small trick that can increase Water System affinity. It¡¯s not very effective for those not of the Water System and might even cause injury. That¡¯s why I rejected the¡­ juvenile fire demon¡¯s application for the tour.¡±

    Aoluxiya merely nodded nomittally. What Angel had said was all written on the signpost at the entrance.

    ¡°I will judge for myself what the experience tour is truly like after I try it. However, I am now more curious as to why you, a human, woulde to Lassudral to open a shop?¡± Aoluxiya¡¯s eyes, narrowed to slits on her mask, shed with a sharp light: ¡°ording to Greerwu, your shop has been open for less than a week. Choosing to open a shop here at this time is rather suspicious.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s suspicious about it? It¡¯s merely a coincidence.¡± Angel shrugged.

    ¡°Is that so? I have heard that your human wizards are quite interested in my Bloodline.¡±

    The actions of the Frostmoon Alliance in the Abyss had long reached Aoluxiya¡¯s ears.

    However, Aoluxiya had never considered the human wizards from the barrennds to be a threat, so she did not pay attention to Frostmoon Alliance¡¯s affairs. But now, at this particr time, if her Primeval me were ignited, her consciousness would be entwined with it. If she were not careful, there was indeed a chance for an upset.

    And a human opening a shop in Lassudral at this time made Aoluxiya wary.

    ¡°Does the Lady believe that I, as a human, am qualified to meddle in this affair?¡± Angel spoke calmly, but his heart was anything but still.

    If he put himself in Aoluxiya¡¯s shoes, his appearance was indeed suspicious, but Angel was well aware of his circumstances. He hade to Lassudral by a fortuitous mishap, with no other intentions in mind.

    And he was not in a position to covet.

    However, just saying this himself obviouslycked conviction. Angel could see doubt still flickering in Aoluxiya¡¯s eyes, so he could only helplessly turn his gaze to Fafnir for help.

    Fafnir gave a cold, sidelong nce and took her time before saying: ¡°He is here because of a task from Odess, it has nothing to do with you.¡±

    ¡°Since Lady Fafnir says so, then I shall take it as such,¡± Aoluxiya said with a lightugh, nodding her head, ¡°However, the Cruel Schr once told me that coincidences are but a fictional word. Every coincidence is part of an interesting joke.¡±

    Aoluxiya¡¯s speech was ambiguous, neither confirming nor denying belief.

    But after saying this, she nced out at the night sky and quickly changed the subject: ¡°I won¡¯t be staying in Lassudral for long, so I¡¯ll skip the small talk. I intend to try the experience tour that Greerwu has been longing for.¡±

    Aoluxiya was convinced that Angel would not refuse.

    Indeed, Angel did not refuse; instead, he spread his palms open in front of Aoluxiya.

    For a moment, they looked at each other in silence.

    Angel frowned. Wasn¡¯t his meaning clear enough? Under Aoluxiya¡¯s puzzled gaze, his palm curled a few times.

    Seeing that Aoluxiya still did not understand, Angel had no choice but to speak: ¡°Respected Lord Aoluxiya, this shop operates on a small scale, the fee is three hundred Demon Gold Coins.¡±

    After a silence in the shop, Fafnir suddenly burst intoughter.

    For the first time, Fafnir found this despicable human very, very, interesting!

    Amidst Fafnir¡¯sughter, Aoluxiya reached out his hand and felt around on his body, and after a long while, he fell silent. He did not carry the Demon Gold Coins with him, and he wondered whether to summon Tandin toe in?

    ¡°A noble descendant of the Demon God, how could he possibly carry gold coins marked with the symbols of other Demon Gods?¡± Fafnir said softly, ¡°Why not make another request to rece the payment with the Demon Gold Coins?¡±

    Fafnir was right, the Demon Gold Coins bore the true name seal of the Unparalleled Great Demon God¡¯s crown fool, and Aoluxiya could not possibly carry them on him.

    But just because Aoluxiya didn¡¯t carry them, didn¡¯t mean his followers didn¡¯t.

    However, Fafnir had already spoken, asking Angel to make another request in ce of the Demon Gold Coins to settle the ount. After thinking it over, Aoluxiya decided not to send a message to Tandin.

    He actually also wanted to know what this human wanted from him.

    Even though Fafnir had exined to the human that everything was a coincidence, Aoluxiya didn¡¯t believe in coincidences. The human¡¯s strength was low, but who could prove that there weren¡¯t others behind him?

    Aoluxiya casually watched Angel, waiting for him to make his request.

    On the other hand, when Fafnir suggested that Aoluxiya use another request in ce of the Demon Gold Coins to settle the ount, Angel¡¯s eyes immediately lit up.

    What Fafnir said was exactly the help he needed! He was currently in need of assistance!

    Angel nced at Aoluxiya and, seeing that he didn¡¯t object and even had an ¡°ask whatever you want¡± attitude, Angel spoke up without hesitation:

    ¡°Lord Aoluxiya, I wonder if there is any way to solve the curse of the Pilgrim of Misfortune?¡± This was what Angel most wanted to know at the moment; he cared about nothing else.

    Aoluxiya was taken aback, not expecting to hear such a request.

    He gave Angel a deep look: ¡°There are many ways to solve the misfortune curse ¡­¡±

    ¡°I have learned many methods to solve the misfortune curse from Lord Fafnir, but many of them are not suitable for me. I just want to know if there is an immediate solution to the curse of misfortune right now?¡±

    Aoluxiya frowned: ¡°Is there someone here who has been stricken with the misfortune curse?¡±

    After thinking for a while, Angel decided to take Toby out of his bracelet: ¡°My dear friend, he identally ate food that was cursed with misfortune.¡±

    Angel briefly described the current situation, ¡°¡­the Icebound Hex will be unsealed at any moment, so I hope to resolve it as soon as possible.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t until Angel finished speaking that he noticed Aoluxiya didn¡¯t seem to be listening to Angel¡¯s ramblings but was eyeing Toby with a look of skepticism.

    ¡°Strange creature, seemingly rootless and adrift, yet it seems closely rted to the Abyss,¡± murmured Aoluxiya softly.

    Aoluxiya found this bird very odd, yet now was not the time to inquire; he suppressed his curiosity and said to Angel, ¡°You want to immediately remove the curse of misfortune from it, which is nearly impossible. But, if you simply wish to prolong the time of unsealing, that can indeed be done.¡±

    ¡°This is Binaqionse¡¯s Icebound Hex. As long as you have Binaqionse¡¯s power, you can prolong it,¡± Aoluxiya said while taking out a dragon scale that emitted a frosty aura: ¡°Like with a dragon scale.¡±

    The method Aoluxiya mentioned was just an offhandment, but to his surprise, after a moment of contemtion, the human across from him solemnly thanked him.

    Could it be that he has Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale?

    Aoluxiya didn¡¯t delve into this further. Instead, it was Fafnir who was looking at Angel with suspicion. The dragon scale she had asked Angel to take to Odess, could it be that it was still with Angel?

    ¡°The trade isplete, Lord Aoluxiya. I will immediately arrange the experience journey; please do not resist,¡± Angel said softly.

    As soon as Angel¡¯s voice fell, he began activating the sea rhythm in secret.

    With a faint glow of water, Aoluxiya clearly felt a tugging sensation in his body, as if along with the waves, his consciousness would be taken to an unknown ce.

    Although Aoluxiya didn¡¯t feel threatened, he still kept some awareness within his physical body, allowing only a fragile, superficial consciousness to be swept away by the water, towards the stormy sea that was about to rage¡­

    As Aoluxiya fell into the sea rhythm, Fafnir¡¯s suspicious gaze never left Angel.

    ¡°Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale, you didn¡¯t give it to Odess, or are you saying¡­he gave it back to you?¡± Fafnir seemed to be subtly hoping that Angel would mention the second option.

    ¡°Neither,¡± Angel replied, taking out a dragon scale from his bracelet: ¡°I got this from Miss Baltica.¡±

 Chapter 1075: Section 1076: Unstable Spatial Energy

    Chapter 1075: Section 1076: Unstable Spatial Energy

    ¡°`

    ¡°Could it really be her?¡± Fafnir muttered lowly to herself. Baltica had exchanged Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale with this human, but why? Was it simply because he bore the me Mark of Odess? Or was it, perhaps, simply to disgust her?

    The matters between her, Odess, and Binaqionse were known by not a few in the Abyss. Given that Baltica had a history with Binaqionse, using this to disgust her wasn¡¯t out of the realm of possibility.

    Fafnir sneered coldly.

    However, what the others apparently didn¡¯t know was that by allowing Angel to return Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale to Odess, she had already made her stance clear.

    This single dragon scale signified nothing.

    Fafnir didn¡¯t speak further, which allowed Angel to sigh with relief. Previously when Baltica had given him the scale, he had been told that if ever he had to return the scale to Odess, he should try his best not to let Fafnir know.

    Now that he had been forced to take it out, he was indeed somewhat uneasy. But from what he could tell for now, Lady Fafnir didn¡¯t seem to care as much as Baltica had said.

    This eased Angel¡¯s mind.

    Seeing that Lucia was still immersed in the Rhythm of Water, Angel ced Toby aside and, holding Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale in his other hand, tried to use the method Lucia had spoken of to extend the Icebound Hex.

    As soon as Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scale was ced on the ice sphere, a misty hoarfrost formed on the smooth surface of the scale. This vapor directly continued onto the Icebound Hex, and with the emergence of a strange power, the somewhat faded ice sphere suddenly began to frost over again.

    ¡°It really works!¡± Angel¡¯s eyes lit up.

    But soon, Angel noticed something off. Although the ice sphere began frosting over again, the speed of the frosting was incredibly slow. He had to watch for several minutes to confirm that frostation was happening, but it was difficult to discern with the naked eye.

    ording to Lucia¡¯s previous exnation, once the ice sphere waspletely covered in frost, the Icebound Hex would naturallyst longer. However, this pace was much slower than Angel had anticipated.

    He estimated that it would take at least a day and a half for the frosting topletely finish.

    Fortunately, the speed of frosting should be enough to finish before the previous Icebound Hex dissipated.

    Angel reached out his hand, intending to store the ice sphere in his bracelet. Just as his hand neared the ice sphere, he suddenly felt a mysterious power surrounding it.

    As Angel was wondering what was going on, a water-blue gem on the roof suddenly shattered.

    The fragmented pieces scattered and drifted down from the roof.

    This water-blue gem had been used by Canaan to decorate the shop. It used to glow with a bright blue light, and now, crushed into powder, the dust twinkled as it fell, seeming quite dreamy and beautiful at first nce.

    Unfortunately, Angel was in no mood to appreciate it. He quickly created an ice wall to block the falling fragments, and only once he was sure no more fragments were falling did his gaze turn to Lucia on the opposite side.

    Thankfully, the earliermotion hadn¡¯t woken Lucia from her journey of experience.

    Relieved at not having disturbed the guest, Angel still couldn¡¯t help but wonder why the water-blue gem had suddenly exploded.

    As he tried to recall carefully, it seemed that it was when he intended to pick up Tobias¡¯s Icebound Hex sphere that a mysterious power surged out, causing the gemstone above to break. Could it have been an effect of energy overflow during convergence?

    ¡°Could it really be an intact dragon scale with no energy loss?¡± Fafnir¡¯s voice reached Angel¡¯s ears at this moment.

    Pondering, Angel asked Fafnir, ¡°My Lady, it seems there is a mysterious power wrapped around the Icebound Hex. What is that about?¡±

    ¡°Binaqionse is recorded in the Abyssal Dragon lineage as the most powerful Frost Dragon. Its power can easily freeze space,¡± Fafnir said, and as she spoke, she involuntarily recalled the huge figure with frost-white scales. Binaqionse¡¯s strength was unquestionable, even dominating its entire generation. No Abyssal Dragon dared challenge Binaqionse until Odess appeared.

    Fafnir paused for a long time, her mind continuously reying those past images, filled with jealousy and a mix of nostalgia and sorrow.

    After quite a while, she finally snapped back to reality and continued speaking to Angel, ¡°This dragon scale has not expended any energy, it appears Baltica has preserved it well. With its full energy capacity, the power within this scale, while not enough to freeze space, is sufficient to affect the surrounding Power of Space.¡±

    Simply put, the mysterious power that had previously swirled around the Icebound Hex was actually the energy of the unstable space affected by the powerful force of frost.

    Angel¡¯s strength was too low to detect it, but Fafnir could clearly see the continuously distorting light and shadow around the Icebound Hex; it was like the unnatural spatial mirages at the edges of a me where it burns.

    ¡°Then, does this have any effect on the Icebound Hex?¡± Angel¡¯s first concern, of course, was still Toby.

    ¡°No effect,¡± Fafnir said nonchntly. ¡°Unstable spaces aremon in the Abyss, like the Twilight Mountains in the outer world, most of which are unstable. Only the Wind Whisper Valley, where I reside, is somewhat more stable.¡±

    ¡°That power that surged out earlier¡­¡±

    ¡°That was just an ident. If you¡¯re worried about more power seeping out, you could use a stable energy to influence it.¡±

    ¡°`

    The so-called stable energy, what Fafnir referred to was energy like spiritual power, but Angel certainly didn¡¯t have the formidable spiritual power that Fafnir possessed. If he used Spirit Tentacles to connect with the Icebound Hex, it would likely not be long before the Spirit Tentacles would be severed.

    In the end, Angel, with a small trick of alchemy¡ªthe Hand of Magic¡ªsessfully resolved the problem.

    However, after solving this, Angel discovered another serious problem.

    ¡°Lord Fafnir, didn¡¯t you say there wasn¡¯t any impact?¡± Angel looked at Fafnir bitterly, with the ice ball grasped by the Hand of Magic hovering in mid-air, rising and falling, with an aura of frost scattering.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this perfectly normal?¡± Fafnir said, ¡°The spatial energy around the Icebound Hex has been affected. It¡¯s quite normal that it can¡¯t be packed under unstable conditions.¡±

    Angel nced at the ice ball, then at his own bracelet, a look of helplessness on his face.

    He had originally nned to put the ice ball into the bracelet until the frost settled. But now Fafnir had told him, it was impossible to fit into the bracelet!

    If he forced it, it would also cause the space within his bracelet topletely copse.

    So, what should he do now? Could he just keep holding it?

    ¡°Once the continuation of the Icebound Hex is sessful, the surrounding space will naturally stabilize,¡± said Fafnir with a cold mockery. ¡°How is it that you can¡¯t even wait that long?¡±

    Angel kept quiet. If it was a day and a half, then so be it. Just as Nya had said, he should stay in the Misty Cabin and not go out, and with Fafnir here, safety should not be an issue. Once he had endured this day and a half, it wouldn¡¯t matter whether the martialw in Lassudral was lifted or not¡ªhe could always take the inneryers and detour back to Ice Valley if necessary.

    Angel carefully controlled the Hand of Magic, making Toby¡¯s ice ball hover over his right shoulder, appearing like an added floating essory.

    It wasn¡¯t long before Aoluxiya woke up.

    Or rather, Aoluxiya had always been awake, dividing its consciousness in two, with the superconsciousness immersed in the ocean rhythm, and the subconscious staying in the outside world, ready to react to any danger.

    However, after waking up, Aoluxiya realized what a stupid thing it had done.

    Aoluxiya was not a demon, so it was not subject to the so-called single attribute restrictions of demons. Although it possessed the fire attribute, its fire actually had some characteristics of frost.

    That is to say, it possessed a portion of the Power of Water System, and the Rhythm of Water actually affected it.

    However, the benefits from this journey of experience weren¡¯t that great for it.

    But it was entirely because of its own doing, as it had divided its consciousness in two. The superconsciousness entered the ocean rhythm, which allowed it to sense the intense Rhythm of Water around it and constantly washed over its consciousness. However, after all, it was just the superconsciousness, so the things it realized were quite limited.

    If it had, as Angel previously suggested, not resisted, andpletely let its consciousness enter the ocean rhythm, to enjoy and experience this journey, its gains would have been much greater than they were now.

    ¡°Honorable Lord Aoluxiya, the journey of experience has now ended,¡± Angel said with the usual tone.

    Aoluxiya felt some regret and looked at Angel with somewhatplicated eyes, ¡°A fine experience¡­ Is this the alchemical creation of human wizards?¡±

    Angel¡¯s use of the Rhythm of Water had obviously not escaped Aoluxiya¡¯s notice.

    ¡°You could say that,¡± Angel nodded.

    ¡°Do you have any ns to sell it?¡±

    Angel shook his head, ¡°I have no intention of selling it for the time being.¡±

    Aoluxiya did not say anything about this, ncing at Fafnir who was sitting beside Angel and giving a nomittal nod.

    Angel was well aware that if it wasn¡¯t for the presence of Fafnir allowing him to leverage power beyond his own, Aoluxiya would probably have openly snatched it by now.

    ¡°In that case, let¡¯s leave it at that,¡± Aoluxiya stood up, looking out the window, the me Mark in the sky growing ever more distinct, indicating that the birth of the Primeval me was drawing nearer.

    Withdrawing its gaze from the sky, Aoluxiya nced at the grove of trees outside the shop, where the bobbing shadow of the young fire demon was very conspicuous.

    ¡°Lord Fafnir, I shall take my leave. Should Binaqionse see a day of resurrection, I will follow the trail to find you,¡± said Aoluxiya, pausing for a moment before turning to Angel.

    Angel hadn¡¯t expected that Aoluxiya would also say goodbye to him upon leaving.

    ¡°You¡¯re called¡­ Angel, right? I¡¯ve remembered your name,¡± Aoluxiya reached out and gently lifted the porcin mask halfway, ¡°I hope to meet you again. Next time, I hope your intentions might have changed.¡±

    Aoluxiya left, and in Angel¡¯s mind shed the half face revealed as it departed.

    That half face still did not reveal its looks, but the eyes, a deep emerald me, were deeply etched into his memory.

 Chapter 1076: Section 1077: The Death of Morheim

    Chapter 1076: Section 1077: The Death of Morheim

    When Aoluxiya left the Misty Cabin, she was still contemting what she had gained from this brief journey.

    Fafnir had always been vignt and faintly repelled by her, which Aoluxiya understood. After all, the one who had forced Fafnir to flee defeated from the inneryers of the Abyss to the surface was intricately linked with the Lord of the meless, so Fafnir¡¯s aversion to her was normal.

    However, she also received some disconcerting news from Fafnir.

    Binaqionse, who had once shown her kindness, had fallen into silence and had not yet awakened.

    This piece of news left her quite emotional. Her fondness for the Abyssal Dragon race had always stemmed from Binaqionse¡¯s influence, but the current situation of Binaqionse was deeplymentable.

    Besides, Aoluxiya was satisfied with the experiential journey, the only regret being that she was unable to obtain the Ocean Rhythm from Angel.

    As she arrived in the forest, Aoluxiya thought that given Greerwu¡¯s character, he would have rushed up to ask about the experiential journey right away. However, that didn¡¯t happen.

    Greerwu was incessantly babbling next to an unconscious pig Demon Person.

    Tandin the Butler, on the other hand, was looking at the pig Demon Person with a skeptical eye.

    When Aoluxiya came to the Misty Cabin, she had noticed the pig Demon Person leaning against a tree but had ignored it since it was unconscious. Now, that Greerwu and an unconscious pig Demon Person could strike up a conversation was quite curious indeed?

    With curiosity, Aoluxiya walked over.

    ¡°You change patterns so slowly¡­ You ask who I am? I am the great Fire Pattern Demon, well, currently still a Young Fire Demon, but my future is promising! You may call me Young Master Greerwu!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s sold in the Misty Cabin? This, this I¡¯m not quite sure about, but I will be able to tell you soon, once the adult emerges, I¡¯ll immediately get to participate in the experiential journey! I¡¯ve heard from other Demons that it is a very marvelous experience, akin to the Illusionary Realm, it will awaken you before you know it!¡±

    It was then that Tandin the Butler couldn¡¯t help but interject, ¡°Young Master, the chances of awakening are not one hundred percent.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t that Pannas Charm Demon awaken? The other Demons haven¡¯t awakened because¡­ because the time has not yete,¡± Greerwu asserted.

    Tandin rubbed his temples, clearly weary of Greerwu¡¯s unwavering belief in the Misty Cabin¡¯s capabilities as his panacea; he no longer wanted to argue, ¡°Sigh, let¡¯s hope the adult brings back some good news.¡±

    Greerwu looked back at the pig Demon Person and noticed that the pattern in its left eye was changing again.

    ¡°The adult I¡¯m speaking of? Of course it is Lord Aoluxiya¡­¡± Greerwu had only gotten halfway through his sentence when the pig Demon Person¡¯s head exploded suddenly.

    Thick brain matter spattered everywhere, body fluids mixed with organs, radiating outward from the center of the pig Demon Person.

    The ground was covered in white, red, yellow¡­ and skin torn into shreds.

    Greerwu was sshed with the filth, but all of it was incinerated into nothingness upon touching the mes that enveloped him.

    Greerwu was stunned. He had just been chatting spiritedly with the pig Demon Person; why had it suddenly died?

    ¡°Lord Aoluxiya,¡± came Tandin the Butler¡¯s respectful voice from beside him.

    Greerwu turned his head sharply, only to see Aoluxiya d in Inscription armor standing behind him.

    ¡°Oh, Lord Aoluxiya! You¡¯vee out!¡± Greerwu¡¯s eyes lit up, immediately forgetting the previous bloody scene; the death of a pig Demon Person was no big deal to him, and he was now more eager to learn about the experiential journey!

    ¡°My lord, the experiential¡­¡± Greerwu started to ask excitedly, but he stopped midway when he saw Aoluxiya gesture for silence with a ¡°shush.¡±

    At that moment, a dark shadow dropped from the sky, which Aoluxiya caught in her open hand.

    After a few bounces, Greerwu could see the true identity of the dark shadow.

    It was an eyeball shrouded in ck mist.

    ¡°This eyeball?¡± Greerwu looked at it, puzzled; the ck mist within the eyeball kept changing, clearly the left eye of the pig Demon Person he had beenmunicating with.

    ¡°Speak, who are you?¡± Aoluxiya¡¯s voice emanated from beneath her mask.

    Greerwu looked on in amazement; Aoluxiya was speaking anguage he had never encountered.

    ¡°It¡¯s themonnguage of humans,¡± Tandin the Butler whispered to Greerwu, but as he exined, he too couldn¡¯t hide his surprise. Why would Lord Aoluxiya speak the humans¡¯nguage to the eyeball of a pig Demon Person?

    Soon, Tandin understood why.

    The ck mist in the eyeball continued to transform, eventually forming characters of the humanmonnguage: ¡°Finally found you.¡±

    Aoluxiya sneered, ¡°It is indeed you. Like parasites, you¡¯re impossible to shake off.¡±

    With that, Aoluxiya casually crushed the eyeball into liquid. As the eyeball burst, a ck fog spread out, twisting and turning in the air, finally forming a row of words.

    ¡ª¡ª¡±You will ultimately be mine; just wait, I wille for you soon.¡±

    The smoke slowly dissipated, but Aoluxiya¡¯s expression grew increasingly grim.

    Having witnessed this, Tandin immediately understood what had just urred and knelt decisively, ¡°Lord Aoluxiya, this is my oversight. I did not expect it to be a human spy. Please, punish me.¡±

    But Aoluxiya shook her head, ¡°This has nothing to do with you. I couldn¡¯t be certain of its identity until it asked me for information.¡±

    The words she spoke in the humans¡¯monnguageter were also just a ruse to bait its identity.

    ¡°Rise, and tell me, what questions did it ask?¡±

    Tandin honestly said, ¡°Apart from the previous questions, there were also inquiries about the day-night cycle, the appearance of red patterns in the sky, and information about the demons of the Void Tower¡­¡±

    Aoluxiya looked at Greerwu, frowning as he asked, ¡°Did you answer all these questions?¡±

    Greerwu lowered his head, feeling somewhat anxious and guilty, ¡°I disclosed everything except matters rted to the Primeval me¡­ I just thought, none of these are secrets, everyone knows them, so I, I just told them.¡±

    Even though Aoluxiya¡¯s face was covered by a porcin-white mask, and his expression was not visible, Greerwu still sensed a subtly foreboding aura emanating from him.

    It was quite some time before Aoluxiya spoke again, ¡°That group of humans will probably be knocking on our door soon, regardless of whether they can reach Lassudral quickly or not, we must be ready to face them.¡±

    In normal times, Aoluxiya would not bother with these lowly humans, but these pests had chosen to show up at this particr moment!

    Once it was ignited by the Primeval me, it would have no spare attention to give.

    ¡°What do you mean, my lord?¡±

    ¡°While the Primeval me has yet to appear, go and make contact with the great demons of the Void Tower,¡± said Aoluxiya, his face somewhat grim. It had originally nned to handle this alone, but now, even though the chances of those humans barging in at the right time were slim, it still had to consider the possibility.

    If those humans really showed up while it was being ignited by the Primeval me, its safety would be the greatest concern. And in Lassudral, the obvious choice to organize a defense against outsider human wizards was the great demons of the Void Tower.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go to the Void Tower,¡± Aoluxiya said, and Tandin immediately responded, while Greerwu only gazed at Aoluxiya with a pitiful and pleading expression in his eyes.

    ¡°That, that, my, my journey of experience¡­ My awakening, mying-of-age¡­¡± Greerwu stuttered his way through a disconnected ramble.

    ¡°I have had my experience, and indeed, the journey was quite interesting, but just as the shop owner said, it is not suitable for you and may even harm you, impeding your maturation,¡± Aoluxiya¡¯s words immediately cast a shadow over Greerwu¡¯s expression.

    Aoluxiya shook his head, ready to leave.

    Before leaving, he turned to look back at the small cabin standing in the depths of the darkness. The shimmering blue light of the Water Light Gem made the whole cabin seem incredibly dreamlike amidst the darkness.

    Aoluxiya¡¯s mind shed with the figure of Angel.

    It believed Fafnir¡¯s words; Angel had note here for it.

    Before, it had also witnessed the inquiry by the Demon People¡¯s left eye. It was asking about the Misty Cabin; clearly, the Demon People and the human inside did not seem to belong to the same faction.

    From the current information, it appeared that Angel truly hade unintentionally.

    Under Aoluxiya¡¯s mask, the corners of his lips curled slightly, ¡°However, I never believe in coincidences. What role exactly will your arrival y?¡±

    ¡­

    In the darkness of the Void, Monty¡¯s figure suddenly wavered.

    The next second, a red sash emzoned with silver inscriptions that adorned his body unexpectedly burst into mes without any warning.

    The fire slowly rose, sparks scattering all around.

    Eventually, the burning red sash fell into the Void andpletely vanished from sight.

    Due to the peculiar nature of this hunting n, every move of Monty was under the watchful eyes of all wizards. When the sash caught fire, it immediately attracted everyone¡¯s attention.

    ¡°Lord Monty, what has happened?¡± a wizard inquired.

    ¡°My eye left in Lassudral has shattered.¡± The red sash was tied to the sealing spell on Morheim¡¯s body; its burning also signified the shattering of Morheim¡¯s left eye.

    Monty¡¯s firstment petrified everyone¡¯s expression; without the spy, theck of information could easily lead to faulty judgments.

    ¡°But, this will be enough.¡± Monty seldomughed, ¡°I have learned much from the confidant of the Demon God¡¯s descendant.¡±

    The people¡¯s eyes immediately brightened upon hearing this.

    ¡°Lord Monty, what is the current situation in Lassudral?¡± Sinafa asked at this moment.

    Monty recounted everything he had learned from the young demon during their exchange through the left eye.

    After listening, someone immediately said, ¡°Aoluxiya¡­ Which Demon God¡¯s descendant is it?¡±

    ¡°I once infiltrated Demon City and checked some records; Aoluxiya should be a descendant of the Lord of the meless,¡± Samantha spoke.

    With the revtion of Aoluxiya¡¯s identity, everyone¡¯s attention focused solely on him. After all, Aoluxiya was the ultimate target of their hunting n.

    Only Sanders furrowed his brows deeply.

    Lord Monty had not only mentioned Aoluxiya previously but also referred to a shop named ¡°Misty,¡± which offered something called Ocean Rhythm¡ªan existence akin to an Illusionary Realm.

    Illusion¡­

    Illusionary Realm¡­

    A dire premonition suddenly emerged in Sanders¡¯s heart.

 Chapter 1077: Section 1078: Lord of the Flameless

    Chapter 1077: Section 1078: Lord of the meless

    Under the dark canopy of the sky, patterns of me floated about as if the volcano behind them was about to erupt, with an oppressive force bearing down.

    Angel stood on the rooftop, gazing at the me patterns wavering under the night sky, his thoughts unsettled.

    In a short amount of time, many things had happened, which left Angel somewhat confused.

    Looking at the sky, it seemed like the night was a harbinger of the step he was about to take, yet curiously, at this very moment, Lassudral was under martialw, and the descendant of the Demon God, Aoluxiya, had appeared here.

    It was as if all things were converging together, and this Demon City suspended in the Void was both a stage and a potential battlefield, shrouded inyers of imprable Mist.

    As Angel pondered, several sounds came from a distance.

    Those were the faint rustling noises of stepping on dry leaves and twigs, which were particrly grating in the quiet of the night.

    Angel looked toward the source of the noises, only to see Ppa and Canaaning over from the winding forest path.

    Ppa looked somewhat disheveled, his head drooping, a picture of dejection.

    Upon seeing Angel, Ppa¡¯s expression was one of disappointment, ¡°Master, I inquired about what you asked, but as soon as they heard it was to find a way to dispel a curse of bad luck, they all avoided me. There was even a demon who thought I was cursed with bad luck and almost killed me; I barely escaped¡­¡±

    The curse of bad luck was indeed a source of fear in the Abyss, so it was normal for Ppa¡¯s statement to provoke such a strong bacsh.

    It was also fortunate that Ppa¡¯s abilities had improved, otherwise, it would have been almost impossible for him to escape from a demon¡¯s attack.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t consider it thoroughly,¡± Angel said with an apologetic face, and at the same time, he handed a small bag of Demon Gold Coins to Ppa: ¡°You don¡¯t need to ask about this matter anymore, I have found a solution.¡±

    Ppa opened his mouth, initially wanting to ask who was cursed with bad luck, but looking at the heavy pouch in his hand, he swallowed his words and said, ¡°Then, Master, I¡¯ll go back to the Hunting Museum first.¡±

    After Ppa left, Angel turned his gaze to Canaan. Canaan had looked as if he wanted to speak but hesitated while Ppa was talking.

    ¡°What is it you want to say?¡± Angel asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing!¡± Canaan reflexively answered, but after saying it, he seemed to think his reaction was a bit too strong and clumsily added, ¡°Master, I really don¡¯t have anything to say, I went to the core district to make inquiries, but there was no harvest.¡±

    With that, Canaan left with the words, ¡°I¡¯m going to clean up,¡± and turned to head into the courtyard.

    Angel looked suspiciously at Canaan¡¯s behavior. He remembered that Canaan had gone to inquire about the reason behind the martialw. Was such behavior necessary?

    Actually, after Aoluxiya had appeared, Angel already knew that the martialw must be rted to Aoluxiya. He had even nned to tell Canaan about it, but he hadn¡¯t expected Canaan to run off muddling through his words; Angel had no idea what had happened.

    Angel shook his head, toozy to concern himself with Canaan¡¯s situation, and sat down again on the rooftop, continuing to stare into the night sky. He always felt that this night sky would soon bepletely engulfed by mes, like in Feng¡¯s painting ¡°The Night¡±.

    However, not long after Angel sat down, Canaan came out of the store again, twisting and turning awkwardly.

    ¡°Master¡­actually, I did hear some news in the core district, but these are just rumors with very low credibility,¡± Canaan hesitated for a moment and then carefully asked, ¡°Master, do you still want to hear it?¡±

    ¡°Go ahead, I¡¯m listening.¡±

    Canaan hesitated for a long time before he slowly said, ¡°It¡¯s said that the reason behind the martialw seems to be the arrival of a very important figure, who is very likely to be a descendant of the Demon God.¡±

    After Canaan finished speaking, it seemed as if he had released all the heavy burdens from his heart, breathing out a deep sigh.

    In that moment, Canaan felt as though he had betrayed the demons to be a ¡°traitor to his own kind.¡±

    In the Abyss, demons generally knew that the human wizards on the surface seemed to be coveting the descendants of the Demon God, which is why, after learning that a descendant of the Demon God hade to Lassudral, Canaan had been in a daze all the time.

    Knowing that his master was human, Canaan had never asked about the reason for his arrival in Lassudral, but the coincidence in timing made him mistakenly believe that Angel hade for the descendant of the Demon God.

    Therefore, on his way back, Canaan had been pondering whether to tell Angel about the Demon God¡¯s descendant visiting Lassudral.

    Not to tell would also be wrong. After all, he had mentioned his destination when he left.

    But once he told the Master, and if the Master was indeed a spy for the human wizards, then he reckoned he would be a ssic traitor to his own kind.

    Canaan was in a great dilemma.

    He pondered for a long time, thinking of the generosity the Master had shown him over the past few days, and recalling how he had been humiliated by the Serpent Tail Demon, only topletely turn his fortunes around because of the trial trip; all of this kindness hade from the Master.

    So, after weighing the two options, Canaan eventually still spoke up.

    However, Canaan¡¯s self-deemed ¡°passionate and eloquent¡± speech elicited only¡ª

    ¡°Oh, I understand now,¡±

    Canaan, who wouldn¡¯t give up, asked, ¡°Shopkeeper, aren¡¯t you surprised at all? Or don¡¯t you want to try to notify your humanpanions?¡±

    ¡°Companion? Who are you referring to?¡± Angel looked at Canaan with confusion. ¡°And why should I be surprised? The progeny of a Demon God you¡¯re talking about was sitting in the shop not long ago.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Canaan¡¯s expression was one of utter disbelief.

    Angel simply recounted the earlier visit of the Demon God¡¯s progeny. Amid Canaan¡¯s stunned expression, Angel asked, ¡°By the way, it said its name was Aoluxiya. Do you know anything about its background?¡±

    Canaan nodded mechanically, ¡°Aoluxiya is a progeny of the Lord of the meless.¡±

    Angel had already heard about this from Fafnir, but what he really wanted to know was personal information about Aoluxiya, as well as details about this Lord of the meless.

    How many Abyssal Demon Gods were there? Angel wasn¡¯t sure, but he did know that all Abyssal Demon Gods were Legendary Level beings and above.

    ording to ssification, there were the Unparalleled Great Demon Gods, Great Demon Gods, and ordinary Demon Gods.

    The Unparalleled Great Demon Gods stood at the very pinnacle, such as the ¡°Crown Clown¡± who sought utter bnce, and the ¡°Deep Master¡± who sought all sacrifices. They were part of the strongest force in the Abyss, illuminating thousands of nes.

    The Great Demon Gods were slightly lesser in rank, like the ¡°Ominous Evil y¡± that liked to toy with desires and hearts, the ¡°Cruel Schr¡± who created the Abyssal Inscription Studies, and the ¡°Morning Sun¡± that almost destroyed the Wizards¡¯ Realm thousands of years ago; all belonged to this tier.

    As for ordinary Demon Gods, Angel didn¡¯t know much, but there was no doubt that each was incredibly powerful.

    ¡°The Lord of the meless is a Great Demon God,¡± Canaan said with the same wooden expression, still unable to ept the fact that the progeny of a Demon God hade to the Misty Cabin within the half-hour he had been out.

    Although Canaan was still in a daze, his narrative did not stop, and he shared everything he knew in great detail.

    With Canaan¡¯s narration, Angel got a rough idea about Aoluxiya and the Lord of the meless.

    The Lord of the meless was a Great Demon God who could control mes, seeking eternalbustion, until nothing was left to burn and the very absence of mes could cause space to copse. Around the Lord of the meless, one could see no me, nor sense any Fire Element, yet one was already engulfed in mes. That was why he was known as the Lord of the meless.

    As for Aoluxiya, Canaan had never encountered it, but the rumors suggested that Aoluxiya was not following the path of the Lord of the meless; it seemed to want to carve out its own.

    There was another noteworthy point: it was rumored that Aoluxiya was searching for something, possibly rted to an Unparalleled Great Demon God from before the fall of the gods. However, this was only hearsay, unconfirmed.

    But Canaan¡¯s words incited in Angel a flurry of spections.

    Aoluxiya¡¯s arrival in the surface world of Lassudral had to have a purpose. It had sent out young Fire Demons and Fire Servant Demons as scouts, probably to explore. Could its goal be the very thing the rumors imed Aoluxiya had been seeking?

    And now, Night was about to make a breakthrough; was there a connection between the two?

    Angel pondered for a moment but couldn¡¯te up with a reasonable answer and decided to temporarily set it aside. After all, the answers to these questions were, at most, a matter of satisfying his curiosity and held no other significance for Angel.

    After sending away Canaan, who was still in a state of confusion, Angel¡¯s gaze returned to the night sky.

    Unbeknownst to him, the floating me patterns in the night sky became increasingly bright and intricate, like a spider¡¯s web, enveloping Lassudral inyer uponyer. And yet, they also became more ferocious, as if boundless mes were about to descend from the heavens.

    ¡°Does this fire really have something to do with the Night proprietor?¡± Angel murmured under his breath, his eyes fixated on the undting me patterns, momentarily lost in thought.

    The night entwined with me patterns, the eternally deste Demon City, and the boundlessly lonely wind in the Void.

    This scene was etched into his vision, frozen in time.

    It was a night without stars, yet unusually beautiful.

    As Angel watched, he suddenly felt a burning sensation on his earlobes. He snapped back to reality, only to see that the me Mark on his ears, for some reason, had begun to actively release streams of Fire Element.

    These streams of Fire Element formed a dense web of ethereal mes that floated around Angel, moving up and down.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Angel found he couldn¡¯t control the mes around him, but they showed no intention of leaving or dissipating. They merely danced up and down near him, apparently expressing joy, or perhaps even¡­ worship.

    The anomaly with Angel also caught the attention of Fafnir, especially since the mes came from an Odess Inscription. She was even more concerned.

    Fafnir lightly tapped her feet and flew from the treetops to Angel¡¯s side, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the dancing mes with puzzlement.

    A gentle breeze infiltrated the space where the mes danced, as if to scrutinize their essence or to join them in their dance.

    After a while, Fafnir suddenly thought of something and abruptly looked up at the sky full of me patterns.

    ¡°Could it be¡­ the birth of the Primeval me?¡±

 Chapter 1078: Section 1079: Monarch of Fire

    Chapter 1078: Section 1079: Monarch of Fire

    It wasn¡¯t just Angel.

    At this moment, the whole Lassudral was affected by this strange power.

    mes of different colors rose from various ces. In an instant, Lassudral, from a pitch-ck silent night, became a ce of flowing lights, full of color.

    The light spread from individual points to lines and finally formed a densework. If one looked down from high above, it would seem as if Lassudral itself was engulfed in mes.

    It was most perplexing for non-fire element demons such as Canaan and Ppa. They flew high into the sky, gazing down at the changes in Lassudral with confusion.

    As for the genuine fire element demons, although they were not clear on the specifics, the mes on their bodies were already signaling to them that a ¡°Monarch of Fire,¡± an existence far above their own rank, was about to arrive!

    In a dark alleyway, a half-blood fire demon, previously engaged in a struggle with its enemy, suddenly shuddered. The tremor went from its body to its mind¡­ Following that, it knelt on the ground as mes rose one by one from its body.

    Its enemies, surrounding it, were baffled by the turn of events, thinking it was some trick. After hesitating for a moment, they found that nothing had happened.

    Believing they had been fooled, they snarled viciously, ¡°Feigning mystery!¡± and then once again brandished their bone wings to deal the final judgment there and then.

    But just as their attack was about to hit the half-blood fire demon, the mes swirling around it, as if offended, instantaneously transformed from a small spark to a sweeping inferno, swallowing up all its enemies.

    The half-blood fire demon stood staring dumbfounded at the scene before it. Just a moment ago, it was close to being killed by these demons, but in a mere instant, it had turned the tables and in them all.

    Gradually, it lifted its head.

    With an obsessed gaze, it looked toward the increasingly distinct fiery pattern in the sky, as if it saw a fierce Monarch of Fire, casting a contemptuous nce at the ashes of its in enemies.

    Only the majesty of fire is invible!

    The event involving this half-blood fire demon was not an isted incident. All over Lassudral, various strange phenomena urred, as fire element demons prostrated themselves, crying out in unison for the descent of the fiery pattern in the sky.

    Even the young fire demons outside the Void Tower couldn¡¯t help but look up at the sky.

    It was a kind of longing, as if every inch of me on their bodies was leaping, all in anticipation of the final dawn.

    ¡°Is this the Primeval me about to mature? Filled with the power of rebirth,¡± Greerwu, not seeing the Primeval me for the first time, noticed its nature. Its seniors also endowed it with the Primeval me, and it itself retained some properties of the Primeval me. That¡¯s why Aoluxiya sent it to Lassudral in advance to probe the location of the Primeval me.

    But the Primeval mes Greerwu had experienced before were those on its elders¡¯ bodies, somewhat dead and heavy with the weight of twilight.

    Such a vigorous Primeval me, it felt for the first time, fascinated it deeply.

    Several kilometers from the young fire demon, inside a magma pool used for crafting demonic weapons, many Purgatory me ves also raised their heads.

    The mes on their bodies flew into the air, dancing with those of other Purgatory me ves.

    ¡°This is, the arrival of the Monarch of Fire!¡± the eldest Purgatory me ve shouted excitedly.

    As the voice echoed, the area around the magma pool erupted into jubtion.

    Each Purgatory me ve held their demonic weapon, be it a giant hammer, a flying axe, or a broadsword¡­ At that moment, all the Purgatory me ves proudly raised their demonic weapons, chanting their tribe¡¯s war song towards the fiery pattern in the sky.

    In stark contrast to the group of Purgatory me ves that seemed to be on a rush, on the other side of the magma pool, lurking in the shadows behind a colossal furnace, hid a thin me ve. He did not dance with the others but watched the sky with envious eyes. On his body was a blood-red chain that moved slowly like a snake.

    Moreover, unlike other me ves or other fire element demons, the mes on his body burned calmly as usual, with not a single unusual re.

    ¡°Hua Que? You¡¯re actually hiding here!¡± a buzzing voice erupted nearby.

    He turned his head only to see a Purgatory me ve surrounded by mes and holding a giant axe approaching.

    ¡°So it¡¯s Lord Kaido,¡± Hua Que revealed a faint smile, his eyes flickering with sinister light.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you outside weing the Monarch¡¯s descent? What are you doing hiding here?¡± Kaido exhaled several dark smoky breaths, with an expression that seemed to say ¡®I¡¯ve finally caught you¡¯, and angrily asked.

    Hua Que, as Kaido¡¯s underling he¡¯d brought along, had been elusive during this period, preventing him from disying his authority, which greatly annoyed Kaido. Earlier, while participating in the wee, Kaido thought of Hua Que as he had seen him nearby. So, he sneaked out to look for him, intending to use this opportunity to teach him ¡®a lesson¡¯.

    Kaido approached Hua Que with a triumphant look, only to realize as he got closer that Hua Que remained in the shadows, facing him with a weird smile.

    At first, Kaido didn¡¯t feel anything off, but when he noticed something strange, it was because he saw that around Hua Que, there weren¡¯t any mes floating. The calmness of the mes on his body was somewhat abnormal.

    Despite the imminent arrival of the Monarch of Fire, and the mes of all Lassudral leaping up, why was Hua Que so different?

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the mes on your body?¡± Kaido stopped and looked at Hua Que puzzledly.

    Instead of Kaido moving forward, it was Hua Que who took step by step towards him. He walked up to Kaido with eyes brimming with excitement and ambition, ¡°You ask about the mes on my body, I can tell you¡ª¡±

    The next second, Kaido only saw a sh of red light before his eyes, and a burning blood-red chain was thrust into his chest.

    Kaido looked at Hua Que in disbelief, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

    ¡°Are you wondering why the mes on your body do not resist?¡± Hua Que chuckled, her lips curving up in a maniacal smile. ¡°That¡¯s because I am a worshipper of Baiyuan¡­¡±

    Hua Que¡¯s voice was no longer audible to Kaido, who hadpletely closed its eyes, unable to believe that the seemingly frail Hua Que could suddenly strike. Once the chain pierced its chest, it was unable to move, feeling only the strange chain wreaking havoc within its body.

    Why could a Purgatory me ve wielding a feminine name and feminine weapon kill it?

    And why did that chain give it the sensation ¡®as if it was a living creature¡¯?

    These were thest remaining thoughts of the Purgatory me ve Kaido, but it would never get an answer and thus sumbed to utter obliteration.

    After killing Kaido, Hua Que listened to the whirring of the chain as it affectionately slithered around her body.

    ¡°Time is almost up, just as I was worrying about not growing in strength, a little snackes my way.¡± Madness twinkled in Hua Que¡¯s eyes as she shook the chain: ¡°Go now, you still need to grow¡­ to let the me of Baiyuan be reborn in this world¡­¡±

    As Hua Que spoke, the crimson chain seemed to immediately entwine itself around Kaido¡¯s corpse.

    The chain, seemingly imbued with a strange power, gradually eroded Kaido¡¯s body until it waspletely digested and disappeared.

    With the disappearance of Kaido, the crimson chain grew even darker and more profound.

    At the same time, Hua Que¡¯s stature also suddenly doubled in size!

    ¡°The feeling of power, this is the feeling of power, yi ha ha ha ha ha¡­¡± Hua Queughed loudly, but as she turned her head and looked toward one end of the chain, herughter abruptly ceased.

    At the end of the chain was a peculiar circr pattern.

    ¡ªA glowing halo shrouded in mist, and within the halo was utter darkness, akin to a sr eclipse.

    If Angel had been there, he would have recognized this pattern as identical to the mark of the Abyss Alchemy Society he saw in Sky Mechanical City; this pattern was called¡­ the Profound Seal.

    On the other side, Aoluxiya, who had just emerged from the Void Tower, felt restrained all over her body but was not angry, rather delighted.

    As soon as the Primeval me Fuyi was born, its level naturally suppressed all other mes.

    Even Aoluxiya could not avoid it.

    If not for Aoluxiya herself being a descendant of a Demon God, with an immensely powerful ability to control mes by nature, she would probably be like the other demons, led by the nose by their own mes.

    ¡°Lord Aoluxiya,¡± Greerwu and Tandin had been waiting outside the Void Tower and approached as soon as they saw her.

    ¡°Lord, have the great demons made any demands?¡± Tandin asked, knowing from experience that the great demons wouldn¡¯t just ept conditions for no reason.

    Aoluxiya: ¡°None.¡±

    To be precise, these great demons didn¡¯t dare to make any demands. Aoluxiya also hadn¡¯t anticipated Gl sending out messages to the Void Tower.

    ¡ªGl was the most powerful Demon Lord under the Lord of the meless.

    This time, the extinguishing of the light in the Void Tower was also a maneuver by Gl.

    With Gl¡¯s deterrence, how could these great demons dare to make demands?

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, the time is near, it¡¯s time to meet it¡­¡± Aoluxiya whispered softly: ¡°I heard it¡¯s a Half-Blood Demon? Quite interesting, a Half-Blood Demon making it this far is quite rare, indeed.¡±

    ¡­

    Not only did the fiery patterns in the sky affect the city of Lassudral, but in the dark expanse of the Void, on a swiftly advancing sheet of ice, some were also impacted.

    As they drew closer to the location of Lassudral, all the wizards entered a state of alert.

    The first to notice the anomaly was still Monty.

    Almost every wizard had some mastery of fire-rted spell techniques; though Monty was a wizard of frost, he actually had dabbled in all varieties of spell techniques.

    Initially, Monty noticed that the torches on the ice floe were acting strangely. The burning sparks did not dance with the winds of the Void, but instead pointed uniformly in one direction¡ªtowards Lassudral!

    Baffled, Monty cast a fire-rted spell technique, and that¡¯s when he realized something was amiss.

    The fire had broken free from his control and voluntarily fell into the Void.

    Witnessing this, Monty turned to the others and said, ¡°Something¡¯s amiss in Lassudral. All wizards, try not to cast any fire-rted spell techniques.¡±

    This measure hit the wizards specializing in fire techniques particrly hard. Fire wizards constituted thergest group among those attuned to elements, and on the ice, at least thirty percent of the wizards wielded fire-rted powers.

    With Monty¡¯s words, it meant that these thirty percent of fire wizards had lost at least eighty to ny percent of theirbat efficacy.

 Chapter 1079: Section 1080 Sandersâ€™s Doubts

    Chapter 1079: Section 1080 Sanders¡¯s Doubts

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you concerned about what exactly happened in Lassudral?¡± Kanter looked at Sanders, who was lost in thought and seemed unconcerned about what Monty had said from the beginning to the end.

    His expression was indifferent, his gaze not resting on the sparks flying around him, making him stand out especially among a group of Wizards with unsightly expressions.

    ¡°More than that, I want to know if that guy has been up to something again.¡± Sanders¡¯s words nearly popped out through clenched teeth, and Kanter could hear an underlying anger behind the calm facade.

    ¡°Which guy are you referring to?¡± Kanter asked, puzzled. Other than Angel, who could cause such a significant shift in Sanders¡¯s emotions?

    Sanders nced at Kanter indifferently, an inscrutable look in his eyes that others might not understand, but Kanter immediately realized, ¡°You don¡¯t mean Angel, do you?¡±

    Sanders nodded nomittally and murmured softly to himself, ¡°Ocean¡¯s Rhythm, Illusionary Realm.¡±

    Both were clues provided by Monty¡¯s informants. Add to that Belus¡¯s Prophecy, and the scales in Sanders¡¯s mind had slowly begun to tip. He was now somewhat convinced that if the mysterious shop that opened in Lassudral wasn¡¯t directly Angel¡¯s doing, it certainly had his shadow behind it.

    Kanter frowned. Sanders had already informed him about Angel¡¯s disappearance in the Abyss, and while he was also concerned about Angel¡¯s situation, Kanter had never considered the possibility that Angel had gone into Demon City. It was inconceivable that Angel would cause such a stir in Lassudral and even open a shop to disrupt the local dynamics, which did not fit with the image of Angel that Kanter had in mind.

    Quiet and gentle, handsome and refined ¡ª the Academy Faction Wizard, that¡¯s the Angel that Kanter envisioned.

    Moreover, when Sanders mentioned ¡°up to something again,¡± it puzzled Kanter why Sanders used the word ¡°again.¡± Had Angel caused trouble before?

    Apart from nearly crafting a mysterious masterpiece, discovering Isabel¡¯s return, producing high-grade works without being promoted, the creator of the Shadow Cave, and other feats like being ted for a publication in ¡°The Wilderness of Dreams¡±¡­ what else could there have been?

    Kanter fell silent. Without listing them, he hadn¡¯t realized, but on reflection, Angel¡¯s experiences seemed like he was a tide-y child amidst the storm, one wave following another, soaring high and not willing toe down.

    From Sanders¡¯s perspective, it seemed Angel really did know how to stir the pot. Kanter suddenly felt some sympathy for his old friend, then thought about his own treasured apprentice, Qi Li, who, aside from being a bit socially reclusive, couldn¡¯t be better. Of course, that was unless she encountered a disciple of the Sea God.

    What Kanter didn¡¯t know, however, was that the things about Angel that he himself could think of were, in fact, not that significant to Sanders ¡ª at most, they were a bit troublesome but not overly important. The things that truly infuriated Sanders were unknown to Kanter.

    Even though Kanter understood Sanders¡¯s concerns, he still found it hard to believe Angel would be in Lassudral.

    ¡°I still find it unlikely. Even if Angel¡¯s expertise in Alchemy is exceptional, could that bunch of Demonsprehend the intricacies of it? If he went to Lassudral, he¡¯d likely be torn to shreds by Demons at the first chance, let alone make trouble or even open a shop and stir up the situation there.¡±

    Sanders understood what Kanter meant; under normal circumstances, Angel indeed couldn¡¯t have managed it. But there was one variable ¡ª the incredibly strong being who had taken Angel from Wind Whisper Valley.

    A force so strong it could even affect Sanders¡¯s sense to his own lifeblood; if Angel was coerced or shielded by such a being, he could conceivably have orchestrated this drama.

    But who could that incredibly strong individual be? Sanders still didn¡¯t know to this day.

    ¡°While it¡¯s not very likely, you can¡¯t deny the possibility either,¡± Sanders said.

    ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Kanter paused, then suddenlyughed, ¡°Actually, when you think about it, if Angel really did have a hand in this, it wouldn¡¯t be too bad. At such a young age to leave such an epic chapter in such an important battle chronicle, it wouldn¡¯t be a bad thing for him.¡±

    Life¡¯s record, if it¡¯s monotonous, how boring would that be.

    ¡°If he participated as an Official Wizard, I would be very pleased, but right now he¡¯s just an Apprentice,¡± said Sanders lightly, well aware of the many astonishing secrets Angel held. The Wilderness of Dreams, Projected Bloodline, mysterious objects¡­ which of these could be easily spoken about? Or rather, imed publicly by an Apprentice?

    Kanter shook his head, understanding what Sanders meant. But had Sanders forgotten how many years Angel had been in the Wizards¡¯ Realm? Given Angel¡¯s rate of advancement, if that was still considered slow, then there was no fast-paced advancement in the Wizards¡¯ Realm at all.

    Kanter was about to retort when Monty and Sinafa at the forefront suddenly turned around and said to him, ¡°Lord of Night, we are not far from Lassudral now, I hope you can merge with the night to scout out the situation.¡±

    Their current position, in fact, was still some distance from Lassudral, but the small red dots in the distance were faintly visible.

    Although it was known beforehand that fire patterns had appeared in the sky above Lassudral, it was unexpected that from a distance, it looked like a me burning quietly.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Kanter nodded. He stood up and walked toward Monty and Sinafa. As he passed by Sanders, Kanter winked at him and mouthed, ¡°Whether that kid is in Lassudral or not, I¡¯ll check it out for you when I be the night.¡±

    Sanders nodded gravely and replied, ¡°Watch his surroundings.¡±

    If Angel was indeed in Lassudral, that incredibly strong entity would surely be by his side. Kanter¡¯s Bloodline of Night, though silent and unnoticeable when merged with the darkness, would still be subjected to the pressure of hierarchy when confronted with strong beings.

    ¡°Understood.¡± Kanter stepped forward, nodded at Monty and Sinafa, and entered into the Bloodline of Night, his appearance undergoing a great transformation.

    In that moment, Kanter was like the messenger of the night deity, drawing the curtain of night, filled with majesty and sanctity.

    After a while, Kanter opened his eyes and, among the expectant gazes of those around him, announced, ¡°I saw it!¡±

    ¡­

    ¡°Primeval me birth?¡± Angel looked at Fafnir in confusion.

    The mes erupting from the me Mark mysteriously circled around him, yet they were beyond his control. Was this due to something called the ¡°Primeval me birth¡±?

    Fafnir did not exin but instead turned her gaze to the other side. In her line of sight, she saw the Hunting Museum and also saw Night standing in front of a painting.

    Night seemed to sense Fafnir¡¯s prying eyes and looked up in the direction of Fafnir, gently smiling.

    At this moment, Night¡¯s situation was very peculiar. The me pattern on his face was like a burning thread, traversing the two-dimensional world, bursting from his skin, then faintly connecting to the outer world, bing the me pattern enveloping all of Lassudral!

    With the terrifying me patterns gone, Night¡¯s appearance was now fully exposed, unting his extraordinary handsomeness. Even by human aesthetic standards, his face was of the highest quality, and the exposed abdominal muscles would likely prompt the Mirror Lady to immediately include Night in the Handsome Men As if she were present.

    Fafnir withdrew her gaze, her expression a mix of shock and horror.

    She had previously felt that this Night, the Museum¡¯s proprietor, was a bit peculiar, seemingly calm and detached, yet hiding a hidden edge like a thorn lodged deep in one¡¯s marrow,pelling people unconsciously to keep their distance.

    Therefore, Fafnir had only seen Night when she first arrived, and after that, she had almost never encountered Night again.

    Even when Angel went to the Hunting Museum to look for Night, Fafnir never followed. An innate premonition was alerting her; this Night was a threat to her life.

    Unexpectedly, in absolute silence, Night had stirred up such a grand spectacle, and moreover¡­ he had birthed the Primeval me, taking the final step!

    Fafnir looked towards Angel, who was still watching the fire circling around him, his face showing wariness and caution.

    ¡°These mes won¡¯t hurt you. It¡¯s just that with the emergence of the original me, even mindless fire cannot control itself in such circumstances,¡± Fafnir said.

    Angel asked, ¡°The original me your excellency speaks of, refers to?¡±

    ¡°Primeval me.¡±

    As for what the Primeval me actually was, Fafnir did not continue to exin. However, upon hearing ¡°Primeval me,¡± Angel remembered something.

    Once, in the Fairy Tale World, he had traveled with Bogura¡¯s disciple ¡®Shadow¡¯ Diabolo. At that time, Shadow told him a secret of a race that had perished in the river of history, known as ¡ª the Baiyuanians.

    Thest known location of the Baiyuanians was in Axo Saint Asia, also known as the perished Serpent Kingdom.

    And the Holy Land of the Serpent Kingdom was the deserted vige underground ¡ª Podes.

    Dororo was whom Angel had found in Podes. Therefore, at that time, Angel thought Dororo was a Baiyuanian andter went on to look up some information about the Baiyuanians.

    Among the origin stories of the Baiyuanians, there was an intriguing ount: ¡°Beside the Primeval me, a group of the world¡¯s favored children were born, and they were the Baiyuanians who sought after the Primeval me.¡±

    Could this Primeval me be the same one Fafnir was talking about?

    ¡°You have been to the Hunting Museum a few times before. What do you know about Night?¡± Fafnir changed the subject, no longer talking about the Primeval me, but inquiring about the things she had been toozy to ask about before. Although the Primeval me was of little concern to her, it could be of great help to Odess.

    Fafnir¡¯s sudden inquiry, although not clearly stated, was something Angel grasped¡­ It seemed that the Primeval me was indeed connected to Night.

    And the dancing mes that emerged from the me Mark, ording to what Fafnir had said previously, were due to the floating fire patterns in the sky, that is, the birth of the Primeval me.

    Tying all this together, the current situation was indeed orchestrated by the Museum¡¯s proprietor, Night.

    Thinking back to the painting Angel had seen earlier, where the mes had almostpletely consumed that Night, it meant that Night, the Museum¡¯s proprietor, was about to break free from his chains, taking the final step.

    All the answers wereing together; Night¡¯s final step caused the fire pattern anomaly in the sky and also led to the birth of the Primeval me.

    Angel delved deeper into thought and association, based on what Canaan had said, it was rumored that Aoluxiya had always been searching for something. Now that Aoluxiya hade to Lassudral from the inneryer, perhaps he knew the location of what he was looking for.

    And considering the current timeline, Angel could think of nothing else.

    So there was only one answer left.

    It was also the Primeval me!

 Chapter 1080: Section 1081 Flowing Fire

    Chapter 1080: Section 1081 Flowing Fire

    Aoluxiya was also here for the Primeval me!

    Then, the disappearance of the light source from the Tower of the Void and the sealing of the Spatial Passage all make sense.

    After linking all the events together, Angel felt as if he had woven each clue into a spider¡¯s web himself. Maybe some of it was Angel¡¯s spection, but overall, he believed the answer was very close to the truth.

    However, there was still one piece missing.

    If Aoluxiya, a descendant of the Demon God, was indeed Monty¡¯s target, could the human Wizards also be a thread woven into this spider¡¯s web?

    Maybe.

    Then, would he possibly meet familiar faces, such as Kanter, Sinafa, Brufen?

    Angel¡¯s mind was filled with many thoughts, moving from questions about others to himself. If all his assumptions were true, then what role had he yed in it all?

    Originally, the words left behind for the proprietor of the Night by Feng, which almost amounted to a ¡°Prophecy,¡± had made Angel the key to unlocking the proprietor¡¯s chains. With this in mind, was his presence here really just a coincidence?

    Could it be that he, without realizing it, also yed a role in this?

    While pondering this, Angel recounted the encounter with the proprietor of the Night. After listening, Fafnir immediately noticed an inescapable figure in the proprietor¡¯s story.

    Feng.

    The painting in the Exhibition Hall, created by Feng himself, was also Feng¡¯s maxim which had led Angel to be the one to break the proprietor¡¯s shackles. How simr was this to the affair of Odess? The reason why Odess chose Angel for this task was, more or less, influenced by Feng.

    In the stories of both the Night and Odess, Feng yed a crucial role and was key to the current situation.

    So, who exactly was he? What was his connection to Angel?

    ¡°As far as I know, this Feng should be the legendary Magic Painter Wizard, Mirafel Feng,¡± Angel shrugged, ¡°As for any connection between the Magic Painter Wizard and myself, there is none. The Magic Painter Wizard left the Wizards¡¯ Realm of the Southern Domain many years ago and never returned. As for me, I was born into amon mortal noble family and have been in the Wizards¡¯ Realm for less than five years. I have no links to the Magic Painter Wizard.¡±

    While Angel said this, in his heart, he also wondered if his appearance here had indeed been foreseen by Feng.

    After listening, Fafnir gave Angel a meaningful look, ¡°Whether you are connected or not is not for you to say. I think I¡¯m beginning to understand why Aoluxiya believes none of this is a coincidence.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s continue watching. The stage is set, the atmosphere has emerged, and the characters will eventually rush to make their entrance.¡±

    Fafnir¡¯s words seemed to carry a hidden meaning, but at that moment, Angel could no longer afford to contemte deeply because the Pattern in the sky had changed once again.

    What is known as Transmutation by Fire?

    When countless Patterns of fire converge at a point where no further generation is possible, that is when Transmutation by Fire urs.

    A hole seemingly appeared out of nowhere at the convergence of the Patterns, and streams of bright, magma-like Transmutation by Fire fell from the sky. It was like a pir of fire, or perhaps a waterfall of me¡ªstartling and terrifying.

    All the Demons within the range of Transmutation by Fire were vaporized into ash. Even thends of Lassudral were scorched to form a deep pit, a scene reminiscent of an apocalyptic cmity!

    Such holes of Transmutation by Fire were not few in number. When Patterns can no longer converge, they form, and within a short time, at least four Transmutation by Fire holes had already appeared in the skies above Lassudral!

    ¡°What is happening?¡± Angel asked in surprise.

    ¡°The spige of fire¡¯s energy. This also means that the breeding pool for the birth of the Primeval me is sufficient and it won¡¯t be long before the Primeval mepletely breaks through its chains,ing forth fromnds unknown to here¡­ Huh?¡± Fafnir¡¯s words were interrupted mid-sentence as he suddenly let out a sound of rm, his full energy abruptly peaking.

    ¡°Who dares to spy on me, courting death!¡± Fafnir eximed, and a terrifying dragon silhouette suddenly emerged from behind him¡ªits true form made manifest!

    With the Misty Cabin at the center, shadows danced in the wind within dozens of meters.

    Angel waspletely bewildered, not understanding what had urred, as the wind and clouds stirred violently.

    From the tone of Fafnir, someone hade to spy? Angel recalled the previous situation and it seemed, indeed, someone had cast their gaze upon him¡­

    When the surrounding shadows faded, Angel looked at Fafnir, ¡°My lord, what happened?¡±

    ¡°He escaped,¡± Fafnir said with a dark expression. ¡°But I destroyed the fragments of his spirit that he left behind. He won¡¯t escape punishment.¡±

    ¡°Who woulde here to spy? Was it Lord Aoluxiya, or perhaps a great Demon from the Tower of the Void?¡± Angel was somewhat confused. With Lassudral in such a special moment, why would anyone be watching them?

    ¡°That gaze did note from Lassudral, but from beyond the Void,¡± Fafnir said, looking up as if through the fiery Patterns in the sky into the endless Void behind them.

    It seems that a new power hase knocking, doesn¡¯t it?

    Elsewhere, atop floating ice, all Wizards were watching Kanter.

    The Bloodline fused by Kanter was known as the Bloodline of Night, a lineage almost as rare as the Azure Bloodline that Serum had once been so desperate to inject¡ª¡±almost¡± not in terms of effects but in its rarity and the Wizards¡¯ Realm¡¯s familiarity with it.

    In the Wizards¡¯ Realm, Kanter was the only known sessful case of a fusion with the ¡°Bloodline of Night,¡± so the key to fusing the ¡°Bloodline of Night¡± was known only by Kanter.

    This is also considered a closely guarded secret of the House of Lilith.

    The most widely known effect of the Bloodline of Night, to outsiders, is its ability to merge with the darkness for scouting. This type of silent, stealthy reconnaissance does not cause energy fluctuations or trigger changes in the Material Realm. Any ce shrouded by the night would be Kanter¡¯s eyes and ears.

    It was for this reason that he was known as ¡°Kanter of the Night.¡±

    Even Monty had to admit that in terms of scouting, Kanter was far superior to him.

    When Kanter opened his eyes, the first thing he said was, ¡°I saw it!¡± Everyone awaited good news from Kanter; at the very least, they wanted to understand the situation with the uncontroble mes.

    However, in the next second, Kanter¡¯s body trembled, hisplexion turned pale, and blood kept spewing from his mouth.

    ¡°Lord of the Night?¡± A faint light shed in Sinafa¡¯s eyes as she quickly determined Kanter¡¯s condition, ¡°His spiritual power has been severely damaged. Maher, go check if there are any Lawless Rhymes left in the potion reserves.¡±

    Lawless Rhyme was a potion from the reformist school that could restore a certain degree of spiritual damage.

    While Maher went to check for Lawless Rhyme, the expressions of the wizards around were grave. Even Kanter had been injured while scouting merged with the nightshade, which meant two things.

    One, they had been discovered, and two, there was an extremely powerful entity in Lassudral.

    However, they were also well aware that being discovered was inevitable. What mattered most now was how many powerful entities were in Lassudral and just how high their level of power was. These were their primary concerns.

    Soon, Captain Maher of the Frostmoon Guard Squad returned, his expression somewhat grim: ¡°Lawless Rhyme has been taken by Brufen for his experiments.¡±

    At this, everyone immediately remembered the tragic condition of Sky Ind. Brufen¡¯s so-called experiment involved resurrecting an ancient Evil God from the Lofte World, which had led to the ensuing Chaos of the Evil Gods.

    ¡°Who would have thought that even though the guy is confined in the Exile Space, his misfortune would still spread to us!¡±

    ¡®ck Sugar Servant¡¯ Brufen was the original source of Sky Ind¡¯s curse of misfortune, who fortunately survived in the end. As punishment for the Chaos of the Evil Gods he had caused, he was exiled by Lord Monty. Today, he was still barely clinging to life in the Exile Space.

    ¡°Does anyone have a potion on them that can heal damage to spiritual power?¡± Sinafa asked the others.

    At this point, everyone stayed quiet. Potions were in high demand on the battlefield, and nobody wanted to give theirs up.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a serious injury anyway, just endure it. Right now, the most important thing is to wake Lord of the Night and find out the situation in Lassudral.¡± One of the wizards suggested.

    This was also the prevailing opinion amongst most present.

    It was then that Sanders stepped forward, ¡°I have Witch¡¯s Soup from Hecate on me, hand Kanter over to me.¡±

    The rtionship between the Illusion Demon Ind lineage and the House of Lilith wasmon knowledge. Sinafa nodded her head and handed Kanter over to Sanders.

    Witch¡¯s Soup from Hecate was also for the restoration of spiritual injuries. After being given a whole bowl, Kanter slowly recovered. When he came to, the first thing he saw was Sanders.

    His lips moved slightly, and Sanders¡¯s pupils instantly contracted.

    At that moment, Sinafa approached Kanter to inquire about Lassudral¡¯s situation, while Sanders tactfully stepped back.

    Sanders appeared calm on the outside, but his insides were in turmoil. When Kanter opened his eyes, the first thing he did was to affirmatively reply to him with lip-reading.

    This meant that it was indeed a certainty.

    Angel was really in Lassudral!

    Although Sanders previously had this suspicion, he was still shocked when the answer was actually confirmed.

    While all the wizards were awaiting the time to move to Lassudral, Angel had already taken the lead and made it to the center of the vortex!

    What on earth happened in between?

    ¡°Start by telling us what¡¯s going on in Lassudral at the moment. Why did the mes go out of control? And have we been discovered?¡± One of the wizards couldn¡¯t wait to question Kanter.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about the cause of the me¡¯s loss of control. However, it¡¯s not just us; the whole of Lassudral is a bit off right now. Not only is the sky filled with mes, but all demon species rted to fire on the ground also show some degree of frenzied behavior, with their mes out of control as well,¡± replied Kanter after pausing.

    He continued, ¡°As for our tracks, they seem to remain undiscovered for now.¡±

    ¡°Then what caused your injury?¡± Monty suddenly asked.

    Kanter responded, ¡°While investigating the secret shop that you mentioned, Lord, I was detected by a dark-skinned woman. She¡¯s probably the most powerful being I¡¯ve sensed in Lassudral so far. She detected me, but I crushed the Spirit Tentacle and escaped before she could react.¡±

    Everyone looked stunned; surely, the secret shop had powerful entities behind it, which could even attract great demons to it.

    ¡°You said ¡®you discovered it¡¯ when you first opened your eyes. What exactly did you find?¡±

    As Monty asked this question, Kanter¡¯s expression grew serious, ¡°I discovered that the sky¡¯s Pattern of Fire is connected to an inconspicuous building on the southern outskirts of Lassudral. Most importantly, I saw Aoluxiya entering that building!¡±

 Chapter 1081: Section 1082: Chaotic Battle

    Chapter 1081: Section 1082: Chaotic Battle

    At that moment, Angel was still looking anxiously at the sky.

    When the fireball cluster appeared, the sky was like a sieve with a hole in it, constantly showered with falling columns of fire, which caused most of the buildings in Lassudral to burn to ashes.

    Not only that, as more patterns of fire congregated, the entire sky was set aze.

    Previously, one could still see the night sky fabric with patterns of fire merely dancing as supporting characters upon it. But suddenly, everything reversed, like the painting in Feng¡¯s Hunting Museum, where mes would overshadow everything, and night would be no more.

    In this moment, many hidden truths finally surfaced.

    ¡°It really is the Primeval me, it truly is!¡± the Demon floating in mid-air suddenly shouted.

    ¡°It¡¯s not just the Primeval me; such a phenomenon also means that a new Lord is about to be born! Who could it be? Could it be Komodo? It seems like Komodo is currently the only major Demon of the Fire System in Lassudral!¡±

    The matter of the Primeval me, like ignited gunpowder, instantly spread throughout the whole of Lassudral. All the Demons were boiling with excitement, especially those of the Fire System!

    Angel didn¡¯t understand how important the Primeval me was to these Fire System Demons, but he could see, almost all the Fire System Demons had flown into the sky, refusing to descend even as the fireball cluster poured down.

    ¡°For Fire System Demons, even acquiring just a whiff of the Primeval me¡¯s essence can greatly benefit them,¡± said Fafnir¡¯s voice.

    ¡°What exactly is the Primeval me?¡±

    This was the second time Angel asked about the Primeval me. The first time, Fafnir remained silent, but this time she finally spoke up, albeit in an evasive manner, ¡°The Primeval me is the me of origin, the specifics of which I do not understand since I am not of the Fire System. However, I do know that it has always existed, clinging to the birthce of civilization, burning fiercely in a world indescribable. To have it descend into our world is extremely difficult. It requires an initiator, a gestator, and, finally, birth.¡±

    The me of origin, adhering to the birth of civilization¡ªis this referring to the seed of civilization? Angel pondered, Was this the same meaning as the Baiyuanians¡¯ Primeval me?

    Fafnir paused, then continued in a wistful tone, ¡°Every time the Primeval me descends, it signifies the birth of a new Monarch of Fire.¡±

    Angel was taken aback, ¡°Monarch of Fire, are you referring to the owner of the Night Pavilion?¡±

    Fafnir nodded, her eyes shimmering with envy, ¡°It should be him. As far as I know, the only Monarch of Fire currently existing in the Barren Face is the ancestor of the Patterned Demons. Night¡¯s Ascension willpletely change this pattern.¡±

    The ancestor of the Patterned Demons? Angel thought of Greerwu, the little fireball, which would be a Patterned Demon once it matured.

    ¡°What about the Lord of the meless? Is it considered a Monarch of Fire?¡± Angel asked impulsively.

    Upon hearing this question, Fafnir looked at Angel as if he were an idiot, and after a long moment, replied disdainfully, ¡°A Demon God is of a higher ne altogether.¡±

    As for the Lord of the meless, he could be entirely considered a God of Fire.

    Of course, one cannot conclude that a Monarch of Fire is weaker than a God of Fire; it all depends on the individual¡¯s strength. There are powerful Demon Lords who can rival Demon Gods.

    After hearing Fafnir¡¯s exnation, Angel was inwardly astounded beyond measure.

    He knew the owner of the Night Pavilion was formidable, and that once it broke its shackles it would be a Lord, but he never imagined it ascending to the throne of the Monarch of Fire in such a supreme manner!

    And Angel himself, not only had he driven this entire process, but he also had the fortune to witness its dominion and crowning!

    After the initial shock, Angel¡¯s emotions becameplicated.

    He felt lucky to witness it all, but at the same time, he also felt the pressure from these surging and endless new forces of the Abyssal world.

    Not to mention the owner of the Night Pavilion, who was about to Ascend the Throne, just the likes of Fafnir at his side, Odess of Ice Valley, Baltica of the Land of Rest, and so on¡­ were all formidable beings.

    And this was only the Barren Face of the many great facets of the Abyss. It was hard to imagine how much more powerful the other facets were.

    As Angel pondered, Fafnir, looking at the sky densely packed with the Fire System Demons, suddenly curled her lip, ¡°The break of dawn is getting closer, it seems peace is about to end as well.¡±

    At first, Angel did not understand what Fafnir meant until the Fire System Demons in the sky suddenly shifted from non-interference to an all-out melee, then he understood the implication of Fafnir¡¯s words that ¡°peace is about to end.¡±

    ¡°The ownership of the Primeval me was determined at the outset. So, the Primeval me¡¯s essence that leaks out will not be abundant, and with so many Fire System Demons, the oue is destined already,¡± Fafnir remarked without mentioning that, even if themon Demons in the sky didn¡¯t take action, Komodo of the Void Tower would surely make its move.

    This is the typical Law of the Jungle: weaken or even eliminate more contenders in order to grow stronger oneself.

    Once the battle in the sky begins, like a lit fuse, it bes uncontroble.

    Moreover, any Demon who dares to fight for a ce in the sky is sure to be strong.

    Angel stood on the rooftop, watching this earth-shattering melee. Almost every Demon in the sky was stronger than he was, and the longer he watched, the more he felt cold sweat running down his back.

    The energy throughout Lassudral began to be chaotic. This spreading fire not only involved the fire-system Demons but also swept up other Demons. Some joined the battle forcibly, to avoid harm to themselves.

    For now, the only areas that hadn¡¯t entered the fray were the outermost suburbs and the core area of the Void Tower.

    Some Demons ascended while others fell. The deaths were not few in number.

    Even though Angel watched the battle in the sky with trepidation, as the bodies of Demons fell all over Demon City, he couldn¡¯t help but show a look of regret on his face.

    Although the bodies of Demons were not as valuable as those of Magical Creatures, getting hold of themter on would still be a considerable sum of money.

    However, when the body of a Demon, burning fiercely, fell from the sky and crashed into the woods outside the Misty Cabin, Angel finally put away his covetous thoughts.

    Because as soon as the Demon¡¯s body hit the ground, it turned into a huge Fireball Cluster, incinerating everything within hundreds of meters into ash.

    The Misty Cabin itself was also within this range. If not for Fafnir releasing a Wind Barrier, it probably would have instantly vanished.

    Even though the Misty Cabin was spared, the surrounding environment changed drastically. The woods were gone, the serenity disappeared, and everything waspletely transformed into a sea of fire and a melting furnace.

    Angel stood on the roof, and even with the protection of the Wind Barrier, he still felt the scorching wind constantly brushing against his face.

    And this was just one body causing such an impact; Angel didn¡¯t want to imagine what would happen if the battle continued¡ªLassudral would probably turn into a sea of fire long before the Primeval me was born.

    The situation had escted to this point, probably beyond the expectations of the great Demons within the Void Tower.

    At this moment, the Void Tower was also filled with a tumult.

    ¡°It¡¯s time to stop, if this goes on, Lassudral, which has stood in the Void for tens of thousands of years, may also be annihted.¡± The speaker was a female Demon in a grand skirt that shimmered with water-light.

    The speaking female Demon named Nitotipu was a Demon of the Water System. It had thergest build among the current seven Council Demons of the Void Tower, thanks to the countless horrific and menacing barbed tentacles beneath its skirt.

    Nitotipu¡¯s upper body was no different from that of an average human, petite and delicate, but the tentacles under its skirt were very thick. Each one was like the tentacle of an overlord squid. Its appearance made the spacious conference hall inside the Void Tower feel cramped and narrow.

    ¡°Nitotipu, you would say that because you stand on your own ground. Lassudral will never disappear; it will be reborn from the ashes. After this fiery inferno, it will emerge more renewed,¡± said a fire cannon Demon whose head looked like a smander. Though notrge in size, it was the only fire-system Demon among the seven¡ªKomodo.

    Nitotipu sneered, ¡°Komodo, everyone knows what you¡¯re thinking. The more Demons that die outside, the bigger the benefit you will eventually get¡­ But don¡¯t forget, the death of so many Demons, what kind of disaster will it bring to Lassudral? If there is an external enemy, the damage Lassudral suffers will never heal.¡±

    The so-called external enemy naturally referred to human Wizards. They originally did not believe that human Wizards would dare to invade Lassudral, but with Aoluxiya showing up at this time, no one could be certain whether human Wizards would fight to the bitter end.

    ¡°The Lord of the meless is about to descend to the dust. Even if there are external enemies, do you think they can withstand even a nce from the Lord of the meless?¡± Komodo said, his slender eyes glowing with adoration.

    ¡°How can you be so sure that the owner of the Hunting Museum will want to deal with external enemies?¡± Nitotipu mocked, ¡°It is neither one of our seven seats nor does it have any sense of belonging to Lassudral. Why would it intervene in what happens here?¡±

    ¡°The Monarch of Fire will burn everything to ashes,¡± retorted Komodo immediately.

    For a time, the conference hall was filled with the quarreling voices of Nitotipu and Komodo.

    Apart from them, the other five seated Council Demons remained silent, all watching the sh between water and fire with the expressions of spectators enjoying a show.

    Nitotipu: ¡°Hmph, I just want to ask you two questions. You should be very clear about why Aoluxiya hase to Lassudral¡ªit¡¯s also for the Primeval me. What makes you think you can snatch the escaped Primeval me from its hands? And, if Lassudral were to bepletely transformed into a sea of fire, even if it is reborn from the mes as you say, do you think any other system of Demons would be willing to continue living here?¡±

    For Komodo, these two questions were not really issues. As long as he didn¡¯t act against Aoluxiya and simply relied on strength to snatch away the Primeval me, he didn¡¯t necessarily believe he would lose.

    Furthermore, if Lassudral really ended up without any other system of Demons willing to stay, Komodo actually thought it wasn¡¯t a bad thing.

    However, regardless of what Komodo thought, Nitotipu¡¯s words did elicit a reaction from the other five seated Council Demons. If Lassudral truly became a sea of mes, in the end, only Komodo would benefit, and they would likely be forced to leave.

 Chapter 1082: Section 1083 Humans Finally Enter the Scene

    Chapter 1082: Section 1083 Humans Finally Enter the Scene

    With this in mind, Yadasai, who had remained silent, finally spoke up¡ª

    ¡°Since the Lord Gl has turned his gaze from the Abyss to Lassudral, we naturally cannot allow the Lord to underestimate us. How can Lassudral be allowed to turn into a sea of fire? Indeed, as Nitotipu said, now is the time to go out and stop it.¡±

    In fact, apart from Komodo, the thoughts of the other demons were not much different from Yadasai¡¯s. However, it was Yadasai who spoke first.

    ¡°I think there¡¯s some truth to what Komodo said, it¡¯s not just Lassudral that will be reborn in the mes, but the souls of the demons too will be reforged in the fire. When they return from the Abyss under the guidance of Kngduo, won¡¯t their foundation be even stronger?¡± The one speaking was the burly Urdixinos, a horned demon also known as the Lion-horned Demon, wielding a trident, and a gold bell hung from the tail of a demon on its back.

    Its statement immediately ced itself in opposition to Nitotipu, but no demon present believed for a moment that Urdixinos would actually support the transformation of Lassudral into a sea of fire.

    It didn¡¯t possess the fire attribute itself; the only reason it spoke so was because Yadasai had spoken first.

    Did Yadasai have a grudge against Urdixinos? Not at all.

    The only connection between them was that they had both shared the same bed partner, the soon-to-be-transformed Nya.

    If this were before, Urdixinos wouldn¡¯t have cared who Nya was involved with, since after all Nya was a Pannas Charm Demon, naturally flirtatious by nature. But after Nya¡¯s awakening, the situation took a turn.

    In the future, Nya might rival even a lord in power, and such a Subus was fitting for Urdixinos¡¯s standards as apanion. Moreover, Nya¡¯s awakened form involved an erged and deepened physical body which matched Urdixinos¡¯s true form, making it even more satisfied with Nya.

    However, from the current situation, Nya¡¯s emotional inclinations seemed to lean more towards Yadasai.

    Therefore, in the eyes of Urdixinos, Yadasai instantly became a thorn. But was Nya truly more partial to Yadasai? In reality, anyone with clear eyes could see that Nya never cared about her bed partners.

    But for the love-blinded Urdixinos, none of that mattered.

    During the previous meeting in the Void Tower about the cessation of light sources, Urdixinos had shed with Yadasai, so it was unsurprising to see them at odds again.

    However, Urdixinos¡¯s logic, clearly influenced by desires of the flesh, was not epted by the other great demons. Not only did Nitotipu express dissatisfaction, but the other great demons who were watching the drama also showed scorn.

    ¡°We must make a decision immediately, whether to intervene or to let things be. If we continue to disregard it, it¡¯s hard to predict the consequences, and we won¡¯t be able to exin ourselves to Lord Gl,¡± Nitotipu spoke up. ¡°If you choose to continue to stand by, then I can only go to the top floor to open the passage and leave this ce with my subordinates.¡±

    The demons looked at each other, and even though Nitotipu used abandonment as a threat, not many were willing to take a stand at this moment.

    Urdixinos and Komodo stood on one front, Yadasai and Nitotipu on another, and the remaining three great demons did not take the initiative to break the bnce.

    If things continued as they were, the outside would indeed turn into a sea of fire, which would be detrimental to them. It hadn¡¯t yet reached the point of no return, and they each had their own agendas. Although they were inclined to side with Nitotipu, no one spoke up immediately.

    Nitotipu, with a dark look in her eyes, nced around the council chamber and said coldly, ¡°You may disregard Lord Gl, but aren¡¯t you afraid of the Lord of the meless¡¯s me? If at this time, human Wizards break in, how will we fulfill the defensive alliance we made with Aoluxiya?¡±

    Bringing up the Lord of the meless immediately brought silence to the room.

    It was at this moment that Komodo said, ¡°All Spatial Passages have been sealed; do you think humans have a way to break in?¡±

    ¡°What about traveling through the Void?¡± Nitotipu looked over.

    ¡°Aoluxiya has just arrived at Lassudral. Even if humans immediately get the news and then smuggle themselves to Lassudral through the Void, it will take at least three or four days. By then, Aoluxiya will have long since left,¡± Komodo replied.

    ¡°Are you certain there haven¡¯t been any oversights?¡±

    Nitotipu raised her eyebrows, and the tentacles under her skirt began to retract as if turning into adder to support her upper body. Without moving her upper body, Nitotipu was lifted by her tentacles to a council hall window.

    The view outside was apocalyptic.

    The sky was full of burning mes, with rivers of fire turning the ground into a sea of fire at a visible rate. Nitotipu turned back to look at the assembly, ¡°Look outside for yourselves. Do you really think Lassudral can be reborn from the fire?¡±

    The demons looked towards Nitotipu, whose silhouette was edged by the firelight outside the window. In the backlight, if one disregarded the horrifying tentacles beneath her, Nitotipu¡¯s appearance was actually very beautiful.

    As they gazed outward, the demons each had their own thoughts.

    Just then¡ª

    Suddenly, a bright white light appeared outside!

    The intense white light made the silhouette of Nitotipu at the window flicker constantly.

    For a moment, all the demons did not know what had happened outside, why such an intense white light appeared. Even Nitotipu looked baffled as she turned her head only to be met with an endless expanse of dazzling brilliance.

    As the white light slowly receded, Nitotipu¡¯s pupils shrank sharply.

    The mes were still there, but now, in the sky outside, a third faction had suddenly appeared.

    Humans! Arge number of human Wizards had appeared on the battlefield!

    With the fury burning in her eyes barely contained, Nitotipu turned to look at the assembly of demons in the council hall and spoke coldly, enunciating each word, ¡°Who said earlier that it¡¯s absolutely impossible for humans to arrive?¡±

    Komodo was so shocked that he couldn¡¯t care less about Nitotipu¡¯s sarcasm. Why, why had humans arrived at Lassudral so quickly?!

    And as soon as the human Fuyi appeared, he immediately began harvesting the already mostly crippled demons on arge scale. Within a short period, hundreds of demons fell from the sky like meteors, crashing into the already scarred city.

    Panic painted Komodo¡¯s face; now it had to ignore the faint trace of the Primeval me, knowing that Lord Gl was watching this ce at all times. The humans¡¯ target was clear, they were after Aoluxiya, and if something happened to Aoluxiya, none of them could escape the responsibility.

    Komodo immediately turned and shouted loudly, ¡°The human¡¯s appearance is unexpected, but now, we must prepare to intercept!¡±

    ¡°Now you realize it¡¯s urgent and you want to intercept? Remember, it¡¯s your hesitation that has led to the current situation!¡± After speaking, Nitotipu sneered and let the tentacles below carry her away from the conference hall.

    ¡°Nitotipu!¡±

    The shouts from behind did not stop Nitotipu from leaving; its body slithered towards the top of the Void Tower.

    Although the current situation was not yet the worst, Nitotipu had to prepare for the worst. Should anything unforeseen ur, an escape n was necessary, and currently, the only route out of Lassudral was through the passage at the top of the Void Tower.

    When Nitotipu had arranged everything and closed the top floor¡¯s door behind her, she failed to notice a faint crimson chain that had emerged in the sky above the Void Tower from the Void.

    ¡­

    Angel had spected before that when Aoluxiya appeared on the surface, human wizards may also enter the stage of Lassudral.

    He had imagined many scenarios¡ªwhen would the human wizards appear, in what manner, and under what circumstances?

    He thought of many answers but never expected their arrival to be so swift and sudden.

    Also, the timing was just as the sky Pattern was entirely obscured, and the humans¡¯ massive floating iceberg passed through thest corner of night left in the sky.

    Once the enormous iceberg entered Lassudral, the night in the sky finally perished, and the mes entirely enveloped Lassudral. It was as if a dome of firelight cocooned Lassudral.

    No one could escape this ¡°prison¡± made of mes.

    ¡°Indeed it¡¯s humans.¡± Fafnir looked at the floating iceberg in the sky, not surprised, as she had previously sensed the possibility of a new faction outside the Void. She had spected this in her heart.

    Her spection had proved correct.

    However, the timing of the humans¡¯ appearance was very interesting.

    It was precisely when the Primeval me was about to be born, and the fire dome encapsted Lassudral. In the following period, until the Primeval me waspletely nurtured, Lassudral would be apletely enclosed Miniature Garden.

    On such a Miniature Garden stage, what kind of y would the humans, demons, Demon God descendants, and the newly ascended lords perform?

    Fafnir had ns to take Angel from Lassudral through the Abyss below before the dome fell. But, looking at the chaos before her, she suddenly felt curious to see how this y would unfold.

    She raised her hand and cast a gust of wind, sweeping the surrounding sea of fire and thoroughly concealing the position of the Misty Cabin.

    After doing all this, Fafnir contentedly perched on the only remaining tree top in the yard, activating a mode of watching the drama unfold.

    Angel was also looking at the floating iceberg in the sky, but he was more interested in seeing the people on the iceberg clearly.

    The floating iceberg, a distinctive mode of Flight, definitely belonged to the Frostmoon Alliance. Then, among the wizards who came this time, might there be familiar faces?

    If Lord Kanter was here, maybe Angel could inquire about Sanders¡¯ whereabouts.

    Ever since Sanders disappeared in the Spatial Passage, Angel had been worried about his situation. If it hadn¡¯t been for the blood essence Sanders left with him that hadn¡¯t withered, Angel might have thought he was dead.

    Speaking of blood essence, Angel suddenly thought of something and took out Sanders¡¯ blood essence from deep within his bracelet.

    When Angel saw the blood essence in his palm, his eyes shed with surprise.

    It was currently radiating a faint light, looking like a bright gemstone.

    Angel had never seen such a state before. Curiously, he probed into the blood essence with his spiritual power, and the next second, a hazy voice suddenly appeared in his ear.

    ¡®An¡­gel¡­¡¯

    Angel looked at the blood essence with surprise and doubt. Was it his imagination, or did he just hear Sanders¡¯ voice?

    He tried responding to the blood essence, ¡°Mentor, is that you? Where are you?¡±

    But after a long while, there was no response from the blood essence.

    What was going on?!

 Chapter 1083: Section 1084: Confrontation and Objectives

    Chapter 1083: Section 1084: Confrontation and Objectives

    There¡¯s a reaction in the vital blood, indicating that Sanders mustn¡¯t be too far from me.

    Angel raised his head and looked towards the floating ice in the sky, Could Sanders be up there?

    But if Sanders were on top, the voice transmission shouldn¡¯t be so muffled.

    This was the first time Angel had encountered such a situation. Although he still didn¡¯t know Sanders¡¯ exact condition at the moment, he felt somewhat relieved in his heart. Being able to sense Sanders¡¯ presence through the vital blood at least meant that Sanders had safely emerged from the spatial passage.

    Above the sky, the group of demons were all in shock due to the sudden appearance of the huge floating ice.

    They had never expected that humans would barge into Lassudral just as the Fire Monarch was about to ascend the throne?! Why had these humanse here, and what were they nning to do? The demons had no clue, but they knew the humans¡¯ arrival meant no good.

    In just a few minutes, the sheer airflow from the floating ice had swept away countless demon lives.

    When the floating ice came to a halt in midair, the robed masked figure at the forefront extended a hand and pointed, and a vast number of wizards emerged from behind him, dense and swarming like birds freed from their cages, instantly obscuring the burning sky.

    The demons might be numerous, but the wizards were even more so!

    The power of demons was formidable, but wizards were a cut above in their technique of wielding power.

    And if one were to include the various alchemical artifacts the wizards wielded for assistance, the demons would struggle even more. Currently, the only advantage the demons had was being in the Abyss, where their restoration speed surpassed that of human wizards.

    But the wizards hadn¡¯te to Lassudral this time to wage a war of attrition, as they were bound to lose such a fight. Their goal was singr; they just needed to capture Aoluxiya, and nothing else mattered!

    When the wizards took matters into their own hands, it was as if locusts had swept through thend. The demons in the sky couldn¡¯t muster their team strength and ended up discarding their armor, fleeing in disarray in no time.

    For a moment, the sky that was once filled with demons became sparse and empty.

    Watching the disorganized demons, a glint of joy flickered in the eyes of the wizards on the floating ice. However, their tion was short-lived as they heard Monty say, ¡°The fleeing ones are just small demons, and many are even half-blood demons; we can¡¯t afford to be careless.¡±

    Monty was right. The most numerous in Lassudral were indeed the small demons.

    The ones they had easily dealt with just now were all small demons. And the intermediate rank demons and above were all watching from afar, eyeing them ominously yet not making a move.

    The real troubling opponents were these stalwarts of Demon City.

    Monty pondered that both prolonged attrition and swift blitzes would be ineffective against these intermediate rank demons, so the best option now was to achieve their goal before Demon City¡¯s high-end forces could react.

    Monty looked up at the sky as the fire pattern pulsated.

    He vaguely sensed that a powerful force was brewing behind the fire pattern.

    What the mes in the sky signified, Monty was momentarily unclear, but what he did know was that the location connected by the fire pattern was where Kanter had indicated Aoluxiya¡¯s position!

    Monty, following the intermittently emerging fire pattern, eventually locked onto a building in the southern outskirts of Lassudral.

    It was odd that the building was surrounded by emptiness, unlike other areas that had been turned into seas of fire. It was tranquil, as though a hermit living in a world apart.

    ¡°Samantha, steer the floating ice toward this location!¡±

    While Monty was looking towards the southern suburbs, Kanter and Sanders were also looking in that direction.

    ¡°Eh, when I saw it earlier, Angel was in the cabin in the forest in the southern outskirts,¡± Kanter said with a frown. ¡°Now, it¡¯s all turned into a sea of fire; who knows where he¡¯s gone?¡±

    Sanders looked over as well, seeing that nearly everything was a pool of burning magma, with mes raging so fiercely that at least an intermediate rank me demon must have fallen there.

    A sea of fire without a trace of life.

    Sanders¡¯ heart tightened, worried about Angel¡¯s situation. But soon, he snapped back to reality, knowing that Angel shouldn¡¯t find it difficult to escape with his speed, and assuming that there should still be a dark-skinned woman with him¡ªthe exceptionally strong one by his side; his safety shouldn¡¯t be in doubt.

    ¡°Sigh, I didn¡¯t expect Angel to actually be in Lassudral. Why is he here? And that woman with him, what¡¯s her story? She couldn¡¯t possibly be¡­ nning to betray my precious Qi Li, could she?¡±

    Sanders red coldly at Kanter, ignoring his bbering mouth, and closed his eyes to feel for the vital blood¡¯s location.

    Since Angel was still in Lassudral and at such a close distance, could he transmit a message?

    But after a moment, Sanders furrowed his brow; he could vaguely sense that Angel should be nearby, but couldn¡¯t pinpoint his location. Angel¡¯s position was elusive, like a feather caught in the wind, unable to settle anywhere peacefully.

    Sanders sighed, thinking he had failed once more.

    However, just as Sanders was about to cancel the sensing, a voice suddenly reached his ears.

    ¡°Mentor, is that you? Where are you?¡±

    Angel¡¯s voice had a clear and pleasant timbre between that of a teenager and a young adult, not only pleasant to the ear but also highly distinct.

    After hearing Angel¡¯s echo, Sanders¡¯ eyes lit up, and he immediately tried tomunicate again, eager to understand Angel¡¯s situation and location. However, no matter what Sanders said, there was no response from the other side.

    ¡°Eh, can the mentor not hear my voice? Or did I mishear just now, and it wasn¡¯t the mentor speaking?¡± Angel¡¯s voice of confusion came from the other side.

    After that, Sanders tried to sense again, but no longer had any sess.

    Although he didn¡¯t get the specifics of Angel¡¯s condition, he could gather from the murmurs during the telepathy that Angel¡¯s situation shouldn¡¯t be too dire. Sanders thought to himself, Maybe Angel¡¯s circumstances are even morefortable and secure than anyone else present.

    Seeing this, Sanders also felt slightly relieved.

    He indeed had no way to search for Angel now.

    Sanders nced around and, before he knew it, strangely shaped Intermediate Rank demons had finally appeared around the floating ice,pletely surrounding them.

    Ordinary Intermediate Rank demons were at least at the True Knowledge Level. Those at the peak of the Intermediate Rank had strength of at least the Second Level of True Knowledge.

    Around the floating ice, more than twenty Intermediate Rank demons appeared, and right now they were staring at everyone with fierce expressions.

    Although they had not yet attacked, it was clear that these demons intended to obstruct them. Without dealing with the demons, it would be difficult for them to continue onwards.

    ¡°Humans¡­ despicable humans¡­,¡± ¡°Devour them,¡± Heeheeheehee¡ªhuman brain matter is the tastiest, I can¡¯t forget it since thest time I sucked on it,¡± ¡°What color sparks would human flesh ignite?¡±

    Muttering incoherent sybles filled with threatening words, the demons¡¯ voices reached the ears of the wizards.

    It¡¯s worth mentioning that perhaps inheriting some age-old vice from their demonic ancestors, the demons¡¯ love for prebat babble was even more frequent than that of many wandering wizards. For those with lesser strength, it might create psychological pressure, but for them, it was utterly meaningless.

    ¡°Break through the encirclement,mence battle.¡±

    ¡­

    The dance ofbat in the sky never ceased.

    The grand y set in Lassudral wasn¡¯t just being closely watched by Fafnir in secret; many powerful beings in the Abyss had also set their sights on this ce.

    In the graveyard of the Land of Repose, the beautiful sounds of a harpbined with an alluring female voice echoed.

    Suddenly, the music stopped abruptly.

    In the tavern at the center of the graveyard, Baltica, who was ying the crystal harp, suddenly paused; she lifted her head and looked towards an unknown part of the Void, her gaze deep in thought.

    ¡°A new Fire Monarch has actually emerged from a Half-Blood Demon, interesting.¡±

    Quickly, Baltica averted her gaze, her slender, pale fingers ced upon the strings of the crystal harp, and the snake with its tail in its mouth ring on her little finger glowed faintly. As her fingers moved once again, the melodious music resumed, but unlike the previous serenade, this time Baltica yed an epic anthem.

    In the Abyssal Depth, an indescribable world existed.

    The night spread across the sky, with gentle moonlight illuminating the earth.

    It was hard to imagine such a world existed in the timeless abyss, a world with tender night skies and bright stars.

    Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful the night, there was no life to appreciate it.

    Thend bathed in moonlight was barren, with nothing but parched soil; there was no greenery here. This was a world abandoned, where no life could survive for long.

    Yet, in this deste world void of life, there stood a structure that was starkly out of ce with its surroundings.

    This building had a solemn and respectful air, as if it were situated in the bustling centre of human society, not somewhere like this.

    Tall and pointed towers glowed with dazzling lights; stained ss windows gave off a sacred vibe; statues of various deities carved around the exterior lent an even more awe-inspiring solemnity to the architecture.

    This was a library.

    Though it appeared like a holy sanctuary, under the elegant and refined chandeliers within were shelves after shelves full of books.

    Despite the countless volumes it housed, the entire library was deserted, save for one life.

    A small, tailed demon sat at arge desk, pen in hand furiously writing on parchment, the scratching sound filling the room. Amp burned slowly on the desk, its dim yellow light shone on the silent study.

    Suddenly, the pen of the tailed demon broke as it was writing a certain word.

    It was taken aback for a moment, looking at the word it had only written halfway: ¡°Asga¡­¡±

    A strangeugh escaped its mouth.

    Afterughing, it turned its head to look towards a certain ce in the void. It saw the sky where mes were gathering and the struggle between demons and humans.

    However, none of this interested it; its gaze was fixed on a tall figure wearing a pure white mask.

    Its eyes gleamed with an almost imperceptible sharpness.

    After a while, it looked away and once again took out a quill from the desk, dipped it into a bottle of brand new ink that emitted a ghostly glow, and wrote a passage on the parchment.

    ¡°Primeval me as the key, drawing from the boundless Void, leading to the times of old. The buried glory of Asgard shall eventually be unlocked.¡±

    Having recorded the passage, it casually stuck the parchment onto its tail.

    At this moment, its hook-like tail held not just parchment, but also books with covers of various colors.

    These books were written in differentnguages. On the spine of one book, written clearly in themon tongue of humans, read: ¡°Study and Improvement of Abyssal Inscriptionology.¡±

 Chapter 1084: Section 1085: The Greatest Threat

    Chapter 1084: Section 1085: The Greatest Threat

    The situation in Lassudral was changing by the second.

    Having just dealt with about twenty Intermediate Rank Demons starting to probe the area, the fiery energy in the air suddenly became extremely turbulent and active. In such a state, the power of all fire-rted Spell Techniques greatly increased.

    But no Wizard, or Demon for that matter, dared use any fire-rted Spell Technique because as the power of fire increased, it would also gopletely out of control. Incineration might not ur, but incidents of fire-rted Spell Techniques harming allies happened one after another.

    Being unable to use fire Spell Techniques was one thing, but with the raging power of fire eroding the air, all other elemental Spell Techniques were suppressed as well. This change led to many elemental Wizards being at a disadvantage when facing Demons, finding themselves in a tight spot.

    ¡°This is an utter disaster!¡± An Ashen Wizard abandoned his innate fire Spell Techniques and started using the unfamiliar Dark Mist Concealment to assist hispanions.

    No sooner had he finished speaking than the falling fire in the sky began to change.

    The situation where the falling fire formed waterfalls only happened at the confluence of fire Pattern nodes, but now even non-nodal areas asionally experienced falling fires.

    From time to time, meteor-like mes fell from the sky without any way to predict their origin ornding points, striking down randomly.

    The speaking Ashen Wizard had just cast Dark Mist Concealment when he was struck by a falling fireball from the sky and smashed to the ground.

    With a thunderous crash, a huge pit formed in the ground, and the mes instantly ignited the pit.

    It took a good while for the Ashen Wizard to crawl out.

    Luckily, he was a fire Wizard with strong resistance to mes, and he only suffered some superficial wounds. But that didn¡¯t mean he was alright; being interrupted mid-spell forced him to endure a Spell Bacsh. The blood trickling from the corner of his mouth was a testament to the internal damage he had suffered.

    It was also fortunate he was an Official Wizard; had it been an Apprentice instead, not to mention the falling fire, the Spell Bacsh alone would have been enough to obliterate them.

    The Ashen Wizard barely managed to hold on and was about to fly back up to the ice floe to recover when he lifted his head and his pupils suddenly constricted.

    Apanied by a fragrant breeze, a seductive figure appeared before him.

    It was a Pannas Charm Demon with a cherry-lipped mouth on its forehead, looking at him with a coquettishugh and eyes full of allure.

    The Ashen Wizard quickly gathered hisposure, knowing that the most terrifying thing about a Subus was its ubiquitous seduction; he had to guard his spirit. Otherwise, if his defenses were breached, he would be doomed.

    ¡°Thankfully, it¡¯s just a Subus.¡± The Ashen Wizard muttered to himself, the threat of a Subus being rtively small for a Wizard. Had it been any other kind of Demon, he would have found it difficult to handle.

    However, when the Ashen Wizard tuned himself to apletely rational state, he discovered that the Subus facing him didn¡¯t resort to using any seductive Spell Techniques but instead¡ª

    The Subusughed coquettishly and suddenly swelled in size, its form bingparable to that of a troll, appearing so abruptly before him.

    What were once somewhat alluring features stretched out, looking fierce and terrifying, while the cherry-lipped mouth on its forehead began to unfurl, blooming with the fervor of a man-eating flower.

    Its skin shed metallically in the light of the mes, shining with a scale-like Pattern gloss.

    This was no Realm Charm Demon that uses spiritual power to seduce the world, but a true embodiment of a War God in the flesh!

    Moreover, this was no minor Demon; the energy emanating from it soared straight to the peak of an Intermediate Rank Demon!

    In virtually an instant, the Ashen Wizard found himselfpletely entangled by the now gigantic Subus. Its spider-leg-like tendrils snatched him up from the edge of the fiery pit and flung him high into the sky.

    The next second, countless bone spines pierced through his chest and abdomen.

    In thest second before his demise, the Ashen Wizard didn¡¯t see the terrifying Subus but rather the floating fire Patterns in the sky.

    And also,pared to earlier, the number of Intermediate Rank Demons that had surrounded Frostmoon¡¯s ice floe had increased by an unknown multiple. The Ashen Wizard¡¯s death, in the midst of this abrupt war, was but a mere microcosm. No one cared about his death because it wasn¡¯t just him; the multitude of Intermediate Rank Demons racing towards the ice floe meant that for the first time the number of human corpses falling from the sky exceeded that of the Demons.

    After killing the Ashen Wizard, the Subus did not hesitate to devour him.

    ¡°Indeed, delicious, much tastier than the little flies sent by Yadasai. But, such a small amount of flesh hardly fills the gaps between my teeth.¡± The soft voice emerged from the mouth of the Subus.

    With its tongue licking its cheek, like that of a snake, it turned its gaze toward the ice floe in the sky, the mouth on its forehead splitting into a terrifying curve.

    The Subus¡¯s perfect figure curled slightly, like a cannonball ready to be fired, aiming directly at the ice floe in the sky.

    However, at that moment, a slender figure d in ck bone armor stood in its way.

    ¡°Nya, the strength of the humans has not yet been exhausted; it will be very dangerous to go now.¡±

    Nya looked at Yadasai with a hint of disdain in her eyes, but she didn¡¯t resist. Instead, sheughed softly, her form gradually shrinking back to her previous ordinary appearance.

    A flicker of relief crossed Yadasai¡¯s eyes, but the next second, he saw Nya turn around and walk away.

    ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°The owner of the Misty Cabin, just an ordinary Indigenous People, won¡¯tst long in such circumstances. Since he has helped me achieve my goal, I naturally want to repay the favor,¡± Ji said, her voice reaching Adar¡¯s ears.

    Adar frowned, the Misty Cabin was not even in the radius of his consideration at the moment, not to mention that with Fafnir¡¯s presence there, it was hardly in any danger.

    He was about to remind Ji of this when she had already disappeared into the depths of the raging fire.

    Ji was indeed heading to the outskirts of the south, but she wasn¡¯t going to the Misty Cabin. Her conversation with Adar had been just a pretext; her actual target was¡ª

    ¡°The Hunting Museum.¡± Ji looked at the sign of the Hunting Museum from a distance, a captivating smile curling up on her lips: ¡°Prey, I like that word. Whose prey will I be, or rather, who will be my prey?¡±

    A delicateugh was concealed within the rolling mes.

    ¡­

    The situation in the sky was indeed critical, with the floating ice surrounded by hundreds of Intermediate Rank Demons. Even Monty found it very tricky.

    ¡°Lord Monty, ten of the Frostmoon Wizards have lost vital signs, and three are missing, probably having fallen to the ground,¡± Maher reported, his usually stern face tinged with redness in his eyes.

    Those Wizards whose whereabouts were unknown could almost certainly be linked to death.

    Moreover, this was just the count of Frostmoon Wizards; it didn¡¯t include members from other Witcher Organizations.

    ¡°Let the Soul Sorcerers collect their departed spirits,¡± Monty pondered.

    Maher immediately turned and instructed his subordinates to inform the Soul Sorcerers. After rying the orders, Maher turned back and said solemnly, ¡°Lord Monty, if this continues, the losses will be incalcble¡­¡±

    ¡°I understand what you¡¯re saying, but now is not the time for me to act. What we need to do is hold the floating ice; it¡¯s ourst stronghold. And then we must find a way to break out¡­ By the way, have we received anymunication from Sinafa?¡±

    Maher shook his head: ¡°Madame Sinafa is still on her way to the southern suburbs, but it seems the Demons have discovered her. I saw fluctuations of battle on the streets below.¡±

    Monty was well aware that being stuck in the sky was the most disadvantageous situation for them, so he had made contingency ns. Sinafa was one of them; she was dispatched to investigate that building in the southern suburbs from the ground. As soon as they could determine Aoluxiya¡¯s location, the tide of the battle would turn back into their hands.

    ¡°Keep an eye out formunications from Sinafa,¡± Monty paused then asked, ¡°What about Sanders?¡±

    ¡°Lord Illusion Demon and Lord Night Thorn are both intercepting Demons outside the floating ice.¡±

    Monty nodded and after a moment of thought, he said, ¡°Send Samantha to support them. We can¡¯t let the Demons break through the floating ice¡¯s defense perimeter.¡±

    Outside the floating ice.

    Kanter, panting heavily, returned to Sanders¡¯ side, his eyes filled with intense envy. His whole body was covered in dust and grime, yet Sanders managed to keep his ck suit immacte, without a wrinkle in sight.

    But most importantly, Sanders¡¯ ornate ck and gold cloak, which seemed more decorative than practical, was unscathed and fluttering dramatically. He looked effortlessly dashing.

    ¡°Why is there such a big gap between people?¡± Kanter grumbled to himself while tossing a small Demon that was deeply unconscious to Sanders.

    This was a reconnaissance-type small Demon, shaped like a floating dandelion with a handle at the bottom. It had the function of recording images and detecting various pheromones.

    Sanders casually put the small Demon into the Gravity Garden.

    Due to owning a personal Witchcraft Garden, Sanders¡¯ role this time was not only as abatant but also as a smuggler. These weaker Demons with special effects were his smuggling targets.

    After securing the small Demon, Sanders nced at him, ¡°Remember to conserve your strength, it¡¯s not time to fight to the death yet.¡±

    Sanders looked toward the distant Void Tower, appearing majestic and massive in the bright firelight. He knew that inside it dwelled the true Controller of Lassudral, the greatest threat in this battle.

    Kanter gave a bitter smile, ¡°I¡¯d like to conserve strength too, but facing top-tier Intermediate Rank Demons, I dare not hold back.¡±

    While Kanter spoke, a faint cold fragrance wafted from behind him, prompting Kanter to instinctively turn andunch an attack.

    After he released Night Thorn, he realized the neer was Samantha.

    Samantha casually deflected Night Thorn and didn¡¯tment further on Kanter¡¯s attack but said, ¡°Kanter, Lord Monty has summoned you.¡±

    At this, Kanter heaved a sigh of relief. A summons from Monty surely meant scouting duty. As long as he didn¡¯t run into that dark-skinned woman again, it was much more rxing than defending outside.

    Kanter scampered back to the floating ice, while Samantha lifted her head and said to Sanders, ¡°Lord Monty has sent me to support you.¡±

    Sanders nomittally nodded and casually pointed behind Samantha.

    ¡°Watch your back.¡±

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 1085: Section 1086 Glazed Paradise

    Chapter 1085: Section 1086 zed Paradise

    Samantha never turned back. The demon that had sneak-attacked her from behind found its assault had missed the mark, not only that, its w-wielding arm had been caught in a ss world.

    This world, distorted by light rays, was slowly dragging it in¡­

    Until the demon waspletely pulled into the world of ss, Samantha never once looked back.

    ¡°You don¡¯t seem surprised at all?¡± Samantha raised an eyebrow, ¡°I remember you were the one who reminded me of this concept.¡±

    Sanders looked at the still faintly distorted light behind Samantha and spoke with a toneced with mockery, ¡°The original concept was to fold all light and reshape the changing tides of zed Paradise, not what we see now¡­¡±

    ¡ª¡ª¡±Shattered ss Space.¡±

    Samantha¡¯s smile paused, her expression turning gloomy.

    But Sanders paid no mind to Samantha¡¯s mood, ¡°However, Lord Rhein can rest assured seeing this. His daughter can stand on her own, and he won¡¯t have any more concerns.¡±

    Samantha had two taboos. One was her extreme aversion to hearing ¡®shattered ss¡¯, and the second was her dislike of others discussing her rtionship with Rhein Mute.

    It was clear that Sanders was deliberately provoking her, his tone serious as he spoke, his gaze seemingly indifferent, but Samantha always felt a provocative intent from him.

    Samantha took several deep breaths, forcefully suppressing the violence within her heart as now was neither the time for internal strife nor for quarreling.

    ¡°I hope that one day, you can see for yourself whether this is Shattered ss Space or zed Paradise.¡± Having said this, she snorted coldly, turned her head to focus on the demons that were eyeing her intensely. The displeasure she felt from Sanders was exasperated, but fortunately, there were these punching bags to vent her anger on.

    As Samantha confronted the demons, the ss world became like a butcher sharpening his knife, swiftly grabbing hold of demons weaker than her and pulling them into the ss world for execution. In no time, flesh and blood were flying, with demon limbs falling from the sky.

    A sigh of contemtion flickered in Sanders¡¯ eyes, although he had called it Shattered ss Space, deep down, he was still quite moved.

    ¡°What can I say? She truly is Rhein¡¯s daughter.¡± Sanders thought, her strength and talent were both top-notch. This zed Paradise that he had once envisioned as merely a concept, he had not expected Samantha to actually bring it into reality, and by doing so, she had stepped onto the path of True Knowledge.

    It was also no wonder why Lord Monty, despite knowing Samantha¡¯s background, couldn¡¯t help but pull her into the Frostmoon Alliance.

    Sanders was not a man to withhold praise. His attitude towards Samantha was in fact for reasons. One was emotional; he didn¡¯t want to give Samantha the wrong impression. Secondly, although Samantha had done well, the framework of her creation still bore the shadow of Sanders, which was actually detrimental to her future path. Sanders¡¯ indifferent attitude was also a hope that Samantha woulde to this Enlightenment.

    Following his musings, Sanders couldn¡¯t help but think of Angel.

    Equally gifted, Angel¡¯s thinking was truly unfettered, not confined to the pathid by the Illusion Series, walking his own way, making choices with bravery and strategy.

    It was normal for such a person to be marked by the Thief of Time.

    The only downside was¡­

    Sanders sighed softly. It was that he was too prone to stirring up trouble. Stirring things up was not bad in itself, but without strength as a backing, that was a problem.

    ¡°After we return this time, I hope Angel will settle down. It would be best if he ceased his troublemaking and focused on enhancing his strength before anything else,¡± Sanders mused.

    While he was contemtive, Sanders didn¡¯t stop his assault.

    In front of him were several demons, with a few lesser demons guarding a Long Bone Demon.

    Sanders strolled through the air, casually swaying to dodge attacks. It wasn¡¯t just that the attacks couldn¡¯t touch him, they couldn¡¯t even get close. His ck cloak with gold patterns rustled fiercely, as if mocking those who were overestimating themselves.

    At that moment, the far stronger Long Bone Demon made its move. Facing a formidable opponent, Sanders was quick to react. He casually flicked several energy orbs with properties of Nightmare Illusion, hitting the small demons eager tounch a sneak attack. As they plunged into the maddening Illusionary Realm, Sanders turned his gaze to the Long Bone Demon.

    The appearance of the Long Bone Demon was actually quite simr to the Sheep Demon, with twisted horns, a fierce visage, and the legs of a ram; it was called ¡°Long Bone¡± because it indeed had a long exoskeleton, protruding from its chest.

    This exoskeleton was its most potent weapon, capable of stretching and extending at will, and was exceedingly flexible, allowing it to coil at whim. The sharpness of the exoskeleton was under its control, making it not just an external bone but also a powerful weaponbining defense and offense.

    At that moment, the Long Bone Demon had extended the exoskeleton from its chest more than thirty meters long, coiling it into hoops like a whip, cing itself in the center. The barbs on the exoskeleton were spinning wildly, and if it got close to an opponent, even without personally attacking, these barbs could y the opponent to the bone.

    The hoops could defend itself and also strike at enemies, making it the Long Bone Demon¡¯s preferred mode of using its exoskeleton.

    Confronted with such a unified offense and defense, and with such a vast impact range, Sanders also stepped back a few paces. This made the Long Bone Demon somewhat triumphant, but after stepping back, Sanders did just one thing.

    He took off the elegant noble white glove from his right hand.

    Then Sanders suddenly raised his head, and his right hand transformed into a huge curved hook, resembling a scythe.

    The wind blew, and the sickle¡¯s de began to quiver wildly, trembling at a speed invisible to the naked eye, forming an illusion akin to a crescent moon.

    Sanders, usually indifferent and ascetic, now exhibited a change in expression, a devilish, wild smile curling upon his lips as his figure vanished from the long-boned demon¡¯s field of vision in an instant.

    By the time the long-boned demon reacted, Sanders had already dashed behind it and tread on a small demon bewitched by an illusion as if it were a stepping stone. His ck boot stomped fiercely on the dazed head of the small demon, catapulting him at an even faster speed towards therger foe.

    ¡°Could it be that it isn¡¯t afraid of the external spines?¡± the long-boned demon wondered in surprise, only to see Sanders¡¯s right hand, which wielded the rapidly vibrating sickle, lightly flick, shaking open its exterior skeleton with an extremely terrifying force.

    ¡°How could this be?¡± the long-boned demon looked at the transformed right-hand sickle with astonishment and confusion shing in its eyes.

    But its confusion didn¡¯tst long, as Sanders had already rushed to its side.

    The long-boned demon hastily retracted its external skeleton to defend itself, but having extended the spines too far earlier, now it was a step too slow to retract them for protection.

    With a sh of movement from Sanders, the huge sickle swept across its neck.

    The external skeleton dropped.

    Sanders reappeared several meters away, his back to the long-boned demon. The sickle in his right hand disappeared, reverting back to a palm. Sanders leisurely retrieved a white glove from his chest pocket and put it back on.

    The moment he put on the glove, not far behind him, the long-boned demon muttered something in the demonnguage,

    ¡°This is¡­ the scythe arm of the Phantom Mantis¡­¡±

    The next second, its head separated from its neck, blood spurted, and its broken body fell from the sky.

    Having dealt with the long-boned demon, Sanders intended to check if any other Wizards needed help, but when he looked back, he found that the demons near the iceberg had almost been cleared out.

    Samantha¡¯s zed Paradise truly was a formidable weapon; all demons, even some of intermediate rank, could not escape the fate of execution.

    Not needing to help, Sanders was rather happy to rx. As long as he defended the direction he was assigned, it was fine to let Samantha handle the rest.

    Taking advantage of this brief respite, Sanders took out an essence of blood to see if he could now contact Angel.

    As soon as he produced the essence of blood, before he was ready to speak, a fluctuation was transmitted from within it.

    ¡°Mentor, I see an iceberg in the sky; that¡¯s Frostmoon¡¯s flight vehicle, isn¡¯t it? Are you up there?¡± Angel¡¯s voice reached Sanders¡¯s ears.

    Sanders gave an affirmative reply, but just like before, Angel seemedpletely unable to hear him, carrying on muttering to himself.

    However, it wasn¡¯t hard to deduce from Angel¡¯s words that he was currently on the ground and not in the sky. Moreover, being able to see the iceberg meant he wasn¡¯t on the north side of Lassudral, where a mountain and the Void Tower would definitely block the view of the iceberg.

    That meant¡ª

    Musing to himself, Sanders looked down at the shattered earth below, a frivolous frown on his brows, ¡°It seems he¡¯s somewhere down there?¡±

    Knowing that Angel was probably not too far away, Sanders considered, should he now convey his information? There were many ways for Sanders to transmit his location to Angel, such as releasing the Nightmare Realm or casting a wide-ranging illusion technique, all sufficient to let Angel on the ground detect his position.

    But what then?

    With his current strength, if Angel were to fly from the ground to the iceberg in the sky, he would likely be killed by the various demons en route.

    Moreover, Sanders had another concern: the supremely strong individual at Angel¡¯s side. From what Kanter had previously spied, that was definitely not a human.

    What the supreme entity¡¯s attitude was, what their involvement with Angel was¡ªif Sanders could not determine this, the entity might bring a disaster upon those atop the iceberg.

    After some thought, Sanders decided to wait until the real melee began, and then he would try to find Angel in the city below.

    As for now, the crisis above in the sky was too great, and judging from Angel¡¯s reply earlier, his situation might be much safer than here.

    Having made his decision, Sanders prepared to return to the iceberg to await further instructions.

    However, just as Sanders turned around, a faint trail of smoke drifted over from not far away. Apanied by the unexpected smoke, a shadow slowly walked out from within it.

    With the appearance of the shadow, the smoke slowly dissipated, eventually vanishing without a trace.

 Chapter 1086: Section 1087: A Close-quarters Skirmish

    Chapter 1086: Section 1087: A Close-quarters Skirmish

    Angel¡¯s situation was indeed as Sanders had imagined, very safe.

    Although the area was surrounded by a rolling sea of fire, the spot where the Misty Cabin stood was covered by the Domain of Wind, preventing any mes from eroding into the yard.

    Fafnir even asionally grabbed a few roasted demons from the sea of fire outside to eat, which could be described as veryfortable.

    In this yard, Angel naturally faced no danger.

    However, his thoughts were actually on the floating ice in the sky. There was something unusual about the blood in his hands, and he had a vague premonition that perhaps Sanders was on the floating ice in the sky. The thought alone caused Angel¡¯s mood to start fluctuating.

    ¡°I do not forbid you to leave, but do you think you can fly safely up to the sky?¡± Fafnir asked with a raspy voice, as she picked at her teeth and coldly taunted Angel.

    Although she had been enjoying the show, she had also caught glimpses of Angel¡¯s movements out of the corner of her eye.

    Upon hearing this, Angel¡¯s face darkened.

    Indeed, he was self-aware. The demons usually left him alone, allowing him to run his shop because Fafnir was close by. But if he were to fly up into the sky now, without Fafnir¡¯s protection, he was sure to be torn to shreds.

    Also, he wasn¡¯t entirely sure his guess was correct. Maybe Sanders wasn¡¯t on the floating ice, and going up there could just be asking for trouble.

    Beyond that, there was another factor restraining his impulsive thoughts.

    Angel turned to look at the ice ball hovering over his shoulder. Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scales were currently charging the Icebound Hex, and it couldn¡¯t be put away into his bracelet yet. If he left this ce, causing Toby to identally run into trouble, it would be terrible.

    So, for various reasons, Angel restrained himself.

    As long as he knew that Sanders hadn¡¯t fallen in the Spatial Passage, there would always be a time to meet.

    While Angel was thinking this way, suddenly, a thunderous boom came from outside. Moreover, the source of the sound was very close to him. The instant the sound exploded, Angel¡¯s heart skipped a beat, and all the hairs on his body stood on end.

    After calming his emotions with effort, Angel looked towards the source of the sound.

    He saw that less than two hundred meters from the Misty Cabin, a pitch-ck hole had appeared, and on either side of the hole stood two figures.

    Originally, this was the main thoroughfare that led straight to the core area. But since the fire from the sky had fallen and the corpses of demons had crashed down, it turned into a sea of fire that burned everything around, including the forest outside the Misty Cabin.

    Angel tried to look through the mes to see the situation outside, but the zing fire in the sea of mes kept darting about, obscuring his vision.

    The only thing he could see was the two figures facing off outside, both appearing to have graceful figures, likely two women.

    Moreover, these two figures seemed somewhat familiar to Angel.

    Angel was itching to see clearly what was happening outside. But with the Domain of Wind shielding him, he couldn¡¯t extend his Spirit Tentacles out. As his curiosity grew unbearable, Angel turned his attention to the indolently lounging Fafnir.

    Angel approached with a sheepish expression, ¡°Honorable Fafnir, this humble human has a request¡­¡±

    After a while, Angel was enveloped in ayer of faint breeze, a favor he had secured from Fafnir. When he extended his Spirit Tentacles outside the Domain of Wind, they didn¡¯t trigger the wind realm¡¯s defense mechanism.

    In front of Fafnir, a variety of food that Angel had brought from the Wizards¡¯ Realm was piled up, including Magic Marrow Meat, beauty shells, the Gourmet Sorcerer¡¯s special roast meat seasoning pack¡­ as well as Dairy Fruit Tree sap, and several bottles of fine wine that Lyon had insisted he take.

    Angel knew that Fafnir was purely treating the battle in the sky as a theatrical performance, and like any show, it was iplete without delicious apaniments. Through the exchange of these small items, Angel sessfully secured his ¡°ticket¡± to watch the show.

    Before, he could only look up at the sky, but with the me and the Domain of Wind as obstructions, his view wasn¡¯t very clear. Now that his Spirit Tentacles could pass through the Domain of Wind, his view became much clearer than before.

    Angel couldn¡¯t wait to extend his Spirit Tentacles out.

    This time, the edges of his Spirit Tentacles were surrounded by a breeze, and as expected, the Domain of Wind no longer obstructed him, allowing him to explore smoothly.

    Initially, Angel wanted to check out the figures he had found somehow familiar earlier, but as he extended his Spirit Tentacle, the first thing he saw was several tall figures flying out from the Void Tower in the distance¡ª

    A highborndy with tentacles of terror under her skirt, a giant lizard engulfed in fire, a demoness with three faces, a shadow cloaked in smoke¡­

    Among them was Yadasai, whom Angel had seen before, d in ck bone armor!

    Seeing Yadasai, and looking at where they hade from¡ªthe Void Tower, it wasn¡¯t difficult for Angel to guess the identities of the other figures; they were likely the great demons who stood at the peak of Lassudral¡¯s Pyramid!

    Did not expect the great Demon to take action so quickly?!

    Angel looked towards those great Demons, originally thinking they were heading to block Frostmoon¡¯s floating ice, but to his surprise, after leaving the Void Tower, they dispersed, all but the figure shrouded in smoke that headed for the Sky Mechanical City¡¯s floating ice; the whereabouts of the other great Demons remained a mystery.

    Angel¡¯s brow furrowed; even though he was not on the floating ice, if he put himself in the humans¡¯ shoes, those great Demons rising en masse would have been pressuring, but at least the situation would have been clear. If they acted separately and their destinations were unknown, that would bring pressure too, and even more so than before.

    Because Lassudral was the Demon¡¯s domain, no one knew what those great Demons were up to or how their actions would impact the human camp, it was hard to say.

    For the human camp, battling in the Abyss was difficult enough, let alone the fact that they were now in Demon territory, already at a significant disadvantage. The best strategy for now might be a swift battle to avoid the greatest losses. But seeking a swift resolution would lead into another quagmire. How were they to hunt Aoluxiya, escape, and what about facing the variable that was the night innkeeper? These were issues the human side needed to consider.

    No matter what, this battle was destined to bring catastrophic losses to humanity.

    Angel felt a slight sadness in his heart; Wizards, in order to maximize their interests, sometimes had no choice but to proceed, even when they knew they were like moths to a me. Like how Sky Mechanical City had sacrificed a number of Apprentices for the Purification Garden¡¯s Leap Transition, and down to the most elite seeds were the ones who survived and gained the benefits.

    He couldn¡¯t judge whether these actions were right or wrong, but facing the inevitable cruelty that would arise, he felt a sense of helplessness and sighed.

    Angel shook his head, withdrawing his gaze.

    That shadow within the smoke might well face off against Frostmoon in the sky, but the battle was too far from the floating ice; even if Angel strained his eyes, he wouldn¡¯t see clearly. He would do better to focus on the battles around him, such as the two opposing figures he had seen earlier.

    Angel turned his gaze back, fixing it upon the nearby battlefield.

    When he made out the two opposing figures clearly, his expression turned strange.

    His intuition had not been wrong; he recognized both of the figures.

    ¡°Indeed, the first to seek out humans for trouble is the Minotaur, with whom I¡¯ve wanted to spend many passionate nights. s, it¡¯s just a fool interested only in battle,¡± said a Subus, with a seductiveugh apanying the slightly bewitching words. However, although the voice came from her nose, theugh emitted from the mouth on her forehead.

    Such a unique form, Angel recognized immediately¡ªit was Nya the Pannas Charm Demon, who had recently visited the Misty Cabin.

    The woman confronting Nya was not swayed by her words, and although she noticed the shadow drifting towards the sky, she understood that the immediate dispute was of utmost importancepared to the unreachable battle.

    ¡°Spare me your nonsense, and don¡¯t bother with your clumsy arts of seduction. I have no interest in you,¡± she said as her frosty hair began to dance, her eyes like fiery colored ze emitting an astonishing glow.

    This was a woman of imposing aura, one who looked as unshakable as a permanent iceberg. This terrifying presence, often absent in many men, was hers.

    ¡°Wilderness Witch, Sinafa,¡± Angel murmured her name softly.

    Angel hadn¡¯t expected that after separating from his Mentor, the first familiar face he¡¯d encounter would be Sinafa.

    Considering the aura that Sinafa was emitting, it seemed that the curse she received in Ice Valley had been lifted.

    Angel remembered Mentor Fafnir once saying that Nya was just a step away from being a great Demon; by that measure, Nya belonged to the realm of Second Level True Knowledge.

    Now that Sinafa¡¯s power had returned to its peak, she should be slightly stronger than Nya. Adding to that, Sinafa¡¯s creation magic was of extreme opposing forces; if they were to fight, Sinafa¡¯s chances of victory would be much higher.

    However, the two had not yet truly begun to battle.

    Although seemingly calm, the energy between them was relentlessly shing. Using his spirit tentacles, Angel could clearly see phantom shadows above their heads entangled in struggle.

    With such high-level conflict, Angel could not see much. His thoughts were not on their shing energies, but on another matter.

    Why was Sinafa here?

    Or rather, why was Sinafa here alone?

    Angel did not bother to specte about Nya¡¯s wanderings, but Sinafa¡¯s presence here clearly had a purpose. As Frostmoon¡¯s apparent second-inmand, every move Sinafa made was bound to have a reason.

    And in this area, what might be worthy of Sinafa¡¯s attention? The Misty Cabin? Since Fafnir had mentioned humans snooping around, it was natural that Misty Cabin had been exposed to the human camp. However, now hidden by fire and obscured by the Domain of Wind, it was clearly not worth human exploration.

    If not the Misty Cabin, then what in the southern suburbs of Lassudral would be deemed significant by Frostmoon? The only ce Angel could think of was one.

    The Hunting Museum.

 Chapter 1087 - 1086: Section 1087: A Close-quarters Skirmish

    Chapter 1086: Section 1087: A Close-quarters Skirmish

    Angel¡¯s situation was indeed as Sanders had imagined, very safe.

    Although the area was surrounded by a rolling sea of fire, the spot where the Misty Cabin stood was covered by the Domain of Wind, preventing any mes from eroding into the yard.

    Fafnir even asionally grabbed a few roasted demons from the sea of fire outside to eat, which could be described as veryfortable.

    In this yard, Angel naturally faced no danger.

    However, his thoughts were actually on the floating ice in the sky. There was something unusual about the blood in his hands, and he had a vague premonition that perhaps Sanders was on the floating ice in the sky. The thought alone caused Angel¡¯s mood to start fluctuating.

    ¡°I do not forbid you to leave, but do you think you can fly safely up to the sky?¡± Fafnir asked with a raspy voice, as she picked at her teeth and coldly taunted Angel.

    Although she had been enjoying the show, she had also caught glimpses of Angel¡¯s movements out of the corner of her eye.

    Upon hearing this, Angel¡¯s face darkened.

    Indeed, he was self-aware. The demons usually left him alone, allowing him to run his shop because Fafnir was close by. But if he were to fly up into the sky now, without Fafnir¡¯s protection, he was sure to be torn to shreds.

    Also, he wasn¡¯t entirely sure his guess was correct. Maybe Sanders wasn¡¯t on the floating ice, and going up there could just be asking for trouble.

    Beyond that, there was another factor restraining his impulsive thoughts.

    Angel turned to look at the ice ball hovering over his shoulder. Binaqionse¡¯s dragon scales were currently charging the Icebound Hex, and it couldn¡¯t be put away into his bracelet yet. If he left this ce, causing Toby to identally run into trouble, it would be terrible.

    So, for various reasons, Angel restrained himself.

    As long as he knew that Sanders hadn¡¯t fallen in the Spatial Passage, there would always be a time to meet.

    While Angel was thinking this way, suddenly, a thunderous boom came from outside. Moreover, the source of the sound was very close to him. The instant the sound exploded, Angel¡¯s heart skipped a beat, and all the hairs on his body stood on end.

    After calming his emotions with effort, Angel looked towards the source of the sound.

    He saw that less than two hundred meters from the Misty Cabin, a pitch-ck hole had appeared, and on either side of the hole stood two figures.

    Originally, this was the main thoroughfare that led straight to the core area. But since the fire from the sky had fallen and the corpses of demons had crashed down, it turned into a sea of fire that burned everything around, including the forest outside the Misty Cabin.

    Angel tried to look through the mes to see the situation outside, but the zing fire in the sea of mes kept darting about, obscuring his vision.

    The only thing he could see was the two figures facing off outside, both appearing to have graceful figures, likely two women.

    Moreover, these two figures seemed somewhat familiar to Angel.

    Angel was itching to see clearly what was happening outside. But with the Domain of Wind shielding him, he couldn¡¯t extend his Spirit Tentacles out. As his curiosity grew unbearable, Angel turned his attention to the indolently lounging Fafnir.

    Angel approached with a sheepish expression, ¡°Honorable Fafnir, this humble human has a request¡­¡±

    After a while, Angel was enveloped in ayer of faint breeze, a favor he had secured from Fafnir. When he extended his Spirit Tentacles outside the Domain of Wind, they didn¡¯t trigger the wind realm¡¯s defense mechanism.

    In front of Fafnir, a variety of food that Angel had brought from the Wizards¡¯ Realm was piled up, including Magic Marrow Meat, beauty shells, the Gourmet Sorcerer¡¯s special roast meat seasoning pack¡­ as well as Dairy Fruit Tree sap, and several bottles of fine wine that Lyon had insisted he take.

    Angel knew that Fafnir was purely treating the battle in the sky as a theatrical performance, and like any show, it was iplete without delicious apaniments. Through the exchange of these small items, Angel sessfully secured his ¡°ticket¡± to watch the show.

    Before, he could only look up at the sky, but with the me and the Domain of Wind as obstructions, his view wasn¡¯t very clear. Now that his Spirit Tentacles could pass through the Domain of Wind, his view became much clearer than before.

    Angel couldn¡¯t wait to extend his Spirit Tentacles out.

    This time, the edges of his Spirit Tentacles were surrounded by a breeze, and as expected, the Domain of Wind no longer obstructed him, allowing him to explore smoothly.

    Initially, Angel wanted to check out the figures he had found somehow familiar earlier, but as he extended his Spirit Tentacle, the first thing he saw was several tall figures flying out from the Void Tower in the distance¡ª

    A highborndy with tentacles of terror under her skirt, a giant lizard engulfed in fire, a demoness with three faces, a shadow cloaked in smoke¡­

    Among them was Yadasai, whom Angel had seen before, d in ck bone armor!

    Seeing Yadasai, and looking at where they hade from¡ªthe Void Tower, it wasn¡¯t difficult for Angel to guess the identities of the other figures; they were likely the great demons who stood at the peak of Lassudral¡¯s Pyramid!

    Did not expect the great Demon to take action so quickly?!

    Angel looked towards those great Demons, originally thinking they were heading to block Frostmoon¡¯s floating ice, but to his surprise, after leaving the Void Tower, they dispersed, all but the figure shrouded in smoke that headed for the Sky Mechanical City¡¯s floating ice; the whereabouts of the other great Demons remained a mystery.

    Angel¡¯s brow furrowed; even though he was not on the floating ice, if he put himself in the humans¡¯ shoes, those great Demons rising en masse would have been pressuring, but at least the situation would have been clear. If they acted separately and their destinations were unknown, that would bring pressure too, and even more so than before.

    Because Lassudral was the Demon¡¯s domain, no one knew what those great Demons were up to or how their actions would impact the human camp, it was hard to say.

    For the human camp, battling in the Abyss was difficult enough, let alone the fact that they were now in Demon territory, already at a significant disadvantage. The best strategy for now might be a swift battle to avoid the greatest losses. But seeking a swift resolution would lead into another quagmire. How were they to hunt Aoluxiya, escape, and what about facing the variable that was the night innkeeper? These were issues the human side needed to consider.

    No matter what, this battle was destined to bring catastrophic losses to humanity.

    Angel felt a slight sadness in his heart; Wizards, in order to maximize their interests, sometimes had no choice but to proceed, even when they knew they were like moths to a me. Like how Sky Mechanical City had sacrificed a number of Apprentices for the Purification Garden¡¯s Leap Transition, and down to the most elite seeds were the ones who survived and gained the benefits.

    He couldn¡¯t judge whether these actions were right or wrong, but facing the inevitable cruelty that would arise, he felt a sense of helplessness and sighed.

    Angel shook his head, withdrawing his gaze.

    That shadow within the smoke might well face off against Frostmoon in the sky, but the battle was too far from the floating ice; even if Angel strained his eyes, he wouldn¡¯t see clearly. He would do better to focus on the battles around him, such as the two opposing figures he had seen earlier.

    Angel turned his gaze back, fixing it upon the nearby battlefield.

    When he made out the two opposing figures clearly, his expression turned strange.

    His intuition had not been wrong; he recognized both of the figures.

    ¡°Indeed, the first to seek out humans for trouble is the Minotaur, with whom I¡¯ve wanted to spend many passionate nights. s, it¡¯s just a fool interested only in battle,¡± said a Subus, with a seductiveugh apanying the slightly bewitching words. However, although the voice came from her nose, theugh emitted from the mouth on her forehead.

    Such a unique form, Angel recognized immediately¡ªit was Nya the Pannas Charm Demon, who had recently visited the Misty Cabin.

    The woman confronting Nya was not swayed by her words, and although she noticed the shadow drifting towards the sky, she understood that the immediate dispute was of utmost importancepared to the unreachable battle.

    ¡°Spare me your nonsense, and don¡¯t bother with your clumsy arts of seduction. I have no interest in you,¡± she said as her frosty hair began to dance, her eyes like fiery colored ze emitting an astonishing glow.

    This was a woman of imposing aura, one who looked as unshakable as a permanent iceberg. This terrifying presence, often absent in many men, was hers.

    ¡°Wilderness Witch, Sinafa,¡± Angel murmured her name softly.

    Angel hadn¡¯t expected that after separating from his Mentor, the first familiar face he¡¯d encounter would be Sinafa.

    Considering the aura that Sinafa was emitting, it seemed that the curse she received in Ice Valley had been lifted.

    Angel remembered Mentor Fafnir once saying that Nya was just a step away from being a great Demon; by that measure, Nya belonged to the realm of Second Level True Knowledge.

    Now that Sinafa¡¯s power had returned to its peak, she should be slightly stronger than Nya. Adding to that, Sinafa¡¯s creation magic was of extreme opposing forces; if they were to fight, Sinafa¡¯s chances of victory would be much higher.

    However, the two had not yet truly begun to battle.

    Although seemingly calm, the energy between them was relentlessly shing. Using his spirit tentacles, Angel could clearly see phantom shadows above their heads entangled in struggle.

    With such high-level conflict, Angel could not see much. His thoughts were not on their shing energies, but on another matter.

    Why was Sinafa here?

    Or rather, why was Sinafa here alone?

    Angel did not bother to specte about Nya¡¯s wanderings, but Sinafa¡¯s presence here clearly had a purpose. As Frostmoon¡¯s apparent second-inmand, every move Sinafa made was bound to have a reason.

    And in this area, what might be worthy of Sinafa¡¯s attention? The Misty Cabin? Since Fafnir had mentioned humans snooping around, it was natural that Misty Cabin had been exposed to the human camp. However, now hidden by fire and obscured by the Domain of Wind, it was clearly not worth human exploration.

    If not the Misty Cabin, then what in the southern suburbs of Lassudral would be deemed significant by Frostmoon? The only ce Angel could think of was one.

    The Hunting Museum.

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    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!